Generosity and Wealth (1)

Generosity: Studies in Luke PART 5
28 October 2012
Dr. Timothy Keller

Luke 18:18-30
18 A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

19"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered.  "No one is good--except God alone, 20You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.;"

21"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.

22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing.  Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven.  Then follow me."

23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.  24Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!  25Indeed, 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."

26Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"

27Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

28Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"

29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home, or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age, in the age to come, eternal life."

DANGER OF MONEY
--v.24 Impossible for rich people (and anyone) with other priorities to enter Kingdom of God.
--v.27 Impossible for everyone, but salvation is possible through God.
--Spiritual problems get accentuated by money
--Money creates a spiritual blindness towards the important things.
--Money makes it hard for you to think that you are wrong about something.
--Being successful at making money makes you arrogant about other things in life.

REASONS FOR DANGER OF MONEY
--Self righteousness or an inferiority complex can come from thinking you can earn your salvation.
--v.21 suggests that you don't need salvation.
--v.22 Everyone has their idols that they put before God.
--These always leave is unfulfilled--we need the living water: John 4:13-14
--v.23 He defined his self-esteem by his wealth.

ESCAPING THE DANGERS OF MONEY
--Assume you are in denial and money is blinding you.
--Come to grips with salvation through grace.
--Jesus was a rich ruler and he gave it all away.
--The happier we are in realizing who Jesus is, the more generous we become.