NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH

October 20, 2013

Once again, welcome to National Community Church! We are thrilled that you are here! If you
have a Bible with you, turn over to Matthew Chapter 19 and we will also put it up on the screen
and we’ll get there in just a moment.

Two quick announcements, first of all, you have been praying, as we have been updating you on
the D.C. Dream Center. We had a meeting with the ANC Commission on Thursday evening and
what an interesting night! Our prayers were answered! And it was prayer that really put this thing
over the top. We won approval from the Commission to move forward with our D.C. Dream
Center and it is one small step, one giant leap in the direction of this vision. Again, I want to
remind us so that we don’t forget who we are and what we are about. We believe that God is
going to bless us in proportion to how we care for the poor in our city. That’s at the heartbeat of
this church and the Dream Center is right at the epicenter of that. So I can’t wait to see the way
God is going to continue to go before us and prepare good works in advance! Thank you for
praying with us and of course thanks to Pastor Joel and Ernest for their leadership in that
endeavor. So I wanted to share that update in case you don’t follow NCC on Twitter. Why
wouldn’t you? But in case you don’t, you are out of the loop but now you are in the loop and you
can follow on Twitter.

Second, it has been awhile since we’ve done an all-church gathering and we felt like it is time.
So on November 3rd, the third week of this series, we are going to culminate with an evening, a
Sunday evening at the Lincoln Theater. And what’s beautiful is we are going to have an
opportunity for you to be baptized. If you have never taken that step of obedience or that step of
faith, this is an opportunity to do that. We know many of you have put your faith in Christ over
the last few weeks and months and maybe some of you have just never taken that step. Baptism
is the public profession of our faith. In a sense, it is the way we let everybody know that we are
all in. And we go all in! We do baptism by immersion so you will get wet! I’m going to put you
all the way under the water but I’ve never left anybody under there! 100 percent come back up!
It is this wonderful symbol of the new life we have in Christ. So I encourage you to email
baptism@[Link] or fill out a connection card and let us know that you are interested
in that.

Matthew 19:16
16
Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal
life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is
good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?”
And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You
shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor
as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?”
And this is one of those questions that belies what is underneath the surface and we’ll come back
to it.
21
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to
the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When the rich, young
man heard this word, he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.

Let me paint a picture before we jump into this passage. A number of years ago, I was part of a
mission team from this church to the Galapagos Islands. I think it’s the closest thing to the
Garden of Eden left on earth! It’s amazing! Yes it is populated by people but it’s like a zoo
without cages. Animals are everywhere, exotic animals. We are talking 200 year old Tortugas
that are this big! Then you’ve got these iguanas that are not intimidated by human kind. These
are lizards that bake on the dark-colored rocks and you can go right up to them if you dare do it.
One of my distinct memories was, we went by boat island hoping and at one of those islands,
there were some sea lions swimming right off the dock. I don’t know what I was thinking, Parker
was with me. He was 10 or 11 years old and I had the brilliant idea to jump in and swim with
them! Looking back, I’m thinking was that safe, but I’m here! And it was one of the most
thrilling experiences! These sea lions just played with us. They were swimming figure eights
around us. What a memory! Then one of my favorites, whenever we were out on the boat, we
would see these pelicans that looked like prehistoric pterodactyls that would just circle around
the boat and at any given moment they would dive-bomb and the water is so clear that you could
see it and they would go six, eight, ten feet down and come back up with breakfast in their beaks.
It was thrilling to see these animals in their natural habitat.

So then we got on a boat and got on a plane and came back home and it was maybe two weeks
later that our family went to the National Zoo. Let’s just say that it wasn’t the same experience
because there was no chance that these animals were going to kill us. It was not nearly as
exciting as being in the Galapagos. It is not like we could jump in with the walruses, at least not
without getting kicked out. The animals were behind cages and it was just a little bit boring.
Then we walked into the ape house and I had one of those moments. There was this 400 pound
gorilla behind Plexiglas and I don’t even know why but this thought fired across my synapses, I
wonder if churches do to people what zoos do to animals.

