Heavenly Father, we worship You because You have not stayed far off, but You came close in Your Son Jesus so that it can be said that we are with You and You are with us. You are hope and You are life and You are peace. And in every season, in every trial, Lord, in every hardship, in every struggle, God, You are with us, Lord. I pray that that truth would be a sweet one to us this morning.

Lord, I pray You would bless our tither offering, all that we have, Lord, that You would open our hands, Lord, and that we would give all things back to You. Lord, we know that, all that we have, You have given us.

And so, God, we just bless Your name and we just pray You’d awaken our hearts and minds this morning, wherever we are, wherever we’re at, God, that we would just truly meet with You in Your Word. And, Lord, You would just bind us together as a church in the truth of Your Word. And so, we just pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning.

We’re going to be in Matthew chapter 11,

verses 1 through 6.

Matthew chapter 11,

verses 1 through 6.

And here’s what Matthew goes on to write. He says, When Jesus had finished instructing the twelve, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? And Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

Natural disasters like hurricanes that Louisiana and Texas are dealing with right now, they’re a reminder, aren’t they, of… our smallness, our powerlessness. There’s really nothing you can do when something like a hurricane happens other than experience it. You may try to run, but still it probably will wreck the life you had, at least temporarily, where you’re from. And it’s just a reminder that sometimes all we can do is just sit and deal with the reality things and scratch our heads. And the same thing is very often true in the Christian life. We wish things would have been a certain way as we follow Jesus, as we make disciples, as we live for the kingdom. We want to see great things happen. We don’t want to see bad things happen. We don’t want to see anything deteriorate around us as we are and other people around us are pursuing Christ. But sometimes things happen we wish didn’t happen, and it’s that head scratch of a realization, man, this happened, and there doesn’t seem that I can do anything about it. I’m just sitting here in my discouragement. And I’m just sitting here in my discouragement. And if you’ve ever, well, if you follow Jesus, and if you’ve been a Christian for any period of time, you know that good and well, that discouragement as a disciple of Jesus, it’s very much so a part of a genuine Christian experience. Being discouraged. And I think the passage we had this morning, it has a word for us in those times of discouragement following Jesus. I’ve entitled this sermon, The Discouraged Disciple. The Discouraged Disciple.

Verse 1 again, When Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John, that’s John the Baptist, heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the one who is to come? Or shall we look for another?

Jesus answered them, Go tell John. And then He says these many things to John. So remember where we just finished in chapter 10. Jesus was sending out these unqualified guys with no special qualification to be His disciples, to go do His work. And He preaches to them and teaches them about what it looks like to go out into the cities of Israel on this mission trip they’re going out on and what they’re going to experience. And what they are to say. And so Jesus sends them out. But Jesus doesn’t waste any time Himself. It says Jesus picks up His ministry and He goes on and He’s preaching. And He’s teaching. And we can assume He’s doing miracles. And He’s healing people all the same. And as exciting as this supernatural ministry of Jesus is, and surely it’s exciting, there’s one person who’s not excited. And it’s John the Baptist. John the Baptist, is discouraged. He’s confused.

And so he sends this really startling question to Jesus through His disciples. John’s sitting in prison.

And remember who John was. And we looked at John many, many, many months ago earlier in Matthew’s Gospel. John the Baptist was a very simple man with a very simple message. He wasn’t a fancy man. He didn’t live in the city. He didn’t live a country. He didn’t live a comfortable, normal life. He lived in the wilderness. He didn’t keep up with fashion. He wore camel hair and had the leather belt wrapped around his camel clothes. And he ate locusts and honey for food. So he was careless of luxury. He wasn’t interested in people liking him. There was nothing about John to see or observe. He was a man just with a message. There was nothing distracting about John. He lived for his message. He lived for his one ministry. He had one priority. And that was that preparatory ministry that God gave John to prepare the people for the coming of Christ. His message was, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John denied himself all things for this ministry, for this coming Messiah. Even before he was born, the angel communicated to his father Zechariah, this is the coming Messiah. This is who your son John the Baptist is going to be. And when pregnant Mary with Jesus approaches pregnant Elizabeth with John the Baptist in her womb, the Scriptures tell us that John the Baptist in the womb leaps for joy, it says, because he’s in the presence of Jesus and Mary. So John’s not even born and he knows what he is excited about. This is a one mission man.

