(upbeat music) - Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

(upbeat music) - How we feeling this morning church?

Amen.

Are we doing all right?

We're gonna give God this moment.

And God is gonna have His way.

It's a, you know, we've got some, we got quite a bit of people out of town next two weeks.

It's kind of what happens in December.

It feels the same way every week.

I'm sorry, every year.

I don't think it's just this year.

Every time we kind of get to the end of the year, it's just like something kind of shifts.

And I don't know exactly what it is, but you want to go out with a bang to go into the year with a bang, right?

And I believe that God, He's gonna continue to do some amazing work.

We've seen God do amazing things this year.

Amen.

I don't know if you can see it, but I've seen it.

I can testify to it.

God has done awesome things this year.

How many are grateful just to be here?

Amen.

And that work is gonna continue this coming year.

I believe it.

And God has a word this morning.

He's got a word, amen.

And if you have your Bibles, we'll go right to it, Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew chapter 11.

We'll save the hellos for afterwards.

Amen.

Matthew chapter 11.

When you have it, give me an amen.

Amen.

Y'all gonna need to help me preach today.

You know how it gets tough.

It gets tough when it's quiet.

Is that right, Pastor Danny?

Amen.

You got it?

Amen.

Matthew chapter 11, one through five.

It says, "When Jesus had finished instructing "his 12 disciples, 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, 'Are you the one who is to come "'or shall we look for another?

' "And Jesus answered, 'Go and tell John "'what you hear and what you see.

"'The blind receive their sight and the lame walk.

"'Leopards 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.

'" Amen.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this word, my God, that you've spoken over your servant, my God.

I just pray, Lord, that I would deliver it, my God, in the way that you wish, Father.

I pray that you would allow us to be receptive to your word, that you open up our hearts and our minds, my God, to receive what you wanna say.

I cast out any distractions this morning, Father God, any mental notes that wanna pop into our head, what we have to do after today, my God.

I pray that we would give you this moment, Father God, and watch what you do with it.

In Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen, and amen.

You can take your seat, amen.

This tie is getting me.

See, I wear a suit when I wanna wear a suit, you know?

Today I was like, "I wanna wear a suit today.

" Praise God.

We used to have a youth pastor, Pastor Mario Duarte, some of you remember him, awesome man of God, he now pastors his own church, but he would always say, he'd always say, "If you wanna make God laugh, "tell him that you have a plan.

" Have you heard of that before?

If you wanna make God laugh, tell him you have a plan.

I got a plan, God.

And growing up, every time he would say that, I would remember kind of thinking, I'd be a little critical of that because it almost makes it seem like it's a bad thing to have a plan.

And of course it's not a bad thing to have a plan.

It's a good thing to have a plan.

Jesus even talks about it.

He talks about the builder who, even before laying the foundation, he counts the cost.

He sits down, he makes the plan.

This past week we had our leaders meeting, we talked about some plans for this year, we talked about vision, we talked about strategies, we talked about some different stuff.

Again, man, we had a great meeting, man.

We had a great meeting, we finished it off with a great prayer, and I'm excited.

I'm excited, man, for what God is going to do.

I don't know all of what he's going to do, but I know that he's gonna do something.

And if God is doing the work, that is all reason enough to be excited.

Come on, you gotta hear that this morning.

If God is working, you don't even need to know what he's working on.

What you working on?

It don't matter what he's working on.

As long as God is working, he's in control, you can be at peace, you got something to be excited about.

And so I think that God is just gonna do some amazing things this year.

I don't know exactly what it is.

We planned our calendar as we do every single year, so we got 2024 lined up.

Making plans is good, I think it's necessary.

What I've learned how to do is just be flexible with plans.

You have to be flexible because nine times out of 10 your plans aren't gonna go accordingly.

There's always something unexpected that happens, right?

And that forces you just to kind of adapt to the new situation.

You have to be adaptable.

If you're not adaptable, you're gonna have a lot of problems in life and you're gonna throw fits when things don't go your way.

You have to be adaptable.

Last week we talked about Jairus, how he was on his way to get his miracle, right?

And then all of a sudden, something unexpected occurred.

