Faith Busters

Let's turn to Luke 18. Luke 18. We have a remarkable question that's almost like a statement. It's a really powerful question that Jesus asks here. Let's get the context of it. In verse 6, and this isn't a reply to a parable he gave. The parable was about a judge who did not fear God, did not regard men, and yet this widow kept going to the judge, and kept going to the judge, and kept going to the judge until the judge finally said, okay, I'll listen to your petition.

And he said, if God loves us, how much more should we trust that God is going to take care of our problems, even though it seems like He's delaying, which is the purpose of the parable? I mean, she kept going and kept going and kept going. And he said, even if an unjust person will react, how much more will God react even though we don't always understand the timetable? So verse 6, this is in the discussion from this parable, is where he gets what he says next. Here what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?

He says the purpose of this parable isn't that, you know, that the unjust judge is teaching us anything. The purpose of the parable is, if even human beings do that, how much can we trust and believe that God will take care of us even though it's not in our timetable? It's not when we want Him to do it. But it's what he says in verse 8 that I find so stunning. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. In other words, He's going to take care of them.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? Jesus said, I just wonder here, when I come back, will I really find anybody that trusts God? Anybody that has faith? That's a remarkable question, isn't it? I wonder, when I come back, if there will be anybody left that has any faith at all.

Why is faith so difficult for us to maintain? It's actually easier for us to obey certain commandments than it is to have faith. Now, that sounds strange. You say, well, don't I have faith to have faith to keep the commandments? Not necessarily. Ancient Israel was condemned because they tried to keep the law without faith.

So we have to know what faith is. We have to understand what it is, and then we have to ask this question, why is it that Jesus said, when I come back, will anyone even believe anymore? We say, well, is this question, will they believe in God? That's not His question, because faith is more than belief in God. As we go through this here this morning, we'll see what He really means by that statement.

A little bit before this, the disciples had come to Jesus — go back to chapter 17, verse 5 — and asked Him this question, because He was giving them teachings about faith, and He was giving them teachings and parables about faith, and they started to realize what He really meant by faith. And so in verse 5, it says in Luke 17, and the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith!

Okay, you keep teaching us about faith, you've convinced us. We don't have enough faith. Now remember, these were men who had spent all their lives in Judaism. These were men who had spent all their lives obeying the Ten Commandments. These were men who had spent all their lives doing a lot of right things and good things. They had worshipped the true God.

We can't make light of that. They had done — they had spent their lives trying to obey the true God. But as Jesus Christ instructed them on certain issues, they started to realize that there were things missing in what they were supposed to do. There were things missing in their religion. And He says — they come to Him and they finally say, okay, we get it.

Help us have more faith. Help us so that we believe with that incredible trust and total commitment. Verse 6, He says, the Lord said — this is how Christ responds to them — if you have faith as a mustard seed — just tiny little faith — if He said, if you had faith that little, you could say to the small berry tree, be pulled up by the roots and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

Now, that's not what you would think the answer to the question would be. Help us have more faith. He says, ah, if you just had this little bit of faith, the miracles God would do in your life. What would be happening in your lives if you just had this little bit? Increase our faith. How do we increase our faith? How do we do that?

That was a question they asked. It is a question that you and I should ask.

It was in it — we had a very fascinating discussion at the — at the Inno Bible study. I've been doing these Bible studies on the — on the west side of town, where there was 18 — 18 people there this Thursday night. The Bible study lasted an hour. The discussion afterwards lasted three. And about half of what we talked about was faith and faith-related issues.

What is faith? How does — how does faith break down into life? It's one thing to talk about faith as some theological concept. It's another thing how it breaks down when you're faced with the loss of your life, or you're faced with the loss of your income, or you're faced with the loss of a loved one, or you're faced with a time in life where nothing's working out. And now faith becomes real.

How do we increase our faith? Well, let's go back to the basics. Let's go back and start with a definition of faith. What I want to do today is I'm actually going to go through faith busters. I'm going to go through some things that destroy our faith — things that we do the way that we think that actually destroy faith. But let's set it up a little bit by talking about and just giving a little definition of faith to begin with. Something very basic. Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11.

And verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

That sentence alone is so profound we could talk about it for the next half hour. Faith is a substance. You know, this is a substance. It's real. I have a bottle of water in my hand. That's a substance. It's real. And yet, faith is a substance of something that you cannot see. It's an evidence of something you cannot see. You know, in a court of law, can you imagine walking up and saying, okay, here's the murder weapon. See? Everybody sees it. Can you imagine a prosecuting attorney saying, you're just going to have faith because in my hand I have the substance of the murder weapon. I know you can't see it because we weren't able to find it, but you just have faith that that's the murder weapon in my hand.

And everybody says, oh, I can see that. Yes, I agree.

Faith is the evidence of something you don't see.

It is such an absolute belief, an absolute trust, an absolute commitment that it's real even though you don't see it. That's why faith to the carnal person seems like superstition.

It seems bizarre. You believe in a God that you do not see. Yes.

Do you believe him that he exists enough to do what he says even though it's painful? Yes. Do you believe it enough to die for him? And the moment we say yes, they say you must be crazy.

Because you cannot see him.

Our faith is an evidence we know he exists and is evident in our faith. Just this statement alone shows that the biblical concept of faith is more than a simple belief that God exists. It is an evidence that God exists. And you become the evidence of that. Your faith becomes the evidence that God exists because God does things in our lives.

But we begin to take this road of understanding that faith is more than just a belief, that it is actually total trust.

We begin to have to ask ourselves questions that we don't ask. We go through life thinking that life is what we make it. And to there are certain degree that that's true. You and I have to make certain things of our lives. God gives us free will. But faith breaks down into a belief and a total assurance and a trust that we turn our lives over to God. And we say to God, you do with my life as you see fit. I go where you want me to go. I be what you want me to be.

Now realize when we say that, do we mean it or not? Because if we mean it, that means he may take us where we don't want to go. And he will have us be what we don't want to be. We say, my will be done or your will be done, not my will be done.

Increase our faith. Everyone here believes God exists. You all believe that. You have a certain amount of faith that leads you to obedience. But the faith that we're talking about here is the faith that says, your will be done. I go where you want me to go. I do what you want me to do. When you look at faith, it actually develops into three stages. We begin with belief. That's the earliest stages of faith. You believe God exists. You believe there's a greater power . You start to believe that God interacts with His creation. As we go through that belief, we reach the point where we begin to accept that God actually is interacting with us. We begin to accept the Bible. We begin to accept what it says. So there was a point in time where your belief led you to accept certain practices in the Scripture. Your belief led you to accept that you should keep the Ten Commandments, that you should honor your parents. Your belief led you to accept that you should give up maybe some idolatrous practices that you did in the worship that you did before. Your belief led you to accept that you should tithe. You shouldn't work on the Sabbath. That you should stop drinking heavily. And you begin to accept those things. And you begin to have changes in your life. But true faith is trust. It is not just giving up things. It is literally turning our lives over to God and saying, you do with me as you see fit because I trust you know what you're doing and I believe that you love me and I accept your decisions. I accept your decisions. I may not always agree with them. I may find them very difficult at times. I may struggle with them just as Jesus said, if there's any way to remove this cup from me, let it be so. But if not, I believe, I accept, and I trust. Therefore, I will do what you want me to do.

Increase our faith. So let's go through some basic faith busters. Things that we do in our lives, ideas that we have that actually destroy our faith, our ability to trust God. The first one I call the hero fallacy. Now there's two ways the hero fallacy goes. One is you look at the scripture and you say, you know, I could never be like those people. I'm expected to have faith like them, but they were just special people. There's something about them that's different than me. Or you look at other people in the church. Oh, I wish I had faith like Mrs. So-and-so. She has so much faith and I don't have that kind of faith. And it's just overwhelming to me because I don't have that kind of faith. And I could never have that kind of faith because, well, Mrs. So-and-so is just a better person than me. Or Mr. Minister is just a better person than me so I can never have that kind of faith. So we have this hero fallacy that only heroes have faith. Only special people have faith that I can't have faith. Look at James chapter 5.

