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Good morning. Welcome to the English Ministries worship. In Jesus' name, we start today's worship. Surely the weather forecast lately has not been great. But we still come to the church to worship. But why? Because in our hearts we have a hole to fill. We desire the word of God. We need inner mental health. This inner mental construction leads to outer action. A correct thinking produces a correct action. The Word of God is a beacon to shine in the path of our life. We all want to be a child pleasing in the eyes of God. Lately, our sermon series is Sermon on the Mount. In them, there are many logics that seem to be contrasting according to human thinking, but they are the absolute truth of God. So let us try to understand it, ponder on it, and benefit from it. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before You to listen to Your words. Your word is good and the absolute truth, although sometimes it's hard to understand. We pray that You help us to understand and digest it so that the truth may become the power and direction of our daily life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

All right, let's, uh, stand and enter a time of worship.

This is my prayer in the desert when all that within me feels dry. Answer my prayer in my hunger and need. My God is the God who provides. This is my prayer in the fire, in weakness or trial or pain. There is a faith proved of more worth than gold, so refine me, Lord, through the flame. I will bring praise, I will bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain. I will rejoice, I will declare. God is my victory and he is here. This is— this is my prayer in the battle when triumph is still on its way. I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ. So firm on his promise I'll stand. And I will, and I will bring praise. I will bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain. I will rejoice. I will declare God is my victory and he is here. All of my life, in every season, you are still God. I have a reason to sing. I have a reason to worship. All of my life. All of my life, in every season, you are still God. I have a reason to sing. I have a reason to worship. And I will bring praise. I will bring praise. I will bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain. I will rejoice. I will declare God is my victory and he is here. This is my prayer in the harvest when favor and providence flow. I know I'm filled to be emptied again. The seed I receive, I will sow.

This alabaster jar.

This alabaster jar is all I have of worth.

I break it at your feet, Lord.

It's less than you deserve. You're far more beautiful, more precious than the oil, the sum of my desires and the fullness of my joy. Like you spilled your blood, I spill my heart as an offering to my King.

Here I am. Take me as an offering. Here I am, giving every heartbeat for your glory. Take me.

This time, this time that I have left is all I have of worth.

I lay it at your feet, Lord.

It's less than you deserve.

And though I've little strength, though my days are few, You gave your life for me, so I will live my life for you.

Like you spilled your blood, I spill my heart as an offering to my King.

Here I am, take me as an offering. Here I am, giving every heartbeat for your glory. Take me.

Oh, sing worthy.

Worthy, worthy, you are worthy. Worthy is the Lord. Worthy, worthy, you are worthy. Worthy is the Lord.

Sing it, worthy.

Worthy, worthy, you are worthy, worthy is the Lord. Worthy, worthy, you are worthy, worthy is the Lord. Here I am, take me as an offering. Here I am, giving every heartbeat for your glory. Here I am, take me as an offering. Here I am, giving every heart Be for your glory, take me.

God of creation.

God of creation. There at the start before the beginning of time. With no point of reference. You spoke to the dark and fleshed out the wonder of light. And as you speak, and as you speak, 100 billion galaxies are born. In the vapor of your breath, the planets form. If the stars were made to worship, so will I. I can see your heart in everything you made.

Amen.

Every burning star, a signal fire of grace. Your creation sings your praises, so will I. God of your promise, you don't speak in vain, no syllable empty or void. For once you have spoken, all nature and science will follow the sound of your voice. Oh, and as you speak, 100 billion creatures catch your breath. Evolving in pursuit of what you said. If it all reveals your nature, so will I. Can see your heart in everything you say. If repentance the sky a canvas of your grace. Creation still obeys you, so will I. So will I. So will I. <LYRICS>If the stars were made to worship, so will I. The mountains bow in reverence, so will I. If the oceans roar your greatness, so will I.</LYRICS> For if everything exists to lift you high, so will I. If the wind goes where you send it, so will I. If the rocks cry out in silence, so will I. If the sum of all our praises still fall shy, We'll sing again a hundred billion times.

Oh, oh, oh, God of salvation.