There's always something that is going to disrupt whatever plans that we do make.

Now this is true even when our plan is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

See, I would argue that Christians, any Christians in the room?

Amen.

So you are men and women of God.

So when you make plans, you make your plans according to what God has revealed.

Yes?

God speaks, you prepare for what God has spoken.

You have to, you have to.

If God has told you something in your life, if you've spoken something over your life, you have to plan accordingly.

You know, as the pastor, I don't like to make a big decision or big plans unless those plans fit into the vision that God has shown us.

Because if it's not, it's just a waste of time.

Because I think that that's how you steward God's revelation well.

If your plan doesn't align with the vision that God has given you, throw it out.

New plan.

For those of us who long to be found in the will of God, the revelation from God will help shape your plan.

Amen, am I good?

All right, it just feels weird.

That's how it is in most cases, right?

The vision shapes the plan.

The vision shapes the plan.

God speaks, you plan accordingly.

When I first started to pastor, the Lord showed me disciples being made.

And so we started our New Believers class.

I don't know if that was the way that we should do it, but when God speaks, you have to do something.

You have to plan accordingly.

I know the women, for the past two years, they've been doing their mentorship program.

I've seen fruit from that.

I know the men this year, we started our men's discipleship, right?

We plan according to what God has shown.

The Lord showed me outreach.

So I'm like, all right, well, I don't really know how to do outreach, so we try some different things.

We started our numerous closet.

We got connected with Navarro Middle School.

The Lord showed me that we were gonna be a worshiping church.

We have to be a worshiping church.

And I have seen a transformation in our worship services.

Today was a little rough, I ain't gonna lie.

But for the most part, man, fire services we have been having and we adopted the night of worship every quarter to compliment what God is doing Sunday mornings.

The vision, I want you to get this, the vision shapes your plan.

That's how it is in life.

Before you start a business, you have to envision what you want that business to be.

What are you gonna do?

What are you gonna offer?

How are you gonna help people?

Before you even make the business plan, you have to have the vision.

Before you start to construct a building, you have to kind of have an idea of what it's going to look like, and then you make the plans.

The plan follows the vision.

But I want you to hear me on this because this is what God showed me while I was reading this passage of scripture, and it's something that I have absolutely seen play out in my life, just being in the season that I've been in.

Sometimes the plan shapes the vision.

Now you probably don't understand that yet because it's kind of like, it doesn't make sense.

How is that even possible?

How can the plan, how can you plan for something when you don't know what that something is?

How is it that the plan will determine the vision?

That's backwards.

And see, most of the time you have a clear vision of things or at least some type of vision of things, and that's what you make plans for.

Some of you, God has shown you some things for this year.

He's spoken into your life.

He's given you dreams.

He's burdened your heart for something.

You can almost see it.

Some of you are holding onto a word for 2024, and so you're gonna plan according to that word.

But there's other times the plan of God completely transforms the vision that you thought you had into something totally different.

And the vision only becomes more clear as you go through the plan of God.

It's something that I've called the Messiah method.

The Messiah method, that is the title of my sermon.

It also sounds like a good book title.

Come on, Jesus.

One day, Messiah method.

Can I tell you, I don't like the Messiah method.

Man, it was like clear as day.

When I read this passage, it was like, oh man, I don't like that.

I like the normal method.

I like the old school faith, where God speaks and you go.

God shows you and you go.

God tells you this is where I want you to go, and you go.

And you walk and you might be redirected every now and then.

You might hit a stumbling block.

You might have to take two steps backwards, but at least you know where you're going.

The Messiah method I don't really like because it reshapes the vision that you had to begin with.

I never thought that I would pasture.

You know, some people get that call on their lives when they're in youth group at youth camp or something like that.

I've been to a lot of youth camps and I never got that word.

It never happened to me.

I never thought I would be a pastor.

I never wanted to be a pastor.

God never showed me in a dream.

People ask me this all the time, so how did you get that call?

Like, did the Lord reveal himself in a dream?

No, it wasn't anything like that.

No prophet came to me like they did with David to anoint me.

It was nothing like that.

