The Benefit of Doubt | Why Would I believe God is Good | Drew Sherman

Welcome to Compass, let's stand and let's worship. I've got the joy of the Lord deep down inside of my soul And I can't hide it no more, I got a praise The one who broke my chains and bought my freedom What else can I say but thank you Jesus Cause you're just that good and you're just that faithful And you're just that kind, I'm so grateful That you saved my life like you said you would So with my hands up high, heart abandoned And a faith on fire, singing and dancing Cause you saved my life like you said you would Cause you're just, cause you're just that good You put a song in my heart, I sing with all that I've got And tell the world who you are, I'm gonna praise you You put a song in my heart, I sing with all that I've got And tell the world who you are, I'm gonna praise The one who broke my chains and bought my freedom What else can I say but thank you Jesus Cause you're just that good and you're just that faithful And you're just that kind, I'm so grateful That you saved my life like you said you would So with my hands up high, heart abandoned And a faith on fire, singing and dancing Cause you saved my life like you said you would Cause you're just, cause you're just that good So sing this The one who broke my chains and bought my freedom What else can I say but thank you Jesus The one who broke my chains and bought my freedom What else can I say but thank you Jesus

Cause you're just that good and you're just that faithful And you're just that kind, I'm so grateful That you saved my life like you said you would So with my hands up high, heart abandoned And a faith on fire, singing and dancing Cause you saved my life like you said you would Cause you're just, cause you're just that good You're just that good You're just that good Christ is my firm foundation The rock on which I stand With everything around me shaking I've never been more glad That I put my faith in Jesus Cause he's never let me down He's faithful through generations So why would he fail now? He won't, he won't I've still got joy in chaos I've got peace that makes no sense So I won't be going under I'm not held by my own strength Cause I built my life on Jesus Cause he's never let me down ♪ Never let me down, He's faithful in every season ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now, He won't, no, He won't ♪ ♪ He won't fail, He won't fail, He won't fail, no, no ♪ ♪ He won't fail, He won't, no, He won't, He won't, He won't fail, He won't fail ♪ ♪ Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand ♪ ♪ With everything around me shaking, I've never been more glad ♪

♪ I put my faith in Jesus, yes I do, He's never let me down ♪ ♪ He's faithful through generations, so why would He fail now? ♪ ♪ He won't, He won't, He won't fail, He won't fail, no, He won't, He won't fail ♪ Thank you, Jesus. ♪ Great came the wind, ooh, my house was built on You, yes it is ♪ ♪ I'm safe with You, I'm gonna make it through, sing it out, church. ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it through, sing it out, church. ♪ ♪ My house was built on You, and I'm safe with You, I'm gonna make it through, yes Lord. ♪ ♪ I'm safe with You, I'm gonna make it through, yes Lord. ♪ ♪ Great came the wind, ooh, my house was built on You, and I'm safe with You, I'm gonna make it through, yes I'm gonna make it through. ♪ ♪ I'm gonna make it through, yes I'm standing strong on You, yeah, I'm gonna make it through. ♪ ♪ My house is built on You, Christ is my firm foundation, yes it is. ♪ ♪ The rock on which I stand, with everything around me shaking, yes it is. ♪ ♪ I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus, cause He's never let me down. ♪ ♪ Faithful through generations, yes He is, so why would He fail now? He will. ♪ ♪ He won't, no He won't, He won't fail, He won't fail, no He won't. Thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ He won't, no He won't, He won't fail, He won't fail, no He won't. Thank you Jesus. ♪ ♪ He won't, no He won't, He won't fail, He won't fail, no He won't. Thank you Jesus. ♪ Our hope is secure and the one who will never fail us. Let's join together today, we'll sing out this hymn together. ♪ My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not try, I dare not fall. ♪ ♪ Trust the sweetest faith ♪ ♪ But wholly trust in Jesus' name ♪ ♪ My hope is built on nothing less ♪ ♪ Than Jesus' blood and righteousness ♪ ♪ I dare not trust the sweetest frame ♪ ♪ But wholly trust in Jesus' name ♪ ♪ Christ alone, Christ alone ♪ ♪ Cornerstone, weak made strong ♪ ♪ In the Savior's love, through the storm ♪ ♪ He is Lord, Lord of all ♪

