Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 1: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: In Matthew chapter one, the record goes, this is how
Speaker 2: the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother, Mary
Speaker 2: was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they
Speaker 2: came together, she was found to be with child through
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man,
Speaker 2: and did not want to expose her to public disgrace,
Speaker 2: he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
Speaker 1: But after he had considered.
Speaker 2: This, because sometimes your first instinct is not God's will,
Speaker 2: he had considered this, after he did the math, and
Speaker 2: after he calculated his next move.
Speaker 1: God spoke.
Speaker 2: It is often contrary to our logic. When God speaks,
Speaker 2: it often relates what we see when God calls us
Speaker 2: to walk by faith.
Speaker 1: But after he.
Speaker 2: Had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to
Speaker 2: him in a dream and said.
Speaker 1: Joseph, son of David.
Speaker 2: Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,
Speaker 2: because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: She will give birth to a son, and you are
Speaker 2: to give him the name Jesus. Everybody say that name.
Speaker 2: You are to give him the name Jesus, because he
Speaker 2: will save his people from their sins. I know you're confused,
Speaker 2: I know you're bewildered, and I know that you're hurt.
Speaker 2: But verse twenty two, all this took place to fulfill.
Speaker 2: I know you're having a hard time making sense of
Speaker 2: the situation right now, but all this took place to fulfill.
Speaker 1: It's not random.
Speaker 2: There's a reason all this took place to fulfill. I
Speaker 2: hear the apostle Paul all the way over from Roman
Speaker 2: say he wants to get in on this. All things
Speaker 2: work together for the good of those who love God
Speaker 2: and are called according to his purpose. All this the
Speaker 2: parts you like, the parts you don't, the parts you get,
Speaker 2: and the parts that keep you awake at night, the
Speaker 2: parts that feel good, and the parts that lead you
Speaker 2: with tears on your pillow. All this took place to
Speaker 2: fulfill what the.
Speaker 1: Lord had said through the prophet.
Speaker 2: The Virgin will be with child and will give birth
Speaker 2: to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which
Speaker 2: means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did
Speaker 2: with the Angel of the Lord had commanded him and
Speaker 2: took Mary home as his wife, but he had no
Speaker 2: union with her. Just to make it clear, he had
Speaker 2: no union with her until she gave birth.
Speaker 1: To a son, and he gave him the name Jesus.
Speaker 2: I want to speak for just a few moments today
Speaker 2: on the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: Christmas is rightly celebrated.
Speaker 2: As the story of new beginnings, but the story begins
Speaker 2: at a dead end. By the time you get to
Speaker 2: Matthew Chapter one. Heaven has been seemingly silent since the
Speaker 2: time of Malachi the prophet for several centuries. And I
Speaker 2: did not read you the whole of Matthew Chapter one.
Speaker 2: If I had started with verse one, you might have
Speaker 2: been asleep by the time that I got to the
Speaker 2: part I wanted to read, because it's just a genealogy
Speaker 2: of how Jesus came into the earth from a human perspective,
Speaker 2: and Matthew gives us fourteen generations between Abraham and David,
Speaker 2: fourteen more between David and the Babylonian exile of the
Speaker 2: people of Israel fourteen more from the exile to the
Speaker 2: Birth of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: That's all in Matthew chapter one.
Speaker 2: It's a list of names, really, but it signifies how
Speaker 2: at this point in God's redemptive story, as told in
Speaker 2: the pages of Holy.
Speaker 1: Scripture, heaven has hit a dead end.
Speaker 2: God has sent the law to his people, but they
Speaker 2: broke it. Literally, when Moses came down the mountain with
Speaker 2: the Ten Commandments showing the people how to live to
Speaker 2: be a people, by the time he could get the
Speaker 2: rules down to them, they were dancing naked around another
Speaker 2: God that they made because they got tired of.
Speaker 1: Waiting on the one they couldn't see.
Speaker 2: So Moses, in his frustration, broke the tablets had to
Speaker 2: go up and carve out some new ones. Not only
Speaker 2: was their hope of keeping the law broken, like it
Speaker 2: is every time we try to do God's will in
Speaker 2: our own strength, but the prophets that God had sent
Speaker 2: to his people were each turned away, despies, rejected. Many
Speaker 2: of them died at the hands of the very people
Speaker 2: that they came with a word to deliver. And so
Speaker 2: now they've broken the law, disobeyed the prophets, and by
Speaker 2: the time you get to Matthew chapter one, Heaven has
Speaker 2: hit a dead end. And as man after man after
Speaker 2: man after man comes into the earth, none of them
Speaker 2: being the Messiah who is able to rescue and redeem,
Speaker 2: it seems that we're at an impasse because the true
Speaker 2: character of God cannot break through the frailty of humanity
Speaker 2: to deliver this love message that has existed before time began.
Speaker 2: The beginning was a word, and the word was with God,
Speaker 2: and the Word was God. And the full preincarnate Word
Speaker 2: of God was existing in Jesus Christ before he was
Speaker 2: ever made flesh on Christmas Day. But it has not
Speaker 2: yet found its way into the earth, not by the
Speaker 2: time we have read Matthew chapter one.
