Singles: Final Charge
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7:15pm You give official Welcome
- OPENING prayer
- Candy and Robert + you lead us in 3 songs
Pray a blessing for Robert and Candy after they lead worship, since they will need to head out -
7:30
1) Summary of Year
Title and Theme (1 Cor holiness)
6 recaps of messages:
Ch. 1 The Foolish, the Weak, the Insignificant
Ch. 3 How to be IN, but not OF the world
Grow up in maturity of faith, leaving behind spiritual babyhood (local church!)
Don’t Exalt Leaders
Build with things that last
Know who you are
c. Ch. 4 Judging rightly
not judging as a hypocrite
but judging rightly as one discerning and weighing what is right,
especially as it pertains to church discipline
5. ch. 15 How Death Stings because of sin
Sin dominates because of the law
But how we-saints--conquer because Jesus rose again, and so will we
6. ch. 6 The pervasiveness of Christian identity amnesia
We were reminded that we are:
1) One spirit with the Lord jesus
2) Temples of the Holy Spirit
3) Heirs of the Father’s Kingdom
7. ch. 7 Last month,
we discussed the PRIVILEGES of your singleness:
How you are
1) Free from various worldly anxieties bound up in married life
2) Free FOR heavenly priorities
personal devotion
personal ministry
2) Thanksgiving
-To Service Team and all the attenders!
3) Final Word of Encouragement
This evening, instead teaching from 1 Cor,
I want to leave you with a message from the Gospel of Mark.
Mark 10:23-31, which I’m going to read.
Read Mark 10:23-31
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
We will see
Our Problem
God’s Omnipotence
Jesus’ Promise
Context:
1) First, our problem.
This conversation b/w Jesus and his disciples comes on the heels of his encounter with the infamous rich young man.
The man who would not GIVE UP his idol of WEALTH, of riches, of earthly comfort and pleasure, of worldly prestige and perks
and thus, walked away from the Savior,
sad and sorrowful, and without salvation.
The Lord Jesus, Master Teacher as He was, took this interaction as a TEACHABLE moment.
He USED this money-loving professional
to teach his disciples a CRUCIAL lesson.
v.23 “How DIFFICULT it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
His disciples were AMAZED at these words
STUNNED at this admission of Jesus
That salvation isn’t easy;
ESPECIALLY for those who have many possessions.
“Children,” Jesus reinforcing his point, says again:
v.24 “HOW difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
The disciples respond with even more AWE and amazement;
v.26 “they were EXCEEDINGLY astonished”!
and then asked Jesus:
“Then who. can. be. saved?”
“I mean, not all of us are Donald Trump or Elon Musk,
but a lot of us have some stuff.
And compared to the widow with her one penny,
we are ALL rich!”
Compared to the vast majority of the Global South and of the planet,
we here tonight are rich!
we have great possessions—a car, a home, clothes, jewelry, a smart phone,
for some, a job that pays decently,
a retirement fund
If its THAT HARD, Jesus, for us who have wealth to inherit the kingdom of God,
to be SAVED,
then WHO among us CAN be saved?
I mean, have you ever thought about it:
a CAMEL
I looked this up on PBS:
A dromedary camel is about 7 to 11 feet long, around 6-7 feet tall at the shoulders, and weighs up to 1,320 pounds!
And Jesus says, “Its EASIER for a CAMEL to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
That leaves us in quite a conundrum,
quite a problematic position.
Because the alternative to entering the kingdom of God,
is being cast into the outer darkness,
away from the presence of the Lord,
in torment forever.
And here we come to our second point:
2) The OMNIPOTENCE of God.
Omnipotence is simply the old theological Word for God’s ALMIGHTY power -
omni meaning ALL.
potence meaning power.
God has ALL power — He is omnipotent.
After the disciples cry out, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looks at them in their shock,
and I imagine, with such earnest intensity and unbroken eye contact,
declares,
“With man it is IMPOSSIBLE, but NOT with God. For ALL things are possible with God.”
With man—
namely, in our own strength,
salvation is not just DIFFICULT
final salvation is IMPOSSIBLE.
“With man it is IMPOSSIBLE.”