♪ When darkness seems to hide His face ♪ ♪ I rest on His unchanging grace ♪ ♪ In every high and stormy gale ♪ ♪ My anchor holds within the veil ♪ ♪ My anchor holds within the veil ♪ ♪ Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong ♪ ♪ In the Savior's love, through the storm ♪ ♪ He is Lord, Lord of all ♪ ♪ He is Lord, Lord of all ♪ ♪ Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong ♪ ♪ In the Savior's love, through the storm ♪ ♪ He is Lord, Lord of all ♪ ♪ Lord of all ♪ ♪ When He shall come with trumpet sound ♪ ♪ Oh may I then in Him be found ♪ ♪ Dressed in His righteousness alone ♪ ♪ Faultless stand before the throne ♪ All together we sing. ♪ Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong ♪ ♪ In the Savior's love, through the storm ♪ ♪ He is Lord, Lord of all ♪ What should I do when I doubt God's goodness? Why doesn't God answer my prayers? Why doesn't God answer my prayers? Doesn't science disprove the Bible? Why would God provide only one way to heaven? Why believe in Jesus when His followers are such hypocrites? Such hypocrites. Why does God sometimes feel so far away? Why does God feel so distant?

Why do I doubt? Why do I doubt? Why do I doubt? Why do I doubt? Why would God love me? Why would God love me? Why would God love me? Why should I believe God? How can I trust in God when it hurts? When it hurts. We all have these questions, so. Let's talk about it. So let's talk about it. Yeah, let's talk about it. How are you doing 10 o'clock? You're good? All right, I'll go with it. Hey, welcome to Compass. Our mission is navigating. people to God. I'm so glad that you're here. I want to welcome those who are watching online. Can we also welcome the men of the Allred unit today into this place? We welcome you men. And hey, before we begin, many of you were handed, hopefully you were handed this card when you came in. I just wanted to encourage you with something today. Look, look, today is February the first. So one month is already gone in 2026. And just an encouragement from your pastor. I want to just invite you to take the next step for you, whatever that is. We all have this desire to grow in our faith. Hopefully you do. And we want to grow a little bit more each day. And one way to do that is take a step toward God. And so we just suggested a few possible steps. Maybe you've never made that great confession of faith and been baptized. We want to encourage you to take the next step and learn about that. Maybe you need to come to starting point. Right now, as we speak, there's about 20 people in our starting point room learning more about what

it means to be a part of Compass Church. Maybe you need to take that three-week class. Maybe you need to be involved in a community group. My wife and I, we're involved with nine other couples. There's 10 couples. We're in a community group. We meet every other Sunday and we do life together. And then maybe you just want to serve somewhere, be a part of service here at Compass. So check one of those boxes if you want to take another step and take it over to our next steps booth in the lobby. Or you can just put it in the generosity box if you want. Just want to encourage you with that. I also wanted to speak to those of you, I want to speak to the men in the room and those of the men that are watching online. I want to just encourage you. There's some momentum around a movement called Gaining Ground that's happening. I would encourage you to listen to our new podcast. You can find that anywhere podcasts are available. It's all over the place. You can go to gaininggroundmen.com for more information. Also, we have a gathering coming up. It's this Wednesday now, February the 4th. And we have a couple, we have over 200 men already signed up here at the Colleyville campus. We would love for you to join us as we spend one hour together. We'll be worshiping together. There's going to be a breakfast served. There'll be coffee. We're going to have, we're going to talk about kind of our vision for where we see this ministry going. So we'd love for you to be a part of that first hour that we're planning. So just man, sign up, go to gaininggroundmen.com, sign up and show up next Wednesday. We'd love for you to be a part of that. I'll be teaching. My son Landon will be doing some teaching as well. So we're in this series called The Benefit of Doubt. And some of you have your study guides. I see them already. Thanks for bringing those. Hopefully there'll be some notes today. I want to start like this. I remember Easter of 2020, like it was yesterday. I remember it because we were in the middle of the COVID lockdown. And I don't know if you know me that well, but I don't handle like not meeting very well. Like last Sunday when all of my team was like, look, pastor, every church in the area is canceling. I'm like, so what's that got to do with us? Right? Like, and so it was hard. Like I was the final holdout, like, and during COVID, it was very hard for me to understand why we needed to be online only. But I knew at that point it was probably best. And so we were like from January, February, March and April started to come. And I knew that Easter was right around the corner. And I was just like, I can't fathom an Easter where we don't get to meet. Easter means lots of people coming together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. And I was just so anxious about that. And when it became reality that we were going to be online only

