"Go, Sell Everything You Have” | Luke 18:18–30

Show Notes

Episode 720: 
In this episode, we dive into a discussion centered around a passage from Luke 18, where a rich young ruler approaches Jesus, seeking guidance on how to inherit eternal life. We explore the implications of Jesus' response, particularly His statement about the difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. We discuss the idea that wealth itself is not inherently bad, but rather the attachment to it can hinder one's spiritual journey.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Good morning everybody. It is Friday, and what else? Fourth of July? Sure, we blow up stuff to celebrate peace. Hey, guess what right now? Right now, I am at. The airport are well, while we're doing this, we will this is going to be aired. Yeah, where are you going? I'm actually flying on the fourth of July, which is crazy to the Dominican Republic. I'm taking my son over there. Yeah, I man, I'm going to Uh, he's gonna come look at the ministry over there with Anti sex Draftking transform one transform one. Yeah, fantastic, which is so cool. Yeah that is cool. Good for you. Yeah, I hope you guys have a safe trimp. And so I told Liz, I said, hey, because we're leaving on the fourth of July, we need to view all of our fireworks beforehand, right, Okay, So I need to make sure that I see a firework show. So I think we might go back to Greenfield Village. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah with the Troit Symphony. Yeah, I love it. I played I played in fifteen of those. Yeah, it's great. I love it. I thought it was great. It was the symphony and then you had the fireworks show afterwards. I thought it was great. It's one of my favorites. The fireworks show is not the best fireworks show, but when you put it all together, it's great. I thought it's always great. Usually about ten thousand and fifteen thousand people there. Yeah, it's definitely crowded. I think we're going to go. We're going to go back there. If you've never been Greenfield Village, you should go. It's the largest outdoor museum in the world. Yes, it is. You know, that's really on Henry Ford's old property, his oldest state. Yeah. That's really awesome and it's pretty fantastic. So, yeah, that's cool. So Des wants us to do it, says Happy Fourth of July. It's story Time. That's the name of the segment, story Time. It's fun. Happy Fourth of July. As guys, you two must have some crazy experiences with fireworks. Yeah, tell some of your favorite Fourth of July stories. Okay, I have one. Tell me. So. When I was sixteen, I was on a double date with my best buddy Jeff Miller. And I was dating Sharon and he was dating Julie. So the four of us were riding around in my nineteen seventy seven chavette and we pulled over and we bought fireworks. And you know how it is like, so Jeff's at his table buying whatever he wants to buy, Sharon's at her table buying, and I'm at my table. So all of us just grab what we think is great. We get together and we start, you know, driving, and somebody says like, hey, let's pull over and let's you know, blow a few of these off. Well, I reached into the bag and it was like Jeff's bag, and I pulled out what I thought was a smoke bomb. Have you ever had a smoke bomb? Yes? So smoke bomb is round, yeah. And it's just like a it looks like a like a red cherry or like a super rubber bull, right, and it. Has a long wick in it, and all it does is where. The wick is. When the wick goes in, it blows out smoke. So you could hold a smoke bomb, right, you could actually light it. It goes in and then you know, then then the smoke blows out, and so you can just walk around with a smoke bomb. Now, I don't recommend. It should not that you should not do that. It is it gets hot and uh and and it's dangerous and uh, you definitely don't want to do that, especially if if what I'm about to tell you happens. Okay, because I was not holding a smoke bom. I was holding a cherry bomb, which is half the strength of. An M eight. AM eight is a quarter stick of dynamite, right right, So this is like half the strength of an M eight. So this has the ability to blow. Up your fingers, all your fingers right now, if you hold a firecracker in your palm of your hand and you blow it off, you just have a burnt hand. But if you were to enclose a firecracker, you blow off your fingers. Okay, I was, and this is much much, much greater than a firecracker. I was holding it like a like I would hold this coffee cup like this, right, I was holding it like this, so they were touching all of my fingers, but I wasn't then closing it. Right, So I'm holding this eighth of a stick of dynamite. I blow it and I go, hey, everybody, look at this, and it goes off, boom, and it just blows up. I do not know how to this day, other than the angels of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God. I should have. No fingers on my right hand. I really shouldn't because that is so powerful. But