If you have your Bibles, look with me to Mark chapter 10, and we're going to read verses 17 through 22.
And I'm going to preach about the attitude of a true believer.
Before we get into that, let me just say next Sunday, I hope you'll be here.
I think you'll want to be here.
I'm going to preach on heaven, and I always love doing that.
It's just one of those messages that leaves you feeling great.
And so I hope you'll come and be with us as we think about heaven next Sunday morning.
And while you're thinking about that, next Sunday is Friend Day.
We're going to invite our friends this week.
We've had an emphasis every week for the last four weeks.
And this coming week, the emphasis is on calling a friend, phoning a friend, and asking them to come to be with you.
That can be a family member, a neighbor, somebody you work with.
But just try to bring someone with you to church next week.
I don't have a lot of friends in this area that I know, you know, other than you folk who are already coming here.
And so it's going to be hard for me, but I'm going to try to bring a friend next week as well.
So I hope you'll get on the phone and call some folk, and we'll have a good crowd next week as we come to think about heaven.
I want to talk this morning about the attitude of a true believer.
And let me tell you what I mean by that.
I'm thinking about when a person comes to know Christ, what does their attitude regarding the gospel have to be in order for them to truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
I see folks who have this notion in mind, well, you know what?
This is just totally on me.
And so I can understand the gospels.
I hear the gospels.
I kind of believe them.
I believe there was a Jesus.
I believe he came and he died on the cross and he rose from the dead.
Don't have any problem with that.
And I kind of believe that there's life after death.
Not altogether sure, but I kind of think there is.
But, you know, right now I'm in the middle of life and I'm having a great time.
And I'm just not ready to settle down and become a believer.
So what I'm going to do is this.
I'm going to file all that stuff away in the back of my mind.
And then when I get closer to the end, when I get out of that time where I'm going to sow my wild oats and I'm ready to settle down,
I've got kids and grandkids maybe, and maybe I'm even near death.
I'll just at that point when it's more convenient and more in keeping what I want to do in my life,
I'll give my life to Jesus.
But I'm not ready to do it today.
I'm just going to put all that stuff on the back burner.
And they kind of have this notion, I can just come to Christ anytime I jolly well feel like coming to Christ.
So, man, if they tell me I've got cancer and I've got two months to live, that'll be a good time to get saved, right?
I want you to know I think there are folk who genuinely, genuinely, I'm not just saying this,
genuinely come to Christ in the last moments of their life on their deathbed.
They come to the Lord Jesus and they're sincerely saved.
But I want to tell you something.
I've got a problem with a person who knows about Jesus all their life and thinks, you know,
I can just put this off until it's convenient time.
I don't think that's the kind of attitude someone has who genuinely trusts Jesus.
And I want to show you that.
It's not a matter of what I think, what my feelings are, what my opinion is.
It's a matter of what the Scripture tells us.
And so I'm going to show you two stories this morning.
One of these stories, everybody, virtually everybody here,
unless you've not had a chance to read the Scripture much,
virtually everybody here knows this one story, the story we're going to begin with.
The second story is just a single verse.
It's a story wrapped up in just one verse.
It's a parable that Jesus gives.
And to be honest with you, it's one of those parables that preachers often overlook.
We don't often turn to that and say, I'm going to preach a whole message on this.
We usually just throw it in at some point in a sermon, okay?
But this morning, I want you to know, it's the real focus of our message today.
So go with me to Mark chapter 10, and let's begin our reading in verse 17.
And I'm just going to read this story and then make some comments,
and then we'll look at that other one, and we'll be done.
Look with me to verse 17.
Now, you may or may not know this story right off the get-go.
If you look down at the heading above where we just read,
probably your Bible has something like this, the rich young ruler.
And you don't read that he's a ruler in this particular passage,
but if you look at all the synoptic Gospels,
you'll find that one Gospel writer says he was a ruler,
and then Luke says he had great wealth,
and here we're going to see he had great possessions as well.
So here's what we know about this guy right out of the gate.
He's a young fellow.
He's a guy who's a ruler, which means he enjoyed a certain fair amount of popularity.
He has some status in the community, no doubt.
