Message Highlights

• God is not absent. He is not apathetic. He is not angry with you.
• When you can’t explain what God is doing, anchor yourself to what you already know about who God is.
• Mature faith isn’t only trusting God to change your circumstances. It’s trusting God when your circumstances don’t change.

‍

Group Discussion

Conversation Starter

• What’s the longest you’ve ever been stuck waiting somewhere, like an airport or a traffic jam? How did you pass the time?
• When you’re waiting on news you can’t do anything about, what do you usually do?

‍

Core Discussion Questions

Connection Question
What stood out to you from today’s message about John the Baptist asking Jesus, “Are you the one?” from a prison cell?

Context Question
Where have you encountered John the Baptist before, and what was your understanding of him? How does this moment in prison fit with what you knew?

Clarity Question
How did today’s message clarify or change your perspective on what God is doing when your circumstances don’t change?

Application Question
What truth from today’s message can you apply this week to a situation in your life that isn’t changing?

‍

Additional Questions (Optional)

• Jesus answered John by pointing to what He was doing (Matthew 11:5). Why do you think He answered that way instead of explaining why John was still in prison?
• What makes it hard to bring a doubt to Jesus instead of keeping it to yourself?
• Who in your life has kept trusting God through something that never got fixed? What did you notice about them?

Exploring the Scripture

Main Scripture: Matthew 11:2-6

‍

John the Baptist had been arrested by Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee and Perea, because John publicly condemned Herod for taking Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife (Matthew 14:3-4). The first-century historian Josephus places John’s imprisonment at Machaerus, a fortress in the wilderness east of the Dead Sea. Meanwhile Jesus had moved north and made His home in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 4:12-13), and news of what He was doing reached John in his cell.

The church has long attributed this Gospel to Matthew, a former tax collector and one of the Twelve. He wrote primarily for Jewish readers, and his aim is to show that Jesus is the Messiah Israel’s Scriptures promised. That is why Matthew keeps pointing back to the prophets, and why Jesus answers John’s question with the prophets too.

John was the messenger God promised would prepare the way (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1). He had announced a Messiah who would come with an axe and a winnowing fork (Matthew 3:10-12). Jesus was healing and teaching, but judgment had not fallen and John was still in chains. Read against his own preaching, John’s question makes sense. Jesus answers with phrases from Isaiah 35:5-6 and Isaiah 61:1, passages that describe what God would do when He came to save His people.

The word translated “offended” in verse 6 means to stumble or be tripped up. Jesus names the real danger for John, which is tripping over a Messiah who doesn’t act the way he expected. And as soon as John’s messengers leave, Jesus turns to the crowd and speaks of John with honor, calling him more than a prophet (Matthew 11:7-11). The honest question did not cost John his place with Jesus.

‍

Questions for Deeper Study

1. Read Matthew 3:1-12. What did John expect the Messiah to do? Which of those things was Jesus doing by Matthew 11, and which weren’t happening yet?
2. Read Isaiah 35:5-6 and Isaiah 61:1. Why would these words from Scripture be a better answer for John than an explanation of his circumstances?
3. Read Matthew 11:7-11. What does Jesus say about John after the messengers leave? What does that show you about how He regards people who bring Him honest questions?
4. Compare John’s question with Psalm 13. What do John and David have in common in the way they speak to God when He seems silent?
5. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, God tells Paul no. What does Paul receive in place of what he asked for?
6. Hebrews 11:35-40 describes people who were rescued and people who weren’t. How does that passage shape the way you define a faithful life?
7. Where are you most tempted to be “offended” by Jesus, because He isn’t acting the way you expected Him to?

‍

Deeper Discussion Questions

1. Some people teach that if you have enough faith, God will fix what’s wrong. How does John’s story push back on that? What does that teaching do to someone whose situation never changed?
2. What’s the difference between the doubt John brought to Jesus and the kind of doubt that pulls a person away from Him?
3. It’s easy to read God’s silence as punishment. Where does that assumption come from, and how does “He is not angry with you” answer it?
4. Our culture treats almost every problem as fixable with the right plan or enough effort. How has that shaped the way you pray about things that won’t change?
5. The message said God is not absent, not apathetic, and not angry with you. Which of those is hardest for you to believe right now, and why?
6. Jesus didn’t change John’s circumstances, and He didn’t shame him for asking either. What does His answer teach you about how truth and grace fit together?
7. What do you already know about who God is that you tend to forget when life gets hard?

