Navigating Spiritual Doubt: Strengthening Faith Through Uncertainty

Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, praise team. If you want to go and turn to Hebrews chapter 11, that's where we're going to start off this morning. And I know what you're thinking. You knew I was preaching because you saw the stage extensions. So I am going to start this morning in a way that I typically do not start sermons. When it comes to preaching, I'm just not a big storyteller. I'm just not. But that actually is how I'm going to start today. Because I get to preach this morning on a topic that is very important to me, is very personal to me. And it's one of those things where I knew I wanted to do this at some point. And today gets to be that day. So we're talking about the topic of spiritual doubt. [00:00:04] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


What is what I think one of the most common experiences in the Christian life, but one of the least talked about. Certainly one of the least talked about. One of the least preached about. And so with that, I want to delve into this topic this morning. So I want to start with telling you just a little bit about my experience. So we're going to rewind to 10 years ago, my freshman year of college, first semester. It was at that time when about midway -ish through the semester, I was in a lecture or something that started talking about, you know, doubt a little bit about apologetics. [00:00:50] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


And it was that moment that started what was between somewhere a year to two years of me seriously questioning my faith. Uh, not to the point of like, I was about to leave the faith, but enough to where I was not confident. I had a lot of uneasiness. Uh, and it just to say it was not a fun experience is to put it, uh, mildly. Um, it was, you know, as far as the number of people go, I was probably around the most number of people at that time in my life, more than any between being at Liberty university and even coming home to, you know, this size of a congregation. So I was probably around more people. Then at any point in my life, but it was one of the loneliest times of my life, uh, to the point where, and it's crazy, the things that you can remember, I can remember definitely one. I think it was two Christmas Eve services where I'm sitting back here about midway stand and singing, you know, joy is in the air. Everyone, you know, it's great. And I feel nothing. [00:03:00] (62 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


And I want us to talk about it. I want us to look at it a couple of different angles so that when we do face it, and I'm assuming there's people in here who are experiencing some of this on a level right now, that we are better equipped with how to deal with it. Because here's the thing. Here's the thing is spiritual doubt, it varies in time, in nature, in severity. It's not cookie cutter, right? And it's also indiscriminate. It doesn't matter whether you've been a believer for five years or been a believer for 50 years, it can get you. And unfortunately, just about, if not everybody has to deal with this at some point in their life. [00:05:02] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


So to give you a secular definition, Webster says that faith is firm belief in something for which there is no proof. Firm belief in something for which there is no proof. What does the Bible say that faith is? Very, very similar. Hebrews 11, the first place that I told you to. I'm looking at two versions of this. So one, the ESV rendering. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Okay? The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Another version, New King James. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now notice, whether you're looking at the secular definition or the biblical definition, there's this tension. There's this tension between what is definite and what is not. Okay? What is definite and what is not. Now faith is the assurance definite of things hoped for, indefinite. The conviction definite of things not seen, how we typically think about as indefinite, right? So there's this tension. [00:07:12] (77 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


But yet what we see is that even though there's this tension, the two aren't mutually exclusive. They're not mutually exclusive. They're not mutually exclusive. They're not mutually exclusive. You can have conviction. You can have substance. You can have assurance in what you can't prove a hundred percent. An example is that the believer can have conviction, can have assurance in God, that which he cannot see. So even though we think of them as opposites, they actually can kind of co -mingle together. [00:08:29] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


By definition, faith is putting trust, confidence, assurance in something that cannot be proven 100%. Because it ceases to be faith if you can prove it 100%. You don't need faith, in something that's 100%. The two, the one negates the other. So what does it mean when we're biblically called to faith? What does it mean to use faith to combat doubt? One of the things is understanding that we don't put a burden on ourselves to have assurance and confidence to a level and a point that nothing else in life does. [00:11:42] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


And here's what I think is one of the key to overcoming spiritual doubt. Is that when we are faced with whether it is circumstances, whether it is belief systems, whatever it is. Then when we look at that thing. And we compare it to the evidence. We compare it to what we know in scripture. And we hold the two together. We see that the Bible itself. We see that Christ itself. We see that the principles within the Bible. Have an evidentiary weight. Have a believability. To where everything else pales in comparison. So ultimately, whether we realize that we're thinking through all of these things or not. Ultimately, we are coming to faith decisions. And choosing one thing. One person over these. The other. [00:13:44] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


