I'm very thankful to be with you again, tonight.
I'm glad you're here too. And I'm excited to talk to you
about something that sometimes we don't want to talk about
especially where the one who has doubts.
But I hope that this can be a helpful study if you're someone
who's had questions or has had doubts.
And I also want to acknowledge that maybe not everybody has had
the same type of doubt and so maybe this is difficult for you
because it's abstract and you've just never questioned.
If there's a God you've never questioned if the Bible is
legitimate or not and you've you know you've just been very
strong in your convictions for the entirety of your life.
Then I think that's wonderful. And I wish that I could be like
you unfortunately I've had doubts and I've had times where
instead of wanting to talk about it I would rather just try to
bury it and I would tell you that that is a very unhealthy
place to be. And so God bless you.
If you've never had a doubt, but I hope what this study can be
for you is something that is helpful so that when you talk to
others, that you can be a listening ear, one who is
sympathetic to their struggles because there will be a time.
As the scripture says, we are to Bear one another's burdens and
thus fulfill the law of Christ. There will be a time when you
might find yourself struggling and that person is now the one
helping you. So, Let's begin, shall we?
We want to begin in Matthew Chapter 14, verse 31 and I'll
paint the picture as this picture, is also painting on the
board here. And that is about Peter, and
here he is. He's just let go of the boat,
right? So His Eyes Are Fixed On Jesus
and no matter what's going on around him.
And this moment, the winds are blowing in the water splashing
to His Eyes Are Fixed On Jesus, until as the scriptures say, he
does start to look around and he sees the wind and the waves, and
suddenly, he is not fixed so firmly on Jesus and he starts to
sink. And so when he calls out, Lord,
save being Jesus reaches in and pulls him out of the water.
Jesus offers this question to him, o you of little faith.
Why did you doubt? And as you can tell, This
PowerPoint, maybe a little bit off in its presentation because
I built it on a Mac. And now I'm presenting it on a
PC. And so, there you go.
That's why the little e there is in the wrong place.
Hopefully, I don't happen too many times.
This scripture, it's easy to take it personally, right?
And so we sometimes will apply this story to our lives.
So we'll say something like so when you encounter the storms of
life and whatever's, got you down, don't be like Peter and
have doubts but keep your eyes on Jesus.
I don't know if this Narrative was in the New Testament so that
we could apply it that way. Really.
I think what this narrative is meant to show is Jesus had the
power over the wind and the waves and the question that the
disciples ask afterwards is legitimate.
What sort of a man is this that even the wind and the waves obey
him, but we can't help ourselves sometimes by applying it to us
and so we may beat ourselves up. Oh, you of little faith, why did
you doubt? Oh me of little faith.
Why would I I doubt you see doubt can be a dirty word
sometimes. It implies weakness or little or
lacking of Faith That You're Pitiful compared to everyone
else. You're not like everyone else
and as some of us were talking about it dinner tonight it's
easy to be really hard on yourself because you look around
and everybody else seems to have figured it all out except you
right? So for example, Looking at me
and I don't have a tie on, but I have a jacket.
And I've got my shirt tucked in, I'm wearing slacks.
And so it's easy because I'm wearing the fancy clothes to
make it seem. Like, I've got it all figured
out and sometimes we come to church.
We look around everybody. Just looks like they've got it.
Figured out, they're dressed, nice.
They're they're they're speaking nice.
They don't, they don't seem to struggle with what I have.
I'm the only one who's going through this and suddenly, if we
had doubts, then we're the only one who has doubts and I Don't
want you to feel that way tonight.
So here's an outline of the study I have four main
questions. I want to ask and answer with
you. Number one, I want to ask what
is doubt and if we can kind of have a foundation built on what
it is, then it's going to be helpful to answer the next
question. What scriptures can help us?
Third, how can I overcome doubts, when I have them?
And I know those are three very simple questions.
So I decided to fill the rest of the space with a very
complicated question. Sorry that's a lot of words.
