More Than a Prophet

To watch the sermon More Than a Prophet | Matthew 11: 1-10

Download the Discussion Guide: Download

Download the 5 Day Devotional: Download

Well, alrighty. Good morning, church.

In the prayer that Sarah did just a little while ago, she mentioned my voice. Yesterday I woke up with basically no voice. So I have a praise report that I can actually speak today. Otherwise it would have been real interesting. I could have used some AI text to chat kind of thing.

Corey came up with that idea that could have been really clever. But I don't think Stephen Hawkins is the best pastor that we could have. So I'm excited for today. We're diving into another section of Matthew. We're diving into Matthew chapter 11.

So if you have your Bibles in your lap or in the app, if you would go to Matthew chapter 11. And we're going to be in verses one through 10 today. So I'm not like a huge book person. Like I love the Bible. I can read that now as an adult, I enjoy that.

But as a kid, fantasy fiction novels, not my drive, surprisingly. You know, the person that last time said that he likes to watch documentaries and statistics, is also a nonfiction book lover that loves to read about self help and improvement and stats. But somehow I'm very imaginative. I don't know where that came from. One of my favorite book openings though, in my limited library of books that I've read is from Charles Dickens and it's the Christmas Story because I think it has the coolest opening of all time.

The Marley brothers were dead to begin with. It's like, I don't know who they are, but let's find out why they died. Like, it's creating this intrigue. There's these people that suddenly, I don't know why I care about this, but I care. Let's unravel this story.

As we're looking into Matthew chapter 11, it kind of opens with the same thing. It finishes the story that we just were reading. But then it says that John was in prison to begin with. It sets the tone for picturing what's going on in this situation. Creates intrigue.

But to understand the weight of this opening, we have to understand who John the Baptist is. So if you look in Luke 1, 5, 25, this section is talking about the angel Gabriel coming to Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were old. And I just want to point this fact out because Scripture is pointing this out.

I'm not calling you old, but apparently a lot of scholars say that they were about 50. So I'm not saying 50 is old, but scholars in the Bible might be saying that. But he came to Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were old, faithful, yet barren and in the temple, the angel Gabriel announced that their son would make ready and people prepared for the Lord. John's calling wasn't discovered, it was declared. And he wasn't searching for his direction.

Direction found him in the womb.

John was given a divine commission while he was still in the womb. The angel said that he'd be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. He would turn hearts and he would prepare the way. Before he had a voice. God already gave him a message before he could even walk.

He had a path set for him in the rest of Luke. In Luke chapter 1:76, 77, his father proclaims the prophecy over him, saying, and you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. And now that man, the forerunner, the prophet, the voice in the wilderness crying, is locked in a cell. And that's where the story begins. If you're in your Bible, if you'll join with me as we read Matthew 11:1 3, it says that when Jesus had finished giving instruction to his 12 disciples, he moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns.

Now, when John heard in prison what the Christ was doing, he sent a message through his disciples and asked him, are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else? Has anyone ever had something not go as they expected if you're alive? Probably So I would imagine, I'd bet on that. Maybe not that it failed, but maybe it just didn't unfold the way that you would expect, that you had kind of hoped for. So I had, early in my life had experienced this expectation, frustration, and it's fun that my mom's here because she knows this story and loves it because it embarrasses myself, really.

But has anybody's family ever called Walmart Wally World? Like, okay, I don't know why, but for some reason, age 6 to 10, I thought Wally World was some mythical amusement park that we were going to go to. So every time we got in the car, my mom, my aunt would be in the front seat. We're making a family trip, small town, we're going to Walmart. And they're like, hey, get on in the car, kids.

We're going to go to Wally World. Yes, to do today I'm going to ride a roller coaster or be afraid of the heights on the Ferris wheel, but I'm going to go, I'm going to go do this. And then we'd pull in a parking lot and be like, is this where we get the snacks for the road trip? Or like, what's going on here? But I had this frustration because I had set the expectation of the outcome.

I thought fun and amusement. Actually it was socks and oranges or were waiting for me just fulfilling our daily grocery shop. And my wife knows it, knows this about me. But I am shocker, easily frustrated because I often hold myself and admittedly I God works on in me every day, but I hold my myself and sometimes others in high expectation. And I experience this frustration.

