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Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.
If you will, this morning, if you haven't already, open your Bible to Mark chapter 10.
We'll read our text in just a couple of moments.
Today's message is a two-parter, so when you look at your outline, I'm going to do three of those points this morning and three with you next week.
The story is just too important to try to cram a whole bunch of stuff in in one message, and so we're going to do that over two.
But we're going to continue today our series on the story of Jesus.
Just a few weeks ago, you may recall, I brought a message to you called The Disciple's Life.
It was from chapter 8 of Mark as we work through the story of Jesus.
But today I want to continue the theme of discipleship with another familiar story from the Gospel of Mark.
It's Mark 10, as I said.
Now, you know, we have a lot of men and women in this congregation that have served in the armed forces of our United States.
And you ask them, and they'll tell you it's more than free tourism or government-sponsored education.
In fact, it's perilous duty in service to our nation because our nation has enemies everywhere.
I'm reminded of a soldier that enlisted in the army right before the Gulf War broke out back in the 90s.
Some of you remember that war.
And he went AWOL.
He just enlisted, and we went to war, and he went AWOL.
And when they apprehended him and asked him why he left, he answered and he said this, Well, I didn't know when I enlisted in the army that I might have to go and fight.
Or consider the crew and the families of the USS Cole who were reminded of the perils of service on October 12th, 2000 when terrorists caused the death of 17 of our service personnel and injured dozens more while their ship was in port refueling in Yemen.
You see, recruitment posters may emphasize seeing the world or getting financial help with one's college
But the real truth is that enlistment in our nation's armed forces carries with it serious and grave risk.
Similarly, you and I must be careful not to present the Christian faith before the world as simply a recruitment poster that speaks all about the perks and of what it means to be a church member or disciple of Christ with all the benefits and all the blessings.
And there are many benefits.
But we dare not treat it just like it's a recruitment process without letting people know that one's life may be on the line, literally, for following Jesus.
Now, Jesus never minimized the cost of following him.
He never soft-pedaled it.
Every time we see the call to discipleship, every time we see Jesus dealing with someone who wanted to follow him, he makes plain what it means to follow him.
We see that reflected in our passage this morning, and so I want us to look at that.
If you're physically able to do so, stand with me.
Beginning in verse 17...
Mark chapter 10 the scripture says and as he was setting out on his journey that is Jesus as he was setting out on his journey a man ran up and knelt before him and asked good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus said to him why do you call me good no one is good except God alone 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 mother and
And he said to him, the young man said to Jesus, that is, Teacher, all of these I have kept for my youth.
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, You lack one thing.
Go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
And come, follow me.
Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for a great possessions.
And Jesus looked around and he said to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.
Father, would you take now and cause our hearts to be receptive to your word?
Would you speak to our minds, our emotions, our will?
Father, would you cause us to hear and say, Lord, I will be a follower.
I understand.
I want to be a disciple.
And Father, would you touch us at the point where we need to hear from you today.
Whatever that is, those who are watching us, listening to us on radio, those who are sitting in this live audience, Lord, I pray that you will have our attention.
And so, Father, would you cause now the enemy to flee this place so that your word can ring clearly throughout this service and into our hearts.
For we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you.
And you can be seated.
Now this isn't the only place this story is told.
It's told in Matthew's gospel and it's told in Luke's gospel.
These are the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, synoptic to see the same.
is what the Greek word means.
And these gospels see the same.
That's why you have so many duplicate stories in these three gospels.
They tell the story from generally the same perspective.
John's gospel is considered more of a cosmopolitan gospel at the time he wrote to kind of to reach the whole world.
These were more specific.
And so they're very similar in their tone and in the text.
But here's one of the interesting things.
Go back if you wish to this week and read the other accounts of this story and see if you can pick up the different nuances because there were three different writers telling the same story.
Some added some details that others did not.
Some kind of more like summarized as Mark does.
But all three of these gospels tell this story.
And I believe that's because this story made an indelible impression upon these disciples as they watched what happens.
Now, you know, we've talked already about some parables in the story of Jesus, but this is a true life story.
This isn't a parable.
This isn't something, let me illustrate discipleship with you or what it means to follow me.
That's not what's happening here.
This is a real story.
