Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Good morning, church.
[00:00:11] What a joy to be together today. Amen.
[00:00:16] I'm going to be real with you guys.
[00:00:18] We got kind of a hard one today, but I think it's going to be good for our hearts. If you weren't here last week, we've been working through this short session in Matthew 19 and 20 that we're calling the Pursuit of Happy. We're gonna be in Matthew 19 today. If you want to go ahead and turn there in your Bibles. If you're here today and you don't have a Bible with you, we have physical copies around the room. You can look just under the chairs in front of you. We really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emanuel. So if you don't own a physical copy of the Bible, I'd strongly encourage you to just take one of those or talk one of the pastors and we'll give you a nicer one. But guys, here's why we're doing this series. And here's what I mean by this phrase, the pursuit of happy. At the end of the day, who the heck doesn't want to figure out how to live a good life, right? I mean, that's normal. That's all of us. We all want to be as happy as we can as often as we can, and sad as rarely as possible, right?
[00:01:19] That's a pretty normal, human thing. And the reality is there have always been a multitude of narratives and promises that exist in the world to help you get there. In American society, we have self help books, social media influencers, politicians all telling us they know the right thing to do for us to achieve personal happiness. If you elect this leader, if you follow this diet, if you engage this mindfulness practice, and then if you buy this prayer product, then it'll all be okay, right guys, we have gospels preached to us all day, every day. That word gospel in the Bible means good news.
[00:02:10] We're surrounded by messengers of good news.
[00:02:14] But the plain reality, beloved, is that while many of these folks are pointing us to good and even healthy things, their gospel promise is false.
[00:02:25] It's false.
[00:02:27] These promises won't leave you fulfilled.
[00:02:32] Fleeting happiness won't leave you fulfilled. They won't fix what is broken in your heart and in your life. Today we're going to see Jesus confront two of the largest of these false gospels, both in the 1st century in Palestine and for us today. Last week we talked about marriage and divorce. It was a really fun, light hearted time in church. And today we're gonna talk about wealth and religion or spirituality. Which brings me to our main point today, guys. Wealth won't make you happy. Being spiritual won't make you happy. It is only through connection to God, the pursuit of his kingdom, that you will find purpose and fulfillment in life, period. It's the only thing that will get you there. So pray with me. We're gonna jump into this text. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for the gift of being together. Getting to be in a warm room on a cold day with brothers and sisters and friends who love you and love us and are seeking the same things in life. God, these are gifts. We're grateful for them. Lord, I pray that you would speak to us through your word today. Illuminate your word today in a way that our hearts need. Let us all leave here today challenged in the ways we need to be challenged. Also encouraged in the ways we need to be encouraged. Lord, let us, let us do work with you today. We love you Jesus. We pray these things in your name. Amen.
[00:04:00] So we're in Matthew 19. We're going to start in verse 13 if you want to read with me. And it says this.
[00:04:08] Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, leave little children alone and don't try and keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. And after placing his hands on them, he went on from there.
[00:04:28] So remember guys, in kind of the narrative Setup of Matthew 19:20, Jesus is currently mid route, he's traveling to Jerusalem. And as he's traveling, he's still teaching and having these kind of kingdom conversations. And our text opens up honestly with a really familiar scene. Like one chapter ago in chapter 18, there was a really similar scene where Jesus used the idea of children as a picture for kingdom faith. Here in our text, some parents want to bring their kids to Jesus for a blessing. This is not an unheard of thing in Jesus day. Well known rabbis and teachers would often bless and pray over kids. But the disciples see this as a waste of time.
[00:05:17] They rebuke these parents. Jesus is up to important work nowadays. He debates Pharisees. I don't know if you heard, but he's the Messiah. We saw his divinity. We're going to Jerusalem to take care of business. He doesn't have time for this.
[00:05:33] Remember guys, this was a day and age when children were not like elevated as they are in our society. They were looked down upon. And so this really is normal for his disciples to have this kind of attitude. This would have seemed like a total distraction from the important ministry Jesus was doing.
[00:05:53] But look at Jesus response.
[00:05:56] He immediately stops what he's doing. He doesn't just stop what he's doing, he rebukes his disciples. Right? Don't stop those kids from coming to me. I love this about our text. It's a perfect setup for where this text is going. Beloved, our sweet Jesus loved children.
