Have you noticed how quick we are to argue, to prove our point, to win the debate? When it comes to faith, we can so easily slip into defending Jesus instead of simply showing Him.

American writer and speaker Beau Stringer recently said this: "The church is obsessed with being a light in the darkness. But light doesn't argue with darkness. It just shows up. Jesus didn't debate His way into hearts – He healed, He fed, He forgave, He wept His way in. Maybe so-called "evangelism" is less about convincing anyone than it is about carrying a candle into places where religion refuses to go."

Is that perhaps what Jesus was meaning when He said this: 

Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light that shines for the world to see. You are like a city built on a hill that cannot be hidden. People don't hide a lamp under a bowl. They put it on a lampstand. Then the light shines for everyone in the house. In the same way, you should be a light for other people. Live so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.

Light breaks the darkness by its very presence. When Jesus walked the earth … yes, He preached – but principally, He won souls by loving people, practically, tangibly, deeply. He touched lepers, dined with sinners, forgave the guilty.

So, are you trying to argue people into the Kingdom or are you carrying a candle into their darkness; into places polite religion avoids? Because really, people don't need winning debates. They need love that shows up.

And that's our call: to live a life that shines Jesus into the shadows.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

If I were God – the last place I'd send my Son would be into a desert to be tempted by the devil. But fortunately – I'm not God and it turns out that the wilderness was exactly where Jesus needed to be.

In this day and age success is something that we can see on the outside and by and large people mostly want to be successful. A bit like that time when Jesus was baptised and the heavens opened up and God spoke:

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Now that didn't happen when I was baptised but if it had I would have known that I was on a fast track to success in the Kingdom of God. But what God did next with Jesus was to lead him out into the wilderness.

God does some odd things sometimes; at least that's how it feels when we look at it through our human eyes. He doesn't think the way we do, He doesn't behave the way we do and when we find ourselves out in that wilderness, that mismatch in expectations, means that often we just don't understand what He's up to.

That's because success in our eyes is an outward thing. You see it in the secular market place and, let me say, you often see it in Churches too. A guy called, Doug Webster in his book, "Under the Radar" puts it this way, he says:

For all practical purposes the fullness of the Spirit seems to mean realising your full potential, becoming the kind of person everyone else wants to follow, being someone who makes things happen, competing to win and being able to prove your success by numbers. Many popular Christian writers on leadership don't even bother to distinguish between worldly success and spiritual success because in their mind the two are virtually one and the same.

Today we're going to draw that distinction and it's a sharp distinction indeed. Here's the picture, Jesus gets baptised, we looked at this yesterday but we're going to have a quick look at it again today. He comes down to the Jordan River, it's flowing, it's full of life giving water, there's a crowd and have a look at what happens when He goes to be baptised, Matthew chapter 3 if you want to have a look, in verse 13:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. As soon as Jesus was baptised, He comes up out of the water and that very moment heaven was opened up and He saw the Spirit of God descending on Him like a dove and a voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased'.

That's an awesome thing, that's an incredible picture and throughout the whole Scripture there's nothing else like it, it's completely unique but what happens immediately following that, we can read it in Luke's gospel, his account, straight after this baptism, straight after this miraculous event, he goes:

Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returns from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them He was hungry.

Hungry, He must have been famished, He must have been starving. I mean I've gone without food for a few days and I tell you, you start getting dizzy and weak. The contrast between this spectacular baptism and the wilderness couldn't be more stark. The Jordan River with its crowds and Gods amazing deeds on the one hand and the desert, the wilderness on the other. It's so counter intuitive, it's so not what we would expect God to do but this wilderness for Jesus was an essential wilderness.

You see we expect success to follow success. We expect to go forward and up and up and up and up and up but Gods plan goes much deeper than that and if we were to discover the hidden things of God then the wilderness, the wilderness is essential.

Let's have a look at what happens to Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit. Now that's s

God’s blessings, grace, and salvation are gifts received through Christ, not rewards that can be purchased from religious leaders.

We live in a world obsessed with self-preservation. Look after yourself. Protect your own interests. Don't let anyone take advantage of you. And let's be honest – that's how most of us operate day to day.

Back in the 1500s, a Dutch Christian named Dirk Wilhelms escaped from prison. He was condemned to die for his faith. As he ran across a frozen moat, one of his guards fell through the ice. Now, Dirk could have kept running – freedom was right there for the taking. But instead, he turned back, pulled his enemy out of the water, and in doing so sealed his own fate. He was rearrested and burned at the stake.

Why would a man do that? Jesus once said: 

Matthew 5:44 But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who treat you badly.

It's easy enough to nod politely at that verse, but living it? That's something else entirely. Dirk didn't just believe it – he embodied it. And in that moment, his Christlike love shouted louder than any sermon.

So let me ask you – what would you give to save another soul? Your time? Your comfort? Your pride? Maybe even your safety?

Look, despite the fact that we each secretly long for a comfortable, predictable life, the hard cold truth of the matter is that the love of Jesus always costs us something.

So, compared to what He gave – His very life for yours and mine – how could we hold anything back? Friend, the challenge is real. Will you love others like Jesus loves you, when it's hard? When it hurts? When it costs you everything? That's the call.

Because that's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

We like surface things, comfort, recognition…worldly success. We just do. But as Jesus discovered, as He starved in the wilderness – during those tough times….it's about something much deeper.

