Lessons Learned from a Fat Camel, Part 1

Amassing a fortune has distinct advantages, no doubt about it. But according to Jesus, wealth can be hazardous as well. As we'll see in a moment, the financial freedom that money delivers can create a false sense of security about our spiritual destiny. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Matthew chapter 19. In this passage, we read about a lively encounter between Jesus and His disciples. Through their exchange, we learn that money does little to help us enter the kingdom of heaven. Chuck titled today's message, lessons learned from a fat camel. We find a narrative in the 19th chapter of Matthew, the last several verses, that really is a haunting in that it includes the account of a man who is unwilling to relinquish his riches, thinking that somehow he must have them in order to gain what he longs for.

And of course, that's impossible. He is called a rich young ruler, and that's the context for these verses that began in verse 23 through 30 of Matthew 19. If you'll turn there, please. Matthew 19, beginning at verse 23, I'll be reading from the from the New Living Translation as you follow along in in your Bible. Then Jesus said to the disciples, I tell you the truth, it's very hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

I'll say it again, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were astonished. Then who in the world can be saved, they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, humanly speaking it is impossible, but with God everything is possible. Then Peter said to him, we've given up everything to follow you, what will we get? Jesus replied, I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones. Judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property for my sake will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then.

And those who seem least important now will be the greatest then. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled Lessons Learned from a Fat Camel. In her fine book, Teaching a Stone to Talk, Annie Dillard recounts a true tragic story. It's a story of the Franklin Expedition to the North Pole. Back in 1845, a group of British explorers died because they were ill prepared for the challenges that they would face in the Arctic Circle.

Instead of providing room on board their two ships for storing additional coal that would fuel the steam engines in each ship and also warm them, they fill the extra space with a large library of books, a portable organ, elegant China place settings, and cut glass wine goblets. When they finally ran out of coal, their multiple volumes and their ornate musical instrument and delicate teacups and plates and saucers were useless to warm their freezing bodies. Sadly, every member of the expedition froze to death. All 128 of them lost their lives. They set out to walk their way toward hope and help and ultimately all froze to death.

Years later, when a search party went out to find the remains, they discovered a skeleton. He was still dressed in a fine blue cloth uniform, edged with silk braid, helplessly grasping in his hand a place setting of sterling silver flatware, a vivid picture of their short-sighted foolishness. The rich young ruler who acted as foolishly as those dead British explorers did not carry sterling silver, ornate musical instruments, but he packed in his life the riches of this world, thinking that somehow his possessions would be enough to carry him through the narrow entrance to the kingdom.

In meeting Jesus and asking about how what he must do to have eternal life, he had to come face to face with his own greed and in doing so he was unwilling to relinquish what he had been clinging to all his adult life. The narrative is clear enough for even a child to understand. In fact, following the first morning worship service, I had a little boy come up to me. He waited in line until it was his turn and then he looked up at me and put his hand out to shake my hand and I pulled him up close and he whispered in my ear, thank you. And I said to him, did you understand what I was saying? Which is my favorite question to ask anyone young listening to some message I delivered?

His response was every word. Reminded me of Mark Twain's statement, it ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand. Today you'll be bothered because you'll understand everything I say.

Nothing is mysterious, none of it is gobbledygook, no great big four-bit words for you to shuffle through. It's all about life as we know it, living on the edge of the five billion dollar mile as we do right here in the town of Frisco, Texas. It's all about life as we are living it in the midst of materialism that is dripping from every advertisement. Not that there is anything wrong with having nice things, the wrongness comes when nice things have us. I don't remember a place in the scriptures where Jesus literally assaults wealth. No, what he assaults is the addiction to wealth, loving the things that wealth buys, and forgetting the meaning of the word enough, and overlooking the importance of generosity and sharing. In fact, he makes it so clear that he uses an illustration that I think, at least if he did not literally smile, he had to smile underneath.

You know what I mean? When he talks about pushing a camel through the eye of a needle, now that is funny. Picture it. If you're ever in Israel, you may see your first camel outside of a zoo, and when you look at the look at the camel, you'll remember Matthew 19. It's bigger than a horse, it's bigger than an ox, it's humped, it's hairy, it's heavy, it's cumbersome, and sometimes it spits. I read somewhere that a camel is a horse put together by a committee, which is not a bad thought when you think about it. Camel through a needle's eye.

