In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: God takes people who are very wealthy and uses them to promote the kingdom of God. He takes people who are gifted in lots of ways to promote the kingdom of God. It is what owns us that gets us in trouble. And the fact that you think that if you get enough, accomplish enough, have enough authority and prestige and popularity in life, that is going to satisfy you, listen to me carefully. That is the devil's lie.

Guest (Male): Wealth, position, power, and prestige can earn a lot of respect in this world, but they do not do much to satisfy your heart. In fact, in the end, they will leave you empty and hollow. Stay with us for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, to hear how the void can be filled when there is something missing from your life.

Dr. Charles Stanley: When you think about your life, what would you change? 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 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 is missing.

Maybe you do not know what it is, but deep down inside, something is missing. You might have a good job, a good income, you like where you live, you have good health, and maybe you are happily married. And so on and on you go, but there is something hanging out there that you cannot put your finger on. Something is missing.

Well, that is what our passage of scripture is 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 10. And I want us to read these verses. Let's begin in the 17th verse of the 10th 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 will be for those who are wealthy to inherit the kingdom of God."

The disciples were amazed at these words, 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, I am not rich. I do not 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 is missing in your life. And this is where many people are. They have it all, and yet there is 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.

The scripture says he was a rich young ruler and he had all that you think he would possibly need, or all he thought he needed: rich, young, and authority with a position in life. It sounds like he lived in the 21st 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. Is there anything wrong with being rich, young, and having position? No, there is not.

And so what is the issue here? That is what I want us to look at. You see, the problem is we live in a society where people stop there. If I can make enough money, and if I can have a little authority in life, if I can stay healthy and stay young in my spirit, then what else could you want in life? Truth is we are not thinking properly about life and we are short-sighted. If we think gold, money, and so forth is going to satisfy us, or position and good health and opportunity are going to satisfy us, there is still going to be something missing.

It was true in this young man's life in the scripture and it is true in life. And this is why people go from one marriage to the next. It is why they drink and drink trying to satisfy something they cannot fulfill. This is why they get on drugs, and we could just go right down the list of all the things that people do to get that missing thing and to get that fulfilled somehow.

What they do is they get in deep trouble trying to fill up an area of their life that only Jesus can fill up. Only he can do it because God made us for himself, and he made every single human being for Jesus to be in their life. The fool thinks in his or her heart, "I am going to get it filled up without him." And they spend their life accumulating, spending their energy and their time and their efforts and their knowledge and understanding doing their best to accumulate these things in order to have this feeling of being complete. The rich young ruler is a perfect example of that. He was rich, young, and a ruler, and he had everything but something was missing in his 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 do not realize that money is dangerous. Money can do some things. It can do many good things in the right hands, but it cannot satisfy the longing of your soul. It cannot satisfy the longing of your heart. It cannot 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 people. You have it all. You have the prestige and the prominence and the popularity and the position and the power. You have the money you can buy anything you want and go anywhere you want to go. But the truth is you have already discovered that there must be something else because as you look at your life, there is something missing. You cannot quite tell what it is, and yet think about this.

Think about the folly and the foolishness of investing your life, giving your life, working day after week after month after year after year after year accumulating something that will not satisfy you. Now, watch this: accumulating something that one day you are going to have to give up. One day you are going to have to lay it down. One day you are going to realize you cannot keep it here a day longer.

One day you are going to realize that all of the hours and years of your life you spent, where maybe you wronged other people or maybe you did not to get what you have, but you labored long. In fact, you are pretty proud of the fact of how well you have done and you have it all. But deep down inside, there is something missing. And that something that is missing is a personal relationship with the Son of God.

This young man had all of it. You could say, "Well, what is it that you need?" He did not need anything. He had everything. But if you will notice, he had become so desperate when he heard about Jesus that the Bible says this young man ran to him and fell on his knees. Somebody told him, "Here is the man who can satisfy the longing of your heart. Here is the man who can give you eternal life." And he ran to Jesus. In those days, if you had any dignity at all, you did not run in public.

