Dealing With Doubt

Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Roderick caesar the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york and I’m so excited that you decided to join me for the full gospel hour. Right here on global seven. My prayers that you will be blessed, you’ll be encouraged and inspired by this message. Thank you so much for joining and God bless today we are going to speak. I’ll be reading from the book of John Chapter 20, John Chapter 20 and I think it’s important to note in these times the faithfulness of God. We’ve been on such uncertain ground for the past year and a half almost, but on, on such uncertain ground with this pandemic and with all of the political unrest, the racial unrest, the gun violence and everything that we’ve been uh, seeing seeing over this past year. So it’s important to note that even in the midst of the storm, even even in the midst of turmoil, even in the midst of loss and grief, God is still consistent. God is still faithful. He is still one that we can stand on. And so the word of God speaks to the importance of faith, the importance not only of God being faithful, but us as the people of God. Having faith in God. It says without faith in the book of hebrews, it is impossible to please God for to believe in God to please God, you must first believe he exists. And so with that in mind, it’s important for us to have faith and believe God as we walk with him today, I’m coming from the book of john chapter 20 if you have your bibles, You can turn to the book to the book of John Chapter 20, If you don’t, you can follow along on the screen, John chapter 20 versus 24 24 through 31 john chapter 20 verses 24 through 31 Then Thomas one of the 12 called the twin was not with them when jesus came. So the other disciples told him we have seen the Lord, but he said to them unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hands into his side. I will never believe. Eight days later his disciples were again inside and thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. And he said to thomas put your finger here and see my hands put out your hand and place it in my side, do not disbelieve, but I believe thomas answered him, my Lord and my God Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the christ or the messiah, the anointed one, the son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. Today we’re going to be speaking about dealing with doubt, dealing with doubt. Dear Lord, I thank you so much for this time. Thank you for your people. I thank you for your faithfulness, your dedication to us, your ability to walk with us through the trials, tribulations, the storms, the belief of the unbelief of life. I thank you God that you don’t give up on us, but you are consistent, you are faithful, you are good. I pray that as this word goes forth that you would be seen heard and felt do what only you can do, I thank you and praise you in jesus name. We pray these things, Amen, Amen! Last week since resurrection sunday we’ve talked about, you can’t guard me, Jesus did not stay down but this messiah that was killed, got up from the grave. Now this resurrected king is going around and making appearances and saying, hey I’m actually alive, I’m here, I’m back now they couldn’t guard this tomb. I the stone was rolled away had a couple of crossovers fade away and now here I am making my appearances right, they can’t guard me so I’m out here, I’m making appearances to this person, to this person, to these people all over And the last time we saw Jesus, he made an appearance to two of the disciples. Now the disciples, not the 12, but a part of the 72 we spoke about how Jesus had 72 other disciples outside of the 12 that would follow him, around that would listen to his teachings that uh stood firm on what he said and he sent them out and they went out and cast it out demons and did great works and uh preach the good news of the gospel and Jesus sent them out two by two. And then at the end of luke, At the end of Luke’s Gospel, we see these two disciples that were of the part of the 72, not the 12, the two, they’re walking to away from Jerusalem, they’re walking to down the road to Emma’s and Jesus meets them on this road and if you remember, they did not realize that it was Jesus, they didn’t know that it was him. So he’s speaking with them and asking them what’s going on and they say, hey man, have you not been here? Do you not know what’s been happening? This messiah jesus, who we believed in, we hoped he would bring uh restore Israel again, He, he’s passed on, the Pharisees, the religious leaders had him killed and jesus is pretending that he doesn’t know that they’re talking about him and he doesn’t know what they’re talking about, but each and every step of the way he is with them each and every step of the way he’s on this journey, each and every step of the way uh even in there not knowing, it says the text says their eyes were kept from seeing him and we don’t know exactly what it was that kept them from seeing him, but we do know that even though they could not