Evangelical Pastor on 'Things I Wish Jesus Never Said': Hard Teaching on Money
Even if one is a committed Christian, there are things Jesus taught in the Bible that are hard to follow and one simply wishes Jesus never said them.
That's why Mariners Church in Southern California is tackling these difficult teachings that people want to ignore head-on in its latest series, "Things I Wish Jesus Never Said," this past weekend. Pastor Doug Fields, who is now executive director of HomeWord's Center for Youth/Family at Azusa Pacific University but formerly served at Mariners Church and Saddelback Church, was the guest preacher to kick off the series about hard truths.
Fields examines Mark 10: 17-30, when a wealthy man asks Jesus what he can do to have eternal life. Jesus replies by telling him to sacrifice, a word Christians rarely like to hear, Fields says.
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"'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,'" Mark 10:21 reads.
Using the metaphor of a classica Red Ryder wagon, Fields says that all Christians are towing around the important "items" in their life. An issue arises when Christians become more focused on the contents of their wagon compared to their walk with Jesus. It is then that they must sacrifice their metaphorical wagon, or the things that "prop you up in your life and serves as your identity," and when they do, they can start living out their eternal life with Jesus.
So what makes up people's identity – their precious earthly belongings or their relationship with Jesus?
In the book of Mark when Jesus tells the rich man to sacrifice his possessions, he is exposing what is in the young man's wagon, and therefore "revealing the affection in his heart," Fields explains. "The stuff in your wagon can get in the way of you following [God]."
"Get rid of the stuff that's going to get in the way of you and [God] walking together," Fields urges.
For the wealthy man in the story, "What was in his wagon was more important than Jesus […] he wasn't pulling his wagon, his wagon was actually pulling him."
Christians may then ask themselves, "If I sacrifice the items in my wagon, what's in it for me?"
As stated in the verse, Jesus says that those who sacrifice will not only have eternal life after death, but they can start living this experience of eternal life right now.
It's comparable to going to the Disneyland theme park, says the California pastor, but only staying at the entrance when you have the entire park to explore.
Fields concludes his message by encouraging listeners to look into their own wagon and determine what they need to sacrifice so they may better follow Jesus.
When people do this, "They begin to see the stuff they put in their wagon is not as important as they once thought it was" and they never want to go back.
