And we are glad you're here as well.
Hey, that is a promo for our new sermon series.
It's coming up in two weeks.
It's called Blind Spot.
And it takes place in Luke chapter 18 and 19.
Now it's all about vision and can you see
what God wants you to see?
But today we conclude a four week sermon series
entitled Tools of the Carpenter.
And I begin by asking this big question.
What is it that God is wanting you to sacrifice?
To sacrifice.
What is it that God is wanting you to give up?
What is it that is in your life right now
that God doesn't want to be in your life?
For some of you it's something that is not good for you
and God is like, get rid of it.
For some of you it's something that is good
but it's not best.
And so God is saying it's time to give it up.
And that's what the passage is all about.
In Luke chapter number 18, we're gonna see one of
my favorite stories in the Bible.
Honestly, a very funny story about Jesus' death
is interaction with an individual.
I am excited of course about the 90 day trust challenge.
It begins next, actually it begins just in a few days.
And many of us are turning in our 90 day trust challenge
card today at the end of the service.
My wife and I, we have hours, it's already filled out.
I'm ready to turn, not at this service
because I'm here for all three.
I'm turning my card in at the end of the third service.
And I put my name here, you know.
And it says cell phone number, I put you already have it.
And under email address it says see above.
So they already have that.
But I'm turning my card in along with you
at the end of the third service to be part
of the trust challenge.
And I gotta tell you, I'm very excited about next Sunday.
Next Sunday is August 6th, which means there's a special,
does anybody know what the first Sunday of August is
at Southern Hills every year?
Does anybody know?
Do you know what it is?
What is it?
Yeah, it's our anniversary service.
Next Sunday is our 19 year anniversary service as a church
and we're very excited about it.
So if you're here, I hope you're able to be here
next Sunday to celebrate with us.
In the sermon series, tools of a carpenter,
we're saying that Jesus has used some of the same tools
that he used to carve out blocks of wood
into creations that he made while a carpenter on earth.
He uses the same with us.
We talked the first week about a chisel.
And sometimes God has to chisel away aspects of our life
that are not conducive to our growth and our beauty.
He chisels us away.
Then we talked about the measuring stick
that sometimes God has to measure us,
not according to the weakest measurement,
but according to the largest measurement.
And it all matters to whom we are measuring ourselves against.
The following week, we talked about the hand plane,
that there are certain things that God is trying to strip
away from your life so that he can see you,
when he does this, by showing you beauty and troubles.
And today, the final sermon in this sermon series,
it's called the hammer.
The carpenter often uses the hammer
to carefully chip away aspects of our life.
But sometimes, just like every leader,
he has to bring the hammer down.
Today's sermon is entitled,
The Hammer Delivering the Hard Truths,
and this is a story of where Jesus lowers the hammer.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, as we talk through this passage today,
I pray that you would allow us to see the beauty of it.
I pray that you'd help us to see the humor of it.
I pray that you would help us to see the power of it.
And most importantly, I pray that you would help us
to see the love in it.
That you, the God of heaven, loves us so much
that you are brutally honest with us when you need to be.
God, I ask that you'd be brutally honest with me
and with our friends today.
As you were with this young man in the story,
in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's go ahead and look right into it.
Luke chapter 18 and verse number 18,
it says once there was a religious leader
asked Jesus this question,
Good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?
Now, let me walk you through the opening of this passage
because each word actually has a lot of fascination to it.
It says that once there was a religious ruler,
but we know that this man is more
than just a religious ruler.
He's not just a leader in a local synagogue,
he is probably the chief ruler of a local synagogue.
Not only a chief ruler of a local synagogue,
he may have been one of the members of the Sanhedrin
down in Jerusalem,
which was a collection of the most important
religious people of the society.
We not only know he was a religious leader,
he was a political leader,
because in that day and age,
religious leaders and political leaders
were one and the same.
He was not just a religious leader and a political leader,
which made him a powerful ruler.
He was also very wealthy.
You're gonna see that down in the text.
He was a rich man,
but he wasn't just a religious and political powerful rich man.
He was a religious, political and powerful rich man
who was very young.
We see that in the Gospel of Matthews account of this story.
He was a rich, young, powerful,
politically connected ruler of the community,
but he was also interested in Jesus.
