Latest / HOTLCAST / [SERMON] The Dungeon of Doubt: When God Feels Silent | Dungeons & Dragons

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[SERMON] The Dungeon of Doubt: When God Feels Silent | Dungeons & Dragons · HOTLCAST

0:05
SPEAKER_00: Today uh we are in our third uh week of our series called Dungeons and Dragons.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh every October we pick some uh lesser-known scriptures from the Bible that kind of go along with the season uh and investigate the biblical truth contained within those stories that maybe you've never read before, maybe you've only read once, you didn't really know what it meant.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: And so this series we're doing Dungeons and Dragons.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: And yes, there's a popular game called Dungeons and Dragons, but we're not playing it today.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: Um so but we are talking about stories in the Bible.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: The last two weeks we did the Old Testament, and we did a dungeon story from the Old Testament, and we did a dragon story, which was the Leviathan in Job.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: And now, so then we are moving in the way I think we're going to the New Testament for the next two weeks.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: So today we're gonna talk about another dungeon in the New Testament.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: So a lesser uh known story, and we're gonna share that with you.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: So, but first I want to tell you something that's important to me because uh this weekend is a big weekend.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: We had a uh retreat, Cody mentioned earlier, we had 108 kids from different churches come to a leadership.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, it wasn't leadership, it was evangelism and discipleship retreat, growing in their faith and then sharing their faith at home, uh at school, and really understanding who they are in Christ.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: That was an awesome, exciting thing.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: But it's also happening during a very important weekend to me, which is Riftbound card game release weekend.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: So uh very important because I love I love this game.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: So my one of my favorite games is Riftbound.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Here is uh uh a picture of a pack of cards or some packs of cards that that I opened.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: So I want to talk to you about this because this, you know, care about what the people you care about, care about.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: It's part of our culture of honor.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to care about this.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh Friday, I went and to a store to play a game.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: They give you a series of packs, you open them up, and you get your cards, you put them make a deck, and you play.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: It's it's fun.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: I like it.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm nerdy, it's cool.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Um but over the course of the last year, my sons and I, we have been really playing a lot of roof bounds.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: The people from our church play roof bound, it's been great.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we've been meeting new people, we've had baptisms coming out of that.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: But you really want to get you when you collect the cards, there's commons, uncommons, rare, epics, you know, these uh diamond level, there's all these rare cards.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: And to get the the best card, they call it a chase card.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: And so uh over the course of the year, we have opened hundreds of packs between the three of us.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: We have not ever gotten a chase card.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: And the chase card is an exclusive rare card with a signature of the artist on it.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: We've seen them, we've just never opened them.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: We've seen other people get them, it's not been us.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And now uh we've we feel like we care about this game, we're investing in this game, we we love it, we love the community.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: We never every we used to film opening packs thinking we're gonna get that one card, it's gonna be awesome, we're gonna catch it on camera, it's gonna be amazing.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: We don't do that anymore because we've got like 50 of those videos, and we're just like, oh, another comments, another comments.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: So Friday, I'm at the uh uh the place I play, the arena, and uh there's a new guy and his girlfriend, and he brought his girlfriend because you know that's that's super romantic.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're in love, let's go play a card game together.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Like they're gonna break up soon, I'm probably but um yeah, so she's probably like I hate him.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh so so the new guy's there, he brings his girlfriend, they buy some packs before the event even starts, before we get our cards, they just buy some packs off the shelf of the last set.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: So she's just open it, has no idea what she's doing, doing.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: She opens up and goes, Oh, look, what's this?
3:25
SPEAKER_00: It's super pretty.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: And it's a signature chase card.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not even kidding you.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, I'm I'm gonna die right now.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: So uh and she's like, What do I do with it?
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't bend the corners because you take the thousand dollar card and make it a zero dollar card.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, don't let her touch it.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: So uh, all right.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Um so they get it, they put it in sleeve, and they get so that she doesn't know, and like she's she's talking about trading, but I'm like, you just give it to me.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm a pastor, I'll take it.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Um so then the event starts.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: So I open all my cards, and usually when you do these events, you get special cards.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: I got nothing.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: It's the worst it's ever been.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: As you know, new new guy and girl over here got all these cards.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I'm open up, I'm like, I got nothing.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm like a waste of my time.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Like this was gonna be more fun.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I should appreciate the cards I got.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: I know, I understand, I understand.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: New guy and his girlfriend over here, she's opening her packs, has no idea what she's doing, pulls out another chase card.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I'm just like, are you kidding me right now, Laura?
