Overcoming Doubt

Intro:

Throughout the course of the past year and a half, we have all faced our own set of struggles. Whether it is health struggles, financial struggles, grieving the loss of a loved one, anxiety surrounding the Corona Virus… whatever your personal struggles have been you might have been tempted to think, “Where are you, God? Why are you allowing this to happen? Why don’t you stop this? Are you really there?”

Everyone goes through doubts in their faith, even Mother Teresa. She once wrote her spiritual director, “Where I try to raise my thoughts to heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love — the word — it brings nothing. I am told God lives in me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.”

Her spiritual director reassured her with the basic message, “The fact that you have doubts means that your faith is real.” What a true statement… What she was getting at is … No doubts, no testing; and no testing, no real faith. Remember from our study through James

James 1:2-4 “2. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3. knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Philip Yancey, in his book, Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can You Expect to Find?… says...

“Doubt is the skeleton in the closet of faith and I know no better way to treat a skeleton than to bring it into the open and expose it for what it is: not something to hide or fear, but a hard structure on which living tissue may grow.”

Show me a faith that has never experienced doubt, and I’ll show you a day-old faith, a faith that hasn’t had a chance to grow… or worse, a pretend faith, a fake faith.

At times, we may doubt whether God hears our prayers. Sometimes we wonder when young children die or when an evil person seems to succeed in life, or we go through a great challenge like navigating through, the ever so changing course of, Covid-19... Everyone has doubts, and they’re actually good for you, because they drive you back to the risen Lord for answers. Let’s look at today’s scripture, at a guy who had doubts, and how Jesus addressed them:

(Read John 20:19-20, 24-29)

Meat:

Thomas gets a bad rap for his doubts. He even earns a nickname: “Doubting Thomas.” Yet, Thomas was just as committed as the other ten disciples, perhaps even more so in some ways. Just weeks before Christ’s Crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples that he had to go to Bethany, because his friend Lazarus was very sick. Most of the disciples cautioned him away from the idea because of all the hatred towards him fuming in nearby Jerusalem. Yet, Thomas responded, in John 11:16, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

OK, the guy’s a little pessimist, but you have to give him an “A” for bravery. He was willing to stick his neck out on the line. It was Thomas who responded a little later to Jesus’ assurances of heaven. Jesus was telling his disciples, in John 14, that he had to go away to prepare a place for them. Jesus told them they knew the way. But good old Thomas was brave enough to ask the question on everyone’s mind as he said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”... If Thomas hadn’t asked that question, then Jesus may have never had the opportunity to respond with the next great verse, as he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:5-6)...

Yes, Thomas had his gutsy moments. But by the time Jesus went to the cross, Thomas, along with every other disciple except John, had scattered to the four winds. They were all cowering in fear and self-preservation.

On that first Easter morning, the two Mary’s encountered the risen Lord, as did Peter and John. Then, on Sunday night, ten of the disciples met Jesus face to face. Christ spoke right to their doubts as he showed them his hands and his side, proving to them it was really him.

But where was Thomas? We don’t know for sure, but can you imagine the shock he felt when the others told him, “We saw Jesus … He’s alive!”? It has been said that Thomas is the original Missourian, because of his response… He basically said to the other Disciples... “Show me!” “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe”

“Show me!”

Let’s think about Thomas’ example as we, like him, go through our own times of doubt. (Slide)

How can we overcome doubt?

I have listed Three ideas on your outline this morning… and the first one is...

1. Be on Guard

When you’re really down, really depressed, don’t make any rash decisions. Don’t go out and buy a motorcycle, or decide to move, or decide to get married ... or decide to get divorced. Give yourself some time to get through the low times before you act impulsively.

It is the same with doubts:

1.1 Don’t Act Impulsively

Don’t give into them in the midst of your depression. Just recognize them for what they are: doubts. OK, you have doubts. That means you have faith. Good job! May your faith be stronger than your doubts.

So often people will fall into the trap out doubt and depression, I believe that doubt and depression go hand in hand. You doubt anybody loves you, you doubt anybody cares, you doubt anyone would miss you if you were gone… people feed on these lies, they let their guard down, they fall into a state of depression and then act impulsively.

It could be turning to drugs because it makes them feel good… drowning themselves in alcohol to make the world go away… or even worse, deciding to end their life all together...

The second part of Being on Guard is to...

1.2 Find Hope

Warren Wiersbe says “the answer to depression is hope”… we need to stop focusing on the reasons that we are doubtful and depressed and start focusing on the Promises of God...

If your doctor told you how your leg was broken and what he had to do to fix it, the thing that would get your attention most and give you encouragement is when he says, "The cast will come off in six weeks." When it is driving you crazy with the weight, and the clumsiness of taking a bath, and the itch that you can't scratch, you're remembering that it comes off in six weeks! “Just six more weeks… and then, just 2 more weeks… and then… just 2 more days...” In your "doubt storms" when your guard may be down, stop looking for reasons and look to the promises.

