[00:00:00] I think all of us in here have had those moments where we've had the feeling or the thought that we should do something and we chose not to do it and we regretted it. For me, that's like every Friday when I picked my line at the grocery store, 'cause like I picked the wrong one. or maybe, a feeling you had about picking a stock or you didn't, or maybe a maybe cashing out your 401k before and then the market goes down or something like that.

[00:01:25] Maybe a job offer. And these things happen regularly, I think and. Most of the time when we have a thought or feeling to do something and we choose not to do it, we choose not to do it because of something called doubt. And that's what I wanna talk to you a little bit about this morning is doubt.

[00:01:44] As we continue our message series, week links, what we're talking about is these Qualities and characteristics that we have that can sometimes get in the way with and interfere with our relationship with God. And so up until this point, we've talked about how depression and despair does that.

[00:02:03] Then we talked about bitterness and resentment. Then we talked about anger. A couple weeks ago. We talked about patience and a lack of patience, what effects that has on our spirituality. Last week, if you were here, we talked about. And this morning I want to talk to you about doubt because the reality is all of us struggle with doubt on some level.

[00:02:27] Now, when it comes to things in this world, there's things that we do doubt and we probably should doubt, but s. Spiritually speaking doubt is not necessarily a good thing at all. In fact, it can be quite destructive. And here's the real problem is in the day and age in which we live today, we've all heard the phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[00:02:50] And what that means is what I think is beautiful might be different than you. And it doesn't matter 'cause whatever I feel is all that matters. I would. Today, in today's day and age a similar thing can be said, and that is we believe that truth is in the eye of the beholder. And just think about it.

[00:03:10] If truth is relative to each individual person and what they experience and what they think is truth, then we don't really know what's real anymore. We don't know what's true anymore. And in that type of environment, doubt will just grow and explode. And that's the world in. You and I live today, in which, truth is in the eyes of the beholder and we don't know what truth is anymore.

[00:03:33] I, if you just look past the last two or three years there's things that, that would've been abundantly true at any other point in human history that we just don't even know what truth is anymore. You can take all the arguments over the last few years about covid. Is the truth that this came from a lab or is it true that this came from a wet market or what's truth in all of that?

[00:03:56] As some people believe this and some people believe that, what is truth when it comes to mass? Some people are like, oh it makes a difference. And then you get all these other things that say it doesn't. What is truth? What is truth about the elections? Were they stolen or weren't they? Because this group of people says, oh yes, they were.

[00:04:13] That's truth. And all this. Other people say, oh no, they weren't. And that's truth. What about, racism? Is it as big of an issue today as what people are making it out to be? What's true, what's not? Is white privilege true? Is it not? Are there two genders? Are there five? Are there 25? What's true, what's not?

[00:04:33] Is God real? Is that true? Or is it not? Is there one way to be saved? Is Jesus the only way to be saved? Is that truth or is, are there multiple ways? The point is this. In today's day and age, We just don't really know what truth is anymore. And so what you're left with is a bunch of doubt.

[00:04:55] And here's how we handle doubt, depending on which side of the spectrum you're on, if you're on this side of the spectrum if you believe truth a certain way then you don't believe this stuff, you doubt this other stuff. So what you really do is you keep people from being. Beak you cancel them out.

[00:05:15] That's a big word in, in, in today's day and age to cancel them out or, if you own the platforms, you restrict free speech. Why? Because you doubt it and you don't want it to come out. But if you're on the other side of the spectrum, then what do you do when you doubt things like everything's a conspiracy theory and you just dismiss it and you doubt.

[00:05:36] What's true, what's not doubt is so incredibly destructive. It's not only destructive in terms of this world and we don't even know what truth is anymore, what's real and what's not. But ultimately, doubt is is very destructive spiritually. And I want to speak about that a little bit with our time this morning.

