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Guest (Male): Do the words “thinking” and “believing” even belong in the same sentence? Let's talk about it on Key Life.

Guest (Male): This is Key Life. We are here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Steve invited our friend Matt Heard to do the teaching this week. Matt is a speaker, teacher, writer, pastor, coach, and the founder of a ministry called Briev.

Matt Heard: Thank you, Matthew, and welcome to all of you to a new week. Hope you had a great weekend. As Steve likes to say often, hope your pastor was as good as my pastor. So I guess I could say that, although I was pastoring yesterday.

When we get started in a week like this, especially one, I am so excited about what we are going to unpack a little bit. We first need to acknowledge who our real teacher is. So why don't we pray together?

Father, thank you for the gift of Monday mornings. And that is something that we can say in a genuine way, not a happy-clappy way of denial, but by acknowledging, because you are you and the truth is the truth, and the Spirit inhabits us as your people.

Because Jesus has risen, we can know that this week is a week that you are the author of and you will be the finisher of. I pray that you will help us as we unpack what it looks like to believe you in such a way that our lives are changed.

May we use all the faculties that you have entrusted to us to believe. We are looking forward to seeing what you birth as a result of this week together. I pray this in the name of the one who is way and truth, but also life. Amen.

Years ago, I do not know if I have any sailors out there. I am not one, and I actually did a sailing adventure. I was speaking up in New England a couple of years ago.

I was staying at a place where they had a guy that was so gifted at taking people out. Just the two of us and enjoyed a fall afternoon in New England, sailing, like with the wind in my hair.

It reminded me of my only other sailing experience, and that was when I was about nine or 10 years old. I was at the lake house of a friend of mine, and his big brother had left their sunfish, his sunfish, actually, out on the grass next to the lake.

There we were all alone with that sailboat that was unattended, and we thought, “Let's give it a try.” We put it all together, we put the mast in, the sail up, and when we got it all done, there was something else lying on the grass. We did not know what it was for.

So we just got in and what that little object was was what many would refer to as the keel. If you are a sailor, you know what happened to us when we got in the water and that first gust of wind came along and totally capsized us because we had no keel.

Very contrary, when I am sailing through those waters up in New England, I was enjoying the beauty of the wind above, but the ballast of the keel below.

With a sailboat, what you see happening on the surface is directly related to what you do not see on the surface, what is unseen. You have heard me talk quite a bit in the past about John 20:31 where John, at the end of his gospel, says, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name."

That is his heart cry. It is why he wrote his book. Twice in that simple statement is the word believe, that believe that Jesus is the Christ, and then by believing you may have life in His name.

I have talked a lot about that word life. It is the word Zoe. It is what we do not have as fallen human beings. We have psyche, the consciousness life. We have bios, biological life. What we do not have is Zoe, the life of God, which is what the gospel is all about.

It is why Jesus came. He says, "I have come that you might have Zoe and have it to the full." It is how John described Jesus as being one in Him was Zoe and that Zoe was the light of all mankind. So that Zoe is an all of life experience of the gospel. But a hinge, and that Zoe happening in my journey.

Vocationally, relationally, recreationally, grieving, partying, when I am alone, when I am with people, throughout. John is saying that he is praying that by believing we would have Zoe in His name. So that word believe comes up in a pretty powerful way.

And a pretty significant way to say, "You want to see life in His name happen in your journey? You have to learn to believe." You have to understand what believing is about. So on the surface, we see that we are experiencing Zoe in His name, but what is happening underneath the surface, it is us believing.

Words like believing and faith and trust, those are all words that we toss around a lot in churches. Often, both outside the church, but also inside the church, a word we too seldom hear paired with the word believing is the word thinking.

Thinking and believing, contrary to what a lot of people think, they do belong in the same sentence. That is why we are calling our engagement this week and the program this week, thinking about believing. There are many double meanings there in terms of understanding it. I really want to get those two words together and so that we see that they are not contradictory, but they are compatible. In fact, they are necessary to do this dance called the gospel.

