From Yesterday's Message

I love my church! Yesterday was awesome! George Guthrie, one of the pastors, gave a wonderful message about doubt. The current series we are in is called Grappling with God about Personal Crises in Life. It is a trek through the book of Jeremiah. I won't go into all the detail stuff, but I did want to share the main points of the message.



Jeremiah was out there proclaiming God's Word. He got hassled for it bigtime. That was depressing to him and He was always wanting God to do something about the injustice of it all. I mean, who doesn't want to be liked? Jeremiah's efforts just were not appreciated by the people because he kept telling them how wrong they were. At times, Jeremiah doubted if God cared about him, or about how his enemies were getting away with everything.



We have to keep in mind a few truths:

We live in a fallen world

Satan is the father of lies

We live in a now and not yet reality

. Now is not what a Christian should live for, but for the day in which God will make all things new and all things right. That day has not yet come, but it will. That is God's Promise and our hope.



George also explained a few things about how to fight that occasional doubt that might surface. This is taken from Jeremiah 17:12-18

• Begin with right thinking about God We start moving away from God the moment we start doubting.
  
  
  
  
  
  • God rules
    
    
  • He is our Hope!
    
    
  • He is our source of resources. When we think it can't be done, God will make a way.
    
    
  
  
  

• Bring Your Urgent Requests to God George pointed out that "if you fear God, you fear nothing else, but if you do not fear God you fear everything else." What does fear bring?
  
  
  
  
  
  • brokeness
    
    
  • disappointment
    
    
  • shame
    
    
  • injustice
    
    
  
  
  

• Bank on God's Grace and Character (like Jeremiah did)
  
  
  
  
  
  • His persistance in obediance
    
    
  • His resistance to wrath
    
    
  • His assistance through His Word
    
    
  
  
  

Here were some helpful tips from George as well, to help us with the lessons learned from Jeremiah:

avoid sin and have an accountablity system

be in the Word

fellowship with other believers

stay with Jesus!



Something else that has stuck with me from George's message was an interesting visual he told us about. He told us about what another man in our church shared with him at lunch one day recently. Tom used to ride his bike all around Jackson. This was during a time where there were no air conditioners in houses and no tv. Tom told him that back then the Cardinals were a very big thing and that when a cardinal's game was on the radio, everyone was tuned in. Tom shared with George the fact that as he rode his bike around town, he could listen to the entire game with almost no interruption, just from all the radios people had turned on in their homes. George compared that to our relationship with God and how doubt can be that interruption. I thought that was a neat analogy!



We can go along in life and see God and hear God in everything that we do, but the minute we start that doubting, our relationship with Him will suffer. This isn't just the occasional doubt we are talking about, this is serious, debilitating doubt. Wow! It was an awesome day of worship! I LOVE MY CHURCH!



George was used by God in many ways yesterday. His prayer was for people struggling with doubt, and I could feel the Spirit moving there. Hearts were pricked by God yesterday. Some had doubts removed. God is Amazing!