Sermon Notes, October 25, 2015
Rev.
Garry McGlinchy
Rev.
McGlinchy’s sermon was titled “Faith Redefined: Miraculous Faith.” He reviewed the scripture that inspired this
series, 1 Corinthians 13:13, which tells us “…these three remain: faith, hope,
and love. And the greatest of these is
love.” Last week Pastor Garry talked
about Obedient Faith. Faith requires
obedience. Faith always starts with God’s
calling. Faith leads us to greater
things. In order to grow in faith, we
must listen for His leading and obey His call!
Matthew
17:14-20 tells the story of a man who brought his son to the disciples for
healing, but they couldn’t cast out the demon.
After Jesus healed him, the disciples asked why they couldn’t do
it. Jesus told them it was because they
had so little faith. They’d been given
the authority to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy and
cast out demons. . .” (Matt. 10:8) but they had not learned how to apply the
power of God in order to cast out the demon.
If only they’d had “NANO” sized faith (the faith of a mustard seed) they
could have done it. The disciples’ lack
of faith was a reflection of the society that they lived in. We, too, often lean on our own power: we live
in a society that expects us to “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps,”
which leaves no room for the Holy Spirit.
We need to lean on Him. In order
for the disciples to cast out the demon, they needed to de0pend on God’s power
and not their own.
In
Mark 5:21-43 and Matthew 8:5-13, we find some examples of NANO-sized, mustard
seed faith. This woman had been bleeding
for twelve years from an incurable condition.
She desperately needed Jesus’ healing touch. She thought, “If I could only touch the edge
of His robe, I know that I will be healed.” Jesus was being pressed on all sides by a huge
crowd, (no “personal space” in that crowd!) but he asked “Who touched me?” He
felt the woman’s touch over everyone else’s because she was reaching out in
faith.
In
Matthew 8:5-13 we see a Roman officer asking Jesus to heal his servant. He could have used many excuses to keep him
from going to Jesus: pride, language differences, race, money, doubt, fear, and
so on. But this centurion had some
incredible faith: he knew that if Jesus simply said the words that his servant
would be healed! He was a leader, with
people under him, but was considered socially unclean. Jesus
was impressed with his faith. In fact He
said that He had yet to find anyone in Israel that could match the centurion’s
faith.
In
order for us to have this kind of miraculous faith we need to realize our faith
should be rooted in God’s unlimited power, not in our own limited power. His power is not dependent on social status,
but on His undying love for His creation.
If we allow excuses to get in the way of God’s power, then we deprive
ourselves of having a true relationship with Him. Have you ever wondered what God would have
done with Moses—just Moses—if he’d trusted God to help him with his speaking
instead of asking for Aaron?
Jesus’
rebuke of the disciples for their little faith wasn’t meant to condemn
them. It was meant to encourage them to
strive for a deeper faith. They were so
focused on the mountain in front of them they couldn’t see the creator of the
mountain. If we allow the mountains in
our lives to fill our view we ultimately lose sight of our creator. Doubt and fear creep in, and our faith in the
creator diminishes. Let’s lean on God’s
unlimited POWER and not our own limited power.
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