know that it was, Jesus, Jesus was still with them. And so sometimes when we don’t see Jesus with us, he is with us, walking with us on the journey. And it wasn’t until that Jesus was with them uh and broke bread with them and fellowship with them and got closer with them on this journey that their eyes were opened and they realized, oh my gosh, this is jesus! And then the text says that Jesus vanished from their sight and they said didn’t our hearts burn when he explained the scriptures to us, where are we eager and excited about what he was saying when he broke down the text to us and with that they went back to the disciples and said, Jesus appeared to us as well and they shared this testimony and so that’s the last time we saw jesus and it taught us that jesus is with us on the journey that Jesus wants to be uh close with us each and every step, but also be able to break bread with us and show himself mighty and strong in our lives on the journey. So he revealed himself to them, they go speak to the disciples and we realized also that Jesus had appeared to the apostles as well. At another time in the text, jesus appears to the disciples right after that and uh for some reason thomas is not there, Thomas is not there, Jesus reveals himself to the disciples, they say uh the 12 apostles that are all there except Thomas. Uh Jesus shows up and it’s a mighty wonderful time. But then thomas comes back, the text says and he they say, look uh we’ve seen the Lord and thomas says, I don’t believe you, I don’t believe you. Uh we see that later on in this account of as we’ve read, Jesus reveals himself to thomas, but before thomas gets the confirmation, we see thomas doubting, we see thomas doubting and unfortunately this unfortunately for thomas, this one moment, this one snapshot of thomas’s life has followed him throughout the annals of history. He’s now known by many people in christian dim as doubting thomas because of this moment. Now, no doubt he had many other faithful moments. Now, judas isn’t necessarily known as betraying judas right, but that was a defining moment for judas. But yet we see thomas in this moment of just ultimate fear of missing out ultimate fomo like I wasn’t there, no, no, no way, you know and there’s no way I’m going to believe and now he’s labeled doubting thomas, but I believe he was thomas, but he just had a moment where he doubted, and many of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, we can identify with thomas, identify with thomas. Now, if I was thomas, after I realized Jesus wasn’t there, I’m like, look, I’m staying everywhere, y’all are, I’m never missing out again. You know, it’s like you leaving for, you know, the reveal of a movie or the last score in the game or something like that, you know, they went by a couple points and you missed it because you did something, it’s like, no, I’m never missing out on this again. Uh and so he missed the appearance of the resurrected christ, jesus shows up to all of his friends, all of his buddies, all of his guys as day ones, but not him and no doubt he is upset, no doubt he is troubled, no doubt he is frustrated, But we do know uh but you know, we were thinking that he’s feeling all of these things and I think it’s important because we have to understand that Thomas was one of the 12, not a part of the 72 he wasn’t a part of the one, he wasn’t the disciple whom jesus loved, but he wasn’t a part of the three wasn’t part of Peter James and john the disciples that peter jesus chose to take with him on those close intimate moments, but he was a part of the 12, so he walked with jesus every day followed Jesus everywhere, saw jesus miracles, saw jesus teachings. He was on the journey with Jesus thomas’s call in Mark chapter three, Jesus goes up to the mountain and called to him whom to those excuse me. And he went up to the mountain and called to him those whom he desired and they came to him And he appointed 12 whom he also named Apostles, so they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the 12 Simon to whom he gave the name. Peter James, the son of Zebra, John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Bowen jurors, that is the sons of Thunder and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and thomas, there he goes, and James, the son of Alphas and thaddeus and Simon the Zealot and judas, Iscariot who betrayed him. But thomas is in there. So we know that thomas answered a call, thomas answered a call, one of the same calls that Jesus gave as if you were in the consecration. We spoke about following jesus and how Jesus spoke to Peter James, Peter and James and then he also spoke to uh other disciples that were there fishing and he said, come and follow me, thomas answered that question in the same way that they did, they drop their nets and followed him. No doubt thomas stopped what he was doing, dropped whatever he had going on to follow jesus. So he said yes, he answered this call, he was on this journey, He saw healings, he heard teachings, he saw miracles, He saw how jesus acted when the crowd wasn’t around