Ep 012 || Yes to Going All In: When Jesus Isn’t an Add-On, but Your Whole Life

Well, what's up, Pando family? Excited to be with you here today. My name is Derek. This is Brandon. We're here for SC Online doing the Panda Exclusive Podcast, where we're going to be talking about the sermon from our senior pastor, Kyle Eidelman, this last weekend, going through the Jesus Filter sermon series. And so, Brandon, set us up a little bit about the passage of scripture we're going to be walking through, and then we'll dive on in. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, this week we were actually in two passages of scripture, so we'll kind of skip around here just a little bit, but we'll start in Mark chapter 10. So we're about halfway through the gospel message here, and I think actually, yeah, 11 is the triumphal entry, kind of going into Holy Week, so we're right on the edge of that. But in Mark chapter 10, Jesus is beginning to go on his way to Jerusalem. Oddly enough, he's beginning to go to this place where he's going to go all in, where he is going to be the sacrifice for sins. He's on his way to Jerusalem, and this man comes, kneels down before him and asks a teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And we find out later that this man is no ordinary man. We call him the rich young ruler throughout scripture, and it's because he has kind of those symbols of prosperity, that he's very wealthy. He's grown up in a very significant household. He has some amount of power. He understands that. And he begins to ask Jesus, you know, he wants to know, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life? Because he has this feeling like, okay, I've got status, I've got money, I've got power, but something's missing here.

I want to make sure that I'm right with God. So how do I get there? And Jesus takes him back to the Ten Commandments, quotes some of the most famous of them. You shall not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother. So, you know, you get, what is that, five? About half of the commandments? Or is it six? I guess it's six. Six of the commandments. So 60% of the commandments, Jesus kind of points out and says, this is what you need to be about. And the rich young ruler doesn't look at that and think, oh, I'm falling short of that. Like even six of the 10, I can't do. He's like, no. Okay, well, great. Like all these things I've done. Yeah, I have. I have kept these things. Jesus, since I was little, I have been great at that. And so Jesus sees past all of that. He sees past kind of the posturing and the pride of this guy. And Mark 10.21 says, looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. The gospel writer wants us to understand that Jesus is speaking out of a place of love and compassion with what he's going to say next. And he tells the rich young ruler, there's one thing you haven't done.

There's one thing you lack. I think the NIV says, go and sell your possessions, give that money to the poor, and then come follow me. And so Jesus sees past the posturing and he understands like, well, you may have done all of these things. You may have kept the commandments, but you haven't kept the most important commandment, which is to have no other gods before me. Like your God, what you're following, what you're really chasing is your money, is you're chasing after this power. You're putting your hope, not in who God is, you're putting your hope in what you have. And he tells him to go and sell all these things, come and follow. And then verse 22 just tells us that, this the man's face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Like Jesus very correctly diagnoses, yeah, that's right, diagnoses the heart problem this guy is having is that he's chasing after his money. He loves money rather than loving God. And that's creating this difficulty in his life. This is why he doesn't feel like, he wants to know, how do I inherit eternal life? He just doesn't feel like he's giving God what's rightfully his, because he's not. He's living in this place where he's chasing after what he has. For sure. Yeah. And reading on down just a little bit further, in this passage, like you had said, he said, but at these words, so at the words of Jesus, that rich young ruler was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus, looking around, said to his disciples, how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus answered again and said to them, children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man who can

