Do you know anybody that's really successful? I mean, it seems like they've got a great family, good job, making good money. I mean, they're pretty, they're athletic, they play an instrument. I mean, you look at them and you say, wow, they're successful. But then you get up close to them and they seem kind of bummed out, kind of negative, and even a little depressed.
Ever wonder why? Well, today we're going to learn why success doesn't always satisfy. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. I'm Dave Druey, and whether you're just starting out in your career or you're nearing retirement, we all desire to be successful.
So why is it so hard for us to enjoy life, even when we've reached our goals or fulfilled our dreams? For these last two programs in our series, Jesus Offers Hope, Chip explores that issue and brings us a fresh perspective on it from God's Word. As a quick reminder, if you missed any part of this series along the way, you can catch up anytime at livingontheedge.org or by listening on the Chip Ingram app. Well, now here's Chip with his talk, When Success Doesn't Satisfy, from Mark Chapter 10. If you wanted to draw a little picture on your notes, you could put sort of a U-shaped picture of a big vat, if you will, and a stick person that would be you, and if you can imagine being in this thing that represents your resources, it is your time, your energy, your money, your gifts, and your talents. In other words, it's your capacity, and what I want you to know is that all of us have this capacity, and then there's sort of rainbows that go out from this, and rainbows are the promises that we believe in what they'll deliver, and remember like the old picture of the rainbows and there's a little pot of gold? What I believe is that we all have and have been taught and believe consciously or unconsciously in what I call the empty bucket syndrome, and so for some, you don't even realize you do it, but you take your energy and your time and your talents and your gifts, and down deep, you follow the rainbow if I can be beautiful, and it's all about my looks, and for someone else, if it's I could get this kind of education, or if all my kids could get this kind of education, and for others, it's the day that I'm famous, and then I'll be fulfilled, and for others, it's power, and for others, it's all kind of different things, success.
Here's how it goes. When I get or accomplish, you fill it in, then I'll be happy, fulfilled. Beauty, fame, wealth, power.
For some, it's a little bit more when I get that man or when I get that woman, or for some that are couples when we finally have a child, or for others, it's when I just am the best. I remember the very first time I heard a layman, a guy share a story about empty buckets, and it was a different era, and his whole message was empty buckets, and it was an era, for some of you who are a little bit older, he said, you know, Muhammad Ali wanted to be the best, and he became the best, and things didn't change, and he had an experience where he took his gold medal, and he actually threw it in a creek. Marilyn Monroe was the most beautiful of her era, and she took her own life, and he went through power, wealth.
Howard Hughes was the richest man in the world at the time, and he died as a recluse with fingernails this long, completely paranoid of everything around him, and he just walked through the empty buckets, and I remember listening to that and thinking, I wonder what empty buckets I'm running after that'll never satisfy. Jesus offers hope when success doesn't satisfy, and sometimes we learn that when we hit rock bottom, sometimes we learn it when we achieve what we thought we would never achieve, and it's empty. Unfortunately, the most dangerous place is when you're on the journey, and you still believe that when this or that comes, then you'll be happy, because as long as you believe the lie, success in and of itself, wonderful.
Something that can fill your heart, absolutely not. If you'll open your notes, Jesus is going to address very directly how to find hope, I mean real hope, purpose, love, when success doesn't satisfy, and we pick up the story in Mark chapter 10 if you dig in with me, but I want you to open to Mark chapter 10, and as you open, let me give you a little bit of the context. This is what's happening in Jesus' ministry. Imagine, if you will, he's becoming more and more and more popular. Crowds are swelling. He's fed 4,000.
He's fed 5,000. Some people have been raised from the dead. Miracles are happening. Everywhere he goes now, there's crowds, and we'll see as we pick up the text that now there's two groups in these crowds. One are people that they just think he's like a rock star. They want to hear his words.
They're hoping maybe to get a meal. Maybe I'll get in on a miracle, and they're following him and listening. There's another group called the religious leaders or Pharisees, and they're being threatened by their position, and the more and more popular he gets, the more and more they feel like we have to discredit him.
