Why Do You Doubt?

Good morning.

Yo, the first service I almost cried when I came out.

Um cuz our worship team is fire, man.

Um they were and it's amazing how when you get to app you get the glimpse of Jesus like sometimes you want to cry and then sometimes you want to come out you want to go to war and so now I want to like I'm like it's a different a different feeling this time cuz I don't want to cry at all.

I just want to preach the gospel.

So we're going to do that today.

Uh if you don't know me my name is Adrian.

I am the student pastor here at Camelback uh with my wife Rosanna.

Uh she you probably heard her in the back uh screaming.

She's not out here yet.

Uh 42 minutesbut yeah, there she is.

Uh and then we get to lead that with with my guy up here, Nick.

Nick leads worship over there.

He gives messages.

Um we have Andrea that's over there.

And we just have people that fill in and and help out.

And it's an amazing ministry and I promise you that we are pointing your kids to Jesus.

We're walking them through the Bible.

Um we are trying to prepare them for the life they are going to face when when they step out of your house um when they step into their own life and and so they can lead their family.

So we are trying to do that.

We are in the middle of a series.

Um actually do me a favor.

Go ahead and pull out your Bibles.

Yeah.

Same thing.

Okay.

So, I love you guys.

Homework assignment.

Two homework assignments.

One, bring your Bibles next week.

Okay?

It's the spirit.

It's the sword of the spirit.

Bring your Bibles.

Let's go old school.

Get a Bible carrier.

My My wife and my the Joy have uh Mary Poppins endless bags of markers and things that they use to mark up their Bible.

Bring your Bibles, man.

It's different.

You feel different walking with the sword of the spirit in your hand.

That's cool with it on your phone.

That's cool.

Bring your Bible, open it up, smell it.

It's a living and active.

Pastor Danny went over that's living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.

So, we're going to be in Matthew.

Matthew's towards the back of the Bible.

It's the first book of the New Testament, and we're going to be in Matthew 14, and we're going to be answering the question.

The second homework assignment was you need to go back and go through the sermon series again and watch it because it is amazing.

Uh if you want the full experience, which I would recommend, uh you can find worship announcements and message online, but Pastor Danny has or Pastor Wes, I'm sorry, has also clipped the sermon itself.

So if you're short on time, but you just want to be fed, then you could just open up the message.

And the messages are phenomenal.

The cool thing about it is when you hear it the first time, you're trying to get an understanding. you're trying to get your bearings of what's going on, but then when you hear it the second time, you start picking up on stuff that that you didn't catch the first time.

And so I was in here in the hallways painting as I was preparing for this message.

And man, I almost cried twice, I think, uh with with Wes for sure and then with Danny.

Uh Pastor James had me laughing because he said he said some crazy stuff.

I was like, "Hey." Um, Pastor Karen had me like I wanted to go paint like go do stuff like because she's like, "Hey, we got to go and we got to be the hands and feet of Christ and be the soldiers and we got to go out and do stuff." So, go watch the series, be fed throughout the week.

Don't come on Sunday and then expect to survive to Sunday without feeding your spiritual self.

All right?

So, they're there.

Jump on there.

Instead of watching Joe Rogan or whatever you watch, watch watch Pastor James get up here.

It's been a phenomenal series.

If you guys didn't know, we had the Avengers up here, man.

Pastor James, Karen, Danny, Shaven.

Uh, shout out, Pastor Shav.

We love you.

We're praying for you.

Uh, everybody's been up here.

And they've been killing it.

And so, you need to go check those out.

But the question I'm going to be answering today that Jesus asked was, "Why did you doubt?

Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Now, I I picked this one because this is something I talk to our kids about all the time because it's something that we have to get out of the stigma that it's it's bad or that that we shouldn't do it.

In fact, if you've ever doubted at any point in your faith walk, at any point in your life, raise your hand for me for for real.

Raise your hand if you've ever doubted.

Now, what I need you to do is I need you to look around.

