As we can see from Jesus' reply to the young man, all He asked of was ACTION. 'Go', 'sell', 'give', 'come' and 'follow me'. These same actions are being asked of youths today. 'Go' and 'sell' what you have. Get rid of the things that are impeding you from forming a stronger relationship with God.
"Like the young rich ruler,
many youths know what they have to do in order to get closer to God.
The problem is that they want to do it their way."
Give up the treasures that you hold dear to your heart; anything that comes first before God like friends, music, family, reputation, fame, recognition, etc. Things that you might even say are not first in your heart but through your actions and behavior, it shows otherwise.
The other actions Jesus pointed out were to 'Come' and 'Follow Me'. To get rid of our worldly treasures is the first step in having eternal life. The second step is to have Jesus Christ as your Leader and to live according to His will. The sad conclusion to the story of the rich young ruler is that he was unable to drop all his possessions in order to live according to God's will. "But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." (Matthew 19:22)
The other individual in the Bible who was faced with another similar situation was Zacchaeus. As you probably heard before, he was the man who climbed up the tree to see Jesus, (Luke 19:1-6). Like the young ruler, "...Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, and he was very rich." (Luke 19:2). However, unlike the rich young ruler, he was not asked to give up his possessions by the Lord Jesus; he did this voluntarily. "Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, 'Look Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold" (Luke 19:8).
Like Zacchaeus, most youths know what they have to do in order to get closer to God. So what is stopping them?
The main conclusion that can be drawn from this message is that God requires us to act upon what He reveals to us. Who do your actions take after, the rich young ruler or Zacchaeus?
Pr Luke Castro
YPG National Coordinator
8 comments:
This is a very powerful message..I guess the next question is..what do I DO after reading it. Do I take the neccessary steps to ensure thay my actions take after Zacchaeus or do I just walk away like the rich YOUNG man.."actions speak louder than words". Thank you for sharing this!
UYG member from Durban, South Africa
Nasreen Ahmad
Brooklyn N.Y,
Actions speak louder than words. If we want to make the differance and call Gods attention to us then we have to work our hardest and be the best at everything we do. Talk is cheap but when you want something you will do anything for it.
I pick His way... If I chose my own way I know I'll end up to a dead road..
So true Pastor.
We need to let Him do it for us, not us make our own way. We need to let Him gide us, control our life and trust that his choice is better than ours. Also He knows us better than ourselves.
In Faith
Mariana
Newark-NJ
This message is so strong.. what counts is not what we say, but yet what we do!!... our actions in reality it's what shows who we are, what we are and where we want to be... The best thing is to talk less and to act more.. For us to be a conquerer in life, we need to work hard and even exceed in what we do, rather than to talk and talk and not taking any actions.. Thank you for this post. :) God bless
This blog is strong because there alot of youth knows the things that they need to give up to get closer to god but they like to do thing thier own way thinking its the right way and when they get close to god then something holds them back and its like they want to controll thier lifes and not letting god to controll their life.I choose to pick His way because if i pick my way i know along the way im going to lost in this world.
We shouldn't be like the young ruler, because he put all of his possessions in first place but he lost eternal life. He wanted to do his will not God will. We should do God will and let Him guide us because He knows what is best for ourselves. Doing God will we could have eternal life. We should take the decision of doing God way not ours.
Most of us jump to say Zacchaeus, because he was the one who was blessed by God.
But, if we don't act as he did, and actually/voluntarily give what God whats from us, open handily, then we won't be blessed as he was.
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