What To Do In 22/ Try God First

Mark 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

To begin with it’s a brand new year. We made it to 2022. So what to do in 22? Try God First. It’s a simple solution to a very complex dilemma. Some People say yeah Pastor, that’s my new years resolution. I’m going to Try God First. but I’ve got to tell you about The Depravity of mankind. The Depravity of Mankind tells me that it’s hard for humankind to Try God first.

Tell your neighbor:It’s hard

Because several things are against us the bible says

1. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God TDH .

2. Paul said every-time I try to do good I end up doing the things I hate that I know are bad TDH.

3. the bible says In my flesh dwells no good thing. TDH

“Try God First”. Don’t flip out, Don’t flash out, Don’t fall out, and Don’t fizzle out until you’ve try things God’s way.

And listen “Life can hand us some tough blows”. “Life is hard by the yard but its a cinch by the inch”. “Life is fragile so we ought to handle life with Prayer”, meaning Try God First

3x things

Try Praying Try Worshiping and Try Praising God and I guarantee that you’ll feel better.

Mark 10:17-31 illustrates the theory of Trying God First. It’s the Idea of pursuing God with our whole heart. Look at verse 16 &17

The bible says that right after Jesus had finished blessings the little children and he was going forth in the way , there came one running, and kneeled to Jesus, and asked Him, saying Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? It’s a legitimate question, because I’m asking us a similar question “What to do in 22?

In other words How do we keep a right relationship with Jesus Christ in 22?

The bible indicates that The rich young ruler asked the right question 3x.

I ain’t mad at him but listen to me

“just asking the right questions without having the right relationship is like

0+0= 0.”

I told you last Sunday don’t listen to what people say look at what they do!!!!! Anybody can talk a good game but can you live it? 2x

Let’s stay with the text. The rich young ruler said good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

*With all of the talk about Jesus being Christ the Messiah and Being the miracles man and being Jesus our Jehovah Ralpha and Jesus our Rabboni the man of profound godly wisdom, I could see how it would be easy to see why a young rich ruler of renown, respect, and resources would be attracted to the greatness of Jesus Christ.

But Jesus responds by saying Why call me good, because there is only One that’s good and that’s God. I often wondered why God the Very Son diminished His status in front of this rich young ruler. And I found out that Jesus didn’t diminish His role or status at all, because Sometimes people refuse to accept greatness even if it’s right in front of them.

Look at verse 19  Jesus said Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

Jesus’ Spirit of discernment knew the heart of the rich young ruler. He had a decaying heart condition because of his lust of the flesh, the depravity of mankind, his self righteousness, and his plain old denial.

And brothers and sisters sometimes *when we are not cognizant of how Awesome God really is, our ego might make us think that we are alright, that we are just fine. but in fact to tell the real truth in front of God we are tore up from the floor up and we need to re-commit our lives to God, and make a fresh start with Jesus Christ.

What to do in 22? We need to be honest and tell God it’s me oh Lord standing in the need of prayer.

Instead of saying in essence Lord I go to church, I keep all your commandments, and I don’t get any trouble and everybody likes me.

Instead of feeling like that we ought to consider that When the Lord rhetorically throws commandments in our face, it’s for a reason.

And it’s to remind us that we are not all that we make out to be. The rich young ruler was self righteous, self absorb, and selfish.

and the bible says in verse 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Verse 21 says that Jesus loves us. I say *Jesus loves us because the general rule is if The text doesn’t ever say the person’s name, then any one of our names could be added to the text and be applied directly to us.

Let’s see what Jesus is telling some of us and Jesus said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

You’ve got One thing wrong with you.

I don’t know about you but ......

( I wish it was just One thing wrong with me)

*Because we all should take up our cross and follow Jesus. And we’ve got to put on the robe of righteousness keeping our flesh under subjection to the Spirit of the True and Living God.

*Everybody in here has at least that One Thing about you that you wish you could do better with.

Well it’s a brand new year and the question is What to do in 22? Make a brand new start “Try God First”.

This is the soul searching period. This is the Sunday go to meeting period, This is where the rubber meet the road,This where we get the high blood pressure under control, The diabetes regulated properly, The heart trouble fixed, The cholesterol under control, The cancer treatment done, This is where we make our new commitments to holy living, where we eat right, exercise right, monitor your health right, This is where we re-invent ourselves into the image of Jesus Christ, and This is where we make meaningful changes in 2022.

Nobody can do this for you but you.

Don’t leave here empty hearted. Don’t leave here the same way you came. Don’t go back to business as usual because Jesus had some harsh word for the rich young ruler that he loved.

Look at the text in Mark 10:21 after the colon : go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. He went to hell!

During the Christmas Season I recently preached no room for Mary, Joseph, and unborn baby Jesus in the local inn. Well it’s the same thing here. God wants to know that He has our whole heart. It’s not that we have to sell all that we have but that we are willing to do so. Abraham went to sacrifice precious son Isaac on the top of Mount Moriah and right before Abraham went to kill Isaac the Lord stopped Abraham and said there’s a ram stuck in the bushes you don’t have too sacrifice Isaac.

The Lord says, In other words Abraham, I’ve seen your commitment, and I’ve seen your whole heart. And here in our theme text in Mark 10:22 the rich young ruler sadly walk away from Jesus.

Many of us can relate to the rich young ruler’s dilemma, but that’s precisely what will sent you straight to hell.

I didn’t want to preach but God made it crystal clear that He wanted me to preach His word. I did and have been doing what He said for 33 years now

God is giving certain ones of us a chance to straighten up right now.

What to do in 22? Try God First