Faith on the Go: Ep:7: The Trap of Comfortable Religion: A Rich Young Ruler's Dilemma"

0:00 Hello, and welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast. We are continuing our Faith on the Go series with episode six, Too Familiar with Wealth, Too Far from Surrender. The story is about the rich young ruler and the trap of comfortable religion. We're still on our series of The Curse of Familiarity, and I'm your host, Connie Morris. Once again, welcome to Faith on the Go with your host, Connie Morris, where we keep it real, raw, and rooted in the Word. In today's episode of The Curse of Familiarity, we're going to have a conversation.

0:43 We're going to listen in on a conversation that Jesus had with someone who had everything but was still missing what mattered. You know, someone like that, someone who has everything, but still missing what matters. They got all the designer purses and nice fancy cars. They're just looking very suave, but they are missing what matters. So we're talking here about the rich young ruler. He kept the commandments. He honored the law. He looked holy on paper. But when Jesus told him to let go and follow him, he walked away.

1:26 Today's episode is titled, Too Familiar with Wealth, Too Far from Surrender. Because some of us have gotten too comfortable with comfort and too casual about surrender. What does that mean? Let's unpack it. This is Faith on the Goal, Real Talk, Real Growth, wherever you go. So let's go to Mark chapter 10, verses 17 through 22. I'll be reading from the NIV translation. And it reads, As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him.

2:07 Good teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus tells him, you know the commandments. And the man replies, teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy. Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lacked, he said, go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me. At this, the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. Let's take a pause here.

2:49 This man saw Jesus. He ran up to him. Remember, Jesus didn't call him out. Jesus was doing what he normally do. And this man ran up to him. He said, good teacher. Here, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do to be saved, he asked, right? What must I do to be saved? And he tells them, I know the commandments. And he says, there's one thing you're lacking. And he says this, go sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come and follow me. Jesus said, you do this one thing, you can actually be my disciple.

3:34 And this man looked at him and he said his face fell. So at first he's smiling and he's like, man, I got everything together. He probably planned it all. You know how we have a plan. When I see Jesus, I'm ready. I'm prepared. But Jesus asked him a hard thing. and his face fell and he went away sad because he had great wealth. He had the stuff, right? But he did not have Jesus. How many people do you know that has the stuff? They look good on the outside, but they do not have the Jesus on the inside.

4:14 This man knew the rules, but he did not understand the relationship. He followed the commandments, but refused to follow Jesus. It reminds me of people who can quote all the scriptures, but they still live in sin. The scriptures, they have it in their head, but they don't really have the scriptures in their heart. Or the people too, who can still quote the scriptures, but can use Jesus' name as a curse word. They have it, but then they don't. Because this familiarity with wealth made surrender too uncomfortable. God would ask you, Jesus would ask you to do the hard thing.

4:58 He saw that one thing that was keeping him from intimacy with him, and that was his wealth. And he said, you know what? I'll give you treasure in heaven. Right? Treasure in heaven if you would just do that one thing. So what's the story about the curse of familiarity? Let's go. Sometimes it's not our sin that blocks us. It's our comfort. The rich young ruler wasn't evil. He was disciplined. He was polite and probably respected, but he loved his lifestyle more than he trusted God's plan. I'm going to say that again. He loved his lifestyle more than he trusted God's plan.

5:44 He knew how to look religious, but not how to live surrender. We have, you know, we have the people that look all holy. You can see their halo, right? But then you don't know their heart. You don't know, are they giving up everything for Jesus? He did not want to give up that one thing. And that was his will. But here's a deeper part. He said Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus wasn't being harsh. He wasn't being mean. He wasn't asking for nothing that he knew he wasn't going to return in the end. You know, Jesus doesn't ask you for something that he's not going to give back to you.

6:29 It might not come back tomorrow, right? But in the end, you will be rewarded for your faithfulness, for your surrender. But he was being real. Jesus wasn't being harsh, but he was being real. Because Jesus' love tells you the truth that your money can't buy. Money can't get you to heaven. He says, put your treasure in heaven. So his true heart wasn't really surrendered to the love of Jesus, right? His true heart was focused on his money, right? So how do we do this in the natural? So we can frown up on the rich young ruler, but what are some things that we do in the natural that may be similar to this rich young ruler?

