Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Face the Giant, Part 1: Dealing with Doubt

Episode Date: March 17, 2019

Whether you’re staring down anxiety, pain, guilt, failure, or anything else that feels too big to battle on your own, you can find the courage to Face the Giant in your own life. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God is doing at Church online. If you ever have any questions, or you want to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.church. We'd love for you to stay connected throughout your weekend, everywhere you go with the Life Church app. It's free and available wherever you download your apps from. With that said, let's go to this week's message.

Hey, Life Search, it's great to have you with us today at all of our different locations. you are in for an amazing treat. I love to introduce our church to powerful voices that really can impact your life. That way you can follow them on social media. You can listen to their podcast. You can grow spiritually. Today, I want to introduce you to one of my favorite communicators,

a great friend. He is from Houston, Texas. He has a four-year-old church. Honestly, it's one of the fastest growing churches in the nation. You're about to see why. The brother has five kids, one wife, one amazing church with four campuses. It's my honor today to welcome my very good friend soon to be yours, Pastor Jeremy Foster. Come on, let's give it up for Jesus right now.

Every campus, come on, let him hear you. What an honor to be with each and every one of you guys. And man, what a blessing to be here at the renowned life church with Pastor Craig and Amy Grichelle. and I got to tell you, when I first received the invitation to come here, it freaked me out. Just because I've looked to Pastor Craig for so long, listened to him, learned from him, been in the room with him once, not certain I handled myself super well, because I was a little like, hey, hi, it's Pastor Craig, he's so big, he's muscles. That's the true story.

I love you, man. What an honor to be here. And not only is he a phenomenal pastor, but really he and Amy have done something so phenomenal for the church at large all around the world. There are people that learn from your pastor. And thank you. Thank you. If nobody said this, I'm certainly have.

But thank you for sharing the gift that your pastors are. Thank you for sharing them with the world. It is a humongous blessing for us. And we just appreciate you guys. What a blessing. And I got to tell you, like, honestly, I wanted, like, I didn't know this was ever going to happen. I never dreamed this would happen. and so this is not one of those things like I always knew one of these days I would preach at Life Church

that's not true like when I got the phone call I told my wife I was like this is weird and I was like because Pastor Craig is awesome and and he's so buff and such and I was like I'm not like I needed six months to prepare and do P90X or whatever to get ready so I was like I'm just going to put on the manliest outfit that I have and my wife was like you look like the brawny paper towel guy, go kill it. So the real preacher will be back in a couple of weeks, and we'll have a blast. I'm excited to be here, and we're going to jump in to the word right now, Matthew Chapter 11, verse 2, and I believe that this weekend,

I believe that I have something that God is going to use to challenge you, to change you, to speak to you, and we're going to face some giants this weekend. Is that okay? Are you guys ready to face some giants? I'm ready. Matthew chapter 11, verse 2, John the Baptist, who was in priest, and heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So that's a coordinating conjunction, means what he's getting ready to do

is based on what just happened. So he heard about everything that Jesus was doing and it caused him to question. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the Messiah we've been expecting or should we keep looking for someone else? Isn't it weird when Jesus' actions calls you to doubt his authenticity?

When Jesus zigs and you zag, and you're kind of left out there hanging out to dry Here's the theology and the exegetical research of what was happening in this moment. What was happening in this moment is unmet expectations. John the Baptist somehow probably believed that when Jesus came in, he was going to overthrow the Roman Empire, set the Jewish people up to their rightful place of rule, dust his hands off, and it was going to be an awesome day. The Messiah was going to ride in and just crush it, and he didn't.

He came in and he was healing the sick, and he came with a man. message of love and it was not what John expected. So it caused John to face this massive giant of doubt because it didn't work out the way he wanted it to work out. You ever had something like that happened? Like you thought it was going to work out one way? It didn't work out the way you, like you recommended a restaurant and you like the tacos are amazing. You're like, you should go eat them. And then you go there with somebody and like you're chewing through the chicken. You're like, so good. And it's not. I live in Houston, Texas, and I come from a family. I come from a family. of Cowboys, and I thank God that God called me to Houston that I'm able to pastor in a massive

international city, but it's also a cowboy town, and I rode Bulls and Saddle Bronx horses in high school, so I love the rodeo, and we have the world's largest indoor rodeo in Houston, Texas. It's called the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and you can see the world's greatest cowboys and cowgirls compete. At the same time, you can also see some of the world's greatest artists, singers. It's 21 nights long, and so this year, they have, they have, they have Drake and they have George Strait. So you can see, like anybody. Like you can see anybody there, Cardi B and Tim McGrath.

