Self-Righteousness and Riches (Matthew 19:16-26)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.
Transcript
Good morning man it's good to see this room filled with people worshiping Jesus uh my name is spencer if you weren't here earlier when i introduced myself i'm one of the pastors here uh we're going to be in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 19 verses 16-26 so you can go ahead and flip there we do encourage you we don't we can't hand out bibles right now uh because of the pandemic we're in but if you do have a Bible we encourage you to bring it it's a good practice to have the word of.
God just to read alongside you start on sunday continue through the week it will be on the screen behind us as well so you can go ahead and you can follow along there let me tell you two things uh that will trip you up in following Jesus uh yourself and your money those are two big pitfalls that can derail you from following Jesus so i am a bi-vocational pastor uh it's a you know by meaning to vocation meaning job it's a fancy way of saying i'm i've got two jobs.
Because two job donald just sounds dumb uh but i have two jobs i'm a real estate agent and a pastor i'm part-time here and i also do real estate and i get a front-row seat in those jobs to see how yourself and your money can be your biggest enemy in following Jesus now as a pastor i regularly have conversations with people that's they go along the lines of saying you are not your savior you are not going to save yourself we regularly try to deconstruct the idea that is.
So ingrained in southern culture that christianity is equal to doing good works being a good person and or that you might gain the favor of God that you might get into heaven we regularly battle against that because you'll hear people sometimes they'll say you know what like i right now i'm just i'm not all put together i got to clean myself up and once i get my stuff together i'll be able to to come and be a part of Church again like i just.
But i got to figure my stuff out and it's like no no that's that's that may be a cultural thing that is that is present that's not the Gospel the Gospel says you don't bring your righteousness to the table your good works the table to gain the favor of God so we regularly have to deconstruct that idea that's so ingrained in us self-righteousness ends up being your own worst enemy i'm also a real estate agent and one of the things i get to.
See in real estate is that money can bring out the worst in people i just can't buying and selling a house is one of the biggest purchases that anyone makes and over and over again i'm reminded uh this when i'm representing clients uh i regularly tell my buyers who are buying houses the fun part is going out and seeing the houses getting on zillow and realtor and picking them out walking in seeing it imagine how you can chip and you want to gain it i mean just shiplap everywhere get excited the moment that you go to put a contract i just say.
Look from this point until you get the keys at the closing table this is not going to be fun and just set the bar low and you won't be disappointed because because money is involved and money complicates things right i've seen uh i've seen people all over the map that you wouldn't expect like people that are that are really nice but when when uh money gets involved and and and they don't get everything they were expecting or they're not going to get as much money at the closing table i'd have to pay.
For things i mean i've seen it it can make people very mean and bitter and vicious i've seen Christians get me and i've seen peaceable people get all out of sorts i've seen people just get nasty and i'm not immune to this i've seen in my own heart i've been stabbed in the back but i'm the real estate agent i know what happens in my heart i've missed out on deals that i've worked out on commissions that i've worked out i get this i feel this.
Jesus said back in the sermon on the mount he said where your treasure is your heart will be also and money often reveals this as we uh scatter our heart amongst a bunch of different treasures a bunch a bunch of different things what we are doing is we're emotionally physically and spiritually investing in material things that do not last in this world money and self-righteousness these are two things that will derail you from following Jesus and we get to see this very clearly.
Today in this story where a rich young man comes to Jesus asking about eternal life and both of these are going to show up so we're going to walk through this story together we'll stay out the gate i know we're talking about money that makes everyone a little bit nervous you might have some some bad experiences with churches of money i don't know where you're coming into this but my hope today is that we let our guards down let's just let the Holy Spirit go to work on us.
God willing we can respond uh in the repentance that he requires us to so let me pray and we'll jump into the story father you are good you are so good and these stories from the gospels have been so helpful God i pray that you would speak to us this morning that you would show us what it means to find our hope in Christ alone we ask us in Jesus name amen all right so verse 16 and behold a man came up to him saying teacher what good deed must i do to have eternal life all right.
So i just want to note he's respectful okay we're about to see some self-righteousness in a moment but he's respectful he says teacher all right this is not like the pharisees who come in a posture of arrogance demanding things he he's genuine he teacher show me what good deed must i do to eternal life so he is respectful but his self-righteousness is very similar to the pharisees because he says what good deed must i do what can i do in order to gain eternal life that is religion in a nutshell right most religions have some type of version like this buddhism has its eightfold path follow the path eventually you can lead to the state.
