Sermons

Defeating the giants in your life IX

18 July 2010

None of the passengers in the DC-4 ever knew what happened.
They all died instantly on February 15th, 1947.
An Avianca flight bound for Quito, Ecuador crashed into the 14,000 feet high peak of El Tablazo, not far from Bogata.
There was a young man from New York by the name of Glenn Chambers who was on that plane.
He was flying to Quito, Ecuador to fulfill a lifelong dream to be a missionary (with ‘the voice of the Andes’).
Before leaving the Miami airport that day, Glenn wanted to write a note to his mother so he grabbed a piece of paper.
Unfortunately, the scrap piece of paper was an Advertisement with the word “Why” on it.
Soon after writing the note, Chambers would die in the plane crash.
When his note was delivered, his Mom read the note & beneath his message, his mother saw that word “Why”.
Of all the questions you can ask, “Why” is often the most unanswerable & tormenting question.
We have all had moments of doubt.
Doubt is not the opposite of faith…
it is often the opportunity of faith.
It is comforting to know many people in the Bible experienced times of doubting.
Job, Solomon in Ecclesiastes, David in Psalms all had doubts.
In the N.T., John the Baptist expressed doubt.
He sent 2 messengers to Jesus to ask Him
Matthew 11:3 “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (NLT)
Jesus, are the ‘real deal’?
Seems like a legit question until you consider it wasn’t long before this that John had baptized Jesus (Matthew 3:17) & while he was baptizing Jesus, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (NKJV)
And yet John the Baptist is questioning!
Doubts are normal…even for great Christians.
I want you to know that it is ok to wrestle with the questions you have.
Doubting is not a sin!
I believe the Savior savors serious, seeking, sincere subjects we scrutinize in our soul.
Doubt is questioning and seeking real solutions.
There is a difference between doubt & unbelief.
“Doubt asks the sincere questions, unbelief won’t hear the answers.”
If you struggle with doubts… relax.
Understand that we all go through periods of doubt.
In John 20, we are introduced with possibly the greatest doubter in the Bible.
His name is Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples.
We know him as ‘Doubting Thomas’ & he had a lot of questions.
People today would call him a pessimist.
Do you know what a pessimist is?
A pessimist is someone who feels bad when he feels good because he’s afraid he’ll feel worse when he feels better.
You know anyone like that?
Thomas was a bit like that.
When Jesus wanted to return to Jerusalem to be near his friend Lazarus who was sick & was dying…
And when Jesus wanted to go back to Bethany which was just 2 miles from Jerusalem, here
John 11:16 “Then Thomas, who was called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let’s also go, that we may die with him.’” (NKJV)
Maybe Thomas was saying how devoted he was to Him.
But how many of you would have thought that going to visit someone who was dying might lead to your death?
Thomas sort of had that approach to life.
In the upper room, Jesus was trying to prepare the disciples for His departure & He said: “And where I go you know, and the way you know.” (NKJV) John 14:4
And you gotta’ love Thomas because he was the 1st one to speak up.
John 14:5 “‘No, we don’t know, Lord,’ Thomas said. ‘We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?’” (NLT)
Are you starting to catch a glimpse of this guy Thomas?
He was a questioning person.
Now, please understand that Thomas had faith.
Thomas was not an unbeliever.
He had walked with the other disciples as they followed Jesus across the dusty paths of ancient Israel & watched all the miracles Jesus had performed.
Thomas had heard all Jesus’ sermons & all the words He had said about His death & resurrection.
Thomas had facts to back up his faith & yet he doubted.
What caused Thomas to doubt can cause us to doubt, because he is no different than we are.