4:23
SPEAKER_00: So I flip the tables.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: No, I was just kidding, no, I didn't kidding.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: I didn't do that.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: I didn't do that.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: But and then uh walks another guy walks in, so another guy walks in, his name's Devin, he's a friend of ours, he plays card games with us here at church a lot.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: But Devin and his wife just had a baby.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: So for three months, Devin's not been coming to play cards.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: He's not been coming, he's not really been part of the community or anything.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: So he comes, he goes, On the way here, I saw my Best Buy, and I found this.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: And he found a pack, like this pack of red box pack cards.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: He says, Oh, you know what it is?
4:53
SPEAKER_00: I know what it is, it's got six packs of cards in it.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: So he opens it up, sitting there, pulls a Chase card.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: So, and I'm like, I'm I don't know why I'm doing this.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: So, like, because you ever had that moment in life where you feel like everybody's getting ahead and you're just like getting kicked while you're down, like it's like I'm the one that cares the most.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Like when I went to Italy, I mean I had this amazing trip and then I got robbed.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: It's like, why can't I we have nice things, right?
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Like uh somebody else in Rome has nice things.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: So, but the truth is a lot of you you feel that way in life.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I had to deal with new guys, girl, getting all these cards, but I also, like, this is a silly example, but there's bigger real life examples, right, too.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Like back in 2025, myself, my brother, and my sister and our spouses, we were all ready for our three children to come into the world at the same time within three months period.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: So we're all gonna have kids at the same age, they're gonna rate, we were excited, we talked for months about raising our kids up together, they're gonna have to be the same age, you're gonna get to know each other, all this stuff.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: And then it's our turn.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: In July, my daughter, on her due date to be born in the world, is born in the world lifeless.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Patty goes to the doctor, no heartbeat, we had emergency delivery, she's she's not there, and so everything that we expected didn't come to reality.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: My sister had a healthy baby, my brother was about to have a healthy baby.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: We're not we didn't.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: And I'm the pastor.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: I was pastoring full time, and so it's like, Lord, why can't I have a healthy baby?
6:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm the one that's serving you, right?
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Why has it got to be me?
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's the reality of life sometimes.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Like there are real situations in life where you we just want to know God why.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: We have questions, we have doubts, like why me?
6:40
SPEAKER_00: And so we we deal with situations like the new guy, my daughter's name was peace, and so ultimately we named her peace because we just had a peace about it, and we don't know why it happened.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: God didn't like just give us, like, oh, here's the answer, Kyle, this is why it happened to you.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: No, we just have to trust God, his faithfulness.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: We have to see him moving in the world around us and believe that he's doing amazing things still and see it through interactions with people.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, we did create a nonprofit after that called the Peace Bear Project, and for the last 21 years, we've been giving away bears to families who are in a similar situation, telling, letting them know, hey, you're not alone.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: God is still good in the midst of this chaos, the midst of this tragedy, midst of your grief, and we give those bears.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: And so we've been able to do many good things, we give thousands of bears away over the years and raise funds for all that.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: We still do that today.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: But like, why does it feel like sometimes everybody else is getting things and you're not?
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, we had another child after that, which is would is now my son, Carver.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: So my wife was pregnant with Carver, and Carver works at the church here, does our middle school program.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: And uh, when we were going to those checkups, because once you have a loss, now the entire pregnancy for every other pregnancy that you ever have is just hundreds of doctor visits and appointments, checking on things, because they could never find out why peace passed away.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: So, no idea.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't figure out anything.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: So then it's just a series of medical appointments.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: And so we'd go to the doctor's office, we'd go to the gynecologist and sit there, and uh we just look around the room, and it'd be like a 13-year-old girl, a 14-year-old, a 16-year-old girl, all pregnant.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: It's like, Lord, why can't all these kids have babies when they're not married, they're not living for you, they're making bad choices, and yet we can't have we've just been doing everything right.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm a pastor, I've been serving you, I love my wife, but like, why can't we?
