WEEK 6 — Matthew 8:5–13

Today, I want to answer one simple question, "Who gets miracles?" Who are the people who, when they kind of do stuff? They get miracles. I'm asking that question because we all know, we've had moments where we wonder, "Lord, why them and on me?" What is it that I need to do? Say, "Who must I know?" In order to get that kind of miracle, who are the people who tend to get miracles? Because I want to be counted in that number. We've been going through a series titled, "Of the Kingdom," "Walking through the Book of Matthew," and as we are in length heading towards Easter, we've jumped a few chapters and kind of moving around to paint the picture for you of who the Savior is, who the Savior King Jesus is. Today, we're going to jump again this time to Matthew chapter eight, painting the picture of the kind of faith we need on our way to the cross. As we had the beginning of Lent Ash Wednesday, where we are encouraged to give up things, and you and I were encouraged to give up a building, how you doing. It's not enough according to the scriptures to give up stuff. You must have faith. And so Lent is only possible, not only when we give up things, but when we give up things because of something, or someone we see. So, if you have your Bibles, Matthew chapter eight was five to 13. When he, speaking of Jesus, entered Capernaum, a Centurion came to him, pleading with him. "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed in terrible agony. He said to him, am I to come and heal him?" Lord, the Centurion replied, "I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command, I say to the one, go, and he goes. I say to another, come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it." Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly, I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith. I tell you that many will come from east and west and share the banquet with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness where they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Then Jesus told the Centurion, "Go as you have believed. Let it be done for you." And his servant was healed at that very moment. This is the word of the Lord. All right, we have been speaking through the spoke of Matthew about how Matthew is writing to a particular audience. He's writing to Jewish people with the aim of utilizing stories about Jesus, teachings of Jesus, actions of Jesus to help the Jewish people know that this is the Messiah. And so we come to a point in time where Matthew is utilizing this story, this very true story of a Centurion, this Roman Centurion who was a military leader, who had a servant who was sick and needed the kind of healing that supposedly he believed only Jesus would be able to provide. And so he tells the story from a particular angle. He tells the story as if the Centurion himself went to Jesus. But when you read and look, Luke, you see that the actual breakdown of the story is that the Centurion used his influence to get to Jesus. Matthew writes it as though all of this was happening through the Centurion. And it's not a false point of the story. He's just utilizing his story to point out that the Gentiles need Christ, okay? But when you read Luke, you begin to have a breakdown of what exactly happened. So Luke chapter seven, one to 10. Here's what it says, "When he had concluded speaking of Jesus, all the things he was saying and the people were listening to him, he entered cappurnium as Centurion servants who was highly valued by the Centurion were sick and about to die. When the Centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, requesting him to come and save the life of he servant. When they reached Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly saying, "He is worthy. This Centurion guy is worthy for you to grant him this request. Why? Because he loves our nation." And he bought us a building next slide, okay? Jesus went with him and when he was not far from the house, the Centurion sent friends to him. Lord, here's what the friend said, Lord, don't trouble yourself. Since I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, they speak on behalf of the friend, that is why I didn't even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, my servant will be healed for I too, I'm a man placed under authority, having soldiers under my command, I say to the one go and they go to another come and they come and to my servant do this and he does it. Jesus heard this and was amazed at him and turned to the crowd following him and he said, "I tell you, I have not found so great a faith even from my own people. I didn't find such a great faith even from the Israelites. I didn't find such a great faith even from church folk. When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant in good health." All right, so who gets them miracles? I should have titled it that, who gets the miracles? Who, when they pray or they ask or they approach the throne of God, who gets miracles? And maybe I want to