Well, good morning. It’s good to see you. It’s good to be back.
Last week I was up in Louisville and I preached for my grandfather, his church, and he’s been pastor in this church for about two or three years. Funny enough, it’s the church where I went to daycare when I was like three and four years old. It’s a neighborhood I grew up in. It just happened. So I hadn’t been there in whatever, I was four last time I was there. So I go in and they’re still doing Sunday school and so I go in the sanctuary and I’m like, oh, I get to preach and it was like this beautiful, like historical chapel with like stained glass window and it had all the pews, like this elevated pulpit. I’m like taking pictures. I’m going to like send this to Chase. Like, look, this is like a cool, beautiful place. And then like the janitor comes in. He’s like, yeah, we still got the mold problem. So we’ll be meeting in the fellowship hall. So I preached in the room where I ate breakfast as a four-year-old, like these old wood panel walls and everybody sitting behind lifetime tables. I’m like, ah, whatever, whatever.
No, but it was funny. But you know, I did, I did text Chase last week towards the end of the week and I said, you know, it’s good to see blood family. It’s good to see relatives. But I think I understand more and more what Jesus means. The disciples, they are my mother. They are my brothers. And so I missed you. I hope you miss being here with us. And I truly value you as a very real family. So I love you. I’m glad to be back with you this morning. And we’re going to be back in Matthew. So we’re going to be back. Working through Matthew’s gospel. I want to be in the eighth chapter in verse five. If you want to turn there, Matthew chapter eight, verse five.
And Matthew writes, when he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And he said to him, I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me. And 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. 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. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And to the centurion, Jesus said, go, let it be done for you.
believed, and the servant was healed at that very moment. You know, we live in an age, we live in a culture, and it’s probably just true of people. We like remarkable things, remarkable people, remarkable stories, great feats. You think about sports. I don’t watch a lot of sports. I was with my family, so we were watching the games. You think how millions and millions of dollars are poured into professional sports, how many millions and millions of dollars are paid out to athletes for doing what is, you know, unique and what only a few can do very well. You think about the entertainment industry. Think about the millions and millions of dollars that goes to rock stars, to actresses, to actors. I mean, beyond that, everyone loves a war story of someone who gave up, you know, their life or gave up something precious, their safety, to save someone else. We read those books. We watch those movies. Jessica and I watched a movie last week about, true story, early 20th century, a man and his dog, the musher, went across Alaska to get this medicine for these children that were getting ready to die. They had diphtheria, and so they had to go get the anti-dogs. Amazing story. This dog, older dog, really was past his prime, and they went hundreds of miles. Really, really good story. But we love those stories. We love remarkable people. We love remarkable work. But God’s kingdom’s upside down in this way. God doesn’t look for remarkable people who do remarkable things. God looks for remarkable faith.
And I say it to you, remarkable faith will actually lead us to lead remarkable lives. You can’t flip the two. Jesus came to earth not to find remarkable people. I’m afraid there were none. But Christ came to find remarkable, remarkable faith. And I want to ask you that this morning at the beginning of a new year. Friends, do we have in Christ a remarkable faith? Back at verse 5. He says, When he came into Capernaum, centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And he said to him, I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I tomb a man under authority with soldiers under me, and I say to one, go, and he goes. To another, come, and he comes. And my servant, do this. And he does it. So, see if you can go back in your mind. I know it’s been a little while since we’ve been in Matthew, but Jesus, he made Capernaum his home base of ministry. It’s where he lived. Capernaum in Galilee. So this is where Jesus is doing ministry. Teaching, preaching, moving among the people. And remember that great sermon on the mount Christ preached, and he came down. Now, we spent a lot of time in the sermon on the mount. Christ has moved now from an extensive teaching and preaching ministry to an extensive ministry over the next few chapters of healing, supernatural healings. And remember, Jesus did that unthinkable thing when he stretched out his hand to touch a leper, to touch that unclean person. Jesus has another here
unordinary interaction with an unordinary person. It’s not a leper.
