Sunday, August 5, 2018

Doubt - The Enemy of Faith


Doubt - a feeling of uncertainty, lack of conviction 

Doubt is the struggle all people face.

Do you find yourself making faces when people tell you things they will do?

Have you ever used these phrases?
I'll believe it when I see it!
If I was a betting man!
That dude ain't worth water!
When pigs fly!
When h freezes over!

Have you ever been made promises that weren't kept?

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" - Mark 9:24

God is faithful even though we have our doubts and fears!

You must have a relationship with God.

What can we learn from Abraham about doubt and faith that would help us remain faithful to God?

Doubt causes us to focus on our present situation.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." - Genesis 15:1

Fear not He is your shield.
Every child of God has this as their hope 

Doubt enters!
He is focusing on the present.

2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
3 And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." - Genesis 15:2-3

Faith causes us to focus on God!

4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."
5 And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." - Genesis 15:4-5

Look to God!
Look forward not backwards!
You have a choice to make...doubt or faith.

And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:6

God is sovereign.
He is not to be approached with a mind of maybe, He will do what He says!
With God, you are either all in or all out.
Holy God is worthy of your all!!

Even though we doubt, God is faithful.

7 And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess."
8 But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" - Genesis 15:7-8

God made a covenant with Abraham!
This shows His faithfulness.
Just as God has made a covenant with me and you through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through faith alone, in Christ alone!

9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.
11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
13 Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites." - Genesis 15:9-21


Thank you Pastor Draper!!!














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