Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God, you welcome you.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey there. If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to, so we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church and click on Contact. With all that said, we, we hope you enjoy the message.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Well, happy Advent season.
This is the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, what is known as Advent. The church, the people of God, have been reflecting and celebrating the Advent season for literally since the resurrection of Jesus and the ascension of Jesus. And it really is a time of reflecting on the first coming. Advent means arrival, the first coming of Jesus. And it's a time to look ahead to the second coming of Jesus. I was thinking about it, as Mark was leading the team in worship this morning, about how, I mean, just the nature of the anticipation for people who were following God and the people of God prior to the Messiah coming, prior to the first Advent, them kind of looking ahead and being like, he's coming, like they didn't have that fullness of the revelation of Jesus, right?
And then, you know, Jesus comes, and then now we're post Jesus. So we have this beautiful perspective of looking back on Jesus and him coming and what that means for us and all the implications and all the glory and all the beauty and all the grace in that.
But we actually have a lot in common with the people who came before us because as they were looking ahead come like we want the Messiah to come. We actually have that same heart cry like, Jesus, come back. Like we want you to come. Because we know that at the second Advent, the second arrival, the second coming of Jesus, all the wrong things are gonna be made right.
And so, yes, thank you. I love it when you're here, but no, but genuinely, like, maybe this morning you find yourself in a space where you're keenly aware of some of the brokenness and some of the difficulty and some of the things, the way they're not supposed to be in your life. And that's real and it's not the way it's supposed to be. But I pray and I hope that this Advent season you can give yourself over to looking ahead to the day that is coming, when Christ returns and he wipes away every tear.
Sin and suffering and Satan and death are done away with forever. And you can thrive as the created being that God made you to be. That's what's ahead of us. For whose hope? Those of us whose hope and faith is in Jesus. That's what's ahead for us, and that's what we give ourselves to. This Advent season is reflecting on that and looking ahead to that as well.
This morning, we're gonna continue on in our series going through Matthew, called the King and His Kingdom. We are giving ourselves over to learning as much as we can about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. What does it look like when God rules? When he reigns, when he gets his way.
Now, before we jump into today's passage, I want you to humor me. I want you to play a game with me, okay? And here's how you are going to participate. And don't opt out. Cause it's fun. Okay? All you have to do is raise one of your hands, either your right hand or your left hand, depending on what you choose. You get to make choices. You get to be empowered. We're gonna play a little game of this or that, okay?
Which would you choose? If the first thing. The first option I give you applies to you, raise your right hand. If the second option applies to you, you choose that. You'd rather have this over that. Raise your left hand. You with me?
Yes. Okay, great.
You can't have both. You gotta pick one. Okay, first this or that.
Which would you choose? Mountains or beach?
So mountains would be right hand. Beach would be left hand.
Your right hand or your right? Left hand. Mountains. Right hand. Beach. Left hand.
Okay, we're about. We're about. Oh, wow. I think. I think. I think beach is winning.
Okay. Hey, you did. You did. No, you can't do both. You can't do both. Now listen, listen. Beach is great. We live in Southern California, but mountains wins. Okay? Let's just. Let's just be honest. Okay, here's another one. Chicken or pork?
Chicken or pork?
Which? White meat. Some of you vegetarians are like, I'm not playing.
All right, Pork is winning. Wow. Pork is definitely winning. Okay, how about this one? This is contentious.
US dollar or bitcoin?
Oh, okay. All right. I see some of you crypto fans.
They're both moving in the direction I don't want them to go currently.
All right?
You can't go wrong with either one of these next two. So no judgment, but Christmas or Easter?
Christmas or Easter.
Wow.
Christmas is dominating that one.
Okay. All right.
Gen Z, you in the building.
All right, this is for you.
And like.
Oh, yeah. Okay. I'll Just do this.
Forest Frank or Forrest Gump?
If you don't know who Forrest Frank is, the answer for you is Forrest Gump.
Hey, I see a lot of people not raising their hands on this one. Forest Guild. There you go. Yeah. Or Forrest. Deal.
We'll throw Forest in there. Yeah.
All right. Couple more music or movies.
Wow.
