God is Greater than My Doubts
I want to share about 2 men—David and Asaph—good friends—whose lives were falling apart. Some of you are free-falling through life with no parachute and you feel like David. On the other hand, some of you are struggling with more intellectual issues—like his friend, Asaph.
TRANSCRIPT:
Thank you. I'd like for you to take your Bibles and turn to the Book of Psalms this morning. I want to begin here with a couple of Psalms. We'll look at Psalm 10:73. We'll examine here in just a moment. While you're turning, an announcement or two. I want to encourage you again to check out our website on PreachitTeachit.org. We're trying every week to put some things on there you might find really helpful. Dr Chet Weld and I st down and have taped a number of conversations between our pastoral counsel and myself. You can get the podcast on that and deal with a lot of personal issues. He's a brilliant man. We've had a lot of fun doing those so I hope you'll take advantage of that. We've had over 15,000 hits in the last six weeks. A lot of you have asked me questions on the Ask Roger column and I've enjoyed that you can make comments back and discuss things with me and welcome that the questions this week deal with cremation. What's the Bible says about cremation and the other one question I'd never received before was is Christ Jesus' last name. Not that was an interesting question so those are a couple this week and some more coming up right after that and finally, you might enjoy what we're calling the Shepherd's Journey. A lot of you have asked for years for Julie just to sit down and make a recording playing on the piano so we did one of Psalms and I'm reading some Psalms and she's playing behind that underlaying that you might find just relaxing and helpful and quiet in your mediation time. It's also probably something good to go to sleep with in the evening so again you might find that helpful and I hope you'll make available of that.
Now we've been doing a little series five weeks called Greater Than and they're all from the Psalms and this morning want us to talk about the God is greater than our doubts. And I'd like to compare and maybe contrast a little bit two Bible characters. They were both very good friends, David and Asaph. David wrote a lot of Psalms. Asaph wrote 10 and they both had their complaints. They were upset with God and they shared their struggles and then they reached the same conclusion and I think you'll find this helpful this morning and hopefully very applicable to your life. There was a point in both their lives when it seemed like everything was spinning out of control, like just falling with nowhere to be caught. No safety coming reminds me about the new movie Get Smart. How many of you have seen the new movie Get Smart. Isn't that a great movie. Even if you never saw the old TV show, you'll enjoy it because it's a new sort of put together. A movie about a fight between Control and Chaos and I want to show you a little clip now. This is not pirated, there's a website that the movies want to put their trailers on so you can share them if you want so this is a little trailer from Get Smart. I'll describe it to you in a little bit. They're on the airplane and Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, has bumbled himself, shooting himself with arrows in the bathroom in the airplane and then ejects himself out of the plane with no parachute and thank God there's Agent 99 because 99 comes to hi rescue. He's freefalling, spinning out of control. She comes to him, he says "Where you been?" and she says as she watches the control agent jump out of the plane and come down to fight them "I'll be right back". Well he's left totally spinning out of control so maybe you felt occasionally something like this. Well the parachute came out and they made it okay. David felt like that in a lot of the Psalms. You may have felt like that. I mean, aren't three times we've all had when it's like everything's falling apart. You ever had that feeling. Sure you have and there's no one to rescue you and you don't know how it's going to come out.
David, often times in his Psalms, exhibits what it's like to be falling out of control. I want to show you there in Psalm 10, here's one of his complaints. Why, oh Lord, do You stand far off. Why do You hide Yourself in times of troubles. And he's in the midst of tremendous physical duress as his enemies are out to get him and where are you God. That's what he's asking here. Where are you, why aren't you here with me. Haven't we all, of course, had moments where are you God. Where are you. Some of us have lost our jobs there will in the recession God. Where are you. It's like he's abandoned you. Where are going. Some of you are dealing with childhood issues. Are you own children? It's like life's falling apart and you're going to identify with David in this because see David worked through his issues and he ran to a great conclusion.
