Chasing the Impossible

For our audience who were teens, young adults, adults with families in the 80s, this wasn't the brightest or most optimistic time of your life.

The nation and the world as a whole was actually really struggling. When 1980 arrived, 52 Americans were being held hostage in the nation of Iran. 1980 ushered in a global recession which impacted the United States severely. Inflation was over 14 percent, and it continued to be in these similar numbers through that decade. There was an ongoing fuel crisis. Anybody remember that? The fuel crisis? The lions at the gas stations? I don't. I wasn't driving then. But you could see the videos and the photos. There was an ongoing fuel crisis with supply shortages, panic buying, and long lines at the gas stations. At the beginning of the 1980s, homes in the U.S. cost a median of $63,000. Would we not love to go back to those ages when you could buy a house for $63,000? But by the end of the decade, by 1990, that median had risen to $123,000, a 200 percent increase, a double the price in just one decade of prices for homes, similar to what we've seen even more recently with the prices of homes rising. It's not the first time that's happened.

Mortgage interest rates were on a dramatic rise, hitting a high of 18.4 percent.

18 percent mortgage rates. It makes our 6 percent right now look beautiful, right?

But 18 percent, as in the average during those 10 years of that decade, was only 16.64 percent. So even though it hit a high of 18, the average remained very high for most of that period.

The U.S. entered that season and that decade into the coldest segment of a cold war with the Soviet Union. How many remember it being called the Soviet Union? Yeah, I do, but we now refer to it as Russia today.

And that ended the 1980s, ended the friendlier, and I found this in quotes online, diplomatic era of the 1970s. So if anybody thought the 1970s era was bad with Russia, the Cold War era of the 80s was much worse. And the United States announced a boycott that year of the 1980 Summer Olympics, which were to be held in Moscow, Russia. And along with 65 other countries, the U.S. boycotted those Olympic Games, and none of our athletes went to Russia, and none of them competed in those Summer Olympics. Again, I was just a little guy, but a few years after the 80s were ushered in, I remember we, I grew up in Norwood, Ohio, and for those of you in the automotive industry and know where the Camaro was being manufactured, it was right in my backyard at that time. All the Camaros, all the firebirds were being manufactured in Norwood, Ohio. But in 1987, GM decided to shut down that plant, and that plant provided one-third of the revenue for the city of Norwood. And so imagine, it was over actually, one-third. So imagine the school funding, fire, police, social services, everything that you need, GM, through the taxes, was paying for over a third of the money that was coming in. I remember being in an elementary school and didn't understand the demographics and the social aspects of everything going on, but I remember you could see it in the teacher's faces. The budget cuts, the no more raises, the school funds to pay for supplies became tight. And so we've all understood, and you can imagine, what that would be like going through that type of recession. But in the midst of these negative national headlines, something else occurred, which brought a bit of sunshine in the middle of winter, and that was the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. And if we were to be, if we were sport journalists covering the 1980 Winter Olympics, and if we were assigned to the men's hockey team, there are some headlines or some points we would have shared with our audience about this particular team, and they weren't the greatest of headlines. We would have wrote that this team was the youngest hockey squad ever to take to the ice in these Olympics. I think the average age was 20 or 21 years old. It was the youngest team we'd ever put together. Another headline we might have wrote about them is we would have maybe wrote about the hockey itself. We would have said the Soviet Union lineup virtually assures the USSR of a fifth straight gold. They were dominant, and going into these games were expected to be dominant again. Another headline we may have wrote, US massive underdog with 1,000 to 1 odds to win the gold. 1,000 to 1. That's that or those are not good odds. We might have also wrote this as a headline. US hockey expected to finish 7th to 12th place in these games. Not nowhere near getting a medal, not even really in the top half, since the bottom half. So imagine, put yourself in the shoes of that hockey team. Imagine being one of the players on the team. But amid all this negativity and with them facing the impossible, a group of 20 men came together as college athletes to stun the world and to do the impossible.

