Sometimes you need to let things go, in order to grow
(The rich young ruler
Begin 01:04:23 End 01:05:51
Have you ever had an ‘apostrophe?’ Captain Hook’s first mate gets an ‘apostrophe’ or an epiphany. He has an “aha moment!” His eyes are opened to something new, a new way to look at things.
I believe that God wants to give us ‘epiphanies’ throughout our lives. Paul even prays that we would have the ‘spirit of revelation or epiphanies’ in the first chapter of Ephesians.
Epiphanies can come different ways. They can come while you are fellowshipping with another Christian. They can come while you are listening to a sermon. Epiphanies can come while you are reading God’s Word. Epiphanies can come when you are having a quiet time. We just need to be able to recognize them, and learn to respond to them. The Holy Spirit is always ready to help us through life and giving us ‘aha moments’ is one of His favorite ways of doing this.
Epiphanies add flavor to life. They prevent you from doing the same old thing all the time. They prevent you from following the same old patterns through life. Epiphanies can change life from being boring to an adventure! Often epiphanies show you areas you need to change or areas you need to start looking at differently. They help you think ‘outside the box.’
This past Saturday I had an epiphany at the 5K race. I was running as fast as I could; trying not to quit and as I was running, three ladies from our church walked right past me! They were walking as I was running, wow, that was humbling! Something was wrong with that picture. I began wrestling with that, ‘God, am I missing something here?” Then at the end of the race my two sons Jason and Paul ran the final ¼ mile or so and my son Jason said, “Dad you need to open up your stride.” I said, “I would but every time I come down on my knee it feels like a sledge hammer is hitting it. I can’t take longer strides unless I walk. Then a ‘light went on.’ Then I had an epiphany, “If I walk I can take longer strides, if I take longer strides I can go faster. I can walk faster than I can run!” It was an ‘aha moment.’ I kept thinking about it all day Saturday and Sunday and Monday. So Monday morning I got up and decided to see if this epiphany was really an epiphany! So I walked the exact 5K again, guess what? I can walk faster than I can run!!! (I know you are all asking how much faster? But I am not at liberty to share that, since that information will give me that edge I need to beat Allen and those three ladies next year!!!)
So now I am making a total life change and mental adjustment regarding my exercise program. I am giving up running, at least for the time being and taking up walking. Now for those of you run and exercise, you can relate when I say that is not an easy thing to do. Because at least when you run a 5K you get some kind of satisfaction telling someone you ‘ran’ the 5K. I know it is vain but it is true. It just sounds better to say, “I ran the 5K’ than it does to say “I walked the 5K.” But I have a choice to make. The question is, ‘Am I willing to give up this way of looking at things, am I willing to give up my ego, am I willing to change, in order to grow?”
Here is today’s sermon in a nutshell. “Sometimes we need to let things go in order to grow.” Say several times. Sometimes we need to ‘give up, to grow up!”
Epiphanies can help direct your life. They can change you, but you need to be willing to give them up. We need to let things go in order to grow. Are you willing to let some things go in your life? Do you want to grow? You need to let them GO.
This is a very important life principle. Today I would like to take a look at a story in the Bible, Mark 10. It is about a man who was not willing to let things go, and therefore he could not grow!
Get rid of your ‘rival kingdoms”
Let’s turn to Mark 10:17-29 and read. This guy had it all. He was rich, he was young, and he was powerful. He was probably even handsome! But he was a truth seeker unhappy with his legalistic, performance oriented, graceless religion. He knew there was more to this life than here and now. He knew that eternity needed to be prepared for. He wanted to go to heaven and have eternal life. So he comes to Jesus for an answer. Jesus challenges him to keep the commandments. The young man says he does. He is telling Jesus, “I am a good person,” like lots of people would say today.
Jesus responds negatively to the greeting. It’s almost like He’s trying to give this guy a hard time. However, the words “good teacher” were mere flattery. It was common then as it is today to try to butter-up (i.e. manipulate) the teacher.
Jesus brings up the Law of Moses because no one can understand their sinful condition if they misunderstand God’s righteous expectations. The Law reveals our inability to please God and leads us to seek His grace. Without knowledge of God’s Law, it becomes difficult to see that we are sinners in need of help. This young man failed to see the requirements of the Law; he didn’t see himself as a lawbreaker. So Jesus tries a different approach. Jesus sees that something is not right with this young man, so Jesus told the young man “Sell it all and give it away.” Jesus was not making poverty or philanthropy a requirement of salvation, He was exposing the young man’s heart. He was not blameless.