You chased down my heart through all of my failure and pride. Yes, you did. On a hill you created, the light of the world abandoned in darkness to die. But as you speak, 100 billion failures disappear. You lost your life so I could find it here. If you left the grave behind you, so will I. Can see your heart and everything you've done. Every work design in a work of art called love. If you gladly chose surrender, so will I. See your heart a billion different ways. Every precious one, a child you died to save. If you gave your life to love, then so will I. Like you would again a hundred billion times. No measure could amount to your desire. You're the one who never leaves the one behind.

Let's pray. Dear Lord, you sent Jesus not just to die for the sins of the righteous, but to die for those who are very, very unworthy, for those who have lived their entire lives as outside of your love or your law, the people of Israel. You came so that everyone would be invited to be able to be forgiven of all the different mistakes and all the things that have led us up until this point, so that your love could embrace us. And as we learn more about how Jesus showed the example of God's love to those who were on the outside, that didn't deserve it, that had lived their lives running away from you. It shows an example about how it is that we're able to come at any time, to come back to you and to receive your love. So I pray that as Paul speaks, that you would be bold in him. And that there will be ears to hear and our hearts will be soft. In your name I pray, amen.

Good morning, everyone. Uh, this morning I'd like to share a little bit about, well, the relationship of my family with the church and me serving as the elder for this church. It was in a Sunday morning like this in January 1991, I was ordained with another brother, to be the church elders. Okay, that's the first time the church stepped into that kind of era. Okay, and that was in a room about half of the size of this room. Imagine that is the sanctuary for the church at that time. Church was— WCEC was about 10 years young, okay, and it was something which I really don't know what I was step into it, okay, and in that role until 2024, December last year that I become the Elder Emeritus. I didn't know, as I said, don't know what I was stepping into, Okay, took the position. Yet I learned and grow with it, okay, on sunny days and also on rainy days because, you know, once you go through that, I think we all in our life has something like that. Then you start to— that becomes your experience, okay, and as a Christian, you're gonna start to feel, especially on not so sunny situations, God's grace is sufficient, okay? And my Christian life is all started here. And it is here that I grow as a Christians. And WCC is also my only church. That I have been with, you know, of, you know, my whole life. Okay, so here are some, you know, thoughts that I'd like to share with you. First of all, looking back all those— somebody said, you know, 33. It's actually 34. I remember in my elementary school when you're counting years, you have to remember going through from 1 BC to 1 AD, there's only 1 year, 2 years, okay, only 2 years, not 3 years. There's no zero in between. All those 34 years, the first thing I like to really be thankful is because with my wife as my partner passing through those narrow road of sanctification, okay, and she has being my partner in many ministry situations, influenced me and strengthened me, critic— criticizing certain situations. And also she proofreading many of my sermons too, okay, whether it's English or the Mandarin, okay. And through our— the grace of our God, okay, we have two children, okay. My daughter and my son, they all grow up from this church in the youth group. And thankfully, you know, I have to give credit to the youth group beyond just Sei-God that they are raising their own children biblically and that they are diligently serving in their respective churches. So that is nothing more satisfying for me to really praise God for the kind of the situation with my family, okay. And the church has become my family in a way, and that is here that I also grow with many of— I met many of my friends Okay, I think some of you probably already recognize, and even you are in your youth group now, when you grow from that point on, surprisingly many of your best friends may be just those who probably with you only for very short years, but they will last lifetime. I saw that with my son's friends because many of them either in the youth group or when Hua Ji got his fellowship in the University of Delaware in the varsity, okay, he's still with my son. They are still very good friend, okay. So those are, those friendships are genuine and the long-lasting. Even when they are apart. Okay, so this is— so we become lifelong friends. Time and location did not really matter of our friendship. Even today, I have some in Hong Kong, some in Taiwan, and that really special. Okay, and when they come back, and even we haven't seen each other for 5 years, doesn't matter. Just like we, you know, say goodbye, seeing each other for just like last night. Okay, so the other things I would like to really praise God for is I have the privilege to serve the Lord in the church with some of my dearest serving companions. Okay, and many of them are still here today, and some have left it, even though, as I said, we are still very close, okay. And one of them you know very well, that is Michael Battilora, and also his dear wife Wendy, okay. And certainly, you know a few others like Elder Ben Xu, Xu Da Ben, and also Dong Zhen Shen, Those we served more than 10 or 20 years together, okay, in this church, okay. Once you have those kind of situations, you got to a point that you pretty know what that person will think in a situation, in a church situation, maybe crisis. And therefore, you know, when you get together, that just bound you tighter and also facing the situation even, you know, more confidently, you know, forward, even on a situation which is difficult. And sometimes you may call that a crisis, okay. I have visited many other churches through speaking engagement, okay. Many of them, okay, have up and downs. And when I say the down, sometimes a very, you may call that even crisis situations, okay. Thinking back, looking back on our church, we have that, but we really through all these faithful servants, WCC has been relatively sort of, I don't want to say stable, safe, really not getting into certain crisis situations. And that is, you know, we have to say that we praise the Lord for the situation. Okay. And I credit to many of those to the faithful servants. And I'm also blessed to have them as my friends and also the partners here in the church. And so much to talk about. Yet today, you know, I only say just a few things. Lastly, it is here that I shaped my biblical worldview. And as I said, I grow here, and this is the place where I shaped my holistically what I should look around to be the standard that I have to be judged on whatever I learned, I heard, around me, especially these days. Sometimes, especially, you know, they have certain streaming kind of the strategy, okay. They keep giving you what you like. Sometimes that is dangerous, okay. So with this kind of the worldview, to me it is very important and they help me to be not to be disturbed or influenced by the noise around. So being the elder emeritus today, and really not, not really that much change, although there's some change. The changes are that I do not have to be involved more or less with the church administrative responsibility. Disability, the non-Chang parties continue to be doing the teaching, preaching, and also involved in the fellowship, such like, you know, ministries with some in the English ministry and some in the Mandarin ministry. And that is something which is this kind of the continuing continuing to be involved. One time we heard a message for Christians, you do not really retired, right? You just change your role or your responsibility from one level to a different levels, and that is something which I will be continue to share with you. Some other time I will tell you why I retired from Dupont. That is different. But when I stepped down from the active elder to the elder emeritus, I hardly feel any difference. Okay, thank you very much.

