XP3 - Grow Up: Big Faith

BOTTOM LINE: THE FOUNDATION OF HOW MUCH YOU GROW IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS BASED ON YOUR TRUST IN HIM.

At the heart of this series is a desire to be somewhere "farther" than where you are now. And the teenage years are all about reaching certain milestones - middle school, high school, driver's license, prom, graduation, college. Growing up isn't easy, and we can probably all think of some adults who still need to grow up. But growing is a big desire of God's. He wants to see us become more than who we usually settle for - not in the worldly sense of accomplishment, but growing in our relationship with Him, growing our character and even growing in the way we relate to ourselves and the world around us.

Based on our discussion last Sunday night, most of you are struggling with attaining a "Big Faith" because of peer pressure. What is it about peer pressure that makes being an open Christian so difficult for you?

Some of the things you mentioned that could help you this week to begin to "grow up" your faith were praying, being nice to people, being a leader, reading your Bible, and listening to Christian music. Have any of you done any of these over the week? If so, share what you did and how you felt afterwards. If not, what happened? Was it more peer pressure? Did you just forget?

Here are a few Bible verses that deal with peer pressure:

Passage Matthew 4:1-10:   ^{1 -3} Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: "Since you are God's Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread."
   ⁴Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: "It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God's mouth."
   ^{5 -6}For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, "Since you are God's Son, jump." The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: "He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone."
   ⁷Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: "Don't you dare test the Lord your God."
   ^{8 -9}For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth's kingdoms, how glorious they all were. Then he said, "They're yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they're yours."
   ¹⁰Jesus' refusal was curt: "Beat it, Satan!" He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: "Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness."

Passage Matthew 16:23:
   ²³But Jesus didn't swerve. "Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works."

Passage 2 Peter 2:9:
   ⁹So God knows how to rescue the godly from evil trials. And he knows how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire until Judgment Day.

Passage 1 Corinthians 10:13:   ¹³No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

What do you think of those verses? Do they encourage you at all?

Hope you all are having a great week... Can't wait to see you this Sunday night! : )

XP3 WE DEVOTIONAL 2

XP3 WE DEVOTIONAL 2

Read: Proverbs 27:17

IRON MAIDENS

By Sarah Anderson

I have one friend from college who at the mere mention of her name makes me crack up. Any voice mail, e-mail or letter, literally makes me laugh out loud. Starting our senior year of college, we were cohorts in crime. Following graduation, we moved to Tennessee and worked and lived together for a year. Then we both ventured out west to try our hand at being cowgirls . . . kind of. She worked in Colorado and I worked in Wyoming. She was more of an actual cowgirl. I cleaned cabins and waited on tables. While out there, she met the man of her dreams and asked me to be in her wedding one year later. Eight months later she was in my wedding and now she and her husband are preparing to move to China to be missionaries.

She is a true friend. One time on a trip to a Hard Rock Café, we noticed a sign by our table that said Iron Maiden. (Only recently did I learn this was a band, which explains it’s place in Hard Rock Café, and more recently than that I learned it was also the name of a torture device first used in the 1500s.) We knew neither of these things at the time and took the phrase, adopting it as a name for ourselves. We wanted to be the Iron Maidens, because, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

This was the kind of friendship we desired. All craziness aside, what we craved was a friendship that pursued the betterment of each other, accountability to one another and a deeper knowledge of Christ. And this did not necessarily look like a weekly Bible study, or a scheduled time for prayer, or a twice a week chapel attendance that was required at our college. What it looked like was a sharpening of each other, an intentional smoothing of our rough edges by being friends who cared more about every facet of our friendship than just having a good time and sharing secrets.

I heard someone say once, “When iron sharpens iron, there are sparks.” A lot of times getting our rough edges smoothed out hurts. It is hard to let people in close and with something as sharp as iron, and giving them the access to your heart. But the sparks, the friction, the heat is not a bad thing. It means we are enduring the flames from the fire and being made into a more moldable and enduring vessel for Christ.

This friend made me a better follower of Christ. I did not always like her in the process.  Sparks can burn. But she, along with God, made me what I needed to be. In her friendship, she gave me the permission to dialogue about tough issues, hard questions and nagging sins. That was hard. But we did it. I needed an iron maiden in her, and she needed one in me, and the result was two people who better understood what it meant to be at the mercy of the heat in order that we might come out better believers and followers of Jesus.

She still makes me laugh. She still brightens my life. But her real gift to me is not laughter or silly memories. Her gift is her persisting and enduring ability to shape me into who God wants me to be. I love her for that.

