Failure in Doubt - Part 2

Men, will you turn to John Chapter 20?

John 20 · chapter mention

Last week we talked about fear, man, there's a lot of scared

Christians. And I don't say that like, like,

I'm not one of them, OK? So I don't say it like, like you

shouldn't be scared. And I have heard people say this

before, you know, Hey, if you're a Christian, what do you have to

be afraid of? You've read the book.

You know how it ends. And yeah, but there's a lot of,

like, crazy stuff before we get there.

Also, have you read how it ends? Because a lot of that is

intimidating, at least the parts that I understand.

Right. So it's normal to feel fear.

And I want you to know it's normal to feel doubt as a

Christian, too. It's important that you

understand how normal it is to feel doubt.

Last week when we stepped into the courtyard with Peter, we

watched what fear can reveal in a human heart, even if the human

himself is not aware of the fear that lurks there.

We talked about that gap there where his his fear began

negotiating with his devotion to God.

And he was the guy, if you remember, he walked up to to

Jesus. He said, listen, I'm ready to go

to prison for you. I'm ready to even go to the

death with you if it comes to that.

And Jesus is like, oh, well, actually, you're, you're going

to betray me. You're going to deny me three

times before the rooster crows. Never would I do such a thing.

And then he did such a thing. But we also saw how gracious God

was to meet him afterwards there on the shore, and to restore him

and bring him back into this calling that he had for him.

It's beautiful. Jesus met Peter, didn't cancel

him like we probably would have, and Peter was made new all over

again. And I think that's really the

heart of this. As we head towards Resurrection

Sunday. We know that Jesus isn't just

raised from the dead so that we can make it to heaven.

I'm afraid that that's something that's been miscommunicated in

church life for many years too, is that, hey, get saved so you

go to heaven. I mean, that's don't get me

wrong, that's a really big benefit.

I don't prefer the alternative, right?

But if the only thing you do is swear your allegiance to him so

that you don't have eternal torment, he sounds like a

tyrant. God is in the process of wanting

to walk with you the same way that he walked with Adam and Eve

in the garden. He is restoring everything, and

I'm so grateful for him. And so he wants to meet you

where you are and guide you to where you need to be.

I think a lot of times we feel like we have to get to a certain

place before God will take us in.

But God is not just resurrecting our bodies into a new era of

existence. He is in the business of

resurrecting our call, our hopes, our dreams, our

relationships, all sorts of things.

And yeah, ultimately, we all die.

And then the greatest resurrection of all happens.

But before we get there, what is it that God is wanting to

resurrect in your life this week?

It's a different kind of struggle.

We're going to talk about doubt and before we get there, there

should be many Christians, not all, but many that would know

the name Lee Strobel. Anybody know the name Lee

Strobel? OK, how about the book A Case

for Christ? Now, he's written a whole lot of

other books, A Case for Fill in the Blank.

There's so many of them, but A Case for Christ is the one that

he's best known for. In fact, they made a movie about

it eventually. But Lee Strobel is one of these

guys that I'm talking about with doubt.

When I mentioned Lee Strobel, I guarantee you your first

thought, even if you know his story, wasn't, oh, that guy had

a lot of doubts. Your first thought was a case

for Christ. Oh, that was a great book.

It helped my faith. You didn't think about doubt.

But before he wrote that book, a lot of Christians don't even

realize this. He was an award-winning

investigative journalist working for the Chicago Tribune, and he

was an atheist. And he was trained to follow

evidence and examine claims carefully and to dismantle weak

arguments. So what was it that changed his

mind? Well, it started with a woman I

know, doesn't it always right. First time I went to youth group

was because my my girlfriend said do you want to go to youth

group with me? And I said yes.

Before I knew what youth group was.

His wife got saved and he wasn't excited for her.

He was worried that she was getting into something that was

going to drain her and lead her astray.

And so he decided to use his investigative skills to disprove

Christianity altogether. So he interviewed historians,

theologians, medical experts and scholars, all in an attempt to

dismantle the idea that the resurrection could have actually

happened. And I'm sure you can see where

this is going. The questions that he asked

didn't destroy the case for Christ.

They solidified it, and he became born again.

He was setting out to disprove Christianity, and Christianity

disproved his beliefs. Now, why is this important?

Because your doubts will often lead you down a trail that will

result in deeper faith if you go down that trail with an honest

heart. If you're actually looking for

what's real, something that isn't said from the pulpit

enough even here. Doubt is not the enemy of faith.

It's just not. It's a tool to be used in your

pursuit of faith. Think about this.

What is faith if you have certainty?

Well, it's certainty. There's no need to give it the

name faith because there's already a word for it.

But the reality is faith is going to require that you look

into something that you're not 100% sure on.

Sometimes it's just the actual doorway through which your faith

becomes stronger and more personal.

And so when we turn back to the gospel here in John chapter 20,

John 20 · chapter mention

I want you to know this is the same kind of story here.

And we do hear a lot about Thomas's life, but all centered

around one thing, which is he doubted.

My goodness, I know there's no bitterness in heaven, but if

there was, could you imagine? You get to heaven and you're

meeting all of the apostles and you're meeting the disciples.

You're the one that doubted. And he's like, I did so much

more than that. But it's important that we know

Him as the one that doubted because honestly, if you spend

enough time, you can see a little bit of all of the

disciples of Jesus in yourself. And he wasn't always the guy

that doubted. And we're going to talk about

that. He was pretty bold the first

time you really hear him speak up in Scripture.