Thomas was certainly in a down time. His Lord had been crucified. His life was in jeopardy, and his hopes were dashed. Maybe that’s why he was away, just grieving by himself. We don’t know for sure. But fortunately, he did not do anything rash. Eventually he returned to his friends, his fellow disciples, which reminds us of another doubt defeater. Be on Guard and …

2. Be Accessible

What I mean by that is… and try not to get mad at me for saying this, but… stop social distancing...

2.1 Don’t Seclude Yourself

It was when Thomas was away from the other disciples that his doubts were strengthened. Isolation magnified the doubts that he had. He missed Jesus’ visit because he had left his fellow believers...

If you separate a coal from the rest of the fire, what happens? It goes out.

There are too many people who become recluse when they start having these feelings of doubt or depression. Instead of getting surrounded with people to help us, most of us try to eat the problem away or starve the problem away and stay behind closed doors. When life is toughest, we stay home from church. When we can't pull it together, we withdraw. It is in these times we need to be surrounded by church people and celebrate God's presence! … We need to...

2.2 Reach Out To Others

I don’t know if Y’all realize this, but… We need each other. When you feel least like going to church, that’s when you need to go the most. When you most want to hide out, that’s when you need to force yourself to reach out to others, if not in person, then by phone or Face time, Facebook Messenger... Together we are the body of Christ, and when one hurts, the whole body hurts; when one celebrates, the whole body celebrates. Where two or more (Brothers and Sisters in Christ) are gathered, Jesus is there in the midst!

If you look at the post-resurrection appearances, Jesus almost always appeared to groups of people, not individuals: Mary and Mary, Peter and John, the two friends on the road to Emmaus, the ten disciples, a week later to the 11 disciples, later to 500 people at once, and after that, to 120 folks gathered at Pentecost... Jesus seemed to honor groups. We need each other to fight off the doubts.

So, Be on Guard, Be Accessible…

And thirdly, to overcome those doubts, we need to ...

3. Be Focused on Jesus

That’s what did it for Thomas. At one moment he was in the room with the other disciples, focusing on the doubts that he had… But then out of nowhere, Jesus appeared… I don’t know about you, but that would get me to change my focus in less than a heartbeat…

It changed Thomas’ focus... he immediately fell on the ground and proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” Scripture indicates he didn’t need to touch Jesus’ scars. For him, seeing was believing. As it was for all those other eye witnesses.

One of the greatest arguments for the certainty of the resurrection is that these people talked about it and wrote about it, and even died for their beliefs! This time in history was a very dangerous time to express faith in Christ, with a hostile, distrusting Roman government and a cunning and protective Jewish religious elite. All but one of the disciples would end up a martyr, proclaiming the risen Christ with their very last breath.

Lee Strobel is, by trade, a lawyer and investigative journalist: according to him, two of the most skeptical career fields around. As a devout atheist, he set out to disprove his fiancée’s Christian faith, more specifically, he set out to refute the evidence that Christ actually rose from the dead. In his research, he ended up becoming a devout believer, proclaiming, “It would take more faith for me to remain an atheist than to believe.” He wrote a book which has become a movie, “The Case for Christ.” In it he talks about how people no doubt will lie, but people will not give their life for a lie. Yet, each of these disciples went to their death proclaiming Jesus has risen.

Conclusion:

What about us? Jesus speaks directly to us in verse 29 when he says, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Isn’t that the essence of true faith, to believe without seeing? Someday we won’t need faith anymore, because we shall behold him face to face. But until then, we put our hope in the risen Lord, even when we don’t have all the answers. And we trust that in the future he will reveal the answers to us, or else, maybe then, it just won’t matter anymore.

Meanwhile, God gives us evidences of his existence every day. We hear him speak in our thoughts as we read scripture. We see his beauty in the creation and his love through the kind act of a friend or spouse. We see his redemptive work as someone discovers hope or meaning or peace. We see his faithfulness day after day as we know we do not walk this life alone.

And we are motivated by others following their faith. We think of saints such as Mother Teresa, who persisted even in the midst of her doubts. And consider Thomas himself, who tradition tells us would later spread the gospel to India, where he would eventually give his life for his God.

And so we resonate with the words of the Apostle Peter, no doubt recalling this particular event, when Thomas got to see his risen Lord. Many years later, Peter would write to the young believers, in 1 Peter 1:8-9:

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Have you put your faith in Christ this morning? Have you been filled with the inexpressible and glorious joy that Peter talks about? Have you, like Thomas, Humbled yourself before Jesus and proclaimed Him as your Lord and Your God?

There is no time like the present… Proverbs 27:1 tells us “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” … We may not be here tomorrow, so the time to get right with the Lord is... today...

I’d like to close with this poem… But first may I encourage you again, when you find yourself dealing with doubt and possible depression… in order to overcome… we need... To 1. Be on Guard, To 2. Be Accessible, and To 3. Be Focused on Jesus...

I believe this poem was written by a fella named: Gregory Dawson

“Doubt sees the obstacles;

Faith sees the way.

Doubt sees the darkest night;

Faith sees the day.

Doubt dreads to take a step;

Faith soars on high.

Doubt questions, "Who believes?"

Faith answers, "I!"

Prayer