Fading Faith // Crazy Faith (Part 19) – Pastor Michael Todd – Transformation Church

Introduction

Crazy Faith turns to Fading Faith because of loss

• Everyone experiences loss but not in the same way (e.g., loss of relationship, money, time wasted).
• People have been turned off from church because we make it seem like you can’t be in the process of your belief and still be here.
• John 20:19-20: On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
  • Context: Jesus had been crucified and sent to His grave. Three days later, Mary went to see His grave and everybody is confused about where Jesus was. Jesus appeared to Mary and sent her hope about His assurance and provision but nobody really knows what’s going on – not His disciples, guards, etc.
  • When Jesus came to where the disciples were hiding, they were overjoyed because they were able to see and touch His hands and sides – they were able to touch and see a miracle.

Fading Faith isn’t always your fault

• John 20:24: Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
  • There wasn’t an explanation why Thomas wasn’t there in that room of Crazy Faith. It’s not his fault that he missed it; it’s not your fault that you missed your moment, it’s just life.
    • In this moment, Thomas does nothing to deserve missing this moment
    • We can’t see all the little holes that can and will deflate the big Crazy Faith balloon in our and others’ lives.
• John 20:25: So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
  • God is not offended by your questions, your unbelief/doubt. If you constantly say, “speak in faith,” you may have actually not lived yet.
  • Thomas was a man who knew and believed in Jesus, until he suffered a loss. A loss can turn Crazy Faith into Fading Faith.

Fading Faith is:

Fading Faith is a result of only hearing about what you wanted to see

• EX.) Thomas only heard about a miracle others got to experience.
  • Thomas wanted to believe, he wanted to see the miracle, he wanted to be in that moment.
  • “Doubting” Thomas is a terrible label. What people try to do is label you from a season of your life because Thomas wasn’t always doubting. The proof of this is in John 11:14-16.
    • John 11:14-16: So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Fading Faith always starts with Crazy Faith

• At your highest moment, there is still a low moment, and it’s important not to just know how to stay on the mountain top, but how to navigate the valleys.

What Do You Do When Your Faith Has Fallen?

• John 20:26: A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
  • Before this verse, Thomas essentially ‘peaced’ out on everybody and walked out saying “F that!” Yet, in this verse, the disciples plus Thomas, were back in the house again, the same place Jesus came the first time.
  • The disciples didn’t tell/say about Thomas, “Well, he’s an unbeliever now. Kick him out, let him go, let him stay in his unbelief.”

• The Church can affect whether a person’s Fading Faith can return to Crazy Faith; the Church needs to have a community of Crazy Faith to reach out to the person with fading Faith and welcome them back with love.

• John 20:26-28: A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though 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; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
  • When Jesus came back, He did a rerun of what He did, not for all ten that were left, but for the one who missed it. To some of you all who think that you’ve missed your moment, God will redo everything that He did before that you missed, and you felt like you missed out on, just to prove that He’s real.
  • When Jesus said, “Peace be with you,” He turned to Thomas and he [Thomas] didn’t have to explain his issue of faith. Jesus already knew what his issue was, the same way Jesus already knows the issues in your life.
  • Jesus met Thomas’ physical need to bring back to life his spiritual need.

Fading Faith Attracts God’s Crazy Grace

• God doesn’t throw you away when your faith is falling. He actually says, “Oh, there you are.” The Bible says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted …” (Psalm 34:18). The Lord listens intently.

• Thomas experiences God’s grace
  • God’s grace is unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor and kindness
  • God’s grace is so great, it made Thomas say, “My Lord and my God!”

When God Wants to Heal Fading Faith:

• When God wants to heal Fading Faith, He does something tangible
  • EX.) When Jesus told Thomas to put his fingers on His hands and side, Jesus resolved Thomas’s doubts by doing something tangible. Jesus knew that Thomas and his doubt needed something he could touch, real.

• When God wants to heal Fading Faith, He does something visual
  • This aspect is important because many times when God shows up, we don’t want to look or see, so God engages a lot of your senses. God knows that if you don’t see his work, we won’t believe that it was real.

• When God wants to heal Fading Faith, He does something personal
  • EX.) When Jesus told Thomas to put his hands on His side
    • The only other place in the Bible where God putting His hand in to somebody’s side to do something was when He [God] put His hand on Adam’s side to create Eve
    • In both Thomas’s, Adam’s, and our lives, God creates a personal interaction (that is also visual and tangible) to recreate something in us that wasn’t there before

• Jesus healed Thomas’s faith to teach and to discipline
  • John 20:29: Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”