One Thing Thou Lackest
Scripture: Mark 10:21Devotional Series: The Integrity of God's Word
Teaching: The Integrity Of God's Word pt. 5 (SUN_PM 2021-06-27) by Pastor Star R Scott
The seed of the Word might be sent forth for regeneration; for others, we need this seed sown into our lives to bring about patience and stability and consistency; amen? Do you need patience? He talks about that. But we have to be careful: if the ground is not good, then a stony heart will cause us to faint when God allows trials to purify us, because we have no root in ourselves. When things get tough, our tendency is to run and hide, and to blame God and others when we fail. Oh, beloved, it’s time to break up the fallow ground and receive the Seed of God’s reproof and rebuke and trials and tribulations and the persecution that come for the Word’s sake. Every one of us could use that in our lives.
He talked about the wayside condition: our hearts can become distracted at times. So many of us have taken decades to prepare for what we thought would be a good, full life. We wanted our children to have it better than we do. Then we find ourselves in prayer and intercession, and we hear God say that He has other plans for you. Let me remind you of what the plan of God for you and me is: He plans for you and me to experience a daily death process. That doesn’t sound too exciting, does it? But it’s a reality. It’s so sad when those great truths fall upon that trod‑down path (the wayside experience). Jesus said that they understand it not, and Satan comes immediately and removes that Seed.
There is that Seed, that Scripture, sitting there ready to germinate and set us free from all of the fears, anxieties, self‑will, and ambition, but they understand it not. When God’s Word comes and we understand it not, Satan will immediately remove that Word from our lives. In the Greek we saw that understand means “to become united with,” “to become fully one with” the revelation of whatever truth God places into your heart. It can be lost if we just pause to take under consideration the direction or the commandment of God’s Word. In a nutshell, what we are talking about are people who become hearers of the Word and not doers. They didn’t unite with it. They heard the Word; they understood it; knew exactly what God wanted them to do; but they were not willing to pay the price of sacrifice at that time.
Let’s remember the tragedy of that rich young man who came to Jesus. Now, remember who this young man was. He was a wealthy young man and he was also a pious young man. This was a man who was pursuing God. By the grace of God, he had been illuminated—God had touched him and given him this limited revelation of God—so he comes to Jesus and says, “Good Master, I am pursuing but I haven’t found yet. What must I do to be saved?” You remember the Lord’s response: “‘Why callest thou Me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He saith unto him, ‘Which?’” It’s very interesting that Jesus quoted to him what we refer to as second tablet of the Decalogue—the Ten Commandments are broken up into two different categories: ones that are toward God and ones that are toward man.
As Jesus brought forth these truths to him, he said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up,” the man‑ward things: I have served my brothers and I have not killed or had a murderous heart. “Then Jesus…loved him, and said unto him, ‘One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.’” It says that he dropped his head and walked away, for he was very rich. (Matthew 19, Mark 10). We spent a lot of time just a few months back talking about the danger of riches; didn’t we? It is a difficult thing for a rich man to get into heaven. We need to take that seriously, folks.
We talked about the biblical definitions of rich and poor, and we identify that the rich, in our eyes, are usually somebody who has more than we do. The millionaire would point to the billionaire and say, “That guy really has some jack, man!” But let me remind you of this: You are very wealthy having just food and raiment; amen? Jesus takes it a step further with contentment. He made it very clear, even in the Lord’s Prayer, give us this day our daily bread. If you have daily bread, then you are rich; your needs are met. Often, we look at it as being more than enough, more than sufficient, more than our daily bread; but it’s not the superabundance that many of us today would think. But, if we would not compare ourselves by ourselves, we would see how rich we are. All you have to do is step outside this country, travel around a bit, and you will see the billions of people who don’t have their daily bread, who don’t have potable water to drink, but must go to the rivers and draw water that gives them so many of the ailments they have, and have only one change of raiment.
He talked about the wayside condition: our hearts can become distracted at times. So many of us have taken decades to prepare for what we thought would be a good, full life. We wanted our children to have it better than we do. Then we find ourselves in prayer and intercession, and we hear God say that He has other plans for you. Let me remind you of what the plan of God for you and me is: He plans for you and me to experience a daily death process. That doesn’t sound too exciting, does it? But it’s a reality. It’s so sad when those great truths fall upon that trod‑down path (the wayside experience). Jesus said that they understand it not, and Satan comes immediately and removes that Seed.
There is that Seed, that Scripture, sitting there ready to germinate and set us free from all of the fears, anxieties, self‑will, and ambition, but they understand it not. When God’s Word comes and we understand it not, Satan will immediately remove that Word from our lives. In the Greek we saw that understand means “to become united with,” “to become fully one with” the revelation of whatever truth God places into your heart. It can be lost if we just pause to take under consideration the direction or the commandment of God’s Word. In a nutshell, what we are talking about are people who become hearers of the Word and not doers. They didn’t unite with it. They heard the Word; they understood it; knew exactly what God wanted them to do; but they were not willing to pay the price of sacrifice at that time.
Let’s remember the tragedy of that rich young man who came to Jesus. Now, remember who this young man was. He was a wealthy young man and he was also a pious young man. This was a man who was pursuing God. By the grace of God, he had been illuminated—God had touched him and given him this limited revelation of God—so he comes to Jesus and says, “Good Master, I am pursuing but I haven’t found yet. What must I do to be saved?” You remember the Lord’s response: “‘Why callest thou Me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He saith unto him, ‘Which?’” It’s very interesting that Jesus quoted to him what we refer to as second tablet of the Decalogue—the Ten Commandments are broken up into two different categories: ones that are toward God and ones that are toward man.
As Jesus brought forth these truths to him, he said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up,” the man‑ward things: I have served my brothers and I have not killed or had a murderous heart. “Then Jesus…loved him, and said unto him, ‘One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.’” It says that he dropped his head and walked away, for he was very rich. (Matthew 19, Mark 10). We spent a lot of time just a few months back talking about the danger of riches; didn’t we? It is a difficult thing for a rich man to get into heaven. We need to take that seriously, folks.
We talked about the biblical definitions of rich and poor, and we identify that the rich, in our eyes, are usually somebody who has more than we do. The millionaire would point to the billionaire and say, “That guy really has some jack, man!” But let me remind you of this: You are very wealthy having just food and raiment; amen? Jesus takes it a step further with contentment. He made it very clear, even in the Lord’s Prayer, give us this day our daily bread. If you have daily bread, then you are rich; your needs are met. Often, we look at it as being more than enough, more than sufficient, more than our daily bread; but it’s not the superabundance that many of us today would think. But, if we would not compare ourselves by ourselves, we would see how rich we are. All you have to do is step outside this country, travel around a bit, and you will see the billions of people who don’t have their daily bread, who don’t have potable water to drink, but must go to the rivers and draw water that gives them so many of the ailments they have, and have only one change of raiment.