[0:00] You don't know what I have to put up with every week, I tell you. Welcome everybody, welcome. I'm only Josh and welcome everybody. Particularly good welcome to all the folk from, well, all sorts of places, aren't you?
[0:15] Is it Young Life? Is it Young Life? No, it's not Young Life. Oh, thank you. Two weeks time we've got Young Life coming. It's just Hamilton Evangelical Church weekend away.
[0:26] Right, Hamilton Evangelical Church weekend away, but there's lots of people from, not all from Hamilton, are you? No, from various parts. Various parts. Welcome, anyway, good to see you.
[0:36] I hope you had a good weekend. They've been sleeping over in the church. And been out for ice cream yesterday and hot chocolate. So they've just been having a really easy time.
[0:48] And everybody's been in bed and asleep by ten, is that right? No? Oh, goodness me. They need some decent leaders, I think, probably, to keep them in order and make them behave themselves.
[1:01] I blame the chief leader, Steve. It must be his fault. He's in command. He's the general. Right. Now we're nearly all sat down. We can actually do what we've come to come here to do.
[1:16] We're here to praise God. We're here to worship Him. We're here to give Him the glory and the honour He deserves. And we do that because we've found Him to be the God who is worthy of our trust.
[1:28] The writer of the Proverbs tells us, commands us, encourages us. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And lean not on your own understanding.
[1:39] That's the only way we can live as Christians. The only way that we are able to enjoy the blessings that God has for us is by faith. Trusting Him wholeheartedly.
[1:50] As soon as we take our eyes off Him. As soon as we begin to allow doubts into our hearts and minds. And immediately we find ourselves being knocked here and there by all the difficulties and the trials of life.
[2:01] But trusting in Him. And why should we trust in the Lord? Because He is a merciful God. A wonderful God. A gracious God. And our first song, all our songs will be on the screen behind me.
[2:13] Reminds us of the mercy of God. Oh the mercy of God. Let's stand as we sing this hymn. Sit down.
[2:34] One of the most wonderful things about knowing God and enjoying God is being able to talk with Him. To pray. To have fellowship with Him. And a relationship with Him.
[2:45] And we're going to do just that now. We're going to pray. Let us all pray. Oh Lord our God, we do want to give you thanks again this morning.
[2:59] That you are the only God. The true God. The living God. The loving God. The great God. We want to thank you that you are the God who has made yourself known to us.
[3:10] The God who's come to us. Lord, we could never get to you. We could never reach you. We could never climb to you. Or be good enough in that sense to earn your favor.
[3:22] But you're the God who stepped down into our world in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You're the God who, in one sense, came to us and said, Look, here I am.
[3:32] Put your faith and trust in me. We thank you, O Lord, that this is the reality of what we know and what we believe about you, O Lord. That you're a God who can be trusted.
[3:45] That you're a God who can be depended upon. That you're a God who does not lie. A God who is faithful. And we thank you, O Lord, that for each one who's put their faith and trust in you, you have been faithful.
[3:57] Every moment of every day, through the ups, the downs, through the good times and the bad, you do not change. But you're faithfully the same. We want to thank you again for your faithfulness to us in this week.
[4:10] For some of us, it's been a good week, an enjoyable week. Perhaps just even these last couple of days. But for some of us, it's been a difficult week. We've faced struggles and trials.
[4:20] We've been concerned. We've been unwell, maybe. We've faced all sorts of problems. Lord, thank you that you don't leave us in those difficult times. You don't sort of only appear when things are good.
[4:32] But you're the God who has helped us through those hard times. You're the God who has been with us wherever we've gone. We pray again, O Lord, that as we come this morning, that we might come with thanks and praise.
[4:43] That we might come with hearts wanting to give to you, O Lord, the worship and the praise that you rightly deserve. We pray that your Holy Spirit would help us to do that.
[4:54] That he would remove from us the worries, the anxieties of the week ahead or the week past. That he would grant us that peace that comes from trusting you with all our hearts.