lay out the first suggestion here that maybe it is the desperate people who get miracles. What about those? Think about it. What Luke 7 verse 2 says, that the centurion is desperate because they servant is about to die. Now, centurions who would normally be in charge of a collective of about 100 people, 100 soldiers, that's why they called centurion, centurions. They've got 100 soldiers that they're in charge of. And normally while they are functioning as this military leader for 20 years, they're not allowed to have a wife, they're not allowed to have children. And so what it seems has happened here is that the centurion not only has a servant, but he's ended up having a servant who's become a friend. In fact, the word that is used is that the centurion highly valued the servant. In other words, he highly esteemed the servant. He didn't just love the servant, but he thought highly of the servant. And instead of like other centurions who would treat servants as tools that when they grow old and they werey, they would discard them and get new tools. This one says, no, no, no, no, no. I want to keep my servant because they're not a tool to me. I esteem them highly. But here's what we realize is that not only is a servant sick, but it seems like the servant has been sick for a very long time to the point that they believe that this servant is about to die. Is it desperate people who get miracles? You've probably heard some as like that when people say, just be more desperate. Just be intense in your faith. If you are intense enough, if you are desperate enough, maybe you will get a miracle. But here's what I want to suggest. Desperation alone does not equal faith. Why do we know this? Exodus 14, we've got Israelites who are standing by the red sea and they are desperate, but watch. They are desperate in their hearts to be rescued from the red sea, but their faith is leaning towards returning to Egypt. Them being desperate to pass the red sea did not part the red sea. In the Missoday desperation, they still longed for their own solution. You being desperate does not mean you're in faith. John 6, we've got crowds following Jesus. Why? They're following Jesus because He fed them and we love to make kings of people who feed us. So, they are seeking but they're not seeking in faith. They're seeking in desperation to fill in need. They don't really care who Jesus is. They care about what Jesus does. They are desperate to be fed. They're not in faith. So desperation without directional faith is simply suffering without submission. Think about it for a moment. And actually, I'm going to try and move a little bit quickly in the sermon so we can have time for questions and answers and disagreements. See, it feels like every nation brides to. Think about it. Inspiration without directional faith is simply suffering without submission to actually forsake the ability to in my suffering trust. So, here's a key one in this. You can need Jesus and yet not trust Jesus. As I promise you now, I need Him. But the fact that you need Him says nothing about the fact that you trust Him. Think about it. I'm not trying to write today. Think about the things you need Jesus to do. And then think about whether your trust is more about need than it is about a person. Sponda. You see, the issue is not desperation itself. The issue is when our desperation is without recognition of Christ's authority. You are not recognizing Christ's authority when you just want to escape a situation. You are recognizing the dire nature of your circumstance. You recognize Christ's authority where whether or not you get out of the circumstance, you still trust Him. His ability is not proven by your ability to escape the issue. We trust Him. There's a psychologist by the name of Dr. Martin Singleton. He was doing a study in the 90s on the helplessness of people. And here's what he said. He said, in his study, it demonstrates that when people experience prolonged suffering without perceived agency, when people experience prolonged suffering without having a sense of, my will can do something. My will can be involved. I can choose something. When people experience prolonged suffering without perceived agency, they develop patterns of crying out without expectation of change. Dear South Africa. Come on now. Okay. And therefore, can become a habit of appeal rather than a genuine act of trust, where I'm constantly in the posture of Lord help. And I'm never in the posture of a trustee. When people experience that kind of suffering, that kind of pain without feeling like they can choose something in their pain, they get stuck. Who gets miracles? Is it desperate people? No. But maybe it's good people. Maybe the kind of people who get miracles are deserving people. Look chapter 7. The Centurion decides he's going to send Jewish elders. And these Jewish elders go to Jesus and love what they say. And here's what they say to Jesus. Listen today, we're not going to argue with you about this whole thing of you being the son of