"Vcr Faith”

I’m so glad our God doesn’t impose a question quota on us. God welcomes our doubts, questions and feelings. Sometimes we all have bouts with doubts.

1. Those who are pre-doubters.

2. Those who are doubters. Every once in a while that doubt drives you crazy.

3. Those who are dead. The only way you won’t have doubts is when you have no brain activity.

The good news is we can win our battle.

You may have a low-grade doubt or you may have the full-blown deal.

Can God really forgive me? How can a good God allow all the bad things? How does Christianity square with evolution? Does Christianity have to do with your born?

First goal with doubt. It’s OK to doubt. It’s OK to ask questions. If you don’t face your doubts squarely your doubts can dominate you and over run you. Face them squarely punch them and face them eye to eye.

Second we need to strengthen our faith. Bill Phillips before and after pictures. That’s what needs to happen to us in this series. Strong feels good.

Third we need to answer the why’s of our faith. Do we have faith in faith or do we have faith in God.

Shocking statement about doubt. Doubt and unbelief are different animals. Doubt and believe are similar, but doubt and unbelief are different. Doubt means I’m between two things. Belief means on one thing living there. Unbelief means I’m staying clear of something. The enemy likes to come to us and say “Oh you doubt then your not a Christian, if you where a true believer you wouldn’t have any doubts”. Doubts and believe go hand in hand. Matter of fact doubt when faced will serve to build your faith.

If every single question was answered there would be no faith.

Doubt is not a cosmic crime. “I’ve committed the unpardonable sin because I’ve doubted. Madison Square Garden has an organist that is really talented. During crunch time in a hockey game, or basketball game the organist will begin to play the charge anthem. John the Baptist pointed out Jesus Christ he was beginning to play the charge anthem. But when he was thrown in prison he had a bout with doubt.

Luke 7:18-23

18The disciples of John the Baptist soon heard of all that Jesus was doing. When they told John about it, 19he sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him, "Are you really the Messiah? Or shall we keep on looking for him?"

20The two disciples found Jesus while he was curing many sick people of their various diseases-healing the lame and the blind and casting out evil spirits. When they asked him John’s question, this was his reply: "Go back to John and tell him all you have seen and heard here today: how those who were blind can see. The lame are walking without a limp. The lepers are completely healed. The deaf can hear again. The dead come back to life. And the poor are hearing the Good News. 23And tell him, `Blessed is the one who does not lose his faith in me.’"

TLB

Luke 7:27-28

28In all humanity there is no one greater than John. And yet the least citizen of the Kingdom of God is greater than he."

TLB

Doubt has great potential. Ear infection. A germ of doubt can cause an infection that can cause our faith to close down. Doubt can get us closer to God. God can cause this distance that can help us to see God’s character and our great need for Him and His presence in our life. Distance between me and Julie while she is in South Carolina.

Ps 22:1

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from the words of my groaning?

Doubt has punches that hurt us. The intellectual questions of rational sometimes give us a painful upper cut. Angels, dinosaurs, virgin birth. Write your doubts out be specific, you’ll be prolific when you’re specific.

The psychological head butts. Some of us here are damaged from our past. Some peoples earthly fathers have been messed up as far as their relationship with God as a father.

Illustration: New York University psychology professor Paul Vitts in his book “Faith of the Fatherless” studied the childhood of several well known atheist and saw strong evidence that their rejection of God is directly related to their earthly father pain. The death of a father or the abuse, or abandonment by their fathers. Paul points out that Fredrick Neechie the philosopher who declared that God is dead lost his father at age four. Samuel Butler a skeptical British writer was often brutally beaten by his pious father. Sigmund Freud said his father was a pervert and he built much of his psychological theory around father hatred. John Paul Sauter French exestinctualnist lost his father when he was a baby and later he deeply resented his stepfather. Joseph Stalin’s father beat him unmercifully. So this suggests that it should not surprise us that communism which rejected authority figures including God appealed to Stalin. Hitler received terrible beatings from his father.