[5:05] We pray again, O Lord, that you would speak to us and meet with us. And that we might know you better in this time together. For we ask these things in and through.
[5:16] In the name of Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen. Importantly about the Lord. Well, we're going to read from God's Word. We're going to read from the Gospel of Luke.
[5:27] And I'd encourage you to turn there. Luke in chapter 7. And we've been journeying through the life of the Lord Jesus as recorded by the historian Luke.
[5:40] We know that his record of the life of Jesus is accurate because he tells us at the beginning he spent a great deal of time accumulating material. And making things, laying them out for his son, Theophilus, to give him an accurate account.
[5:56] So we know that these things we read are true and faithful. So Luke in chapter 7, if you've got one of the red church Bibles, that's page 1035.
[6:07] And if in your own Bible, then that will be a different page, naturally. We're going to read the first 10 verses of Luke in chapter 7. When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum.
[6:26] There, a centurion's servant, whom his servant valued highly, was ill and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant.
[6:42] When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.
[6:55] So Jesus went with them. It was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to him to say, Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.
[7:11] That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me.
[7:24] I tell this one, go, and he goes. And that one, come, and he comes. I say to my servant, do this, and he does it.
[7:35] When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. And turning to the crowd following him, he said, I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.
[7:47] Then the man who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. You'll be thinking about that event, the life of Jesus, in a few moments.
[7:58] If you've got a Bible, and I hope you have, then turn with me back then to Luke in chapter 7, to this amazing, incredible, wonderful event in the life of the Lord Jesus.
[8:13] I wonder, when was the last time that you were truly amazed by something? When was the last time that you verbally, loudly said, Wow! That's incredible.
[8:26] That's marvellous. That's wonderful. That's amazing. You don't get that many moments in life when you really do have that sense of being amazed.
[8:38] Sadly, we can have it in a negative way. Things that we may see or hear about on the news can make us negatively go, Oh! We're shocked, stunned by what we see.
[8:53] We do get, at times, perhaps a positive sense of awe, of amazement, when we may see a beautiful sunset or sunrise or a rainbow over the sea or a fantastic view from a mountain or a hill.
[9:08] But to be positively amazed by somebody else is a rare thing. To meet somebody who amazes us or makes us go, Wow! It's something quite rare.
[9:26] So it's not surprising that when we read through the life of the Lord Jesus, we only have one time when he was positively amazed. And it's here in this passage we read from Luke 7.
[9:39] When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. There's nowhere else in the whole of Jesus' life that we read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they're all four eyewitnesses that give us these biographies of Jesus.
[9:53] Nowhere else where he's positively amazed by what he hears. Certainly plenty of people were amazed by Jesus. Wherever he seems to go, the people that he spoke with, who heard him and saw him, were amazed by him.
[10:09] We've already come across some of them, even in Luke's gospel so far. Back in chapter 4, verse 22, All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.
[10:22] Later on in that same chapter 4, All the people were amazed and said to each other, What words are these? After Jesus had spoken and healed somebody. In chapter 5 and verse 26 as well, The people were told everyone was amazed and gave praise to God.
[10:40] They were filled with awe. Said we've seen remarkable things today. Seems wherever Jesus went, people were amazed by him. That's not surprising really, because Jesus Christ is amazing.
[10:53] He is wonderful. The God that we worship, the God we put our faith and trust in, the God who is the real and living God, the true God, is an amazing God. He's a surprising God as well.
[11:06] If your picture or view of God is that somehow he's dull or ordinary or unimportant or boring, then you just don't know the God of the Bible. You don't know the God of Jesus Christ, because he is a God who is unpredictable.
[11:23] A God who constantly amazes those who trust in him and follow him. And nothing takes God by surprise. Nothing shocks him.
[11:35] Nothing catches him unawares. He knows all about you and me. Nothing that we can do badly or positively is ever going to surprise him.
[11:47] He knows your thoughts and mine. He knows what's in your heart. He knows the nice things and the nasty things that lurk under the surface. The things that we don't show other people.
