You Must Die to Live

I want to share with you from the Gospel according to Saint Mark, chapter 10, verses 10 through 31, a story many of us know: the story of the rich young man. The Bible calls him a ruler, a man of influence, a man of social importance, but he had an essential lack and emptiness in his spirit, and he did not know what it was, but the Lord made clear to him what it was. And perhaps some who are here this morning need that teaching from the Lord about what truly constitutes a spiritual life, a life that pleases the Lord.

What does the Lord seek above all else? The money we have talked about this morning? Service? The Bible says that if we gave our possessions to the poor and our body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits us nothing; we are nothing. There is something else that matters more than physical actions, although those acts we carry out for the Lord are important; but there is something deeper still that God wants from us: our heart, our loyalty, our total surrender.

I have titled this sermon, "You Have to Die to Live, You Have to Die to Live." It says here in verse 17: "As Jesus set out on His way, someone came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except One: God. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother.’"

"Then he answered and said to Him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth.’ Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, ‘One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have’"—there, I believe, is the key to this entire passage—"go, sell everything you have." He could have said: Go, surrender, get rid of, detach yourself from everything you have, "and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me, taking up your cross. But he, grieved by this word, went away sorrowful, because he had many possessions."

"Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, ‘Ah, how difficult it will be for those who have riches to enter the Kingdom of God!’ The disciples were astonished at His words, but Jesus answered and said to them again, ‘Children, how difficult it is for those who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of God.’" An important clarification. "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."

"They were even more astonished, saying among themselves, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Then Jesus, looking at them, said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.’ Then Peter began to say to Him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed You’"—as if to say, hey, so what do we get, then, right? "Jesus answered and said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, or lands, for My sake or the Gospel’s, who will not receive a hundred times more.’" Now in this present time: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands, with persecutions—a little touch of irony there from the Lord.

"And in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first." May the Lord bless His Holy Word. Amen. Thank You, Lord. I did not need the tissue from over there because they brought me one here; these ushers are terrific. So, you have to die to live.

This young man is one of many who approach Jesus while He is on His way somewhere else or engaged in another mission. They interrupt Jesus’ route and plans to a certain extent; nevertheless, it is interesting that the Lord never rejects them, never turns toward them impatiently and says, "Do not bother Me." When the woman with the issue of blood interrupts Him on His way to the home of Jairus’s daughter, Jesus is not annoyed. He wants to know what faith it was that touched Him, and when the woman reveals that it was she, He blesses her, sends her away in peace, and then continues His mission.

When He goes on vacation with the disciples and a multitude that wants to hear the Word finds Him on the other side of the lake, the Lord has compassion on them. When the friends of this paralytic tear open the roof and lower their friend because they cannot enter the house, which is full of people, the Lord does not accuse them of violating the owner’s rights, stealing his things, or damaging his house; instead, He ministers to them and is amazed by their faith. Brothers and sisters, the Lord never rejects the one who comes to Him with a sincere heart. Although the Lord may be heading in another direction, He knows that when we approach Him with a contrite and humble heart, He cannot reject us; that is what the Word of the Lord says.

It does not matter what your situation may be; it does not matter where you find yourself; it does not matter what your bondages are; it does not matter how many sins there are in your life right now or how difficult your moral, spiritual, marital, or nonmarital situation may be—whatever it is, remember that God is always willing to listen to you. God is always willing for you to come just as you are and say to Him, "Lord, here I am. I am a mess, I am in a muddle, but take that into Your hands, bless it, and I commit myself to walking this road with You. Teach me how to be the man, the woman, the marriage, the family, the Church that You want us—or me—to be."

The Lord always takes you where you are if you approach Him with a contrite and humble heart. You do not have to have everything well prepared, neatly arranged, and clearly defined. On the contrary, if you have everything clearly defined, you do not need Him. The Lord says that He did not come to seek those who are healthy; He came to seek the sick, right? That which was lost. So if you are lost, hey, you are the perfect candidate for God to find.

In one sense, this young man was lost. He was confused; he did not properly understand what he had to do in his life, and he approached Jesus imperfectly. And it says—there is a passage—well, yes, I chose this passage because it says that he "came running, knelt before Him," and asked Him a question.

