Let Him Speak

You can be seated on your way. Make sure you talk to somebody, Say hey to them. If you're not familiar with them, they'll probably join you in heaven one day, so you might as well start becoming friends, . Yeah, Sometimes church is- I mean, church is- amazing.

It is the, the mystery that God put on the earth.

It's his plan A. I don't know why. Sometimes because we are like, terrible at doing the job he asked us to do. For the most part, I don't know about you, but I am- I'm trying to figure it out- I feel like a donkey up here on the regular basis, but you know, God can use donkeys, .

God can use humans, .

I don't know. I, I find that we tend to be way more stubborn And, my encouragement to every person in this room will be to open up your heart to God today, to see what occurs And who knows what God might do. Because I don't know, I think for over 2,000 years, maybe 4,000 years, depends on when you think- God said: let there be light. You know, I don't know the exact dating of that.

Some people have tried and scientists have said it's way longer than that, above my pay grade.

We'll find out one day, but what I do know is this: that God's word is actually powerful enough to heal you, to transform you- Amen, . And. And to make you into what he's called you to be. That has been turned into wreckage by sin, .

I don't know if we talk about sin enough.

Someone told me last week they enjoyed Adrian's message because he wasn't scared to talk about sin. I don't know what that says about me, but I don't. I don't want you to feel like you're coming to a church that's scared to talk about sin. Sin is a real thing.

It wrecked our relationship with Jesus and it was dealt with with God, And it is dealt with by Jesus 2,000 years ago on the cross.

That word has been producing for 2,000 years. The question for you today is: are you going to receive the word implanted that is able to save your soul, or are you going to sit here stagnant and let it do nothing to it? What you going to do, It's kind of your choice. You can be like Capernaum or the centurion.

Capernaum didn't really receive Jesus very well, but the centurion did.

We're going to be in Matthew, chapter 8 today, And I love this passage. You've probably all heard it before Any. Raise your hand. If you've heard of the healing of the centurion's servant, The healing of the centurion servant, Okay good, This is great.

If you haven't heard of it, it's going to be a new story for you today.

It's a true story. This is not a fiction novel that we come in here and read. If you want that, you can go to the-, it starts with us. You know, small group or whatever they got.

Is that a book?

That's the book, right, It starts with us or ends with us, ends with us- Is that what it is? Or the housemaid, or the handmaidaden Dude- it's all about maids and houses- and ends with us And I don't know all those. This isn't a fiction novel. This is a true history that we read.

There's some crazy audacious things in these Scriptures, but I want you to know that historical data actually backs this up much more effectively than the scientific data that you grew up listening to in school.

I'm not saying I disagree with all of it, Don't hear me like one of them, But I do want you to know this Scripture stands the test of time And in Matthew, chapter 8, Jesus has just finished the sermon on the mount, the greatest sermon that was ever preached. He probably said more stuff than Matthew wrote down. Clearly, Peter forgot it, which is why, when he was telling Mark, they didn't incorporate it. And then Luke, I guess, didn't get that historical data-, Matthew hadn't written his yet.

But Matthew talks about the sermon on the mount And right after that there's something that Matthew's trying to do.

He's trying to help people understand that this isn't just a person who speaks forth a word that's effective. It's someone who can actually perform miracles, Which brings us to our series called Miracle Worker. It's about Jesus And many of you, you've been praying for a miracle, looking for a miracle. Jesus performs miracles.

There's nobody better to go to, Nobody- Not your mom, not your dad, not Christopher Nolan in the Odyssey-, none, no one better to go to perform miracles than Jesus.

And he will perform miracles. And many of you are like, "Okay, fine, The pastor says it again, but I've been praying for a miracle for a long time, but he hadn't performed one in my life. I want to talk to you about a physical miracle today, But you've got to understand this: The greatest miracle Jesus or God ever performed was through Jesus's son. He died on the cross for your sins and my sins, resurrected three days later, sits at the right hand of the father, intercedes, and there was a word filled with his teachings compiled.

