Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
November 14, 2010 - W1046

In this season of celebration, a few of us go through a season of doubts. Are we ever going to get out of our financial problems? Is there going to be a second chance for a marriage gone sour? Are our teenage kids not going to make better choices? As we go on with our lives, our faith gets shaken by various challenging events.  We tend to doubt if God is really there to assist us.  Why did these things happen to us? Pastor Wayne is going to give us some pointers on how to assist us on our journey of faith.

All of us, once in awhile, go through doubt. A few events in our lives challenge us into doubt. Does this kind of response disqualify us as Christians? No…we are only going through these things in the normal seasons of our lives. Non-believers would ask us why God would send people to hell. Why is there so much evil in this world? Then, doubt settles in our minds. There are examples of people in the Old and New Testament who have experienced doubt with God.  Among them were Job, in the Old Testament, Thomas in the New Testament, who is called “Doubting Thomas,” and then, Peter in the New Testament. Peter is my favorite…let us read what it says in the following verse…  

"Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water... But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?'" (Matt. 14:29-31)

Peter had doubts I could relate to. He was the kind of person that would always put a foot in his mouth. He would be just too quick with his words and fire them at people without thinking. So, when he was in boat with Jesus, his faith was tested. He was a risk taker. He walked on water, but doubt crept in, and he started doubting Jesus.  With love there is a choice. Peter chose to be doubtful in this situation. This brings us to the next point…

1. It reminds us that we have a CHOICE.

Joshua says to us….

"Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve..." (Josh. 24:15)

When you have a hard time choosing, your faith is not fully developed yet. We tend to doubt God when things go wrong. We base our doubts on various types of doubts like circumstantial doubt and intellectual doubt.  It can affect our faith. In circumstantial doubt, you base everything on your circumstances. In intellectual doubt, you tend to ask questions and analyze everything before making a choice. Until you make that decision or choice you will always be in doubt. Align your choices with God. He doesn’t take our choices away. Faith is a choice. It is a heart choice. And…

Doubt may simply be a NORMAL part of building your faith.

Doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith. Doubt means you don’t understand things but need to dig deeper. You need to investigate. You need to scrub your heart and seek God’s direction in what to do next.
Let us…read the next verses…

"The boy's father cried out and said, 'I do believe; help my unbelief.'" (Mark 9:24)

"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:12-13)

God wants us not only to work or do His pleasure, but we have to will ourselves to do it. It has to come from within our hearts.  We have to want it. When you come to know God’s heart, what God wants you to do is what you want to do. You have to work out your faith in God with respect. One day someone asked me if he was doing what God wanted him to do. I explained that before he became a Christian, God wanted him to do something but he didn’t want to do it. But what God didn’t want him to do, he did. Now that he is saved and his heart is aligned with God, that has changed.  His heart has been scrubbed and it is becoming more like Christ. So, what God wants for them is now what he wants too.

...OR...

 if he still continued to do the same things…

Doubt could signal a STUBBORN heart.

"[They were] a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright..." (Ps. 78:8)

You could have a stubborn heart when God shows you something and you doubt it. A man came to me for counseling one day. His marriage was going sour. I told him that God could heal your marriage. He said, “I doubt it!” Then I told him that God could provide all that he needed for his financial problems. He said the same thing, “I doubt it!” He was very obstinate. Doubt doesn’t disqualify you but unbelief does.  Doubt is very different from unbelief. Doubt is not the opposite of faith but unbelief is. Doubt says I am having a hard time believing. Unbelief says I refuse to believe. Doubt is honesty. Unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt says I know I could do this if had the strength. Unbelief says I will not do it. Doubt keeps searching for the light. Unbelief is content with darkness. Doubt says I don’t know what God thinks.  Unbelief says I don’t care what God thinks. You need to understand the difference between doubt and unbelief. Honest doubt seeks answers. Remember Mary?  When the angel came to tell her and told her that she was going to have a child. She asked the angel, “How could I have a child when I don’t have a husband?” She sought answers to her doubt. On the other hand, Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father had a different answer.  When the angel came to Zechariah and told him that God had answered his prayer and that he would have a son, he was full of unbelief.  He said that he and his wife were old and his wife was barren. How could it be? Because of this unbelief, God made Zechariah mute until his son was born while Mary who responded with an honest question was made Mother of God’s son. Doubt can turn toxic. First, doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith. Make sure that you work it through.

I was riding a plan on the way home. I was tired and didn’t want to be bothered. As I was trying to relax, a lady came up to my aisle and started talking. She asked me where was I going? Where did I come from? When she asked me this, I said I had come from a Christian conference. Usually this would quiet down people but she said that she used to go to church, but people in church hurt her. So, she doesn’t go to church anymore. It was sad. She based her religious belief on trusting people instead of God. The Bible doesn’t tell us to trust people; it tells us to trust God. This brings us to the next point…

2. It reminds us to TRUST God and love people, not the other way around.

In the Bible, there are a few verses that mention trusting God instead of men. Let us read the verses that tell us about trusting God…

Let us read the next verse…

"Do not trust in princes or in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation." (Ps. 146:3)

Even though he is a prince, he could make a mistake. Mankind is mortal. Men are accident prone. Men can’t sustain us; only God can.

One of my favorite Bible verse is…

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." (Prov. 3:5-6)

Let us inspire and encourage each other and remember that verse because …

3. It reminds me to live FORWARD in spite of the doubts.

Let us read the following verse…

"Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him." (Mark 11:23)

When we have doubt and people had failed us, we tend to stop everything and not move forward. We can’t stay in this kind of state if we want to develop a mountain moving faith. If we want a mountain moving faith, we must work to rid ourselves of doubt. Don’t let doubt stay. If we want a faith that can move mountains we need to dig through all the doubts. Honest doubt seeks faith. Don’t let doubt become unbelief.

FAITH ISN'T THE ABSENCE OF DOUBTS. IT'S FOLLOWING GOD IN SPITE OF THEM!

When doubts knock at your door, let your faith answer it, and there'll be no one there.

In conclusion, let us move towards a faith that could move mountains. Let us not allow doubt to enter our lives. Let us inspire, encourage and help one another.

Discussion Suggestions:

1. What are the things you do when doubt invades your life?

2. Discuss the difference between doubt and unbelief?

3. What are the things you could do to gear-up or get in tune with the will of God?

4. What are the two kinds of doubt? Explain them.

5. Give examples in your own experience about doubt.

6. What did you learn from that experience?