If it takes the place of God, sell it, give it away, or cast it off. Just do it.

 

Read Mark 10:13-22

 

So, let’s get to it.

Jesus did not say that the wise man puts his words into conversation. He did not say that the one who put his words into the most posts gets the most points.  He said that the one who puts his words into practice is the one who builds his house on solid rock.

I realize that sometimes my assessments are unique and not shared by many others. I am glad I made the Spring Presbytery in Fort Worth this year.

A theme among the denominational representatives prevailed through many reports. It was to repent.

Repent for what?  I repented. I’m saved. So, repent for what?  Repent for talk without action. Across so many functional areas, the message at the last meeting of the Red River Presbytery was the same.

We as Christians in general, and I can talk specifically as Cumberland Presbyterians talk a lot but do little. We need to repent of that, and repentance requires action.

Repentance is more than just turning away from the ways of the world. It is turning away and leaving all of the worldly junk behind, without getting a claim ticket to come back for it later.

The denomination is on the precipice of fully embracing that faith without works is dead.

We are at what could be the tipping point of the next great awakening. But to embrace that faith without works is dead requires some action from us, from us all, or it’s just more talk.

The rich young man went away sad because Jesus told him to sell all that he had, give the proceeds to the poor, pick up his cross, and follow him.

To which we often retreat to the position that this was just about this one rich man. It doesn’t apply to everyone, not to us regular folks in any case.

You would be correct. It does not apply to everyone, but it very much applies to you and just about everyone who lives in this country.

You may not have a lot of money in the bank, but you are richer than the young man in this account in so many ways. The first and perhaps most important way is comfort.

For all the money this young man had, he couldn’t turn on the bathroom light with the flick of a switch.

He couldn’t turn on a faucet and step into a hot shower whenever he wanted.

He couldn’t kill the afternoon watching Netflix or reels on his phone.

He never knew the thrills of Taco Tuesday or Throwback Thursday, or watching a grandchild smack a ball into the outfield on his phone while the kid is in another town.

Make no mistake that we who live in this country are as rich as this young man who had many possessions. We are rich and the words of Jesus that we find in Mark 10 apply to us.

Before Jesus told this rich young man to sell everything he owned and give the proceeds to the poor, we find these words. They are among my favorite words, and we see them in verse 21.

Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Jesus saw that the man practiced the big-ticket items of the Law but that something was in the way of him being complete—perfected if you will.

In modern vernacular, this young man made it to services, even stayed awake for the message, only got up to go to the bathroom twice and once was during a song he didn’t like, and surely made the required trips to the temple with the required offering or sacrifice. He checked the blocks but never knew the heart of the God of love who was behind his directives.

Something was in his way. That something was his possessions—his stuff—and evidently, he had a bunch of it.

Do we need to sell everything we own? Yes! If our possessions, our comfort, our anything has equal status with God in our lives, it’s got to go.

More than likely, it is not money or stuff that is in our way, but our reluctance, complacency, or hesitation to put God’s words into practice.  What we need to get rid of in our lives is our complacency and desire to live unchanged by the gospel—our desires to make the words of Jesus fit into our comfort zones.

I was blessed to watch the movie, “A Great Awakening.” It is the story of George Whitfield coming to America and spiritually awakening its people—our forefathers—a few decades before our independence and the writing of our Constitution.

Just over 47 years ago I received my degree in Political Science from the Oklahoma State University, but I learned a couple of things about Benjamin Franklin that I didn’t know before, trusting the film was faithful to the facts in most matters.

I also took to heart this story related by Whitfield as his own, but there was a little license with that as the historical documents note that Whitfield attributed it to someone else.

I'll tell you a story. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with Mr. Butterton the actor. One day the Archbishop . . . said to Butterton . . . 'pray inform me Mr. Butterton, what is the reason you actors on stage can affect your congregations with speaking of things imaginary, as if they were real, while we in church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?'

'Why my Lord,' says Butterton, 'the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary, as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.'

 

On our 90^th anniversary of Fake News—Google George Orwell and the Spanish Civil War—let’s commit to speaking the truth. That truth resides in God’s word.

We need to quit acting like God’s word is just one proposal among many to consider or that it might be true.

We need to repent of knowing what God tells us to do and doing nothing.

