Good morning, Veritas. How you doing this morning? All right. Good. I have a question for you. Simple question, kind of profound. If you could ask God anything, what would you ask him? You get one question, ask God anything you want. He's going to answer you. What would it be? It might be, what is your will for my life? It might be, who am I supposed to marry? It might be, should I go to this school or that school? Should we live in that state or that state? What job should I have? What are the Powerball numbers for this next drawing? I don't know what your question would be, but after he answers you, would you be okay with the answer, no matter what, even if it wasn't what you were expecting? See, today we're going to look at an encounter where a man asks God in the flesh, asks Jesus himself a very, very profound question. We're going to play close attention to his answer and then also his response to Jesus answer. You guys go with that, all right? Hey, also, if you're newer to Veritas or you're visiting this Sunday, you might have it in your mind that the church always talks about money. Churches always talk about money. Always talk about money. Well, we're gonna talk about money today, so I'm just warning you from the get go, right? But also, we don't always talk about that, but God's word talks about it often. And so our passage today goes there, and so we're gonna go there. And it's my hope that we can spend some time looking at what God's word says about money, about possessions, and not get defensive. But just see what God's word has to say to us and have an open mind as we do that. If we haven't met yet, my name is Matt Hofert, one of the pastors on staff, and I get to open up Luke 18 with you today. So if you have your bibles, go ahead and turn there. Luke 18. We are most of the way through our encounters with Jesus series, and so we've been spending a lot of the summer looking at encounters that people and groups of people have had with Jesus, and today is no different. And so this text is in Luke 18, but it's also found in Matthew 19 and Mark ten. And so between those three accounts of this encounter, we have a pretty clear picture of what's going on. We're going to read the whole passage, and then we'll kind of come back and break it down into smaller chunks later. But Luke 18, starting in verse 18, says this, and a ruler 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. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And he said, all these I have kept from my youth. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, one thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor. And he will have treasure in heaven and come, follow me. But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, how difficult is it for those of you, those who have wealth, to enter the kingdom of God? 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. Those who heard it said, well, then, who can be saved? But he said, what's impossible with man is possible with God. And Peter said, see, we've left our homes and followed you. And then he said to them, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God. Who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come. Eternal life. So Luke 1818 begins with a. A ruler asking Jesus a question. He says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? John 17 three defines eternal life as knowing the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom God sent so eternal life. Salvation. The kingdom of God is knowing the only true God through Jesus Christ. Once again, this guy asked a profound question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do to be saved? What must I do to enter the kingdom of God? Now, for those of you who understand and know the gospel, if somebody were to come to you and say, what must I do to be saved? How would you respond? You can shout it out. Faith. Right? Jesus. Something along those lines, right? It's not doing anything. It's not not doing anything. A good answer might be something along the lines of, like, you are saved by God's grace through faith. We see that in Ephesians two and other passages would support that. And so, once again, we don't bring anything to the table. We're not extra special. It's by God and his grace. Right. But before we look at how Jesus answers him, we need to understand something about this rich man. If you look at the encounters in Matthew, Mark and Luke, we see that he was rich, that he was young, and that he was a ruler, right? He had money, he had his youth, and he had authority, control, and power. I mean, those are all things that our culture craves. If I were to say to you, hey, do you want to have money? You'd be like, sure. For those of you who aren't young, do you want to be young again? Do you want to have your youth? You'd be like, yeah. And do you want to have power? Do you want to have influence? Do you want to have authority? Like, well, yes, absolutely. I would love those things. So here's a guy who seems to, at least from our perspective, have it all. From a worldly perspective, he seems to have everything, and yet he doesn't, which is why he's going to Jesus and saying, hey, what must