In his sermon titled 'All Things are Possible with God,' Peter Allison explores Luke 18, where Jesus interacts with a rich young ruler. The sermon delves into the ruler's three problems: his awareness of mortality, his lack of inherent goodness, and his bondage to wealth. While the ruler sought a legal claim to eternal life, Jesus highlighted the impossibility of achieving this through human means alone, emphasizing that salvation is only possible through God. Allison explains the concept of total depravity, illustrating humanity's incapacity to seek God without divine intervention. Historical examples like Hezekiah's prayer against Assyria and the defeat of the Spanish Armada exemplify God's ability to accomplish the impossible. The sermon encourages believers to trust in God's power, remain faithful in proclaiming the Gospel, and expect great things through faith. Concluding with a call to self-abandonment, service to others, and a heavenly focus, the sermon underscores the promise of eternal life for those who follow Christ.

Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Luke chapter 18. I'd like to begin reading at verse 18, As Jesus interacts with this rich young ruler who has come to Him. Hear God's word. Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good?

No one is good, but One that is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal.

Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And He said, all these things I have kept from my youth So when Jesus heard these things he said to him you still lack one thing sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me." But when he heard this he became very sorrowful for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, he said, How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

And those who heard it said, Who then can be saved? But he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Then Peter said, See, we have left all and followed you. So He said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left houses, house or parents, or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God, who shall not receive double, many times more in this present time, and in the age to come, eternal life. May these statutes be our song in our pilgrimage.

Heavenly Father, Thank you for preserving your Word. And thank you for sending your messengers with your Word to us. We ask that this word that we have heard might be mixed with faith. And that is we continue to worship this morning that you would teach us, that you would open our eyes and our understanding, and ask that you would preserve me from error. Pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, last week we looked at the first part of this passage where Jesus called this rich young ruler to serve Christ and not His riches. To follow Christ and do His will and to stop doing his own will and seeking his own pleasure. This young man, you remember, had three problems. The first problem that he had And that he knew he had was that he would die. He knew he was going to die.

What he didn't know, the problems he didn't know he had, was that he was not good. And that he was in bondage to His money. And so He came to Jesus for help. For help to gain eternal life. To inherit it.

He asked Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? To have a legal right to eternal life. And Jesus, first of all, told him that he wasn't good. Not by the only true standard of goodness, which is the law of God, the word of God. And then Jesus demonstrated to this young man and to everyone who was around hearing him, who his master actually was.

And he did that by calling him to sell all that He had and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." And then He said, "...And come, follow Me." Now, God doesn't ask the same things of everyone. He didn't ask Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus or Zacchaeus to sell all their goods and give them to the poor. But He does call all of us to an act of piety, to self-abandonment, to serve others, and to be more attached to the pleasures that are in the presence of God than the pleasures of this earth and this world. Calvin Beisner said in his book, Prosperity and Poverty, the compassionate use of resources in a world of scarcity, he said, quote, A man's willingness to part with his possessions and give to the poor at Christ's command is an accurate measure of his spiritual maturity. The maturity measured in this command may be defined as self-abandonment, trust in God's command, care for others, and commitment to following Jesus.

It goes on, Spiritual maturity begins by forsaking the urge to serve self and trusting in God's provision instead." Jesus asked this man to sell all that he had and give to the poor. And what he was asking him to do in that is what he asks all of us to do, which is to abandon ourselves. He calls us to do that When He says, if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself. Abandon ourself. Take up his cross and follow Me.

And taking up our cross And following Christ is not simply being willing to receive and endure the trials of various kinds as they come to us, but this is a more proactive dedication to doing our duty and to following Christ, even when we know in advance that it will require a significant sacrifice of us. Jesus calls us all to abandon ourselves in whatever form that takes. For this young man, that was his wealth. It was his God. It was what he was serving.

