Keeping the Faith in Midst of Skeptism
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Scriptures: Luke 18:8
Scriptures: Luke 18:8
I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Focus Thoughts: In the End Times, Skepticism will attempt to erode every biblical belief system but can I submit to you that the Lord Jesus Christ doest not disappoint, What He promises He will provide. Only a great people of faith will remain faithful until the end.
Focus Thoughts: In the End Times, Skepticism will attempt to erode every biblical belief system but can I submit to you that the Lord Jesus Christ doest not disappoint, What He promises He will provide. Only a great people of faith will remain faithful until the end.
I do not know about you but everything thats with In me wants to be a man of a great faith.... And I belive that I am in the mist of a people that feel the same.
Introduction/ Foundation of Sermon
Introduction/ Foundation of Sermon
Skeptiscm is nothing new, in the garden, Eve was tempted when the serpent produced doubt.
Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Unfortunatly he is still posing the same question to us continually, armed with this understanding, is the reason I keep preaching and teaching on faith, trying to build up faith.
Has God Said? Did God really tell you that? You sure it wasn't just some excitement in the moment?
Sadly skeptics are always never quite sure of anything.
Questioning can be healthy at times but unbelief is never acceptable.
We must never forget that unbelief kept a generation out of the promised land and prevented Jesus from doing miracles in Nazareth.
I do not belive we've experienced all that God Has for us as Life Church, and on an individual level all He has for me and for you.
Faith In God and His word is the essential first step in our relationship with God. Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Diligently seeking can mean zealously seeking for something with all ones heart, strength and might.
There are times I read this scripture and conviction settles in my heart because I know the definition of diligent first hand….When I abused meth there would be times I would spend hours looking all over my room for a pece of rock that “I might have dropped” to put in my pipe so that id get high.
I wonder what would happen if at times we’d get to that level of desperation in seeking after the face of God.
In my younger years as a Christian i was a accustomed to hours of prayer and study of scripture, fasting so very often, and to be quite sincere I miss that and I often pray to God that I can return to that, i understand I was single then but I personally know there are things i can do away with so that I can live out that last portion of this scripture to its fullest potential.
I understand modern skepticism is embodied in the scientific method, which involves; Gathering data, measuring, observing, experimenting, formulating, testing and coming up with a hypothesis.
Arnt you glad that as people of faith we belive in absolutes that are not subject to any revision or review, but have been tested by the centuries and been found to be unquestionable.
When put to the test, the Bible has always been proven to be true to the end, why? Because it is the word of a God that does not disappoint.
Contrast Faith and Skepticism
Contrast Faith and Skepticism
Faith and skepticism provide a stark contrast of two opposing belief structures.
Faith is the response of a believer in God but skepticism is the response of a doubter who does not trust in God.
These responses are as night and day and up and down.
They are both far reaching because they both affect a persons relationship with God and that persons eternal destiny.
Believers and skeptics can occupy the same house, work in the same office, exist in the same world, and maybe if we're not careful even attend the same church.
But I am of the opinion that IT is! possible for believers to have faith in a world where there is much skepticism toward God and the church.
Skepticsm can be known s one of the prevalent attitudes of the End Time.
Skepticism simply means an “attitude or disposition, doubt, or unbelief with regard to a religion especially Christianity.”
Peter provided a scriptural picture of skepticism in II Peter 3:3-4 “
knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
These last-day scoffers are the prophesied skeptics. The end times will produce skeptics who will oppose Jesus Christ and His church.
We must understand that skepticism is the spirit of this age and it very well reaches into every area of our lives.
Skepticism- It is not always bad.
There may even be a “healthy skepticism.”
After all, im not trying to convince us of being so gullible. We should be cautious and wise toward many things in life.
However, when people have been tricked and are aware of the possibility of artificially produced material, they have a tendency to doubt almost everything they see and hear.
Satan uses this tendency to his advantage and arms the masses with skepticism of anything religious.
For this reason as Believers we must not allow the prevalent skepticism in the world to contaminate our child-like faith in God. We must anchor our trust securely in Jesus Christ.
For this reason as Believers we must not allow the prevalent skepticism in the world to contaminate our child-like faith in God. We must anchor our trust securely in Jesus Christ.
I remember being a child and being told we were going to go somewhere special or was going to get bought something cool, man id bug the mess out of my parents. My parents then learned to not make many promises to me because I would hold them to it.
Guess what? You do not have a reluctant God, a God that trying to hold back. He’s not afraid to promise anything. As a matter of fact he's waiting on someone to take Him at His word.
We all have birthed within us this healthy sense of skepticism. It is for this reason God says: Prove me now!
Because faith is so essential to salvation, Satan does all he can to create doubt, the arch- enemy of faith.
He knows believers must keep believing.
