Transcript
Speaker: Hey, welcome to the Grove Hill Podcast. We are here today, my friends Kyle and John, to come back and talk to you about some great topics concerning your journey with Christ, your personal faith. A lot of questions that people ask as they are growing in their faith, and even some solid mature Christians come back to many times because, again, just being refined and finished by the Holy Spirit through the sanctification process. So this is a great one today because, again, I think it's immature believers who are just getting started in their journey as well as those who've been at this a long time ask this question of themselves and other people. And it's this question of doubt. What do we do with doubt in our relationship with Jesus Christ?
Speaker: And I think the first thing I want to want you to be clear about is this, is that God is never threatened by the questions you have. This is something I used to tell my students when I was in student ministry because I wanted to drive that home to them. Uh, for me, I think for most people, doubt is actually a part of the growing process. Uh, it's like learning to walk a little bit, right? You know, you have some uncertainty. It doesn't mean you're never going to walk. It just means you got to push through those uncertainties. And so we're going to talk about that unpack it a little bit today with my two scholars here around the the table and, uh, see if we can come to some good solution.
Speaker: Um, so, First of all, we we want you to understand doubts are not anything to be ashamed of. They're not anything to run from. In fact, the opposite is true. Satan satan does a good job of convincing us of lies. He tries to convince you you should hide those doubts when in reality Jesus says, bring those doubts to me yeah so that I can help you with those, help you understand them. So um talk about doubt. ah First, let's let's hear it from you working with students a lot. I feel like this is one of those areas where many, many students come to you probably and talk sure about that. um
Speaker: kids make that transition from being a kid to being an adult. And even if they've been in the church for a long time, um when they get in that teenage years, they start looking at everything that they've learned. you know They say, okay, I've learned the Bible stories, but man, life sucks now. And yeah and where's God in this? you know And so they naturally have ah those questions. And I'm like you, I promote them. like If you have those questions, investigate them. yep Ask them. yeahp come bring them to that It's not going to make me think that you're less of a Christian by a doubt that you have. And it helps for me to to express my doubts that I've had, and they can relate with that.
Speaker: Yeah, I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody's come up to me and said, I've got a stupid question. You know? Yeah. And I always want to just kind of highlight for them the the reality is the the only dumb questions are the ones you don't ask. That's right. Because there's no way to get an answer to them. That's right. um So you do a lot of work with young adults. Yeah. And even with older adults, there are a life group program. Yeah. Age doesn't make a difference. People still have doubts. The trend doesn't change. Yeah.
Speaker: Sadly. ah But I think you go back to perception because... they say, Hey, this is a stupid question because they're looking at perception whenever they see the doubts in their own mind. And so they don't want to get those out. But what you have to remind them is we're all living in seasons of doubt with one thing or another. yeah It just matters depends on what it is with. And sometimes it's our faith. Sometimes it's our career.
Speaker: How are we doing with our families? You know, it's the the opportunities are endless to go down and say, where are our doubts at? But it's not, to your point, it's not stupid at all. It's good, real life questions that we have to wrestle with. Yeah. So faith and questions can occupy the same heart, right? um You think about a marriage relationship.
Speaker: When you get married, depending on how long you've been dating or engaged to that point, but when you get married, you don't understand your wife completely. ah She doesn't. Okay. Careful, your wife may hear this. one She knows. Yeah. No, I mean, I've been married now 19 years to Lisa. I was married 12 years to Sarah before the accident. um Yeah, it's never a point even with your wife where you go, man, I got her all figured out. Right. I got it down. I think i think it was Paul that described women as a mystery to be uncovered. If someone has it figured out, if you could just call us. Could you do a podcast for us? You can come on the podcast. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah um There's some great characters in Scripture that help us see that doubt is an okay thing. The one that comes to mind for most people is Doubting Thomas. He's got a nickname for it, right? How did Jesus respond to Thomas?
Speaker: Answered his questions. Yeah. Invited. Invited him into, um it's okay. yeah Same thing that you just mentioned. It's not a stupid question. which is a great reminder that Jesus never scolds us for our questions. He wants to, again, embrace them and and try to help us with them. My favorite... Are going to say something? I was, but you can say it. Go ahead. It's kind of like shifting a little bit. No, that's right. Okay. You can shift. Going back to the marriage relationship when you were talking about that, um it's doubt isn't like this...
Speaker: I'm no longer, I'm disregarding you. It's more like ah I care so much and I wanna know more, right? And so if if your wife didn't come home and she was gone for two hours, she didn't say anything, your brain starts to fill in the blanks. And so like doubt would set in. But what it lends itself to is a conversation. Hey babe, where were you for the last year? oh Oh, Costco was busy and you were stuck in line. Okay, that makes sense, right? yeah It's an inquisitive thing where where Thomas, it wasn't like, I don't believe in Jesus He was like, this is so obscure, going to need some proof. yeah yeah And Jesus is like, well, here you go, here's the proof, right? yeah And so it comes back to that investigation, like like research it.
Speaker: If you have a doubt about something, go to the Word and and really dive in to see what it says about it. yeah And for most believers, most Christ followers, I don't think the question ever comes back to that level of questioning. I don't think people go, does God really exist? I think for most of them, it's more of a question of, if he does exist, why do I don't feel like he's listening? Or why do I not feel like he's answering my prayers? yeah though It's like a different level of doubt is caused there. um I was going to say, before you so rudely interrupted, I'm just kidding. We talked about this. Before we jumped in. um
Speaker: I think one of the sweetest prayers in the Bible is the guy who said to Jesus, I believe but help my unbelief. Yeah. Just because of the honesty in that. And I think many of us would get to a better place in our relationship with God and our communication with Him if we'd be that...
Speaker: that gut level honest with him. sure Because he already knows what we're feeling. yeah So many days, it probably would be the right thing for me to start by going, okay, God, I don't understand what you're up to. So I'm coming to you to get the answer. right yeah You know? yeah I think we know enough about the character of God and in Scripture and just in general information from the church, um but we know and enough about His character that we know He's not out to get us. Yeah. You know, we like to put things on Him that He is out to get us. um He's not mean. He's very just. He's loving. And so the investigation of it is more so just answering the questions that we have, not trying to blame Him for something. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: So respond to this little bit, John, the statement, take your doubts towards God, not away from him. Oh man. If, if we, if we say God is who he is and we say that God is all encompassing, that it within him dwells everything as far as the answers that we need for life.
Speaker: Why would we run away from the remedy? Why would we run away from anything? I was actually looking before we i went on the podcast and was thinking about ah Jacob. One who wrestles with God. That's what doubt is. And the cool thing, the cool kind of attachment to that is Jacob was, you know, Israel. yeah And so if those that are closest to God, God's chosen people wrestle with him, why would we not do the same thing? Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Yeah. So again, it's not that you have questions. It is who you take those questions to and coming back to him over and over again with this faith. Psalm 13, excuse me, chapter 13 is a great one because...
Speaker: I think all the Psalms are. I love the Psalms just because of their raw honesty. I especially love the part where David talks about bashing in their teeth and those kinds of things. God, you take care of that. But Psalm 13, verse 1, he says, Lord, how long will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day? that's that's talking about doubt. And this is a guy who is considered to be a man after God's own heart. Yeah. So he's asking all these questions, and then you get to the end of it. I mean, it's only a six-verse chapter, six-verse psalm here. Verse 5, it says, "...but I have trusted in your faithful love. My heart will rejoice in your deliverance. I will sing to the Lord because He has treated me generously."
Speaker: In those six verses, David's circumstances have not changed. yeah nothing Nothing radical has gone on in his life to make that difference. The only thing that's different is his perspective and what he's looking at. Talk about that a little bit.
Speaker: I think, ah kind of going back to the question you asked John about um where he was bringing his questions to. He's bringing them to God. A lot of times we like to talk to other people about what God's doing and we don't look to His Word about what He's doing. And so David in this situation, he's asking the questions directly to God. God, how long will you forget me? And in in student life, I like to give this posture analogy. And I tell him it's okay to to question God at His feet.
Speaker: But if we question God while we're walking away and we're pushing him away, then we're going to go seek the answer somewhere else. And so the God, why is this happening? What are you doing? All those things. They're absolutely okay to ask as long as we're knelt at his feet and begging him for the answer. um It's that pursuit that that David had. And you could just see that he trusted in the true character of God, even though he didn't understand the circumstances. right yeah Yeah, he his burden of proof was what God had already done in his life before
Speaker: he got to the hard times because, you know, the Bathsheba, the Uriah, the all these instances where he fell from God's covering and said, I'm going it my own. And proved himself faithful through all those, you know? Yeah. So to see David come back and say,
Speaker: I still desire relationship with you. And I can just think about and kind of imagine how God does that same thing with us, how he desires us, to your point, to run back into his arms, even whenever the things don't make sense. Yeah, you mentioned that phrase, burden of proof. It's a great reminder. Two things that I think will help with doubt.
Speaker: Number one, remembering what Christ has already done for you. um you know I hear a lot of people go, well, i I feel like I just bother him with those questions, or I bother you as a pastor with these questions. Well, Jesus has already proven that he's not gonna be bothered by you. He's died for you. yeah I mean, you can't do anything worse to him at this yeah point. um He still loves you and pursues you, so don't worry about that. i think, ah well, actually, three things I would say. The second thing is you've got to be careful what you're listening to. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: um you know, you spend five or ten minutes in the Bible every day having your quiet time and then you spend an hour and a half on TikTok or Facebook or those kinds of things listening to people rail against Jesus or yeah people deconstruct their faith and and suddenly... or people who are misinterpreting the Bible completely. oh yeah. James, what's his name? Talarico. Talarico. Yeah. mail Just crazy. That guy. He and this loony Methodist pastor in Kansas that both are just rewriting Scripture left and right. Nobody's questioning them. Yeah. um So...
Speaker: Yeah. Third thing. Third thing that i think kind of goes with the first one a little bit. um You battle the uncertainty of doubt with the certainty of things you know to be true.
Speaker: um For instance, I know Jesus is real. I know that the Bible can be counted on. yeah I know that Jesus died for me. I know that Jesus loves me. I know that Jesus res resurrected. You start going down the list and start making the list of all the certainties, including the ways he has blessed you in the past. Suddenly, Satan's...
Speaker: position doesn't have as much ground to stand on yeah right um so that's important i love this little saying and one thing you don't understand excuse me one thing that you don't do is i let a hundred things erase the one thing you already know to be true so it's it's good um so other thoughts or advice on what you would tell somebody who comes to you and says hey you know what i i know god's there but man i got a lot of doubts i'm a I don't understand why, I don't understand how, you know, those kinds of things.
Speaker: I would say speak the truth, read the t truth, listen to the truth. You mentioned investments. What are you allowing to be invested in your life? There's a reason why the churches all throughout from couple hundred years after the New Testament church started to be kind of shaped and cultivated, why they would mention things like the Apostles' Creed, why they would mention those things, because what they were doing in those statements, obviously it all derives from Scripture, but what they were saying was, I'm going to talk about the truth that I know about Jesus, and I'm going to do it every day. I'm going to do it every time we meet. So when we say read the Word, it sounds so simple, and sometimes it's like, okay, yeah, I know I'm supposed to read the Word.
Speaker: Well, guess what? You have... I've talked to advertising guys before. There's a reason why they advertise the way they do because um you're advertised to 10,000 times probably throughout the day. And we need to continue to run a scroll across our brain as much as possible that it is...
Speaker: true in scripture who Jesus says he is, what the church says it is, yeah and what we should orient our lives towards. Yeah, I mean, that's evident in many areas, but like think of the doubt that's in identity and gender right now yeah amongst a lot of students or college-age kids, um and there's this like doubt of what is true and what is but is not, and you could debunk the whole thing in one verse.
Speaker: Like one truth of scripture and it just debunks all the all the concerns and all the doubts of of gender confusion stuff. And it's like if we focused on the truth more, um alllthough all the things the world is throwing at us causes those doubts. um And so if I'm buried in the truth and the world is throwing things at me left and right, but I've got the truth with me, those things would just roll off my back, you know.
Speaker: yeah I think sometimes people, I can get this way sometimes, can get overwhelmed in the fight for truth because you battle against an enemy who doesn't care if they lie. true They have no conscience. So they can lie and and be okay with it. They can cover up, be okay with it. They can be corrupt, they'll be okay with it. I mean, um Islam's a perfect example. sure Islam's sole intent is to take over the world. It says it in their scriptures. they Their clerics talk about it. Guys in Dearborn right now are praying that all American Christians will be eliminated. yeah But then they turn around and be in a press conference and go, no, we would never desire that. We're peaceful people.
Speaker: um Whereas, hopefully, and i I get it, Christians do the same thing to some degree. Hopefully, people who stand for Christ are speaking truth, living truth, and only abide by truth. yeah And so that kind of, it's kind of like you, they got this whole arsenal over there they play with, and you're going, okay, I've only got one thing.
Speaker: But the one thing is the most powerful. The thing that's changeless, never runs never runs out. um He's just got all this power. You know, one other illustration from Scripture I think really, really good. John the Baptist.
Speaker: John, if you if you don't know this, John was Jesus' cousin. He was the forerunner for Jesus. So he came preaching, hey, there's one that's going to follow me. He preached the baptism of repentance, you know, he called out the Pharisees, said, you guys are, you're missing the point and there's coming somebody who's going to show you what this is all about.
Speaker: ah Even baptized Jesus and, you know, kicked off the the public ministry of Jesus himself. But then later... If you've never read the rest of the story on John the Baptist, he gets arrested. He's sitting in prison. Some of his followers come to him and say, what's going on? you know How are you? He goes, I need you to go back and ask Jesus, is he really the one?
Speaker: and I mean, that's that's real doubt. I mean, this is a guy who's invested his entire life on Jesus, and it's kind of like, okay, but before I give my life The stakes are getting higher. The stakes are getting really high. Are you the one? yeah And Jesus doesn't scold him. doesn't get on to him doesn't reprimand him, doesn't cut himself off from him. He simply points him back to what have you observed?
Speaker: The blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised to life. That's all you need to know. Yeah. It's cool that you say that. And I'm just kind of like almost this highlight reel of scripture that's running through my brain of all the different stories that I've seen that kind of make up the whole narrative of scripture. And every one of them that I'm looking at right now, you know, from Samson to Paul to ah Peter, you know, all all the disciples really in a great sense.
Speaker: even into the Old Testament, every one of them had a piece of wrestling with God or or doubt. And I'm thinking, if God's using these people and they're the pillars of his word, why do we think that we're the outlier? You know, we're we're really a part of wrestling with God as a fruit. Like there's a beneficial evidence of doubting because what we're doing is strengthening and stretching our faith.
Speaker: Yeah. So Christianity is not built on don't ask questions. Yeah. um It's not even a lot of people, well-meaning people, good godly people call it blind faith.
Speaker: It's not blind faith. There's a lot of it that's very visual. ah We know it's there. We've seen the evidence. Others have seen it and written about it for centuries, and people have died for this truth, knowing what it would mean for humanity for this to be real, and what what the consequences would be if it was false, if it was a myth.
Speaker: So um i think the encouragement that we want to give you is don't be afraid of your questions. um Remember, faith doesn't mean you have to have all the answers. Just like being married doesn't mean you have to know everything about each other. There's still hope for your marriage if you're still asking questions. um There's plenty of things that the three of us and even stronger, deeper, more wise theologians than us don't understand about God. Well, let's go there.
Speaker: and Okay, let's go there. What would you say one of your doubts in the past has been or if you have a current ah doubt? I got one ready, and if you guys don't have one ready, then you guess they're more spiritual than I am. I have no doubts whatsoever. But over the years, um the idea of a God coming and dying on the cross for our sins doesn't make a lot of sense in my head. like As I look at that, i'm like, why choose that, right? And I sit there and i go, i don't I don't understand. And I go back to you know, in Psalms where it says, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Or Isaiah, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways. And then I go to Psalm 53, which says, Surely he bore our griefs, and he carried our sorrows, and yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chasmise cha chastisement.
Speaker: that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed and I'm I look at that knowing that it was written hundreds of years before Jesus came right and history history this well truthful history book predicted that this was gonna have to happen and then you go look through scripture from the very beginning in Genesis and you see him setting the stage for this event that was gonna have to happen and then my brain goes okay i' I'm okay again yeah But still it's still, it's just a unique way of fulfilling the the reconciliation between us and God.
Speaker: You got one? Yeah, I do have one. um i I know that our days are numbered, but I still have a hard, probably, question mark in my mind as to, man, I know God knows that, but...
Speaker: how does ah How do you make it all make sense? If God knows that and God is the one who designates that, you know where does our part come into play in there? It's good.
Speaker: It is. It's one of those things that I'm still wrestling with. I trust God with it because if if he can make me... then he probably gets me and gets all the things that make up my life.
Speaker: ah so I'm trusting in that, not trusting in my, uh, question mark right now. My problem is not coming up with a doubt. My problem is paring it down to one. Yeah. Because for all of my my Christian life, I've asked the question, how do you explain the Trinity? Sure. How does that work? How does how does a Jesus on earth yeah speak...
Speaker: to a father while the Holy Spirit slain. I just, yeah that whole thing boggles my mind. That's, that's one I've put over in the category. Can't wait to find the answer. You know, um another one is, and this is just because it's my human mind thinking. I think that's where we sometimes run into our doubts, but the question of,
Speaker: Why did God even try to continue after Adam and Eve failed? Sure. Why don't you just squash them and go to another planet and start over? Yeah. And that's ah that's an amazing concept to me that he would love us enough. I mean, Adam and Eve couldn't provide anything for him. No. I mean, nothing.
Speaker: He didn't need them for satisfaction. He didn't need them for fulfillment. He was already perfect in every state of who he was. have been easy for him to say, I had enough with you people. Yeah. You know? And I feel that too. like But if you look like if you look through history and what man has tried to do and what God has proved himself to be, it removes all excuses for any man to sit there and say, well, well what if we did this? What if God did that? you know And it's just like you get all these examples throughout history and then in your own personal life. of why God wants us around and yeah he loves us even in our misery yeah you know but you know my favorite illustration our our relationship with God is God the father um and us is his children and that's because I have fathered well five children at this point and
Speaker: And ah let me say five children, period. Is there more? We're not having any more, sorry. ah So five children. Come on, Abraham. Up until now. And i think about when my children were born, i would have given anything in the world to protect them.
Speaker: And at that state, there was nothing they could do for me. They couldn't bring in a dollar. They couldn't fix me dinner. couldn't even call me daddy yet at that point. But I still love them to the point where I would have given anything to protect them. And then you take a holy, perfect God who looks at us just the same and says, it's not what you give to me that makes you valuable.
Speaker: So and it's mind boggling.
Speaker: But like getting on an airplane, I don't know how airplanes work, but I get on them and I trust them, right? Why? Because I've landed More times than I can count. In fact, I've landed every time I took off, which is good. That great odds. Good track record, right? We're glad you're here. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So um here's here's the beauty of it. Jesus Christ lived, died, and was resurrected to give us new life, but also to give us this relationship with God so we could come and ask questions. So we could approach, as Paul puts it, approach the throne of grace without fear. And that's a beautiful thing. You know, Hebrews talks about this relationship we are given because of God. um And I think one of my my new favorite phrases now is this. If the tomb is empty, then anything is possible.
Speaker: Anything is possible. That's good. That's really good. Kind of sends a Jesus shiver down my spine. That's right. Think about it. That's right. Anything else you guys want to add? No, I just, I would say, approach someone in your faith walk as you're trying to walk through doubts. Because some of you, as Ridley mentioned, you may be starting this journey out. You may not even know who Jesus is. You may not even really grasp the concept. But I want you to know that it's okay to not know. Yep. that God through his word is going to continue to reveal things along the way. So keep asking the questions, keep going to people that have walked that walk, that have walked with Christ for a longer amount of time and continue to pursue that relationship. And God's going to bring the... the
Speaker: enlightenment of who he is yep and there's two results that can come out of doubt and that's either you could uh draw further away from the lord or you could draw near to him and it really is up to your decision um he's not changing he's staying there his character is factual it's true and so um in our unknown we could either walk away or we could ask those questions and draw near and so yeah Proverbs 3 5 trust in the Lord with all your heart but don't lean on your own understanding um we got some smart people i don't know how many of them are listening to our podcast but there's some smart people in the world who followed Jesus and even with all the knowledge they have yep they can't possibly grasp what God already knows ye
Speaker: So don't be afraid of your doubts. If you've got doubts, got questions, either go to your local church, talk to your pastor, or maybe a a deacon, an elder in your church, find someone to talk with. If you're a youngster listening this today, find your parents, have conversations with them. um if you can't find anything else, shoot us an email. that's right Bring us a question. Maybe we can deal with it here on the podcast for you. and Put it in the comments. That's right. um But whatever you do, don't give up.
Speaker: Don't lose faith because your confidence is not in your ability to answer the questions. Your confidence is in the one who you're asking the questions to. yep He's good. Hey, thanks for joining us today. Hope this has been helpful. As always, we love having these conversations with you and for you, and we'd love to have you come and join us at some point. If you're in the area, we'd love to have you live at 8, 9, 30, and 11 at Grove Hill Church. That's your church, yep. That's my church. Yes, would love to worship there. We would love for you to continue to follow us, like, and share. Before we slide out of here today, Kyle, you want to pray for us? I would. Thank you, sir.
Speaker: Father, we are grateful that you have all the answers. um Our human minds can't really comprehend everything, but you are so gracious to give us this book that we hold that carries everything that we need in order to follow you.
Speaker: So Father, as we navigate that, Lord, I ah pray that the first place we go is your word, and that we look at the truth of your word and what you've laid before us. And you usually the situation that we're walking through will just dissolve away by the truth that we read.
Speaker: ah Father, help us to seek wise counsel as well. If we're we're new to this and we don't quite understand what we're i'm reading, um i just pray that we can seek people who have been connected with you for a long time. Father, I pray for the other person, the person on the other side of this, hearing this right now. I pray for their day and whatever doubt that they're walking through, Lord, I pray that you just meet them today, and that they seek you and that you just reveal an answer to them to show that you are good.
Speaker: Lord, we thank you for this day. We pray this in your name. Amen. Amen. Thanks for joining us. Hope you have a great week. We'll see you next week. Bye.