[11:58] He knows all about us. But here, rather than somebody being amazed at Jesus, we find that Jesus is amazed at somebody. When he heard this, he was amazed at him.
[12:11] This man. This centurion. What was he amazed at? What amazed Jesus this one time? What is it that really delighted him, we might say?
[12:23] Pleasantly surprised him. Because it's clear that he was pleased with what he heard. Because he turns to the crowd and says, I tell you, I've not found such great faith in Israel.
[12:35] This is something which is really good. So what was it about this centurion that amazed him? Well, let's look at who this centurion was a little bit about what sort of things could have amazed him.
[12:48] A centurion was an officer in the Roman army. At that time where Jesus lived in Israel, the Roman Empire had conquered that land. And so wherever you went, there were Roman soldiers.
[13:00] In every town and village, there were men who were soldiers who kept order. And a centurion was an important officer. He probably was the most important man in the town of Capernaum.
[13:13] Because he would have been like the chief of police. He would have been the man everybody gave an answer to. By his order, people could be arrested or imprisoned.
[13:23] And probably by his order, if necessary, people could be put to death. He had that sort of power. He was a man you definitely respected. That wasn't why Jesus was amazed at him.
[13:34] Because he was a powerful or influential man. A man of importance. That wasn't what amazed Jesus. But he was also a man who was quite wealthy, it would seem. If you're a Roman soldier, it wasn't really sort of a good career move.
[13:49] Most of the time, people who were Roman soldiers were press gang. They were forced to be soldiers. And you were paid just about enough money to live on. You weren't going to be rich. But here's a man. I know he's an officer. Somehow he's gained wealth.
[14:01] He's got servants. You can't afford servants if you haven't got some money. And more than that, he was rich enough to give away lots of money. We're told there later in verse 5, he'd built the synagogue.
[14:13] That would be like the church building, as it were, in the town. He built that. Notice he must have paid for it. So he's a wealthy man. Wealthy enough to give away quite a considerable amount of money.
[14:25] But it wasn't his wealth that amazed Jesus. It wasn't because he was rich that Jesus was amazed by him. Or surprised by him. Also, probably because he was a generous man, he was very popular, wasn't he?
[14:41] Most of the Roman soldiers were hated by the people. It wouldn't be very nice to live in a country where other people's soldiers, other country's soldiers, ruled you and told you what to do. And probably were a little bit rough and ready and unpleasant.
[14:55] We know what happens, sadly, when soldiers or armies march in and conquer countries. There isn't a lot of love lost between the soldier and the people and the people and the soldier.
[15:08] But this centurion was very well liked, wasn't he? We're told in verse 3 about some elders of the Jews, the important people of the town, of the Jewish community.
[15:19] They went on the centurion's behalf and pleaded with Jesus to help him and to heal his servant. They went and spoke up for him. And they spoke well of him, didn't they?
[15:31] This man deserves to have you do this. He's a good man. He's someone who deserves it. We like him. He was popular. That wasn't what amazed Jesus.
[15:43] Surprising in one sense as it was that a centurion should be popular with the people in the town. But no, that wasn't what surprised him or amazed him or pleased him. And it wasn't either that he was a good man.
[15:56] And he does seem to be a genuinely good man, doesn't he? Most of the Roman soldiers would, as I said, throw their weight around. Often they would cheat. They would say to people, pay me money or else I'll accuse you of committing a crime and put you in prison.
[16:09] And so they blackmailed people. They were nasty. But this man loved people. He loves our nation. He loves the people. That's what it means. He loves the people of our town. He cares for them. He's interested in them.
[16:21] He must have had some fear of God, some respect for God as well, building a synagogue, building this sort of church building for them. Clearly he was a generous man, a good man, we might say.
[16:34] Somebody in the community who was doing good for the community. And we know that he must have been a caring man as well because when his servant was ill, he did all that he could to get him better.
