Right Reason, Wrong Question...

Pastor Stan Mons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzO5hjdbL-w

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Sermon Transcription:

The title for this message is Right Reason, Wrong Question. Right reason, wrong question.

I was talking to a friend this week—a close friend—and he was sharing how grateful he was for the Bible reading plan. He got here at church last year, and he did it as faithfully as he could. He finished the Word, reading from back to front according to the order of that Bible reading plan last year. He was really grateful that he was able to finish the Word in a year and intended to continue doing that every year. But he began to share that sometimes it felt like checking in, or clocking in and clocking out—that he would just sit down with that reading plan and with the Bible and begin to read, faithfully doing it. But sometimes it began to feel like a dead word, or like the Spirit was not making it jump off the pages.

If you've ever been there, or you've been in a place where you try to take time to pray but it can feel like your prayer is not making it past the ceiling, or honestly you have to say, “I don't have testimonies of God always answering me when I pray like some of the people in the Word and some of the people around me that believe in Jesus seem to have that testimony,” a feeling can begin to arise in your heart, like with my friend, saying, “What do I do? What am I doing wrong? What do I got to stop doing? Or what do I got to do?” Because there were times when the Word really came off the page and the Spirit of God revealed to me what the Father meant when He had this written down. There were times when I prayed and it was a phenomenal, intimate time with the Lord—such a clear word—and now it is dry and difficult. What do I do? That emerging question—“What do I do?” or “What do I got to stop doing?”—is so easy to take hold of. And that's where we want to start today. We're going to go into Mark 10.

We're going to read verses 17 to 27. It's a famous story for many of us, sometimes called the story of the rich young ruler. Some translations call it the story of the rich man. It's a fairly well-known story, and I want to read it with you this morning from the NIV. As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony.” “You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these things I’ve kept since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” He said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

"At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were even more amazed and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Here we have this extraordinary story, and there are many things I’ve heard spoken about it over my life. At times, I’ve heard it explained that God was pointing out this young man’s heart. He came to Jesus, even fell on his knees, had a reverence for Him. He didn’t quite believe—possibly—that Jesus was the Son of God, because Jesus immediately addresses it. He says, “Teacher, good teacher,” and Jesus responds, “Well, are you actually calling Me God? Only God is good. Are you actually calling Me God, or do you just look at Me as a teacher?”

Some talk about how God was confronting the idol in this young man’s life. They say, “Okay, God is right away getting at his idol.” This young man did many things right, but there was an idol in the way between him and Jesus—it was his resources. Others talk about the fact that he's not really willing to follow Jesus—that must have been the problem. He had done all these things correctly, comes to Jesus, but to follow Him was just a step too much. Some say this young man must have been self-righteous, thinking he had done so well, grew up in the ways of God, kept God’s commands, and couldn’t understand why someone like him wouldn’t be right with the Father. But here is what the Spirit of God began to show me this week as I meditated on this story and prayed, keeping that conversation with my friend in the back of my mind. The Spirit began to show me that this young man, walking around with good intentions—good, right intentions—ended up asking the wrong question.

Good intentions, the right intentions, what he wanted was not go to hell. That's what he wanted that's a pretty good intention to come to God, to run to Jesus. But he comes to Jesus with the wrong question, which really reveals he had the wrong question in his heart. By the way, the disciples this was question that was much too heavy to carry around. A question God does not want you to carry. Because it is too heavy. The question is this: What must I do? What do I do? When I try to read the Bible and the Word is not open to my heart and mind. “What do I do? What am I doing wrong? What do I have to do next?” I'm trying to pray but it’s not really working, I'm not really spending time in prayer. I’m saying my prayers, but do I ever really pray? What do I do, or what am I doing wrong? What do I have to change in my doing?” This rich young man carrying that question in his heart—even made him turn away from Jesus.

He comes to Jesus, right intentions, but because he has this wrong question in his heart—What must I do?—he ends up becoming sad. It's too heavy. It's too much. The question requires him to bear too much weight. And he ends up getting sad, turning away, and leaving. That's how significant it is. When we have the wrong question in our heart, it makes us so heavy that we turn away. I was talking with somebody before service just now. The Lord pointed something out to me, and I took him aside and I said, "What's wrong?" He said, "Oh, nothing. I'm doing good." I said, "Well, this and this is what the Holy Spirit showed me." And he broke and began to share what was actually going on. But so easily, we think we know what to do, so that "Next week we're going to do better. Next week we can figure this thing out, and then we're worthy. Or maybe God will move in our devotional life when we take time to read, pray, and be alone with Him." But this week, I kind of messed it up. So I’ve got to get it right for a week. I know how to seek the Lord."