And most of the time, even if the thing turns out right, even if, like, we get to the goal, I get frustrated because the outcome of how we got there is not correct. I'm like, we could have done this smoother if you guys just would have planned a little bit. Maybe if you hadn't been dumb, we would have been there a little bit faster. But sometimes we do this in our relationship with Christ when we're looking at our path and what he's doing in us and all the work that he's doing is we know, end goal. And even when we get there, we're like, God, couldn't you just like, cut out the middle bit like that?

That sandwich that I just had to eat was not great. Like the bread pretty good, fresh baked, awesome inside, liverwurst. I don't like this. This is not cool. But we get frustrated because our expectations of how smooth something should go.

And yes, I am easily that person. And I pray daily that the Lord works in me. It doesn't help that I'm often put into situations where I have to plan the thing, then, like, find a goal and a solution for things. So I'm like, here's the goal, here's the plan. And then somebody goes, we're going to go do this.

Like, no, stop it. Stay on the path.

But sometimes we have to be on this route. Now John is sitting here in prison with a similar tension. He had expected Messiah. It was his job. It was proclaimed over him that this was the thing he would do his entire life, is proclaim, messiah is coming, and here's the great things that will happen.

But he's sitting in prison and he believes that Messiah had come. He even pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God. But the roots, the process and the unfolding of how we got there did not look like the kingdom that he had envisioned.

This was also a lesson for John's disciples that they would not be discouraged, but that they would learn alongside him. John's disciples Also grew up in the Hebrew community, I would assume. And so they've heard the same messianic prophecies as well. And so they, as much as the other Jewish and Hebrew people, had this expectation of what Messiah would look like. And so just because John was feeling it, he went, I need my disciples to also understand and see the difference.

And that's an amazing example of discipleship. Because he didn't have to have the answer, but he did let them learn alongside him and learned that sometimes it's normal to not always know, but to seek. That we need to seek and we need to find. Because it says that those who seek will find and those who knock the door will be answered. That's not a one time thing.

That's an every single time seek, knock.

Verse three gives us an interesting thing because they go into this and are given a phrase that could be, depending on the tone in which it was delivered, really bad, like, hey, are you the Messiah? Are you the chosen one? Or should we find someone else? In my head, I thought it would be kind of interesting if they went back to talk to John later. And he was like, why did you ask that last bit?

I didn't tell you that. I just told you to ask, are you the Messiah? To get some clarification. But their human nature popped in and was like, we could also just find another guy, right? Maybe, like we have a little bit of doubt.

But this wasn't disrespect, it wasn't disloyalty, it was clarity seeking because John knew who he was. For centuries, the Hebrew people had lived with a messiah shaped expectation. They searched for signs, they watched for deliverance. They evaluated leaders through the lens of this prophecy. And this is also why we can see that false messiahs gained traction throughout Israel's history.

Because they were constantly primed to look for somebody that looked like him, that may have been him. They're like, there's an aspect of that guy that fits that little bit right there. It's kind of like what we are in relationships as teenagers. It's like, he's not really nice, but he's got a cute butt. We're checking one box.

Or she doesn't really respect my mom, but I like how she has her hair and when she flicks it when she talks to me, there's sort of a box there. It's being checked, but it's not the thing. Overlooking a bigger deal here.

And there was almost a cultural reflex of, hey, are you the one? Maybe he's the one. Maybe this Is the one over here.

There was a question of are you my messiah? Which makes me think of the children's book are you my mother? For anybody that doesn't know that story, first of all, why? But secondly, it's this little bird that starts, it's in a nest, it hatches and falls out and it's trying to find its mom. But it's asking the most ridiculous of things.

It's like, hey excavator, are you my mother? Hey boat, are you my mom? What about this cat, enemy or mom sometimes.

Hey, chapter 10 talked about that your mother and your family could turn against you. I'm just, I'm not saying something the scripture doesn't. But Israel had a long history of doing the same thing with this messiah expectation. And now John, who once pointed so confidently asked the very question that they had all asked, are you my messiah? Or do we look for another?

John's doubt didn't come from disappointment of Jesus though, it came from a distance.