1. Doubt increases in isolation
After Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to His disciples when they got together.
John 20:24 “One of the disciples, Thomas, was not with the others when Jesus came.” (NLT)
Guess who wasn’t there? Thomas.
Like Wayne Floyd in Fireproof, maybe Thomas needed some “me time”! (Stephen Dervan)
Maybe he needed some time to process everything that had happened over the previous few days.
Is it a coincidence Thomas doubted in his heart when he was apart from the other disciples?
Doubt is a bigger giant to defeat when we isolate ourselves from other believers.
Even for pastors… I’m so glad the Southern Michigan Conference, of which we are a part of, schedule retreats, conferences, seminars & prayer summits so our pastors are sort of forced to be together.
Without question, fellowship is preventative medicine for doubt & depression.
Doubt is diminished when we’re around other believers & have a kindred spirit & can share what we face without worrying about being judged or ridiculed.
But when that support is severed, the giant of doubt casts a large shadow.
Do you remember when John the Baptist sent his messengers to Jesus to find out if He was the Messiah?
His support was severed in prison after making less than flattering remarks about Herod’s marriage.
Left alone with his thoughts in his cell, John the Baptist is wondering if Jesus was the Messiah.
Doubt creeps in when we’re separated from other Christians & it can become a vicious cycle.
Failing make it to church isolates you which creates more doubt & depression which makes you feel even less like going to church which isolates you even more… and it just continues.

2. Doubt demands evidence
John 20:25 “Unless I see in His hands the print…”
Jesus has died & Thomas isn’t convinced that He’s come back from the grave.
And when he finally gets back together with the other disciples & they say that they’d seen the Lord, Thomas was skeptical.
Thomas said that unless he could see it for himself & he wasn’t going to believe.
Thomas wanted to be sure that it was really Jesus.
Sometimes we’re critical of Thomas because he doubted, but I can’t help but wonder if other disciples in the room wondered had the same doubts.
You gotta’ take your hat off to Thomas… at least he was honest & he said what was in his heart.
When we seriously & sincerely seek answers to our questions, God will meet us @ the point of our need.
Amen?

3. Doubt can draw us closer to Christ
The 1st time Jesus came into the room, Thomas wasn’t there.
But, 8 days later those same disciples got together & this time Thomas was ‘in the house’.
Jesus came even though the doors were shut & stood in the midst of them & said, “Peace be to you.”
The Lord was there for Thomas to see.
If we tell God about our doubts in prayer, it will draw us to the right person… Him!
That’s what happened to Thomas.
In his desire to find the right answers, Thomas found the right person… Jesus.
Do you ever get consumed just thinking about all the things you don’t know?
Some of our questions in life God will not answer.
Did you know that?
But God also answers a lot of our questions clearly.
Someone has said that we need to ‘believe our beliefs & doubt our doubts’.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Don’t let your doubts blow you off course from knowing Jesus like you want to & should…

4. Doubt can deepen your faith
Think about it this way:
Thomas would have never had the opportunity to have seen Jesus like he saw Him if he had never doubted.
Can you imagine someone coming up to Thomas years later & asking him if he believed Jesus rose from the dead?
Thomas would be like, “Oh yeah! Dude, I actually felt where the spear went into His side & the nail prints too!”
On a separate occasion when the disciples were together, doubt was met in the very same way.
Luke 24:38 “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?” (NKJV)
Then He showed them His hands & His feet.
Doubts can build a rock solid faith.
Jacob wrestled with God one night & became a different person.
Wrestling with your doubts honestly can lead you to a stronger faith in God.
Sometimes people say they have doubts because believing would force them to change their life or their attitude or their behavior or their habits…
Often doubts can strengthen our faith.

5. Doubt can define your faith
John 20:28 “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (NKJV)
Can you imagine hearing Thomas say that?
Yes Jesus died in Jerusalem on a cross, but He’s back baby!
“My Lord and my God!”
Pursuing your doubts won’t destroy your faith; it will make it stronger & more vibrant.
How do you defeat the giant of doubt?
admit your doubts personally
You ever been in church or Sunday School & someone shares how great the Lord is & you’re feeling like yesterday’s newspaper?
The 1st step is really to admit that you have doubts.
Don’t deny them or discount them, but admit them.

articulate your doubts clearly
Why do you doubt? What is your doubt?
Do you doubt the Bible? The resurrection?
And why do you doubt?
There is something about writing down your doubts.
When you articulate them then you can more effectively attack them.

