One Thing (Part 3): I Lack

So, if you are in a setting and somebody who is significant in your life in one way or another, even if just for a season, says to you, here's one thing that you really need to pay attention to, chances are you'll stop at least for a second and consider what it is that they say.

If you start a new job and your boss or a coworker comes to you and says, hey, here's the one thing that you really need to understand in order to thrive in this environment, chances are you'd at least give a few moments to consider what they would say to you.

If you're dating or newly married and your boyfriend, girlfriend, or your spouse says, here's one thing that really matters to me in our relationship, chances are you would at least stop for a moment and say, Maybe I should think about this, maybe I should consider it.

If you were having some health issues and you went to a doctor and the doctor was explaining what you could do about your health and said, Here's one thing that you really need to pay attention to.

Chances are you would at least, in part, take some time to consider that one thing.

Well, over these weeks, we've been in a series that we've called one thing, and what we've been doing is we've been looking at the one thing statements in the Bible.

There are several of them.

We're looking at four of them.

We started by looking at the one thing that we need, the conversation that Jesus had with Mary and Martha, and he said, This is one thing you need, basically to sit at Jesus' feet.

And last week we saw Paul and his kind of uh writing in Philippians, where he said, Here's the one thing I do, I press on.

And today we're going to look at this story about this rich young ruler that comes to see Jesus.

And Jesus says, Here's the one thing you lack.

And it's a little bit like this if you and I were to have a conversation with God and God were to say to you or to me, here's one thing that you lack in your life.

Chances are we would at least sit for a few moments and say, Is this something that I need to consider?

And then next week we'll end the series with one thing that we need to ask coming from Psalm 27.

Josiah will speak at 9:30.

I'll speak on Saturday night in the chapel, 11:15, and Joel and Brady will speak respectively in the strip district in Butler County as we wrap up this series.

And what I'd like to do today is very simply walk through this text with you and just talk about some of the implications of it.

Now, I mentioned that this account is the rich young ruler.

And you might say, well, where is that?

This is an account that is told in all three of the Synoptic Gospels.

The Synoptic Gospels being Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

John stands apart as about 90% of the material in John is unique.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke have very similar material.

And here in Mark that tells this story, we learn that this man was rich.

From Matthew's account, we learn that he was young, and from Luke's account, we learn that he was a ruler.

And here's the significance of this.

This man basically was somebody that people would have looked at and said, You have everything.

In other words, he was rich.

People in that day would have thought that that meant that he had a lot of blessing and a lot of good things.

He was a ruler, he was somebody of influence and power.

He had some prestige.

And then he was young.

He had attained these things sooner than many people do.

Maybe we could say that this is a kind of person who you could think has it all.

And yet, just like the song that John Mayer wrote years ago, something's missing, even though I have so many good things, you can say, and yet something still seems to be missing in my life.

And so his approach is to say, I'm going to go and ask Jesus about this.

Jesus, the traveling rabbi, I'm going to see what he says that I could have eternal life.

And that's his first real opening question here that he asks.

Here's what we read in verse 17.

It says this: As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him.

Good teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Probably rarely do you and I ask the question, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life?

Maybe we asked it at one point, but what's significant here is to understand that in the Jewish mind of that day, eternal life was not something that they thought of the way that probably many people in our day and age think about eternal life.

Because in our day and age, we tend to think about eternal life as being disembodied from our bodies, uh, disembodied spirits kind of floating around in eternity with some celestial choir or cherubim on a harp or something like that.

But for the Jewish mind, the question of eternal life was saying that the world that we live in will be redeemed by a coming Messiah.

And so it's saying, How will I have life in the age to come?

Because they saw life through two different spheres, the current age, where we live now, and the age to come when the Messiah will come and set things right.

And so when this man says, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

What he's doing is he's saying, How can I have a good life in the age to come, in the future, not just here and now?

In other words, I have things that I want here and now.

How do I have a good life in what's ahead?

That's what he's asking.

