The Cure For Doubt!

father barnabas powell is pastor of saints raphael nicholas and irene greek orthodox church of georgia usa here's father barnabas with sunday's homily but it is a joyful time and it's a fantastic time and it's an amazing time and yet in the midst of this joyful time this fantastic time this amazing time both the orthros gospel this morning the matins gospel this morning and this morning's gospel here in divine liturgy both talk about doubt the orthros gospel always thrills me i always i always wish they'd have it during the the the the divine liturgy have this gospel in the divine liturgy because i would love to just preach on it practically every sunday it's fantastic jesus of course has risen the dead he's taken them to the mountain and jesus appeared to them and the scripture says and jesus appeared to them and many believed but some doubted here here is the resurrected god himself the god-man risen from the dead the marks of the of the crucifixion still in him on him by the way those are wounds those are not scars the only man-made thing in heaven my angels are the wounds in the hands of jesus and his side it's the only man-made thing in heaven so the wounds are there and there they are they're standing there they see the man right there the man that was hanging on the cross and now he's standing right here on the mountain he's about to lift off and take off into the sky that had to be cool to see i hope when we get to heaven we get to you know like put a vhs or take i don't know a vhf we'll probably have a maybe a disc or a thumb drive will probably be there they're they're on top of things i'd love to see that but the scripture says that even in the midst of all of this there's a great phrase there it says but some doubted you see ladies and gentlemen doubt is normal in human life and especially my angels in this day and age where the so-called secular ideology of uh rationalism has taken hold the reality is doubt has become something of a virtue among many intelligentsia today it's amazing to me folks that it is among the intelligent educated class where faith is least likely to occur among the among the very well educated and among the very wealthy faith seems to be absolutely unknown and with doubt why is that why is it the more educated you are and the more well off you are the least likely you are to believe why is that i wonder i've all i've often wondered that and i think many times it's because the idea the false notion of self-sufficiency takes over in your head i got this i can run my life and the amazing reality of our own culture today is that our world is gripped by doubt especially among this nation and our young people you've heard me tell the statistics before that gallup poll just came out a few weeks ago with uh with a poll that showed that for the first time since they've been measuring church membership church membership in the united states has dropped below 50 percent among the crowd between 18 and 34 the rise of the disconnected from church is astronomically high and i'm convinced one of the reasons why is that we in the church have failed to equip our young people on how to deal with moments of doubt because doubt my angels comes to all of us not you father no me too doubt comes to all of us and the reality is if i don't know what to do when doubt shows up doubt can become rooted in my heart and when doubt becomes rooted in my heart the reality of my faith and my relationship with god begins to diminish that's true of any relationship my angels think of any relationship in your life right now when doubt about that relationship when wonder is it really going to make it are they do they really love me do they really care about me when those things start creeping into any relationship you have whether it's a friendship or a marriage or among family members when that spirit of doubt begins to creep in what happens to the relationship it begins to get weaker to the point that if it's not dealt with it breaks altogether well if that's true in your physical relationships with your marriages and your friendships and your brothers and sisters and your aunts and your uncles and your friends and your co-workers if that's true in your everyday life it is it is exactly true also between your relationship between god and yourself because your relationship with god is like any other relationship except your relationship with god keeps you connected to life your relationship with god connects you to the resurrection life of jesus christ in fact saint augustine said it best he said i do not believe because i see i see therefore i believe i see i don't believe i don't believe in the light of the sun it is by the light of the sun that i see everything else it is my relationship with god that gives me my ability to understand life it is my relationship with god that gives me the ability to understand how to live in this world disconnected from that relationship i am disconnected from a body of wisdom that gives me the ability to live my life well so what do we do with doubt saint thomas this morning we used to be called saint thomas the doubter we don't call him saint thomas the doubter anymore he's saint thomas the believer like i said earlier we don't take a snapshot of a man at his worst and make it his whole life for heaven's sake please don't take a snapshot at my worst and make it my whole life please please please the reason why i'm thrilled to death that in my teenage years and in my 20s there was no such thing as cell phones there's no evidence at all and most of the statute of limitations is run out so i'm really but the reality is folks our lives aren't measured by the worst day of your life it's measured by how you end it so how are you going to end it how are you going to end your life if you don't deal with doubt you're going to stumble and fall so how does saint thomas end up getting his doubt changed from doubt to belief well the first principle is this folks don't not show up when jesus shows up thomas first mistake was he wasn't with the rest of the disciples when jesus first appeared to them through the locked door he could have had his questions answered and dealt with if he would have just been in the right spot at the right time it's when i neglect my attentiveness to that which is most important that doubt has the ability to work its way into my life when i fail to properly prioritize my faith and my gathering together and my prayer and my spiritual discipline then doubt easily takes root in my heart it's when i'm a stranger to the one i love that doubt starts taking hold so thomas's first mistake he wasn't where he ought to be he was not with the rest of the disciples if you want to deal with doubt in your life brothers and sisters find a way to be connected to the regular spiritual disciplines of the christian faith when you're connected to the regular spiritual disciplines of the faith the energy and grace and life-giving power and relationship with god continues to keep you connected to the lord jesus if you want to deal with doubt in your life show up stay connected stay consistent cy and i were just talking this past week apparently there was a dance recital at first baptist woodstock and the uh there was some praise music that was going on and psy was coming to me how you know those of us who are from that and many of us are from that background