7:21 We say we want to follow Jesus, but only if it doesn't touch our bank account. You know, we can do a tally of the people who actually give to their church. They might be a member of their church, but are you a regular tither? Are you a regular offering? Do you give, you know, when they're a special guest, they ask, do you, they say, hey, can you bless the guests? Are you the first one out of there before they give the offering? Is that you? That's similar to the rich young ruler. When you start asking for money, are you the first one to kind of skirt out the back doors of the church?

8:04 Maybe not even the back doors because you can't have access to the back doors if you're a congregant. How about the front doors? We say, use me, Lord, but not if it costs us status, control, or comfort. How about that? Lord, I want to be used, and then he asks you to do something, and you go like, ooh, that's going to embarrass me. Ooh, I won't look right in that picture. Ooh, I'm going to be a little uncomfortable. Hmm, that's similar to the rich young ruler, right? Just don't make me uncomfortable, Lord. I would do what you asked me to do, but just don't make me uncomfortable.

8:45 We'll fast and pray, but we won't forgive, release, or let go of our idols. Remember, the rich young ruler idol was money. What's yours? Is your idol still trying to say, I'm going to just be mad at this girl or this guy until? Until what? When God is telling you to let it go. If you're a prayer, if you're a person that spent a lot of time in prayer, God will not have you hold on to any unforgiveness. He won't let you hold on to a lot of things in his presence. He's going to ask you to let it go. Same thing here. Remember the wrist-hearing rule that ran to Jesus?

9:27 Jesus didn't run to him. He ran to Jesus. And Jesus said, I said, one thing I want you to do, sell everything and give it to the poor. And he said, I don't think so. And he walked away. But just like the rich young ruler, many of us are almost obedient. We'll follow Jesus until he asks for what we don't want to give. I'm going to say that again. Like the rich young ruler, many of us are almost obedient. We'll follow Jesus until he asks us, ask us what we don't want to give.

10:10 Let's do this. Four surrender checks to avoid this trap. So let's not, how many of you raised your hand, right? I want Jesus. I don't want anything to come between me and Jesus. Not even my money. Right? So what's my true, number one, what's my true treasure? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, Matthew 21. Where your treasure is, is where your heart will be also. So check where your heart is. Where is your treasure? That's where your heart is. Number two, is my obedience conditional?

10:50 Do I say yes, Lord, with some strings attached? When you're a new Christian, we got all kinds of strings attached because we want to be safe. We don't want to be getting into nothing. We're still learning Jesus. We're still getting to know him, so we don't want to get out there too far. But as you get older, you begin to set up a relationship with him. And you know, the further you go, you know, he's still got that strap on you. He's not going to let you drown. He's not going to let you get too far. He's right there with you. So how do you know, how do you say these are surrender checks and how to avoid these traps?

11:32 So what is my true treasure? Is my obedience conditional? Number three, can I follow without knowing what's next? He says to the rich young ruler, sell all you have, then come follow me. Jesus didn't promise comfort. He offered to call. He offered him a call. He said, follow me. How many know that sometimes ministry, you don't know what's next. Sometimes just follow him, just a regular Christian. You don't know what's next. But can you follow him without asking what's next? What's next, Lord? And just go with the flow.

12:14 Number four, have I confused performance with surrender? You lack one thing. It's not about how much you do. It's about what are you willing to give up. Let's do this one more time. Number one, what is my true treasure? Where your treasure is where your heart will be also. Two, is my obedience conditional? And can I follow without knowing what's next? And have I confused performance with surrender? Final, it says the Christian ruler walked away from Jesus with his money, but without the Messiah.

12:58 He had everything in his hand, but nothing in his heart. In 2025, God is still asking the same question. Will you let go and follow me? Will you let go and follow me? It might not be money for you. Sometimes it can be friends. It could be whatever he's asking you to let go, and then you decide that that's not, that's more important than, it could be friends, it could be letting that anger go from a foe, it can be moving away from your friends, it could be whatever he's asking you to do.

