WEBVTT 00:00:09.130 --> 00:00:16.086 Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Midweek Podcast brought to you by A Fresh Wind Church. 00:00:16.086 --> 00:00:22.993 Each week, our team brings you new content to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ. 00:00:22.993 --> 00:00:26.429 Today's episode is hosted by Pastor Ryan. 00:00:27.740 --> 00:00:29.565 Hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. 00:00:29.565 --> 00:00:47.755 Pastor Ryan joined again with Pastor Tim and we are kicking off a new series here on Sunday mornings called the Benefit of Doubt, based off of a book by pastor and author Craig Groeschel and, I think, especially coming off of the Easter sermon, tim. 00:00:47.755 --> 00:00:51.350 This is a great series for us to jump into. 00:00:51.350 --> 00:00:59.667 Which man one Easter celebration I know we didn't have a podcast last week, but man Easter here was awesome. 00:01:00.029 --> 00:01:00.771 It was so good. 00:01:00.771 --> 00:01:02.567 We had an incredible time it rocked. 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:08.587 So if you missed Easter, you missed a lot, but you can go back watch the service online. 00:01:08.587 --> 00:01:09.510 But, man, it was awesome. 00:01:09.510 --> 00:01:11.628 I love seeing the church so full. 00:01:11.628 --> 00:01:16.865 We had challenged the church to invite a friend and, man, I think they took it to heart. 00:01:16.865 --> 00:01:23.882 You know, I was praying God would fill the building and man, he filled it. 00:01:23.882 --> 00:01:29.689 I thought, man, if we can get 60, 80 people in the first service, that'll make room in the second service. 00:01:29.689 --> 00:01:31.432 And then we had double that in the first service. 00:01:31.492 --> 00:01:34.256 I was like man, praise the Lord, and we still didn't have room. 00:01:34.256 --> 00:01:38.027 Still didn't have room in the second service, the. 00:01:38.950 --> 00:01:43.850 Lord's working Really exciting stuff, and so thank you guys for being a part of that Easter celebration. 00:01:43.850 --> 00:01:49.917 Thank you for inviting your friends and taking that opportunity to help people discover more in Christ and man. 00:01:49.917 --> 00:01:59.269 People were making decisions on Easter Sunday and then, you know, jumping into this past Sunday, in the new series the benefit of the doubt we had more people making decisions. 00:01:59.269 --> 00:02:12.289 Joy and I, we were coming off vacation so we were watching online, but I, you know, you made that offer or invitation for people to accept Christ, and I think there was three or four that responded to that. 00:02:12.289 --> 00:02:17.006 So really just excited about the lives that are being changed and it's happening every week here. 00:02:17.006 --> 00:02:21.330 So it's an exciting time to be a part of Fresh Wind, that's for sure. 00:02:21.620 --> 00:02:48.324 Yeah, and this series comes at a good time because as soon as you start coming up on Easter and everybody starts talking about Jesus dying on the cross and resurrecting on the third day, the doubters come out trying to convince everybody that it didn't happen and just trying hey, click on this, I'm going to tell you why this is false, and so forth, and so on. 00:02:48.324 --> 00:03:00.913 So you have this whole side of the argument where Christians are like, hey, we're going to celebrate this, and then the people who want to. 00:03:00.913 --> 00:03:04.245 I don't know why they do it. 00:03:04.366 --> 00:03:05.889 I don't know why they care. 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:17.719 I know they do it to Christians, but when Ramadan comes out or anything, I don't see anybody posting stuff about Islam or anything like that it's very usually one-sided, isn't it? 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:18.562 Yeah? 00:03:18.822 --> 00:03:22.229 it's very blatant. 00:03:22.229 --> 00:03:23.293 Let's put it that way. 00:03:23.293 --> 00:03:32.391 You see, all these things, you know, jesus wasn't crucified, or there was never a real Jesus, and you hear it all around Easter everybody wants to be. 00:03:32.391 --> 00:03:42.241 You know, let's attack that thing and get some clicks and they just want to raise your level of doubt. 00:03:42.241 --> 00:03:48.653 That's what they're trying to do, and this is a great time to talk about doubts in the Christian faith. 00:03:50.582 --> 00:03:55.013 Yeah, as we plan sermon series, we're praying through what God would have us to. 00:03:55.013 --> 00:04:06.578 It's so encouraging, I guess, to see how faithful God is, because just the response Sunday to this sermon series was incredible. 00:04:06.878 --> 00:04:07.159 And again. 00:04:07.219 --> 00:04:08.021 We were watching online. 00:04:08.021 --> 00:04:24.362 But then you and I had a phone call after church and, man, just so many people saying, yeah, I'm in this, I'm wrestling with it, and I was really praying that, coming out of Easter, we would have an opportunity to talk to people specifically who you're addressing here. 00:04:24.362 --> 00:04:29.466 You know, man, I have my doubts about some of this, and even the disciples did so. 00:04:29.466 --> 00:04:33.314 You and I both used Matthew 28 in our sermons. 00:04:33.314 --> 00:04:42.607 I did it on Easter Sunday and then you used it again this past week, but Jesus had resurrected from the dead, shown back up to the disciples, I think, sunday. 00:04:42.607 --> 00:04:53.805 You said there's 13 recorded times when he reappeared to them in his resurrected form and then when they came to the mountain that day, it says that they worshiped, but some doubted. 00:04:53.805 --> 00:04:59.055 And I thought, man, we got to lean into that. 00:04:59.055 --> 00:05:05.055 And so this series is us leaning into that to say, yeah, yeah, some worshiped. 