Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 1, 2017 | Men's Fraternity - Spring 2017, Session 4

Transcript

February 1, 2017 | Men's Fraternity - Spring 2017, Session 4 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_01: All right.
0:01
SPEAKER_01: Good uh good morning, men.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: Good to see everybody this morning.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: I think uh by way of announcements, big Monday coming up.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: Chili Cook Off, KUK State basketball game.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: I think 6 30.
0:14
SPEAKER_01: And I was told the location has uh changed.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: Usually it's downstairs.
0:19
SPEAKER_01: Can anybody confirm that?
0:20
SPEAKER_01: Is it gonna be upstairs here or in in the uh sanctuary in there?
0:26
SPEAKER_01: Good.
0:26
SPEAKER_01: And my wife said, Yeah, we got our yoga class got kicked out.
0:29
SPEAKER_01: So said, Oh, well, you know, priorities.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: So hey man, you know, I was gonna just thinking about what I was gonna share this morning, and I just decided to share a little something uh from the heart.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we come here every week and we try to be uh you know honest and transparent, and uh you know, we dig into God's word and it and it meets us, you know, right where we are.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: And I know um uh many of you have uh you know, we pray for each other, and many of you have uh have been diligent prayer warriors for me.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: I've been uh I think some of you, most of you may know that I've been uh out of work since uh April 14th of last year.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: Been uh interviewing and looking, and I've I've gotten a uh uh a temporary position, but um uh by God's grace, uh I have received an offer from uh KBS for uh for uh permanent work.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I I've got a verbal, I don't have a uh a written yet, but uh this was uh truly uh a God thing, and uh yeah, I'm uh uh praising the Lord.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: So like I said, many of you have have prayed, others of you have uh kind of poured into my life uh with some technical help and encouragement, and uh I've been uh very grateful.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be uh they do a lot of project work.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: I know they I don't know if you know, they they all they built this facility, great uh company, uh, but they do a lot of project work for Hills, and I had Hills experience, so I'm gonna be the on-site project manager down at the Hills plant in Emporia.
2:02
unknown: Oh, yeah.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh doing project work uh so that the person doing that can come back up here and and do some other things uh that they're interested in.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: So um anyway, uh yeah, praise the Lord.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: You know, of all the resumes I mailed out and everything, this was truly the unique God situation.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: Um one of their project managers' wife and my wife became friends at um uh Parents Day Out and iMom's, and uh just as she lifted up a prayer request, she happened to say, Well, gee, you ought to send his resume to my husband, you know.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: Never know what uh where it where it might go, and so sent that, and it just uh from there uh uh moved forward.
2:42
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, very very excited.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: God has done uh a great thing.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, that was kind of my intro this morning.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: I did uh I uh you know at one point had been a uh doubting Thomas myself.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: Gee, am I gonna see work again uh given my age?
2:58
SPEAKER_01: But hey, God's God's good.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: He's not not done yet.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna turn it over, you guys, and uh let you teach.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
3:07
SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Paul.
3:08
SPEAKER_03: We appreciate that, man.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: I got a line for you, Paul.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Show me the money.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: That's what you got to say to KBS.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: No, it's great company.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you got that job.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Good company.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh my.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing, man?
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Good.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Man, that breakfast that made my that made my week right there.
3:30
SPEAKER_03: Let's give let's give a hand to Wes because Wes made all the breakfast today.
3:35
SPEAKER_03: Oh appreciate that, man.
3:39
SPEAKER_03: I was Wes and I were talking because we knew Keith wasn't gonna be here, and we knew that um Tom wasn't going to be here.
3:48
SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, okay, there's Wes.
3:50
SPEAKER_03: Let me let me text him and see if he's able to help out.
3:53
SPEAKER_03: And so he's like, Yeah, I can come in, uh make breakfast.
3:58
SPEAKER_03: I was like, all right, we can do this thing together.
4:00
SPEAKER_03: And then last night he texted me, uh, how am I gonna get into the church?
4:07
SPEAKER_03: I'll meet you there.
4:10
SPEAKER_03: So we we we got in and and Wes did the thing.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, guys.
