Coney Hill Baptist Church
Demonstrating God’s Love Together
9th November 2008
5. Finding Someone to Believe In.
Matthew 8:1-13
Intro
It’s been an historic week. The arrival of a new figure on the world scene who, this week at least, has proved to be something of an inspiration.
Amazing how in our depressed and cynical age, albeit largely in America, someone can still create that sort of excitement, enthusiasm, hope – not as a sports star or an entertainer but as a politician, essentially as a speaker/teacher.
All of us are moved and challenged by a story, and the ability to articulate that story so that it offers to us too some of its benefits. Not many of the young black kids who wept for joy at Barack Obama’s election this week will have the opportunity of a Harvard education, or the backing of a $6 million dollar support campaign. But they believe him when he tells them, his story can be their story.
Looking to Believe?
As human beings we’re pre-disposed to belief. We dream dreams, have ambition, look to the future – it sets us apart. However hardened and cynical we’ve become, however difficult and painful our circumstances, we’re prone, we’re able, we need, to be inspired.
Faith – Something or Someone?
Coming to Church puts us right in the heart of God’s purposes and activity, week by week. Listening together to His voice, singing together his praise, working together with His people. We receive something to believe in. A hook to hang our hope on. A reason to justify a new confidence in the future. Something to believe in! But it’s not just a theory, a programme, a doctrine even. Sunday by Sunday we come and are offered an encounter with a person.
Jesus inspired faith, but also challenged it. At the beginning of the passage we read, crowds were following him. But that wasn’t the belief, the trust, the faith he wanted. He went on to perform miracles, that said nothing is beyond hope with me around, but he did it to make a point about the sort of faith he was looking for.
“Christian faith is not what you believe but whom you trust. It’s not about a sewn up list of certainties, but a daily walk of obedience”
Beyond Self-Belief…
The leper, in all his despair, believed. The centurion, with all his authority, trusted. Jesus, responded, and challenged those who thought faith was inherited or assumed, or simply a matter of religious practice, to think again.
Reflection – In what do you believe? In whom do you trust? When the chips are down, where do you go? Over what situation do you need faith today? (If you can’t think of one – what about living more by faith?)
Office Address:
Coney Hill Road
West Wickham
Kent
BR4 9BU