Greg Laurie - Jesus and The Open Heart

Well, I read an interesting article from the New York Times, a former newspaper, that said there is a return of young people to church right now, especially men. Did you hear about this article? This article says, and I quote, «For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers.»

That’s fascinating and good! It’s a good thing because that has not been the case in the past. The article goes on to say that at church, young men are encountering calls to responsibility, sacrifice, and leadership. This is in contrast to the messaging of self-indulgence and avoidance of commitment. End quote. So that’s good. They’re not finding what they want and certainly not what they need from the culture. This, to me, is not all that surprising because, for a long time, it seems as though the progressive left has waged an all-out war on men. Men are getting tired of hearing about so-called toxic masculinity and patriarchy and «gender norms are just a social construct,» and on it goes. Young men want to be men, and they want to be masculine in the best sense of that term.

Now, before us here in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, we have the story of young people coming to Jesus. There are two movements in this story. The first movement is of young children coming to Christ. And we read the famous statement of Christ when He says, «Let the little children come unto me, and don’t forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.» The second movement in our text is of a wealthy young man coming to Jesus one day. We often call him the rich young ruler. And Jesus looked at him, we read, and loved him. Yet this man walked away sad. He is the only person who ever encountered Jesus and walked away sad. Everybody else that came face to face with our Lord and was touched by Him in some way, shape, or form went away glad, went away happy, went away forgiven, went away healed. And this guy walks away sad, or sorrowful, or, a better translation, deeply distressed. And it’s because Jesus said something to him he did not like, and He asked him to do something he did not want to do. He did not have an open heart. The children had open hearts; this man did not.

So, let’s read about the children here in Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 15. Read with me if you would. One day, some parents brought their little children to Jesus so He could touch and bless them. And when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering Him. Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, «Let the little children come to me and don’t stop them. For the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these little children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.» We’ll stop there.

Okay, so here’s point number one. If you’re taking notes, Jesus loves the little children, and so should we. Jesus loves the little children, as the song says, and so should we. He always made time for the kids. Last time, we looked at the story of Gyrus and his 12-year-old daughter, who was very sick. In fact, she was at death’s door. Gyrus found the Lord was taking him home to touch his little daughter, but by the time they arrived, the daughter had tragically died. And Jesus went over to her, knelt down by the bed, and whispered into her ear, «Little lamb, arise!» And life returned to this little girl.

And then there’s the story of the so-called nobleman whose son was very sick, and Jesus touched him as well. And there are many other stories of Jesus touching children. He always took time for kids. And it’s always important to take time for children because they don’t stay children for very long. They grow so quickly, don’t they? Did you know that from birth to age five, a child’s brain reaches up to 90% of its adult size? All of these experiences are happening to them that shape their cognitive, emotional, social, and spiritual development. So take time with your children. Take time to speak to them. Take time to listen to them and to pray with them. I read that there are 940 Saturdays between a child’s birth and them leaving for college-940 Saturdays!

Number two: we need to bring our children to Jesus. We need to bring our children to Jesus. Our job as parents is to point our kids to Christ. Listen to this parent: If you don’t take a proactive interest in your child’s spiritual welfare, somebody else will. And most likely, it won’t be good. Don’t leave it to the public school system to teach your children values. Don’t leave it to the media to teach your child what is right and wrong. That is your job as the mother or the father. And specifically, you’re told in Proverbs 22:6, «Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.» Very important. What does that mean, to train up a child in the way he should go? One way to translate it is to create a thirst in them for the way that they should go. So our objective as parents is to create a thirst in our child for God. Hopefully, they’ll see something in us that they will want to emulate, that they’ll want to copy.

And I’ll tell you, here’s one way that you can keep your children from coming to Christ: be a hypocrite. Be a hypocrite. Now look, we all have moments of hypocrisy, and we all do and say things as parents we wish we had not said or done. And by the way, there’s nothing wrong with apologizing to your child every now and then. Say, «You know, Mom shouldn’t have done that; Dad shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.» Okay? But having said that, you’re going to have moments of inconsistency, but there’s a difference between that and outright hypocrisy. The word hypocrite, literally translated, means to be an actor. And it’s when your child starts seeing that you’re putting on a performance. You’re two people: you’re the person that greets people at church and you’re the person who is tyrannical in the home. They see how you talk to total strangers. You show more consideration to a stranger who knocks at your door than to your spouse or to your children. Or they see you screaming, losing your temper, getting drunk, using profanity. Little eyes are watching, and little ears are listening, and they’re now deciding if they too want a relationship with God like you have.