James chapter 5. When you actually study the people that are written about in the Bible, you find it's the exact opposite. The reason their stories are told is because God wants us to see and understand they are and were just like us. We're just like them. They had their problems. They had their sins. Why do you think that God records that Abraham lied not once but twice? And why did he lie in both cases? He didn't have the faith that God was going to protect him. The father of the faithful, he picks two times in his life where he sinned because he didn't have faith and he records it. Why? Because Abraham wasn't absolutely faithful 100% of the time all the time. There were times when he wavered. There were times when he feared. There were times when the anxiety got the best of him and he wanted to show that. As time went on, Abraham's faith became stronger and stronger and stronger. But there were times when it was not. We said, oh, if we could just have, we could never be like Abraham. He had perfect faith all the time. No, he didn't. James 517. Elijah. No, Elijah, there's a man of faith, right? There's a man that God used to raise people from the dead. There's a man that God used to bring down fire from heaven. A man killed 450 prophets of Baal. There's a man of faith. Go read, Elijah. He did all those things, or about Elijah. You won't find the book of Elijah in there. You have to go to Kings. Go read about Elijah.

And he had all this faith until Jezebel threatened to kill him and that woman scared him so bad he ran away. He ran away and had a crisis of faith. James 517. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.

Now we could say, you know, when James writes this, he could say, let's look at Elijah. Here's a man who prayed to God and it didn't rain. And he prayed to God and it did rain. What a great example of faith. But there's a little thing he puts in here to make a point. Elijah, a man with a nature like ours. Elijah who struggled at times just like you and I do. That's the point of the sentence. But look what God did through him. Look at the faith that he did have. What happens is we begin to look at both people in the Bible and people we know. We begin to have this hero fallacy. We begin to say, those are special people and I could never be that close to God.

Now here's another problem with hero fallacy. What happens when your hero makes a mistake?

I remember counseling a person one time years ago who said they just could not accept David as a great man of God because of his sins. And they just could not understand why God accepted David.

This person, I think, while you're doing pretty, you're taking a big step here.

What's the problem with God that he accepts David, this man of terrible sins?

Hero fallacy. And we all need heroes in life. I mean, there's many. David is one of my heroes. We all need people to look up to, both scripturally, people in our own lifetime that we know. But in our hero fallacy, we can't see them as so different than us that we believe God will not work with us. We can't hold them on such pedestals that we believe somehow instead of being examples for us to follow, well, God will never take me there. And so we lose faith in God. Lots of people have lost faith in God over their lifetime because of a hero that they found out wasn't perfect.

Some great person in the congregation, I knew a person one time, that lost faith in God because they had this minister that they really looked up to, and one day they saw him yell at his wife. And the person said, any minister that yells at his wife, I've got to think he's probably just not got somebody who should be followed. I remember looking at him and saying, I literally said, well, have you ever yelled at your wife? Well, yes. So I've yelled at my wife. Yeah, but this man, I looked up to him so much that he can't ever be trusted again.

And he believed it.

Hero fallacy takes our mind off of God and puts it on people.

It takes our mind off of God and puts it on people. The people in the Bible are there to show us, these are heroes. They were people with nature just like ours. They were people who messed up. They were people who had hard times. They were people who lost their faith at times.

But they hung on to God and God saw them through. And there's a few cases in here where people did not hang on to God and they failed. I think of Saul. Saul had a perfect opportunity to be a great person in the scripture, didn't he? And he failed. He failed because he didn't hang on to God. So we have to be careful about the hero fallacy. We have to understand that, yes, God gives us these examples to live up to, to aspire to, to admire. He gives other people, he brings people into our lives. I have met people in my life that have had remarkable faith, that I have looked up to. But they weren't perfect. I mean, I think of my own dad. I don't know if I know of any person I've ever met in life that had more faith, just pure faith. Whatever is happening today in my life, I will let God work out. I will obey, I will do, but I will trust that God will make something of this that's good in my life. And yet he wasn't a perfect man.

But it doesn't change the fact of the greatness of his faith. Faith is towards God. All human beings have moments of faith and moments where we struggle. And that's what's the problem, right? We can see someone, one moment, that has such faith that God does this great thing in them. They have great faith and God heals them. And the next time they get sick, they get so discouraged, they seem to have no faith at all. And what is our response? If we have, oh well, that person really is in trouble, they have bad faith. Or do we rush to that person and say, I have faith.

God saw you through this one time. He'll help you now. Do we rush to that person to share faith? Or do we condemn them? If we all look at hero fallacy, what we do is we end up measuring our faith by other people. Not measuring our faith by God. Faith is only as real. Faith is only as powerful as what you have faith in.

