Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: Here's the big lesson ahead of us today on Light on the Hill. The lesson is: stop focusing on what you don't have, thus allowing the devil to complete what sin promises to do and destroy you, and focus on what you do have, that God might be allowed to do something great.

Guest (Male): What happens after we die? I think it's safe to say many of us have given that some thought and even stayed up late at night pondering it. I'm glad to say the Bible doesn't leave us without answers. Today on Light on the Hill, we'll be in Mark chapter 12 where the Sadducees approach Jesus with a question about the resurrection. Pastor James Kaddis will encourage us to focus on what we have in the Lord rather than focus on what we don't have.

James Kaddis: Mark chapter 12. Now, before we get into this, there's a few things that I need to reiterate because they are important, okay? First, I want to remind everybody the MO that Christ would use when he would speak to people, okay? Now, I think that it would help us to understand how we communicate with one another as human beings and how often times that manifests itself within typical conversation.

What we do when we talk to one another is we often times create some level of a thesis, we create a premise in the representations that we make. And then what ends up happening is when we start exchanging thoughts and ideas, we build upon the premise that was created within initial contact.

So in other words, we speak to the moment that we are in, we make observations, we talk back and forth, we work through issues. Sometimes there's a synergy in those conversations. Sometimes a conversation falls on what I believe to be relatively superfluous mechanisms; our ears don't seem to want to take it in. And then every now and then, you've got the really ugly conversations where one person is spending time formulating in their mind their response while the other person is talking. And there's a lot of these types of things that happen on a regular basis.

But if you were to live during the time of Christ and you were to have a conversation with him, you would recognize that his MO had nothing to do with the typical form of communication that we often times experience amongst one another because Jesus didn't operate under that premise. Jesus did not speak to the circumstance. He did not speak to the issue at hand. And often times, he didn't even speak to the discussions that people were seeking to engage him in because he was able to see something far deeper.

People would speak to him and his response would not be to the words being articulated. Rather, his response would be to the condition of the heart represented by the person who was making whatever representation was being made in the moment. And there were even times where communication didn't have to be initiated in order for Jesus to do what he did because Jesus still saw through the heart and was able to deal very specifically with the condition of the person internally, why? Because he was speaking to what we would all refer to as the eternal component of man, which in essence is the reality of who man really is.

Now, I want to bring this up because this is important and I can also give you an example of what that looked like. What Jesus did, and he did it all over the place. The problem is most people don't recognize this pattern until this pattern is actually displayed for them. And then once the pattern is displayed, then you can't unsee it, right? It's very difficult to identify initially but then you can very easily see it once you are able to see an example.

And perhaps one of the most prominent examples that you can bring up is Jesus is in this area of Samaria and he is at a well and there is a woman who walks up to him. Now, she's a Samaritan woman, okay? And she perceives something about Jesus that is very different. And so she creates the imposition of a question that by no means is rhetorical in nature. It is a question that by every stretch of the imagination is something that bears upon a desire of her heart to be able to understand.

And what she does is she says, listen, these people worship over here, my people worship over there, what does that really look like? By the way, I'm heavily paraphrasing all of this. And Jesus, before he even really seeks to answer that question that she brings to him, he goes in a completely different direction and he says, "Woman, go get your husband."

What does that have to do with anything? It almost seems offensive and dare I even say derogatory to think about the context in which Jesus is bringing this. The reality of it is Jesus is seeing something deeper. And the woman says, "I don't have a husband." Again, heavily paraphrasing. And Jesus says, "Well, you speak correctly. You're right. In all the husbands that you have had, yeah, they're out of the picture. And the one that is with you, yeah, he's not your husband."

This dialogue goes back and forth and she makes this profound statement where she says, "I perceive you're a prophet." Remember that, right? Like, I can see that something is different about you. And then Jesus goes into a dialogue that nobody expected for him to go into that dealt with an internal thirst that he was seeing in her that nobody else was able to see because he is the one that created her.

And we have confirmation of this, by the way. Like, this isn't some assumption that I'm making. We have confirmation of this because the woman, when she goes to tell everybody else about what Christ had done for her, acknowledges the fact that the Lord was able to see in her things that she wasn't even able to discern or understand or know.

