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Good morning.
If you have your Bibles with you, will you open them to Matthew chapter 8 with me?
I'll open mine too as we do that.
If you do not own a Bible, we'd love to give you one as a gift.
So if you're here this morning and you don't own a copy of God's Word, there at the connections
table in the back, we have Bibles just kind of as our gift to you.
So you can go back there at any point and grab one.
At this time, our kids who have completed kindergarten through second grade, you guys are dismissed.
You guys are going to have a lot of fun wherever you're going.
And towards the end of our service this morning, we'll be partaking in the Lord's Supper.
So if you are a believer here this morning, whether you're a visitor or you call Willow Ridge
Church home, we invite you to partake in the Lord's Supper.
If you missed your elements on the way in, that's okay.
Right behind our camera stand, there's a table where you can pick up your elements.
They look like this.
And you can do that now or later or whenever you want to.
So quick introduction.
My name is Josh.
I am the young adult minister here at Willow Ridge Church.
Quick disclaimer before I get started.
My wife has never seen me preach before.
She's never been here in person before.
I was going to leave this out, but then I was told I had to include it.
She's here this morning.
So just know that if it sounds a little, yep, yep, yep.
So just know that I plan to be on my best behavior.
And so if it sounds a little different, that's why.
So, but quick disclaimer before I get started, I'm going to come clean about something with
you guys.
Okay.
I'm going to be vulnerable with you for a minute.
So here it goes.
I sometimes struggle asking for help.
Like really, really, really struggle with asking for help.
Like I'm the kind of guy that I'll walk into Ace Hardware on Emanuel Church Road, knowing
good and well that I'm about to spend 30 minutes in the plumbing section, looking for a three
quarter inch elbow something.
And when that store associate walks up to me and says, sir, can I help you find something?
With confidence, I'm going to look him in the eyes and say, no, thank you.
Like I really, really struggle with asking for help.
I'm also the guy that when he gets home from the grocery store, I'll load up about 17 to
25 grocery bags spread out across each arm, right?
Just so I don't have to ask for help getting them inside.
And nobody actually takes a second trip, right?
Like, can we all, can we agree with that?
Does anybody else here struggle with asking for help?
Okay.
Just a couple.
The rest of you are probably lying.
That's okay.
But about a year after Kim and I got married, we decided we were going to go on a trip, right?
So neither one of us had ever planned a trip before.
We'd never gone on a trip aside from like our honeymoon, but that doesn't really count.
And so we decided we were going to go to New York City, okay?
The Big Apple.
Or as Sinatra would say, New York, New York.
So you guys thought I was going to sing there, but that's not going to happen.
So for months we saved money and we planned this trip, right?
We didn't have the money to fly, so we decided, all right, it's cool, we'll drive.
We'll take that 13, 14-hour drive.
Now this next part might sound a little confusing for any youth or young adults in here,
so I just need you to bear with me.
I need you to lock in, okay?
We went to a website called MapQuest.
And we printed out our maps, like a physical paper copy map.
I know that's odd.
We were ready to go.
We made a last-minute decision that we were going to spend the weekend with Kim's family
at the beach, Myrtle Beach.
And so we go to the beach.
We're like, all right, it's all good.
We'll just leave straight from here and we'll head up to New York, right?
There was one problem.
I forgot to reprint the maps.
Yeah, yep.
But it's all good.
I did some research and I was like, you know what?
It's easy enough.
We're just going to, we'll backtrack.
We'll hit I-95.
We'll take I-95 and we'll just roll straight up to New York, right?
So we packed our car.
It was about 4 a.m.
It's still dark outside.
And then I made a mistake.
I didn't tell Kim this, but I decided we were going to save some time.
And I thought to myself, we're going to take the back roads.
About an hour into our drive, I was skeptical, but still confident, right?
You guys, can any guys in here relate to being skeptical but confident?
Yeah, yeah, me too, me too.
Another hour passes by and things begin to look eerily similar.
My wife lovingly looks at me and she says, are we lost?
To which I confidently responded, no, sweetheart.
We continue our adventure through eastern North Carolina for the next half hour.
And it's only then that I recognized the same country convenience store that we had passed a half hour earlier.
And I begrudgingly admit, we are lost.
To which my loving wife replies, we've been lost.
Go inside and ask that man for help.