We'll get there in just a little bit, but we're going to start by

reading in John 20, the moment that really defines Thomas.

In most people's memories, all the disciples have gathered in a

room that is locked. Why?

Because Jesus has been crucified.

So all of his believers, they scatter.

And so now they're scared of what comes next.

Well, I saw what they did to our leader, so who knows what

they're going to do to us. So the cool thing is they

haven't abandoned their faith. But the scary thing is they've

abandoned some of their faith. Not faith in who Jesus is or

what he came to do, but faith in Jesus isn't necessarily going to

do what's best for me. This is where we struggle.

We pray for things. How many of us, I, I, I'm

genuinely asking for a show of hands.

How many of us have had a sentence like this before?

I know God can, I just don't know if he will, right?

Oh my goodness, is that not like one of the most honest prayers?

God, I know you can do anything. I know you can heal this if you

want. I know you can restore this if

you want. I know you can make me brand new

if you want. I don't know if you will.

And then how many of us go down the rabbit trail where we start

to say, well, you know the reason why he probably doesn't?

I bet it's me. Oh, you know what the awful

thing about that thought is? A lot of times that is true.

I'm just here positive, encouraging K love here to lift

you up. A lot of times it is because we

have something that is blocking us.

I'll believe you if you do this. And maybe we don't even word it

that way like Thomas is about to, but we do have that belief.

God, I just need some sort of sign.

Well, if you have to ask for a sign, that's not faith.

As we read this, I want you to know this is not a detached

skeptic of Christianity. This is not a investigative

journalist from the Chicago Tribune.

This is somebody who walked with Jesus for three years, just like

Peter when we discussed him last week, he walked with him.

He saw miracles. He he had one-on-one

conversations. He spent real FaceTime with this

guy that we call Jesus the Messiah.

So he knew all of this to be true.

And then there's an emotional moment where we read in John 20,

starting in verse 19, says that Sunday evening the disciples

were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the

Jewish leaders. Suddenly Jesus was standing

there among them. Peace be with you.

I always loved this. My pastor told me this story

about when they were telling this to kids and they said,

anybody remember what Jesus said when he appeared in the middle

of the disciples? This kid said, tada, I don't

think he did, but it doesn't say he didn't, OK?

He said peace be with you. You know why?

Because that's scary. They're all meeting in a locked

room and all of a sudden there's just one other person.

I freak out if there's movement in my peripheral vision, if it's

the wind blowing a curtain. So I'm sure he had to speak

peace over them. Listen verse 20 as he spoke, he

showed them the wounds in his hands and his side, and they

were filled with joy when they saw the Lord again.

He said peace be with you as the Father has sent me, so I am

sending you. And then he breathed on them and

said, receive the Holy Spirit. He said if you forgive anyone's

sins, they're forgiven. If you do not forgive them,

they're not forgiven. By the way, it's very important

that he said that to them after he breathed the Holy Spirit upon

them. OK, because the Holy Spirit will

guide you into places that will set people free.

Sermon for another day. One of the 12 disciples Thomas

nicknamed the twin was not with the others when Jesus came in

verse 25. They told him we have seen the

Lord. But he replied, I won't believe

it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers

into them and place my hand into the wound in his side.

It's a little gross. Yeah, you're correct.

I've done many a hospital visit and I can't remember one time

where I've been like, can I touch that?

That's crazy looking, right? But what he's saying to these

other disciples is, listen, unless I get the same experience

that you had, I'm not buying it. Why?

Because hope is dangerous. Who here has had some sort of

stumbling block in their faith? Again, show of hands, who has

had a stumbling block in their faith?

Because your thought was, I don't want to feel foolish if I

believe something that's not real.

That's like the 1st 20% of my faith journey is, well I'm sure

he's real, but I don't know what parts are real and I don't know

exactly what to like. I'm ever going to figure it all

out. Last week we talked about fear

and fear always says protect yourself.

This week as we talk about doubt, doubt says prove it to

me. What do they say?

Seeing is believing. Not really.

I don't even have to explain that to you now in the era of

AI, My goodness, how many times I have to tell somebody I, I

don't think that's real. But here's what I want you to

know. In both of these gospel

accounts, both for Peter and for Thomas, their fear and their

doubt didn't disqualify them. Your fear and your doubt doesn't

disqualify you from a beautiful life that God does have laid out

for you. And when I call it a beautiful

life, I did not call it an easy life.

God has beautiful blessings in store for you, and He also has a

mission for you, and it's going to be hard.

Christian life is pretty simple. It's just not easy, but it's

beautiful. Who wants to go to their grave

and not feel like they had purpose in their life?

God gives you blessings and He gives you purpose, and

ultimately you'll find that that purpose was one of the greatest

blessings He ever gave you. Unfortunately, we forget the

fact that all throughout the Gospels, when people doubt, God

moves towards them. A lot of times we don't

verbalize our doubts because we're afraid it's going to

create some sort of like intangible distance between US

and God. But that couldn't be further

from the truth. First of all, he already knows

your innermost thoughts. So if he wanted to move away

from you, he's already going to do it.

You can't deceive him, you can't trick him.

He moves towards you because he loves you.

I always think about like when I was trying to teach my son how

to swim and he was so afraid and he had a life jacket on and we

were like in 2 feet of water. So, you know, it's like right

here and I'm like, I'll catch you.