Keep your hand up.

Keep your hand up.

I need you to look around for real.

Look around and look at all the people that you walk in here with every week.

You can put your hand down. that have also doubted.

So when you do something that you think is against God, the enemy will try to shame you and say no one else is doing that.

But you just saw with your eyes that everybody or almost everybody in here has doubted.

So you so you are where you are supposed to be.

That's what the church is for.

The church is a bunch of people that are walking through life struggling and living and rejoicing and and praising God doing it together.

That's why we say welcome home because we want you to come in and know that you are at home and know that there's not judgment and know that you are not farther behind than anybody else but you are walking into a group of people that are also going through the things that you're going through.

And when you have that freedom, then you're not worried about just doubt.

Then you can go to somebody say, "Hey, I need prayer because I'm struggling with this." And that's hard to be seen like that.

But that's what we're called to do.

That's right.

So let's tear that down right now.

We've all doubted.

The question is, what do we do with that doubt?

So, we're in Matthew through33.

We're going to be answering three things.

What causes doubt?

Where does that doubt push us?

And is it okay to doubt?

And then, what do we do when we doubt?

When we inevitably doubt God's plan, when we inevit inevitably doubt what God says about us, what do we do with that?

Okay.

And if you tap on the front, if you brought your phone, there's there's a sticker in front of you.

There's there's notes in there.

There's a couple fill in the blanks.

It says, "What do we do when we doubt?" We remember God, what God has done for us, and we remind oursel of who God is.

Okay?

That's what we do.

So, now you got the notes.

Now you know where we're going.

Let's go.

All right.

So, we're in Matthew 14.

A lot of things have happened.

Jesus just fed 5,000 people.

He did a miracle.

Jesus is the God, man. is God completely that chose to come down in a human body and confine himself to the limitations of a human.

So when he does things, he needs to rest.

He needs to to sleep and eat and refuel.

So he just did a miracle and we jump into this narrative and it says immediately he made the disciples go into a boat and go before him to the other side where he dismissed the crowds.

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain to by himself to pray.

When evening came, he was there alone.

But the boat by this time was a long way away from the land, beaten by waves, for the wind was against them.

And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea.

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and they said, "It is ghost." And they cried out in fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take heart.

It is I.

Do not be afraid." And Peter answered him and said, 'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.' And he said, 'Come.' So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and he began to sink.

And he cried out, "Lord, save me." And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, "Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly, you are the son of God." There are two words in the Greek uh that they use for doubt.

There's dustato which means to waver.

So when we doubt, we waver like we we freeze.

We stop.

We we're unsure.

And there's another one that's dip dipsuchos, which means to be double-minded.

And this is what James talks about in the book of James where he says when you pray pray and don't doubt because someone that doubts is is a double-minded person that is rock to and to and fro like a like a boat on the water.

And so we have these two views of doubt.

That's what doubt is.

Is when is when we waver or we become doubleminded in our walk with God.

So what causes doubt?

Why do we doubt? in our narrative uh verse 29 Jesus calls out to Peter and Jesus or Peter calls out to Jesus and Jesus says come and it says and Peter got down out of the boat he walked uh on the water and came to Jesus but when he saw the wind he was afraid and began to sink and cried out Lord save me when he saw the wind when he was distracted by something outside of his view of Christ when he took his eyes off Jesus is he was distracted and he began to sink.

Now, now when we read, right?

This is why school is so important because we got to read.

We got to have some comprehensive skills and we got to understand, but we got to read this because they're telling a story.

They're telling us, they're giving us a lot of information.

And it says, "But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and he began to sink and cried out, Lord, save me." And immediately Jesus reached out.

Immediately means immediately.

Right away.

It doesn't say he walked to him.

It doesn't say he ran to him or teleported to him.

It says that he reached out and grabbed him as he began to sink.

That means he was close enough to Jesus to reach out to Jesus and take hold of Jesus.

