Sing Before You See It — Ps Andrew Toogood - 8.2.2026

Welcome to this week's teaching from Exchange Church in the heart of Belfast.

Is everybody well this morning? Ready to receive the word? Close your eyes, let me pray.

Father, I want to thank you for your word this morning.

Thank you that your word testifies for itself and says that your words are life and health.

Father, our posture this morning is one of openness.

Father, we just set aside everything from life for this moment and for these moments to come.

We set it aside and we say, Holy Spirit, speak to us. Amen.

Lord, speak a word into our lives this morning.

Take your word and make it our word this morning as your word settles in our heart

because your word produces good fruit in my life.

There's nothing in this world that can produce what one word of grace will produce in my life.

And so, Father, I thank you for grace in this place, for the unearned, undeserved, unmerited favor of Jesus.

Holy Spirit, minister that deep into the lives of everybody here, everyone listening online, everyone in this place.

Father, so that we are transformed this morning, so that we leave here with hope this morning.

So we leave here, Father, different than what we came in.

And all God's people said, Amen.

Listen, it's great to see you.

I'm going to continue today.

I want to say, this morning is called Sing It Before You See It.

And what I hope to do at the end is to have you all standing up singing something.

All right, is that okay?

I look at your faces, that got you hooking up, didn't it?

All right, now.

You're all going to stand up and sing a song of your choosing.

But maybe not out loud because, well, the Lord says, make a joyful noise, doesn't he?

He doesn't say, sing beautifully.

He says, make a joyful noise.

He's more interested in what comes out of here than what it sounds like out of here.

And so, but I want to talk today.

We've been talking about wide open spaces.

I honestly believe that this is a year where the Lord says, there is a flow.

The expression that came to my head was, the narrow season has ended.

You know, I talked about how people last week, I talked about how often we feel boxed in by life, don't we?

Anybody?

So whether it's job, money, people, relationships,

things can make your world feel quite small and boxed in.

And I felt that the word that the Lord spoke over this church this year was wide open space.

From way before Christmas, we started to pray this penny now.

There is a wide open space.

And that is taken from scripture, from Psalm 18 and Psalm 31.

You need to get up to speed.

If you haven't heard that last week, it was a belter.

And so you, as they all are really, to be honest.

And so even if I say so myself, like I got saved in the middle of it last week.

So catch you up on the YouTube.

It was a moment.

Oh, glory.

Angels came and all the rest of it.

I got saved, healed, delivered, all in one go, preaching to myself.

And so that's what happened.

And, but I was talking about, and so what you have to do is,

there's a word called the rhema word of God.

Rhema word of God is the now word of God that God is speaking.

There's the timeless word of God, logos written down.

Jesus is the embodiment of the word of God.

He is the word, was the word from the very beginning.

And so we see that there is a word that stands true and eternal, never changes.

The word of God never changes, right?

But there are times where the Holy Spirit puts an emphasis on something.

And he says for this time,

because there is a contextualization of what the Lord is doing in your life.

So if you're going through something,

what happens is the rhema word, the Holy Spirit knows and sees what you need.

And he speaks, takes the written word of God and speaks it right into your situation.

Amen.

And so if you listen this morning,

and then you listen to what the Lord is saying over this church,

this is a year of wide open space.

What that means is that, I explained it last week,

but the Lord says he brings you out from narrowness

into a place of blessing and fullness and hope and future,

a place where you can go and breathe.

Do you get that?

Not boxed in, not trying to make things work,

but actually in a flow of the blessing and the favour of God.

So if that is for you this morning,

what I would encourage you to do is to go,

Lord, I received that word.

And if you are moving that way, and I've already seen it in my life.

If I started to preach,

there's been stuff happening outside in my business

where I've seen the favour of God, where something seemed dead.

You know what I mean?

And the Lord said, wide open space.

Andrew, what did I tell you?

Now go flip me.

It actually works, right?

The Lord is actually working.

No figure, huh?

Isn't that amazing?

And so that's what we're going to talk about.

So turn up your Bibles to Isaiah 54,

because I want to say this,

barrenness, I'm going to talk from one verse today.

So that's going to be a bit of a challenge,

but I'm going to get through it pretty quick.

And it's Isaiah 54 verse one,

because let's be honest,

there's a lot of people in their lives,

in certain bits of your life anyway,

you don't feel dead fruitful.

Anybody?

Yeah?

Well, if you're struggling to answer that,

let me tell you, from what I can see,

there's some of you need a wee bit more fruit in your life.

Anybody?

Well, don't be offended.

So do I.

All right?

So you're not sitting there going,

oh, look at me, just so blessed,

can hardly control it.

You know what I mean?

There's all bits in our life,

whether it's in our bodies, in our minds,

in our families, in our finance,

whatever it happens to be,

there's some areas where the grace of God,

though fully available to us,

we haven't quite seen the fullness of it yet.

