10/13 Sermon - With God All Things Are Possible

With God All Things Are Possible

Mark 10:17-27

1. For me, a to-do list is essential. I use one both for work and for projects. I only have so much time in my day, I can’t always do everything on my list. But a to-do list helps me prioritize what is important and what should get done first.

- Do you make lists of what should get done? If we don’t have some way to prioritize what’s important, those things get missed.

2. Our story starts with a young man, a church leader, a rich man! But although this young man had riches and respect, he knew he was still missing something. He wanted to get right with God, but he knew he didn’t quite have it.

- This man heard about Jesus, his miracles, his teaching. He knew Jesus was a man of God. So he found Jesus, got on his knees, and begged him: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

- Can you hear his desperation? He wanted, to bad, to be right with God, but he knew, deep down, that something was wrong.

3. Jesus keys in on a certain point: “Good.” “Why do you call me good?” He asks the man. “Only God in heaven is good.”

- The young man thought Jesus was good. The young man also thought that he himself was good.

- “If you want to be good,” says Jesus, “Keep the commandments: Do not steal, murder, commit adultery. Honor your parents. Love!”

- “All these I have kept since childhood,” he says. And you know what, he was probably right. I’m sure this man was a good person.

- But can you hear his pride? His self-righteousness? He knew God was perfect, Jesus was a good teacher, and that he was perfect.

4. Jesus looked at him, and loved him. Jesus wanted nothing more than to save this young man, to have him believe and have life.

- So, Jesus takes the sword of God’s Word, and he pierces that man’s heart. Jesus ruins the man’s day, his month, with God’s Word.

- “One thing you still lack,” Jesus says. “Go, sell all that you have, and come follow me, and you will have treasure in heaven.”

- Not only was this man self-righteous. He had a hidden idol: money! His wealth. I’m sure he was a kind person. But God wasn’t #1. His idol, his god, his priority, #1, was money. This man went away devastated because his ‘god’ was lots and lots of money.  

5. And Jesus doesn’t let up! “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” He says that twice.

- In fact, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.” The phrase “eye of a needle” was a figure of speech in the Greek world for the smallest thing possible. It’s easier for a 1,000 lbs., 6 foot tall, 10-foot-long camel to go through a needle than for a rich person to enter into heaven.

- The reality is that money, wealth and pride go hand-in-hand. If someone has money, they usually credit their own effort and wits. It’s not that money itself is the problem, but a) money can very easily become our idol, and b) it does lead us to idolize ourselves. This doesn’t happen with just money, but anything can become our idol.

- The disciples are flabbergasted. If entering God’s kingdom is so hard, if anything can become a god for us, “Who then can be saved?”

6. Hebrews calls God’s Word a sword. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

- God’s Word exposes our sins. It exposes our idols, our pride.

- What is my “one thing” that I still lack? What is yours? What secret thing do we idolize? What is the priority of our sinful heart?

- You know, many of us here are well-intentioned. We want to be good people. We want to be right with God! …But so was that rich man. Yet he had a giant, hidden idol in his heart. What’s mine?

- For many of us, it is money. Few of us are content and OK with the money we have, with our financial situation. We want more!

- Perhaps it’s our pride. We look in a mirror and think, “Yeah, I’m a pretty good person.”It could be sex or romance, it could be our work, it could be our health, it could be our children, if could be hobbies.

- God’s Word exposes our sin, the idol in our heart. God challenges us to ask ourselves, “What is the idol in our heart?” We all have one, or many. What one thing would devastate us if we lost it? What one thing is a higher priority in our hearts than God?

- The truth that Jesus wanted this man to know, his disciples to know, and that he wants you to know, if this: We cannot save ourselves! We can’t do anything to earn our salvation. We are trapped in our secret idolatry. “Who then can be saved?”

7. With man, this is impossible. But with God all things are possible.

- “Jesus looked at that young man and loved him.” Jesus wanted nothing more than for that young man to believe in Jesus as Savior.

- Jesus looks at you and loves you. He sees us in our sin, our pride, worshipping the hidden idols in our hearts. And he loves us. Because of that great love of God, Jesus came to this world to save us. Jesus perfectly kept God as the priority of his heart his whole life. Jesus died to forgive us for our secret idolatry. Our sin is taken away. And this salvation, our faith in Jesus, it’s a gift that’s given to us! The Spirit works in our hearts to tear down our false idols and gives us faith to trust in God, to give us eternal life.  

- We cannot save ourselves. But God can save us. With God, all things are possible.

- That verse is so often misquoted. You’ll see it in reference to sports, money, getting a job we want. God does take care of us, that’s true. But God uses this verse to point out our own weakness, our own inability to save ourselves, but his power to save us.

- With God, all things are possible. We can be saved.

8. Jesus looked at the man and loved him. “Go, sell all your possessions, then come and follow me, and you will have treasures in heaven.” Jesus was piercing his heart, but he was also inviting him. “Leave your idols, leave your pride, trust in me for salvation.”

- Jesus looks at you and loves you. He invites you, “Go, get rid of whatever idol is in your heart. Get rid of whatever takes priority above God in your heart. Come, follow me, put me first, and you will have treasure in heaven.”

- Whether you’re

- By our own power, that’s impossible. But with God, all things are possible.