Kill Cynicism

Intro

Travis / Online or In-Person / Watch Your Mouth / Cynicism

What is Cynicism?

Doubt, Unbelief, Lack of faith, hopelessness, negativity…Ultimately its mistrust

In God, People, Self, Things…

I google searched cynical christian… over 12 million results

A cynical Christian is someone who has negative attitudes and expectations towards God, the church, or other people

I found a site purely dedicated to Cynical Christians…

“I love Jesus, but….”

The church, other Christians, the world we live in, etc..

Or maybe you label yourself as an optimist, realist, pessimist, but you would not call yourself cynical

33 - 4 Signs You Might Be A Cynic

You expect everything to go wrong

You anticipate failure

You expect disaster

You only see the worst in people

People are the worst

Even good people have selfish motives

You find the bad in the good

Red 3 is finally getting banned from our food by the FDA

There is always defeat in light of victory

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. H. L. Mencken

You downplay the power of God

I’m so glad he healed your sickness, but my ailment is different, people don’t get healed from ____

I know he they reconciled and saved their marriage, but we have irreconcilable differences

You can always tell which kingdom a person is from by his speech. The language of the kingdom of darkness and death is that of complaining and murmuring, fault-finding and cynicism, cursing and corrupt communication. A person living in the kingdom of light and life, on the other hand, speaks graciously and kindly, using words of hope and thanksgiving.‌ Jon Courson

How do you speak? The reality is, if you speak cynically, then you are cynical in heart. Our words reveal the condition of our heart. What we say reflects what we believe, feel, know. Cynicism is condition of the heart that comes out as negative, hopeless, unbelieving speak.

29 PRAY

Jesus Storybook Bible

If you are cynical about me reading from a children’s bible have no fear, it says for ages 4 and up and so for everyone but the three and unders, pay attention.

Adam/Eve

Abraham/Sarah

Red Sea

Promised Land

Naaman

Desperate to be healed — to cynical about the method of healing

Can you relate to any of these?

23Moses @ The Burning Bush - Exodus 3:10-4:17 (WHOLE CONVO THEN POINT OUT A FEW SHORT NOTES?)

ONE —————————————————————————————————————————-

God: “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Moses: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

God:“But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

QUESTION

Who am I? Is this mistrust of God’s calling?

Do you question God’s choosing of you?

Do you question your value/worth or that God could ever use you?

Are you more focused on your qualifications then you are his calling and his presence?

RESPONSE

God’s response was direct: ‘I will be with you’.

This was accompanied with the promise of a sign. However, God did not promise an instant miracle; Moses had to exercise trust first before seeing it fulfilled.

TWO —————————————————————————————————————————-

Moses: “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

God: “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you. The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you…’ And they will listen to your voice.”

Question

He starts out with “if” I obey you, they are going to question me.

How do I convince them that you sent me?

Notice that there is no sense of comfort despite God’s promise to be with Him and to perform a sign afterward. You ever ignore the promises of God in your life?

Response

YHWH. I AM WHO I AM, ‘I will be who I will be’, ‘I will be what I was’. I don’t change. I’m the same God of your ancestors.

As if to say, I don’t need you to defend my name, tell them I sent you, they will listen

THREE—————————————————————————————————————————- Moses: Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’ ”

God: Staff turns into a snake than back into a staff. Then his hand gets leprosy but gets healed of it immediately.

“If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

Statement

No they won’t

In spite of these divine assurances, Moses continued to drag his feet by raising another problem.

You ever play out conversations before they happen as if they are going to go the worst way possible?

How would he convince them that God had indeed appeared to him?

Sure Moses, God appeared to you as a burning bush.. More like you have been “burning some bush”.

After all, people are the worst

Response

In response God provided three signs which involved miraculous transformations for Moses to show to the people: his staff would become a snake (2–4); his hand would become leprous (6–7); and Nile water would become blood (9).

And he highlights the ridiculousness of moses’ cynicism. “if they will not believe these two signs or listen to your voice…”

Four —————————————————————————————————————————- Moses: “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”

God: Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

Moses: But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”

God: Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.

Statement

Moses still hesitated. He offered another excuse for not accepting God’s call: he was not eloquent

At the end of the day how much of our cynicism stems from putting our trust in the wrong things?

Be that ourselves, others, or things?

How many times does Moses focus on himself or the other people, almost flat out ignoring what God is saying?

Response

With a series of rhetorical questions God revealed that his power could overcome any inability which Moses might have felt

Interesting fact, Moses did not reveal to his father-in-law the true reason for his departure to Egypt possibly suggests that he remained unconvinced of God’s ability to accomplish his plans

Can you really blame Moses for being cynical? This conversation with God is pretty extraordinary, it must have been difficult to digest, Moses was probably just a realist.

Cynicism is simply unbelief masquerading as realism

Okay we get it, maybe cynicism is not a good thing, but what is that cure?

Cynicism = mistrust. Trust is the cure for cynicism. What do I mean by trust?

13Belief / Faith

Here we go…of course the pastor is telling us to believe or have more faith, how typical.