This is the same man who, as scripture said, leapt in his mother's womb when Mary carrying Christ walked in. John recognized the presence of Christ before he even knew what language was. Before his eyes were fully formed, he knew Jesus was in the room, that that was his Messiah. And yet now confined, isolated and unsure, he experienced doubt.

In that sense, he's not far from where we can sometimes find ourselves. I know I've talked about this before and it's kind of like a dead horse story for some of our youth. But like I myself have gone through a situation in a season of doubt, a serious time of questioning in my life. I didn't rebel or run away, but I had a deep pool to examine what I believed and why.

And first of all, I want to say that in this season people commonly call it deconstruction. And I want you to know that deconstruction and deconversion are two different things, but we often treat it as the same. If I'm renovating my house, I'm not tearing it down to rubble, I'm just retiling the kitchen. So if I'm deconstructing what I'm doing, dealing with in my faith, I'm not deconverting necessarily.

I never left my religion, sadly. But there was a distance in my relationship with Christ. I didn't trust the institutions, I didn't trust tradition and I didn't trust the systems that were around me and my faith.

And as that's during that season, the crazy part is, was that I worked in full time ministry on the outside, it's like, hey, he's doing it. He's working for a ministry man. My voice cracked real bad right there. It's like, I'm 15 again. Sorry, I'll get to hear about that later.

All right.

But I was in full time ministry, so it was like as a person, you'd say that person's got to be pretty solid in their faith and their understanding. But it was actually at that time that I was struggling the most with identifying because I had my boundaries, I had my religious structure that I knew very well. But there was a distance in my relationship. Just like John in prison, isolated, had his ministry, he still had disciples, he had followers, he had a ministry, but there was a distance between him and his Messiah.

I had the same question, are you who you say you are? Just know that asking that question doesn't make you faithless. It makes you human. Digging in to make sure that you have that relationship, that it's full and it's founded properly, doesn't make you a failure in your faith. It just means you're on the journey.

All right, if you still have your Bibles open, we're at chapter 11. Moving on to verses 4 through 6. Says Jesus replied to them, go and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. And blessed is the one who isn't offended by me.

Jesus doesn't respond to John by going like, john cousin, you know me. Come on, dude. He doesn't say, think back to that Jordan river situation. It's like, you know, remember the one? It was crazy.

There's a glowing and a dove. And my dad literally spoke from heaven. Like, come on, you remember this situation.

He didn't shame him, he doesn't guilt him, he doesn't quote the history. Jesus points to the evidence. The blind see the lame walk, the unclean are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor receive the good news.

Jesus points to evidence. In other words, look at this progress.

Look at the fruit.

Because his isolation had distorted his reality, it had led to a deformation of what he knew to be true.

We all know that when you're isolated, you get in your own head. And when you're cut off and you're hurting, proof becomes hard to see.

Everything gets loud inside, but the truth that's outside becomes quiet.

But Jesus anchors John in what is undeniably happening.

He told the disciples as well, with them that tell him exactly what you hear, but also what you see. They met him while he was ministering. They witnessed it so that their faith could be more grounded in what was factual, what was actually happening. They had their proof so that they as his disciples could go back to John and say, we saw it with our own eyes, the kingdom is advancing, Messiah is working.

And Jesus appealed us with the fruit of that situation.

I feel like we can also do that in our own lives, is that when we are isolated and we think about what Christ is doing in our own lives, we have that expectation. We're like, I don't see him doing anything. But we also act like a. You ever have a toddler where you're telling them to look at a specific thing and they're like, what? Like, hey, can you just look right here at the page?

And they're like, I don't see the thing. Or a husband looking for something lost in the kitchen that's in the same drawer it's been in for five years. It's not here. I know it's in the third drawer to the left from the stove, but it's not here. The wife walks in, she's like, idiot.

Lovingly. She says that because tone matters, right? But we can have the same realization that we are not seeing the evidence because we've isolated ourselves away and not knowing that it's because we have a distance in our relationship with Christ that we have this disability, inability words, inability to see the fruit. Fruit matters. We can look at this situation.

We heard amazingly in our prayer this morning. We're in the back room and you know, we're as a church constantly praying that the sick are healed and those with illnesses. We're constantly praying for our friends that are have children dealing with cancer. Hi by the way, they watch faithfully online. I'm glad that you guys are still here and doing what you can.