And so he approaches Jesus with a question.
And as he approaches Jesus with a question,
I want you to see the,
I want you to see the bit of arrogance
that this young man has.
Yes, he admired Jesus,
but we're gonna see in the passage,
he also really admires himself.
Have you ever known somebody who genuinely admired Jesus,
but also pretty much admired themselves as well?
So let's look at the passage.
Once a religious leader came to Jesus
and asked this question,
good teacher,
what should I do to inherit eternal life?
Eart eternal life.
Jesus replies, why do you call me good?
There's only God who is truly good,
but to answer the question,
you know that you must follow the commandments.
You must not commit adultery,
you must not murder,
you must not steal,
you must not testify falsely
honor your father and mother.
And the man replied,
I have obeyed all of these commandments
since I was very young.
And when Jesus heard this answer, he said,
there is still one thing that you have to do.
I wonder what that one thing is.
What is the one thing that is keeping you
from truly following Jesus?
What is the one thing that he wants you to give up for him?
What is the one thing that you are needing
to sacrifice to God?
For this young man,
we're going to see his one thing,
but I want you to ask the question to yourself,
what is the one thing that is keeping me from God?
It wasn't the phone,
or it wasn't the alarm clock,
it was the phone.
It was the phone that woke me up that day,
which is problematic because I was supposed to be awakened
by my alarm clock at about 5.45 that morning.
And this was the days before cell phones.
I was in college and the dorm room phone
on the side of my wall rung at 7.02,
which is a problem because I was supposed to be at work
32 minutes before this moment.
How many of you have ever shown up late to work?
Would you raise your hand?
This makes me feel a lot better.
How many of you shown up late to work this week?
Confess it later on, not right now, all right, very good.
And it's embarrassing, it's embarrassing,
especially for me at that point,
because when I picked up the phone,
I immediately thought, oh no,
it was my responsibility in the college I was attending
to enter into the administration building
and open the entire building so that the administrators,
the faculty members, and the students
could get to their classes on time.
I was supposed to open everything at 6.30 in the morning,
but now it was 7.02 and there were hundreds of people
waiting outside of the building for their classes.
There were all the executives and faculty members
and administration who were waiting to get in.
And I got a phone call from my boss on the phone,
I picked it up and I said, hello?
And he said, are you coming into work today?
I said, yeah, I'm on my way.
He said, I'll see you when you get here.
Have you ever had this conversation?
So I ran into work as quickly as possible,
had my suit and tie on, I'm running,
I'm sweating in the floor to sun in early September,
and I ran into the place, I opened the door,
and there my boss was.
The building was open, everybody was running to classes,
and there my boss was, Dennis Wilkeny.
Dennis said to me, come on, let's go have a conversation.
Have you ever had one of these conversations?
He sat me down across the table for me,
I was 19 years at the time.
He sat down, he looked at me and said, Joshua,
I just wanna begin by saying,
if you're not right for this job, that's okay.
Have you ever had somebody say something very mean,
but in a very nice way?
If you're not right for this job, that's completely okay.
Josh, you need to understand that this job
is for the type of person who takes their life very seriously,
who wants to go somewhere and do something with their life.
I understand there are a lot of jobs
that you can participate in.
In fact, I can help you find a job
that is appropriate for somebody like you.
But this job is for somebody who has responsibility
and believes themselves to be important enough
to lead in life and actually succeed,
and I completely understand if this is a job
you don't think you should have.
And I wasn't sure if he was being nice or mean,
but now that I'm 43, I look back
and I realize how nice that was.
He was very kindly saying to me,
we're not putting up with this
and the world will not put up with this,
and there's a certain life you can live
if this is what you think life is,
but if you wanna elevate your life,
what you think life is, but if you wanna elevate,
if you wanna go to the next level,
this is the kind of behavior that will not be tolerated.
I gotta tell you, at 19 years old,
I needed Dennis Wilkening to bring down the hammer in my life.
I needed somebody to be brutally honest with me
and not coddle me.
I needed somebody to bring me along
and not pat me on the head and say,
every thought you've ever thought is right,
every aspect of your life is perfect.
You are a perfect person from the birth
all the way through death.
I needed somebody to be brutally honest with me.