So you can see anybody. So the tickets are $19, but those are the cheap seats. They're all the way in the top. The most expensive seats are the shoot seats. They're right behind the Bucking Shoots, and they can go for $3,000. Okay? So that's not how I roll. I just, I buy the $19 tickets and then I just sit wherever I want to

because the Lord said I could have where I go, and I'm like, I'm going right here, and I'm going to have this. And so a few years ago on this particular night, we got in, and the shoot seats, the reason they're so expensive is because, like, right before the artist comes out, they take six rows of those people out, and they sit them right on the arena floor, right in front of the stage. And if you know that's going to happen, you can line yourself up and prepare yourself to walk into a blessing that has been done. vacated. Now, it takes a little bit so you pay $19 and get the $3,000 seat. That ain't bad. That's faith in action. And so I'm standing there at the front, at the front of the aisle, and I kind of had to elbow my way in. I'm like, elbow, I'm like, I'm a pastor. And I kind of got in there. This guy's like, where do you pastor? I'm like, life church. That's, it's like, I'm playing. I didn't, I didn't, I can't believe I'm here. Um, might not be back next weekend, guys. It's going to be great.

So we got, so Jennifer and I, we got front, we got on the front row. We're in, like right there behind the bucket shoots. And that weekend, a worship leader by the name of Keith Urban, he was leading worship that weekend. Some of you guys know, my brother Keith, there's a new wind blowing like I've never known. You know that, that was just for my wife who's watching, I love you. Trying to score points with the online community, namely you girl. So we got on the front row and Keith comes out, you know. and he comes out, he's flipping his little Australian hair, you know, his little hairless arms,

he's playing the guitar, and he jumps off the stage, and he goes the other way, and I'm like, Holy Spirit, help him to come this way, and he hears the Holy Spirit, and he starts coming towards, I don't know if you heard of the Holy Spirit, but he started coming towards us, and he got over, and he got right, he got right on the shoots right in front of us, and he climbed up, and I actually have a picture. Y'all want to see my picture, I have a picture, show him my picture. This is, Keith, all of our location you see, this is Keith, and then Keith hands his microphone to his security guard, and he comes over the shoes, but he doesn't come towards my wife. He comes towards your boy, all right?

And at this point, my wife loses her mind. She's like, Keith, oh my God, Keith, oh my God. I'm like, that ain't my name. He wanted, he should have put a ring on it, girl. So he starts coming towards me, and she, like, hands me, she hands me her phone. She's like, get a video, and I got a video, and I brought my video to Life Charge. Y'all want to see my video? All right, roll my video, Keith Urban.

That's it. That's my video. And when she saw it, she was like, can I see the video? I was like, here, she was like, you're a moron. I was like, I don't know what happened. She's like, I do. Right when he came in front of your face, you were like, Keith, oh my God, Keith. And you couldn't. It just didn't, it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to turn out. Now, that's a ridiculous story about unmet expectations. Like, I wanted it to be awesome. Like, I kind of wanted Keith to walk over and us to have a secret handshake, you know, and I wasn't going to freak out about his music or about him. I was going to be like, you need a friend. I'll be there for you.

And then he got close. It's like, oh, my God. Security, move him away, you know. That's a ridiculous story of an experience that I had, of an unmet expectation, of something that I thought was going to turn out one way and didn't turn out. And really, it didn't hurt me at all. But when it happens in your life, it happens in your marriage, when it happens in your finances, when it happens in your career, and you thought it was going to go one way and it doesn't

go the way that you wanted it to go. What about when it happens in your faith? Like when you think God's going to come through on something and he doesn't come through the way that you wanted him to come through, what do you do then? How do you handle unmet expectations with Jesus? Here's what I want you to know. If you're taking notes, write this down. God doesn't always live up to your expectations, but he always lives up to his word. If he said, I'll be with you, he'll be with you. If he said, I'll never leave you. He'll never leave you. And that makes, the truth is, that makes really good preaching, but it makes really hard living. Because if he said I'll never leave you, what about when you feel like he has? I was raised in church, church. Anybody raised all of our locations?