When you have the wrong question in your heart, you end up walking away. That's what he did. The Holy Spirit had spoken something to his heart. This person here today—the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart, but he didn't listen—which is why he turned away from Jesus. But it’s because there was this heaviness in his heart: I know what to do. I’ve got to do something different, and then I can come. I have to make some adjustments because some things in my life right now are a mess. And then I can come. And for those of you who are with us online today, or anybody here in the house, whenever you sense in your heart that something is wrong—whether that is with your reading, your praying, your marriage, or even standing before God tonight—you might ask, Will I hear, "Welcome home, good and faithful servant?"

Will I even be going home to heaven? Or is there a still small, annoying almost sense in my heart that something could be off? Something is not sure, something not established— not quite sure how God is going to respond to me when I meet Him in person for the first time. Not quite sure how God will respond to the way I’ve spent my time, the way I’ve said, time and time again, “Lord, You have my life.” I’m not so sure how He will respond to it. Something might be wrong in my heart. And this question—What must I do? What do I change? What am I going to change ten years from now? What am I going to change in my Christian walk?—it can take root in our hearts just like it did with this young ruler. His entire life, he had tried to be part of the things of God. He had pursued the things of God. But he was walking around fairly convinced that he had been doing everything right. Nobody would have pointed him out and said, “Well, that’s a troubled kid. That’s a difficult case. I know what he’s doing in the temple today.” No—he was an example in many ways. It appeared that he was even blessed in earthly things and had so much of them—someone many people would have looked up to.

But he was walking around saying, “There’s something wrong, and I can’t quite tell what it is.” He runs to Jesus and says, “I’ve done everything the law commands of me, but I don’t sense I have eternal life. What is it going to take for me to get it? Something is wrong. What do I do? What else do I have to do? What else do I need to contribute to feel forgiven?” You can struggle with that sometimes: What do I need to do to make all of my sin go away? What do I have to do for all the pain from sins I committed, and sins that were committed against me? What do I have to do next for the healing to come, for the pain to go away? What do I have to do to get closer to God? Many have already figured out some of the answers for themselves: “I just have to get back in the Word. I’ve got to get back in prayer. I’ve got some sin I know about. I need to get away from it. I need to start attending church more frequently.” You can do all of that—and there’s still something missing.

Something’s wrong. You can do it all correctly, just like this rich young ruler, but something is missing. And you can end up walking around saying, “I’ve done all these things from my youth, but something is missing. What else is there? What do I got to do? What do I do when I sense that something is wrong? What do I have to do to finally get into God’s Word consistently, the way I know I should? I know what kind of man of God I would love to be, but I’m just not there. What do I do? What do I do to become really a man of prayer that my wife looks up to? What do I do in order to really change? I believe it, I sing it, but honestly, there are a couple of things I really don’t want to talk about publicly because I don’t see them change. What am I doing wrong? What do I got to do to change?” It’s like the Bible says, from glory to glory. Here I am, still struggling with the same sin. I’m embarrassed that I’m still struggling with the same sin because I know I should be changing from glory to glory. What am I doing wrong? What must I do to become free from my sins? What must I do to truly feel peace? What must I do? Church, you can come to the Word of God, but you can also come to Christ. Right intentions, wrong question.

Verse 26 again: The disciples were even more amazed and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” See, the disciples were kind of listening along in the conversation for themselves because they had the same question in their hearts. They didn’t say, “Well, we are following Jesus. We should be fine.” No—they got worried. They said, “You heard what He just told this guy? Who then can be saved?” This man had come to Jesus asking, “What else must I do to inherit eternal life? What do I got to do to be right with God in this area or that area, or in the complete scope of my life?” And Jesus responds, making it very clear, laying it all out. And the disciples, overhearing all this, do the equation in their minds and start to realize they were walking around with a similar question. They draw a conclusion in their hearts and say, “Oh no, you’ve got to be perfect. You’ve got to get everything right. We left everything.”

They say that later in the story, but none of them kept the laws like this young man did. They thought, We’ve got to be perfect. And their question resounds: they were amazed. They were physically hanging out with Jesus all the time and were completely caught off guard. Amazed. I’ll read it again, verses 26 and 27: “And the disciples were even more amazed and said to each other, ‘Well, who then can be saved?’” They didn’t even want to come to Jesus with it. “I know who’s going to make it… Huh?” Verse 27: Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.” He’s telling them, “Listen, your intentions are good. It’s good to run to Me. It’s good to come to Me. But you’ve been asking the wrong question. What you want, what you sense is wrong, and you want to see it changed—it’s not possible with men. It’s not possible through human effort. It’s not possible through the strength of men. It’s not possible by the actions of men. The very change you desire in your heart, in your mind, in your marriage, and in your life—it is not possible through anything of man.

So when you come to Me asking, ‘Well, what must I do?’ I’ll tell you, and you’ll sense it in your heart. But the question you walk around with is so heavy that you’ll end up not knowing what to do with this kind of Jesus, this kind of message.

