In The Face of Desire

INTRODUCTION

If you didn’t already know, today is Super Bowl Sunday—and my absolute favorite team is in the game today. I know there are at least a few Seahawks fans in the room.

Now, whoever you’re rooting for today, one thing we all have in common is this: we have expectations.

For Seahawks fans, we expect a win. We expect certain players to show up. We expect big moments from big names—Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Kenneth Walker III. We expect the right plays to be called. And if it’s second and goal from the two-yard line, we expect them to run the ball.

We come into today with a picture in our minds of how this game is supposed to go.

And if it doesn’t? Where do we direct the questions?

We question the coach. We question the play calling. We question whether they even know what they’re doing.

And honestly… isn’t that how we sometimes approach our Father in heaven?

We come to God with expectations. We expect Him to answer prayers exactly the way we’ve planned them out. We come with an outcome already decided in our minds.

We pray things like, “Jesus, if You just do this one thing, then I’ll follow You.” Or, “God, I just need You to fix it like this.”

And before we know it, our prayers sound less like faith and more like instructions.

And if we’re being honest— that posture is a little arrogant.

SETTING THE TEXT

Today we’re looking at Luke chapter 5, and what we see here is a man who approaches Jesus in a radically different way.

This man doesn’t demand an outcome. He doesn’t tell Jesus what needs to happen. He doesn’t come with a plan.

Instead, he falls on his face.

Not because someone told him to. Not because he was religious enough to know the right move.

It was his natural response to the overwhelming authority of Jesus Christ.

This man doesn’t say, “Jesus, You owe me.” He says, “If You are willing.”

And in that moment, Luke shows us something powerful: Here is what the scripture says.

Transformation doesn’t begin with getting what we want— it begins with submitting to who Jesus is.

That’s the point of this passage.

When we recognize His authority… When we approach Him humbly… When we obey His word…

Jesus doesn’t just help us. He changes us.

So with that in mind, let’s read the Scripture together.

READING THE TEXT

Luke 5:12–16 “While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”

POINT 1 — He Fell on His Face

Recognizing the Authority and Holiness of Jesus

The first thing that stands out to me in this passage is the man himself.

Luke tells us he was full of leprosy.

Which begs the qustion, what is leprosy? It was an incredibly infectious disease. And you have to remeber, its not 2026. it wasnt just getting sick and then eventually getting better. It was something that caused permanant disfigurment, permenant shame. this was becuase it took little more than a slight touch to become infected by somebody with leprocy.

if you remeber covid, if you got sick, with ANYTHING you were treated differently by the people around you. I remember one time I was out shopping in the middle of the winter. Now something about me is that when I was a kid i got nemonia which messed with my lungs some how and now even to this day, wheneber it gets cold outside I get a cough. So I was shopping and i had this cough, which sounds terrible I admit, but it isnt like I was sick with covid or otherwise. SO when i coughed in the checkout line, one lady literally turned around and scoffed at me. In that moment I felt like shunned! This man in this passage felt that in his enture life.

This man was an outcast. Untouchable. Unclean. Forced to live at a distance from everyone else.

And yet, when he sees Jesus, he doesn’t shout from afar. He doesn’t stand back. He falls on his face.

And here’s what’s important:

He falls down before he is ever healed.

Before the miracle. Before the touch. Before any promise of change.

This wasn’t emotional desperation. This was reverence.

Reverence is a deep, penetrating respect that takes over your entire being.

Throughout Scripture, when people encounter the glory and authority of God, this is the response to either fall in reverence or tremble in fear . we can see this in Matthew 17:6 it says When the disciples saw Jesus in His glory, they fell facedown.

When the disciples saw Jesus in His glory, they fell facedown. When Moses encountered the presence of God, he was hidden in the cleft of the rock. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

You don’t casually approach someone you truly believe has all authority.

This man recognized who Jesus was—and his body responded before his mouth ever spoke. He responded naturally with reverence.

POINT 2 — He Made a Humble Request

Submitting to God’s Will While Trusting His Power

and that was just the first two verses in this whole passage. I want you to Listen closely to what he says:

“Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

He isnt demanding. he has no expectation. He simply submits with humility. This is SO opposite to what we see and expect in our current day and age. In our society and in our own lives we have a tendency to make it about us and what we need no matter what. I know this beucase theres a saying that many, if not all of us would agree with. The customer is always right. IN reality we know its not true, but when somehting happens to us? we are the first to figure out how we are the victim and the first to try and make it go our own way...

yet..Lord if youa re willing. This man didnt say, LORD I NEED THIS BECAUSE IM HURTING, he didnt say Lord you need to do this for me becuase you are the son of God. Simply, Lord if you are willing.

This is one of the clearest statements of faith in all of Scripture.

He doesn’t question Jesus’ ability. He submits to Jesus’ will.

