Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Puzzled, Part 1: Puzzled by Doubt

Episode Date: June 7, 2014

Making sense of your life can feel like a puzzle. But what if the big picture isn’t turning out how you expected? Find out what to do when you feel Puzzled. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I want to welcome everybody out at all of our Lifechurch.tv locations, those of you at our network churches, and of course, those of you across the globe at Church Online, it is always great to have you as a part of the family. My name is Sam Roberts. I'm one of our directional leadership team members here at Lifechurch.tv, which one of the things about that means that I've been around a long time around here. In fact, I've been around on staff for 16 years, believe it or not, working right alongside Craig, which enables me to tell you guys something. that I always wondered back when I was attending some 17 years ago, and I was like, man, is he the real deal? And I'll tell you what, I've worked with him for 16 years, and there's nobody who pursues God more purely or is a better daddy, a better husband, a better leader. And as you guys well know, week in and week out, one of the best communicators in the country. And I'll honor and a privilege to get to stand up here and be able to fill in for our senior pastor, Craig Groschell.

We love having Craig as our leader. Absolutely. Great stuff. Today, we are beginning a series entitled Puzzled, because sometimes things in life aren't what they always seem. You ever had an experience where things really aren't what they seem? Well, I sure did. I'll tell you about a story whenever I took all of the campus pastors and we went down to Ecuador. We went down there to go visit Compassion International's Child Survival Program in this one remote village out in Ecuador.

and we roll up in this big bus, right, which is already going to cause a little bit of a stir in a remote small village, and they're like, what's going on? Well, I was up near the front with the translators, and I go to get off the bus, and when I do, all of the sudden, about 50 or 60 little kids just go crazy. I mean, nuts, and they put their hands in there, and they start running like crazy, and they're going absolutely bizarre. And they all, I get off, and I'm like, my goodness, maybe they're like, and they all gather around me. And I'm like, wow. Hey, everybody. I'm here. All right. Yeah, all right. And all of a sudden,

these two older teenage boys come up to me and they're kind of looking like this. They're like checking me out, like sizing me up like teenage boys do sometimes. They're looking at me. And then they start doing this. Like touching me. And I'm like, man, you guys sure are friendly up in Ecuador. I'm good. And all of a sudden they turn and they say something in Spanish to all the little kids and all the little kids are, whoa. And the translator is. Whoa. And the translator is, you. And the start cracking up, right? And I'm like, what was that all about? And they said, man, they thought you were John Cena. And here's the deal. I'm thinking what all of y'all were thinking right now, like, who in the world is John Cena? This is John Cena. Hey, what are y'all in Keller laughing about

down there? That ain't funny. I'll tell y'all, like I told the translators, I said, I'm in the off-season son. Shoot. No, y'all know there ain't no season that off. things aren't always what they seem are they matter of fact sometimes things can leave us a wee bit puzzled if you will and life many times is like working a puzzle isn't it in fact let's think about it this way so we have a puzzle over here at this table right and now i don't know about you but i'd like for you to participate along about how we go about solving a puzzle there's many different ways that we may choose to do this. For instance, there are those of us who would say, you know what, I actually start by sorting all of my colors. I get my greens over here because they're all

grass, and then I got the blues for the skies, and then the purples for the flowers. How many of you would say, yeah, I'm a color sorter. You got to start there, right? Get your colors all sort of, participate with us up in Albany. That's right. Okay, others of you say, no, no, no, no, no, start with the border. Are you kidding me? I got to know where the confines are to this thing. I got to figure that out. How many of you would say I'm a border person? person. Absolutely, that's right. How many of you would say puzzles? Man, forget that nonsense. I'm going to watching the game. Forget about the jigsaw puzzle. I don't know about that. That's right. There's a lot of us to do that. Now, check it out. If you ever recognize,

like, when you're working a puzzle, you always end up with like this piece right here. And this piece, like, you think that this piece should go here. And you're like, man, what? It's messed up. That doesn't really work right there. And then you're like me. You kind of flip it over. be like, they must have printed this thing on the wrong side or something. And you're trying to put it in here. And then, like, if we're being real, a lot of us just kind of do this. They're like, who does these things anyway, right? But here's the thing.

When you're trying to solve a puzzle, what do you need? You need this, don't you? You've got to have the box top because this helps to make sense of all of this. Right? Well, the thing is, in life, we don't have this. God has this. We just have a bunch of these. And we're trying to make sense of this sometimes.

