[music]
Dr. Charles Stanley: Money can do some things; it can do
many good things in the right hands.
But it can't satisfy the longing of your soul.
It can't satisfy the longing of your heart.
It can't satisfy that which God has placed in you that only He
can fill; and that is a personal relationship with God through
His Son, Jesus.
male announcer: Next on "In Touch," "Is Something Missing In
Your Life?" Dr. Stanley: When you think
about your life, what would you change if you--if you had the
privilege of changing anything, what would you change?
Would you change your income?
Your health?
Your job, your profession?
Would you change where you live, what you drive?
Would you change who you're married to?
That would be dangerous.
Would you change where you live?
Would you change some areas of your life that are personal and
private?
What would you change in your life, if you could just change
something, or if you feel the need to change something because
something's missing?
Maybe you don't know what it is, but deep down inside something's
missing.
Because you have a good job, maybe.
You have a good income.
You like where you live.
You've got good health; happily married maybe.
And so on and on you go but there's something hanging out
there that you can't put your finger on.
Something's missing.
You've tried this and this and this.
You've been here and yonder.
And people make changes in life that's not the real change they
need; but there's something missing in their life and they
want to find out what it is.
Well, that's what our passage of scripture's all about, somebody
who had it all, and yet something was missing.
So I want to encourage you to listen carefully and to turn in
your Bible to Mark, chapter ten.
And I want us to read these verses.
And I want to give you a little something right up front.
Sometimes people read this passage of scripture and they
say, Well that doesn't apply to me because I'm not a rich
person.
Well, you don't know whether that applies to you or not till
you listen.
And so I want to encourage you to listen carefully because
there are messages from this passage of scripture maybe
you've never seen.
And I can tell you one thing: there is a message here for
everybody, everybody.
And it just may be that you're one of those persons who wants a
change in your life and you can't figure out what it is.
It just might be that you figure out what it is in this
particular passage.
So, let's begin and let me say right up front, in the--in your
Bible in this passage there's probably in dark, a little bit
larger print a title called the Rich Young Ruler.
But if you read that passage, you say, Well, where is that in
here?
And in Matthew, he's called a young man.
In Mark, this fellow's called a man.
And in Luke, he's called a certain ruler.
So we have a certain, or a rich young ruler.
That's however they get that title.
So let's begin in this tenth-- seventeenth verse of the tenth
chapter, "As He was setting out on a journey," Jesus that is, "a
man ran up to Him and knelt down before Him, and asked Him, 'Good
Teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'
And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call Me good?
No one is good except God alone.
You know the commandments, "Do not murder, do not commit
adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not
defraud, honor your father and mother.'"
And he said to Him, 'Teacher, I have kept all these things from
my youth up.' Looking at him, Jesus felt a
love for him and He said to him, 'One thing you lack: go and sell
all you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure
in heaven; and come, follow Me.' But at these words he was
saddened, and he went away grieved, for he was one who
owned much property.
And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, 'How hard it
is, and how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to inherit
the kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at
these words and-- But Jesus answered again and
said to them, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom
of God!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'
They were even more astonished and said to Him, 'Then who can
be saved?' Looking at them, Jesus said,
'With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things
are possible with God.'" Now, you look at that passage
and you say, Well, you know, I'm not rich.
I don't know what in the world that has to do with me.
Well let me just say right up front you can have everything
the world has to offer.
You can have it all and yet something missing in your life.
And this is where many people are.
They have it all; and yet there's something out there that
sort of gnaws at them.
It just sort of hangs in there.
It won't go away, some need that they have.
And so when you think about this young man, the scripture says he
was rich, he was young, and let's say he was healthy and he
was a ruler.
So think about this.
Isn't this what most people, this generation, younger folks
coming along, what do they want?
They want riches.
They want some authority, some power, some position.
And they want to be able to get along in life and they want it
usually pretty fast and they want it to come their way while
they're young.
And there's nothing wrong with having desires for your life.
But what do those desires do in your life when they become
fruition?
And so the scripture says he was a rich young ruler and he had
all that you'd think he would possibly need, all he thought he
needed, rich, young and authority; position in life.
And so it sounds like he lived in the twenty-first century.
So if I were to ask you, Would you like to be rich, young and
have position?
If you were honest, most of you would raise your hand.
Well is there anything wrong with being rich, young and
having position?
No, there's not.
You see, the truth is we are not thinking properly about life,
and we're short-sighted, if we think gold, money and so forth's
going to satisfy us, position and good health and
opportunities are going to satisfy us, there's still going
to be something missing.
It was true in this young man's life in the scripture and it's
true in life.
The second lesson I want us to notice is this.
That our love and desire for material things can cause us to
miss the most important thing in life.
People don't realize that money is dangerous.
Somebody says, Well what could be dangerous about money?
It's what it does.
It's the attitude people have, that if I have enough money, I
can go where I want to go, do what I want to do, marry who I
want to marry, wear what I want to wear, drive what I want to
drive, live where I want to live, eat where I want to eat
and on and on and on it goes.
That may be some of the things that money can do, but that
doesn't satisfy you.
But think about this.
