With God all things are possible

 Read Mark 10:17-31

This passage contains a story that most of us know well. The rich young man, rich young ruler comes to see Jesus asking him what he must do to inherit eternal life.

We will dig into the question a little more at the next service. For now, we will pick up after the point where we are told that Jesus looked at him and loved him and told him to sell all that he had and give the money to the poor. The man went away sad.

What came next?

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

How hard is it for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God?  Just to skip past the logical follow-on and go straight to the answer, yes, that includes us.

We have so much stuff that rich is the only term that aptly applies.  This message is for us. We are rich. We have some stuff.

So, we come to the question, do we own our stuff or does it own us?  Who is the master here?  We should be master of our wealth and stuff and worldly possessions, but sometimes it seems like they are the master.

We cannot serve two masters. One of these masters goes by the name of money, stuff, or things of this world. That’s the one that we have to be on the lookout for so it does not supplant the one true God.

There is no way that anything could take the place of God in our lives. He is first. He is before all things. There are no other gods near him; yet, we can’t seem to work him into our day or our outing or our school event or our lives.

We park in the pews. We sing the songs. Some of you even get the words right, but is God first in our lives?

What if God told you to stop or cut down significantly the sports in your child’s life.  That’s stepping on some toes there. It’s my family’s time. I will manage it.

What if God told you to downsize your home or get a less expensive car? C’mon God, when I asked for help with my budget, I meant extra income.  I don’t want to cut my expenses. I want more money.

What if God told you to be reconciled with someone that you had planned on hating for the rest of your life? C’mon God, not him, not her.

Do you want to know if God is first in your life? Put a smile on your face and joy in your heart and do the thing he told you to do even though it’s the last thing in the world that you want to do.

Want to know if the one true God is actually the Master in your life? Do what he says even when you don’t like it and like it while you are doing it.

That’s some tough stuff. The disciples were exasperated.  Just who can get to heaven? How can any of us be saved?  This seems hopeless.

Left to our own devices, it is hopeless. The trappings and attractions of this world are too much for us. At some point, we will succumb.  It’s just too hard to do what God asks of us.

Unless we do it with him. We can do what seems impossible if we do it with God. Yes, we should do things for God. We should do things because God said to do them. We should desire to bring glory to God in everything we do. That’s some tough stuff and we probably can’t do it…on our own.

But God says, let’s do this together.

God did not just create us and kick us out the door with a “Good luck. See ya on judgment day.”

God is in this thing called life with us. He wants to be included in everything. If we must choose, we are to choose him first. It’s sort of like that Charles Barkley commercial where the kids are picking teams and the kid picks Barkley first. He is only two or three feet taller than the kids, but still he is excited about being chosen first.

I think God likes it when we choose him over the things of this world. I think he likes it so much that he will help us choose him.

I know that he loves us enough to make a way for us to spend eternity with him in right standing with him in spite of ourselves.

God wants us to put his words into practice. He wants us to have abundant life and he wants to help us get there.

God is with us.

God is for us.

God will never forsake us.

On our own, so much seems impossible. With God, we can do everything we need to do.

Listen to how this part wraps up.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has 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—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

We should commit to the Lord whatever we do and he will establish our plans.  God is in this thing called life with us. We are not on our own.

God wants us to succeed. The only things that should be impossible to us should be those things that go against God. We don’t want the things that go against God. For everything else, it is possible with God.

With God, all things are possible.

This pericope included the words camel passing through the eye of the needle.  Is that figurative language? Is the eye a narrow passage in some mountain range? Did Jesus mean to indicate a level of difficulty that would cause to to read that part literally?

Those are thoughts to pursue on another day. For now, remember:

With God, all things are possible.

Amen.