Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you that you have left us a record of the life of Jesus Christ.
[00:00:12] And we can read the Gospels and we can learn his good ideas, and we can follow his actions.
[00:00:22] I pray today we would be persuaded by the compassion of Jesus Christ.
[00:00:29] And I ask it in Christ's name. Amen.
[00:00:34] If you read Matthew 5, 6, 7, you're reading the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:00:43] And the teaching on the Sermon on the Mount is Christ sharing the profoundest ideas that humanity has ever heard.
[00:01:00] And much of the Sermon on the Mount you recognize.
[00:01:04] For example, you recognize the Beatitudes.
[00:01:08] Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God.
[00:01:13] Blessed are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth.
[00:01:17] The Beatitudes also tell us that we are the light of the world and we are the salt of the world.
[00:01:27] In the Beatitudes, we learned that we didn't understand the Old Testament. And Jesus said, you heard it said. But I say unto you, you heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Do good to those who are ugly.
[00:01:50] It's in the Sermon on the Mount that we learned the Lord's Prayer.
[00:01:57] The Sermon on the Mount tells us not to be hypocrites.
[00:02:01] And that beautiful idea that the way you want other people to treat you, that's the way you should treat people. That's from the Sermon on the Mount.
[00:02:10] So the Sermon on the Mount is these incredible ideas from Christ.
[00:02:17] But then the sermon was over, and Jesus came down from the mountain.
[00:02:22] And the very first thing he ran into was a terrible problem.
[00:02:29] There was a man with leprosy, and there was no cure for leprosy in Christ's world.
[00:02:36] And the leper said to Jesus, if you wanted to, you could help me.
[00:02:44] And Jesus said, I do want to. And he reached out his hand and touched the leper. And the leper was healed.
[00:02:54] And that was no more over. And Jesus got hit by another problem.
[00:03:00] And it's the problem that we're going to look at today in our. In our sermon.
[00:03:08] As Jesus entered to Capernaum, a group of people came up to Jesus, and they were the representatives of the centurion who was the head of the occupying army of the Roman army in Capernaum.
[00:03:28] And I'll pick up the story in Matthew, chapter 8, verse 5.
[00:03:34] When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, lord, my servant. We're going to study this word, servant. It's a child, a child slave. I have a child slave. And he's lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.
[00:03:56] Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him.
[00:04:01] Often the New Testament doesn't give us the background story, so we have to look at what was normal in history.
[00:04:11] So this child was a slave. And he was either the child of a husband and wife slave that the centurion had or the centurion had bought him as a child in a slave market.
[00:04:28] But either way, he was a child slave and it's easy for us to miss why that's an issue. Okay, first of all, he had no status at all.
[00:04:45] He was a child and a slave and he had, everybody in the world was over him.
[00:04:54] Every single person in the world was over him. His master could tell him what to do. Other slaves could tell him what to do. He was a kid.
[00:05:04] He was, he, he was at the bottom of the bottom and on top of that he was sick.
[00:05:20] He had one thing going for him in the world.
[00:05:25] His master, the centurion fawned over him.
[00:05:31] He loved that kid.
[00:05:34] He loved that kid, that slave like he was his own son.
[00:05:43] Often the Bible wants us to put ourself in the story.
[00:05:51] The Bible wants you to see yourself today as that child, that child that was a slave and had become sick and was helplessly laying on a mat in the centurion's house.
[00:06:19] You say, doc, I'm not sure I know how to see myself that way. Surely if you look at your soul, you know that living in this world has damaged your soul.
[00:06:33] If you are self aware at all, you, you have, you have dozens of memories where life pushed you around.
[00:06:47] Life didn't treat you fair. You were disappointed things didn't work out the way you wanted to work out.
[00:06:55] You have, you, you, you bear in your soul the evidences that life is wounding.
[00:07:09] And for some of you today, it's easy for you to see yourself as a child because you feel paralyzed.
[00:07:18] You feel that it can't ever be the way you once dreamed it would be.
[00:07:25] It can't ever. It. I can't ever get back to where my hopes were at their highest. And, and, and I was inspired by the prospect of the future.
[00:07:41] If you can recognize that in your soul today, I want to say to you, Christ cares for you just like he cared for that little boy.
[00:07:53] And he doesn't care for you because you have status or don't have status. He doesn't care for you because what economic class you're in. He doesn't care for you because of your, of your gender or any of these things.
[00:08:08] He cares for you Simply because he is infinite in compassion and mercy.