And that's what the Bible calls barrenness.

I want to talk into that,

because a lot of people don't feel fruitful.

They feel barren.

You hear me speak on this stuff,

and you go, yeah, whatever.

All right?

And being barren in the Bible,

well, actually, not even in the Bible,

just in life,

when you're barren, it drains energy from you.

It drains faith.

It drains relationships, ministry, joy.

Some of you have prayed.

A lot of you have tried hard, haven't you?

And some of you have waited,

and you're quietly wondering,

is this just what it's going to be like?

Anybody?

Oh, yeah?

And then God starts to speak

one of the strangest things

you're ever going to hear in scripture.

Sing, barren woman.

You who never bore a child.

Burst into song,

and there's some deep meaning in that,

and shout for joy.

And you kind of go,

you must be kidding me.

Do you actually know what my life is like?

Right?

I've got this going on,

and this going on,

and this going on.

I feel this,

and da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

And the Lord goes,

uh-huh, sing.

And you go, you must be kidding.

Have you heard me sing?

You know what I mean?

I'm a great singer, by the way,

just FYI.

Just throwing that out there.

On top of everything else

that I can do,

I'm a great singer.

And I'm bigging myself up here this morning.

You don't get a lot of encouragement in life.

So I just thought,

if you don't encourage yourself,

like you're stuffed,

I'm a wonderful singer.

And then, but he says,

sing, barren woman.

And it's interesting that he goes,

sing not after your breakthrough.

Most of us will feel like singing when we see.

And the Lord says,

no, sing before you see.

We don't sing once the situation has changed.

In the middle of barrenness,

if you feel like a barren woman,

one who's never born a child,

burst into song,

shout for joy.

You who were never in labor,

because more are the children of the desolate woman

than of her who has a husband,

says the Lord.

I'm gonna talk about that.

Let me just encourage you for a moment first.

I wanna say,

you've gotta sing it before you see it.

Sing it before you see it.

Now, barrenness in the Bible,

we just need to be clear,

is not a part of God's condemnation on you this morning.

What happens whenever we feel barren

in a certain area of our life?

We think that it's part of God's condemnation.

Now, the truth of it is,

according to scripture,

barrenness is a feature of a broken world,

but it's a setup for God to move.

We have to start to reframe how we see

where we're at in our lives right now.

After the fall,

the Bible tells us that all of creation is affected.

Bodies fail, right?

Crops fail.

Relationships fracture.

Life doesn't flow as it's intended.

And barrenness in the Bible belongs in that category.

Paul actually clearly,

later on in the New Testament,

labels this.

He says all of creation itself

is subjected to frustration and groaning,

he describes it.

So barrenness isn't a verdict from God.

It's a symptom of a world

that is waiting for redemption.

Do you get that?

It's really important that you see that.

The Bible never teaches

that barrenness is a personal curse, ever.

And sometimes with condemnation in our hearts,

not under the grace of God,

what we do is we think that

if I am not showing fruit in an area

or barrenness in an area,

somehow that is part of God condemning me

or part of condemnation in my life.

It's not.

We live in a broken world.

The amazing thing is, though,

is that God specializes in bringing out life

from broken places.

And I want you to start to reframe

barrenness in your mind

because many of us, it locks us down,

and we go, this is it.

No matter what I've done,

tried, prayed for, whatever,

I am under something which I cannot break.

It's not going to change.

And actually, somehow,

when we don't experience the grace of God in our life,

we kind of think that we deserve it.

I'm barren in that area because of.

And you can go to anything in your history,

anything in your life, and you go,

well, this is just the fruit or the lack of fruit

or the fruit of something that happened

many years ago in some cases.

But what looks like emptiness,

I want to encourage you,

and this is why the Lord's speaking

at wide open spaces to us.

What looks like emptiness,

according to Scripture,

often, if you have the faith for it,

will become an opportunity in God's hands.

Why? Because barrenness is not a punishment.

Often, it is preparation.

It is not a punishment.

It's preparation.

And why is that?

Because when the Lord moves in your life this year,

the fruit that is produced

by the unmerited favor of Jesus in your life,

by the finished work in your life,

will always be way more than any fruit

and have way more glory

than any of your effort could ever produce.

But do you know what barrenness does?

It strips away self-reliance.

It strips away control.

It strips away ego.

It strips away false confidence.

And it leaves one thing,

dependence on Jesus.

And when we depend on Jesus,

that is the richest, most fertile soil

that God can move in.

And He is longing and willing this year in 2026

to lead you to wide open spaces.

But we have to first address this thing of barrenness

and stop, because what happens,

I don't know,

if you feel like there's an area in your life,

and you know that there's an area in your life

where it feels barren,

and it could be relationship,

it could be anything at all, okay?