Can I just stop and say that God does love you?
How many of you believe God loves you?
If you do, say amen.
God loves you so much,
so he's brutally honest with you.
And for some of you, this sermon will be brutally honest.
It'll be the hammer that's coming down
that prepares you for the rest of your life,
not just this life, but the afterlife.
There's precedent in the scripture for this truth.
Do you know this?
That the Bible says in the book of Jude verse 22 and 23,
it says that God saves some through fear
and God saves other through mercy.
You say, what does that mean?
It means that sometimes God has to come
and this sermon for some of you,
it's not needed for you.
You don't need the hammer to come down.
The hammer's already come down.
All you need to be told is God loves me and he likes me
and he's willing to save me.
Some of you, that's the message you've needed
and I preach that message all the time,
but that's not what this text is.
This text is the text that is saying,
some of you are so built up with pride in your own life,
you need a hammer to come down and say, no,
just like I needed Dennis Wilkening,
just like this man needs Jesus,
so you need this passage today.
And so because God loves us so much,
he has to be brutally honest with us.
So how is it?
This is the question of the day.
How does Jesus save and rescue a stubborn soul?
Anybody here self identify as stubborn?
I do.
How many of you self identify as stubborn?
Don't raise your hand if it's not true.
Some of you are so stubborn, you will not raise your hand.
How many of you, how many of you truly are
you self identify as a stubborn person?
How many of you are like me?
Okay, this message is not for everybody,
but this message is for you.
It's for me.
It's the type of person who has to be told bluntly
and clearly what the problem is,
so I take care of the problem.
How does Jesus rescue the stubborn soul?
In this passage, we see that he addresses,
he begins by addressing your idolatry.
This is how Jesus rescues a stubborn person.
The first thing he does is he addresses your idolatry.
Say this with me, he addresses your idolatry.
Say it with me, he addresses your idolatry.
You know what religious people like to do?
Religious people like to point out other people's sins.
Jesus likes to point out your sins to you.
And then when he points out your sins to you,
you like to change the subject like I do
and say let's talk about everybody else's sins.
And Jesus says, no, I wanna talk about your,
idolatry and that's what happens with this man.
Man comes up to Jesus and Jesus,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?
How can I earn salvation?
Jesus says, you know what to do, obey the commandments.
I need you never to commit adultery, don't murder people.
So far he's like, I haven't killed anybody recently.
You're not allowed to lie, honor your father and mother.
What do you mean by lie?
What do you mean by honor?
And so now Jesus is telling this man,
just obey the commandments.
Isn't it interesting?
All you have to do to get to heaven
is obey all the commandments all of the time forever
in your life.
Okay, if you're new to church
and you haven't heard anything I've said,
let me just spell it out for you.
You say, how do I go to heaven?
Here's how you go to heaven.
Obey all of the commandments, all of the time,
never break one, stand before God perfect
and God will let you into heaven, good luck.
Like you might be really good with those five right there,
like the five on the screen, you might be really good.
But did you know there's over 500 commandments in the Torah?
And you gotta make every single one,
every single time without fail.
You say, well what if I broke a few?
Well you're in trouble.
It means you're a sinner.
And now Jesus says to the man, obey all the commandments
and you will have earned eternal life
and you'll love the response of this young man,
the young rich young ruler, he looks at Jesus and says,
I have since my youth, I've obeyed them all.
Can you imagine looking Jesus in the eye
and saying Bible check, I've done the Bible, what else?
Like are there any other rules outside
of all the ones in the Bible?
And Jesus says, okay, okay, so you're that good?
There's one thing you need to do.
And if you do this one thing, you got it,
you're for sure into heaven.
What is the one thing for this man?
The man replied, I've obeyed all of these commandments
since I was very young.
And when Jesus heard the answer, he said, okay,
there is still one thing that you haven't done.
Sell all of your possessions
and give all the money to the poor.
And then you'll have treasure in heaven
and then you can come and follow me.
Can you imagine being the rich young ruler,
you're like, gulp, I'll take door number two.
Sell everything you have, give it to the poor,
then you can come and follow me.
Now some have inappropriately and incorrectly interpreted
this passage to mean that if you give all your money
to the poor and you die, you'll go to heaven regardless,
which according to that interpretation,
what that means is all you can do anything you want.