and saw how jesus acted when the crowd was around and saw how jesus prayed to the father and said teach us Lord how to pray and saw how Jesus handled situations with the Pharisees and those that were against him. He got to watch jesus up and close up and personal and even when jesus was uh wrongly accused and accosted in the garden and then taken to be crucified, thomas was with the disciples when they scattered. We don’t have a biblical biblical account of where exactly he was. But no doubt he felt the pain of knowing that his savior, the one that he placed all of his trust and hope and faith in during this time was crucified. And so now he steps out for a moment, he’s with the disciples are hanging out, things are going well and he says, all right guys, I gotta go, I gotta go handle some business real quick steps out about maybe 20 minutes he’s gone and he comes back to the shock of his life, he comes back and the disciples say we have seen the lord, we have seen the Lord says thomas, one of the 12 called the twin, so lets us know he had a twin brother that wasn’t uh one of the disciples, but he’s called the twin was not with them when jesus came and they told him because hey, he wasn’t there. We have seen the Lord and watch Thomas’s response in verse 25, he says to them, unless I see his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and then I place my hand into his side. I will never believe my God, huh? So thomas doesn’t want just just want proof. He wants proof beyond proof, right? You hear like, oh seeing is believing right? And you realize that for thomas that was not the case, seeing was not believing. For thomas, thomas had to see, thomas had to feel, thomas had to taste, thomas had to touch thomas had to have his senses to believe his senses engaged with, to believe thomas wants proof beyond proof. He said, I need to see that he’s real and I need to know that he’s real and not just touch his face, not just all I want to, you know, give him a hug and embrace him to know that he’s real. No, I want to touch his wounds. I want to touch his scars unless that happens, I will never believe, you may judge thomas and say man thomas come on, you should have more faith, man, come on thomas, you walked with jesus. Yeah, that’s that, you should have had more faith. But sometimes if we’re honest with ourselves, we behave this way. You know, I think a lot of times we we uh we look to Gideon as an example and lay down our fleece and we have this police and that police and this police of God. If you say this, I’ll know it’s you God. If you say this, I know it’s you God. If you do this, I’ll know it’s you. And so we have a fleece after fleece fleece is down. When it comes to thomas we say, oh you doubt it. Oh you, you know, but Gideon had an actual angel show up and speak to him and he’s like, are you sure? And so for us, sometimes we’ll say God will get really specific unless this happens, I’ll know with you. Unless that happens. I know what you, I won’t step out in obedience unless I’m 1000% sure. I need to feel it. I need to see it. I need to taste it. I need to know that this is you Before I can obey. I have confirmation from trusted sources, his boys, his ride or die, his people’s the disciples that he walked with jesus with came to him and said, yo jesus was here. You missed it. It’s crazy. He showed up. He says, nah, nah, I don’t believe you unless I see him and place my uh fingers in the place where the nails were and put my hand in his side, I won’t believe you, I will never believe you and it’s interesting for us because it sounds logical, especially if you look at what time I said gone through walking with jesus and being with jesus day after day time after time, it sounds logical to want more proof, say okay yeah that makes sense, okay you gotta not just cogs but you want to know that it’s him, so you want to see the scars, you want to place your hand where they where they drove the nails through, you want to place your hand where they pierced him in the side, you want to do those things and then you step out. That makes sense logically, that makes sense the flow of progression. Okay you do that then you believe but that’s not how God works in the kingdom, it’s not how kingdom works, that’s our natural mindset saying okay, like once I get this proof and it all lines up boom then I’m gonna believe but that is not how, that is not faith, it’s not faith, that’s you saying okay I have concrete evidence, concrete proof, boom, I’m I’m stepping out and so we realized that in the disciples saying, hey jesus was here and you missed it thomas was presented with the opportunity to walk out in faith but instead he chose doubt instead he chose doubt and often times like I said we may point to thomas but let’s look at ourselves, we can walk in doubt. We can walk in uncertainty. We can walk and not trusting in God if God has spoken something to us clearly. Uh either in a in a dream, either to someone that is a trusted source. Either through however, the Lord speaks to you in your journal time or even through his word, you’ve