They won the gold medal in hockey during the 1980 Winter Olympics. Now, again, if you were a journalist and you sat down with these 20 men before the games and you asked how they expected to do, I'm sure you would have received overly positive responses from each one of them. They would have talked about how great the team has come together to learn each other's strengths and how they're jelling and they're playing really well as a group going into these games. They would have mentioned about how some of them have been in these high pressure situations before because several of the young men on the team had just won the national hockey championship that year playing for the University of Minnesota. And while their coach was really hard on them, they would have told you that he's the best coach that they could have for this environment.

And they would have talked about how excited they are to match up against the best in the world.

But deep down, and they have said as much themselves in interviews since the Olympics, none of the athletes on the US hockey team believed that they had any remote chance of beating the Soviet Union. At the time of the Olympics, at that time, the Olympics did not allow professionals to participate. You had to be an amateur. So most of our athletes were made up of collegiate stars. They were not being paid in college. They were going just to on scholarships to maybe in these different sports. And so that's why this hockey team was made up primarily of college hockey players. And this is how the Olympics were operated. No paid athletes were to be in the games.

The Soviet team was composed of, and I'm going to put this in big quotes, amateurs, who were government-sponsored. As a communist nation, everyone had national jobs. So their national job was to play hockey, and everybody outside of Russia knew that they were being paid by the government to do nothing but play hockey. Many of them were, and I'm going to put this in quotes again, soldiers, but in the Russian military, but they never set foot on a battlefield, and they never ever trained for war. They spent all of their time in ice rinks, working to craft and hone their skills with one goal in mind, and that was to remain dominant and to continue to win gold medal after gold medal. It would be like our collegiate athletes today going up against the team that just won the Super Bowl. It'd be like our U of M players going out on a field and playing against the Seattle Seahawks who just won the Super Bowl. I mean, it's that level of indifference between the Russian team and pretty much everybody else. So to say that the U.S. men's team was chasing the impossible, well, that sums up pretty much what they were doing.

Chasing the impossible. How many of us have done that at different times in our lives?

It seems like kind of an oxymoron, right? Chasing something that's impossible to receive or to get, but I think if we go through our Bibles and we look at story after story, account after account, isn't this exactly what God's people have always done? Chased the impossible?

So this chasing the impossible is what we'll look at today as we explore God's Word. I believe one of the greatest challenges of life is battling against those who cast a shadow of negativity over our lives. This negativity can come from international events. It can come from homegrown national things that go on around us that we can't really ignore. And most of these things we can't even control. Negativity can come from our social media feed or social issues that occur around us. And sadly, sometimes negativity even comes from our family or maybe even our church community. It's not supposed to be this way, but it sometimes is. I recognize the current challenge, again, of many of the items that I mentioned that occurred during the 1980s that some of you lived through and experienced at hardship. I recognize that some of those issues have touch points with you today. The ability to purchase a first-time home for those who this is going to be your first time home, that's really hard for our young adults today. The average age of those buying a home continues. First-time homebuyers has made a big jump over the last year, and it continues to go higher. Political divide and polarization is pretty much on every civil topic that is around us today.

You may be even wondering how the geopolitical events occurring today will impact your future or even the next 10 years or more. There's challenges with our economy and with some people being able to find employment, especially those who've gone to college and received degrees.

Some of them are having really hard times finding employment in the fields that they want to work within. And then on top of that, another great challenge we face personally is battling our own deficiencies and our own faults that we go through in life. And these can show up in many different ways and in many different times in our life. Some of these are character deficiencies that need some work. Some are problems with the relationships that we have around us. Some of these challenges are to overcome an addiction or a habit that we currently battle. The list of negativities, whether social or personal, can seem quite long at times, but thankfully we don't have to live under the umbrella of our own weaknesses and struggles. Let's open Scripture today to Ephesians 2 and verse 1. Ephesians 2 and verse 1. Under our own strength trying to go through life, we would be paddling up a stream with a broken paddle. We'd be trying to bowl a game of bowling with a tennis ball. We'd be playing soccer with a deflated ball. Or we'd be playing hockey with a baseball bat. I know ridiculous analogies, but it shows the challenge we have of trying to live our own lives and play the game of life with bad equipment. Because that's what happens when we try to do it our way. Thankfully, we don't have to do it our way, but if we did, we know we'd be a hot mess. But God shows us a better way to go. And here in Ephesians 2, Paul writes to that. Ephesians 2 and verse 1, he says, "...and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the loss of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." But then two of my favorite words in all of scripture begin the next verse. But God. I love that, and I pause every single time I get to this section.

