October 10, 2021 Sermon (Mark 10:17-31)

Sermon 10-10-2021

Mark 10:17-31 (nlt)

The Rich Man

^10:17 As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to Him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸ “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good.

¹⁹ But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’”

²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” He told him.

“Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

²² At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

²³ Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”

²⁴ This amazed them. But Jesus said again, “Dear children, it is very hard – [some Versions say: very hard for those who trust in riches] to enter the Kingdom of God.

²⁵ In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

²⁶ The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.

²⁷ Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.”

²⁸ Then Peter began to speak up. “We’ve given up everything to follow you,” he said.

²⁹ “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for My sake and for the Good News, ³⁰ will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have Eternal Life.

³¹ But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then. [And some versions say: But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.]”

 

 

So - What Must You DO To Receive Life?

 

I heard a story of a man named Joe. He is expert in diamonds and on his flight home one day, he was seated next to a woman who had a huge diamond on her finger. Finally, Joe introduced himself and said, "I couldn't help but notice your beautiful diamond. I am an expert in precious stones. Please tell me about that stone."

She replied, "This is the famous ‘Phillips Diamond’. It is one of the largest in the world. But there is a strange curse that comes with it."

 

This made Joe very interested. So, he asked, "What is the curse?"

As he waited breathlessly, she replied, "It's Mr. Philllips."

 

So, Are Your Precious Treasures ‘Cursed’ or are they ‘Blessed’?

 

Did you know, most of the “Treasures” within Our World are Cursed!

You See – They Are Cursed BECAUSE They Have the Capability Of Stealing Your Heart! And Your Soul Away from GOD!

 

The ‘Rich Young Ruler’ is one of the Unique Characters who Live Within the Bible. And They have the Ability to Represent By Far the Majority Of the People Who Live Within Our World Today!  

 

 

 

 

Do You Agree That ‘GREED’ IS ALIVE And DOING WELL Within Our Today?

 

Take a Look at the Number of Casinos

·        9 Casinos in Kansas

·        14 in Missouri

·        44 Casinos in Colorado

·        > 110 Casinos in Oklahoma

 

And the Lottery - Powerball

·        Odds of winning are 1 in 292 million

·        Yet – Average 371 Million tickets are sold per drawing

 

So Reluctant Are WE, So Reluctant was HE To Give Away His Earthly Wealth,

Caused US, Caused HIM to SELL His Soul Just so - he could Keep his money. HE, – Just Like WE ALL, Want to be SAVED!

BUT - Not at The PRICE Of Losing His Or Our Possessions!

 

Let me ask:

What is the 1^st Thing that Impresses You About This Rich Man When you read this Story?

 

The 1st thing For Me Was That This Rich Young Ruler Was So Near to “The Kingdom” BUT he didn’t even know it!

 

 

He asked all the Right Questions! He understood the Law! And he understood Jesus’ teachings!

 

However, The Truth of it all is: His Love For His Money - Kept-him-out-of-the Kingdom Of GOD. But - Along with All Of The Negative Characteristics, The Bad Desires, The Poorly Chosen Paths, There is Still A LOT of GOOD STUFF Which Can Be Said About this Young Man.  

 

For Example: What about the Fact that It Only Took Just a Few Minutes Before Jesus Loved this Man! To Me, That Does Not Sound Like Someone Who Is Without HOPE!

And - Here is Another Thing Which We Need to Recognize. We need to remember that This Young Man DID NOT See Jesus as the Son of God.

 

No - To this Young Man, Jesus was just A New Prophet, Someone with an Exciting Message, Someone who has A Magnetic Personality, Someone who Possesses Eyes Which Grip And Hold you Speechless.

 

And for sure – This Young Man Did Not See Jesus as the Christ Which We Proclaim Within The Apostles' Creed

(You Remember, We talked about that Creed Only a Few weeks ago)

So - INDEED – We Need To Cut This Guy Some Slack!

You See - Not Even the Disciples Had Truly Figured Jesus Out Yet!

And So - We will begin by Defending This Underdog As we look at 3 of His Positive And then - 3 Of His Negative Qualities.