So don’t be that person. The Bible says bring them up in the way of the Lord. Don’t knock them down. Create in them a thirst to know God like you know God. One of the best ways to get somebody hungry or thirsty is to eat a meal in front of them. Well, I don’t know if that’s completely true. Watching some people eat makes me not want to eat ever again! But let’s just say you’re enjoying a nice meal. Maybe after church, you say, «We’re going to go get a bite of lunch. You want to join us?» They say, «Well, I already ate, but I’ll come along and just drink a glass of water.» So you go to the restaurant, and everybody orders their lunch, and they’re drinking their glass of water. And then the burgers arrive, and then the fries arrive, glistening in the sun. And so the person drinking the water says, «Can I have one fry?» «Oh sure! Have as many as you want.» And why is it that when you eat somebody else’s food, it tastes better than when you order it? Have you noticed that? That one fry, that one bite, which is so good, is so wonderful! And then you want your own, right? So that’s the idea. Live in such a way that they will look at you and say, «I want a relationship with God like they have.» That’s what it means to train up your children in the way of the Lord.

So the parents are bringing their kids to Christ here in verse 15. They brought their little children to Jesus so He would touch and bless them. The Jewish culture at the time was for the father to lay his hand on a child and pronounce a blessing over them. So that’s what they’re asking for. They want Jesus to put His hand on their children and bless them. In Mark’s Gospel, talking about the same story, it says Jesus took them into His arms and fervently blessed them. So He was passionate about this; He wanted to do it. And I think Jesus enjoyed being with kids because all the time He was having these debates with the religious leaders. They’re always confronting Him, trying to trap Him, trying to paint Him into a corner. And here come the kids, and they want to just play and they want to laugh and they want to listen. And Jesus is enjoying Himself immensely. So when the disciples start pushing the kids away, He says, «What are you doing? Let these little children come unto me! In fact, even more, you can learn from these little children.» And then Jesus takes a child and uses them as an example. He says, «You guys don’t stop the children from coming to me! In fact, learn from the children.» Look at verse 17: «The kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these little children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.» Now, the conventional thinking is that a child should become as an adult to know God. But in fact, Jesus says the opposite: an adult should become as a child to know God. Isn’t that interesting? You should become like a child. And what does that mean? Back to diapers? Hopefully not! You should not be childish, but you should be childlike. And not childish and immature, but rather childlike. What does it mean to be childlike? It means you come in complete honesty to God. You’re not putting on an act. You’re not living behind a facade. You’re honest to God.

I heard a story about a mother who had a big dinner party. She invited too many people over, and it was a lot of work. She finally got all the food on the table and was absolutely exhausted. So she said to her six-year-old daughter, «Honey, why don’t you offer the prayer to God, giving thanks for the meal?» The little girl said, «Mommy, what do you want me to pray?» The mom said, «Just pray what you always hear Mommy pray.» So the little girl prayed, «Dear God, why did I invite all these people over here to dinner?» Maybe a little too honest, but true! Children are very honest. You know how a child feels. If they’re happy, they laugh. If they’re sad, they cry. If they fall, they come running for help-usually to Mom, not Dad. But children come with a complete helplessness. Especially when they’re really little, they’re absolutely dependent on the parent for everything. And we, in the same way, come with complete helplessness to God, totally in need of His forgiveness.

Another thing we need to do is evangelize our children. Evangelize them! They’re never too young to start reading the Bible to them. I remember when I was speaking with Pastor Chuck Smith once. He told me that his mother would read the Bible to him when he was just a tiny little guy. She’d be pushing him in the swing. He was around 21 at that time. No, not really! He was very little. He said, «When I was just a little child, a little toddler even, my mother was reading the scripture to me. My mother was getting me to memorize the scripture,» and he still remembered these scriptures he had memorized as a child well into his later adult years. It’s never too soon to start getting the word of God into your kids.