It’s a centurion. And the fact that the centurion comes to Christ for help, I want you to see, is both very important and at the same time entirely irrelevant. I want us to understand that. First, it was important. This centurion was three things. First, he was a Gentile. So he did not follow a Jewish way of life. He did not keep the customs. He did not follow the Mosaic law. He did not keep the feasts and the festivals. He did not make sacrifices in the temples. He wasn’t a Jew. So in the eyes of the Jews, he was a way. He was apart from God. The second thing he was, was a man of authority. A centurion would have had 80 to 100 soldiers under him. Ancient historians said that centurions were really the backbone of the Roman army. It was their job to make sure that their soldiers were equipped and ready and agile for when battle came. So authority, rank and file, this was this man’s bread and butter, if you will. Thirdly, what this man is, is a Roman. He is a symbol to the Jews, to the people of God, of oppression. He is a symbol in and of himself of Israel’s enemy. Rome long had Israel under their thumb and they could do nothing about it. So this Gentile Roman with great authority, he comes, surprise, surprise, wonder of wonders, to a lowly Jew. He throws off so much that stood in the way of what could have gotten in the way of him doing what he should have done, what he needed to do, what all of us really need to do. He comes and he appeals to Jesus.
And this appeal does not mean like a coy passive, like, hey Jesus, you know, I’m a big deal too, but if you could help me out. It’s not that. This appealing here means it was a pleading, it was a begging, it was an earnest asking of Christ. So the centurion, don’t miss it, he exhibits a genuine, remarkable faith in who this Jesus is and what this Jesus could do for him.
I want us to see this morning, friends, that remarkable faith, it always asks for and receives help from the Lord. Genuine, remarkable faith always asks for, and receives help from the Lord. Now this servant of this centurion, we don’t know much about him. What we know about him is this, he, because of some ailment that came on, he’s paralyzed and he’s suffering terribly. And the Greek leads us to understand it’s a young male, so it’s probably like a slave boy. So this slave boy, whether he just happened to be in the good graces of this centurion or this centurion happened to be just a good master in general, we don’t know, but here’s what matters. It led Christ to the centurion and the centurion to Christ. And Jesus gives the reply that the centurion only could have hoped to hear. He says, I will come and I will heal him. That’s all Jesus says. Now notice what Jesus did not do. Jesus did not say, but you know, you are a Gentile and you are a man in authority in Rome and you oppress the people of God. That’s not what he does. In other words, here’s what Jesus does with this centurion. Jesus, rather than condescend the man, Jesus condescends to the man simply because the man expresses his great need for Christ.
Jesus became to the man an object worth placing his faith in alone. It had nothing to do with Rome. If Rome could help, the centurion would have had access to it. He’s a centurion. He would have been able to access the doctor. There’s no doctor to help him. His authority can’t help. Nothing in all of his life as a Gentile could help. He knows he’s got nothing now. The centurion by faith sees only this Christ now could be my help. And here’s what’s amazing about that, friends. Jesus will never turn anyone away who comes seeking his help. Never. Jesus will always respond in faith. And how remarkable was the faith of this centurion? Think about it. Up till now in Christ’s ministry, everyone who wants a healing, the sick people, paralytics, demon, oppressed, possessed, they’ve got to come to Christ. Everyone’s thinking, I’ve got to get near this man to get some of that healing, right? But this centurion’s faith is so great, he doesn’t need nearness, physical nearness. He says, if only this Christ would speak the word, he knows that his power’s not limited to where he is. He says, you know, I’m a centurion, so if I speak and tell my soldiers to do something, it’s like Rome itself is speaking. He says, this Jesus, it’s just the same. This Jesus has the full power of heaven on his side. If this Christ would just speak it, it would come into existence. What great faith, friends, does this centurion have? What remarkable faith he has in this Christ alone. He’s asked, and because he’s asked in faith, he receives.
I want to say to you this morning that genuine faith is so remarkable because it does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. It helps us see the frailty of the human situation. Each of us, we’re powerless over our own times. We’re powerless over the happenings of our life. We think otherwise often, right? The control we think we have, it’s an illusion. And it’s an illusion created by the pride of life, the pride of man. Pride’s a disease we’re all born with. It assures us of self while insuring our death, insuring our fall. Remember Pharaoh? Oh, how he was so sure of himself. His power, his position, his place in the world. But what did God do? God brought Pharaoh to his knees in utter destruction. Sheer defeat, didn’t he? And here’s what you and I must do. You and I must reckon with the fact that we each have a great deal of Pharaoh in our own hearts, don’t we? And that Pharaoh in our own hearts, it cheers us on to declare sovereignty apart from the one who is truly sovereign over every human life.
