Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. 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, 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.

Now, there is a story I haven't told for a very long time; I'm going to tell it again today. In this story, I don't know when it took place. I'm assuming maybe back during the 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. 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.

He sailed to an island called Kiniwata. And he stayed at the guest house on the island. 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 a sailor because he got a boat. The manager used to give the islanders American nicknames. And so there was one person on the island that he named Johnny Lingo.

And so one day they were all just shooting the breeze and talking, sitting around, and the American manager began to tell the American sailor about this guy Johnny Lingo. 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 the sailor noticed that even while the manager was bragging on Johnny Lingo, he still was snickering a little bit. Everyone else that was sitting around, the other islanders, they were snickering. There was even a little kid sitting there laughing in a mocking way.

And so he picked up on it. He asked, "I notice that y'all were snickering and sort of making fun of Johnny Lingo. 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. Not only that, she walks around with her shoulders hunched over looking down. He said she's scared of her own shadow.

So the sailor said, "Well then how do you explain the eight cows that Johnny Lingo paid for her?" And the manager said, "Well that's the thing. We don't. We don't get it. And that's why the villagers always laugh whenever we talk about Johnny because he's the sharpest person in all the islands, yet he was tricked by her father to pay eight cows for her to be his wife. And he's a dull old man."

This really got the sailor's mind turning, and he decided he had to meet this Johnny. So the next day he sailed to the island where Johnny lived, to his home. He was greeted and he went in and they sat down and they were talking. While they were talking, in walked Sarita. The sailor said she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She walked regally, her shoulders were erect, she carried herself regally, and her chin was up. Her eyes were beautiful; they just dazzled with light. He could not believe it, how beautiful she was.

When she left the room, he said to Johnny Lingo, "I don't get it. I don't understand. She's glorious and yet all the villagers on the other islands, they're laughing at you. They said she was homely and they make fun of you because you got cheated by her father." Johnny Lingo said, "Well do you think eight cows was too much?" And the sailor answered, "Oh no, no. But how do you explain the difference between what they said and what I just saw?"

Here's what Johnny answered. He said, "Do you know what it would mean to a woman to know that her husband bought her for the lowest possible price that could be paid to get a wife? Do you understand how that would make her feel? And then later on when all the women of all the villages got together and yacked and talked like women do, they begin to talk about their husbands. This one said, 'Well my husband paid four cows for me.' Someone else said, 'Well my husband paid five.' And someone said, 'Well my husband paid six.'"

"But Sarita could know that her husband paid more for her than any other woman on all those islands. He paid eight cows for her." And so the sailor said, "Oh, so you did it to make her happy?" Johnny answered and said, "Yes, but there's more to it than that. You say she's different? Yes, she's different. It's true she's different. Many things can change a woman, but nothing so much as what she thinks about herself."

What a woman thinks about herself—how many know we can take this in the spirit now for us? What she thinks about herself. Sarita believed that she was worth nothing, and now she knows she's worth more than any other woman in all the islands. He said, "I wanted to marry her, I wanted Sarita, I love her. I didn't want any other woman to be my wife. But I also wanted an eight-cow wife."

He got her because it changed what she acknowledged about herself. Amen? It changed how she felt about herself. This shows why we read in Philemon to acknowledge the good things that are in you. Stop saying "I can't do this." Stop saying "That's too hard for me." "I'm not as smart as that one." "I can't do what you do. I'm not as smart as you, I'm not as capable." Stop saying the negative things about yourself. Stop saying "I'm not a good reader."

"I can't read the Bible because I'm not a very good reader." "I can't study because I don't know how to study. I'm just not good at that." Stop saying that about yourself and any of the negative things you say about yourself. I can tell you about myself years and years ago. This is when I was in my 20s. I got a job at General Index in Cherry Hill. They actually were a manufacturer who manufactured office supplies. I was hired as a secretary. Fine, I could handle it, I could do it, I'd already done that at the church.

But then they started asking me, "Before you leave today can you do this and can you do that?" It was getting to be harder and harder the things they were giving me to do because it was involving more and more math. All my life I never liked math, I hated math. I loved English and French and language and history and all those wonderful things, and math was like do what you got to do to get your credits and move on.

Well one day the boss asked me to come in on a Saturday. I really didn't want to do it, I was a young mother, I had two little boys, I was so busy, but I wanted to make points with the boss, so I agreed to come in. He gave me this work involving inventory. Now I can count inventory, but what I want you to understand is it was more complex than that. You not only had to say we've got so much pieces of cardboard that went into this particular product, but you had to say how much you paid for each piece of cardboard.

