Dock Resource Kit

Sunday sermon, 4 January 2026

Summary

Phil launches our new series Manifest by exploring the Epiphany story and reminding us that God isn’t hiding, but delights in being found. Looking at the journey of the Magi, Phil shows how God reveals himself through signs, Scripture, the Saviour and the Spirit, drawing people into real encounter rather than mere information. He invites us to make January a month of dynamic, faith-filled prayer, sharing Adelaide’s story as a powerful reminder that God often moves not because our prayers are impressive, but because his grace is. Together as a church, we’re learning to seek God, see God and show God — praying simply: Lord, reveal yourself. Make yourself known. Make yourself seen.

Key Points & Takeways

God isn’t hiding. He delights in being found.
Revelation begins with God’s initiative, not our effort.
God reveals himself through Signs, Scripture, the Saviour, and the Spirit.
Revelation always leads us toward encounter with Jesus, not just ideas about God.
Prayer is the place where we expect God to move and make himself known.
Even messy, weak prayers matter. God moves because he is gracious, not because we’re impressive.
Epiphany invites us to pray together: Lord, reveal yourself. Make yourself known. Make yourself seen.

Dock Discussion Questions

Where have you recently sensed a “sign” of God at work in your life, even if it felt small or ambiguous?
How has Scripture helped clarify or correct something you thought God might be saying?
What does it look like for you to keep your eyes on the Saviour rather than simply seeking answers, solutions, or feelings?
Where might the Spirit be nudging you to pray more boldly this month, even if your prayers feel weak?

Long-form, edited transcript

Manifest.
Epiphany: He’s Not Hiding

Matthew 2:1–12

An Epiphany For All

One of the joys of having young children is that you get to play hide and seek. Not the competitive kind. The absolutely ridiculous kind where they “hide,” and you know exactly where they are. You walk into the room and there’s a giggling lump under the blanket, and they’re just delighted to be found.

I think it’s a bit like that with God. He wants to be found. He delights in being found.

Today we’re beginning a new teaching series called Manifest. Because God delights in being found. In fact, God isn’t hiding. He’s just here. Our God is demonstrably present. He is manifestly with us.

And as we’ve said this whole month is going to be shaped around prayer. Not the gentle, reflective kind of prayer, but the dynamic, faith filled, kingdom come kind of prayer that expects God to move. A month where we ask him to reveal himself among us. To make himself manifestly known.

And we start today with the story the Church has always read at this time of year, on the Feast of Epiphany. This is Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany itself is on Tuesday, 6 January. It is always on 6 January, which is twelve days after Christmas Day, the twelve days of Christmas.

What’s an Epiphany? Well, Epiphany is all about revelation. God made visible. God stepping into the open and revealing himself to the world. Not hiding behind clouds. Not speaking in riddles. Not waiting for people to climb their way up to him.

Epiphany is a declaration that God wants to be found.

Traditionally on Epiphany we read the story of the Magi, sometimes translated as wise men or kings. A story that doesn’t begin with disciples or priests, or people who knew the Scriptures inside out, but with a group of foreigners. Outsiders. People who had not grown up with the promises of God, who did not know the story of Israel, and who did not even know exactly what they were looking for.

They only knew that something had appeared in the sky, something that stirred a question in their hearts. Something worth travelling for.

Matthew 2.1-12
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written:
6 ‘“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.”’
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Matthew tells us that after Jesus was born, Magi, which as I said is sometimes translated as wise men or kings, but most likely pagan astrologers or court scholars, came from the east to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him.

So, the Magi come searching. They don’t really have a lot clarity, but they have hunger and curiosity, an ache in them that says there is more.

And that ache sits in all of us. The desire to see God. To hear him. To know him. To have him present, guiding our lives. A desire for something more than we can explain or manage or control.

And the good news of Epiphany is that God meets that desire. Not just for the special few. Not only for the insiders. God reveals himself in ways that all people can actually follow.

So at the start of a new year, I want to begin by naming something simple: God wants you to find him. Epiphany celebrates the story of a God who comes to be seen.

God revealed himself then, and we can expect him to reveal himself now.

Patterns Of Revelation

So the Magi arrive in Jerusalem thinking they are the ones doing the looking. But Matthew shows us that their search quickly becomes divine revelation. In fact the whole story is about God drawing them to the place where they can see him.

Epiphany isn’t driven by human discovery. It’s about divine initiative. God is the one writing the story. And as we watch this unfold, we start to see some familiar ways God reveals himself, patterns we might recognise in our own journeys.