How can we Foster a sense of trust and Truth within our local
church community? So that when one of us has doubt
the other can respond appropriately.
If you're taking notes you can furiously.
Try to write that down. I challenge you to However, it's
a bit longer than the rest, but I think it's a really important
question to ask and that is if I struggle, how do you prepare to
bear that burden? So that when you struggle, I can
prepare to help you and hopefully we can answer that
together. So, let's begin.
What is doubt? Now doubt comes from a Greek
word, decree. No.
And it's used 19 times in the New Testament.
Now it Is translated into different English words.
So here's an example. It's translated as to decide to
dispute misgivings passing judgment, taking issue with or
wavering. And so suddenly, we might be
wondering, okay? It may be, I thought, I knew
what dealt was but now I doubt that I know what it means.
So I would challenge you with this that context, always
determines how to properly translate it.
And so, the guys who sat down with the Greek texts at to
translate them into English, use the context to make the
appropriate decision. And so I would like to distill
what doubt is biblically into this phrase, a doubter is
someone who is struggling to accept something.
And the context really will help us.
They're either struggling to accept it because of ignorance.
They don't know. And so they doubt because
they're coming from a place of a lack of knowledge or they're
struggling to accept it because of rebellion and they know
better but they they're just they're doing everything they
can to question. Is this really God's Will?
And these are the two main groups that the word doubt gets
put into. So, here's a scripture, it says
in James 1 verse 5. If any of you lack wisdom let
him ask God who gives generously to To all without reproach and
it will be given and it will be given him.
But let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts
is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind
for that person. Must not suppose that he will
receive anything from the Lord. My question is this, how does
that scripture make you feel? When I read that verse 6, but
let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts
is like the wave of the sea. Suddenly I start to feel guilty,
Well, I shouldn't doubt, I shouldn't ask questions.
And what I'd like to suggest to you, is that this type of Doubt
is one who is coming at it from one who is struggling to accept
something and doesn't want to know, God's Will and doesn't
want to obey God's Will. And it's different from the
person who lacks knowledge and simply needs training.
And what's good? And what God's will is so
tonight, if you are doubting coming from a place of not
understanding, then I Don't want you to have that guilty
feelings, that this scripture is intended to provide.
However, if you are doubting, the will of God, because you're
coming from a place of you just don't want to obey God.
Then this scripture should cause a little bit of maybe it, not so
good feeling, as we read through it.
So, in order to deconstruct doubt, I think we're going to
need to learn just a bit about deconstruction.
Now, I'm going to go ahead and present this as a general
overview and it could That you already know everything there is
to know about deconstruction, but maybe someone doesn't know
what that phrase means and especially how it's being used
in popular culture today and so bear with me for a moment as we
talked about deconstruction. Now to deconstruct does not mean
to demolish. Like we're not going to
deconstruct the building by tearing it down rather, it means
to break down or analyze something especially the words
in a work of fiction or Non-fiction to discover it's
true significance but not it's true significance.
According to the author, it's true significance.
According to you the reader and so deconstruction was part of
the postmodern social movement and it applied to literature.
It also applies in the field that I work in part-time in
therapy and counseling. And so, this image here is
intended to show that sometimes we have some negative thoughts
and so in order, To overcome that negative thought we have to
deconstruct all the different parts of it and then by
deconstructing it we can better understand why we felt that way.
So you know, an example might be that somebody feels like their
parents hate them, right? And so, they grow up with this
understanding that their parents, hate them, and then
they go into therapy. And the therapist says, we need
to deconstruct that what we're going to do is we're going to
break down all of these reasons that You feel like your parents
hate you? Well, maybe dad worked long
hours and maybe Mom was stressed and by getting all of these
pieces set aside suddenly I realized they don't they didn't
hate me, right? We've deconstructed that hatred.