Paul David Tripp wrote that humility is the soil in which mercy for others grows.
So this morning, in God's word, I pray that we are reminded of the power that Jesus' words carry.
I pray that we will be encouraged by the authority shown in the works of his hands.
And I pray that we would be challenged by the faith of the centurion that we're going to read about this morning.
So let's read Matthew 8, verses 5 through 13 together.
When he had entered Capernaum, the centurion came forward to him, appealing to him.
He said, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.
He said to him, I will come and heal him.
But the centurion replied, Lord, I am 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 and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
And while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the 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 as you have believed.
And the servant was healed at that very moment.
Would you pray with me?
Father God, I thank you for this morning.
Lord, I thank you for this place.
I thank you for our church.
I thank you for the people in it.
God, I thank you for nervousness.
God, I pray that, Lord, I just, I find myself in a place of gratitude, Lord, and I don't, I don't want to ever take for granted the freedom that we have to be here.
Lord, God, I thank you for our volunteers.
I thank you for those that pick people up on a, on a golf cart.
I thank you for those that stand at the door, smile and open and hold the door for people.
I thank you for people that check people in.
And Lord, I thank you for those who serve in, in our nursery and in our children's department.
And Lord, I thank you for those that prepare, you know, coffee and snacks.
And God, I just thank you.
I thank you for our church.
Lord, I pray that your word would be spoken this morning, God.
And I pray that we would respond to it.
God, I pray that you would stir something in us this morning.
In your name I pray.
Amen.
So last week, Pastor Bo spoke from Matthew chapter 7, and he talked about salvation, right?
Like, not as something rooted in our religious activities, not, not as something rooted in
the morality of our behavior, but, but like, like not just a simple verbal profession, but
salvation, a genuine intimate relationship with Christ that produces obedience and repentance.
And then he concluded with a challenging question.
He said, what will you do with what Jesus just said?
And at the end of Matthew 7, in verse 28, Matthew writes,
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for
he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.
You see, Matthew tells us of how Jesus spoke as one with authority.
And today, as we move into Matthew chapter 8, what we are going to see is the beginning of the many works of Christ.
In chapter 8, we're going to see back-to-back-to-back highlights of Jesus demonstrating his authority.
We read of Jesus passing through ceremonial religious barriers to cleanse a leper.
We see Jesus break down ethnic boundaries in our passage today and heal a Roman centurion servant.
We see Jesus go to Peter's home and heal his mother-in-law, a woman in a society that would have marginalized her.
You know, Warren Wiersbe, in his sermon on Luke chapter 7, speaks of taking an inventory of one's faith.
You know, he used an illustration that reminded me of my time working as a sales associate at a paint store.
Right?
So, my first real job after high school, I was working at a paint store, working at Sherwin-Williams on Knox Abbott Drive.
I'd only been there for a few months, and it was time to take inventory.
I had no idea what that meant.
But you see, in November every year, each store takes like a yearly inventory.
It's one day each year where you count every single item in the store.
See, it was important because it served as a measurable way to evaluate profit within the store, right?
Like, it was an opportunity to identify if product was missing or if inventory was correct or not.
You could fix billing errors, and, you know, I won't bore you with the details,
but ultimately it was a way to, like, see if, like, the store was in good shape or not, right?
Every paintbrush, every can of paint, every sheet of sandpaper.
My first year, they even tricked me into counting the individual color cards, right?
Like, you know, like, the cards you see where there's like a million of them, and there's like a hundred in each one?
Yeah, they tricked me into counting those.
You know, what we see in this story of the Roman centurion should motivate us.
You see, it should motivate us to take an inventory of our faith.
You know, I look back, and I see moments in my life when I just take a glance at my faith,
and I see a struggle with maybe feeling entitled, maybe feeling deserving.
I look at it, and I see, like, maybe even feelings of, like, man, I'm worthy of this.
Like, I grew up in church.
Maybe I felt entitled because, well, my parents and their parents and their parents before them went to church and their believers.
You know, I start thinking in a way that implies that my moral behavior could somehow be enough to earn my place in heaven.
You know, but I also would look back at my faith and see moments in my life where I maybe felt the opposite of that.
You know, I see my mistakes as being too egregious for his grace.
You know, I look, and I look at the mountain of sin piling up, and it's turned into this what seems like an insurmountable hill for his grace to climb.
