Doubt

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Good Friday

Good friday - april 15th @ 10:30am

The United church will be joining us for this service on friday - and we have been invited to their Maundy Thursday service, the previous day (April 14th @ 5:30pm)

Easter sunday - april 17th at 11am

Mens and Ladies Coffee’s

Mens, Tuesdays at 11am at Tim’s, Ladies, Wednesdays at 1:30pm at the church

Volunteer Need - Pic Mobert

We are still continuing our work in Pic Mobert. We’re looking for people to commit to a specific need - to provide some snack food that we can bring down.

Last week, we talked about perseverance.

And what’s really interesting about that, is that RIGHT after talking about perseverance, James talks about something else - wisdom and doubt.

James 1:5–8 NIV

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

How do these ideas of wisdom and perseverance connect together? Simply put,

We’re not good at learning from trials

So, I think it’s really important that we understand this idea of doubt.

Doubt is not...

Doubt is not ‘we don’t know the answers’.

We act as if the opposite of doubt is self-confidence. You are either certain in every way, or you’re suffering from doubt.

Doubt is NOT ‘we dont know the plan’

This is connected to the idea of not knowing the answers, but it’s more than that. It’s about, not knowing what choice to make, not knowing what path is the right future one. If things aren’t clear to you, then you’re struggling with doubt.

With both of these - I don’t know the answer, and I don’t know the path - There’s lots of times through the book of acts that it’s obvious people don’t know for sure. They aren’t sure if letting paul in after his giant conversion is a good idea. They aren’t sure how to respond to gentile believers and if they should follow food laws. Paul is constantly trying to minister in places that the spirit of Jesus says ‘nope, not here, not right now’.

God didn’t promise us certainty or clarity - so what is doubt?

We can say, I don’t know the answer, and not be in doubt. We can say, I don’t know the future, and not be in doubt.

Doubt is when we refuse to believe something God has said.

SOMETIMES, there’s uncertainty about if God has said something. And that’s a harder thing to address.

But this is especially about those areas where there isn’t uncertainty.

James here gives an example. He talks about perseverance - he says, make sure you let it finish it’s job so that you won’t be lacking anything.

But then he follows it up and says,

James 1:5 NIV

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

So basically, if you didn’t learn from what you went through, if you didn’t come out stronger and more confident - just ask God. He’ll show you, he’ll be generous, and he’ll never look at your faults to determine if he should give it to you.

And here’s where doubt sticks out it’s ugly head. Doubt sneaks in when we say to ourselves, I don’t know if God is going to do what He said.

James 1:6 NIV

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

And james here describes it clearly -

Doubt is like being tossed back and forth by the waves

We’ve all been through the ringer the last few years, and i believe, i BELIEVE , that God has ways to strengthen us BECAUSE of our experiences and trials. I believe it because His word says He does.

I am confident that that is what He’s doing, and believe me, I’ve already seen a ton of ways He’s already doing it.

And doubting God’s words can be absolutely crippling.

Doubt isn’t about what we don’t know or what we can’t do or didn’t do -

Doubt is about when we won’t stand on God’s truth

When we hold onto some other truth than what God has said, we’re holding onto dust and smoke.

But there’s ways that doubts crop up.

What if I didn’t do enough?

If I didn’t learn enough, if I didn’t do my part?

Doubt says, I don’t know if God is going to help me. Maybe I didn’t measure up, maybe I didn’t do my part. The bible says - just ask.

James says, we want persistance to finish it’s job, so that we won’t lack anything. And if we are still lacking wisdom, just ask.

So basically, if you didn’t do enough or get enough - just ask.

Paul reminds us in ephesians:

Ephesians 2:8–10 NIV

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Not only is you ‘not doing enough’ God’s expectation - it’s kind of the point. God does everything through grace, as a gift, so that none of us CAN say ‘hey, we did enough to earn this’.

The point of our life isn’t to show off OUR handiwork - it’s to show off God’s handiwork.

And when we realize this, we see the point - that we’re God’s handiwork, that He is doing His thing and building us and shaping us and moulding us for no other reason than because He loves us, and wants us to do good works.

What if I don’t do enough now?

This is basically the same question as, What if he isn’t generous - what if i have to beg, or search, or scrape at the answers?

What if ‘me’ plus ‘God’ doesn’t equal ‘enough’?

We BELIEVE God is generous, but do we ACT like He’s stingy?

This one KILLS me. We pretend like if we don’t create the perfect circumstances, then the Holy Spirit doesn’t even bother. I read the bible , and I hear about a God who gives and gives and gives, who forgives and forgives, who has mercy upon mercy upon mercy - and then I see people say, ‘oh, well, this one thing didn’t go right - so now he’s gone’.

Hebrews 13:6 NIV

So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

Doubt says, I don’t know if God WANTS to help me or bless me or guide me. The bible says, He LOVES to do all these things - and generously.

Do we act like He’s only going to give out answers or wisdom or help or healing to those people who have done really really good things, and earned it?

Or with our actions, do we show that we believe God is ready, and willing, and EAGER to give out as much as possible to as many as possible?

Now, this doesn’t mean that God will help us do anything we want to do - sometimes, we’re just wrong. But God will always, always help us. When we’re right, he’ll move us along. When we’re wrong, he’ll steer us a new way.

What if I messed up?

What if God sees the ways that I acted or reacted, and decides not to help me?-

Doubt says ‘you’re not good enough’. You hit a line, you hit a limit, and God’s done. The bible says - God knows that we aren’t perfect, and he loves us and desperately wants to be with us.

Romans 8:38–39 NIV

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And here’s the big reason that doubt is so destructive - while doubt sounds like it’s about us, or the world, or the future, or anything, it all REALLY boils down to this:

When we doubt, we show what we believe about God

The truth is, doubt isn’t about belief in ourselves because confidence isn’t about belief in ourselves either. We don’t stand here in certainty because of anything WE’VE done.

When we say, ‘I messed up, and now I doubt God’s even around’, we’re saying ‘I don’t believe God when He says he’s forgiven EVERYTHING’.

When we say, ‘I didn’t do enough, now I doubt God’s going to bother with me’, we’re saying ‘I don’t believe God when He says that he’ll never leave me or forsake me’.

When we say, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, and i’m afraid of that’, we’re saying, ‘I don’t believe God is powerful enough to see me through anything I can face’.

We said earlier that james describes doubt as being on a boat, tossed back and forth by the waves, constantly in fear and danger- and the truth is,

Life based on anything but God’s truth and character is a sinking ship

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