Today's text is really kind of the high point of the Advent series because if you remember what we're studying is the long unexpected Jesus. We were told of Jesus coming, the Jews were told of Jesus coming for hundreds of years and when he got here no one embraced him. He was not what anyone expected. His own family rejected him, the religious leaders rejected him. And what we're going to see in this text today, even John the Baptist. The one who was in his mother's womb and when Mary came into the room, he leapt at Jesus' approach. Mary was carrying Jesus. That one, the one who recognized Jesus from before birth. The one who baptized Jesus and heard the voice coming down from heaven saying, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased. That John the Baptist sent a message to Jesus saying, are you or aren't you? Are you what we expected or not? Please read with us from the Word of God as we look at that question. 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 received their side in 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 and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? No. Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in keens houses. What did you go out to see? A prophet, yes, I tell you. And more than a prophet, he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you. Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there is a risen no one greater than John the Baptist, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force for all the prophets in the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates. We played a flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. For John came either eating or drinking and they say he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking and they say, look at him. He is a glutton and a drunker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. That is far the reading of God's holy word. Discouragement when things go the exact opposite of what you expect. It has this tendency to drive us into doubt, to make us even doubt the things that we are the most sure of. As you know, when I lived in Mississippi, I got to meet some wonderful folks. And one of the greatest was Sonny Blakeman. Sonny Blakeman died at the age of 96. He was with his faithful wife Mary James Blakeman right there by his side, taking care of him. They were married for over 60 years. But when Sonny was facing death, this great saint, he loved the Lord. He looked up at his wife and he even began to doubt her. Are you really tired of me yet? And she said to him, Sonny, haven't I always been here? He said, you have. You have. We got married and we had nothing. You were there. In the flood of 26, when everything we had was taken away, you were there. We went through the depression and lost my job. I don't know if you were going to be able to feed the kids, you were there for me. When our kids get, when our oldest son got sick and he almost died, you were there. He said, when I fell and broke my hip, you were the one who called the hospital and had the ambulance come. When I had my first heart attack, you were there holding my hand while we were waiting on the medics. Now I'm in the hospital for the last time and you're here with me. And she said, see, honey, what does that tell you? And he looked up and said, you're bad luck. I didn't know if you're going to laugh at that. I've told that joke before. Okay, good. I'm glad you did. You know, when everything's going wrong, when everything's going wrong, it makes you question the things you thought you knew. John the Baptist is in jail and he's asking questions and he's questioning his most treasured relationship here. And on Jesus says, he says, go and tell John, the evidence you've seen, wisdom is justified by her deeds. Tell him what we're doing. And he adds this great little addendum. Blessed is the one who's not offended by me. Blessed is the one who's not offended by me. And what I want us to see today is when we face the world, we do get discouraged and we see the realities of the world you do get discouraged. And then when you see Jesus' work, you're either have your faith strengthened, you either rejoice or you're offended and you leave. First, just look at what discouragement does. John was in prison and he begins to doubt Jesus. Are you the one who's to come or should we look for another? Now look, we're not going to get down on John here, right? He was in jail. He was looking forward to a painful death. He was looking forward to starvation until that painful death. It wasn't a great place to be and he had been serving the Lord faithfully from birth. It's not what he signed up for, right? That's not what he wanted. This is not exactly where I thought I was going to end up. He's discouraged. If you read a newspaper, if you look at the internet, if you heard the news and all this entire week, one time, you should have been discouraged. You should have been. If you never at least uttered the phrase, how could God let that happen? Then either you're just so self obsessed that you don't ever put yourself in another person's situation or your faith isn't real. And you don't believe God could have helped because if you believe that God is real and he has the power to intervene and human affairs and he is aware of what is going on in human affairs, it should have bothered you. You should have been doubting God's existence this week. You should have at least asked the question. If you never asked the question, then I want to ask you, what makes you think your faith is real at all? If John can doubt Jesus, it's okay for you to occasionally. That's kind of encouraging of nothing else. You know, I grew up around people who thought, you know, faith is righteousness. Faith is not equal to doubt. Therefore, doubt is evil. If