We call it the Holy Bible.

It stood the test of time for over 2,000 years And now God's word speaks forth into our lives and it can change every fabric of your being. That is a miracle. It's not some big healing, It is an internal healing that actually takes this process we call sanctification. He is a miracle worker.

He can perform physical miracles, but, more than anything, he raised you from death to life, .

That's, that's the miracle I can't emphasize enough. That being said, I do want some charisma in the room. Yeah, . And he cares.

I like you, .

Charismatic, Yes, Charismatic. Preach it. Hey, those who have a vocabulary of, of affirmation and encouragement throughout a sermon, I, like you, Come from a charismatic tradition. I believe people can be healed physically.

When God wants to do it, he can.

I believe people, have been raised up physically. I believe people's emotional issues and deficiencies can be radically shifted in a moment. I believe addictions can be broken. I believe all of those things, But I believe the primary thing that Jesus came to do was to connect us back with the father.

Yes, .

He came to deal with sin, . And so when we go through Matthew, chapter 8, you got to understand that Jesus is a man who taught God's word and he did miracles physically, . Some people just come: I want the miracle, I want the miracle. Well, I'm gonna talk through it.

But the centurion understood something different about Jesus.

He understood what lane Jesus had placed himself in, what he came to do at a deeper level, And I hope to prove that to you today, because this is never, almost never, when you read it. It's never about the physical miracle. It's always about what Jesus came to do, which is the real testament of who God is and what he wants. But I'm gonna dive in.

I've got notes for you.

Today I'm gonna give you my sermon title. My sermon title isn't really a sermon title about the miracle, It's a. I mean, I guess it kind of is. My sermon title is: Let them Speak, .

Let The Him Speak.

Anybody in here been sitting in a in a teaching and somebody stands up and starts talking trash about it? You've been in a public meeting, You know what I'm talking about: Those little town halls where someone's trying to talk and then someone keeps talking in the background. Maybe they're doing free Palestine or some, I'm not. I ain't trying to be uneven, I just can't think of any other things that they might shout in the crowd.

But they're just shouting something and you're sitting there as a normal human being, like "Let the man speak", .

And what I want to tell you in your walk with God, there's so many situations, whether it's external distractions, whether it's your own internal deficiencies or insufficiencies- all of those things cause us to be distracted, while God's trying to do something in perpetuity through his word in your life. He's speaking over you daily, like he has a plan for you. He forneew it and he predestined it for those who are called Like. This is something that is constant.

It's not even hidden.

If you seek God where he can be found, he will be found by you And we miss it because we just don't just let the man speak. Let him. Let him speak over your life. Let him speak against your sin.

Let him speak into a situation.

Stop talking so much. Let him talk to you and give you peace. That would surpass understanding. Anyways, I'm gonna dive in.

Let him speak and I'll.

I'll take this passage piece by piece. I hope that's okay because it's so. It's so fun for me to be able to break down a passage for you all, Starting in verse 5, . When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help.

Now, it's a significant thing.

For a centurion to come asking for help is very similar to the passage I spoke to you two weeks ago Speaking of. It was two weeks ago, cuz last week I didn't preach, cuz your boy, Adrian, brought a message. How many of y'all enjoyed Pastor Adrian or Adrienne's message? He ain't ordained.

I can't call him pastor yet.

He's a man of God though. I like that dude, I. I told my wife he's got like the Francis Chan vibe. I don't know if he's here.

He works in the fire department.

He's probably watching online. You got the Francis Chan vibe. That's high praise. I don't have that.

I have to like dejerkify all my messages before I come preach them.

You, You got some authenticity. I like you, Adrian, You did a great job. But I preached on the leper. The leper was an unclean human being in the ancient world.

According to Judaism, He had this disease that he required him to stay away from people.