So before the scripture reading, let's stand up and greet each other.

Today's scriptures reading, let's read together loudly.

Okay.

It's from Matthew chapter 8, verse 5 to 13. Let's start.

When Jesus has entered the cut-off land, a certain man came to him from a long distance.

My servant lies at home suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, shall I come and heal him? The centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come to me. But just saying the word And my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, and the soldiers obey me. I tell this man, 'Go,' and he goes, and the one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it. Jesus was amazed and said to those around him, Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in this with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the West and the East as Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.

But the subject of this sermon is about the Sabbath.

May God bless his own words.

Well, thank you, Xiang, for your words and for your service to this church. I know those seeds have been planted and watered many times and will bear fruit for many years in the future. And we hope your years as Emeritus Elder will last a long, long time. So bless you. And thank you, Kevin, for your prayer. I feel more bold than ever. Sometimes you'll see, you know, a preacher will be very loud and wave his arms and walk back and forth. And I see those I watch Paul Condrell's tapes sometimes and I wonder, you know, maybe I should do that too, you know, all that showy stuff. But, you know, you have to be authentic and you have to be yourself. If I try to pretend I'm like some other kind of preacher, that's not going to work very well, will it? But maybe I could be a little more bold. So thank you, Kevin. I could raise my voice when it needs to be and keep everyone awake, right? I learned that once when I saw somebody sleeping 4th row, and all I had to do was, "Aha!" or some moment in the Scripture, and boom, they woke right up. So maybe if I keep it loud enough, no one will have to go to sleep in the first place. So we just read the story of the centurion who Jesus was able to heal without even being— healed his servant, I should say, without even being present, with the word only. And in this very simple story, we have two characters, basically, the centurion and Jesus. And we have one action that the centurion takes and then one reaction by Jesus. And therefore, we're going to find there's two applications. We're going to look at how Jesus is amazed and why is he amazed and what is— how can we be amazed? And we're also going to look at the Roman, the centurion's aha, what was in the action. What did he do or what did he think that caused Jesus to be amazed? Now both the aha moment and the being amazed, they both brought forth fruit. They were both fruitful. So in our application, we're going to see if we could be more— get more aha moments and we could have more amazement and then, of course, more fruit. So let's get into it. Now, we're reading— the one we read was from Matthew. And that Matthew is a slightly shorter version of the same story that you'll find in Luke. When Matthew's telling the story, he's contrasting this miracle with another miracle he did for a Jew. He did a miracle for a Jew, and then he did one for a Gentile. So he really abbreviates a lot of the details. So to get the full force of this story, we're going to have to go a little bit into the Luke story as well, and we can lay them side by side, and we'll find details in the Luke version that will supplement the Matthew version. Now, it's interesting when you look at these side by side, that sometimes looks a little bit contradictory, but I think you'll find there's, there's a little bit of fudging. We'll take a look at it, but really it's because of the abbreviation that Matthew is doing, and we shouldn't be alarmed By it. Now what I've done is you can see here the Matthew version is up here. It fits onto 3 lines here. But the Luke version— so I've divided this story into, it's basically like 5 little scenes. And this first one you can see how many verses of Luke versus how many verses of Matthew. And I've underlined, we're only going to reread the parts where I've underlined so we can see the details that were added. Now we learn that the centurion had a sick servant, but in this Luke version, we find out that he was so sick he was about to die. And we find out this particular servant was highly valued. So he might have— whatever that means, for whatever reason, the centurion paid a lot of attention to this particular servant. Now in the Matthew story, as we see, the centurion is speaking directly to Jesus. Jesus, but in the Luke version we find that actually he was speaking through intermediaries. At least in the Luke version, he sends others on his behalf to go to Jesus to ask on his behalf. And when they came to Jesus, this is what those intermediaries said. They not only told Jesus about the sick servant, they added some details. They pleaded with Jesus saying, "He," meaning the centurion, is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation. So remember, centurions are Romans. The Romans were occupying the land in Israel. And so this is a foreigner, and the Jewish elders are saying, this guy loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue. And that's pretty unusual, isn't it? So this is not just a— they called them God-fearers, not just a a Roman who's reached into his pocket and helped us build a synagogue in Capernaum. Now, there, if you go as a tourist to Israel today, you can go to Capernaum. It's right on the corner, upper northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee, and you can go into a 1st century synagogue. You can't be sure 100% this is the very one, but they've excavated a synagogue synagogue, and it's about as big as this first section of the room. So it's quite a sizable place with big stone floors and everything. So he spent a fair amount of money. So the Jews, the elders that are representing the centurion, are calling him a worthy man. Now if you remember, there was an incident or two where Jesus actually declines to help Gentiles, saying, "I'm here for the Israelites." So you might wonder right away, how come Jesus would even consider going to help