Speaker 1: So what we get is forty two.
Speaker 2: Generations of frustration and suddenly Christ is born. Heaven has
Speaker 2: hit a dead end, and humanity feels the same way.
Speaker 2: No matter how they try to follow God, there seems
Speaker 2: to be something in their hearts prone to wander. No
Speaker 2: matter what commitment they make, they seem unable to keep it.
Speaker 1: So now you have heaven at a dead end.
Speaker 2: Because God is perfectly holy and cannot violate his standard
Speaker 2: to relate to unholy people and humans who unholy have
Speaker 2: no way to God. And all of a sudden, here
Speaker 2: comes a latter named.
Speaker 3: Jesus, not from the earth to the sky, but from
Speaker 3: the heavens to the earth, and it's the throne of
Speaker 3: the rule and reign of a sovereign God is lowered
Speaker 3: into the.
Speaker 2: Everyday affairs of humanity. We see Joseph is also at
Speaker 2: a dead end. Maybe he really looked forward to having
Speaker 2: Mary as his wife, but he gets some bad news
Speaker 2: when it comes to his attention that she's claiming that
Speaker 2: she got pregnant by God. Now I want to say
Speaker 2: something about that real quick, because in church we just
Speaker 2: skip right over this stuff. But a lot of people
Speaker 2: come to church on Christmas and don't come any other
Speaker 2: time of the year, and they sit in listen politely
Speaker 2: to stuff like this. But when we say that she
Speaker 2: had a baby, but it was all wise no X,
Speaker 2: they get kind of confused about this because you know,
Speaker 2: this stuff doesn't just happen every day, and what we're
Speaker 2: shouting about they're.
Speaker 1: Kind of skeptical about.
Speaker 2: So let me talk about this for a minute, because
Speaker 2: it must have been hard for Joseph to take the
Speaker 2: Angel at his word when he saw no way forward.
Speaker 1: I mean, he wants to marry her.
Speaker 2: He's looking for a way to go through with it,
Speaker 2: but the law requires him to put her away. So
Speaker 2: he's going to do it in the most dignified way possible.
Speaker 2: He's not going to humiliate her. He's going to do
Speaker 2: it in a righteous way. But he sees no road forward,
Speaker 2: no route past this indiscretion. And so the scripture says
Speaker 2: that he had in mind to put her away. But
Speaker 2: sometimes what you have in mind is not what God
Speaker 2: has in store.
Speaker 1: It's just that he can't see a way forward. He's
Speaker 1: at a dead end. I was looking.
Speaker 2: Forward to Mary. You know, Mary is a wonderful person.
Speaker 2: We find out, very content, not a wife who's hard
Speaker 2: to please.
Speaker 1: She was gonna be such a good wife.
Speaker 2: And I already put a deposit down on the venue
Speaker 2: for the wedding and it's non refundable.
Speaker 1: But I don't see any way to go.
Speaker 2: Through with this because she's got a baby and it's
Speaker 2: not mine, and she says it belongs to the Lord.
Speaker 2: I don't see a way forward. Heaven is at a
Speaker 2: dead end, humanity is at a dead end. Joseph is
Speaker 2: at a dead end, and I just wonder are you.
Speaker 2: I wonder is there anybody in this room, watching online
Speaker 2: or on television who has found yourself.
Speaker 1: At a dead end this day.
Speaker 2: In a relationship, you can find yourself having done all
Speaker 2: that you know to do for someone that you love
Speaker 2: and thinking to yourself, well if they don't love me
Speaker 2: back by now.
Speaker 1: You can find.
Speaker 2: Yourself at a dead end with your children. You can
Speaker 2: do everything that you can do for the very for
Speaker 2: the very person that you would do anything for, but
Speaker 2: it is not enough, and you find yourself before God.
Speaker 1: Saying I don't know what else to do.
Speaker 2: You can find yourself at a dead end in your resources.
Speaker 1: I'm out of I'm out of money.
Speaker 2: I put everything on every credit card. I stole a
Speaker 2: credit card alive to get another credit card. I put
Speaker 2: that balance on this balance, and I can't balance anything
Speaker 2: else anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm at an end. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think this is it, because I really think I've
Speaker 2: run out of room to run.
Speaker 1: I'm at a dead end. You know, religion can leave.
Speaker 2: You at a dead end when you have made so
Speaker 2: many commitments to change, but you never do, When you
Speaker 2: have said so many times you know I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: better now, you know I'm really gonna I'm gonna really
Speaker 2: kick that. You know, that's the last time I'm gonna
Speaker 2: do that. That's really the last time. This time is
Speaker 2: the last time. I won't do it no more. And
Speaker 2: then you do it again, and every time you do,
Speaker 2: you feel a little more hopeless that you're ever going
Speaker 2: to be capable of real change. I wonder, are you
Speaker 2: at a dead end? And I wonder did you know
Speaker 2: that dead ends are the perfect.
Speaker 1: Place for new beginnings?
Speaker 2: In Jesus Christ, this is the message that I came
Speaker 2: to preach this Christmas, not about a tall baby lying
Speaker 2: in a bassinet. I came to preach about new beginnings.
