To Follow Me You Must Sell All You Have

CIf you have your Bible on, I hope you do, turn to Luke chapter 18 with us this
morning. We are going to be continuing today our continuing study. This is our
second of five sermons on it's what we're calling Jesus said what. We're looking at
some of the hard sayings of Jesus, both hard at points to understand exactly what
he's saying, but also hard to apply and implement in our lives. Challenging
statements from Jesus in the Gospels. And the text we're gonna look at this morning
is a text where we find a man coming to Jesus and asking him about how to inherit
eternal life. And Jesus tells the man that in order to inherit eternal life,
he must sell everything he has and give it to the poor. Now, if somebody came to
you and said, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" And you said to them,
"Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, I would say, no, no, no, that's
the wrong. That's not right. That just sounds, that's not how you share the gospel
with somebody. And yet that's what Jesus said to this man, and I, far be it from
me, to contradict Jesus about how to share the gospel. So what's he doing here?
Did, he didn't get it wrong. What do we need to learn from this? It sounds like
Jesus is telling this man that in order to merit salvation, to earn his salvation,
there are things he must do instead of pointing him to grace. And so this morning
we wanna look at this exchange between Jesus and this man, his question, Jesus'
answer, and try to see how we're to understand this and what it means for us.
Jesus also goes on to say that it's pretty near impossible for rich people to go
to heaven, which should put all of us on notice. Okay, so a lot to look at.
Let's take a minute and pray and then we'll read our passage this morning. Father,
we are grateful that you have given us not only your word but your spirit who is
our teacher. We are grateful that when we come to passages like this where we can
read them and at first glance come away scratching our heads that your spirit is
the one who can guide us into truth.
18 is where we are you follow along as I read this is the word of God for the
people of God and
A ruler asked him good teacher What must I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said to him Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone
You know the commandments do not commit adultery do not murder do not steal do not
bear false witness honor your father and mother and He said all these I have kept
from my youth
When Jesus heard this he said to him one thing you still lack Sell all that you
have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and
follow me. When he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely
rich.
Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, how difficult it is for those who have
wealth to enter the kingdom of God, for it's easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" But he said,
"What is impossible with man is possible with God." And Peter said,
"See, we've left our homes and followed you." And he said to them, "Truly, I say
to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brother or parents or
children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more
in this time and in the age to come eternal life. Amen.
May God bless this reading of his word. The grass withers and the flower fades, but
the word of God will stand forever. So here's how we're going to divide up the
passage this morning. We're going to look first at the who this man is and the
question that he asks Jesus. Then we're going to look at the dialogue that exists
between the man and Jesus, then we'll see how the rich man responds to Jesus'
instruction, and then it wraps up with Jesus' exhortation and the promise that he
makes in the end of this passage. So let's dig in. Who is this man? Luke describes
him as a ruler. We're not sure what that means. Some level of power or authority
in his society, in his community. He may have been a civil magistrate of some kind.
He may have had some temple authority, may have been a ruler in the local
synagogue. We're just not sure. We know that he has some kind of power,
and we know that he's young. Luke doesn't tell us that he's young. We don't see
that in here, but Matthew points out to the fact that he is young. So he has
power at a young age. And We also know from the end of the account that this guy
is wealthy. He had lots, that's why he was sad, he had a lot of money. This guy
is set. He's young, he's respected, he's a leader, and he's got a lot of money.
And yet with all he has, this guy recognizes that there is still an anxiousness in
his own soul about eternal life. He has it made for this life,
but he's concerned about the life to come. He understands viscerally that his wealth
and his prestige and his power will not get him into heaven.
And honestly, in our day, you think about it, people who are young and rich and
powerful, They usually feel invincible. They usually are thinking,
what do I need to worry about? They got life by the tail. They got everything they
need. Keep that thought in mind as we go through this passage. This man is alert
enough to his condition to recognize that he's not prepared to die. I've said many
times here, my chief responsibility as a pastor in a local church is to make sure
you're ready for that day. There's really nothing more important than we can talk
about than, "Are you ready for that day?" Mark is the one in his gospel who tells
us that this man was not asking this question theoretically. This was not just, "I'm
curious about this." Mark says, Luke says, a ruler asked him, but in Mark's gospel
it says, "A man ran up to Jesus, knelt before him and asked him, 'Good teacher,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" This is an urgent burden on this man's
soul. He runs to Jesus, he falls at his feet and says, "I'm begging you, help me
here." His soul is troubled. There's urgency and there's passion.
You get the picture, young, wealthy, position of respect and power and he's devout
and he's committed, we see in the passage that this is somebody who is faithful to
keep the law as he understands it but he has no assurance in all of that of his
eternal destiny. He knows there's something missing in his life. And notice that
Jesus, he calls Jesus "good teacher" and Jesus he's in immediately on that statement.
