Exodus chapter 14. Those sneezes got in my head tonight. Exodus chapter 14. In a moment I'm going to read an excerpt of a story that comes very early in the history of Israel. But tonight I want to preach to you about a subject, about a nasty, horrible sin. I know when I mention that tonight there are lots of things that could come to your mind. Immediately you go to the Ten Commandments and you go through the Old Testament and you think of some of the worst things that a man could commit. But tonight the sin that I want to preach to you about is a very nasty, deplorable sin. It paralyzes you and it limits you and it can destroy you. And tonight you ask, what sin is that? It's very simply this. God. Numbers, excuse me, Exodus chapter 14, notice with me verse number 10. It says, When Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. And they were sore afraid, and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, that we should die in the wilderness. You might ask, why did you read verses 11 and 12 like you did? Do you whine in a monotone voice? When you sit in the dormitory or you sit at home and you gripe and complain, do you do it with a smile on your face? We find that Israel was guilty of something that I'm sad to say many of us in this room may be guilty of tonight and that they doubted God. We come to Exodus 14 and it's really relatively early in the history of the nation of Israel. Remember, God hatched a promise in the heart of Abraham. He said, Abraham, I'm going to multiply your seed. They're going to be like the stars. And he had all the drama with Abraham. He got ahead of God and his handmaid was offered to him. He had a child, but that wasn't the child of promise. Then Isaac would come along and the promise of God would be fulfilled through Isaac. But yet early on in the history of Israel, it's hard To understand how a promise is going to be fulfilled when you just have one child that it's to be fulfilled through and you haven't had a whole lot of time pass. You say, my children are going to be like the stars. Right now it's not at a very rapid pace. And over time, the children of Israel begin to multiply. And they multiply so much so that they are conquered, they are captured by their rivals, by their enemies, the Egyptians. Now you find the Israelites are enslaved by the Egyptians, and those Israelites begin to call to their God for a deliverer. They beg their God, they plead, and they cry. The Bible says that God heard their sorrows. He knew what they were going through. And finally, God decided that it was time to raise up a deliverer, and He did it in the most unusual way. A couple has a baby. That baby's name is Moses. Pharaoh has put out a decree in which he is going to kill all of the male children in Egypt because he feels like there are too many Israelites compared to the Egyptians. And this family, instead of offering their son to the government to let Pharaoh do as he pleased, they put that baby in a basket in a river. And lo and behold, of all the places that Moses floats to, he floats to the banks of Pharaoh's daughter's palace. Now had I been God, that would have been the last place I would have thought Moses should go. After all, it was her daddy that said, let's kill all these young'uns. But that's why God is God and I'm not. Because He knows exactly what needs to happen. She sees Moses. She is smitten with him. And she raises him as her own. Can you imagine? Moses could have been raised in bondage. He could have been raised in slavery. Now he's raised in the lap of luxury with the greatest education, the finest foods. Listen, he had want for nothing. Little did he know that he was going to be the one to deliver the nation of Israel, being raised within the very household of the man that one day he would stand in front of and say, God said, let my people go. You want to talk about a twist and a turn and a plot. But then there came a day where that young man had to make a choice. He had to make a choice whether he was going to identify with the Egyptians and live a life of ease. But always in the back of his mind wonder what it would have been like had he obeyed God or identify with the Israelites and suffer hardship. And that day Moses made his choice and it changed his future. When he slayed the Egyptian, he had to flee everything that he knew, and now he's on the backside of a desert. Moses is on the backside of this desert, and for a number of years, he's tending sheep, and God's teaching him lessons. Then finally one day, God appears to him in a burning bush. Moses hears the call of God, and now this shepherd boy, who was an outcast of Egypt, lived in the wilderness, in isolation. And now God says, I want you to go to Pharaoh and I want you to deliver a message to him. And I want you to tell him, I said, let my people go. And imagine with me here, this shepherd, an occupation which was detested by the Egyptians, shows up at Pharaoh's palace. They let him in, and Pharaoh delivers the message. And Pharaoh, in his high and mighty tone of voice, said, Who am I that I should obey the Lord? Moses has a little contest with the magicians of Pharaoh. And before it's over with the message has been delivered to the perhaps the most powerful man on the face of the earth Pharaoh that listen you need to let these Israelites go and Pharaoh said no. And