Luke 7:1-17 with Aaron Searles

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

All right, so I wanted to share that testimony video with you. I thought it was a good capture of you know someone coming to faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Um kind of shows the story of a resurrected life, of what happens, you know, being on one path, and then all of a sudden someone encounters Jesus and their whole life is completely different. Everything changed. He knew that he couldn't live that way anymore, but Jesus transformed everything in his life, changed his life. And and he really was desperate. And really, hopefully we all know this, but we're all desperate. We're 100% desperate before God. Everything that we need is God, and everything else that this world provides is nothing. It doesn't add up, it doesn't help us. We need Jesus. And this man in this moment recognized the truth of the gospel. And the story that we're going to read today is we're going to see people recognizing the truth of the gospel in this moment. So this morning we'll be talking about uh two uh stories, two encounters of Jesus. And we'll be uh unpacking that this morning. And so we're gonna be in Luke chapter 7, verse 1. And I'm gonna go through these 17 verses, some of them in bigger chunks, but we're gonna go verse by verse through Luke 7, 1 through 17. So it says this after he had finished all his sayings, in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. So Jesus goes to his base camp, but this is after this sermon that we've been spending a couple of weeks on. Now, again, there's debate on was this the Sermon on the Mount? Was this a different sermon, the sermon on the level place? Won't get into that. But this is, you know, Jesus talked about the blessings and the woes and this radical idea to love your enemies. And so he was teaching that, to love your enemies. And so it's important to recap some of this because we're about to see Jesus do this. Love your enemies. Jesus also instructed his followers, his disciples, the crowds that were following him, do not judge, do not condemn, but to forgive. That we live a life of forgiveness, that we live a life of not harboring bitterness, but we let it go. And we trust in God's justice, we trust in God's plan. Jesus also instructed his disciples, his followers, to be generous. In other words, to be sacrificial. After that, he talked about fruit and where fruit comes from, that we want to be a good tree, a tree connected to God, connected to the vine, and we want to produce good fruit. And the fruit is behavior, your actions, living, the grace and the mercy and the forgiveness and the generosity of God in and through your lives. We want to have that kind of fruit in our lives. And then finally, the story of, or the example of, building your foundation on the rock that is Jesus. And the kind of picture there was the point was obedience. That if you want to stand against the storms and the floods and the waters of this life, you're building your house in obedience on the rock that is Christ. That your life is shored up and structured by a life in Christ. And so you're ready. You're ready for the hard times because you've patterned your life in obedience to Christ. So now again, Jesus goes to Capernaum. You know, many would understand this small town on the northwest shores of the Sea of Galilee as the base camp of Jesus. And near this town is where we understand Peter, John, and James. They had this miraculous catch of fish. This is where these disciples, now apostles, uh, this is where they came from. This was their home turf. And so Jesus goes into this town, he goes back to this base camp. And a lot of interesting, amazing things have already happened in this town, but he's coming back to the to again the base camp. Verse 2. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. So centurion, what's a centurion? Centurion for all of the Jews living in Israel is their enemy. If you just kind of look at the objective reality of what's going on with the centurion, enemy. You default to enemy, right? So he's he is an oppressor. He is the military force in the hometown of Jesus' base camp. And he's a centurion. So a quote from a commentary on this says he's the equivalent in rank to a modern-day army captain, and normally commanded 100 soldiers. So my logic, thinking about the Sea of Galilee, right? Not a big town at this time. This is the guy. This is the military leader of the town in where Jesus is doing the base camp ministry. He's in charge of the Roman occupation in this region, in this area. A hundred soldiers would do the job for a small fishing village. So the common culture and the common experience for Jews would be to tell Jesus, do not talk to this guy. He is our enemy. He's worse than a tax collector. We've talked about tax collectors in the past. They would have been the most hated Jews of the Jews, but this is, again, the military force in their area. So, and you could maybe speculate. So you've got Simon, one of the disciples, one of the apostles, hanging out with Jesus, who at one time earlier in his life probably was like vowed to kill this guy, to do anything possible to revolt and undermine the Roman Empire. But here's the centurion. He has this servant who's at the point, he's so close, he's so sick that he's near death. But he's highly valued to him. So what does that mean? The basic kind of understanding is, you know, I think he's likely, the servant is likely a Jew because he's a servant of this Roman centurion. We don't know for sure. There's a