Here's his complaint - Where are you when I need you. And remember God's greater than our doubts. He's doubting God's care for him. On the other hand, some of you are like his friend Asaph. You're going through more intellectually driven issues like look now. Psalm 73, verse number 1. He gives to us his complaint. It's and intellectual one. He writes Surely God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure. Now that's your premise. God takes care of the good people But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone. This is called spiritual sickness. I nearly lost my foothold. Why I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Now Asaph has been taught that God takes care of the pure in heart that God watches after his children but that doesn't seem to coincide with his experience and it's throwing him off a little bit. See, he's living for God and he's not as well of as the folks out there who aren't living for God. And this is not how life's supposed to work and you know what that feels like. You trust God and you look at your neighbor who's doing yard work on Sunday morning or at the soccer games or going on a picnic on Sunday, who doesn't give God the time of day and you look over there and go, he's better off than I am. This is not how it's supposed to work. There ought to be some payoff for following God. He's got a new house and your roof's caving in. You know you're looking over there and he's bought his children seven or eight pairs of shoes and you're struggling just to buy your kids one pair of shoes. He's got a nice job, you just lost yours and you're so does it pay to be a Christian. See, why bother. I might as well not follow you and longer cuz they're doing better than I am.
See, that's his complaint. My life isn't working out the way you said it would now. God never said it would work this way but a lot of us think that when I become a Christian, God's supposed to take care of me and all my problems. And his complaint, I guess it's just not worth it to follow you after all. It's not worth it.
Now Asaph and David were friends. Asaph wrote 10-11 Psalms, David wrote maybe 75. Asaph was a leader. They were friends but Asaph over here and we got David over there and I thought a lot about their different responses. Now you're going to see this morning, some of us are going to be like Asaph, some of us are going to be like David. And we get to the same conclusion, we just get there in different ways. And it's a little harder I think for some of us than others, for example, I've heard a lot of comments and research about how the brain is in two parts. And there's the left side and the right side. The left side controls the right side of the body and vice versa. And why God put it all together this way, I know he knows best. Not sure we can ever figure this out but you know that most of our words come from our left hand side. In fact the only words they can find in the right hand side are curse words. This is very rational. Okay, it's very ordered. It's very logical. It really focuses a lot on details. Okay which is very different from the other side of the brain. This is very abstract things tend to come into it randomly. It tends to think in pictures. It's very sympathetic in its feelings. See they're very different and of course you know that there's set a neurons between the two called the corpus callosum which enables them to talk back and forth but they're very different brains. Which one's better, I'm not sure. You could really answer that question because both are significant. Both are important. See with Asaph, he's got a problem and how does he handle, well, you read his 10th Psalm and he's very rational. He's very ordered. He's very logical.
he goes to all the
details you read David's Psalms and they're kind of abstract he
thinks in random he's drawing pictures they both got problems and Asaf tries to analyze his
and David just makes a big jump he looks at the big picture but they both end up in the same place when you got problems you need to
run to God one gets there a lot quicker than the other now in our family Roger is a lot more like
ASF Julie is a lot more like David when I've got a problem I analyze it I structuralize it I try to figure it
out I rationalize it I try to figure out what's going on here and Julie goes stop it just believe in God and I go well
it's just not that easy for me well it ought to be she says if you have more faith could it be that I'm just
different and that I'm made differently and that you're made differently this is just one little tiny section see most
Engineers live over here because you know that's what they have to be you couldn't be a good engineer if you didn't have a lot of this work into your into your work um
some folks go both ways like Gabe who just LED worship he's over here on the more musical right side but he's also an engineer and
and the whole point of that is this aren't we all made differently yes this is just one dimension of how we're made differently
didn't God put us all together like he wants us yes could you imagine that if I
were more like Julie I wouldn't be Roger wouldn't that be true wouldn't be the leader wouldn't be the
