The Marvelous Attitude to Which Christ Marveled

I'd like to begin this message as we move into the second message and want to welcome those that are on the webcast. I do pray and have prayed that this message will be a blessing, not only to you that are hearing it for the first time or those that are on the webcast, but that those that will hear it in the days, the months, and sometimes even the years that lie ahead.

As with all sermons, I'd like to anchor it in Scripture. Join me if you would. Let's open up our Bibles. That's why we have them and that's why we've brought them. And as we open up our Bibles, I presume then that we want to open up our hearts to the message that has been prepared for you. In Isaiah 66 and verse 1, allow me to read it. Isaiah 66, 1 through verse 2, Thus says the LORD, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me?

And where is the place of my rest? Where might I reside? In whom might I dwell? For all of those things my hand has made, that is, the heaven and the earth. For all of those things my hand is made, and all of those things exist, says the LORD. But on this one, but on this one, on him who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

That's quite a statement. From the Creator who has made the heavens and the earth, and my my, how awesome they are. It's beyond our imagination. Susan and I recently, as we went up to Bakersfield, we spent the night, and oftentimes when we go to spend the night, we'll pull off at Fort Lebecque. And we'll get off, and we'll get off the road there, and we'll look for a few deer, and it's real dark on one of those dark roads, and we'll just go out, and we'll just get out, and we'll just look up at the sky without the smog.

And we'll just look up there, and it just takes your breath away. But what takes God's breath away and draws his heart to his very special creation is on such a one who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. God marvels. God wonders. And God is pleased. There are two episodes in the Gospels in which the term marvel is used in connection with Jesus Christ.

In God's attention, and he beheld it. The term marvel out of the Greek is to mean to wonder, to gaze in wonder. It speaks to astonishment. It can also speak to admiration. In Mark 6 and verse 6, let's look at the first episode of where the word marvel is used.

And actually, it's used, unfortunately, in the negative. But that's the world that we live in, in Mark 6 and verse 6. And he's speaking about being in the home region of where he grew up. And speaking of Jesus, when you identify the pronoun he, and he marveled because of their unbelief. And then he went about the villages in his circuit teaching.

It's as if he stopped in his tracks. It was astonishing. It was like a block wall. In one sense, you might say that it took the wind out of his sail. I might suggest that he was disappointed. And that's what we find here. But this afternoon, I want to focus on another story in which Christ marveled. And it's a story that offers solutions to avoid taking the wind out of Christ's sails.

And thus be the living embodiment of Isaiah 66, 1, verse 2. I'm going to read it again. Then I'm going to read it again the third time at the end of this message. Isaiah 66, verse 1, verse 2. Because this is the foundation of the message. Thus says the eternal heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. And where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things my hand has made.

And they exist, says the eternal. But on this one I will look, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. And when we say this one, there's no name, there's no identification. So what we're going to do the rest of the message is we're going to put a face to the Scripture. We're going to put a story to this Scripture. We're going to put a heart to this Scripture. And when we read, we read that we are not alone. And that's why God gives us some of the great stories that are in the Bible.

The title of this message is simply this then, The Marvelous Attitude to Which Christ Marveled. The Marvelous Attitude to Which Christ Marveled. And in so doing, as we look at this attitude, we're going to break it down into four specific keys that speak out of the story that we're going to turn to.

Join me if you would in Luke 7. In Luke 7. And I'm just going to do a teaser here for a moment. We're going to go in and then we're going to go out for a moment. But in Luke 7 and in verse 9, When Jesus heard these things, He, speaking of Jesus, marveled at Him, marveled at Him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.

He marveled. He stopped. He looked. There had to be just a great wide smile, not only on His face, but in His heart, that He recognized that this was literally the personification, that is the personhood, of what He was speaking about in Isaiah 66, 1-2. So we're going to look at this.

We're going to tease you just for a moment here as we look at it, because we need to go back some. You know, have you ever walked into the middle of a movie and you don't really know what's going on? And or I know some of us sometimes like to go to the end of the book and read the conclusion and then work our way back, work our way forward.