enter the kingdom of God. And they were even more astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? Looking at them, Jesus said, with people, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. I think one of the the key points that Kyle brought up in his sermon was this this phrase that he had. He said this rich young ruler wanted to add Jesus to his life, right? Like he has all these possessions, you know, he has all these good things going for him, and he just wants to add Jesus to his life. And I'm sure that as he's probably observed Jesus and his followers that he probably sees the value in Jesus, right? Like he's probably seeing the the good that's coming from that. But, and this is what Kyle said, but Jesus wanted to be his life, right? Whereas the rich young ruler wanted to add Jesus to his life, Jesus wanted to be his life. And so Brandon, what what is maybe one of the the main differences between just kind of adding Jesus to our lives more than, hey, like this is actually what Jesus would want. I want to be your life. What's the difference? Oh man, you know, I think that's hard to define simply because it's just so hard for us to see that in ourselves, you know, because we don't we don't often have, like the rich young ruler here, he gets the benefit of a very a very specific moment of clarity, right? Like I absolutely see this in myself. I absolutely see the ways that I'm relegating Jesus out of this part of my life. But but I do think that's part of it, right? Is is that when, like we we try, and maybe men are more guilty of this than women, I don't know, but we try very much to compartmentalize our lives, right? Like we try to say, well this is this is my work life, this is my home life, this is my social life, this is, you know, my recreational life, whatever. We try to have those boxes where it's like, hey, these are the dividing lines of my life, and I try not to let this box bleed into this box, you know, I try not to let these things touch these other things. And in that whole mess of boxes we keep is the religion box. Like this is my faith box. This is how I'm living to God. These are the things that I'm willing to give up to God. And I think, you know, the

difference between adding Jesus into our life and Jesus being our life is recognizing that that faith box is the whole thing, right? That it is not a box that is all set by itself. It's not like, in my boys room, they have these crates, right, for all their toys. Like this is for the dinosaur toys. Yeah. This is for the magnetiles. How well does that organization work? It's not great. Yeah, it's not great. But in theory, it's in theory. In theory it works great. But, you know, it is recognizing that, you know, when we accept Jesus, when we come to faith in Him, we're not just tacking another box in the room to put those toys in. Like we are submitting the whole, like He's becoming the box that everything else goes into, right? And if I'm going to have this career box and this home box and this financial box, they all now go in the Jesus box. That's where they all fit. And that's, I think, our biggest challenge today. Or maybe I'm just speaking for myself. It's my biggest challenge, is to say like, no, this is what touches everything else. And I have to allow Jesus to have the say there. I have to allow Jesus to have control there. And I can't just be like, oh, this is the Sunday compartment. Like it is touching everything I do, every single day of the week, and allowing Jesus to be Lord, not just of that space, but of every space. Yeah. No, Brandon, that's so good. I think that's spot-on, because I think, honestly, the easiest thing we can do in our relationship with Christ is just kind of, you know, go to church, and we're gonna be that Tyler, you know, person that Kyle had talked about during his message, where we kind of just... our relationship with Jesus, like, it may make us a little bit uncomfortable, right? But we kind of have it under control, like in this box. Like, okay, you're not gonna speak into my finances, or you're not gonna speak into whether or not I should forgive this person, or you're really not gonna speak into maybe what I want to do for a career, but like, it's okay for me to kind of put Jesus in this little box. And what Jesus is asking us to do is the complete opposite, right? He wants all of that, right? Like, if you think of that analogy of, you know, driving in a car, well, when we give our life to Christ, we're not just like, you

know, allowing Jesus to sit in the passenger seat while we still drive. Like, you're literally stopping the car, Jesus is getting in the seat, and you're doing a 180 and going the other way where He wants you to go. Like, that is what our life looks like. And I think the interesting part about this passage is that, like you said, for this rich young ruler, like, the thing that he was holding on to the most was his money and his possessions. Like, that was a thing that he was unwilling to give up. He was unwilling to part with, because especially then, like to follow Jesus, I mean, you had to give up everything and walk away. And Jesus addresses that a little bit more down in Mark 10 of, you know, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers or childrens or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake. Like they are... Like they have to leave everything, you know? And I think sometimes in our world today, it's so easy for us to compartmentalize, like you said, Jesus into this little box. Right. Yeah. And in some regards, you know, that is a byproduct of the age of comfort we live in, right? Is because for some of these early followers, they couldn't view their faith that way, because as soon as they accepted Jesus, you know, they were being persecuted. Like their home and their work and all, it was being affected because of them putting their faith in Jesus. And, you know, we have the benefit, I guess, of not having that sort of persecution or having that sort of suffering attached to our faith. But for them, it was very clear, like, as soon as I align myself with Jesus, like all of these other things are going to get a little bit thrown out of whack. For sure. And so, you know, we, for them, it was a very real, you know, when Jesus said, if you want to be my disciple, you have to take up your cross and follow me daily.