Jesus says, "Why do you call me good?" We'll come back to that. He says, "What
must I do?" Before he says, "Good teacher," I want to keep going through his
question good teacher. What must I do and this is key because this is how this man
is Processing it. He is thinking in order to receive eternal life. There are things.
I must do He sees this as a performance issue eternal life is something that you
receive based on what you do You have to do the right things or not do the wrong
things in order to merit eternal eternal life. This guy's already got an impressive
resume, and yet he still senses it's not enough. So he's saying, "I must have left
something out. What must I do?" He doesn't say, "What must I do to earn eternal
life?" He says, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Because he understands
somehow that eternal life is something that belongs to God, and that God gives to
those who are his children. That's how inheritance works. And he's understanding that
he may not be a part of the family of God, he's not an heir. And he asked about
the question of eternal life, which as we saw a couple of weeks ago when we looked
at the Greek word zoe, you remember that? Zoe is the word that doesn't just mean
the length of your life or your biological life, It means a quality of life. It
means an abundant life. What must I do to inherit it so that I can experience it
now and my soul can be at rest and so that I can know that I will experience it
for the future? In a sense, he's saying, "What must I do to inherit the life that
comes from God and goes on forever? I'm rich. I'm powerful. I have respect. I'm
devout. But something is missing. I'm not experiencing the abundant life That I'm
longing for What must I do to have that and?
This man interestingly enough brings the question to Jesus which tells me He's
probably already been to the synagogue and talked to the rabbis and they've told him
their answer Which is keep the law and he's been doing that and he's not there
He's been trying in vain to have the peace his soul is longing for based on his
law -keeping and his goodness. And he recognizes that's not satisfying me.
I read a tweet this week, I don't remember who it was that said it or I'd show
it to you here, but someone who is rich and famous on Twitter said, "I wish
everybody everywhere could have everything they ever wanted So they could see it
won't satisfy them
You get that point right if if you said My wildest dreams are these things I would
like to have this and this and this and this and this and you got it all tomorrow
You would go to sleep tomorrow night going that's nice, but it just doesn't
You think you think famous Hollywood people who are rich and powerful and famous and
are well -known Do you think they experience joy and peace in their lives? Of course
they don't that's why we read about them in the tabloids That's why we read the
stories of their messed up relationships and their drug use and why they're in rehab
because they're longing for Something and pursuing it thinking that more fame will
get them there more money will get, and it doesn't. The rich and powerful are not
the people whose lives are most characterized by peace and joy. They work hard,
and they work, and they get all that this life has to offer, and they say, "This
is not it. Maybe you're here this morning and you're like this man. Maybe you have
felt like you've got this life by the tail, but you still don't have peace. Maybe
there's a longing in your own heart. Maybe your soul is unsettled because you
recognize something is missing.
Well, we'll see what Jesus has to say to this man about what's lacking in his
life. So that's the man in the question. Verse 19 is where we turn and see the
response from Jesus. And first, Jesus asks him this rhetorical question when he says,
"Why do you call me good. He's not asking him because Jesus doesn't know why he
calls him good. He's wanting the man himself to stop and reflect on what he just
said.
He wants this man to stop and go, "Do you understand why you just identified me as
good?
What is it you see? What is it you recognize? This is important." And then he
says, "No one is good except God." This rich young ruler came to Jesus,
and it's an unusual expression in the Hebrew. Most people would come and they would
say rabbi. This man says rabbi tov, which is good rabbi, good teacher.
It's not a common designation that Jews would give to rabbis. Good rabbi is not
something that was regular. And so for this man to say it is unusual and Jesus
says that's interesting. Why did you just call me good, you know? Do you understand
why you call me good? Think for a minute about this, only God is good. So why did
you use that term for me? I think Jesus is asking this man right here, do you
understand a little bit about who I am? Did you come to me and call me good
because you are starting to see with spiritual eyes the reality of who I am.
When he says only God is good, he's connecting what you just called me good, only
God is good, do you see that those two fit together in me? Are you starting to
see that I'm more than just a rabbi? If one of you came up to me after the
service this morning and you said to me, omniscient teacher, right? or all -powerful
one. If you called me that, I would say, "No, no, no, no, no. That's not me. Only
God is those things. God is all -powerful or all -knowing, not me." But when Jesus
is approached and this man calls him good, notice Jesus does not say, "Don't call
me that."
He says, "Do you know why you called me that? Only God is good. Are you making
the connection?