this non-Jew? Well, it's because we can assume, I believe, that the servant was Jewish. So even though the centurion is Roman, the servant that's sick is Jewish. So in the next little scene, it says, "Jesus said to him," in Matthew, "I will come and heal him." But in Luke, it just says Jesus went. Jesus went with him. So it's a slightly different detail, but it— again, it's through the intermediaries. Jesus said to the centurion through the middleman, not directly, because he never actually saw him face to face if we take both of these records at face value. So you could say the Luke version, Jesus went— Jesus went with them. The elders is the correct one factually and that Jesus didn't actually speak face to face with the centurion. Alright, now the next section you can see again there's a— the two underlined parts will show two more details that are in the Luke version that are not in the Matthew version and this is where we're going to find our aha moment. So in— remember in the Luke version the Jesus has told the elders, "Okay, yes, I will go." And now Jesus and the Jewish elders are on their way to the centurion's house. But because they didn't have communications then, right, electronically, the centurion didn't know they were on the way. So the centurion is still in his home waiting to see what's going to happen, watching his servant in pain, watching his servant about to die. And he's thinking, he's thinking how— he's not even sure that Jesus has said yes yet. So it says, "While Jesus was approaching," not quite there yet, "He was not far from the house when the officer sent friends," the officer being the centurion now, "sent friends to tell Him, 'Sir, don't trouble Yourself. I do not deserve to have You come into my house, neither do I consider myself worthy to come to You in person. Just give the order.'" So see if you can follow this with me. The centurion has asked elders to please help him get Jesus to come. And he's been waiting. It may be hours. It may be a day. We don't know how long he's waited. And now Jesus has heard the message, "Jesus is on the way," but he's still— He's still not sure if there's been any progress. So he's thinking, "What can I do? What can I do?" And then he thinks, Aha! Jesus doesn't even have to come. All he has to do is say the word. Does that make sense? So the centurion first is saying, "Can you get Jesus to come?" That's going to take a lot of time from Jesus to go out of his schedule. Maybe he won't do it. But now he's changing the request. He's downsizing the request from "Please come" to "Please just Say the word. Surely that's going to be a lot easier for Jesus to do and therefore more likely that he would do it. Are you with me? So that's the aha. He gets this brainstorm idea. And so he sends friends. He says, now sends a second delegation. The first delegation were the Jewish elders to find Jesus. The second delegation, or the friends, are to tell Jesus, stop, you don't have to come after all. 'Say the word.' So that is the aha. Now, what is the aha insight? Is that Jesus can help him heal the servant with a command only, making it easier for Jesus to do it, and therefore more likely that he will do it. And so the practical benefit, the fruit, that is the healing, will be more likely to happen. So it's just more efficiency. This is the actual insight that he has. But what is the action that he takes then? So the centurion gets this idea and then he acts on it by sending another messenger revising the request, saying, "Don't come in person. Just say the word." It's like he's updating his proposal. He's lowering the price. He is negotiating. Now why is he doing this? And this is really important, I think partly why Jesus is so amazed, is that the motivation for this centurion is out of a pure heart. He's mourning for his servant's suffering. And he has respect for Jesus' authority and time. Now, do you remember how the elders had said, "This is a very worthy man. Of all the Romans in our area, this guy is the most worthy." And yet the man calls himself, the centurion himself says, "I'm not worthy for you to come." And so he's not proud even though he could have said, he could have said to the messenger, "I built your synagogue," but he didn't. He's saying, "I'm unworthy for you to come." And so then we can imagine how did he get this idea? What's the source of the aha? So he's obviously imagining And because he's so motivated and he's perhaps in prayer, he's trying to rack his brain to think of some way to promote, to fix this situation or to bring that fruit, he gets this idea. It's out of the box because all of the Jews wanted to see signs. They wanted Jesus to do miracles. They wanted to do everything in person. But he's thinking out of the box. And how did he know that? Well, partly it's because his— he even says it's because he's a man of authority. He has that experience of being a manager. He has the experience of issuing a command and people have to obey it. So he thinks, "Hey, if Jesus is in authority, then maybe Jesus should be able to do that too." He has personal experience making things happen. There used to be a TV show called Star Trek. Does anybody remember that one? They made movies of it later. And what did the captain say when he wanted something to happen? He would say, "Make it so." Did someone say, "Make it so?" Make it so. So they'd have this little, "We want to go to whatever planet or something." Make it so. And so that's all that Jesus has to do and the Roman has that experience and so that makes it easier for him to have that idea. But we also know, and it talks all through the letters of Paul, that we walk by the Spirit. When we walk by the Spirit, it enables us— it's like a spiritual source of good ideas. Now don't get carried away because not all of our ideas have a spiritual source. And in 1 John it says we should sometimes test, we have to test ideas. So we can't get carried away with it, but we can see that some ideas or aha moments are definitely spiritually inspired. And this I I presume must be one of them. So the Holy Spirit will lead us and that's part of our walk. And I appreciated what Xiang had to say about sometimes it's in that elders or when you have a group of people discussing something that the voice or the leading will come out because your iron is sharpening iron.

