Date: 09-06-24
Preacher: Ps Chen Mengxia
Title: An Amazing Faith
An Amazing Faith
The main biblical reference for Ps Chen’s sermon was taken from Matthew 8: 5 -10.
She started her sermon with a great story of faith, that of James Hudson Taylor on his first mission trip to China. At one point, the sailboat they were in was drifting closer and closer to the shore of an island inhabited by cannibals as the wind had died down. The captain, after ordering his men to roll up the sails so that they could use their raw brawn to steer with oars away from the island, then went to seek James asking him to pray to his God to rescue them. He kept quiet, thought for a while and told the captain to bring up the sails again. The captain replied that bringing up the sails would make it supremely hard to row but James was adamant and said that he would only pray when the sails were up. The captain agreed and James went to his cabin to pray. After a while, the captain went to James’ cabin to tell him to stop praying for the wind was getting too strong. What a God we have for His sense of humour too!
With that lead-in, Ps Chen then went on to bring in the main character in her message and that was the Centurion, a Roman soldier who pleaded with Jesus to heal his servant who was dying at home. One must note that Roman soldiers were greatly detested by the Jews then. However, this centurion was different and even the Jews had good words to say about him for they also pleaded with Jesus on his behalf too. In Ps Chen’s message he had a heart for people and God for he also treated his own servant like his own child.
What struck me in the sermon was a reference to the centurion’s faith; it was not based on any circumstances nor did he need any evidence to believe that Jesus would have the power and sovereignty to heal his servant at a distance. He just believed and told Jesus all He needed to do was to say the word and his servant would be healed and He need not even go to his home to treat the servant. Even Jesus himself was amazed at the man’s faith.
Ps Chen ended her sermon with another faith story, that of Sadhu Sundar Singh, a worker for God who laboured between India and the Tibetan plateau. The place was not only filled with poisonous snakes but wild beasts too. And in all his days traversing the two countries his life was never threatened and he never brought with him any weapon too. What amazing faith!