Of nirvana islam has its five pillars submit to allah follow the five pillars jehovah's witnesses have their zero holidays there are a lot of different religions that have different things you do and don't do do this you get in don't and you won't that that's the exchange in religion and that's what Jesus identifies very quickly in this man so Jesus responds verse 17 and he said to them why do you ask me about what is good there is only one who is good.
If you would enter eternal life keep the commandments and when he hears this this is music to his ears because as we're going to see in a minute he's a good dude he's an upright jew he he's honorable he's not adulterous by the world's standards he's a good guy he's the kind of guy that most people want their daughter to marry he's a decent guy not perfect because he wants to know about the finer points the law maybe he's missing out on something and he said.
Verse 18 which ones which commandments Jesus so there's 613 total laws in the old testament there's the 10 big ones the 10 commandments which ones are you talking about because it's possible he may have worn a sweater to passover that had two different types you know cotton and lennon that's a no-no in the old jewish law maybe he missed out the finer points but then Jesus actually sticks to the big ten in the final six commandments he starts listening out.
Jesus said you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness honor your father and mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself the young man said to him all these i have kept all right so those are six of the final ten commandments all right the first four are vertically focused this is how you worship God the six uh the backsticks are horizontally focused this is how you live with one another and i want to point something out he lists these out.
But when he gets to the tenth commandment all right which is you shall not cover you covet your neighbor's stuff he generalizes it he says i want you to love your neighbor as yourself that's going to be important in a moment but the young man hears this and he's relieved because like i said earlier he based the commandments but he wants to cover his bases he says what do i still lack and that's the posture of self-righteousness okay yes i heard that.
But tell me what else what else do i need to do tell me Jesus what am i what am i missing out on and that is where Jesus really gets to the heart of the matter in verse 21 it says Jesus said to him if you would be perfect which is what he's gunning for if you be perfect go sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful.
For he had great possessions so he takes that tenth commandment generalizing it loving your neighbor and he says you want to be perfect here's what you got to do go sell everything you've got sell the items that you covet give it to your neighbors and then he says follow me come follow me give up the material wealth that is so easy to covet in this world and what he does is he finds the idol beneath the surface he finds what this man actually worships.
Because he's not just a young man he's wealthy and he says leave that all behind come follow me and that's not a small thing that's a huge ask all right that's not just all of his wealth that's his respect that comes with it that's the comfort that that kind of wealth buys it's the status that comes along with that he says leave all of that behind and come and follow me i want you to think about the wealth that you have whether it's a lot or a little i want you to think about what makes you respectable what what brings comfort in your life think about the things that give you status.
And then Jesus comes and says give it all up come and follow me and what he's asking this very wealthy man to do is to follow him y'all he is a traveling ministry where they don't have places to sleep at night sometimes they're camping out there they're they're relying on the generosity of others they're relying on the generosity of different towns for their next meal not only that the establishment hates him the very important religious powerful people in their culture they despise him he's saying leave all of the status all of the wealth all of the things that come with it and follow me that's what he asked of this young man and that's the.
Same question that is applied to anyone that follows Jesus are you willing to give up what you hold most dear that you might gain Christ that you might follow him and for this man it's riches now Jesus is getting ready to teach on riches after this but what he calls this man to do is very specific to him there's no other place in the Bible where God calls someone to give up all of their wealth to follow him this is very specific everyone has to count the cost of following.
Jesus but oftentimes that cost is very unique to the individual and this man is going to cost all of his wealth he's going to have to crush the idol of riches completely crush it give up his wealth and follow him but he can't because he worships his wealth that's what Jesus is getting at the sermon on the mount when he said no one can serve two masters either he'll hate the one or love the other devoted to the one or two or be devoted and despise the other you cannot serve.
God and money that's what he's getting at you worship money and if you want to come and follow me you got to give this up so Jesus navigates right through this man's self-righteousness to help him see the the love of wealth that he's worshipped beneath the surface and a lot of times when Jesus encounters self-righteous people in and as we've seen in the Gospel of Matthew he's dealing with pharisees and sadducees and religious people they're not very relatable to us the pharisees were i mean they're the very embodiment of an uptight Church person just religious judgmental high and mighty that's not relatable to us we we.
See self-righteousness in the Gospel of Matthew it's like okay yeah the pharisees they're the worst but this story makes it way more relatable to us we can identify with this some of us know what it's like to check the boxes of morality am i doing this am i doing that have i checked this box while ignoring some of the underlining sin beneath the surface that we don't want to deal with the Holy Spirit might bring conviction there but we don't want to deal with it we'd rather just have outward righteousness right i mean i hear this from time to time you'll.