But we don't want to quite do this because it's very important that we get the story of what is happening here. Why did He marvel at this individual? That's what we need to understand. Because when you go up here, it says in verse 1, now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, it says that He entered Capernaum.

And it says, in a certain centurion's servant, it speaks to a certain centurion. And we need to understand what is going on here. We need to recognize that the book of Luke is systematically laid out to reveal God's plan of salvation. For all people, just as we're speaking about as we're going through the book of Galatians, not only for the Jew, but for the Gentile. Not only for the covenant people of old, but for, do I dare say and use this word, for the others.

People that maybe we're not familiar with, or people that we thought might never be called. So let's understand it a little bit as we go back. Let's go back to Luke 2.28. In Luke 2.28, same chapter, same gospel, we notice this in Luke 2.28. To break into the story, this is where Joseph and Mary, Joseph and Mary are coming up to have the child blessed, and Simeon, the old man, takes the child in his hands.

And notice what it says about Simeon, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word, speaking of himself. He'd been anticipating and looking forward to this all of his life. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. Then notice verse 32. A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people.

You see, Luke himself was a Gentile. He was a Greek. He was a doctor. He had been off the plate, swished off the plate, and now God, along with him and with his people, the Gentiles, was going to be revealed that God was going to be dealing with all people. To expand this story, join me if you wouldn't look for now. And look forward. And it's important to understand, look forward as we deal with that.

Are you with me? That's certain centurion. And look forward. It's the story of Jesus addressing his hometown crowd. First time up. The local boy. That somebody...they all knew him. Just like when it was mentioned that Sean is baptized. We all know Sean. We've seen Sean grow up here. But now he is speaking. It says in verse 17, he opened up the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, who set at liberty those who are oppressed, and notice to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Jesus of Nazareth is proclaiming that he is the Jubilee. Incarnate in the flesh. It has come. There's going to be a change in society. As it speaks of the Jubilee, there's going to be a leveling. There's going to be a return, or the beginning of a return, not only for the Jew, not only for the Israelite, but ultimately for all humanity and the Gentiles. And then it says, and he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So all bore witness to him, and all marveled at his gracious words, which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, Listen to this, Joseph's son, verse 23. And he said to them, Yeah, you will surely say this, Prophet of D'Ami, Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also in your country. And then he said, Now stay with me, this is where we need all coming. And then he said this, Assuredly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

But I tell you, truly many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout the land. But none to them was Elijah sent except Saraphaa, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. Now verse 27, here we go. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet. And none of them was cleansed except Naaman, the Syrian.

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard this, they were filled with wrath. They rose up, thrust them out. They were going to try to get rid of him after his first sermon in his hometown. But what Luke 4 does for us now, it sets the stage. Sets the stage for what we're going to discuss in Luke 7. Join me now back in Luke 7.

Luke 7 is really the story of the New Testament Naaman, and a healing that occurs. There are similarities, and there are differences. And there's a reason why it is here. It is a reason of showing that God the Father sent Jesus Christ to this earth to be open to all human beings. And even the others, that sometimes people want to shut out of their gates, and shut out of their doors, and shut out of their churches. And here it says, gives us a face, and a heart, and a life.

An example that is set for us for all ages about that certain centurion. Let's talk about a centurion for a moment, because it says that certain centurion. So it had to be divided because there are many centurions. How many of you think you know what a centurion is? Can I see a show of hands? Well, I'm going to... Okay.

Oh, good! The rest of you don't. Good! Okay. Because just when you thought you knew what a centurion is, I'm going to fill in the rest of the blanks. Let's talk about this for a moment. This certain centurion. I remember I see Bill out here. Bill Grinnell gave us the backbone, the wishbone, and the funny bone. I like the old songs.

They're probably all connected. Well, a centurion had backbone. A centurion was a backbone connected with other backbones that were literally the spine and the strength of the Roman army. They were steady. They were reliable. And they were commanding. They were, if you want to put it this way, they were heavy-duty spine. A Roman legion was a body of soldiers that comprised 6,000 individuals.

