Inland Empire: Riverside
Joy, Doubt & Life - Audio
It's great to be together, thank you guys for being here, thanks again for Augie and Sarah and our worship team, that was awesome, Victor and Victor and Victor in the slow jazz that we get to enjoy, it's pretty awesome. The Alexander's are in Wisconsin today, so be praying for them, they're hanging out with their family there, I know they're excited. Hannah was excited to see Grandma, so that was pretty cool. And also, you know, Augie mentioned Brian Craig in his song that we were singing there and just thinking about those words, that he's kind of living out now, that he's getting manna in the morning, if you don't know him, he was diagnosed with brain cancer a few months ago and is kind of blessings every day, manna in the morning, you know, heading towards home and it's just amazing, it was really special, a couple weeks ago we had our spring meetings for a lot of the international church of Christ leadership and he was able to be there for one of the days to lead worship for everybody all day and he's kind of been a little bit of the song leader for our churches over the years and it was just pretty amazing, we're singing like that song and like he's crying and like everyone in the audience is crying and we're just like sharing in this amazing moment, you know, I heard he's actually doing really well and in his ministry there that he's thinking of being able to work part time as a minister now, he's still feeling well enough to serve. So it's pretty awesome, keep him in your prayers there, but thank you for mentioning that, that was really cool and you know, last week we were blessed to be hosted by Martha's Village and Kitchen and thank you for all of you guys who were there and it was just such a grateful time, you know, and one of the people that were there was so excited to be there and a friend of mine who was there and he's like, you know, the greatest thing about it is just that I couldn't tell who was the resident and who was part of your church, like everybody was just like mixed together and it was just really a special time, so thank you guys and that was probably the greatest Easter egg hunt of all time. Usually when you're at Easter egg hunts it's like oh you know just take five eggs or everybody gets 10 eggs, I mean everybody had like a full bucket of eggs, it was like 30 eggs each one of the team boys got pretty excited and he actually had two full buckets of eggs and his dad made him give half of them away, but you know it was just like such a great time. Probably my highlight of the entire day was Leilani got out there, Aaron and Stephanie thought she got out there, got one egg and just sat down, just like if we could all be so content, so it was just a special time, I know Donald and Paige were sharing that some of the people remembered them from serving last time and you know Peggy as well and so they got to serve again, that was pretty cool, Peggy Brock, so that was really awesome. And kind of these, every time we go there I almost have this expectation that God's going to move, which sounds kind of funny to say right, that every time you go to church that God's going to move, that's kind of what it should be, but every time I go there I feel like he's going to maybe move a little bit in an extra way and so last time a lot of us met this family from Afghanistan with the husband and wife and they had the five kids and he was a civil engineer in Afghanistan and now he's just like one of the guys at Home Depot trying to get a couple odd jobs and it was really cool to follow them and they got placed in their own apartment and we still kind of stay in touch through text and it was just cool, he was just like man you guys are my friends you know, so he just says hi to all of you as his friends you know that he's in this foreign country and that was really a special moment and so this past time was no different than I met a friend there and you know it had some tough times and he's about the same age as my son you know so it was kind of like oh man you know what a tough spot that this could, this is somebody's son that's kind of unhoused and you know we had breakfast yesterday and just hearing his story and you know I don't want to give you his name because it'll probably be a church but just pray for him really tough family situation and just looking for hope and you know kind of in the middle of our breakfast he just puts his head down to start just crying and just to have somebody or just have hope it was just like to have some hope and it was like heartbreaking I was really uncomfortable didn't know what to do so I was just like okay I'm gonna give you a moment here and it was just really a special time and so it kind of got me on this quest ever since yesterday I'm on this prayer quest for a travel trailer I'm kind of praying that God will give us a travel trailer for them and his buddy to live in until they can get on their feet because it's hard you know and a lot of you maybe are more familiar with this but it's you know you live on your unhoused so you can't take a shower you can't take a shower you can't get a job you don't have anywhere to sleep safely you know so it's kind of this cycle he eats at Martha's but there's no you know kind of that whole thing so I was like man if he could have a at least a safe place to live and it maybe that could break that for him so I'm praying for that if that's on your heart mind or whatever I'll just throw that out there and thank you for listening to my story here anyway so after holy week I went out it was it was an amazing week it was kind of an exhausting week so I took a 24-hour trip out to Landers so shout out to all my high desert people out here and we went me and that it was just me and my me and my dog and I got some time with God listen to a book just sat by the most amazing little fire and got to visit the Easter cave that we recorded COVID sermon like