See someone that blows up their life and people will say man their marriage looks so good on facebook like they just talked about loving one another called him king she called him queen which see each throne they look they have they went on vacations what happened you'll see it people go i can't i can't belie i can't believe he blew up his business like that all my business dealings were he always seemed like a man of integrity what happened the longer that i follow.
Jesus the more i realize i'm not really shocked by anything the reality is is that no matter how outwardly good you look there everyone's got their junk everyone's got stuff beneath the surface areas we don't want to submit to Jesus we'd rather listen we'd rather cover it up with good works covered up with with outward righteousness we're doing fine i'm fine as opposed to actually dealing with what's beneath the surface that's what happened with this young man here he covered riches of her allegiance to.
Jesus and his self-righteousness failed could not overcome his love of riches and he leaves dismay now he exits leaves dismayed and then Jesus begins to teach on the danger of riches starting in verse 23 it says and Jesus said to his disciples truly i say to you only with difficulty will a rich person 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 a rich person to enter the kingdom of.
God when the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved but Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible y'all ever been in a situation where where you're telling a story like you and your friend or your spouse you witnessed the a situation together and your version of this is a story of just different like they just got a different take on it this happened sometimes in in my marriage we will have some friends over we'll be sharing stories and all of a sudden i'll launch into a story i start telling the story and it becomes very clear not just.
To me but to everyone at the table that my wife disagrees with how that went down she just just go what are you no that you know that look if you don't you will like it that look of just like i can't believe you understood that situation to be what it was that's the look i feel like that Jesus gives when american Christians have tackled this passage i mean man looking down from heaven like are you serious what are they doing like this i mean we have we have butchered this passage in.
So many different ways because as americans we love our riches we love our comfortable lifestyles and man we will find some creative ways to get around the force of this passage the big one is you'll hear some american churches that will say the eye of the needle well actually if you look at the context of the eye of the needle here's what's really happening what's really happening is there's this big gate in Jerusalem and at this big gate there's this small door called the eye of the needle and what what he's actually picturing is these camels would come and they'd have a real tough time getting underneath that door you know what they would have.
To get rid of some of their baggage but once they got rid of their bags they find their way through the door and they make it to the other side that's what's really happening in this passage i heard that the first time i heard that i was in high school my baseball coach he was reading the joel osteen book which never ends well and he was reading it and he's like man this is what i learned about the eye of the camel and i was like oh and i was a new Christian i was like that sounds great.
Listen some of you may know that some of you may have believed that i want to as politely as i can completely dismantle that from being ever away that you can read this passage i want to politely murder that as an interpretation because y'all that listen that enti that type of interpretation is exactly the thing that Jesus is correcting it's exactly what Jesus is correcting so i did some work this week and i wanted to get the bottom of where this eye of the needle gate in the door in the gate legend come from all right.
So somewhere some people think it came from 9th century other people may have think it came from 15th century some look at philosophers like aquinas or anselm but listen you can't source the origins of that theory and i want to tell you there is no evidence that there was ever a gate in Jerusalem with a small little door called the eye of the needle there's none there's no evidence so i went deeper i was like maybe i can look at the greek here.
Look at the word raphas which is needle maybe buried four or five definitions down it says also see gate in Jerusalem tiny door so i did i looked at the greek word got down all the definitions and y'all i'm here to tell you every time sewing needle big camel that one of the biggest animals they'd regularly come across and small the smallest opening you can think of the picture is absurd for a reason it's impossible it's an impossible picture which is highlighted by how he walks through verses 25 and 26 it says.
When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved they didn't say oh man Jesus you got to show me how that camel gets under that door they understood it's impossible who then can be saved but Jesus looked at them verse 26 and said with man this is impossible but with God all things are impo are possible he says it's impossible camels don't squeeze through the eyes of needles it's not possible it's going to take miraculous work yet there are.
So many american churches that have peddled messages like this we talk about this pretty regularly when it comes up in passages like this the american Church has so many prosperity churches all around our country that peddle messages like this they're trying to squeeze camels through the eyes of needles trying to help you see if you worship Jesus you get the exchange of riches and health and wealth and prosperity it's hot garbage it's not the Gospel and the bigger problem is we export this to africa and to south america into countries that are that are poor they put their hope in a.