He is running to Jesus, falling down before him. He simply asks him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" So in spite of all he had and all he was and all his relationships, he finally discovered that what he did not have was the one thing his money could not buy, his popularity could not provide for him, and none of his efforts seemed to make any difference. He desired eternal life. He had plenty to live on, but he did not have anything that satisfied him. And there are many people who are in that stage.

I would ask you, is there something missing in your life? I can tell you what it is. You might say, "Oh, I don't believe in this God business." Well, let me tell you why one day you will. Because the Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment. You will, but it will be too late. It is foolish to wait too late for something you do not have to wait for. Your money cannot buy it. Your prestige, popularity, position, and power cannot fulfill it. There is only one thing that will fulfill that empty heart in your life, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the way God made it.

So he comes running to Jesus and says to him, "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 do not get there by good conduct. Notice how Jesus approached this. He did not condemn him. When he said to him, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" look what Jesus does. He begins with the commandments.

He skips the first four about loving God and so forth, and the Sabbath. He skips those, and then he skips the last one. And then he says, "You know the commandments." He starts out with "Do not murder." He has just talked about how you live. 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." He said to him, "Teacher, I have done all these things all of my life."

Well, then if that is it, why do I not have any peace and joy? Why am I running to you and kneeling down before you and asking what can I do to inherit eternal life? Because I have done all these things. Notice Jesus did not say, "Thou shalt 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, it says he was extremely wealthy. Young man, extremely wealthy. In those days, he had to be doing something. And so he says, "I have kept all these things from my youth up." He was expecting Jesus to say, "Well, if you have done all those things, you can have the gift of eternal life." But Jesus did not tell him that. The scripture says that Jesus looked at him and felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: there is something missing in your life. Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me."

Now, his whole idea was if he did enough good things, he would be saved. Listen to me. The majority of the world has the same idea. "If I am a good person and I do not steal, I do not lie, I do not cheat, I am a good husband or I am a good wife, I give a little bit to the church, I do all these things, then surely I am going to be saved." The Bible says so clearly, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us."

If a person could be saved by doing good, Jesus would not have had to die on the cross. And so he is coming to Jesus on the basis that, "Here is what I have done, so therefore I ought to have the gift to eternal life." And the Bible says that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Watch this: he did not condemn him. He thought that all this he had accumulated and all the good reputation he had would get him into heaven. And when Jesus gave him the commandments and was bringing to him to realize there was sin in his life, watch what happens.

The scripture says Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all your possessions, give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me." Now let's clarify one thing: that is not the way you get saved. In other words, he is not saying if you give all this, you will get saved. What he was dealing with here is the fact of the sin in his life, this covetousness that he was depending on all of this to save him. He is simply saying, "Here is what you do."

Now, does that mean in order to be saved Jesus meant sell everything you have got and give to the poor? No, because watch this: this was an incident, one occasion in which what he needed to deal with was his covetousness and his sin. His understanding was that the thing that stood between him and salvation was his greed, his covetous spirit, and his dependence on material things rather than upon God.

So in this given occasion, for him, salvation meant, "Look, you are not going to get there by earning it. You have got to get there by surrendering everything to me and trusting me as your savior." So it is not a matter of giving up things. It is a matter of placing first things first: Jesus. When Jesus is in your life, all those things take their place.

For him, the issue was that he was covetous, that he owned much, but he was owned by much. And the scripture says he was extremely wealthy. And he was unwilling to lay all that down and follow Jesus. What a fool. And he went away grieving for he was one who owned much property. He wanted an answer and he found the answer. The answer was, is there anything wrong with being rich? No. Anything wrong with having much? No. Anything wrong with being wealthy and successful? No. As long as you realize that the most important thing in your life is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and that you follow him.

God takes people who are very wealthy and uses them to promote the kingdom of God. He takes people who are gifted in lots of ways to promote the kingdom of God. It is what owns us that gets us in trouble. And the fact that you think that if you get enough, accomplish enough, have enough authority and prestige and popularity in life, that is going to satisfy you, listen to me carefully. That is the devil's lie.

You see, this is the folly of ignoring God and the word of God. The devil does not want you to believe in him. Certainly not because he has you. And you say, "Well, the devil doesn't have me." Well, then why do you not go to church? "I don't believe in church." Why do you not read the Bible? "I don't believe the Bible." What do you believe?