husband wouldn't be the Thinker the worrier I am can you imagine if Julie were more like me she wouldn't be
Julie if Julie were left with my left brain thinking she would never be the musician she is because most of the music comes out of this side and the
rhythms come out of her side does that make sense we come at this from different perspectives the key
is that we get to the right place now here's how David did it David's struggling with his
problem and he sees the big picture and he immediately turns straight for God his faith
flourished Asaph struggled with his problem he got stuck in all the details
he had to figure everything out and by the time he figured everything out he'd almost lost his faith now some of you
will identify with that Julie says just believe and I go it's just not that easy why don't we reason things out she says
well I don't want to do that well I just go right to God see we're just a little different Asaph was struggling because
life wasn't working out the way it was supposed to it's not good that the evil people get along better than the good people notice there in verse 12 Psalm
73:2 here's his struggle verse 12 here's what the wicked are like now they're really not like this way but when you
get to thinking screwy you'll think things like this uh when you get jealous here's what the wicked are like they're
always Carefree they're the ones increasing in wealth verse 13 so why should I bother surely in vain in emptiness have
I kept my heart pure in vain I have washed my hands in innocence you ever felt that way see why
why should I bother with Christ those unbelievers better off than I
am why would a loving God send anybody to hell now some of us will struggle to find an answer to
that why should we think that Christianity is the only way to God the
Father why does God allow suffering in the world see David was under great
duress his struggles because people were trying to kill him now some of you have been through
that and he couldn't find God in this where are you why have you deserted me and when you read David's Psalms you
discover they're very different Asaf was struggling with an intellectual issue couldn't figure out how things should work when they're not working the way he thinks it's about to blow his faith away
David on the other hand was struggling with intense persecutions remember think about this read the Psalms how many of
them begin with words like this a Psalm of David when he ran from doag after being betrayed a Psalm of David when he
was on the run from so from King Saul a Psalm of David when he feigned Insanity before the king of the Philistines who was
trying to kill him a Psalm of David when he was being put on the Run by his son absam in Rebellion think about it he's
18 years old he's killed Goliath and King Saul picks up a spear and tries to run it through him CU Saul's jealous of
him and for the next 12 years David's on the run like a partridge being hunted and a
whole slew of his Psalms come during those days oh God where are you you're letting that Wicked guy
flourish and think about this when he was 78 his own son Absalom has driven him out of the kingdom and
David's on the other side of the kedin valley trying to run away real quick before absent soldiers can kill him and he looks back and absam has got all of his wives and concubines up on top of
the of the house over there and he's committing adultery with David's own women listen we think about him sitting
back strumming on the harp we forget that over his lifetime he lost he lost at one point his
kingdom he lost his wives he lost his
children he lost his health he lost his integrity and he knows what it's like to
be under physical pressures of people out to kill you who's after you that's a fair
question to ask you know you know who's your Goliath and it could literally be somebody at work who's betraying you
know what I mean it could be loss of health and what are you struggling with as you struggle with and you're wondering where God is
uh how about the c-word cancer some of you heard the doc say you got cancer could that be a big Goliath
or what you know you die of a heart attack it's kind of clean you die of cancer you know you just don't want to
die that way do you it's really messy so I'm with the doctor a few weeks
ago time for a checkup he's got that little camera inside my bladder and the TV screen over there and he's showing me
all the different parts of my bladder and it was so interesting here's this part and it's okay and this part works here and that's okay and he swings the camera and goes that looks good and he
swings the camera and here's what he says next what in the world is that that's what he says then he says this
that's not supposed to be there now what do you think I'm feeling so he says sit real still
I'm going to cut that out of there well you know you don't feel any of this at the cuts at least he cuts the deal out it's a little piece of skin he says now
listen I got to tell you when these are in your bladder 99% of the time it's cancer but don't worry
about it says it's kind of a low-level cancer well you know that just didn't