for Easter Sunday, 2020, man, I was so discouraged and I was pretty upset. And I'll never forget that morning, that morning, on Easter morning, on Sunday morning, I was so down. And I'm like, usually I'm so excited on Easter morning. And I was just down. And my wife said, let's just drive over to church and we'll sit and we'll pray for the people and we'll watch. Maybe we'll have them put it up on the broadcast on the, on the screen. And so we did that. We drove here to this building and I just want to, just by way of visual, we drove into this place and we came into this room and we sat down right here on this first row. We sat down right here. Sorry, you're not nervous. Sorry. It's okay. It's like, he usually doesn't come down. And I sat right here in this chair. This is row one. This is seat 301, which makes zero sense. Why would it be 300 right here in the first row? Dave, Tony, we got to fix this. Anyway, seat 301. And what's funny is I think every one of them is seat 301. They're just different. Anyway. Anyway. So I'm in seat 301 and My wife is in seat 302 on row one. And we're just sitting here. And I'll be honest with you. Like I was upset. Like I was upset with God. And I was like, it's Easter Sunday, Lord. Are you kidding me? There's no one here. You guys weren't here. You weren't here. Were you here? No one was here. You weren't here. I know you guys weren't here. No one was here. It was just me and my wife. And I was just like, I finally like, I was so like upset. I just was like, Lord,

don't you understand the power of Easter? Just kind of a dumb question to ask God. Like Lord, yeah, yeah. I think God understood the power of Easter. And I was just, and my wife, when I started asking irrational questions, my wife, she grabs my hand. She's like, Lord, please be with Drew right now. He's not thinking correctly. He's got lots of questions. He's got lots of hurt. And this morning he's got some doubt. So be with him in his doubt, meet him today. And then we prayed for you guys. And then we sat and we watched Easter on the screen in an empty room. And I think about that day a lot, like still today, like how discouraged I was and how upset I was. And I have some guilt, right? I'm a little bit ashamed of how I felt like on Easter weekend, right? You ever felt that way? You ever found yourself like full of questions, not sure, like something happens and you're in a moment of doubt, you're second guessing God. Or maybe it wasn't a moment. Maybe it was an entire season where you doubted God. Or maybe you were in a hospital room and got a diagnosis that you didn't want to hear.

Or you found yourself in divorce proceedings, asking God like, how did we get here? You unfairly lost your job and you ask God, why me? You found yourself looking down on the casket of a loved one that you prayed for without ceasing and God never healed them. And it left you with questions like, you're flooded with doubts. And we live in a world of uncertainty. This past week, locally, I heard of three little boys who drowned in a local pond in Bonham. Did you hear about that? A nine-year-old boy, an eight-year-old boy and a six-year-old boy. That nine-year-old Howard and eight-year-old Caleb jumped into the icy waters to save their six-year-old brother, EJ. And they all drowned, all three of them. And their mother jumped in to try to save them and she couldn't save any of them. Just devastating. Like one minute she had six kids, the next minute she had three. And it's like, you're listening to that news story and you just, you kind of want to just say like, God, why would that happen? But it's not just local, right? On the national scene, I would imagine that the events the last couple of weeks in Minnesota, these past few weeks are weighing heavy on all of our hearts

