So this morning I'm going to ask you to make your way with me to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter number 14. Matthew chapter number 14, the first book in the New Testament. We're going to be reading a portion of scripture in Matthew chapter number 14 that is probably familiar to you. We've preached on this multiple times through the years, although not covering this particular aspect of these verses. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 14 and we're going to begin reading in verse number 24 and we're going to read down through verse number 33. Matthew chapter number 14 verse number 24. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Now watch verse 31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, Wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were coming to the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying of a truth, Thou art the Son of God. Our text verse, and the title of the message is taken out of verse number 31. The title of the message is, Why Do You Doubt? Let's pray. Father, we come before your presence today with thanksgiving and joy in our hearts that we are permitted and we have the desire to be in your house this morning. Lord, we want to serve you and worship you and we want to hear from you. And Lord, we desire that as your word goes forth and we read it and it is preached that you would speak to hearts as only you can. We pray that Jesus. would be lifted up and exalted, and that saints and sinners alike would be pointed to Him. And Lord, as we cover this very serious subject of doubt, Lord, help us to understand that it is something that believers must confront. And Lord, as You spoke to Peter, these words help us to study Your Word and to hear and learn from You as to why we doubt. May it all be for Your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. To my knowledge, Peter remains the only human being other than Jesus to ever walk on water. And yet instead of this instance in his life, Peter walking on water, instead of this serving as an epic illustration of faith, This instance is recorded in scripture as a serious warning as to what can happen when we as children of the Lord doubt. Now again this passage that we focused on multiple times but never on this particular topic of doubt is a clear exhortation from Jesus that we as his people must be on guard against doubt. Now we have to understand that as the Lord's people there will be seasons in our lives where we battle doubt. The strongest saint of God in scripture battled doubt. I remind you of David and Elijah and one of the twelve we know as Thomas who has been renamed Doubting Thomas and of course Peter in our text passage. I read you this quote from A.W. Pink that is so on target as to how God's people are prone to doubts here in this life. Pink writes this, but the regenerated soul appropriates the message and measures himself by what he hears. He is often convicted of his sins and made to mourn over them. He tests himself by God's standard and feels that he comes so far short of what he ought to be that he sincerely doubts the honesty of his own profession. The word pierces him like a two-edged sword and causes him to cry out, O wretched man that I am." And so far from Us this morning saying to somebody who would doubt. Oh you better investigate your salvation somebody who's saved never doubts That is not the message of scripture and so this morning as we look at this passage, and we consider this question Why do you doubt? even though we are prone to doubt. We must summon all spiritual power by God's grace to combat doubt. Now Jesus' words should serve to get our attention. Let's read them again in verse number 31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, Wherefore didst thou doubt? Jesus is asking Peter Why did you doubt that you would die by drowning in this? Tempest in this hurricane and they ought to serve to get our attention Why do we doubt God? Well Peter's situation and Jesus's words I believe help us take three views of doubt and as we consider why do we doubt. The first view involves the diagnosis of what constitutes doubt. We see that in our text passages here in verses 24 through 33. The second view we consider is the dangerous causes of doubt. What is it that leads us to doubt? And then thirdly, What happens if we doubt? That is the debilitating consequences of doubt. Three views that will help us as we investigate Peter's situation and the Lord's words to Peter, why do you doubt? So we consider this first view. This first view involves the diagnosis of what constitutes doubt. In other words, what What is doubt scripturally? How do we know we are doubting? Well Peter's interaction with the Lord here in this situation gives us keen insight as to what the Lord considers doubt. The diagnosis of what constitutes doubt. Now here is doubt. First of all Not abiding in Jesus's presence. Not abiding in Jesus's presence will lead us to doubt. Notice here in verses 25 through 27 what the Bible says. Verses 25 through 27 and then the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them walking on the sea