Nothing is impossible with God!

Pastor John Talcott
Christ's Community Church

(2/9) As we read the New Testament, we find three words that really summarize what God wants to instill in our lives. Three little words, reflecting three qualities that really matter today and truly last for all of eternity. In the passage, most well-known as the "Love Chapter" the apostle Paul tells us in his first letter to the church in Corinth, "Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). Now we like to think of these three as great and noble feelings, but I believe that’s taking the wrong approach. You see, feelings are not the point in light of eternity. In the span of forever it doesn’t matter what you feel or don’t feel. What truly matters is what you do with the time that you have. And so until your feelings are demonstrated through your actions they don’t benefit anyone other than you.

I truly believe that the greatest hindrance to God working the impossible in our lives is the idea that it’s all about a feeling. You see, faith, hope, and love are three qualities that we need to aggressively pursue so that they become living realities in our lives. Our goal as a community of believers is to become people grounded in faith, driven by hope, and demonstrating the love of God in all that we do. That’s not something that you can feel in the pit of your stomach and so we can’t go through life waiting to feel faith, or to feel hope, or to feel love; anticipating that if or when the feeling becomes strong enough that something good will follow. Therefore, even when you don’t feel faith you keep expressing your faith through your faithfulness, even when you don’t feel hope you dare to keep fighting for God’s best in your life, and even when you don’t feel the kind of love you want to feel, you put your feelings aside and remember that love becomes real when it becomes an action.

Now with all the joy that Valentine’s Day brings we must also expect that there are those who won’t share our feelings. Undoubtedly for many, February is accompanied by a myriad of feelings, challenges, and anxieties. Therefore, I like to remember a time long ago when love truly was in the air because of the announcement of the impending birth of Jesus Christ and with that announcement came a very powerful promise. In the Scriptures, Luke’s Gospel records, that when the angel came to Mary and told her that she would soon give birth to a child, she asked the obvious question, "How is that possible since I am a virgin?" The angel with all of the insight of one who frequented the throne room of God replied, "Nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37). Those five words remind us that the coming of Christ was a demonstration of faith, hope, and love. And in that glorious event, the birth of Christ validates the powerful truth that nothing is impossible with God.

Now intellectually we may struggle with the supernatural, but innately we all know it to be true, because the Bible states that God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what is been made, so that men are without excuse (Romans 1:20). Therefore, if God can create the universe, he can also override the rules that govern the universe; because he has no limits, he’s not bound by time or space, and he’s able and willing to do the impossible to accomplish his purpose to reveal his nature to love to his creation. This is good news and we can be confident knowing that there are no problems that we’ll face that will take God by surprise and we can be assured that he has a plan for our good in every situation.

Historically we’ve seen this played out ever since the fall of Adam in the garden when God revealed his plan to reconcile and redeem a sinful humanity. With all the omniscience of sovereignty, before God even created the world, love was in the air, there was a twinkle in his divine eyes, and he incorporated a plan that revolved around his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus who marked our calendar with his coming, to whom the prophets pointed, and through whom we find the true meaning of love, came to fulfill the will of his Father in heaven. In love, he abandoned the praise of angels and came to redeem a fallen and broken humanity, a reality which is true in the big picture of history as well as on an individual and personal level. Our Savior is so awesome, so loving, and so powerful that he has a plan for the whole world, for all of history, and that includes your personal life and history. Now, you may think that you’ve made too many mistakes along the way, that God couldn’t love you, and even if God could or did have a plan for you, that you’ve wandered so far off course that it would be impossible for him to redeem your life. And yet that’s what’s so exciting about the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary; "Nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37). And so maybe you’ve messed things up, you’ve taken some wrong turns, and you’re not even sure where you want to be or where you ought to be, but God has a plan and he can pick up wherever you are. When you get off track, he simply adapts to your new situation so that you can still attain his purpose for your life. You can be assured that God has a plan to make something beautiful out of your life and he can do it because "nothing is impossible with God".

I pray that God will make himself known to you in a greater way; that he will open your spiritual eyes to see his hand at work in your life, making all the details fall into place, and getting you exactly where he needed you to be all along. And so maybe for you that means getting serious about following Jesus, moving from no church or maybe casual church attendance to becoming a fully devoted disciple of Jesus. Wherever you are I want to invite you to join us at Christ’s Community Church to discover God’s plan for your life. You see, he is leading you to where he needs you to be, to do what he needs you to do, but ultimately the impossible doesn’t become possible in your life until you arrive at that place, that moment of surrender at the appointed hour. We find this illustrated in the story of the coming of Jesus Christ; both Mary and Joseph reached the place of surrender to the will of God and as a result the impossible became possible. Because of their obedience they became part of a great miracle, a virgin gave birth to a Son who was more than just a great man, more than just a great teacher, he is in fact the Savior of all people everywhere, in every nation, and every generation. Now 2000 years later, hundreds of millions of followers of Christ throughout the world know that there is no limit to what God can accomplish in their lives when they, like Mary and Joseph, completely surrender to the will of God. Now that doesn’t mean that life is without challenges, but as you surrender to God’s will, you know that there’s meaning behind everything that happens, and that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). And so the point being that God can do great things with a life that is surrendered to him, because nothing is impossible with God!

Read past sermons by Pastor John Talcott