Week commencing 12th September 2021

Devotional Materials. Week Commencing Sunday 12^th September 2021

Call to worship

‘Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength…Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name. Come before him, worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness’ (1 Chronicles 16:28, 29).

Hymn (Piano)

Opening Prayer

You are the Lord of love. We marvel at this wonderful love you have for us. There are many in this world who seek their own glory and who would seek to influence or gain power over us, but they do not love us. But you, the Son of God gave up all, even your life on the cross to rescue us and bring us a Salvation we did not deserve. You are the lamb upon the throne.

You are the Lord of Life. We were ‘dead in our sins’. We lived our own way. We worshipped the material things of this life. We thought money was our security. But you give us freedom and life. You overcame death and one day we will be raised with you.

You are the Lord of Peace. Though we were your enemies you have reconciled us to yourself, and you have reconciled Jews and Gentiles who put their trust in you. By your Spirit you shoot down our troubled thoughts and emotions.

You are the Lord of Years. You have always been and always will be. We do recognise that you are the King above every King, Lord Jesus Christ. You are greater and more glorious; of greater value than anyone or anything else. Amen.

Reading. Mark 10:17-31. David Sivyour

¹⁷ As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.”

²⁰ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²² At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is^[b] to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

²⁸ Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰ will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Hymn (Piano)

‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.’ MP 590

Karen Lafferty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Y8Naj3RFk

Sermon. ’The Call to Total Surrender.’

After breaking hundreds of glasses during his practise attempts the American Ashrita Furman finally balanced 75 pint glasses on his chin for 10.6 seconds in his backyard on 26^th April 2001. During our first national lockdown in 2020, 100-year-old WWII veteran Captain Tom Moore raised a staggering £27,699,581 for the NHS by walking in his garden. This is the most money raised by an individual on a charity walk. His total on JustGiving now reaches over £33 million. Anyone who has ever looked at the Guinness book of world records is amazed and sometimes bemused by the dedication that goes into many of the achievements listed there.

At some point, either at our conversion or sometime later, we all have to answer the question, Will I dedicate my life to Jesus Christ? Will I make everything else secondary and live for Him? Will I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Is it true for me that “to live is Christ”? Total surrender to Christ.

Jesus encounter with the rich young ruler was a call to total surrender.

From a human point of view this man had it all. He had his youth. He had inherited great wealth. He had a high social standing. He was religious. He had kept all the commandments- “since I was a boy”- he said. But Jesus knew him more deeply. He put his finger on the young man’s wealth. “One thing you lack”, Jesus said “go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (10:21)

The rich young man was staggered by Jesus’ words. The disciples were too. We, as Christians find these words hard to believe.  What did Jesus mean by them?

Jesus’ command here is not a general prescription to be applied to all people. The specific form of sacrifice Jesus demanded of this man is not a rule demanded of each of us.

Nor is the specific act of selling your property and giving your money to the poor the way to eternal life- as if eternal life could be earned in that way. The New Testament is full of the fact that we cannot earn Eternal life by keeping laws. Eternal life is the gift of God.

Romans 3: 21, 22 describes a righteousness from God that is “apart from the law”, rather “This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” Paul gives Abraham as an example of how this has always been the case- Abraham was not justified by his own works, rather “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” (4:1-3)  Our own good deeds- and that includes giving to the poor- cannot justify us before God. Keeping the law cannot justify us before God. These will not gain us heaven. Rather we are justified by faith in Christ, on account of his merits and righteousness. As Romans 6:23 states “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus”

Eternal life is the gift of God to those dependent on Him. Jesus has just told his disciples the Kingdom of God must be received like a little child. (10:15).

When we look at our passage we see these same principles. It’s clear this young man thinks of goodness in terms of human achievement. He thinks of himself as good because he has fulfilled all the commands. In his eyes he is looking for confirmation from another good man that he has done enough. But Jesus answer “No-one is good-except God alone” (18) forces him to recognise his only hope is in utter reliance on God. He cannot rely on his own goodness or merit because only God is good.