I think that when one imagines Jesus walking with other people and this individual coming like a speeding bullet and kneeling before the Lord—imagine that scene—what is in the heart of a person who does that? There has to be urgency; there has to be intensity. There may even have to be an emotional crisis for him to come with that sense of intensity and approach the Lord. He did not care what people thought. His moral and spiritual need was so great that he threw himself at the Lord’s feet because there was a pressing need within him. Neither his money, nor his fame, nor his social influence—nothing could satisfy him.

The different Gospels—this account is found in Mark, Matthew, and Luke—each provide a little additional detail about this man. One of the passages says that he was a ruler. In Greek, that is archon, from which the word archipelago comes; archi is a prefix that means great, important, chief. An archenemy is the chief enemy.

So this man is a very influential person in his society. He is a person of considerably important rank. Some even believe that he was one of the rulers of the synagogue, that he had certain ties to the local synagogue. There is also another passage that says he was a young man; he had youth, and this passage tells us that he had great wealth, many possessions. In other words, he was young, rich, influential—wow, he had it all. Nevertheless, there is something within him that drives him to make that urgent move of approaching the Lord. He had a pressing need.

Like Zacchaeus, for Zacchaeus was also a fearsome man. People portray Zacchaeus as some ridiculous little short man there, but Zacchaeus was a dangerous man. He was a guy who worked for the Roman government, had many people working for him, and was a sort of licensed criminal, and he exploited people. But when Zacchaeus saw Jesus coming down the road, he did not think about his dignity or about people seeing this fearsome man; instead, he climbed a tree. Let them think whatever they want—I need to see Jesus.

At this moment, this young man does not care about his status or what people think. He throws himself upon Jesus because he has a request; there is urgency within him. Here is something else as well: if you have a need for Jesus, somehow, do whatever you have to do. Do not be afraid of people. Many people are ashamed to come forward or declare their affiliation with Jesus Christ. Many people are ashamed for others to know that they are Christians. Look, when you have a need, do whatever you have to do to resolve it spiritually, and do not let anything prevent you from approaching Jesus and receiving from Him what you need.

This man had that pressing need because he was sensitive to the things of the Spirit. That is why he was not at peace; he was missing something very important. If he had been one of those hardened people out there, he would have been content with his wealth, his money, his influence, and all the pleasures those things afforded him. But this man did not feel comfortable; he was not at peace, and that is one of the first lessons we have here. Material things do not fill the spirit. A time comes when the pleasures and comforts of the world no longer fulfill us. This is a law of psychology: the saturation of stimuli.

For many poor people, eating a steak is the greatest thing in the world: "Oh, if only I could eat like those people—a big steak like the ones advertised on television!" Right? And then they get the money and eat the steak, and after several times the steak is no longer the same; it has already lost its—because the more you have, the more you need. The law of psychology says that once you expose yourself to a stimulus, you need increasingly larger amounts of that same stimulus to produce the same emotional result.

After people have eaten a good steak, then, to satisfy them, they are offered steaks from cows fed only grain, okay? Grain-fed beef. After that, after they have eaten several steaks from cows fed only grain, you need some special cows—"Kobe beef," which the Japanese make over there—a special meat, what do I know? I have eaten it and cannot tell any difference, except that they charge me much more for it. Then Kobe beef is the ultimate thing, so you have to eat Kobe beef. And after that, you have to go to the Capitol Grill or somewhere where waiters in white coats serve you the blessed steak. It is the same meat, but you need more and more and more, and after a while it no longer fills you.

That is how everything in life is. One thinks, "Oh, traveling by plane all over the world." After a while, traveling and staying in a lonely hotel loses its glamour, okay? Everything in life is like that. You say, "Well, I would at least like to experience that and get a little bored" (laughter). But the important thing, brothers and sisters, is this: hey, take it from God, receive it from God—nothing in this world fills that place which only God can fill. Only Christ can fill that space called the spirit, and if your spirit is not satisfied, your emotions will not be satisfied, your mind will not be satisfied, and your body will not be satisfied, because the spirit is the essence of everything else.

If your spirit is contaminated, your whole body will be contaminated, and only Christ can cleanse it, and this young man experienced that. If the spiritual part is not in its proper place, no matter how hard we try to enjoy life with substitutes, we will not succeed; we will be unhappy. The Bible says, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Christ is—the spirit is the basis for true happiness. That has to be the foundation for everything else.