Wow. I love seeing the married couples where different heads are up. This is great. Literally all of these married couples, different heads. Oh, yeah. Different hands. Okay, this is funny.
Okay, this one's super. There's only one right answer with this one.
Cake or pie?
I'm looking at you, Leah. No, you can't pick both. You can't pick both.
No chance. No way, chef. No way.
Cake or pie?
The answer is pie. Guys, let's just not even close, okay?
All right, last one. Last one. Last one.
Sunrise or sunset?
Some of you are thinking about this. Some of you are really thinking about this.
And this one's deep. This one's deep because you're like. You're like, sunrise, like, I get the rest of the day. I'm starting my day that way.
All right.
Well played.
I don't know, for whatever reason, the last kind of 48 hours, I've been just feeling kind of sentimental.
And I think we miss out on life a lot.
I think we miss out because God really made us to enjoy things.
It was really.
It was fun for me to just watch your faces, like, as I gave you a choice to make, and you were like, oh, I love this. And then some of you. There was a somewhere, you were like, I don't really care. I'm just gonna pick one, you know, but the reality of, like, God created you, and he created you to enjoy things and to value things.
What we just did was we just did a fun little game exercise on, like, what you value over other things.
And that's actually a good thing.
It's a beautiful thing. I believe it's a godly thing. I think it's part of what it means to be alive, to enjoy and to value different things. And the choices that we make reveal what we place a higher value on. Mountains or beach, chicken or pork.
In today's passage in Matthew.
It's a really, really good one.
It has a lot to teach us about what we value. And hear me why it matters.
So if you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it. We're going to be in Matthew, chapter 19.
You can put your finger in verse 16, because that's where we're going to start.
What we value and why it matters. Matthew 19. As you're flipping there, I'm going to pray for us as we open God's word together. Let's pray together, huh?
Jesus, I just thank you for your goodness to us, Father, the many ways that you bless us.
I thank you for creating us.
To enjoy things and to value things and to take pleasure in your blessings and in your provisions.
And what a season to give ourselves over to those things.
And so, spirit of God, I ask that you would teach us this morning.
I ask you to help us see Jesus more clearly.
How glorious he is, how wonderful he is, how kind he is, how holy he is.
And I pray and ask that your peace would reign among us.
We want to learn more about your kingdom, so teach us. We pray and all God's people said together. Amen.
Okay, so in your Bible, it'll probably have a little title above this passage. What does it say?
Rich young Ruler. Most of them say that rich young ruler. Now this is a pretty famous story, a pretty famous encounter with this young man that we're about to see in his encounter with Jesus.
And it's one of those stories. It's one of those encounters that doesn't just show up one place in the Gospels. It shows up in three places. It shows up here in Matthew, it shows up in Luke, chapter 18.
It also shows up in Mark, chapter 10. And when you look at all three of these accounts, the man who's spotlighted in this passage, what we see when we compare all three is we see that this is a man who is wealthy, he's young, and he has a significant leadership role of some kind. Okay? Hence the rich young ruler.
Now let's read this together, starting here in verse 16.
The someone that we're going to see here in verse 16 is this rich young ruler. This young man.
Let's read it.
Just then, someone came up, that rich young ruler, and asked him, him, there is Jesus.
Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?
Verse 17. Why do you ask me about what is good?
Jesus said to him, there's only one who is good.
If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.
Which ones? He asked him.
Jesus answered, do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not bear false witness. That's like lying.
Honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself.
I've kept all these. The young man told him, what do I still lack?
If you want to be perfect, now, pause for a second. Perfect man. That's a loaded word in our culture. What Jesus is talking about here is he's talking about completeness. You want to be complete, right? So he's implying that something's incomplete.
So if you want to be perfect, you want to be complete.
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. When the young man heard that, he went away grieving because he had many possessions.
All right, that's our passage.
I want to spend some time kind of digging into this rich young ruler guy, okay?
This is the kind of guy, he's the kind of leader that the Western church loves to platform, okay? I mean, get a load of this guy.
On the surface, he's got all his stuff together.
Everybody who sees this guy come and goes, that guy, he's got it going on, okay? He's wealthy, for starters.
He's got influence, significant influence and responsibility at a young age, okay? And he's a pretty moral guy.