I got plenty of people growing up telling me that I wasn't gonna be a pastor.

I thought they were a prophet lion, right?

Prophet lion.

You don't know what you're talking about.

You just expect that, right?

But I just thought those were manmade expectations.

When I was young, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Anybody know exactly what they wanted to do when they were younger and then God was like, psych, you ain't gonna do that.

That's me.

I knew exactly from day one what I wanted to do.

Even when I was a little boy, I knew what I wanted to do.

I was gonna be a worship minister, I was gonna write music, I was gonna travel the world with my band, JRC Band, the greatest band of all time.

(congregation laughs) Right, Joel?

Yeah.

And for a very long time, that's where I thought God was taking me.

He was doing it.

We were traveling, we were writing music, we're coming out with music.

It was happening.

Now, I've gotta tell you, church, because I tell you this, you might be tempted to think that I was just running away from God, but not once did I run away from the call of God.

I feared God so much that I never wanted to be outside of his will.

So I've always been in his service, I've served the church when I was a teenager.

Anything that I needed to do, I would do.

I was always walking in the plan of God.

And as I continued to walk in the plan of God, the vision I thought I had for myself began to transform into something else.

That's what happens.

Just being present in the presence of God, the plan that I thought he was leading me to, the place that I thought he was taking me to, turns out he was actually taking me somewhere else.

God be tricking us like that sometimes.

That's the Messiah method.

Ooh, and it's not for the faint of heart, church.

It's not for the faint of heart because God will show you some things in one season, and he will give you a word, and he will give it to you in front of everybody.

He'll give it to you here at the altars.

Thus says the Lord.

And you're all mokoso, and you're crying and everything because yes, Lord, I receive it.

And then you bring your wife with you, like, oh, we're gonna do this, yeah, we're gonna do this.

And then you go back home, and you start to prepare for what God spoke.

And you make sacrifices, and you tell your family, and you move states, and you go somewhere else.

And then you start to get there, and you finally get to that moment, and God's like, all right, pack your bags.

We're going over here now.

And you're like, God, we just got here.

This is, wasn't this the thing?

Wasn't this where we were headed?

And God said, no, this is just a passing stone.

It was a stepping stone.

Yes, I was taking you here, but not forever.

I have a friend of mine who planted a church a few years ago, and he felt that call of God over his life to plant a church.

So what did he do?

He started to plant a church, and planting a church is not easy.

It's not easy.

Starting a business is not easy.

Planting a church is probably even harder.

And so he got his team together, he started to raise funds, and he got everything ready.

He got a location, he rented a location.

He prepared mentally, spiritually, physically.

He opens his church, and eventually has to close it during COVID, and not like close it for a few Sundays, like we did, close it forever, because nobody was coming to his church.

And most people will say, well bro, maybe God didn't call you to that.

Because sometimes our feelings kind of get in the way of what God says, and we mistake our own feelings and ambitions for what God says.

But he was so determined, he was so adamant that God spoke into my life, plant a church.

And I believe, he says, I believe that this was a season for a reason.

I believe that God took me through all of this just to fail.

I don't know what the reason is yet, but I know what God said.

Maybe I just had a narrow view of the vision.

'Cause most of the time, church, we do, that's what we have, we have a very narrow view of the vision that God has shown us.

When God reveals things to us, and this is even true in the scripture, much of what he reveals to us is subject to interpretation.

I get people all the time to call me, they wanna tell me about a dream that they had.

They're convinced that God spoke to them in a dream, they just don't really know what God is trying to tell them.

And so they wanna get my thoughts, and I tell them right off the bat, well, I'm not Joseph, I don't interpret dreams, but I'll give it my best.

And the revelation of God is something that most of the time, it has to be interpreted by us.

When you read the Bible, you have to interpret what is meant by the text.

It's called hermeneutics.

And a lot of times, we don't interpret correctly.

And that brings us confusion, because the picture that we had of the truth begins to blur.

I don't know if you're, you here this morning?

(audience murmurs) Sometimes what we have in our hand, what we're holding onto, the word that we have, is not quite exactly gonna look like the way that we thought it was gonna look like.