But because he was distracted and he took his focus off Jesus, Jesus reached out and saved him just like Jesus does with all of us.

I don't know who it was.

I can't remember, but I want to give it I'll give it to Spurgeon.

He said, "You're as close to God as you want to be." We we are close, but do we take our eyes off Jesus?

Now, he began to sink.

If you've ever been in a dunk tank, as soon as that ball hits that lever, you drop fast.

You are soaking wet.

So, he began to sink.

And this is not quicksand, it's water.

And Jesus snatched him up quick.

And I know he's God in the flesh, but that is pretty good reaction time.

And that is how willing and fast Jesus is willing to pull you out of your sinful life and snatch you into heaven.

Why do we doubt?

Because we lose focus on what is important and what is true.

Jesus asked him the question, why did you doubt?

And we don't get a response because the question is supposed to be asked for eternity going forward until we are in heaven.

When you doubt, why do you doubt?

Often times it's because we put the focus on ourselves.

When we are following God's will and we are in his in his will and we start doubting why am I doubting and your answer would generally be I'm not good enough.

I'm not I'm not strong enough.

I'm not equipped to do this.

He must have got it wrong.

I I don't think I can handle it.

I I And we start do using these Iwords.

We make it about us and we stop focusing on the one that called us there.

We stop focusing on the one that brought us there.

We stop focusing on the one that lives inside of us and that will carry us through and we focus on what we can do.

And let me tell you, you probably can't.

And that's okay.

Paul says, and and if you haven't, go back.

Pastor me or Pastor James preaches on this all the time, but Paul says praying to God because he he was dealing with something.

He says that God said, "But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness." And Paul says, "Therefore, I will mo more gladly boast or I will gladly boast all the more about my weakness so that Christ's power may reside in me." If you are a believer, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.

And he is the one that gets you.

And when you take your focus off him and you take your focus off God and you let the things around you distract you, we start to sink and we need to cry out to the Lord that saved us.

There's a parable in Jesus in the parable he's talking about a sewer.

He's sewing seeds and the seeds of the gospel and they get sewn in different places.

And he says, 'The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word making it unfruitful.

The worries of this life, I we all have worries in this life.

And if we focus on them instead of God, we start to sink.

If we focus on ourselves instead of God, we start to sink.

The other way that doubt sinks in is through worldly input.

Now, we live in the world.

We are not of the world, but we are in the world.

And and there is wisdom in the world.

And and we know that that wisdom that the world has comes from God because God is wisdom because Jesus is the truth.

And so if they stumble upon some wisdom, sometime we we should take that and put it up against the Bible.

But often times the wisdom that the world gives us is not the wisdom that we need.

And it will put seeds of doubt into us.

And we see this immediately in Genesis 3.

In Genesis 3, it says, 'Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the 55 minutesgarden?

It's just a seed of doubt.

He didn't command Eve to do anything.

He didn't say you should do anything.

He just asked a question to plant a seed of doubt that and then he asked more questions that just skewed the word a little bit. just skewed Adam and Eve's view of God just enough for them to make a decision that would corrupt the world.

And we often get that when we go to friends that don't follow the word.

Sure, they they can give us some good advice, but more often than not, they're going to lead us.

They're going to put doubt in our hearts about God and lead us in a place that takes our eyes off Christ.

We need to keep our eyes on Christ and know where our wisdom comes.

So, we know what doubt is.

We know how it's defined.

We know where it comes from.

What do we do when we doubt?

And is it okay to doubt?

We saw that everybody doubted or everybody in here has had doubts.

Are we all falling away and wrong?

I would say not.

Doubt can either push us towards God or away from God.

God uses doubt to push us towards him.

And we see it time and again in scripture.

The enemy will use doubt to try to pull us away from God.

We just saw it in the garden.

The greatest fall.

We s we see it with Judas.

They will he will try to use doubt to pull us away from God.

If we think back to week one, Pastor Wes's message, there was a storm and Jesus was with the disciples in the storm and they thought they were going to die.

