Overcoming Doubt

Praise the Lord, guys. We're happy to have all of you here, Mark and Rebecca. Man, praise the Lord, man. What a blessing. Mark goes way back to the very beginning, almost.

And so, yeah, I am not with shoes right now. It was just from the beginning. Lydia, where you at? She's not in. Okay.

There. And George, y'all remember when I would never wear shoes during the service. Yeah. The rationale is, in the Bible, it says, you know, take your shoes off. You know, he's telling that to Moses, you're on holy ground.

So, wherever we go, I think part of this is that, you know, we have to understand our identity and all of that. But again, I want to thank Pastor Leon and the church for allowing me to preach a message about overcoming doubt. I think it's very appropriate for the light right now, you know, very current. But there are a lot of things we're going to look at about doubt, you know, scripturally. And just, you know, I'll share a few stories.

I'll try to keep it within the time frame. I make no promises with that. I know. It is. It's, yeah.

And plus, there's a lot of things to go over. So, I want to be responsible with that. But before I go any further, I just want to give thanks to the Lord in prayer. So, please join me. Jesus, Lord of heaven, thank you for forgiveness of sin.

Thank you for redeeming us when we didn't deserve it. Thank you for leading, guiding, and the right love. There's no greater love than you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for giving us a knowledge of you, but also more than that, an intimate relationship with you. And as you've been beckoning on my heart, not just with this message, but through the power of your own Holy Spirit, your desire is that you want us to spend more time with you.

You're always inside of us through the Holy Spirit and your word and our fellowship, but just to spend that one-on-one time with you, Lord. And I have to admit, I ask your forgiveness for me being irresponsible with that and not spending enough time with you. But right now, Lord, this last week and few days, it's been a blessing that you've been spending time with me. I pray everybody in this house, if you aren't spending that time, that you would draw close to him. His promise is when we draw close to him, he will draw close to us.

So, we give you the honor of praise and the glory, Lord, in this message. May it go forth and achieve what it accomplishes and plan to do, because your word never returns empty or void. It always gets the job done. Thank you, Jesus. In your mighty name we pray.

Amen and amen. All right, guys. So, we're going to be learning out of Psalms 77, 1 through 9. Again, Pastor Leanne kind of really did a lot of the grunt work here. No?

No. Well, still, though, there are a lot of things that we're going to go over, but that's our main scriptures is in the 77th chapter of Psalm, verses 1 through 9, and we're going to be talking about overcoming doubt. Now, obviously, as I prefaced before we prayed, this is something that we all can relate to, you know, a relevant message that everybody's gone through things in this life, no matter how young or how old you are. You know, we've all experienced, you know, loss and things like that. And, you know, so I I know that this is an appropriate message for the times that we live in, but the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to give a definition of the word of doubt, and just from Merriam-Webster's dictionary, it says that it's a transitive verb and it means to call into question the truth of, or to be uncertain or in doubt about a certain thing.

Okay? There's certainly many who right now are in a season of spiritual doubt. Some are living with situations so painful that doubt is our constant companion. Definitely been there. Some of you are not in the season of doubt.

Not right now, but it's just around the corner. Right? I mean, you know, that's life, man. We don't live the smooth road. You're either coming down the mountain or you're going back up in the valley.

Some of that is going to come into our life that is going to turn our world upside down and flip it all around and lead us into a season of questions and doubts. Some of you may have right now a family member, a friend, a close co-worker who is going through a season of doubt, and God wants you to be his messenger in their life. In particular, this upcoming week, we always, the way we teach here at SALT is there's a practical application, which we'll get to here further on down the line here. The fact is, doubting comes naturally for all of us. We're born questioners.

Why? You know, when we're born, like babies, the first word we say, why? You know, or mama or dada. And just because we become a follower of Christ, it does not mean that all of our doubts disappear. The Bible is filled with men and women who are devoted, passionate followers of God, but who regularly find themselves in the situation of questioning their faith and questioning God.

One of those people, and he wrote Psalm 77. His name is Asaph. He wrote some of the chapters in the book of Psalms, and we're going to listen in as Asaph shares some of his doubts. When you read this, you can hear his words, the agony and the angst of his struggle. You can hear his brutally honest questions that he brings to God.

So, Psalm 77, I cry aloud to God. I cry aloud, and he hears me. In times of trouble, I put my hands in prayer. I cannot find comfort. When I think of God, I sigh, and when I meditate, I feel discouraged.

He keeps me awake all night. I am so worried that I cannot speak. I think of days gone by and remember years of long ago. I spend the night in deep thought. I meditate, and this is what I ask myself.

Will the Lord always reject us? Will he never again be pleased with us? Has he stopped loving us? Wow. Does his promise no longer stand?

Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has anger taken the place of compassion? So, there's a common thread that ties all of it together, and it's a thread of doubt in the questions right at the end that Asaph poses, right? Man, it just points right to that. Will God reject us forever?

Do his promises no longer stand? Has he forgotten how to be merciful? I'll tag on along with that. King David knew that very well, too, when he wrote in the earlier part of the Psalms, you know, I drench my couch with tears. I cry out your name.

Do you not hear me, O Lord? I mean, David said that and wrote that. So, David knew about that, too. He said that wasn't the only one, but we all know this too, right? How many times have we asked ourselves, God, where are you at, man?

There's like chaos all around. What are you doing? You know? And normally for me, what happens is he asks me, what are you doing? He points it right back.

He throws it right back at me. What are you doing, man? Here, catch that hot potato. You know, right here. But anyways, I can.

Yeah. So these questions are often, they aren't very politically correct in some churches. Some churches portray a kind of Christianity where Christians never ask questions. Not this church. Praise the Lord.

Right, Sierra? They never struggle with doubts, right? But I'm glad to be a part of a church where it's okay to be real. No pretense, no facade, just to show up with questions that are raw and gut level. And that's all right, man.

That's, you know, it's a natural part of who we are. But more importantly, importantly, we may not, we ourselves, you know, ourselves, we don't have answers. Who has answers? Somebody, somebody shout out the name. Hallelujah?

Oh, yeah. Man, awesome. Right. God isn't threatened by those questions, and neither are we as a church, because we all struggle with them. Man.

Martin Luther once said, knowledge and doubt are inseparable to man. Only God and certain madmen have no doubts. Now, Hitler, Mussolini, we can go on, you know, Pol Pot. Questions why God didn't make it easier for us, because that's, that's like the next logical thought process when I was reviewing this, and just going over the message. As Christians, why doesn't God just drop in the mail a blueprint for the rest of our life, full of explanations?

Or when you face a crisis, he sends you an email, explains to you all his purposes, and the reasons why he's doing what he's doing in your life. Or at least he could not set up an 800 number, so at any time you wanted, you could get a hold of an angel and find out an answer. Or, I love this part, or a chat GPT service to give us a quick formatted explanation. I repent in the mighty name of Jesus. Oh, man.

The reason God doesn't make it easier is because he knows us. Can I get an amen? He knew us before we were knit together in our mother's womb. In Ephesians 1, verses 4 and 5, he says that Jesus and himself, God the Father, the creator of all things, he knew us, he chose us before the water. When waters were hovering over the earth, he knew us then.

Isn't that amazing? So, I just want to drive that point home. He knows us. He knows us better than we know ourselves sometimes. Isn't that right, Mark?

Okay. All right. So, he knows our nature. He knows our tendency. He knows that when life is easy and everything makes sense, our tendency is to forget about God.

You know, we kind of slip off to the right or to the left. I'm right-handed, so I went right. Anyway. When everything comes easy and when life makes sense and there are no doubts, our tendency always is to forget God. I know, guilty as charged.

But when life falls apart, when doubt... Out. Out. Thank you. Our tendency is to look for an answer.

But God wants us to not look for an answer as much as He wants us to look for Him. Right? Because He, as I said before, He has the answer. Jesus is the answer to every problem that we will encounter, that's up ahead in the unknown part of the road, as well as what we're going through right now. He is the answer.

It's not us. We have no power outside of Christ. Right? It's our nature to look for reasons. It is God's nature to offer relationships.

His desire is for our hearts. His desire, and I said it at the beginning, He loves for us to spend time with Him, to be in His presence, man. You know, I was earlier in our time of prayer, you know, Pastor Leon and Kelly were up here just worshiping the Lord and we were just, you know, praying over the house, over people that will be here. It's so critical to spend time with the Lord in a busy lifestyle that we all lead and live. When we forget about God because we're on the smooth part of the road or the journey, it's so easy to forget God, man, real quick.

And then all of a sudden, something pops up. And then we're like, oh, Jesus, you know, I mean, I've been there, done that and guilty of it. But I love the fact that He desires an intimate relationship, not just a, hey, God, what's up? Hey, Jesus, how are you doing? You know, He wants it deeper than that because He already knows us, right?

We just talked about that. He knows who we are. He knows who we aren't. He knows where we lack. He knows all of that, man.

He's the author and finisher of our faith, right? All right, cool. All right. So we think the answer to our doubts is explanations. God says the answer to your doubts is me, him.

God values teaching you how to trust Him in the midst of your doubts. And we're going to kind of later on, we're going to do some practical things or at least convey to you those things that will help you and help all of us. But we want an explanation. That's how we're wired, connect all of the dots. We're very much like Thomas in the New Testament after Jesus has resurrected from the dead.

