September 13 "What's Your One Thing?" (Mark 10:17-31)

And uh if you have your Bibles today, I'd invite you to open to Mark chapter 10, where we've been studying through the book of Mark in a series called uh Living with Kingdom Urgency.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And so today's appointed time and appointed scripture is in Mark chapter 10, starting at verse 17.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And so that's where we're going to be in a message I've entitled today, What's Your One Thing?

What's Your One Thing?

One of the best TV shows of recent history, in my opinion, was a show called This Is Us.

I don't know if any of you watched it.

It was on the air from about 2016 to 2022, I think it was.

So it's been away for a while.

And uh Sheila and I would record this show and watch it regularly so we could fast forward through commercials.

She would uh regularly cry toward the end of it somewhere, but not me.

Uh my eyeballs were just sweating because the room was so dusty.

Uh, but it was a really good show.

And the story followed a married couple named uh Jack and Rebecca Pearson and their three kids named Kevin, Kate, and Randall.

Now, Kevin and Kate were their biological twins that were born, and while they while they were in the hospital when those twins were born, there was another child named Randall who didn't have uh, you know, was being put up for adoption and didn't have a home to go to, so they wound up adopting Randall as well.

And so Kevin, Kate, and Randall became known as the big three.

One thing about this show that was unique about it was it's what they called non-linear storytelling.

So you would have these scenes going back and forth.

We go to the next picture there, you see uh those kids at different stages of their life.

And all through the show, it would jump back and forth between scenes when they were little kids, scenes when they were teenagers, scenes when they were adults, and it would kind of inform you uh about why, as adults, they're making some of the decisions and doing some of the things they did because you go back and see the backstory, and it wouldn't even come up like eight years earlier or anything like that.

It would just jump and you have to figure out, okay, now they're back in this thing.

And you know, when you got used to it, it's pretty cool.

But the thing is, because of the success of that show, I think, so many movies and TV shows now do that.

They just go back and forth and flashback, and you're trying to figure out, okay, where are they now?

Did this happen before this?

And so this nonlinear storytelling became really popular.

So I thought I would do that today in Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And so that's what we're going to do.

We're going to have a nonlinear journey in uh this passage of scripture.

So we all know uh this uh the story, not all of us, but many of us probably know the story of what we call the rich young ruler and how this man came to Jesus and uh his encounter.

And so at first glance, when we talk about this encounter that Jesus had with this man, we know that he he had great wealth and he and he walked away.

Jesus asked him to give up all his wealth and he walked away.

He didn't want to do that.

And so at first glance, we think that uh this story is all about riches and wealth.

And at first glance, for sure, that's a major building block, but I think it's a little deeper than that.

It's a little deeper than just about wealth.

We'll find out it's about a little more.

And so this man comes to Jesus.

Uh, we know he's wealthy from these uh verses in Mark.

From other gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke, we find out that he's young, and we find out that he has some kind of position of influence from the other gospel accounts, and so that's why we call him the rich young ruler, even though it doesn't say that here in Mark.

And so he asks Jesus a question.

Uh, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life?

What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?

Well, Jesus tells him, Well, uh, you know, go and sell everything you have and give it away to the poor.

And the man is not what he wanted to hear.

He walks away sorrowful.

And so, as far as we know, he never becomes a follower of Christ.

We don't know out of scripture if he came back later, but as far as we know, he did not.

So, on the heels of this kind of scene, Jesus is going to jump into some teaching to the disciples about what just happened.

And so I want to start there.

I want to start with Jesus' teaching and the statement he makes to the disciples after they have just sort of witnessed this encounter in this scene, and this big statement that Jesus makes that is kind of the backdrop for some of the lessons he's going to teach.

In verse 23, it says, And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

And so let's talk about that a little bit.

Who's wealthy?

Who is wealthy?

I looked up some statistics according to uh worlddata.info.

Now, this this website says the average income in America in 2025 was about$89,000.

And you might be thinking, well, that's a little fuzzy math.

I don't make quite that much.

So maybe you do, maybe you make more.

Well, that's the average.

If you look at the median, it drops a good deal to$19,000, the media average median income in 2025.

So you think, well, that maybe sound a little more close.

I don't know where you fall in that.

But here's the deal: if you make at least$34,000 annually, you are in the global top 1% of the wealthiest people on this planet.