They forgot immediately that he was doing miracles.

They forgot that he had called them, that he had a purpose for them.

And they went down and they were like, "Are you going to let us die in the storm?" They forgot.

They doubted what their call was and so they went to Christ.

Now, amen.

They doubted and they went to Christ.

Beautiful.

But they doubted.

And Jesus gets up and he rebukes the winds and the waves and he gets back in the boat and they go they they ask this question.

They say, 57 minutesit says they became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?" They ask a question.

Their doubt leads them to ask a question.

Who is this that the wind and and waves would obey him?

Now, we see Jesus send them into another storm.

And when we read it, it says that they weren't afraid of the storm.

It's in the morning, fourth watch of the night.

They just been listening to Jesus preach all day.

They were probably doing stuff.

They were helping Jesus in his ministry.

Then he sends them to to go paddle across.

It says the waves were beating against them and they were going.

They knew their doubt had been answered and and they were firm in the fact that Jesus, God was going to get them across this water.

The storm didn't matter.

But what freaked them out was they saw someone walking on the water that that they thought was a ghost.

That freaked them out.

Which rightfully so.

If nowadays we'd be like, "Oh, it's the reflection of the moon on the" and we try to explain it off to them.

They're like, "There's a ghost coming at us.

We've seen Jesus cast out demons.

It's probably a demon.

They're probably trying to come kill us." and and Peter Peter yells out to God and God calls him onto the water and and we could say that Peter had so much faith that he went out.

We could say Peter doubted and that's why he called on God and we get that narrative.

But after Jesus asked the question, why did you doubt?

And and Peter doesn't answer.

And I'm sure Peter was like, well, because I can't I can't walk on water.

I can't survive the storm.

I can't sustain this.

Jesus, they go back in the boat and watch how the disciples respond this time.

It says, "And those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, you are certainly God's son.

Certainly, you are the son of God." The first storm, they were like, "Who is this that that everything obeys?" The second storm, they were like, "You are you're the son of God." Their question went to a proclamation.

They were questioning who this was, and now they're proclaiming who they know it to be.

Pastor Danny talked about who do you say that I am?

It's the most important question we'll ever answer because who we say Jesus is will guide how we live the rest of our lives.

And they proclaimed who Jesus was.

Peter Peter fell in the water.

Later on, Pastor Shaban's talking about how God redeemed him by asking him if he loved him.

He he said, "Peter, do you love me?" Asked him three times.

Breaks down some Greek in there.

It's a really good message.

You should go check it out on YouTube.

And it says in that narrative, it says they were fishing offshore and John saw Jesus and he goes, "Hey, I think I think that's Jesus on the shore." And Peter put on his clothes.

He was naked for whatever reason.

Put on his clothes, jumped into the water, and swam to shore.

Now, they weren't far.

There was no raging storm, but he swam about 100 yards.

That's a football field.

I don't know if you've ran 100 yards recently, but it's pretty tiring to swim 100 yards fully clothed is probably tiring.

Most of us probably would drown.

Peter didn't care.

Peter didn't wait for God to call him and say, "Yes, Peter, come." Peter didn't wait for the shore to go in.

Peter set his sights on Jesus. 1 hour, 8 secondsHe learned from his doubt and he said, "I'm going to my savior right now.

I'm not waiting for anybody." And he swam to shore and he was the first one to get 1 hour, 15 secondsthere with Jesus.

God used his doubt to push him to stronger and more belief.

Is 1 hour, 22 secondsit okay to doubt?

Let me read a couple of things that happened that the that the disciples witnessed.

Okay, stay with 1 hour, 31 secondsme.

They witnessed Jesus turn water into wine, cast out unclean spirits, heal Peter's mother-in-law, cleanse a leper, 1 hour, 39 secondsheal a paralytic man, heal a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, raised a widow son from the dead, calmed the 1 hour, 45 secondsstorm, casted a demon, casted demons into a herd of pigs, healed a woman with chronic bleeding, raised Gyrus's 1 hour, 52 secondsdaughter from the dead, fed 5,000, walked on water, fed 4,000, healed the boy with the demon, told John to go catch a fish that Jesus said would have a coin in its mouth.

