Hey, well, good morning Venture. Wherever you are tuning in, I want you to know that, uh, that we are honored that you, would you spend a Sunday with us? And, um, and if you don't know me, if last week, maybe it was your first week and you got to hear from Craig and you're like, well, I'm gonna go back next week, and you're like, well, who's this guy? Um, my name's Gray and I get to work over at the Hunt Club across town. And, uh, uh, you know what's funny about the Hunt Club?

If you don't know this, uh, you know, it was a club back in the day if you, and that's another story for another time. Uh, but we feel like on Saturday night, last week of Easter, um, because the club was hopping, and you can hear the base like out on 49, that I, I think we had some first time guests that didn't know they were coming to church. And, uh, you know, so we were, we were stoked about that. Um, but we are finishing up a series, uh, this morning called Threads. Been talking about how, like, from the beginning of time, literally to, to now that God has been weaving, uh, his, his redemptive thread throughout history.

And, um, this morning is gonna be about kind of how we, we continue that. And, uh, last week Craig talked about three things that the, the early church struggled with and that we might struggle with. And he talked about disappointment and discouragement, but the other one that he talked about was doubt. And, and I just wanna spend some time this morning just a conversation even about, uh, doubt and, and what that does in our faith and, and how we can move forward in that. And, and so to do that, where we're going to jump right in, and, uh, we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 28, really where we left off last week after the resurrection.

And, and let me fill you in just a little bit in case you missed last week, and you know, the, the story. But, uh, Jesus has been crucified. He's been placed in a tomb. And, uh, the after three days, there's two ladies, Mary Magdalene. And this is just interesting.

Uh, I'm, I'm just, this won't be on the screen or anything. This is, this is just my sense of humor. It says, after the Sabbath, uh, at dawn, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene, and then listen to this. And the other Mary, like, I wonder if she ever had a conversation with Matthew, uh, when he wrote this, like, Hey, like the other Mary. Like, that's, that's what I get.

Anyway, uh, they go to the tomb, tomb's empty, and um, and then an angel comes, says, Hey, he's not here. Jesus shows up and he tells the ladies to tell the disciples to meet me in Galilee. Um, and, and so the disciples do that. And so we're gonna pick up after all that's happened, we're gonna pick up. And, and this is such an interesting verse, and, and the reason, and let me just tell you right, we're we're gonna hang out on this one verse, alright?

And, and we're gonna unpack it a a good bit. And, and, and so, uh, you, you know, if you're like a deep theological thinker, I'm, you might get, you might feel shortchanged, okay? I'm just gonna be honest with you. Um, but I, but I think this is something that we all struggle with and, and I think there's some things that we can learn by, by leaning into this a good bit this morning. So we're gonna pick up Matthew chapter 28.

This is how the story continues, says, then the 11 disciples went up to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go when they saw him, they worship him. Now, that's such a, a great picture. I don't know if, if you were here last week for Easter, but, uh, and I think this is true, to be honest of, of, of every Sunday on, on all of our campuses, but Easter was really incredible. It was really easy to come in on Easter Sunday and, and worship Jesus. I mean, even over at the Hunt Club, our worship leader, his name's Aaron.

And, and if you could personify, if you could take an energy drink and make it a person, it's Aaron. And, and like he's up there jumping around at one point, like, I, I, it looks like he was about to do the Soja boy. And, and if you don't know what that is, and you're gonna Google it, it's not soldier. It is S-O-U-L-J-A, okay? Uh, get you there quicker.

It's a dance. And, uh, but, but it was like so full of energy, so easy to, to celebrate our resurrected savior and, and, and, and even beyond just like worship and singing in church. But when you think about this, that they were together and they, they were worshiped, Jesus, I want you to think about like being like, like convinced and, and, and focused and like really, you know, you're firing on all cylinders of your faith. And, and that's where they were. But there's an interesting, uh, phrase that comes after this that says they worship him, but some doubted, some doubted.

Now these are the 11. Now we, we, we, we lost one Judas, and they're worshiping. This is who's there. They, they, they were worshiping and then, and then some doubted, we don't know who doubted. Uh, we don't know if maybe it was a majority or a minority of of them, or a small amount of them, or if it was, um, you know, were they worshiping while they were, uh, or doubting while they were worshiping?