So when you look at the picture created by that interaction, it speaks perfectly to the very MO that I'm speaking about. Now, by the way, I want to make this clear. A lot of people who hear me talk about this will often times incorrectly believe that the representation that I'm making is solely because of the fact that Jesus is God and that's the way you would expect God to operate. But it has nothing to do with that. Well, let me back up. It has something to do with it, but it is not the primary factor to think through when we talk about why Jesus did this.

I want you to go back and I want you to think through why Jesus would operate under this variable consistently. And I want you to think outside of what you've been taught traditionally. I want you to go back and realize that Jesus didn't just do this because he was God and knew everything and saw everything and understood everything. It had nothing to do with that per se. It had everything to do with an issue that we were able to discern and learn from that started in creation.

And in the fall of man, we were able to more deeply understand and perceive the problem and what broke and thus begin to really develop an appreciation for why Jesus did what he did. Okay, let me explain what I mean when I say that. Based on what the Bible says, God created us with the intention—remember this—God created us with the intention to live forever.

And not only did he create us with the intention to live forever, God created us with the intention to walk in productivity as we emulate him being the fact that we were created in his likeness and in his image. He developed a pattern for us by which we should live because he told us first to be something, then he told us to do something, and only after we were able to be and then do, we were able to then have. If you think about it, right?

He says do what? He says be fruitful and multiply. We be fruitful, we do multiply. And then he goes on talking about replenishing and he goes talking about subduing. And then he says have dominion over. But you can't have unless you be and unless you do. And it's important to understand that because the initial statement that is declared to us in Genesis is that God created us in his likeness and in his image.

And perhaps the more consequential statement that was brought to our attention in the book of Genesis is the initial statement, and that was this: God is the one who created the heavens and the earth. By the way, I want to point this out. When the Bible tells us that the earth was without form and void, get it out of your head that there was a gap between verse one and verse two and in that gap is when the earth was destroyed because of man being wicked and evil and so on and so forth.

It's a myth. That is literally a mythological perception about what happened. Between verse one and verse two, there is no gap. What the Bible was actually telling us is this and it's critical for you to understand it and we have proof that this is the case based on the representations made in the creation account of not only the earth but of mankind and of the documentation of the Sabbath.

Here's what it says. The Bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth. Now, what it says there is it says God is the one that we are identifying as the individual who made something out of nothing. That's what it says in verse one of Genesis chapter one. Verse two, when it says and it was without form and void, what it's telling us is that God didn't just simply snap his finger and make creation happen out of nothing.

He's saying that God snapped his finger—and I'm speaking proverbially of course, I'm speaking metaphorically when I talk about snap of a finger, I don't know if he snapped his finger when he decided to make the creation, but I'm giving you an idea, it's a reference. When he created something out of nothing, the Bible went out of its way to tell us that he did so in verse two by denoting the fact that what God created was the raw material without form and void, meaning it was the material that he created and only then after that material was created did he form and fashion it into the beauty in which it is.

Now, this is really important to understand because if you don't understand this, then you will also fail to recognize the fact that not only God is a creator and not only is God the creator of the heavens and the earth, but God is also an artistic creator. Again, we don't have to get into the original language discussion, but when we went over Ephesians, we talked about why the introduction of this word that is often times used to denote poetry in classical Greek literature is very consequential when we read in the book of Ephesians that we are Christ's workmanship.

The idea here is that he formed and fashioned us artistically and beautifully. And here's the thing that's really interesting. The more people delve into the spirit of Antichrist, the more they begin to deny the truth of God's word in that we are not talking about the literal flesh that God created us to live in, but we are talking about the very soul of man that was given to us by God creating us in his likeness and in his image.

And when he breathed life into us, he made us different from the animal kingdom. Now, that's important because if we were made in the likeness and in the image of God and the Bible tells us what was commanded to us by God—remember what he told Adam? This is verse 27 and verse 28 of Genesis. He told us what to do. He told us to be fruitful. He told us to multiply. He told us all about these things. He talked to us about replenishing and subduing and he talked to us about having dominion over. Five very important elements.

