The Faith That Made Jesus Stop

Kent Jackson: Good morning.
Oh, come on, we can do better than that.
Good morning.
Isn't Gary Moyers fantastic?
Y'all give him a real round of applause.
Yeah.
Miss Frase, thank you so much for the invitation.
She did not tell me Gary was leading singing,
or I would have really jumped on the chance to do this
because Gary's always been one of my heroes.
I'm going to talk more about heroes in just a second.
But I was blessed to be in chorus and best friends with Gary for a while.
And then both of us started out in the education business.
And then he went and got famous and toured around with a group called Acapella.
And I was one of the guys out there cheering for him for a long, long time.
But he's done a great job.
And even to this day, believe it or not, Gary and I share the same barber.
Hey!
Hey!
Yeah.
You old boys that are laughing at me, some of y'all are going to have that same barber someday too.
But that's okay.
Hey, who are your faith heroes?
who are your faith heroes?
Think about that for a second.
People that have coached you in your faith
or impacted your faith journey.
Who's made a difference in your life
and has helped you believe what you believe today?
Many of mine were faculty and staff here at Lubbock Christian.
The ones of us that came through here four decades ago
were blessed by being influenced
by many of the original faculty and staff
who helped build the culture of Lubbock Christian
from the ground up.
And looking back on that, I am so very grateful for that opportunity.
And I know Gary and a bunch of the rest of us are too.
Some of our group were influenced so much to the point that they stayed here and became the faculty and staff that walk with you each day here right now.
And I'm thankful for that as well.
I know a lot of them do a tremendous job for you guys, and I'm grateful.
And although I didn't appreciate it as a kid, you know, I was one of those like some of you may have been.
I know some of the older people were.
I had a drug problem when I was a kid, right?
My parents drug me to church every time the doors were open.
You know, I mean, we didn't have a choice.
My brother and sister's doors were open.
We were going to church.
And at the time, I'm like a lot of y'all.
That drive me crazy.
But I look back on that now, and I'm so grateful for my parents being my faith heroes and showing me what faith and making a life with Christ and making him your Lord and Savior was all about.
Hebrews chapter 11.
It's called the Faith Hall of Fame.
You may be familiar with that.
There we find names like Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah and Moses.
Joseph, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel.
Man, it's a who's who.
It's all those big names.
It's an impressive list.
But did you know the only person that ever amazed Jesus with his faith is not on that list?
Today, that's what I want to talk to you about.
And I want to look at this individual's encounter with our Savior
and hopefully have you leave here this morning inspired to go out and do the same,
to live a life of amazing faith.
If you have your Bibles, if you don't, you may have it on your phone.
Open up to Matthew chapter 5, and if you don't have it, just listen.
There's two accounts of this same story in the Gospels.
Luke recorded his version of this encounter with slight variations in chapter 7 of Luke.
But this morning, for time's sake, we're going to look at Matthew's account.
Matthew, verse 5 of chapter 8 is where I'm going to start.
I'm going to read 5 through 10 and then verse 13.
Just listen to this story.
To set this up, Jesus had just come down from the mountainside where he shared what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
A lot of you are probably familiar with that.
And he had just encountered and healed a man with leprosy.
And he enters Capernaum and we see this heading in most of your Bibles.
that says the faith of the centurion.
Centurion?
Yeah.
He was a Roman.
He was an officer in the Roman army.
Okay, listen to this encounter.
When Jesus had entered Capernaum,
a centurion came to him asking for help.
He said, Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed,
suffering terribly.
Jesus said to him, well, shall I come heal him?
the centurion replied lord i don't deserve to have you come under my roof
but just say the word and my servant will be healed for i myself am a man under authority
with soldiers under me i tell this one go and he goes i tell this one to come and he comes and i
say to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those
following him, truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. Then Jesus
said to the centurion, go and let it be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was
healed at that very moment. As a coach and athletic director for 33 years, I've given
lots of compliments and I've praised lots of kids for things they've done. You've probably
had someone do that for you. But can you imagine a better compliment, a better feeling to have
Jesus himself look at you and say your faith was the greatest he had ever seen to the point
that he was amazed by it.
So who is this guy?
And what can we learn from him?
He's a Roman centurion.
He was a Gentile,
an officer in the Roman army
who had proven himself in battle
and now led and commanded
a century of soldiers.
And Luke's account tells us
that this particular centurion
had found favor with the Jews
for some help he had given them
restoring the Jewish temple
in some way.
But he was certainly not a man
who should have amazed
our Savior. He shouldn't have amazed Jesus with his face. So how'd he do it? I want to point out
three things to you real quick this morning. First, he stood out by bowing down. You say,
coach, he didn't bow down. No, not physically. He didn't, but spiritually and mentally he did.
