Matthew 2024

Matthew chapter 19 and starting at verse 16.

Just then, a man came up to Jesus and asked, teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied. There is only 1 who is good, If you want to enter life, keep the commandments, which ones he inquired. Jesus replied, you shall not murder, and you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, You shall not give false testimony on your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself.

Oh, these I have kept, the young man said. What do I still lack? 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. When the young man heard this, He went away sad because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, truly I tell you it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again, I tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of god. When the disciples heard this, They were greatly astonished and asked, who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible. But with god, all things are possible. Peter answered him, we have left everything to follow you.

What then will there be for us? Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you at 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 father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last. And many who are last will be first.

Phil. Thanks, Rory. Good to see everybody here. My name's Philip Cooper. If you don't know me, I'm 1 of the elders of the church, and let me add my welcome to you.

Great to see you. And if you're online, as well, welcome to you. If you wanna keep that open in front of you, it will hopefully be helpful as we go through. How good would you say you are at talking to people about Jesus? You know, I'm not talking about people in the street, but, you know, talking to your friends or, your neighbors or your family, if you've got unbelieving family.

You know, is it something that comes naturally to you? You can just easily talk about it, or you know, you worry about how do I get Jesus into this conversation without offending someone, you know, or losing a friendship? What happens if they react badly? And that in the end puts you off saying anything? I mean, some of you will have heard this before from me, but when I became Christian, which is now nearly about 40 years ago I was working out earlier, I had a good friend, and I really was worried about it, and it took me several months to pluck up the courage to tell him I'd become a Christian.

And he was pretty outraged that mainly, that I'd taken that long. And he was saying, if it's that important to you, why didn't you just tell me? Which I thought was a, you know, fair question, and they stuck with me all that time. So, you know, perhaps we have to get better at at saying to our family and so on about, you know, what's going on in our lives. Perhaps you hear a notice, although tonight would have been a struggle, but perhaps you hear a notice and think, oh, that's something I could invite, a friend too.

But you never quite get round to it, or, you dither, or you leave it too late, and then it's a little embarrassing, isn't it? Cause it a bit last minute, and they'll spot that. Perhaps you go to an event even. You haven't invited anybody. You go to an event, and then you think of someone you should have invited, you know, and you're kicking yourself because you didn't do it.

Well, if that's you, and I think it is many of us, actually, imagine how excited you'd be If 1 of your friends just came up to you out of the blue and said, how do I become a Christian? Or, you know, how can I be saved? That would be phenomenal, wouldn't it? See, as a church, we work at putting events on you know, we pray and we plan and we develop ideas to try and get people out there in Kingston and the area to see that what they need in their lives is Jesus Christ. We put on guest events to get someone in so that eventually they reach a point where they say, okay.

How do I become a Christian? I'm not gonna take months, years, lots of prayer. But what we see in this passage is a young man who doesn't seem to need anything that we put on as a church. He walks straight up to Jesus, he sought him out, and he says verse 16, teacher what good thing must I do to have eternal life, to get eternal life. Now this is I have to say this is my sort of bloke.

Okay? There's no small talk here. There's no chit chat. There's no Jesus, how are you? I saw you.

I wondered if you had a bad day. For speaking now? Can I, should I come back? You know, none of that, it's straight in. In fact, when I was reading it early and thinking about it, I wondered if he was Dutch.

But, it's extraordinary, isn't it? And how would we answer somebody who asked us that question? So I think we would say something along the lines of, actually you don't have to do anything. Just accept Jesus as your savior. He died so that you might live.

Let him into your life, and that's it. We'd wanna pray with the guy or the girl, whoever it is that's come up and ask that question, right there, wouldn't we? 10 minutes, they're in the kingdom. That would be our reaction. We'd be overjoyed overjoyed that they want to go there, overjoyed that they've asked us.

And we'd say, yeah, you don't have to do anything. Jesus has done it. And yet Jesus seems to do the opposite. He puts a significant obstacle, a significant problem in the way of the person seeking salvation. So what is that about?

I mean, again, what happens you you've got a seminar coming up on parenting, I saw? But let's say we were doing a, I don't know, 3 weeks on evangelism. And we were talking about this, and Jesus was there. And he says, well, I think you've gotta put some obstacles in the way. Check if the kept the 10 commandments, asked them to do this, sell everything.