So what did Jesus do? Jesus came close, He touched him. He didn't have to touch him to heal him. We're going to find out in this passage.

He didn't have to touch him, but he touched him.

What is he trying to do? He's trying to show the people that he can actually reverse the flow that sin started. And so then we have the second miracle story in Matthew, chapter 8. And Jesus enters a town called Capernaum.

Capernaum wasn't a good town, It was a town that was like Jesus was a huge fan of it.

But he goes in and immediately it feels like a centurion comes up to him asking for help. Now, scholars disagree on the type of centurion. They think he's either a Roman centurion or he's one for Herod Antipus' crew. It doesn't really matter What.

What you need to know is he's most likely a gentile, someone who would be considered also unclean.

He couldn't participate in normal synagogue worship. He couldn't participate in temple service. He, by all accounts, was not someone included into the covenant community that Judaism started. He's unclean And immediately he goes up to Jesus and he asks him for help.

You're going to find in the Scriptures that those who are lost, who don't know their left hand from the right, tend to have better results from Jesus than those who should know better, And that didn't change for today.

I need you to know this. I don't care if you've gone to church your entire life. If you find yourself stagnant, you're just like Pharaoh in the Old Testament, with a hardened heart. This is where the Pharisees were in Capernaum, in Corz.

Corazen, Corazen, what I don't know how.

Corisin, I don't know how you say it, But you were just like those Pharisees who thought they knew who God was, but when Jesus came they missed him. But the centurion? I don't know, I'm just I'm, I'm guessing here, but the centurion probably heard about Jesus healing the leper, And so he's like: if he's unclean, he can get healed. Maybe the situation that I'm dealing with can find healing in Jesus as well.

And what he does is very simple: He goes up to Jesus.

He doesn't even technically ask for anything, He simply lays his needs out there. In verse six it says: 'Lord, my servant, lies at home, paralyzed, suffering terribly. Maybe he should have asked, I don't know, but he laid it out there. Let me give you my first point before we even dive into the miracle.

My first point is: you got to let them know your needs.

Then wait, Let them know your needs and then wait. We have a habit, I have a habit. I don't know about you, but- but I have a habit where I don't listen very well- And I know what you're thinking out there- because I've articulated that You need to stop coming to me and articulating this on a regular basis. I know I got ADHD.

I know you don't have to articulate that to me every time I get a little bit distracted.

I know the doctor told me I took the little test And you know how you can go one to four on that test. I was a four on all of them. I know, You may not be ADHD, but we all struggle with this thing we call listening to God, . And what happens is we have conditioned ourselves to just ask without listening.

Now, I don't know how long the situation took place- It could have been very quick.

But the centurion goes up to Jesus and he just kind of just lays his needs out there- Hey, hey, my, my servant. He's struggling and suffering terribly. Then he stops. I like to think that he paused to wait to see what Jesus would say, But we've conditioned ourselves to just keep talking.

I ask him for my needs.

I listen to what Paul says, but I kind of miss a crucial component. Paul says: "Let your quest request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus". And finally, brethren, whatever is true, right, Honorable, pure, lovely and of good repute, Think on these things, and the peace of God will be with you. Some variation of that, I'm sure I got it wrong a little bit, but this is what Paul says, And so I'm just letting my requests hang out there for Jesus.

I ask him: "Hey, Lord, help me with my spouse.

I woke up this morning and you know I thought I was a nice guy, but I kind of had a tone and then my wife got frustrated at me and then I didn't respond to her very well, Lord, help me with my spouse, Help me with my kids", Because both of them walk down arguing about something I don't really care about. But I got a lot of stress on my plate. So, Lord, help me with my kids. Lord, help me with my job, because I came out here to start this church and now it's just me and Nicole, And you know Nicole's got three kids and she's operating threequarters time.

I guess during the summer she's operating full-time, She's slaying, doing a great job, But then it's just me and her.