‍

Living It Out

1. Write it next to what you know. Name one situation in your life that isn’t changing. Beside it, write one thing Scripture says is true about God. John 3:16
   is a good place to start. Put it somewhere you’ll see it every day this week.
2. Send your question. John sent his question to Jesus through his friends. Tell one person in your group or your family the honest question you’re carrying, and ask them to pray with you about it before you meet again.
3. Catch the reflex. At work or school this week, notice the moment you start trying to fix or worry your way through something you can’t control. Stop and pray one sentence about it right then.
4. Show up for someone stuck. Think of someone at church or in your neighborhood who is living with something that won’t change. Reach out to them this week. You don’t have to solve anything. Ask how they’re doing and listen.

‍

Prayer Focus

In today’s message, we were told, “When you can’t explain what God is doing, anchor yourself to what you already know about who God is.” The first thing we know is that God loved the world by giving His Son, and nothing you are facing has changed that. Thank Him for settling His love for you at the cross. Then ask Him to hold you to what you know about Him on the days nothing changes.

John 3:16
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 11:6
and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.

What do you do when there’s nothing you can do? We saw that turtle a second ago, and I feel like that turtle so many times in life, where you’re just stuck. What do you do when there’s nothing that you can do? What do you do when your circumstances won’t change?

Because, we’re honest, there are some problems that we can solve. I mean, there’s some things that we know, when they come into our lives, we know we can solve them. But then there’s some other problems that — that we know we can’t solve. Hey, there’s some tensions that we can alleviate, that we can kind of figure out, and there’s some other tensions that we know we can’t fix. And sooner or later you’re gonna find yourself in the season when it just is what it is, and it’s gonna stay that way.

For some of you it’s relational. Maybe it’s your marriage. I mean, neither of you want a divorce, but neither one of you want to change at the same time. And maybe it’s your kids, and you’re wondering, will my kids ever make a decision that makes sense? Probably not. Let’s just own it. Except for my daughter — she makes all good decisions.

Maybe it’s financial. Maybe your financial dreams aren’t coming true, or maybe your financial dreams can’t come true. Maybe you were laid off, you were fired, you’re — you’re on the back end of a career, you’re at the later stages of your life and you can’t reinvent yourself. You can’t walk into a new career, and you feel like you’re stuck, and the problems that are in your life you didn’t create and you can’t manage, and you don’t know what to do.

Maybe it’s your health. Maybe the doctor’s given you a diagnosis that is life-threatening. Or maybe it’s not life-threatening, and maybe it’s just chronic. It’s debilitating. It’s not gonna go away. They can treat it, but they can’t cure it. And as much as you might hate the phrase, your life is your new normal, and there’s no solution. There are options, but none of the options lead back to you being normal. It leads you to this place of a new normal.

And maybe — maybe I don’t know what you’re facing. Maybe no one does. Maybe you walked in this room today saying, I hope no one knows what I’m walking through. But you know the feeling of being stuck, when there’s no way to change it, and there’s no getting back to what you hoped for. It’s just where you are.

And it’s in these moments that it gets really, really easy to get resentful. Gets easy to get angry, to compare our life to somebody else’s life. It’s in these seasons that we end up and we draw some really bad conclusions. I mean, we believe some lies, and — and worse, we start telling ourselves some lies. We get faced with these seasons of life and we start telling ourselves, I’m never gonna be happy again. We tell ourselves, no good could ever come from this situation. We tell ourselves there’s no point in continuing on.

So for the next few weeks, we’re gonna study, we’re gonna talk about, what do you do when there’s nothing that you can do?

Now, as a pastor, I have this conversation constantly, and it’s kind of frustrating for me, because I’m a fixer. So when people bring me their problems, like, I’m ready to listen to them for five minutes, and then I’m ready to go on for the next 45 minutes about my solution. And if you’ve ever been in my office, you know exactly what I’m talking about, because I am a fixer.

