If a cashier accidentally gives me some excess change, do I really have to inform her of her mistake and give back some free money? If I’m working on my taxes, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things if I take a few extra deductions that no one will ever know about? If I’m wearing sun glasses and an attractive woman walks by, does anyone really care if I choose to enjoy the view? If I’m working on some homework and everyone else is sharing answers, does it matter if I do the same? Today, we are continuing our series on spiritual gifts. Today’s topic is goodness. Take a moment to consider the word, Good. It is such a simple, primitive word. What does it mean to be good? Why do the Scriptures state one of the fruit of the spirits is goodness? The scripture for today provides some insight. Today’s passage is:Mark 10:17-27 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?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 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.’” 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” 21 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.” 22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.” 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” This passage start with an easy idea that many of us are quite familiar with. A man comes to Jesus and asks how do I get into heaven? What’s interesting is that Jesus makes a point to interrupt the man’s train of thought and asked rhetorically, “Why do you call me good? No one is good –except God alone.” At first blush, this doesn’t make any sense. Jesus is God. Of all the people in the world, He is the only person who can be called good. So what does Jesus mean by “No one is good – except God alone?” In the biblical times, rabbi’s did not allow people to call them “good.” The young man may have simply been trying to flatter Jesus with the phrase, “Good Teacher.” So Jesus stops him, “why do you call me good? Only God is good!” Jesus was not denying that he was good. He was affirming his relationship with God. Only God is good. Good is not an empty word. It is a profound identifier that can only be reserved for God. It is right for the man to call Jesus good. But the word “good” has no value if the man saying it is thinking about some simple superficial concept. Jesus’s response is aimed at helping the man understand the deeper truth behind what it means to be good and what implications with regards to Jesus’s deity that the word “good” carries. Only God is good. You can rightly address Jesus as “Good Teacher”, because he is the Son of God. The young man must first know who he is talking to. Otherwise he has no way of evaluating the substance of the answers. I’m a business manager at work. My job is study the commercial market, develop some understanding of where the business opportunity is and then develop products and services to exploit those opportunities. A few weeks ago, a senior VP of our division told me, “I read in the WSJ, that Cisco says that the IPTV will be a $1B dollar industry and they are making huge investments in that space.” Cisco is a $150B company. They carry tremendous influence in my industry. When they do something, everyone pays attention. The senior VP was not sharing this to make conversation. He was a little irritated. His message was clear: If Cisco says this is a $1B market, then why don’t we have substantial plans laid out to attack this opportunity? My problem was that my assessment of the Business Video market didn’t conclude there any near term dramatic opportunities. When I consider the deals that are being done, I see a bunch of legacy customer renewing their deals, that’s about it. When I study the various suppliers in the space, I don’t see any dramatic growth. The market has always had dirt cheap solutions, but nobody has acted on them. Sure there is always a possibility that things might change, but it seem kind of ridiculous for Cisco to be claiming a $1B market opportunity in light of current conditions. I went to the Internet to do some more research. What I found was very interesting. I found the article the senior VP had read. I also found a retractment – Cisco did not say this is a $1B market. A Wall Street Journal reporter said that Cisco said this was a $1B market. Wall Street Journal reporter made a mistake. Cisco says this is an emerging market. Emerging means, “maybe.” Maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t. We always have to be careful about understanding who saying what. Because the voice determines how much we should listen. If Cisco is saying something, I may setup some strategies for dramatic investments to exploit a market opportunity. If the source is a reporter who is regurgitating what they heard from somewhere else, it may be more appropriate to spend more time confirming the validity of their assessment. In this passage, Jesus is saying, “You call me Good Teacher. That fine. Make sure you understand what that means. Only God is good. That means I and God are one.” Once you know who is talking, once you know it is God speaking, now you can consider the truth of what he has to say. 19 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.’” This is exactly what the man was expecting to hear. This is exactly what many of us want to believe. I can get into heaven by being good. That’s the way the world is supposed to work. As long as you follow the rules, you will eventually get what you want. But the young man is not satisfied with that answer. He knows that there has to be something else to life than just being good. He knows because he feels that he has been good and he still feels like something is missing. I believe that the rich may have a more difficult time finding satisfaction out of life. For the rest of us, we can continue to cling the idea that life will one day be much more satisfying and meaningful once we are rich. The rich already have all the money they could want. They are the ones who know that money doesn’t guarantee any kind of quality of life. Howard Hughes was a visionary aviator and tremendously successful businessman. However, most people will remember an insane billionaire who wore tissue boxes on his feet to keep the germs away. Money doesn’t provide any guarantee with regards to quality of life. The Rich Young Man knows this. You can hear the frustration in Rich Young Man’s voice. But the question is what do you do about it? When faced with a problem, you have one of two choices, you can seek out an answer or you can ignore the problem. When I work with customers there will sometimes be a situation, which will call for an approach that is known as strategic ambiguity. In these situations, there are questions we very clearly do not want to ask the customer. The reason may be because quite frankly we do not want to know the answer. Sometime it is because we know that the customer’s answer may disqualify us from consideration as a potential supplier. Other times strategic ambiguity is useful because if you don’t know about something, then you won’t be held accountable for it. Strategic ambiguity can be a very powerful tool. Some of us in our lives are guilty of exercising strategic ambiguity. We want to hear certain answers to certain questions. When we get those answers, we don’t want to hear anything more because it might mean that we will have to change the way we live our lives. The rich young man asks a question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus gives him an answer, “obey the commandments.” Be good. I’m guessing that many of us would be tempted to take that answer and run. Thank you Jesus, that’s all I need to know. You have given me some boundaries for my life. As long as I stay within those boundaries, I can live any way I want. This is one of those situations that you don’t want Jesus to say anything else, because the only thing that will come out is another rule, imposing even more restriction on your life. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” I must come to church every Sunday. I must give some money to the church. I need to read my bible every once in a while. Maybe I need to volunteer somewhere and help some people. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” What are your answers to this question? Do you go through life exercising strategic ambiguity? Do you approach life with the attitude of tell me what I want to hear and then leave me alone. Are there parts of our lives, where we know that something is wrong, but we don’t want to deal with it because we are afraid of what we might find? The end result of such an approach is inevitably tragedy. Life rarely fixes itself. Instead life has a tendency to continue to degenerate over time into a very slow but deliberate death. How satisfied are you with your life right now? When it comes to life, there is an alternative to strategic ambiguity. It is call truth. I do lot of business travel. As a result there are a lot of cab rides to the airport. The driver I often use is Malik. He is a Muslim and we have this ongoing conversation about faith. His point to me is, “Tim I believe Jesus is a good man. I believe in Muhammed. I believe in everything.” My response to him is “Malik, you are certainly entitled to believe what you want. But the question is, “Is what you believe the truth?” Over 500 years ago, everyone believed the world was flat. Everyone was wrong. When it comes truth, there is a right answer and a wrong answer. When it comes to God there is a right answer and a wrong answer. It is vitally important that we find the right answer about God.” John 8:31 reads: 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”[1] The Rich Young Ruler is looking for truth. He is not interested in playing the game of strategic ambiguity. He knows that following the commandments, he knows that being good, won’t give him what he is looking for. Verse 20 reads:20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” He has tried being good and he is still not satisfied with his life. Albert Einsten defines insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting differing results.” How many of us are guilty of insanity when it comes to living our lives. The Rich Young Man is tired of the insanity in his life. He wants some real answers. Look at verse 21. Look at how Jesus responds.21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. This is the Bible. This is God’s Holy word. This is the truth that will last for all of eternity. This truth states that God loves people. God is not looking to play games with your lives. God is not entertaining himself by watching how you will struggle through the next problem life throws at you. God loves you. Here Jesus wants to give the man the truth he is seeking. Verse 21 reads:“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.” This is a Rich Young Man, but Jesus is not interested in exploiting the man’s wealth. If he were, the verse would read, “go sell everything you have and give it to me.” No Jesus is seeking the free the man from the one thing that is keeping him from living life to its fullest. The man’s life is miserable because he is a slave to his wealth. Many of us need to realize that wealth is a temporary possession. During this past summer Warren Buffet made headlines with a $37B donation to five foundations. At first I was a little stunned at the magnitude of such a gift. How does anyone give away $37B? Then I started to realize, well what else is going to do with it? He is 75 years old. He certainly wouldn’t want to spend the rest of his life trying to get rid of it. There is so much more to life than spending and hoarding money. Jesus knows that if the rich young man could just be set free from his wealth, he would be able to truly experience the fruits of an eternal life with God. What about you and me? If God came to you and asked you to trade your treasures on earth for treasures in heaven, would you make the exchange. NBC has a popular game show called “Deal or No Deal?” For the Rich Young Man the answer is “No Deal.”22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Why is he sad? It is because the rich young man experiences two revelations at the same time. The first revelation is that He knows Jesus is speaking the truth. This is the answer to life that he has been looking. This is reason why his life is so empty. He is missing out on a relationship with God. He knows he needs to do this. The Rich Young man’s second revelation is that he knows he won’t do it. He is not willing to give up the lifestyle that he currently enjoys. He has the life that everyone wants. He wear magnificent clothes, enjoys the best food and wine, lives in a luxurious mansion, and commands the respect of everyone. He has the perfect life, except for the fact that it is empty. He has the perfect life, except for the fact that one day it will end. But unfortunately he is unwilling to give up what he has today in order to gain that which will fulfill him for all of eternity. He is certainly willing to follow a bunch of commandments, but he is not willing to make a total sacrifice. The Rich Young Man had a very natural response. I began to wonder, “What could anyone say to him to persuade him to make a better choice?” I think that question captures the essence of my difficulty in putting this sermon together. I kept struggling with what could I possible say that would increase the goodness in our lives? I had all these different ways to say same simple thing just “be good.” But part of me realized that’ll never work. It doesn’t work with my kids. It doesn’t work with me. I’m pretty sure it won’t work with you. How can you “be good?” It’s too hard. The inclination to do bad things is so much easier and so much more comfortable. One of the core truths of the Bible is that Man is sinful. I know that this is true, because of what I see