Something to Think About:

• What makes the friends you are closest too, the friends that you are closest too?

• Do you have someone who sharpens you like iron in your life?

• What do you do, or could you do, to help sharpen you and your friends?

XP3: WE Devotional 1

NOT ALONE
By Sarah Anderson

Read: Exodus 17: 8-14

⁸ While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. ⁹ Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.”
   ¹⁰ So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. ¹² Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. ¹³ As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.
   ¹⁴ After the victory, the Lord instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

People need people. I don’t care what anyone else says. We as humans were created for relationship—and not just with God, but with each other as well. As basic as this seems, I forget that sometimes. Sometimes I think I can curl up on my couch with a good novel and some TiVo-ed episodes of my favorite show and be happy for the rest of my life. But as appealing as this sounds to me, inevitably I realize I need more than a remote and a book—I need people.

I think God either finds my lapses into this thinking totally insulting or absolutely hilarious. Maybe it is a little bit of both. Usually, He puts me in some sort of desperate situation where I require help from another human—like getting lost in downtown Atlanta, or reaching for something from the top shelf of the pantry—to help me realize, again, I can’t go at it alone.

We just read the story of Moses, a powerful and influential man, who had more reason than anyone else to think he didn’t need people—especially whining and complaining people, like the Israelites. I have to wonder if when he went to the top of the mountain while the Israelites were fighting below, if part of him just wanted to get away.

We have no way of knowing, but I don’t think it took very long for Moses to get tired of holding up his own hands. It takes me about thirty seconds. And in one of the most compelling word pictures I have ever found in Scripture, we see how desperately and mightily he needed friends. He needed their support, their strength, their endurance, their assistance and their persistence—literally.

What do you think was going through Moses’ mind as he sat on the rock and allowed his right hand men to lift his deadened arms in the air? I picture his head bowed, his brow furrowed and his back bent. And I imagine this day being engrained in his memory forever. If he was ever tempted to think he was too good for the help of others, he need only think back to the faithfulness of Aaron and Hur as they tirelessly came alongside him and empowered him to win the battle. And should that memory start to fade, he could just as easily go back to the scroll God had him write after the Israelites won, because this was “something to be remembered.” A great military feat, yes. But I think there was another reason for writing it down as well. God said write this down because Moses, you can’t forget, and Joshua, can’t forget, and those who follow, can’t forget, that you can’t do life alone.

My favorite TV show is way more entertaining when I can comment on it with someone on the couch beside me. Reading is more fun when I can talk about it and process it with a listening ear. And that is just the small stuff. There has been, and there will be, big, hard, stuff that comes along. I don’t want to be, and I can’t be, alone when it does.

People need people. We are not intended to be loners in this world. We need to allow ourselves to take a seat. Allow our arms to be lifted. Allow people to come in. Allow them to come close, whether we feel like we require it not. Because someday it will be essential to have the help and the hands, on either side of us, to make it. We were created for relationships. We were created for this.

Something to Think About:

• Why do you think we sometimes think we can do life alone?

• What is an area of life that is easy for you to ask for help in?

• What is an area of life that is hard to ask for help in?

• What is one way this week where you can be intentional about getting help for someone when you would normally want to do it alone?

THE XP: RELEASE... THE "WHY" FACTOR

CONTENT POST #1: READING THE BIBLE

 

But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard -- things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct out energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good -- crucified. Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original (Galatians 5: 22-26 MSG).

 

Before you answer the questions, remember that doing this isn't just a checklist. It isn't just something you have to do. Start by asking God to reveal something to you. Put your focus and motivation to read and answer the questions on God.

 

Now read back through the passage again and ask yourself:

• What does this passage show me about God?
• What does this passage show me about who I am, how I think, how I'm made?
• What does this passage show me about loving other people?
• How can I do what these verses are challenging me to do in a way that shows people that I love them and also lets people see how much God loves them?

CONTENT POST #2: SERVING

In what areas are you currently serving at church, in your neighborhood, at home or at your school?

What exactly do you do?

If you aren't serving, is there anything you've thought about doing?

If you are serving, what are some "good things" that have come from that area of service? What are some of the challenges of serving in that area?

Have you ever wanted to give up serving? Why or why not?

How would what you do change if you approached it as a way to show people God loves them?

How would what you do change if you approached it as a way to show people you love them?

CONTENT POST #3: PRAYER

Is prayer something that is a part of your life?

