Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] At 20 years old, I was a brand new follower of Jesus. And at that time in my life, I loved to talk about Jesus. So you can imagine how exciting it was for me when there was a knock on my door one day and there were a couple people on my doorstep wanting to talk to me about Jesus.
[00:00:19] It was like doordash for Jesus.
[00:00:23] They came in and we talked about and they asked a lot of questions and they left and they came back and they asked a lot more questions and kept coming back.
[00:00:35] Sometimes they would ask questions that I didn't have the answer to. And it seemed to me like they were talking about Jesus from the Bible. But I began to realize they were talking about a very different Jesus than I came to understand.
[00:00:50] Brought a lot of doubts.
[00:00:53] What if what I've just put my faith in isn't true?
[00:00:58] What if the answers that I'm hoping there are to these questions don't turn out to be true?
[00:01:05] I'm so grateful in the midst of the Christian community that I was a part of that I brought these things out with other people. I began to talk with them like, I've got these questions I don't understand. These people are telling me this. What is.
[00:01:20] And I remember a mentor at that time, he said, you've got to engage your doubts, Bob. And I will never forget this. He says, your heart can't fully embrace something that your mind rejects.
[00:01:36] And here's the truth. That wasn't the last time that I had questions. That wasn't the last time that I had doubts about my faith. Even today, there are things that I am wrestling with and here's what I believe to be true.
[00:01:52] Many, if not most of you, if not all of you on some level, have doubts and questions about your faith.
[00:02:01] Is God really real?
[00:02:05] Is this true?
[00:02:07] If God is so loving and caring about my life, why is there so many things in my life that are so hard?
[00:02:14] I feel so abandoned in this life and not even just my life. When I look out at the world, it looks like nobody's in control. There's so much evil and suffering in this world. What's happening? Who's in control?
[00:02:29] And then there's the Bible.
[00:02:31] Is the Bible real?
[00:02:35] You know, if you read this for very long at all, there's some weird stuff in the Bible that we've got to come to grips with.
[00:02:44] And there's things that we know and teach from the Bible that seem so counter to our culture, especially around sex and sexuality.
[00:02:54] What makes us think that Christianity is right on those things?
[00:02:59] And if there's this loving God that just loves people so much.
[00:03:03] Why does the Bible talk about judgment? Why does the Bible talk about a place called hell?
[00:03:11] Where does Christianity come off thinking that they're the only way?
[00:03:18] Here's the deal, friends.
[00:03:21] If you want to have doubts, there's lots of things in this life that can bring about doubts.
[00:03:29] And I still believe that it's true that your heart can't fully embrace something. You can't go all in on something if your mind rejects it.
[00:03:42] That's why we're doing this series.
[00:03:44] We want to engage honestly. We want to explore doubts. We want to explore questions.
[00:03:52] That's what this series is about.
[00:03:54] I want you to explore what are your doubts?
[00:03:58] I'm not asking if you have doubts. I'm asking you what are they. I am assuming that you have doubts, you have questions.
[00:04:07] How are we to view our doubts? Should the fact that we have doubts scare us?
[00:04:13] How does God view our doubts? When we doubt, does he still love me? Is he angry? How does God view our doubts?
[00:04:22] And if we have doubts, if we have questions, what do we do with them?
[00:04:26] How do we actually engage our doubts in a way that is helpful and healthy?
[00:04:32] Another question is, what is your doubt about?
[00:04:35] What is the root cause of your doubt?
[00:04:40] I want to jump into this topic right away. I want to go to the very end of Matthew's Gospel. There's this chunk of three verses that we often refer to as the Great Commission. Jesus is sending out his closest followers with the good news of the Gospel. Here's what the Scripture says. Matthew, chapter 28. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven, on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.
[00:05:22] The Great Commission. The great sending, the good news, the kingdom coming to earth. The most important thing happening on the planet right now.
[00:05:32] The Great Commission.