All right.

So that is the aha. Now let's go on to the Amazement. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. In Luke, Jesus was amazed when he heard this. That's about the same. So there's no doubt that he was amazed. Now there's only one other place in the whole, all the Gospels that talks about Jesus marveling in this way. And so this is a very unusual thing to happen. And other translations in English, it talks that amazement, it says he was surprised, he marveled, he was impressed, he was astonished, he was stunned, he was, taken aback, he wondered, he admired. So all these different ways, because we don't have to get into the Greek words and Hebrew words and everything, but we can see from all the English translations that something unusual is happening and Jesus is caught off guard. He's surprised. Something is different. And in fact, you could say Jesus learned something from this moment. And people think, Jesus learned something? Didn't he know everything? Well, he didn't know everything all at once. Because as being fully human and fully divine, he learned over time. He didn't, you know, out of the womb come with all of the information downloaded into his brain, but he learned as he went. And so it appears that he's learning something in this moment. So what we're going to see that he was amazed— I'm going to point out 3 things and how he's amazed on 3 levels: a practical level, a spiritual level, and a prophetic level. So let's look at why was he amazed on a practical level. Now this obviously is conjecture because it says he was amazed but doesn't exactly say in the scriptures why he was amazed, but we can imagine because we know how Jesus thinks why he might have been amazed. So the first thing on the practical level, I believe Jesus when he was in this situation, just say the word only, You don't have to come here, may have, perhaps must have, thought back to the incident of Moses and Jethro, his father-in-law. And if you remember, and from this painting may help you remember, when Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and they got into the wilderness, then day after day he had to listen to their, not just complaints, but the disputes they had among each other. And the people would wait in a long line because they were arguing with each other, bring it to Moses. He would listen to their complaining about each other and make a judgment, and then next, and then all day long. And so one day when Jethro, the father-in-law, who wasn't even an Israelite, he was a Midianite, but it says he was a priest and he was a wise old guy, he came and watched Moses one day watched him with the line out the door all day long and said, "Hey, Moses," you know, a father-in-law can say things like this, I guess, that others wouldn't dare say, "What you're doing is not good. You're going to wear yourself out. This thing is too heavy for you to do it alone." So I'm condensing all of the advice. You can read the chapter yourself, Exodus 18. 'Appoint others. They will bear the burden with you, and the people will go home in peace.' In other words, even the people will get their disputes resolved more quickly. He's going to appoint others to solve the easy cases and then only bring the hard cases to Moses. So if I'm correct, and then Jesus is seeing this Roman is saying, 'Hey, just say the word only. You don't have to come in person.' Jesus is thinking, 'Why didn't I think of that?' Yeah, I could save a lot of time, just say the word. And then he could get a lot more healing done that way, couldn't he? So I think one of the reasons that he was amazed is how practical this advice was from the centurion. But then there's also on a spiritual level. And this, now if you remember, we've just gotten through like 3 or 4 chapters of Sermon on the Mount. And this story happens just perhaps the next day or the next day or two as they've come down from the Sermon on the Mount. This is like the second thing that happens. And so what we see, and why does Matthew include this and Luke include it? Because this story of the centurion is like a picture of the lifestyle of someone who has absorbed the Sermon on the Mount. It's like show and tell. So the Sermon on the Mount is the telling. And now the story of the centurion is the showing, at least in part of the showing. And the irony is the showing was done by a Roman, not even by a Jew. And so what if we remembered, blessed are those who know they are spiritually poor, the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Now we even had a small group, a Salt and Light small group, we spent the whole hour talking about what does it mean to be spiritually poor. Well, look at the case of the centurion who had done all of