If so, when you pray, are there certain things that you pray about regularly?

How much of the things that you talk with God about have the words "I" or "me" in them?

What are some ways that you could shift the focus off yourself and onto others when you pray?

How could praying for other people be a way that you love others?

Not only can praying help you to love others, but also it can help you to love God. What can you do in prayer to show God you love Him?

Copyright 2009 The reThink Group, Inc.  All Rights Reserved

The XP : Wanted

Discontent & Disconnect

The Wanted series is all about getting to the root of our desires. What drives us? What captures our interest, our time and our affection?What are we worshipping? And is what we want really going to satisfy us, or are we really desiring far less than what God has made us to have?

This XP is about coming to terms with the things we thought we wanted, we thought would deliver, but have disappointed. The goal is for you to spend some time being introspective (really thinking about it) as you look at the clothes that fill your closest, the DVDs on your shelf, the games in your room, the CDs in your drawer (and songs in your iTunes library) and ask yourself if what you wanted when you purchased them was what you really wanted. Did it deliver or did it leave you feeling empty and discontent?

Now... I want you to go through all your "stuff" and decide on AT LEAST 1 thing that you'd like to give away to someone less fortunate than you. At least 1 but as many as you'd like. And while you're doing this, ask yourself the following questions:

- When did I get this?

- How badly did I want it when I first got it?

- How long has it been since I used it?

- What was I expecting this thing to do for me once I had it in my possession? Was life different before getting it compared to after getting it?

- How long did it keep my interest before I wanted something else?

- Is there something I want just as badly right now? Where will this thing most likely be a week from now, a month from now, a year from now, two years from now?

Be sure and bring your item(s) to church next Wednesday night, January 26. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to leave a comment or give me a call! See you then : )

XP: What Happens Here - Devotional

What Happens Here . . . [Devotional]

by Sarah Anderson

I love being at home. Growing up, I didn’t go over to other people’s houses—I preferred that they came to my house. I didn’t like sleepovers; I didn’t like long trips away or time spent out of my routine. Maybe it comes down to me being a creature of habit. I like the predictable and the knowable. I like what I expect to actually happen. That is where I thrive.

That being said, this trait of mine would have been a real hindrance to being one of Jesus’ disciples over 2,000 years ago. Have you ever noticed when reading stories from the Gospels that Jesus and His buddies did a lot of traveling? And we aren’t talking 15-minute walks to the nearest neighborhood before crashing back at their own house. No, the disciples following Jesus rarely stayed in one place a long time. They traveled all over Israel, and not by way of train, bus or taxi—but on foot. They didn’t have a home to call their own in the three years Jesus was involved in His public ministry. And they didn’t have a building or a meeting place where they held their services or where Jesus did His teaching.

In other words, Jesus’ ministry in those days looked a lot different from current Christianity. Most of us, whether we are self-admitted homebodies or not, like to be comfortable. We like having a home to come back to. We like going to church—as long as we know our friends will be there to sit with us, the songs we sing are ones we know already and our spot in the front row by the stage is left empty for us. We go to church. And when we invite our friends, we ask them to come with us. So for us, it’s easy to connect with God in one place.

But Jesus left His home and His hometown. He didn’t just hang out at the temple. In other words, the things Jesus taught, the way He lived and the way He loved other people didn’t happen inside four walls. His ministry didn’t happen in one place. It happened everywhere.

This past week we talked about the importance of taking what we hear in church and letting it spill over into the different areas of our lives, letting what we learn here affect the way we talk to our parents, the way we treat our siblings, the way we interact with our friends.

What we hear here can’t stay here. And there is a reason for that. Because sometimes the people who need to hear what we know, who need to encounter Jesus, will never step foot in a church at all.

Not only that, the things we hear here are meant to affect our lives as well. God’s Word, His truth, changes the way we see and interact with our world and all the people who are a part of our everyday lives. His Word is even supposed to affect how we see ourselves.

And when we begin to live in ways that go beyond the walls of the church, when we begin to live like God is with us everywhere we go and live out the truths we hear in here, people begin to see what Jesus is all about. And while it may change them, even more so, it will change you.

Let your life be the testimony of Jesus to people who need to hear it, no matter where they are. Don’t count on the words of your youth pastor or lead pastor to communicate what your genuine and authentic life can communicate on its own. Go out. And live the message.

© 2010 Orange. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

XP3: The Prodigal - Devotional

The Prodigal [Devotional]

By Tim Walker

I hate to tell you this—but then again, you may have already noticed—but sometimes the good guys don’t come out on top. Sometimes the people who behave or do things they shouldn’t do seem to be the ones who get the most attention.