And statistic. Yeah, go, Nicole. Statistics show that you really need to have one pastor or one leader for every hundred people, but we had 452 last week and most of y'all don't show up every week, which means we got like 700 to 800 people that are connected to the church. Trust me, I got the data in the list And when I randomly reach out to you, that's why- because you're on a list but I haven't gotten to meet you yet- And Lord, help me with these people, cuz some of them be crazy.

I don't know what to do with them.

And Lord, help this country. Lord, Lord, Iran, you help, help us with them. Yeah, I don't know. Lord, help, Help, help, help, help, help, help.

I got so much stuff that I need help with. Do we ever take a pause and see what he wants to do with a situation that I'm asking him about?. We've got to condition ourselves to do this thing that they taught me in the Bible belt, because I grew up in Arkansas. I didn't become a Christian till I was in 8th grade, but I've been learning this for 24 years at this point, because I'm 38.

And they said- they said something about. All these Christians are like: you got to have a quiet time. You got to have a quiet time. I'm ADHD.

I don't have a quiet time Like in my brain that you don't even understand what's happening in my brain.

I'm thinking about things constantly, Even when I take a break. I'm trying to develop some new app with the AI that I've got. AI has been the worst thing. They need to call AI ADHD or something like that, or AID, I don't know, But I got struggles.

I don't know how to be quiet.

I don't know how to listen. I don't even know how to get in the right posture, because if I get on my knees and I start praying to God and I get my phone out of there and then I'm just like "Lord, help me. What is that noise? Is that the AC, The fan?

My kids?

Just No, they're still sleeping. What It's? Just silence. I don't even know what to do with it.

I struggle with it.

But what God has been teaching me is that if I just lay my needs out there and pause, it won't be audible for the most part. Some of you guys are crazy. Get the audible voice of God. I love it.

Come, come here, Pray for me.

Tell me what the audible voice told you. But I get more of an impression And I read this and he speaks to me and he gives me radical wisdom in situations that there's no reason I should have it. This man goes and he lays out the need and he pauses and waits for Jesus to respond. You got to let him know your needs and then wait.

And here's what Jesus says in verse 7.

Says: Jesus said to him: "Shall I come and heal him". Other translations actually prevent you from seeing the question. They say: "Just, I'll come and heal him. He says: "Shall I come and heal him".

And what I want to tell you with that is it would probably frustrate me.

I don't know if you think of it that way. I try to be like real. And if I was a centurion and I had a need and I just laid it out there, and the guy who just healed a man with leprosy, the guy who just preached this phenomenal sermon with tons of articulate u words and metaphors and even like parables, it's like surely he can understand basic logic, but he lays his needs out there and Jesus is like, I mean, should, should I come heal him? Yeah, you should totally come heal him, right?

I mean, that's that's how I would respond to it.

But Jesus asked the question and one of the things that we do is if Jesus responds, or if he takes longer than we anticipate, or if he responds in a way that kind of frustrates us because we're not thinking about the will of God, We're thinking about our own will in our life And he, he waits a little bit longer than anticipated. I get frustrated at Jesus because his response wasn't in line with what I expected from him. It's almost like the way that we treat our spouses, you know. It's like we don't tell them fully what we need.

We don't really even understand fully what we need, but we're judging them for meeting our needs when we didn't articulate our needs.

And then I just don't even understand. This is us with God. I've seen so many people frustrated at God and I can see like 10 different variations of what God might be trying to do, And they're frustrated because he didn't do the one thing that they're anticipating. This is why we pause, Because when we pause we start to ponder, And when Jesus starts to move, or when he waits, or when he frustrates us, or when he asks the question that we think should be an obvious answer to us: yeah, come, heal him.

You got to let those words set in Because often, however, Jesus replies, he's trying to give us an opportunity to draw near to him.

