Alright, we're here in John chapter 20, and we're here for the first time. We have a lot of visitors here today, which is great.
This is the third week of a five-part series. So, the series is basically a dissolver of doubts,
and if you go back to the book of Daniel, which we won't do for a second time,
the Bible talks about Daniel being a man who is able to dissolve doubts.
So basically what the Bible is saying is that when people had questions and fears and things they weren't sure about,
Daniel was able to give them the answers from the Word of God and show them what the Bible said
to dissolve those doubts. And last week what we talked about was the doubts that the world has.
What we kind of basically highlighted was that the world has a lot of doubts that we do not have to have as believers.
We as believers, we have certain things that we know are written in this book that are sure, that are certain no matter what.
Now, here's the thing though. There are a lot of things that we know are written in this book.
It doesn't mean we'll never doubt about them.
The Bible is very clear that he's going to provide our needs, but sometimes we doubt about them.
We're going to look at five points here today. There is going to be a little bit of a crossover from last week,
but in John 20, the first thing I want you to look at is post-salvation doubts.
What I'm talking about is you as a believer, there are people that are saved that from time to time do have doubts about their own salvation.
Now you say, why is that? Well, one reason why people have doubts about their salvation if they are already saved
is because of the fact if they're completely away from the things of God, they can start to have some doubts.
Look at what it says in John 20, verse 24.
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord.
But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
And so Thomas was not with them when they saw the Lord. He was like the last one.
That's where I get the phrase, doubting Thomas. Who's heard of doubting Thomas?
It makes sense to talk about Thomas. We're talking about dissolving of doubts, and Thomas had doubts. Why?
Because he didn't actually see with his eyes the resurrected Lord at this point.
And he says, I'm not going to believe this. Notice what it says in verse number 26.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.
Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood at the midst, and said, Peace be on you.
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Now if you notice verse 28, it looks like Thomas thinks that Jesus is God.
Doesn't say my Lord and my God. It's pretty obvious that all this is God.
I guess we need to stop and tell these religions out that don't believe that, because it says my Lord and my God.
Verse 29, Jesus saith thine own Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.
Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
Now Thomas has a bad reputation, because we think of this story.
He was actually a pretty good character in the Bible, but here he does not have faith.
He lacks belief. He doubts about what the truth is.
But if you remember, all the apostles had those same doubts until they saw the Lord Himself resurrected.
And so one thing we can learn from this is that if you are completely away from the things of God, you might start to question some of the things you believe.
You might start to doubt about it.
Now in this room, we're all here to hear the preaching.
And you know, many of you listen to a lot of sermons online. You read the Bible.
Look, if you're reading the Bible and going solely, you're not going to have any doubts.
You're going to see and know what the Bible says.
But look, you know, if you go years without going to church, you know, you might start to have some doubts.
That's what we see in John 20. Now turn to Matthew 11. We're going to see another example of this.
Now ask yourself this question. Does God want you to have doubts about your salvation? No He doesn't.
Our whole goal this afternoon is we're going to preach the gospel to people and show them that they can know that they have eternal life.
But you know what the truth is, some people do doubt from time to time.
They've believed on Jesus Christ. They have eternal life dwelling in them.
But you know, maybe they get away from the things of God and they start to question some of the things they believe.
Matthew 11 is a great example. John the Baptist, who the Bible says was the best man born on women.
Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, at least up until that time period, nobody had been better than John the Baptist.
Matthew 11 verse 2.
Now that's kind of an odd statement for John the Baptist to make, isn't it?
Because the first time he saw the Lord Jesus Christ, he knew immediately, hey this is the Lord.
This is our God. This is our Savior. This is our Christ.
But if you remember, John was thrown in prison. So he's away from the things of God.
It's not his fault. He's not intentionally skipping church or anything like that.
But he is away from the things of God. And so it's said in verse 2, he says he's in prison.
And so if you're gone from the things of God for a long period of time and you don't have access to the world and seeing the great works of God and being in church and reading the Bible,
you could start to have some doubts. Notice verse 4.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do here and see.
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor of the gospel preach to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
So Jesus says, hey go show him again these things.
What he's saying is that if you show him these things again, immediately it's going to click with him.
Every once in a while we talk to someone who might be saved.
And the truth is they've never heard good preaching, they've never read the Bible, they've been away from the things of God completely.
And you know what? They might have some questions.
But you know, honestly, it's going to change like that in the peace of God.
Say why? Well because the Spirit of God is well inside of them.
The Spirit of truth as the Bible says.
Look, if somebody argues with you about salvation for 20 minutes, they're not saved.
I remember going to someone one time in West Virginia and I was a silent partner.
And no, no, actually I wasn't a silent partner. I was actually the one speaking.
And I was arguing with this guy about eternal security.
And after the conversation, my silent partner told me, oh that guy's saved.
I got him saved a couple months ago.
And I'm just like, I don't know if you noticed it, we just spent 20 minutes arguing about eternal security.
He's like, I don't think he got it when he preached the gospel to me.