This was a real experience.
young man.
This man was young, he was wealthy, and he was a ruler.
He came from the royalty, the ruling class of his day.
He had all the luxuries of this life, but he lacked the thing that he needed most, and when the opportunity for that thing was offered him, he rejected it.
He made a
And from his story this morning and next week, I want to show you several truths.
Now, the essence of discipleship involves two things, discipline and commitment.
That's the essence.
If you boil it down, what is discipleship all about?
It's about discipline and commitment.
Discipline and disciple come from the same root word.
And as we see in this story of this man...
The ideas of discipleship today are often contrary to the wishes which focus more about having the benefits of the kingdom of God without having to give up the comforts of this world.
That tends to be the idea.
I want to be a disciple.
I want the comforts of this world, and I want the benefits of the kingdom.
But Jesus never makes that dichotomy.
Stanley Howers has written, it's hard to remember that Jesus did not come to make us safe and
but rather to make us disciples and citizens of the kingdom's new age, which is a kingdom of surprise.
So let's examine this story.
And the first thing I want you to see this morning is found in verse 17.
It's the seeker's desire.
Look again with me.
Keep your Bible open.
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him, knelt before him and asked, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Now, we often focus on the negative qualities of this young, rich ruler, but there are some notable things that he's commendable for.
Let me share some of those with you.
And one is that he has this great desire.
He was eager.
The Bible says he ran up to Jesus.
This isn't a bad thing.
These are all important components that result from his desire to be a disciple.
He ran up to Jesus.
I think he was genuinely interested in following Jesus.
I think he was genuinely interested in knowing Christ.
He had no reason to have to chase Jesus down or try to get to Jesus.
And I believe it teaches us something that we need to also have an eagerness to follow Jesus.
Now, eagerness alone is not enough, obviously.
But he started right.
Would you agree with that?
He got to Jesus.
He ran to Jesus.
He had this eager desire to know Christ and to follow Christ.
Second, he was humble.
He was not just eager, he was humble.
Notice that he knelt down before Jesus.
Remember I said he came from the ruling class?
He didn't kneel to people.
In fact, if anything, people knelt to him and to his family.
But he was humble and he ran to Jesus and he knelt before Jesus.
He recognized that Jesus was not like anybody else.
And so he got to him and he knelt before him.
Look, if you're going to be a disciple, part of the desire is going to be expressed through your humbleness when you get in the presence of Jesus.
Humbling yourself.
He was eager.
He was humble.
He was respectful.
Notice he addressed Jesus as a revered or trusted teacher.
A disciple understands and wants to learn.
They have a desire to learn.
He called him teacher.
He called him rabbi.
He may have not understood him to be fully the Messiah, but he knew he had the keys to the kingdom because that's why he went there.
And then he says teacher, rabbi.
That's all he understood in his world.
He said, look, I have a question for you.
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
And he is respectful in that regard.
Somebody has said that if this man tried to join a Baptist church, we'd be on him at like
white on rice because he had three things that we love.
He had morals, he had good manners, and he had lots of money.
I said we'd have went after him quickly, but Jesus didn't do that, did he?
But he was respectful to Jesus.
And then number four, he was concerned about his spiritual condition.
Don't
Don't miss that.
The whole reason he's there is because he is concerned about his spiritual condition.
He had a desire to be right with God.
He did not assume that all was well with his soul.
He wasn't asking how Jesus could make him more wealthy.
He didn't come to Jesus asking, Jesus, can you make me more?
I'm a rich young ruler, but I'll take some more.
Can you show me how to have more?
He didn't come to Jesus asking Jesus to give him greater power and authority or some more influential position.
He was concerned about his soul.
I've got all these things.
But how, how can I have eternal life?
How can I inherit eternal life?
The fifth thing about this young man was that he went to the right source, didn't he?
His desire caused him to seek answers from the right place.
There are plenty of religious ideas.
There are plenty of religious sources in our world that masquerade as truth.
But there is only one way and one truth.
And we have to be careful not to confuse religious ideas with spiritual truth.
This man got to the right place.
And by the way, he would be given the right answers.
He just didn't want to respond the way Jesus challenged him.