[00:05:35] But I don't want to focus on that.
[00:05:39] I want to focus on the two sentences that come right before the Great Commission.
[00:05:47] Matthew, chapter 28, starting in verse 16.
[00:05:52] Then it says, Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go when they saw him. They worshiped, but some doubted.
[00:06:13] They worshiped, but some doubted. Who's the they right there?
[00:06:20] That they is the 11 disciples.
[00:06:26] These were the closest followers of Jesus, that they had the most information about Jesus and his teaching. They were there, front row seat for all of it.
[00:06:40] They were the ones that had the most experience of the life of Jesus. They saw everything that he did, the miracles that he did.
[00:06:49] They were the ones that had the most evidence of the resurrected Jesus. He appeared to them over and over again.
[00:07:00] Even still, some doubted.
[00:07:08] Why include this?
[00:07:10] Why would Matthew include this detail?
[00:07:17] Simple.
[00:07:18] Some doubted it was the truth. That was exactly what happened. And friends, this is one of the things that I love about the Bible.
[00:07:29] The Bible was not written to make those that follow Jesus look better than they really are. The Bible tells us what really happened. People's frailties, when they paint a picture of these 11 men, they paint them warts and all. Some of them doubted.
[00:07:47] I love that the Bible doesn't gloss over that.
[00:07:51] Here's what we need to know as well. This is important.
[00:07:54] How did Matthew know that some doubted?
[00:08:00] Maybe he was one of them. Likely one of them.
[00:08:04] But in some way or on some level, they had to be talking with each other about what was happening on the inside of them. Like, wow, this is amazing. Everything that we're seeing and this Great Commission thing, we want to be a part of what Jesus is doing. But I'm not sure that I understand how all this works.
[00:08:24] I don't know if I can put all the pieces together.
[00:08:28] Even though they were the most committed, some doubted.
[00:08:34] What was their doubt about?
[00:08:38] It's interesting, Matthew, he doesn't tell us that.
[00:08:43] Maybe that's not important.
[00:08:46] Maybe what is most important to us, where we sit today is that we hear and we know that the closest disciples of Jesus had doubts.
[00:08:58] They had doubts just like we have doubts.
[00:09:04] Another thing that I think is important when we look at this is how did Jesus respond to this reality that some of the people right there were doubting?
[00:09:15] I mean, wouldn't it make sense that maybe Jesus said, okay, I know some of you are doubting all the doubters. You get over here, you're on the JV team.
[00:09:24] All of you that have full of faith, you're over here, you're the ones that I'm gonna send.
[00:09:31] That is not what Jesus did.
[00:09:35] He made no separation.
[00:09:37] And you know what?
[00:09:39] The text doesn't say that he did anything to try to clear up their doubts before he sent them out.
[00:09:45] Why?
[00:09:46] Because doubt does not make you a bad follower of Jesus.
[00:09:54] It makes you human.
[00:09:56] Here's what we want to learn today and in this series, that doubt is actually a part of faith.
[00:10:04] God wants to use our doubt. Jesus wants to use our doubt to actually Grow our faith to take us to a deeper place.
[00:10:15] Some doubted and Jesus sent him out anyway. Was that reckless?
[00:10:20] The reality is if Jesus only sent out people that didn't doubt, he wouldn't have anybody to send out.
[00:10:28] That's what we know. We all have doubts.
[00:10:33] And it's not true that the deepest faith never doubts, but the deepest faith grows through doubts.
[00:10:40] Doubts don't have to take you away from God.
[00:10:45] Doubts are actually intended to draw us closer to God if we engage them the way God intends.
[00:10:55] And to help us get a picture of how we are to engage these, our doubts in life, our questions in life. I want us to look at a couple famous doubters, a couple of these 11 disciples. What did they teach us about their interactions with Jesus and how Jesus responds to doubt? Now you know it. The first one that we're going to talk about is Thomas.
[00:11:18] Thomas got a nickname in and around doubting.