And Jesus called him to leave it. Jesus also calls all of us to serve others. He didn't just say sell all that you have and sit on a pole and be an ascetic and renounce all poverty, but rather, He was to serve others. He was to distribute His goods, the money, to the poor. And Jesus calls us to serve others when he tells us in Philippians 2 and verse 4, let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others.

It doesn't say Don't look out for your interests, but don't look out only for your interests. Look out also for the interests of others. And so Jesus calls us all to serve others. And Jesus calls us all to follow Him, to set our eyes on the heavenly goal and to have treasure in heaven, when Jesus tells us in Colossians 3, If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things on this earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

And when Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Idolatry. This man, his idol was his money. And when Jesus told him to give it up, to forsake that idol, to set his mind on things above and to put his treasure in heaven.

He went away very sorrowful. Because Jesus had put His finger right on His idol, where He wasn't willing to give up. He was being forced here in this command to choose between serving Christ or continuing to serve His wealth to be a slave to mammon. And of course, Jesus says, we can't serve both of these. We can't serve God and mammon at the same time.

And He chose in that case to serve mammon. But He went away sorrowful because He really did want eternal life too. He wanted them both. What he failed to see was that he can't take his wealth to heaven. His possessions.

And so he gave up eternal riches that he could never lose for his earthly riches that he soon would lose anyways. He was going to lose them. His question was, now or a little bit later? Nobody takes anything, right? As Job says, naked we come into this world and naked we leave.

We don't even take the clothes on our back. They bury us with them. When Jesus saw that he was sorrowful, He made an observation. He said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

Now I'm sure that even those who are young among us wonder how a camel could go through the eye of a needle. The eye of a needle. It's a pinpoint. How do you get a camel through that? And some have thought that, well, this is talking about a little gate in the wall, and if you've got a camel down on its knees, it could go through.

I don't know that any of that is accurate. I think what Jesus is saying here is you can't do it. You can't get a camel through the eye of a needle, at least to not have a camel on the other side. It's impossible. It's impossible.

Jesus is saying It's impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But his disciples pick up on what he's actually saying. And they ask, who then can be saved? They didn't just say, how can rich people be saved? But who can be saved?

Jesus was saying it's impossible. It's impossible for a man to save himself. It's impossible for us to keep the law of God and to buy that to have a legal right to eternal life. Man, we are born dead in our sins. We are born guilty of Adam's first sin.

We are born lacking any righteousness of our own. And we are born with a corrupted nature that we have received and inherited from Adam. In addition to all the sins that We go on to commit as sinners. We commit these sins because we are sinners. And so with our corrupted nature, we will never seek after God on our own.

We will never do that. We are totally depraved as the Reformers said. That doesn't mean of course that everybody is as bad as they could possibly be. That's not what total depravity means. Total depravity means a total inability.

A total inability. We are unable to seek after God. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Cannot. It's one of ability.

A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. No one can come to me, Jesus said, unless the Father who sent me draws him. Or in Romans 8, the carnal mind is enmity against God. The carnal mind is our fleshly mind that we are born with. It's at war against God.

It's not subject to the law of God. For the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness. It's not subject to the law of God. So then those that are in the flesh, Paul says, cannot please God. It's one of ability.

It's not a matter of trying harder. It's one of complete inability. These spiritual things are foolishness. And we can't discern them. It's a one of ability.

We cannot understand them. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12, Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. This is the test of the Spirit. Can they acknowledge, Do they proclaim that Jesus Christ, the God-man, is God?

And is Lord? They can't say that except by the Spirit of God. It's one of ability. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.

No man can is one of ability, James says. Total depravity also means that our corruption and inability is total in its scope. It doesn't mean in its extent. It means it is total with respect to its scope. It affects every part of us, our mind.

So our thinking is corrupted. We can't think straight. It affects our will. We desire what is wrong and we cannot desire what is good. We cannot please God.

It affects our emotions. We love what we ought not to and we don't love what we ought to. It affects our body. It's corrupt. It's weak.

It gets sick. It affects our heart. It affects what we desire. But then Jesus makes this amazing statement. And it really is amazing.