 

We will talk about things which Brought him to the Master in the first place And of His Qualities which made him Interested in Jesus’ Teachings So he went Looking for Christ.

His 1^st Positive Character is: He was Courageous.

Luke describes him as a RULER. Luke 18:18–30

^18:18 “Now a certain Ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher,

what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”’

 

That would mean that This Young Man, Belonged to the Upper Class.

It is in this group where Most of the Criticism Against Jesus came from.

We should note that it was his Willingness to learn That he approached Jesus.

In doing this, He did not let his Social Position Keep him Away From Jesus.

He did not buy in to His peers’ evaluation of Jesus.

Nicodemus was another Rich man who went to see Jesus. But Nicodemus went in the night. Under the vail of darkness. That is how Nicodemus went To see Jesus And he went with the same question.

 

But Nicodemus went Under the cover of darkness.

And this Young Ruler went in the day.

But if we are honest, How many of us Have Elected Not To Defend the Church Or Make Christ Known Within Some Grouping of Our Pears?

That would be when We had Lost Our Own Courage Or We Simply Decided that We Just Didn’t want to Speak Up So, we stayed quiet!

In Many Ways, in those times, We were like Nicodemus And Not Like this Rich Young Ruler.

So, I say this young man

Had ‘Courage’.

His 2^nd Positive Trait Is: He was HUMBLE.

When he came to Jesus He Came Running. Then, The Elite People Did-Not-Run. It was Considered Undignified. But it didn’t matter To this young rich ruler! Because Scriptures Said He RAN up to Jesus And then, He knelt before Christ!

 

He Knelt In the Middle of the Road! In Broad Day Light! For the World to See!

 

Then – Did You Notice What He Asked:

 

“A man came running up to Him,

knelt down,

and asked, “Good Teacher,

What must I do to inherit eternal life?”’

 

 

He Did - Not come to Jesus With a Verbal Puzzle, Or with Pious Theological Nonsense. That is what the Pharisees always do.

SEE – The Pharisees would come to Jesus and ask: Hey - Jesus, what do you think about:

Paying taxes to Caesar? Oh - Jesus what do you: Think about Divorce? Now - Jesus what do you think: About an Afterlife? TELL US: Why don’t your Disciples fast, Or Wash their hands? And Why Are You NOT Obeying the Sabbath?

But the Truth of it All Is They Could Not Care Less Of what Jesus thought About Any of These Issues.

 

SEE THE THING IS:

§  The Pharisees Believed That they had Nothing at all To learn from Jesus. They were just asking These questions simply To trip Him up And They were Waiting Until such a time that He did Make some FATAL ERROR!

 

They were arrogant.

 

But How Refreshing to Finally See Someone who Is Genuine and Sincere!

 

 

"Good Master," "What must I Do To Inherit Eternal Life?"

 

YES - He was asking The Right Question. He had gotten down to the Fundamentals. He was in effect saying: Jesus, you clearly have The Secret to the TRUTH of LIFE. Tell me that Secret So that I Can Do the Same.

Can we agree – That Too Often, Even Within the Church, We Ourselves Are Not Humble to God nor Others.

TO OFTEN We spend Way Too Much Time On Issues which Really Don’t Really Amount to a Hill of Beans! All the While – We are Really Avoiding The Eternal Questions of Life.

Far Too Often, Our Motivation Is Not Sincerity But Rather – It Is Recognition And Advancement Of Our Own Agenda.

But Not that Morning!

That Was Not This Young Man's Problem. He Ran to Jesus. He Knelt Right There Before Jesus In The Middle of the Whole World! WHY? Because He was Humble! And He Did Not Know!

 

His 3^rd Positive Trait is: He was Religious.

Now I don’t mean this In a Negative Way. He was a Spiritual Man. One who is deeply concerned With Religious Things. When Jesus Instructed him To keep the Commandments, He answered:

“Teacher, all these I have kept

since I was a boy.”

SO: What Does That Mean?

In His Custom It Means: At the age of 13, That was the Age When a Jewish boy Would Take Responsibility Of His Own Personal Life In Keeping the Commandments.

And Based Upon His Answer to Jesus He Had Done So. BUT – Does this Type of Statement Raise Up some Questions Within You?