[00:11:23] He was famous for doubting. And this all came about in those post resurrection appearances.
[00:11:30] There was a time where all the disciples were together except Thomas.
[00:11:36] And Jesus appears to them.
[00:11:40] Now all of these disciples, they tell Thomas what they've seen.
[00:11:46] But what does Thomas do?
[00:11:48] He's like, I'll believe it when I see it.
[00:11:52] I'm a fact checker. I'm gonna, I'm from Missouri, you gotta show me.
[00:11:58] But the text tells us a week later, John 20, starting verse 26, it says a week later, his disciples, they again were in the house and Thomas was with them.
[00:12:15] This time, though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.
[00:12:25] Immediately as Jesus comes into this room, he takes his focus and he turns it to Thomas.
[00:12:32] Then he said to Thomas, why does he turn to Thomas?
[00:12:39] Because he knows Thomas doesn't believe.
[00:12:43] Thomas is skeptical. He wants to give Thomas proof. He wants to give him what he needs.
[00:12:51] He says, put your finger here. See my hands? He reaches out his hand to Thomas.
[00:12:59] He says, reach out your hand and put it in my side.
[00:13:05] Stop doubting and believe.
[00:13:10] If you get nothing else, you've got to see the picture.
[00:13:14] How does Jesus respond to, to doubt?
[00:13:18] It's not scolding, it's not shaming, it's not rejecting in any way.
[00:13:25] Jesus reaches out his hand and says, look at this, Thomas.
[00:13:32] And then he invites Thomas. Thomas, reach your hand out to me.
[00:13:35] Touch me. Let me give you what you need. Let me give you the proof and the answers that you need. Jesus reach, reaches out his hand and friends, if this story is gonna do anything for us, it's got to help us not feel guilty about doubting. If you feel guilty about doubting, don't move toward Jesus.
[00:14:02] Reach out your hand to Jesus.
[00:14:06] Jesus is not distant doubts when you're wondering, when you're wrestling and you're struggling. And it might even feel in some ways like God is so far off.
[00:14:19] Either you have pushed him away or he has walked away from you. You need to look at this story and understand God is right there and he is reaching out his hand to you and his name is Jesus. If you have questions, reach out to him because he is reaching out to you.
[00:14:42] Now, Thomas, he wasn't the only doubter.
[00:14:46] Peter.
[00:14:47] Peter was one of those famous people that had bouts with doubt. And now the hardest thing about this was like, which one do I pick about Peter?
[00:14:59] Peter.
[00:15:01] I want to share this story about when Peter was in a boat with the boys.
[00:15:06] Now, here's how they get in the boat. Jesus has fed thousands of people. He puts them in a boat, sends them across the lake. They are fighting wind and a storm, not making very good progress. Jesus has moved on by himself to pray. But ultimately he realizes, I need to catch back up to them. So Jesus was walks out to them, walking on water.
[00:15:31] Now, when the boys in the boat see Jesus freaks them out.
[00:15:37] This is not what they expected.
[00:15:40] They were gripped with fear.
[00:15:43] But Jesus says to them, take courage.
[00:15:46] It is I don't be afraid.
[00:15:53] And then Peter interacts with Jesus.
[00:15:57] He says, lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water.
[00:16:03] Come, he said.
[00:16:05] Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
[00:16:13] But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried out, lord, so save me.
[00:16:22] Immediately, immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.
[00:16:34] And then he says, this, you of little faith, why did you doubt Peter?
[00:16:43] Why did you doubt?
[00:16:47] Here's the thing we've got to understand about Peter. You can measure him by any measure. He was a man of great faith.
[00:16:57] He was the one who was impetuous. Sometimes moving toward Jesus, moving out of faith, sometimes not thinking. First, he was all in with Jesus.
[00:17:11] But then there were times that it was difficult. It was faith, it was great faith that got Peter out of the boat and walking on water.
