Something to Believe In
\nAudio Message from Chattanooga Rescue Mission
\nPreached June 17, 2026<\/p>\n
On June 17, 2026, I preached this message at the Chattanooga Rescue Mission from John 1:1-14, with special attention given to verses 10-13. The title of the message is \u201cSomething to Believe In.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was nothing especially dramatic or outwardly memorable about that particular service. No unusual interruption. No long line of men waiting afterward to talk. No visible moment that made the night stand out from many other nights I have preached there. But as I stood in the old gymnasium and looked across the room, there was one thing I could not help but notice. The place was full of men.<\/p>\n
They were spread across the chairs and the bleachers of that old gym, many of them carrying burdens I will never fully know. Some were tired. Some looked worn down by life. Some listened carefully. Some sat quietly. Some may have been fighting battles in their mind, their body, their memory, their addiction, their guilt, or their grief.<\/p>\n
The Chattanooga Rescue Mission has a long history in this city. Years ago, the mission moved from East Eighth Street in downtown Chattanooga to the old Senter School building. Back in 2015, I wrote a blog post titled \u201cDisheartening News\u201d after learning that the mission\u2019s capacity had been reduced from 60 to 40 men. I remember writing that my heart sank because that meant twenty fewer people under the preaching of the Gospel, twenty fewer people under the godly influence of the mission staff, and twenty fewer people sleeping in the safety of the mission.<\/p>\n
That burden has never really left me.<\/p>\n
In 2020, during the Covid epidemic, the chapel services were moved into the old gymnasium to give more space between guests. Since then, the number of men staying at the mission has continued to grow. From what I can tell, the maximum capacity for men is around 58, not including the spaces available for women. That night, although I did not get an exact count, it looked like there was every bit of that number in the room.<\/p>\n
That was heavy on my heart.<\/p>\n
I thought about the words behind this message. The world is full of people looking for something to believe in. Some look to family. Some look to government. Some look to religions and philosophies. Some look to themselves. Some have tried all of that and found it unable to hold them when life begins to fall apart.<\/p>\n
But John tells us that God has given us more than an idea to believe in. He has given us Someone to believe on. His name is Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
John 1 says, \u201cHe was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.\u201d The One who made the world came into the world, and the world rejected Him. The hands that formed creation were nailed to a cross. The true Light came, but men loved darkness rather than light.<\/p>\n
Yet verse 12 gives the good news. \u201cBut as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is the Gospel I was glad to preach to those men that night.<\/p>\n
Not a church building. Not a preacher. Not a program. Not self-improvement. Not a government. Not human goodness. God has given us His Son. Jesus died on the cross. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus saves sinners. He is able to take a man who is lost, guilty, broken, weary, and dead in sin, and give him life from God.<\/p>\n
The message is simple, but it is not shallow. Salvation is not by lineage. You cannot be born again because of your family line. Salvation is not by labor. You cannot work your way into the family of God. Salvation is not by longing. Wanting peace, comfort, and heaven is not the same as receiving Christ.<\/p>\n
The new birth is \u201cof God.\u201d<\/p>\n
That night at the Rescue Mission, very few men came to talk to me after the service. But the seed of the Gospel was sown. I believe that matters. The Word of God matters and I believe the Gospel is still the power of God unto salvation.<\/p>\n
So I keep praying for a harvest.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in that room may have been a man who needed more than a bed for the night. He needed Christ. There may have been a man who had lost confidence in nearly everything. He needed Someone to believe on. In that room may have been a man who wondered if there was any hope left for him.<\/p>\n
There is.<\/p>\n
His name is Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Something to Believe In Audio Message from Chattanooga Rescue Mission Preached June 17, 2026 On June 17, 2026, I preached this message at the Chattanooga Rescue Mission from John 1:1-14, with special attention given to verses 10-13. The title of the message is \u201cSomething to Believe In.\u201d There was nothing especially dramatic or outwardly memorable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[366,335],"tags":[793,795,749,789,797,796,750,792,794],"class_list":["post-15997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio","category-blog","tag-believe-on-his-name","tag-born-of-god","tag-chattanooga-rescue-mission","tag-evangelistic-preaching","tag-gospel-hope","tag-homelessness","tag-jesus-saves","tag-john-1","tag-sons-of-god","post_format-post-format-audio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Something_To_Believe_In_Post_Image.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15998,"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997\/revisions\/15998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ronniebrown.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}