Whatever you are holding onto is holding you. What small reward we settle for when fear keeps us bound; Fear of loss, fear of being different, fear of failure, fear of rejection. These imposters seek to keep us lowly thinking, bound in a white-knuckled life.
TRANSCRIPT
Please note: this transcript is auto-generated so forgive any (or many) errors 😲 – click the timestamps to play that section directly in the audio.
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I often think about legacy and about the reality of kind of this temporal life that we exist in here on the planet and eternity, Jim, and that we are actually, although we live in temporary accommodation in this body, that we’re walking the earth and we are actually eternal beings. We are spirit man and spirit women. And that, you know, when we unzip and step out of this body, we don’t die, really. We just move on to it.
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Really, if we’re following Christ, move on to something where we are far more alive than we ever were while we were here kind of incarcerated. And but in that, when we look at things from an internal perspective, it puts a very different light on how we approach life and the perspectives that we have on the various things that either we’re pursuing or the things that were challenged by or frightened by. And I was struck by this statement.
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Whatever you are holding onto is holding you. Whatever you are holding onto is holding you and how easy it is to settle for a small reward when we allow fear to keep us bound, whether that’s fear of loss, fear of being different, fear of failure, fear of rejection, you know, these impostors come in to try and keep us in lowly thinking and living, kind of a white knuckled life where we hold on to things like our life depends on it.
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You know, there’s an amazing story in the scriptures. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it. And I was struck by this. I sometimes listen to the audio Bible and I was struck by this. I was listening to the new live in translation audio Bible. And I think it’s called the brief audio Bible, something like that. And they were just relating this story in one of the gospels. This young guy who comes to Jesus and he says, man, what what must I do to inherit eternal life?
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And Jesus just lays it on the line and basically says, don’t commit adultery, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness defraud, not honour your father and mother. You know, I just basically live, right. Don’t mess around and show some fruit for your faith. And this guy was really impressive. I mean, he said, man, I’ve kept all of these things from my use up, etc.. I mean, he must have felt as though his place and in the kingdom, his place, this eternal life that he was seeking to inherit was sewn up.
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You know, there was his for the taking. But for one thing, Jesus said to him, sell all you have, give to the poor and take your cross and follow me. And this young man, that rich young man goes away saddened because he had many possessions. Now, quite honestly, I would imagine most of the people listening to this would have just as many, if not more possessions than the man in this story. Because we live in a particularly in the West, we live in a such a relative abundance.
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Yeah, it’s like that the lives that we live. When you compare it to kind of the world scale, many of us live in abject luxury here. And so we could very easily liken ourselves and put ourselves in the shoes of this young man. And, you know, that’s a tough call, though. Do you I mean, this this discipleship thing is clearly not for the faint hearted, even the disciples. Yeah. These group of men that were with Jesus at the time.
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I like what, you know, like this guy lives the perfect life. He’s got all of the outward trappings of what would be considered a righteous life that’s favoured by God. And it says that they were astonished beyond measure, saying amongst themselves, man, if this guy can’t be saved, who can? You find it in a Mark 10:26. This story is related in Mark Chapter ten. And then, you know, they were dumbfounded really to discover that Jesus is asking for more than often we are willing to give.
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And it’s not just about giving things. Yeah. It’s not just about the abundance of possessions and giving to the poor, although there is much that could be said for that kind of generous life that cares for others above and beyond, just our own needs. But, you know, it seems that discipleship is a little more costly than than many of us would like to kind of consider. And, you know, and it would be very easy, as with so many scriptures, to just shelve these words.
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We shelve the stories, don’t we? And we think, well, he was talking to that guy over there or he was talking about this woman over here. But really, at the end of the day, the frame that we are looking into is the man or the woman in the mirror. How does this relate to me? You know, and the disciples are like, man, if this guy can’t be saved, how can anyone be saved?
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And Jesus looked at them and said this in Mark 10:27, with men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God. All things are possible. And what struck me here was this statement with men, it is impossible. And I thought, you know, so much of what I do and so much of a kind of generally what we do. I believe in the name of religion, in the name of Jesus, in the name of faith, etc.