[00:17:19] But in the midst of that, it was doubt that caused him to begin to sink.
[00:17:27] Here's what I love.
[00:17:29] I love the question that Jesus asked Peter.
[00:17:34] Again, not scolding for his doubt, he asked him a question. Why did you doubt?
[00:17:43] Jesus is asking Peter, what is the question beneath the question, what is it that's happening in you that is surfacing these doubts in your life?
[00:17:53] Jesus understood that Peter is not gonna let his heart fully embrace something that his mind rejects. Jesus is asking Peter to think.
[00:18:04] Peter, why?
[00:18:06] Why is it that you doubt? Why do you think that the circumstances in this case that you are experiencing are bigger and more fearful than the God you are trusting?
[00:18:21] And here's what I believe is true.
[00:18:24] Jesus wants to ask us that same question.
[00:18:30] Why do you doubt?
[00:18:32] What is it?
[00:18:34] What is it that's happening underneath the surface in your life? What's the question?
[00:18:39] What's the doubt? What's the circumstance?
[00:18:42] What's the reason? What's the question beneath the question that you're facing in your life that makes you think that anything is bigger than me?
[00:18:55] But again, what does Jesus do in the midst of Peter's doubt?
[00:19:01] Immediately, immediately, just like Thomas, Jesus reaches out his hand.
[00:19:09] I believe that is incredibly significant because we need to see again the picture of how does Jesus respond to us in our doubt? He reaches out his hand.
[00:19:21] He's not trying to just get Peter to understand something. He wants to shape Peter's heart. And in the midst of his doubt, he understands it's more than not just answering his doubt, but to reach out and to hold him and to help him.
[00:19:36] Jesus wants you near in the midst of your doubt.
[00:19:41] Why do you doubt?
[00:19:43] That's the question for us. Why is it that we doubt?
[00:19:49] And probably anytime that I ever talk about this text, I believe there's a question that we need to ask. And I think in some ways, it might be the most important question about this text. Not just what Jesus said to Peter, but how did Jesus say it?
[00:20:07] I remember what it was like when I was a kid, and I would say something and I would get in trouble with my mom, and I would just say, well, all I said was blank.
[00:20:16] And she's like, it's not what you said, it's how you said it.
[00:20:23] You've heard that, too.
[00:20:25] There's a great principle there.
[00:20:28] Only a small percentage of communication is actually the words that are spoken.
[00:20:33] Body language, tone of voice carries way more meaning than just the simple words that are said. How.
[00:20:42] How did Jesus say this to Peter?
[00:20:46] Do you picture him as angry and frustrated?
[00:20:51] Like, come on, Peter, why did you doubt?
[00:20:56] I mean, come on, you're crying about the waves. Get back in the boat. I'll give you something to cry about.
[00:21:02] Not gentle parenting.
[00:21:06] I mean, that might be an extreme way to talk about tough love, but do you think that's what Jesus did.
[00:21:14] No, I don't either. I can't prove this, but I imagine that when Jesus reached out his hand, there was a smile on his face.
[00:21:28] And this might be getting a little extreme. I think he might have even just kind of winked at Peter a little bit.
[00:21:34] Peter, you have little faith.
[00:21:38] Why'd you doubt?
[00:21:40] And he reached out his hand and he grabbed him and he pulled him up.
[00:21:47] That's the picture that we need to have. When we bring our doubts to Jesus, he's not angry and frustrated. He wants you to bring your doubts and your questions to him. And I can promise you, just like these men learned, as he reaches out his hand to us, we reach our hand out to him. That's how we engage our doubts.
[00:22:12] And we've got to do that.
[00:22:15] What you're going to find is patience, kindness and mercy from Jesus.
[00:22:26] Let me just stop for a second and think about the end of Matthew in 28 and thinking about the story of Thomas, thinking about the story of Peter.
[00:22:36] I want to summarize what I believe to be true about doubts and what our doubts don't do. Your doubts don't disappoint Jesus.