So who's wealthy?

So the first thing we know as we think about where we fall in this, the first thing we know about Jesus' statement here is that number one, wealth is a spiritual hurdle.

He said, How difficult it is for wealthy to enter the kingdom of God.

I like to watch the Olympics.

Uh one of the events I love to watch is the high hurdles, and you see those guys, it is amazing to me.

Uh, and you think about, you know, if you were just describing it to somebody, here's what you do in the hurdles.

You stay in your lane, you run as fast as you can, you jump over these hurdles when you come to them, and and no problem, right?

Well, think about what those hurdles are.

Those hurdles are 42 inches high, and they're about 30 feet apart, and the technique that these Olympians want to do, they want to take three steps in between each hurdle before they catapult themselves over the next one.

For me and you, that's a pulled hamstring and a dislocated hip waiting to happen.

And so we might not think it's that hard, but you know, hurdles, hurdles are no joke.

And so, what makes wealth a spiritual hurdle for us?

Why does our wealth make it hard for us to enter the kingdom of heaven?

First thing I think it does, it gives us a false sense of security.

We are very comfortable uh in our ability to do just about most anything we like to do.

You know, most of us sitting in this room, we're gonna go to the restaurant of our choice after this and not think about it much at all.

Now, you know, within reason, you know, it might be Taco Bell instead of La Rancherita, but you know, you get the point.

And so most of us can do about what we want to do, and we get very comfortable.

If we're not careful, we get complacent in that comfort spiritually.

And uh we we we we forget that everything that we have is a gift of God's grace and could vanish in an instant.

A natural disaster could turn things on a dime for you.

Something like that.

1 Timothy 6 17 talks about this kind of complacency.

It says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes, get this, on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

And so sometimes our material comfort, our wealth, if you want to say it that way, can can cause us to take our eyes off of our spiritual need.

We can get complacent and we forget about our spiritual need.

Revelation 3 talks about this when uh the angel of the Lord said, Write to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, 17, for I said, For you say, I'm rich, I've prospered, I need nothing.

Not realizing, and you could almost invert in uh insert in parentheses spiritually, that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

And so we forget about our spiritual needs sometimes because of the complacency of our comfort and our wealth.

The second thing I think what makes wealth a hurdle is that it can cause us to fix our eyes on things of the world.

It can cause us to fix our eyes on things of the world.

We focus on where our resources are are tied up.

Do you know that?

Wherever you put your resources, that your focus and time and energy is probably going to be there.

Matthew 6 29, uh 6.19 and 20 uh to 21 says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up your for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

And here's the kicker for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Your heart's gonna follow where you put your riches, where you put your treasure, where you put your resources.

And so these things make wealth a spiritual hurdle for us.

Now, we don't think about it that way a lot of times.

A lot of times, if we're not careful, we'll think of wealth as a spiritual benefit instead.

Sometimes we want to view it as a spiritual benefit.

The disciples were kind of thinking this way because when Jesus said this statement that it's difficult for somebody who's rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, the disciples were amazed at his words, the Bible says.

They were exceedingly astonished, if you want to go back to what that word amazed really means there.

They were overwhelmed.

They couldn't believe their ears.

Why?

It's because they, you know, had been schooled in the teaching of the rabbis and uh and they equated often in their teaching God's uh blessings with material prosperity.

You know, the health and wealth prosperity gospel isn't anything new, even back into the ancient Jews.

Um, they thought the rich could gather God's favor by what they were able to give to the poor.

Uh and so on down through history you can just see how that logically plays out.

Fast forward a few hundred years to the reformers after this.

And uh, people who who framed reform theology, which basically says God predestines us all either to heaven or to hell before the beginning of time, and if you're part of the elect, you're going to heaven.

Well, part of their teaching was that having material blessings and wealth was a sure sign that you were part of the elect.

And then nowadays, fast forward to our present time, you turn on the TV to a Christian television network, most of them, or look at Amazon at the list of Christian bestsellers.

It's not going to take you long to find somebody who's teaching that, oh, if you just have enough faith, you'll have health and you'll have wealth and you'll have prosperity.

And if you don't, something's wrong spiritually.

And so those are the kinds of things that we deal with.

Why are those things so popular?

Why is our reaction to those preachers and those authors so popular among our culture?

I think it's because we're prone to think like that.