[00:06:15] He had time for them. He saw them in a world that didn't see them, right?
[00:06:23] As a teacher, as a respected man in this community, as someone with a lot of stuff going on. He saw those kids in a world that didn't. If you're someone in this room today who maybe feels unseen, who feels unnoticed in a world that moves really fast and has really high expectations, there is such beauty in remembering that Jesus seen you, that he truly sees you. He does not see you as a distraction or a waste of time. You matter to him. Jesus draws these children near. He lays hands on them. He blesses them. What a joy. What a, what a God we serve.
[00:07:04] And look what he says to his disciples. The kingdom belongs to people like these.
[00:07:10] As Matthew is being intentional to make sure we're reminded of this truth before we get into these next two chunks of text. See, Jesus is about to challenge a cultural assumption that is so deeply dug into the DNA of first century Judaism that his listeners are not going to have a category for it. And so even though they don't understand it like this, by the way, is actually a theme that runs throughout Jesus ministry and the whole Gospel of Matthew. It's if you go back and you skim Matthew and you look at some of the key stories in Jesus teaching, you'll find this idea that Jesus cuts through the cultural noise and sees the people who are unseen and cares for the people who are uncared for and helps those who are in need. That it is a key theme. It's a key way to understand not only Christ, but his ministry. Remember back in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, the way Jesus kind of publicly announces his ministry to the world? How does he open the Sermon on the mount? Matthew 5:3. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
[00:08:17] That's a really churchy phrase that we kind of lose the meaning of. But do you know what that means?
[00:08:22] It means people who are bad at religion, the poor in spirit are people who are bad at this.
[00:08:30] I don't know how to show up often on Sunday. I don't know how to be involved in a Small group. I don't know how to keep up with my spiritual disciplines. I don't know how to serve. I don't know how to care for people. It's just all really hard. I'm really bad at it. Blessed are you when you are bad at spirituality.
[00:08:46] For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's how Jesus opens his public ministry.
[00:08:54] God is doing something new. Jesus says something unexpected. God's kingdom is for people who are bad at their spirituality. And this thread follows all the way through Jesus ministry, where you see him spending time with and who he argues with. He's with the poor. He's with the everyman. He's with the struggling, the doubting, the sinner, the Gentiles. He argues with synagogue leaders and Pharisees and scribes.
[00:09:28] Like I already mentioned in chapter 18, he said, there's something about the trust and the humility of a child that actually opens the the way for us to find his kingdom.
[00:09:38] Jesus to his disciples and Matthew to you and I right now are zoning in on a really important reminder here before we get into a difficult teaching. And it's this. God's world is upside down.
[00:09:53] It is upside down. It does not work the way we expect. This means the Gospel of Jesus. The good news that leads us to the life we are made for is often counterintuitive because God's world does not work the way we think it works. God is doing something different from the world. Read on with me. In verse 16.
[00:10:18] Just then, someone came up and asked him, teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? He said to him, there's only one who is good. And if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Verse 18. Which ones? He asked him, and Jesus answered, did not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:10:44] I've kept all of these. The young man told him, what do I still lack? If you want to be perfect, Jesus said to him, go sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the young man heard that, he went away grieving because he had many possessions.
[00:11:07] So now we get into a text that's relatively well known. Your heading in your Bible here probably says something like the rich young ruler, right? This is because in Mark and Luke's telling of this story, they go out of their way to let us know that this guy is a ruler. He has some kind of political. Political authority, and he's also wealthy. But Matthew presents the story a little differently. Matthew just says that someone comes to Jesus and questions him, and look what he asks says, teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?
[00:11:42] What I think is interesting about this is that this shows us this is obviously a spiritual man, right? Beyond this, he isn't like the religious leaders who've been coming to Jesus over the last several chapters to confront him, to trick him, to trap him, to debate him. By all measures, this man seems to be a genuine spiritual seeker who's coming to Jesus. He's asking him what he needs to do to get into heaven. I mean, could you ask for a better invitation to. To share the gospel? Right? I mean, like, seriously sharing your faith. Let's be honest, sharing your faith is often difficult. It can be scary. It can take a long time to work your way up to it. How many of you would kill for the opportunity to have one of those people you've been praying for walk up to you and just say, hey, how do I get into heaven? How does that work? What do I need to do? Right? And yet I think Jesus would fail most of our modern evangelism classes, right? He kind of needles this guy in his response to him, why you mentioned good. Why are you bringing that up? Only God's good. You're kind of like Jesus. He's asking you a really important question here, right? First off, there's a couple things we need to see and what kind of. What's going on in this? Because Jesus response to him, as you read it, it can seem kind of snarky.
