2022-11-29 Why are you here

The main ideas from this information are: - The speaker asks why the audience is here tonight and suggests that they are looking for value. - The speaker discusses a story from the Bible about a man who approaches Jesus to ask about inheriting eternal life. - The speaker challenges the audience to consider if they truly want Jesus or if they are just seeking what he can give them. - The speaker emphasizes the need to give up everything for Jesus and put him first in our lives. - The speaker reminds the audience that following Jesus may bring persecution and challenges, but also promises blessings in the next life. - The speaker encourages the audience to seek a genuine relationship with God and to prioritize knowing Him above all else. Tonight, I want to ask you a very direct question, and that question is, why are you here? And I don't mean, why do you exist, and those big existential questions. I mean really practically, why are you here tonight in this room? You're smart people. You wouldn't waste your time being here tonight if you didn't think there was something potentially of value for you. So I believe there's a reason you're here. You're looking for value, we all are. And there was someone in the Bible who approached Jesus because he saw the value that he could get from Jesus too. So we're gonna check that out together in Mark chapter 10. It says here, as Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down and asked, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good, Jesus asked. Only God is good. I always thought that's a funny question, right? Well, it's like, why are you honing in on this detail, Jesus? But I think he was pointing out that there's an acknowledgement that he is God. But to answer your question, you know the commandments. You must not murder, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not testify falsely, you must not cheat anyone, honor your father and mother. Teacher, the man replied, I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young. Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. There's still one thing you haven't done, he told him. Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. At this, the man's face fell and he went away sad for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. This amazed them, but Jesus said again, dear children, it is very hard to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle and for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were astounded. Then who in the world can be saved, they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, humanly speaking, it is impossible, but not with God. Everything is possible with God. So that brings us for our big idea tonight is do you want security on your terms or do you want Jesus? First point being, do we want Jesus? Do we want him? The rich young ruler asked Jesus how he can obtain eternal life. And it's an interesting request, right? He didn't ask, he didn't presume, and this man was presumably Jewish, right? So he already would presume that to have that is that you'd have to have a good relationship with God. But he didn't ask him if he could get closer to God and how to do that, how he could live a good life. He asked how he could obtain eternal life, how he could get to heaven. One of my youth pastors growing up taught a message that has always stuck in my mind. And this is the kind of thing I pray happens with youth when I speak to that there's at least one message that sticks in their mind. And I'll be honest, this is the only one that did. But it's forever been stuck in my mind where he was talking about this idea of if we're treating God as our get out of hell free card, he called it, right? You know, like when you're playing Monopoly and you get the get out of jail free card, right? Saying is that how we treat God? Are we treating Jesus as merely our way of getting out of hell as avoiding a negative, or are we seeing him as the positive to be gained as a relationship we can have personally? A relationship that has value even apart from the heaven or hell question. Beyond the question of eternity, do we love Jesus? Well, it's not something we do kind of sorta. One of the hosts of the Youth Alpha video series, which we've been doing with the youth, he did this great comparison and they put it this way. So they basically, they polled viewers who had watched the Youth Alpha series. They polled them beforehand and they polled them after hand and basically asked them this question of would you have called yourself a Christian before you watched this series? And these are some of the responses that they got back. Well, yes, but without any real experience of a relationship with God. Sorta was another answer. Ish was another answer. Yes, but looking back, possibly no was another answer. So at this point, one of the hosts then takes all of those comments cards from the other host and he says, okay, imagine if I use any of these answers, if someone asked me if I'm married to my wife. So is he married? Well, yes, but without any real experience of a relationship. Sorta, ish, yes, but looking back, possibly no. That's not the description of a married person. That's not the description of someone in a relationship. And it's certainly not how we describe someone who has a relationship with someone that they love. Are we treating God as fire insurance, as a way to ensure we head to heaven instead of hell? Are we seeking eternal comfort or are we seeking a relationship? Which brings us to my second point. Enough is never enough. And maybe you're like the rich young ruler who came. Everything looks great and should be great, but you feel empty and there's this, just it's not making sense. Enough is never enough. Maybe you've leveled up in your career and found it empty. Maybe you thought if you just had a significant other in your life, you feel satisfied and yet that person doesn't make you feel whole. Or if you had kids, your family would be complete, but it's still not enough. Or even a good church experience