An illustration...

On Sunday I preached a sermon on When we believe in God, but trust in money more.  And in it I explored the tension we face as we seek to trust God but inevitably trust in our money, resources, and possessions.  We looked at two biblical stories.. Zacheaus (Luke 19:1-10) who knew something was missing in his life and went in search of it... met Jesus... had lunch with Jesus at Zach's house and then responded by giving half of his possessions away and paying back all those he cheated 4 times what he cheated them from and after that, Jesus said, "Today salvation has come to this house."   And the nameless man in Matthew 19:16-26 who again knew something was missing... asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life and Jesus told him to keep the commands.... the man asked which ones, Jesus names 5 of the 6 TEN COMMANDMENTS that deal with horizontal relationships and the 1 of the GREATEST TWO that Jesus shares that deals with horizontal relationships and the nameless man says he has kept all those since childhood.  Then he asks Jesus what he still lacks.  Jesus tells him to GO, SELL all he has, GIVE the money to the poor, COME, FOLLOW him.  But the young man couldn't do that...  That is the tension we must live in...

On Monday (yesterday) I read this in David Platt's CHALLENGING but AWESOME book (Radical).  David shares a response to a sermon he preached on Mark's version of the Matthew 19 story of the nameless man.    David got an email from one of his parishoners who says, "My wife and I went home, emptied all our clothes onto the bed, got several bags of canned goods and all the baby clothes our son has grown out of in addition to the toys he doesn't play with anyomre.  I took several hundred dollars cash that I was saving to upgrade the front lawn and drove over to the projects downtown and prayed.  I prayed for the people I didn't know wh were about to receive what I had too much of. 

In the first house was a man of thirty who had a baby and needed some work clothes.  Perfect, I had my clothes to give him and the baby toys and clothes.  He needed money for groceries, so I gave him $100.  

The next house had three boys all under the age of twelve, so I gave them our TV, VCR, and two video game consoles.  Their mother needed some groceries, so I gave her $100.

The next house had a couple who needed some clothing for the wife and money for a car payment so I gave her my wife's clothes and $100.

We prayed with each family and told them we cam with God.  I got such a rush from this that we got home and got more things together to give away.  My wife and I are now consitently serving at the homeless center downtonw and I am going to start teaching art and graphics at the homeless learning center."

This guy didn't sell all he had, but he put his trust in God and decreased the things he might put his trust in instead.  And in the mean time, he blessed others!  I thought it was an incredible story and response to what God does in our lives when we trust him!