The problem is that, that idea and that concept has been
hijacked and so now people use deconstruction to deconstruct
their Christian faith. Now I know some of you are new
to the faith. So I'm not going to be very
specific about where to go to find this and I can't stop you
from going to look at it but I did just want to warn you.
You get on social media and it's going to be very, very easy to
find a lot of videos that are very popular right now where
people are talking about how they deconstructed, they
deconstructed out of Christianity.
They have this issue this this hidden assumption this bias.
So then they decided to break down their faith.
And then they started deconstructing it to a point
where they no longer believe this.
So they get on social media and talk about how they're no longer
a Christian. I'd like to give you a couple
examples of what this actually looks like.
So these are people who are quite famous in the, you know,
Christian oriented circles, right?
And one of them is a musician and one of them was an author
who wrote books and after a while, they Be constructed out
of the faith. And this is what they had to say
about their process. I know this may be a little
small, sorry, if you can't read it along with me, if not, just
listen, this person says how many preachers fall?
Many no one talks about it. How many miracles happen.
Not many, no one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of
contradictions? No one talks about it.
How can God Be Love yet? Sin 4 billion.
People took place all cuz they don't believe no one talks about
it. Christians can be Be the most
judgmental people on the planet. It can also be some of the most
beautiful people are and loving people but it's not for me, I'm
not in that anymore, I want genuine truth, not the, I just
believe it, kind of Truth. Now what's this person done?
He's taken several issues that he has with his faith and kind
of blown them out, deconstructed them.
And since he can't make sense of them, then he won't make sense
of the core which is his faith in Christ as a Out of that, he's
decided to just walk away. Now, I would like to just
comment briefly about this final phrase, I want genuine truth.
Not the, I just believe it, kind of Truth and friends if you are
trying to help someone and your answer is just fake it till you
make it, that's not an appropriate answer.
That's not an appropriate way to help someone.
And so I would challenge you that if in fact you're telling
someone To just believe it until you can make it then that person
may burn out, and I would like you to be genuine with them.
Now, here's another person's deconstruction.
He says, I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my
faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is
deconstruction, the biblical phrase is Falling Away.
By all the measures that I have for defining a Christian, I am
not a Christian, many people tell me that there is a
different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to
this. But I'm not there now to my
Christian friends. I'm grateful for your prayers.
Don't take it. Personally, if I don't
immediately return calls, I can't join in your morning.
I don't view this moment - Lee. I feel very much alive and awake
and surprisingly hopeful, I believe, with my sister
julienne, that all shall be well, and all manner of things
shall be well. Now again, you and I, as we love
the Lord and we want the Lord's people to just be faithful in
the Lord, when one of our loved ones leaves, it is a painful
process for us. And we assume that this person
has a void that's missing because they've left and I share
these with you because as people deconstruct their filling that
with something else and sometimes it's hard for us to
see and it's hard for us to understand what they've gone
through. The problem is, I think As we
deconstruct doubt, we've really got to put people in one of
these circles. And this middle ground, right
here is the word doubt. And some people don't understand
and others don't want to understand and they will use the
word doubt. And what we have to know is what
are they really talking about? Are they really talking about
how they don't understand the faith?
And so, they're asking questions of where does God come from?
Or where does the bible come from?
Or are they asking questions from his age?
Skeptical perspective of, I don't want this to be real.
I'm going to throw anything and everything I have added to be
so. So we're going to do the same
thing and kind of blow up doubt and try to deconstruct it and
see that behind, that word is several different views or
several different opinions that are really at play here.
So, the way that I have organized this study, I see
three different types of doubt. The first time, type is an
intellectual doubt. That's somebody who struggles to
respond to rational questions, about God's character, the
consistency of his word. And I like to give you a couple
examples that I've dealt with. And maybe you've heard ones like
these as well. This is an intellectual doubt.
How can a loving God call for genocide of humanity in the
flood? Now, maybe that's emotional, but
that is an intellectual question, right?