these good things and was praised by the elders, and yet he, when he came to Jesus, he said, "I'm unworthy for you to even come into my house." That man is spiritually poor. He knows he's poor and that he's still in need and he still sees his servant needs help. Blessed are those who mourn, for God will comfort them. We spent another whole hour talking about what does it mean to To mourn? Mourning is good? Well, it is if you have a servant that's near death, right? And so this centurion is someone who has a heart. He says, "Oh, I'll just get another servant." He could have afforded to replace him. But no, he has that heart of mourning, of caring for someone. "Blessed are those who are humble, for they will receive what God has promised." And again here, we see a perfect picture of that, don't we? And then the Sermon on the Mount goes on to talk about loving your enemies. Here's a Roman loving this Israelite servant. Do your good works in secret. He's someone who's not telling Jesus about the good things he's done. He's storing up his riches in heaven. Ask and you will receive. That's what the centurion has done, first by sending the elders and later by sending his friends to update his request. Good fruit is proof of a healthy tree, and that's what we see in the centurion. Although the story is very short, very compact, and yet if we take the time to meditate on it, we can find all these things. So it's a practical aha and also a very spiritual one that amazes Jesus. Now let's go to the next slice of the story where Jesus heard this about the centurion, and he marveled. And then he said to those who followed him— so this little clip here is not for the Roman to hear. It's for his buddies. He's walking with them. He says, "Truly I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith." And then he makes this prophetic statement: "Many will come from east and west and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." Now, East and West is another way of saying Gentiles, Romans, non-Jews. So many will come from all over. Sìfāngbā, sìxiāngbāfāng. How do you say that in Chinese? Sìmiǎnbāfāng, yeah, from four directions and from eight. They're going to come from all over East and West, meaning everywhere but where we are now. And they're going to recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They're going to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven. What had he been talking about for the whole Sermon on the Mount? Sermon on the Mount is saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And so in here Jesus is prophesying that the Kingdom of Heaven will also be for people with this kind of faith, even if they're from East and West. And yet some that are already in the Kingdom will not inherit because they don't have this kind of faith. Now I want to break this down a little bit. It's kind of like the— this is what I imagine the audience was thinking. If they're Israelite and they have Israeli or Judean DNA and they hear the message of the Kingdom of God, they're thinking, "Okay, we're Israel. Messiah's come. The Messiah's going to convert or help our Israel to become the Kingdom of God. And so all of us Israelites are going to become members of the Kingdom of God." just like the disciples wanted to be number 2 and number 3 in the kingdom, and life is going to go on pretty much as it has before. And all those East and West Gentiles are on the outs, were on the outs, and they'll be on the outs in the future. This is the understanding of most of the audience. But what Jesus has said in many places in the Gospels you've heard before, he's saying, "Narrow is the path." And he's saying, "Woe to you Pharisees." And he's saying over and over that, "Look, you guys, if you don't have faith or if you reject me, you're just signing your own death warrant." He's speaking this to the Israelites. So here is the narrow— you see the narrow path, and then wide is the way to destruction. And he's saying, "Don't think just because you have Abraham as your father, don't think just because we're in Israel, we have the temple, that we're all in the kingdom." That's not it. So He's showing them this bifurcation within Israel. But today in this record, we see also that the East and West, the Gentiles, who we might have assumed are all in the outer darkness to begin with, actually, no, there's a strain or a remnant or a group of them who are responding to the Word, who do have this kind of faith, and they're going to be in the Kingdom just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So if we put this all together, and you can see why I didn't show you this first, it's a bit messy, but you can see it's like a big switcheroo. So it used to be a DNA-based