Like in a family, the kid who behaves the worst gets their parents’ notice.

The person who breaks the rules at school is the one people talk about.

The bad boy gets the good girl.

Are you following me?

It even happens at church, but in much more subtle way. We don’t necessarily celebrate the person who is leading a double life—acting one way at church, and the complete opposite at school and at home. We don’t talk about how great it is that a guy or a girl has decided to drop out of youth group and move in with a boyfriend/girlfriend, get drunk or develop a drug addiction. In fact, we preach about staying away from those things.

But when one of those people start coming back to church, or have a moment at camp or a youth group retreat that turns their lives around, we make a big deal about it. We have them tell their stories, tell what they’ve been through and why they are different now.

Maybe you’re sitting there listening to their story, and that is the furthest thing from your life. You don’t put yourself in those kinds of situation. You aren’t tempted at all to drink or take drugs. You don’t go to those parties. You believe in setting boundaries in your relationships. You read your Bible, pray, memorize Scripture and never miss youth group. And if you’re honest, you just don’t get it. You just don’t see how someone like that guy or girl could get so messed up. All they needed to do is what you do and they would be fine.

Maybe you even wonder, “They have such a dramatic story of what God has done. Maybe I should take drugs or drink or have sex so I can have a story like that too.” Okay, maybe not.

But sometimes being the good kid seems to equal being invisible. And when that happens, the “good kid” begins to look down on the so-called “bad kid.”  The “good kid” begins to think that he or she is better than the “bad kid,” that he or she is a better Christian, a better person—like Christianity is some kind of system of levels and grades.

If you haven’t caught on by now, that’s also the mentality of the older brother from the story of the lost son that Jesus tells in Luke 15.

You see, that son did all the right things. He obeyed his father. He stayed home and made good choices. He worked hard. He did everything he was supposed to do. But there was no party. No great celebration for him. The younger brother got all of that, the one who did the exact opposite.

But here is something you may or may not have noticed. The older son, well, he wasn’t so good. He wasn’t so great. It may have looked like he did all the right things on the outside—but on the inside it was a different story. He was bitter. He felt like he deserved more than his brother. And even though he may have never taken one step away from home, in many ways his heart was miles away from his father. So while he looked “good,” the reality is that he wasn’t so good—that the younger son and his older brother were both pretty messed up. And honestly, here is something else that may surprise you—we all are too.

I’m not trying to put you down. I’m not trying to discourage you. But even the “good kid” isn’t so good. He or she still sins. He or she isn’t perfect.

That’s why it’s such a big deal when someone has a moment on a retreat or at youth group, a moment when his or her life makes a change. Not because he or she decided to become a good kid, but because he or she realized that what was needed most wasn’t to be good, but to trust in the one who is good—Jesus.

Jesus wanted His followers to celebrate that truth, not only in their own lives but in the lives of others.

Because following Him isn’t about how good we become, but about how much we can trust in the only one of us who is truly good.

So what would it take for you to become someone like the loving father? What would it take for you to celebrate the return of those who drift away from God? From our church? From this youth group?

Who do you need to call?

Who do you need to let know that you haven’t forgotten about them?

Who do you need to invite to hang out?

Do it today. Let them know that you haven’t forgotten about them. Let them know that you haven’t written them off—that you still believe that God loves them and wants to be a part of their lives. And do so by showing that you want to be a part of their lives too.

And also, for yourself, realize what happens on the outside is just as important as what happens on the inside. You don’t have to go far from God to completely miss His heart. Because big party or not, celebration or not, the goal is to end up back at the heart of the Father.

© 2010 Orange. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

write.rewrite. A BIGGER STORY

Everyone loves a good story.Whether it's one being told to us by a friend or a relative, or one we watch on a screen or read in a book, a great story intrigues us, moves us, fascinates us. But all of those great stories are a small reflection of a bigger story, a story that our hearts long for. It's God's story. And that's a story that is written down in His Word and it's a story being written in our lives every day. Our choice is to be a part of it, or write our own story.

We all do it. We all make subtle choices that, left unmonitored or unchanged, can lead us to some place where we may not (or may) have intended to be. Maybe it's a lie we told. Or a relationship we are in. Or looking at something we knew we shouldn't see. And we know it's probably not the best -- we may even know it's not something God wants for us -- but we decide to go ahead and write our own story. We make the choice. We pursue the relationship. We tell the lie. And then we make another choice, and then another, and before long we end up miles away from where we ever thought we would be.