help so I've got seven days while I grow the culture any of you been through that waiting for the results and you know what I didn't handle that very well
I'm on the internet looking at this angle and figuring this out and why is it going to happen and what if this and what if that looking at all little details and Julie's just Roger just
trust God he's got a plan it's all going to be fine well I'm going to God here but but I'm still struggling with all these
issues and it was good results um the radiologist his report and I quote said to the doc I've only seen two of these
in the last 10 years and both of them were benign it was supposed to be cancer well isn't that nice okay that was
good but the point is how I handled that see it was hard for me to get the big picture and just go it's okay God's in
control now David could do that but Roger is a little more like
ASF see David's conclusion when life is slipping away and Goliath Rises up to his full 10 ft height you just run
straight to God that's uh look back in Psalm chapter 10 verse 16 it's a great statement of faith here's his conclusion
he goes through all the struggles here's his conclusion verse 16 you're king forever you hear the desire of The Afflicted you encourage them you listen
to their cry you defend the fatherless and the oppressed God you're going to work this baby out it's going to be
fine you read David's Psalms and you realize there's a friendship between the two that you really don't see with Asa so
much see David and God were friends they had a deep relationship you might say Ahab excuse
me ahab had religion and he was moving through his religion to find a relationship but they both came to the
same conclusion see Asaf reached the conclusion okay when life is slipping away when the world doesn't make any
sense I'm going to stop trying to figure everything out and I'm still going to run to almighty God look back in Psalm
73 verse 17 and then I went to church and I understood their final
Destiny I thought these guys were doing good but they're really not now some of you have been in church and God started
speaking to you isn't that true and Roger's up here preaching or Glenn's up here preaching or Jack's up here preaching and all of a sudden you don't
hear a word he's saying CU you and God are talking over some stuff that ever happened to you in this place sure it has
okay what caused you to leave out of the sermon you should have been listening to me but that's okay if God wants to talk to you he's probably a lot more important than I am but you know what I
mean sitting here he begins to speak but maybe not here you could be talking with a friend over coffee and all of a sudden things begin
to make sense you can be in your own bedroom praying and all of a sudden things make sense and see he and God have been struggling through this issue and all of a sudden when he got in God's
presence in church everything made sense and he says surely you've put them on slippery ground he starts out he's
slipping but now he realizes they're the ones who are slipping for you will cast them down to ruin how suddenly they are
destroyed completely Swept Away by their Terrors he he got to
God and he reasoned things out here's what he's reasoning I was a teaching children's church when I was very young
had about 300 kids in in the children's church and we're working through the story of rich man and Lazarus so I tell all the children there was a rich man
and there was a beggar and the rich man had steak and potatoes and the beggar sat at the bottom of the table saying please can I just have a crumb and the rich man didn't give him the time of day
how many of you would rather be the rich man and all the little hands went up how many of you rather be the beggar not a single hand goes up so I tell them more
of the story and there came a day when the rich man died and went to hell and the beggar died and went to heaven
and the rich man is burning in hell and he says oh God if I could have a drink just a drop just the tip of the finger
drop how many of you kids want to be the rich man now not a hand goes up how many want to be the beggar man all the hands
go up see this is Asap reasoning through and then God opens up the veil to let
him see things from his perspective and there comes this beautiful statement look in
verse 23 I'll just simply read this to you he writes yet I'm always with you he and God weren't very close at the
beginning of this Psalm were they he was angry and bitter and envious but now I'm always with you hold me by my right
hand remember when your children were little babies if You' had children and they're in the crib and all of a sudden they cry out not quite awake yet but you
know they're about to wake up and you slide into the room you leave the lights off and you just take their little right hand and hold it and all of us sudden
everything quiets down God you're holding me by the right
hand verse 24 so you guide me with your counsel and afterward you'll take me to Glory they don't get to go Glory but I
will and then this beautiful statement whom have I in heaven but you and Earth has nothing my desire besides
you and he's to God different Roots same result but now think of this for a moment Julie and I