Now, I think it is well-intentioned but would you agree with me? I grew up in some churches
that were this way, almost like we try to remove some of the risk, minimize the sacrifice, and
eliminate the element of danger. We try to tame people in the name of Christ. We will as if the
purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. But the will of God is not an insurance plan, it is a
dangerous plan. Jesus didn’t die just to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.

So when we pronounce the benediction at the end of our services at this church, I would sure like
to think that it scars the you-know-what out of the enemy! I would like to think that we are
sending dangerous people back into their natural habitat to wreak havoc on the enemy. Now if
you’ve been around here for very long, you know that is how we operate. That is our mindset.
Faithfulness is not holding the fort, faithfulness is invading hell-holes with the light and love of
Jesus Christ.
Matthew 11:12 says that from the time of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has
been forcefully advancing and forceful people have been seizing it.

I think C.T. Studd may have said it best. He said, ‘Some want to live within the sound of church
or chapel bells, but I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.’ I like that a lot. Here’s
what I’m getting at, I think that when this rich, young ruler, who was obeying all the
commandments says what’s still missing, I think what’s missing is the risk, the danger, the
sacrifice. On paper, this guy has everything that we think we would want. You don’t have to go
to seminary to exegete this one, it’s right there for us. He was rich. He was young. He was a
ruler. What that means is he had wealth and he had youth and he had power. He had it all and yet
he says what am I still missing. Now, isn’t that the question that others should have been posing
to him because he is the guy who seemed like he had everything. I think the problem is he was
like the caged animal. He was obeying the commandments but he lacked the rush of holy
adrenaline that you experience when you begin to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

So here’s what I want to do. With that as a backdrop, we are going to drill down and we are
going to jump into this story and see if we can’t walk out with a clear understanding of the
gospel.

Let me just tell you, there probably was a day and age maybe when I was a little bit younger
where I would love to get up and entertain you with stories and maybe say something that would
make you laugh and it’s not like I don’t believe in laughter. I think you ought to have a little bit
of fun at church. But I want to make sure this weekend there is a single person that walks out of
any of our locations that does not have an explicit understanding of what the gospel is. This is
what is more fundamentally important. And it think we see it in this story.

Verse 16

Someone came up to Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

In other words, to have eternal life, to be saved, to be in this place where I’m right with God,
where my sins are forgiven and my eternal future is secure, what good thing must I do? What’s
interesting to me is that this question reveals a false assumption that eternal life is the by-product
of something that we do, namely good deeds. Are you tracking with me? This is the wrong
question. And if you ask the wrong question, you will not get the right answer. The beautiful
thing is, you can see this throughout the gospel, when someone asks the wrong question, I love
Jesus’ answer because it has nothing to do with the question that they asked. He has the ability to
go, ‘The question you should have asked is this so I’m going to give you the answer to that.’
And we are going to see that in just a minute.

There is a common misconception in our culture that is the same as this rich, young ruler had,
that if you do more good things than bad things, that the scales of justice will tip in your favor
and you are ok. The problem with that is this – James 2:10 says: Whoever keeps the whole law
yet fails at one point has become accountable for all of it. In other words, if you break one part
of the law, you fall into a category that the Bible says is a lawbreaker. It is all or nothing. There
is no middle ground here. So if you fail at one point, you fail at the whole thing.
Romans 3:23 says it this way: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The word ‘sin’ here is an archery term and it refers to missing the bull’s eye, if you will.
Shooting an arrow but not hitting it right in the middle of the target. In other words, just a little
bit off. Sin is missing the moral bull’s eye, and not just in our actions but our motivations as
well. Do I need to ask if there is anybody who has hit the bull’s eye ever time? I think sometimes
language carries certain weight and the word ‘sin’ probably, I’m guessing it is not your favorite
word! It’s not the word you love to use more than any other word. And in some respect, we don’t
necessarily like to think of ourselves as a sinner. But what the Bible is saying is that you are not
Robin Hood! You can’t split an arrow. You are not a perfect archer. You don’t hit the bull’s eye
every time. You have fallen short of the glory of God.