This man knew there was much more, but he did not know exactly what he lacked. He knew that he was not happy, that he needed something more, and that is why he approaches with that deep spiritual concern. Now, his question is interesting because the way he phrases it indicates something about his mindset. He says, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" You see, his question reveals a legalistic, Pharisaical way of thinking: What do I have to do? What action, what deed, what behavior will earn eternal life for me?

That is what Pharisaism preached. If you keep the law, if you make the sacrifices and observe the Sabbath, if you purify yourself twenty thousand times and wash your hands eighteen times a day, then you will inherit the Kingdom. That is what held all these people captive. The poor could not fulfill all those requirements; they did not even know which requirements they had to fulfill. You practically had to be a lawyer to know how to please God; there were so many requirements.

And this young man asks Him, "What do I have to do in order to...?" He already has two strikes against him when he asks the Lord the question. First, he calls Him "Good Teacher," and notice this: every time someone approaches the Lord and the Lord answers with a little confrontation and even a little harshness, there is something wrong in that person’s heart. For example, when Nicodemus, that great teacher of the law, approaches and says to Him, "Teacher, we know that You must come from God, because no one does the things You do unless he comes from God," the Lord says, "Hey, truly, truly, I tell you, unless one is born again, he will not inherit the Kingdom of God," instead of saying, "Thank you, Nicodemus; thank you for that compliment."

He not only came from God; He is God. And so the Lord reacts to the superficiality of Nicodemus’s understanding—this teacher of the law who has God Himself standing before him and does not recognize Him, but sees Him simply as one more rabbi with whom to continue the same errors and superficialities of Judaism—and that is why the Lord confronts him. Here this young man comes with the same matter of “good Teacher.” Notice how the Lord says to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Now, was Jesus good or not? Of course He was; He was better than anyone else who has ever lived in the history of the world. And I think it is as though the Lord were winking at this young man and saying to him, “Well, if no one is good except God, and I am good, then I must be God.” He is confronting the superficial idea of Jesus as merely a good teacher, right? And this young man approaches Him because he sees Him as a good rabbi, but Jesus is much more than that. Jesus is not merely an agent who behaves well and delivers a good sermon. He is more than that. This young man does not understand who Jesus is, and everything the Lord does is meant to confront him with who He is.

And so He stops him in his tracks and says, “Hey, I invite you to think a little more about this ‘good Teacher’ business.” And the other thing he gets wrong is that he says, “What shall I do?” because this young man represents Judaism. This young man represents religion—any religion—with all its burdens, duties, responsibilities, obligations, and commandments, and people believe that by doing something they will earn God’s favor, whereas Christianity is totally different from that. One never approaches God through good works, as we know; one approaches Him through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Christ is the mediator between God and mankind. It is an intimate, personal relationship, understanding who Jesus is and accepting Him as the Lord and Savior of our lives. That is how a person can be justified before God. But this young man believes that the Lord is simply a continuation of Judaism and that if he does something, and the Lord tells him what he has to do, then he will be able to enter the Kingdom of God, and the Lord is not there to.

We say that fame, wealth, youth, and beauty do not make a person happy. We can say even more: religion does not make people happy either. If Christianity is limited merely to what we are doing here, it will neither make you happy nor save you. People have to set aside that idea that if I go to Mass, punch my card, and do what I am supposed to do, then that makes me righteous and I am saved. Do you understand? It does not matter that I am simply standing or sitting there while the person up here goes through a whole lot of antics and all that. No. It is not actions.

There are people who are in the Church, but the Church is not in them. There are people who serve Christ but have not given their life and heart to Christ. There are people who give money to the Church but do not give their soul to the Lord. They give the Lord the wing so they can keep the breast, as people say, right? They give the Lord what is superficial and external so that they do not have to give what is inside them: their heart, their driving force, their will, the entirety of their ambitions, desires, and dreams. And the Lord wants the center of your life. He wants your driving force.

And so this young man believes it is only about actions, but his actions have not brought him success; they have not given him what he needs, and that is why he does not feel happy. Many people are in the Church, yet they are depressed, sad, bound, and miserable, and they blame the Church and say, “I already tried the Gospel and it did not work for me. I am going to Buddhism or something else,” or, “The Gospel is a pack of lies,” and they begin searching elsewhere. No, the problem was not that the Gospel failed you; the problem was that you did not drink all of it.

