A Very Costly Decision

A Very Costly Decision (A Place You Can’t Afford)

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Prayer

Introduction

They said he could have been the best ever.

That’s what they said...

They said he was going to change the game.

They said he could have been the best ever.

That’s what they said...

He was drafted with the second overall pick in the 86 draft on June 17th. Two days later he was pronounced dead of a cocaine overdose. What was supposed to be a celebratory night, turned into a fatal morning. A life with so much promise and potential, gone—just like that (snap).

It was a very costly decision.

It has been estimated that the average person makes nearly 900 million conscious decisions in a 70 year lifespan.

It has been estimated that the average person makes nearly 900 million conscious decisions in a 70 year lifespan.

Many of these decisions come as a response to questions we’ve asked ourselves

What’s the weather like today?

What clothes do I wear today?

Who is going to win the game tonight?

But some of the deepest questions have nothing to do with the weather, your wardrobe, or winning a game.

The deepest questions usually revolve around life and death.

How did we get here?

Where did we come from?

Where are we going?

How do we get there?

Many religions and philosophies have tried to answer these very weighty questions. The answers to these questions often result in certain decisions as it pertains to how we live.

Yet, in all life’s searching, one thing remains constant, death is certain. Where we go after death--is not.

People who believe in the afterlife, heaven and hell have sought for centuries to give reason for how one gets there.

It’s been said, “Eternity is too long, to be wrong.”

If I was to walk down your aisle this morning and interview every person in the room and give a survey on where you want to end up after you die, 100% of the people surveyed would answer, “heaven.”

Many will hear these stories and say, “A hat isn’t worth the risk” or “if I got drafted I definitely wouldn't risk it by using cocaine” to which I would agree with you.

But what if I told you that many of us treat our lives this way in a spiritual sense?

That we are often more willing than we realize to take the spiritual risk, deciding to live our lives the way we please, as opposed to what Jesus is calling us to.

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In our text today we are introduced to a man who had it all. He had achieved so much so early in his young life. He was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. He had millions of dollars. A prestigious education. A position that most people only dream of obtaining in life.

He was, Young, Gifted, & (maybe he was Black) but he was Empty.

He truly had it all yet really possessing nothing at all.

[Transition]

This encounter with Jesus in Luke teaches us a few different lessons about eternity and how it is we come to obtain eternal life

I think this young man was used to getting what he wanted in his business transactions because he knew how to build rapport with people.

Jesus’ response always gets me here.

Look how he addresses Jesus, “Good teacher”

Jesus spots motive and disarms his flattery

V18

The Gospels reveal that he is young, he’s a ruler, and he’s very rich.

“ruler” (a.k.a. Mr. Big Stuff ) = status, influence, standing, prestige, baller, shot caller

“asked him” - what kind of question did he ask?

A question of eternal significance, a loaded question, a heavy question

A question that has been asked for centuries since

Asked gk. = interrogate or demand

People with money tend to think they can get what they want when they want it. So the interrogation of Jesus begins (but not for long...Jesus is going to flip the script on him)

“Good Teacher” - an address by an expert in the art of flattery

Words so plausible, this guy could have been a politician

Maybe he thinks he can talk his way into eternity (maybe he’s talked his way through everything else)

We know how to talk spiritual talk and have churchy language but our hearts haven’t been impacted by the Word of God.

So we can have words of men and angels, but we do not have love in our hearts; so we are nothing more than noisy cymbals, clanging gongs according to

“what must I do to inherit”

Had he figured out how to farm more efficiently and sold his ideas?

Maybe h

Could it be that his creativity and ingenuity had him invent a device that would solve practical problems in the ancient world (sandals)

Maybe he had amassed his riches through much hard work as opposed to an inheritance left by his father. In the context of what he’s saying it appears he must have gotten it through hard work because his question

“what must I do...” This implies that he thought he had to do something to earn eternity.

We’re no different, In our flesh we have been conditioned by our sin to earn our wages. So when we work, we expect to get paid. This man was showing a natural understanding but the things of God are spiritually discerned. You can’t earn your way in.

“Why do you call me good?

Why = gk. Interrogative pronoun

Is Jesus saying he isn’t good? No. What Jesus is saying is, “Mr. Big Stuff, who do you think you are?” Jesus could no doubt see through his flattery..

Somehow we do this, we come to Jesus with all kinds of words and try and dress up our mess but Jesus sees through it.

THE IRONY: Jesus is good & Jesus is God but the young ruler doesn’t know who Jesus really is. The “Rich Young Ruler” had no clue that he was talking to the “Rich Old Ruler.”

II. Eternity Can’t Be Obtained by Works (vv. 20-21)

Jesus’s response always trips me out because it’s like he doesn’t fall for the flattery

Jesus is disarming him and showing that he is God in this very moment

it’s not our behavior modification that gains us eternal life it’s a relationship with Jesus

Commandment keeping (legalism)

Bottom 5

V20

“You know the commandments”

Jesus knew where to start…

Jesus lists 5 of the 10 commandments that this man knew

See this is a religious man. He has everything going for him that one would consider successful.

He was young

He was powerful

He was rich

He was eloquent

He was religious

He was morally upstanding

You couldn’t say a bad word about him (at least on the surface)

Jesus parables were told to communicate a spiritual reality and here we have a man who comes to Jesus much like the Pharisee above in his works.

