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The Unyielding Pride of the Rich Young Ruler

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There is still too much trumpet blowing in the church. But it is not to draw attention to God but rather to man. Worship that is man-focused. Sermons filled with human wisdom. The Gospel watered down to "reach the next generation" as if somehow Christ is no longer sufficient! Too much braggadocios behavior on Facebook about how great our actions are. How spiritual we are. We, me, you -- just enough "God" to make us feel as if we are talking about Him. God is not fooled. He knows the difference between, "I am great -- praise God" and "God is great -- I am nothing." Yet despite our foolish pride, God is still a loving God:

Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. "There is still one thing you haven't done," he told him. "Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." -- Mark 10: 21 (NLT)

This rich young ruler runs up to Jesus, filled with pride, claiming he has kept all the commandments, with a flattering a deceitful tongue and yet still Jesus looks upon him with genuine love. I love the usage of the word genuine here. The love God has for us is not predicated upon what we do or do not do. It is not based upon our actions but His character. No matter how far from God we have fallen or drifted, when He looks upon us He does so with genuine love. If there is a promise we need to hold onto today it is that. The devil will try and convince us that we have somehow forfeited His love but I am here today to tell you the devil is a liar! God looks upon you with a genuine love and like the rich young ruler here, God will examine your heart and tell you what you need to sell in order to really follow him.

For the rich young ruler his wealth was the source of his pride. He probably fancied himself a self-made man. He probably wrongly attributed his success as a sign that God approved of him yet gave Him no direct credit for the success itself. As his wealth and power grew it became an idol to him in that he placed it before God. So he went to Jesus that day -- ran to him -- to justify himself. His pride had already blinded him to sin in his own life as he obviously is convinced that he was able to do what no other man ever has except Jesus Himself! Jesus, the master surgeon, cuts right past the blatant exhibition of pride and tells him to remove the root cause -- his wealth.

We are no better than this rich young ruler. We can fall for the same fleshly traps. We can start to put things ahead of God. It might be money or the pursuit of money. Maybe our career. I have seen many parents turn their children into virtual idols in their lives. I have seen ministry be morphed into an idol repeatedly. Church services and programs. Listen beloved -- anything we place higher than God is by definition an idol in our lives. You may not see how something like church can become and idol but if you make sure you never miss church and your various ministry responsibilities but always have excuses for why you cannot have any prayer time with God alone -- ask yourself why that is? I speak from experience. My Martha was always complaining about my Mary but what did Jesus teach us regarding that?

But the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her." -- Luke 10: 41-42 (NLT)

There is only one thing being concerned about. Sitting at the feet of Jesus. Your fantastic ministry? Nope. Your growing church? Nope. Your work in the soup kitchen? Nope. Sitting at the feet of Jesus. Why? Certainly our ministry, growing the body and helping the poor are things to be "concerned with." But God has given us the proper order of things:

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. -- Matthew 6: 33 (NLT)

Now follow this closely beloved. When we place God first as Mary did we are seeking the kingdom first. Then God provides the increase in our ministry, provides the growth in our churches, and provides the means for a soup kitchen. Most importantly, we correctly recognize where the blessings come from protecting ourselves from pride. We do not seek to work in the soup kitchen so we can be noticed. We do not see the success of our ministries as having anything to do with us. We do not fall for heretical theories of church growth because we know God will provide the increase that God wants to provide. Our unyielding pride is checked.

Not so for the rich young ruler. The interesting thing for me was that the Bible says he walked away sad. I would have expected angry. I could have seen self-righteous. Perhaps the most frightening part of this story might just be that he walked away sad because to me that means that in the end he knew. In the end, the surgery of Christ upon his heart worked enough that he finally saw the truth. He saw that he was indeed a sinner who had not kept all the commandments. He saw that he was an idol worshipper bowing down to the graven image of success, power and greed. Yet despite the knowledge gained, he still chose the temporal rewards of this life over the eternal rewards of heaven. How truly sad but it is a decision made every day by people who refuse to drop their foolish pride. Let us always guard our hearts against it lest we end up sadly walking away from the Lord too.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- July 19, 2012

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Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to (more...)
 
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