We sometimes mistake, well, my faith did this. No, God did it. Your faith was in God. My faith did this. My faith produced this. My faith produced this healing or this blessing or this... No, your faith was in God and God produced it. Otherwise, it was our faith, which means we did it. And yet we have to have that faith. But what is our faith in?

One great faith buster is hero fallacy. We either hold other people so high in esteem, or we look down on them so much that it interferes with our faith with God. Instead of seeing other people both as inspirations and as other people who need help, the same person can be an inspiration one moment and a person who needs your help in another moment. A second faith buster. Matthew 17. This one's very subtle. This one's very subtle, but I've seen people's faith destroyed in this manner. Matthew 17, verse 14.

Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist. Well, I'm sorry, that's verse 13. Let's begin verse 14. And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, this is talking about Jesus, kneeling down to him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he's an epileptic and suffers severely, and for he often falls into the fire and often to the water. But I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.

Now, the disciples were doing the right thing. They were doing what they were instructed to do, but nothing was happening. Now, they're confused. I mean, if you have faith and you're doing the right thing, why isn't God doing what he said he would do? Jesus answered and said, here's the remarkable statement then from Jesus. Oh, faithless and perverse generation!

Who's he talking about here? He's talking to a man who brought to him somebody who needs to be healed, but he's also talking about his own disciples. You faithless people. You just don't get it, but they said, well, we're doing it like you told us to do it. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon and came out of him and the child was cured for that very hour. And then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out? And Jesus said, because of your unbelief, for surely I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to here and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. He said, the bottom line here is you really weren't close enough to God. You were doing the right thing, saying the right words, but you really weren't close enough to God. He says, there are certain things that don't happen except through much prayer and fasting. When you're close to God, when you're in contact with God through prayer, when you're fasting, when you're humble before God and it's a constant lifestyle, here's what you and I do. We face our trials of faith and then say, boy, I better go pray and fast.

What Jesus is saying here, if you're praying and fasting, you are prepared when the time comes.

We do it the opposite. So we're always in the crisis trying to draw close to God, when if we are close to God, we are prepared for the crisis.

And so I've seen many people's faith busted, destroyed, torn apart because the trial came and they weren't close to God before the trial.

They weren't prepared for the trial.

How many times do we say, I will spend more time in my spiritual life? I will spend more time praying. I will spend more time in the scripture. I will spend more time fasting in the future. As soon as this happens and this happens and this happens, it's never going to happen.

We must prepare in the situation we live in now.

Or when the crisis comes, we will lose our faith because we don't have the faith before the crisis. A third faith buster.

Many people don't have faith in God or they lose faith in God or have a crisis of faith because we really don't believe God loves us. What we believe is that God has a sadistic desire to punish us. We believe that God is just waiting for us to do wrong so we can punish us. He's in this constant negative punishment mode. Now, if you've ever seen a parent or you had a parent that was in the constant punishment mode, that's a pretty negative life because you live your life constantly waiting for God or for your parent to come down on you. No matter what you do, you know. You know, an A is never good enough. You come home with 100% and they say, well, did you get 100% plus?

Did you do that extra project so you got 100% plus? It's never enough, ever, ever enough. And sometimes we approach God with this belief that He is just waiting to punish us. He sits, you know, He's a parent that walks around with a paddle in His hand all the time.

Now, God does punish us. The question is why? Because when we understand why, we will understand that God isn't this parent. The Father is not walking around waiting for you to do something wrong so He can punish you. You know, there are a lot of ways that we learn things in life.

Punishment is not even the best way to teach in certain situations. It is. There are times when punishment is a good way to teach. There are times when it is not.

Years ago, I was at camp at a YU trip, and we were out in the Badlands and camping.

There was a — all there were were outhouses, and three 15-year-old teenage boys, for reasons that would only be — make sense to a 15-year-old boy, decided to get a rock, the biggest thing they could carry that fit through that hole in that outhouse.

And they went into that outhouse, and they dropped it through the hole. And then all three of them leaned over to see what would happen.

The door flew open. Three boys come running out, covered from head to foot in unspeakable things, screaming and running, and jumped into the lake.

