Read Luke 18:18-30.
Many things, to us, have value. Yet, the value which we place on objects is not what another may place on them. In the gospel account, a rich young man came to Jesus wanting to know how he could “inherit” eternal life. Jesus repeated the commandments to him. The young man said that he had kept them. Jesus knew how to get to the heart of the matter. For this young man, the truth was that he had not kept the commandments. Jesus told him to sell what he had. This hit the young man where it hurt. He had made his great wealth an idol and would not give it up. Because of this, the man turned and walked away in great sorrow. Think of it. This man had the opportunity to enter into the kingdom of God and walked away. Since we began, we have used a definition of the kingdom of God, during our time on earth, as the rule and reign of God in the hearts of people. When Jesus came to earth, He inaugurated a new and permanent reality of the kingdom of God.
That’s what He invites His followers to live inside of and be ambassadors for. When we participate in God’s kingdom work by living out, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’s teaching, we experience the present reality of God reigning over our lives. Blaise Pascal, the thinker from the 1600’s, said “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by god, the creator, made known through Jesus.” The rich young ruler walked away from the only Person that could fill that void in his heart and bring him into the kingdom of God. What about you? Are you participating in the work of the kingdom of God with your time, talents, and treasure? There is no greater investment for a believer to make.
Mark Riser - Apologist 