Our Desires Shape our Lives

What do you want?

We are continuing on with a series of messages about the questions Jesus asked.

And really, all of these questions point back to the first questions Jesus asked his disciples, we see it in John 1:38 “Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

What do you you want? James Smith points at home important this is in his book You are what you Love

“It's the question buried under almost every other question Jesus asks. Jesus doesn't first ask, what do you know? or what do you believe? What do you want? is the most incisive, piercing question he can ask, because we are what we want.”

Our wants, our desires, and our longings are at the core of our identity… everything else flows form what we want, all of our actions and behaviors flow from what we want. The questions Jesus is asking can help us become more attentive and intentional about what we love. A big part of following Jesus is about learning to pay attention to what you love, what you desire, and allowing God to reorient/reorder your loves, your priorities

Here’s another way to look at it. Ask yourself, what are you doing here? Why are you at church? Why is church, what’s its purpose.

What are you hoping?

Followers of Jesus have gathered together for 2000 years, we even started meeting on a different day than our Jewish brothers and sisters. You ever wonder why?

from a biblical point of view… is that what we're "here for" is to become genuine human beings, reflecting the God in whose image we're made in

The point of us getting together and worshiping is to orient ourselves in the world as God’s image bearers, to receive the gifts from the Spirit of God and from one another… gifts of love and of loving challenge… it a way we participate in our ongoing formation of being (re)created in the image of God and receive empowerment as we go both to and for the rest of the world. And that we can’t actually do that independently of one another, regardless of how independent we think we are.

This Dutch Theologian put it this way he said:

Christ didn't come to make us Christian. Christ came to make us fully human.

Christ died to make us fully human, and we get together to learn how to do this, and to get us back on track, because it’s easy for us to get distracted.

So today we are going to look at a biblical story that highlights one of the biggest ways that we get off track, and a warning that Jesus gives to his followers.

We are going to be in Mark 10 but a little background on the verse

It’s found in all three gospels

Right before this Jesus is blessing children and parents and showing how becoming part of God’s Kingdom is a gift that God gives to those who acknowledge their helplessness

And then right after this story we are looking at Jesus predicts his death for a third time, showing us how following him will cost us everything, but its worth it.

Mark 10:17-32 “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?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 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.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 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.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.” 28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

A look at the interaction

From all three gospel writers we know that this fellow is young, he’s some sort of a ruler (has authority over others), and is wealthy. It’s not normal for this kind of a dignified guy to run. Or to slide up to Jesus on his knees…That catches our attention, something’s up.

He compliments Jesus and he asks a good question about eternal life and how we're supposed to get it. It's the kind of question that a religious teacher would find fascinating.

I’ve had people ask me this “What do I need do to get saved”

Jesus doesn’t jump on it, instead he asks a question, and pulls apart this guys greeting

Dear Clint

And then he says “You know the commendmends” and lists them off

Whats fun here though is that he doesn’t list any of them that deal with God, just those that deal with people.

And the guys says, I’ve done all that.

Now, this might sound prideful or egotistical, but he is saying the same thing that the apostle Paul said in Phil 3:6 “as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

They are not claiming to be sinless, but blameless according the system God had laid out.

"Judaism requires that you dedicate yourself to a way of life in which you keep the commandments, and that you follow the patterns of apology and forgiveness when you make mistakes in your attempt to live them out." Conrad Gempf

I’ve done the things! And if you look at verse 21 it says that Jesus looked on him and Loved him.

No where else in Mark does it say that Jesus loved someone.

Gives me hope.

I tend to think that God is looking on me disappointed. We know this guy walks away, and yet God looks on him with Love

How do we look at people who aren’t following Christ. Do we love them.

Jesus loves this guy, and then he responds to him and invites him to go deeper, to get close to Jesus.

“One thing you lack

Go Sell Everything, Give to the poor so that you have treasure in heaven, Come follow me.

These three things point towards the one thing. What if this list of things Jesus gives, points back to the commandments Jesus left out of his initial list, the ones about loving God.

That we are to love and worship God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, that we are to have no other God’s before the Lord.

What if the underlying issue isn't about selling, or giving, or even the following…what if its about a complete reordering of priorities?

It says then that the guy went away sad, and the greek word here is (stig, na-zo) and means shocked, intensely dismay, appalled, or overcast as the sky, gloomy, disheartened.

This guy had been really good at the checklist spirituality, don’t kill, don’t steal, but this re-orienting his life around Jesus, that was too hard.

This is what we are invited into, Jesus at the center, complete reorientation.

It makes more sense the nitpicking the greeting of Good.

Did this guy know who he was kneeling before

Did he know how Good Jesus actually was

Knowing who, not just knowing about, but knowing who you follow is vital if we are to actually be obedient, if we are to actually follow, if we are really to become fully human.

We have to follow a real God

This was too hard for this young guy, and this is the last we hear from him.

What is so dangerous about wealth

We are designed for deep connection with God and with each other

The danger, is that money, things, possessions can get in the way of this connection.

For example…Moving

With enough money, you can do anything, and you miss the connections.

Jesus gave that power an ancient name: Mammon. It's not just a generic noun, it's a name.

Matthew 6:24 (NIV) — 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

money = Mammon (ma-mo-nas) – a comprehensive word for all kinds of possessions and earnings; a personified name with seriously negative connotation.

There were all sorts of other words Jesus, or the gospel writers could've used here to describe money or wealth, that don't have the negative connotation. but they didn't.

"For Mammon does want something very much indeed, because Mammon is ultimately not at all just a thing, nor even a system, but a will at work in history. And what it wants, above all, is to separate power from relationship, abundance from dependence, and being from personhood." (The Life We're Looking For, Andy Crouch, p.76)

Jesus is saying that Mammon, money, can be a rival lord. It can be a different god that we kneel before and call good.

It demands your attention and your love and asks you to walk away from your other gods

That’s what we see in this young guy. When at the fork, he picked his god.

No one can serve two masters.

Jesus doesn’t condemn wealth or elevate poverty,

rather what we learn is that the greatest enemies to faith in God and obedience to God are pride, self-sufficiency, and satisfaction

Wealth can

Give you and illusion of fullness. It can make us miss our deep need for connection with people and with God

be a narcotic, numbing us to our needs and the needs of others around it

make us forget about God

When things are going well, it’s easy to think the person in the mirror is the one who is responsible for it, and we forget about God an others.

Arnold

Self made man

No such thing

cause us to miss the purpose of life

Story in LUke 12, two brothers ask Jesus to dived the inhearitance for them

Tells them about a man who thought he had it made and then was going to die. That man is called a fool, and the word that is used there means he missed his puprose.

Wealth can help us with our purpose, but being wealthy isn’t the reason we were put on the planet.

So, lets finish up real practically

Ask God why he has given this wealth to you.

This is painfully simple: ask God why you have it. Ask him where he wants it to go. Ask him to break the power money has in your life, ask him to help you have single-hearted devotion to him alone.

Plan your budgets in response to what God is concerned about—what is on his heart.

The proper use of money is not to live as high as we possibly can down here, that would be a very poor investment indeed. No, the proper use of money is for investing as much of it as possible in the lives of people, then we’ll have treasure in heaven! We want to free up as much as possible to invest in what God is doing.

Break the power that money has in your life by giving it away.

Story?

We are to use money to advance the kingdom of God.

How are you being invited into this?

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