The sermon focuses on John 3:22-30, emphasizing the theme of 'He must increase, but I must decrease.' The speaker reflects on the Sanctity of Life Sunday and the atrocity of abortion, using the birth of a new baby in the congregation as a symbol of life and blessing. The sermon transitions to reflect on John the Baptist's humble role as the forerunner of Jesus Christ, highlighting the importance of repentance for the remission of sins and the need for believers to adopt a posture of humility. The speaker draws parallels between the corrupted religious practices of Jesus' time and modern-day religion, urging believers to focus on the transformative power of the Gospel. John the Baptist's ministry is contrasted with Jesus', and the sermon underscores the necessity of being born again, emphasizing God's sovereignty in salvation. The message calls for believers to maintain zeal and boldness in sharing the Gospel, reminding them that their faith should rest on God's power, not human wisdom. The speaker concludes with a call to emulate Jesus' humility, recognizing that true power comes from submitting to God and exalting Christ above personal status.

Good morning, family. So there's a lot going on this morning, and it'll end up with chili cook-off downstairs. But today is Sanctity of Life Sunday. And I just want us to keep in mind what that really means. The regularity, the popularity of what is abortion today, and what an atrocity that is.

And there is in the back of church, we've got two little bowls. They have what is a child in them, little plastic, representing a two month old baby that's the size of a two month old baby. And living human being that our society and its corruption, its self-centeredness has decided that it is okay to terminate that life. And so keep that in prayer. Feel free to take one if you'd like, or more if you wanna hand out and give to other people.

Today, also we rejoice. We rejoice with Sam and Naomi and their family. They have a new baby that has seen the outside world, was a baby at conception. Let me clear that up. And so, we rejoice with them.

They have named the baby Seth. Seth means appointed. Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve. And so the middle name is Mbakki, which is Sam's middle name. It means strong, powerful, and the last name Mokke, of course.

And so he was born last night, January 17th, 6 o'clock PM-ish, and 8 pounds, 7 ounces, 20 inches long. And so, take a look at that baby when you visit and then think about sanctity of life along the way. What a huge blessing from God. And we have a new face in the congregation. And we praise God for that.

Lift them up in prayer and come around them. And if there's anything we can do for them. And so that is what we have going on today. The text today is John chapter 3. We're going to continue on where we were And we have finished our discourse with Nicodemus.

That discourse that Jesus was having with Nicodemus is over. And so now we're circling back around to John the Baptist is back in the picture again because Jesus left and he's going to baptize and lo and behold John the Baptist is there with his followers and they are there baptizing as well. And so what I want to focus on today is the reality that this doesn't just like this is not a section here and then then we're doing this and then we're doing this. This all comes together as one glorious message and and the point of all of this as John wrote it is is summed up again in chapter 20 verse 31. It says, but these are written, that's everything that we have read and gone through and everything we will in this book.

These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in Him. And so outside of Him, you don't have life. You're in Him or you are dead. And so this is the point. This is the focus of this.

And so, what we have is the setting in the background is that Jesus grew up in obscurity. He has lived in Nazareth, that's on the north side of the tracks where nobody really cares about or wants to go. And he's been there for about 30 years, north of the Sea of Galilee in that region, under the reign of Rome for what is the 400 silent years. And so nothing really happened that was worth writing about. And Israel in that time, they have slid downhill to a point where they are where they are now just in a system.

And the temple that is supposed to be offering the sacrifices is now used for selling stuff and they've turned it into a big mockery, Which is what all humanity will do given enough time. Which is a spitting image of a religion that we have going on today. With priests, with offerings, It's the same thing. And so, then all of a sudden we have bursting on the seams is a man by humble means. And yet of power and authority who begins to preach a message, And that is John the Baptist.

And he is preaching a message of repentance for the remission of sins. And that is his message. And That is our message. That is still today. And so, He is called the greatest man that was ever born.

And so, let's open up in a word of prayer. Father God, this morning, We come to you just so grateful, Father God, for the greatest gift that could ever be, Father, and this word that You've blessed us with that is alive and it speaks to us today, Lord, just like it has to people through the millennia, Lord God. I pray Father this morning that it would speak to our hearts and to our lives to shape us and to mold us to be more like you. And Lord God, if we don't know You, Father God, might we through Your Word, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So on the scene we have this man coming that is just powerful.