and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea They were troubled saying it is a spirit, and they cried out for fear now What is happening here literally they are out in the middle of this tempest or this hurricane if you will and they're in the ship and they see this what they believe to be a ghost walking on the water coming towards them now what would you think if you were in their situation would you not be troubled have you ever and of course I won't get into the doctrinal implications of what a ghost is and a spirit and things like that but have you ever been in a situation where the hair on your arm stood up or the hair on the back of your neck stood up and It's like, man, I think I saw a goat. I think I saw a spirit. Well, that's what they're saying here, and they're afraid, and they scream out. But notice what Jesus does in verse 27. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I. Be not afraid. Now very clearly what happens here is that Jesus identifies Himself to the disciples. Him it's not a spirit. It's not a ghost. It's not an imposter It is the Lord Jesus Christ. They knew the Lord they had spent time with the Lord They would recognize his voice. What did John write in John chapter number 10? My sheep know my voice right and so they would have they would have understood that it was Jesus so the point is that Peter had no reason to believe that he was not in the presence of Jesus. Now what does Peter do when he sees Jesus? He asks here, look at this in verse number 28. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter walked down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. And so Peter starts out Recognizing he is in the presence of Jesus, but at some point He is not abiding in the presence of Jesus and might I say he's not enjoying abiding in the presence of Jesus He is doubting whether or not this is really the Lord that is going to take care of him Do you know that sometimes we can be in the presence of Jesus and doubt Jesus? Do you remember after the Lord was resurrected? He appeared to his infant church, and the eleven were gathered together. And we find this recorded in Matthew chapter 28 and verse number 17. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. The word doubted there, and we're going to talk about this a little bit later on. some of the verses that we consider, the word doubted there literally means to waver. They wavered. This is Jesus resurrected from the dead. I mean, He's got the marks in His hands and in His feet and in His side, and they worshipped Him, but some doubted. Do you ever doubt that the Lord that you came to know in salvation is still the same Lord? still abides with you and his presence will not go from you when Jesus's presence is not with us it is not because Jesus did something it is because we have moved away I remind you the words of Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 5 where the Bible reads let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he has said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee and so here is Peter in the midst of this storm he's on the water he's walking to Jesus it's the same Jesus and Peter is not abiding in the presence of Jesus he is doubting he begins to sink and he's fearing and he's doubting and the Lord says why did you doubt I didn't go anywhere why did you doubt and so we're talking about the diagnosis of what constitutes doubt It is when we are not abiding in Jesus's presence. Secondly, it is when we have abandoned Jesus's precepts. Now think about this. Why is Peter on the water? Why is he on the water? Well let's read, we already read these, but let's read them again just for context sake and to keep us current. Notice verses 28-29. Peter answered him and said Lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water now look at verse 29 and He said come And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. There is no doubt that Jesus said to Peter, Come. That is a precept of the Lord. The word precept means a commandment or direction given as a rule of action or conduct. And this is exactly what happened with Peter and Jesus. Peter says, Lord, if it's you, bid me come to you. Now the Lord very well could have said, no, Peter, stay in the boat. But he didn't do that. He gave him a direct command, a precept, to come. Jesus gave the order to come Jesus gives the order to sinners to come unto him all ye that labor and are heavy laden and he will give you rest the Spirit and the bride in the book of Revelation say come unto Jesus and Find him to be your all in all now that has to deal with do with salvation But here we're talking about our daily lives as children of the Lord. Do you know that sometimes? when we're following God's will in God's Word we can begin to doubt the Lord gives us a clear precept do this go here go there and we begin following and then in the midst of our following what happens Lord did did you really did you really tell me to go here I gotta tell you the ministry there were times when I was a landmark Baptist Church and I had the question I Lord did you really call me here is this really what you wanted