[00:13:08] Why are you mentioning good? Why are you bringing that up? You want to have eternal life, Keep the commandments.
[00:13:13] There's a reason for this. See, this was actually the accepted wisdom of the day amongst Pharisaical theologians. If you want eternal life, if you want heaven, you follow God's law. You show that Israel is actually faithful to its covenant. We've been rejected for breaking covenant, our forefathers. And if we show we're faithful to the covenant, God will reward us by giving us eternity, resurrecting us unto a new life. That's what was accepted in Pharisaical Judaism in that day. What's happening here is that in a very real way, Jesus is testing this guy. He knows there's something off here, and he wants, instead of just calling it out, he wants this guy to see it himself, to realize it, and to hopefully experience some breakthrough. So Jesus is purposefully kind of confrontational. With him, this guy is spiritual. But Jesus wants to give him an opportunity to expose his real heart and his real motivation. So he tells him the expected theology of the day. Why are you asking me this? You want eternal life? Keep the commandments, but the man pushes it. Well, which ones? Now, guys understand this was a genuine good faith debate in Pharisaical Judaism. Remember, Israel didn't exist as a nation anymore and many Jews didn't live anywhere near, close to Judea, Jerusalem or the Temple. So what commandments needed to be followed in order to make one a good, faithful Jew? Because some didn't work or didn't make sense. If you lived in the other side of the world, right, how, how do you elevate one's spirituality such that you can be assured eternal life? How do you know which laws still matter? If you are a Jew and you live in Rome and you know the command is to go and celebrate the feast days in Jerusalem, but it would take you multiple years of wages and half of your work year to get there, Are you required to obey that law to be faithful? Right. It's a real question people were wrestling with. And I think this is weird.
[00:15:19] But Jesus answers him. Now I want to stop there. Like, is that weird to anyone else as we read this? Which laws do I have to follow to get eternal life? Don't you think this is the point where Jesus should, like, you know, tell him the gospel?
[00:15:33] Actually, son, none of them. It won't work. You need me. You need to trust me to forgive your sins. That's how you win eternal life. But he doesn't do that. Jesus gives him a very clear and precise answer. Do not murder.
[00:15:47] Do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus is quoting from two scriptures here, Exodus 20 and Leviticus 19. Exodus 20 is the Ten Commandments and Jesus pulls five of them out. Leviticus 19 is a whole series of law. And Jesus pulls out the laws. Jesus pulls out this one that's considered by many rabbis in this day to be this sort of summary law that kind of encapsulates the heart of the larger idea of the law, the principles. And notice the specific commandments Jesus chooses to quote to him. Now this is getting a little in the weeds of some Bible study and theology, but I actually think it's helpful to think about this. So if you go back to Exodus 20 and you read the Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments are generally divided into two categories and there's some debate about how you divide them. But it usually goes something like this. Commandments 1 through 4, no other gods, no idols, don't swear by God's name and keep the Sabbath, are put in this category that they are about one's relationship to God. Commandments 5 through 10, honor mom and dad, don't murder, no adultery, no stealing, no lies, no coveting. That's about our relationship to our community. So kind of two aspects of this, your spiritual life and your communal life. Notice that Jesus skips the four commandments about our relationship to God.
[00:17:10] There's already an interesting bit of foreshadowing in that choice. Right, but we'll come back to that.
[00:17:16] But there are six commandments about our relationship to one another, our relationship to community, and Jesus here only quotes 5. He skips coveting and instead he quotes Leviticus 19, this summary law. You love your neighbor as you love yourself.
[00:17:34] The commandment to not covet, because it was deeply connected to the Jewish understanding of wealth.
[00:17:42] Listen, the first century was a time of haves and have nots in some really intense ways that honestly don't even make sense in our modern society where we have such a thing as like a middle class, haves and have nots and very dramatic stark difference between them. But God's people, we're supposed to live separate from that drive to always have more and more and more of what everyone else has. That was a deep part of how they understood their theology of wealth was this commandment not to covet. But Jesus chooses not to include this commandment in his response to this questioner.
