What if Someone Has Doubts? | David Marvin

[Music] love it let's go new series kick it off very excited yes we are kicking off a new series not asking for a friend welcome friends in the room friends at Fort Worth Houston El Paso Tulsa spring Cedar Rapids wherever you are joining us from tonight I'm gonna start with a little bit of a story I am I six years ago this past weekend got engaged on seven seven twelve me Justin Bieber have that in common now and I know I was like dude come on man get your own day and uh anyway so hey I'm gonna tell a little bit of that that day and how that came so my wife's birthday was on seven seven twelve it's every year on seven seven and and I decided I came with this plot I thought that she would assume there's no way I'm gonna get engaged on her birthday because she'd be like oh that's so like playing of course he's not so I was one step ahead of her and of course I'm gonna get engaged on her birthday because that's once you at least expect it because of reverse psychology of her reverse psychology anyway so I put together this whole plan this elaborate scheme and began to plan out what we would do and towards the evening part of kind of that birthday Day celebration I told her hey I'm gonna pick you about five o'clock we're gonna go to the Arboretum then we're gonna go to have dinner at this place after that for your birthday and celebrated I intentionally wove in a little misstep to throw her off the scent in case she was thinking we are going to get engaged at this time so here's what I did I told her we're gonna go to the Arboretum but I knew it was Saturday night and the Arboretum is closed on Saturday night so I'm like literally during the day calling to confirm hey I need you guys to for sure be not open tonight because we are gonna deviate and go to another location where people were going to meet us and if we end up being able to get in the Arboretum it's gonna create some problems so confirm for sure you're closed and so of course they're like yeah of course we're closed tonight so we show up at the Arboretum we go into there and it's like oh no it's closed guess we'll have to go somewhere else I guess we'll you know kill some time in a park before our dinner reservations where I had it all planned out come to find out weeks later she was already anticipating going we're for sure getting engaged oh my gosh he didn't even check that the Arboretum was gonna be closed my boyfriend has no sense of details and if it at the moment I'm like oh oh a bummer okay let's go over here and we go to this park and where I had friends that were you know it's supposed to meet and like they were hiding in schoolyards bushes to take pictures and it starts pouring and I'm like oh no we need to get over to this one area and she's like why don't we just you know do it another day no I really think we should try and it's like soaking wet the grass is like literally soaking mud and to a point where I have to like piggyback ride her over to this place tell I guess really look at the duck so beautiful and and she's going what is wrong with you what's wrong with me for dating him and and the moment came and and I dropped down to a need shirts and ice things and and I asked her Callie will you marry me and spend the rest of your life with me and she said yes yeah get excited and from there hahaha yeah thank you and from there something very interesting happened over the next kind of few days so now engaged all this anticipation if you're dating in the room maybe you're in like or in love wherever you are and you're in that moment where man you got engaged and I don't know what you anticipate happening what what happened to me was not what I anticipated over the next few days I began to get filled with such doubt over oh my gosh what did I just do have I made the biggest mistake of my entire life is this is this is this the woman I'm supposed to marry and all these different questions begin to flood through my hand I know really romantic lady for those of you in the room I'm like is this is this is this even right maybe this one the right relationship for me and and it wasn't because of anything really clear it just kind of looks like these lingering questions maybe maybe this relationship is not right maybe it's wrong and people say things like you know when you know you know and I'm like and I don't know so does that mean that I I know that I don't know that I'll ever know and what does that mean and and I just began to like freak out and have all kinds of doubts I went to this on a trip that watermark could take into Haiti and had to lead this trip to Haiti and the whole time like I don't sleep at all while we're over there because I'm just thinking what if I done what have I done what have I done is I'm sitting in this international you know environment for that week and and I remember a process with community and eventually came to a place where thankfully I didn't allow that to hold me back and want to come back to that story and kind of why I start there here in a second but the main reason I start there is because of this and the same reason that in the same way that in a dating relationship or for me in that moment I was experiencing some level of doubt over a man is this is this right is this the right girl for me is this the right relationship is the fact that I'm having doubts does that mean that it's wrong in the same way is often the experience that many people have as it relates to their Christian faith better they experience some level of doubt and they begin to wonder like man the fact that I I'm not really sure about I have just got some questions as it relates to what the bible teaches I still have some places where I I just have doubt in my mind over some of the things ababil says does that the mean that my faith is wrong that my faith is not real that maybe I'm not a true believer or maybe this thing is just made up are these doubts creeping in what do I do with them I don't know if you've experienced doubt in your journey of faith but if you have and it is coming for you because it is really a common universal experience for anyone who wants to follow Jesus with your life maybe doubts for you look like man can we really trust the Bible maybe you've had doubts about like is Christianity really the only way like you know is it just because I was born in America if I was born in India wouldn't I be a Hindu maybe this is just kind of our expression in in the West of what faith in God looks like how can I really know maybe that's the doubt that you've experienced what about heaven and hell may lingering