It means that we don’t measure up to the standard that God has set, which is perfection. There is
only One who has and that is the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ. The good news is this, this is
the gospel, II Corinthians [Link] God made Him who had no sin to become sin for us so that we
would become the righteousness of God.

Let me try to translate. It is like Jesus says, ‘Here’s the deal that’s on the table, you take your sin
and transfer it to my account and I will pay your sin debt in full.’ Now that’s an incredible deal
right there, but that’s on half of the gospel. The other half is this, He says, ‘Then I’m going to
take my righteousness, everything I’ve done right, in other words, I’ve already paid for
everything you’ve done wrong, but it gets better. Why don’t we take everything I’ve done right,
my righteousness and transfer it into your account and let’s call it even.’ What? This is better
than good! This is not just good news, this is the best news! What it means is we can be in right
standing with God, not by keeping the law because we all fail at trying to keep the law, not
because of something we do. Listen, religion is spelled d-o, it is what man can do for God. But a
relationship with God is all about what He has done for us!

In fact, in Romans 12, it says the best thing that you can do for God is simply accept and receive
what He has done for you. That is the gospel message! Some of you have been trying so hard for
so long to do so many good things so that you can get into God’s good graces. That is not how
you get into God’s good graces! No, you simply receive the gift of salvation that He freely offers
through the sacrifice of his sinless Son on the cross. That is the gospel!

Someday, you are going to stand before the judgment seat of God. That is the destiny of all of us.
Doesn’t that make sense, to give account to the one who created us, to give account for the time,
talent and treasure that God has entrusted to us. And when you stand before God, if you try to
stand on your good deeds, it is a house of cards and it is going to crumble. There is only one
way you can stand before God and that is in the righteousness of Christ. And what is so beautiful
is that you don’t have to stand on your own two feet as your own advocate. The Bible says that
Jesus Christ is our advocate! In other words, we stand on his righteousness so that if you have
come to that point in your life where you have confessed your sin and professed your faith in the
Lordship of Jesus Christ, then when you stand before the heavenly Father, you don’t stand in
your sin. You sin has been forgiven and forgotten! You stand in the righteousness of God and
that is precisely what the Father sees in you. He sees the righteousness of his Son that has been
transferred to your account.

This is the wrong question, what good things must I do to gain eternal life. You can’t do enough
good things. The problem is you’ve done enough wrong things, there is only one way and that is
through Jesus Christ. The good news is the cross is never closed. It is always open for business.
It doesn’t matter how big your sin debt is, He is ready, willing, waiting to forgive you. Not just
some of your sin, all of it.

I John [Link] If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Not part of it, not some of it, all of it.

Verse 17
17
And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If
you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Notice here the word ‘life,’ if you want to enter into life, just a little footnote. Jesus didn’t die
just to make bad people good. He died to make dead people alive. The Bible says that we were
dead in the transgressions of our sins. Our spirit was dead but we are resurrected into a newness
of life. That is why it is called being born again. A newness of life when we put our faith in Jesus
Christ.

John 10:10 says the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus said that I came so that you
might have life and have it more abundantly. The word ‘abundantly’ is a two-dimensional word.
There is a qualitative and quantitative dimension and I think this is awesome. By quantitative, it
means never ending. It means eternal. It means I’m going to give you a life that will not, that
cannot end. By qualitative, I think what it means a life with more joy, more peace, more power
and more purpose because you are in relationship with the One who created you.

I know this is counter-intuitive but you aren’t really going to come alive into the fullness of who
God has created you to be until you die to self. And it is only when you died to yourself, which is
symbolized in baptism by going under the water, that you then come back up into the newness of
life. That is why Paul said that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. We die to ourselves and
we live for God’s purposes.