[00:05:56] And you. There's a bunch of different biblical characters I could point to, to illustrate doubt this morning. But I decided to go with someone by the name of Gideon. Gideon, somewhat famous, like most of you know the name, but you may not know the story of Gideon. Gideon's story can be found in judges chapter six to eight.

[00:06:17] And the reason I'm talking about Gideon this morning when I'm talking about doubt is because I feel like Gideon really was around in a, in. Culture that's very similar to the day and age in which we live today. In fact, when God called Gideon to do his work for him, Gideon was sheltering in place, if I can use that term.

[00:06:38] The people of Israel were sheltering in place, not because they were afraid of dying from a virus, but they were sheltering in place. They hiding in caves and they're hiding in all these different places because there was a group of people called the Midianites who are trying to kill. And Gideon also lived in a day and age in which culture had really turned against God.

[00:07:00] And you're gonna see that here in a second. And we live in a day and age in which culture has turned against God. Gideon lived in a day in which God was calling Gideon to bring culture back to him. And I would say God's doing that, trying to do that today that as we live in a culture, in a world, in a country that is becoming more and more doubting of God and becoming more and more unbelievers, God's calling us to bring them back.

[00:07:24] Now, Gideon lived at a time in which there weren't kings. So when Israel came out of Egypt before the time of the kings, there was something called the time of the judges. So Gideon ends up being a judge. What's a judge? A judge is someone that God used. God calls these judges out amongst the people to ultimately to defeat a foreign power that's attacking Israel and to ultimately bring Israel.

[00:07:51] To God. And that's who Gideon is. And when Gide, when Gideon's being called is before the time of the Kings. And what God's calling Gideon to do is he's calling Gideon to deliver. The Israelites from the Midianites. And here's what's interesting. So the Midianites, these foreign eastern people are oppressing Israel to the point that they're hiding in caves, but it's really not the Midianites who are oppressing God, it's actually are oppressing Israel.

[00:08:21] It's actually God who's oppressing Israel. And I think that's the part that we lose sight of today in that we're not even allowed to say as we preach it and teaches that sometimes God uses. Foreign powers. Sometimes God uses natural forces. Sometimes God uses very negative things to try to bring us back to him.

[00:08:41] And that's what's going on in the days of Gideon. And what's interesting about Gideon, before I get into the story is Gideon is the last person that you would think that God would use to bring the people back to 'em. I've always said if you really feel like God's using. Don't consider it a compliment because God doesn't use people that we would normally think to do his work.

[00:09:05] And Gideon fits into that because Gideon comes from a, not real. Of the different 12 tribes of Israel it's not the greatest and not near the greatest of the 12 tribes. And even within his tribe, he's the least, he says his family's the least of all the tribes within of all the clans within that tribe.

[00:09:26] And some other things that are interesting about Gideon is this, is that his father's actually a pa. His father has built altars to bail a false God. And to the Goddess Astra, he built this Asher pull. So you've got this person, Gideon, who God's calling from an insignificant tribe and an insignificant family within that tribe, and his dad's a pagan.

[00:09:50] That's not who you think God would call to deliver the people of Israel, but that's exactly who God calls. Let's get to the story of Gideon Judges chapter six, verses 11 to 12. Now the angel of the Lord came and he sat down under the oak tree in, in opera that belonged to Joe Ash, the Abi. Where his son, Gideon, was threshing wheat in a wine press, so Gideon's threshing wheat, and actually a wine press, and he's doing it to hide it from the Midianites who were ravaging the land and attacking and killing the Israelites.

[00:10:29] All this was going on when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Now, before we go any further, let's just take a break right there because I wanna point out to you a phrase that you will run across every so often in scripture that you ought to take note of in that phrase is the angel of the Lord.

[00:10:52] Not an angel of the Lord, but the angel of the Lord. When the angel of the Lord shows up, a couple things happen. When the angel of the Lord shows up, the angel of the Lord will go in and out of speaking about God in third person to first person I I. In other words, it'll sometimes the angel of Lord or he'll speak as if he's not God, but then at other times he speaks on the first person as he is.

