The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Rich Young Ruler

Episode Date: January 15, 2023

Money cannot protect your soul, only direct it. Direct your soul to a deeper trust in your Good Father, the Good Shepherd. 

Amen, amen. Hope you're doing well, church. If you have your Bibles, turn to Mark chapter 10, that's where we're going to spend the majority of our time today. And as you're making your way there, we've got some things to celebrate. How about them, Jags? Go Jags. Go Jags.

And the Georgia Bulldogs won the national championship again. What do you do? Hey, hey, go dogs. Man, it's cool. A lot of cool stuff happening in Jacksonville and some incredibly, awesome stuff to celebrate happening around the movement of 1122. One is that today at our St. John's campus, when it first launched, they met in the auditorium at Creekside High School. But so many people have invited their one-mores and invited their

neighbors that it's just grown and grown and grown. And so today we had to move out of the auditorium at Creekside into the gym, which opens up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of more seats. So that's really, really exciting. For all you 1122 St. Johners, thank you, man. Thanks for being missional. Thanks for making disciples. Thanks for inviting your one more. Keep it up. It's exciting to see what God's doing in that community. We're doubling the amount of kids space. There's tons of opportunities to serve at St. John's. So jump in. We're excited about what God's doing there, and we're hoping to start construction on the permanent home for our St. John's campus here really, really soon. So that's awesome. And then we also want to celebrate. I know your campus

pastors mentioned this, but Night to Shine is just about a month away. And it's going to be awesome. If you've never been to Night to Shine, man, it is the coolest. It is a prom event for adults with special needs and it's the one it will be one of the best nights of your year if you come and you should we host the largest night to shine event in the world here in jacksonville it's awesome it takes about a thousand people to pull it off and to make it special for our brothers and sisters the kings and the queens and so please make it make your calendar appointment to be there you can serve in many different ways cheering on the red carpet being a buddy to one of the kings and queens behind the scenes whatever it looks like for you come and celebrate our brothers and

in that way. Cool. Amen? Amen. We're starting a new series today. It's three weeks. It's called Life to Find. We are on a journey as a church where we've been digging into John chapter 10, verse 10, and we will be for the coming years. And John 10 says that the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus says that I have come that they may have life abundantly. So we've been asking the question, what is the abundant life? Am I chasing the abundant life or am I chasing after things in this world that will never fully and finally satisfy? If the thief comes only to steal to kill and to destroy, how does he do it? How does he rob joy?

How does he steal purpose? How does he kill dreams and passions that would be the life abundant given to us through Jesus Christ? Well, 1 John chapter 2 says it like this. It says in verse 15, do not love the world or the things in it. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the proud of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. For the believer in Jesus Christ,

that is life defined. Our life, hopefully, is defined by doing the will of God. This is the abundant life, is doing the next thing that our good shepherd tells us to do. It's living, the abundant life according to the will of God. Well, what is the will of God? Well, God's will ultimately is that we would trust Him. God's will for your life and for my life is that you would trust him. The invitation is one of trust. One of my favorite authors writes it like this. He says that trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it's so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it. John says that there's three things that stand in the way, three things that are at work in this world and within us that would keep us from trusting God, that would lead us down a road from

no return, that would take us to places we don't want to go and leave us there far longer than we wanted to say. And he says that these three things are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And so for the next three weeks, we're going to be unpacking these and how they're at work in our life. Today we're going to be looking at the lust of the eyes, and we're going to take a look at this temptation and see how dangerous it truly can be. in Mark chapter 10, verse 17, there's an encounter a man has with Jesus. And it says this, and as he, Jesus, 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? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. This is not a parable. This is an actual encounter. A man comes up to Jesus on the street, and he's talking to the right person, and he's asking a pretty decent question. He says, what must I do to eternal life? And he's talking to Jesus, and Jesus is the only one who holds the keys to eternal life. So he's asking the right person. Jesus is the resurrection and the life is what he says.

He says that he is the way, the truth, and the life, that he is the bread of life, that he is the holder of eternal life. And so he's talking to the right person, and he's seemingly taking the right posture. It says that he kneels down before Jesus and he asks this question. But notice what he calls Jesus. He calls him good teacher. He doesn't say master. He doesn't say Lord. It doesn't say God.