got has spoken something clear to you and you’re hesitant saying, God, is this you God, what’s going on? And we wrestle, wrestle, wrestle wrestle and he sends confirmations. He lets you know again and again. Yes, step out in faith, my daughter, step out in faith, my son. Step out in faith, my child, you said. But God, I need to know. Are you sure sound like thomas? We’re pointing fingers at thomas saying all you needed to know that he needed to put his hands in the scars and all this stuff, but that could very well be us. We walk in doubt. We walk in uncertainty. Sometimes it’s difficult to trust God and difficult to believe. The messengers that God sends to us and I believe, you know, this is something that we can all relate to. God had to check me not too long ago for some patterns of speech and patterns of thought that were coming into my life every time, something incredible would happen in somebody else’s life. I would say, oh wow, I can’t believe it. And you know, it’s it sounds innocently enough, like I can’t believe that this person was healed or oh wow, I can’t believe that this person was blessed with this car or oh wow, that’s crazy, I can’t believe that God bless them with his home or oh that’s crazy, I can’t believe that God blessed them with his child or all of these different things. I, I can’t believe it, wow, it’s amazing. And God stopped me right as I was saying at one time, I remember when it happened, I was speaking to Stephanie my wife and I was saying, oh I can’t believe that and I stopped right mid sentence because I was like, you can’t believe what I was like, you know, I can’t believe it, you know, got real humble because it cost me to check like God was like, yo you can’t believe that I, the one who owns the cattle on 1000 hills, Jehovah, Aguirre the provider, you can’t believe that I provided for someone who was in need. You can’t believe that I, the the healer, the one that spoke to the lame and said arise and walk your faith has made you whole, you can’t believe that I would stretch out my arms and heal them. Yes, it’s amazing. Yes, it’s mind blowing, but you’re saying you can’t believe it, who am I and it caused me to, to check my posture and my thoughts towards the things of God and how he operates. So now that’s that’s not even in my vocabulary. I believe it. I believe it, I believe it. You mean you can’t believe God said and he said, no, no, I need you to stop speaking like that and I need you to believe it. So when doubt creeps in, I need to say like I would hope the disciples would have said to thomas, don’t know. It may sound unbelievable, but you better believe it, thomas, you better believe it, you better believe it. Yeah. And he says, I’ll never believe unless, no, no, cut him off right there. You better believe it. You better believe it. When doubt creeps in, you better believe it. But God, it’s never been done before. This is so difficult. You better believe it. But God, I’d be the first person in my family to do. And it seems almost impossible. You better believe it. But God, I don’t know if I could be the Trailblazer that you’ve called me to be. You better believe it no matter what the situation looks like, no matter how impossible it seems, you’d better believe that God is enough and able and can do all that. He said he would do in your life. He’s able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works within us. But in order for it to work in order for God to work in order for the spirit to work, we have to believe it. We have to have faith Saints of God, you have to walk out in faith, Saints of God, we better believe it in those times. It’s important for us in the midst of uncertainty, right? When you feel it creeping in in the midst of doubt, right? When you feel it taking over in the midst of fear, in the midst of obstacles and mountains that are looming, you have to say no, I have to believe that I have to believe that I have to believe it, no matter what it looks like, no matter what it feels like all as well. Oh, the song says all is well, all is well, no matter what my eyes may he see, no matter what my ears may hear, all is well all is well the Lord will fight for me and I think that’s so important for us to shift our focus because so many times we can be so reliant on but limited in our reliance on our focus on the natural, our focus on what I see are focused on what our ears here are focused on what our situation looks like. And as a result of it looking this way we think it is this way. But it’s only because we’re looking with a certain set of eyes. You ever realized that sometimes if if you need glasses and you’re looking at a chart and you’re you know, going for some new glasses or something, they’ll say ok read this line and you will read certain letters and they’re blurry but you’ll kind of make it out and you think this is a B. You know, you think this letter is A B. But then when they put the different lenses down, you realize that it wasn’t a B. It was actually a P. And you were you were looking at it the wrong way because you’re only looking at it