three years ago I was probably my favorite Easter moment ever and so it was just a special time to be with God and kind of get recharged and hopefully you're getting time it was cool to hear Monica with her spring break getting time to get recharged and make friends and hang out with their friends and so hopefully we're getting time to to do that I wanted before we get started with the prayer here I wanted to just let you know this mid week this week we're having midweek all together here in the fellowship hall and it's always a great time together to look at scripture to fellowship this week we're having like an extra special time together that we're going to talk about our family vision for the church we're going to talk about staffing for the church and future of the church stuff so I just want to encourage you maybe the you don't always able to make it but if you're this would be a good one not to miss just to put it that way so we're excited to be here at seven o'clock on Wednesday to worship together and I'm going to pray for the rest of the sermon but I also want to pray for Sandra Hernandez his dad who had knee replacement he's 89 years old I heard he had knee replacement recently and today he's in the ER for something else so just kind of a lot of those complications will pray that he can be healed completely and that she can go get to see him because she's part of her ankle injury that she can't really drive right now so hopefully she'll be able to drive to so let's pray and we'll kind of continue father we do we're just thank you that we can come to you to serve a risen Savior God we're thank you that we can have hope in any situation I do want to bring my friend before you from Martha's that I was talking about I want to pray for Sandra's continued healing and also her dad God that he can be healed and get out of the hospital and be a hundred percent healthy helper to be able to visit him really soon and just pray for this time in your word God that you can open up our hearts and minds and ears to be able to hear what you have to say I pray you get me out of the way so that you can speak to us God we love you we pray in Jesus name amen amen we'll turn over to John chapter 20 and I'm gonna kind of read through verse 31 and then we'll kind of go back and talk through each section here on the evening of that first day of the week when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders Jewish came and Jesus came and stood among them and said peace be with you after he said this he showed them his hands and his side the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord again Jesus said peace be with you as the father has sent me I am sending you and with that he breathed on them and said received the Holy Spirit if you forgive anyone's sins their sins are forgiven if you do not forgive them they are not forgiven now Thomas also known as did a miss one of the 12 was not with the disciples hold on a second I'm here we go I think Richard's doing that thank you now Thomas also known as did a miss one of the 12 was not with the disciples when Jesus came so the other disciples told them we have seen the Lord but he said to them unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side I will not believe a week later his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them though the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said peace be with you then he said to Thomas put your finger here see my hands reach out your hand and put it into my side stop doubting and believe Thomas said to him my Lord and my God then Jesus told him because you have seen me you have believed blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name amen well it's amazing this passage after Jesus rose from the dead this is actually the very first day and then the second scene is kind of the next week so it's kind of the first two first days of the week here and on the first day he already appeared to Mary Magdalene and she went back and told everybody she saw Jesus they still didn't see Jesus or they still didn't quite get it he showed himself to Peter he showed himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and now they they're all together and it says that they're they're there with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders right that sounds about right when you're with when your master gets killed and there you're one of his guys or girls then you're like hey they're coming after me next and but they're sitting there they're afraid and that seems to be a theme after the resurrection they're still afraid we saw last week that he appeared to the or when the two women saw the angel they ran away and they were still afraid and here is their moment where their fears kind of turn into joy and I think that's probably a metaphor for all of us that we carry around a lot of fears right we think about all the bad things that are going to happen and all the things that are that because one thing happened and that means these five other bad things are going to happen and you know maybe you know you you have that that tendency if you're if you have that tendency you're not alone right I can I can be the same way and I love that Jesus is there and he's there to bring peace by peace I give you and my joy I bring to you and it says there that they were overjoyed when they saw the Lord and you can imagine going from he's dead is it really him now we're overjoyed that he's alive again and then it just I love this because Jesus continues to show them even at the Last Supper there's kind of a few flashbacks in this scene to the Last Supper and John 16 he says now is your time of grief but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy so they're in the middle of grieving and he's like don't worry it's gonna get better and when it does no one will ever take away your joy and I think that's a promise to us that whatever fears we have whatever concerns that