Now the person who was my silent partner was actually, you know, Bacala.
He wasn't open about it, but everybody at church knew that.
I just happened to get paired with him.
The pastor paired the people for so long he was like, great, I got stuck with this guy again.
Imagine that, that he didn't lead someone to the Lord that he thought he did, right?
But look, if you argue with someone for 20 minutes and they say, no, I don't believe in eternal security,
then you do have to be baptized.
Look, that person's not saved.
But people can have doubts creep up from time to time.
And you can get rid of those doubts immediately if you show them the Word of God.
Now go to Galatians 4, Galatians 4.
And so honestly, one thing that can make you doubt from time to time is if you're just away from the things of God.
Look, salvation is as easy to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
God doesn't want you to doubt at all.
He wants you to know and have boldness and confidence.
I remember when I got saved I had this great feeling of belief that swept over me and I knew I was on my way to heaven.
That's the way God wants us to feel.
He doesn't want us to doubt about whether or not we're going to heaven.
He wants us to know and have that confidence and assurance.
You know, there's a bigger reason why people doubt from time to time about their salvation that are saved.
And the reason why is because they hear false prophets preaching another gospel that can confuse them a little bit.
Let's look at what it says in Galatians 4, verses 8 and 9.
And Paul's basically saying, I'm confused about this, because you're saved, you heard the gospel, and now you're going under the same bondage that you got out of when you got saved.
And look, you know what, there's a lot of churches around the Philippines that will do that to you.
You get saved and they start confusing you by saying, if you're really saved, you're going to have some works to back it up.
Don't a lot of pastors say that, don't a lot of churches say that, hey, if you're really saved, you're going to change your lifestyle.
So then all of a sudden, we'll ask ourselves this question, we'll just be like, you know, I don't know, I thought I was saved, but then I still do a lot of the same sins, maybe I'm not saved.
Look, God doesn't want you to doubt about your salvation. He says you can know you're saved, you can know you're on your way to heaven, you don't have to doubt about it whatsoever.
And these pastors that put that yoga bondage on you, that is not something that's godly and it's wicked, that is not what the Bible teaches.
Notice what it says in verse 19 of Galatians 4, my little children who might prevail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you.
So Paul says, because you're doubting the things that is by grace through faith, I'm doubting whether you're saved, I stand in doubt of you.
He's like, I thought I got you saved, and he said in verse 9, I prevail in birth again. He's like, I'm going through the same gospel that I went with you already, because I'm not sure if you got it or not.
And look, the truth is, whether it's Baptist or Catholic or 99% of churches, they will confuse you about your salvation.
Because they preach the exact same message, the same repentance of sins garbage that the Bible never mentioned.
They say, well, if you're really saved, you're going to change your life, you're going to quit drinking, you're going to quit smoking.
It's like, look, you know, I don't know about you, but when I got saved, I still had a desire to do wrong things from time to time.
I still listened to rock music, I still watched the TV and did things that weren't right.
I didn't just automatically change and become this perfect person like they claim you're going to be.
The Bible never said that if you get saved, you're automatically going to change. That's nowhere in the Bible.
Works are not evidence of salvation at all. Works are not an evidence at all of salvation.
Works can be evidence that someone's a false prophet because they might do certain things that no normal person would do.
But doing good works is not evidence of salvation.
Look, there's unsaved people that do good works all the time. There's unsaved people that do nice things.
If our works were evidence of our salvation, then I guess a lot of those people that don't believe in Jesus Christ would be saved because some of them do good things from time to time.
The Bible never says that works are evidence of salvation.
And so one reason why people doubt about salvation is because they get saved and then people start preaching false things to them.
They hear this thing about how you have to repent of your sins and change your lifestyle to reform your life, and then they start questioning you.
And here's the thing. There's certain religions out there that are just so off the wall that when you hear them, you know it's simply wrong.
But what I hate about these Baptists is they blur the lines. They're the ones that are the real evil ones.
Because it's obvious that the Mormons are false. There's no doubt whatsoever that they don't even believe Jesus is God.
Obviously they're false, but there's Baptists here that are preaching a false gospel and they blur the lines so it confuses people that are saved because they kind of make it in between.
Hey, if you're a heretic, just admit it. Just go all the way and say, you know what, the Catholics are saved and you're not because you believe salvation by grace and faith.
That's what they really believe. They don't believe we're saved because we think it's a free gift. The prophet says it's a free gift.
So one reason why people have doubts is because of the fact that they get saved, but then they hear a lot of false prophets preaching and they get confused a little bit.
I got saved when I was 18 years old and one of my favorite preachers when I first got saved was a Repentive Sins Heretic.
And so you know what, I did get confused a little bit from time to time because I was like, man, I believe it's eternal life. It's a free gift.
Did I not pray right? Because I still want to do what's wrong. I started to get confused a little bit. Why?
Because if you listen to false preachers, you're going to get confused. There are many people in this room that I have personally baptized that you know what, you were probably saved years ago before you listen to any sermons online.
