Show Me

A boy was sitting in a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible. He was loudly exclaiming his praise to God. “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God is great!” he yelled without worrying whether anyone heard him or not.

Shortly after, along came a professor from the local University. Feeling pretty smart in the ways of truth and very eager to show his intelligence, he asked the boy about the source of his Joy.

“Hey” asked the boy in return with a bright laugh, “Don't you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle.”

The professor laughed lightly, sat down next to the boy and began to try to open his eyes to the “realities” of the miracles of the Bible. “That can all be very easily explained. Modern scholarship has shown that the Red Sea in that area was only 10 inches deep at that time. It was no problem for the Israelites to wade across.”

The boy was stumped. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible lying open in his lap. The man, content that he had enlightened a poor naïve young person to the finer points of scientific insight turned to leave.

The professor hadn’t taken two steps when the boy began to rejoice and praise louder than before. The man turned to ask the reason for this resumed jubilation.

“Wow!” Exclaimed the boy happily, “God is greater than I thought! Not only did He lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in 10 inches of water!”

Sometimes we can get caught up in the “science” of it all and that could give us a stumbling block in our faith, but we got to stay strong…

Last week I started with Doubting Thomas and his lack of faith. How even though, he spent a lot of time with Jesus and all the disciples told Thomas about Jesus being alive, he doubted. I talked about how a lack of faith brings….

1. Doubt

And how a lack of faith also brings…

2. Anxiety

I want to let you know that I do not believe that all anxiety is caused by a lack of faith. We had some great testimonies Sunday evening that are perfect examples of that. Sometimes anxiety is caused from a medical disorder and that is not the fault of the afflicted.

Be careful though not to allow Satan to tell you that your anxiety is a medical condition, when it is not.

And we will kind of pick back up with point 3.

3. Insecurity and worthlessness

Talking about this point I said, “I can’t tell you how many times that I have heard people say that they have no value or they aren’t worth it.” What a big old fat lie of Satan. No where and I mean no where will you find a scripture telling you that you are worthless. You are the treasure hidden in the field and are so valuable to God that He sent His only Son to die for you. Who believes that Jesus, the one and only Son of God, died on the cross for your sins so that you can have eternal life?

Seriously who could ever be worthless with God in them. God alone is more valuable than anything, ever! And you know what, He chose you.

Ephesians 1:4-6

So, what else might we get from not enough faith? How about…..

4. Nervousness

This one is one of those things that happens when we think about handling things in our own abilities. I like doing electrical work and usually don’t give it a second thought, but if you want me to work on a car, I will research it, YouTube it, ask about it and then determine that I just can’t do it because I will mess it up. So, I get a hold of a mechanic to do it for me.

We can’t do that when God calls us to do something. We should know that if God wants us to do it, that He will be there with us, guiding us and we just need to be faithful and know that the outcome is in God’s hands. We must do our part. God makes a point 3 times in 4 verses in to tell Joshua something… and He tells us the same thing.

Joshua 1:9

5. Fear

Many of us have fear from time to time. How many of you could be a window washer on a skyscraper in New York? Anyone brave enough to climb to the top of a cell tower to change out the bulb? How many of you would walk a tight rope over the Grand Canyon? There are some things that we are afraid of and here is a short list of fears…

· Agoraphobia – fear of open spaces or crowds

· Aphenphosmphobia – fear of being touched

· Barophobia – fear of gravity

· Cacophobia – fear of ugliness

· Ephebiphobia – fear of teenagers

· Globophobia – fear of balloons

· Lepidopterophobia – fear of butterflies

· Pogonophobia – fear of beards

· Tetraphobia – fear of #4

Many of these listed we find kind of dumb to be afraid of, right? And there are so many named phobias (which means someone had it) there is even a phobophobia.

In our walk with the Lord, God will call us sometimes to get out of our comfort zone and do something that in all reality scares the daylights out of us. What is the cause of all these fears, mainly not enough faith that everything will be alright. We can conquer our fears through love. God is Love and I John 4:18 says,

I John 4:18

What else? Lack of faith can cause #6.

6. Skepticism

How many of you were here when we were talking about and planning the building of this sanctuary? When we were in the brainstorming stage of this there were those people that were skeptical. “We won’t have enough money.” “What will happen when we can’t pay it off?” We shouldn’t do it because it won’t make a difference.

When we started doing small group bible studies, people were against that. “It won’t work” “People won’t come to a small group” “Attendance will be down”, while that is truer today, attendance in small groups is down, I think it can be a great tool, if we can figure out how to get people involved. Maybe a small group on faith? Too often we are against something just because it is not the way we have always done it. We get skeptical because we forget to follow these simple verses in Proverbs…

Proverbs 3:5-8

There is a time for speaking the truth and it may seem like skepticism, but you better make sure that you are not leaning on your own understanding and you are submitting to God.

Next we have….

7. Uncertainty

Jaxon is just about the exact opposite of uncertainty, except his trying to prove his certainty is a lack of humility. The other day we were watching Jaxon play baseball and he plays Centerfield. The ball was hit to left center and from where we were sitting it looked like it was going to, not only be a hit but most likely extra bases. But Jaxon got a great jump on the ball and chased it down and caught it for the out.

As proud as I was of him making that catch, I knew that it would just fuel that ego.

But sometimes we are just the opposite in our walk. We lose faith and then we become uncertain of many things. God does not call us to be uncertain. He calls us to have faith and He backs it up with the bible. We can be certain. Look at what Paul wrote in Romans.

Romans 8:38-39

My final thing caused by lack of faith is….

8. Worry

It is easy to get caught up in this worry whirlwind. I mean there are so many things that overthink. Am I going to lose my job? What if they found out the mistake I made? Will I have enough money to pay my bills? What am I going to do, if something happens to Cheryl? I don’t like to be alone. What if the new teacher doesn’t like me? Will I have enough money to retire? Are these tariffs going to make inflation worse than it already is? My dad had dementia, what if I get it? Should I wear a mask all the time because of diseases?

Am I doing a good job as a parent? Worry, worry, worry! Why? Why do we worry? Now I want to clarify that there is a difference in worrying and being concerned about something. Concerns you give to God. Worry consumes you. It controls you. It will steal your joy. It will steal your life. Don’t live in worry.

Matthew 6:25,27

So many bad health problems can come just by worrying. Muscle tension, heart problems, digestive problems, sleep problems, shortness of breath, headaches.

God does not want you live a life lacking faith. God wants you to live in faith knowing that all these things, He will help you overcome if you allow Him to.