You had to calculate how much it cost to print on it, how much the metal was on it, how much the tape was that went on it, and then how much the labor. You had to do this for all of these different things. It was a lot of decimal points. Nothing was just like 10 cents. No, it had to be point-something-something-something. I worked for two hours, I had a headache like you would not believe. Finally I finished, I went in there and I put it on the boss's desk and he picked it up and he looked at it. He said, "It's all wrong." I could have cried right there on the spot.

Now you got to remember this is way back in the days of chauvinism. You wouldn't say this today. He looked at me and he says, "Don't worry, I've never met a woman yet who knows what to do with a decimal point." He was trying to make me feel better. That was his way of trying to make me feel better. But here's to his credit: he sat me down. Now he had a degree in accounting. He sat me down and he taught me.

I opened my mind up and I was astounded at how easily I was learning it. I was like excited because all of a sudden I could do it. After that he would just go off and leave stuff for me to do. It got to the point he wouldn't even have to check it because I learned it. I thought to myself, "Sharon, you are not dumb in math." You may never love it, it may never be your favorite subject, but you're not dumb in math. You can do it.

I can do all the math I need to do to handle all the bookkeeping I do. If I want to go to the store and figure out how many yards of carpet I need, I can figure it out. Amen? I'm not just saying Google it; I mean figure it out. So I had to learn to stop saying "You're dumb in math" because you're not. Now if you want to be an engineer or something like that then you're going to have to be great in math. But you see I had to stop communicating that to myself.

Getting back to Philemon 1:6, he says that the communication of your faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing in you. Now I want you to tell me, that's in you in Christ Jesus. Look at that and tell me what is the verb in that sentence? Which word is the verb? Anybody want to tell me what the verb is in that sentence? Acknowledging. Acknowledging is the verb. "The communication of your faith"—communication is a noun. "Of your faith" is a prepositional phrase just describing the noun.

But what is the action in that verse? The action is you got to do something. The verb is an action word. What do you got to do if you want to have effectual communication? You got to acknowledge. What are we acknowledging? The good things that are in us. Amen? And if we will acknowledge the good things in us, then our communication will be effective. We will have an effective testimony instead of sabotaging ourselves all the time.

"Well I don't know, I just don't see how I'm going to get through this test. This is too hard for me. I can't." No, you sabotage yourself, your test is going to get longer and harder. You got to acknowledge the good things in you. Remember we always put ourselves in Christ Jesus. God is giving to every one of us the measure of faith that we need to exercise the gifts and the talents that he's given us. And there's always grace upon grace upon grace available to us so that we can be effectual and our Christian service can be effectual.

The word effectual means just what it says: effective, productive, fruitful, profitable. The Greek word is *energero*. I've told you before, *energero* comes straight into the English as energy. God wants to energize the good things in us. He wants to energize the gifts in us. He wants to energize the anointing in us. But we can sabotage it if we're always going around speaking negative things about ourselves. We've got to speak the positive things. Amen?

Here's another illustration. I don't know if it's a good one, but it's the only one I could think of. Okay, so you have an automobile. We're going to make it a new, fancy, expensive automobile. It could even be a V8. It's got all the bells and all the whistles. It's got everything. It's got a full tank of gas and it's sitting in your driveway. And it will sit there. That engine will be a cold hunk of steel in your driveway.

Even though it possesses extraordinary power—it could go 100 miles per hour, maybe higher—even so, nothing is going to happen till somebody puts the key in the ignition and turns it or now pushes the button. It'll sit there forever until someone activates the power with the key in the ignition, and then that will spark the engine and then you can get going. In the same way God has placed in every one of us power, power to be effective.

We read it, he gives us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Amen? We got a sound mind, we got a spirit of power. All of this is so we can energize our gifts and then bring glory to God. But without the key to put in the ignition, we'll never go anywhere in God. We'll stall out, we'll stall out, we'll stall out. We got to have the right key to unlock the power and we got to use it. So what is the key? Anybody want to know what the key is?

How are we going to turn it on? What is the key that's going to turn it on? By the acknowledging of every good thing in you. The word acknowledge—let me give you the Greek word because it's two words: *epignosis*. You've heard of *gnosis* because you've heard preached through the years, *gnosis* means knowledge. How many know *gnosis* means knowledge? You've heard of Gnostics; they think they got superior knowledge.

Okay, you got the ordinary word knowledge, but then you turn around and you put *epi* on it, E-P-I, and it's a preposition, it means "upon." So you put upon knowledge. What does that mean? When you put that on there, it intensifies it. It means you not only have knowledge, but you have full understanding. You completely know and understand. It's someone who is sure of their information and certain of their facts. And they don't hesitate to communicate what they know about this particular subject because they know this subject.