I wonder if I ask you to define success, exactly how would you go about doing it? I mean what does success mean to you? I know that for a long time success for me meant recognition, wealth. Whatever I chose to do, being the best and reaping the rewards and then when I had the rewards, spending them in ways that demonstrated that indeed I was successful.

Success meant achieving, being seen to achieve and in every way reaping the rewards and that's pretty much the way of the world. Everything the advertising industry does reinforces that image of success, it's a surface thing and by implication the things that constitute success, according to the world's rules, those outwards signs of success, they're supposed to make us happy on the inside. Well, at least that's the theory.

I read a book recently by Doug Webster and it's called, "Under the Radar". It's one of those short books that just blew me away. This week on the program we're going to unpack that a little bit to see what he has to say. He makes the point that some of the most successful leaders he knows are people who have achieved so much but they're people that you or I will never, never know.

In a sense they're men and women who followed Gods call on their lives and flew under the radar of public recognition into the hearts and the lives of men and women and children around them. And it challenges our worldly images of success. Inevitably these great leaders are people who have spent time in the wilderness, people who have struggled and been vulnerable and allowed God into their lives in the midst of that wilderness.

Webster challenges me with this statement:

We shouldn't be surprised that the Bible calls for leadership that the world doesn't recognise as leadership. We have trouble identifying the 'David' type leader whose character and leadership have been forged in the wilderness while caring for the sheep.

It makes you think. We're going to look at this week, Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus in the desert, being tempted by the devil. Here's the Son of God and He ends up in this dark and lonely place but just before we go there, I'd like to share with you what happened to Jesus immediately before He ends up in the wilderness being tempted by the devil and it's the story of His baptism, it's pretty spectacular story. Matthew in his gospel chapter 3, verse 13 puts it this way, he says:

Jesus came down from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John the Baptist but John tried to send Him away saying, 'Look I need to be baptised by you Lord and you come to me?' But Jesus replied, 'Come on, lets do it, its proper for us to do this and to fulfil all righteousness.'

So John consented. And as soon as Jesus was baptised He came up out of the water and at that very moment heaven was opened and He saw the spirit of God descending down on Him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, 'This, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased'.

Now I want you to think about that for a moment, is that success or what? I mean you go down to be baptised, you're coming up out of the water, the heavens open up, God speaks:

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

This man is special, I tell you what, if I was in my baptism and that happened to me I'd be thinking, "Man I have arrived, I have made it, I am on a fast track to success in the Kingdom of God." Wouldn't you think the same?

And if we were standing there watching this, seeing Jesus come up out of the water and hearing that, God speak and the heavens open up and the spirit of God desce

Life is full of paradoxes. We long for clarity, yet God often hides His greatest truths just beneath the surface. We want instant answers; He invites persistent seeking. The tension between faith and mystery is where transformation happens – when we choose not to give up the search.

In 1928, Scottish bacteriologist and medical researcher Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to find mould growing in his petri dishes. Most scientists would've tossed them out – but Fleming didn't. His curiosity led to the discovery of penicillin, a life-saving breakthrough that had been hidden in plain sight. The world changed because one man decided to dig deeper.

Jeremiah 33:1 – 3 While Jeremiah was still locked up in the courtyard of the guards, the message from the LORD came to him a second time: "The LORD made the earth, and he keeps it safe. The LORD is his name. He says, 'Judah, pray to me, and I will answer you. I will tell you important secrets. You have never heard these things before.'

Jeremiah wasn't free – he was imprisoned when God spoke those words. Yet even there, God promised revelation. "Call to me," He said. "I will show you." The message wasn't about comfort; it was about persistence – about calling, even when you're confined, confused, or afraid.

When you refuse to give up in prayer, you step into the same mystery that Fleming did – discovering hidden truths that transform everything. God delights to reveal His purposes to those who keep asking, keep knocking, keep seeking.

So don't stop digging. Even in the cell, even in the dark, He's already preparing to show you great and mysterious things you don't yet know.

That's His Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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Almost everyone prays at some point. The atheist in the hospital waiting room. The sceptic on a turbulent flight. The believer kneeling by a dying loved one. Something deep within us cries out for help. And yet – how often does it feel like those prayers bounce off the ceiling, like God's gone missing in action, leaving us to wonder if He ever listens at all?

During World War II, C.S. Lewis – then an outspoken atheist – found himself terrified during the air raids. Out of sheer desperation, he prayed, even though he didn't believe that anyone was listening.

Over time, those whispered pleas changed him. He later wrote that his prayer one night was the moment when "God closed in on me." The sceptic became one of Christianity's greatest defenders, all because, in fear, he dared to pray.

Psalm 116:1 – 2 I love the Lord for hearing me, for listening to my prayers. He listened to me every time I called to him.

Prayer isn't a ritual – it's a lifeline. God isn't indifferent to your cries; He's bending low to listen. Even when the silence feels deafening, He's working in ways you can't yet see.

What's the one thing weighing on you right now – the one fear, the one ache, the one question that keeps you awake? Don't bottle it up. Don't mask it with noise. Take it to Him.

Because He's not missing in action. He's closer than you think, leaning in, waiting for your voice. And when you call – He hears. Always.

So, if you're working, pray. If you're anxious, pray. If you're angry, pray. If you're happy, pray. Always pray. Prayer has power.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

The seeds of faith you plant today may bear fruit years—or even decades—from now.