Skip to content Doing the Right Work: Dealing with Doubt Oct 14 · 30 min ...more
Doing the Right Work: Dealing with Doubt
October 14, 2025 · 30 min
Drawing from James' transformation from questioning critic to church leader, this powerful message explores how encountering the risen Christ can radically reshape our perspective and purpose.
Series "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton October 14, 2025 · 30 min · "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton
Drawing from James' transformation from questioning critic to church leader, this powerful message explores how encountering the risen Christ can radically reshape our perspective and purpose. ...more Show the full description Show less Drawing from James' transformation from questioning critic to church leader, this powerful message explores how encountering the risen Christ can radically reshape our perspective and purpose.
Series "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
101K followers
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
From Unbelieving to Believing: The Journey of James 0:02 Welcome to Men's Breakfast with John Mark Keaton. Join us as John Mark shares his insights with other men in his ministry rooted in the timeless truths of the gospel. Today's message will encourage you to0:14 inspire, inform, and invest in the lives of others. This is Men's Breakfast with your host, John Mark Caton.0:22 We just started a new series, from the book of James called Do the Right Thing, and why do we wanna do the right thing? Because we got stuff to do. Everybody say stuff to do. Man, I will tell you, God looks at this0:33 group. God looks at every man in this room. He goes, guys, I've got some stuff for you to do. I got some stuff for you to do. Before you exit this earth, before you even move into the new year, I've got0:45 stuff for you to do. Now I want you to know, some of you, you look at yourself and you go, man, I don't think God's got anything for me to do. I don't care where you are. I don't care where you are in your spiritual0:55 journey. I don't I don't care if life has been a train wreck for you up until this point. I can tell you the book of James is gonna tell us, God's got stuff for us to do. Man, God's not done with you. God's1:07 gonna take you through some stuff, let you go through some stuff, but he's got some stuff for you to do. And so we're gonna be looking today, at James, the book of James. And I will just tell you right now, James is the1:19 brother of Jesus. Alright? And it's kinda interesting if you look at church history, church historians, early church historians said 2 things about James. James, brother of Jesus. They said1:31 he was James the just, which meant he just did the right thing. Alright. And there are several times that we'll look at through this series, in the New Testament where James gets confronted because he moves from being1:43 a disbelieving brother of Jesus to be a believing brother of Jesus. And I will tell you all the way through this, series and even in the book of James, there is a message of hope.1:55 That's the message of hope. Man, early in Jesus' life, James, his brother, his other brothers, and his sisters didn't believe Jesus2:07 was who he said he was. But after the resurrection, we're gonna see it. I'm gonna show it to you in a sec. Jay, James has an encounter with Jesus and he moves from being2:19 unbelieving to believing. He moves from not following to following. And my prayer for some guys in this room that you might be in a space where you are not2:31 believing and you are not following. But we're gonna track James just here in a few minutes, and we're gonna see what caused that transition, that movement from not following to following, from not believing2:43 to believing. So much so that this James who thought his brother was crazy, who didn't believe his brother was Jesus, the Messiah, the son of God,2:55 Who saw his brother died, entered into the grief process with the rest of his family for 3 days, and then encountered a risen Christ? At that moment, if you follow James let3:07 me tell you what James thought when his son when his brother was crucified. I hate that, but he was nuts. 3 days later when he3:19 encounters Jesus, he says, he is who he says he is. And if you follow James, he takes the same path and becomes also3:31 a martyr because he eventually realizes his brother is who he said he is. So guys, in this whole process, I want you to know this is a message of hope.3:43 If there's someone sitting here today and you guys just don't know that I believe, I don't know that I can truly follow, welcome to the James Club. Welcome to the James3:55 gang, that we get the opportunity to show up and say, Count me in with him. There was a season in my life when I looked at Jesus and