Matlock | 21/06/26 | Faith Hope Love | Andy Hamill

Matlock 

Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/354059/episodes/19386845-matlock-21-06-26-faith-hope-love-andy-hamill.mp3

Andy spoke about Faith, Hope and Love.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Church in the Peak podcast. We hope you enjoy this message. For more information, visit churchinthepeak.org or come and join us at 10 a.m. every Sunday. Yeah, so I'm Andy. I'm here with my wife Jill this morning, and as has already been said, we're part of uh the Church in the Peak site that meets in Buxton. Um just a bit of an update. So we have now have a regular 30 or so people meeting on a Sunday morning. Uh the rare occasion that we're all there, there's probably about 40, 45 maybe, which actually is really good considering where we were maybe 18 months or two years ago when we weren't sure whether we were going to be carrying on. We were lucky to have maybe 10 meeting. Um so absolutely amazing. Um, we are currently about halfway through an alpha course, so again, we've got about 30-35 people coming along every Tuesday evening to our alpha course, and a good story actually. So I think a number of you will know Nevin Pam, who used to be here now with us up in Buxton. Um first bank holiday in May, Buxton has a May Day fair, um, stores all through the town, bands playing, charities exhibiting what they do and all of that sort of thing. And it was in the lead up to the alpha course. We'd opened up the source and inviting people in for tea, coffee, cake, and biscuits and all of that sort of thing. And Nevin Pan came along as well, and they put their alpha t-shirts on and decided they were going to head out around town distributing flyers about the alpha course. And at the end of the day, they came back and they were really deflated. They said, I don't know what good we've done. I think the only people we've spoken to who are those who have come to Bookston for the day, just visiting for the day, or people who uh are kind of running the market stores. I really don't know what good we've done. Anyway, the first Tuesday of Alpha, two young girls turn up, 15, 16 years of age, just starting their GCSEs, said, seed this flyer, and we just want to know more about Christianity. So, you know, you can think you've not done anything worthwhile, but actually, God is at work behind the scenes, and those two girls have been coming along week after week, asking questions, contributing to discussions and all of that sort of stuff. So, absolutely brilliant. So, uh, yeah, God's at work in Buxton as as he is across all three sites of Church in the Peak. Back to this morning. It's funny how the enemy tries to get under your skin, isn't it? So when the email first came out asking for people to speak, I don't know, is it over the the next few weeks or something? The email actually said, If if you feel God has placed something on your heart, let us know, because we'd like you to speak. And I have to be honest, I didn't have I didn't feel as though God had got anything for me necessarily to speak about. I just felt I ought to offer my services as it were. But fairly quickly I felt as though God encouraged me to 1 Corinthians 13, and specifically faith, hope, and love. And I thought to myself, really, surely people have heard enough on 1 Corinthians 13. Surely people have heard enough about faith, hope, and love. And that's kind of been in the back of my mind through the time that I've been preparing for this morning. And as has already been alluded to, get into prayer this morning, and uh it's kind of the the the theme of the prayer, as we said, was freshness. Um, you know, God wanting to do something new, not being happy with the status quo, um, not being happy with the maggoty bread, but that God wants to bring some fresh manner. And so kind of, in one sense, there is nothing new to say, is there? You know, it's all there in the Bible. It's been said before, I'm sure. I mean, in later on I'll refer to Jonathan Edwards, an 18th century preacher. But in another sense, I really feel that God wants to encourage us again this morning, particularly with regards to faith, hope, and love. And that he wants to encourage us to raise our levels of faith, hope, and love, and to allow him to empower us to have greater faith, hope, and love. So, yeah, I'd encourage you this morning, as we have been already, let's be open to the Holy Spirit doing a fresh thing amongst us, not just this morning, but that it has the ripples in our lives beyond this morning. So, yeah, God wants us to raise our our faith, hope, and love. There are some crazy things happening in the world at the moment, isn't there? You know, just heard about something this morning which you just think, what was that all about? But you know, but as I was preparing, I was thinking, you know, over the last two or three years, I thought back to um the the riots that we had across the country following the uh the incident in Southport. We've had something similar in the last couple of weeks. Um, where was it, in Southampton, was it? And then then in Belfast, and you kind of think this is just mad. Um seems to be increased polarization of views and opinions, and it's you know potentially bringing all sorts of division within our communities. Um, just in the last couple of weeks, the a report came out, didn't it, about you know, the the never-before seen levels of young people who are not in employment, education, and training, and just all sorts of stuff that you kind of think, what on earth is going on? And we get given all sorts of reasons as to why these things are happening, whether it be economic uncertainty, global uncertainty, immigration, social media, all sorts of things that we get told these are the reasons that these things are happening. And you know, they are valid reasons, they're very real reasons, but for me, I think they are just the symptoms of a deeper cause. You know, so I I I have something called celiac disease, um, and it manifested itself when you know just a little bit of exercise and I was getting breathless and