I believe you or someone you know needs to hear today’s message, Defeating Self-Doubt. While there is a need for preaching against the pitfall of pride that snares many in the church and ministry, I believe you or someone you know needs to hear today’s message, Defeating Self-Doubt. At the other end of the spectrum are those who grapple with a false sense of inferiority and worthlessness. They need this word of the Lord, defeating self-doubt. Ephesians 1, 6, which someone said is, I didn’t say, but they said it was one of my favorite scriptures. To the praise of the glory of His grace. Oh, what kind of grace are we talking about? Wherein in this grace He has made us accepted in the Beloved. No wonder it’s one of my favorites. Because of His grace He’s made me accepted in the Beloved. Who is the Beloved? In the beloved. We’re accepted in the beloved. Answer me the one right here in the scripture. Who’s the beloved? Who are we accepted in? All right, Jesus. Didn’t three times God verbally out loud speak out of heaven? This is my beloved son. In whom I am well pleased. Jesus is God’s beloved son. And I’m accepted in the beloved son of God. How many believe that God loves Jesus? Of course, he said it three times when he said, this is my beloved son. It’s another way of saying this is my son and I love you or I love him. And, you know, I have never, ever in my entire Christian walk had the devil come and say to me, you know, God doesn’t love Jesus. I have never heard that. Anybody ever heard a voice say to you that God doesn’t love Jesus? No, me neither. How many have ever heard the devil come and say God doesn’t love you? Oh, yes, I have. I even had an audible voice one time speak to me and say, God hates you. I almost fell off where I was sitting. That’s how strong it was. So the devil never tells me that God hates Jesus. So if I’m accepted in the beloved, how many see where I’m going? If Satan comes and says that God doesn’t love me, well, I know God loves Jesus. I know that he loves Jesus and the devil will never ever refute that. So therefore he must love me because I’m in the beloved. Amen. Because I’m in the beloved. Now, I want to look at that word accepted. The Greek word. It’s only found one other place in the whole New Testament. And here’s where it is. It’s when Gabriel came to Mary in Luke 128. The angel came and he said, behold, you are highly favored of God. See that highly favored. There we got it. Curry taught. Oh, same word as accepted. So I then am highly favored. In the beloved. Amen. Now I want to ask you a question. Did Mary bring glory. To God. By the highly favored grace. That he bestowed on her. Did she bring glory to God. Yes. God put his grace on her and there’s really not hardly anything more beautiful than what we call the Magnificat and that’s in Luke 1 46 through 48 and Mary she is after she’s visited Elizabeth and they’re both bubbling over because deep was calling on the deep and they got baptized in the Holy Spirit and and the Holy Spirit was just moving all over the place and Mary said my soul does magnify the Lord And my spirit does rejoice in God my Savior. For he has regarded the low estate. The low estate of his handmaid. And he that is mighty has done great things for me. And holy is his name. So in a way Mary was saying that. I was a nobody. I mean, I came from a really no count insignificant town. I came from Nazareth. Nazareth was a small town. It was near the Sea of Galilee, but unlike other towns like Cana and Capernaum that were on the water, it was up on a high elevation. it was a small town and mostly all one family different clans of the same general family and it wasn’t on the trade route it was a little insignificant town don’t you remember when andrew came to nathaniel and we’re saying we found the messiah we found the messiah jesus of nazareth and what did nathaniel say Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? You’re trying to tell me the Messiah is coming out of Nazareth? See, it shows you how insignificant a place it was. And so Mary was saying the lowest state of his handmaid. I am just a nobody from a simple little family and a little… Relatively insignificant town. But he that is mighty. Has looked upon my lowest state. And he’s elevated me and lifted me up. He that is mighty has done great things for me. And holy is his name. I don’t know what the Lord has done for you. But I know what he’s done for me. Hallelujah. He lifted me up when I was flat on my back. For years. Suffering. And he lifted me up. And he’s done great things for me. And he’s not a respecter of persons. And some of you sitting out there. Or lying out there. Wherever you are. Whatever you’re doing. I want you to know that he’s able to lift you up too. Amen. Mary was highly favored and we are highly favored. Same word accepted. See, except it doesn’t have a lot of emotion to it. Well, that’s acceptable. No, I’m more than acceptable. I’m highly favored. I’m highly favored. And when God’s grace is magnified in someone’s life, then he is glorified. When God makes a decision to magnify his grace in us by elevating and lifting us up It’s not about us Because the glory rebounds to God He gets the glory. It’s his grace Amen, and when his grace elevates us or does any kind of great work in our lives? He gets the glory When God’s grace is magnified He is glorified. Amen. In the beloved. There’s a scripture