And there was a coin in the mouth.

Healed a a man born blind, raised Lazarus from the dead, healed blind Baramus, cursed a fig tree, healed Malchus's uh severed ear, and resurrected.

They witnessed this.

They saw it firsthand.

So much so that at the end of the book of John, John writes, "Jesus did many other things as well.

Every one of them if they were written down I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

He did so many miracles in their presence that if they he just listed the important ones.

They they witnessed this.

He died and resurrected and the woman he told them I'm going to die.

I'm going to resurrect.

I need you to meet me in Jerusalem.

They didn't go to Jerusalem.

So the women were at the tomb and he tells Jesus tells them, "Go tell the men to go to Jerusalem." So the women go back and they say, "Hey, Jesus said you need to go to Jerusalem like he told you." And they're like, "He's dead." They're doubting, but they go to Jerusalem.

Okay.

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus reveals himself to Simon and to another apostle.

And then he goes and and and the disciples, 10 of the 11 disciples, because Judas is dead, are in the upper room in Jerusalem with the door locked. and Jesus and and and they're there and they're probably scared and they're probably praying.

They're definitely doubting.

They don't know what what to do.

And they look around and Jesus is there.

Somehow he got through locked doors.

He appeared.

He is God.

He's the God man.

With man all with God all things are possible.

So I don't know how he did that.

I can't explain it to you.

But he did it.

And he looks at him and he says to them,"Wh are you troubled?

Why do doubts arise in your hearts?

You just seen me live, die, resurrect.

I've performed all these miracles.

You see me here.

You see my hands and my feet.

It's it's I.

It's myself.

Touch me and see me.

For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." Why do you doubt?

He's not condemning them.

He's not mad at them.

He's not angry.

He wants them to say, "Why are we doubting this when we've seen it?

How is it going to push us?

Where is it going to lead us?

Now it gets better.

Actually, I need to jump in and I need you guys to lay off my brother Thomas and stop call calling him doubting Thomas." Okay, he doubted one.

All of them were there.

They all doubted.

All the apostles doubted.

So, stop picking on Thomas and calling him the doubting apostle and all.

They all did it.

Okay?

They're all in the same boat.

Anyway, 40 days later, Jesus tells him, "Come and meet me on this mountain.

I got one last command to give you." Pastor Karen goes over that and her message, but watch it on YouTube.

It's amazing.

It says, "Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshiped and some doubted." They've witnessed all these things.

He's asked them multiple times why you doubt.

Right after this, they're going to see him ascend into heaven.

And yet there's still doubt in their hearts.

Is it okay for you to doubt?

Absolutely.

If the disciples that witnessed all these things, if the disciples that received the closest teachings of Jesus that that he explained everything to him, he took them up to a mountain and they visibly saw him with Elijah and Moses.

If they doubt, then we're going to doubt.

The question is not are we going to doubt, it's what do we do when we do doubt?

Where does it push us? 10 days later pre uh Peter preaches at Pentecost and he saves 3,000 people.

He doesn't say, the spirit does, but through his preaching, the spirit works and 3,000 people are saved.

And ultimately, Peter is crucified upside down.

James is beheaded by by Herod in the book of Acts.

We read about that Andrew was crucified and preached for two days on the cross that he was crucified on.

Thomas is martyed in India.

Nathaniel is skinned alive.

Matthew is killed in Ethiopia.

Philip, James, Paul, Simon, and Jude are also killed.

There are two Jameses.

Just if you're not aware of that, they're all killed.

What does that mean?

If you doubt something and someone asks you to risk your life on that thing, you are not going to risk your life on something that you are not sure of.

If there is doubt in your heart, you're going to be like, hold hold on.

