We are talking about doubting God because, let’s be honest, some of us sometimes find ourselves doubting God. I’ve been there, and I’ve done that. There have been times when I was 100% certain of God’s presence, but other times, I have wondered if God is even there. But more often, if I’m honest, I doubt myself. Can anybody relate?
I doubt myself because I know the me that you don’t see.
I hear the voice in my head that says things about me that are not always kind, encouraging, or positive. I know my insecurities; I hear my own critical voice. I know the times when I dislike myself. Sometimes, it’s as simple as I don’t like what I said. More often, I don’t like the way I said it, or I don’t like what I did, or I don’t like what I didn’t do.
I know that God knows all of my faults, including those I don’t recognize as faults. That makes me wonder why God would choose to use someone like me.
If you’ve ever doubted yourself, felt insecure, or felt spiritually inadequate or insufficient, this message is for you.
For all the rest of you, those who are confident, those who are perfectly, completely self-assured, for the best of the best, the cream of the crop, those who graduated at the top of your class and were voted most likely to succeed, the good news is God can still use you.
He can. But God specializes in using people who know they need His presence and His power to accomplish His purpose.
We started this series on Easter Sunday morning. It is called Doubting God; Dealing with doubts and questions. We are going to tackle some tough topics. We will talk about Deconstruction, What to do When Christians Let Us Down, and Can I Believe in God and Science?
On Easter Sunday, we started the series by discussing how God meets us in our doubts, just like He met the Apostle Thomas in the middle of his doubt. God knows exactly what we need when we need it, and that is where He meets us.
Some might see doubt as a weakness, but doubt does not have to lead us to a weaker faith; it can actually be a tool that leads us to a stronger faith and trust in God.
The strongest faith isn’t a faith that never struggles.
The strongest faith is a faith that grows through our struggles.
That idea is really the foundation for this series. Confronting our real struggles and our real questions about God, faith, and the church, can help us develop and grow a faith that has answers to those real questions.
I’ve said it many times before God is not afraid of your hard questions or struggles. He can handle them. Christianity provides real answers to life’s hardest situations. Following Jesus isn’t a bunch of euphemisms and cliches. It can stand up to real life.
This morning, we will be talking about confronting the toughest doubt. That is what to do…When I’m Full of Doubt About Myself.
If we are honest, we all have seasons when we deal with insecurity and inadequacy. We might think that if God wants something done, surely He can find someone better qualified than me.
You may think, “I don’t know much about the Bible, I could never talk to someone about Jesus, and I certainly don’t feel comfortable praying aloud, much less leading a small group.”
I know that I don’t read the Bible every day. I struggle with bitterness or gossip. I can’t get over my anxiety and thinking negative thoughts about myself and other people. Maybe I still cuss occasionally or lose my temper, and I drink more than I should. You know what you’ve done wrong, who you’ve hurt, and how you have fallen short. So you think, after what you’ve done, why would God ever use you?
Look, I don’t want you to think I’m giving the green light to sin or to blatantly disregard the things God tells you to do, but I want to remind you that God knew exactly what He was doing when made you.
Do you remember the bumper sticker that you might sometimes see? It read, God don’t make no junk? That was true in the 90s when that bumper sticker was popular, and it is still true today.
Paul said this about you:
Eph 2:8-10 (CSB) – For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
If you follow Jesus, if you have been saved by grace, what are you?
You are God’s workmanship! God’s masterpiece!
Turn to the person beside you and say, “You are God’s workmanship.”
Workmanship: poiema (poy’-ay-mah)—a creation with a designated purpose, a masterpiece.
You are God’s poetic statement
You are beautiful.
You are valuable.
You are custom-designed.
You are tailor-made by the Master’s hand.
God gave you the right personality, the right gifts, and the right temperament.
You were born at the right time to do the good works that He planned before you were born for you to do!
If you think you can screw up God’s plan, you, my friend, are overestimating your ability.
You are saying that my past, my mistakes, and my sins are greater than God’s ability to overcome my brokenness and use me.
When the enemy tells you, God can’t use you, you are a mess!
Shout back, “I was a mess, but now I’m God’s workmanship!
Who does scripture say that God uses?
1) God uses the unlikely.
We looked at this passage several weeks ago but it is a great statement about who God uses.
God has sent the prophet Samuel to annoint a new king for Israel. God sends him to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons. Samuel sees Eliab, the first son. He is tall and strong and looks like a king. Look what God says:
1 Samuel 16:6-7 (CSB) – When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, “Certainly the LORD’s anointed one is here before him.” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the LORD sees, for humans see what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart.”
I love this. God is looking for the qualities people overlook!
One by one Samuel looked at all the “qualified” candidates. One by one he looked at each of Jesse’s sons and one by one God said nope, not that one.
As Samuel is about to give up, Jesse said, “Well, there’s one more, but he’s the youngest, and he’s just a shepherd out in the field with the sheep.
So they go and get David and God said, “That’s the one I choose!”