But he’s in prayer. He’s in prison now. And perhaps for the very first time and only time in John’s life, his soul is depressed. He’s in prison because he did what he does. He stood for the truth. He told King Herod, you cannot have your brother Philip’s wife. That’s adultery. So he sits in jail. And there in prison, the creeping discouragement comes in.

How come the Messiah is here? And he’s out there and I’m in here.

How come wicked King Herod is still on the throne? How come the Romans are still ruling? How come the kingdom of God hasn’t been manifested the way I thought it would be so?

Wasn’t Jesus’ ministry of teaching and preaching wonderful? And weren’t these miracles supernatural? Yes, but John says, is there something better coming? Is this it? It wasn’t what John had hoped for. It wasn’t what John had hoped for. John’s life’s passion and ministry don’t look the way he wanted them to look. And he’s discouraged about the whole thing. He’s very discouraged. So John the Baptist then is not the first. He won’t be the last person who’s living for the Lord and experiences discouragement. But let me say to you, if you are, if we are as a church doing the Christian life, if we’re attempting to make disciples, we’re attempting to deliver the kingdom, you and I will certainly experience discouragement. And what I want us to learn then from this account is not how to avoid discouragement. That’s impossible. I want us to learn how to survive seasons of discouragement. How to survive them with joy even. The first thing I want us to see from this, this passage is this. The advancement of the kingdom of heaven does not take place the way we would like. The advancement of the kingdom does not take place the way we would like. It is not apparent, even often, how God is growing His kingdom in the midst of the world. It’s not. See what Jesus says in Mark chapter 4, verse 26.

It says, And He said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps, and He rises night and day. The seed sprouts and grows, but, what does it say here? He knows not how it grows. You and I cannot grow the kingdom of heaven. The Spirit alone can grow the kingdom. Are we called to throw out some seed? Yep. Are you and I called to water the seed? Yes. Are we to guard the seed? Yes. But can you and I actually ensure the seed of the gospel will bear the fruit that we want it to grow? No. And I want to say that that is both a humbling and a freeing truth to grasp. The kingdom of heaven is firstly a spiritual kingdom. It’s a kingdom you’re a part of and I’m a part of only because the Spirit of God wooed us into that kingdom by faith. The Spirit wielded the sword of the gospel, cut through our callous hearts, and overwhelmed our darkness with the light of Christ that we could be new creations in Jesus, even alive spiritually as we’re still now covered in sinful flesh. That’s the Spirit’s work. The Spirit is that great helper Jesus spoke of who would come after Him to apply, to apply the victorious finished work of Jesus on the cross to God’s people. So can you count on God employing you at times to see the kingdom grow by your faithful witness to the gospel, by your faithful discipling and standing for the truth? Oh, absolutely. But very often, you’re sleeping, you’re rising, you’re watering, you’re planting. It will not bring, the fruit you want to see. For all our working and laboring, only the power and plans of the Spirit will produce real kingdom growth. Here’s what Jesus says in John 3, verse 8. He says, The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born, born of the Spirit. And friends, if that’s true, you know what that means, to freeing truth. Really, there’s not a good cause for discouragement, only faithful obedience. If you and I literally do not possess the power to grow the kingdom, you and I are very silly for getting discouraged that we have not grown the kingdom. We cannot do what we cannot do. You are freed from the burden of doing, what only God can do. So you know what we do? We obey, we proclaim, we disciple, we pray, we study, we stand for truth, and we leave the results of kingdom growth up to the Lord.