 

 

I Mean - How is that Possible?

Not Only with - Us Being Humans But also as Christians Too.

Don’t we Know As Well as Understand That - We Ourselves Are Unable to KEEP The Law? I Mean – Breaking Even Just One of the Smallest of Commandments Means that we have FAILED! So, is this Rich Man a SUPER Christian? Or – Has he Just lied to Jesus?

“Teacher, all these I have kept

since I was a boy.”

 

Herein lies the KEY To this passage of Scripture And the Turning Point Of this Young Man’s Life. This is where it Begins. The Negatives Begin to Creep Up Into this Man’s Story BUT - Before we get to them Let us Recap.

 

No Doubt –

1)                 This young man was Courageous. He did not hide that He was interested in Jesus.

2)                 He was Humble. He came running to Jesus And in his nobleman’s clothes, He knelt in the dust before Christ.

3)                 And he was Religious. He had kept the Commandments From His age of Accountability.

 

 

PART 2

 

At This Point, We are Going to take A Look at some of the Negatives Which have started To Add Up In this Young Man’s Life.

 

There are 3 in Which I Would Like For us to Focus Upon.

 

His 1^st Negative is also – A Foundational Error. This Young Man was looking For a RULE or a CURE to Keep So that he Could Please God.

Listen to him:

“What must I DO to receive eternal life?”

The Telling Word here is: DO

What RULE Must I Keep In - Order For God to be Pleased With Me?

 

“You know the commandments:

‘You must not murder.

You must not commit adultery.

You must not steal.

You must not testify falsely.

You must not cheat anyone.

Honor your father and mother.’”

 

And I believe it is here Where You Can Begin to Hear This Man’s Frustration Within his Words.

 

²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

Can we hear: His unspoken Frustrating Words? It is as If he Is Saying:

 ‘What Am I Doing Wrong?’

 

This may be Difficult For us to truly relate to him BECAUSE – We have the Rest of the God’s Book And He doesn’t.

 

^{Romans 3:20} “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”

^{Romans 3:22} “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.”

^{Romans 3:23-24} “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in His Grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins.”

 

By SEEKING The TRUTH, This Young Ruler Was Doing the Right Thing!

He had Doubt if what he was doing Was Really Saving His Soul.

SEE – This Rich Young Ruler Was Performing Outward Exercises In An Attempt To Reach the Internal Truths. He was Trying to Conform Outwardly To The Law Instead of Obeying Inwardly. He was Living By The Law rather than - Through Grace. That Is What He Was Doing Wrong

 

Our 2^nd Negative is the Fact That He Loved Is MONEY.

Isn’t It Interesting that Jesus, After being Impressed By this Young Man, That Jesus Actually, Does Give Him Something To Do.

 

²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” He told him.

“Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

 

 

But - Let us not get confused with The ‘DOING’ in Jesus’ Command. Jesus is not giving him another LAW to Follow, But Rather, He is Teaching The Spirit of the Law.  Is this not what we hear within James 2:18?

 

“Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”’

 

“Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

 

 

Recently - It saddened my heart when I Recently heard a Pastor Repeat part of a conversation Which he had with one of his congregation.

 

The lay person asked, “Why should I go to your church When I can stay home And listen to other services Which have much better sermons Than the ones you deliver?”

 

You know – Within that question Lies other questions:

Why should we go to church? Why can’t we have Church where we are? Why should I give My Money to the Church? Our Love of this World Usually Always Lives Within Our Love for Money.

And this Type of Love Is so Destructive.

It Blocks, It Prevents the Love of God.

You know what Jesus said,

“Where your treasure is there is your heart also.” ^{Matthew 6:21}

 

 

His 3^RD Negative Trait is found in Mark 10:22

 

^“At this the man’s face fell,

and he went away sad”

 

HE WALKED AWAY!

 

He Could Not Handle the Truth Even When He Heard It From The Man Who Tells - The TRUTH. He could not Reshape His Priorities. And Here, Maybe there are some of us Who are like the Young Rich Ruler? To LOVE God And to LOVE your neighbor In such a Sacrificial And Self-Deleting Way – Was Simply - Beyond Him.