relationship, there's a friendship here. You know, we don't know what all built into built into that servant, being a good worker, maybe kind of being someone this centurion. We don't know. But we do know that the centurion honored him. He cared about him. Verse 3. So when the centurion, okay, here's a key word, heard. He heard about Jesus. So the centurion heard about Jesus. He sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. Are we noticing what kind of person this centurion is? He already is hearing about Jesus and believes in Jesus, heard about the stories that have already happened in Capernaum, and he's like, I want that for my servant. I want that for my employee. I care so much, I honor this person, I don't want anything to happen to him. I heard about this, I'm putting this in, I'm just, you know, taking in the context of what's happened in Capernaum in this moment, and believing and hoping that his servant can be healed. And this again to notice here is the word has spread about Jesus. The buzz is out about what Jesus can do, what he's been doing. And the centurion leverages his contacts in the Jewish community to request his visit. He's talking to the leaders of this town. He has this relationship enough to ask the elders to go to, you know, you know, get Jesus' help. So Jesus is this centurion's hope for his servant. And so this centurion is, you know, he's got all these hurdles thrown at him, you could say, all these, what you would, you know, in society and culture and all these things, all these barriers, political barriers, racial barriers, theological barriers that could have gotten in the way of the centurion asking for help. But he he disregarded all of that to request the help of Jesus and heal his servant. Verse 4. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly. So they're kind of begging him with all sincerity, saying, this was their appeal, this was their pitch to Jesus. The elders of the town, again, Jesus radically changed Capernaum. This is what they say to him. This is how they think to get Jesus to help this centurion servant. He is worthy, again, speaking about the centurion, to have you do this for him. He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue. So this centurion, you know, if we were just to put him into a category, if we were to hear about any centurion, we would make maybe judgments, assumptions about what kind of conduct this centurion, how maybe they would abuse their power, abuse these relationships, controlling this small sea village. But he's not following those rules, it seems. And how you're supposed to be this occupying force, and how you're supposed to treat your subjects that you're oppressing, that you're ruling. But notice how the elders plead with him. He is worthy. He is worthy. He loves our nation. He he built our synagogue. And this is not a normal centurion. He's an interesting, seems generous person. But the reality is this no one is worthy. No one is worthy. And and you know, they're making this appeal, kind of the transactions, the things that he's done, the generosity he's shown, the way that he's been kind of helpful towards the sea town, sea village. They're leveraging that. So no one is worthy. And that's you know, that's just the reality of our identity. But I want to highlight what is our identity, what your title is, what is the banner over your life if you are in Christ. And the word is forgiven. That's our identity. That's that's our status. And I like the word forgiven because it captures what we were rescued from and what we are now. It's capturing the grace and the mercy and the generosity, the forgiveness of God. We are forgiven. In other words, we've been freed from sin. So we're not worthy, but God in his love died for us. He died in our place. We are forgiven. Again, no one is worthy. So again, I imagine this servant, again, a Jew possibly, based on the reputation of the centurion. So, but notice the human logic here in their appeal. Again, they pleaded with him earnestly. He's worthy. In other words, from our perspective, you know, from our experience, he deserves your healing. Help him out, give him a favor, do this for him. He's served us. This is human thinking. The elders' rationale was to request Jesus' help for the centurion was external and kind of, you could say, self-serving. This guy's keeping things up for us, he's keeping things good for us, he deserves this. But it's really transactional. He's done a lot for us. You should do something for him. So I think uh, you know, I highlighted how tax collectors were hated because we've got Matthew in the group, we've got Levi in the group. Um and I think Matthew could could could interrupt here. He could interject something into this kind of dialogue, this conversation. He could say, uh, excuse me, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter to Jesus. He could say, I'm not worthy. But Jesus called him out of the tax booth, out of the career, out of that life, betraying his people. But now he's been labeled, he's been titled an apostle. Levi, Matthew, the gift of God now. So Jesus, though, instructed us, right? So it's not about transactions. It's not about, you know, you do this for me, I'll do this for you. You know, I'm indebted to you. But Jesus, just in the sermon he just preached, said, Love your people that do a lot for you. No, he didn't say that. He said, Love your enemies. Love your enemies. Verse six through eight. And Jesus went with them. So he went with them. 