[00:22:49] They don't.
[00:22:51] He's not frustrated with them. He's not afraid of them. He's got answers for those doubts. Actually, your doubts don't distance you from Jesus.
[00:23:01] Jesus moves toward doubt. Jesus reaches out his hand.
[00:23:07] Your doubts don't define your life.
[00:23:12] It's not the biggest thing about you.
[00:23:16] It's a part of who we are. It's a part of what we're wrestling with. But it doesn't define your life. And your doubts don't disqualify your faith.
[00:23:24] Jesus is reaching his hand out to us even in the midst of our doubt.
[00:23:30] Doubt is normal.
[00:23:34] Everyone doubts.
[00:23:36] Doubt is part of the human experience, and it is part of following Jesus, and it is part of faith.
[00:23:43] But we have to engage our faith.
[00:23:46] We have to engage our doubts with faith.
[00:23:50] Here's oftentimes what we think, and I said this, I believe in a sermon not that long ago. Oftentimes what we think is that the opposite of faith. And if I were to ask many people what is the opposite of faith, oftentimes their gut response is doubt.
[00:24:07] That's not what the Bible talks about. The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is disobedience in the midst of faith and doubt that can exist together.
[00:24:21] The only problem we have is when we disobey, when we choose to walk away. Now, you can walk away in your doubt, but Jesus is not going to walk away in your doubt.
[00:24:32] He won't.
[00:24:34] We have to engage our doubts. I love how Oswald Chambers in his book Disciples Indeed he said, this doubt is not always a sign that a man is wrong. It may be a sign that he's thinking.
[00:24:49] We're actually just thinking critically about how we're what we're seeing in the world, what we're seeing in our life.
[00:24:56] And we engage questions, we engage doubt, because we know that our hearts is never going to fully embrace something if our mind rejects that. We have to engage our doubts.
[00:25:10] So here's your assignment.
[00:25:13] Not that hard, but really important.
[00:25:17] I want you to answer a question.
[00:25:20] What are your doubts?
[00:25:25] What are your questions?
[00:25:29] I want you to ask that honestly before yourself and before God. And here's what I want you to do. I want you to write it down, own it. What are the things that are maybe nagging in the back of my mind or in the bottom of my heart that are maybe even keeping me from going all in with Jesus? What are your doubts?
[00:25:53] Because here's what's true, friends. Your doubts will never be diffused if they can't be defined.
[00:26:00] What is it that is causing you doubt?
[00:26:06] And the next question beneath that is, why?
[00:26:09] Where is that coming from?
[00:26:11] The question that Jesus asked Peter, why did you doubt?
[00:26:16] Here's what I want you to know. If you do this assignment, you. You will not be alone in this room.
[00:26:23] We were preparing for this sermons. Oftentimes I share with you that we have a group of fact or our pastors and staff that we get together and we kind of wrestle with these topics ourselves. And so in the midst of that, I just asked everyone in the room, like, let's not just assume that it's everyone out there that has doubts and we don't. What are your doubts? Doubts.
[00:26:46] Everyone around the room had doubts and questions. Things that we're wrestling with, things that we don't have answers to. Oftentimes it's even things that are happening in the lives of people that we love in and around us. Pain and loss.
[00:27:02] How does this all make sense?
[00:27:04] Things that we wrestle with. If you do this, you will not be alone.
[00:27:11] I promise you.
[00:27:13] But secondly, after you write those things down, here's the next step.
[00:27:20] I want you to talk to someone.
[00:27:22] I want you to talk to someone, another follower of Jesus. Maybe it's a mentor, maybe it's just a friend. But I want you to get it out into the open. Bring it out into the world.
[00:27:34] We need to learn to bring our doubts out on the table, turn the cards, feed face up with each other.
[00:27:42] That's what I take from that very first scripture in Matthew 28. The reason that Matthew knew that people were doubting is because they were talking about it. They were wrestling with it together, friends. That's what we need to do. We need to wrestle with those things together.