4:14
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you very much.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: You've been traveling last week, yeah, craziness and all that standing by a bed watching a watching a woman die.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: That's uh weird, you know, strange.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: But it happens at times in your life, and um and it marks you.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, well, we're all under stress, we're all going through stuff.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm just so happy about Paul getting that job.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: That's just phenomenal.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: That is awesome.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: And you guys did Thomas, did part of Thomas last week.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: We did.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: He's an interesting character, and we've had some interesting uh sports stuff in the last week or so.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: There's probably one that's most interesting, I think.
5:01
SPEAKER_03: That Kentucky game.
5:02
SPEAKER_03: Did any of you guys go to that game?
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Go to that.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there was uh who's the doctor in our church went to that game as well?
5:09
SPEAKER_00: John, anyway, yeah.
5:12
SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
5:13
SPEAKER_03: So anyway, beat Kentucky.
5:14
SPEAKER_03: Bernard.
5:15
SPEAKER_03: Kentucky was number four.
5:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:16
SPEAKER_03: Um beat him pretty handily.
5:20
SPEAKER_03: They did?
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it was it was close it was clever.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: I was driving back from Dallas during the game, but yeah, yeah, amazing, went.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Um tonight they play them going to the Baylor game.
5:30
SPEAKER_03: That'll be pretty good.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Baylor and Baylor's ranked higher.
5:33
SPEAKER_03: Super Bowl Sunday.
5:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:35
SPEAKER_03: Super Bowl parties.
5:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: There's different years rooting for the Patriots.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Leave right now.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Come on, go.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Loud and proud.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Look at that.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: That's right, amazing.
5:47
SPEAKER_03: I'm surprised you didn't go to the jersey this morning.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: You're from New England, so you know what those people up there are really like, and you're still rooting for those guys.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
5:57
SPEAKER_03: Is anybody an Atlanta fan?
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I'm now who said this.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Sam.
6:03
SPEAKER_03: Sam's that guy.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
6:05
SPEAKER_03: I love Atlanta.
6:06
SPEAKER_03: He's gonna go out.
6:06
SPEAKER_03: He's probably bought a Matt Ryan jersey.
6:08
SPEAKER_03: It's in the mail.
6:09
SPEAKER_03: He's getting ready for Sunday.
6:13
SPEAKER_03: There aren't really any more sport updates.
6:16
SPEAKER_03: Um Venus and Serena Williams had a they faced off in the championship of the, I think it's the Australian Open.
6:24
SPEAKER_03: So Sister Against Sister in the final.
6:27
SPEAKER_03: And that was pretty interesting.
6:28
SPEAKER_03: Didn't watch it, but heard about it.
6:32
SPEAKER_03: Uh last week, just kind of recap, we talked about glass.
6:36
SPEAKER_03: Would you rather be on a team of glass half-full people or glass half-empty people?
6:42
SPEAKER_03: Most of us probably instinctively say, I want to be on a team of glass half-full people.
6:47
SPEAKER_03: It sounds more encouraging, it sounds more positive, and it probably is.
6:52
SPEAKER_03: But we also talked about this kind of optimist versus pessimist and how there can actually be some positive aspects to pessimistic people, such as, you know, really planning, focusing um on all the options that could happen.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: So your your team's aware.
7:11
SPEAKER_03: Um we talked about Thomas saying, Yeah, let's go with you, Jesus, even though we're probably gonna die.
7:20
SPEAKER_03: Probably pessimistic, but also understanding what the ultimate consequence, the ultimate um probably worst situation would be for them.
7:30
SPEAKER_03: Here's a little.
7:33
SPEAKER_03: We didn't get to this last time, but I just wanted to show you guys this cartoon.
7:37
SPEAKER_03: Says pessimist anonymous, meeting canceled, figured no one would show.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, you want to get us kicked off, Jim?
7:49
SPEAKER_00: How many men do you know who are logic?
7:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, okay.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: So if you got a book, which you should have if you don't, I've got extras in my room.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh page 136, 136.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: This guy is so interesting.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: This guy, Thomas.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's not, you know, those relaxed guys that you sort of like to hang around, and and uh, you know, if you're a beer drinker and you know, sit back and drink a beer and watch the watch the game, or if uh if you like to go on trips, you know, you Thomas isn't that guy.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: So Thomas is the guy who he's like uh actually he's like a girl in our church who I don't know if you guys ever played trivia, those library trivia games, sports trivia, and these other trivia nights.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: So uh we Hank will get a team together, Hank Nelson.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: And uh I've done that a lot.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: And there's this one girl happens to be his daughter, Heidi.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll go.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Heidi knows the answer.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you always finish like second or third in this competition at the library, so you always win like uh, you know, nothing important.
9:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, something, you know, like one of those bookmarks.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Um but the funny thing is you sit there and I was talking, I wasn't at the last library trivia thing.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: It was a sports trivia last week.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: I was down in Dallas, and I heard they finished second.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: And the guy who who took my place or whatever, he says, Yeah, we scored 81 points.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Heidi scored 71 of them herself.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: So Thomas is kind of like that guy who knows a lot and he's really intelligent, and he's uh sort of keeps himself, you know, and when you read these accounts, he always seems to stand apart from the group.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: He's not like, yeah, guys, come on, let's go.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: He's always like, Well, let me ask you guys a question, you know.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Are you sure we have a good number four man, you know, who can shoot you shoot on the fast break?
9:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's always asking questions.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: He always sort of keeps himself distinct.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: He's this really interesting character.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Now we call him doubting, Thomas, which is a little bit harsh because, like you were just saying, I mean, yeah, he's so but he, you know, he may be a little bit doubting, but it's just part of his questioning nature, and he's so loyal.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, let's suck it up and go die with him.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, that there's something kind of cool about that.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh probably, however, not the guy that you know you're gonna ask, you know, to uh go to the sports bar and eat Buffalo Wild Wings with you.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so we're in uh page 136, and this is one of these stories.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: I've got one, and then Derek's got the uh famous one in John 20.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: This one's in John 14.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: And it begins with this question: how many men do you know who are logical thinkers, intelligent, and so forth, but spiritually confused because of their negative attitudes?
10:52
SPEAKER_00: See says we all have this sort of a grid through which we process what's happening in our lives.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: And Thomas's grid is one of asking questions, you know, that's what I'm saying.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: And and what's happening is this is Jesus last night, okay?
11:07
SPEAKER_00: And this is in the beginning of John 14, and Jesus has already said, one of you is gonna betray me.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: And so I think Judas has left by this time.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: And so they're all what's gonna happen, what's gonna happen?
11:21
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Well, you can't follow me where I'm going, but I'm gonna go prepare a place for you, and I'm gonna return, I'm gonna take you uh where you know, where I'm going.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And so this is where on top of page 137, the author says, this is where Thomas's logic takes over.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: I was reading something this last week about employees who overthink.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: And um, and there was a study that was done about five years ago of workers in America, and it says, on the average, the employee employees in America spend more than 50% of their time taking in information, googling information, collecting information, uh, and less than half of their time actually doing something with the information.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: And I sort of tend to be more like that too, early in my marriage.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: My wife, who's more of a, you know, on the surface actor, and I'm more of the thinker.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: She used, as we'd drive through the mall, as I was turning down one empty parking place after another, trying to find a better one.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: She would stop laughing.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: She'd finally sort of explode and say, maybe using a little bit off-color word, would you just pick a dang parking place?
12:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, because I was the kind of person who Googles, you know, one more time to find a little more information so that I can keep processing.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: And Thomas is that kind of a guy here.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to be logical and says, Lord, we don't know even where you're going, so how can we know the way?
12:58
SPEAKER_00: And because I'm a little bit like him, I have some sympathy with him.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's being a jerk here.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: I just think he wants more information.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus isn't about to give him the information.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: In modern language, he'd he'd say, You're guilty of paralysis by analysis.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: You're overthinking things, Thomas.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Just trust me.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You can't follow me now, but you're gonna follow later.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: Just just trust me.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: And um, which is so let's give some Thomas some credit.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: He caused Jesus to squirt out one of the best salvation verses in the Bible.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, this fantastic verse, right?
13:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, bottom of the page, last next to last line, he says this is another sign of Thomas's pessimism.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, uh, maybe it's glass half full stuff, and maybe it's just that he tends to be, I don't know, uh, I have four children, and of course, one of my children is more like Thomas, you know, asking questions all the time instead of just, you know, when you say jump, you know, saying how high.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, you call some, you call your kids to supper, one of them is not gonna come right away.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna say, What are we having for supper?
14:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's that's am I right about that?
14:23
SPEAKER_00: They're going, Well, I'm not sure I want to come.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Tell me what we're gonna have.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And then your wife loses it.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, on page 138, you've got uh I'm the way.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus responds by this, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, last line of the page, Merle Tinney.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Without the way, there is no going, without the truth, there is no knowing, without the life, there is no living, which was turned into a chorus back in the 1970s.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, uh something happened top page 139.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Derek, we didn't talk about this, but uh, I think I think I think I kind of like what is what he says here, which is this is Thomas's moment of crossing the line spiritually.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: He says, and I'm reading, something happened in Thomas's life at that moment.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: We're not sure how much he understood, but he definitely took another step out of the pessimism that tended to control his life.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, who knows the hearts of all men, testified to this change in Thomas's thinking.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: When he said, If you really knew me, you'd know my father as well from now on.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: You do know him and have seen him.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps this was actually the moment when Thomas was born again.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Later, Jesus associated this idea of knowing God with salvation in 1703 when he said, Uh, this is eternal life that they know you.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: So this is uh not a huge account and the process of Thomas, but I think it sort of underlies underlines that personality that we've already discovered, and which now you're gonna take, you know, even farther.
15:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he uh Thomas is is definitely one of the the more interesting characters.
16:04
SPEAKER_03: You know, often he's characterized as doubting Thomas, but you know, we were talking about it, and really it's kind of in all of us to be doubters at some point about something.
16:17
SPEAKER_03: So we don't see Thomas doubting in every situation, but we do see him doubting in one major situation where he gets highlighted as the doubter.
16:27
SPEAKER_03: Um but the question is have you ever met a Christian man who struggled with his faith following a disillusioning experience?
16:37
SPEAKER_03: And now I don't know um how much, but Paul actually kind of alluded to it a little bit earlier as he was talking about you know job things.
16:49
SPEAKER_03: And when I think about doubting, I think about those tough life situations where it's like, God, why in the world is this happening?
16:59
SPEAKER_03: How how did how did how did we even get to this place?
17:03
SPEAKER_03: Like, why why do you allow this?
17:07
SPEAKER_03: Whatever that thing is, maybe it's a job thing, maybe it's a marriage thing, maybe it's a family thing, maybe it's a children thing.
17:16
SPEAKER_03: And we all go through some of these things at some point in life.
17:21
SPEAKER_03: And then it really makes us question and just say, you know, God, you know, intellectually we know if we're if we're Christians, we know that God is real, we know that God is working, but sometimes we just take a step back and say, we just have to kind of ask that question.
17:39
SPEAKER_03: Like, God is is this real?
17:41
SPEAKER_03: Is this is this happening?
17:44
SPEAKER_03: Are you real?
17:45
SPEAKER_03: Are you in this situation?
17:47
SPEAKER_03: Um oftentimes, every time that we seek him, he he confirms to us, yeah, I am real.
17:55
SPEAKER_03: Because that's part of what he wants to do.
17:56
SPEAKER_03: He wants to reveal himself to us.
17:58
SPEAKER_03: And as we look at Thomas, he has been following this guy, Jesus, and Jesus said, You know, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
18:10
SPEAKER_03: But then Thomas sees Jesus crucified.
18:14
SPEAKER_03: Thomas sees Jesus killed.
18:17
SPEAKER_03: And this was this was his his leader.
18:19
SPEAKER_03: He he was loyal to him.
18:21
SPEAKER_03: He he wanted him to be that that savior person, and then he sees Jesus die.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: And then, like like Jim was saying a little bit earlier, he kind of likes to keep himself distinct, kind of apart from the group a little bit, and that's exactly what he did after this.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: Because the first time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was resurrected, Thomas wasn't there.
18:47
SPEAKER_03: We don't know where Thomas was.
18:48
SPEAKER_03: Scripture doesn't exactly tell us where he was, we just know that he wasn't there.
18:52
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he was, um Getz makes the point, you know, maybe he was angry, maybe he was kind of disillusioned, like, man, I just saw Jesus die, and like he didn't come back right then.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: Like I he went into the tomb, I know that.
19:07
SPEAKER_03: And and now what am I supposed to do?
