Bobby Chandler - How to Let Go of My Ego
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Summary:
In this continuation of the «Warning: How to Prevent Spiritual Injury» series, the preacher confronts the spiritual wound of ego—our self-importance and need to prove our worth. Using humor, personal stories, and the encounter of the rich young ruler in Mark 10, he teaches that ego is everyone’s worst enemy: it blinds us to what God can do through us, causes us to rely on self-righteousness instead of God’s grace, and leads to exhaustion and destruction. Jesus, the only one worthy of ego, modeled perfect humility by washing feet and voluntarily going to the cross. The cure is to starve the ego through humility, follow Jesus alone, and trust that our identity and reward come from Him—not our achievements or status.
Welcome and Series Recap
If today is your first time here, I want to welcome you to the authentic family. I hope you continue to grow. I hope you continue to come and feel like you are loved and part of the family here. We have been in a series titled «Warning: How to Prevent Spiritual Injury.» Raise your hand if you’ve enjoyed this sermon series. It’s a little bit different. We’ve been really talking about some hard struggles and situations that you may be going through right now, and you kind of question some things—God, where are you in my situation?
So we’ve been asking the question: What do you do when you feel spiritually broken? What do you do when you feel empty and have nothing left to give? God, have you ever shown up on a Sunday morning wanting to give it all you’ve got, but feeling like you have nothing? You’re in this room, and you’re like, «God, all right, I just want to worship you. I want to praise you, » but your mind’s kind of scattered. You’re all over the place, thinking about things that you have to take care of or maybe things that you went through during the week, and you just feel like you want to love God.
You see people around the room crying with their hands raised, and you’re like, «God, I want that type of relationship with you.» It can be very difficult when you feel empty and like you have nothing left to give. But here’s some good news for you today—some encouragement—because the living water that Jesus has to offer you will never run dry. It will never run dry. I love how Scripture talks about this living water, that even in the desert, in parched areas where there is no water, you will have as much as you need to get by and keep moving because what God has for you is good.
So I want to encourage you, if you feel dry right now, if you feel stuck, remember the words of Jesus in John 4:14: «But those who drink the water that I give will never be thirsty again.» It was kind of funny over the weekend—my little girl wanted some water, and I was just messing with her. I told her, «You know what? The water that Jesus gives, you’ll never be thirsty again, » and she goes, «Where is this water? Do we have it?» «Yes, baby, you have it.»
Let’s say this: «God, fill me up today.» Say this with me: «God, fill me up today.» I want God to speak to you. I want every time that you come into this room to see how good He is, that He loves you, that He’s in your situation. That’s always my goal, and that’s always what I pray over every Sunday morning—that God would anoint my words and my lips as I speak into whatever you may be going through, to realize that He is good no matter what.
Today’s Message: How to Let Go of My Ego
Today, I want to talk about a spiritual injury that a lot of people do not realize that they have. I want to talk about a spiritual injury that can actually dominate your life. In fact, by the end of the sermon today, you are going to confront your worst enemy. How does that make you feel? Some of you are like, «Hold up, Pastor, it’s a little cloudy outside. I haven’t had much coffee this morning. Are you sure you want this to go down in the house of the Lord today?» Because I’m ready. I can speak some things, but are you sure you want this to go down?
Let me rephrase this, because a lot of times when I say «your worst enemy, » you automatically hear somebody else’s name in your head or see somebody else’s face, right? I’m not talking about them; I’m talking about you. I’m talking about something on the inside that wants to dominate your life and control you so that you do not trust God when life gets difficult. Today’s title for the message is this: «How to Let Go of My Ego.»