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, is actually we could say with men it is possible. Not that with men it is impossible. With men, it is impossible. With men, it is possible, you know, but it’s so much of what we do, we could do without his help. So much of what we do potentially we do in our own strength and by our own kind of intelligence and genius and resources. And God wants us to go beyond that. And I think that that was what he was trying to kind of really express to this young man is like, look, you’re holding on to all of these possessions, but if you will let go, if you will open your hand, if you will let go of those things that you’re trusting in right now, I can bring you in to a much more miraculous life, miraculous experience.
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You know, as one writer said this, he said, if the Holy Spirit were to exit the Earth this very day, most church services would continue none the wiser. I mean, it’s a it’s a sad statement, but probably very, very accurate, you know, and the same to a degree is true for many of us as individuals. It’s so easy for us to continue in our own strengths to try and make things happen, you know, rather than trusting.
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And I would just like I, I again, I don’t know about you, but I long for more of the with God, you know, it says here with men it is impossible, but not with God for with God all things are possible. I’m longing for more of that with God moments in my life. We need these with God moments more than ever before. You know, Jesus said this in Matthew 19, verse 29. And I mean, this is very, very pertinent for us as a family at the moment, just some of the circumstances that we’re facing, he said.
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For and everyone that is forsaken houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, land for my namesake shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life. Many that a first shall be last and the last shall be first. Everyone who let’s go will receive a hundredfold. You know, whatever we hold onto really becomes our reward. You know, just as an example, just to kind of bring this into something tangible. If I have a thousand dollars in my hand and I grip it tight, I have a thousand dollars.
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No more, no less. That is my full reward, you know, and we can hold on like that until we become top of the pile. You know, in this life, we can be the man who needed to build extra storehouses if we want to. But the thing is this life does not this life continues far beyond this life. And this is the thing that we need to be not just sowing to our future, not just acting wisely.
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I’m not in any way advocating kind of reckless. But we need to understand that as well as sewing into our future here on the earth, we are also sewing for eternity, you know, and and we really want to be in a place where we can open our palm and let it go so that seeds can be shared abroad and bring forth fruit. You know, 100 fold is a promised return in this life. But wow, how much more?
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Even when we go on to be with Christ, there’s not one man who will be left a debtor to the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, and that day, whether it’s money, whether it’s time, whether it’s our dedication, whatever you hold in your hand, whatever energies, whatever strength you have that you can sew toward kingdom purposes, I promise you the return on it will be majestic. The return on it will be magnificent. The return on it will be marvellous.
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The return on it will be remarkable. The return on it will be above and beyond anything you could ever ask or imagine. So that time. So those early morning hours to seek heaven so that money to see the kingdom developed and see the foundations of salvation build so people can come to know Christ. We don’t want to refuse to relinquish. And lose our reward. You know, the rich young ruler had many possessions, but he’s not holding those possessions now, you know, when he stood before the Lord or when he stands before the Lord, he won’t be stood there with a big you hole.
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It will be him and the decisions that he’s made as he went through life. And the same will be true for us. And we have an opportunity now to plant for eternal reward planned for those rewards that will come alive both in this life and beyond it. And when we stand before America, we really do not want to stand there with regret. We don’t want to stand there like just wishing we had given more, wishing we had believed more, wishing indeed that we had given all that will be the desire on that day that we had given all that we that we had had the courage to lose our life in order that we might save it.
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You know, and, you know, I think when the scriptures talk about God wiping away the tears from our eyes on the day of judgement, I think that many of the tears that are wiped away will be the tears of his children who stand before him with this regret that they didn’t give fully and furiously in this life to see the kingdom built, to see souls saved, to see the church develop, to see the people of God strengthened. Whatever you can do, you know, when God prompts you, when the Holy Ghost moves your heart to step out and to generously so your life that someone else might be built up, that someone else might be blessed.
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I encourage you to do it. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully, it’s been an encouragement to you today, if you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.