We're prone to equate material blessings with God's favor in our own life.

And what's more, we want it to be true, don't we?

We want it to be true.

And so God's blessing me materially, so I must be in his favor.

That's kind of how we kind of think of it.

That's a dangerous line of thinking.

And Jesus is going to continue teaching about this.

The next thing he tells them, if you look in verse 24 and 25, is that these we have wealth is one of these spiritual hurdles.

We have hurdles in our life.

He's going to teach, we can't jump the hurdle on our own.

We're powerless to jump that hurdle on our own.

Look at 24.

But Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.

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.

And so they were so taken aback by the first time that Jesus said this that he's going to double down on it and he's going to underscore it.

And he starts with children.

Kind of get their attention.

You know, I think of a father, you know, if he's got something real important, you know, bringing that family around.

Listen, kids.

Children.

I tell you, I it is how hard, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.

And then he uses this phrase about a camel going through the eye of a needle.

Very interesting.

Uh, you know, there's been different interpretations about that.

Some people try to say that in ancient Jerusalem there would have been this small gate in the wall that you could barely fit through, that just a person gets through.

And if somebody tried to go through that opening in the wall with their camel, the camel would have to get on their knees, and sometimes the hump, even we fit, well, you know, bottom line is there's no proof that there was ever a gate like that in ancient Jerusalem.

I think people have kind of made some of that.

I think probably more realistically, Jesus is just given hyperbole here.

He's given this phrase.

You know, if you look in other ancient writings, ancient Babylonian Talmud, uh, it has phrases about elephants going through the eye of a needle.

And so the biggest animal in Palestine where Jesus was was probably the camel.

They didn't have evolvents there.

So he's using that kind of hyperbole and that kind of phrase, kind of like if we were saying it today, says, look, rich people are going to get into the kingdom of heaven when pigs fly.

That's kind of what that phrase is about.

And so that's what Jesus is saying there.

And so he's trying to make, trying to make the point that look, humanly speaking, this is impossible.

Humanly speaking, when we think of hurdles, you know, when we think about the Olympics and we think about sports, we might be tempted to think, you know, if I just train hard enough, if I just work hard enough, if I work on my technique enough, technique enough, I'll be able to do that.

I may might not make the Olympics, but my goodness, I've seen high school kids run high hurdles, so it could be possible.

You know, we're tempted to think that way, that we can achieve the ability to do that.

But think of it more like this when you're talking about this kind of, you know, this hurdle must might as well be 42 feet high instead of 42 inches, because we don't have the human ability to jump the hurdle on our own.

Michael Jordan had the reputation back in his heyday that he could fly.

You know, put all these videos, fly with Michael Jordan.

People like Pastor Jeff erroneously think that Michael Jordan was the greatest of all time.

You know, maybe he was, but the point is, now, as high as Michael Jordan, as long as he could jump, and we talk about a low orbit and he's flying.

Ask him to jump across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.

Now, he'll probably make it about 25 feet, where I'll probably make it about six feet.

But guess what?

Both of us are gonna be a long way from the goal.

It is humanly impossible.

That's the point that Jesus is trying to make here, and that is that only God can get us over the hurdles.

Only God can get us over the hurdles.

Look at verse 26.

They were exceedingly astonished again and said to him, Well, who then can be saved?

And Jesus looked at them and said, With man it is impossible, but not with God.

For all things are possible with God.

Praise the Lord.

He lifts us over the hurdle.

This was a foreign concept to these Jewish disciples who thought, again, wealth was the favor of God.

And so they were even more shocked and bewildered than they were before.

And so the question they asked reveals how just how befuddled they were.

Well, you know, if if a rich man can't enter the kingdom of God, then who in the world is going to get to go to heaven?

That's kind of what they're asking.

Who then can be saved?

And so that's when Jesus drops this bomb we've been talking about.

It is impossible for a rich man or anyone else to save himself, but not with God.

With God, all things are possible.

It is only through God's plan of salvation that we can enter his kingdom.

He ordained this story of the gospel and the gospel plan for us through his son's sacrifice.

Only he could do that.

It's only through the Holy Spirit doing work in our hearts and drawing us to belief that we can be saved.

It's only through our surrender to him that we can have eternal life.

Only God can get us over the hurdles.

And so this is what Jesus is teaching the disciples.

Okay, time for our flashback.