then we begin to read the narrative about the 10 plagues of Israel. I heard a preacher years ago, he said this, he said, you know, the story of the plagues illustrates this. God doesn't make us go against our will, but he sure has a way of making us willing to go. And the entire nation of Israel had a front row seat to a 10 round battle between the hardened heart of Pharaoh and God Almighty. Can you imagine with me, these Israelites, the anticipation and the anxiety that must have been raised in their hearts as they would watch God give a supernatural act of judgment and Pharaoh harden his heart. It was a fight back and forth. And Israel, they saw it all. They saw the waters turn to blood. They saw the frogs. They saw the lice. They saw all of the supernatural phenomena. I can't help but think, had I been an Israelite with a front row seat to that, I would have said, man alive, something's going to happen. We've been praying all this time and now this man shows up and he's going to be our deliverer. And boy, God and Pharaoh are going back and forth, back and forth. And then finally in the tenth round, God delivers a crushing blow. You know, when I think about the fact that God dealt with Pharaoh nine times prior to this, do you know that every time God dealt with Pharaoh in those nine prior times, it was just really a sign of God's mercy? The truth is, God doesn't need 10 rounds to destroy any of us. But yet in that tenth round, it was determined if there's no blood on the doorpost, the firstborn of the household will die. And that night, Pharaoh lost his firstborn son. And it's at that juncture that Pharaoh is put up, he is put out and he says, that's it. He said, all of you leave. He said, every last Israelite, I want you to leave. And he said something to this effect, take everything and the kitchen sink, take it all. And they did. I'm going to tell you, if I had lived in bondage for many years, all of my known life, and now all of a sudden Pharaoh at the urging of God lets me go, you're talking about from the depths of woe to the heights of bliss, zero to sixty, just like that. Boy, had I been an Israelite, I'd have been prancing around there, pulling everything that I could, putting it in a sack to take with me, and I'd said, man, I'm telling you, this is a great day. We've been praying for this for a long time. We've been saying, God, deliver us, and look what's happened. I'm going to tell you, I'd have been excited. I know some of you are pretty reserved people, but I think after being in bondage for a number of years, you'd get a little excited too. You'd think at that juncture, here's Israel. Boy, Israel is at the height of ecstasy. You'd say Israel is at a point where they're like, wow, this is wonderful. This is an answer to our prayer. But do you know it's only just a few verses later that you see Israel go from celebration to misery. And it's summed up in one word, doubt. We human beings are fickle. Some of you are like, man, alive, I didn't know how I was going to get to Bible college. And the next thing I know, God provided this, God provided that. And here you are four days in and God's dead. It may be some of you tonight are guilty of the very same thing that the nation of Israel was guilty of many years ago and that they doubted God. And tonight, I want to take you through their story a little bit, and I want to challenge you this evening, this early in the race, young people. Listen, God has done great things to get you into this point, and He wants to grow you, and every day that you doubt will set you back. And so tonight, I want to share with you these things about doubting God. Number one, I want to tell you this, everyone is capable of doubting God. Oh, I realize we've got quite an assortment of people in here. Some have earned doctorates. Some have been pastoring for 50 years, 40 years. Some have been students for 10 years. I don't know how that works. Some of you would say, I'm a well-decorated fifth-year senior. Others of you would say, I'm just a green behind-the-ears freshman. Hey, I don't care where you're at, what you've been through. Listen to me. Every person in this room is capable of doubting God. And I come up with that because all I have to do is read the Bible and I see some of the greatest names ever known to Christianity. And one of the things in their resume is that they doubted God. Abraham doubted God. Didn't Sarah laugh? You say, are you here to bring up all their bad points? No, I'm just here to level the playing field and tell you I don't care where you came from, what home you were raised in, every one of us is vulnerable to the idea of doubting God. I'm saying if Abraham doubted Him, don't you think some of us might? There are even times where Moses doubted God, and here we see corporately that Israel doubted God. What was going to be their sure deliverance now turns into a nightmare. And I wonder if there's some of you this evening, you find yourself already in a little bit of despair in your heart. Why? Because you're guilty of doubting God. You know, there's so many areas, so many decisions of your life that you're going to have to make, but you can't get overwhelmed and try to make them all at once. You have to live day by day. One thing I thank God is that those decisions often come to me a little bit at a time rather than a dump