What it does is it reframes the question for us.

I think this is really important.

It forces us to stop asking,

when you've got barrenness in your life,

stop asking, what can I produce in that?

And start asking, what is God about to birth in me?

What is God about to bring forth in me?

Because He says to the barren woman,

even if you've never born,

I am about to do something.

And you see this in Sarah, don't you?

You see it like she becomes the mother of promise.

If you look at Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth,

all the way through the Bible,

where you see barrenness and you see a lack of fruit,

God is going, this is fertile ground for me to move.

Do you have faith for that in your life this year?

Because that's what the Holy Spirit is saying.

He's saying, burst into song.

I'll explain that in a moment.

And so what feels like the absence of God in your life

is actually preparation.

If you reframe that this week, even this day,

and you say, Lord, barrenness in my life,

I am not under a curse.

I am not being condemned by God.

It's a symptom of a broken world.

But where there is no barrenness and no fruit,

you're going to do something this year in my life.

Why, Holy Spirit?

Because you're saying so.

You're saying that grace has gone before me

to lead me to wide open spaces.

And what you're going to do in my life

will be way more than what I could do with these hands.

And if I reframe my posture around that and I say,

this is not absence right now.

It's not the absence of blessing.

It's God preparing me for even more.

Sing, barren woman, sing and burst with joy.

Why? Because where there is barrenness,

it is the best place for God to move.

It's really hard for the Lord to move

when you are in self-effort.

Do you know that?

When you're in performance,

when you are trying and you are doing,

the Lord, I remember Pastor Prince preaching this.

He went, the Lord takes his hands off almost,

not to leave you alone

because he'll never leave you or forsake you.

But he says, if you're going to do it,

well, I can't do it at the same time.

But if you will let me work, the Lord says,

if you will rest, I will work on your behalf.

But if you've got to work, the Lord says, I will rest.

And so this year, what happens is

if we posture ourselves the right way,

I just say, look, what may be absence

is actually preparation.

If it feels like delay, it's probably God aligning you.

And if it feels like loss,

it might actually be that God is making room

for something better.

Amen? I love that.

So I just want to say as well,

God's not embarrassed by your emptiness.

Do you ever feel embarrassed by your emptiness?

I'm not very fruitful.

I should have got this done by now.

I should have, anyone?

Have you ever told yourself that?

Should have had this nailed by now?

Look at this cut of me.

Flip me.

I never think that about myself, to be fair.

I think about other people.

Like, have you not got that sorted yet?

For dear sake.

I mean, but it's hard to improve on what you say.

Like, let's be honest.

I mean, even the Lord goes,

Andrew, when I made you.

I tell you, I'm bigging myself up today in the house.

I'm going to go out feeling blessed anyway.

So he's not threatened or embarrassed by your emptiness.

We are, though.

I'm going to tell you why this is so important in a minute.

We get embarrassed by a lack of fruit.

We get threatened sometimes when we feel weak

because we internalise it and we make it personal.

You know, he's not frustrated when you're waiting

because he's aligning you.

Because in the heart of Jesus for you this morning,

barrenness is not his rejection.

It's not what it is.

Often, and more often than not, it's not his rejection,

but it's actually his invitation.

His invitation to deeper grace, an invitation to trust,

an invitation to surrender your life to him,

an invitation to believe again that right now

you're walking to a wide open space

of blessing, protection, provision, and favour.

Amen?

The narrow season has ended.

So let's get into it.

Let's read this verse again.

Sing, barren woman.

Now, the barren woman here is a picture of the church.

Remember, Isaiah 54 comes after Isaiah 53, clearly.

Isaiah 53, a picture of Jesus, the suffering servant,

everything that he does.

And Isaiah 54 is the blessing that comes from Isaiah 53.

One follows on from the other.

And the barren woman is a picture of the church,

a picture of God's people.

Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child.

Burst into song.

This is the first bit of the command.

Burst into song, shout for joy.

You who were never in labour.

Interesting there, it's like, I love the way it cuts.

Like, not those of you who feel like you've done okay

or you're just struggling a bit.

That feeling of desolation, like,

I have never seen this happen.

I would love to see it happen,

but I have never broken through

and seen actually what this looks like, right?

Because more are the children of the desolate woman.

That doesn't make sense, doesn't it?

A desolate woman, more are her children

than one who has a husband.

See, this is the promise of grace over your life.

This is what the Holy Spirit is saying this year.

You are more blessed, more fruitful, more full,

more whole, more purposeful,

with one touch of the grace of Jesus in your life

than anything else in this world.

Anything else.

And that's what he's speaking over you.

But so why does he say sing and then shout for joy?

Why does he say sing it before you see it?

Burst into song, shout for joy.

Do you know why?

Because I actually asked the Lord this when I was prepping.