breakdown between God's people and not God's people, and now it's a what-based? Exactly, faith-based between the oranges and the blues. We want to be blues in this one. Maybe next time I'll make orange to be the nice color. And so what happens in between to cause this? The Messiah. The Messiah is what flips everything on its head, turns the world upside down. And this is the transition from the Old Testament or Old Covenant era into the New Covenant era. And it's like last a couple weeks ago when I, when I was speaking about what is the kingdom of God. And it's the new Israel. It's a rebuilt— it's the second Exodus. It's a new kind of citizen in a new promised land ruled by a new king with a new enemy and a new destiny. So that is the picture of what's going on in this little prophecy that Jesus does. And we see Paul kind of reiterates this point when he says that even the Gentiles who do not have God's written law, they show they know his law when they instinctively obey it even without having heard it. And the centurion is a good example of this. They demonstrate that God's law is written in their hearts for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them when they feel guilty about something or tell them they're doing right when they feel good about something. And this is the message I proclaim, that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone's secret life. He will judge our secret life. Do we have that kind of faith that's described in the Sermon on the Mount, but also in the example that we have of the Roman centurion. And so that's, that's a little scary, but it shouldn't be because I liked what Kevin was talking about, God forgiving our mistakes. Now some of our mistakes are intentional, but a lot of the time they're not necessarily intentional. And so, I mean, God has a really good attitude toward us because even though if our secret life, that is our thought life, many of our thoughts may not be faith-based, but he knows that we're not alone in that way. And he has made a way to forgive us, forgive us of that. And we have this whole example in the Bible of how the Old Covenant people were not faithful to their— and the covenant is like a marriage contract. Covenant is kind of a word we don't really use in normal good society, right, in normal secular society. So the Old Covenant is like a marriage contract between Israel and God. And the New Covenant is a new marriage contract between God and the people of faith. Now, how is a marriage sealed? By the spilling of blood. It's kind of crude to think about it, but the marriage in a typical wedding in the old days, you— the day after the wedding, the parents of the bride would go get the sheets that they had used the night before, and that was the evidence that there was innocent blood that was sealing the covenant that they made that night. And so now, unfortunately, because we have broken, or because in our secret life we are not innocent. So we have— we— what, what can we bring to seal our covenant with God? And that is that Jesus has the innocent blood that he shares with us so that we now have blood that can go onto the sheets. Does that make sense? So we get a new chance, not with our blood, but with someone else's blood that is innocent again and allows us to have that covenant with God and to have our intimacy with him restored. So don't feel too guilty that God will judge everyone's secret life because— well, we should feel guilty unless we remember we have innocent blood available to us if we are willing to accept it. So the last slice of the story— okay, I'm sorry, I wanted to to go back to the prophecy of Jeremiah where he says this very thing. He says, "The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the Lord because all will know me from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs." I, the Lord, have spoken. So let us pray. Father, we are asking you this morning to give us aha moments. Teach us, and like the centurion, let our heart be motivated toward others and open to the prompting of your Spirit. Give us good ideas and let us act on them. Let us not be naysayers, but let us marvel at how you work through others. Let us recognize the ways so many of your people are inspired. Let us come alongside them with our support, as Jesus did for the centurion. Lord, we cannot see you, but we do believe. As you said to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." So give us this pure heart as the centurion and give us courage to act and to help us to recognize your hand in everything good in this world that is overcoming evil. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Alright, let's stand and then we'll have a reflection song which is Alabaster Jar.

