Skip to content Barriers Broken: The Centurion's Bold Faith in Jesus || Pastor Adam Mesa May 18 · 49 min ...more
Barriers Broken: The Centurion's Bold Faith in Jesus || Pastor Adam Mesa
May 18, 2025 · 49 min
Series Patria Sermons May 18, 2025 · 49 min · Patria Sermons
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Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
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0:00 Alright. Well, praise God. It's good to see everybody here. For all those either watching online or part of our campuses, so glad that you made it on this Sunday, and we're excited for tonight's service.0:12 I also wanna encourage you. We've had some DMs and messages. I I catch or not pastor Sammy said that part, but we're gonna be live streaming tonight as well. So if you know anyone that's in hospice, in the hospital,0:24 anything like that, we've been messaged. We've been told that there are people in their family who are at home and they're not able to get up bed because of their terminal illness. Or they're at the hospital room and0:33 they want to join their faith with tonight. So, if you know anybody like that or maybe you know someone out of state who's dealing with terminal illness and you want them to join online, this message today is gonna is0:44 gonna be a message that'll encourage anyone that's out of state or in a hospital because you don't have to be in the room to receive healing. You just have to join your faith with what God is doing. And so you can0:55 encourage anyone to experience that should they wanna tune in tonight on our YouTube channel. If you have your bible, would you open it and save a spot? Turn to Matthew chapter 8. We've been in a series called1:07 red letter series where we've been looking at the words and teaching of Jesus found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Many of us in our physical Bibles, when you open the Bible and turn to Matthew, Mark,1:18 Luke, and John, you'll see that every time that Jesus speaks, most Bibles nowadays, not all, will have Jesus' words. Anytime he speaks, they'll have it in red. And so for this month, we've been looking at those1:30 red letters of Jesus. And then we've been looking at the show, the chosen series, and taking that passage, showing the clip of that show, and seeing the Bible come to life. And since tonight is a healing night,1:42 we kinda wanna open up with a little bit of a teaching about healing and a little bit of what God can do with our expectation of faith. And so, we've made sure that today, as we talk about healing, it's to build an1:54 expectation for this evening for those that may be coming, but also what we could believe for from God today. So, if you're ready for the word of God, would you stand for just a moment as we honor God's word? If you're2:05 new to our church, we stand for the reading of God's word because if any type of prolific figure, whether it was a politician or some type of person of prominence came in the room, we would all stand in respect and2:17 honor. So, God's word is far more above any of those things, and the presence of God is far more above any of those things. So, if you're like, why do we stand at this point? It's because God deserves the honor by our2:27 attention. And so, here's what God's word says in verses 5 to 13. It says, when he had entered Capernaum, a centurion, which is a soldier, a leader, came forward to him2:39 appealing to him. Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And he said to him, this is Jesus, I will come and heal him.2:51 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 authority3:03 with soldiers under me. And I say to 1, go, and he goes. And I say to another, come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus3:15 heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, truly I tell you, with no 1 in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from3:27 the east and the west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. While the sons, he's talking about the Jewish people, those that do not believe in3:38 Jesus, those that reject Jesus, While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the centurion and3:50 Jesus said to the centurion, go. Let it be done for as you have believed. And the servant was healed at that very moment. Amen.4:02 You may be seated. Let's go ahead and look into the clip from the show, The Chosen, that depicts this moment in the scriptures.4:15 You have the best deal.4:16 You remember. Pray to pay us.4:22 Lord.4:23 My4:37 servant boy is lying paralyzed at home. He has been sick for so long, and now he is suffering terribly near death.4:48 Take me to him.4:50 Lord. You call him Lord? I am not worthy to have you come into my home, and I know you would not be comfortable as a Jew in a Roman's home.5:04 But you only need to say the word, and he won't be healed.5:10 I'm not worthy5:13 of the