[00:11:21] And then the other thing that's interesting about the angel of the Lord, when the angel of the Lord shows up, anyone who speaks to the angel of the Lord, Fears for their life, they're gonna die. Listen, when a normal angel shows up, it's do not be afraid. I know this is weird, but I'm just an angel.

[00:11:39] But when the angel of the Lord shows up, people are like, I'm going to die. All right, so this is the angel of the Lord that Gideon's speaking to. And what the angel says to him is, he says to Gideon, the Lord is with you mighty warrior. And so Gideon is a doubter. And so from the very beginning, Gideon's like, how can you say the Lord is with us?

[00:12:05] The Midianites are attacking us and we're having to hide in caves. God is not with us. So right. Gideon is dismissing what this mess, he doesn't know. It's the angel of the Lord at first, and he's just dismissing what this visitor is saying. And this visitor tells him that what he's supposed to do is he's supposed to tear down the altar to bell that his dad had constructed.

[00:12:32] He's to tear down the ASRA pole that his father had, has constructed, and he's supposed to build a temple to the Lord. He's supposed to take one of his fathers seven year old bulls and sacrifice it on the altar to the Lord. And then he tells Gideon that he's gonna use Gideon to deliver the Israelites from the hand of the media.

[00:12:54] And Gideon's a doubter. And he is like, how do I know you're real? We question reality today. Gideon's literally wondering is this a vision? And so he says, I tell you what, let me make you some food that way. If I see you eat, then alright, then alright I'm gonna know you're.

[00:13:18] So Gidding goes and makes his guests some dinner. He cooks him a young goat with some broth and then some unleavened bread. Unleavened bread, because well, the angel of the Lord didn't wanna wait around for the yeast to rise. And so he comes back with this food and the of the Lord tells Gideon, thanks.

[00:13:39] Just set it right there. And so he sets it down and he is oh, I like my goat with broth on it. Just pour the broth over it. And so Gideon pours the broth over it, and then the angel of the Lord touches it. It says, with the tip of his staff. And the stuff just goes just. Burns up Incinerates right in front of him.

[00:13:59] And Gideon's like uhoh because he realizes that not only is this an angel, this is actually the angel of the Lord. And he cries out like I've just spoken to the angel of the Lord, I'm gonna die. And that's when the angel of the Lord switches into first person and it says, God said to Gideon, you're not gonna.

[00:14:22] So that's what I said, like the angel of the Lord switches in and out, a third to first person. So Gideon starts a whole conversation with doubting, how can God be for us? And he doubts. He's even talking to an angel, let alone the angel of the Lord. Now he's believing it because the food he just made went up in smoke right in front of his eyes.

[00:14:41] And so he's willing to do what the angel told him to do, what the angel of the Lord told him to do. He's willing to tear down the false. Idols in places of worship that his father had built, but he's only willing to do it at night because he's scared. So when night comes, he sneaks out, everyone's asleep.

[00:15:01] He tears down the altar to bell, he tears down the Asher pole, he builds an altar to God. He takes his dads seven year old bull, seven year old bull and sacrifices on it. It was a busy night. But he does all that. But then when the townspeople wake up that morning they're furious because this tells you just how wicked Israel had become.

[00:15:24] That in one of the tribes, the townspeople are furious because false altar and an Asher poll had been destroyed, and they try to figure out who did it. And they ended up finding out that it was Gideon who did it. So they go to Gideon's dad, who had actually built the altar, who had built the Asher pole, and they said, hand your son over because he's gonna, he needs to pay with his life for what he did to our God's altar.

[00:15:53] Now Gideon's dad says something interesting. He's I'm not gonna hand him over to you because you know what? If ball's really upset about this, then ball can punish Gideon himself. Does your God need you to punish him? Can't ball do this on his own. And so they weren't allowed to touch Gideon, and Gideon did, as the angel of the Lord said, and everything turned out.