And I would like this morning to think about what this statement is that Jesus made. When the disciples asked, well who then can be saved? Jesus said the things that are impossible with men are possible with God. Yes, it is impossible for men, but the things that are impossible for us for you and I are possible with God Jesus said nothing is actually impossible with God And so what does this mean for us if the things that are impossible with men are possible with God? Well, we should recognize that it is impossible for men.

Salvation is impossible for men. So the first application is that we shouldn't be discouraged when those with whom we share the Gospel reject Christ and His Gospel. Not everyone with whom we share the Gospel is going to listen. That doesn't mean we did something wrong. Remember, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

People even rejected Christ Himself when He proclaimed liberty to those who were in bondage. Just like this rich young ruler did. He walked away from Christ. And they will certainly reject us as well. And when that happens, it's easy to be discouraged.

To think that our time is wasted and it's of no value. And we certainly want to be wise in how we spend our time and resources. But we shouldn't be discouraged when we fail, or even fail often, or fail frequently when we are being faithful to the Lord. Because the measure of success is not how many people come to Christ, or that everyone comes to Christ. It's that we have faithfully proclaimed Christ.

The only people that can come are the people whom the Father draws. So not being discouraged, but continuing to press forward in faith, recognizing that what we are doing is impossible with us. But also secondly, having a believing attitude regarding those with whom we share the gospel. We shouldn't develop an unbelieving attitude toward those with whom We share the Gospel because it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But we shouldn't have an unbelieving attitude because the things that are impossible with us are possible with God.

That means we should have a believing attitude toward our children. God has promised to be God to us and to our children. And if we adopt a wait and see attitude, Well, we're not sure. We don't know. We aren't believing the promise of God in regards to our children.

We are doubting that God can do the impossible and to bring our children to faith in Jesus Christ. That means that we should have a believing attitude even when our children are grown up and maybe aren't following the Lord to continue to pray for them because while there is life, there is hope, and God is able to do the impossible. Able to do the impossible. Thirdly, we should be those who expect great things from God. H.L.

Mencken, who is a post-date writer, for the newspaper, or writer, said, faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. That was what he thought of faith. An illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. That was what he thought of faith. An illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

But God says faith is the substance of things for the evidence of things that are not seen. See, unbelief sees only the improbable and believes it to be irrational to expect the improbable to happen. But faith sees what is possible with God, and hopes all things, and endures all things, because with God, all things are possible. Unbelief sees only the improbable, and believes it to be irrational to expect it. Faith sees what is possible.

It's the evidence of things that are not seen. Because with God, all things are possible. And so we should learn to ask great things of God and expect great things of God because the things that are impossible with us are truly possible with God. When we never ask impossible things of God, we show that we don't believe that all things really are possible with Him. And we're really demonstrating a practical unbelief.

A practical unbelief. We could talk about some of the impossible things that we've prayed for as a church that God has done. But I'd like to go back to a couple of historical examples, and the first one is Hezekiah. Assyria was the dominant world power in the days of Hezekiah. Sennacherib was a king that came against Israel and carted them off into captivity.

And he boastfully came against Israel as well. Now this is the dominant world power. This is a very strong nation. There was no nation in the world that was able to stand up to Assyria and they were a very cruel nation. If you look at their artifacts and Alice and I went to for one of our anniversaries about ten years ago, we went to the Oriental Institute in Chicago, where they have these artifacts from Assyria.

And they have the stones that they erected as monuments, sort of like billboards, if you will, today. And they're filled with headless corpses and the soldiers standing on tops of these headless bodies. They were a very cruel, a very, very cruel nation. That's why Jonah didn't want to go to preach to them. Because he remembered the horrible atrocities that they had committed against Israel and all the other nations that they conquered.

And he didn't want them to repent. He did not want them to receive mercy of God for how they had treated Israel. And so this king, Sennacherib, came up against Judah. And he sent his messenger to Jerusalem. And this was the message that this rabshaka was to give Hezekiah and the people in Jerusalem.

