October 15th sermon Who Gets In. Mark 10:17-31

October 15th sermon Who Gets In. Mark 10:17-31


The silence is maddening isn’t it? What do you do? What do you do when the pastor isn’t going up to give a sermon? You look around….Probably at Mike or Mac first, right. Thinking, “Well the women did a service last month and since October is Pastor Appreciation Month then I’m sure one of the lay leaders is going to get up and speak. But no, they don’t move.

Let’s look at Carol. Maybe we are going to have more special music. No, nothing there. Minutes go by. People start squirming in their seats.

What do you do now? Do you get up and give your testimony? Maybe you get up and say “God spoke to me this week. Not out loud mind you, but to my heart. This was my closest moment to Christ.”

Why are you here today? Better yet, why is this church here today? It’s been here for over 100 years. Why do you come to this church? Is it the people, the history, the cushionless pews, the singing?? Why did you come in the first place?

Let’s start with this. Why am I here? I’m here to equip you. I’m here to help you know what you believe and why you believe it.
I’m here to help you move from atheist to agnostic to Christian so you can go and help others do the exact same thing. I’m here (this church is here) to move you to being a deeper disciple of Christ. What does that mean? Being a Deeper Disciple means you are completely sold out to Christ. Christ is the one who paid the price for the sins you and I commit, past-present-future.

In our scripture reading from Mark, the rich kid was doing everything he was supposed to be doing. He runs up and gets down on his knees. “Good Teacher” he says. Smart kid there. Flattery is usually a great way to start a conversation. Kids remember this when you go to school tomorrow, and when you get back here for Sunday School next week.

“Good teacher…my you’re looking fine today. I love what you’re doing with your hair.” Think of Eddie Haskell from Leave It To Beaver. Man I’m showing my age now. “Good Teacher,” the rich man says, “what must I do to get to heaven?” Unfortunately for him, Jesus has seen Leave It to Beaver to. He sees right thru that. “Why do you call me good? Stop blowing smoke and lets me tell you something. Do what the commandments say. Here’s a few of them.” And he lists them off.

At each commandment, the man’s smile gets bigger and bigger. “Oh Good. I’ve done all of those.”
Then Jesus lovingly looked him in the eyes (and looks at us) and said “Go sell what you own, give it to the poor, and follow me.” He might not say those exact words to us. He might say “Stop playing in that band that keeps you away from me”. It could be sports keeping you from being closer to God. It could be alcohol, cars, it could be church.

Are you so focused on one thing that you miss seeing God there? Do you look for God everywhere you go? Do you see his presence in the car with you, in your house when you are cleaning or getting ready to go out, in the doctor’s office, in the voices that sing a song?
Are you sold out completely to Jesus? Are you in over your head yet, or are your ankles just getting wet?
The rich man went away sad. He was rich enough to not have to work all day long so he could leisure around and have time for religious study and practice. But the head knowledge was not enough.

Give up everything you put first in your life and follow me, Jesus says. Drop it all. Even the disciples didn’t totally understand. Jesus said “It’s easier for a camel to get thru the eye of a needle than that rich man to get to heaven.” They eye of the needle was a gate into Jerusalem that was big enough for a man to get thru, but not camels.
And even if the camels got down on their knees, it would be virtually impossible for them to get thru. Jesus isn’t saying being rich is a bad thing. He is saying that putting riches before God is bad.

“Then who can be saved?” That’s the question. And the answer is EVERYONE. But only God can save you. Your riches, intellect, stubbornness, cunningness. None of that will save you. Jesus says “unless you give it all up and get past the wading pool and go in over your head, and completely sell out for me, your not there yet.

The church is here as a base station. Think of it as a fire department. A fire erupts downtown at the “Atheist Are Us 99 cent store” and the whole department has to go fight it. While driving the truck there, the traffic backs up and slows you down frustrating you. The train comes along so you have to wait for it. Finally you get downtown.