I like this part. It made me laugh. He appeared to the disciples one day. Thomas wasn't there. When he came back, they said, we have seen the Lord, Thomas said.

That's not enough. I'm not going to believe unless I can see it myself, unless I can put my hands in the nail prints in his hands, and I can feel the scar on his side. So a few days later, the Bible says that Jesus appeared to Thomas. He says to him in verse 27 of the 20th chapter of John, stop doubting and believe. Ooh, the Lord said that.

Could you imagine just Jesus being real with you right now? Stop doubting me and believe. He's saying that right now, by the way. Hallelujah. Amen?

Then he says something very interesting in verse 29. You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven't seen me and believe any way. Hallelujah. Woo!

Man. No, it's just, oh man, I could go on with that one. But Jesus put a higher premium on faith than on visible proof. Blessed are those who haven't seen me. Blessed are those who haven't seen me and believe anyway.

Blessed are those who don't have answers, but they choose to trust anyway. Blessed are those whose minds are filled with doubts, yet they choose faith anyway. Like Thomas, we all have doubts in life's journey. Having doubts doesn't make you less spiritual, less Christian. In fact, ceases of doubt can lead to some of the greatest spiritual growth and breakthroughs in your life.

I know, man, all of us can give a testimony to that, I believe, you know? And it could just be one testimony, but we probably have a plethora. And it's awesome, man. God loves us so much. He does give the allowance for things to happen because He's a good Father.

He wants to see growth in all of us. You know, we're not here to wait for Jesus' arrival. We're supposed to be about our Father's business, like Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew. So how do we figure out or know what the business of God is? Have you spent time with Him?

Have you talked with Him? Have you listened? And not said anything, just come into His presence. Enter the throne room. And just sit, man.

It's hard sometimes because we've got all these other pressures. But the greatest thing is when we're obedient to God, man, He says obedience is better than sacrifice. Amen. There are at least three upsides to doubt. You're like, what?

Yeah. When I read that, I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. But anyways, we're going to walk through them. So the first point, number one, they drive you to God. When our life is turned upside down or we are facing a crisis, we are more apt to look up and to seek God, His help and His presence.

We spend more time thinking about God and talking to God. In Psalm 77, Asaph begins in verse 1 with these words, I cry aloud to God, I cry aloud and He hears me. He has incredible doubts, yet His first response is to go to God with His questions. As important as it is for you to read good Christian books, be in a small group, to come to church on Sunday and learn about God, there are some issues that have to be between you and God. You can only resolve them in a struggle and in a wrestling match in the very depths of your soul.

And I have been there on a bicycle riding for two months because my dad was getting ready to die. And I'm like, oh, I was mad with God, man. So we had the wrestling match, which mold us so much here. He's a big WWE fan. Shout out Richard Rubio.

So anyways, we only resolve this in a struggle and in a wrestling match with the Lord. And there is no shortcut or easy fix, the easy button from Staples. None of that works with regards to resolution with this or solution. And now we move on to the second point. The second upside of doubts is not only do they drive me to God, but number two, they force you to wrestle with life's difficult questions.

When things are good in life, everything's good in life. We tend to live at the surface level. When our world is turned upside down, we lose a job, we get sick, lose a spouse, so on and so forth. Just insert here. We move to a serious soul searching questions we have to wrestle with in our life.

Questions like, why me? Why me? What did I do to deserve this? Where are you in this? What is your plan in allowing me to go through this painful experience?

Those are all important questions that only times of doubt and crisis bring. So the third upside of doubt is, number three, it deepens your faith. Walking through trials and doubt can deepen our faith. I'll give you an example. When I was younger, probably around 14, it was before my mom passed away, because she passed away when I was 15 and a half.

We had a boat, and we would put out on the weekends, sometimes even after church on Sunday, and we would ride our boat along the intercoastal waterway. So this is in November, and the water is pretty rough. This is the East Coast, and we know that November tends to bring us good waves, right, Leon? Right, Greg? Where you at, Greg?

Okay, yeah. And Carl, yeah. So we have, and Mark. Yeah, we're Captain Charlie. So we have so many surfers in there, I don't know why.

So it was November, and it was rough. We were in the intercoastal waterway. This was in North Carolina. So we put out into the ocean, and well, we tried to get out, but, you know, the waves are too big. They were probably running six to eight feet, and they were crashing right outside of what's called New River Inlet.

So it's north of Wilmington where Leon's from or where he kind of grew up. Yeah. And the New River can get pretty, any inlets is rough. The tide was going out. And so we're in the inlet and going towards, trying to go out.

And my dad's like, that's too rough. Then we ran aground on a sandbar, and then our motor stopped working. So then we run aground. Dad says, boy, get out of the boat and push us off the sandbar. So I push off, and I'm in that deep water.

