Rich Young Ruler

Thank you Lena

Intro

Good morning: This week we are beginning a brand new series that I am simply calling “enough”

Why? Because we live in a society where nothing is ever enough and unless you settle your heart and your life on Jesus being enough for you then nothing will ever be good enough

Our society shapes us to believe that we don’t have enough and that we will always need more!

Every year in some way or another I will give you a small series where money is the focal point

So you might as well just get used to it now!

I will do this because Christianity is a life, following Jesus is a whole life, it can either grow or diminish ....

And whet I have found as a pastor is that when people deal with money in a Godly way their spiritual life & influence drastically increases in stature and when they don’t then it is easy to allow our lives to diminish

And one of the things that can make your life with God diminish fast is this fascination with finding your own value or worth in money!

It is a subtle danger every day

Because it is our world’s value system. The pattern of our world is to find value in others based on how much money they have

The Subtle danger you face every day is finding your own worth and significance in money rather than the fact that you are a child of the most high king…God....

The other reason why I do this series is not just as a practical matter but as a deeply spiritual matter

The only other God that Jesus mentions by name is the god of Money or “Mammen”

Luke 16:13 NIV

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

It was true 2000 years ago now and it is true today:

Money wants your attention and Jesus sees it as a rival God

Money gets to be our God quite by accident in life, and you don’t realize it until one day you look back and say, everything I do is in service of money…My money doesn't serve me, I serve it!

So this series is designed for us to do a 3 week look at money.

And I know what your thinking: Of course this is the week that we come to church and the pastor talks about money…See they just want our money here...

And just so you know that couldn’t be further from the truth

As your pastor, what I want for you is your freedom...

What I want to see in you is an allegiance to Jesus first

And what I know from experience is that Money is an ever-present need in our lives and so it sub-tally wins our allegiance

So today flip with me to the book of Matthew...

We are going to be in Matthew 19 today

Matthew 19:16–28 NIV

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

What we have to understand is that this story is in all 3 of the synoptic gospels, which means it is in Matthew, Mark & Luke...

Which means it is really impotrant and the gospel authors are making a point...

All 3 of these gospels are written to different audiences

But the one thing that is common to whichever audience is reading the bible is that humanity will always struggle when it comes to finding our allegiance in money

First I want to talk about this man

I don’t think this guy was a bad dude

It seems like this man was a religious Jew, He was concerned with keeping the commandments...

In other versions of the story this man says “Good Teacher”

And jesus responds with, “why do you call me good? don’t you know that no one is Good except for God himself?”

First of all this is a radical thing to say in our world.

Jesus says no one is good!

In our world, the values of secular humanism tend to reign...

and in that world People are basically good...

But this is different from what the Bible says…The bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God

The Bible says that our righteousness is all filthy rags

The Bible says that apart from Jesus we are no good!

But our world wants to say that everyone is basically good…we might just need a few tweaks here and there to our behavior…But

In this version of the story the question is “what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?”

See the assumption is that our salvation is determined by the good things that we do

This was the assumption by this rich young man

And you know what…I don’t blame this rich young guy...

He is just killing it at life, he is rich, he is an influencer but something is missing

And I can not even begin to tell you how many conversations I have had surrounding this exact thing…People figure out how to make it through life financially and then pretty soon they are like my life looks like its all together but something is still missing!

So here we have this rich young guy standing before Jesus

And maybe your here like this guy today…just asking questions…>What am I missing in my life? What do I lack?

He is asking the right question to the right person!

So Jesus responds that you have to keep the commands...Which is referring to the 10 commandments so this guys says…Okay…which ones? Which commandments do I have to keep

So Jesus replies with:

The New International Version (Chapter 19)

You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’  and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

And the guy must have just breathed a huge sigh of relief because…He was like…Ok good I have done all of that I am good.

Do you notice how Jesus doesn’t challenge this man on the fact that he has kept all of the commandments

First of all…Ok I am pretty sure that most of us can pass the do not murder test…Less people would pass the adultery test…Even less, do not steel…But false testimony…You mean you never lied dude!?

Honor your father and mother? You’ve never been a teenager? Come on!

But Jesus doesn't point out this guys flaws, I mean this guy has already come to Jesus with a sense of inadequacy, he apparently was a really good guy but still felt like he wasn’t going to heaven

So Instead of condemning this man, Jesus does what Jesus always does, he goes to the heart of the issue:

And he sets this guy up...

Jesus sites the 6-9th commandments…These are the commands dealing with relationships between people.

There is this instinctive human trait to default to legalism but instead of going with this guy to legalism, Jesus goes right toward the heart

So the commandments that Jesus mentions are the ones that he knows this man has no problem with

So what commandment does Jesus leave out?

Exodus 20:17 NIV

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Jesus knew that this man’s problem was the relentless craving for wealth

This man didn’t have a problem with murder…He wasn’t an adulterer...

The problem this guy has is the problem that we all have at some point or another

nothing was ever enough for him…he always needed what his neighbor had or else he never felt complete.