Some years ago, many years ago, before I was your pastor and I was in Atlanta, a friend of mine and I went out visiting one evening and we visited...
a man of enormous wealth, enormous wealth.
We pulled into the mansion that he lived in to go in and visit with him, and he had a six-car garage, and he had all the high-end kinds of vehicles, and this house was opulent, and he was very kind.
He welcomed us in, yeah, come on in, and
I forget the contact that had caused us to go to see this man, but we sat down with him and I began to talk with him about the gospel and what it means to know Christ.
And I went through the presentation and then I asked him the important question.
I said, is there any reason that you couldn't trust Christ as your savior?
And he looked back at me and he said, well, he said, I have a question for you.
He said, have you looked at this place?
He said, I've got everything I need.
And what I don't have, I can get.
He said, pardon me, but why do I need Jesus?
Why do I need Jesus?
You see, he had everything this world could offer him.
But he didn't have the one thing that he needed most and he didn't know that he needed it.
Because he thought that he could just fix everything or he could have anything and everything that he wanted.
You know, there's a lot of that in our world today.
That says, first of all, I've got to come to a place where I have to know why I need Jesus.
And why Jesus would make any difference in my life.
And this man, to his credit, he went, he knew, yeah, but there's something with all that's in my life.
There's something not right.
And so he got to the right source.
He just didn't like the answer he got.
What do I need to do?
You know, I'm a good guy.
I have an interest.
I have eagerness and all of these kinds of things.
You're a good teacher.
You're a great rabbi.
All of these things.
What do I need to do?
These are great starting points for genuine discipleship.
In fact, I would tell you to emulate those things from this young man.
Those are some things that all of us could emulate and benefit from, provided we respond when we get the answer.
But notice there's a second thing I want you to see this morning, and that is I want you to see not just the seeker's desire, I want you to see the seeker's deception.
The seeker's deception, verse 20 says,
So Jesus, he says, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus, you see the answer, right?
Jesus says, okay, well, Jesus reels off the law, the commandments.
He said, keep these commandments.
Now, Jesus wasn't trying to say, here's a full list of the commandments.
Keep these five or six commandments, or if you keep all of them.
Jesus said, keep the commandments.
And the surprising answer came back from the young man was, I have.
I have.
I have.
I've kept all of these since I was young.
Now, you and I know he hadn't kept all of those perfectly, and he hadn't kept all of the law for sure.
And Jesus certainly knew that this young man had not perfected the law.
But Jesus tells him to do these things.
In an episode of NBC sitcom, The Office,
The lead character is a guy named Michael Scott.
And in one of the episodes, he offers this humorous kind of self-serving account of his weaknesses as a boss.
And he said, for example, I work too hard.
I care too much.
And sometimes I can be too invested in my job.
He said, these are my weaknesses.
And then they ask him to give them a list of his strengths and weaknesses.
If you know his character, he's just a little bit full of himself and a little bit goofy at the same time.
And he replies back to them.
He said, hmm, well, the weaknesses I just gave you are also my strengths.
Well, you can call it a weird paradox, if you will.
But when telling the stories about our life, we sometimes are a lot like that, aren't we?
We have a habit of casting ourself as the hero.
I've noticed that I'm the hero of all my stories.
I like it that way.
In fact, I may have even misunderstood some stories over the course of my life so I could come out the hero of those stories.
I'm not sure about that.
I doubt it because my weaknesses are my strengths.
But this penchant that we all have for valorizing our choices and motivations to speak the fundamental nature of our character is
plagues us it tempts us to misremember to misconstrue and to misunderstand not only ourself but people around us and that's the case for this young man here as well intentioned as this young man was he was he was deceived about himself would you agree with that because he believed that he was actually better than he really was oh i've done all that yeah i've done all of those things
Now, I want to show you something.
But before I do, I want you to look back at the question this young man asked in verse 17.
Look back there.
What was his question?
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
That's his question.
Now, you and I know something.
I hope you've picked up on this.
But we know that according to Scripture, salvation is by grace through faith and not of works.
Right?
So have you ever wondered why Jesus tells this young man to keep the law?
Have you ever wondered about that?
Because first of all, you can't inherit salvation.
But he says, what must I do?
Emphasis on the word do.
What must you do?
Keep the law.