The water's cold. I hop back in the boat. I lower the motor down. He turns the key, and the motor does not turn on. So we're drifting now.

We have no way to control that. And I'm looking at the waves. I'm looking at my dad. I'm looking at the waves. I'm going, whoo.

I didn't say that. I was just internally, I'm like, man, this is not good. And so he had me get out the oar, and then we ran aground on the other side of the sandbar. It was literally a circular sandbar. It was weird.

So he tells me, all right, son, you know what to do. I get out of the boat. I push us off the sandbar. You know, get back on, lower the motor down again. Hits the key, nothing.

By this time, it's getting dark. And nightfall is setting because there's a light on by this little building on the barrier island right next to the inlet. We heard a dog barking. All we had was a whistle. Like, you're required if you have a small craft or boat to carry a sound signaling device.

So anyways, I blew the whistle several times. You've got to do five or more, you know, and it's an international signal of distress. I'm in trouble. So did that, no response. And we're getting closer to where the waves are breaking because the sound of the crashing waves was getting louder.

No, it's not going to bein' it. and Now, even for a surfer, and I didn't surf back then, and I loved the ocean when I was a kid, but I'm telling you right now, man, I was getting deathly afraid, and we couldn't do anything. The motor would not start. So, I look to mom and dad, and I go, what do we do? And the response that my mother and father gave to all of us, because there was me and my three sisters in the boat, in addition to my mom and dad, is, we just need to pray.

And so we did. So, we kept drifting around, I don't know how many hours. And fog had set in too, by the way. So, we lost visibility. We couldn't see literally anything around us anymore.

The land was obscured. The building that was on the land was obscured. We couldn't see anything. So, this was shaping up to be a pretty calamitous event. And finally, it was around, I don't know how many hours had passed, because we went in in the early evening around 5, 30 or 6, and it started getting dark, and the motor quit.

So, all of a sudden, we felt the boat lurch. And I thought we ran aground again, which we did. When that happened instantaneously, I'm looking around and, you know, it was a full moon night. The fog had dissipated, literally went away. As soon as we, hit, hit, ran aground.

And what had happened was, all that confluence of currents and stuff had put us back into the intercoastal waterway, on the shore, you know, closest to the shore. And we ran aground. So, I looked down, and I'm looking at oysters and scallops. And I'm like, I look at my dad. I go, Dad, we're in the waterway.

He goes, get out the shore, boy. Let's go. So, I push out. I lower the motor back down, because my dad did not have a motorized, you know. So, it was all, I was the plane trimmer dude.

Thank you, Dad. So, I lowered the motor back down. And he hit that key, and the motor started. And I got to say, man, I never forgot that. You know, I was already saved.

I already knew God. But I didn't know him. But that made a good contribution to, because I, instantaneously, I had doubts, man. We're getting out there in the ocean. We're going to die.

That was doubt leading to fear. So, anyways, I just wanted to share that little story with you. All right. So, the next part we're going to do, I'm going to give you an equation. I love this.

So, the equation is doubt plus surrender plus trust equals freedom. So, we take our doubt. We surrender it to Jesus. We trust in him. And thereby, we walk into the freedom that he promised us in the Gospels.

Amen? He came to set the captives free. Come on now. So, yeah. When we do that, it's a simple equation.

I really love that. So, I'll explain more in detail. Seasons of doubt leads us to a place of surrender. We often surrender because we have no other options. In that boat, we have no other options.

Either we're going to go out and capsize and die, or we're going to live. And thank you, Holy Spirit. The Lord says, surely you will not die, but you will live. Thank you, Lord, for that. But anyways, we often surrender because we have no other options.

We say, God, I don't understand. This doesn't make sense to me. I have my doubts, but it's not in my control. But I surrender. Yield to your will.

You know, when I read this part here and I saw surrender, I was raised in a Baptist church, and Leon knows this hymn very well, I surrender all. You know, all to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely give, you know. And that really, I think life in Jesus, if you're not surrendering, I mean, throughout your day, you're going to have some problems. I'm just saying.

Because I don't know why we always think we're in control. Yeah. In our surrender, we really learn to trust God even when you don't understand. He is a good God and He can be trusted with your life. Amen.

Oops. Hold on just a second, guys. Yeah. There we go. Just kind of scrolling.

There we go. Yeah. Now I understand, Pastor Leon, why you can be frustrating sometimes. Yeah. When we walk through that sequence, the equation, doubt to surrender to trust, it equals freedom.

Now you have the freedom to not have to be in control. Show of hands. How many people love to be in control? Just a show of hands. Okay.

How many people enjoy not being in control? Show of hands. I actually enjoy that. And as of late, I've learned the more that I can let go. And it doesn't mean we're going to be irresponsible.