Yeah, he'll draw near to you, but he wants to give you opportunities to draw near to him. In fact, if you don't ever draw near to him, then you're going to miss the opportunities presented in front of you when they come, because you don't know what it's even like to pursue Jesus. You just been waiting. You're always the one, never the 99.

We love the phrase that says he'll leave the 99 to rescue the one.

And at some point YOU GOT TO STOP BEING THE ONE. Some of you are the one. You are the one right now And praise God that he came from heaven to earth to show you a better way.

But, . Some of you should be in the pin a little bit, saying "I know where my shepherd is". Stop being the one that Jesus has to chase. Step into the pin, Spend some time with him.

You got to. You got to seek him out. You got to ponder what he's doing. As I've gotten older in my faith, because this is a real thing.

As I've gotten older in my faith, I have learned that that Jesus doesn't just like like lay it out there for me.

He wants me to search his ways, see how unfathom, fathomable they are, Paul. Paul talks about it this way when he talks about the, the riches of Jesus. They're, they're high, they're wide, they're immeasurable, and God wants you to seek him out. So when Jesus asks a question- I don't know that this guy knows, but our job is to let his words set in, to see what, what might conjure up.

This isn't just the question he asked, it's his words.

This is a big book and they're full of his words. And if you don't let these words set in, then you're going to be asking for miracles he never intended to perform, while missing the ones he's already performing, . I don't want you to miss it. James says: you do not have because you do not ask.

And when you ask, you ask with ill motives and poor intent.

James even recognizes that if you, you, you're always the one and you never become a part of the 99, then you miss God's intent and his purpose. The centurion- I, I dude, I, I, I can't swear this, I can't. I can't say this like with 100% assurance, but this guy must have had some level of understanding of who God was and then who Jesus was. Now there's a term that scholars use to describe people who aren't Jewish in the ancient world but would go to synagogue and would worship at the temple and would come into the outer court.

They called them God-fearers.

God-fearers were non-Jewish people who were considered unclean. They were Gentiles who heard of Yahweh and were attracted to who he was. I think this centurion might, might have been a God-fearer. I want to show you some cool stuff right here, because when, when Jesus asks a question and we're wait, when we are waiting for him to answer us, and he asks a question or he presents something, there, we've got to ponder these things like: if I'm the centurion, why did he ask that question?

He's logical, he's a logical God.

Why would he ask that question? Maybe there's a better reason, but doesn't he already know exactly what's necessary? Why? Why does he ask me that?

What?

What does it mean that he would ask me that question? Do you want me to come heal him? I'm a Gentile, But he wouldn't. He wouldn't come to my house and heal my servant because I'm I'm a Gentile.

He wouldn't come under my roof.

That would get him in trouble with the Pharisees. Does he not mind that? He did just heal the leper And, you know, maybe he would do it. Should I let him, as a Jew, come under my roof?

How would that look if I'm a Roman or if I'm in Herod Antivist's crew?

How would that impact my livelihood? Would people think weird that I had this Jewish miracle worker come to my house? And, if I remember correctly, that sermon on the mount was really good teaching and that healing of the leper was really, really cool. So he did ask me.

Maybe I should say yes, Or maybe maybe I shouldn't say yes.

Maybe I should think about what the Old Testament says about him, because maybe he knows it, maybe he doesn't. I think he knows it because second Kings 5 says that Elijah healed non with only a word, but he touched him. I wonder if he can heal my servant with only a word. Then Psalm 33 says that he spoke and it came to be, Which means his word, not just his touch, is powerful enough.

Genesis 1, .

He said: "Let there be light". And there it was. This is a cool one. Psalm 107:20 says: "He sent out his word and healed them.

He rescued them from the grave.

Now, I don't know if the centurion knew this, because it's a definite deep cut. He would have really known the Old Testament if he's quoting Psalm 107:20. But here's what he says. After pondering, in verse 8, the centurion replied: "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed".

For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. 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 like this. This centurion had had really thought about it.

He developed a whole metaphor- This dude's preaching here.

