Spiritual Poverty
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Matthew 19
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person 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 greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Illustration
This story is called the story of the rich young ruler also referred to as the story of the rich fool.
We are not told from the Bible what happened to this young man. There was no indication that he was saved if he wasn’t then this must have been one of the greatest missed opportunities stories of all time.
Are there missed opportunities in your life?
Poor Kodak: once the king of camera film, and then digital came. It must be particularly galling given that it was their own invention. Back in 1975 one of Kodak's engineers, Steven Sasson, developed an early concept for the digital camera. He told his employers assuming they would be delighted.
They weren't. Kodak saw it as a threat to its main business of making traditional film, so it suppressed the technology and hoped it would never see the light of day. Unfortunately, it did. They were slow to catch on to the rise of digital and only narrowly escaped bankruptcy. Digital should have made the company billions – instead it nearly killed it.
Instead of being the pioneer for digital photography, Kodak was almost killed because of it.
What leads people and even companies to this kind of missed opportunities?
Most of them do not recognize the need.
The rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
This is a very good question, he was on point he asked the right question and he asked the right Person.
But there was a problem:
Jesus said to him:
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 16:17-
Matthew 19:16
Then the rich young ruler said his famous last words:
20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”
19:20
Tragic:
When faced with the greatest answer, the man did not see his greatest need.
In this story, Jesus clearly refutes the notion that obeying the 10 commandments is the ticket to heaven.
Jesus gave the man the horizontal commandments the commandments regarding our relationship with our fellowmen.. but Jesus is teaching us here that being good to others is meaningless if we do not have a relationship with him.
Jesus said:
21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Matthew 19:21
Jesus didn’t promise would be perfect if you follow me, notice he said, if you would be perfect.. which is to say really? you think you are perfect, that you are perfectly fine, and he in no uncertain terms put his finger on this man’s greatest need, the very thing that prevents him from entering the kingdom of God.
Material wealth kept the man spiritually poor!
You see, Jesus here was not requiring:
The man to take a vow of poverty and live as a destitute.
People make that mistake, oh I won’t venture into that opportunity, God is against riches! I will please God more if I stay poor..
It is this kind of attitude that keeps people in the cycle of poverty.
2. To throw his riches away that it all goes to waste.
Jesus actually, recognized the value of the man’s riches maybe even saw his life work and everything he had done to acquire his riches, Jesus did not tell him to throw his riches away, but that he put it to good use for his eternal benefit.
Sell all your possession, liquidate and acquire treasures in heaven.
People think that if they become generous and give money to someone, it only benefits the person, no the real benefit belongs to you.
That mentality is what prevents people from giving and being blessed.
You see someone sitting at the stop light..
you wrestle in your mind whether to give.. what if he uses it to buy alcohol, or drugs? This must be a lucrative business, this is just a ponzi scheme, and you do the math, if he gets $1 from 3 motorist in this stop when the stop light is red for 2 minutes .. and you research, average traffic flow and stops, the light turns red at least around 10 times every hour, that is $30 per hour and all he needs to do is sit here for 10 hours, that is $300 a day.. he will earn more than I make! No way, and you speed past the guy, bye bye..
What if you felt sorry, and think well this guy must be really desperate, he probably worked all his life and fell through tough times, maybe what he is saying on the cardboard is true,, what if we think I am giving as if giving to God....it is actually for my benefit, pray for the person and decide to give.. reach for the spare change..
Generosity is liberating because God frees your heart from the stronghold of material wealth.
When you are liberated you freely give and then in God’s economy you will be blessed.
This spiritual stronghold of material wealth is what prevents people from giving of their tithes and offering.
We are no longer under the law, yes God does not require us to give 10 % actually he threw that number like 10% is a critical number, if you are able to give 10%, then your heart will be free from the hold and trap of material wealth and Jesus said you will have riches in heaven.. 10% is just the beginning.. wealthy businessman..
It is not for someone’s benefit that you give to this church.
No one gets a raise when you start to give or increase your giving.
At least I don’t. I don’t receive a salary.. I get a small vehicular allowance and stipend for serving here.. I turned down offers to increase it, until maybe God turns me to a full time pastor. I love that though..
Because of that ideal situation, we are able to be missional, we now give to 10 missionaries around the world through our partnership with Converge worldwide we partner in planting churches..
We just started support of a young missionary couple in Ireland..
This is my desire, that we will be supporting young missionaries coming out of Vision School..
Support our young missionaries
Going back to our story today...
It is not material wealth that is the problem per se.
The problem for this young man and prevented him from entering God’s kingdom wasn’t that he was rich, but that he was spiritually poor.
He was spiritually poor and he did not acknowledge his need.
Jesus said in
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It is not the spiritual poverty itself that makes people blessed. It is the attitude of recognizing that you are spiritually poor.
This is the tragedy..
We live in a world where spiritual poverty is dominant..
Materialism rules like never before.
Instant gratification
Instat
Adversity Avoidance
Message distraction
Complicated Discipleship
Christianity 101
Here is the second tragedy:
Those who have poor or who are of lesser means can also be spiritually poor and follow hard after the wrong things.
There are people in this church, who are struggling..
May we not look too far yet until we have looked around this room..
We are on a rescue mission!
We cannot disciple an empty stomach.. although in this country.. we cannot disciple an empty life..
We have to disciple people out of Spiritual Poverty!
Rescuing them one poor soul at a time, lead them to the Abundant life that Jesus promised.
The Practical Application of The Great Commission.
Jesus gave the Great Commission at the end of His earthly ministry.
But He inaugurated His Rescue Mission at the beginning of His ministry and people miss it.
Luke 4:
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
We as a church are on a mission to rescue the spiritually destitute!
As we disciple, may we truly serve the poor, may our relationships to everyone just become stronger and grow. If a brother or a sister has something against you take the initiative.. before you we go and find the lost outside the church.. make sure we address spiritual poverty in the home front.. love one another..