[00:16:18] And then the next part that comes in the story is we're told that the Eastern people, the people that are oppressing Israelites the Israelites, the Midianites, and some other people start gathering to go into battle and to destroy Israel. And as Gideon sees that, we're told that the spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon and he blows his trumpet and he sends all the messengers out across Israel to gather a mighty army.

[00:16:46] To go against the mid unites, because remember the angel of the Lord told him this is what was gonna happen. And that, they're, that they would use Gideon to deliver the people of Israel. So all these people assemble and you got like Army against Army and Gideon's doubt starts in again.

[00:17:07] He's yeah, but How do I know? And let's go back to the text or the next section of a judge of 6 30, 6 to 40. Look at what Gideon says to God. This is after he has this encounter with God and God makes the food go up and smoke and he had that successful experience of tearing down the altars.

[00:17:30] This is what. Gideon says to God, he says, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have promised, and look at just the arrogance in that alone, right? He's already had this amazing experience really with God himself, and he is if you're gonna do what you promised, like he's not sure he's doubting because that's what Gideon does.

[00:17:55] He says, look, I just need a little help here. I'm just gonna, Piece of wolf fleece on the thrashing floor. And here's what I need you to do. God, if like when I wake up in the morning, if there's just you on the fleece, if the fleece is wet, but the ground around is dry, then I'm gonna know you really meant what you said.

[00:18:17] Then I'm gonna know that when you came and spoke to me, this is really gonna. , then Gideon Rose early the next day, and sure enough the fleece is wet, the ground's dry, and he's able to ring out a whole bowl full of water out of the fleece. Then Gideon said to God don't be angry with me. I just have one more request.

[00:18:44] Can we reverse that? This time the test is gonna be, I want the ground to be wet and the fleece to be dry. And that night God did so and only the fleece was dry and all the ground around it was covered with dew. Now what? What's crazy is he sat there and he spoke to God basically face-to-face through the angel of the Lord, but it took this like wet fleece and dry fleece to convince him that this is true, but that's just kinda giddy.

[00:19:20] He doubted. And honestly, like I think I can be sympathetic to Gideon because in, in complete honesty, the angel of the Lord told him he was gonna do this, but the angel of the Lord didn't give him the battle plans. The angel of the Lord didn't say, listen, this is gonna happen in the next week or the next month or the next five years.

[00:19:39] So Gideon's probably wondering, is this the time? Is this when like it's gonna happen that God's gonna use me to deliver the people, because if it's not this time, it's gonna be a big mistake and I wanna make sure I'm using the right time. But even with that, you'd think the first test where the fleece was wet and the ground was dry.

[00:19:55] You'd think that'd be enough, but it wasn't. He needed to reverse it and then he was okay. And so we can kick Gideon around a little bit, rightfully because he is such a doubter. But here's the thing that's cool about Gideon. Once Gideon believed, Gideon believed because God messes with him after this, once Gideon decides he's gonna go into battle, he's assembled this vast army and the Midianites have a vast army and God's Hey, I need you to start sending people home.

[00:20:27] And you gotta think Gideon's thinking, what? And God has Gideon sent home, all but 300 people. And now with 300 people, Gideon's told to go into battle against an army that would've been tens if not a hundred thousand man strong. And he does it. So Gideon may have doubted on the front end. He may have doubted a few too many times, but once he believed it he didn't care.

[00:20:56] He went into battle with just 300 people against tens, if not a hundred thousand people. And here's what I need you to understand about the story, and here's where I want you to apply it to your lives, and that is this. So here's the cool thing about the story of Gideon, is we see that God meets Gideon where he's at.

[00:21:19] He he didn't have the confidence and the courage. How can God be for us? All this bad stuff's been happening. How can I be sure God's gonna do this? He met Gideon in his doubt, but Gideon. Through a fleece and what's crazy in the whole thing is once again, you would think talking to God himself would be enough to give you confidence, but that little fleece, that little piece of wall, that's what he needed.