But faith sees the sham of autonomy apart from God. Faith sees this God, all the good that He could give me, all the things that I really need in life, power, whatever I have, these are things that God has given to me for me to wield for the good of others in His glory. So that being said, can’t we say pride is the greatest delusion that one can have? It leads us to believe that truth, goodness, purpose, those originating self. No. Faith sees, no, all these things are a seed from the Lord who is our capital H. Help. God created you and I to receive, to be provided for and it’s pride that leads us to separate ourselves from God. The psalmist understood it. Psalm 28, 7. He says, The Lord is my strength and my shield. In Him my heart trusts. What happens when we trust the Lord? He says, And I am helped. Help.
The help of helps comes quickly to our aid when we see Him as such. You know why? Because God can’t deny His own nature. God can’t deny who He is. And since God can’t deny who He is to be our help when we ask for it, friends, He won’t deny us ever. He’ll always help us. The one who has His eye on the sparrow, He’s got His eye on you. The question is, do you by faith have your eye on Him? Do you by faith have your eye on Him? Jesus says, Ask and you will receive. Jesus says, Knock and the door will be opened. Jesus said, Seek and you know what we’ll find if we truly seek Christ? We’ll find a Christ who is willing to uphold us in all our adversity. And friends, you’ve got to be honest. The Christian life is full of adversity. How often we fail to do right. How often we’re puzzled at tragedies that God brings to pass in different seasons. How often we war with spiritual plagues, spiritual anxieties, spiritual fights. Practically, being a Christian doesn’t, you know, doesn’t eliminate you from having bills that pile up. Jobs get lost. Family does get sick. So all this stuff, and we’re trying to keep it all together here, but God says, No, no, let me be for you a great help. I don’t want to minimize the miracle Jesus did in healing. That boy was a miracle. Supernatural miracle. But it was a background, you know. It’s a background of that story. What’s in the forefront of this story? What’s in the forefront of this story is this question that you must answer. Who in life truly is your help? Who truly is your God?
You know, faith doesn’t turn God into a genie.
Like, great, I got this help. So whatever problem I’ve got, like, you know, rub the thing and pop out and tell me what you want. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work that way. Here’s what faith is. Faith is like a set of lenses. It’s eyes, and it helps you just see God for who God is. And what is God? A perfect help. A perfect Savior. And in God’s perfect way, and in God’s perfect timing, God will always help him as we’re pursuing him and living life in godliness. So understand this. Trying to be your own Savior, and we do it sometimes, it’s not noble. It’s foolish arrogance. It’s foolish arrogance. On the flip side,
despairing when all is lost, that’s not pitiable. That’s just pathetic. You see, we have an able-bodied Savior. The psalmist says, really Christ says through the psalmist, I look up to the hills, and from where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. So friend, never should we as Christians despair. Despair is that great antithesis of faith. Despair is this conclusion. I can’t help myself. And God sure can’t help me either. You remember those Israelites wandering in the wilderness? God was never a solution, was He? God was always a problem. If something went wrong, He was never one to ask for help. He was one to complain about and complain to. They were a despairing people, and they died in their faithlessness. They died in their despair.
Jesus is your perfect help this morning. I don’t know what 2020 is going to… You know, who knows what’s going to happen in 2020. I know Jesus is our help if we by faith will apprehend Him to be that. Have you apprehended Christ by faith?