I have a vision in mind here. If I were in marketing—and perhaps one day the Lord will give me the pleasure of doing it—I would take a photograph of a person. In fact, I found one on the internet, but what the person was drinking was beer, so it did not work for me. But I took it and wrote underneath: “Christ—drink all of Him,” because this person is going glug, glug, glug, drinking it like that. And I said, “Wow, what a great image.” You have to drink all of Christ; you have to drink all of the Gospel.

Many people take a little sip and think that is all there is, and then, when the Gospel does not work, they blame the Gospel, right? They come to the Church and a whole host of things. Brothers and sisters, please, I am telling you: that is not it. Christ is inviting you to something greater—intimacy, a deep relationship with Him. He wants you to melt completely, to melt, and then for Him to do something new with the liquid that remains—to form you. As the Bible says, right, that we are like vessels in the potter’s hands, like the clay. It says that if the potter made a vessel out of clay and did not like it, what does he do? He destroys it, turns it back into a ball of clay, and then makes another one, another ball. And that is what we have to do.

When we come to Christ, we have to give Him everything we are; there are no strings attached and no limitations. You have to come to the Lord and throw everything down before Him, all the baggage: your money, aspirations, body, relationships, marriage—everything—dreams, wounds. You have to bring it all and throw it at His feet, a bundle, a mass of energy, and say to Him, “Lord, make of me whatever You want.” And until we do that, the Lord is there waiting to see what we are going to do. We think we are going to deceive Him with false piety.

This young man had piety; he had spiritual concern. But as soon as the Lord saw him, He understood exactly what his weakness was and where the point of his need lay, just as He saw the Samaritan woman whom we studied earlier and also saw her need. She tried to confuse Him with a whole host of theological issues about where one should worship and how one should worship. The Lord said, “No, no, no—none of that. Let us get to the point: I, the Messiah, am the One standing before you, and you have to straighten out your life; you have to put your life in order, and then you can serve Me, you can experience joy.” Religion is not enough; it is something more than that.

Then the Lord sets a trap for this young man to take him where He needs to take him, because the Lord is an absolutely sublime teacher. So He says to him, “Well, you know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother.” It is interesting. There is one commandment He does not mention to him here, and later we will see why He does not mention it. It is the most important of all, and it is the one he is violating.

So the Lord knows that he has already kept all those commandments, but He is setting him up to deliver the final thrust; He is preparing him, right? Brothers and sisters, we must be careful not to believe that merely going to Church and keeping the outward commandments is enough, you know? You may be the most decent, best-behaved person in the world, but perhaps all that means is that you have low testosterone. That is all, honestly. The Lord wants more from us. The Lord wants us to go through a crisis in our lives and decide: “Look, I can do this, but you know what? Although I can do it, out of love for God I am going to choose this path.”

I believe there has to be a moment of crisis in life when we decide, “Why are we doing what we are doing? Why am I truly going to serve the Lord? Why am I going to behave well?” Right? Because many people believe that merely living an honest, well-behaved life will somehow make God pleased with them.

And that is why there are so many people in the southern United States—in Tennessee and Georgia and throughout the Bible Belt—who go to Church on Sundays and fill the churches, but whose hearts are rotten inside. And they are people who behave well, pay their traffic tickets on time, pay all their bills on time, give money at Church, behave well, have their marriage and everything, but inside, God has not done the deep work He wants to do. There has been no moment of crisis in their lives when they encounter the risen Christ, bow down like Thomas, and say, “My Lord and my God.”

They are like Peter, walking with Him for a long time and saying great things, but there is a part of their being that still needs to be dealt with. And until God deals with it, Peter cannot truly enter into his apostleship—not until he is reduced to a mass of snot and tears, forgive me for being so graphic, after having denied the Lord. Then Peter truly enters into his. Because that is what the Christian life is about, brothers and sisters.

I am increasingly amazed by how deep and incisive God is, and He is always seeking that greater measure from us. So I encourage you: do not be content merely to come to Church; do not be content to have an evangelical membership card. That is not what gives joy and peace; that is not what gives power; that is not what enables you to bear fruit; that is not what enables you to experience the pleasure of God. What enables you to experience the pleasure of God is for your heart to be pure and perfect toward the Lord, for you to love Him above all things, and for you to have died to everything else and surrendered your life to Him alone, living it only for Him.