00:05:05.055 --> 00:05:05.235 Worship. 00:05:05.255 --> 00:05:11.752 And it's easy to come to church on a Sunday morning and you look at everybody and everyone seems so full of faith, everyone's hands raised. 00:05:11.752 --> 00:05:20.827 You know everyone's singing along to the songs and um, amen, into the sermon, and, and then we walk out and we're like am I the only one Right. 00:05:20.827 --> 00:05:21.990 Am I the only one? 00:05:21.990 --> 00:05:25.836 And I love the fact that the Bible doesn't gloss over this. 00:05:25.836 --> 00:05:29.908 You know like sometimes you wonder, matthew, why would you write that? 00:05:29.908 --> 00:05:31.913 Why would you write that some doubted? 00:05:31.913 --> 00:05:34.185 Well, he wrote it because some doubted. 00:05:34.846 --> 00:05:37.192 Like that's how it happened that day, you know. 00:05:37.192 --> 00:05:42.668 Yeah, it's important too, because this is the passage that gives the church its mission. 00:05:42.668 --> 00:05:47.641 This is the passage that defines what the church is supposed to do. 00:05:47.641 --> 00:05:54.033 And Matthew was like oh yeah, I know all that, but some doubt it, some doubt it. 00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:01.437 Oh, man, it's one of the reasons I love scripture is it doesn't shy away from that. 00:06:01.437 --> 00:06:08.213 If I was trying to prove that I am God, that I am Jesus, that I rose from the dead, I'm leaving that out. 00:06:08.213 --> 00:06:12.831 I want everyone full of faith on fire, ready to go storming the gates of hell. 00:06:12.831 --> 00:06:15.949 Not some of us doubt it. 00:06:15.949 --> 00:06:19.927 So I love scripture for doing that. 00:06:19.927 --> 00:06:23.870 It just shows me, proves even more, that God can be trusted. 00:06:23.870 --> 00:06:25.586 He's not trying to keep stuff from us. 00:06:25.586 --> 00:06:28.610 He's not hiding the scary ugly parts of this. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:32.108 No, right out in the open, here it is. 00:06:32.108 --> 00:06:46.312 They came, they saw Jesus on the mountain, the resurrected Jesus, and they worshiped, but some doubted, and so on Easter I talked about how, you know, they're unsure. 00:06:46.312 --> 00:06:47.605 What do I do with this? 00:06:47.605 --> 00:06:51.029 What am I supposed to do with this new reality? 00:06:51.029 --> 00:06:57.326 I mean, I watched him die, I watched them bury him and now he's standing here. 00:06:57.326 --> 00:07:01.846 What does all that mean for me and how am I supposed to move forward? 00:07:01.846 --> 00:07:04.444 And I think a lot of us. 00:07:04.444 --> 00:07:07.348 We're coming to church and we have some of those same questions. 00:07:07.348 --> 00:07:14.968 You know, man, I want to believe, or I do believe, in God and I come and I worship and I sing the songs too. 00:07:14.968 --> 00:07:25.406 But I still have my doubts, and so often we feel like we're alone in that, that we can't talk to anybody about that, that we certainly can't bring it up at church. 00:07:25.406 --> 00:07:28.509 You know, what would people think if they knew we had our doubts? 00:07:28.629 --> 00:07:49.423 you know, and so this sermon series, I'm excited for it, as we kind of wade into that and say, hey, this is a, this is a safe place to bring those things in your doubts Don't have to be a dead end, but they can be a doorway to greater intimacy with Christ and you find that all through the scriptures. 00:07:50.225 --> 00:08:00.946 I made a short list of some of the heroes in the Bible who doubted, but not only heroes in the Bible, but the writers of the Bible itself. 00:08:01.045 --> 00:08:06.752 Psalm 73 is the the they call it the doubter song and um. 00:08:06.752 --> 00:08:25.235 And what's important about this Psalm and that's your homework, everybody should read Psalm 73 and meditate on it this week is that he was looking around and uh and and saying God, do you see this? 00:08:25.235 --> 00:08:29.470 What kind of decisions are you making up there? 00:08:29.470 --> 00:08:31.447 Are you paying attention? 00:08:31.447 --> 00:08:33.466 Look at what's going on. 00:08:33.466 --> 00:08:35.147 This is what I see. 00:08:37.100 --> 00:08:40.010 And as you move through the psalm, he's wrestling. 00:08:40.010 --> 00:08:51.043 But he starts and we talked about on sunday that thomas told him, said I won't believe until I touch him, but thomas kept coming back. 00:08:51.043 --> 00:08:56.052 He kept coming back right and uh, this, this psalmist. 00:08:56.052 --> 00:08:58.081 He comes back right in the beginning. 00:08:58.081 --> 00:09:02.749 Uh, he starts talking about who god is and who he knows God is. 00:09:02.749 --> 00:09:07.881 But God, I got some doubts about how you're running this thing. 00:09:07.881 --> 00:09:14.783 And then he goes through and shares his doubts with you and then he has an ending and I'm not going to share it with you. 00:09:14.783 --> 00:09:16.086 I want you to read it. 00:09:16.086 --> 00:09:19.662 I want you to see that you're not alone. 00:09:19.662 --> 00:09:26.033 Even 3,700 years ago, there was someone saying God, why did you do this? 00:09:27.581 --> 00:09:32.407 Yeah, not to spoil the end but to give you the beginning, kind of whet your appetite here a little bit. 00:09:32.407 --> 00:09:47.789 He says God is indeed good to Israel, to the pure in heart, but as for me, my feet almost slipped I feel that sometimes man, Just in my own life and situations that have happened. 00:09:48.019 --> 00:09:50.288 And man, to be honest, God has been good. 00:09:50.288 --> 00:09:59.528 I look at my life and there's a lot of people out there living a lot harder life than I've been fortunate to live. 00:09:59.528 --> 00:10:01.913 God's been good, he's been faithful. 