But you went to a Baptist church that made salvation very confusing. And you're like, you know, I'm not really sure. Maybe I was saved 10 years ago. Maybe I just got saved in the last couple years.
They don't make it plain. They don't make it simple. And honestly, there's a lot of people here you're not even sure the moment you got saved because of the fact you went to a church preaching a false and confusing gospel.
The gospel is, I am the door. That's pretty simple. I mean, how do they screw that up? I am the door. It's a free gift. All you do is open the door.
That's one reason why people doubt about their salvation, or less, one doubt people have is about their salvation. Another doubt people have is about their personal provision.
Now this is really the point that's kind of exactly what we talked about last week. But I want you to notice verse 22 where it says,
And He said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, neither for the body what ye shall put on.
The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raven. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls?
So what the Bible is saying in these verses is, God is going to provide your food, and He's going to provide your clothing.
And it talks about the ravens, they don't have a storehouse, they don't have a barn. It's not like they can just have a ton of food gathered up in one location for a safe time in case something happens.
There's people that are like preparing for the millennium, and they got food stored up for like a year. But look, the ravens don't have a storehouse or barn. They still find a way to get fed every single day.
And look, some of us have more money than others. It is what it is, but whether you have a lot of money or you have a little bit of money, God's still going to provide your food and clothing.
Every single person in here, obviously God's providing food because you're alive. And everyone's got clothing. God has promised to provide those things.
And He basically says don't waste your time thinking about these things. Take no thought. See, the world will just spend hours upon hours every week just obsessing about money and being scared to death.
We just believe we're talking different than that. Because our life is more than raiment and meat.
Notice what it says in verse 25. And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought to the rest?
And see, the Bible says that you're not able to make yourself halt. You can't add to your pipe.
Now there's a lot of people who may be able to say, man, I want to dunk basketball. I wish I was just one foot taller than I'd be able to dunk.
But yeah, the Bible says that you cannot add to your stature. Now it's kind of interesting because he calls that what is least.
To me it seems pretty hard to make yourself taller, but he says that which is least.
Then verse 27 says, consider the lilies how they grow. They twirl not, they spin not, and yet I say to you that Solomon and all his glory was not raised like one of these.
If then God so clothed the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
He reiterates the fact that he is going to provide our needs. Notice verse 29.
And seek not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
Look, God has promised to provide our food and clothing and our drink, right? We all know that. Everybody's aware of that.
But you know, God says don't be of a doubtful mind. Don't question this. Don't doubt about this.
And the truth is, believers doubt about whether or not God's going to provide their needs all the time.
Now you know, when I talk about this Dissolve or Doubt series, honestly a large part of what I do up here is not necessarily showing you anything that's new,
but just giving you confidence about what you already believe. Look, everybody in this room, you know God's going to provide your food, right?
God's promised that. But at the same time, people still do doubt about it sometimes.
And my job is to show you beyond a shadow of a doubt that you don't have to doubt about this whatsoever.
Notice what it says in verse 30.
For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
See, all the nations of the world, they seek after money, they seek after wealth, but we should be different than the world.
Now look at Luke 8. Luke 8.
Now in Luke chapter 8, we're going to look at the parable of the sower, and if you remember the parable of the sower, there's four groups of people that are mentioned.
Now, the parable of the sower is a great way to find out if people are saved.
Because people that are unsaved will always say the last three, or the only, the first three are unsaved is what they're going to say.
They'll say whether they're not saved because they don't have any purpose.
What the Bible actually shows you is the last three are saved.
See, they'll say only one is saved, we say there's three that are saved.
The only one that isn't saved is the person that doesn't believe.
The ones that do believe, guess what, they're saved because salvation is by believing.
And so in Luke 8 verse 14, we're going to look at someone who is saved, and notice what it says in verse 14.
It says they bring no fruit to perfection, which means they don't lead people to the Lord.
The majority of people in this room are soul members.
You get people saved. Here's a verse that's indicating reasons why you might stop being a soul member and bring no fruit to perfection.
One reason that's mentioned is riches, choked with riches of this life.
Look, there are people that are saved all the time, and they decide to chase after money, and they quit looking for the Lord.
It happens all the time.
Now, our church is still pretty small now, but I'm sure as this church grows, there's going to be someone who comes up to me one day and says,
Brother Stuckey, I'm so excited.
And I'm like, you know why?
They say, oh, you know, I'm going to be an OFW.
I'm going to move to Saudi Arabia where there's no good church and make tons and tons of money.
Does that seem like a good choice?
To leave a great church, chase after money, get rich, and bring no fruit to perfection.
What's your life about then?
Is your life about money?
Why does God have to warn us about this in Luke 8 verse 14?
Because believers do this all the time.
They leave good churches to chase after money, and guess what?
They ruin their lives.
As we saw last week with Abraham, you might get that money, and that's not going to be a blessing.
It's going to be a curse.
Now, I remember when I was younger, and I was in a career that would make pretty good money in the actuarial field,
and I was at a company where I honestly didn't make that much money.
I made plenty of money to survive, but I didn't make the sort of money that you could make elsewhere.