It's going to be great. And he wouldn't do it because he

was so little. He was so scared.

And I want to tell you about when when he eventually did

learn to swim. But we haven't gotten there yet.

And this is the point. It's a journey.

But what I will tell you is this, my boy will get into the

water with that life jacket now. And a lot of times we're mad at

ourselves because we haven't gotten to the swimming part yet,

and we can't even celebrate the fact that we're now in the

water. And we used to be afraid to even

wade into the water. Your doubt is something that God

tends to because God loves you more than you love him.

And it's not a competition. Don't try.

But in a church, doubt is often treated as something that

believers are supposed to suppress.

A lot of people assume that real faith means you never wrestle

with questions or disappointment.

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss.

That's right, God had a better plan.

I mean, I know that, but you can still mourn a loss.

Grief is real. I want you to know that the same

savior that restored Peters courage after the fear is going

to restore Thomas after his doubt.

But the first thing you have to look at if you're going to

tackle your own doubts is what the doubt itself reveals,

similar to fear. Fear is not the problem itself.

It's a it's a symptom, it's an indicator, It's a check engine

light. And so when you feel doubts,

it's actually trying to reveal something else to you.

We're going to go a couple chapters earlier.

We'll be in John Chapter 11 in just a moment.

John 11 · chapter mention

But as we read this, I want you to know that Thomas makes one of

the most famous statements in all the Gospels when he says I

won't believe it unless fill in the blank.

And so because of that, we call him doubting Thomas.

But I also want you to know that when we do read the story, we

have to understand that Thomas was not always defined by this

one place. You can't take your your current

chapter and assume that that's what the whole story of your

life is about. And it's the same for these guys

that we read in the scriptures. In John 11, it's the first time

we actually hear Thomas speak up.

Listen to this in verse 8, this is where Jesus says, hey, we're

going to, we're going to head back to Judea.

You know, he hears that Lazarus is sick and dying and he wants

to go and he wants to tend to him.

And in verse 8, the disciples object to this.

Why, Rabbi, only a few days ago the people in Judea, we're

trying to stone you. Are you going there again?

It's their gentle way of saying, remember when they almost killed

us? Why do you want to go back

there? And Jesus replied, there are 12

hours of daylight every day. During the day, people can walk

safely. They can see because they have

the light of this world. But at night, there's dangerous

stumbling because they have no light.

And then he said, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but

now I'll go and wake him up. He was trying to tell them

Lazarus is already dead, but I'm about to go do a miracle.

Well, you can't do a miracle unless you show up where a

miracle is needed. But the disciples said, Lord, if

he is sleeping, he'll soon get better.

Do you ever feel like you're the Lord's slowest little learner?

We're in good company. We're in good company.

They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus

meant Lazarus had died. Verse 14.

So we told them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

Emphasis mine. And for your sakes, I'm glad I

wasn't there. For now, you'll really believe.

Come on, let's go see him. By the way, this is one of the

things that all these disciples watched.

They watched him bring Lazarus back from the dead.

But verse 16, Thomas, nicknamed the twin, said to his fellow

disciples, let's go to and die with Jesus.

That's the Spirit. So he was encouraged by what

Jesus said, but it didn't change the fact that he still believed

what the other disciples were believing.

Jesus, if we go back there this time, they're going to get us.

Last time they almost got us. This time we're going to get

got, right? And after he says this to the

disciples, Thomas just goes, Jesus is right, let's go and die

with him. Now, is it a little foolhardy?

Probably. But is that the same Thomas that

you would think of? The same one That's like, unless

I see it for myself, He was willing to walk into what was a

localized war zone against his Messiah, his rabbi, his teacher,

and he was willing to catch death.

He was willing to. In that scene, he doesn't seem

like a skeptic. He seems like somebody who says,

well, if he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead, maybe

he'll get me to. I don't know what he's thinking,

but he knows something good is going to come.

But over time, even those of us with the fiercest faith get

tested in ways that we never thought that we would.

And over time, things start to crack.

And maybe you don't jump from let's go die for Jesus right

over to unless he shows up and I get to put my hand right there,

I won't believe him. There's this intermediate period

where our faith starts to get tested and weight is set upon it

and which starts to crack, right?

So in John 14, now we're going to read the very beginning of

John 14. This is a little bit later, but

still before John 20 because that's how numbers work.

In John 14, Jesus is speaking to his disciples.

And we, we read through the scripture a whole lot last year,

didn't we? Jesus says don't let your hearts

be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in

me. There is more than enough room

in my Father's home. If this were not so, what?

I've told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you.

When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you

will always be with me where I am and you know the way to where

I am going. Here's Thomas again.

No, we don't know Lord. We have no idea where you're

going. So how can we know the way?

Now what does Jesus go on to say here?

Any Christian know this one? He says I am the way and the

truth and the life, but Thomas right there still doesn't know.

So if you ever feel like God has given you revelation, you don't

fully understand it. You you read through something

in the scripture and you say, oh man, that feels like that was

really important. And I and I don't know 100% why.

That's all right. That's what's happening.

Thomas has now moved on his journey from I'll go anywhere.

I'll die for you too. I want to go where you want me

to go, but I don't get it. I still don't understand.

So for Christians in this room where you're saying I still want

to follow you, I just don't get it.

You're in good company again. You know what I love about

Thomas? There's no deceit in him

whatsoever. He is so honest.