Do me a favor, look to somebody next to you and tell them, «Lego my ego.» I had to do that—80s and 90s kids, you understand where I got that phrase from. I kept telling everybody my title, and they immediately said, «Lego my ego, » like, «Yeah, I know where this is going.» All right, how to let go of my ego. But I want to show you today that this really is a spiritual injury. It will take you out. It will dominate you. It will tell you that you do not have to listen to God, that you don’t have to allow God to be in control of your situation—that you can do what you want to do because, hey, guess what? You have an ego. You have some self-importance that you want people to know about. «Look at my accomplishments! Look what I’ve been able to do! Look what’s in my life!»
It can be very easy to think about some of the achievements that you have in life and be like, «Look at me, looking good today!» And we struggle with trusting God. So I want to prove today that an ego can be your worst enemy. I get it, though, because when I say «ego, » a lot of people automatically are like, «Pastor, I don’t really struggle in that area. I’m a pretty humble guy, right? Or a humble woman—I practice humility. I really don’t struggle. I’m not egotistical.» And that may be true, okay? You may not be fully dominated by your ego, but I want to share two truths with you today. The first is that we all have an ego. That is the first truth: we all have an ego. Everybody in this room has an ego. The second truth is that we’re all driven by an ego, meaning that even when you want to do good things, you kind of struggle with your flesh for recognition, right? You do something good. It’s like, «Should I post it on Facebook?» Because if I did, I’m going to get some likes, and then people are going to be like, «Hey, I saw what you did!» I’m like, «Yeah!»
We all have an ego, and we all desire it just a little bit in our lives. I’m going to show you some things because it can be very easy from the outside, looking at other people and being like, «Oh, they’re selfish!» Look at them. Have you ever seen that guy in the gym who walks around like this? «What’s up, guys? Bench 405 today! Lightweight, baby!» Just walking around, and you see those guys pretending their arms are this big and trying to walk through a door like, «Hold on! Put your arms down. I know what you’re doing. I saw you last week struggling with the bar! Don’t pretend!» Right?
It’s an ego, but we look at them and we’re like, «Man, I’m not like that.» But hold up, because some of you go to your workplace, flexing your achievements or flexing yourself or flexing your goals and carrying around your trophies. What I’m telling you is that even you struggle with an ego, even though it may look different from the person you’re constantly looking at.
Let me give you one more example, okay? Have you ever seen that girl on Instagram that just makes you sick because she’s able to travel the world? Must be nice, you know? And take pictures in the most beautiful places you’ve ever seen. She has like the best filters and all these things. She’s chasing an ego. She’s chasing a status, and guess what? It’s the same ego that you chase when you want the perfect family picture. Parents in the room, say amen to that! You’ve been screaming at your kids, «You better act like you love each other today because somebody on social media is going to like this! All right, so stop it! You get no food for a week!»
You ever threatened that? Because I’ll be honest with you: I have. We got a basement—Lord forgive me; I’m sorry. I’m getting off track here, but we chase these things. We chase this status in our lives, and if you’re not careful—first of all, every good thing that comes to you comes from God. It’s not on your own ability or your own strength. I realize today where I stand; God did this. God did this.
Even this week, it was an incredible experience to meet the mayor of Hickory and take a picture with him. God did that. I had no clue. Amazing people in this room went beyond just to make things happen for this church because they love this church—God is doing it!
Oh, but I want to ask a question: What is the definition of an ego? What do you think about when you hear the word «ego»? What does that look like? It’s very dangerous. Let me show you the definition: it means to prove or depend on your own self-importance. Do you know how scary that is, to live by those words—that I constantly have to prove to you that I’m somebody? That I have to go around work and prove to you? And that’s why so many people struggle with their achievements or these goals or putting these things on social media, because I feel like I’ve got to prove to you that I’m somebody. That I’m doing something! «Hey, look at me! I’m important!» Right?
And not only that; not only do you have to prove it, which is mentally exhausting, but you also have to depend on it. Are you telling me that you’re depending on your own wisdom? Are you telling me that you’re depending on how you look to other people? Isn’t that exhausting? Is that the reason why you were created—to go through all these things?