Maybe I'm not 100% sold on this.

Maybe.

And that's not what happens.

And they know how they're going to die.

It wasn't a secret.

And they that all they had to do was deny Jesus.

And they doubled down.

They preached on a cross for two days calling out the gospel, telling people about the one that is inside them that takes away their doubt so that they would be willing to die like this so that the church could take off so that we could be here today and we can go out and tell people.

I'm not telling you you have to do this, but I'm telling you that you need to check the doubt in your heart.

Paul says that we take captive everything that lifts itself up against God.

Yes, we are at war.

We take it captive because we don't wrestle with flesh and blood.

We wrestle with things that we we can't even see and we can't even know.

And so, we take that doubt captive and we hold it up against God and we allow him to do it.

One of my favorite uh theologians and uh philosophers, his name is Kevin Burgess, he says, "That's why I doubt my doubts.

That's why I doubt my doubts because they just push me closer to the one who has them figured out.

That's what your doubt should do.

When you have a doubt, acknowledge it.

Don't try to deny it and then allow it to push you closer to the one who you know has the answers.

So what do we do when we don't?

We remember what God has done for us.

God has done these things as a testimony for us to remember what he's done.

In the Old Testament, over a hundred times, he tells the Israelites, "Remember who led you out of Egypt.

Remember who led you out of slavery.

Remember who led you across the Red Sea.

Remember who led you through the desert.

Remember who led you into the promised land.

Remember who gave you the promised land.

Remember," and they doubted all the time.

Over hund they That's all they did.

And he's like, "Remember what I've done so that you will not doubt." We have to remember what God has done for us.

Psalm 42:6 says, "My soul is downcast within me.

Therefore, I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermit, and from Mount Mazar." In Psalm 103:2, it says, "Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits." We have to remember what God has done for us, and we have to remember who God is.

He's not just some little God that we worship here.

He is the God of all the universe.

He has created all things.

If you don't know who God is, go to the end of the book of Job and God will ask you a bunch of questions about where were you at when he created the stars?

Where were you at when he shaped the Leviathan out of nothing?

Where were you at?

And so you could be reminded of who the God is that you serve.

Because sometimes it's not enough just to remember, oh, God did this for me.

Sometimes we have to remember this is who God is.

So about 5 years ago, I was at work.

I worked at Banner.

Uh I worked at on the shipping dock.

I did all the receiving and all that.

And I was I had just applied for a job.

I was about to get a promotion.

I was about to make mad loot a lot of money.

Um and I got a call from Karen and Karen's like, "Hey, I got a question for you." I'm like I was like, "What's up?" And then she said, "Would you want to be a middle school teacher?" And I said, "Absolutely not.

I appreciate you.

I appreciate you calling." And she said, "No, no, no, no, no.

Serious." Cuz she knows I like to mess around.

And she said, "I'm serious.

I really pray about it.

I really think this would be a good fit." And so I prayed.

I I talked to people that I know are in God's will and they align themselves with God's.

I know they would tell me the truth.

And and I got a lot of like, "Hey, you would be really good at that.

You should give it a shot." And I prayed and I said, "God, I'm not doing your will here.

I'm not talking about you at work and I want to have an impact.

I want to do what you want me to do.

So if you know that I'm not going to have an impact here, let me take that other job.

Let me let me go be a teacher." And so I ended up being a teacher because I just was being led that I'm not I haven't done it in seven years.

Why am I all of a sudden going to start doing what God has asked me to do?

And so I felt like I felt like Abram like he was leading me out of a place I was comfortable and he was leading me to a promised land but I had to rely on him.

And so we get here and about a week in we're doing our and something happens and I'm like ah I'm out of here and the kids aren't even here and we got that worked out.

And so then I'm teaching and we're about two weeks in and I'm like I definitely definitely made a mistake.

I absolutely should not be here doing this.

But I had to remind myself of what God has done for me.

I had to remind myself I am not I started doubting I can't do this.

I don't have the patience.

I don't have I I don't have what they need.

And I started look no God would not have sent me here if he wasn't going to give me what I needed.

And so I had to remind myself of who God if God could lead Abraham to the promised land and Moses through the water.

He could lead you to deal with some eighth graders, man.

And so we get we get to winter break.

It's not funny. we get to winter break.

This is real trauma. 1 hour, 11 minutesAnd I like winter break comes and I'm like, "All right, I definitely 100% made a mistake.

I need to start looking for a new job." But I reminded myself again and again and again.

And now it's been five years and every year has been hard.

And every year I I don't doubt that anymore.

I don't doubt that I should be here.

I just have to rely on God because it's so hard.

Okay.

Even even backstage and and I praise Danny and Pastor James and and everybody here because backstage I was like what if I go up there and mess up?

What if I what if I don't what if I don't say it right?

What do you hear that?

What if I what if I and I'm like dude you just went over this message all week telling you you can't do that man.

You got to have faith.

You are not there for you.

You are there because God has told you to be there.

And even if you mess up he will be glorified.

Don't worry about it.

So even in the moment, we have to constantly be reminding ourselves of who God is and what he's done.

One one of the things that and and I I know we mean well, but you know, people try to help other people out and they say like, "Oh, God would never give you more than you can handle." And that is not true.

Let me tell you why it's not true.

Paul says, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.

We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despared of life itself.

Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.

But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

God will purposely put you in something you can't handle.

So you will rely on him and not yourself because he can raise the dead. because he can do all things and because you can do those things that he's called you to do because of our Lord Jesus.

That's what you need to remember.

In John 6 is one of my favorite chapters.

Jesus does this.

He teaches this teaching and and it's a it's a difficult teaching for for the Jewish people in particular.

And he teaches it and and it says many of his disciples leave.

So he has more disciples than the 12, but we hear about the 12 the most because he poured into them.

But many of his disciples leave.

And he doesn't change the teaching.

He doesn't explain it.

He turns to the disciples and he says, "Are you going to leave?" Also, you heard what I said.

Are you Are you going to leave?

It's going to get hard.

It's going to be difficult.

What I just told you goes against everything you thought you knew.

Are you going to leave also?

And Simon Peter says,"Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We have come to believe and to know that you are the holy one of God.

He doesn't try to bite his way out.

He says, "What you said, I still don't get.

I don't agree with.

I don't like it.

But I know that if I leave now, no matter what I go to, it cannot be what you have to offer." You have the words of eternal life.

So if we willingly go, we are willingly choosing to go to something that we know is less than what God has died for.

And so sometimes because we are human, we have to sit back.

We have to know who God is.

And we have to say, "Hey, I don't get it, but where else would I go?

Who else would I go to?" Because we have come to know and believe that you have the words for eternal life.

And so I know you will figure it out for me. and I will keep moving because I'm not going to look at myself.

I'm going to look at you.

I'm going to trust.

I'm going to have faith.

And I know that you will get me through because you have shown me time and time again that that's what you do.

It is okay to doubt as long as you allow your doubts to push us closer and push you closer to the one who has them all figured out.

If you would stand with me as we pray, go back and watch those those YouTube videos, man.

They're so good.

And we're going to pray.

We're going to pray a psalm of David.

Find it.

Lord, we trust in your unfailing love.

Our hearts rejoice in your salvation and we will sing the praise to you because you have been good to us.

Dear heavenly father, we pray as we close in worship today that you would continue to not be angry at us for our doubts, but you will continue to use them that we can be so close to you, dear Lord, that we could reach out and unlike Peter, we would take hold of you, dear Lord.

And we would never let go.

And even if we do, dear Lord, we know that you will never let go of us.

And we trust in that to the depth of our being, dear heavenly father.

We are thankful and grateful for you.

We love you.

And we close this by praising your name.

And we say this in the name of your holy son Jesus.

Amen.