truth about the child. He's actually my son. I am so ashamed I shouldn't even be asking you, but I am.5:26 And I know you can do it. Master,5:33 I never thought I'd say this, but he is worthy to have you do this for him. He loves our people. He has helped us.5:46 I know.5:50 Do not trouble yourself. You can heal him from a distance with only a word of command. I also have authority with men under me. If I say to 1 go, he goes. If I say6:02 to another come, he comes. Anything you command in this world will happen. I know it.6:14 Even this. Stand up. What? Rise.6:30 Did you all hear this man? Truly, I tell you, with no 1 in Israel have I found such faith. I was rejected in my own hometown, and6:42 I'm threatened by the religious leaders of my own people. And yet and yet this man, a Gentile, has more bold confidence in what he believes that I can6:54 do than anyone I have yet encountered.7:10 Go. It has been done for you according to your belief.7:17 Thank you. Thank you.7:21 You have brightened my day to encounter this kind of faith.7:38 Let's talk about a little bit what we saw. You know, it always goes good for reiterating to remind ourselves that in the days of Jesus, to be a Roman, let alone7:49 a Roman soldier, was not a good thing to the Jewish people. Romans were people who their leader was Caesar, who was an emperor, and he took land over land over land over land. And every8:01 land that they took over, they subjugated those people under their authority. They taxed them like crazy. They criminalized them like crazy. And so, for the average Jewish person, they didn't like Romans.8:14 Romans was the outside guy. Romans In our day, Romans was what our understanding would be would be of a Nazi or some type of enemy of someone that would come in. It's a It was a8:25 negative person. And this man, of all things, he's a centurion. What's a centurion? He's a man that's in charge of 100 soldiers in Israel. So this man's a leader. He has authority. He has8:37 rank. He has privilege. He has wealth. He's he's got 1 of the best houses in the city that more than likely they kicked somebody out of. This man is not well liked. This man, for the most part in his life,8:49 has not done a crazy amount of good or righteous things. He's a pagan at that. So, he doesn't even follow God. And on top of that, he's a Gentile, which is non Jewish.9:00 Basically, he sets every standard of what it looks like for someone to not be a believer and not follow God. And here he is. He's coming to Jesus,9:13 and he's kneeling down before Jesus. The only person that a soldier is able to kneel down before is Caesar, the ruler of Rome. And this man recognizes that there is a9:24 spiritual ruler in front of him that's even greater than Caesar. And he gets on his knees to show Jesus that he's subject to him, that Jesus is in charge.9:37 Now, you may think, oh, that's nice. I I recognize Jesus is in charge. This soldier, if he gets caught doing what he's doing, not only does he lose his rank, not only does he lose his privilege, he loses his life.9:50 So, would you kneel before Jesus if that meant that you could lose your life? And he's there not for himself. He's there to intercede for someone else's healing. Someone that he10:02 knows and he loves, he is praying for their healing so much so that he's willing to take whatever potential punishment may happen to him just so someone10:14 that he loves could be healed. It's powerful. And Jesus makes these words. I don't know if you've ever been to a venue before, and have you ever seen, you know, these barricades10:26 here? And normally, what happens is if you go to some type of concert or some type of thing, they have these barricades. And, these barricades are either keeping you away from the celebrity on10:37 stage, or the barricades are keeping you away from the VIPs. So, normally, what happens? The people who paid extra tickets or the people who got better seats or10:49 whatever. And you have these barricades. And so, in this story, what's happening is the Jewish people, what Jesus is saying is they think they're in VIP.11:01 He calls them the children of Israel, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he says, what's going to happen is God Jesus is making this statement that in the future,11:13 God is gonna allow a seat at the at the table in heaven to people from the east to the west. In other words, he's hinting to say, hey, salvation is not just for the Jews. But11:25 then he makes this statement, and he says there are children of Israel who think that they're in VIP, but they're gonna be shocked 1 day because they will be cast into outer darkness because they11:37 thought they were born into something rather than having faith to believe something. And so, Jesus is here with the disciples in VIP. And what11:49 happens is this Gentile Roman centurion, he's here with everybody else. And when he recognizes Jesus and