I said, Yeah.4:08 When I felt like God was calling me to do something, but jeez, to follow Jesus. But we can part be part of that same club. Somebody just pray, God, thank you so much for4:20 this day. Thank you for the opportunity just to walk through your word. God, I pray that every man would see this opportunity of hope and fulfillment that we're gonna see in James, as we just go verse by verse, word by4:30 word. Let us be challenged in a special and a powerful way today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Well let's start with verse 1. Everybody say verse 1. Alright. Let me just read it to you. We'll put it on the4:42 screen. It says, James, that's James, the brother of Jesus, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. He says, greeting. Alright.4:54 So James, James, the little brother of Jesus, and here let me just pause you. How many of you have a Roman Catholic background? Won't Roman Catholic that that's okay, by the way. If you have a Roman Catholic5:05 background, you probably have been introduced over your theological career, your church career, to the idea of the perpetual virginity of, of Mary. How many of you at least have heard that?5:17 That she was a virgin at the birth of Christ because the angel showed up. You see that early in the New Testament. And then all of a sudden, she's found to be with child, a child with the father. And then the Roman5:29 Catholic teaching, because they want to venerate her, they want to honor her, they, they refer to her as a virgin perpetually. That she was forever a virgin. I want you to5:40 know that her perpetual virginity would be a shocking surprise for James and Jesus's other brothers. It would also have been a shocking surprise for Joseph, her5:52 husband. Alright? And not only did James, did Jesus have brothers, he had sister. Jay Jesus had a big family. Let me just show you that. Look at Mark chapter 6, verse 3. We're6:04 not gonna put it up there. Just you might wanna take some notes, write this down. It says, Jesus has started preaching. And, some of the people ask when they hear Jesus preaching. He is saying he's the son of God. He's6:15 saying he's the Messiah. He's the fulfillment of the old testament prophecy in Mark chapter 6 verse 3. You can go look it up. They ask, isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son? And the brother of6:27 James, the brother of Joseph, Judas, Simon. He didn't just have 1 brother. By the way, James is not his only brother. He had a bunch of brothers. Aren't his sisters here with us too?6:39 Alright. So I want you to know, Jesus had a big family. All right. So if you're from a big family, he had a big family. Not only that, it was kind of a blended family. How many of you here have a blended family? Blended6:50 family? Alright. Jesus had a blended family. It was a uniquely blended family because of all Jesus, the older brother, of all of them, God was the father not Joseph.7:03 But then the rest of his brothers and sisters were from Joseph and Mary. Alright? And so we see that over and over again. This is not the only brother. This is not the only sister that that Jesus had. He7:15 had much of it. But imagine imagine Jesus being Jesus's brother. How many of you had a brother? How many how many of you had a brother that you fought with all the time? That was the I7:27 had a brother named James, and you've heard me share his story. He he had some struggles, ultimately took his life a number of years ago. But I will tell you, our relationship was was made7:39 up of fighting and making up. Alright. The fights were real, making up never was. How many of you had a brother like that? Alright. When when we fought, it was7:51 usually to the death or to blood or till my dad showed up and whipped us for getting whipped. And then told us, now hug each other. Anybody ever had the isn't that the worst hug in8:03 the world? You know, or your mom says so I want you to know, our fight my fights with my brother James were real. Our makeups were just to keep from getting beat by8:15 my dad. Right? But can you imagine being Jesus's brother? Think about it. Everybody's got the bracelet. WWJD. Right? What would Jesus do? There was never a bracelet. What would James do? Right?8:27 If there was 1, it was something like, WDJD. What did James do? Right? Can you imagine you're in there fighting, you're doing something wrong and every you go back to your8:39 childhood or maybe some of you have kids here. You just your parents just hear a commotion going on and they know it's a fight in their kids with their kids and you go, hey, would you all stop that. Right? How many of8:51 you remember that. Right? Can you just imagine the parents hollering in there going, what's going on? And James said, Jesus is doing this and Jesus is saying, James is doing