And He's a thousand times what anybody you've ever heard preach. He is on fire and he's got a message that comes from the Word of God that is repentance for the remission of sin. And The thing is that this was prophesied a long time before. Like 800-900 years before. And it says in Isaiah 40 v.

3-4, "...The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain will be brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places made smooth." And so, What we see here in our text, and I want to read that now, John 3 verses 22-30. And so it reads, After these things, Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he remained with them and baptized. Now John was baptizing them in Anon near Salem because there was much water there.

And they came and were baptized for John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing lest it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. That is the bottom line. That is the end of it.

And so, with that being said, John the Baptist is standing faithful, and it's not about him. He says in the end in verse 30, He must increase, I must decrease. And so, Matthew Henry, when I was studying that, he had written down, from heaven John received his command and he would go on with his work until he received his countermand. I don't know if that's a word, but it's pretty cool, isn't it? He would go on with his work until he received his countermand." I don't know if that's a word, but it's pretty cool, isn't it?

He would go on with his work until he received his countermand. Until he was told stop. I did some studying. I found a story that I remembered years ago about a Japanese soldier on an island in Japan. And his name is Hiru Unada.

And he was commissioned to do here's what you do. This is your job. You defend this area and that's your command. That's what you do. Well, All of his commanders got shot.

It was him and three guys. They fled into the jungle, and lo and behold, they held out. They fought a fight that wasn't there. World War II ended. And then on and on and on, they stayed.

Guerrilla warfare of sorts. And it lasted until 1974. Almost 30 years they fought a fight they didn't have to fight. And when he was confronted, he said, I am not going to surrender. He refused a 30 year old surrender and he wouldn't take the word.

They had to go and find the man that gave him that command. They went and they found that man and they brought him to the island and they brought him right to Heru. And he said, you are relieved of your duties. And then he said, okay, see how blessed would it be if we took our commands like that. God gives us a command.

We go on. We're going to be discouraged. We're going to be beat down. We're going to be persecuted. But we stay on that until the one who gave us the command tells us to step down, step aside.

And so this is our command from heaven and I'm so blessed to be here today. John the Baptist is a sensation. He's a powerful communicator. The world had never known anyone like him in over 400 years. And wouldn't you know, he lives in a desert region and he eats locusts and wild honeys, so he's not what you would perceive to be a high-end preacher, a person that would be standing on a pulpit.

He's not looking like a prince. And so, it wasn't him. It wasn't his appearance. It was his words. His words were from God and they were powerful.

And so, this is what we have as well today. My words, they carry no power. God's words do. So we need to be in the Word of God. And so he has lived a life sold out for God and he's been in ministry for some time.

And then one day, one day, everything changes. Everything changes with His ministry. And that's in John 1, verse 29. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward Him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so in a way, John the Baptist is helping to begin the ministry of Jesus.

And isn't it only fitting that the greatest event that ever happened in the history of humanity was the coming of Jesus Christ. It needed a forerunner, right? It needed somebody to say, Make straight the crooked ways and the rough places smooth. Take the valleys and bring them up. Take the mountains and bring them down.

Jesus Christ our Savior, our Messiah is here. And that was John's job. And he understood that. And so then in John 1 v. 32-34, John the Baptist says, that's the One.

He's the One. The Messiah. Who all the Old Testament prophecy is written about. The promised King, the Messiah. So shortly after, Jesus goes to Cana and He performs the first miracle.

And John doesn't call them miracles, he calls them signs. And he calls them signs because he's pointing everything to Jesus saying, this is a sign that He is the Messiah. And so, he didn't want any confusion about that. Okay, and so, then Jesus travels to Jerusalem and after that He cleanses the temple. So I'm trying to put this all into one big perspective.

He cleanses the temple and he tells them, quit turning my father's house into a den of thieves. And he boots them up. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of animals are let loose. Everything is going crazy. It's chaos.

And so, this is prophesied zeal for my Father's house. And so, his disciples remember this later, that even more prophecy could be fulfilled about him. And so this zeal that Jesus shows, the same zeal that John the Baptist shows, one crying in the wilderness. It's not that he's walking around mumbling. He doesn't bump into somebody and say, hey, you want a Gospel tract here?

You know, I've got something. No. No, that is not Him. He is an open air, bold, street preacher that has a message. The Redeemer is here.