his placement in his section with his Jewish12:01 people as an outsider, as someone that's behind the barricade, what happens is is he does something bold. He has a willingness to separate the barricade.12:13 And he comes around it. And he comes he don't jump into VIP because usually that's where security takes you out.12:26 So, you'll notice, how do you know he doesn't want to jump into VIP? Because he comes to Jesus while Jesus is in this section, which recognizes access to God, authority of God, all the other12:38 Jewish people are there. The man comes up to Jesus, and he says this, I got someone that I love, kneels on his feet, shows Jesus' authority. I know someone that I love that needs12:49 healing, and I ask that you do it, Lord. Jesus is over here on VIP, and he goes like this. Well, let me come where your home is. I'll do it. And13:01 the man says, no. No. No. No. No. Stay in your section. I don't need you to defile yourself and come to my home. In my home are the statues of all my little gods and all the incenses that13:13 I burn and all the other things that I do. My house is defiled. And as a Jewish person, if you come in my home, my home, my lifestyle, everything that I do, everything that it'll defile you, Jesus.13:25 Now, he doesn't know that that don't matter to Jesus. But in such a respect for Jesus, he's telling Jesus, no, I don't need you to come where I'm at. Jesus, I13:37 know that you have so much authority that from where you are at, if you just say the word, he will be healed. I don't need13:49 you to come where I'm at. I don't need you to step down. That's why Jesus is amazed by the faith, because everyone else is going, if Jesus went like this, oh, let me move the gate barricade. Come into VIP. You know all14:00 of us would be crowding. You remember those days you were invited to a house party and you invited all your friends and just crowded that thing? That's what we that's what we14:12 want. We're like, Jesus, invite me in and I'm coming in. Man, I want all the access. I got all these prayer requests. I got all these things that I need. I have all these things that I want. And for Jesus, he's saying,14:23 okay. I'll this barricade. Let's let me give you access. And the man has so much honor and respect for Jesus. He says, Jesus, I don't need anything. I just need you to14:35 speak it. And the man recognized I have 100 soldiers under me. I don't always have to be present for them to follow orders. All I gotta do is just send the14:46 decree and the messenger. And we know according to the New Testament book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is the messenger of God. He said, what happens is for a soldier, all he has to do is take that signet ring and seal14:58 it, that message. And it don't matter if the centurion is in the room or not. If the message has been sealed, then it will be done. And he says, if as an earthly15:10 soldier, I have that type of authority, Jesus, for who you are, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 says that you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. There there's a15:21 clear ceiling. They use this Roman terminology for us to understand that the moment you confess Jesus as Lord and savior, God will seal you. Which means everywhere that you15:33 go, you have God's seal of approval over your life. Not because of what you've done, but because of what Jesus has done. But it's your step of faith that says, God, I acknowledge you are everything you15:45 said you are. So what Jesus does is this interaction, Jesus says there's been no 1 in all of Israel who has had faith like this man. You may say, well, pastor Sam, you15:57 should have read the woman in the book of Mark who touched Jesus' hem of garment. Again, she thought she had to touch Jesus. The reason why this man had so much faith is because he believed Jesus. You16:09 don't even have to be in the room presence, your physical body, because I know your word, the spirit of God. I know that your word has no bounds. Wherever the spirit can16:21 go, that is where God's miracles, signs, and wonders can go. And if God can create the heavens and earth with just a word, why can't he heal your earthly16:32 body? If God can speak and say light and there's stars in the sky, if he can speak and say oceans and there's waters all amongst our16:44 land, How could he not say healed? And we not be healed. See, the centurion recognized Jesus. If you just say it, you can do16:56 it. If you just say it, you can do it. I want you to just see 3 brief things that we see about the centurion. The first thing we see in his faith walk, number 1, is his attitude.17:10 His attitude is a moment of humility. His attitude is a place where he's hungry for help. He says,17:22 Lord, I am not worthy. He recognizes, though he may have rank, though he may have a great uniform on, though he has control of a lot of people, he knows