And here’s what I see over and over again, and I even pray for myself, because we try to strive for all these goals, right? We live in a culture today that says, «Don’t get rest! Don’t sleep! Keep going! Keep going! Keep going!» And next thing you know, you’re way over there, and your family is way over here. And I’ve been going for so long and doing so much to please people that really don’t even care about me, and I left the people that I love way back over there. And you’re frustrated, tired, and feel like you have nothing left to give God.
This is a very scary way to live. No wonder depression is on the rise. You’ve got this status in your head that you’re never going to be able to live up to, and God didn’t set that for you. That is not the purpose you are here today. But you know what made me think? When I think about an ego, there is only one person that was on this earth who was worthy enough to have an ego. If anybody should have had an ego, it should have been Jesus Christ. He’s the only one worthy. He’s the Son of God. He was here before all creation; just His very name makes demons run and flee! They run; they are scared in Jesus' name—change this place! Change the atmosphere! It was by His name that people were completely healed. It’s by His name that we have a hope right now. Whatever you’re going through, it’s by His name that you hold on to that truth.
Not only that, but He has the authority to call down a legion of angels to take out the strongest armies in the world. If anybody should have been walking around with an ego, it should have been the Son of God—He was worthy of that. But do we see that in the Scriptures? Do we see Jesus leading us by example? «Father, your ego is by your accomplishments?» No; it’s the exact opposite, isn’t it?
Isn’t that something? That He, who had all power and was perfect in every way, did not walk to make Himself look like the best, but instead He humbled Himself. He practiced; He showed us; He taught us how to live out humility. And that’s a hard pill to swallow. How many of you really want to live that out? Like when you say «be humble, » do you mean I have to be nice to the person who’s talking bad about me? Yes. When you say «be humble, » Pastor, I just want to make this clear: when I’m going through the drive-thru and they mess up my order, I still have to show love? Yes.
All right—biggest test. I’m in Walmart, all right? We’re going to pray together. It always goes back to Walmart. I always have to bring it back to that. I want to share this with you: Jesus crucified the importance of an ego to bring to life the importance of humility. Think about that. Jesus crucified the importance of an ego to bring to life the importance of humility. Everything that He did showed us how to be humble.
Jesus' Examples of Humility
Let me give you some examples. Example A: Jesus washed the dirty feet of His disciples. How many of you can’t stand feet? You don’t like them? Not that people really like feet; I don’t know if you really do—you might have a problem! But I’m going to talk about like dirty, nasty feet; they didn’t have the nice new Air Jordan sandals to walk around in, okay? Their feet were nasty; they had been traveling all day. They were dirty and filthy, stinky, and sweaty. And now they’re in the presence of the Son of God, who’s done all these miracles.
We would just think that Jesus would be sitting on a throne, right? Because the Jews believed that when the Messiah first came, He would be this superior man that would be able to conquer right away. But Jesus came humble the first time. We see this scene in John 13:6-7: When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to Him, «What, are you going to wash my feet?» Peter is saying this; «I should be washing your feet. I’m not worthy for you to touch my dirty filth.»
And it reminded me of John the Baptist, right? He sees Jesus, and what does he say? «You should be washing—or you should be baptizing me! I’m not worthy to baptize the Son of God!» But Jesus says, «Listen, you don’t understand what I’m doing, but someday you will.»
And it was just a few weeks ago that I taught you that in the presence of God, there’s this one story where Satan is accusing a prophet, and Jesus comes up and rebukes Satan. «Get out of here with that mess! I know what they’ve done, but I’ve forgiven it, and I’ve washed them clean.» We see this man that had filthy rags, this filthy shirt, all of a sudden had this clean shirt, and it meant that now he was alive. He was pure; he was adopted into the family of God.
So what Jesus is saying is, «Look, there’s a lot of filth, and I’m the only one that can clean it up. I’m the only one that can wash this out.» And so I’m going to humble myself in ways that you never thought the Son of God would, to clean you.