That's what Jesus says to him, keep the law.
You understand the nature of the man's question?
His question is about how to inherit or earn salvation by what he does.
So his question is a legalistic question.
Are y'all with me?
So let me show you what Jesus is doing.
Since the man assumes that eternal life is something that can be transferred, something that can be earned or worked for, Jesus gives him a legalistic answer.
Okay, you want to inherit it?
Well, yeah, I can tell you what to do to inherit it.
Keep all the law.
You've got to be perfect.
Well, I've done that.
Self-deception.
Self-deception.
So Jesus gave him a legalistic answer.
In other words, if that's your approach, then keep the law and you can earn salvation.
But notice that the man responds that he's done all of that and that is the reflection of his self-deception.
And you know what?
Jesus is so gracious, isn't he?
Because Jesus doesn't call the man out even though Jesus knew that the man hadn't kept all the law.
Jesus doesn't go, no, you haven't.
Do you know who you're talking to?
If anybody knows what the law is, I do.
And you, as good as you may have been, you have not kept it all.
Isn't Jesus gracious?
And he doesn't call us out for our own self-deception.
And a similar danger exists today for people who assume that they are saved because they are good or because they are better than somebody else.
Because the Bible teaches us several things.
The Bible teaches that all of us are sinners.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
All of us are sinners.
Every person in this room, every person listening to my voice by TV or radio or live stream, whatever it may be, all of us are sinners.
The Bible makes that perfectly clear.
No matter how good you have been.
Now you may not be as bad a sinner as someone else you know.
But God doesn't grade on the curve.
No.
God doesn't say, okay, yeah, you're a little better.
That's why Paul said, they that compare themselves among one another are not wise.
You see, so we're all sinners.
You're a sinner.
I hate to, in a world that doesn't want to identify with sin and doesn't want to say, yes, this is sin.
Yes, I am a sinner.
Like the man, that wealthy man that I visited with, he said, what do I need?
He did not see himself as a sinner.
You know why?
Because the devil had allowed him to use his money to cover up who he really was and keep him from seeing.
He was self-deceived.
And so are we.
If we ever think, well, as sinners go, I'm not so bad.
Your sin, no matter how minimal it may be, put Christ on the cross, right?
It put Christ on the cross.
Here's the good news, too.
He would have died on that cross for you even if you were the only sinner.
The only one.
All of us have sinned.
The Bible teaches that.
And secondly, the Bible teaches you can't inherit salvation.
I said that just a moment ago.
It isn't something that can be transferred from one person to another.
Some years ago, a governor of one of our southern states said this, I'm counting on a godly mother to get me into heaven.
Surprise!
Surprise!
It can't be passed on.
It can't be transferred.
You know, there's a commercial.
You've seen them, these commercials.
They're good.
USAA, the insurance, the military insurance.
And if you have family that served in the military, you can go way back generations.
You can go way back.
And if you have family that has served in the military, guess what?
You're in.
Salvation doesn't work that way.
Salvation doesn't work that way.
Salvation doesn't go, well, you know, I had a godly grandmother.
I had a godly mother or a godly father.
And you know what?
I am the heir of all that is theirs.
You are except for salvation.
You can't inherit it.
And then salvation is a gift of grace.
Jesus offers it based on his work on the cross.
He offers it freely to us.
He did what you couldn't do.
I had a debt I couldn't pay.
He paid a debt he did not owe.
As the song says, salvation is a gift of grace.
Jesus offers it based on his work, his work alone.
And then fourth, we must individually receive salvation by faith.
And this is the real kicker.
I mean, I can't do it for you, and you can't do it for me.
It is a personal decision, and that's where this story breaks down for this young man.
He would not make the personal decision that would change his eternity.
It was a decision of a lifetime.
Now, we need to understand that this man wasn't aware of his deception, and a lot of people aren't.
They're not aware of their real condition.
In fact, this man thought just the opposite.
He thought he had it all together.
That's what the devil does.
He blinds our eyes.
You remember when Paul got saved?
Do you remember
Do you remember what Jesus said to him when he appeared to him?
He says, why do you keep resisting me?
And then when Paul recognized who he was, he was blinded.
And then the scales fell from his eyes.
