Faith Over Doubt: Embracing Childlike Trust in God

The sermon begins with the pastor emphasizing the importance of doubting our doubts and placing our faith in God. He encourages the congregation to not let doubt overshadow the promises that God has made for their lives. He also highlights the deeper meaning behind Jesus' words in Matthew 18:3, explaining that being converted and becoming like little children is not just about being born again, but also about having a childlike faith and trust in God.

The pastor then shares a personal experience of being provoked by someone who was not aligned with God's purpose, and how he took the bold step to rebuke and block that person. He challenges the congregation to believe in God above all else, rejecting the world's plan of success or the voice of the adversary. He admits that he too experiences doubt, but he chooses to doubt his doubts and remain steadfast in his faith in God's provision and the truth of His word.

The pastor also discusses the concept of being converted and having faith. He clarifies that being converted does not mean being born again into a new nature, but rather bringing something back to a place it has already been. He encourages the congregation to return to a time in their lives when they believed without fear and doubt, when their minds were not troubled by the cares of life.

The pastor reflects on the journey of starting a church, drawing a parallel to Abraham, who was called by God to go out without fully understanding the destination. He emphasizes the importance of having holistic belief and faith in God's promises, even when our human logic and inhibitions try to hold us back. He assures the listeners that if God calls them to step out in faith, He will come through and never leave them forsaken.

The sermon concludes with the pastor emphasizing the importance of actionable faith. He explains that simply believing in the prophetic word of God is not enough; one must also act upon it in obedience. He uses the example of Abraham, who was promised by God to be the father of many nations and to inherit the land of Canaan. He encourages the congregation not to sacrifice God's divine potential and plan for their lives due to their comfort or fear.

Key Takeaways:

- Doubting our doubts and placing our faith in God is crucial. We should not let doubt overshadow the promises that God has made for our lives. Instead, we should choose to believe God and step out from under the cloud of unbelief and spiritual offense. ([1:23])

- Being converted and becoming like little children is not just about being born again, but also about having a childlike faith and trust in God. We should return to a time in our lives when we believed without fear and doubt, when our minds were not troubled by the cares of life. ([15:45])

- We should have holistic belief and faith in God's promises, even when our human logic and inhibitions try to hold us back. If God calls us to step out in faith, He will come through and never leave us forsaken. ([28:30])

- Simply believing in the prophetic word of God is not enough; we must also act upon it in obedience. We should not sacrifice God's divine potential and plan for our lives due to our comfort or fear. ([42:10])

- We should pray according to God's design and will for our lives. Unseen blessings from God await those who have faith. We cannot determine the will of God, but we can pray the prayer of faith, knowing that faith often goes against human logic and requires us to go beyond our natural limitations. ([56:20])

Bible Reading:
1. Hebrews 11:7: "By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith."
2. Hebrews 11:8: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going."
3. Matthew 18:3: "And said, 'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"

Observation Questions:
1. What actions did Noah and Abraham take in response to God's instructions, as described in Hebrews 11:7 and 11:8?
2. What does Matthew 18:3 suggest about the nature of faith and the requirements for entering the kingdom of heaven?

Interpretation Questions:
1. How does the faith demonstrated by Noah and Abraham in Hebrews 11:7 and 11:8 relate to the concept of doubting our doubts and placing our faith in God?
2. What might it mean to "turn and become like children" in the context of Matthew 18:3? How does this relate to the idea of having a childlike faith and trust in God?

Application Questions:
1. Can you recall a time when you doubted God's promises for your life? How did you overcome these doubts, and what steps can you take to strengthen your faith in the future?
2. Reflect on a situation where you felt called by God to step out in faith, similar to Abraham in Hebrews 11:8. What was the outcome, and how did it impact your faith?
3. In what ways can you cultivate a childlike faith and trust in God, as suggested by Matthew 18:3, in your daily life?
4. Can you identify an area in your life where you need to act upon God's word in obedience, similar to Noah in Hebrews 11:7? What specific steps can you take to do so?
5. Think of a person or situation that challenges your faith. How can you apply the lessons from Noah and Abraham's faith to this situation?

Day 1: Embracing Childlike Faith
Doubt can often cloud our vision and hinder us from seeing God's promises for our lives. It is crucial to doubt our doubts and place our faith in God, stepping out from under the cloud of unbelief and spiritual offense. This requires a childlike faith, a trust in God that is unencumbered by fear and doubt. [1:23]

Matthew 18:3 - "And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"
Reflection: Reflect on a time when you had childlike faith. How can you recapture that sense of trust and belief in God's promises today?