You can murder people, you can steal,
you can dishonor your parents,
you can just be the worst person that's ever lived.
And then at the end of your life, take all your money,
sell it, give it to the poor and heaven is yours.
That's it, that's all it takes.
Do you think that's what Jesus is saying, yes or no?
No, that's not what Jesus is saying.
Jesus is identifying this individual's God.
This individual's God is money.
And Jesus says, if you wanna follow God, you can,
but you first have to give up your God.
I know some of you are interested in Jesus,
which is awesome and admirable.
You say, what do I need to do to follow Jesus?
Okay, cool.
All you need to do is be perfect.
You say, I'm not perfect.
Okay, option number two.
All you need to do is give up your God to follow him as God.
That's all you gotta do.
So what is the God you struggle with?
For this man, it was obviously money.
Look at what it says in verse 24.
Verse 24, when Jesus saw this, he said,
no, no, no, verse 23, excuse me.
But when the man heard this, he became very sad,
for he was very rich.
It's not so hard to give away all your money
if you are very poor.
God's like, give away all your money.
You're like, check, done, got it, next.
You know what I mean?
But this guy had a lot of money,
and God's like, give it all away,
because not only do you have money, you worship money.
Having money is not a problem.
Loving money is, and this guy loved his money.
Verse 24, so he walks away and he's sad,
and Jesus saw this, and this is what he said
to those who could still hear,
how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
Why?
Because for a rich man who loves their money,
they have to give up their idol to get God.
It's nearly impossible for people to give up
their false gods because they love their false gods.
What false god are you in love with?
What is it in your life?
It's not necessarily a bad thing,
but that thing has become so important to you,
it's become a God in your life.
Jesus goes on, 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 God.
Jesus gives a metaphor.
He says, let me tell you how hard it is for rich people
to give up their money to follow God.
It's harder, it's as hard as a camel going through an eye,
can you picture this?
Picture a big camel.
Picture a big camel, don't look him in the eye,
he's spitting at you, all right?
He's sitting there, that camel is now gonna shrink
down to the side and go through the eye of a needle,
and it's easier for the camel to go through an eye of a needle
for them for a rich man to go to heaven.
Jesus' point is this, it's really difficult
for humans to give up God other than God.
Because we all have things in our life
that are so important to us.
When God comes and says give that up, we say, or what?
Or what?
God says that's not good for you, don't sin,
give up that sin, you say, or what?
Or God comes to you and says, I know that's good,
but it's not the best, so I'm gonna tell you
to get rid of the good so I can give you the best.
Give it up, and you say, no, it's mine.
And God says, well, good luck.
Good luck.
I tried to think about what it means to sacrifice,
the good for the better.
And I thought about being single.
I was single for, how many of you remember being single?
You remember being single?
How many of you say pastor, I don't have to remember
very far, I am right now, thank you for the reminder.
I remember being single, I liked being single, I did,
I really enjoyed being single, singlehood was not bad.
I mean, I could do anything I want when I wanted,
how I wanted, nobody told me what to do.
It was pretty awesome, you remember being single?
How awesome was that, amen?
Some of you men just said, that was an unwise decision.
Caesar's up here, he's like, yeah, that was awesome.
Not cool, man, not cool, in church and everything,
yeah, yeah, I apologize on behalf of all men.
But I remember, I remember you go where you want,
did what you want, get up when you want, right?
I could spend the entire night playing Zelda,
nobody said anything.
Yeah, I'm a nerd, yeah, deal with it, all right,
that's what I did, ocarina of time, anybody?
No, all right, let's move on.
Two people, okay, we'll have a nerd convention later, all right.
Yeah, Batman is there too, yeah, yeah, fishy,
I could spend every Saturday going out to the pier
at Pensacola Beach and fish all day long, nobody said nothing.
I could say my summer is gonna be spent in Mexico,
I'm gonna go to Mexico for the summer
and spend it on a mission strip, nobody would say anything.
You know why, because I was free, I was free.
Freedom.
Amazing time in my life.
And you say, why did you get married?
And the answer is because though I had something I loved
and I liked, I was willing to sacrifice it
to get something that was better.
And for me, that was Heather.