Okay, all of those things are things that cannot be done by the animal kingdom. Do not conflate the term "reproduce" or "multiply" with reproduction. Yes, that's one part of it, but it's a very small part of it. When it talks about multiply, it means use the tools given to you by God to create the abundance that God has already manifested to you.

When mankind fell, all of that was lost. When mankind chose to rebel against God, the pattern of focusing on lack instead of abundance was the pattern that settled into mankind and that settlement has now caused mankind to walk at a loss. I'm going to give you some examples of this.

God tells Adam, "You may freely eat of every tree in the garden. It's all yours. Freely eat all of it. It's yours." But this one tree, and he names it, "Don't eat the fruit because when you do, on that day you'll surely die." What does the devil do? Genesis chapter three, you can read about it. The devil goes to Eve, starts with her—she was the one that was deceived, Adam was the one that actually sinned—and he convinces her to focus on lack.

He convinces her to focus on what she did not have. Now, here's the thing that's treacherous about this: she had everything. There was nothing that existed on the earth that was not in her possession because it was given to her and her husband. The only thing that she was not allowed to have was the fruit of a tree. God didn't even say don't touch it. She said God said don't touch it. God didn't command that.

But the devil got her to focus on what she did not have. And the very moment she focused on what she did not have, she started to convince herself that what she did not have and the gap created by what she did not have was far more extreme than everything that she did have. So you know what she did? She completely threw away every wonderful and beautiful thing that she did have to find what she could not have and it destroyed her.

We do this all the time, don't we? This is a part of humankind. This is the human pattern. And the reality of it is you can see it happening again and again and again and again and again. When mankind focuses on what they do not have, they inadvertently destroy every wonderful and beautiful and abundant thing that God has given them.

This is the one thing that is painful about death because when we look at the subject of death, one of the greatest dangers of death is that death, because it is a consequence of rebellion, it is a consequence of sin, immediately forces us into wanting to focus on what we do not have. One of the worst days of my life was when I watched with my eyes one of my dearest friends, my little brother, being executed. I'm still mad at the guy who sent me that video. The guy is a complete whack job and I'd say it to his face.

If I allow myself to obsess over what I've lost and that man no longer being with me, that means that I'm telling God I'm willing to forfeit every wonderful, beautiful, and abundant thing that God has given me. What about my family? What about my children? I often times think about widows when they lose their husbands, the pain that they feel in that.

Can I tell you one of the most remarkable things that I continue to brag about when it comes to this particular widow? If you have never had the privilege of getting to know Gail Maze, let me just tell you something that I admire so much about Gail. When Steve died, it was unexpected. I got to watch Gail at every stage of that.

Me and Nicole, because of our closeness to her, we got to watch her when she was treated terribly by the very church that her blood, sweat, and tears built. We watched her when she went through the pain and the loss of her husband no longer being there, who was a literal pitbull, just like me. She lost it all.

But you know the one thing that I will always adore Gail Maze for, I will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever take away from her, was Gail purposed in her heart from the very moment it happened with Steve that she was going to focus on every wonderful thing that she had. And when one thing after the other was taken away from her, she spent time focusing on what God had given her and she furthered the empire that was her family, her family enterprise, and it is a monster. She is doing things with her life today that Steve could have never done on his best day.

And that's a crazy statement to make. But that's what happens when you allow your eyes to be focused on the things which you have instead of allowing the devil to rip you off with the thought of what you don't have. Now, if you ask what gave her strength to be able to do that, is she realized she truly didn't lose Steve. As we're going to find out, she realized that she actually gained Steve in that one day she would be reunited with him where the loss of death could never become a threat ever again. And we're going to get into that as we get into this portion of Mark.

But can I give you one more example of what this looks like? This is probably one of my favorite stories in the Bible because it deals with the subject of debt. It's a really good story to talk about debt and how debt works and that kind of thing and why it can be good depending on the context in which you utilize it. There is a woman who was married to a prophet and the prophet died. It's a very interesting story.

And when the prophet died, he left his family in debt. The widow did not have the ability to pay for the debt that needed to be paid and the debtors came and basically said, "I am going to take your sons as my slaves since you can't pay the debt of your husband." Turns out that her husband was a prophet. He ministered with Elisha.

