← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
How Jesus Kicks Our Value System to the Curb
00:21:23
This episode centers on Jesus’s teaching from Mark 10 and the challenge it presents to ordinary ideas about success, wealth, and spiritual worth. J. D. Walt reflects on how Jesus overturns the common belief that wealth signals God’s favor, instead showing that the kingdom of God cannot be entered by human achievement or merit. The message is that what seems impossible for people is possible for God, and that following Jesus means entrusting everything to him rather than trying to bring our own credentials. From there, the episode turns personal and devotional, emphasizing humility, dependence, and the idea that “nothing” offered to Jesus becomes “everything” when it is surrendered to him. J.D. shares stories, journal reflections, and prayers about ego, poverty of spirit, and learning to live in daily reliance on Christ. The episode closes with a hymn sing of “I Need Thee Every Hour” and a warm reminder that Jesus is not only needed but wanted, reinforcing the heart of the episode: ...
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Sower Nation. J.D. walt, here it is, Thursday, July 23rd, in the year of our Lord 2026. This is your wake up call. And this is our daily meeting with Jesus where we're going to win the day by winning the morning. He's here. He's ready to open the Word of God to teach us to speak to our souls. I'm just here kind of as the doorkeeper, right? I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. So let's make way for him. Let's enter in by consecration, the little way of consecration. Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, today's entry is entitled How Jesus Kicks Our Value System to the Curb. And our text, we're reading Mark chapter 10 today. I want you to read the whole thing. I'm going to read verses 23 to 31. Hear now the word of the Lord. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. They were greatly astounded and said to one another, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, for mortals it is impossible, but not for God. For God, all things are possible. Peter began to say to him, look, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly, I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold. Now in this age, houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last will be first. The word of the Lord. Now consider this. We left off in Mark with the man of great wealth just before this text, coming before Jesus with his query about inheriting eternal life. Bottom line, Jesus was willing to let the wealthy man go away. Sad with these few sentences, Jesus crushes the conventional wisdom of the day. In those days, as in our own, people tended to equate wealth as a sign of God's favor and as the fruit of a righteous life. The corollary also rang true. Poverty was a sign of the absence of God's favor and the bitter fruit of sin. We need to remember at this point how Jesus had systematically taken on this value system. He went to the poor and the lepers and the sick and unleashed extravagant blessing on them. In today's text, he takes the system on from the angle of the rich. This comment about the impossibility of rich people entering the Kingdom of God would have been nothing less than stupefying to those gathered jaws would have hit the floor everywhere. Jesus said the exact opposite of all they had been taught. The 12 looked at one another with sheer incredulity. They were greatly astounded and said to one another, then who can be saved? Wealth was not the sign of blessing. Rather it was the source of burden. This was truly an aha moment. The Kingdom of God cannot be understood as an extension of the Kingdom of the world. With a little Jesus overlay. The Kingdom of God cannot be understood as a projection of even the best and most fair minded merit systems we can imagine. The bottom line, no one has any claim on the Kingdom of God. In fact, it's impossible for anyone to enter the Kingdom of God on their own terms. Jesus looked at them and said, for mortals it is impossible, but not for God. For God, all things are possible. The Kingdom of God belongs exclusively to those who will unconditionally and absolutely belong to the God of the Kingdom. In the end, this is not about divesting oneself of wealth, but entrusting oneself to God. Wealth, like nothing else, can get in the way of this. Which is precisely why our wealth must be entrusted to God, whatever that means and whatever it takes. Peter began to say to him, look, we have left everything and followed you. At first glance, it feels like Peter was contending for some kind of claim here. Something akin to you owe us. In response, Jesus doesn't so much rebuke as he reassures. All the possibilities of God reside with those who place all of their possibilities in his hands. On second thought, I think Peter was saying just that. We have trusted you with everything, Jesus. And Jesus reassures them by saying, in effect, and everything, I have little flock I am giving to you. This is extravagant exchange. The celebrated missionary turned martyr Jim Elliot said it best when he said he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That's so good. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. How about we sing our prayer today just unto the Lord?