Let's go back to the story.

And so, if you look at what's happening here, what opened the door for Jesus to underscore these truths to the disciples, and then for us to have the benefit of Scripture to read them ourselves.

Look at verse 17.

Back up at the top of the story.

As he 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?

So he came to Jesus with a question.

We know that he was wealthy.

Again, we know from other gospel accounts that he was young, that he was had some kind of powerful influence.

But he comes to Jesus with a question, and let me tell you, he asked the right question.

What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?

And I believe he's insincere in that.

I believe he was, as I read this account.

And so he asked the right kind of question.

You know, there are all kinds of deep questions that plague us if we're honest with ourselves.

And those are the kinds of things we need to be asking.

And he even asked with the right attitude.

If you notice that he ran to Jesus, he had some urgency about it.

You notice he knelt down before him.

He had humility.

So he's he's doing pretty good so far.

And so he asked the right person.

Who else would you ask but Jesus?

And so he saw something in Jesus.

Now, he was close to understanding.

And we see what he calls Jesus from the get-go.

He says, good teacher.

Now, what did he mean by that?

Normally, Jewish people, when they would assign that kind of title to somebody, they were really meaning uh somebody they had great admiration for.

And even uh even a higher spiritual admiration.

But did he really understand all he was saying in calling good teacher?

If you were to sit in staff meeting with us tomorrow and you hear uh Pastor Jeff say, Ty, how did things go yesterday in uh in kids' church?

Ty's gonna say one of two words or sometimes both.

It was awesome.

Or it was amazing.

Those are his his two favorite words.

He's always gonna say that.

And so uh, you know, we might reserve those words for something that's really, you know, out of the ordinary, off the charts, overwhelming.

Not Ty.

Things are amazing and they are awesome.

And that's probably kind of the idea here.

The guy really didn't understand what he was saying in calling Jesus a good teacher.

Now he could see that Jesus was somebody who apparently had mastered spiritual things.

He wanted in on that.

He saw something different, something distinct, but he really didn't understand, probably, that he was talking in, talking to the incarnation of Almighty God.

And so Jesus is going to sort of lay that groundwork, say, Yeah, you're calling me good.

You really don't know what you're saying.

Because what does he say in the next verse?

Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

There no one is good except God alone.

And so he's sort of laying the groundwork about what this is all about.

And so what Jesus says next to him may have invoked one of two kind of opposite reactions.

I'm not sure which reaction initially this rich young ruler would have had.

But in verse 19, Jesus says to him, He says, You know the commandments.

Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud.

Some people think that saying there is kind of a summary of the commandments that talk about stealing and lying and coveting, all rolled up into one.

But it's kind of like this list honor your father and mother.

It's kind of like the list on the second table of the commandments that have to do with how we relate to others.

But he says he said he lists these commandments, and in verse 20 he says, and he said to him, Teacher, this is the man saying back to Jesus, Teacher, I've kept all these from my youth.

And so Jesus highlights these commandments, kind of we can observe, the outward obedience we can observe from that second table of the commandments.

And the guy's reaction when he's saying this could really have been one of two things, I think.

It could have been one of disappointment.

Because he says, you know, teacher, I've kept all these for my youth.

He might have come to Jesus looking for that magic bullet.

Look, I've got all this thing in life.

What's the one what's the key?

What's the key to getting over the hump?

And when Jesus says that, he's like, Well, I've already been doing all that.

I still don't feel assurance of it.

And so that may have disappointed him.

Now, another reaction he might have had, on the other hand, he might have thought initially that, well, okay then, I'm good to go.

I've been doing all these things for my youth.

I'm in there.

Our former youth pastor Kent Nelson.

I don't know why I just thought of this.

He used to say a phrase, I'm in there like swimwear.

I don't know why I just thought of that.

But uh that might have been his reaction there.

I'm not sure quite what it is, but he's thinking, I must be in.

Obviously, if he's thinking that way, he had not heard or not really taken into account Jesus' teaching in the Sermon of the Mount that he had given.

Because in that sermon, uh, we know that even though we might be guiltless according to the letter of these kinds of laws, that no one's heart is pure.

If you've ever lusted, You're guilty of adultery.

If you've ever hated, you're guilty of murder.

And that's the teaching that Jesus had given in other places.