And they were, you know, as they were talking and, and looking at him like, man, is this really real? And, and what you need to know about this word doubt in this context is it refers more to hesitation or uncertainty than to unbelief. But now it can include unbelief. But, but think about being these guys in that moment. You know, you, you, your best friend, Jesus, you spent the last several years with him.

He, he was crucified. He, like, you saw all of this happen. He was put into a tomb and now he's back. And, and as exciting as that is, I mean, like we don't really have a place in our brain to, to process resurrection like that. That's a, that's a difficult thing.

And so there's this hesitation like, now, okay, like, okay, he's back. Alright. I had you imagine going through, if you've ever lost someone, close the grief that you go through and then three days later it's like, ah, just kidding. Like, like, well, you talk about, uh, you talk about whiplash and emotions and, and processing. Like, this is not something like, oh, okay, back, you know, back where we, where we were.

Nah, like that this is, this is whiplash mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Then there's uncertainty. Okay? Like, I, I, I had to begin the journey down the road of what life looks like with without him. Now he's back.

I mean, I like, what, what next, what, what role I play? Like how long is he back? Like, all kinds of questions. And guys, I think, I think this is where we live a lot in our faith, where we are so convinced at times and then almost in the same breath we're like, I don't mean, maybe think about last week at Easter, like you, you came and, and you experienced God, you experienced something and, and then, and then Monday hit, you know, and then that moron on Wednesday at work, like did what he does or she does, and you're like, man, I know God was calling me to this and this way of life, but good grief, you know, and then, then there's, there's the marriage that, that on Sunday, you know, you're so alright, we gotta get this right. And then, then by Thursday it's like, this is so much work.

There's relationships with your kids. But man, I I, I gotta lead out on this. I gotta, I gotta be the dad. I gotta be the mom Students. Isn't it so easy to live out your faith, like when you're in the moment at Unite or one night, or TPW and then Monday hits, or Friday night hits, like, this is the, this is where we live.

We're like, man, I, I, I, I, I wanna worship, I wanna, I wanna follow him on all the things that he's called me to do. But, but man, I don't know. Like, sometimes this gets difficult and maybe I miss her. Maybe I, I, I don't really need to go down this road. Maybe I'm not cut out for it.

I gave it a try. You know, these people would not stop inviting me. And, and so I went and, you know, I, I felt something, but maybe, maybe it was heartburn, you know, maybe, maybe it was heartburn. And here's what's so incredible about this moment. Jesus doesn't even check up.

Look what he does. It's what we call the great commission. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. He continues in teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age like Jesus. In the midst of these guys worshiping and doubting, he entrusts them with the message like you are here right now because of these 11 guys who are worshiping and doubting. That's crazy. And he trusts them. Like, this is how we ended up here 2000 years later, was this command from Jesus to 11 guys who weren't fully convinced, who have lots of uncertainties, a lot of hesitation, and maybe still some unbelief.

You know what that means for us? That our doubt does not disqualify. It doesn't. That's such good news. 'Cause there's times in, in my faith walk, I am I am convinced, and there's times when I'm a little hesitant.

I don't know if that's what you really want me to do, God, but not only this, only does it not disqualify our doubt, doesn't have to define us poor Thomas, like it doubting Thomas. Like, like, and that's not even all of his story. But we don't have to be, I don't have to be doubting gray. You don't have to be doubting John or doubting Sam or, or, you know, doubting Julie. Like it doesn't have to define you.

Now we can let it define us, but it doesn't have to. I mean, this is great news. It doesn't disqualify us and it doesn't define us. If, if, if Jesus was willing to give the great commission, like though, here, here is the plan for how salvation is going to reach the entire world. If he's willing to give that to these guys, then we we're in good company.

We're not disqualified. And it doesn't have to define us. But here's the thing about doubt, as great of news as that is, it's great of news as that is doubt is not neutral. See, see, doubt will eventually doubt eventually leads us to deeper faith or debilitating fear. See, o over time doubt.

If it's left to its own devices, it begins to operate and feel like, like fear. And in the same way our bodies and our brains have fear responses. We, we had that in our, in our faith. You know, there's, there's like five fear responses and most of us know, like three of them. The first one was flight or, or fight, you know?