00:10:01.913 --> 00:10:12.525 I didn't grow up in some of the houses that people have grown up in or in some of the situations that people have had to go through, Um, but even I am God. 00:10:12.566 --> 00:10:14.750 Sometimes my feet are slipping, Um. 00:10:14.750 --> 00:10:20.826 I remember when I thought Ty, when he was four or five years old, um thought he might have a brain tumor. 00:10:20.826 --> 00:10:26.514 Um, might have a brain tumor crying in the shower, God, what is going on here? 00:10:26.514 --> 00:10:30.580 This is my son. 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:48.682 Feet almost slipped, you know, and I think this is the point of the series, not in this questioning the reality of God, but just why, how you know, and I think that that's where a lot of people are, Um, but then even the situations. 00:10:48.682 --> 00:10:59.091 As a pastor, you know, you and I, we have the opportunity to counsel and walk with a lot of people um, through their own life situations and trials and struggles. 00:10:59.091 --> 00:11:07.644 And yeah, life is tough, it's heavy, it is heavy, and so you read something like man. 00:11:07.644 --> 00:11:11.251 God is indeed good, but I'm struggling. 00:11:11.732 --> 00:11:21.011 Right and we talked about it on Sunday the relatability principle, that we relate better to people who have struggled like we've struggled. 00:11:21.011 --> 00:11:25.048 Matter of fact, is it in Philippians? 00:11:25.048 --> 00:11:27.933 I should have looked this up. 00:11:27.933 --> 00:11:43.890 Anyways, it's the scripture, where God leads you through your struggles so that you can lead someone else through theirs, because people are looking for someone that has been hit in the face. 00:11:44.331 --> 00:11:46.875 I know my sister-in-law, shimmy. 00:11:46.875 --> 00:11:54.787 She lost her son and people come and talk to her all the time when they lose their children. 00:11:54.787 --> 00:11:59.110 You know, I don't know how to live now. 00:11:59.110 --> 00:12:06.230 I don't know, and she can relate and she says I didn't know how I was going to live either. 00:12:06.230 --> 00:12:14.804 She said I couldn't breathe for two months and so I don't talk about that, that'll get me all messed up. 00:12:14.804 --> 00:12:18.826 I got all messed up, I already did. 00:12:20.981 --> 00:12:26.706 But those doubts lead us to people who have struggled, and you know I made a joke of it. 00:12:26.706 --> 00:12:34.370 You know we lean in towards the guys whose kid is screaming and licking the floor in the grocery store. 00:12:34.370 --> 00:12:42.029 Then the person who's got it all together on Instagram and we want to say you know I can trust him. 00:12:42.029 --> 00:12:43.514 But why do we trust him? 00:12:43.514 --> 00:12:55.328 We trust him because they've got doubts too, and you can sit down with that guy, cross a cup of coffee and yeah, I read that book about raising kids too. 00:12:55.328 --> 00:13:02.591 It's not working and go back and forth and talk about those things. 00:13:03.921 --> 00:13:16.850 But we relate to people with doubts and it's good to point out in the Bible, number one, that a lot of people had doubts and doubts about what God was doing. 00:13:16.850 --> 00:13:29.013 I just remember the conversation with Abraham and Yahweh when they were looking down on Sodom and Abraham's well, you're going to destroy the whole city. 00:13:29.013 --> 00:13:31.811 Well, what if there's 100? 00:13:31.811 --> 00:13:33.360 What if there's 50? 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:36.087 I don't know the numbers that came down. 00:13:36.087 --> 00:13:37.051 What if there's 50? 00:13:37.051 --> 00:13:39.799 You sure you want to do this, god? 00:13:39.799 --> 00:13:46.746 He had doubts that this is the way that God should go, what God should do and what God did was rough. 00:13:46.746 --> 00:13:51.730 And I would be the same as Abraham. 00:13:51.730 --> 00:13:53.066 Hey, there's kids down there. 00:13:53.066 --> 00:13:57.129 What are we talking about? 00:13:57.129 --> 00:14:08.688 And we get, these doubts are real things and we can't ignore them and we definitely can't ignore them in the Bible. 00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:15.173 And if you're a pastor and you preach around those things, shame on you, correct Shame on you. 00:14:15.173 --> 00:14:16.947 We need to understand that. 00:14:16.947 --> 00:14:24.126 What Martin Luther heard the Lord tell him the just shall live by faith. 00:14:24.126 --> 00:14:26.371 The just shall live by faith. 00:14:26.371 --> 00:14:27.519 The just shall live by faith. 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:29.106 You're not going to understand everything. 00:14:29.106 --> 00:14:56.780 You're not going to know everything, and sometimes, even when you do what we're going to ask you to do here in just a couple minutes by focusing your doubt on answers and letting it motivate you to pursue God instead of turning your back on him, and that's productive doubt, instead of psychological doubt with spirals out of control. 00:14:56.780 --> 00:15:00.489 And so we're going to talk about that in a minute. 00:15:00.489 --> 00:15:06.220 But we need you to understand that you're not going to understand everything you know. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:20.913 A great example of that and I think hopefully this is encouraging for somebody as you're in the middle of some of these doubts and these questions. 00:15:20.913 --> 00:15:31.808 Years ago I had a student in the youth ministry when I was the youth pastor and really just struggling with some of the stuff and decisions that God had made in the Old Testament. 