If you only obey God, if you only labor for the gospel and the conditions you want to labor for the gospel in, and only if you see the fruit you want to see, you’re not living for God, you’re not living for God’s kingdom. You’re taking ownership where it’s not yours to take. In that hard-hearted place, you’re saying, no, Lord, I want it to look like this. I want it to do this work. I want it to reach out to that person, and I want it to look like this. And guess what? That’s you building your kingdom, not God building God’s kingdom. So if God says, no, yeah, you did that work for me, but it’s not going to accomplish what you want it to accomplish, at least not in the timing you wanted it to be accomplished. But be careful, be sure of this, the Lord always accomplishes what He wants through the power of His Word. And the Spirit is always working through that powerful Word to save and grow the kingdom. The prophet Isaiah reminds us, the Word never returns void.

So be sure of it. The Lord’s way of working is always foolish. It’s always foolish. Foolish to man.

Even downright stupid. Doesn’t God know if only He did things our way, He would be liked a little bit more? Doesn’t God know He would have more followers if He would just make more sense to us in how He’s advancing the kingdom? Yet, church, it’s through the very foolishness of how God is growing the kingdom He is to be praised. It’s through the foolishness of that that God deserves all praise and worship. His ways are altogether higher than our ways. His thoughts, altogether higher than our thoughts. His ways are perfect. When I say, Lord, I much desired my ministry to turn out like this, I’m saying, Lord, how come you didn’t submit to my will and understanding?

But it’s only by submitting to the King who has a perfect will and understanding and power to produce kingdom growth that we are found happy to believe however it’s happened is good. It doesn’t have to make sense to me. Jesus is a King, and guess what? Jesus knows how He’s doing. He knows how He’s establishing His eternal kingdom. Jesus knows how He’s drawn in the nations. Jesus knows how He’s going to judge the wicked. Jesus knows how. And you know what the Apostle Paul tells us? The way that He’s doing that is the most foolish way of all. It’s through His cross. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.21, For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know, know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. Displayed in the cross is God’s great folly of salvation through a criminal’s cross that we are saved. In this upside-down kingdom, in this upside-down kingdom, the upside-down king demands we forfeit our wisdom to see the beauty and splendor of His wisdom and His ways. If many a Jew had had their way and Christ came and He crushed the Jews or crushed the Romans and set up the Jews as a nation again and this big power, oh, it would have been great for a moment. But the souls of men would no more be saved.

And that’s what Jesus came to do. And that’s the great wisdom of heaven that we in our flesh cannot see.

Jesus’ foolish salvation, it will save those who believe.

Don’t you think if our salvation, I mean the very thing that we are staking our eternal hope on is the cross of Christ. Don’t you think there’s going to be a few moments after this, after our salvation, where Jesus leaves us at a loss as to why He’s letting certain seasons be the way they are? Lord, how come there was a success there but a failure here? How come this? How come that? Don’t you think if the cross of Christ is our salvation, there will be times where we have to say, Lord, You know. Lord, only You know. And I’m going to submit to that and not understand. What we do in those moments, church, is we go back to the cross. Go back to the cross. Go back to the cross. And there joyfully and humbly submit as servants to a Master who knows exactly what He’s doing and exactly how He’s doing it.

So never let who you are as a friend of Christ, as a follower of Jesus, as a servant, be secondary to what you’re doing for God. Because let me say this to you, if your joy in the Lord is contingent on what you’re doing for the Lord, your joy is going to drop real quick and you and I, I will be discouraged beyond repair. One commentator said this and I thought it was really good. He said, if faith is not simply a scent to a propositional truth, just something you believe, but faith is life with God,

then it can live only by increasing and decreasing in experiences that strengthen or endanger it. So yes, God allows our faith to be tested through many setbacks, many, many trials, many failures, many difficult valleys, but only so you and I will be at the end of ourselves and have a great sureness of Christ, that He will build His kingdom and He will be king overall according to the unstoppable wisdom of God in Christ.

