Estimated reading time: 6 minute(s)
Today is Jen’s brother’s birthday. He turned 40 today! Awesome! I was just thinking of him as I was going to type this BLOG entry about the rich young man (also called the rich young ruler)… he matches most of those qualifiers — except the young part today I guess!!! 🙂
We did a worship concert focusing on surrender last night… and the central story I used was the one about the man we call the Rich Young Ruler.
Jesus had been teaching crowds of people, and he had begun to move on to the next place when a rich young man came running up and fell on his knees before Jesus and asked, "Good Teacher, what should I do to be saved??"
Jesus had several clever replies… but the short version of the story – Jesus said obey God’s commands. To which, the man said, "I have since I was a kid!" To which, Jesus replied, "Ok… just one more thing… you need to sell all of your possesions and give it to the poor, and come follow me."
I always thought this meant that Jesus wanted everyone to sell all their stuff and live like monks. But I don’t think that is his point here. Jesus seemed to be saying this to just this one man. There is no time I recall that Jesus asked any other rich guy to sell all his stuff. This was a personal thing for this one guy.
But the crazy part was what happened next. All through Jesus life we see people responding to his call in a much different way… Peter, Andrew, James and John all got up and quit their jobs and left their homes seemingly instantly to follow Jesus. Zaccheus gave back huge sums of money to the people he had stolen it from – and more!
Not the Rich Young Ruler. The next line of the story is, "At this, the man’s face fell, and he went away sadly because he had many possessions." The text might as well say here "he went away sad because he had many possessions, and he would like to KEEP them!"
The reason I picked this story for surrender is right here. He could not surrender his wealth. Jesus said, "one thing you lack". One thing. And he could not let go. He could not give up the security and the comfort of his wealth.
Well it doesn’t really make sense does it? You’re not supposed to give up the stuff that you have? You need to keep some for yourself, don’t you?
No. Cause you’re dead.
When we give our lives to Jesus, he wants us to do just that. Give our lives. We die with him, the Bible says. Die to our old self. Die to sin. We are supposed to take up our cross every day… to remember that we no longer live – but Christ lives in us.
If you think about it, those are really strong words. We no longer live. It’s hard to hold on to something when you’re dead. I don’t see a lot of dead people clinging to their wallets… or their habits… or their whatever. They’re dead. They have surrendered the ghost. (I guess that’s the last thing you can surrender).
Jesus wants it all. Everything. In Revelation, Jesus said, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Some translations say "I am about to vomit".
Surrender must be absolute. We can not be lukewarm. Jesus wants everything. The good thing is, we can only surrender what we know we have. The rich guy was OK until Jesus showed him what he needed to surrender. Once he saw it, he was not OK. That was past the line for him. But the cool part is that Jesus showed him what he needed to surrender.
What do you need to surrender? What are you holding on to in life that keeps you from full surrender to Jesus? A habit? A way of thinking? A way of speaking? A sin? Perhaps your wealth? Perhaps your schedule? Whatever it might be… I bet you are thinking of it.
That is the great thing about surrendering to Jesus. He is patient, and will let us know when and what we need to surrender to him. For that, I am quite thankful.
So… just wanted to give you a chance to surrender, too.
Can I tell one more story? This entry is so long already. You can be done if you’d like. But if you want to hear one more thing… read on. 🙂
There is another spot in the Bible where Jesus says, I tell you what, if anyone give up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children for me will receive 100 times that in return and will receive eternal life.
When I read that, I thought — THAT’S US!!! A couple years ago, we had finally received a salary from the church we were working for after many years of living on support and some odd jobs… and we had big plans for that money! A house… paying off some stuff… just having money!!!! Well, at about that same time, God was calling us to give that up. We did not like that very much. We were looking forward to having a house. And the money. But we wanted to obey God… so we did. We resigned not one month after we received the salary. (Actually we resigned at just about the same time we received it, but continued in the position for one more month in order for the church to make some adjustments.)
Do you know what happened after that??? Within weeks we found out the jobs we thought God was leading us to were not where He was leading at all — and we were left with basic music ministries… which we didn’t think would work, but apparently God did. We turned down a stable, salaried job to go out and serve without ever asking for any money… and that year we made MORE than we ever had before!!!!
And, in addition to that, we found a house to rent that was just about the same as our apartment… and way lower than any other place in our area. And then God arranged a lot of things in our life so that we could BUY the house we are currently in. Folks… we should not be homeowners. But… God gives 100 times what we leave for him. We left the house we were going to buy with our new salary… but he gave us the rental, and now our own… and besides that, we get to stay in some AMAZING houses all over the country as we travel. Simply incredible. God is giving us way more than we could have asked for or imagined.
And that’s what he does. When we surrender – life gets better. Anyone who holds on to his life will lose it, but whoever loses it for me will gain it.
Absolute surrender. That is what he wants. Ask God today how you can surrender to him. I betcha he’s already letting you know. 🙂