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, and 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. You could say the centurion didn't want to bother Jesus too much. And even looking at this too, um, the centurion, again, he paid for the synagogue to be built. He understood the religious rules and laws. Uh, so he also knew that, you know, holy, in a sense, Jews following the law shouldn't go into a Gentile house. So he's making accommodations for Jesus, even though he believes that Jesus can heal. You could say he knows Jesus can heal. So he's saying, don't bother, you know. Don't, I don't want to bother you, I don't want you to break any rules. Just say the word. Again, the elders thought he was worthy, but what does this wonderful, I'll say, wonderful man say about himself? I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof. Do you see the contrast? Do you see the two opposite things that are being said here? This is the definition of humility. And I'll tell you this: Jesus likes humility. Jesus, I would say, is humility. And Jesus is humility in the flesh. The character of God is humility. So again, I imagine Jesus likes or heard the humility in this man's dialogue through these kind of intermediary, you know, these people that are being sent back and forth. The centurion, though, understood authority. He also understood Jesus' authority and what was possible. Again, I believe he knew what Jesus could do. Again, he's in this town where everyone got healed before. He he knows about these stories about what Jesus has done. Again, it's a small uh fishing village. It didn't take too long for the news about Jesus to spread in this town, I imagine. So verse 9 and 10. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him. So that's my key word for this first kind of story. Marveled. Marveled. Notice what Jesus does. He marveled at him. And turning to the crowd that followed him, said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. Ouch. Ouch. That would hurt. Okay, verse 10. And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. So Jesus highlights the faith of the Roman oppressor's faith. So here's a quote from a commentary. Only twice in Scripture was Jesus said to marvel or be amazed at something. One was a negative faith in his hometown, and this is the other. So I would say, you could say, this was the only positive marveling Jesus ever did in the Gospels. That is pretty interesting if you think about it. We have God in the flesh, God who's healed everybody in Capernaum before, is now having this dialogue, this encounter with this centurion through elders and through friends and servants and things like that. But now he's marveling at a Roman captain, a Roman military leader's faith. Again, ouch. That would hurt a little bit. But this is so interesting to think about God in the flesh marveling at something. And my Christology, which is like my theology, what I believe about Jesus is I've got some questions. You know, Jesus can, it seems, read minds and understand. So I'm just curious how it's just an interesting story for Jesus to highlight this man's faith. So again, this centurion's faith hurdles racial wealth, power, and you could say even religion to request his desire, his compassion, his love, his honoring for this servant. He didn't let any of that get in the way. And I would say this centurion didn't put or limit Jesus to his tradition. He didn't limit him to his, you know, his mind. He he understood it. He understood the power of Jesus. He's teaching the Jews, in a sense, how to have faith in Christ. God's using this story to teach us how to have faith in Christ. So that reminds me of a story, all right? I uh again, I used to be uh travel and I was a missionary. I was in Australia, and there was a missions conference at a church there, and I was a fool. I was kind of, you know, just kind of went to this kind of conference, and it was there's workshop, and the reason I was a fool is like you just you know, walk in humility, walk in like like recognize who you're gonna talk to, and like just didn't really think about the kind of people that I was gonna encounter. And so we had this like workshop time and we had these kind of work groups, and I got put with this guy, and I was sitting down with this guy, and you know, I did not know who I was talking to. I didn't realize who I was talking to. Again, I I kind of look back and I'm like, Aaron Doofus. Okay. So I started talking to this guy, his name is Paulus. Come to find out, Paulus is from Indonesia, and he he essentially started like multiple orphanages all over Indonesia. That's one thing. Then he started this radio evangelism ministry that built radio towers and then gave out free radios all over Indonesia to spread the gospel through this radio station. Then he, I think, he started a Bible uh kind of college. And here I am, just like, hey, what do you do with your time? You know, like what's going on in your life? You know, it just was a moment where I was like, oh my goodness, who am I talking to? Who am I to be talking to this guy? And this guy was so humble to spend time with me, to encourage me. So for me to learn from him was such a moment of kind of like waking up to what is possible, waking up to like what God can do through someone's life. And you don't have to put on a show, you don't need to be this, you know, whatever, fill in the blank from our human experience and tradition of what kind of person you need to be to be this kind of leader, to be have this kind of impact. No, this man was humble, like this centurion was. And God was using him in amazing ways. And and the