Mark 10:17-22
Topic: “What is that in your wallet?”
There is this commercial that asked this question at the end of their commercial, “What is that in your wallet?” The commercial that asks this question is a commercial that advertises for the Capital One Credit Card. The commercial message is that if you find yourself in a situational bind where you don’t have any cash on you to buy or pay for something, the commercial suggest that it would be a good thing to have a Capital One credit card in your wallet to help you with your cash flow dilemma. So at the end of every Capital One credit card commercial, it asks this question, “What is that in your wallet”, which suggest that if you don’t have a Capital One credit card, you need one in your wallet to help you get out of your financial jams. But yet it must be understood that if you do not use your credit card wisely and you max out every credit card that you get your hands on one, you will create a bigger financial disaster for yourself in that it will take years to get out of. You see, credit card in itself is not evil; it is how you use it and how you pay off the balance that makes the difference. But instead of depending on our credit cards to get us what we need, to get us what we desire, and to get us where we want to go, we need to depend on Jesus Christ who can supply our every need ,supply our every desire, and to get us where we want to go if we trust in Him. In matter of fact, if you find yourself in a financial jam, you don’t need another credit card, but rather you need Jesus Christ and His word to help you get out of the jam that you are in.
But yet a question is being asked, “What is that in your wallet?
Now in these passage of scriptures, we are going to learn about someone who had something in their wallet that kept him from following Jesus Christ.
In these passage of scriptures, we read about a young man who was rich, who was a ruler and also was religious. This young man was rich. We are not told if he was rich by inheritance that he may have received from his parents, or that he worked hard for the money that he got. We don’t know, but yet we do know from the Word of God that that he was rich. Also this young man was a ruler. We don’t know if he was a ruler of a country, a ruler of a city, a ruler of a town, but yet the Word says he was a ruler. We don’t know if he became a ruler because his daddy stepped down from the position of leadership and handed the reins to his son. Or because this young man worked very hard on his job and became a ruler at a very young age, or that he went to college and earned his bachelors, masters, or doctorate degrees to become a ruler. We don’t know but yet we do know from the Word of God that he became a ruler at a young age. In today times, we would say that this young rich ruler would be a young rich CEO, a young rich mayor, a young rich governor, a young rich president, or a young rich entrepreneur, a young rich pastor, or a young rich bishop. And we know that this young rich ruler was religious man for he told Jesus Christ that he supposedly kept all of God’s commandments, which we will discuss later in this message.
But yet even though this young rich ruler seem to have every thing going for himself at a very young age, he still felt empty inside. Even though he lived in a nice big house, wore the finest clothes, drove the finest cars, ate the finest food at the finest restaurants, had every women wanting to be his girlfriend or wife, even though he may have been the most famous person around; this young rich ruler was sensing that he was lacking something important in his life. And the thing that he was lacking was the assurance of salvation. He was lacking the assurance of eternal life. You know it is possible to be rich and successful and have everything that life has to offer, and don’t have the main thing. And the main thing to have in your life is to have Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. You see if you don’t have Jesus Christ in your life, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, how much education you have, you don’t have the main thing, and to have the main thing, you need Jesus Christ in your life.
And notice something that this young rich ruler did not go to the synagogue to find out how he can get the assurance of salvation. He did not go to the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, or to the chief priests. He did not even bother with the disciples with the question of eternal life. But rather he went to Jesus Christ. And there is a lesson that we can learn right there, in that, when we are seeking a answer to life’s questions, we need to go to Jesus Christ for He is the answer for the world today. It does not matter what you are seeking after, Jesus got the answer!
Now notice how this young rich young ruler approaches Jesus Christ. He came “running” to Jesus Christ because there was sense of urgency of his need. You know it is sad, but true, we have people today who are running to everything and to everybody but to Jesus Christ. We have people running to Kayne West, We have people running to Chris Brown, We have people running to Beyonce, We have people running to Jay-Z, we have people running to 50 Cent, We have people running to BET and MTV. We have people running to drugs and alcohol, We have people running to gang banging, to a life of crime. Yes, we have people running to everything and to everybody, but Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is the one you ought to be running to because He is the Savior of the World, He is the Lord, He is the Messiah, Rock of our salvation.
Not only did the young rich young ruler ran to Jesus Christ, but when he got to Him, he “kneeled” to him. He worshipped Him. He praised Him. Not only are we to run to Jesus, but when we get to Jesus, we ought to worship Him and praise Him. Worship Him for who He is, and praise Him for what He has done.
Now the scripture says that the young rich ruler came running to Jesus and kneeled to Him and asked Him this question, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Now notice how Jesus responds to him in verse 18-19? In verse 18, he says, “Why callest me thou good? There is none good but one, that is God.” Now even though the young rich ruler came running to Jesus, and kneeled before him, but yet he did not really know who Jesus was. It is sad, but true, there are a lot of people in our churches who have been in the church for years, but yet still don’t know who Jesus Christ is. We have people sing in the choir, serve as usher, dance on the praise dance team, serve as deacons, serve as trustees, teach Sunday School, sit in the pulpit, but yet don’t really know who Jesus Christ is.
You see, when the young rich ruler called Jesus ,”Good Master”, he was addressing him as a “Good Teacher or a “Good Rabbi”. But Jesus Christ is more than a Good Teacher. He is more than a Good Rabbi. He is the Son of God. He is God in human flesh. What Jesus was really telling this young rich ruler was that if I am just a good teacher to you, then to you I am not good for God only is good and I really can’t answer question of eternal life for you. But if you recognize me as the Son of God, God in human flesh, I am good because I am God and God is good, and I do have the answer for your question concerning eternal life.” You see, when we come to Jesus Christ, we have to recognize and believe that He is Lord. He is the Savior of the World. He is more than a good teacher. He is God in human flesh.