Raise your hand. If you were raised in church, that's a lot of you guys here, some of you were not, we're going to test it right now. I'm going to find out what kind of church you were raised in. Listen, I want every location. Here's what I want you to do. I'm going to sing a song, and this is the song to test you. We're going to find out if you were raised in church because I was raised in gospel church, okay? We have four hours service. Your boy can take a two hour nap. Still get two good hours of word in when I was a kid. I've already reached my church quota, okay? We used to sing this song, all right? And if you know it, you're going to know it and you're going to sing it back all campuses. Some of you guys will do better than others, but you're going to sing it back. Okay,

you're ready? And even if you're watching online right now, you're watching online, just sing it with us. Okay? Here we go. All right. He's an on time God. seven people here at this location are, my hope is that other locations have a lot more saved people. I'm telling you the, the salvation's this weekend are going to be ridiculous. We're going to see multiple thousands saved. So thank you guys for helping me out. We would sing this, he's an on time God. And then the church will say, yes, he is.

Okay, y'all ready? That's your part. Yes, he is. Okay, he's an on time God. Yes, he is. I'm going to need you to draw it. Yes, he is. Okay, he's an on-time God.

Oh, that was beautiful, Life Church Choir, all campuses. Give yourselves a great big hand. Now, here's what I want you to understand, and here's the challenge. I believe that. But the problem is, whose time is he on? If he's an on-time God, he's not on my time. Because there's been moments that I thought he was going to come through that he didn't. And whenever I deal with unmet expectations, it creates this giant of doubt.

What do you do when you doubt? doubt God. What do you do when you're a pastor? And you have to admit, I've doubted God. Not like a long time ago, like a few months ago. Like doubted God. Some of you're like, why are you here preaching? But if you were honest with yourself and with God, you've doubted him too. You've doubted whether it was going to happen. You've declared in faith and wondered, where's he at? And if you've doubted God, then you're in good company. All you have to do is read the word of God. Look at Job. Job chapter 14 verse 19. Job is the greatest believer of his time. Whenever Satan is looking for someone to tempt, for someone to test, God says, have you considered my servant Job? Thanks, God. Thought we were boys,

you know? And we often talk, Pastor, we oftentimes talk about the faith of Job, how he said, though he slay me yet will I trust him yet will I praise him nobody reads Job 1419 as waters wear away the stones and as floods wash away the soil of the earth so you oh lord destroy the hope of man you're dismissed have a great week and nobody nobody takes that as a text but this is this is how Job felt like you destroy the hope of man then you you read about Jeremiah Jeremiah's powerhouse prophet of God but he felt completely forgotten. Jeremiah 15, 18, King James Version. He said, why is my pain perpetual

and my wound in Kirbel which refuseseth to be healed? It's the King James Version. You have to read it with an accent. And also I'm really scared to say what he said next. He said, will thou be all together unto me as a liar and as waters that fail? He's talking to God.

And he's saying, are you going to keep being a liar to me and as waters that fail? this is a prophet of God. He's got a couple of books in here. One of them's named Jeremiah. And yet it makes it into the Bible. You don't get greater than Elijah. Elijah's a powerhouse man of God when Elijah prays stuff happens.

Elijah prays that it's not going to rain and it doesn't rain for three years. That's powerhouse prayer. He's wanting to show the people of God, the power of God. and after three years, he says, listen, this false God that you've worshipped, these idols that you've worshipped, let's test and see, let's see if they can live up to the faith that you've placed in them. So he picks a fight with the prophets of bail and says, meet me on the mountain, you build an altar to your God, I'll build an altar to my God, you pray to your God, I'll pray to my God, and whichever God answers by fire, that's the one true God. Not a good way to solve office arguments, but this is Old Testament.

So they build this altar, they pray all day. If you don't believe the word of God has a sense of humor, just read this story. Because he starts bagging on him. He starts making fun of him. He says stuff like, hey, did you schedule it with your God? Maybe he's on vacation. That's rude, man. And then he goes deeper and he's like, hey, scream a little louder.