We need to repent of thinking if we build it, they will come—not to knock that movie—and embrace, go and make disciples.

We need to speak the truth as if it were the truth for it is the truth. We speak the truth in a spirit of love, not worried that the truth might offend someone. It’s the truth.

Know it.

Speak it.

Live it.

Your measure of faith was sufficient to receive the gift of salvation. It’s all from God. You just had to receive it by faith.

We like that part, and we should, because we could never receive salvation by the way we live, yet having received grace by faith, so many have parked their faith on the shelf.

Faith is not a one-and-done deal. Salvation is a done deal, and if you are content in having received grace by faith and having your faith parked on the shelf for the rest of this life, why are you listening today?

If you are listening today and have no intention of putting our Lord’s words into practice, what’s the point?  It’s just a placebo. Well, it felt good.

I am preaching mostly to the saints—to the saved. I’m not trying to get most of you to the radio or internet altar to profess your faith. You have been there. I am talking about picking up your cross daily and following Jesus.

That’s a whole ‘nuther deal.

I’m not talking about doing all the right things so you can get into heaven. I’m talking about doing things—the right things--the right way because heaven has already been gifted to you.

I’m not talking about talking about the words of Jesus—thought they are worth discussing when you awaken, go to sleep, go to work, or in anything else you do. I’m talking about putting his words into practice.

In so doing, you never have to worry about:

·       Integrity

·       Fidelity

·       Speaking the truth in a spirit of love

·       Living in the light

I am talking about never thinking, I’m doing too much church stuff. I’m doing too much for the Lord.

I’m not talking about getting sucked into every activity on the church calendar—though for some, that's their daily bread. I’m talking about feeling the gentle nudge from the Spirit or the still small voice of the Lord leading you, and you saying, I’m already doing enough. I hear you, Lord, but would you recheck your metrics? I think you will see that I’ve done my fair share and more.

If that’s your situation, go buy a cross, a crucifix like the Roman Catholics have with Jesus hanging on the cross. I love our cross without Jesus nailed to it.

He is not there. He is risen. He is risen indeed. He is not on the cross or in the tomb. He is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you and for me.

Amen! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

But go get you one of those crosses and keep it handy for those times you are ready to dismiss the calling of the Lord upon your life, and you want to say, I think I’m doing enough already.

When that time comes, say those words to Jesus hanging on the cross and tell him how much you are doing for him and how that surely must be enough. I want you to devalue what Jesus did for you on the cross in your conversation with the image of him hanging there. See if that doesn’t change your perspective.

You might be doing a lot to bring glory to God’s name, but do you remember the precondition to the directions of Jesus to this rich young man? If you want to be perfect, if you want to be complete, if you really want some life out of life, then…

If the saints are too busy or burdened to put our Master’s words into practice, how do we expect the lost to hear our words, or believe them because our lives belie the words of our Master?

Remember these words quoted earlier.

We actors on stage speak of things imaginary, as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.

It’s not just the preachers that need to treat the truth as the truth, but every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do we do that? We put his words into practice.

How do we do that? We sell everything that we own—or discard everything that supplants the place of God.

We cast off everything that hinders and run our race of faith fully for him.

We pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus.

Do we act like Jesus Christ is the most important person, relationship, and entity in our lives? No!

I say emphatically, no! Do not act like Jesus is at the very top of the list of what matters in your life.

Live like it! There is no acting, just fidelity, for he is the One who is most important in your life. Everything else that we love must be no closer to the number one spot in our lives than a distant, a very distant second.

But, but, but we know this. So, what do we do?

I go to the words of Jesus to the church at Sardis and to the church universal.

Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

The church that we know in our time has unfinished work. You have unfinish work. We have unfinished work.

What do we do?

“Wake up, sleeper,

    rise from the dead,

    and Christ will shine on you.”

Go all the way back to Isaiah and see how long God has been calling his people to awaken.

Arise, shine;

For your light has come!

And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

And deep darkness the people;

But the Lord will arise over you,

And His glory will be seen upon you.

And Paul has something to say on the matter as well.

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

Take all these commands to awaken in the context of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

Do not go through life with a business-as-usual attitude. You know the truth. Now is the time to live it.

Cast off everything that hinders, and complacency needs to go first.