Like it was absolutely, those were not trivial. Those were real words. Yeah, those were real words. It wasn't a memory verse. It was like, we are really going to have to go to this place of death, of dying to self, of giving that up. And some of us may eventually have to go to an actual place of death because of our faith and because of our hope in what Jesus has done. For sure. And, you know, I think to transition us over to the second passage that Kyle Hudd spoke about on Sunday, you know, obviously the kind of the main issue here, you know, for this rich young ruler is this idea of money. And I think one of the things that I have learned as I've gotten to know different people over the course of my life is that money can have a control over us, and it really doesn't matter whether we have a little or a lot. There are issues and stressors in all of that. Yes, yeah. And so we kind of see this rich young ruler right here in Mark 10, but then let's switch over to Mark 12 where we really get into the heart of what Jesus is looking for. Before we leave Mark 10 though, I do wanna make just an observation about this passage, and it was, I didn't know where to put it when I was talking about it earlier. So, you know, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the three Gospels where the story of the rich young ruler shows up. So it was very clearly part of the stories of Jesus that everybody remembered, and everybody knew that this happened. Which is fascinating. Yes, yeah. These three different personal accounts, they could have kind of chosen whatever. Right. They all remember this guy.

That may be for a reason. Yeah. So Mark 10, 21 is that interesting verse there, looking at the man Jesus felt genuine love for him. Mark's Gospel is the only one that says that. It's the only one that gives Jesus that feeling of love, showing that Jesus is doing this out of compassion. And there are some Bible scholars, I don't wanna say many, but there are some Bible scholars who believe that's because the rich young ruler is John Mark, who wrote the Gospel, that maybe eventually he did give it up and come to faith in Jesus. And the reason why he's able to know that Jesus felt genuine love for him is because it's him. He recognizes, like, hey, when he said that to me, he was telling me the most loving thing he could have, and he helped me break free of that. And they say that not just because of the emotion that's written into this verse, but because it's clear John Mark's family was very wealthy. It's actually, I believe his mother is the one who owns the upper room where they have their... Where the last supper has happened. So there is this element of... You know, maybe in some regards, this is autobiographical by the Gospel writer in saying, like, hey, this is what Jesus did for me, and this is how Jesus brought me out of that. So it's just an interesting... It may or may not have happened, but it is... I should clarify that. Fascinating tidbit. The story happened, but whether or not it was John Mark, well, that's a little bit up for discussion. It's interesting to think about, because that detail is fascinating. Again, Jesus isn't looking at this guy being like, man, you idiot, which probably most

of us deserve most of the time, but he's looking on him lovingly. He's looking on with compassion, and I think oftentimes, man, that's either what the Word of God does for us most of the time whenever we're reading it, and we look at our own life and feel like, oh my gosh, I'm not living up to the standard. Thank God that when Jesus looks at us and says things like that, he does it in love. You don't. Like, what are you doing? So anyway, Mark chapter 11, Jesus goes into Jerusalem, we're here in Holy Week, the final week, and he's at the temple, and in Mark chapter 12, the end of the chapter, beginning of verse 41, he's sitting down near the collection boxes in the temple, and he's watching the crowds go past, and he sees how people are making a spectacle of kind of dropping their money into the collection boxes. And when the text talks about him seeing them do this as a spectacle, there's actually a historical reason for that. Like, in that day, the collection boxes were kept in kind of a public place in the temple, and they were made out of metal, kind of a little bit like an old style record player, that kind of funnel, where you kind of throw your money in. Well, the byproduct of that, since it was a metal kind of box with coins, is that it would make money. It would make noise. It's like an ATM. It was a biblical ATM. No. Made sound. It made sound. It made noise. It would just clang and be very loud. So people would make a show out of it, particularly if they were donating a lot of money. They would just like throw their money into it to get attention, to let people know, like, hey, I am giving a lot of money. They didn't have, like, bills back then. Like, you throw that paper, the money in there, no one's going to know. So he's watching them. They're making a spectacle. They want people to see. You kind of wait till somebody's coming around the corner. Like, just throw that money in there. But then a poor widow comes in, and she has what the NLT translates as two small coins. It's just very, I mean, pennies, basically, in our language, even though they don't make pennies anymore. So that's just where we're at. So she comes in. She drops in two small coins. No show, no noise, nothing to it. That's all she has. That's all she has. But in Mark 12, 43, it says,