Hey, but there’s also been sometimes where someone walks in my office and they share something that’s heartbreaking. And what’s heartbreaking for me is I don’t have anything to say. I don’t have a fix. I don’t have a solution. I don’t care how much a life experience you have, how many degrees you have, you end up in those moments where you don’t have anything to say, and you don’t know what to say. And I’ve had people sit in my office and be gracious and say to me, it’s okay, you don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to have advice for me. I just wanted someone to talk to.

It’s in those moments that you really realize what it is and what it means to be stuck, where you can’t change anything, you can’t fix it the way that you want to fix it. It’s in those moments that there’s one question that matters more than any other. There’s one question that we keep asking ourselves, and it feels like a series of questions, but really it’s just one question we ask ourselves. Does God care?

Does God care about what I’m going through? Does God know what I’m going through? I mean, is he even aware of what’s going on? I mean, he holds everything together. Everything consists by his hands. He created everything, he spoke it all into existence. But does he hear my prayers, and does he know what I’m going through? Is he even concerned? And when we’re stuck, the question is always the same: where’s God?

Because for almost all of us, if we could just know, if we just had some calm assurance that God knew where we were and what we were going through, it would almost just be enough.

The good news is the New Testament speaks directly to this. And for some of you, this might be the first time in a long time in church that you leaned in and you’re like, great, I’m ready for that answer. But before we get there, before we open up the Word of God, I want to give you the bottom line of the sermon first, just in case you stop paying attention. I want you to know this, okay? God is not absent. In whatever you’re going through, God is not absent. He’s not apathetic, and he’s not angry with you. It’s three things: he’s not absent, he’s not apathetic, and he’s not angry.

He said — I had to add the last one, because we all say this. When something doesn’t go our way, when we feel stuck, when we feel in that moment like life is spiraling out of control and we don’t know what to do, we ask that question, is God angry with me? We ask that — that question, God, what did I do to deserve this? And if we’re gonna be honest, there’s a little bit of hypocrisy in that question, what did I do to deserve this, when — when God kind of seems silent.

The reason there’s hypocrisy is because I know this about me, and I know this about you. There are plenty of times that we don’t want God anywhere near us. Sin creeps in and God speaks to us, and he desires to draw us away from that temptation, to draw us away from our own lust, and what do we do? We turn him off. And we know just how to do it. I mean, we’ve all done it. And yet God still loves us, and he’s still there. And he is not the one that distance himself from us. We, in choosing sin and walking our own direction, we are the ones that create the distance. He doesn’t change.

And so I can say with confidence, because God loves us regardless of where we are, regardless of what happens — and it all comes down to one verse, and you can see it, and you know the verse, it’s John 3:16. For God so loved the world in this way, that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Hey, the reason that God isn’t absent, apathetic, or angry with you, it’s because of this verse right here. Because he poured out his anger and he poured out his wrath on his Son that took your place. It took my place. And so it settles forever the question of whether he knows your name, whether he knows your circumstance, whether he knows what you’re going through or not, whether he cares, and whether he is concerned about your life. What he did in creating a way for you and for me to have salvation, the — what he did putting the sin of this world on his Son, and Jesus paying the penalty forever, settles the question of whether he knows, whether he cares, whether he’s concerned — even when you’ve tuned him out, even when I’ve tuned him out.

So — I think — where’s someone in Scripture that felt stuck? Where’s someone in Scripture that felt like there was nothing that they could do, and they were trapped in their circumstances with no way out? When you open up the Word of God, you find this man named John. John the Baptist — he’s called John the Immerser. The name doesn’t mean that he was a Baptist by denomination. It means he baptized. I’ve come across a few people, too, like, no, I’m a Baptist because John the Baptist was a Baptist, and, like, no, you’ve just got some really bad theology, okay? Now, he was called John the Baptist because he baptized.

There’s a few highlights in John’s life. Okay, John was born by God’s power to parents who were far past the age of having children. He preached with the power of God, he baptized people, pointing them to the salvation that was coming through the Messiah. The Bible calls John this, that he was the forerunner for the Messiah. He was the announcer of the Messiah, of Jesus. In fact, he baptized Jesus himself. And he was there when the Lord said, this is my beloved Son in whom I’m pleased, and the dove came down. John said about Jesus, listen, he — Jesus must increase, and I, John, must decrease.