[00:28:00] And if we talk, and if we talk about it, here's the next question.
[00:28:06] How do we actually engage our doubts together in a healthy way?
[00:28:13] Like what is. There's got to be more to it than just sharing those. I want to share with you one small command of scripture tucked away in a book that we don't get to very often. The Book of Jude, the one chapter, verse 22.
[00:28:32] Here's what the scripture says.
[00:28:34] Be merciful to those who doubt.
[00:28:42] Be merciful to those who doubt. That's what we need to do if we're gonna bring our stuff, our doubts, our questions out into the open. It says, be merciful. Be kind, be compassionate, be patient, be full of grace.
[00:29:01] You see what I'm saying? I'm just saying be like Jesus was when he engaged the doubts of others.
[00:29:08] Be the kind of person that will reach out your hand and will grab another person's hand.
[00:29:14] And be the kind of person that's willing to reach out your hand to others.
[00:29:19] Here's the thing. This command of Scripture, it assumes.
[00:29:24] It assumes that the doubts are known. It assumes that we've turned all the cards face up on the table.
[00:29:32] Friends, this is incredibly important for Journey Church. I can't emphasize this enough.
[00:29:39] This church, our church, needs to be a safe place for people to actually wrestle with their doubts.
[00:29:49] We need to create environments that. Where people feel safe to talk about the questions and the things that are difficult for them. Maybe it is right here in this church environment, which we're gonna be doing over the next several weeks as we engage questions. But it needs to be more than that.
[00:30:06] It can't just be in the church environment or these gathered environments. It needs to be in your homes.
[00:30:13] Kids, young people, you need to share your doubts and your questions with your parents.
[00:30:21] Parents, you need to share your doubts and your questions with your kids.
[00:30:28] Because if this is true, we all need to engage in this together. And we learn from one another as we engage in these things together in our church, in our homes, in our small groups, in your small group, don't just assume that nobody's got questions but you raise your hand.
[00:30:46] Put your group leader on the spot. Group leader, put the people in your group on the spot. What are your questions? What are your doubts? We've got to learn to talk about it. Small groups, friend groups, whoever it is, we've got to learn to talk to one another.
[00:31:06] But here's my fear.
[00:31:09] Dang it.
[00:31:10] I think that there are a lot of people that just don't feel safe asking questions.
[00:31:18] Environments like this, I think it's true.
[00:31:22] I think they want to, but there's something in them. They're just like, I don't want to be embarrassed.
[00:31:29] I don't want to be ashamed. I don't want to be insecure. I don't want it to look like I don't fit in with everybody else. You fit in.
[00:31:38] We can be fearful. What will other people think of me? Will they look down on me like I'm not a person of faith?
[00:31:47] Will someone just say to me, well, you just need to believe, Just have more faith?
[00:31:52] Those bumper sticker answers, you're wondering, what if I'm the only one?
[00:31:59] You're not.
[00:32:00] You're not the only one. We need to be a kind of environment where questions, doubts are actually celebrated when we bring those to the table with one another.
[00:32:12] And isn't it interesting, I want to.
[00:32:15] That the one thing that Jude talks about in the midst of those who doubt is that we would show mercy.
[00:32:26] Makes it seem like what Jude's saying is the most important thing that we can do is to have the right posture toward people, that we are kind and loving and compassionate and patient with people in their doubts.
[00:32:38] You know what it doesn't say?
[00:32:41] It doesn't say, be corrective with those who doubt. Be articulate with those who doubt.
[00:32:48] Be intelligent. Be confident. Be right with those who doubt.
[00:32:55] Now, there's nothing wrong with any of those words that I just shared, but I'm just saying this. The command says, that's not our lead foot.
[00:33:04] Our lead foot is mercy, not just right answers.
[00:33:10] And here's why I believe that that's true.
