You Are Loved!

Matthew 8 : 8, The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. NKJV

Throughout the Old Testament, the gentiles are excluded from the covenant that God made with Abraham. In fact, Ishmael, Abraham's flesh and blood son was also excluded because he wasn't conceived of God's will; he was birthed through Abraham's desire to have his own son. You may ask, "Why was God so set on having His own chosen people upon the earth, even though we're told in Psalms 24 that the earth belongs to the Lord and all that dwell therein?" 

Perhaps it wasn't that God was seeking to exclude the peoples of the earth from being in covenant with Him; it was God establishing His ways in the earth so that people could be brought to faith. Allow me to call to your remembrance John 3:16: For God so LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only-begotten  Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting or eternal life. By this scripture, we can conclude that God did love the peoples of the world. He was revealing to Abraham, the Jews, and us just how important faith is to Him... and to us who desire to walk in covenant with God and be saved.

God rejected the acts of Abraham that he had done in his own power, but accepted Abraham's obedient acts when they were done through faith according to God's instructions. God loved Isaac, but rejected Ishmael. God loved Jacob, but hated Esau. Once again, let me say that we see this distinction throughout the Old Testament and even into the gospels. The scripture that I shared above exemplifies what the Lord has given to share with you today. Even though the centurion was a gentile, he still had a need that only Jesus could supply. Instead of allowing the fact that he was a gentile to prevent him from receiving from Christ, he acknowledged the authority that Jesus walked in as the Son of God.

Because the centurion didn't dwell on not being worthy, although he mentioned it, his focus was on Jesus' authority. The centurion did this by faith because he had heard about Jesus from the Jews. It was this gentile's faith in Jesus that caused Jesus to sit up and take notice. Moreover, Jesus sent His Word and healed the servant of the centurion. When Jesus saw the humility and faith of this gentile man, He told those who were assembled that He had not found such great faith, even in all of Israel.

Once we get past the gospels, and through the book of Acts where the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the gentiles, as well as the Jews, Paul, who wrote almost two-thirds of the New Testament books, teaches us a new principle. (Please allow this new-found  revelation to get down into your heart and spirit.) When Paul begins writing a letter to the believers in Ephesus, he tells them (Gentile believers) that they are ACCEPTED in the Beloved, Jesus. Instead of Paul's emphasis being on our unworthiness, he placed it on Jesus' worthiness and our acceptance from the Father through the work of Christ.

Now you are accepted in Christ, if you have placed your faith in Him as God's only Son. You no longer have to listen to the voices of condemnation and guilt that still accuse you because of the things you have done in the past that were wrong in God's sight. So instead of focusing on being unworthy and having nothing to offer to God, begin to focus on Jesus and to declare that He is worthy of all adoration, praise, and honor for saving us and for reconciling us back to God through His cross.

Let us sing praise songs that exalt Jesus and focus only on Him instead of telling God how unworthy we are while we're in His presence. If God has forgotten our past, shouldn't we honor His request, not insult Him by bringing up our unworthiness before Him? It never was about us anyway. It's all about Jesus and our faith in Him that causes us to be accepted in God's sight. Now we can be blessed and walk in the favor of God because of what Jesus has already done for us. 

I Am Blessed and Accepted in Jesus,
Pastor Asa Dockery