He's honest in a way that most of us struggle to be and we

don't get that many places for him to actually speak in the

Scripture. But every single time it's like

a, it's like a truth bomb from him.

He's so excited. And for many of us, when we

first get saved, we, we first have an encounter with Jesus.

We're like, man, I'm ready to do anything for you until it starts

costing, until it starts wearing on you, until you start

realizing, Oh, I'm doing things for him and trying to do what he

says. And they're not always the same

thing. And I'm wearing myself out

trying to do the things for him that he never asked me to do.

And you have to start figuring out what your faith actually is

and how you actually hear from the Lord.

And he gets to this place where I just to me, I read fatigue in

this. I mean, Jesus has given him some

heavy teachings. He's given him great news.

My father's prepared a place for you.

It's going to be good and you know how to get there.

He says, no, I don't. What did Thomas think was going

to happen? Thomas thinks that Jesus is like

most of his believers. Jesus is going to come and set

things right for Israel. He's going to set up a brand new

government. Oh, man, we got so much hope in

the government. We don't like to say it, but we

do. And they think Jesus is here to

set up the government, which really means they think Jesus is

here to set up something that's going to save him.

But the government's never going to save you.

I don't care where on this planet you live.

And so because of this, imagine what's going through Thomas's

mind when the cross occurs. I've watched Jesus raise people

from the dead. We walked into a region where I

thought we were all going to die and none of us died.

I've seen him heal children. I've seen him heal sickness.

I have seen him spit in the mud and rub it in somebody's eyes,

and even that healed somebody. I've seen him do things that I

never thought I could see before.

So I'm sure waiting to see what happens here with this for your

next miracle. Jesus can't wait to see what you

do on this cross. He died.

Now the greatest miracle did happen on that cross, but they

couldn't quite see it yet. The man that Thomas believed

with his Messiah gets arrested and beaten and executed.

We think about the crucifixion, and unless we're watching the

Passion of the Christ, which is a painful watch, we don't always

meditate and think on everything that happened before that.

And it wasn't just singled out for Jesus.

This was normal before somebody was crucified in the Roman

culture. Then it was normal to be spit

on, to be mocked, to be beaten, to start the bleeding early on.

They didn't want you lasting too long up there, after all.

So it was normal to see this. So he watched his savior, who

did so much for so many people get publicly humiliated, torn to

pieces before watching him get killed.

That's what he watched. So forgive me, but I understand

him. Why?

After the resurrection, he's like, you know what?

Unless I see it for myself, I'd like to think that I'd have more

faith in that, but I don't know if I was in that day and age, I

don't know exactly what it would have been like.

A couple things that really stand out to me on this want to

share with you, but I want you to think about what it is that

you're doubting today. We prayed for it earlier.

Are you doubting that maybe things will get better with

somebody that you love? Are you doubting a career

decision? Are you doubting that a career

path will open for you? Are you doubting any sort of

path down the road of life that you hoped for will be there?

This applies to all of it. The first thing that I really

notice is that when you find out, you almost always find

disappointment. Almost always.

So this is what I mean. We're looking at what doubt

reveals. It's normal to doubt, but you

have to chase down what the doubt actually reveals.

For Thomas, he had invested 3 years of his life following

Jesus. We don't really know what he did

for a living before then, but he dropped it so he could follow

Jesus and walk down the, the, the path with him.

And when he watched the crucifixion unfold, he was

probably traumatized. Trauma has a way of shaking your

certainty. Doubt always reveals

disappointment. Where are you disappointed in

that situation #2? I would say doubt also reveals

our unmet expectations. To me, unmet expectations are

the number one relationship killer, right?

And so anytime you're feeling doubt, there's an unmet

expectation. I mean, again, you know, ages

one through 5, you know, you tell your kids I'm about to go

out there and I'm going to grow wings and fly to work.

They're like my dad's about to grow wings and fly to work.

That's pretty cool. Try saying that to your 26 year

old kid, you know, and probably get a different response.

And third, I think doubt always reveals what your desire is.

When you doubt something, it's because you're really hoping for

something else. And that's where that unmet

expectation connects. But when you understand Thomas

in this way, his words sound less like somebody who's being

defiant to the other disciples and more like just another

honest moment. His unmet expectations had

already happened. He was really desiring for Jesus

to set up things and make things great, right?

And he was so disappointed. You know, a lot of marriage

counselors talk about something that they see over and over

again and struggling relationships.

And it's it's this a couple will come into an office after some

sort of fight. One partner has hurt the other

one through some sort of repeated behavior.

It's almost always something that's happened multiple times

and maybe dishonesty, maybe just neglect and maybe just refusing

to grow up emotionally. None of this applies to anybody

here. Y'all are great but but the

partner that causes the pain will often sit there and say I'm

sorry, I'll do it differently in the future.

And marriage counselors will tell you this most of the time

when they say I'm sorry, things will be different this time.

When you look at the one who's been wronged, they don't look

relieved. They look hesitant.

Why? Because they have normally heard

this already in some form, A1 on one, a private conversation.

I'm sorry if this is hitting too close to home, but I'm just

telling you, doubt comes because of unmet expectations and

disappointment and the desires that we have.

And sometimes the doubt happens because time after time you

thought it was going to change and it didn't.

And this can be really hard to swallow.