acknowledge your doubts prayerfully
Turn your doubts into questions.
Turn your questions into prayers.
Turn your prayers to God.
Pastor, you’re asking me to tell God that I doubt Him?
That’s right.
Take a look @ the scriptures & you’ll find person after person who doubted God & His goodness.
Gideon is a great example.
The angel of the Lord appeared to him & said, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.”
And Gideon said, “Oh, my Lord. If the Lord is with us then why is all this happening to us? And where are all His miracles which our Fathers told us about saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
Isn’t that just a wing dinger of a statement of faith?
God told Abraham & Sarah they were going to have a son & they were both pushing 100.
Wouldn’t you doubt too?
God didn’t send an angel to deliver the baby announcement, He delivered it Himself.
Is anything too hard for God?
And Sarah didn’t just doubt… she LOL’d @ God!
She laughed out loud @ God & didn’t know He was listening!
God said, “You laughed.”
And she said, “No I didn’t.”
And He said, “Yes, you did. I heard you.”
Her laughter was doubt.
Do you need to tell God your doubts so He can know it?
No, He already knows them.
You need to tell God so that you can hear yourself telling God what is going on in your heart.
Believe me, when we verbalize it with our mouth, it makes it more understandable in our heart.

analyze the evidence diligently
Study… learn… investigate…
There has never been a better time in history to try to search out the answers with the amount of information that we have before us.
This week, we had some great teaching on Creationism in our Vacation Bible School.
The answers are there, but ‘do you want them’?

Accept your limitations humbly
Accept your own limitations
I’m just going to put this out there & you can send it back to me if you don’t like it, but none of us here are the smartest people who ever lived.
I’m just a simple country preacher & you’re a simple country church.
There’s a whole lot of stuff I don’t understand.
I ran from the notion of being a preacher for 12 months for a bunch of reasons.
One reason was I thought a preacher had to be the “Shell Answer Man” & I knew I wasn’t that at all.
There’s a ton of stuff I have no clue about even though I study a lot.
The more I study, the more I find out what I don’t know.
I have to ask the Lord to help me understand the stuff I don’t know & admit to Him that I’m pitiful.
Understand that there’s a lot you don’t understand.
So we have human limitations & we also have to accept the limitations of the Bible.
Hear me out before you fire me!
I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
It is not just words about God… it is the Word of God.
It is true & without error from cover to cover.
The Bible has all the truth that you need to know, but it doesn’t have all the truth that there is.
There are issues the Bible doesn’t address.
What the Bible does talk about is absolutely true.
But the Bible probably isn’t going to answer every specific question you want answered in life.
The Bible is the answer to every need you’ll ever have in your life & if you seek to know it better, you’ll be able to find God’s best for your life.
But there are some things the Bible doesn’t address & we’ve got to accept that.

adjust to the complexity of the world
We live in a complex world, don’t we?
The simple answer is there is no simple answer!
We cannot always understand God’s ways & that’s how it should be.
If you could understand God then He wouldn’t be God!
Thank God He has revealed Himself to us through Jesus & through the Bible so we can know what He is like, but He cannot be, should not be on our level!
Some folks want to put God in a box so they can understand Him.
Romans 11:33-36 “Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” (NKJV)
What is Paul saying?
God is awesome.
So awesome you’ll never be able to comprehend even a small portion of who He is.
Isaiah 55:8 “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.” (NKJV)
If you don’t know all there is to know, you can get in my boat.
One unknown poet put it this way:
The world will never adjust itself to suit your whims to the letter. Some things will go wrong your whole life long and the sooner you know it the better. It is folly to fight with the infinite and go down at last in the wrestle. The wiser man shapes into God’s plan like the water shapes into the vessel.
Lord, I don’t understand it all, but You are an awesome God & I will worship You.
In walking through doubts, you can get to know Him better and hopefully in the midst of it all, you can say as Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!”

Topics: doubt

Books Referenced: Isaiah, John, Luke, Matthew, Romans

Names Referenced: Abraham, David, Jacob, Jesus, Job, John the Baptist, Sarah, Solomon, Thomas