March 27, 2017 – Luke 18
Jesus said to him,
"You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Luke 18:22
Be careful, the
desires of this life are very capable of distracting us from living for Jesus.
As the ministry of Jesus progressed, so did the commitment
level. The disciples may have been
initially attracted to Jesus because of His miracles and resourcefulness, but His
spirit of Total Pursuit called them deeper into discipleship than anyone had
seen before.
One day, a younger disciple approached Jesus looking for a
senior leadership role in the new Kingdom Jesus was setting up. He had a pedigree worthy of an interview, and
Jesus gave him opportunity to meet. The
young legal eagle asked a few questions, but got right to the point. He wanted to see if the resume was completed
for entrance into the new Kingdom, and justify himself over others with less
credentials.
Jesus actually didn’t condemn the young leader. Instead, he loved the man enough to challenge
him deeper in trust and commitment to God.
Jesus touched the one area in this man’s life that was holding him back
from a greater life – his possessions.
We’ve seen this often in the last few weeks, and it continues to come
up. Money and possessions are not evil,
but the distraction can steal our hearts away from God. Out of love, Jesus told the rich young ruler
that the only way to gain access to God’s Kingdom was to be released from
man’s, and for this guy, possessions and wealth had control of his heart. So to be free, be generous with his
possessions, and leave them behind to come follow Jesus.
The prescription of Total Pursuit seems like a very high
cost in this life, until we compare it to the cost of eternity. In light of eternity, possessions are just
trinkets. But it seems like trinkets are
more attractive when we stop pursuing Jesus.
The only way to fix it is drop the trinkets and put our focus on the
Lord.
Jesus had much to teach, but the lesson was the same – God
deserves our Total Pursuit. Let go of
anything that is slowing us down, and pursue Him with all we have. That doesn’t mean dropping the
responsibilities God has given us – we still must work, care for our families,
be good spouses to our mates, and live in the culture we have been
assigned. But nothing should stop our
total pursuit of Jesus.
Be careful about ANYTHING that is distracting you from
Jesus. And don’t put yourself into a
situation where the world’s distractions become a difficult choice later. Start with Jesus and Stay with Jesus. You
can’t follow Jesus and follow the world – so choose and keep following.
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