And someone came to Him and said, "Teacher, what good
thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?" 17 And He said to
him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One
who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the
commandments." 18 Then he said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus
said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY;
YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; 19 HONOR
YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS
YOURSELF." 20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have
kept; what am I still lacking?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you wish
to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But
when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for
he was one who owned much property. 23 And Jesus said to His
disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of heaven. 24 "Again I say to you, 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." 25 When the disciples heard this, they
were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" 26 And
looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible." 27 Then Peter
said to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You;
what then will there be for us?" 28 And Jesus said to them, "Truly
I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration
when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall
sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29
"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father
or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive
many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. 30 "But many who
are first will be last; and the last, first."

A Great Inconsistency When Dealing With Impossibilities

This sermon was conceived several weeks ago when I was praying
about the human impossibility of raising another $3.8 million in
pledges for the vision of Education for Exultation and Growing
without Growing. I was suddenly struck with a great inconsistency
in my prayers and in my preaching. Here I was preaching about the
Gideon Venture and the Isaac Factor and the Fish Factor - that God
often chooses to do things in ways that highlight man's weakness
and God's omnipotence: 300 men defeating 120,000 Midianites, barren
and aged Sarah giving birth to a son, a coin found in a fish's
mouth. Here I was calling the whole church to pray and give toward
the humanly impossible. "Don't do the math," we said, "ask God to
do the miracle."

And rightly so. God is doing it. I believe he is pleased with
our commitment to do this without debt and to keep looking to him
when we cannot imagine where another $3.8 million in pledges will
come from.

But it hit me very hard that our decade-long prayer goal of 2000
by 2000 ends officially December 31 this year, and we are not
pursuing it in prayer in the same way - I fear precisely because it
feels impossible. "What's the point?" our hearts say to us. If it
hasn't happened in nine years, how can it happen in eight months?
And suddenly I saw the glaring inconsistency in my heart. I was
calling us to pray for the pledges toward the new building
precisely because it is humanly impossible; but I was letting 2000
by 2000 fade quietly into the sunset without the same prayer for
the very same reason: it seems impossible.

We felt led by God in 1990 to formulate what we called a "prayer
goal" of sending 2000 out from us and of winning 2000 people to
Christ. We broke the sending down into career missionaries, two
kinds of short-termers, pastoral ministers, parachurch ministers,
those who leave to plant churches, and nationals who come here to
study and then go back out from us. You can see the results.
Overall, 988 toward the goal of 2000 have been sent, as of today.
Similarly, there have been a little over 500 toward the goal of
2000 professions of faith -about one a week over the decade instead
of the pattern of the book of Acts: "the Lord added to their number
daily as many as were being saved" (Acts 2:47; 16:5).

So is the prayer goal of 2000 by 2000 impossible? Yes, it is
-for man. But is it impossible for God? What we have said over and
over in recent weeks is: "All things are possible with God." So the
aim of this message is to remedy the inconsistency of our praying
and my preaching. My aim is to call us for the next eight months
not only to pray toward the human impossibility of another $3.8
million in pledges when you have already stretched to the breaking
point, but also to pray toward 1500 more professions of faith and
over a thousand people sent out from us. And to believe that God
has ways and means that we have never dreamed of. I'll mention the
details of how we can pray and fast together to this end when I
close.

But first, let's let Jesus talk to us this morning about the
human impossibility of these goals - especially the goal of winning
1500 people to Christ in the next eight months - and the divine
possibility.

What Does "Salvation" Mean?

In Matthew 19:16-30 the issue is salvation. And that's the issue
for us. We want to pray toward 1500 people who are now lost being
saved. So let's notice, first, six different ways that salvation is
described in this text.

1. Verse 16: "And someone came to Him and said, 'Teacher, what
good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?'" That's the
first description: "obtain [or have] eternal life."

2. Verse 17b: Jesus says, "If you wish to enter into life, keep
the commandments." The second way to express "salvation" is "enter
into life."

3. Verse 23: "Jesus said to His disciples, 'Truly I say to you,
it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.'" Third,
you can describe salvation as "entering the kingdom of heaven."

4. Verse 24: Again Jesus says, "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." The fourth way to say it is "enter the kingdom of
God." There is no substantial difference between "kingdom of
heaven" (verse 23) and "kingdom of God" (verse 24).