[00:21:46] God gave it to him, and then Gideon became fierce for the Lord as a result of it. And I would encourage you with these words, as God met Gideon where he was. God will meet each of us where we're at. I don't know where you're at certain, but we all struggle with doubt at different times, some of us at different levels than others.

[00:22:11] But God will meet you where you're at and I think if we're all gonna be honest in here, I think every one of us at some point in our lives have struggled with that very big question. The ultimate question is, God real. Maybe it was a long time ago. Maybe it was somewhere in the middle of our faith journey.

[00:22:35] Maybe some of you right now, in the back of your mind, somewhere you're struggling with this very thing. Maybe some of you who don't have the courage to come and walk into church, but you're just testing the waters, maybe you still are struggling with that that, that big question, is God real?

[00:22:54] And if God is real, does he even care about? And I have to tell you, like unbelief is certainly growing in the world and we live today. It's becoming harder to believe in God. Why? Because if we're not sure of what reality is and the things that we can see, and the things that we can measure, the things that we can watch, the things we can touch, the things that we can taste, how can we be certain about the things that we can't see?

[00:23:18] And as we get further and further away, 2000 plus years away from the time of Christ and further how do we know and did it happen? And was it real and or did was it just a big mistake? And these are the things that might run through our minds at times. And what's interesting is when we read the Bible tells us that's actually how it's gonna become.

[00:23:42] The further we get away from the time of the cross, the closer we get to the end times. Unbelief is gonna grow and grow. Look at what it says in second Timothy four, four is a sign of the end times that towards the end times they're gonna turn their ears away from truth. Hey, guess.

[00:23:59] We live in a day and age in which we don't know what truth is, and they're gonna turn from truth and they're gonna turn to Miss.

[00:24:10] Jesus says, and it's recorded in the book of Matthew. Jesus says that when we get to the end times, the days are gonna be, have to be cut short. Otherwise, there wouldn't be anyone left to be saved. Why? Because of just the increase of the doubt of God, of being so confused by not knowing what truth is and what reality is.

[00:24:32] And so as we live in this time in which truth seems so relative, how do we battle doubt with God? I think part of it is we see what Gideon does and what's he do. Gideon starts praying to God, Hey, God, I know you showed up. I know you said that. I know you zapped my dinner I made for you, but I need a little help.

[00:24:57] He's talking to God and prayer is so incredibly important in terms of battling doubt of God and even more than prayer, I would say exercising your faith. That when I look at my life, when I've struggled with what God's will is when I've even maybe struggled with who God is or the existence of God, or if there's just one God.

[00:25:17] All those different things that we might wrestle with at different times. Those things don't come when I'm close with God in my relationship with God. Those things oftentimes come when we're not exercising our faith, when we're not practicing our faith, when we're not going to church, when we're, not praying when our relationship with God becomes strained, that's when the doubt of God happens.

[00:25:37] So we. Exercising our faith. And then I think this is a big one, and that is we need to learn to pursue God rather than religion. Let me say that again. We need to learn to pursue God rather than religion because I think the way that like our parents raised us and maybe we raised our kids as you just go to church.

[00:26:03] You just go to Bible class or you just go to Sunday school, you pray. You do all these things and it's not that God doesn't like us to do those things, but those are outward like acts of faith, but he wants to be pursued. It shouldn't be just about. Going to church and when it's about the outward acts of the faith and when you're going to church regularly, when you're praying regular, when you're doing those things then maybe your closeness with God as such that you don't struggle with doubt as much, but inevitably there's gonna be a season.

[00:26:29] You're not going to church as often. Maybe you're not reading your bibles often. These different things are going on and when you're not practicing it, all of a sudden you got some doubt of God because it's about the acts of the faith rather than pursuing God himself. I was thinking, how can I compare that or what's a worldly example to that?

[00:26:47] I thought about like dieting, right? A lot of us we fluctuate in our weight in which we gain weight and we lose weight. We gain weight, we lose weight and there's a lot of different ways you can lose weight. There's a lot of different diets and so forth, but if that's all you're focused on is Hey, I know I can diet and when I diet, then I'm gonna become healthy and so forth.