I was going, why did you not say declare it

and speak in faith, right?

And he said, well, this is not a theological statement.

It's an inner posture of trust.

And I was like, okay.

That's easy, isn't it, sometimes to reduce faith

to a set of things that we just say?

The Lord's good, bless me.

And you say it, but this isn't touched.

Do you get that?

So there's something interesting about singing, isn't it?

Singing breaks silence.

Whenever you feel ashamed by something,

it causes you to go silent on it.

You don't often talk about the things that shame you, do you?

What do you do?

You bury them.

You push them away.

You turn away from them.

You don't look at them.

And so what happens is shame has a way of silencing

the people of God and closing their mouths.

And so when the Lord says sing first,

it's because it engages everything,

your emotion, your memory, your imagination.

It shapes hope at a new, deeper level.

And it's not about just like an emotional denial

of what's going on.

It's about prophetic faith that sings out over.

When the Lord sings over your life, it says in Zephaniah,

he sings over you with grace.

He ministers to you, right?

And it silences the shame in your life.

So whenever I sing, the shame is silenced.

Do you get that?

Because it's all of me declaring the goodness.

It's not just a head declaration of a theological statement.

It's a posture of inner trust.

Because when I say, what happens normally

when you're in good form, right?

You sing, don't you?

Well, I do.

If you sing when you're not in good form,

it's normally like, I'm doomed, I'm doomed.

It's all terrible.

No, no, no.

It sounds like a Christine Burr set.

Do you know what I mean?

Well, we're all dead.

Like your life's like a country and Western song, you know?

My wife ran off with the milkman and took the truck

and all that stuff.

You know what I mean?

It's like, oh, Lordy, right?

Country and Western music, country music,

deserves the pit of hell.

That's all I'm saying, right?

Terrible.

That's straight from the pit of hell, that stuff, right?

I'm just saying that if you like country music,

have a word with yourself, all right?

Because you ain't going to hear it in heaven.

Jesus has told me that.

Absolutely, me and the Lord have talked this out.

I said, I'm not going there if they sing country music.

And he said, what about all the people in Texas?

I said, send them somewhere else.

I don't care.

I'm not going if there's country music.

But your life sounds like a country and Western.

But do you know when you're in good form, right?

And something happens and you're singing,

do you know what I mean?

There's something that happens in you.

It stirs every bit of you when you sing to the Lord,

which is when you sing, and that's what happens.

And so it's not asking you,

God's not asking you to sing about what is.

He's asking you to sing about what he's promised.

He's not saying, sing about your situation.

Oh, if tomorrow never comes.

He's not asking you to do that.

People pay like a hundred quid a ticket

to go and see that, to be depressed.

If tomorrow never comes.

I'm like, Jesus, rapture me in the middle of this stuff, right?

And so he's not asking you to sing over what is.

He's asking you to sing about the promise of God in your life.

That's why when we worship this morning, right?

The promise of God about the cross and about what he's done

is you're singing and speaking into the spiritual atmosphere,

the promise of grace.

And what it does is it creates fertile ground for God to move.

And you have to do it before.

Why is it so important?

Why does he say, do it before you see it?

Let me tell you something.

If you believe before what you see,

it'll shape you into a person who can be trusted after you receive.

Let me say that again.

If you believe before you see,

it shapes you and forms you into a person who's maturing and growing

and can be trusted with the things of God after you've received them.

Let me explain it.

God's not just interested in outcomes in your life.

We're just interested in outcomes, aren't we?

I'm stuck, God, do it.

I'm stuck, God, move.

I'm stuck, God, I need.

But you know what the Lord's really interested in?

I said this a couple of Tuesday nights ago or Wednesday nights ago.

God is forming you.

He's much more interested in forming you

and not just leading you to an outcome.

He's much more interested in you growing, forming your heart,

forming your character, forming relationship,

getting you to grow up and to mature.

And if we only believe,

if your belief in God only comes after you have the evidence for it,

then do you know what's in charge?

Circumstances.

Let me say that again.

This is why the Lord says, believe before.

Because if you only believe after,

then actually what's in charge of your life

is the outside world and the circumstances that you live in,

not the grace of God and the promise of God.

That's why he says, sing before.

But when we believe before we see,

do you know what we're actually declaring into our lives

and sowing into our lives?

What we're sowing is God, the Word of God

and the promise of God and the finished work of Jesus

has way more weight, way more value

than my experience of life in this moment.

It's not blind faith.

It's not that.

It's relational trust.

That's why the Lord is not outcome driven.

He's relationally driven.

He's trying to form you and shape you and make you

and grow you into the very person that he saw

before the foundation of the earth, right?

And he says, if you only believe me when you see it,

then I'm not actually the one who's shaping you,

your circumstances are.

It's the outcomes, not me.

And scripture consistently frames faith this way.