But God. It's beautiful to see those two words together because it shows the breath of what God is doing in our lives. Without Him, we were on a course destined for failure. We couldn't dig our way out of our own hole in the ground. But God. Paul beautifully inspired to share that.

It says, But God, who is rich, and notice these action words that speak to our Lord and our Savior and our Father, but God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us. Even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And all of these are past tense, meaning that He has already fulfilled His part of the deal. And we are already being recipients of this grace and these wonderful blessings. And it says, And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that is not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should, action word, walk in them. But God appreciated so much the sermonette as a reminder of how far we still have to go in transforming our mind and our heart to be able to forgive those who hurt us, those who get in our way on the highway, those who make our lives difficult.

It's not difficult, but we allow it to just irritate us, to bother us. But yet, God in His patience has continued to work with us and He continues to refine us as we allow Him to work in our lives. But even with this understanding secure in our mind, we do still live physical lives in a physical world where things are not really trending in the positive direction we wish they were. But we're not the first of God's people, again, to face a mountain of challenges when it comes to our futures. Going back to our journalist career, if you'll let me insert you as a journalist again, I'd like us to consider another set of headlines. If we were broadcast journalists in Jerusalem around 587 BC, so we're going to go backwards in time quite a bit, 587 BC, and we're writing for the Jerusalem Chronicle. Leading up to 587 BC, we would have worked hard to present the daily headlines with positive doses of our great King and the good prosperity that we're experiencing as a nation, as God's people. But truthfully, the truthful reality is we would have also had to present the headlines in a way to demonstrate that we are struggling as a nation of God's people. These would have been the front page headlines in Jerusalem at 587 BC. Brutal siege against Jerusalem. Another headline, no bread in the city.

Another headline, city capitulates. King Joachim taken to Babylon.

Another headline, Jerusalem falls. Temple destroyed.

Another headline, Nebuchadnezzar begins mass deportation of native Israelites.

These would have been the national headlines at the time. Not a lot really going on in any remote way positive for the nation of Israel. And I'm sure what was going through the minds of many of the Israelites would be the same thing going through your and my mind if we were there in person at that time. What did God want them to do with the time and options still ahead of them? Because their lives, they were still living life. They weren't dead. So what does God want for them to do? What path forward should they take with many unknown situations lie ahead? Fair question. Is it all over? Is this it? Is this the end of my life, my future? Is this the end of the line for my personal hope and my dreams? I can't help but think that if I was there at that time, going through and living that time with those national headlines being carried away as a prisoner to Babylon, it's all over. But notice Jeremiah 29 in verse 1.

Kind of a downer of a message, isn't it? We're going to change that. Jeremiah 29 and verse 1. Because God never took his eyes off his people.

God never went backwards on his promises and he never lifted his grace that was with them. Now, granted, this wasn't great times, right? This isn't something to write home and tell everybody how wonderful things are going. But God was not done with them yet. And he makes sure to tell them that through the prophet Jeremiah. Notice Jeremiah 29 verse 1. It says, He said, So this is the message God wanted hand delivered to his people. Verse 4.

God was instrumental in this. He knew what he was doing. He was moving the cards around on the table, the chess pieces, because this is what needed to occur. And sometimes in our own lives, as we live in this nation and as global affairs happen, we can't take our eyes off the fact that God is moving pieces around. And he's also involved in the affairs of the society and the world and the global events going on around us, too, right? So recognizing that his hand is not shortened. He's not able to not allow the society and the things that happen in the world to go according to his plan. Right here in Jeremiah, it says, he caused those things during this time, and he continues to be involved even today. But he says this to his own people. He said in verse 5, sure this was probably not on their mind. They're being carried away captive. They're not thinking about having families, growing their households, having peace and being able to enjoy the things that most of us enjoy in life. But God says that you may be increased there and not diminished.