00:15:31.808 --> 00:15:39.807 I think one verse in particular was about this idea Jacob I loved and Esau I hated, before they were even born. 00:15:39.807 --> 00:15:46.211 How could a loving God do that? 00:15:46.211 --> 00:16:01.071 Um and man, I remember sitting around after youth group on you know, sunday nights or after an event that we had, and sometimes half hour hour hour and two hours just going around. 00:16:01.071 --> 00:16:09.548 We, we went on a missions trip to Nicaragua and uh, and one of the pastors who was helping lead that trip, stationed from Nicaragua. 00:16:09.548 --> 00:16:15.327 She sat down with him one night after dinner and just for two hours, I think, or more. 00:16:15.327 --> 00:16:26.409 They went after this idea, like her, trying to reconcile some of these things that happened in the Old Testament and how could a good loving God, things that happened in the Old Testament and how could a good loving God do or allow those things to happen. 00:16:26.409 --> 00:16:43.681 And what I appreciate is she was really searching for an answer but not getting a satisfactory answer has led her to the point where I believe, to my knowledge, she still has walked away from the faith Even so. 00:16:43.681 --> 00:17:00.631 Much of this so that her mom sent me an email a couple years ago and was pretty upset with me about how that whole thing unfolded, and I had a chance to kind of explain some of the stuff that went on and conversations that we had. 00:17:02.461 --> 00:17:07.512 But people have doubts and we're not going to understand everything about God. 00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:13.871 The just shall live by faith is a key element to this whole thing. 00:17:13.871 --> 00:17:34.522 To say, yeah, we want you to pursue answers, we want you to use your doubts to dive deeper into Christ, because it can cause you to walk away, it can cause you to be angry at God, or it could be the launching pad to an intimate relationship with God where you know Him as well as a forgiven sinner can know Him. 00:17:34.522 --> 00:17:39.771 But if you let these one things, you know God. 00:17:39.771 --> 00:17:53.207 I can't nail down this one thing, and that one thing keeps you from all the other things that you do know about God, about his goodness, about his provision, about his love for you, about how he sent his. 00:17:53.207 --> 00:18:09.510 There's a lot that I do know, but this one thing what I'm challenging you in this podcast and throughout this series is don't allow that one thing that you might not know or have an answer that's satisfactory at this moment. 00:18:09.510 --> 00:18:13.510 Don't let that one thing you have questions about derail your faith. 00:18:13.510 --> 00:18:17.348 Keep pursuing God. 00:18:17.348 --> 00:18:20.809 He is big enough to handle your doubts. 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:23.387 And I think that's more important. 00:18:23.387 --> 00:18:24.540 That's just a. 00:18:24.540 --> 00:18:30.972 As we were talking before we started this podcast, I said whatever you practice. 00:18:30.972 --> 00:18:43.902 Whatever you practice when it comes to doubt is going to be how you engage your doubt. 00:18:43.902 --> 00:19:28.295 And if you let your doubt on and it doesn't even have to be about God, but if it's your doubt about one specific thing over here that you let derail you, then you're going to have one specific thing in the next bunch derail you, and then the next doubt derail you, and whatever you practice becomes your um standard operating procedure when I mean when your feed grows right and so, uh, we're going to talk now a little bit about a productive doubt, what productive doubt looks like, and, uh, and then we're going to talk a little bit about how, uh, psychological doubt can derail not just your faith but your entire life. 00:19:31.221 --> 00:19:43.308 When we were talking about that on Sunday, I said honest doubt, that you just have an honest doubt about whether God is good, that's a good, honest doubt. 00:19:43.308 --> 00:19:44.892 He's allowed things to happen. 00:19:44.892 --> 00:19:47.935 God is good, that's a good, honest doubt. 00:19:47.935 --> 00:19:49.478 He's allowed things to happen. 00:19:49.478 --> 00:19:58.521 That you would think, hey, I got an issue with that, you know it's got good. 00:19:58.521 --> 00:20:01.385 Or he's made some claims about what you can and can't do and you want to do some of those things. 00:20:01.385 --> 00:20:16.920 I would call that that's not an honest doubt, that's a I want to doubt this so I can get out of my guilt and push all this away and go do the thing I want to do. 00:20:17.381 --> 00:20:20.445 So we want to just lay that down. 00:20:20.445 --> 00:20:33.490 Every time we talk about doubt, we're talking about honest doubts, not doubt to use as a leverage to get me where I want to be and do what I want to do. 00:20:33.490 --> 00:20:43.848 But a lot of times the honest doubt opens the door for Satan to bring in doubts that will leverage us out. 00:20:43.848 --> 00:20:57.969 So we've got to respond to our honest doubt in a way that will be constructive, and the best way to do that is to look at it as a signal to deepen your relationship with God. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:18.340 Yeah, I remember when Reed and Dar lost their son and it might have been at the Forge, the men's Bible study we have here on Saturday mornings, where he was just confessing the guys there and he said I was really struggling because I know that God is good, scripture tells me that God is good, but my son's also dead. 00:21:19.824 --> 00:21:26.417 And he was wrestling with that and he said all right, I believe that God is good. 00:21:26.417 --> 00:21:33.093 So if there's something in me that is telling me otherwise, then the problem isn't with God, the problem's with me. 00:21:33.093 --> 00:21:37.208 This is the honest, productive doubt that he says. 00:21:37.208 --> 00:21:45.049 I need to dive deeper into God's word, I need to know more about him so that he can reveal who he truly is. 00:21:45.049 --> 00:21:50.707 And coming out of that, he said, I have found that God is still good. 00:21:51.709 --> 00:21:53.673 And it's man. 00:21:53.673 --> 00:21:56.579 I wish we could eliminate all those struggles. 