this thing blew and actually a piece of it hit my eyelid, and thank God, I closed my eyelid because it hit my eyelid and my entire eye immediately swelled up and it burned, and it was white and puffy like I'd experienced a third degree burn. Right, So it hits my eye, I closed my eye. I barely save my eyeball and somehow I don't hurt any of my hand, even though my hand felt numb. And so immediately when it goes off, I fall down to the ground, I you know, writhe in pain. And then and then they take me to the emergency room and it turns out. That I was spared. Well, don't let this happen to you, kids, right, do not don't do it. Don't do it. What's the best fireworks show you've ever been to? Probably? Stone Mountain, Georgia, Stone Mountain, Georgia. Yeah, Stone Mountain Georgia. We we used to. Go there, right, we used to well, I mean it's turned into one, but we've we definitely used to spend multiple and when I made multiple at least ten ten Fourth of July, well, let's just say at least seven, I think seven out of the ten years that we lived there, I think we went to Stone Mountain, Georgia, and it was it's just an unbelievable thing. There's ten thousand people, same thing. But they do a laser show on the side of the mountain and u and with fireworks, and it's by far the best environment I've ever been in. We did a number of years ago. We were in New York City for Fourth of July. Oh, and so we went down sat on the Hudson River and watched all the bar just shoot off fireworks with the Statue of Liberty behind it. Wow, that was kind of cool. Yeah, that winds Statue of Liberty, Yeah, which is the symbol of our freedom. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty interesting. Did you also know that the fireworks in the airs they were created to represent the bombs bursting in air like in our nationally Yeah. Yeah, when they said, you know, the bombs bursting of. The Chinese a thousand years ago, thought we should make these things blow up. No no, no, no, no. What I'm the Americans write their song. What I'm saying is when the Fourth of July happened and when fireworks were attached to it on its very first fourth of July. I see this statement was made, you can google this. I don't know who was seventeen seventy six. Would that be as our founding forefathers? Right? Sure, But whenever fireworks came. Onto the scene, the statement was made that it reminded them of the bombs bursting and air giving proofs of the night that our flyer was still there. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, well so the uh yeah, it probably would have been after seventeen seventy six, for that song was written in eighteen twelve. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, fireworks. It would have been in the early history of our country. Fireworks probably came many years later. Yeah right. Fireworks always been popular. I mean Gandalf was shooting them off with the with the Hobbits, so they've been around a while, sure for sure. Well cool, Well, I hope everybody has an amazing Wait. A minute, you didn't have an amazing story. Yeah, I told you that I got to watch the fireworks with the Do you want me to tell firework story? Well, I mean I had an actual story. Yeah, R at a time, R at a time. Now you took up all the time. No, you Instead you asked me what was my favorite fireworks venue? Oh? Okay, you could have told an actual story. It's okay, here's the fireworks I love. Is this right here? That's it? That's what I love. Come on, Jeff, hey, you know speaking of friction and fireworks. Works explosive statements. Yes, explosive statements. There was another explosive statement given by Jesus, go and sell everything you have, which I reference to. Your reference yesterday. Thanks for ruining it for us today. No, it was a prelude. Prelude. It was a previous sneak peek in the world sneak Jesus asks you to sell everything you have. Yeaheah, it was a trailer. I have a cough today, Sorry about that. Yeah, well, hey, listen, today is going to be an incredible challenging day as well. Luke eighteen, verse number eighteen. And here's what it says. Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question, good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus asked him. Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments. You must not commit adultery, you must not murder, you must not seal, you must not testify falsely, honor your father and mother. Man replied, I've obeyed all these commands. I was young. When Jesus heard this answer, he said, there is still one thing you haven't done. Sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. But when the man heard this, he became very sad, for he was very rich. When Jesus saw this, he said, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who heard this said, then who in the world can be saved? He replied, what is impossible for people is possible with God. Peter said, We've left our homes to follow you. Yes, Jesus replied, and I assure you that everyone who's given up house or wife, or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will be repaid many times over in this life and will have eternal life in the world to come. Wow. So yesterday I referenced that Jesus quoted the two Greatest Commandments when in this story. Yes, but it was not the case, is it? Well it was it was in I think the Matthew six version. Yeah, yeah, oh oh, is that right? Okay, So so it was probably ac quording me. So let me go check it real quick. Ok it wouldn't it be in Matthew six. Let me see, Yeah, the rich young ruler. M h yeah, that's a good. Let me let me check for you real quick. Well, while you're doing that, let me read a note from the Ryrie Study Bible. Excuse me, this is the quest This is the Quest Study Bible. I did ryriy last time. So the question is this, what did Jesus mean by a camel going through the eye of a needle? And it says this. Some have dealt with this verse ingenuous ingenuous ways. They suggest that the world that the word camel should have been translated a rope, or that the eye of a needle was a nickname for the low u after hours gate of the Wall of Jerusalem. Uh, it probably better. However, it's probably better, however, to see this hyperbole, a figure of speech that exaggerates for emphasis. Jesus's point is that some things on earth can prevent us from entering the Kingdom of God. His impossible example was meant to raise a note of alarm. Wealth can be dangerous to our spiritual lives. Now I've heard that, by the way, that that the gate the eye of a needle was referring to a gate in Jerusalem. Yeah, you've heard that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there was a large gate that was one of the main gates into Jerusalem, and they would close it at night, but it was one of the main trade route gates, so they would close it at night. So then if traders were coming in late, there was a smaller door that would open, and it was mostly for just human traffic. And they called it the eye of the needle because you had the big the big gate, and then you had the little door built into the little gate into the big gate, and so people would come through that and traditionally people believe that that's what Jesus was talking about, because sometimes if a camel came, you know, a caravan came, or a guy came, and it was late, but they needed to get into the city, they'd open the door. They'd have to unload everything off the camel, and then camel we have to get on his knees and scoot through, barely had enough room to make it through. And you've been around camel's enough, you know, they're really grumpy animals, and you know, just all the complaining, all this stuff. It was a very difficult thing. You could do it, but it's very difficult. So some people would say that's what Jesus was talking about there, but certainly he's using hyperbole to for sure, Yeah, to make a big deal about it. Do you know that I almost said hyper bowl. Hyperbole when I read Epitome of hyper Epotome of hyper Bowl. That is so funny, which is Brian Reagan's. One of his comedy comedy special comedy specials. Yeah, because he was talking about the epitome of hyperbole and he calls it the epitome of hyper bowl. It's really funny. So did you look that up? Yeah, So I'm looking for the he loved him Yep. Didn't find it yet, Nope. So it would probably be the Mark chapter ten one. You know you can google it, Yeah, I could have yep. Or I can use the cross references in the Bible read in front of me. Oh yeah, sure. Yeah. Teach people how to do it. Do it the old fashioned. Way, because it shows you there, how'd you. Earn your money the old fashioned way? I earned it? I earned it? Yes, those were the old Uh so yeah, it's in Mark chapter ten where he says, looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. Yes, right, and that's there. Did he say adultery or did he say greatest commandments? Uh? Yeah, he gave the commandments, which is what adultery and all that. Yeah, okay, so. He didn't summarize the commandments. That's great. Okay, all right, well, either way, we talked about this before, where it says a certain ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And the thing that always perplexed me is Jesus says, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Do you think that's a lesson? That Jesus sort of perceived in this man's heart because he already thought of himself as perfect, He already thought of himself as being qualified for, you know, the kingdom of Heaven. I think he was asking, are you acknowledging that I'm God? Oh? You think that's what it is? Yeah, yeah, you're equating me with God? Is that what you're doing? Huh, That's that's what I think he's doing. Huh. That's interesting. Yeah, yeah, son of a gone. I've never heard anybody say that. So that's a good that's a good take on it. Yeah. You know, sometimes I you're amazed. Sometimes you're amazed at how I look at the Bible. No, no, although, yes, but that's not what I was thinking