and no matter, I mean, no matter what our views are politically, I would hope that we would pray that in the midst of the tension and the fear and the tragedy that comes, that God comes near any grieving hearts and that God gives us wisdom for that disruption and that division that's caused in our nation. And whether it's local or national, you tend to ask questions like we did last week. Like if God is good and I really believe that He is, but if He's good, why do I hurt so much? Why does He feel so like distant? Like if God is so all powerful and omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent, if He has the ability to turn this around, then like, why doesn't He sometimes? And I guess if you've never had questions like that, you might just want to take a moment to praise God right where you are. Because for most of us, it's not a matter of if we're gonna have a question like that, it's when. And so we're in week four of this series called The Benefit of Doubt, based on the book by Pastor Craig Groeschel. And we're talking about how asking real questions can actually help you grow in your faith. And we've kind of given you permission to doubt, but not just for the sake of doubt, because at some point we have to move beyond our doubts. We'll talk about that next week.

But to ask sincere spiritual questions in a way that can actually draw us closer to God. And I wanna show you a powerful example from the word of God that I think might help. And it's from a book that we seldom talk about. It's from a very short book in the Old Testament called Habakkuk. Now, just saying that word Habakkuk, it's kind of like, you kind of have to like, clear your throat, like Habakkuk, you know? It's a big word. And Habakkuk is a prophet, and he didn't understand what was happening in his world, and he didn't like it, and he went to God about it sincerely. He didn't understand God, but he still trusted God. And I think we can learn from that. And if you know anything about Habakkuk, he's one of the 12 minor prophets. So maybe you're like, man, what's up with that? Like he just wasn't big enough to play in the big leagues, right? He's not in the major leagues, he's the minor league. No, no. The minor prophet just means that it's a shorter book. So he had less to say, right? Like some of the major prophets like Isaiah, and Daniel, and Jeremiah, they had a lot to say. They had so much to say. Jeremiah went on and on.

You get to like chapter 45 and you're like, we get it, you're depressed. Okay, we get it, right? Okay, we had you in chapter two, right? So Habakkuk's my kind of guy. Three chapters, he's out, right? It's very short, but they're power-packed. So to give you a little context about Habakkuk, he was a prophet in the late 7th century BC. So 700 years before Jesus was born. And there was massive political instability, massive moral corruption going on in the land of Judah. Where's Judah? It's the Southern portion of the nation of Israel. And they were completely dismissive of the one true God, Yahweh, Jehovah God. And we learned from history that most of the priests and most of the prophets were corrupt. They would take bribes. We learned that the temple had unthinkable happenings because they had no regard for God. There was temple prostitution. There was orgies, just unthinkable. There was idol worship. This is unthinkable. There was child sacrifices to this God that they had just made up called, named Molech, just a false God. And there was this constant fear that they were gonna be overtaken

by the world empire at that time, which was not the Romans, that was the time of Jesus. Jesus was the Babylonian period. And so the Babylonians were on top and they were worried that they were gonna be the next victim. And so Habakkuk goes into his book and just kind of goes out there in chapter one and just says, God, don't you care? Like, don't you care? We're suffering. Like we're just, I'm your chosen prophet. I'm the spokesman for your people. And it just feels like you don't care. And so Habakkuk takes his hurts to God and he has a lot of questions for God. And he says in verse two, how long Lord must I call for help? But you do not listen. I'm begging you in prayer. I'm praying day and night that you will help us. How long do I cry out to you violence? Like, like, like, but you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? All this stuff that's going on in the world right now. Why do you tolerate the wrongdoing that's happening at the temple? Destruction and violence are before me. There's strife and conflict abounds. Like, why are you letting this happen?

