Let Go of the Rope!
Matthew 19:16-26
In Bible study class this week, we had a good discussion on the beginning faith walk of Abraham and how his early walk is very similar to our own. During the discussion, I began to think about my own life, the things I hold dear, the things that mean a lot to me. I began to put myself into Abraham’s shoes and I had to consider if God told me to leave all and go could I do it? The thing that we discussed was the fact that because Abraham left all and went when God called it was counted to him for righteousness. Galatians 3 tells us that we are blessed because of Abraham, if we are of faith. Abraham gave us the pattern for our faith walk, but in order for us to receive the blessings, we must start our faith walk. At some point in time, you must start you faith walk. It begins when you accept Christ, but there are a lot of steps you must take after that initial step. Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” This morning I want you to think about your faith walk and as you do, I want to make a request of you Let Go Of The Rope.
One of my former Pastors preached a sermon titled “Hold the Rope”. It was preached in 1985-86 and it was an excellent message. One of the things he said was that it the hardest times, you must hold the rope. When things seems to be out of control, when everything is pulling at you, just hold the rope. In his message, the rope was Christ. By holding on to Christ, you hold on to the force that will sustain you. This morning, for me, this rope represents something else. This rope represents my need to be in control and therefore hinders my faith walk with the Lord. All of us have things that we hold near and dear, things that we actually feel we are in control of. Maybe it is your career, your family, your retirement future, whatever it is, all of us have areas in our lives that we want to keep and control. Because we feel in control, these areas look normal for us – we can handle situations in our lives because we have learned certain responses that we are very comfortable with in any given situation. Think of this rope as your blueprints – we discussed this in bible study also. Blueprints are used to guide you through a process, whether it is building something or making something. They act as a guide to what needs to be done and when. The hardest thing for a Christian to learn to do is live without a blueprint. What I am asking you to do this morning is join in with me and let go of the rope. This rope represents our doubt in God that He is able to take care of this so we feel we must hold on to it and handle it ourselves. Start living our lives by faith, not our blueprint. To do this we must surrender everything to Jesus, believing that He is more than able to handle anything that we bring to Him. Last week I mentioned a song titled “I Surrender All” and I asked you if you had done that? For me, that is the goal – to be able to walk in peace in every situation because I know God has my back and I do not have to work it out.
I want you to picture in your mind that you are hanging in mid air by this rope. The only thing keeping you from crashing to the ground is the rope. Ever heard someone say I am getting to the end of my rope, or I am hanging by a thread. A thread represents the tiniest part of a rope which means that when you use this term you are really saying you are about at your end. But here you are hanging in mid air, holding on to the rope. You cannot climb up; the goal is to get down.
2.
When you started down, you had a lot of rope, you were confident, you believed that you had enough to make it to the ground. You were not concerned or worried about any other possibility.
The rope represented your source. This is when it is very easy to exercise your faith because you have the rope. Our faith at this point is more in the rope than in God. As you get to the middle, you begin to evaluate how much farther you have to go and if you have what you need in order to get there. You are still confident, but you are more evaluative about the outcome. This is the time where you begin to question if you truly believe what you say you believe. It is easier to say yes because you still have part of the rope, but the “what ifs” questions begin to come. Now you are at the end of the rope, you realize that you do not have enough to get to the ground, what do you do? Remember that you cannot go back up and if you let go you lose control and free fall to the ground. What do you do? I am asking you to let go of the rope. Just let go. It is hard to imagine free falling, but let go. No I am not saying when things get too bad you need to end your life, but what I am saying is let go of the things you are trying to control and turn it over to God who is more than able. Look at Matthew the 19th chapter.
Matthew 19:16-16 tells us of a situation of the rich young ruler. When you initially read the account, you can get the impression that he would not be saved because he was rich. That is not the point Jesus was trying to make. Remember, all through biblical history, rich men were saved, including Abraham. So it was not his possessions that Jesus was focusing on, it was the rich young ruler’s attitude towards his possessions. He did not seem to be able to see the possibility of what his life would be like without his possessions. He was trying to live a righteous life, but he was still holding the rope of things in his life that he could control. Jesus was asking him to let go – let go of the possessions and follow Him – which is where the real riches were found.
The rich young ruler was living what we would called a holy life based on his answers to Jesus. Yes he had all the comforts that money could buy, but he was also trying to live a righteous life. Because he knew the life he was trying to live good, he felt comfortable going to Jesus and asking Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. It was as if he actually went to Jesus for confirmation that he was on the right track. When Jesus told him to obey commandments, the rich ruler asked him which ones. When Jesus told him, he proudly said that he had been doing those from his youth. Then he asked the bid question – what did he lack. Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor and he would have riches in heaven. What happened? The rich young ruler went away sad because he had great possessions. His attitude was one of easily living a righteous life, as long as he could keep his money. It was his attitude about his money. He coveted his money – he could not surrender his possessions to Jesus. To surrender everything and follow Christ did not seem possible to him. Remember what Hebrews said – without faith it is impossible to please God, this rich young ruler had the actions of a Christian, but did not seem to have the faith. Again, in the good times when all of your needs are met, it is easy to stand up and praise God. But when you have things in your life that you cannot release, things that begin to take up more and more of your mental energies, things your blue print tells you should work out and they don’t, where do you turn? What do you do? Let go of the rope.
3.
I want to make this clear for us and ask that you follow this train of thought with me. The Scripture says in Romans 14:23 that “But he who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.” Paul was teaching on our liberties when he made this statement. I want you to focus in on the last thing he said in this verse “…whatever is not of faith is sin.” Proverbs 5:22 says “His own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords (rope) of his sin.” I want to make this clear for you because there is a principle at work here.
Remember in the beginning I asked you to think about the rope as being those areas in your life that you have not turned over to God? Those areas you are still trying to control because you are not sure if you release them that God could/would handle them. Let me tell you the result of not letting go of the rope in this case. Romans 14:23 says whatever is not of faith is sin and we already know that it is impossible to please God without faith based on what we read in Hebrews. These areas in our lives that we cannot give up because of our doubts represent sin to us. Understand that principle first – it is sin for us not because of the “thing” itself, but because for us it represents a lack of our faith in God to handle it. Now compare that to what is stated in Proverbs 5:22. Here it states that the rope of their sin would hold a person. Are you still with me? Here am what I am saying, when we have areas that are so dear to us that we do not have the faith to turn them over to God, for us our doubt represents sin. This sin begins to bind us as if a rope is binding us because we cannot let it go. Eventually it is not about us letting it go anymore, but now the rope has us. Do you see what I am saying? Before when you were growing in your faith walk you were holding the rope. Then because you begin to put your faith in the rope (your ability to handle the problem) and not in God, the rope begins to hold you, you are bound to the problem with no hope for release. I am asking you this morning to let go of the rope. Just let go and let God.
Your rope could be you’re worried about your family, your job, your finances, or your future. Your rope could be you have a natural distrust of people so you cannot get close to anyone. Your rope could be fear, fear of the present, fear of the future. Your rope could be something that happened to you years ago. Whatever your rope, whatever it is that you are holding on to for your life – let it go. God is able. Have faith in Him. Even if you doubt a little as you begin this new walk – trust Him and believe. He will work it out. He can handle your problem. He can catch you before you hit the ground.
Someone here, in some situation, is at the end of his or her rope. Some of you are in the middle and some are still at the top. Wherever you are with your rope, let go and let God. Step out of faith that you will do what is right in the sight of God and you will allow Him to handle everything else. We can start today – we are not perfect, but we can be better than we are. Are you willing to let go of your rope?