And those 6,000 individuals were broken down into what we call 59 centuries. And each of those 59 centuries had one individual that was in charge of them, a century. And that's why you have, yes, you have a centurion. A man that was one man over 100 individuals. Individuals that could be trusted. And these individuals, if they survived the different battles that they went through, whether they were in Hibernia, Atalia, Britannia, Asia Minor, Thrace, Parthia, wherever they were, they would basically serve for 40 years.

They were kind of the old guys. They were the spine and they were the bone. They were the glue that held the legions together. And it's interesting that they wore a different kind of helmet than the rest of the soldiers. So often we think of Greek armor, Greek helmet, or Roman helmet, and how you have the horse plume that kind of goes back this way. Well, this is the PowerPoint, so you don't want to miss it. Don't blink! But the centurion plume went like this. It was out where everybody else was kind of this way.

I'm not giving myself a mohawk, but this way it went this way right over the head. In other words, they not only stood out by their character, but their helmet stood them out because it was like a flag, where you carry a flag in the battle. As long as your centurion stood, because he was reliable, he was proven, and he was true, it kept the group together. That's why strategically when a foreign army tried to battle the Romans, they tried to take out the centurion as quickly as possible. And because they were so gritty, and because they were so true, and they were into the battle, they oftentimes suffered more than any other of the officers that were in the Legion.

They were there for a reason, too, because they were, in that sense, they were not only, in a sense, like a major sergeant in the army, but they also carried this vitus. A vitus was, it's a Latin word for a Greek vine. It was a hardened Greek vine. And they used that.

And they used that on their soldiers. They used them to get them to go on, and they used them to beat them, and sometimes they used them to beat them to death. The one reason why there was Pax Romana is because it was brutal. The one reason why the Roman army stayed intact is because it was brutal. It worked, but it was brutal. And the centurions were there. The centurions were there to make sure everything stood in order. They also had to read and write, because they had to also be able to send messages.

They were at times somewhat diplomats. And that's going to play into the story that we look at now. I'd like to read a quote from Polybius. If none of you have ever heard of Polybius, I see a couple of history majors out here. They'll know who Polybius is. Polybius was a Greek of the second century BC.

That as Rome began to envelop the Hellenistic world, Polybius traveled with the Romans and defined and gave us some information about the Romans. And out of Barkley's commentary, page 84 says this, speaking of the centurions, They must not be so much seekers after danger as men who can command, steady in action and reliable. And they ought not to be over-anxious to rush into the fight, but when hard-pressed, must be willing to hold their ground and die at their post. In other words, in other words, with all these descriptions, every time they were before their men, every time they were before their commanding officer, and every time they were before the enemy, they had to put it all out there.

They had to put it on the line. It's interesting that recently there have been excavations around Capernaum, and they've actually dug up what is a Roman barracks. There was a Roman barracks on the outskirts of Capernaum, and it was probably there twofold, because, number one, you never knew what the Galileans were going to do next, whether they were going to revolt, rebel against Rome.

And number two, Capernaum was right side by side with what is called the Via Morris, which is the way of the sea. So there would have been every reason to have a centurion there. So with that stated, now you've got the background of centurion, because God doesn't have accidents with who He is dealing with. There are some miracles that are going to occur in this story, and one thing I want to share with you is that God never has an accident.

You're not here because God is a Butterfingers. You are here for a purpose, and He doesn't have an accident. And He doesn't randomly hand out His miracles. There is always a purpose behind it. Now, when He concluded all these sayings and the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. And now that we've got the background, both with the Jubilee and with the centurion, a certain centurion, the servant, who was dear to Him, was sick and ready to die. And so when He heard about Jesus, He sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and to heal His servant. And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, for He loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.

And then Jesus went with them, and when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him and, saying to Him, Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not even think myself worthy to worship You, but say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under Me.

And I say to one, Go! And He goes, and I say to another, Come! And He comes! And to my servant, Do this! And he does it. Verse 9. When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at Him and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, I say to you, I have not found such a great faith, not even in Israel, and those who were sent, returning to the house, found a servant well, who had been sick. Any time we read a story, we love to read a happy ending.