in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 33, 12. And it’s what God has promised his beloved. And it goes like this. The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him and the Lord shall cover him all the day long and he shall dwell between his shoulders. Think about that for a moment. The beloved of the Lord is going to dwell between God’s shoulders. Well, what’s between your shoulders? Your bosom, your heart. Amen. It’s just a way of saying your bosom or your heart. Amen. And we know we’re not talking about now physically. We got to take the metaphor. We got to take the metaphor into the spirit. Amen. So if you’re God’s beloved and I’m God’s beloved, then God’s got us right there in his bosom. What do you do when you want to comfort someone? You bring them to your bosom and you hug them. Amen. And of course, we use the heart to mean how we feel about someone. And whenever I read this verse, I always think of a dream that I had. It’s a very short dream. And the thing that was peculiar about this dream, instead of. The dream doing the activity speaking the words doing what was going on. It was like I was outside of myself Observing how many know the difference between a dream that you had that you’re actually doing things and other it’s you but you’re watching yourself and That’s how this was I was an observer and when I tell you the dream You’ll know why God allowed me to be the observer and not actually do the activity so in this dream I saw myself in And my back was backed up against someone’s chest. And I knew that it was God. And so he was behind me and I was backed all the way up against his chest. And the top of my head hit right about where a man would have a shirt pocket or a suit pocket right there on his chest. My head stopped right there, which is right where your heart is, right? Now, I didn’t see his face because he was so big that in the picture, in the dream that I’m watching, the frame was cut off before you got to his head. So I never saw his face because it was outside of the frame. But I knew that it was God. And here’s another peculiar thing. He was wearing a gray pinstripe suit. A white shirt and a tie. He wasn’t wearing glorious, flowing, iridescent robes with the royal blue sash. No. He was wearing a business suit like an executive would wear, like a CEO. And I mean a successful CEO. I mean an expensive suit he was wearing. And so as I pondered this, the meaning was given to me. And God was showing me, I’ve got the business of your life covered. you can be confident of your future knowing that I am big I’m able I’m capable I’m competent I’m successful and everything that you need in your life I’ve got it covered I’m backing you up I’m backing you up. And I took that two ways. He’s backing me up. Whatever I have to do in ministry. The anointing. The power of God. Everything that I need. And I took it literally. You’re backing up my back. When I am weak. You are strong. Amen. And. God was showing me. I care about you, Sharon, because I got you right next to my heart. You dwell between my shoulders right next to my heart. Amen. There are several verses in the Song of Solomon that talk about your beloved. And a lot of this, you know, is an allegory and we can apply them to Jesus. As our beloved. Amen. One of the sayings is in the song of Solomon is chapter 2 verse 16. I love this one. In Hebrew it says. Somebody say. You want to know what it means? It means. I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. Isn’t that beautiful? You can buy rings. You can buy rings for one another that that’s engraved in the rings. I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. Oh, that makes me feel so good. I am Jesus and Jesus is mine. Amen. I belong to him and he belongs to me. Somebody say Jesus is mine. And I am his. Here’s another good one. Chapter three, verse four. I have found him who my soul loves and I will not let him go. I have found the one who my soul loves and I will not let him go. Now you can use that in the natural. We got our newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Page are here today. And they should say to one another, I have found the one who my soul loves and I will not let her go. All right. Now, here’s a good one. Chapter four, verse seven. And this is the response to the I found the one who my soul loves and I will not let him go. We know we’re talking about Jesus, right? Four seven says you are fair, my love. Oh, there is no spot in you. What? What? You are fair and there’s no spot in you? He can’t be talking about me. He can’t be speaking of me. There’s no spot in me. There’s no flaw in me. I know I’m not perfect. Amen? Oh, but my Bible has a cross-reference. And the cross-reference scripture is Ephesians 5.27, which we all know well. Speaking of Jesus and his church, Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of the water of the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot nor wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. You see how they go together, they dovetail together when we are in Jesus. He loved us so much he gave himself for the church. I understand he died for the sins of the whole world. But the whole world is not saved and the whole world is not going to be saved. And that’s another message. But I want you to know that he wanted that pearl of great price. He wanted the church. Amen. And after he cleanses us of our