And he's a guy who's got a lot of money.
So when you think of all those things,
and you picture this guy coming running up to Jesus,
here's Jesus and his disciples,
and they're going on this journey,
and right in the middle of their leaving to go on this journey,
this guy comes running up out of the crowd,
and he just kneels right there at Jesus' feet,
and he looks up and he says,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?
You've got to kind of say, man, didn't see that coming.
It's not the kind of person you typically even read about in the Gospels
who comes running up to Jesus and kneels
and asks such a question, especially as directly as this man asked it.
You find on another occasion a guy by the name of Jairus,
he's a big shot.
He's the leader of the synagogue in Capernaum.
He comes up, he runs, he kneels, does the same thing,
but you find out there he's an older guy who has a daughter
who's at death's door.
And so he's, I get it.
I understand why.
He'd come and beg Jesus for a miracle.
We see of others who come, and they ask Jesus,
but always they've got in the back of their mind,
there's something they need.
This man's not asking for any kind of physical miracle.
He's not asking for any kind of help in the physical realm.
He's got that covered.
You understand?
He doesn't need financial help.
He doesn't need a physical miracle.
He doesn't need anything from anybody else.
He's wanting spiritual help.
So it makes it all the more unusual.
And look at the question he asked Jesus.
Master, tell me, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Well, that's a great question, right?
Can I tell you, for years and years and years,
in fact, even to this day, but especially when I pastored,
every day I'd pray.
When I'd get in my office, I'd begin the day,
and I'd ask the Lord.
I'd look over my calendar and say,
Lord, would you help me with this and this and this?
And I'd always say, Lord, would you lead somebody here today
just right off the streets?
They'll just pass by our buildings,
and they'll just see our sign out front,
and they'll just come in here,
and they'll just want to know how can they be saved?
Would you just lead somebody to me today
who's looking to know Christ?
I'm sure lots of you in this room have prayed
that kind of prayer as well.
Lord, just lead me to somebody who's looking to be saved.
I want to tell you, in the evangelical world,
this guy lobs Jesus a softball, right?
I mean, it's the evangelical softball of the year.
Could you tell me, Son of God, who better?
Could you tell me, how could I inherit the kingdom of God?
What can I do?
So you know what you would expect, don't you?
That Jesus just kind of goes in the wind up
and all right and pow, knocks it right out of the stadium.
That's what you would anticipate.
But that's not what Jesus does.
I mean, I'd have been on him, to be honest, like ugly on an ape.
If he had said that to me,
I'd have just jumped in, gone right to the Roman road,
or I'm not going to get him lost again
because he already knows he's lost.
He wants to be saved.
He wouldn't have come to me
unless he knew something was lacking in his life.
He would have never raised that kind of question.
So I'm just going to go jump right in and say,
here's how you can come to know God.
But that's not what Jesus does.
I've got to be honest with you.
If you didn't already read this story,
you'd never guess what he says.
Look at Jesus' response, if you will, to that question.
Verse 18.
Why do you call me good?
Why?
I mean, if I'd been one of his disciples,
and I'd been standing there, and I'd heard that.
I mean, this is what we've been looking for all the time,
somebody to come, and they want to have their hearts right,
and they want to go to heaven.
They want to inherit the kingdom of God.
And he says, good teacher, good master.
It's not an insult.
It's a good thing, right?
And Jesus says, well, now, tell me.
Why do you call me good?
I'd be going, huh?
What?
What are you doing, Jesus?
Don't let him get away.
I mean, give him the gospel.
Jesus says, why do you call me good?
Can I tell you?
It was a wonderful thing to say,
because Jesus knew what's going on in this guy's mind,
and in his heart, and how he's thinking.
Did he think that Jesus was God?
Absolutely not.
There's not a question in my mind.
He believed that this man, Jesus, was God.
He thought just what he said.
He was a good teacher.
He was a good man.
And Jesus wants to capitalize on that
and send him a message about what's going on in his own life,
in the man's life.
We all use that expression, don't we?
We say, he's a good guy.
She's a good guy.
You go to a funeral, you always hear the preacher say,
he was a good man.
She was a good woman.
And they're not lying about that.
