主題：军官的信心

日期：8月21日
讲员：黄柑霖牧师
主題：军官的信心
Kaixuan
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Those who have studied history, we would know that in the past, countries were always looking for opportunities to conquer lands. The more the better! But today, everyone wants peace.

This is especially true in the ancient Roman Empire. The 罗马帝国政府 places much effort in their army – their strategies and the training of the people. Similarly, the ordinary people respected the army greatly.

This bible story in Matthew 8:5-13 talks about a Roman Centurion. "As He entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him, beseeching Him and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress." 

Let’s examine his status. A legion was the largest unit in the Roman army, composed of infantry and cavalry. At full strength, such a division could consist of more than 6,000 soldiers. Each legion was divided into "cohorts" of 600 men, and each cohort was further divided into "centuries" of 100 men. A century was commanded by a centurion.

In this story, the centurion displayed complete faith in Jesus. How can this person fully trust Jesus? Or rather how can this centurion trust others so easily, giving his status that he has met and seen many? Also, being a centurion, he clearly knows how is it to have power. How then can he easily put his pride down, have that faith, and approached Jesus since he has such proud authority of hundreds? Its’ probably because 1) he believed that Jesus really performed a miracle before, 2) his son is dying, he is desperate.

So the question to us is: why and how can we trust something? 

In other words, 你的信心是建立在哪里呢？

Feeling 感觉 (Pastor gave an example of Adam & Eve, they ate the fruit because they felt it was nice and they could really become like God)

Desire (I worship God so I can hit toto?)

Empathy 同理 (“wow the packaging on this slimming product got chio skinny girl sia, I want”)

-- V.S.--

Truth

Reason

Faithfulness

According to Pastor, the bottom three will lead to success.

He identified the problem of man here. Do we look at the PURPOSE of it? Or is it just feel like it or look nice then we trust it?

So if we have this faith, then what should we do? Well, we should start looking further! Pastor questioned that can our church produce Doctors? Generals? Lawyers?

Well, here I understand that some of us may feel a little uncomfortable. What Pastor really means is that God yearns us to do the things we like, extraordinary well – just like the FOP day 1 sermon on Grace! I just want to share an extract on what Steve Jobs (founder, ex-CEO of Apple Inc.) said during a commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005. This is how it goes:

“I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.”

Since we are the light of the world as Jesus said, then why aren't we shining for God? Why aren’t we beating the odds of society? Why aren’t we... up there? Well because I think we haven’t found it yet. God gave us miracles too, which is ourselves. God gave us grace, which is free of charge.

So starting today, I will continue to search my faith, placing it in all the right areas – in truth, in reason and in faithfulness, in what Christ had said and will bring. I want greater works. I hope you do as well. Because at the end of the day, I want to hear from Jesus what he said to the centurion, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed” – Matthew 8:13

P.S. I may have missed things, or omit some, cuz personally I couldn’t find a strong linkage to the topic. Please enlighten :).