You go back to Elijah in the Old Testament. Elijah, that great prophet of God, much like John the Baptist, he’s given himself over to preaching truth.

Elijah desires nothing more than to see God’s people be a holy people again. He desires to see them turn from idolatry.

Yet, Elijah finds himself in a moment of discouragement up on a mountain. It says in 1 Kings 19, and when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave and behold, there came a voice to him and it was God’s voice and he said, what are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here up in this cave on this mountain? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, the people of Israel that have forsaken your covenant and they’ve thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword and I, even I only am left and they seek to take my life. Elijah gave his whole life to preach truth. Preaching the truth of God and he sees no fruit at the end of his ministry. He sees no fruit. And you know what we don’t even see in Kings is Elijah finish well. We don’t see him finish well. We see him eventually just taken up to heaven.

But what Elijah couldn’t see came to pass.

We go to Luke chapter 9 and we’re on a different mountain now. And in Luke chapter 9, we read about eight days after this, he took with him Peter and John and James and they went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with Jesus. Who was it? It was Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory and spoke of Jesus’ departure which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Could Elijah see how God was going to draw in his people? No, he couldn’t see it. But oh, look, centuries later, here is Elijah on a mountaintop staring at the face of Christ. God’s great plan to turn God’s people back to their God again. You see, God’s wisdom is so beyond what we think, so beyond what we could hope for.

I will be honest and say to you,

you know, the whole COVID thing, it’s gone from for me being like this novelty thing, like, oh, we’ll survive it to very discouraging. And I was talking to Jessica about this last night. It’s very discouraging to me at this point because I see how

it’s just caused

our relationships to fracture. Not any of it necessarily intentionally, but just being apart from people and just life being normal away from one another. And man, I just feel like earlier this week, this year, like, man, we’ve been going for like two years, a year and a half, and like things were going well and we’re growing and things are really great. And then COVID and it’s like, oh, some people aren’t here and people are just this and people are that. And it’s just, it’s like, Lord, and there were people who I saw growth in. I saw good things happen. And now like I’m like, I feel like maybe they’re regressing and like I’m pastorally, it hurts me. And it’s like, Lord, what? Why did this happen? I’m very discouraged now for my own people. I’m very discouraged, Lord.

And I don’t understand, and I’m just being honest and very discouraging about that. But I have to believe, God, you have a plan and you’re going to work and you’re going to do things to keep us at providence and to grow us and your will is going to be done because your wisdom, it doesn’t falter. A virus didn’t happen and you said, oh man, probably I don’t know how they’re going to survive this. A lot of them are probably going to apostatize. I mean, I don’t know what they’re going to do. God knows what, He’s doing. He knows what He’s doing. And perhaps that’s true for you in your life. There was that family member, there was that friend, there was that co-worker, man, you were praying and you were just looking for those opportunities to share the gospel and you were just trying to be a light and oh, it seems like things are going well and boom, overnight, they just turned it off. They’re just not interested anymore in the Lord. And you thought, Lord, what happened to my ministry? What happened to my… Didn’t you hear all those prayers I prayed?

But Paul tells us this. He says, know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Because sometimes, oftentimes, your labor will produce fruit that you don’t get to see. And that takes great faith. Sometimes the Lord calls us to works and He just doesn’t let us see the end of. And that’s okay. And even still yet, if that fruit we want to see doesn’t come, believe that God is doing a work in you through obedience when it’s difficult and growing up. He’s growing you in a way He couldn’t if you weren’t obedient when it was tough to be obedient and when it was tough to believe. So God’s plans are always sure.

I want to say to you, secondly, rest in grace. God does not depend on you to grow His kingdom. Take a big, deep breath. Okay? You do not need to have all the answers and I don’t either. God means good for us, especially when it doesn’t feel like it.