Your challenge this week is to begin each day by telling God that you want to be part of His story. Pray that you won't settle for a lesser story but be part of the story that God is writing.

Please feel free to leave a comment about how you're doing with the challenge this week. Remember that you have the option to post questions/comments anonymously, so don't be shy!

Hope you have a great week! : )

Copyright 2010 Orange. All Rights Reserved.

XP3: Playing the God Card - Devotional

Playing the God Card [Devotional]

by Sarah Anderson

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I read through the Gospels and think, “If I had lived then, if I had been around and seen what Jesus was able to do, hear Him teach and watch Him perform miracles, I would have had so much faith. There would be no question that I would follow Him.” Reading through the Gospels 2,000 years after the fact, I start to feel kind of confident—and I start to think that the people who were around Jesus and didn’t recognize Him for who He was were ignorant, or maybe just plain dumb. Because it seems so obvious to me that Jesus was exactly who He said He was—the Savior, the Messiah, the Redeemer.

It is easy to have this perspective when we know the full story and how it unfolds. We know what Jesus was getting at—we know there was a cross in His future, and we know there was a resurrection coming three days later. But not everyone understood.

The Pharisees are maybe the most ganged-up-on group of people in all of Scripture. They make a good victim and they are easy to dislike. They were, in a word, clueless. We tend to think of them as stupid. But that wasn’t it at all. They had years of training and schooling and education that got them to where they were. They had the entire Bible memorized and thought about the law day and night. They were seen by everyone else as having a connection with God that normal people didn’t have. So their problem wasn’t their lack of intelligence. Their problem was their perception of reality.

See, the Pharisees wanted a Savior, a Messiah and a Redeemer as badly as anyone else did at the time. They wanted God to show up and do something so amazing and so incredible that the entire world would be changed because of it.  But what the Gospels show us about this group of people is that they wanted something so badly from a God they believed they followed wholeheartedly—a God who had become an image they had perfected in their own mind—that they missed the reality of the God who actually did show up. What they wanted was a God who fit in their box, and what they got was a God who would have nothing to do with their box.

The Pharisees played the God card. And they did it by playing God—by trying to be Him. They may not have called it that, but their actions proved otherwise. They tried to outsmart Him, outmaneuver Him, and they did it not by doing something, but by neglecting something. By forgetting to go after Him, to search for Him, to discover who He really was, they instead decided to make Him out to be who they wanted Him to be. And it turned out that the people who should have had the best and most accurate perception of God were the ones who misunderstood Him more than anyone else.

In the same way, you and I get in trouble when we play the God card—which can actually look a lot like playing God by pretending to be like Him. And what makes this such a dangerous place to be is that very rarely do we realize we are doing it. Our intentions aren’t bad. Our motives aren’t wrong. Our hope is simply misplaced. We have just slipped from the bigger plans of God to our own more self-absorbed plans and hoped that God was on board with us.

So what do we do to keep from trying to “be” God—from playing the God card and actually playing God? Let’s take a cue from Scripture. In the book of Psalms, King David, who wrote most of the book, asks one question over and over: “Who is God?” (Psalm 18:31 NIV), “Who is he, this King of Glory?” (Psalm 24:10 NIV), and maybe even the most humbling, “Who is like you, O Lord?” (Psalm 35:10 NIV).

I don’t know about you, but these aren’t questions I find myself asking very often. But I think that if we got in the habit of asking, “Who is God? Who is like Him?,” we would be more likely to answer, “We are not Him. We are not like Him. He alone has the power to do as He pleases. And any time I speak on His behalf, I better be careful that I speak as He would speak. That I love as He would love. That I would be still before Him and know He is God and I am not.” Because I think if we start asking the right questions, our lives just might start reflecting the right answers. And the answer is to let God be God and quit trying to take His place.

Psalm 100:3 says: Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture (NIV). Maybe this is a scary thing to admit. We aren’t God, and we have to be careful that we aren't making Him out to be something He's not when we attach His name and His claim to something. But instead of being something that incites fear in you, what if you found some comfort in that statement instead? Know that the Lord is God. You aren’t. And that is okay. In fact, that may be the best thing in the world you could say—a confession and understanding that could do more for your relationship with God than anything else. So quit playing the God card. Quit playing God. Instead, start here: Be still. Know He is God and you are not. And that is just as it should be.