truck load. But we get ahead of God and we think to ourselves, well, you know, what am I going to do about this and this and this and this? And the next thing you know, we're standing at the Red Sea. We're in despair and we're doubting the very God who's brought us to that point. So if you're here tonight, I don't care whether you're an upperclassman or you're a freshman. I don't care whether you're a faculty or staff member or you serve on the administration. Every one of us is capable of doubting God. But the second thing that I want you to see tonight is this, is that doubt causes you to love the bondage of Egypt more than the deliverance of God. Doubt causes you to love the bondage of Egypt more than the deliverance of God. You say, what do you mean by that? Doubt has a way of playing with our memories and we sort of look back at the past and the way things used to be back in our comfort zone and we start saying, boy, life would have been a lot better if I would have just stayed back there. That's exactly what happens to Israel. Notice in verse 11. They said, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? They're implying, has God just brought us here to die? Let me tell you something, God did not bring you to Bible college to die. Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Listen, I think when they left, they left willingly and they were excited. And now they're looking at him like, you drug us out here? Is not this the word that we did tell you in Egypt? Here's that good old saying, didn't I tell you? Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. You know what I say? I say they didn't say that and if they did, they were crazy. Pharaoh says, all of you go. How many of them said, no, let's just start a little coalition here. We want to stay here. We want to stay in bondage. We want to stay in slavery. We want to eat leeks and garlic the rest of our lives. We want our husbands beaten with whips and our children sent to a premature grave. You can't tell me that that was their mindset. But you know, it's amazing. Doubt plays with your mind a little bit. You know, sometimes I hear people recollect about the good old days. Don't laugh. You get older, you start doing the same thing. I remember as a kid growing up, I would hear men, they would say, oh boy, don't you remember the good old days? We would sit out on the porch. We didn't have air conditioning. We just feel the breeze. Boy, those were the good old days. You know, and as a kid, I wanted to say, well, do you have air conditioning now? Well then why if it was so good? At my mamaw's house there is one particular building my cousin and I always like to explore and it was the outhouse. It was out of order. But we always wondered, why is that path mowed all the way out there to that building out there? And we'd go out there and it stunk to high heavens. And Memaw said, that's the outhouse. You know, some people say, oh, don't you remember the good old days when we didn't have indoor plumbing? And we used to have to go out to the outhouse. Those were good old days. And I'm thinking to myself, really? In the middle of February? In the middle of the night with bare feet? and snow on the ground. Is that really that good? But you know, just like sometimes older age causes us to reminisce, and maybe sometimes we forget about the hardships, I'm going to tell you what doubt does. Doubt will try to erase every hardship that you ever face living out in the world and living in sin and try to throw you back into heading right back into the very same mess that God delivered you out of. Hey, let me tell you something tonight. I don't know what you left, I don't know what happened in your life before you got saved, but I'll promise you this. Everything from here on out that God has for you is a million times better than anything you left. But doubt has a way of playing with our minds. You think, boy, if I could go home. Let me tell you, there's sometimes a freshman thinks, boy, if I could just go home and get back into my comfort zone. Let me tell you, God sometimes, when God moves you and He moves you out of your comfort zone, you look back and you say, boy, I could stay here. But doubt has a way of blinding you from all of the hardships and all of the obstacles that kept you from growing. And to go back into it is going to set you back. You know, some of you here, you're very young, your memory ought to be sharp, but doubt will play with your mind. And it'll cause you to love the bondage of Egypt more than the deliverance of God. But number three tonight, I want you to see this, that when we focus on the visible, we doubt the invisible. When we focus on the visible, we doubt the invisible. I want you to look with me at verse 9 of chapter 14. It says, But the Egyptians pursued after them all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army and overtook them in camping by the sea. Let me tell you what Israel has. Do you know what Israel has? Nothing. The clothes on their backs. No swords. No rocket launchers. They probably don't even have shoes. And all they can hear is this. Death to Israel! All they can hear are the approaching hoofbeats. All they can hear are the war cries of Pharaoh's army. And they let that fill their ears and fill their hearts. And the next thing you know, they've forgotten anything that