Now notice what Jesus Christ tells him in verse 19. He tells him that if you want eternal life, you know the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness. Defraud not, Honor thy father and mother”
Now for a long time, I had problems with this text because I said if the young rich ruler would have asked me how he could inherit eternal life, I would have told him:
1.John 3:16- “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten that whosover believeth in Him should not perish but shall have everlasting life.”
2.I would have told him Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved.
3.I would have told him Acts 16:31, Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved.
4.Or better yet, I would have told him the Four Spiritual Laws where it says:
a.God Loves you and offers you a wonderful plan for your life
b.Man is sinful and separated from God.
c.Jesus Christ is God’s provision for man’s sin in that He died on the cross for man’s sin and He arose from the dead in three days.
d.We must individually receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior
But notice that Jesus doesn’t mention anything about believing in him to have eternal life. Why? I asked the Lord about this one time and the Lord shared with me why. He told me the reason why he did not go there with him was because He had to work with him at his level. Secondly, there was some stuff that this young rich ruler had in his wallet that he had to get rid of first because what was in his wallet was tied to his heart and what was in his heart was keeping him from following Jesus Christ. Now Jesus could have told the young rich young ruler to just trust in me and you shall have eternal life, but the young rich ruler would have still have some stuff in his wallet and in his heart that would have hindered his relationship with Christ.
Now notice what the young rich ruler had told Jesus when he told him of the commands that he needed to obey to have eternal life. He says to Jesus in verse 20, “Master, all these have I observed from my youth up.” But notice something here. Jesus only mentions six out of the ten commandments. He did not mention the other four. He did not mention “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. He does not mention, “Thou shalt not make any graven image and bow down to them.” He did not mention “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain.” He does not mention to “remember the Sabbath day.” He does not mention the first four commandments, but only the last six. Why? It was because the thing that was in this young rich ruler pocket was his god, and God said you shalt have no other gods before me. And Jesus wanted to help this young rich ruler to get rid of his idol god that was in his wallet. So the question is what was in this young rich ruler wallet that became his god?
In verse 21 it tells us, “Then Jesus beholding him(Jesus was looking into his eyes, looking into his soul, looking into his heart, looking into his mind, and guess what Jesus is looking at us right now) loved him( And just as Jesus loved him, He loves us just as well), and said unto him, “One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and take up the cross, and follow me.”
What was in the young rich ruler wallet that was his little god? His riches and possessions. Even though he may not kneeled down to his riches and possession, but yet they had first place in his life, they had priority in his life. Jesus told him that if he wanted to be perfect, sell every thing he had, give the money to the poor, take up the cross and follow me.
And notice what happened. The scripture in verse 21 says, “And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.” He came to Jesus rejoicing, but left sad. He came to Jesus with joy in his heart, but left grieving because He was unwilling to give up the stuff that he had in his wallet to follow Jesus. And anytime you leave Jesus Christ, anytime you reject Jesus Christ, you will be sad and grieving.
You see, his stuff that he had in his wallet was his little god, and to follow Jesus, you have to give up anything that is in your pocket that becomes a little god to you. Now it ust be understood that there is nothing wrong with being rich, but just don’t let your riches become your little idol gods. Always remember who made you rich and be grateful for it.
Now to this young rich ruler, it was his money, his possessions, and his riches that was in his wallet that kept him from following Jesus. To you, it may not be your money, your house, your car, your clothes, or your bank account that is keeping you from following Jesus Christ. It could be your pride, your drugs, your alcohol, your homeboys/girls, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, that famous rap/movie/or rock star, anger, hatred, greed, witchcraft, or anything that is in your wallet that is keeping you from following Jesus Christ. And if there is anything that is your wallet that is keeping you from following Jesus Christ like you should, you need to get rid of it now. You need to get that thing out of your wallet, get that thing out of your life, get that thing out of your mind, get that thing out of your heart, get that thing out of your soul and follow Jesus Christ.
You see, the thing that may be keeping you from following Jesus is not worth having. You see, if you have a have girlfriend or boyfriend that is keeping you from following Jesus is not worth having. Having so much hatered and anger toward someone is not worth it. Anybody or anything that is keeping you from coming to church, keeping you from coming to Sunday School, keeping you from prayer meeting and bible study, keeping you from praising the Lord; Whatever it is, it is not worth having. So the question is ”What is that in your wallet that is keeping you from following Jesus?”
Well, you probably have said, I tried to get that thing out of my wallet that is keeping me from following Jesus Christ, but I have failed every time. But the question I want to ask is this: Have you let Jesus reach into your wallet to take out what was in your wallet that is keeping you from following Him? You see, if you come to Jesus instead of walking away from him like this young rich ruler had done, and let Him reach into your wallet, let Him reach into your heart, LET Him reach into your soul, and reach into your life, I guarantee there will be a change in your life. He able to take sorrow out of your wallet, and put joy in there. He is able to take depression out of your wallet and put a song of praise in their. He is able to take hate out of your wallet and put the love of God in your heart. He is able to take drugs and alcohol out of your wallet and put the power of the Holy Spirit. No matter what is in your wallet, take it to Jesus and let him handle it because He is able!!!!!!!