5. Verse 25: "When the disciples heard this, they were very
astonished and said, 'Then who can be saved?'" There is the
familiar word "saved." So now we know "being saved" means here
having eternal life and entering the kingdom of God. The opposite
would be eternal death and separation from God - a place and a
condition which Jesus more than anyone else in the Bible calls
"Hell," a place of great torment.

6. Verse 29: Jesus says to Peter, "Everyone who has left houses
or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for
My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit
eternal life." Here the future orientation of the passage becomes
clear. "Salvation" means "inheriting eternal life" in the age to
come.

This is what the rich young man was after. And it is what we are
after. And it is what we want others to have through our lives and
ministries. That is the goal of the "harvesting" half of 2000 by
2000. We believe eternal life is at stake in how people respond to
Jesus. We want them to be saved and have eternal life and enter the
kingdom of God and not be condemned on the Day of Judgment.

So now what does Jesus tell us about this salvation?

Humanly Impossible

The most striking thing he tells us is that the conversion that
leads to this salvation is humanly impossible. And this is all the
more striking because the question he is answering when he says
this could easily have been answered without bringing up the issue
of the impossibility of conversion.

Let's look at this in the text. This young man, who wants
eternal life, claims in verse 20 to keep the whole law that Jesus
had summed up with "Love your neighbor as yourself" in verse 19:
"All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?" I don't
think Jesus agrees with this man's self-assessment - namely that he
loves his neighbor as himself.

And so, to expose the man's love of money and his dependence on
money, Jesus says in verse 21, "If you wish to be complete [or
perfect], go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and
you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." If you want
to be what you need to be and inherit eternal life, 1) unshackle
your heart from your possessions, 2) have a heart for the poor, 3)
treasure God in heaven, and 4) follow me (see also John
10:26-27).

But verse 22 says the young man "went away grieving; for he was
one who owned much property." Jesus responded to this departure in
verses 23-24: "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of heaven. (24) Again I say to you, 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." One thing is crystal clear: a camel
cannot go through the eye of a needle. It is impossible. And if you
have ever heard anyone say that this is a reference to a gate in
the wall around Jerusalem which was so small that a camel had to
get down low and take the load off its back, there is no such gate
and the context will not allow such an interpretation.

Jesus interprets his own meaning in his response to what
the
disciples ask next. They are astonished and ask in verse 25, "Then
who can be saved?" Now at this point Jesus has the golden
opportunity to answer with something like: "The poor can be saved."
Or: "Believers can be saved." Or: "Those who follow me can be
saved." But he does not say any of those. He follows through with
the meaning of what he had just said about the camel and the
needle's eye. He says in verse 26, "With people this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible."

What is Jesus referring to when he says, "This is impossible"?
The rich young man had just been unwilling to leave his
possessions, and care for the poor and treasure God and follow
Jesus. Jesus had said, See how hard it is for a rich man to be
converted into a follower of mine. It's as hard as a camel going
through a needle's eye. But then the disciples broaden the issue to
everybody: "Who then can be saved?" And Jesus in essence says, "The
point I am making about the rich is true for everybody. This is not
a problem with money. It's a problem with the human heart." So he
makes the broad general statement: "With people this is
impossible." That is, conversion for everyone is humanly
impossible. Who then can be saved? Answer: No one -unless God
intervenes to do what is humanly impossible.

But Can't a Person Just Decide?

This is what Jesus meant in John 6:65, "No one can come to Me
unless it has been granted him from the Father." It's what Paul
meant in Romans 8:7 where he said, "The mind of the flesh. . . does
not submit to the law of God, for indeed it cannot." And 1
Corinthians 2:14, "A natural man does not accept the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot
understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." And
Ephesians 2:5, "We were dead in our trespasses and sins." It is
impossible for a dead man to be converted - unless God does the
humanly impossible.

Now there is a kind of theology that says, Yes, with man
conversion is impossible apart from God's grace, but God makes it
possible for everyone by a universal work of grace which he gives
to all people everywhere. So, this view says, God overcomes the
deadness of our fallen nature and makes all men able to believe.*
So it would be impossible without this grace, but with this grace
it is possible. And God has given it to everyone. And now the
decisive act of conversion is our work, apart from any added work
on God's part.

