Sermon Tone Analysis

Doubt

As many of you would be aware, our church has a bus that gets used for youth group and for other things from time to time.

The bus itself is nearing 30 years old, and for it’s age, it’s doing really well for itself - hardly causing any significant problems.

Although, as you might expect, when a vehicle gets that old, there are always some problems.

Well, until this most recent Thursday, there has been one little problem that we’ve had for at least two years, possibly longer.

The boot has been locked shut with the key not working.

Now you might think, well that shouldn’t be too hard - but we have had many people trying to fix it.

We’ve even had a lock smith have a look, and he couldn’t even get it to budge.

Well, after many attempts, I had reached my conclusion.

The only way that we’re getting in, is by destroying the lock.

Something in the locking mechanism has moved, and no amount of twisting or prodding is going to make any difference, we’re only getting in by making some damage.

Well, on Thursday, Ron and James had the bus out dealing with some of the rust, and James thought he might make another attempt at getting it open.

He thought it couldn’t be too hard - but ah… I’ve heard that before.

Plenty of people have sounded confident before - and they’ve all finished the same way… defeated!

Anyway, I was working on other things at the time so I left them to it for a while - and to my astonishment, when I came back, I couldn’t believe it.

The boot was open!

In my astonishment, I asked how it was done.

I was told James climbed into the boot and fixed the problem from the inside.

Oh… you mean he got his arm down there?

… No, he climbed in there.

He got his whole body inside the boot and fixed it from the inside.

You know, sometimes when some things don’t sound plausible, we have a hard time believing it.

In the end, I believed the story but it took a bit of convincing that it was true.

Throughout the whole process I had doubts.

First, doubt that it could ever be fixed.

And then doubt in the story of how it eventually got fixed.

Nature of doubt

Now doubt is natural.

It occurs whenever there is a more plausible alternative.

When someone tells you a story that doesn’t quite seem plausible, there is going to be some level of doubt.

Sometimes someone will tell you they will do something.

If you deem that there is a reasonable likelihood that they won’t do it, doubt will occur.

Doubt is not always bad.

In fact, I’d suggest that it is part of the process of discerning things well.

It’s certainly a useful thing in an age of fake news, when we have to sift through what is real and what is not.

When doubt is bad

But while doubt can be useful, it can also be harmful.

When there is reason to think a given proposition is true, then doubt can be harmful.

Take for example,

For example a doctor tells you to take a certain medication.

You trust the doctor because he had a medical degree and many years of experience.

Doubting that advice is bad.

Or take a healthy marriage where both husband and wife have remained faithful for many years.

When doubt creeps in that your spouse is being unfaithful, particularly when there is no good evidence, then this will be very harmful for your marriage.

Link with Abram

This morning we are continuing the series on Abraham (or Abram as he is known at this point in the story).

He is our great example of faith, and yet, as I’ll explore this morning, we’ll see when doubts come into play.

I want you to pay attention to a few things in this.

First, how God interacts with his doubts.

But second, the damage that can be caused when the doubts move beyond what is reasonable.

When the promise doesn’t come

Well let’s first recap what’s happened.

I introduced you to Abram a few weeks back.

Actually, on his name - it is will be next week when we see his name change from Abram to Abraham, so I’ll explain the significance of that then.

But we’ve seen how Abram heard God speak, and in faith he stepped from the land of his people and into a land that God promised to him and his descendants.

Now there were a few elements to the promise that God made to Abram that we’ve looked at over the last few weeks.

Significantly for today, he was promised that he will become a great nation that will inherit the land God shows him.

To become the father of a great nation, there is of course something which is kind of essential - that is, offspring.

Now that seems a bit of a problem right from the start when we learn that Abram is 75 years old, and that his wife, who is ten years younger happens to be unable to conceive.

I mentioned before about what doubt is.

When you are told something that doesn’t quite seem to add up, you will naturally have some doubt.

That’s not necessarily bad, as long as it helps us to be discerning.

So certainly, when you’re told that you will be the father of a great nation, and you’re 75 without kids, it is natural that you would start doubting.

But he was 75 when God first gave him that promise.

By the time we get to chapters 15 and 16, it becomes apparent that over a decade has passed.

In fact, we’re told at the end of chapter 16 that Abram is in fact now 86 years old.

With each year, surely that level of plausibility is dropping.

Now here is where it becomes interesting.

You see, while from a natural perspective everything is pointing to the fact that God’s promise is not going to work out, this last decade or so of Abram’s life have been a testament to God’s faithfulness.

Two weeks ago, we saw when Abram was overcome by fear and made some bad choices, but God proved faithful in looking after Abram.

Last week we saw a very dramatic demonstration of God’s faithfulness, bringing about an against the odds victory, keeping the foreign influence at bay.

Abram’s doubt

As we move into the start of chapter 15, it’s almost as if God is reminding Abram of what just happened with this victory.

He tells him that he, (God himself) will be his shield and reward.

But despite this great reassurance and recent memory, Abram can’t help but let that doubt take a hold.

And I must admit, I can’t really blame him.

It’s not exactly that he doesn’t think God can deliver, but he’s certainly doubting the means by which he’s assumed it will happen.

And so his doubt leads him to do what we often do when things don’t add up - start to think outside the square.

The first place to start in his re-thinking is perhaps he misunderstood what he meant by descendants.

After all, we know from last week that Abram has many servants.

Maybe this is what God meant.

In verses 2 and 3 you can see Abram’s line of thinking.

The way he says it sounds like his not quite convinced this is the way it should be - but maybe?

You see, Abram has even figured out which one of his servants would take the inheritance.

This is what doubt can do.

It leads us down different paths.

Sometimes that can be good - particularly if we’ve heard wrong in the first place.

Now you might notice that when God responds, he actually doesn’t respond with a rebuke, but rather with a correction.

God speaks with him clearly telling him that it not going to be a servant who will get the inheritance, but in fact someone from his own flesh and blood.

Belief amongst doubt

With this correction, we again see Abram’s belief, and in fact, verse 6 is a verse that often gets quoted in the New Testament.

You see, verse 6 says that Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

This verse is important for us in this whole chapter.

You see, I’m arguing that these two chapters that we have today are evidence of Abram’s doubts, and clearly there is doubt there, but in the centre of it all, Abram has a faith to drive him through it all - and I want to come back to this idea later.

But before I do that, you’ll see this tension between faith and doubt within Abram.

You see, while this underlining belief is there, it doesn’t stop Abram asking about how he will know that he shall truly gain possession of the land promised by God.

God’s covenant

Now, what happens next will sound really weird to our ears.

Now, I’m going to try to explain it, but what is really important to see is how God is responding to Abram’s doubt.

There is no sharp rebuke, but rather a really significant moment of God confirming his promise to Abram in a really deep way.