And I just love the rawness and the realness of Habakkuk here. He's so honest and he's not being dramatic. He's just speaking from the heart and from the depths of his heart. And I just think we can learn so much from watching this prophet because he essentially is gonna teach us that real faith isn't denying doubt. Real faith starts with being honest about our doubt. Like real faith isn't having all the answers. It's asking the right questions. And it just blesses me to think today that faith and frustration can coexist at the same time. Like, like if you're a faithful believer in Jesus but you're sometimes frustrated, like welcome to normal. Like, like in other words, you can sometimes not always understand God or even doubt God and still believe in God. And I know that makes some people in the room frustrated because there's some Christians that think that if you ask questions, they're just demonstrating a lack of faith in God. I don't see it that way all the time. I would suggest that in many cases, it's not a lack of faith but rather a desire to understand God better. And this is what's happening in the book of Habakkuk. This is what's happening in this moment, right? And I think that sometimes for us,

like some of us, we come to Christ. We, you know, we come down the aisle, it's baptism weekend and we're getting baptized and. And then the old is gone, the new has come and we start coming to church. We get to starting point and we find a place to serve. We start giving, you know, and we feel like the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. Like it feels like sometimes that preacher is just talking directly to me. By the way, if that ever happens, it's not because I have some power, it's the Holy Spirit speaking to you, right? And so that happens and we just start, we get joy in our hearts, we start giving. And then one day something happens and it doesn't feel right. And we start to question God, like we got a friend that's struggling with infertility and our community group, we pray for him, we pray for them, we pray for them, we pray for them. And then one day, praise God, they conceive and then the baby doesn't make it. And you don't understand why, like why would that happen? These people are so great. They prayed so hard. Or you plead with God to save your marriage. It's like, Lord, restore my marriage, touch my spouse and your spouse still walks away. And you just, it's like, why would that happen?

Like you prayed, you prayed and you fasted and you stood on God's word, you believed that he was gonna heal that person that you loved and they died anyway. And so what do you do with that? Like you believe in God and you love God and you trust God and you feel God and you know he's there, but it just doesn't feel like he's doing anything about it. Right? This is uncomfortable, isn't it? Talk about this. It's uncomfortable. It's like that bumper. Let's talk about it. Like, what do you do when you face questions you can't answer? Like option number one, right? You could deny your faith. People do that. They just say, well, it doesn't feel like God is, he's not real. So I'm gonna walk away from faith. Or number two, you might deny your questions. You got these questions, but you grew up in faith and you're just like, you know what? I'm just gonna stuff them down. I'll push them down. She's gonna pretend like they're not there

and I'll keep checking the boxes at church, but I really don't understand what's going on. I don't know if this is real. And so neither one of these are really things that are gonna put you in a position where you're where God wants you to be. And so thankfully, when you look at the book of Habakkuk, that little three chapter book, he actually shows us a third option and I'll show you what it is. First, you deny your faith. You deny your questions. But third, here's the third option. You doubt and you keep seeking. Like you ask questions and you still keep pursuing the heart and the presence of a really good God. And Habakkuk actually shows us how to experience very real doubt and real fear and real frustration. And the best place to start, the reason this is a great guy to study is actually just studying the meaning of his name, the name Habakkuk, okay? Habakkuk, if you study the Hebrew language, and by the way, I am not in any way telling you that I've got the Hebrew language perfected. It's very difficult, like Greek's a little easier than Hebrew, Hebrew, because the word, the meanings of Hebrew words are almost like, they're not really like, there's not like one word definitions.