You know, I'm glad that God didn't allow me to make tons of money,
because if I did make tons of money, I'm sure I'd be doing it right now,
and I would just love money, and just live my life for money instead of living for God.
Look, our life is not about money.
Turn to Luke 1.
You say, why are you talking about this when you talked about it last week?
Because this is an issue that believers struggle with all the time.
This is something you've got to just keep talking about,
because it talks about us having the same doubts that the unbelievers do,
about how we chase after money and don't have trust in God who's going to provide our needs.
One of the problems is people need to realize, just because God's going to give you food and clothing,
it doesn't mean He's going to give you a nice fancy house.
It doesn't mean you're going to get to go to every sporting event and every big thing,
and just spend tons of money on every restaurant.
God never promised that.
He promised to provide you with ramen.
He promised to provide you with food and drink.
That's what He says.
Ruth 1, verse 1 is another example of someone who chased after money.
Ruth 1, verse 1,
Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land,
and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab,
he and his wife and his two sons.
And so this man, Elimelech, in Ruth chapter 1,
he decides to leave Bethlehem Judah to go to Moab.
Let me ask you, in the Bible, was Moab a godly place?
No, it wasn't.
The Moabites were always wicked.
What is the picture here?
The picture is leaving a godly place where you can serve God to go to a wicked place where you can't serve God.
Now look, in our country, there's plenty of churches that are decent churches.
Here he's moving from a wicked country to another country.
There's good churches in the U.S. and there's good churches here.
But the application for us is basically leaving a godly place to go to an ungodly place.
The application would be leaving a church like this to move to somewhere,
and you have no clue where you're going to go to church.
That is the application.
There is a famine, so what does Elimelech do with his family?
He decides to move them from an area where he can serve God to an area where he can't serve God.
Now turn to Matthew 17.
Now I don't think it's wrong to make decisions partially due to money.
If you get a chance at a job offer that's going to pay you more money, that's not necessarily wrong.
But look, if it's a job offer that's going to cause you not to live for the Lord, then you're making a bad choice.
Your primary reason for making choices should not be because, oh wow, I'm going to get rich.
That should not be your primary reason.
Now another reason why, another doubt that believers have is this.
People have doubts about prayer.
They have doubts whether or not God will answer their prayer.
Matthew 17 verse 14.
For oft times he fall into the fire and oft into the water.
And I brought him to that disciples and they could not cure him.
Then Jesus answered and said, oh faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me.
And Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour.
Then came the disciples to Jesus' part and said, why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them, because of your unbelief.
For verily I say unto you, if you have faith that is a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain,
remove hence the honor placed and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible on you.
Howbeit this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting.
What is Jesus telling them?
He's saying, you know what, if you had prayed about it and you had fasted, you would have been able to heal up.
But why is it that they didn't pray about it?
Probably because they didn't really have that much faith that prayer is successful.
The truth is, if we really believe prayer would work in our lives, we probably spend more time healing prayer.
Now God says that prayer works, but honestly we don't have a lot of confidence in it.
You say, well how do you know that? Because most people spend like five minutes a day praying.
If you really believed in prayer, which has been more than five minutes a day praying,
you spend a lot of time praying each day.
But most people spend this much time praying each day. Why?
You don't have a whole lot of confidence that it is effective.
You have doubts about whether or not your prayers are going to be answered, whether or not it's effective.
Turn to Matthew 21.
There's a reason in the Bible why they asked Jesus.
They said He didn't teach us to pray.
They asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Why?
Because most people don't have a very good prayer life.
Isn't that the truth? I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but if people were honest,
most people would say, yeah, you know what, I don't spend a lot of time praying.
Well here's the reason why you don't spend much time praying,
because you really don't have a lot of faith that it's effective.
That's the reason why.
Matthew 21, verse 20.
Don't have any doubts. Doubt not.
He should not only do this which is done in victory,
but also he shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done.
And all things whatsoever he shall ask in prayer, believing, he shall receive.
Now notice he says, you can say to this mountain, be thou removed, and that prayer will be answered.
Is that not what he said?
Now, that's probably not something we would even think about praying.
And so I think what he's really trying to drive home to them is this.
You didn't even think about praying for this stuff.
You didn't take the time to do it.
It would have been effective if you did it, but you didn't even think it would be effective.
So you didn't even take the time to pray about it.
What Jesus promises is, you know what, your prayers will be answered.
Turn to James Moore. James Moore.
One reason why people doubt about the effectiveness of prayer is it's not something that you can visually see.
It's not like God gives you an answer down from heaven and says, okay, I will answer your prayer.
He told us to answer our prayers in this book, but you know, we have trouble believing that sometimes.
We lack faith. Notice what it says in James 4, verse 1.
From whence come wars and fightings among you?
Come they not, hence even of your lusts that warn your members?
Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot attain.
Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because he has not.
Ye ask and receive not, because he has to miss them to be consumed upon your lusts.
So in James 4, he mentions two reasons why life might not answer your prayers.