But this isn't a fairy tale. This actually recorded. And this was recorded not just for them, but for us today to learn some very, very vital lessons out of it. There are four specific points that I want to share with you about this story. This story is your story. This story is my story. That God might look up into the heavens and say, I've made the heavens and I've made the earth, but to this man, will I look?

This is the face and this is the heart. I read over it quite quickly, but now we're going to go back and we're going to kind of glean some of the harvest off of this individual. Are you with me? His first name is Certain. His last name is Centurion. We don't know who he is, but God does. Let's notice the first thing that I want to draw your attention to.

And a certain Centurion servant who was, notice, dear to him, that is, the servant, was sick and ready to die. And so when he heard about Jesus, he sent the elders, the Jews to him. He was very, very concerned about his servant. I want to share something with you today that I hope that you'll take home this week and put into your life. This Centurion was daring enough to love, and love will always have return. It says that this servant, he loved him.

He was dear to him. Now you might say out there, well, so what? Well, let me fill in some of the blanks. Let's understand that the word here for servant is dulos, which we talked about in the Bible class today. Dulos means slave. This servant was a slave. Approximately one quarter of the Roman Empire were slaves, at all categories of life, but they were all slaves. They were not their own person. This individual was a slave. Allow me to help you to understand what the mindset was of a Greek or a Roman back in antiquity, because it's not the same as a servant today.

It's not the butler in the mansion, that it was a different cast of life. Sometimes you say, well, how could those Romans be so brutal and throw all of those people into the Colosseum and be eaten by lions or to have the gladiator battles?

Simply put, they didn't look upon them as life. They did not look upon them as human life. A lot of this goes back to Aristotle. Aristotle, in the 4th century BC, did a stratification of life, which held for some millennia a stratification as he looked at life and stratified it as to this order of life. And this is what Aristotle said about the slave, one of the philosophers of Greece. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, in that line. There can be no friendship or justice towards inanimate things.

Indeed, not even towards a horse, or an ox, or towards a slave. A slave and a master have nothing in common. Nothing! And a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave. Slaves came, slaves went. The slaves spilled the coffee, there wasn't coffee back then, but spilled the wine at a banquet. You could throw them out. You could throw them down a pit.

You could throw them off a cliff, throw them in the ocean. There was no sense that a slave had life. Can you imagine that? How horrible that is! This was the culture that this man had come out of as a centurion. And yet it says here, this centurion, and his servant was sick, and this servant was dear to him.

It's kind of interesting that it kind of introduces the whole story and the whole thought. When the man asked Jesus, who then is neighbor? Who then is neighbor? And of course, one of the great stories of the Scriptures comes out. It turns out to be the one person that they didn't think was going to be neighbor. The other.

The person that people thought, what are they doing here? Why would God call him? They had their own thoughts. They had their own jigsaw puzzle that they wanted to give God to whom they thought that God should call. It turned out to be the Samaritan, didn't it? And forever, you think about it. I have a question for you. True or false? The term... Oh, everybody's up. True or false? The term good Samaritan is in the Bible. You don't have to raise your hands. Just think about it. Is the term... I have to show you this. Everybody's going... Is the term good Samaritan in the Bible? No, it's not. Forever, forever from that example. All that have read that story have come away with who is good. And forever it is known as the parable of the good Samaritan. See, the Jewish manner of teaching is to put the answer in the question. Who, then, is neighbor? Here we find a man that had the love of God in him. I don't know when it began. You know, centurions traveled the entire empire. They might have been in Britannia. They might have been in Hibernia, which was up in the same region. It might have been in Gaul. It might have been on the Danube or the Rhine. It could have been in Iberia. It could have been in Carthage. It could have been in Thrace. We don't know where it began, where he developed this love, but it began. You see, all of you are here today because God has placed you on a journey. Are you with me? God has placed us all on a journey. And I look back into my life as I think about the centurion. Where did God begin with him? Sometimes we say, well, God began because I heard this or I read that. No, no, no. That was just the latest part of the journey. God reaches way back into our life and begins working and dealing with us to bring us, sometimes, just for a moment in life. Maybe for a story, maybe for an event, maybe for a time in this congregation. You know, when you think of Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill and all the experiences he had came to the fore for six critical years. of world human history. Everything before that developed and crystallized. And now we see this crystallization that God was using this man to teach you and me today to stretch our minds, to stretch our hearts, and to recognize who God is dealing with and submit them to him. Join me if you would, Matthew 25 and verse 40. Let's put a scripture to this and continue. In Matthew 25 and verse 40. The words of Jesus.