They're like, each word kind of like means a sentence, like almost like a short story. And if you look at Habakkuk in the Hebrew, it means literally, write this down if you will, to wrestle and to embrace, to wrestle and to embrace. That's the meaning of his name. And what I love about this is that's what he's doing in the book of Habakkuk. He's like, God, you're supposed to be just. This doesn't feel just. You're supposed to be good. This doesn't feel good. You're supposed to be loving. This doesn't feel all that loving. I'm still believing you, I believe you're good. I trust you. I believe you're in control, but I'm frustrated. Like he's wrestling, but he's also embracing. And he's like, I don't like it. I don't think it's fair. And I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna be honest with you. So now if you remember, like he's asking God these questions and he's waiting for God to answer. He's this prophet that's connected to God. And if you remember, his people were afraid of the Babylonians, they're afraid of them. And so he tells God, where are you? Like, you're not doing anything. And I'm gonna show you what God says. And it's shocking, okay?

This is what God says back to him. God says this, I'm raising up the Babylonians. That went over well. And you gotta imagine that Habakkuk, what did you just say? You're what? God says, He says, I'm raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings, not their own, they're a feared and dreaded people. What's God saying? Well, essentially He's saying, you have been so unrighteous, your people, Habakkuk, so sinful, so far from me, that I'm raising up your enemies to come and do justice upon you. And Habakkuk is like, well, that's not fair. Like that's, in what world is that fair? And his response is very personal. It's very emotional and it's, but it's from his own heart and it's full of grief and it's full of angst and it's full of questions and it's full of doubt. And even in his name, he is just wrestling and he's embracing God. Look at the ping pong match that ensues in verse 12. He says this, Lord, are you not from everlasting? Like, I know you're good. Like you're omniscient. Like you are the God who was and is and is to come.

You're the alpha and the omega. You're the beginning and the end. You're all knowing. You're all understanding. You're all powerful. And then he says this, oh my God, my Holy one, you will never, you're eternal. He is embracing him, but then he's wrestling. He says, you Lord have appointed those people to execute judgment. Then he goes back, you my rock. Like he's so confused. You have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent? Well, the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves. And if we're honest, maybe you didn't word it like this, but you've had thoughts like that. Like you've looked at our world and you've thought about those things. You've been on row one on Easter Sunday. Like I was, that's where I was. I was in Habakkuk chapter one. Lord, I love you and I trust you, but I miss your people and I don't feel you. And you're righteous and you're amazing and you're perfect, but you're confusing to me.

That's where I was. And so I want you to know that if that's where you are, if you're in chapter one of Habakkuk, if you're on the front row asking God questions that don't really make a lot of sense, I want you to know God's big enough to handle those questions. I'm pretty convinced God would rather have you yell at Him than walk away from Him. Anyone who's a married person could tell you that, right? Like my wife would prefer neither, but she'd rather me yell at her than walk away from her. I can tell you that. And that's the way faith is. You may wrestle and fight with God and from time to time, but you stay in the fight because God can handle it. And I just love the picture that Habakkuk gives us because in chapter one, he's wondering, he's wondering. There's no answer, there's no miracle. He's praying, there's no resolution. And some of you might be in chapter one, that's where I was. What do you do when you're in chapter one? Well, you don't walk away, that's for sure. You continue to take your questions to Him. In chapter one, He's wondering. In chapter two, He's waiting. I wish we had time to read it, we don't. Takes three or four minutes to read it, but He's waiting. And if you read the text, He's wondering, but He's waiting, and waiting might be worse.

Like I don't know about you, but I don't wait well. I'm not real patient, like I don't like to wait. Like if a show buffers, like I'm out, right? I don't like to wait. But some of you are waiting on real things. You're waiting on God to provide a job with benefits. You're waiting because you have someone sick in your home. You're waiting for healing and you're praying. You're praying for a child to come back to faith because they've been wondering. You're waiting on your marriage to heal. It feels a little broken, you're praying to God. You're waiting in the midst of infertility and it seems like it's a forever. So you're waiting, you're in chapter two. And then there's this idea that you have to remember this, that while you're waiting, that God is still working. Like just because you don't see it doesn't mean He's not with you. We sang about that last week. Even when we can't see it, He's working. Even when we can't feel it, He's working. He never stops working. So chapter one, He's wondering. Chapter two, He's waiting. Chapter three, we see Him trusting. We see Him trusting. Powerful. Chapter C, we see a shift. There's a pivot that happens.