This man did not see Jesus as the Messiah sent from God. He saw him as another good teacher, as another moral teacher. He didn't see Jesus for who he really was. And as we unpack this man, we're going to look. learn a few things about him. One of the things we're going to learn is that he has a pretty significant religious pedigree, that he's been in religion for quite some time. And as I really thought about this text this weekend, knowing this man's history with religion, I began to wonder, I wonder if he's genuinely seeking answers or if he's just performing. I wonder if

this is really about him finding answers to questions or if this is about image management. Maybe the most important thing in his life is how he thinks he's perceived by others. and he was somehow going to bolster his opinion in other people's minds and eyes by going and talking to Jesus who had a ton of momentum in his ministry at this time. And so you have to ask, was this man actually trying to find answers or was he just trying to impress people or maybe even trying to impress Jesus? Let's take a look at some things about this young man. The encounter is recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and in the Gospels of Luke as well as here in Mark and we learned some things about him. He's historically known as the rich young ruler. So the first thing we know about him, and we'll see this later, is that he's rich.

Brother, got money. He got money, which means he's had a bunch of opportunities in his life because money can do that. Money can open doors for education. Money can open doors for experiences. Money can open doors for different kinds of employment. So this guy's had a lot of open doors in his life. He's got money, but the question we're asking today is, does this man have money or does money have him? The Bible says that for the love of money,

is the root of all kinds of evil. And money makes a promise that says, if you love me, if you trust me, if you treasure me, if you let me occupy the majority of your mental and emotional real estate, then I will satisfy you. I will make you content. I will give you what you want. I will, you will finally be fully and finally satisfied if you just trust me. That's the promise, the promise that money makes. But the backhand of that promise that you know and I know is that it doesn't deliver. It actually backhands us and it doesn't make us content and it doesn't satisfy. What it does is it leads us to a place to where we worry and where we want. What have you worried about more in your life than finances? Either having enough or getting more. Not much. What have you gone to when

you had a want in order to satiate that want quicker than money? Not much. Money makes a promise that it will lead us to contentment, but what it delivers is worry and worry. And want. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. So this man is rich. He was also young. How old are you in your mind? Like when you project the image of you out there in the world that you want everybody, how old are you?

You got to think about that one for a second, does you? Right? I'm 33. You don't look 33. I'm not 33. But I like 33, so I'm just going to project that out there. I'm 33. It's a nice round number.

Jesus changed the world when he was 33. So 33 seems reasonable to me. Isn't youth enticing? I joined a, I started working out at a new gym. And well, let me say that more correctly because that makes it sound like I've been working out for a while. I started working out at a gym. When I joined this gym, don't think like planet Zumba.

Think like nobody in this gym has eaten a carb in 10 years. That's the kind of gym that I joined. And when I did this, my wife was like, why are you doing this? Why are you joining this gym? And without even thinking about it, just replied back to her and said, because I don't want to fill my age. Isn't that funny? The resistance to be who we are and where we are in life? As a people, American people, we spent

$16.7 billion on cosmetic surgery last year. I'm not talking about plastic surgery where things are rebuilt. I'm talking about cosmetic surgery, a nip here and a tuck there. And according to the Baylor College of Medicine, the reason, one of the reasons that this is is because of the rise the use of video technology. Seemingly, the more we see ourselves, looking back at ourselves, the more resistance there is to who we are and where we are. Youth is enticing. This man is young.

This man is rich, and what has ever gone wrong when you were young and got money? He's also got influence. He's known as the rich young ruler. This almost certainly means that he was a ruler in the synagogue, which means that he has religious influence. So when he talks, that people listen to him. And when he says things, people do what he says. And he also has a sense of morality. He has a real moral wealth, not just financial wealth. Everybody in this man's life would have said he's a pretty good guy. He's the rich young ruler, and he's got all these things going for him, but yet something is still missing.

He's looking for something to add to his life to make it better. He is looking for something to do in order to make his life feel complete. This is why he asks the question, what good thing must I do? He's not talking to you and he's not talking to me. He's talking to the real Jesus, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And no matter how long you follow Jesus,

if you do it for any amount of time, one of the things you'll learn very, very quickly is that oftentimes Jesus says things that are very shocking. He said Jesus is a disruptor. There is no doubt about it. You could even go as far as to say that sometimes the things that Jesus taught and said are disturbing.