We have interpreted something wrong.

Maybe not all the way, but there's something in there that's wrong, and so this is why John asks the question of Jesus, are you really him?

Are you really the Messiah?

Now first, we need some background, because verse two says that John's disciples heard the deeds of the Christ.

John's disciples heard the deeds of the Christ.

Matthew 10 kinda summarizes all of the deeds, right?

Jesus has been instructing his disciples, he's discipling them, he's proclaiming the kingdom of God, he's teaching, he's preaching in their cities, he's casting out demons, he's healing the sick, he's feeding the poor, he's doing all kinds of miracles.

These are the things that John's disciples hear that Jesus is doing, and they send a word to John to tell him.

Now there's two occasions in the gospels where John's disciples seem to question the work, or we'll call it the method of Jesus.

They call into question the method of Jesus.

There's always gonna be people in the kingdom that are gonna question the way someone does kingdom work.

That's just the way it is.

Why does he preach like that?

And why does he wear suits, and why does he not wear suits, and why does he preach in hats, and why does she sing those songs, and why does he preach in tongues, and why does he not speak in tongues, and why this, and why does the church have that?

There's always gonna be somebody, and you're probably gonna be that somebody too.

See, you'll know.

Come on.

(audience laughs) People will always question other people's methods.

It's just human nature.

And so John's disciples, they were much more loyal to John than they were to Jesus.

They're a little bit more skeptical of Jesus.

We don't really know why, but there seems to be this sense of judgment in their question.

Thank you, bro.

So Matthew 9, 14 says, "Then the disciples of John came to him," Jesus, listen, and he said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, "but your disciples do not fast?

" That's sound a little judgmental, right?

That kinda sounds like, you know, every January we do our 21-day fast.

Sometimes people don't fast, and then you got some people like, "Oh, why aren't you fasting?

"The whole church is fasting.

"Why aren't you fasting?

"Why do we and the Pharisees fast, "but your disciples, they don't fast?

"How come, Jesus?

" John 3, 25 says, "Now a discussion arose "between some of John's disciples "and a Jew over purification, "and they came to John, and they said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, "to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing, "and all are going to him.

" John has some tattletales in his group.

He has some judges in his circle.

Why does this Jesus man hang out with sinners and tax collectors?

Why do they talk to Samaritan women?

Why doesn't he teach them the fast?

Why does he wear that?

Why does he talk like that?

Why is he baptizing people?

You're the guy that baptizes.

John the Baptist, not Jesus the Baptist.

That's his thing.

And so now, John the Baptist, he's sitting in prison, right?

And his disciples are probably even more annoyed, because this Jesus guy, who our rabbi, John the Baptist, prepared the way for, he's out here, he's not even doing the things that we expected him to do.

Jesus should, I can just imagine them in prison, all super gossipy and dramatic.

(speaking in foreign language) Y'all know who I'm talking about.

We all know somebody like that.

You know what I saw Jesus doing?

He should be setting up his kingdom.

He should be getting ready for conquests and recruiting soldiers, not fishermen.

He needs to be visiting people with influence and power and money, but he's going to the poor cities.

So theirs was a very narrow view of the vision.

It wasn't wrong, it was just one-sided.

See, John the Baptist, are you still with me?

We're getting pretty deep in theology.

I want you to stay with me.

John the Baptist, his message was what?

Repentance.

He brought a message of judgment and repentance.

He was one of those fire preachers.

Fire preachers that you're kind of afraid to bring to church, right?

He's gonna condemn everybody.

That was John the Baptist.

That was his whole life's work, judgment and repentance.

John was an old school OG, man.

He was Old Testament all the way.

He was called the second Elijah.

Elijah, if you know anything about Elijah, Elijah was the prophet that stood up against the injustices in Israel.

He stood up against King Ahab and Queen Jezebel for bringing idol worship into the temple and defiling the people of God.

And so Elijah very boldly and fearlessly spoke against the leaders of Israel and the false prophets of Baal.

That's what prophets would do in the Old Testament.

It was a very hard job being a prophet because it was always judgment, judgment, judgment.