And when he asked this question, probably what he was expecting was he was expecting that Jesus, like other rabbis, would start a fine discussion of the law, saying, here are the things that you need to do, and that he would push the idea of a group identity.

Because when other teachers of the law would talk about the age to come, what they would often do is they would talk about the things that you should do, the law to keep, and then they would say, identify with our group, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, different groups of that day, saying, if you identify with our group, then you have the best opportunity for the future.

And then we see Jesus respond, and he says, Well, why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone.

And I believe what Jesus is doing, at least in part, here, is he's pushing back on this idea of group identity.

Because the man, by saying good teacher, is saying, You're good, I want your answer, and I think he's pushing back on this.

And by the way, you don't have to be particularly religious to have a group identity.

Because what most of us will do, whether we're people of faith or not people of faith, is we will say, the people that I'm like and like me and I like, we're the people who are the good people.

And well, however we define goodness, whatever values we have, this makes up the good people of our world, and then there are bad people in the world, and as long as I'm part of the good people, then whatever my version of the future is, whatever my version of the age to come, eternal life, I'm one of the good ones.

And so Jesus, right away, he pushes back.

He says, Don't call me good.

He says, There's only one who's good.

And then Jesus goes into the commands, the discussion of the law that maybe he would have expected.

He says, You know the commandments.

You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and your mother.

And what he does here, very simply, is he gives a list of commands.

Now, certainly these are select commands from the Ten Commandments, but what he's doing is he's saying, here are some of the commands.

Some of the commands that demand a sense of respectability in our community.

And so the man does a very quick assessment of himself and says, you know what?

I think I've done these pretty well, is what he says.

And what he's in a sense doing right here is he's looking at himself and he's saying, You know what?

I have kept all of these commandments.

Now, before he says this, Jesus looks at him, and I'm gonna come back to that in a moment, but but here's what happens for this man is he says, I'm doing all of the right things.

I'm respectable, I do the commandments that matter.

And here's what we read next.

Jesus looked at him and loved him.

So after the man says, Give me the checklist.

I've passed it.

We're told that Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Now don't rush past this, because this idea of him loving him here is significant.

Because before Jesus challenges him, before he says, Here's what you lack, he looks at him and he loves him.

In other words, it's because of Jesus' love that he challenges his way of thinking.

It's because Jesus cares about him that he's willing to say to him, Here's the one thing that you're missing, here's what lack is lacking in your life.

But so many times we see challenging somebody as being unloving.

We see when somebody challenges us as it being unloving, but but it was the love of God, the love of Jesus, that caused him to challenge us.

And this, you could say, is something that we understand.

If you've had a child around and you have a child who day after day says, What I want for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is I want to eat ice cream.

Well what do you do?

You say, It's because I love you that I'll say you can't just eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It's precisely because you love a child that you challenge them and you cause them to say, you can't just simply do whatever you want because I love you.

And that's what we see here with Jesus as he comes into this conversation at a deeper level when this man says, You know what, I've done everything that I'm supposed to do.

Jesus responds, first with love and then the challenge.

He says, One thing you lack.

Go sell everything that you have and give to the poor.

Then you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come and follow me.

Now, very simply, when you hear that, if you've heard somebody teach on this, or you've read Bible commentaries, or maybe you've looked in a study Bible about this, what almost everyone will say, and I agree with this, is they will say, Well, this was a specific command to a specific person.

This is not something that is universal.

In other words, followers of Jesus don't need to sell everything they have and give it to the poor.

You've probably heard that.

But let me just encourage you, before you too quickly move past this, and too quickly say, Well, well, my one thing that I lack can be anything, not just money, to think about money for just a second.

What if you were having a conversation with Jesus, and Jesus said, I want you to sell everything you have and give your money to the poor, then you'll have treasure in heaven.

My guess is many of us would say, that's a little steep.

I mean, the 10% thing, I might be able to get my hand or head around that, but 100%?

I don't think so.

How will I live?

What will my life be like?

And and and Jesus here, again, I don't think he's giving a universal command for all time, but what he's doing is he's addressing this man's heart, and what he's saying is, you have made money into something that's so important to you that you can't see the kingdom.