Speaker 2: The Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let
Speaker 2: every heart prepare his room. He is with us, and
Speaker 2: anything is possible.
Speaker 1: This is not the end.
Speaker 2: Seems to be the announcement of Heaven that this is
Speaker 2: not the end. Touch somebody say this is not the end.
Speaker 2: New beginnings often start when you find yourself at a
Speaker 2: dead end.
Speaker 1: I admire Joseph. I admire Joseph.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe it's more appropriate to say you admire Mary.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's sexist for me to preach about Joseph on Christmas,
Speaker 2: because Mary did all the hard work.
Speaker 1: You understand, I'm not trying to be that way. I
Speaker 1: really I.
Speaker 2: Really just think that I wouldn't have had the faith
Speaker 2: to give Mary the benefit of the doubt on this one,
Speaker 2: on this one. And so it says he had a
Speaker 2: dream and he woke up and he was like, cool. See,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be cool. But just a dream unless the
Speaker 2: angel was Maury Povich with a paternity task like, no,
Speaker 2: I promise you can show this, then I'm good. If
Speaker 2: we got some DNA on this divine baby in your belly, fine,
Speaker 2: But I'm not so sure because I have crazy dreams.
Speaker 1: This might have been just a crazy dream.
Speaker 2: But he did what the angel had commanded him. That
Speaker 2: the angel said something that is simple on the surface,
Speaker 2: but there's great depth to it.
Speaker 1: I'd like you to consider it.
Speaker 2: In verse twenty, what is conceived in her is from
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Simplify, what's in her is from Me.
Speaker 2: And sometimes God wants you to know that what is
Speaker 2: packaged as disappointment.
Speaker 1: Is really destiny. Do you see it? What's in her
Speaker 1: is from Me.
Speaker 2: And sometimes when people cause you pain and when life
Speaker 2: lets you down, it looks on the surface like God
Speaker 2: has left you. But what's in her, what's happening in
Speaker 2: your life, is from me, and he goes with it.
Speaker 2: And I must have like a really bad version of
Speaker 2: the Bible. This is a little older Bible that I
Speaker 2: preach from. It's a great bible. It has Billy grahmsy
Speaker 2: that you're in it. This Bible. He signed this Bible.
Speaker 2: They told me he signed it.
Speaker 1: I wasn't there.
Speaker 2: I never met him, but could have been Larry Bry
Speaker 2: with some good penmanship.
Speaker 1: Who knows.
Speaker 2: I give him the benefit of the doubt, though, that
Speaker 2: Billy Graham really signed the Bible.
Speaker 1: And in this Bible.
Speaker 2: I was struggling because I couldn't find anybody else got
Speaker 2: a Bible. I just want to cross references because my
Speaker 2: Bible must be messed up because in my bible, let's
Speaker 2: see your bible. Your Bible might be better than Mine's
Speaker 2: a smaller Bible's pointing that out. Oh this is the
Speaker 2: good one. This this might be the King James version
Speaker 2: or something like that. Yeah, this one will have it.
Speaker 2: I see, I'm looking twenty two version. We've seen give
Speaker 2: birth to a son cous name Man and Joe being
Speaker 2: raised from sleep. Nope, your Bible's your bible's missing it too.
Speaker 2: I was looking for the part of the story where
Speaker 2: the angel gave Joseph proof, and I couldn't find it
Speaker 2: in my Bible or yours. Anybody else got a Bible
Speaker 2: because our bibles are are missing stuff. It's disappointing. I
Speaker 2: know they've got new translations. Surely it'll be in a
Speaker 2: in this bible. What color do you call that, babe?
Speaker 1: That's a.
Speaker 4: Huh?
Speaker 2: What color is his bible? Surely it'll be in your
Speaker 2: pink bible. She's got tabs on her bible.
Speaker 1: Surely it'll be.
Speaker 2: We'll see this one. This one's problematic too. It's pretty,
Speaker 2: but it's it's problematic because now I'm looking for the
Speaker 2: part where it tells me how Joseph felt. I can't
Speaker 2: find it. All it says is that God said to Joseph,
Speaker 2: it's me go forward, and he did it. I can't
Speaker 2: find the part where they wrote in the clouds, no, really,
Speaker 2: this is God's baby, you know, at their gender reveal party,
Speaker 2: because they also needed to have a divinity revealed party.
Speaker 1: I can't find the clouds. I can't find the sign.
Speaker 2: It was just the voice of God saying to Joseph
Speaker 2: it's me go through, and I feel like that might
Speaker 2: be the Lord for someone today. I know you don't
Speaker 2: have the proof, I know you don't have the feeling,
Speaker 2: and I know all signs point to stopping.
Speaker 1: But it's me go through.
Speaker 2: He must have really trusted Mary. But he couldn't trust
Speaker 2: Mary now, could he. This is an arranged marriage. They
Speaker 2: didn't date three years. He didn't to get to choose her,
Speaker 2: pick her based on her profile Christian Singles dot com,
Speaker 2: Christian Palestinians dot com. He didn't swipe for Mary. He
Speaker 2: just that's the way it worked back then. You just
Speaker 2: got her. He didn't know her like that. He must
Speaker 2: have really trusted God enough to give him the benefit
Speaker 2: of the doubt.