They mean that compared to a lot of folk,
they're really a good, good, good person.
Or even if you look at them individually,
he treated his family well, she treated her family well.
They were good citizens.
They were good members of First Baptist Church.
They're good people.
But notice what Jesus says in response to that.
Why do you call me good, Jesus asked him.
No one is good but one, and that is God.
No one is good but God.
And you may be wondering, well, why did Jesus pick that apart?
Why did Jesus make a point of that?
Because he knows what this guy's thinking, not about him, Jesus,
but about himself.
When he calls Jesus good, he's not saying you're good as in perfect, as in God.
He's saying you're good as in I'm good.
You're good.
We're all pretty good.
We have our good moments.
But Jesus is going to show this man something about himself from this point going forward
that he's not prepared to see, and I don't know that he ever saw.
I don't know that he got it, to be honest.
I think he walked off, and he never understood what Jesus was saying.
And here's the point Jesus is making.
Look at what he says next.
You know the commandments.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not bear false witness.
Do not defraud.
Honor your father and your mother.
You know what he's done?
Jesus has now skipped to the Ten Commandments.
He's gone to Exodus chapter 20 and verse 12 and following.
And he cited six of the Ten Commandments.
And get this now.
These six he cited are the six that theologians call commandments on the horizontal plane.
He's omitted the first four, which are commandments on the vertical plane.
And by vertical plane, I mean this.
They're the ones that relate to our relationship with God.
Keep the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
He says,
Worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Don't have any graven.
He skipped all those.
And he's gone to these that are on the horizontal plane that deal with man's relationship with other men.
And so Jesus says,
Well, you call me good.
There's no one good but God.
You know what you need to do.
You need to keep the Ten Commandments.
And he says,
How you relate to men.
Is that okay?
Have you been keeping those about how you relate to men?
And you know what the man says?
Look at his response.
The man says,
Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.
Well, yes, Master.
Of course.
I'm a good Jewish boy.
I've maintained all these commandments.
Now, I want to just show you something.
Most of us in this room,
if you say to them,
say to folk,
You been keeping the Ten Commandments?
What do you think?
We think to ourselves.
Well, sure.
Yeah.
Right.
But have you?
Have you?
You ever gossiped?
You broke that one.
Ever lied?
Ever failed to report some cash you got?
On your income tax?
Nobody knew about?
Ever hurt somebody?
Ever stole anything?
And on and on and on.
You see, we think,
Well, if I just don't break it all the time,
I'm not guilty of breaking it.
But you know what James says?
James says,
If you break it in one point,
you're guilty of breaking it all.
You get that?
If you're guilty at one point,
you're guilty of breaking all of them.
And Jesus knew,
and that's the reason he makes such a big deal
about this thing of being good.
Buddy,
you're delusional.
You're not as good as you think you are.
Right?
And none of us are.
We convince ourselves,
try to convince ourselves
that we really are great, good people,
and we just,
we're not that bad.
I mean, I'm not,
I'm not the worst guy in the world,
and so I'm pretty good, right?
Jesus says,
No, truth is,
you're not.
You're a sinner,
just like everybody else.
And so,
you're not that good.
Well,
Jesus is going to tell him what he needs to do.
Look at what he tells him he needs to do.
Look at the very next verse.
This is going to shock some of you.
Then looking at him,
Jesus loved him.
He's not angry with him.
He's not put out with him.
He loves him.
You lack one thing.
Go sell all you have
and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure.
Look at that word.
Treasure.
I want you just to remember it for a minute.
You will have treasure in heaven.
Then come follow me.
Now, this guy wants eternal life.
He wants eternal life.
You know why he's coming to Jesus?
Because he knows he doesn't have it.
He knows deep in his heart
when he looks at his life,
he's got a lot of stuff.
He's got material things.
He's got popularity.
He's got status.
He's got the respect of the community.
But what I don't have is God.
And I believe this all over my heart.
God has given us an ability
when we'll get real honest with ourselves
and stop being delusional
and look inward,
we know if we're right with God or not.
Doesn't matter what our parents think,
what our pastor thinks,
what our deacons think,
what our wife or husband thinks,
we know if we're really right with God.