[16:47] I'm sure that before he sent the messengers to Jesus, he probably had called doctors to come and say, look at my servant. He's ill. He cared for him. We're told that he was valued by him.
[17:01] But these things didn't impress Jesus. They aren't the things that impressed him at all or amazed him. But they're the sort of things that impress us, aren't they?
[17:13] We're impressed by people's prestige, their celebrity status, their importance. We're impressed by people's money and riches.
[17:24] We think that they're an impressive person if they've done well for themselves. We're impressed by how popular they are and how well-liked they are, how many followers they've got and so on.
[17:37] And of course we're impressed by people who are good and kind and nice and so on. In fact, all of those things are what we hope to be. We long for those sort of things. We would love to be rich.
[17:49] We think that would be a great thing. Or to be important. Or to be valuable. Or to be popular. They're the sort of things we live for.
[17:59] They're the sort of things that we hanker after and long for. Those are the sort of things we think are the best things to have in life. How different we are to God.
[18:11] How different you and I are to God. God isn't impressed by those things. Those aren't the things that he thinks are amazing. They aren't the sort of things that he thinks are great and important and really special.
[18:22] By telling us that Jesus was amazed at this man, we're meant to understand that he was pleased with what he heard about him. What he heard this man had said.
[18:35] This pleased him. This delighted him. This caused him to rejoice. This is what he counted as important and vital. And that answers a very, very big question.
[18:46] A huge question that men and women throughout the ages, throughout history have always sought to find the answer to. Perhaps it's a question that you have as well. What is it that pleases God?
[18:59] People have tried to find that out in all sorts of ways. What pleases God? It's not too difficult to work out what doesn't please God. I think most of us generally have a good idea of what doesn't please God.
[19:12] And the reason that we have that is because we have a conscience. Each one of us has a God-given conscience. It's something within us that is placed by God that makes us particularly unique from all the creatures and the animals of the world.
[19:27] We have a conscience. It's an inner alarm, as it were. A bit like when you set your phone on vibrate. It sort of goes off. Usually when you're about to do something that you shouldn't do.
[19:41] Or it goes off after you've done it. And it's there buzzing away. Making you feel a little bit uneasy. Unsettled. But of course like the alarm that we set in the morning that buzzes by our bedside, we tend to put it on to snooze.
[20:00] Many of us snooze our consciences. It tells us what's right and wrong. It tells us we shouldn't do this and we shouldn't do that. But we just press snooze.
[20:11] And the longer you press snooze, what happens is ultimately the alarm just goes off. That's why many people in our world around about us commit so many terrible and awful things.
[20:23] Because they've kept snoozing their conscience. Paul uses a different word when he talks about it in one of the letters. He talks about searing it with a hot iron. Deadening it.
[20:33] Killing it. Killing it. Killing it. That conscience is there from God and we do well to listen to it. So we have a conscience that tells us what's not right, what doesn't please God.
[20:47] But how do we know what pleases God? That's a more difficult question. There'll be all sorts of opinions, isn't there? About what pleases God. Do these things. Go on this pilgrimage. Carry out these acts of generosity.
[21:00] Be a good person. All sorts of different ideas have been floated and suggested about what pleases God. But we're told here very clearly what pleased Jesus.
[21:11] What amazed him, pleasantly surprised him. What it was that he delighted in. What is it that made him go, wow, this is great. And it wasn't doing anything. It was his faith.
[21:24] When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him. Turning to the crowd, following him, he said, I tell you, I've not found such great faith even in Israel.
[21:36] It's faith that pleases God. Not money. Not even generosity. Not popularity. Not even good things that we do.
[21:48] Or importance or prestige. Or power or influence. What it pleases God has always been the same. It's always been faith. What God is looking for.
[21:58] What God is asking for. What God expects of us is faith. That's always been the same. Read your Bible and I encourage you to do just that. Right from the start to the finish and you'll find again and again the whole matter.
[22:12] The whole of the thing that pleases God. The whole of living in relationship with God is faith. In Hebrews in chapter 11, we have a long list of people throughout the ages who had faith.
