Welcome back Saints! Today we continue our walk through the book of Luke and move on from the sermon on the hill. After having seen the calling of the apostles and the teaching on love, hate, blessings and curses we move on with Jesus in His walk and evaluate what the authority of Christ looks like and what it means for us.
7 After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 6 And Jesus 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. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 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.” 9 When Jesus heard these things, 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.” 10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 7:1–10.
Eric Hoke @Erichoke - His year of drawing near to the Lord after stepping down from his Lead Pastor role
Bruce and Birgid as they head into the missions field in Uganda. Prayers for their support team here domestically and their passion for purpose on their arrival
Ada and Amara @CrystalHope1979 these little ones were born 4 months early. Pray that the Lord stands by these precious little lives.
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As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints podcast with your host, Dan Willis. 1s Welcome back, man. How are we doing? It's another day and we're going to continue our journey through Luke. Having a blast right now doing this with you guys. Huge shout out to all of you that have taken the time to share this out. Seeing more and more people with each new episode and that is so encouraging, but at the same time, really just exciting to see men across the world diving back into God's word. Diving into God's word a little bit deeper every day really gets me fired up. I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Let's keep going with Luke, though. So for those of you that are unfamiliar with what we're doing right now, you can go back and listen to past episodes, but we are working our way through Luke. One, I'd like to say a chapter at time, but it hasn't been that. It's been even smaller than that. Just segments here and there. Just quick ten minute devotionals breakthrough through the scripture, quick lesson and then prayer at the end. So if that's for you, this is the place. And if you want to go back and catch some of the previous chapters of Luke, those episodes are there for you. Let's get down to it. 2s So today we are going to be reading from Luke seven. That's right. We finally finished six. We are on to Luke seven. The teachings have been phenomenal. We looked at the fruit, the abundance of the heart. We looked at the foundation that you lay and what you build upon it. But today we're going to move on from that. Christ is going to continue his walk, and I am excited to go there with him. Now, I understand not everybody can have a Bible handy at all times, so don't worry. Rest assured, I will be reading the Scriptures to you. I read from the ESV, but if you do have a Bible handy, I do encourage you to open it up. Feel free to read along in whatever translation you prefer, but I will be continuing forward in the ESV. So without further ado, here we go, luke seven. After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernum. Now, a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, 2s 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 built us our synagogue. And Jesus went with them. Was he 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. 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, it's not too often you see Jesus marvel at something to knock the socks off of Jesus takes a little bit right? Here's one of the godhead. Here's a man who is fully God, fully man, with an awareness beyond the average man. And it's amazing to see here not a Jew, but a Gentile. Marvels creates marvel. 2s In Jesus. What an amazing faith this is, and it doesn't take much. What it took was a complete and very clear understanding of the authority Jesus has. We talk about the identity of Jesus a lot, especially in the start of the Gospels, who he is, why that's important. We touch on it briefly throughout and then towards the end, we really dial in on that again. But here we're seeing kind of in this midpoint, this complete and utter recognition of who Christ is and what his character is. All powerful. All powerful, right? Omnipotent all powerful. This soldier reconciles Christ's command over creation, over life itself. The same thing as a general with an army, a master with a servant, parent with their child, the ability to give instruction, and it is done. Maybe not so much parent with a child, but 1s as a dad, I often wish that that would be the case. But that idea of there is no other option, that indication from a master to a servant or from a general to a soldier. The instruction isn't up for consideration, debate or negotiation. If Christ says that servant will be healed, it's not like there has to be a discussion and an additional work done. No, Christ said it, and that's the way it'll be. Challenge you guys today. Do you have that kind of faith? Do you think that Jesus has the ability to speak truth about you, about those in your life, and that alone is powerful enough to be true? Do you find the promises in Scripture, are those true for you? When you read the Bible and we hear these truths that Jesus says, do these things and you will belong