The Faith That Made Jesus Marvel

Absolute delight of mine to be here.

One of my daughters is here, my youngest daughter.

I have five kids, three boys, two girls, three thorns, two rose petals.

And so the youngest rose petal is uh with us uh here today.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you were left in amazement?

Where perhaps it was a sunset that you've seen, and it looked like God had kicked over a paint bucket and he just painted the sky.

That's the way it was for me two days ago as I was driving up into Nashville.

The sunset was so amazing.

Or maybe, just maybe, you've been to the Niagara Falls and you heard the water gushing over the falls and it took your breath away.

Or perhaps you've been to the Grand Canyon.

I've done tours at the Grand Canyon, and you get a little too close to that precipice, and you take a couple steps back because your mortality is closer than you think.

And you're left marveled, you're you're left in amazement.

But now, let's transition just for a moment.

Has God ever said wow?

Has God ever been marveled by anything?

Now, we Bible students, I think we'd be quick to say, well, no, absolutely not.

God is omniscient, he knows all things, he's not caught off guard.

He's all powerful, and he's everywhere at once.

There is nothing to where God would say, whoa, wow.

And he becomes utterly astonished at something that he has beheld.

The same God who ordered light before he made the sun, who carved the ocean depths with a single word, who flung the stars into space, called them by name, there is no way God would say, Wow.

And yet I bring you to our text here today in Luke chapter 7.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

Turn with me in those apps, open up those Bibles, and we will see God marveling.

In Luke chapter 7, verse 1, it says these words.

Luke 7:1

After he had finished all of his sayings and the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.

And now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.

When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant.

And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who has built us our synagogue.

And Jesus went with them, and when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Therefore I did not presume to come to you, but say the word, and let my servant be healed.

For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me.

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.

Verse 9.

When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him.

And turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.

When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

Father, in Jesus' name we ask that you would pour out a deeper understanding in your word for us here this morning.

We pray that you would stamp eternity on our eyelids, that we would run a race with endurance, that we would not ever give up, let up, shut up, look back, that we would not, Father, be amazed by anything other than you and what you have performed for us.

So we commit ourselves to you and we ask, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much we kick and scream, that you would speak to us and you would perform surgery as the great physician.

And you have our answer in advance, which is yes, it is yes, it is a thousand times yes.

Now tell us what you would have us to do.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

If you are taking notes here today, the title of my message is The Faith That Made Jesus Marvel.

And I've divided my message into four sections.

I'll tell you those four quickly, and you can write those inside your notes if you'd like.

First, we have a marvelous faith.

A marvelous faith.

Next, we have a marvelous lack of faith.

And thirdly, we have a marvelous God.

And then finally, a marvelous exchange.

A marvelous exchange.

Back to point number one, a marvelous faith.

Who does it come from?

It comes from an unlikely character, a centurion.

Now, a centurion, as you know, was over a hundred men in the Roman army.

He was a hardened, experienced killing machine, and he was the antithesis of who Jesus was.

See, this man was a Gentile and Jesus was a Jew.

Jesus gave life, this man took life.

And everything about this man, we would presume, would not be the man whereby which Jesus would be pushed back on his heels and he would be left to marvel.

And yet that is exactly what took place.

The centurion understood that Jesus, like himself, was under the authority of the Father, and all he had to do was say the word, and the malady, the disease, would bow and bail would leave the situation.

Verse 9, when Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him.

Marveled.

It means to be utterly amazed, to be astonished, to be blown away.

And it says that he turned around and he said to the crowd that followed him, I say to you, now here's Jesus.

Unlike the prophets of old who always spoke from authority, but Jesus never once spoke from authority.

Because he was the authority.

And with his authority, he hushed the sea to sleep and he tucked it into bed at night.

The prophets of old would say, You've heard it said by them of old, where the Lord says to you, but Jesus enters onto the scene and he says, I say to you, most assuredly, I reveal to you.

And with his authority, he was able to do that, things that nobody else was able to do.

Make the blind see, make the deaf hear, make the lame walk, feed the multitudes.

He marveled at him and he turned around and he said to the crowd that followed him, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.

And those who were sent return into the house, found the servant well, who had been sick.