But now John the Baptist is in prison. He’s in prison because he preached against the sin of the local king. Just for a little bit of history, he preached up and down the Jordan River in the — in the territory of King Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas was married to Herodias. You say, Herod and Herodias sound kind of the same. It gets a lot worse. She was both his niece and his brother Philip’s wife. I mean, if there was ever a Jerry Springer moment in Scripture, this is it. Okay, it doesn’t get any worse than this. I mean, you read it and you’re almost like, is this PG-13? Okay.

But he preached against this. While Antipas was away in Rome, he — she left Philip and married Herod instead. There was a huge scandal, and everybody knew about it. And so John preached against it directly, naming Herod and Herodias by name. And Herod, he kind of found it amusing. He kind of liked listening to John preach about him and against him. Herodias, not so much. So she pressures her husband Herod to throw him in prison, and this is where John the Baptist is. He’s in prison in a place called Machaerus. And he’s left there.

And while he’s in prison, John, he begins to have some doubts. Jesus, we know, loves John. But John’s beginning to have his own doubts. Now remember, nobody knew who Jesus was yet. Everybody knew who John was. And one day, while John’s baptizing, he sees Jesus and he tells everybody, listen, you’ve been following me, you’ve been listening to me, but that’s the one you ought to follow, that’s the one that you ought to listen to. And now that John is in prison, he’s not sure about what he believes about Jesus.

And here’s why. Because when Jesus heard that John the Baptist was arrested, what do you think Jesus did? I mean, Jesus, you know, he’s Jesus. He probably visited, probably bought a care package of some kind. I mean, like, some kind of a cake or whatever, right? Like, the disciples — hey, go down there and go make sure he’s okay. Now, Jesus does none of those things. I want you to look at the verse. Matthew chapter 4, verse number 12: when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. Look at verse number 13: he left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

He said, well, Anthony, that sounds really good, but what does that mean? See, Machaerus is located down here. I’ve been there — I was in Israel. In fact, we’re going to be taking a trip as a church. I’ll talk about the information further in the future, but next December I’m going to go to Machaerus. We’re going to look at this spot. Machaerus, it’s in the desert, and it’s not a prison cell where it’s like a bunch of stone and a bunch of rock. No, it’s a hole in the ground with bars on top. Capernaum is way up here. But Capernaum is gorgeous. There’s the water, and the breeze that flows by, and it kind of feels like you’re at a resort.

And if I was John the Baptist, I would be saying, Jesus, I’m in prison, and you’re at the beach. Hey, Jesus, I’m in prison, and you’re enjoying your surroundings in your life, and everything — or the disciples are with you and everything’s going well for them. But Jesus, have you forgotten about me? Because I’m down here in Machaerus and I’m in prison. Can you imagine? John, what about me? Have you forgotten me? Because this entire time, you know what Jesus is doing. Jesus is healing people, he’s helping people, he’s feeding the hungry, he’s doing amazing miracles and great works — all the while John is in prison.

Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever feel like you’re walking through it, it’s difficult, it’s painful, it’s hard, and everybody around you is getting blessed? And, like — you’re probably not as critical as I am, but I want to be like, God, why are you blessing those people? They don’t even love you. They don’t even — they don’t even go to church. God, you’re blessing these people, and they’re not even at church on Sunday, and, Lord, here I am doing your work. God, where are you in my life? And that’s what John is feeling. Lord, where are you in my life?

John’s been in the desert dungeon for what many scholars think is about a year before he finally breaks. And it’s in that dungeon, that prison, that they didn’t feed you, they didn’t care for you. If you were going to feed — if you were going to eat, if you were going to be fed, if you were going to drink water, it was going to come from people who brought it to you. They didn’t care if you lived or if you’ve died. And so he keeps hearing rumors from people who are bringing him food and bringing him water about Jesus and what Jesus is doing. And finally he can’t take it anymore.

Look at chapter 11, verse number two: now when John heard in prison what the Christ was doing, he sent a message through his disciples. And here’s what he asks: are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?

Let me think about what John’s doubting right now. If you go back to the Christmas story — we’re actually going to do a series this Christmas, and we’re going to talk about this account — where it was Elizabeth who is carrying John in her womb, and when Mary walks into the house, and the baby in her womb — here’s Mary’s voice — John the Baptist leapt in her womb, jumped in her womb. I wonder how many times he heard that story. I wonder how many times that was repeated to him, over and over and over again. On top of it, Jesus isn’t some random guy in John’s life that he just met a few years ago. This is his cousin by birth. And it was John that said, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, pointing to Jesus.