Perhaps you cannot give a million dollars, but if you give five cents with all your heart, the Lord is pleased with it. And then He will give you more so that you can give five thousand, like our sister Delmia here, so there will be no excuse either, right? That is how God is.

The Word says—do you remember Jehoshaphat, King Jehoshaphat? One day a prophet approached King Jehoshaphat, who had made a strange pact to rid himself of a crisis in his life by seeking help from an ungodly king. And God’s prophet approached him and said, “Look, you have acted foolishly by seeking solutions outside of God, when God had already given you great victories when you had the courage to seek Him wholeheartedly. Do you not know,” the prophet says to Jehoshaphat, “that the eyes of God range throughout the whole earth, seeking to show His favor on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him?”

Brothers and sisters, this is what God is seeking. God searches the churches; God searches the Vatican; God searches the places where decent people are, with a great desire, a great hunger to find a man or a woman groaning with love for Him and surrender to Him—a heart that prefers Him above all things, a heart willing to say no to all the other pleasures of the world solely for Him, a heart that has gone to the cross and been crucified and has surrendered everything, and has said, “Lord, I prefer You above the love of women, the riches of the world, the esteem of the worlds, the favor of the powerful. I prefer You above all things, Lord.”

We have seen the drama involving Tim Tebow—is that his name? Tim Tebow. I do not watch football or baseball or any sports, but recently there was a drama involving Tim Tebow. I do not want to crucify him either, but there is an interesting public drama here that we are living through right now in the United States, with all the persecution of Christians that exists. But Tim Tebow is a very, very successful athlete who is a committed Christian and has shown great faithfulness to the Lord, right? And recently, during a time of crisis in his career when he is very uncertain because things apparently are not going well for him, a huge Church in the South invited him to inaugurate its new sanctuary, and he was going to be one of the speakers, one of the presenters.

And when the homosexuals—the homosexual group, the homosexual interests in this nation, which are so powerful—found out that Tim Tebow was going to speak at the Church of this Pastor who has preached that homosexuality is a sin, although that is not, let us say, the central theme of his sermons, but given the fact that this man has preached it, and there is a war against every person who stands behind a pulpit and says that homosexuality is a sin—so, because this Pastor has spoken publicly and is a very well-known Pastor who has preached that homosexuality is a sin, they descended upon Tim Tebow to keep him from going to preach, to speak at this Church, and they threatened him: “Look, your career is in danger. You have made many bad decisions. This may be your last bad decision; it is going to destroy your career.”

And at that moment this young man had the opportunity to make a heroic decision or a convenient decision. I do not believe he sinned by saying, “I will not go,” but neither do I believe he honored himself. I immediately thought of Daniel when he said to his companion, “You know what? I would rather not graduate from the king’s university, but I am not going to eat that food sacrificed to demons. Give us vegetables, and the Lord will take care of it,” right? And what does the Bible say? It says that He gave him greater wisdom than everyone else who was there in that group, and He gave him revelation and gave him success because they honored God first.

Because Daniel had a moment of crisis when he asked himself: well, what do I do? Do I do something that goes against my conscience and my understanding of God, or do I conform and do what is convenient? I believe Tim Tebow missed a great opportunity there, perhaps to sacrifice his career if he had to sacrifice it, but I am sure that God would have given him a thousand times more. Now, God is not going to condemn him. I do not believe that he committed a sin in itself, understand me; I am not saying that he sinned. What I am saying is that he missed a great opportunity to join the great heroes of the Bible and do something that would glorify God—to pay the price. To lose his life in order to gain it; the Bible says that whoever loses his life will gain it. You have to die in order to live; you have to lose everything so that you may then receive everything.

That is what Christ did. He did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, stripped Himself, took away from Himself everything He had a right to possess, and surrendered it to God. He said to Him: Lord, I am going to obey You above all things. Until a man or a woman has that moment of crisis in which they must decide: do I give everything to God, or do I hold on to everything because I love it more? And God continually asks us that question throughout our lives. At every moment of the day, opportunities come for you to say: what do I do? Do I follow my Christ and sacrifice something I love, or do I say, no, I prefer it and I am going to keep it for myself? And then the Lord says to you: well, all right, keep it; do not worry. Keep your little kernel of corn there under your pillow; do not worry.