Maybe your God's asleep and he's a real heavy sleeper. I can't wait to meet Elijah. I'm going to be like, dude, you're a thug. That was super rude, but awesome. And then when they finally finished, They're like, we're done. He's like, is it my turn? They're like, yeah.

He's like, I can go now. Okay, I'm going to go now. You're good? He builds an altar. He puts the sacrifice on it. He digs a trench around the altar. Now, remember, it hasn't rained in three years. He pours water until he completely saturates the sacrifice the altar and fills the trench.

And then he prays a one paragraph prayer and fire falls from heaven and saturates not only the sacrifice, but destroys the altar and gets all of the water. And he turns and he looks at the prophets of bail and says, how you like me now. Wasn't exactly those words, but something like that. And then he turns to the king and he says, listen, you better run because it's getting

ready to rain. Has it rained in three years? He goes and he buries his face in the dirt and he prays until rain falls and then he runs so fast that he outruns the chariot of the king down the mountain. This is an anointed man of God. And then he gets a threatening letter from the queen.

and she says something like this, paraphrase. Dear Elijah, comma. Don't love what you did to my prophets, exclamation point. You killed them, sad face emoji. Not happy about it. Mad face emoji. Gonna kill you back. Gonna kill you till you're dead.

Sincerely the queen. Hashtag, you better run, sucker. Now, think about this. If you're this powerhouse prophet of God who's prayed down fire from heaven, prayed down, rain from heaven, how would you respond to this? Like, I'm like, dude, I want to go back to sleep, lady.

Calm down. Like, I'm so grateful that when I was a kid, I did not have the ability to pray down fire from heaven. I would have singed all kind of people in junior high school. But how does he respond? Look at it, First Kings chapter 19, verse 3. Elijah was afraid. and fled for his life. He went to Bersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there.

He's responding in absolute doubt. He has just seen God do something amazing, and now he's dealing with doubt. Verse four, then he went on alone, and that's the problem. He went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day, and that's the problem. That's why we encourage you at all of our locations, online church. Get in a group. You need to be in a group. You need to be around other people so that you don't go through a desert wilderness experience by yourself. In fact, being alone was the first thing that God said was not good. He created Adam and he looked at him and said, it's not good for man to be alone. And so he created Eve and all the men said, amen. I was weak. You had a chance to score points, boys, and you ruined it. Then he went on alone to the wilderness traveling all day. And notice,

I want you to notice what happens. He sits down under a solitary broom tree and he prayed that he might die. This is a man of God with the power of God who prays so powerfully, yet now we find him praying. Still, he's still talking to God, but the nature of his prayers have dramatically changed. He says, I've had enough, Lord, take my life for I'm no better than my ancestors. So now he's comparing himself. He's locked in the comparison trap, comparing himself to everybody else. He's no better than my ancestors who've already died. We don't know. We don't know. We don't often talk about the fact that the prophet of God was dealing with suicidal depression. But that's exactly what's happening here. Now, I studied it. I'm like, what changed? You know,

because this is a guy who's got swagger. He's walking in, just bearing his shoulders like, hey, it's not going to rain. It doesn't rain. Then he says, I'm going to pray down fire from heaven. It prays down fire from heaven. It rains. The only thing different between the previous threats that he had gotten and the current threat that he has is they come from, this one came from a woman. I kind of get that. Where's all the mom's at? Every location. Raise your hand if you're a mom.

Come on. Let's give the moms a great big hand. We love you guys. We love you. We honor you. Truth is, all of our locations. We're scared of you. That's the truth.

How many, like your dad, like when you were growing up, I don't know about y'all. How many y'all, this is a good question. For every, for every location. How many of you guys got spankans when you were kids? Raise your hand. You got spankans when you're kids. That's supposed to you got. So don't be mad.

You're in church. Hey, it worked, right? I never got a spanking in my life. Not one. Never got a spanking. I got a whooping. That's like a Texas-sized spanking. Like a spanking's like, ow, ow, I wish you wouldn't do that.

A whoopin's like, I can't feel my legs. You know, and you walk with a limp. Like my dad, like dad, you knew where dad stood, right? Dad was like, hey, quit that. Quit it now. And you're like, we better quit. Dad said quit. Or dad would just look at you and just throw you a look and you be like, dad just said stop.

