Preparing for Advent (Part 4)

Well, it's good to see. Thank you for worshiping with

us today. I'm glad that you're here with us. I'm

glad if you have your bibles, if you're turned with

me to Luke. This morning, Luke chapter three, we're gonna

start verse fifteen in just a minute. We're finishing our

series preparing for Advent. We've been looking at the life

of John the Baptist, and today we're kind of wrapping

up that series. You know, as we come to the

end of twenty twenty five, it's always the time you

start reviewing what was the greatest movie, what was the

greatest song of twenty twenty five, and all these kind

of different things. We look at what was the greatest

sports figure in twenty twenty five. This morning we're going

to get a passage of scripture, and then this passage

of scripture it tells us who was one of the

greatest of all times before we do that. You know,

there is something in our world today. They're called influencers.

Influencers I won't if you know what that is. That

is people who are who maybe or the great sports figures,

maybe they're the great artists or movie stars or whatever,

and they use their influence, their fame, their popularity to

make money from sponsorships. Do you know one of the

greatest influencers today is the guy from North Carolina. His

name is Jimmy Donaldson. He's also called mister Beast. Do

you know Mister Beasts makes fifty nine million dollars a

month off of influencing on social media. YouTube makes fifty

million dollars a month across the platforms just trying to

get people to buy different things. The second most popular

person who makes money off just trying to influence people

to buy things is Lena Gomez. She makes forty two

million dollars a month forty two million dollars a year,

I think from YouTube and by selling different things. But

did you know the greatest of all time of influence

so you know who it is, It's actually Michael Jordan.

You know, Michael Jordan in nineteen eighty four signed a

deal with Nike, and from that moment on he's made

one point three billion dollars using his position as an

athlete and his fame and his popularity to influence people

to buy Nike. See here's something that the influencers in

the people of our world and sponsors like Nike and

other people understand. They understand that people have the power

to influence others, that one of the powerful things in

this world is people, individuals, and how they might influence

someone else to buy something, to make a decision. Well,

in this passage of Scripture we see one of the

greatest of all times? Who is it? His name is

John de Baptist. Do you know Jesus said that John

was the greatest of all times? You know why? In

Matthew eleven eleven, Jesus said this about John the Baptist. True,

I say to you, among those born of women, there

has arisen no one greater than John to Baptist. See,

here's John the Baptist. Who's the greatest all time? Michael

Jordan maybe the goat, but he is second to John

de Baptist. But what was so great about John de

Baptist is John de Baptist had influence. But he used

his influence in that he could lead people to certain things.

He used that influence. Listen to me today. He used

it to lead people to Jesus. You see, for John's life,

all my greatness or influence or popularity or fame, he

may have John de Baptist used that to not lead

people to himself, but lead people to Christ. You know

this morning, whether you recon ornize or you have recognized

it or not, you have influence. You know people are

watching you. People are looking to you. People look for

you for wisdom, People look for you for advice or

for opinions. People look to you. And this morning I

challenge you, how do you use your influence to lead

people to Jesus? How do you use your influence at work,

or at home, or at school, wherever you are. How

do you use that to appoint people not to yourself

but to Jesus. This morning, we're going to see how

John used his influence to point people to Jesus. And

I want us to learn how we can use our

influence to point people to Jesus. We stand with me, Liz,

look together at this pastor scripture. It's just a few verses.

It's John, it's not John, it's Luke. Chapter three, starting

verse fifteen, it says, and as the people we are

in expectation, and we're all questioning in their hearts concerning

John where he might be Christ. John answered them all saying,

I baptize you with water But he who is mightier

than I is coming the straps who sandals I'm not

worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy

spiritum with fire. His windowing fork is in his hand

to clear the threshing on floor, to gather the weed

into his barn. But the chaff he will burn with

unquenchable fire. And so many other exhortations. He preached good

news to the people. Let's pray together, Father, God, we believe.

I believe You've brought everyone in this room today. And Lord,

we gather together in person and watch it online or

on TV. Lord, we gather together to worship you. Today. Lord,

we gather together to hear your voice, not mine. And

so Lord, I pray today, may you use your Holy

spirit to give me, Lord your words. That I might

not speak my own words, But Lord, I would just

speak your word. Today. Lord, I pray as John prayed,

that I would decrease and you would increase. Lord, Father,

and Lord, today, Lord, we would hear your word and

your spirit would move in us. And Lord convict our hearts,

Lord to turn to you, to point others to you.