He says, like, I speak to you, I promise to you

and I want you to trust me before you see the proof of it.

That's what I'm looking for this year.

Why?

Because it leads you past self and circumstantial driven living

and into a wide open space of God's favour in your life.

Am I making sense?

That's how relationship works, isn't it?

If God always proved himself first,

do you know what your faith would be?

It would be transaction and not relationship.

I don't demand of God, you prove to me first

and then I believe.

I used to do that when I was a kid.

When you were younger, that's how immature people respond.

And the Lord said, I want you to grow up.

Why?

Because people who grow up and mature operate in a wide open space

no matter what is going on in their lives around them.

The circumstances don't define it.

The outcome doesn't define it.

The relationship, okay?

We need to labour on relationship and who God is to you

and the promise that he speaks to you,

not the outcome on any particular day.

Because that's where we start to grow.

Otherwise, we're just going, Oh Lord, are you there or not?

Based on what happened today?

This is the God of heaven we're talking about.

The God of the universe, the King of grace,

who stands above the earth, he holds it in his hand

and we don't get to dictate to him who he is.

We get to say, Yes, Lord, I surrender and trust to you today.

Trusting that in that space, you lead me to wide openness

where I can experience your goodness and your favour.

Because if I don't do that,

then I'm just going to go round and round and round and round and round in circles

no matter what is preached from the front.

So God doesn't always prove himself first

because he doesn't want a transactional faith.

He wants you to trust him every step of the way.

You know what some of us need to do this year?

We need to say, Lord, I'm going to trust you more

and I'm going to sing it before I see it.

I'm going to sing the grace of Jesus over my life,

in faith, in belief, in trust.

This is not about your emotions.

It's about what is true and what is not,

about what is central and who is not.

It's about putting a posture into your life to say,

come what may, I may feel barrenness,

but if I see my barrenness as a setup for the grace of God to move in my life,

then it doesn't matter.

I can cope with that because why?

The barrenness is not final.

It is a preparation and an alignment for God doing more.

Amen.

That's the grace of God for you today.

I think for me, I go, look, if faith comes before what I see,

and this is why he says sing.

Can we just keep the verse up? That'd be really helpful.

If faith comes before I see, like you who never bore child,

burst into song, right?

It actually just shows you whether you are trusting for outcome

or you're trusting in the character of God.

It's whether we love the gift or whether we love the giver,

whether our hope is anchored and sure or whether our hope is conditional

because the grace of Jesus stands there and goes,

you know, it can't be conditional, outcome-based,

or just you want what I bring.

We're called to love the Lord with all of our hearts first,

and then all these things are added onto us.

And when you believe before you see, it strips faith down to its essentials.

I suppose it answers the question, does it?

If nothing changes, is the Lord enough?

Have you ever asked yourself that?

If nothing changed in my life this year, would God still be enough to me?

And I think that kind of faith is so precious to the Lord.

I often think it's a little bit like Abraham going up the mountain

at the point where he's going to sacrifice.

And he says, no, it's okay.

I've already made a provision for you, Luke.

Do you know what I mean?

But the Lord sometimes looks at our hearts and go, am I enough for you?

Because oftentimes, I'm trying to get to the point where you go

to operate and live in a wide open space.

You cannot have a conditional relationship with the Lord

that you're only happy with him when he delivers what you need.

That's not a wide open space.

That's you transacting with Jesus.

Do you get that?

It's not the same thing.

But what he says is burst into song.

If you're barren, could you burst into song with promise?

Because I'll talk about the fruit of it in a minute.

I think actually, what's the pattern here?

The pattern is this is what God does.

I don't know if you know your Bible very well, but God always speaks first.

Do you know why light exists today?

Because God spoke it.

So when it was dark, he spoke light.

And then the light came.

So what happens is life and grace and blessing and favor follows his word.

It doesn't follow your logic.

And reality responds to divine declaration.

So when we believe before we see, you actually, what you're doing,

and this is a spiritual point, like a theological point,

you're actually aligning yourself with God's created order.

Do you get that?

When you're sitting outside of God's created order

and the way that God orders things, nothing ever works.

Whenever you start to say, Lord, I'm going to sing,

and sing it before I see it,

you're actually putting yourself in to the creative,

where it is God speaks his word, we have faith, and then we see it.

Every single time.

God speaks the word of grace, our response is to believe in faith

and say yes, Lord, and amen, and then the reality changes.

I can't preach wide open space to you this year

if you sit and you go, well, I'll only believe it when I see it.

Because the whole thing is predicated on sing before you see it.

And the Lord's inviting you to trust.

He's asking you to deal with your disappointment,

asking you to deal with the things that have gone wrong in the past.

He's asking you to go one more time,

and then go one more time in faith and in trust.

Because every time you do that,

your relationship with him grows and develops,

and the outcome is assured because the promise is written into it.