I remember talking with Dr. James Dobson, and I asked him, «Dr. Dobson, when did you become a Christian?» He said, «When I was four years old.» I said, «Really? Four years old?» «Yes! That was when he marked his conversion to when he was four years old.» You never know when they’ll make that commitment! So you need to present the gospel to them and build a bridge to them and keep it understandable. When I talk to kids, I get down on their level. I communicate with them in a way they will understand. I think this is one of the problems with devotions with our children. We should have a devotion in a Bible read. Yeah, it’s a good idea; do that. But they don’t need a two -hour message from Leviticus. All right? Keep it short! Keep it simple! Don’t be boring! Engage them! Ask them questions so they understand what it is you’re saying to them. They’re so open, especially in those earlier years. And give them the same gospel that saved you: the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and give them an opportunity to respond. What a joy it is to pray with your little children to ask Jesus to come into their hearts!

So let’s shift gears now in our story. We’ve talked about Jesus and the little children. Now we come to the so-called rich young ruler. Like many young men of today that we talked about earlier, he came to Jesus. He was a ruler, which meant that you had to be at least 30 years old to be a ruler, a religious ruler, but he was young. So he’s in his early 30s. He climbed his corporate ladder, if you will. He’s been very successful. The Bible says he was very rich. So he’s a wealthy young man, and he probably had a tricked-out BMW chariot, and he came cruising up thinking that Jesus would want this guy and his team immediately. He approaches the Lord because he knew there was something missing in his life. And I think the thing that probably got him really interested is watching Jesus with the children. He saw that vulnerability. He saw that love; he saw that compassion. And he liked what Jesus said about the children and becoming like a child.

This young man, as we’ll see in a moment, thought of himself as a very good person. And relatively speaking, he was! He thought he had kept the commandments since he was a little boy. It’s doubtful; no one really does. But he tried to be a good person, a religious person, and yet he thought Jesus was even better than him. So, he thinks, if I can understand who Jesus is, I can get to that next level of goodness. So let’s read this story: Luke 18:18. Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: «Good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?» Why do you call me good? Jesus asked him. «Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know 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.» The man replied, «I’ve obeyed all of these commandments since I was young.»

When Jesus heard his answer, He said, «There’s still one thing you haven’t done: Sell all of your possessions; give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.» We’ll stop there. And then it says, «Finally, when he heard this, he became very sad because he was very rich.»

So, let’s give credit where credit is due. Here’s an important man, a VIP for sure, and he comes to Jesus and bows before Him. Another gospel says he kneels before Jesus. You would have thought the first thing Christ would have done is said, «Man, we need you on the team! Oh, by the way, could you underwrite our mission? Because seriously, you have some extra cash here we could really use!»

I heard a story about a very wealthy man who called a church, and the secretary answered, «Yes, can I help you?» He said, «Yeah, I want to talk to the head hog at the trough.» She said, «What?» «I want to talk to the head hog at the trough.» She said, «Well, sir, we don’t call our pastor the head hog at the trough.» And he said, «Okay, fine, and I wanted to give him $ 200,000 for your ministry.» A few moments passed. All of a sudden, a voice is heard on the other end, and the pastor says, «Head hog at the trough here! Yeah, let’s get this guy on the team! He has potential!»

But what Jesus says to him is very surprising. This man says, «Good teacher,» emphasizing the word 'good, ' «what must I do to inherit eternal life?» He thinks Christ is at the next level of goodness, and Jesus says, «No one is good but God.» Now, what was that all about? Well, really, Jesus was saying, «I am God because only God is good. No one is good except God.» Well, who was better than Jesus? He was the very definition of goodness! So effectively, He’s saying, «Young man, you are talking to God at this very moment.» «Oh, you want eternal life? Okay, well, obey the commandments: don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t lie; honor your father and mother.»

And then this guy says, «All of these commandments I have kept from my youth.» It would have made sense if the Bible then said, «And Jesus smacked him across the face.» «What, you talkin' about Willis? You have not kept all the commandments since you’ve been young! You’ve broken these commandments! No one keeps them!» Because Jesus took them to the next level. He said, «You’ve heard that it has been said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, if you’ve looked on a woman with lust in your heart, you’ve committed adultery.» «You’ve heard that it has been said you shall not murder, but I say, if you have hatred in your heart toward your brother, you’ve broken that commandment as well.» So, we’ve all broken these commandments in one way or another.