How much more vivid can you get? Even a little 11 year old boy can get it and understand every word. What is interesting is that as the rich young ruler walks away, as empty in heart as he was when he arrived, not willing to take Jesus at his words, which is the context for this whole end of the chapter, Jesus turns to his disciples. This is the ultimate teaching moment, and we parents know what that means. There are moments that are just worth pulling off to the side of the road and taking time to teach something. There are moments when it's worth it to turn off the TV and teach something. They're called teaching moments. They come and they're gone. Jesus, knowing this was a moment like that, the disciples listening to this conversation, like watching a ping pong game between the rich young ruler and Jesus, and seeing the ruler walk away with all his stuff and knowing that Jesus wouldn't give ground.

Jesus looks at his disciples in verse 23 and says to them, I'll tell you the truth. Let me drive this home, in other words. It's very hard for a rich- it doesn't say it's impossible for anyone rich to become a believer.

It says it's very hard. There's a difference. Having a thick portfolio doesn't keep anyone out of the kingdom. Paying cash for your house doesn't mean you're disqualified as a Christian.

Being able to have lovely homes, plural, drive a nice car, nothing wrong with any of that unless that stuff owns you. That's the problem. In fact, it's so difficult for that not to be a problem. It can be compared to trying to shove a camel through the tiny arp- arpature of a common needle in a home. So he looks at his disciples in this teaching moment and he drives it home. The response of the disciples may surprise you. The verse says they were astounded, or whatever word it's used in your version. They were amazed. Now why? You don't look that amazed when I say these things.

Why were they amazed? Well, first of all, you're not Jewish. Second, you're not a disciple having been raised by rabbis in synagogues. And third, the father of your faith is not Abraham who was eminently wealthy.

Think about it. Most of their great heroes were rich. Abraham, the father of the faith, great landholder. God never judged him for holding great partials of land. In fact, he was so willing to give it away.

He said a lot, choose whatever you want, take whatever you like. Stinginess was not his problem. By the way, I've never seen a case where getting wealthy made anyone generous. Generosity comes from the heart regardless of income. If you're generous before you're rich, you're generous after you have wealth. If you're not before, you're not when. But back to the story, they're astounded because Abraham was rich.

Let's go further. The model of patience, Job, very wealthy. How about Joseph when he became Prime Minister of Egypt? The wealth of Egypt was laid out in front of him. He was responsible for it.

Never turned his head, but he had it at his disposal. King David lived in a palace, eminently wealthy. King Solomon, more wealthy than his own father. And other kings, I don't read of a poor king in the scriptures.

It isn't the wealth. In fact, Deuteronomy 28 11, check it for yourself, says that God blesses his people with prosperity. So whenever you see the wealth among believers, you know that it came from the Lord by his grace. And it is his sovereign right to bless some in that way and not to bless others in that way.

That's his sovereign right. But they're astounded because all the way through their growing up years, if you had wealth, that's a representation of greatness in every way. But they're learning now from Jesus that there's a whole new frame of reference, a whole new value system that goes with thinking like Christ. And so they say to him that who in the world can be saved? I mean, if they can't be, who can? And then he makes it clear that, humanly speaking, no one can be saved without the assistance of God, regardless of the amount of money one has. For with God, nothing is, for with God, everything is possible. And how grateful we are for that. Before I move ahead, let's get some lessons learned from a fat camel. Can we do that?

Take out your pen and find a place on your, on your outline where you're able to write. And write down five or six things that we learned from the camel who is being pushed through the needle. Here's number one. Wealth, rather than being a blessing, is a heady intoxicant. Wealth, rather than being a blessing, is a heady intoxicant. Something happens in your head when wealth comes your way. We see it every time someone wins a massive amount of money in a lottery. Rarely will their marriage stay together.

Their, quote, friends come out of everywhere. They discover that the happiness that they had anticipated is not theirs to enjoy. There's, it's a, there's a heady intoxicant with wealth. Here's the second lesson. It provides most of the counterfeit messages that fool us into thinking that we don't need God.

Some of the most difficult people to convince some of the most difficult people to convince of their need for God are those with an enormous amount of money. Here's the third. It takes away our child likeness. Think about that. When we're childlike, we have no power. We have no defense. We have no resources. We have no ability to accomplish our dreams. We're child, we're like a child. We must get all of that from him. But when we are rich, we are at that moment, self-sufficient, self-reliant, independent, powerful, proud, protected, able to buy whatever. No need to lean on anyone or anything. You see, it is the most dangerous place in the world to live where we live because of the influence.