He's what modern people would call a quote, good person, right? He doesn't murder, he doesn't commit adultery, he doesn't steal, he doesn't lie. He respects his parents. He's loving to his neighbor.
Good guy, right?
But despite all that, this guy, this rich young ruler, he still knows that something is lacking in his words, right? So what does he do? He seeks Jesus out. Great choice, by the way.
Again, all his marks are pretty solid at this point, right? He's respectful.
Did you catch what he called Jesus? What did he refer to Jesus as?
Teacher. So that's not just like a title, like, you know, Mrs. Logue, like. No, he's using the word teacher as a sign of respect. It's a public sign of respect.
And not only that, it doesn't show up. This specific part doesn't show up here in this account, but in Mark's gospel account of the same event, it says that he comes and kneels before Jesus. So he calls him teacher. He kneels before him. He's respectful, right?
Any girl dads in the room? Fellow girl dads. I'm a girl dad.
This is the kind of dude, I guess on the surface you'd be like, this would be a good candidate to marry my girl.
I see you giggling.
I see you. No, but for real, this guy, look, on the surface, he's got it going on, but he's got a pretty significant problem too.
Maybe you caught it.
Look at verse 16, the very first verse we read.
Jesus, what good must I do to have to inherit eternal life?
Listen, the guy's problem is a Big one. His problem is he thinks eternal life is something he can earn.
He thinks eternal life is something he can earn. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of reality.
It's a fundamental misunderstanding of how a person actually relates to the one true God of the universe. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of eternal life.
If you're taking notes, my first point for you is eternal life cannot be earned.
Eternal life cannot be earned.
This is what separates and differentiates Christianity from every other religion on the planet.
You see, religion is what a person does to be right with God.
So religions will teach you, here's what you've got to do to be right with God. Sound familiar? What must I do?
That's not what Christianity teaches. That's not what the Bible teaches. Christianity is what God has done to make people right with him.
It's about what he does. It's about what he accomplishes, about what he does and then offers to you and credits to you freely as a gift.
Christianity is different because Christianity is solely based on God's grace. And many of you sitting in the room, you know this, you've heard this a hundred times.
There's a difference between knowing about grace and tasting it, right?
Feeling it.
Christianity's different. It's based solely on God's grace. And grace, by definition, is not something you can earn.
Grace is a gift.
It's the greatest gift.
It's the most pleasurable gift. It humbles you because it's something you could never acquire.
But goodness, grace shows you something about your value, doesn't it?
Grace is a gift. And it's Christmas time, right? Like, that's what Christmas is all about.
Christmas is all about the gift of God's grace in giving us Jesus, the perfect man, yet fully God, fully man, the perfect man, perfect life. In your place, right?
Substitutionary death in your place.
Yeah.
So Christmas is all about the gift of God's grace and giving us Jesus.
Look at Romans, chapter 6, verse 23, really quickly. Eternal life cannot be earned. Friends.
Look what it says. For the wages of sin is death. Familiar verse. The wages of sin is death. But the what? The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Okay, so listen, our choices, our abilities, if you will, they have earned us something.
They've earned us something. They've earned us the opposite of eternal life.
According to Paul's words here, they earned us death.
That means eternal life has been forfeited, right? But God's rich in mercy. He's full of grace, like oceans and oceans and oceans of undeserved favor. That's what grace means, undeserved favor for you and for I.
Eternal life, which I suspect everybody in the room to some degree wants.
Eternal life is a gift of God's grace.
And so before I unpack more of this passage, I just at the sake of, at the chance there's anybody in the room that you haven't yet received that gift, you've heard about it, maybe you've seen your siblings playing with it on Christmas morning and stuff, you know what I mean? But like, you haven't actually opened and received that gift yourself.
You can today, and I hope and I pray that you do receive it today.
The gift of God's grace in Jesus.
So this rich young ruler guy, as put together as this guy seems to be, he doesn't get it.
He looks good on paper, but goodness, he doesn't get it. Eternal life cannot be earned. Why? Because it's a gift from God. So just for you and for me, this Christmas season, like, what if this Christmas season wasn't marked by busyness?
Some of you, you got events you got to get to today.