One that we should Ponder, why would God destroy so many people
in the flood. Here's another question, how can
you trust these documents that are seemingly?
So riddled with errors. Again, that's not asked in a
highly emotional state. This person is interested in the
consistency of the Bible, and so, this type of Doubt is asking
intellectual questions. Another type of Doubt.
Different kind is emotional and that's when a person is
struggling to make sense of God's character or his word
while they're enduring a strong emotional and or irrational
sentiment, listen. Irrational is like a word that
we throw around at each other or trying to insult and I don't
mean that as an insult, it's just at times, people are going
through a struggle and so they're thinking from the heart
emotionally irrationally rather than with their head.
And so, this type of Doubt is different.
The questions might be, God, didn't answer my prayer to save
my child. Therefore, I can't believe he's
real anymore. Now we could try to respond
rationally to that person but they're coming from a different
place. That's the point.
I'm going to try to make another one that I've heard is my pastor
was a hypocrite and therefore I won't believe in God anymore
because this great man of Faith fell so far.
Happens a lot. You get on the news of any kind
and I bet once a week sometimes like they're looking for their
hungry to broadcast men of faith.
And how far they fall? A third type of Doubt is a moral
doubt and this is that one that I think oftentimes does happen
more in the, I don't want to understand type of a doubt but
that simply is a struggle to accept God's word based on
willful actions that contradict it.
Now, I do think it is possible to have moral doubts that come
from a good place. Let me read a couple real quick
and then I'll add a third on my own What somebody might say, I
don't really see what's wrong with drinking and I don't really
think God cares either. So this person is doubting but
it doesn't seem like they're very interested in learning
their just from a place of willful ignorance, another moral
doubt might be well that commence cultural?
It's not for us. Therefore, I don't have to obey
it and instead of maybe studying what the scripture says, they're
using a argument about culture to make up for it.
You know, there's a moral doubts that people can have the coming
from a place rather ignorance them rebellion.
And I'll just give this example. I Believe In First Corinthians
chapter 11, the, the first part of First Corinthians chapter 11,
where it talks about the covering, which is a woman's
Glory, a woman's hair, that that scripture, refers to women,
having long uncut hair, and men, having short, or cut here.
And as I've preached that sermon Various places I can preview
here too. If you want as I preached at
various places, I have a lot of sisters that come up and say,
you know, I wasn't in the raised in the church, this is all new
for me, but I remember after got, I got baptized.
Someone came up and said, okay. Now I have to stop cutting your
hair. And never told me why you said
you had to so I did because I just thought that's what we do
and it wasn't until we studied this sermon that I realized it
and so that person may have a genuine World out.
Why are we doing this? I don't understand it and it's
our duty to help them at this time at that time.
So how do we respond to doubts? Well, now that we've kind of
deconstructed it, I hope that these thoughts make sense.
If doubts are not all the same So then our responses are not to
be all the same so friend, if you're the one that's never
doubted, you know, I'm kind of talking to you.
If you've always been strong in the faith and someone comes to
you with the doubt, it's helpful to take a moment and break down.
Where's this doubt coming from and you may respond differently
depending on each person. For example, when you respond to
intellectual doubts, it may mean that you need to take some time
to study. Things that you haven't studied
before and now you've got to read a book or you've got a
check out several different scriptures and then sit with
this person for maybe an hour or two or three and just work
through the issue. How do you respond to an
emotional day out? Well, it I think it should
involve Bible study but instead of maybe reading up on all the
intellectual answers, sometimes it's about sitting with someone
in prayer. Letting them process emotionally
what's going on in their life. Responding to moral doubts,
maybe a little saltier. Somebody doesn't want to obey
God and they're throwing out questions to discredit God.
Then it may mean that the time we spend with them is answering
their questions but also holding their feet to the fire.
So to speak about what God's word does say.
Now what they all have in common is this We always respond.
We always respond, we don't neglect, we don't leave it, you
know, table for a future, we always respond.