But what we see from this centurion is great faith.
And it's not a faith that's rooted in the greatness of his family history, right?
Like, it's not rooted in the greatness of his works.
It's not something that he's entitled to.
You see, my hope this morning is that we will be encouraged to take an inventory.
We'll be motivated to assess our faith.
And that we will be challenged by his faith.
So, starting in verse 5, 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.
So, in verse 5, it says that he came forward appealing to him.
He doesn't simply make a request.
He doesn't even technically ask.
The word used in this verse implies that he begged Jesus.
There's some things we need to understand about this man.
This is a man of authority.
He's a Roman centurion.
He's a leader accustomed to giving orders and seeing them carried out.
Not a man accustomed to pleading.
Yet this man, not only a man of authority, but also a man of influence.
He understands hierarchy and power and responsibility.
Because he lives in a world where authority is exercised through commands and obedience.
This man had a different kind of faith.
A great faith.
And this morning, we're going to share three things that we can learn and apply to our lives as believers from this kind of faith.
Point number one this morning, great faith approaches Jesus in humility.
You see, in humility, the centurion comes to Jesus acknowledging that I need help.
In humility, the centurion makes an appeal to Jesus recognizing that I can't fix this.
You see, this man, he would have been wealthy.
He would have had power.
But even though those things are true, he doesn't come to Jesus pridefully saying,
Do you know who I am?
He doesn't come to Jesus pointing to the Roman seal on his armor and saying,
Heal my servant.
He comes to Jesus in humility.
He calls him Lord.
And he appeals to him.
You know, so this word humility has occupied a good bit of my time this week.
I tend to go down rabbit holes.
I don't know if you guys have figured that out yet.
But I wanted to better understand what it meant.
You see, humility is freedom from pride or arrogance.
I looked up some examples of the word humility and I came upon a pretty good source.
You see, in the book of Proverbs, it says,
When pride comes, then comes disgrace.
But with humility comes wisdom.
C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity,
Humility is not thinking less of yourself.
It's thinking of yourself less.
I think it's fair to say that this centurion thought much of his servant.
You see, this centurion thought much of Jesus.
But I think it's fair to say he was thinking of himself less.
How often do I think of myself less?
See, the Roman centurion was like an empty cup in need of filling.
And he approached Jesus with absolute faith that he was the only one that could fill it.
Empty of status.
Because all the power of Rome couldn't save his servant.
Empty of wealth.
Because all the money in the world couldn't save his servant.
Emptied of power.
Because all the military authority afforded to him couldn't save his servant.
You see, great faith, it approaches Jesus in humility.
But great faith requires me to think of myself less.
We continue on in verse 8.
But the centurion replied,
Lord, I am 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.
You see, this centurion, he would have been appointed by Rome.
And you see, soldiers were appointed to the position of a centurion by virtue of their bravery.
Their loyalty.
And their character.
But what really stands out to me in these verses is the word authority.
I think today, authority is kind of one of those intimidating kind of words, right?
Like when we think of authority, oftentimes we think of a bad boss that we've had.
Or maybe a bad boss that we have.
We think of a teacher or a professor that's mean to us.
Or not compassionate.
Or doesn't extend the deadline, right?
Sometimes we think of a parent.
Or maybe a coach.
Man, I had some football coaches that loved to yell at me back in the day.
You know, authority here on this earth can be intimidating.
It can serve as a reminder of our weakness.
Our limitations.
But this centurion acknowledges the authority of Jesus and it brings him hope.
You see, the Greek word used in this verse for authority is exousia.
It speaks to an authority given.
Like an authority delegated.
So when the centurion says that I am a man under authority, he understands where his authority comes from.
He understands that it flows not from his strength or his own power.
It doesn't flow from his accomplishments.
He understands that it flows from the power of the one who gave it to him.
The centurion understands the source of his own authority is the Roman Empire itself.
So when the soldiers under his command obeyed his authority, they were obeying a higher authority than he.
They were obeying the emperor and ultimately they were obeying Rome itself.
The centurion looks upon Jesus and sees authority.
Authority given by God over sickness, over paralysis.
And he looks at this authority and he knows that all of the authority that he carries within himself is not enough to heal his servant.
So he looks to the one with greater authority.