It's not bad, it's cool. But what if this season wasn't marked by busyness?
What if it wasn't marked by like obligation?
What if it wasn't marked by like the stresses that we feel, Got to get all the stuff up, gotta buy all the presents, gotta wrap those presents, all of the things right. What if this season wasn't marked by busyness or obligation or stress? What if instead it was marked by you actually receiving, and not just receiving, but enjoying the greatest gift that's ever been given to you?
The person of Jesus, his perfection, his righteousness, his love, his glory, his beauty, his goodness, eternal life in him, salvation for your soul.
I want that. I want that for me. I want it for my household. I want it for all of us.
As the poet and prophet I already referenced in Forest Frank has said, let's put the Christ back in Christmas.
Anybody heard that song yet? It's pretty good. It's pretty good.
Alright, so I want you to see something here though. I want you to see how Jesus is interacting with this young man.
He's interacting with this guy and it's incredible. Okay, so there was this rich young ruler, he asked Jesus, what good must I do? Let's read again in the second half of verse 17.
What good must I do? Jesus goes, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments which Ones he asked him, Jesus answered, do 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. Okay? So Jesus responds to them and says, keep the Commandments.
And then he starts listing the commandments. You guys are familiar with the Ten Commandments, right? Moses, Mount Sinai, the tablets, Right? The rules and laws for human flourishing. If you want a human being to flourish, just follow these things. It's not to control you. It's literally so that you'd blossom into everything that you have the potential to be. But either way, and not just you, the people around you. So Jesus tells him to keep the commandments. And then any of you Bible scholars in the room, something might have jumped out to you.
What he does here is he jumps straight to number six.
He jumps straight to number six. So he goes, six, seven, eight, nine. And then he throws in number five, honor your parents. And then he wraps it up and he says, love your neighbor as yourself, which is not technically one of the Ten Commandments.
So you're like, wait, what is Jesus doing here?
The Ten Commandments, they can be broken up into kind of really two categories, okay?
Those commandments that deal with how we relate to other people, and the other commandments that deal with how we relate to him, how we relate to God. Okay?
So what Jesus is doing, he lists all the commandments that involve how this man relates to other people.
And then he sums it up, love your neighbor as yourself, right?
So Jesus, I want you to see what he's doing. He's so brilliant, like, there's nobody like Jesus. He sums it up, love your neighbor as yourself. And then what he does is he intentionally omits the commandments that involve how the man relates to God.
And did you catch what happens next?
Look at it again. Verse 20.
The man goes, I've kept all these, all those I relate to other people, he says flawlessly, but probably not right, but in an admirable way. Okay, I've kept all these. The young man told him, what do I still lack?
If you want to be perfect, if you want to be complete, young man, 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 it, he went away grieving because he had many possessions. Do you see what Jesus is doing here?
He addresses the rest of those commandments that he omitted in a remarkably personalized way to this guy.
Commandments number one that he omits, do not have any other gods. Before Yahweh. Yahweh is the God of the Bible. So he goes, do not have any other gods before Yahweh. Commandment 2, he omits this one, do not make and serve idols. Idols are just false gods, other things that you ascribe ultimate worth to.
And then he OMITS Commandment number 10, which is, don't covet this guy, this rich young ruler.
He's selectively keeping the commandments.
In other words, he's kind of picking and choosing. And Jesus knows it.
He knows it. So what does Jesus do?
He tests this man through an invitation.
Listen, when you engage with God, he will inevitably start throwing out invitations to you.
When you engage, God invites. That's my next point.
When you engage, God invites. Now listen, when I say when you engage with God, I'm not talking about, like.
I'm not talking about cultural Christianity.
I'm not talking about the, like, going through the motions and, like, as good as those things can be. I'm not talking about just praying before your meals. That's awesome. I love to pray and thank God for the food that he's provided for me.
All that's fine. I'm not just talking about you showing up to stuff. That's great. You should show up to stuff. It's an important part of your discipleship to Jesus. If you're gonna grow, you gotta be watered, right? Not just by him, but by your fellow brothers and sisters. Listen, when I say engaging with God, I'm not talking about going through the motions. I'm not talking about cultural Christianity. I'm not talking about checking things off the box. I'm talking about engaging with him relationally. Are you with me? Those are very different things.