8:25
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a lot of us in life, with our health, with our situations, with our marriages, with our relationships, with when we get betrayed, with school, with work, whatever, finances.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, we a lot of us have those moments in life where we just feel like we're getting kicked while we're down.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this famous phrase, they failed first service.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you guys a chance.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: I want you to fill in the blank.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: I thought first service would get it.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: It is always a someone say it?
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Always a bridesmaid, one person in this whole church.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: All right.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't why do I know this one and no one else does?
9:00
SPEAKER_00: I it's a question, I gotta question for myself.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh always a bridesmaid, never a okay, you know that part.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: So someone in the first says first service said always a loser.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: So uh uh yeah, I mean we start marriage counseling this week.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just gonna I don't know why I know this phrase.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: I do, I'm in, I'm in, I do a lot of weddings.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: But like, always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: What why it says it means like everybody else is getting married and happy, and I'm just stuck here being second fiddle.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Like for a lot of us, that's how we feel about different things in our life.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not about marriage, maybe about racial relationships, but finances, whatever.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: We look around the world, we see everybody get along.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Like I drive through Tuscany in Italy, and I'm like, man, who have all these rich people that buy these houses?
9:47
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not me.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Right?
9:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm like always a bridesmaid just driving through seeing people's houses, taking pictures of their trees, right?
9:53
SPEAKER_00: Um but it's the reality of it.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: We get stuck in a comparison game of what we have, what we don't have.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to talk about a story in scripture of a guy.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: His name is John the Baptist.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: And John the Baptist was the guy before Jesus came into picture.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist was the most famous.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: He was the guy everybody was following.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: He had he had loads of disciples that were following him.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: He was teaching about the Lord, he was baptizing them, uh, he was pouring into them.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: And so he's like the guy.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus comes to the picture.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to pick up the story, give you a little bit of framework.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk about John going to the dungeon.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: And the dungeon that he's gonna go to is in this place that's outside of the Dead Sea.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: It's called Macaras.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: It is uh like an like a hilltop fortress.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: The fortress is missing because, you know, it's been 2,000 years.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh wars, destruction, all those things.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: But it's on this hilltop.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: This is where it is.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: You can see some of the ruins left.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is about 2830 A.D.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: at the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: This is where it is.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: So John gets imprisoned in the dungeon, hit this fortress.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of the story.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: And this dungeon really becomes a dungeon for John of doubt.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, John was preaching, he was talking about God, he was challenging the authorities, he was speaking the Bible, and King Herod wasn't really listening.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: He was a Jew, but he wasn't really doing, he wasn't being a good Jew.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't following God, so John's speaking out against him.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: He's doing all the things that are that a prophet is supposed to be doing.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: He's doing all that work.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: And then he finds himself locked in the dungeon.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: But we all have our own dungeons.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's not this island, I mean, it's not island hilltop, hilltop dungeon, but we all have dungeons.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your dungeon's grief because you're dealing with the loss.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your dungeon's an unanswered prayer because you've been asking God, you've been asking God, you've been asking God, you've been trying to get that chase card, that chase prayer, that chase job, whatever it may be.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's disappointment because uh you expected life to turn out different, you expected your relationships to turn out different, you expected your health to turn out different, whatever, your job.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a dungeon of betrayal because you thought someone loved you and then they betrayed you.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just that you're in a season in which God seems silent when you really want God to give you an answer now.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Right?
12:02
SPEAKER_00: God needed an answer now, and he just remained silent.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Those are all different dungeons that lead us to doubting God.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, I I had questions when we lost peace, like, God, why?
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Why me?
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm faithful, right?
12:18
SPEAKER_00: I follow you.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And for the reality of it, we we all get stuck in these dungeons.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Can I get the next slide?
