Do you believe impossible things?
Most people—even those who aren’t religious—believe a few things that are technically impossible. Everybody—no matter who they are—believes a plethora of things for which they’ve never personally seen proof.
Name something technically impossible that you believe to still be real.
Discover why humans are prone to faith.
Sociologists and historians suggest that the quality that leads human beings to hold beliefs is the very same quality that led them to figure out fire and medicine: Humans comprehend cause and effect. Therefore, humans think that if they see something, it must have a cause and it will have an effect.
Engineering new knowledge based on causes and effects has led humans to make decisions, develop technologies, and repeatedly distinguish our species from every other. But this ability—to theorize based on cause and effect—is a double-edged sword. It’s the source of all your questions, even if it wasn’t meant to be.
What if the purpose of humanity’s ability to comprehend cause and effect is not (exclusively) answering questions and gaining knowledge, but (primarily) leading us toward faith?
Takeaway
Any animal can understand true things,but faith—that's next level.
Remind yourself of your questions & their extra weight.
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
Psalm 139:1
If God is omniscient (knowing all things) then he knows all about you. If God is omnipotent (having all power) then he doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do because nobody can force him to do anything. Therefore, if Psalm 139:1 is correct and he knows you, it’s because he wants to know you.
Grab paper and a writing utensil (or open your favorite note-taking app).
Follow these steps by using the spreadsheet below—a spreadsheet that is the accumulation of questions and doubts that were asked/submitted by folks from another church in our fellowship.
Give those in your small group a chance to read through some/most of the responses below (with a semi-slow scroll?).
Then, everyone, write down questions or doubts that you have — they could be repeats from the list or could be original thoughts of yours.
As you look at a list like this, you can understand why people who are asking important questions often feel like they’re looking for more than an answer—they’re looking for relief from all this extra weight.
Questions & Doubts : Sheet1 |
||
| Question / Doubt #1 | Question / Doubt #2 | Question / Doubt #3 |
| It feels like God could directly intervene more and still allow people free will. Why doesn't he do that? | The church has confessions from the past, and still uses them today. The church of the past worked through these, but people who speak them haven't. Does that makes sense? | Is the practice of membership in churches today helping or hurting people's journey into God's kingdom? |
| Why does God let people invoke his word for purely selfish reason? | Why are so many lives full of pain and tragedy? | |
| God, do you really actually number every hair on my head? It’s difficult to comprehend that you care that much | Why does God still allow pain if he is all good, all loving, all caring? | |
| With so much uncertainty and misinformation, how can we know the truth? | Are you taking the Word away from the United States,
like you did to countries? |
Why does the Gospel message not seem to have the
power that it should have? |
| 2020 was a real...difficult year. A pandemic (continuing), an impeachment, a change in presidential power, protests at the capital building with a remarkable political divide...I kept thinking to myself, what would Martin Luther have done? What's the right way to approach those things? | ||
| Why is the devil given so much leeway? | If you want all men to be saved and we don't do the
choosing of believing, and you do, why aren't all men saved? |
How do I reach those who are so resistant to your
will? |
| Why don't I feel as forgiven as I know I am? | When will I meet you face to face? |
When is it okay to question your wisdom like so many
bible heroes did? |
| Why do people keep making the same mistakes and expect a different outcome? | ||
| God, how can I really be sure that the story of Jesus, his birth, life, death and resurrection is actually true? | ||
| Why does God communicate with us differently now than in the OT? | Why are there wars? |
Why does God seem so different in personality from
old testament "righteousness" and new testament "lovingness"? |
| Why is the Bible unclear in some places? There are so many different denominations/divisions in the church because people interpret unclear aspects of the Bible differently. | If I'm struggling with a sin, and I want to stop, why
does God still allow me to be tempted? Why doesn't he always give me
strength to overcome the temptation? |
|
| Why does God allow some people to have seemingly endless struggles, while others have seemingly endless blessings? | ||
| Why entrust humans to spread your love? | ||
| Why don’t you come and visit? | What does forgiveness mean to you? How do you decide
when to forgive somebody? |
How can you allow so many to be born into suffering
when many have all of their needs met? |
| Is God really as delighted with me as I am now, as he would be if I were a perfect person? | ||
| Why does God let people do things that hurt other people? | Why does life suck? |
|
| What are God's true feelings on binary sexuality? Is something other than heterosexuality really wrong? | Why is God letting Christians represent him so poorly
on such a large scale? |
Is the church as is functions today really the only
way to understand/worship God? If so, I don't know if I can have a
place in it. |
| Why does God allow babies and children to be abused and tortured? | Is the church functioning on earth in the way God
wants it to? |
|
| Why do people force their beliefs and options on other people? | ||
| Why is God's apparent direct impact on the world limited to so few people and moments in history | Why do babies/innocents get sick |
Why doesn't he answer (or provide more information -
bible chapters), about the questions we have; why not anticipate and
alleviate so much confusion |
| God's teachings are not black, and white...or are they? | What if everything I've learned about God is wrong? |
Why do we follow God? Because we want to intimately
know Him? Or we want to be on the right side of things? |
Apply scripture to your questions.