Okay? There can be. You could be present in this room right now and yet not engaging with God. The purpose of this is that we would engage with God corporately, communally.
Every time the church gathers, whether it's on a Sunday or midweek with your Lord's supper or at a party or whatever it is. That's the point. We are people who are engaged, dare I say abiding in Jesus. You with me?
Okay, so listen, when you engage with God relationally like you're supposed to, like we were made to, he will inevitably start throwing out invitations, like, all the time. Big things, small things. Hey, you know that money?
I want you to give it away.
And you're like, nah, I didn't hear that. That was weird. That was. That couldn't have been the Lord.
You know, hey, you know that person that you're avoiding because they annoy you.
I want you to forgive them.
Hey, you know that thing that you're kind of ashamed of?
I want you to confess it.
Like, I actually want you to bring it into the light.
You know, the phone that you just keep grabbing all the time.
I want you to grab your Bible instead.
I want you to feast on my word.
I know you're bored. I know you want entertainment while you're taking a dump.
Sorry, that was too far. That was too far.
Immediately when it came out, I was like, don't say dump. And you said dump, Tom, when you're relieving yourself. Okay, I sincerely apologize, But in all seriousness, that thing that you need entertainment or you need the dopamine fix?
Instead of grabbing that. Grab your Bible.
I want you to grab your Bible, man. I'm telling you, when you engage, God invites big things, small things. Listen, guys, this church exists because of an invitation.
It wasn't our idea.
I know many of you know the story, but, like, God's doing remarkable things in this beautiful church.
It's awesome.
I have a very unique kind of front row seat into a lot of it, and I'm blown away.
And a lot of it's difficult, but the vast majority of it's so beautiful.
This church exists because of an invitation.
Hey, I want you to go back to that valley and I want you to plant a church.
And here's what's crazy, is, like, oftentimes God's invitations, they will require you letting go of some things.
In our story, in our case was just this. God's invited us to do several gnarly things in our life that at first we're like, oh, God, really?
But every time, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every time, there's a letting go of good things, of things that you value, right?
Listen to me, guys.
When you engage with him, God invites. He starts to give out invitations. And listen to me, those invitations are tests.
So often they're tests. And what those tests do is they put us at a fork in the road like someone lost their phone.
I do that all the time with my watch. I know that, right? But what those invitations are, they're tests. They put us at a fork in the road, the choices we make, right? They put us at a fork in the road. And that's exactly what we see here with this young guy, this rich young ruler, okay? And what I love is that Jesus fully knew this guy.
Like, he knew him at a deeper level. Everybody else saw the outside all the he's got put together, he's got it going on.
And Jesus saw all that and he values that. But he values something else more. What's that?
He values what's going on in that guy's heart.
The operating center, the control center of his life.
Jesus, he fully knows this man. He knew the issue keeping this man from eternal life wasn't so much commandments 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, it was commandments 1, 2, and 10.
He knew the issue keeping this man from eternal life wasn't so much how he related to other people, it was how he related to God.
And I love Jesus. What's he do? He custom tailors an invitation for this guy.
Custom tailors a test just for him.
You know what tests do, like you go to in school, Some of you still have those, like, nightmares of like, get out your Scantron. And you're like, I wasn't ready. Like, but like tests when we're in school, whether it's math or history or whatever. What are those tests? Those tests reveal the true condition of what you know about math and what you know about history or what you know about. Fill in the blank.
Tests reveal the true condition. Right? That's what they do. Jesus, he already knew this guy's condition.
Who didn't know?
The young man.
He wasn't fully aware. What do I still lack?
I'm doing all the things.
Jesus invites him, which is a test. And it revealed his true condition.
Jesus fully knew this man's condition and he custom tailored a test for him. Young man, what do you love and trust most?
Your wealth or me?
That's commandment number one.
Young man, what will you worship and serve?
Money or me?
That's commandment number two.
Young man, what will you cling to above all else?
Your possessions or me?
That's commandment number 10. That's the coveting piece, clinging to it.
And then the young guy makes a choice.
Verse 22 says that he went away grieving because he had many possessions.
The guy walked away from Jesus.