they knew about God delivering them. You know why? Because they paid more attention to what they saw than what they knew. The first of every month, you're reminded of something, you see a school bill. Popularly, it's a blessing. Isn't popularly a blessing your parents can see your grades in real time? Isn't that a blessing? That kind of accountability will just make you smile, won't it? Or cry one. Some of you get into that financial pressure. Some of you are like, yeah, I just went to the office and now I'm already starting to feel it and September's not even here yet. And you start feeling that pressure and you know what? That's all you can see. Some of you, you have instances running in the background of your life. Maybe as you came to college, there's still some things back home that are pressuring you, things that are causing you to wonder, you know, boy, am I in the right place? And you see that every day. It goes through your mind every day, every day, every day. Listen to me, you can't focus on what you see. You have to focus on what you know. Doesn't the Bible say somewhere, for we walk by faith and not by sight? You know, the world looks at that and says, that's dumb. I remember when I went off to Bible college. God had called me in the ministry my senior year of high school. I tell people I'm going to go to an unaccredited Bible college in Shelby, North Carolina. And people started saying, what? You can't get a good paying job doing something like that. How are you going to make ends meet? You know, get you this education and that way if it doesn't work out in the ministry, you'll at least have something to do. That's real good posturing for ministry, isn't it? Just take up another occupation. That way when you fail as a preacher, hey, you can at least take out garbage the rest of your life. Now, I'm not against people that are bivocational. I realize it in God and His sovereignty. But listen, so many times I want to say to people, listen to what you're saying. It's like when you fail at this, do this. Don't be that way, young people. I remember in an evangelist class, Brother Comfort told us, if you're going to be an evangelist, listen, you just burn your bridges behind you in the sense of, listen, you commit to it and you go to it. Whatever line you feel like God has called you into, Listen, don't be afraid to commit to that, but if you start weighing it out financially, listen to me. You can weigh it out financially and say, you know, this seems like it's hard, but if you focus on the visible and you ignore the invisible, you'll run in the opposite direction that you need to every time. And that's exactly what happens to Pharaoh or what exactly happens to Israel. The hoof beats of Pharaoh's army are more real to them than God himself. It's all you hear. It's all you can feel. Doubting God. Causes you to focus on the visible and doubt the invisible. I'm going to tell you what, I would love to have been Moses. You know, in verse 13, the Bible says, And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. What in the world would possess a man to say that? Pharaoh's armies are breathing down their necks, and Moses says, Fear ye not, stand still. That's two things hard to do when you're in that situation. and see the salvation of the Lord. Let me tell you why. Because Moses trusted what he knew more than what he saw. And young people, the sooner you understand the importance of that, and when the battle of doubt in God comes, you understand you've got to walk by faith, not by sight, the better off you'll be. But I'm telling you, there's some of you tonight, doubting God is in the forefront of your mind. You know why? Because you have trusted what you see more than what you know about God. Number one, everybody's capable of doubting God. Number two, doubt will cause you to love the bondage of Egypt more than the deliverance of God. Number three, when we focus on the visible, we doubt the invisible. Number four, doubt causes us to call God's character into question. Doubt causes us to call God's character into question. You know, here in the South, I know some of you, this is your first go around living in the South for any duration of time, you'll learn our Southern idiosyncrasies. You'll soon learn that when you knock on our doors and invite us to church on Sunday, we'll tell you that we'll be there. Some of you just wait. You're like, man, I went on visitation and 30 people told me they're going to be at church tomorrow. I'm going to tell you what, we're a bunch of liars down here. I liked it up in Connecticut. You couldn't even knock on the door and they stood up. Hey, I'm Catholic, get out of my yard now. You at least knew where they stood. But I'm going to tell you, in the South, even though people do a lot of lying, when you call a Southerner, you say, you're a liar. I'm going to tell you, those are fighting words. They may be one, but the moment you make the accusation, I'm telling you, it's like they just drop everything and say, that's it, I'm going to defend my honor. Why? Because that is something that you're saying about my character. But you know what doubt causes us to do? Doubt causes us to think that the most loving person in the universe is unloving. Doubt causes us to think that the most faithful being in all of the universe is the most unfaithful. It causes