God and stuff. We're not going to fight with you about this whole Messiah thing. And though deep down inside, we're going to kill you. But listen, we need you to do us a favor. We have a Roman centurion who with all the power he has, with all the access he has, all the favor he has, all the ability he has cannot heal his servant. He loves his servant. And so he's asked us quietly to come to you. And so here's the favor we need. We need you to grant him this request. Why? Because he loves what we love and he's given us what we want. He's our benefactor. When we wanted a building, he said, "I've got the money. This could be you now. We can bring you to the Lord and be like, "Please give a miracle to this child." So, the Jewish elders, the assumption is the reason why miracles happen to people. The reason why good things happen to people is because they are good people. So as much as we don't agree with you, we need you to do something good. So someone we deem to be good. So do it. It must be good people. You see, this is exactly why we have weird theology that says, "Only pastors get miracles." It's like, "Oh, we need a financial breakthrough." But no, no, no, because the Lord understands your desperate situation, dear pastor. By the way, those of you who are new here, I'm the pastor here. Right? I think about it. Oh, you know what? I'm not, the reason I'm not getting miracles is that God understands that I live in the upper echelons of Brianston and he's given me enough discovery and enough. So I must take care of things myself. Because miracles are for those who are far off, down there in desperate scenarios. They are the ones who get miracles. Oh, no, no. Those are for those spiritual professionals who, who they, they life and job is about trusting so that they can give us sermons about trusting. But actually, we just kind of find what they want to do. Where on earth do we find this in the scriptures? Oh, my word. Why aren't we seeing that the miracle is happening to fishermen, not pastors? What we see that what's actually happening is that it's not the deserving who are getting miracles. Whoever you think is good, professional, they're not the ones who are right there in front getting the miracles. Oh, those of you who believe that I might not be a spiritual professional, but my morals are good. Because how many of us, including myself, have felt like Lord, I've done all the right things. Why does that guy who keeps doing the wrong things keep having nice stuff happen to them? See, merit, merit cannot compel grace. Be good, but don't be good so that you might receive grace. Because you've received grace, be good. Here's some people who seemingly did good things, but they were still rejected. Kane does a good thing, but because he's motive is wrong, he's rejected. He's rejected because of his motive, but he thinks that his good thing is enough. Saul, instead of obeying God, Saul chooses a ritual. He's thinking in his mind he can disobey and then cover the disobedience. by ritual, by doing what he believes is acceptable to God, and God's response to him through the prophet is obedience is better than sacrifice. The Pharisees, the Pharisees were told in Luke, they have this tendency of standing out in the corner and praying aloud. Lord, but they doing it in a strategic place where people can see them. Lord, I am a good man. Literally, that's how they prayed. I am a good man. I observe the law. I come to Saturday service and come to Saturday guy. I give, I don't shout at my kids. What are they doing? They're using resume to get their prayers answered. In fact, I love what NT Wright says about this. He says, "The Pharisee uses prayer as a mirror not a window." He looks at himself and calls it worship. That the Pharisee doesn't understand that faith is looking through the window, being able to see on the other side instead of faith being a mirror that's looking towards your own deeds to determine, "I must be worthy." How many times have I done that? How many times have I appealed based on good deeds? So here, here's the thing, the issue then is not about moral merit. The issue is about a false covenant security. What do I mean? When we approach God with the idea that because I've done good, I deserve. We end up coming before the Lord with a false sense of covenant security because we think that for as long as I maintain doing good things, God will do good things to me. So I feel safe because I've done good. But come on now, you know, it just takes what? Six hours before you do the next bad thing. So how long can you maintain security through your good deeds? Which means every time you fail, you are covenantally insecure. And the option that the Bible gives is way better than your deeds. It invites you to good deeds because of the grace you've inherited. Which means that even when we fail, we are able to stand before God, not on the basis of our deeds, but on the basis of his deeds. Why? Because merit or good deeds have this thing of trying to replace grace as the