You realize why you called me good teacher. I think Jesus is modeling something for
us here. The first thing Jesus does in this encounter with this rich man,
in this conversation, is he wants this rich man to focus on who God is and the
character of God. This man says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And He
says, let's talk about the character of God first. He takes the conversation in that
direction. There is a God, he is good, he alone is good. Do you understand that?
In the progress toward eternal life, that's the starting point. Do you realize
there's a God and what do you know about that God? Do you see the God who has
revealed himself in creation and in the scriptures? do you understand who this God
is? If you're having a conversation with a non -Christian, non -spiritual matters,
that's a great place to steer the conversation. Do you know who God is? What do
you understand about God? What do you believe about God? Do you know that God is
good? If someone came up to you and said, "There's something missing in my life. "I
don't know what to do." Would you know how to steer that conversation in the
direction of tell me what you know about or what you believe about God. That's
that's where to take that conversation. Pat Howell and I were having lunch this week
over at Corky's and at the end of our lunch our waitress said she said something
you know it said have a nice day she'd she'd been a very attentive very good
waitress and I just I stopped her and I said how long have you been doing this?
She said just for a couple months here at Corky's and I said well did you wait
table somewhere else before this and because I said you did a great job serving us
today and she said well thank you she said yeah I was a waitress 15 years ago she
said but I've had a little gap in between now then and now and then in the course
of the conversation she said I was in prison and I've been sober now for two
months or for two years and we congratulated her on that and He said,
you know, Pat teaches at a place called Renewal Ranch, so he's working with folks
who are in recovery like you are. And she said, well, tell me about that, because
I got a couple of guys I know who need to be a part of a program like that. So
we gave her Pat's number and exchanged some information. And then I stopped in the
middle of that, and I just said, now, you need to know this program that Pat's a
part of. This addresses not just recovery issues, but spiritual needs as well. And
she said, oh, but these guys need that too." And I said, "Okay." I said, "Has that
been a part of the process for you in your two years of sobriety? I just had the
opportunity there to look at her and say, 'Are you dealing rightly with this?' It
was easy and comfortable. You just have to have a little moxie to go ahead and
cross that bridge and say, 'What about with you?' Well,
in this story, in Luke 18, this may not be the case, Well, in this story, in Luke
18, this man who comes with this burden on his soul, Jesus finds the first path to
take him to to examine the character and the goodness of God. "Good rabbi," he
says, and he says, "Wait a sec, why do you call me good? You know, only God's
good." That's a starting place for a gospel conversation. But look where he takes
the conversation after that. After he's talked about the character of God, he takes
him to the law.
We've talked about who God is. Now, do you know what God requires? You know the
commandments, don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't bear false
witness, honor your father and mother.
Interesting and not insignificant that Jesus doesn't jump right to grace. He goes to
the law first.
What's going on here? Well, a number of things. Jesus is trying to show this man
that the Pharisee's system is an empty system. That the Pharisee's system of law
keeping, they've been teaching that you will find eternal life that you're looking
for in keeping the law. So at one level, Jesus is saying, "Do what the Pharisees
tell you to do." And the man says, "I've done that my whole life and it's not
working." And Jesus says, "Exactly." Let me just add here,
moralism is not the way to eternal life. So, those of you who are thinking,
if I'm just live a good life and be a good person, that will be pleasing to God.
Well, it may be pleasing to God if you're doing it for the right reason, if you're
doing it as a surrendered person who is living your life for him, but it's not
your good works that are pleasing to God, it is your trust in his Son that is
pleasing to him, and the good works then flow out of that. So Jesus is trying to
help this man see that his moral righteousness is empty of any salvation value.
And the second thing he's doing is he's wanting this man to see, not only that his
moral righteousness is empty, but he also wants him to look at the law and see
that he's really fallen short, Which is not what this man concludes But Jesus holds
up the law and the reason we hold up the law is because we need men and women to
see That we've all fallen short that no one keeps the law perfectly that we can't
meet God's standard This man may be meeting the standard set by the Pharisees,
but he's not keeping the law of God as God requires So Jesus takes this rich young
ruler to the law because, catch this, you can't understand and embrace grace until
you first understand and embrace just how bad you are. You can't really understand
the goodness of God in grace until you first understand the reality of your own
sinfulness. And as long as you're thinking, "I'm not that bad," then you'll never
see your need for Jesus.
You have to understand that what the Bible says is true about you that That sin
dwells in you and that it controls you and that you need to be saved from that
That's when you can understand what Jesus has come to do So Jesus tells this rich
young ruler keep the commandments Not because he's telling him that's the path to
eternal life, but because he's helping him see that, do you understand that won't
get you there? And this man says, "I've done that from my youth," and he's still
exasperated. He's recognizing that the commandments won't get him there, but he's
also, he seems to be recognizing that he's trusting in his self -righteousness.
