Protecting me from me...

I preached this sermon this past Sunday (May 30, 2010) and I was asked to produce an "outline" for those who did not have the benefit of hearing the sermon. I agreed to do so because i've been told this message blessed a lot of people and I believe it has the potential to bless many others.

This outline may be kind of rough because I normally dont do outlines or write any notes for my sermon so what I am about to give you is off the top of my head...

"Protecting Me from Me"
John 20:24-31

Intro:

I. Everyone makes mistakes
* Young
* Old
* Black
* White

II. We Must be careful of the decisions we make
* Unfortuantely some of thsoe decisions follow us for the rest of your life
* Jesus forgives us but many people never forgive and never forget some of the choices that you
made
* People will define you based off one bad decision you made and you are then identified by your
infirmities
- you are no longer known as Joe but you are known as Joe who is 32 and lives with his mother
- you are no longer known as Susie but you are known as Susie was 16 and got pregnant before
she graduated and got married
* We must be careful of our decision making because if we continue to make careless mistakes, WE
create problems for ourselves that we may end up having to deal with for the rest of our lives.

III. Doubting Thomas
* Thomas has traditionally been known as "doubting Thomas" because of this one instance of
doubting whether Christ had truly risen from the grave and made himself manifest to the other
disciples.
* But was that really the character of Thomas?
* It was Thomas who said in John 11:16 "...let us also go, that we may die with him"
* It was also Thomas in John 14:5 who said "...Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can
we know the way?"
* This doesnt seem like the speech of someone who can be labeled a doubter.
* The truth of the matter is, when God views us, he views us based on our whole life and not just a
snap shot of our bad moments.

IV. Thomas doubted because he was out of place...
* V. 24- He was not with the other disciples when Jesus came
* Many of us find ourselves doubting, disobeying and being discouraged with God because we are
out of place. If we found ourselves in the place where we should be, things would go better for us.

V. Thomas argued against that which he did not understand...
* V. 25 - Thomas did not understand because he did not see it for himself
* Thomas sought physicalities as proof
* Thomas refused to believe
* Thomas viewed God as a regular earthly believer who had now died.
* For many of us, how we view God depends on what we can see from God. We fight against God
because what he ask us to do, we dont understand it.
* God has never given us an excuse to not believe because of what we dont understand

VI. Jesus confronts Thomas' persistent lack of faith...
* V. 26- It lasted 8 days.
* Jesus was aware of Thomas' demands
* Jesus confronted Thomas with the proof that he required
* Often times when we are without faith in God, it is not a temporary momentary lapse in faith,
however it is something that can be on ongoing
* God will show up and prove to you that very thing you are doubting
* The Christian journey is like a roller coaster of sorts. You have those times when you are at a
spiritual high but then you have those times when you are at an all time low. Jesus has the
amazing ability to show up at both times and prove to you that very thing you doubt.

VII. Thomas' interaction with Jesus warranted a response....
* V. 28 - Thomas then recognized Jesus as God and not just another earthly being
* When has shown up and proven himself to you over and over again... there is a response
that is necessary
* Your response must be dramatically different from your doubt...

VIII. Faith does not depend on what you can see...
* V. 29- Thomas' temporary lack of faith was depended upon what he could see
* Jesus said "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed"
* Are you always demanding proof from God or do you have enough faith to believe without seeing?

There is a whole lot more to this sermon but I chose not to type out everything...

The idea behind this sermon says this: Many of our troubles comes from our lack of faith. Our lack of faith and our decisions we choose to make causes us to be our own worst enemy. If you want to protect yourself from yourself, get in tune with God and have faith no matter how uncertain or unbelievable a situation may be.