Have you heard the old cliché in our culture: “Put your money where your mouth is” or “Put up or shut up” These sayings are often used to prompt a financial action to be applied to a real problem or situation in life. It has even been said: “Talk is cheap” and “Action speaks louder than words”. What about our input for the Kingdom of God? Just how much do we value the things of Christ? Just what value have you placed on the importance of the Kingdom of God? Well listen in to our lesson today, our pastor / teacher Landis Fisher provides some interesting insight into these questions an
d more in a lesson from our ongoing study through the gospel of Mark that he calls: “Sacrificing for the Kingdom of God” So, open your bibles and listen in, as we pray along with our teacher.
Old Testament Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 24:18 – 25 (KJV)
2 Sam 24:18 And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
2 Sam 24:19 And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.
2 Sam 24:20 And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.
2 Sam 24:21 And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing floor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
2 Sam 24:22 And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.
2 Sam 24:23 All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.
2 Sam 24:24 And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2 Sam 24:25 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
New Testament Scripture Reading: Mark 10:26 – 34 (KJV)
Mark 10:26 And they were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” Mark 10:27 Looking upon them, Jesus said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” Mark 10:28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. Mark 10:29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, Mark 10:30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. Mark 10:31 But many that are first shall be last; and the last first. Mark 10:32 And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, Mark 10:33 Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: Mark 10:34 And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.
Transforming Power Statements:
#1) It is not what, nor how much we give up in being sacrificial for the kingdom of God that deeply concerns God so much as where is our heart with respect to the love that we profess toward God, knowing that where our heart is there our treasures are also. (Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.)
#2) Jesus taught that there is a one hundred fold blessing for the ones who chose to sacrifice for the kingdom of God in this life but also that there comes with that territory “persecutions” as well.
#3) Our LORD Jesus is the maximum model of these principals seeing that He always was God and always will be, yet He was willing to give all that had as a man for the redemption of the souls of all of mankind who are willing to trust completely in Him. (Hallelujah!) Phil 2:5 – 8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