Let me quickly keep going.

I just want to say this.

Believing as well, it'll protect you from what's called idolatry this year.

Idolatry is subtle, but it's crucial.

Let me just explain this.

Idolatry is anything that you put in your life in place of God.

It doesn't mean that you kind of bow down to Buddha in your living room.

Do you know what I mean?

Like some people think, oh, I don't have idols.

Yes, you do.

They're mostly on the inside of you, not on the outside of you.

Things that you trust.

Anything that you trust and put your life in, your faith in,

that's what the Bible calls an idol.

It replaces God, all right?

The point is this.

If God always acted immediately, the blessing of God would replace God.

Do you get that?

Success would become the source of your security.

Fruitfulness would become the object of your worship.

And I actually think sometimes that where there's delayed fulfillment,

that keeps your heart pure.

Let me just say that.

Because faith versus worship says even if the promise takes time,

his name is always worthy.

That is truth right there.

Some of you don't like it, but it's truth.

Even if it takes time, what it does is it shows you in your heart

that even if it takes time, he is still worthy.

He's more than enough.

Jesus is more than enough.

You can have all this world, the song says, but give me Jesus.

Because in him I have everything I need.

I don't want to replace, counterfeit.

Or I don't want to just seek the blessing of God without the one who gives it

and did the work for it.

Do you get that?

Because that's where wide-open spaces come from.

Let me just start.

I just wanted to preach on one verse today.

You actually see Jesus reinforcing this pattern.

If you look at the ministry of Jesus,

he always affirms faith that comes before evidence.

Every time.

People who trust his word before they're healed.

Disciples who follow him even though they don't really understand everything.

Disciples were a bit thick at times, but they still followed.

Still put their faith in him.

There was resurrection faith before the tomb was empty.

You see, this is the pattern.

Jesus consistently affirms the order.

What does he say?

Time and time again, if people are sick, what has made them well?

Their faith has made them well.

Not your seeing has made you well.

Your faith made you well.

Your trust made you well.

You believed before you saw.

The grace of Jesus was released and that made you well.

Now, here's the thing.

If you're thinking, well, I don't know, Andrew.

I just don't know if I have the faith.

You do have the faith.

What you're dealing with is your emotion and your disappointment.

Let's separate the two things.

Do you have the gift of faith today given to you by the Lord?

The gift of the Holy Spirit has given you enough faith for what you need.

The problem is we are trained to listen to our emotions and not to the word.

Our emotions are strong.

I'm not denying.

Never deny your emotion because you'll actually go mentally ill.

But don't ever allow your emotions to tell you what is true

because you'll be up and down like a fiddler's elbow.

Yes or no?

I came in here this morning and didn't even know if I was saved.

Then I remember I got saved in my last sermon last week.

I thought, thank you, Jesus.

I had to watch it on the YouTube there in my office just to remind myself.

But do you know what I mean?

Do you know what I mean?

Oh, I only sing it when I'm feeling great and seeing the Lord move.

No, it's not the way that it works.

It's not the way that it works.

Let me tell you something really important about this before I start to wrap up.

You know when you get your breakthrough,

it doesn't just change your circumstances,

it actually amplifies who you are.

So let me tell you something.

This is why the Lord wants you to grow this year.

Because wide open spaces is not about what you get,

it's about who you become.

And then everything flows from that.

Do you get that?

It's about growing and maturing in your walk with Jesus

and having Him as the centre.

Because if you have pride in your heart, right?

If pride is present,

after your breakthrough, it grows.

Remember, this is why He says,

sing barren woman, right?

The Lord wants to show you that what He does

when you feel you have nothing

is so much greater than what you think that you can do

when you have your hands on it.

Because actually what sometimes does,

the success and the blessing,

sometimes amplifies the very things that hold us back.

I've seen that the whole way through my life.

People who pray for financial blessing and it ruined them.

Do you get that?

You don't believe me.

Statistically, most people who win the lottery,

most of you go, I'd love to win the lottery.

No, you wouldn't.

You might be dead in about five years.

Just go and look at that.

Not my opinion.

This is not me trying to talk down the lottery.

Blessing, they've just given us a pile of money.

Thank you, Jesus, right?

But what I'm saying to you is this.

What I'm saying to you is if you think

that those external things are what changes you,

they amplify what's already there.

So if you don't have faith today,

when you put money on top of that, it just makes it worse.

Do you hear me?

It's why the Lord wants to grow you as a human being,

wants to grow you as an individual,

wants you to become mature and have not the gift,

but the giver.

Why?

Because then you are anchored in the grace of Jesus every day.

Right?

You're building your house where?

On a rock.

And if you don't believe me,

go look at the stats about what happens

when people inherit huge sums of money

that they were never grown for.

It destroys them.