Trust in God’s goodness and power. God knows what He’s doing. There is no other.

In verse 4, Jesus gives His response to John the Baptist. It says, And Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk. Lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up. And the poor have good news preached to them.

Jesus is good with words. He always knows how to say what we need to hear. And what Jesus didn’t say is very important. Jesus did not say yes or no to, yeah, go tell John yes. Tell John no. Here’s what Jesus did that was exactly what John needed.

Jesus elicits faith from John by simply pointing him back to the word he already believed. Hey, you just go tell John what you see and hear. Go tell him that I can give blind people their sight back. We got a lot of technological advances in 2020, but you can’t make a blind person see. We got a lot of technological advances, but someone with an entirely lame leg, you can’t make that leg brand new.

Leprosy, that was the greatest, I mean, disease you could have gotten then. I mean, that, you were cut off from your family. You were cut off from society. You were considered ceremonially unclean. You couldn’t come near to God. Yet Jesus was touching people and the lepers were being restored. Deaf people here. Jesus was raising up dead people back to life. They can’t do that one yet. I don’t think they’ve come up with a cure for that one. Nobody can do that one. Jesus could do that one. And most important, and you say, well, given deaf people, that’s incredible, but preaching good news to the poor, that’s nice. That’s not nice. That’s amazing and wonderful. Because in all societies really, but in this world, poor people were, eh, they don’t count. They don’t matter. Get them away from here. Yet Jesus, what is He doing? He’s down in the dirt with the poorest of people, loving them, telling them they have meaning and purpose. Purpose to God. So you see what this would have done in John the Baptist. It would have stirred up in John a remembrance of all that he knew and all that he believed about the Messiah to come. It would have reminded him of Isaiah chapter 35, where it says, the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. It would have reminded John of Isaiah chapter 35, chapter 61. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. Does Jesus explain everything to John? No, He does not. He reminds John that His life in ministry matches the word He already believed. John didn’t need something new. You and I don’t either. He didn’t need something new. He didn’t need some new revelation. He didn’t need new information. He needed to believe what He already believed. He needed His faith strengthened. Was it happening the way John wanted to see it happen? No, it was not. But was it happening according to the Word of God? Yes, it was. Second thing, to survive seasons of discouragement, be reminded, the kingdom of heaven is built according to kingdom metrics. The kingdom of heaven is built according to kingdom metrics. Metrics. God always works according to His plans and promises that He’s laid out in His Word. Remember Abraham and Sarah? Now God said that, but I think He forgot about the whole giving us a baby thing. Maybe He’s a little old. Maybe He’s a little forgetful. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to strategize over top of God’s head about how we’re going to get this kid. God’s not forgetful. His mind doesn’t wear out in the old age like ours. I’ve got a great aunt who’s in the last… It’s my grandfather’s sister, Tilly. She’s in Puerto Rico and she’s on her deathbed. She’s had dementia for years and she’s not there anymore, you know. That’s not God. God isn’t affected by the sins of man. He doesn’t lose His memories. He doesn’t forget what He has said. He knows all things. He’s omniscient. He is omnipotent. He’s in control. God doesn’t run out of resources.

God doesn’t proceed from anything. He has no origin. He has no starting place. God has threaded together time from beginning to end. God works all the details out. God doesn’t make plans and then He’s got to, you know, get out of that corner. He backed Him into like some politician who made a promise He knew He couldn’t keep. God doesn’t do that. God’s plans don’t fail. God doesn’t change His mind. The Apostle James tells us. He doesn’t change His mind. He doesn’t go back on anything He says. He always works according to His plans and promises in the Word. But you know what else God works according to? God works according to His own good character that we discover in the Word. And the same God of the Old Testament that was good in His character and loved the poor and loved the sinner, well, that’s the same God in the New Testament. It’s just more explicit. In Lamentations chapter 3, after Jeremiah goes on in Lamentations about the horrible, horrible, horrible sins of God’s people and why they’re in Babylonian exile, you think, oh, this is it. He’s going to wipe them out. We come to Lamentations chapter 3 and it says, but the steadfast love of the Lord never fails. And it says His mercy is new every morning. Huh! For like people who haven’t messed up too bad? No! Jeremiah says that. In the midst of saying, Israel, you could sin no worse.