we're from that background where the praise and worship music is very exciting and it's very emotional and it really does make you sore but isn't it amazing how quickly you can become addicted to the sentiment and when the energy isn't there you start doubting whether you're really connected to god or not the danger that we have in our modern american worship experience is that we we feed the addiction to a high rather than teaching our young people how to stay even keeled rather than being have an even keel in our lives we have an emotional experience and unless that emotional experience stays up there all the time we start doubting oh goodness maybe i'm not a christian anymore maybe maybe i'm missing all my feelings now when my feelings aren't there then doubt starts showing up thomas when he finally was confronted with jesus what does he do jesus doesn't rebuke him do you notice that jesus doesn't say shame on you thomas and by the way folks that's not god's business in your life if you have moments of doubt no beyond any shadow of a doubt god is not upset with you he's not angry with you he's not disappointed in you you have no power over god's mood you don't have any control over god stop trying to pretend you do it's an arrogant position it's not going to serve you well you have no power over god god is not disappointed in you thomas does not get rebuked by jesus jesus says thomas come look babe here's the holes stick your finger in here i don't know he said it just like that but it sounds better it sounds like i'm used to talking that way put your put your finger in here put your hand in my side don't be doubting believe what does thomas do if you want to control doubt in your life be quick to admit when you're wrong first don't be don't disconnect yourself from uh regular attendance in in the faith number two be quick to admit when you're wrong be quick to say my lord and my god be quick to find that spot in your life keep your heart tender and soft towards repentance saint john christensen said don't run away from the church when you sin run toward the church when you sin when you make a mistake when you fall down when you doubt when you get to the point where you're where you're not living like you should don't run away from the church that's the trick of the enemy to keep you from the only medicine that will heal you don't run away from the church run toward the church the church wants you back the church wants you here god loves you god doesn't hate you god's not upset with you he's not angry with you you haven't let him down god loves you so be quick practice when you have moments of doubt practice keeping your heart tender towards repentance tender towards admitting you're wrong do that for yourself if you want to teach your children how to deal with doubt in their life teach them to keep their hearts soft towards repentance one of the fathers of the church said practice saying forgive me as often as you possibly can to everyone you can to keep your heart tender i like that that really is true practice saying please forgive me sometimes the hardest words that can ever come out of our mouths especially in our relationships with our husband and our wife sometimes the hardest words coming out of our mouth are i'm sorry i was wrong sometimes that's the hardest thing to do and yet my angels if i don't find a way in my heart to keep my heart tender towards that reality i will stumble when doubt comes and it will take root in my life finally if i'm gonna deal with doubt if i'm gonna teach my children how to deal with moments of doubt in their lives i'm going to have to be quick to worship you see brothers and sisters the most powerful reality is is that humanity is not so much homo sapien but homo aderons you know what i'm with homo aderon's the man at worship your true self your truest self is when you are worshiping your creator why is that father barnabas because brothers and sisters look here you can see this in the icon of the theotokos here do you see that do you see how she has her hands like this there's a great tradition in some orthodox churches that i really like a lot that when we pray the lord's prayer everyone does their hands like this this is the stance of prayer in the ancient jewish faith it's called the odorandus or the the she is the woman at prayer she's the woman at adoration your truest self my brothers and sisters and where doubt will attack you first is you are under your self-understanding as a man or a woman created to learn how to adore your creator not for his benefit but for yours because god doesn't need anything he doesn't need our worship he doesn't need us to tell him how wonderful he is he already knows god wants you to have a tender heart that knows how to adore so that you can deal with the fact that they're going to be moments in your life you don't understand they're going to be times in your life that things are going to happen that you don't get you don't understand why it's happening you don't understand everything in life i don't understand electricity but i got a wonderful jolt the other day when i was trying to install a light fixture and i wondered to myself wow that's amazing i'm respecting that from now on and i called an electrician the reality is there are things in your life you don't understand that's going to happen if you allow the power of not understanding something to introduce doubt into your heart it will take root the key to that to fighting that is learning that your truest self is someone who knows how to worship god why do you think my brothers and sisters that in throughout the 20 centuries of the church the church understands herself first at prayer before she understands herself as anything else she understands first her duty to have this divine liturgy this rhythm of prayer to form you and shape you and mold you so that you can fight the power of doubt in your life by remembering what it's like to be in god's presence while you worship on this saint thomas sunday folks you are going to experience moments of doubt you are going to have times in your life when you doubt this that is normal and expected the key to fighting it is not being surprised by it and dealing with it with first be where you're supposed to be secondly be quick to repent say admit when you're wrong and finally know who you really are you were created to know how to worship god that's going to destroy doubt in your life it's the reason why orthodox countries have stayed orthodox even in the midst of the horrible persecution that they've experienced all those centuries from the ottoman empire to the communist persecutions orthodox christians have stayed orthodox because not because they were brilliant not because they were educated not because they were wealthy but because they understood the power of the rhythm of adoring god and it became such a formation in their hearts that they stayed that way forever this is your invitation on saint thomas sunday know who you are you were made for worship folks do that and doubt will find a very short place in your heart amen you can follow father barnabas on youtube or on our church website at stsrni.org thank you for watching

Channel: Faith Encouraged TV

Views: 1,461

Rating: 4.965517 out of 5

Keywords: Orthodox, preaching, homily, convert, liturgy

Id: V6ZHIbqhtvo

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021