17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land."

When we hear the story of Abram most of us tend to look at his reaction of doubt and think to ourselves, "why?" After all, God was speaking to him and was showing that even when he got into some tough spots was going to guide him through the days of darkness to the days of light.

And yet, what do we hear Abram saying, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless" and "You have given me no offspring". Abram is hearing voices inside his head that are saying, "don’t believe God. There’s no way that you could possibly the father of such a family". Abram is hearing those voices, and is reflecting them to God, saying, "here’s what’s going on inside my head." What this shows us is that even when we believe in God, there will be moments of doubt. The voice of doubt is scriptural. There are going to be times, even as a people of faith, when we will doubt. And that’s okay.

The problem shows up, not in listening to the voice of doubt, but in following it. The passage from Genesis lets us know that Abram was listening to the voice of doubt. It’s right there. We can’t say that he wasn’t.

But then, what happens? He then listens to the voice of God. He listens again to God’s promise, which comes to him as "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." "So shall your descendants be." He listens to that voice, and makes a decision as to which voice he will follow. We are told that Abram, "believed the Lord". We’re not told that he didn’t have moments of doubt. But instead that he "believed the Lord". Abram rejected the voice of doubt, followed the voice of God.

Even though times have changed this scenario is still very much in play today. We too hear voices. We hear that voice of doubt that says ‘we can’t’. But we also hear the voice of God that says ‘we will’. Once again, the problem is not hearing the voices, but instead which one we are willing to follow.

As many of you know, last weekend my family and I ventured down to Hanover, PA to attend the wedding of my aunt on my mother’s side. While these sorts of occasions happen in families all the time, this celebration was particularly special for our family. Bunny, my aunt, is a great lady. She is willing to give of her time, and help out her neighbor, and do whatever she can to be of assistance to her family and those who know her. She’s one of those people who always sends the birthday card, and makes sure that one of the presents under the tree has your name on it. That is absolutely part of who she is.

However, about 25 years ago she got divorced from her husband. This separation left a mark of personal doubt and worthlessness in regards to how she thought the world saw her, in regards to how she saw herself. There was a voice inside of her that said, "she wasn’t worth it". Basically, she carried around an invisible yoke that said, "I can’t be loved". There were times when it was more obvious than others, but it always seemed to be there. From my perspective, following that voice of personal doubt held prospective relationships at bay. She not only listened to the voices of doubt that were in her life, she was following them.

It’s only been over the last year that this has begun to change. A gentleman who sat not all that far away from her at church, who’s name is Don, was introduced to her, and he was interested in Bunny. Initially, she responded to his interest with as you might expect someone who has followed the voice of doubt: "he’ll leave soon".

However, he didn’t. Through Don’s actions and persistence, Bunny was able to reevaluate whether that voice of doubt that she had listened to and followed for so long, was really a voice of truth. Her walk down the aisle, looking all the world like a princess, showed me that she realized that it was not. That in fact that she was worthy of love, and that someone was longing to love her. But she had to believe it. She had to take off that yoke of doubt that she had bought into and realize that her life could be so much more fulfilling. She had to stop following that voice of doubt, and instead start following the voice of God that, as I believe, was speaking through Don’s actions.

Bunny’s issue was not that she listened to the voice of doubt. I think all of us do that. Her issue was that she followed in lockstep where the voices of doubt were telling her that she was destined to go. After way too many years of following that voice, she recognized that God had so much more in store for her. She finally believed in the voice of the Lord.

So now to bring it back to us: what voice are you going to follow? Are you going to follow the voice of doubt that say you can’t? That you won’t succeed? Because here’s the thing: if that’s what you follow, then that is what you are leading others (your kids, your grandkids, those who look up to you) to believe that as well. If you follow the doubts, you are leading others to believe that they too have to follow the doubts as well.

But, as we’ve said before, following the voice of doubt is not the only option out there: you can follow the voice that is the leading of the Holy Spirit so that your eyes might be opened to the abundant blessings that God is awaiting to offer to you. We hear voices. The question is which one are we going to follow.

The length of Lent is determined by the number of days that we are told Jesus spent in the wilderness, prior to his ministry in the world. We are also told that during this time Jesus was tempted, tempted to listen to the voice doubt in his calling, tempted to reject the path that was before him, tempted to take what looked like an easier route. The voices of doubt were there in Jesus’ life and I think that he heard them.

However, like Abram in our passage this morning, he didn’t follow those voices. He placed his trust in the voice of the Almighty and in doing so, gave us the opportunity to live eternally.

Now while our call is not to be the savior of the world (sorry, that job’s been filled: see above), God does have amazing opportunities before us, both to serve, and to be blessed. But if we burden our mental, emotional, and spiritual outlook with feelings of doubt, and/or worthlessness, if those are the voices that we are going to not only listen to, but follow, then we’re not going to be able to understand the ways that God is reaching out to us. All we’ll be able to see are the things that back up the voices of doubt and we’ll end up getting stuck with our own yokes.

Instead, we need to listen to and follow the voice that is of the Almighty, the voice that declares that we are worthy, that we are called, that we have been, are being, and will be blessed. That’s the voice that we need to follow!

Over the past month a combination of the Building Research Committee and the Finance Committee have been meeting with fundraisers, or as many of they call themselves, Capital Campaign Consultants. These meetings are so that if we get to the point of saying this is what we need to build, we can move forward on raising funds without waiting.

As I’ve sat there through these meetings, and heard some rather large numbers, I’ve definitely heard a voice of doubt that has said, "there is no way that we can do this! We should stop right now because otherwise we are going to totally crash and burn. I’ve heard that voice.

Now let me ask you a question: how many of you have ever had trouble finding a parking spot? About a third. How many of you have ever had to strain your neck to find a seat in the sanctuary, or had to use your elbows to make it Fellowship Hall during Coffee Hour. Over half of you. One of the stats that all of the consultants have put out there is that once you hit 80% capacity in any area, parking, worship, fellowship, or education that you begin to lose as many people out the back door as you bring in through the front door. Well, we’re already there! From my perspective, I am convinced that this is the voice of God saying that not only can we make it through a capital campaign, but that we will! There is not a church out there that wouldn’t want the problems that we have! And for that matter, we need to stop calling them problems, because that sort of language is the voice of doubt trying to maintain a foothold. God is speaking to this congregation. The question becomes, are we going to listen?

Listening to the voice of doubt is something that all of us do. It happens, and that’s okay. Following the voice of God will empower us to become the people that God would have us be. Follow the voice of the Almighty!

God, we hear voices in our minds. One is a voice of doubt. The other is the affirming voice of You, our creator, our Lord. God, while there is very little that we can do in terms of listening to these different voices, we know that which voice we follow will go a long way in determining the sort of life that we will live. God, we ask that Your Spirit might move in and through our lives so that we might have the faith to believe Your voice, and follow where You call us to go. Lord, let it be so. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.