The trouble with modeling your righteous after a Pharisee is that it breeds a false sense of security. You think you are righteous before God but you're not.

The danger of pointing out everyone else's sins is the failure to acknowledge your own. So you can see the needs of others while being blind to your own.

V21

“I have kept all these from my youth…” (My Translation: I been doing this since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, i’m good!)

from my youth - basically he is saying in so many words that if you checked his resume you would see a long list of external good works. But when Jesus does the background check on him, he finds a long list of internal wretchedness.

He was trying to come to God on his own terms but failed to realize that God has terms of his own. If you are going to follow Jesus it must be on his terms, not yours.

III. Eternity Can’t Be Worship

V22

“You still lack” - how is the man that thought he had it all is now being told he’s lacking?

He could have anything in the world at the swipe of his “American Express Black Card” yet there was one thing his “black card” couldn’t pay for….eternal life. His payment is insufficient and his card comes back declined

Because the debt he owed God was a debt he couldn’t afford

“one thing”

The one thing you lack is the one thing you need...to loosen your grip on this world and tighten your grip on Jesus.

What is the one thing you lack?

Jesus told him, “sell all” - give everything to gain everything. This is an act of total dependence. Not in riches and financial security but in Jesus.

Not a 401k, but Jesus.

Not a good paying job, but Jesus.

Not a good relationship with a woman, but Jesus

Not in a drug dependency, but in Jesus

Not in the thing of this world

And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

V23

The reality is that although he’d kept 5 of the 10 commandments he was guilty of breaking the 1st commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me”

Money was his god.

"No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

The man’s problem isn’t that he wants an answer; it’s that he doesn’t like the answer he gets.

If I were to go around this room and ask each and every person, if they want to go to heaven, I am sure everyone would say yes, but what about the requirements to surrender all. Give everything

Are you willing to obtain real treasures or is it just lip service.

Christ’s omniscience (all-knowing) is on display, showing that he knows the depths of the human heart. He knows all the motives. The fact is, he shows the young ruler just how valuable he is by the fact that he is able to dissect through all his external fluff to get to the root of his idolatry.

The young ruler should have recognized at that point that he was in the presence of God and yet he is and he leaves. So much for wanting eternal life. Or maybe he realized he finally found the one thing he couldn’t afford.

But his treasures were great on the earth. The saying goes, it’s okay to have things, just don’t let your things have you”

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Where is your heart? (I’m not talking about the person sitting next to you, I’m talking about you.) I know we live in a day and time when we're told to follow our hearts but that's not wise...

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately sick-who can understand it?

The truth is Jesus knew how to hit the man in his wallet, which was where his heart was. And the same is true when we are face to face with Jesus, he hits us where our heart is, which really is the love of God, not only to show us our hearts, but to show us his grace.

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The last characters in this story are the disciples who are left with Jesus after the man leaves….verses 24-30 says

Possessions and the Kingdom

24 Seeing that he became sad, Jesus said, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For 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 Those who heard this asked, "Then who can be saved?" 27 He replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." 28 Then Peter said, "Look, we have left what we had and followed You." 29 So He said to them, "I assure you: There is no one who has left a house, wife or brothers, parents or children because of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more at this time, and eternal life in the age to come."

The disciples couldn’t understand how anyone could be saved based on the metaphor Jesus gave

Camel and the eye of the needle

There is no evidence that this is a reference to a gate called “The Eye of The Needle”

If this were so, then it would imply that all the camel needed to do is bend down and take the load off his back to get through. It would make the camel the source of his destiny.

But in the context of what Jesus is saying, he says it is impossible

An eye of a needle of a sewing needle is likely the effect that Jesus is going for here. Can you imagine a camel going through the eye of a sewing needle? They couldn’t either which is why he responds by saying, “what is impossible with men is possible with God”.

Closing

What Jesus wants all his disciples to know is that even though they don’t have the power to save themselves, he does. In just a short time Jesus would go to the cross and pay the price in full with his blood.

The reason Eternity can’t be bought is because it’s already been paid for.

God is a keeper of his word. When we trust in Jesus by faith in what he did we will have eternal life. The reality is that we get a return on our investment of faith in Christ.

Jesus challenged the ruler on the basis of his self-righteousness and self-reliance. The young man didn’t come to Jesus for eternal life he came for justification of his lifestyle.

He didn't want to change...thus he turned away (what about you?)

But the grace of God always shows us our need for God and offers the gift of God.

The tragedy of this story is that the rich young ruler turned away from the very one who could give him eternal life.

We’re not told what happens to him after he leaves Jesus but what if he never sees Jesus again.

…….……………

It costs you to follow Jesus and it just costs you even more to not follow Jesus. But once you realize the value in light of grace, you will consider Jesus worth it!

Which decision costs more?

“The one who would save his life will lose it but the one who loses his life for my sake will save it.”

“He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” ~Jim Elliot

What does it cost?

Everything (in this life or in the life to come)

Sin affects our ability to make the right decision in the crucial moments

We are conditioned to overvalue material possessions and undervalue Jesus (v. 23)

The nature of idolatry: “It (idolatry) means turning a good thing into an ultimate thing.” ~Tim Keller