Faith Wins: Faith Beats Doubt

Introduction:

Undefeated teams are usually characterized by unshakeable confidence in their ability to defeat any opponent. They have no doubt they’ll be victorious! A team that doubts itself usually finds reasons to lose and excuses to perform poorly.

Application:

1. How do you see your team? Is it full of faith or plagued with doubt?
2. What factors have built your team’s faith or fueled its doubt?
3. How can a team feed its faith and quench its doubt?

Bridge:

By reading Mark 4:35-41 we can observe how Jesus and His disciples demonstrated faith and doubt: “On that day, when evening had come, He told them, ‘Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.’ So they left the crowd and took Him along since He was already in the boat. And other boats were with Him.  A fierce windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him up and said to Him, ‘Teacher! Don’t You care that we’re going to die?’

“He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Silence! Be still!’ The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Then He said to them, ‘Why are you fearful? Do you still have no faith?’

“And they were terrified and asked one another, ‘Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey Him!’”

Connection:

1. What did the disciples do and say that evidenced their doubt and fear?
2. What were the results of Jesus’ faith overcoming the disciples’ doubts?
3. How can your team leaders exercise faith in the midst of doubt and fear?

Discovery:

1. Lead in ways that inspire faith in your teammates.
2. Speak in ways that diminish your teammates’ doubts.
3. Feed your teammates’ minds with faith-building truth, and build their hearts to dispel doubts.

Memory Verse:

“Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1