Speaker 1: What is the benefit of the doubt?
Speaker 2: I asked God how we should define that term, and
Speaker 2: he told me to ask Wikipedia.
Speaker 1: Wikipedia says.
Speaker 2: That the benefit of the doubt is a favorable judgment
Speaker 2: in the absence of full evidence.
Speaker 1: The benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 2: It means that when it doesn't add up, the variable
Speaker 2: is God for me.
Speaker 1: And so it means that when.
Speaker 2: I don't have evidence to support my conclusion that God
Speaker 2: is good, that He is with me, and that He
Speaker 2: is for me. Let's say those three things. God is good,
Speaker 2: he is with me, he is for me. I want
Speaker 2: you to say it again, and I'm looking all the
Speaker 2: way to the back to the people with that little
Speaker 2: Christmas attitude, say God is.
Speaker 1: Good, he is with me, he is for me.
Speaker 2: Now I have reached that verdict, not by the process
Speaker 2: of deduction and looking at my life to see if
Speaker 2: it lines up with that assertion. I reached that conclusion
Speaker 2: by revelation. And once I came to believe that God
Speaker 2: is good, he is with me, and he is for me,
Speaker 2: I now live by that verdict and I collect the
Speaker 2: evidence to support the verdict that I have already come to.
Speaker 2: This is not how you reach a conclusion in a
Speaker 2: court of law, but in the realm of faith. It
Speaker 2: works like this verdict. First evidence, Second, what.
Speaker 1: Does that mean.
Speaker 2: I don't look to my bank account or my doctor's
Speaker 2: report to see if God is a provider or a healer.
Speaker 2: I've already come to the conclusion that he is Jehovah
Speaker 2: Chirah and Jehovah Rafica. He is my provider and my healer.
Speaker 2: That's the verdict. So now, no matter what the evidence says,
Speaker 2: I can find greater evidence in the death of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: See when he hugged for me. That's settled it out
Speaker 2: of court. I don't need to take it before a
Speaker 2: judge or a jury.
Speaker 4: I already know he loves me this much.
Speaker 2: I believe it. Not on always see it, but I
Speaker 2: believe it. I doubt it sometimes, but I believe it.
Speaker 2: You can't say both. You can't say both. You're not
Speaker 2: allowed to say both in church. You can't say that
Speaker 2: in church. You can't talk about doubt in church.
Speaker 1: Because James Jap says, let him not doubt, let him
Speaker 1: leave me his.
Speaker 2: Heart, he should have aways say if he doubts like
Speaker 2: way to see he Thos driven with.
Speaker 1: Let let that man thank you see anything for the
Speaker 1: Lord and staiment. I know that Bible verse bro, but.
Speaker 2: I think it's confusing for people who think that faith
Speaker 2: is the absence of doubt.
Speaker 1: The Bible doesn't say that Joseph didn't doubt.
Speaker 2: It just said that he did what he had to
Speaker 2: do even with the doubt in his heart.
Speaker 1: Means he didn't let the doubt stop him. Don't let
Speaker 1: him stop you.
Speaker 2: Of course you'll have doubts, just don't let them be dead.
Speaker 1: Ends, and a lot.
Speaker 2: Of people stand at the dead end of a destiny
Speaker 2: that God is bringing them into because they will not
Speaker 2: walk through the doubt to get.
Speaker 1: To the promise.
Speaker 2: I meet these people and they say things to me
Speaker 2: because of my profession. I guess they make assumptions about
Speaker 2: me because there's a reve in front of my name.
Speaker 2: They make assumptions about me that I don't have real doubts.
Speaker 2: One gentleman that I was doing business with, he put
Speaker 2: it this way. He was like, I envy you because
Speaker 2: I would love to have faith. I always wanted to
Speaker 2: believe in God, but I just always am the kind
Speaker 2: of person that doubts a lot, and I envy you
Speaker 2: that you don't have those doubts.
Speaker 1: Now here's what I should have said back to him.
Speaker 2: It only took me four months to come up with this,
Speaker 2: because he is assuming that faith is the absence of doubt.
Speaker 2: For me, faith has never been the absence of doubt.
Speaker 2: Faith is not the absence of doubt. It is the
Speaker 2: means to overcome it. Do you hear what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: We get in church and we just all go into
Speaker 2: this walking, dead, willing suspension of disbelief, and we just
Speaker 2: believe things that have no impact on our everyday life,
Speaker 2: just like we're binge watching Netflix, like I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: watch this for a little while and hear this little
Speaker 2: comforting word. But then we go out into the world
Speaker 2: and we doubt the stuff.
Speaker 1: But we can't say we.
Speaker 2: Doubt the stuff because doubt is bad, because isn't doubt bad.
Speaker 2: One time, I even had a keptist pastor who was
Speaker 2: giving an invitation like, we will give in a moment
Speaker 2: for people who want to place their faith in Christ.