I do? He senses he's missing something. He senses he's lacking something. He wasn't complete, if you will. And so he asked Jesus this question. Now, in Mark's account, Mark 1017, it says that this man ran and kneeled before Jesus. And so there's some urgency to his question. He's not just kind of standing off on the side saying, hey, Jesus, who's walking by in the distance. He, like, runs up to Jesus, puts himself down in front of him, and then he asks this question. We see Jesus begin to answer him, but the thing is, in verse 19, he doesn't say, you're saved by grace through faith, which that's the answer that we would all expect, right? So the question becomes, like, did Jesus say the wrong thing? Did he give the wrong answer? I mean, the answer is no, right? Like, Jesus didn't give wrong answers, right. Well, why does he answer the way he does? He says, you called me good, but only God is good. And so he immediately answers the question with another question. Like, that's something that Jesus did often, right? But he's saying that only God is good. You're not good. Nobody's good. We're not inherently good. The only person who's inherently good is God himself. And so I wonder if this rich man makes the connection of, if this guy's good and God is good, is this guy God? I don't think he does, though. Then he points to the ten Commandments in verse 20. He says, 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. And so this rich man hears a bunch of, like, deeds or things to do, and I think he's pleased with the response. He seems to think he's good. He responds. In verse 21, he says, well, all these things I've kept from my youth here. I've asked you an important question. How do you inherit eternal life? You throw out some commandments, and I feel like I've done those things. He thinks he's good. Now, we know he's not good. We know he hasn't kept the commandments. But this guy is looking at his own merit, his own performance, if you want to call it that, his own what he's done and hasn't done and thinks he's okay. Now, look how Jesus responds. He doesn't argue with the rich man. He doesn't say, you're actually wrong. He doesn't point to a sermon on the mount and say, actually, buddy, if you've ever been angry, you've committed murder in your heart. Or if you've ever looked at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart. Like, he doesn't say any of that stuff. He just simply addresses the problem. I want you to see something else. In Mark 1021, it says, in this account, it says, and Jesus looked at him and loved him. So the response that Jesus gives this man is not one of anger. It's not one of how do you not know this? It says, it's one out of love. And so as we're going through the text this morning, as we're listening from God's word, like these are loving thoughts, these are loving words, he says, you still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven. And then you can come follow Jesus, right? You see, Jesus is addressing this man's money. He's addressing this man's possessions. We're going to pull over and park here for a few minutes today. We live in a society where we value money and possessions a lot, right? We want stuff, we have stuff, we want more stuff, and we want better stuff, right? If there's a way in which we could make more money, we would jump at that chance, most of us, right? If we could only have, if we could only get a fill in the blank. We're looking to upgrade. We're looking to acquire. Like, that's a pretty common theme amongst people these days. Many people find their security, their sense of purpose, their identity, their hope, their worth, their value in things, in money, in possessions. And this guy was no different. And yet, even though he's a seeking these things, he has these things, he's not content. The Bible often speaks to topics of money and possessions and similar things. And so we see in one Timothy six, nine and ten, it says this. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. You see, being wealthy in and of itself is not a bad thing. Right? I know a lot of people who are very, very wealthy, who are great stewards and incredibly generous, incredibly open handed. And I would love for those people to get more money so they can be more generous and more open handed. Right. I also know lots of people who are broken, who are incredibly selfish. And it says money isn't the root of all evil. It says, the love of money is the root of all evil. Right? When we love something, it gets our affection, it gets our energy, it gets our thought. And if our desires and our thoughts and our affections go towards something other than God, that's a problem. It's dangerous. And so it's so easy to get caught up in a place of security and hope and money, right? I don't think we, as a church, talk about that enough like that is a very, very dangerous thing. Our hearts are so prone to wander, right? Our thoughts are so prone to be fixated on something or someone other than God. And often they wander towards our money and our possessions. The flesh side of me sees this play out in my own life. I might not be a surprise to you. I'm not a super flashy guy. Like, my clothes, no one's