Now, one of the parents was so angry with me. Aren't you going to punish them?

What more could I do to them than what they did to themselves?

They said, well, you better give them a good long talk.

And it was a parent that was always in punishment mode. Okay. But okay. So I called the boys over. We went off, you know, alone for a little bit. I looked at them, and I started to laugh, and I said, never do that again, will you? No, sir. Okay, it's done. I mean, I did everything else to say.

Lesson learned. Lesson learned. God isn't always interested in punishing us. God is interested in lesson learned.

Look at Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12, verse 3. He's talking about Jesus Christ here that we should, when we struggle in life, especially against sin, consider Him Christ who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted the bloodshed striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him, for who the Lord loves He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. God isn't waiting to punish you because He's some sadistic being that likes inflicting pain.

God is concerned with lesson learned.

Sometimes that takes punishment. But it's not like I'm going to punish you forever and ever and ever. How long does God's punishment last? Till lesson learned.

Because that's what His concern is. He wants us to learn, oh, don't do that again. That doesn't work.

He says, verse 7, if you adore chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chase him?

You know, sometimes parents will say, well, I can't punish my children. I think that's too harsh. If we never punish our children—now, I mean, there's wrong punishment. I'm talking about proper punishment. If we do not punish our children, we do not love them because they will never get lesson learned. They will simply repeat the same thing over and over again. So we have to have faith that when God punishes us, this isn't because He sadistically wants to hurt us. There's actually something good in it. There's a positiveness to it. What is the positive thing we're learning? Why is He doing it? It will stop when we have lesson learned. When we get lesson learned, we have to have faith in it. If we don't, we will believe that God is literally out to get us. We'll walk around in fear all the time, waiting for God to do something to us negative, evil, bad. God just wants to hurt me. He says, verse 8, But if you are without chastening, of which you have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. He says, if God doesn't even care enough to teach you a lesson, then you're not a son of God.

Furthermore, we have human fathers who corrected us. We pay them respect. Shall we not more readily be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they, indeed, for a few days, chastened us, as a seam best to them. But He does it for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. And He goes on and says, and make your path straight. Let God guide you and direct you. Why does God punish us? Now, remember, a correction isn't always punishment.

You know, a few days ago, Kim and I were driving through Illinois, in Missouri, in Oklahoma, and every once in a while we got out the map, and we made a course correction. There was no punishment involved, but there was a correction. Oh no, we took the wrong turn. So we're going to have to go up here and take another turn to get back to where we're supposed to be. We got out the map. We made corrections. Not all correction is painful. Some of it is. But when we look at God in terms of whatever's happening to me is lessons learned, we can now have faith in what's happening. Otherwise, much of this seems arbitrary and downright cruel, doesn't it? Much of life can be very arbitrary and downright cruel.

But if it's about God teaching us and preparing us for eternity as His children, then we can have faith in what's happening, even when it doesn't make sense.

But when we see God as a sadistic being out to get us, we lose our faith. We think He's just there to punish us. And one of the reasons for that is we've never really accepted forgiveness. That's a whole other subject, but sometimes we just haven't accepted His forgiveness. But a fourth faith buster is in 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17.

Here we have David, and we have Goliath coming out and challenging an entire army and the entire army living in fear. Even the King Himself of Israel, Saul, is living in fear.

They're afraid. Nobody has the faith that God will get them through it. No one has the faith that they go and can confront this person who is blaspheming God, and that God will give them victory. In verse 32, David said to Saul, "...let no man's heart fail him because of your servant, because of him. Your servant will go out and fight with his Philistine." So this young kid comes up, possibly no much older than a teenager, and says, Oh, don't worry about it. Don't let these men worry. I'll go kill him.

And Saul said today, but you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth. And this man has been a man of war for many years since he was a youth. He said he's trained. He's not only twice your three times your size. He's killed probably hundreds of men. He's a trained warrior. You have no chance against this man. But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth, and when it arose against me, I caught it by the beard and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine, and will be like one of them, seeing that he has defied the armies of the living God.

Oh, well, you killed a bear. You know, a little bear. Not a grizzly bear. They didn't have grizzly bears there. Okay, that would be impressive.

Okay, that's good.

But I'm not sure that makes you a trained warrior about to go out with a man with armor on.