Speaker 2: And when we do it at our church, we have
Speaker 2: people repeat a prayer. It's just a means of allowing
Speaker 2: them to express their heart to God so that they
Speaker 2: can have a moment that they look back on and
Speaker 2: say I placed my trust in Christ. And to me,
Speaker 2: that prayer is a very sacred moment. It's not a
Speaker 2: time for people to get their person get out and
Speaker 2: beat the parking, and it's not a time for someone
Speaker 2: who's preaching to start sharing their opinions. That is a
Speaker 2: time to present the gospel and get out of the
Speaker 2: way because only God can save a person. And now, well,
Speaker 2: I believe this campus pastor mintwell, but what he said
Speaker 2: I had to correct him on later.
Speaker 1: And I'm not a mean guy, and I make mistakes.
Speaker 2: Up here too, But to me, he made a really
Speaker 2: big mistake when he was praying the prayer because he
Speaker 2: was inviting the people to pray, and he said, if
Speaker 2: you want to give your heart to Christ today and
Speaker 2: know for sure that you have a relationship with him,
Speaker 2: pray this. You know, Lord Jesus, I believe that I'm
Speaker 2: a sinner in need of a savior, and I believe without.
Speaker 1: A doubt that's the part he should have left out.
Speaker 2: I believe without a doubt that Jesus Christ, the Son
Speaker 2: of God and the.
Speaker 1: Savior of the world. Today, I give you my life.
Speaker 2: All of it was good, all of it was appropriate,
Speaker 2: and there is no other way to be saved but
Speaker 2: to confess with your mouth Jesus's Lord, believe in your
Speaker 2: heart God raised him from the dead.
Speaker 4: You shall be saved.
Speaker 2: But that one parenthetical insert, without a doubt, I told him,
Speaker 2: never again.
Speaker 1: When you stand in.
Speaker 2: The pulpit at elevation, do I want you to put
Speaker 2: people in a position where you're telling them to pray
Speaker 2: something that they can't honestly pray. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: don't put them in a position to pray something that
Speaker 2: you can't honestly pray because there is not one of
Speaker 2: you in the room, even with tabs in your pink Bible,
Speaker 2: that can honestly say without a doubt, not a.
Speaker 1: One of you.
Speaker 2: And if you can hang on, you hadn't had teenagers.
Speaker 2: Yet somebody to my backside backed me up on this.
Speaker 2: The triumph of my faith is not the absence of doubt.
Speaker 4: The triumph of my faith.
Speaker 2: Is the ability for the light to shine in the deepest,
Speaker 2: darkest recesses.
Speaker 4: Of my heart.
Speaker 2: I got doubts, but I trust him anyway. So my
Speaker 2: faith can say, even though I walk through the valley
Speaker 2: of the shadow of death and the shadow of doubt.
Speaker 4: And the shadow of dysfunction.
Speaker 1: I will fear no evil. It's not that I don't
Speaker 1: go through valleys. I don't die there, even.
Speaker 4: Though I walk.
Speaker 2: Through the valley of the shadow of death. This is
Speaker 2: Christmas preson people.
Speaker 1: Even though.
Speaker 2: Throw us in the fire, our God is able to
Speaker 2: deliver us. But even if he doesn't, we will not
Speaker 2: bow our knee to you, O King.
Speaker 1: Never conness her.
Speaker 2: I know Lazarus is dead, but if Jesus is on
Speaker 2: the scene, every dead end is a destiny waiting to begin.
Speaker 4: Even now, I have my doubts.
Speaker 2: I don't believe this because I don't doubt it.
Speaker 1: If you don't doubt.
Speaker 4: It, you're not reading.
Speaker 2: It, or you're reading it with no intent to live it.
Speaker 1: My doubt is the evidence of my growth.
Speaker 4: Amen.
Speaker 1: The closer I get, the more questions I have.
Speaker 2: I struggle to believe it that I'm forgiven, that he
Speaker 2: forgives me not only for what I did before I
Speaker 2: accepted him.
Speaker 1: But for what I still do.
Speaker 2: Oh, y'all are gonna look at me like that on Christmas?
Speaker 1: That's what you brought me, that face.
Speaker 2: Maybe he could forgive the past stuff, but what about
Speaker 2: the present stuff?
Speaker 1: What about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I have my doubts. I have my faith, but I
Speaker 1: have my doubts.
Speaker 2: My man thought he couldn't come to Christ because he
Speaker 2: had the doubts. He thought that belief was the absence
Speaker 2: of doubt.
Speaker 1: He didn't have.
Speaker 2: The revelation that real belief is the willingness to stand
Speaker 2: on it even when you can't see it, feel it.
Speaker 4: Or explain it.
Speaker 1: I have my doubts.
Speaker 2: I read that if any man is in Christ, he's
Speaker 2: a new creation and the oldest gone and the newest come.
Speaker 2: But that versus still in progress in my life, there's
Speaker 2: still some old stuff in me comes down out in traffic.
Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 4: I have my doubts. I have my doubts. I have
Speaker 4: my doubts.
Speaker 2: I've read that whom the sun sets free is free indeed,
Speaker 2: but sometimes I feel bound by stuff.