First, click below to listen to the reading of Psalm 139:1–18. (You can also read along with the text below the audio player.)
Psalm 139:1-18
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Now, follow these steps to complete this exercise.
Grab the list of your questions and burdens from the exercise a moment ago.
Click to listen to the instrumental music below (if you’d like some thinking music and a way to know how much time you should take for this exercise).
While listening, comb through and connect verses from Psalm 139:1–18 to the various questions and burdens from your list, using the length of the song as the exercise’s duration. Maybe google the verses on your digital device for this part.
(Note: “Connecting” the verses doesn’t necessarily mean they will answer your question—it just means they speak to it or about it in some way.)
Listen to (and sing/hum along with) this song about trusting in God.
Questions are good, because they are gateways either to new answers or to new faith (which are both even better than questions.) While the human need to arrange and understand cause-and-effect has a funny way of making answers seem better than faith, consider this: faith can when answers can’t.
You are a limited being, so here’s the truth: you’ll never have every answer (this side of existence. We can talk about the other side another day.) Every person, whether believer or skeptic or something in between, runs out of answers at some point and must, at that point, put some trust in something. It’s OK to trust, at the same time that it’s OK to look for answers.
Takeaway
Discovering trust is both the riskand reward of God’s invitation.
Interact with this presentation to consider what God has for you.
The Bible’s story of Job is remarkable. Pain, doubt, questions, misinformation, and faith are all met with the same thing: The answer of the Almighty. Last week we considered the terrible words of Job’s unhelpful friends.
Now, hear from a young man named Elihu.
(Also, if you’d like to look on your own at an excellent, quick summary of Job’s story, click here.)
Can you find the faith in these words? As you interact, consider (and write down?) a few ways that Elihu refuses to give up on trusting God even though his friend Job is suffering. (In other words, when he sees Job’s suffering, how is he using faith to explain what’s going on?)
“I have sinned, I have perverted what is right,
but I did not get what I deserved.”
Job 33:27
Elihu’s statement here is exactly what God hopes people learn about his treatment of them. Cause-and-effect (I fail so I lose) doesn’t apply here! The faith-full relationship of God and a person changes everything.
Discuss the impact of this change.
Hover over the image for guidance in comparing what Elihu said in Job 33:27 with Jesus’ words. (Could Jesus have said the same thing?)
Jesus never sinned, so he couldn't say this
Jesus honored what was right, so he couldn’t say this.
Nevertheless, Jesus did not receive what he deserved. Just like Elihu. Just like you. Just like he wanted.
Consider how questions and knowledge are like bridges and islands.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Acts 17:24-28
The difference between something that can be known and something that has to be believed is the same difference as that between what God created and what he was trying to communicate through the creating work.
Let’s consider these connections of faith with the metaphor of a group of islands and a series of bridges.
Watch this short video (which has no sound) of bridges and islands.
Discuss: As people travel from island to island, over bridge after bridge…
• What part of that system seems most analogous to questions?
• What part of that system seems most analogous to answers?
• What part of that system seems most analogous to faith?
Answer these questions, once you’ve established what you feel each part of the image represents:
Takeaway
Knowledge can help get you from belief to belief—but not vice versa.
Let’s connect what we’re learning about the faith dynamic with the educational efforts of our church’s youth group.
Here is a list of promises God has made about kids and education:
Children are inheritance from the Lord. They are a reward from him. Psalm 127:3
See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:10
I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save. Isaiah 49:25
Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6
At GVT we are attempting to give the classic Catechism instruction to all youth that we serve, which in our context involves an overwhelming majority of children that are not officially a part of our congregation.
Discuss: What considerations might be helpful for those planning and executing the instruction at youth group? How does what we’re learning about faith give us new ideas or considerations for the youth group instruction task?
Consider sending your considerations and ideas to Pastor Garrett.
Takeaway
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.Theirs is the kingdom.
Submit a prayer request.
Feel free to share your prayer request using the link below (which opens in a new tab).
Note: Prayer requests can be confidential (please indicate so!) and go directly to Pastor Garrett's email. Those requests that you indicate as public could appear on next week's online Small Group material.
Look over these prayer requests, submitted recently.
We encourage you to pray for them now and/or throughout the week.
Praises
Thanks to God for years of service by Alice Schmidt in the role of Administrative Assistant
Concerns
For the people of Ukraine
For government leaders throughout the world, that God-pleasing decisions would be found
For the family of Kendra Atherton-Guenther (wife, mother of 2), who passed away this week in a tragic car crash
Answers
God's love being experienced in the context of a GVT small group
Wrap up by singing/humming-along-to the song “By Faith”.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.
(2 Corinthians 13:14)