In their mind, it's all over. It's all downhill from here. But God says, no, you're going to increase. And he says, and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive. And notice, and pray to the Lord for it. Pray for that peace, for in its peace you will have peace. God never took his eyes off of his people. He never backtracked on his promises that he made Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through a series of covenants. He continued to be involved, and he continued to love, and he continued to care for them, and he continued to want to know their hopes and dreams. He continued to want to have a relationship with them, even though everything, literally everything around them was crumbled, was falling apart, hope was lost.

He wanted them to be able to experience and do the same things that they all love to do in Jerusalem.

But he says, I need you to now do it in another land. Then he says, pray for the peace that you want in life. In effect, he's also saying to pray for those good things that you continue to want in this physical life. Talk to me. Continue to let me know what's on your mind, even though I'm God, I know what's on your heart. I want there to be a relationship. You're not just cast out. You're not just figuring this life out on your own. You and me, we've got a partnership. We've got a father and child relationship here. Let's talk. Pray to me. Talk to me. He says as much as we continue in verse 11, he says, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. God says, I have these positive ideas, these things that I want you to be able to enjoy, things that I built into you.

I gave you marriage because I want you to find a spouse. And when you find a spouse, I want you to have children. And I want you to have a career. And I want you to be able to own a place to live. And I want you to be able to set up that house how you like it. I want you to be able to buy a bike for your kid. I want you to be able to do these fun things that you've been able to enjoy in life, even though maybe the decades have changed a little bit. The crisis has maybe grown up larger or morphed a little bit. But I still want you to live life and to live it abundantly. God is telling Israel here. He says, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me. And what's he saying? I'll listen to you. That's not a God's not just saying that out the side of his mouth and then getting busy over here and not listening. He's saying, I promise you, if you will have a relationship with me in this difficult environment, I'll listen. And when I listen, I'll understand and I'll hear your prayers. And it says, and you will seek me in verse 13, and you will find me. It's another promise of God's. It's always been his promise all through eternity. If you will seek me, I will find you. But there's two parts to play in this one, isn't there? There's God's part that he's not going to change. But he says, I need you to do your part. And it says, and when you search for me with all of your heart, this is the part that we play, right? We have to seek him. We have to search for him. But in the situation like the Israelites were facing, it would be hard not to be overwhelmed with the lack of positivity around you.

Yet God didn't want them to dwell all the time in the negativity, but to reflect on the relationship that he was inviting them to maintain with him. And he personally expected them to continue to pray with him. And again, he promised that he would listen. Is there a greater promise we could ask for than knowing that the one true God hears our prayers and that he wants deeply a relationship with us? I mean, if push came to shove, there's nothing greater that we could have in this life than a relationship with him to be able to talk with him, share our concerns and questions about our future, to the wants, the desires that we have, the things that he has built into us, to desire family, to desire someone to share this life with as we continue to age and get older. These are all things that God has given us as gifts. So nothing has changed on God's side of the equation. And it doesn't matter if you are 15, if you're 55, or if you're 85. Every one of us has concerns about things in this life. If we went around the room and I asked you, name a concern, every single person in here can come up with a concern about life, situations going on, environment around us. So whether you're a teenager or a young adult, in your middle ages, or you're reaching the apex of your life, we all have challenges. Maybe they involve future decisions ahead of you, or maybe they involve spiritual matters that you continue to work through and hope to overcome. The reality is that we all need God in order to better go through this life, because the truth is it's a very dark and difficult place to go through life without Him.

People have tried. People continue to say, I'm doing okay. The reality is they're not okay.