through a limited set of eyes. And sometimes we behave like that in the natural because we only see things in the natural. But my prayer is that God would give us the insight to see things spiritually, to see things from a spiritual perspective, to see things from the reality beyond this reality, from the world that uh from from the world that christ calls us to walk into from the kingdom that we are a part of that we would see things differently, that we would know that no matter what God is enough that we would know no matter what God will show up, that we would know no matter what God will come through, that we would know no matter what God will provide and our God is sufficient. The amazing thing about this text is that jesus doesn’t show up right when thomas is finished speaking verse 26 Says eight days later, a lot of times, you know, when I had first read this story uh huh I thought okay, thomas says this and then boom, jesus shows up. Hey, surprise, I heard you talking to what’s going on. But I don’t know eight days later, A week and a day later, jesus shows up. Oftentimes we want jesus to show up immediately in our doubt, immediately in our pain, immediately in our discomfort, immediately in our shame, immediately in the things that we’re dealing with. But I believe that sometimes the Lord will let you sit with yourself in a season before he comes and shows up to show you himself to let you sit with yourself. And it’s important because he’s committed in these eight days. It’s not like thomas had a faith moment. He got eight days to come around and say Lord, I believe, I’m sorry, I’m going to believe what they said now, but he didn’t. And so what we see happening is eight days he walks committed to doubt. eight days he walks committed to his disappointment. eight days he walks committed to his pain. Eight days he walks committing to his disbelief. Eight days he walks feeling like he missed out and sometimes eight days he walks feeling there I say entitled because many of us entitlement can keep you in places that you do not need to be in longer than you need to stay in Oh, I feel like I need this, I deserve this. And because I didn’t get it here, I am upset and miserable here, I am feeling this way and that way because I felt like I missed out on something that I deserved. And then your attitude begins to shift and your attitude begins to change. The text does not say that this is how thomas felt, but I would not be surprised if this is a feeling that he perhaps felt. Jesus appeared to the 12 and not me, I’m one, I’m one of them. I I walked with jesus just as bartholomew did, I walked with jesus just as Andrew did. I walked with jesus, just as peter did, I did all these things and yet they say he appears to them, but not me. No, no, I don’t believe it. So there’s many different things that thomas may be feeling that we wrestle with as well. But eight days later, eight days after he sits with himself, Jesus shows up. And the thing about us being able to sit with ourselves is sometimes we’re sitting with ourselves, but we don’t take the time to examine ourselves. Text says, let a man examine his ways and then turn again unto the Lord. Many of us, we’re moving, we’re grinding, we’re hustling, we’re pushing, we’re trying to make something work, make something come together. But sometimes the Lord gives us time to stop and see la stop and pause, stop and reflect, stop and examine ourselves and say, God search me and try me and know my ways, See if there be any wicked way within me and lead me in the way everlasting. So thomas had eight days to do that, he did not do that. He was committed to his doubt, committed to walking in disappointment, but what we realize is the disciples are inside again, God is a god of a second chance, a third chance or fourth chance, six chance, 20th chance and 80th chance, 190th chance. The god of another chance and thomas gets his other chance right here, God comes up, excuse me, thomas comes up and he’s hanging out with the disciples and he’s with them says the text makes it known and evident and obvious that thomas was with them. He singles thomas out, He says eight days later Jesus disciples were inside again and thomas was with them. That’s a setup right there just to let you know something’s about to happen. Although the doors were locked, jesus stood among them and said to them peace, be with you, I want to highlight that very quickly because when jesus got up from the grave, he didn’t just get up as you know uh huh the jesus that he was before he died, you got up with all power, He got up, God raised him up with all power in his hands, right so doors, he doesn’t have to say let me just walk through this door again because he’s not fully limited as he was in his human body, but now this is the resurrected christ, who can just say, all right, boom, I’m here standing right in the midst of them, not worrying about the physical limitations that were once limiting him. And so in his resurrected body, not limited to human physics and things that block us or limit us, he stands among them