And with that being the case, I can't help but think, how do we get that into our lives? How do we get that boldness and that fire into our lives? I think about when I got saved and I had more fire then than I did going through the years and it seems to have diminished. How do we get that fire that they had when we go about our Heavenly Father's business for God's glory. It's not going to be long and we'll be standing in front of God.

How do we get that fire to preach and to tell the lost that they're lost. To tell them that aside from the blood of Jesus Christ, we will spend an eternity damned in hell. To tell people that there's nothing more important in the world than this. How do we get that boldness? That's what they had.

And after that happened, we're in this text with Jesus and Nicodemus. We get this discourse between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus says, no one can do the signs you do unless God be with him. And then Jesus' response. It's epic.

And it's an example for us too. To see what is the problem. What is the problem? Well, you know what? You've got this religious system and for 400 years you've been working on this religious system and here's one point where you went wrong and then you did this and then you did this and it led to work.

No, it did not lead to that. He says to Nicodemus, you must be born again. He cuts right to the chase. You must be born again. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.

And this is what he does. What is necessary for salvation is nothing short of a miracle. We move on. A stone to flesh scenario. It's not something that you can will yourself to do.

You've got to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and you've got to submit yourself to it. You have to be broken. It's nothing short of a miracle. It's from dead to alive. Because we aren't spiritually sick.

We're spiritually dead. There's not a spark there. It's death. We're spiritually dead. And there's nothing we can do to save ourselves.

Repent, turn to Jesus. Hear the gospel message. Repent, submit to Christ, turn to Jesus. Call on Him. It's a simple gaze.

Isaiah, look unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. Look, look, just look, a simple gaze. Matthew 11.28, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. See, this is always a work of God. John 6, 44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

You want to be raised up at the last day? I do. This is what I'm talking about. This is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. John 3.16 talked of man's responsibility versus God's sovereignty, and all of this is motivated by the love of God.

This is the love of God. And then following in verse 17, that Jesus doesn't take joy in punishing the wicked because he desires that all men be saved, that all men be born again, that all men come to repentance. So to look no further than the cross, to see His love. When you look at the cross of Christ, and I've been saved for a while, but I need to focus on the reality of the love of God, that the cross and His salvation, what it means, that's a love letter written in His blood to us. How much He loves us.

And what He gave for us. And so, In verse 22, Jesus leaves Jerusalem and He goes back into Judea. And now we've circled back around to John the Baptist, is in the picture again, and we have a dispute over purification. It wasn't believers' baptism that it's described in Acts and Romans, it wasn't believer's baptism. It wasn't identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection like we have today, but it was instead a symbol of cleansing.

So it was a desire for what is public confession and repentance purification from their sins. A symbol of genuine repentance is what it was. And so this is what was going on in our text here. And so now, let's turn to today's Scripture portion because it continues about John the Baptist once Jesus started to call and make disciples. And so in this text, the people are coming to Jesus to be baptized.

A lot of people coming to Jesus, they've heard about Him, they know about Him, they're coming to Him, He's got His disciples, they're coming to Him to be baptized. And John the Baptist is losing followers. And so his audience is fading away, and John's followers, they do not take this well. They don't take this well. After all, this is his ID, right?

He's Not John the fisherman, John the hunter. He's John the Baptist. He's John the baptizer. This is who He is. If He had a church, there would be this shingle above the church right there.

That's the sign. I'm a baptizer. They don't even call Jesus by name. If you remember what I read, they say, the one of Him who you spoke of, Him who you spoke of before. And this is John looking at it saying, you mean Jesus?

You mean the one that I call the Lamb of God? The one who takes away the sin of the world? How could you say that about Him? How could you be concerned about anything I do or anything He does cutting into what I do? Or about my disciples, His disciples.

When He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Yeah, yeah, that guy. When I baptize Him and that voice came down from heaven and said, this is My Beloved Son. You mean that guy. That's the guy.

The Messiah. He's baptizing more people than you. And your ministry is fading. I think you need to do something about that. It's urgent.

We've got to get something going on here. We need maybe a new marketing strategy. And so let's give out bags of popcorn with each baptism maybe. That would help us out, draw more people. And so actually, it wasn't Jesus even really baptized.

And you look ahead to 4.1 and 2, and it explains His disciples were. And so John the Baptist spent many years in the wilderness, no doubt. In the Scriptures, his priestly father, Zacharias, had taught him. He abstained from sin. A very godly man.