he promises us a joy that no one can take away because he conquered death and we can no longer fear of the ultimate fear that people have amen of fear to joy and then he continues he doesn't really leave the room but he still says peace be with you again it's kind of a weird thing usually you say that when you I think that was the greeting right so he's he already said hello and they said peace be with you and said okay I'm gonna give you I need to give you more peace now because there's something else coming he says as the father has sent me so I am sending you and we can look at that kind of from our lens and be like oh that's really cool like he's just sending the disciples and they're gonna go out and they're gonna go from Jerusalem to Samaria to all nations and that isn't that gonna that's gonna be like amazing and then we're gonna have brothers and all sisters all around the world and I don't know that that's exactly what they would have heard at that moment because they were sending Jesus and they saw everything that just happened to Jesus and he's like guess what now you get to do the same thing I don't know about that that's kind of like I'm gonna go to the cross to and you'll be raised but yeah that that's kind of the plan here that you're all gonna have to carry your crosses and he maybe that's why he wants to give him a little extra peace and then not only that he says he breathes on them and gives them the Holy Spirit that God doesn't just send us out by ourselves that he gives us the power to go with us he gives us the spirit to live inside of us to guide us to strengthen us to help us to comfort us even to help us pray when we don't even know what to pray for that he gives us this gift because we need it and then he goes on to say if you forgive anyone's sins they're forgiven if you do not forgive them you're not forgiven and I don't really have an answer what that means right there's some kind of authority that he's giving to them please don't leave here and start forgiving sins after church I don't think that was our place but there's something going on here that he's given him this power maybe it's the collective group of the apostles that we're gonna start the church that sounds pretty good to me but to know that we have this Holy Spirit and we have the same spirit that they had and just a little bit earlier he gives them this promise back at the Last Supper he said when the advocate comes whom I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father he will testify about me and you also must testify for you have been with me from the beginning and so you get this idea that the Father and the Son are sending the Spirit to us and all three of them are sending us out and I don't know but I know we've been growing lately in the last few years and just our knowledge of the Spirit are being in touch with the Spirit and guided by the Spirit and you know it's a pretty deep topic to think about the Spirit of God that is inside of us right so we talked to God and yet God is inside of us and he talks to us and you know that's some deep stuff that's a kind of a miraculous mystery but I think if you think about God a little bit more that it could help us that the Spirit picture the Father Son and the Spirit and they're they're all one but they're all distinct and if you picture them in a triangle loving one another and respecting one another and honoring each other and being perfectly united in perfect love someone has pictured this as them sitting at a table with an empty chair waiting for us to come and join them right that there's a fellowship that they have that's not just for them but it's opened for us that he wants you to share in that same perfect love respect honor fellowship as that he has with Jesus and the Holy Spirit and this is in if you take that one step further and maybe a less perfect way that he not only wants us to sit at the table but he wants us to be able to share that love with one another right so we're sharing this with God maybe like this and then we're also sharing it in an imperfect way with one another and if you think about your life you've probably had those times when you feel like man God is with us God is here God's in this room right now he's he's done something miraculous or he's brought about a unity or a love and I would put it out to you that you are experiencing the Spirit in that moment that you're experiencing that fellowship that Jesus prayed for may they be one as we're one now I don't fully understand that but I'd like to sit out of my yard sometimes and just pray for God to talk and me listen because he's given us the Spirit we can listen we can hear him you know it sounds a little kooky sometimes when we're people of the Bible I mean we love the Bible right but we need to also grow in our love for the Spirit too and the Spirit's not going to take us anywhere that the Bible doesn't want us to go but one of the things that hit me a few years ago was when they were asking Jesus you know how are we going to he said I'm going to go away you'll see me later and they're like how are we going to find you where we don't know where you're going and Jesus said the simple line you already know me you've already been with me you've already been experiencing me this is not there shouldn't be a mystery to you and it kind of hit me in that moment that yeah I can say that that I know Jesus that I know the Spirit that that God is with us that he's with me that I've experienced that and I want to encourage you that you have the same spirit that if you say hey Jesus what are we doing what's going on I don't know where you're going it's like hey you know me you know where we're going you've experienced this is not your first rodeo you have this connection this divine community is already in you through the Spirit and if it's not if if you're wondering about that and how do I connect more with the Spirit then just talk to someone who brought