Wayward Priorities | Matthew 19:16-26

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Good morning and may God add His blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word.

I appreciate Beverly reading today's passage to us.

I'm Jeff, welcome, whether you're here in this auditorium or out in the concourse or joining us online and I'm pretty sure nobody is out on the deck today but if you are, god bless, you Give you 10% off your tithe today just for that Big, big day.

To just thank God for today, because it was six years ago today that we had our very first service in this building.

It's been six years already and we are so grateful to God for supplying it for us and giving it to us as a tool to use.

And many have gone deeper in their faith because of this space and many have come to Christ.

Hundreds and hundreds Well, I would say there's a couple thousand at least have come to Christ in this space that God has given to us and we are very grateful to Him for that and always will be.

Today is also a day observed across our land as national sanctity of human life Sunday, and we stand for life here at Low Country Community Church and want to let you know as your pastor, we also come alongside of ladies who know the heartache of abortion.

And it's today.

Today's a day to remember the unborn and to grieve the fact that every thirty four seconds in our country there's an abortion.

And if you're one of those ladies, if that's been a part of your story, we want to offer you support and love.

And we're doing something brand new this year, starting in February, offering an eight week Bible study called Surrendering the Secret, healing the Heartbreak of Abortion.

As we all know, this is an extremely painful and emotional topic for many women.

It's a secret for many ladies and there's a lot of emotional things that go along with all of that, and we want to help you with that.

And if that class sounds like something that you would benefit from, or perhaps you know someone who would benefit from a class like this, let me give you a couple of the details on the screen.

So it's called again, surrendering the Secret, healing the Heartbreak of Abortion.

It's going to meet on Thursdays for eight weeks, from six to seven thirty.

We'll begin on February, the 15th.

If you want to know more, just email adultministryatlowcountryccorg and we'll leave that up there for a minute.

We'd love to serve you in this way, or maybe someone you know we would love to come alongside of her.

Everything stays confidential.

When you send an email expressing interest, it will only go to the ladies facilitating that class.

Hopefully that will be helpful and lead others to a path of healing and freedom.

Would you pray with me, most loving Lord Jesus?

We pray for renewed courage and compassion, as we are advocates, faithful advocates, for human life, and how we long for the day when, as the scripture says, death will be no more In all of its expressions, and today we are especially thinking about the death of unborn children.

We pray that this church and your church in the world would be a place that doesn't just stand against abortion but against all injustices toward human life.

So we want to always stand for, and today we pray for, children, born and unborn.

We pray for the elderly, the poor, the disabled, the sick, the abused, for those homeless, for refugees, for prisoners, for those enslaved, and help us to be champions of life.

Jesus, strengthen us and equip us to do your work in communities, our communities in our nation, in our world.

And now we're expecting, as we come to your word and open our Bibles, that in these precious moments, lord, would you please help us to hear your voice.

And to this end.

We pray and this is our earnest expectation that beyond, far beyond the voice of a mere man, we may know ourselves to be under the sound of your truth, by your spirit, through the pages of your holy word, the Bible, and we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, and God's people said Amen.

Would you say that you have an item or two, or perhaps many items, that you would refer to these items as your prized possessions?

You have anything that's a prized possession.

Maybe it's worth a lot of money, or maybe to you, you know, it's not worth a lot of money, but to you it's priceless.

I want you to think about whatever that thing or those things are for a second.

You have anything that you would consider a favorite or prized possession.

I'll go out on a limb here and I'll tell you mine and I don't get crazy about it, but they're prized possessions to me.

And for the last 30 years I added it up this week.

I can't believe it's been 30 years, but for the last 30 years I have been amassing all of the works in book form and in some other forms of my favorite author and pastor, a guy by the name of FW Borum.

You've heard me quote him numerous times through the years and I made a list.

I literally have crawled on my knees throughout bookshops in England, wales, the US, scotland, australia, canada and New Zealand looking for his books, and I tried to read something by Borum every day.

I also have a few other favorite authors and whenever I can secure a signed first edition, it's ridiculous how happy that makes me.

It's strange.

Now you may be thinking Cranston that's about one of the weirdest things I have heard in quite a while, and you may be right.