Example B: This one’s good; I don’t think a lot of people understand this either. But Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified upon the cross. I must say that again. Think about that—Jesus, the Son of God, allowed Himself to be crucified upon the cross. The Son of God allowed Himself to be scourged. The Son of God allowed His flesh to be ripped off His back. His face was completely disfigured from the brutal attacks He went through. He allowed them to spit on Him. One person spits on you—what’s going to happen? But think about it—the Son of God has all this authority, and then Jesus allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross for our sins. Remember, He said to Peter, «One day, you’re going to understand. I’m going to wash everybody clean.»
Listen to this in John 10:17–18. Jesus said, «The Father loves Me because I sacrifice My life so that I could take it back again.» Imagine Jesus saying this with authority: «No one can take my life from me!» Nobody! The gates of hell will not be able to come and take my life away from me! But instead, «I sacrifice it voluntarily.»
And I love this—for Jesus said, «I have the authority to lay it down when I want to.» You don’t! Nobody has the authority to take my life! «But I also have the authority to take it up again.» And it gave me chills. Does it hit you hard? Think about that—Jesus said, «Nobody has authority to take my life except me, » and by that same authority, «I will raise my life.» Why? «For this is what the Father has commanded.»
To walk in obedience—to show the world the importance of humility. That humility actually sets you free! But how? Because it’s hard. I don’t want to always be humble; it’s difficult because I fight with my flesh, and I want people to see my achievements. But yes, guess what? As soon as you arrive at that achievement, somebody else is going to achieve it and outdo you! And then what do you have to do? «Well, I’ve got to work harder! I’ve got to get the next achievement!» Then you get that, and somebody else does it! What do you have to do? It’s a never-ending process, and it kills you!
And then by the end of your life, everything that you’ve ever focused on has been about you—about your achievements—and it’s a very dangerous thing. And Jesus, I want to show you, He was tempted by everything that we are tempted by today. You better believe it! You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think that Jesus had to face the temptation of ego. People were crying out His name; crowds were following Him. He had all authority! But Jesus faced every temptation.
Hebrews 4:15 says, «The high priest of ours, » talking about Jesus Christ, «He understands our weaknesses.» Why? «For He has faced all of the same testings that we do, yet He did not sin!» I remember that song a long time ago—I say a long time ago—but remember that song, «What If God Was One of Us?» Somebody’s singing it right now. I got it! He was!
He went through every temptation; He faced everything. But He overcame the flesh because of the Spirit of God, and He taught us to do the same. He taught us that we don’t have to be a slave to sin; we don’t have to be a slave to our ego. That we can actually walk in victory! But it defeats, it destroys the argument. Have you ever heard people say, «Well, you know, he’s just a big God in the sky and he’s way up there and I’m down here, and he doesn’t know what I’m going through?» No, no, no, no, no!
Because He went through every temptation, and He overcame it! It means that we serve a God who understands our temptations. It means that we serve a God who understands our pain, and it means that we serve a God who understands our trials. And He did not have to do that, but He did it for you! He did it to show you that there is truth in the victory of following Him.
You’re not a slave to sin; you’re not a slave to ego. You do not have to prove to anybody that you are important, and you do not have to depend on that because Jesus proved that the moment He died on the cross. But it’s still difficult, right?
We could walk out of this room, and we could say, «Okay, ego is bad! I know! I’m trying!» But it’s like I’m constantly wrestling with myself to prove to people. And maybe that’s how you grew up. Maybe everything that you did, somebody was always critiquing things and instead of supporting you and saying, «Good job!» it was like, «Well, you could have done this better, » and there was never any appreciation.
And I’ve seen people grow up like that, and I’ve noticed that they’re really in their head about things. And the problem is not only are they in their head about how people view them, they have the same relationship with God—how God may view them. And so they’re trying to prove over and over again, «Well, if I just go to church and I just serve and I do all these different things, then God will love me.» God has always loved you, and He always will love you.