of this. Oh okay, Sometimes I get I get a little frustrated that the Bible isn't more self explanatory. You know how Jesus always says for those who have ears to hear, let them hear right. And sometimes what he did was he even back then, he acknowledged the fact that he delivered truths that were in parables, and some of them were like hard to understand, and he never I shouldn't say never, he rarely said this is what I'm talking about. Right. They went to him and said, explain the sower and the seed. They didn't understand, and he's like, are. You so dull? And then what he say, Okay, let me break it down for you. Right, the rocky path, the soil, you know, the thorns, and he literally explained everything. But sometimes he didn't do that right. Just just like the other day we were talking about, you know, the flesh and the blood, right, drink it. You know. It's just like, sometimes I get a little flustered that the Bible isn't just a little more self explanatory because it says, well, what do you mean by that, good teacher? Why do you call me good? I almost wish that Jesus would have explained why did he say that? I think it's interesting. I just just read the note in the Life Application Study Bible, yeah about that, and it says Jesus response, the leader who came to him and called him good teacher was in essence, do you know who I am? Undoubtedly the man did not catch the implications of Jesus reply that the man was correct and calling him good because Jesus truly is God. Yeah, so that's that's their take on it also, which is interesting. Yeah, so you have the same take as. Yeah, I could have written these all the Scotts. I could have written all. The scholars of the Bible. I told you that that our longtime listeners are like, no, you couldn't, Jeff, Yeah. I told you about that when I was at Billy Graham, when I was at the Crusade, and. You had the same answers. I had the same answer as Billy Graham. So we were in ten seconds. We were at what do you call those promise keepers? Remember back in the day, I was at the Atlanta So the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was just huge and sixty thousand people, And so the coach asked, if you want to be known for one thing, what could it be. We broke up in a group of like twenty and every my said something different and and and my pastor said, I want to be known as an evangelist, and I thought, well, that's good. And then my worship leader said I want to be known as a worship person. I thought, man, that's good, but like it doesn't feel encompassing enough. And so finally when it hit me, I thought I got it. I want to be found faithful because that encompasses every aspect of life. And when I get to the end of my life, I want to be found faithful in my marriage because you know, I come from a family that wasn't. I want to be found faithful in. My walk with Christ because so many of my friends weren't. I want to be found faithful in every area of my life. And he says, okay, what were the answers, and he had everybody shot him out and I didn't hear the word faithful at all. And I thought, I think I like my answer the best. And then Billy Graham comes on the screen. He goes, here's a Billy said, and he goes. I want to be found and faithful. And I thought, I think, like Billy Graham, Yeah, you and Billy Graham, Me and. Billy Graham, Man, we have the same mind. And nobody else has the same mind as me and Billy. Yeah. Right, so that's you and the and all the study Bible. People, study Bible people. Yeah, that's funny. So you know, he says this pretty count virtual statement about it's hard for the rich to ender the Kingdom of God. Because this young man comes to Jesus saying, I feel like I've done everything necessary. What am I missing? Am I missing anything? Because I don't. What he's really saying is I don't think I'm missing anything. In the same way, when he comes and calls Jesus a good teacher, Jesus says, you know you're really calling me. You're equating me with God. Do you know that right? And the kid misses it. Then he goes to Jesus, I'm pretty sure I've done everything I need to do to go to heaven. Am I good? Yeah? That's holy checking. And Jesus said, well, you know you're pretty good. Have you obeyed the loss? Oh since I was a kid? Yeah, okay, great, then just sell everything you have and come follow me. And what he was talking about was his own attachments. He was talking about the thing that's actually holding him back from God. It's not sinful to have money. God rewarded so many people in the Bible when he gave them, you know Solomon Solomon. He says, Salmon, I'll give you anything you want. Salomon says, I need wisdom. God said, because you ask for wisdom, I'm going to give you fame. I'm going to give you wealth. I'm going to give you power. You could have asked for those things and God, God gave it to him as a reward for asking for the right thing. He made Abraham rich. He celebrates the wealth of job. You can go on down the line. So