When Nobody Sees You, God Still Does | A Cloud of Witnesses

That was pretty weak. Good morning Northview. - Good morning. - Hey, you guys are looking good today. Turn to somebody next to you and say, you're looking good. I'm so glad you're here today. If you don't have a church home, we'd be honored to have you come and be a part of all that God is doing here in our church. We've already had church, to be honest with you, man. The worship service this morning was powerful, and I always get emotional whenever we have baptism. Isn't that incredible? Yeah. Listen guys, I know that you know this, but while the elders are searching for our next pastor, our job is still the same. Our job is the great commission to reach people that are far from God. And I really believe that Northview is doing a great job at that. Seriously, I'm excited about all the different things that God is doing right now in our church. There's so much ministry that's taking place. Our discipleship walk, I was talking to somebody the other day, they were filming in on a lot of the different things going on. Our discipleship walks were both full. The men's walk was this weekend, actually.

Christmas Compassion is starting. That's always, there's so many incredible stories that come out of that. So far this year, we have sent over 20 mission teams around the world with a message of Jesus. And currently, yeah, three of us are excited about that. I don't know about the rest of you, but that's the yay God. And currently we have a team in Nepal. Guys, clean drinking water is still one of the most serious concerns around the world. You know that 2.1 billion people are one out of four people lack safe drinking water. This year, through filter of hope, North U has distributed 664 water filters. They've shared the gospel with over 1,100 people and they've prayed with 546 of those people to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. (congregation applauding) Yeah. God is on the move. You know, recently, I know I mentioned this a lot, but I'm so, I so love the ministry that we have with God behind bars and all of our men and women behind bars that are coming to Christ. And they were telling me that in Miami Correctional Facility, just recently, they baptized 30 men that had accepted Christ in their life. And so, yay God on that. (congregation applauding)

Well, let me pray and we're gonna jump into this today. Father, I just thank You and I praise You for Your faithfulness. There are so many people today that are far from God. And You have given us a mandate. You have made it clear that that's our role, that's our responsibility. These folks need to know about You, Jesus. And so, we pray that You'd help us to reach out to them, that You'd give us a love for them and a compassion for them like never before. Now, God, as we get into Your Word today, I pray that You'd open our eyes and ears to see and hear all that You want to do in our own lives. God, we love You and praise You. I pray that Your blessings would continue to be upon North U church. And I pray, Dear God, that Your direction is. They're looking for the next pastor that You would lead their steps. And I pray, Father, for every church throughout this community that's preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Your favor and blessings would be upon them as well. Thanks, God. We love You and we ask Him in the name of Jesus, amen. Well, today, we're talking about Matthew. And I think most of you know exactly who I'm talking about when I mention that name. We immediately think about the gospel of Matthew. Matthew is what?

He's the first book in the New Testament. It's the first of the four gospels. And in this gospel, Matthew, He introduces us to the genealogy of Jesus. He introduces us to the Sermon on the Mount, to the Lord's Prayer. Guys, it's the only gospel to tell us about the wise men from the east and the star that led them to the house where Mary and Joseph lived in Bethlehem. And guys, that's just in the first seven chapters. Now, the focus of Matthew's gospel was to convince the Jewish people that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. And to do that, Matthew quoted from the Old Testament 99 times. In fact, Matthew quoted more from the Old Testament than Mark, Luke, and John combined. Matthew is a very important book to the Christian faith. In fact, the great theologian William Barkley once said this. He said, "When we turn to Matthew, we turn to the book "which may be called the most important single document "of the Christian faith. "For in it, we have the fullest and most systematic account "of life and teachings of Jesus." Now, as I said, the author of this gospel is Matthew. Or is it Levi? Gospel, chapter 2, and in Luke's Gospel, chapter 5, they refer to him as Levi. But he refers to himself as Matthew. But the fact is, guys, Levi and Matthew are the same person. Now, many believe, we don't really know for sure because the Scripture doesn't tell us, but many believe that Jesus changed Levi's name once he became one of the disciples, just as he did for Simon Peter. But again, we just don't know for sure. In fact, we really don't know a whole lot about Matthew's personal life. But if you've watched the chosen, I