source. So if merit is the source of your interaction with God or receiving miracles from God, it's replacing grace as the source. So who gets the miracles? Is it the desperate? Come be. Is it the deserving? Definitely come be. Maybe it's the despised. Maybe it's the people who view themselves as victims. Maybe it's the people who are victims. Maybe they're the ones, right? They're the ones who get the miracles. Because we see so many times in the scriptures, in the Old Testament, in New Testament, how God fights for those who have their backs most against the wall. It must be those who are victims. It must be those who are despised by the culture who end up getting miracles. In Luke 7, 6 to 7 says, "Jesus went with them and when he was not far from the house "the centurion sent his friends." So watch, initially the centurion sends a Jewish elders and the Jewish elders speak about the worthiness of the centurion. This time, the centurion sends people who actually represent his heart. The elders represented his desperation. His friends represent his heart and his friends go to Jesus and say, "Listen, Lord," which is by the way a mind blow, these are Gentile people calling Jesus Lord. In other words, these Gentile people are saying that this Jesus is above the level of Caesar. They're saying, "You who's above the level of Caesar "don't even bother yourself coming into his house "because he sees himself as unworthy." Do we then, is it those people who see themselves as unworthy who get miracles? Here's what I wanna suggest. Your profound self-awareness of how sinful you are, your profound humility of realizing how far you are from the standard of God, still alone does not equal faith. It doesn't. Let me tell you, let me tell you who was profoundly aware of their sinfulness. Judas, profoundly, he was remorseful. Remorseful. I don't know whether you have friends or a wife or a husband where they are remorseful, but you know, they are remorseful, but not repented. However, they feel bad for what they did, but they're not ready to turn. Judas is remorseful, but his remorse does not mean he has the faith to turn. He feels bad, but his feelings aren't able to persuade his faith to help him turn. St. Augustine put it this way, really love this quote. He said, "It is not enough to know oneself and worthy, one must know Christ is sufficient." It's not enough. It's not enough to dive into the pool of self-pity and quietly hold God ransom to fix the issue and think that that is faith. The centurion doesn't stop at, I am unworthy. He follows it up. You see, the floor for the centurion is, "I am unworthy," but the ceiling is just say the word. You must know that Christ is sufficient. It's not enough to just know that you are unworthy. Therefore, the issue is not humility. We understand that grace comes to the humble, doesn't it? The issue is humility that's detached from trust. So, who gets miracles? It's clearly not the desperate. It's clearly not the deserving. It's clearly not those who are despised or despised themselves. His Lord, I suggest, the people who get miracles are the ones who apply common sense toward who God is. Just sit on it. We love to complicate faith. No, no, faith is applying simple common sense to who God says He is. Who does God say He is? And what does God say He will do? Let me apply the simplicity of common sense. That is faith. Okay, I understand. You don't believe me. Let's just go ahead and read the scriptures. Luke 7. But say the word and my servant will be healed. Watch. For I too, a man placed under authority. Watch. Here's what he says. He's not saying I understand the work you're doing because I too, a man in authority. I'm a man under authority. In other words, I understand the power of delegated authority. I get it. All my life has been about leading soldiers, commanding soldiers. It's not that I am in authority, it's because the authority I have has been delegated to me. I understand the power of delegated authority. What's he talking about? He's saying that when I speak, Rome speaks. If they refuse to come when I tell them to come, to go when I tell them to go, it's Rome they disobey. I understand the power of delegated authority to a measly human being. Continues. Having soldiers under my command, I say to the one, go and they go, come and they come and just serve and do this and do that. So here's what he's saying. When I observe and I hear stories about this Jesus, what I seem to understand is this. He also has a kingdom he's representing. And when he speaks, servants go. When he says stuff, we, I might not be able to see them servants, but supposedly whenever he speaks the word, servants go, soldiers go on his behalf and do what he is telling them to do. Please notice, he's just using the simplicity of common sense. And he's going, okay. One plus one equals two. And Jesus goes, the faith this guy has. No, think about it. That's what he's doing. He's going, okay, I think this is simple. You don't need to come to my house because I