When You Can't Believe Series

The Bible says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see…”

How strong is your SPIRITUAL eyesight? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being JESUS, where are you?

Did you know that SOME OF US are WILLINGLY walking down the road of life VISUALLY IMPAIRED?

(Beer Goggles slide) ? Who can tell me what this woman is wearing over her eyes?

When teaching people about the effect of alcohol and how it impairs your ability to drive, the professionals use these beer goggles… They’re designed to simulate how things look when you’re drunk so you’ll avoid the deadly mistake of drinking and driving. Don’t YOU want a pair?

Can you imagine someone PURPOSELY driving to work every day with these on???

Why, you could drive to work every day like a drunk, and when the police pull you over, you’ll come up clean every time. You’re not drunk; you’re just IMPAIRED, by BEER GOGGLES!

That’s absurd! No one in their right mind would purposely wear beer goggles on the way to work…

And yet something funny happens to “people of faith” every day… Believers cruise down the highways of life visually impaired in their faith. People are living under the influence of spiritual blindness by their own choice! HOW ABSURD!

How are they doing this?

By REFUSING TO BELIEVE the infallible, authoritative word of God!

#1 of the 16 TENETS OF FAITH of the Assemblies of God, which most of you are members of today, declares our steadfast belief that:

The Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testaments, are verbally inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct.

(2 Tim 3:15-17;1 Thes. 2:13; 2 Peter 1:21).

Do you believe that? If you’re a member here, you better!

And yet, some of us, probably ALL of us at some point or another, REFUSE to believe God’s Word!

Today, I want to talk to you about the deadly effects of the DUI’s of FAITH…

Let’s call it THE EFFECTS OF FUI: Faith Under the Influence.

Faith under the influence of spiritual blindness. Now, I don’t have any beer goggles, but I don’t really need them. Every one of us has been “Under the Influence” of things that impair your ability to BELIEVE, and the first of the deadly influences that impair your faith is FEELINGS.

I: Faith Under the Influence of your FEELINGS is always impaired.

I don’t always FEEL righteous, but the Bible says I AM! I don’t always feel loved, forgiven…

One day a desperate man called the church in desperate need of encouragement. He was tormented in his mind and spirit because he felt separated from God… Having been raised in a Catholic church, he had little more than what the traditions taught him. He confessed that he was a smoker. He said, “God told me to quit right now” and I didn’t. I’m a sinner, father… I feel awful, separated from God. Sometimes I say terrible things to God in my anger. I feel like I’m being influenced or possessed by demons father… You have to help me. I feel like I’m going to hell. Every day is terrible and lonely. I dread tomorrow because I’m afraid it will be like today. I haven’t smiled in months and I don’t know what to do…”

I spoke with him for a while and he told me about some of the things he had done, and we prayed together. He asked Jesus for forgiveness and at the end of the call he said, “I feel so much better.”

But the next day there was another desperate message on my answering machine… He had the same problems with the same guilt and the same condemnation… What had happened to his forgiveness since the night before, when he felt so relieved?

The truth is, nothing happened to his forgivenss… John was having a crisis of faith in which he found it impossible to accept that forgiveness because he still felt guilty after he prayed.

His faith was impaired because it was under the influence of feelings / emotions.

He REFUSED to believe the truth of God’s Word because of his feelings!

Have you ever committed a sin you were ashamed of, even after you prayed and asked God for forgiveness? You probably have, but you shouldn’t because it’s contrary to God’s Word…

You see, John let his feelings, or the devil, whatever, convince him that he was still being condemned for yesterday’s sins and he was holding his sins over his own head… He knew about the righteousness of God, He knew about the consequences of sin, but his faith was impaired by his emotions. He couldn’t believe he was forgiven because of the way he felt…