Now, I always use this story as an inspiration to all of my colleagues who are pastors to beg them to not make the mistake of leaving their widows in debt and without being in good financial shape. That's why I think we often times have to focus on being wise with our money and building what God has asked us to build so that our widows, God forbid if we go before the rapture, are well taken care of. But that's a side issue. I'm not going to even get into that. So in her desperation, she calls the prophet of God that her husband worked with.

And the prophet asks a question. First and foremost, she's freaking out. "I have nothing! I have no way to pay! My sons are going to be taken away! I've lost my husband and now I'm going to lose my children!" And the prophet asks the same question that he originally asked. He asks it again. "What do you have?" "I don't have anything!" "No, what do you have?" And she identifies, she's got a little bit. "Just a little bit of oil. Not much."

And you know what the prophet tells her? He says, "You go throughout the whole neighborhood and you borrow as many jars as you can possibly borrow. Go!" She goes and she gathers the jars. She brings them back into her house and the prophet says this: "You take what you have and you start pouring it into these jars." She takes what she has. She starts pouring it into the jars.

And lo and behold, she has more oil than she knows what to do with. She goes out and she sells all that oil and makes enough not only to get rid of the debt that she was in, but she sells enough to be able to take care of her and her family. Here's the lesson. The lesson is stop focusing on what you don't have, thus allowing the devil to complete what sin promises to do and destroy you, and focus on what you do have that God might be allowed to do something great.

A New Testament example of this—and by the way, there's tons of these examples all throughout the Bible, matter of fact, one of the next books that I write when I'm done with the book of Revelation will be on this very subject—a young boy who is walking in the midst of a massive crowd. We believe probably close to 50,000 people are there. 50,000 people. They're watching Jesus.

This is before the days of McDonald's, this is before the days of grocery stores, this is before the days of food being everywhere. And the disciples are concerned because there's no accommodations for anybody and Jesus says we gotta feed these people and the disciples are like, "Yeah, right. What are we going to do?"

What does Jesus do? He looks for what they have. Now, can you imagine the kind of joke it would have looked like when Jesus goes to a little boy who's just got a few loaves and fishes in his hands? What does Jesus do? Jesus focuses on what they have and then multiplies what they have to create the abundance that they did not realize they did not have because they were so busy being focused on what was empty. Death does that. Sin does that. God is telling us, "I don't want you focusing on what you do not have, rather, I want you focusing on what I've given you and what I have given you is abundance."

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis and we're currently going through the Gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James' teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at onplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well.

When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We'd love it. It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' lives and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what he's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website lightonthehillradio.com. We've been blessed by the feedback we've received thus far regarding Pastor James' new book, *The Last Book*.

If you haven't ordered a copy yet, we'd encourage you to do so. This guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book, giving you what you need to know about the rapture and the end times in a clear and concise manner. Request your copy today at lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon. If God is leading you to support this radio outreach, there's also a place to make a donation at lightonthehillradio.com. Throughout the week, you can watch our live shows and short videos, many of which relate to Bible prophecy and help you to see current events with a biblical worldview. Look for these at jameskaddis.com. Now let's return to our Bible study around Mark chapter 12, verses 18 through 27.

James Kaddis: The Sadducees in this particular context, as well as the Pharisees, are very concerned about what they perceive to be losing. It's funny, these men that are so concerned about what they've lost is something they never had in the first place. They're trying to maintain power, they're trying to maintain influence. You never really had it.

But they're not godly people. They're focused on trying to entrap Jesus and they're wanting to discredit him in a way that will make him look completely ignorant. But in the process of them approaching Jesus and sin being on full display, Jesus gives us a glimpse into something that is super important for anybody that's experienced loss lately, especially when that loss is death.

Because we learn something coming right out of Jesus' mouth that gives us perspective on something we realize that we don't have. By the way, let me just break the ice here for you just for one second. The number one thing that mankind often times does not recognize they have in abundance, forsaking it for something that they absolutely do not have, is salvation. And Christians are the worst at it.

Guest (Male): More from the book of Mark coming up next time on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. This listener-supported program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.