You know, as people of God, we have responsibilities we need to adhere to. And, you know, obviously, you know, not breaking the law and things like that. But there are, you know, if we want to be in control, it can also be not so great. Because then it lessens our ability to trust, rely, and depend upon the Lord. And that's, anyways, been my life where I thought I was in control.

God took everything away and I had my job experience. Mark, you were there when that all happened, you know. And, man, I'm so grateful that he took it all away, you know. Because he had to show me that I am powerless without him. I move and have my being because of the Lord Almighty.

Whoo, Jesus. All right. So now you have the freedom to not have to be in control. We die to ourselves and we die to our own agenda. You know, the five-year plan, the ten-year plan.

Now we are submitted in a place in the hands of a good and gracious God who can be trusted with your life. So, recapping, doubt can drive me to God. It forces me to wrestle with my difficult questions. And it can deepen my trust and relationship and faith in God. So now we have the application.

So we're going to go back to Psalm 77. We're going to look at some practical steps that Asaph took to deal with his own doubts. And there are three of them. Number one, remember God's track record. Okay?

Remember God's track record. Step back and look at the big picture. We need to get some perspective. I recall all you have done, O Lord. I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

They are constantly in my thoughts. I remember the truth. I cannot stop thinking about them. That's verses 11 and 12 from Psalm 77. Key words here, recall, remember, thoughts, thinking, they all refer to my mind, our mind.

Memory is a friend to faith. I love that. I'm supposed to give another example. And I will. I kind of alluded to a major event that happened in my life when I met Leon and Mark many years ago.

And it was I went through a divorce. I just recently rededicated my life back to Jesus in February 9, 2003, 630 in the morning, in King George County, Virginia, right outside the Dahlgren Lab. And that's when I had my encounter with the Holy Ghost. And God, God met me there. It was amazing.

Going through a divorce. It's tough. I know. I'm going to call you out, Mark, because you're my brother. And I know you won't mind.

But at that time, Mark was going through some things, too. And I won't go into detail. But it was good to have the fellowship, to have your encouragement, to have your love, that God worked through you. And he worked through me in spite of it. And of our circumstances.

And God, look at us today, bro. Not to brag. Look what God did. So when I went through that, my faith was truly tested because I literally came back to the Lord the day of I came back to Jesus. And that morning, in the evening, I got home and my former wife asked me for a divorce.

But check it out. On the drive down, the Lord was speaking to me. I'm thinking, this is better than watching Mr. Ed eating peanut butter on his front lip. It was cool.

So God's talking to me in my car. He's like, hey, I'm going to let you know now. When you get home, your wife is going to ask you for a divorce. But he was so cool about it. He's like, but don't you worry.

Just trust in me. He said, everything's going to be all right. Now, he didn't tell me that all the stuff I was going to have to go through for me to get to all right. But it was more than all right. It was a blessing.

Amen. And so my faith was tested in that, man, throughout that whole process. It was like a four-year process of going through a divorce. And Leon was there for a big part of that. And he was just going through grad school, man.

Him and Miranda, I think it probably just meant right before. But, man, we spent hours, man, praying, well, on our faces with the Lord. Woo, Jesus. Jesus. And today, man, God has just done miraculous things with my heart, with my mind.

But my faith was tested. And I asked those questions, God, where are you? I mean, I literally come back to you, Jesus, and now this? But then because he loved me so much, and he talked to me direct, I wasn't losing my mind. I was coming into the mind that he gave me before the beginning of time.