God’s first move is to reveal himself through a SIGN in creation. A star rises in the sky and interrupts their normal lives. They can’t ignore it. Something is happening beyond their understanding, and somehow they know it matters. The journey begins.

I love that Matthew begins this story with curiosity rather than certainty. God often begins revelation with a nudge, a question, a sign, a moment that stirs something inside us we can’t quite name.

I remember a few years ago, we were on holiday and Charlotte, Adelaide and I were lying outside at night, looking up at the stars. It was properly dark, no street lights to ruin it, and the sky was full of these stunning, intriguing constellations. Remarkable signs in creation. I couldn’t help my mind being nudged toward the power of God the creator.

Have you ever experienced that? Maybe standing on a beach, staring out at the ocean. Something stirs inside you. Something points beyond you. It makes you want to discover more of the God who made all this.

But the revelation doesn’t stop with a sign. As the Magi journey on, God also reveals himself through SCRIPTURE, to them and to Herod, as he gathers the chief priests and teachers of the law and asks where the Messiah is to be born. They know the answer. It’s written in the Scriptures. They quote the prophet.

There’s a lesson for us here about how elusive signs become illuminated in the light of Scripture. Don’t ignore Scripture. It’s such a gift. It’s easy to get carried away with signs, but they should always be weighed and guided by Scripture.

Then the star appears again and leads them to the place where Jesus is. And here the revelation becomes personal. Creation has spoken. Scripture has spoken. All the signs and the Scriptures bring them to the SAVIOUR himself. It all points to Jesus. They stand before a child, not simply a symbol or an idea, but God with us, all that we’ve just been celebrating over Christmas.

This is where revelation always wants to lead. Not simply to information about God, but to a living encounter with the person of Jesus.

And then comes another layer of revelation. God speaks. He proactively intervenes in their lives. The Magi are warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they go home by another route. This is the SPIRIT at work, guiding and protecting, speaking directly and personally.

What began as a sign in the sky up there [point upward] becomes a whisper of salvation in here [hand to head, then heart]. God draws them to Jesus, and from there he goes on directing their steps, safeguarding their future, and continuing to speak and act in the lives of those who listen.

All of this matters because it shows us the kind of God we are praying to this month. Not a silent God. Not a distant God. Not a God who hides himself behind theological puzzles. But a God who reveals. A God who guides. A God who protects. A God who communicates and acts through signs, through Scripture, through the Saviour, and through the Spirit. A God who wants to be found.

Epiphany tells us that the God we seek in prayer is already seeking us.

And if God revealed himself in Bethlehem, he can reveal himself in East London. If his presence and power were clearly manifest then, they can be now too.

This is the foundation for a month of expectant prayer. We pray with confidence because our God is a God who refuses to stay hidden.

My Epiphany: Adelaide’s Story

So this month, as we pray, i want to challenge us to do what the Magi did. Look for the signs God places in front of us. Open the Scriptures and let them shape our questions and our hope. Keep our eyes on the Saviour, watching how Jesus lives and loves. And listen for the Spirit, trusting that God still speaks and still guides. Because prayer is the place where we expect God to show up, to move, to be manifestly present in our lives.

There are lots of examples I could give of seeing God move, but perhaps the most profound for me and for our family is still the story around the birth of our eldest daughter, Adelaide, which many of you will have heard me speak about before.

It was a season that felt confusing and frightening and completely out of our control. Where every scan brought more discouragement, and where the experts were preparing us for the worst.

We didn’t know what God was doing, or why this was happening. And the truth is, there were many moments when our faith did not feel strong. But it became a season of bold prayers, even when we couldn’t pray them ourselves. The community around us carried us in prayer. And God showed up.

Adelaide was born on 6 January, on Epiphany.

God revealed himself to us in the most dramatic way. For us, her birth was a manifestation of his power, his healing, and his grace.

Ten years ago, when we first arrived at SPS, we had the opportunity to make a short film about Adelaide’s story. Some of you may have seen it before — we definitely look ten years younger — and I want to show it to you now as we think about God revealing himself, being manifestly present, and making himself seen even in situations that feel impossible.