doubts over a man I'm just trying to believe in God I just I really struggle with the idea of Hell or Jesus being the only way to heaven maybe you've had doubts about just other religions and other belief systems and maybe you've wondered if God can truly love you the way that the Bible says the way that preachers stand up and say he loves you despite all the things that you know in your own life or jacked up that are messed up and you doubt despite hearing it week after week does God really love me in spite of me in spite of me and what do I do with those doubts because doubt is a little bit like fear or anxiety if you think about it it's not something that anyone like plans or wants more of in their life in other words no one plans today I'm gonna I'm gonna be anxious between 3:00 and 4:00 o'clock it just kind of like shows up and grabs you in the same way doubt is one of those things that that we don't even have to attempt to do it it can just grab us in a moment just like a relationship I can doubt maybe this isn't the right person and then the same thing can happen with a faith man maybe Jesus isn't the right Savior so tonight we are gonna cover the subject of doubt of asking for a friend of what do my doubts tell me about my faith does it tell me that my faith is not real what do I do about my doubts and we are gonna cover from 3 episodes in the life of Jesus or three interactions that Jesus has as it relates to the subject of doubt and explore how you and I can experience further further freedom from doubt and experience what really doubts tell us or what God intends us to do with those doubts in the first episode if you watch Netflix we're gonna foot through one episode after the next athlean-x just kind of jump in all throughout the scripture just like you would flip through an binge on it a net foot net flix yeah Netflix episode and we'll jump from one in the next the first episode we're going to look at where Jesus interacts with a man who had experienced doubt or was experiencing doubt happens in Matthew chapter 11 an interval is John the Baptist these verses will be up on the screen you can flip there if you want to but let me set up a little bit of John the Baptist so John the Baptist there's a couple John's inside of the New Testament there's one who wrote the book of John then there's this other dude who was not one of the disciples his name was John the Baptist he had the nickname the Baptist because he was really the first guy we know of that was baptizing people he showed up before Jesus he was actually Jesus's cousin interesting enough and John the Baptist had this huge ministry where before Jesus really showed up on the scene became the figure that he was John was out in the countryside this dude lived in the woods he was known as kind of man's man or wild man think duck dynasty he's out in the woods by the river just baptizing dudes all the time he has one message really repent because the Messiah is coming repent because my cousin is a messiah and he's coming repent because you don't want to miss the Messiah once he's here so this is what he would say and we're told that thousands of people would go out and see him he's actually included in other historical pieces of literature outside of the Bible from that day I mean this dude was known he was who was a rock star if you a little little bizarre cuz he was you know hairy and duck dynasty out there eating locusts we're told but he's a rock star even the king of that area would go out cuz they just wanted hear him teach and one day he's out baptizing people he's saying repent the Messiah's coming all of a sudden his cousin Jesus his younger cousin Jesus shows up to the whole crowd who says look behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth the Lamb who takes away every person's sin if they'll trust in him he says in front of this whole crowd this is the one we've been waiting for I must decrease he must increase he says this is God's chosen one you can read it in John chapter one and John was just a ball duty he didn't play around he just drove right to the point and that bold type of teaching that he exhibited or showed that day would end up being something that ultimately led to him being arrested and thrown in prison for his ministry and John sitting in a prison cell begins to move from that bold declaration of who Jesus was to begin to question things because he found himself in a circumstance where things weren't going like he thought they would here's what happens in Matthew chapter 11 verse 2 now when John was in prison and he heard about the deeds of the Messiah that people were telling him hey your cousin Jesus he's healing the lame he's raising people from the dead like blind people couldn't see all of a sudden they could see Jesus is doing all these amazing things he sent his disciples to ask him that's Jesus are you the one who is to come or should we expect someone else what just happened there oh hey what just happened to me John is sitting in between you know maybe a couple other prisoners inside of a jail so he's looking through bars and he begins to question after a few days go by maybe a few weeks go by a few months go by where is my cousin I mean I'm the guy who like made him what he is I'm the guy who said hey he's the one he's the Messiah he's the savior of the earth and he's out there caring for everybody else is he really the Savior why am I sitting in prison right now maybe he's not maybe I had it all wrong and John begins to question this man who just earlier in the story it said this is the Lamb of God the man who told everybody else he's the one who is to come now gets his disciples and he's sitting in a prison says you got to go ask Jesus a question for me I need you to go ask him that like he's he the one that we thought he was or is he not because John found himself in a place he never thought he would be found himself in circumstances that he was like surely God would intervene here and he began to doubt so the disciples must be thinking John how can go ask that question to Jesus you're the one who told everybody he is the one but I guess we'll go ask him so they go to Jesus and they ask are you the one who is to come or should we expect another and jesus replied go back and report to John what you hear and what you see the blind receive sight the lame walk those who have leprosy are cleansed the Deaf hear the dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed to the poor blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me I love Jesus because the two disciples who came to visit him I've got to be