Sunday Morning Worship Service

you start making your way back to your seats i want to say it's great to be in the house of the lord here this morning and to feel the presence of the lord and to be with each and every one of you that are here today and we are so glad to have guests that are here with us today we are so glad to have i want to try to say this correctly sam alum llama leo am i saying that correctly we're so glad that sam's here and sandy baker they're all the way from arizona could you up could we welcome them today we're so glad that they are here with us and we are so glad to have with us from ohio we're so glad to have the king and family with us today can we welcome them today we're so glad that they are here and we're so glad to have the parents of sister hope eller james and terry coslett here today can we welcome them we're so glad they're here we give you honor as well amen get your bibles we're going to go to john chapter number 20. i'll try to be cognizant of time and not not rush but i do want to give you something today from the word of the lord john chapter number 20 beginning at verse number 24. and as you're turning there allow me to give honor it's an opportunity for me to give honor to our pastor and our pastor's wife during this month of pastor appreciation we shouldn't just appreciate our pastor one month out of the year we should appreciate our pastor every day of every week of every month of every year we're so honored [Applause] we love our pastor our bishop our pastoral staff we honor you all the leaders of this church we honor you john 20 beginning at verse number 24. i'm going to read a familiar text and maybe let you see it in a different light today john 20 beginning at verse number 24 but thomas one of the 12 called denymus was not with him when jesus came the other disciples therefore said unto him ha ha you missed out you should have been there told you so they said we have seen the lord but he said unto them except i shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side i will not believe and after eight days again his disciples were within and thomas with them then came jesus the door is being shut and stood in the midst and said peace be unto you then saith he to thomas reach hither thy finger behold my hands and reach hither thy hand thrust it into my side and be not faithless but believing someone say believing and thomas answered and said to him my lord and my god and jesus said unto him thomas because thou has seen me thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed i want to preach to you this morning [Music] faithful thomas faithful thomas and you're probably thinking that sounds that sounds strange because it is we're going to talk about that here this one let's pray one more moment father we thank you for the word of the lord we thank you for your spirit that is here today we thank you for all the things that you've done for us already but i pray that your spirit would help us lord to study your word and i pray that we might be encouraged today as we leave here to face whatever circumstance we're facing with new found faith and i pray lord you'd help us to lift you up as we do that in jesus name we pray and everyone said amen won't you clap your hands again today unto the lord [Applause] amen faithful thomas what do you do when you don't know what to do maybe you've walked in here today and you feel like i just don't have any direction i i just don't know what to do with this situation i i'm i have no answers to the questions that i have and you start to think i don't i don't feel i don't feel anything i don't see anything i don't hear anything what do you do in that moment how how do you respond in that moment do you have a crisis of faith do you have a crisis in your belief system and your hope hebrews 11 and 1 says this and i know i've been teaching and preaching from hebrews a lot lately but it is a fantastic book about faith hebrews 11 and 1 says now faith is the substance of things hoped for hope for what's hope what are you hoping for well i'm not hoping for anything i'm just hoping i'm hoping you preach short and i get home to my roast you know and i'm just hoping that we you know i can have a a nice little sunday go to the home depot and go to my yard and then have church tonight and how you know have a nice little week this week is that what you're hoping for or or are you facing something and you just need a little hope you just need a little bit of encouragement you need something to hope in but i want to tell you that hope and faith are not based on how you feel i'm going to say it again because you didn't hear me faith and hope are not based on how you feel our fickle emotions seem to overcome our faith and lead us down the paths of anxiousness fear overcomes our faith because we can feel fear we can feel what we're going through and so we tend to base our faith for our situations on how we feel our emotions tend to want to stage an anarchy over our emotionless faith and so we have to wage a battle over our feelings and emotions with our faith in god and i know listen to me i know we are people of the spirit and we are people of emotion in pentecost but i'm afraid that we make decisions faith decisions based on how we feel and if we don't feel what we think we should feel we act upon it in positive or negative decisions and so if i don't feel this or if i don't feel that i have a gut feeling or i don't have a gut feeling or i have this sense or i don't have the goose bumps or i don't have whatever it is that we like to talk about if we