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I tell you the truth. This poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions, for they gave a tiny part of their surplus. But she, poor as she is, has given everything she had. To live on. That what Jesus says is, you know, her generosity wasn't found in what she gave, right? It was in what she sacrificed. I think Kyle said it this past weekend, it wasn't in what she gave, it was in what she had left. That she was willing to just give everything to God. And what a contrast that is with the rich young ruler, at least as we see in Mark chapter 10, is a man who has everything and is unwilling to give it up, versus a woman who has nothing and is willing to give everything up. Yeah. Yeah, I love that in verse 44. Jesus said, for they put in out of their surplus, like, yes, what they have, but out of their surplus. But she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, you know, all she had to live on. And Jesus loves that, right? Yeah. And it's not just because, like, you know, hey, she checked the box of giving, like, she did the things she was supposed to. Like, no, like, there are... Well, I'll ask you the question, Brandon, instead of answering that. Like, so, like, for Jesus looking at this woman's heart, like, why would this be, like, He made a point to make sure His disciples saw this, knew this, understood this. Like, why do you think He was, it was so important to make a point about this? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I think there are a couple reasons He would have done that. One is because it just highlights, again for them, the backwards nature of His kingdom, right? Yeah. As time and time again, He's always trying to tell them, He's trying to get it through these heads. Hey, the first will be last, and the last will be first. In Matthew, we get the Sermon on the Mount, that's chapters, three chapters about this, how the kingdom is inverted. And I think this is a very tangible example for Him to say, like, guys, this is what it looks like, is a poor widow giving everything, is esteemed over a rich young ruler who has everything, specifically because she's willing to sacrifice and give it all for the kingdom. So I think there's a very tangible example for them to look at there. I think also there's a tangible example of, oddly enough, something else He starts out the Sermon on the Mount with. One of the things, the very

first line of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, Jesus starts out by telling them, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the poor in spirit. And Matthew has that qualifier on it, is that He's not saying blessed are the poor, He's saying blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are you when you understand the spiritual poverty that you live under, that I don't have anything of my own, I don't have any credentials, I don't have, like, my obedience... isn't even enough to put in my spiritual bank account. Like I have nothing on my own. I am poor in spirit and I need God. I'm completely dependent on what it is he gives to me. And like the fact of the matter is that it's easier for us, I think, to understand, it's easier for us to understand spiritual poverty when we understand physical poverty, right? When we can look at, like understand, like I don't know where this is gonna come from next. And certainly this woman has that, right? I mean, it says she gave everything, he said she's given everything she had to live on. Like she doesn't, where's my next coin's gonna come from? Where's my next meal gonna come from? It's in that act of physical dependence that we understand spiritual dependence a little bit more, which I think is also partially about like what fasting is about as a spiritual discipline is it's easier for us to understand spiritual hunger when we experience physical hunger, right? It's easier for us to understand what that looks like in the spiritual sense when we understand it physically. So I think what Jesus is doing here is he's helping them understand like,

hey, this spiritual poverty that we all have, this poverty of spirit is, like this is a picture of that, of understanding like I don't have it all together, I don't have everything I need, I don't have, I have nothing on my own. And all that I have is what I'm depending on God for. And it's a very clear picture to them of this is what that looks like. Sure, and I think, you know, like in relation to the sermon, it's hard to be all in following Christ. Well, maybe I put it better this way. Like if you're not all in with Jesus in your life, like, well, you're not gonna have a dependence on the Lord. Like, I think that's just a fact that, you know, unless you have two feet in, right, you're willing to, you know, was this Cortez that Kyle shared about burning the ships? Like if you're not willing to burn the ships of everything behind, well, then it's, you know, it's gonna be hard to depend on the Lord. And if you're not depending on the Lord, you're not gonna see more of Him. And if you're not, if you don't see more of Him, like your relationship with Him is not gonna grow. And so kind of to start wrapping us up here, Brandon, you know, this idea of generosity, this idea of money, like again, like it's one of those things that was