Amen? How many know if you know that you're fully schooled on a subject, you're not afraid to speak about it? Now if they ask you about something you don't know anything about, you'll sit there with your lip zipped. But when you were in school and the teacher asked a question that you knew that you knew, "Oh, oh, oh, oh!" Amen? And when they got on other things, you're looking down on the floor to see if you dropped something. Amen?

How many can see we can take all of these things and bring them into the spirit? So we have the acknowledging. We are fully aware of who we are in Christ and who he is in us. We are fully persuaded of it. You cannot talk me out of it. I said you will not talk me out of it. Now tell the devil you will not talk me out of it. I know who I am in Christ and who he is in me. You're not going to heap doubt on me. I'm going to stop self-doubting.

I'm not going to do the devil's work for him. Amen? I know who I am in Christ. I'm an expert in this knowledge. I know who it is. Amen? And that's how I turn that key. I turn that key by speaking, confessing, boldly declaring who I am in Christ and who he is in me. And it gives me unshakable confidence even when the devil comes and I got pain in my body, I'm feeling bad, I'm really down. And you know the coward that he is, that's when he comes.

He always waits till you're in pain or something is happening, that's when he jumps on you. It's easy then to give in to those feelings. But oh, no, no, no. That's when you've got to turn the key in the ignition. Amen? Knowing, possessing is not enough. You got to turn the key. Amen? So how do we turn it on? Well it's pretty common to see what we would do. We speak it out. We declare the good things that God has put in us.

Amen? That means speaking sometimes out loud to yourself. How many ever do that? Let me tell you something that's a good idea and I do it. I not only will speak out loud because I do that a lot. I talk a lot. I'll go so far as to say this. The person who speaks to me the most in my entire life, the person who would come in first place for speaking to me the most, would be my husband Benny.

In the morning we talk when we're having coffee, he goes to work, he comes home we talk, we eat dinner we talk, all evening long we talk. We talk all the time. The number two person who speaks to me after Benny more than anybody is Sharon. I talk to Sharon all the time. And I not only say, "You need to stop doing that, I'm not going to do that anymore." "No, that's not right." "Okay, but if I do this..." You know what I even do? I'll say, "Sharon!" I will use my name.

"Sharon, you need to stop it!" I've even said this: "Sharon, you're getting on my last nerve." I don't know, by saying Sharon, it's like I'm talking to you or you or you, like I would talk to a friend. So I'm going to talk to myself like I would be talking to somebody else instead of just *mumble mumble mumble mumble*. "Sharon, stop it right now! You know the Lord's going to work it out. You know that this is going to pass." I do it all the time. I think you should do that. That's how you acknowledge. That's how you turn the key in the ignition. Amen?

We've got this treasure in our earthen vessel; it's the excellent power of God. 2 Corinthians 4:7. We have the treasure in our earthen vessel, the excellent power of God is of him and not of us. And we release it by speaking out loud and using that key. Most of the time, the key is going to be a specific scripture or scriptures that pertain to your problem at the time. The specific scripture. That's why you've got to be in the word.

In fact, the Holy Spirit will bring it up in your spirit, then you speak it out, and that's how you turn the key in the ignition. Amen? It turns it on and you open your mouth. There's a very powerful verse, Hebrews 4:2. And Hebrews 4:2 is talking about the saints that were out there in the wilderness for the 40 years. Listen to what it says in 4:2: For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. Don't ever forget that. It says that the gospel was preached to the wilderness saints.

But look what happened. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. I think that's remarkable information that they heard the same gospel ahead of time, but they did not believe it. It didn't profit them because they did not mix it with faith. There's nothing wrong with the gospel. The problem was they didn't mix it with faith. So how do you mix the word with faith? What is the mixer? Everybody stick out your tongue. That's the mixer.

That's how you mix your faith with the word of God. You speak it. You speak it and faith comes by hearing the word of God. Last verse, 2 Corinthians 4:13: I believed, therefore I have spoken. I believed, therefore I have spoken. It's possible to speak the word of God without faith. You can speak the word of God and have no faith, just blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. But it's impossible to have faith and not speak the word of God. Amen?

When you've got faith you're going to open your mouth and you're going to speak it. Amen? And when you stop saying negative things about yourself and you start saying what God's word says about yourself, you're going to have an exciting communication to share with others. Amen? It's going to be credible. It's going to be powerful. It's going to be effectual in Jesus' name. Amen.

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 be 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, and open one's eyes to our value and worth in Christ, accepted in the beloved.

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