This is what I was talking about in the closing announcements.
Last night, as I mentioned Flavel yeagley, a social
scientist, did statistical analysis of over 2,000 people
and why they left the church of Christ.
In one of the number one reasons was neglect.
So in the topic of Doubt people that are scared, Afraid to share
this and then they take a risk. They're vulnerable with someone
and they say, and I'm in heaven. Really questions about the
communion. I mean, we're all like one cup.
One cup, one cup. I just don't get it.
And maybe it come down hard on. How can you not see?
This is right here in the Bible, right?
And so, we have to respond, we always respond.
But what we're going to look at now is appropriate response.
And it is appropriate to respond differently to different types
of Doubt, Jude chapter 1 verse 20 through 23.
We're in the second question. The second question is, what
scriptures can help us? It says, but you beloved
building yourself up in the Most.
Holy Faith and praying in the Holy Spirit.
Keep yourself in the love of God.
Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to
eternal life and have mercy on those who doubt save others by
snatching them out of the fire and two others show Mercy with
fear hating, even the Garment spotted.
It's stained by the flesh. Now I'm going to structure this
into three different categories of people who need help, right?
Number one is those we are supposed to have mercy on
doubters, we're supposed to save people who are in the middle of
the fire, the moral fire and then there's others who are kind
of far gone and we're to have mercy and fear, but we're to
hate the garments stained with Sim now.
I know that may be small but I want to read to you what Adam
Clark says about this scripture. It's kind of old school. also
you know this is King James or Shakespeare would be the
equivalent and I struggle sometimes with reading that so
bear with me, You're not to deal a like with all those who have
been seduced by false teachers ye are to make a difference
between those who have been LED Away by weakness and imprudence
and those who buy the pride and arrogance of their hearts and
separated themselves from the church and become its inveterate
enemies. So this is not a new thought
that I'm presenting to you. People who study this and read
it. See there's there's different
types of doubter. There's different types of
people that are struggling. So let's break these down these
three and talk about them. And I'm going to go in reverse
order. The first one I want to talk
about is those, we're to show Mercy with fear hating.
Even the Garment stained with sin.
Now, what I'm going to suggest to you is that we are not to be
the offended sea turtle, Hooves. I can't believe they're going
through that. However, we are to hate the
Garment stained with sin, what type of a person.
Sin is that anyway, this is a brother or sister who has fully
embraced sin or error and they're asking questions from a
place of justification, they're going to do whatever it takes to
justify that sin. Well, how are we to respond?
Well, as this scripture says by continuing to show Mercy, right?
But also with fear, And to show Mercy with fear mace, to be
consistent about what the Bible teaches clearly showing that sin
leads to damnation. That this lifestyle leads to
ruin and that we don't want to have any part of it.
Romans chapter 1 verse 32, says that forbids us rather from
approving of sinful practices, not just doing them, but
approving of them as well. So for those who are that far
gone, we have warned, And we admonish and we invite them to
make things right. Another group of people that
have doubts are those as it says we save others by snatching them
out of the fire. What type of person is doubt.
This is a brother or sister who's in danger of giving
themselves over to erroneous teaching or sinful behavior and
they're asking questions, they have doubts, but maybe they
haven't taken the plunge into complete deconstruction.
How are we to help them? Well, as it says, we're
snatching them out of the fire when somebody's in the middle of
a moral problem. There are times when we may be
able to delicately Shepherd them through but there's also times
when their house is burning down and you're more worried or you
should be rather more worried about getting them out then
maybe worried about their feelings and friends.
I want you to think about that that if this is a moment of
danger and we're trying to rescue them and so maybe that
means morally were shaking them. We're trying to wake them up and
remind them of the truths of this.
Scripture, as I mentioned last night, Simon the Sorcerer in
Acts chapter 8 I believe he's a great example of somebody who
was in the middle of the fire and Peter didn't mince words.