And again we see the same theme in verses 23-27. The disciples are amazed at the implication it’s impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. It’s about as possible as a large animal, like a camel, passing through the smallest of openings- the eye of a needle!! It’s impossible!! They ask “who then can be saved? (26). Jesus says “with man this is impossible”. Salvation is beyond human possibility. Every attempt to enter the kingdom on the basis of human achievement or merit is futile. But not with God says Jesus- “all things are possible with God”

But if eternal life cannot be earned, if it is the gift of God then is anything required of us?

What is our response?

One of faith. Paul in Romans 3 having argued against righteousness by our own works refers to Christ’s sacrifice of atonement and that we have “faith in his blood” (25) Rather than try to impress God with your own good deeds, you see what God has done for you in Christ and humbly accept his provision for your salvation. The Bible describes Jesus as the perfect spotless lamb of God who has died in our place. His body was broken and his blood shed for you and I upon the cross. There he made atonement for your sins and mine.

The proud person resists such faith and dependence on God.

Nietzsche the German philosopher defined the good as the will to power. He admired Darwin’s emphasis on the survival of the fittest and dreamed of a daring ruler race. His writings in turn influenced Hitler. Nietzsche contemptuously dismissed the Christian view of God “God of the sick” he wrote, “God on the cross”. Baron Georg and Maria Von Trapp fled Nazi occupied Austria rather than co-operate with the Nazis. Rosemaria Von Trapp, one of the famous Sound of Music children had this to say about her famous parents: “Only yesterday I talked to high school students-sophomores-who were doing research papers about Hitler in Germany. They wanted me to talk about the Nazis. I told them that Hitler gave us a cross with hooks on it. But our Christian Faith gives us a symbol of a cross that brings freedom and resurrection. The world you know offers us a glossy cross with hooks on it. My father and mother had to make a choice. They chose the cross of Christ.”

Human Pride lies behind the belief you can gain heaven or indeed reject it by your own power. But it’s tremendously liberating to throw off such pride and instead praise God and give Him thanks for His rescue of us in Christ. We humbly put our trust in Him for our salvation. With man this is impossible but all things are possible with God!! Our faith is in Him.

But this Gospel calls for a greater response than anything the Law demanded. This Gospel demands total surrender.

At the cross someone becomes a Christian they renounce their own achievement. They turn from any pride in their own merit. Rather they accept Christ’s gracious forgiveness. When you become a Christian you are broken before God. Now through the Gospel God has absolute claim on your life. Before you thought your life was your own, but now you know it belongs to God your Creator and Saviour. He requires total surrender of your life to Him.

Keeping commandments is no substitute for this total surrender. A religious person may keep laws, but the essential them remains untouched. That person proceeds to live life their own way. Mentally they think they can pacify God by going through religious rituals. But that’s not Christianity! Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees for this attitude. The call of Christ is to follow him (21). The message of the rich young ruler, as Lane puts it, is this: “Jesus claims the man utterly and completely and orders the removal of every other support which could interfere with unconditional obedience”

God’s not interested in taking your possessions. What does God want with your things? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He’s addressing a deeper issue in his encounter with the rich young ruler and with you and me. The issue is of complete self-surrender to Him. He wants you- lock, stock and barrel. Are you willing to surrender the rights to everything you own or wish you had? Your ambitions and dreams?

The Lord will tolerate no other idols. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters- yes-even his own life- he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:25-27). When Jesus calls us to surrender our lives he’s asking for a loyalty and love next to which all other loyalties pale into insignificance and all other loves appear to be hatred.

The Lord has provided you with salvation. Eternal life is the gift of God. Have you come to the foot of the cross? Forgiven. Broken. Renouncing your own merits? Is your faith in him? Is your life now surrendered to him?

What will that surrender look like in our lives?