Romans 1:17 “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.””
This implicates a relationship.
Therefore if Satan can do anything to disturb that continuing process of faith, he will.
To avoid Satan’s darts of doubt we need to strengthen our belief system against such attacks and demonstrate faithfulness in the midst of fear and doubt.
Doubt is just as evil and destructive as fear. they both attempt to sabotage spirituality.
Satan attacks believers to try to defeat and destroy them. When we allow fear to control us, we become powerless as Christians, for the source of our power is our faith.
Skepticism is not only an attitude but also a tactic employed by the spirit of the Antichrist in the world to try to erode faith in God. This spirit is already present in our world and works against Jesus Christ I John 4:3
and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
Let me Just say this it is extremely important to note that fact that if one is not careful we can be decieved for this is spirit is operating in the lives of false teachers who serve as the antichrist mouth piece and who can articulate his heresies.
They usally try to make an appeal to the worldly mind so we must be constantly on guard at all times.
But fear not because in that same chapter He Wrote: 1st John 4:4
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Folks we are very well equipped to overcome because of Him who is in us. It is only through Him we can over come, as long as we stay submitted to Him and remain vigilant we will overcome.
A. A Faithless and Perverted Generation
In Luke 18 Jesus posed an interesting question
Luke 18:8: “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
This seemed to be a rhetorical question not meant to be answered directly, but it also was received as a warning and challenge to the disciples.
It was a warning that skeptics would work to undermine the faith of individuals; But it also served to challenge.
Brothers an sisters as belivers it is our duty to ambitously guard our faith at all times.
Today we live in the midst of a perverted generation.
What do I mean by Perverted , in its truest definition the term “perverted,” means turning from what is right to immorality.
Many people today are attempting to destabilize and weaken our society by redefining good and evil. A confused society is at the mercy of tyranny.
Dont think that for a minute the spirit of the Anti Christ was not at work during the pandemic. It was rearing its ugly head, flexing its muscle demonstrating how most of the world is in lockstep with one another in establishing laws that will force compliance.
Instilling fear and pushing, forcing its will on religious circles.
However, as the writer of the Book of Hebrews stated, we must learn to discern between good and evil
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
Intrestingly the Apostles were persecuted and indicted for allegedly turning the world upside down, when all the while sin was the culprit.
The apostles were involved in trying to turn it right side up.
The spirit of antichrist opposed everything righteous concerning the early church, and it continues to work today slandering God’s people and His Word.
It is logical that this opposition would be false, for it is engineered by the devil, whom Jesus called “a liar, and the fa-ther of it” (John 8:44).
The slanderous attacks on the church today are simply the manifestation of the age-old conflict between truth and error.
Because Jesus is truth (John 14:6) and Satan is everything that opposes truth, it is inevitable that there is an ongoing conflict between them and between their disciples.
Although Christians are the disciples of Christ by choice, many of the followers of Satan are disciples Unknowingly.
We are either for or against Christ.
Luke 9:50 “But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.””
There is no neutrality in this war.
There is an antidote to Skepticism - Faith
There is an antidote to Skepticism - Faith
An antidote must be stronger than the toxin it neutralizes.
So it is Clear that faith is much stronger than the skepticism it overpowers.
Doubt is no match for faith. When we believe in God with all our heart, doubt is powerless to intervene.
“Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (I John 4:4). Only when we open the door to doubt do we compromise the power of the antidote.
Although there are poisons for which there is no antidote, there is an antidote for all the doubt and skepticism in the world—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
A heart that wholly believes in Jesus Christ has no capacity for doubt and skepticism regarding spiritual matters.
above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
With unwavering faith in God, fear and doubt become ineffective and impotent.
Fur-ther, faith enables believers to be faithful because faithfulness is derived from faith, expressed in consistent living and rewarded in the end.
We can live victoriously in the end times and be faithful even in the midst of an atmosphere of fear and doubt.
For antidotes of poison to be effective, they generally have to be administered within a limited time frame. For example, poisonous snake or spider bites require an antidote as soon as possible. Waiting can be fatal.
Although the antidote of faith should be administered as soon as possible, it is still effective long after the poison of error has been snuffed out.
Many people come to God after living a life of sin for years, but faith is still effective to overcome all their past actions of skepticism and doubt.
Many of us have a real expectation of being disappointed. We anticipate that things are not going to turn out right. Why? Because for many of us that expectation has proven quite true.
We are a society of skeptics because we have often been disappointed!
More significant than all of our disappointments with a particular restaurant, or the way the new automobile is running is the skepticism birthed in our being discouraged over the actions of significant people in our life.
Marriage ,Children, Employee/employer Has anybody ever disappointed you? Let you down? Made you feel like that what they had provided was less than it should have been?