ever looked at me, like, wow, like, great dresser, right? I mean, like, this was a Kohl sales rack, right? Probably like 499, something like that. My car is a 2006 Toyota Highlander. Tons of miles on it. My wife's car is a 2006 Toyota Sienna with a ton more miles on it. And so it's very easy for me to, in some level, think, like, money, wealth, possessions, they don't really have a grip on me. Like, look what I wear, look what I drive. But then I catch my heart wandering. I catch my mind going somewhere else. Over the last month, I've been very blessed in a couple different scenarios. One was, I got an opportunity, pretty much all expense paid trip to Canada to an incredible fishing lake. I've been walleye fishing in so many places in this country, and this was by far the best I've ever experienced. It was absolutely incredible. Tons of fish, lots of big fish. The group of guys that I went with were a group of dads who coach our kids. If we just kind of went up there to get away, and we just kept saying, like, where are we? Like, how did we get to come here? We are incredibly blessed. The hosts were incredible. They met all. I mean, it was just insane how fortunate we were to be up there. And gratitude was my predominant thought. I was like, I'm so thankful. I feel so blessed. And then I found myself thinking other things, like, you know, it would be awesome, it would be great if I could have a really nice fishing boat like the ones that I'm fishing out of, and I have a Toyota Highlander that can't pull anything. It would be even better if I had a really nice truck to pull my really nice boat so I could go fishing a lot. And then I found myself honest to goodness thinking, would it be even better is if I had a resort in Canada that I could bring my really nice truck and my really nice boat to? I found myself, like, what if? And, like, that's never gonna happen yet. I found my. My desires, my wants, my affections being drawn to something else. We get back a week later, and a very generous family is like, hey, we want to take your family boating, tubing, like, enjoying the water, like, oh, that would be incredible. So my wife and five kids kind of tagged along. It was super fun. We love tubing, being on the water. Lots of laughter, lots of memories. It was great. And then my mind quickly goes from, these are great people. I'm super thankful, really blessed. These are very, very generous. To proof again that we need a boat. Right? I mean, it's like, your mind can be so prone to wander, and mine included, we just want stuff, and it takes our affections and it takes our energy, veritas. The reality is, is we can quickly be consumed with money and possessions. And how quickly can that be the thing we want most? Like, how quickly can we be the thing that we gravitate towards, the thing that our mind drifts towards, the thing that, like, we think about all the time? You have to ask yourself, like, do the things you own, own you. Do the things you own, own you. Are you content or do you desire more? Are you open handed with your finances? Or do you keep a pretty tight clenched fist? Do you let your living determine your giving? And what I mean by that is, do you live life in such a way where you spend money on whatever you spend money on, and at the end of the month, you're like, don't we have anything left not gonna give this month? Or is the other way around where you let your giving determine your living? You give generously and then you live accordingly. The desire for and focus on money is a very, very dangerous thing for christians. Let me be real with you all for a minute. We at times have giving conversations with our people, right? It comes up in membership meetings. It comes up with some of our leaders. And from the outside, it can seem like we, by we, I mean our elders and pastors care about people's money because we have a budget to meet, right? We care about people's money because we have to fund ministry. And while there is some practical truth to that, in that we feel like God has called us to do something and finances help, your generosity helps fund a ministry. At the end of the day, we don't care about your money. At the end of the day, we care way more about your heart because our hearts are so prone to wandertain, our hearts are so prone to have our affections drawn elsewhere, away from God. And so money, while it practically helps fund things, we have a budget. Money is way more of a spiritual matter that reveals a ton about your heart. It reveals a ton about your heart. Let's go back to our passage. So how does the rich man respond to the call to sell everything and give to the poor and then come follow Jesus? Right? It says in verse 23 that he became very sad. He asked jesus a question. Jesus responds, he doesn't like the answer. He becomes sad. He had stuff. He was rich. He had power. He had authority. He put his identity, his hope, his value, his worth in his things. And because of that, the thought of leaving them behind was like, I don't know if I can comprehend that. I don't know if I can do that. And so he was greatly troubled. Just to be clear, was Jesus saying to this man that you would have eternal life if