Jesus teaches us in this story to ask a different question, because He begins to show that what you’re really asking about is only possible with God. It’s not possible with man. You shouldn’t be asking, ‘What must I do?’ But rather, you should be asking, God, what have You done that a man like me can be forgiven? God, what have You done that a sinner like me can have eternal life? God, what have You done that a man or a woman like me can just come home today? God, what have You done that a man with flawed Bible reading can be anointed to share the truth about You? God, what have You done that a woman or man like me may hear the voice of the Holy Spirit clearer and clearer every day of my life? Even though my walk with You is not perfect, I don’t ask, What must I do? Something’s wrong. What must I do?

But I can ask, God, what have You done that this is all just possible for somebody like me? I sought the Lord, and He answered. Can you believe it? Somebody like me turned to Jesus for a moment, found Him, and was forgiven by God. God, what have You done that that’s possible?

When we feel, or even understand, that something needs to change, church, we have to remember the Word of God. We should not start wondering and coming up with plans of what to do differently. A lot of the things we come up with are good things, but you don’t have the strength and you don’t have the ability to make these things count. A lot of good things are very good things. A lot of good things are worth doing. But when it comes down to changing anything in your relationship with God—anything at all—the good things you do will never count toward it.

Mark 9:22–23: “And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him,” talking about a boy struggling with demon possession. But the father cried out, “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”And Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” All things are possible to him who believes. He doesn’t tell the man, “Well, are your giving records up to date? Are you even going to the temple enough? Have you been baptized? Have you done this, that, or the other thing? Also make sure you wake up early and pray and read for at least a couple of weeks and show me you regret your sins—then we can talk.” No. Jesus tells him nothing to do but believe. “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” That’s what we remember when something is wrong. We say, “All things are possible for them that believe. Lord, teach me to trust You.”

Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” So you don’t have to try to change your situation. You don’t have to pray yourself out of a situation. Many of you have tried, and it never worked. Because all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. You don’t need to change your situation. You don’t need to control your environment. You don’t need to set boundaries or keep people out of your life, because all things work together for good in the lives of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. 2 Peter 1:3–4: “His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” If it has to do with your life, or it has to do with you becoming more like Jesus, the Word tells us He’s already given you all things. There’s nothing missing. Nothing is wrong. All things have been given to you through the knowledge of Him—through knowing Jesus, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. By Him, we have been given exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

All things that pertain to life. There’s not a thing, not a problem, not a challenge, not a dirty thing in your life, not a problem in your character or mind, that God hasn’t already provided for. There is nothing in life that can come up that God has not already given you everything for. Do you believe in the goodness of God? He has given you all things that pertain to life—anything having to do with you being changed, becoming more like Jesus, and less like the world. Everything that pertains to life and godliness has already been given to you. Do you believe that this is what Jesus purchased for you on the cross? Or do you still walk around saying, “What must I do? It’s such a mess. Look what I’ve done with my life. Look what I’ve done in the dark. Look what I’ve done in secret. Look what I’m like at home when nobody’s watching. Look what I say to my wife—the things I regret an hour later. Look what is going on in my life.”

The Word tells us all things have already been given to you. You shouldn’t be walking around still trying to figure something out. Still asking God, “What must I do? What do I change? How could I possibly ever attain to the things of God and see what is happening in other people’s lives happen in mine? How do I make the Word come alive when I open it? How do I become a man that wants to spend time with Jesus? What do I do?” Right reasons, wrong question. Let me tell you of a great example of mine: a man in the Bible. Again, many things have been said about him, usually not positive, but to me, he’s an example I hope to finish like. I’m talking about the murderer on the cross. There were two criminals crucified on either side of Jesus when He was crucified. Here’s what Luke 23:39–43 says: Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds? But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.”

Here we have a man who had done all kinds of things wrong in his life. Many believe he had committed murder in a riot. And this man doesn’t turn to Jesus and ask, “Jesus, I never thought in my lifetime that You, the Messiah, would come. But now that You’re here, Lord, it’s the last day of my life. What do I do to be saved? What do I do to get eternal life?”

He doesn’t ask, “Lord, what do I do?” He turns to the other robber and says, “See what the Lord is doing. See what He’s doing—He’s doing this innocently, instead of others who deserve it, like me right here next to Him on the cross.” In other words, he’s saying, “Lord God, I see what You’re doing. My heart can see it. Lord, remember me.” This man turns to Jesus—where the rich young ruler turned away from Jesus. Even though the rich young ruler had done many things very well in his life, but he ends up coming to Jesus with the right intentions but the wrong question: “What must I do? Something’s wrong. What do I do to get all the benefits of being right with the Father?” Not this man. This man next to Jesus on the cross had gotten everything wrong in life, and yet he was forgiven. I can just imagine him coming to paradise and running into somebody he knew from back in Jerusalem.