The first reason is simply this, because you don't ask.
That's the big reason why God doesn't answer our prayers.
You say, man, I wish God would answer our prayers, but did you actually pray?
Or is it just something you kind of thought about but didn't actually ask God for anything?
But you know, if we want God to answer our prayers, we have to actually ask God.
It'd be like when my son grows up.
You know, I'm not psychic. I'm not a lion man.
If he wants something, he's probably going to have to ask me about it.
I don't know what he's thinking. I'm not telepathic or whatever.
And so it's the same way with God.
God obviously knows what we do need, but he wants us to actually ask for it.
And the truth is, most things that we don't have, it's simply because we don't ask for them.
Now it could be, according to verse 3, because we're asking a miss.
Like if you say, you know, God, I want to be a millionaire by tomorrow,
I don't think he's going to answer that prayer.
If he does answer that prayer, honestly, I don't think it's a good thing for you.
It's going to be a curse for you.
But look, if you ask for something that's according to his will, then he's going to answer that.
I remember when, the first time I visited the Philippines in Camtanga,
you know, my wife and I, this was like in 2014,
and I told my wife at the beginning of each day,
my wife was new at Soul Winning, and their church didn't really go Soul Winning,
because it's a Baptist church, and Baptist churches don't go Soul Winning.
So, you know, they didn't really go Soul Winning.
And so I was telling her at the beginning of each day, I said, you know what,
we're going to pray that God gives us the opportunity to preach the gospel to someone.
Just in our normal everyday life, just going out with our life,
and then someone, God will just present to us perfectly timed for us to preach the gospel to.
And there were multiple situations.
I remember we were waiting to go somewhere,
and we were waiting like 45 minutes, we were ahead of time,
and there was one other person waiting.
Look, that person was there, so we could preach the gospel to them.
That person actually, I think we still have it on video,
on an old YouTube channel I had, but this person, you know,
his English was very limited, so my wife gave him the gospel and he got saved,
and he handed to us a little item.
And then at first I thought he was trying to say, okay,
you've given me your religion, now I'm going to give you Catholicism.
But he actually said, since I have Jesus, I don't need this anymore.
That person clearly, I mean, he messaged me a couple years later on Facebook.
I still remember the guy's name, hopefully he'll visit sometime.
But, you know, a couple years later he thanked us for preaching the gospel.
He said, I still remember, you know, you preached the gospel.
Does so many work? Absolutely.
You might not actually get to talk to those people when we get saved,
and that's a special situation, because most people I've gotten saved, I've never talked to.
I'll talk to them again once they see them in heaven.
But look, so many work.
It also shows that God answers prayers as well.
Because God sends a perfect person.
But let's say we didn't pray about that.
Would that person have been there for us to preach the gospel to?
I don't know, probably not.
Maybe, maybe not.
But look, the truth is, God does answer prayers.
And sometimes, you know, we might pray about something, it might take time for it to be answered.
It doesn't mean we should grow in the cow and give up.
We need to keep praying about it and trusting God that he will answer that perfect accordment as well.
Turn to Matthew 14.
And so the fourth thing I want you to see that believers often doubt about,
believers often doubt whether or not they can be used greatly by God.
Notice what it says in Matthew 14, verse 28.
And Peter answered him and said,
If it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water.
And he said, Come.
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
Now, a lot of people like to question miracles in the Bible.
They'll say that Jesus didn't really walk on the water.
There's actually like a rock, like this large rock underneath that he was stepping on.
But what about Peter?
Because, you know, Peter was able to walk on the water.
That's ridiculous.
Peter was literally walking on the water.
He was doing something great for God.
There's a lot of people that stayed in the ship.
Peter actually was walking on the water.
Verse 30, But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.
And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
See, he starts to doubt about whether or not he can walk on the water.
He starts to doubt whether or not he can do something great once he sees the storm coming at him.
Notice what it says in verse 31.
And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
You know, a lot of times people start living a life for God.
They start doing big things.
But they start to doubt along the way whether or not they can do that.
They're just not sure whether or not I can do something big for God.
Because who am I?
I'm just Peter.
I'm a nobody.
Right?
I'm just a fisherman.
But he was actually walking on the water.
And look, these are doubts that all of us have from time to time.
You know, even since this church has started from time to time, the doubt has come into my mind,
saying, can I really do this?
You know, am I really ready for something like this?
And I'm sure, you know, people in this room, before you went soloing, you probably wondered,
can I really preach the gospel?
Do I have that ability?
Could I really preach a sermon?
Could I really be used by God?
The answer is yes.
Amen.
All of us can.
I'm nothing special.
I'm a normal, everyday person.
One thing that amazes people when they meet Pastor Menes or Pastor Anderson,
they realize, oh wow, you're just a normal person.
You know, yeah, you're just a normal person.
God uses normal people to reach the world.
Turn to Route 5.
Route 5.
Now the truth is this, that in the areas of life that we doubt,
that God has promised that He'll come through, we can step out on that water.
And you know what?
If we screw up along the way or get scared, God's going to be there to protect us.