don't have that all of a sudden now you're shaking to your car what do i do i don't feel anything yeah i don't i don't i don't have the the emotion to back up what i'm trying to do i just wish god would say something i just wish i could i just wish he would just touch me i just wish that he would just lead me something to have this i need something i need something tangible i need something i can feel see taste hear but paul says this in romans 12 3 according as god hath dealt to every man the measure of faith look at that again god has dealt to every man he has given to every man the measure of faith you know what that tells me that you have enough faith right now to get through what you're going through oh you didn't hear me he has given you faith he has he has allotted to you faith he has served you on an amount of faith to get through whatever circumstance you're facing today and you might say well i need i need more faith you don't need more faith you need to act on the faith that you've got he's not giving you all the the issues and the circumstances and says well i'm going to take away your faith and you need to increase your own faith and exert some more energy no he has given you faith to get through whatever it is you're facing it's the measure of faith he's measured it out to you he's measured out say this is you say this is you this glass is you and he is measured out in your life the faith you need for this moment and he goes you're saying i need more i need more faith lord i need more faith he's going to say well what are you going to do with it what are you going to do with it i don't you don't need extra faith you've got enough faith to go to go through this trial you're going through you've got i've already given you enough faith to get through it what you need is to use what you've got he says if you have the faith now listen this is what the apostles they asked them this in luke 17. he tells them to forgive to forgive their brothers and they say lord increase our faith and you know what he tells them no he said if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can tell that mountain to be moved he he says your mountain shouldn't be measured to your faith your circumstance shouldn't be measured against your faith he's saying i've already given you enough faith to move that mountain what you've got to do is use what you've got what do i got how much do i have has anybody ever felt like you just had a little bit of faith just a little bit of faith just all i've gots a little bit and he says if you've got mustard seed if you can measure your faith as a mustard seed you've got enough faith to tell a mountain to be moved he didn't say you have to have the emotion you don't have to have a great church service you don't have to have uh sing all in his hands on sunday night to get through it he said if you just got enough you got faith you can't even see it that's enough to tell cancer to go that's enough faith to tell your marriage to get back together that's enough i wish somebody was hearing me are you awake this morning my lord have mercy come on somebody you've got enough faith i'm worried that we have we we have drummed up our emotions so much that we've made our emotions faith all right i don't feel anything i don't i gotta have the goosebumps it's by faith you need to learn to believe without your feelings you need to learn how to believe without your feelings learn to have faith without a gut feeling we don't walk by sight we don't walk by how we feel we walk by faith it is faith faith is not a feeling or an emotion what do you do when sunday night's over are you hearing me what do you do when the choir stops singing all in his hands what what do you do on monday morning when you don't feel like living for the lord what do you do high on energy on sundays but do you have enough faith to live for him on monday and tuesday to face your circumstance the rest of your week it's not by your feeling it's by faith so i want you to look at this man by the name of thomas oh thomas you know about thomas don't you we we we talk about thomas from the bible when we say we call him what doubting thomas poor thomas doubting thomas maybe we shouldn't call him doubting thomas maybe we should call him normal thomas or how about guy next door thomas or you and me thomas we can we might be able to call him nate whitley thomas or dave thomas you'll get that later when you go through the drive through wendy's when someone begins to doubt here's what we want to call him oh don't you be a doubting thomas don't you be a doubting thomas poor thomas his name is used with such disdain and we just throw him under the bus for one moment found in scripture one moment of doubt oh doubting thomas unbelieving tom don't you be don't you be doubting thomas now but as i study thomas i have a hard time calling him doubting thomas i don't call him that anymore because as i stay the life of thomas i begin to see you and i in his story we can we can we can correlate with him we understand him we we can empathize with him and if we're not careful we'll try to step back and analyze him and go yeah yeah of course he would doubt of course now if that was me i wouldn't doubt and then you all of a sudden you get sick and he doesn't heal you on the first day or you have a prayer request and he doesn't answer it the next day so you quit coming to church oh now you're there good morning oh now i'm doubting thomas oh okay now i see but i want you to understand something that the only time we have any recorded words from thomas are found in the last week