Speaker 4: I have my dows Is that all right?
Speaker 2: Do you need to find another church now that you
Speaker 2: know that the dude with.
Speaker 4: The mic has some dowts. I have my doubts.
Speaker 1: I have my doubts.
Speaker 2: And Abby is already doing the thing that we all
Speaker 2: do at some point in our life if we try
Speaker 2: to be religious.
Speaker 1: Where she's going?
Speaker 2: Well, she said the other day, where did God come from?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, you're six? Can he just have always
Speaker 2: been there at age six? Do we really have to
Speaker 2: start this now? But that was about the same time
Speaker 2: I did it. She said it so funny. It was
Speaker 2: like she had me on a witness stand or something.
Speaker 2: She said she was waiting for me to get home
Speaker 2: from work because she asked Holly, and Holly said, you're gonna.
Speaker 1: Ask your dad about that. He'll be home in a
Speaker 1: couple hours.
Speaker 2: And she said, Abby's got a question for you, And
Speaker 2: Abby said, where did God come from?
Speaker 1: And who made him? And don't just say he's always
Speaker 1: been there? And I'm going.
Speaker 2: Already, yeah, already. This is the first gift of mystery
Speaker 2: that Heaven is giving to my daughter. It is the
Speaker 2: beginning of a lifetime of learning the art of.
Speaker 5: Faith, which Richard Roh suggests is patience with mystery, not
Speaker 5: the absence of it. Patience with it to take Mary home,
Speaker 5: even when you don't know where this is headed. So
Speaker 5: I did not give her a cookie cutter answer, partially
Speaker 5: because she's smarter.
Speaker 2: Than me and would have seen right through it. And said,
Speaker 2: I welcomed the mystery. And I said, I used to
Speaker 2: lay awake in my bed too thinking about that when
Speaker 2: I was a little boy. I was probably seven or eight,
Speaker 2: because boys are two years behind, but I had that
Speaker 2: same thing. I just couldn't never make sense of it,
Speaker 2: and I still haven't.
Speaker 1: I have my doubts, but I believe it.
Speaker 2: I believed that while I was watching my dad die
Speaker 2: and I had to preach my stuff back to myself,
Speaker 2: and I didn't have the protective insulation.
Speaker 1: Of this to stand behind or this to hold. Yeah, So.
Speaker 2: It's a real problem because a lot of people are
Speaker 2: waiting for the doubt to disappear.
Speaker 1: Let's take the next step the faith.
Speaker 2: If the absence of doubt was a prerequisite for being
Speaker 2: used by God, Mary could not have been.
Speaker 1: The mother of Jesus.
Speaker 2: Over here, the Angel is talking to Joseph, but before
Speaker 2: he came to Joseph, he spoke to Mary. He spoke
Speaker 2: to them separately, because you have to experience faith for yourself.
Speaker 2: You have to make your own decision as to who
Speaker 2: God is and what he means to you. So while
Speaker 2: he was speaking to Joseph, who had to endure the
Speaker 2: embarrassment of walking through this.
Speaker 1: Next season, he was speaking to Mary.
Speaker 2: And you're familiar with the story, but just put it
Speaker 2: on the screens real quick. This is Luke one where
Speaker 2: he said to Mary, greetings, you who are highly favored.
Speaker 1: The Lord is with you. That's the verdict.
Speaker 2: Before I give you the particulars of the situation, I
Speaker 2: want to bring you back to the thing that you
Speaker 2: can always know in every season of your life, if
Speaker 2: you choose to.
Speaker 1: Believe it.
Speaker 2: Your verdict, should you choose to accept it, God is
Speaker 2: with me. God is for me. You are highly favored.
Speaker 2: God is for you, and He is with you in
Speaker 2: this moment. Now, I got something I got to tell you.
Speaker 2: The angel starts off by reminding Mary of his presence,
Speaker 2: and it says that Mary was greatly troubled at his words. Now,
Speaker 2: what's there to be troubled about? All he said was Hello,
Speaker 2: God likes you. It seemed like YadA high fived him fistbalm.
Speaker 2: But she wondered what this greeting might be. Often the
Speaker 2: first impulse when God really shows up in your life
Speaker 2: is fear, and it is only in pushing through the
Speaker 2: fear that you find the love of God on the
Speaker 2: other side of your fear.
Speaker 1: What's this all about? But the Angel said to her.
Speaker 2: Don't be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
Speaker 2: You have found favor with God, and I got an
Speaker 2: assignment for you. Because I find favor with God. You
Speaker 2: will be with child and give birth to a son,
Speaker 2: and you are to give him the name Jesus. And
Speaker 2: he will be great and will be called the Son
Speaker 2: of the Most High. And the Lord God will give
Speaker 2: him the throne of his father David, and he will
Speaker 2: reign over the House of Jacob forever.
Speaker 1: His kingdom will never end.
Speaker 2: Now watch Mary's response, well, praise the Lord, and glory
Speaker 2: to God in the highest, and peace on earth, and
Speaker 2: good will to men on whom his favor rest.
Speaker 1: And your words to me are like drops of gold assurance.