I like what John Bloom says from Desiring God concerning this, where God marvels.

We must meditate.

We must have that selaw moment.

We must just kind of pause for a moment.

God is going to marvel.

Well, then I'm going to meditate.

Because the centurion did not have a spiritual resume that was outstanding.

Nothing about this man was impressive.

He didn't plan any churches, he didn't perform any miracles, he had no religious pedigree attached to him, but yet the man with the greatest faith found in Israel was a man who simply believed.

Catch this church.

He believed that Jesus was who he said he was.

And that was it.

That's faith.

You want faith?

Here it is.

Believe that God is telling you the truth.

That's it.

With that in mind, turn to Romans 8.28.

I fear for a lot of us that the Bible has become nothing more than an adult coloring book.

And what I mean by that is we have it highlighted and underlined, we have it ordered very nicely, and we become hearers and not doers.

And this is one of those passages I believe perhaps in your Bible on your lap, God's inerrant, inspired, infallible word, perhaps it's highlighted because it's such a beautiful verse.

But I want to open it up for just a moment and see if you still want to say it at the end, because I believe Romans 8.28 is true.

And if it is true, where it says, and we know that some things are working together for good.

Heads are shaking.

To those who love God, right?

That's what it says?

That's not what it says?

Because if it does say that, throw it in the trash.

Romans 8.28 says, and we know that most things.

Still doesn't say that, does it?

And we know that all things.

Everything.

Everything.

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

Listen, church, you do not need to be in control because God is.

Things are not falling apart.

They are falling into place.

You do not need to know that God is up to something to know that God is up to something.

You do not need to make sense of your life because he is making sense of his life through you.

If all things are working together for your good, that means, listen, that cancerous news is working together for your good.

Your spouse's infidelity is working together for your good.

And somehow, God is going to bring glory to his name through everything that has happened in your life.

Your spouse's infidelity, your wayward child's rebellious actions, that financial thing that has thrown you for a loop, is working together.

Otherwise, let's go back to the way we opened.

And some things are working together for your good.

But if we believe God and we take him at his word, then we see that everything inside your life, even the havoc that you have caused personally, somehow God is able to do what he does and make it blossom.

I tell my kids, trust the process, what you got going on in your life, it's not an issue.

It's just a stepping stone.

And you are allowed to worry today as much as God is worried today.

Is God worried today?

Is there sweat on his brow?

Is he pacing back and forth?

No.

So I'm going to pace back and forth as much as God is pacing back and forth.

And when that bad news comes my way, I don't need to freak out because it's not bad news to God.

Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?

Has it ever taken you by surprise that God has never been taken by surprise?

And this centurion put Jesus in a place that he marveled because he just told the truth.

John Sayles said, if I had the power of God, there are many things I would change.

But if I had the wisdom of God, I wouldn't change a thing.

Just plans.

If you have not gone through the fire, buckle up, you will.

As a Christian, what awaits you are trials and tribulation, persecution, temptations and sufferings.

Oh, but by the way, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

We storm the gates of hell and we proclaim Christ crucified to a dying world.

And when we enter into heaven, we cross that finish line exhausted.

Because we left it all out on the field.

The battlefield.

It is not a playground that we are in, it is a battleground that we're in.

And when we begin to have a lofty view of God and that God is in control, then what can God do to and through and with and by the person who consecrates himself to him?

This world is yet to see.

What it would be like to live your life in such a way it makes the apostles in the book of Acts look lukewarm.

I don't know.

But I know it starts with taking God at His Word.

What can man do to me?

The Lord is with me, he is my helper.

Psalm 46.

God is our refuge, our strength, and ever-present help and trouble.

Psalm 56, 3, when I'm afraid, I will put my trust in you.

What can man do to me?

I fear God, and when I fear God, I fear no man.

You want to bring a lawsuit against me?

I pity you.

You want to have a drive-by shooting on my house?

I pity you because you're not coming up against me.

You're coming up against God's child, and God takes that very personal.

What can you do?

You can't do anything to me.

One with God will always be in the majority.

And it doesn't matter who is with you if God is against you, but if God is for you, it doesn't matter if the whole world is falling apart because we know as Christians things are not falling apart, they are falling into place.