So that's faith. That's how faith factors into this whole thing. Now, what about, I keep talking about spiritual doubt. What does spiritual doubt look like? Does it have different forms? Is there certain questions that we can ask ourselves to navigate this? Well, that's what we're going to look at right now is we're going to look at the two broad categories. of spiritual doubt, and then we're going to look at the types of doubt. I can follow those categories. [00:17:17] (22 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


So, and typically kind of the crazy thing, but also I think kind of an assuring thing, is that typically the people that go through emotional doubt, are people who legitimately love the Lord and legitimately want to be obedient and believe the right stuff. Typically those are the people who go through emotional doubt. And so in some ways they're the least to be concerned about, because their doubt ultimately stems from wanting to do the right thing. [00:20:42] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


And one other comment on emotional doubt, and I'm going to emphasize that I'm going to speak broadly here, because what I'm about to say is something that nowadays gets you in trouble. So again, generally broad, broadly speaking, women do a much better job of handling emotional doubt than men. And here's why. Because typically, broadly, women can identify when they're going through emotional doubt. And since they can identify it, they treat it as such. They treat it as emotional doubt. Men think they're going through factual doubt. They think they're going through the process of needing more answers, but it's not. They're not. They're not. They're not. They're not. They're not. in actuality, it's just an emotional response. And how you know if this is you is you get answer after answer after answer, and that just produces question after question after question. No amount of answers that you can get when going through a moment. emotional doubt is going to fix the emotional doubt. So one of the important things about doubt is understanding and recognizing which doubt am I going through. [00:21:24] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


So the husband who loses his wife at the age of 35, God could have prevented that, but he didn't. The couple whose child is born with severe disabilities, God could have prevented that, but he didn't. The family member whose relationship with a loved one has been completely cut off with no seemingly explanation, understanding that God could have intervened in that, and he didn't. So you go through those things, it's like God could have, but he didn't. So why should I continue with this? That's what we're talking about when we're talking about volitional doubt. [00:22:43] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


If you are actively believing in Christ right now, there had to be a moment where that actually began. Now, to be clear, one thing I want to differentiate is simply acknowledging who Christ is or knowing about Christ. That doesn't cut it. When I say act, when he, when he writes actively following, that means biblical obedience. That means, you know, living the Christian life. Not that we gain salvation by the Christian life, but the Christian life is an evidence of the inward transformation that has already taken place. That is separate from when we read, when we read in James 2 .19, where he says, you believe that God is one good, even the demons believe and they shudder. So even demons have an understanding about Christ, frankly, a very accurate understanding of who he is, but yet that's not equivalent to salvation. [00:28:37] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


So ultimately, every believer has to deal with this question at some point in their life. Okay? If you're saved as an adult, then you deal with that question, that right there and then. Right? If you're saved as a child, like I was, as I'm sure many of you were, you're almost definitely going to have to deal with that question at some point later in life. Because even though you're raised in it, even though you might know scripture through and through, that doesn't mean that you are insulated from the attacks of Satan and spiritual warfare. Because if I dare say, and something that was revealed to me in my time of doubt was my arrogance. Because I figured, look, if there's anybody who's immune from doubt, it's the kid who was raised in the church, who's going to school to be a preacher and is actively taking ministry classes to go towards that end. I mean, I'm literally saturated with the Bible. How in the world am I going to be subjected to doubt? It happens. [00:31:28] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


And here's the thing, too. And this is not only applicable to, you know, volitional, but in all types. Godly relationships can be so important in battling this stuff. And here's the thing that's important to understand. The doubter, the person that is suffering, is not always going to seek out the help. Okay? When you're going through something, and you're really wrestling with it, a lot of times the instinct is to internalize it. To act like nothing happens. I'm going to work on it on my own time, but I don't want anybody to know anything. That's exactly the opposite of what we need to do. When I was going through my time, I talked to two people. Good people, at least I talked to somebody. But I can tell you, I could have used more. [00:36:23] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


So in close, I want to cover just a couple of, a couple of concluding points. One, and this is from Sean McDowell. Doubt is not the antithesis of faith. If you are doubting, that doesn't mean you don't have faith. The antithesis or the opposite of faith is unbelief and unbelief and doubt are two very different things. Okay. So that's, that's important that we grasp that. Second, even though scripture needs to be the source that we always turn to in our times of help and understanding, again, God has empowered and enlightened human beings to write some pretty helpful books on some different subjects. [00:38:49] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)