That’s humility.

That’s faith that trusts God even when the answer might be no. Which by the way is never a thing we want to hear. In fact this is one of the hardest parts of having faith, often the answer is no… or not yet. Right now even my family has been facing one of the most challenging seasons of our lives. we dont know what God is doing, we dont know why is doing it, what dont know why he is saying no when we make a particular request. But

God gives grace to the humble. whats great is that this isnt something we have to figure out on our own.

in fact Jesus Himself models this exact posture in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prays, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”

ultimatly

Faith is not demanding God perform. Faith is trusting God to decide.

POINT 3 — He Was Obedient

POINT 3 — He Was Obedient

Faith Proven Through Obedience

After the healing, Jesus gives this man instructions.

“Go and show yourself to the priest… as Moses commanded.”

Now, at first glance, this almost feels anticlimactic.

The man has just been healed. His body has been restored. His life has been given back to him.

And Jesus says, “Go follow the law.”

That doesn’t feel exciting. That doesn’t feel urgent. That doesn’t feel like something you’d expect after a miracle.

This wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t fast. It wasn’t convenient.

Jesus didn’t say, “Go tell everyone what I did for you.” He didn’t say, “Go celebrate.” He didn’t say, “Go enjoy your freedom.”

He said, “Go be obedient.”

And that’s important—because obedience almost always comes after the miracle, not before it.

See, obedience didn’t earn the miracle. This man wasn’t healed because he obeyed. He was healed because of grace.

But obedience proved the faith was real.

WHY THIS OBEDIENCE MATTERED

Going to the priest meant a process.

It meant walking into a place he hadn’t been allowed to enter in years. It meant submitting to examination. It meant following a long, detailed process laid out in the Law of Moses.

It meant patience. It meant trust. It meant doing what Jesus said even when no one was watching.

And here’s the key:

Obedience is often the least dramatic part of the miracle—but it’s the most revealing part of faith.

ILLUSTRATION — THE BRIDGE THAT HOLDS

Imagine you’re driving through the mountains and you come to a bridge.

It looks solid. It’s well-built. The signs say it can hold the weight.

You can say all day long, “I believe this bridge will hold me.”

But the moment of truth isn’t what you say— it’s whether you drive onto it.

Obedience is the moment your faith puts weight on what you say you believe.

You don’t prove you trust the bridge by admiring it. You prove you trust it by stepping onto it.

In the same way, we don’t prove we trust Jesus by singing about Him. We don’t prove we trust Jesus by agreeing with Him. We prove we trust Jesus by obeying Him.

BRING IT BACK TO THE TEXT

Jesus tells this man to go to the priest—not to restrict him, but to restore him fully.

This step was what allowed him to reenter community. To be declared clean publicly. To live as a restored man, not just a healed one.

And this lines up with what Jesus says elsewhere:

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Not if you love Me, you’ll feel close to Me. Not if you love Me, you’ll agree with Me.

If you love Me—you’ll obey Me.

And then Jesus asks one of the most uncomfortable questions in all of Scripture:

“Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say?”

That question hits us right where we live.

Because calling Jesus Lord means He gets to lead. It means He gets to decide. It means obedience isn’t optional.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

Church, we love grace—and we should. Grace saves us. Grace forgives us. Grace restores us.

But grace doesn’t leave us unchanged.

Grace always leads somewhere. Grace always produces obedience.

Not perfect obedience. Not instant obedience. But real, growing obedience.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If obedience never follows faith, we have to ask whether faith ever really took hold.

LAND THE POINT

This man didn’t just believe Jesus could heal him. He trusted Jesus enough to do what He said next.

Grace saved him. But obedience showed that grace had taken hold of his life.

And the same is true for us.

Faith that never obeys is faith that never really trusted.

CONCLUSION

Luke 5 isn’t just about a healed man.

It’s about how we come to Jesus.

This man shows us the way:

He recognized Jesus’ authority

He approached Him with humility

He obeyed His word

And Jesus didn’t just fix a problem— He transformed a life.

So let me ask you today:

Are you coming to Jesus with expectations… or with surrender?

Are your prayers filled with demands… or with trust?

Are you saying, “Jesus, here’s what I need You to do”?

Or are you saying, “Lord, if You are willing… I trust You”?

Because transformation doesn’t begin when we get what we want. It begins when we submit to who Jesus is.

Altar Call

This morning, i want you to take the opportunitt to put your faith first and let God decide. I want you to let God decide whats next for your lives. BUT whats so cool is that hes already decided. He knows what he has for you, he is the alpha and omege, the beginning and the end. Nothing is a surprise to God. So I want you to come forward and spend some time at the foot of the cross praying and asking Jesus to include you in what hes doing. Ask him to show you what he has for you and ask him to include you in what youre doing and what hes doing.