He's saying, "The Pharisees have told me this will do it. It's not getting me
there, but that's still where his trust is in his self -righteousness. Now,
this guy apparently had a resume that the Pharisees would have checked off on. He
says, "Since the time I was young, "I've known right from wrong, I've been a good
boy, "I haven't broken a rule, I'm a type A, "I'm a first born, I'm an
overachiever." You know the type that's being described here. Perfectionist tendencies.
He says, I've kept the law and he's not I don't think he's bragging when he says
that I think he's saying I've tried it and it didn't work
He's saying what most people in our day would say if you go to most people and
say What do you think you need to do to inherit eternal life? Most people would
say be a good person. That's their answer Try to live a good life.
Keep the golden rule No one's perfect, but I do my best.
They think that's the standard that gets you into heaven, but it's not because as
we said moral excellence is not What does it religious service is not what gets you
into heaven? In fact, the apostle Paul makes this clear in Philippians chapter 3
when he goes through his own spiritual resume in Philippians 3 he says you think
you're a righteous person. I Can beat you at that game? I'm a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. As to the law, blameless. I mean, he
went through the whole thing. And then Paul says that did not satisfy my soul.
Here's what I learned will satisfy your soul, knowing Christ and being found in him.
He says this, "I count everything as loss, everything that I had, I counted as loss
because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake,
I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may
gain Christ. Now that verse, just look at that,
'cause that verse is the antidote
to what we see in the story of the rich young ruler. He says, Paul says, I've
everything, which is what Jesus is going to tell the rich young ruler he needs to
do. He needs to lose everything in order to gain Christ. Paul said,
"I did it and it works. The rich young ruler doesn't see it." Paul had a resume
like the rich young ruler, but he tossed it aside rather than clinging to it and
hoping it would lead him in the right direction. So Jesus is asking this man who
comes to him talking about eternal life. He takes him first to God, then he takes
him to the law. And when the young man claims that he has kept the law from his
childhood, Jesus says, "Okay, just one more thing you need to do." It's in verse
22, when Jesus heard this, he said, "One thing you still lack, "sell all that you
have, distribute it to the poor, "you will have treasure in heaven, and come and
follow me." Now this is our, wait, Jesus said, He said, what moment is Jesus
telling this man that in order to inherit eternal life he has to divest himself of
money, he has to give up his stuff, he has to give it to the poor and join the
band of disciples? I don't think that's the intent. I'm going to show you this.
Jesus is not adding one more commandment to the Ten Commandments. Saying, you've kept
all of those, there's just one more commandment you need to do. Jesus is not
saying, "Add this to your list of righteousness and that will do it." Follow me on
this. This man has said, "I've kept all the commandments." What is the first of the
10 commandments? Does anybody know? You shall have no other gods before me.
In the list of 10, that's number one. No other gods before me. Jesus said, "Okay,
let's see if you've really kept all 10 of these." You say you've kept all the
commandments from your childhood let's just see if you have any gods before me Go
sell all you have This guy hears Jesus says sell your stuff and he goes wait sell
all of it like all that I have I have lots of stuff and I like my stuff. It
brings me happiness. It brings me security. It makes me popular and
Then give it to the poor You know what that would do to my relatives? I mean,
if I'm going to sell everything and give it to the poor, all my friends are going
to turn against me. My family is going to dismiss me. That's what you want me to
do? And in giving it to the poor, these are not people who will be able to help
me out later if I get in a jam.
Jesus is not suggesting here to this rich young ruler That the requirement for
eternal life is that you sell everything you have Jesus is exposing in the life of
this rich young ruler That he is still a violator of the commandments of God that
he has a God before God
That I think it's great. This guy says I've kept them all in Jesus. That's what
well. Let's start with number one Have no other gods before me. You got anything
like that sell all they have. John MacArthur I think clarifies this well for us. He
says, "Do we literally have to give away everything we own to become Christians?"
No, of course not. But do we have to give Christ first place? It means we have to
be willing to forsake all for Him. That is, we cling to nothing that takes
precedence over Christ. And the true believer will desire to do,
whatever God commands. Jesus' request of this man was simply to establish whether he
was willing to submit to the sovereignty of Jesus over his life. That's what this
statement from Jesus is all about. What has preeminence in your life? Does Jesus
have preeminence in your life? Or does your money and stuff trump Jesus?
