Transferring the Title
Dr. Larry Thorson
Luke 9:23-24;
Today we come to the end of our sermon series on Robert
Munger’s book,
My Heart, Christ’s Home, though there are small
groups that
are continuing in the study through the summer. This little book has helped over
ten million people to gain a deeper understanding of Christian discipleship by
picturing the human heart as a home with many rooms. Jesus not only wants to make His home in our
hearts, but to be the owner or lord of our lives. He doesn’t want to just rent
space in our heart.
There’s a big difference between renting
and owning. The house I sleep in is
owned by Bank of America to whom Martha and I paid $100,000 for the privilege
of being able to be called “owners of the property” which means we not only get
to make monthly payments back to them for the balance of the loan but we’re
responsible for the property taxes, insurance and 100% of its upkeep plus responsible
for any depreciation if we ever decide to sell before we’re 81. The
American dream, what a deal.
But think about it, with that title
“owners of the property” we don’t have to ask permission if we want to knock
down a wall in our house. It’s our
house, a small piece of the world that we have a little bit of control
over. As long as we make our payments,
we don’t have to worry about a landlord booting us out to put his aunt Tilly in
there. It’s our house.
If Jesus had his choice, he would rather
own us than rent us. But that
terminology has negative connotations because it harkens us back to the day
when white plantation owners owned and mistreated transplanted Africans. When the Civil War was over and slavery was
outlawed, the Africans couldn’t afford to return to
Nobody wants to be owned. We want to at least think that we’re free to
do anything we want to do whether we do anything or not. That even applies to being a follower of Jesus
Christ. We may say we’re willing to open
our heart and turn over ownership of our life to him but that’s not what we
really want to do.
We’re kind of like the visitors to the Bridger Wilderness Area of
the
It is clear that these people weren’t really looking for a
wilderness experience – but instead something comfortable and convenient, that seemed
like a wilderness experience. I believe that sometimes we can do the same with Jesus
– instead of the authentic thing, we want something comfortable and convenient
that smells like the Christian faith.
A number of years ago there was a cartoon in Leadership Magazine
which showed an advertisement for what was called, “Church Lite” that went
something like this: Has the heaviness of your old church got you weighted
down? Try us – the
Silly, but you get the point – we say we want to invite Jesus into
our heart but what we really want is just an insurance policy that assures we
won’t go down to the bad place. Insurance
is getting expensive these days but very few would turn their house over to an
insurance company to get a policy. Very
few people want to be owned.
In Luke 9:23-27 Jesus says it this
way, 23 Then he said
to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but
whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 Large crowds
were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me
and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters—yes, even life itself—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry
their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Now wait a minute. If
you’re alert
it sounds like Jesus is nullifying the fifth commandment which says “Honor your
father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord
your God is giving you.” Instead he’s using what’s called hyperbole – that is,
stating things in an exaggerated sense in order to make a point. For example if
we say that a man is as big as a house, or he eats like a horse, we are not
saying that he fills up
Imagine your spiritual heart as the home you own outright. You own it, not the bank, not some friend,
but you alone have the title. That will
be me at 81. Let’s say you invite a
tenant to live in one of the rooms of your house and he faithfully pays his
rent. One day he comes to you and says
“I know you’re getting up in age, I’d like to buy this house from you and then
you can rent your bedroom space back from me.”
That would be a big decision and a big commitment. You would need to study all the financial and
emotional factors involved in such a transaction. You’d probably talk to a lawyer or at least a
realtor. You’d get a property
appraisal. Hopefully you’d talk to your
wife and children about it. It would be
a big decision.
The same would have to be true if we were going to transfer the
title of our life over to Jesus. We’d
have to consider carefully what Jesus was calling us to, and make a thoughtful
choice as to whether or not we are going to live as His disciples, because it
is easy to jump into something without thinking about both the benefits – and
the costs.
There was a VISA check card commercial that has a man sitting in the
chair at a tattoo parlor expressing his love to his girlfriend Donna by getting
her name tattooed on his arm. Halfway through the procedure he asks how much it
will cost - $50.00. He pulls out his cash, and says, “Oh, I only have $41. The
commercial then shows the couple on the sidewalk, with Donna storming off, and the
guy yelling after her, "I’ll get it fixed." Zoom into the tattoo which
reads, "I love Don!” Consider the costs ahead of time – make sure you are
prepared with a VISA check card.
Now while Jesus isn’t working for VISA, he says something
similar in Luke
31 "Or
suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won't he first sit
down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one
coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not
able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and
will ask for terms of peace.
In other words Jesus is saying
“Understand what I’m calling you to – the personal cost involved.” He didn’t
come offering to be just our fire insurance. He didn’t come just to be our
friend. He’s the Lord of the Universe and he wants us to turn over our lives to
Him.
But maybe you’re like Bob Munger, the author we based this series
on who discovered that he was trying so hard to make the home of his heart what
God would desire. He put a fresh coat of
designer colored paint on all the rooms, tiled the entryway, installed carpets,
even those fancy plantation shutters on the windows, and redid the landscaping. You’ve tried to be as spiritual as you
possibly can. Finally he got to the point
where he was exhausted and thought to himself: “I’m getting tired of trying to maintain
a clean heart, and an obedient life.”
An even bigger hindrance is when you did all that and it doesn’t
even seem like God saw it or cared.
Maybe you really prayed hard about something and it seemed like God
could care less. It’s like he’s a slum
landlord. You know the type. They buy the foreclosure on your block that’s
been totally trashed and instead of going in and fixing it up they slap a
little for rent sign on the front lawn.
Then the only tenants who will rent the dump are people who have made
dumps out of their previous homes and got kicked out. God is not one of those slum landlords.
God also doesn’t follow the plan of the television show “Extreme
Makeover” where they take a livable house and completely bulldoze it down. That’s called a tear down. In upscale communities like
God doesn’t do that. God
sees the value in the unique, if not historical features he designed in
us. God is more interested in restoring us
than he is in demolishing us. But
restoration is much slower and much more expensive than replacement. That’s what’s taking so much time in our
lives besides our getting in the way of the workmen but that’s another chapter.
As we close this series we are faced with a decision – what are we
going to do with Jesus’ offer to take over? Here’s what Munger did. After
tiring of striving to live a Christian life on his own, Munger pictures the
surrendering of his life to Jesus like a close of escrow where he signs over
the deed to the home of his heart to Jesus. “Lord,” he says, “you have been my
guest, and I have been trying to play the host.
From now on you are going to be the owner and master of the house. I’m
going to be the servant.” He then gets
the deed describing all the house’s assets and liabilities, and signed it over
to Jesus. “He took my life that day and I can give you my word, there is no better
way to live the Christian life. He knows how to keep it and use it. A deep
peace settled down on my soul that has remained. I am his and he is mine
forever!” My Heart, Christ’s Home.
In real life there is no certificate
of title to your life. The closest we
have is a birth certificate and a Social Security card and we can’t sign those
over to God. We have to provide for
ourselves and perhaps our family so we can’t sign our money over to God. Our body needs rest so we can’t sign our
nights over to God. We have to eat so we
can’t sign our dinners over to God. We
have to have recreation and relaxation to keep us from having a nervous
breakdown so we can’t sign our free time over to God. What’s left?
You decide. “those of you
who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.