12:25
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes down to it, it's possible to know who Jesus is and still question what he's doing.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see in the story of John.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: Just because John ends up in a dungeon where he has some doubts doesn't mean he just still doesn't love Jesus.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: We see, like, we see King David in the Old Testament.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: He he asked a lot of questions.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: He complains.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: He like, if you go read through Psalms, David's kind of a whiner.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not the biggest fan of David on this Psalms.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Don't get to heaven and meet David, like, oh, I'm not your fan.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: So, like, you're kind of whiny and you sinned a lot.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: So uh, but God still called David a man after his own heart.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: There's an entire book of the Bible called Lamentations where they're just lamenting like what the woes of life.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh Lord, this is so terrible.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Like, so we're allowed to have questions, we're allowed to doubt as long as we still know that God is God and God is still good.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is God, and he's still good.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to pick up the story of Matthew 11.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: You can read through this, but Jesus is out doing uh his work, he's out teaching and preaching, he's doing all those things.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: And it says, when he's doing that, he hears about John.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: It says in in Matthew 11, too, it says, now when uh was he hears about John, but like John is also then being told by disciples, because in the antiquity, we see this with Paul in jail uh when he's in Rome.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Like, even though they're in jail, they were still allowed to pass letters.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Like you, I've not been in jail here in the U.S., but like, I mean, I've not been I'm I've not been in jail anywhere.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: It's like now you're gonna be like, where's he been in jail?
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh I've not been in jail anywhere, but you can still send letters.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Like, I often will send, like, there's an inmate mail you can send.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: So we've had people that go to jail or prison in different churches.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: You can actually go and send mail to prisoners, you can send mail as a pastor, you can do all these different things.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: Now it's all email.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Um so you can still do this stuff today.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: So it's not like odd that they were able to pass messages back and forth.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: So messages are going back and forth.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: John's hearing from his followers because he was a well-respected, well-known guy and hundreds and hundreds of followers, and so they're coming to visit him, they're sending him letters, and so he's hearing about what Jesus is doing.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is also hearing that John's in jail.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: So that's where we pick up the story.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, when John heard in prison, the dungeon, about the deeds of Christ, he sent word by his disciples.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: So John's hearing that Jesus is out there doing all this stuff.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Well, I got questions because I'm in jail, right?
14:46
SPEAKER_00: And I'm out there serving you.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: And what John had done previously, John was already serving Jesus.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: He had already basically saw Jesus come do these miraculous things.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this moment where Jesus was baptized and the Lord Spirit came upon him.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: John then took all of his disciples and said, Hey, all that work that I've done, it was for him.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: All of you go to him.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Like my whole job was to prepare the way for Jesus, to set up a system where these disciples that I had created and followed, they're now you guys go with him because he's the real thing.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And I was just kind of his placeholder.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you want to talk about like football, uh, you know, Bryce Underword, placeholder for Tommy Carp.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: So, like, right, if you if you know Michigan football, right?
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's this person that comes and then somebody else is gonna come, and hopefully that person's greater.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And so John was preparing the way for somebody greater.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: And so the man who prepared the way for Jesus was now sitting in a dungeon.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just like he had to step aside, he literally went to the dungeon.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, you would think if you were John, it'd be like, well, Jesus is gonna come, and I know this is my task, and then I'm just gonna step aside.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna do his thing, and I'm gonna ride ride his coattails.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: He finds himself in a dungeon instead.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: And so Matthew 3, 11, 3 says this.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: It says, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
16:12
SPEAKER_00: So what we find is like letters go back and forth, and John's like, hey, I know I've been serving you.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: I know I've been following you, I know I gave you all my disciples.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: But are you the guy, right?
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm in the dungeon, right?
16:28
SPEAKER_00: And why am I in the dungeon, right?
16:31
SPEAKER_00: Like, why, if you're here and you're the Messiah who I've been serving for, I've been promised, they all thought the Messiah was going to create this big uh military victory and was gonna destroy the Romans and bring this, you know, kind of this pox Judaism, right?
16:45
SPEAKER_00: This this glory period.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: The reality is that wasn't ever Jesus' plan.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: That's what the people thought.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: So John's sitting in jail, and he's like, Jesus, hey, are you are you the guy?
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Are you the guy I thought you were?
16:57
SPEAKER_00: And so John didn't question Jesus from a place of comfort, he questioned him from a place of suffering.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: We don't, when things are good, we don't usually just sit out just like, oh Jesus, why are things so good?
17:08
SPEAKER_00: I wish they were bad, right?
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Can you make them worse for me, Jesus?
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, have anyone ever done that?
17:14
SPEAKER_00: Have you just had things going good, like, Lord, really test me now?