So as you would scan, and you can do this because you can listen to me and read at the same time. If you would scan through the beginning verses, some Pharisees come to test Jesus, and the way they test him is they ask him what they hope will be a divisive question. Is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason? Because what they knew was there was one very famous rabbi who said yes to that and one more conservative one who said no. They wanted to get him to say something that would divide his audience. As you would scan that, what he does is he talks about the importance of fidelity. He talks about the importance that women are not to be used and abused.
A woman is not a sex object. He's going to say from the very beginning there was a man and a woman, and what God has put together no one should pull apart. He would go on to say that unless there's biblical grounds that he would talk about in a parallel passage, that when you divorce someone or leave someone or marry someone who's divorced, you've committed adultery.
He says this marriage covenant is very, very important, and it's absolute. It was a radical statement because at that time the normal Roman person would often have 20 wives. In the Greek culture, you would have three different women in your life. You would have a wife to raise your family. You would go to the prostitute. They had all kind of temples, prostitutes, male and female, anytime, any day, and then you would have a mistress on the side.
That was just life. Men used women. The Jews would proclaim a different level of commitment, but their practice wasn't a whole lot different. So Jesus is saying some things that are really counterculture. After that, the crowds are leaving, and pretty soon some parents are bringing their little children. They want them to be blessed. The disciples, get those kids out of here. Kids aren't important. Only important people. This is the rabbi.
He does miracles. Look in your text. Just scan down where it talks about the children.
Notice the word. It says Jesus is indignant. He says to the disciples, stop it. You let those children come. And the children came, and he prayed for them, and he blessed them. And then he makes this amazing statement. He said, unless you become like a little child, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is synonymous in this time for eternal life. Having a relationship with God. Your sins forgiven. Unless you become like a little child.
What's he mean by that? Well, little children are dependent. Little children are trusting. Little children are kind of naive and gullible. When their parents say, we're going to go out for ice cream, they don't think they're going to take them in the backyard and whip them. We're going to go for ice cream. Great. They just jump in the car.
We're going to celebrate your birthday tomorrow. Great. I mean, kids just believe whatever you tell them. And he says they also recognize that they're dependent. Little kids come and ask. When they get hurt, they don't go, I can handle this myself. They just run mommy, mommy, mommy.
Right? And he says, unless you become like a little child, and what's the emphasis? It's humility. Children are humble, dependent. They recognize their need. So I want you to get the context.
There's mushrooming crowds. He's spoken about the fidelity and importance of marriage. And then he's talked about humility. And then something happens.
He's ready to walk away. And as he walks away, there's a very aristocratic, smart, educated, moral man who's been listening. Now we pick up the story. We pick up the story in verse 17 of Mark chapter 5.
Follow along with me. It says, as Jesus started on his way, so he's ready to leave, a man ran up and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
He's been listening and he says, how do you get in on what you've been talking about? Jesus says, well, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Now, very interesting point here. There's two words in Greek for good. One means intrinsically good or altogether good. It's about the character or nature of someone. And the other means good as it's beautiful, it's nice, it's winsome. He uses the first word. In essence, what he's saying, he's coming to Jesus after watching him and saying, now, the scripture's true.
Only God is good inherently, altogether good. And Jesus is saying, so do you really believe that I'm the Messiah? So you believe I'm God, you're coming and is that where you're coming from? And then he says, now make sure there's only one who's good.
You're clear on what you're calling me. And then he goes on and gives him a little test. He says, 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. His response, teacher, all of these I've kept since I was a boy. And then if you have your Bible and you have a pen, underline this next line. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Whatever he's gonna say, whatever he's gonna do, he's motivated because he deeply loves this man. One thing you lack, he said, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor.
Why? And you'll have treasure in heaven. And then invitation, then come, follow me. At this the man's face fell, he went away sad because he had great wealth. And then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples were amazed at his words but Jesus said, notice the back to children, children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the aisle of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were even more amazed and they said to each other, well then who can be saved? And Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible but not with God.