don't need to be in someone's house to command them. All I need to do, I need to say the word. And because of Rome, they respect the word. And even if I say the word from here, that person over there, there, there, there, will have to obey the word that was said over here, here, here, here. And the only thing that they need to do is hear the word. And if they hear the word, they will obey. And so this Jesus has delegated authority. And he doesn't need to come into my home. He doesn't need to explain. He doesn't need to take the temperature of my servant. Okay, please now go to a hospital, some of you. You know what I mean? Sometimes people just take this all the way to go to a hospital. Some of you need to get to a temperature check and stuff like that. See, listen, he's saying, I don't need to, he doesn't need to Jesus. He doesn't need to step into my home wherever he is. Because of the kingdom he belongs to. He just needs to say the word. What an indictment on the elders he sent. I understand that you can't do this. Go and speak to the one who can. You even struggling to believe him, but speak to the one who can. All right, so. Jesus hears his reasoning and Jesus models turns around, looks at the Jewish people and goes, I've never seen faith like this. Like you guys know the Old Testament. You guys know the first five books of the Bible. You know the Torah backwards in, in and out. But I haven't even heard faith like this come from you. This guy doesn't know any of those things. And he reasoned through common sense and oh my what great faith. So guys, emotional intensity is not faith. I kind of know now I'm speaking to Charismatics. And I don't I love emotional intensity. My whole family is a picture of I'm godly emotional intensity. I'm not talking about my kids my wife. I'm talking about like all nurture where I come from, where I was raised. Just a mess. That's our faith. Moral performance is not faith. Feeling it. Earning it is not faith. Okay, self condemnation. That the level of how bad you feel about yourself isn't faith. It's like we know we want God to give us breakthrough. But the way we approach Him is, I know. Now, I would have never understood this except being married. Because I know the amount of times I go, no, I don't need that. I know the amount of times I've heard her go, no, I'm fine. You don't have to watch the dishes. And I know that means if you don't watch the dishes, I'm just going to, right? In the same way we approach the Lord. Because sometimes it's way too hard to have faith again. It feels easier to just go, you know, I know I don't deserve it. But quietly what we mean is, Lord, please do this. Please, please, please. Why? Because a part of us wants to save ourselves from being disappointed again. So if I remain in a place of pity, I can quietly hold Him to do something. But if He doesn't, at the very least, I don't have to step too far emotionally from where I am. I didn't expect too much to be disappointed much by Him. So faith is, faith is not the volume of your cry, but the vision of your Christ. Think about it. I'm not trying to be nice. I'm not trying to quote, do a nice illiteration. This is true now. Faith is not merit, it's reliance. Faith is not self-rejection, it's Christ confidence. All right. Who gets miracles? It is those who apply common sense. Those who apply common sense. To what who God is. I wrote a list this morning, actually, where the service last night. And I thought about it this morning. A list of people who just applied common sense. Never had a paper filled with weird everyone here. Let's see. Abraham. Abraham applied common sense when he went up the mountain. And he reasoned to himself, if God promised him his son, and now God is asking him to give up his son, oh God will resurrect him. He just applied common sense to who God is. He went to the mountain because he reasoned. Sarah, when she heard that she's going to have a child, but her womb is old. We are told that she, this is what she, she considered him faithful, the one who promised. And she was like, okay. No, she laughed first. And then the Lord was like, are you laughing? And she's like, no, I'm not laughing. She's like, okay, five. And then Hebrews, Hebrews, when Hebrews is dating back the story, it says, she considered him faithful. The one who promised she reasoned based on who God is. She applied common sense to what who God is. Moses. When Moses had the option to stay in Egypt and the, and the expense of Egypt and the wealth of Egypt, we are told that Moses considered the reproach, the, the suffering that he would go through for, for choosing to obey God to be way greater than the privileges of Egypt. Why? Because he just reasoned in the eternal reward of God. You're gonna say, it's like, it's like, it's like somebody deciding whether they're going to make the decision of stepping out of their work and doing the wrong thing. And they reason, ah, no, man, what I think I'm going to get temporarily now, I'm going to get eternally later. And