You and I CANNOT overcome the temptations of this world,
the deceitfulness of riches
the desires of the eyes and the flesh
the pride of life
We CANNOT repent or COME to know the glory of God’s Kingdom,
if left to our own devices.
You and I are POWERLESS to save ourselves.
POWERLESS to SANCTIFY ourselves.
POWERLESS to BE SAINTS, to BE HOLY ONES of God.
It’s simply IMPOSSIBLE.
It won’t happen.
It CANNOT happen.
And if Jesus were to STOP THERE: “With man it is impossible.”
All of us tonight would have reason to despair
Reason to indulge in sin, to EAT, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die
To abandon ALL attempts at living a holy, Christ-honoring life
Because ALL OF IT would be in VAIN.
A FUTILE attempt at working out our salvation with fear and trembling.
But thanks be to God,
Jesus did NOT stop there.
“With man [salvation] IS IMPOSSIBLE, but NOT with God.”
“For ALL things are possible with God.”
With God,
Wealthy father Abraham,
wildly prosperous Job,
King David, Josiah, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah
ALL overcame their idols
and inherited heaven.
All things are possible with God.
The salvation of Donald Trump, of Joe Biden, of Xijing Ping and Vladimir Putin is POSSIBLE with God.
The salvation of the Israeli govt and army AND Hamas and the Palestinian authorities is POSSIBLE with God.
The salvation of the most hardened, cynical, conscience-seared individual you know is POSSIBLE with God!
And in the same vein,
Brother and sister in Christ,
with God YOU can be saved!
I can be saved!
Our ongoing salvation — what the Bible calls our growth in spiritual maturity, our sanctification, it’s POSSIBLE with God
Your freedom from sin,
Your FREEDOM from generational curses or addictions
Your FREEDOM from shame and regret and fear
Your reaching NEW vistas of obedience, and victory, and fruitfulness in personal ministry
is POSSIBLE with God.
With man — with you and me alone — it’s not possible.
In fact, you may be facing something this evening that feels like an impossible situation.
an impossible problem to fix.
“Left up to me ____ is impossible.”
Where in your life this evening, this season that you are in, are you facing a mountain of impossibility? An unfulfilled desire that aligns with God’s will?
Visualize your impossible thing, the impossible hurdle or situation that seems to be keeping you from experiencing the abundant LIFE in God:
And now imagine JESUS Himself specifically saying YOUR thing in place of the “ALL things” in v.27:
“With man IT is impossible, but not with God.
For ___ is possible with God!”
Brothers and sisters,
may we never forget this life-changing truth:
God is OMNIPOTENT. There is nothing too difficult for Him!
1) Our Problem
2) God’s Omnipotence
3) and thirdly and lastly, we come to Jesus’ promise.
The apostle Peter responds to our Lord’s FAITH-fueling perspective of God’s UNLIMITED power,
by reminding Jesus of the disciples’ radical sacrifice in pursuit of following Jesus.
v.28 “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
Look, Lord, we’ve given up our professions, our ambitions, our earthly comforts to follow you, to take up our crosses in your footsteps!
in Matthew’s account of this story,
Peter then adds, “What then will we have?”
Jesus puts up with Peter’s self-seeking, self-congratulating, and maybe even self-pitying remark,
and offers a breathtaking and often-overlooked PROMISE!
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
There is one condition to this promise,
and a four-fold BLESSING Jesus assures will be given to his disciples.
The condition he says first: “there is no one who has LEFT…”
and then gives some examples of what Christians may need to sacrifice in the path of following and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ
Some will need to leave their own house, others their own family, some even their own land and country.
ALL Christians must make sacrifices to follow Jesus and share in eternal life,
all of us will have to “HATE” our biological family—in the words of Jesus—
meaning SO prioritize, PURSUE, and TREASURE Him that all other relationships look like “hatred” in comparison
But some Christians will need to make extraordinary sacrifices.
Story of [Ariel - not her real name]
needing to flee a perpetually adulterous, abusive marriage to an unbeliever, after her conversion to Christ in the ME
BOLD ministry online that witnesses to M’s; DANGEROUS for her to stay in homeland
Flee to N America, where she has struggled to get asylum
I know some of you have made great sacrifices for the sake of Christ.