The centurion, he knew it.

I love it.

And if you catch only one thing I say here today, remember this: you're allowed to worry as much as God is worried today.

MacArthur said, you know, I've learned through many trials and temptations, when my back was up against the wall, when I saw no way out, there was no sun shining, or the only thing that could deliver me at that moment was a miracle.

I learned to dance in the fire.

Listen, if you're gonna go through the fire, you might as well dance.

God only does wondrous and miraculous things.

Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways.

Acknowledge him, and he shall direct your steps.

And the same God who spoke the universe into existence did not stutter when he promised to uphold you.

What a promise.

What a promise.

Trust him.

So the centurion's theology was not very deep.

Imagine what he knew theologically.

It wasn't very deep.

Centurion, Gentile, not familiar with the Old Testament, but it was enough to know that Jesus was telling the truth.

Number one, a marvelous faith.

Number two, a marvelous lack of faith.

You know, John Bloom, going back to what he had said, he said, you know, there's another place in the Bible where Jesus marvels as well.

In fact, there's only two places in the New Testament where Jesus marvels.

And remember, where Jesus marvels, we must meditate.

And this other place where he marvels is found in Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

This is the place where Jesus returns to his hometown and he holds a meeting in the local synagogue.

And the locals, well, they are offended by Jesus.

Who does he think that he is, right?

We remember him as a child having olive fights with his friends.

Who is he?

And they rejected his deity because of his humanity, and they tell him so.

Verse 5.

And it says, and he could not do any mighty work.

Verse 6.

And he marveled because of their unbelief.

Marveled because of their unbelief.

In Mark's Gospel, chapter 4, you may be familiar with the story.

Jesus is asleep in the stern, tired in ministry, tired of doing the work, right, as a man.

And then you have these seasoned fishermen who have seen a tumultuous storm a time or two.

Jesus asleep, the fishermen and the people in the boat panicking, and Pete, he wakes up Jesus.

He says, Lord, don't you care that we're perishing?

Interesting way to start off the conversation, Lord, leader, ruler, rabbi, the one in charge.

And you have no idea how in charge he actually is, Peter.

And Peter wakes up, or Jesus wakes up and he looks over at Peter.

After Peter says, Don't you care that we're perishing?

He says, You a little faith.

Right?

And he looks at the sea, and Jesus says, Peace be still.

The Greek is amazing.

It's not still.

The word is muzzled.

It's like a muzzle over a dog, a ravenous dog's face, right?

Be muzzled.

You will have no effect.

Love the picture.

And when the creator of the universe begins to speak, it will bow.

So Peter, he says here in Mark 4, 38, part B, don't you care that we're perishing?

Imagine Peter.

Don't you see what I'm going through?

Jehovah Ra'ah, the one who shepherds, the one who sees, the one who cares.

That's who he's talking to.

And then there's something that happens, right?

At the end of Peter's ministry, he writes in 1 Peter 5, 7, that verse sounds familiar to a lot of us, where it says, cast all your cares on him because he what?

He cares.

He cares.

So Pete goes from a place to don't you care, to three and a half years of walking with Jesus, seeing all that he's doing, all that's happening to, what do you got?

Cast it.

Hangnail?

Cast it.

Financially difficult?

Cast it.

What do you got?

Cast it.

I don't even want to know.

Cast it.

Cast your cares on him.

Why?

Because he cares for you.

John Piper, he says, your job?

Cast it.

The promise?

He cares.

Your job?

Cast it.

Cast it on him.

Why?

Because he cares.

Everything that you'll ever go through, he cares, he knows, he sees, and he understands.

Ken Sandy says, having wisdom does not mean that you understand all of God's ways.

It means that you respond to life God's way.

And the better you know the Bible, the wiser you will become.

And it doesn't matter how tumultuous the storm is when your eyes are on the weatherman.

Thunder?

Oh, isn't it majestic?

You lost your house in the storm.

I didn't lose anything.

It wasn't mine.

And every day when I wake up and I reach over for God's word and I seek the face of God before I seek the face of my wife.

And I go through God's word, and I and I and when I'm done, I pray, and then I go over to my sliding glass door right there in my master bedroom and I salute.