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think I've never done it.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: So, like, I mean, I was having a great time in Tuscany, overlooking this beautiful valley.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say, like, Lord, ruin this for me.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, uh, really teach me a lesson now.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we it's not what we do.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: And so he questioned for a place of suffering.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: Once things turn, then you start questioning.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Once you get back from dinner in Rome and you find your window of your car busted out and all your luggage told, and now you're questioning, like, Lord, why is this happening to me?
17:45
SPEAKER_00: We were having a great time.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Like, why would you let this happen?
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, Lord, why did our daughter have to pass away?
17:52
SPEAKER_00: That's when we start questioning.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Lord, why did new girl get all these amazing cards?
17:59
SPEAKER_00: That's when we start questioning.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And we know, like John already, if we go to John 1, 29, before he's in the dungeon, John says this about Jesus.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: He's he had already said to all his followers, Jesus is the guy.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: He already acknowledged that with his heart, his mind, his mouth.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: So now he finds himself later in a dungeon.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Now he's like, but are you the guy?
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Because why am I here?
18:31
SPEAKER_00: You see, the man who once declared Jesus was the Messiah now wondered if he'd been wrong.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: We've all maybe been there when life takes a turn.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: And you start questioning, Lord, like why?
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Why me?
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Why me?
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Why am I suffering?
18:47
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is responding to John.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: And then we go back to John, oh well, this is John 14, 4.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: We'll explain why John is in jail here, in prison.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, for so, for John had been saying to Herod, so what is happening is John is speaking against King Herod because King Herod's kind of a naughty guy.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: He's not a good Jew, he's kind of a bad Jew.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: And so John has been saying to King Herod, it is not lawful for you to have her.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: So what he's referencing is John wasn't in prison because he failed God.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: He was there because he had obeyed God, and he was speaking out on the behalf of God against the behavior of the king of the Jews, which is supposed to be following God.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what's happening.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: So that's why he's in jail.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: Like he's speaking out.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: And so can we get the next slide?
19:34
SPEAKER_00: So Herod took his brother's former wife Herodica, Herodias, as wife.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: So that was banned in the Old Testament way.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: You you weren't supposed to take your brother's former wife as your spouse.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: That was not a good thing.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: That was a sin.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: That was outlawed.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: And so John publicly confronts Herod because of the relationship and how it violated God's law, and he's speaking out publicly against Herod.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: And so Herod says, Well, I'll show you.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm king.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna lock you in the dungeon.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna throw you in the dungeon.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: So he does.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: He takes John, throws him in a dungeon.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: If you want to read about it, you can read about it in Matthew 14.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: And he throws him in a dungeon, and that's where we're finding the story.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: And then we've got John now in the dungeon, kind of having some doubts, kind of conversing back and forth with letters to Jesus.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus didn't give John the answer he expected, though.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: So John's like, hey, are you the guy?
20:27
SPEAKER_00: And so what Jesus did instead was give him evidence of who he was.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: He sent his disciples not to give John an explanation of why he's locked in jail, he gives him the opportunity to understand the power of Jesus.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, go tell him what's going on.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Go show him what's going on.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Can I get that next slide?
20:47
SPEAKER_00: And we find ourselves in Matthew 11, and in Matthew 11, it says this the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: So what Jesus says is, hey, when we when we write back to John, I just want you to tell him of all the things that are happening.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Tell him about what's going on.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus doesn't have to answer the questions.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna say, But I'm gonna show you how I'm God and what I'm doing.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: And see, Jesus was doing miracles everywhere except the one that John wanted.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Blind people were seeing, lame people were walking, people were being literally raised from the dead.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: But John was kind of questioning, What about me?
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Where's my earthquake and the wall split so I can come out?
21:37
SPEAKER_00: He eventually does that for Paul and Silas, right?
21:40
SPEAKER_00: We got we got multiple stories in the New Testament where Jesus opens up the walls, right?
21:45
SPEAKER_00: So they can escape.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: But for John, he's in the dungeon.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: While Jesus is out doing this ministry, he prepared the way for Jesus.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: But now he's locked up.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus continues on, says this.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 11, 6, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Don't be offended, I'm out doing my Jesus stuff.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Right?