Speaker 2: In a heart of no Mary said first thing out
Speaker 2: of her mouth was, how I know how pregnancy works?
Speaker 2: How am I pregnant? I promise God? And Joseph been
Speaker 2: keeping it clean? I promise God. We have nothing in
Speaker 2: the back seat of a camel ac, I promise God.
Speaker 2: How her first.
Speaker 4: Instinct is not yes, it's how.
Speaker 2: That is always the response when God really knocks. How
Speaker 2: how can I really be forgiven by someone who died
Speaker 2: on a cross before I was ever born? How can
Speaker 2: somebody else's death really affect my life?
Speaker 1: How that's a good starting place?
Speaker 2: How can you really use me? Look at me? I'm nobody,
Speaker 2: I'm nothing. How How how can I move forward after this?
Speaker 2: How can I believe that I still will see the
Speaker 2: goodness of the Lord in the land of the living?
Speaker 1: How? How?
Speaker 2: How see the greatest gifts that God ever gives? Are
Speaker 2: on the other side of your How on the other
Speaker 2: side of your question, on the other side of your
Speaker 2: I don't get it. On the other side of your
Speaker 2: I don't understand, on the other side of who me,
Speaker 2: on the other side of what now, on the other
Speaker 2: side of why.
Speaker 1: This, that's where the gift is.
Speaker 2: And you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes
Speaker 2: and lying in the manger. God wrapped his son in
Speaker 2: something that looked so common that you would walk by
Speaker 2: it if you weren't looking for it. Because the greatest
Speaker 2: gifts that God gives are wrapped in doubt. And the
Speaker 2: promise is wrapped in doubt for a reason, because if
Speaker 2: He gave you proof, you wouldn't need faith. So he
Speaker 2: hides it. He hides his promise in the darkness to
Speaker 2: protect you. And this will not make sense in an
Speaker 2: Instagram generation. But sometimes God needs to work on the
Speaker 2: big picture of your life in the dark room to
Speaker 2: let it develop. Doubt is where faith develops. Doubt is
Speaker 2: where faith matures. Doubt is where faith gets hardened past
Speaker 2: Christian cliches that fit on a bumper sticker or a pinterest.
Speaker 2: Let it develop, Let patience have its perfect work in you,
Speaker 2: that you may be perfect and complete, lacking not.
Speaker 1: That it's the dark room. In fact, Isaiah, who was
Speaker 1: quoted to Joseph also said.
Speaker 2: In Isaiah chapter nine, verse one, Nevertheless, there will be
Speaker 2: no more gloom. I want to write a song one
Speaker 2: day called nevertheless. It's one of my favorite Bible words.
Speaker 2: It means it looks one way, but it's really another.
Speaker 2: It means give it time, let it unfold. God is
Speaker 2: up to something. It means that the that the verdict
Speaker 2: has already submitted, Just give the evidence time.
Speaker 1: You will see it.
Speaker 2: Nevertheless, no matter what you see right now, it means
Speaker 2: that the ruling on the field can be overturned at
Speaker 2: any time. It means that there is a review booth
Speaker 2: called Heaven. Y'all didn't come to have church today. Y'all
Speaker 2: come to just check it out the list and stock
Speaker 2: us stuffing with some cute little stuff. Nevertheless, there will
Speaker 2: be no more gloom for those who were in distress.
Speaker 2: In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulin in
Speaker 2: the land of Neftali. But in the future he will
Speaker 2: honor Galilee of the Gentiles by the way of the
Speaker 2: sea along the Jordan. Oh. I need to insert this
Speaker 2: because Galilee means valley of shade.
Speaker 1: Now watch what happens in the darkest valley.
Speaker 2: The prophet says, the people walking in darkness have seen
Speaker 2: a great light. And I would confused at this point
Speaker 2: because I thought he was talking about something that would
Speaker 2: happen seven hundred years later. The prophet Isaiah prophesied seven hundred.
Speaker 1: Years before the birth of Christ.
Speaker 2: But now he is speaking about something that has yet
Speaker 2: to be, as if it already happened. This is called
Speaker 2: the prophetic perfect. You see it often in scripture. It's
Speaker 2: when God, who stands outside of time, knows exactly what
Speaker 2: you're going through, how long you're going to go through it,
Speaker 2: and what he's going to do. On the other side
Speaker 2: is the God who spoke, Let there be light, and
Speaker 2: molecules and particles rearranged themselves to spread out into the universe,
Speaker 2: to talk in every corner.
Speaker 1: Of this splode.
Speaker 2: My faith gives me the ability to stand in the
Speaker 2: darkest valley believing that the light has already come. If
Speaker 2: I let it develop. Faith is developed now. Faint always
Speaker 2: develops in doubt. If faith learns to depend.
Speaker 1: On God because of doubt. If you never doubted God,
Speaker 1: you would be him. Before long.
Speaker 2: You would start worshiping yourself and singing, how great Thou
Speaker 2: art in your full length mirror, and God is not
Speaker 2: going to allow you to become so arrogant that you.
Speaker 1: Never have doubts.