We'd be saying, no, mate. It's too aggressive. Rain it in. Wouldn't we? It's not what's required now, we'd say.

So why does he do it? The young ruler is looking for entry into the kingdom of heaven, but he goes away without it. So why does Jesus respond in the way he does? Let's look at that this evening. And our first point is this, The man asks a good question.

He comes up to Jesus, and he said, what must I do to get eternal life? Now, the phrasing eternal life, she used quite a few times in the Bible, as you know, but it's the same as asking, what must I do to be saved or how do I enter the kingdom of god? Or how can I enter the kingdom of heaven? It's all the same thing, and those are used throughout scripture. But actually interestingly in this passage, we see them all used in 1, you know, set of few verses.

Look at this. Verse 16, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? Verse 17, there is only 1 who is good. If you want to enter life, Verse 23, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Verse 24, again, I tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the Ivan needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of god.

Verse 25, the disciples say, well, who then can be saved? In verse 29, he says he's back at the end, and he says you will inherit eternal life. So in just these few verses, you've got all these different descriptions of the same thing. But the key is that the young man understands it. He knows what he wants, and he knows he doesn't have it.

So the question's genuine. He's aware that he's there's something in his life that he what that he's missing and he wants it. In the same you can find the same story in Mark's gospel chapter 10, and the description of the beginning says this, as Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. So this is a guy who's not just throwing a question out there because Jesus had stopped him. It's not, he wasn't passing by any chucks in a sort of intellectual question that he didn't care about the answer to.

He runs to Jesus. He kneels before him. He wants the answer. Quite a few commentators think that the rich young man was probably a a ruler of a synagogue. He was a teacher, the law.

The fact that certainly later on, if if if we read the passage earlier, he says he he keeps the commandments, doesn't he? I've kept all those, he says, what next? That would imply he was some sort of, religious Jewish leader. He was a young, wealthy, prominent leader, influential, highly respected, and so the idea that he's running anywhere was unlikely, but kneeling before Jesus was very unlikely, and it indicates he's genuine. He wants the answer.

It's amazing, actually, if he is a synagogue leader, it's amazing that he would admit later on that he doesn't have eternal life. Already. But it was a peer that this man has a restlessness in his heart. He has an anxiety. He has a lack of peace, really, about where he will go when he dies.

And so it's a very good question. But the second point is the man asks the question to the right person. See, we've all come across the opposite of that, haven't we? I, in our family, If you want to know directions to anywhere, let's assume your phone's down, because we all use our phones, but if you want to know directions to anywhere, or you want to know where you are at any 1 point in time, you don't ask, Amy or me. We are largely lost most of the time.

You ask Catherine and Matthew. They're much better at it. I couldn't remember even when Matthew was little. Whenever we I was driving him back from somewhere, you know, some sport or something, and we're in Berrylands, I'm lost. I'm still lost in Berrylands most of the time.

And he from the back, and he's 8 years old will say, yeah. You go left here, dad. Come here. Because he's sort of new. So you ask the right person if you want the right answer.

And I guess we've all got people in our lives people we work with who are looking for something in their life, but they're looking in the wrong place. You know, perhaps they they wanna connect, or I don't want I I'm not quite sure what it is, but I I come across people who They want to trace their family tree because they want some sort of connection for themselves. Perhaps it's that, perhaps it's a false religion. Perhaps it's belonging to a movement like, you know, extinction rebellion. Perhaps it's a spirituality you want and you try and get it through charms or crystals or something.

Doesn't matter. It's all the wrong place. 1 John chapter 5 verse 11 says this, god has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life, whoever does not have the son of god does not have life. So everything else is wrong.

It's the wrong place. The rich young man has come to the right source of eternal life, in fact, he's come to the only source. So let's just stop and think for a minute. Why? Why did this rich young man come to Jesus?

Well, the sort of obvious answer, I think the answer is that he was he's driven by a need. He's driven by, I think their language today is a felt need. You know, he may be seeking salvation because I don't know. He's got an anxiety in his life, or he's got a frustration, or he wants a a joy or a peace that he feels he's missing. See, it's worth noting, isn't it?

He doesn't say? How can I be more religious or how can I get more respect locally? Or how can I be more moral? I guess in his head, he probably thinks he's doing all those. He's got all those.