So this is what this looks like in your faith. You, you, so something happens, tragedy, trauma, and you can't reconcile what's happened with a good God or a powerful God. Like either God is good and he's just not that powerful, or God is powerful, he's just a jerk and he's really not good. But there's no way with this circumstance in my life that God can be both good and powerful. And so you, you fight back, you become antagonistic against God.

Maybe that's your story. Another fear of response is, is flight peace. You can think about, uh, if you, if you know any of the Old Testament narratives, Jonah, Jonah gets a command from God to go to Nineveh, then the Ninevites are just terrible people. And, and Jonah doesn't think that they deserve God's mercy. And so Jonah literally goes the opposite direction.

Or maybe again, for you, it's, it's something where there's something in your life and you're just like, man, I I, because of this church hurt anything. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm walking, I'm just walking away a buzzword right now for this is deconstruction. Just, just gonna, I'm done. But the one that I think gets all of us at some point in our faith journey does not fight, is not flight, but it is freeze. Like when, when we, you, you call me, you experience Easter, you're like, man, this is, this is what I need to do.

It's so clear my next step and, but I, you get, again, you get into the next week and, and life begins to hit and you get busy and it becomes less important, or you don't know, you, you begin to doubt, well, I didn't hear that. And you hesitate, you become uncertain the things you are so certain of on Sunday, now you're now you're second guessing and you freeze. And I think that's where a lot of us live in our faith journey is just like, man, I know what God's called me to, but I just don't know if I can take that next step. I wanna show you what this looks like in a different context that I think will create, uh, the, the thing that I want you to feel when I talk about freezing in your faith. I'm, I'm about to show you a video of a guy named Austin.

This is about six or seven years ago. Uh, at the time, uh, Austin was, had just started in a program called Youth Reach. And youth reach is is for young men, about 18 to 21 who, who need a second chance, who usually are in, in trouble with the law. It's like either you go to jail or you go to youth reach, drug charges, alcohol, uh, things like that. And, um, and I would take these guys climbing and caving every summer.

And, um, Austin, uh, on his first time there, he would not repel. And, uh, and man, we, we talked about it and he had like, man, I don't know about those ropes and like, I don't know about you. And that's some that metal's pretty dainty. And I, you know, and, and Austin's a big fella and, um, and he, he wouldn't repel. Well, later on that night, you were kind of sitting around the campfire and you do what guys do.

You know, you get guys staring into a fire and, um, you know, they'll, they'll talk about anything. And, um, and so we're doing that with 'em, strengths of the day and, uh, struggles and, and he's like, Mr. Gray, next time I'm gonna repel. I was like, all right, I'm gonna hold you to it. Austin leaves by choice, the program early, gets in trouble, uh, ends up coming back and literally comes back the week.

We're headed to go climbing and caving. And so I'm like, Hey, Austin, you remember what you told me? Yes sir. And, uh, I said, well, if I gotta kick you off that thing, you gonna do it? Yeah, I, I got, I got it.

This is Austin repelling in that moment. Watch this. Here we go. You good, you go. You got, you got it.

Hey, look, this is what I want you to do. You look, I know you're not going anywhere, dude. I want you to lean. You got to lean back regardless if I'm doing it and you're doing it, you've got to place your weight on that. You got to good night.

You can do that. Good. I'm keeping cutting. He's ling me back. Listen to the fear in His voice.

He walked back, don't come back to place. He walked back, please, I got you, I got you. Stay right there. Please, please, please, man, please be you. And let me off his name Paralyzed, begging that son of a gun could thump me off the cliff, off the cliff.

And he's, he's begging to get away fear. He doubted me. He doubted the ropes, he doubted the, the hardware he doubted himself. And it kept him from, from an, an incredible experience. And again, this is the second time the, the, the first time we got to experience what it looks like for Austin to flee.

And he about ran over me, Man, doesn't that look like our faith? When, when, when there's this opportunity, this thing God is calling us to make, it could be a thousand different things. It's, it is to finally ask for help with an addiction. It's to, it's to get rid of that habit that you know is, is not doing you any good. It, it's, it's the restoration of, of your marriage.