that in the presence of Jesus, that rank17:33 is meaningless. Isaiah 57 verse 14 to 15 says this. It says it says, and it shall be17:45 said. This is a prophetic word of God to Isaiah, but it's a word that that we know that Jesus would fulfill. And it be said, build up, build up, prepare the way, and remove17:57 every obstruction from people's way. For thus says the 1 who is high and lifted up holy and holy inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high18:09 and holy place. And also with him who is of of contrite and lowly spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the18:20 contrite. You see, the Lord says in Isaiah 57, he says, though I'm in heaven and I'm in a high authority, I'm not far for those that are humble in spirit.18:33 Those who do not think highly of themselves, but come to me low. And this is what the centurion inhabits and embodies. He shows us that regardless of his earthly prominence, he18:45 is willing to set that aside, come low before Jesus, not in a place of pride. He didn't come in with his authority and rank and say, Jesus, heal my servant or I will kill18:56 you. He could have had that authority. But he came to Jesus and said, Jesus, I'll get on my knees. I'll lose it all if you just heal. I'll give it all19:08 up if you could just heal the person in my home that you love and that I love. You see, if I passed around a mic to everybody here, all of us, we all have 100019:20 problems. Okay? And if you like Jay Z, you have 99 problems. But I don't have 99. I have 1000 problems every single day. And if I pass the mic around and said,19:32 hey, everybody take turns and share all of your problems with each other. All of us. How many of you guys know we wouldn't be here till 20 26? Right? We all just took turns19:43 and just listed our problems. We'd be here for a very long time. But, how many of us know that when you're terminally ill or you're extremely sick, in that19:55 moment, you only have 1 problem? You don't have 1000 problems. It don't matter it don't matter what any other problem was. When you get a terminal illness, when you're20:07 sick, all those problems go aside, and now everything reduces to 1 problem. And what happens is this centurion, he doesn't come with his problem, he comes with the 1 problem20:19 in his life. Someone that he knows is sick. And he doesn't come to Jesus and say, Jesus, I've been asking, I've been believing for a promotion in a Roman centurion. I don't I20:31 I don't I don't want to be a centurion. I wanna be a legionnaire. I want 1000 soldiers under me. He didn't say that. He didn't say, Jesus, I've been praying for this or that or all these other things.20:43 He comes because he has someone that he loves that he knows is ill. And he comes, he says, Jesus, I just got 1 request. Can you heal? Yes. Because20:55 that's what happens. And he comes bold asking for it. He says, I'm not worthy, but he makes the request. Do this for me, please. He doesn't give up. He comes into a room that21:07 he knows he's unwelcomed in. He comes into a space that he knows he's defiled when he stepped in, but he is his attitude is so hungry for God to move, he puts all everything else to the side to21:18 intercede for someone else. That's what faith looks like. It means I don't give up when I pray. It means I continually seek God no matter21:30 what. C. S. Lewis says this, humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. And this man comes with humility21:43 to say, Jesus, I'm not thinking about me right now. I'm thinking about someone that I love, that I know that's sick. And if you just say the word, I know they can be healed. He didn't give up in21:55 that moment. A couple months ago, I was speaking at our campus up in Alameda. And, you know, I've been trying to make sure I keep my weight off and everything like that and continue to22:07 lose weight. So, even when I travel, I try to make sure I go to a gym. And so, even if for a couple days I gotta pay a day pass or whatever it is at a gym, not every hotel has decent functioning gym. And so,22:19 when I was in Alameda, I was like, okay, I need to go to the gym. And I researched a really nice gym. They had a cold plunge, sauna, all the bougie stuff you can imagine, the water that tasted like lemon and cucumber and22:29 everything like that. So, I thought, oh, that'd be nice. I'm gonna go to that gym. It's a few cities over from Alameda, in actually 1 of the top 3 richest cities in California. And, so, I thought, it's gonna be a really22:40 nice gym experience. I'm gonna feel like 1 of them people in Melrose that go to Pilates and stuff like that. So, I was like, that's what I'm gonna do today. And so, I invited Phil and pastor Fuego with me. If you don't22:51 know Phil, Phil's with me everywhere that I go. He's my brother. We do life together. But Phil looks like a bouncer. You know? He's half Hispanic, half Italian. He's 6 