you and said man let's let's walk with God together amen amen deep thoughts for today in verse 24 it says now Thomas also known as did did the miss one of the twelve was not with the disciples when Jesus came and we know that he said hey unless I see it unless I put my hands in there I'm not going to believe I mean you got to give it up for Thomas I mean he he was pretty confident fellow right or a pretty cynical fellow one of the other but he just said hey you know what I'm not doing it I don't care what you guys are talking about I'm not unless I had that same thing I'm I'm out that that's pretty amazing and I don't know if you've ever been in a place of doubt before anybody okay I thought I was alone here for a second but when we're in a I think doubt and rebellion kind of go together sometimes right it said be merciful with those who doubt but sometimes we can be like you know what I'm done with this forget this I'm not I don't care what you okay all right all right you're so happy you're great God's good and everything but I'm just like no that's not happening right I've been in that place you've been in that place I've talked to some of you in that place but that even though they were testifying to him he still refused and the cool part is the next scene if it stopped right there it'd be pretty depressing story right and we've seen people stop right there right I'm done I'm out and for whatever reason they're not just out of the church but just with God they're just like okay God forget you but that wasn't really Thomas he had a moment but you know he stuck it through it says you know a week later they were all together again and can you imagine how long that week was for Thomas right everybody's like oh my gosh wasn't that amazing we saw Jesus yesterday we saw Jesus three days ago wasn't that incredible and him just being like I hate you guys I'm not doing it forget it I don't care how much you say it I don't know what he was saying but it was probably a really long week you know fighting faith is difficult fighting God's testimony it can be difficult when we see miracles and we're like forget it I'm not doing that I'm not doing that again and yet he doubted with his friends you know the last few years we've kind of come up as a community we've accepted we've realized hey it's okay to doubt that we want to be a safe place where you can doubt and be with us like it's not like oh you're doubt you're doubting what's wrong with you know if you're doubting this is where we need to be it's called doubting with your friends doubting with someone to talk to doubting with a purpose to find God because he wasn't just doubting because he wasn't there he was probably doubting because of he was questioning God like God how come he didn't show up for me I know you were there for them but where what about me isn't that the question that we all ask what about me that's not a bad question when it leads us to God when it leads us to a deeper faith when it leads us to to Jesus which this ultimately does and we've seen people doubt in isolation and that never goes well that's not going to help I mean it helped Elijah but maybe that was an exception but to doubt in community to we've seen people their doubt leads them to lose their faith right that they just they deconstruct and they never put anything back together I mean it's just like the bomb went off and everything is gone and that's because they doubt by themselves and they you know maybe then they're still on that journey you know the cool thing is is that Jesus shows up and he doesn't give him a speech of how terrible he is and he doesn't put him in timeout he said Thomas come here come on he doesn't even talk to the other guys Thomas here you go here you go that Jesus met him where he was he realized that we're weak we need to see stuff I know it says blessed are you who have never seen but we've seen we've seen a lot of we seen miracles I don't think we come to faith until Jesus shows up for us we don't just we don't initiate I'll tell you that much he initiates with us and we just respond like Thomas here he responded and he was better than ever doubting is just maturing when you go through something that you've never been through before and it's scary and you're freaking out you feel like oh you doubt you start doubting everything start questioning God you start questioning the church you start questioning your younger self like what was I think in 10 years ago when I got into this but in a lot of ways it's just us maturing and figuring out God and God's not worried God didn't change he's not like oh my gosh it's it's a crisis it's like no I'm good you know you're gonna see that I really do love you I'm really there for you and if we stick with it we will be stronger and many of you are nodding your heads because we are stronger because we persevered because we have had to find our own faith we had the question and and it's okay to question when it leads us to Jesus and I also you know it's almost like you forget things as you go on as a Christian and you have to be reminded of something that you learned a long time ago well this is one of those things for me you know Jesus says remember what I told you a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me they will persecute you also if they obeyed my teaching they will obey yours also and so when just the acknowledgement that there are people that don't like Jesus there are people that don't like you because you like Jesus because you love Jesus there's people that don't like churches because they love Jesus and because they live their lives for him and that is what Jesus said here remember that that's not what we want but that's what it is to be a disciple that that happens that there are enemies of Christ in this world right sometimes we act like everything is on us when there's a spiritual war that's happening around us and yeah it was good for me just to acknowledge