in my own life. I know that this is true because I have three daughters. Any parent will tell you that you don’t have to teach your child to be selfish, you have teach them to share. You don’t have to teach your child to bad, they can take care of that all by themselves. What children struggle with is being good. My problem with this sermon is that there’s nothing I can say in 25 minutes to help my kids or me or any of you increase the goodness in our lives.The more I wrestled with this sermon, the more I began to realize I was asking the wrong question. I’m thinking about goodness in the wrong way. Goodness is not something that we strive to achieve in our lives. Being good is not just a superficial mater of following some rules. Goodness is a consequence. Goodness is a result. It is the result of a total commitment to God. The problem with the Rich Young Man is that he wanted some rules to follow. He didn’t want to make that total commitment to God. This is an important truth that we must be clear about. In the church we often speak about how easy it is to become a Christian. One could say it is easy, because everyone has an opportunity to accept Christ as their savior. You don’t need a certain amount of money. You don’t need to pass a test or undergo some qualification process. Anybody can become a Christian.Matthew 7:7-11 reads 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!God is not hiding from us. He literally guarantees that we will find him if we would just ask. However, one could say that becoming a Christian is very difficult because it means turning away from things in this world, things like wealth, prestige, and power. Becoming a Christian is difficult because it means making a total commitment to God. Matthew 7 reads: 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.Become a Christian is not a trivial choice. The problem is that most people will choose the temporary life in front of them over the eternal life that God has to offer. Even though this is the wrong choice, most people will make it anyways. This is not an unusual phenomenon. Think about how this happens in every day life. Consider the obesity problem that America is facing today. Think about all the benefits of losing weight: longer life span, lower risk for diabetes and heart disease, more energy, happier life, etc. There are so many reasons to exercise, eat healthy and lose weight. Yet there is still an amazing struggle with the discipline to do what we know is so obviously good for us.23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.”Becoming a Christian is not a trivial matter. It means that you will change the way you live your life. You change your goals, your hopes, and your dreams. You will give up your rights in this world. You will follow a different Master who will call you to a different kind of life. As I mentioned before, I do a lot of business travel. Since trips to the west coast can take 4 or 5 hours, I make sure to bring my laptop so that I can get a lot of work done. The problem with my laptop is that the battery power is so very weak. To try to make it last the as long as possible, I try all kinds of tricks. I turn down the brightness on the monitor. I only use one application at a time, to minimize how much the hard drive needs to spin. I turn on power saver applications, which turns off power to various parts of the computer. Even with all these techniques, I’m only able to get about two and a half hours of power, which is not nearly enough for a 5 hour flight. It’s not enough to get the job done. I’m only able to use a fraction of the laptops potential. Now when I get to the hotel and plug into the AC power, my experience with the laptop is very differing. I crank the brightness of the screen for maximum viewing pleasure. I turn on power hungry applications like iTunes so I can enjoy my music. I use the USB ports to charge my cell phone and many other peripherals. I power on the wireless card to get access to the Internet. I go websites like ABC.com and NBC.com to unwind with a TV show. I have an entire library of electronic books, magazines, and newspaper. I not only have enough power to use my laptop for what it was designed for, but I have left over power to do so many other things like use it as battery charger and a TV. A walk with God that is based on rules is like a laptop running on battery power. The person following rules looks like he is walking with God. He sounds like he is following God. He is doing things that good Christians are suppose to be doing, but just a like a laptop on battery power, there isn’t enough power there to get the job done. It looks good and sounds good, but it is not nearly enough to make any meaningful difference in their own life or in this world. On the other hand, a Christian who has made a total commitment with God is a like a laptop running on AC Power. A total commitment to God also means total access to a complete relationship with Him. It is only with God that the Christian is able to fulfill the full potential of his life. The Christian not only has enough for their needs in this world, but has so much more left over to give to make a difference in this world. We need to make a choice as to how we are going to walk through life with God.The great irony here is that a total commitment to following Christ is the right decision to make. Any other choice will only result in the continuing the insanity of life in this world. The rich young man knows that he doesn’t have the answers to life. That’s why he came to Jesus in the first place. But when given the answer to life, the man turns away from Christ. His money is too important to him. Even though God has so much more to offer us, we continue to choose to the life of this world. Verse 26-27 reads26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”Keep in mind the great truth of the Bible. God loves you. Our great hope is this world and for all eternity is that God loves us. No matter how weak and pathetic we might be, God deeply loves us. His grace and mercy means that he will continue to reach out to his people. He does not violate the choice of his people. A relationship based on love can not exist with out freedom of choice. Yet he continually reaches out to his People inviting them into an eternal relationship with Him. God continues to do the impossible.Would you please bow your heads in prayer?Father in Heaven, We come to you with the same question that the Rich Young Man asked. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Lord Jesus, unlike the Rich Young Man, we want to forfeit all that we have for you. We want to repent of our sins and fully submit our lives to your Lordship. Only you died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. Only in your resurrection do we have the promise of eternal life with you. Thank you Jesus for saving us.In Jesus Name,Amen

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