Anybody apart from God is not okay. And let us not lose sight of the fact that we have an enemy who wants nothing more than for us to forget who we are before God and what God is doing in the lives of those He's called to His family. He wants us to feel discouraged and to think that either we don't fit in or we don't belong at times. He wants us to think our future is bleak and to feel like our hopes and our dreams are pointless because everything is going sideways in life. Satan uses discouragement as a tool against us to make us more focused on our problems and issues instead of focusing on God. He wants us to feel like our lives and our issues and our shortcomings are so great that we become paralyzed that there's no hope of overcoming them. He wants us to feel like the chase is impossible. In these instances, we have to remember that the location and time where God has placed us with this physical life is not an accident. None of us came into this world as an accident. My mom says I'm an accident. She might be listening today and I'm going to pay for that one, but she says it. But the truth is none of us are an accident, right? God knew us before anybody else ever knew us. None of us are accidents. And so the timing in which we have existed in this space and in this life is not an accident. And nor has it changed what God wants for us, nor does it change what we in our hearts want to experience from this life.

Just because we live in a time where there are negative situations going on around us and the future doesn't always look great, all of this is not too much for God. This is why he instructed the Israelites to chase the impossible because that is what it was. Going into Babylon as captives was impossible to find hope or joy or a better life. And he says I want you to chase the impossible, to go after the things that they still wanted to achieve in life, and to continue a strong and dependent relationship with him as their almighty Father, because he was that mighty Father figure in their life. The Apostle Peter reminds us of the attitude to have and where to focus our thoughts on in 1 Peter 5 and verse 6. If we will take this approach that Peter outlines in 1 Peter 5 and verse 6, then we're setting ourselves up to be successful in all aspects of life.

1 Peter 5 and verse 6. Peter writes, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. See, that goes contrary to everything that the world says, right? Everything that society around us says. It says exalt yourself and blaze your own path.

There's an effort that we put into it. God expects us to work, right, and to plan and to do things, but to lower yourself in humility and to place your life into God's hands so that he may lift us up, that's not a message you hear a lot outside of these walls, is it? But this is exactly what Peter says. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.

Peter is saying, recognize that we cannot figure this thing called life out on our own.

We can hardly manage very many things in our life very well, much less the social and global issues that surround us constantly. You and I have no control over those things.

He goes on in verse 7. He says, this is what we're to do. Cast all of your care upon him. Why?

Because he cares for you. All the concerns you have about, well, I get to do this in my life, all the concerns, will I ever be able to buy a home? The concern, what if bringing children into this world, is that a good decision or bad decision? Is this crazy right now to consider in society and everything going on to have children right now? Peter is saying, cast these cares to God. Hand these over to him because it says he cares about us. He wants to know this. He has placed these desires to be fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, workers, friends, everything that we enjoy in this life, he's placed that in our heart to desire these things because they're good things. And he's always wanted his people to be able to enjoy these things. That's why when they even went into captivity, he says, go and marry your children, have grandchildren, expand your families, plant gardens, work in them, enjoy the fruit of the land, but be at peace because God is about peace. And so Peter reminds us, this is what we have to do today, even if situations are challenging. And then he offers a warning in verse eight, because he flips it to that other evil side that is reality around us as well. Because he says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And then Peter gives instructions, saying, resist him. And that's where the rubber meets the road in life. We have to battle, we have to fight hard, we have to let God use us as a tool in his hand to resist our enemy. And he said, being steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world, but made the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After you have suffered for a while, notice what he says. Notice these things that God wants for our life. He wants to perfect us, Peter says. He wants to establish us, to strengthen us, and to settle you. And when life, the push and shove of life really gets boiled down to the most simple aspects of what we want, we all want to live a settled life. We want to live a life where we're comfortable and there's peace around us and we have peace of mind. That's the most important one because we can't control a lot of these other things, but we with God's help can control the peace that is in our mind.

And it says, Peter says, this is what God wants to give us. He wants to perfect us. He wants to establish, build up us. He wants to strengthen us so we're not weak, we're not getting blown over, but that we're strong in the faith and we're strong in our beliefs and we're strong in the character.

And he says, and I want you to be settled. Because when we consider these elements that Peter is writing about here, we don't see a lot of that in the lives of people who are apart from God.

They're blown left and right. They're here, they're there. They're making these ideas. They're throwing out these options and then things fail and then they're, I don't know what to do next.