God's not against wealth, and God's not against you having money. God's against money having you. And that's what he just That's what Jesus just proved of this guy is money has a hold of you. You can't let it go. Right. So if you ever wonder does money have a hold of you, it's whether or not you can let it go. And if you can't, you know in your mind you go, oh yeah, I could. I could let my money go. Prove it. So my dad died in March, and I got a bunch of his Bibles and my dad. I have several photos. I should I'm going to put him up in my office. I've got several photos of my dad, his glasses on. Early in the morning. You can see through the window, is dark outside, and he's sitting there with his flannel shirt on and his blue jeans, getting ready to go to work. He's got his Bible on his lap, got a pen in his hand. And my dad always write notes in his Bible every day, every single day he's studying the Bible. He worked at General Motors and then later on he owned afrigeration company, and he just make notes in his Bible. So my brothers and I well were all in the ministry. We all wanted one of my dad's Bibles. Well I wound up getting don't tell him, but I got like four and the other guy's got one. So in one of my dad's bibles, he has all these connecting notes in the Bible about giving and about tithing, and so he wrote a note. You know, you ever see those bumper stickers, honk if you love Jesus. So my dad acknowledges that. He said, I saw a bumper sticker that said honk if you love Jesus. And he said, anybody can honk. Try giving that's great, right? Is that a great try? Tithing is what he wrote there. And there's something about that that it's easy to make claims, But the question is what really has a hold of you. For some it's it's it's less. For some, it's the money. For some it's power and influence. For some it's just what money buys us the big stuff, the prestige. Right, that's the challenge that he has. And so when he's he's talking here, it's hard for the rich dad of the Kingdom of God. He's saying, if you can't let it go, you can't get because the eye of the needle, if it really was this little gate, that camel couldn't get through the eye of the needle until he unburdened himself. He had to get rid of all the package he was all the packages he was carrying in order to get through that little eye of the needle. That's right. And this is what Jesus is saying, is you have to be able to get rid of. Everything right, and and the man. Not that you have to get rid of everything willing, willing, that's right, willing, that's right and able. And yeah, so he didn't ask Abraham to spare his to take his son. He asked Abraham, was he willing? Right? Right? That's right. So the I was thinking. About this guy who thinks he's you know, qualified, right, this guy who thinks that he's everything perfect and everything down. He's a little bit of a self righteous attitude, I believe, you know, which is why. He said, Oh, I've done all these things right. I was reminded, remember when I did your roast for your ten year anniversary. Yeah, that was great. And I came. Here to interview your people at the time because I was a pastor down the street. And back then you used to have something stenciled on your front doors on these front. Oh yeah, no perfect people allowed. No perfect people allowed. And it was on every door. Yeah, no perfect people. I want to put it back on I've been talking about. I want to put that back on the windows. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was a good one. And I love the fact that it said no perfect people allowed, because it's just a reminder that all of us are in the same boat, right, all of us are imperfect, and so we have a dependency to lean on God's grace and everything else. And then Jesus says, I assure you that everyone, because Peter goes, hey, we left everything right, so we're good then, right, And Jesus said, I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife, or brothers or parents, children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will be repaid many times over in this life and will have eternal life in the world to come. So Jesus is trying to tell us, listen, no matter what you think you've given up for God, God will never be in debt to you. I'll give God, that's right. God will always give you far more than what you think you've given him. And I know you can say it in your life. I can only say that in my life. Is only one hundred percent true. Matter of fact, If that's how it works, I wish I'd given God more earlier, right, because I can outgive him, and he says many times over is the return. It's not only finances, but this is a financial context, right, and it's in so many areas, things that I feel like I've sacrificed God has repaid many times over. Yeah, so what else can you do? That's right. That's a great place to end and wrap up. And what a great passage And hopefully we will see you on Monday. On the boast. M hmmmmmmmmmm mm hmm