“”UN”Tangled Trust” (“Tangled” #1)

Tangled #1 | April 7, 2024 | Dr. Troy Doucet

Dr. Troy Doucet launches our engaging new series called “Tangled” to examine how trust becomes tangled up and over-complicated by various beliefs wrought by elements of our culture.

Inspired by the story of Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:13-17, the teaching unfolds with three compelling points.

Point 1: Religion has tangled up our identity that we often have a hard time trusting in our own ability.

Pastor Troy draws our attention to the Pharisees’ response to the throngs of people coming to John the Baptist for baptism. They immediately began to question John’s authority since he strayed from the religious orthodoxy of the day. Dr. Doucet reminds us that “when you are doing something new― it is going to shake up old ways of thinking.” Pastor goes on to say that religion has done a great job of telling us that we are sinners incapable of doing any good on our own and warns us that “the conclusions you come up with are grounded in the beliefs you start with.” Erroneous beliefs like “you are incapable of doing good in the world without a Church-sanctioned relationship with God” can lead us to an unhealthy distrust in our God-given abilities.

Point 2: Jesus untangles this truth: become the person who does for others, what you want God to do for you!

John didn’t believe that he was worthy to baptize Jesus. Like us, he tangled up the truth that worthiness isn’t dictated by our performance in God’s economy, but by God’s trust in our ability to be His emissaries. John said to Jesus, “It is I who should come to you for baptism.” Dr. Troy imagines Jesus’ response, “Who told you that?” John baptized people for repentance (change of mind) and didn’t believe Jesus needed his mind changed. While that was probably true, Jesus told John that his baptism was proper to fulfill all that needs to be made right. In his baptism, Jesus identified with humanity and all the tangled mess they were in to untangle the beliefs of unworthiness and empower us to be for others what we need God to be for us.

Point 3: Be careful not to tangle up the difference between obedience and confidence.

Pastor tells us that obedience is greater than confidence when it comes to untangling my beliefs about God, who I am, and what my true calling is. The truth that needs to be untangled is that it is NOT my confidence that generates God’s calling… it is God’s calling that should energize my confidence.