22:10
SPEAKER_00: You might have questions, but I am still gonna do be God and do God things in the world and share with people.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus was calling John to trust him, even when his ministry didn't match John's expectations.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: That's the hard part.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Because we gotta don't let what God hasn't done blind you to what God is doing.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: See, we often get blind in life.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: We end up in our own little dungeon and we get blind to the goodness of our lives.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Like for me, yeah.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: I haven't opened any chase cards.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: We've got kids at church that opened chase cards.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: Joe Crawl's opened a chase card, right?
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Like when it comes down to it, we but my life is still good.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: It's still great.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: I've done all these amazing things, right?
22:58
SPEAKER_00: I just got back from Italy.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: That's a win.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got broken into, but it was at the end, not the beginning, so yay, right?
23:05
SPEAKER_00: So but then when I think about my life, yes, I've had to bury two children, but I have three others, and they're awesome.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: They're amazing.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: I've had a good life, I've won championships at every level playing sports, I've had all these amazing things have happened.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: If I just focus on the little dungeons here and there, I miss out on the good perspective of all the amazing things that God is doing in my life and around my circle of my life and other people.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Because if we get blind and we just are just woe is me in the moment, we miss out on all the other stuff.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: So one of the things you can find out about David in the Old Testament is yeah, he's sometimes a whiner, but he also, in the next psalm, understands the power and the amazing goodness of how God provides and is amazing, and he's God.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: See, deliverance is not the only evidence of God's faithfulness.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Rescuing us from the dungeon doesn't, that's not just, well, if God doesn't rescue me in a dungeon, then he's not faithful to me.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: That is not evidence of God's faithfulness.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: His faithfulness is how he takes care of you.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: That's the reality.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: And so then what happens in this Matthew 11 is Jesus and John kind of write letters back and forth.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: We get little pieces of that.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus then preaches about John.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: And when he's doing that, he says this: he's telling people, like, hey, what did you go out into the wilderness to see?
24:19
SPEAKER_00: A reach?
24:21
SPEAKER_00: A reed shaken by the wind?
24:23
SPEAKER_00: He's like, that guy, John, he wasn't, he he was strong and stalwart.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't just blowing back and forth.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: You guys used to go out and follow him because he was preparing the way and he stood on who God is and he showed God.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: He was strong.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Not some piece of grass or reed that just blows back and forth and back and forth.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: You see, John may have just questioned Jesus, but Jesus didn't question John's faithfulness just because he asked the questions, had some doubts.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Because he was still John who was faithful, who did his task that the Lord had called him to.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: And then as Jesus is speaking about John further in Matthew 11, he says this to the crowd truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: This is a lot of people that John is greater than.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: All of the Old Testament prophets, who they would have known, the crowd would have known, Jesus is saying, Hey, that guy that's in the dungeon, there's nobody better than him.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: There's no one greater.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: He is amazing.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: He's the top.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's in the dungeon as they're talking about.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: They would have known John's in the dungeon.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if someone gets, if some famous figure gets put in jail, we all know about it, right?
25:43
SPEAKER_00: It hits the TikTok feed, it hits the news feed, it's on all your news channels.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: They'd all known it got around.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, there's no one greater than him because he's been faithful.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: He's been faithful.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And see, your moment of doubt doesn't erase your lifetime of faithfulness.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to have questions.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: I got lots of questions.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: I love people that ask me questions like, I have no idea.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't always have the answer.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: And I always will say, like, I can't wait to get to heaven and ask the question.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: And I want to know, I got a lot of questions I want to know answers to.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And then people say, Well, you're gonna get to heaven, you won't care about the questions and answers.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: And I know, that's sad.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Because I still want to know, and I tell God all the time my prayers, when I get to heaven, I still want you to give me my answers.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Because I like history and I like facts, so I want to know stuff.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: So, like, I want to know how things went.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: So, but that's that's the truth.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: Just because you have questions, just because you have doubts, doesn't erase your faithfulness that you've lived.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Because we don't know everything, and we're never gonna know everything.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: That's where John's at.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: John's been faithful.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: He did everything he was asked to do, and now he finds himself in a dungeon.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: He's like, but why?
26:50
SPEAKER_00: What about me?
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Where's my card?
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Where's my child?
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Where's my freedom?
26:58
SPEAKER_00: Where's my health?
27:00
SPEAKER_00: Where's my money?
27:01
SPEAKER_00: Where's my career?
27:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about we're all in different dungeons.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: So John's story continues on in Matthew 14.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: He gets put in the dungeon.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Herodias doesn't really like him because of it, so she kind of convinces Herod to do this.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: He, Herod, sent and had John beheaded in the prison.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: John doesn't leave the dungeon.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: He never walked out of the dungeon of life.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: The dungeon's the last place he went.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: See, God's faithfulness is not measured by whether he gives you the outcome you wanted.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: That's the problem.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: We think God's really great when things are good.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: But when things aren't good, we're like, oh, God, you're not very good to me.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: You're much better, so-and-so.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: Look at their life, look at their stuff, look at their health.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: The problem is God is still good and God is still faithful, no matter if you're in the dungeon or you're not in the dungeon.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: When people around you are getting ahead and having success and having better health, it doesn't mean that God isn't faithful to you.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: It just means life is life.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: But we often feel that way.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: If we treat God as if he's a genie who just answers our prayers and gives us wishes.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: And when he doesn't, he's not a good God.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Because we're not getting our way, because our expectations aren't getting met.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: And so, why are we talking about this?
28:31
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean for you?
28:33
SPEAKER_00: When you don't understand what Jesus is doing, just take your questions to Jesus.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: It was okay that John asked questions to Jesus.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not scold him for asking a question, he didn't scold him for having some doubts.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: That's not what happened.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: He just said, hey, look, look at what God is doing.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And so I think our best way to move through our doubts and questions is to go and look at what God's doing.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Look at what God's doing.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: That's that's how we do it.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: Look at the next slide.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: Here's if you're stuck in a dungeon of doubt in any area of your life, uh, you know what it is.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: You know if you're kind of stuck in a dungeon because you know you're frustrated with God about something.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what that is, but you know.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: So here's how you move forward.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: You pray honestly, you return to Scripture, you seek wise Christian counsel, and you remain faithful even without immediate answers.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: We got to pray more.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: You're allowed to talk to God and ask questions.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: God, why?
29:31
SPEAKER_00: God, why?
29:32
SPEAKER_00: God, why me?
29:34
SPEAKER_00: You may not get an answer to that.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: John didn't, but hopefully will God reveal it to you how he's God.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: And then, once you're praying to God and talking to him, return to Scripture.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: Go to Scripture, read about God's faithfulness over and over and over again.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: And then, after you do that, go talk to other people who get it.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: Wise Christian counsel, people who have been in their own dungeons and gotten out, people who are still trapped in their own dungeon, who have figured out that God is still good even if they're in the dungeon.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: And go let them pour into you.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not in a relationship with the people and you're not talking about it, you're not ever gonna get wise counsel.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: And then we've got to remain faithful even when we don't get the immediate answer.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: We are in a we are in an immediate gratification culture.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't happen exactly now, as fast as it can, God doesn't love me.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: So-and-so doesn't love me.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is that's just not the way it works.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Here's one of the things that I love.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: I love making homemade pizza.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Homemade pizza.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: The problem is I live in an immediate gratification culture.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: So if I want to make pizza today, if I want to make the dough, I then want to eat the dough and the pizza immediately after.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: The problem is to make a good homemade pizza, because I took a pizza class in Italy, you have to let it sit in your fridge for three days code-proofing so it gets that good flavorful crust.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: That is really hard to do in today's culture as you open that fridge and say, well, there's that pizza I could be eating right now.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: And then when you're like me, you get busy with church stuff and forget, and five days later your thing's a mess.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: So, like but it's hard to do.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: We don't like to wait even three days for pizza, but yet we don't even like to wait more than three seconds for God to give us an answer.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Because we want it right now, God, it has to be now the way I want it to be.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: Give me my stuff, give me my answer.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're there, you just might it might take years and decades.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: I think the biggest issue of like the biggest thing I learned about faithfulness is when my great my grandfather, six months before he died, started attending the church I was pastoring.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: He recommitted his life to Christ after like 35, 40 years of just being out of it.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: He was a street preacher, kind of had a breakdown.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: And for my whole life, I never knew him, and for most of my mom's life, I he wasn't following the Lord.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: And so when he did finally kind of come back to his faith, I remember my grandma prayed every single day, every Sunday we were with him.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: We prayed for my grandpa to come back.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Over 35 years of constant praying.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: That is not an instant gratification.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: But eventually she saw the reward to that faithfulness.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: We've got to recognize God doesn't work on our time, in our way.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: And so, and if you're not in groups, like you gotta get it.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: The secret sauce to Carl Lakes is you can be listen, you can go anywhere and get a message, you can go anywhere and listen to music these days, but you can't replace community.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Real people who love the Lord doing life together with you.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: That's the secret sauce.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: You want to be part of this church?