thinking are you the one who's to come in rather go back and tell them the blind see lame hear the lame walk deaf hear and they're going great check - are you the one who is to come or should we expect another he's a guard go tell him the blind see that he just says man you could see for yourself the acts of the Messiah are clearly the acts of the Christ which is what the word Messiah means are clearly being shown by Jesus and go back and tell him these works and then he says that line of blessed is anyone who does not fall away on account of me in other words Jesus says blessed is anyone who does not fall away because I'm not acting how they think that I should have how they think I should be acting because I'm not doing the things that that they assume that hey if there was a god he would for sure act in this way blessed is anyone and then Jesus says something that's remarkable and a few verses he says this about John truly I tell you among those who are born of woman that's everybody so everyone in this room is born of a woman among those who were born of a woman there's never risen anyone greater than John the Baptist yet whoever's least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he that Jesus responds to his cousin who sits there and who had this overwhelming boldness he's the one who's now finding himself an incredible doubt of man maybe he's not I don't know and he responds and he says John the Baptist is the greatest person who's ever lived that even John the greatest person in Jesus I mean Jesus just said hey this dudes of the goat and even the goat greatest of all time not Tom Brady not Jordan not David in the Old Testament not the old prophets he says there's never been anyone greater than my cousin John think about that there's never been anybody greater and even the greatest of all time struggled with doubt in his moment of need thou does not disqualify a person's faith out as a part of any true faith that you're gonna experience doubt is normal our first point for even the greatest people of faith and John the Baptist who Jesus says there's never been anyone greater when he found himself in a place where he didn't like how God was not intervening where he didn't like the story that was being written in his life he begins to doubt and Jesus says man even the greatest experience doubt in your life if you struggle with that or you've ever struggled without you and then if you read the Bible you will find good and great comfort and encouragement because all throughout of there's people who struggle with doubt every single one of Jesus's followers struggle without every single one of us is his 12 disciples struggle with that from Peter to John to Andrew all of them struggle to believe that man is this really true is Jesus really who says it was and they struggled after they saw him walk on water after they saw him feed 5,000 after they saw him do all these miraculous things in fact dude it's so comical you read Matthew chapter 28 and and we're even told that the disciples go to meet Jesus after he's risen from the dead and he's ascending into heaven he's floating up in the sky and he says go into all the earth and proclaim and he says the good Commission and the Bible says Matthew 28 that when they saw him do this out of the 11 some worshiped him and some doubted think about that they're sitting there and they're like dude just came back from life he's literally floating up into the sky and they're like ah I don't know I got an uncle it does very similar stuff than this I I'm not totally convinced here I mean that that's who the disciples the eleven were and if you've ever struggle without you find great comfort and encouraged me because the scriptures are full of people who didn't have it perfectly but on the journey as their faith continued to grow they wrestled without really the Christian life I mean for anybody if you've met people who are like never store without I mean you're just not telling the truth I can tell you working on a church staff you experience still levels of doubt the Christian life is like a roller coaster there's moments where you're like click click click click click we're just going up God's taken over the world he's on the King he's the throne he's coming back nothing can stop us don't none go with me I will follow click yeah where are you God and you just find yourself on these ups and downs I mean the truth is the more your faith grows the less hopefully of those roller coaster rides you find but it's never this straight journey and even the greatest of all times jesus said struggled with doubt I know in my own life dude I read the same Bible you do and there's things in there that I'm like huh Wow from Adam and Eve run around the garden naked talking snakes to Jonah in the belly of a whale for three days - you know the Sun standing still and one moment - you know people living to be like 800 and 900 years old I mean what is that what do you even look like past age hundred like use turn into Yoda there's something or what happens and I remember especially when I first kind of got into ministry and I remember being in seminary and I remember like feeling these kind of waves of doubt because I was going all in on this Jesus thing I was like hey I'm really I'm hedging myself here I'm pop committed at this point I I've got a Bible degree and I'm all-in and have I been misled here I'm about to turn pro in Christianity and I don't know if maybe these doubts are something I should listen to and so in the next episode I want to look at we're gonna see I think a key to diffusing the doubt in your life for what to do whenever you experience doubt what to do when those doubts come in because it's not just blind turn off your mind don't think about that stuff it's the opposite and we're gonna see it in the second episode we're gonna look at tonight and this episode takes place in John chapter 6 John chapter 6 now let me set the scene in John chapter 6 Jesus does one of his greatest miracles it's included in all four Gospels there's four different accounts the life of Jesus they include a lot of the same stuff a very few incidences are in all four of them this one is it's the feeding of the 5,000 people that they're all were like dude that was amazing Jesus was out he was teaching thousands of people one day he's teaching him and it gets late in the day we're told and Jesus looks out and he says hey we got to feed these people they've been here a long time and we don't have food trucks or food camels or anything we need to figure out what to do and he looks at his disciples and says that's just unnecessary