In Matthew chapter 8, a man walks up to Jesus and says, Jesus, I want to follow you, but I got to go back and bury some dead family members. And Jesus says to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead. In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus says these words. He says, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take its cross and follow me is not worthy of me. finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. In Matthew

Chapter 7, Jesus Christ of Nazareth says these words. He says, enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and many enter in by it. For the gate is narrow and hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. In John chapter 6, hundreds of disciples are following Jesus around because of the miracles that he was performing. And Jesus says these words to him, he says, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. And the Bible says that hundreds of disciples went away. Jesus is shocking. He's a disruptor. There's no doubt about it. When's the last time Jesus disturbed your normal? When's the last time Jesus spoke

something to you, said something to you, you read one of the teachings of Jesus. And it was disrupting to your normal. It started to shake your comfortable and your issues, the ideas of control a little bit. For me, it was just a few months ago as we were launching the 10-10 life journey here as a church. I loved it. I loved everything about it. I love all the ministries that we're getting to be a part of, all the things that we're stepping into as a church. I love it all. However, there was a lot of wrestling going on in here. A lot of wrestling in my family months and months and months before Pastor Job began to share the 10-10 life with our church. He sat down with our staff team and he began to talk about where God was leading us and taking next steps.

And one of the first things he started talking about was foster care. And as soon as Pastor Jobi said the words foster care out of his mouth, I looked my wife dead in her face and said, I'm not even praying about it. Why? What am I trying to protect? Why would defensiveness rise up in me so quickly? What is it that I would throw my hands up and say, you can't touch that, Jesus? What is that about?

Could it be my comfort? Could it be my illusions of control? But not just that, when it came time for us to make our financial commitments as a church. It was a wrestle, man. It was a wrestle. We prayed and we prayed and we prayed for months. And we truly want to bring back our first and best. We say those words all the time as a church that God gave his first invest to us through Jesus Christ,

and we bring back to him our first invest through financial giving and through ties and offerings. and we teach the theology of first fruits that ultimately I don't have a thing in life. Everything in my life is a gift from God to me and I bring it back to him joyfully in surrender. However, I wrestle. I wrestle. As we prayed about it as a family,

one of the things, a personal conviction that we had was that in our household for the next season that first and best, we clearly felt like God said that that meant most. And as God was making that clear in our lives that the most amount of money going out of our household, house every month was going to be to the kingdom and to the kingdom initiatives, I immediately, as soon as God made that clear in my life, do you know what I started to do?

Negotiate terms? I did. I was like, well, all right, Lord, if I lived in a country that didn't do escrow, and I didn't have to pay taxes and insurance, and I didn't have to deal with interest rates, then my mortgage payment would be this much money, so how about I just give a dollar more than that? Why is that? What's going on? I know my good shepherd.

I know that he's faithful. I know that everything he asked me to do, whatever I might try to grab onto this world. Everything he offers me is better every time. I know it. I've been following him a long time, but still I wrestle. Still wrestling.

So one night I'm wrestling through this, and I just was like, you know what? I've learned with idols, the trick is that you've got to depower them. You've got to defang them. And so I just sat down and opened my computer, and I just automated it. I set it up on the reoccurring giving thing.

I was like, this is going to be the big rock, and everything else in my life and in our finances is going to bounce off it. It is decidedly so. Why? Because he's the good shepherd. I just want to do what he says. Right?

When's the last time Jesus disturbed, you're normal? He has disrupted by prayer life. Jesus at times says things that are shocking. He invites us into things that feel costly to the flesh. Jesus is a disruptor. This rich young ruler, here's Jesus's invitation. He engages Jesus, and Jesus offers him an invitation, and it's a serious one. And so Jesus begins to unfold this guy right here on the street. Verse 19, Jesus says,

okay, you ask the question, what must I do? Here's the answer. You know the answer. Verse 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. And he said to him, teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. Have you? Are you sure? Jesus is doing surgery on this man. Jesus says, okay, let's start with your question. What must I do? Well, you have to obey the law. And he lists some of the law. Here's the thing when you study the law of the Old Testament, the law given by God to Moses for the nation of Israel. When you study the law, you realize very quickly that it's beautiful. Man, it is so beautiful. It is good. And what God gave this to

the people of Israel, he gave it to him, and it propelled them forward thousands of years as a civilization. They built their government. They built their systems of structure. They built their order all around the perfect and beautiful and holy law of God. And it did, man. The Israelites, it advanced them as a culture, but it wasn't just about propelling them. It was also given to them to be protection and provision. And if they obeyed it, then they, and they stayed under the law, then they would experience God's blessing through their obedience. Now, time and time and time again, and the nation of Israel and you and me and everybody who's ever encountered the law of God

realizes that it's a wall. And verses being obedient to it, the Israelites ran into it over and over and over and over again. And the law truly is beautiful. And in and of itself, it's good. The thing about the law is, though, it's just inflexible. It doesn't move.

