Sermon Central
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Believe You Unbelieving
Contributed by Pablo Catala on Jul 29, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: Faith in Christ
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
What can God do with a heart that would believe? There are some that believe for the winning lottery ticket, others believe liars time and time again, some believe the meteorologist all the time but very few believe the Word of God, I want to declare to you this evening that doubt is one of the enemy’s tools to strip you and steal the promise of God from your life. Not every time seeing is believing; when it comes to God trusting is believing for the things you cannot see. None of us have ever seen God yet we have seen the move of God.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
We cannot please God without faith. Doubt beloved can steal your promise from you; doubt will mock you and cause you to look upon the Word of God with ridiculed eyes and a heart that fades at the truth of the gospel. Beloved our bible is all truth, none of it is false, none of it contradicts itself, none of it lacks of any need of any human being. Tonight my question is what are you trying to believe God for but can’t seem to trust him for it?
Our bible is full of miracles seen by man to encourage the believer in Christ that if God through Christ was able to do it then, He will be able to do it now. Miracles, full blown miracles.
Just yesterday after the rally we were taken to eat and as we were with a fellow Pastor and His family others around we saw a miracle in a wheelchair, a gentleman that we prayed for fasted for that was on the verge of death, family had prepared his funeral yet he was being strolled around in the wonderful summer day. Can you believe God for miracles, now. Not tomorrow, not in a couple months, but now!
24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." 26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" 27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Here in our scripture beloved we see a man by the name of Thomas, a man that has walked with Jesus, a man who has seen the miracles performed by His hand, Lazarus raised from the dead, Talitha the little girl raised from her deathbed, blind man receiving their sight, lame men walking and yet Jesus telling them during the last supper I will be betrayed and given to the hands of sinners put to death but be raised again on the third day, He has never lied, has never said anything that He wasn’t able to do and yet Thomas still doubted.
Doubt has made a mockery out of Christians, listen to me, it plays out in our prayer life, when we doubt we pray less, we pray lower and we pray weak. Thomas will always be remembered as doubting Thomas, we have an opportunity to be remembered as believing saints of God.
1st Point “What happened to the faith”
Thomas missed the opportunity to meet with the risen Savior; he refused to believe the report from his fellow men who were men of testimony and integrity. He resolved to not believe. Could it be that maybe even though he knew them to be honest men; all ten of them concurred in the testimony with great assurance; and yet he could not persuade himself to say that their record was true. Christ had chosen them to be his witnesses of this very thing to all nations; and yet Thomas, one of their own company; would not allow them to be witnesses, nor trust them further than he could see them. It was not, however, their veracity that he questioned, but their prudence; he feared they were too excited or imaginable.