It is, is offering forgiveness to someone. It's asking for forgiveness to someone bringing healing to a relationship. Maybe, maybe listen on all of our campuses, you come every week and you sit on the fringes, but you never really engage. And you know, God's calling you to, to, hey, come to adventure 1 0 1, jump in and start serving baptism. You're a Christ follower and you've got a thousand reasons why you don't need to get baptized.

But every time we talk about it, you feel God pulling in your heart, and then you get away from here and you allow the uncertainty and you allow, um, the confusion maybe of the whole process. Hesitation gets the best of you and you stay where you are. And it's just a little bit further, just a little bit further man. And you get to experience God in, in a new way, in, in, in a fresh way. I, I wrote it down this way.

I, I want you to see this on the other side. On the other side of, of our doubt is either a deeper faith filled with purpose or a stagnant faith filled with frustration. What we do in the midst of our doubt will be the difference. What we do in the midst of our doubt will be the difference. Here's the deal.

It's likely, it's likely doubt will not cause you to ruin your life, but it very well may cause you to waste it to sit at the edge of the next thing and do nothing. You know, all 11 guys that day when Jesus gave the great commission, all 11 died a martyr's death, meaning they died because of their faith. The Apostle John, he, he died of old age, but before he died of old age emperor ian of, of Rome dipped him in boiling oil and he survived the other 11 or the other 10 in that moment. But they later pick up. Matthias, same thing happened to him.

Peter crucified upside down, Andrew crucified. Matthew stabbed to death. Uh, uh, Thomas, Thomas was, uh, killed with four spears thrown into him, club to death, all kinds of ways they died. And you go, man, this is a group of people that when Jesus was like standing there, some were doubting and had hesitation. But now when Jesus is not even walking with 'em years later, they've got the, the amount, the the type of faith that they can say, Hey, I don't care what you do to me.

I'm not backing down. Like something shifted for them. And I, I, I wanna know what that is. You know, we're reading in the book of Acts and you, and you'll, you'll, you'll see these things I'm about we're gonna look at in just a moment. I want you to be even be looking for 'em in the Bible Reading Plan as you're reading every day.

But, but if I could give you just one statement, like just one, like here it is, is they did not let, they did not let the unexplainable in their faith overshadow the undeniable. There were things that, that they, they could not explain away the experience that they had had with Jesus. It was undeniable. That's in your faith. Oftentimes we talk about sharing our faith, we get nervous.

We, we go, Hey man, I I just don't know all the Bible verses and you know, all that stuff. No, no, no, no. You wanna share your faith. You just simply tell people the undeniable facts of what Jesus has done in your life. You can't debate that.

You can't, you can't debate my experience with Jesus, what Jesus has done in me. And you see it time and time again. They are in these unexplainable situations, asked to do unexplainable things, it doesn't make sense. And yet they continue to move forward. And it's because they didn't let the unexplainable overshadow the undeniable.

So here's what it looks like in the midst of their doubt. I I, I see three things and we're not gonna go to like each one. I'll give you a reference if you wanna go back and read. But you can be looking for these if you're reading the, the Bible reading plan. And listen, lemme just tell you it's not, it's not.

They prayed and they read the Bible. Okay, those are great, those are obviously right. But what I wanted to do is go a, a, a level deeper. And when I say deeper, I don't mean more theological, I mean more practical. I mean more foundational that puts us in a position to do the things like pray and read the scriptures.

So three things I see when I read the book of Acts that these guys did, the first one they just kept showing up. The two Marys say, Hey, Jesus said, go here, we're there. Jesus, before he sends into heaven, he says, Hey, listen, y'all go to Jerusalem, wait on the Holy Spirit, ten four, they go to Jerusalem, wait on the Holy Spirit. And here's the deal. Showing up is not just physically showing up.

Like, like they, they continue to engage, they continue to ask questions, even in their doubt. And, and here's the deal about the disciples. Most of the time the questions they were asking weren't even the right questions. In Acts chapter one, Jesus is about to ascend into heaven. And this is what they say.

They say, Hey, hey Jesus. Uh, quick question. Um, you know, before you get out here, uh, are you gonna reinstate the nation of Israel now? And I can imagine Jesus with a tender frustration going, you gotta be kidding me, guys. Like, do you not remember the week before I was crucified?