centurion, again, back to the centurion, you know, he was getting it before the Pharisees. He was getting it really before anybody. Thinking about, again, what was possible and having faith in Jesus. And this last verse, verse 10, that's it. It seems like Jesus didn't even uh meet the centurion, he didn't even have a conversation with them. It was all through these different people that Jesus had this interaction, and Jesus didn't need to be present for this guy, the servant, to be healed. So we're learning things about Jesus. We're learning about the power of Jesus in this story. Again, the elders make their appeal, the friends don't tell Jesus, don't bother to come in, you know, don't break any rules that you're supposed to, you know, not do. But what happens? This guy is healed. And again, I just rewind to Capernaum, what happened earlier in the unfolding of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus touched and healed everyone. They all came to him and he touched them and he healed them. And again, I was so touched by that story. Because of the compassion, the presence of Jesus. But that wasn't even necessary. It kind of taught a principle of who God is in the flesh. But even in this moment, we're learning about how God doesn't even physically need to be present for someone to get healed. And I would say this is a foreshadow to the reality that we are in. To the Holy Spirit. To the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. To God's everywhere. That God can do anything. That we don't want to put a limit in God in a box of our understanding, but that God is miraculous, that God is all-powerful, that God is all-knowing. Again, this opens the mind to the possibilities of what, when, where, and how God acts. I don't know about you, but if you ever heard a story, I heard a couple of these back in the day, and again, ministry time, and you know, I'm sure we'll hear some in our future, but you hear one of those stories about someone being woken up in the middle of the night and just have a burden to pray for someone. And they they pray for someone, and then they come to find out later, like that was the exact moment they went to the hospital, or that was the exact moment they were sharing the gospel with someone, or some cool, amazing connection where God uses us in some mysterious, miraculous way to be praying for it, and and God does that. And I would just say, if if God by the Holy Spirit prompts you, if someone comes to mind, maybe from this church, from your family, and for whatever reason, it's not your thought, they just pop into your head, pray for them. Just take a moment to go before your Heavenly Father and pray for them. Happened to me this week. I don't even know if the impact of it yet, but just encourage you to do that in your life, to be led by the Holy Spirit as you're prompted to pray for those that are in your life and as God brings them up. So verse 11. So this story concludes. Now we're moving into this next encounter. Again, Jesus marveled at the centurion's faith. So they're in Capernaum, now they're going to a new town. Verse 11. Soon after he went to a town called Nain. And his disciples and a great crowd went with them. So we've got the crowd, we've got the healing traffic. This is about 25 miles southwest of Capernaum. So uh commentary said this is a day's walk. I would say, I'd call that a two-day walk. But maybe in the first century you could do it in a day. I've been hiking, I could do one day, you know, 15 miles, you know, two days, you know, 25 miles. Again, they're stronger, they're probably more used to it back then. But a one day's journey, 25 miles to where this town is. And again, the crowd is following Jesus, and we we've called this healing traffic, right? They're seeing the miraculous, they're seeing the power of God in the flesh, they're seeing what God does, and they're following Jesus. So picture this crowd following Jesus 25 miles. Verse 12. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. So this is what I was referring to before. I mean, imagine this crowd of Jesus, following Jesus, now encountering this large crowd, this funeral procession. Now notice this poor woman. Her only son has died, and she's a widow. And so we may not capture, you know, there's no social security, there's no 401k, there's no retirement plan for this woman. Her means of provision, all of them have died. So the societal implications, you know, the a son would take care of their mother. So this woman not only is grieving, but her future doesn't look great. Doesn't look great at all. Looks like poverty. So there's this story of the two crowds meeting. This crowd following Jesus now, this crowd of of mourning are now encountering in this or interacting in this moment. And so I just want to slow down going through these next verses. I want you to imagine Jesus in this moment. Verse 13. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and he said to her, Do not weep. Do not weep. Again, the first thing to just notice, God in the flesh, Jesus walking in this earth has compassion. This is who our God is. He stops doing what he's doing and he encounters this funeral procession. This is who our God is. God is love, God has compassion for this woman. This is, you know, recognizing kind of like that story, that testimony we watched, recognizing the truth and being like, this is it. This is what I've been waiting for. And when we read these stories about Jesus, this is it. This is what gives us certainty because of the character, the compassion, the love of Jesus in this moment that we read about, this historical moment. Again, Jesus goes from this radical teaching now to healing, this servant, not even having to be there. Now compassion for this helpless widow and grieving mother. If you think about it, this is the worst moment of her life. This is the valley that most people would not even come out of. This is the worst moment of her life, and who enters in Jesus. So again, I want you to imagine Jesus. I want you to reflect on the character of our Savior, the Good Shepherd. Now Jesus says this to this woman: do not weep. I would say the only person in human history that has the authority and the power to tell a grieving mother and widow to say this. He is the only person ever that could say to this poor woman, do not weep. How cruel would it be if one of us had the gall to go up to this woman to say, do not weep. Of course we wouldn't say that. We would join with her in her pain. We would join in this funeral procession, but Jesus doesn't do that. He says, Do not weep, because Jesus is all powerful, because Jesus is miraculous. And it's interesting to think about this story. This is one of three moments where Jesus brings someone back from the dead. We have this encounter, we have this man being brought back from the dead. We have Jarus' daughter, and then Lazarus. And I would say all of these are pointing towards the gospel. The power of Jesus, one, I mean, think about superpowers. Think about recognizing and having Christ and having certainty in Christ, having faith in Christ. All these other amazing miracles are happening. Now he's bringing people back from the dead. Christ, our certainty. And I can't help but think about this moment, and thinking about Jesus having this conversation with this woman in her worst moment of her life, and thinking about Mary in the garden tomb, thinking that someone stole Jesus' body, and then having this conversation with Jesus in the flesh, thinking about the grief that she was going through, the pain that she was going through, thinking that her the body, the dead body of Jesus was stolen, but no, he's alive, and now he's going to talk to her. Verse 14 and 15. Then he came up and he touched the beer. And the bearers stood still, and he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. So again, what is this bear or beer? It's an open coffin. Everyone can see this young man is dead. They're carrying him in this funeral procession. I didn't recognize, though, when I first read this, again, thinking about Jesus having this encounter, I didn't recognize how, you know, according to Leviticus and things like that, how you weren't supposed to touch dead bodies. And Jesus goes right up to the dead body and touches him. Jesus, if he wasn't the Savior, if he wasn't extending the mercy and the grace and the power of God in this moment, he would, like a priest, who was supposed to be seven days outside of the camp and have to do ceremonial washing. You don't touch dead bodies in Israel. But Jesus is God in the flesh. So again, imagine Jesus doing this and being like one of his apostles or his disciples, like, you're not supposed to interrupt, you know, and you're not supposed to do that. You know, how socially awkward. Can you imagine interrupting a funeral procession? But Jesus breaks all these social norms and he changes everything. I love thinking about this. I want you to think about what Jesus says, young man, I say to you, arise. And so after that, the dead man sat up and he began to speak. And I can't help but wonder what did he say? We don't know, it's a mystery, but to think about to think about what he said. And again, I love this. Jesus gave him to his mother. I imagine Jesus carrying him and handing him over to his mother. And again, I can't help but make this other connection. Thinking about Mary, the mother of Jesus after the crucifixion. And hearing about Jesus coming back to life. Again, this woman's worst moment now completely changed. Her son is giving back to her, and thinking about Mary, in a sense, getting her son back and knowing that he did not die, that he is God. So how does this funeral procession respond to the dead coming back to life? Verse 16 and 17. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people. And this report about him spread throughout the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. So this like epicenter of waves of miracle stories of what God is doing in the flesh is just beaming out from this area by word of mouth. We delight in God when we read this story, but I can empathize with the fear in this moment. Can you imagine? Someone who is dead, who you're for sure is dead, you're carrying them in the procession, and all of a sudden they're alive. I mean, how kind of scary would that be? That would be not normal. So different. But also notice what Luke is doing in this story, in the Gospel of Luke. You know, we start off with fever, we you know, people being healed of fever, miraculous catches of fish, leprosy, people that were lame are now walking, people's sins are being forgiven. Now the centurion servant is healed. I mean, it's just getting better and better and better. And you know, the crescendo, is that the word? Crescendo is building, right? That's a music term, sorry. Also, we have to make this other connection. What do they say? God has visited, oh, sorry, skipped ahead. A great prophet has risen among us. You've got to connect that to Elijah. Elijah visited a poor widow, and God used the prophet Elijah to bring that widow's child back to life. Again, bringing certainty in Christ in this moment. And