Simple statement. This is not high theology, but it speaks of the mind that is led by the Spirit, as was the centurion. And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.

Just a simple question I want to ask you as your fellow Christian. How wide and how big is your world? How low are your walls? How big are our prejudices towards others?

Who may not look like us? Who may not talk like us? Who might not be from where we're from?

Who may not even understand exactly how we understand the Bible? And yet we understand that they're also God's creation. That God has them on a journey, maybe in a different spot, where you and I are today, by God's grace. How open are our doors? Have we lowered our walls over the years, or have we become more cynical and critical and put up more brick? More brick and more walls. Hmm. This centurion lived in a world without boxes, walls and prejudices. You know, just like his helmet, that unique helmet, and just his style of command and being, he stood out. He stood out because his servant was dear to him and meant everything to him. And he wanted the best for him. You know, later on in the words of Paul, Galatians 3, join me if you would there, this man was being led and guided by the same spirit that would inspire Paul to write this later on. In Galatians 3 and verse 26, for you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This was revolutionary. We read it today. We take a breath. We read it through. When Christianity came into the world and the Spirit of God began to lead people like this certain centurion, it was revolutionary.

You and I have been called to be those certain Christians to match this man. Let's go to another aspect here as we go back to Luke 7. In Luke 7, very interesting, because this man was loved, excuse me, because this man did love, he was loved. His servant was sick, so when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him, pleading with him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, notice, these are the Jews, pleading on behalf of the conquering race and a soldier of that empire. And they begged him, speaking of Jesus, earnestly saying that the one for whom you should do this was deserving, for he loves our nation.

And he's built a synagogue. He's built a synagogue for us. This man was uncommon for his time. As you and I have been called to be uncommon for the culture that's around us, he was not anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism did not begin in Germany in 1933 with the Kristallast night or whatever it's called, the breaking of the glass. Oh, it's been alive and well for thousands of years. The Nazi regime, just in their own way, mechanized it and put it on steroids. The Romans and the Greeks just couldn't figure out the Jews, and the Jews just couldn't figure out the Romans and the Greeks. But this man gave his love away, not only to his dear servant, but through the community around him. Some of you that are younger in this room today, I want to share something with you. You cannot out-give God. A giving hand is a gathering hand. A giving hand is a gathering hand, and if you do not gather it in this lifetime, God will reward us in the future in his kingdom. You just simply cannot out-give God. This man was a gentleman of great generosity.

He measured success in a different way than probably his fellow soldiers, and sometimes how people measure success today. A lot of people, what they do is they climb, hear me, they climb the ladder of success all of their life, thinking that when they reach to the top, that they've made it. Only to find, are you with me? That it's leaning on the wrong building. And then to find as they try to get off, they look down, and there's nobody there to help them, because they've climbed over everybody, and they've kicked everybody else off.

That's not Christian success. That's not Christian success. This man was climbing a ladder that few had climbed as a Roman soldier. And you know what? There were people down there. People down there holding that ladder of success and being intercessors for him. You know, sometimes in church, maybe sometimes in your neighborhood, maybe sometimes at work, somebody is in a challenged position. They're having challenges. And what a joy and what a beauty it is to be an agent of being an intercessor. You see, that's what Christians are about, aren't they?