Jesus that will give riches we sent the the rockies to honduras uh uh last month that the city that they're in that message is prevalent now it's easy to point out that and it's a big reality in american Church we can point out the kenneth copeland's and the creflo dollars and all the messages that come with that it's a whole lot harder to look at your own heart and examine your own heart when you look at this passage so we're raising money.
For kid city as i said earlier we're trying to it's not a hard sale guys it might be we'll see we're raising money for kid city and uh when we decided to do this i was like man that's great we got we got somebody who's gonna gonna match ten thousand dollars this is great and i was really excited about doing this so that you guys would give i was really excited about the possibility of y'all giving i'm just being honest like my heart was like man i can't wait to.
See the rest of our Church family give this it's been a weird year and the carrie household financially it's like ah i don't know about that and there was this hesitation was like i i don't know maybe i just get through the month and not have to really stare at this not to acknowledge that God calls us to radical generosity yo some of you all know that there's a giving opportunity you're like oh i've been saving for something else i really want those new floors like we do this and y'all i want you to recognize what happens there is that you have taken riches and said.
Now i want that over Jesus i want that over generosity it's a whole lot harder a whole lot easier to cast stones to some of the greatest offenders in our culture that do this it's a whole lot harder to look at your own heart and realize what's going on beneath the surface where does your primary allegiance lie if Jesus called you to give up riches or the pursuit of riches would you do it would you give it up would you give up the comfortable lifestyle that you have would you sell anything would you sell it all what what.
If Jesus called you to do this how about this would you even begin to pray some dangerous prayers that made you vulnerable to be able to do this where is your primary allegiance that's what comes out of this story riches self-righteousness it derailed this young man i'll be very clear it will absolutely derail you as well for much of of southern cultural christianity is very rich compared to the rest of the world we've got a lot more money than the rest of the world and there's also a whole lot of self-righteousness.
So with that being the case given our context i want to take a few moments i want to walk through some diagnostic questions that are not going to be very comfortable but i want us to be open to the Holy Spirit working so let's diagnose riches over Jesus first first question do you involve the lord in your financial goals some of your like financial goals i had a financial goal in my life listen you may not have the most formal financial goals you may have not met with a financial planner.
But you've got some some some loose goals that may be like i don't want to drive this car that's going to break down tomorrow and i'll find you know one i want to save up for one that'll last at least two years or i want to level up from mcdonald's to outback i don't know what that is for you okay but but we all have some financial goals in mind do you involve the lord in that are you prayerfully submitting your finances to the.
Lord asking him to to work through that to to correct you regularly are your first thoughts when you get a raise aimed at what you can get next right you get a few more dollars an hour you get a bump in your salary what's your first thought it's your first thought yes the truck i've always wanted the house i've wanted to move to is it the things that you can get or is it the the first initial response is all right.
Lord you have blessed me with a raise and this job what do you want to do next it's not bad to have a better vehicle sometimes what do you want to do next lord how do you want to use this are you giving generously third question are you giving generously sacrificially we don't use we don't use the language of tithe which i don't have time to go into right now we see more of a sacrificial giving in the new testament are you giving sacrificially and giving generously is a regular part of your budget being given to the.
Lord it's not just giving generously it's regular generosity regularly submitting your finances to the lord are you quick uh do you regularly shut down conviction from the Holy Spirit are you quick to shut down conviction from the Holy Spirit now let me picture that what that is a little bit what i did earlier it's like as soon as you have an opportunity to give a missionary needs uh needs money to go on the mission field and it's just like that i don't know about that i've been saving.
For something i don't really want to go there are you quick to shut down conviction from the Holy Spirit do you have a cynical outlook on churches missionaries ministries and requests for money you have a cynical outlook there some folks will go all right Church is asking for money again what are they how do they want to misuse my money next when let me say very clearly it's not your money to begin with james won every good gift and every perfect gift is from love coming down from the.
Father of lights God stewards us with riches and he calls us to steward in ways that would glorify him lastly no two more if Jesus himself sat down with you to look over your budget or your credit card statements how nervous would you be i say how nervous would you be because i feel like if Jesus actually came home he's sitting on the table you'd have lots of questions but once you've worked through the shock of it you'd be a little bit nervous.
But how nervous would you be if you seriously if he sat down and worth all right let's look at your budget let's look through your credit card statements how nervous would we be lastly and if he called you to make some radical changes would you be joyful or would you be dismayed like this rich young man so as you work through those questions ask yourself the tough question do you value riches over Jesus and his kingdom that's what he's fleshing out in this story and that's what these questions are meant to bring out let's diagnose self-righteousness over grace.
