Kingdom Assignment - Jesus and doubt

The message begins after worship and announcements, when Pastor Pat opens Matthew 11 on a rainy Sunday. He starts with a story on himself: he showed up minutes earlier after trying to sweep a puddle off the stairs, soaked his socks and then found someone else had cleared it. “Nothing like wet socks to make you question your identity.” Every honest follower of Jesus has moments of doubt, he says, and what we do with them can deepen or distance our relationship with him. Faith doesn’t fade with doubt. It fades with distance.

John the Baptist is in prison for calling out Herod. He hears about Jesus’ miracles and sends his disciples to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Pat notes that scholars differ on whether the doubt was John’s or his disciples’. He preaches it as John’s own, and Jesus doesn’t shame him. He answers and then praises John to the crowd.

First, bring your doubt to Jesus. Pat quotes Oswald Chambers: “Doubt is not always a sign that a man is wrong. It may be a sign that he is thinking.” He urges parents and grandparents to make home a safe place for kids to ask questions. He wears his late father’s old BFGoodrich jacket and shares that his dad died of cancer when Pat was a boy, after Pat prayed honest, hard prayers. Psalm 23 holds, he says, “not because I have an answer. It’s because I have a presence.” He also grieves that many of us are discipled more by algorithms than by God’s word.

Second, recognize what God is doing. Jesus points to the blind seeing and the dead raised, but he doesn’t open John’s prison door. Pat gives examples: the person still waiting on a relationship being anchored in identity, the family in debt learning stewardship through Financial Peace University, and Romans 5:3-4 on suffering producing perseverance, character and hope.

Third, keep offense out of your heart. “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” The Greek word gives us “scandalized.” Jesus will not work by our agenda, and sometimes the answer is no or not yet. Pat calls the church to love and pray for the people they disagree with.

He closes by praying for everyone ready to trust Jesus with their doubts.