I've got the respect. I've got the money. What I don't have is assurance of what happens when I die. But nevertheless, in the way he asks, it does feel transactional. If you're at revive or actually at our prayer meeting on Wednesday, We showed a video here on the prayer meeting, which was a couple of testimonies, really, of a couple of guys.

1 of them was this guy Tommy from Beckentry, and you'll remember it if you hear it was terrific. But he was transactional, wasn't he as a non christian. He I remember him saying something like you know, I go to church once a year at Christmas, and bosh, that's god dumb. He thought he'd be okay with that. It was just a deal he did.

And the young ruler is exactly the same. So it's not that his motives here are totally wrong, but they're incomplete. And we have to be careful, you know, in our evangelism as a church with this type of thing. You see, it's easy for us as a church to supply a Jesus that helps people feel better. You know, whatever people are anxious about or wanting in their life, we can say Jesus will provide the answer.

We can offer a sense of belonging and friends and friendship. The church can even offer a sort of nostalgic sense of moral standards that the, you know, the culture is abandoned. Whatever somebody is looking for, it is very easy for us to make Jesus the answer. But what we see in this passage, and it's the brilliance of Jesus is that he doesn't answer directly the man's needs. Instead, he puts the his finger on the problem of the man's heart.

So the third point is this, the man gets the answer that's right for him. Now verse 17, where he starts is There's quite a lot going on. Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied? There is only 1 who is good.

If you want to enter life, keep the commandments. Now note he there is not denying that he's the good teacher. And he is confirming that there's only 1 person who's good and that's god. So you can argue it's a sort of indirect claim to deity. But what he's really doing is heading into an area that he knows the man has self confidence in.

His own goodness, if you like. And Jesus has gotta crush that in order for the man to understand how he can get eternal life. So the next thing Jesus says is the end of verse 17, if you want to to life, keep the commandments. And so I was struck by that because I was reading that thinking, well, remember this is a religious leader. What he's really saying is, why come to me?

You know the way? A Bay scripture. He's inviting the man to say, yes, I know that. I know it's I know I've gotta keep the 10 commandments, but I can't. Please help me.

But instead, the man says which ones, which is staggering answer in many ways, and it's completely wrong thinking. I don't know if you picked that up when you read You see, we need to treat god's law as a whole, not individual bits where we say, well, we can keep that bit. James 2 verse 10 says, for whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles at just 1 point, is guilty of breaking all of it. So in 18, Jesus says you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor, your father, and mother. He's picked commandments there to do with our relationship with each other.

Intentionally, I think because to the young ruler, they're probably easier to keep. It isn't impossible, is it that the man hasn't stolen, hasn't murdered? Hasn't committed adultery. Remember, the rules of the day, he's thinking outside cleanliness. Sherman on the Mount tells us, yeah, but what about murdering in your heart?

But this man is thinking outside cleanliness. So at this point, he must be thinking, oh, yeah. It's pretty good. Jesus is is almost raising his hopes here. Well, did you notice he misses out number 10?

You shall not covet. So that's a big red flag. This is not an accident. It's probably the 1 Jesus knows is that the man is prone to, but he leaves it out. So I think he's sucking the man in here.

He's saying, yeah. Yeah. You know, can you can you keep, oh, yeah. I think I can do those. And then bang.

The last 1 comes in. Love thy neighbors yourself. Right? And he jumps. It's like a wrestling move.

He's made the guy seem think I'm doing quite well, and then he's on the canvas. See, his interest, isn't it? Jesus knows, coveting is a problem for this man. It's just like we heard from Tom this morning. You know, coveting was an issue for for layer.

This man hasn't understood what we understand now, which is that Christianity is a relationship with Jesus, not a set of rules and laws. So behind these good commandments that this young ruler thinks he's been keeping, there's a good god. And Jesus is basically saying, what have you done about him? Anyway, the the man unbelievably verse 20 responds, all these I have kept, what do I still lack? Jesus says verse 21, if you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the pawn.

You will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow me. Fantastic. It's a phenomenal answer because do you see it sell, give, follow? That last point is really important. Because I know lots of wealthy people who are incredibly generous to charitable causes, but don't follow Jesus.