So they want to believe them, but their experience has trained

their heart to be hesitant. Now a lot of times we have

expectations on God. We have expectations God didn't

even tell us to have. But if time after time He

doesn't do what you want Him to do or what you thought he was

going to do, your heart will become hesitant with the Lord as

well. In a human scenario, it just

takes time, and it takes actually acting and showing that

things are different. You can't undo something quickly

because you never got into it quickly.

So it takes time. But when it comes to something

with the Lord, you're going to have to retrain your heart to be

open to what is it exactly that you wanted me to see in this?

So looking honestly at Thomas, we do begin to realize that this

struggle is not really as foreign as maybe it sounded at

the beginning of the message. Some of us wrestle with an

unanswered prayer because we thought that it was so certain

to be answered a certain way. Some of us have intellectual

questions that have never fully been explained because we're

afraid if we chase those intellectual questions down,

it'll weaken our faith. Some of us here, it's not

anything like that. Some of us have just had some

form of church hurt that left us wondering how people who claim

to follow Jesus can cause such pain.

I can answer that for you real quick if you want.

It's not the focus of today. Oh, it's because they're made

out of people. So when you start to follow

Jesus, your sin is not gone. You are washed clean.

One day you'll be sinless. Anytime you're in a gathering of

people, there's going to be some sort of pain.

And if you don't believe that, let me know how it goes when you

have Easter dinner with your family.

Some people just struggle to understand why God allows

certain outcomes that feel unfair.

I'll be honest with you, anytime I hear about a child who passes

away, it's hard for me to understand it and that's why I

don't really have a high tolerance threshold.

When people say everything happens for a reason, I just

don't. I'm not saying that there's not

a reason, I'm just saying if you don't have the reason, don't

bring it to me. I need somebody to sit with me

in my grief. Does that make sense?

I need somebody to tell me it's OK to feel the emotions that I'm

feeling because of something that was traumatic or sad or

hard. What I want you to know is this.

When you feel doubt, which is normal, you have a choice on

what you do with it. Doubt can either isolate you or

push you towards pursuing answers.

You will not choose anything other than one of the two of

them, and truth is not afraid to be found out by the way.

So I would encourage you to pursue.

Pursuing is what happens when doubt becomes like an

invitation, like curiosity to try to seek some sort of deeper

understanding. Questions, honest questions will

always lead to conversations or maybe study or prayer or

whatever, but they'll also normally lead to community.

If you're afraid to seek out these answers to things that you

struggle with, and maybe you sit in this room full of people and

you're like, well, there's nobody here that's going to

struggle with this layer of doubt that I struggle with.

So I won't ask people because I don't want to seem like the

weird one out. You know what's going to happen?

Eventually you'll be the weird one that finds your way out.

And all the other weird ones that are asking questions are

still here. You feel like it's odd for you

to have these questions, but everybody's struggling on some

level. So get the question out there.

The first thing I would just tell you is pay attention to

those questions that you avoid asking.

Pay attention to them. The things that you're like,

nobody will get it. Nobody will get it.

And I mean, since we're already talking about some real

scenarios, maybe it is stuff about the resurrection.

Maybe they, they are intellectual questions.

Maybe it's, man, I've, I've been married for three years and I

still struggle to, you know, to look away when I see somebody

that's attractive walk past me or whatever.

But I'm sure other Christians don't struggle with that.

Man, we got a whole ministry around that.

OK, we've got ways to connect. OK, maybe your struggles are

well, God has blessed me before in the past, and I feel like I

whiffed it, like I screwed up the blessing He gave me.

So I'm not going to ask him for another blessing, or when I do

ask him for another blessing, he's not going to give it to me

because I already made a mess of the first one.

What you're doing is you're taking your human relationships

and you're projecting them onto the heavenly, pure, perfect

Father. You're saying basically,

essentially you're saying, well, back in my day, once I failed my

dad, he never looked at me the same.

Or you're saying, well, once I screwed up in my marriage, she

left and she never looked back and I was alone.

Or you're saying I had a best friend and this best friend took

off. And so because of that, I know

what happens when I do something wrong.

You're taking human relationships and you're putting

them on to a pure and holy spiritual.

God can't do it. Not if you want to be healed and

healthy and whole. Second thing I would tell you is

to take a look at where disappointment has settled in

your heart. If you're not sure where the

doubt comes from, start looking at what part you're disappointed

in, where it has settled. There's some doubts around it.

Oh man, I'm starting to hate the word settle too.

I just don't enjoy it. A lot of a lot of Christian

marriage councils are also tell you sometimes they'll talk to

people that have been married for decades and they'll say well

it sounds like you'll need some counselling.

Ah, no, no, they'd never go for that.

We've been married for over 30 years, 40 years.

And you know, it's just the way that it is now.

Sounds like, sounds like the life Jesus died to give you.

There's always room to grow. You don't have to settle into

something. There's always a chance for

something to be brand new. What happens when you quit

trying? You might think it stays the

same. It doesn't.

It starts going backwards. There's a scientific term for

that. It's called entropy.

Things start to break down and deteriorate when you don't pay

attention to them. Where is this disappointment

settled in your heart? It's OK to feel disappointed,

but when disappointment remains unprocessed, it will change the

way that you look at God and other people.

And the third thing that I would just tell you is notice where

you're leaning towards isolation or pursuit.

Like we were talking about this. When you start to wonder about

something, do you start looking for the answers or do you say, I

would be so ashamed and so afraid if people knew that I had

these thoughts? That's isolation.

You may say, well, I'm around people, Pastor Blake, I'm here.

I'm in person today. Not what I'm talking about.