that if I follow Jesus there's gonna be some people that won't like that if I'm a person of faith and I believe that Jesus rose from the dead then not everybody's gonna like that and that's okay and I'm not gonna make them like it I'm not gonna force it down their throats everybody has their own choice amen but on the same way if somebody talks about your family what do you do if someone talks about your family I'm my family your family do I just say oh cool whatever you want have at it now I'm gonna be a little defensive for my family right I'm gonna protect my family right I'm gonna pray and try to be faithful as possible you know I may go I may stand up for my family and then I may go talk to my family afterwards so yeah I heard this man what's going on with this situation and we you know we might have a talk right because my family's not perfect you know but it just helps us to be more unified if we have questions to be able to ask to be able to approach people you know to find out you know as a church one of the other things that we've recommitted to that we've always had but we've recommitted that that we hurt with anyone who's hurting right if you're hurting we hurt with you and we were that was Christ if you think about it for a minute here people persecuteed Jesus and he was perfect they killed him but he was perfect right so what it that he had zero responsibility right we have we're not perfect we messed up we we our church is definitely not perfect and we need to keep learning we need to keep getting better we need to acknowledge and take responsibility wherever we need to but to recognize where some stuff comes from is that people some don't like the church amen this is the verse that really helped me recently in the past few years where he's talking to Peter after his good confession and he says that I will build on you on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it and that gives me a lot of faith that if I stick with Jesus that his church will never die it will never be overcome it will never be knocked down it will never be side swiped surprised that when I stick with Jesus I'm gonna end up with Jesus and with God and with all of you and that there's really nothing that anybody in this world and outside of this world can do about that he said even the gates of Hades will not overcome it and I I really want to challenge myself with that and challenge us because I've had a lot of doubts what's happening what's gonna happen what's the future hold where is everybody and I come back to this passage and I say you know what this God's church is never gonna die the only thing that's gonna happen is maybe I'm not gonna be here but Jesus is not going anywhere that were with him around the winning side amen church getting quiet in here we have this promise that Satan will never overcome Jesus's church and I've had days when I'm holding on to that promise for dear life and this isn't a promise for me as your minister not a promise from anybody in our church this is a promise directly from Jesus which is what he said before I will be with you to the very end of the age that gives me a lot of faith a lot of confidence you know when you worship Jesus you can be confident if you worship the church you will be let down and you will struggle and you were doubt if you idolize the church because the church is made up with people you will be let down and crushed but if you idolize and worship Jesus he'll always be right there with you peace be with you will never have to be afraid I love that so many ways that's what he was saying to Thomas Bob doubting and believe maybe another way of saying trust me Thomas I'm good for it I'm gonna follow through amen all right let's close out here Jesus told him because you have seen me you have believed blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed I don't know if there's a bigger sentence in the gospels for us than that right if we believe in Christ then we will be blessed and none of us were there none of the people most of the people reading the book of John weren't there either so they were putting their faith in these witnesses and their faith in their experience with God and then he says that you these are written that you can believe that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that you may have life in his name that you can have life in this world you can have life to the full that you can have life with Jesus walking with you and protecting you and leading you and yeah they'll be suffering but he'll still comfort you there you can have eternal life you can have forgiven life you can have a life united with God and with Jesus and with his people that that's the promise and opportunity that he was giving to everyone who heard these words and to us that life is right there grab on to it believe it stop doubting and believe and continue to give yourself to the faithful words and to the risen Christ amen amen let's pray and we'll take our communion together as we celebrate this life from Christ father we thank you for this time we thank you that you help us to go from fear to joy that you give us peace that you lead us from doubt to faith ultimately at the end of all the roads you lead us back to Jesus father thank you that he is so faithful that so many ways that we run away from him and yet he continues to show up for us and I pray that even today as we take communion that we can experience you that we can experience that fellowship of forgiveness that peace that comes that passes understanding that we can be reassured that you were with us to the very end God please get rid of our doubts and help us to continue to bring them to you and to one another and thank you that you are so faithful to us thank you that we have hope because you rose from the dead thank you for the body and blood that you gave to us that we may have life and life to the full to in Jesus family pray amen
Inland Empire Church of Christ