See, today we want prophets to come to church.

The Old Testament was like, no, please no.

Don't bring that fire and judgment over here, Mr.

Negative Nelson.

In the Old Testament, prophets would speak against the leaders, the kings, the rulers, the shepherds, but they would also speak to the people.

And they would tell them to repent because one day, the day of the Lord, which is just the day of judgment, the day of the Lord is coming and is going to be felt on all people.

God's wrath is gonna be poured out against the nations of oppressors, against the kings, against the rulers, and against the people who did not have the humility to repent.

What does it say?

If my people prayed and humbled themselves, I would heal their land.

God would always leave a remnant of people, a remnant, just a small group of people because he had to filter out the bad.

He started this process in Israel with the 40 years of wandering.

Joshua's generation, he tells Joshua's generation, you guys are gonna be the one to conquest because this other generation, this older generation, they don't get it.

They're too stuck in their old ways.

They still have so much idolatry and paganism ingrained in them.

They're so afraid.

They can't even confront the giants, even though I told them that this is gonna be your land.

So we gotta get rid of them, but I'm gonna leave a remnant because I need a holy people.

I don't need my holy people mixing with unholy people.

I need a holy and pure church.

That's what he needs today.

And that's why I'm telling you, man, we have to recognize that God is a holy God and that his presence makes us holy because that's what he deserves.

He's leaving a remnant of people.

And so John, fast forward to John the Baptist, in his mind, the cycle is just repeating itself.

This time, this time, the oppression for the Jews is under the Romans.

The Romans are oppressing the Jewish people.

And so John the Baptist, he's excited because he knows what the prophet spoke of the coming day of judgment, where God would send the redeemer, a ruler, from the stump of Jesse, from the lineage of David, to come and overthrow the wicked oppressors and deal justice to the sinners.

He's excited, man, because all his life, he had this vision in his mind that God spoke over him to prepare for this moment.

His mama knew it.

His mama spoke it over him.

You gotta get some mamas that speak life unto you because that was John the Baptist.

He grew up, no, he leaped for joy when the baby heard of Jesus coming.

He was ready, he was ready to be the forerunner of Jesus because man, he knew, he knew that the day of judgment was coming where God would deliver justice into the world.

He's excited for this moment.

And so he goes out into the world.

And what is he telling everybody?

Repent, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.

I don't got time for feel-good sermons.

You gotta repent because the kingdom of God is at hand.

I don't got time to talk about your calling and your promises because the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent now so that you don't die in the fire of hell.

That was John the Baptist, old school OG.

And so that's what John was preparing for.

All his life, a baptism of fire and judgment.

And so John's little tattletales come.

And they say, "Jesus is doing all of these things, "but there's no fire and there's no wrath "and there's no resistance.

" In fact, he's healing the sick.

He's preaching.

He's recruiting a group of tax collectors and sinners to be his disciples.

He's not delivering wrath.

He's showing mercy and compassion.

He's telling the adulterous, "I don't condemn you.

"Go and sin no more.

" He's liberating demon-possessed men who only deserve the worst punishment for their sins, John.

So the vision, if I'm John's disciples, I'm telling John, man, the vision that you had of the Messiah, the picture of what you painted the whole world for the Messiah to be is not in alignment with the strategies and the methods of this supposed Messiah.

Maybe he's not the right one.

You still with me?

It's not adding up.

Because the vision was very clear, but the method doesn't align with the vision.

And for the first time in John's life, we see a little bit of doubt.

See, before John would be quick to correct his disciples, like any good rabbi would do.

When they came to John to tell him that Jesus was baptizing, John probably didn't understand why they were baptizing.

But what does he say?

He says, "You know what?

"He must increase, I must decrease.

"This is his time, this is not my time.

"This is what we prepared for.

"It's not about me.

"I must become less so that he may become more.

" I might not understand it.

I might not understand why his disciples are baptizing people.

Like I didn't understand when Jesus came to me and wanted me to baptize him.

I said, "Lord, you need to baptize me.

" There's a lot of things that John the Baptist did not understand about Jesus the Messiah, but you know what?

He trusted the process, because that's what you do.