Sell everything that is taking the place of God.

Discharge your doubt.

Wake up! The time of his coming draws near.

And one last thing, for now…

Remind your pastors that you don’t need to be coddled. Tell your shepherd to:

1.    Preach the word. Don’t try to see what we like. Just preach the truth. Don’t sugar coat it. If I need to sell all my stuff, then tell me.

2.    Disciple us. Don’t coddle us. Don’t find the lowest common denominator. Don’t lower the bar. We might have to put more steps in a dicipling process but don’t forsake it. Disciple us. Challenge us to be complete.

3.    Try to keep up. That’s right, challenge your pastor, whom you love dearly, to keep up. You are on your way to being overcomers. Look around you. We are on our way to another Great Awakening. Don’t give that up for anything, especially comfort or complacency.

If it is in the way of your discipleship and evangelism, get it out of the way. Sell it. Discard it. Give it away.

What might be in your way of keeping God in first place in your lives might just help someone else make it through the day or week.

Probably more than our money and stuff is our comfort. We so value our comfort in this nation.

Paul said that he could be content in all circumstances, and so can we. That’s not the same as being comfortable or complacent in every situation. We are content if we have a little or a lot, but we don’t do complacency. We don’t do slothfulness.

When the Spirit moves us or we hear that still small voice leading us, failure to act in the way God is leading us is sin for us.

Pick up your cross every day and do the things that we know God wants us to do. No excuses.

You can’t do too much for God.  You can’t out give God. And when he prompts us to act, we don’t go away sad because we might have to give up something in this world—of this temporary lodging facility—to give up something that is not eternal.

We respond with great joy in putting his words into practice.

When you next talk to your pastor, tell him or her to challenge you because you want to be a part—a big part in a small Oklahoma town—of the next Great Awakening.

If we will get off of our behinds and put his words into action, we might see this next Great Awakening in our time.

The times ahead may look dark but light is coming. Help bring that light, the truth, and faith in God through Christ Jesus to everyone you know.

Whatever you have to give up—money, things, comfort, status, or anything else that is encroaching on that number one spot—will seem like nothing compared to what is in store for us.

I’m going to add one thing here at the end. Let’s give up our self-pity.

Get in the fight!

Amen.  

Systemic Inspections

    

Read Romans 7:7

Deuteronomy 10

 

What do we do with the law?

The law is good and given to us for our own good. Let’s go to Deuteronomy 10.

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?

Let’s try this in the dynamic language of The Message.

So now Israel, what do you think God expects from you? Just this: Live in his presence in holy reverence, follow the road he sets out for you, love him, serve God, your God, with everything you have in you, obey the commandments and regulations of God that I’m commanding you today—live a good life.

What do we do with the law?

God is good.

The law is good and given to us for our own good.

The law does not bring us to salvation but to life.

Christ alone brings salvation. The law can’t do that part, but it is excellent to bring life to our salvation.

How?

Let me introduce you to systemic inspections.  We have all been a part of inspections. I’m not talking just military inspections. You may have seen the memes about not understanding buying socks and underwear never to ever use them or even intend to use them. Those who have done a Junk on the Bunk know this.

Businesses and education undergo inspections from which they derive metrics that sometimes influence decision-makers' decisions, whoever they may be.

Football teams watch tape and grade individual performance. Sometimes this performance review impacts who starts next Saturday or Sunday.

I remember the days of vehicle inspections. You not only needed a license and registration to drive. Your vehicle had to be certified as drivable, according to the standards of the state.

During my time in the Corps, I did one major systemic inspection. It might have been the first one the Marine Corps had done. It was on the transition assistance program—the processes we use to transition a Marine from his time on active duty to civilian life.

We missed the mark big time here. The reason—the root cause is that we were and are so fixated on accomplishing the mission that making sure Marines have a good transition out of the Corps got lost in the take the hill mentality so necessary to the Corps.

Marines only saw they were losing a Marine, not that this young man or woman might be the best recruiter ever if we treated these Marines well when they left. A well done good and faithful servant goes a long ways even in this life.

Understand that to do a systemic inspection, you first must have compliance standards. You must do this. Do not do that.  That’s a compliance standard.

Only then can you inspect systems. Not only what works and doesn’t work, but why. Why doesn’t it work?