13:40 But this question I'm posing to the audience, will you let go and follow me? Don't let wealth, comfort, or religious routine block you from real surrender. The invitation is still on the table, but it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you something. It's going to cost you something. Let's pray. Lord, I don't want to walk away from you holding what you told me to release. Break every idol. Search my heart. Show me what I have clung to that's keeping me from full surrender.

14:24 Let me trust you more than I trust comfort. In Jesus' name, amen. Like, let me let go. Let me let go of what's keeping me from you. I know. Isn't that good? Let me let go of what's keeping me from getting closer to you. It could be food. A lot of times we know, like, I think I always notice people who may have, like, I know I have a fetish for potato chips and Doritos. I don't eat them a lot, but when I get them, I just don't know how to stop. So I don't buy them in the house. I don't keep them like in a, you know how we buy snacks and we keep them in a cabinet?

15:08 That's not going to work for me. I just don't buy them because I'm going to think about them and I want to go eat them. And so I like, okay, I'm going to let those go. Simple thing, right? How about fasting and prayer? As soon as you start to fast, you get thinking about crazy foods that you haven't had in a while. So what can you let go that's keeping you from getting real close to the Lord, separating you? What's that barrier? We just prayed. I hope that works for you. We know it works. Prayer does work. So he's going to ask you to do something. Go ahead and do it. See what happens. See what happens. So this has been Faith on the Go with your host, Connie Morris.

15:54 Don't be a fan of Jesus. Be a follower. Don't settle for being almost obedient when he's asking for everything. I like that. Almost obedient is disobedience. Right? What's your plan? We're talking about that familiarity. Whenever we can just run, this is so familiar, you run up to Jesus and then you walk away like he was a nothing. Come on out, you get a chance to be in the presence of Jesus and he asks you, you're in his presence and he asks you something. And you turn away and walk away and don't do it.

16:37 In the natural, you saw this guy, he saw Jesus in the flesh. We experience Jesus in the spirit, and we know when Jesus is talking to us. And so we get so familiar with his presence that we'll walk away and say, I don't have, because we don't have him in the flesh, come on. But yet we'll walk away from him and say, I don't have to do that. I'm not, please, I'm out. And then the Holy Spirit will come back and remind you, because Jesus is not going to let that go like that. Come on. And so you're going to come back and you're going to still say no. That's that familiarity kicking in, that you are so familiar with that presence that you do not, you're so familiar with more of the natural, let's talk about it, and not so familiar with his presence that you just disregard him speaking to you as nothing, as not divine, as not holy.

17:41 As like, I have an option here. I know something to think about. Take when Jesus says, it reminds me of the story when he was at the wedding and his mother, Jesus hasn't did any miracles yet, nothing. And his mother said, we need some wine. And she didn't say it twice. She said, Jesus, we need, we out of wine. And then his mother said, whatever he says, do it. And Jesus went on and made wine out of water. Think about that. His mother wasn't familiar with, didn't get to eat.

18:23 She gave birth to this baby, birth to Jesus, but yet she never, ever got so familiar that she never expected him to do what he was gifted to do. And so when we get so familiar with Jesus that we just kind of ignore his voice, that we decide that we have an option, like it's multiple choice, that we don't get to, we get, oh, I'm going to do B. I'm not going to go A. I'm going to pick no on this one and not do it. Think what that does. Once you say no, it becomes so easy, and then you get so familiar, and then you don't do it. And then it becomes really not almost obedient, it's disobedient.

19:06 So I'm going to let you go on that one. Something to think about, right? You run, I need Jesus to do this. I'm crying out for him and he asks you to do one thing. And you go like, I can't do that one thing. Every time Jesus talks to us, it's holy. Everything he tells us to do is holy. And when we get so familiar that we can say no and walk away, then we're too familiar with him. And so this is, I was going to say officer, but this is your host Connie Morris with Faith on the Go and the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. So nice to have you here. So nice for your support.

19:49 We are now rocking at 1.3 thousand downloads because of you. So until next time, see ya.