[00:18:22] And then look how this guy responds to that. Like the back and forth here, he just says, yeah, I've done all those, which is just buck wild, but that's where we're at. He goes, no, no, yeah, yeah, I got those ones, I got those ones down. And then he says this.
[00:18:37] What's still missing? What else do I need? This is so interesting to me because what we see here is this is this guy is incredibly spiritual, he's incredibly religious. He is apparently successfully keeping a good chunk of the ten Commandments. He's devoted to not just the abstract theology of his faith, but the lived out implications of his faith.
[00:19:03] His relationship to his community is a declaration of how seriously he takes his faith and religious practice to the point that he's willing to publicly say to a rabbi, yeah, I'm pretty good at keeping those ones, I got those ones down.
[00:19:21] And yet he still knows there's something missing in his very core. He's got this like but that's not enough.
[00:19:30] His spirituality and hear me church, it's a good spirituality at that, right? Like he's good at this.
[00:19:39] It's not enough to get him to life with God.
[00:19:43] So this is at the core of this man's question. He wants God.
[00:19:50] He wants what he was made for. He wants eternal life with his Creator. He wants his faith to be real. He wants it to matter.
[00:19:59] So he comes to the heart of the matter of Jesus. What do I lack?
[00:20:04] How do I fall short? What do I need to do? Tell me.
[00:20:09] And now, like a surgeon with a scalpel, Jesus cuts to the absolute core of this man's sin.
[00:20:17] See, he was allowing this young man to display the best his faith had to offer in kindness. Jesus allows this pious and godly man to show what he has, the fruit of his labor. He is laboring to keep the law of Moses.
[00:20:38] But he lacks.
[00:20:41] And guys, he lacks because he is broken by the curse of sin, just like all of us.
[00:20:47] And now in love, Jesus shows him that truth.
[00:20:53] If you want to be perfect, says Jesus, and hearing that word, perfect, this idea of spiritual completeness, this is what the man is asking for. What's missing? If you want to not be missing anything, if that's what you want, you want to master your faith, go sell everything you have and give all your wealth to the poor so that your only treasure will be in heaven. And then come follow me.
[00:21:19] This is a direct callback to Jesus own teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, right? Like remember chapter six, 1924, don't store up treasures on earth where they will rust and rot, but rather store up treasures and heaven eternal treasures, right? It's a hard teaching for sure, but it's honestly pretty standard for Jesus kingdom teaching.
[00:21:40] But for a guy like this, for a guy like this who's put so much of his life and effort into really connecting with God, a guy who has put so much work into securing his eternity, this statement seems to me, reading it like an absolute gift.
[00:21:59] He's coming to Jesus saying, here's what I'm doing, what am I missing? And Jesus says this.
[00:22:07] That seems like a gift. This is exactly what he asked for. Jesus is giving him an incredibly practical next step. You want eternity? Well here's what you need to do. Wouldn't you think that that is exactly what this young man has come to Christ seeking? And yet the text tells us that rather than following Jesus, he now leaves Jesus. And he doesn't just leave Jesus, he is grieving as he leaves. And why is he Grieving because he's wealthy.
[00:22:42] Full stop.
[00:22:43] Let's sit here for a second. When Jesus gives this man exactly what he asked for instead of joy.
[00:22:53] Remember Back to Matthew 13, the man who found the buried treasure and reburied it, the man who sought out pearls of great price and found one. Instead of joy at finding the kingdom, this man responds in grief.
[00:23:06] Why?
[00:23:08] Because Jesus has confronted him with the truth of his heart that he has not wanted to face.
[00:23:14] You see, he believes that he longs for God, that he longs for God's kingdom, that he longs for his eternity. And by the way, he very likely does.
[00:23:26] This guy has put a lot of effort into this, right?
[00:23:30] But he wants God plus his stuff.
[00:23:35] He wants both.
[00:23:37] He has wealth. He has all the comforts and privileges that affords, and he wants those also. And he wants them so much that when presented with the opportunity to have God but lose wealth, he walks away.
[00:23:54] When he's told, you can't have both, you have to pick, he walks away. Beloved Jesus has shown this man his real sinful heart.
[00:24:05] However much he is working in his religion, however much he is seeking God, his sinful fleshly heart is right there with him, seeking the things of this world. And when presented with, let's be honest, guys, the simplest choice in all of reality, would you rather have perfect, sinless, joyful eternity or death?