[00:27:07] Then inevitably when you get to that point, you don't really care about being healthy. You're just glad you got it at the weight, and then ultimately you gained. But if you don't focus on the outward act of it, when you focus on what's important, that is, Hey, I want to eat healthy. I want to live healthy.

[00:27:22] I want to be healthy. Then all of a sudden you don't have those swings because why you're pursuing healthiness. And when you pursue healthiness, you're not gonna have these ups and downs when you're just pursuing diets and dieting. You're gonna have the ups and downs. The same thing with God. When we pursue God in, in, in Him, then we're not gonna have these ups and downs.

[00:27:38] But when it's just the acts of the faith, and we're gonna have ups and downs based upon how much we're doing and when we're doing. I think another thing that many of us in here struggle with, if we're gonna be honest, is if I die, am I gonna go to heaven? Because I think that's a big one for many people, our salvation, because listen, we've all done things that we know we shouldn't.

[00:28:07] And things that we're ashamed of, maybe things we can't forgive ourselves for. And we've got pastors that say the Bible says narrow is the gate. Narrow is the road that leads to salvation. And few will find it. Listen, I, it's what the Bible says. And honestly, when we look at ourselves, I'm like, I don't know if I fit into that narrow road real well.

[00:28:30] And so we struggle with. The funny thing is it's not just us, but Jesus owned disciples, did his own followers did. Look at this passage from Luke 18 versus 18 to 27. Jesus is having this conversation with this pretty righteous dude that was following God's laws very well, but he lacked one thing.

[00:28:56] So there's a certain ruler that asks Jesus, Hey, good. What must I do to be saved? I just wanna be saved. I wanna know I'm saved. What must I do? Jesus says, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. But you know the commandments. And he starts like just rattling him off to the guy. He's you shouldn't commit adultery.

[00:29:19] You shouldn't murder, you shouldn't steal. You shouldn't give false testimony. Honor your father and mother and the guy's like I've done 'em all. Since I was a kid I don't break any of the 10 commandments.

[00:29:35] Jesus response is interesting. It says, when Jesus heard this, he doesn't argue with a guy. He doesn't say, oh, but yes you do. He says, ah, maybe so he didn't say that, but he. You still are lacking one thing, even though you claim all this and he's not refuting it, you lack one thing. Sell everything that you have and give it to the poor, and then you'll have treasure in heaven.

[00:30:09] Then come follow me. Now, when the rich ruler heard this, he became very sad because he was very, we. And Jesus looked at him and said, how hard is it for a rich to enter the kingdom of God? Indeed, it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle, which is actually impossible. Then for someone who's rich, enter the kingdom of God.

[00:30:32] But this is the part of the story. I love the his disciples, his followers that are with him. They're blown away by this. They're like, those who heard this ass, who then can be saved? Here's this guy who's like following the 10 Commandments completely. You just added an 11th.

[00:30:52] And Jesus said what's impossible with man? It's possible with God. And I know some of you're like he still broke one of the 10 Commandments, 'cause the first commandment is you shouldn't have any other gods before him. And he was putting his money before God. Yeah. Whatever. But with that being said, like he's obeying the 10 Commandments.

[00:31:13] Jesus isn't arguing with them. And Jesus says, but there's one thing you've missed. And honestly, who of us in here? We don't obey the 10 Commandments as good as this guy did, but how many of us have never put our friends before?

[00:31:29] How many of us in here have never put our career before God? How many of us in here have never put our lifestyles before God? We all have. And so the problem is, and the reason that we struggle with am I gonna be saved when I die? Is because we don't feel worthy. None of us feel worthy because none of us are worth.

[00:31:50] Hey, because Jesus says it's impossible with man, but what's impossible with man is possible with God. So anytime you look at yourself to see if you're worthy, you're always gonna fail and you're always gonna fall short.