of jesus's life we have no words recorded of thomas in matthew mark or luke it's all found in the gospel according to john and they're found in the last week of christ's life on earth that's it and remember that john wrote his letter that you might believe that jesus is the son of god so he included doubting thomas in a book about believing that tells me that john didn't see thomas the way we see thomas and he says that right after the text we just read today he does not want you to see thomas as doubting thomas he wants you to see him as faithful thomas the word believe is found 98 times in john's gospel 98 times he wants you to believe these things are written that you might believe and that through believing you might have life through his name and so the first thing we found we find recorded from thomas is found in john 11. jesus has heard that lazarus is sick unto death and he says this this is what thomas says with jesus then said thomas which is called didymus the twin unto his fellow disciples let us also go that we might die with him does that sound like doubt to you does that sound like doubt to anybody let us go let us go also that we might die with him that's that's the first words from thomas thomas is not saying whoa hey maybe we shouldn't go you know i heard a lot of bad things over there where lazarus says you know it's not a good idea if we go over there with him you know i just think we might stay here uh jesus have you checked the weather have you checked the news uh pull it up on your phone jesus you know i'm just not so sure oh you know i'm kind of coming down with i think i might get sick the day you're gonna go over there it's kind of like that's kind of like how we do about church we start feeling sick on for sunday on monday i think i'll be sick on what y'all are here today aren't you but we we we want to doubt well i'm not so sure if i want to go do that we might die you go ahead and go on and then we'll see how it goes but that's not thomas that's not that's not doubting thomas thomas says let's go that we might die with him because he wants to go wherever jesus goes i want to be with him i want to be with him whether it's good or bad i want to be with him and then this in john 14 here we are on the last night jesus is talking about leaving them and this is what thomas says in john 14 verses 4 through 5 and whether i go you know and the way you know and thomas saith unto him lord we know not whether thou goest and how can we know the way he's telling them of his departure his death his burial and resurrection and thomas wants to know how can we get there where's the way what are the directions can we go with you how can we know the way we you've we've been following you for three three and a half years now can we know the way as well does this sound like the the words of a man of doubt absolutely not this sounds like a man who is committed to christ he is committed to dying with him he is committed to being rejected with him i want to go with you jesus what's the way can we go with you i've got to know that is not those are not the words of a man of doubt that is the words of a man of faith but you have to understand something before we get to this last moment that we've read about in our text we have to understand the context of this that thomas wants to be with christ for three and a half years that's all he's known he's watched jesus open up the eyes of the blind he's watched him unstop deaf ears he has witnessed jesus raising the dead he has seen firsthand jesus provide a meal for 5 000 people with just a handful of bread and small fish thomas had heard jesus rebuke the pharisees and sadducees he sat there on the mount as he heard him give the beatitudes and the sermon on the mount he watched as jesus cleared out the temple from buyers and sellers jesus had been around thomas had been around jesus so much and for so long that's all he knew imagine brothers and sisters having such a close relationship with jesus that all you had to do was just turn around and he's there all you have to do is look this way and oh there he is oh let's follow him to galilee let us follow him to judea let us follow him to samaria all i have to do is just be in close proximity if i have a need tap him on the shoulder if i have a question all i have to do is ask him every it's right there he's so close he's in he's in close proximity he's he can just touch him he can just hear him he can just be near him i can just imagine thomas walking next to jesus and ask him a question lord can you explain to me the parable about the kingdoms can you explain to me about the the seed and the soil for three and a half years that's all he's known just being able to touch him to hear him and be with him even when thomas didn't need jesus he was there think about it even when he didn't need him he was there for three and a half years but the day came that everyone dreaded the days of jesus being betrayed in the garden by judas the day jesus is arrested and everyone forsakes him the day of jesus being smitten by the high priest and mocked by pilate the day of jesus being brutally beaten scourged the day jesus was hanging upon a cross and there then and buried in another man's tomb jesus thomas's tangible jesus is gone everything has been taken from thomas this is his worst nightmare because jesus is nowhere to be found at thomas's greatest moment that this greatest need jesus isn't there now tell me how would you respond how would you react if you have been around jesus for three and a half years he's always within arm's reach