And I say every morning without fail, reporting for duty, my Lord.

And I hold my hands out and I think of my kids, my wife, my time, my talent, my treasure, and I say, none of that is my Mine.

And if you want to remove one of my kids, it's none of my business.

If you want to remove my eyesight, they're not my eyes, Lord.

And when I wake up, I wake up in amazement because I have nothing on my bucket list and I get excited for my day.

And I get excited for trials.

Because I know that they're at work inside of me.

What do I want to do in this life?

I want to preach the gospel, and then what?

Then I want to die.

Then what?

Then I want to be forgotten.

You don't need to know my name, but if you can remember his name, the name that is above every name, the name in which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

And that's your job as well.

Live your life in such a way that people stand in amazement of your God.

That's it.

And he does know your name.

He knows your name.

And he knew what your name was going to be when your parents are juggling between half a dozen names.

And he had all of your days, all of your life, every breath, Thomas Watson said, every time we take a breath, we're sucking in the mercy of God.

But every breath, every motion, every movement was written inside of his book.

Every issue, which is not an issue to him.

And I get it, right?

I get it.

I get it that there's bad news.

I understand.

I understand that we live in a fallen world, and in this fallen world, people make fallen decisions and fallen things happen to us.

I get it.

I'm not discounting that.

I understand that.

I was homeless in eighth grade.

I get it.

I've been through some tough things.

I was abused in the church as a little boy.

I get it.

I understand.

Let's pause and have a 30,000 view of life.

Looking down upon the parade of life from the beginning to the end.

As I've read Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22, 21, I see all of history is his story of his dealing with exalting Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

For worthy is the Lamb to receive the reward of his suffering.

And you can't get to me unless you go through him.

Spurgeon, how did he word it?

He worded it like this.

I gotta find it.

I'll just tell it.

He was crossing the road one day in front of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London.

And as he got to the middle of the road, he stopped, he paused.

Traffic, craziness, disorder.

And he put his head up and he put his head down.

And that frown turned upside down into a smile.

And he continued across the street.

And when he got to the other side, one of his congregants asked him the question Pastor, what was that about?

Why did you stop in the middle of the road?

It makes no sense.

And he said, I realized that something had come between me and my Lord, and I didn't want to take another step until it was resolved.

You know what we're doing right now at church?

You know what Sunday is?

It's a pause.

It's it's it's a it's a lookup.

That's what we're doing.

We're linking arms and we're looking up.

Hey, how's your week going, man?

Hey, what are you doing?

What are you going through?

How can I pray for you?

What's up?

What do we tend to do?

No, I'm gonna look good.

I gotta tuck in my shirt.

I can't tuck in my shirt, I'm too fat.

All right, so what I'm gonna just I'm gonna look, hey, here we go.

This is a hospital.

We're all like kind of going through something.

We all are, I get it.

How do I know you need hope?

You're still alive.

And how do I know God's not done with you?

You're still alive.

So, regardless of what you've done, regardless of who's made your bed, regardless of what financial things you've kind of done to make it to the top, God's not done with you.

Regardless of the adulterous affair, regardless of the drugs, regardless, listen, God's not done with you.

The reason I know he's not done with you is because you're still alive.

And he'll never punish you.

God will never punish you because he punished his son, Jesus, on that cross 2,000 years ago in your place.

Now, he may chastise you, he may correct you, those who he loves, he chastises, but that's different than punishment.

No, he's already grabbed your sin, and as far as the east is from the west, he's removed that stone and he's thrown that sin inside of your life into the depths of the ocean.

Well, he knows all about you.

And if you're living helpless and hopeless today, I want to point something out that Edward Welch said inside of his book, which I highly recommend, Depression of Stubborn Darkness.

Listen to what he said.

He makes two observations if you're feeling hopeless today, and you're gonna agree to these.

Many contributors, but two are certain.

Number one, if you're hopeless, you have placed your hope in something other than God, and it has let you down.

You put your hope in your spouse, right?

That's what you did.

And he let you down.

You put your hope in your job.

That's six-figure income.

You you put your hope in something other than God's let you down.

Or number two, you may understand that Jesus conquered death, but you live as though he is still in the grave.