And it makes, that thing right there makes it altogether different than a cultural sense of morality. We deal with us all the time in our world when we're trying to define what's moral or who has the moral authority. in any given debate. And so this group over here says they have the authority,

and this group over here says they have the authority, and they argue back and forth about who's actually right. And the thing about cultural morality is that we want the outside of it or the framework of it to be agreed upon and to be solid so that it feels safe because we need to feel safe. But inside, we want it to be very, very flexible based on our perspective and based on how we feel at any given time. And so we want part of it solid, but we want it to be very, very flexible.

so that we can more or less rightly define morality for ourselves. We treat it often like it's a trampoline. My wife and I, we bought a trampoline when we first got married. We didn't even have kids yet. We just thought it'd be fun. And so we bought a trampoline, and we'd been married about a year. We go to one of these big box stores. We don't buy one of the little round trampolines.

We buy one of the big square trampolines. Right, and we put that thing together, which is terrible, by the way, putting trampoline together. If you've got teenagers and they step out of line, just say, them out in the backyard and have them take the trampoline apart and put it back together. That'll work for you. I'm just telling you. It's awful. We get that thing put together. My wife, she grew up a gymnast, and so she starts bouncing on that thing, and she's flipping, and she's flying, and she's doing triple dog dairies and all kinds of stuff. It's really awesome.

And then it comes to my turn, and there's a few things you need to know about me. One, I'm really inflexible. It's not just my personality. I'm actually inflexible. And in my first year of marriage, my wife was learning how to cook, and so that means we ate a lot of casseroles, which is no problem because I love a casserole. I actually love a casserole so much that I put on 25 pounds on my first year of marriage. Don't judge me. More to love, baby. So here I am on the trampoline. I'm inflexible as all get out. I hadn't been able to touch my toes since I was in my mother's womb, and that is an assumption, right? I'm plus 25, and I go and I start bouncing around this trampoline, and I think, you know what, I'm going to impress my woman. I think a backflip will do it.

One bounce, two bounce, three bounce, he gone. Next thing I know, my back hits the steel beam and my head hits the ground. Lights out, baby. Lights out. My wife was very impressed. But when it comes to issues of morality in our world, we often think about it like it's a trampoline, that it's flexible. Based on your perspective and based on your priorities in life, we try to move it up and down. And in this world, we will deal with that until this world no longer exists.

but the thing about the law of God is that it's not from this world. And it doesn't move. It is completely inflexible and it's majestic. Romans chapter 3 says it like this. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped. What it means is that law doesn't negotiate.

So that every mouth may be stopped. And the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. When God gave the law to his people, he gave it to them both as map and mirror. It's a map in that it shows people

the way they're supposed to live and the destination if they abide according to the rules, but it's a mirror reflecting back to us that not only will we not follow the law, that we actually don't want to follow the law. And so the law is both map, in mirror showing us where to go and showing us that we're not headed that way and we don't want to head that way. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Jesus is unfolding this man. He is showing

this man that he has a need on a deeper level than he has ever considered. He's a sinner. And Jesus is saying, I came for sinners. Verse 21, Jesus says this, and Jesus, looking at him, loved him. and said to him, you lack one thing. Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. Don't miss this church. It says that Jesus, looking at him, loved him. He loved him.

Jesus' intentions toward this man were love. Jesus wanted for this man, not from this man. Jesus was offering him freedom. Jesus loved him. How does it land on you when I said, the words God loves you. When I say God loves you, how does it land on you? Maybe your testimony is like my friend Ryan.