me to do There are times when we are following the will and the word of the Lord when we will begin to doubt. Peter is following the precept of the Lord. The Lord said, Come! And Peter follows Him. And Peter is doing fine. Out on the tempest of the sea. And then he begins to doubt. Now, this is much like the Jews. who received the precept and commandment of the Lord that they were to leave Egypt and go three days in the wilderness and sacrifice unto Him. And this was all for their good. God had prepared all of this. He had heard their cry. He sent Moses and Aaron to go unto Pharaoh so that they would plead that Pharaoh would release the people of God. And by God's providence and miraculous power, they were released. Now wouldn't you think that they would be appreciative of what God had done? They're following the precepts of God. God says, go out here and do this. But I want to read to you what happened with the children of Israel as they left and departed Egypt. They actually thought that God had brought them out into the wilderness to kill them. They doubted God listen to this in Exodus 16 3 and the children of Israel said unto them would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did eat bread to the full for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger and then We go from hunger to thirst and They're going to blame God and think that God has brought them out into the wilderness to kill them by thirst We read that in Exodus 17 verse 3 and the people Thirsted there for water and the people murmured against Moses and said wherefore is this that thou has brought us up out of Egypt? To kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst Are we not like the Egyptians sometimes? God gives us a precept do this we began following the Lord and then adversity hits and we begin to doubt the Lord Lord did you bring me here to kill me did is it did you really is this what you're trying to do we doubt the Lord when we abandon his precepts. Hey, I remind you of the book of Philippians where we're told that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it. And so when God gives you a commandment and a precept to follow Him, God's going to see it through. There's no reason to doubt it. Peter did not need to doubt that Jesus would follow through and receive him as Peter came to walk on the water. There's a third what we see here as a diagnosis of what constitutes doubt and as we take this first view and that is not acknowledging Jesus's power not acknowledging Jesus's power now the 12 had been with Jesus we've already mentioned that and when he called them forth what did Jesus give them power to do to cast out demons, to heal sick, to cause the blind to see, to cause the lame to walk. You'll find that in Matthew chapter number 10. And they had observed many miracles that the Lord had performed. And yet here is Peter seeing the power of God and knowing that Jesus had the power over the elements and here he is out on the water and what's he do? He doubts. Do you ever doubt God's power? We look at our situation and we think that there's no possible way that God can protect us and preserve us in this situation. We're like Peter. We say, oh man, I'm going down. I'm going to drown. I'm going to drown in the sea of life. God's power And we talked about God's power last week when we looked at the donkey speaking. God's power is far superior to what we can even think. And He can preserve us and protect us through any storm that we might be in. But we are doubting when we are not acknowledging Jesus' power. What happened in the storm? Notice in Matthew chapter number 14 and verse number 32, Matthew chapter 14 and verse number 32, And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. In another place, they're in the middle of the sea, and Jesus is in the boat asleep, and they go and wake him up and say, Carest thou not that we perish? Jesus of course cared about them we doubt the Lord's care for us and the power that he possesses and They were when Jesus calmed the sea and the storm They were amazed and said man. He has power even over the elements the wind and the sea Obey him and listen to him beloved. That's power and so we are doubting we are not acknowledging Jesus's power and we are doubting when we are not accepting Jesus's protection. When we again think that Jesus is not going to protect us. Peter thought that somehow here he is in the midst of the sea and we haven't talked about what led to him doubting. We're just talking right now about the diagnosis of what constitutes doubt. He begins to doubt. Now, why would he doubt? Had Jesus ever failed to protect them up to this point? In our own lives, we doubt the Lord. And it is often, I would say in every instance, misplaced. The Lord has never let us down. The Lord has never done anything to cause us to suffer just for the sake of suffering. Now, there are adversities and trials that He allows into our lives to mold us and make us into what He wants us to be. But He always protects us. Peter had no reason to doubt that the Lord would not protect him. Now, I want to read to you a quote. from