[00:08:17] He has an infinite love for your soul.
[00:08:22] He cares for you in the very same way he cared for that, that centurion. A child.
[00:08:34] I wonder how many other sick kids there were in Capernaum that day.
[00:08:42] You know, before kids could get mump shots or whatever shots they get now, children.
[00:08:53] Being a child was a dangerous thing.
[00:08:56] And before there was antibiotics, being a child, infant mortality was high.
[00:09:06] And this child was at the point of, this child was at the point of death. But he wasn't the only one. There were probably dozens of sick people, children within walking distance of Jesus.
[00:09:21] And of all those children, Jesus chose that day, this child to help.
[00:09:29] Do you know you're never lost in humanity?
[00:09:33] You are never lost in humanity. I don't care how many people there are, I don't care how many souls there are on the earth. Christ can find you.
[00:09:43] He knows you. He knows where you are. And his compassion will lead him to you again and again and again in your life.
[00:09:56] Don't say to yourself, I'm just one in a million. God is probably too busy for me.
[00:10:03] God found a slave child that day and I'm telling you, he can find you today.
[00:10:12] He could not only find you, he cares for you and he's looking for you.
[00:10:20] Now some of you might say to me, you know Doc, I'm in a pretty good place.
[00:10:26] God has blessed me.
[00:10:29] I feel good in my soul today. I have a sense of well being.
[00:10:36] Well then maybe you need to be the centurion in this story and you need to bring somebody else's broken heart to Jesus Christ.
[00:10:48] Maybe you're at a time in your life where you need to do for somebody else what the centurion did for the child. You need to find Christ and say, I have a family member who desperately needs your help.
[00:11:02] I have a friend who desperately needs your help.
[00:11:07] I have a co worker who desperately needs your help. Perhaps if you're feeling, if you're feeling well in your own soul, then you need to be the centurion and you need to get Christ's attention in prayer. And you need to say to God, would you please help my friend?
[00:11:26] Would you please help my son, my daughter, Would you please help my granddaughter who's struggling?
[00:11:35] I want to put myself in the story and if I'm struggling, I want to cry out. I know that you are merciful. Would you please come and help me? If I'm feeling good in the Lord, I need to say, I have friends and family who desperately need your attention. Would you please come and help?
[00:11:55] The child was paralyzed. He couldn't get himself to Christ.
[00:12:01] The child was suffering unbearable pain and he couldn't get himself to Christ.
[00:12:06] Luke tells this very same story and he says he was at the point of death.
[00:12:14] If some of you feel alienated from Christ and you just don't know how you can find him, you just wherever your soul is right now, you don't know how to find your way back to Christ. You don't have to find your way to him. He'll find his way to you.
[00:12:37] Jesus didn't say to the centurion, bring the kid here and I'll help him. He said just the opposite, let leave the boy where he is, I'll come and help him.
[00:12:49] Christ in his infinite compassion doesn't say to you, today you come. You get up and come to me and I'll help you. He says to you are today. Just open your heart to me and I'll come and help you.
[00:13:08] Just have enough trust in me to open the door and I will give you grace.
[00:13:14] Just invite me into your house and I will do for you what only God can do for you.
[00:13:23] I also find it interesting.
[00:13:27] I have a one year old great granddaughter and she just makes the world a beautiful place.
[00:13:34] Grandparents, the baby makes me nuts.
[00:13:46] Talking baby talk, it's ridiculous.
[00:13:53] I shame myself for that child.
[00:13:58] But my wife and I agree, we just feel happy when we're around that baby.
[00:14:07] I imagine in my head that this child slave was the kind of child that the centurion favored because it was he just made the centurion happy. The child had a good effect on everybody who lived in that house. He had the child effect on the family.
[00:14:29] Ah, but that child effect had a drastic change when the baby was so sick and everybody thought the baby was going to die. Now the family that had been so happy was filled with anxiety.
[00:14:44] The family that had been so cheered by the child, they were filled. They were full of worry and concern.
[00:14:52] The home that had been a delightful place. There was a stillness and a troubled feeling there.
[00:15:05] And Jesus said, I'm going to help.
[00:15:09] Because Christ knew that when he helped that baby, it would change the environment of everybody around the baby.
[00:15:16] When the baby got better, the family would get better too. Right? When the baby was healthy and running around again, the joy would be back in the family. Do you know Christ wants to heal your soul so you can have a ripple effect on the people around you.