something.23:03 And he looks like he should be standing in front of a nightclub out in Hollywood. That's Phil's look. And so, I got Phil with me. And then I have Pastor Fuego with me, who's Puerto Rican, and pretty much everything he23:14 has is baggy. Okay? He's recently got a new wardrobe, but historically, everything was like a 2 x, 3 x. He's in great shape. So, I called23:26 this gym the day before and said, hey, I'm interested in coming, stopping by. I'm coming into town. Do you guys do guest passes? They said, yes, we do. We have guest passes. I said, okay. Perfect. So I text Phil and23:35 Fuego, I said, hey, y'all wanna go to the gym with me tomorrow morning? They said, yeah, let's do it. So, We show up. Pastor Fuego's in his extra baggy, you know, workout shorts and baggy hoodie.23:46 Phil, I don't think Phil had workout clothes, so I think he was wearing jeans and some bands or something like that when we went to the gym. And then I show up, you know, normal workout clothes. So, we walk in the front23:57 door, and there's 2 employees at the front desk, both wearing suits. At a gym, they're wearing suits.24:09 We walk in the front door and say, hey, can we help you guys? I say, yeah. We're just interested in getting a guest pass for the day. Oh, he said, oh, we're we're out of those. After a couple seconds,24:21 looking us up and down and stuff like that, and he said, we're out of those. I said, that can't be so. He said, why why can't that be so? I said, I called yesterday. You guys said you have guest passes. He24:33 said, well, normally, this is a busy time, so we have to make sure that there's space for all of the members. So we're out of guest passes. I could see the gym behind him. Ain't no 1 was there. It's 8 o'clock in the24:44 morning. Everybody's at work. What are you talking about? And so, I said, think we're mistaken. Look here. I called, but even on your website, it says guest passes available. He said, yeah, but we're all out of them24:56 right now. Now, because I'm a pastor and also we have social media nowadays and I don't want no 1 filming anything or anything like that, I just said I just said,25:07 okay. Now, I don't know why they did that. I don't know why they said that. I I I know they were tripping because the next day I called to make sure, and they said, yeah, we have guest passes available. You know, that25:16 was a mistake. Whatever it was, that's fine. Okay? Now we leave. Pastor Fuego looks at me, he says, I'm I'm a member of a gym. I got guest passes. There's 1 down the street. Let's just go to the gym.25:28 I said, no. Let's go get some waffles. A little Vietnamese coffee, some25:40 waffles, some syrup, side of hash browns. Let's go get some waffles. And so, enough, we had some of the best waffles25:51 of my life. I even filmed an invite to service that night at the Waffle House there. But, how often do we do that26:03 with our faith? We just encounter just a little bit of friction, just what we think is a little bit of denial, just a little bit of a delay, just little bit of a human that just got a bad attitude or26:15 a thing that you go to the doctor, and they just say they're saying something, and we just use that as enough friction to say, okay. I give up. God, you can't do it. God, you can't heal. This person I met that's a26:27 Christian, they said, God, don't heal no more, but they didn't read the whole Bible. And so we just take someone else's word. We just take a statement. We just take a thing, and we just say, that's26:39 it. I'm not gonna work out no more. I'm just gonna go get some waffles. I'm gonna give up. I'm not gonna believe for healing anymore. I'm not gonna trust God anymore. I'm gonna walk away from what God can do. Not because26:49 God said it, but because something else delayed it. Something else felt like a denial. For this centurion man, there are 1000 things that I shared that could have27:01 stopped him from asking Jesus to heal. On record, even in that land, Jesus had not healed a Gentile. He had everything going from like his no 1 of27:13 his people or his caliber had been healed in Jesus' ministry. And so, he could have thought, there's no way I'm gonna be the first. There's no way this person, my servant, is gonna be the27:25 first Gentile that Jesus heals. There's no way. But he doesn't think any of those things. His attitude is he comes in and he's hungry because he's fighting for someone else's life.27:37 And he won't stop. And whether we're praying for someone else's healing or we're believing for our own healing, you cannot quit. You cannot stop. Faith is the substance of things27:49 that are unseen and the things that are hoped for. It's what you believe God can and will do. And this man's faith is so big that he says, Jesus, so far everything that you've done, you've been in the room28:01 for. But I have such big faith, I believe, that as long as your word go forth, which