Who's the biggest man anybody's ever seen? A giant. But notice verse 37. Moreover, David said, the Lord God, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you. David said, Wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm not saying it was I who killed the bear. I mean, I had to take the sword and kill it. I had to take this lion and bring it down. But he said, I realize that I didn't do that just on my own. God helped me do that. And if God helped me do that, God will help me bring down this man. God's bigger than this guy. Well, what's interesting is, God did not send David against Goliath first. He sent him against the bear first. Then he sent him against a lion. Then he sent him against Goliath.

You and I have to learn to live by faith day by day. And many of the times, the reasons we have a crisis of faith is because we weren't living by faith in the little things and a big issue has come along. We weren't living daily by faith. We weren't living every day with a belief and a commitment that today God is in my life. Today God is guiding my steps. Today God is blessing me. Today God is helping me be obedient. Today God is punishing me when I'm not obedient.

Today God is doing something with my life and I can trust that, even if it's difficult. Today I trust God. And you and I ran from the bears at times. We run from the lions at times, and then we face Goliath. And guess what we're going to do? We're going to run away.

So one great faith buster is that we don't experience every day living in faith. So when the huge trial comes along, when the major problem comes along, we don't have a living faith that we're prepared to meet the problem with.

Which means that you and I had better be living by faith every single day. Because when you find out you have cancer, that's not the time to say, today I must start living by faith.

We need to be living by faith before that point, in preparation for that. A fifth faith buster that we have is that we just simply don't believe that God's way works. It's that simple. We just don't believe it. How can you trust in something you don't believe? This is why belief and trust are all mixed together. We just don't believe God's way works. If you believe God's way works, you would tithe even when it doesn't make sense. If you believed it. But you don't believe it. We don't. We wouldn't make our decisions the way we do. We wouldn't decide to break the Sabbath if we actually believed it worked. But we decide to break the Sabbath because we really don't believe it works.

We don't dedicate ourselves to renewing our marriages because we really don't believe that God's way works. Because if we did, we would renew our marriages.

But we don't believe it. Eh, it won't work. That won't work for me. We don't have faith that God will do it. We don't have faith that God will bless us if we tithe. We don't have faith that God will take care of us if we lose our job because of the Sabbath. We don't have faith that God will heal our marriage if we do the right things. We don't believe it so we don't do it.

We just don't believe it. We don't believe God will work things out. We have to do it ourselves. We don't believe that God will take care of us so we go ahead and we are dishonest in this business deal because, well, God won't take care of us. Because if we believed God would take care of us, we wouldn't be dishonest. Many times we lack faith when the big crisis comes because all along we never believed God's way worked anyways. We just don't. And so we come up with all kinds of excuses not to do what we're supposed to do and not live the way that we're supposed to live. So we don't believe that God has a plan for our lives. We don't believe that God will bring us a mate when it's right for us. We don't believe that God... we just don't believe it. We live our lives all different ways because we don't believe what the Scripture says. We just don't believe it. And we have to come face to face with that. We have to be honest enough to do that. Well, I can't do this in my life. Why? Well, let me give you all the reasons. And many times you've got to strip all the reasons away and the real reason is I just don't believe God is going to do that. What says He'll do it, I don't believe Him. So then the crisis comes in life. This huge crisis comes and we say, why do we have the faith? But we didn't live by faith every day. Because we didn't believe what He said anyways. We weren't willing because there were prices to be paid. So we actually believe pop psychology supplies more answers to life than the book of Proverbs. We believe that opera supplies more answers to life than the Sermon on the Mount. Why? Because we don't believe that. Why? Because we don't believe it. He really doesn't mean blessed are those who mourn, does He? He can't really mean that because that means I'm not happy all the time. He can't really mean to love your enemy. He can't. So I can't do that. Let me tell you how despicable the person is and you would know why I hate my enemy. Really, God can't mean to go to the Feast of Tabernacles for eight days and to keep one-tenth of your money to do that. You know, I just save a little money and go and take whatever money I can because it would be ridiculous to save one-tenth of my income. Besides, I couldn't spend that much money in that amount of time. It'd be so much money. It's just ridiculous. And besides, you know, this year, I've got a lot of business deals going on, so I'm only going to go for the first half of the Feast anyways. God really didn't mean to go there where He placed His name. Well, yeah, He did.