It absolutely destroys them.

It's a bit like people who go,

like, if you're waiting to be married,

as an example, I want to be sensitive,

but, like, when I get married,

everything will be fine.

Right?

Because, honestly, this person will just complete me.

We will be like one.

Right?

I don't know about you,

but the one that I married,

she was given an assignment by the Holy Spirit himself

to keep me right.

Do you know what I mean?

So there was no completing and making us one.

There was a whole lot of,

what are you doing, you eejit?

Do you know what I mean?

This is not what I signed up for.

I signed up for you to throw petals

as I walk through the door every day

and to tell me how wonderful I am,

to get saved every week and healed of something

as I'm preaching,

to say you're the best person.

Do you know that's what I signed up for?

Not seriously.

Like, do you know what we had this morning?

I like my outfit.

I'm just going to say this, all right?

But, sweet mercy,

I had to say to my beautiful wife this morning,

stop dressing me.

I'm not a three-year-old.

Because I got the, are you wearing that?

She said, what's wrong with that?

You can't wear that.

Do you know what?

I'm feeling bad,

and I see my rebellion in my heart,

which just went,

what am I not allowed,

and I didn't say it out loud

because I'm not stupid, right?

But I did go,

you learn a couple of things on the way through,

do you know what I mean?

So sometimes I go,

inside voice, inside voice,

don't say it out,

don't give it away,

don't give it away,

but it's my inside voice.

And so part of me was going,

what do you not want me to wear?

What could I not wear?

Because that's what I'm going to wear.

And you're not going to see it

because Penny went to church earlier than me.

I'm going to come in wearing blue jeans

and a black T-shirt

and put to y'all.

Because normally what happens here, right,

is I get up to the front

and Penny goes,

seriously?

But you know what?

I'm a 39-year-old man.

I can wear whatever I want.

Do you know what I mean?

See, when I'm 40,

you can tell me,

but not right now.

Not a chance.

Not a chance.

So you do think,

like if I get married,

it's all going to be fine.

No, it's not.

If you're selfish,

it amplifies it.

If you're broken,

it makes it bigger.

If you're needy,

it just creates a circumstance

where that dysfunction can grow.

Plus you can be mended

and healed along the way,

but it's not the cure.

What I'm trying to say

is it's not the cure.

Why the Lord says,

this year,

sing before you say it,

is the grace of God

works in your life

to help you to grow

because as you grow,

you start to what?

According to Romans 5,

you start to rise above

the circumstances of life

and reign like a king.

Those who are given

the gift of righteousness,

the Bible says.

And the Lord says,

no matter what comes,

I want you like solid,

built on me

and who I am,

not what I do for you.

I will do it for you

because that is my covenant promise,

says the Lord.

But you can't be driven by that

because the moment

it doesn't go your way,

if you fall down,

you live your life

going like this.

And the Lord says,

that's not a wide open space.

That is you boxed in

and I have come

to lead you to freedom,

he says.

Do you hear me?

So important.

Faith before fulfillment,

though,

do you know what it does?

It helps you to handle influence,

helps you to steward growth,

helps you to carry responsibility

and stay dependent

on Jesus.

And God's not delaying in your life.

Let me just nail this.

If you feel that God

is delaying in your life today,

he is not withholding from you.

He is preparing you.

Let me say it again.

The grace of God

in your life

is not withholding anything,

but he will be preparing.

Those two things

are not the same.

Do you hear me?

God withholding

feels like punishment

and barrenness,

something wrong with me

and condemnation.

The grace of God

says, no, I'm preparing you.

If you tune in this year

to what the Holy Spirit

is preparing in your life,

you will find yourself

starting to break through again.

Do you hear me?

I love that thought.

So when I think

there's a delay somewhere in my life,

I'm just going to say,

Lord, you're prepping me up here.

You're getting me ready.

Let me just finish.

Let me just finish.

There's a promise here.

Let's go to the very end

because more are the children

of the desolate woman

than of her who has a husband.

This is only verse one.

This is only verse one of Isaiah 54.

We might be in it for a while,

but it's good, isn't it?

There's this most astonishing,

unbelievable promise

at the very start of Isaiah 54.

Remember, straight off

the work of the suffering servant

in Isaiah 53.

More are the children

of the desolate woman

than one who has a husband.

This is completely upside down.

It is completely

the wrong way around

and it's not the way

the world works.

The one with no apparent advantage

ends up with greater fruitfulness.

There's no apparent advantage.

Do you ever look at your life

and go, there's no apparent

advantage here?

I'm three nil down

before I take the field.

I'm beat before I start,

whatever way you want to put it.

It doesn't make sense, does it?

Because the way the Lord

looks at your life today

and the way He looks at my life

is He's not working

off the same grid.

He's not working off

the world's grid.

He's not working off

the way that you esteem things.