I don't know what I'm doing with that and he looks at his disciples and says hey give him some to eat and they said give him something to eat we can feed 5,000 I mean estimates say 5,000 men so that's probably around 15,000 women and children up to 20 and they're going what are we supposed to do and and so Andrew sees this kid with a lunchbox in base like hey give me this I gotta give it to Jesus Jesus wants it he brings this lunchbox Jesus and it says it has some fish and a few loaves in it and Jesus spreads it and tears it up and the bread just keeps going and going and going and going and they feed 5,000 men or 15,000 people that day and the crowd is like this is amazing we got a bread factory we got to follow this guy everywhere and that's what happened the next day it says that they showed up and they're looking for Jesus and they go find him he life went on a boat across across this lake and they're like we're going with you and they go find him over there and he shows up and they're like man where's the bread and it's true who didn't baba and and he says something that ends with him being like I don't know if I can do this I'm not in on that and he says look I don't have bread for you today but the bread that you need is not the bread that's gonna satisfy you today you need the bread of eternal life and I am the bread that has come down from heaven and I am a provision that won't just give you you know something to eat today it will be a provision for all of eternity for you to have and Jesus is on the bread who's come down from heaven and the crowd begins to murmur it tells us literally in the story it says that they're like wait in the Mary and Joseph son came down from heaven he's fun like four blocks over there down from heaven and they begin a murmuring God I'm not sure he's he's who he says he is and then he says something that was like oh that's a deal breaker he says unless you eat my flesh and drink of my blood you won't be a part of this covenant and the crowd is going okay Tom now cannibalism really are we going there I don't know if this is for me and they kind of begin to mose yet oh that's what happens in the story they don't understand Jesus is using a metaphor saying unless you partake in me unless I am the source and provision for your eternal life then you will grow hungry again you will not be a part of the everlasting covenant which is what Jesus said similar to how we would talk about communion but the crowd to understand that and so they've just kind of slowly began to get up and all of a sudden people begin to just walk away and people who are following Jesus decide it's not worth it anymore I'm not sure this is who he says he is and I don't understand what he's saying and so here's where we pick up the story in verse 66 of Chapter six from this time many of his disciples turn back and no longer followed Jesus they said man I that is just too bizarre I don't understand it I'm out out on that and Jesus turns to his twelve kind of the twelve close disciples of the twelve apostles and he asked him a question you do not want to leave to do you in Simon Peter answered and his answer gives us an antidote for what I think all of us have to do when we are in the face of doubt all of us have to consider whatever we find ourselves experiencing any doubt Simon Peter Simon Peter answered and said Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life and we have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God Peter basically says yeah I'm uncomfortable and I have no idea what you're talking about with the cannibalism thing or really any of the teaching in the parables but who else are we gonna go to you alone have the words of eternal life like if not you then who but if we walk away from you we're walking towards something and what is that something gonna be if not Jesus then who if not Christianity than what the Peter understood then when it comes to surveying the world around us when it comes to exploring the options you know with Jesus or you know with some other belief system that even with my doubts even with my confusion I'm not sure what you said Jesus is the best option I have even with your doubts Jesus is the best option that you have because here's here's what I really want to explore for just a few minutes with you every single doubt if you listen to a doubt and you follow that doubt and you allow it to be like oh man you know I'm not sure how people live that long or what they look like I guess this whole thing doesn't make sense anymore you are not just leaving Christianity you're going towards something all of us every single day are going to wake up and you will by faith in something and you are living by faith today in something in someone regardless of whether or not you know it that's a walk away from Jesus is not to walk away from getting or walk away from certainty or let me say it like this I can walk with Jesus with some uncertainty I don't understand everything I still have questions or I can walk away from him and have complete uncertainty the world didn't make more sense apart from him it makes less and when doubts come in you've got to be like Peter and I've got to be like Peter which is be willing to say manna I'm gonna consider the options I'm looking at the options and even with some doubt this is the best option I have Jesus the idea that you're gonna live by faith and I'm gonna live by faith regardless of your belief it's just everywhere I mean let's let's talk about some of the major world beliefs or religions maybe we'll just start with atheism maybe you've called yourself an agnostic or you have friends and family who are at Gnostic and atheism you have an enormous amount of faith to be an atheist I was just true to believe that the universe around us atheism there was no God or maybe there isn't a god to believe that the world despite the fact that science proving almost conclusively according to Stephen Hawking the universe had a beginning the universe is an eternal and so if there was this Big Bang beginning to be an atheist you have to say well you know nothing caused that Big Bang wasn't a big God I don't know what causes it just kind of happened you have to believe that something came from nothing and none of this almost seems like elementary that's what you have to accept at some level I mean even the leading thinkers within that campus you know of Richard Dawkins who's one of the leading kind of thinkers in atheism has proposed that you know we don't know what caused the Big Bang and here's one of his leading explanations you'd go look it up maybe aliens