You don't have to worry about, oh no, I'm going to step out there and He's going to let me drown.
He's not going to let you drown.
He wants you to step out by faith.
And yes, we're going to stumble along the way.
Peter did better than any of the rest of them.
And he didn't make it the whole way.
God wants us to step out by faith.
And you know what?
There's going to be times when you kind of screw up.
There's going to be times when you make mistakes.
One thing I remember Pastor Menes told me when I came here is that before,
if you're going to run a church, if you're going to preach three times a week,
if you're going to be up here, you know, preach to people for a couple hours every week,
you've got to be willing to embarrass yourself.
You say, why?
Because you're going to make mistakes.
Everything's not going to flow perfectly.
You know, things have been going pretty well for a first service,
but there's been a few mistakes here and there.
You've got to be willing to embarrass yourself.
And the truth is, if we're going to be used by God,
we must be willing to step out on the water by faith.
When you first start going so-and-even, you're going to screw up a little bit.
It's not going to be perfect.
You know, when you do anything, the first time you preach a sermon,
boy, you're scared, aren't you?
Man, I don't know what I got.
Why didn't I agree to preach this sermon?
I don't know what I'm doing up here.
Send somebody else.
But you know what?
God wants you to step out like that.
Amen.
And everybody starts at a starting point, okay?
The first time I preached a sermon, I was scared to death.
The first sermon I ever preached, I preached inside a movie theater, okay?
I was at a Baptist church that was not exactly like ours, kind of liberal.
And see, the way you're supposed to preach is you're supposed to be on an elevated platform.
The Bible really talks about that in the middle of the EMI,
and you're looking down on it.
It kind of gives you a position of more confidence and authority.
I was in a movie theater, so I am looking up at everybody.
And I'm like there right before I preached.
I'm like, what did I get myself into?
I'm looking up, and of course, nobody sits at the front in churches,
so everyone's like 15 rows back.
So I'm just like yelling up there the first time I've ever preached.
But you know what?
I'm glad I did it.
Why?
Because you've got to step out by faith, and it gets easier as you go.
Look at Luke chapter 5, verse 3.
And he entered into one of those shifts, which was Simon's, and prayed,
and then he would thrust out a little from the land,
and he sat down and taught the people how to shift.
Now when he had left speaking, he said to Simon,
launch out in the deep and let down your nets for a drought.
So what does Jesus tell Simon Peter to let down?
He says, let down your nets.
Notice that word, nets, N-E-T-S.
Is that singular or plural?
Plural.
It's plural.
It's more than one net.
It could be two, it could be three, it could be four.
It's more than one, though.
Nets is plural.
Notice what it says in verse 5.
And Simon answered and said unto the master,
we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.
Now just notice the attitude Simon Peter has at the beginning.
He's basically saying, hey, we've already tried for hours and hours and hours and got nothing.
He's basically telling Jesus it's not going to work.
We already let down the nets.
We already put them down.
We got nothing.
We toiled all night.
That's a bad attitude to have.
This is the beginning of Simon Peter before he becomes greatly used by God.
As you go, you're going to grow.
You're going to become more spiritual.
But at the beginning, he's basically telling Jesus it's not going to work.
But notice what he says at the end of verse 5.
Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net.
Now wait a minute.
That wasn't what Jesus' word was.
Jesus said, let down the nets.
He didn't obey him.
He let down the net.
Is that plural or singular?
It's singular.
How many nets did Peter let down?
One.
How many did Jesus tell him to let?
More than one.
He said nets, and he let down the net.
So he didn't obey him.
He said, I'm going to obey you.
He's like, it's been unsuccessful.
Why didn't he obey him?
Because he didn't want to take the time to let down another net.
He didn't have much faith.
He was doubting whether or not he could do something great and catch those fish.
Notice what it says in verse 6.
And when they had done this, and when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break.
Well, why did your net break, Peter?
Because he didn't listen to Jesus.
He said, let down the nets.
And what he's basically saying is let down every net you have.
And what does Peter say?
Well, I'll let down one net, because it's been unsuccessful.
We toiled all night.
We caught nothing.
I'll let down one net, and your net breaks.
Why?
Jesus said you're going to catch a lot of fish.
That's what he's trying to tell you.
Let down the nets so you can take those fish.
Now, notice what it says in verse 7.
And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them.
And they came and filled both the ships, and they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,
Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
So Simon Peter's basically admitting, hey, you know what?
I screwed up.
I didn't really obey you.
I didn't have faith.
I doubted whether or not we could do this.
And he says, I'm a sinful man.
Verse 9, for he was astonished, and all that were with him
at the drought of the fishes which they had taken.
And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
which were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said to Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shall catch men.
Now, James and John were pretty much the next most successful of the apostles.
So these are pretty much Jesus' best people, and none of them really have faith.
And he lacked faith.
You know what that shows us?
It doesn't matter how spiritual you are, you will have doubts for a long time.
There's no question about that.
They are doubting whether or not they can do something great for God.
And at the end of verse 10, it says, Thou shalt catch men.