But what about you?

What is?

I also throw in an autographed baseball by Brooks Robinson.

You're not getting that one.

I'll give you a Borum book, but you're not getting that baseball.

That's a prized possession.

But what about you?

What's yours?

I want you to think about it.

What's your favorite or most prized possession?

So let me ask you this how would you react if someone asked you to give that up, that you're not to have that any longer?

How would you react if you had to give them away, or perhaps even throw it all away?

And let's just take it all the way here.

What if someone asked you to get rid of all the things that you have?

I mean all the stuff, even stuff you don't care about, but you get rid of all of it.

How would you react?

Well, something along those lines is what we'll see played out in our passage today.

In Matthew's gospel, a young man is forced to wrestle with a question will you get rid of all the things that you have?

And as he wrestles with that question, his own spiritual need comes up right before his eyes, and he's got to deal with it.

So today we'll be in Matthew 19.

Last week it was Matthew 20.

Today, matthew 19, verses 16 to 26.

Matthew 19:16–26

This is a story that's familiar to many.

It's the story of the rich young ruler.

And it's not only in Matthew's gospel.

We're told the same story in Mark's gospel and Luke's gospel as well.

And we meet a very moral, rich young man.

But he didn't know Christ.

He had everything else going for him.

So we'll just walk through these verses together and then draw a couple of applications at the end.

Look with me at Matthew 19, 16.

And someone came to him and said teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?

What good thing shall I do that I might attain eternal life?

So who's going to be the one to be the one to be the one to be the one to be the one to be the one to be the one.

And he said who is this young dude?

I'm going to make a few sanctified suggestions here.

Scripture never gives us a clear cut bio on who this guy is, but when you read the three different accounts you draw a picture, and we know so many people like him.

You may find yourself very much like him.

He's the early 30s, he's a man on his way to the top and in some cases he's reached a pinnacle.

And I can't be sure, but I believe that he made most of his money in real estate.

We're told in verse 20, he was one who owned much property.

Now, our church slow country community church is flush with people involved in real estate and if you're one of those people, you know that real estate is a good way to make money if you know what you're doing, and you also know it's a good way to lose money if you don't know what you're doing.

Well, he knew what he was doing Limited partnerships, rental properties, buy low, sell high, turn unused land into subdivisions Does that sound familiar?

He made a lot of money at a relatively young age and he risen to the top.

And yet he still feels an emptiness, which seems odd because this up and comer was very religious.

He believed in God.

He believed in God's word.

The 10 commandments served as a blueprint for his life On his path to the top.

On his rise, he remembered the Almighty.

Unlike so many others, he tried his hardest to do the right thing.

He prayed, he read his Bible.

He was a very moral man in order to succeed, because, by his own admission, there are certain commandments he kept.

So we know he didn't steal or cheat or take advantage of other people In a world of corruption.

This guy was a straight arrow.

He worked very hard, yet he felt vacuous on the inside.

I think he would have fully agreed with something the great scientist Blaise Pascal said back in the 1600s there is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.

A God-shaped vacuum in every human heart that only God can fill.

And yet don't we try to fill it with so many other things.

But he knew something was missing.

He didn't know what the something was, but he knew he wasn't all he could be and some of you.

You feel that way right now.

You have chased and chased, and chased, and perhaps at times caught what you were, chasing Some things along the way, and yet there continues to be an emptiness and you never imagined that happening.

That once I did this, once I attained this, I would feel more fulfilled when we're younging.

It's that career thing when we're younger, the job, the career, the economic level.

And, man, I can't wait till I can retire because life's gonna be great.

And then you retire and you go.

Huh, I was expecting more.

There's always things that are just out of our reach and what we think is going to provide us some fulfillment and satisfaction and fullness is not there.

That's how he was.

And one day our rich young man went to see another young man, a carpenter from Galilee by the name of Jesus.

The young man at the top of his game, with all the money he could want, man who had it all, came to Jesus with a very penetrating question.

And Mark says he asks it this way good, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Matthew writes teacher, what good thing and this is important shall I do in order to inherit eternal life.

Do you hear what he's asking?

What's inherent in his question?

What shall I do?