You can have all the money in the world you want; if you don't
have good health, you can't buy it.
If you're not, listen.
If you don't have anybody to love, you can't buy it.
If you don't have anyone who loves you, you can't buy it.
In other words, you don't--you can't buy peace, joy, happiness,
contentment; and you certainly cannot buy eternal life.
Money can do some things; it can do many good things in the right
hands.
But it can't satisfy the longing of your soul.
It can't satisfy the longing of your heart.
It can't satisfy that which God has placed in you that only He
can fill; and that is a personal relationship with God through
His Son, Jesus.
You may be one of those very, very wealthy persons.
You have it all.
You have the prestige and the prominence and the popularity
and the position, the power.
You have the money, you can buy anything you want, go anywhere
you want to go.
But deep down inside there's something missing.
And that something that's missing is a personal
relationship with the Son of God.
And this young man had all of it.
You could say, Well what is it that you need?
He didn't need anything.
He had everything.
But if you'll notice, he'd become so desperate when he
heard about Jesus, the Bible says this young man ran to him
and fell on his knees.
Somebody told him, Here's the man who can satisfy the longing
of your heart.
Here's the man who can give you eternal life.
And he ran to Jesus.
And in those days, running in public was sort of a--if you had
any dignity at all, you didn't run in public.
He's running to Jesus, falling down before Him and what's
happening?
He simply says to Him, he asked Him, "Good Teacher what shall I
do to inherit eternal life?" So, that in spite of all he had
and all he was and all his relationships he finally
discovered that what he didn't have was the one thing his money
couldn't buy.
His popularity couldn't provide for him.
And none of his efforts seemed to make any difference.
He desired eternal life.
So he comes running to Jesus and says to Him, you know, "What can
I do to inherit eternal life?" And I would say to you, The gift
of eternal life is not the result of our good works.
In other words, you don't get there by good conduct.
And if you'll notice how Jesus approached this.
So, He didn't condemn him, when He said to him, He said, "What
shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
And look what Jesus does.
He begins with the commandments.
He skips the first four about loving God and so forth; and the
Sabbath, He, he skips those.
And then He skips the last one.
And then He says to him, He says, "You know the
commandments."
He starts out with, "Do not murder."
See, He's just talked about how he lived.
He says, "'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal,
do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father
and mother.' And he said to Him, 'Well
Teacher, I have done all these things all of my life,'" huh!
Well, then if that's it, why don't I have any peace and joy
and, why am I running to You and kneeling down before You and
asking, "What can I do to inherit eternal life?"
Because I've done all these things.
Well, notice Jesus didn't say, Thou shall not covet at the end.
He skipped the first four and the last one, because Jesus knew
what his problem was.
He was very wealthy.
In fact, in Luke He says he was extremely wealthy.
And so he says, "I have kept all these things from my youth up."
Then what he was expecting Jesus to say, well, if you've done all
those things, you can have the gift of eternal life.
But Jesus didn't tell him that.
And so the scripture says that "Jesus looked at him and, felt a
love for him and and said to him, 'One thing you lack,'"
there's something missing in your life.
"Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you'll
have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
Now, his whole idea was that if he did enough good things, he
would be saved.
Listen to me.
The majority of the world had the same--has the same idea.
If I'm a good person and I don't steal, I don't lie, I don't
cheat, I'm a good husband, I'm a good wife, or I give a little
bit to the church, I do all these things, then surely I'm
going to be saved.
When the Bible says so clearly, not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy He saved us.
If a person could be saved by doing good, Jesus wouldn't have
had to die on the Cross.
And so, he is coming to Jesus on the basis that here's what I've
done, so therefore I ought to have the gift of eternal life.
And the Bible says that Jesus looked at him and loved him.
Watch this, He didn't condemn him; He loved him because He
knew he was totally deceived.
He thought that all this he'd accumulated and all the good
reputation he had would get him into heaven.
And when Jesus gave him the Commandments and was bringing
him to the point to realize there was sin in his life, he
just--watch what happens, the Scripture says, "Jesus felt a
love for him and said to him, 'One thing you lacked: go and
sell all your possessions, give to the poor and you'll have
treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.'"
Now let's clarify one thing.
That's not the way you get saved.
In other words, he's not saying if you give all this, you'll get
saved.
What he was dealing with here is this fact the sin in his life,
this covetousness that he was depending on all of this to save
him.
And he's simply saying here's what you do.
Now does that mean to, in order to be saved, or that Jesus meant
in order to be saved, sell everything you got, give to the
poor?
No, because, watch this, this was an incident.
This was one occasion in which what he needed to deal with his
covetousness and his sin, and his understanding was that the
thing that stood between him and salvation was his greed, his
covetous spirit, his dependence on material things rather than
upon God.
So in this given occasion for him, salvation meant look you're
not going to get there by earning it.
You've got to get there by surrendering everything to Me
and trusting Me as your Savior.
And so what did he do?
He absolutely turned down eternal life.
Listen, he tried to hold onto something he couldn't keep, when
he could have had something he couldn't lose.
And so people don't realize if they spend their time trying to
accumulate this that and the other to get peace and happiness
and satisfaction, they'll end up missing the very thing that they
spent their life trying to receive.