And it can leave us a wee bit puzzled. Let's take a look at some scripture here. If you're looking and following along, there in 1st Corinthians chapter 13, verse 12. The Bible says, Everybody say, now. We see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror. But then, everybody say then, we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely,

just as God knows me completely. We have a now, a present reality, and we're looking forward to then. Then we're going to know everything clearly. It's kind of like this, right? So we get a bunch of these pieces of the puzzle that we begin to work through that are now. We get pieces that we really maybe don't understand, don't quite fit, don't we. We get this one here. And maybe this piece is, you lost your job.

And you thought this was going to be the career that was going to take you into the stratosphere. It was going to provide for your family. everything was going to be great and all of a sudden it's gone and you're in the now that's what you know now and you're waiting on the then trying to make sense of it or maybe you get this piece here this one this is the one where you thought that man you were going to grow old and and have a great long life and watch your grandkids play and everything's going to be great and then the doctor says yeah you got cancer and it's bad And you're looking for the then. You're trying to understand what's going on.

Or maybe you get this piece. This one. All you know now is it your marriage? Man, it's spiraling out of control or has already crashed and burned in a very nasty divorce. And you're like, that's all I know now. That's not what I'd signed up for. I need to understand the then, which creates a tension in our lives, does it not? A tension of how do we live in this now, trusting God for the then?

How do we live in the now, trusting God for the then? Well, for the answer for that, we're going to go to the Bible. In Matthew chapter 11, if you have your U-Version live, have been open, follow along with us there. If you got your Bible, turn over to Matthew Chapter 11. As we look at this, I want to say that, you know, about four or five years ago, I heard Erwin Manus actually speak on this passage, and I thought it was so amazing. It just really set deep inside. I mean, I want to share some of those truths that he shared years ago with you today. In Matthew, chapter 11, verses 2 through 6, the Bible says, when John, who was in prison.

Now let's stop for a second. It's important that we establish what John. John we're talking about here. This is actually John the Baptist, okay? So let me give you some context. John the Baptist. This is the John the Baptist who was the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy that had said that I'm going to send one to prepare the way for the Lord like a voice crying out in the wilderness said. That's this John the Baptist. He was the fulfillment of that prophecy. It's the John the Baptist whose mother was Elizabeth. So you have Elizabeth, and then you have Mary, the mother of Jesus, right? Mary, Elizabeth, are cousins.

That makes John and Jesus, if you're keeping score, second cousins. One time, while Mary and Elizabeth were coming together and they both were pregnant, while in the womb, at the hearing of Mary's voice, John leaps inside of Elizabeth's womb for joy, the Bible says, at the very hearing of his Savior's mom's voice. He knew he was in the presence of Jesus, before he ever drew a breath on the earth. Amazing.

This is the John the Baptist who was out baptizing people in the Jordan in the wilderness. And upon seeing Jesus says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It's the John the Baptist who baptizes Jesus. And the clouds part, a dove descends upon Jesus. And he hears a voice from the cloud saying, this is my son whom I'm well pleased. Could we maybe think that John knows who Jesus is?

I think that's a pretty fair assumption, right? Okay, it's that John the Baptist that we're talking about. He's in prison. He heard about the deeds of the Messiah, being Jesus, and he sent his disciples to ask him, are you the one who is to come, or should we expect somebody else? What? How can John say such a thing?

Is he crazy? Did you just hear everything that we talked about? What's going on? It's because John got one of these. He's in prison, and he's not getting out. And he's like, whoa, hold on. Seriously, are you the Messiah? Are we supposed to wait on somebody else?

If we're being real today, every single one of us had a moment like that, right? where we're like, God, where are you in this? I don't understand this. I'm in the now. I need to understand. Where are you?

This doesn't make any sense. And John's saying, man, are you sure? Because I didn't sign up for this. John says, John's like, look, I was out in the wilderness out there. They don't have a Marriott, no Hyatt. They got nothing out there. And I was out there. And I was wearing.

clothes that were not even not fashionable. They were made of camel hair, and they were scratchy and nasty and ugly. And my goodness, I was out eating wild locusts and honey all for you, and this is what I get? This? I didn't sign up for this. Y'all go ask him, is he really the Messiah or we're supposed to wait on somebody else? I'm in the now. John says.

So the disciples go. John's disciples go, and they ask Jesus, and Jesus replies, here in verse four. Go back and report to John, what you hear and see. The blind received sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed. The deaf here, the debt are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Now, this is that moment in the scripture where all the Christians want to jump up and just high-five each other. And get to worship on because this is all good.