This is about leaving behind whatever is keeping you from total dependence,
total allegiance, total devotion to God. So Jesus takes this man from the character
of God to the reality of his own sin and then calls on him to reprioritize his
life and put things in order, to turn from the old ways and to walk in the new
ways. And that's the pattern. Understand who God is, see the reality of your sin,
turn from it, follow Jesus, reprioritize your life. The decision to follow Christ is
not a decision to add something into your life. It's not a decision to fit
something new in or give something a try and see how it works. It's a decision to
reorient your existence with no turning back.
So how does this man respond? We've seen the question, the man and his question,
we've seen Jesus dialogue with him. How does he respond in verse 23? When he heard
these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
This man wanted eternal life. He came to Jesus and said, "What's lacking?" Jesus
says you've got an idol, that's the problem. The man loved his idol and went away
sad.
Many people in our day, some of us here, love our idols.
Too many Christians today present a gospel that says it's okay to continue to play
with your idols and follow Jesus.
Jesus will have none of that. That's not the gospel. You will not find peace and
joy and life by saying I can have Jesus and my idols too.
The only thing, or excuse me, one test you can follow to help expose the idols in
your life is to do this. You make a list of things that you love. Just write down
on a list, Here are the things that are most precious, most valuable to me in this
life. My family, my kids, my health, my 401 (k), whatever it is,
you've got your list of all of these things that are meaningful to you, possessions,
creature comforts, technology, just things you love about living life.
And then ask yourself this question, how sad would I get if I lost any of these
things? Now, if you lost your family, would you be sad? I'd be sad, sure. I'm not
saying it's wrong to be sad about these things. Here's the the bigger question.
What would you cling to if Jesus called you to let it go?
Or put another way. What is it that if you lost it, you would lose your
contentment and your joy in life?
We will lose loved ones We had a funeral here yesterday It's it's these are sad
times when you lose a loved one But if the loss of a loved one or the loss of a
possession or the loss of Anything causes you to lose your peace and your joy and
your contentment Then you were trusting in that rather than in Jesus for your peace
and your joy and your contentment. That's your idol. For this rich young ruler,
it was his bank account. All his stuff, which was probably connected to why he had
prestige and authority in this community. He didn't want to let any of that stuff
go.
And this is the point where Jesus, after addressing this man's issue and this man
hearing the response and turning and going away sad. This is where Jesus now turns
to the crowd and he exhorts them and gives them a promise. Verse 24,
"Jesus seeing that the man had become sad says to the crowd how difficult it is
for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God." Now that's a pretty
interesting statement. And it ought to be sobering for all of us, because guess
what? We're all rich. You're saying, "I'm not rich. I will take you to lots of
places in the world and expose the reality of your wealth." You may not be rich in
American terms, but in Somalian terms.
There
all around the world where you would, they would look at your financial situation
and be envious of what you have. We have wealth,
and here's the thing, we have wealth and we think to ourselves, I believe I have
entered the kingdom as a follower of Jesus and it didn't seem that difficult. So
Jesus says it's difficult for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom, didn't
seem difficult to be, I leave I'm in the kingdom and I have wealth. What do I do
with that? Well here's again what I think Jesus is saying. The thing that keeps
rich people from eternal life is that rich people, all of us, are prone to worship
and follow and serve and talk about our money. So look here. Worship, follow, serve,
tell. We're prone to do that with money and stuff more than we are to do it with
Jesus. We tend to look at our money and say, "I am grateful that I have money. It
provides for me. I am grateful that I have money. It gives me my daily bread. I'm
grateful that I have money. It keeps me safe. It delivers me from evil." You catch
the language here? "I'm grateful that I have money. It's my source of security. My
money is my source of joy. My money brings me comfort and peace and hope.
God's supposed to be doing all of that and if you're looking at your money to be
the source for all of that We got a problem. There's a reason I believe that
somebody was smart enough to say you know what? We ought to print on our dollar
bills or on our coins in God we trust so that when we look at it we go okay I'm
I was starting to trust in this but my trust should be in God. Having wealth makes
it hard to enter the kingdom of heaven because when you have a lot of money it's
harder to see your need for God.
People will look at Christians and say, "Oh, you're just weak. You need a crutch,"
right? Money becomes the greatest competitor for God in our day.
Some pastors said, "Money makes a great tool but it's a lousy God, and that's
right. John Piper says it this way, he says, "The fight of faith is the fight to
keep your heart contented in Christ, to really believe and keep on believing that He
will meet every need and satisfy every longing, instead of turning elsewhere to look
for that." So Jesus says it's difficult for someone,
a rich person, to enter the kingdom. And then in verse 25 he takes it up a notch.
He says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of an eagle than for a
rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Now you may have heard a story about a
rock formation outside of Jerusalem. I don't know if you've ever heard this story.