and yet you still feel like you're missing something, even though everything there should be enough. Or maybe you have none of these things and you want them. I'm here to say that they're not going to solve your problems. They won't heal the ache you feel in your heart. We can't get that relationship with God and eternal life on our own. You know, a lot of times Christians will use this analogy to say that there's a God-shaped hole in your heart. You ever see those little kids puzzles where it's got like the star-shaped hole and the square hole and the triangle hole and you got the little blocks and you got to put them in the right one to make them fit through, right? And it has to be that right shape where it just doesn't work. God has a unique shape and only he fits what's missing in your heart. So maybe you've tried that. Maybe you've done your best to be a good person and it's gotten you nowhere. Well, maybe we should just give up. That's my final point. Give up. Great message, let's go home. No, maybe, maybe we should give up everything for Jesus. Jesus tells the rich young ruler to follow the commandments and he says he's done this his whole life, right? He says, and it says, it's interesting, it specifically notes that after that, it says that Jesus loved him, right? He said that and he loved him. Why did he love him? Because he got everything right? Because he followed all the commandments? No, I believe it's because he could see this young man was trying. He was honestly trying and he loved that about him. Yet he still lacked something. Jesus tells him to sell all his possessions and give it to the poor. So was this just some sort of social message about giving to the less fortunate? No, this was Jesus saying, will you give it all up? Will you sacrifice what gives you security? Will you sacrifice what makes you appear as a virtuous person? Because in his culture, they would have seen riches as a sign of God's favor, as a sign of blessing on this person, right? So to be poor would be viewed, you'd be viewed as somebody that God looked down upon. To give up what would have made him look like a godly person. So he followed everything. He said, you know, I've done it all. And you know what? I guarantee he had broken some of those commandments. I guarantee, he says, I've kept them all since I was young. No way. Absolutely, he told a lie at some point. Absolutely, he had done something. But so he had a, he'd been used to a certain reputation and God was asking him to give that up. Will we be willing to give up everything for Jesus? In Matthew 16, we read, then Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. You ever hear that expression? Oh, you know, maybe this particular thing I do, that's my cross to bear. So-and-so, they're so difficult, they're my cross to bear, right? Well, they have to take up their cross and follow me for whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Unless we are willing to rid ourselves of everything that distracts us, unless we're willing to make every other love in our life, be they people or jobs or goals or dreams or hopes or fears, whatever they are, unless we're willing to say they come second to Jesus and it's not a close second, unless we're willing to do that, then we're wasting our time. We're kidding ourselves. And maybe that sounds harsh, but I want you to think back to that marriage example. We talked about earlier, okay? Imagine for a minute, we're all guests, we've been invited to a wedding and the bride has a gorgeous dress. The groom had the picture perfect cry as he came down the aisle and now they're exchanging their vows. And he says, I'll be loyal to you as long as I shall live, not forsaking all others, but occasionally putting you first. Why it makes me feel like a good person. And at other times making my mom and dad and job and hobbies much more important than you. And sometimes ignoring you altogether because I need to binge some Netflix. Do you think we all would carry on thinking this was a beautiful wedding or would we seriously question the groom? Because realistically things can grow cold in relationships, but like if that was on the wedding, we'd all be very, very concerned, right? We wouldn't have much hope for that relationship. Are we willing to put Jesus first? Why did we come here tonight? Why are you here? For us or for him? The bittersweet truth of scripture is Jesus promised his followers two things when we're willing to give things up for him. And we can find that in Mark chapter 10. So then Peter began to speak up. We've given up everything to follow you, he said. Jesus replied, and I assure you that everyone who has ever given up house or brothers or sister or mother or father or children or property for my sake and for the good news will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and property all along with persecution. And in the world to come, that person will have eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then. And those who seem least important now will be greatest then. So here's the two things he promised in case you didn't catch it. Number one, what we give up in this life will be nothing compared to what God gives us in the next life. And number two, in this world, you will have persecution. The Christian life is not one of simple, moralistic, positive thinking, inspirational thought. Jesus acknowledges that we will be blessed, but that doesn't mean the road to blessings will always be easy. In fact, he promises it won't be. And you might be thinking now, you might be thinking now, Chris, why, like how on earth can I do this? This is really discouraging. I didn't come, why am I here? Well, I certainly didn't come here to be discouraged by you, Chris. You know, you might be feeling I'm trying so hard and you're saying even my good character or virtue means nothing. And I'm saying, give up, don't try. Give up everything to God and don't try to achieve it on your own. What does Jesus tell his shocked disciples as they're seeing this rich, virtuous man went away discouraged? He