And there's something that happens, and this is the amazing thing about reading the Bible. This is why you have to not just read the Bible, you have to study it. And if you look at Habakkuk chapter three, it starts with this. It just says this, a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet on Shigianoth. Turn to your neighbor and say, Shigianoth. I can't explain it, but I love this word so much. Shigianoth, just feel like dancing, right? The term is a musical term, and it describes the way you sing a song. Like you could sing a song and then you say, oh, let's have a love ballad. Let's sing it as a love ballad, or let's jazz it up a little bit. Shigianoth means rapid tempo with passion. Here's another definition I found. A cry of adoration, unwavering trust, and bold confidence expressed through heartfelt worship in what? Uncertainty. It's a cry of the heart. It's praise punctuated with exclamation marks. You ever have a friend that always texts you and about every other word, there's an exclamation point. That's your Shigianoth friend, okay? They're a little overexcited, right? They're kind of extra.

It's praise punctuated with exclamation marks. It is not praise for what's happening. It's praise for who God is. And so you have to understand chapter three in the context of Shigianoth. And he prays this prayer. It's amazing. He prays this prayer and he says, Lord, I've heard of your fame. And just realize nothing's changed. He's still in this tumultuous world. I've heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds. Lord, repeat them in our day. In our time, make them known. And in wrath, remember mercy. Lord, you're famous. You're so good. But nothing's going right for me right now. But you are incredible. You're the almighty. I trust you. I love you. I'm a little weak right now. I don't have a lot of strength. Could you come through for me? Could I see some of that fame in my day? Could you make your greatness known in my day? Could you make it happen for me? I could really use that.

And then if you look back and forth, look at verse 16 of chapter three. There's so many ways we could go here. I'll look at verse 16 with you. I heard my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound, decay crept into my bones, my legs shrunk. He's still not good. He's not good. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. He still has fear, but he's gonna wait with patience. Like, I don't like this, but I trust you. And then watch what he says. This is amazing. And though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine, in other words, there's no provision, the things that we would expect you to provide. Though the olive crop falls, fails, and field produces no fruit, though there's no sheep in the pen, no cattle in the stall, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God, my Savior. This is shiggy enough praise. This is not a half-hearted song to God. This is a cry from the depths of my soul. This is a faith that worships even when everything feels wrong. This is a faith that believes even when the eyes don't see. This is chapter three.

It's praise with exclamation. And just to be really clear, okay, this is not making the best of a bad situation. This is acknowledging. This is not good. I don't like it. There's no grapes on the vine. There's no sheep in the pen. There's no provision in the works. There's no plan on paper. But I declare that I declare that the Lord is still on the throne. This is praise, not for what you see. This is trust in who God says he is. I've been in ministry 39 years. And I remember there are some moments that stick out to me. There was a, I walked into the hospital room in Dallas about midnight. And there was an eight-year-old boy that needed a liver transplant and prayed all night long with his parents, Frank and Michelle. We prayed all night, all night long, we prayed. The sun come up and James passed away. We lost him. I'll never forget that. There's a 39-year-old mom who gave birth and didn't get to hold her son, I remember that. 10-month-old baby who died because his heart wasn't fully formed.

I remember when my dad was sick with Lewy body disease, my mom would feed him at the nursing home. They'd been married 50 years and she's feeding him because he's not capable of eating himself. And he's just staring a hole through her like he doesn't know who she is, didn't know any of us. Yesterday, I stood up here and told stories about my friend, Jim Westrom. Jim died of early onset dementia, he was 69. I just, you know, there's thousands of people in this church. I just can't think of anybody that was more enjoyable to be around than that guy. He was just so fun. I just loved being around Jim. And we'd say goodbye to him yesterday. Just still can't believe he's gone. And so sometimes you just wrestle. I mean, I just, I mean, if you're there, like I've been there, sometimes you wrestle, but I always try to embrace, like I always try to remember like the words of Jesus in John 16, in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. I remember in Revelation, the closing chapter of the Bible, John's like, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more praying for the old order of things has passed away. I remember Psalm 27, verse 13.