Money

It is particularly hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God; not because of their possessions, but because of the love of money (1 Tim 6:9, 10). The danger is that Money becomes a false idol. The temptation is to trust in Wealth, in material resources and power instead of whole hearted reliance on God. Some have literally followed Jesus’ advice to the rich young ruler when it comes to money. Francis of Assisi sold all he had and worked with the poor and diseased. His life has had an amazing impact and influenced the monastic Movement right up to the present day.

However, the general principle governing money and possessions scripturally is one of stewardship. This fits in with total surrender to Christ’s Lordship. Stewardship means recognising that everything you have belongs to God. Our culture says about material wealth; “I worked hard for it, I paid for it. It’s mine” But the Christian says “God is sovereign. He is Lord of everything in the earth and of everything I own. God owns it and I manage it. So everything we have, every spending decision is a spiritual decision.” That’s true of our offerings. The Old Testament guide is a 10% tithe. And that remains a reasonable guide. God deserves and expects the first fruit of our labour. (Proverbs 3:9, 10). The priority is to give to the local Church first and then secondly to parachurch organisations, charities and so on.

But all our decisions about money are before God. Remember God is loving and generous. He has given many good gifts that we can enjoy. Many gifts that we can share with others too. It’s not a sin to enjoy material things. But Money must never become our idol. If we are not giving then it is questionable that our lives are surrendered to Christ in this area.

If our wealth is surrendered to God, then we are also more likely to accept that he can take back things from us at any time. We must hold loosely to material things and offer these things to him for his use and not clutch them as though they were our life.

It is inspiring reading about those who have held loose to fame and wealth and prepared to give up these things for the sake of the Kingdom. Eric Liddell won the gold medal in the 400 meter race at the 1924 Paris Olympics. The film “Chariots of Fire” showed this achievement. But at the height of his fame he traded his track shoes for hiking boots, taking the Gospel message to the vast land of China. He could have become a wealthy man. He could have become an ambassador for the sport and lived in comfort and ease. But he had higher priorities.

So, in your decision making, do you just go for a job that gives you the most money, or do you take into account other factors more in line with God’s kingdom values? Has Money got a grip on you? Is the making of money all consuming? Are your relationships suffering? Who or what is your security in life? Money is an area to surrender to the Lord.

Total surrender should also be evidenced in our relationships.

The family. Are you obedient to Christ in this? Do you follow Scriptural principles here? Perhaps Ephesians 5 or 1 Peter 3. Wives do you submit to your husbands? that’s evidence that you are submitting to Christ. Not talking about servility or slavery or that you never say anything. But you have a respect for him because he is your husband. You’re not putting him down or treating him as though he merely exists to provide you with a certain life style. You recognise your husband is head of the family. Husbands is yours a loving leadership? Not withdrawing but leading, in a Christ like sacrificial way. Are you the first to apologise after an argument because you’re taking the initiative to get things sorted out. Are you overbearing and critical or patient and gentle? Are you looking to be a servant to your family rather than just live for your own pleasures?

Church relationships. Here there is to be a submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. The opposite of that is hostility. James 1:4 “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you. You want something but don’t get it.” How sad it is when Christians blame one another or envy or provoke one another or believe the worse of each other. Or look to promote themselves. We are not to entertain high thoughts of ourselves and compare ourselves favourably over others, neither are we to let others take the strain and do nothing.  Rather, it is because we are submitted to Christ that we are each willing to function within the Body in our own unique gifting and make our contribution for the benefit of the whole. Our outlook together should be as we find it in this prayer by Francis of Assisi: “Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love. Where there is injury pardon. Where there is discord, union. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen”

A third area is the total surrender of our bodies

Romans 12:1, 2 Paul says “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- which is your spiritual worship.” As Christians we must take responsibility for our actions. The way we use our bodies.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul explains the importance of fleeing from sexual immorality- he refers to fornication (sex before marriage), adultery, homosexuality or prostitution. He says “he who sins sexually sins against his own body” (18)

Someone has noted that the body is the last thing we surrender to God. We give him our spirit and say “Lord save me”. We give him our soul and say “Lord keep me happy and balanced” But the body is the last citadel we allow God to invade.