to me. And when he makes promises throughout the New Testament of act this way, do these things and know that you will have the reassurance that you belong to me, that I've chosen you, that you are loved by me. Those acts aren't saving of themselves, of course, but the acts themselves are. That fruit that we talked about, that are demonstrating that, yes, indeed, you have been saved, and the fruit that you're bearing gives evidence to the seed that was planted. Do you believe in Christ's authority to that level? Christ says, move the mountain and the mountain moves. That kind of deal. Do you see it? Do you believe it? Challenge yourself today. Take a pause and think back on the devotions that you've done other in your personal life or the ones that we've been doing. Do you believe these promises, these things that he's saying, blessed are those the teachings he's giving us in the Gospels? Do you believe these sayings that he's giving us, these teachings that he's giving us, are they so true infallible truth or not? And wrestle through that. Don't just let that pass. It sounds like it's an easy thing to do at first, but the reality of that is a lot deeper and a lot harder. Than I think we give it credit for. There's a reason why Jesus didn't find in all of Israel one that had that kind of faith. It's hard to come by, and it's rare. Anyway, I would challenge you guys to take a look at that and see if you're committed to that. I know. Lately I had gone back to the Word. I had taken a hiatus from the podcast for a couple of. Months while I got my head on straight, and I went through the entirety of Scripture, and I looked at anything that was for a father or for a husband. And when I saw those promises and I saw those commands and I saw the things that God had expected of me, it was quite clear, it was pointedly clear what I had to do, because I had a desire to do that. I had a desire to be that. And I believe that God's word, god's command to do those things was authoritative and the promises that came with that as well. All right, guys, this is the part of the podcast where we sit down and we pray. If you have prayer requests anywhere where the podcast is hosted, if you guys leave comments, if you leave messages or on the social media, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, I am following along every single one of those places. If you find that you are in need of prayer, you know, somebody in need of prayer, please feel free to leave those prayer requests on the episodes. I do go back, I do look, I do try to include those prayers. If you prefer that those prayers stayed anonymous or somewhat anonymous, I'm more than happy to do that as well. I can lift up the prayer anonymously, or if you just want to give me your first name, I can do that as well. If you're perfectly fine with giving me your whole name, I'm fine with that as well. But I do make a point at the end of this to be praying for you guys. I think that's crucial. It's a huge part of this, and it doesn't work nearly as well without it. So let's get down to it. Lord, thank you so much for who you are, what your character is, ever present, all powerful, all knowing. It's really an amazing assurance, reassurance constantly that the words that you say are true and that truth carries promises for us. It carries blessings for us. It also carries trials and challenges for us. Lord, I just want to lift that up to you. I want to lift up those of you that are listening here today that whatever trials or challenges you might be facing or whatever blessings that you may have been experiencing of late, know that that comes at the authority of God. The trials are not there meant to hurt you. God is with you in them. He never gives you more than you can bear. Those are promises that he gives you along with our trials, but it's also pure joy. Those trials are sanctifying and bringing you to an amazing place. We continue to lift up Eric Coke to you, Lord, as he takes his year, stepping back from the lead pastor role, just focusing in on what you would have him do next, Lord, where he's going to go and what he's going to be about. I want to lift up the families of those that have been trapped in the sub. There's been an awful lot of discussion around these folks that went into a sub and went down to look at the Titanic and got trapped there. Lord, unfortunately, at this point, it looks like those folks will not see light of day again, but the families are wrestling with that and struggling with that, and I pray that you would have an opportunity in this to comfort them, but at the same time, show them who you are. Lord, I lift up Bruce and Bergen to you as they head into the missions field in Uganda. Continue to work with them as they find support to go. I lift up Ada and Amara to you. Lord, there's still little ones born four months early. It can be a challenge, but you are a great healer, you're a great physician and your great father. Pray that you would continue to care for them. Lord, all these prayers and the ones that I haven't said, all those ones that have gone unsaid, all the ones that you can hear from, all of those listening, lord, lift those up to you as well. Your name. We pray that's it for today, guys. Have an amazing day and I will catch you tomorrow with another episode later. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all. Until next time.