he's always in the vicinity to hear your voice and to answer your question and now he's gone in an instant and the religious authorities are looking for christ's disciples to kill them as well mock rejected we followed you we've forsaken all to follow you and now he's gone how would you respond how would you respond in that moment would you respond with doubt or faith this is the worst storm of his life these are the darkest days for thomas and he needs jesus right now and he can't touch him he can't feel him he can't hear him and he can't see him he's nowhere to be found this is the moment he has to have a prayer answered it's not being answered this is the moment where doubts are bubbling over and overtaking his faith i need him now have you ever felt like that have you ever felt like that that that my greatest need i can't feel him oh i felt him when matthew ball was here at camp meeting but i didn't have a need then we enjoyed the presence of the lord i didn't didn't need him then but now i need him and there's no goosebumps there's no choir they can sing a song for for 45 minutes i still don't feel anything where is he doesn't he see that i'm in need right now i have a question i have a problem i have a circumstance he was here when i didn't need him and now that i do i can't feel him i ever felt like that when you're when you're fighting circumstance in your body and you're fighting depression in your mind and you're fighting anxiety in your spirit and all the things that you might be facing and you're just wondering where is he when i need him the most thomas says i just need to touch him i just need i just need to be near him again if i could just if i could just see him he's become just like us hasn't he if we where we base our relationship on god with how we feel our fickle emotions and feelings here comes trouble here comes pain here comes some issue and we can't feel him we can't sense him any longer i didn't need him when the church service was rocking in the and the goose pimples around my neck but today i need him where is he i've prayed i've fasted can't feel anything this is his greatest problem he can't find jesus i believe there are some people here fighting for your faith today secretly you're struggling in your spirit going through trouble and problems and you can't feel him you can't hear him you can't touch him i want to tell you something you need to hold on to your faith and not your feelings hold on to your faith here's what happens here's what happens john 20 and 25 the other disciples therefore said unto thomas we have seen him seen who seen jesus what do you mean you've seen jesus now do you understand why he's responding the way he's responding now do you understand how he feels have you put yourself in his shoes yet what do you mean you've seen him yeah peter john seen him mary martha seen him two unknown disciples we're walking with him from emmaus and thomas is going hey what about me i walked with him for three and a half years how come he didn't show up to my door must be nice be peter and john must be what are they doing right that i'm not doing ryan oh yeah god's always blessing me oh yeah you know god's always blessing them oh yeah they're part of the inner circle you know must be nice must be nice always be getting blessed like that yeah if i had different parents yeah yeah that'd be that'd be me too don't you act like you haven't talked like that before what do you mean you've seen him i've been here peter and john peter was cussing last week he denied him three times peter i've been showing up to this church for all of these years and i never got a blessing like that [Music] you're not now i got you hey hey mary and martha oh not those two and who are those two other disciples who said they had bread with him and he showed him who he was from moses until now who were those guys they were apart of the 12 they show up at the last minute and now all of a sudden look at them being blessed being used making friends must be nice i've been coming here for all these years no one ever sees my hand it must be in us now thomas now time you can start to say well you you know thomas can you imagine the other disciples you should have been there man well you went through some kind of crisis or something i'm telling you we ran to the tomb we ran where were you at yeah we yeah we went to the tomb i mean i was scared there was an angel there mary and martha went yeah where were you and thomas is going i've been here scared to death worried i've not seen him and he's he's showing up for you if we're not careful we'll start looking at everybody else's prayers being answered and we'll try to measure ourself against them and then we start trying to measure god like he's some respecter of persons oh of course you're blessing them oh of course you're blessing them and that's not faith brothers and sisters that's not faith that's that's that's fear and that's doubt and you start and that's what the devil would like for you to do here let me just go let me just go ahead and just be real with you i've dressed this way all these years and what do i have to show for it don't you dare act like you haven't said that is your kids in church do you have food on your table do you have money in your bank account you got four or five cars in your in your driveway and you're wondering where he is he's been there the entire time you're measuring the wrong thing come on you just need to stick with it it's not about always doing it the right way it's a matter of endurance and preserving look at this look at this i love this