love that, and if you haven't watched the chosen, my gosh, why not? I mean, are you hiding under a rock or what? It is absolutely the best, the best teaching on the Gospel that I have ever seen. You really should watch it. I would encourage you to go home and binge watch it if you haven't seen it before. But anyway, the chosen, I love the way that they portray Matthew as someone that was quiet, someone not very social, more of an introvert, and yet a very intelligent guy. Now, we really don't know if that's what Matthew was like or not. But we do know, the one thing that we do know from Scripture is that he was a tax collector and component. In the first century, tax collectors, listen, tax collectors were this small group of individuals who were funded by high-ranking, ultra-wealthy politicians. They were called tax collectors, and their job was to do just that. Their job was to collect the tax from the people. But they often collected, well, let's just say they collected a bit more than what was owed for their own personal gain, which is why they were so hated and why they were so despised by everyone and mentioned in Scripture alongside criminals and prostitutes. Matthew set in that tax booth day after day after day, and yet I would tell you, I don't think that people really even noticed him. I don't think they saw Matthew the son. I don't think they saw Matthew the friend. I don't think most people even knew whether he was married or whether he had children. I don't think they knew where he came from or how old he was. They didn't know his likes or dislikes. And quite honestly, I don't think they cared. It just didn't matter to him. They just listened. They just knew that he was the local tax collector. And I'm sure Matthew felt the loneliness or the disdain that comes with feeling ignored. Guys, let me ask you a question. Have you ever felt invisible? Have you ever felt like no one sees you? There was a presentation that I found by Nicole Johnson. It's called The Invisible Woman. And I think it illustrates the point I'm trying to make, and so watch this if you would. It started to happen gradually. I would walk into a room and say something, and no one would notice. I would say, turn the TV down, please. And nothing would happen. So I would get louder. Turn the TV down, please. Finally, I would have to go over and turn the TV down myself. And then I started to notice it elsewhere. My husband and I had been at a party for about three hours, and I was ready to go. I looked over, and he was talking to a friend from

work and I walked over, and he kept right on talking. He didn't even turn toward me. That's when I started to put it together. He can't see me. I'm invisible. I'm invisible. Then I started to notice it more and more. I would walk my son to school, and his teacher would say, Jake, who is that with you? And my son would say, nobody? Granted, he's just five, but nobody? One night a group of us gathered, and we were celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just taken this fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. And I was sitting there looking around at the other women at the table. I put my makeup on in the car on the way there. I had on an old dress because it was the only thing clean, and I had my unwashed hair pulled up in a banana clip, and I was feeling pretty darn pathetic. And then Janice turned to me, and she said, I brought you this. It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I didn't understand. And then I read her inscription. He wrote, I'm going to stop right there and I'll come back to the rest of it in just a minute. I guess my question is, what about you? Do you ever feel invisible like that? Sometimes the worst feeling is not being criticized by someone. I think sometimes the worst feeling is being ignored. You feel like you could stand in the middle of a crowded room and no one would even notice you were there. Maybe you've worked at the same desk for years and yet you wonder how many of your coworkers even know your name. Maybe you're a mom and you work your tail off taking care of your kids, you run them all over with all of their activities as well as doing all the household chores and yet you don't feel like anyone sees all the things that you do. Recent surveys actually have shown that 79% of mothers feel invisible while 95% say they feel unappreciated or unseen in their role. But guys, it's not just mothers. There are men and women alike who would say they feel insignificant, who would say they feel invisible at times they wonder if God even notices them. Well, I think Matthew was one of those people, which is why I think Matthew actually introduces us to a host of people who also fit being invisible at times. People that society didn't have any use for. We go to Matthew chapter 9 verse 36 and it says, "When he saw the crowds," and we're talking about Jesus, "when he saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless like sheep without a shepherd." Matthew says, "When Jesus saw the crowds and he felt compassion for them." We're first introduced to Matthew in the ninth verse of that same chapter as Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named

to Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth. "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him, so Matthew got up and followed him. So here he sits, this despised tax collector, in his tax booth, and Jesus sees him and walks over to him and invites Matthew to follow him. So not only did Jesus see Matthew, but he also called him to follow. Listen, regardless how you feel about yourself, I will promise you, my friends, that Jesus sees you. And I will promise you that he knows everything going on in your life. He knows all about you. And more than anything else in the world, he wants you to follow him. You know, we come up with these ideas of what Jesus must want from us. We come up with these ideas of this list of things, these legalistic concept of what Jesus must want from us. I'll tell you exactly what he wants from you. He wants your heart. He wants to be in a relationship with you. He absolutely loves you more than you could even begin to comprehend. And he just wants you to follow him. Now, I don't know what Matthew felt at that moment that Jesus approached him, but it had to be quite an emotional feeling for Matthew. It had to impact him in a huge way that he would immediately get up from his position and walk away from that profession. To walk away from life as he knew it, to follow Jesus. Why? I don't know. Maybe for the first time he actually felt valued. Maybe there was this sense for the first time of self-worth. Maybe instead of disdain, he felt love. He felt forgiveness. Guys, to be seen by Jesus was huge for Matthew. And to be called, well, it obviously was a powerful experience. Listen, every day the Matthews of our lives sit by the side waiting just to be seen, waiting just to be noticed, to be cared about, waiting to be called to do something significant with their life. Okay, so all this year we've been looking at heroes of the faith. If you've been around North, you know that's the case. We've been talking about heroes of the faith, ordinary men and women of the Bible who were just like you and me. I mean, these men and women all had families. They had occupations. I'm sure at times they got sick and at times I'm sure and confident they made some very poor choices. But in the end, what made them heroes of faith is that they trusted God. They demonstrated faith and they trusted God. I mean, think about some of the heroes of faith that we've already talked about. In the Old Testament, David, he was an adulterer. to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was a persecutor of Christians. Peter, he denied Jesus, Zacchaeus was another dishonest tax collector. Guys, every one of them had made some very bad choices, some very bad decisions, and yet those bad decisions were not the end of their story.

God went on to use them because of their bold faith. Listen, everyone of us in this room has made mistakes, and the devil is going to do everything he possibly can to try and convince you that because of those poor decisions, God's not going to be able to use you. But you are now disqualified for service, friends, that is just not true. It is absolutely not true. Satan, of course, would love to smack some kind of a label on you, some kind of a false identity on you. He loves to whisper in your ear and tell you that you're an addict, you're a liar, you're a cheater, you're a divorcee, you're a terrible parent, you're a failure with your finances. No, you are just a loser. He loves to tell you that you don't have what it takes to be used of God. So why in the world do you even try? Why in the world do you even bother? But friends, hear me. Jesus made it very clear to us that Satan is a liar. In fact, Jesus said he is the father of lies. But Satan also knows that if he can get you to believe those lies, then he can keep you from fulfilling God's plan for your life. Listen, friends, all of these heroes of the faith were used by God because they refused to listen to Satan's lies. They refused to accept Satan's labels because they understood a very important thing. Our identity is not found in a label. It's not found in a past mistake or even in what we do for a living. Our identity is found in Christ. Listen to me. There may be times that you feel like a failure. We've all been there. I have. You have.

There may be times that you feel invisible. I know those feelings. There may be times you feel insignificant, but regardless of how you feel, the truth of the matter is you are a child of God. In fact, scripture says God knew you before you were even in your mother's womb and he has a purpose and a plan for your life. In the book of Psalms, it says the steps of a righteous person or ordered of the Lord. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 1, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. So guys, this is what I want you to understand. It's really this simple. God sees you, he calls you, and once he's called you, he sends you. He sees you, he calls you, and then he sends you. That really is the Christian life in a nutshell. We try to complicate it and we get confused about it, but Jesus sees you, he calls you, and then he sends you, every one of us in this room that are believers. In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes chapter 5, "So we are Christ ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God, come back to God." You see, once we respond to God, listen, once we respond to God's call, we become his hands and his feet, his voice of love and grace. And we have a responsibility, believers, listen to him. We have a responsibility to reach those that are far from Christ. And John chapter 20, it says, again, he said, "Peace be with you as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." You see, Matthew decided to follow Jesus no matter what the cost. He had no idea. At that moment, he had no idea that he'd end up being one of Jesus' twelve disciples. He had no idea that later he would end up writing the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew.

I mean, let that soak in for just a minute. The guy that everybody had written off as a total loser, God chose to write the story of Jesus. Again, I go back to the series on the chosen, in the way they portray Matthew. And he's constantly, if you've seen him, he's constantly writing. Something will happen in a miracle-type place and there's Matthew over there, he's writing it down. He's collecting it all, he wants to get it. The story of Matthew, listen, the story that Matthew wrote would be read by billions of people over the next two thousand years. And I'll say this over and over and over. I don't care what mistakes that you've made. I don't care how insignificant you might feel. The truth of this, you matter to God. He sees you, he calls you, and then he sends you. He sends you to reach others that need to know about this amazing love. Friends, please hear me on this. If you profess to be a follower of Christ, then you're calling your responsibility, your obligation as a Christian is to reach your friends and your family that are far from God. That's the great commission, the great commandment. And so people are like, okay, I'm a Christian. Now, what am I supposed to do? That's it. Our responsibility and role is to reach others that are far from God. God wants you to see, God wants you to see the people that you rub shoulders with day in and day out.