With him, all things are possible. And then Peter, listening to this, realizing, you know, we have done what you've asked. There's almost this unspoken question like, well what's in it for us?
The price tag's pretty high. Peter said to him, we left everything to follow you. Jesus says, I tell you the truth, no one who's left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age. Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields and then you might underline this because we want to skip this one, along with them, persecutions. And in the age to come, eternal life.
But many who are first, many who have big standing in this life, in this day, who are like the rich young ruler will be last and many who are last who don't have the standing will be first. Jesus offers hope. I want you to notice that when we look at those three stories, the issue with divorce, the issue with the children and the issue now is idolatry. The Bible is never negative about people that have money. The Bible never speaks negatively about someone who happens to be rich. But the Bible is very clear that money and stuff has the propensity to take root in our heart in the place of God.
And so the story is present in all three synoptics, Matthew, Mark and Luke. And success in the world's value system happens three ways. Sex, power and money. When he talked about divorce, what it was really addressing, he said it positively, fidelity, but why were people divorcing and remarrying, divorce and remarrying, it was sex. When he talked about humility, what he was talking about was the opposite of power. And when he talked about idolatry, the idol was money. Sometimes when this story is told of this rich young ruler, I think he gets a little bit of a bad rap. Jesus offers hope to a man. His bio, he's wealthy, successful, moral, powerful, sincere and intelligent. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind that bio for me.
Would you? What if someone said, tell me a little bit about your wife or about your best friend that happened to be you. And they said, oh, well, I mean, he's wealthy, intelligent or she, successful, moral, self-aware. I mean, he was listening to Jesus teach.
He watched him with the children and he was aware. Something's missing. Something's missing. It's not money. I've got money.
It's not religion. Hey, I've kept them from my youth, but something's missing. And then he had the self-awareness and the humility. You know what? He just got done teaching. He just blessed the children. Jesus is walking away. This man in his Armani suit with all these peasants runs after Jesus, slides in, falls at his feet, humbles himself in front of all these peasants and says what?
What do I need to do to inherit eternal life? It says he ran. He fell at his feet. You know, we read that over real quickly. This is a guy who's not embarrassed. This is a guy who says this Jesus has something that I need. Something's missing and it's not religion and it's not money and it's not intelligence and it's not power and it's not wealth. But he's got something I need, but he recognizes his success has left him empty.
Anybody here feel a little bit that way? Let's take a deeper look. Let's look at the passage a little more carefully and see what was behind this. The successful man's question reveals his perceived need when he asks the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? As I studied this passage, I noticed there's a couple of assumptions that this young, rich, intelligent, moral man had. Assumption number one, he realizes something's missing. Assumption number two, the means to achieve it was something you do. I got to do more. I've got to perform.
Any of us in this area kind of buy into that? The way you get ahead, the way you get anything from anyone and even God is you got to do something. And so Jesus put a little test, didn't he? And he begins to help him understand relationships aren't about doing.
They're about being and loving that flow out into doing. And so Jesus' answer reveals his need, verses 18 to 21. First, it's with the question. Why do you call me good?
There's only one who is good. Remember when Moses said, show me your glory. I want to see who you really are. And God says, no one can see my glory and live. But Moses will tell you what, there's a place in this rock, you get in that and then I'll pass by you and I'll let you get a glimpse of my back. And then as he did that, he declared who he was. This is the Lord who is good, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. When God uses one word to describe himself, his altogether, it was his gracious, generous good. And so this man says, good teacher.
And Jesus said, in the true sense of the word, there's only one who is good. And now he's testing, is that who you believe I am? Is this a declaration you've humbled yourself in front of these people? You're a wealthy, intelligent, rich man who's self-aware, who doesn't mind being embarrassed, who thinks I had the answer. Are you really saying I'm the Messiah?
He's going to get more than he bargains for. And so then he takes him to the law. When I was a kid, you know, in cartoons, I always thought like the Ten Commandments, they were like five on one and five on the other, like the two tablets. There's four on the first one and six on the other. The first tablet is about your relationship with God that's vertical. And the first one is, have no other gods besides me. The issue is idolatry. The next one is, you can't have any graven images. In other words, you can't worship anything visible that reduces God.