That person might be a little caught off guard to see this murderer in paradise and say, “Well, what did you do? I didn’t expect you to show up here. Did you become a member of a church? Turn your life around? Get baptized? Properly repent with a pastor and shed some tears? What about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Did you read your entire Bible through? What about prayer?” And I can imagine this criminal saying, “I did nothing. I met Jesus, the Lord of this house, and He told me I could come. He gave me His word that the doors would be open for me. That’s all I’ve ever done. I met Jesus, and He told me I could come. That’s the only reason I’m here.” Church, when something is wrong, stop asking, “What must I do? What am I doing wrong? What do I have to change?” You may not know for certain with all of your heart if you have eternal life. You may not know how to change. You may not know today how to walk in the power of the Spirit of God. You may not know how you’re going to turn your life around and spend it on God’s kingdom—and not this world. You may not know how to hear God’s voice.

But at every turn of life, ask God: “God, what have You done that a man like me may begin to get to know Your voice? God, what have You done that I’m going to end up with a vibrant prayer life? God, what have You done that even someone like me is going to really understand Your Word when I read it? God, what have You done that even though I forgot to find You in prayer and I forgot to pick up my Bible for many days, God what have You done that I don’t have to feel guilty, but I can feel so loved that I keep coming back to You and I keep running to You? God, what have You done that I can come?” Somebody like me—that’s who I can sing about. I sought the Lord, and He answered me. That’s the message. Somebody as broken, as crippled in the spirit, somebody as simple, somebody as struggling as me sought the Lord—and I found Him because of what Jesus has done.

John 16:13–15 says: “When the Spirit of truth comes”—talking about the Spirit of God who would be poured out on the true church of the living God after Jesus ascended to heaven— “He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.” See, you don’t need to know how to figure it out. You don’t need to ask, “God, what must I do?” There’s a promise that God’s Spirit will come upon your life, and He will be a guide to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re spiritually blind. It doesn’t matter if you’re spiritually crippled. It doesn’t matter what is going on in your life, what you’ve done, where you’re coming from, or where you think you’re going. God has promised a guide who will take you by the hand because somebody paid.

Somebody did everything that must be done so that you can receive all that you need for eternal life—all that you need for anything that pertains to life or godliness. You can receive it because somebody else did everything that must be done. And that guide will begin to show you in your heart how the Father really looks at you, how the Father really thinks of you, how He desires your presence, how He longs for you to communicate that somehow, someway, in His strength, His power to the next person. You’re going to have a guide. You don’t have to figure it out. You don’t need to know the answers. Everything Jesus purchased, this guide is going to guide you right into it. Church, hear me on this. Walking around with a “What must I do?” question in your heart. You may not be literally saying it, but it is an attitude of the heart toward the things of God, life, and godliness. What must I do? It causes an ongoing sense in the heart that something is wrong, something is unfinished, something needs to be changed, something needs to be done. It’s this sense in the heart that something is a little wrong.

The Lord wants to shift the question of expectation—“What must I do?”—and shift it in your heart to, “God, would You help me always see what You have done?” Like that murderer on the cross, the Spirit wants to open your eyes in the same way He opened the eyes of that man. He couldn’t see his guilt anymore. He couldn’t see all the wrong he had done, all the hurt he had caused other people. He couldn’t see that anymore. All he could see was what the Lord was doing—the Lord who came into the world to die so that a man like him could live. That’s all he could see. And that’s what the Spirit wants to do in our hearts: to help us always see what Jesus has done and also what Jesus is doing in our midst, in our hearts, in our houses, on the job—what Jesus is doing—so that we don’t end up getting heavy with the question of “What must I do to make this life or to make godliness in my life somehow work?”

If you desire for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart so that your heart can clearly see what God has done and what God is doing here today for you, I want to invite you to join me for a time of prayer right here at the altar. You can make your way forward through the aisles. There will be a prayer team up here. Nobody will be left without a prayer partner. The prayer team will pray over every person. We’ll stand with you. We’ll pray together to see eyes opened or eyes taken off of a distraction. Not what must I do? But God, what have You done that I can simply come and expect You, Father, to treat me according to the cross? God, what have You done? And for those that are with us at home or online, from wherever place you are watching, would you pray with us at this time that the Holy Spirit may give you eyes that see Jesus so clearly? Eyes that can see what Jesus is doing, just as that murderer on the cross could see so clearly what Jesus was doing. His own actions, his own sins, his own wrongs, his own situation didn’t affect him and didn’t raise the question, “What must I do next?” He was enamored by what God was doing. And all he said was, “Lord, I never thought I’d meet You. Do You remember me, Jesus?” And Jesus said, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” In other words, I have done everything that must be done.

-Pastor Stan Mons