us to call God's character into question. We begin to doubt his love and we begin to doubt his care. You know, Brother Schmidt was preaching along the idea of the love of God. And you know what? Some of you have already been brought to the point where you have doubted the love of God. Why? Because of unbelief, because of doubting God. Nobody's ever shown you a greater act of love than God. But God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I'm going to tell you what, Christ didn't die for you when you were all welcoming and friendly. He died for you when you were the worst of the gang. And yet we doubt that greatest act of love based on how we feel. Sometimes we doubt God's care for us. But yet the Bible tells us, casting all of your care upon Him, for He careth for you. You know, you go to people, they want your money. You know, they want to use you. You know what God says? God says, I want your cares. Hey, you tell me what's burdening your heart. But sometimes when we doubt God, we just think he doesn't want to have anything to do with that. And we begin to push him away. You know, there's a song that in its verses really reflects sometimes how we can doubt or how we can question God. You ever heard the song, Does Jesus Care? Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song? How about this one? Does Jesus care when I've said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me? But you know, the key to that song, young people, don't live in the verses, live in the chorus. Oh, yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. But there are some of you tonight, you know how it's been reflected that you're doubting God and how you may already be faltering in your faith and your steps and that you've doubted his love. You've doubted his care. Sometimes we doubt his power. Sometimes we doubt God's ability. Sometimes we just simply doubt God's promises. I want to ask you tonight, are there some of you, even though you would never say it, you've been a little sideways at God in your heart? Lord, do you just really care? Lord, it just seems like you've left me off for dead. You begin to doubt God's character. Why? Because of doubting him. But let's hurry on. Number five, let me tell you this. Doubt will flee when you go forward. How do you get rid of doubt? Late this afternoon I had to make a run to Wal-Mart. I hate going to Wal-Mart. It's the only time I ever get Brother Crow to say amen, say bad things about Wal-Mart. I had to go in there, I had to buy some medical supplies and pick those up and leave there. But you know, when I walked in on the pharmacy section, you just can't go over there and look for doubt removal pills and say, right here beside the toothpaste, you take these pills and you get rid of doubt. That's how you get rid of it. Young people, it's just not like I can tell you, you know what, after this service, you just go home, put your head under your pillow and count to 20. That might be some bad advice for you. How do you get rid of doubt? You just sit in your car and hit the steering wheel and just shake it and wish you were home. No, that makes it worse. Let me tell you how to get rid of doubt. Look at the example of Israel again in verse number 14, or 13 rather. It says, And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show unto you for the Egyptians. I love the last part of this verse. Look at this. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. You want to talk about a man who was persuaded? I admire Moses. I don't even think at this point Moses even knew it was going to be razor rod and part of the Red Sea. All he had known is, listen, God's led me out here with you bunch and He's not going to leave us here to die. And he said, fear not, stand still, see the salvation of the Lord. He said, what you see back there, you're never going to see them again. He said, you're not going to see them again forever. It was like a double exclamation point. And then after that, in verse 14, the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. Now notice verse 15, And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. Forward into what? I wish I could tell every one of you how God's going to pay your school bills. I wish I could tell every one of you how you're going to survive your classes. I can't even answer that. But can I tell you when God puts you in a place and he calls you to go somewhere, listen to me, go forward. It's hard. It's hard to go forward. When I came to Bible College, I came as an only child and my mom was a widow. My dad had been dead for two years. She was disabled, living off of disability. I came to Bible College with zilch. I take that back. I came with two thousand dollars that a man in my church had given me, but I just paid off a pickup truck that I had bought. That was just a little pickup truck. And I'm going to tell you, I had nothing. As a matter of fact, after my mom's passing, when I was looking through some of her stuff, I found a card. Do you know, listen, this is one of these I'm so poor things, but our household was so poor, I was sending my mom care packages from college. You don't think that was hard? And a woman looks you in the face and says, if God's called you to preach, you better go. And there's times you get into that and you're like, boy, I'm going to tell you what, I don't know if