God loves to use those who are overlooked by others.
If you’ve ever felt overlooked or felt like God would never use you, remember David.
-Chip Ingram
God specializes in using ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.
I want to encourage you to stop believing what others say about you and believe what God says about you! He knows you better than anyone else, so trust what He has to say.
Who does God specialize in using? (1) God uses the unlikely… and
2) God uses the insecure.
In the book of Judges, after the Israelites had egregiously sinned, God gave them over into the hands of the evil Midianites. The Midianites were horrible to Israel, to the extent that the Israelites had to find places to hide so the Midianites wouldn’t attack them and take their food. It says the Israelites became poverty-stricken. So, the Israelites prayed for help from God.
Judges 6:11-12 (CSB) – The angel of the LORD came, and he sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. Then the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “The LORD is with you, valiant warrior.”
Gideon questions the Angel of the Lord and says why has God abandoned us?
Judges 6:14 (CSB) – The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian. I am sending you!
If the Angel of the Lord shows up and says, you are a mighty warrior and I’m sending you to deliver your people, you should probably think if God says I’m good, then I’m good. If God says you have what it takes, take Him at His word.
But Gideon lets his insecurities shout louder than God’s affirmation.
Judges 6:15 (CSB) – He said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s family.”
And as you read the story of Gideon, his insecurity goes on and on.
God will call you to do something or move you to do something. Maybe it’s to serve in a ministry at New Hope, to share your faith with someone, or to simply be a witness at work or school.
And you’ll probably say, “But Lord!” And then you are going to proceed to tell Him why you’re not the best person for the job.
Whenever God calls you the enemy is going to try to stop you!
One of his most effective strategies is to attack your self-worth!
He will say to you, “Who do you think you are? You’re not ready! You’re not worthy! You’re not good enough!
-Paul Martinelli
All fear stems from either ‘I am not enough’ or ‘I don’t have enough.
When you are in Christ, both of those things are a lie. When you know Jesus, walk with Jesus, and are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are absolutely enough, not because of you but because of His presence in you. Jesus promised us that we would always have what we need.
The idea that we are not enough or don’t have enough are lies, propagated by the enemy.
When God wants to use you, the devil will fight hard against you! He will work hard to undermine your confidence and replace it with fear.
You may not have a lot of confidence in yourself, but that’s actually good!
The word confidence comes from the Latin Con-fide.
Con—means “with” and Fide—means “faith.”
Having confidence doesn’t mean you believe in yourself. Real confidence is when you put your faith in what God says about you!
Gideon said, “I am the least likely!” But if you read the rest of the story, you will see that he is about to learn that God often uses the least to do the most!
- God uses the unlikely.
- God uses the insecure.
3) God uses failures.
Right after Jesus was arrested and taken before the high priest, Peter sat down with some people by a fire. A little girl pointed at Peter and said, “Hey, this guy was with Jesus!”
Luke 22:60-62 (CSB) – But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Have you ever blown it big time? Have you ever done something that made you feel embarrassed, ashamed, or unworthy?
It might have been a public failure, where you lost your temper and said something you shouldn’t. Maybe you made some bad financial decisions, lied, or hurt someone close to you. Maybe you’ve battled addiction, betrayed your family, or crushed those you love.
Or it may be a “private” failure. Some secret addiction, or maybe you did something but you didn’t get caught, but it weighs on you daily.
Peter denied he even knew Jesus. What did Jesus say to Peter after His resurrection?
Jesus said, “You blew it. I can’t never trust you, much less ever use you!”
No, in John 21, you can read how Jesus met Peter where he was, forgave Him for what He had done, and used Peter to reach countless people.
In fact, God chose Peter to preach at Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit filled the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. Peter boldly proclaimed!
Acts 2:38, 41 (CSB) – 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day, about three thousand people were added to them.
Who better to preach about forgiveness than someone who was forgiven?
God uses people who fail. The truth is that there aren’t any other types of people! We have all failed.
Perhaps, we all have reasons to feel insecure, inadequate, or insufficient. But just look at who God used.
Jacob was a cheater.
Miriam was a gossip.
Moses was a murderer.
Elijah struggled with depression.
Martha was a worrier.
David was an adulterer and murderer.
Thomas was a doubter.
Jonah was a coward.
Paul killed Christians.
God used them all. And God wants to use you.
The devil will tell you what you’re not but God tells you what you are.
- You are the righteousness of God in Christ.
- You are an ambassador of the Most High God.
- You are His masterpiece and His workmanship.
- You are His son or His daughter.
- In Christ, you are a saint.
- And He has good works prepared in advance for you to do.
So, stop doubting yourself because when you doubt yourself, you are doubting God!
You are not what you did.
You are not what they did to you.
You are not what they said about you.
You are not what you think about you.
You are who God says you are.
If you are truly amazing, the best of the best, perfect & holy. God can probably still use you, but He prefers to use the rest of us who need Him.
1 Cor 1:26-27 (CSB) – Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
Chris Hankel 
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