If you've ever wondered why a person just doesn't get it, it makes such sense.
It's because the God of this world, Satan himself, has blinded their eyes.
And it's like scales over them.
And until those scales fall away...
They won't see it.
It won't make sense.
They'll say, well, I don't have a problem with it, but it's just not my thing.
I'm just not ready to do that or make that kind of decision.
This man thought he had it all together.
And the reason that self-deception is so dangerous to our soul is because the devil hides the truth about who we are behind the facade of religious activity.
Now, our world is incredibly religious today.
And the devil loves religion.
By the way, one day when you stand before God and he says, why should I, if he asks the question, but theoretically, if he said, why should I let you into the kingdom?
Don't say because I was a Baptist.
All right, please don't say that.
Don't even say because I was a member of Ridgecrest.
Look, those things will get you nuts.
Well, it may get you a trip somewhere else.
But the devil loves religion.
There are a lot of people that are going to go to hell because of religion.
They were good at religion.
Even connected sometimes to the right kinds of expressions of faith.
This man didn't understand.
He was blinded.
He wanted to be involved.
Look, he knew this was kingdom stuff that Jesus was doing.
He wanted to be a part of it.
And he was confused about his real condition.
It was the case with him.
It was the case with the Pharisee.
And it's the case with many people in our world today.
There are going to be a lot of religious people in hell.
You remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7, 22 to 23?
On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name.
And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
You see all their religious activity?
And they're going to stand before Jesus and say, but gee, remember, we prophesied in your name.
I taught a Bible class on prophecy, remember?
Remember?
Hey, Jesus, don't you remember that we cast out demons in your name?
And by the way, Jesus doesn't rebuke that.
The power was in the name of Jesus, not in the instrument.
And didn't we do mighty works in your name?
And then he will declare, but I never, here's the problem.
Here's where it all breaks down.
I never knew you.
So depart from me.
At that point in time, it's too late.
But let me give you one last thing this morning that I want you to see in this story, and that is the Savior's directive.
Verse 21, look there with me if you will.
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, you lack one thing.
Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, look, follow me.
You know, rather than point out the man's self-deception, Jesus does something else.
Jesus doesn't debate with him about his keeping of the law.
Well, you know, there was a time when you didn't do and you should have done and this law and this law.
What about this law and this law?
Jesus didn't do that with the guy.
He said, well, let me just set you straight.
Let me set the record straight.
Jesus doesn't do that.
But he does instead...
He gives him a command, and this is a command when he said, you lack one thing, go and sell all that you have.
That is in the imperative in the Greek.
It is a command, and it is directed at the young man's real problem.
So instead of dealing with all the legalities of the law and that, Jesus says, okay, here's what I want you to do.
There's one thing you lack, okay?
You're a good guy.
There's one thing you lack, though, and I want you to do this.
And that was because Jesus knew what the man's real problem was.
And it's important for us to understand that Jesus' directive here was not about the man taking a vow of poverty, okay?
This is not about Jesus, you need to take a vow of poverty.
That's not what this is about.
It is about making a commitment to discipleship and to devotion so he could come and follow Jesus.
Let me give you four applications as we wrap this up this morning.
Let me give you four applications of this.
It'll help you understand Jesus' command.
It'll help you understand what's really going on here.
First of all, this was more than a money issue.
Though Jesus addressed the man's wealth, this was not so much about money as it was lordship.
Jesus knew what controlled this man's heart.
And we do too because of reading the story.
This man was controlled by money.
And Jesus said something, no man can serve God and mammon or money.
So Jesus sees, and so instead of dealing with the legalities, he says, let's just cut to the chase.
He said, here's the rule, I want you to do something.
I want you to go and sell, get rid of all your wealth.
What was Jesus doing?
Was Jesus against wealth or money?
No.
But Jesus is against anything that controls your heart over him.
And he knew in this man's case, his money controlled him.
Does that make sense?
So what's the application for us?
You say, well, I don't have any money.
That won't be a problem for me.
That's not the application.
You take and just replace money with whatever it is that controls your heart.
And you know what Jesus would say?
Get rid of it.
Or put it in its rightful place.
You know,
You and I could be characters in this story ourselves, probably.
At some point in time in our life.