And I knew if I got Heather, I would lose some of these things
but I would prefer to get Heather
so I was willing to sacrifice my old life.
See, some people think they can get married
and hold on to their own life
and that's why their marriage doesn't work.
Can I get an amen?
Some people think they can come to God
and hold on to their own life, it doesn't work that way.
You can't come to God and hold on to your old gods,
God says, nope, no, no, why?
Because I will not share you.
I will not share you.
If you wanna hold on to that God, go back to that God.
If you want money, go back to money.
If you want your identity, go back to your identity.
You say, but I'm really interested in Jesus.
You can't have Jesus and your old God.
You can't have them both.
What is the God that God himself is telling you
you must sacrifice?
You see, the people of this time
would have totally understood the concept of sacrifice,
even the Jewish community,
because they were used to taking their animals
and they would sacrifice them on an altar to their God.
That's what they would do.
And so when he says, I want you to sacrifice,
that's exactly what he's saying.
He's saying, instead of sacrificing to your God,
I want you to take your God and sacrifice your God to me.
So what God does he want you to sacrifice?
Perhaps it's money for some of you, yes.
Perhaps for some of you, it's an addiction.
Maybe it's even an addiction to something
that other people would say is not that big of a deal.
But for you, you know it is not healthy in your life.
And God says, the reason I can't be God in your life
is because that's God in your life.
Give it up.
And you think, well, just decrease.
And God says, no decrease, no decrease.
You don't bow to that God once a month.
You're done with that God because I'm your God.
And he's saying, come to me.
You see?
For some of you, it may be money.
For some of you, it may be addiction.
For some of you, it might be your career.
Like genuinely.
For some of you, God might be calling you out of Las Vegas,
out of Southern Hills, out of your career
to be a missionary on a foreign field, sacrifice.
You say, pastor, I think you're talking
about giving up bad things.
I'm talking about giving up bad things for the God thing,
but I'm also talking about giving up good things
for the God thing.
For some of you, it might be your opinion.
You say what?
Yes, for some of us, we might have to sacrifice our opinion
so that we can get God because your opinion
has become God in your life.
I'm talking to the stubborn people.
How many stubborn people can I get an amen?
Right?
You don't just have an opinion about some things.
You've got a strong opinion about everything.
And the reason why people are distanced from you,
your pride is killing you, it's stopping you,
it's hurting you, and you've got to stop acting
like your opinion is God.
God can't be God if your opinion is God.
So what does God do to save the stubborn people, like Josh,
like this rich, young, powerful, amazing ruler?
God, number one, he addresses your idolatry.
Number two, he asks you to sacrifice your God.
Number three, he rewards your sacrifice.
Okay, so what does God do to save the stubborn people
and the people of God?
Number three, he rewards your sacrifice.
Okay, here's the question.
If I sacrifice my God to God, what do I get out of it?
Now I know some of you are like,
you shouldn't even ask that question.
I would say it's a fair question.
You say, okay, if I give this up to follow God,
what do I get?
That's not a fair question to ask.
You shouldn't ask that, just give it up for,
no, I think it's a very fair question.
I think you're going to be answered right here.
Question number 26, those who heard this said,
then who in the world can be saved?
That's a good question, right?
Remember the story?
The guy says, what shall I do to end her eternal life?
And Jesus says, sell all you have and give it to the poor.
And the guy goes away sad because he had much money.
And then Jesus says, Jesus says,
how hard is it for rich people to get to heaven?
It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than a rich man to get into heaven and give up his idolatry.
And then somebody said, well, then who in the world
can be saved? If rich, powerful, young,
everything going for them, type of people,
can't get into heaven, then who can get into heaven?
And Jesus said, what is impossible for people
is possible with God.
Jesus did not say, well, it's not technically impossible.
He says, yeah, guess what?
It is impossible, but guess what?
I'm the God of the impossible.
So anybody can get saved no matter who you are
as long as you sacrifice your God to the God of heaven.
Repent of your sin and receive Jesus Christ as your savior.
Now, what about those who have given up everything for God?
I love this. Look at what happens.
Verse 28, okay, verse 28, my favorite part.
Peter said, now I love this because Peter finally speaks up.
How many of you love Peter in the Bible?
Can you get an amen right there?