 

In This Type of Love – You Lose Yourself!

 

What do You Think? Do You Think that Just Maybe He Knew All Along What He Was Truly Missing. He Knew Where His Heart Was.

 

He Just Did Not Want to Give Up His Life.

 

He Did Not Want to Part with His Wealth.

And When He CHOSE To Retained His Wealth He Relinquished His Eternity.

Amen.

 

HALL Wesleyan Church 02 28 2021 Message

 What Does Jesus Expect of Us? - 02 28 2021

Mark 8:27-38 (ESV)

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ

27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way He asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told Him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And He strictly charged them to tell no one about Him.

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

34 And calling the crowd to Him with his disciples, He said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Let me ask, what do you think of verse 35?

“For whoever would save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's 

will save it.”

This Very MOMENT OF TIME was the ‘Hinge’. It was the ‘Turning Point’ Of What Was Before and of What Was Coming After. 

SEE - All that has been said and done Before this Moment, Was ONLY the Opening of the Race!

It was the ONLY the Preliminary Work, The Getting Warmed Up!

ALL OF THIS so far – Was ONLY the Preparation FOR … Peter’s Confession.

“You - Are - the - Christ!”

All that Had Occurred - Up to this point Was – Of - The - Kingdom. 

And all that Followed Is – The - Cross.

Prior to this event, the disciples Days Have Been Filled with: Yes – Chaotic Events! And Life was Almost WILD LIKE! As Well As Full of JOYOUS ADVENTURES! 

Oh YES - Wonderful Works of God had been performed – The Hungry were fed by the thousands, The Blind had Sight Restored, The Dumb Could Speak. 

BUT - Can You Picture It? An Emotional Wave Was Just Everywhere! The Hopeless Had Hope; The Kicked Out of Society Were Accepted; The Lost Were FOUND; The Common, The Unchurched, The Churched, even in the Hierarchy of Jewish Leaders And Even into the Disciples, Everyone Had A Purpose In Jesus and They were All Offered a New Home in Him!

WHO IS THIS MAN?

This Question Kept Growing!

The Sick are Cured! AND Even the Winds as well as the Waves obey Him? 

BUT - Isn’t He, JUST a carpenter from Nazareth?

Then - in the Quiet Company of his disciples, that Is WHEN the Issue Became REAL!

The Master ASKED, "Who do You think I am?" 

And – You – know IF It Was not for Peter – That Question May Have Gone Unanswered. 

But Peter Saved the Moment – AND SAID "You are the Christ"

Now - Just for a moment, let us Consider What this Confession Truly Meant For Them - Back Then Within Their Environment Where the Disciple’s Lived.  

There was a TOTAL Mixture of Opinions going on Of What – ‘This Jesus’ Was All About.

With the disciples, there was a GROWTH of Continuance – Of a Deepness – Of A Conviction Within Them.

The Disciples Grew from Being the Typical – Everyday Type of Guys; To Even the Special and Hard to Find - Type of Guys; To the Specific - The Precise Being the Set-Apart From others type of guys!

And all-of-this GROWTH Was the Product of Their Choice of Having this Type of Close-Fellowship with Jesus. 

And You Know, This Type of Statement Just Begs to be Asked: “Can We Too Have this type of Change within Our Own Lives?”

And that Answer is – YES! If We Choose it.

Last week – We talked about The Very Beginning of Jesus Ministry. 

And at that Time, as we can guess, the disciples Would Have ONLY Seen, 

Within Jesus, Of Him Just being like the “Ideal” Type of Man.

He was: A Man who had a Level of Great Humanity. He was a Teacher who had Extraordinary Insights as Well as Having the ability of Giving Great Spiritual Gifts. And He was a Man who had A Type of Personality That Drew People of All Kinds to Him. 

But It Did Not Take Long BEFORE Disciple’s Opinions of - Who Jesus Was, Changed. 

They began to See that He Possess A Mysterious Relation to the Entire Human Race. 

His Love - Concern and Helpfulness, Reached out to Everyone 

And His ‘Kingdom Idea’ Told of A ‘New Society’ Which was to Embrace All Humankind. 

But there was Even - Much More. 