It's up to who, it's up to me.

And Jesus says you're asking the wrong question, verse 17,.

And Jesus, he said to him why are you asking me about what is good?

There's only one who is good.

But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.

I think we see here Jesus reminding this young man that, no matter what he does, he'll never be good enough in his own strength, he'll never be able to attain this on his own.

But then Jesus throws this in, and it's very interesting but if you wish to enter into life, keep what?

Keep the commandments.

Now, if we stop right there, you and I have a lot to think about.

So you're saying that Jesus says all I have to do in the narrative of our life is keep the commandments.

Okay, well, how many commandments are there?

You say 10.

No, there's hundreds of commandments.

But what Jesus is saying, keep the commandments, what he's just said.

And his answer is it's impossible.

What shall I do to inherit Jesus?

That's impossible.

You can't do anything.

No one can keep all the commandments perfectly.

He didn't introduce the idea of keeping the commandments here to show us how to receive salvation, but to demonstrate our need for salvation, cause we can't do it Verse 18,.

Then he said to him which ones he knew.

Which commandments shall I keep?

And Jesus just rattles off five, and then he adds on one more you shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus laid out six of the 10 commandments, and all six have something to do.

Well, they all have something in common, and what they have in common is they all deal with human relationships.

And then Jesus added one at the end you shall love your neighbor as himself.

And I think this is where he challenges the young man Verse 20,.

The young man said to him all these things I have kept.

What am I still lacking?

That's when you just wanna go.

If you were there, you and I would have just done this.

No, you just did not say that out loud.

Keep these commandments, okay, done that, check Now.

But I'm still lacking something.

Jesus, imagine telling that to God.

So we have not only a rich young ruler, we have a self-righteous, deluded rich young ruler, and he's under the delusion that he has kept all these commandments.

He sure wasn't short of audacity, was he?

And you're feeling pretty proud of yourself these days.

Yes, I am.

Thank you so much.

Verse 21, jesus said to him if you wish to be complete, remember that word complete, we're gonna come back to it.

If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

Oh, the word complete is also often translated perfect.

You wish to be perfect, you wanna be complete, you wanna inherit eternal life?

Jesus says sell everything you have, give it to the poor and come follow me.

Jesus only gave that explicit invitation to a handful of people in the gospels.

He says that to all of us now.

But this man entered rarefied territory when Jesus said come follow me.

And he forced that.

When he said that, jesus forced this young man to examine his own heart and quickly and definitively he realized his heart was not complete and he was not perfect before God.

Just a little reminder it is only God who is absolutely perfect.

If we commit even the smallest sin, god cannot tolerate that in his presence, no matter how slight.

And even James, the half brother of Jesus, james, wrote this for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of what, what?

All?

I kept it all.

I kept it all.

Well, except that one little thing.

Well then, you're guilty of it all.

In order to make it to heaven, we've got to be as good as God is good, and the Bible, however, clearly tells us there's no one righteous no, not one that all of our righteousness before God is this filthy, stinking rags, and we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And since that is true, none of us can possess eternal life and inherit eternal life by being good.

Have you ever did you ever?

Are you now buying into the lie that people are basically good?

It's not true.

I know that's not popular, but it's not true that people are basically good.

And then they go astride a little bit every so often and mess up.

No, we are inherently evil, at odds with God.

You say, well, great, thanks a lot, cranston.

This is just perfect.

There's no way, there's no hope.

I'm out here knocking my head against the wall, trying to get to God, and now you're telling me I can't.

Well, here's the good news and all that.

That's why Jesus came.

That's why we celebrated Christmas a few weeks ago.

He came and, as we learned last Sunday, paid our ransom.

See, we owed, but we don't have to pay.

Jesus does it for us.

Do you remember what the word ransom means?

That Jesus, when he paid our ransom, he bought us when we were slaves.

He paid the price for us in order to set us what Free.

And when the sun sets you free, you're what Free.

Indeed, when we place our faith, you see, in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sin, god gifts us eternal life.

How did our young friend respond to this?

Verse 22,.

But when the young man heard this statement, he went away, grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

You traded property for Jesus.

Yeah, I find this juxtaposition interesting.