Your life may look hard right now; that does not mean that God has left you. But He is in your situation. So let me ask you this right now: Where is your ego leading you? Think about that. Where is your ego leading you? Because ego is very selfish. How’s that selfish, Pastor? Ego knows that it will die on this earth. And what I mean by that is that ego will not be allowed in heaven, and your ego is not going to follow you to hell. It dies on this earth!
But if you are being controlled by your ego and your self-importance, where is it leading you right now? It’s very selfish; it’s destructive. I want to show you this today. I want to make this point very clear because this is how it’s your worst enemy. On the inside, it knows—it knows that it could lead you straight to hell, but it’s not going! It can’t go there!
Galatians 5:17, the ESV version, says this: «For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.» Meaning that your flesh is constantly at battle, at war with the Spirit of God living inside of you! And you know what your flesh is saying? «Feed your ego! Feed your ego!»
Margaret over there says some things about you; she wants your spotlight! Feed your ego! Tell them about what you’ve done, right? Sam said this about you. «Okay, let’s go harder; let’s do more! Let’s not get any sleep! Feed my ego!» So that you know that I’m important. You know what the Spirit of God says? «Let it starve! Let it starve! Don’t feed your ego! You don’t need it! You have my approval! I’m with you! You don’t need to prove to other people!»
You know the best compliments that you could ever receive in your life is something that you had no part of! Meaning that you didn’t force people to look at what you did! People just already noticed because God made it a big deal! And I’ve noticed that God has really taught me that something good happens—don’t brag about it! Why? First of all, God gave it to you. It’s not you that did it! But who needs to get all the glory? God!
So when He does these things in your life, yes, it’s a blessing to you, but it also becomes a blessing to other people around you, and they start to talk about that. And then people come up to you asking, «How did you get there? How did you do it?» And you get to say this: «I didn’t; He did it!»
I’m telling you, ego is your worst enemy! The flesh will say, «Feed your ego, » but the Spirit will say, «Let it starve!»
The Rich Young Ruler (Mark 10)
If you have your Bibles with you, I want you to turn to Mark chapter 10. And then, at the very end of the sermon, I’m going to visit John chapter 3. I’m going to get a little nerdy with you guys today; is that okay? We good? Pastor Felix is good with that? I guess we’re good!
I want to show you some cool stuff, but they’re kind of deep, and I’m going to explain it to you the best that I can. But this is really, really exciting to me. I’m going to show you some things that you probably never heard before, but we’re going to be in Mark chapter 10.
Let me give you some background, some context of what’s taking place. There’s this young man who approaches Jesus, and he’s pretty much saying, «Wait, wait! Good teacher!» All right? And the Scripture tells us that he kneels down before Jesus, and he is searching for the meaning of life. He is searching for, «How do I get to heaven? How do I know that I’m going to get to heaven? How do I know that I’m going to live for all eternity?»
«Jesus, good teacher, what do I need to do?» Now, here’s what we know about this rich young ruler. First of all, he’s wealthy, young, and a ruler because that’s the title of the passage. He is young, but I also want to show you today that possibly he is the wealthiest man in all of Israel. It’s even believed some theologians believed that he had enough wealth to support Israel himself for ten years, okay?
So when it says that he is young and rich and very well-known, he truly is! And not only that, but he’s famous; he is everything that a YouTube star would hope to be, okay? Or a TikTok star, or whoever, right? They would hope to be young, rich, and famous. He’s exactly what our culture says is everything; this is the meaning of life. You get to this status; you’ve got it all, right?
But what I love about this story, he does have all that; it is not enough! Even though he’s respected, even though all these things are going well in his life, he’s searching for Jesus. So he says, «Good teacher, teach me! How do I get to heaven?»
He needs something more. So let me read this passage to you. Just follow along with me; I’m going to read a lot. Mark chapter 10, verses 17 through 22, the New Living Translation:
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?»
