September 23, 2007

A little girl was saying her bedtime prayers when she started giggling uncontrollably. Her mom got after her, "What do you think you're doing; that's not proper attitude to take when praying to God."

Without even pause, her daughter responded, "But mom, I was just sharing a joke with God." Oh, to have the joy of a child!

William Cowper, in his hymn, "O, For a Closer Walk with God," wrote these words,

"Where is that blessedness I knew when I first I sought the Lord?

Where is the soul refreshing dew of Jesus and his Word?"

Maybe that's where some of you are this morning. When you were a child, you could sing "I have joy, joy, joy, down in heart" and really mean it. But now, if you are honest, you must admit that you have lost that joy. Maybe you can't point to anything bad that's happened. But, a kind of malaise has set in. Or maybe there are some young people here this morning, who once were excited about Jesus, but now the faith seems so old and boring. Or maybe there are some here who have never tasted real joy. You hear about it. And maybe you heard you get it from believing in Jesus. But, even though you've been in and around church, you've never known it.

This morning Luke relates a story that's also found in Matthew and Mark about the time when a rich ruler came to Jesus looking for happiness, but he went away sorrowful. He missed out on the joy that could have been his. Why? Let's take a look. And maybe in seeing his mistake, we can be prevented from repeating it.

Before we look at what this man got wrong, it's important to note what he got right. One thing that he definitely got right was that he understood that true happiness is more that just having a lot of things in this life. That is clear from his question, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

He knew more than the wealthy Navajo man who wanted to be buried with all his money. I heard this story when I was teaching on the Navajo reservation. A man who had made a lot of money stipulated in his will that all his assets be sold and his bank accounts emptied- - everything liquidated and turned into cash. And he wanted all that money to be placed in his coffin and buried with him. So, that's what they did. But, after the funeral, the undertaker kept thinking about all that money that he put in the ground. Suddenly he came up with a plan. He dug up the coffin, took out all the money, counted it, and wrote out a check for that amount and placed it on top of the body; then he reburied the man.

The rich ruler knew that true happiness did not just come from having a lot of money in this life, but that it came from having security for all eternity-from knowing that he had place in heaven.

He also knew where to go to get a place in heaven. He went to Jesus. He could see that that Jesus had the wisdom of God. And if anyone could assure him how to get to heaven Jesus could. But in the end he went away sorrowful. And maybe that's where some of you are this morning. You've been coming to the right place. But, if you were to die tonight, you're not exactly certain that you would go to heaven. You hope you would, but you're not sure.

Well, since he was asking the right question and he had gone to the right place, why did he leave sad?

One reason was that he did not understand goodness. Jesus begins by asking him the question,

¹⁹"Why do you call me good?" And he goes on to say. "No one is good-except God alone

No, Jesus did not deny that he was good or that was God. He only wanted the man to think about what it means to be "good."  You see, from the beginning there has always been a connection between goodness and joy; between goodness and paradise. In Genesis 1, God creates the heaven and the earth. And one refrain is repeated over and over. Some or you who know that scripture might remember what it is. But, if you're not sure, turn with me to Genesis 1. Now look at verses 9, 12, 18, 25, and 31. Do you see it? These words: And God saw that it was good.

According to the Bible life was lost, paradise was lost, and joy was lost, when goodness was lost.

Jesus was reminding this man that God is the source of goodness. As long as creation follows what God wants-as long as it follows his way-- creation is good and there was joy. So, Jesus is framing the question here. What is goodness? What is God's way?

As this man undoubtedly knew and many of us know as well God tells us his way through his law.

You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother."

You can almost see a smile come to the rulers face as he replies, "All these I have kept since I was a boy,"

But Jesus knew what this man's problem was. So he goes on,

You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

The man didn't understand "goodness" because like many of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, he didn't understand the point of God's law.

In Mark 5: 6- 7, Jesus quoting from Isaiah 29: 13, says of them,

"Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

"‘These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain;

their teachings are but rules taught by men.'^

They saw the law in terms of rules to be kept. To them pleasing God was a matter of keeping certain rules.

I wonder if sometimes if sometimes we might not have that same understanding. We attempt to please God by keeping rules-attending church, tithing, not cussing, reading our Bibles, making certain we don't violate one of the 10 commandments. And we figure that God should be happy with us. And yet, deep in our hearts we worry that he is not.

What we forget is all the commandments are summarized by two. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, And you shall love you neighbour as yourself.

The entire law is summarized in terms of our relationship with God. If we don't have the relationship, the rules do us no good.

And Jesus said to the rich ruler that to have a relationship with God we must love him above all. We must give him everything: Total Commitment.