Point number two this morning, great faith, trust in Jesus's authority.
So to be honest, this week when I was putting this point together, I kind of, at first it felt redundant.
You know, I struggled to kind of deal with the words faith and trust.
They felt similar.
You know, but it turns out they actually complement each other.
They need each other.
They are not the same as one another.
You see, faith primarily is used as a noun, but trust, well, trust can be noun or verb.
You see, trust is the action behind faith.
It's what happens when you have faith and it's the action that takes place because of your faith.
The centurion had great faith.
And his faith models for us what it looks like to trust authority that was greater than his own.
I must like Paul David Tripp because I've got him in here again, but he said it this way.
Remember, it is not your weakness that will get in the way of God's working through you,
but your delusions of strength.
Do I trust the authority of Christ over my life?
Do I trust his plan when I have other plans?
Do I trust his promises even if they don't happen as quickly as I would like?
Do I trust his provision when it requires me to let go?
You see, great faith trusts in Jesus' authority.
But great faith requires us to get out of the way.
Verse 10.
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.
And while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the 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 as you have believed.
And the servant was healed at that very moment.
It's important for us this morning to realize and mention who Jesus is talking to here.
You see, Jesus is looking to those who have been following him.
He's looking to those that have been present for his teachings.
They've been present for the miracles.
They've been present for the works.
And he is showing his followers what it means to follow.
Imagine Jesus turning to his followers, kind of like, hey, you see this?
This is faith.
Imagine the weight that a follower would feel after Jesus makes a statement like,
with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
Our last point this morning, great faith abides in Jesus.
You see, how many of those followers thought that because they were sons of the kingdom,
that they would see the kingdom?
Like they thought their last name was enough.
How many of those followers thought that their works would be enough for them to see the kingdom?
How many of those followers thought that they could serve both Jesus and themselves,
and that they would see the kingdom?
Abide.
To remain.
To bear patiently.
It means to endure without yielding.
John 15, 5.
I am the vine and you are the branches.
And if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
You see, when Jesus looks at the centurion, he sees extraordinary faith.
He sees a man who understands authority.
He sees a man whose faith is reflected in how he trusts in Jesus.
A man whose faith that he marveled at.
An abiding faith.
You know, I fear when we look at believers today in our world, what do we see?
You know, how many followers think that a one-time verbal profession of faith and a life bearing no fruit will see the kingdom?
Now, how many followers think that their works alone will be enough to see the kingdom?
How many followers think that they can put themselves first and give God whatever is left, and that will be enough to see the kingdom?
Would Jesus marvel at your faith?
You see, great faith abides in Jesus.
But great faith requires me to endure without yielding.
Hebrews 12, verses 1 and 2.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
So about five years ago, Haley signed herself up to run for like a run-hard thing,
which is like fifth grade.
She's like, I need a running buddy.
And we were kind of thinking around, and I was like, well, no way I'm going to let anybody else run with her but me.
So I just started running.
And y'all, I hate running.
I hate it.
Somewhere along the way, my brother-in-law was kind of encouraging me.
He was helping me, and he talked me into being a part of a relay team.
Y'all, I hate relay teams.
It was a team of 12 runners that would run this race called the Blue Ridge Relay.
Listen, you could not know what the word relay means, and that's okay.
But if you're sitting here this morning, you probably know that the Blue Ridge means it ain't flat.
Right?
208 miles split up over 36 runs.
12 runners on each team.
So that's three runs per person.
Right?
Terrible idea.
It's 24 to 30 hours of team-shared, nonstop effort.
You know, my first run was actually the first run of the race.
They're like, Josh, listen, you're the MVP of this team.
You got to care.
No, they didn't say that.
They said, Josh, this is three miles downhill.
If you can handle anything, you can handle this.
So it was literally a 5K downhill was my first run.
And, dude, I was flying.
I was unstoppable.
Like, literally, I could not stop.
Dude, I ran like an eight-minute mile, which I know we got some runners in here this morning, some teens and stuff.
I know you guys like to run.
But I need you to understand, an eight-minute mile in the large guy world is Usain Bolt kind of fast.
Okay?
I ran so fast that I got to the end of the run, and my team wasn't ready for me yet.
So on these relay races, everybody piles into, like, this big 13 passenger van, and it's really just a terrible idea.
