The Different King

The Different King: Mark 10:13-16

Intro:

One of the greatest tragedies of a sinful culture is that children are seen as a burden as much or more than a blessing.

FCF: This makes sense. In a world of limited resources and time, smart, powerful, talented people build powerful Kingdoms by allying themselves with smart, powerful, talented people.

RF: In THE Kingdom, The King builds His Kingdom by His might alone. and invites the lowly, the humble, and the helpless to be His citizens.

BI: We serve a different kind of King. Let’s found out what that means for us. (Pray)

Body:

Recap Text:

The children come

The disciples react in the way of the world

“We’ve got enemies, we’ve got a mission, we’ve got expenses, and expectations we need some allies, we don’t need a bunch of kids running around!

Jesus Corrects reveals the way of the Kingdom

He doesn’t just welcome the children; He makes them the prototype of the Kingdom.

What does it mean to be like a child? Specifically, an infant or toddler?

Not a virtue, just helplessly dependent.

Jesus Blesses the children

BI: We serve a different kind of King,

I. B/c we serve a different kind of King, we need a different understanding. (Discern & Surrender)

Explain:

The way of Christ is completely different than the rulers of this world.

The disciples didn’t yet understand the King they were following

So often I feel Christians either think 1) God needs them at their best or 2) God needs the best of the world.

What is He asking us to be? V15 He builds His Kingdom by and for the desperately needy.

If we don’t get this, we don’t get Him.

Illustrate:

So many people think Jesus is King Arthur and He’s looking for His “Knights of the round table”.

Jesus is the ONLY hero of this story, and the gospel is ONLY good news for those who understand and rejoice in the truth!

Apply:

The key of this is not becoming desperately needy, but understanding that you are desperately needy, and that all your king desires is that you go to Him.

There is so much freedom found in recognizing Jesus doesn’t want me to try and act like I’ve got it together. He wants me to be like a little kid, running to my dad. Churches and believers that miss this are tiresome. They’re life sucking!

Life in Christ doesn’t produce more self-sufficiency, it produces more dependance!

Can you say that you are in that place?

Transition:

He’s a different kind of King, and that means we need a different understanding.

II. B/c we serve a different kind of King, we must be a different kind of people. (Become & Welcome)

Explain

The disciples didn’t yet embody the heart of their King.

If we say we are God’s people, then we have to privately and communally embody God’s heart!

And what is that heart in the context of this passage?

If we are the King’s people, we must seek after and welcome the One’s of whom our Savior has said “theirs is the Kingdom”. The weak, the poor, the humble, and the needy.

That is who our King is building a Kingdom out of and for, and it’s different than what our world does, and if we don’t increasingly embody that, we’re missing it!

Illustrate:

The church which seeks after the put together, the prestigious, and the powerful is like a hospital which seeks to only treat people who are healthy.

Apply

This is an area a cultural church like ours struggles. (note: the desperate need in many for celebrities to become Christians)

This is an area I have had to work in my life to give to Jesus. God help me, too much of me wants to turn away from the One Jesus said “for them is the Kingdom.”

Do you realize what’s happening when we seek out people who “meet a need” for us, or our church? We’re saying Jesus isn’t enough! Or when we turn away from the needy? We’re saying Jesus doesn’t have enough, or, I don’t have enough of Jesus!

The invitation of a different King is that He has everything that He, we, and His Kingdom needs, so seek the needy!

Transition

We serve a different kind of King! Who seeks after the lowly, and the needy. And we have to understand that, embrace it, and embody it.

Close:

As a community, we must be a people of true, lasting, desperate humility, and we have to be a place where all who are humble and needy can find the blessing of the Gospel. We must be a place where the goal is not to “hold it together” the goal is to, together, run to Jesus! God doesn’t build His Kingdom by seeking after the powerful, the put-together, and the prestigious, because in reality: He’s the only one who is any of those things. God seeks after those who are humbly desperate, like a child, faithfully need. And if we are going to be a community which claims to be an outpost of His coming Kingdom, we must be humbly desperate, we must be confident in His sufficiency, and we must never prioritize the ones who the world calls “worthy” and marginalize the ones God says “theirs is the Kingdom”. Let’s pray