[00:24:28] He joins with his father Adam, and he chooses death.
[00:24:33] That's intense, sorrowful. That's also exactly what I do every day.
[00:24:41] It's exactly what you do every day.
[00:24:46] That's what's messed up in all of us. Each and every one of us chooses death over and over and over and over and over and over. We are born ruined by sin, but we choose to drink in our sin. Like a fish breathing.
[00:25:04] We all of us make that choice and it shows us an incredibly important truth.
[00:25:12] Religion is not going to get you there.
[00:25:15] Religion is not going to make you happy and fulfilled. Now, unfortunately, I actually have to say a little more than this. Many in evangelical world have made religion a bad word. We've all, probably most of us in this room have done that before, right? We say something like, I'm not religious, I have a relationship. And listen, I get it. There is truth in that statement. That is actually a very beautiful thing we're saying, I don't believe in empty rope practice, but I'm connected relationally to God in my heart. That's a true and wonderful thing. But you have to know something. If you have a relationship with Jesus where you believe and Acknowledge that he is God and saved you from your sins and granted you eternal life by his grace. And you were respond by living a life dedicated to him and his kingdom. You are religious.
[00:25:59] That's a religion. It's called Christianity. And it's a good thing. It's a good thing. Religion, spirituality, spiritual engagement, spiritual maturity. These are good things.
[00:26:10] They're good things, but they're not enough.
[00:26:14] They're not sufficient things in and of themselves.
[00:26:19] I'm here to say this, and I genuinely mean this in love. I mean this in honor to all of you. Some of you in this room are great at being Christians.
[00:26:31] You're very good at it. You are here most Sundays. You tithe. Thank you.
[00:26:38] You signed up for bsf. You're in a gc. You read your Bible, you pray, you. You love people. Well, you're doing great.
[00:26:48] But I guarantee you, I guarantee you that like this rich young ruler, you can look at your own heart with sobriety and humility and honesty and realize that all of that practice is not enough.
[00:27:05] You still lack. You need something more. Spirituality is great. Spirituality is wonderful. I hope you all fall in love with Jesus and seek to have your faith have a real impact in your life. And by that. But that by itself won't be enough to make you fulfilled. This young man tried it. He tried to let his religion alone, get him there. And let's be honest and admit he did a better job than most of us. Right?
[00:27:34] It didn't work, wasn't enough. Read on with me. In verse 23, Jesus said to his disciples, surely, I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, 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. When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and asked, well, then, who can be saved? And Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but with God, God, all things are possible.
[00:28:06] This man walks away grieving. And as he's walking away, Jesus turns to his followers and gives them this absolute bomb.
[00:28:17] It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Oh, and then he. Then he doubles down on this point by giving this weird analogy about camels crawling through needle eyes. And you may have heard this had to do with like, a specific gate in Jerusalem. And like, the camels that came in had to like, get on their knees and crawl. And it's about humility.
[00:28:40] I mean, that may be true. We don't have any, like, good historical evidence for that? What's much more likely is that Jesus is using hyperbole here to be funny and make a point. Camels can't crawl through needle eyes. Needle eyes are tiny. Camels are large. It doesn't work like that's the image. It's impossible.
[00:29:01] And this phrasing is so stark that the disciples respond and they go, well, then who can be saved if that guy couldn't do it? If it's camels going through needles, then how can any of us do this?
[00:29:15] It sounds impossible. There's a couple things going on here that's important for us to see, to really understand this text. First, you have to know this. The general Jewish theological assumption was that wealth followed faithful religious practice. I mean, honestly, in a very similar way to the way, like some modern, heretical prosperity Gospel preachers say this. The ancient Jews looked at the wisdom literature, like Proverbs specifically, and the covenant promises to Abraham, and they decided that wealth was every evidence of God's direct blessing and affirmation of your life. The assumption was that if you saw a practicing Jew who was rich, they were really holy. They must be faithful and spiritually mature or God would not have blessed their finances so much. So it's already weird for the disciples to hear from Jesus that the rich actually struggle to enter the kingdom of God. Second, they had just heard how holy this guy was who was questioning Jesus. He had been really faithfully keeping the law. Like, as Jesus and him were going back and forth, you can imagine the disciples sitting there going, man, this guy's really good at this. He's like, he's really good at this. He's really faithful. And then when he walks away and Jesus is like, see, this is that moment of going, what he doesn't get in, right? And third, probably most importantly, because Jesus just said, it's impossible to be saved.