He said your money is going to perish with you.
And as a result of that, this being snatched out, he said,
pray for me, and he immediately repented, of his sins, finally.
There are those who have mercy or we're rather there are those
who doubt and we're simply to have mercy on them and this
command may seem to be the clearest, but it is a little bit
more complicated than we might think there are some Scholars
who believe that those who doubt or talking about those who are
ignorant. There are others that believe
it's those that are willfully ignorant.
Rent, whichever way that it may be where to have mercy on them
or to answer their questions to spend time with them and come to
the truth. Having Mercy can mean a lot of
things pity concern gentleness and compassion, but it most
certainly does not mean to permits in order to permit
others to remain in that doubt. Our Mercy is to give one another
the tools to overcome doubt and the sin that so often follows.
Now listen. This phrase in the scripture,
I'm about to put up, there is very important because I've
struggled with this as somebody who's confrontation.
Isn't my forte? So I would rather not confront
things. It's easy for me to say, well,
having Mercy just means we're going to love them back in.
And we can love people back into doing, what's right?
But sometimes having Mercy is more than just love in a min.
It means we're giving them, whatever tool is necessary for
them to overcome sin. And the Bible says, in First
Corinthians 3 Verse 6, love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, it
rejoices in the truth. The truth always has to be part
of your conversation, as we work on doubts together, we're not
going to celebrate doubt, rather, we're going to help
people overcome doubts. Here's a question number three,
how can I overcome doubts? And this text may be kind of
small. I'll do my best to summarize it
as quickly as I can. This is a new part of this
sermon for me. So, I've given the sermon a few
times, but I have a dear friend who wrote about her doubts, and
I've decided to just lift it, put it in my sermon.
She the, the title of this article that I read that she
wrote was how I deconstructed from my faith.
Yet remained faithful. And I thought, oh, I need to
read this now. After I read it, I thought I
think Christians need to see this as much as anyone else that
there are people in the church who have gone through this
process, and they've come out on the other side stronger.
So if you have ever had doubts, then I'm going to offer this to
you and then I'm going to offer a scripture that I think
summarizes it and so bear with me as we go through this one by
one. This sister said the first thing
that she did to overcome doubts was She kept going to church.
She said that she didn't always want to be there, but she
decided I'm not going to give up on that.
She needed it in her life. She says, I kept reading my
Bible and she didn't devour entire books or Testaments in a
sitting but she did stride, it trying to stay consistent to
reading the word. She says, I kept praying.
I didn't pray long prayers, and some of them were silent.
Some are pleading, some were angry but I tried to keep my
communication with God open. I stopped consuming
deconstruction content. I unfollowed people on social
media who always talked about concerns deconstruction, I
didn't watch YouTube videos where people explain how they
abandoned their faith, even though I was curious, I knew it
wasn't helpful. I asked for encouragement from
someone, I trusted we may talk about this more this weekend, I
don't think it's necessary that you tell everyone every single
problem you have, but I do think it's important that you tell
someone and she found that to be helpful as well.
I reduce the number of people who had influence over me.
Okay, I spent more time with my husband and children.
I took it one day at a time, I quit things that were keeping me
busy and burnt out. And finally I examined and was
radically honest with myself, I acknowledge pain, my own flaws
and resentment that affected, my perception of God, and the
church and Faith friends, I think this list is incredible in
that, it's simple, it's manageable, it's doable, there's
been times when I've wandered Nerd.
Is this what it's all about? Are these people who I thought
they were and you know what? People fail, And those we love
often, let us down. But remember, we're not in the
Church of brother so-and-so or not in the Church of sister.
So and so we're the Church of Jesus Christ.
I want you to remember that you're in Jesus church, and you
will likely fail one another in this congregation and the
congregation. I'm a part of.
I know for a fact, I have failed some of my brethren.
And, and they have failed me, but we don't serve each other.