Dad didn't say anything. Look at him. Oh, he said stop. Are we going to die? You knew where dad's like. line was. Mom, we don't know where your lines are. Like, you're like, we're talking one day, and I'm like, oh, whatever, mom. She's like, I know, whatever. The next day, I'm like, whatever, mom's like, bam, don't ever say whatever to me. I'm like, what just changed? Moms, moms can speak

full, completely understandable sentences to their children through clenched teeth. Nobody else knows what they're saying. You guys have a talent. It's like, you brought a homer. I tell you, you, my son, my hand, dear, my hat. You're standing there. You're standing there. You're next to your friend, like, what did she say? Like, she said, I'm going to die. You keep standing here. You're going to die too. We're going to die together.

I don't know what happened. I don't know why the threat was greater. Maybe it was because he was alone and not just from a lady. Maybe it was because he was alone and maybe it was because he was tired. Listen, you don't get more proof than John the Baptist had that Jesus is who he says he is. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. And the Bible says the Holy Spirit descends like a dove. And the voice of the father says,

this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Yet we find him in the text. Read it, Matthew chapter 11, verse 2, John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the Messiah we've been expecting? Should we keep looking for somebody else?

How do you get in that spot when you've seen God do great things? and now you're completely doubting whether he is who he says he is. One thing shifted from the baptism moment to where he's at now, and that's the fact that he's in prison. Something I want you to take note of because you'll see it all throughout your life. It's the second thing I want you to write down

if you're taking notes, a prison perspective will always cause you to doubt your destiny. Always. You can have a great moment of faith. You can believe that great things are going to happen in your life. Maybe it's even the power of positive thinking, but all of a sudden you get into a spot, to a rough time.

Maybe it's in your marriage. You thought it was going to turn out one way and it didn't turn out the way you thought it was going to turn out. Maybe it's just in your life and you say something like, I really thought that I'd be farther along than where I am right now and I look at other people and I don't see it happening in my life. Maybe somebody let you down at some point. Maybe you're at church for the first time in a long time

because somebody hurt you. Here's what I want to tell you, all of our campuses. Listen, on behalf of somebody who ever hurt you, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that happened to you. But I want to encourage you, don't judge Christ on what somebody who supposedly represented him did to you. He loves you, he cares for you, he's the God of second chances, he's a God who's reaching for you.

Maybe it's not, maybe it's not, maybe it's not God that you're having a challenge with. Maybe it's you. Maybe it's your repetitive sin habits that you. really keep trying to discipline yourself past and you keep struggling through stuff and you keep failing and you say something like, yeah, but God could never love somebody like me. Read this book and see the people that he loved through their pain, through their heartache, through their messups, through their mistakes, through their failure. And the third thing that I want you to write down is simply this.

Your faith is more important than your failure. Your faith is more important than your failure. God is more interested in your future than he is your failure. all you got to do is look at Simon Peter. Simon Peter could not get hired at Life Church. True story. He cursed all the time. He cut people's ears off.

He was violent. He said one thing and did something else. He was proud. But Jesus loves him. In fact, we're having a moment. And Simon Peter looks at Jesus and he's like, I'm always going to be with you, Jesus. I'm your ride or die.

When all these other guys leave, I'm going to be here. Jesus says Luke chapter 22, verse 31. He says, and the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. But I've prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you've returned to me, strengthen your brethren. This is a very strange non-religious prayer. Because if it's a religious prayer, what are we going to pray? I'm going to pray, I'm going to pray that you don't fail.

That you quit messing up and embarrassing the family of God. That's a real religious, pious prayer. But Jesus actually predicts his failure and says, not only you're going to fail, you're going to fail a whole bunch of times before the night's even over, but I'm going to love you through it. And when you've returned to me, strengthen your brethren. What does that mean? As many times as you mess up, he keeps making mercy because that's what he does. Every day, it's new. And he says, I've still got a place of leadership for you. This is a powerful moment. None more powerful than Mark chapter nine. The man brings his son to Jesus. He's already brought him to the disciples and asked the disciples to pray for him. They

prayed for him, nothing happened, unmet expectations. Now this man, because of somebody in the church, this man is dealing with doubt. So he brings his son to Jesus and says, can you heal my son? Notice, here's what Jesus says. Mark chapter 9, verse 23. Jesus said to him, if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the father of the child cries out super honestly with, can you imagine being in front of Jesus and praying this? Lord, I believe. There's also a lot of other stuff in there. I got a lot of unbelief. to you, Lord, just being honest with you, I know I'm standing right here in front of you. Believe, don't believe.