Chicken or pork, Mountains or beach, Jesus or.
Heavy, dude, it's heavy.
Remember, the choices we make reveal what we place a higher value on.
So Jesus knew. He knew. He knew this man's money and his possessions were keeping him from the kingdom of God and from eternal life. My question for you this morning is, what is it for you?
What is it for you?
What are the things that, if you're not careful, will keep you from the kingdom of God?
They might be great things, they might be good things.
But even good Great things ought not be supreme things.
Do you have idols that you serve?
Do you have idols that you worship?
Are there things that you love more than God?
Are the things that you trust in more than God?
I can't be the only person in this room who struggles in this way. I can't be the only person in this room who identifies with this rich young ruler.
I'm not rich and I'm not young, but I identify with them. I have some level of responsibility and influence. I see that.
What is it for you, man, if you don't know you are in a more dangerous place than someone who does know that has a trouble with it.
What is it for you? Maybe for you it's not money. Maybe it's something else.
My next point. Jesus fully knew this man, and he fully knows you.
He knows your true condition even if you don't.
Frank Feelman, I have a quote for you. I think you guys have it back there. Frank Feelman said this quote.
God does not call all people everywhere to give everything they have to the poor, but he does call all to put nothing above loyalty to him.
And in the example of this young man, God reminds us all to examine whether we have depended on anything more than Jesus for our satisfaction and hope. End quote.
Can I sum that up for you? God really cares about the condition of your heart.
One Bible commentator says this quote. Jesus knows the man's wealth has become his means to personal identity, power, and a sense of meaning in life. What gives you a sense of meaning in life?
That it has become the idolatrous God of his life.
I love this. Jesus strategy is to turn this man from focusing on the external conformity to the law to examining his heart, revealing his ruling God.
Do you know what your ruling God is this morning?
If you're anything like me, it shifts and changes from one day to the next, from one time of day to another time of day. Do you know what your ruling God is right now? If it's Jesus, praise God. Awesome. Ride the wave, baby. Keep it going. If it's not, do you know what your ruling God is? Cause here's the deal.
You are saying, help me, Holy Spirit. Do you ever, like, see in, like, a story or a movie where someone's response to someone else is something to the tune of like, yes, master.
I want to say I saw. Forgive me, because I can't remember the specifics. I want to say it was like a Frankenstein type deal where, like, the Igor guy was kind of like, yes, master, yes, master, yes, like whatever the master Told him to do. The answer was, yes, master. Yes, master. Yes, master. You are saying yes, master to something in your life, like, all day, every day. You never stop worshiping.
You never stop saying yes, master to something. The question is, what are you saying yes, master to?
The God you worship is ruling over your life at all times.
We tend to take the bait and believe the lie that, like, we can actually be king. We can actually be the higher authority. You are saying yes, master to something at all times in your life.
That is bondage.
It's bondage. It's a form of slavery.
Some of you, you're in bondage to money and possessions and wealth.
Yes, master.
How do I know? Could you be anxiety, worry, fear, if I don't have this?
Yes, master. Yes, master.
Some of you, you're in bondage to the opinions of others, like what they think and the amount of time and energy you put into kind of like making yourself look presentable and looking important and looking lovable and looking like all of these things.
Yes, master.
And for some of you, you're like, nah, maybe not all people, but a select few, dude. The amount of just confession, the amount of time and energy I've spent idolizing this woman and her approval.
Yes, master.
What do I have to do? Yes, master.
For some of you, you're in bondage, not necessarily to money or possessions, not necessarily to approval or the opinion of others. You're in bondage to control.
If things don't go your way, freak out. How about this one? This is what I know. It's showing up in my life when the pace I'm moving at doesn't agree with the pace I want to move at.
It's a control. I'm in bondage.
Yes, master. Yes, master. As long as I have control. Yes, master.
Some of you, it's not that. Some of you, it's just comfort. You just want to be comfortable. You don't. You try to avoid difficulty, suffering.
No, no, no. As long as I don't have that. Yes, master. Yes, master. Yes, master. Like, guys, do you know what we need?
We need salvation like we need freedom. That's what salvation is.
The concept of biblical salvation is Jesus can set you free.
From what?
From idolatry.