That’s when you get to root cause analysis for those things that don’t work or in which the person or organization is noncompliant. Root cause analysis is simple once you know the compliance standard.

If someone—a person or group—is noncompliant, the why normally resides in one of three areas.

·       Don’t know

·       Can’t comply

·       Won’t comply

Under don’t know we find three main reasons for noncompliance:

·       Never knew

·       Forgot

·       Tasks implied

Under Can’t comply we find three main reasons for noncompliance:

·       Scarce resources

·       Don’t know how

·       Impossibility

Finally, under the category of won’t comply, we find these three:

·       No reward

·       No penalty

·       Disagree

Some may be thinking, “Thanks, Tom, for the trip down memory lane experiences as Inspector General and Private Consultant, but where’s the biblical lesson?”

To answer that, I must take you to Merida, Mexico. I went on my first recreational cruise in 2014. I had about a year at sea in my 20 years in the Corps, but this was my first fun cruise.

We ported in Progresso and boarded a bus for our excursion. The guide on the bus said that Progresso means progress and as you can see, there is no progress in Progresso. It was mostly an industrial port, but you could catch a ride and see cool stuff elsewhere.

We went to Merida, the capital of the Yucatan. We saw some churches, places to eat, and places to shop where they made some unique things.

While my wife was watching a demonstration, I casually walked around the rest of the store. A very short man came up to me and said, “My friend, let me show you something special.”

He showed me a box of 5 Cuban cigars, still illegal to buy in the United States, but not in Mexico.

He gave me a deal at about $100 plus or minus. I wasn’t interested. I had smoked parts of 4 or 5 cigars in my whole life.

He saw my lack of interest and the price dropped to $50, then $40.

I said, “I don’t even smoke.”

That got the price to $25. Ok, for that price, how could I not buy such a coveted item?

A couple of days later, I am packing our luggage and am down to these cigars. I couldn’t pack them.

It wasn’t because they were illegal to bring into the United States. I was because I couldn’t fit anything else in my suitcase without crushing them.

But Sharman ‘s suitcase still had room.

The next day as we went through customs and immigration, Sharman asked me if we needed to declare anything.

I said, “I don’t.”

I did not know what sin was until the law said, “Thou shalt not have a Cuban cigar.”

Paul’s example was “I did not know what sin was until the law said, ‘Thou shalt not covet.’”

Here’s the seminary example. I thought that I had come up with this on my own until I went to preacher’s school. I prefer a preacher's school to a seminary, as too many people like to substitute the word "cemetery," and sometimes the analogy is too apt

I saw the neighborhood cat every morning before I went into the office. Never once did I think about kicking the cat until someone said, “Don’t kick the cat.”

From that point forward, how could I not think about kicking the cat? I was just told that I couldn’t do it.

Back to the cigars. I got home and smoked one. I should not have done that. I should have kept the pack intact and sold it as vintage because those cigars predated Castro’s regime in Cuba.

He came to power three years before I was born and these cigars had not been kept in a humidor or any other form of preservation.

They tasted like skubalon. That’s dung for those not familiar with the Greek term. I have never smoked skubalon, but I’m confident that what it would taste like.

They were terrible, but the law said I couldn’t have one. The law—man’s law in this case—created in me a desire for what I was prohibited from having.

It also gave me awareness of a compliance standard.

The law, if we know it, creates in us an awareness of the dos and don’ts. If we don’t know God through Christ, we probably don’t know the law very well.

While the law points out the need for Christ, some are ignorant of that need. Most people have heard of the Ten Commandments and can remember a few of them.  Many ignore the first ones that are about God being number one, having no other gods, taking God’s name in vain, and that includes Christians, but most who know Christ know a good part about the Decalogue and other directives.

Sometimes we best remember those most controversial in our time.

For those who know Christ, the law in its fullness is a systemic inspection begging to begin. If we want to fully live, we need this self-analysis.

We are all going to miss the mark at some point and though we are saved, we still struggle with compliance with the law.

The law can’t get us to salvation. Only the blood of Jesus does that in our profession of faith, but the law can show us if we have areas that displease God—the God who created us and the God who saved us from sin and death.

Salvation is not our motivation. We who believe that Jesus is Lord have been saved. Salvation is not our motivation.