discovered that was caused by anemia, but actually at the root cause of it was celiac disease, which is my stomach basically gets plagged up with gluten and stops my body absorbing the nutrients. That was the root cause. And for me, all these things that we're seeing at the moment are symptoms, and I believe that the root cause is an absence of faith, hope, and love. If the kingdom of God is defined by faith, hope, and love, we need to understand that the things of this world, the things of the enemy, of the devil, will by will be directly opposed to that. And I think a lot, if not all, of what we are seeing going on around us at the moment is defined by doubt, fear, and control. So what does that mean for us? Well, I believe we are called to be carriers of faith, hope, and love. Not the sort of faith, hope and love that the world carries, a different sort of faith, hope, and love. It is supernatural. It is sourced in eternity, in heaven. It is of the Holy Spirit, and it is a faith, hope, and love that kind of carries something of the essence of God, almost like something of his DNA, almost. It is different. So I don't know. Here's my depiction of faith, hope, and love. Okay, we'll we'll kind of refer to that picture as we're going along. And here's my take on things. So what's different? What's different to the hope that we carry? Hope is rooted. Hope is always rooted in something, isn't it? Whether we acknowledge it or not. Hope is always rooted in something. We always throw our rope onto a bele point of hope of some sort, don't we? Hoping that it will remain true and do what it's supposed to do. You know, so for some of us, we might hope that the next government is going to get things sorted. Is Andy Burnham gonna get things sorted? Who knows? Who knows? For some of us, maybe we put our hope in a great career and all the benefits that that come with that, and life will be hunky-dory when we've got a good career going on. For some of us, it might be health, wealth, family. Uh for some of us, it might be the number of likes that we get on our social media. Maybe for some of us, our hope is rooted in England winning the World Cup. Probably not any Scott Scottish people here. Probably not you then. Some of these things are important. Please understand that. You know, we do hope that the next government gets things sorted out. I know I do. I don't put much hope in it, but I hope they will. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do well and achieve in your career and do your best in your career, and it would be great if Harry and the boys bought it home, wouldn't it? But the reality is, all these things are fleeting, aren't they? They are uncertain, they are flawed, they are temporary. The hope that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians, which I'm just conscious I've not read actually, but the hope that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians is rooted in eternity. It is set in heaven, it is set in God and his promises. And these are hopes that are not vague, not fleeting, not temporary, not here today and gone tomorrow. Our hope, the Christian hope, is solid, it is certain, it is eternal. In 1 Peter 1, we're told that he, Jesus, was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, so that your faith and so your faith and hope are in God. Our hope is in the one who is from eternity and who is to eternity. And the Bible tells us that God is faithful to those who put their hope in eternity. James wrote, Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. And the writer of the letter of Hebrews says something similar. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the end. And Jesus Himself said, The one who stands firm to the end will be saved. They will be saved. This is hope, isn't it? This is true hope. This is the hope that we carry as Christians and that we carry to the world around us. That in the middle of all this craziness and uncertainty that we call life, if we cling to the true, faithful, and eternal promises of God, we will see Jesus, who is from eternity and is now seated in eternity, we will receive the crown of life, we will share in a glorious, imperishable inheritance, we will be saved, healed, made whole if we choose now to kind of set our stake in eternity. What about faith? The faith that Paul talks about here. Faith is active. At some point, that climber, Ab Sailor, has got to take action, hasn't he? He's got to put his faith in that rope and hope that it's a steadfast hope. But he's got to do something. He's got to lean back, he's got to leap off, he's got to take a step off of the cliff. As one of my former pastors and friends, Sonny Oliver, once said, you have to throw your life behind your prayers. Faith is active. For many of us, I'm sure, have been reading our Bibles for a little while, and I'm sure we all love Hebrews 11. It's what we might call a hall of fame or a hall of faith. But it talks about people who did great acts of faith. And that's kind of the point, isn't it? They did great acts of faith. So it talks about people like Noah, who acted in faith, built an ark, even though there was no indication, no hint that a flood was on its way. Talks about people like Abraham, who set out for the promised land, acting in faith. People like Moses, who did loads of stuff in faith, didn't he? It didn't just happen, he had to act. Talks about Barak, I can never Barak, Barak. Anyway, Samson, Jephthah, that story always makes me cry. Anyway, uh, David, Samuel, and the others. It refers to the others. We don't get to find out who they are. The faith that Paul is talking about here is not just some whimsical dream thrown up into the air, some whimsical prayer. It is a faith. There is notions of this something gripping them, taking hold of them, captivating them, and compelling them to action. The people listed in Hebrews 11 had set their hope in God, in his word, in his promises, and they were so gripped, so captivated by it that they were compelled to action, to do something. So what about us? Are we so gripped, so captivated by God and his word and his