Whats Your Thing?

Has there ever been something in your life that has held you back from doing something amazing or something you know you would love?

Well for me I am scared to death of heights so naturally I am scared to death of roller coasters. and I remember always being the kid who would be waiting in line for a ride for a couple hours and once I realized that I was way over my head I would also be the kid doing the walk of shame back down the roller coaster and every person would just be giving me that look.

But there was one time my family decided to take me on a roller coaster and they told me it was basically a kid ride, well it was not...

But I remember when I was done with it I realized I had this amazing time.

and I realized I was missing out on something.

But there was just this one thing that held me back and made me sacred to death to get on a rollercoaster.

You can probably think of different areas in your life where you are going yeah I had this one thing making it so it was holding me back from something great.

But I am sure some of the different things we are thinking about are more serious then getting on a rollercoaster.

Some of us may have just this one thing holding us back from something amazing in our life.

You might want to take a job but theres this one thing holding you back.

You might want to talk with someone who is really just beat down but you have this one thing holding you back.

You might be wanting to help out more (maybe at church, maybe somewhere else) but there is this one thing holding you back.

You might have (insert your situation) but there is something holding you back.

When I think about all of the amazing things that God is calling us to do there are often additional things that hold us back.

God might give you this amazing vision and you are excited about it but then reality starts to set in and you go well I cannot do it because of this reason or that reason.

and we end up not living out what God is calling us to do.

You might want to be living this “ALL IN” life for Christ but there is just this one thing.

So today we will be looking at and we are going to be seeing how God’s story fits into our story.

Because there is a man in this story who had one thing that held him back.

So once again its and it says:

The New International Version Chapter 10

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.

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

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.”

26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

If you look right at the beginning of this passage you see that Jesus and his disciples are on there way to Jerusalem when this man who was a rich young ruler comes and approaches them.

and I like this guy because I completely relate with him.

I imagine by now he has heard all these amazing things that Jesus has done and he is excited and thinking I want to be part of this.

I want to jump on this mission that Jesus is carrying out.

So what happens is he comes up to them and gets on his knees and just with complete respect and reverence to Jesus he ask Jesus “good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life”

and Jesus basically tells him look God is the only one who is good and then he starts listing these commandments tht most of us recognize

you shouldn't murder, commit adultery, steal, give false testimony, defraud, honor your father and mother.

And this rich young ruler is just excited because he has done all of this since he was a kid.

And as I am reading this I am excited because I grew up Christian and am just checking off the boxes with this rich young ruler going I am good.

But look what happens next because it says Jesus looks at him with love and examined him

and Jesus was about to deliver some pretty hard news to this man but he was doing it out of love.

How many of you have ever had a child and at some point you had to correct them.

Hopefully if you have a child you have your hand raised because tell our kids to do something not to make their life awful, but because we love them

and this is where Jesus is coming from.

And Jesus out of love breaks this news.

He says you have done all these great things and have lived a good life, but you have one thing in your life that is holding you back.

and he tells this rich man who is a good guy “go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor.

Then you can come follow me.

And the passage says this mans face just drops because he had a ton.

and in this instance Jesus was calling this man to sell everything because he knew it was an idol in his life

but what Jesus was getting at is there is this one thing you are placing before me and I want you to give that up

And Jesus mentions in this passage that money is a big idol for us but there are a ton of idols.

And we end up in the same place as this rich young ruler where we are excited and saying God I am ready to go wherever you are calling me but then as I mentions reality sets in and we go I am not willing to do that thing.

Before I was the pastor here I was an admissions counselor at Olivet Nazarene University and I worked mainly with adults wanting to go back to finish their college education and I would sometimes get to know these students really well.

And they often would tell me this amazing dream they have and how going back to college would change their life

and they are going through that excited phase but then I would start explaining what the work load would be like or how much it would cost and often times the excitement they had about going back to college just went away.

Because often times there was just this one thing that would get in the way. and some of there reasons made complete sense but like I said there was just one thing holding them back.

And thats how we are in our walk with Christ. We have this excitement about where God is calling us and then one thing comes up.

In fact last week at the end of the service some of you decided its time to recommit my life to Christ and be all in.

But what is common after making that commitment is you do not get to far until there is something that comes up and God goes HEY WHAT ABOUT THIS ONE THING!!!

and we might still be followers of Christ but

and God calls us to do some amazing things fo Him.

So what is your one thing?

For some of us we might be like the rich young ruler where God might be telling us look you are giving a little but I am calling you to step up to the next level.

For some of us it might be a broken relationship with someone in our life where we are going God I want to follow you but Gods going have you talked with this person yet?

It might have to do with God saying “you know this one thing in your life is not glorifying me” and God is wanting you to end it.

And I want to jump back into this passage because this passage is already kind of hard to swallow but it gets a little worse.

Because the disciples are watching all of this happen and they finally ask Jesus well who can be saved? Who can be in a relationship with you.

and Jesus just tells them bluntly if you are just relying on yourself or someone else it is impossible.

But here is the good news because he says with God its possible.

You see you can try to get rid of that one thing in your life. you can try to live a life that Christ is calling you to but it is impossible unless you let God in the middle of it.

You have to say God I am giving this to you.

And this is true of our relationship with Christ also because we can work so hard and follow all of these commandements that God is asking us to do, but we cannot earn our salvation or earn our way into a relationship with Christ, but we can say God I just want to start by being in a relationship with you.

You know when I think about this passage I often think about how different things would have turned out for this rich young ruler if he said Jesus I am not going to let this thing get in the way but he said I am all in.

He probably would have gone on to do some amazing things for the early church as a whole.

But he said no because I value this higher then I value what God is wanting me to do.

and I think that same question for our own lives.

What would have happened if instead of having this thing in my life I said no. I am giving this to Christ.

How would your life be different if you were all in?

what happens in our life when we give our thing to God?

What happens when you give your thing to God?

I want everyone to think with me for a second about all of the people through out the Bible who had.

If you missed our missionary speaker this past week he told this amazing story about how he came to Christ.

I want to close tonight with a story that was told the other night when the Ali’s were with us.

Elijah had to give away a comfortable life

He actually grew up in a radical islamic family where in that environment you have to be Muslim and you really have no choice. But he got a Bible and started to look at christianity he realized that he wanted to accept Christ into his life.

to serve God

And when he decided that I could not help but think about all of the “things” that could have been holding him back.

He actually mentioned how when his uncle found out his uncle tried to take his life.

Mary Jesus’s mother

and later in his life he felt like God wanted him to start gather with other Christians in churches which was extremely dangerous because they could have been murdered for being together and practicing their faith.

And as Aweis the missionry that was with us was telling us these stories I couldent help but of all the reasons and things that may have held him back from where God was calling him.

But he was all in.

So what is holding you back from where God is calling you?

Is God calling you to be in a relationship with him?

Is God calling you to do somthing but you have been going but “theres just this thing”

Lets give that to God today.

Pray