this. And what would the parents all they'd9:02 have to say, what would they say? They would simply say, James spank yourself. Get it over with. He's Jesus. You're wrong. Right? I mean, lose every fight, lose every argument, play fantasy football. He scores the top9:13 score every week. I mean, it would be horrible to be Jesus's brother. He's always right. He walks on water, I sink. Right? He catches the fish, I got nothing. That's the way it had to9:25 have been. So here you have James, this this kid brother, this little brother of Jesus that's just trying to live up. Alright? Trying to live up and thinking about it. And there were times as we just read that that9:36 people thought he was crazy. So here you're James going, man, I I don't know I don't know if he is who he says he is. He he's just my brother to me. But the message of hope9:48 today is he goes from unbelieving to believing, from not following to following my invitation to you is be willing to consider that same path Because10:00 God's got stuff for us to do. God's got stuff for you to do in your family, in your community, and in your church. And that's what we're talking about10:12 in this series, man, doing the right thing the right way. And that's the beauty of James' story, is he goes from not doing the right thing to doing the right thing, and then he turns around and10:24 shares with us how to do the right thing. You know, a lot of things that you'll see, in New Testament books is you'll see doctrine10:35 and belief leads to behavior. So once you understand doctrine and once you believe, that informs your behavior. Interestingly10:47 enough, James, of all of the New Testament books, talks about doctrine and belief the least, and he really speaks to behavior most. He10:59 says, how do we behave this is what I'm talking about today in the midst of trials? How do I handle my tongue? How do I handle tomorrow? How do I handle my relationships?11:11 And that is why I think the book of James, if you have never read it before, I want to encourage you to read it, it will take you about 20 minutes to read from beginning to end. But it is all about how a man should11:22 behave in a carnal and corrupt world. And when you're reading it, don't think you're reading from this jewel of a guy from day 1.11:35 This guy grew up doubting Jesus, disbelieving Jesus. So as you read it, man, just say, God, give me this same faith. Give me this same belief. Give me the hope11:47 that I can go from where I am to where James ultimately ended up having me. So now let's just continue where he says, James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus11:59 Christ. Just continue to read verse 1. Now he says, servant of God, that's 1 thing to say this. But now of the Lord Jesus Christ, kind of interesting12:11 that that how far must he have come from not trusting who Jesus was to saying, I'm a servant of God and my brother Jesus.12:24 Something happened. Right? I mean, think about it. Alright? I I I think he's nuts. I think he's crazy. But all of a sudden, look, I've gone from unbelieving, now I'm believing. I've gone from being hopeless to now he is12:35 ultimately my hope. And so that's the hope for you today. You say, what is the path? Look at Mark chapter 3 verse 21. Write this down. It says, when his family heard about this, they went to take charge of12:47 Jesus. So here's the family. Jesus is out in the synagogue. He's begin to preach. He's begin to talk about the rabbis. He's begin to say, hey, they don't know what they're talking about. He's begin to say, I am the son12:58 of God. I'm the Messiah. I am the ultimate lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And his family hears about it. A commotion begins to happen. And notice what it says, when his family heard about this, they13:09 went to take charge of Jesus for they said, he is out of his mind. They thought he was nuts. They they they thought that Jesus13:21 was nuts. And James was part of this. Alright. Let's go bring Jesus home again. He's down at the synagogue telling everybody he's God. Alright. And so the family goes out and they begin to pull him13:32 back. Fast forward a little bit. John chapter 7 verse 5. It says, for even his own brothers, James, Judas, Simon, and others, Jesus, they did not believe him. There's13:44 the word again. John chapter 7 verse 5. He said they didn't believe him. So Jesus is out there saying, I am the Messiah. I am the fulfillment of of the Old Testament scriptures. I am the fulfillment of the prophecy. I am13:55 ultimately the 1 that we've delivered into the hands of sinful men, be nailed to a cross, be buried in a tomb, rise again the third day. And how did James and his brothers respond? Let's go get your brother.14:08 Let's bring him home. He's acting a fool down at the synagogue again. He's acting the fool acting like he's a rabbi again. He's acting the fool telling people he's the son of God. And this is getting14:20 plum embarrassing. Alright? And so they went from not believing to believing. Now, why did he start believing? Because there was a time that James, the brother of Jesus, and his other14:31 brothers and the other sisters were there with their mom, seeing their brother be whipped, have a crown of thorns placed on his head, nailed to a cross and died.14:46 At that moment, James grieved probably with his mother more than he grieved for Jesus. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Because up until that moment, they thought he was14:58 nuts. Oh. They thought he was crazy. You said, what caused the change? Fast forward, first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3. Here's what it says.15:11 Paul talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For I received for what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins according to scriptures, and then he was buried15:23 and that he raised from the third raised from the dead the third day according to scriptures. Now fast forward to verse 7, first Corinthians 15 says, then he appeared to who?15:38 James. Can you imagine that encounter? You've been doubting your brother his whole life. Okay. He's kind of a good teacher, but he's not God.15:53 He does some pretty impressive things, but he's not the Messiah. He better be quiet, or he's gonna get himself killed.16:06 Brother, whatever you do, Jesus, just just stop. Just stop talking. They're going to kill you. How can I stop telling the truth? Jesus would say. He goes to the16:17 cross, he enters the grief process, and 3 days later, he sees his brother, Jesus.16:29 You say, Why did James move from unbelieving to believing, from not following to following, from not serving to serving? James, the servant of God and the Lord16:41 Jesus Christ. It was in that moment when he looked into his risen brother's eyes that he said, he is who he said he was.16:54 Guys, my prayer is that there are some of you here that you can make that same switch and that same journey. Why? Because God's got stuff for you to do.17:06 God's got stuff for you to do in your family, the office, in your community, and in your church. God has something for you to do. Now fast forward17:18 after just the resurrection. Over here in Acts chapter 1, remember, Jesus ascends into heaven. That's when he makes a statement, that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and and you'll be my17:30 witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, even the remotest parts of the earth. If you go to Acts chapter 1 verse 14, this is after the ascension. Says, They all join together constantly in prayer along with the women,17:42 Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. So that doubting brother ends up being a following brother, but it doesn't stop there. If you fast forward to Galatians17:54 chapter 1 verse 18. So I just want to show you who the James is we're gonna be talking about over the next couple of weeks. James didn't believe him. From time to time, went down to try to try to bring Jesus back, try to18:06 put a little straight jacket on him. Right? And bring him back because he didn't think he was who he was. Now all of a sudden after the risen savior, he he says, man, I'm in. When the disciples were told by18:18 Jesus to gather and pray and wait for the spirit to, to come, James showed up and James prayed. Now a couple of years later, James is taking on a more prominent18:30 role in his older brother's ministry. So if you look in Galatians chapter 1 verse 18, it says, then after 3 years, this is Paul talking about Paul's converted. He's grown and he's discipled18:42 and he's grown learned the scriptures for 3 years. Says, then after 3 years, I went up to Jerusalem. Paul goes to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him for 15 days. Verse18:53 19, he says, I saw none of the other apostles, only James, the Lord's brother. So this doubter has become a leader so much so that part of19:05 what God says is when you're ready to go reveal yourself, Paul, to the leadership in Jerusalem, go seek out James, the brother of Jesus. Why do you think God might have told, Paul to19:17 do that? Just to walk in there, remind James, hey, by the way, I've seen your brother. I was on this dirt road. Sounds like a country song, doesn't it?19:32 Road to Damascus, Acts chapter 9. I saw this bright light. It was your brother. So he called me and told me to tell you19:43 hello. Called me to his ministry and said, Paul, you've got stuff to do.19:55 And he goes, By the way, go down to Jerusalem, remind my brother, I got stuff for him to do too. So Paul shows up and says, I saw your brother.20:08 He looks