Facing Doubts
Sermon Notes
Introduction:
Happy Mother’s Day everybody! My name’s Louis I’m the lead pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to gather with you both onsite and online...Before we get into today’s message we want to celebrate and pray over several families that decided to go through our Parent Commissioning class. So let’s welcome these families to the front at this time.
Parent Commissiong Explanation and Ceremony
At this time we can dismiss the children to children’s church, and if you didn’t get to check your child in, please see our children’s ministry leaders in the back and they’d be more than happy to assist you with that...If you’re a 1st time guest with us, we’re in a teaching series called The Story where we’re going through the biblical narrative from the very beginning in Genesis 1, to the last amen in Revelation 22, and today we’re studying Psalm 73 which is about doubt. It’s a great message for Mother’s Day, because mothers often wrestle with doubt. They doubt if they’re doing a good job at raising their children. They doubt if they’re doing enough to prep their children to face the real world. They doubt if they’re doing enough to reflect Jesus, to lead their children to Jesus, which can often lead to guilt in their own relationship with Jesus. Psalm 73 is a great message for Mother’s Day, because mothers often wrestle with doubt.
But the truth is everybody wrestles with doubt...At some point in our lives both skeptics and believers wrestle with doubt, especially when we’re going through hardships in life. It can happen when you don’t get the job you want, or you don’t get into the school you want...It can happen when the cancer test comes back positive, or the pregnancy test comes back negative...It can happen when you feel you’re doing everything right, but everything seems to be going so wrong...The doubts start creeping in and we’re like “Why is God allowing this to happen to me? Why didn’t God prevent this from happening? Why isn’t God answering my prayers?” Doubt is the reason some of you became skeptics. Doubt is the reason some of you haven’t been reading your bible. Doubt is the reason some of you haven’t been praying, hoping, trusting in the Lord. Everybody wrestles with doubt, so let’s turn to Psalm 73 to gain a better understanding of doubt. You’ll find Psalm 73 in the middle of the bible, and we’ll start in Psalm 73:1. Title of today’s message is Facing Doubts, and here’s the big idea. Doubt is the realities of life, exposing the weaker areas of your faith...Doubt is the realities of life, exposing the weaker areas of your faith.
Context:
Here’s your context. Psalm 73 was written by one of King David’s music leaders named Asaph. He writes this psalm to encourage people wrestling with doubt, especially those doubting their faith in the Lord. In this psalm he expresses a few things that are causing him to doubt, which might be different than what causes you to doubt. But even if the cause of his doubt is different than yours, we can still learn from his struggles with doubt. So let’s check it out.
The Word:
Psalm 73:1 states, “God is indeed good to Israel, to the pure in heart.” He starts off by expressing something he believes is true about God. It’s something he believes is true about the character of God, which is that the Lord is good. He believes the Lord is good, but he’s about to admit what he believes about God, was in conflict with what he was feeling in life.
Again vs. 1, “God is indeed good to Israel, to the pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my steps nearly went astray.” When he says his feet “almost slipped,” he’s using a metaphor for doubt. He’s saying he doubted the Lord and almost slipped, almost stumbled, almost walked away from the Lord. In the New Testament one of the Greek words for doubt is dipsychos, which means to have 2 psyches, to be double minded. So when we doubt we become double minded, we become uncertain about what we believe, and Asaph tells us why he doubted.
Vs. 3, “I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 They have an easy time until they die, and their bodies are well fed. 5 They are not in trouble like others; they are not afflicted like most people...11 The wicked say, ‘How can God know? Does the Most High know everything?’ 12 Look at the wicked! They are always at ease, and they increase their wealth.”The reason Asaph starts doubting the Lord is because he ‘saw the prosperity’ of the wicked. He compares his life to theirs and was like “It isn’t fair! Why do those who reject the Lord prosper, while those who follow the Lord suffer? What’s the point in praying, reading the bible, worshiping, serving the Lord if he allows those who reject him to prosper, while those who follow him suffer? It doesn’t make any sense!” Have you ever felt like that before?...Have you ever wondered why the Lord’s blessing others and not you?...Have you ever felt like you’re doing everything right in life, but everything going so wrong?...This is exactly how Asaph was feeling. He compares his hard life with the easy life of those who reject the Lord, and starts doubting that the Lord’s good to the faithful. What he believes about God, is conflicting with what he’s feeling in life, and it’s causing him to doubt.