But you get to the end of your run, and you get to the exchange zone, and normally you just kind of hand off the baton, right?
Or, like, you slap the bracelet on them, and then they go.
Well, I get to the end of my run, and everybody's still in the van.
They're in the parking lot.
Like, they're not ready for me.
So they hustle over.
The exchange goes fine.
And honestly, I can say the only reason that I can figure for them not being ready for me was because my physical state had probably become, like, the blur similar to the flash, you know, on TV.
Like, that's how fast I was moving.
But we handed off.
Everything was fine.
You know, stretched out.
Drank Gatorade.
Got in the van.
And you keep going, right?
But then there's the waiting.
You're, like, hours cramped in the van.
Your legs are tightening up.
Your energy, whatever energy you had, is gone.
Your anticipation's building, but not really.
It's really more like one of the—it's kind of like the feeling I had when I sat over there during those worship songs.
I'm like, Lord, this has got to be you, because I don't know if it's me.
But you see, I sat there, and I ate, like, 54 Slim Jims for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I drank Gatorade.
And 13 hours had passed.
It was time for my next run.
It was raining.
It was dark.
My, like, feet were sliding around in my shoes.
I was soaked.
I was tired.
I was alone.
Overwhelmed.
I wanted to quit.
Thought about quitting.
You know, I'm like, I'm in the mountains.
If I just take off in the woods, maybe they'll never find me, you know.
But somewhere around mile four of this five-and-a-half-mile run, I hear a car horn honk.
And I look up the hill, and about 200 yards in front of me, I see headlights.
And I hear, like, a song playing.
Like, I don't know why they were playing really loud music.
It was like, you know, like, it was loud.
And it was my team.
They shouldn't have been there.
They should have been at the exchange zone.
They should have been a mile and a half further up the road waiting for me.
But they came anyway.
They were all standing outside the van.
One of them ran up to me and handed me, like, a jar of pickle juice.
And, dude, I downed that thing like a madman in the Sahara Desert.
But then another one put his arm around me and was running beside me for a minute.
He just said one word.
He said, finish.
And something in me shifted.
You see, the pain didn't disappear, but it was no longer the loudest voice that I could hear in my head.
You see, the climb of elevation all of a sudden didn't just become less severe.
All I could think about was that word, finish.
I'd like to invite the worship team and the prayer encouragers.
I think I was supposed to call y'all sooner.
I'm sorry.
But, guys, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, it says that Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith.
It means that our faith originated from him, and it means that it will be perfected and brought to completion by him.
You know, the verse actually says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
And you see, the Greek word for looking, it's actually a little more complicated than the way we break it down in English.
You see, when we say looking, like, I mean, like, I'm looking at Jason.
You know, I'm looking at Kim.
You know, I'm looking at Lenny.
But you see, the Greek definition not only encourages us to look to Jesus,
but it implores us to look away from everything else.
You see, Jesus is with us at the starting line.
He's with us all through the race.
And he's with us at the finish line.
I don't know where you are in the race this morning.
For some of you, it may feel like the race has just begun.
You're excited, you're energized, you're full of passion about what God's doing in your life.
For others, you may feel stagnant in your faith.
Comfortable.
Maybe you've followed Christ for years, but lately you just feel stuck.
And some of you may sense that you're closer to the finish line than you are the starting line.
Wherever you are, will you take a moment this morning and inventory your faith?
What does it look like for you to race and finish the race well?
Take it from a guy who really struggles with asking for help.
We're not meant to do this on our own.
Great faith keeps its eyes fixed on Jesus.
So this morning, will you turn your eyes away from distractions and competing voices around you?
In humility, will you surrender yourself to him?
Will you trust his authority over your life?
Will you walk in obedience and abide in him?
Would you pray with me?
God, I thank you for your word.
I thank you that it's more powerful than a voice.
God, I pray that we would take an inventory of our faith this morning.
Pray that we wouldn't leave this place the same as we were when we walked in.
God, I pray that this stirring that we feel in our hearts would be something that we couldn't ignore.
Help us to respond to you this morning.
In your name I pray.
Amen.
That's it for this week's message.
Be sure to check back next week for a new episode.
And in the meantime, you can visit us online at willowridgechurch.org
or by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Thanks again for listening.
We'll see you next week.
Bye.