He said: "I get it, I'm a, I'm a leader of a hundred, but then there's a guy who leads the legion above me and if he says something, I don't even meet the dude, but I got to do it". And if I say something- the little peeon- is that what they call The little peeon in my hundred- he don't come to me and ask me permission. He don't come to me and tell me anything. He doesn't question my judgment, He just does it.

And if you can touch a man and reverse the flow of sickness, then you could probably speak a word and bring life to somebody else, . It's just logic here. Such a cool metaphor. I love it because people who don't know Jesus often come up with the best metaphors.

I had someone tell me one time they said: "So you're like a CEO". I was like I don't like that term, But I love that. You understand, this is a business. It's not.

It's not a.

It's not a worldly business. It's a kingdom oriented business. But we don't operate based on fairy dust and rainbows.

I mean, it's a real thing. You got a legally. I love it because a unchurched person will come in here and be like "Hey, God put this together, but he's utilizing people to manage it". That's right.

I love seeing the common sense of people who didn't grow up in this stuff. That's this centurion right here, And what's cool is he knew his place. He's not trying to operate like someone who leads a legion or like a soldier who's underneath his leadership. He knows his lane And so that's why he can come to Jesus and recognize his authoritative power over cosmic entities.

Such a cool thing. So here's my third point. Let him have his seat while you take yours. What this man does is he.

He sees where Jesus really is and he recognizes his own place.

He says. He says: "Lord, I don't deserve to come to have you come under my roof". You guys might think like, "Oh, come on, You're worthy". You've heard it in the worship song: I'm worthy, I'm worthy, I'M WORTHY.

NO, YOU'RE NOT.

Love you, love you, but you're not. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. That's really cool. But the wages of sin is death And all are without excuse.

None of us are worthy.

None of us are worthy of abundant life here, because sin has already wrecked that from the beginning of the world, when Adam and Eve sinned, And we don't deserve eternity with God in heaven. We're unworthy of it. And that's a beautiful lane to situate yourself in, because when you recognize you're not worthy, you can't do enough. You're not a good person in the eyes of God.

There's not one good but God, according to Romans.

When you recognize your place in the cosmos, it actually helps you understand who Jesus is a little bit better And you place him at his lofty seat, allow him to intercede on your behalf and then trust him to do what he will with your life. That's right, Th. It's a humbling process to follow Jesus, but it's a beautiful one, because my greatest feasts of strength don't do enough to give me abundant life in heaven. They don't do enough, Which is why I've got to lift him up and put him in his proper seat.

In fact, the centurion understood that unworthiness isn't actually a disqualifier. It's a doorway into a connection with God. Because when you think you're worthy, you just do your own thing. And I'm telling you, your own thing is but filthy rags.

It's, it's, it's gross, It's not good. In fact, I don't want to sound cocky here because it's not me. The, the Lord has just. He's continued to humble me.

If you know me up close, trust me, you know he humbles me, all the time. Oh, my gosh, I just. I get ripped apart all the time because I got to grow tons. But here's the.

The most annoying thing to ever see is someone who thinks they have their stuff together, walking through the world without Jesus.

Just looking at that, saying "Oh, my gosh, you think you're something". But I need you to understand that if you would simply put Jesus in his rightful place, you would understand abundant life. You would. You would understand it if you put him first.

He says: one who is under authority understands what it looks like. He's under authority, He gets it And he understands Jesus's authority because he's rightfully located himself. And as this continues, here's what happens- Jesus gets excited. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him: "Truly, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven".

Here's what's cool. If you remember, I quote he- I thought I think he quoted Psalm 107, verse 20. It says: "He sent out the word and healed them, He rescued them from the grave. And when Jesus responds, he's amazed because of his faith And he says: "Truly, I tell you, I've not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

I say to you that many will come from the east and the west".

