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PROVEN | Week 1 | Sermon · Rewind

Rock Point Church

45 min

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Jun 24, 2024 · 5 min read · 45 min listen

The big idea

Jesus is God, not just a guru — and when what you experience doesn't match what you expected from Him, the answer is to lean into Him, not walk away.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 6Jesus's miracles in Matthew 8-11 were meant to prove He is God, not just a good teacher.
Point 2 of 6John the Baptist, in prison and facing unmet expectations, asks Jesus the most important question anyone can ask: are You really the Messiah?

Point 3 of 6When life doesn't match expectations, the first move is to look for what God is doing rather than fixate on what He isn't.
Point 4 of 6The second move is to fall forward into God in hard seasons, not away from Him.
Point 5 of 6Jesus doesn't shame John for his doubt — He honors him, showing how God responds to our human moments.
Point 6 of 6The third move is accepting that God's ways are higher than ours, which frees us to trust without understanding everything.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Matthew 11
Matthew 11:3
Matthew 11:4
Isaiah 41
Isaiah 61
Matthew 11:6

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Jun 24, 2024 · 45 min watch · 3 min read

PROVEN | Week 1 | Sermon

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 11
Matthew 11:3
Matthew 11:4
Isaiah 41
Isaiah 61
Matthew 11:6

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Jesus is God, not just a guru — and when what you experience doesn't match what you expected from Him, the answer is to lean into Him, not walk away.

Life often creates a gap between what we expect from God and what we actually experience, and that gap can grow into frustration, doubt, and even a crisis of faith. Pastor Daniel shows through John the Baptist's story in Matthew 11 that doubt itself isn't the danger — what we do with it is. If Jesus is truly God and not merely a good teacher, we can trust Him even when His ways don't make sense, leaning into Him in hard seasons instead of running away.

Key points

1
1Jesus's miracles in Matthew 8-11 were meant to prove He is God, not just a good teacher.
Pastor Daniel frames the whole Proven series around this section of Matthew, where Jesus performs miracles to show He has authority over everything the Jewish people thought controlled the world. He warns against doing what Gandhi did with Jesus — admiring the Sermon on the Mount's ethics while rejecting Jesus's claim to be the only way to the Father.
2
2John the Baptist, in prison and facing unmet expectations, asks Jesus the most important question anyone can ask: are You really the Messiah?
Pastor Daniel retells John's backstory — his miraculous birth, his bold preaching, his role pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God — and then shows him a year into prison, sending disciples to ask Jesus if He's really the one, or if John got it wrong. He notes that if John could reach this point of doubt, anyone can.
3
3When life doesn't match expectations, the first move is to look for what God is doing rather than fixate on what He isn't.
Jesus answers John's question not with a simple yes, but by pointing to the blind seeing, the lame walking, and the good news being preached — reminding John of what he'd already witnessed and of Old Testament prophecy fulfilled. Pastor Daniel applies this by urging people to record and remember God's faithfulness now, before the hard seasons come.
4
4The second move is to fall forward into God in hard seasons, not away from Him.
From Jesus's statement that God blesses those who don't fall away because of Him, Pastor Daniel compares this to first responders running toward danger instead of away from it. He tells the story of Corrie ten Boom, who deepened her faith and later forgave while suffering in a Nazi concentration camp, as an example of leaning in rather than growing bitter.
5
5Jesus doesn't shame John for his doubt — He honors him, showing how God responds to our human moments.
After the disciples leave, Jesus tells the crowd that John is the greatest of the prophets, not weak or unstable. Pastor Daniel draws out that this shows doubt brought honestly to Jesus isn't punished but met with grace.
6
6The third move is accepting that God's ways are higher than ours, which frees us to trust without understanding everything.
Jesus compares the crowd to children who complain no matter what song is played, showing that people will always find fault when God doesn't perform on their terms. Pastor Daniel ties this to Isaiah 55 and shares his own family's crisis when his daughter McKenna nearly died of bacterial meningitis, admitting his own daughter's healing doesn't erase that others, like John the Baptist or a friend's son who died by suicide, don't get that same ending — yet God can still be trusted.

Application

The choice in the hard seasons is whether Jesus is just a guru who's supposed to perform, or actually God worth leaning into.