How does Jesus respond? Go to the back of the line, no soup for you. I mean, what does he do? Go get some more faith. Go get your group around you, pray yourself into more faith, and then you get back up here and don't you embarrass me again. No. Jesus heals his son. Now, this is big for us.

This is huge for us. Here's why. number four even when you doubt God still shows up even in the midst of doubt and fear and anxiety and depression and loneliness and I don't know what's going to happen God is still there

listen he never said it's going to be easy God never said life would be easy but he said I will be with you in the midst of pain in the midst of heartache in the midst of suffering in the midst of challenges I will be with you

he never promised you an easy life He never said, you won't have any problems when you give your life to Christ. Actually, he tells us it's going to be hard, but he's going to hold our hand every step of the way. It's an important truth to know that he is with you, even in your doubt, even in your fear, even in your pain. I'm preaching to somebody this weekend. I'm talking to somebody's heart. I would make a pretty strong, bold statement here. even when your faith is gone, Jesus can still show up. John chapter 20, verse 19.

This is after the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. They've heard that he's alive, but they haven't seen him yet, and they're scared to death, that what happened to Jesus is going to happen to them. So we find the disciples locked in a room, doors and windows closed and locked, scared to death, shaking in their boots, sandals, whatever. John 2019. Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors. Everybody say locked doors. Come on all locations. Locked doors. Because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. And suddenly Jesus was standing there

among them. And he says, peace be with you. What does this tell me? They're behind locked doors. They're scared to death. They're facing giants of doubt. They're facing giants of anxiety. And Jesus appears. Locked doors. Doesn't say he jiggled the handle and knocked three times and did the secret Jesus knock. He appeared. What does that mean? That means when you can't get out, he can always get in. No matter what you're facing, we serve a God who no door can stop him and no wall can keep him out.

He loves you. So if you're dealing with doubt, this ought to give you faith. But let me pump you up just a little bit more. Because verse 24 is where I feel like we find the sermon for this weekend. Verse 24. Now Thomas called the twin. He's one of the 12, but he wasn't with him when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, we've seen the Lord. Have you ever had that moment where you missed the party? Like Pastor Craig just crushed it on a weekend. Just he was amazing and people are like, ah, can't believe you missed it. Pastor Craig, ah, he was amazing. He like, he levitated. It was crazy. It was wild.

Like church was amazing. Like 17,000 people got saved. We started 3,800 more campuses. I don't even know how many guys have. Like 9 million or whatever. And you weren't there and you're like, I had to work. Sorry, I couldn't make it. Stop talking about.

This is what happens with Thomas. He gets so sick of hearing it that he puts a caveat on his faith. He says to them, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and I put my finger into the print of the nails, and I put my hand into his side, I will not believe. Uh-oh, kids, we have a problem.

now, because he's a disciple declaring, I will not believe unless Jesus does this, this, and this. Verse 26. And after eight days, his disciples were again inside. And Thomas was with him. And Jesus came, the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said, peace to you. Then he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands, and reach your hand here and put it in my side. And do not be unbelieving but believing and Thomas exclaims my Lord and my God. Here's what I love about this whole thing. He's already showed up for everybody else and now he's showing up just for one. So I can tell you this on this week in all of our locations. He's showing up just for one and you just got to trust. He knows where you are and he's come for you. And that's hard to trust. What do you do when you don't

have any faith. Well, we know that Thomas doesn't have any. So what did he do? He stayed around people who had faith. For eight full days, he stayed with the group. He didn't run off in the desert by himself. He didn't go off and try to do it alone. He didn't go off and try to figure it out by himself. He stayed with the people that he knew could build his faith. So if you're sitting in one of our locations right now and you have completely no faith, the faith of your brothers and sisters around you will lift you up right now and I promise you a holy God will begin to pick you up and say I'm here just for you just for you just for you in 1988 in the country of Armenia there was an earthquake that in just a few minutes killed 50,000 people left 5 million homeless

readers digest chronicled a story that happened that morning of a a young father who took his elementary age son to school. And he did what dads do. He dropped him off and told him the things that dad say. I love you. I'll be back this afternoon. Remember who you are. All of those things that dads say.

