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"But
Not With God" January
20, 2002 Rev. Gary LeTourneau As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before
him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal
life?" Jesus said to him,
"Why do you call me good? No
one is good but God alone. You know
the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You
shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor
your father and mother.' " He
said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing:
go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had
many possessions. Mark 10:17-27 [only
the last few minutes of the sermon were recorded)
how does a little child receive all they need to grow up in life?
They can't earn it. It's
given to them as a gift. And you
see, Jesus is saying the key to the Kingdom is you don't earn it.
You receive it. It's given
to you as a gift. But it's almost
as if this man's hands are so full of what he's got, and his head is so full of
what he's done that he can't let go and say, "Thank you," and receive
it. Max
Lucado has said that if a thousand steps separate us from God, God will take 999
steps to meet us, but the last step is ours to take.
And the man was shocked and he walked away disappointed because he had
great wealth and was unable to take that last step. Thank God for verse 27.
Did you all see verse 27 when it was read? I think it's the only one that gives us any hope.
Thank God it's in there! "Who can be saved?" asked the disciples.
Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals [for humans, for us
here] it's impossible, but not for God. For
God all things are possible." In
the power of God it is possible that we humans, who like to have and hold
things, can learn to let go and learn to receive the Kingdom as a gift. For the God of the possible, it is possible that people like
you and me can learn to repent of the way we live our lives in our continual
efforts to impress others and to impress God with who we are and what we've done
and to let go of all that and just receive salvation like anybody else gets
it--as a gift that's freely given to us. For
the God of the possible, it's not impossible that even you and I, who in our own
way (many of us) are rich young rulers who have a difficult time with
discipleship and just receiving the Kingdom.
It's possible not because of who we are, but because of who God is.
And when God empowers us, we can learn to repent and receive. You
know, I've been thinking a lot about verse 27:
"But not for God. With
God all things are possible." As
I think about the budget of our church, the letter we all received last week
about sort of our disappointing finish for the year. And as I look with the session to the next year, you're
getting "Part A" of the annual meeting report because the session
wasn't able to finish its work. We've
still got to get through how we're going to plan for this year budgetwise, and
we're dealing with some very hard realities.
Finishing with a deficit last year is a reality.
The absolute fact of a mortgage of--I don't know--$134,000 a year, that's
a reality. Thinking about the
staffing, and the programs, and everything else we do as a church, we know has
got to be within the confines of the budget we have, and that's pushing us to
some very difficult decisions. So
we're going to meet today and we're going to meet Tuesday night.
I invite you to pray for us and be praying with us that the God who can
do impossible things will give us a way through it to do the impossible. I'm going to talk some more next week about our budget.
I'll know more when I know what the session says.
But at the annual meeting we'll have a continuing insight into this. But
I just want today for all of us to know two realities.
Number one: Jesus said it's
very clear. It's hard to be my
disciple if you have a lot of wealth. That's
a fact. Second fact:
With God all things are possible. Now
it's our place here, in this part of the Kingdom, to bring those two together.
Let's
close in prayer. Heavenly Father,
thank you that as we read the gospels we find real people and we find real
responses. Jesus didn't sugar-coat
life and truth and we don't want it that way.
We want to know what's true and what's real.
I pray, dear Lord, that as all of us seek to be your faithful followers
that we will find ways continually to repent and to receive, because that's your
gracious plan for us. Lord, I do
pray for our own church, and our budget, and our expression of our discipleship.
I pray that you will make the way clear in what you want us to do and
allow us to proceed as faithful disciples.
Thank you, dear Lord, for your promised love which never ends. We
invite your presence in our lives as we seek to be your disciples day by day.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Rev. Gary LeTourneau Senior Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the 9:00 a.m. worship
service on January 20, 2002] |
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