Someone has said that faith is a gift of God, just like the air is, but you’ve got to breathe it. Just like bread is, but you’ve got to eat it. Just like water is, but you have to drink it. Right? So here’s what I want us to do as a church together. I want us to move faith out of concept, like that doctrine we agree with, and I want it to be a real living faith that actually we live in and through every day. I want us to have a living faith. You look at the hall of faith in Hebrews from Abel to Abraham to Gideon who did these great things for God. It was because the author said they had faith, and that faith wasn’t something in their head. It was something that moved them to live a life devoted to God. The Scriptures say we’re sanctified by faith. The righteous live by faith. We live in the Spirit by faith. We resist the enemy by faith. So how do I do that? How do I get faithed up? How do I get more faith? How do I grow in that and get filled up? Because the Bible doesn’t give some potion to drink or say this magic seance. What do I do with faith? I want to give you three things to think about here, okay? Your faith, the Scriptures say, is a gift from God. By grace through faith you have been saved. It’s a work of God, the Ephesian writer says. The Scriptures also say that Jesus is the founder and perfecter of your faith. The apostles cry out to Jesus, increase our faith. So in other words, if we’re going to have a greater faith in who Christ is, what do we need to do? Pray for it. Ask God to give more. If He started it, He’s the only one that can maintain it and grow it to be this really big fruitful tree. I don’t want this little twig of faith. I want this big, huge faith. I want God to give me a greater faith or grasp of who He is, of who Christ is, right? Now on the flip side, if I’m praying for a greater faith that needs to be accompanied by a greater knowledge of who Christ is. Paul says, I write for the sake of the elect and the truth
and the knowledge of truth. Peter says, supplement your faith with knowledge. In other words, when you and I heard the gospel, we heard the truth and we believed in that truth. So friends, just as much as I need a bigger faith, I need to be learning more about Christ to believe more about Him. So Lord, show me more of Christ so I have more to believe in. I want to see more with faith. So that takes us back to the written word, doesn’t it? Friends, you and I can pray for faith all day long, but unless we’re listening to God, looking for more to believe in, we’re just going to have like this really big bag with nothing to put inside of it. So I want to know more of Christ. I can’t just pray for it. I’ve got to be willing to do that thing Paul says. I’ve got to be able to work out my own salvation. You do it. You break a sweat in the Bible. You break a sweat studying this thing. You break a sweat in prayer, asking and growing in your knowledge. And thirdly, I want to say this on the issue of growing in faith. It’s like a muscle you’ve got to exercise. You can sit around and pray all day and even if you’re not going to even read about getting up early to spend time with the Lord in 2020, I’m going to be a better evangelist in 2020. I’m going to be a better father. I’m going to be a godly husband. I’m going to be a godly co-worker. You can be praying and studying this stuff, but at the end of the day, having faith is a command. Jesus said believe. He said have faith in me. Peter said at Pentecost, repent and believe. So at the end of the day, it’s an issue of you simply obeying God’s Word. So pray for it. Repent. Grow in it. But at the end of the day, we don’t have to step out and do it. We’ve got to live in faith. Kind of maybe think about it like this if it’s a silly illustration. Imagine you come upon a cave and in this cave you see an infinite amount of treasure. I mean you see about a mile in of treasure and there’s more there that you don’t even know about. But you happen to only have with you a tin can.
Now couldn’t you take that tin can and fill it up with that treasure and probably live really well for a while?
Yeah, but then you realize, man, if I had a bigger bag. You know? So in the same way, friends, when we have a bigger capacity of faith to fill up that treasure of who Christ is, what can I then go do? I can go live a more luxurious life. I can buy whatever house I want to buy. In the same way, with a bigger faith and more Christ, I can go live a more obedient, effective, fruitful life for the kingdom. So let’s take faith very, very serious this year. It is a gift from God. God, don’t squander it. Grow it. Make it a fruitful thing for the Lord. Okay?
We’ll look back at verse 10 with me.
It says, 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. I tell you, many will come from east and west, and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the kingdom of heaven. All the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So I said it was important that this man was a centurion. It’s amazing that he let so much go to come to Christ. So much that blocked him from this pointedly Jewish Messiah. But now Jesus shows the irrelevance of him being a centurion. The centurion has faith. He has a grasp of who Jesus is. It’s great. And it leads Jesus to marvel. Imagine that. This centurion is able to marvel, amaze, wow the Son of God.
One, because it’s a great faith. Jesus said it’s a strong faith. It’s a bunch of faith. It’s a quality. It’s a quality faith. But Jesus is marveling second because He says, I haven’t found such faith in Israel among His own people. The very people who should have possessed and exuded such a faith, among them, faith was almost entirely void. Truly, truly, Christ says. Truly, truly. There is no faith in Israel. Israel suffers from a lack of faith. But I want you to catch this. It’s not that Israel didn’t marvel Christ. Israel marveled Christ as much as the centurion marveled Christ, but for a very different reason. Look in Mark chapter 6, verse 1. It says, He went away from there and came to His hometown and His disciples followed Him. And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard Him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to Him? How are such mighty works done by His hands? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t that Mary’s son? Isn’t that the son over there? Brother James? Who is this guy? We know all about this guy.
