Taken Over

17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'[d]"

20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."

21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"

24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is[e] to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"

27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."


Many times when we read this story about the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-31 we are told that everyone should learn to share, to give, not to count possessions as important.

But what if material wealth isn’t the thing you don’t want to give up? Every person in the world has a vice or addiction or attachment that means more to them than it should. Perhaps it is your baseball card collection from when you were young. Maybe it is your mother’s fine china, handed down through four generations. Perhaps it’s those fudge pops that your wife keeps buying even though you can eat four in one night. Perhaps it is alcohol, drugs or you watch too much television.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying what God has given to us. We would be miserable people if we did not take time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. When we work hard all our lives, we deserve the chance to take the weekend and go to the beach or somewhere nice every once in awhile.

All of you sitting in the pews today know what your vice is. Some of us only have one, while others will have more. The young man in the story loved his material wealth. Look at this story, it conveys how much he loved what he had. The young man runs to Jesus, kneels before him and calls him Good teacher a sign of utmost respect. Jesus tells him, why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. But the man is not to be dissuaded by Jesus’ admonishment. Still, he replies, Teacher! What is it I lack?” the man was so sure that he didn’t have enough. Right there is the first sign of how the material possessions had taken over his thinking.

But Jesus looked at the man, he saw him and he loved him for who he was. In Matthew, Jesus replies, “If you want to be perfect, go sell all of your possessions give them to the poor and then come, follow me.” In Mark, Jesus says there is one thing you lack, in response to this man’s desire to own. But each version does say that when the man heard this, he was saddened for he had many possessions.

This was the same man who had just run forward, an undignified thing to do back then. If this man was as wealthy and important as the story tells us he is, he never should have been hurrying. Important people always walked as if the world waited for them. So here is a man who is so eager to learn and to follow the way of the Lord that he forgets his dignity. Then even after Jesus admonishes him he is still not dissuaded and continues to question. But as soon as he hears what it is that he must do, he turns away. Someone who had followed all of the commandments his entire life could not follow this one thing Jesus asked of him.

If you asked Jesus what you lack, if you asked him how to be made perfect, what would his response be to you? And would you be able to give up what holds you back from eternal life? There is something we all hold tight and don’t want to let go. For some it is wealth and for others it is something completely different.

If you have your bibles, please turn to Exodus. Exodus is where God calls his people. He calls them out of the land of Egypt and slavery to come and worship Him. Many think that God called them out of Egypt to give them the land of milk and honey, but it says he wanted them to be able to worship. Exodus 3:11-12 it says, But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
The Israelites were never able to fully worship the Lord until they had wandered in the desert for 40 years. When they first got to Mount Sinai they were so busy complaining and making a golden calf to worship that they never truly worshiped God. Instead, they spent the next forty years learning how to get rid of their excess baggage so they may do what God had originally intended – entering the Promised Land and worshipping God.

Think about when you start planning a two week vacation. The first thing we want to do is pack a ton of clothing. Then we add the extra stuff that we don’t dare leave without just in case. By the time we are done packing we have twice as much as we really need. But if our trip turned from a two week vacation to 40 years in the desert, it wouldn’t be long before we started to get rid of extras to make our load lighter and our way easier.

We do the same thing in our hearts. We carry around excess baggage that prevents us from getting to the places we should be as quickly as we could. That is why the Holy Spirit is always working on us, helping us to refine and reform our lives. She helps shape us into people that can walk in the desert efficiently, without the vices that would prevent us from entering the Promised Land. Because isn’t that what we all want to eventually do? Enter the Promised Land?

But just as the rich young man could not enter heaven until he gave up his wealth, we cannot enter heaven until we give up that excess baggage we carry around with us. Those things that weigh us down, hardening our hearts to God’s truth, and preventing us from living the life Jesus has called us to. It was the same for the Israelites. They held onto the past and did not want to let go so that they could embrace the future with the Lord.

They complained all the time! I would not have wanted to be Moses because he constantly had to put out fires. They complained about food and water so God provided bread from heaven and quail and dew. Then they complained about not having exotic food. Then, when Moses finally got them to the Mount Sinai and he was gone for only a few days they created a golden calf to worship rather than trust in the Lord.

It was no wonder that the Lord led them in circles in the desert for so long. They needed every bit of that time to learn and to grow. So it took them forty years of wandering to get their hearts in the right place. It took forty long years for them to rid themselves of excess baggage. They needed to learn to depend fully upon God for all things and no longer worry about tomorrow.

How long will it take you?

Jesus tells us in Mark 10: 24 that it is hard to enter the Kingdom of God. We are a sinful people full of pride, envy and other sinful ways. Jesus has called us to be Christians, people that consider the Lord before they act or speak. Jesus has called us to be his people just as the Lord once called the Israelites to be his people. Are we going to take as long as they did to understand the gift of salvation, the gift of deliverance we have been given?

The Lord calls us. He calls us to worship Him. To love others. To give of ourselves. Before we can do any of that, we need to get rid of the sinfulness inside of us. We need to let go of what holds us back from entering the Promised Land. We need to open our hearts to the working of the Holy Spirit so that we may become better people, not perfect or good for that is God alone, but better.

When we worship the Lord, something changes inside of us for we have opened ourselves up. We have made ourselves vulnerable and as hard as that is to do, the blessings we are given by God for doing it, are abundant. But first we must ask ourselves what would Jesus say we must give up, what is it we lack? And then, we must not turn away from Him as the rich young ruler did. We need to be willing to work on our hearts, our minds and bodies. We are called to be the people of Christ. The only way we can be those people is when we give ourselves up to the Lord, so that no longer is it our vice that has taken over our minds and hearts but it is the Lord that has taken us over.