[00:15:34] He wants to do something healthy and good in you. He wants to give you a healing. He wants to fill you with new hope and new joy. Because when he does that, it's going to have an effect on the people around you.
[00:15:48] The people around you are going to sense something good is happening in you. The people around you is going to feel that if God has done this beautiful thing for you, he might do something beautiful for them.
[00:16:02] The grace of God isn't just limited to God doing something good for you. When he does something good for you, he's going to do something good for others through you.
[00:16:17] And then Jesus said a one word sentence to the. I mean a very short sentence to the, to the centurion. And it's easy to read right over this. Listen, what Jesus said, I will come and heal him.
[00:16:34] The very first word is I.
[00:16:38] Christ could have said, peter, go take care of this. I'm busy today. It's just a kid.
[00:16:44] Not important enough for me to give my full attention to. But he didn't. He said, I am going to take care of this myself.
[00:16:54] He could have. He could have. He could have said to Andrew or James and John, go look into this and see if it's worth my time. But he didn't. What he said is, I've already made up my mind. This child is worth my time and I'm going to give myself to help this child.
[00:17:19] Church. It is Christ himself who wants to help you. He's not sending angels, he's not sending surrogates. He's not sending prophets and saints.
[00:17:33] He's not sending intermediaries. He himself wants to meet you exactly where you are and grant you grace that your soul so desperately needs.
[00:17:46] The second thing he said is, I will come.
[00:17:52] The child couldn't get himself to Christ, but Christ could get himself to the child.
[00:17:58] And then the third thing he said is, and I'm gonna heal the child.
[00:18:03] When you read the Gospels, Christ never surprises himself.
[00:18:07] Do you ever surprise yourself?
[00:18:14] Sometimes I surprise myself. I do a little better than I thought I would do.
[00:18:19] Sometimes I despise. I surprise myself I didn't do as good as I thought I would do.
[00:18:26] I'm able to surprise myself. Christ never was surprised by himself. He said, I'm going to come and I'm going to heal that baby. He didn't say, well, I'm going to come over there and I. And I hope everything works out and I'm going to heal the baby. Or didn't go over there and go, wow, I did it. The baby's God. Whew.
[00:18:53] He never surprised himself. He was absolutely confident in whatever the problem was. He was sufficient for it. Could I tell you, whatever your issue is today, it won't surprise Christ and he won't be surprised. He is sufficient to meet your need today. Whatever it is you say, Doc, you don't understand. It's worse than you saying, but it's not worse than Christ is able to handle.
[00:19:24] Whatever your issue is, Christ is fully sufficient to meet you in that issue. Grant you grace, grant you health, grant you well being, restore to you the joy of your salvation.
[00:19:42] He is compassionate and capable of meeting us and meeting the needs of our heart.
[00:19:52] I'd like to say that our church has distinguished itself as being people who do what Christ himself did in the very same way that Christ gave himself to help this baby.
[00:20:17] We've done two really big projects lately. We did the Alpha Georgia house. Tornado blew the roof off. And we took an offering to pay for it to be repaired.
[00:20:30] And then we took an offering for North Carolina. In those two offerings, you gave $31,000 to meet people's needs.
[00:20:46] The first truckload of the kits are already down there. Another truckload is being made.
[00:20:55] We sent money directly to the Lutheran church we're working with there so they can. They know the immediate needs.
[00:21:05] We need diapers, they get diapers.
[00:21:09] We found out that some of these places are so rural, they're taking the supplies there on horseback. There aren't roads to get the stuff through. All right.
[00:21:21] You have followed Christ's example and said, there is a need in the world and we're going to partner with God in meeting it.
[00:21:34] You showed compassion to those who were in desperate need. And I. And I want to say I'm proud to be a church. I'm proud to be in a church like this. And I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful to you for your generosity.
[00:21:54] Jesus said, I'm going to come and help.
[00:21:57] And then the centurion says the oddest thing.
[00:22:06] He said, lord, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof.
[00:22:10] But only say the word and my child servant will be healed.
[00:22:16] For I, too am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I say to one go, and he goes, and to another, come. And he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it.
[00:22:29] When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
[00:22:43] I need to remind you about centurions.
[00:22:47] To be a Centurion usually took 15 to 20 years in the army to work your way to the top.
[00:22:55] A centurion was in charge of 80 to 100 men.
[00:23:01] You had to distinguish yourself on the battlefield as more courageous than most. You had to be intelligent, you had to be trusted.