If you're able to take your doubts and your questions and

put them in front of people that you trust or that you think

might be able to help you, that's going to go a long way

towards getting you some of those questions answered.

But if you never bring it up, your thought process already

becomes private, and nobody even gets the privilege of knowing

the real you. Isn't that a shame?

And in this world where we're wondering who to trust and who's

fake, we end up being fake because we're just afraid we

won't fit in. I thought we all got out of

middle school, but here we are. I want you to know faith is

never built on a perfect certainty.

It's meant to be built on trust in one person with Jesus being

that person. So doubt reveals a lot for us.

But the resurrection can also reassure you.

And I want to talk about that before you leave.

Today. We're going to return to John 20

so that we can see what happens next.

But before we read what happens next, I want you to notice

something about the timing. Thomas makes that statement

about needing to see and touch the wounds.

And Scripture tells us that eight days pass before Jesus

appears again, more than a week. So what do you think those eight

days felt like for Thomas? Actually, let's just, let's just

play the mind game there. What do you think was going

through Thomas's head? Everybody think about that for a

second. Once he says that to the

disciples. Well, unless I see it for

myself, I won't believe it. And he walks away.

He's got 8 days to think on this, right?

I bet you he doubts himself. Well, maybe it really did

happen. Well, if it did happen, why did

they get to see him and I didn't?

I was there. I was willing to die with him.

I was willing to serve him. I was there at the Last Supper.

He starts second guessing himself and second guessing

them. And most of us have had moments

like this too. Well, I'm pretty sure I don't

believe them. They're not right about me.

Well, what if they are right about me?

You doubt yourself, you doubt them.

You doubt the fact that you doubt them.

There's just a whole lot of doubt.

And so because of this, it's hard to remain firm on who you

are. He's had eight days for this to

process. 8 days in today's culture feels like a whole lot

less to be honest with you. I can't believe we're in March.

They didn't have a 24 hour news cycle, they didn't have

electronics, they didn't have all the things that distract us.

8 long days have passed and Thomas is still wrestling with

the weight of what he saw on the cross.

At the same time I saw him killed.

And then we get to verse 26. So John 20.

Verse 26 says 8 days later the disciples were together again

and this time Thomas was with them.

The doors were locked. Sounds familiar, right?

And suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them.

Peace be with you, he said. And then he said to Thomas, put

your finger here and look at my hands.

Put your hand into the wound in my side.

Don't be faithless any longer. Believe, Thomas says my Lord and

my God, and Jesus told him, you believe because you've seen me.

Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.

Then it goes on to say this. The disciples saw Jesus do many

other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in

this book. But these are written why?

So that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the

Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him, you'll

have the life by the power of his name.

When Jesus appears in this room, don't you think the atmosphere

immediately changed? The doors are still locked.

They're still trying to make sense of it.

And I think it's so beautiful that Thomas is with them.

And I think it's intentional. To me, one of the most personal

details in this moment is that Jesus chooses to come back for

Thomas. He showed up.

All the disciples were there. We don't even know why Thomas

wasn't there. Was he busy?

Did he have a prior commitment? Did he have to tend to the needs

of a family member? Was he a little more downcast

than the rest of them? And when they were like, hey,

let's get together for small group and he was like not

feeling it tonight. I don't know.

I don't know why he wasn't there.

But Jesus comes back again and I know, my God, I know he came

back intentionally when Thomas was there.

See, this is what I was talking about.

God always moves towards us when we need him the most.

I used to think that that moment there could possibly be some

sarcasm. By the way, I think that's just

my human filter and my own personality.

You know, the second time that he says tada, you know, he's

like this wound. You want to try it, go ahead,

because that's what I would do. We always take what people would

do when we project it to him. And it's not the right way to

interpret how God is. How kind is it for Jesus to

reappear in front of Thomas, knowing what Thomas needs?

And he says, is that what you need?

We don't even know that Thomas did it.

Go ahead, put your hand in my side.

No, Sir, he says, my Lord and my God, and to be honest with you,

amongst theologians and all of that, that statement is at least

as popular as his doubting statement.

Jesus doesn't leave him in this place of examination.

He says, is that what you need? If it's what you need, I'll

provide it. And I think it's so wonderful

that the disciple who is known for his doubt is the one that

makes the most definitive exclamation of his divinity.

He looks at him, my Lord and my God.

In other words, you're not just the one I worship.

When he says, my Lord, he said, you're the one I obey.

So what happens there is one of the most powerful declarations

of the entire gospel. But these things happen all the

time, don't they? We don't believe things until we

see it for ourself. North Carolina is very proud of

something. We are first in flight, right?

Yeah. From two guys from Ohio, man, 2

guys from Ohio make their way to North Carolina, or Villa and

Wilbur Wright, the Wright brothers, they're the ones that,

I mean, we learned in school they had a 12 second flight.

You're right. It's their first time up in the

air and all of that. Isn't it kind of cool?

The first people that ever flew came out of Ohio, and there's

more astronauts from Ohio than any other state too.

It just makes you wonder what is so bad about Ohio that they just

want to leave? Like the whole planet.

Just, I'm just kidding. I told somebody that joke this

week. It's like one of my favorite

jokes. It wouldn't matter if it was any

other state. I'd still use it.

And in case you're wondering, by the way, they came to North

Carolina because of the beaches, the soft sand dunes.

It's an easier landing and the constant source of wind.

So there were real reasons there.