It's no good. Sell, give, follow. See, Jesus puts his finger on the key issue for this man. He's not introducing the law, the 10 commandments, to show the young man how to be saved. He's doing it to show him that he needs to be saved because he can't keep it.

Romans 3, therefore, no 1 will be declared righteous in god's sight by the works of the law. Rather through the law, we become conscious of our sin. That was the point? To have a relationship with the living god, this young man, and us, have to be prepared to give up everything. And Jesus knows that this man had his security in his wealth.

And there's a real love for money and possessions, and so he asked him to give those things up. And the response was I can't do it. That was the man's whole heart problem. What he wanted was the gap in his heart filling. He knew there was a problem.

He knew he was missing something. He wanted something from god. But did you need I don't know if you picked up when you read it when you when yes, which transactional, but it's more than that. There's no sense when you read it from the man that he's violated god's law. And god, sorry, Jesus can't give him eternal life on that basis.

Salvation means a sinner, who admits his sin, coming to god and asking for forgiveness. If you don't think you sinned, you can't get there. Where was this man's sorrow over sin? Can you see it? Where was his mourning for his attitude towards god?

Back in Mark's gospel, same story, it says, at this point, Jesus looked at him and loved him. That's an extraordinary thing to say with someone who firstly has no sense of sin, and secondly is pretty self righteous. But the man was sincere. There was something genuine in him. And he said Jesus knew that soon he would go to a cross to die for the sins of people like this man.

And he longed for his salvation, but he can't give it to him on his terms. It had to be because the man recognized his problem, asked god for help, and there was none of that was there. So let's just ask ourselves, are we the same as this man? In the sense that do we still see our faith by Christianity as an accessory to our lives? Something that it's nice to have, but it's an add on rather than everything.

See, the problem I think with the good deeds of this man when he says, oh, yeah. I've kept all those. Is that they didn't actually the ones he chose, the ones he talked about, the ones Jesus leading down the path on. They didn't actually touch him at the point of his real interests in life. And we could be the same.

No drugs. No heavy drinking. Yeah. We said it was fine. Easy.

But what about greed or lust or murdering people in our hearts? On the other way, or we can do it the other way around? What about if you're, kind or gracious or and gracious in in speech in the way you talk to people. It might be you're generous. You look good on the outside at church.

But in secret, while giving up the, I don't know, the drinking or the pornography, that's the different issue. We can be good on the surface, but there are areas we don't want Jesus to be in. Paul the apostle when he was sore, It was a lot like he reminded me when I was reading this. He's a lot like the young ruler, actually. Jewish leader respected righteous.

He kept a lot of the rules and commands. He would say a Hebrew of Hebrews. In many ways, he thought he was right with god. But after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, after he understood his own sin, everything changed. And so in comparison with this rich young ruler, Paul's response was incredibly different, wasn't it?

He recognized his sin. He didn't cling to his possessions. He didn't cling to his status. It was all about Christ. In Philippines chapter 3, writes, whatever would gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord. For whose sake, I've lost all things, I consider them garbage. That I may gain Christ and be found in him. I mean, they're amazing verses, but you see the young ruler doesn't consider his wealth and his life to be garbage. That's the that's the result.

Yes. He wanted Christ. He wanted eternal life, but he wanted it on top of the life that he'd built for himself. Christianity is counting everything as being lost for the sake of Christ as a good thing. Everything should be garbage to us compared with Christ.

When you follow Jesus, you will lose much That might be reputation. It might be friendships as we think about at the beginning. It might be family members who don't like what you're doing. Might be promotions at work. In this instance, the year rich unruly might be comfort.

That's what the disciples are talking about later in the passage in verse 27. We've left everything to follow you, what then will there be for us. So they're beginning to think like this. And Jesus reassures them in the last couple of verses, you'll receive a hundred times in heaven what you've lost for him. Tom's picking up.

Tom's mis picking up those verses a bit more next week. The point is we should hold nothing back from god in this life. So ask yourself, is there something in your life that you haven't yet handed over to Jesus? And it may be, and this is the important thing for us to think about. It may be that he hasn't asked you to hand it over.

But you're hoping he doesn't. In your heart, you know you're clinging to it. When Jesus says to the young man sell everything you have, it's not because money's wrong. It's not because having wealth means you can't be a Christian, we'd come on onto that in a minute, it because Jesus knows the man's heart, and he knows what's standing in the way of the man and eternal life. I noticed how it says in verse 22, when the young man heard this, he went away sad.