Vs. 13, “Did I purify my heart and wash my hands in innocence for nothing? 14 For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning...16 When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless.” Notice his doubt comes from a combination of two things. It comes from a combination of experience and rationalization. Vs 14 says he’s afflicted which is experience, and vs 16 says he tried to understand which is rationalization. This is important because a lot of times we assume doubt is just an intellectual issue. But doubt isn’t just an intellectual issue, it’s both an experiential and an intellectual issue. For example I was having lunch one day with a guy who claimed to be an atheist, and I said “I don’t believe you’re an atheist. I know an atheist when I meet one because I was an atheist, and I don’t believe you’re an atheist. In fact I think you believe God exists, you believe that God is Jesus, and you believe the bible’s true. I think you believe the evidence intellectually; you just don’t want to know God personally.” To which he replied “You’re right! I do believe God exists, I believe that God is Jesus, and I want nothing to do with him.” So I asked him why, and he said “Because God allowed my baby girl to die, and I want nothing to do with a God like that...” When he said that I put my arm on his shoulder and said “You’re not an atheist, you’re grieving...So let’s talk about your grief...” What he believed was true intellectually, was conflicting with what he was feeling experientially, just like Asaph.
My point is doubt and skepticism, isn’t just an intellectual issue, it’s both an experiential and an intellectual issue.Sometimes our doubts are more emotionally driven, sometimes they’re more intellectually driven, but there’s always a mixture of both. I’ve never met a skeptic without affliction...Every skeptic I’ve met has a mixture of experience and rationalization that led to their skepticism, and the same is true for believers. Asaph was a believer who experienced afflictions, and those afflictions were influencing his thinking. He used to believe God is good, but his life experiences were influencing that belief. What are some life experiences influencing your beliefs?... If you’re a skeptic, what are some life experiences influencing your beliefs about God, about Jesus, about Christians?...If you’re a believer, what are some life experiences influencing your beliefs, causing you to doubt the goodness of God for your life?...Asaph does 3 things to resolve his doubts.
Again vs. 16 states, “When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless. 17 Until I entered God’s sanctuary...” Notice in vs 17 he says “until,” meaning things are turning around for Asaph. Why? It’s because he enters God’s sanctuary. He enters the temple, the place where they worshiped the Lord, and so the 1st thing he does to resolve his doubts is...
#1 He Seeks The Lord = Asaph still seeks the Lord, still pursues the Lord despite the fact his heart’s wrestling with understanding the Lord. He’s able to work through his doubts by seeking the Lord in the temple, in the church, in the place he knew God’s Word is preached and sung. It makes sense if you think about it. I mean if you’re doubting a friend’s intentions towards you, the only way to see if those doubts are accurate is to go your friend and have a conversation with them. You’ll never know if those doubts are accurate by avoiding them, you need to go to them and have a conversation with them. Asaph’s teaching us we need to do the same thing in our friendship with the Lord. Many people avoid the Lord, they stop seeking the Lord when facing doubts and afflictions, instead of continuing to seek the Lord in their doubts and afflictions. We need to go to the Lord, instead of avoiding the Lord. We need to sit and converse with Jesus as our friend, instead of running and avoiding Jesus like he’s our enemy. We need to pray, read the bible, ask questions, go to church where God’s word is preached and sung like Asaph.
Again vs. 16, “When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless. 17 Until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny. 18 Indeed, you put them in slippery places; you make them fall into ruin. 19 How suddenly they become a desolation! They come to an end, swept away by terrors.” There’s the 2nd thing he does to resolve his doubts. The 2nd thing is...
#2 He Examines His Doubts = He seeks the Lord, and then he examines his doubts. He doesn’t just doubt, he examines and questions his doubts. Throughout the text he repeatedly says things like I tried to understand. If you notice he circles back to examining the very thing that caused his doubt to begin with. He examines the life of those who are prosperous even though they reject the Lord, and he says “I was wrong in my understanding and how I was viewing their life. They really aren’t prosperous at all, because eventually they’ll lose everything they have when they die.” He says I understood their destiny, meaning their prosperity is coming to an end, since they can’t enjoy eternal life in heaven with the Lord. The point is Asaph doesn’t just doubt, he examines and questions his doubts. We need to question and examine our doubts like Asaph. We need to question our doubts, just as much as we’re questioning the truth.
Vs. 22, “I was stupid and didn’t understand; I was an unthinking animal toward you. 23 Yet I am always with you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me up in glory.” There’s the 3rdthing he does to resolve his doubt.