It's not the way that it happens.

It's completely upside down

because God,

what He produces

through His grace,

it lasts longer,

reaches further,

and it impacts more deeply.

So if the fruit,

like I said earlier on,

if the fruit comes

from your effort,

you've got to manage it.

When fruit comes from grace,

it multiplies in your life

and keeps multiplying

and keeps multiplying.

That's the promise.

Not my promise,

His promise.

That's what the Lord

wants to say to you this year.

You might think, Lord,

right now when I look,

there is no advantage here.

I cannot see it.

It's not apparent to me

what the advantage is

until you switch

the eyes of faith

and He goes,

the advantage in your life

is me,

is Jesus and His finished

work of grace in your life.

That's your advantage.

Sing it before you can see it.

Burst into song.

That's why every morning

we play worship music

in our house.

When I'm in the car,

I play worship music.

When I sing,

the kids go,

you're playing that one again.

Always in the shower,

blast it.

I go, there he goes again.

They just know

because I've got the same songs

and I play them

and I sing them

and I declare them.

I use them over my life

every single day.

Why?

Because I'm going to sing

the favor of God.

I'm going to sing

the promise of God.

I'm going to sing

the grace of God.

I'm going to sing

the future that God

has for me

and for my children.

I'm going to sing

over my business,

over this church

who Jesus is

and what He has promised.

Why?

Because when I'm

captivated by Him,

He's lifted up in my life,

wide open space comes.

Amen.

That's what happens.

Just close your eyes

for one moment.

I'm going to ask you

a question, okay?

Just want to move

to minister here

for a moment.

Holy Spirit,

we thank you for your word

this morning.

Jesus, we thank you

that you're speaking,

Let me ask you,

as we've sat this morning

under the word of God,

where have you accepted

barrenness as final

in your life?

You might have

quietly accepted it.

We don't often sing it.

But there are definitely

places in our lives

where we've accepted it

as final.

This is what such and such says.

This is what the dogs say.

This is what my boss says.

Whatever.

My family.

Where has disappointment

muted your song?

Have you been waiting

and your expectation

has shrunk?

It's okay,

bring it to the Lord today.

Because what if,

just what if He's

saying to you today,

this isn't the end.

The start of this year,

I'm setting you up.

And what if your next step, church,

is really, really simple.

It might be costly for some,

but it's simple.

And that next step is this.

Will you sing before you see it?

Will you sing before you see it?

Not because it's easy,

not because it's obvious,

but because I am faithful,

says Jesus.

That's the setup, the Lord says.

That's the preparation,

the Lord says.

Because this year,

I'm becoming bigger this year for you.

It's not just what you get from me,

it's who I am to you.

It's not the end.

Will you sing before you see it?

It's not obvious, not easy,

but God is faithful.

So if I speak over everyone here this morning,

people watching online,

let me prophetically declare over you

and over your children,

over your families,

over your bodies,

over your money,

over your homes,

over your going out and your coming in.

And the Holy Spirit says over you this morning,

the narrow season is ending.

The barren season is not the final word.

The God who brings life from nothing

is working right now.

And I will sing before I see it.

I will declare before I see it.

I will have you, first Jesus, in my life.

Every part of me.

And I trust you this year

that I'm not going to be boxed in,

but I'm going to grow.

Grow in a way that I've never grown before.

In every situation, in every day, this week,

before I start my day,

I'm going to sing before I see it.

I'm going to let my mouth and my heart

sing out the promise of grace.

Sing out the truth of Jesus and his work.

I'm going to keep you at the center, Lord.

You in the middle.

My eyes fixed on the one who's above it all.

Thank you in that place.

It's the safest place I can be.

Nothing in the world compares.

Nobody's smarter, nobody with more knowledge or strategy,

but only you.

I just pray over everyone who's felt the weight of the lie

that barrenness is condemnation.

It is not.

It's brokenness in this world.

There's no personal curse from Jesus today

over any bit of your life.

Barrenness and a lack of fruit

is not because of what you have done or not done.

The Lord says that he redeems every situation

and turns it for good.

Out of the driest places, he brings the greatest fruit.

But the Lord is not condemning you.

If you're in Christ this morning,

if you have a relationship with Jesus,

he's not condemning you.

He condemned Jesus for you.

Every curse, every demand of the law

was put on Jesus' back for you,

and he carried it,

and he dealt with it for all of eternity.

And you are now free indeed.

You are set free.

The Lord says, trust me in that.

There are greater levels of freedom,

greater levels of hope,

greater levels of fulfillment and purpose in your life,

greater levels of calm and rest

over your homes and your relationships

and everything that you do

than you've ever thought is possible.

And now the Lord says,

he's here to move you to those places.

So, Father, we say thank you that the narrow season is ending,

and this is a year of wide-open space.

And all God's people said...

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