And here's what happens for us today, and that is however we define our version of God or morality, anytime that we start to say, I think God has said this or God has said this, but, in other words, we have a but statement, a statement in which we say, I hear what God says, but what we're doing is we're basically saying, this is the one thing that God you can't have.

God, you can have everything else except this.

I'll be good in terms of all of these commands.

I won't steal, I won't lie, I won't cheat, I'll honor my father and my mother, but you can't have my money.

And it's a butt statement.

Now notice here that the idea that Jesus says is sell all you have and give to the poor.

And if you read through the pages of the Bible, one of the things you'll see is that God has an incredible heart for the poor.

And what uh will often happen is we can read some of the exhortations about caring for people who are less fortunate and say, yeah, but.

And what that might become is our butt statement.

And if it isn't about money, maybe for some of us it's about other things.

Maybe for some of us it is, we'll say, I understand what the Bible says about human sexuality, but I can't live that way and be happy.

There's no way that my life will make sense.

Or maybe it's about marriage.

Maybe we'd say, you know what, I see what the Bible says about marrying somebody who's like-minded, who shares my faith, but if I did that, then I couldn't live a happy life.

So I have to date and marry this person.

Or I'm in a marriage today and the marriage isn't happy, and so I have to get out of it.

I see what the Bible says about divorce and remarriage.

I'm not sure I have a biblical rationale, but I have to be happy.

Do you hear the but statement?

Or maybe it's something much simpler.

Maybe it's around prioritizing public worship.

Hebrews uh talks about this, uh, Hebrews 10, not forsaking the assembly together.

And maybe you say, I get that and I believe that, but right now we're just in a season.

We're in a season where we have too many things going on, too many things that are that are more pressing than that.

Or maybe it's an unpopular teaching of the Bible, a doctrinal thing.

Where you say, I know that the Bible teaches this and my church affirms it, but I don't like that.

It makes me feel as if I'm at odds with my culture.

I don't want to affirm that, I don't, I don't want to believe that.

So I know the Bible says that, but do you see how the but statements work?

Maybe it's around our words.

Maybe you see something like the verse in Ephesians 4.29 that talks about using our words to build up rather than to tear down, to let no unwholesome words come out of our mouths.

And you say, Yeah, but you haven't seen my coworkers.

You haven't been in my situation.

Like I get that, but.

Or maybe it's around honesty.

Where you say, I know that the Bible, and even if I don't buy into all of the Bible, but but I believe in this idea of honesty.

But in my business, in my line of work, if I'm completely honest, here's what would happen.

It doesn't work.

So so I know that that's good, but and what we're doing anytime we have a butt statement is we're saying, God, you can have this, you can have this, but I'm keeping this for me.

That's what we're doing.

And one of the things that we need to understand when we do that is what we're in essence doing, however we come to that, is we're asserting our own righteousness.

And that might not be a word that we use very often, but what we're doing is we're saying, I'm going to decide for myself what is right for me.

Paul David Tripp wrote about this a while ago.

Here's what he said it's so tempting to mount arguments for your own righteousness.

And he gives some examples.

That really wasn't lust.

I'm just a man who enjoys beauty.

That really wasn't gossip, it was just a very detailed, very personal prayer request.

I wasn't angry at my kids.

I was just trying to get them to adhere to some standards.

That wasn't an ugly quest for power.

No, I was just exercising my God-given leadership gifts.

I'm not cold-hearted and stingy, I'm just trying to be a good steward of what God has given me.

I wasn't being proud, I just thought someone needed to take control of the conversation and situation.

That wasn't really a lie, it was just a different way of recounting the facts.

And then he writes this: he says, We all tend to want to think that we're more righteous than we actually are.

We don't like to think of ourselves as still desperately in need of God's rescuing grace, and we surely don't want to face the facts.

That when we need to be rescued from most is us.

When you argue for your own righteousness, working hard to deny the empirical evidence of your own sin, then you fail to seek the amazing grace that is your only hope.