pulling at the heartstrings of people 2,000 years ago, right, when we walk through reading this New Testament, it's the same type of thing that even today people struggle with. And then again, it doesn't matter if you have a little, somewhere in the middle or a lot, like that can tend to be the thing that tugs at our heart. But what we also know, and Kyle spoke about some of these things, like there are also things that we can tend to hold onto that can keep us from following Christ, right, with two feet. And a couple of things, or actually a handful of things that Kyle mentioned is that like, maybe it's a relationship, right? Like maybe it's a relationship or a friendship that is holding you back. Like maybe it's someone that was in your previous circle that has, is not a great influence, right? And you've still allowed them to be a part of your life. Well, if that person is not helping you follow Jesus and they're actually sending you the other way, well then we have to, you have to think about like, man, like, is that a relationship that I wanna have in my life? You know, maybe it's control. You know, I know for a lot of you watching Panda right now, you may think like, man, I don't have a lot of control over my life. Like my schedule is set for me.

You know, I can only call people at certain times, but I still think that there are things inside of us that want control, right? We wanna know what the outcome of something is gonna be. And there are times when, you know, that's just not possible. Or maybe it's unforgiveness. You know, maybe it's unforgiveness where someone has done something to you a long time ago. And that kind of moment has changed the trajectory of your life. Well, in the midst of all of that trauma, I know that what the enemy wants to do in the midst of that is he wants to use that to make you feel shame, make you feel powerless, make you feel like God doesn't have a plan for your future, or maybe that everyone is like that. And, you know, for you to be able to step in fully with what God wants for your future, that you need to figure out what that looks like, you know, to forgive. And that's not an easy ask, and it's not an easy thing. But Brandon, I think oftentimes the things that Jesus calls us to are not easy. No. Right? They're painful. You would use that phrase, he has a backward kingdom. Yeah. Right? And it's so different from the rest of the world. But Brandon, kind of a final thought,

final encouragement for our Pando family from this, and then I'll wrap us up. You know, I think it comes down to a word you were using there a little while ago, control. Right? That all of these things ultimately come down to an issue of security. Is that, you know, our heartstrings are pulled our money because money helps us feel secure like oh I have what I need to get through this day. Sometimes we're pulled into bad relationships right because it's security. Like this person may be unsafe but at least they're secure. At least I have someone. At least I have somebody there even if they're not the right somebody and you know so we trick ourselves in that way. Unforgiveness even, that's an issue of security because I feel secure, I feel vindicated in the fact that I was hurt because I was right. For sure. And so we don't want to forgive them because then we're letting go of that what we're holding over somebody else basically. You know everything comes down to an issue of security really because that's what we're trying to do in this chaotic world. We're trying to make ourselves more secure and the reason why these things that Jesus asks us to do are so painful is because it's challenging our minds and what makes us really secure right is that like my security is not found in my circumstances. My security is not found in my accomplishments or my achievements. My security is found in Christ and it's found in who God says I am and it's it's found in what God says he's going to do and in this unseen world that's behind everything we see. That the very tangible things that we can put our security on, the very tangible things that we feel like we have control over. Like Jesus asks us to let go of those things and say no like you what you're right doing is recognizing that there is an invisible God who reigns over this visible world and ultimately it's his ways that are going to win out. And I think you know our biggest issues with trusting, our biggest issues with going all in as Kyle said come from the fact that we just want control. We want security on our terms rather than turning to the one who is eternally and ultimately secure in all things. Absolutely and for those of y'all that have been watching with us you know the reason why we can be all in is because God is trustworthy right. Jesus is trustworthy and he is good and what we believe

is that you know God loved us so much that he sent his only son into this world that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. And it doesn't matter who we are each and every one of us. It's not just those people out there that may not have made mistakes because guess what there are no people out there that have never made mistakes. We've all made terrible mistakes in our lives and Jesus loves you anyway. Jesus loves you anyway and Brandon I think that's one of the great things about following the Lord is that while we were still sinners what the Bible tells us is that while we were still sinners Christ died for us and that that's applicable to both of us sitting here who have made a lot of mistakes to the people here behind the camera and to you. And so if you've never made that decision to follow Jesus today's that day. Be all in. Y'all but thanks so much for watching with us. We're grateful for you and we'll see you next time.