Day 2: Returning to Innocence
Conversion is not just about being born again, but also about returning to a state of innocence and trust in God. It's about going back to a time when we believed without fear and doubt, when our minds were not troubled by the cares of life. [15:45]

Luke 18:17 - "Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
Reflection: What are some fears and doubts that are currently troubling your mind? How can you surrender them to God and return to a state of childlike trust?

Day 3: Stepping Out in Faith
Having faith in God's promises often requires us to step out in faith, even when our human logic and inhibitions try to hold us back. If God calls us to step out in faith, He will come through and never leave us forsaken. [28:30]

Hebrews 11:8 - "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."
Reflection: Is there an area in your life where God is calling you to step out in faith? What is holding you back and how can you overcome it?

Day 4: Acting on God's Word
Believing in the prophetic word of God is not enough; we must also act upon it in obedience. We should not sacrifice God's divine potential and plan for our lives due to our comfort or fear. [42:10]

James 2:26 - "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
Reflection: What is one action you can take today to act upon God's word in obedience?

Day 5: Praying with Faith
Praying according to God's design and will for our lives is crucial. Unseen blessings from God await those who have faith. Faith often goes against human logic and requires us to go beyond our natural limitations. [56:20]

Mark 11:24 - "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
Reflection: What is one area of your life where you need to pray with faith, believing that God will answer according to His will?

Desires, if you pray and believe, but you pray according to God's design and will for your life, you will receive every time. But if you pray with your flesh in the game, and you pray with your own desires in view, and you pray seeking your elevation instead of the elevation of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, when you pray, you will ask amiss.

Can I tell you, so many times if you have prayed for God to do a thing, and maybe you've been seeking God and God hasn't done a thing? I can't tell you what is or is not the will of God. All I can tell you is that the Lord says, "Pray the prayer of faith." Pray the prayer of faith, and the prayer of faith will heal the sick.

Hebrews 11:7 says, "By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear." See, that's a part of this equation that we must have prepared in for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. He built an ark, having never seen a drop of rain, because he believed in faith at the word of God.

Hebrews 11:8, the next verse, says this: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out of the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going." Sometimes God is speaking to us to do a thing, but we cannot do it because we want to obey God as long as it makes sense.

The first thing to note about faith is that whatever is done in faith will not make natural sense. It will go against your logic, and this is why the Bible says in Romans 8:7, "Because the carnal mind is at war against God." Your natural mind is at war against God. Faith will require you to go beyond the limitations of your human logic to discover the unseen blessings of God, which surely await you and far too often go unseen and unobtained because of a lack of real, true faith.

God called us to start this church. I wrestled with it for months because before God called us to start this church, I wanted to start a church, and I thought I knew what to do. The moment that God said, "Start a church," I realized quickly I don't know anything. I've never done this before, and I began to fear a little bit. In my human logic, my mind was saying, "But what if this? What if this? What if this? What if this?"

It's like God looking at Abraham, who had a family, had a wife, had people under his care, had a flock, saying, "I want you to go out this way." But where, God? We don't understand. I just want you to go. See, Abraham didn't get the promise that he would be made the father of many nations until after his feet began to move according to the promise of God, the word of the Lord.

How many things has God prophesied to you in your life that you will never see unless you holistically believe and holistically begin to move in faith? You should begin to pray this prayer: "God, bypass my carnal mind." God, bypass my carnal mind because I know that my carnal mind is at war against you. I know that my thoughts, my human intuitions, my inhibitions, they are at war against you.

If I follow what I feel, I'll never see what you've promised. But if I, by faith, just at your word alone—listen, if God's word is able to fashion the heavens, God's word is able to breathe life into you, God's word is able to form your living soul and cause your heart to beat in this moment—how much more should we believe God that if God calls us to step out in faith, that He will come through?

God is not going to leave you forsaken. God has never left you forsaken. God is not going to leave you out on a limb by yourself. But if you will step out in faith and believe, I don't know what it is that God's calling you to step out in faith for, but I'm telling you tonight that if you will step forward in faith and believe, on the other side of faith, you will see the miraculous hand and provision of God.

You will, and you need to get away from people who have the carnal mind that are always trying to tell you you're dreaming too big, you're thinking too broad, you're believing God for too much. They tell you that you're too spiritual, and yes, you are spiritual, and you do not need to apologize for being spiritual.

Let me tell you what these people are who sow seeds of doubt into your mind: they are carnal. They are enemies of God. Anyone who instructs you away from obedient faith is not only an adversary of you, but they are an enemy of God because they are at war with God's design, His purpose, His calling, and all of the many blessings that God wants to pour out in your life. They are at war with God, and they do it in the name of wisdom.

You ever had somebody like that? Why don't you think about that? Now, if you think you're using your carnal mind, I am telling you that God is going to cause some of you to do things that your carnal mind will rob you of. This is why it is so vital to walk in the Spirit, feel the Holy Ghost, because God has so many things ready to pour out in your life.