And then you don't take the name of the Lord in vain. The first four are all about your relationship with him. The next six are all about the relationships with people. If you study this carefully, Jesus rattles off all six of the second tablet. How are you doing when it comes to relating to people? And the guy says basically, hey, I mean, if you're giving out A's, I'm an A student on the second tablet.
I've done all those. Then he goes from there, what's he do? He looks at his heart.
And please don't miss this. Everything he asked him to do from this point on, he loves this man. I mean, if you were a teacher and you saw someone with that, he wasn't proud. I mean, he wasn't like, I don't need anybody. He didn't think he trusted in his wealth. But Jesus saw his heart. And so Jesus says to him, here's the challenge. Sell everything that you have.
If I'm really good and I'm the Messiah, then let's test this. Sell everything that you have. Let go of what you're hanging onto. Then notice, give to the poor. He wanted him to experience joy. Have you ever given to the poor? Have you ever given maybe a single mom and she can't pay her rent and you secretly pay for it and you experience this joy? Or you've been in a situation where maybe you've been on a mission strip and you've been able to give some money to someone and it just changes the course of their life. I remember going on one mission strip in the Philippines and it was only like 70 or 80 bucks. And we over there could buy enough penicillin. We saved like six kids' lives.
And it was like, whoa, for 70 bucks? When people learn to give, you start learning to give. Jesus wanted him to understand it's not religion. It's not about all the things you don't do. Then and now so many people think, following God is I don't do this, I don't do this, I don't do this, I don't do this.
I got news for you. People that are dead don't do that either. A lot of it is what you do do. It's loving and caring. Jesus wanted him to experience what it's like to release what holds you in and bring life to other people and the joy that would swell his heart. And then he said what?
This is for your benefit. We tend to think that life is this little tiny thing called time. And Jesus gave him an assignment that would change all of his eternity. He said when you sell and when you give, you'll have, who's he looking out for?
What's it say? Look in your Bibles. You'll have what in heaven? This is pleasure. This is real stuff. This is real reward.
This is something that would pay out for him forever and ever and ever. And then he gets this personal amazing invitation and then come. I mean there's crowds. This guy is getting a personal invitation. You know these 12 guys that hang with me? You want to be on the inner circle.
I don't see a lot of this. I want you to come. I want to be close to you. I want to do life with you. I want to bless you. But there's this obstacle.
You can't see it. But the fact that you could sense that something is missing, the fact that you responded to my teaching, the fact that you saw how I treated children, the fact that you know better than using women, the fact was you were getting it. Let's do some spiritual surgery so you can get the life that's really life.
Let go of the idol in your heart. Great act of love. The rich man's response revealed the condition, the true condition of his heart and the God that he served.
His face fell. He was like I want help. I want help. I want help. Show me what I need to do.
I don't want that much help. My security is my money. My God is my money. Money defines my success. This is a guy that made the list on the front of Forbes.
This is a guy that people knew who he was when he walked in the room because of how many zeros behind his portfolio. He goes, oh, wait a second. I want what you have, but see that sex, money, power, mantra.
I can't give up what I can see for what I can't see. So his face fell and he went away sad. Jesus was testing him. God has unlimited resources. He could have given his money back to him the next day or the next week or the next year. What we know for sure is that he would have joy that his money could never bring. He would have security that his money could never bring. He would have a relationship with God and peace and rest in his soul that his money could never bring.
I mean, isn't that why he was running over and saying Jesus? See, his money revealed his heart. Your money reveals your heart. You've been listening to part one of Chip's message, When Success Doesn't Satisfy. He'll be right back with his application for this teaching from his series, Jesus Offers Hope. It's been said that hope is the oxygen of the soul. The fact is we all put our faith in someone or something, but what happens when our dreams are dashed or someone lets us down or life just falls apart?