You know, if there's anything I would challenge you to do this week, that would be it. Think about the people that you're with every day. Think about your neighbors, think about your coworkers, think about the people that you rub shoulders with every day. Do you see 'em? Do you know their name? Do you know anything about 'em? Because the way we reach people for Christ is through relationship. That when you start to see people, it melts people's heart. He sees me. He really does care about me. He wants to know more about me. So if you say, I don't know how to win somebody Christ, the best way to do it is just to build a relationship with them. When people looked at Matthew, all they saw was a tax collector. When Jesus looked at Matthew, he saw the heart of a man. He saw someone that was ready to have an encounter with God. He saw an apostle. And guys, that's how God is with you. While you and I see the past, God sees the possibilities. While we see our failures, God sees our future. While we see the labels in our life, Jesus sees the person. So yes, I know every one of us have made mistakes. We all have made mistakes.

But our past is actually part of our story. And our past, hear me. Our past is not the end of the story. Our past doesn't define us. Jesus didn't say, you know what? Go get yourself together and then you can come follow me. He didn't say, go fix your reputation and then you can come follow me. No, he simply said, Matthew, just follow me. So even if you don't feel very talented, Jesus is saying to you, follow me. Some of you might, you know, some of you might feel like you've missed your opportunity to say, Steve, I'm just too old. And Jesus says the same thing to you, follow me. You might feel like God could never use someone as messed up as you are. And yet Jesus is still saying to you, follow me. Listen friends, Jesus sees you and he calls you just the way you are at this moment right now. But he doesn't leave you that way. Matthew was not an accomplished writer when Jesus said, follow me. It was only after Matthew trusted Jesus that he was transformed into one of the most influential men of the New Testament church. You know, there's scriptures that you might have that are your favorite, one of my favorite scriptures I'd almost call up my life versus Philippians chapter one that says, and I am certain that God who began

the good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. I absolutely love that verse because throughout my life I've oftentimes struggled with feelings of inadequacy, especially when it comes to ministry or when it comes to serving God. There have been times in my life. And, you know, here I've pastored a good-sized church and yet I would sit with a group of pastors and find myself not talking much, feeling very insignificant, feeling very unqualified. Why? Because Satan's a dog. Satan's a liar. And he's constantly whispering in here here. And that verse has been a promise I've held on to because it reminds me that, hey, God's not done with you yet. God is still molding you and he's still shaping you into the person he wants you to become. And yet at the same time, do we really understand? Hear me. At the same time, guys, do we really understand that this life is not about us, that this life we're living in, that one's hard for us to wrap our brain around because everything in our world is about us. But this life is not about us, it's about him. And he wants us to reach them. So if you profess to be a follower of Christ,

then what are you doing to reach others that are far from God? You say, Steve, I don't know what to do. Well, let's see what Matthew did. In the 10th verse, it says later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples. along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. Think about that. Matthew had just been called by Jesus. He's a brand new believer, a brand new Christian, and what does he do? He immediately reaches out to his friends, to his social life, to his circle of friends, and invites them to his home for dinner, so that they can have the opportunity to meet this Jesus that changed his life. And who are his friends? Other tax collectors, sinners, people just like himself, who I'm sure also felt invisible, who also felt unseen, others who also felt rejected by society. And Matthew wants his friends to experience what he's just experienced. Guys, this is such a beautiful picture of discipleship. It's a beautiful picture of what Jesus wants from all of us. It's what he wants all of us to do when he gave us the great commission. Jesus calls us, he changes us, and then he sends us out to reach other people. I hear Christians argue about, oftentimes I've heard this debate,

and I've been a part of it at times where Christians want to argue about what's more important. Discipleship are evangelism. Guys, they go hand in hand. They're two sides of the same coin. You can't have discipleship without evangelism, and you can't have evangelism without discipleship. They absolutely go together. So we see Matthew invites his friends to come to his home and see. Well, there's other stories in the New Testament that are similar to that. The one that comes to my mind is John chapter one, verse 44, where Philip was from Bethsaida. Andrew and Peter's hometown. Well, Philip went to look for Nathaniel and told him. We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nazareth exclaimed Nathaniel, "Can anything good come from Nazareth? "Come see for yourself," Philip replied. I love that. Philip was also this brand new believer, brand new Christian. He didn't know how to share his faith. He didn't know how to answer Nathaniel's questions, but he wanted his friend to experience a relationship with Jesus like he had experienced with Jesus. So he simply said, look, just come and see. Just come and see for yourself.