I'm prophesying to somebody right now. I'm in the Holy Ghost. But because you have been so enamored with what you can gain and what you can get, and because you have had your eyes on the pleasures of this life, you are going to settle for all of the things that are so much lesser than what God wants to reveal to you because they are on the other side of actionable faith—not just believing the prophetic word of God, but acting out on it in obedience.

Hey, listen, God can prophesy something to you all day long, but it is nothing more than prophetic potential. It requires you to get your faith into action and begin getting in step with what God is doing and begin moving.

Hey, listen, God wanted to give Abraham all of the land of Canaan. God wanted to make Abraham the father of many nations. God wanted to elevate Abraham, even give him a son by which all the nations of the earth would be blessed. But if Abraham would have said, "Oh, but you know what? I don't know if that land is better than this land. I really like where I live right now. I really like the provisions that I have right now," instead of going and sacrificing and walking according to the will of God by faith, he would have never seen Canaan land. He would have never had that son called Isaac. He would have never obtained the heavenly promises of God.

I come, I pray tonight and speak to you tonight that you would not sacrifice God's divine potential and plan over your life because you simply are comfortable with where you are. Trust God and believe that God is not going to lead you anywhere. God's not going to ask you to do anything that's going to lead you into harm. The Bible says, and nothing—Jesus says—nothing shall by any means harm you.

Let me tell you about wisdom: if there is ever wisdom that comes to you to get you out of step with the position of radical faith, radical believing, it is not godly wisdom; it is the work of the devil in disguise. Do not embrace it; rebuke it. Don't embrace it; rebuke it. If you embrace it, you receive the seed of whatever that thing is producing. You need to rebuke that thing.

And you're like, "Well, my friend said something to me the other day. Are you saying that I should have rebuked my friend?" I am telling you in the name of Jesus. Now, you think I'm crazy. I have rebuked people—people that try and throw me off of God's destiny in my life.

Hey, guess what? Rebuke and block. Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, because the soil of my life is far too valuable to God than for me, through a lack of awareness or a lack of boldness, to allow somebody to sow a seed of doubt into my soil. Hallelujah!

I come to challenge this body tonight to believe God. If you could summarize this message into two words, this message is this: believe God. Some of you are believing the world. You believe in the world's plan of success for your life. Some of you are believing the voice of the adversary. You're just believing all kinds of things.

I am telling you tonight, it is time for you to believe God. And you're like, "Man, isn't that like kindergarten Christianity?" It is indeed. It is. Let me tell you something: if you have doubt tonight—which, hey, we've all got doubt, okay? If you hear what I'm saying and you think Pastor Justin never has doubt, okay, that's not true. I have doubt. Okay, chief of sinners among you today, I have doubts.

But I doubt my doubts. I doubt my doubt. Anything that has come to me to cause me to doubt the God who saved my soul, anything that has come to me to cause me to doubt God's hand on my life and God's provision and the word of God, His promises to me, I'm telling you, you ought to doubt your doubt.

Far too often when doubt comes, we put faith in our doubt instead of faith in God. But I am telling you a very easy strategy here tonight: when doubt comes into your mind that tries to position you against what God has said He will perform in your life, I am telling you to doubt your doubt. Don't place your faith in that doubt. Don't wonder if that doubt is real or if that doubt is false. Don't give it any time. Doubt your doubt and put your faith in God.

The word of God will not pass away. Your doubts are flying here and there in the wind, but there is something that is eternal that we can lay hold of, and that is the word of God that will not pass away. I choose to believe God.

So come out and get out from under that cloud. Get out from under the haze of unbelief. Get out from under the shackles of spiritual offense that has lied to you and told you that if you live the way God wants you to live and declare by faith what God has for you to believe, that you might offend somebody who is walking in a carnal mind. That is not your concern. That is not my concern. My concern is walking in faith because if I don't walk in faith, I can't please Him.

If we don't believe, this Kingdom life will not work. There is a reason why Jesus said in Matthew 18 and verse 3, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

If we just read over this really easily, we can miss something that is hiding so powerfully that God revealed unto me very recently. The word "converted" in the Greek, the original language, means this: we think He's saying, "Oh, except you be born again and become like a kid, you can't enter the kingdom." Well, He talked about that in John 3, but that's not what He's talking about here. He's talking about faith.

Unless you are converted—that word "converted" means this: to bring something back to the place it used to be. Now, if we were talking about being born again, you would be going from a nature to another nature that you've never had before. It's not talking about that. It means to bring something back to a place it has already been, and it brings all the more power to the next five words: "and become like little kids."