you ever doubt Jesus, you're a sin, you're a bad person, so you can never admit to it. That's nonsense. If John the Baptist can doubt Jesus, and Jesus doesn't throw him away, graciously embraces him and gives him reason to believe, then it's okay for you to have questions. And it's okay. Don't be surprised when you're in the midst of depression, and you wonder if anything in this is true. It's okay to ask the questions. Discouragement causes doubts. And sometimes our intellectual questions cause doubts. Jesus was not what John expected him to be. What do John want? He said, the axe is laid, the root of the tree, the Jesus is coming, the son of man is coming with judgment and fire. He thought he was going to come, and he was going to correct everything that was wrong within Judaism, and then he's going to lead Judaism and destroy the Roman emperors and kick them out and reestablish the kingdom. That's what Jesus is going to do. And he didn't. Jesus didn't do any of those things. He embraced the tax collector. He embraced the center. I had to make John a little mad. I mean, imagine John, he's out here in the desert eating bugs, like locusts and honey. I don't know if that sounds good to you. You know, wearing animal skin, just nasty. He's doing all this because he loves God so much. And Jesus is hanging out with tax collectors and going to parties. He's like, wait, just wait, what? That's not who you were supposed to be. And sometimes that's our questions. You know, we don't, we don't like the Jesus who is. We don't like the one we got. We want to Jesus who cares about what we care about. We want to say Jesus doesn't really care about how I spend my money. Jesus doesn't really care about my job and and those kinds of things. Jesus doesn't really care about greed. Jesus doesn't really care about sexuality. He doesn't care about, you know, whatever. He just cares about, you know, the fact that I pray to him and I like him. Some of us want a Jesus who, you know, who loves my political positions. Others want a Jesus who helps my kids get good grades. That's what Jesus really wants to be glorified by my kids great card. Right. And that, that's what he's like. We all want a Jesus who cares about what we care about. And honestly, if you've never had this problem, if you've never had this doubt, if you've never had this offense, I wonder if you know who the real Jesus is. Because no matter what it is that you care about when you come to Jesus, he's going to look at you and he's going to find something you love more than you love him. No matter how long you've been in the church, there's going to be something that you're trying to use Jesus to get. You're going to perfect my kids. You're going to keep me safe. You're going to get me a job. You're going to make me prosperous. You're going to do something for me. And he's going to poke you there. He's not going to be the Jesus who keeps you from ever being discouraged and he's not going to be the Jesus that you really wanted. But what is John, but what does John do in his doubt? It's okay to have the question. It's okay to have the question. It's okay to wonder why isn't Jesus doing what I thought he was going to do. It's okay to wonder why didn't Jesus do something to protect those children in Connecticut. It's okay to have the question. But what is important here is this. Where did John go with his question? He didn't run away. He didn't say, Jesus didn't what I always wanted to be. So I'm going to go out and see if I can find happiness here. I'm going to go, you know, just absolutely live a life of comfort and ease and run away from that. He didn't say that. John went to Jesus. He went to him. He asked him, are you convinced me? Show me. Are you the one to expect? And that's what we're invited to do. Jesus is not afraid of any question you have to ask, but come to him. Come to him with the questions. And what does Jesus do? He responds with grace and he says, go tell John what you hear and see. The blind received their side in the lame walk. Lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them. What does he say? He says, I am not what you wanted. I'm so much more than that. I'm so much better than anything you hoped for. You wanted a message of judgment. I've got a message of healing and of grace. And I'm making this world right. John, you want me to defeat Rome? I'm going to defeat Satan. I'm going to defeat the grave. I'm going to defeat death. I'm rolling it backwards. I'm so much more than you hoped for. I'm so much more than you dreamed of. I make blind eyes to see. What would you say if I told you Jesus is still doing that? What would you say? Sometimes I get discouraged. You know, I can say this week's been a rough week, obviously. When you get discouraged, you begin to wonder, are you doing anything? And sometimes I begin to think I look at myself and I don't seem to be getting any better. And I wonder what's the use of pretending God doesn't care. He's not here. If Jesus ever did really live. His bones are bleaching out in the desert somewhere. What difference does it make? And when I feel that way, the Holy Spirit taps me on the shoulder and he says, dead men don't do what Jesus has done in your lifetime. Dead men don't do what you've seen Jesus do. He makes blind eyes to see. You don't believe it, ask Chad more. Ask him. Chad started reading the Bible to prove that it was wrong. He started reading the Bible to prove that it was nonsense that any intellectual lightweight could just dismiss it. By the time he was finished, he was a follower of Jesus. What happened? His blind eyes were open and he was able to see. And if you don't believe that, ask him, were you blind? Yes, I was blind. And now I see. And those eyes will be open forever, not just for a little while. Jesus is alive. He's