And look, it says, Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and his household. And he could do no mighty works there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And why could Jesus do so little among them?
He marvels because of their great unbelief. So the, the Jews looked at their Messiah and what did they see? Nothing. But this non-Jew sees the Jewish Messiah who’s the Messiah of the world and yet this one man, he perceives everything. The centurion didn’t have anything they had. He didn’t have the right bloodline from Abraham. He didn’t have the laws. He didn’t keep the feasts and festivals. He didn’t know anything about making the animal sacrifices. He didn’t have any of these things. And these things were good things. Don’t get me wrong. But understand, why did God give the people in the Old Testament all these things in the law? He gave them to be received by faith, to be observed by faith until the fulfillment of them came. The law,
the feasts, the festivals, the sacrifices, it’s all fulfilled in the person Jesus. It’s all there in Jesus now. And he’s standing in front of them saying, hey, I’m here. He says, I’m the fulfillment of all that. I’m the better thing that you were waiting for. Or supposed to be waiting for. And yet they could not see him at all. Christ was the end of the law, but they didn’t want to be done with it.
Understand, they were the rightful sons of the kingdom, but they disqualified themselves
because they didn’t do the one thing that mattered, the one thing that was relevant.
Receive their own king.
Receive their own king. This king who came not just to rule over them, though his rule would be powerful, his rule would be good, his rule would be gentle, just, righteous, all these things. This king also came to give his life because they couldn’t keep the law well enough. This king came to shed his blood so they could be welcomed into his kingdom, not as convicted criminals, but as righteous sons. That’s what Jesus came to do. So you see at the foot of the cross, every qualification to get into the kingdom of God is to be a righteous son. It’s zeroed out. It’s irrelevant. And this one thing is left. Friends, have you and I believed in Christ? Have we asked for entrance into the kingdom of God based off of solely who Jesus is and His goodness, what He has done for you and I in His life, in His death, and in His resurrection? That’s the question for you and I when eternity comes. The Hebrew writer says, it’s impossible to please God without faith. It’s impossible.
Paul reminds us in Galatians, the one who has apprehended Christ by faith is a son of Abraham, is brought into the promise of God. So possession of Christ by faith is the only thing that will qualify you for kingdom citizenship. In Christ, we’re made righteous for kingdom entrance and by the Spirit of God, we’re made ready for life and fellowship with God in the kingdom. So remember our working definition of the kingdom of heaven. It’s that spiritual rule and reign of God in our heart, minds, and lives. I constantly want more of that kingdom by faith to be working up in me until I’m actually there someday. Until I’m with Christ in the kingdom. Jesus says, the one who believes in me will have table fellowship with God. You’re like, what would that be like? What would it be like to have table fellowship with God? I like table fellowship. I like hanging out with people that I love. But what would it be like to have table fellowship with God? Sit there with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Gideon and all the people that were so faithful to do God’s will who live by faith, not by sight. It’s an amazing thing to think about. And yet Christ brings it into your grasp and into mine if we would but look on Christ and believe that He is the only way into it. To ask, and to receive from His hands alone.
But I want to say this to you.
Jesus never forces His kingdom on anyone.
Jesus doesn’t hold anyone against their will. And Jesus is very plain in this text. If you don’t want the kingdom, no problem. He’ll expel you. It means a violent throwing out. So you are, I am welcome to have everything that we can find apart from Christ in eternity, apart from His love, His light, His joy, His peace, His sustenance, His provision, everything that He said He would give us freely. You and I can freely find whatever we want to find outside of Christ. And Christ is pretty clear about what it’s going to look like. He says it’s the gloom of utter darkness. It is ultimately separation. It is ultimately a vexation of the Spirit. It’s despair. It’s hopelessness. It is the feeling of being finally rejected. What it is, it’s a permanent unrest of the soul is what Jesus is talking about. And He says, here’s what it’s going to look like. It’s going to be a deep weeping and you can’t stop weeping. And it’s going to be a grinding of your teeth. Matthew uses that phrase more than any other gospel writer. It’s just an unending grinding of the teeth because you have been rejected and you are in an unrest that can’t be helped. C.S. Lewis called it the great divorce. And once that great divorce happens, it is final. It’s final.