I think most every one of you,
if not every one of you,
right now under the sound of my voice,
you know today,
regardless what anybody else in this room thinks,
you know whether or not
you are really right with God,
whether or not you're really ready to die
and stand before God in judgment
this very moment.
And that young man took inventory of his life
and even though he says,
I'm keeping all these commandments
and I want you to know,
I think he is a moral guy.
And I think for the most part,
he did keep all those commandments.
I'm not saying he,
you know,
he was a rotten sinner.
I'm just saying,
he was a sinner.
But I believe this,
when he looked at his life,
he knew this,
there's something missing
or he would never have come
and knelt before Jesus
and said,
tell me,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?
And I want to tell you,
that's where some of you in this room today,
even though your name's on the roll of this church,
that's where you are.
You're perfectly honest,
you know that's where,
because I'm not ready to meet God.
When I was a young man,
living in Anderson,
another young guy who was my age at that time
and good friend,
he went on to be a pastor of church here in South Carolina,
a large church and just a good, good guy.
But he looked at me one day,
we were in a locker room and he said,
Ralph, do you think we're ready to meet God?
And it shocked me when he said,
and I turned to him and I said,
I know I'm not.
I was in church every Sunday.
I'd been baptized.
My name was on the roll.
I was a leader among the youth.
And I knew I wasn't ready to meet God.
I knew I'm not right with God.
And I just knew that.
Innately, I knew that.
And I think this young man,
he knows that I'm not right with God.
So Jesus wants him to see where he really,
but he don't think he's that bad.
He's just not right with God.
So Jesus says,
here's what I want you to do.
If you want to be right with me,
go sell everything.
Every last thing.
And give it to the poor
and come take up the cross
and follow me.
And you will find treasure in heaven.
The young man's thinking to himself,
I got treasure right now.
I got lots of treasure.
I'm not hurting for money.
And this is what I know.
And that thing you talk about,
eternal life that I've asked you about,
I'm wanting to hedge my bets
in case it really is so,
but I'm not certain it's so.
And you see,
that's the problem with some of us
in this room again today.
We're never going to say that out loud in church.
We're just all going to say,
yeah, we believe that the heaven's out there
after this life is over.
But the truth of the matter is,
we're not so sure.
And that's why we hedge our bets
by making sure we keep holding on to this life.
Because we know this,
I know what I got here.
I can see my car,
I can see my house,
I can see my family,
I can see my relationships,
my friends,
I can see my money in the bank account,
and I can breathe,
I'm alive now.
But once I breathe my last
and the doctor says he's dead,
and he put me in the cash,
I don't know if I'm going to live then or not.
I hope so.
I think so.
Maybe so.
But that's uncertain.
So Jesus wanted to point out
how uncertain it is to him,
and he says,
here's what you do.
You go sell everything you have
and come take up the cross,
and you'll find treasure in heaven,
and you follow me,
and you'll get eternal life.
Now,
we're just going to get eternal life
because he sold what he had?
No.
Because it doesn't come to us by works.
But by his selling everything,
he was indicating Jesus,
I have complete confidence in you
and in God,
and I believe there's life after death,
and I want that.
And that was the importance
of his selling everything.
Now, I want to tell you,
I've heard some preachers and lay people
get this all mixed up and all wrong.
I've heard preachers even say,
well, you see,
he really didn't have to sell everything.
Jesus just wanted to see
if he was willing to sell everything.
There's not a shred of evidence
to hold to that idea.
I believe Jesus meant
go sell everything
and come take up the cross
and follow me,
and you'll have life in heaven.
And I'm going to show you
why I believe that
because of what Jesus said
on yet another occasion.
Before we see that,
though,
look at the man's reaction.
Look at verse 22.
But he was stunned
at this demand.
I love
how the Holman translates that.
I don't know what your translation says,
but the Holman says,
but he was stunned
at that demand.
You know what it is
to be stunned, right?
You're not anticipating something.
It takes you back.
It takes your breath away.
You just,
what?
I mean,
usually when we're stunned,
what?
We're stunned by news.
We're stunned by something
that happens in our life.
It's not what we thought
was going to happen.