And Jesus looked at him and said, «Why do you call me good?» And I’m going to revisit that, but Jesus said, «Only God is truly good.»
But then He says, «To answer your question, let me show you some commandments.» Okay? So he goes into this whole spiel about some of the things that you should do and following the commandments. He says, «Do not murder; do not commit adultery; you must not steal; you must not testify falsely; you must not cheat anyone; and you must honor your father and your mother.»
These are the things that Jesus tells this man and does it on purpose; I’m going to show you this! And I love the reply of the young rich ruler because this is what he said: «Great! I’ve done all of these perfectly since I was young.» You know anybody like that? That no matter what, they never talk about their faults or their mistakes? «Oh yeah, I’ve been perfect in this area all my life!»
I always wonder, «You think Jesus ever gave like an eye roll?» Like, «Huh, I’m sure you have! You’ve been perfect, huh? Uh-huh, I know what you did last week. Okay, all right.» Or, in the South, you know, you say, «Bless your heart! You poor thing!»
So Jesus looks at him and says, «Teacher, » the man replied, «I’ve obeyed all of these commands since I was young. I’m good! Is this all I’ve got to do?» And Jesus said, «Now notice this, though, » the Scripture tells us that Jesus felt genuine love for him. He felt compassion.
This was a man truly seeking the Lord, truly seeking about eternal life. And Jesus knew that he had so much, but He knew that this would be difficult. And Jesus said, «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 then you will have treasures in heaven.»
If I’m honest with you, as a kid growing up, I did not like this passage of Scripture. I remember thinking, «Do you mean I gotta sell my brand-new Nintendo 64 to get into heaven? Because that’s not going to work for me! That’s going to be hard. It’s going to be difficult!»
And it only gets harder as an adult. Think about it: what if you came to Jesus, and you’re just looking at like, «Okay, what do I got to do? Just what’s the next thing in my life that I got to do?» And Jesus says, «Give everything you got away; your cars, your house, your life savings.»
And immediately in my mind, I would think, «That’s irresponsible! What do you mean?» But Jesus was challenging him on what he depended on to get by in life. So he had so many of these things right; he had the self-importance; he had this ego about himself. «Look what I’ve done!»
So Jesus is challenging him, «Then give it all away!» And it’s when you give it all away that you will see that the only thing you need is Me.
I remember the year I went through evangelism for Authentic in Louisiana years ago; I didn’t have a paycheck. I remember waking up some days, «God, I don’t know how we’re going to make it through. How are we going to pay these bills?» And I’ve told you—I’ve shared with you stories that there were times that we found a check in the baby bag from somebody watching Micah, my son, the night before; we had no clue that it was there.
There were times that there was money on our doorstep. There were times that there was money in the mailbox. It was crazy! Every day, it was like a miraculous thing, and I realized that year, «God, You really are in control of everything!» Because the temptation about working and getting a job is that you think you deserve it!
Well, this is my money! God’s still saying, «No, I gave you that job. That money you have, I gave it to you. And that 10%—that’s still Mine! But you trust Me, and the floodgates of heaven will bless you, and I will show you that I’m the only thing that you need.»
But this verse is hard to take in, and again I’m going to show you something new out of this passage today that you may have never heard before. But let me end it, and finally Jesus said this. He said, «Then, come follow Me!»
Jesus says, «Then come follow Me.» At this, the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Can I tell you something? You would be sad too! You would be sad too if you went up to Jesus and said, «Look, I gotta do what?» Your face would be down, and you would be contemplating, «Okay, I gotta do what? I gotta sell everything? Are you sure that’s what he said?»
But notice this about the text: it does not tell us what the man decided to do! Think about that! All it tells us is that he walked away sad because it was a hard thing to take in. It was a hard thing to deal with.
