Dharius Daniels - Dumping Doubt

The book of Mark, chapter nine, is where I’m going to begin reading. I want to read several verses—actually about seven, rather—that I’m going to use to teach from today. However, I will just read a couple of them because I believe these two verses will articulate the essence of where I’m going to lean into during our time together. All right, Mark chapter nine, and I want us to leap into verse nineteen. Jesus said, «You unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.» So they brought him, and when the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground, rolling around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy’s father, «How long has he been like this?» He said, «From childhood. It has often thrown him into the fire. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.» Jesus said, «If you can, if I can.» He says, «Everything is possible for one who believes.» Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, «I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.»

I want to talk from this subject during our time together. I want to talk to you today about dumping doubt. A sage named Solomon is responsible for one of the most profound phrases in all of Scripture. This phrase is situated in a book of the Bible called Ecclesiastes. It says, «To everything, there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.» The writer Solomon goes on to give us commentary and explanation about what he means regarding that statement. In one of the small phrases he lists in an attempt to explain what he’s articulating, he essentially says—in the Daniel’s version—there’s a time to begin and a time to end. I think in our cultural context, we have grown to celebrate beginnings, to appreciate beginnings, and that is important, necessary, and beneficial.

However, that sage named Solomon also teaches us the imperative of understanding and appreciating endings. I’m going to go so far as to say this is an adaptation of an axiom from a gentleman named Henry Cloud: you cannot have beautiful beginnings if you are unwilling to make hard endings. I want to say that one more time, family; I want to make sure you heard what I just said. It is impossible to have a beautiful beginning if we will not make some hard endings.

Pastor Darius, what are you attempting to articulate? I’m saying some things do not end themselves; some things have to be ended. We must be intentional, we must be assertive, and we must reach the spaces and seasons in our lives where we draw a proverbial line in the sand and say unapologetically, «No more! No más! The buck stops here; it’s time for an ending.» I believe there are some situations and circumstances where we are looking up to heaven, asking our Eternal Father God, «When is this going to end?» and God is looking down at us and saying, «When you end it!» I have given you the power, the ability, the ingenuity, the know-how to bring some things to an end.

There is a word, a cultural colloquialism, that is often used to describe endings. This is a word called «dumping.» Very often—unfortunately sometimes and fortunately not always—this word is used to describe the person who initiates the ending of a relationship. We say, «She dumped him, ” or „He dumped her, ” or „You got dumped.“ I’m not going to bother this now, but sometimes all dumping is diabolical; some dumping is divine. Sometimes God will pull people out of your life because you won’t walk out on your own. Help me, Holy Spirit!

That said, the word „dumping“ is not just a word that I think should apply to relationships. It is a word, watch this, that should also apply to how we address anything threatening to inhibit us from living life as God intended. People aren’t the only things we need to dump; anything that is holding you back, anything that is keeping you from experiencing the reality of God’s best, anything that inhibits us from exercising and walking in the dominion that was God’s creative intent for us needs to be done.

When He created the human species in the garden, when He created Adam and Eve, the Trinity had a conversation, saying, „Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness, and let man have dominion.“ The man needs to be responsible, able, and empowered to manage everything that God has given him responsibility over, except for creation. Don’t miss this: anything that keeps me from living in abundance and fulfilling that dominion mandate needs to be dumped. All of us need to frequently examine our lives, attempting to discover, „What do I need to dump? What hasn’t ended because I haven’t made it end?“ Negative thinking won’t end until I end it. If people mistreat me, that won’t end until I make it end.

If we wait for other people to get a revelation of what’s best for us, we have unrealistic and even unbiblical expectations. What is it that I need to dump? There are various ways we could potentially answer that particular question, but in our time today…