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Get in a group of people.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: Life groups, Bible studies, affinity groups, discipleship groups, you name it.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Get in group of people so you have that Christian counsel.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: So you have people who have been in their own dungeon to help you walk through it or can just sit in a dungeon with you, who will pray with you, who will get you in scripture and help you remain faithful.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: That's the beauty of community.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: And see, faith isn't trusting God only when the door opens to the dungeon, it's trusting them when it stays closed.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: That's real faith.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, we're trying to open that door and get out of the dungeon and the door stays closed.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Some of us trying to kick it down, some of us trying to take our credit card out and pick the lock and still not opening, right?
33:07
SPEAKER_00: And all you want to do is get out, but God has you there.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: Real faithfulness, real faith is trusting God when the door doesn't open.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: We all want to be the pause, and we all want to get the breakouts, and we want the earthquakes to come and rescue us from the dungeons of life, but maybe we're the John the Baptist, and the real faithfulness is just knowing we're here because this is where God has us now.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: And how can I be faithful and watch what God does and how who he is in the midst of it?
33:37
SPEAKER_00: See, when God doesn't close open the door, don't close your heart to him.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: The problem is we often do.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: We never clamor for God to make things worse, we only clamor for him to make them better.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: And so that's when we've got to recognize that just because the door is an opening the way you want it to, doesn't mean that God isn't good and God isn't so God.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: That's the reality.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: And so the challenge today, as we talk about this story, yeah, we could have picked Paul and Silas, Chain and Dale, and singing praises, and that's a great one.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Right?
34:06
SPEAKER_00: But you probably heard that one before.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: I think the truth of this story is that the man who is greater than all others, that Jesus himself said, ended life in a dungeon after asking some questions.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Yet he recognized that God is still God, and God is still good.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not hoping that we all end our lives in dungeons with our heads being taken.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: So, but the reality is you're gonna go through stuff in life.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have grief, you're gonna have loss, you're gonna have betrayal, you're gonna have financial situations, you're gonna have career struggles, you're gonna have all these things, you're gonna have health issues, you're gonna have it all.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you're gonna feel like you're in a dungeon with the doors closed and you can't get out, and you can't get out.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: But God is still God, he's still gonna trust him, and you've got to still rely on all the other amazing things that God has done, is doing, and will do in your life and the lives of people around you.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not in community with people, you're gonna miss out on it.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna miss out on it.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: So let's be a church where we recognize that questions and doubts, they don't take away from our faithfulness.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: They help us get a bigger understanding of who God is.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: Our questions and our doubts should point us to our fuller understanding of the miraculous nature of God.
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SPEAKER_00: That's what did for John.
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SPEAKER_00: More evidence of what God was doing was shared with Him.
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SPEAKER_00: And we've got to be doing that and interacting with each other and sharing what God is doing so that when we all get trapped in our dungeons, we still understand the goodness of our God.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you for your word.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Or we just thank you for thank you for John the Baptist and his ministry.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we recognize that some of us we're we're in dungeons.
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SPEAKER_00: We're struggling.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: We got questions, we got doubts, and we want answers, Lord.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: We've got to recognize, Lord, that it's not the it's not demanding you to fill our expectations, but it's being faithful and true that you are God that matters.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: That we just pray that we can focus more on how you're moving and active in the world and our lives, how we're blessed, and not focused on the dungeons that we find ourselves in.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: I just pray everyone here is just struggling with doubt, Lord, just pray that your spirit encourages them, that they find the courage to pull people around them that can be wise counsel, that they can get into your word, Lord, they can they can talk to you more, and they can remain faithful while they await your answers.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: So we just pray we can be a church where we trust Jesus fully and we watch you move and look for your power in in the world and in our lives and in others.
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SPEAKER_00: So we just pray this in Jesus' name.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.