Hey, at this point John is doubting Jesus, but he’s also doubting himself at the exact same time. He’s struggling in this crisis. Don’t forget, it’s John that heard the voice of God that said, this is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased. He saw the dove come down from heaven. And again, John isn’t just doubting Jesus, he’s doubting himself.

But look at the reply. Matthew 11, verse 4: Jesus replied to them, to John’s disciples, go and report to John what you hear and see. So what did we hear and see? Verse five: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor are told the good news. Jesus says, I want you to go tell him, I’m the one. Tell him everything that I’m doing for everyone else. Tell him the lame are walking, the blind are seeing.

And you might say, well, Anthony, Jesus didn’t actually say, I’m the one. Actually, he kind of did. You see, Jesus isn’t just telling a list of all the things that he was doing. He’s actually quoting Isaiah the prophet, way back before, in what the Messiah would come and do. Jesus is telling John, I know where you are. What’s interesting is Jesus can know exactly where you are. He can know your name. He can be fully active in your life even when it doesn’t feel like it. And he did that for John, and you might be doing that for you.

Here’s why I love reading the Bible. Because just as the messengers are about ready to leave and they’re walking away — I kind of imagine, like this, Jesus says one more thing, and it’s almost like, hey, wait, before you go, tell John this. And we read past it so fast, we miss the meaning in the verse. Look at verse number six: and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.

Now, this is a powerful statement, and it names the exact thing that John was wrestling with. Here’s what Jesus is saying. Blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me. Blessed is the one who doesn’t mistake my silence as absence. Blessed is the one that doesn’t mistake my silence as apathy. Blessed is the one that trusts me even when what they hoped for I don’t do in their life. Even when it seems like I’m not acting on their behalf. Blessed is the one that trusts me anyway.

What’s Jesus saying? Blessed is the one, when I do or don’t do certain things, when I answer or don’t answer, when I don’t come through, don’t speak, don’t change the circumstances — blessed is the one that trusts me, believes in me, and follows me anyway. Blessed is the one who trusts and follows even when I don’t act, when I don’t answer. Blessed is the person that continues to trust me even when I don’t seem to be acting on their behalf. Just like John the Baptist.

And if you know the narrative of John the Baptist, you know that it was only a short while later that he’s executed, at the hand of Herod, but really at the call of Herodias. And there’s something to learn in this passage of Scripture that I believe John learned. That’s what I learned in this passage. Sometimes things don’t change. Sometimes prayers don’t get answered. Sometimes doubts just don’t go away.

And for us, we get into that moment when we say, but God, my hope was tied up in things changing. Lord, my — my hope was tied up in my prayer being answered. Lord, my hope was tied up in everything just working out the right way. And God, I’ll walk through whatever you want me to walk through, but Lord, would you just take away the doubt? No. Sometimes things don’t change, sometimes the doubts don’t go away, sometimes the prayers don’t get answered. And here’s what we learn: trust God anyway.

We lean in and we trust God anyway. And you say, well, Anthony, how do I do that? Let me tell you this. Don’t let God’s silence rewrite — rewrite what you know about God. Don’t let God’s silence rewrite — reframe what you know about God. See, John knew who Jesus was, but enough time in prison made him question. We know who Jesus is, we know his work in our life, we know that God is here, that he’s everywhere, that he knows us, that he cares for us. We know all of that. But, hey, for you and me, sometimes enough time spent in pain makes us doubt what we know.

And when God is silent and we start filling in the blanks with all of our thoughts and all of our fears and all of our concerns, we start saying to ourselves, hey, maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe he’s forgotten me. Maybe — maybe he’s helping everyone else except for me. And we start feeling like Asaph in the — in the Psalms. Pastor Matt preached earlier this year — and we start feeling like everyone else around me, even the wicked, are being blessed, and I’m not being blessed. Where is God?

Listen to me. Your circumstances might not change, but the character of God will never change. Who he is, what he does, how he loves you, how he is in your life will never change. Let me read this to you: when you — when you can’t explain what God is doing, anchor yourself in what you already know about who God is. Let me read that to you again. When you can’t explain what God is doing, when you’re stuck and you don’t know what to do, anchor yourself in what you already know about who God is.