[00:23:10] You had to be able to be at the front of the fighting in battle. You had to be a foreman for work projects, and you had to organize the camp.
[00:23:21] I don't need to say centurions were the hardest of the hard in the Roman army.
[00:23:34] Those guys were the hardest of the hard.
[00:23:41] And this guy was in Capernaum because the Roman army was occupying Israel.
[00:23:49] And they put troops in all the big. In all the major areas to control people and keep them in line. The centurion was there at the head of an occupying army, and he comes up and asks Jesus for help.
[00:24:07] And ironically, Christ doesn't vet him.
[00:24:12] He doesn't go, well, just a minute. You're a centurion, aren't you?
[00:24:18] Ah, ah.
[00:24:22] How many people have you killed?
[00:24:26] He doesn't vet him. He goes, you're a centurion. When was the last time you beat some people up in Capernaum?
[00:24:35] You're a centurion.
[00:24:39] You're not even a Jewish person, you're Roman.
[00:24:44] He doesn't vet him at all.
[00:24:48] He simply says to the centurion, I'm going to help you.
[00:24:53] And then we learn we can make it easier for God to help us.
[00:24:58] God wants to help you. He wants to bless you. He wants to show you grace. You can make it easy for him to do that, or you can make it hard for him to do that.
[00:25:07] I remember when I was. When I was raising my kids, they could make it easy for me to bless them, or they could make it almost impossible for me to bless them, right?
[00:25:19] I could want to do something nice and they could have one of those attitudes where I wanted to choke him to death.
[00:25:29] Snotty little teenage attitude. Help God, help us.
[00:25:34] Although I was worse than all my kids put together. So my poor mom, I'll need binoculars to see her in heaven.
[00:25:48] We can make it easy for God to bless us, and we can make it hard for God to bless us. Now look what the centurion does.
[00:25:56] The first thing he does is he humbles himself.
[00:26:01] He says, lord, I'm not worthy for you to even enter into my house.
[00:26:09] That is a humble statement.
[00:26:11] And this guy doesn't have any history of being humble. He humbles himself to Christ.
[00:26:19] Oh, how beautiful it is when it dawns on us that God wants to do many beautiful things for me and I don't deserve any of them. He's just doing them because he is an awesome God.
[00:26:34] If you've deceived yourself and you think God owes you something, you think you deserve these blessings. Oh, how difficult you make it for him to be good to you. But when you will acknowledge that God has been so much better to me than what I deserve, all these good things are in my life, not because I'm the greatest guy in the world, but because he's the greatest God in the world.
[00:27:06] God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
[00:27:11] Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, and He will lift you up at the right time.
[00:27:19] The second thing that centurion did that made it easy for God to show him kindness was he had great faith.
[00:27:28] Only say the word and my servant will be healed.
[00:27:32] This centurion was fully convinced that if Jesus said for that boy to be healed, that boy would be healed.
[00:27:43] He had full faith, full confidence.
[00:27:48] Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Can you hear me, Church?
[00:27:54] Without faith, it is impossible to please God. When you are a person who is fully convinced by Jesus Christ, it makes it easier and easier for him to bless you.
[00:28:09] If you are a person that continually doubts the goodness of God, he's going to find a way to bless you anyway. But you're cutting yourself off from many of the good things God wants to do. Can you hear me, Church? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understandings. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.
[00:28:40] I find it interesting that Christ's compassion is effective. Near or far.
[00:28:48] Jesus had the same ability to heal that boy out on the street, way away from the house as he did being in the house right next to the boy.
[00:28:58] How far you are from God doesn't affect his ability to have a good influence on you.
[00:29:05] Some of you have drifted. Some of you know that there was a time in your life when you were much closer to Christ than you are now.
[00:29:13] You remember when, when Christ was a important part of your daily life.
[00:29:19] You looked forward to prayer time. You read the Bible with great interest.
[00:29:27] But one pathway led to another pathway. And now you have to say, I'm not as near to Christ as I once was.
[00:29:37] Church.
[00:29:39] The distance doesn't change his ability to help you.
[00:29:44] You may have wandered, but he is the good shepherd. You may have gotten lost on the pathway somewhere, but he leaves the 99 and he comes and finds you and he picks you up and he takes you home. He cares for you. You're never so far from Christ that Christ can't reach you with his steadfast love and faithfulness, the centurion did a third thing. He had a sense of his place in the divine design. Listen to what he says. I'm a man under authority.