Peter finishes it by saying to him, be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

I've mentioned a few times through this message of one of the names of God, the Almighty One, or the Almighty God. In Hebrew, this name is El Shaddai. And from Blue Letter Bible, it says this about this name. El is another name that is translated as God and can be used in conjunction with other words to designate various aspects of God's character. And so the word Shaddai or shad refers to God's complete nourishing, satisfying, and supplying his people with all of their needs as a mother would her child.

And when we understand it that way, it's a beautiful example of a way that there's protection, there's comfort. What, who is it that our children run to when they fall down and they scrape their hands and knees? It's not usually me as a dad.

It's mom. Why? Because of the softness, the kindness, the kisses that make all the boo-boos better. And this is the way that Shaddai and the definition of Shaddai represents that the God you and I call as our father cares about us as a mother does her child. The Blue Letter Bible goes on to say, connected with the word for God, El, this denotes a God who freely gives nourishment and blessing.

He is our sustainer. Knowing that God is El Shaddai matters. It matters because it reminds us that the Lord is our mighty God and that there is no other like him. Notice what's occurring in people's lives when God refers to himself as El Shaddai. You can put this in your notes. I'm not going to turn to all of them for the sake of time. But Genesis 17 and verse 1, this is when God made the covenant with Abraham. He says, when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am Almighty God.

Walk before me and be blameless. So God is inviting Abraham to this relationship, this covenant relationship with him and saying, this is the way to walk. Now walk in it. There's another passage in Genesis 28 verse 3 and 4. This is when Jacob was sent to Laban and with the intent to find a wife. God says, may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be an assembly of people and give you the blessing of Abraham to which you and your descendants with you that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.

So again, he's reminding of this covenant promise. He wants to be his there mighty God and he wants to supply his blessings. Notice in other passages, Genesis 35 verses 10 through 12. This is again when God blesses and renames Jacob. It says, and God said to him, your name is Jacob and you shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.

So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you and to your descendants after you I give this land.

So when God refers to himself as God Almighty, El Shaddai, he's saying, I provide for my children. I give them everything. I know their hearts, their wishes, their dreams. I know their fears. I know their concerns. And I know that when things are going crazy in society around them, I know they want peace. I know they want to be settled. And he's reminding our patriarchs, the big names of the Bible, that he's the God that does all of these things. And then it filters all the way down to each of our lives that he wants to be the God that does these things for our lives today.

So how did someone like David chase the impossible? We didn't look at David today. Don't have enough time to go there. But we know of his story taken on Goliath, right? You want to talk about chasing the impossible?

David did it. How did God's people over time continue to chase the impossible?

It shouldn't come as any surprise. They trusted in the God who does impossible things. Seems too simple, right? Just trust the God who does the impossible. But when we read from Genesis to Revelation, that's what we see God's people doing. They trusted in their almighty God.

They trusted in El Shaddai. As God told Israel, which we already read from Jeremiah, I know the thoughts that I think towards you. God's reminded me, I know what I want for you. I know what I envision for you. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope.

This is what God wants for every one of us. Even when the circumstances of life seem like impossibilities, God is the one who works in the space between where we are at right now and what we want for our future. There's a gap, right? There's a chasm. Not all of you have finished your technical school. Some of you haven't graduated yet. Some of you have not found a spouse. There's a gap between what you envision and you dream of doing and where you're at right now. God sits in that gap. 100 percent, He sits in that gap. And what He wants for us often parallels many of the desires of our heart. And this is not a health and wealth gospel. I want to make that perfectly clear. God is not a genie in a bottle, if we've talked about. He's not promised that whatever we wish for and ask for, He's bound to give to us. But God has invited us into a personal relationship with Him to know what's on our hearts, to know what our desires are. He's given us gifts and talents to then magnify and to do work and to serve others and to build a community, to serve each other here. He knows each of us are different. And then He says, I want to know what you want in life. I want to know what you want to explore in life. I know your fears as you age. I know you may wonder what's going to happen here or there. I want to know these things because I want to be part of your life. And when we consider our lives, those of us who've lived a little bit of time, we admit and we must admit that we know that God has walked alongside of us. And we've been the recipient of countless blessings, the pinnacle of which is that we've been called into this relationship with the Almighty God. And He views us as His children. As we've covered in the past couple of sermons here in our local area, our Father is the perfect parent who understands our lives and He knows what's best for us. So sometimes He does say no, or He says not right now, to the things that we wish we could receive. But when we keep our eyes open and continue to look for His fingerprints on our lives, we can see how He continues to bless us, maybe not the way that we were hoping, but we see that He's still along right next to us, walking and guiding and shaping our lives. And He's richly blessing us along the way. Let's notice Luke 18 as we begin to move towards the conclusion of this message.