I'm like, man, thank you, Jesus. But then also, he placed Mark in my life. I've placed Leon in my life and so many others here in this room throughout all this passage of time to put me here today to speak of his goodness and to reassure anyone out there who's going through a tough time you know we're not supposed to know all the answers at some there are going to be things that are going to remain unanswered even when we get to heaven because heaven is a totally different deal totally different place not going to wax on that theologically but just suffice to say that we need to learn how to trust him more. Amen okay all right let me let me recompose myself all right we don't have to be anxious because God has an incredible track record in this passage Asaph says when I think about your wondrous deeds I constantly think about them some translations say I meditate on your wonderful works I ponder them because they are true the testimonies of the Lord are true amen and these stories in the Bible are historically verifiable that's the other part if God is able check check it out if God is able to deliver two million people out of Egyptian bondage if God is able to park the waters of the Red Sea if God by his powers is able to knock down the walls around the entire city of Jericho if God is able to deliver Shadrach Meshach and Abednego from a fiery furnace if God is able to shut the mouths of the lions so they don't eat the prophet Daniel if God is able to take his own son and raise him from the dead maybe that's a track record that shows God will take care of you amen can we get an amen come on now Jesus Jesus I will praise you Jesus I will praise you Jesus I will praise you Jesus I will praise you forever for what you have done in your name I will hope for your name is good I will praise you in the presence of your saints that's Psalm 52 9 here King David is thinking back over God's track record it leads him to praise here are some practical suggestions when you are going through a time of doubt record the amount of time you give to personal worship so I'll kind of add to that when I wake up in the morning when I wake up in the morning and this is my first thing I do is I thank the Lord that I'm alive that he allowed me to live remember he ordains everything in our bodies he allows us to draw breath he allows us to see he allows us to speak he allows our brains to work all of that we don't have control over that if you think you have you're lying you flat out lying you need to repent okay so because truly scientists and doctors have done study upon study and there are autonomous things that happen outside of our own what we think is control you know it's the Lord man you know we literally when he says you move and have your being because of me he's not joking around okay so in the morning I thank God for being alive then I get into the word I spend time in scripture and then after that and Sierra and Tariq can probably vouch for this sometimes not every day but most days I will depending on my my schedule because I do surf camp early in the morning but I always try to fit in some worship because it really does something to you man I don't care who you are and what kind of what kind of mood you might I woke up, man, or the dog peed down your leg or, you know, or ate your slice of pizza, yeah, it's just so amazing when we can go to the Lord and worship him because when we worship him, man, yeah, it's like you and him having church, man. Fellowship and spend the time with him.

Why would we not want to spend time with the one who loves us the most? Why would we not want to spend time with the one who set us free? Why would we not want to spend time with the one who sent his only son? To set us free. Hallelujah.

All right. Cool. Put on some music. Start listening in the morning, in the car, before you go to bed. Just begin to fill your mind with the great truths about God.

I love when I, when I really, uh, are more intentional about that. So that you will have ingrained in your heart God's track record. It's awesome. Romans 54 says, for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. God gave us his Bible so that we would, so that you would see, we would see who he is and you would understand his track record that through reading these stories or those stories, you would find encouragement and hope, excuse me, so that we can remember his track record.

Next point, number two for application, trust God's character and power. Psalm 77 says, oh God, your ways are holy. Is there any God as mighty as you? You are the God of miracles and wonders. You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.

When I think about God's power. When I think about God's power, I also think about a passage of scripture, Isaiah 40, which says, to whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens.

Who created all these? He who brings out the sorry hosts one by one and calls them each by name because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. And that's Isaiah 40 verses 25 through 26. And the Lord says, look up to the heavens. Consider the sun for a moment.

It hangs in the sky, 93 million miles from us, Earth. It's just an average sized star in a galaxy of the Milky Way. We know the sun is exactly the right distance away from planet Earth to sustain life. If it were 100 million miles away, we would freeze to death. If it were 80 million miles away, we would burn up.

The sun is 333,000 times the size of planet Earth. Its heat is so intense. It's like a billion nuclear bombs going off every second. That's intense. Its heat is so intense.

Its heat is so intense that it only takes eight minutes to travel for the heat to leave the surface of the sun until it touches our skin. Here on planet Earth, 93 million miles later, it hangs in the sky as a testimony to God's power. Amen. Made by God. It is an advertisement that says, look, here is the glory of God on display.

Woo! It is an advertisement as well. Every time it sets it, it says to you and I, I'll be back tomorrow to show you that God is faithful. You're welcome. Because remember, in the creation story, he created night and day, you know?

It's amazing. All right, consider the star of Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is 600 light years away. It is 1,000 times the size of the sun. If it were in the Milky Way galaxy, it would stretch all the way to Jupiter.

That's pretty big. So far away, light travels 186 miles per second. That means light in a year will travel 5.88 trillion miles. Multiply that by 600 and you can get to the star of Betelgeuse.

Not in my lifetime. Consider the Ring Nebula. The Ring Nebula is 2,000 light years away. The ring is a beautiful rich blue tie-dye fading into orange. Mary, you'd probably love that.

The way it sets in the universe is you're able to look right down in the middle of it. If you look carefully right in the middle, you'll see a white dot. That white dot is a dying star that is emitting gases that create this panorama of color. God did that. It is one light year across the Ring Nebula, 5.

88 trillion miles wide. Dude, that's huge. Consider the spiral galaxy, 30 million light years away. Again, it sets perpendicular to the Earth so we can see the beautiful spiral patterns in this particular galaxy. Scientists conjecture, but some of them believe that there are as many stars in the spiral galaxy as there are grains of sand on the planet Earth.

The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies displays marvelous craftsmanship. Psalm 19, verses 1 through 4. Creation is the story of God's power and God's faithfulness. Our God is big.

He's a big God. I love that song. I am not the center of the universe. Hello. I am one small part.