fantastic. Changed my life, changed my heart, changed everything for me, and he called me to the ministry.20:20 And he goes, James, you're a servant of God and a servant of your brother, the Lord Jesus Christ? Paul says, So am I.20:33 I can only imagine that greeting. I can only imagine that hug. And then notice what it says. He says what? He says, James, servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, continue to read, to the 1220:45 tribes who are scattered. Alright? To the 12 tribes who are scattered. What does that mean? In modern day, best way I could say it, it's people moving from blue states to red20:57 states. Do you understand what I'm saying? See, because in those days, a great persecution of the church rings out.21:09 And there were certain places that it was hard to be a Christian. And so those Jews that had gotten saved, that had gone from unbelieving to believing, to not following to following, to not having21:21 something for God to do, to having something, to do for God. When they made those changes, they found it hard and so they would gather themselves up and they would move to a new place. So James, the brother21:33 of Jesus, is writing kind of from Jerusalem, the home base, to these tribes that are scattered. And he's saying, Listen, I know it's hard out there, but I want to give you a word. I'm not21:45 gonna give you a deep word on believing. I'm not gonna give you a deep word on doctrine. I'm going to give you a deep word on how you should live in a harsh environment. And here we live in a21:57 culture today that the reality of it is, it can be hard to express your faith even here in Texas at the office or at school or wherever you are. Why? People think you're22:09 kind of crazy, you're nuts, you're this and you're that. And so James just is honest. He says, I am writing to the 12 tribes who are scattered. Let me tell you what. We heard we talk a lot about being canceled today.22:20 Don't we? You're gonna be canceled. What does that mean? You're gonna have a social media post suppressed or you're gonna be canceled and and not paid attention to or people are gonna throw dirt in your face. Let me tell22:31 you what. In those days, when you were canceled, you were canceled. Do you know what I mean? When you were canceled, you were fed the lions. When you were canceled, you were22:42 beaten. When you were canceled, you were burned alive. So guess what? It's 1 thing for us to sit here and say, I got passed over for a promotion. You might be cancelled and that 1 When they were cancelled,22:55 it was over. And so these these followers of faith would move out. They would leave and so James is writing to the 12 tribes who had said, I'm going to believe and I'm not gonna23:07 unbelieve. I'm gonna follow and I'm not gonna unfollow. But here's what I know. This is not easy for my family to do. And God just says, alright, we'll move. But as you move, go to that new city and guess what? I23:18 got stuff for you to do. You're gonna share your faith there. And if they drive you out of there, you're going to go to the next city and I still have stuff for you to do and you're going to share your faith there. And23:30 so I love this. James is saying, I write to you and then notice what he says. He says, brothers and sisters, jump forward to verse 2. He says, brothers and sisters, now you think about that. What what is23:42 James doing? James is inviting us into his family. From time to time, I'll, I'll talk to people23:54 and they'll tell me they've done how many of you have done 1 of those family trees? You've done the family line and how many of you in your family tree, you have you have someone when you look through your line and24:06 your lineage, you have someone that's pretty powerful. Alright. I just apparently haven't looked far enough. All mine, you know, you tracked my24:17 family through Terre Haute, Indiana and Kentucky, and and back over to Europe. And all of them seem to get thrown in jail for stealing hogs or so I don't talk about my family a lot. I did look up 1.24:29 If you haven't noticed that she's talking about the family. And she can go look this up. Though my last name, Cadon, c a t o n, I don't know really where it is from. We didn't have much of a legacy or anything. But there24:41 is a there was a battleship in France, which was the Battleship Caton, spelled like exactly the way my name is. And it was a battleship. It was a bad battleship. It was24:53 loaded. It was state of the art. You want to know what happened? Go look it up. You can find it on Wikipedia. It was sunk in its first battle. So I don't talk a whole lot about my my battle heritage.25:04 Alright? Because I I I don't want to impress y'all too much. Yeah. Can you imagine? Maiden voyage, man, state of the art, all of a sudden, what happened to battleship