That's a narrow passageway and it was so narrow that if you brought your camel and
it was loaded up with your goods, Then you had to unpack that your goods from the
camel so that could squeeze through the rock formation and they called it the eye
of the needle and That's what Jesus is pointing to that's all made up from somebody
as far as we can tell Nobody knows anything about that in the historical record,
but it's a nice story Here's the camel was the biggest animal in the region the
eye of a needle is of course very small This is would be like me saying to you,
I have at home a St. Bernard dog. I don't, but let's say I just pretend. I have
a St. Bernard dog at home and my St. Bernard dog can go through, he can pass
through my wedding ring. Now if I said that to you, you would look at me and you
would say, "Bob, that's what? What word would you put in there?" Impossible. Maybe
crazy, right? It's impossible. A Saint Bernard dog cannot go through a wedding ring.
A camel cannot go through the eye of a needle. When Jesus says it's easier for a
rich man, or it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than it
is for a rich man to get into heaven, and the disciples hear it, they recognize
this and go, "Jesus, that's impossible," and he goes, "Right, that's the point. It's
impossible for you to get yourself into heaven. It's impossible for you to get
eternal life It's hard for a rich person to enter a kingdom. It is impossible.
He's not saying there are no rich people in the kingdom
Here's what he means by that. Whether you realize it or not when you became a
Christian Here's what you said you said I will follow Jesus. I repent of the way
I've been living I put my trust in him and now my life and everything that is a
part of it belongs to him. Did you realize you said that when you became a
Christian? My life and everything that belongs to me now really belongs to him. You
gave over ownership. Here's the thing, he already had ownership. You're just
acknowledging the ownership that he already had. In that moment you went from having
some tangible net worth to being completely wiped out financially.
Your bank account went to zero, your assets were transferred to new ownership.
You became a steward, not an owner. Again,
the truth is you were never an owner, you just thought you were, but now you
recognize that's not mine, that belongs to God. All I have belongs to God, my life
belongs to God, my stuff belongs to God, it's all God's. You surrendered your assets
to Him.
God wants you to use the assets that are under your control to take care of
yourself and your family. Yes, that's in the scriptures. Make sure their needs are
met. But the assignment that you've been given is to manage what you have, your
life, and all that belongs to you to achieve maximum kingdom ROI.
You should be thinking like God is thinking, how can we expand the kingdom? What
can I do? What can I offer? What do I have that can cause the kingdom to expand?
Jesus is telling the crowd here, you can't keep clinging to this and saying, this
is mine, this is off limits, God, you can't have this. You can't worship it, you
can't grasp for it, you can't pursue it and enter the kingdom." That's impossible.
The rich young ruler had a choice between all that he had and following Jesus.
Which did he pick? He went away sad because he loved what he had.
Again, when the disciples heard this in verse 25, talking about camels and needles,
they were confused. Verse 26, "Those who heard it said, 'Who can be saved?' We
don't understand. This sounds impossible, and Jesus says, here's the key, what is
impossible with men is possible with God. It's impossible for you to get yourself
into heaven. It's possible for God to get you in there. It's possible for God to
even get rich people in there. If those rich people have surrendered all. The
radical reprioritization of your life, coming to the understanding that It's not your
money and your stuff that it all belongs to God, coming to a place where you care
more about the kingdom than you do about your own pleasures. That's not a place you
come to on your own.
That's not natural. That's supernatural. That's the Holy Spirit transitioning your
life. Moving from self -reliance, self -made, this is mine. I worked hard for it.
I can handle it, I can handle whatever comes my way to an attitude of saying this
all belongs to the Lord, my life belongs to Him, I am not my own, I've been
bought with a price, it's all His, moving in that direction, well it's easier for a
camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for you to get there on your own.
You can't, you won't get there on your own. But with God all things are possible.
With God, He can cause that reprioritization to happen in your life. So I'm just
wondering where you are, how you view your life, how you view your stuff.
It may be that God's never done this
reprioritizing work in your life. Your greatest need this morning is not how do you
handle your money differently. Your greatest need this morning is not how much do I
need to be giving to the poor. Your greatest need is I need a realignment of my
life with it all surrendered to God. You need to admit that really,
you don't want to be a steward of your money. For God's sake, you want to be in
control of your own life, and you need to turn from that, repent of that, and
submit yourself to the Lordship of Christ. Your greatest need is to recognize that
God sent His Son to rescue you from the condition that you're in. He came and
lived a life of perfect obedience died a death on the cross in your place and rose
again so that You can have that Reprioritization and start walking with him you need
God to do in you this morning the impossible What you can't do on your own Ask
him to forgive you for give your rebellion against him give you a new heart. It's
a work that only he can do. If you've never done that or if you're here this
morning and you're realizing that whatever your church going experience or your prayer
praying experience or your aisle walking experience is, you realize that you have not
turned from sin. You've not given up your life to God. You may have prayed a
prayer in the past but you've not had this kind of surrender. day's the day that
God's calling you to do that. And you may think, wait, give up everything? Like all
of it? That sounds extreme. Well, look at verse 28, that's what Peter says. Peter
says, okay, we've done that. We left our homes and followed you. So we're good,
right?
