Faith with Doubt, Skepticism and Wonder | Heath McCartney

You may have seen or heard people refer to the state of Missouri as the show me state. Missouri is supposedly called the show me state because because of its residents' reputation for skepticism and demand for evidence. The nickname show me state is most commonly attributed to US congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver who during a naval banquet in Philadelphia in 1899 reportedly said, I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.

Vandiver's statement emphasized that Missourians were not easily impressed by rhetoric alone and preferred tangible proof of or results. Now what about you? Do you consider yourself a skeptic? Do you need tangible proof for everything you believe? Were you skeptical of Santa Claus from day one?

Do you still struggle with accepting that the earth is round? Well, today, I'm not talking about UFOs, conspiracy theories, or ghosts. I'm talking about something much more important. Do you do you believe in God? Do you believe in his son?

Do you believe he came to this earth? Do you believe that he died on a cross and was risen from the dead? Do you believe that there is life after death? Do you believe that humans, the living world around us, and the universe were created all by the God of Abraham? If some of you said yes with absolute conviction and zero doubt, good for you.

If doubt is something you don't really encounter, consider yourself blessed. Your confidence in what you believe is something to be thankful for. Now, as for the rest of you, or to be more honest, for the rest of us, I have a message today that I hope will restore hope. Maybe you believe some days, but some days you don't. Maybe you sort of believe, but you need more proof.

Maybe you believed as a child, but life's experiences have slowly caused you to doubt the existence of God. Maybe you are really confused about what you believe, but you feel that there is a presence in life who loves you and is looking out for you. Maybe you have maybe you've had to deconstruct what you believe because it was based on what you inherited from your parents. Now you're trying to reassemble it to be your own. Maybe you have spent most of your life going through the motions of being a Christian but not really sure about any of it.

Maybe you could you would be embarrassed or ashamed if people around you knew that you had these kinds of doubts. Maybe you have kept this to yourself, well hidden behind a facade that looks like faith to others. Today, I want you to know that number one, you are loved by God despite your doubts. Number two, he welcomes the doubters to follow his son. Number three, he takes you as you are, doubts and questions and skepticism included.

He even accepts people who cannot operate remote. Here we go. Apologize. There we go. It's a little bit dark, but I think you can see this picture.

If you if you mention the name Thomas, you may instinctively say, doubting Thomas. Right? That's what we know about him. He was one of Jesus' chosen 12 apostles who joined Jesus on his journeys. He saw Jesus face to face and witnessed his power to heal, power to cast out demons, and power to walk on the water.

Despite all that he saw, he followed Jesus with a sense of skepticism while wrestling with his doubt. Perhaps Thomas had been lied to, taken advantage of, tricked, believed something untrue in life, and he said, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And he lived the rest of his life on guard for scams, liars, and people who would fill him with false hope, perhaps. Or maybe he was just born a natural skeptic.

We don't really know why Thomas was this way. Only John gives us much insight about Thomas. Very little is said about Thomas. What we do know is that Jesus knew this about Thomas and took him as his chosen disciple. I mean, listen to Thomas' cynicism when Jesus tells everyone he's going to revive Lazarus from the dead.

After he had said this, he went on to tell him tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm going there to wake him up. His disciples replied, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and for your sake, I'm I I am glad I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him. Then Thomas, also known as Didymus, said to the rest of the disciples, let us also go that we may die with him.

Do you sense a little bit of cynicism in what Thomas is saying here? Why would he say that? He had questions and he was swimming in a sea of uncertainty, and it was starting to show itself in in his comments there. His struggle with his uncertainty was about about who Jesus was continues in John chapter 14. Jesus says, do not let your hearts be troubled.

John 14 · chapter mention

You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I not told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Now, some may read what Thomas said and think he's really that dumb, that he couldn't understand the metaphors that Jesus was using to refer to heaven. I would propose that Thomas did understand Jesus' figurative language, and that what we are seeing again is Thomas' cynicism show up here in his question.

Jesus knew what Thomas was doing here and went right to the heart of Thomas' uncertainty and inner turmoil in his response to assure Thomas that Jesus is the real deal. In fact, I think the statement Jesus led with in verse one might might have been directly targeted at Thomas. Let me go back. Here we go. Jesus says, do not let your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. I think Thomas' heart was troubled with unbelief. He followed Jesus. He admired Jesus and he even loved Jesus, but he's wrestling with doubt the whole way. You see Thomas had a sense of wonder about Jesus and yet he couldn't fully get on board with everything.