[00:33:14] And we see it so clearly in how Jesus approached Thomas, how Jesus approached Peter. He reached out his hand. Jesus reached out his hand to Peter and said, why did you doubt again?
[00:33:31] Jesus asked a question because he's looking for the question underneath the question. Peter, what is happening in your heart? He doesn't want to just change Peter's behavior. He wants to change his heart. What is the doubt beneath the doubt? What is the deeper question?
[00:33:51] And here's what I've found in engaging with people around their doubts. Oftentimes, the presenting question that they might give you is not the real thing.
[00:34:02] It's not the real question, does God really exist? Is God really loving?
[00:34:08] Sometimes that's what they will say.
[00:34:11] But most of the time, if we ask the question beneath the question, they're dealing with incredible pain and loss and suffering in this life. And they're just trying to figure out, like, how do I. How do I bring that together in this life? If you're telling me that God is like this and my experience is like this, how does that fit together? You need to ask the question beneath the question.
[00:34:37] And that same person that told me once that your heart will never embrace something that your mind rejects, he also just says, as you're talking with people about Jesus, answer the questioner, not the question.
[00:34:54] What did he mean by that?
[00:34:56] He means, what is happening in their life? What is the thing that is causing this? Down. Answer the questioner, not just the question.
[00:35:06] Because when we know where it's coming from, we'll realize sometimes an answer really isn't what they need.
[00:35:17] Mercy is what they need.
[00:35:20] They need us to be like Jesus.
[00:35:22] They're drowning and he's reaching out their hand saying, save me. That we would be like Jesus. We'd be merciful. We would grab their hand and we would hold them and we would help them. Then maybe there would be a time to give answers to the questions.
[00:35:38] But always answer the questioner, not just the question.
[00:35:44] In the midst of a conversation this week, as we were talking about this, a friend of mine said, the right answer to the wrong question is the wrong answer.
[00:35:54] And that's what I think Jude is talking about.
[00:35:57] Our doubts don't just need answers.
[00:36:00] They need mercy.
[00:36:02] They need mercy with skin on, someone that can show them Jesus.
[00:36:10] Friends, in your doubts, you're gonna get sick of me saying this.
[00:36:15] Jesus is reaching out to you.
[00:36:18] He's not running from you. He is reaching out to you. And if we're gonna engage this the way that Jesus invites us to engage, we reach our hand back out to him.
[00:36:30] That's what this series is going to be about.
[00:36:33] We want to create space to be honest, honest about our questions, as honest as we can be about the answers to those questions, so that at the end of this, we actually begin to grow an honest faith.
[00:36:50] Here's what I want to say. We may not engage the biggest question that you have about your faith. And even if we do, we may not answer it in a way that absolutely 100% satisfies you, but we're gonna engage it.
[00:37:07] We're gonna do everything we can to make this a safe place.
[00:37:14] What are your doubts.
[00:37:17] What are your doubts?
[00:37:19] Your heart's never gonna embrace something that your mind rejects.
[00:37:25] We've got to reach out our hand to Jesus because he is reaching out his hand to us in our doubts.
[00:37:33] Let's pray.
[00:37:40] Jesus, I'm so thankful for your word.
[00:37:45] I'm so thankful for even what these pictures of how you engage doubt in this world with those that were closest to you, how that has just removed so much fear in my own life. I don't have to be afraid of asking questions, Jesus.
[00:38:03] You're not afraid of questions, Jesus. You've got answers.
[00:38:08] But even more than that, Jesus, you've got your presence.
[00:38:13] You want us to move toward you.
[00:38:15] Jesus, I pray over not only this moment and this sermon and these people, Lord, I pray over this series that we would sense you being with us in the midst of doubt.
[00:38:29] Jesus, we trust you.
[00:38:32] There's no other name under heaven that we trust more than you.
[00:38:37] And it's in your powerful and resurrected name that we pray. And all God's people said, amen.