Isn't that what Christians are about? To be intercessors? Aren't we the model, the great intercessor that intercesses for us day and night and heaven above? And we see this example down here. This is an incredible story and a beautiful story. Let's go a little bit further then. And then it says here, Then Jesus went with him, and when he was already not far from the house of the centurion, sent friends to him, and, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. Therefore, I do not even think myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. Number one, this man showed great love. Number two, here's the second step. He showed great humility. He said, I am not worthy. Oh, what a difference! All of his life, he had gone from being a grunt, to going up the ranks, to becoming a centurion. He became a centurion, not because of what he thought, but because of what he did, and because of his works, all the way up that chain. A centurion, in human reasoning, was worthy. He said, I am not worthy. He laid himself out. In a sense, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, he prostrated himself before the rabbi, before the one that he looked to as his master. Not just simply a tribune, and not just simply a Roman consul who would come and would go, but to the master. He also knew that an observant Jew could not enter the household of a Gentile. You can jot this down and look at it later. It's manifested in Acts 10.28, with a story of another centurion, his dealings with Peter. He would not impose his needs, or his personal emergency, on Christ. He was thinking about Christ more than himself. I would suggest this at the same time. I think that Jesus would have entered his house, as much as Peter would enter the house of Cornelius years down the line. But this was the moment of testing, of moving up the faith skill, because it was going to be setting the next stage. I want you to let's anchor with Scripture for a moment. Matthew 23, verse 12. Join me, please. Matthew 23, verse 12.

This man was showing us a measure of how God can look down, and be drawn from the heavens and the earth, and say, here's the person that I want to dwell with. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. This is the very equation of the Jubilee, that the mountains will come down, and the valleys will come up. They're not talking about topography. It's not talking about soil. It's talking about society. It's talking about hearts. It's talking about a revolution, based upon a revelation in human history, where God will give a new mind, and give a new heart, and give a new spirit. This man demonstrated that. One more scripture, James 4, verse 8. James 4, verse 8.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. See, Jesus was coming. He was moving towards that man. And cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. And it says, and he will lift you up.

Can I share something with you? Humility is such a wonderful thing to behold.

Because in this human plane, and on this earth that we walk, we see it so rarely. So very rarely. But when somebody is humble, not the person that prays and thinks, God, that he's humble, because we realize right off the bat, he's not humble. Thank you for the humility that you have given me. We fool ourselves. How often do we find ourselves involved in conversations that begin with two words? I think. I think this and I think that. Well, thank you, but I think this and I think that. And everybody's talking, and nobody's listening. It's one of the great lessons that Susan and I came away from, this Feast of Tabernacles. We always ask God to show us some things about ourselves. And we're trying to get rid of those two words more than not in our conversations. Because it's not really important of what I think. It's more important of what God thinks and what God instructs.

And yet so often, it's either my way or the highway. We received a letter from a member in our circuit here this past week.

And you know what? It's not somebody that's going to sing up here on stage. It's not going to be somebody that's going to get behind a microphone. But we received just the most dear letter from him.

And we marveled. And we wondered. And we were astonished in a very, very good way.

Where he was explaining himself and thanking for being in the Church. And for what the Church has done for him.

And he said, if I can help you in any way, if I can help you in any way, you let me know.

That was, you know, with my human eyes that would have been written in black ink. But I think with my spiritual eyes it was red and humble ink. This man was humble. The centurion was humble. And when we're humble, things begin to happen. Point number three. The man was obedient. Back to Luke 7. Luke 7. Join me if you would. He was obedient.

He said this, Therefore I do not even think myself worthy to come, but say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having 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.

He was just basically saying simply this, Just say the word. Now it's very interesting. I'm not going to go back for sake of time, but I'll get this through for a moment. Jesus in Nazareth, when he was giving that message, spoke about Naaman. Are you with me? Naaman, the Syrian general, who was a leper and who was healed. But just to help you recall, if you want to go back to the King's stories in the Kings, what happened is, Elijah put it out there, but what happened is, Naaman said, You've got to be kidding me. I don't know how he say that in Aramaic, but that's what he said. You want me to go down and dip myself seven times in that mud pit, that hole that you call the Jordan River? Do you not know? I'm going to tell you what I think. Do you not know that we have mighty, rushing, great rivers that roar out of the 10,000 foot peaks in Syria and Lebanon? And you're asking me to do that? I've had it!