And it's like, everybody gives spirit fingers to Jesus. Everybody loves this kind of stuff because, oh, my goodness. It's like from a puzzling perspective, you go over here, and it's like, get on some roll with a puzzle, it's like every piece you touch makes sense. And you're like, bam, bam, I'm like the puzzle ninja here. All this is making sense. The blind, they're seeing, the deaf are hearing, life is good. Life is good. Yeah, that's what we all like. I love that. I don't know about you guys. I love it when everything makes sense. And I love it when it's all up into the right and good. But then Jesus says something that, as Irwin called it, he said like a

theological hiccup, if you will. He says this. Jesus says, yeah, go back and tell him all those things. And then, oh, tell him, blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me. Right? Hold on a second. Hold on. I like that part about the lame walking and all that. What do you mean? Blessed is anyone who doesn't stumble on account of me. You see, what Jesus was saying to John is, John, I am the Messiah when the blind eyes are opened. I'm the Messiah when the death here.

I'm the Messiah when the lame walk and John. I'm the Messiah when you still stay in prison and ultimately died there. John didn't get out. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me. In other words, Jesus was saying to John, John, there's a lot of good stuff. And yes, I'm the Messiah. And my sovereignty, John, doesn't depend upon your circumstance. You see, in our lives, sometimes we get pieces that we don't understand.

But God's sovereignty doesn't depend upon our circumstance. Jesus was saying to John, John, I know, here's the deal. I know you got some now that you don't like. trust me there's a then coming john and my goodness this piece belongs right down here and it's going to be amazing and i'm doing something special you just don't see it yet and it's going to be good because i'm doing something john i'm doing something amazing and you might not just see it yet how do we live in the now and we trust god for the then i want to pause for just a second i want to pause for just a second. I want to talk about something that many times can trip up people who are following Christ.

And it's this. It's we find ourselves in this tension, this tension of the now, waiting for the then, and we question, like John did. We question. We're like, are you the Messiah? Are we supposed to wait on somebody else? I thought it's supposed to be different when I signed up to walk. I didn't really realize that's going to be in prison. And we questioned God. And the enemy, Satan, come in, who's the father of lies and loves to steal, kill, and destroy. Our enemy Satan can come in and whisper lies to you, right? He can say things like, see, look at you. Oh, Mr. Super Christian, Miss Super Christian, little trouble comes your way and all of a sudden, you're ready to go. See, you question like that, you know what, God didn't even, he didn't

even want anything to do with you, because you don't even have real faith. In fact, if you would have had enough faith, you wouldn't even be in this situation. You hear that? Is that what Jesus? John questions Jesus. What does Jesus reply? Back to John, say, look at this. In verse 11, I want you to see this. Jesus says about John, right in the very midst of his doubt,

as John's disciples are going back to telling this, Jesus turns to the crowd and says, truly I tell you, among those born of women, which is all of us, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist, even in the midst of his doubt, Jesus affirms who John is because he loves John, and he understands the tension of the now, waiting for the then, and he loves John through it, because you see, God is big enough for our questions.

He's big enough for our fist pumping at the air, and he's big enough for our little tantrums. We'll throw sometimes when things don't quite go our way, and we're beating the table trying to get that piece to fit. He's big enough. How do we live in the now, trusting God for the then. Well, if you're taking notes,

this is something I call simply complicated. It's a simple truth, but it's very, very complicated to live by. And it's this, that in the doubts of today, in the doubts of today, we trust in his tomorrows. In the doubts of today,

in the now, when things don't seem to make a lot of sense, we trust in his tomorrows. We see this in the Bible in Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11, where the Bible says, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a future and to hope. Now that's good news, that God's got something special that he's doing. He's got some great plans for us. Even though we don't see it now, now it feels a little bit puzzling. But oh then, he says, no, no, no, no, I got a plan. And I'm working out something

really cool, really special. You just don't see it quite yet. Craig said something. And week number three of the counselor a while back, if you haven't got to see that series, it was absolutely amazing what Craig did there. And one of the things that he said was that our faith is in God, not in the outcomes that we want right because what we do is when we're faced with a problem we prescribe the outcome and we say god this is what you need to do let me give you an example if today a doctor said to you guess what you have cancer it's terminal and you're going to die you've probably got about a month to live right and then all of a sudden later god like has this audible voice moment with you it feels that real and he says it's going to be okay what do you