[22:26] Right from Abel. Abel who was the man who was killed by his brother Cain. By faith, Abel brought God a better offering than Cain. People like Abraham who's considered the father of the faith.
[22:40] By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he had later received as an inheritance, obeyed and went. People like Moses and the Israelites who passed through the Red Sea escaping from Israel.
[22:55] By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, chose to belong to the people of God. By faith, the people passed through the Red Sea on dry land. Everyone who is anyone in the Bible was a person who had faith.
[23:10] At the end of the chapter of Hebrews 11, these were all commended for their faith. Faith is the essential element without which we cannot please God.
[23:23] That's very plain. Here in the same chapter, Hebrews 11 verse 6. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists, that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
[23:39] See, we have this sort of misconception a little bit, don't we? That somehow we can please God by being good, nice people. If you speak to somebody and you talk to them, they will never admit to being a sinner, doing anything wrong.
[23:56] Well, yes, we've done some wrong things, but not really wrong things. And the wrong things we've done, well, the good things we've done sort of outbalance them. And so if we've got more good things that we've done, helping people, loving people, caring for people, generosity, charity work, etc.
[24:13] Then they'll outweigh the bad things that we've done and that will make everything pretty level and God will accept us and be pleased with us. No. Here's a very clear categorical declaration.
[24:25] Without faith, you cannot please God. All those things, worthwhile, good, useful, helpful, lovely as they are, they cannot make us right with God.
[24:37] They cannot bring us into relationship with God. They cannot make us friends with God and deal with the greatest need of our lives, which is our sin. Our sin has separated us from God.
[24:50] Our sin has cut us off from God. Our sin has made us, in one sense, strangers to God. That's why when you speak to so many people today, they say, I don't believe in God. It's not because God isn't there.
[25:01] It's simply because sin has darkened their eyes and darkened their hearts. Sin, as it were, has blotted out the light of God's wonderful loving kindness to us. Faith is the only way that we can come back to God.
[25:15] But what is faith? If faith is what pleases God, if faith is what amazed Jesus, who said to anybody, look at this man's faith, what is faith?
[25:30] And do I have that faith? Well, to understand that, we need to turn back again, don't we, to this event, to what's happening here with this centurion and Jesus. You see, we all have faith.
[25:44] You have faith. Whether you're a Christian this morning or not, no matter where you've come from, your background, no matter what your age or where you live, you have faith. First of all, you've got faith in yourself.
[25:56] You believe in yourself. You believe that by hard work, you can get to the university that you want to. By study, you can get the job that you want to. You believe in yourself, that you can provide for your needs, that you can work things out, that you've got life's problems sorted.
[26:16] And perhaps you've also got faith, I'm sure, probably those of you who are younger, faith in your parents. Faith that they'll provide a bed for you tonight and food. Faith that they'll protect you. Faith that they'll love you and care for you and want the best for you.
[26:30] And of course, more and more, we put our faith in friends as well. Faith that they'll always be with us. They'll never let us down. They'll be BFFs. Faith in science.
[26:43] That it will provide all that we need to help us when we face illness and difficulties. Faith in all sorts of people. Faith in all sorts of things. But that isn't the faith that wowed Jesus.
[26:57] That isn't the faith that pleases God. That isn't the faith that we need more than anything else. See, the faith that pleases God is a unique and single-minded faith in Jesus Christ, God's Son.
[27:13] That's what the Bible, again, tells us clearly over and over again. In John's letter, his first letter, chapter 3, he said, This is God's command. This is what God wants.
[27:24] We want to know what God wants. We want to know what God is pleased with. This is what God commands. To believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. Christ. That's what God wants. He wants us to believe in Jesus.
[27:36] To put our faith and trust in Jesus. And that's exactly what we see here, isn't it? In this centurion. Who is his faith in? His faith is in Jesus. That's why he goes to Jesus.
[27:47] Sends messengers to Jesus. Please come and heal my servant who is about to die. I know no one else can do it. I know that you're the only one. And I'm trusting you.
