ORLANDO— Herb Reavis, pastor of North Jacksonville Baptist Church, delivered a stirring message during the second day of the 2025 Florida Baptist State Convention in Orlando. Preaching from the story of John the Baptist, Reavis proclaimed that “Jesus is a Way Maker”—a Savior who works even when His people can’t see or feel it.

He began by reminding listeners of John the Baptist’s remarkable ministry. “John was the greatest preacher of his day,” Reavis said. “He had no facility, no staff and no social media. He preached in the wilderness, and yet people rushed out to hear him.” Crowds gathered as John called them to repentance and pointed them to the coming Messiah, declaring, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

But in the passage found in Matthew 11:1-6, the scene was different. John was no longer preaching by the river but imprisoned by King Herod for condemning his sin. “He had confronted the king for taking his brother’s wife,” Reavis explained. “Now, instead of crowds, he faced cold walls and darkness.”

In that isolation, Reavis said, doubt crept in. “The greatest enemy of a Christian today is doubt,” he told the audience. “Doubt leads to discouragement.” John, the same man who had baptized Jesus and seen the heavens open, sent word from prison asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Reavis empathized with John’s question. “His circumstances had changed,” he said. “He was used to preaching under the open sky; now he’s cooped up in a cell. The crowds were gone. He went from hundreds being baptized to silence.”

Reavis challenged pastors and ministry leaders who might be feeling similarly forgotten. “Maybe you’ve fasted and prayed, and still you’re leading a church that feels like ‘Night of the Living Dead,’” he said to knowing laughter. “But success in ministry is not measured by visible results—because God is working in places you never thought He’d work.”

He shared a story from his own experience. Years earlier, he had pastored what he described as a “dead” church. “I thought nothing was happening there,” Reavis said. “But years later, I got a letter from a young man who told me I had baptized him in that church as a child—and now he was serving as a youth pastor preparing for seminary. God had been working all along.”

Reavis was careful to make a key point: “Doubt is not a sin,” he said. “The difference is what you do with it. John took his doubts to Jesus—and that’s what we must do.”

He then turned to Jesus’ response to John’s question. He told the disciples: “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” Reavis unpacked the depth of that answer. “The miracles of Jesus give us a foretaste of what’s to come,” he said. “They show that He cares, that He wants to relieve human misery, and they reveal the supernatural power of the gospel itself.”

“The miracles of Jesus,” Reavis continued, “carry a message: Just because you can’t see, feel or hear Me working doesn’t mean I’m not working.” He urged pastors to hold on to that truth in discouraging seasons. “Be encouraged. Keep sharing the gospel. Even if you can’t see Him working, be assured that He is.”

Closing with a word of hope, Reavis reminded the crowd that Jesus still makes a way where there seems to be none. “In your doubt, in your discouragement, in your disappointment—He is working. And one day, you’ll look back and see that the Way Maker was there all along.”