were chatting about this week um could there be a difference between how you handle things when you're under great stress and when you're
not see David was under tremendous stress and I got a hunch he didn't have time to sit around and figure all this
stuff out he was just trying to put bread on the table he was just trying to survive till the next morning he was running like a partridge
and even was King he was under great tremendous stress and you know I don't have time to sit down and reflect on how the world works man I'm just trying to
stay alive God help me Asaph was different he was a worship leader and those worship leader guys got all time
to sit around just think about stuff see and so he's struggling with all these issues and I wonder sometimes if
what's going on in our lives can matter a lot as to how soon for example so jul and I are in Turkey
talking with a an Armenian guy who had been a missionary from Christian Armenia into
Iran and uh we've become friends enough now in the last four or five years that he's he's really opening up to
us and here's what he shared he'd had numerous persecutions but finally he opened up his heart and
shared he said I was in with the secret police and they were trying to get me to tell them the names of the other
Christians it's pretty secret and they began to torture him some and he described the tortures and here's what they he wouldn't tell and
here's what they did he's sitting in the room tied in a chair they open the curtains and he looks into the Next Room oneway mirror
and there's his wife with some Iranian men and the interrogator
says okay either give us their names or we're going to rape your
wife and he didn't and so they did now can you imagine what it would be
like to go through that watch your wife being raped when you could break down but so he shared this some of the
deepest hurts in his heart and I said to him wow I would guess you've had a hard time
forgiving them I would bet that you know you've got to deal with a lot of issues and heal a lot of hurts here before you can really forgive him and he looked at
me like I was crazy he said no I just forgive
him he said I don't have time to worry through all that kind of stuff Jesus said forgive them I just have to forgive
him if I were to sit around worry about this stuff all the time I could never be over here doing God's work I'd just flat out forgive him and go on and you know I
thought to myself Bo he lives in a different place than I do see we get hurt by somebody well will
I forgive them will I no oh blah blah blah you know we have too much time in our hands sometimes it's okay I don't have
time to fill with that sure I forgive him life's got to go on let's get on with this thing and that was David
reminds me of the uh of the man with two sons son one and Son Two who never went to church couldn't care less about
spiritual things Godly things so the pastor and a lot of the friends had spent time trying to help this man uh and his children you know find spiritual
things find life in Christ and they were totally not interested until son number one was bitten by a rattlesnake they rushed him to the hospital the anism
wasn't working well legs swelling a you know five times normal or whatever Poison's coursing they're worried about
him surviving so who do they call the pastor we got to get God in here so the pastor comes would you pray for our son
he said You Bet Your Life dear God he prayed and in your Infinite Wisdom thank you for sending that rattlesnake to bite son number
one use this time to draw him back for you and by the way God would you send a rattlesnake to son number two and a great big rattlesnake to bite This Old
Man you know when you're laying on the gurney with the rattlesnake bite
sometimes you'll just run straight to God that's David they say I've had a little more
time could this remind you of doubting Thomas and the Apostle the disciple John see we tend to get mad at Thomas
where's your faith well unless I see the nail prints and the spear hole I won't believe where's your faith and remember
what Jesus said to Thomas when he appeared come on Thomas you know better than that I told you all these months about the resurrection and all get it
together boy no because that's not how Jesus treats the Thomases he says look here's my
hands here's my side and Thomas was able to believe John he never faltered in his
faith he and Jesus were very close friends and Jesus said follow me and John went straight to the Cross he's only the only disciple at the cross
now who's better John or Thomas that's not the right question God will meet us John's or
Thomas at the point of our struggles and the key is that we get to the right
place so let's be honest just for fun how many of you are more like ASA and David go ahead and raise your hands it's
all right look at around look around the room see we will take to look at these kind of people and say why don't you have more faith and they might say back
to you well I'm working on it see just a little harder for me how many of you would say I'm more like David you
know you know for my little look here I'd say it's about half and half and wouldn't you expect that maybe the key is that you get