You don't know this unless you know the Scriptures, deep cut In Psalm 107:2 and three. Here's what the Psalm says: Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story, Those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. I don't know that this is true, but I think that what we see here, that Matthew's utilizing, is a centurion understanding, just a semblance of what the Old Testament says, as he pondered, And Jesus responds to him with a word of encouragement to a gentile who he should not be going into his house, And he won't, But the encouragement is there nonetheless. I have learned in my life that physical healing is of benefit, but his word, his authoritative word, is of eternal benefit.

And- and I just need you to understand that- you can have healing after healing, after healing, seen it, and then people just forget about it.

I It doesn't. It doesn't make sense to me And I want to go on a rabbit trail here. It just doesn't make sense to me how, how you can look at somebody who's been radically healed by the Lord, and they would even identify it as that, but then they just run right back to the trash that they were walking through beforehand. I can tell you why: It's because a physical healing isn't what's going to change every aspect of your soul.

It's the word of God going out into the world and you receiving it the way that you're called to.

So, with regard to his word, I'll give you two quick points. The first one is: let him speak over you. Let him speak positively. I mean you got to read it to understand what he says.

A lot of us walking around insecure, We forgot or don't understand what God's word actually says about us.

And it's not just the good stuff There's- I mean it's all good- It's not just the really, really good stuff that you all quote. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever may believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. It's not just the, the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Love that Super good It's not just I've learned to become content in any and every circumstance.

It's not just I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper.

It's not just that stuff, It's the entirety of the word that speaks over you, something you didn't even understand about yourself. He tells this man, before he heals the person with a word. That's so cool, Miracles are great. But he tells the person: "You will not be unclean forever.

You will be invited into the banquet.

You will be seated in the kingdom of God with Abraham and Jacob and Isaac". That is an encouraging word And many of us hear that word. We're like: "Hey, as far as the east is from the west, he's going to gather you together and you're going to worship and serve your creator forever and ever". And we hear that word and we're like, "All right, cool, That's great".

And then we go about our lives and we don't allow it to speak and dwell over us.

And, just like the spirit of God was hovering over the waters in the beginning, there is a level where the spirit of God can take the word of God and allow it to constantly influence you. It is something that doesn't have to be negative When you walk into the world and struggle with stuff. It is something that when God speaks it and you retain it and you open the word and you spend a little bit of time pondering it, you recycle it daily, And I can speak until I'm blue in the face about you receiving God's word. But if you never pick it up and allow it to like like through osmosis.

I just you.

You read it, enough you'll get something. You listen to it, enough you'll get something. You show up and sit under the authoritative word, Not my word. I hope you didn't come to hear me.

I hope you came to hear this preached, because just a couple verses of this can speak to your soul more than all of the articulatess that any preacher could give you His word.

When it's cemented into your mind, when it sticks to your heart, when you allow it to have a place in your life, to push out the guilt, the shame of your past and the insecurities that you've been walking through because your parent says something, or because someone says something in sixth grade that you haven't forgotten about, or because there's trauma in your past, God's word can infuse itself into your life and encourage you. I don't know how this centurion felt, but I would encourage you. Let him speak positively over your life and receive it. A lot of people been listening and reading the positive words of God, but they never really take it in.

But also, let him speak against you.

Here's what he says in verse 12. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. He's talking about the people who are already in it, who are missing the authoritative word. He's not talking about the centurion.

He's talking about Capernaum, who really didn't listen to what Jesus came to say.

He is proclaiming judgment on the groups of people who thought they knew but didn't know him, So they missed the miracle right in front of them. You got to let God speak against you. It happens all the time, Usually through people like my wife. You know she.

She speaks over me tons.

She does, She does, You do too. Some of y'all. You like you hear an authoritative word from the Lord. You read the Scripture and then I do something stupid, as I'm prone to do.

You're like: "Man, that shouldn't, that's, that's not something God's called you to" And then I'm sitting here.