But see, we don't believe it. We just don't believe it. You see why Jesus said, when I return, will there be any faith left?

Or will there be anybody who actually believes it enough that they live it every day?

Every day.

So that's a big faith buster for us. James, chapter 1, we read this at the Bible study. We've been going through the book of James in the in-home Bible study. We can start in an in-home Bible study on another part of town if we get enough people wanting to, you know, get another part of town. So far, we're just staying right now on the west side, mainly because there's enough people. We're filling up people's living rooms, but we can always pick another part of town if we get enough people wanting to do a Bible study. 2 James 1, verse 2, My brother encountered all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Your faith, my faith, will be tested. We're told it will be tested. There will be times when God is going to ask you a question. And the question is, do you really trust me or not? And I guarantee you it will come at you in a way that is your weakest point.

That's why it's funny. A test of faith for one person isn't a test of faith at all for another person.

It just isn't. Because whatever our weakest point is, we're going to be tested there. Do we believe God says this? And our weakest point might be our marriage. Our weakest point might be money. Our weakest point might be our health. Our weakest point might be our concepts of our own happiness. Whatever our own weakest points are, we're going to get tested there. And we're going to have to answer the question when God says, do you believe me enough to trust me? He says, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave in the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. For he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. It's an interesting concept about being double-minded. If you have a crisis of faith, if you're ill, and you don't know God doesn't seem to be intervening, or you've lost your job, and you're not getting a new job right away, and you're starting to have severe financial problems, and you're having a doubt whether God's intervening, or God's listening to your prayers, those kinds of things we all go through. And we all have moments of doubt. A double-minded person believes but doesn't believe.

I know what God says, but you know, God's not going to do that with me. So they try to live both things at the same time.

This goes, this is more than just sort of a crisis of faith. A double-minded person believes both things at the same time.

They're double-minded. They have two things, ways of thinking. I believe God says this, but I don't believe He's going to do it. I believe God says this, yes, I believe the Scripture, and this is what it says, but I don't believe that's what's good for my life.

Because God's not going to do that with me.

Double-minded person.

We just don't believe God's way works.

We just don't believe it. It's the problem that most so many teenagers have.

They have an inherent need for God, and they know it, and they desire. But the world seems to offer something so good that they believe, but they don't believe.

And we become double-minded. It's a very difficult time as a teenager to learn God's way, because the world tells you such lies, and they seem so true. And the truth is, they are a little bit true. It is sort of fun for a while, so you have to pay all the consequences.

A sixth reason we lack faith, or a faith buster, is because we just don't understand what it is. Faith is trust in God. Sometimes people will confuse stubbornness for faith.

Sometimes people produce, or will confuse laziness for faith.

Oh yes, I know God's going to give me a job, so I'm just sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. Well, did you send out any resumes? No. Did you go talk to anybody? No. Did you register online even? No. That's just laziness. That's not faith. I've actually seen people—now, this is very careful, or we have to be very careful about this. I've seen people say, I've decided not to go to a doctor because I have total faith that God either heals me or lets me die, and I'm putting it in His hands, and it's faith. It's absolute faith. And with those people, I enter—I—good! That's your choice between God and your faith. I've seen other people say, I'm not going to a doctor. I'm going to have faith in God because I'm just scared to death to go to doctors.

That's not faith. That's fear to go into going to doctors.

We have to make sure our faith is really what it is. If you believe God is going to heal you and you decide not to take a certain medication, that's faith. If you do it because you don't like to stay—you know, stand naked with that little gown on, that's not faith.

We have to understand what faith is. And sometimes we lack faith because we really don't know what it is.

We don't realize that faith sometimes has a high price. Read Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. Read Hebrews 11. People that God saved, people who God brought back the life, people who God performed miracles, and then at least people who God let die, people who were killed, people who suffered—all of them had faith. Sometimes there's a price to faith.

Sometimes there's a price to God's will because we live in a world that's evil. We live in a world that doesn't live by God's will. God's will is always good. That's the nice thing about when we're changed and we're all part of the family of God. God's will will always be good. Things will always be good. The problem is you and I live in a world that doesn't live by God's will, doesn't live by God's rules. And so we're always tempted not to do it God's way.