you sold everything and even take that step farther? Is he saying to us this morning that if everybody in this room sold everything you had and gave it to the poor, you would all be good? Like, you'd check a box, you acted, you did something, you'd be okay? Like, no, that's not what he's saying. You see, Jesus was a master at getting at the heart issue, at getting at something deeper, at poking and prodding and kind of unearthing what really the problem was. You see, in Matthew 1613, it says, you cannot serve both God and money. Like, you can't serve both. It's one or the other Matthew 621 says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And this is what Jesus was getting at. He wanted this man's heart to be all in. You notice that when Jesus listed some of the commandments earlier, he did not list a pretty important one. He didn't list the first one. You guys know what the first commandment is? You should have no other gods before me, right? He didn't say that earlier, but he's saying this now. He's calling this man to sell everything because his everything, his possessions, his money, was his God. And Jesus is saying, you can't serve two masters. He wasn't simply testing this man's behavior, will he? Won't he? He was saying to what does this man's heart gravitate towards? Is it money? Is it his stuff? Is it something else? Or is it me? And his response reveals that this man's God, that this man's prize, that this man's treasure, was not Jesus. It was his stuff. It was the stuff he was worshiping the creative, not the creator. See, this was a huge obstacle. This was a huge idol in this guy's life. And he was calling him to get rid of it, to put it to the side, to cast it away and then follow Jesus, because we know that trying to follow Christ, trying to live for the kingdom of God, can be really, really hard, next to near impossible if you have other things or other people in your life that are more important than him. And yet it seems like that's what a lot of us try to do. We try to be good christians while our energy and our time and our money is devoted elsewhere. Maybe you perhaps prayed a prayer when you were young or you think because you made a choice or decision or whatever years ago, everything's fine. I kind of checked that box, so to speak. And the reality, the question you gotta ask yourself is, does my life match that? What's most important to you? What do you value most? What do you think about? What is your prize? What gets the bulk of your time, energy and money? You see, Jesus was not giving the wrong answer. He was very skillfully, very tactfully poking at the thing that this man value more than anything else, his money, his possessions. He was skillfully, once again, with love, giving a loving answer, not simply saying that if you do this one deed, you're good. He was taking that a step farther and saying that you value something more than you value the kingdom of God. And that's a problem. That's a problem. You can't serve two masters. Veritas. It is very easy to verbally say, jesus is my number one. Like, Lord's on the throne, he's my number one. Everything else comes second. Yeah, I love my family. Yeah, I love this da da da. But God's first and foremost in my life. Like, it's very easy to verbally say that. I need to ask the question, like, does my life actually reflect that? Does my life match my words? You see, he was calling this man to identify the God in his life. And he was saying, you either value your stuff and your money, or you value me. And this guy got sad because he valued his stuff and he valued his money. Verses 24 and 25. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, how difficult is it for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God? For it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Now, once again, like, wealth can be very dangerous. Jesus is using, like, hyperbole here, right? So he's thinking of something really, really big, a camel. You guys ever seen a camel? My kids have ridden camels at the zoo. And it's like, that's a big, weird animal, right? And then you take a needle. I have a needle. Super small. Ever tried to thread that? Especially if you have bad eyesight super hard. Like, there's no way. Those things don't compute, right? That can't happen. It's difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of goddess. But there's good news. We see in verse 27, 27, those who heard that said, well, like, who can be saved? But Jesus said, what's impossible with man is possible with God. You see, it's very difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God because rich people. I'm going to kind of lump the majority of us in here because most of us have our needs met. It's very easy to rely on ourselves and our stuff for comfort, for our worth. Like, I don't really have to try super hard to be taken care of. And it's harder for people in that position to submit and surrender their lives to Christ. But they're not the only ones with a problem. They're not the only ones with an issue. They're not the only ones who aren't good. It's in fact, impossible for anybody, not just rich people, rich people, poor people, old people, young people, people