Grace is only ever attractive to sinners.

And the riches of God's goodness are only ever sought by the poor.

You see, it's not really possible that we will ever seek God's grace, God's love, God's forgiveness until we've come to deal with our butt statements, with our one thing that we lack.

And here's what Jesus is doing in this moment with this man is he's in essence saying, you can keep most of the commandments, but it's not a license to ignore a commandment.

So even if you keep almost all of the commandments, it's not a license to say, well, because I've kept so many of these, then I get this one to myself.

Now there's a reverse danger in that.

Some of us will say, in essence, since I don't keep one, then I might as well not keep any.

But there's also a danger to say that because I keep so many, therefore I don't need to worry about this one thing.

And what we see here is Jesus challenging in the context of love and saying, There's one thing that you lack.

And here's what we read next.

It says at this, the man's face fell, verse 22, and he went away sad because he had great wealth.

So his face falls, meaning that his countenance falls.

He becomes sad because he says, I want this eternal life, but there's no way that I'm going to give up my material well-being.

And the word here for wealth is the Greek word kremate, and Aristotle defined it this way.

He said, It's all those things that can be bought by coinage.

In other words, it isn't just the amount that we have in our bank account, it's all the things that we value that money can buy.

And as I said earlier, we can too quickly move on from money because money is ultimately a test.

It becomes a rival God for many of us, and I think that's why this is part of this story, because for many of us, what we have becomes the very thing that we hold against our faithfulness to God, and it's a responsibility.

Because here, he says to the man, I want you to take what you have, give, sell it, and give the proceeds to the poor.

In other words, my kingdom is about taking what I've given you and using it not just for yourself, but using it for the good of others.

That's what he's saying here.

And yet, so many times what we do instead is we say, No, no, no, I can't.

And instead of even being sad and going away and understanding the contrast, what we do is we say, I'm just gonna redefine all of these things.

But here's what I think Jesus is really driving at, and what I think is is at the core of this, and that is this man had taken something, in his case, money, and he had elevated it to a point of being a rival to God Himself.

And that's what Jesus would probably say to you and me.

Maybe not about money, but about your one thing that you lack, about the one thing where you have butt statements, where he would say, Here's where you have elevated something to be too high.

Here's how Becky Pippert wrote about this years and years ago.

She said, Whatever controls us is our Lord.

The person who seeks power is controlled by power.

The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to please.

We do not control ourselves, we are controlled by the Lord of our lives.

And then Tim Keller wrote about this in his book, Counterfeit Gods.

He says, Every human heart must live for something.

Something must capture our imaginations, our heart's most fundamental allegiance and hope.

But the Bible tells us, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, that that object will never be God Himself.

If we look to some created thing to give us meaning, hope, and happiness that only God can give, it will eventually fail to break our hearts.

Remember, Jesus looked at him with love and he said, There's one thing you lack.

It wasn't God saying, ha ha ha, you need to give this up.

It was God's love that led him to say, That will break your heart, that thing you're holding on to, that thing that you think is going to bring you satisfaction.

If it isn't God Himself, it will ultimately disappoint you.

Keller adds this later.

He says, Something is safe for us to maintain in our lives only if it has really stopped being an idol.

That can happen only when we are truly willing to live with that.

It.

When we're truly willing to say from the heart, because I have God, I can live without it.

I can live without this.

But here's what typically happens when we come to a moment where we maybe realize that we've taken something in our lives and we've made it too big of a thing.

And that is we'll either rationalize it, we'll say, I don't think it's that bad.

We'll compartmentalize it, or we'll theorize about it.

Now, when I say we'll rationalize it, what I mean is we'll say, well, I don't know that this is really that.

And we'll see ourselves as better.

We'll defend our own righteousness.

I've talked at different times about being irritated sometimes when I drive.

I got irritated the other day.

I didn't act on it, so I'm hoping that that's some growth.

But but but I had an internal irritant at a moment.

But but here's what caught my attention.