And Jesus says to him in verse 29, he gives him this, he doesn't just say, you're
good. He says, truly I say to you, look, there's nobody has left house or wife or
brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom who will not receive
many times more in this time and in the life to come.
The rich young ruler had it all and was empty. Peter had given up everything and
his soul was full because he was following Jesus. Not about how much you're willing
to give up, not about how much you're willing to sacrifice, it's not like how low
can I go, it's about my affections need to change. It's about being kingdom -minded
and kingdom -focused, finding my greatest joy in coming, the coming of the kingdom as
people come to know God and making that the priority of my life. Here's the main
thing I want us to focus on from this text this morning. We live in a culture
that is relentlessly calling us to worship money and stuff. Materialism, consumerism
are so much a part of the fabric of our lives, our society, that we have no real
idea, I don't think, how corrosive these things are to our soul. How we are
constantly being tempted to find satisfaction, joy, life, peace in things other than
God that are all around us, begging us to come to them to find life. Many
Christians, including maybe many of us here today, are more committed to pursuing the
American dream than they are to advancing the kingdom of God.
Has God blessed you and me with abundance so we can enjoy life or so that we can
aggressively advance the kingdom? And you may be saying, "Well, wait, can't I enjoy
a little? I mean, how much, how much do I keep for me, how much do I give to
God? Do I have to have the poorest house and the smallest house in the poorest
car? I don't know. The Bible doesn't give us directions on that. There were rich
people in the Bible who had God's blessing. Abraham was pretty wealthy and he was
also somebody who followed after God. I don't have an answer to where that dividing
line is between what you spend on your own living and what you spend on advancing
the kingdom, but I will give you, this is a matter of wisdom, I'll give you some
things I do know that the Bible says, we'll wrap it up with what the Bible is
clear about regarding wealth and money, and I'm gonna give you five things that are
commended or commanded in Scripture regarding money, and I'm gonna give you five
things that are condemned in Scripture regarding money and wealth. And we're gonna
move through these really quick 'cause that's all we got time for. If you wanna
unpack these later, we can do that. Here's the first, we'll look at the things that
are condemned first.
Number one, what is condemned is loving or putting your trust in wealth. The Bible
condemns loving or putting your trust in wealth. Psalm 62 -10, "If riches increase,
set not your heart on them."
1 Timothy 6, "As for the rich in this present age, "charge them not to be haughty,
"not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches." It is condemned by God that
you would love or put your trust in wealth. If you're doing that, stop it.
Number two, the Bible condemns accumulating or hoarding.
Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy.
One way, just as a practical way, to know if you're hoarding something is how much
do you have around the house that you haven't touched or used in more than a year
and do you really need that? The reason that Jesus says don't lay up for yourself
treasures on earth where moth and rust can destroy, the tools that you're using
don't get rusty. The clothes that you wear regularly don't get moth holes in them.
It's the stuff that's in storage and unused that gets rusty. Don't accumulate.
Don't build bigger barns so you can accumulate more. Don't acquire what you don't
really need or use. Read Ecclesiastes 2. Solomon, who was very rich, decided that he
was going to test the theory that money can't buy you happiness. And he went out
and said, whatever I saw that I wanted, I did not deny myself. In fact, I bought
two of them. That's what it says in Ecclesiastes 2. And at the end of that
experiment, when he had all of this stuff, he looked and he said, "It's all vanity.
It's empty. It's striving after wind. It's not going to get you." Don't acquire.
Don't accumulate. Number three, the Bible is specific about coveting.
Do not covet. That's commandment number ten. Coveting is having, here's a definition,
having an inordinate desire for that which does not belong to you or not being
content with that which God has by His providence and through lawful means allowed.
You're not content with what God gives you and you want what doesn't belong to you.
It's the 10th commandment. Do not covet. Here's the fourth condemned thing.
Don't be anxious about money. That's in the Sermon on Mount in Matthew chapter 6.
Jesus says, "Don't worry about having enough." Now that doesn't mean we'll see this
in a minute. It doesn't mean that you don't take care of providing. It just means
that you don't get frozen with anxiety. Seek the kingdom instead. And then the fifth
thing that the Bible says we shouldn't do is don't have disregard for those who are
in need. Don't be like the priests in the Levite in the parable of the Good
Samaritan. They saw the guy in need and what did they do? With the other side of
the road. Don't be like the goats in Matthew 25 who saw the need and ignored it.