Come follow me.

He went away, he turned around and walked away grieving.

He wasn't grieving because he was walking away from an invitation to Christ.

He was grieving, I think, because he realized how much his possessions possessed him.

And Matthew tells us he owned a lot of property.

This reminds us there's a facade to self-righteousness.

We fool ourselves and we can do a pretty good job at fooling others, but Jesus exposed it all.

He pointed out look, you're not blameless, you're sinful and you're not possessing true faith.

Faith, but I'm giving you the opportunity.

Here it is Follow me, verse 23.

And you can almost picture this.

The young man turns, I'm sure, like shoulders droop man.

I thought this rabbi was going to give me an answer.

But he just tells me to sell everything and I mean that's crazy, I'm not going to do that and come follow him.

I mean some itinerant guy and not have a job.

I got deals, man, I got deals to make.

Then you can almost sense Jesus turning to the disciples in verse 23.

And he says, truly, I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

He just reminds us of something else.

He said it's impossible to serve God and money at the same time.

And so he says that, and the disciples are listening.

And then Jesus in verse 24, again, I say to you now, when Jesus says something once, we listen and we get it right, we obey, and he says it twice, we better really pay attention.

Again, I say to you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus is speaking here in hyperbole regarding what Impossibilities.

The eye of a needle is something impossible for a camel to pass through.

I'll tell you how.

I know.

A few weeks ago we had the Low Country Christmas experience.

To our shock and amazement, over 10,000 people showed up.

We called Chief Joe at Bluffton Police and we said we're sorry, we've messed up your town on the roads that night, but we had animals out here.

Did you see the animals?

We had baby calves and baby goats and baby pigs and baby rabbits.

We had all kinds of animals out there.

And with the live nativity we had a donkey and we had a camel.

I knew I was going to be preaching on this, so I took a shot.

I got a needle and I went out there and I went up to that camel.

I said hey, camel, I want to see you get through the eye of this needle.

Come on, you can do it.

He just looked at me.

Come on, you can do it.

And they spit on me and I walked away.

All right, of course I didn't do that and you're laughing at that because it's ludicrous.

It's impossible.

And Jesus is using here a very well-known proverb to Jewish people, the Babylonian Talmud.

The Talmud is sort of a book, I guess in its simplest form.

This is how to be Jewish, this is how to practice what we practice and how to live out the commands and so forth.

And during the Babylonian captivity they had a Babylonian Talmud how to live as a Jew under the captivity that we're experiencing right now.

And there was a proverb in there that said it's impossible for a wealthy person, a rich man, for an elephant to pass through the eye of a needle.

So that's just how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Because the elephant was the largest animal in Babylon.

There were not any elephants wandering around in Palestine.

What's the largest animal that they all would have known?

A camel.

So Jesus uses a camel.

The needle, by the way, was something you know.

Needles come in various sizes.

You see some needles for leatherwork that can be rather large, but this word for needle refers us to a surgical needle Tiny, small, it's the smallest.

So Jesus takes the smallest needle and the largest animal says it's easier for rich man to enter heaven and for the camel to go through that needle's eye.

And the disciples, minds blown again.

When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said then who can be saved?

Like we don't have a hope here, we're poor.

Except for Matthew, he was a tax collector.

He would have been wealthy, but I wonder how much of it he gave away to follow the Lord.

See, in their culture, wealthy people were wealthy because God blessed them, and poor people were poor because God didn't bless them.

And so if you saw somebody and they were wealthy, you assumed they had a special end with God.

God was especially blessing them and therefore they're automatically going to heaven because it's proof here on earth that they're rich.

That was their mindset and Jesus tears that apart.

And perhaps we just ought to remind ourselves that wealth is no guaranteed indication of God's approval, no more than a lack of wealth indicates God's disapproval.

What we have or don't have has nothing to do with our standing before God.

Our standing before God is solely based on what we do with Jesus.

And will I place my faith in him or not?

Then, last verse, and looking at them, jesus said to them with people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

So you've quoted that verse many times, but did you know it was in the context of salvation.

I Can't save myself.

Jesus says you can't do it on your own.

Good, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

You can't do a thing?

No, no, you can't.