This alabaster jar is all I have of worth.

Break it at your feet, Lord.

It's less than you deserve. If I'm more beautiful, more precious than the oil, the sum of my desires and the fullness of my joy. Like you spilled your blood, I spill my heart as an offering to my King.

Here I am, take me as an offering. Here I am, giving every heartbeat for your glory. Take me.

This time that I have left is all I have of worth.

I lay it at your feet, Lord.

It's less than you deserve.

And though I have little strength, and though my days are few, You gave your life for me, so I will live my life for you. Like you spilled your blood, I spill my heart as an offering to my King. Here I am, take me. As in opera. Here I am giving every heartbeat for your glory. Take me.

Singing worthy.

Worthy, worthy, you are worthy. Worthy is the Lord. Worthy, worthy, you are worthy. Worthy is the Lord.

Sing it.

Worthy, worthy, you are worthy, worthy is the Lord. Here I am, take me as an offering. Here I am, God. Every heartbeat for your glory. Take me.

You may be seated.

Just a few announcements, but before that, is anybody here visiting for the first time? If so, we would we'd like to give you a gift. So if you'd raise your hands, we'll get that to you. If not, let's go on to the announcements. The main thing I wanted to mention— most of the things there you've seen them already— but there is a Pastor and Entrepreneurs Conference watch party. So if you're interested in that, please contact Paul Condrell. It'll be February 20th, 11:00 to 1:00 PM. That's it for announcements. If you would— so go to em.wcc.church if you'd like to see details, but I don't want to just be repeating the same thing every week. So if you would, let's please stand for the doxology.

blessings flow.

Praise him, all creatures here below.

Praise him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

For the benediction, I take words from Moses to Israel right after he talks about God's nature being one. He goes on and talks about, you know, taking this teaching and here's what you do with it. He says, and these words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and talk of them when you sit down in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down And when you rise up, bind them to your— bind them on your hand, and they shall be frontals on your forehead. So keeping God's word in your minds as you go is the request in the benediction. Go in Jesus' name. Amen.