promises that we are compelled to action? And then finally, love. Tina Turner once said, didn't she? She asked the question, what's love got to do with it? I won't sing for you. What's love got to do with it? Well, thanks for asking, Tina. Because the Bible says that it's got a lot to do with it. It's got a lot to do with it. Paul tells the Christian church in the context of 1 Corinthians 13, he's talking about spiritual gifts and kind of almost saying, spiritual gifts are an expression of love. And they are to be used as an expression of love for the church and to build the church up. They are not about showing how spiritually superior you are, which is what was going on here in the Corinthian church, it would seem. What does the Bible tell us? It tells us that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. God's motivation for saving us was love. It was his motive for action. The other week on the Alpha course in Buxton, we've got about three or four, two, three, four people who are coming along who are non-Christians. And we were doing the topic, I can't remember exactly what it's called, but it was like, What why did Jesus die? What why did he have to die? I can't remember the exact title. And one person was asked, What do you think of God dying for you? And their response as a non-Christian was, I'm gobsmacked. I'm gobsmacked. You know, you kind of think, yeah, God loves you that much. You should be gobsmacked. We all should be gobsmacked, shouldn't we? God loved us that much, and he didn't, you know, the love didn't just stay there, he acted on it. Didn't he? It was his motive for action. Nikki Gumbel said the greatest form of evangelism is love. Jesus said the greatest commandments revolve around love. Love for God and love for others, love for our neighbors. And he said that we will be identified as his disciples if we love one another. When talking about eternity, the commentator Haddon Anderson says the new creation will be characterized by love. And here's Jonathan Edwards, 18th century preacher, said, For God is the fountain of love, as the sun is a fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven fills heaven with love, as the sun placed in the midst of the hemisphere, fills the world with light. 1 John 4 tells us that God, our God in heaven, in eternity, in whom we've set our hope, it says, God is love. Sorry, yeah, whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us, so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world, we are like Jesus. That's a powerful passage of scripture, isn't it? Sorry, another musical reference. 1984, you can guess when I grew up, can't you? The band Foreigner declared, I want to know what love is. Anyone else remember? Yeah, I'm not the only one. I want to know what love is. As church, we are called to respond to that cry, aren't we? To that declaration. Not just respond to foreigner, but to the world as a whole. We are called to be like Jesus, who fully reflected the love of God to the world. We are called to be carriers of faith, hope, and love, which is sourced in eternity and carry it to the world around us. If we don't fill that void that I was talking about earlier, if we don't fill the void with the things of heaven, the world and the enemy will fill it with doubt, fear, and control. And God will encourage us this morning set your hope in heaven. Eternity in him, in his word, in his promises. Let them grip you, let them get hold of you, give them permission to captivate you. I think sometimes we don't allow that to happen, do we? His word, his promises are just amazing, aren't they? That we will see Jesus. I'm going off. Let them grip you, let them take hold of you, and motivated by love, carry them to the world around us. Carry those promises, those good, faithful, true promises, the hope of the world to the world around us. It's a world that is crying out, I want to know what love is. And let's let's recognize this. You know, this so-called quiet revival is still going on. And not just here in the UK. I've seen reports about it, you know, all over Europe, which is supposedly the darkest continent, is it? Is that right? I don't know. Anyways, anyway, it's going on all over the place. Let's recognise that. People are turning up at church and saying, I just want to find out more about Christianity. They're looking for the faith, hope, and love that we carry. Not just the faith and hope and love that the world carries. I was listening to a song this morning before we came down to Matlock, and the lyric was there's nothing like your love. It's never changing, but it changes everything. The faith, hope, and love that we carry is the most transformative thing in the world. So I don't know everybody here this morning, but I want to give an opportunity. If you've never set your hope in eternity, in God, in Christ, and in his promises, then there's an opportunity to do so this morning. So I don't know if we can go to the to the final slide. Let's all, if you can see it, let's all of us pray this prayer together. Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God who died for my sins and rose again to give me life. Forgive me of my sins and make me new. I turn from my old ways and choose to follow you. You are my Lord, my Savior, and my King. I have decided to follow Jesus. Amen. So let's just bow our heads. And if you have prayed that prayer for the first time this morning, could you just put your hand up and let us know? And for the rest of us, you know, God does want to refresh your faith, hope, and love again. And he wants it to be that supernatural faith, hope, and love, that spirit-filled faith, hope, and love that can change the world around you. So Jesus, Holy Spirit, again, we invite you to come and live in us afresh. We open our hearts and our minds and we say, Holy Spirit, come and fill us, I pray, with that supernatural faith, hope, and love that only comes from you. And help us and empower us to be carriers of that faith, hope, and love to the world around us. To bring your kingdom, your faith, hope, and love back to a needy world. In Jesus' name. Amen.