But that interpretation won't work in this text. Here is a rich
man who loves his riches so much that he chooses to have them
rather than to help the poor or have treasure in heaven or follow
Jesus. When Jesus explains this tragic choice, what does he say?
Does he say: God's universal grace had overcome the hardness and
rebellion of the man's heart and made it possible for him to leave
his riches and love the poor and treasure heaven and trust Jesus,
but the man still did not do it? Is that his explanation for the
man' s not leaving his riches and following Jesus? No. That is not
his explanation. His explanation of the man's unwillingness to
leave his riches and follow Christ is: With humans it is
impossible.

It's irrelevant in this text to argue that God makes faith
possible for all men, and that the reason some don't believe is
merely their own independent liberty. It's irrelevant because the
issue here is why this one particular man does not use his
so-called "liberty" to leave his riches and follow Christ. And what
is Jesus' explanation that this particular man, in this moment,
would not leave his riches and follow Jesus? His answer is: With
humans it is impossible. In other words, even if there is a
universal grace that enlightens every man that comes into the
world, what Jesus is explaining here is one particular man's
refusal to leave money and follow Jesus, even with such a universal
grace. And his explanation for this man, even with such universal
grace, is: He did not follow me because "with humans it is
impossible."

Therefore what Jesus means when he says in verse 26, "With God
all things are possible," is that God can and does effectually
enable people to leave their riches and follow Christ. He does
grant repentance, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:25. He does grant
that we come to Christ (John 6:65). He does work in us the gift of
faith (Ephesians 2:8). He does the humanly impossible to convert
sinners and bring them to eternal life.

What Will We Do With This Impossibility?

Now we as individuals and as a church stand at a fork in the
road at this point in the message. 1) We can elevate our human
reasonings above Scripture and say, "Well, if conversion is
impossible with man, then I'm not going to pray or evangelize the
lost. Because my mind tells me, What's the point?" Or 2) we can
submit to this word of Jesus and to the whole counsel of God in the
Bible and say, "Because all things are possible with God, including
the conversion of the hardest sinner and the most spiritually
callous person we know, therefore we will pray to this all-powerful
God for such conversions, and we will speak the gospel of Christ
with great expectation that this is the very means God will use to
do what is humanly impossible."

There is no doubt which road we should take. It is the road of
confident, God-centered, courageous, loving evangelism and prayer.
"All things are possible with God" was spoken not only over $9
million; it was spoken over your wayward son and your unbelieving
dad and self-sufficient brother, your alcoholic neighbor and the
secular people you work with, Muslim Somalis of Minneapolis and
your Jewish friends and the kids you go to school with.

Who can be saved? Are you going to stop with the words, "With
man this is impossible"? Or will you go on and rejoice over the
words, "But all things are possible with God." Think of the hardest
unbeliever you know - and then say with Jesus, "All things are
possible with God." Nobody is too hard for God to save. Therefore
let us ask him to do it, and let us boldly fill our mouths with the
gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation.

I call you to three specific ways we can be about this as a
congregation in the next eight months:

1. Join Dan Holst and the other prayer leaders and me each month
for First Sunday Sunrise Prayer from 6:30 to 8:00 am. This will
start next Sunday at 6:30 AM and continue on the first Sundays of
the month for the rest of the year with a view to praying that God
would do the impossible, not only to complete the pledges but to
complete 2000 by 2000.

2. Join the staff and me for the usual First Tuesday Fast at
12:30 this Tuesday. We skip lunch and worship and pray from 12:30
to 1:00. Only now, we will enlarge the focus of the first Tuesday
fasts and include our prayer that God would do these two impossible
things - finishing the pledges and finishing 2000 by 2000.

3. Pray earnestly and expectantly - each of us - that God would
grant us each to lead one person to Christ this year. Here I give
you permission to do the math. If we long to see 1500 people
profess faith in Christ this year, how many people do 1500 people
have to win? One each.

With God all things are possible. Let's believe it and let's
make it the basis of our prayer and our giving and our evangelism.
Amen.

NOTES *Explaining the position of Arminianism, and of John
Wesley in particular, Millard Erickson says, "This prevenient grace
also makes it possible for any person to accept the offer of
salvation in Jesus Christ." Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, 1985), p. 914. To see Wesley's own words see the
sermon, "On Working Out Our Own Salvation" section iii, paragraph 4
at .

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from The
New American Standard Bible, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963,
1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation,
and are used by permission.