i love this everybody else is getting a blessing everybody else is everybody else is seeing him everybody else is having a visitation everybody else is getting what they need from him and you know and here's where people would say well this might as well throw in the towel forget it ah church ain't for me it's for those other people like what like what other people what other people yeah you have to be a you have to be a certain type of person go that church what a sinner what we do is we measure people by where they are and not where they were must be nice we have all that do you know where some of these people came from he does why don't you ask him their history see you're looking at the end you're looking at the end of their story from your beginning of the story and you don't know their story because you've not lived it and if they show up looking like this and you think they've got it all together and they've always had this how do i always they've just been born this way they've been born pentecostal no brothers and sisters if you knew where i came from if you knew where these people came from god doesn't save a certain kind of people he serves he comes to save all people who realize that they are in need of a savior and he is not a respecter whether you're poor or rich black or white male or female he wants to know are you going to have faith in him and thomas didn't go and get church hurt because he didn't see jesus when everybody else seen him this is this new thing called church hurt really it's just a new word called backsliding blaming somebody else for your poor spirit and your bad attitude and not being teachable when somebody corrects you that's not church hurt that's being backslidden now look at this this is what thomas says thomas goes well i'm not going to believe until i see him i'm not going off here i'm not going off your testimony no no no no i got to see him i got to see the print in his hands i got to be able to put my finger right i mean you talk about he's just coming right at it there's what i want here's what i want this is what i have to see but look at verse number 26 of john chapter number 20. and after eight days again his disciples were within now look at what john says here and thomas was with them eight days later and thomas was still showing up eight days of not seeing jesus in the flesh and he's like well i guess my mom's going to go to church i might as well just keep coming up to to prayer meeting i don't know let me tell you something you know what you need to do is stay faithful to the house of god you need listen i don't feel him i don't see him i don't hear him but you know what i'm going to do i'm going to keep showing up because i know if he showed up for them he's going to show up for me come on if he did it for them he'll do it for me but i'll keep showing up even if he doesn't do it i'll keep showing up stand to your feet i'll keep showing up he hallelujah up for peter and john that way and mary and martha and these two other disciples well i'm not going to quit now i'm going to keep showing up i'm going to keep coming to prayer meeting i'm going to keep coming listen listen don't you dare miss wednesday night well it's just wednesday it might be the eighth day that your prayer gets answered well it's just sunday morning and i'll come on sunday night well jesus might just walk through a wall and if you're not there guess what he's gonna do he's gonna you're going to say well how come ha ha ha ha ha ha well you know he's going hey i showed up but you made an excuse why you couldn't be there eight days and thomas kept showing up can you imagine doubting thomas he's not doubting thomas he's faithful thomas he's faithful thomas he i don't feel him i don't see him everybody else gets it but you know what i'm going to keep hanging around those who do i'm going to keep i'm going to hang around the zip code where he's showing up before i'm going to keep coming to the place i know he's been and met with these people before if i keep hanging around you i might just see him instead of being jealous of everybody hang around them see what they're doing [Applause] ah you know hang out with those folks those folks there got to click over there and there well if god's blessing them hang out with them i want to see what they're doing i want to see i want to see where if he's come to their door he must be coming to mind soon i'm going to keep coming to the same place i'm going to show up i'm going to be faithful i'm going to keep coming to church i'm going to keep giving i'm going to keep worshiping i'm going to keep praising i'm not going to stop just because i can't feel him i'm not basing this on a feeling or an emotion i'm going to show up because i know if i keep showing up he'll be there he'll be there philip i'm almost done i promise you're standing you feel better [Music] philip he wants to know lord this is a great one the scripture he says lord show us the father and it will be sufficient for us that's a great this is a great oneness scripture but i think we need to look at just a little bit different because when jesus replies he says philip have i been with you for so long that you don't know me [Music] have you been here so long that you've forgotten who i am philip and if we're not careful listen to me we'll come to church and we'll get so comfortable and familiar that we forget why we're here and listen i love fellowship and we need fellowship but i'm not here to talk about sports and hunting i'm not after this weekend i think i'm going to quit sports all together i mean i'm