And then he drove off. About a mile down the road, he watched as the road rippled in front of his car. Buildings began to sway side beside. This father knew what was happening. And in horror, he turned his vehicle around. And he precariously made his way back to the local. of the school only to find that it was flat.

With only the terror that a father can feel, he left the door open, he left the car running, he ran, he crawled, he scratched his way across the rubble to the approximate location of his son's class, and he began to dig. He began to dig, and he dug, and he dug for hours. People would come and say, hey, it's futile. Like, we're not equipped to handle this.

What if you hurt yourself? What if you leave your wife, only without a son, but without a husband. You got to stop. Eight hours he dug, 10 hours he dug. 20 hours, 24 hours, people would bring him water. Some would come and dig with him. They finally realized he's just digging his grief out is what he's doing. He's just digging out his own grief. But in the 36th hour, Daddy heard a noise. And when he heard that noise, he screamed, help, somebody help! And they came and they helped him unearth a rock. And when they unearthed this rock, there was a cavern, and in the cavern were 13 students and a teacher,

and one of those students was his son, and he looked at his daddy, and he said, I kept telling them, you would come. Now, here's what I want you to understand. This is a human story. My Bible says if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your heavenly father want to give good gifts to you. So I can promise you this. You've got a holy God that's removing doubt and fear and anxiety, and he's coming just for you. Don't. Don't stop trusting. Even in the midst of pain, he's with you. He's never left you.

He's never going to leave you. Would you bow your heads for just a moment? Maybe this is where you are. All of our campuses or online experience, all of our network churches. I don't know what's going on in your life. Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's your finances.

Maybe it's your kids. Maybe it's something that happened to you when you were younger. Maybe it's just pain, crushing pain, anxiety, and just doubt, just racked with doubt. I don't even want to qualify all of it because I think that there are so many of us facing it. With nobody looking around right now, if you'd say, look, that's me. I'm kind of the one buried right now. Would you just put your hand up right now. Just shoot them up all over the place.

This hand's all over the place. Yes. hands all over, all over, all over the room. Every location, hands going up. I want to pray for you. And if you want to be included in that prayer, put that hand up, put that hand up. Thank you.

Thank you. Lord, I thank you for each and every person under the sound of my voice. I pray that this weekend, they would face that giant of doubt and know that they are not facing that giant alone. But they are facing that giant

with the full force of a giant slayer on the inside of them. And that you are with them, even when they don't know where to find you, that you're still there. That all they have to do is get in an environment with people who trust you and they can find you. Even if that environment is all by themselves tonight, tomorrow,

this weekend, Tuesday night, or at home by themselves, sitting in a room saying, I can't go on. I pray that you would do what you do, sweep into a room where the doors and the windows are locked and let us know that you are with us. You will never leave us. You will never forsake us. You are the God of the promise.

And we trust you right now in this moment. In Jesus' name, amen. Come on, let's give him an ovation of worship. As you guys continue, just in an attitude of prayer today at all of our churches, continue praying, Father, thank you for your presence. Thank you for your goodness. With nobody looking around, there may be those of you who recognize you have some unmet expectations.

You're at a place you never thought you would be. Let me remind you of the goodness of God. Our God is the one who would leave. 99 sheep, Jesus even said, to go after the one. Maybe you're the one. At all of our churches, those who say, I feel lost. I'm hurting. I doubt where I stand with God.

Jesus is the son of God who shed his body. blood that we could live. He's raised from the dead so that anyone in this includes you who calls on his name would be saved at all of our churches. Those of you, you're not here by accident. You recognize you're here for a purpose. You need to place your faith in Christ you may have doubted before. Today is the day you believe. I give my life to Jesus. Would you lift your hands? Hi, right now, all of our church is saying yes to Jesus. As we have hands going up at all of our different locations, church online, you simply click right below me. And would you pray aloud with those around you?

Just pray, Heavenly Father, forgive my sins. Make me new. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you always. My life is not my own. I give it to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Could somebody celebrate today new life in Christ? As a church, it's our honor to play a small part in all that God is doing in and through your

life and we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.church slash next. You know, here at Life Church, it's our mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. That statement drives everything we do as a church, all because we know and we believe whoever finds God finds life.