Point 1: Ego Blinds Us to God’s Work
And so here’s what I want to do. I want to break this down and show you some truths out of this and also teach you how to overcome your ego by this passage of Scripture. So the first point is this: Ego prevents you from seeing what God can do through you because all you can see is what you have done. Ego will prevent you from seeing what God can do through you because all you see is what you have done.
We go ahead and bring my star chart out here on stage, please. The lovely Nina put together a star chart for me of some of my good works, okay? And I was messing with them in the back. I said, «You know what? I guess I’m not doing so well in the area of giving. It’s kind of slacking from these other places.»
But the reason why I brought this out here is because this is how we act, right? Especially growing up in the church, in the back. I know my sons, when they come home, they’re always really excited, like, «I got that star, Daddy! I memorized that verse! I got that candy and that toy today!»
And I started to think about this young rich ruler. And this is pretty much what he did: «Hey, Jesus, hold up, hold up! Look, this is me! Just want you to know all right? I’ve been praying! I’ve been giving most of the time! Serving! I’ve been reading my Bible! I’ve been reading! I got all these things! I got all these stars! Jesus, what more do I need to do to get into heaven?» Right?
What more do I need to accomplish? And here’s what’s fascinating to me: so a lot of theologians also believe that possibly this man was a Pharisee, okay? Because of his ruler status. That means if he was a Pharisee, it also means that two days out of the week, he spent fasting. Not only that, but he gave every single week.
And there’s also a belief that he was part of the Sanhedrin—a council which means that he was part of 70 elders, the highest religious body among the Jews. He was part of the Torah police, okay? The Old Testament! Anybody that did wrong, he said, «Hey, look, you need to look like this! You need to do this! You’re messing up over there!» How many of you have been to a church like that?
How many of you have witnessed other believers that act like that? Instead of encouraging you, showing you the goodness of God and how He can change you, as soon as you walked into the room, you felt completely condemned and judged? And I’m going to say it again: the Spirit of God will bring conviction; the only one that condemns is Satan. That is not of God!
But what’s happened is a lot of people have become blinded by their achievements and their gold stars, and they’re running up to Jesus just like the rich young ruler did. He says, «Look at what all I have done!» Remember verse 20? He said, «I obeyed all of these commandments since I was young. Look what I’ve done! Aren’t I good?»
Now focus on the word «good, » because Jesus says something a little strange. And Jesus, in my head, is looking at this man thinking, «You don’t even know what good is.» You think this is good, but the human heart is wicked above all things!
Why is that, though? Why is it that even when I try to do good? I think it was C.S. Lewis that stated, you know, you’re talking to somebody and you’re listening to their story, but automatically it’s your flesh thinking about the story that you want to share with them about you, right?
We fight this in our flesh! When you have good deeds and you do things, we are tempted to take pictures to show the world to tell everybody about what we have done! It’s hard! It really is! It’s a difficult thing! And this is what it says out of Isaiah. This really hit me—Isaiah 64:6: «We are all infected and impure with sin, and because of this, when we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.»
Our righteous deeds are filthy rags. But isn’t Jesus God? So why would He say, «Only God is good?» Because Jesus was making a point! Because this young man’s ego was leading him down a path of self-righteousness; that’s exactly what this is! He’s leading him down a path of self-righteousness—proving to other people, depending on his own self-righteousness.
Now let me show you this: this is cool. Let me ask you a question: How many commandments are there? Is that your question? Ten! Ten commandments! How many commandments did Jesus list? Six! Why? Because He already knew! Jesus is so smart; I love how He talks to these people because He brings them on this level!
He already knew that the very first commandment he had broken! So if He had started out with that, the man would have automatically felt defeated! But instead, He talks about the six commandments! All right? These six commandments deal with a relationship with others. But the first four commandments are about a relationship with God. You know what the first commandment is? «Thou shall not have any other gods before me.» Exodus 20:3: «Thou shalt not have any other gods before me.»