Plus, he rejected popularity when it came. Now, Jesus is baptizing, and John the Baptist's followers are pretty much telling him that that he has to do something. There's this guy and he's doing this. Pay attention to how John the Baptist responds in this. And so, it says a lot about his person.

But first, we need to ponder this. Why is John the writer of the Gospel circling back to John the Baptist after he's been chronicling what Jesus has been doing and this discourse with Nicodemus. In 1 John 19 and 20, John the Baptist said, He's not a Christ. He has said He's not the Christ. And in chapter 123, he confesses to only be a voice, a voice crying in the wilderness.

That's humility. And that's where we're going with this. And in 1.25, he said of Jesus, whose sandals I am not fit to untie. And then when he saw Jesus, he said, behold, the Lamb. You see, this all ties together the humility.

Even as we examine God and the person of Jesus Christ, I'm preaching to myself a lot today, by the way. This humility is a tough subject. But we're tempted to still keep an elevated view of ourselves. We're still tempted. When we get saved, we know God.

We know the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. We're supposed to walk different. We're supposed to make a difference in our attitude, in our humility. And sometimes, I don't see it. There's an elevated view of ourselves, but what is the attitude to be of someone that beholds the Lamb?

Because That was the original point, remember? He said, Behold the Lamb. We're called to behold the Lamb. That means our view of ourselves has got to be like, okay, behold the Lamb. It's not, yeah, now we're going to go do something.

No. No, that's not it at all. And so when I see what's going on with John in here, there's three points of John the Baptist's response in humility I want to rifle through. The first one is a right theology. And he got it.

He said, behold the Lamb of God. This is the Lamb of God. And this is where it starts with us as well. It starts with the right theology that Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. How can we not be humbled by that?

Knowing that we belong to Him. Knowing the sacrifice that was paid and what he's done for our salvation It's got to be an instantaneous response in verses 26 and 27 It is they thought John the Baptist was Elijah they thought he was Elijah raised they thought maybe they confused him with the Messiah. Are you the Messiah? Are you the promised one? He said, uh-uh, nope.

I am not Elijah reborn. I am not the promised one. But his response and his demeanor in verse 21 of chapter 1, the one who comes to God, I am a voice crying in the wilderness. That's all I am. The way he dressed, he's got grasshopper teeth, grasshopper legs sticking out of his teeth.

He's got honey dripped on his camel hair coat. Spends a lot of time in the wilderness. I imagine you probably did not want to get downwind from him for long. But he had a message. We have to quit looking at people's appearance to understand if God lives in them or not.

And so, the one who comes to God and receives the new heart given by God has new affections, Jeremiah 31-33. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put My law in their minds. I will write on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." See, this is a work of God. This is not a work of man. This is not a work of religion or of the fathers of the religion that was founded in 300 something.

It's a work of God. So this is what others need to see when they look at your life and my life. This is what they need to see. You keep coming to the light, remember? We keep coming to the light because that's where we belong.

Because God has called us. Because we have repented of our sins and we live in the light. We foul up. We fumble up. We come back to the light.

We get washed. We get cleansed. We keep coming back to the light. All to the glory of God Because all that we are is coming from God. Everything that we have, everything that we are, comes from God.

So everything that comes from us lifts up to God. We're a reflection of that. And so, do we do things so the light shines on ourself? Do I have motives at times that says, you know what, I want to do this or I want to do that, but I want credit for it. Some.

I want people to know that. See, we're told that our left hand should not know what our right hand is doing. That's how secret it is. I don't know how that would work, but it means that we're supposed to keep any good deeds that we do completely secretive as much as we possibly can. That is humility.

And anytime someone says that, you know what, That was really great of you to do that. We should try to keep hidden as much as we can the things that we do. Our gifts that we have, that's fine. We exercise our gifts. We're all given different gifts.

But remember that it's something that you receive. Somebody tells you, you know what? You're really good with people. You really did that well. You really did that well.

You know what? That's because God did it. It's not me. It's a work of God. It's not my talent.

It's what God put in me. And it's to be to the glory of God because it's all from Him, right? Everything we have doesn't belong to us. See, remember when we died to ourselves, we were dead. When we're raised to newness of life, everything we have belongs to God.

He paid the ransom. We belong to Him. Everything is His. 1 Corinthians 1, 1, 12. Now I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ.