The Longer these Disciples were with Him, The Deeper They Sensed - That in – His-Person, there was an Existence Which was SO Unique and SO FAR BEYOND ALL Ordinary Experiences.

Let me try to Explain it this way.

They Felt that Through This – ‘Unseen Touching’ within their lives Which Came from a Product Through Jesus, That They Knew that they ALL might have as Well said, ‘Just to Know HIM – Is to Know God!’

This is Exactly - What Peter Brought Forward and into Focus when he said, "You are the Christ."

BUT - The Matter of: Who Is He? And Where Do We Go from Here? Is not Over Just Yet!

SEE - IF Jesus is the Christ, The-Promised-Savior of the-Human Race, then – What does this mean for us?

What is to be Expected of Those WHO Are His Closest Companions? 

AND TO THAT – What Then - Is Our Task as Being Part of this Community of Christian Believers Today?

Jesus Expects us to see Christianity in the Light of His Person.

For many people today, ‘Religion’ – Means and Is To them Nothing More Than What Can They Get Out of It. 

TODAY, there is a ‘Religion of Self-Centeredness’ and it is Being Published from So Many - So-Called Christian Pulpits as well as broadcasted to the Millions via our Televisions and Internet. 

Maybe you have witness some of these. As for me, this is very upsetting.

They all Give a Sales Talk About expanding Your Confidence in your own self and for you to Seek Out and to Capture Your Fame Which is OWED to you and to Grab Ahold of Your Fortune as Your Reward and Prize!

And you know, even some of those who claim to be most "orthodox", Yes - Even they err in making the Fruits of Religion Something to Take for One's Own Personal Advantage. 

BUT HERE IS THE THING: To TRULY Qualify as a Fellow Traveler with Christ, The Primary Demand from God is to Deny Self. 

Remember Last Week Message Question? What is Your Faith Costing YOU? if there is NO COST Then what you have, Is It Really FAITH?

YOU SEE – Right After Peter’s Confession, Jesus said 

“And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone would come after Me, 

let him deny himself  and take up his cross and follow Me.” Mark 8:34

NO ONE - can put ‘Self at the center’ of his or her Religion nor even within their Life and be a Christian! For Christianity can Never Be Separated from Christ Who Was and Is the Founder! 

Christianity and Christ - Are IDENTICAL!

Let us take a moment and Just Look at a Few other ‘religions.’ The founders of Confucius, Buddha, And Mohammed, they might be able to say that they point towards the truth, or a Version there of. BUT ONLY JESUS CHRIST, He is the Only One Who Can Declare, "I am the Way, The Truth, And the Life."

SEE – It is Those Who Share in His company And in the Fellowship of His Spirit, They, we are the ones Who discovered, that it is In Him, that is Where the Truth is Alive and when They, or When We Accept This, They, or We Find, that it is Through Him, that is the Only Way - To Live!

Jesus expects us to carry His Type of Lifestyle into Our Own Calling. 

One of the Unique Characteristics of Jesus' Lifestyle is the investing of His Life into the training of the 12 disciples. And to this Day, He Continues to do the same within You and Me.

The impact of His Mission Deeply Depends upon them/Us catching His Vision and Igniting within us All a similar Passion. 

This was to be The Seed of the Church, such as, Peter Catching the Vision and Confessing Jesus as Lord. Wherever this was done – with sincerity, the Thinking of Yourself is Eliminated and the Lord of LIFE He becomes the focus of Your Commitment and of Your Devotion. 

In Jesus’ Day, for Jesus, we see that His Expectations ran directly against the Interest of Self and Against the Power Structures of His Day. And I ask, Is there a Difference within our World Today? This is the main reason which Signed Jesus’ ticket for His eventual doom. 

“Deny himself, loses his life for My sake and the Gospel's will save it.”

You know – that sounds tough but let me ask, what do we have here anyway?

The Chief Priests, they were determined upon saving their own Positions and Way of Life. 

The Pharisees, they did not care a hoot for the poor and outcast but were concerned with all the legalistic details so that they could save their own hides. 

The Zealots, they just wanted to Rule Over the Romans and to return to the ancestral power. So, they rejected any and every notion of a Spiritual Kingdom.

