Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact eric.black@baptiststandard.com.
Rev. Jade Evans: I’m Better Off Believing (Matthew 13:54-58)
Rev. Jade Evans opened with the story, recounted in Mark 9:14-27, of a man taking his demon-possessed son to Jesus. This man, though he believed in Jesus, asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief. “Believers can struggle with unbelief,” Evans declared.
Evans was a guest preacher at David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Austin and is an associate minister at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mansfield.
Turning to Matthew 13, Evans pointed to the people of Nazareth, who knew Jesus the most yet had the least faith in him. She compared current believers in Jesus to the Nazarenes. Just as they doubted Jesus, so do we, she explained.
Jesus interrupted the normal synagogue schedule in Nazareth to instruct them. The Nazarenes took “issue with his interruption,” she continued. Instead of listening to Jesus’ teaching, they questioned him among themselves, whining instead of worshipping. Evans exhorted her hearers not to be distracted from listening to Jesus’ instruction.
We are better off believing, because God has a plan and has included us in his plan, Evans proclaimed. God’s plan also includes many miracles and powerful deeds.
This sermon was delivered during the morning worship service of David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church on Sept. 18, 2022. Joseph Parker is the pastor.
A sermon outline is available here.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.