and says, peace be with you. And then the text says that he said to thomas verse 27 he says to thomas, peace be with you. Hey, what’s up guys? How you guys doing? I hope you guys are well, wonderful thomas, put your fingers here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe and thomas answered him, my lord and my God, now Jesus was not physically there when thomas made his demands, Jesus wasn’t there in the corner, just slack. All right, let me hear what’s almost, Jesus didn’t show up to another disciple later and say, hey, um, what did thomas uh, say because I know he wasn’t there. Do you have anything to say when you guys told him that, that I wasn’t there? It wasn’t talking about thomas behind his back, But just because jesus wasn’t physically there when thomas made his demands. It doesn’t mean that he wasn’t listening. You may not feel like you’re talking to God oftentimes when you say what you say, but often he’s still listening in and hearing the posture of your heart, especially in relationship to him as you speak specifically, if you are already in relationship with him, this related directly to jesus and Jesus took note of it, just said, okay thomas, I got something for you, thomas had relationship with Jesus, he walked with him, he talked with him and Jesus valued thomas’s relationship, I must say that again, Jesus valued thomas’s relationship, he may not have been a part of the uh 12, the 73 excuse me, But he was a part of the 12. And even though he had a different proximity in relationship to Jesus as Peter James and John as one of the 12, Jesus still valued and championed Thomas’s relationship with him and we see this because he shows up and speaks directly to Thomas in his time of doubt. So he shows up with thomas and thomas is in doubt and thomas is in weakness. He shows up in thomas’s weakness and points to his strength, Jesus, he shows up in thomas’s weakness when thomases doubting when thomas is not believing when thomas is stubborn and thomas is saying, unless I see him, I’m not going to believe, Jesus shows up and says here feel and believe touch and believe he’s pointing to his strength, You see, there are strength in the scars, I hear you saying, this is what you need to see to believe, but little do you know, it’s actually what you need to believe. You need these scars to believe in your weakness. I’m giving you my strength. He says, put your finger here and see my hands put out your hand and place it in my side where they stabbed me. Do not disbelieve but believe and thomas’s response, my Lord and my God, the beauty of this text is that our scars tell a story. Our scars tell a story, a story of pain and story of difficulty, a story of resilience, a story of triumph, scars tell a story. There’s this uh, the show that our kids watch and it’s a kind of like a continuation of the Lion King and uh scarred apparently has this song in the story about how he got his scar and he tells the story of everything that took place before and how he got his scar. And uh, it’s a memorable story, but there’s always a story behind the scar. There’s always a story behind the scar. Uh, and oftentimes you have to come close enough to see it. Some scars are not uh as evident as others in my case, many of you know, I was born three months premature, £1.09 ounces. The doctor said that I would die within 24 hours of my birth. My mother wrote a book about it experiencing the 25th hour. Go pick up your copy on Amazon today, right. But I think it’s so important that we realized that yes, I’m a miracle and the Lord spared my life and saved me and I came out the womb crying. But you couldn’t hear me and we hear the I’ve heard this story, but the Lord kept me with a scar on my neck from the surgery, a tracheotomy. And you wouldn’t be able to realize it, see it or even know that anything took place had it not been for this car? This car serves as a testimony. So much so that my daughter now is like daddy, was this? What’s going on? Tell me, tell me what happened and I get a chance to let her know about the goodness of God as a result of this car. So, there’s powers in you. There’s a power in your scar. There’s a power in your story. There’s a power in your testimony. But we also see that the power in this text is that thomas didn’t touch the scars of a dead messiah. But he touched the scars of a risen king. He didn’t touch the scars of a dead messiah, but he touched the scars of a risen king, a resurrected king. And as a result, there is power in those scars. There is power in that story. The scars of jesus allow us to move from doubt into faith. The scars of jesus because he calls thomas close to them. We know that he also calls us close to himself and we can have victory through his scars. And at this thomas seeing this and feeling the scars he’s humbled, he’s broken. Perhaps he falls to his knees even and says, my Lord, oh my God. And he believes he gives God praise at this moment touching the scars of jesus And Jesus response in verse 29 is very telling and it speaks to us directly as I close and as the team comes