19:09
SPEAKER_03: He was supposed to be the way, he was supposed to be the truth and the life, but now he's dead.
19:13
SPEAKER_03: And so what?
19:15
SPEAKER_03: No, is is he real?
19:18
SPEAKER_03: And then he makes he says, you know, unless I see the nail marks in his hands, unless I can put my finger on him, unless I can can can feel him and see those those holes, those marks, I'm not believing it.
19:38
SPEAKER_03: He says, unless I have this this proof, this physical proof of Jesus right in front of me, where I can touch him, I can put my finger through the holes in his hands, you can count me out.
19:51
SPEAKER_03: And a lot of times, I I know for me personally, um, really up until this last time that I read this account, it's like, man, he needs, you know, this this sign.
20:03
SPEAKER_03: He wants this sign and he's kind of negative about it.
20:08
SPEAKER_03: But one of the things that I think is really interesting about this Thomas account is that he wasn't completely closed off to God.
20:18
SPEAKER_03: He wasn't completely closed off to Jesus, and he wasn't closed off to believing in him.
20:25
SPEAKER_03: He was actually searching.
20:28
SPEAKER_03: And I think we see that because he says, Man, he he he has a little bit of hope.
20:33
SPEAKER_03: Maybe this is real.
20:34
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, he thinks that if he has this experience where he is live there with Jesus, the resurrected Christ, that that will be the thing that makes him believe.
20:45
SPEAKER_03: And the interesting thing is Jesus shows up shows up again to the disciples, and Thomas is there, and Jesus shows up, and it's at that point where Thomas sees him, and from what we know from scripture, we don't see that he actually puts his finger in.
21:06
SPEAKER_03: We don't even see that he actually touches him.
21:09
SPEAKER_03: He just sees him with his eyes and says, You know, my Lord and my God.
21:17
SPEAKER_03: And so we see Jesus revealing himself to Thomas at this time when his doubting was maybe the highest it had been, when his kind of trembling may have been the highest that it has been.
21:33
SPEAKER_03: And I think Jesus shows up to us in our times like that too.
21:38
SPEAKER_03: When we're just kind of on a last straw and we're saying, God, I just I just need to see something.
21:44
SPEAKER_03: Like a sign of of anything.
21:48
SPEAKER_03: Because I I want to trust in you, I want to believe in you, I want to continue to know that you're real.
21:53
SPEAKER_03: But this situation happened, and I'm not quite a hundred percent, I'm not quite completely on board.
22:00
SPEAKER_03: Right now.
22:03
SPEAKER_03: And God, God shows up.
22:07
SPEAKER_03: My wife and I kind of went through something that was difficult just in the past three weeks, and we were just thinking, man, God, are you like we we know that you're real, but it doesn't feel like it right now.
22:20
SPEAKER_03: Like it doesn't seem like it right now.
22:23
SPEAKER_03: The situations, the circumstances don't look good.
22:27
SPEAKER_03: They don't look favorable.
22:29
SPEAKER_03: They don't look happy.
22:32
SPEAKER_03: It's like, God, just confirm to us.
22:34
SPEAKER_03: And so we've had you know different people come along and just say these encouraging things to us and and kind of help us out and pray for us and all these different things.
22:44
SPEAKER_03: It's like, okay, God, those are those are all your fingerprints that that you're showing us that you're real.
22:52
SPEAKER_03: And I think that's one of the coolest things about God is He wants to reveal Himself to us.
22:56
SPEAKER_03: And He says, if we seek Him, He will reveal Himself to us.
23:02
SPEAKER_03: But the key is we've got to seek Him.
23:04
SPEAKER_03: We've got to be open to saying, God, I I want to see something from you.
23:10
SPEAKER_03: And He does.
23:11
SPEAKER_03: It may be something small, it may be something like Thomas, where he shows up resurrected, which would be a pretty crazy experience.
23:18
SPEAKER_03: But he wants to do that for us.
23:20
SPEAKER_03: And that kind of leads us into the second and third principle.
23:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you do for the day.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Paul, you have to go drive down to Emporia?
23:29
SPEAKER_01: No, I've got to go work a good year.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, are you gonna still be able to be here when you're driving up?
23:37
SPEAKER_00: I hope so.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
23:39
SPEAKER_03: We'll put in a word.