And so, uh, whichever reaction this rich young man had, one thing is sure, even though the goal of his question was about inheriting eternal life, and that was a good goal, the method he thought would get him there was all wrong.

Because what what how do we know that?

Because of his phrase, what must I do?

What must I do?

He didn't understand the truth we saw earlier.

We can't jump the hurdles on our own.

We can't do it.

There's nothing we can do to gain our salvation.

He might have been very sincere.

He might have thought he was the head of the game.

He thought he's gonna be okay if I can just get Jesus to tell me, you know, exactly what it's gonna take.

He might have been thinking, I got con I need confirmation that I'm on the right track.

And Jesus understood all that because in verse 21, Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Jesus looking at him loved him.

Now, if we didn't have that in there, we might be thinking, man, Jesus must be so frustrated with this guy.

He doesn't get it.

We might think that Jesus is frustrated with us.

We might think he has every every right to be frustrated, but Jesus had compassion.

And he looks at us, and instead of being so frustrated with us because of the way we try to do, he looks at us with compassion.

But he dispels any thought in this young man that he might have had about being assured a spot in heaven in these next verses.

In 21, and Jesus looking at him, loved him, and said to him, You lack one thing.

You lack one thing.

Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven.

And come, follow me.

So Jesus is revealing here that he can really see into this man's heart.

And he knew what his greatest hurdle was.

This man's greatest hurdle was his wealth, indeed.

He was putting his trust in his riches rather than God.

His money was his idol.

You see, Jesus had taught earlier, Jordan talked about this last week, and a few verses ahead.

If we're going to come into the kingdom, if we're going to come to Jesus, we've got to come as a helpless child.

Nothing we can bring.

We can't depend on anything of our own.

And this man was dependent on his wealth for his status and his self-worth and his self-sufficiency.

And Jesus knew this.

And we can see that too by what follows with the young man's response in 22, disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

That word disheartened there in the original language kind of gives the feeling of what you might say if there was some impending ominous storm coming, and this feeling of dread seeing this storm coming.

That's the kind of disheartening this man experienced when Jesus told him what to do.

He went away sorrowful.

He was unwilling to give up that wealth.

That was his hurdle.

He was unwilling to commit to it.

And that's another truth I want us to see as we fast forward back to Jesus' teaching now that if we're going to overcome hurdles, we must first of all commit to run the race.

He wouldn't forsake all and follow Jesus.

He's not even going to get in the race.

Now we go back here to verse 28.

And Jesus had teaching the disciples about this, and then Peter speaks up in verse 28.

Peter began to say to him, See, we've left everything and followed you.

Notice it says that he began to say.

I think probably Peter probably had more to say.

But Jesus kind of cut him off.

Said, wait a minute, Peter.

It's almost like he's saying, What he might have wanted to follow that with and see if we follow up, what will be our great reward for forsaking all of our possessions and following like we've been doing?

Jesus just kind of cut him off.

If you're going to commit to run the race with the Lord's help, there's some things you have to know for certain, and that's what Jesus is going to tell the disciples and Peter, who's trying to maybe pat himself on the back a little bit.

Verse 29, first of all, the sacrifice is going to be great.

The sacrifice will be great.

29, true, Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, there's no one who's left houses or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel.

Well, Paul's there.

We're going to read 30 in just a second.

See, the rich young ruler, he wasn't willing to make a great sacrifice.

He wasn't willing to sacrifice his wealth.

Other people not willing to sacrifice family, possessions, lands, all these kinds of things.

They're not willing.

And so that's why he went away saddened.

He didn't realize the truth of what Jesus connects now in verse 30.

I'll read 29 again first.

Truly I say to you, there's no one who's left houses or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel?

Who will not receive an hundredfold?

Now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come.

So yes, the sacrifice will be great, but in verse 30, the reward will be worth it.

The reward will be worth the sacrifice.

Whatever you are asked to sacrifice for the sake of following Jesus for the sake of the gospel, he's saying you're going to get it back exponentially.

Now you say, wait a minute, you're contradicting yourself.

You've just been talking bad about the prosperity gospel.

Are you contradicting yourself?

Now, well, think about it this way: anyone who is asked to give up earthly family for the sake of Christ gains a spiritual family of millions of brothers and sisters.

Anyone who's asked to give up earthly possessions, is that even going to compare to the wealth in the heavenly kingdom that we're going to inherit?

