Luke 7:1-10 - The Centurion's Faith

There's nothing else we get to take with us when this life is over, except those we bring along. That's the inheritance. Some of us haven't invested in the lives of people because we're too busy, we're too successful, we're too preoccupied with our junk to care about what's going on in your life, but that's not the heart of the Master. The Master doesn't treat people like a piece of farm equipment. Everyone is useful in the eyes of God.

As we close this morning, I just want to share the message with you. No one is worthy of God's love. No one is worthy of God's forgiveness. Jesus paid the price. The standard is holiness. It's not living a good life; it's holiness. You and I don't hit the mark on that one, but Jesus did. It was His blood that was shed to pay for your sin and my sin so that we might have new life.

We're not worthy, but we have been invited to the table. You don't have to choose it. A lot of people reject it. A lot of people are pretending, "I go to church, I'd call myself a Christian." It doesn't matter what you would call yourself. What would Jesus call you? "I know you" or "Depart from me, I don't know you"? Only two options.

So today, I want to invite you, don't be like the man we were praying for this week, waiting till your deathbed, racing the clock of life, hoping you make it. Nail it down today. "I know I'm sinful. I know I need a Savior. I know I don't deserve it. I know I didn't earn it, but Jesus, you did the hard work, and I don't want to miss out on what you've offered me." I repent of my sins, and I ask you to be the Lord of my life.

If you've been His follower for a long time, question for you is, have you lost your compassion for people? Does the lostness and brokenness around you break your heart? Does it move you to tears? Does it move you to prayer? Will you commit to start praying for the people in your world, in your life, in your neighborhood, that don't know Jesus?

I want to leave you with one last little story on the power of prayer. We moved into our house three years ago. I haven't known any of my neighbors moving in. The guy on my right, his UPS packages always come to my house, and mine always go to his house, so I started to meet his family. The guy on the left, I always see on his lawnmower. We were selling my daughter's car. He waves me over and offers to sell me his pickup, and I bought it. We met each other.

The new neighbor across the street, he's a car guy. When we were selling my daughter's car, he came over, introduced himself. People on the corner, their cat gets out of their house and stows away in the back of my house, and they have to always come get Walter. None of them go to church. So I started praying, "God, give me inroads into their lives." He's done that.

Now, here's where it gets really cool. There's a group of six men that have been studying the Bible with me on Sunday nights at the house. One of them used to work with the neighbor over to the left, that's always mowing his lawn, that I bought the pickup from. He's a person of peace. The neighbor on the other side, the other day, one of the other men showed up with his kids for our kids, and in tow was my other neighbor's daughter.