That's what faith looks like.

You trust the process, even when you don't know why you're going through what you're going through.

Even when God takes you on a different route, if you have that word, you keep that faith.

But for the very first time in John's life, it's not the plan that he was questioning, it's the vision.

I've questioned the plan of God many times in my life.

Many times.

And not in the sense of like doubting his plan, but like questioning it.

Like God, what are you doing?

Have you ever asked God that?

What are you doing?

Why are you doing it like this?

This year I was asking God, "Why does your plan have to involve my discomfort?

"Why can't you do it a different way?

" Why?

I never doubted the plan.

Like okay, if that's the way you wanna do it, that's fine.

I know where I'm going, but why does it have to be this way?

Most of the times, I'd get over it pretty quick.

I'd throw myself a little 10 minute pity party, like Elijah did when he was running for Jezebel.

And then I'd get up and keep going, because that's what you do.

But when you get to a place where now you're questioning the vision, that tests your faith a little bit more.

What if this wasn't even the guy?

What if all my life I spent preparing the way for Jesus, and he's not even the one?

That's like, I can't imagine what that did to John.

It was probably embarrassing.

He looked bad in front of his disciples who were questioning him.

Really, this is the guy?

This is the guy that you ate locusts for in the wilderness?

This is the guy that we followed you for?

Most of the times, the vision determines the method.

But in this case, the method of the Messiah was distorting the vision of John.

I'll tell you, man, I had a different vision of 2023.

This was one of the most challenging and at the same time fruitful years of my life.

I learned things that I didn't wanna learn.

I learned things that I didn't think I needed to learn.

I came into this year hopeful, like I do every year.

Hopeful and expectant and fired up.

And while I thought I was gonna be a little bit further by the end of the year, I might have actually taken a step back.

There's a lot about this year that sucked.

But you know what, I'm grateful for it.

I'm grateful for it.

I would have it no other way.

Because all the while, if you're gonna commit to it, commit to it, bro.

Don't be unsure about it.

All the while, while I was going through this year, I remained in the Lord.

I remained faithful.

If you have made it to the end of this year and you can say, man, I have remained faithful this year to God, you gotta give God praise.

Give God praise because you are here.

You are here.

There's a lot of people that can't say that.

There's a lot of people that checked out when their faith got too hard and too shaky.

But through the marital struggles, you made it.

Through the lost job, you're here.

Through the cancer, Sister Haiti, you're here.

You're here.

You didn't give up.

You kept going.

That's praiseworthy.

You didn't abandon God when things got tough.

You didn't drop the faith when you doubted it.

You kept going.

And though the picture that you thought God was painting for your life turned out to be something different, at least it made you stronger.

Sometimes before you can get to the place that you have been seeing, God showed you, you first have to see things with God's perspective.

You know, I thought some promises were gonna come to pass this year.

They didn't.

I thought some people were gonna come to the Lord this year.

They didn't.

At the end of 2022, I was so confident that we were gonna end the year with a whole new wave of people we're gonna need to have that third Sunday service.

I thought we were gonna have that corner lot by now 'cause it was spoken.

People said expansion.

We don't.

We don't have it yet.

But before we start saying, well, should we wait for another promise, before we start saying, God, is that really you that said it, did I really see what I saw from what you showed me?

Maybe we need to consider that God wants to reshape your vision to see things from his perspective first.

When John asked Jesus, are you really the one?

Are you really the one who is to come?

Or should we look for another one?

He's asking the question because his vision is not 100% clear like he thought it was.

John is expecting the day of judgment.

He's expecting Isaiah.

He's expecting an Isaiah 34 type of Messiah.

Let me read that real quick.

It opens up saying, draw near, O nations, to hear and give attention, O peoples.

Let the earth hear and all that fills it, the world and all that comes from it.

For the Lord is enraged against all the nations and furious against all their hosts.

He has devoted them to destruction.

He has given them over for slaughter.

That's what John was waiting for.

And all of this is prophecy.

It's true.

The day of the Lord is coming for all people, for all nations.

He will judge every person, every nation, every tongue will confess, every knee will bow.