I love Peter too.
Peter's been silent this entire time.
For Peter, not easy.
Peter's always talking.
And Peter's been watching this whole thing go down.
And Peter has a very good question.
He says, okay, Jesus, what about those of us
who have left everything?
What about those of us who are not perfect
but we've left everything to follow you?
Look what he says in verse 28.
We've left our homes to follow you, Jesus.
And Jesus doesn't deny it.
Jesus doesn't say, come on, Peter, relax.
Come on, Peter, it's a small sacrifice.
Come on, Peter, just follow me.
Jesus looks at him and says, yes, Peter, you have.
And I promise you that everyone who has given up house
or wife or brothers or parents or children
for the sake of the kingdom of God.
Now, hear this because some of you have given up these things.
Jesus says, anyone who has given up wife or husband
or brothers or sisters 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 kingdom to come.
Jesus says, hey, if you've given up your kingdom for me,
I will give you my kingdom.
That's what he's saying.
I know it feels wrong to ask God,
okay, God, I'll give it up all for you.
What do I get for giving it up?
God says you get everything.
You get everything.
If you get me, you get everything.
And you're like, that's right in heaven one day,
but that's not what the Bible says.
The Bible doesn't say in heaven one day, you'll get everything.
He says, in this life, I will repay you.
And in the eternal life, you'll have the kingdom itself.
It is never a bad idea to sacrifice more to the God of heaven.
That's what he's saying.
So often when we teach this passage, Mike,
what people do, Adam, what they do,
and what they do, you know what they do?
Is they focus on the guy who needs to give up the money in the passage.
That's not the point of the passage.
It's not about the rich young ruler who did not give up for Jesus.
It's about you and I and what we're supposed to give up for Jesus.
It's about you and me.
What would you say?
So I thought about it.
God, how can I close out this sermon?
I remember when Heather and I first started the church.
I really wrestled with whether or not I would share this,
and I really feel like it's the way I'm supposed to end the sermon.
I remember when we first started the church,
and when we first started Southern Hills 19 years ago next Sunday,
there was nobody here.
There was no church.
You understand?
There was no building.
There was no people.
There was no offerings.
There was no nothing.
We sacrificed everything.
We sacrificed sleep.
We would stay up late into the evening,
just to serve God.
We would sacrifice security.
We left two high paying jobs just to be able to start this church.
We sacrificed financially.
For the first 10 years of the church,
we were among the top 10 givers of the church.
What does that sound like whenever you're a small church?
Not much, but it means we gave up the guacamole quite a bit
whenever we went to Chipotle.
Like no guac for us.
That's an extra 79 cents.
We can't afford it.
We sacrificed friends.
When our church started to grow and it began to shift,
necessarily, our entire denomination walked away from us.
You say, well pastor, if you gave up that much to follow Christ,
if you sacrificed that much to follow Jesus,
was it worth it?
And here's what I'll say along with Peter.
At this point in our lives, he has given us more rest,
more peace, more prosperity, more friends than we could ever need.
This is the promise of Christ.
Now I get it friend.
I understand there's some of you, man, you're not stubborn,
but for me and for my friends who are stubborn,
we need somebody coming in and sharing the hard truths
and just hitting it over the head with it.
And that's what Jesus might be doing with you today.
Why?
Why do we sacrifice so much?
Here's why we sacrifice so much.
Because Jesus Christ has sacrificed himself for us.
We are willing and ready to sacrifice
because of what Christ has done for us.
What is it that God wants you to sacrifice?
Let's close in prayer.
Father in heaven,
we are amazed at your grace in our lives
that you would bring us thus far.
And I truly understand how hard it is to make a decision
to give up that which is good, to receive that which is best.
For some in this room, you are asking them to sacrifice a sin.
That thing is just hurting them anyway.
I pray, Father, that they would willingly give it to you.
For some of them, Lord, it's not something that is a sin,
but it's something that is good, but it's not best in their life.
I pray that right now today, you would make it very clear in their hearts
to sacrifice that on the altar to you, to you.
And then I pray, Father, that they would be filled with a peace
that passes understanding, trusting you,
that you, God, would provide for them far more
than anything they sacrificed to you.
Oh God in heaven, break our hearts with this truth.