Look at the first word out of his mouth. What was it? Lord. Both times when he addresses Jesus,
calls him Lord. He's a Roman officer. And he calls him Lord, okay? When Jesus asked
if he should go home and heal him, the next thing he says is, I'm not worthy to have you
come in my house. You can almost hear the humility in his approach. There's a song we
sing a lot, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. You can almost hear it coming out
of his mouth. But that's not the world we live in, right? I get it. I get it. Our current worldview
says we should strive to stand out through more likes, more views, more followers, doing our best
to gain attention. Many want to be followed, but very few people want to be led. Our world
encourages entitlement, drawing attention to ourselves, and many boasting. You guys look at
it. You see it all the time. They want to be the man, or they want to be the woman, right?
but not here not here this centurion stood up in faith by bowing down
i believe if we want to strive for an amazing faith of our own that's where we should start as
well he humbled himself and so should we secondly he stood out in faith by being others minded
I used to talk to our teams about this all the time.
Be selfless, not selfish.
Right?
Boy, they're so close.
Those words are so close and so different.
Selfless.
Notice his concern was for someone else and a servant at that.
He's a Roman officer.
How many servants could he have rounded up?
That phrase we all still use today about go the extra mile,
that's where this came from.
A Roman officer can command anybody.
You picked this bag up and carry it for me a mile.
And that's what you had to do.
You didn't have a choice.
He could find all the help he wanted.
But let's face it.
This guy's just a servant, right?
No.
You know why I know that?
Because God doesn't make justas.
He doesn't make justas.
And this centurion, for whatever reason, he knows that.
But how many times do we hear that in our world?
Oh, she's justa.
Oh, he's justa.
our world assigns value to people based on their role or title and i'm quite certain the roman
world did as well not so with god we stand out by respecting and showing others especially the least
of these that we care and that they matter i hope you're doing that for someone in your path that
needs it. And we see this same attitude in the centurion. His concern wasn't for just a servant.
His concern was for his servant. And he obviously cared about him. How do we see people?
How do we see people? The thing I love most about my experience here was I never felt like just a
number. I hope you don't either, young people. Our greatest human need is to be seen, valued,
known and understood. And I hope you feel that way here at Love of Christian.
But my bigger hope is that you are helping others feel the same way.
The centurion saw his servant and through his selfless conversation with Jesus, he proved
that this guy mattered to him. Let's do the same for the people God places in our path.
Those people are different for you than they are for me each day, but we can still
show people they matter to us.
Amazing faith demonstrated by bowing down
and by being others-minded.
Thirdly, he stood out
by acknowledging Jesus' authority.
You see, the centurion gets it.
Look what he's saying.
I'm a man under and of authority.
That's what he says to Jesus.
I'm a man under and of authority.
I say do this and it gets done.
I say go and they go.
And for some reason the centurion knew.
He knew.
Now did he know all the ins and outs of what Jesus was preaching?
Did he know all the ins and outs of how he did all those miracles?
And what was going on with disciples and apostles?
And what was to come?
There's no way the centurion could have known this.
But he knew one thing.
He knew Jesus was in charge.
He knew that.
I used to tell my sons always, know who the boss is.
Know who's in charge.
The centurion knew.
I had a coach on my staff.
Some of you guys could probably relate to it.
He'd walk in the locker room every Friday night before he went out on the field.
He'd say, who's robbing this train?
What was he asking our team?
He's like, who's going to go out there and take charge of this game?
He wanted our guys to go out with their hair on fire and go get them.
That's what happened to me.
Anyway, this centurion knew Jesus was in charge.
More importantly, young people, listen to me.
He not only knew, he believed.
He believed.
Jesus said, go and let it be done just as you believed it would.
He realized even with all his clout or authority as a Roman officer, he could not help his servant by himself.
couldn't do it without Jesus.
And if you don't hear me say anything else this morning, you can't
either. None of us can.
None of us can do it without Jesus.
And we find ourselves surrounded every day in this world, though, with people who
can't either. They still haven't figured it out.
Many folks strive to feel, we all do at some point in our lives,
We strive to fill this Jesus-shaped hole right in the middle of us with everything in the world but him.
Right?
I'm guilty of this.
I'm guilty of this.
In the coaching profession, man, it's easy.
You get all caught up in accolades.
You get caught up when you win and do great things.
Well, people want to make it up.
No.
No, no, no.
But we do.
We try to fill this hole with money, power, prestige, possessions, addictions, whatever.
Okay?
And as good as some of those things may feel or be for a season, it's never going to be enough.
Never.
And that's why people in our world need us, me and you, to go out and stand out in faith by being humble, by being selfless, and by acknowledging, believing, and living under Jesus' authority every day.
In order to live a life of amazing faith.
Right?
Can I get an amen?
Amen.
I know without questions that's what the founders of Lubbock Christian University wanted.
And I know without a doubt that's what your current faculty and staff want more than anything.
They want for you and all of us that have gone before you as Lubbock Christian grads to go out and make an eternal difference for good in this world by living a life of amazing faith.
And I believe with all my heart you can do that.
You can do that.
I hope you have a fantastic week.
I really appreciate you listening this morning.
God bless you.
Thank you.
Thank you.