He eventually got the point. He said, God is just simply asking you to do something very simple, and you're frankly just making it really complicated. I have a question for you. Are you a little bit like me? Have you ever noticed that many of the longest chapters in Scripture deal with disobedience? And some of the shortest chapters and some of the shortest verses in the Scripture deal with obedience. Some of us are parents or grandparents, and we deal with children. We deal with our grandchildren. How often would we want our children to just say, Johnny do this, Johnny do that, Janie do this, Janie do that? And we would just wish like music and super sweet harmony that, oh my, they just did it. That was it. We didn't go off to Disneyland, but because of disobedience, because it goes on and on and on, Johnny, Janie, we got news for you. We just canceled the trip to Disneyland.

Disobedience has an outcome. Obedience has an outcome. You and I have been called, as it says in Acts 5, that God gives His Spirit to those who obey Him.

That heed the advice, that just to ask what you say. I'm going to share a story with you. Is that how we are? I'm going to ask you a question first, and then when we come to services, are we hearing things? Are we just here putting in time? Are we just looking at our clocks? Rather than recognizing that the Word of God is opened up to us to be received? And to recognize that when we come to church and we pray that God will bless our time there where He's placed His name, that there will be something in the sermon that we can take home, that there's going to be something in the conversations between the aisles that we're going to take home. That there's something that we're reading in the scripture that we say, God, I see it and I need to do it now, not later. And the shortest distance between two dots is a straight line. Lord, I will obey Your Word. Lord, I will obey what Your Son says in the Gospel. Or have you just become tired, cynical, turned off, as Lauren brought out, disenchanted?

So often when I speak to audiences, I just pray that if there's just one individual, just one, not a hundred, not four thousand, not the thousands that I've spoken to over the years, but just one, that will take a seed of the Gospel, seed of the scripture, seed of encouragement, planted in their life, that they may grow by it. Not because of me, but that they may glorify God. It's a rare thing. I think I might have told you the story, but I was dealing with it a couple months ago, but I was dealing with an individual that had a very, very serious, life-challenging situation. And they were seeking counsel. And I gave them some counsel. They were a little trepidatious about which way to go. But I reminded them of what 1st Samuel 1740 says, of where it says that David went to face Goliath and he knelt down over the brook, and it says that he picked up five stones. He knew that God was going to do what God could only do, but he also knew that God would expect him to do his part. And that no matter what happened, he would keep on slinging, he would keep on swinging, and if he missed with all the stones, he'd probably go stamp on Goliath's foot and then try to strangle him with the sling. Whatever it took. But he gave the battle to the Lord. Next time I met that individual, they had a little necklace. They had a little, I don't know what you kind of call it, but it had a little cute jewelry-like container. And you know what it was in that little container? Five pebbles out of her backyard. Five pebbles. She still has big challenges. She still has great challenges.

But just hearing that counsel, she made it graphic, she made it real, and she went with that. I have a question for you. When is the last time that you, as a child of God, you that prayed to come to services, took something from services, obeying what the gospel says, obeying what the Word of God says, obeying how Jesus wants his disciples to be, and you went and you planted that in your life immediately? Like the centurion. Like the centurion who obeyed. Let's go to Luke 7. Last one. Luke 7.

Where it says then this, you said, Therefore, verse 7, I did not even think myself worthy to come to you, but say the word, and my servant will be heard. Just say the word. Point number four is simply this. This certain centurion had faith. In fact, Jesus commented on it to all the church people of his day. To the church people of his day.

Those that had God in a box. And wondering why the dialogue with the centurion. He said, I say to you, I have not found such great faith. Not even in Israel. Great faith. Wonderful faith. He said, in other words, Lord, I know that you can do this. See, a centurion was a centurion and placed in that responsibility because he expected results.

And he gave his life and the life of his servant over to the Christ. And the centurion was results oriented. It was as if it had already been done. Well, how does that match up with John 24? Join me if you would there for a moment. John 24.

The Gospel thereof.

Because this is written to you and to me today. John 20, verse 24.