I want you to catch this tonight. You've been a kid before. God's not saying go type of faith that you've never had. He's saying go back to the type of life that you used to live, and He says what type of life it is you are to return to: it's saying the life of a child. Unless you go back to the place you've already been, which means it is obtainable, and live your life in the posture of a little child, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Hear me: there was a time in your life that you believed without fear. There was a time in your life where doubt couldn't be found in you. There was a time in your life where you believed your little mind wasn't troubled by the cares of this life. As a child, I can remember how great my faith was.

Here's the beautiful thing about this: you've been there before. You've experienced it before. You're not so much like Abraham here going out trying to find a faith in a land that you don't know where you're going. God said you've already been there before. The Bible says that He's given every man a measure of faith. When you are born into this world, there is a measure of faith of pure belief that is put within sight of every man.

The Lord is saying, "I know that life has hit you left and right. I know you've walked through betrayal. I know you've walked through struggle. I know you've been let down. I know somebody turned their back on you. I know your mom walked out on you or your dad walked out on you. I know that your friends left you all by yourself. I know you experienced hurt there. I know you experienced loss there."

But I'm telling you that if you will go back to the time before all that happened to you—because I didn't do that to you. I didn't hurt you. I didn't harm you. I didn't cause that person to betray you. I didn't cause that loved one to walk out on you. I didn't cause that misfortune to come to your home.

If you will go past all of the things that this sinful nature in this world has brought to you, and you will go back to the posture where that measure of faith was in full operation as a little child, and if you will begin to look through those eyes again, I am telling you that you will begin to see a kingdom in a different way. You'll begin to understand with faith just a little bit more. You'll begin to believe for things that you didn't believe for anymore because you'll know what it's like to live in the dimension of faith.

I'm talking to some people here tonight that you have had grievous wounds. You have had grievous wounds. There have been people that have hurt you. There have been people who have walked out on you—people who have physically harmed you, who abused you maybe as a child. But I am telling you that there is a place, if you go far enough back, where there is a place of innocence, and that is the place that God is calling His people to live in.

If you can just remember—I know you do because I know you're like me, and I just sit back and remember sometimes how easy life used to be and how I didn't ever worry about anything and how I didn't really fear anything. I knew my father was going to take care of me. He always did. I knew that I was going to be okay and everything was in front of me.

Now, in life, after you may have been bruised and battered for a little while, you may have lost your faith. I'm telling you that the world has a way of bruising your faith. But if you'll go back to the time before life ever hurt you, before you ever failed God, before you ever started walking in condemnation, before the adversary ever started accusing you, you will step into a dimension of Kingdom faith whereby you will believe when you pray, and you will receive it.

God wants to heal somebody right now. If you just lift your hands—everybody lift your hands right now because God’s talking to a couple of people. You've got some wounds deep in your soul. There have been some things that have happened to you that weren't your fault, and that wound has materialized into a deep seed scar. But God is telling you today, "Not only can I heal that wound, but I want to take you back to the place before you ever got that wound."

But it's a place of faith in the kingdom of God. Oh, let faith spring up in us. Let the awe and wonder of God be made manifest among us tonight. Jesus is saying, "Return to the place of purity. Return to the place of joy. Return to the place of awe and wonder." It's available to you. There's a pure faith that's available to you. Return to childlike faith.

"When doubt comes, we put faith in our doubt instead of faith in God. But I am telling you a very easy strategy here tonight when a doubt becomes to come into your mind that tries to position you against what God has said he will perform in your life, I am telling you to doubt your doubt." [01:21:56]

"I don't know what it is that God's calling you to step out in faith for but I'm telling you tonight that if you will step forward in faith and believe on the other side of Faith you will see the miraculous hand and provision of God." #!!01:15:13!!#

"I know that life has getting has hit you left and right... I know that your friends left you all by yourself... I know you experienced hurt there... I know you experienced loss there... but I'm telling you that if you will go back to the time before all that happened to you... you will begin to see a kingdom in a different way." #!!01:26:27!!#

"God can prophesy something to you all day long but it is nothing more than prophetic potential it requires you to get your faith into action and begin getting in step with what God is doing and begin moving." #!!01:17:20!!#

"Unless you go back to the place you've already been which means it is obtainable and live your life in the posture of a little child, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." #!!01:24:56!!#

"You've been there before, you've experienced it before. You're not so much like Abraham here going out trying to find a faith in a land that you don't know where you're going. God said you've already been there before." #!!01:25:45!!#

"How many things has God prophesied to you in your life that you will never see unless you holistically believe and holistically begin to move in faith?" #!!01:13:56!!#

"The first thing to note about faith is that whatever is done in faith, faith will not make natural sense. It will go against your logic...faith will require you to go beyond the limitations of your human logic to discover the unseen blessings of God." #!!01:12:31!!#