So Lord, may you use your word today to speak

to us. May our hearts be open to you today. Lord,

We love you. Lord, move in this service. We pray, Amen,

you may be seated. How do we point people to Jesus?

How did John point people to Jesus? First, we do

that by claim the superiority of Jesus. We proclaimed the

superiority of Jesus. Spacialist begins. The setting is as you

remember the last few weeks. John is in the wilderness.

He's been preaching, and great crowds have come to John.

He's gathering a great following. If you will and come,

they follow him all the way to the desert, to

the wilderness to hear him preach. And John's preaching and

his preachings changing lives. You see people repenting up their sin,

their people, their lives are changing. You see tax gleuttors

turning from taking money from people. You see soldiers repenting

from abusing their power. Their people are changing their lives.

And because this great following John has gotten, this great

power in which John preaches is changing people's lives. People

start wondering whether John is the Messiah. In Verse fifteen

shows us that it says and the people were in expectation.

That gives us this understanding that what were they in expectation?

They were expectation of the Messiah. This was the time

that they were. They were waiting. As we've been looking

at the advent, Avent is a season of waiting and

of expectation for Christ to come. And it gives us

the imagery here that the people at this time were,

they're in waiting. They're in the season of avent, They're

waiting for Christ to come. They're looking for the Messiah.

And because they're looking for Messiah and they see the

power of John's preaching, they see people's lives change, they

see people coming to God repenting usin they think maybe

he's the one. That's what Pastor says. Look at verse fifteen.

As they were an expectation, and all were questioning in

their hearts concerning whether John might be the Christ. You know,

the word Christ there means the anointed one. It comes

from the Old Testament. It means that this one is

the one anointed by God to be the Messiah. They're

questioning in their hearts, is this Christ? Is this the Messiah?

Is this the Messiah that has been aside through the prophets?

Is this the one, the anointed one? We've been waiting for.

And listen what John says in this passive scripture. He responds,

you see, all this attention is coming upon John. He's

got influence, he's got followers. And what does John do.

He doesn't take it upon himself that he is great,

although Jesus calls him great. In turn, he uses that

to point them to that Jesus is far superior than him.

This is what John says. John says in this passage

of scripture. And John answered them, says, I baptize you

with water. He describes he's called them to baptize and

he's been baptizing them in the wilderness. But he says,

my baptism is nothing. It's just water. Doesn't change you.

Does have the power to change you. But listen to this.

But he who is mightier than I is coming. John says,

I'm not the Messiah. The Messiah is the one who's coming.

And now, now John, what he does is he compares

what he's done his ministry in the wilderness, and he

compares his ministry with Jesus this ministry, and he demonstrates

through this he proclaims that Christ is superior. Kind of

a threefold superiority of Christ. Number one, Christ is superior

in rank. Look what he says here, he says, I

baptize you with water. What my ministry is nothing, what

I've been doing is nothing compared to what Christ is doing.

And then he describes Christ. Here he says, but he

who is mightier than I is coming. This word mightier.

In the Old Testament that was used for strength is

usually to dictate or describe. I should say, not dictate,

to describe someone in the Old Testament who had the

strength of God. And in the Old Testament, someone who

had the strength of God was anointed by God, and

it was sent by God. Even Jeremiah to used this

term describe this one who would be sent by God,

who had the strength of God, and he would describe

it as a redeemer. Jeremiah fifty thirty four says, the

redeemer is strong. The Lord of Host is his name,

and he will surely plead their call that he might

give rest to the earth, but the unrest to the

inhabitants of Babylon. It described the redeemer who had the

strength of God. In the Old Testament. This word for strength,

that John says, this one who's coming after me. He

has God's strength. He is the Redeemer. In the New Testament,

that same term for strength was used by Luke, who

also wrote the Book of Acts, and in Acts ten

thirty eight, he describes Jesus's strength here comes from the

anointing of the Holy Spirit. You know what John is saying.

John is saying, you think I am the anointed one.

I tell you the one who's coming after me, he

is the Messiah. He is the anointed one by God.

He is the redeemer who's filled with the power of God,

filled with the power of God's strength to redeem his people.