00:21:56.579 --> 00:22:02.721 But doubt doesn't mean you're failing, it means you're thinking and it's important to think. 00:22:02.721 --> 00:22:04.742 It means you're thinking and it's important to think. 00:22:04.742 --> 00:22:13.527 Christianity is not the dumb man's religion, it is salvation. 00:22:14.307 --> 00:22:28.532 On our part Seems too easy, too simple, but when you study soteriology you realize this is not easy and it's very complex. 00:22:28.532 --> 00:22:36.476 And God has been after this redemption plan in the garden with Adam and Eve. 00:22:36.476 --> 00:22:43.019 He mentions it and he was working towards Jesus this whole time. 00:22:43.019 --> 00:22:48.505 So it's deep and complex on God's side when you start studying it. 00:22:48.505 --> 00:23:06.913 And I think when we look at Christianity with platitudes, with bumper sticker theology, you know, let go, let God, you know God will work this out for you, whatever the little saying goes, when there's a lot of truth in those little sayings. 00:23:06.913 --> 00:23:10.125 But it's a whole lot more complex than that. 00:23:10.125 --> 00:23:15.080 We're complex human beings and we we're gonna doubt and some of that doubt is good. 00:23:15.080 --> 00:23:18.605 Is that guy gonna stop at his light? 00:23:18.605 --> 00:23:19.346 Should I go? 00:23:19.346 --> 00:23:21.088 That doubt is good. 00:23:21.088 --> 00:23:25.233 You know, um, is that politician telling me the truth? 00:23:25.233 --> 00:23:27.201 That doubt is good? 00:23:27.461 --> 00:23:35.941 No, the answer is no, a hard no, and uh, we learned those things, unfortunately, the hard way. 00:23:35.941 --> 00:23:41.472 We grew up, um, believing in Santa Claus and you know, uh, he ate the cookies. 00:23:41.472 --> 00:23:44.186 Somebody ate the cookies and drank the milk. 00:23:44.186 --> 00:23:45.170 You know who could it be. 00:23:45.170 --> 00:23:53.354 And as we grow older, we begin to doubt, and that doubt leads us to what it leads us to truth. 00:23:53.473 --> 00:23:59.973 So there is a productive doubt that we talk about and that's where we want to be. 00:23:59.973 --> 00:24:07.788 It is an uncertainty or a question in your mind, in your heart, and we're talking about God. 00:24:07.788 --> 00:24:12.555 So about God or about Christianity, that drives inquiry. 00:24:12.555 --> 00:24:30.462 It drives critical thinking and problem solving, questioning assumptions and seeking evidence or even just exploring possibilities to achieve clarity in your doubt. 00:24:30.462 --> 00:24:34.269 And this is productive doubt. 00:24:34.269 --> 00:24:44.653 It is something that motivates you to get off your butt and cognitively engage, and that's what God wants. 00:24:44.653 --> 00:24:50.865 And he's always saying hey, seek me with your whole heart and you'll find me. 00:24:50.865 --> 00:24:53.288 He's like let's engage. 00:24:53.288 --> 00:24:56.700 Hey, let's wrestle this out or argue this out. 00:24:56.941 --> 00:25:05.933 In Isaiah, one of my favorite scriptures, your sins may be scarlet, but I can make them white as snow, and I want to wrestle with you. 00:25:05.933 --> 00:25:15.827 With that, he renamed Jacob Israel, which means those who wrestle with God, and that's what he wants to do? 00:25:15.827 --> 00:25:17.480 He wants to wrestle with those doubts. 00:25:17.480 --> 00:25:33.587 But when we have doubts and we turn off or we push back or we procrastinate, that's what we would call a psychological doubt that feeds itself and gets bigger and bigger and bigger. 00:25:33.587 --> 00:25:52.255 So what we want you to do, when you run into a doubt about God, you run into a doubt about a scripture or the Christian faith, this is time for you to engage, engage your mind, your critical thinking, and dive in and start saying, hey, does anybody know about this? 00:25:52.255 --> 00:25:54.663 And most of Christians? 00:25:54.663 --> 00:26:10.946 When you have a doubt about Christianity, you're going to run into some big, some big questions that we've all been wrestling with for 2,000 years, since Jesus rose from the dead, which? 00:26:11.007 --> 00:26:12.413 can I say this should be encouraging. 00:26:12.413 --> 00:26:17.884 There's almost no question that you can come up with that another Christian. 00:26:17.884 --> 00:26:21.853 We have an ancient faith and we've talked about this on the podcast a few times. 00:26:21.853 --> 00:26:32.250 It's thousands of years old and people have been asking these questions to and about God for the past four or 5,000 years. 00:26:32.250 --> 00:26:40.847 Job, here's a guy wrestling with some of these things, saying God, what is going on here? 00:26:40.847 --> 00:26:49.740 We've been arguing this stuff for a long time and so the fact that you have doubts, bring them to God. 00:26:49.740 --> 00:26:53.511 He's not afraid of it and know this, you're not alone. 00:26:53.511 --> 00:26:58.047 We've been talking about this and here's the key People. 00:26:58.047 --> 00:27:02.394 We've been arguing it for thousands of years and there's still people who believe that God is good. 00:27:02.394 --> 00:27:04.164 It hasn't derailed our faith. 00:27:04.164 --> 00:27:12.146 It doesn't have to derail yours hasn't derailed our faith. 00:27:12.207 --> 00:27:13.147 It doesn't have to derail yours. 