just that is my doubting thomas spirit coming on me right now i just i you know i'm not here to do that and if we're not careful listen to me listen to me i'm if we're not careful we're gonna we'll come in here too familiar have i been with you for so long you don't know me have you have you been around my miracles that you don't know me have you been around the world for so long that you still don't know he said philip when you've seen me you've seen the father oh oh you're right brothers and sisters we need to be remain faithful when we don't feel we don't see and we don't hear i like i like giving application listen to me for a second i'm gonna sing i'm gonna get out of the way we'll have altar call but listen to me brothers and sisters if you want god to speak to you [Music] i got 66 books right here of him speaking if you're not getting in this book every day [Music] if you're not if you're not spending time with him with this book he's not going to speak to you i wish somebody would come and and read to me my social security number why don't you know it [Music] i just wish somebody would come and read my mail can you not go to the mailbox and get it [Music] i know we're i know what we're trying to say we we we make those proclamations what we're saying is we're wanting some fleshly man to come and deserve what you need and i understand that sometimes but if you're not getting in this book you don't need a prophet [Music] you need a pastor [Music] [Applause] thomas knew if i just keep showing up sooner or later he'll be there but what does jesus say i'm closing what does he say when he walks through the wall he says peace why because thomas was in a storm in his faith and when he shows up he's coming to speak peace to your life today if you need jesus to show up right now maybe you don't need a feeling or a goosebump or a shout or a tear maybe you just need a peace i want you to close your eyes right now for a moment and i want you to pray the lord is in this room he showed up for somebody who feels like thomas it just seems like everybody else is getting their answer and everybody else is getting their blessing i just wish it was me i wish it was my turn just stay faithful just stay faithful maybe you're fighting a circumstance in your family and you just feel like you just need something i need something he's come to speak peace to your spirit today i wonder if there would be somebody who would leave the confines of their pew in their seat when they would come to an altar this morning and just say lord i'm just i'm in need of you but if i don't get a touch and if i don't and if i don't get the the word i'm just i need some endurance i need some faith to keep going this is beautiful there's some that are coming but i want you to listen to me i want you to listen jesus speaks the word of peace but then he says this to thomas thomas reach reach sometimes we say lord i need you to touch me and maybe the lord's saying today come and reach for me come pursue me reach out for me come on pray towards me lift up your voice towards me reach reach reach for thine head and touch me pray until you touch him worship into your feelings yes just remain [Music] shame and guilty [Music] [Applause] today [Music] what it feels like for the glory of the lord [Applause] take me there [Music] and take me to the place where your angel never cease to cry [Music] me [Applause] take me for your glory [Music] [Music] oh right now [Applause] [Music] [Music] you know what thomas said in frustration [Music] if i just but see him and put my hands in his hand and i see the nail scars and i see his side he said that in frustration with jesus nowhere to be found and yet what does jesus say to him when he finally arrives reach forth by him meaning he heard even a frustrated prayer sometimes listen to me [Music] have you ever had a frustrated prayer god i just need you to do i don't know why you're not doing it but i wish you would just do it i did it this week i'll be honest with you i did it this morning there's just times when you have a frustrated prayer and that type of prayer even god hears and he's not turned away by that he's not turned off by that he shows up to thomas and can you imagine what thomas felt when jesus says the very thing that thomas said in frustration oh he heard that oh he he heard that man what did that do to his faith that sometimes faith doesn't have to be pretty and prayer doesn't have to be some type of eloquent diatribe sometimes it's just going [Music] lord would you just do it already [Music] has anybody else prayed that way before pastor nate you can't pray like that you're a preacher y'all i've prayed it more than you realize oh agonizing frustrated prayer and god goes i hear you [Music] just keep being faithful and i'll show up and i'll answer even the prayer out of frustration that's how faithful our god is to us even in our times of frustration and feel like giving up he answers that prayer [Music] if you're encouraged today by the word of the lord won't you clap your hands all over the sanctuary oh hallelujah hallelujah tonight you don't want to miss it pastor mccool will be preaching tonight six o'clock we're gonna have a time of prayer our men's prayer room our ladies prayer room available musicians praise team choir don't forget all the times for practice tonight we're gonna come expecting tonight come expect him don't miss it he might just walk through the wall and come give you an answer to your prayer tonight so don't miss it be blessed today enjoy your afternoon we'll see you again tonight in jesus name