Guys, I'm just saying to you, it doesn't have to be hard. Maybe you just need to invite your unchurch friends to your home for a meal. Maybe where you can build a relationship with them, maybe that's the starting point for you. Maybe it's inviting them over for a Bible study or a book study at your dorm or in your home. You say, Steve, let me just tell you, my friends are not going to attend a Bible study or a book study. And I would say, how do you know? Have you tried? Have you actually invited them? Have you heard them say no? Seriously, I think you might be surprised at just how many people are interested about spiritual things. Are curious about spiritual things. Becky McCord has been a part of Northview for many years, a friend of mine. She spends the winters in Florida and they live in a condo in Naples. A few years ago, she decided to host a six week Bible study to reach the ladies that lived in her condo community. She put an invite out and almost 20 ladies attended every single week and now she does that study or a different study every single year and they keep coming back. I'm telling you, she's making a difference in their lives. Listen guys, when Becky invited those ladies to her home,

she was saying to them, hey, I see you. You matter to God and you matter to me. You see, so that invitation, which I'm trying to encourage all of us to do, that simple invitation makes a statement. Listen, at the very least, the very least, every one of us can invite our friends and our coworkers to a church service or invite them to some kind of a spiritual event or spiritual activity that's going on in the church. So I guess I would say, what are we waiting for? You know, don't wait. I'll say it again, don't wait for a new pastor. God is moving now. There are people being saved now. Now is the opportunity. It's now that people are hungry to hear more about spiritual things. Again, I think you'd be surprised by how many people would come if someone invites them. I told you a few weeks ago that they've asked me to do the Christmas Eve service, which I'm super excited about. So we'll have multiple services. Man, at Easter and Christmas is the time of year when people are thinking about coming to church. But here's the bottom line. If they don't know where to go and nobody invites them, they won't go. And that's why a simple invitation from you

to your friends, family or coworkers, a simple invitation to say, you know what? for our Christmas Eve service. I think you would be surprised how many would say, "I'd love to come." Sure, I'll come with you. So at this Christmas season, I just wanna encourage you and challenge you that everybody invite someone to come back home for Christmas. Notice in verse 11, he goes on and says, "But when the Pharisees saw this, "they asked His disciples, "'Why does your teacher eat with such scum?'" Well, that's blunt, isn't it? When Jesus heard this, He said, "Healthy people don't need a doctor. "Sick people do." Then He added, "Now go and learn the meaning of this scripture. "I want you to show mercy, not all for sacrifice. "For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, "but those who know they are sinners." The religious leaders were so irritated that Jesus would hang out with sinners instead of hanging out with the righteous. But guys, that's the heart of Jesus. That's the heart of the gospel. He said, "It's not the healthy that need a doctor, "but it's the sick." Now, if you've been around here long, you've heard me say this many times,

that I think if Jesus returned to the earth today and was walking the earth today, I don't think you would find Him visiting churches. I think you would find Him in the bars. I think you'd find Him in the prisons. I think you'd find Him on the street talking to the homeless. I think you'd find Jesus where the sinners are, demonstrating to them His love and His compassion. Jesus doesn't avoid broken people. What does He do? He moves towards broken people, just like He did Matthew that day as He was sitting in the tax booth. He moves towards them, just like He did with Matthew and just like He did with you and just like He did with me. At the beginning of the message, I showed you the first part in Nicole Johnson's story. I want us to see the rest of it, watch your screen. - You can't name the names of the people who built the great cathedrals. Over and over again, looking at these mammoth works, you scan down to find the names and it says, "Builder, unknown, unknown, unknown." They completed things not knowing that anyone would notice. There's a story about one of the builders who was carving a tiny bird inside a beam that would be covered over by a roof. And someone came up to him and said,

"Why are you spending so much time on something no one will ever see?" And it's reported that the builder replied, "Because God sees." They trusted that God saw everything. They gave their whole lives for a work, a mammoth work. They would never see finished. They showed up day after day. Some of these cathedrals took over 100 years to build that was more than one working man's lifetime. Day after day. And they made personal sacrifices for no credit. Showing up at a job they would never see finished for a building their name would never be on. One writer even goes so far as to say, "No great cathedrals will ever be built again because so few people are willing to sacrifice to that degree." I closed the book and it was as if I heard God say, "I see you, you are not invisible to me." No sacrifice is too small for me to notice. I see every cupcake baked, every sequin sewn on, and I smile over everyone. I see every tear of disappointment. When things don't go the way you want them to go. But remember, you are building a great cathedral. It will not be finished in your lifetime. And sadly, you will never get to live there. But if you build it well, I will.