I remain confident of this, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Sometimes you just have to go for Psalm 46, 10, be still, be still and know that I am God, like that he's still God, that he's still in control, that he still loves me. And he leaves room for me to wrestle and embrace. And sometimes you just have to lift up shaky enough praise to praise him, even when you're hurting, even when there's uncertainty in your life. And look, you can ask questions and still have faith because real faith isn't having all the answers. Real faith is saying that I am confident, even in the changing seasons, that you remain God, that I can trust you, even when I don't understand, that I can cling to you, even when I'm wrestling with you, that I can worship you, even when I'm waiting on you, that I can praise you, even when provision is not there, that I can rejoice, even when life doesn't go the way I hoped, because faith is not built on outcomes. Faith is built on God's character. Now, at some point, we have to move beyond our doubts. And there's this one thing that we're gonna teach you next week that's gonna help you move beyond your doubt, but you gotta come back for that. Can I pray over you right now? Can I just pray?

Father, this morning, some of us are sitting in row one, and we got some hurts, and we got some questions. Not all of it's even rational, but it's still real. And so I just pray for that person that has some hurts they're still holding onto today. And I pray that as a church, that even in times of uncertainty, that we could still lift up Shigianoff prayers, that you would make your fame known, even in our day, even in our time. And in your wrath, you would remember mercy. I pray that you would help us to get beyond our doubt. And I just pray for anyone who's hurting here today. And I pray that as we worship you right now, that if anyone wants prayer, that they would come down and receive prayer from one of our pastors here today, because we need to talk about this, because we need to pray about this, and we need to get healing from this. And we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen. I mean that. If you want us to pray with you, we would love to pray with you. There's gonna be some pastors and leaders down front here. Pastor Nathan is here, Pastor Rich is here. Seriously, if you have a hurt, something that you want to pray about, please come down, pray with our pastors here, our leaders. We'd love to pray over you today.

And we're gonna stand right now and we're gonna worship. We're gonna worship the one true God. Let's worship. ♪ You come at the right time ♪ ♪ When I least expect it, never behind ♪ ♪ So why would I be surprised ♪ ♪ When you deliver every time ♪ ♪ On mountaintops, yeah, you stay the same ♪ ♪ In valleys low, oh, you'll never change ♪ ♪ And I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord ♪ ♪ And I'm confident as seasons change, your faithfulness ♪ ♪ It remains, yes, it does, it remains, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ So let's sing, you go, yeah, you go before me ♪ ♪ To prepare a blessing, yeah, you make a way ♪ ♪ And it's more than I could imagine ♪ ♪ More than I can fathom or comprehend ♪ Sing this in faith. ♪ On mountaintops, yeah, you stay the same ♪ ♪ In valleys low, oh, you'll never change ♪ ♪ And I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord ♪ ♪ And I'm confident, I'm confident as seasons change ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness remains ♪ So church, we're gonna sing this over our life, over our future. Now we're gonna sing in faith and belief. ♪ Hey, God of my present, God of my future ♪ ♪ You write my story, you hold it all together ♪ ♪ God of my present and God of my future, sing ♪ ♪ You write my story, yes, He does, you hold it all together ♪ ♪ God of my present, God of my future, you write my story ♪

♪ You hold it all together, God of my present ♪ ♪ God of my future, you write my story ♪ ♪ You hold it all together, and I believe that I will see ♪ ♪ The goodness of the Lord, I'm confident as seasons change ♪ ♪ I'm confident as seasons change, your faithfulness remains ♪ ♪ Yes, it does, your faithfulness remains ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness remains ♪ ♪ Your faithfulness remains ♪