Speaker 2: If he removed the doubt, he would remove the need
Speaker 2: for him for you to know that He is God
Speaker 2: and you are not. That's why you doubt. There are
Speaker 2: benefits to the doubt. There's a benefit to having to
Speaker 2: wrestle with God and wrestle with where you are, and
Speaker 2: wrestle with yourself and wrestle like Jacob did.
Speaker 1: That's where you find the revelation of.
Speaker 2: The goodness of God, not in your self confidence, but
Speaker 2: in your self doubt.
Speaker 1: Mary said, how will this be? I am a virgin.
Speaker 2: The angel said, the power of the most High will
Speaker 2: overshadow you. But you must make the decision to believe
Speaker 2: God in the face of evidences. SEMs to contradict his
Speaker 2: promise to believe God.
Speaker 1: That every dead end.
Speaker 2: Is a doorway if you decide to go through it,
Speaker 2: and there is someone here who is standing at a
Speaker 2: doorway today called doubt, and if you will walk through
Speaker 2: it and make the decision to trust God in this situation,
Speaker 2: you will find on the other side a greater glory
Speaker 2: revealed to you than you have ever known.
Speaker 1: But if you stop here. If you stop with how
Speaker 1: and why and when and what?
Speaker 2: If you wait till you have all the evidence to
Speaker 2: trust God, you will never take Mary home, and you
Speaker 2: will never see the promise of God come to pass.
Speaker 2: All of the greatest faith is on the other side
Speaker 2: of your deepest out. I want to ask, with no
Speaker 2: one leaving, please don't leave in this moment.
Speaker 1: This is that invitation moment that.
Speaker 2: I spoke about earlier that is so sacred to us,
Speaker 2: and I want to ask at every campus that you
Speaker 2: would stand to your feet right now, because this is
Speaker 2: a moment of decision for many, for those who say
Speaker 2: what one man said to Jesus, who needed the gift
Speaker 2: of healing. I want to believe. Help my unbelief. I
Speaker 2: want to believe, but I feel unworthy. I want to believe,
Speaker 2: but I have my doubts. God has a grace that
Speaker 2: is greater than every doubt, and all he requires is
Speaker 2: the next step in the light that you do have.
Speaker 2: I believe there are many here today who need to
Speaker 2: receive the gift of salvation, but you can't receive it
Speaker 2: uppear You can't receive it with these and you can't
Speaker 2: receive it with your own effort.
Speaker 1: It is by grace you are saved through faith. I
Speaker 1: know you have your doubts.
Speaker 2: When Peter walked towards Jesus on the water, he had faith,
Speaker 2: but it flipped so quick. The next thing you know,
Speaker 2: he was sinking, and Jesus asked him a question, why
Speaker 2: did you doubt?
Speaker 1: And when he asked him that question, he didn't push
Speaker 1: him back under the water to teach him a lesson.
Speaker 2: He reached out his hand to bring him back to
Speaker 2: the boat and to show him who he was all along.
Speaker 2: So this message is for the doubters. We often sing
Speaker 2: it Christmas, Oh come all ye faithful. Today the invitation is,
Speaker 2: come all ye doubtful, with questions and dysfunctions and conflicts,
Speaker 2: to place your faith in the God who is the Great.
Speaker 1: I am with you. Bow your head and close your eyes.
Speaker 1: At every location.
Speaker 2: I want to pray a prayer right now for those
Speaker 2: who want to come into a relationship with Christ. Receive
Speaker 2: forgiveness by faith because of his finished work on the cross,
Speaker 2: and live a new life in his name, because of
Speaker 2: his resurrection from the dead, and make a decision of
Speaker 2: faith today to put your hope in him.
Speaker 1: We're going to pray a prayer right now out loud.
Speaker 2: Our whole church family will pray it for the benefit
Speaker 2: of those who are coming to God for the first
Speaker 2: time or are coming back to God. And if this
Speaker 2: is the prayer of your heart, God will hear you
Speaker 2: from heaven and will save you from your sin. Let's
Speaker 2: pray together right now, repeat after me, Heavenly Father. I
Speaker 2: believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and
Speaker 2: the Savior of the world. And today I make Jesus
Speaker 2: the Lord of my life. I believe he died for
Speaker 2: me to forgive my sin. I believe he rose again
Speaker 2: to give me life. I receive this new life. I
Speaker 2: will follow you from this stay forward. I received your grace.
Speaker 2: This is my new beginning. Had still bowed, eyes still closed.
Speaker 2: If you just prayed that prayer, shoot your hand up
Speaker 2: in the air on the count of three, one two three,
Speaker 2: no hesitation.
Speaker 1: All over this room and all of our campuses.
Speaker 2: God, bless you, God, bless you, God, bless you.
Speaker 1: What a wonderful thing. Come on, I think we can
Speaker 1: celebrate better than that. What a wonderful thing to witness
Speaker 1: souls being reborn.
Speaker 2: Come on, Church, can we celebrate the goodness of God.
Speaker 2: I think we ought to sing with the angels a
Speaker 2: little while. If the angels in heaven rejoiced when one
Speaker 2: senter repents, let the people of God proclaim Christ is
Speaker 2: born this day in your mind, in your mind.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.