And the question was, has Christ been divided? Can we have our affections on those things? And Christ, can we follow this And can we follow Christ? Or affections have to be set on things above. They can't be on things of the earth.

And so, in 1 Corinthians 1, I didn't have this up on the slide, it's pretty long, but 1 Corinthians 1, 26-31. If you want to mark that, it's pretty telling. It says, "'For you see your calling, brethren, not that many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord." Amen, right?

And so, this is saying that we're not much. And so what I am saying is that It says right here, not many wise according to the flesh. This is the first thing it says. Okay, so I'm not really that smart. Okay, people, That's not the point.

The point is that you've been chosen. We look at not many mighty, not many noble are called. Chosen the foolish things. Foolish, okay. Can we concede to that at least?

But the great joy and the great news is the other side of this. You're chosen. You're chosen by God. He uses that to glorify His name. And so that's the great news.

This was not about the ministry, but it was about Jesus. You're chosen by God, and He usually chooses the weak, the broken vessels. He uses them for His glory. I'll confess, that's what he did with me. Garbage.

He picked it up and he said, I think some kind of way I can use this. And I'm not saying that I'm that good at what I do. But I know that he called and I know that He uses. And I praise God for that. 1 Corinthians 2, 3-5 reads, I was with you in weakness, in fear and in much trembling.

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Your faith is in the power of God, not in the wisdom of men. For sure not in my wisdom. And so that is what flips everything over. So this is so that your faith doesn't rest on your wisdom. The focus is in Christ alone.

In Christ alone. First Corinthians three, four through seven. For when one says I'm of Paul and another I'm of Apollos, are you not carnal? Then who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers through whom you believe, As the Lord gave to each one, I planted a palace water, but God gave the increase.

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." And you know what I had to sit on when I read that? I went back and back and I read it over and over. It says, so then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters. You know what I'm not? Anything.

Anything. You know what? You ain't much. We ain't much. We are what we are in Christ and that's alone.

And So, this is not something to knock us down. This is something to build us up because we've been chosen. And we have the amazing ability to glorify God with people that knew us how we were. That drunken kid, that bum, that guy that kept smashing up his cars and kept borrowing other people's. That's the guy now.

That's a work of God. That's not a work of Jerry. God is glorified. And so this is the flip side of that. Yeah, stupidity, bad choices, dummy, bad lifestyles, wasted time, but God is glorified.

1 Corinthians 3.10, it rolls on. This is amazing. According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it, but let each one take heed how he builds on it. See, every single ounce of ministry and work that I have and do is according to the grace of God. It's not my own wisdom.

It's not my own strength. It's according to the grace of God. 1 Corinthians 3, 21 and 4, 1. Therefore, let no one boast in men, for all things are yours." All things are yours. And 4-1, let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

We're stewards of that. There's a responsibility with that. Are we walking in that? So how do John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul see themselves considering the influence that they have? When you step back and you look at the ministries that they had, How do they see themselves?

They had a massive global influence. How do they see themselves? This is how, going from city to city. They didn't rally up money for their own private jet or two. They didn't talk to the people and convict them for not giving enough money so they could get a gold chariot to Drive them around.

After all, I have the words of God. Should I not be riding in royalty here? I've got this camel hair. Come on, I need something better than this. I want a ham sandwich.

Enough of these grasshoppers. No, it wasn't like that. They went from place to place, city to city, hiding, risking their lives, crying out The Word of God, crying out the message of repentance for forgiveness of sin. They were servants. They were stewards of God's Word.

They weren't vickers. They weren't vickers. Anyone that tries to elevate themselves above Christ's servanthood is contradicting the Word of God. In James 4.10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. It says the same thing pretty much in 1 Peter 5-6.

We don't lift ourselves up. And we see this pattern in other people, in other faiths, in other religions. And it's cultish every time. There's even a warning in Scripture that we're not supposed to call anyone Father but God spiritually. And that is Matthew 23, 9.

Do not call anyone on earth your father, for one is your father, he who is in heaven. And so, there's many cases of this. And there's the Mormons with Joseph Smith in 1830 claiming divine visions, which is extra biblical. And so the Bible says, if It's more, don't take away or don't add to this. If you do, you're damned.