He can set you free from the master you're currently serving that's leading you somewhere, leading you to death, not eternal life. There's only one master who will lead you to eternal life. What's his name?
Yes, absolutely. Every other master is not gonna lead. It's gonna lead you to the opposite.
That's what Christianity is. Christians are people who have a new master. His name is Jesus.
They've literally forsaken other masters and yielded to the lordship of Jesus. You know another word for master starts with an L. I just used it. Lord Jesus, he fully knew this man. And he fully knows you. And he fully knows me. And when we engage with Jesus, he will send out invitations your way, baby. These tests and what they do is they reveal our true condition.
Jesus. Invitation to this man. It wasn't just a test, though, friends.
His invitation, it wasn't just to test him. Oh, it was something far greater. His invitation to this man. It wasn't just to test. It was the very keys to this man's freedom.
You catch it? Look back at verse 21.
If you want to be perfect, if you want to be complete, you're incomplete right now. You're an incomplete version of yourself.
If you want to be complete, which another sermon altogether. Did you know that's God's agenda for your life?
No other master wants you to be complete, full, whole, dare I say even perfect.
That's his agenda in your life, man.
It's beautiful.
If you want to be perfect, if you want to be complete, you want to be whole.
Jesus said to him, go sell your belongings and give them to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow money.
No. Then come follow me. Right.
Then come follow control. No. Come follow me.
In other words, ditch the idol and make me your master.
Ditch the idol and make me your master. Friends, don't you see? Invitations from Jesus, they're not just a test. They're the literal keys to your freedom.
When Jesus gives you an invitation, he's literally tossing you the keys. Hey, take off the shackles.
Make me your master instead.
All those masters that you're serving, all those masters you're saying yes to, they're leading you to death. They're leading you to destruction.
They're harming you. How do I know? Look at the condition of your life. Look in the condition of your soul.
You with me? There's only one master tosses you the keys and goes. You want freedom?
Make me your new master.
That's what Christian salvation is.
You with me? I hear a couple. Yeah. I wish there was a thousand. Yeah. Rally cry. Braveheart.
Jesus. Invitation to the rich, young ruler is the same. Invitation to you and to me.
Ditch the idol and make me your master.
Make me your lord.
Don't you want that?
I think part of us does.
The other part of us wants to call the shots.
Because we have desires.
We have these wants.
I like mountains over beaches.
I like pork over chicken. Whatever it is, I like pie over cake.
Please hear me. Your desires aren't the problem.
You were made to desire things. It's that with which we attach value to that's the problem.
Because the only one that can actually meet those deeper desires of your heart is the one who made you. The one who fully knows you.
The only master who will lead you to life the way it's meant to be lived, both now and forever. You with me?
All right, I'm going to call the band up and I'll close.
We're doing fantastic. On time, everybody.
So christmas, I think this passage is perfect for Christmas.
It's like, if I could pick a passage for Christmas, like, oh, this is. Thank you, Jesus. This just happened to fall on our last kind of my last Sunday preach before Christmas, you know, next Sunday we'll have the Christmas party and stuff. This passage is perfect for Christmas because Jesus invitation to the rich young ruler is essentially the Christmas story. I don't know if you see it, right?
His invitation to the rich young ruler, the one that's custom tailored to him.
I want to break it down for you really quickly. Look at this. Jesus invitation to the rich young ruler is go, let go of your riches, give them to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven.
Is that not exactly what Jesus Christ did?
Like, is it not just like literally the same thing. So he's not over there like writing a prescription. He's not writing a check that he wasn't willing to cash with his behavior, with what he gave himself to. It's exactly what Jesus did. He came.
He came. He didn't have to.
He came, he let go of, listen to me, the riches of heaven, all of the heavenly beings circled around him, worshiping him non stop, night and day things the way they're supposed to be, right? I don't have time to get into it. But the triune God, right? A community of three persons, one God, all of them ever existing, to glorify, to make much of the other. Could you imagine you and two other people and you are existent. You are exclusively devoted to the other two and they're exclusively devoted to you. There's no need. There's just this perfect love and harmony. So he has that within himself, the triune God. He has all of the created beings worshiping him non stop. It's the environment of heaven is the epitome of love, fully satisfied, glory, honor, like, wow.
