Where is Your Wealth?

Intro

I’m Pastor Keenan, next gen pastor here at first and with the Grove

Sorry that the weather made us come inside but when we come back we will do youth night outside

Tonight we will be in Matthew 19 where Jesus is talking to the rich young ruler. This is about two weeks from when Jesus will be crucified.

As I was praying I felt led here to help us put into context where Jesus was and what He was doing in real time in reference to the crucifixion.

At this point Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem to be sacrificed for our sins.

When he is talkign to the rich young ruler He is in Perea which is what we would call Jordan today

Right after this is when Jesus will go to Jericho He will heal Bartimaues of his blindness and call on Zaccheus sometime this week about 2000 years ago.

But at this moment about today about 2000 years ago Jesus is most likely on the east side of the jordan river traveling to jerusalem when the rich young ruler stops him.

And in this section of Scripture we see the RYR want to know how to have eternal life.

Turn to Matthew 19:16-29 and see what happens here

Matthew 19:16–22 CSB

16 Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” 17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; 19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself. 20 “I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?” 21 “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

Here is your first point

Things

Q: Think of a time in your life where you thought that doing something for someone would make you be liked, loved, or accepted by someone but it backfired.

This rich young ruler seems to have known the 10 commandments by heart meaning that he’s most likely a Jew

He’s heard of Jesus and His miracles and because of that views Jesus as someone with high status or spiritual authority because he called him good

He’s trying to butter Jesus up and has probably heard that Jesus has been talking about eternal life and how to have it.

Jesus then says why do you call me good, no one is good except God alone.

This is actually a claim of Him being God, not Him denying it.

Jesus is forcing the guy to think about what He’s asking, he’s not saying no I’m not good but that the RYR understands the implications about what He’s saying

As Jesus says that he knows the RYR knows the commandments what he’s saying basically is that how someone inherits eternal life is by being perfect in keeping all the law.

No one has done that except Jesus.

And we see the rich young ruler say that he has kept all the commands since he was a child.

This is where we see Jesus try and help the RYR see where his blind spots are

We know that no one is perfect but because this Rich ruler is young, he seems to be either ignorant because of his arrogance, or he is lying outright about him keeping the law perfectly

The rich young ruler already knows that in order to inherit eternal life, according to the old covenant, a person has to keep the law perfectly.

As we are reading this I think of when I ask people how long they’ve been saved or how long they’ve been a Christian and they tell me their whole lives.

Someone isn’t born a Christian. But someone is born again when they make the decision to be saved.

Maybe though you are here and you value coming to church, youth night, and being a good person a lot. That your wealth is stored up in the “right” “Church things” that you’re supposed to do

And you’ve already asked Jesus to save you and that you want Him to be the Lord of your life

but you’ve never made the first steps to make Jesus the lord of your life

And you’re afraid to get out of your safe place of believing that if you keep going to church and trying to be a good person that will make you right with God.

I want to challenge those in here that are like the rich young ruler and you want to your good works, good deeds, going to church, being a moral person, that none of that means that you’re a follower of Jesus.

Those are supposed to be what things are the fruits of your relationship with God after you’ve been saved. Not the requirements of the relationship.

But there’s more than just morals and good works that keep the Rich young ruler and even ourselves from following Jesus

Matthew 19:23–26 CSB

23 Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?” 26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

here’s your second point

R

True cost of discipleship is a willingness to leave everything to follow Jesus

Q: What is your most valuable thing to you? This can be an item, a person, a sport, anything in the world.

The most valuable thing when I was your guys age either were my friends or my video games

Everything I did was to be spending more time with my friends, trying to win their favor, and be cool.

On top of that, every chance I got, I was playing games and trying to get better at them.

Obviously in the name the rich young ruler has a lot of possessions because he’s rich

And after Jesus says he knows he knows all the commandments but that he’s missing being able to give up his possessions to the poor. That he’s coveting and not really by hoarding this wealth, and he is serving himself and his wealth to the point that He can’t follow God.

He is sad and in Mark it says the the RYR went away grieving because he has a lot of posessions and wealth in the world

After this Jesus says that it is extremely impossible for someone to go into heaven being rich.

That no man can do anything to be saved

But only by God can someone be saved.

After this Peter brings up to Jesus after being shook that they left everything to follow Him and Jesus says that everyone who leaves everyone and everything behind to follow Jesus will be rewarded on earth and in heaven.

Jesus expands here on what are things that people will have to put behind their commitment to follow Jesus.

So remember my question just a little bit ago, What is the most valuable thing to you?

We can find value and wealth in our possessions like the RYR but we can also put our wealth in other things in this world.

For some, it might be your best friend, a friend group, or even a boyfriend or girlfriend.

For others, its our sports that we play or clubs and activities we are apart of.

Maybe it’s our family

All of these things if we are not careful we can think we have it all together and even recognize that Jesus is God and yet fall short of having Him as Lord if we won’t be willing to walk away from or deprioritize for the sake of following Jesus.

What we find our wealth in can become an idol and we start to serve it rather than God.

I want you to think about seriously those things that are the most valuable things that you consider in your life, and then have a serious gut check, would you be willing to actually follow Jesus and deprioritize or even walk away from where your wealth is now.

Or maybe you’re here and you haven’t but you want to.