There's a certain freedom that comes in embracing your smallness. Because even though at times it may seem like your world's out of control, the world is never out of control. The great big God of the universe who hung the spiral galaxy in the sky is the same God that can be trusted. You, every one of you, are God's highest creation achievement. Hallelujah.

So if God cares about you more than he does a spiral ring or galaxy, ring nebula in the sun, then he is powerful enough to take care of whatever you're facing. Asaph says it not only helps me deal with my doubts by realizing God's power, but also by realizing God's character. Psalm 77, he says that God's ways are holy. They are righteous. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, the joys of those who trust in him. You know, thank you, Lord. That word right there, I prayed over Sierra. I prayed that over Tariq and I believe Hunter this morning in our time of worship. It's funny how God does that.

It wasn't because I reviewed my message. It's just that's what the Holy Spirit will put on my heart at a specific time. But I had to trust in God to be able to communicate that and to speak that and to minister that to my brothers and my sister. You know, that is so important. Comfort comes not in getting an explanation for my doubts.

Whoa, man. That was ok. I did nothing on me long, just kidding. That was harsh, huh? But in seeing who God is, knowing his character, he never seeks to harm his children.

Amen. As a good father, he's always motivated by love. He loves us and pursues us even when we doubt, even when we stumble, even when we fail. So when in doubt, even when his hand cannot be traced, his heart can be trusted. The longer you walk with God and the more intimately you come to know him, the more you will rest in this truth that God cannot compromise his character.

Hebrews 6 verses 18 through 19 says, God cannot tell a lie, so his promises and vows are two things that can never be changed. We have run to God for safety. Now his promise is to greatly encourage us, to take hold of the hope that is right in front of us. This hope is like a firm and steady anchor for our souls. In fact, hope reaches behind the curtain and into the most holy place.

He says, the character of God becomes an anchor for my soul. So even when life and confusion and doubts toss me around, my life is anchored in this fact. God can be trusted. So ASAP goes on to say, I've got my questions, I've got my doubts, but when I think about God's track record, I'm comforted. I think about his power and his character and I'm comforted.

But there's one last thing he does, and this leads us to point three of the application. He teaches us to celebrate our future. Again, going back to Psalm 77 verse 15, he says, you have redeemed your people by your strength. Redeemed is a key word here. It's kind of a churchy word, but it simply means to be bought back.

I love that. For those of us who have entered into a personal relationship with Christ, we are redeemed. Amen. We have been spiritually changed and transformed. Amen.

And we have been given eternal life. Hallelujah. Yes. Titus 2 says, we are filled with the hope as we wait for the glorious return of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Whew.

We know how it ends. That's the whole, that's, out of all this, man, I really love that part because in spite of my doubts, I just, man, Jesus, you got to take this because if I continue down this track, I'm going the wrong direction. I'm going away from you and not trusting you because I know how this ends. It's not a mystery. You know, when we read the word of God, he lays it out very clearly how things are going to end and how we become, everything becomes new again.

We were made new when we, when we said yes to Jesus, when we got baptized and received the Holy Ghost with fire. Whew, man, come on. So, why would we not trust God? You know? And I personally believe, you know, we get, we get torn away from truth.

We believe the enemy's lies. And the next thing you know, we find ourselves in a, just a not great place, right? Okay. Jesus comes back and he comes back victoriously. You know, he's our victorious warrior.

Hallelujah. So, even in his life with confusion and doubt and questions, the destination is absolutely clear. You know, out of, 1 Corinthians 2 verses 9 and 10, here we go. No eye has seen nor ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. We know these things because God has revealed them to us by His Spirit.

Man, hallelujah. All right. So with that, I'm going to kind of wrap things up here. I'm going to share this one story with you guys. It's about a ranking military officer by the name of Jim Collins.

He wrote a book called Good to Great recounting the fascinating discussion he had with Admiral Jim Stockdale. Jim was the highest ranking military officer as a prisoner of war in the camp that affectionately became known as the Hanoi Hilton from 1965 to 1973. He was in that camp and tortured more than 20 times with unimaginable brutality that left him crippled until his death in 2005. When Jim Collins asked the Admiral, how did you make it through those times of uncertainty in the camp? Listen to what the Admiral said.

He said, quote, I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only would I get out, but also I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade. Biblical hope is not passive waiting. It is not ignorant denial. It is not wishful thinking.

It is not blind optimism. It is facing directly head on your doubts and clinging to a God who promised the future. This is biblical hope. No one exemplifies this better than Job. Life was completely turned upside down.

He got no answers from heaven. His mind was filled with doubt, yet it still says in Job 19, as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives and that he will stand on the earth at the last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God. I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.

I am overwhelmed at the thought. In spite of the uncertainty of his circumstances, he was absolutely certain about his destiny. And you can be too. As we close, we're going to get practical. And this is in your notes.

