December 21st, 2022

What Do I Deserve?

Sermon by: Pastor Harrison Chokka
Summarized by: Aajah Sauter

Welcome back to the Kingdom Church blog. This week marks the last sermon of our Overflow series. In the sermon, Pastor Harrison discusses what really impresses God. As always, we start our sermon in the word. This time we are in the book of Luke.

Luke 7:2 

1 When Jesus had finished saying all of this to the people who were listening, he entered the Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to Him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with Him, “This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to Him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘go’ and he goes; and that one ‘come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard this, He was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not seen such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then, the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. 

In this story, we have two perspectives. The first perspective is that of the Jewish leaders. They are saying to Jesus that this man deserves to be healed. 

Do you ever go to Jesus with the wrong heart posture when making a request? Oftentimes we bring our life resume to Jesus to show Him that we have been good, and for that, we deserve to have our prayers answered. Sometimes this looks like keeping account of all the times we served, volunteered, or tithed and using that account to justify our entitlement to answered prayers. 

In our sinful human nature, we tend to have a consumer mindset that tells us when we put our time, money, talents, or effort into something, we deserve something in return. More often than not, Christians go to church to receive a message, a word, and our favourite worship song. Pastor Harrison makes it clear that the primary reason we go to church is not to receive but to give. Worshipping God in Church is the holiest of times because in this, we can actually give something to God; praise. 

As mentioned earlier, this story holds two perspectives. The crown, and the servant. The crown says: This man deserves healing. The servant says: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.  That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.”

Oftentimes we confuse faith with self belief. We think that doing big grandiose things like going on mission trips, or tithing all of our savings will impress God. The most faith filled thing that we think we do is really just believing in ourselves. Believing God will be impressed if we do a certain thing and thus we will be blessed and get what we desire. Tithing and showing up to church every week is great, but it doesn’t amaze God. What amazes Jesus in this story is that the soldier understands the nature of who he is. Furthermore what amazes Jesus is that the soldier understands he doesn’t deserve anything. If you want to amaze God, understand your true condition.

Romans 3 
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one

Skipping ahead....

Romans 23 
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Know who you are, believe you are a sinner in need of a saviour. You must believe that you don’t deserve anything. In this world, that can be a really difficult mindset to grasp. Culture tells us that we deserve something. If you want to show God that you have great faith, the key is understanding that you and I don’t deserve anything. It is that humility and dependence on God that displays our level of faith.

Romans 3
24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

The best part is that although we fall short of God’s best, it is only by His Grace 

We deserve nothing, yet Jesus gave us everything. Truly, when you begin to follow God, your life will overflow with peace that passes understanding. Although there will be low seasons, the only thing we can do is give him praise and worship in response for being that solid foundation on which we can stand. 

Thank you God, for being a consistent solid rock in our lives. 

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