You are the only believer in your entire family.
You have endured ridicule, mockery, and insults for the sake of the faith
You have had to endure dark trials and painful afflictions because of YOUR love for Jesus that was not reciprocated by those near you
You have had to leave behind good things, in order to continue to honor God
This condition, therefore, I think applies to EVERY one of us—as we ALL give up something for the sake of faithfully following Jesus—
And it ESPECIALLY applies to our brothers and sisters in Christ, for example, from an Orthodox Jewish or Muslim background.
That’s the condition of this one-hundred fold promise of Jesus?
Sacrifice for the sake of Christ and the gospel.
The 4-fold blessing is as follows:
There is no one who has left ALL THESE things for my sake, Jesus says:
Mark 10:30 (ESV)
who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
What is he saying?
What is this 100-fold, EXPONENTIAL INCREASE compared to whatever you have lost?
It can be summed up in 4 P’s:
3 in the Present, 1 in the future.
In this time, Jesus promises:
A people
A place
Persecution
And in the age to come:
Paradise.
In THIS TIME, that’s in our CURRENT era of human history:
Jesus promises that though we may lose our biological mother, father, sister, brother,
Luke’s account adds spouse
We will RECEIVE, as a GIFT, an INHERITANCE,
100 mothers, 100 fathers, 100 brothers and sisters and children
Though you may lose a place, a home, a community,
you will find a HOME more secure and more loving, where you BELONG as a valuable contributor to the mutual good and blessing of the whole
He adds, “With persecutions.”
There will be persecution, suffering, tribulation now—
Jesus doesn’t sugarcoat the reality of living in the LIGHT in a devil-infested, sin-sick world
But in the age to come,
ALL grief and pain will be eclipsed by PARADISE.
You will INHERIT eternal life!
I think we understand the fourth P: Paradise—the glory of heaven in the future;
I think we can understand the third P: persecution and suffering in the path of obedience, though differently as our Eritrean, Chinese, or Iranian brothers and sisters
But HOW are the first 2 P’s: a PEOPLE and a PLACE—in THIS time—fulfilled?
A FAMILY and a HOME?
There is no other way than through the family of God, of course.
What Scripture calls God’s HOUSEHOLD, full with adopted brothers and sisters in Christ, who share in life together through the local church
in regular worship, teaching, the breaking of BREAD
in regular hospitality and friendship.
In the context of a faithful local church,
You my dear brother, become a FATHER to the young man of who’s addicted to video games and struggling to take responsibility
You, my dear sister, become a mother to a young woman recently married, struggling with the tension of pursuing her career or being a full-time homemaker
You my dear friends in Christ, in the context of God’s household, become uncles and aunties to the young families overwhelmed with chores and drives to this basketball practice, that music lesson, and a million other things
And in the church you RECEIVE children
younger saints, who encourage you by their zeal and passion for the things of God
You RECEIVE brothers and sisters, who become true, lifelong friends, willing to lay down their lives for you
In a faithful local church you RECEIVE fathers and mothers,
- godly pastors and leaders who exhort you every day, stir you up toward love and good works
and feed you with counsel and wisdom.
There is NO family like the family of God.
Sure, she is an imperfect family,
and we are ALL to blame for her many blemishes and shortcomings.
But by the grace of God, and by His OMNIPOTENT power,
Each of us,
according to the unbreakable promise of JESUS
will receive a PEOPLE and a PLACE, a HOME where we belong
Parters in persecution
and the assurance of PARADISE in the age to come.
The impossible problem we face—is NOT impossible for God.
And the PROMISE of Jesus STANDS,
ready for the taking in churches like this ONE,
and like various others that preach the WORD of God, practice baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and cultivate a family of faith on mission for God.
I want to pray now toward that end…
And here we come to my FIRST encouragement to you all this evening, in my final message to you all:
Keep the Perspective of Jesus
3 Main Points
The Impossibility of Man/The Difficulty of Entering the Kingdom
The Omnipotence of God/The Power of God in Salvation /The Perspective of Jesus
The Promise of Jesus