I was driving on a road and I came up behind somebody who was going really slow, and I had one of those moments where it's like, really?

Are you going that slow?

And then the person turned off and I went what I thought was a normal, acceptable speed, and somebody came up right behind me and was like clearly annoyed, like tailing me, and I was like, What's your deal?

No, now clearly I drive the right speed.

And and my point is just, I don't know that I drive the right speed, but my self-perception is if somebody's going slower than me, they're wrong, and if somebody's going faster than me, they're wrong, I'm right.

And that's what we carry over to so many areas of our lives.

The way that I do it, the way I see it, must be right.

What I'm doing is I'm rationalizing.

I'm saying, God, you can tell me that I lack something, but I think I got this.

The second thing that we'll do is we'll compartmentalize.

And when I say that, what I mean is we'll be able to say, because I keep the commands in all of these ways, therefore it's okay if I don't keep this one.

It's compartmentalizing.

And then sometimes what we'll do is we'll theorize.

And in a way, that's what this man was doing also.

He was coming to Jesus and saying, let's have a conversation about this.

I want to, I want to try to understand and explain and make sure that everything that I'm doing feels just right.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this once.

He said, keep on posing questions, and you will escape the necessity of obedience.

Now, by the way, that was not a commendation for that way of thinking.

That was him saying that here's what we'll do.

We'll theorize, we'll keep asking questions, and we'll ask so many questions that we can make anything seem like it's okay.

But again, back to where this starts, with God through Jesus saying, Here's one thing you lack to this man.

And maybe God saying to you, to me, here's something that you've been elevating, saying, God, I won't give to you.

Because this for me is too important.

Now Jesus follows this.

And here's what we read in verse 23.

Jesus looked around and said to the disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Probably using synonymous language for eternal life, although the kingdom had a current and a future element, so maybe he's expanding the idea here.

But what he's saying is, is some people, their wealth will keep them from God.

Verse 24.

The disciples were amazed at his words.

But Jesus said again.

So it's almost like now Jesus doubles down.

He said, It's really hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

The disciples are amazed, and Jesus says, I'm gonna say this again, children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.

It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who's rich to enter the kingdom of God.

And so Jesus says it again, and he uses this little picture of the camel through the eye of a needle.

Now, this has spawned a lot of speculation over the years in different people who study the Bible.

Some have said that the idea of the needle was that there was a needle gate and people could easily walk through it, but that a camel would have to kind of take off all of its luggage and get down on its knees and kind of crawl through in order to get through the needle gate into Jerusalem.

Others have kind of said maybe there's something in the language here where it's a rope going through an eye of a needle or something like that.

In other words, it's an impossibility.

Some have said this is like an actual camel going through a needle.

And I ultimately don't think it matters because Jesus tells us what he's trying to communicate.

Because just after this, he says, what's impossible with man is possible with God.

And here's what Jesus is doing very simply is he's saying, when you identify your one thing, when you know what it is that you lack, what you're actually doing is you're coming to the point of acknowledging your need for a savior, your need for what Jesus Christ has done, because he is the justifier.

We don't justify ourselves, and even if you do well at dealing with your one thing, there's always another thing.

That's why we need a savior.

And so what's impossible with us is possible with God.

Because the way that we stand before God is not by saying, I have dealt with all of my things and now I'm acceptable.

It's saying, even when I've dealt with all of my things, there are times that I have not dealt with them, or there are ways that I'm still unfaithful, but I stand on the faithfulness of Jesus, the perfection of Jesus, not on my perfection.

Therefore, it becomes possible.

But don't miss something here.

Yes, this is about eternal life, about the coming kingdom, and it's about saying, understand this, but but but this isn't just a promise of future life once we get this doctrinal thing right.

And the reason I say this is because of what comes next in this passage.

The disciples were amazed, we're told, at this, and said to each other, Who can be saved?

Verse 26.

And then Jesus looked at them and said, With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Then Peter spoke up and said, We've left everything to follow you.

And Jesus replied with these words, which is a promise which points to something, not just about our eternity or salvation, but about our life now when we deal with our one thing that we lack.