Because there's always this little thing in the back of our mind that that way is better. But it's not. And we confuse faith with certain emotions or wishful thinking.

And then the last reason that we lack faith sometimes is found in Mark chapter 9. Mark chapter 9.

In verse 17.

This is a similar situation that we already read about where this person had a demon and brought his son to Jesus. And they brought it to the disciples, and the disciples prayed and nothing happened. And Jesus talks to the man and he says in verse 23, Jesus says to him, if you can believe all things are possible to him who believes.

He said, if you believe that God can heal him and you believe I'm the son of God, that I'm telling you I will healing if you believe that.

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, the absolute emotion in this is very important. This man breaks down, he cries out, he doesn't say this softly, he cries out, everybody hears it and he just starts crying and he says to Christ, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

This isn't a double-minded man. This is something different. This is a man who recognizes the limits of his own faith.

This is a man who's come to grips with my son can be healed, but I am so weak that even with the Messiah right here, or this great healer, I don't know if he knew he was the Messiah, but this great healer from God right here, I struggle with my belief. I believe, help my unbelief. Sometimes we don't have faith because we don't humbly go to God and say, I believe, help me have what I do not have, take me where I cannot go, give me what I cannot do myself. I believe, but it can only go so far and you must do something in me I cannot do myself. And in that humility, and what I find remarkable about here is in that faith, his faith was so great he recognized how weak he was before God. His faith was so great he could say, I believe, but take me where I cannot go on my own. His faith was so great that God healed his son.

He received what he asked. He think, he say, well, I believe, help my unbelief, and he'd say, well, here, let me give you seven steps to go out and help build some more faith.

You believe but you don't believe? Well, no, I won't do it then. No, it was the exact opposite. He said, you understand where you are before God, and you can only go so far on your own.

He asked for faith. Now I have to warn you about something. You go ask for faith, and I only know of one way to offer God to give us faith. That is to put us in a situation where we have to trust Him. If you can think of another way, that'd be good. I personally would like different ways than that. So when we go ask for faith, we're asking God to help people at work, to mistreat us. We're asking God to help us lose a job. We're asking God to help our housebird down. We're asking God to help us wake up sick tomorrow. Now, I may be exaggerating some, but you understand what we ask. The point is, when you go ask God, help me have more faith, He says, okay, well, I'll make you trust me then.

But what I find interesting here is the person was already in the crisis.

They were already in the crisis when they went to God. And so this faith buster happens when we're already there. This is after the house burns down. This is after you find out that you have a heart problem. This is after you find out that your child died. And now you have to go to God. And your response is, I believe, but my humanness is so weak. Help my unbelief. Take me where I cannot go. We lack faith because we don't ask for it. And we ask for it in that time of crisis. We ask for it when we are overwhelmed. And we go to God and we feel like we don't have any faith. We feel like I can't trust you. That's when you go and say, help my unbelief.

In the crisis, in the trouble. But we don't go ask for it. But we don't go ask for it. And so that's the seventh reason that we lack faith. We have these faith busters. It's in the crisis of our lives. We don't go ask for faith.

We don't ask God to give us something we don't have. To come down into us through His Spirit and develop something in us that we ourselves cannot develop. The Almighty God is directly involved in your life. The Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, is directly involved in your life.

Faith in His involvement. Faith in His veracity. It's an interesting word. In His absolute honesty, it is absolute love for you. Faith in it. That He will do what He says is the spiritual foundation of your relationship with Him. It's the spiritual foundation of your whole life. God wants you not just to believe in Him. He wants you to trust Him as your Father. That He has your best interest at heart. Don't fall into the trap of these seven faith busters.

Live faith day by day. God is the ruler and sustainer of the universe. He's involved in everything you do every day if you ask Him to be. If you don't ask Him, you won't be. But if you ask Him every day, He's involved in your life every day, every moment. We can be praying to Him constantly for His guidance, for His understanding, for the power to obey, for the power to say and do what's right. For love and mercy and judgment and faith, we can ask for these things every day. And we have to remember, when He says in Hebrews 11 verse 6, that faith, to have faith, we must believe in Him. We must believe that He is the rewarder of those who believe in Him. And we must diligently seek Him.

Faith isn't just an emotion. It is something we must diligently seek. It is something that we literally must live every day.