It is the Lord that keeps us going, not some material possession. It is the Lord that is the way, the truth, and the life. It is the Lord that is the bread of life. Let us take into our hearts and minds, all that is our God, Father, son and Spirit. Let the Lord take you over and let go of everything else so you too may enter the Promised Land - the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.

Proclaiming the Kingdom

We are God’s people. We have been given the gift of salvation because we have heard the Word of God proclaimed to us and we have listened. We have been called to preach and teach the Gospel to the entire world. We are God’s called people.

In this passage of Acts 28:23-31, Luke ends a story that is still not finished today. Perhaps that is the reason we are not told that Paul dies in Rome. Instead, Luke tells us that Paul preached and taught the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ to all those who would listen. This is important for us to think about because Luke could have ended with Paul’s death and then a persecuted people could have been left with another martyr. But rather, we are being told that death does not stop the preaching of the Word - because as long as the Holy Spirit is active, nothing and no one can silence the Gospel.

In the area I grew up, we had a lot of flooding and so a dam was to be built where a town resided. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone. "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."

This world is cynical and without hope. Too often we can let ourselves be dragged down into the same cynicism and hopelessness such as that town that no longer had a future. We, as Christians, are called to be in the world but not of the world. When we feel like outsiders and like nothing will ever go our way, we need to remember the future belongs to Jesus Christ who is The WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIGHT.

When Paul gets to Rome, we read the first thing he did was to go to the Jewish leaders and began to speak to them about the Gospel and Jesus. He spent a whole day talking to them and using the Law of Moses and the Prophets to try to convince them. He was telling them about the faithfulness of God as he deals with a faithless people who have so often rejected the messengers of God. He was telling them that there was still hope if they would allow themselves to listen. Some of them did, but more did not. His last words to them were from Isaiah to explain why some can hear the Word and others cannot.

Paul warned them that their rejection would mean the Good News would be preached to the Gentiles because he knew they would listen. That does not mean Paul was telling the Jewish people they could never be saved. On the contrary, Paul knew that they would always be God’s people but now the Gentiles would be included. Why is Paul so sure that if Jewish people will not listen to the Gospel that the Gentiles will?

The unbelievers or gentiles are not wicked and evil people. They are just like you and me, but have not heard about the grace they may receive through Jesus Christ. This is why they will listen to what Paul has to say. They have no idea the salvation of God is for everyone and when Paul shares this Good News with them it is like when in Luke the rejected host sends out for the maimed, the blind and the lame to sit at his dinner table. These outsiders come because they have nowhere else to go. Unless someone invites them, unless someone shares the Gospel with them, they are without hope. The poor will come, the gentile will listen because they are empty enough to hear and accept the invitation that is being offered to them. They see the gift and they are willing to receive it.

We need to learn to thirst and hunger. We need to want God deep inside of us. When we empty ourselves, we are able to be renewed. We have been blessed by God, for it is God that gives us all we have, but we have stopped responding to his blessings. Why does God bless us? So that we may bless others!

Why is Christianity growing in the poor countries, in the places where people are belittled and hungry and sick? They are empty and someone saw that and began to preach the Kingdom of God to them. Then the sick, the blind, the hungry were filled with hope from the Holy Spirit, they were given the gift of salvation and were made a promise that God will keep even when we break our end of it. The blind were given a vision; the hungry were given food that does not perish. Jesus tells us we cannot live by bread alone. But here in America we sure do try!

D.L Moody, an American evangelist of the 19th century once said, "I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God's law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled."

If we could learn to empty ourselves, if we could remember that everything we are given is not by our own efforts but those of Jesus, we would be better for it. Our faith would not be timid and our lives would hold conviction. Luke 24: 48, Jesus tells his disciples that they are witnesses. We are a called people. Jesus has given us the gift of salvation and we have been called to witness to this promise of life everlasting. We witness through blessing others as we have been blessed. We witness by speaking out against injustice and hate. We witness by opening our hearts to those we have closed them to. We witness by loving Jesus and making no excuses for it.

As we witness to those around us, we need to remember Paul did not preach on the subject of an unknown God who is near, but rather he talked about the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus. He was specific and he was purposeful in his message, even to those he knew would not like what they were hearing. We may not be able to walk into a synagogue or a mosque, but that does not prevent us from reaching out to those of other religions and faiths to make contact. We are all God’s children. We are all called by the Holy Spirit to lead good lives of faith. The only way to do that is by welcoming every person into your heart and extending your hospitality to those who have never had the chance to discuss who Jesus Christ is.

We do not bring people to salvation, but we can help them hear the Gospel by preaching the Kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is about listening to the unconditional promise of salvation. Hearing the words and understanding the Truth in them, the truth that is Jesus Christ. Our faith in Jesus comes from the working of the Holy Spirit. That means we cannot get there without the Lord.

But before we can see that and act upon it, we need to be empty enough; we need to be hungry enough to keep seeking Jesus in every moment of every day. If we are not looking for the Lord in all that we say and do – then we are missing the point. The Lord created the world out of nothing which means all things come from Him. Let us thank Him for the blessings he has bestowed upon us by sharing the Gospel, by proclaiming the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to all those who would listen.

Amen.