You See - All these Parties along with their Reasons, they were eating at the Very Heart of the nation. 

Jesus felt it to be necessary, for the sake of his own people, to live out to the fullest the only lifestyle which could reform and save the human spirit as well As to be an everlasting example before the world. 

"He who would save his life shall lose it ... For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul.” v. 36

And this He Still Expects this from everyone, and YES – This Includes You, and me.

Jesus expects us, by sharing In His Life, to reach an understanding of ‘What Our Life Ought to Be. 

It was the late William Barclay who wrote, "God gave us life to spend and not to keep."

There are life hoarders whose eyes are always on personal comfort, worldly status, and financial security. These people build-up around themselves these Walls of protection to keep every Challenge and Trouble – OUT! 

You know – Sometimes, we Can Get So Close but Still Miss the Boat.

Let me share a moment from my past.

This day was going to be a – Go Shopping Day but we were going to swing through our daughter’s place on our way. There seemed to be a chill in the air so the thought of drinking hot chocolate while we traveled seemed good to me. Cheryl always has our powder goods in big glass chairs. This way they stay dry, keeps bugs out and they look nice as well. So, I heated my water, grabbed the hot chocolate mix, and stirred my delicious drink. But Something Was Wrong! My Hot Chocolate tasted flat, weak, and watery. When we arrived at our daughter’s place, she offered more mix for me. Maybe I did not put in enough. But even that did not help.

See, It was not until we got back home when I realized that instead of putting in the Hot Chocolate Mix, I put in the Nestle Quik Mix instead. So, you see if we do not have our eyesight on God, we can mess it all up. 

And that is what is happening to those who Try to Guard their Lives with using Only Their Efforts. 

These Types of People Live their Lives Which are FILLED with Stagnant Waters of Inactivity, Sluggishness, And Ultimately – leading to ETERNAL Death. And This Is So Sad - Because they are totally unaware that, despite of their attempts of Keeping and Saving their Lives, in All REALITY, they are losing the very Life which they have. 

But IF they were to turn away from their Protective Security Plan and IF They would let their Lives, their Talents, and Their Assets Actually - Let it all loose into, and Maybe – onto the World of human need, God would take over. 

And we always talk about HOW God Gives Back in HIS Math, Through God, they in turn, would grow dividends of Self-Fulfillment, Personal Enrichment, and even Inner Satisfaction which no one else can give.

Today, in our world of Science, Space, And Medicine, we have a collected Group of Experts who Have Such A Passion for What They Do that they take Risks, they Work to Exhaustion, and Many Live on the Edge of Burnout, all because – They Understand where They Are Putting Their-Values-In-Life! 

All of These Hard-Working Men and Women, they Live a Life of Passion and a Hunger to pioneer the next Miracle Answer which can fight against and destroy Disease, And Poverty, within this universe. 

These men and women, Daily - Say "No" To Every Type of Temptation which is Telling them to Just Give It Up, and To Quit. 

BUT - Now I Ask You; What of Christianity as Well As of the Servants of its Faith? 

Jesus just told us: "He who would save his life shall lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."

Do we have within the world of this Christian Faith, DO We Have the Same Investment In Our Time, Our Talents, And all just Like That Of the Secular Scientists Have? 

Is Our Christian Heart – 

Is Our Christian Passion – The SAME as What We see within the Analysts? Within the Inventors? And Even within the Researchers?

Jesus Compels us, He Requires us, He Needs us to Gain that sense of purpose which can Only Come through Our Commitment of Actually – ‘BEING’ of what God wants for His world. 

We need to learn from Jesus as we see Him Today, ‘Crossing that Center-Line of His Ministry’, leaving the Beginning Behind as We begin to Carry His Mission to Calvary. 

T. R. Glover once said, “God could do no better than to be like Christ."

From Christ, we Gain a Clear Perception of the purpose for which we were born.

And, with that, we receive the Vision as Well As the Resources To Fulfill God’s Calling.

Amen

Hall Wesleyan Church Valentine's Day Message Sunday 2/14/21

 

HALL Wesleyan Church - Matthew 11:28-30 - Being YOKED