We have that tool for them.

But there was a man that we were about to do a prayer for this morning, but his prayer request turned into a praise report. If we're constantly as a church just being like, well, there's all this sick people, there's all those hurt people. Sometimes it can get bogged down. If you've never been to a house church, there's sometimes you're looking at this list of prayers and you're like, that's a lot. It's double sided, 10 point font.

Like this is a lot of stuff. And we can get overwhelmed and be like, where's the fruit in this but with every single one of those, there's a praise report that goes along with that prayer request.

Sometimes we have to look for the good thing. Like yesterday, very minor thing. Yesterday I didn't have a voice. Today you're blessed with this raspiness. But it's a prayers report.

Because I. My confidence was down low. There was a worry and a doubt within me because I'm like, I'm the guy tomorrow, my God, you got to do something. Apparently he did want me to talk. Now if I suddenly go mute midway, it's God's, God's will, apparently.

We'll just wrap up and get back into worship. But we have to look for the. What Chris likes to refer to as little wins sometimes just to see that praise report.

I have gone through doubts of depression in my life and anxiety and what has reshaped my way of thinking and being so thankful for the Lord. Because as we enter his gates with thankfulness, sometimes all we have to be thankful for is today is a new day. I woke up, there's a hot cup of coffee on the counter and we get to do it again. Amen. Especially when it's a good cup of coffee and it hits just right.

You're like that first sip. That's all that matters is that first sip. You're like, now I can do the peopling and the things. The only time I'm an introvert is that first hour of the morning from 6am to 7. Introvert.

That's it. I get it all out. All right, let's move on. Matthew, chapter 11, verses 7 through 9. As these men were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John.

What did you go into the wilderness to see? He asked them. A reed swaying in the wind. What then? Did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothes?

See, those who wear soft clothes are in royal palaces. What then? Did you go out to see a prophet? Yes, and I tell you more than a prophet. After reassuring John, Jesus turns to the crowd and begins to talk about him.

He doesn't diminish him because of the doubt that was professed in that questioning. He doesn't reduce him down to that moment of doubt, forsaking all the history that they had together in his ministry. He doesn't say, john used to be strong, but now he's struggling. He used to be the one that proclaimed me, that prophesied about me in the wilderness. But now, still a whiny guy in a prison.

He said something astonishing. John was more than a prophet. Yes, he Is in prison. Yes, he's eccentric. Yes, his life looks a little off course, but he is more, not less, than what people assume.

He is the forerunner. He is the fulfillment of prophecy, the messenger that Malachi spoke of. John's fruit didn't disappear because his circumstances changed.

But we also have to look about at this. Is that the context of what prison would have done in that society?

Now, death is the worst. We talked about how the Marley Brothers were dead. It's like, that's a long. That's a hard thing. That's full stop.

John was just in prison, but that was almost a social death in a sense, because this is a culture that's going by honor and shame. And if you have anybody in your family or anybody that you ever know that has gone through the system of prison, you understand that there is a death that happens to your relationships, to your reputation, to your ability to do things a normal human would be able to do. Suddenly, because of that prison time, you're looked at as less so. Even now, today we have that. But obviously even more.

It was like he was. This guy was supposed to be the guy. He was over there baptizing me just two weeks ago, and now he's locked up. What a weirdo. We struggle with a pastor that would get locked up, rightfully so, in certain situations.

But think about that, is that we struggle with the idea that if a pastor that we like. It was your childhood pastor. He prophesied over you, he baptized you, he helped you get to your foundation in faith, but then suddenly, he's locked up. Every single ounce of you struggles with whether or not decision that you made was real because of the relationship with that person. So they knew what they were doing when they were locking up John is that they were creating a series of doubt in the people that he administered to that they're like, well, is it real?

Because that guy got locked up.

But even in that, Jesus does not bring that up. He doesn't say, it's pretty shameful that he got locked up. Maybe you should have ran a little bit faster, hopped a couple more fences. Like, no, he's saying that he is still more than just a prophet.

After speaking reassurance over John, he turns to the crowd and challenges something deeper. He challenges their expectations. He asked them three questions in a row. What did you go into the wilderness to see? A reed shaking in the wind?