#3 He Expands His View of God’s Wisdom = He expands his view of God’s wisdom, meaning he’s trusting God’s wisdom over his own. He says “You hold my right hand...You guide me with your counsel...” Like a parent taking their child by the hand to help guide them through life, Asaph’s trusting the Lord to guide him through life. Children are too young to understand everything about life, so they need their parents to help guide them through life. Asaph’s saying “Lord I don’t understand everything you’re doing in my life. But I know your wisdom’s greater than mine, so I want your hand to guide my life.” He realizes the problem is our wisdom is often flawed, it’s often sabotaged by our own self serving desires. But it isn’t just flawed, it’s also limited. There’s decisions you made as a teenager, you wouldn’t make in your 20’s...There’s decisions you made in your 20’s, you wouldn’t make in your 30’s...Every decade you keep growing in wisdom, because your wisdom is limited and needs to keep growing. But the Lord’s wisdom is perfect and infinite, which is why it’s important to seek the Lord’s wisdom 1st like Asaph did. We need to seek the Lord’s wisdom above our wisdom, because only his wisdom is perfect and infinite. That’s what Asaph’s doing, he’s expanding his view of God’s wisdom. Even though he doesn’t understand everything the Lord’s doing in his life, he trusts the Lord has good reasons and good intentions for the things that are happening in his life. He trusts the Lord’s wisdom.
Elisabeth Elliot was an incredible writer and Christian missionary. She once told a story about a time she was visiting some shepherds in the highlands of Northern Wales. While she was there she learned the shepherds have to take their sheep once a year, and dip them in a tank of insecticide. It’s very hard on the sheep, because you have to grab them by their back legs and fully submerge them for about 10 seconds. But they have to do it or else the insects will literally eat them alive. So even though the sheep hate it and don’t understand why their shepherd’s allowing this to happen, it’s still good for them. Looking at her own life Elisabeth Elliot said “I realize the Lord’s my shepherd, and that’s what he does with me. He gives me exactly what I need in life, even though I may not realize it for another 10 yrs, 20 yrs, possibly until death.” Elliot realized what Asaph realized, which is the Lord’s wisdom is greater than a child, a sheep, or anyone one else. He knows what’s best for our lives, he has good intentions for our lives, even when we’re facing afflictions in life. Asaph resolves his doubt by seeking the Lord, examining his doubts, and expanding his view of God’s wisdom. It strengthens his faith and helps him to still praise the Lord, even as he’s facing the daily afflictions in life. Listen to what he says next.
Vs. 25, “Who do I have in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on earth but you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever. 27 Those far from you will certainly perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. 28 But as for me, God’s presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell about all you do.” He believes in the Lord’s presence and goodness again...What he’s teaching us is even believers sometimes doubt, but if we’re willing to process our doubts with the Lord, we’ll have a better stronger faith compared to running from the Lord. Like Asaph we need to expand our view of the Lord, and realize our doubts are really exposing the weak areas of our faith. They’re exposing the areas of faith we need the most growth in. Do you doubt the Lord when something happens to your family?...Do you doubt the Lord when your finances take a hit?...Do you doubt the Lord when it comes to the future growth of your career or ministry?...Family, finances, future ministry growth are all areas that sometimes cause my faith to weaken. But what are some of those areas for you?...What are some of those areas in your life that cause your faith to weaken?...When we doubt the Lord’s good intentions in those areas, it’s exposing the frailty of our faith. It’s exposing we still have room to grow. You’ll grow into having a better stronger faith like Asaph, if you seek the Lord, examine your doubts, and expand your view of God’s wisdom.
The Big Idea:
The big idea is that doubt is the realities of life, exposing the weaker areas of your faith... Doubt is the realities of life, exposing the weaker areas of your faith, and we want our church to be a place where you can examine your doubts like Asaph. We want City Awakening to be a place for both skeptics and believers to seek truth and find joy in community.Do you have questions about life or what your purpose is in life?...Do you have questions about Jesus, or why Jesus allowed certain things to happen in your life?...Do you have questions about why the goodness of the Lord seems to be pouring into other people’s lives, but not yours?...Do you have questions about singleness, marriage, parenting, fatherhood, motherhood?...Everybody has questions, everybody has doubts, and Jesus is big enough to handle your questions and doubts. Jesus is big enough, wise enough, kind enough to handle all your questions and doubts.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus is our God who drew near to us, because he loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. If he didn’t love us he wouldn’t have drawn near to us, and he wouldn’t have laid his life down for us on the cross. His death on the cross proves he loves us, it proves his goodness, it proves he has good intentions for us. He doesn’t promise to answer all your questions and doubts in life, he promises to see you through this life. He promises to give you an eternally joyful life with him, if you’re willing to put your faith and trust in him. He has good intentions for you, even on the days you’re doubting his intentions.