[00:32:09] But hear this, when Jesus was nailed to that cross by people that were mocking him. Harassing him, making fun of him, spitting on him, beating him, all these horrible things that yell, crucify him, let the murder go. Crucify this man, Jesus says he hung on the cross of Father. Forgive them and listen. If Jesus can say Father, forgive them about that, what exactly have you done that God can't forgive the blood of Jesus is great enough to forgive us.

[00:32:43] Will never be saved by our works. The only way that we can be saved is through his. What's some other things that we doubt? Ultimately, we doubt the promises of God. We get on Gideon because the angel of the Lord made Gideon some promises and Gideon didn't believe him. Listen, the Bible's filled with promises and you and I don't believe 'em either.

[00:33:07] So why are you getting on Gideon? If you read the Bible, it says, bring the whole ties into the storehouse and test me on this and see that I don't open the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessings on you and prevent the pests from devouring your crops. It's like God says, listen bring in a tithe.

[00:33:27] Bring in 10% of all that you have and see if I don't bless you. It's a promise of God, but probably 85% of us in here don't believe. Because we don't do it. And we don't do it because we don't believe it, and yet we're getting on PON over here. There's promise in scripture, raise your child in the way that they should go.

[00:33:46] And when they're old, they won't depart from it. But the temptation is, as a parent, is that we just don't believe in that promise. And when our kid starts rebelling against us, when our kid puts a lot of pressure back on us that we should do things that we think that we shouldn't allow them to do and so forth.

[00:34:01] We'll cave. Why? Because we don't necessarily believe that by holding our ground and sticking to what God says, that it's gonna work out well for them or for. Not to mention the blessing of those who are faithful to me. I will bless them and their descendants the next, and next thousand generations of those who are faithful to me.

[00:34:21] We don't believe in that promise. Jesus says, listen. Cash your burdens upon me. Take my yolk upon you 'cause my yolk is easy and my burden is late. Let me have your burden. We don't trust in that promise. Why? 'cause we just hold onto our burdens and we try to keep it to ourselves because we really don't think Jesus will handle it.

[00:34:42] There's a promise in scripture that, resists the devil and he'll flee from you. We don't believe that. That's why we don't even really try to resist the devil half the. There's a promise that if humble yourself, he will exalt you. But yet we're not willing to humble ourselves.

[00:34:58] Why? Because we probably don't believe in the promise. There's a promise in scripture that his loved one will never fail, that he'll never leave us, and that he'll never forsake us. But in the end, like Gideon, we just doubt the promises. For Gideon at least, it was spoken face to face by the angel of the Lord, but we have the word of God.

[00:35:15] We. Jesus word. God's word recorded in scripture, making these promises, and we don't believe it. And as a result, we just bring all kinds of doubt into our lives, all kinds of dysfunction into our lives. And when we reject the promise, when we doubt there, the promise, then we can't receive the blessing.

[00:35:35] And I talked about it in terms of something as simple as a tithe. We're not gonna receive a blessing and we're gonna constantly be frustrated by finances. Why? Because we're not gonna believe the promise.

[00:35:48] We, we don't believe that God is, won't leave our side. That they, he'll never leave us and never forsake us. And so when we go through a very painful breakup, what do we do? We don't lean into God. We might lean into alcohol. We might lean into drugs. We might lean into a bad crowd or just doing a bunch of things that we shouldn't do.

[00:36:05] Why? 'cause we don't ultimately believe the promise of God. And every time we doubt the promise of God, what we do is we just bring dysfunction into our lives. Yet we get on poor Gideon, don't we

[00:36:20] Doubt causes us to miss the blessings of God. Interesting story in the Bible. Jesus was trying to do miracles in his hometown, but he wasn't able to do 'em. Why? Because the people saw Jesus as a baby. They knew who Jesus mom and dad was. They just didn't see Jesus as being who Jesus was, so doubt caused them to miss out on God's blessings.