[00:30:19] I say to this soldier, go. And he goes. I say to this soldier, come. And he comes. I say to this servant, do this, and they do it. He said, I understand the design.
[00:30:32] It's easier for God to bless us when we are part of his divine design.
[00:30:39] Now, some of you have worked this deal out with God that you say, I've got this God.
[00:30:48] I'll be all right this week if you bless me or don't bless me. I got all my bases covered. Be nice for a blessing, but if you don't bless me, I'll be all right.
[00:30:59] You have designed your life to be okay without God.
[00:31:07] You have deceived yourself that your life is going to be okay without God.
[00:31:12] You. You create a rhythm of life that nothing disastrous will happen if you ignore God every day this week, okay?
[00:31:25] That's not living in the divine design. You were never designed by God to be out there on your own.
[00:31:33] You were never designed by God to do your own thing.
[00:31:37] You were designed by God to be an intimate friend with him, to be a partner in life with him, to be dependent upon Him.
[00:31:48] Do you. Do you hear this? You were designed by God to live such a challenging life that every day you have to pray, if you don't help me, this is going to fail.
[00:32:02] If you've organized your life that whether he helps you or doesn't help you, you'll be all right. You're not living the divine design.
[00:32:10] We were designed to be in communion with him, in fellowship with Him. We were designed to need him every single day.
[00:32:21] And it's a whole lot easier for God to bless those who are living in the divine design than those who say, I got it.
[00:32:32] In fact, we're kind of saying to him, don't worry about it. I'm all right. When we should be saying to him, dear God, please, I'm counting on you today.
[00:32:49] I can't be the person I want to be today without your help. I cannot accomplish what I want to accomplish today without your help.
[00:33:05] Verse 11.
[00:33:08] Jesus said to the I tell you, many will come from the east and the west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. Listen what Jesus said. Jesus said, when the centurion humbled himself and put his faith in Christ, he said, this is going to be shocking to you, but they're going to be a lot of people in heaven that you won't. You don't think will be there.
[00:33:35] The crowd would have said, the centurion will never get in. He's a Roman. He's not even Jewish.
[00:33:44] He doesn't do what he's supposed to do. He does things he isn't supposed to do. He'll never get in. But listen to what Jesus said. Jesus said there are going to be a multitude in heaven just like this Roman centurion, the one that nobody ever would have picked to be in heaven.
[00:34:08] We got a call this week.
[00:34:13] Some of you remember Mark. He used to come to church here. Mark would say amen when I said.
[00:34:20] I would say I did something stupid. And Mark would say amen. You remember him?
[00:34:27] A great guy. I mean, he really was a great guy.
[00:34:32] Died unexpectedly of a heart attack.
[00:34:35] His.
[00:34:37] Some people from his family came in to talk to us and they said there was a time in Mark's life that he had alienated everybody, that he had been so harsh and so difficult to get along with. He had alienated everyone. But his family member said this. Since he started coming to this church, he was a changed man, that God had actually changed him. And he was actually doing stuff to try to make things right with his family and make things correct, mistakes that he had made in the past.
[00:35:17] Do you see what had happened?
[00:35:20] A person that many people would have said will never.
[00:35:24] Will never make it. Mark's walking the pearly streets of heaven right now.
[00:35:30] Do you see? Do you see this? Because Christ is able to do incredible things even in our lives when we've made incredible mistakes.
[00:35:43] There will be people in heaven you don't expect to see there.
[00:35:51] There won't be people in heaven you do expect to see there.
[00:35:56] And by the way, we ought not to be setting ourselves up as judges for who gets in and who doesn't. Jesus said he God has given all judgment into his hands, and many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first church.
[00:36:20] Christ has the same compassion for us that he had for the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He loves you as much as he loved any great person in the Bible. He's preparing a place for you in the very same way that he prepared a place for them.
[00:36:43] But on this day, Jesus doesn't end here. It would be really more comfortable if the whole thing ended here. But Jesus went one step farther. And listen what he said.
[00:36:59] A multitude will come from the north, the southeast and the west, and they'll sit down in the kingdom of God, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
[00:37:16] Who does he mean in this verse? The sons of the kingdom.
[00:37:21] They were the religious people who should have trusted in Christ but didn't.
[00:37:28] They were the religious people who put more trust in their religion than they did in Christ. And Christ said, it's not going to end well for them.