Jesus already knew that he had broken this because what he served—his self-importance, his self-worth—was all dependent upon his fame and his richness, his money and his wealth! This was his idol! Where are you struggling with in your life? Is there an idol before God that you’re always putting first? Because sometimes it’s easy to fall for this idol of money: the love of money—the spirit of man.
You wake up in the morning; you check your money! You plan all day how to make more money, and then you plan for the future about more money! You come home; you talk about money. You go to sleep dreaming about money, but then when the Bible comes up, «I was busy doing what?» Worshiping money!
But it can be a lot of different areas in your life, and it all leads to self-righteousness: «Look at me! I’ve got to prove to you I’m somebody!» Now God’s not telling you not to work hard—work hard! Have goals! But that’s still not your importance or who you are! Who you are in Christ is what matters most.
Point 2: Trust God’s Righteousness, Not Your Own
So Jesus told him, «Look, you’ve got to get rid of these things! You’ve got to go sell your possessions, give your money to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven.» Why? Point number two is this: Ego tells us to trust our own self-righteousness and not the righteousness of God. Ego would tell us to follow our own self-righteousness and not the righteousness of God.
What do I mean by that? First of all, what is the definition of self-righteous? It means to be morally superior. And here’s something I want to share with you today: you know that you don’t have to be just in a church setting to be self-righteous! All it means is that you are morally superior; you believe yourself to be better than others! So even in your workplace, you could be more morally superior!
Even in your family, you could be more morally superior! It doesn’t just happen in church settings, but we’re focused so much on our own self-righteousness that it can be difficult at times! I’ve noticed this; the disciples felt the same way we do! I love this—this is what they said in Mark 10:26. It says, «The disciples were astounded and they said to each other, ‘Well then, who can be saved? ’ If we gotta give up everything! Have you still sold everything? No! You know?»
Yeah, they were uneducated fishermen, but you know, they still had servants. If you look at the text, there were things that they had in their lives. And I wonder if they started to really contemplate things like, «Do you mean that we have to do this too? Do we really have to give up our wealth and all these things?» Like, «Who can be saved?»
And so a lot of us look at this text and we said, «All right, if I don’t sell everything, if I don’t move across the world, then I’m never going to get into the kingdom of heaven.» But that’s not what Jesus said. And this is where a lot of people get confused.
What did Jesus say? He told him, «If you sell all your possessions and give to the poor, what will you have if you do that? You will have treasures in heaven!» If selling all of his possessions and giving to the poor got him into heaven, guess what? It would just be another gold star!
So Jesus is challenging him in this, «No, you do these things; there will be treasure in heaven for you because that’s a good heart! But don’t miss the last verse—verse 21—Jesus said, ‘Then come follow Me! ’»
That’s how you will get into the kingdom of heaven! The man would get into the kingdom of heaven the same way we do—by following Jesus, by giving our life to Christ, by our actions, and loving the Lord and being submissive and living out humility instead of feeding our ego! Great is your reward in heaven! There are things you don’t even know that are coming!
You’re struggling here; praise God! It’s an opportunity! You may not like it, but it’s an opportunity! And I believe that one day we’ll be in the kingdom of heaven and we’ll see these things like, «Jesus is for me!» Yeah! Because you didn’t give up! You didn’t give up when it was hard! And people called you stupid; they called you worthless.
So great is your reward for never stopping to have faith that I can get you through it! Now look at this; this is what I prepared for you, and I’m going to ask you to stand up right here. We’re about to close because I started to think about the story, and really the reason it hurt me so bad is because it hurt my ego, and God had to deal with my heart!
It hurt my pride! It hurt that I wasn’t in that stadium preaching the gospel and the good news. But here’s what’s crazy: before my family left to come here to North Carolina, another church in that stadium had a revival! Because it was God’s will!
God was not asking me to preach it! God was not asking me to lead it! God was just asking me to pray that it would take place! And it humbled me that it’s not on me! Nothing about me! My ego needs to starve because it’s all about Him!