Now, this is related to the idea of being tossed about by the winds and the waves. It's like, did you come here to see somebody that was Flippant in their emotions. They could just go from one thing to the next when really they saw a stable man. What then did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothing? I mean, those are in palaces out here in the woods or the desert.

What then did you go to see? Prophet Jesus is exposing something that still trips us up today, that we form expectations that have nothing to do with what God is actually doing.

The crowd had traveled out into the wilderness, miles away from the temple, miles away from comfort, miles away from ceremony. And yet they still expected something polished, something familiar, something safe, and something that fit their categories. I mean, we never, as modern Christians ever go into a religious situation or a church function and ever have a checklist of things that we feel like have to hit just right, that maybe the service and the worship have to be structured a certain way. Nah, we wouldn't do that. Maybe the pastor shouldn't have a man bun.

Obviously, none of us here have that checkbox.

But Jesus pushes back. You went out to see a prophet. You went out to see a man called by God. You went out to the wilderness, to a rough place in a raw place. And what did you expect him to look like?

You went out expecting silk robes. You went out expecting political correctness. You went out expecting a preacher with a clean beard. Of course, John was a little wild. Of course his hair was fuzzy.

Of course his clothes were rough. Listen, most people also don't go to church thinking that they're going to listen to some hipster Tony Stark meets Magnum PI Wannabe. But here you guys are.

Do I want to listen to a guy that had more phases than a lunar cycle? I don't know. But listen, we're in this room like Jesus is teaching something critical here. Don't get discouraged or confused when the work of God doesn't look like your expectations. Repeat that again.

Don't get discouraged or confused when the work of God doesn't look like your expectations.

It's like, it's not really the way I planned about it. I just talked about this yesterday. Anybody familiar with Enneagram? All those things like personality tests? Nobody.

Cool. Good. Great. They're weird. I found out whatever the numbers is like a six.

And it's like, oh, this person always wants their plan to go right. And I'm like, yeah, I do always want my plan to go right, because my plan's awesome. I thought about it. I made this plan perfectly. I read all of the stats.

I know the outcome. I've looked at the failure reports that could potentially Happen with this, thought it through, go with my plan. But often my plan doesn't get gone with. And I've learned to deal with that struggle.

But we have to know that in that same way because we've thought about the plan of it. Like, I'm going to go to church, I'm going to then go to college, and I'm going to keep my faith and I'm going to meet this one person and they're going to be the person for me forever. And we're going to be away from each other physically and everything's going to go super smooth. And then it doesn't always go like that or, oh, I'm going to go into this job and I'm going to work hard and I'm going to be a righteous man of God and things are just going to work out for me. Doesn't always work out like that.

Sometimes it does, but when it doesn't, we can't lose sight of God is still God, that he is still moving, that his plan and purpose are going to happen, and that our past might look a little bit different. Maybe that's not the job for you. Maybe he definitely kept you away from the wrong person.

Sometimes the move of God comes wrapped in simplicity. Sometimes the messenger looks a little unpolished. Sometimes the breakthrough doesn't arrive in the package that you imagined.

And if you go into a situation with the wrong expectation, you might misinterpret what God is doing right in front of you.

How many of the Hebrew people missed the plot because their idea of what Messiah was going to look like wasn't the one that came and talked to them. He was right in front of them showing them the fruit. They'd see a blind man healed or see a lame man get up and walk. And they'd be like, I think he's from the devil. Like, this ain't this not the guy.

It's like. But this was what was prophesied about. But he doesn't look like the roaring political overturn kind of guy that I was thinking. And even today, I think we can sometimes still have that thought about what our Messiah is going to look like. Come up here and ruffle up the politics.

Sorry. He probably doesn't care about our politics.

Throw rocks at me later.

Jesus asked the crowd and he asked us, what did you expect if you went into the wilderness to see a prophet? Don't be shocked when he looks like the wilderness. If you went to hear a word from God, don't be offended by the way that God chose to deliver it.

This whole section is Jesus calling us into spiritual sensibility. A reminder not to let wrong expectations blind us from the right move of God.

Our final verse. Matthew 11:10 I actually remember there's a clock this time. It's crazy. Matthew 11:10 this is the one whom it is written. See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you.