[27:58] I'm looking to you. I'm believing in you. He sends out the message. He'd heard that Jesus had healed others. The news was spreading everywhere.
[28:09] Wherever Jesus went. Remember we read about people being amazed at what he said and what he did. But they kept on telling other people about it as well. Well, the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area back in chapter 4 and into chapter 5 as well.
[28:25] The news about him spread all the more. So crowds of people came to hear him. To be healed of their illnesses. We're told here, hadn't we? The centurion heard of Jesus.
[28:38] About what he'd done. Never met Jesus, but he'd heard about him. About the things that he'd done. So, he had faith in Jesus.
[28:53] But it wasn't just faith that Jesus would heal his servants. Again, lots of other people had faith, didn't they? In Israel. Remember Jesus says, I've not yet found such great faith in Israel.
[29:04] There's people who had faith in Jesus that he would heal them. There's people who had faith in Jesus that he would help them. Lots of people would come and listen. But all those people in Israel didn't have this same faith.
[29:16] This great faith. Even today, there's plenty of people. Perhaps even you here this morning. Who thinks of Jesus as, well, he was pretty special.
[29:28] He was an amazing teacher. If we followed some of the things he tells us to do. Well, that would be good. There would be a better place if we looked after the poor. And we cared for the sick. And did all those sort of things. We may even think of Jesus as being somebody that God had sent into the world.
[29:44] We may believe all sorts of things. If I can put that way in our heads about Jesus. And thoughts about Jesus. But it isn't the same as this faith that a centurion had. Because this faith was great faith.
[29:57] This is the faith that pleases God. This is the faith that embodies us. And this is the faith we need to ask ourselves whether we have. What is this faith? It's a stand-alone faith.
[30:12] By that I mean it's a faith in Jesus. Which is absolute, totally, completely upon him.
[30:23] With nothing to support it, if I can put it that way. With nothing to keep it buoyant. But a faith in the person of Jesus alone. Yes, he'd heard about Jesus.
[30:34] He'd never seen Jesus. He'd never spoke to Jesus. He'd never met Jesus. Just like you and I. Some people would say, well, if Jesus came and stood here and spoke to me. I'd believe in him.
[30:45] Put my faith and trust in him. If I'd seen him done an amazing miracle. Like raising somebody from the dead. I'd believe in him and trust in him. No, you wouldn't. Because there were thousands upon thousands and thousands of people in Jesus' day.
[30:59] Who saw him raise the dead, heal the sick. Cause the blind to see. Who spoke with Jesus and heard Jesus. Who ate meals with Jesus. And they didn't have faith in him. Because faith is not about believing what we see.
[31:15] When Jesus died and rose again. He went to his disciples. And he spoke to them. And there was somebody missing at that time.
[31:28] The first time Jesus went and spoke to them on that first Easter Sunday. His name was Thomas. All heard of Thomas, the disciple. And you know his nickname, Doubting Thomas. And Thomas wasn't there.
[31:40] And so when the disciples said to him. Look, we've seen Jesus. He's alive. He's risen from the dead. Thomas said, no. I don't believe that. That's impossible. How can anybody rise from the dead?
[31:51] Unless I see him myself. And put my fingers into the holes where the nails went in his hands. And touch his side where the spear went in. I won't believe. A week later, Jesus came again.
[32:04] And met with his disciples. And Thomas was there. And Thomas fell on his knees before Jesus. He said, my Lord and my God. This is what Jesus said in response.
[32:15] Because you've seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who've not seen me and yet have believed. So the faith that Jesus is looking for.
[32:25] The faith that pleases God. Is a faith which totally, completely trusts him. Not because of something that we've seen. Or even something that we've heard. Or something that somebody has done.
[32:36] It's something which is absolutely, essentially on its own. You can even call it blind faith if you want. Because it does not see. It's unquestioning faith.