You know, the example Jesus is trying to give them is that, you know what?
If you let down all of your nets in your life, you're going to catch a multitude of men.
You're going to get so many people saving your life.
If you're willing to give, go all in for God.
You say, how many nets should I let down in my life?
Let down all of them.
What does that say?
Basically, why don't you take your television and smash it with a sledgehammer and throw it away?
Why?
You'll catch more men.
Amen.
You'll get more people saved.
What about the music I listen to?
Hey, why don't you get rid of your worldly music?
Guess what?
You're going to catch more men.
Amen.
Why don't you let down all of your nets instead of just letting down one net?
Why don't you just go all in and say, wow, you know, brother, should I, should I really
even read the nine chapters a day which we're reading this month?
Why don't you just let down all your nets and see what God can do in your life?
Amen.
Right.
You say, why is it that I cannot get a lot of people saved and other people get a lot
of people saved?
Because they've let down more nets than you.
They've gone all in and you haven't gone all in.
If you want to do something big for God, go all in.
But the promise from God is this.
If you go all in, you're going to catch a multitude of men.
You're going to get tons of people saved.
It doesn't matter who is in this room.
If you go all in to serve God, you will do something big in your life.
Anybody can be.
And this is what's so great about serving God because, you know what, growing up, my
dream was to be a professional soccer player.
That was what my dream was for year after year after year.
I played soccer for hours every day, year round.
That's all I did.
I love soccer.
That's like my favorite thing to do in terms of hobbies.
In my flesh, it's my favorite thing to do.
My dream was to be a pro soccer player.
You say, why are you not a pro soccer player?
Probably because I just didn't have enough talent.
Right?
I mean, I wanted to.
How many people here in the Philippines want to be the next Michael Jordan or LeBron James
or whatever basketball player?
Tons of kids, right?
But probably a lot of them are never going to be the next Michael Jordan.
Why?
You know, they just don't have the talent to do it.
And they're not taller than that.
I mean, basketball players are pretty tall, like 6'7", 6'8".
I mean, that's pretty tall.
Even in the U.S. it's pretty tall.
You don't see people that are like 6'8", very often.
Right?
But honestly, you know, they just don't have the talent to do it.
They don't have the ability.
But you know, in terms of serving God, it doesn't matter who you are and what talents
you're born with.
It's not about how much talent you have, it's about how many nets you let down.
Are you willing to go all in for God or not?
And you know what?
We have to have confidence that we can.
We need to have faith that we can do something big for God.
The reason why people don't do something big for God is because they doubt about it.
And they're not willing to let down their nets because they don't really believe they
can be used so greatly by God.
But according to the Bible, if you let down all your nets, you can be used greatly by
God.
Verse 11,
Do you see how they understand the application?
They say, okay, I get it.
Because I'm sure these disciples, I'm sure Peter and James and John, I'm sure they wanted
to serve God, I'm sure they wanted to get people saved, but I'm sure they were like
all of us before we learned how to go sowing.
They basically spent a lot of time and were not that successful.
Look, I used to preach the gospel to people all the time with very limited success.
But once you learn how you let down those nets, you can get a lot of people saved.
And they understand, okay, I'm willing to forsake all because I want to serve God.
You know what, that's my goal here, is to convince people in this room to go all in
for God.
Turn to Acts 10.
Acts 10.
You know, one mistake a church like ours could make is we could look throughout Metro Manila,
look throughout Louisiana, look throughout the Philippines and basically have this attitude,
but we're serving God more than anybody else.
I mean, what other churches are out there preaching the gospel?
And since we're already doing more than everyone else, we can just, you know, calm it down.
You know, why?
Why not just let down more nets?
I mean, don't you want to get people saved?
Why would you want to stop at a point and say, I'm okay with being this good of a Christian?
Why not just go all in?
Why not try to just get better and better and better every single year?
Another thing people can doubt about, this is something I actually added this morning,
was sometimes people doubt about things they learn from the Bible.
They doubt whether or not it's true.
Look at Acts 10 verse 9.
So Peter is basically told, hey, kill the animal and eat.
Isn't that what he says in verse number 13?
Kill and eat, okay?
Why is it that Peter doesn't want to do this?
Because in the Old Testament, there were certain things that weren't allowed to eat.
There were unclean animals.
Now, the clean versus unclean animals were there as a picture of who Jesus Christ is.
When Jesus rose again, look, you know, the picture's already been established by Jesus.
We're allowed to eat anything.
And that is what God is trying to show him.
He's saying, rise, Peter, kill and eat.
But Peter said, not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
He's saying, I haven't eaten an unclean animal.
And the voice spake on him again the second time, what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
This was done thrice, and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean.
So Peter is doubting about what this means.
Let me help you out, Peter.
What God is trying to tell you is, kill and eat.
That's what he's trying to tell you.
He means exactly what he told you, okay?
He's basically saying, hey, kill the bad boy and eat it, right?
That's what he's saying.
Eat the pig.
It's not unclean, okay?
I've made it clean.