Now we should be aware of needs and be asking what can we do to help? Don't
disregard those things. So those are all, those five are condemned clearly in
Scripture. Here's what's commended or commanded in Scripture. Number one, work hard to
provide for yourself and your family.
When Jesus says, "Don't be anxious," he doesn't mean be lazy.
He says, "Don't be anxious," but you're still supposed to work hard. The Bible
teaches we should keep from being a financial burden on others, and we should work
to take care of our household and our family. In 2 Corinthians 12,
Paul says, "For the third time I'm ready to come to you," and he says, "I will
not be a burden. I will seek not for what is yours, but for you." Paul would come
and make tents so that he wasn't a financial burden on the people he was coming
to.
1st Timothy 5 :8, this is one of those verses that stabs you. "If anyone does not
provide for his relatives, especially the members of his own household, he has denied
the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
That's pretty sobering. And then in 2 Thessalonians 3, Paul says to the church in
Thessalonica, when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone's not
willing to work, don't let them eat. For we hear that some among you walk in
idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies, now such persons we command and
encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and earn their own
living. So there is commanded in Scripture a responsibility that we have to work
hard to earn a living. Here's the second thing that is commanded.
We are to set aside some money for unexpected needs. The ant in Proverbs 6 is
commended for what he does. He prepares his bread in the summer and he gathers the
food in the harvest. The aunt is diligent to make sure that he's thinking about
provision, not just for today, but beyond that. We are supposed to be doing that.
Number three, invest in things that are eternal.
Store up for yourself treasures in heaven. The only thing that is going from this
life to the next is people. So that's what you invest in. The souls of people.
Here's the fourth thing that is commanded in Scripture.
Use money to support your local church.
Now I say this for your sake, not for mine, okay? This is not because I need or
we need your money. We do, but I'm not saying that for this reason. Galatians 6 -6
says the one who has taught the word must share all good things with the one who
teaches. The biblical principle is if you are reaping in a field, you should be
sowing into that field. You don't reap where you don't sow. It's a command of God
that we support where we're getting fed.
And then the last one is we are to give generously and with cheerfulness.
God loves what kind of giver? A cheerful giver. Paul commends the church in
Macedonia in 2 Corinthians 8 when he says that they were abundantly filled with joy
in giving to the needs in Jerusalem out of their own poverty.
So these are the things, you wanna know how to handle, I'm a rich person, I wanna
be in the kingdom of heaven, it all belongs to God, how do I manage it after
that? These are the principles that you apply. You don't do what's condemned, you do
what's commanded, and you trust the Lord in all of it, it all belongs to him. I
think that my favorite passage in Scripture, the one that I keep coming back to to
help guide me as I think about these things is Proverbs 30 and I'm gonna wrap with
this. Proverbs 30 verses 8 through 10 says, "Give me neither poverty nor riches."
Anybody in here ever prayed, "Lord, please don't give me riches," right? That's not
a prayer we commonly pray. "Lord, please don't give me too much wealth." Oh Lord,
don't burden me with that.
But the writer of Proverbs says that's a good prayer to pray. Give me neither
poverty nor riches Feed me with the food that is needful for me
Because if I have too much I will be full and deny you and say who's the Lord?
Who's the Lord now? If I'm poor I will steal and profane the name of my God.
Give me neither poverty nor riches. Give me just what I need.
That's the kind of prayer we should all be praying. Do you have to sell all you
have to follow Jesus? Yes, you do. You have to turn it all over to God.
It's his anyway. You have to let go of it. Be a steward, be a wise and faithful
steward, but it's not yours. It's all his. Acknowledge that, own it, believe it,
live that way. Can a rich person like you and me enter the kingdom of God? It's
impossible.
But what's impossible with man is possible with God. He can bring you in.
And it all starts with knowing what's true about God, understanding the reality of
your sin, and and renewing your mind, turning your life over to Jesus,
renewing your mind, and beginning to follow Him. And that involves our money and our
stuff and how we live for Him. Pray with me. Father, these are sobering things for
us to think about and we have to confess to you this morning. The reality of the
world in which we live and the challenge that this is and the kind of consumer
society we live in. Lord, forgive us for those times when we want to cling too
tightly to what we have or we care more about our own pleasure than we do about
the kingdom. Forgive us for those times when we become anxious about your provision.
And Lord, help us, strengthen us, enable us by your spirit to live faithfully as
stewards of All that you've entrusted to us, our lives belong to you, everything we
have belongs to you, help us to wisely steward that well
for your glory and for your kingdom. We pray these things in your name,
amen.