8 RULES FOR LIVING A SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN LIFE:
OBEY GOD’S PLAN FOR GIVING
MATTHEW 19:16-22
INTRODUCTION
What does a successful Christian life look like? My desire as your pastor is that all of you experience success in your Christian life. I would define ‘success’ in the Christian life as being whole-heartedly strong and knowledgeable in the faith, steady in prayer, and capable of sharing the Gospel with others. I want your relationship with Christ to be deep and meaningful. Sometimes we might wonder, how do we get there? Is there a process? Are there things we can do or cultivate to produce good fruit in our lives? One of the more important aspects of any Christian’s life is giving and tithing and we will look at that topic today. The passage that we will look at is a simple one and I hope to not make this more complicated than it ought to be.
READ MATTHEW 19:16-22 = “16Now 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. 19Jesus replied, " ’Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 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?" 21Jesus 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." 22When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
ILLUSTRATION… From Steve Williams
From the standpoint of material wealth, Americans have difficulty realizing how rich we are. Going through a little mental exercise suggested by Robert Heilbroner can help us to count our blessings, however. Imagine doing the following, and you will see how daily life is for as many as a billion people in the world.
1. Take out all the furniture in your home except for one table and a couple of chairs. Use blanket and pads for beds.
2. Take away all of your clothing except for your oldest dress or suit, shirt or blouse. Leave only one pair of shoes.
3. Empty the pantry and the refrigerator except for a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a few potatoes, some onions, and a dish of dried beans.
4. Dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, and remove all the electrical wiring in your house.
5. Take away the house itself and move the family into the tool shed.
6. Place your "house’ in a shantytown.
7. Cancel all subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, and book clubs. This is no great loss because now none of you can read anyway.
8. Leave only one radio for the whole shantytown.
9. Move the nearest hospital or clinic ten miles away and put a midwife in charge instead of a doctor.
10. Throw away your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, and insurance policies. Leave the family a cash hoard of ten dollars.
11. Give the head of the family a few acres to cultivate on which he can raise a few hundred dollars of cash crops, of which one third will go to the landlord and one tenth to the moneylenders.
12. Lop off twenty-five or more years in life expectancy.
By comparison how rich we are! And with our wealth comes responsibility to use it wisely, not to be wasteful, and to help others. Think on these things.
I. WE FIND A MAN SEEKING THE RIGHT GOALS (verse 16)
I am sure that you have studied this passage before and when we study it, we always look down on this rich young man. I think sometimes this man gets more bad publicity than he deserves. We find in verse 16 that this man came up to Jesus. Matthew does not tell us a lot about this man. We know that he is a ‘young’ man which means he was probably between the ages of twenty and forty. We are also told that he has wealth. I think the only reason this fact about him is mentioned is because it relates directly to the point of the passage. Does this mean he was wealthy beyond our comprehension? I don’t think so. The rich and powerful would have been the Romans. This man was probably of the upper-middle class of Israel… kind of like us.
He comes to Jesus and speaks to Jesus with respect and gives Jesus the honor that He deserved. We get no sense that this young man is trying to trap Jesus in any way. We know that this happened often and usually it was the Pharisees and teachers of the Law that were trying to trap Him. We get no sense of that here. We get no sense that his question was political or entrapping in any way. This young rich man approaches the Teacher with a genuine question about ‘eternal life.’
I want you to see that this man is seeking the right goals. His question was not about increasing his wealth. His question was not about increasing his political position or job. His question was not about perfecting his business sense or craftiness. He wanted to know about eternal life! I know one thing, this young man wanted to know about eternity and he went to the right place! He went to Jesus, the Messiah, and the Holy One of God, to ask about eternity. I want you to see that this man is seeking the right goals and he approached the Right Person to ask about this goal.
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
Are you continually going to Jesus asking Him what is next?
Are you seeking the right goals?
Are you distracted by this world and what it has to offer?