is your spirit, it can be done. That's faith. That's the power of someone who knows28:13 what God can do. And this is not a man who grew up in church. This this isn't a man who went to synagogue every Friday night. This isn't a man who celebrated the Passover every April. This isn't a man28:25 who celebrated Hanukkah every December. He didn't know none of that stuff. Sometimes we think that's a prerequisite. You know? Well, if you're gonna really believe God, do you know all the Christian lingo and28:37 do you know all the No. No. Believe God. Do you have faith? Do have faith that Jesus can do it? Here's the second thing, is he has an approach. Not only his attitude is hungry, but but his approach is, like I shared,28:49 it's humble. It's humble, but bold. He says, Matthew 8 9, only say the word and my servant will be healed. He didn't say, Jesus, do29:01 you think he didn't come up and say, Jesus, if you're not in the room, are you able to heal? He said, I didn't really get a manuscript on this. I haven't read my29:12 bible before. I I don't know. Like, do you are you are there things you can do when you're not in the room? No. He comes up and he goes, if I can get things done when I'm not in the room, and if Jesus is everything he29:24 is, then what I'm asking for is easy for him. Doesn't mean he knows Jesus is gonna do it or not, but he does know that it is easy business for Jesus. That29:36 Jesus can absolutely do that. Is my speaker on right here? I can't tell. Let me turn it on. And so what happens is, Corey Tenboom says this, faith sees the invisible, believes29:48 the unbelievable, and receives the impossible. That's what faith is. Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the29:59 impossible. Faith isn't always loud, it's confident. This man didn't shout at Jesus, he didn't beg at Jesus, he believed in Jesus. That's the30:11 difference. He went to Jesus and he believed that Jesus has the authority, not as a magician, but as a king who commands sickness.30:21 That's who Jesus is, and that's who the man believed that he had met before. I don't know if you have any of these at your house if you use Bluetooth speakers. Did anyone use a Bluetooth speaker at home? Anybody?30:33 I know. I got some of these. How many of you guys, when you got a Bluetooth speaker, like, when you're in the kitchen and stuff like that? How how many of you guys carry 1 of these with you? Like, when you're around the30:43 house? Like, let's just say you're, like, doing laundry or, like, you're doing the dishes or cooking food. Do you guys like hold on to this while you're cooking? Do you guys do any of that stuff? Do you like you make30:55 sure that it's touching your body and next to your phone at all times? How many of guys are weird? You know you know some of us when we get you know we don't know technology when we think getting our phone closer will31:06 like either make it connect more or get it louder. You know? Like, I'll see people sometimes who are like, oh, it's not connecting. Hold on. Let me touch it. Let me touch it. Like, hey, I I regret to inform you. It has31:17 nothing to do with that at all. And so what happens, we know with Bluetooth, what happens is I can set this and when it's connected, I can31:30 I can play whatever I want? I I don't even I I mean, I could go behind this wall. I I can I can go wherever I want? Now, I know there's certain certain level of distance, but stick with31:41 me. I mean, I don't I don't have to be next to it. I I can even be somewhere. I could be I could be behind this wall, and it would still connect. Because as long as it's connected Come on. It31:53 has access. And as long as I'm connected to it, it can do everything that I want it to do. It can play. But a lot of times, we think32:06 that I have to be touching this in order for it to do something. That me touching this right now, it doesn't do anything to this. It it doesn't make the music go louder. It32:18 don't change the song. It don't make and so I could be away from it, and I and I have access to it. And a lot of times we think that for some reason, I I have to be32:29 physically touching something of Jesus. Oh, I need God to move, so I I just gotta be into a specific church service. Now in a specific church service, it may build your faith up, but I'll tell you32:41 this. It's no different than your laundry room. It's no different than your bedroom. It's no different than your closet. It's no different than your car. You know, I've been I I go to Israel quite a bit,32:53 and, you know, there are groupings of Christians that it's very famous that when you go to Israel You see, when you're in Israel, you'll go to and I don't mean to judge or make fun or anything, but just to give a33:03 picture. What happens when you're in Israel, there are people where they will bring like crosses and necklaces and handkerchiefs and things like that. And