That is happening.

But God isn't only the God of Isaiah 34.

He's also the God of Isaiah 35, which is indirectly quoted by Jesus in his answer to John.

And in the same way, church, you have to realize, we have to realize that God is not just the God of the blessings.

He's also a God of the wilderness.

He's a God of the storms.

He's a God of the discomfort.

He's not just the God of the pinnacle of your mountaintop, which is what you're chasing.

He's also the God of the depth of your valleys, which you want nothing to do with.

God wanted the God of justice.

God showed him the God of mercy.

So it might not be that your vision is wrong.

It might just be that it's too small.

Y'all need to help me preach this morning, because some of us are walking around with a small-sized version of the vision that God has shown us.

We're walking around.

God wants to give you this, but this is what you're seeing.

This is what you're looking at.

This is what you're looking at.

And sometimes we don't even realize that we're already there.

We have already arrived.

We're just in a different part of the vision.

We're in a different part of the mountain.

I wanted to be a peer, God, but you're right here.

At least you're touching the mountain, homie.

At least you're touching the mountain.

At least you're on your way.

Your vision might be too small.

Man, if you would ask me 10 years ago what I was gonna be doing, I had the answer for you.

I was gonna be a worship leader.

I was gonna be traveling the world.

I was gonna be a worship leader.

10 years later, God said, "You're gonna be worshiping me "with your lifestyle, with the way that you serve me, "with the way that you pastor, with the way that you preach, "the way that you're a husband to your wife, "with the way that you father your children.

" We need to stop reducing God to what we see and what we know and what we hear and what somebody else has said.

God sees what you cannot see.

God knows what you do not know.

God speaks things that we cannot even hear.

And I know there's people in this room with enough faith to let their plan be flexible, but do you have enough faith for the vision that you had to be transformed into something else?

What if it's not like the way you thought it was gonna be?

Hmm.

(woman speaking faintly) I love the answer that Jesus gave.

And maybe you've never really thought about the significance.

I'm gonna have the worship team come up.

On the surface, Jesus isn't telling them anything different than what they've already heard.

The disciples of John, they already reported these things to John.

They've already heard that Jesus is doing these things that Jesus speaks about.

They're coming to Jesus for an explanation.

Why is it that you're doing all these things?

Should we be expecting someone else?

That's what they're looking for.

All this time, John and his disciples, they're seeing part of the vision, and that part of the vision that they're seeing doesn't really align with the method of Jesus.

And so they wanna know, are you really the Messiah?

And the way that Jesus phrases his answer is done in a way, listen, it's done in a way that he knows John will understand, because John is an old-school OG.

He's an Old Testament guy.

John knows what the prophets have said concerning the Messiah.

John's issue is that he had a narrow perspective of that vision.

And so Jesus says, go and tell John, if you haven't gotten anything, I want you to get this.

Go and tell John what you hear and see.

The blind receive their sight and the lame walk.

The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

John is expecting an Isaiah 34 Messiah, the one that brings fire, the one that brings wrath, the one that brings judgment.

I talk to some people sometimes, and that's what they want.

They say, when is God gonna come and crush all the evildoers?

When is God gonna come and smite all of my enemies?

I hear this type of talk, and they want me to agree with them.

My pastor, aren't you ready for God to just come back?

And I have to say, not yet, because I still got some people in my life that I'm waiting to come to Jesus.

If God comes back today, they die forever.

While I long to be in the presence of God, I long for my family to be in the presence of God with me.

That's what John was expecting, that Isaiah 34, a Messiah who was gonna just bring fire and wrath and judgment and hellfire.

(gentle piano music) But he forgot about the Isaiah 35 Messiah, which says this, "Then 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, "for waters break forth in the wilderness "and streams in desert.

" John wasn't thinking about the Isaiah 61 prophecy that says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, "because the Lord has anointed me "to bring the good news to the poor.

"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted "and to proclaim liberty to the captives.

" Some people read the answer that Jesus gives to John, and they think that he's dodging the question, but he's not dodging the question.

He's answering the question.

His answer is, "Yes, John, "I am the one that you prepared the way for.