And we, we came into Jerusalem and people were laying their coats down and palms down and, and some people thought I was gonna be a political leader and some people thought it was gonna be, uh, you know, a war leader and we were gonna make, you know, make Israel great again. And, and, and I took and blew all of that out of the water and did something complete. Do you remember all that guys? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wrong question guys.

But they're still there. And because they're there, they're able to ask it because they kept showing up. They were some unexplainable things, but they held on to the undeniable and it allowed 'em to keep showing up. And for you, for me, it's that we keep showing up and putting ourselves in places where our faith grows, not our doubt. And so, yeah, that's church.

How's church? Second thing they did, they remain teachable and they don't miss this. You can 100% show up, but never grow up, okay? If you are not teachable requires humility. And when you read the stories, particularly of Peter, like it is, it is like every other day Peter's doing something wrong and he's having to be rebuked and, and and corrected.

You know, at at one point, uh, he's told to go to a guy named Cornelius's house, a guy he didn't know. And he goes, which is cool, he was showing up, I'm whatever, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. You know, undeniable over the unexplainable. And he gets there and he has this vision of this, this sheath that comes down and there's all these animals and God says, Hey, kill and eat. And Peter's like, oh no, God, I could never do that.

I, those are impure animals. And, and God's like, no, no, if I created it, it's not impure. And, and the bigger picture was that, that the Gospel was about to go beyond the Jewish people, but to the non Gentiles, it wasn't just like, Hey Peter, go get you some connected sausage. It was, it was more than that had to be corrected. There's another time a group of, a group of Jewish Christians were expecting the Gentile Christians to have to be circumcised, to truly be Christians.

And they're like, oh, time out. That's not how this works. Over and over and over. They remained teachable. That's one of the things I love about, uh, watching our care groups at the, at the Hunt Club campus.

Really both of these at the, like, there are folks in our care groups that are doing really difficult work and they keep showing up and they remain teachable. It's huge because again, you can show up and not be teachable. Third thing, they understood that the work of God, the work that God was doing in them was not just for them. They began to understand, Hey, this is bigger than me, way bigger than me. And although he's working in me, I, it's not for me to keep to myself, but it's for me to share so that other people can experience what I experience.

I showed you the video of Austin, you know, I, I would be quite the jerk of a friend to not show you 30 minutes later, watch this. Oh, you're good. You're, yeah, let's go. You're good, Let's go. You're good.

Good stuff. Let's go. Alright. I want you to let go of the green rope a little bit, okay? Now take your left hand and slide it back a little bit.

Alright? You know how many people repelled after Austin? 'Cause he was my first one because I knew it was gonna take a minute. All of them, you know, how many people that were there, guys that were there, that were fearful and doubted just like him, A lot of 'em. But because he took his step, it empowered other people to, that's what it looks like to, to, to, to not just be concerned about the work that God is doing in you, but, but understand that God is doing work through you so that it impacts other people.

God has spoken very clearly to all of you on all of our campuses. Everybody's always got a next step. What would it look like if you did not allow whatever unexplainable thing you got knocking around in your dome to keep you from the undeniable? What step would you take? It's not that you're gonna ruin your life, man, you can sure waste it.

And again, I wanna read this again. On the other side of our doubt is either a deeper faith filled with purpose or a stagnant, stale faith filled with frustration. What we do in the midst of doubts Will determine the difference. Last time I was up here, I, I told you that, uh, my goal was to create tension this morning. My, my goal is simply to inspire you to take a next step and to understand that it's not just about you taking that step, it's about the people watching you take that step and how that empowers them.

So this morning, maybe it's coming down and with somebody, with our, our prayer team and just asking them to pray for you to have courage. Courage is not the absence of fear. It's acting in the midst of fear. And maybe your first step is repenting and you need to come to the crosses. And that thing that you keep hanging on to, that you know is costing you, you need to leave it at the cross.

And then you need to go ask for some help, but respond. Don't stay on the edge of what God has for you and this, the work that he wants to do in you and the work that he wants to do through you. Let me pray. Father, we thank you, God, we thank you for your patience, man. We thank you for your grace.

Now, we thank you that in the midst of our commitment, in the midst of our doubt, and sometimes at the same time or sometimes wavering between the two, that, that you our right there in the midst of it as well, not dealing out shame, but encouragement and confidence in you and in your power. That you are good, that you are great, and that you have good plans for us. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.