Brother Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon. It's a lengthy quote, so bear with me. I know that your mind goes quicker than what you can hear read to you, but just stay with me because Spurgeon has such an eloquent way of articulating what we're talking about, that there's no reason to doubt the protection of God. And he's referencing the life of David. And there were multiple instances in the life of David when David doubted God's protection. Now I want you to listen to what Spurgeon wrote. David could not put his finger upon any entry in his diary and say of it, here is evidence that the Lord will forsake me. For the entire tenor of his past life proved the very reverse. But is it not just in the same way that we doubt God's help? Is it not mistrust without a cause? Have we ever had the shadow of a reason to doubt our Father's goodness? Have not His loving kindnesses been marvelous? Has He once failed to justify our trust? Ah, no! Our God has not left us at any time. We have had dark nights, but the star of love has shone forth amid the blackness. We have been in stern conflicts, but over our head He has held aloft the shield of our defense. We have gone through many trials, but never to our detriment, always to our advantage. And the conclusion from our past experience is that He who has been with us in six troubles will not forsake us in the seventh. What we have known of our faithful God proves that He will keep us to the end. Let us not then Reason contrary to evidence. How can we ever be so ingenerous as to doubt our God? Isn't it true doesn't Spurgeon the gift that God gave him to eloquently put pen to paper and Articulate what we feel and what we need. There's no reason for us to doubt God There was no reason for Peter to doubt Jesus. He was literally right there with Jesus Jesus was going to protect him And we know that Peter doubted. And you know how we know Peter doubted? Because Jesus said, why are you doubting? He doubted, no doubt, no pun intended, the protection of Jesus. Well, if you look at each of these four instances that I've described, Not abiding in Jesus's presence, abandoning Jesus's precepts, not acknowledging Jesus's power and not accepting Jesus's protection. If you look at that and you evaluate your life and you see that and you say, wow, I'm guilty of that. You know what that is? It's doubt. It's doubt. And we have no reason to doubt our Lord. We move now to the second view that we talked about. There are three views from Peter's situation that helps us evaluate why we doubt. The first view involved the diagnosis of what constitutes doubt. We now move to the second view, the dangerous causes of doubt. So now we know what doubt is and how Jesus classifies doubt, but why is it that we doubt? What led Peter to doubt? In this, we come to understand the seriousness and the spiritual danger in why we doubt. Now, as we go through these causes that are, by the way, I'll tell you, are all articulated by Matthew in verse number 30, we're going to notice that each of these causes of doubt can build on the other and cause a snowball effect in our life. Now let's see them. The dangerous causes of doubt. The first cause is when we rely on sight instead of faith. When we rely on sight instead of faith. Look at Matthew 14 and verse number 30. What are the first words of Matthew 14 and verse 30? But when he saw the wind boisterous. Hey, I want to remind you that this was the same storm that Peter experienced while he was in the boat as when he got out of the boat. It's not like the storm was not tempestuous while he's in the boat and then he gets out of the boat and then the Lord makes it a stronger storm. It's the same storm. The problem was that his perspective was different. When he was in the boat, he didn't notice how boisterous the storm was. But he gets out of the boat at the direction of the Lord. The Lord says, come. Peter starts to walk to the Lord. And what's he do? He saw the wind boisterous. The word boisterous there literally means forcible, mighty, or strong. He's in the midst of the sea, and instead of looking at Jesus to walk to Jesus, he sees that the wind is boisterous. Now, he was doing fine. Was he not? In verse number 29. Look at verse 29. And he, the Lord, said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. I mean, hey, listen. Do not miss the fact that Peter was actually walking on the water. mean he was walking on the water and yet he sees the wind oysters you know what causes us to doubt when we are relying on our sight instead of faith did not Paul write to the church at Corinth And he gave them this very, very important instruction. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse number 7, Paul wrote, For we walk by faith, not by sight. Do you know what's going to happen when you are walking by sight? You are going to doubt God. Because you are looking at the circumstances. And you are looking at the tempestuous, boisterous sea around you. And you're going to forget that you're in the presence of Jesus. And Jesus has given you His precept to come unto Him. And when your eyes are on Jesus, you're focused on Jesus. But when your eyes are on your circumstances, you're focused on something that is going to, by their very nature, trouble you. We live in a wicked world. We are sinners by nature and by practice. We are prone to wander from the Lord. We are not by nature spiritual beings. We have the new man that is created in righteousness within us because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross in paying the price for our sins and the Lord sending the Spirit to beckon us to come unto Him and saving us by His grace. When we were saved the Spirit took up His abode within us and abides within us. And yet we still contend with the old man, the flesh, that old nature. And so when we are focusing on our circumstances, we are prone to walk by sight and not by faith. And when we're walking by sight and not by faith, you know what that leads to? Doubt. We are doubting God. We will doubt God. Do you know that there is an opposite to doubt? What is the opposite of doubt? Faith. Faith is the opposite of doubt. Did not the Lord say to Peter in verse number 31, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now we're going to talk about that in more detail in just a little bit, but the Lord is literally saying, your faith was down and your doubt was up. When our faith is up, our doubt is down. Faith is the opposite of doubt. In fact, really, it makes sense when we think about the definition of faith. We can't help but see, again no pun intended, that it's the opposite of doubt. Now if we are doubting, if one of the causes of doubt is relying on sight instead of faith, and faith is the opposite of doubt, how did Paul define faith in Hebrews chapter number 11 and verse number 1? He defined it this way. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When we are walking by faith, we are not walking by sight. What is it in your life right now? That you're looking at the circumstances, and you're walking by sight You look at it, and you say man. It's terrible situation. There's no way this can work out well your eyes are on the Circumstances and the situation you are relying on sight instead of faith that leads to doubt the second cause that we see. We're talking about the dangerous causes of doubt. And remember, each of these builds on the other and can cause a snowball effect. Relying on sight instead of faith. And then secondly, relinquishing our sound mind to fear. Relinquishing our sound mind to fear. Look at verse number 30. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. So he relied on sight, not faith. He's relying on what he's seeing. And what he's seeing did what? It led him to fear. Now listen, I've said it many times before and I won't belabor the point, but you've got to have fear in your life. Fear is a good thing if it's in the proper context. Like if you don't have ever any fear, you're probably going to not live very long. Okay? Because fear is used of the Lord. But it's got to be the right kind of fear, the proper kind of fear. But the wrong kind of fear, a fear that results from us relying on sight instead of faith, can cause us to relinquish what the Lord has given us as to our mental capacity and that is a sound mind. Fear can be paralyzing and it can drive us to irrational actions. I could prove that this morning if I wanted to. I could pull out a jar with a tarantula in it that is of no harm to you. It could not kill you if it bit you or whatever, but if I pulled out a tarantula and I came over and I threw a big tarantula on you, you would see some people acting irrationally because of their fear of the tarantula. Now the tarantula is not going to hurt you. You ever see somebody and you know, a bug gets on them. You know, they're doing all this crazy stuff. It's a bug. It's not going to kill you. But that fear leads us to act irrationally. Peter had no reason to fear. But what's he doing? He's relying on sight instead of faith. And because he's relying on sight instead of faith, it leads him to relinquish that sound mind that the Lord had given him, and he gives in to his fear. What is fear? False evidence appearing real. Was Peter gonna die? Now think about this. When you read this situation, is there any possibility that you think in your mind that Jesus would let him drown in that sea? No. Jesus said, come, he's going to protect Peter. It's almost as though the Lord is incredulous when Peter doubts. It's like what, why are you doubting? I'm here with you. I'm not going to let you drown. You know some of our children, you ever deal with your children that way? You know your children, you take your children to do something and they're just terrorizing like they think you're going to let them die. No, I got you. I'm going to protect you. Nothing's going to happen. The Lord deals with his children the same way. I remind you of what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter number 1 verse 7. For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. You know what causes us to doubt when we're relying on sight instead of faith? And that leads us to relinquish our sound mind to fear and then lastly to react to the seriousness of our fall. to react to the seriousness of our