think. I'll tell you what I think. I think, I'm going to get healed. Woo-hoo. All right. I don't care what the doctor's say. I don't care what happens. What the PET scan imaging says. It doesn't matter because I'm getting healed, baby. Hold on. That's not what God said. God just said it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. But we'll say, no, no, no, no, God. You got to heal me to be okay. He's like, no, no, no, no. You see, God's sovereignty, again, does not depend upon our circumstance. where we find ourselves. In the doubts of today, those puzzling moments, we trust in his tomorrows. So, our faith is not in the outcomes that we want. Our faith is in God. Now, I want to share with you a story, because many times when you hear a message like this,

you can find yourself thinking, so how's that ever? Like, you get easy for you to stand up there and talk because you get all the pieces handed to you and it's all real easy, the little pastor boy, and everything's great for you and your little perfect little life. All right, let's get real then. I'll share a story with you. In 2005, my dad was diagnosed with cancer to come back out of remission. He had had a bone marrow transplant, and a few months after that, they did a pet scan, and the cancer came back even after.

that. And the doctors were saying this is not very good. Now, dad had made it very clear to all of us in the family that he didn't want to be kept alive on medicines and machines. That was not his deal. He didn't want all that. And one day, he was at the house and his condition had continually gotten worse until he took a fall. That fall landed him in ICU. I got a phone call from my mom and she says, hey, you probably ought to come home. I said, okay. And so I get down to the hospital in ICU. And dad was unresponsive at the time.

And they had actually put restraints on his hands because he had kept filling with the IVs trying to pull on them. And he had this mask on his face that was helping with the O2 levels to keep him good there. and I walk in, and my mom was at the foot of the bed talking to a nurse, and I walk in, I stand beside the bed, and I said, hey, Dad. And right then his eyes opened. And he had this glare in his eyes as he looked at me. And he took his fist, and that he had not even hardly been able to move.

He took his arm, and he made a fist, and he lifted it like this. and that restraint caught on that bed. Quite honestly, at that moment, I was kind of like, I'm glad those restraints are there because I'd be in big trouble. And his fist just said, he just looked at me. And I was like, wow, okay, this is kind of, hey, dad, you grab his hand. You're like, I'm here now. Everything's going to be okay, I think.

And you just kind of like, what do you do? You walk out of the room. My mom follows me out into the hallway, and she says, what was that all about you in trouble? And I said, well, I think. think it has to do with the fact that he's made it pretty clear to everybody. He don't want medicines and he didn't want machines keeping him alive. My mom says, you know what? I think you're absolutely right. I've seen that and I feel it too. That's just kind of hard to do, though.

So we go and talk to the doctors and the doctor said, well, you understand what that means. It means he's going to die. And they say, well, yeah, but that's what he wants. But that's what he wants. So next day, we come back. We check in at the nurses station. The nurses say, well, we have him heavily sedated, and we've pulled all the medicines off of him like you guys requested, and it's just a period of time before he'll pass. But he's heavily sedated now. You can go in and talk to him if you want. That's one of those things. It's just awkward, you know? I can remember walking past his room, because I didn't want to go in. It's like, what do you do? I just kind of like walk and I look in and I see his body in there and he's like on these machines that just kind of breathing a little bit for him, but he doesn't have any medicine on him.

And I'm like, you don't really want to go in there, but you push yourself too. And so you walk in and you stand next to the bed. And I just said, hey dad, and his eyes opened. And I thought, y'all don't have him as sedated as y'all think you got him. I'm hoping all the fists stay down this time. They had taken the restraints off of his arms, you see, because he was just so weak he couldn't move. And his eyes just opened and he looked over at me.

And the look wasn't a look of anger or you need to get this done. It was a look of love. And he just looked at me. I said, hey, I said, you know, they've pulled all those medicines off like you want. Is that what you want? and he just kind of closes us and shook his head one time. It was all they could do.

I said, okay? I said, do you know what that means? You know what that means? He closed his eyes. He shook his head one time. And I said, okay, well, I'm searching for, what do you say? Because this is like, this is it.

This is the end of it. What do you say? Dad knew just what to say or what really not to say. he just, with all the strength that he could muster, he just lifted his hands like this. And I said, you want a hug? And he just shook his head. And I leaned over, and I gave him a hug.

And after that, he slipped back into unconsciousness. And that was it. That was it. I don't want anything to do with that piece. And I'd like to stand up here at church and just say that. everybody. Oh, you know, there was this pretty little story about it because you see there were these nurses and they didn't know Jesus and man, through whatever God did there. Now they're saved, but that's not the story. He's just simply gone. I was 29 years old when that happened.