This young man,
what was he thinking
when he said,
tell me,
how can I have eternal life?
I'll tell you what
I think he was thinking.
He was saying,
Jesus would say,
get more faithful
to the Son of God.
You got to stop
doing those few bad things
you're doing.
You got to give some money.
You got to give 10%,
20%,
25%.
Got to make a huge donation.
Got to start a ministry.
Got to get involved in something.
And I believe with all my heart
that man would have done that.
Whatever Jesus asked him
that seemed reasonable to him,
okay,
that's what I'll do.
But when Jesus said,
sell everything,
everything.
What did you say?
Huh?
Everything?
That's stunning.
Just as stunning
as it would be
to any of you
in this room.
If Jesus looked at you
and said,
you want eternal life?
Here's what?
Give it all up.
Your house,
your cars,
your family,
your job,
your 401k,
give it all away.
He's stunned by it.
And so here's what he does.
Look at the last verse
in this passage.
He was stunned at this demand
and he went away grieving
because he had many
possessions.
Simply say,
here's what he does.
He just looked at the ledger sheet
and says,
here's all I got
and here's what Jesus
is offering.
I wanted that
as a backup plan
but I got this
and this is real.
I know it's real
because I'm seeing it right now.
I'm living this.
Yeah,
can't give up this
for that.
I wanted it.
I don't want it that bad.
You follow what I'm saying?
Now go with me
to one other verse
and work through.
Look with me
to Matthew chapter 13
and verse 44.
And here's what it says
and I'm going to read it
just a phrase at a time
so just hang with me.
Don't jump ahead too much.
The kingdom of heaven.
Jesus is going to give us
a parable.
The kingdom of heaven.
And then he's going to say
here's what it's like
because he does that a lot
in the Gospel of Matthew.
Now look up and listen.
This is really important.
You'll get this
if you don't hear
what I'm saying.
The kingdom of heaven
in the Gospel of Matthew
is not talking about
a physical kingdom.
Geographical barriers
and limitations
and boundaries.
He's not talking about
that kind of kingdom.
When he says
the kingdom of heaven
in the Gospel of Matthew
or the kingdom of God
you'll read that as well.
He's saying to us
here's the manner
in which God rules.
Here's how God rules.
That's what he's saying to us.
Here's how God operates.
Here's how God rules.
Here's how God reigns.
He says
the kingdom of heaven
is like
a treasure.
You like that word?
Like a treasure.
Jesus told this other man
this same man
in the story we just read
you go sell everything
and come take up the cross
and follow me
and you'll have treasure
in heaven.
So now he talks
about treasure.
He says
the kingdom of heaven
the way God rules
is like
a treasure.
You ever wonder
what it'd be like
to find a treasure?
Don't you like movies
where they're searching
for a treasure?
I like this.
Indiana Jones.
Didn't y'all see
Indiana Jones
100 years ago
when it came out?
Didn't you love that movie?
I mean
he's searching
so hard
for the Ark of the Covenant
in one of those movies.
I mean
he's willing
to go through
anything
through fire
and snakes
and near death experiences
to put his life
on the line
because he wants
that treasure
that no one else
has found.
Well that's what
treasure is.
It's what floats
your boat.
It's whatever
you prize
more than anything
else in the world.
And Jesus says
the kingdom of God
is like a
treasure.
Then he says
buried in
a field.
You see that movie
The Pirates of the Caribbean?
They're looking for
treasure
and it's
buried out in the Caribbean
and they're searching
for it.
Well this
treasure is buried
in a field.
Let me just take
the time out
and tell you about
my little nephew.
