The Ask | Matthew 8

welcome to the daily disciple podcast where we seek daily to be with and to become like jesus hello and welcome everyone to the daily disciple podcast it's a pleasure to be with you all today i hope you're all having a wonderful day i hope you all have been having a wonderful week my name is kelvin and i get the pleasure to lead our discussion today and we're going to be talking about what we have been which is jesus the person who is irresistible and we've been taking from stories from the life of jesus and we've been dissecting them defragging them seeing all of the different nuggets of wisdom of fruit of life that we can apply to our lives and we can use for not only ourselves but the benefit of others because that's what jesus does he changes lives that's why he's irresistible and we're going to be in matthew chapter eight so you can turn your bibles or on your ipads or your phones there we're gonna be matthew chapter eight and the title of the podcast today is the ask the question the question the ask that changed everything so here's a question for you have you ever had to ask someone for something that made you nervous maybe it was asking your boss for a raise or excuse me asking your crush out on a date in high school or if you're like me asking someone for directions while pretending you're not totally lost that moment of vulnerability when you're putting yourself out there it can be risky so now let's picture ourselves being a roman centurion soldier a battle-ridden commanding officer of at least a hundred men because that's what a centurion was in charge of at the minimum walking up to a jewish rabbi in front of a crowd of people asking for help let's just think of that picture and we can switch up whoever we need to to make it real for us but a roman centurion a roman centurion soldier one of the leading commanding officers who he oversees many people he's out of town he's out of home and he walks up to a jewish rabbi one that not anyone really even knows in the middle of a crowd he's asking for help so we're going to be in matthew 8 verse 5 and that's where we're going to start today and it says when jesus had entered capernaum a centurion came to him asking for help so that's it no long introduction no background just asking for help and let's be clear this wasn't normal romans and jews didn't exactly do life together they weren't buddies they weren't friends the centurion is an outsider a gentile maybe even some other words they would have to come to mind even though he was a man of rank and power yet here he is he's humbling himself asking a wandering teacher like a vagabond type of teacher for help that my friends is a faith already beginning to bloom into something but here's where it hits a little closer to home especially for me how often do we struggle to ask for help how often do we carry burdens silently within our relationships or you know whether it's about our finances our fears because we're too proud or too afraid to bring them to jesus to bring them into our prayer life the centurion could have stayed quiet like we often do i'll try to handle the situation myself there's medical physicians there's tons of people around that can help him but he didn't he took a risk he stepped across all of the lines all of the lines and boundaries that we have up in this day and age guess what those lines are friends he stepped across cultural lines he stepped across religious lines he stepped across political lines he also could have possibly stepped across his personal boundaries and within humility bringing that to jesus he says in verse 6 lord he said my servant lies at home paralyzed suffering terribly and then jesus says shall i come and heal him jesus didn't just say that's not my problem you're not a jew so i'm not supposed to listen to you or acknowledge anything that you say but we know that jesus is obviously being rhetorical here shall i come and heal him if we're speaking about the jesus we all know we know that he can but that's an interesting line he's offering an invitation but the centurion has already asked him for help because the very heart of jesus is to go to heal to respond he's moved by the compassion even for the people that others might have said they're not of us they shouldn't be part of us or you know you're gentile you're not a jew you're you're nothing to us that's typically what a roman soldier would have been depicted as or looked at as so let's just take a little pause here and take a detour from the roman empire to the 20th century there was a show wildly popular in the 80s called groin pains and there was a super popular act well he became popular because of the show kurt cameron he was one of the childhood stars on the show and he just skyrocketed into fame because of the show so money fame fans he had everything but something happened to kurt cameron while he was on the show and while the show was like in the midst of its greatness he met jesus and it changed everything about his life he began he began feeling convicted about things that he never was convicted about in the past so certain scenes he wasn't comfortable doing or he wasn't comfortable saying and he talked to the producers talked to the directors let them know that he had a new faith and he wasn't living the life that he was living in the past and guess what all the directors just said okay no problem we'll do everything that you say and we'll change the show no that didn't happen it obviously it didn't go over too well they didn't like it and the show eventually ended but rather abruptly and in many people in the industry thought and us on the outside he's throwing it all away what a risk is it yes it is a risk absolutely but when you meet the person of jesus and he becomes real to you he becomes irresistible so you start living your life differently you start asking for things that don't make sense to the rest of the world see these stories these things that happen in our current life they model what the centurion does they all reflect this truth that when we're willing to risk we get to experience the how irresistible jesus really is the centurion didn't know how to respond or how jesus would respond he didn't know if his request would even be accepted but he asked anyway he risked it he knew how the jews felt about the gentiles of the roman world but he risked it and maybe that's where you are today maybe you're like i mean you've been in a situation you've been burdened by something that's heavy a situation that's beyond your control or a loved one who's hurting and it feels too risky to bring it to jesus because you might feel that fear of what if he doesn't respond what if he he doesn't what if he says no what if it doesn't go the way that i want but what the other question is if you don't bring it to him can anything change but let's just think about it what if today you just decided to ask lord my heart is broken please help or lord my marriage is hurting i'm tired lord and i don't know what to do sometimes the boldest acts of our faith is simply being able to ask jesus sit at the feet of jesus and share our troubles with him we all want to experience the power of jesus but sometimes we can miss it because we're not willing to risk the asking out of fear out of rejection we all want jesus to move in our lives but we all don't want to admit that we're weak sometimes but you know the beautiful thing about our lord and savior is is that he's drawn to humility he loves when we are willing to show our weaknesses and ask him for strength he responds to our desperate needs he meets us where we are when we're able when we're willing to step out so before we close today let's just think about what jesus is desiring from us and how we can impact our lives with power from above the power that we all desire let's not keep our fear close to our faith we have to be willing to risk and we have to be willing to bring it to jesus your story might be like the centurions your story might be like many of us who are listening today that we all go through things that are out of our control and we need help let's have the bravery and the courage to bring it to that one that one person who could actually change everything not our friends and our family so we can get comfort in misery or people coddling us to make us feel better but actually humble ourselves and bring it to the one who has this irresistible power to change our lives and things around us let's bring it to jesus friends and until then let's remember following him might cost you your comfort your pride sometimes you know the predictability of life but what we gain is a front row seat to the irresistible power of our lord take care friends have a great day thanks for listening to the daily disciple podcast we truly hope that you were encouraged by today now if you would like to support or if you had any questions about the daily disciple podcast feel free 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