He struggled to see supernatural things happening right in front of him as evidence of who Jesus really was. Was it all a scam, or was Jesus who he claimed to be? You see a troubled you see a troubled apostle grasping for more proof. What you don't see is Jesus rejecting him or rebuking him. Jesus knew Thomas' struggle with his uncertainty and continued to love him, and Thomas continued to follow Jesus with a sense that Jesus was who he claimed to be, but not totally convinced.

This all comes to a crescendo towards the end of John when Thomas must accept the ultimate test of his belief, the belief that Jesus was raised from the dead himself. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.

Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here, see my hands, Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, my Lord and my God. Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. The second part of Jesus' statement that he said is really interesting to me. You see, Jesus right there was acknowledging that believing would be hard. It would be hard, and he is speaking to us. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Blessed is in the sense of same sense as in the beatitudes. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. He's not saying that those who fully believe without any proof get a gold star. That's not what Jesus is saying here.

He's saying it will be hard to believe without proof. He's acknowledging that. But he's saying, I'm not gonna give up on you. In Matthew twenty eight sixteen through 20, I'm gonna read that. Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The writer mentions that that some of the 11 worshiped Jesus while they doubted. Well, we know one had to be more, more than just Thomas. There are you are you serious?

The apostles did not believe there were apostles that didn't believe this this just seems a little bit shocking and you and and you think about it. I never really think about the apostles as having a faith crisis, especially right while they're right there with Jesus. What did Jesus do with these doubters? Did he rebuke them on the spot? Did he tell them to get off that mountain and don't you come back until you've removed all doubt from your lives?

No. That's not what he did. Look what he says. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, bag baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely, I'm with you always to the very end of the age.

Not even close, he didn't rebuke them. He entrusted them to go teach others, to baptize, and said he would always be with them. If Jesus has a problem with doubters, do you think he would trust them to carry his message to the rest of the world? Do you think he is ashamed of you because you have doubts? In Luke 17, the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.

He replied, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you. Here we find that the apostles who have seen a variety of signs that Jesus is who he says he is, they asked Jesus to increase their faith. Let's chew on that a minute. Out of all the things they could ask for, I I would say, Jesus, increase my hair. Jesus, decrease my my fat content, increase my muscle mass.

I would not ask for Jesus to increase my faith. What's going on here? Well, they they've seen the lame walk, lepers heal, demons cast out, food created to feed thousands, water turned to wine, and even Jesus walking on water, and they want him to increase their faith. Now Jesus could have just acted disgusted with them and said, what what else could I possibly do to convince you? But Jesus, in his wisdom and ability to know their hearts has a much better response.

Jesus says, if even if you have just just a small amount of faith, you can do pretty much anything. Have you ever seen a ever tried to uproot a tree, by the way? Have you? What? I have.

So thank thank we can thank the freeze we had years ago, but it killed two large palm trees in my backyard. So me being the thrifty person I am, I was not going to hire somebody just to get a tree out of there. Well, a palm tree is no it's not like an oak tree. I'll just say that. It it's different.

So it it we had two of them to take down. So Ethan helped me, and we spent pretty much our entire Saturday trying to uproot this tree. We had a truck tied onto it. Oh, this thing, it was not budging. We we tried everything.

You know, it it it must have had a thousand roots under that root ball going down, and you know, God made those things very, very sturdy. No wonder they can survive a category five hurricane. They're not going anywhere. So we eventually did get it down piece by piece with a Solzol, and it was just miserable. It took us all day.

And we had a second tree to take down, so we took all the lessons we learned from that experience, and we applied that to the second one, and we hired this guy to come take care of it. So my advice, don't mess with a palm tree, call these guys. Money well spent, you'll save your back and your sanity. Uprooting a tree. Sometimes Jesus uses hyperbole to get his message across like a mulberry tree uprooting itself.

He also uses examples that contrast size. Notice how Jesus contrasts size here by comparing a tiny mustard seed to a large mulberry tree. He's done this before in comparing something small to something big. In Luke thirteen eighteen through 20, Jesus also contrasts the size of a mustard seed to the tree that it ultimately ends up growing, and he contrasts a tiny pinch of yeast that can leaven about 60 pounds of dough. When you think about something small and something big in terms of this scripture, doc doctor Matthew Halsted, he he hosts a a podcast called the bible unmuted that I listen to sometimes, and he had a nice way of putting it.

