The Hard Ask from God
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God asks us to do a lot of things.
Assemble with other believers.
Trust Him with our funds.
Love our neighbors.
Honor our families
Sometimes, we feel burdened by what God asks.
But has God ever come to you with a REALLY HARD ask?
Like friends of our family who, after loosing their sons started orphanages in South America and West Africa.
Or other friends who gave up their lives here to help people in Cambodia.
Those are big asks.
But in Scripture, we have another Big Ask from God.
One that many people seem to either dismiss or make assumptions about.
Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Isn’t this the question so many of us started with?
We were looking for a get out of hell free card,
So we asked how we can get eternal life.
But I learned a long time ago, Don’t get into a war of words with the Son of God.
So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
I spend A LOT of time working with words.
And I’ve had plenty of times when I got trapped in the meaning of a word,
And probably more times when I corrected someone else for the meaning of a word.
Even I did not catch what this person was saying when he asked “Good Teacher...”
The again, I’m not the Son of God.
You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ”
Whether you prefer Occam’s Razor or the KISS principle, Jesus gives the man a simple answer.
Five simple things he has to do to get eternal life.
Do not commit adultery,
Do not murder,
Do not steal,
Do not bear false witness,
And Honor your father and mother.
I’m not saying doing all of these things all of the time is easy, but it is pretty simple.
Just follow the Ten Commandments and you’re all set.
And in many ways, that’s what people want, sort of...
Give me a 12-step program, you know, just like all of those “Anonymous” programs have.
Then I’ll be set.
But the ruler knows there’s more.
And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”
See Jesus, I’ve done all of these things, but that cannot be all there is.
Think about that for a second.
Is the man saying Jesus, that’s just too simple, there has to be more?
Is he saying I’ve done that but I’m not sure it will work?
What do you think this man thinks is missing?
You really need to be careful when you ask Jesus for more details.
Beware when you ask God to give you patience… He will.
Or when you say “I’ve done all this, there must be more.”
Because if you ask, Jesus will tell you,
But you may not like the answer.
So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
Do you think this man wished he had quit while he was ahead?
All he had to do was follow a few commandments and he would have been fine.
But that wasn’t getting the job done.
Just as people today, who want a simple list of do’s and don’ts, but deep down know that really won’t work.
Maybe the’ve tried, but found they kept failing.
Or they’ve kept the words, but still feel lost.
How many people have asked God, what’s the secret?
What’s the one thing I’m missing.
I find it telling how many people focus on the first half of what Jesus tells this man.
“Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor,”
Even Luke focuses on these words.
But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
Did you notice that Jesus said “You still lack one thing.”, but tells the man to do two things?
How can this be if the man only lacks one thing?
The answer, I believe, is we’re focusing on the wrong thing.
What the man lacked was not poverty, or even riches in heaven, but priority!
So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
The selling and giving are not what the man lacks, they are a means to an end.
The following of Jesus.
How many of us pass up opportunities because of our responsibilities?
Opportunities to travel, explore, invest in others, because we have responsibilities.
Look back on your life and you will probably see many opportunities to decided not to follow,
Because of your job, or because people were depending on you.
We all look back sometimes and wonder what could have been.
I gave up flying, my motorcycle, and opportunities to travel,
I gave up job advancements, vacations, and I have no idea how many “toys”,
Because as a husband and a father, I had responsibilities.
And I regret none of it. Do you know why?
Because I have the one thing that the rich young ruler was missing.
I follow Jesus!
And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!
James Dobson used to talk about people not owning things, but that things own people. You buy a car, and you have to take care of it. You buy a home, and you spend your free time keeping it up. Even a swing set in the back yard places a demand on your life.
And all of it can interfere with following the Lord.
You want to know why it is hard for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God?
To much baggage.
[Man who had to bring it with them]
Think of all of the times the spirit moved to you do something.
To follow a call?
But you had responsibilities?
But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife.
These can all act as distractions to following the Lord.
It’s easier to follow when nothing is competing for your affections.
Does that mean was should all be poor and unmarried?
For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Oh, the three part sermons I’ve heard about this verse.
About camels going through a small gate in the wall known as the “eye of a needle”.
Just kneel down, take off your burdens, and follow Jesus.
These can be excellent sermons, but the miss the point.
And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”
If all it took was a simple three-step process to enter the kingdom of God, why would they as “Who then can be saved”?
The answer is, we cannot...
lk 18 27
But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
The man known as the rich young ruler was missing just on thing.
It wasn’t poverty,
It wasn’t bowing before God,
And it wasn’t crawling through a small door.
It was following Jesus!
How many churches put their focus on the alter call?
How many people “saved”?
How many people baptised?
But how many pastors actually seek to fulfill the great commission?
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Just as many of us focus on Jesus telling the man to sell all he has, we also focus on “saving the lost.”
But it is not within our power to save the lost,
Neither was it what Jesus commanded His disciples to do.
Jesus said the young man was to follow Him.
The wealth of the young man was only a problem because it interfered with following Jesus.
We see that in the sorrow he showed.
Similarly, we are told to share the gospel, so Jesus can save them.
Then we make disciples, followers, of those He has saved.
When we focus on the wrong thing, the thing we cannot do, we get discouraged, even depressed.
You may even say, sorrowful.
When we see the one thing the young man needed, to follow Jesus, we should see that need in ourselves.
When we let programs, events, and numbers get in the way of the one thing WE need,
We are unable to help others find the one thing THEY need.
When we worry less about how many get saved, and focus on how many we can make disciples, then we will get the one thing we need,
We will follow Jesus,
And we will help others to follow Him as well.