[32:51] Absolute faith. And that's, I think, what the centurion is saying here. When he explains to Jesus. Why he doesn't want him to come under his roof. Remember the elders went and said.
[33:04] Please come and help this man and heal his servant. So they start moving towards the house. But as they get closer. The centurion sends some friends out. And they say this. Lord, don't trouble yourself.
[33:14] I don't deserve to have you come under my roof. That's why I didn't even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word. And my servant will be healed. And he goes on to explain how he understands faith.
[33:29] And how he understands and views Jesus. He says this. I myself am a man under authority. With soldiers under me. I tell this one, go. And he goes.
[33:40] That one, come. And he comes. I say to my servant, do this. And he does it. His authority over those under him was complete and absolute.
[33:53] In other words, if he said to a soldier, go. The soldier didn't turn and say, well, why? Why do you want me to go? He was unquestioning in his obedience. The same with his servant. Come here. And he would come.
[34:05] He had absolute trust in the authority of the centurion. Because that centurion himself had authority. Authority from his general.
[34:16] Authority from the commanders. Authority from the Roman emperor himself who governed the whole of the world at that time. Now, the centurion had total faith in Jesus over everything and everyone.
[34:32] He absolutely was certain that this Jesus was God. And whatever he wants must be done. Whatever he says will be done.
[34:44] That's why Jesus was amazed. That's why Jesus was astounded. He was a man. He'd never met. He'd never spoken to. But only heard about Jesus. And within his heart, this faith had been given to absolutely trust and believe that nothing.
[34:57] Jesus, there was nothing that Jesus couldn't do. He had faith that Jesus was God on earth. Conducting God's work.
[35:08] Bringing God's blessing. That's the sort of faith in Jesus that makes a difference in a person's life. That's the sort of faith in Jesus that pleases God.
[35:20] That's the sort of faith in Jesus that brings God's power into our lives. What happened? Did that man put his faith in Jesus and was let down?
[35:32] No, he wasn't. What happens? When the men went back home to the house where the centurion was, they found the servant well. Jesus hadn't touched him. Jesus hadn't spoken to him.
[35:42] Jesus hadn't prayed for him. Jesus had willed him, wished him, and healed him completely. His faith was not unfounded. His faith was not failed.
[35:53] Let me say this to you again. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, he will not fail you, nor will he let you down. What's the problem with the things that we put our faith in?
[36:04] See, when you put your faith in yourself, you're immediately going to fall flat on your face, aren't you? When you're young, you think that you're indestructible. When you're young, you think you know everything, don't you?
[36:20] Yes, you do. Because you think that you can manage, you can cope, you can create the world, you can do whatever you need to do. But the reality is that not very long into life, you find that you can't trust yourself, that you let yourself down, that you fail yourself, and you fail others as well.
[36:37] And it can be a crippling blow. It can really knock the wind out of your sails, though it shouldn't do. It's just a reality. Whatever failings you've got, whatever failings you've had, whatever things you've done wrong, let me assure you, everybody else who's older than you has done them as well, probably several times.
[36:52] And we put our faith in our family, who love us and care for us, even with the very best parents, they're going to let us down. Because they're human and they're sinful as well.
[37:06] And if we put our faith in the university degree that we get, we put our faith in the job that we have, we put our faith in our friends. How many times have people been your BFFs and then suddenly you're blocked on their Facebook page?
[37:23] And they don't want to be your friends anymore. And they start saying horrible things about you and gossip about you. We can't put our faith in anybody or anything. That's a pretty black picture, isn't it? I'm painting.
[37:34] Oh, don't trust anybody. They're all going to let you down. Not because they all mean to, it's just they can't help it because every one of us is faulty. Every one of us is sinful.
[37:45] Every one of us gets it wrong. Only God is good and perfect and trustworthy. And he's proven that in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into this world.
[37:56] God came to you in Jesus Christ. And he came to you with a purpose. He came to you that he might reveal himself to this world. That he might be made known by this world and that this world which is separated from God might be restored and rejoined and reconciled to him.