they reasoned. They use common sense. And he says, that's faith. David, when he's facing Goliath, he goes, oh no, God helped me with the bear. He helped me with the lion. He helped me with this stuff. Oh, he's going to help me with this guy. He just use common sense. And God goes, that's faith. Common sense toward who God is. not common sense toward your situation. Yes, yes, you must understand your situation. You are not profoundly charismatic by not acknowledging that you're sick. You are profoundly charismatic by acknowledging that God can heal. And so I don't need to walk around with a limp and people say, "What's wrong with your leg?" Like, "Nothing, I'm just healed." Come on now. Once again, it speaks of a culture that thinks that performance is going to help them get healing. No, similarly, I'm not going to have come to say, "Hey, I'm sick. Hey, I'm sick. Hey, my leg." No, why? All I'm doing is I am placing, I'm acknowledging reality, but I'm depending on truth. Woman with the issue of blood. Here's how she reasons. She goes, "If I just touch his garment, she's using common sense. She's heard about this Jesus who's out here healing people. And all she thinks is, I mean, if he's healing everybody, all I need to do is just touch and share." And that's faith. Common sense. Oh, so many more I could give you. There's a Ken and I woman who's by the table. And she's realizing that the table is full. Jesus has set up a table and everybody's eating. And she reasons that, "Man, I know Jesus. If I just ask, he'll give me." So she asks and Jesus responds and then she says, "No, no, no, even dog eat crumbs. She's using common sense to make a request." Peter uses common sense in the boat. And he goes, "If that's God, if that's Jesus out there in the water, I know that if he tells me to come, I'll be able to walk on this thing. If you tell me to come, I promise you I'll come." You can come. He used common sense faith. All right. So I think here's an important question. What about those who pray and use common sense and the parents still dies? The relationship still ends. Your body still not healed. The things you're trusting for, they still don't happen. It's hard to talk about the sermon without acknowledging that. Now, there are many, they're not a lot of answers I can give. But I can say this. Jesus was desperate. He was in Gethsemane, so desperate, that he was able to say, "Lord, if it was your will, fits your will, Lord, I would love for you to take this away from me, but if it's your will, it's okay, I'll take it on." Okay. He's desperate. There's, he's persp- the perspiration that's coming from him is blood. Not only was Jesus desperate, Jesus was deserving. Like you think you're good? Ah, ah. Jesus really, really good. In fact, the Bible tells us that in him there was no sin. In other words, it's not that Jesus didn't sin, but there was nothing sinful in him. He was the perfect example of what a human should be. He was desperate, didn't get a miracle. He was deserving, didn't get a miracle. And he was despised. They spat at him, they beat him, they put him up on the cross, and yet he still didn't get a miracle. So, is it possible that we might actually approach God, pray and have our prayers unanswered? Yes. Is it possible that we might deeply want something, that we might deeply trust for something, and yet still not get it? Yes. But our contentment is that this Jesus has given us not only an example that even when our prayers are unanswered, we can still trust. He's given us a picture that sometimes the centurion servant will be healed, but other times God's servant will be crucified. Guys, both the miracles. Watch, Jesus goes to the cross, and the one who didn't get a miracle becomes a miracle. I don't know why and how God does what He does, but what I do know is that the kind of power we need, when we need a loved one to be raised from the dead, is the exact power we need to persevere when we feel like we're dying. Both of those scenarios need a breakthrough from Heaven. To persevere without my faith failing requires Heaven to break in. Just like for me to pray for my child to be healed, requires faith. It requires Heaven to break in in that moment. Who gets miracles? Those who apply common sense, apply common sense toward who God is. Apply common sense in the place of your need, apply common sense in the place of your celebration. Apply common sense in the place of your cross. Apply common sense toward who God is, whether your prayer is answered or not. It's unfortunate that sometimes both answered prayer and answered prayer can limit us from applying common sense to who God is. Because my prayer has been answered, I now can take a back seat, because actually the most pinnacle thing in my life has been this one thing, and now I don't need to really apply faith in the present reality of the thing I've received. Both answered prayer and an answer prayer can be dangerous to your faith if you don't apply common sense toward who God is every time. I'm not asking