You are anathema. And so everyone here is a broken vessel. And it's hard for humanity to come to that understanding in their lives and heart. But there's the Church of God Restoration, Ray Tinsman, they pray to him. And so they say that he is an apostle greater than the once apostle Paul, nullifying whatever scripture they want and adding to and taking away.

And so this is just a heads up of what is out there. And so all men are fallible and we've got to keep a mind on that, including myself. So there is one God. 1 Corinthians 4.7, for who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive?

Now, if you did receive it, Why do you boast? As if you had not received it. See, we need a new perspective. Much of Paul's writings aren't written from an office, but of Roman jail. It gives you a new perspective when you're not comfortable, when you're not where you want to be.

A right perspective. And this is the same with us. I have to say that my strongest times with God have been during trials. That I can best serve God through trials and tribulations in my life. Philippians 1, 15-18.

Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife. Some also from good will. The former preached Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my change. But the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Gospel. What then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." So do you see the pattern? Others falsely accusing the Apostle Paul just to make a name for themselves, make themselves look better, or out of selfish ambition or political motive, wanting to be a big deal. And What's Paul's response? Yes, I will rejoice. Is Christ being preached?

Hallelujah. Praise God for that. So when speaking to others on ministry, It seems to me like a lot of times, it's like, well, how many people in your church? How big is your church? How new is your church?

How many did you baptize last year? How much money do you make every year? See, I'm so glad I don't get asked how big our parking lot is. Paul, John the Baptist, didn't even seem to care, because ministry is a mercy of God. Colossians 1, 24-29, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

To them, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus to this end. I also labor striving according to His working, which works in me mightily." We don't see any of Paul's hardship here. Paul's saying it's hard for me to count how many times I've been beaten, abandoned, starved, much less the pain that I live in daily, this thorn in my side that he's got, and not wanting you to feel bad for me, he's saying, and not demanding respect, but instead he's got humility because he knows it's all from God and it's all for the benefit of God. So John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul both realized ministry is a stewardship from God.

It's something, a stewardship, it's given from God. Numbers 11-29, then Moses said to him, Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them. See, we all have different gifts. Moses wished that All the Lord's people were prophets.

Praise the Lord. I could care less. For myself, I wish everybody was a preacher. Well, except for the ladies. But then we could take turns.

It wouldn't matter. But I have a case in Alaska that I work with and it's the opposite and it's heart wrenching. The man was a pastor for 28 years And he was looking for someone to fill in for him. And he had many times taken in an understudy. And every time it was the same.

I would meet them, they'd be excellent prospects. And every time that young man would... Oh, no! He's not going to do... Get rid of him.

Kick him out. Went through about a half a dozen. And then finally, they had a man come and he refused to be his understudy. With counseling from outside, it was agreed that he would come in and preach and be voted on. And he did.

And When it was done, they voted him in as the new pastor. The old pastor became Pastor Meredith, and he helps out with things. The old pastor, just like a big fat baby kicking and screaming, Just does not like what's going on. And the Lord is working on His heart. And I talked to the new pastor.

I said, if for no other reason for you to come here, then to do a heart check on the old one. And this is God's will. But we have to see differently how God plans for us to move ahead with His ministry with those around us. However, we see that Israel's great Exodus leader Moses, he was labeled the most humble man on earth. And Aaron, God centered humility, a focus on God's will over self.

That's what they had. That earmark, that is a point that you cannot miss on a true believer. That is God's will over self. That is God's glory over our own. Paul had great humility.

John the Baptist, the best man that ever lived. Humble. And so, true power comes from submitting to God and not personal status. And so, the second point, the right perspective, verses 28 and 29, this perspective, he who is the bride, and it talks about that. John the Baptist says, I'm just the best man.

I'm not a big shot. And we've probably all been to weddings where the best man acts like he's all that and what not. But John the Baptist declares in a modern wedding, he would probably be the master of ceremony. Isaiah 50, 54, 5 and 62, 5. It speaks about Jesus the groom and the people being the bride.

And so, I don't have a slide on that, but all John the Baptist wants is for them to meet the groom. That's what he is preparing them for. Behold, the Lamb of God! I am the best man. Here is the groom.

The church is the bride. Meet. This is the Lamb of God. Meet Him. That's all that John the Baptist wants.

Now the best man steps aside. Greatness, humility, anyone being used by God. Does someone else have a gift that you wish You had? Stand in line. Be like John the Baptist.