I'm not the Messiah. I'm not the redeemer. The one

who's coming he is mightier than I. And he's given

this imagery that he is nothing and Christ he ranks higher.

He he has an office higher them. He is has

more power than him. He is the one. John is saying,

who is truly the anointed one? He draws this imagery,

he keeps going. He says, but he is mightier than

I is coming, and he draws us out a little

bit more. And he says, the straps and whose sandals,

I am unworthy to untie. You know there was a

social order at this time in the In the New

Testament times, the lowest of all classes were slaves. Slaves

would be asked to do certain tasks, and one of

the tasks that slaves would do was they would untie

the sandals of their masters. That was seen as the

most menial task ever. In this time and New Testament times,

people would either walk barefooted or they would have sandals,

And one of the lowest of all tasks was for

a slave to untie the sandals of his master. But

it was seen as such a degrading things that Jews

who were slave were forbidden to do it. Only gentile

slaves could do it. John is saying in this passive scripture, listen,

you think I'm the Messiah. He's saying, I am nothing.

The one who's coming after me, he is the anointed one.

He's the one who's filled with God's spirit, who's anointed

by God to redeem his people. But not only that,

he says, i am nothing. I'm not even worthy to

untie his sandals. I'm nothing. There's there's there's nothing in

me that is good. There's nothing I'm not. I'm a nobody.

It's interesting for John to say that for someone who's

gathered such a following, that people will come out from

Israel to the wilderness just to hear and preach, to

see people's lives change. And then in the end John says,

I am nothing. Christ is everything. You know. We live

in a world that we really seek attention. I think

it is really kind of maybe you've gotten worship of

the last ten years or more through social media. We

live for the attention that we can find on making

a post and see how many likes it gets or

how many friends we might get on social media. We

look for attention, right, but how do you today? And

how are you? And I? We might look for attention

for a postal on social media. We look for We

seek good grades in school that we might get the

attention of scholarships. We might work hard at our work

that we might get the attention of our employer may

give it a bonus. We might do things around home

to get the attention of our family. But how in turn,

instead of a turning tension upon us at work or

at school or at home, how do we use what

the skills and the abilities of God give us? How

do we use that instead of turning it to us.

Use those abilities to turn it to Jesus. How do

you use your influence at schools students to lead that

to point people to Christ? How are you in the workplace,

the skills that God gave you at work? How do

you use that to point people to Jesus. How do

you use the attention and maybe the influence that you

have in your home father, the influence you have as

of your children, grandparents, the influence you have of your grandchildren,

how much the influence that you might have in your

neighborhood and your neighbors. Do you use the attention that

you receive to say, really, I'm nobody. Christ is everything,

and use that attention, that influence to lead people not

to yourself but the Jesus. That's what John does. I

think that's what we sh do. We sure proclaim that

Christ is superior. He has the superior rank. Another thing

that John says here is that Christ has a superior baptism.

You know, John baptized with water, he says, but my

baptism was nothing. And now he compares his baptism to

Jesus's baptism this way, he says, He says he will

baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. It's

interesting he uses these two terms together. There's a lot

of great debate about what John's meaning with these two.

Very simply today, I want to explain what I believe

the context shows us that it means. He states, the

baptized with water, John says, which is nothing. But he says,

Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Every believer, when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord's Savior,

and you put your faith in Christ for salvation, Christ

gives you what the endowment of the Holy Spirit, you

and dwell with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, always says,

comes and lives inside your In that Holy Spirit imparts

you the righteousness of Christ. You receive the righteousness of

Christ to the work of the Holy Spirit. That's what

Romans eight seven eight tells us. We also know that

the Holy Spirit works inside us to convict us of sin.

Right in Romans eight, it tells us the Holy Spirit

is what God uses that empowers us to live a

righteous life for Christ. So we receive the Holy Spirit

in Christ in this imagery. In this passage, John is saying, listen,

the Messiah who's coming then anointed one. He says, when

I baptize you, my baptism does nothing. But when Christ

baptized you, he baptizes you, and he what fills you

with the Holy Spirit, and that holy spirit cleanses you,

gives you the righteousness of Christ, empowers you to live

for Christ. See, it gives this kind of a twofold example.