But it's something that we know but we don't actually process.

I want you to take yourself back to when this happened because

there had been scientists working on trying to figure out

how to get things in flight already.

Does anybody remember from your schoolbooks what did Orville and

Wilbur Wright do for a living before they invented flying?

Whoa, Yes, Yeah. They ran a bicycle shop.

So if you needed to get around quickly, right, and not using a

car you needed, you needed something there more locally,

you got a bicycle. Could you imagine going in to

buy a bike from these guys? And you're like, Ding, is

anybody there? Sorry.

We were building our flying machine Outback.

How can I help you today? How crazy would they sound?

It'd be like you going in to get a whopper after church and

they're like, sorry, we're working on our transdimensional

teleportation device. We'll be with you in a moment.

And you would say, I'm, I'm getting a Big Mac today instead.

OK, So these people would have seemed crazy.

And now whether you like to fly or not, obviously flight has

been achieved. Airplanes fly every day.

Many of us dare say I that we've ridden on them ourselves.

It's something that we take for granted, but we take it for

granted now because it exists in a way that people who hadn't

seen it yet believed it was possible.

So I'm not here to try and convince you of the divinity of

Jesus or the OR the reality of the cross, although history is

pretty solid on that. It can chase that down for

myself. I'm here to convince you that

even if you doubt that God can resurrect a scenario,

relationship, or whatever, I'm telling you that just because

you can't see it does not mean it's not possible.

I've been on an airplane. It's a chair in the sky.

Don't tell me that God can't repair a relationship with

somebody that you love. Don't tell me that God can't

step into your life and provide a healing touch that you need,

because I've seen Him do it before.

God can do it. He does it all the time.

These two brothers shock the world.

And maybe we don't shock the world and have our name put on

license plates and argue, you know, make 2 states argue over

who gets to claim the Wright brothers.

Which is a real thing by the way.

But I bet you that kind of faith would ripple through your

family's legacy. Why is it you try so hard?

Why is it that you love people so much?

Because I watched my grandpa do it and I thought, that's who I

want to be. I see God in him.

Why is it you won't give up on your faith?

Your life looks like it's so hard Because that's not what mom

and Dad taught me. It can send ripples through the

legacy of your family. Thomas moves immediately like

that, from hesitation to worship in a moment that has echoed

through history. And in that moment, I want you

to know you should be able to see yourself.

Think back, what is one thing God has provided for you?

I know we've talked a lot about the things we haven't seen

manifested yet, but what's one thing God has done for you?

Because as time goes on, after you've seen a miracle or you've

seen God come through, or you feel like you've gotten a word

from Him, a lot of times you'll start to doubt yourself.

Well, 13 years ago, I was pretty sure that God said this, but I

don't know if it was him. I think it might have just been

me. Well, 13 years ago, you thought

it was God. You were pretty solid that it

was God. It's one of the benefits of

being in community too. You can go and you can say, I

feel like the Lord is saying this.

What do you think? Have these other people that

love God pray over you too. The fact that Thomas is recorded

as saying my Lord and my God should encourage every single

believer who's ever wrestled with a question in their entire

life. As we spoke about earlier, one

path leads to isolation because that can push people to withdraw

away, but over time that isolation weakens a lot of

things. The other one is it can push you

towards answers. I don't know what the difference

is, why he wasn't with them before, but he was with them

this time. But I'm so glad he was with them

that time. His decision to be in the room

changed everything. So I got a couple ways for you

to challenge your doubt. If you want to try to change

your doubt in the faith, here's a couple things that you could

try to work on. This is similar.

And we're not just looking at the reason behind it.

But the first thing is to bring your doubts to the light.

Yeah, I'm challenging you to say the things that you think other

Christians are going to judge you for.

And let me tell you this, other Christians will judge you for

them. They're made out of people.

We just talked about this, right?

But not every Christian is going to judge you for it.

If you have some doubts, it's OK to bring it up.

Now, hopefully you've got some people that love the Lord and

they love you and they're safe people and you can talk to them.

But if not, make some relationships, build it up.

Bring your doubts out into the light because they are going to

grow inside your head. OK, we'll tell you this too.

Actively pursue truth, don't just wonder.

I don't think we did one last year, but generally about once a

year we'll do like an ask the pastor thing, like on a

Wednesday night, like towards the end of the year.

It's normally in November. Let me tell you what, I had

somebody ask me one time. Like, doesn't it scare you to do

that? Not as much as it scared me to

do it with teenagers when I was a youth pastor.

But a lot of times we don't understand something because we

haven't asked, we haven't looked into it.

And it's important to know why you believe what you believe.

Since I didn't get to do this last year, I'll bring out my

standard story about it. But I heard this story from my

pastor. He just said, there's this story

of a woman who makes an amazing roast, and every year when she

makes the roast, she cuts the end of it off.

She throws the end of it away, puts the roast in the oven,

cooks it, family loves it. And one year, the husband

actually says, why do you cut the end of the roast off before

you cook it? She says, because that's how my

mom did it. He was like, well, why'd your

mom do it? And she goes, I don't know.

So she calls her mom, Hey, mom, why do you why do you cut the

end of the roast off of the pan before off the off the roast

before you cook it? And she said, well, I always did

it because my roast didn't fit in the pan.

I don't know why you do it right.

And so for me, when I would talk to the teenagers, I would want

questions like, do you want to know why we do communion?

Do you want to know why we prayed in certain ways?