II. WE FIND A MAN FOLLOWING THE RIGHT COMMANDS (verses 17-20)
Jesus sees before him a man who has followed all the right commands, but has missed the point. Jesus directs this young man to obey the commands of the only One who is truly good… God. Jesus directs this man to follow all the commands of God. The man is not satisfied. The young man insists that he has followed and obeyed the laws that Jesus describes, but there is something still lacking in his life. He cannot put his finger on it. The man states that he has not murdered or committed adultery or stolen or lied and has honored his parents and his neighbors. He has done all of these things and yet still feels something lacking in his life. I think this man knows that the legalism Jesus was giving back to him fell far short of God’s original intention. He knows that there is more to eternity than simply following a set of rules to the ‘T’. Surprisingly Jesus does not dispute the man’s claims that her has followed all these commands.
It makes sense to me that anyone can follow the Ten Commandments without breaking them. Obviously he was a God believing Jew who followed the commandments and had not murdered or coveted or stolen… he’d followed the big commandments. This just makes sense to me. Most of us here would have said the same to Jesus. “I’ve never killed anyone.” “I’ve never stolen anything.” I’m a good person who obeys God. This is what the man says. Jesus does not dispute this.
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
Would you count yourself among those who follow God to the best of your ability?
Do you feel the same as this man: you follow Christ and His commands, but you still lack something?
Do you make every effort to follow Christ, but think there must be more?
III. WE FIND A MAN LOST AND UNWILLING (verses 21-22)
Warren Wiersbe says, “The rich young ruler came to the right person, showed the right attitude, asked the right question, received the right answer, but made the wrong response! “ (His Name is Wonderful, pg 106.) Jesus gets down to business and tells the man exactly what he must do. Jesus gives two commands and promises two results for obedience to these commands. The young man must sell his possessions and give them to the poor and then he must follow Jesus in discipleship. Doing these two things will make this man mature in his walk with God and he will strike out on faith and follow after Jesus the Messiah. Jesus uncovers the man’s problem. This was what was holding him back: it was his wealth and his attitudes about money. The young man refuses to make the radical change of lifestyle and follow Jesus and is unwilling to do what was needed.
1. God would be the priority in his life and he would demonstrate this not only with his actions, but also with his money.
2. Jesus wanted this man to follow him with his whole heart as the other disciples had done. Later in the passage, Peter exclaims that the disciples have left everything to follow him. They had their priorities in order.
3. The Bible says over and over that you cannot serve both God and money. This was the last frontier that the young man had to conquer to follow Jesus.
Make no mistake, some of us today are this young man. We sit comfortable here in America and we are blessed beyond measure. We do our best to wholeheartedly devote ourselves to God, we study the Bible, we pray, and we share our faith with others. We are following all the commands that we possibly can to live out this thing called the Christian life. But, there is something we lack.
Tithing is the plan of God for the support of His work. Tithing is the tool of God to help us keep money in perspective and keep it subordinate to Him. Tithing is the manner that often God uses you to bless others.
CONCLUSION 1… source unknown, A Parable
There once lived an average man. He had an average job and made an average salary. But he had an extraordinary friend! This friend was the president of a very large corporation and a very smart businessman. One day, the friend came to the man and said, “You and I have been friends for a long time, haven’t we?”
“Yes, we have,” said the man.
“Do you trust me?” said the friend. “Do you think I know the business world?”
“Yes, I do,” said the man.
“Well,” said the friend, “I am going to give you some very valuable information. And if you really trust me, you will follow my advice.”
At this, the man became perplexed and tense. What was his friend going to ask him to do? “My company,” continued the friend, “will, within the next year or so, make a very large business deal. If you buy stock now, I can promise you a 10,000% return. My advice to you is to scrape together every cent you can spare and buy stock. Every month, save out only what you need to live on and invest the rest in stock. I know my company and I can guarantee you this return.”
So the man did as his friend suggested. Every month he bought more stock—forgoing the luxury of the latest car or the brand name tennis shoes. And, just as the friend promised, within the year, the company made the deal and the man became very, very wealthy.
We have only one lifetime to “buy stock” in God’s kingdom for eternity. When we give to His work, the money is not spent and gone—it is invested. And Christ promises fantastic returns in heaven! The Bible says, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
CONCLUSION 2
Tithing is what that rich young ruler lacked.
Is it what you lack?