What I am talking about today is a bit different than any other skepticism you may have had. For many people there is a serious skepticism about “God” and “church.”
They utter things like Who needs church and who needs God? I’ll just be disappointed again!
There were people in the Bible who were disappointed with their God: for example Followers of Baal. Followers of Dagon. Why might they have been disappointed? Because their God had not lived up to their expectations.
On the other hand there were people who followed Jehovah. allow me for a second to read a few Psalms
Psa 120:1 KJV) A Song of degrees. In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me. Can anyone attest to this?
Psa 124:1 KJV) A Song of degrees of David. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;
Lamentations 3:22-23 “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
Psa 125:1 KJV) A Song of degrees. They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.
Israel says of their God: I find no fault in Him!
I understand there are several new people, here me on this: If you get to looking with a microscope ( which I am not accusing anyone of doing) at the people who make up this congregation or any other, they won’t live up to your hopes and expectations!
But if you look at the Lord Jesus Christ—I submit that no matter how skeptical you may be—you will find no fault in him.
So in spite of our skeptical uncertainty, it is POSSIBLE for something to be as good as promised, or even BETTER.
Isn’t it interesting that there are those occasions when in spite of our skepticism, in spite of all the attention we pay to something, all the close scrutiny we provide, it is better than we could ever imagine.
So it is with the story I want us to consider.
It is the story of a woman, not just a woman, but a queen—apparently a well-traveled queen—who visits Jerusalem ready to be disappointed.
She had no expectation of there being a positive result to her visit. Yet when she left that city she declared: “the half was not told me!” (I Kings 10:7)
Understand something: It was hard to impress a queen. She had seen many things, been to many places, experienced lots of life. Perhaps she was the first of the “Been there, done that” crowd.
She had seen it all. When you own a lot, have seen a lot, and been around a while, it gets harder to impress you.
This lady would have fit within the realm of a woman hard to impress.
Her very attitude: (1 Kings 10:1 KJV) And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.
This woman came to visit Solomon prepared to be disappointed!
Yet listen to her later testimony.
And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
His wisdom - a gift from God
The house - a building of impact to God
The provision for his servants
His ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord!
“Overwhelmed” is not the word, “there was no more spirit in her.”
Also notice: 1 Kings 10:13
Now King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, besides what Solomon had given her according to the royal generosity. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.
The queen of Sheba was obviously overcome by all of the coveted treasures which she sought.
She couldn’t resist asking for this and that and the other thing, until eventually she found herself receiving much more than she desired without being able to commit the rudeness of asking further.
Solomon however, read her heart and gave her not only all that she asked, but all that she thought and then even to that he added his royal bounty.
Ask for the Musicians.
Ask for the Musicians.
So the three measure of Solomon’s generosity are; All that she asked. All that she thought. Solomon’s royal bounty.
In 10:13 where the Scripture says that Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba of his royal bounty, the Hebrew reads literally, “according to the hand of king Solomon.” “According to” meant Solomon was the richest king in all the earth and his giving was such as corresponded with that. This reminds me of Phillipians 4:19 My God shall supply all your needs “according to” his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”.
What we need to understand fully is the meaning of that “According to” and enrich our lives with that royal bounty which comes from him who said “A greater than Solomon is here”.
A greater than Solomon has come. His wisdom is infinitely greater. His power is greater. He is the way and the truth. Every question has its ultimate answer in Him.
He is the satisfaction of every yearning.
And when we meet Him, we too find that the half has not been told. He is greater than our highest expectations.
Altar Call: Ask for from psople of prayer.
Holy Ghost Altar call
Sir, everything about life may have disappointed you. Parental upbringing may have been dysfunctional. Poverty your lot. Job and educational opportunities that didn’t work out. Relationships that disheartened you. Church and preachers may have let you down. Your list of disappointments may go on and on, but do not doubt it Jesus Christ will always impress.
If you are struggling with unbelief you can come here we’ll pray for you, you can even recieve the gift of faith imparted to you by the Spirit of God
Maybe struggling with doubt, we can pray for an increase in confidence in God
Maybe lack of trust, today God can remove fear and give you the ability to trust.
Maybe there are areas in your life you haven't surrendered, today you can do that and God can grant you the victory.
What ever the need may be today God can respond to it…You need mercy God can extend Mercy,
Are there faults in your life and you cant seem to get the victory the grace of God can empower you. Grace is not only the unmerited favor of God but also the work of salvation in Our life.
Romans 7:14-24 “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord…
We wont compel you to confess but if that is you, today you can leave with a special touch of God.
there is power when you speak out…Tia Chayo an example.
Im going to ask people to come and other to help pray for them, id like you to ask them if there is anything specific they liked to pray about. And if the person is comfortable sharing their need id like for us to pray over that.