over there, people over there. It's hard for anybody. In fact, it's impossible for anybody to enter the kingdom of God based on their own merit, based on what they do, based on what they don't do. This rich young ruler thought he was good. He thought that, oh, yeah, I've done what I needed to do. And nothing could be further from the truth. The disciples then ask a good question, like, well, then, who can be saved? Jesus answers, there's hope, because what's impossible with man is possible with God. And that's what salvation is, right? Jesus Christ making the impossible possible. How? Through faith in Christ. We who were dead in our sins and trespasses, we who were enemies of goddess, through faith, can go to his children and his heirs in Christ. Like, that's an incredible thing, love. This quote says, jesus is called to surrender demands radical. Sorry. Jesus call to salvation demands radical surrender. Salvation is a summons to lose your life, to let go of everything you have and everything you are in submission to Jesus. This is what it means to be a Christian. And so you gotta ask the question like, does your life reflect this? Are you open handed? Do you value Christ more than anything? Peter in verse 28 says, see, we've left our homes and followed you. Peter might be jumping the gun a little bit. He might kind of like the rich, young ruler relying on his own, doing his own deeds. But you got to contrast, at the end of the day, you got to contrast the reaction of the disciples versus the reaction of this rich young man. So take a look at Luke five. This is Jesus calling Levi, who also goes by Matthew. Right. So the disciple Matthew, this is his story. It says in verses 27 28, after this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting in a tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. Jesus says, hey, Levi. Matthew, lay your life down. Follow me. And he does. Now look at the rich young ruler. Hey, lay, what's most important to you? Down. Lay your life down. Come follow me. And he doesn't. Once again, which reaction most resembles your reaction to the call of Christ to lay everything down for him? I want to point out one more thing before we conclude and bring this together, Luke 1829 and 30. It says, Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come, eternal life. Without going into a ton of detail here, the sacrifice is worth it. We are promised a reward when we make God the prize of our life, when we treasure God more than anything else. Not only will this life be more rewarding, but we get to experience eternity with Christ. Like, we get God forever. That's a huge, huge thing. And so to give up something very temporary here, your earthly life, for something forever, like, that's a pretty good trade. So at the end of the day, are we called to sell everything we have? Like, is everyone is all right? Everyone's next step, go sell everything, give it to charity. Like, no, that's not what we all have to do. But just like the Israelites were commanded in the Old Testament, and just like Jesus is calling this guy to, and just like we're challenged to do today, we are called to have no other gods before the one true God. We are called to value nothing else more than we value the one true God of the universe. And so, Veritas, true faith leads to treasuring Jesus above all else. True faith leads to treasuring Jesus above all else. See, Jesus was calling out the orientation of this man's heart. Like, where is your heart directed? What do you value more than anything? He was inviting him to shift it from his stuff, from his money, from his possessions, to the king of the world. In the end, Jesus calls his people to radical surrender, to have no other gods before him, to treasure him above all else. The question becomes, will we be like the disciples? Will we be like Levi, who said, all right, I'll drop everything and follow you. I'll make you number one. I'll prioritize you. You're the best thing this world has to offer. Or will we be like the rich young ruler? I think a question then becomes, like, how do we apply this text? So, like, so what? I mean, we see, we're called to value and treasure God above everything else. Like, that's, that's pretty clear, right? But the question becomes, like, what? What does that practically look like? I got a handful of suggestions for you. One's kind of weird. It might be weird. I don't know if it's weird weird. We're going to do it, right? If it's awkward, it's awkward. We'll never do it again. But we're going to get to a couple of quick ones first. Last week, Danny challenged us to do a time audit. Like, keep track of how we spend our time, because that's going to be pretty telling of what we value. I'm going to change that a little bit and say, do a money audit. Like, what do you spend money on? Keep track of that. That's going to be pretty revealing if at the end of a few weeks or months, you look at that. This is what I value. This is what I spend money on. Second, I'm just gonna say give sacrificially. Bible says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Also, when you give money to something or spend money on something, your attention, your heart, your