Let’s watch the film together…

[ Watch the film here Adelaide Film ]

Adelaide Film Transcript
It should have been the most exciting day of our lives. We were pregnant and we were heading into hospital for our first scan. But when we got there, they told us there's a problem.
So we've been waiting to have a child for about 10 years, and we suddenly found out that we were pregnant. We were told this fetus wasn't going to grow properly, because there was a problem with a skeleton, which meant that they wouldn't be enough of for the lungs to develop properly, which means actually even if the pregnancy did go full-time and a baby was born, it would never be on a breathe.
So we just went through months and months have just going back and forth to the hospital and being given bad news followed by more bad news. We had no answers. We didn't know what was causing the problem and the doctors weren't able to give us any real clear understanding of why this was happening. We just knew that everything was not as it should be.
I guess when you feel that your faith is just not strong enough, it's amazing to have people around you to help you stand. And that was an amazing thing to see people who would cry with us and laugh with us and encourage us, people to hope for you and I have faith for you.
So we went for this intervention, meaning close to the birth, and we didn't really know what to expect. The doctor said, "Well, when the baby dies, would you like us to leave the baby with you in the room, or would you like us to take it next door, or should we take the baby to the hospital on the road." We would just stand and we would be like, "We don't want any of these things if the baby was alive when it was born." It wouldn't survive for long.
We struggle with our doubt and we've seen God heal people in the past. We've seen him not heal people in the past. We genuinely believed that God could, but the hard things that we didn't know if he would.
When he storms in our life come, we can choose to be defined by them or we can choose joy. Even though we didn't know what was going to happen, we needed to be thankful for what God had given us. And actually, I genuinely believe it is in the midst of giving thanks that we saw the power of God just move.
It was late at night on the 5th of January and all of a sudden, Charlotte jumped up and her war was broke in just the most dramatic fashion. We jumped in the car and we headed across London to get to the hospital. And so we were rushed into theatre and just minutes before they were going to do the delivery the consultant called me over again and said, "Mr Williams, you do realise we don't expect this child to live." You know, just constantly managing our expectations kind of reinforcing to us the severity of the situation. I was just like, "Come on, let's just do this thing."
I was sat at Charlotte's head and the next thing I know they're lifting Adelaide up and she began to cry immediately. This is our baby that they'd said would never breathe and immediately she began to cry and there she was. Our little girl was alive and breathing and I was able to hold her in my arms.
All of the pain, all of the negativity, all of these months and months have been told one thing suddenly in a moment is changed, you know, one scream suddenly we know that that wasn't the final say actually there was more there was life.
So we still have lots of questions. There's still lots of uncertainty. There's still lots of challenges every day. But we know that in the midst of the troubles in life we can choose joy and that's a joy that's not dependent on where the stuffs go and well or not. It's a joy and it's a thankfulness that we can know because God is in control and because we trust Him. He has the best for us. He loves us.

Great God, Not Great Prayers

Epiphany celebrates the story of a God who’s not hiding. He comes to be seen, to be found by you. He can and will reveal himself to you in remarkable ways.

My prayer is that we’ll continue to see God work miracles. The same God who revealed himself to the Magi all those years ago, who so dramatically met us and brought Adelaide to life, is the God who still reveals himself to us today. And he is the God we’re seeking this month in prayer.

One of the greatest encouragements in Adelaide’s story is that we weren’t that great at praying. At least it didn’t feel like it. There were literally moments when others had to carry us. And just like in the Epiphany story, it helps me see now that it was all God’s initiative, not mine. The miracle was God’s to give, not mine to make.

Messy, broken, barely-there prayers really are the kind of prayers God gets behind.

So as we begin this series, I want us to raise our faith. Not because we have great prayers, but because we have a great God, and he’s the one who’s in charge of writing this story.

I said at the beginning that this January we’re going to be focusing on dynamic, faith filled, kingdom come kind of prayer that expects God to move. But I didn’t say anything about eloquence or complexity or even good English.

And so I’ve got a simple prayer to kick us off. A prayer shaped by Epiphany, and by Adelaide’s story. A prayer that I believe can shape the life of our church.

It’s simply this:

Lord, reveal yourself.
Make yourself known.
Make yourself seen.

Thats it.

Can we commit to praying that together this month?

Because Epiphany teaches us that God wants to be found. And he delights in revealing himself to those who seek him.

A Call To A Month of Prayer

I want to invite every one of us to make this January a month of prayer. Not a month we dip in and out of when we remember. A month where we lean in.

And as we’ve said, there are all kinds of gatherings, rhythms and practical opportunities for us as a church that can help us seek God together.

Believing for God to be manifest in our lives, in our families, in our workplaces, and across this community.

Looking for signs. Reading Scripture. Staying close to the Saviour. Listening for and encountering the Spirit. Together.

But now as we move into worship, I just want to invite you to pray that simple Epiphany prayer: