Raul Garcia III
Family of God
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Leave No Doubt
Let us Pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Amen.
We read in the Gospel text that Thomas did not believe the disciples unless he actually saw Jesus and touched Him in the flesh. Jesus had already appeared to the disciples before and Thomas was not present. I wonder where he was? He was probably still in hiding until he thought it was okay to come out and meet with the other disciples. But when we really think about it aren’t we all like Thomas. Or what some people call Doubting Thomas. Some of us are like the other disciples and just believe that the Lord has Risen like Jesus said he was going to do and some of us are like Thomas who say and think, I need to see this myself and touch Jesus for me to believe. So the deep question I ask is do you doubt?
My answer to this question is Yes, I do!! I do have doubts. I don’t know how a person can be a Christian and not have doubts from time to time. Sometimes faith requires doubt in order for it to be faith.
If you and I ever arrive to a place in which all our doubts are gone and all our questions are answered, take a deep breath and relax because that means we are in heaven.
I was listening to sermon by Pastor Ray Pritchard about doubt and loved this breakdown of where our doubts lie. When we talk about doubt. I think we put our doubts into three places in our life and mind.
- Intellectual Doubts: Questions like, Is the bible really the Word of God? Is Jesus the Son of God? Did He really rise from the dead? These questions are brought up from outside the church.
- Spiritual Doubts: Questions like: Am I really a Christian? Have I truly believed? Why is it so hard to pray? Why do I still feel guilty? Why is it taking so long for me to get better? These questions are about us and our our faith journey.
- Circumstantial Doubts: Questions like: Why did my child die? Why did my marriage break up? Where is God when my brother died? Why did my sister have to get cancer? These questions encompass the “Why’s” of life.
All these questions are questions where we meet at the intersection of our faith and the pain of living in a fallen world. Circumstantial doubts, the Why’s of our lives, are the toughest ones because we don’t want to deal with them and we just push them aside. But sooner or later when we don’t deal with these doubts they linger and consume us up and soon we can start to think we are no good and fall into a depression. Then sooner or later the doubts cause you to want to leave the church because you think you are not good enough.
Many people think doubt is the opposite of faith, but it isn’t. I have had many students come to me and say I have my doubts about God and I say great so do I, let’s explore this doubt together. Unbelief is the opposite of faith. Unbelief refers to a wilful refusal to believe, while doubt refers to inner uncertainty. We want to know more!!
Many people think doubt is a sin and is wrong. Doubt is what wills us to know more about God. God doesn’t get mad at us when we question Him. Think about all those biblical people that questioned God: Noah when he built the ark. I’m sure he said, “really God! You need me to build this boat, and how big?” Abraham when he offered Isaac his own son, Moses when they left Egypt and when they walked through the Red Sea, when David faced Goliath, or Daniel being thrown in the Lion’s Den. Do you think they all had their doubts? Oh, yes they did. But they paused, prayed took a deep breath and moved forward.
Many people think struggling with God means they lack faith, but that is so not true. Struggling with God is a great sign that we truly have faith. If we never struggle, our faith will never grow.
There came a time in my life about 8 years ago when I received a phone call from my mother. This was a Saturday morning my mom called. She was hysterical crying on the other side of the phone tu hermano, tu hermano and I can barely understand her. My step dad got on the phone and said, your brother died this morning, mijo. He was in a car accident and died instantly. I’ll never forget that phone call from my mom and my reaction. I was stunned and didn’t believe it and a face full of tears. I didn’t want to believe it. My brother Leroy was gone. Just like that. I just talked with him the night before. At that moment I was questioning why, why him, why my brother. I’m crying thinking that God has abandoned me and my family. This is where I was wrong. God did not abandon me. I had my wife, Rhea next to me to console me, my immediate family and my neighbors. It was so important for me to have them walk along side me while I struggled. And when I was done struggling they are still there to encourage me and walk along side with me. I still have good days and bad days and that will never leave my mind but the people whom surround me and encourage me, help me move forward.
We will all go through little trials and tribulations in our lives. Whatever the circumstance is, I love this saying, “It takes a village.” It helps to let people in your life to help you stretch your faith.
There is not one clear cut formula for our doubts to leave us. But it can be as simple as having a relationship with God.
Having a relationship with God takes work. It doesn’t have to be tough but it will take some work.
Just as a professional athlete who are at the top of their game, like Stephan Curry who can bury a three when he walks into an arena or Sidney Crosby hitting that slapshot or Messi with all that fancy footwork on the soccer pitch and then suddenly he scores a goal. These athletes spent lots and lots of time working their craft. More than 10,000 hours of training. For them it is an everyday thing. They have no doubts that anyone else is working harder than they are and that is why they are successful in their craft. They practice.
That is what we have to do to work on our faith and doubts. Our faith isn’t just on Sunday come sit in church and listen to the boring sermon and sing some songs and leave it at that. Our faith journey is everyday. There will be good days and there will be bad days. It’s about that relationship with God.
I heard another sermon by Pastor Ray and he thought of five ways where we can practice our faith and leave no doubt on our journey and I agree with him:
- Admit your doubts and ask for help. Go to God and ask God for help. God can handle our doubts. If he can create the universe I’m sure our doubts God can handle. Just like the biblical heroes I listed earlier. They paused, prayed and moved forward and asked God to be with them.
- Don’t be afraid to “Borrow” some faith. We all know people that have a strong faith and love being with us. And I am sure they have given you a nugget or two of faithful knowledge to use. Use it. Borrow it. Don’t be afraid to use it to help yourself.
- Act on your faith, not your doubt. Just like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Daniel, and Ruth and others in the bible. They had doubts. But they took a deep breath, decided to act on their faith and trust God. Do the same thing and your faith will continually grow.
- Doubt your doubts, not your faith. Just because you find yourself in the valley of darkness you shouldn’t toss out your faith. We all walk in that valley sometime or another in our life. I know I did when my brother passed away. But, when you seem to find yourself in that valley and you are ready to give in to your doubts, fears and worries, remember these two words. Keep Walking. Every step forward is a way to doubt your doubts and let yourself shine again.
- Keep going back to What you know to be true. Know that God is God and we are not. Know that he is the maker of our life and knows us so well that we should look to him.
In closing, we have to have an “All In” mentality. If any of y’all watched The Passion live a couple weeks ago on Fox from the streets of New Orleans. I Loved it. Tyler Perry was the narrator closed with these remarks: Now certainly a scientific approach to these kinds of matters: it says that we should see first and then only believe. And that’s fair enough for some people but we do know that Jesus offered his vision of another world. A world in which everyone is treated justly, a world without suffering, a world without death, a world without end. This is why many of us including myself that the story of The Passion inspires yet another approach. To first believe and only then you can truly see.
I am not ashamed to say that I have fully believed in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because I have often doubted. But my doubts have only made me stronger in my faith journey.
That is what I want for everyone here is for you to believe that Jesus is the Christ, The Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name and that your doubts help you grow in your faith journey so that you can leave no doubt.
Amen.
