“7 Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff: no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, 9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13 They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”
Mark 6:7-13.
This is such a challenging text for so many people who hoard and collect things they never use. Our country is loaded with storage shelters where we store things we don’t need or ever use. Yet we buy so much more than we need — in fact many more things than we ever need. I love to watch the home building and remodeling shows on TV, for example. But I can’t believe the need for closets we can walk into, and even sit down inside. Yet what Jesus is telling us today is that this is decidedly such an unChristian and selfish way to live. This is not how Jesus wants us to live. And believe me, this matters! Do we really need dozens of pairs of shoes? Having lived overseas I can tell you that the way we live is BIG. Our homes are big, our cars are big, and we need so much stuff with which to live. Why do we live this way?
Yet today we hear Jesus telling us to live with only what we need for our life. We don’t need dozens of pairs of shoes. We don’t need so much clothing that we have to store them in closets that are big enough to sleep in! I can’t imagine Jesus telling His disciples to go to their storage shelters before going out to share the Gospel. I have never seen Jesus in the airport waiting for his huge piece of luggage to pop out at the carousel.
Friends, there is a reason Jesus never performed a miracle at the storage shelters in Galilee!
So I am going to ask you to do something I have never asked you to do before today.
DO NOT PRAY ABOUT THIS! Instead, take inventory of all the stuff you own that you do not use and do not need. Take it to Good Will and change the way you live. Never forget these words of Jesus to His disciples: “Jesus ordered them to take nothing for their journey” Mark 6:8!
It does matter how we live!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner!
From the Bible:
“13 There is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owners to their hurt” Ecclesiastes 5:13.
“18 Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the Lord; her profits will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the Lord” Isaiah 23:18.
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” Luke 12:34.
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days” James 5:1-3.
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” Matthew 6:31-33.
“And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be”
Luke 12:16-21.
“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” Hebrews 13:16.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the things of this world, the love of the Father is not in you” 1 John 2:15.
“Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but whoever hides their eyes will get many a curse” Proverbs 28:27.
"My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus"
Philippians 4:19.
"I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need"
Philippians 4:12.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal" Matthew 6:19.
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