Record what God is doing now
While things are going well, write down the specific ways you're seeing God's faithfulness in your business, finances, home, and family so you have it to return to when doubt comes.
Bring your doubt to Jesus instead of hiding it
When frustration or doubt rises, don't run from God with it — run to Him honestly, the way John the Baptist's disciples were sent straight to Jesus with his hardest question.
Fall forward, not away, in hard seasons
When circumstances feel like they're falling apart, resist the pull to take back control on your own, and instead lean into God the way a first responder runs toward danger.
Let your theology stay fixed on God's goodness
Decide now that your belief that God is a good Father won't move based on your circumstances, even when you don't understand what He's doing.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So if you brought a Bible, which I hope you did, open them up to Matthew chapter 11. We're gonna look at kind of the tail end of this section where John the Baptist is going to ask the question”
From the transcript
“Here's the question, verse three, Are you the Messiah that we've been Notice the word he uses, that we've been expecting or should we look for someone else? Should we keep looking for someone else”
From the transcript
“And then in Matthew 11, it turns to this encounter with John the Baptist who's sitting in prison”
From the transcript
“Look at Jesus' answer to John the Baptist when asked the question, are you actually the Messiah? Verse four, Jesus told him, go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen”
From the transcript
“right here in Matthew 11, he quotes from Isaiah chapter 41. He tells him, remember that the dead have come back to life. The blind can see, the deaf can hear, the lame can walk”
From the transcript
“I know one of the prophecies for sure that John the Baptist must have been thinking about sitting in prison is in Isaiah chapter 61. It says specifically that the savior, the Messiah, that when he comes, he will set the prisoners free”
From the transcript
“If you look at the next verse in verse six, Jesus says, and he added, Jesus added this, God blesses those who do not fall away because of me”
From the transcript
“It says in verse seven, as John disciples were leaving, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. So Jesus literally starts to talk behind his back and look at what he says”
From the transcript
“Isaiah chapter 55 reminds us very plainly that my thoughts, they're nothing like your thoughts says the Lord. For my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts”
From the transcript
“it sounds a little dramatic, but in John chapter six, there's a story where Jesus, the disciples start to realize the incredibly high bar that Jesus has set. And a lot of them start to walk away. And Jesus looks at his closest disciples and says, Are you guys gonna walk away too”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

John the Baptist is sitting in a prison cell. This is the same man who leaped in his mother's womb when Mary walked through the door, who baptized Jesus in the Jordan, who stood in the wilderness and declared, 'He is coming.' And now he sends word asking, essentially, 'Are you really the one?' It's a disorienting picture. We might expect that the closer someone is to Jesus, the more immune they are to doubt. But Matthew 11 gently dismantles that assumption. John's crisis wasn't a sign that his faith was fake — it was a sign that he was human. His circumstances had created a gap between what he expected the Messiah to do and what was actually happening around him. That gap produced a question he could no longer ignore. What's striking is what John did with the question. He didn't spiral in silence. He didn't walk away. He sent word directly to Jesus. That small detail carries enormous weight. Doubt, in John's story, becomes the very thing that drives him back toward the source. Pastor Daniel reminded us that doubt is not disqualifying — what matters is where we take it. If you find yourself in a season where the gap between expectation and experience feels too wide, you're in good company. And you're being invited to do exactly what John did: bring it to Jesus.

For reflection

What expectation or unanswered prayer is quietly creating distance between you and Jesus right now?

Pray

Pray honestly about the gap you're feeling — name it to God the way John named his doubt, without dressing it up.

Day 2

When John's disciples arrive with the question, Jesus doesn't give a theological argument. He doesn't say, 'Of course I'm the Messiah — here's the doctrine.' He says, essentially, 'Go back and tell John what you're seeing.' The blind receive sight. The lame walk. The dead are raised. The good news is proclaimed to the poor. Jesus points to evidence — real, witnessed, touchable evidence. There's something important in that response for the way we handle doubt in our own lives. Jesus invites people to look at what He is actually doing, not just at what they wish He were doing. Pastor Daniel framed this as fighting spiritual amnesia — the tendency we have to forget God's faithfulness the moment a new hard thing arrives. One of the most practical tools against that amnesia is writing things down. What has God actually done in your life? What moments of provision, healing, restoration, or guidance have you witnessed? A written record of His faithfulness gives you something to return to when feelings pull you toward forgetting. Evidence doesn't eliminate the need for faith, but it does give faith something solid to stand on when emotions are unreliable. Jesus was pointing John — and us — back to what is already real and already visible, if we'll take the time to look.