If Christ is not Lord, what is Lord of our life?
Look, it can be a hobby.
It can be a relationship.
It can be your vocation.
But anything that takes the place of the Spirit's control of your life is, guess what, has set itself up as Lord.
And this is going to be a battle between
that you're going to fight all through your walk with Christ.
The second thing, our application I would give you here, is that this is a reminder that Jesus knows who you really are.
The man portrayed himself as a God-fearing, God-following disciple.
But he wasn't.
He portrayed himself that way, but he wasn't.
The fact is, no matter how good you are, no matter how well-mannered you are, and no matter how interested you appear, Jesus looks inside to evaluate us.
You remember when David was selected king and there was concern about his age and all of that.
And he was the last one brought before Samuel.
And you remember what Samuel said.
God doesn't look like man looks.
God looks on the inside.
Man looks on the outside.
You see, this story is a reminder that Jesus knows who we really are.
And this man...
wanted to portray himself to others and even to Jesus as this, I'm a God follower.
I'm a God-fearing man.
I just want to take it to the next level.
But Jesus knows and evaluates us about what's going on in here.
A third application is this, that this story clarifies that Jesus loves us unconditionally.
Now, I love the line where it says that after this guy said all of these things, I've done all those things.
What else you got?
What else you got?
It says that Jesus looked at him, loved him.
Do you see that?
You know what this reminds us of?
No matter who we really are, and Jesus knows, he still loves us.
And the word there for love comes from the Greek word agape, which means unconditional kind of love.
Jesus loves us unconditionally.
This guy's standing there to the creator, and he says to him, I've done everything that I need to do.
What else you got?
And instead of Jesus saying, and using the Greek word, moron, Jesus looks at him and Jesus is empathetic.
He loves him.
He looks at him and he loves him.
He probably loves him for all of those good reasons we talked about.
He loves him for that.
But he doesn't love him just because of that.
He loves him in spite of who he is.
That's unconditional love.
And so when Jesus looks at him, Jesus knows the truth, just like he does about all of us.
But when he looks at him, he looks at this man and he says, I love you.
I love you.
Jesus didn't do what you and I would have done.
When he said something like that to me, I would have probably rolled my eyes.
Are you serious?
Jesus, it says he looked at him and he loved him.
I suspect that that young man knew in that moment, whoever this great man is, he loves me.
He loves me.
And it's a great encouragement to us because it reminds us that there's hope for all of us, doesn't it?
No matter who we are, no matter how deceived we may have been, Jesus loves us.
He looks at us and he loves us.
And you know, 2,000 years later, Jesus still looks at us and he loves us.
Aren't you glad for that?
But there's one fourth and final thing, and I'll talk more about this next week, but it is that this story reminds us that an encounter with Jesus demands a personal response.
Jesus lets the young man decide, doesn't he?
Now, I told you that if he came to the average Baptist church, we would try to figure out a way to grandfather him in.
But Jesus doesn't do that.
Jesus lets it, Jesus says, here's what it's going to take in your life.
There's something controlling you and you have to come and surrender.
And Jesus doesn't force the young man.
Jesus never forces salvation upon anyone.
When I was young in ministry, well, really, even before I was in vocational ministry and I would share my faith with people, I oftentimes would try to argue them into the kingdom.
I'd share the gospel and try to argue.
Can't you?
Don't you want to?
Why wouldn't you please do it?
And try to beg them into the kingdom until finally I realized one day that's the work of the Holy Spirit.
My task is to give them the gospel.
It's to tell my story.
How they can be transformed.
But not to try to wrestle them into the kingdom.
Pray for them that they'll enter the kingdom.
But not try to wrestle them into the kingdom.
Jesus let this young man decide.
He didn't force salvation.
And he doesn't force it on us.
He doesn't force discipleship on any of us.
But there are consequences to our choices.
And there were consequences to this man's choice.
You see, we can all be disciples of Christ.
Right?
but we can't be disciples of Christ for each other.
We can all be saved, but we can't be saved for each other.
I wish we could, don't you?
I mean, I got some people I know that if I could be saved for them, I would be.
But it's a personal response.
It requires a personal response.
And Jesus offers that to this man, as I'll talk about next week, and the choices and the consequences, but we have to personally respond.