from another universe that we've never seen before came and impregnated our world and then they just disappeared and that's how it all started I'm not the smartest guy in the room but I think it takes more faith to believe in aliens who we've never seen from another universe that we can't track or trace to impregnate whatever that means our world then God creating it so you got to have faith if you're gonna walk towards that maybe you're thinking what about with the world religion of Hinduism to believe without any evidence I mean at least Christianity has all of our faith hinges on the resurrection the life and death of Jesus it's all about that the Hindu faith hinges on really an evolution of these teachings that have occurred for the last few thousand years and to believe that you know reincarnation is really a result of karma so depending on how you live will determine whether you're coming back as a mouse or a cat or you and so you probably were great in the past but we don't know because you can't remember anything remember for my life that includes that requires a certain amount of faith to believe in Islam requires a certain amount of faith to believe that these this experience that was had by Muhammad and the six hundreds where he had some divine encounter that told him to go become a warlord that ended up going to cities and saying convert or die is the one true way to God requires a certain amount of faith and by the way Muhammad didn't rise from the dead Muhammad is buried somewhere to be a probably the most common thing that we see inside of our world is honestly the most ludicrous one out of all the ones that I've already mentioned and that's just this modern age spirituality kind of idea it's really the American made-up God which is like hey the God who's out there he loves everybody that's just my belief okay my opinion okay what I made up or what culture made up and I'm accepting it and God out there is love and you know he really doesn't care how you live or what you do and everybody's accepted except Hitler and so everything will be fine that that's a made-up god that's probably the most common belief in our country but that's a made-up God that is just the same listening that's Zeus you know that right the Greeks didn't have any literature for Zeus they just kind of made him up this is what he's like I'm sure this is great they made him in there that's what the American God who's just like he's love out there that's what he is they took the God of the Bible who says God is love and they ripped the scripture and everything that they don't like about what the Bible says and they just said we'll just go with the God his love theory that's a made-up mythology and that takes an enormous amount of faith to believe you're gonna believe and you will walk by faith whether you realize it and I used to think the statement that's written in the Bible that hey you know we walk by faith and not by sight I kind of was like uncomfortable with that because I was like does that mean like Christians are like no not me I don't care about sight I'm more faith guy a lot of people see it to believe it I'm over believe it don't see it thing and and then I realized that everyone walks by faith every person that you've ever met red yellow black and white they all walk by faith every person you work with interact with they're all walking by faith in something and the Christian faith is the most rational of all the options and Christian faith even with your doubts as Peter says men who else are we gonna go to your the best option we got even with your doubts is the best guy because here's what here's some big problems that to walk away from Jesus you have to be able to explain you got to be able to reconcile inside of a world how do we even know the story of Christianity how do we even how did Christianity even make it out of the first century you ever think about this the fact that today over two billion people all over the planet claim to have some relationship with God through Jesus of Nazareth where's Nazareth it's in the armpit of the Roman Empire you couldn't pick it out on a map and no one would ever even know it existed had there not been this Jewish peasant who is the son of a carpenter who if you're gonna explore any other belief you just believe man he was a lucky guy and things just really took off for him things were going great he was just a man that's absurd not only that see the narrative that man he was just a really good guy and a good prophet if you read the Bible there's on the words of a guy who's a really good guy and a good prophet and just keep the mission and movement alive his teachings his teachings apart from him be God and rising from the dead don't make much sense they're not that profound they're not that amazing apart from him being who he said he was in fact they almost come off as a Looney tune no one would say the guy who claims to be God is the guy who is a good guy over there hey I'm God as I love that guy good guy over there no one would say that and if that's the claim for millions and millions of people how do you explain that apart from Christian apart from the message of Jesus being true apart from the resurrection how do you explain the fact that all over our world in different languages on different continents people claim to have had an encounter with Jesus in a real way and it did something to their lives they began to be transformed from the inside out and when you get them together they speak Mandarin Chinese and they speak Farsi and they speak English and you compare their stories and they're eerily similar how do you explain the fact that this peasant movement that never should have made it out of the Middle East Palestine area that the Roman Empire said we're going to stomp them out or lighting them on torches the Roman Empire persecuted the heck out of them and eventually to explode and spread and spread and exploded not by the sword like Islam but by love and it toppled the Empire and today Rome is not the place trying to kill Christianity for a billion Catholics it's the epicenter of Christianity how do you explain that you eat history books that try to tell you man it's just those were really compelling Christians at first century in it's ludicrous apart from the resurrection how do you explain men and women by the hundreds who went to their deaths not for what they said they believed in here it was me they didn't die for what they said they believed in they died for what they said they saw people die for what they believed in all the time terrorists PHY planes into buildings because I