Sermon Tone Analysis

Mt. 19:16-20:16

Point: How must I live in the world to come?

Let not possessions posses you.

The parable of the rich young ruler is not about the rich not being able to enter the kingdom of God because they are rich.

The parable is about trusting God and that salvation is received as a gift from God in response to a person’s faith in Him.

A mental and theological reset has to be performed by the disciples, as they were typical Jews, who believed that riches were an evidence of God’s blessing.

This belief was based on the promises that God gave to Isreal if they obeyed or disobeyed Him when they moved into the Promised Land God was giving to them via the faithfulness of Father Abraham (Deut.

26-28).

Just as one trains a dog to do what is pleasing with the reward and witholding of treats, God taught the Hebrews how to follow Him, please Him, and be faithful to Him, through rewards and punishments.

Material riches, though, are not a guarantee that God is pleased with man.

Most of the time riches are, and can be, a barrier to a saving relationship with God.

Why?

Because riches can come to possess you.

Just like Gollum, in the Lord of the Rings, the ring becomes “My precious” and possess him.

The rich young ruler went away “grieving” because he had many possessions, or great wealth (v.22).

Was he really grieving because of his great wealth?

or because of the hold his wealth and possessions had on him?

Jesus challenges the young ruler to sell his possessions because he knew the rulers heart was covetous of “things”, or the more technical term “stuff”.

Stuff was his god.

The young ruler goes away grieved because he cannot reset, he cannot, or will not let go of his stuff.

The truth teaching of Jesus is revealed in this parable, that one cannot love and serve two masters (Mt.

6:24).

Truth: It is okay to have the things money can buy provided we do not lose the things that money cannot buy.

If God, and the things of God, are losing the first priority in our lives, we are losing The Way.

It is good to possess wealth if that wealth does not possess you.

Abraham and Job were men of great wealth, yet they were even greater men of faith.

Am I a great person of faith?

In Jesus life and teaching, He tried to show people that the inner spiritual blessings are far more important and valuable than material gains.

What is most important to us?

The King and the Kingdom?

Or worldly wealth?

Do we need to perform a reset of our thinking and heart?

The apostle Paul, who gave everything up, being well off, to follow Christ, says this, as a result of following Jesus,

If the pursuit of weath and possessions is going to cause you, or has caused you, to wander from your relationship with God, and His Kingdom, as well as on earth, stop and reset.

Leave it behind, give it away, put it to God’s use and purposes, repurpose His blessing for His purposes.

Follow Christ and love Him supremely.

The Disciples Response (Mt.

19:27-Mt.

20:16)

Interesting thing about Jesus’ calling of his disciples.

Jesus calls them to “deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him” (Mt.

16:24).

Matter of fact Jesus tells everyone who would come after Him, is to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him.

He said the same thing to the rich young ruler.

If you want to be perfect, following Me, the Perfect One, take action, sell what you possess, give that money to those who are in need, and you will have made an investment in Heaven, and come follow Me (Mt.

19:21).

Peter questions the logic of Jesus’ teaching and command.

The mental reset Jesus is causing with His teaching is hard.

If it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, whom we thought, because of their material blessings, were a shoe-in, “who then can be saved?”

(Mt.

19:25).

The disciples have given up everything they have had and owned to follow Jesus, they have denied possessions, left family, wives, children behind, and will soon bear the cross of suffering in swearing alligience to follow Jesus.

Peter says,

What is in it for me?

That is Peter’s reply.

We have left everything to follow you.

Possessions and material wealth has been the understood reward for a life lived well after God and His commands.

If that no longer is a true indicator, what does my future hold for my sacrifice in following you, Jesus?

That’s our question isn’t it?

Is following you Jesus, worth it?

What’s in it for me?

Jesus’ response to Peter is kingdom, rule, and authority (Mt.

19:28).

This is a specific promise to the twelve.

But there is also a common promise of grace to everyone who would follow Christ.

You want to make a great return on an investment?

Invest in following Jesus.

Where would you receive a 100 times return or more on an investment that also includes a forever life clause?

One would be foolish to leave that treasure in the field and not sell everything to possess it, to receive it.

Is the way of Christ a sacrifce or an investment, that you may not receive all the dividends in this life?

Am I serving Christ because of what I can get or because of my love for Him because of His love for me?

Jesus tells the parable of the laboreres in the vineyard to show the graciousness of God, and what reward their is in trusting Him.

The labourers who worked under contract were upset because those whom the landowner hired later, and much later, received the same penny that they did, for much shorter hours of work.

How fair is that, they question, just as we do.

But the problem lies with the labourers, they did not trust the landowner.

They wanted a contract.

If they had not asked for a contract they would have received so much more because the landowner was generous.

This is the kind of God we serve and love…a great generous God who will give more than we expect or could receive.

This should give us great pause and challenge us to reset our thinking and approach to God and the things of God, how we serve God, and why we serve Him.

AND WHY HE IS WORTH FOLLOWING.

Do we need to perform a reset of our relationship with God?

With our finances?

With our service?

One of the things people have been hearing and getting nervous about is this talk about The Great Reset.

How our social, financial, and government systems need to change.

If you are following this closely, you cannot help but recognize the blueprint of the New World Order being put in place with a future one world religion, and government, under the system of the Antichrist (Rev 17, 18).

This is The Great Reset.

The Book of Revelation speaks of this fact and future reality.

The thing that may cause one concern is the future reality of how we may be able to purchase the things we need and desire in the future.

We have already experienced with Covid-19 restrictions, the pre-game, of what our future reality may look like.

To buy, purchase, eat, and attend in some places you needed to show your papers or QR Code.

If you did not, you could not enter that establishment or attend that event.

This is still a reality in places today like the airport and at the boarder.

My concern is, when the Beast system comes fully online, will we trust Christ and follow Him?

Will we perform the reset that we need to?

Or will we go along with the world?

Satan knows we need things, and that we love our possessions, attending our events, and taking our trips and vacations, even work; but will we perform the great reset that we will need to perform and trust God with our lives?

Just like the rich young ruler, we love our possessions, but to whom do those riches belong?

Satan is banking on the fact that we will love the riches of the world more than we will, and do, love God.

Will we prove him wrong.

Why wait till then, when we can start today.

It is not wrong to have wealth and possessions, but it is wrong if they possess me, and Satan will drive the wedge of possessions between us and God.

Sermon in a Sentence: Let not possessions and weatlh possess you.

Give your wealth unto the Lord and Satan will not be able to cause you to fail in your relationship with God.