Bulletins - Edgewater Lutheran Church

Good morning, guess what? There is always a chance, it is never too late.
There is this saying to be early is to be on time to be on time is to be late and to be late is unacceptable. That quote haunts me every time I am late for something. I feel defeated, like I failed.
Thankfully we serve a God that doesn’t see us that way, and even if we are late God is there waiting for you. We have a gracious God full of mercy that doesn’t want to see anyone lost but all to come to realization of the truth, the truth being that Jesus is God and died in our place so that we could go to heaven with Him. God’s ok if you are late, you have till your last breath to receive him.

Like many of us we have those close to us who don’t believe or who have rejected Christ out right. What do you do in that situation? Remember God will take them late.
Many years ago I wrote a song called “don’t give up” the chorus simply states, “don’t give up there is alway tomorrow, don’t give in there is always another day.”

These are words that have given me comfort through many seasons of my life, and I hope they will be an encouragement to you. We have another chance, its not too late. The words to this song came to mind as I was going through the lectionary picking this passage and studying it. Our reading is from Luke 18:18-34
I love this passage of scripture, there is so much going on here. The title of this section is call the “the rich ruler” or some variant of it. If I were to name this section I would name it , “reassure me of heaven.”

Luke 18:18-34 The Rich Ruler
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers[a] or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time
31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them.
Like most of scripture there are so many layers but to be respectful of time we will just do a short summary

this is the story of a fairly wealthy man who approached Jesus to find out what he had to do inherit eternal life.
In his discourse with Jesus we see that he checked all the boxes he answered all the right question he knew the Bible answers, He had followed the ten commandments and then Jesus threw him a curve ball give up everything you have to the poor . . .

That stumped him and he left pretty dejected

And Jesus follows up by saying how difficult it is for the rich to get to heaven.

Disciples standing with Jesus where surprised and said then who is able to get to heaven and Jesus answers with that classic line

“27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

That is the story in a nutshell, and we might be led to think hmmm,

Some may assume that Jesus doesn’t like rich people.

Wrong remember, both Abraham and Job, David, Solomon where all fairly wealthy, many of the women who support Jesus earthly ministry where independently wealthy. Joseph of Arimathea who was there at Christ burial was rich. This story has less to do with a man’s wealth, then with where his heart and identity lie.

What defines you, for the rich man it was his wealth, for some it might be our abilities, I make music it is very easy for me to make that who I am. For some it might be your job, your role as a mother or a father. The fact that you are fit, or you cook well. Maybe you are generous and that is your identity, maybe you are very frugal and that becomes your identity. Maybe you are a fixer, or a hugger, or maybe you don’t know what your identity is.

The rich man in this story walked away because his identity was his wealth it defined who he was, he followed the 10 commandments did everything he should have except surrender what is most precious to him.

Have we surrendered what is most precious to us?
Abraham did He was willing to sacrifice his son, and heir the bearer of his identity his legacy because God asked him to?
Are we able to even think in that direction?
We have to understand that in Luke’s time riches was associated with godliness, so giving that up seemed strange it was a sign that God was with you

So the disciples were coming from a point of view “if that rich guy who is so righteous can’t get into heaven what are our chances”
So in In their eyes salvation is impossible and it is to this that Christ answered that anything is possible with God.

Interestingly I don’t know about you but I have that verse used in many other contexts, someone wanting a Job, a girlfriend, a new house you name it

But here we see that the context of this verse has to do with something more noble that, God through the power of the holy spirit, changes people’s hard hearts to receive him as their Lord.

Would you agree with me the hardest thing to do is to change some one’s mind and or will. I can attest I am stubborn ask my wife. But don’t give up, God can do the impossible, he can change a person’s heart.

God can do it, and he is patient, like me it me awhile to get there but God accepts late comers, do you remember the parable of the vineyard workers?

Parable goes that a guy had a field and hired some guys at the beginning of the day and offered them a wages that they agreed to.

And every couple of hours he went out and found more men to work in his field, at around 5pm an hour before sundown he again invites more men to work.
When at sundown he pays them the ones who have worked since the morning are mad because they are not paid the same as the ones who have just worked an hour.

And they are answered in this way

I bring this up to prove my point that with God it is never to late.

Does that mean that you can live and act as you want without consequence. No of course not

Romans 6:15 reminds us 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!
But the fact is if this rich guy had a change of heart God would accept him.

Paul remind us in Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
This rich guy could boast about his wealth his ability to follow the law, he had reasons to be proud. Christ reminds us that we are flawed and broken and in need of a savior. We have a distinct advantage over some other folks, which is that we realize that we are broken, flawed people in need of a savior.
It took me a while to learn that, as a someone who had been raised in the church all of his life I thought that I was pretty good. I was always the christian kid in the group, they alway asked me to pray, they wouldn’t curse around me because they knew I wouldn’t like it. I was quite self-righteous and proud when I think about. God of course has some really neat ways of showing us our flaws and humanity. Right? most of us are blessed with that amazing mirror that shows our true self . . . its called a spouse, right, we see flaws we didn’t even know existed.
God used my wife to show me that I wasn’t perfect no better than the next guy. The rich guy needed to give away his riches, I needed to give up my pride, a work that is still in progress.
But like Jesus confronted the rich man about giving up what matter to him most, he encouraged me to give up what matter to me most my pride, and in doing so he called me as he was calling that rich man, into discipleship to become a follower of Christ.
I got married at 27 and God started to work on me then asking me to give up what matters most to me, its a work in progress and through the gift of forgiveness, Christ gift of the cross His blood shed in my place I get forgiveness every time I ask.
As mentioned before I don’t sin on purpose but when I do it is comforting to know that I am forgiven, that God gives me second, third and fourth chances through his son Jesus. There is always a chance it is never to late, as long as we have breath. This goes for us, but also others that are close to us who struggle or don’t believe at all.
God loves them, don’t stop praying for them it is never to late.
- - Luke 18:18–34ESV

Luke 18:18–34ESV