For reflection

If you were to write down three moments of God's clear faithfulness in your life, what would they be?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see what God is doing — even in a season where it's hard to spot.

Day 3

Jesus closes His response to John with a line that deserves a long pause: 'Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me' (ESV). It's a gentle but honest warning. There's a version of following Jesus that is really just following our expectations of Jesus — and when He doesn't perform the way we mapped out, we stumble. We pull back. We quietly reassign blame. Pastor Daniel pointed to more than 300 Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Jesus as a foundation that holds even when feelings don't. Isaiah 41 speaks of a God who calls His servant, holds His hand, and says 'do not fear.' Isaiah 61 describes one anointed to bring good news to the poor and freedom to captives — the very things Jesus cited in His answer to John. This kind of fulfilled prophecy isn't a trivia point. It's evidence for who Jesus actually is, not just who we want Him to be. And that distinction matters enormously when life gets hard. If your trust is rooted in a Jesus you've constructed from your own hopes, unmet expectations will eventually erode it. But if it's rooted in the Jesus of Scripture — the one the prophets pointed to and history confirmed — that foundation can hold when nothing else does. The invitation here is to keep returning to who Jesus actually is, especially when circumstances tempt you to revise Him.

For reflection

In what ways might your picture of Jesus have been shaped more by your expectations than by Scripture?

Pray

Pray for a clearer, truer vision of Jesus — one built on who He actually is rather than who you've hoped He would be.

Day 4

This verse is short — just one sentence — but it surfaces one of the most honest tensions in Christian life. Offense at Jesus. It sounds almost irreverent to say it out loud. But Jesus names it plainly. People stumble over Him. They feel let down, misled, or abandoned. And rather than pretending that doesn't happen, He names it and offers a blessing to those who push through it. Pastor Daniel described this as learning to 'fall forward.' When suffering, confusion, or disappointment arrive, every human instinct says to pull back from whatever seems to be causing the pain. If prayer doesn't seem to be working, you pray less. If community feels risky, you withdraw. If God feels silent, you slowly stop talking to Him. Falling forward means developing the counter-instinct — the discipline of a first responder who runs toward the hard thing rather than away from it. This isn't a call to pretend things are fine. John didn't pretend. He sent his honest question to Jesus. Falling forward simply means that when life knocks you down, the direction you fall matters. Toward Jesus, even with fists full of questions, is always the right direction. The muscle for this gets built in the small, ordinary moments — the mornings when you open the Bible even though you don't feel like it, the weeks you show up to community when isolation feels easier.

For reflection

Where in your life right now are you tempted to pull away from God rather than lean in — and what would one small step toward Him look like this week?

Pray

Pray for the courage and the habit to lean into God when your instincts are pulling you away.

Day 5

After John's messengers leave, Jesus turns to the crowd and says something remarkable. He doesn't scold John for doubting. He doesn't roll His eyes or footnote the question as a lapse in judgment. He publicly honors John — calls him greater than anyone born of woman, names him as the messenger Isaiah promised. Jesus meets John's most vulnerable moment with the most generous public praise. That is a picture of the God we're dealing with. Pastor Daniel made the point clearly: God meets us with compassion, not condemnation, when we bring Him our questions. This is worth sitting with if you've been carrying shame about your doubt. Doubt isn't the opposite of faith — denial is. John's question was an act of engagement, not abandonment. And Jesus responded to it with honor. There's also something quietly poignant here. John doesn't appear to receive Jesus' answer in person. He's still in prison. Jesus' affirmation reaches him secondhand, through a report. Sometimes the encouragement God sends us doesn't arrive in the form we expected or through the channel we hoped for. Part of growing in trust is learning to receive what God actually offers rather than holding out only for what we pictured. Jesus saw John clearly and honored him fully — even from a distance, even in the dark.

For reflection

Is there shame attached to your doubts that might be keeping you from bringing them honestly to God?

Pray

Pray for the freedom to come to Jesus without cleaning yourself up first — to bring the real question, not the polished version of it.