Verse 18
18
He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit
adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother;
also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “I have kept all
these; what do I still lack?”

What is interesting to me is that Jesus doesn’t correct him. So what we are talking about is
probably the most religious person in the Bible. If it is true that he has wholeheartedly obeyed all
of those commandments, then he hasn’t done anything wrong. Here’s the problem, you can do
nothing wrong and still do nothing right. Goodness is not the absence of badness. One of the
great mistakes I think we’ve made as the church is that we get so fixated on sins of co-mission,
don’t do this and don’t do that and you’re ok. But what about the sins of omission, what you
would’ve, could’ve and should’ve done? We say it around here a lot, potential is God’s gift to us,
what we do with it is our gift back to God.

Let me bring it closer to home. I just don’t think that God’s ultimate purpose for your life is to
come to church for 60 minutes a week and then you’re good to go. No. You can go to church
your whole life and never go all in with God. Here’s the bottom line, this guy was following the
rules but he was not following Jesus.

And that’s my question to you. Are you following the rules or are you following Jesus? If you
are following the rules, you will be asking the same question at some point. What am I missing?
What am I still lacking? Religion is about following rules. Following Jesus, that’s a relationship
and that’s the relationship He offers to each one of us.

The rich, young ruler was rich. He had a net worth that got him labeled rich. He had assets and
holdings. What I’m saying is, he could have leveraged his wealth for kingdom causes and made
an unbelievable difference. He had power. So he had the leverage to open doors, to write letters
of reference, to get the gospel message into places where maybe these disciples could not. And
he was young, so he had his entire life before him.

What I’m saying is this guy could have made an unbelievable difference. He wasn’t doing
anything wrong but think about how much he could have done right. I think what happened is
that the day came that, as he was on his death bed, he was the rich, old ruler at that point and he
had everything. And I can’t help but wonder if there was a moment where he realized that
everything was nothing and a moment of regret set in because he missed the opportunity of a
lifetime.

If you’re taking notes, this might be worth tweeting, everything minus Jesus equals nothing.
Jesus plus nothing equals everything. At the end of the day, that is the bottom line.

Verse 21
21
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to
the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

Now, let’s be honest, have you ever felt bad for the rich, young ruler? I mean, sell everything and
give it to the poor? If I was there, I probably would’ve pulled Jesus aside and said, ‘You might
want to think about starting with the tithe.’ Why don’t we just go for 10 percent here Jesus?
Selling everything? No, Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. This famous rich, young ruler,
what did he find his identity in? What did he find his security in? He was all about wealth and
power and Jesus knew that if he did not give those things up, he would never find this abundant
life that can only be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. I don’t care how much money you
have in the bank, it cannot make up for any deficit you have emotionally or relationally. It can’t
make up for the experiences you would miss out on by following Jesus. So Jesus throws down
the gauntlet. It is all or nothing. Either Jesus is Lord of all or He isn’t Lord at all. There is no
middle ground. You cannot read the Bible or the gospels and come to any other conclusion.
Lordship is an all of nothing proposition. You know what, Jesus loved this man far too much to
ask for anything less. And He loves you far too much to ask for anything less than all of you for
all of Him.

Listen, if Jesus hung on his cross, we can certainly carry ours. He died for us. We can certainly
live for Him.

The reason why we feel bad for the rich, young ruler is because we focus on what Jesus asked
him to give up instead of thinking about what Jesus put on the table.

Stick with me. Think about this, in the 1st Century, the average person never traveled outside a 30
mile radius of their birthplace. They lived in a very small world. Their experience was limited to
this tiny little universe. And the disciples would have spent their entire life within a stone’s
throw of the Sea of Galilee. Fishing is all they would have done. Jesus then said I want you to go
into all the world. Stop and think about this. He took these men, whose lives would have been
about a 30 mile radius and said I’m going to send you to the four corners of the ancient world.
According to the church historian, they go all over the world. Peter ends up in Italy. John goes to
Asia. James goes to Spain. Doubting Thomas goes to India. What I’m saying is, when you follow
Jesus, He is going to take you a lot further than you ever imagined you would go. Part of what
following Jesus is if we go from this tiny little universe that we live in that is about my purposes
or what I can do and He blows it up and says I’m going to invite you into an abundant life that,
number one is eternal, but there is going to be more love, more power, more joy than you
could’ve ever imagined and I’m going to do things through you that you could never do in your
own strength and power.