23:41
SPEAKER_03: Let's say, look, we need we need them on Wednesday mornings.
23:43
SPEAKER_03: You can have them the rest of the time.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: We've given those guys a lot of business.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Principle two.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: So last week you did Principal 1.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, Principle 2 flows right out of that part that I had in John 14 where Thomas was this sort of logical, rational thinker, but he was confused.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: It is possible to be this kind of a person, and I have to say, this group, in a sense, came out of a Bible study that I started with years ago with Ward Wheeland.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: And Ward invited a guy who he headed up a Wheeland Plumber Company.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: His best friend was a guy who headed up a plumbing company in town, a well-known plumbing company.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: And he comes in on the very first day, he says, I don't buy any of this stuff.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, about God, God creating the world and so forth.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: And he and he was really a logical, rational thinker, question things.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's just it was just great.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Some of the other guys were all startled because he used some four-letter words, you know, right when you're having the Bible study and you're Genesis Wan, and he's using using some words he's been on here in church.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: And but then by the end of that year, he'd hung with us, had a lot of his questions answered.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: By the second year, he'd become a Christian.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: And when he died of cancer, just before his good friend Ward Whelan died of cancer, he'd become a fervent Christian.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: And and every year it seems like God brings me one person like this who'll come in my office.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Remember, remember the young guy, Connor, you know, who was an intern for us, he's now down at seminary.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, he asked, he was a student at uh at Shawnee Heights.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: He was uh he was the leading high school student, um, I think student by the president.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: And he came to the thing.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: He asked he likes to do that because it's the same way.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: He's just, you know, I just don't buy any of this stuff.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that I visited church and you guys seem to believe it?
25:40
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's way back in the past.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, you just love these Thomas figures who are curious and who come and ask questions.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, you can call them doubters, uh, and they're spiritually confused.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but they're logical, rational thinkers who really want to know the answer.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time, those guys or girls, I'm thinking about a daughter of a professor over in Lawrence who came to see me, a woman who came to see me now comes to church, you know, they're not Christians, but they're curious, and as a result, you can give them books, you can talk to them, and they come around.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: And so I would just encourage you, it's impossible to be logical and rational and yet spiritually confused.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Don't, if they're non-Christians, you know, don't be afraid of them.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Love them and just try to answer their questions or give them good books.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: If they are Christians, you know, hang with them and think, well, Thomas came out okay.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's the point.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: That was, you know, I didn't really even touch on what he said, but that's on page, if you want to look at that more, it's on pages 143 and 144.
26:46
SPEAKER_03: Kind of the uh third principle.
26:49
SPEAKER_03: It's possible for a true believer to experience a crisis of faith that creates a complete state of doubt.
26:56
SPEAKER_03: Kind of an interesting principle.
26:58
SPEAKER_03: Um I wouldn't say I'm 100% of the f a fan of the way that it's worded.
27:03
SPEAKER_03: Because I I don't really I don't know what a complete state of doubt versus like a partial state of doubt is, or 75% state of doubt, but I think the point that he's trying to get across is it's possible to be a believer and to have a situation that doesn't look good, that doesn't feel like God is in it, that doesn't feel like God is for you in that moment, and for you to have doubts about God and asking God questions and and really seeking Him out in that.
27:37
SPEAKER_03: And it's asking the question, you know, the the famous one is why did this happen?
27:43
SPEAKER_03: And oftentimes we don't get answers to that question.
27:46
SPEAKER_03: Oftentimes we we don't know why that happened, but then you know, that's why it's so important to be in the word for us, because we know that the word is truth and um that God's ways are higher than ours, that that his thoughts are higher than ours, and he is completely sovereign, and there's certain things that he knows that we don't know.
28:08
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he's shielding us from something that possibly could have happened.
28:12
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he's you know protecting us from something, maybe he's protecting somebody else.
28:17
SPEAKER_03: Um maybe he's setting up and kind of preparing for something greater that's that's going to happen.
28:25
SPEAKER_03: I mean, we don't we don't know the the exact reason, but it is possible for us, even strong believers, even you know, people who are going to church every week and they give and they volunteer and they help and they have their quiet time every day and they pray and they're in a small group and they do you know all these different church-related activities, to still have doubts because bad things happen in this life and they're they're not enjoyable, and they make us ask those kinds of questions.
