I was talking with a friend some time ago and the following came up: In Matt 19:16-24, a rich man came to Jesus and asked what he should do to get eternal life. After some discussion about obeying the law Jesus told him to sell all of his possessions and give to the poor. I used this to make the point that as Christians we should not be concerned about making a lot of money or gaining a lot of earthly possessions, but rather we should be more concerned with helping our fellow man, evangelism, etc. My Christian friend responded, that I couldn't possibly mean that because Jesus only told that to one person, and that wasn't meant for everyone, and that he made a lot of money to help the poor, (basically every weak argument against what I was saying. I countered with, Jesus only told one person that he needed to be born again (Nicodemus, John 3:3) and yet we make that the cornerstone of Christianity.
What say ye? Should we only consider (or obey) things that Jesus told to many and disregard the private conversations?