What confidence is this in which you trust? Of course, his opening message was, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria. What confidence is this in which you trust? I say to you, I say you speak of having plans and powers for war, but those are mere words. Now in Whom do you trust that you rebel against Me?

Look, you are trusting in the staff of this broken reed Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you say to Me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar. Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my Master, the King of Assyria, and I will give you 2, 000 horses." that is if you can put people on them. And he goes on in this vein.

How I have now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it. No, He said, no, the Lord said to me, go up to this land and destroy it. And the people on the wall said, speak in Aramaic because we understand it. And Rabbi Shekhar said, no, of course not. I'm deliberately speaking in Hebrew so that all your people do understand what I'm saying.

People who will eat and drink their own waste with you." And he called out with a loud voice, he said, to the people, don't let Hezekiah deceive you, for he won't be able to deliver you. Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying the Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of a king of Assyria." Don't listen, he said to Hezekiah. Make peace with me. Come out with me.

And I'm going to give you, every one of you, to eat of his own vine and every one of you his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern." That's kind of like the siren call of the Marxists, isn't it? "'Beware lest Hezekiah presuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nation delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of the Sepharvim?

Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from My hand? Who among all the gods of all these lands have delivered their countries from My hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from My hand." He's saying there isn't a nation around here, anywhere in the world that has been able to resist us. And he was right. There wasn't a nation that was able to defeat them militarily. There wasn't.

It would have been impossible for Judah to withstand the attack of Sennacherib. So what did Hezekiah do? Well, He believed that what was impossible with men was possible with God. And he took a letter that was written to him. He took it up to the temple and he spread it out before the Lord and he prayed to the Lord that the Lord would deliver him.

He said, Oh Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, You alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, and you have made heaven and earth, incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly the Lord, the King of Assyria, truly Lord, the King of Assyria, has laid waste all the nations in their land, and has cast their gods into the fire, for they weren't gods, but the work of men's hands. Therefore they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord, God save us from His hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth might know that You are the Lord, You alone." Humanly speaking, it was impossible to resist Sennacherib.

But Hezekiah believed that with God all things are possible. And so in answer to Hezekiah's prayer, he didn't go to Egypt, he didn't go to a bunch of other kings and spend a lot of money to try and build up a coalition against Assyria, he went to the Lord. And in response to his prayer, the angel of the Lord went and killed 185, 000 soldiers overnight in Sennacherib's army. And when the people arose in the morning, there they were, all dead. And Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and went away and returned home in shame and defeat and he was assassinated by his own sons.

His own sons. William Carey said, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. And when we believe that all things are possible with God, we will expect that God will do what is impossible to us. And we will also begin to attempt great things for God. See, if we say that we believe that God can do all things, but we don't actually expect God to do all things, even the things that are impossible for us, we show that we don't actually believe it.

We don't actually believe it. We believe it. We show that we believe it when we exercise that faith. In the summer of 1588, I think it was August, the largest fleet in maritime history to that point in time. Accompanied by some 30, 000 soldiers and sailors, experienced, seasoned soldiers and sailors, set sail from Lisbon Harbor on a mission to destroy the Protestant Reformation in England.

You know that fleet by the name Spanish Armada. King Philip was the king of Spain, and his armada consisted of over 130 vessels, 73 of which were considered large, massive Spanish galleons. Powerful big ships. And the campaign's official banner was in Latin, but translated it said, Arise, O Lord, and vindicate your cause. The British received them and engaged them with only 34 warships and 58 support vessels.

To the human, it looked impossible. To the British, it looked impossible that they would be able to defeat this great fleet, the greatest fleet that had been assembled in maritime history. But God in His providence did the impossible. And there are many, many interesting providences in this whole event. The first was that Sir Francis Drake, who was the son of a Puritan minister, had led a surprise attack on Spanish ships in the Cadiz harbor the year before, and he discovered this armada that they were building.