There is something big missing in your life. You see, the only thing you have then is yourself. So I want to say to you, whoever you are, the only thing that you are going to have to do is face yourself and ask yourself the question: am I trusting in something else other than Jesus? Somebody says, "Well, I don't believe in him." You better start.

Because Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And God the Father sent him into this world. This is why you hear us quote the scripture, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." That is the key to eternal life, nothing else.

The issue is this: what is it in your life that you are holding on to, that you are grasping, that either you own or it owns you? What is in your life that is more important than eternal life? The Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That means I acknowledge that he is the son of God. I acknowledge my sinfulness, acknowledge my need of him, and surrender my life to him.

So I would ask you one last question: is there anything missing in your life? Well, the one ultimate question is: can you look back in your life and point to a time you said, "I know that this time in my life, I trusted Jesus, I believed in him, that is, I accepted him as my personal savior. I know that I trusted him as my savior."

You may not be able to know the time, but you know for sure that at some point in your life, you made the most important decision in your life, the decision that determined your eternal destiny, the decision that nobody can change, the decision that nobody can steal from you under any condition. You are saved by the grace of God. Amen.

Guest (Male): Who's ruling your life? Is it God? Dr. Stanley's message today on In Touch reminded us that we will never truly be satisfied until we give control of our lives to the Lord. Learn more about finding the true source of peace with our online resources at intouch.org and look for "Today on Radio" for the link that leads you to a replay of this message.

If you would like to have a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, you can order online at the bookstore page. The title is, "Is Something Missing in Your Life?" Again, that is intouch.org. You can also call or text 1-800-IN-TOUCH. If you prefer to write, our address is In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

When God prompts you, it is important to act without delay. You will hear a story from Dr. Stanley's early days as a pastor coming up in today's Moment with Charles Stanley.

Have you ever forgotten something God taught you when you were reading the Bible? When we take note of what God reveals to us, it helps us to apply it to our lives. With the Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Journal, you can keep track of your spiritual journey and be transformed by God's truth. This journal features artwork of Dr. Stanley's 30 Life Principles, lined pages for writing, a prayer journaling section, and more. To order, call 1-800-IN-TOUCH or go to intouch.org/journal.

Guest (Female): In our spiritual journey, we often have questions. How do I know God's will for my life? Does God hear my prayers? Why do bad things happen? The answers are found in the word of God. But how do we know where to start? The free In Touch Devotional can help point you in the right direction with biblically based content from Dr. Charles Stanley. You will gain insight and wisdom through daily devotions, Bible studies, and more. The In Touch Devotional, delivered monthly to your mailbox. Subscribe for free at intouch.org/daily.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. All of us are looking for something to truly satisfy our souls, but there's only one source of real contentment. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: I still remember a man in my first church. And I had preached Sunday after Sunday, and he would come once in a while. I remember one Sunday he was standing back on the next to the last row because I always remembered where he sat. His wife was a fine Christian lady. And I had preached on salvation. I watched him during the invitation. And he was probably 60 years of age or somewhere thereabouts then. I watched him.

The first thing he did was put his hands on the front pew. And the next thing I know, after about another verse or so, he looked up, he turned and walked away, and he never came back to church. He stood there facing the challenge of God, facing an invitation to receive the love of God, the forgiveness of God. Listen to me carefully. If you will think about all the promises God gives us in his word, the promises of what is our reward in heaven. How foolish to live out your life and to give all of your energy to accumulate something that cannot satisfy you.

That is what people do. And I wonder if you are one of those persons who is thinking, "I have it all. I am not happy. I do not have peace. I am still clutching. I have still got to have something else." Well, I want to tell you what that something else is. It is something you cannot put in your hands. You can only receive in your heart. And that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): That relationship with Jesus begins by receiving his gift of salvation from sin's penalty. Humbly ask him to forgive you today. Go to intouch.org to learn more. Next time on In Touch, if you could use a little grace right about now, ponder First Peter chapter 5 verse 10 and join us next time. We will begin a series of programs that reminds us of God's abundant grace for today and every day. Join us again on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.