© 2010 Orange. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

XP3: Not That Into You - Session 3 Devotional

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

By Sarah Anderson


(Read Luke 18:18-23. Yeah, we really want you to read it!)

Sometimes when I read through the Gospels and listen in on the conversations Jesus had with people, He doesn’t seem like the best conversationalist. He had a tendency to avoid the question being asked and instead brings up something that seems . . . different. He had the ability to catch people off guard, to see, really see the heart of what was going on and start addressing that, and not necessarily the words that a person managed to vocalize.

In one story, a wealthy ruler searches Jesus out to ask him a question—a pretty important question too. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18 NIV). I can imagine that the ruler, the disciples and everyone gathered close enough to listen in on the conversation leaned in a little closer in hope of catching what Jesus had to say.

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone (Luke 18:19 NIV). Jesus said this because He wanted to help people start connecting the dots between Him and God. Then Jesus says: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother’’” (Luke 18:20 NIV).

The ruler responded: “All these I have kept since I was a boy” (Luke 18:21 NIV).

Jesus knew what this guy was really getting at—after all, He was the Son of God. Jesus knew that this pointed question was one the rich ruler thought he already knew the answer to. He thought this whole eternal life deal had a lot to do with keeping the commandments, something he wasn’t ashamed to admit he was pretty good at—really good at. So good that he had the courage to tell the Son of God he had kept every single commandment since he was young. It was almost like he was expecting a gold star, a pat on the backside, a high five for all his effort—maybe even an extra special spot in heaven because of his obedience.

But Jesus doesn’t give him a star. He basically says, “You’ve kept all of the commandments? Then there is only one thing left for you to do to ensure eternal life. Go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor.” (See Luke 18:22.) You can probably imagine how the rich ruler reacted to that. Maybe he mentally started going through the law seeing if he missed something about selling all your possessions. Or maybe he started to think of an excuse, a quick way out of the conversation. All the Bible says is when the man heard what Jesus was asking of him in order to get the eternal life he longed for, he became very sad (Luke 18:23).

We don’t ever hear about what happens with the rich ruler after this. Maybe he walked away angry. Maybe he was embarrassed. Maybe he was convicted. But whatever happens, Jesus doesn’t talk him into anything—He doesn’t guilt him into making a life-altering decision. He doesn’t condemn him in front of everyone hanging around. He doesn’t even plead with him to reconsider the life he was leading. Jesus lets the rich man go. He leaves the ball in his court, and allows him to be the one to ultimately make the decision about what will define his life.

It was a sobering reality check. Here was a man, who had done things right, followed the right rules, attended the right services, observed the important holidays and observances but somehow still fell short of the one thing he was looking for. Life. He wanted eternal life. And he thought all he had managed to accomplish and acquire was enough to get exactly what he wanted. But it wasn’t. And he didn’t even know it until Jesus Himself spelled it out.

I don’t think the moral of this encounter is that selling all you have is the key to eternal life. I don’t think tucked in the book of Luke is the real key to a relationship with Jesus—poverty. Not that holding loosely to our stuff is a bad thing. But I think the point being made here has more to do with holding loosely to ourselves. I think the point is that even when we are doing all the right things, we can still miss Jesus—because we are so bent on us, so focused on what we have to offer, what we have accomplished, that we miss the point of it all. And Jesus is the point. Nothing we own, nothing we have done, nothing we will do outweighs the importance of Jesus.

A lot of us would look at what the rich ruler was about on the outside and think that he had it together, that his example was worth following. But at the end of the day, the rich ruler was really about nothing more than himself and that was enough to stand in the way between him and the life he needed—the life Jesus wanted to give him.
All of us, at some point or another, are going to have the kind of encounter with Jesus that the rich ruler had. Sooner or later we are going to have to decide whether we are going to “sell our stuff”—whether we’ll let go of ourselves for the sake of life, for the sake of seeing Jesus. It might not look the same for everyone. It may not have anything to do with your possessions. But eventually you have to make a call. Is what I am living for, is what I am living about, me? Or is it about Jesus? Have I built my life to glorify myself, or to point towards the One who got me where I am? Life is on the line. Not just eternal life, and not just physical life—but significance in life, purpose in life, direction in life. Where are we headed? Are we walking away from an encounter with Jesus, sad, because we can’t get over ourselves, or are we looking Him straight in the face and saying, “Whatever it takes, I’ll do it. It isn’t about me. It’s about You. Make me about You.”

© 2009 The reThink Group, Inc. All rights reserved.