I'm like "Whatever, You're not ordained". I don't respond that way externally, But internally there's pride, There's a wall that builds up. I'm just like Pharaoh in my heart. Sometimes, And when the Lord speaks something against me, it's like "Hey, why are you watching that?

Why are you saying that?

Why are you dwelling on that? Why? Why are you over here instead of where I called you to be? Why are you wasting time".

And then the word comes in.

Especially if it's through a person, I'm like "Back off". This was the Pharisees when Jesus came and he started flipping their temple tables over, telling them that they're doing sacrifices all wrong, telling them that they're they're screwing up the legal code because they're spending more time on these little bitty things, trying to strain a knat, rather than focusing on the big, weightier aspects of the law. And when the Pharisees heard him, they didn't receive it. But us, this church- I can't speak for the other churches in town, though I'd like to.

At this church, I want us to be a group of people, whether it's a positive, encouraging word over our souls, or whether it's a word that looks directly at the sin we're walking in and says "Quit doing that.

. It's not right. God's called you to greater than this. You need to get out of that house.

You need to make a decision to do this rather than that, . You need to stop excusing your sin, . Whatever it is, if God speaks a word over you and or against you, let it sit. Peruse the Scriptures, Have a quiet time, Beat your head with the Bible and tell like I don't know what you have to do.

People hate Bible thumpers.

I'm like, "Hey, I'm just trying to get the word into you. I don't want to be rude about it, but sometimes you just need to receive that thing". And the reason you getting thumped with the Bible is cuz you got a thick skull And it's time for you to listen to what the word of God would tell you to do. You got to let him speak against you, Let his words impact you, Let his words govern you, like they do the cosmos.

It's crazy that he can govern the cosmos, Say "Let there be light", But we're hanging out in the dark listening to him tell us what to do And we're like, "I think I know better. It doesn't make sense to me". This is why the centurion came quicker to Jesus than Capernaum did. This is why our church will struggle if we're simply people who say we have faith but we miss the miracles of God's word right in front of us.

I don't want to be known for our charisma, though that'd be awesome.

I don't want to be known for our orthodoxy, though that we need to be known for that. I want to be known as people who, when God speaks a word, we listen to it and we respond to it. Let him speak over your life. And in verse 13, .

Here's what it says.

Then Jesus said to the centurion: "Go, let it be done just as you believed it would". And his servant was healed at that moment. Sixth point, final point, is: let it be done. Let it be done, Believe me, I had.

The qualifier is let it be done just as you believed it would.

I never thought about this in this passage, but it was really convicting for me, because often, when God does something or wants to do something, or when I ask him to do something, I'll ask him vaguely- I'm not really specific. I'll say: 'Lord, please work in this area in my life? And then he starts working in this area in my life. But all I did was ask him and then I went about my day not really believing anything.

Now, I don't, I don't.

I think this is more significant than it, than it is something that we really need to think about for the centurion, But I find it so captivating the idea that my imagination about God's capacity actually impacts what he does. Let me rephrase that for you, because God can perform a miracle in your life, regardless of your faith. I want you to know that. I want to be clear about that Regard unbeknownst to you.

God's going to do something in your life if he's drawing you to himself, But there is a level where your lack of imagination is actually preventing you from seeing the work that God wants to do.

Because this is God: works in tandem with your faith. God can do anything he wants to. It's not contingent on you. At the same time, God made a plan where he would use you to bless the world.

That is his purpose, And when he uses you, that means you do it together.

So if God speaks something and we receive that thing and then we start moving in line with what he spoke, then cool. But most of the time he speaks something, we're resistant and we're steady, waiting on a miracle. And he's like: "Hey, let it be done. As you believed it would".

When God speaks a word, we've got to take it and say: "All right, I'm going to let it be done".

When he says he forneew you and predestined you to be called to the image of his sons, it's like: "All right, I'm going to let it be done just as I believed it would". So I'm going to believe his word and then I'm going to operate as if it's already done.