I just want you to take a moment where it says, my next step is, what is it going to be for you? Are you going to use that equation? Doubt plus surrender plus trust equals freedom? Or is there something specific that God's put on your heart that you need to turn over so that you can be free? We're not supposed to live in bondage, people.

We're the people of God. We're not supposed to be given over to a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. Right? We don't worry about what the world's doing. Our worry is to make Jesus famous before his return.

Amen? So, let's do that. All right? And there are many ways to do it. There's not just one way.

There is only one way to heaven. His name is Jesus. But there are many, many ways that we can evangelize and just demonstrate the goodness and the greatness and the powerful love of God. Amen? So, I want you all to consider that, you know, what is my name?

Step here, okay? And I want you to encourage you to write that in your notes. Maybe for some of you it's, I need to spend more time in the Word of God to become more familiar with His track record. Maybe for some it's figuring out ways to fill your mind and your heart with the truth of God, with music and worship of God. And in here I'm gonna, I'm not gonna, well, I guess I can sing it.

This is the hymn I was telling about earlier. It's called I Surrender All. Oh, to Jesus I surrender all, to Him I freely give. I will love and trust Him in His presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all, be my blessed Savior.

I surrender all. Maybe some of you here don't know the Lord. We always are faithful to God because this is about Jesus and it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's good news, but also there are some hard things you have to hear. If you're questioning who you are, if you're not redeemed, you know you're not redeemed.

Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait. Jesus said in Matthew, tomorrow is not a promise. Your life is but a vapor. We are like a mist.

We're only here for a short amount of time. But this is what we are as a people of God. The hope within us, His name is Jesus. If you don't know Him, you know, I encourage you to call out His name. You have to challenge Him.

If you don't believe He's real, tell Him that. He will make sure you think otherwise because that's how great our God is, right? All of us that have had to come to terms with that to surrender all to Jesus. And that surrender word sometimes can be offensive. But the bottom line is Jesus knows everything about you.

He knows what you're struggling with right now. Okay? So whether you're watching on the internet or you're here in this house right now, I praise God for His great love for me, for all of us, and for those who don't know Him yet. But today is a day of salvation. Call upon His name.

Ask for forgiveness because we're all sinners outside of the love of God. And we're dead in those sins is what the Bible says. But when we confess that to Him, and we say, Jesus, I'm done living this way, and we turn around, and we go, help me. Help me. He's faithful, man.

The Bible says He's faithful to forgive every single sin. And check it out. And Miranda taught about this a few weeks ago. I love how Jesus looks at sin. You know how Jesus looks at sin?

He doesn't say, you know, Captain Charlie, you know, I know this about you, and I'm going to hold it over your head. He don't do that. He says, I look at your sins as far as the east is from the west. I pour them out on the ocean floor where you'll never hear or see from them again. That's how he looks at our sin because of his blood covered all that.

So don't think that you got to be clean or pure and perfect to come to the altar. Now's the time to come to the altar. Amen? All right. Cool.

So I just want to close out and say thank you so much. I pray that this word has blessed you and challenged you. Maybe it's offended you. Good. I hope it does offend you because we all need, you know, I hate to say that inclusively, but it's the truth, man.

What's it going to hurt to spend more time with Jesus, the one who loves you the most? Come on, man. I mean, that just don't even add up, you know, if you want to go the opposite of that. You know, and that's what it is. But in our lives, we get, you know, whether it's a social media scroll or whatever.

Put it down, man. Turn it off. You're not going to miss nothing. Whatever is waiting for you is going to be waiting for you. But, man, Jesus, how he longs to be with us, how he longs for us to spend time with him.

You don't have to say a word. You can just sit in his presence and he'll do everything that he can to convey to you what it is he wants you to know, even specific things of what to do, how to minister to people. That's who we're supposed to be, brothers and sisters. We're supposed to be the people of God. And we live in a dark world.

We see evil trying to encroach. But I have no doubt because I know Jesus and I believe in him and he will come back one day. And my whole life right now is to bring a monoglorian praise so that I can earn some of them crowns, man. You know, I want everything that I did for the ministry of Jesus to pass this holy fire test at the mercy seat judgment. I want that not just for me, but for everybody.

But people are hurting out there, man. They're looking for answers in all the wrong places. We are living, walking, breathing testimonies of true salvation and the power of God. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for today.

I thank you for your word. I thank you for everyone who's in the house today. I thank you for just a wonderful worship set that we were so blessed to have. And as we go forward from here, let everyone take this to heart. Let it let them apply it to their hearts.

This sword of the spirit, may they apply it to their heart, their will, their mind, their emotions, or some total of their being so that they can be more effective for your gospel, so they can minister to those who are hurting and looking for answers. Jesus, we love you and we praise your holy name. Amen and amen.