To change a couple letters because of the affluence. And I will tell you, those who get it and don't even realize they're absorbing it are children, our grandchildren. Without the wisdom of parents and grandparents who have not been caught up in the intoxicant, the intoxication of materialism, child is hopelessly lost to get out of it without being scarred and addicted.

That's the whole purpose of this warning. In many ways, the most disadvantaged people on earth are those among the super wealthy. They become blind to themselves and to others. Actually, being wealthy is another one you can list keeps our eyes off the Lord. Funny, as a result of a lot of money, we soon learn the price of everything and the value of nothing.

We know what everything costs. We are not able, however, in the intoxication of wealth to gauge the value of it. So one is never as good as two and two are never as good as four because enough is never enough. Someone asked the very wealthy Rockefeller how much it takes to satisfy a person. His answer was true, a little bit more than he has.

A little bit more, just a little bit more, just a little bit more than he has. Riches do a number on one's soul. They make us resistant against humility and helpless dependence. Until something occurs that we cannot stop, like a terminal illness, all of a sudden the wealth loses its significance. Riches tend to make you selfish and stingy. That's what concerns Jesus.

It's not that you can write a check for whatever you need. It's that you're proud of the fact that you can. Now, the disciples have some things to learn, and the thing I love about Peter is he just says it. So out it comes. And let's let's not be too hard on Peter. We often kind of beat up on him. And I want you to observe that Jesus does not reprove him or even correct him.

He reassures him. So Peter's words are not out of line. He says to Jesus, look at him for yourself, verse 27, we've given up everything to follow you.

You know what he's saying in effect? Jesus, we've got a lot of struggles, we disciples, but one of them is not being too rich. And you can understand that. One of them is not being too rich.

And you can identify with that. So what will we get? Before you criticize Peter for being presumptuous, or maybe even a touch selfish, wait a minute.

It's a great question. Every student in seminary, any seminary, needs to be asking that. I've walked away from a lucrative career. My degree is in ABC, and here I am studying XYZ. I've left what would have been a surefire position, and my folks are wondering what's gotten into me, and I'm on my way toward ministry. What can I anticipate?

Especially if you've got a lot of friends who have gone that route and they've moved into the world you could have occupied, but you're now moving into the world of the disciple of Jesus. So you want to know what's in it for us. Maybe it's a good time for me to mention some things that money won't buy.

Seems appropriate right now to do that. I sat at my desk this past week and wrote down a few things because it's easy to think if I have wealth, I've got it made, I can buy whatever I want for whatever price whenever I want it or need it. But there are many things money cannot buy.

Here's a quick list. Money can buy a bed but not sleep. Money can buy food but not an appetite. Money can buy a house but not a home filled with love. Money can buy medicine but not health. Money can buy pleasures but not peace within. Money can buy luxuries but not culture. Money can buy amusements but not deep joy. Money can buy a crucifix but not a savior.

A church but not heaven. This is what Jesus is wanting to get across, I think. Well, there's much more in this 19th chapter of Matthew that Chuck Swindoll wants to explore. You're listening to Insight for Living, and Chuck assigned a unique title to today's message, Lessons Learned from a Fat Camel.

And to discover the resources we have available for today's topic, please visit us online at insightworld.org. As this brand-new study in the book of Matthew has been delivered to our audience over the last several months, we've been pleased to hear from so many who told us their personal stories of life change. This is precisely why Insight for Living exists, to help people engage in the transforming power of God's Word. And when you give a donation, your gift is channeled directly toward reaching other people with Insight for Living so they can benefit from life lessons just as you have. For example, we received a note from a listener in Amarillo, Texas, who told his story of redemption.

He started by saying, I want to say thank you for being so giving. I did almost 11 years in the state prison system, and during all that time, and during all that time, Insight for Living sent me innumerable Bible studies. Well, today, decades removed from his incarceration, he admits, and I'm quoting, I'm really struggling with those old strongholds that wage war against my soul.

But Jesus is faithful to carry on to completion the good work He began in me. Thank you for your help in my journey. Well, when you become one of our monthly companions, yours is the gift that makes these moments possible.

God uses your generosity to reach into unlikely places, like prisons, with His grace and mercy. And in recent days, we've been making a concerted effort to add more monthly companions to our family of monthly supporters, and we're delighted to welcome so many new friends to the team. To become a monthly companion right now, call us. If you're listening if you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888.

Again, that's 1-800-772-8888. Or go online to insight.org monthly companion. Chuck Swindoll continues to describe what he calls lessons learned from a fat camel. Monday on Insight for Living. you