Stop and think about what these disciples experienced. They had box seats to every sermon that
Jesus ever preached and then they would hang out in the green room with him. They witnessed
all of his miracles. They drank the water that was turned into wine. They filleted the miraculous
catch of fish. Especially what I’m saying is they ate a miracle! Can you put a price tag on that?

What I’m getting at is this. Our culture has somehow bought into the very same illusion or in
worst case, delusion. Most of us spend most of our lives accumulating the wrong thing. Like
whoever has the most toys at the end of the game wins. No! Probably loses! Because what you
have here is a picture of someone who was all about accumulating possessions. Listen, I have
met very few people who are possessed by a demon but I’ve never a lot of people who are
possessed by their possessions. They don’t own things, things own them. You know what? This
guy had a heap of toys at the end of the game. But I promise you he was empty inside. The
disciples had nothing. In fact, they were martyred. But the eternal reward that they had and the
things they accomplished and the things they experienced, you can’t even compare them to each
other.

Please hear me, your greatest asset becomes your greatest liability if you don’t use it for God’s
purposes. The very thing that God could have leveraged in his life became a noose around his
neck because he didn’t give it back to God.
As a kid, our family used to watch a television program called Wild Kingdom. I don’t know if
everybody in this church is old enough to remember that but I remember Sunday nights watching
that show and one particular episode was on monkey trappers in Borneo. The way these trappers
caught monkeys was pretty fascinating. They would hollow out a gourd and tie it by a string to a
stake in the ground and then they would bore a little hole in that gourd and they would sprinkle
some seed inside that the monkeys loved. They would disappear and eventually the monkeys
would come out of the jungle and put their hands inside the gourd to grab the seeds and when
they clinched their fists, the hole was just the right size so they could no longer pull it out.
Eventually the trappers would come back and they would catch these monkeys because they
would not let go of these seeds. I know, that may seem like the cheesiest illustration I have ever
shared with you but they were trapped by what they held onto. And I don’t mind a little bit of
cheese on the side! Here we are, we think monkeys, silly, silly monkeys. Monkeys are so silly!
How silly can you be? Trapped by what you hold onto? You silly monkey. No, silly, silly
humans. Silly, silly us. This rich, young ruler couldn’t let go, couldn’t sell his possessions and he
missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime and the opportunity of eternity to follow in the
footsteps of Jesus, to not just accumulate possessions but to accumulate the experiences that you
accumulate when you follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

I think my question is this, in order to be all in, there is something you need to let go of. I know
it. I look in the mirror every morning. There is something you need to let go of. I think our
homework this week is pretty simple. What is it? You spend some time in prayer and you give
the Holy Spirit the freedom to bring a little bit of conviction into your life and you ask the
question, God is there anything in my life that I’m holding onto that is really holding me back? I
want it so bad but it’s really trapping me. The good is keeping me from something that is even
better. What is it that you need to let go of?

Now we get to the very end and then I’m done.

Verse 27

Then Peter said to him, ‘Look, we have left everything to follow You, what then will there be for
us?’

Here’s what’s happening, Peter is looking at this rich, young ruler who keeps everything he has
and Peter is wondering if they are getting the raw end of the deal. They have given up everything
and he is keeping everything and right now it seems like he is winning and we are losing. So this
is a very genuine question and Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you the truth, in the age when all things
are renewed, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will
also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel and whoever has left houses or
brothers or sister or family or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive 100 times as
much and will inherit eternal life.

