Dr. Charles Stanley: Money can do some things; it can do

many good things in the right hands.

But it can't satisfy the longing of your soul.

It can't satisfy the longing of your heart.

It can't satisfy that which God has placed in you that only He can fill;

and that is a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus.

male announcer: Next on "In Touch," "Is Something Missing In Your Life?"

Dr. Stanley: When you think about your life,

what would you change if you--if you had the

privilege of changing anything, what would you change?

Would you change your income?

Your health?

Your job, your profession?

Would you change where you live, what you drive?

Would you change who you're married to?

That would be dangerous.

Would you change where you live?

Would you change some areas of your life that are personal and

private?

What would you change in your life, if you could just change

something, or if you feel the need to change something because

something's missing?

Maybe you don't know what it is, but deep down inside something's

missing.

Because you have a good job, maybe.

You have a good income.

You like where you live.

You've got good health; happily married maybe.

And so on and on you go but there's something hanging out

there that you can't put your finger on.

Something's missing.

You've tried this and this and this.

You've been here and yonder.

And people make changes in life that's not the real change they

need; but there's something missing in their life and they

want to find out what it is.

Well, that's what our passage of scripture's all about, somebody

who had it all, and yet something was missing.

So I want to encourage you to listen carefully and to turn in

your Bible to Mark, chapter ten.

And I want us to read these verses.

And I want to give you a little something right up front.

Sometimes people read this passage of scripture and they

say, Well that doesn't apply to me because I'm not a rich person.

Well, you don't know whether that applies to you or not till

you listen.

And so I want to encourage you to listen carefully because

there are messages from this passage of scripture maybe

you've never seen.

And I can tell you one thing: there is a message here for

everybody, everybody.

And it just may be that you're one of those persons who wants a

change in your life and you can't figure out what it is.

It just might be that you figure out what it is in this

particular passage.

So, let's begin and let me say right up front, in the--in your

Bible in this passage there's probably in dark, a little bit

larger print a title called the Rich Young Ruler.

But if you read that passage, you say, Well, where is that in

here?

And in Matthew, he's called a young man.

In Mark, this fellow's called a man.

And in Luke, he's called a certain ruler.

So we have a certain, or a rich young ruler.

That's however they get that title.

So let's begin in this tenth-- seventeenth verse of the tenth

chapter, "As He was setting out on a journey," Jesus that is, "a

man ran up to Him and knelt down before Him, and asked Him, 'Good

Teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'

And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call Me good?

No one is good except God alone.

You know the commandments, "Do not murder, do not commit

adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not

defraud, honor your father and mother.'"

And he said to Him, 'Teacher, I have kept all these things from

my youth up.' Looking at him, Jesus felt a

love for him and He said to him, 'One thing you lack: go and sell

all you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure

in heaven; and come, follow Me.' But at these words he was

saddened, and he went away grieved, for he was one who

owned much property.

And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, 'How hard it

is, and how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to inherit

the kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at

these words and-- But Jesus answered again and

said to them, '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 a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'

They were even more astonished and said to Him, 'Then who can

be saved?' Looking at them, Jesus said,

'With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things

are possible with God.'" Now, you look at that passage

and you say, Well, you know, I'm not rich.

I don't know what in the world that has to do with me.

Well let me just say right up front you can have everything

the world has to offer.

You can have it all and yet something missing in your life.

And this is where many people are.

They have it all; and yet there's something out there that

sort of gnaws at them.

It just sort of hangs in there.

It won't go away, some need that they have.

And so when you think about this young man, the scripture says he

was rich, he was young, and let's say he was healthy and he

was a ruler.

So think about this.

Isn't this what most people, this generation, younger folks

coming along, what do they want?

They want riches.

They want some authority, some power, some position.

And they want to be able to get along in life and they want it

usually pretty fast and they want it to come their way while

they're young.

And there's nothing wrong with having desires for your life.

But what do those desires do in your life when they become

fruition?

And so the scripture says he was a rich young ruler and he had

all that you'd think he would possibly need, all he thought he

needed, rich, young and authority; position in life.

