Would You Give Up Everything?

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“If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions (Matthew 19:21-22).

Have you ever given any thought as to why Jesus tells us to give up everything to follow Him?

I’ve noticed that not too many Christians actually do this. They say they follow Jesus but they do not give up everything to follow Him. They still hang on to their “stuff” – iPads, iPods, iPhones, Xbox, Lexuses, 3000 square foot houses, yearly trips to the Caribbean, super mega-pixel HDTVs and on and on.

I don’t believe there is anything inherently evil with any of these things. That’s not my point.

My point is a question – one that I ask you and one that I need to find an answer for myself – are you willing to give up all of those things to follow Jesus?

Why did Jesus tell the young man in Matthew 19 to do that? I think the answer is found in the young man’s reaction. He chooses to not follow Jesus because he had “great possessions.” I suppose that could be read a couple of ways. “Great” as in many. Or “great” as in pretty cool stuff.

Why in the world would Jesus do this? Doesn’t Jesus know that He’ll get more followers if He doesn’t put these kinds of restrictions on people? Why would Jesus take such an awful chance of pushing someone away from Him?

I think that Jesus knew exactly what He was doing with this young man. The young man’s possessions were too great – they would get in the way of truly being a follower of Jesus. Jesus must have figured out that if He were to allow this young man to follow Him and keep all or even some of his “great possessions” that there would always be the chance that he would choose to rely on those possessions and not on Jesus.

“Jesus can’t be your all until all you have is Jesus.” – source unknown.

There comes a point – a crucial point – in the lives of everyone who hears the call of Jesus. Will you truly be willing to give up everything to follow Him or not?

Today's blog post comes from Rick Warren, pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. I love the comment about being able to share the Gospel of Jesus with more people today than Billy Graham ever was able to in his lifetime - due to the technology available to us. What do you think? Pastor B. Use Every Available Method to Reach People for Jesus by Rick Warren

I become a servant to everyone so that I can win them to Christ. … Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him. I do this to get the Good News to them. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23) Do we care enough about people to do whatever it takes to tell them about Jesus? Paul did. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 9 that he became “a servant to everyone [to] win them to Christ. … Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him.” God wants us to love people that much — enough to reach out to them with the gospel in a creative way. We need to use every available method, at every available time, to reach every available person for Jesus Christ.  Creative outreach has been a regular part of what we do at Saddleback Church. A few years ago we began hosting Saddleback Civil Forums at our church on a variety of issues, including HIV, the presidency, and leadership. We’ve had world-class experts (including former presidents and prime ministers) on campus to talk on these important issues. People who wouldn’t have considered showing up at our church for a regular service have showed up for these forums. Why did we do it? We’re willing to do whatever it takes to reach people for Christ. As new technologies (like fax machines, the Internet, iPods and now social media) come along, we’re quick to use them in our ministry at Saddleback. Why? Like Paul, we want to do whatever it takes to tell people about Jesus. Just last week, I baptized a man and his family through a connection I made on Twitter. You might be scared to death to share your faith. You can’t imagine going door-to-door to tell people about Jesus. You don’t have to. Through the Internet, you — sitting at home in your pajamas — can reach more people today than Billy Graham or the Apostle Paul did in their days. You could write a message about the good news, post it through a blog or social media and send it out all over the world. Anyone can do that. Just use the tools you have at your disposal. Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America's largest and most influential churches. Rick is author of the New York Times Best Seller The Purpose Driven Life.  His book, The Purpose Driven Church, was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th century. He is also founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for pastors. © Copyright 2011 Rick Warren.

Our Blank Page

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Today was the first full day of school at Lake Zurich High School.

Yesterday was the actual first day of school, but it was only a half-day. That doesn't really count.

Today, each student and each teacher at the school had an opportunity to "make it count."

The first day of school is like a blank piece of paper and a newly sharpened pencil. So much potential. Nothing is wrong, there are not mistakes made. It is the proverbial "clean slate."

The blank page can be daunting. Like the song lyric says,

The writer stares with glassy eyes
Defies the empty page
His beard is white, his face is lined
And streaked with tears of rage
Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
With passion and precision
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision

(Neil Peart, Losing It)

The challenge is to not let what has gone before have a negative impact on your "blank page" today. That isn't to say you shouldn't let the past influence your present. I'm not even sure you have a choice in that. But take what you've done (or has been done to you) in the past and use it to make this new, blank day as good as possible.

The first chapter of the New Testament (Matthew Chapter 1) was once a blank page. How St. Matthew decided to fill that page (inspired by the Holy Spirit) is very interesting to me. He fills that first blank page with a list of names - a family tree that begins with Abraham and ends with Jesus. 

In Jesus' past there is a prostitute, a couple of non-Jews, an adulterer, murderer, and several polygamists. 

And yet, despite that "checkered" past, Jesus is the perfect Son of God who lived, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead to save you and me from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

Jesus gives each of us a "blank page" every day. 

When we are sorry (contrite) and repent (change our ways) daily by the power of the Holy Spirit, the sin and our sinful past that filled our lives is gone (drowned and killed). A new person daily emerges and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Think and pray about that tonight and see how your "blank page" of tomorrow turns out.

We've Always Done It That Way!

Lutheran are nothing if not traditional. A lot of what we do as Lutherans is because we've always done it that way.

And to some that's a bad thing. But it doesn't have to be! Here's an example from YouthMinistry.com about how doing something more than once can be a positive thing!

New Blog

We're adding a new blog to the St. Matthew Youth Ministry page - and this is it!