fault. Now look at verse number 30 and let's read it all again and then focus on the last part. But when he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried saying Lord save me. Now there is no doubt that he was going under. But why was he going under? He was going under because he lost sight of Jesus and he was focusing on the circumstance. I say that doubting is caused by our reaction to the seriousness of our fall and I might well say overreacting. And we talked a little bit about that just a moment ago. But when doubt creeps in It can lead us to all sorts of thoughts. All sorts of reactions that are really overreactions. Have you ever had a situation in your life where you doubted God in one area? And pretty soon you are doubting God in this area, and you're doubting God in that area, and you're doubting God in this area, in that area, and pretty soon if we're not careful we'll be doubting whether or not we're even really a child of God. I'm not overemphasizing the fact. I'm not overstating it. The enemy wants to mess with our minds and cause us to doubt God, and so as this doubt creeps in, it can have a snowball effect. I read you what Brother John Gill wrote in reference to this thought. Gil writes, and he's talking about doubt now, I'll remind you of that. Gil writes, as well as from other causes, are fears within. About their interest in everlasting love, electing grace, and the covenant of grace. About the presence of God with them and the truth of grace in them. About their interest in Christ, their sonship, their final perseverance, and enjoyment of the heavenly glory. Gil is saying that all of these things can result from our doubt. So we go from this doubt here to this snowball effect where we're thinking I'm gonna die. I'm not even saved by the grace of God and our flesh can allow us to reach that point. So we see the dangerous causes of doubt. We move now to the third view that we want to take and This involves the debilitating consequences of doubt. The debilitating consequences of doubt. We should understand the fallout of doubt. That there are consequences that can be dire, right? And debilitating to us. That can literally cripple us. Now first of all, the first consequence is there can be a danger to our well-being. A danger to our well-being. Now in Peter's case, Peter was literally in physical danger, was he not? I mean, he's beginning to sink. He's walking to Jesus, he's doing fine, his eyes are on Jesus, and then he looks away from Jesus and he sees that the wind is boisterous, he begins to fear, he's doubting Jesus, and what happens? He begins to sink. Do you know that doubt is detrimental to our well-being? In this case, Peter was literally in physical danger. There are times when our doubt can lead us to literally be in physical danger. But also emotional. And spiritual. And mental. All of these effects of doubt can come weighing down upon the child of God. Do you know that doubt can cause worry and stress. And what are the effects of worry and stress in your life? I mean, some of us worry about stuff that it's like, why are you worried? I really don't understand. Why are you worrying about that? We worry about, oh, am I going to have enough to live on? And the Lord says in Luke 12, verse 29, seek not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of a doubtful mind. And we doubt stuff, and we worry about stuff that makes absolutely no sense. And then when we worry, that worry and stress can produce physical problems. We can lose sleep. We can lose weight. Our peace of mind is affected. All why? Because we doubt God. And we doubt God's protection and care for us. there are debilitating consequences of doubt danger to our well-being depletion of our faith depletion of our faith again look at verse number 31 and what did the Lord say to Peter he said O thou of little faith now listen it was good that Peter had some faith right in fact it's good if we have a little faith I mean a little faith is good, but it's not the best. And the Lord requires of us and wants of us the best. Peter's faith in this situation wasn't what it should have been, was it? Oh, he says here, O ye, or O thou of little faith. You know what we should do in our lives? We should strive to emulate Bible characters that illustrated and exhibited the exemplary faith that the Lord wants us to have, should we not? Why do we read the Bible? And by the way, I'll tell you this, one of the ways that you're going to doubt God is if you're not in the Bible. I mean, how often do you read the Bible during the week? You don't read the Bible, don't be surprised if you're not doubting God. I mean, you're not experiencing the presence of God in Bible reading, you're not experiencing the presence of God in prayer. In fact, there are multiple verses that we could look at It's not the purpose this morning to focus specifically on prayer, but we're told that when we ask, we're to ask not doubting, nothing wavering, right? And so when we're not in Bible reading and in fellowshipping with the Lord in Scripture and praying properly, we're going to doubt. and our faith is going to be depleted and we