there so a couple of thoughts number one all of us have unique spiritual Faith
Journeys we're all going to come at it in different ways and it's okay to
struggle that's how you're put together that's how God Made You I wish to goodness I was more like Julie sometimes but then I go I
don't want to be that way there's things I'd like to struggle fear meets my own conclusions it's okay number two both
Asaph and David found a relationship in the almighty see they both came to their conclusions and found peace in the depths of their relationship that's why
you read these things whom have I in heaven but you if I got you I desire nothing on Earth you're the one that takes me to Glory you're the one he talking about his relationship remember
there's always a difference between religion and relationships religion is all the stuff you
do you think you have to do to be right with God relationship is just something you live out let me illustrate I'm going to use a word that's used often in
church hell that's a good word you can say in church but I'm going to use it in a way that's kind of not like you usually hear in church because I want to
quote for you word to word what William coffee said coffin said he was a chaplain at Yale when his boy was killed in an
accident and at the funeral he's sitting there and the preacher making this feeble attempt to make it all Justified and everybody feel good by saying of
course we all know it was God's will for this boy to die in the accident and William coffin stood up and
interrupted and with a lot of emotion said like hell it was
God was the first one crying when the accident happened now you know God sometimes
allows accidents he's but it's a fallen world and William coffin had such a close relationship he wasn't angry at God wasn't matter he knew his God was
crying and weeping and isn't that the god of the Bible Who Weeps over hurt and pain and sin that was the relationship
and because William coffin had that kind of relation how do you get that relationship thought about it spent a lot of time in the Bible read psalms you get to know
his heart read the gospels you get to see Jesus read Galatians Ephesians Philippians and Colossians when Paul
talks about the intimacy that comes in the glory of Christ watch his hand at
work you get to know his heart and finally a third thought final thought it's possible to keep walking
with God even when sorting out angers and doubts is that true You Bet Your Life see that's Mother Teresa bless her
heart oh my what a wonderful woman ministering to the poor and the down and out throughout the whole world she was in Haiti at one of the most horrendous
slums in the world and she was ask how do you explain this how do you explain that a loving God would ever let this happen how do you
explain that God could ever allow such suffering and pain and Mother Teresa replied
replied well when I see him God's got a lot of explaining to do now that's an interesting perspective
in it Philippians 2 verse2 it's a good
thought to chew on as we go into communion Paul writes therefore dear friends as you've always obeyed not only
my presence but now I'm gone in my absence continue to work out your salvation ation with fear and trembling that doesn't mean you've got to receive
Christ to work on that once you've given your heart to Christ you are a Christian he lives within but you see you still got issues you got to work out still got to figure things out still got to work
through issues it's part of maturity it's part of growing to be like Christ work out your salvation it's
okay for it's God who works in you to Will and to act according to his good purpose when you watch God's hand and have a relationship you watch his hand
you begin to realize no matter what's coming at us God has a purpose the purpose is what to make us look like Christ the purpose is to draw us closer
to his heart the purpose is to allow us to move into intimacy with it whom have I in heaven but you Earth has nothing I desire but you
you're the one who sits on the throne David says you're the one who hears the hurting because see he's even greater
than our doubts isn't he it's okay to struggle it's okay to make a lead deep
of Faith just get there because that's where life
is well that's what communion is about Jesus Christ and the life that he gives and the problems that he solves
and the support that he pours in and the world that he's changing so let's bow our heads just for a moment I want us to pray very simply
God will bless the next few moments the meaning and significance as we share together
work of Jesus Christ father we pray with grateful hearts for the work of
Jesus for all that he means to us and to the world father I thank you that you allow
us to come to you by faith that you're patient with us you allow us to struggle through issues Lord the disciples
struggled through and it was okay and father as we come to these moments of our Declaration of faith in
Jesus I ask again you forgive our sins thank you for the work of Christ on the cross I pray you'd make these very
special moments to us in Jesus name amen
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