[00:37:39] Who are the sons of the kingdom? They are the religious people whose tradition was full of the compassion of God. But they had lost their value for that compassion. They could tell you about Abraham and Moses and 40 years in the wilderness. They could tell you about conquering the promised land. They could tell you about the wonders of King David and the wealth of Solomon and the prophets Elijah and Elisha. They could tell the wonderful stories of Daniel, Isaiah.
[00:38:10] But in their heart of hearts, they had lost their appreciation for the compassionate goodness of God. And they had deceived themselves into thinking they deserved all of this.
[00:38:23] They stopped seeing it as the goodness and grace of God, and they started seeing it as something they deserved.
[00:38:35] Church, open your heart to me.
[00:38:39] This is the teaching of Jesus Christ. The church did not make this up.
[00:38:45] Jesus himself said, when life is over, everybody doesn't go the same place.
[00:38:54] Could I have your attention, please? Jesus taught that the church didn't make this up. Jesus said, some people are going to go to the kingdom of heaven and some people are going to go to outer darkness where there is weeping and grinding of teeth.
[00:39:13] And he also tells us how you get to one place and how you avoid the other place.
[00:39:20] Here's what he says.
[00:39:26] You're sick, you're broken, and you're paralyzed, and you can't get yourself into the kingdom of heaven.
[00:39:36] But Christ has everything you need.
[00:39:40] Christ will forgive your sin.
[00:39:43] Christ will renew your soul. Christ will make you acceptable to God.
[00:39:49] I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. That's what Jesus said.
[00:39:56] If you want to end up in the kingdom of heaven, you have to put your faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:40:04] Some of you need to right now. In the quietness of your heart, you need to acknowledge that you need Christ.
[00:40:11] You need to whisper in your inner self and say to God, I receive the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
[00:40:21] I'm trusting Christ to make me acceptable with you. I'm no longer trusting what I can do myself.
[00:40:30] Church, that is the way to heaven, and there is no other way.
[00:40:36] Jesus said, if you despise his goodness if you despise his grace, if you think you're good enough by yourself without him, you're going to reach a very unpleasant place when this is all said and done.
[00:40:56] Can you hear me?
[00:40:58] Jesus himself said, there is a world of delight in the presence of God, and there is a world of sorrow in the outer darkness. And today is the day for some people in this room and some people online to stop playing games and let God be good to you.
[00:41:22] Stop playing games and let Christ do for you what you cannot do for yourself.
[00:41:29] Stop telling yourself stories and listen to the truth of Jesus Christ.
[00:41:35] Jesus said that it is by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God.
[00:41:47] God has a precious gift he wants to give you today. He wants to give you something more valuable than he gave that little servant boy when he healed him. He wants to give you eternal life.
[00:41:59] And the only way you get it is to receive it from Jesus Christ Himself.
[00:42:06] The only way you get it is you say, I trust in you. Whatever grace you'll give me today, I will receive whatever healing you will do for my soul. I will receive whatever you're willing to forgive. I will. I ask for your forgiveness.
[00:42:25] And then we have hope that the goodness of God leads us to repentance and we get to share in the kingdom of heaven with all those who have trusted Jesus Christ in the same way we have.
[00:42:42] Jesus said, be very, very serious. Be very, very certain. You want to end up in the presence of God. You do not want to end up in outer darkness.
[00:42:55] And so Jesus reaches out to every soul this morning and he says to this, I'm looking for you. I want to be gracious to you. I want to heal you. I want to bless you. I want to show you goodness.
[00:43:09] I want to prepare you to abide with me forever. And he simply asks that we open our hearts to receive the goodness that he wants to give us. Our dear Heavenly Father, please grant us grace.
[00:43:27] I pray for everyone who's in this room this morning and I pray for everyone who's watching online.
[00:43:34] I pray that the Spirit would pass over our souls.
[00:43:39] And I pray that we would sense your presence.
[00:43:43] And I pray that in that part of our soul where you grant us the sense of who you are.
[00:43:53] We would say to you today that we put our whole trust in Jesus Christ.
[00:43:59] We put our whole faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:44:03] We put our whole confidence in Jesus Christ.
[00:44:07] I pray that every soul here would say to you, I receive Christ.
[00:44:13] I receive the blessings of Christ, the grace of Christ, then, Father, I pray that as you renew our souls, your goodness would ripple through us, and we would be your partners in showing compassion in our homes, in our workplaces, and in a broken world. In Christ's name, amen.