they say they proclaim the gospel, they proclaim their faith, their confidence in Christ. God has visited his people. We see the works of Elijah now in the life of Jesus. He's bringing people back from the dead. They're proclaiming their faith that God is here. This is the good news. Emmanuel, God with us. I want you to imagine if this, if you heard a rumor today like this: hearing about someone over in Lake Zurich or Carpentersville or Lake Geneva, hearing about someone walking around bringing people back from the dead. That would be in the news. That's what's going on for these people. The rumors of miracles, the buzz, the the confronting of Pharisees and just the conflict that Jesus is having, the radical teaching to love your neighbors as yourself, to love your enemies. You know, it's the appointing of the apostles, like the Simon the Zealot and Fisherman and Matthew that the tax collector, former tax collector. So I want to just conclude with this. There's kind of two main points from these two stories. A faith that wasn't limited, a faith that wasn't put into a box, it wasn't put into a tradition. It was just knowing and believing that God is all-powerful and he can do anything. And also we have the story of Jesus, the compassionate Messiah bringing people back to life and what that does for us. So I just want to go back to this faith. And I would just want to challenge you to ask God what is possible. You know, the centurion in a lot of ways was the embodiment, and that story was kind of the capturing of the sermon. Love your enemies. Forgive, don't condemn, don't judge. Jesus, you know, if he was following the rules of humanity, would have not had anything to do with that centurion. And what is the fruit? People are healed. You know, and so we want to live the example that Jesus sets for us in this story. We want to be humble, we want to have faith like this centurion. We want to not judge, we want to not condemn, we want to be gracious, merciful, generous, and we want to have a faith in what God can do, not what we can do, not limited by what we condition God. So what are you believing for? What do you have faith in as it relates to God, as it relates to Jesus? What are you in your quiet times, in your desolate place, in your times of desperation praying for? What do you have faith in? What's possible? And again, the second story is a resurrection preview, right? All of these stories are pointing to Jesus conquering death himself. You know, and these humans being brought to life is different, though, than God in the flesh conquering death. They're all setting up for faith in our resurrected Lord. Again, the primary difference is Jesus is, as Hebrew says, the firstborn of the dead. Jesus is the resurrected forever, and he ascended, now intercedes for you at the right hand of the Father. Again, we have hope in Jesus. Like that poor widow. No matter what you're going through, no matter if maybe even now you're in your darkest moment, I invite you to put your faith in Christ. To put your hope in Jesus. And surrender and submit your will and surrender and submit your ideas about what God can do to what God is going to do. Right? We can kind of be like, God, if you did this, then everything would be great. God, if you did this, then everything. If you put if you fit into this box or you give me this box, everything will be great. No, I just want to say, I trust you, Lord. You you are compassionate. You are loving. You are all powerful. And surrender and submit your heart, your your ideas, your faith to God and what God is doing. And believe and surrender in Him. I'll end with this. I I read these stories about Jesus, and I hope you're ministered to. I minister too, to think about how good our God is. To think about how wonderful He is. To think about Him interrupting this funeral procession and seeing the character of Jesus. We believe in a God of compassion that enters a widow and a grieving mother's worst moment and changes everything. I just feel content. I feel at peace. I feel strong, the certainty I have in Christ, because this is who our God is. So I want to end today with an invitation. An invitation to put your faith in Christ. If you don't have faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I invite you to do that today. To proclaim that He is God, that He died on the cross for your sins, and He conquered death on the third day. He gives us hope no matter what darkness we face, because this life is temporary, and we will spend eternity with him because he took our place and conquered death. Let's pray. God, we just say thank you for this time. We thank you that we just thank you for these stories, God, that you gave us your word to encourage us, your word to meditate on. The hope that you give us no matter what we're facing. And God, I pray for all of us in here, God, that we would have faith in you, God, that we would trust you, that we would surrender our desires, our will, our plans, and our ideas to you, God. And I pray for anyone in here that doesn't have relationship with you, God, I pray that they would leave the old way, the way of solving those problems, the way of trying to satisfy this life, God, and I pray that they would put their faith in you as their Lord and Savior, as your Lord, as you are our Lord and Savior, God. I pray that they would trust you for all eternity to turn from sin, to turn from their way, and to give you complete trust and control over their life. Because you are good, you are loving, and you are king. And we love you, God. In your name we pray. Amen.