He will prepare your way before you. Jesus finishes this moment by quoting scripture about John over John. This is the one whom it is written, and I will send my messenger ahead of you. Jesus ties John directly to the two major prophecies of Isaiah 43, where it says, prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness and make straight highways for our God in the desert. In Malachi, chapter three, verse one, where it says, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me.

Then the Lord will seek. The Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant. He is coming. And in saying this prophecy, the he is coming.

He's already here. He's just locked up in the pen at the moment.

But just because of his certain circumstances doesn't mean that he isn't still this and more whereas he's locked into a physical prison, some of us are locked into a mental prison. This situation I'm in right now is a defining moment of my life. Doesn't have to be the overcoming nature of you after that situation is a defining moment in your life. But the struggle, the isolation, the depression, that isn't but just a part of your story.

John wasn't improvising his ministry. John wasn't freelancing in the desert. John wasn't doing his own thing. He was walking in a calling that God had written centuries before he was born.

John came so that Jesus could do the very work he just told his disciples. The blind see the lame walk and the dead being raised.

In other words, John's ministry was not in vain. He tilled soil so that Jesus could plant seeds. He prepared hearts so that Jesus could transform them. And he cleared the path so that Messiah could walk straight. In other words, as the phrase goes nowadays, John walked so that Jesus could run.

Jesus just speed ran the most amazing year of ministry that's ever been written about. But John was in there doing the work, setting it up so that when he started his ministry, he could just go. Imagine the amount of hurdles that would have existed if John had not done the work that he was there to do.

Here's the part that we don't always want to wrestle with.

John didn't get to see the full impact of what he prepared.

John didn't get to be on the scene when all those people were being healed. He wasn't in the house when people were delivered.

But without him, the story looks very different.

Jesus turns truth, this truth towards us in saying that not everyone is called to be the miracle. Some of us are called to make room for the miracles. Not everyone is called to perform the healing. Some of us are just called to prepare the hearts for the one who actually does.

We struggle with having this complex about ourselves as believers, being like, I want to be the person that converts this person. I want to be the person that speaks over this person and lays a hand on it and they're instantly healed. Well, I can tell you this, none of this is doing any of that. Our flesh can't do any of that. It's Christ working through the situation, actually doing it.

We are just setting the atmosphere, setting the heart, setting the mood for God to actually work, for Jesus to come in and do something in somebody's life, for transformation to actually happen.

Worship team, you can go ahead and head back up.

This calling is not lesser, it's not secondary. It's an essential part of the calling. It's a holy work. Maybe your role in a season is not to fix everything, but to clear the clutter so that Jesus can enter.

Maybe your calling is to prepare the way in your home, your workplace, your friendships, and your ministry to make a straight path in the wilderness so Christ can do what only he can do.

John's ministry teaches us this, that the greatest impact sometimes happen in the spaces where we simply make room for Jesus.

John prepared the ways for Christ's first coming. And we prepare the way for Christ to work in our generation.

So we tell the world of Christ. We prepare the way, we clear the path, we open the door, and we let Jesus work only how he can.

John, sitting in prison, needed to be reminded that his work was not fruitless. He needed to be reminded of the fruit that existed because of what he did.

Sometimes we don't get to witness right away what happens with the things that we pour into. But don't let that be discouraged. Keep your eyes open for the way that God is moving in your lives. We talked about how earlier there was a moment that was a prayer request turned to a. A praise report.

God's still working. He's doing something. And we need to allow ourselves to experience those little things, those little wins, so that we know that our work is not in vain. The amount of times that we have to tear ourselves down and carry burdens that we feel like, what's the point? Like, why am I allowing myself to have to avoid certain things or do things when it seems like that's not working out for me?

And it's like, maybe it's not working for you at the moment, it's working for somebody else.

So as we enter into a time of worship, I ask you to. To hear this. That John asked, are you the one?

And Jesus answered by pointing the works of God that were already happening.

Maybe today you need to look again.

Maybe you need to look again at his faithfulness. Look again for his presence. Look again for the work that he is already doing.

As we lift our eyes and our hearts in a time of worship.

Let him show you who he is so that there is not a doubt in your mind, so that you can see him working over every fear, over every doubt, over every anxiety in your families and for your future. Stand. As we enter into a time of worship.