up, Jesus says, have you believed because you have seen me, blessed are those who have not seen and have yet believed mm thomas was given a chance to show us what it was like to be us right now to believe because of the testimony of another that jesus was actually resurrected and to walk out in that faith that jesus was actually resurrected and not doing and not showing that and not being that example. We see that Jesus still had grace still had compassion, still showed thomas what he needed to see. But he then spoke to thomas but also prophesy to us and spoke about us and said thomas, is it because you see me that you believe, blessed are those who have not seen And yet have believed if I was to do a poll for everyone watching everyone here, How many of you have seen, jesus face to face physically and fleshly form? I probably get Nobody forgot one or 2, we have to come in and speak with you and see what your situation was about. But I’m pretty confident I get no one. Uh but he says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet you still believe that’s faith, that is funny. And God calls us to have faith. It’s easy to doubt. It’s difficult to have faith. It’s easy to doubt unless I have solid proof. Once that proof comes, then I’ll believe once that proof comes, then I’ll step out in obedience. But that’s not faith, it’s easy to doubt. It’s difficult to have faith. Or 30 concludes in 31 concludes with now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that jesus is the christ, the son of God and that believing you may have a life in his name. Are we gonna believe that Jesus did the other signs that aren’t recorded, we’re going to say I didn’t see those. So we have to have faith zones of God. We have to believe in these words are written something we may believe in jesus, the christ, even though we have not seen him, it takes faith to believe. It takes faith to step out, it takes faith to deal with doubt and say Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. It takes faith to deal with doubt. I say God, I better believe it helped me to believe it many times. We say, oh I I thought if I saw jesus face to face, I believe if I saw the messiah right now, face to face, I would believe I wouldn’t have any doubt really because I’m sure the Pharisees thought the same thing for the religious leaders of the day, thought the same thing and Jesus was in their presence and they did everything to stop him from succeeding for us today, we must believe in faith that jesus is who the text says, he is, the true and living God, the messiah, able to save us from sin, that he got up from the grave and is seated at the right hand of the father. And we must deal with doubt in our lives. Each and every day, we deal with it. Each and every day we confronted each and every day we can look at the disappointments and at the doubt and say God, you’re good God, I’m dealing with this doubt and I believe that you are greater. I believe that you are more, I believe, help my unbelief, help me to say to myself in the midst of everything that I’m going through, You better believe it. You’re gonna thank you so much for this time. I thank you for your people, I thank you for those that are listening, Those that are watching Lord, I pray for those that don’t know you right now and I pray father that they would come to know you if you’re here, you’re listening and you’ve heard this message and you don’t know, jesus, there’s a number at the bottom of the screen, I’m gonna ask you to text saved to that number. Text save to the number at the bottom of your screen. Mhm. So dear God, I just thank you so much for those that know you, those that don’t know you, I pray Lord for those that are coming to the saving knowledge of who you are today and this message, I pray that they would walking your way that they would abandon their sin and they would come to a new life in you. We thank you, we praise you, we give you glory. We ask these things in jesus name, Amen and God for those that know you, for those that are walking in the ways that you called us to walk as believers, I pray that we would deal with doubt your way, that we would trust you in everything that we would give you praise honor and glory as we confront doubt and believe in your word, believe in your way, believe in your will, believe in what you said. I pray Lord that we would give you glory with our lives. We thank you and we praise you, we ask these things in jesus name, Amen and Amen. God bless you. Thank you Hello again and thank you so much for tuning into the message at global seven. Once again, my name is roderick caesar the third, the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle. My prayer is that you were blessed and encouraged by the message. And if you want to contribute and give to the ministry, you can text b g t f i 277977. Again, you can text b g t f i 277977. We’re so thankful for you and my prayer is that God will continue to strengthen and empower and encourage you As you listen to this message, we hope you tune again later and God bless you. Thank you so much.