Ryan started attending this church when he was 35 years old. Grew up in Jacksonville his entire life. He came to service one day at 35 years old. He's sitting in a seat and Pastor Jobb he says the words God loves you. And his testimony is that that's the first time in my life in 35 years I'd ever heard that God loved me. Maybe you're here today and you're hearing for the first time that God loves you. you, and I want you to know that he does. He loves you. He loves you so much that he sent his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

He loves you so much that he sent Jesus to do for you what you could never do for yourself, that he sent Jesus to live our lives for us, to live perfectly according to the law, the perfect and holy standard of God. Jesus came and he obeyed it fully. Not only did he just do what the law said exactly. He wanted to obey it. And he did. So he wanted to, and he did. He lived our lives for us, knowing that we couldn't. And then the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. And Hebrews tells us that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins. And so Jesus had to go and pay the price for sin, which is death. And so he offered himself up on a Roman cross so that his blood could cover over all of God's

people's sins and all the sins of those who would believe. And he died on that cross, but he did not stay dead. Three days later, he rose from the dead. And when he did, he came out and he now holds the keys to eternal life. And he's the only person who can give eternal life by faith. God loves you so much that he sent Jesus for you. God loves you. Will you receive it and believe it? Maybe you're here and you've heard that before, but you just have a hard time believing it. Maybe it's because there's something in your history. Maybe there's some hang-up or habit that you just can't let go. And I would just offer you this to think about today, if that's you. Maybe the reason you're having such a hard time getting past the shame or getting past this hang-up.

Maybe the reason this thing has so much power in your life is because you've yet to grab onto something that has more power. Maybe the reason it's hanging on to you is because you're not hanging on to something more powerful than it. And I would just want you to know that the gospel, the good news of God's love demonstrated for you through Jesus Christ. It is the most powerful force at work in the world. It can set anybody free from anything at any time. God loves you, church. God loves you. Will you receive it and believe it?

Maybe you're here and I say the words God loves you. And your heart starts to be a little bit faster. I hope that's true of all of us that our imagination begins to wander. And we begin to think about how defining that is of us. That we've come to believe and receive that being loved by God is our highest calling in life. It's the most important thing about us,

that our identity, our very existence, it's who we are is loved by God. God loves you. Jesus looked at this man and loved him. He didn't want from him. He wanted for him. And Jesus says this, okay, you think you're doing okay according to the law? One more thing. You lack one thing. There's one thing that's blinding you. There's one thing that's keeping you from seeing the kingdom of God. There's one thing that has led you to a place where you've You've completely missed the point of the law. You've completely missed the reality of God. You lack one thing.

Something in your life is blinding you from seeing who I am. You lack one thing. And Jesus says, you've missed the point, oh boy. Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Jesus looks this man dead in his face and says, I want you to sell everything because I say so. Jesus says you came looking for a what

I'm giving you a who your problem my friend is not that you need more goodness it's that you won't admit that you aren't good your money and your influence and your youth and your ideas about morality they make you think you're okay but you're really not you're trapped you're enslaved you're chained up by what you think success looks like

and in order for those chains to break off your life Jesus is saying I have to break your heart but don't worry, I'm going to give you a new one. Sell it all, Jesus says. Sell it all. Your eyes want more. The lust of the eyes wants more and more and more and more. I'm giving you the invitation of invitations today, which is to want me.

That's what Jesus says to this man. You want more? I'm inviting you to want me. Come. Follow me. And that's the invitation of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. from the sands on the seas of Galilee when he first uttered those words to his disciples

all the way through the decades and the generations to you and to me, Jesus' invitation is, come and follow me. And he wants it all. Jesus wants it all. This man came to Jesus looking for something to add to his life to make his life better. This man came to Jesus looking for something to do

in order to feel complete, but Christianity is not an addition to our life, It is an explosion of grace that consumes our life. Christianity is not something we do. It is something done to us. And when it happens, God goes to work in our life's changing everything. When I first started following Jesus, I was a teenager. And the short story is that I grew up in a Christian household.

I grew up surrounded by mostly Christians. I knew many Christian words. I knew many Christian things. I had many outwardly behaviors that looked Christian. I was surrounded by people who loved Jesus. I just did not love Jesus. I loved myself. And at 14 years old, my mother passes away of cancer,

and this brings me to a crisis of life. And ultimately, what happened was that I gave up on all the Christian and the faith words, and I began to chase after the things of this world. I began to pursue quickly the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And as I'm headed down this, this road, which ends nowhere good. I was also playing the religion game over here to satisfy

my family. But as I'm running after the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, like any teenager, I'm chasing after alcohol and drugs. And all the things that you can imagine a teenager would chase after, I'm chasing after. And one night I'm at a party. And all the things are happening that you think would be happening. And I get a beep. My beeper goes off. You're welcome. Now you know I'm not 33. My beeper goes off and it's my friend's phone number from my church youth group. And the code at the end of her number was 911, which meant you need to call quick. And so I go in and I call her and I'm thinking I'm going to get a lecture or maybe something happened that I need to know about.