So what Jesus says next is highly conterversal…

What about the first commandment

Exodus 20:3 NIV

“You shall have no other gods before me.

Jesus isn't just pointing out the fact that this guy has an issue with coveting but what has effectively become his God? It is money

This is why Jesus says

Matthew 19:21 NIV

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

And what we have to understand is this is not a command to the whole church but to this man in particular....Many other places in scripture Jesus comes in contact with people who are wealthy and he doesn't ask them to do the same thing...

What Jesus is saying is go and get rid of this other god that you have and come and follow me

Jesus was tailoring his response to this man whose hangup was coveting

What Jesus was asking this man is will your allegiance be to me or to this stuff?

This is hard!

Then Jesus has this commentary at the end of this interaction...

The disciples see this all happening and I have to just assume that they are a little shook up about this entire encounter

We know they are because Peter is like, “You know Jesus we left everything too”

But Jesus laments

And he says, Its easier for a camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven

One of the very early Pope’s of the catholic church said something that academics are all in agreement on, that he literally just made up…And it has made its way into christian teaching

What he said was that the Eye of the Needle was a gate in jerusalem and it was possible for camels to go through but just very difficult …And the reality is that that is just not true

A camel was one of the largest common animals they worked with and the eye of a needle was the smallest opening that they worked with

Jesus is trying to create a word picture that shows you just how difficult

It is hard for wealthy people to respond to Jesus

Why? Because you have been deceived by your own money: In many cases you built it, you created that wealth…It gives you a sense of security and power and purpose in this world…But it also needs to be maintained and serviced and used wisely so it can become all consuming…And without much effort…It becomes our God

If you have lots of it…This is an easy trap

And if your here and your like well…I ‘m broke so this doesn't apply to me, I’d say no even more so this applies to you…>Rich or poor when money becomes your main focus in life it is easy to become your god!

But this story reveals a few truths that we need to know

Perspective shifts

1. The currency of this world is not the currency of the kingdom of God

One of the ways that you know that Jesus wasn't a pastor is that he didn't take an offering right there...

I mean, its easy as a person who loves Jesus to go into fundraising mode

And this guy asks, what good thing must I do and he is filthy rich…I think I would have said well we need a new roof here at REC or our parking lot is a problem …or something like that

But Jesus effortlessly brushes aside the power of this guys wealth.

He is like my kingdom doesn't run on your currency.

My kingdom lives on forgiveness

My kingdom lives on love

My kingdom lives on hope and sacrifice

My kingdom is about prayer

See worldly wealth blinds us and makes us think that our whole lives depend on how much money we have

It is hard for the wealthy to surrender to Jesus’ kingdom because ultimately when you are wealthy you have your own security, you’ve created it...

And everything we do causes us to protect it and its not like you start out or intend to worship money, but because you spend a life time in pursuit of it and another lifetime trying to keep it, it becomes something that we accidentally worship!

You might be here and your thinking well this doesn't really apply to me I am not a wealthy person

But if you are here today and you are a two car family, if you have food in your fridge, if you have a refrigerator then you are more wealthy than 80% of the world

What we have to realize is that God is not limited by money! we might feel that we are but he isn't! Because money isn't valuable in his kingdom!

2. Jesus asked this man to decide what was enough for him.

I think the verse that always gets me from this is verse 25

The New International Version Chapter 19

25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

I think greatly astonished is the right reaction to what Jesus was doing with this guy. Asking a wealthy person to give it all away and live off the land is a tall ask. Its a bold thing

But I think these disciples were greatly astonished because Jesus came right out with this guy’s hangup…with what his problem was…

So the question I have for us is the same question that Jesus had 2,000 years ago..

Is Jesus and his kingdom enough for you

or do you need something else

I think there are times that we come to Jesus and we pay lip-service that he is enough but in reality he isn't really enough for us

The rich young man didn’t realize that everything belongs to God.

When the rich young man walked away from Jesus…He basically said…This wealth that I grew all belongs to me..

But in order for us to live like Jesus is enough for us then we need to look at everything we own and say its all God’s any way…and then treat it like that

Psalm 24:1 NIV

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

One of the things that I love about this interaction is that here is this wealthy man who probably thinks that he spent a lifetime creating this wealth and it needs to be protected with everything I’ve got...

And Jesus is standing there as the one who was present with his father at the creation of the earth

Jesus is standing there as the king of the whole world in front of this guy and I cant even imagine Jesus’ perspective...

You want to keep your pennies? Thats really what you want

There is a whole other world available but it starts when you recognize that all of your possessions and belongings are all God’s and that even if your here and your a millionaire or if your here and you are in debt, that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.

This good Jewish man didn't realize this

Challenge:

The point of this series is to engage you with the question…what is enough for you

Is Jesus enough? =

And the reason why I talk about money is that this is our primary hangup

For

Taking communion was a declaration that Jesus was enough

Eating at the kings table is not a neutral act

Communion

Matthew 26:26–28 NIV

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.