[00:30:45] Can we sit in that for a minute? Camels don't go through needles.
[00:30:52] That's not a thing. Which means, if Jesus is using this analogy to talk about the struggles of wealthy people entering the kingdom, that means rich people don't find the kingdom.
[00:31:05] That's hard. And if they're more spiritual than the average person, what hope does anyone have who can be saved?
[00:31:15] But look at Jesus. Wonderful answer.
[00:31:19] Nothing is impossible with God.
[00:31:22] Nothing is impossible for our God. Beloved, God is the one who saves us. It is impossible for us to enter into the kingdom by our own effort.
[00:31:34] The best of us. The best of us are riddled with idols and sin. There is none worthy. We can't do it. It's like camels crawling through needles. It's impossible. It doesn't happen. But our God is able to do the impossible. Come on, church.
[00:31:53] This is our God. This is his wonderful gospel message to you and to me today and every day. God has made you, and he made you for a perfect eternity with him. But you can't get there. You're unable to approach God on your own. You're unable to fix what sin has broken. You are stuck. And that's bad news. But we worship a God who loves us so much that he was not content to allow sin the final word on your life or mine. Instead, he entered into our mess and made a way for us. He bridges the gap and draws us unto himself. We are helpless, but God is not. And God is loving.
[00:32:36] And at this moment, Jesus has eviscerated this false gospel of his day and ours.
[00:32:44] Not only is spirituality and religion insufficient to give you the life that you want, wealth, success and comfort are insufficient to give you the life you want.
[00:32:57] Guys, can we sit there for a second?
[00:33:00] We live in a time when the economy and money is on a lot of our brains a lot of the time, right? I'm not about you guys. Well, I grow. I'm at a place where I'm like, why are groceries expensive? Why is that a thing I think about often? Much less car payments or housing like, in this room. I know for a fact because we talk about it. Many of us are struggling with seeing our financial picture worse than it was four or five years ago. Many of us are cutting back or tightening the belt, are working more hours or trying to figure it out. Beloved, may I submit to you that many of us in this room are being tickled in our ears by this false gospel.
[00:33:48] If my salary was 10,000 more a year, if I owned instead of renting, if my car was newer, if we had the margin to just, I don't know, like, eat out and hang out with friends more. If I could just redo this part of my house, if my retirement account could just hit this number. If I had this thing, this vacation, this toy, this extravagance, if only I was just a little more wealthy. Like, I don't want to be rich, but just like a little more than I have. Beloved of Jesus, all the treasures of Babylon will not make you happy.
[00:34:23] They won't. Because you were not made for Babylon.
[00:34:29] They won't help you. Now, don't mishear me. Wealth is not evil.
[00:34:35] Owning a house, a nice house, a Car making money, those are not bad things. I hope you all have enough money to meet your needs and enjoy some comforts. Right? Like that's a beautiful, wonderful thing.
[00:34:48] But don't be deceived.
[00:34:50] Don't fall for the trap. It won't make you happy.
[00:34:54] It won't fulfill you. It won't fix your heart.
[00:34:59] It can't.
[00:35:01] If you walk out of here today and you find a winning lottery ticket sitting on your car, some of you are like, really?
[00:35:10] I got news for you.
[00:35:13] You would still be you just rich.
[00:35:17] You'd still be you. You'd bring all your sin, all your idolatry, all of your struggles. You'd bring it with you into your wealth and you would find that your wealth would not fix you.
[00:35:30] Can we stop for a moment and reflect on the truth that Jesus warning here, his stark warning about wealth. It's for you and for me. Like, how easy is it for us to go? Like, I'm not rich.
[00:35:46] Beloved, respectfully, you are.
[00:35:50] You are. You need to hear something. Just because you look around at all the wealth around you and comparatively you see other people who are more wealthy than you, does not mean you are actually poor.
[00:36:05] Don't be fooled.
[00:36:07] You are an American.
[00:36:10] A poor American is a rich human being, historically and globally. It's truth. I'm not going to camp out here too long, but let me give us one example.