then, they'll go to where it's believed that Jesus33:15 resurrected, and they'll go to where it's believed that Jesus died, and they'll go to where it's believed Jesus did a miracle. And what they'll do is they'll take those things. They'll take their bibles, they'll take33:24 their crosses, and they'll rub it on where they think Jesus went. And so, they'll You'll see them. They'll be with necklaces. They'll be like with honed crosses, and and people are like literally33:36 like elbowing and fighting each other. Not to look at it and go, oh, thank you Jesus for what you've done. My faith is built. They're going, I need to rub this thing on here33:48 so that I could take it home so that I have access to Jesus everywhere that I go. And for some reason, they think that where Jesus was or34:00 what he did is more powerful than the resurrection itself, than Isaiah, by Jesus' stripes you are healed. That that is more powerful than the word of34:12 Jesus that still is proclaimed today, than the spirit of God that can go forth today. They think that a relic that Jesus once stood on or touched or whatever it was somehow gives you access to God.34:24 Yeah. But we know it. As long as I have a connection. Yep. What's our connection? It is your faith. Yeah. Long as I have the connection, it doesn't doesn't34:36 matter where I go. Come on. You. Doesn't matter where I go. Because wherever I go, Ephesians 4 says, you've been sealed. That means the spirit of God is with34:47 you. And if he is with you, then who'd be against you? That's who Jesus is. And this man, the reason why Jesus has great faith is because Jesus says this man has great34:59 faith is because still to this day, there are people in Israel rubbing things where Jesus once was thinking that that's where Jesus' presence is. This man came as an outsider and was like, I35:11 don't need all that. You don't even have to come to my house. I I wouldn't even do you the dishonor of you coming to my house. I just need your word, Jesus. I I just need your authority to speak it over. Here's the last35:23 point is this. What's the aftermath through his faith, through his attitude, and his approach? It's it's it's a miracle at a distance. And the servant was healed at that very moment.35:36 That means before the centurion even made it back home, the healing already happened. Because the man, more than what he came for the healing, he came for the healer.35:48 And there are times that we want the expression of what God can do without God. God, I want you to do something, but when you do it, I need you to stay stay where you are.36:00 You know? I don't I don't want you to follow and come into my life and change everything else. I just want you to change a circumstance. I just want you to change my illness. No. This man came to Jesus and he said, I36:11 don't I don't just need the miracle, I want I want you. Recognize who you are. When he got and he kneeled on that ground, what he was showing the world was, Caesar's no longer my lord.36:22 That's what that that's what that said. He said, Caesar, he not my guy. Jesus, you're my lord. You don't kneel before anyone unless they're your lord. And this man said,36:34 more than the healing, I am pulling you in full authority of who you are. And so what happens is the man recognizes, and what we have to recognize is your faith can travel where your feet cannot.36:47 And your prayers can reach what your hands never will. That's what faith can do. That's what we wanna encourage you with today. And for a few moments, we have plenty of time here together. I'm gonna say a prayer in36:59 a moment. I'm gonna ask the worship team that they begin to come out here. And I just wanna spend a time building our faith up through worship. Just wanna have a moment of worship. What I wanna encourage you to do is if37:10 you know anyone that has an illness, would you begin to intercede for them tonight, whether you know they're coming tonight or whether they're not? Would you, like the centurion, begin to pray for them? Pray for their37:22 healing. You may say, I don't know someone with an illness. Well, you may know someone who's far from Jesus. Would you pray for them? Because they don't have to be in the room to encounter Jesus. They can encounter Jesus37:33 anywhere. They can encounter Jesus at a Shell gas station. Anyone can encounter Jesus anywhere because God and his spirit is not contained in 4 walls, and it's definitely37:45 not contained through the old old boxes that we put him in. God can do anything. So when we worship, would you begin to intercede? Maybe you're here and you are going through a season or an illness. Begin to pray.37:57 Believe God. Build. This moment of worship is to build our faith up. Bible talks about in first Corinthians that when we pray in the spirit or pray of the spirit, that it begins to buildShow more
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