Now, in John's gospel, immediately before verse 31 that I just read, that summary statement, he then in verse 30 says, "I could have included a lot of other things, but I was led to include these." So that is his, he is winding down his gospel. But do you remember what happened right before that? It is the story of Thomas.

Contrary to a lot of people's understanding, doubting was not Thomas's first name, even though he, poor guy, has come to be known in that way as Doubting Thomas. But we will come back to him a little bit later in the week.

In verse 27 of John 20, Jesus says, "Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.'" Remember what the scenario was, Thomas had heard that Jesus was risen, he had not seen him. He is questioning if this is real. So all of a sudden he is confronted with Jesus.

Jesus does not condemn him, he invites him. He says, "Go and put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand, put it to my side." He says, "I want you to gain enough evidence that would enable you to stop doubting and believe." In other words, Thomas, I want you to think.

As a result of thinking through the evidence that you engaged with, that you will believe. What does Paul say in Romans chapter 12, verse two? "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

"Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is." His is good, is pleasing, is perfect will. So our mind has got to be engaged. Jesus says, "We holistically follow Him." In verse 37 of Matthew 22, he says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."

So this notion of the mind being disengaged if I really want to walk with Jesus in a spirit-filled way has nothing to do with Scripture. Too many people assume that thinking does not belong in Christianity. I sometimes think why, but it does not take long to look at our culture in general.

There is not a lot of deep thinking that we are seeing going on. You do not have to scroll very long on social media to realize, uh, thoughtfulness is a lost art in a lot of ways.

In other word, amuse. Amusement is something that means a lot to us in our culture. The word muse means think. A is a prefix of negation. So amuse means don't think, not thinking.

Amusement is a great thing for chilling every now and then, taking a brain break. But when it becomes your lifestyle, when it becomes your reason for existence, when it becomes central, there is a problem. That has become the case in our culture where culture is addicted to amusement.

As a result, that filters into the church and all of a sudden the whole musing, we separate it from our walk with Christ. Thinking, we separate it from our walk with Christ. We also get that from just the anti, the unbelievers against Christianity. I was cleaning out a file.

I know some of you are wondering, "What are those?" And I am not referring to a digital file, but one that had an article from USA Today from about 10 years ago about the whole God, religion, atheism, so what? They were talking about a school teacher that had walked away from the faith.

There was just one comment that I had circled that I noticed when I saw the article, it says, "His mind led him away." Meaning, that you have got to check your, deposit your brain at the coat check window and pick it up if you are going to go to heaven, then get it then. But in the meantime, thinking has nothing to do with believing.

The opposite is actually true. So do not be deceived by this sliding scale that the enemy puts out there, that the more you think, the less apt you will be to believe. No, actually, believing requires thinking.

So start grappling a little bit with the solidity of your faith. I am looking forward to tomorrow unpacking this a little bit more. But in the meantime, why don't you grapple a little bit with the smile of Jesus saying, "Go ahead and touch my side and realize, 'I really am risen.'"

Guest (Male): And thank you, Matt. That was our good friend Matt Heard introducing a special series that he will lead us through all this week called Thinking About Believing. Matt always brings the good stuff, so be sure to join us again tomorrow.

Well, I do not know if you heard the news, but I was awarded World's Greatest Dad. Got a trophy and everything. And by trophy, I mean a coffee cup that reads, "World's Greatest Dad." So, all the best to my fellow competitors and good luck next year, I guess.

In all seriousness, being a dad and understanding your dad is a hard job. Steve spoke about that in a sermon called "The Best Father You Ever Had." If you are a dad, if you know a dad, if you had a dad, and that is all of us, this sermon is for you. So call us right now at 1-800 Key Life and we will send you that whole sermon on CD for free.

Again, that number is 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to ask for that CD. To mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada.

Again, just ask for your free CD called "The Best Father You Ever Had."

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