This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions and Day 3 of our look
together through Mark chapter 10. We're going to look at verses 17 to 27 today,
and let me just begin, listen to what happened beginning in verse 17. 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. Do not murder.

Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false testimony.

Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother. " "Teacher," he declared, "all
these I have 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.
Through this example of this rich young ruler as he's come to be known, Jesus
has some things to say about the kingdom.

He's going to teach his disciples in a few moments, and it's extremely important
because these disciples' lives are going to be all about leading people into
this kingdom, inviting them in. And this is going to serve as an incredibly
important study for them of what real life is. But before that, let's look at
the person.

Let's look at the ruler. This rich young ruler goes to Jesus, and he wanted
Jesus to tell him what a good job he was doing. He wanted him to tell him,
"You're there.

You've got it. " But instead, he got challenged to the core of his being, and it
starts at the very beginning of the conversation. "Good teacher," he says,
"Jesus wouldn't even let him say that.

Why do you call me good? " Jesus wants to get this man thinking from the
beginning, and so he doesn't allow him to engage in platitudes. He wants to show
this man how to really live.

Why do you call me good? No one's good but God alone. Now, the man could have
said there, "I believe that you are God.

" That would have been a good answer, but he didn't believe that because he
didn't know Jesus as yet. So he walks through. Jesus walks through with this man
what it means to follow the commandments, and as he does this, he knows the
man's heart.

The man is thinking, "Oh, check mark. I got that one done. Check mark.

I got that one done. I'm doing it. Oh, check mark.

I got that one done. I'm really going to check mark. I got that one done.

I've got them all. I'm obviously going to inherit eternal life. " But Jesus says
that's not all.

Jesus says one thing you lack, and he told him to give up all of his
possessions. By the way, this is the only person in all the gospels that Jesus
asked to do this. He doesn't ask us all to do this, but he asked this man to do
this because he knew what it would take for him to believe.

What this man owned, owned him. What he possessed had come to possess him. So
Jesus knew that he was going to have to give up his things in order to have
faith.

Because of this, Jesus lovingly and clearly invited him to radical change. And I
want you to notice how Jesus responds to this man. He doesn't show him how wrong
he is, that he really did break all of these commandments that he thought he
kept, that he had his check marked in his heart about.

He doesn't question him on why he didn't keep some of the commandments. He
challenges him instead to change. He could have embarrassed this man and shown
him how wrong he was.

He challenges this man and he shows him how to get it right. Now why did Jesus
treat him this way? The verse 21 tells us, Jesus looked at him, I love this
verse, Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Looking at him, he loved him. He saw this man for who he really was. He looked
at him and he loved him for who he really was and he invited him to new life.

There's a pattern for you and I in these verses. You look, you love and then you
speak. You look, you see the person's need, you see the person's heart, you
love, you recognize we're all in this boat together and then you speak.

That's a great way to have a good conversation. Now in this case, because Jesus
loved him, he let him walk away. The man walked away because he had great
wealth.

Now there are some legends in history that this man eventually did come back to
Jesus Christ and began a relationship with him. We don't know for sure, but we
know in this case, in this moment, Jesus let him walk away because he loved him.
He did not force him to make a choice to sell all his possessions.

He allowed him to make the choice to walk away and as this man walked away,
Jesus makes a statement to incite learning in his disciples. Jesus sometimes
incited learning like professionals can incite a riot and he incited learning
with this incredible statement that he makes beginning in verse 23. Let me read
for you verses 23 to 27.

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 a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God.

" The disciples were even more amazed and they said to each other, "Who then can
be saved? " Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not
with God. All things are possible with God.

" Jesus is challenging something in the disciples' lives here, a belief of the
day. How hard it is for a wealthy man, a rich man, to enter the kingdom of God.
The word rich there doesn't just have the idea of money, it's everything
material.

We call it bling. How hard is it for somebody whose life is filled with bling to
enter the kingdom of God? And the disciples say, "What?

" He had their attention. "What are you saying, Jesus? " Because the belief in
that day was that wealth was always a sign of God's blessing and the rich were
always closer to God than the poor.

And the richer you were, the more indicated God's blessing and the closer you
were to God. So if a person who was rich couldn't get close to God, how could
anybody get close to God? Jesus incites learning a little bit more.

He actually tells a joke here. He says, "It's easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle. " Now you and I don't see that as a joke because we don't
understand Hebrew humor, which was humor by exaggeration.

But trust me, this was funny in that day. And the disciples smiled for a moment,
but Jesus is trying to break through a wrong way of thinking. They believe that
there was some human attribute that could get you closer to God and for them it
was wealth.

Now we have other attributes that we believe can get somebody closer to God. It
may not be wealth. That may be the family that you grew up in.

It may be the morality that you live your life with. That gets you closer to
God. Jesus says none of that can get you close to God.

Who then can be saved? With men, Jesus says, it's impossible, but with God,
everything's possible. Here's what Jesus is saying here.

Don't miss this. When you and I are considering entering into the kingdom of
God, the qualifications of man are worthless. Wealth, good works, good looks.

You try to use any of those to enter the kingdom of God and you put yourself in
the fool's position of threading a needle with a camel. That's how silly it is
to try to do that. That's how impossible it is to try to do that.

But with God, with God's qualifications, his grace, his love, his power, God can
work the miracle of passing a camel through the eye of a needle or passing a man
or a woman through the gates of the kingdom. Only God can do that. Here's what
Jesus is confronting here.

Any kind of belief that we have that there is anything that we can do that can
get us closer to the point of salvation. Now, maybe you believe the only way to
be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ, but you believe you get closer to
salvation by some of these good things that you do, by attending church a lot,
by being in the right family. Jesus says, actually, that can keep somebody
further from salvation.

Actually, anybody who thinks they've gotten a little closer, here's the key to
this teaching. Anybody who thinks they've gotten a little closer to salvation on
their own effort is further than anyone else. It's like trying to put a camel
through the eye of a needle.

So what do you and I do? We stand before God on equal ground. We're all equally
in need of his grace.

We stand before God with open hands, realizing I've got nothing to bring. I've
got nothing that makes me more attractive to him. In fact, all I have, all I
have is my sin.

All I have is my guilt. All I have is my shame. I come with open hands and Jesus
says, I'll take your sin, your shame, your guilt.

I died for it and I will give you forgiveness. That, that is God doing the
impossible. All things are possible with God.

You may think you're a person who could never come to faith in Jesus Christ,
never have a relationship with God. All things are possible with God. As you and
I take just a moment to pray, begin by saying, Jesus Christ, I want a
relationship with you, not based on any good thing that I've done, but based on
your grace towards me.

Forgive me for thinking I had to do some things to get there. Thank you for
doing all that was needed on the cross and in your resurrection. Thank you,
Jesus, for saving me right now.

Thank you for saving me when you did. And thank you that it was totally,
completely, 100% by your power, by your grace, by your gift. In your name,
Jesus, I praise you.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to start with seeing Peter stick his foot in
his mouth one more time and then see Jesus using that one more time to teach his
disciples an important lesson about real life.