Your there all day long doing everything you can to put out the fire and share the love of Jesus. Finally at the end of the day you drive back to the station. There’s your pastor handing out cold refreshing holy water to quench your thirst. There are spiritual snacks of gospel songs and beloved hymns waiting for you. There is a nice soft bed and pillow for you to lay on filled with those scriptures near to your heart. This is your base station to get renewed before you go back out into the wilderness.
Satan hates it when someone becomes a Christian and he starts doing all he can to attack them. But he loves it when someone who is called a Christian does nothing to help others know Christ.

Why are you here? Are you sold out to Christ? Are you ready to tell the Good News to anyone who will listen, knowing YOU cannot save them, but the Holy Spirit can. Is there anyone you can think of right now that needs Jesus Christ? Listen to this email I got from a friend yesterday….

Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at their church, the Pastor and his eleven-year-old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts.This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, "OK dad, I'm ready." His Pastor dad asked, "Ready for what?" "Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out." Dad responded, "Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain." The boy gave his dad a surprised look asking, "But, Dad, aren't people still going to Hell, even though it's raining?" Dad answered, "Son, I am not going out in this weather." Despondently, the boy asked, "Dad, can I go? Please?" His father hesitated for a moment then said, "Son, you can go. Here are the tracts; be careful, son."
"Thanks, Dad!" And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This eleven-year-old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel Tract. After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted. Then he turned toward the first home he saw - and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the doorbell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered. He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer. Finally, this eleven-year-old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again, and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, "What can I do for you, son?"
With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU, and I came to give you my very last Gospel Tract which will tell you all about JESUS and His great LOVE." With that, he handed her his last tract, and turned to leave. She called to him as he departed. "Thank you, son! And God Bless You!" Well, the following Sunday morning in church, Pastor Dad was in the pulpit. As the service began, he asked, "Does anybody have a testimony or want to say anything?" Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet.
As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face as she said, "No one in this church knows me. I've never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart that I came to the end of the line where I no longerhad any hope or will to live.
So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck.
Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about to leap off, when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell down stairs startled me.I thought, "I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away." I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly.
I thought to myself again, "Who on earth could this be? Nobody everrings my bell or comes to see me. "I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all thewhile the bell rang louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life.
His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you! And the words thatcame from his mouth caused my heart, that had long been dead, TO LEAP TO LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, 'Ma'am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.'
Then he gave me this Gospel Tract that I now hold in my hand. As thelittle angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my doorand read slowly every word of this Gospel Tract.
Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them anymore. You see, I am now a Happy Child of the KING and since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel Tract, I have come here to personally say 'THANK YOU' to God's little angel who came just in the nick of time and, by so doing, spared my soul from eternity in hell."
There was not a dry eye in the church. And as shouts of praise andhonor to THE KING resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated. He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.
Probably no church has had a more glorious moment, and probably thisuniverse has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love and honor for his son... Except for One. This Father also allowed His Son to go out into acold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of heaven shouted praises and honor to The King, The Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power and every name that is named.

You say though, “Well we need to visit those old members who left for one reason or another”. Great, I’m ready, when do you want to go? “We need to visit those people around the church.” Great, I’m ready, when do you want to go? “Well I don’t have any of those tracts that little boy had.” Great, I’m ready, when do you want to go.

PASS OUT THE TRACTS

Bringing people to church is necessary, but the job Jesus gave us to do before he ascended into heaven is to “Go share the good news to everyone you talk to, and make disciples.” So that is what I give you now. Go share the Good News to everyone. Shout it from the rooftops.
And if you are not sold out completely to Jesus, then now is the time. If you have not given your life to Jesus completely, even if you were baptized many years ago, but you have not given your heart to him, right now is the time to do that.

If you want to sell out, if you want to be transformed so you can transform, if you want to give all of yourself to Jesus right now

come up as we sing this last hymn so we can pray together….