He came back and told the queen, God increase you, your most excellent majesty's forces, both by sea and land daily. For this I surely think. There was never any force so strong as there is now ready or making ready against your majesty and true religion. But the Lord of all strength is stronger and will defend the truth of his word." That's what he told the Queen. Another providence, Santa Cruz, the Spanish admiral who was to lead the armada died and they replaced him with the Duke of Medina, who was relatively inexperienced, although he was older.

He was inexperienced and he made many mistakes. The Spanish plan was to, and you can see on your bulletin there a little map of this campaign. The Spanish plan was for the Armada to sail up to pick up the Duke of Parma and his army at Calais, which is there in Belgium. It's the closest point of approach to England. They were going to pick up an army there, a very seasoned army, and together with the troops that were on board, they were going to attack England.

And had they done so, they would have conquered England, most likely. However, the Spanish army was attacked and they couldn't meet the vessels on time. And the Belgian ruler there, When he saw what was happening at sea, he became afraid to send his ships out because the English used their older boats that weren't very useful in other ways, set them on fire and pushed them into this armada. And these fire ships didn't really do a lot of damage, but they absolutely terrified the Spanish and they forced them to sail in circles and and they they went somewhat panicked and In the course of doing that one of The greatest galleons in the Spanish Armada, the pride and joy of King Philip, crashed into another ship and was lost. The fleet ended up being broken up into small little groups.

The battle lasted over a week. There's many battles. See, the British had developed low slung vessels and they were able very quickly to come in under these big vessels and and Shoot off all their cannon and escape before the Spanish could return fire They could turn at full speed and the Spanish fleet couldn't. And the Spanish fleet also ran out of ammunition. Now the English ran out of ammunition too, but they were able, because they made the cannons on their ships the exact same caliber as the cannons on land, they were able to go to all the forts along the coast there of England in the south and get enough ammunition to come back and keep engaging the Spanish.

Medina Sedonia wrote the admiral in charge of the armada. He said, the enemy, pursue me, they fire on me from morn till dark, but they will not grapple. There is no remedy, for they are swift and we are slow. And eventually he decided to withdraw. And this monumental decision means he had given up the cause for lost.

They were done. But God was just beginning. He tried to sail back. Their plan was to sail back along the English Channel back to Spain. And normally, the wind never blows up the English Channel.

Normally, the prevailing winds always come down from the north. Always. They come down from the North Sea through the English Channel. And so they had set their strategy to take advantage of that fact. But God caused a strong southwestern wind to blow that day, that week.

And stormy weather stopped their ability to return through the English Channel. God forced that armada to sail north around the British Isles, through the North Sea. And the British fleet harried them all the way along, and they continually lost ships. Over a thousand soldiers drowned. Soldiers that made it to shore were shot.

And by the time the armada reached home, God had destroyed over two-thirds of their fleet and some 20, 000 soldiers. The British National Archives site to this day contains copies of manuscripts of military correspondence between the British and even a letter from a Spanish. And this whole section, account on their website, is entitled, God Blue and They Were Scattered. So it's called God Blue and they are scattered. This wind became known as the Protestant wind.

The British, on the other hand, lost 60 men and no ships. Zero. There wasn't a single hole made below the water on any British ship. See, the British acknowledged what Amos says. Behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind.

He who declares to man what his thought is and makes the morning darkness who treads the high places of the earth. The Lord of hosts is His name. He's the one that makes the morning darkness. He's the one that creates the wind. He's the one who forms the mountains.

All things that are impossible for us. They're possible with God, and He does. He does in answer to the cry of His people. Because of that battle, because of what God did the impossible for the British, the British Navy became a very formidable sea power. The Spanish Navy was never the same after that.