Look at what he says.

Truly I tell you, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age.

And then he lists these things again: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields.

But see what he says next.

Along with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life.

So what does Jesus do here?

He gives a promise.

And he says something very simple.

He says, Here's what I want you to know.

If you deal with your one thing, yes, it's possible through God, through what Jesus Christ has done, but he says, if you'll deal with your one thing, he says, then I want you to know that you'll receive many times as much in this life and in the age to come.

But notice what else he does here.

He inserts this little phrase, along with persecutions.

Now, why is that there?

I think it's there.

So that we don't get the idea that this is some kind of quid pro quo where I do something and then God is beholden to bless me in some tangible way that I can point to here and now, and I can put God in my debt.

But what he's doing is he's saying, saying, I want you to understand that if you will value the kingdom of God, you'll receive more than you'll ever understand or see.

But don't confuse that with saying, I'll have an easy life.

There will still be persecutions, there will still be hardships.

Here's a couple other places where this exact word for persecutions is used.

John chapter 15 has an instance where this is used.

John 15 · chapter mention

Verse 20.

Here's how Jesus uses this here.

He says, This.

He says, Remember what I told you.

A servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.

Jesus says, I was persecuted.

Why would you, if you're my follower, expect not to have some persecutions or some trials in this life?

And then it's used also in Romans chapter 8 and one of the great chapters and statements of the Bible.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Here's what we read in Romans 8:35.

Romans 8:35

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger of sword?

He says, even the hardships of life, the persecutions that you may go through, can't separate us from the very good things that God wants to put into our lives.

And here's what this is ultimately pointing to, and that is the way that we are motivated to deal with our one thing is by saying, it's by God's love that he calls me to deal with it because of his love.

He promises something to me in terms of this life, even if it doesn't mean everything goes exactly as I want.

And then he gives me this warning, verse 31.

Says, but many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

It's as if he's saying here very simply that some of us will get all of our good things now.

And if we don't live for the kingdom, then what you're getting, you will have now, and don't expect it to carry over because there's a great reversal coming.

Those who live for this other kingdom will one day encounter greater things within that kingdom.

Those who live in this present world for this present world, their life will be defined by what they've lived for here and now.

And what we really need if we're going to deal with our one thing is to replace that one thing, not to love it less necessarily, but to love God more.

Again, from the book Counterfeit Gods, we read this: rejoicing in Christ is crucial because idols are almost always good things.

If we've made idols out of our work and family, we do not want to stop loving our work and family.

Rather, we want to love Christ so much more that we are not enslaved by our attachments.

In other words, the way that we deal with these one things, these but statements, the things that we lack, is not by saying I should care less about it, but by being so taken with the kingdom and with who God is, with what Jesus has done, that I can say, yes, I still care about that, but I have something that I value more.

And what Jesus is doing is he's saying, if you'll do that, then not only will you have eternal life in the age to come, but I'll bless you in this world and in the age to come.

There will be some persecutions along the way, but I will bless you.

But if you live for yourself, there was a great reversal coming, and your real security is in saying, I live not just for myself, but for the kingdom of God in this world.

And you see, when when we identify an area, any of us, we can rationalize it, we can compartmentalize it, we can theorize about it and try to explain it away, or we can say, I'll deal with my one thing.

Because it's the love of God that causes Him to put a finger on something in your life and my life and say, This idol, this thing that you've elevated to be an ultimate thing, will ultimately disappoint you.

And I want you to actually encounter the good things of life that I provide if you'll seek me.

Father, I ask today very simply that you would help each one of us who's here to not just simply walk away saying, Boy, there's some people who are asked to give away their money, but instead we'd be open to identifying with and wrestling with the one thing that maybe we lack, the thing we hold back, our own butt statements.

And that we'd be compelled because we see your love, we see your promises, we see the warning, and we say, this is the path forward that not just makes the most sense, but is really beautiful and most reliable and most secure.

And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Thanks for being here.

Drive safely on your way home.