On Doubt

January 26th, 2009 by Rory Shiner Posted in Church

After a summer of hardly preaching at all, on Sunday 8 Feb I begin preaching again at Unichurch. Over the year I’ll be preaching on Jonah, a series on how God brings change in us, and Romans 1-8. However, on the 8th I have a freebie. Nothing planned.

So, I’ve decided to preach on doubt.

I’ve had plenty of conversations with people in the last few years about doubt. Sometimes it’s doubt as is “is this true?”. Other times it’s more personal, like “am I really forgiven?”. So, I intend to do some thinking, reading and praying about this topic and see what we can come up with by way of a sermon.

Any hot tips on what I should think about, read or be praying for? And I’d be curious–anyone actually heard a sermon on this topic before?
Love, Rory

  1. 3 Responses to “On Doubt”

  2. By Mark Chapman on Jan 30, 2009

    Doubt.

    No, I don’t think I’ve heard a sermon that specifically focused on that topic. But I have heard sermons that deal with related issues, or briefly touching on it. Sermons on the book of Job come to mind. Sermons on examining the scriptures–dealing with the ‘is that true’ doubt– often referred to Acts passages of the Christians in Berea (Acts17:10–no, I don’t have encyclopedic knowledge, I looked it up) .

    I suspect that many people are scared of voicing their doubts, whether it’s intellectual doubt or frustration/confusion/indescribable doubt. I personally have felt embarrassed and intensely uncomfortable in the past when I’ve had doubts about God, particularly when it falls into the second type I just suggested. It’s apparently not very Christian to doubt, no matter what type.

    Then again, authors like Phillip Yancey seem to embrace doubt. Whether it’s intellectual or just emotional, Yancey seems to work from personal experiences to show that mankind is finite and vacillating but God isn’t. Hmmm.

    That was a mouth full! Any thoughts?

  3. By Mark Chapman on Jan 30, 2009

    Hey Rors, I reckon it would be great if you touched on ‘intellectual’ doubt, where a person doesn’t understand how/why things about God and so feels intensely ‘doubtful’ about what God has revealed to them.

  4. By Jon Rumble on Jan 31, 2009

    Listened to Carson on doubt recently, talks about different kinds of doubt, before particularly focusing on doubting Thomas in John 20…

    Interesting stuff…

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