A Journey through Doubt
Pastor Pierre
READ: Deuteronomy 29:29; Job 1:1-22; Psalms 84:11, 145:8-9; Isaiah 40:28; 1 Corinthians 13:12; 2 Timothy 3:16; James 1:17
GROUP QUESTIONS:
1. What resonated with you as you listened to this sermon and reviewed it?
2. A paradox was defined as a statement or situation that appears self-contradictory, illogical, or seemingly absurd and that challenges our understanding or reality. It was said that faith is pregnant with paradoxes. What does this mean to you?
3. Share a time when you experienced a paradox – that is you prayed and had a firm belief about something based on the Word of God and a paradox occurred and the results
were different from what you expected. How did you respond? How did this effect your faith?
4. Barnabas Piper was quoted as saying, “to live by faith is to rest in the object of our faith, the God of the Bible, and to come to terms with all of our “I don’t knows.” What does this mean to you? How can we come to terms with our “I don’t knows?”
5. Read James1:17, Psalms 84:11 and Psalms 145:8-9. What do these Scriptures tell us about the character of God? How can understanding God’s character help us deal with paradoxical situations?
6. Read 1 Corinthians 13:12 in several versions. Explain in your own words what the Apostle Paul is saying about our level of understanding.
SERMON RECAP
In our western culture, we expect to find logical answers to our questions and we even hold our logic as the standard for God’s operation. But we sometimes come across an unsolvable mystery about God. We ask questions for which we do not find solutions. We have experiences that contradict our faith-filled expectations. For example, we pray for a loved one to be healed because we believe that God is a healer, but the person dies. We question why one child suffers with a birth defect and another is perfectly healthy. We believe that God is loving and compassionate and yet we see so much pain in the world. When we are confronted with these types of paradoxes, and when the certainty of what we believe based on Scripture is not the reality of what we see, our brain then looks for a logical explanation and we try to solve the mystery. Our response to such mysteries is a great indicator of the realness of our belief. Traditionally, the church has held to an absolute response in that God and Scripture have been a fixed and logical system of beliefs. But we cannot create absolute certainty like we have a corner on God. Having questions or doubts is not wrong, but is a way of acknowledging our humanity. The world, and everything in it has limits and is finite. God, alone is infinite, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. No one can measure the depths of His understanding (Is. 40:28). No one knows all the secrets of God and He does not owe us an explanation. His Word is true, even when a paradox is playing out. We should not be shaken when we find ourselves in a paradox, nor can we allow a mystery to topple our faith. We must make room for curiosity and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what he desires. We must anchor our faith in what God reveals about His character, and not by what we see. This confirms that He is the object of our faith.
