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Happy or Sad-your choice
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Posted by: angelofthelord
(Matthew 19:16-22)
(16)Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I
do to get eternal life?" (17)"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus
replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey
the commandments." (18)"Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, " 'Do
not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false
testimony, (19)honor your father and mother,'and 'love your neighbor as
yourself.'" (20)"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I
still lack?" (21)Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your
possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me." (22)When the young man heard this, he went away sad,
because he had great wealth. (Matthew 19:16-22 NIV)
When we encounter Christ, what do we do? Today's passage of Scripture is
that powerful story of the rich young ruler. What makes this
encounter between the rich young ruler and Jesus so moving is that it does
not have a happy ending. When forced to choose between Jesus and the world,
sadly, this rich young ruler chose the world. Today, many of you are being
confronted by Jesus, and just like this rich young ruler, you have to
choose. Jesus, or this world.
The encounter between this rich young ruler and Jesus is the same encounter
people have with Christ everyday. No doubt this was a man who was very
successful by the world's standards. He had all you could ever want in this
life. However, deep down, he knew something was missing in his life. He
had obviously heard about this teacher named Jesus and approached Him one
day, asking the Lord what good deeds he must do to receive everlasting life.
This makes sense since successful people are usually very goal oriented.
They are used to performing. So it only makes sense that even in spiritual
matters, they are looking for the bottom line, what do they have to do to
succeed.
This is why a cult like Scientology flourishes and appeals to successful
people, especially people in the entertainment industry. It is a cult
strictly based on works and money. Successful people are used to buying
their way into the best clubs, the best restaurants, buying the best cars,
the best homes, the best of whatever this world has to offer. They
understand the mentality of work hard, achieve a goal, and purchase whatever
you want. So when it comes to the spiritual side of their life, they are
ripe candidates for a lie from the pits of hell like Scientology that tells
a person that with enough good works and enough money, they are assured of
being part of the spiritual elite, just like they are part of the elite in
this life.
Jesus shared with this rich young ruler some of the commandments and the
young ruler affirmed he had followed those commandments. Then Jesus shared
with this young man the price of following Christ. He told this young ruler
to go sell all that he had, give it to the poor and then come follow Him.
Now I have heard many people over the years incorrectly use this passage of
Scripture as an indictment against having wealth. That is NOT what Jesus
was saying. Christ in His omniscience knew that as long as this rich young
ruler had all of his possessions, he would never put Jesus first in his
life.
You see my friend, when you have been blessed with lots of material
possessions, lots of money, the trap so many fall into is thinking they are
sufficient unto themselves, that they don't need anyone else, even God.
When you have the ability to do whatever you want, go wherever you want to
go, buy whatever you want to buy, you get the false sense that you are in
control. While having money and possessions does give you a certain amount
of control over your life, there is still so much that you are NOT in
control of and never will be. Your faith and trust is in yourself and in
your money, not in God. In most cases, it is not even the money as much as
it is the power, the ego, the pride that comes with having wealth and
possessions. Those things are actually more difficult to let go of than the
money.
The sad ending of this encounter comes in the 22nd verse when the Bible
says, "he went away sad." The bottom line, He rejected Christ and chose the
world. When it came time to make his choice, he chose his money and
possessions over Jesus. This story is personal to me because there were
many times, not just once, during the decade of my life that I was running
from God and enjoying all of the success this world could offer, when I had
this same encounter with the Lord. In my case, He was not even saying sell
all I had. He was simply saying, leave the business world and come and
follow me.
Time after time, Christ gave me the opportunity to turn from the things of
the world and surrender my life to Him. Time after time, I chose the world
over following the Lord.
I was blessed that God loved me enough to allow things to happen in my life
that caused me to finally surrender to Him. Sadly, it took losing
everything, including my freedom for that to happen. How much easier my
life would have been if I had only listened to the Lord earlier.
I know many of you reading this
today are like the rich young ruler. You know deep down inside that
something is missing from your life. You have heard about Jesus. In many
cases, you have done your best to follow God's commandments but I am here
today to tell you that isn't enough. You see my friend, you will never be
good enough to earn everlasting life, that is God's gift to you. You can't
earn it, you can't buy it, it is only available by faith in His Son Jesus
Christ. When you ask Christ into your heart and life by faith, you are
surrendering your life to Him. The Bible proclaims that it is no longer
your life, but His. He gave His life in payment for your sins, and you in
turn give your life to Him.
Like the rich young ruler you can choose to
reject Christ and hold onto your life. But think about it, what are you
holding onto? The reality is, your life will be over one day, sooner than
you think. At that point you will pass from this short journey into
eternity and those who don't know Christ as their Savior will spend that
eternity forever separated from God your Creator. What you do when you
reject Christ is forfeit the treasure of eternal life with Christ for a few
days of whatever s****s this world can offer. Clearly not a wise choice.
Today, you are having an encounter with Jesus just like that rich young
ruler did we read about in Matthew 19. You have a choice to make today,
since the Bible proclaims "today is the day of salvation." Will you choose
Jesus, or go away sad.