read the Word of God and we read about these Bible characters, these saints of God that exhibited and illustrated faith you know who one of them is that I think of that is specifically called out for his faith? Abraham Abraham Abraham was not a perfect guy Abraham was a sinner saved by grace But you know what the Bible says about Abraham in Hebrews chapter number 11 listen to this in Hebrews chapter number 11 and verse number 8 by faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went and hey how much faith does it take to follow God when God says okay I want you to go and you say well okay God I'm going where do you want me to go I'll tell you just get going can you imagine can you imagine taking a trip Where are we going? I don't know. We'll find out when we get there. And you get on the road and you're waiting for the Lord. Is that not how the Lord dealt with Israel in their wilderness journey? The cloud and the pillar of fire, they had to follow, right? And so Abraham was a guy, he didn't know where he was going, but he trusted God that God was going to provide for him. Can you imagine Abraham if he begins to doubt God? Well, you know God, maybe I was supposed to go this way instead of that way. But yet the scripture says that Abraham, what? He had a strong faith. Listen to this in Romans chapter 4 and verse number 20. Speaking of Abraham, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. The word staggered there is translated in the New Testament, waver and doubt. Abraham didn't doubt God. And when he didn't doubt God, he is described as having a strong faith. The Lord says to Peter, O thou of little faith, we doubt God. What are the debilitating consequences? It is dangerous to our well-being. It is a depletion of our faith. And then thirdly and finally, it is displeasing to our Lord. doubt is displeasing to our Lord now what happens when you tell somebody something and they they don't believe you you say hey you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna get you this gift oh yeah I'll believe it when I see it like you're really gonna get me that gift what does that do to you when we doubt God it is displeasing to our Lord look at verse 31 again what is happening in verse 31 we've read it multiple times And immediately just Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, of course, and we haven't even touched on that, but that is understood that the Lord was not going to let Peter drown. And then notice, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now what is happening here? This is literally, do you know what this is? Hold onto your seats. This is a rebuke. It is a rebuke. It is a soft, compassionate rebuke. But the Lord is rebuking Peter. The Lord is saying to Peter, why are you doubting? I told you to come to me. If I told you to come to me, I would protect you. I'm here with you on the water. If I'm on the water, and you're walking on the water, why would I let you drown? O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Do you want to be pleasing to the Lord? displeasing? And that's really a silly question, isn't it? It's silly in theory, but it isn't silly in practice. Because a lot of what we do is displeasing to the Lord. If I were to ask you, do you want to displease the Lord? Of course not! But then we act in ways which displease the Lord. So theoretically it's a silly question, but not in practice. Do we want to please the Lord? Peter's actions did not please Jesus, and Jesus mildly rebuked him for it. Look, I love the Lord and I'm thankful for the correction that the Lord gives because you know if we're not corrected or chastened by the Lord then that means that we don't belong to him. But you know what I'd rather not have? Correction. I'd rather walk in a way where I don't need correction. Listen, I know my mom and dad love me and they corrected me by, you know, we still got the paddle. The old wooden paddle, man. But I would rather have not gotten that. I would rather have done all things pleasing and not had to be paddled, right? And so we understand that this is a debilitating consequence of our doubt. We displease the Lord. None of the Lord's children want to displease the Lord. I don't know about you, but as I think about 2025 and a year to thrive, I don't think that I can thrive if I'm living in doubt. Do I doubt that the Lord cares for me, the Lord loves me, the Lord will protect me, that His presence will be with me? If we look at all of these situations that are evident in this situation with Peter, this is about doubt. The Lord said, O thou of little faith, why did you doubt? And so we miss what God is saying if we don't think about doubt. Why do you doubt? There's no reason to doubt God. He's never let us down. He never will let us down. This morning we looked at these three views of Peter's situation to help us discover why we doubt. The diagnosis of what constitutes doubt, the debilitating consequences of doubt, and the dangerous causes of doubt. Not in that order, but we looked at those three. And I trust that this morning the Lord would speak to our hearts that we not dishonor him by living in doubt. Let's pray.