Ep 470 | Deconstructing Doubt - Jonathan Edwards 11/18/22

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

Matthew 14:31

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

James 1:5

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

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11, the, the first part of First Corinthians chapter 11,

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

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.

Jude 1:20–23

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

Romans 1:32

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

Acts 8 · chapter mention

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

1 Corinthians 3:6

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

James 4:7

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

Matthew 7:7

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

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

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

John 1:16

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

John 8:31

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.

James 5:15

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

Mark 9 · chapter mention

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

James 4 · chapter mention

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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