The next thing you can do is bring your doubts to Jesus. I love this about John. He knew exactly where to take his doubts. He didn’t say to the disciples, to the followers of John — he didn’t say to them, listen, guys, are you really sure this is it? I know I said some things, but, you know, I’m kind of doubting my own statements at this point, guys. Are you really sure about what I said earlier? No, he sends the message right to Jesus. He sends his doubts right where his doubts belong.

Listen, he didn’t let the questions become conclusions. All too often we start with questions, and we start rolling questions around in our mind, and we start thinking through things, and we let ourselves get overwhelmed by all the questions that we have, and we allow those questions to turn to conclusions. Now just — take your questions to Jesus. You see, faith isn’t pretending that you don’t have questions. Faith is knowing where to take those questions.

So tell God you’re disappointed. So — why? That’s kind of like a really weird thing, to tell God that I’m disappointed. He already knows. Tell him you’re disappointed. Hey, it’s okay to go to God and say, God, I don’t understand what you’re doing. If — going to God and saying, God, I don’t understand what you’re doing is a sin, I’m in really big trouble. So I go to God on a regular basis and say, Lord, I don’t know what you’re doing, and I can’t see your hand at this, and, Lord, I — I know you’re good, but, Lord, I’m struggling to see good in what’s going on, and, God, I don’t understand. Hey, it’s okay to tell him that you thought you would have had an answer by now. When you don’t understand, take your questions to Jesus.

I want you to see this next one: keep trusting Jesus even when he doesn’t change your circumstances. I mean, this is everything that Matthew 11:6 is all about. Jesus answered John’s question, but he didn’t change John’s circumstances. And sometimes faith — sometimes faith looks like walking out of the prison cell, I mean, the chains and the shackles falling off, and the prison walls falling down, and peace in the lions’ den, and not being burnt by the flame in the middle of the burning fiery furnace. Sometimes faith looks just like that. It looks like the sea parting in your life.

And sometimes — sometimes faith looks like trusting Jesus while you’re still waiting. Trusting him when you don’t have an answer. You might say, can I trust him when he doesn’t have an answer, when he doesn’t change the circumstance? Yeah. Because blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me. See, mature faith isn’t only trusting God to change your circumstances, it’s trusting God when your circumstances don’t change. When there’s nothing that you can do, you can still trust the one who can do anything, even when he doesn’t do what you’ve hoped for.

Even when he doesn’t part the sea, even when the shackles don’t fall off, even when the prison walls don’t fall down, you can still trust the one who can do anything.

In a moment we’re gonna sing. We’re gonna sing, and we’re gonna get to a certain spot in the song, and the — the song goes like this: I sought the Lord, he heard me, and he answered. For some of you, that’s going to be a struggle to sing that, because you’re going, yeah, I’m seeking the Lord, Anthony, and I’m — and I’m praying to him, I’m talking with him, but my circumstances still haven’t changed. It’s not gotten better. I’ve sought him — but did he hear me? I sought him, I believe by faith that he heard me, but I’m not seeing that answer.

And sometimes that answer comes by giving you strength to endure what he doesn’t change. Sometimes that answer comes because he’s given you grace to walk through something that you’ve never imagined walking through. Sometimes that answer comes because he’s given you peace that passes all understanding, and everyone looks at your life and they go, how are you walking through this? And you say, I don’t know. That’s still God’s answer.

But listen, every time that answer comes — whether it’s grace, whether it’s peace, whether it’s endurance — his presence always comes with it. That’s the answer that’s always enough. It’s always his presence. And listen to me, his presence is far greater than our circumstances changing. His presence is far greater than being blessed in some monetary way to solve some problem that we probably got ourselves into. His presence is the thing that we ought to look at and hope for and find confidence in, that we walk with him daily regardless of what’s in our life.

Regardless of the prison chains fall, regardless of the prison walls fall flat, regardless if the sea splits, regardless if manna falls from heaven, regardless — if we feel and see no change at all, we can still trust him, because he answers. Just sometimes he doesn’t answer the way that we want him to. And he says to you, and he says to me, hey, blessed are you when you’re not offended — but what? By what I do, or but what I don’t do, by what I change, or what I don’t change. And, church family, this is why we trust him anyway.

‍