Because you just see, to some people it's a prideful issue,
you mean to tell me, and I've had people tell me, You mean to
tell me that all I have to do is accept Jesus Christ as my
personal Savior?
What else am I supposed to do?
I said nothing.
No-no-no.
They can't accept it.
You know why they can't accept it?
It's pride and here's the pride, listen, I must do something in
order to be saved.
You see that's absolute pride.
They want to do something that they think to take credit for in
order to be saved.
No, when I was twelve years of age, I didn't have anything to
take credit for.
And no matter who you are whenever you were saved, you and
I came as sinners and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to save us by
His grace and love and mercy, not on the basis of anything
we'd done, going to do, had, going to give, have given,
nothing.
And that's the wonderful thing about salvation.
It is a gift of God, it is not something that you and I own.
So, Jesus loves us even when we make the wrong choices.
The Bible says that Jesus looked at him and loved him for he
said, "Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to
him, 'One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess, give it to
the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven; come, follow
Me.' These words he was saddened, and
he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much
property."
And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, 'How hard it
is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!'"
He says it's hard.
Why?
Because what they own becomes their security and the truth is
they don't think beyond this life.
Death, when death comes, listen, it doesn't make any difference
how old you are or how long you've lived, how much you own.
Life is very insecure.
Everything around us is changing but one thing, our personal
relationship with Jesus Christ has settled once and for all
when we die, we will be with Him.
And then if you'll notice in this passage, Jesus acknowledges
that it's very difficult for wealthy people to get to heaven.
He makes it, listen, he makes it very clear.
Listen to what He says.
He said, in verse twenty-four, "Well, Jesus, looking around,"
Him in verse twenty-three, "looking around Him, He said to
His disciples, 'How hard it is for those who are wealthy to
enter the kingdom of God!'" You know what?
Listen.
That's a warning.
How difficult it is for very wealthy people to get to heaven,
"The disciples were amazed at His words.
But Jesus answered again and said to them, 'Children, how
hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man enter the kingdom of God.'
They were even more astonished and said, 'Then who can be
saved?'" Listen to what Jesus said,
"Looking at them, Jesus said, 'With people it is impossible,
but not with God; for all things are possible with God.'"
And so you think about this.
If you're one of those persons who's very, very, very wealthy,
it doesn't mean that you've sinned to get that way.
And you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, He's blessed
you.
But remember this.
You are very, very, very blessed.
You are saved because God saved you.
God worked in your life in such a fashion to open your eyes and
your heart, and to get you to confess your sins and receive
Him as your personal Savior.
He says, Only God can get a rich man into heaven.
That's how hard it is.
But what does wealth do?
It gives people a sense of false security.
I have this much and that much and that much and that much.
And I give this much and I give that much and I give the other,
but listen.
Whatever it may be, you're still betting on the fact that what
you're giving to God and what you're giving to the church, and
what you're giving, giving, giving is going to atone for
your sin.
The only thing that'll atone for your sin is the blood of Jesus.
When He went to the cross, He went to the cross because that
was the only way that a person can be saved.
Jesus shed His blood for the sin of all mankind, which makes it
possible for anybody and everybody, rich and poor,
whoever it might be, to go to heaven.
It just so happens that those who are the blessed, so to
speak, with the most, or whom God allows to accumulate the
most, have the most difficult time getting to heaven.
He says it's like putting a camel through the eye of a
needle.
So all of you who have just been saying, I gotta have, gotta
have, gotta have, gotta have, you ought to lay that down.
You don't gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta have anything.
What you've got to have is Jesus, and everything else is
superfluous to that.
So, I would ask you once last question.
Is there anything missing in your life?
Well, the one ultimate question is, can you look back in your
life and point to a time when you said I know that this time
in my life I made a commitment, I trusted Jesus, I believed in
Him, that is, I accepted Him as my personal Savior?
I know that I've trusted Him as my Savior, now some people, now
I remember Dr. Graham's wife said, I couldn't tell you the
time, but I know at some point I gave my life to Christ.
You may not be able to know the time, but you know for sure that
at some point in your life you made the most important decision
in your life; the decision that determined your eternal destiny,
the decision that nobody can change, the decision that nobody
can steal from you under any condition.
You're saved by the grace of God.
Amen?
And Father, we thank You that You made it simple and plain,
placing our trust in You.
Thank You that You warn us in Your Word not to be betrayed or
deceived or accept the lies of the world that we can be good
enough within ourselves.
For all of us are sinners, all of us have sinned against You,
all of us come to the same Cross and all of us are washed in the
same blood of Jesus.
We love You and we praise You dear Father and we ask You this
morning if there's anybody here who is not certain of their
salvation, that'll settle that right now.
And that they can settle it by simply asking You to forgive
them of their sins and making this commitment to You, I commit
my life to You, Lord Jesus, as my Savior and my Lord.
And make that full surrender to You.
And I pray Father for those who maybe are uncertain that
whatever's necessary that they will take time alone on their
face before You on their knees and settle that issue.
To know that from that moment on, their security is not based
on who they are and what they have, but on who You are and
what You've promised.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
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