But God is a good and kind God. And according to His character, friends, He always deals with us and He always speaks to us. And so it was obvious and seen in the person of Jesus who loved the unlovable, who was interested in who society was disinterested in. Jesus had a heart for that heart that was beyond repair. Jesus had compassion for the sick. Jesus was broken for those who were raked over the coals by religious leaders. Jesus was the very definition of mercy and compassion and love. He wept over the death of Lazarus because He saw the effects of sin and it broke Him. And so Jesus didn’t just love here. Jesus loved in action by being the God in the flesh who became the God on the cross to do what? He had to do to establish the kingdom of heaven. All that John knew in prophecy, all that John knew in Scripture about the God whose plans and promises were perfect, whose character was good, that was Jesus in His time before His very eyes. And let me say to you, that’s the same Jesus at work today in the church. It’s the exact same Jesus.

If these things are so,

can’t we as the church trust that God will grow His church the same way He’s always been growing His church in discouraging seasons? Can’t we believe the Word of God is powerful enough to save? The Word of God is powerful enough to keep. The Word of God is powerful enough to bring us home. Disciples of Jesus only thrive when we live by the message, the metrics of God’s kingdom,

God’s Word, God’s instructions, God’s direction. That’s it. That’s how the church is built. The Lord does not need you not to reinvent the wheel. Boy, things aren’t turning out. You know what we’ll do is we’ll take some of the gospel and we’ll sandpaper off those edges that poke people that don’t like that bit about the gospel. Maybe we could do some things that people like and we can draw people in through different means and we can just see how we could do that. Just make things work. I think God needs help. I think He does. I mean, the world’s a bad place. I just don’t know if the gospel’s got the same juice it used to have.

Friends, there’s a strong flurry of that today.

But I want to say to you in moments of discouragement, the only thing we need to do is look at the Scriptures and rediscover the Jesus who is. Because the Jesus who is is sufficient and powerful according to Word to do all that He has said. In all His timing, in all His perfect ways, according to His perfect character. As we make disciples in our homes, as we labor to raise up godly children, as we labor at Providence as a church, as we labor to share the gospel, let me say to you, the Word is enough.

God is good to bring His truths and promises to pass.

Surely John was filled with a, a strong sense of assurance then. Oh yeah, that Jesus, He looks just like Isaiah’s prophecies. It looks just like all the Word that I’ve always believed in. All is well. I can sit happy in my jail cell again. You know?

A new study that came out recently called The Great Opportunity. It estimates that at least 35 million youths raised in Christian homes will abandon the faithfulness, the faith by 2050. And in a worst case scenario, 42 million youths will disassociate with Christianity.

Now, I’m not saying, that’s the church’s fault. Everything’s the church’s fault. The world is a dark place and Satan, by God’s allowing, he wields influence. I’m not saying that. But I wonder if the reason the church seems to be impotent and ineffective is we’ve stopped truly believing in God. The Word of God, the Spirit of God is enough to draw in our young people, our old people, and the nations around us. I wonder if we say, oh yes, the Bible, the Bible. But do we believe in our core that man, it’s enough. And that’s what it takes. That’s where I want to be as a pastor, as a churchman. That’s where I want you to be as church people with me. The Word is enough. In discouragement, look at Jesus. Look at an all-powerful Savior. Jesus is our God. Jesus is our light for all faithfulness.

Jesus says one last thing to John the Baptist in verse 6.