And by the way, the commandments were never given to make you righteous. No one keeps them. The commandments are not given to make us righteous; they’re given to show us we’re not righteous. The commandments are like God’s moral mirror. Sometimes when I look in the mirror, I don’t like what I see-especially if it’s a magnifying mirror. Those are frightening, right? So we look at God’s moral mirror, we look at those commandments, and we realize, «I fall short.» But I’ll tell you which commandment this rich young ruler was really breaking: it’s the last one-you shall not covet. Oh, that was his problem! You shall not covet! Covet means a greedy desire to have more. It means to pant after something. And so we’ve heard it said the Bible says money is the root of all evil. The Bible does not say that! Did you know that? That is not a verse in the Bible. Money is the root of all evil? Here’s what the Bible actually says: listen, there’s a big difference. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. While some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

So it’s not just money; money is neutral. Money isn’t good; money isn’t bad. Money is what you make of it. You can use it for God’s glory, for the extension of the kingdom, to help other people. You can do a lot of good with money. It can be bad as well, depending on what you spend it on. It’s the love of money! While some have coveted after — that was this guy’s problem! Money was his god! And Jesus put His finger on that, and that is why He said to this man, and this man alone, «Sell everything you have, give it away to the poor, and follow me.» Why did He say that to him? Because He knew money was his god! And He knew that his stuff was keeping him from a relationship with the Lord. Jesus never said this to any other person, so it’s not some proof text for what every person needs to do to become a Christian. It was to this guy alone because Jesus knew that was his issue.

To another person, He might say, «Break off that relationship that’s pulling you down spiritually and follow me.» To even another, He might say, «Break free from this lifestyle you’re living in and follow me.» But here’s the thing: He said, «Follow me!» Jesus was offering this guy a spot on the team: «I want you on the team! I want you in the band! I want you to be one of my disciples! Come on, follow me!» When Matthew heard those words (and Matthew was also affluent; he was a tax collector for Rome, sitting at his tax table), and Jesus said two words to him: «Follow me!» Matthew bolted up from his tax table and never looked back. He left everything-like no problem! This is a privilege, the highest honor, the privilege to be called by Jesus! And this man couldn’t do it. Why? Because he was very rich, and he went away sad.

Another way to translate that is he went away in distress. Every other person that came to Christ went away glad, happy, forgiven, healed. As I said earlier, this guy goes away sad. Now, contrast him with another wealthy important person who is seeking God. This guy is identified as an Ethiopian eunuch, and his story is found in Acts chapter 8. So he worked for Candace, the Queen of Ethiopia. He was a member of her cabinet; he was a VIP. He came to Jerusalem visiting, wanting to have a relationship with God. He heard about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and wanted to know more. Instead of finding a vibrant faith, he found dead, lifeless religion. But he did manage to obtain a scroll of Isaiah. Now back in those days, needless to say, they didn’t print Bibles, so to have a scroll of scripture was a precious object. Probably because of his status and importance, they gave him this hand-lettered scroll written by the scribes from Isaiah.

So it so happens he’s in his chariot, probably with an entourage around him, traveling along reading aloud from Isaiah 53 that happens to speak of the suffering of the Savior written hundreds of years before it happened. He’s reading out loud, sitting, standing in his chariot. And meanwhile, the Lord had directed a guy named Philip, one of the followers of Jesus, to just go to the desert and wait for further information. When he sees this man from Ethiopia coming, reading out loud from Isaiah 53, he knew what to do. He asked him, «Hey, do you understand what you’re reading?» The guy says, «No, how can I unless someone shows me the way?» Philip then explained that this was about Jesus. This Ethiopian man accepted Christ, and he was baptized right there! And then we read that he went on his way rejoicing!

Two powerful men, two affluent men, came to hear the gospel. One went away sad; the other went away glad! It’s really up to us! Here’s the offer of forgiveness: whatever it costs you, it’s worth it! The Apostle Paul said, «I look at all my accomplishments and all the things I’ve done, and these things are nothing compared to the excellency of knowing God.» You ask, «Greg, if I become a Christian, will I have to give up anything?» The answer to that question is yes, you will! You have to give up emptiness for fulfillment! You’ll have to give up hopelessness for hope! You’ll have to give up hell for heaven! Sounds like a pretty good trade-in deal to me! It’s worth it!

So I determine how this will play out in my life. So in closing, let me ask you this: If this was your last opportunity to hear the gospel, are you going to be like the rich young ruler and go away sad? Are you going to be like this other man I mentioned, the Ethiopian, and go away glad? It’s your choice! What’s holding you back?