First question do you compare yourself to others in order to build yourself up do you regularly compare yourself to others in order to build yourself up right you can always find somebody else who's a train wreck right you can do the comparison game there's always someone who's doing worse are you regularly comparing yourself yourself to others to build yourself up second is your approach to God a checklist of obedience that when you think about what it means to follow Jesus it's i got to do this and i got to do that and i got to do this and i'm checking off all these boxes word prayer community group this all the way down the line.
So that you might present that to God and say God look at what i'm doing that's self-righteousness that's trusting in your righteousness and your good works over grace third when you're confessing sin in your community group are your confessions shallow so when it's time to confess sin and community group and bear one of those burdens are you the kind of person that goes you know what the week's been okay well you know honestly like i i haven't been reading my Bible enough and uh i really need you know what i you know i need to do i i've got i need to next week i'm gonna i'm gonna have three or four more quiet times.
I'm gonna sit down and read my Bible that's someone do next which listen we regularly say this all the time you need to read your bibles all right the word of God if you want to mature as a Christian you need to read your bibles it's an absolutely appropriate confession but if that listen if that is the only confession you've got come on it's like no no this listen i'm the chief of sinners i get this but i know everyone else has jacked up too you got stuff going on beneath the surface.
And if your confessions are shallow what you are saying is is that i'm doing this well i actually don't want to be vulnerable enough to work through the other stuff and a word of warning if you don't ever work through it it will come up and it will get ugly self-righteousness is a poor cover all right when you do make mistakes you need to try to keep them as private as possible so maybe you do make a mistake maybe you do sin.
But it's basically like moving along it's all right i know i messed up and you don't want to let anyone ever have a moment of correction a moment of coming alongside and asking some tough questions because you you want to keep the appearance of righteous i'm fine i'm fine we have to work through this when you do make mistakes do you feel like you need to make up for those mistakes with more good works he's like yeah no i okay yes i messed up here.
But God look i'm doing this i'm checking this box i'm doing all these other things and you're covering up trying to cover up mistakes since give you one more when you scroll through social media do you keep a running commentary of judgment on everyone else right that's a big one in our culture you can be the political warrior that's like all right yeah you posted that boom and that goes well because everyone's been convinced on facebook of your argument all right do you maybe it's it's it's judging other moms maybe it's uh captain correction you just i mean maybe it's just a posture of just consistently judging other people on facebook to make yourself feel.
A little bit better if any of these questions start to bring up some stuff it is very possible that you struggle with self-righteousness that you are trusting in your own good works and not what God has done for us on the cross and the empty tomb listen self-righteousness and the love of riches are very difficult hurdles to clear to get into the kingdom of God even more so Jesus goes on to say it is humanly hear this it is impossible for a rich person on their own merit to get into the kingdom of.
God you have no shot you do not have the will power to change to muscle change so that you might submit your riches to Christ no self-righteous person no rich person will ever by their own work get in the kingdom of God that is precisely why Jesus came Jesus came and lived a perfect life and went to the cross with that perfection and then conquer death at the empty tomb so that self-righteous people would not trust in their own good works.
But in the good works of Jesus so that people who worship money would say no i don't want that i believe Jesus is better i want him yo God he he loves self-righteous people he does you know how we know this Paul Paul was a self-righteous pharisee and then he meets him in the road he claims him he redeems him and then becomes one of the greatest missionaries that's ever lived and he loves rich people he does let me show you a different exchange a different encounter of how.
Jesus had with the rich man i'mma read from luke 19. i want y'all to listen to this exchange with uh zacchaeus who's a rich tax collector and i want you to notice the difference between the rich young man and his response to Jesus and zacchaeus verse one he entered Jericho and was passing through and behold there was a man named zacchaeus he was a chief tax collector and was rich he said this before Matthew was also a tax collector they were hated by their own people.
Because they were traitors to the jewish people they were jews who worked for the roman government and they were loaded they made their money off the backs of their own people they had lots of money verse 3 and he was seeking to see who Jesus was but on account of the crowd he could not because he was small in stature which some of you that may ring a bell if you were you grew up in the Church there's a children's song about that zacchaeus was a wee little man and a weird little man was he which by the way they don't make children songs like that anymore.
Because they're just straight dunking on his height this is kind of messed up i don't even remember the rest of the words the song y'all might i don't which is what shows that that's the problem making a children's song it's short yay like it's just this just a thought verse four so he ran on the head and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him but he was about to pass that way and when Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him zacchaeus hurry and come down.