I know some of you have been told if you just believed, xyz wouldn’t happen or xyz would happen or you would've been healed if you had enough faith, etc…and I don’t want to preach that message because ironically unbiblical optimism will result in cynicism.

Belief or Faith is not necessary for God to do His thing, he is not reliant or dependent on us. The fact of faith is that we wether we want to accept it or not, we are dependent on Him. He provides every breath in your lungs and in mine, even the ones we use to be cynical, whether we believe it or now.

Too often we view faith through a me-centric lens. I’m sorry to break this to you, but this story is not about you or me.

The raising of Lazarus, the lack of faith by the disciples on multiple occasions is evidence enough to prove this.

But when we have faith, and he does provide or protect, heal, free, etc our faith grows. Faith begets faith. As I put more weight on this chair and see that it can hold the weight, the more I am open to putting even more weight on the chair.

Faith is simply believing that Jesus can carry the weight.

Practically speaking how do we trust, how do we get faith, how do we fix our unbelief?

10

1. Confess Unbelief

John 20:24–29 ESV

Thomas was not with them when Jesus appeared to them after the resurrection the first time. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus states a greater blessedness of those who believe without sight, which applies to all Christian believers ever since the time of Jesus. We depend upon secure evidence (Scripture, the witness of the church, our own experiences) but not on actually seeing Jesus.

When Thomas says My Lord and My God, he is confessing his belief that Jesus is God

2. Reflect On Experiences

The other Bible I have up here with me. This was the Bible I primarily used from 2017 to 2024. Sometimes I like to go back to it because I need to be reminded of things that he revealed to me through those years, what he taught me, what he healed in me, I need to be reminded of some answered prayers, I need to reflect on what I have experienced. A passage of scripture that significantly helped me get through 2020 and 2021.

Faithlife Study Bible Psalm 91

91:1–16 A psalm of confidence,

Psalm 91 (ESV)

1-8 Individual Proclaiming Trust In God

This is not a promise of immunity. The promise is not security from but security in.

9-13 An Audience Speaking To The Individual, Describing God’s Protection And Care

These verses stress the dangers that we encounter in all your ways, out and about in life. But you can genuinely trust in the Lord

14-16 God Speaking About The Faithful Person And Promising To Protect Him)

Notice how he describes the man. he loves me, he trusts me, he calls on me

This highly artistic psalm, expresses a fundamentally important fact

For those who trust in the Lord fully, we are always totally secure.

The Psalmists acknowledges his troubles but is not cynical.

He states the facts of his situation but trusts God.

3. Study His Word

Cynicism, not trusting God, can stem from an ignorance or unawareness of the track record of God, but the availability of scripture cancels out our excuse from not knowing His track record. Christians should not be known as cynics.

The media’s assault on the biblical Jesus, postmodernism’s laissez-faire attitude toward truth, and America’s collective ignorance of Scripture have joined to create a culture of cynicism. J. Ed Komoszewski; M. James Sawyer; Daniel B. Wallace

David says in the Psalms, “I meditate on all you have done”

So start reading, even if that means you pickup the Jesus Story Book Bible.

Read his Word so that through Faith you can stand firm on his track record.

Here is what you will find…

Our God can speak to a storm and it calms at his voice

he can split a sea

he can walk on water

He can bring water from a rock in the desert

he can provide bread from heaven

he can split open the earth

he can confuse our enemies

he can destroy a fortress with the shout of his people

He can bring the rain in a drought

he can heal from all matters of disease and sickness including death!

He can provide peace that doesn’t make sense

he can bring boldness to those who were once hesitant and fearful

he can take Saul, the Christian Killer and make him Paul, the Church Planter

He can give a couple in their 90s/100s a new born baby

He can forgive an adulterer

he can restore a thief

he can free those in bondage

How do we kill cynicism? Faith.

God-honoring faith takes God at his word and lives expectantly and obediently in the present, waiting for him to fulfil his promises.

Confess Unbelief

Reflect on Experiences

Study His Word

All of this is to be done in community. Who else knows when you are struggling with faith? Who can encourage you when you let cynicism creep back in? Who can remind you of God’s faithfulness? Who can help you navigate the word or who can you help?

The decision of faith is personal but the experience of faith is corporate.

Do you believe with all your heart? Are you willing to believe with all your heart? Believe: Put your confidence and trust in Jesus. Not trusting yourself, your good works, your money, you are not trusting anything but Jesus. All the weight on (the chair) on him.

Your words have power. Instead of speaking cynically, start speaking faith. Let your trust in him in all circumstances, situations, and conversations be evident with your words.

For some of you today, you need to confess your unbelief. Some of you need to reflect on his goodness and stop your mouth from cynicism and let praise come out. Some of you need to pick up a Bible on your way out and start understanding why God is trustworthy.

STAND WITH ME

If he said it, then he will do it. If he has done it, he can do it again!

Whether he heals you or not this year will you believe that He can?

2025 can be a year of faith for you.

Will you focus more on the presence of God with you than the storm that swirls around you?

2025 can be a year where you trust him again.

PRAY

For some of you today is the day you you place your faith in him for the first time. You decide to put all the weight on him. This is what that looks like.

The scriptures say in

Romans 10:9–13 ESV

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”