you to be emotional and passionate. I'm just asking you to go, if this is who God is, then what? Fleming Rutland says this about the cross. He says the cross is not God's endorsement of suffering. It is God's invasion of suffering, absorbing it, transforming it, and defeating it from the inside. That there's something even when we are suffering, that we actually can see the reality of God in that suffer. We can see the power of God in that suffering. Why? Because of the cross and what happened on the cross. The next five, six, seven minutes. I want to open it up for Q&A, and then we'll take communion together as you're thinking, as you're reflecting. Maybe it's questions about what we've just preached about, or disagreement based on what I just said. If you have questions, it's a good time. Is it true to say that applying common sense and submitting to God's will for the bigger picture that we don't understand? Then it leads to miracles because the servant was not really part of his own healing. What a convicting thought. That we tend to think about miracles for ourselves. There's a insurant, as for a miracle for a servant. It's not a family member, like a servant. It's not just a common sense. It's not just applying common sense toward who God is. You're right, submitting to this bigger picture of God. Here's one thing I want to propose to you. I think sometimes, because of the way we generally think about our lives in the world, we don't view our current obedience as a generational thing. We look at our purpose and God says, you know, whatever, you know, you called to the marketplace, we seeing it within the span of 70 years. But the problem with that way of thinking not only is it super kind of European, where I believe Africans have got this right is that they and Asians believe that their own obedience is that they believe in profound connectedness. That your disobedience today has an impact generation from now. My obedience today has an impact generation. So when you're viewing your purpose from the vantage point of 50 years, you might be missing the point. And the last person who didn't care about God's generational reality was a guy called Hezekiah, who allowed foreigners to come in and view His palace. And then the Lord said, "Hey, you, in the same way that you allowed people to come, waltz in." You know what's that show used to be an MTV crib? Cribs. Is it called cribs? When they go to like famous houses? Yeah, cribs. You know the person goes there, they've got this beautiful mansion and then they open it up. Hello, you know, and the person walks in with a camera and they view the whole place. Oh, it's beautiful. God says, "All right, listen, because you did this, because you allowed people to come in and view all the secret treasures of my kingdom. I'm going to allow people to come in and wipe out all the treasures of Israel." And then here's Hezekiah. Hezekiah says, "At least there will be enough wealth for my generation." See, why? Is because sometimes we don't embrace the mystery of what seems to be an incomplete promise. Because we think it's meant to happen in 50 years. No, it's generational. God has this bigger plan, way bigger than your budget, your brains, your career. It's connected. You are here because of a connection that preceded you. And so I think that's important that ended up being a preach, not an answer. Great question. Well, yes. Thank you for your service today, so what you're preaching about reminded me of the story of. They were in my mind just now. Those guys were putting the fire. So what they said, they were like, "Even if God doesn't bring us out of the fire." As you're saying, sometimes we do believe that God can do stuff. Even though we still have to believe that, even though if it doesn't happen, I still believe in this God. So, Antonio, the king said, "I hope your God can save you." And he still believed in a way, because he went down to the land of the dead and asked, "Taniel, are you still there?" So, thank you. So it just reminded me of this day. Thank you. Now, no, wait. Some of you might not know. In the 90s, there was a South African sitcom called "Velabhi." And that was the jingle. I definitely know this is probably your first time here because at the amount of times you said, "Say, say, I'm like, "How? You must be new here." But great observation. Yeah, Mojo. Yeah, it's actually connected to what he's saying. So it's a question. So in a given situation, or in terms of what you're saying, "Is there a way to distinguish, or tell, or discern the difference between you applying common sense and you being presumptuous of God in a given situation?" And if so, how? Hey, good, good. That's hectic. You got a clap from a question. Okay. I'm glad you asked the question. And I'm going to answer. You guys, okay, I'm not preaching anymore. I'm going to share, like, personally for me, how I process faith. Because I felt many times faith has been made complex for me, and it's been complex in my mind. Okay. So you don't have