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Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
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Amen. How about a journal prompt? Jesus says it is hard to enter the kingdom of God. Why do we tend to speak and act like it is so easy? Man, this is deep, guys. It makes me think about, of course, Sermon on the Mount minister. It's so easy that it's actually impossible about that. It's hard, he says, because the problem is we're bringing too much with us. Jesus begins his Sermon on the Mount by saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's the starting line. Coming to the place where you're actually bringing nothing. I mean, that's kind of hard to grasp, isn't it? I love how Tim Keller once said, the only thing that God wants from us is nothing. And then he said, the problem is that most of us don't have nothing to offer him. I've been on a long journey, a long journey of learning this. I've been on a long journey of trying to build up my everything, of trying to just put together everything I could to offer to God and, and he's like, don't need it. Can you bring me nothing? And it's. Boy, it's been hard for me to understand that, but I've begun to. And I've begun to learn that my nothing, Jesus plus my nothing equals everything. And I was preaching down at a conference this summer over in Texas. It was Trinity Annual conference. And I was so blessed to get to preach at that meeting with so many of my long colleagues and friends. And, and I opened my sermon by saying this prayer. I said, jesus, you know my secret. I have nothing. And now everybody else knows my secret. And then I said, and Jesus, I know your secret, and it is that you have everything. And so how about if you bring your everything into my nothing, because that will be something. And I mean, I felt like he so heard that prayer and answered that prayer that night. That nothing became everything. It's probably the favorite out doubting I've ever had preaching. I must figure out how I can share it on our wake up call soon. I'll let you know. But my goodness, it was, it's, it's Just been a long journey of coming back. All the things that I think I bring, that I build. You know, there's a definition for. For all that. And it's not that it's all bad stuff at all, but it's ego. I heard a great little acronym on EGO the other day. E, G, O Edging God out. Like, look what I'm bringing. I'm bringing. Look, you're lucky to have me, Lord. I'm bringing a lot to the table. And that's ego. And then I heard another acronym along these lines. It's called lies. L, I, E. S. Living in ego strength. I'm like, wow, it's taken me a long time to burn through that, to burn through my own ego. To die to my old broken self. Sin nature, to lay down the lies. Living in ego strength. Right? Trying to project something that isn't really true. It's not necessarily bad. It's just not true. And letting that be stripped away so that he can bring forth the truest person that he's made me to be. And that's like, I got nothing. You got everything. So let's. Let's go. And that's how nothing. That's the story of how nothing becomes everything. It starts with poverty of spirit. I know my desperate need of Jesus. He set it apart from me. You can do nothing. So it's a good word today on the kingdom of heaven. And it's impossible. But nothing is impossible with God. Yeah, there's a lot more I'd like to say, but we got to sing today, so let's get. Let's get geared up for that. All right, everyone, are we ready to sing? Dad, you ready?
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I'm ready.
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Tell them what we're singing today.
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We're singing I Need the Every hour. Good. Good song. And it's a true word that we need the every hour.
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What's the number?
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340. In this great redeemer's praise.
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Yes, 340. I need the. You know, we know we need him every day, but that's not what this is saying, is it?
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No, we need more than that.
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More than that.
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We just need him in the background all the time.
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Oh, I need him in the front ground.
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Well, that's in the background. Then when it gets tough, you call him up.
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Call him up.
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And he's right here with us, y'. All.
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That's. He's. He's here. He's waiting on us.
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He's waiting on us.
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Yeah, he's waiting on us.
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Some of us think we're Waiting on him. But it turns out he's waiting on us. On us. That's a word some of you needed to hear that I did. All right, we'll sing all five verses. You ready?
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I need the every hour most gracious Lord no tender voice like thine can
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dis
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I need the O I need Thee Every hour I need thee O bless me now, my Savior I come to thee I need Thee every hour Stay thou nearby Temptations lose their sour when thou art nigh I need thee oh, I need Thee every hour I need thee O bless me now, my Savior I come to thee I need Thee every hour Enjoy your praying Come quickly and abide or life is vain I need thee oh, I need Thee every hour I need thee O bless me now, my Savior I come to thee I need Thee every hour Teach I will and thy rhythm in me fulfilled I need thee oh, I need thee every hour I need thee O bless me now, my Savior I come to thee Last verse. I need thee every hour, most holy one O make me thine indeed, thou blessed son I need thee oh, I need thee Every hour I need thee O bless me now, my Savior I come unto thee Amen. Amen.
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Well, we've made ourselves clear to him that we. That we need him today. And you know what, dad? Every Sunday in church, I often will pray. And we'll pray for a lot of things. And then I'll say, jesus, you know, we need you. But we want to make sure that you know that we want you.
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Right? Right.
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That we want you.
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We gotta have you.
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We want you, Jesus. And that's the thing I want us to be in touch with as we head out to the fields today. Because Jesus, he's. He's good to be needed. But do you know what?
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He wants us to want him?
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He wants to be wanted. Same thing you want. Same thing I want. We're glad to help meet people's needs, but it's the next thing when you're like, you know, they just want you for you.
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Right.
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Just because they love you.
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Amen.
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Well, me and dad would like to say to all of you, we want you.
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Amen.
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And we feel like you want us. From what we hear from you, we appreciate it.
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We do.
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And we thank you for joining us every day here on the wake up call.
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We're here for y', all, so y' all be there for us.
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We want you. And together, we. We, Jesus. We want you to know that we want you.
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So.
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Yep, we've won the. We've won the morning. So we've won the day. And for The Awakening, I'm J.D.
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walt.
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And I'm David. Walt.
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We'll see you on the field. See you on the field, friends.
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And let's make it a rice field today.
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A rice field. There's some rice growing around here in Arkansas County.
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Oh, my goodness. That's their biggest crop.
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That's the Rice county of the country. Arkansas County. That's good. All right, gang.
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Sam.