Day 6

These two verses from Isaiah are some of the most quietly liberating in all of Scripture. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. And the distance between them isn't modest — it's the distance between earth and sky. For someone in pain, that can feel like cold comfort. But Pastor Daniel reframed it as something else entirely: an invitation to anchor your trust in who God is rather than in your ability to understand what He's doing. There's a difference between trusting someone because you can see their whole plan and trusting someone because you know their character. The second kind of trust is harder to build — but it's also the kind that actually holds under pressure. You can't always trace what God is doing. John couldn't from his cell. You may not be able to from wherever you are right now. But the evidence that Jesus is who He claims to be — the fulfilled prophecy, the witnessed miracles, the transformed lives Pastor Daniel pointed to — gives you something real to stand on even when the plan is opaque. Releasing the need to understand everything is not the same as becoming passive or giving up your questions. It means deciding that God's character is trustworthy even when His methods are mysterious. That's not a one-time decision. It's a daily practice of returning to what you know about Him when what you see confuses you.

For reflection

What would it look like — practically, today — to release one situation to God that you've been straining to understand or control?

Pray

Pray for the ability to rest in God's character in a specific area where His ways feel unclear or confusing right now.

Day 7

Reading the whole passage again at the end of the week, a simple arc comes into focus. A faithful man in a hard place sends an honest question to Jesus. Jesus responds with evidence and with compassion. And then He publicly names the man as great — not despite his doubt, but right alongside it. The whole encounter is a kind of permission slip. You are allowed to have questions. You are allowed to feel the gap between what you hoped for and what is. Bringing that honestly to Jesus is not a failure of faith — it's actually what faith looks like when it's being stretched and held at the same time. This week, Pastor Daniel laid out three responses for seasons like John's: look for what God is doing, fall forward toward Him rather than away, and release the need to understand everything. None of those are one-time events. They're orientations — habits of the heart that get built slowly, in community, through the Word, and in the ordinary moments of daily life. If this week surfaced something you need to process further, consider talking with someone at Rock Point — a pastor, a community group, a trusted friend who can walk with you. You don't have to work through the hard questions alone. That's what the body of Christ is for, and it's exactly what Jesus was modeling when He sent John's answer back through real people.

For reflection

Looking back at this week, which of the three responses — looking, leaning, or releasing — do you most need to keep practicing, and what is one specific way you'll do that?

Pray

Pray over the whole passage — bring your real week to God, name what shifted and what is still hard, and ask Him to continue the work He started.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message takes an honest look at what happens when life doesn't match what we expected from God — and what John the Baptist's crisis of faith in prison can teach us about where to take our doubts.

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 11:2-3, John the Baptist — the man Jesus later calls the greatest born of women — sends his disciples to ask, 'Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking?' What does it tell us about doubt that someone this close to Jesus could reach that point?
2
When John's disciples bring the question, Jesus responds in Matthew 11:4-5 by pointing to what they can see and hear — healings, restored sight, the good news reaching the poor. Why do you think Jesus answers doubt with eyewitness evidence rather than a direct 'yes, I am He'?
3
Pastor Daniel pointed to more than 300 fulfilled Old Testament prophecies as evidence that Jesus is who He claimed to be — a foundation that doesn't shift with our feelings. How might that kind of objective anchor function differently than personal experience when people are in a dark season?
4
After John's messengers leave, Jesus turns to the crowd and publicly honors John — calling him the greatest born of women — rather than correcting him for doubting. What does that response suggest about how God receives the doubts we bring to Him?
5
Pastor Daniel described two directions people can move when suffering hits: falling away from God or falling forward toward Him. What makes falling forward feel counterintuitive, and what might help someone move that direction when every instinct says to pull back?
6
Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us that God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours. Pastor Daniel connected this to releasing the need to understand everything and anchoring trust in God's character rather than the clarity of our circumstances. What's the difference between trusting God's character and simply hoping things will work out?

Pray together

Gratitude that doubt is not disqualifying — and courage to bring our honest questions to Jesus rather than away from Him

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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PROVEN

Week 1 · 4 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 11 Isaiah 41 Isaiah 61 Isaiah 55

Explore related topics

Doubt and Faith God's Faithfulness Jesus as God Leaning Into God Unmet Expectations

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