For i'ma stay at your house today i love it man i love Jesus comes through prophetic mode looks up in the tree and says zacchaeus the one that everyone hates in that crowd hey coming down i'm having dinner at your place tonight Jesus loves outcast if you feel like an outcast man does Jesus got good news for you look at zacchaeus tells him to come on down verse 6 so he hurried and came down received him joyfully he joyfully comes running to.
Jesus verse 7 and when they saw it they all grumbled he has gone in to be the guest of a man who's a sinner amen we're not even we've already dealt with that verse 8 and zacchaeus stood and said to the lord behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i've defrauded anyone of anything i restored fourfold you notice the difference he didn't come to Jesus and say all right let's talk what do i need to do here no the calling of.
Jesus was enough he calls him from the tree and he just just absolutely pierces his heart just destroys him wrecks him zacchaeus is never going to be going to be the same that's the calling of grace that Jesus looks at centers and say come on you are going to you are you are going to be a part of this now and what happens he comes joyfully he says all right i'm in i'm in half my riches where who who's the poor who are my neighbors give it away i know i've defrauded people in this crowd four-fold four-fold i got you he do you.
See the difference he joyfully is changed by Jesus and he joyfully submits his riches and Jesus says all right verse 9 and Jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house since he is also a son of Abraham for the son of man came to seek and save the lost y'all Jesus seeks and saves flagrant sinners and self-righteous people Jesus seeks and saves the rich and the poor but here's the thing you need to experience his grace and be changed by him that's the reality that gets lost here you have to be changed by his grace God's going to work on your heart.
Because we are far too comfortable with with this culture and materialism and consumerism and being wrapped up into riches we're far too comfortable trusting in our own good works and this story is meant to be a shock to the heart that would shake you to your core here's my fear did you receive a story like this and it's like you know you are you're right you're right i really should i you know what that kid city project i'm giving him that i'm doing that that that's what i'm gonna do you know what i i needed to bump we didn't have a conversation about regular giving let's bump that up a few percentage points that's what.
I need to do and again when you come at it like that as guilt does not change your heart it doesn't i try to cover it up with some all right that's what i need to do as opposed to getting on our faces and saying lord i'm greedy i love the riches of this world i am self-righteous and i need your overwhelming grace to absolutely change my heart so that i can walk in repentance it takes prayers like that takes prayers like that saying.
Lord take my life what do you want what do you want God you want me to move to honduras is that what you want follow the rockies and sell everything all our possessions and go you want me to radically change the way i spend what do you want lord you want me to give to missionaries to get to this ministry what do you want from me God how do you want to work in my life i've experienced the riches of your grace here it is take it what do you want to do that is a much different response and that's the kind of response that.
Jesus is looking for in this story and my hope is as we walk out here today we wouldn't think oh cool neat teaching but we would get on our faces we humbly submit to the lord and our sin and say take it all Jesus is better i believe this what do you want to do band's going to come up and i want us to sit for a moment before they start and i just want us to be reflective here that's a tough word i get it it's a tough story my hope is is that we'd sit in that don't don't squelch conviction from the Holy Spirit.
Now let him go to work how do we need to submit ourselves fully and trust in the righteousness of Christ you know it is a tiring pursuit to prove and to do and to try to please God listen you don't have to please God it's by grace that anyone is safe if you trust in the in what Jesus has already done you'll get to experience more of him don't use good works as a cover-up trust in his righteousness money is a difficult subject it's.
So tied and connected to our hearts may we have the humility to recognize that we most likely have trusted in riches and not Jesus and if there's anyone here that's listening to all this and it's like man i don't even know where to start all that sounds great i don't even know where i stand in all of this you're talking about submitting i don't even know what that looks like my hope this morning is that you would see that the God of the universe has you here in this room this morning to hear that he loved you.
So much that he gave up his son that you might have life with him and a life that's so much better than the riches and the pursuit of riches in this world so much better than trusting in your own good works may you fully place your faith in your hope in him let me pray you were so good you have indescribable riches that wait for us in eternity God i pray that you'd help us see that so clearly this morning i pray you'd help us joyfully like zacchaeus come running to you and say what do you want.
Lord i pray we as Christians pray some dangerous prayers and open ourselves up and be vulnerable to see you go to work i pray there's anyone here that consistently struggles with self-righteousness you'd help them see it'll never be enough on your own but it was paid for on the cross they don't have to keep going back to their own good works they can trust in you you've got to pray there's anyone here that does not know you that has not fully believed in you.
God i pray right now just as you called zacchaeus out of the tree you would call them into faith we ask us in Jesus name amen.