Wow.

All hopelessness, all of it, is ultimately a denial of the resurrection.

You see, Christianity is the only true story where the hero dies for the villain.

I've always been a villain, I played a very good villain.

I've given God many reasons to give up on me, and none of them were good enough for him to say, I'll take that one, that's right.

And he turned his back on me.

Maybe this is a good word for you.

Maybe you need to know that your redeemer is bigger than your past.

Vance Havner said, sometimes God puts us on our backs so that we look up.

Maybe you're on your back, and you can't look any other place than up.

Maybe you've come to the end of your rope and you've kind of tied a knot and you're trying to hold on.

I say, let go.

And trust.

Trust God to take you to where he needs to take you.

The stone was rolled away from the tomb, not to let Jesus out, but to let the world in.

You consider the scariest sound that Satan has ever heard was that first faint heartbeat of the Son of God when he hit that third day inside the tomb.

And that heartbeat started to beat.

Can you imagine Satan to his dismay?

No! What he thought was victory ended up putting a stake through his heart.

I love it.

And Jesus said, on the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.

And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

And then this question, which is not rhetorical, goes out.

You believe this?

Do you believe this?

Because if you believe this, if you believe this, you live differently.

I don't wish cancer upon anyone, but I wish the effect of cancer upon every child.

I don't wish bankruptcy upon anyone, but I wish bankruptcy upon everyone, so they might experience that God is their provider.

Not your hard work, not your intellect.

Jesus paid a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt we can never pay.

There is no other worldview that can rightly boast of a resurrected savior.

So, where does that leave us?

What kind of faith do you have?

What do you really have?

Right?

Where are you at, right?

Let's take inventory for just a moment.

What are you doing?

How are you?

The trial's too tumultuous.

Psalm 42, 7, all your waves, they billow over me.

Or you feel like I just can't get ahead.

You met those people?

It doesn't matter what happens.

Man, it's raining outside.

Man, it's sunny outside, right?

There's just no winning.

Where are you at?

I've done involuntary fasting.

I've reminded God how the digestive system works when I had no money.

I'd do involuntary fasting of five, six, seven days as a child without eating, not knowing how how God, how you know, you you invented the digestive system, God.

You know how it works.

But it's none of my concern, God.

How many men or women in here have been in the military?

Raise your hand.

Been in the military.

Raise it.

I want to keep it high.

Be proud.

You're in the military.

You serve.

Thank you.

One thing about the military, right?

They're going to tell you what to wear?

Do they tell you what to wear?

They tell you how to cut your hair?

They tell you what to eat?

They don't, do they?

You follow orders.

In the morning when I salute and I say, Reporting for duty, my Lord, I say, Lord, here am I.

I'm tired of saying, Here am I, send him.

Here am I, Lord.

Reporting for duty.

So then, when things happen and you know this soldier, it's none of your concern.

Figure it out.

Work it through.

Link arms.

So when that bad news, that flat tire comes, when that pay decrease takes place, it's none of my business, Lord.

What are you gonna do?

I don't know what you're gonna do, but I know you're gonna do.

I know you only do marvelous things.

That's what Job said.

You only do wondrous works.

That's what the psalmist said.

I believe it.

And that's it, and that's enough for me.

And then when I go to bed, I repeat the process.

I go back over to my sliding glass door and I say, Good night, Lord, I'm tired.

I'm tired.

If I don't see in the morning, it's well with my soul.

If I don't see my daughter get married, it's okay.

It's none of my business.

I'll have the best view in house.

And I trust you'll look over my daughters and my wife in my absence just as much as you do in my presence.

I'm just gonna be a steward today.

And when I'm not found to be a steward, I get right back in the fight.

But where are you?

Do you feel so condemned over things that you've done that you become inoperable during the day?

Because I talk to a lot of guys that are like that.

Man, my wife doesn't know about this.

She'll never know about this.

I'm going to the grave with this thing.

What is that thing inside your life where you feel you can't sleep at night and you can't function during the day, and let alone walking in the work which God has prepared beforehand.

The person who says, I've asked God to forgive me, but I still feel guilty and condemned.

What do I do?

This question was asked R.C.