00:27:13.147 --> 00:27:17.034 And I think we're in a social landscape coming out of the Jesus revolution back in the seventies. 00:27:17.034 --> 00:27:28.978 We're doubting, and this, just coming from my own personal life in Christ and growing up in church, is that doubt became the enemy. 00:27:28.978 --> 00:27:30.460 Just don't doubt. 00:27:30.460 --> 00:27:33.471 Well, I want God to do this for me. 00:27:33.471 --> 00:27:35.997 Just don't doubt, and he'll do it for you. 00:27:35.997 --> 00:27:38.647 Where's that scripture? 00:27:38.647 --> 00:27:39.169 You know? 00:27:39.169 --> 00:27:40.332 Oh, you know here. 00:27:40.332 --> 00:27:51.248 Let me pluck out some half scriptures here, and and uh, and make this assumption that you can manipulate God if you can eliminate your doubt and listen. 00:27:51.288 --> 00:27:54.916 People, this is not how following Jesus works. 00:27:54.916 --> 00:28:05.270 He is the God of all creations, he makes all the decisions and sometimes he steps out and does something especially for you, because that's the kind of God he is. 00:28:05.270 --> 00:28:12.731 Thomas said I need to touch the nail prints in his hands, I need to put my hand in his side. 00:28:12.731 --> 00:28:17.728 And Jesus showed up and said hey, thomas, put your hand here. 00:28:17.728 --> 00:28:21.675 And and that's the kind of, that's the kind of God he is. 00:28:21.675 --> 00:28:22.984 Did he need to do that? 00:28:22.984 --> 00:28:25.569 No, did he have to do that? 00:28:25.569 --> 00:28:27.373 Absolutely not. 00:28:27.373 --> 00:28:36.693 He could have looked Thomas in the face and said Thomas, I'm here, you get it and Thomas would have said I got it. 00:28:36.693 --> 00:28:40.566 He didn't need to touch Jesus. 00:28:40.566 --> 00:28:43.049 He was there and talking straight to him. 00:28:43.851 --> 00:28:51.209 And he could have said you know, your doubts embarrassed me, thomas, after three years with you. 00:28:51.209 --> 00:29:00.992 You embarrassed me, and I think that's how Christians feel about doubt that I'm embarrassing God, so they try to hide it. 00:29:00.992 --> 00:29:02.109 But what did Jesus do? 00:29:02.109 --> 00:29:06.498 He didn't come in there and grab him by the shoulder and says I'm here, what are you going to do now? 00:29:06.498 --> 00:29:07.843 He came in and said here, thomas, this is what you'm here. 00:29:07.843 --> 00:29:08.423 What are you going to do now? 00:29:08.423 --> 00:29:12.034 He came in and said here, thomas, this is what you said you needed. 00:29:12.034 --> 00:29:12.836 I'm going to give it to you. 00:29:12.836 --> 00:29:15.809 You don't need this, but I'm going to give it to you anyways. 00:29:16.431 --> 00:29:25.073 Well, and again going back to Matthew 28, that you and I both used is some worship. 00:29:25.073 --> 00:29:26.054 Some doubted. 00:29:26.054 --> 00:29:27.296 Very next verse. 00:29:27.296 --> 00:29:32.557 Jesus came near and said Right and man, easter service. 00:29:32.679 --> 00:29:43.135 I was trying to emphasize to that moment where there are people up there on the mountain with God, the resurrected Christ, saying I'm just not sure what to do about all this. 00:29:43.135 --> 00:29:52.865 He could have said are you serious After all of this? 00:29:52.865 --> 00:29:53.827 Said, are you serious after after all of this? 00:29:53.827 --> 00:29:54.489 Are you serious? 00:29:54.489 --> 00:29:55.872 I'm gonna go find some new people? 00:29:55.872 --> 00:30:02.190 Um, instead, he came near, he commissioned them, gave them purpose, gave them a mission of for their life. 00:30:03.031 --> 00:30:40.031 Um, he drew near to him and man, I love that about him and he doesn't shy away from those, those things, and it's one of the things I mean you know, years ago when, uh, oh, man, I think we were doing the media club I think is what we called it way back in the day where we would read these books and and we, we picked you picked some books that were pretty challenging, um, to just some of the ideas that Christians hold, um, but all that time I remember you telling, telling us doubts or questions lead to intimacy. 00:30:40.031 --> 00:30:44.749 When we ask these questions about God, it leads us to intimacy. 00:30:44.749 --> 00:30:49.720 And that's, man, if we can use our doubts as that way, this doorway to intimacy. 00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:50.326 That, god. 00:30:50.326 --> 00:30:54.664 I'm not sure about this and I'm not looking for a way out, like you were talking about earlier. 00:30:54.664 --> 00:30:59.675 I'm not looking for leverage to use against you so I can get my way in this area. 00:30:59.675 --> 00:31:04.469 But, god, I want to know you more and I'm not sure. 00:31:04.990 --> 00:31:05.911 I'm not sure about this. 00:31:05.911 --> 00:31:11.798 I'm not sure why you would do this or why you would allow that, but, god, I want to see it from your perspective. 00:31:11.798 --> 00:31:17.490 I want to know what you think on this man. 00:31:17.490 --> 00:31:29.576 Do we begin to unlock a relationship with God that most people don't experience, because the temptation is to just tune out and shut down, because this is work. 00:31:29.576 --> 00:31:31.906 Right, this is work, it's work. 00:31:31.906 --> 00:31:37.097 And when I have doubts, the last thing I want to do usually is go to work. 00:31:37.097 --> 00:31:41.693 I'm already tired, I'm already worn out, I'm already busy. 00:31:41.693 --> 00:31:48.292 Now you're saying I need to search these things out and we're saying, yeah, search them out as you do. 00:31:48.292 --> 00:31:53.180 Scripture says that the Holy Spirit is going to reveal to you the deep things of God. 00:31:53.805 --> 00:31:57.816 This is when you want to go to the next level in your relationship with God. 00:31:57.816 --> 00:32:00.530 Search those things out. 00:32:00.530 --> 00:32:07.086 Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the deep things of God man. 00:32:07.086 --> 00:32:10.630 You get to know them in a way that most Christians, most people never will. 00:32:12.005 --> 00:32:16.356 We've practiced Christianity in the easy manner. 