thoughts go to that thing, right? Like, I bought a house. Many of you have bought a house. Like, my attention goes to that thing. I care about that thing. If I give generously to something or somebody, my heart, my attention goes there. So give generously. Give sacrificially. Third, we're going to do a real time heart audit, and you're like, what the heck is that? I don't know. We're going to try it. Okay, I'm going to ask you a series of questions. You don't have to answer them all, but if there's one or two or three that kind of stand out to you, that stick out to you, either just answer them in your own head or else write the answer down. Give a little bit of time to reflect. There's going to be some silence, which might be weird, but just go with it. Okay, you guys ready to do this? All right, here we go. So, as I ask these questions, if they stand out to you, if they impact you, answer them. Write them down. Think of them in your head. The first one is, in what ways do you find yourself valuing earthly wealth? In what ways do you find yourself valuing earthly wealth? Next one, what is most important to you? Not what's the right answer, but, like, what truly is most important to you? Where do you look for your hope, security, identity, worth and value? Where do you look for your hope, identity, security, worth and value? In what area of your life is it really hard to be open handed? Another way to phrase that is, what area of your life are you trying really, really hard to control? Gotta love when that happens. Whose kingdom are you living for? Whose kingdom are you living for? Yours or God's? And what evidence in your life supports that answer? And finally, what do the answers to these questions reveal about your heart? What do the answers to these questions reveal about your heart? I just want to quietly encourage you to confess those to the Lord, to pray for the desire to treasure him above all else, and really just the ability to see him as the greatest treasure, as the greatest prize. So spend 2020 5 seconds confessing and praying you see Veritas. Real faith leads to treasuring. Jesus above all else leads to being open handed with your finances and ultimately with your life, being willing to respond to God when he calls you to do something. And that might mean moving, it might mean a change in jobs, it might mean starting or severing a relationship. It might mean doing hard things for the sake of the gospel. But we see that Jesus is better than anything this world has to offer in following him or surrendering to him is worth it. And so I hope that we can be a church that prizes, that treasures Jesus above everything, right? That is sacrificially generous, that doesn't necessarily meet the national average as far as, like most church members giving a percent or two to the church, but just a church that is overly generous. I also hope we can be a church that loves the Lord our God, with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, that's open handed with our time, with our energy, with our resources. Where there are so many examples of people not building their own kingdom, not living for themselves, but surrendering to what the will of the Lord is, whose main concern in life is not making a name for themselves, but in living life in a way that gives God the glory and takes the attention away from them. You see, the rich young man thought that he needed something in addition to Jesus. The rich young man, while on paper, seemed to have everything we would ever want, yet he lacked the most important thing. The reality is that we have everything we want. We have everything we need. We have everything that will satisfy, that will bring us joy in Christ. He is sufficient, and that's something that we as a church can hold onto. We're going to move over into a time of communion. And in talking about finances and talking about money, it's good to note that Jesus left the riches of heaven like Jesus left the riches of heaven to become poor for our behalf, right? While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Church. We don't take communion lightly. We remember the sacrifice that Christ made, which makes it possible for us to treasure God, which makes it possible for us to experience eternal reward, which makes it possible through faith in Christ, for us to not only enjoy God here and now, but enjoy him forever. So let's pray. God, it's easy to say that we value you. It's easy to say you're our treasure. It's easy to give lip service to what's important. God. I pray that our lives would actually align with that God, that you would just be so pleasing and so desirable and so much better than anything or anyone else. We can't help but look at you to desire you, to want to know you, to want to know more of your word and God. I pray that that would then overflow into our lives, Lord, that we can be a church. That we can be a people who are marked by generosity. That we can be a church and a people that are marked by not being consumed or caring so much about things and stuff and people at least not making them our number one, but ultimately just a church that finds you most satisfying. It's in your name we pray. Amen.