Protestant England became the dominant colonizer of North America, and we are here because of that. Because the Protestant Puritans settled this land, and the Protestant Puritan founders set up constitutions that acknowledged the law of God as the standard of right and wrong, and that acknowledged Jesus Christ as the King of Kings in this land. You might think, well, our Constitution doesn't do that. Yes, it doesn't because it's a replacement of the original ones that did. See the application of this is that we need to rely on the grace of God in all things.

These are impossible things. Because without Christ, Jesus said, we can do nothing. It's not just we can only do a few things. We can do nothing. But all things are possible with Christ.

The fact that many people can do something doesn't mean it's possible to do without God. You think, well, I can cook food and I can eat and I can grow food and I can do all these things. They're possible for us. Well, yes, in the normal sense of that word, yes they are. But we can only do them because Christ enables us.

Without me, Jesus said, you can do nothing. Not just a few things, you can do nothing. Nothing. So even in these mundane things, we can only do them by the grace of God. If God is opposing us, we wouldn't even be able to cook dinner.

We wouldn't even be able to cook dinner. We wouldn't even be able to get in our car and drive somewhere. Fox's book of martyrs records the martyrdom of Mr. Thomas Howks. And a little before death, several of Mr.

Howks' friends were terrified by the thought of him being burned and what he was going to suffer as he was burned to death at the stake. And they privately asked that in the midst of the flames, if he would show them some token, whether the pains of burning were so great, that a man might not collectively endure it. They asked him, say, when you're in the middle of this fire, can you give us some indication that it's possible for a human to endure this kind of pain? And he promised to do that. And it was agreed that if the rage of pain might be suffered, Then he should lift up his hands above his head toward heaven before he gave up the ghost." And so not long after that he was led away to the place appointed for the slaughter by Lord Rich and he was brought to the stake, and he mildly and patiently prepared himself for the fire, tied up to the stake, and there was a number of people on every side around him unto whom after he had spoken many things and poured out his soul unto God, the fire was kindled.

And when he had continued longing in it and his speech was taken away, he could no longer talk by the violence of the flame, his skin drawn together, his fingers were consumed with the fire so that it was thought that he was gone. Suddenly, and contrary to all expectation, this good man, being mindful of his promise, reached up his hands, burning in flames over his head to the living God, and with great rejoicing, as it seems, struck or clapped them three times together. A great shout followed this wonderful circumstance. And then this blessed martyr of Christ, sinking down in the fire, gave up his spirit, June 10, 1555, 33 years before the account of the Armada. Impossible.

It's impossible that any mere human could bear those flames. It's impossible that somebody whose body was burned, who was ready to die, should be able to do what he did. But God enabled him to do that. Peter's answer to Jesus' statement that things that are impossible with men or impossible with God was to say, see, we have left all and followed You. Wow!

And Jesus said, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come, eternal life." That's the promise of the Word of God. There is nothing that we could ever give up. There is nothing that we can endure on this earth that can compare. Paul said that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be ours. And so if in this life we have the graces and the comforts of God's Spirit, the pleasures of communion with God and a good conscience, those are wonderful blessings that more than compensate for any earthly loss.

But that isn't all that God promises in return for those who follow Him. In the world to come, those who served Christ and not themselves, Jesus said, receive everlasting life. Everlasting life. Everlasting fellowship and communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that's the one thing that that ruler wanted to have, but was unable to find.

May God grant us His grace that we can abandon ourselves, that we can serve others, and that we can follow Christ and set our heart on things above and not on things on the earth. Let's pray. Almighty Father in heaven, we thank you for your grace to us in Christ. We thank you that you strengthen us to do anything that we do. We ask Lord that we may daily look to you for that strength, acknowledge our own weakness and live day by day even in the mundane things.

May we live by faith that This life that we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in You who has loved us. And Father, we pray that we may also be moved by Your Word and by Your Spirit, equipped to expect of You great things. And to seek an attempt to do great things for You, knowing that you have promised that what is impossible for us is not impossible for you. And remembering the prize of the upper call in Jesus Christ to all those who have loved you and abandoned themselves to serve you. We ask in Jesus name, amen.