00:32:16.356 --> 00:32:19.474 I used to call it church light. 00:32:19.474 --> 00:32:24.455 You know, let's just make it easy on everybody. 00:32:24.455 --> 00:32:27.484 Let's try to get everything done on Sunday. 00:32:27.484 --> 00:32:28.173 We'll go to Sunday school. 00:32:28.173 --> 00:32:28.261 We'll do our. 00:32:28.261 --> 00:32:29.131 Get everything done on Sunday We'll go to Sunday school. 00:32:29.131 --> 00:32:30.353 We'll do our Bible studies. 00:32:30.353 --> 00:32:33.018 In the evening We'll show up at church. 00:32:33.018 --> 00:32:38.292 We'll get it all done and we don't have to worry about it the rest of the week. 00:32:38.292 --> 00:32:43.088 But these doubts that we have and we always say well, this must be from Satan. 00:32:43.088 --> 00:32:51.964 You think that from Satan you've got a doubt that's going to make you drill into God a little bit more. 00:32:51.964 --> 00:32:55.192 Do you think that they might not show up? 00:32:55.192 --> 00:32:59.732 Or God might be pulling them out in you just to get you to talk to them about it? 00:32:59.732 --> 00:33:02.733 And that's because that's the kind of God he is. 00:33:02.733 --> 00:33:07.797 We need to be careful, trying to ascertain where that's coming from. 00:33:07.797 --> 00:33:13.210 But you're right, we're too tired to start. 00:33:13.210 --> 00:33:14.592 What would you call it? 00:33:14.592 --> 00:33:20.321 A high order cognitive process of analysis of? 00:33:20.383 --> 00:33:20.843 finding out. 00:33:20.863 --> 00:33:43.611 I'm already out Right, but this analysis and synthesis and evaluation of different things in the scripture that speak to what you're doubting about and trying to figure out what is going on here and then not being sure that you're ever going to know precisely. 00:33:43.611 --> 00:33:51.701 But God wants you all wrapped up in that and your mind thinking about it. 00:33:51.701 --> 00:34:03.676 And that's why devotion in the morning before you start the day, that's when I like to do it read the scripture in the morning, or devotional with the scripture in it. 00:34:03.676 --> 00:34:16.735 That keys your mind off thinking about God, because somewhere in that day, as you think back on your devotional, you're going to say well, why does that lead to that? 00:34:16.735 --> 00:34:18.159 Does that make sense? 00:34:19.126 --> 00:34:20.228 I don't know if that makes sense. 00:34:20.228 --> 00:34:32.320 And then suddenly you've got your own personal cognitive analysis to do, about yourself, about God, about life in general. 00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:37.125 God loves thinking Christians, not robots. 00:34:37.385 --> 00:34:38.608 I was just going to say. 00:34:38.608 --> 00:34:45.253 He wants to teach you how to think about things and this is another verse we use all the time here. 00:34:45.253 --> 00:34:49.306 But he says take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. 00:34:49.306 --> 00:34:55.068 You know like, take those doubts, those questions that you have, and make it obedient to Christ. 00:34:55.068 --> 00:34:55.668 How do I do that? 00:34:55.668 --> 00:34:57.914 Well, you need some of this cognitive analysis. 00:34:57.914 --> 00:35:04.606 I need to search out the scriptures, I need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and discernment about these things. 00:35:04.606 --> 00:35:06.911 And that's the hard work. 00:35:06.911 --> 00:35:10.539 Right, and I know we're tired. 00:35:10.539 --> 00:35:13.893 I know the last thing you want to do is dive in. 00:35:13.893 --> 00:35:23.893 But, man, when you take this step and God's word begins to come alive, man, it is water for a thirsty soul man. 00:35:23.934 --> 00:35:24.715 Yeah, you got it. 00:35:24.715 --> 00:35:25.657 You got it. 00:35:25.657 --> 00:35:30.833 You got to let your doubt motivate you. 00:35:30.833 --> 00:35:42.590 It's got to be a motivational drive that doesn't drive you away from something because you just don't want to think about it deeply, you just want to ignore it. 00:35:42.590 --> 00:35:49.019 It's got to intrigue your curiosity. 00:35:50.005 --> 00:35:51.833 Wait, I've been a Christian for 30 years. 00:35:51.833 --> 00:35:52.849 How come I don't know this? 00:35:52.849 --> 00:35:54.451 Do other Christians know this? 00:35:54.451 --> 00:35:56.672 What's the answer to this? 00:35:56.672 --> 00:36:04.478 And now we have the ability to research so much more. 00:36:04.478 --> 00:36:21.940 But the first place to start is an old cross-reference Bible and right down the middle, um, you read a word that uh, or a scripture that you're doubting about, or you have a doubt, and you, you find this scripture and you're like, well, what does this mean? 00:36:21.940 --> 00:36:25.510 You suddenly just look in the middle of your Bible. 00:36:25.510 --> 00:36:33.193 You can see all these other scriptures where this thing has been talked about and this word has been used. 00:36:33.193 --> 00:36:35.498 And that's a great place to start. 00:36:35.498 --> 00:36:38.349 But we've got with the internet. 00:36:38.349 --> 00:36:43.958 Now we can really dive in and find really research things. 00:36:43.958 --> 00:36:57.398 So here's a question a lot of people have about the end of Mark, last chapter of Mark, 9 through 20, I think those are the verses showed up around the fifth century. 00:36:57.398 --> 00:37:01.070 Okay, and everybody knows that it's not a secret. 