He's basically saying, kill, you're allowed to kill and eat.
That's what God says, okay?
Now obviously it's easy for us to figure this out because we have the whole Bible.
And there's a big transition.
They didn't fully understand all of the transition, okay?
When Jesus rose again, you can see they still don't fully get this.
But another problem that Peter and the other disciples had, they had this unhealthy obsession with the Jews.
Now this is something that has not been common in the world until the last hundred years.
But isn't it true that churches have an unhealthy obsession with the Jews in today's world?
Because if you look throughout history, and all the religious people, they hated them.
I mean, look at the writings of Martin Luther.
You can read a book of his.
I think it was called The Jews and Their Lives.
I read like half the book.
And that's a prominent spiritual so-called person who was basically lambasting them.
But in the last hundred years, this obsession with the Jews has come back.
We think that they're better than other people.
And honestly, Peter and the others, you know what?
They had that unhealthy obsession.
And so Peter's going to preach the gospel to Cornelius.
And God's going to use that to help him understand the transition.
He's going to preach the gospel to everyone.
Go to verse 19.
So God is telling him, hey don't doubt.
And he's helping him understand the transition with the unclean animals as well.
What I want you to understand here is this.
That sometimes we can read something in the Bible.
And it's clear as day exactly what we see.
The Holy Ghost shows us.
And we choose not to believe.
You say, why?
Well because, you know, brother so-and-so doesn't believe.
Or pastor so-and-so doesn't believe.
Look, you know, I knew that the Bible said Jesus went to hell for years.
And I didn't believe he went to hell.
You say, why?
Because all the pastors I knew didn't believe.
And I just assumed they must know better than me.
And I doubted what I was clearly reading in the Bible.
But when we had this New Testament challenge, you might have come across things.
And you say, well brother Stuckey has a different opinion on this.
Hey look, the Holy Ghost showed you something.
And it's clear as day, believe what the Bible says.
You say, well pastor so-and-so doesn't believe it.
Look, it doesn't matter what pastor so-and-so believes.
Does the Bible clearly say it or not?
And here's an example where Peter is clearly hearing what the Lord said and he doubts about it.
And the truth is there's a lot of people that will read things in the Bible.
And instead of just being open-minded to see what the Bible says,
they just kind of assume, well whatever my pastor says, whatever brother Stuckey says,
whatever pastor Mendez says, that must be right.
I'm sure I make mistakes sometimes.
That's the truth.
I'm not perfect.
I do the best I can.
But every single person has natural biases for various reasons.
And they're going to say things that are wrong sometimes.
Read the Bible with confidence that the Holy Ghost will actually show you what the truth is.
Don't doubt that.
And look, you know, the truth is that in these Baptist churches,
people have seen that what they're being taught is wrong,
but they still believe what they're being taught.
Why?
They just assume their pastor must not be lying to them.
It's like, so you're saying God's lying to you?
I mean, if the Bible clearly says it, we need to believe it.
And I understand that within our church,
there's certain things we know we believe,
and there's certain pastors that we listen to and we respect them,
but they're just men.
I'm just a man.
I'm going to make mistakes.
And if there's something I preach and you say,
well, I just don't believe that because there's this verse that I think just proves that,
then you don't know what people believe the Bible teaches.
Now obviously if you come across something,
you know, we shouldn't just rush into opinions.
Make sure that it's true.
Make sure you cross-reference it.
Maybe there's a reason,
maybe there's a verse that we disprove what you think the Bible's teaching.
Maybe you need a little more time to read it.
But if there's something that you know is very clear in the Bible,
and maybe I teach against it,
or maybe some other pastor teaches against it,
believe what the Holy Ghost shows you.
Because the Holy Ghost is a better teacher than me.
The Holy Ghost is a better teacher than Pastor Mendez.
We're not perfect.
We're just men.
We're going to make mistakes.
And so look, you know what?
When you read the Bible, you can read it with confidence.
You don't have to doubt that what you're seeing is what the Bible actually teaches.
And so these are five things that, you know what?
Honestly, these are doubts Christians have from time to time.
But the truth is God does not really want us to doubt about things in our lives.
He hasn't given us the spirit of fear.
He's given us boldness.
You know, we have the Word of God.
We can trust in exactly what the Bible says for all of these problems.
If the Bible says that He's going to provide your food,
you don't have to worry about it and say,
well, you know, I'm going to have to move to Saudi Arabia to get a job
because I don't have enough money.
No.
If you leave a good church and just flee into Egypt, flee into Saudi Arabia,
flee to whatever country where there is no good church,
we need to have confidence in what the Bible says.
Let's go to the Word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing me here in your house this morning
and being able to see your Word of God and what you say.
And the truth is, God, all of us have doubts from time to time.
None of us are above that.
None of us are perfect.
None of us are God.
And we do have doubts, God.
Help us to just have confidence in what you teach and what the Bible shows
and to stay diligent to read your Word and to read the Bible
and to love your God.
And we know that you can get rid of those doubts, God.
I mean, it's all those doubts.