believe in it I believe in the movement they didn't Christ followers did not say you know what I believe in the movement you should love your neighbor as yourself kill me for that they said I saw a man die and he went into the ground he was buried and I saw him rise again you can kill me you can do whatever you want but I'm going with the guy who comes back from the dead because he said if I trust in him I'm gonna come back from the dead I will live for all of eternity how do you explain that this is a movement that every person on the planet today dated their calendar their checkbook their life by the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ 2018 years from how do you explain that said you that he was just some good guy from the Middle East and you know they're all the same that is absurd that requires an enormous amount of faith it contradicts every world religion it contradicts the one true God and even with your doubts about men where were the dinosaurs Christianity is the best most rational option you got when I struggled with you know my engagement with my wife what did I do I went and sought answers if you're struggling with doubt in the room the best thing I can encourage you to do is to seek out answers what do I mean by I saw answers I sat down with my community group I'm like and I'm kind of having some nervous I'm just filled with doubt is this wrong is it right maybe I'm not supposed to marry her you know what they did they basically sat me down and I'm like dude you haven't cold feet you freaking out okay just calm down a little bit and let's talk about why you're nervous you know is there some sin you've observed in her life that's making you concern no none at all is there sin in your own life you're not talking people no not that not that I know of is there something Outland or something outstanding you know contradicting the Bible you see in her life no not that I know if then what is it I'm not sure I'm just kind of paralyzed with doubt right now maybe I'm making a mistake okay we're gonna encourage you to continue to just work through that because it doesn't seem like these are thoughts that are planted from God maybe there are maybe we're wrong I remember JP coming along and in saying hey all right dude so you know you're kind of going back forth loser wants to do let's pick a day what day do you want to pick alright next Wednesday next Wednesday okay next Wednesday we're gonna we are going to put to bed this like doubt and this kind of like I'm worried I'm nervous I'm unsure we're just gonna put it to bed put it to bed and so by next Wednesday we're either gonna say hey you know what we're gonna hit pause officially for a little bit or we're gonna say you know what I'm done with that there's no reason why I need to continue living in this doubt right now so next Wednesday you freak out worry all you want between now and then but Wednesday is d-day so we'll make the decision and that was like profoundly helpful for me it was kind of like Oh explore it and I guess there isn't anything here and for whatever reason it was like I'm putting that to bed and I'm moving on it wasn't that I was unwilling to acknowledge reason or to explore to seek answers but there wasn't anything outstanding it just was some nerves in my own heart some of you you need to seek answers and continue to find clarity if there's parts of you that are doubting this is website called got questions org got questions or G could not recommend it highly enough you can type in almost any question you want they've got millions and millions of questions that are there and get biblical answers that will help answer some of those things maybe have friends that may have questions and that could be a resource to you but then there's this other group in the room and this is probably what I think most people and our age demographic are in and our doubts and this group are less like man I'm just not sure that it's true and they're more in the category of I'm not sure I want it to be true at least not yet if you will I'm not sure that I want it to be true because if the Bible is really true with Jesus really did rise I might have to change some things and I don't know that I'm wanting to do that and so I'd rather kind of just live in ignorance is bliss right now because if it's true I might have to stop sleeping with my boyfriend if it's true I might have to break up with her if it's true man I'm ain't being an occupation that I'm not supposed to be and if it's true I may not be able to smoke weed the way that I've been smoking weed if it's true I may need to change some habits or change some of my people that I run with I may have to like it may mess my life up I'm I'm not sure I want it to be true like at least not yet you know like some day kind of once I'm past my 20s then I for sure you know I'm gonna get in church and you know we're gonna get a minivan and take the kids to church and it's gonna be great right now I'm not sure that I even want it to be true we tell you danger in that the best way I know to explain it would be this have you ever had that feeling or that experience where and I'm asking for a friend here you uh you're like buying something and you're like I don't know how much I have left in my bank account right now I'm not even sure that I really want to look this week or today or anytime soon I'll just it'll be fine you know I've got some credit in there it'll be great and you kind of like operating this like I'll look but not till next week because it's a little depressing every time I do and you have that experience really like I want to know the truth just not quite yet right now and the danger there is mana as you do that you you're not making responsible decisions you increasing the debt that you have and it ends up costing you either way in the same way unlike a bank account where maybe you get you know a bonus or something you pay it off easily when you and I continue to reject the truths not live with the truth you're not racking up debt you are racking up damage to your life you're racking up dysfunctional habits that don't just go away alcohol and when you continue to just abuse alcohol that doesn't just go away that becomes alcoholism pornography if you continue to just indulge in pornography that's not something that's going away you are continuing to create a habit inside of your life if you continue to live in a way that's outside of God's will you're not wrecking up debt you are damaging your life you are missing out on experiencing your 20s the life you want to have the life God wants you to experience and