[38:11] And to do that, Jesus Christ died for you. To do that, he was willing that he should suffer that most ignoble and hideous and vile death of being crucified.
[38:24] For you to take upon himself your sin, your guilt, your blame, your failings. Once and for all and to finish with them. So that the slate is wiped clean.
[38:35] So that you can be forgiven. So that you can enter into a right, joyful, pleasing relationship with God. And the only thing that God asks of you and me is this.
[38:48] Trust me. Believe in me. Put your faith in me. You can't earn it. You can't work for it. You can't be good enough for it. You've got to simply receive the gifts that God has given in Jesus.
[39:02] Lord Jesus, I want you to be in my life. I want you to forgive me. I want to follow and trust and live for you. Please come. Just like that man did when he sent the messengers.
[39:16] Come to my house and heal. We need to send, not messengers, we need to speak to Jesus ourselves. Lord Jesus, come to my life and save me. Heal me. Make me right with God.
[39:26] Deal with those faults and those problems and those things which are too much for me to cope with. Jesus was wowed and amazed by the love of this centurion.
[39:40] Would Jesus be wowed and amazed by you and me? Will you be wowed and amazed by our faith and trust in him? Complete and utter and total for everything.
[39:53] For every day. For every moment. That's the one thing that matters. The only thing that matters. Is do we have faith?
[40:06] Will we trust him? Remember our verse at the very beginning. Before we started our service. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding.
[40:18] Trust him completely. Let's pray together now. Let's pray. Thank you God that you are trustworthy.
[40:32] Thank you God that you never, ever, ever, ever let us down. Even though we think you have. Even though when we get into trouble.
[40:44] Even when things go pear shaped. When life is horrible. Sometimes our first thought is this. God, where are you? Why have you done this? What are you doing?
[40:55] Forgive us Lord. That we give you so little of our time. But we give you all of our blame. We thank you for Jesus.
[41:07] Your son. Who is God himself. Don't ask us to explain it. Because we can't. It's too wonderful. Marvelous. But he is God. And he lived amongst us.
[41:18] And he revealed. The truth of what God is like to us. We thank you just for this little snippet. This episode in his life with the centurion.
[41:30] Where he healed that man's servant. But did more than that. Where he showed himself faithful. To that Roman officer. We pray oh Lord that you would give us faith.
[41:42] Like that centurion's faith. An absolute faith. A clear faith. A real faith. That trusts you in everything. And for everything. But especially we pray Lord. That you would give us that faith.
[41:52] To trust you for. Salvation. We trust you oh Lord. To be. The one who rescues us from sin. And its consequences. That we would trust you to be the Lord of our lives.
[42:05] The one who. We listen to and obey. And follow. Because you have. All authority. You are the only one. Who speaks. What is true. And all your words are good.
[42:16] Lord for those of us. Who are struggling with our faith here. Whose faith is. Not what it should be. And it's been knocked. Or it's been brought low. Or it's not fully developed.
[42:28] Lord. Give us faith. We ask you now. Give me that faith Lord. By which I might trust. And rest. And delight. In you. And find in you.
[42:39] My absolute peace. For those of us oh Lord. Who. Have no faith.
[42:50] And what we listen to. What we've heard. We're saying. That's just not true. It's just not believable. Lord we pray that you would do such a work in our hearts. That we cannot help.
[43:02] But find our same saying. Like Thomas. The doubter of old. My Lord and my God. We pray for those that we love. And care for. In our family. Perhaps parents or siblings or children or grandchildren.
[43:15] Those that are friends at school or at work Lord. Who don't know you. And who maybe take the mickey out of us. Because we have faith Lord. We pray that we would be such. A good example.
[43:26] Of trust and faith. That they themselves may ask us. What is it that you believe? How can I have this faith too? So Lord. Continue with us.
[43:36] Again watch over and protect. Those who are traveling this afternoon. Help us Lord we pray. To walk. Not by sight. But by faith. For we ask it all in Jesus name.
[43:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.