Two quick stories, I have a friend who, for 15 years, pastured one of the fastest growing
churches in America. Before starting the church, he was on the executive track with Microsoft
making six digits and this was in the hey day when Microsoft was on the climb. He also had
16,000 stock options valued in the millions of dollars. He was a rich, young ruler. Then one day,
he felt like God was tapping him on the shoulder to plant a church. To make a long story short,
my friend gave up his six digit salary, forfeited 16,000 stock options in Microsoft to plant a
church and his starting salary was $26,000. I love the prayer he prayed when he made this
defining decision. He asked God to give him one soul for every share of stock that he gave up.
And God has answered that prayer. A couple of years ago, I watched one of their baptism videos.
Unbelievable! They had to rent a water park! Hundreds and hundreds of people were baptized.
They have seen thousands and tens of thousands come to faith in Jesus Christ.

I think we need a paradigm shift. I think we need to see ourselves as shareholders in the kingdom
of God, this eternal kingdom we are a part of. And we need to realize that, listen, I think every
investment buys shares in something that no one can take away from us.

So, my friend gave up 16,000 stock options in Microsoft but I would suggest that he has some
serious stock options in the kingdom of God! And they will earn compound interest for eternity.
That is a good trade!

Last story, many, many moons ago, one of my hobbies was trading stocks and options and I quit
a long, long time ago because I couldn’t handle it emotionally. It wasn’t healthy so I stopped. Let
me tell you one of the lessons I learned. It was nearly 18 years ago, I got a hot tip on a stock. I’ve
sense learned that if you get inside information and you are not an insider, it is probably not
inside information, it is probably bad information. You are probably being sold a bill of goods. It
was this Canadian company which was on the verge of bankruptcy would be bought out by an
American company and the shares were trading on pennies for the dollar and would at some
point then be worth dollars on the penny. I’ll be honest, I wanted to get rich quick. This was not
an investment, I’m keeping it real, it was a gamble based on greed. I bought thousands of shares.
And then when the stock continued to go down, just for cost basis, I thought to myself, let’s add
to this portfolio. There is a phrase for that, throwing good money after bad, bad money after
good. It never happened. They filed for bankruptcy and our shares in that company were
absolutely worthless. It is a lesson I learned that cost about the same as my college education.
They weren’t worth one red cent.

I think that’s a very mild example because we invest in so many things that will someday be
bankrupt, that have no eternal value in them. C.T. Studd, the guy who said he wanted to run a
rescue shop within a yard of hell, also wrote a poem. You might recognize the last two lines of
this poem:

Two little lions I heard one day, traveling along life’s busy way
Bringing conviction to my heart from my mind, would not depart
Only one life, ‘twil soon be past
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

I think the question is this, we are all the rich, young ruler. What are we throwing our money at?
What are we throwing our time after? What are we throwing our talents after? What are we
throwing our lives after? Every once in a while, we need a reality check and that’s what this is.
Your greatest regret when you stand before the judgment seat of God will be whatever time,
talent and treasure you did not give back to the One who gave it to you in the first place.

In the words of Jim Elliot, he is no fool who loses what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot
lose.

Let’s pray.

Lord help us to not just be hearers of your Word but doers of it. God I pray that a switch would
flip, that something would happen in our hearts this weekend that we would have the courage to
look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves what arewe accumulating. Are we accumulating
material possessions that won’t last beyond the grave? Are we investing ourselves in things that
will someday go bankrupt? Or are we shareholders in your kingdom? Are we seeking first your
kingdom or second or third or seventh? Lord thank You that the gospel costs nothing but we also
know that it demands everything. You want nothing less than all of us and You deserve it
because You gave nothing less than all of You to us. So as we prepare in these moments to
celebrate communion as a congregation at all of our locations, I pray we would have a moment
when we would allow your Spirit to speak to us, to identify that thing we are holding onto that
we need to let go of in order to be all in with You. Help us, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Transcribed by:
Ministry Transcription
margaretsalyers@[Link]