But church, if you could hear me say it to you this morning and it’s maybe clean head, clean heart, new year, you and I just have these few precious moments in this life
to exchange this hollow passing world for the eternal kingdom of God. You and I have these brief few moments to defect from the enemy’s camp and come to the Savior King, Jesus.
You know, He won’t berate you and He won’t browbeat you. He’ll just put His stripes on you. He’ll wear His colors. You’ll wear His royal robe. He’ll forgive you and love you and He’ll fill you up with a love that’s satisfying, a love everlasting. The question is, will you, will I, will we by faith ask for it? Because the promise is this, if we ask for it, we will receive. We will receive.
John Knox, Scottish reformer, in his last moments where he, he died, he said he fell into a deep sleep and in this dream he was tempted to believe that he had won his own salvation. He immediately woke up and told his friend what happened and he said, by grace the Lord gave him this verse, by the grace of God, I am what I am. By the grace of God, I am what I am. New Year can be one of two things. It can be a time to remember
that because God has been gracious to us, we can live a life of faith because of that grace and when we fall, that grace is still there. It’s like this umbrella we can’t come out from underneath, right? Don’t get it flipped, please. Don’t think, if I live well enough in faith, I can attain to this grace. You won’t do it and let me promise you self, promise you and promise myself this, it will exhaust us to no end and it will be February and you’ll be like, oh, Lord,
I’m not even a Christian. You’ll be doing it to yourself, right? So maybe the Spirit can just remind us at the beginning of this year, God’s grace, is so much greater than we can imagine. God’s grace is so much fuller and real and if we truly apprehend how much God loves us, oh, friends, how faith will come alive. How in faith we’ll abide and we’ll live for that kingdom and we’ll love the Lord our God with all our hearts and our souls and our minds and our strength. So I say to you this morning, let’s be asking for it and in our asking, oh, how we will receive.
Jesus finishes, though, talking to the man and he says this in verse 13 and it feels almost just like a footnote.
And to the centurion, Jesus said, go,
let it be done for you as you have believed.
And the servant was healed at that very moment.
A remarkable faith, it asks for and it receives new life.
And this new life that we have, it’s not some new life that we’re given apart from Christ. The new life is a share in Christ’s life. Christ’s life that is the remarkable life. Christ’s life that is a help to you and I. Christ’s life that brings us into the kingdom of God. Christ’s life that covers our own, that washes us clean, that makes us new, that helps us in all adversity. So friend, this morning, by grace, have a remarkable faith because Christ is a remarkable Savior.
And here’s what Jesus says to that man at the end. He says two words. Not two words, one word. Two letters. He says, go. Go. In other words, if you have this remarkable faith because you’ve seen this remarkable Christ by the amazing grace of God, you know what? You should be doing, Jesus said in Matthew 28, you should be going and making disciples of all nations. You should be going and telling the nations about this remarkable Jesus. So it’s not just me being helped. I’m going to go on behalf of this great Helper and I want Him to use me to be a help to others and preach and teach about the God who has helped us in our lowest state. So friend, let the grace and love of God move us in faith to follow, and to help others follow the same. So let that be 2020 for us. Amen? Amen. Okay, let’s pray.
Lord, You are good and Your mercy endures forever.
We cannot wake up to a day that You are not Lord over. We cannot wake up to a day where Your mercies are not new. We cannot fall so far that Your grace cannot swoop down and pull us back up.
Lord, how precious and how powerful is the blood of Your Son, Jesus.
How constant, how sure is Your Spirit that abides and convicts and teaches and comforts. How great, O Father, is Your love that has willed this.
And Your Son, do we have our movement? Do we have our life? Do we have our being?
Lord, I pray for each heart in here.
That we would stop looking inside when adversity comes, but we would look up.
We would look to the Jesus who is ready, able, willing to save and to help us follow Him. Help us get home to You, Father. So Lord, You just give us a radical humility, a radical selflessness to look at, to believe in, to ask of, to trust in, to receive. Come, Jesus.
Lord, just fill us with that in Your Spirit, I pray. I pray that word would just grow a deep root into our hearts, Lord. A deep root that can never be plucked up by the enemy, by the world, by our own pride. Oh, let it be said, Lord Jesus, that You abided in us to the very end.
So we love You this morning. We bless Your name. And we thank You. It’s in Jesus’ name. Amen.