Think about that. When Jesus first called his disciples that's what he demanded. They had to leave their fathers and boats and nets and businesses and follow him. Remember Jesus' own words, in Matthew 10: 37,

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Being good is to be completely devoted to God. John MacArthur once gave this example. "I heard about a man sitting before a fireplace lost in thought. The drapes had been closed and the room was dark except for the flickering light of the dying fire. Finally the flames themselves disappeared, leaving nothing but a heap of gray ashes topped with glowing embers. One burning coal stood out brilliantly from all the rest because it was white hot. The man's gaze was transfixed upon it. Suddenly that brilliant white-hot coal turned completely black. The man was startled. What had caused the instant change? As he looked around, he noticed that the drapes had parted slightly and a shaft of brilliant sunlight had shot into the study and landed directly on the burning coal. The greater light had made the lesser light look black by comparison. That is what God demands of us. Our love and devotion for Him must be so complete that the deepest love we have for anything or anyone fades in comparison."

When God becomes that central to our lives and we love him that way, then we will know joy. But, how many of us love God like that?

The second reason why the man left sad is just that, he left. Matthew in his account of this story says in Matthew 19: 22,

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth

Contrast this response with that of the man who pleaded with Jesus to heal his son, who had a demon.

²⁴Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

We must remember Jesus words to his disciples when they asked,

Who then can be saved?"

"What is impossible with men is possible with God."

The disciples were scared-if this seemingly good man could not know the joy of salvation, what chance does anyone have?

The truth is that by ourselves we don't have a chance. We are saved by believing that Jesus paid for our lack of commitment by his commitment to us on the cross. Salvation does not come from us; it comes from God. As Paul points out,

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2 8

As Christians we heard that truth time and again and we know it with our heads. But, sometimes when we struggle with guilt and shame, we just can't apply it to ourselves.

Lewis Smedes in his book Shame and Grace illustrates this point well with the following story from his own life,

Spiritual shame, then, is the price I must pay for experiencing the friendship of the Human God. But recall the tag line to Fenelon's discovery of his own shadow side: "We only see our malady when the cure begins."

To make my point, I want to tell you about one of the best human beings I have ever known. His name was Lee Travis, the original dean of the school where I work. If you take the Bible's ideal of an ex­cellent person-goodness joined to godliness-and then the Greek ideal of an excellent person-a healthy mind in a healthy body-and mix them thoroughly, you will get a Lee Travis. High-test humanity.

When I got close to Lee, I often felt acute dissatisfaction with my­self. However, when I was in his presence for more than a few min­utes, the shame left me. I felt better and more worthy for being with him. One ordinary day, when Lee and I crossed paths on campus as we had done on a hundred other ordinary days, he stopped me in my tracks with this revelation: "Lew," he said, "there are three men in my life whom I have deeply loved: one of them is Neil Warren, an­other is Louis Evans, and the other is you." The moment was a holy one for me, a holy, healing moment, when my shame was overcome by grace.

Lee's grace put me in touch with a beauty in myself that I would not have felt without it. So does the grace of the Human God. First I feel shame-that painful dissatisfaction with what I am when I get a clearer look at the self I am meant to be. But when God tells me he loves me, his grace heals the shame, and I feel more worthy than I did

Finally, because the rich ruler failed to know God's grace in his life, he didn't have the right motivation to love him back. The rich man was motivated by fear. He was afraid that if he didn't do the right things he wouldn't be saved. But true love for God is motivated by God's love for us. Remember what John wrote in 1 John 4: 19,

¹⁹We love because he first loved us.

I remember hearing a powerful sermon by Leith Anderson on loving others, who are especially to love. At end of the sermon, Anderson said,

"Having said all this, I think I supposed to tell people, ‘All right, go love somebody.' Probably I'm supposed to give you some suggestions on how to do that and you're supposed to write them down or at least remember them....

But then there's this whisper inside of us sometimes becomes a shout, It says,

‘I've tried that. And I tell you I don't need the guilt. In don't need the guilt, because I'm not very good at that. ...'"

"So," continued Anderson, "I'll tell you what. Don't even bother trying. Don't even try because it doesn't work... Instead I would suggest that you just get loved up by God. Get filled up with his love until it oozes out and touches everybody around. If you haven't tried it before, I suggest you start reading the New Testament. Pick any place you want. And instead of trying to get the story and figure out what everything means, just look for God's love-his love for you...

I suggest praying.. Hold your hands open and up and sense the love of God as is. You don't have to do anything just and receive God's love... And then thank him for it....Simply let God love you."

People of God, the more we truly know God's love; the more we truly experience it, the less we will concern ourselves with rules and the more we will be motivated to commit ourselves to him and the more we will love others as he commands. And we will experience more and more joy in doing so.

In Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson said that all men have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the Constitution our founding fathers sought to set up a government that would help secure those rights.

A dissident once complained to Benjamin Franklin that the United States Constitution was a mockery. "Where is all the happiness it guarantees us? I certainly didn't get my share!"

Franklin replied, "My friend, all that the constitution guarantees you is the pursuit of happiness. You have to catch it for yourself."

Something similar can be said about the truth we just heard. God has told us today how we can find joy. He offers that joy to us. But we must catch it... we must receive it. Let us pray for the faith to do so.

O Lord, May your Spirit not only give us the ability to understand what you have said to us today, but also the faith to receive it. Oh, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. For Jesus sake, AMEN.