We serve Jesus. And so, I beg you to consider in
times where you may not want to keep that practice alive of
going to church. Reading your Bible praying to
God. And it's just like any
relationship, we have a that are important, a husband and wife
parent, child best friends. those relationships died, when
the communication valve shuts off, And if even if it's a
trickle, if that communication, you can stay open.
There's hope I think a great scripture.
Did I thought of as I read through this list was James
chapter 4, verse 7 and 8 it says submit yourselves therefore to
God resist the devil and he will flee from you draw near to God
and He will draw near to. You cleanse your hands, you
Sinners, and purify your hearts. You double-minded.
There's some strong statements in there about how we need to
live the life, right? That we need to be morally pure.
I think that's part of this, but right there in the middle is a
promise draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
The times that I have struggled the most, I do have to perform
an assessment. The times that others have
struggled and they've come to me.
I perform the same assessment with them.
How's your Bible reading? How's your prayer life?
How's your church attendance? It's like a, you go to a doctor
for a checkup and they ask you, your blood pressure, your
waiting, they're asking those things, maybe one of them is off
and then that leads to this and at least this and then we find
the cause and so I have found it time and time again.
When people are struggling, it's some of these basic things.
And so how do you overcome doubts and draw near to God?
And this is a promise He will draw near to you.
Number four, final Aunt, how can we Foster a sense of trust and
Truth within our local church community?
So that when one of us does have doubt the other can respond
appropriately. So I have three answers to that
question. Based on the scriptures number
one, we can foster trust and Truth by making space for hard
questions. May we be a people that feel
comfortable saying, I don't know.
I hope we can. I hope you feel comfortable
saying, I don't know, but I can find out instead of feeling
personally attacked. When somebody asks a difficult
question, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 verse 7 and 8 ask And
it will be given to you. Seek.
And you will find knock, and the door will be opened.
Jesus. Three times is communicating to
his followers when it comes to communication with God, God
wants us to ask He wants us to seek.
And you know there's times when maybe we don't understand God's
will but you know what? You're not the only one who's
ever been at that point, you can go to Exodus chapter 3 and 4 and
you've got Moses who is talking directly to God and and God is
telling him what he wants Moses to do of four times.
Moses is saying well what about this?
And what about that? I'm not the right guy.
I can't speak but I can listen to me.
I don't even know what I'm supposed to call you to these
people. All these questions.
What's he doing? From a place of doubt, he's
trying to find answers so that he can move on.
Right. Paul, as we talked about last
night, pleaded three times with the Lord, take this away from
me, please. I don't necessarily would call
that a place of Doubt, but he's calling on the Lord for help and
Lord's. Given an answer.
No, and Paul is not satisfied. So he keeps asking for it three
times. Take this away.
May we always make space for asking hard questions.
Penelope is still not satisfied with my answer for her question,
who made God she's nine years old and I keep trying to answer
it and she's just not satisfied with it yet.
I'm glad she asks. I hope that when she's sixteen
or twenty five or seventy and I'm, you know, 98 years old and
she still not satisfied that she would come find me and ask Dad,
I still want to know where God came from.
There's a second one. We can foster trust and Truth by
not making doubt into an idol. I think it's very important for
us in this discussion to remember that doubt is not a
trophy to be awarded or claimed. The reason I say that is because
those who have deconstructed have made doubt into their Idol
as though they are better than those who have not doubted.
And because they've ask the hard questions that these people
never asked, or didn't want to ask so somehow that makes them
better. And I've seen it time and time
again that Pride commingled with doubt leads.
People astray like nothing else. There are no evidences that I
can find in the Bible where doubt is considered good and
wholesome, as far as on its own now.
I don't think that there's scriptures to say it's wrong to
question God as hopefully we've seen tonight.
But what we do find is that truth is valued as what we are
to pursue, John chapter 1, verse 16 and 17 says for from his
fullness, we have Have all received Grace upon Grace for
the law was given through Moses Grace and Truth came through.