He he said, faith isn't defined by its size, it's it's what your faith is placed in that matters because you can have small faith in a big God. Faith doesn't get its power from you or how much you believe. Its power is in the object of the faith, God. Some of you may shop here in Mont Belvieu. Some of you husbands out there may look at your credit card statements and see a store called All About You.

If you've never seen that, then just ignore what I said, but I've seen it on my credit card statement. I've never been in this store, but I hear that women really like to shop there. It's got lots of good bargains and values, maybe. But the name of the store is is really mark good marketing. I mean, about you where the customer is number one.

It's all about you. I think it's brilliant marketing. And and shopping there really may be all about you. Faith is all about God. It's not about you.

Faith isn't some magic potion where you the more of it you apply, the more you can believe. The amount you have compared to someone else is irrelevant. Does not matter. Think about that for a minute. The apostles want Jesus to give them more faith, and Jesus is saying, no, I think you're good.

You'll be fine with just a little bit, like the size of a mustard seed. Surely, I'm doubting God, then I must be doing something wrong. But it's not about us. It's about him. We can we can have doubt, and he still wants us as his children.

We can struggle with alternative ideas about how creation came to be, and he still wants us. Our God's love is so deep that he can be in relationship with us even if we are not sure at times if we believe he's there. Faith the size of a mustard seed, it's not about the size of your faith, it's about who your faith is in. This may be hard to wrap our mind around because many of us have been taught to think think of our faith, think that if our faith meter isn't at least 97% all the time, then there's a problem with us. We're not doing something right.

We're not praying hard enough. We're not reading enough scripture. We're not baptizing enough people. We're not giving enough. We didn't attend enough gospel meetings on our Sunday night worship services when the Super Bowl was playing.

It's it's surely it's something we are not doing. It doesn't work like that. Sometimes we have to unlearn wrong concepts that people have taught us to really hear what Jesus is telling us. Faith is not the product of how hard you work at it. Faith grows in your heart.

It's strengthened as you grow in your relationship with God. Walk with him and follow his son, and the doubts that are sowed in your mind will slowly be overpowered by the love and peace you feel in your heart. There are some of us who have an appreciation for science. Personally, I am fascinated by science, particularly biology, chemistry, physics, geology. I've studied it in school.

I still like to read about it. I find it fascinating. However, once I was once presented with a false choice that I had to either believe in science or believe in God. Pick your side. And I say false choice because it's not a choice.

I wanna submit to you that you don't have to choose. In fact, you can choose both. Science is just man's attempt to fully understand all of creation. The more I study science, the more I'm persuaded that there is an intelligent being who made it all. It was God's plan for us to explore his creation, to test hypothesis, and to make discoveries that become scientific fact.

Some of it we'll figure out, but much of it will remain a mystery. You don't have to completely reconcile modern scientific understanding in order to have faith in God. They can peacefully coexist together and actually enhance each other. Your faith may be very small, that's okay. God's power is big, and it can work with faith of any size.

He takes you where you are and patiently helps your faith grow. He has no expectation that you wrap your mind around some of these hard concepts. The apostle Paul had insight to some of these things, and he said, in a twinkling of an eye, we will be changed. We will one day experience the full showing of God's glory and majesty, and our doubt will be instantly removed. Until then, we can be in full relationship with our heavenly father with only a mustard seed.

I want to make an appeal to the doubters out there this morning. Jesus came to this earth and gave his life for you. You can choose to accept it or continue to question it. Either way, his love for you is not conditioned on how much you believe, how many things you question in the Bible, how incomplete you may feel your understanding is, or whether you even believe at all. He loves you regardless.

His love is unchanging, and he invites you to follow him to the father and experience eternal life. His call is to cynics, skeptics, and doubters like Thomas, like you, and like me. He wants us to trust him and leave the faith building up to him. So if you're sitting on the edge if you're sitting on the edge about following Jesus, I want to encourage you to tune out the noise and believe. Believe and commit to following Christ by repenting of sins and being baptized.

If you're struggling with questions, with uncertainty, with doubt, and need and and you need the peace that Jesus offers when he said to Thomas, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. I want you to know that there is no shame and no judgment here, just grace. From one doubter to another, I get you. And more importantly, Jesus gets You are you are not in this struggle alone.

I'm here to pray with you, and let's go through this together. Let's be honest with each other. Tyler is gonna lead us in a song, and if I can pray with you about this, I would love to do that. Will you stand as we stand?