It is of course so difficult to accept it when a dear friend or loved one dies. When their body shuts down and they are taken away from us:

In a previous church where I was pastor, a missionary’s wife died after she had battled a chronic illness for many years. David and Becky were both in their early 50s at that time. But despite the pain, David was able to surrender Becky to the Lord. He was showing me around the gardens of Bulstrode- the headquarters of the missionary organisation WEC. He pointed out seeds planted there and wonderful plants that had sprung up from seeds sown in the past. He talked about those words from 1 Corinthians 15:42, 43 “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable, it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” The body that decays and dies in this life is the seed that becomes the flourishing plant in eternity. The new life- only known in part here- will be fully realised then along with a new body.

Francis Dixon writes “I heard recently of a child who found some beautiful eggs in a bird nest. After a few days he went back to look at them. Moments later with his heart breaking, he cried out to his mother, “There were some beautiful eggs in that nest but they’ve all been destroyed and there’s nothing left except bits of broken shell!” But his mother said “those eggs weren’t destroyed there were little birds inside those eggs! They broke the shells themselves when they got out, and now they’ve flown away. Can’t you hear them singing up in the trees? There’s a great lesson here for us. We look at our loved one who has died and we say, “Well that’s the end now- everything’s gone wrong. But then our faith tells us, “that’s not so” The shell has broken and the loved one has “flown away”, right into God’s presence.”

Already in these three areas, Money, Relationships and our Bodies we see total surrender can be tough. The process of surrendering our natural rights for the greater spiritual good hurts. In a fallen world Jesus had a right not to die, let alone be spat upon and cruelly mistreated- yet he didn’t make use of those rights. He obeyed the Father and went through the cross for our good and the glory ahead.

Similarly, although it’s tough surrendering ourselves before God, He purifies us within into what is truly best- Christ likeness. Is total surrender worthy it? It certainly is. If only the rich young ruler would have stayed. He would have heard these words: “I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the Gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age and the age to come Eternal life.” (29 30).

There is compensation living as a Christian both in this age and the age to come- the complete fulfilment of which lies ahead. God takes nothing away from us without restoring it to us in a new and glorious form. Outside of Christ lies idolatry which breeds enslavement, futility and increasing hopelessness. Following Christ is faith, hope and love to the full. Surrendering to him is life itself.

…………………………………………………..

Hymn (Guitar)

‘Praise is Rising’ MP 1221

Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86d5SPPWQ6A

Prayers.  ( References: 2 Kings 2: 1-12: Ps. 50: 1-6: 2 Corinthians 4. 3-6: Mark 9: 2-9). Loving Lord, let your light shine in our lives, let its brightness fill our hearts and transfigure us; that seeing your glory, we may come to you in awe and wonder, and gazing upon you may be changed into your likeness, moving from glory to glory.

Come, Lord of light, transfigure us, increase our vision and reveal to us your glory. May your church seek to transform our darkest places with your light. May we seek out the lost and the deprived, the poor and the rejected, and bring them home to you and your love. We pray for the mission and outreach of the whole church.

Lord of light come transfigure our homes, that they may be radiant with your presence. May they be radiant with your presence. Make them homes of peace and kindness, of holiness and hospitality, of grace and goodness; that you may be known to be among us.

Lord of light and love, transfigure our hospitals and nursing homes. We pray for all whose lives have been marred by evil or tragedy. We pray for all who are downcast or fearful. We remember all who await a doctor’s diagnosis or an operation. We pray for all who seek healing and hope.

Lord touch us and transfigure us. Amen. (‘Traces of Glory’ David Adam)

Prayer for business owners and families facing financial stress.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your faithfulness in how you have guided and equipped people in their jobs and have provided in the past. It can be scary and overwhelming not knowing how bills and obligations will be met or to not be able to provide for families. As people feel financial strain during the uncertainty that comes with Coronavirus, bring them comfort and peace, reminding them that You are there for them. Provide for them in their times of need.

‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’ (World Vision)

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen

Hymn (Piano)