My nephew
David
my sister's boy
she's got two boys
they're both preachers
Daniel and David
one of them's in Texas
at Waco
one of them's in
Wichita, Kansas
David's in Wichita, Kansas
he's the younger
when he was always
short for his age
and just full of energy
wild imagination
brilliant
kid
and when he was
in that
five, six
and seven
year old stage
he went through
about three years
of living in
a fantasy world
where he was
this character
at one time
and this character
another time
he went through
about six characters
I'm not kidding
my wife could tell you
my whole family
could tell you
this story
and not one word
I'm going to tell you
is made up
this is all truth
okay
he would stay
in character
24 hours a day
seven days a week
until he got out
of that character
he did it for
months
on end
he was Clint Eastwood
at one time
got him in some trouble
he used a little
profanity
one time
his mom about
killed him
over it
but he became
he became Clint Eastwood
he'd wear the guns
he'd have the hat
he'd talk like him
he'd look like him
he'd put the straw
in his mouth
like him
right
yeah
he was Clint Eastwood
in his mind
he was a farmer
at one time
wore bib overalls
straw hat
he went through
a farmer phase
he was a military
officer at one time
went through all that
he had a bunch
of these different
characters
one of his characters
was a pirate
he had a little patch
over his eye
had a pirate's hat
and he'd just do this
I mean they couldn't
get him out of it
he'd go to school
he was a pirate at school
he was just
wherever he was
that's how he was
you know
well when he was
in the pirate phase
my dad lived
across the street
from my sister
and so my dad
just loves
adores this boy
because he's so much
like my dad
and so
my dad would
at night
draw up these
little maps
he'd get out
in the yard
in the dark
my dad would
and he'd count
off so many steps
to the back
of the house
and then he'd
turn right
and go so many steps
then he'd come
to this tree
and he'd see
something about the tree
and he'd go
in another direction
toward a neighbor's house
and then he would
come to a doghouse
and turn left there
and then he'd dig
a hole about
a foot and a half deep
and he'd get a shoebox
and put my mama's
costume jewelry
in that shoebox
and he'd bury it
then he'd go
across the street
to my nephew's house
and he'd put
a thing on the door
like a pirate
we'd expect to find
and he'd come out
the next morning
and there'd be a map
with hidden treasure
in it
the promise of hidden treasure
so my nephew
would spend the whole
morning or afternoon
out there
traipsing through
these different steps
and he'd find that
shoebox
and he'd dig holes
he'd miss it sometimes
and he'd dig a hole
and then he'd just
leave that
and go dig another
hole somewhere
right
until he'd find
that shoebox
it was the coolest
thing you ever saw
so
Jesus says
the way God rules
is like this
it's like a treasure
that
is buried
in a field
that a man
has found
that really
gets intriguing
I mean
he's found
this treasure
he spent
all this time
looking for it
and finally
he's found it
and then he says
a startling thing
and
reburied it
what
who goes
looking for a treasure
and once they
find it
they rebury
it's like the
pirates of the Caribbean
they come up with this
gold and silver
and rings
and all this
and they say
okay we found it
and they throw it
back in the ocean
can't imagine that
right
or in Raiders of the Lost Ark
that they find the ark
and suddenly say
well we found it
let's just leave
they don't do that
but that's what
Jesus says
this guy does
he looks and looks
and looks for this treasure
and he finds it
and when he finds it
he reburies it
wait a second
story's not over
then
in his joy
he's so tickled
he goes and sells
everything he has
well that's weird too
isn't it
he's found this treasure
he reburies the treasure
now he says
I need to go home
and sell everything
I've got
and he goes home
and he gets out
the deeds to his house
and the deeds to his land
and if he'd had a title
to his car in those days
he'd have got his title
to his car
and he sells everything
he has so that
he's liquidated
his entire estate
what in the world
is he thinking
well
next verse tells us
and he goes
and buys
that
field
boy now
I get it
now I get it
you see
he knows
if he takes this treasure
and he goes
and talks about it
somebody's going to come
and say
where'd you find
that treasure
well it's out here
on highway 9
and
wait a second
you don't own any land
on highway 9
that belongs to so and so
and so what he does
he knows he wants
that field
he sells everything
he has
so he'll be prepared
to pay the ultimate price
and he goes to this man
who owns the field
and he says
what would you take
for your piece of property
and the guy says
I don't know what you got
he says
well I got this much
he says
that's what I'll sell it for
and he buys this field
it cost him everything
when he's through
he doesn't own a thing
except the treasure
but he's so elated
over his purchase
it doesn't matter
because he's found
his treasure
he's gotten
what he wants
you get that?
do you get that?