I know. You know what I learned? I learned you've got to go forward. You know what happened? You know what I learned that in my absence, God gave my mom some of the best friends that I could not have even picked for her and made for them myself. And God put people there to work with her and to help her in ways like I never could. But I had to learn to go forward. You know, there are times whenever you worked and you had more work to do and a lot more school bill than you had work. And you say to yourself, I don't know, I don't know how I'm going to do this. You know what you do? You go to the business manager and you talk to him and you do your dead level best and you pray and you just go forward. There's some of you, you find yourself tonight, the only way you're going to escape doubt is be persuaded of what God has put in your heart and do it. You say, I don't know how, I don't know why, I don't know what. Listen, we don't have to. We just have to know in our hearts what God wants us to do and by faith do it. But then the last thing that I would tell you is this. God will give you a song after your season of doubt. God will give you a song after your season of doubt. You say, why do you get spooky? What do you mean? Exodus 15 comes after chapter 14. And do you know what happens in verse chapter 15 after Israel crosses the Red Sea? Verse 1 of chapter 15, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord. There's some of you tonight, you're like, I'm not very musical. God's not giving me a song. Well, you look here, you see they didn't necessarily sing it, they spake it, I guess. That gives you a little hope if you're tone deaf. And now the entire nation of Israel, they're singing a song after their season of doubt. You know what I've learned, Brother Powell? I read Exodus 15. Music in Old Testament is a little different than music today. You say, what do you mean? Well, when I look in the hymnal, words rhyme. You know, there's stanzas, there's choruses, there's codas. There's even notes that tell you where your voice is supposed to go. I'm going to tell you, the nation of Israel, they didn't have any music composition software, and they break out into a song, and they start singing. And I'm going to tell you, the words to this song are a little bit different than words we sing. I'm not going to go through here and read the entire chapter, but if you read it afterwards, you're going to find the nation of Israel, they're basically singing words like this. And God drowned them in the sea. Can you imagine that? Brother Powell, he looks a little reserved and he gets up there and says, we're going to sing a song about how God kills his enemies. And you say, isn't that a little heavy for chapel today? But I'm going to tell you basically what Israel does is they're just rehearsing the story of what God did. And you know what happened? God gave them a song after their season of doubt. And you know what I believe, young people? I believe God can do the same thing for you. Yeah, you're like, I thought I was a goner. I thought I was dead. And then next summer you're singing an entirely different tune. God gave you that song, but you had to endure that season of doubt and you had to come out on the other side trusting God. Do you know that some of the greatest songs you'll ever find in your hymnal were written after a season of doubt? My last trip to Israel a few years ago, we stayed at like the Olive Tree Hotel in Jerusalem. And while I was there, I learned that in a neighboring hotel, it was called the motel, whatever they call them, it was called the American Colony. It was like a resort hotel area. They had a display that was dedicated to a man named H.G. Spafford. Man, I walked in there and I saw the night clerk and I said, hey, I'm not here to do anything but just to see that display of H.G. Spafford. He just pointed, he said, just walk right through there as if I'm sure many people have asked him. And I walked through there and young people, I walked in there and I saw the old newspaper clippings that talked about the shipwreck that took the life of his children. His wife was saved alone and right before my eyes on that wall under glass was the original handwritten manuscript of it as well with my soul. For a moment, I said, Lord, would you forgive me if I steal it? But after a man lost his daughters and his wife was left alone across the sea and as he is making his way to her in as fast as means as possible. Grieving over the loss of his daughters pained by the uncertainty of what's happening with his wife. When he endures that season eventually there comes a point where he begins to pen these words when peace like a river. Attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul. I don't know of a song that stirs up people in dorm devotions more than it is well. Kids never get tired of it. If every time I met with dorm students, what song you want to sing? It is well with my soul. It'd be inevitably, inevitably all the time. But I'm going to tell you that song would have never been written had not somebody emerged from a sea of doubt and went with what they knew instead of what they felt. And I'll tell you what, Brother Powell, I believe God can write some beautiful music in the lives of every one of you. If you'll be willing to admit you've been doubting God and go forward.