28:55
SPEAKER_03: And it's good to ask those questions.
28:58
SPEAKER_03: It's much better to, when we face a situation like that that's difficult, to ask those questions and tell God our questions.
29:07
SPEAKER_03: I know for for Gabby and I, you know, just going through kind of a just a crazy last year from just full of different things, and it just felt like it was one thing on top of another, on top of another.
29:20
SPEAKER_03: And this is actually something that Gabby taught me just through the way that she is, which is really interesting, and that it's okay to tell God how you feel and what you think.
29:34
SPEAKER_03: And it's good to it's good to tell God how we feel and how we think, even if it isn't like the most positive or spiritual thought.
29:43
SPEAKER_03: And this is something that she told me, and I was like, huh, you're right.
29:47
SPEAKER_03: Because she's like, he already knows it anyway.
29:51
SPEAKER_03: You're you're you're not you're not hiding anything from him, he knows exactly what you think.
29:56
SPEAKER_03: But sometimes we think that if we don't like say it in a prayer that God won't know or something, or we we kind of hold up this this front to God.
30:04
SPEAKER_03: Like I really don't think that.
30:06
SPEAKER_03: But it's a good thing to tell him, and it's it's liberating.
30:09
SPEAKER_03: And one night I just I don't know why, just got up in the middle of the night, it was probably midnight or something, went downstairs, and I God just really impressed on me.
30:20
SPEAKER_03: He's just like, just pray.
30:22
SPEAKER_03: And I'd never done this before a day in my life.
30:25
SPEAKER_03: And I went downstairs, this is probably two weeks ago.
30:27
SPEAKER_03: I went downstairs, I kneeled by the ottoman by our couch and just prayed out loud.
30:33
SPEAKER_03: And said, God, here's all the things that I'm concerned about, here's all the ways that I feel, here's all the things that I think, and some of them were not, you know, great thoughts or super spiritual thoughts or anything like that.
30:48
SPEAKER_03: And I I finished praying and I just felt this peace.
30:53
SPEAKER_03: Because somehow, you know, I had told God as if he didn't know, but just telling him and making it verbal and hearing myself speak those words is something that's that's really freeing.
31:07
SPEAKER_03: You know, he tells us to pray to him constantly, and he he wants us to do that because it's for our own good.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: Wow, thanks for sharing that.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh let's let's recite our memory verse together.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: You guys did it last week.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: Let's do it again.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: Together, Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: John 20, 30 and 31.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: 30 and 31.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: So what small group questions?
31:48
SPEAKER_03: A few, yeah.
31:49
SPEAKER_03: Here's a four small group questions that can kind of stir that conversation in your groups.
31:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, do I rely on my rational and logical approach to life, not realizing that I may have some spiritual blind spots in some areas?
32:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, how do I respond to a crises of faith in when it happens to me and then when it happens to somebody else, when there's there's some type of crisis or some type of doubt?
32:13
SPEAKER_03: Um why can pessimism be a difficult trait to change, or how can we change that um into a positive form of pessimism?
32:23
SPEAKER_03: And then what areas do we need to have faith more often?
32:29
SPEAKER_03: What areas of our life are kind of those areas where it's difficult to uh for us to be really confident that God's really in control, to be confident that God wants what's best for us in those areas.
32:41
SPEAKER_03: Would you like to pray for us?
32:43
SPEAKER_03: Jim?
32:46
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the breakfast this morning, and we thank you for the fellowship.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: We know that uh even though it was hard getting out of bed, that uh that this is really good for us, and you promise to bless us if we go out of our way to honor you and to meet with your people.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And so I I ask that you would fulfill your promise and bless each of these guys today.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: Bless them in their work, bless them in their marriage and their home life, their children.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: Um Lord, uh this issue of um uh our attitude and pessimism and um the issues of faith and and this this story that Derek just told about going downstairs and kneeling and praying out loud and just sort of dumping on you and telling you stuff that you know you actually know, but just sharing with you.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: This this touches us deeply, and we know this is the kind of person that we want to be, that we want to be sharing with you constantly through the day so that we get to know you better and better, and we sort of see the nail prints in your hands just by talking to you all the time.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: So that we can walk through life confident in you.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Amen.