making the lame walk. He's making the lame walk. He did it two weeks ago. We had a prayer service. I don't know if you were there. We had a service where we had our elders out in front of the congregation. And they had their anointing oil. And people were bringing a coming and asking for prayer. And Sarah Corbin and Brent brought their daughter, Catherine, who wasn't walking. And the doctors were concerned. They've had brain scans and blood tests. They can't find out why she's not walking. And our elders anointed her with oil and we sent her home and Brent had to go to Dallas that week. And while he was in Dallas on Thursday, he got a phone call. It was a physical therapist and the physical therapist said, I got bad news for you, Brent. And he said, what? She said, you're going to have to start keeping a lot better to close her check on Catherine because she's walking four days after we prayed for her. She was walking. It's yours to believe or not. Blessed is the one who's not offended. It happened. And that's not even the most miraculous thing that happened to me. That's impressive. That's cool. That kind of makes you go, oh, sweet. But while we had people praying, while we had our elders praying, people got up and they came and they confessed terrible sin. It asked to be healed. And that's much harder. That's the lame getting up and walking and coming to Jesus and being healed. The deaf here, the deaf are hearing. We had a baptism a few weeks ago. If you remember, Nick came up and he was giving his testimony and he'd grown up in church. He'd been around the church. He had heard preaching most of his life. He got to college. He went into a completely different lifestyle. And then what he said to himself, I came to church and I heard the gospel. He had been around it, but he never heard it. I never heard it. The deaf here, the lepers are cleansed. Leppers, those who feel nothing. They have no, they've lost their sense of touch. They can't feel anything. Two weeks ago during our healing service, we had a family leave saying I never felt the Holy Spirit until today. That's not saying the Holy Spirit has never been there. You just never felt him. The lepers are not just healed, but he says the lepers are the lepers, not the lepers. I always say that. We don't need to heal lepers or phone. The lepers are cleansed. They're cleansed. The unclean. There's ones who are cast out. The ones who live their life in shame. They're cleansed. Last week, I saw an RUF campus minister. I never see. It came up and it gave me a huge hug and he said, we just love you, Ricky. We just love you. I've never had a 101 conversation with that man. Why does he love me? Because his wife had four years in my ministry. And that was important because it took her three years to admit the things that had been done to her when she was a child and she was dirty. And she lived in shame. And we were able to apply the gospel to her and she was cleansed. She's clean. And she's not an outcast. She has not ashamed anymore. The lepers are cleansed. And the dead are raised alive. The dead really are raised alive. Don't believe me. Ask Marty will come. Hi, Marty. I was in Marty's hospital room two years ago, three on Labor Day weekend. I mean, Cindy pretty much lost hope. She had and I had. So we were staring at his body in a coma and we were planning a funeral. The doctor said if he doesn't wake up today, he's not going to wake up. As we got up to leave, I put one hand on Marty's foot and one hand on Cindy's hand and we prayed Lord, wake him up. And with all my faith, I walked out of the hospital room and kept planning that funeral. And Marty's dad walks in and says, Marty, wake up. And his eyes opened. There he is. You can ask him. The dead are raised. The dead are raised. That's not that great of a miracle. Marty's going to die. But we've had people come in and give their testimonies to our session. A couple of years ago, we had Angela come in. Angela Rainey come in and give her testimony or session. And we said, you know, she said, the Lord's at work. I mean, I'm different. And I said, well, how are you different? And she said, everything is different. Everything is different. The brand brought got so excited, jumped in the seat and ran over to hug her. She said, I get it. Food tastes better. Colors look brighter. They're different. You are dead, but now you're alive. And that's a death that will never, I mean, that's a life that will never end. I get discouraged and I wonder about whether Jesus is alive or not. But I'm telling you, a dead man doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. He is alive. And he is at work in our midst right now. And blessed is the one who's not offended by him. It's up to you. Jesus has this infuriating self-confidence. It's kind of like a math teacher, like a second grade math teacher. You know, little Johnny's yelling at him going, no, two plus two doesn't equal four. Math teacher's like, yeah, it does. You'll figure it out today. You'll figure it out tomorrow. It's fine. Jesus just says, bless is the one who's not offended. Bless your heart if you are. But this is who I am. He offends our pride. He offends our sense of justice. He says to John the Baptist, I love you brother. But going out in the desert and getting any points, you've got to repent too and you've got to submit to the real Jesus. And he says to the most religious of us, you will be offended. But I hope you'll also be thrilled. What is Jesus going to say about John the Baptist? He says from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force. There's always been enemies to the kingdom. And the kingdom's always been here. He's telling his disciples, John the Baptist is going to suffer. He's going to suffer. He's going to hear it's going to put him to death. The