Do you want to know why we do a time of worship music?

Do you want to know the whys and all of this?

They kind of did, but they had like more nuanced questions.

But the reason we do it is because I'm also not afraid to

say, oh, that's a great one. I don't really know.

You know what is really cool? When you have a question and you

don't know the answer, you get to look it up.

So when somebody comes to me with a question, I'll say that's

a really good one. I've never looked into that.

Let's look into it together. Two people learned something

that day. Remember what God has done

already. We just talked about this, but

we forget so easily, don't we? You know why?

It's a relational flaw. It really is.

This is why relationships sometimes do fall apart.

We, we, we only remember what's happened recently in a

relationship. We don't remember all of the

good things that happened back in the day.

And I'm not saying that back in the day justifies what happens

now, but what I am saying is both matter.

If you remember what it is that made you choose to be friends

with somebody or what made you choose to be married to

somebody, it can help you if you're struggling now.

And what is it that made you be drawn to God in the 1st place?

Where did He come through to you or come through for you that now

you can trust that He'll come through again because He's

already done it. Thomas's story shows us a lot of

honest doubt doesn't disqualify you from encountering Jesus.

I would actually tell you those honest questions, they qualify

you. When I go to somebody for

counsel, I want it to be somebody who has wrestled with

God and come out the other side. I want it to be somebody who's

been through some stuff because they have a different kind of

advice for me. Two brief scriptures I'm going

to share with you before we close today.

And and I'll just also tell you this as a reminder.

If you all want to join us for some fried chicken and hear

about our theology and become a member of the church, man, I'd

love to have you over there. Come talk to me afterwards.

But as we wrap this up, I want you to remember that Thomas's

story, it's not really about a man who struggled to believe.

It's about a man who responded to his faith wavering and how

his God responded to his response.

It's always about him. This is a good place to remind

ourselves with how the early church was instructed to respond

to people when their faith is uneasy.

In the book of Jude, you can see in verse 22, it says this.

You must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.

We don't always do that, do we? Come on, give it to God.

You just need to listen to more worship music.

I mean, worship music is helpful, but it won't fix a

crack that's happened in the heart.

That's people singing about the faith that they've lived out.

You're going to have to encounter God for yourself

there. So show mercy.

And when you see somebody who's struggling, it's not a time to

give them whatever bumper sticker Christianity you've seen

or memorized. It's a time to sit with them and

be like, man, where'd that come from?

That instruction is pretty profound.

But also just like I talked about in the opening prayer

today, Matthew 28 verses 16 through 17, it's the Great

Matthew 28:16–17

Commission. But I'm not going to get to the

Great Commission today. I just want to read the first 2

verses of that says when the 11 disciples left for Galilee

because, you know, Judah was seasonally downsized from the

team. So there's 11 left, the 11

disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where

Jesus had told them to go. And when they saw him, they

worshipped him. But some of them doubted.

Listen, even at the moment when the resurrected Jesus is

standing before them and he's been walking with him for like

40 days, and he's telling them I have to go so the Holy Spirit

can come and guide you into all truth.

Even at that moment, they're worshipping him and they still

have doubts. And do you know what is so

encouraging to me? Those are the people that he

gave the Great Commission to. Well, what is the Great

Commission? It's the mission of every single

believer. Get people saved, get them

baptized. Teach them what Jesus said.

That's called discipleship. Teach them how to live for God.

Who do you give that mission to? Doubters and as much as we judge

Thomas, to me, when it comes to the area of doubt, he's the only

one that was honest about it. Look at that whole group of

doubters right there. It says he's gathered with the

other 11. It said they worshipped him, but

some of them doubted. Well, where was your voice when

Thomas was also doubting? Be the one that stands up and is

able to say the things that are hard to say.

Truth is worth pursuing. A couple weeks ago, we had Jason

Gray send us a video. Christian musician send us a

video on the meaning behind one of his songs.

I don't have a video for you today, but if you're a music

fan, I got a song for you to look up when you leave.

It's by a band called Nickel Creek and it's called Doubting

Thomas. They're like soft acoustic

little blue grassy sound. Man.

They're so talented and in it. They have such a beautiful

lyrics here. Sometimes I pray for a slap in

the face and then I beg to be spared because I'm a coward.

That's honest, isn't it? At one point when they're

wondering about what happens after death, they say if there's

a master of death, I bet he's holding his breath.

As I show the blind and tell the deaf about his power.

That's deeper than you think. Listen to those words.

As I show the blind and I tell the deaf about his power.

See, we want a safe life, but what we really want is purpose.

But how do you go and teach people about what's true when

you're scared that what you believe might turn out to be a

lie and there's only one answer, you go to the source and make

sure it's not a lie. My prayer is that you would

encounter God for yourself, that you would have your own

relationship with Him. If you don't have one with Him,

there's nothing that's more important.

I don't have a magical string of words to get you into heaven.

I don't have a A Sinner's prayer for you because the Bible says

that the only way to be saved is to believe in Jesus.

That's it. No matter what I make you say or

repeat after me, I'm not able to get you into heaven.

But if you're struggling to know God, just telling you there are

so many people here that love the Lord and would love to help

you on that journey. If that's something we can help

you with, we'll hook you up, but you're going to have to make the

first step. That's the only way that you can

overcome doubt. Next week we'll talk about when

we fail because we quit something that we knew that we

were supposed to do, but I don't have the emotional energy for

that today. But y'all stand up.