[00:36:21] Hunger related suffering is measured two ways. On planet Earth in 2022, there are two ways we measure human suffering related to hunger. We talk about extreme hunger and chronic hunger. Extreme hunger are immediate. Right now emergencies, there's an earthquake and all the stores broke and no one has any food. Chronic hunger is lack of social infrastructure that allows for communities to sustainably grow and create their own food.
[00:36:46] Can I get that? Two categories. The research right now says that if you wanted to right now immediately end all emergency hunger, it would take 20 to 25 billion dollars per year. And that would feed every single mouth on the planet that is in an emergency situation. If you wanted to then go beyond that and fix every single societal infrastructure problem that makes it impossible for communities to grow their own food. If you wanted to end crop chronic hunger, that would take about $14 billion per year for a certain number of years until the infrastructure is able to replace itself. So 20 to 25 billion to end all extreme emergency hunger. 14 billion a year to end chronic hunger. That's a big number. I don't know about you guys. I can't hold the idea of a billion in my head. That feels Fake. That doesn't feel like a real number. There are so many zeros. I was bad at math. There are so many zero that I stopped trying to keep track of them and I go, big. Billion means big.
[00:37:47] Here's what I want you to put a little comparison to that.
[00:37:50] In 2023, Americans spent $20 billion on ice cream and we spent 50ish billion dollars on pizza.
[00:38:03] So when we talk about Americans being wealthy, that's what we're talking about. Put yourself, your lifestyle, your experience in the context of the globe right now and in the context of human history.
[00:38:18] We experience unprecedented wealth, comfort and care and privilege unlike any human society ever to exist. It's nuts. It's nuts the way the average American lives versus the way across the globe and historically human beings live.
[00:38:39] Why do I say that? What I'm getting at here is this. You need to not only reject the false gospel that more money will make you happy, you also need to stop for a moment and realize that Jesus challenge here about the lures of wealth, that applies to you.
[00:38:57] Even if you're sitting here going, oh, you don't understand. It's been a real rough couple years. My investment portfolio is not what it used to be. Hey, look, me too, right?
[00:39:04] But it still applies to you.
[00:39:06] You are the camel trying to crawl through a needle. It's hard for the rich to come to God. It's hard for the rich to grab a hold of the kingdom for a very simple reason.
[00:39:20] Wealthy people fix their own problems.
[00:39:24] It's hard to even realize we have problems outside the scope of our own ability to solve them, much less have the humility to come to God in faith and allow him to fix them. When you have earthly treasure and it's pretty good, it's hard to convince yourself to care about heavenly treasure when you have something good right now and I promise you something better later.
[00:39:51] It's hard to wrap your brain brain around that if you step back to the year like 150, when Roman persecution of Christians is at some of its highest, and you've got slaves who were born slaves and will die slaves who are told this truth. Jesus loves you and he will give you an eternity. And in that eternity, you will not be a slave. You will be equal to the highest king because the king of reality loves you and makes you his own. Now, if you say yes to this, you'll very likely be arrested and tortured to death in public.
[00:40:24] But you look at your life and go, I'll be honest, my life's pretty terrible. That sounds Pretty amazing. That kind of works for me. Let's do it. Which is what happened in church history. In fact, some of the earliest critiques of Christianity from Roman officials said this. I don't know. It's like a religion for criminals and slaves and women. I don't get it. It's a real thing. Because for people whose life is terrible, promise of heaven is really alluring.
[00:40:47] But when your life here is pretty good, like, I don't know, heaven sounds good, but what I'm doing is pretty good. I got some plans this week that are pretty great. I'm doing okay.
[00:40:58] That's silly, guys, but it's true.
[00:41:01] When this world and this life are pretty good, what's the rush to get anywhere else?
[00:41:07] So here's the thing, beloved. Just to say it out loud, like, we all know this, but just to put it out there, that's foolish.
[00:41:14] That's dumb.
[00:41:16] The best this world has to offer is ashes next to what God has made you for and prepared for you. In his kingdom, there is no comparison.
[00:41:29] Let's end this out by ending out this text. Verse 27. And Peter responded to him, see, we have left everything and followed you, so what will there be for us? And Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 Thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters, or fathers or mother or children or fields because of My name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. And many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. Beloved Jesus here tells his followers that the kingdom of God is a reward that is worth seeking.