says, humanly speaking, right? They said, how can anyone be saved then? If this guy can't remember, they would have seen this guy from their vantage point. Oh yeah, he followed all the commandments. He was rich, so God must have blessed him. If he can't get into heaven, who can? But Jesus said, humanly speaking, it's impossible, but not with God. With God, everything is possible. A picture of a friend of mine in the US who actually made this shirt here, his name's Nick Smetak. He's obsessed with when the Bible says, but God, right? When a statement goes one way, but it's turned around because God intervenes, but God. And we see that right here. Humanly speaking, it's impossible to get connected with Jesus or to go to heaven, but God. But with God, everything is possible. Only he can break through our stubbornness. Only he can turn things around so that we're willing to let go with everything that makes us feel safe and step into a relationship for the sake of him. We've got to give it all up. We've got to let it all go for God. They're actually in the sermon that I was originally going to deliver for you guys tonight. There's just a little piece that I'm going to pull out for you guys so you'll still get a little bit of it. But when Jesus was feeding the 5,000, right? When he did this whole miracle, it's a great story to read in itself. But when he fed the 5,000 and did that miracle, it was this big thing, right? Then he left, he did the whole walking on water, both of those huge things, right? After that, these people went looking for Jesus, right? Which sounds awesome. Isn't that what we want, right? It wasn't awesome because they weren't looking for Jesus because they wanted more of what he was trying to share with them about God and about heaven and all this kind of stuff. They wanted more bread. That's all they really wanted. That's what they were coming to him for. And that's what I'm trying to challenge us with tonight. Do we want Jesus or do we want what he gives us, right? We're coming into the Christmas season now, right? And we see people getting gifts, we give gifts, and it's a beautiful time to have that expression of generosity, but as we come together, is everyone just excited about what they're gonna get or are we excited to be with those people in relationship with those people? And it's the same thing with God. And I'm not trying to say that God doesn't want to bless you. I believe he already is blessing you. And maybe you're going through a really hard time right now and you're like, Chris, I do not feel blessed by God right now. I guarantee there are things that he is doing, maybe behind the scenes even, that you can't quite see right now. And then when you look in the rear view mirror in 10 years, you're gonna be like, oh wow, God was really looking out for me. He's looking out for you. But the question we have to ask ourselves is when we come here, whether it's here, whether we open up our Bible personally ourselves, which I encourage you to do, what are we looking for? Right? I have to challenge myself that when I'm writing a message, am I trying to say something that I want to say that I think people need to say or something that the Bible is trying to express, that God is trying to express through that? Because I'm gonna be honest, anything that I have to tell you is highly overrated. But anything that the Bible has to tell you has a purpose. There's a reason we're still talking about it. Thousands of years later, there's a reason. That has staying power. And I pray that as you go from here, as you open up your own Bible, that that's gonna be what sticks with you. Nevermind anything I said, nevermind a cool PowerPoint or whatever. None of that matters. But His word matters. Dig into that, have that, but look for who He is. You know what I mean? Not just what He's going to give you. The Bible is not a book about you. It's a book about God. Let's learn who He is. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You show Yourself in Your word and that You can show Yourself to us in our lives and circumstances and prayer and all these different things, Lord. Help us to be truly desirous to know You for who You are, not to superimpose our ideas of what You're supposed to be and what a good God is or any of those kinds of things or superimpose our ideas of form and tradition upon You, Lord, but help us to honestly, openly, like a child, come to You with a blank slate, just wanting to know who You are, just asking those questions and letting it change us. Lord, I pray, Lord, that if there's things like the rich young ruler that we have to give up, things that give us a sense of safety or security or control or a sense of us having it all together or being okay, Lord, that we have to put aside to instead hang on to You as our security, Lord. I pray that You identify those things with us and that You'd help us to let them go and put You first. And Lord, I know we've all got responsibilities, we've got people in our lives that maybe depend upon us, Lord, I'm not asking the people here to give those people and their jobs and all these kinds of things up, Lord, but help us, Lord, to put You so far first that it's not even a close second for everything else. Help us to truly be in love with You, God. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, thanks so much for coming, everyone. Just wanted to remind you that if anything, any of the sermons or any of the songs jumped out at you and you wanted to check that out again, you can at salvationarmyvictoria.ca. Just click on gatherings, next steps, or next steps gatherings, and you'll be able to find information on all of that. And next week, we will actually be jumping into some Christmas sermons. I've been feeling the pressure from all these decorations last few weeks that I should have been preaching Christmas sermons by now, but that's actually going to happen next week. So if you want to wear a Christmas sweater or something like that, go ahead. But thanks so much for being here and we'll see you guys next week. God bless.