"I am the Christ.

"I am the one who will bring justice.

"I am the one who will bring vengeance and wrath, "but first I must bring mercy and love "and forgiveness and hope and restoration.

" Maybe this year isn't what you pictured, church.

Maybe it's not how you expected it to end.

(gentle piano music) But what if God had to first recalibrate the way that you saw things?

You've only ever known the God who provides.

All your life, you've only ever known the God who provides, and so this year, maybe God introduced you to the God who takes away, the God who strips away, because the same God who gives is the same God that takes away.

And he needs you, instead of knowing only the God who provides, he needs you to know the God of peace.

He needs you to know how to have peace in the midst of lack.

The Messiah method, I think it reveals more of who he is, because it broadens the scope of the vision from which you see.

And so when you are questioning the revelation of God, and the enemy is saying, "God didn't want that for you.

"God has forgotten about you.

"God's not listening to that prayer.

"God doesn't have that calling for you.

"That promise is not gonna be fulfilled.

" I mean, the enemy is taunting us daily with those types of things.

What if God is saying, "No, no, no, no, child, "I'm revealing more of myself to you.

" (gentle music) I'm showing you more of the bigger picture.

When you are in the plan in the hands of the Messiah, his plan shapes your vision.

His plan shapes your vision.

His plan shapes your vision.

It's not about your vision.

It's not about what you want, it's about what he wants.

And sometimes to get you to want what he wants, he has to take you through the things that he needs to take you through to develop the vision that he has given you.

We don't hear much interaction between John and Jesus after this.

Shortly after this, John is beheaded by Herod because John confronted Herod about a sin.

Again, he's old school OG, right?

He's an old school prophet.

But I imagine John in prison, receiving this word back from his disciples, Jesus says, "The blind see, the lame are walking, "the deaf are hearing, the good news is being proclaimed, "and he's setting the captives free.

" I bet you when he heard that last part, the Messiah is setting the captives free, something clicked in John's head.

All this time, I thought the Messiah was gonna free me from the oppressors of Rome.

All this time, I thought it was political.

All this time, I thought he was gonna take us out of a physical prison and reestablish his kingdom on earth.

But now it makes sense.

He's here to save the sins of the world.

He's here to save the sinners.

He's here to take us out of our bondage.

He's here to take the captives of demons and oppression and sickness and anxiety and depression.

He's here to set those captives free.

I bet you when John heard that, something clicked.

And he said, "It makes sense now.

" "Now I see what I didn't see before.

" When you are being guided by the Holy Spirit, church, eventually, things that didn't make sense before begin to make sense.

And you're so grateful that you didn't walk away and that you endured the season of confusion and discomfort when you were in that plan of God.

I believe that God wants to show you something bigger than what you're seeing this morning, this year.

(gentle music) - Man of God.

God, give us, give your people divine vision, Father.

Give us divine vision, Father God, for what you're doing, for what you're saying, Father.

I want you to stand with me this morning.

I want you to stand with me.

(gentle music) Holy Spirit, this morning, my God, move in the hearts of your people, God.

Move in the situations of your people this morning, Holy God.

I pray this morning, my God, that you would broaden our vision, Father God, of what you are doing, Lord.

Even when we don't understand it, Father God, even when we question the vision, even when we question the word, Father God, I pray, Lord, that as you take us through, Holy Spirit, that you would just give us new vision daily in Jesus' name.

I pray this sermon over your people this morning, Father God, that we may not drop the faith, Father God, when things get difficult, but that we would continue to walk, my God, knowing that if you are with us, my God, we are going to the right place, even if it doesn't look like what I thought it was gonna look like, my God, even though I thought I was heading into a different level, Father, I pray in Jesus' name that you would give us the Spirit to keep on going, Father.

Oh, God.

We don't realize how big our God is, church.

We don't realize how great our Lord is this morning.

We don't realize the full extent of the word that God has given to us sometimes.

I want us to declare that with this song.

Great are you, Lord.

Great and powerful and mighty are you, Lord, when I am not, Father.

- Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.

org.

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Thanks again and God bless.

(gentle music) [ Silence ]