I call her up on the phone. And I say, hey, what's going on? What do you need? She said, hey, I just really want you to know that me and some of our friends from the youth group, we just got together and we prayed for you. We prayed for you. and I'm fighting for you because I believe God has big things for your life. An explosion of grace.

I say, will you come and get me? And she does. She comes and gets me, and we get in the car and she takes me home. We don't even say anything. I go into my bedroom and I lay down on the floor in my room and I say, Jesus, you can have it all. You can have it all. I don't know much, but I know that I don't know what to do with my life.

And you're the only one who knows what to do with it, so you can have my life. You can have my worries. You can have my hurts. You can have my heart. loss, you can have my confusion, you can have my faith, you can have my doubts, you can have my dreams, you can have my purposes, you can have my plans, you can have every good thing that I would think for myself. You can have it, Jesus, because I want you to have it all. You're the only one who knows what to do with it. You're the only person who can truly give me life.

And from that moment, to this moment, I have been trying to understand what I know I experienced, which was the radical grace of God. Jesus' invitation is, come and follow me. verse 22 says the man heard Jesus's invitation and it says this disheartened by the saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions he heard the ask and he did not see it as more beautiful than what he already had he went away sad this man wanted to add to his life and Jesus told him to subtract he wanted to do something and Jesus told him that he had to let go this man didn't have money money had him how do you know well there's one way on the surface is does does the tool of money get used in your life at all to advance the kingdom initiatives to be a

part of what god's doing in the world to bless others through generosity that's on a very surface level but if you dig beneath that how do you know well the council that i would offer us today is this is that you have to listen to the words that come out of your mouth I was recently talking to a friend. This has actually been a little while now, and he's been a friend of mine for many, many, many years, and I'm going to take a whole bunch of conversations and put him down into a short story.

But through many conversations we had, ultimately this brother has been very successful in his life. He is very, very wealthy by any measure. It's not just a fact. It's also a feeling. He is wealthy. And in this season of his life, his marriage was in a ditch.

And normally, when that happens, or usually a lot of times, that takes, it takes two to tango, but in this scenario, it was 95% at least on him, and he knew it. And as we were talking and we were unfolding, he would say things like, hey, I know I messed up, but she. Hey, I know I made a mistake, but she, I know I'm responsible, but she. And ultimately what he was doing over and over and over again was justifying himself to himself. And as this conversation unfolded, I asked him, I said, listen, man, I said, why do you want to stay married? And this is what he said, without hesitation.

because if she leaves me, she gets half. You listen to the words that come out of your mouth. You see what happens when money and influence and these idols become what we love and what we trust, the things that come out of our mouth begin to reflect things that are last become first. The last most important thing for this brother is what happens to the money.

The first is his marriage and redemption and reconciliation and restoration. the invitation to repentance. That was first, that was what God was inviting him to deal with, but he was holding on to what was last. The last became first, and instead of the first getting his priority, it started to slide toward what was last. So he didn't just have money.

Money had him. Jesus invited the rich young ruler to trust him and to follow, which means that he had to let go, and he just couldn't do it. Verse 23, and Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, he said, how difficult will it be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God? 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.

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. And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then who can be saved? I was this close to bringing a live camel out on stage this weekend. I mean, I'm talking close. Like, I just couldn't figure out how to do it three times without it going bad, and so I chickened out. I'm just being honest. Jesus says, it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of an needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. What's Jesus saying?

He's saying is that in and of themselves, it's impossible. Why does wealth make it difficult to see and be in the kingdom of God? Because it provides the means to distract us from need. It reinforces self-dependency. When we can have every next thing with a click of a button, we can spend all of our time on our wants, and we don't ever really think about what we need. And when we do think about what it means to need, we define need as not having. But that's not really how need is defined.

Need is not just not having something. Need is not having something that you have to have and not being able to provide it for yourself. That's real need. It's not having something that you have to have and not being able to provide it for yourself. Do we know, church, how desperately we need him? We need him. His mercy, his grace, his finished work, we need him. Jesus says, it's impossible for man to do on his own. And then he says this in verse 27. And Jesus looked at them and said, with man, it is impossible. But not with God. For all things are possible with God.