And he leaves.
He lets Go of the riches of heaven.
And then he gives his perfect life, his perfect righteousness to the spiritually poor.
Me.
You.
He gave. He gave you the riches of heaven himself.
He didn't covet. He didn't cling to it.
He gave it.
And he gets treasures in heaven.
You know who the treasures in heaven are?
The people that love him back.
The people that love him back. The people who embrace the gift of grace.
Because they go, I could never earn this.
It's too good. I can't earn it.
And he goes, I know.
That's why I'm gifting it to you.
What are the odds that this is our passage?
It's Christmas.
There's no master like Jesus, man.
There's no master like Jesus.
There's nobody like him.
He's brilliant.
He fully knows us, guys.
He knows you at your worst and he still sets his affection on you. Is that not mind blowing?
It's the greatest news in the whole world and people don't know it.
They've heard it, but they don't know it in their heart.
I want to know it in my heart every moment of my life. I want us to know it in our heart every moment of our life.
His invitation to the rich young ruler is the same invitation to you, friend.
My appeal to you is let's just all say yes.
Let's do whatever we gotta do to say yes, master.
Yes, master.
All right. Will you stand with me? I want to pray for us.
Holy Spirit, I just ask right now that your voice would be really loud and clear.
All the other competing voices, all the other noise, all the other interference, I just like, renounce it, reject it now in the name of Jesus. This is a space where only the spirit, Spirit of God can speak. We pray and we ask you to speak to us.
We want to engage with you. I pray for every heart and mind that's engaged with you right now.
Heavenly Father, I pray you just start sending out invitations, Sending out invitations if you have the faith for it. Friend, I want to encourage you right now to ask God, what does he want you to say yes to?
Just you and him for just a moment.
What is he inviting you to say yes to?
Father, I thank you. That your invitations, they're not just a test.
They're the keys to our freedom.
I pray right now in the name of Jesus. I pray freedom all over the room.
You came to set the captives free.
No more captivity. I pray in the name of Jesus.
No more idolatry. In the name of Jesus. I pray for every single one of us.
Freedom.
You purchased it with your blood. Jesus.
Father, I pray that our church would be more men and women and young people whose chief agenda in life is to say, yes, Master, to whatever you desire. Jesus, we belong to you.
We honor you, we thank you, we celebrate you. This season is all because of you.
We let go of consumerism and stress and obligation and busyness, and we embrace our Savior, our master, our Lord, once again, we love you.
There's nobody like you, Jesus.
It's in your name that we pray.
Amen.
All right, I'd love to have the prayer team come join me in the front.
What we're going to do for the Next, I don't know, 15, maybe even 20 minutes is we're going to respond. I'm going to give you a chance and an opportunity to respond to the love of God.
Chance and an opportunity to thank him with praise, to bless him with praise, to minister to him because he's worthy.
There's trusted men and women up here that would love to pray for you if, you know there's areas in your life where you've been kind of maybe saying, yes, Master, to something else that's not worthy of your worship.
I'd love you to come forward.
Let these trusted men and women pray for you. I think God wants to bless you, wants to set you free.
You're not going to do it on your own strength.
I don't have time to unpack what happens right after this. But Jesus uses a phrase, with man, it's impossible.
With God, all things are possible.
You need help. So do I. Come forward for prayer. Receive from him. I think he wants to bless you. I think he wants to guide you. I think he wants to free you.
And I also want to. There's something that is on my heart and mind, too, is if as I'm. As I've been preaching this morning, I think there's maybe one of you, maybe two of you. If you're feeling like a really unique burden for somebody you love.
I think it always happens when we open the Word of God where there's somebody on your heart and you're like, oh, man, I wish they could hear this, or I wish that God would reveal this to them. But I feel like this morning there's something fresh with that for some of you. If there's somebody really heavy on your heart, come forward, pray for them. Pray for their salvation.
Pray that God would free them. And maybe, just maybe, as they come forward for prayer, guys, maybe, just maybe, God wants to use you as the instrument to reveal what he's like.
Invitations, baby.
Invitations. I love you very much. Enjoy. Jesus. And we'll be up to close in just a bit.