At times, my invisibility has felt like an affliction to me. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my own pride. It's okay that they don't see. It's okay that they don't know. I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college. You're not gonna believe what my mom does. She gets up at four in the morning and she bakes pies and hand-based at Turkey and she presses all the linens. Even if I do all those things, I don't wanna. you're going to love it there. It's okay that they don't see. We don't work for them. We work for him. We sacrifice for him. They will never see. Not if we do it right. Not if we do it well. Let's pray that our work will stand as a monument to an even greater God. I love your story about the builder who spent so much time carving the tiny bird inside a beam that would be covered over by the roof. And when they asked him why you spent so much time on something no one will ever see in the builder says because God sees. Guys, there's hundreds of you who faithfully serve God behind the scenes. Unfortunately, you don't hear a lot of thank yous. And at times, you might even wonder if anybody even notices, but of course, it doesn't make you stop serving because that's just the way God wired you. You don't need to be on center stage. You're not doing this to impress anyone else. You're doing this to serve an audience of one. I think you would be surprised how many people there are in our church that are like Matthew quietly working behind the scenes to further the kingdom of God. I think of John Ackman, who goes to our church, who gives about seven hours of his weekend to work with our God behind bars. He drives there to get to the prison, then he helps them with two services, and then he drives an hour to get back home. I think of Bob and Janice Pepper, another example of someone unseen by most people, and yet they've served in our children's ministry for years. They have impacted countless numbers of kids, my own grandkids who are now in their late

teens and early 20s, were taught as children by Bob and Janice. Bob and Janice also prepared the coffee I saw him last night on Saturday night getting the coffee ready to go for the weekend service. Then there's Rob Donahoe, who is also a great example of someone that's working behind the scenes. He helps lead a student life group and for years has served whenever needed in men's ministry. If you need someone to set up chairs or to cook food, Rob's your God. He's also involved with a soap group. One last example that I'll give you is Kevin Ortell. He leads our volunteer security team. He does security all morning on Sunday and then goes to the student ministry that night and does security there. And he does it all without any recognition or without any pay. Guys, listen, I could seriously, I could go on and on and on with examples of people in our church that might seem invisible. You probably don't know who they are, but like Matthew, they quietly are working behind the scenes to make a difference in the kingdom of God. And so I'm just saying, and I know there are many of you in the room, I'm just saying to all of you Matthews, thank you. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of so many people. And I want you to know, which I hope you already know, but I want you to know when you see at the end of a service, people praying with me or whoever's up here, raising their hand, praying to receive Christ to their life. Or when you go to one of our ministries and people there have prayed to receive Christ, I just want you to know that you played a huge part in that. You played a huge part in then coming to Christ. Maybe all you did was just say, why don't you come with me this weekend? Why don't you just come and see? And then they pray to receive Christ. You played a part in that. You help us as a church to see those that are far from God. And I promise. Listen, I promise you, Matthews, that one day you're going to hear God say, well done by good and faithful servant. Let me just close by saying, if you feel invisible or insignificant or you feel like no one cares, I promise you that God sees you. He loves you and He has a plan for your life. I promise you, you matter to God. Would you pray with me, Father, thank you for your faithfulness. You are an amazing God. And I know, Lord, that there are many in the room that one time or another have certainly felt invisible. At one time or another, they've felt insignificant like their life doesn't count somehow or that their life doesn't matter. Lord, I know we've all made those mistakes where we think we are disqualified somehow for service. and the plans that you have for us. He wants to rob from us the peace and the joy that only you can bring. And so I pray for every one of us Lord, whether we're behind the scenes person or somebody

out front, I pray that we would remain faithful as Matthew did and help our friends and family and co-workers discover a relationship with you Jesus. Thank you God. We love you and praise you. We just ask Him in the name of your Son Jesus. Amen.