How Much Is the Trip?

A lot of you know this but a few years back before I was a Pastor I was an online admission counselor for a college

And it was not my favorite job in the world, but one thing I loved about it was whenever a students would call in they had these amazing visions on what they wanted to do with the degree they wanted to get.

Some would call in going I want to be a nurse and save lives

Others would call in and go I want to get my MBA and start by own business and make such a difference in peoples lives

Or I want to teach, and make an impact on kids lives.

And I remember always going this is great!

But the issue is what would happen is I would start to explain the course work and time commitment that was involved, and how much it would cost.

And what would happen is as I would talk you could hear their voice tone change.

Because all of the sudden they understood, not just the actual cost of the program, but how much it would cost their sleep schedule, How much it would cost their social life or hobbies and even, how much it would cost their time with their family.

And most of the time they left the converstation going this will cost me way to much.

And today what we are going to do, is we are beginning this new series, called summer baggage, and really its a series about the baggage that a lot of times we carry throughout life

and so often that baggage weighs us down where it keeps us going where God has called us.

And today we are starting off our series, by looking at the cost of the trip.

And really we are looking at a story with a rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and ask the cost of following Him, and what we are going to see is the the man leaves sad because the cost was more than He thought.

And so we are going to be unpacking it and we will be in Mark 10:17-31 and will be starting in the first half of it.

It says this:

Mark 10:17–22 NIV

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

So Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and he actually just came from teaching children, and in this culture children were conssidered way lower then adults,

In fact for someone like Jesus to sit and spend time with children would have been unheard of.

And so as He is leaving their is a huge contrast, because he came from children who were lower in society and now as He is heading to Jerusulum a rich young ruler comes to Jesus.

Someone who is high in society.

And he goes good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And its interesting because this guy is focused on what He needs to do right?

and Jesus goes why am I good?

Isn’t God the only one that is good?

And Jesus is fully God and fully man, but He is hinting that this man is focused on what you need to do.

And you can’t blame him can you? I mean the picture you get of this guy is someone who is ambitious.

He is young, he is a ruler, he has money, he is most likely well known and he is religous,

And you can picture Him going Jesus what else can I do, because I have it on my check list and I am ready to go!

And I want to pause here because to we enter our walk with God going what can I do to work my way into a walk with God.

But so often our walk with God is more about being and less about doing.

Its almost like if you have kids, you don’t really love your kids because of what they do right?

I mean I love Eden, Finn and Liam,

but imagine if we were talking about Eden, and I was going she does nothing, I clean up her poop and it drives me crazy!

I mean when is she going to start cleaning and cooking and getting a job so she can start pulling her weight around our house!

You would go “wow Brendan is a jerk!” and would be correct.

But I think what happens is to often we view our walk with God like that.

And that He is just angry, because we we can’t get our act together, he is tired of cleaning up our poop and we need to be doing things like crazy.

But heres the thing because what fun is Liam and Finn our older, so they are starting to want to do things for Arika and I, and its not I need to make my Dad love me.

But a lot of times it becomes I am doing because I love my parents.

And this is why Jesus goes to this Rich young ruler who goes what must I do to follow you or have eternal life

and Jesus goes you know the commandments right do this, don’t do this.

And the ruler goes I have done this since I was a kid!

Anyone here a doer? Like you love doing things and if you don’t you feel like you are doing something wrong.

And that makes sense right, because when you have a job you do stuff and you get a reward or paid right?

And look what happens because there is a huge detail at the beginning of this passage in verse 21 that Jesus reads

Read out-loud with me this with me:

Mark 10:21 (NIV)

21 Jesus looked at him and loved him…

It could have read Jesus was steaming with anger thinking about the one thing he lacks, or excited to show this guy that He is not enough

But you can imagine Jesus looking at this man so lovingly and going this is really hard to say, but I need you to do this…

Can I just if we are going to correct something in someones life, or walk with God our posture cannot be “wow I am going to show them,” or “I am going to win this argument”

Because to be honest if thats our posture we do not have a right to correct something.

But our posture has to be like Jesus here “He looked at him and He loved him”

We need to love people the way Jesus loves them. Amen?

And this is hard, anyone ever play with nerf guns?

Liam loves these things (when I don’t put them in the closet) but his issue is he loves to shoot me with it and he always pretends its an accedent right?

And ill go bud what are you doing? I am on your team or he will shoot it and break something

And what I want us to get iss we live in a world where having a poture of love is really hard.

Because so often it feels like there is a person in our life that is like a 5 year old with a nerf gun.

And that person takes every cheap shot at us imaginable

Even if they are not firing it at us they fire it at other things and cause damage.

And when this is happening its really hard to view that person lovingly issn’t it.

And I am not saying just blindly keep coming back to them, but theirs a place where we can go why are you doing this because its hurting the people you care about.

And I am not telling you thiss to fire back, but I am telling you because I really care about you.

Jesus calls us to love even when its hard.

And here is where Jesus drops this heavy truth, because He says go and sell everything you own and give it to the poor.

And we are told the man goes away sad, because He had a ton.

And sometimes people interpret this passage as I guess I need to sell everything.

But I think what we are seeing is less about us selling everything we have and more about us not surrendering every part of our life.

And for this guy Jesus knew He could not surrender his physical wealth

And what I want us to understand is whether you are physically wealthy or not, there are areas of our life that we are wealthy

Some of us have great friendships and thats our wealth

Others of us have a great family

Maybe its our job or collection

But for us its our wealth

And I want us to notice what Jesus says later in this passage in verse 24-25:

Mark 10:24–25 (NIV)

24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

So Jesus is going its really hard for us to be a part of the kingdom of heaven, and He actually says its harder then for a camel to go through an eye of a needle.

and I know what you are thinking that sounds imposssible

but whats interesting is this is a passage that looses a lot of meaning in in translation,

Because the entrance to the city of Jerulelum was called the eye of the needle.

And sometimes we picture this huge gate to enter a city and it has a cool draw bridge with crocadiles

But it was this tiny entrance that would have made the city harder to invade.

And what would happen is for a camel to even enter the city you would have to unload the camel and get it to its knees and almost have is crawl through the entrance.

And so Jesus is not saying this is just hard but He is saying you will need to take off all the baggage that you have and be willing to give even your best baggage to Jesus.

And we see the rich man leave sad because He goes I can’t!

And the disciples in verse 26 go wait a ssecond Jesus who can be saved then? because this guy had his life together probably more then us!

And I want us to catch this, because He goes you know with man its impossible but with God all things can happen.

The truth is this…

We cannot enter a walk with God, without God.

And when we start out in our walk with God so often we start as kids, but as we get older there are things that should be happening.

I mean Liam is in prechool and they are constantly looking at if he is where he is suppossed to be.

And this is what I want us to get, because there are probably some of us who have grown up in the church, or been here for years, and its either been awhile since we have evaluated ourselves, or there are things that we still haven’t surrendered that we know we need to .

And this morning ass we get ready to close I just want us to take a moment to reflect. Will you close your eyes for a moment.

What are the areas that we have in our life where we have not surrendered to Jesus.

Because If I had to guess theres probably place in our life where we have held onto an area or a behavior and God has been telling us for years this needs to go.

What would it look like this morning to drop in at the feet of Jesus this morning.

And as we close we will be singing this song called available that we have been closing on.

And this morning you might be in a place where you say I cant, the bad news is you are right, the great news is God can.

What does it look like to lay down our lives this morning.

Lets pray