the apostle Paul says
this in Philippians 3
8
what is more
I consider
everything a loss
because of the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord
for whose sake
I have lost
all things
I consider
them garbage
that I may gain
Christ
I'm going to tell you
I'm going to tell you something folks
a lot of evangelists
and preachers
and people
got this notion
of how you come to Jesus
all wrong
we almost act like
you're doing God a favor
would you please come
and receive Christ
well what do I have to do
well
just pray this prayer
okay
I can do that
I'll pray
would you be baptized
yeah
I'll be baptized
maybe
and you've got
eternal life
and Jesus tells about
this man who comes
and he's kind of like
he says
I want eternal life
but I want it on my terms
he walks away sad
because he's not willing
to pay the price
but here's this guy
Jesus tells this parable
he says
here's how it really is
when somebody comes
to the kingdom of God
and how God
expects it to be
it's like a guy
who wanders into a field
and he finds this treasure
and when he finds it
he's so enthralled
by this treasure
he so wants
what this treasure is
that everything else
is of no consequence
he doesn't care about
anything
he doesn't care about
his cars
doesn't care about
his money in the bank
he doesn't care about
his house
he doesn't care about
I want that
I want that above
everything else
and so what does he do
to get it
means he has to rid
himself of everything else
and he takes his money
from that which he's
liquidated
he goes
he buys that field
because that's all
that matters
anymore
to him
you see I'm telling you
coming to Christ
doesn't do God a favor
it gives you the gift
of eternal life
and you should be so
enthralled by that
that nothing else
matters
just nothing else
matters
but that I'll live
eternally with God
when this is over
that's what's real
this is illusionary
illusionary
this just
is here today
but it may be gone
tomorrow
it could be gone
before we get out
of this service
today
but that's what's real
when I was 14 years old
I was in
Varenas Heights
Baptist Church
my name was on
the roll of the church
I was leader
among the youth
but I knew
I wasn't right
with God
I knew that all along
I knew I wasn't a real
believer
I'd pray the prayer
the preacher led me
to pray when I was
nine years old
he'd baptize me
dunk me
but I knew some folk
who had a relationship
with him
and I knew I didn't
have that
and at 14
I sat on the next
last row
of Varenas Heights
Baptist Church
and heard a gospel
message
and I knew that
God wanted to save me
and I was resistant
because you see
I want to tell you
I'm unusual
I know this about myself
unusual in this sense
nothing special about me
but all my life
I've known
what I wanted to do
all my life
from the time
I was
eight
nine years old
I had a plan
and that plan
was I was going
to West Point
my dad was a career
soldier
and that's all
I ever talked about
anything about
West Point
I read
I just wanted
to go to West Point
I just wanted
to be a soldier
I just wanted
to be an officer
in the army
that was going
to be my life
and so
what held me back
was this
and I can't explain
this but I just knew
I somehow knew this
that if I ever got
truly right with God
he would call me
to preach
I just knew that
and I didn't want
to do that
this is the last
thing I wanted to do
I didn't even
particularly like
preachers to be honest
with you
even as a kid
I thought
they were a bunch
of sissies
the last thing
I wanted to do
was be a preacher
and so
I can remember
sitting right back
at the very
next last row
and just struggling
and all I could
think about was
I want this
but I want my life
too
I want to fulfill
this dream
and I knew
I can't have both
I'm either going
to take the one
or lose the other
or lose the one
and take the other
and at 14 years
of age
I did exactly
what that
man in the parable
did
I sold everything
I had
and took that
treasure
and embraced
that treasure
because it
in the moment
was all that
mattered
and that's how
you come to
Jesus
you don't come
on your terms
you come on
his terms
that's why
some of you
never had it
because you've
you've tried
to come on
your terms
okay God
I'll give you
this much
of my life
if I can have it
it won't cost me
too much
it'll cost you
everything
there's no other
way to get it
than to give
everything
you just got to
recognize
I'm going to put
all my chips
in that pot
I'm going to
believe that
that's the only
thing that matters
and that's what
I want
do you want it
like that
this morning
have you ever
had it
if not
I want to tell
you
it's the treasure
to end all
treasures
would you take
it this morning
would you
just receive
it this morning
let's see
Salz Werk��
doing
another
thing
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l
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to say
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