Are You Rejecting Christ Because of Something Temporal and Worldly?

Mark 8:36 says, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"  It is a question to ask people why are they are still not saved even after they have heard the Gospel.  One of the many reasons would be their worldly concerns prevented them from getting saved.  In the parable of the sower, the seeds that fell on the thorny ground represented people with worldly concerns.  The result was that such people who were pursuing after the lust of the flesh and their worldly ambitions that they did not get saved because they refuse to be saved.  For the last time, the parable of the sower is not about four different kinds of Christians but three are false converts and only one became a true convert.

Many people today are like the rich young ruler where they think nothing is wrong with them while they are caught in worldliness.  It is because while salvation is not by works but it can cost you a lot after you get saved.  Sometimes, some people get saved without counting the cost but because they get saved, they are more than willing to pay the cost of being a Christian.  Getting saved can mean your secular friends will leave you, you may get disowned or even lose your life in the process.  To the lost, salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ is a repulsive doctrine and getting saved from sin is something many people do not want.  They love their sin and they enjoy their sin while many of them think there is nothing wrong with them.  Their love for money is really a problem.  No wonder 1 Timothy 6:10 says that the love of money and not money itself is the root of all evil in today's society.  Most sinful activities get legalized because of the philosophy that, "As long as it makes money they it must be accepted." never mind the consequences of their actions.

You can see how people are like this situation from the Chick Tract "Busted".  This illustration through Doug the hot shot prosecutor.  Just take a look at all the words he says that his political career is at stake, he is afraid that people will turn against him and become a "religious nut" and take a look at the rest of his words.  He even says that becoming a Christian means no more of those sinful stuff and he likes sinning (and funny how many people love it and think they are morally good people) and do not want to give it up.  By default, people would never want the real Gospel that liberates people from sin but they would choose a false gospel that only liberates people from the consequences of sin and/or they adhere to the stupidity of the worldly prosperity gospel.

Many people refuse to get saved because there is "nothing in it" for them in the worldly sense.  It is possible to mock the Christian saying, "What has becoming a Christian done for you?  Look, Manny Pacquiao keeps losing his matches because he left the holy Catholic Church, the mother and stopped praying to Mama Mary.  You are punished by God.  Look at Marquez, he brought the Rosary and he was given strength by God to deliver the blows to Pacquiao."   When you get saved, God will take away worldly victories because they can be a huge obstacle to glorifying God.  Christians are still not sinless so God works daily to make them produce more fruit.  Remembering the good soil hearers produce varying degrees of fruit in the Christian life, not all Christians are that productive so God in His love intervenes to make them more fruitful.  Some thorns, hardness and shallowness might still be there so He lovingly works to make them better.  One of the ways He does that is to kill worldly achievement so more roots mean more fruit.

It is a problem that many people today may be having lots of money but are they really at peace?  It may give them all the pleasure of the world but they want more money in their accounts than Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives.  Many of them end up getting "too busy to listen" to the point that they end up destroying themselves.  It is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle because rich people tend to think they do not need God.  While some rich people are Christians but many of them are not.  Rich Christian businessmen may be praised for their achievements but just let them speak against the sins people think are okay then expect the whole world to go against them because they love God more than money.  It was just like when Chick-Fil-A as an establishment spoke against same sex marriage and a whole lot of badmouthing happened against it.  Rich Christians are blessed by God and they know they really own nothing from that wealth, it was only entrusted to them to serve God while the unsaved rich people just want to pursue more wealth to their own demise.

When it comes to riches, King Solomon knew what it was to be ensnared by them when later in his life, he made a lot of foolish choices.  In Ecclesiastes 5:10-11, we read that he mentioned that those who love riches will not be satisfied with riches.  I guess during that time in his life, he thought that just a little more and it would be enough but it was never enough.  He was a foolish man and worldly wise for some time when he had the pleasure of 999 other wives even if the Song of Solomon, he only had one true love namely the Shullamite woman.  My theory in the Book of Proverbs is that "my son" refers to Solomon.  It was possible that God spoke to Solomon early in the latter's reign and told him to write down the words of wisdom for him to live by.  Proverbs 30:7-9 says that the best pursuit of life is to get neither poverty nor riches but to meet one's needs.  He chose to ignore the advice in Proverbs which later in Ecclesiastes, he wrote a whole chapter dedicated to his restoration from his severe backsliding that would later tear Israel and Judah from each other.

The question that may ring throughout many people in Hell who died pursuing riches instead of God is, "Was it worth rejecting Jesus for all the worldly wealth that does not last?"  It is no wonder Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."