Luke 18 speaks to the God of the impossible.

Luke 18 and verse 18. This is now a certain ruler asking Him, saying, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? This is a great thing to get, right? This is what we all want. 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 your mother. And He said, All these things I have kept from my youth. Great job. And so when Jesus heard these things, He said to them, You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow Me. That follow Me is a command and an invitation that God has extended to every one of us sitting here and everyone online.

It's an invitation He's going to offer to everyone who's ever lived to be able to have an opportunity to follow Him. But it comes with responsibilities to make choices that align with God. It says, But when He heard this, this certain ruler, He became very sorrowful for he was very rich. His focus was on the material things of life. And not all that's bad, right? God wants us to have money. He wants us to have a career. He wants us to work hard. And if in doing that, you can buy a car and you can buy a house and you can buy things. There's nothing wrong with that.

But where was this ruler's focus? Was it on eternal life or was it on the items that he had in this physical life? Verse 24, it says, And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, How hard is it for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God? For it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And those who heard it said, Then who can be saved? Fair question. Who can be saved then? But He said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. He's 100% referencing eternal life and bringing someone from this physical life to a spiritual son and daughter of his father.

But we know there's also the other side of God wants to know what's on our hearts. He wants to stand in that gap of the impossible things that are on our plate, the things we don't think I'll ever get to do, or how am I going to make this work? How am I going to be able to do these things in lives that my parents were able to do, my grandparents were able to do, these things that they were able to have in life, the futures that some of you are looking at, that your parents who've now passed the lives that they were able to end up doing, and now you're wondering, am I going to be able to have a retirement like that? Am I going to be able to travel? Am I going to have safety in my house? Am I going to be able to even own a house? The amount of money that some of our retirees are on, it's not going up. It's not keeping up with inflation. Things are getting tighter, and there's questions, how's this going to be for my future? Christ is saying, I stand in that gap. The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Then Peter said, see, we have left and followed you. And so he said, assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents, brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time. Don't miss that part. He doesn't just say, in the future you'll receive these riches and blessings. In this present time, if we will make sacrifices today to follow our Lord and our Savior, to follow me, as Christ said, to let God live within our hearts, he says right here, another one of his promises, who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the ages to come eternal life. So what we miss out on in life, and I think I got to put big quotes around that, right? Because are we really missing out if it's not in line with God?

What we miss out on life or what we give up to follow Him, these things are not missed by God.

He sees the challenges we face in following Him in a society that often moves in its own direction apart from Him. But He has stated many times through Scripture that He is the Almighty God, and He cares deeply about every one of us, and He cares deeply about our future.

So how about it? Will we continue to chase the impossible? The U.S. men's hockey team from the 1980 Olympics is a story that still resonates strongly with many people and remains encouraging to many 46 years later after this team won the gold. What will be the impossible thing that you will tell someone about in future years? What will be the mountain that seemed impossible to climb but doors open that you just can't explain exactly how that happened? What will be the personal challenge that you broke free from and left behind the guilt and the shame?

One of the men on the hockey team said that having the medal around his neck was the purest joy that one can have. But I think we all recognize that there is a much greater joy that awaits those who love God and continue to seek Him in their lives. Let's close in Psalm 33 and verse 11.

Psalm 33. Starting in verse 11.

Because this thing called life boils down to this. Psalm 33 verse 11. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

That's you and me. That's our lives in His hand. And He says He has a plan in His heart for you and for me and for our future, for our children that will be born and our families. He has a plan.

Verse 13 says, He's seeing everything.

Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our hearts shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name. Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us just as we hope in you.

Keep chasing the impossible.