You got to turn to me, follow me.

See, with God, all things are possible.

He's the one who saves us.

Three real quick applications, and then we go.

First one is this it is hard to possess riches without trusting in them.

It's hard to possess wealth, riches, material things, without trusting in them.

And we, we have a tendency, if we're not careful, we will make those things idols, and idols cause us to be independent and Self-centered and selfish, and things that we idolize move us away from God, and riches can do that.

So if salvation were dependent on personal resource, then no one and including the rich, you know we where would we be?

Salvation doesn't depend on that stuff.

It depends entirely and wholly and solely on God, through Christ.

Wealth hinders the issue and We've got to be really careful.

And I'm saying that to us because a lot of times we read something like this ago oh, let's talk about wealthy people.

That's not me.

May I just say this to you this is you.

You live in the wealthiest nation that this world has ever known.

You are among the wealthiest people that have ever lived on this planet.

You and I are Presently the wealthiest people on the planet.

Say well, compared to the 1%, don't compare yourself to 1%.

Compare yourself, look at the rest of the world.

We are wealthy, this is for us and we better pay careful attention to it.

Don't you feel like you should just go home today and have a good clean out?

Empty the closets, make room for at least one car in the garage.

Go empty out at least four of the storage units that you rent.

Are you all okay?

It's gotten very quiet.

It's uncomfortable.

Don't you feel that?

See, that's the stuff if we're not careful, can grab our hearts.

And Jesus saying he's never saying a wealthy person automatically can't get into heaven.

He's never saying that.

He's never saying that wealth is sinful or that having riches or possessions are sinful.

He's not saying that.

He's saying is you better be, dog on careful, because those things will grab your heart and turn your Heart and eyes and soul away from him.

He said it to the church man in revelation to one of the seven churches.

He said because you say I'm rich and have become wealthy and have no need of anything.

You do not know what you're, you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

But we have all the stuff.

Yeah, but this is what you really are.

Just be careful.

Just be careful Next to the last two things, real quick, back to back.

You will always feel empty and unfulfilled as long as you allow the world's alluring riches to define your existence.

How many people do you know that their, their existence is defined by their stuff?

Not to pick on just this one thing, but if you want to see this personified, just watch the Oscars or the Golden Globes or However, whatever number of other awards shows where they all love to give themselves awards.

Just watch that.

You're seeing people who are defining their existence by what other people think of them and what they have.

That's not true, for all of them Say well, that's yeah, that's how it is, that's how Hollywood, it's the same way in Bluffton.

It's the same way in Hilton head.

It's the same way in Hardyville.

It's the same way in Buford County and Jasper County.

Why is it the same?

Because it's the human heart.

Where do you live?

Oh well, we live in this area or this, whatever.

Look at me.

Yeah, buddy, I'm doing all right.

Look at me, go, I'm really something.

What do you drive?

Oh yeah, I won't keep pushing on that.

You know what I'm saying.

Next, lastly, your heart will be content only when you give your life to Jesus Christ and cease placing your faith in money and the things that money can buy.

That's just it.

You will never find true fulfillment, contentment, whatever you want to call it, without Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because of a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart that only he can fill.

And we try to fill it with all the other junk whether it's books or boats, doesn't matter, it all falls short.

Turn to Jesus, turn to Jesus, turn to Jesus.

And Christians, be careful With the possessions God allows us to have.

Don't lose sight of the fact that we are to be managers and stewards of those things.

And when God says I have need of it, you go here.

That's how we do it, that's how we live for him.

Let's pray.

Father, you have promised bread for the hungry and water for the thirsty and rest for the weary.

Would you forgive us For loving worldly stuff at times, so much that we we don't have room for you.

We so don't want that to happen.

We want you to fill us, as only you can grant that we might realize our deepest needs, and that our deepest need can only be filled by you.

So we turn to you yet again.

Lord, be our all in all, keep our hearts, keep our eyes From loving the things.

The world.

You go, but it takes us back to Genesis 3 the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.

It's a constant battle, but, as we've already been singing today, you're the victor.

May we live our lives willing to turn our backs on anything in order to follow you.

We pray these things through Christ, our Lord.

God's people said amen.