Responsive love is our motivation. How do we respond to this unfathomable love?

Mostly by loving one another, but even there we slip up. If we take the time to conduct a systemic inspection, we will see every reason for our non-compliance.

Didn’t know. Well, let’s do more Bible study and study groups.

Can’t comply because I don’t know how. That’s addressed with education and practice.

Can’t comply because of scarce resources. Well, allocate your resources to the work of the Lord first.

How about won’t comply? We don’t see the immediate reward or punishment. There is eternal reward and punishment, but most of our bad decisions stem from being myopic and seeing only the now.

And sometimes, Christians just disagree. There is more of that than you might think. We justify in our own minds that God just missed that one.

But if we have the courage to examine ourselves, we will see trends, systems, and areas where we need the most work. It takes courage. Those in recovery know the Twelve Steps. Step four is to make a searching and fearless moral inventory. That’s tough stuff for people without addictions.

How about laziness when it come to the things of God. How about our comfort zones. I think I’ve done enough for the Lord today or this week or this year. I need some me time.

I will put what I would have tithed to good use. The Lord knows that my kids can’t play their best ball without a $450 bat. Besides, there’s a BOGO—buy one, get one half off.

 Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. That’s outdated. This is a 24/7/365 ¼ world. The work six and rest one—a day holy unto the Lord—is still the optimal way to live for most people.

You can conduct a systematic inspection of yourself and see where you need the most work, the most help, or a swift kick from a real friend. The law stands ready to assist.

A systemic inspection itself won’t accomplish much. It is a step.

You can do everything in compliance with directives and still not please God. Consider the Pharisees. They knew and kept the rules but didn’t know the Rule Maker well at all.

You can have the worst compliance batting average ever, and still please God if you seek him with everything you have.

So why even bring up this systemic inspection stuff?

Because when we consider the law, the Law Giver packed something into the law that human law can’t.

God’s word judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. His word does what human law can’t.  You know the verse.

 

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Almost every culture and religion has some aspect that deals with self-improvement or self-actualization, or both. The one who seeks God, knows Christ as Lord and Savior, and desires to please him has the tools to become more Christlike.

The question is will the law be a scorecard or a gameplan?

Will our treatment of the law just bring us disappointment at falling short again and again, or will we treat it as the best consultant on the planet?

Companies would pay top dollar or Yen or Euro to have a consultant so well versed in business skills as the Law of Moses and the entire word of God are in our personal development.

Businesses covet a 24-hour-a-day consultant who is available every day and as sharp at zero dark thirty as at 9 am. They’re hoping AI will get them there, and it may help. We have such a consultant but how often does it sit on the shelf or our dashboard or where did I put that thing...

What are we to do with the law now that Christ is our everything?

Put it to use as what the Hebrew people knew it was all along, a guide to good living, a model for living God’s way, or divine words that should be written on our hearts.

Those who think the law is useless miss the all-encompassing love of God. He is evident in the creation itself. He is present in his directives.  His Spirt dwells within us.

We know his fullness in Christ Jesus but we should not dismiss the value of the law.

Some misread the second chapter of Colossians and say that the law was nailed to the cross. It was not the law nailed to the cross but the invoice for our indebtedness—our sin—that Paul says was taken from us and nailed to the cross.

Paul also tells us that the law is without efficacy when it comes to salvation. You can’t get there from here. Only Jesus gets us there.

But having arrived at this condition of salvation, we should concurrently be in the state of living by the law and such living not be a burden.

The law was not given as a scorecard by which we might obtain salvation, but for our own good, especially after we have received the gift of salvation.

We are purposed to bring glory to God’s name and blessed to enjoy him very much. That’s a Presbyterian thing. We get to enjoy God as we glorify his name.

Jesus called us friends because we were more than servants. We knew the will of the Father.

We are servants, but we also enter the realm of friendship with our Lord. We enjoy God as we serve him.

That means that we should also enjoy living by the law in our salvation.

There is another whole line of discourse concerning grace and the law that I will save for another day.  For now, know that the law is your friend and the best consultant you will find on the planet today.

Break out the law and hold a systemic inspection on yourself. The blood of Jesus made us right with God. The law’s counsel will help us live up to that righteousness the best that we can.

Amen.