to take this. This is what I do. The way I see faith in my life is three things must be aligning. See, say, do. Okay. So let's say I'm in a scenario where my child has a speech impediment. That's a true scenario. If you honest with you, the level of my anxiety is so high that it's easy for me to begin to presume what God wants to do. Because of how desperate I want him to do it. Okay. Because I can't see anything else right now, but my child being okay. And so I'm anxious. And what I am seeing is what's going to happen to him in high school. What's going to happen to him in varsity, right? And because that's what I'm seeing, what I'm saying is, man, we should have read to him more. Or you should have read to him more. Right? And what I'm doing, I'm all over YouTube, assuming one magic video is going to help me change this whole thing. And I'm going to now all of a sudden, I'm going to come home early, and I'm going to do all the things that I have been doing. But I'm now I'm going to time stand. I'm going to apply effort to the problem. Okay. So in order for me to not fall into presumption or go the other extreme, right? I don't want to feel the anxiety. Oh God will heal. God will heal. I don't want to talk about it. I'm not even going to send them to a speech therapist. Because God will heal. God will heal. You know, and every, you know, moment I have, I'm just trying to push down the feeling of anxiety. I'm still seeing the same thing. It's still anxiety. So here's what I've learned to do is that when I'm facing a moment, and I hope that we do this as a daily lifestyle, not just when you're facing a crisis, is that I need to see something higher. Thus, I read the word. Here's what the Bible says is that your faith increases how? Because you've heard the word. Supposedly, if I hear the word, I will see something. I will see something of God. I will see something of the kingdom. And then based on what I see, I'm going to say something different. Watch. Jesus is only seeing what the Father is doing. And so when the Pharisees are trying to trap him to do certain things, Jesus says different things. And not the things that they want to say why? Because he sees something different. His orientation is bigger than the crisis. And so I don't think I am being presumptuous when I now begin to enter the word and read, and I'm reading the story. I'm not just reading to get myself out of the scenario. I'm reading to have an understanding of who God is and what His kingdom is like so that in the midst of my child's seeming speech impediment, I can see more than this. So that I can say something. Watch. Now faith is incomplete. If you just see, you must do. You must do. And in that moment for me, part of my doing is to learn how to come into my home and be a non-anxious presence where all my kids are crying because they, brother, can't speak well. And I need to be the kind of presence that Christ is to me because of what I've seen. And so the act is to choose to be the place where you can place your anxiety on me. Because of what I've seen. Do you get what I'm saying? See, say, do. I'm constantly trying to align these things. When they said no to being in this building, I'm not pretending with you that I'm okay. I have to go see something. Learn to say something that lies we want to see and then do something. So part of the action of doing is I'm scouring the land with the team to find a building. But I'm not assuming that the finding of the building is what sets my anxiety calm. I am searching without anxiety. Because I've seen something. Hebrews 11, faith is the substance. So if what I'm hoping for is a master's degree, faith is the substance, faith is the form that says I've registered for the course now. It's something that allows me to taste of something that only I can see. But it gives me the ability to act, to do. Because it to just be registered is not to have the masters. I must do. I must press in. And so throughout this course, I'm constantly seeing. But my faith is constantly doing. And so this is the beauty for me of not being presumptuous is that I must be in the word. And here's the beautiful thing about community is when I believe that what I've seen in the word is when I see something in the word. But I'm adding onto it. Community should help. It's not community, just for community sake. Community helps me to see better. Anyway. So, we're out of time. I'm going to ask you to keep your communion, but to actually take it with you and take it at some point today, just as you are reflecting on this one idea. Just spend one more ask for, ten minutes sometime today, where you can sit down and think about what Christ has done and what that means for your life. Apply common sense to the cross and the resurrection. And take a minute. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause these face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up His continents upon you. Give you peace now and forever. Amen and amen. Love you guys. See you next week Sunday.