Catan? That sunk. Well,25:16 good. Alright? They didn't make another 1. They didn't go for 2. They said, nah. 1 and done. Alright? But think about it. A lot of you say, man, I love my family. Some of you might hate your family. Some of you might be25:27 from a legacy that you struggle. But I love what James says. He says, hey. I I am a servant of the God. I'm a servant of Lord Jesus Christ. I'm writing to the 12 tribes scattered. That's even us today. We could say25:39 that's us today. And he goes brothers and sisters. That's what we see in verse 2 even before we get to talk about the trials. Here's what James is saying. It doesn't matter what your earthly family looks like. We now25:51 have a heavenly family together. He calls us brothers and sisters. So if you came from a knucklehead family like I did, can I tell you,26:03 James just looks at us and say, by the way, God's your family? And now that you're part of the family, God's got stuff for you to do. He wants you to live a certain way. Just think about26:15 this family. Alright? Parents, Joseph and Mary. Aunt and uncles, Zechariah and Elizabeth. How many remember those? Your cousin, John26:27 the Baptist. You know, we always talk about the crazy uncle. John the Baptist was the crazy cousin. Right? How many of you know that? Eating locusts, dressed in camel hair, all of those. I mean, he26:38 was the nut job. Alright? He was the total nut job. That was because, Hey, is John the Baptist coming over? Yeah. Good. Something's gonna break. Alright. Something's gonna be set on fire. So that's their family.26:51 Brother, how many of you would like to say Jesus' brother? You are. You are. Once you go from unbelieving to believing, guess what? That's your27:03 family. That's your line and that's your lineage. And so when James, the real physical brother of Jesus says, I went from unbelieving to believing, from not following to following. And you go,27:15 way to go brother. That could be you. Because he sits here and says, man, we are part of God's family. Now part of that, remember27:26 he's writing to those who are part of the disbursement and when you got cancelled in those days, you got cancelled. These people had lost everything. They were broken. They were they were mocked. They27:38 were abused. Man, they were stoned. Had everything taken from them. They weren't just cut off social media. They were cut off. And so he writes to them and now when you think about that's why they were27:50 dispersed. Because they lived in places and spaces where it was hard to be a Christian. And so they are trudging along to a new city, not by their own choice. They're not choosing to28:01 relocate. They have to relocate for their lives and their for their families. And now if you understand that, this makes sense. Look at verse 2. Consider it28:14 pure joy. My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds any of you going through a trial in28:25 here? James is going to tell us how next week. But I want to start with the message of hope. James28:39 went from unbelieving to believing. My prayer last night and the last couple of days is that there would be some men in this room that would move from unbelieving to believing. My prayer over the28:51 last couple of days has been there would be some men in this room, in this church, that would move from not following to following. And perhaps that's you. You29:03 say, why is that so important? Because this is your family. And guess what? If Jesus is your brother, that29:15 means God is your father. And when God is our father, it's time for us to get some stuff done. I want to invite us to bow our heads. And I just want to pray over you.29:29 God, thank you so much for the opportunity just to get started on this book. God, thank you for the testimony of James, who just throughout the New Testament, we're reminded that there was a time he didn't believe, but29:41 he began to believe. He didn't follow, but he started to follow. And God, we thank you for the fact that he ultimately became a leader, and he turned around and talked to people who are going through some stuff. But29:53 reminds us, as we're gonna look at next week, that even when we go through stuff, there's still more stuff to do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Are you glad you started your morning30:05 off right, guys?30:06 Thank you for tuning in to Men's Breakfast with John Mark Cayton. For more information on John Mark's ministry and resources, please visit john mark hayton dot com. Until next time, remember, we're on30:18 this journey of life together.In this video 0:00 From Unbelieving to Believing: The Journey of JamesComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
28:49
Blessed: Be a Peacemaker John Mark Caton
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.