It doesn't even compare.

That's what Christ is talking about.

Christ Himself makes up for every loss we have in sacrifice of following Him.

But then He says, with persecutions.

That's what the health and wealth leads off sometimes.

With persecutions.

In this life, blessings may even, it's not like blessings in spite of the persecutions.

The persecutions may actually be the blessings.

You remember the song a few years ago?

What a powerful song Laura Story wrote called Blessings.

What if our blessings come through raindrops?

What if our healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?

And what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?

What is God keeping us from by giving us trials and blessings of life that we know nothing about?

And so Jesus is just underscoring, look, yes, the sacrifices are great, the reward is worth it.

There's going to be trials, there's going to be hardship, but it is worth it.

And then he says something else in verse 31.

The results at the finish line of running this race might be a little bit surprising.

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

There are going to be surprises in the kingdom of God and in God's economy with all this.

We might think that the front of the line, uh, there'd be people at the front of the line because of their resources, because of their outward appearance of morality, you know, the man I've kept all these things from my youth.

You know, those kind of people might be last.

Those who aren't worth much, those who might be seen as undesirable, those who may have lived a hard life and only in latter years come to know God's grace, they might be at the front of the line.

And so the rich young ruler thought he had it mostly figured out, but Jesus saw into his heart and recognized his hurdle that he could not cross on his own.

You see, he started again talking to him about those commandments, all those outward things that you could you could uh visibly observe obedience about it, whether you've never lied, you've never stolen, you know, you do a good job of taking care of your mother and father.

We can observe all those things.

But what Jesus said next really reveals what's in his heart.

When he looked at him with compassion, remember he said, You lack one thing.

Now, what is that one thing?

Some people are tempted to connect it to what he says next.

Go and sell all your goods, give away to the poor.

Lay up for your trust.

I think more so, you lack one thing is linked more to the commandments he's talking about.

Yeah, you kept all these commandments, but you lack one thing.

You've got all the commandments on this side of the table, but what about the commandments on the other side, the other table, that have more to do with the heart that start with, Y'all shalt have no other gods before me.

That's the one thing.

That's what we're lacking, is the hurdle that won't allow us to let Jesus let God be God in our life.

Jesus summed up all those commandments like this in Matthew 22, when they asked him what the greatest commandment is: you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.

See, this young man had replaced that love with his love for wealth and possessions.

We know that in the story.

But you know it's interesting to note back in verse 24, if you look back up there, Jesus said how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.

It doesn't say anything about wealth.

Now, there's some manuscripts older, if you've got some translations, it might say, it might say uh how difficult it is for someone who trusts in wealth to enter the kingdom of God, but some of the best manuscripts, and now some of the modern uh translations just say how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.

What's your hurdle?

There are other hurdles besides wealth.

What's the one thing that Jesus would look at you and say, you lack?

You lack.

What's your one thing?

What's your hurdle that you need God's help to get over, to really follow Him?

I don't know, it's for you to decide in your heart.

Maybe it is possessions, maybe you're so wrapped up with what you have, or you know, materialism just not for the wealthy.

It could be that you're so consumed with wanting what you don't have.

That's materialism too.

And so it could be possessions.

You could be that's your idol.

Maybe it's a person, maybe it's a relationship.

There's some teenagers and young people and students.

There's somebody that you're kind of wanting to be in a relationship with you that is just hindering you from really serving God the way you need to serve Him?

Is that your hurdle?

Mom and Dad?

Are you willing to release your kids to go follow after God's will, whatever that means, wherever that takes them, wherever that takes them to college?

Are you willing to explore going to college where where you think God wants you to go?

But I don't want to go that far because I'll have to leave so and so.

Maybe the hurdle's a person.

I don't know.

Maybe the hurdle's a passion.

Maybe it's something that you just love pursuing more than you really want to pursue Jesus.

Are you willing to let a sport or a hobby or a pursuit keep you from following Jesus?

Are you willing to let that be your one thing, your hurdle?

Would you be willing to bow your head right now?

Brian's gonna come.

Would you be willing, while we just sing a short verse of that song we sang earlier, to give that thing away, give it to Jesus, say, Jesus, take this hurdle from me.

I don't want it to be the one thing I lack.

Would you be willing to tell God in the privacy of your heart right now that you want Him to be number one in your life?