He says, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Women wear those shirts. That’s a southern thing. Blessed, you know, across their shirts or they got blessed. Maybe you’ve got these shirts. I don’t know. Are you no blessed written across like a thing? I don’t know if my wife had. Do you have one? I don’t know.

And I guess what you’re saying is what people mean is like I’ve got a nice life. I mean, I’ve got kids. I’ve got this. I’ve got a house. And that’s fine. That’s temporal blessings God gives us. It’s not a bad thing. But Jesus is blessed here is referring to that divine blessing that we study in the Beatitudes. That’s the blessing. It’s a kind of eternal blessing favor on your head that won’t be taken back off. That’s the blessing Jesus is talking about here. Jesus says that eternal blessing on your head forever. It comes to the one who is not offended by me. And that offense, it means stumbling block. Blessed is the one who comes to a Savior and a King who is an upside down Savior and King who’s building His kingdom in an upside down way. According to the wisdom of heaven, according to the ways of heaven, according to the word, according to His character. And no, I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. And it’s difficult and painful. But I say, I’m submitting to this upside down King and His upside down kingdom. And I’m not going to say it must be done another way. No, when I submit to that and I don’t stumble over this King, Jesus says, blessed is that person. That’s my person.

The kingdom will be theirs and theirs alone. So Jesus is saying to John in his prison cell, John, believe. Don’t stumble over me. Receive me, the upside down King and the upside down kingdom. So church, when we’re discouraged as disciples, Jesus encourages us. He will, according to the wisdom and power of heaven, He will bring the kingdom to completion. He will bring you to completion. He will bring every one of His own children to completion. It’s not just a matter of time. It’s the day of Christ. And we will say, hi, look what Jesus did and how I helped Him. He really needed my help. And I thought of that plan and boy, was it great. We had a really great turnout that day. And boy, we did that ministry and boy, well, it was great. We had wonderful… No, we’re going to say, man, look how Jesus pulled that off. And man, He used, you know, a lowly person like me sometimes to help in the smallest of ways. See the Spirit do what only the Spirit can do. Blessed is the person who surrenders to this upside down King. I don’t want to be a sinner. I want my Messiah. Because my Messiah in my head, He’s not a Savior. It’s going to look like my little kingdom and my little kingdom’s silly. I want the Messiah who is. Because that Messiah alone will bring the kingdom, will bring real joy and life. So let’s pray for faith to believe in and follow that King in all seasons. Amen? Let’s pray together.

Father, that’s a hard word. It’s a hard word because we are so prone to discouragement and we are so prone to doubt and it is so easy to want to see fruit and want to see success by our own hands, Lord.

Give us, Lord, just a warm embrace this morning of the Gospel that it is nothing that we have done to save ourselves. It is nothing that we have done to grow the church, Lord. It is all what Christ has done and is doing, Lord.

So Father, I pray for all of us in this room.

Lord, if some of us are in this room and we’re saying, man, there was a time where I was really into serving in the church and I was really into trying to reach lost people and I was really into, I was really into discipling, but man, I just hit one too many brick walls and I just can’t do that anymore. No, Lord, would You remind us that You’re with us in every win and every loss. And You’re calling us just to work and trust You. So God, I pray for that. I just pray for renewed joy and belief and the power of the Gospel, the power of the cross to save and to keep, Lord. And I pray that would be the grace that keeps us and that would be the grace that moves us, Lord, to be a salty church that’s set on a hill, Lord. Lord, I pray that for our church members who aren’t here this morning, Lord, that wherever they are,

Lord, for a number of different reasons, whether just virus-related reasons or traveling, Lord, we just pray for all of us, God, that we would be kept in Christ and You would let none of us fall away. You would let none of us shrink back. Lord, that we would all go on to maturity and we would all, by Your grace, go on to glory, Lord. So we thank You, Jesus, that You are the Messiah and You are in control and all Your ways are perfect. We just submit to that.

We just love You and we worship You. In Christ’s name, amen. We just stand and worship with You.