But do you know what? It is going to rot there under your pillow, because the one who withholds what is not his robs the Lord, robs the Spirit. The Lord wants only one thing from you: your heart. He wants you to surrender it to Him. That is why there was Abraham’s great sacrifice. The Lord says to him: look, I have given you a son, the beloved son of your old age. Abraham has a son at the age of one hundred, and when that son is already getting big and chubby and handsome, the Lord says to him: now you kill him for Me.

I know—look, I am telling you the truth—I could say right now that I disqualify myself. I would not have Abraham’s faith. Who knows whether the Lord in His grace would touch me, but it would have to come from Him, not from me. But Abraham stewed in his own juices as he walked to the place of the crucifixion, and there, when he reached his moment of crisis, what things, what thoughts must have passed through Abraham’s mind at that moment? And when he was about to plunge the knife into the chest of his beloved son, the Lord sent an angel to hold back his hand and tell him: stop. Since you did not withhold your son, your only son, from Me, now I am going to tell you something: you will have children, and not even the sands of the sea will be able to number your descendants. I will bless you, and you will be a blessing to all humanity. Whoever picks a fight with you will have to answer to Me, and whoever blesses you, I will bless as well.

Because when you give the Lord what you love most, the Lord never tires of blessing you and giving to you, giving to you, giving to you. That is why the Lord thrusts that challenge at him and says: oh, so you have kept all the commandments? Okay, well, look, there is just one little thing you lack: take everything you have, go to the store, cash it all out, and then begin distributing it and give it to the poor. Then come, take up your cross, and follow Me.

You say that you love so much? Okay, then look: do you want to be happy? Here is the key. You believe that I am a teacher; you believe that I have the truth. Then give Me that which you love so much—your money, your position, your influence, your social status—and then follow Me, and you will have the satisfaction and the happiness and the eternal life you are seeking.

And what does the Bible say? That the young man considered it. Perhaps he thought about those Gucci suits he had in the closet, the $250 ties. He thought about the steak he was going to eat with his girlfriend there at the Capital Grille. He thought about the Learjet he had parked at the airport so he could travel to France and spend a week vacationing in Paris. He thought about how, when he arrives at restaurants, they already know him and immediately give him the best table because they know he leaves a good tip. And he thought about all those things and thought: hmm, follow this guy here, who does not have a penny to his name, who has women who have to look after Him, and give up everything I have for that? He measured and weighed it and said: no, I am sorry. He did not have the moral courage to surrender what he loved most.

And what does the Bible say? It says that, with his head bowed and feeling sad, he went on his way and walked away. Notice that the Lord does not condemn him. In fact, when he says to Him, “I have kept all of it,” and when the Lord sees this young man’s superficiality, what He does is feel compassion for him and love him; it says: He loved him. There was tenderness in Him; He saw him as His son. This kid is clueless; he does not even know what he needs to do. He thinks that merely keeping the commandments and living a superficial life is what will save him. No.

The Lord did not condemn him. The Lord did not begin to rant about this young man and say: what a sinner, how hardened. No; it says that He simply watched him take his little path away, sad, with his head bowed, his life just as it was when he came. Because that is what the Bible says: unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. This young man left exactly as he had arrived, completely intact, and the Lord wanted him to be broken before Him and surrender everything to Him. And that is why the Lord says: look how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

You do not have to be a millionaire, let me tell you. You do not have to be a millionaire for this to apply to you; you only need to have something you love more than God. Is there something you love more than God? Some secret pleasure, some illicit relationship, some character trait that does not honor the Lord, some ideal you have that you will not be able to fulfill if you serve Christ? Some comfort, some privilege, something you know you love more than God?

Because people believe that Christ was referring to material wealth, and they say: well, since I do not have millions, that does not apply to me. No. Our churches are full of people who have not given the Lord our wealth. Your wealth may be your youth. Your wealth may be a sense of humor that does not please the Lord. Your wealth may be a caustic remark that hurts people. Your wealth may be unleashing your anger whenever you feel like it, without caring about the consequences. Your wealth may be a desire for revenge and a resentment that makes you enjoy feeling that burning inside you every time you think about so-and-so, and giving that up is like pulling out a thorn: it is going to hurt, and afterward you will feel better, but you do not want to go through that moment.