In the Chronicle of Higher Education, it featured an article about William Lane Craig.
Now, I don't know if you know who William Lane Craig is, but he is the man that is often referred to as the Christian philosophy's boldest apostle.
He's an apologist.
And he's traveled the world debating many of the world's most articulate atheists, including the kind of pop culture, one of the pop culture atheists.
There are several of them out there.
One of them is a guy named Sam Harris.
And he's debated Harris.
But even Sam Harris, this popular atheist, said this about William Lane Craig.
And I quote, Craig is the one Christian apologist.
who seems to have put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists.
Which is probably the reason why atheist Richard Dawkins refused to debate Craig.
But the story of how Craig became this brilliant scholar, this debater, this philosopher, actually reveals the work of God in the midst of weakness and limitation.
You see, from birth, he had suffered from a syndrome called Charcot-Marie-Tooth.
I'd never heard of it before.
It's a neuromuscular disease that causes atrophy in the extremities, the feet and the hands.
And so as a result of that, he walks with a bit of a limp, and his hands often look like they're holding on to something.
And growing up, he couldn't run normally.
He said, my boyhood was difficult.
because children can be very cruel.
And because of his condition, varsity sports weren't an option, so he joined the high school debate team.
And Craig says that initially he wasn't interested in spiritual issues, but he started reading the Bible, and the Jesus he found there took hold of his life.
And Craig goes on to explain that
what happened he said quote for me it was a question of personal commitment was I prepared to become this man Jesus's follower he said that's the question it came back to and the fact is that is the question that it always comes down to just like that fourth application you and I must make personal a personal response to him
That's the question.
Am I prepared to personally respond to him?
Are we prepared to become a disciple of the man, Jesus Christ?
This question continues today after more than 2,000 years.
And I want to tell you, it's still the most important question of life.
And our response, like this rich young ruler...
changes everything, and is the decision of a lifetime.
Father, I know there are people watching, listening, perhaps in this live audience, and they need to respond to you.
They need to do what your word says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
And Father, I thank you that you don't force it.
You don't force us to make any decision.
You don't force us into salvation or into discipleship, but you offer it to us, but without compromise.
And so, Father, I pray for any that need to put their trust in you that today they would call upon you.
They would receive you as their Savior.
Lord, that they would take, perhaps if they're saved, that next step of becoming a committed, devoted, fully committed disciple of Jesus.
Father, there are others that need to make decisions, perhaps in this place, to join this family.
Or, Father, to follow up their commitment to Christ with baptism.
Whatever it may be, would you move in their hearts this morning before we're gone?
For we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, I'm so glad that you have tuned in to the broadcast today.
I hope you've been encouraged by God's word.
Sure has been a joy to share it with you.
And even now, people at Ridgecrest are making decisions for Christ.
Perhaps as you've watched this broadcast, you've recognized the need for your own decision for Christ.
The prompting of the Spirit has caused you to recognize that you need Christ as your Savior.
And the good news is you can receive Him right where you are.
The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Right where you are, you can call on Him.
Say something like this from your heart to Him.
Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me.
I know I'm a sinner.
And I know that you came into this world and died on the cross for my sins.
And right now, I invite you to come into my life.
Forgive me and be my savior.
I can assure you if you'll call on him, based on what God has already told us in the Bible, that he'll hear that prayer and he'll answer that.
And he wants to begin this new journey
in your life with you, transforming you into His image.
We'd love to help you with that decision as well.
You'll see a QR code on your screen, and if you would scan that, or you'll see contact information, or if you'll contact us about your decision today, we'd love to help you take next steps.
There are no strings attached, no fees involved.
We'd just like to help you begin that journey with Christ.
you may be watching this broadcast today and say i need a church family to belong to i already know christ is my savior and i'd like to be a part of the ridgecrest family also if you will scan that qr code that'll take you to a location and we'll be able to help you make those kinds of decisions like becoming a member here or if you've never been scripturally baptized those kinds of things so contact us through that qr code or through the contact information on the screen
Well, again, it's been a joy to have you with us today.
And I hope you've been encouraged by God's word.
Whatever decision we can help you with, by all means, contact us.
May the Lord bless you.