00:37:02.032 --> 00:37:15.293 Okay, if you talk to any biblical scholar, either secular or religious, they'll say yeah, that wasn't there and there's a lot of questions about why it's there now. 00:37:15.293 --> 00:37:30.099 But we know that we got nine guys, early church fathers before the fifth century, who quote those verses that weren't there until the fifth century. 00:37:30.099 --> 00:37:48.474 And then we've got manuscripts that left a gap for those verses in their manuscripts because they just at the end of Mark, they just they go on to Luke to luke you know, and. 00:37:48.594 --> 00:37:54.416 But they left a gap for them, like they were trying to decide whether something was going to go there or not. 00:37:54.416 --> 00:37:58.592 And when they got the go ahead to put it in, they were going to put it in or not. 00:37:58.592 --> 00:38:13.240 And, um, I have, I've studied the scripture and I've taught, and I always bring up, you know, the ending of Mark is not in there till the fifth century, but I had no idea that there was nine guys who quoted Mark. 00:38:13.240 --> 00:38:19.130 Uh, those verses, nine through 20, um, before the fifth century. 00:38:19.130 --> 00:38:25.708 And now I'm, I'm, you know, it's opened my mind and it is raised curiosity. 00:38:25.708 --> 00:38:26.570 And how come? 00:38:26.570 --> 00:38:29.454 I didn't know that and I would have never known it. 00:38:29.614 --> 00:38:35.414 Looking at a commentary, just one of my dad's big book commentaries. 00:38:35.414 --> 00:38:37.853 I got them lined up in my office downstairs. 00:38:37.853 --> 00:38:40.974 I would have never known that looking at that. 00:38:40.974 --> 00:38:46.458 But the research out there that you can find on the internet is just amazing. 00:38:46.458 --> 00:39:03.731 And those type of things should fuel your intrinsic curiosity and produce a motivation to resolve that doubt, that uncertainty that you have. 00:39:03.731 --> 00:39:13.110 But taking what we said in the beginning, that you might not, and um, but taking what we said in the beginning, uh, that you might not resolve it completely. 00:39:13.110 --> 00:39:17.559 But, man, that I want to know about this is what is what God is feeding you? 00:39:18.106 --> 00:39:24.907 Yeah, and you're going to say I don't know if I have the time for this, um, but here's what I I what else I know. 00:39:24.907 --> 00:39:29.876 Um, when you had to buy a new lawnmower, you did some research. 00:39:30.137 --> 00:39:30.338 Yeah. 00:39:30.818 --> 00:39:37.969 When you were looking at a new pair of, you know, in-ear headphones AirPods versus Bose you did some research. 00:39:37.969 --> 00:39:38.371 Yeah. 00:39:38.451 --> 00:39:50.954 You wanted the AirPods that each one can work independently of the other, depending on where you're sitting you definitely want to be able to use the left ear pod without the right right. 00:39:51.034 --> 00:39:52.197 That that's key folks. 00:39:52.197 --> 00:39:54.820 If you're married, you're married. 00:39:54.820 --> 00:39:57.309 You need to be able to do that now. 00:39:57.409 --> 00:40:05.672 You can take what are they talking about and do some real research and figure out what are these two married guys talking about. 00:40:06.132 --> 00:40:21.456 So um, I I'm saying you've done this kind of research before, right, you can apply that same curiosity, that same desire for information and I want to know if I'm going to spend my money on something, I want it to be the best thing I can get. 00:40:21.456 --> 00:40:42.038 Take that same level of research and say, man, god, I have this question and I want to know what you think about it and dive into it, get lost on the internet for a little bit, or in your Bible or in some commentaries for a while, and search it out and let God reveal to you his heart on that thing. 00:40:42.038 --> 00:40:47.594 And you're going to come out the other side feeling like man, I'm standing on something. 00:40:47.594 --> 00:40:52.782 Come out the other side feeling like man, I'm standing on something solid. 00:40:52.782 --> 00:40:59.054 Right, that doubt, that question, isn't just constantly nagging away at you, eating away at you, because that's the problem. 00:40:59.074 --> 00:41:00.320 If you don't ever address it, it's always there, right. 00:41:00.320 --> 00:41:18.887 And when you do address it, when you do address it, even when you come out on the other end and you think, well, I kind of get it, but you don't always get it, it builds a resilience, of absolute strength in you that says I can deal with doubt, you know, I, I can deal with it I don't. 00:41:19.128 --> 00:41:20.514 It doesn't control me. 00:41:20.534 --> 00:41:24.387 Too many christians don't exercise exactly exactly, that's a great way to put it. 00:41:24.387 --> 00:41:29.777 And, uh, I think you know we've got scientists who do this. 00:41:29.777 --> 00:41:31.146 Every day they go in. 00:41:31.146 --> 00:41:35.737 I doubt that that's exactly what's happening when we split this atom. 00:41:35.737 --> 00:41:41.717 I have no idea how they'd come up with that question, but they're trying to figure it out. 00:41:41.717 --> 00:41:46.115 And we kind of got my job. 00:41:46.115 --> 00:41:47.449 I got through school. 00:41:47.449 --> 00:41:57.746 Now I'm just going to run on the treadmill and I'm I'm not gonna I'm gonna procrastinate about thinking about things that I should probably think about. 00:41:57.746 --> 00:42:03.518 Uh, that goes with our finances, our uh life insurance. 00:42:03.518 --> 00:42:09.835 And you know, I don't know how many times people said I need to go over my insurance and see if I'm paying too much for my insurance. 00:42:09.835 --> 00:42:10.577 I say that too. 00:42:10.577 --> 00:42:11.980 How many times have I done it? 00:42:11.980 --> 00:42:13.146