you're hiding behind let's be honest just smokescreens you're like I just kind of want to claim I don't know because I don't honestly don't even know that I want to know and it's a smokescreen and in the end it's only gonna cost you and it's only gonna bring damage to you in a way that no amount of when I get the next check I can just pay it off is gonna be able to take care of in the meantime the question all of us have to wrestle is if not Jesus than who it's not Christianity than what because you're gonna walk by faith and you're gonna live by faith whether you realize it or not the question is will you be honest enough with yourself to admit it and then the third episode that we see in this trilogy of interactions with Jesus with people who struggle with Dow comes in John chapter 20 and when I want to just pull out from this text is the simple truth that Jesus can handle your Dow Jesus can handle your doubt the doubt is normal for even the greatest of faith we said point one even with doubts Christ is your best option and that Jesus no matter what that doubt is Jesus can handle you down this story comes from John chapter 20 and this is one of the most famous interactions Jesus has with someone who experienced doubt and this was a dude who ended up getting the nickname his nickname was doubting Thomas that's right five of you know this story so for the rest of you here's what happened Thomas was one of the twelve disciples Thomas was one of Jesus's followers and in John chapter 20 it's it's shortly after Jesus died on the cross rose from the dead came back alive and he began showing up and appear into people and this is blowing people's mind because people don't come back from the dead very often or ever and so people are like man I saw Jesus and Jesus is showing up two different people shows it to Mary Magdalene shows up to another Mary his mother shows up to eleven of the disciples and Thomas is not home Thomas had gone we don't to the grocery store to get something and so Thomas was the only one of the disciples who was not home and Jesus shows up and he's in the room and in the allows that eleven disciples hey you can touch my hands you can see me look at me it's me I've risen from the dead peace be with you and Thomas comes back and they begin to tell him man we saw Jesus and here's what happens John chapter 20 verse 24 now Thomas who is also known as didymus was one of the twelve was not with the disciples when Jesus came so the other disciples told him we have seen the Lord but he said to them unless I see the nail marks in his hands and I put my finger where the nails were and I put my hand into his side I will not believe Thomas gets a bad rap Thomas feels like just an honest dude to me I mean if I'm in the room right now and I've never seen someone rise from the dead I felt like that's pretty reasonable you're like yeah hey man when I see it I definitely believe it I'm gonna take your word but you know you guys are not the brightest group in the whole bunch here so when I see it I'll believe it and here's what happens that a week later his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them this time that the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them which is like a total gangster move just like I'm gonna walk through the walls right here I'm Jesus how are you and he said peace be with you because they probably were terrified if somebody walks through a wall that's a real deal right here and he walks through the wall he says peace be with you hey don't be afraid and then he looked at Thomas and what would you expect him to say Thomas you doubted me I'm done with you bye Felisha it's over haha that's about what he said this is the message version and haha it's not true the message is great whatever Bob will read Thomas he said put your finger here and see my hands reach your hand out and put it in my side stop doubting and believe that's amazing to me how much humility does it take for the god of the universe to say men he didn't believe I'll prove myself to you you're gonna come here and you wouldn't touch the hands touch the holes Thomas he didn't say Thomas I'm done with you I can't believe you man unbelievable who do you think you are he said Thomas company you couldn't come see for yourself it's me it's Jesus I rose just like I said I would Thomas said to him my Lord and my god over and over the Bible sidenote paints a picture that Jesus didn't claim to be a man he claimed to be God and everyone who believed them died for him followed on belief that he was then Jesus told him because you have seen me you have believed but blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe that's you if you're a follower of Jesus what Jesus displays here is that he can handle your doubts he didn't hidden chastised Thomas he allows him hey you want more evidence come seek more evidence he moves towards Thomas and compassion that Jesus can handle your doubts if your son who has doubts he's not disregarding you he's not done with you that doesn't disqualify you he moves in your direction like he did with Thomas if you're someone who is sincere doubts in the room I want to invite you and I want to ask I want to challenge you really to do something if you're someone who's like man I'm just not I'm trying as hard as I can but I'm just not there yet I'm not even sure God exists I'm not sure this whole Christianity thing is true I wanna be there I just can't get there it works for everyone else I just can't get there I want to encourage and challenge you to do something I just want you to pray something this week for the next 7 days God if you're real will you show yourself to me God if you're real I want to know you will you reveal yourself to me God if you're real will you reveal yourself to me you may be honestly too afraid to pray that prayer because you're afraid you might actually do it but if you're sincere if you want to know him I want to challenge you to pray that prayer of God if you're real will you reveal yourself to me because here's what I know about you here's what I know about every single person in the room you want to know God like if the god who's there is real you want to know him you want to know him even more than you want answers to the questions you have think about that Thomas wanted to know him more than he wanted to know answers to his question I mean when Jesus shows up Thomas is not like oh man yeah I really have to explore Hitler let me see those hands coming at things it really Jesus how I open up ah he goes he's the one I don't need to explore anything more Thomas wanted to know him more