And I can remember two weeks later working on my car underneath the shade tree and I was frustrated because I couldn't get my car to work and dad always knew the answers to what was wrong with the car. So I called him, and I got his voicemail, and he was just gone. I didn't understand it. But I do understand God's goodness. And I understand that even sometimes I get these things that I don't really like. We get these things that we don't really like that, oh, my goodness, we serve a God who's got something bigger in mind.

He's got something just a wee bit better. In fact, the Bible says that he's got a plan for all of this. He's got a plan that to give us a future and a hope. In fact, the Bible says that, you know what? His thoughts, they're higher than ours. He's got something else going on. And you know what? His ways, they're higher than ours.

In fact, God is taking all of these little pieces of the puzzle. Some of them we're great with, and we love them. Others, they're not so great. And he takes all of them, and he works them out for the good of those who love him. scripture says, in fact, what I know is that God holds the box top. And he is good. And he is loving. And I trust.

I choose in the doubts of today to trust in his tomorrows. Why? Because you see, now? Oh, now. Now we see imperfectly like a puzzling. reflection in a mirror. Oh, but then. Then we're going to see everything perfectly, clearly.

The then may come soon. It may come years later, and it may come after you draw your last breath. But there's then, and God is working all things out for the good, all pieces, for those who love him. how do we live in the now trusting God for the then we do it by in the doubts and the confusion of today we trust in his tomorrows at all of our locations let's pray Father, we thank you that you are far greater and bigger than us, and you do things, man, in your way, not in ours, and that you are God. As we're praying today, there's those of you across all of our locations who would say, you know, man, I found myself in some times where I'm holding some of those pieces right now that are quite puzzling to me. I don't really understand it.

I don't know what's happening. or I got a friend who's going through some stuff, and I would just like prayer, that I would just be able to be encouraged and have that faith to be able to choose to be able to trust in this tomorrow's across all of our locations. How many say, you know what? Man, I'm there.

I've got some puzzling stuff going on. Yeah, there's hands all across the place. Let's just all pray. Father, man, each one of these hands lifted represent some kind of a piece of the puzzle that we don't always either like or fully understand, but we trust that you have a perfect plan. And I pray that in our doubt and in our confusion,

that you would give us a peace that surpass us all understanding and that you would help us to know that you are working out a plan and that you are the one who holds our tomorrows. Give us faith for that, Jesus. Still praying today at all of our locations, our heads bowed and eyes closed. There's others of you who, man, I just want you to hear this. there's a truth that God wanted you to hear and why he brought you here today.

And it's a puzzling truth, quite honestly. It's like this. You see, all of us, the Bible says, every single one of us are sinners. And that sin, it separates us from God. But here's the puzzling thing. God fixed that. And how did he do that? He sent his only son to die in our place so that whosoever would believe in him,

would not perish but have eternal life. God sent Jesus. Why? Why did he do that? Why would he send his only son? That's puzzling. I'll tell you why. It's because he loves you. He loves you so much that he sent Jesus,

who was sinless, who was blameless, who is the son of God, to take that sin upon himself and die in our place on the cross. so that we could be made new, so that we could have a future and a hope, so that we could be forgiven. And today, at all of our locations at the church online, there are those of you whom God has brought here to hear that beautifully puzzling truth that even though while we were sinners, Christ died for us. God sent Jesus for us so that we could be made new. There are those of us who are searching and searching for meaning, for purpose, for forgiveness,

and it's only found in one piece of the puzzle. And that puzzle is Jesus Christ. And today, the Bible says that whosoever would believe in Jesus and confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that He is Lord. They will be made new. And that truth is the truth that God has brought you here to be able to hear. And today is the day of your salvation across all of our. locations those of you who would say Jesus come in be my Lord be my Savior forgive

me and my sin and make me new lift your hands right now and say yes Jesus come in right here in the middle section welcome into God's family right over here to my right welcome into God's family those of you at church online click right below me and say yes to a relationship with Jesus back here in the middle section absolutely welcome to God's family things may be puzzling right now but God is given purpose and meaning and direction to life as we can do yes back in the far back left section welcome into god's family as people are continuing to come to christ let's just pray this prayer aloud with all of those together both here and at church online let's just pray

aloud with those making this commitment to jesus today let's pray heavenly father thank you for sending jesus to die in my place on the cross forgive me of my sin and make me new help me to walk in your ways all of my life. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Everybody said. Amen.