You share the joy of that other person's accomplishment, of that other person's gift. You share the joy of it. You come alongside of them. You grow and you learn. Romans 12.3 says, "'For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

And the third point, how do we arrive at a proper view of ourselves? It starts with a right view of God, circling back around humility. So the right view of God, I've got this picture when I wake up in the morning or when I go, I'm going to take this, I'm going to drag this back out to Wyoming again. I go elk hunting. There's a mountain.

It's like, okay, great. Well, let's see that I'm at, I'm at the parking lot and I need to get to where the elk live because it's about four or five miles away. I can see it. It's that mountain right there. So I just got to get up on that mountain.

Okay. Start walking. Hour later. I'm like, I don't know if that mountain's moving the other way, or if it's just, no. It's just like it takes forever to get there.

And then finally you get close enough. After about three hours, you get to where you want to be and you look in that mountain, that Elphava, it's like this. It would take me hours to get up to the top of this. It's just massive. This is how I perceive it to be with God.

The closer you get, the larger, the more gorgeously Beautiful and breathtaking He is. And this is how I see God in my life. To get a proper view, it's got to start with seeing who God is. Praying we see Him in this book as well. He modeled it for us when He laid aside Heaven and He came to earth.

A.W. Pink says, "...The spirit, afraid to trust in its own understanding, seeking God's counsel instead, gains a deep realization of one's own nothingness. In today's text, John the Baptist, he's asking, Are you zealous for Me? This is what makes My joy complete. Jesus comes to the forefront and is now more important than Me.

And as John the Baptist fades into the backdrop, He can say, my joy is complete. And he says that. My joy is complete. A man must be born again. Yes, that's a necessity.

But so is it a necessity that the Son of Man must be lifted up and exalted. And now we have Jesus must increase and John must decrease. This has got to be my model, my mission, more of God. And not even just more of God, because I'm sick of hearing that. More of God, less of me.

More of God, less of me. How about all of God, none of me? I don't want myself, I want all God. Why not that? More of God, less of me.

No. All of God, none of me. See, this mission, this more of God, It's not about you or them not struggling but in joy. It's this joy of the Spirit that we have moving forward. Humility is a biblical footprint of what makes you truly happy in Christ.

Magnified. Christ lifted up and us diminished. And I've used this from time to time, but Nicholas von Zinzendorf, he lived from 1700 to 1760, And he was a bishop of the Moravian Church. And he is quoted as saying at one time, preach the Gospel, die, be forgotten. See, this is a life lived about the glory of God.

Do we think about ourselves? And then John 3.30. John 3.30 says, He must increase, but I must decrease. And The question is, what makes us truly happy? Is it His glory?

Or is it our happiness? Is it what we get to reflect back to Him everything that we do? I think about you look at the moon at night, and we've had some nights where it's just like bright out. You could like deer hunt at night, it's so bright. I never do that, okay, really.

But in the morning, in the morning, that moon, it's the pale gray. And sometimes you have a hard time picking it out if it's a day moon. But you can see it, but it's a pale gray. It seems bright in the night sky, but by dawn it's not. And it's what is a reflection of the sun, which is the true light.

Just so every Christian is really a reflection of the Son of God. That's all we are. It's not what we are in and of ourselves. It's how do we reflect what Christ shines on us to other people. Philippians 2, 5-8.

I have, and I know it's getting late, but we have chili anyhow. Philippians 2, 5-8. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of man and being found in appearance a man. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." See, this is our salvation. This is our role model.

And so today, the words by John the Baptist are practically his last recorded words. It goes on through verse 36, but it is his last words. And his motto was not to defend yourself or to stand up for your rights. It was His life to exalt and to promote Jesus. That's what it was.

And that's what our life is. If you're a believer here today, that's what you are. Your life is here to promote, to exalt Jesus Christ. And if you don't know Him this morning, please pull me aside and talk to me. But we need to take our rightful position of humility and remember that that he must increase, that he emptied himself of divine privilege, serving as the ultimate example for others to be put first.

Father, we thank You this morning for Your Word and the power of it, Father God. I just pray for my own heart, Lord God, to be molded and shaped, Lord God, into a place that would glorify Your holy name, Lord. I thank You for what You have blessed us with. I thank You for Your Son. I thank You for the new birth.

I thank You for that Lamb of God, Lord. Help us, Father God, to behold him and rightly place him this day Lord I pray in Jesus precious name amen