than you want to know answer I know that's true for you here's how further I know it if Jesus or God was to appear to you tonight inside of your room if your soul is like I've just got questions I've got doubts I'm kind of a skeptic by Nature if he showed up in your room tonight here's what I'm confident would not happen Jesus stands in front of you hey it's me I'm Jesus it's true I'm God you wouldn't be like hold on let me get my list okay let's start from the top Noah huh how do you fit the animals on the ark that's what I want to know you'd be like oh my gosh it's real your questions would all kind of shrink to the side you'd be like yeah we'll figure that out you're real it's true because you every person in this room you want to know him more than you want answers to your question and so if you are a person you're wrestling with those s I just want to challenge you to pray God if you're real will you reveal yourself to me I want to know you I want answers to my questions but I want to know you more than I want answers to my questions will you show yourself to me in an undeniable way I believe that's a prayer that he will answer and so this week for the next seven days you owe it to yourself because if he's there you want to know him even more than you want answers to your questions the second thing I would challenge you to do is to seek answers there's libraries written on the questions you may have truly my guess is maybe you are the one exception in the whole world history that's gonna come up with the one question that's like ah yeah that's a stumper even God not sure on that one but for most of us the questions that you have about like you know how old is the earth all those different questions are great ask them seek answers on them don't just live in the fog of doubt in conclusion when we see is the doubt happens even to the greatest of faiths that even with doubts Christ is your best option and that Jesus can handle your doubts wherever you are in that journey I'll close here I am I was thinking today and I was thinking about man how do I allowed those doubts to rule my life the doubts with my relationship with my wife how much would I have missed out on like how different would my life have been if I was not able to kind of get over doubts that I wasn't able to move forward and I just allowed those things to be in the driver's seat and I can't move forward in this relationship I probably wouldn't be able to move forward in any single relationship had I allow those doubts that really were just but there weren't any really good reason for them how it allowed those things to rule my life how different would my life have been how much would I've missed out on well I can tell you I would've missed out on the last six years being married to one of the Godley's people I know or did missed out on that some of the best six years of my life I would have missed out on seeing the birth of two children it wouldn't exist a two and a half year old son and a nine day old or something like that daughter yeah I know we're not sleeping we keep going haha thanks golf clap for that I wouldn't miss out on all kinds of different things it's clear I know what I would have missed out on here's what you're gonna miss out on if you allow doubt to take you out if you allow doubt to be something that you don't that rules your life rather than saying man Christ is gonna rule my life if you allow your doubts you don't seek out answers you just hide behind the smokescreen you hide behind not yet I don't want to give this up yet I'm not sure it's worth it to follow Jesus I'm not sure I want it to be true yet if you allow doubt to rule your life you were gonna miss out on peace you were gonna miss out on purpose and meaning only those are things that are only found in knowing Jesus you're gonna miss out on the only level of satisfaction you're gonna find inside of this life you're gonna spend your life trying to fill a hole inside of you that no amount of money pleasure alcohol sex people anything could fill because it was a hole that was put there by God and was put there so that you would reach out to know him you're gonna miss out on knowing the one true God you're gonna miss out on the peace that comes of knowing I know I'm gonna go when I die you're gonna miss out on the only rational explanation for the world around us that I think that there is and you can either choose to kind of live in the shadows of you know we can't really know and I'm an agnostic but you're living my faith friend and your faith is not anchored in a person who came and died on a cross 2,000 years ago who entered into history it's not anchored in a book that has over and over again proven to be consistent with the world around us with historical facts it's not anchored in any depth so if you're thinking in your opinion and you're a much you're much more arrogant person if you think that your own opinion of the world suffice is did explain everything the rest of us man we acknowledge that if there's a god who's there he's probably even bigger than our own minds could ever comprehend or understand and I'm gonna humbly willingly accept the rational faith that is there I'm gonna continue living behind a smokescreen allowed out to take me out and if that happens it's gonna cost you and you will miss out on the life you want the life God wants for you the abundant life you were created to experience to me right father I pray for friends in this room right now who have sincere doubts who are unsure about whether or not you're real that you would move them to pray God if you're real we show yourself to me now you would answer that prayer father I pray for those who are living behind a smoke screen I don't have sincere doubts they just are in a place where they don't want to know they don't want to change they're afraid of what it's gonna cost him that you would grab ahold of their hearts but they would come to a place where they believe you're not here to rip them off your God I don't need anything from them you desire something for them and they will believe and accept that father thank you for the fact you're patient with their doubts you can handle our doubts we worship you now in song amen

Channel: The Porch

Views: 12,684

Rating: 4.8638296 out of 5

Keywords: the, porch, dallas, watermark, church, young, adults, christian, christianity, ministry, movement, jp, todd, wagner, david, marvin, jonathan, fort, worth, ft, el, paso, asking, for, friend, doubt, fear, faith, trust

Id: Diwa7ZDV5iA

Length: 52min 2sec (3122 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 14 2018