This past Sunday our Pastor was out of town so a man in our church filled the pulpit. He preached about Jesus and the rich young man, Mark 10:17-22. I started thinking to myself....wowee, here we go again, more confirmation of what God has been doing in my life. He spoke about how Jesus told the rich young man that all he needed to do was sell all that he owned and give it away. Jesus' response to the rich young man was specific to this man's heart. This young man held his stuff, his wealth in a higher regard than Jesus. Our speaker titled this sermon "Facing a Defining Moment", he defined a "defining moment" as a moment in your life when you are faced with a truth and have to make a decision. A response is required. For the young man, his response was going away sorrowful because he had great possessions and wasn't willing to give them up to follow Jesus.
God's word is truth, the truth of God's word convicts us, it reveals what we need to change in our lives, yet we often want to stay comfortable so we push it aside. It's all about surrender....the willingness to give all that we have, all that we are to follow and honor Christ. He may never ask us to "sell everything" but we ought to be willing.
Our speaker also talked about commitment. We are committed to things, to Jesus, the church, ministry, our families, etc and that's not necessarily a bad thing but commitment suggests effort on our part. We need to think less about commitment and more about surrender. Abide in God's word, let His truth change our hearts and respond. No response is a response like the rich young man...
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:17
No comments:
Post a Comment