kingdom of heaven is going to suffer violence. But we're not going anywhere. And he says, truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there's a risen no one greater than John the Baptist of all the Old Testament prophets of everyone who's come before. No one has ascended to the level of John the Baptist. He has the Elijah to come, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. That's a great sentence as good as you could have possibly gotten before Jesus. If you're the least in the kingdom of heaven, you're greater. Why? It's important that you understand this. And John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets. And then Jesus died on the cross. And at that point, the veil that was in the temple between the holiest of holies where God stayed and where everybody else had to live, that veil was torn. And if you study that in Sunday school, you're probably told, and that's why we're because we're able to go into the holiest of holies now. And that's true, but that's not the significant event. When that veil is torn, God comes out. God comes out. The prophets of the Old Testament experienced the Holy Spirit occasionally, special events. And the kingdom of heaven, we experience him every day. When King Solomon dedicated his temple, he had to sacrifice hundreds of animals in a whole and days of prayer. And after all of that, the Holy Spirit descended upon the temple. We didn't have to do that with this building. How do we dedicate this building? You walked into it. And when you walked into it, the Holy Spirit walked into it with you because you are the temple. You have the Holy Spirit. He goes with you. That's greater than anything John the Baptist experienced. Your knowledge of Christ, your knowledge of your Savior is great, it's powerful. And when the Spirit is in the church, you can tell because it's powerful. And when the Holy Spirit is in a person, you can tell because it's alive. It's alive. I don't want to say if I make you alive, let's try this. All right. Ron White. Sorry, he shouldn't quote Ron White. He's a very bad person. Do not listen to his comedy. Do not listen. But he bought a tree. And he had to call the landscaper over because the tree looked like a big stick stuck in the ground and have a leaf on it. And he called the landscaper, the person who guaranteed the tree. And the guy came out and went examine the tree for about ten minutes. And Ron White is like, what are you doing? You can see from here, there's no leaves on the tree. And the guy comes back and goes, Mr. White, that tree is fine. I dug into that tree with my knife. I can tell you that tree has a vibrant core. And Ron looked at the guy and said, well, let me tell you what I'm looking for in a tree. I want leaves. I want blooms in spring, leaves in summer. Colorful leaves in fall. That's what I'm looking for in a tree. I'm not looking for my friends to come over and say, Ron, why are you sticking the ground? And he had to look at him and go, no, if you go to scratch that bark, you'll see it has a vibrant core. If something is alive, you can tell. If the Holy Spirit is in something, you can tell. Is he in you? Is he in this church? Does he go with you? Is he changing you? Is he humbling you? Is he making you to love people you used to not love? Is he making you patient with things you used to not tolerate? Is he making you gracious where you used to be judgmental? Do you find yourself looking up at people you used to look down at? Are you alive? Are you alive? Or do you fold your arms and criticize? And wonder why more people don't get it and more people aren't like you? Do you criticize or do you roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty? If the Spirit is in you, you'll be able to tell. And it's finally Jesus ends with this. John came, either eating or drinking. They say he has a demon. The son of a man came eating and drinking. They say, look at him. A glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and centers. Yet wisdom is justified by our deeds. What's he saying? He said, for those who are self-righteous, for those who have got a critical spirit, those who don't have the Holy Spirit in them are all the same. You'll always find something to criticize. John the Baptist, he was too radical. Jesus, he's too lax. This church is too serious. That church isn't serious enough. This church doesn't really understand ministry, the way I understand it. It's too legalistic. It's not legalistic enough. I'm just going to tell you right now, if you have this Spirit, this Spirit that refuses to sing the dirge, this Spirit that refuses to dance to the flute, this Spirit that's always finding something wrong, I'm telling you right now, you can find a million things wrong with this church before you ever stop looking at the man on the stage. It's broken. We're broken. The question for you is, what will you do when confronted with the evidence that even though we're broken, Jesus is here. What will you do when confronted with the evidence that even though we are broken, the only source of life in this dead world, the only source of white in this hopeless world is here. Will you be offended or will you run? You can't see it because you're blind. It's not because it's not here. If you do see it and you rejoice and you want to worship. What's the first step? The first thing you'll see, if you're blind, the first thing you'll see will be Jesus. You'll see yourself. You'll see that you've been arrogant, you've been judgmental, you'll see that you need to repent. I want you to know we'll be glad to say, yeah, us two. You can come to Jesus today for the first time. You can come to Jesus today for the 10,000th time. It doesn't matter. He's happy to answer your questions. He's happy to embrace you with his compassion. Please pray with me.