Actually, I'm going to go all the way down. This is the story about Didymus or Thomas. Verse 29, Christ makes his final statement. Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Then notice what it says. Blessed are those who have not seen, not seen and yet have believed. That's you. That's me today. Through their ministry and through what they did in spreading the Gospel. But I think this can also be applied to the centurion. He did not have to see it. He went home with expectation. I think one of the things that the body of Christ needs more than ever is the spiritual exuberance of anticipation and expectation. Anticipation and expectation. That when we pray, when we pray, that we get off our knees and we go out and we meet our prayers. Now, the prayers might come to us not the way that we ordered or put on our spiritual email, but we go out with the sensitivity of recognizing how and when and through whom God will answer. 1 Samuel 2, verse 30.

You say, why did God deal with the centurion? Why is he in the Bible for us? 1 Samuel 2.

I want to share with you a living law. 1 Samuel 2, verse 30. Therefore, the Lord God of Israel says, I say indeed that your house and the house of your Father would walk before me forever. But now the Lord says this, far be it from me, for those who honor me, I will honor. And those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. That's a living law. To the degree that you honor God, He will honor us. Let's conclude and share just a few takeaways.

God healed Naaman back in the Old Testament, and He would heal the centurion's servant. I want to share with you that today, and I speak of myself as well, that the healing goes on. Not just physically, but of the spiritual life. And I realize that some of us today are afflicted, as was mentioned by Lauren, and I appreciate his message. Some of us are carrying bitterness. Some of us are carrying bigotry. Some of us are carrying lifelong hurts. Know why is it that it takes the last 60 years of life to get over the first 20? And you're laughing, but that's Gallo's laughter. Thank you.

Some of us are carrying envy.

God can heal that.

Your God, our Father, through Christ, can heal that. These stories are for us today. We read to know that we are not alone. The centurion knew that he was not alone as he walked back to see his servant healed. And that's why God has given us a story. Today, I share this story with all of you because, just like that man that is recorded in the Book of Mark, I believe.

Help thou my unbelief. The centurion shows the way. It's very interesting that there are three centurions that are mentioned. There are actually many, many more centurions that are mentioned. But I'll just mention the three that come to mind right now. Centurions are laced. They're like thread work throughout the Gospels. But we have this centurion that Christ marveled at. We also have this centurion that was on Golcotha, a centurion, a man of Rome. And he said, what have we done? We have crucified the Son of God. He made that statement. We have the centurion in Acts 9, Acts 10, the story of Cornelius. But we sometimes label as the first Gentile convert. Sometimes people will say, well, do you think that this centurion was Cornelius?

I'm not that old. I wasn't there. Here's the point. God has more than one centurion. And God is calling spiritual centurions today. Like this man, like the man on Golcotha, to recognize who the Son of God is. Like the centurion in Acts that said, Peter, welcome, come in. Teach us the ways of God. We're all here. We're all assembled.

That centurion was teachable.

If we, as an instrument within the body of Christ, I speak to those that are members of the United Church of God. While I certainly laud and look at the entire body of Christ, but I'm directed here, this calling, is simply this. If we are to move into other generations and to be an effective force in the gospel message, we need to be teachable. We need to be yielding. We need to be loving. We need to be obedient.

We need to be humble. We need to have a faith that moves beyond our eyes and our reach, and to give it to God.

Indeed, God is looking for new centurions.

I told you that I would read one more time out of the Scripture. I ask you to open up your Bibles. Let's read together as a congregation and allow the Word of God to be drunk in by us, collectively, individually, and to look at what God considers important, what He thinks, not what I think, but what He states for all times. Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye will build me? Where is that tabernacle? Where is that dwelling that I long for? And where is the place where I might rest, where I am at home? For all of those things my hand is made, and all of those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look, on Him like that certain centurion, like we that are being enlisted in God's army today.

Who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. Can I make a comment as I conclude? God is not done marveling. He looks down on this earth and sees all of you, and sees those that are like that certain centurion that give it all away. Love it all away. Move beyond the expectations of what others think, but what God thinks. And He says, my son, look down there. Let's, you know what? Let's marvel. Let's marvel one more time. Because you know why? I think they get it. I think they get it. Now, let's go out and meet our Sundays and Mondays and Tuesdays with the encouragement and the example that is set before us.