Jesus Christ not Grayson doubt but Grace and Truth.
Jesus said in John 8:31 if you abide in my word you are truly
my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set
you free truth freeze. Truth washes away ignorance and
so may we never get to a point where we turned out into an
idol. Finally, we can foster trust and
Truth by cultivating. A culture of confession and I
have a sermon based on this. I may or may not be preaching at
this weekend. I haven't flipped the coin yet,
but James 5:15 says, the prayer of faith will save.
The one who's sick and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has
committed sins, he will be. Forgiving therefore confess your
sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be
healed. The prayer of a righteous person
has great power as it's working. The idea here is if we have
built a culture in our congregation, whether it be a
public confession or whether it be one-on-one, it's a lot easier
to be vulnerable with each other and say things like, I don't
know about that one cup. Where's that coming from?
And then we can talk honestly about Such scriptures.
Okay, here's my final scripture and then I'll offer gospel
invitation, then maybe we can go outside, enjoy those fireworks.
Mark, chapter 9, there's an account of a man who brings his
child to Jesus. Don't look too closely at this
image. Looks like he's healing, a man
with a beard and so I want you to imagine.
It's a child instead of a bearded man.
But in this this account, I want you to put yourself into the
shoes of the father. Okay.
So before we read I want you to put yourself in the shoes of the
father. Let's read a little bit.
Jesus asked them, what are you arguing about with them?
And someone from the crowd, answered him teacher.
I brought my son to you for. He has a spirit that makes him
mute and whenever it seizes him at throws him down and he Foams
and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.
So I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not
able then he answered them o faithless generation.
How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?
Bring him to me. And they brought him the boy,
and when the spirit saw him, it immediately convulsed the boy,
and he fell on the ground and rolled around foaming at the
mouth. This is quite a scene.
There's an argument to the disciples are having with this
father and with some Pharisees who were there and it's kind of,
you know, their pride has been hurt because they couldn't cast
out this demon and there's probably some type of an
argument going on here. So Jesus has to say, well,
what's what's happening? And this is what's happening.
Jesus asked some more questions as this child goes.
Rigid, this demon has made him go, rigid.
And so Jesus asks his father, how long has this been happening
to him? And he said from childhood and
it's often cast him into the water and it, or Into the Fire
and into water to destroy him, but if you can do anything, have
compassion on us and help us, I'm sensing desperation.
Desperation of a life-long attempt to keep his son safe.
Jesus response is one part humerus.
And the other part convicting he says.
And Jesus said to him, if you can notice that this man is
coming from a place of doubt. He didn't say Lord.
I know you can. He said if and Jesus highlights
that If? If?
All things are possible to the one who believes. and, I think
it's a rebuke to the man. Now Jesus is tender and
compassionate to these types of purses so it's not a rebuke,
that's intended, like it would be to a Pharisee.
If if you would believe all things are possible and this
isn't the end of The Narrative, but I just want to show you the
man's response. Is I think this is the heart of
what we should be. Like whenever we have doubts
immediately, the father of the child cried out and said I
believe. help my unbelief and I'm just thankful that he had
the willingness to admit that to Jesus.
That he would actually ask help my unbelief instead of getting
defensive. And coming up with a reason.
He simply brings it to the master.
I want to. Will you help me?
And that's the invitation I want to leave with you tonight, if
you find yourself ever in place of doubting the prayer that you
can offer. Lord, I Want to Believe.
Help my unbelief. Ask that to the Lord instead of
walking away from him. and remember what the promise was in
James chapter 4, draw near to God and He will draw near to
you, brothers and sisters. I hope this is a helpful Bible
study. I look forward to having
conversation with you about it. If you have questions, and if
you have comments, I always take the feedback on these sermons in
as I give them in other places. Then I can utilize that.
So, if you have scriptures and ideas that you feel would be
helpful to improve this than please, let's keep talking about
it. We thank you for listening to
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