Miracles Do Not Produce Faith: Why Israel Still Doubted

Sermon outline

Israel lived on daily miracles and still turned an eleven-day journey into forty years through unbelief, so believers must stop reacting to the word as victims and respond to it as victors who trust the God who gives the power to get wealth.

1. Do not forget the Lord your God

   God led Israel forty years in the wilderness to humble them and show what was in their hearts, feeding them with manna so they would know that man does not live by bread alone. You forget the Lord not by missing church but by not keeping His word first. The lie is that my power and the might of my hand got me this wealth; it is the Lord who gives the power to get wealth to establish His covenant.

   “It's not your lie, it's the devil's lie that you were the one that generated the wealth.”

   • Deuteronomy 8:2-3
   • Deuteronomy 8:11
   • Deuteronomy 8:17-18

2. Forty years for an eleven-day journey

   The trip from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea should have taken eleven days. Unbelief and disobedience, a reaction to the word, the commandments, Moses and the trauma of four hundred years of slavery, turned it into forty years. The wilderness was judgment and discipleship at the same time, as God prepared a new generation that would trust and obey. Even under judgment He kept their shoes from wearing out and sent manna and quail, and the fact that you are alive means He is not done with you.

   “Forty years in a place where we held on to the past, but we did not hold on to the promise.”

   • Deuteronomy 1:2
   • Deuteronomy 29:5
   • Exodus 16:13

3. Victim or victor: the issue was the size of their faith

   Ten spies focused on the giants and what was wrong. They are the dream killers who tell you this is not for people like you. Joshua and Caleb said the Lord is with us. Hold on to the promise, not the problem, because problems will always exist. Things are bad because your mouth is bad. You cannot trust God for His blessing while playing the victim; there is no blessing in sympathy.

   “We can either be the victim or we can be the victor, but there's no way we can trust God for his blessing while being the victim.”

   • Numbers 13:30
   • Numbers 14:9

4. If debt is the problem, why choose more debt?

   The first thing many people do with a promotion is buy a car and then a house they could not afford before. If debt were really the issue, why sign up for more? Take stock of all your debt instead of taking another card or loan, and see that God is not measured by the size of the debt but by the prosperity He can bring. An insatiable desire for more, from the R500 shoes to the R5,000 pair, is a 'me problem', and wealth must first be in the mind and heart.

   Illustration: Someone earning R100,000 complains about tax and then buys a million-rand car because it was R100,000 off, on a hire-purchase agreement that costs three times the price. Scrooge McDuck had buckets of money and a small, stingy heart.

   “If debt is the problem and I choose more debt, then the problem is not God, the problem is me now.”

   • Proverbs 10:22
   • Matthew 6:33
   • James 1:5

5. It took Abraham thirty years; it should take us thirty minutes

   Abraham was obedient, and God confirmed and fulfilled His promise, but it took almost thirty years for the revelation of the covenant to dawn on him. We have his example, so it should take us thirty seconds. Stop trying to work out how God will do it by looking at your salary, which nobody is happy with, or by measuring God's blessing against the world's standards and the past. Be bold like David before the Philistine, from a relationship with God.

   Illustration: The Sunday school song Father Abraham had many sons. And a car salesman of thirty earning salary plus commission who sets his life's value by that figure rather than by God's covenant.

   “Why must it take us 30 years? It should take us 30 minutes.”

   • 1 Samuel 17:26

6. Unbelief is not the absence of evidence

   Israel saw the Red Sea divided, ten plagues, manna, water from the rock and the pillar of cloud and fire, and still did not believe; they even wanted to go back to Egypt and appoint another leader, which was rebellion against God. Paul says these things are our examples. Miracles do not automatically produce faith; blessing must be met with obedience. Ask what is already in your hand: years of health, protection, a paid-off home, provision. An unbelieving heart can delay God's promise, though it cannot cancel it.

   Illustration: Those married more than ten years should think back to everything they lacked when they started and tell him God's hand was not there.

   “Unbelief is not the absence of evidence. It is the refusal to trust God despite his faithfulness.”

   • 1 Corinthians 10:5-7
   • Exodus 4:2
   • Psalm 40:2

7. All hands on deck: inject faith, and get your word life right

   The church is not a cruise ship, where a few work and everyone else eats; that is the world's system. It is a battleship with all hands on deck. When you hear someone complaining, do not accept the sob story; open the word with them, pray and cast out fear, doubt and unbelief. That is how a disciple wins people, then consolidates them, then disciples them until God, not you, is their source. And get your own word life, prayer life and speech life right: tithing is the minimum, and the tithe of your time means real time in the Word, not just a podcast, a radio station or a quick prayer in the car.

   Illustration: Consolidation is like brushing the teeth of a two-year-old who refuses: through all the tears you keep brushing because it is necessary. And people will get up at 2am for the World Cup but cannot get up at 5am for the Word.

   “Minimum is tithing. But you got to get your word life right.”

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