I was told that we would worry and I were talking about that upstairs before we started. It's a it's a funny verse. He went away sad. Why was he sad? I mean, he he knew he was missing something in life.

He knew Jesus could fill it, but he was sad because he wasn't willing to pay the price. Over the years here, we, I've learned a lot working with Pete as an elder. And 1 of them is that occasionally, I can remember this in the very early days, actually. Someone would come to see Pete to see us, and they'd have a sin in their life, and they were keen to deal with it. And Pete would suggest something that seemed pretty radical.

But, actually, when I look back on it and even at the time, it's only what Jesus is suggesting here. You know, we we somebody would come and then have, you know, some addiction to porn or online gambling, and Pete would say, okay, let's throw your computer out. And they would react as if he's mad. See, they they weren't that bothered about dealing with the SIM. If that was the cost, then they couldn't do it.

So the application you see this for us this evening is not to run around panicking after this, giving everything away because we're now frightened of money. It's not to give up secular jobs or any hope or promotion or or sell out flat and house in Southwest London and move to somewhere that's gonna make life much harder because that's what we feel we've gotta do. But it's be it's to be willing to do those things if god requires it of you. Some of you most of you will know, back in November, we planted a church in in Tallworth. Now, should you have gone to the toll with plant, even though you wanted to stay here?

No. But were you prepared to go if god needed you there? That the question we're asking here. It is amazing. I'm I'm always amazed.

I don't know why because it's god, isn't it? But, when god makes it seem like we know what we're doing in this church, because this ties in so well with Tom Sernman this morning. I mean, it almost seems planned. Ideometry, Tom Sair, didn't he? Is something where you look for hope, happiness, significant security in something other than god.

And he said the thing may not be bad in itself like money here, but it is when it's an idol. And that leads us to our final point It's almost back where we started actually with the man's good question. This time, the question comes more from the disciples or Peter. How can then I how then can I have eternal life? The man has asked, and Peter says, who then can be saved?

First 23, I tell you the truth. It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I'll tell you it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. Of god. See, there's several things going on here.

Firstly, Jesus is pointing out that just like the rich young man, people with wealth often have their security in it. It's It's, sort of comes with the territory a bit. And if they do and they can't give that wealth up, then it's an idol. And then in the end, they don't trust Jesus. And that means heaven and eternal life is not for them.

So be careful of wealth. But the second thing going on is that Jesus is dealing head on with the thinking at the time. Which is that wealth was in some ways in direct correlation with blessings from god. In other words, somebody who gained material possessions, who did well in business, who became wealthy, he must have had god on his side is the way they thought. That's why when Jesus says always hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, the response from the disciples is really strong.

Who then can be saved? In their heads, well surely the rich are being saved, so if they can't be saved. The third thing that's going on is that he's not really talking about money. He's talking about idolatry. He's talking about anything that you can't give up for him.

Anything that you are unwilling to put under the lordship of Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying when he says in verse 24, again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the Ivan needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god. We can't misunderstand this. The stuff you read on this is staggering. The 1 that I still remember, I think we've talked about it when somebody's preached on this before.

The the idea that the Ivan needle is the gate in the wall in Jerusalem. That's a little small for a big camel, and you have to take the backpacks off, which is the wealth, to get them. It's just madness. We're not looking for an interpretation that says excessive wealth is a problem. But those of us in Southwest, London, and Surrey with modicum of wealth, but we're fine.

That's not what he's saying, is it? Jesus is talking about the eye of a needle at the end of a sewing needle thing. Yeah. I haven't really no. No.

Never mind. And he's talking about getting a very big animal through it. And the point is, it's impossible. That's the point. Therefore, it's impossible for a wealthy person who trusts.

That's the point who trusts in his wealth to go to heaven. There is a qualifier. It's about trusting. It's not about just amount of money. Abraham was very wealthy yet he's disguised as a man of great faith.

So are we left here tonight thinking, okay. This is black and white. I want god in my life, but I don't know if I'm willing to pay the price. Might not be money, could be anything in your heart. Are you worried about that?