sins with his blood, he continues to cleanse and sanctify us with the washing of the water of the word. And you know that kind of refers back to those messages I alluded to in the beginning that we’re all accustomed to. Where we’re told how to crucify the flesh. Amen. You know you need a good bath sometimes saints. Amen. I mean every now and then you just need a good spiritual bath. And you need those kind of messages to clean you and wash you. Isn’t that right? Because if you don’t after a while you’re going to get smelly. We’ll start smelling like the world. Ever been around somebody who hasn’t taken a shower in a long time? Uh-huh. You start smelling something, don’t you? Well, it’s the same way in the spirit. If you haven’t had a good spiritual bath in a while, you’re going to get smelly. You’re going to start smelling like the devil. Oh my God, that’s another message. I got to get back to the happy stuff. So there is no spot in you when you are continually being washed in the water of the word. And if you do make a mistake and you do sin, then we know if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us. From all unrighteousness. Amen. So God says there’s no spot in you. Now, there is a story. I haven’t told it for a very long time. I’m going to tell it again today. And in this story, I don’t know when it took place. I’m assuming maybe back during World War II era. I don’t know. But there was an American military person. I don’t know what branch of the military he was in. But he was stationed in Japan. And he had a three-week leave. And so he rented a boat. And he sailed to an island that was part of an island group. A whole bunch of islands all close together in the South Pacific. And he sailed to an island called Kiniwata. And he stayed at the guest house on the island. And the thing about it, the guest house was managed by an American from Chicago. I’ll call him the manager going forward. And I’m going to call this other man. I’m going to call him a sailor because he got a boat. OK, so the manager used to give the islanders American nicknames. And so there was one person on the island that he named Johnny Lingo. Johnny Lingo. And so one day they were all just, you know, shooting the breeze and talking, sitting around talking. And the manager, the American manager, began to tell the American sailor about this guy, Johnny Lingo. And he said Johnny was the brightest, smartest, quickest, strongest man in all the islands. He was kind of like a legend among the people. He was the best trader in the islands. He had many connections, and he was very rich. He had actually built a five-room house for his family on another island, and that was considered there an extreme luxury. He said, if you want to go fishing, Johnny Lingo knows the best places to fish. If you want fresh vegetables, he’s got the best gardens in all the islands. If you want to buy jewelry, island jewelry like pearls, he’ll get you the best deals. But, you know, the sailor noticed that even while the manager was bragging on Johnny Lingo, he still was kind of like snickering a little bit. And everyone else that was sitting around the other islanders, they were snickering. It was even a little kid sitting there laughing in a mocking way. And so he picked up on it. And he asked, you know, I noticed that y’all were kind of like snickering and sort of making fun of Johnny Lingo. And he says, why? So the manager explained to him, he says, five months ago, Johnny Lingo came here to Kiniwata to get a wife. And he paid her father eight cows. For her. This happens in places over there like that. Amen. And he paid eight cows for her. He says now this was a ridiculous price. You could get a very good wife. For four or five cows. At the most maybe six. But yet. He paid eight cows for her. And so. The sailor said, wow, she must be a beauty. And the manager said, well, to call Sarita a beauty would be kind. To call her plain would be kind. He said, she’s very skinny. And not only that, she walks around with her shoulders hunched over, looking down. And so he said, she’s scared of her own shadow. Amen. What a bondage-breaking word of the Lord, defeating self-doubt. I have observed that the primary tactic Satan uses to snare Christians, especially those in ministry, is pride. I mean, after all, it’s what caused him to fall. But on the extreme opposite are Christians who struggle with their worthiness in Christ and in life in general. They are handicapped by self-doubt that holds them back from being what God designed them to and steals their joy in Christ. They have not learned how to acknowledge every good thing that is in them in Christ, as Paul wrote to Philemon. Knowing who we are and what our value is in God’s mind is vital to be able to stand when we face satanic attacks against our minds and emotions. Defeating self-doubt is a word that will lift the clouds of doubt, worthlessness, and despair. Open one’s eyes to our value and worth in Christ, accepted in the beloved. It can be ordered on CD for a love gift to the radio ministry of $10 or more. Request offer SK222. Please consider an extra love gift to help with rising postage costs. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to our e-store on soundoffaith.org where it is available on MP3s. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203 and request SK222. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