Then the Lord says to you: surrender what you love most; surrender your wealth to the Lord, and then you will be happy. That is what God wants from you this morning: for you to give it to Christ. Understand that Jesus is the greatest good, the supreme good. If you have Jesus, you have everything. What is there in your life that keeps you from being happy and having intimacy with Jesus? What is it? I have to ask myself that question. I have had to examine myself so many times throughout my life, and it has not been just one thing; there have been so many, and I still have many more ahead of me that I must continually surrender to the Lord. He is saying to me: surrender this to Me; surrender that to Me. That does not please Me; I need that.

Many times I hit the nail on the head and surrender something to the Lord, and I notice that I travel more lightly. And other times, do you know what? I play dumb and pretend I did not hear Him, and afterward I go around limping until I realize: ah, okay, all right, Lord, take that too; take it. I surrender it to Him, and my life is happier. I am more fruitful, more creative; I have greater intimacy with God. God speaks to me more clearly; I discern His Voice better. What is there in your life that you have to surrender to Jesus?

Jesus is the secret. He is the pearl of great price, the supreme good, the ultimate expression of happiness. If you have Christ with everything He represents, if you have passed through the death through which He passed, then you can identify with Him, and He can give you the salvation you need. The Church is not the solution—I am telling you that right now. Religion, being evangelical, has never saved anyone or made anyone happy. It is the total surrender of your heart and your life to Him. That is what the Lord is inviting you to do this morning.

Would you bow your head for a moment? If there is someone here this morning—if you feel that in some way this Word has spoken to your life, up there in the balconies or down here—I invite you this morning not to do what the rich young man did and leave just as you came. Dare to surrender to the Lord what you love most. Tell Him: Lord, by faith I am going to give it to You. I love this; I like this, but I understand that nothing compares to Your pleasure when You look at me. So I surrender my life to You today. In fact, I am going to broaden that: you do not have to be only a person who has not received Christ as Lord. If you are an evangelical or a Christian who has discovered, “No, today God told me: look, surrender that to Me as well,” then I also ask you to receive this Word for yourself.

I personally want to be one of you right now and say to the Lord: Lord, examine me; know my heart; test me; know my thoughts. If there is anything in me that does not please You, Father, right now I do this before my congregation: teach me, instruct me, alert me, enlighten me, and give me the strength to surrender it to You, Lord, because I want to please You and I want to have You above all things. Teach me Your way; teach Your people Your way; enlighten them.

Father, if there is someone here this morning who needs to surrender something to You, touch their heart, and speak to all of us. Brothers and sisters, I want to invite you to raise your hand while you are there. If Christ has spoken to you today, if Christ is saying to you, “Surrender your life to Me; surrender your heart to Me,” raise your hand there. I see that hand being raised over there. Amen, amen. Hands are being raised.

If you sense that there is something and you can identify it and give it a name—is there a name you give to it?—surrender it to the Lord right now. Raise your hand, whoever you may be. Now I open this up to the entire congregation: anyone who feels there is something—you know its name—do not do it merely as a generic, pious gesture. No, do it as something specific. Raise your hand and surrender it to the Lord. Father, I surrender my wealth to You. Whatever that wealth may be, I surrender it to You today; I surrender it to You, Lord. I surrender everything I have to You. Whatever You need from me, here it is, Lord. I lay my wealth at Your feet.

If there is anyone else who needs to surrender something—your soul, your life, your emotions, your memories, your appetites—surrender them to the Lord at this moment. Father, I raise my hand as well in the name of Jesus, and I ask You: heal my life; heal my brothers and sisters. We surrender to You everything we have and everything we are, Lord. Jesus, we prefer You above all other affections, all other riches, all other appetites, all other pleasures. You are the supreme good. I surrender it to You, Lord. Take it right now and keep it, Father; we lay it at Your feet.

We want to lose everything in order to gain everything. We want to die in order to live. We want to surrender in order to possess. Help us, Father, to be a Church of people who have died and risen again, as Christ did. Surrender your life to the Lord this afternoon; surrender to the Lord everything you have.