For all things are possible with God. It is the good news of the gospel that reminds us that it is impossible for man, whether they be rich or poor to forgive his own sins. It is impossible for man to make himself right with and before God. It is impossible for man to cherish and treasure God's infinite glory in and of his own efforts. It is impossible for man to see something as more beautiful than having more in this life on his own. It is impossible for man to see and save him. the kingdom of God and its king with merely human eyes. It is impossible for man to take the heart

of stone that lay dead in the chest of his soul and to pump blood into it and to give it new life. It is impossible for man to believe and receive the unconditional love of God on his own. It is impossible for man to adore the name and renown of God by just mere effort. It is impossible for man to go to heaven by adding things to their life. It is impossible for man to be at peace with God simply by doing something else. It is impossible for man to be adopted and purposed as a child of God by simply being born. It is impossible for man to be saved in and of his own efforts. It is impossible for man to be saved in and of his own efforts, but not with God.

But not with God, but not with God. For with God, all things are possible. And they're not just possible. He has made them available in and through Jesus Christ. eternal life is not just possible, it's available. Abundant life is not just possible, it's available. In and through Jesus Christ. I'll close with this, two parables and an invitation.

In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus offers a counter perspective to that of the rich young ruler. And he says, there's a different road. It may be narrow, but it's different. there's a different thing that can happen when you see the beauty of the kingdom of God and it's king who is Jesus. In Matthew 13, Jesus says like this. He says like this in verse 44.

He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. And then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in him. In verse 45, Jesus continues and says again, The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.

There is something more valuable than anything else. There is someone that is more valuable than all this world has to offer in his name is Jesus Christ. Will you trust him? Will we trust him? Maybe you're here today and you take inventory of your life. You've never trusted Jesus as your Lord. Maybe you know some Christian words, maybe some Christian things, but if you're really honest, you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord. Maybe you see him as a good teacher, but the invitation today is to not see him as the teacher, but to see him as the king of kings and the Lord of Lords and the one who can grant eternal life. Maybe today would be the day where you would place your trust in him for the first time.

I'm believing that today is the day of salvation. The disciples ask Jesus the question. They say, Jesus, who then can be saved? The Apostle Paul answers this in Romans chapter 10. He says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you shall be saved. Doesn't say that God will consider saving you. It doesn't say that he'll think about saving you. It says that you shall be saved. So I want to invite you to confess that Jesus Christ is your Lord with your mouth, believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead and that he is the resurrection and the life. If everyone would bow their head and close their eyes with me, if you're here today and you want to surrender your life to the

Lordship of Jesus Christ, I would invite you to pray this with me. It's not about the words as much as it's about the posture of the heart. The prayer is just a tool for you to say the things that going on in your life. If you want to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, would you pray this with me? Say, Jesus, I need you. I can't forgive my own sins. I can't make myself right with God,

but I'm believing that when you died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And I want you to be the Lord of my life. I confess that I'm a sinner, and I confess Jesus that you are God. and I want you to be my Lord. I want you to have it all. Here's my life.

You're the only one that knows what to do with it. If you're here and you prayed that with me at any of our campuses, would you please just raise your hands so that we can see who you are and we can know who we're praying for? Father, I love you and I thank you for my brothers and sisters who have surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We celebrate salvation in this place today. We know Jesus that you are the only one who can grant

eternal life, that you are the king of kings, you are the Lord of Lords, you are our master and king, and we love you. And I thank you that you are the only one who can bring us to the point to where we know we have need, and you're the only one who can meet our true and deepest needs, and we thank you for doing it. Thank you for living our life for us. Thank you for paying the penalty and dying instead of us. And thank you that you are alive today, and we can trust you. You are trustworthy. I pray that as we respond to the good news of the gospel, I pray that you would convict us, that you would comfort us, that you would draw us near, and that we would wrestle with you, knowing that anything you have for us is better than anything this world has to

offer. We love you more than anything, and would it not just be something we say, but something you make true in us and of us? And all God's people said, amen. Would you stand with me? We're going to respond, as we always do in three ways. We're going to pray. At all of our campuses, there are prayer benches down front. Please come. and pray, wrestle with God, have conversations with him, pray for someone in your life. We're going to sing, we're going to declare God's worth through song and tell him what he means to us and we're going to bring, we're going to respond with our first and best through ties and offerings as we always do. Let's respond together.