The Rich and the Kingdom of God

Good morning. Talk about upside down. This last week has been quite the turnaround in a lot of ways. Things are inside out. It's not what we expected. We're not sure exactly how to act, what's going on, all sorts of things all at once. And I really appreciate James's prayer and our prayer together. This has been designated a national day of prayer over the coronavirus. And we're going to do that after the message. We will not be having communion this morning. We're just trying to figure out the right path to take in this. We don't want to be a source of transmission or cause problems for anyone. And so I made the judgment that that might be one of those things that we need to drop for a week or two. We'll see. And stay tuned. We're not sure. Today, I think, is going well. Thank you for those who are coming. And thanks to all those who are online from within our congregation who are watching us right now. I'm trying to follow the Facebook feed myself. And I also see I've got some friends on there. Carol from Huntsville, Alabama. And Catherine Colson is watching. That is Zoe's mom. So it's great to see you. And Susan Mixdorf. And then my cousin, Susan. And she's in St. Louis. So it's great to see that. And even Jody Nevis up in Michigan. And Linda Marie Ostrom. Let's see. You know who that is. That's your in-loves, I guess, right? Not in-laws. And Brad Vojack, even. Brad and his wife were here for a while. They're back up in Chicago. Hey, it's great to see you all there. And Helen Rohenfeldt and family. And even Beth Ann Klotz. Beth and Alan, her husband, were just integral to my first ministry in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was a professor of biochemistry, a protein chemist, worked on pond scum, cyanobacteria. What we have a problem with in the Caloosahatchee River, by the way. So it was kind of fascinating. It kind of comes around. So it's great to see everyone. Good morning, everyone. We're praying for you. We're praying for our church. We may see what the next week, spring, if we need to still do this. If we can have public worship like we're having today, and we feel like that's appropriate and wise. Or if we need to just go to fully online, where we just have maybe a few instrumentalists, myself. We're going to try to do different ways to connect during the week, different live feeds and stuff. We want to still be community, even if we can't be physically close to each other, OK? So let us know if you've got any creative ideas in that route. I sure don't. I'm not a tech guru. We've got a couple back there. So Tyler and Wyatt, I know you can come up with some good ideas, OK? So we'll try to do that and keep everybody connected, praying for everyone. If anyone is ever sick, let us know about it. If anybody's in need, if there are ways we can serve this community and make an impact, we'll try to do that. So we've talked about the food bank. Another idea is if you are up to it to give blood. Because during a time like this, all of a sudden, the blood supply goes low. And so we need to be praying for all our medical people and all those who are really on the front lines of this. There's so many different things going on. And I probably need to pray for you if you've got kids at home for the next couple of weeks, right? Special blessings. OK. So that's all going on. But we're going to continue with our sermon series today, The Upside Down Kingdom. I think it fits with everything that's going on. It's all back. What you thought you knew last week, and what you know today, and what's really it all about, I think people are re-evaluating. And maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's a good thing in all of this other stuff that's going on. So we're going to look at the scripture lesson. It's going to be from Mark chapter 10 today. And it's one of the hard sayings of Jesus, maybe one of the hardest. And it's as controversial today as it was when he first said it, OK? And after we read it, we'll get into it. We're going to pray and kind of go along. And if I get any good ideas from the Facebook feed, you just let me know. Nobody's really responding yet. You got a question? You have a prayer concern, by the way. Bring it to me, because we're going to do prayers after this instead of communion. So please sign in. Tell us what you want to pray for, any specifics for your area, OK? So Mark chapter 10. You can follow along, actually, on the Bible app, the You version, under Events. You can find Thrive Community Church. And if you are across the country, you have to type in 33928 for the zip code, and we'll pop up. OK? I know that's a lot of information. But let's read the scriptures now, shall we? And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. And you know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false wi...