How desperate would he be if we were here thinking that? But look at Jesus's response when Peter says, how then can we be saved, or how can anyone be saved? Jesus looked to them and said, With man, this is impossible, but with god, all things are possible. And that is the key to the whole story. Jesus is basically saying, I know that in your own strength, you can't give these things up.

The job you have is too important to you. The house you've just bought is a big deal. The mortgage that you just paid off means you feel finally secure. The promotion you want it really badly. Jesus say I know all that.

And yet I'm telling you, just as I told the young ruler, you can't have eternal life on your terms. Christianity is not an add on to your life. So pretty much all of us here this evening have some issue, some sin in our life, some desire that we find difficult to let go of. And therefore, if those are your terms, eternal life's impossible for you. But the great news is it's not impossible for god.

See, Jesus Christ died on a cross for us that the false gods that we are attracted to have no power over us. The things of this world that cause us, and and we do, don't we? We waver in our love for god. But those things don't cause him to waver in his love for us. So as we're here this evening and we think about our own sinful hearts, it may be we feel convicted by god's word to us this morning and tonight about idols.

Brothers and sisters, the key is we aren't walking away. See, the rich man heard what Jesus said, and he walked away, sad. Well, I hope we've heard what Jesus is saying to us, but instead of walking away sad, we'll walk away rejoicing because we're saved by Christ dying on a cross. Taking a punishment for all the times we turn away from him. All the times we put our faith in the wrong things over and over again.

And yet joyfully we can trust in him for our salvation. When, Kathy and I were recently on holiday, we had dinner with the Christian couple. I've talked about them before in sermons. Some of you will know. They're in their seventies.

They're just a a joy to be with I was talking to the husband, and, he it turned out he's been doing for many, many years, a bible study fellowship with, BSF. See, it's another links or fit in. And but on top of that, he's been doing a neighborhood man's group, men's group. I think a lot of the men have changed over the years, but there's about 12 of them, and it's been going for a long, long time, and and a bloke has joined. And I got the impression from talking to him that this chap is not very articulate or eloquent.

And so they've got into the habit and his name's Jerry. They've got into the habit of getting Jerry to read the passage at the beginning to sort of get him to speak, and and warm up. So a few weeks ago, Jerry read the passage as Norman, they started talking about it, and then Jerry sort of exploded in an interruption. He said, look, can we just stop? Just stop for a minute?

I need, I need you to, to fill me in on this. I've been sitting here, and I just don't get it. Can somebody please tell me what is the minimum I need to do to get to heaven? That was his question. And that story struck me because in a way, it's quite a bold question like the man here.

How do I get eternal life? What is the minimum I can do to get there? But I think what the question shows, and I think there's a lot of us who secretly think a lot a bit like this. It's the heart saying, look, I don't wanna give up everything. Everything I have now, everything I've built in this life.

I don't want my life to be that uncomfortable. Using the example here. I don't wanna sell everything. So what's the percentage to get me in? What is it that I need to do?

What's the minimum I need to do? Which combined with going to church and you know, home group 2 hour 4. What what is the minimum I need to do to get into heaven? And then I can say Yama Christian. And in our heads, we're calculating all the time, is that cost too high?

Can I really give all of that up now? For a future that I can't touch, I can't see, I can't taste. I think that's how many of us think, and this passage is a problem for that thinking because it's saying you need to give everything, all of it. But the good news is Jesus is saying, I'm giving you hope here. Because in that battle, and it will be a battle to give those things up.

In that struggle, in that failure, when you fail another time to let go of it, you can trust him. You can trust his sacrifice for you, and that means you will be because you haven't walked away. You be you will be with him in heaven forever. Because what's impossible for us is possible for god. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you. It's that in many ways, it is a tough passage to think about. To think about what is in in our lives, that we don't wanna hand over to you. Father, perhaps, let us think about that now, that where there may be an area of our life that we need to hold up, to you and give it to you. Further help us to see heaven, to see the hope of an eternity with you that will be real to us, that will mean that we are prepared, to give everything to you now, that would help us trust in your death for our salvation, not in keeping the commandments, the ones that we like, the ones we can, help us to, trust only in you as we go forward in our lives, help us to hold lightly to the things of this world.

Help us understand that we are sinners, and then we need to turn to you love you, trust you, as you have loved us and brought us to yourself. In Jesus' name, amen.