[00:36:46] Peter started to walk in water, didn't he? Because Jesus was there saying, come to me. But he ended up doubting who Jesus was and what he was able to do, and that doubt caused him to sink. You've got the people of Israel who saw God at work with the tent plagues and saw God part the Red Sea as they crossed through it.

[00:37:04] They saw all these amazing things, but they failed to receive the promised land. They missed out on. Blessings. They were not able to receive what was promised because they doubted

[00:37:21] our doubt will prevent us from realizing a spirit of peace that God wants us to live with, a life of closeness with him and the blessings that he has in store. But the good news is this, I remind you, God will meet you where you're. God will meet you where you're at. He met Gidding where he's at. And listen, some of you are way up here.

[00:37:44] Some of you don't really doubt anything. And if you don't, then man, you gotta live your faith courageously and even when God's calling for you to go into battle against a hundred thousand people with 300 people, even though it doesn't make any sense, you do it because God's meeting you where you're at, and he's brought you to this level and I live it.

[00:38:04] Some of you aren't there, and I get it right. Some of you like, like you're kinda like maybe midway like you, you've learned to trust God in some things but you would never go into battle with 300 people against a hundred thousand people. And so you, you got some. Growth to do.

[00:38:20] If that's where you at, God's gonna meet you there and he's gonna put some things into your life and you learn to be faithful to him. And you learn not to doubt. And you learn to trust in his promise and to just trust him and do it and watch what God will do. And he'll meet you where you're at and he'll grow your faith.

[00:38:35] Some of you are just starting out, what I'm saying sounds like a bunch of nonsense, but you're curious. You're still trying to figure out this whole God thing and he's gonna meet you where you're at. And the scripture says, when we're faithful, Few things, then God will give us greater things.

[00:38:48] So learn to be faithful in just the very small things you're trusting him with. See how he's faithful, and then grow in that and learn to trust him in a greater way. In a greater way. Un, until you don't have the doubt that you have right now. And listen, maybe some of you need to cast a fleece of your own right?

[00:39:05] And if you do cast it out there and ask God to give you a sign, ask God to show you. But when you do that, you better be prepared to follow him. When he does. Gideon, it took a couple times he. He put that fleece out there the first time he wasn't sure, but listen, when that second time happened, he was willing to go into battle with 300 people against a hundred thousand people.

[00:39:26] So if you're gonna cast your fleece out to God, if you're gonna ask God to show himself to you or somehow help you, you to have faith and to understand and to be obedient, then when he shows himself to you, then you better do it. And I would encourage all of you with this as really our lives are the flee.

[00:39:43] That your life is a fleece, that you can know that God is good and faithful. Because I think all of us in here, if we look back at our lives, we can see that in those difficult times how God has worked good, we can see how God is blessed as we see how God's been faithful and all these different things.

[00:40:00] And our lives are a testimony to the goodness and the faithfulness of God. And if God has been faithful in the past, he will be faithful in the present and he will be faithful in the future. In his words to us is the same as Thomas. Stop doubting and believe. Stop pursuing the rituals of the faith and start pursuing me.

[00:40:25] Look at all that I've done and all I've gotten you through. Stop doubting and believe all your doubt we'll do is keep you in the dysfunction that you've always. And it will keep you from receiving the blessings of God. And I leave you with this closing thought. What blessings are you missing out on today in your life because of the doubt that you carry?

[00:40:54] Would you join me in a word of prayer? Gracious Almighty God, we just think and praise you for this morning, and we confess, gracious God, that we do doubt you, some of us more than others. All in different ways and in different times and in different areas of weakness. We do doubt. And I just pray gracious Scott, that you'd by the power of your Holy Spirit grow our faith, minimize our doubts, so that we would boldly follow you in every area of our lives.

[00:41:25] That we would be able to leave the dysfunction of our lives behind, and that we would be able to experience the blessing that you have in store for us. The blessings that come through obedience rather than doubt. We pray this in Jesus, holy and precious name. Amen.