And so it sounds like he lived in the twenty-first century.

So if I were to ask you, Would you like to be rich, young and

have position?

If you were honest, most of you would raise your hand.

Well is there anything wrong with being rich, young and

having position?

No, there's not.

You see, the truth is we are not thinking properly about life,

and we're short-sighted, if we think gold, money and so forth's

going to satisfy us, position and good health and

opportunities are going to satisfy us, there's still going

to be something missing.

It was true in this young man's life in the scripture and it's

true in life.

The second lesson I want us to notice is this.

That our love and desire for material things can cause us to

miss the most important thing in life.

People don't realize that money is dangerous.

Somebody says, Well what could be dangerous about money?

It's what it does.

It's the attitude people have, that if I have enough money, I

can go where I want to go, do what I want to do, marry who I

want to marry, wear what I want to wear, drive what I want to

drive, live where I want to live, eat where I want to eat

and on and on and on it goes.

That may be some of the things that money can do, but that

doesn't satisfy you.

But think about this.

You can have all the money in the world you want; if you don't

have good health, you can't buy it.

If you're not, listen.

If you don't have anybody to love, you can't buy it.

If you don't have anyone who loves you, you can't buy it.

In other words, you don't--you can't buy peace, joy, happiness,

contentment; and you certainly cannot buy eternal life.

Money can do some things; it can do many good things in the right

hands.

But it can't satisfy the longing of your soul.

It can't satisfy the longing of your heart.

It can't satisfy that which God has placed in you that only He

can fill; and that is a personal relationship with God through

His Son, Jesus.

You may be one of those very, very wealthy persons.

You have it all.

You have the prestige and the prominence and the popularity

and the position, the power.

You have the money, you can buy anything you want, go anywhere

you want to go.

But deep down inside there's something missing.

And that something that's missing is a personal

relationship with the Son of God.

And this young man had all of it.

You could say, Well what is it that you need?

He didn't need anything.

He had everything.

But if you'll notice, he'd become so desperate when he

heard about Jesus, the Bible says this young man ran to him

and fell on his knees.

Somebody told him, Here's the man who can satisfy the longing

of your heart.

Here's the man who can give you eternal life.

And he ran to Jesus.

And in those days, running in public was sort of a--if you had

any dignity at all, you didn't run in public.

He's running to Jesus, falling down before Him and what's

happening?

He simply says to Him, he asked Him, "Good Teacher what shall I

do to inherit eternal life?" So, that in spite of all he had

and all he was and all his relationships he finally

discovered that what he didn't have was the one thing his money

couldn't buy.

His popularity couldn't provide for him.

And none of his efforts seemed to make any difference.

He desired eternal life.

So he comes running to Jesus and says to Him, you know, "What can

I do to inherit eternal life?" And I would say to you, The gift

of eternal life is not the result of our good works.

In other words, you don't get there by good conduct.

And if you'll notice how Jesus approached this.

So, He didn't condemn him, when He said to him, He said, "What

shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

And look what Jesus does.

He begins with the commandments.

He skips the first four about loving God and so forth; and the

Sabbath, He, he skips those.

And then He skips the last one.

And then He says to him, He says, "You know the

commandments."

He starts out with, "Do not murder."

See, He's just talked about how he lived.

He says, "'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal,

do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father

and mother.' And he said to Him, 'Well

Teacher, I have done all these things all of my life,'" huh!

Well, then if that's it, why don't I have any peace and joy

and, why am I running to You and kneeling down before You and

asking, "What can I do to inherit eternal life?"

Because I've done all these things.

Well, notice Jesus didn't say, Thou shall not covet at the end.

He skipped the first four and the last one, because Jesus knew

what his problem was.

He was very wealthy.

In fact, in Luke He says he was extremely wealthy.

And so he says, "I have kept all these things from my youth up."

Then what he was expecting Jesus to say, well, if you've done all

those things, you can have the gift of eternal life.

But Jesus didn't tell him that.

And so the scripture says that "Jesus looked at him and, felt a