The rich young ruler said ‘he could not do that and walked away.” Jesus stopped him and said, “Is that your final answer?”
Now some people think that this is a command for everyone. Some people think that we are all supposed to be poor. But this is just not true, poverty is not a sign of spirituality.
He tells us this all through His word, now I did not say, that we are all supposed to be millionaires, but prosper means to have enough and some extra. Prosper means to enjoy what you have, that is my definition. But the truth is many of God’s people are not prospering. They are broke, and in debt. God blessed Abraham with abundant wealth, we are told he had over 400 servants! God blessed Paul with enough money to travel the world and do mission work and to pay for it almost all by his own income. He must have made a lot of money! How many of you could pay your own way to do mission work and travel the world? Which by the way, that I believe is the biblical model for ‘mission’ work. The person who feels ‘called’ should pay for most of it themselves, at least at the beginning, instead of ‘feeling lead’ to go to another country and then asking everyone to give you money! By the time you are out of high school if you want to do mission work you ought to work and save the money and spend it on your trip. This is what I was taught when I first became a Christian in a youth ministry. This is what we did as we traveled the US doing mission work. We worked various jobs to save up the money to pay our own way. Even when I moved here to Columbus, I did not receive much of any kind of income from the church for the first eight years. I paid to do ministry by doing various jobs. At some point I believe a person ought to receive income for his work in the ministry but I am all for spending your own money at least for the first five years or so. Paul had enough wealth to finance his travels all over Asia and Europe to start churches. God is not against His people having wealth but He won’t give us wealth if we don’t know how to use what we currently have or if we are being controlled by our money.
God desires that we have enough money to provide for ourselves and to do the work of the ministry. He will provide you with this money if you learn how to manage what you have. This means that you have to learn how to start tithing and to start giving above the tithe and how to stop spending more than you earn with your credit cards. If you can’t manage what you have, how is He going to give you more, you will only hurt yourself more. But there is the other danger of prosperity and wealth and that is riches can grab a hold of you and begin to control you.
That is what the problem was here with this rich young ruler. His money became his god. It became a rival kingdom, and so when he asked Jesus what he needed to do, Jesus went right to the source of the problem. What was really holding this young man back? It was his money.
What is holding you back? What is keeping you from living out God’s vision and calling for your life? For everybody it is different.
Maybe it is your image or the way you view yourself, good or bad. Is that holding you back?
Maybe it is your Intellect. You think you are so smart, or you think you are so dumb. Is it possible this is holding you back?
Maybe it is your looks, or your past experiences, good or bad that is holding you back.
Maybe it is your wealth, or your goals and plans, or your skills and talent that is holding you back.
Maybe it is your music, your art, your family. Whatever it is, God calls you to give it up. Not so He can take it away, but so that it won’t destroy you and hold you back. “Sometimes you have to let things go in order to grow.” Look again at the promise in verse 29, “no one gives up stuff that won’t get back more than they give up.”
Summary
The following are actual responses from comment cards given to a wilderness recreation area…
1. The trails need to be reconstructed. Please avoid building trails that go uphill.
2. There are too many bugs, spiders and spider webs. Please spray the wilderness area to get rid of these pests.
3. Please pave the trails. Chair lifts need to be in some places so that we can get to the wonderful views without having to hike to them.
4. The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake. Please eradicate these annoying animals.
5. A small deer came into my camp and stole my jar of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed? Please call.
6. Escalators would be a great help on steep uphill sections.
7. A McDonald’s would be nice at the trailhead.
8. Way too many rocks in the mountains.
These comments and complaints indicate that the people who made them do not really understand what it means to be in a wilderness area. They were looking for something convenient and comfortable, which does not come with the territory in a wilderness area. Similarly, many people claim to be a disciple or follower of Christ, but don’t truly understand what that involves.
It’s much easier to be an admirer of Jesus than it is to be a follower. You can admire from a distance and be relatively unaffected but followers have their lives turned upside down.
At the end of the war in the Pacific when Japan surrendered, their general came aboard the US ship and walked up to General McArthur. He extended his hand to shake the general’s hand, but the general did not extend his hand. He stood firm and said with a clear voice, “Your sword general.” Now if you know anything about the military you will understand what was going on here. General McArthur would not accept the Japanese general’s handshake until he completely surrendered. This would be expressed by giving the general his sword. There was a moment’s hesitation but then the general took off his sword and gave it to the general as he bowed. This was complete surrender.
There are many here today who would like to shake Jesus’ hand, but I can tell you He won’t shake your hand until you give Him your sword. Until you completely surrender. What’s holding you back? What would you say if Jesus asked you to give it up?