[00:42:11] It's a reward worth seeking. The sacrifices of seeking Jesus here and now are paid back in eternity. What you get later makes what you lose now worth it. Now, there's this strange idea in our society that we all subtly take on, which is that motives are only really pure and good if they're completely altruistic, right? We only really see someone's motives as good if they have no ulterior motives. We don't trust what a used car salesman tells us about a car because his motives are to sell the car.
[00:42:48] But if our friend buys a car and says, oh my gosh, this car's so good, it's so great, let me tell other things about it. We're more likely to trust that person because they don't get any money if we buy that car and there is some truth to that, guys, but you gotta understand something. It's just not true all the time.
[00:43:05] It certainly can be. Right? Like, don't listen to what the car salesman says about you. Go Google it. Right. That's a real thing. I'm sure many of us have had experiences that validate those stereotypes. But here, Jesus is flatly telling his followers they should be seeking out heavenly treasure.
[00:43:24] That heavenly treasure is good. It's worth chasing. Pure and simple. Church self interest is a part of why we pursue faith.
[00:43:36] Because heaven will be awesome.
[00:43:39] It'll be worth it.
[00:43:41] This is connected to what John Piper calls Christian hedonism, because we're seeking to give ourselves the best thing we could ever get. It just so happens the best thing we could ever get is what God has designed us for.
[00:43:55] It's eternity with him. When we seek the kingdom, when we seek to glorify God, we are seeking the life that we were made for. We're seeking that good life, that fulfilling life. And that's a good thing to do do.
[00:44:12] You should do that. You should pursue a good life.
[00:44:17] You should just pursue it in Christ. Beloved, heaven will be great. It's worth chasing, it's worth seeking, it's worth missing out on fleeting pleasures in this world. It's worth trusting God for Chris or Audrey, if you want to come back up.
[00:44:33] As we land out, we're left with a very real and important question, which is just this, Beloved, today, right now, how will you actually respond to God's movement in your life if it's impossible for us? If you need God to move and do the impossible in your lives, how will you respond?
[00:44:54] If you are already in Christ, Jesus has saved you. He's drawn you through the needle. He's done the. The impossible for you. So what does that do to your heart? How do you respond to that?
[00:45:08] I would challenge you to consider these two false gospels today as a perfect picture of application for us.
[00:45:15] Beloved, your religion, your spirituality won't make you happy and they won't fulfill you. Only Jesus can do that. When you're in Christ and your life is dedicated to him, you can then engage in religion and spiritual spirituality to the glory of God. And then they become wonderful tools to help you actually find fulfillment in and of themselves. They don't get you there. But when you're in Christ and you're seeking him and you realize, oh, these things actually really do help connect me to Christ, it's a great application to step back and think of your religious practice and go, why am I Doing this?
[00:45:52] Why do I go to church every Sunday? Why do I read my Bible? Why did I sign up for this Bible study? What am I doing this for?
[00:46:00] Is it because I want to check the boxes of how awesome I am at being religious? Or is it a means to an end, to connect you to Christ?
[00:46:07] Your wealth and your comfort, they won't make you happy and they won't fulfill you. Only Jesus can. But when you're in Christ and your life is dedicated to him, all of a sudden you find you can use your career, your finances, your earthly treasures, your comforts and your possessions to glorify God.
[00:46:25] And all of a sudden you realize that these comforts aren't evil. These are tools that can be used to advance the kingdom, to love others, to further the mission that more may know Jesus.
[00:46:38] So beloved, today, right here. Don't leave this space today without considering this.
[00:46:45] Look at your own heart. What false gospels are you flirting with?
[00:46:50] How can you respond to God's impossible work in your life today? I challenged our church this year to really think about how we're taking our faith seriously, really around Bible reading. Right. Our goal as pastors this year is for our church to really unify around this experience of discipleship, spiritual growth, like breakthrough. Right? Because that's our mission as a church. We won't get anywhere for the kingdom unless as a church, we're actually growing in our faith. As Christ pours into us, he pours out of us. Amen.
[00:47:19] Let's think about how we can do that.
[00:47:23] Let's actually take a few minutes to consider that. What does it look like to dig in in 2025? It's as good as a time as any to reject the false gospel. It's tickling your ears. And for us to grow together, together in Jesus. Amen. Take a few minutes to sit in prayer, and then we'll continue in response through communion.