Where do we turn when our situations shake us to the core? In this series, Chip points us to the only true source of our hope. By using familiar New Testament parables, Chip illustrates how we can experience and safeguard God's indescribable hope in our lives. If you're feeling hopeless, don't miss a part of this series. For more information about Jesus Offers Hope, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call us at 888-333-6003.
App listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, Chip, you gave us a lot to think about and process today. I know a lot of people use journals to write out what they're thinking, even their prayers sometimes. Is journaling something you do or have found helpful? You know, I do journal. I don't want to make anyone feel guilty like only spiritual people journal.
I know people that don't journal, but I will tell you that it has been one of the most foundational spiritual disciplines in my life, especially for those of us that happen to be verbal processors. Some of us don't really know what we think until we say it. I think we all have a power or a level of denial about reality that is far deeper than most of us ever imagined. We really think we're doing okay, and the words we say is really what's really going on. What I found was when I write out thoughts or even write out prayers, or I often will start, this is how I feel today, or this is what I'm struggling with today, or God, I really want to thank you for this today, is I find when I start writing, I've actually had times where I've written things down and I look at it and I think, that's not true.
Ingram, I can't believe that you're actually lying. I mean, what do you think, someone's going to read this someday and think you're spiritual? And what I found is by writing it down, it stares back at me and it really helps me be honest.
And I think the other thing is that we tend to think that however we're doing emotionally is reality. So sometimes I'm a pretty up person, yeah, rah, I love God, things are great, and other times I get really, really down, even depressed, and I can feel like, wow, you know, my life's a mess, you know, I'm a terrible dad, I'm a terrible pastor, you know, no one loves me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, starting that pity party. Well, what I have is these journals where I get to see the mountains and the peaks and the valleys and the mountain, the peaks, and then I read the Psalms and I realize, you know, I'm not alone. This is normal.
Ups and downs are normal. And then what I have is this track record of many years, actually, in my case, that God has been faithful, and as I journal, it allows me to see where he's really working in my life and not get too fixated on how I happen to feel any certain day. So I think journaling will really help, and we have a tool that I think will be great help for you.
Thanks, Chip. We do have a great resource designed to help you develop the practice of journaling. It's a beautiful, compact notebook. Now, this tool is full of meaningful scripture verses, popular lyrics to hymns, and insightful quotes from influential Christian leaders. There's also plenty of space for your notes and personal journaling. Our hope is that this resource will help you spend more intentional time with God in prayer, and if you like this journal, get a few more to pass on to friends.
They're a perfect gift for any occasion. To order your prayer journal, just visit livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. App listeners, tap special offers. As I closed the teaching time today, I ended with this statement. Your money reveals your heart. Wherever your money goes, that's where your heart really is. It's not where I think it is. It's not where my singing shows it is. It's not where my religious thoughts tell me it is. But at the core, my money reveals my heart, what's really important.
And if that's true, I mean, it's just you and me, right? I mean, you don't have to say this out loud and likely in the car or maybe doing this by yourself, but if I could ask you privately, what would your money say about your heart? What would it say about how important people are? What would it say about how much you really love God? What would it say about your priorities? I mean, if we were just like super close friends and you just said, hey, you know, here's my bank statements, here's my portfolio, here's my giving, here's my debt level. I just want you to see all my money so you can help me discover exactly where my heart and values and passions are.
What would it say? And what I want to say is that that's a question that you and God need to have a very serious heart-to-heart talk about. In our next broadcast, I'm going to talk about how to redirect your heart and talk about how you don't have to be like this rich young ruler. Because money is a deceitful thing and stuff and materialism isn't a disease that other people have. We all have it. It's just how much do we have it?
And you know what? I don't want you to miss the peace and the life and the joy and all the wonder that God has for you that success can never deliver. So why don't you think real hard about that and let's get together in our next broadcast and we'll talk about the solution. Just before we close, I want to thank each of you who's making this program possible through your generous giving. One hundred percent of your gifts are going directly to the ministry to help Christians really live like Christians. Now, if you found CHIPS teaching helpful but you're not yet on the team, would you consider doing that today? To donate, just go to livingontheedge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003. And let me thank you in advance for whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, until next time, for everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.
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