Sproul, and this was his response.

If you still feel condemned, well then pray to God again.

But this time, don't ask him to forgive you for the sin that is haunting you.

Rather, ask him to forgive you for insulting his integrity by refusing to accept his forgiveness.

You see, when God promises to forgive his people when they repent, he's not playing games.

Ever prayed for amnesia?

I have.

Oh, I'd like to forget a lot of things about my past, a lot of things about my childhood.

Before I became a Christian, I deserved hell.

And after I became a Christian, I deserved hell ten times over.

I get it.

God give me amnesia so I can be focused today.

And God says, I don't want to give you amnesia.

I don't want to erase your memory.

I've erased your record, and that's enough.

And he who's forgiven much loves much.

Your issues are no challenge to God.

What you've been through does not concern God into where he's going to freak out.

We are really running out of time.

Let's go to number three.

A marvelous God.

Because that's what it's about, anyways, isn't it?

A marvelous God.

This Jesus of Nazareth, who without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Muhammad and Napoleon, who never went to college, he never won an election, he never owned a home.

He put more pens in motion than all the orators and poets and authors combined.

This man, in whom demons tremble, the name of Jesus, in which his people acknowledge, proclaimed by angels, adored by his people, this one who is sovereign.

Which means what?

He does whatever he wants to whomever he wants.

He answers to no one.

He doesn't care what you think about it.

God is in heaven, he does what he pleases.

The omniscient one who knows all about you and loves you, anyways.

Every step you take is a step closer to judgment.

He'll never blink because he's taking his eyes off of you, so he doesn't blink.

The omnipresent one who's already there before you arrive.

He knows you're rising up and sitting down, he knows your thoughts from afar, and yet he knows your far-off thoughts.

And you think nobody knows what I'm going through?

This one who is the king of kings and the lord of lords, who's had no predecessor, he'll have no successor, you cannot impeach him, and he'll never resign.

This is the one who all of the totality of Scripture proclaims.

The judge of the living and the dead, with a gavel in one hand and a scepter in the other, always on duty and always has time for you.

And when that gavel comes down, the court is dismissed.

When he's not permitted to rule, he will overrule because that's what it means to be God.

You have nothing he needs.

He possesses an attribute called a sayity.

Self-sufficient, self-reliant.

He was not bored one Tuesday morning where he made man.

If he needed wisdom, you would not know about it, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

So much to say, but we have to go to number four.

A marvelous exchange.

You have broken God's law.

You've offended a holy God every time you sinned, every time you lied and stole and looked with lust.

You have broken God's law, and therefore you stand condemned before a holy God.

But the beautiful picture of the gospel is though you have offended God.

The only way you can escape God's wrath is to run towards God's grace.

We're all in need of God's unmerited favor to the infinitely ill-deserving.

You need God.

That is the answer.

He is the answer to everything you'll ever go through.

It's not about your marvelous faith.

It's not about your marvelous lack of faith.

It's about your marvelous God and this marvelous exchange that He's done.

You see, God does not dismiss his wrath against sinners by the wave of a magic wand.

Either Jesus Christ is your substitute who suffered himself the wrath of the Father, and in so doing, he satisfied the demands of the law, or you've got to do it yourself in hell.

There's literally hell to pay.

And Christ's righteousness can be imputed to anyone who turns to him by faith.

And what is faith?

Believing that God is telling you the truth.

This marvelous exchange is that your sin is imputed to him and his righteousness is imputed to you.

And it's not because God sees something lovely in you, but because God is love, 1 John 4, he loves to save.

He loves to fellowship.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Come and see.

Come and taste.

Come and behold.

Jesus tasted the wrath of the Father so that you can taste and see that he is good.

Marvelous faith, yes.

Marvelous lack of faith.

Uh-huh.

Where are you at any given moment?

I don't know.

But what I do know is that if I draw near to him right now, he's going to draw near to me.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's pray, and then I want to show you a video.

Father, in Jesus' name, I commit these dear saints into your hands.

May we get a clear glimpse of you.

For when our eyes see you and the sirens are singing their songs, nothing else matters.

Great and worthy is the Lamb.

God accomplish your will in Jesus' name.

Amen.