One those he baptizes with the spirit. First Corinthians, by

the way mentions this, and one Corinthians twelve thirteen. It says,

for one spirit, we were all baptized into the body,

Jews and Greeks, slaves are free, We're all made to

drink of one spirit. The imagery that Paul was describing

is that when we are saved, we're baptized and we

receive the Holy Spirit. That's what Jesus is saying. That's

what John the Baptist is saying. The one who's coming,

he's going to baptize you by giving you the Holy Spirit.

There's another baptism that he's describing here. It's a baptism

of fire. The fire. Here are those who don't receive Christ, unbelievers.

In this imagery that Luke is using here and John

is using is a baptism of judgment. You see in scripture.

Fire appears throughout Luke's writing as a metaphor of God's

divine judgment. In Luke Chapter twelve forty nine through forty

three fifty three, Luke describes fire as the vision that

Jesus came to bring among those who were unbelievers. In

Luke seventeen twenty nine through thirty, he speaks to the

day of the Sun of Man as a day of

fire that divides people. If you think about this, and

like I said, there's a great debate about what he

means by fire, But if you look at the context

of this pastor of scripture, if you remember in Luke

chapter I mean three, begin his passage and people are

coming to him, and he says, who warned you what

to flee? From? What? The wrath of God? Right? He

calls these to flee from the wrath of God. In

verse nine he references the Messiah coming to judge and

in that day of judgment in verse nine, he will

cut them down. He's ready to judge them. He's got

the acts, if you remember, down by the root, and

he's ready to cut down every tree that doesn't bear fruit,

and what he's going to do, He's going to toss

them into the fire. He throws that those who are

fruitless into the fire. He's demonstrating that Christ. When Christ comes,

Christ is superior in rank, but He also is a

superior baptism. He baptized those with the spirit, and they

receive faith and salvation, eternal life, the righteousness of Christ.

But he also will baptize those with fire. You know,

there's we all and maybe in this room if you're

a believer here today. One of the greatest struggles for

us is what is knowing that we have people that

we love and we care about, and maybe we have

influence over that are lost that don't know Jesus. One

of the greatest burdens on our hearts. Sir Lord, we

want to use our life appointing them to Jesus, But

we can't save them, can we? As much as we

would love to somehow make them get saved, we can't

that can we. They have to for themselves choose to

whether they put their faith in Christ or not. John

in this passage of Scripture, is recognizing listen, as much

as I want to point you to Jesus. Only Jesus

can save you. And my ministry is the point you

to the one who has the power to save. If

you think I can save you, I cannot. The one

who's coming after me, he's the one who has the

power to save you. Look to him. I just encourage you.

How how much do you use your influence to point

people to the one who has the power to save them.

Not only this pastor scripture supposed he shows that Christ's

superior rank, he's superior baptism. But thirdly he's a superior judge.

Using that same imagery of this baptism, this baptism of

the spirit, there's this baptism of fire, and it depends

upon what and every individual chooses. And I could tell

you here this morning today, I don't know where you

are and your walk with the Lord. I don't know

where you are and what you've chosen today. But every individual,

you have a choice of whether you put your faith

in Jesus Christ for salvation. And you received the baptism

of the spirit. But one day, if you have not,

you will receive the baptism of fire. And you have

to I can't make that decision for you. None of

your family members who have influence. Only you can make

that decision for yourself of what you've received. And in

this pastor of scripture, John Knowledge says that Jesus is

the only one who can save you, but he gives

us the imagery that Jesus is the supreme judge. You know,

I told you last week the Billy Graham says, over

fifty percent of those in the church are lost. You know,

one thing that we could do is if we took

out and laid out individuals, you know, and try to

determine whether they were right or saved or saved, or

believers or unbelievers. We in ourselves couldn't determine whether someone's

hard is right with God or not right. Only the

Lord is, and that is the Lord's job right. And

in this pastor of scripture, it shows that one of

Christ is superior, that he is the one who is

the judge. He gives us the imagery followed with me.

In scripture in verse seventeen, it says, his winnling fork

is in his hand to clear the threshing floor, to

gather the weed into his barn. But the chaff who

will burn with unquenchable fire, I mean, there's a parable

in scripture called the parable of ten virgins. You remember

that parable. It kind of gives you the imagery of

the description i'vebscribed. If you laid out individuals, you wouldn't

know who was saved and who was not. There would

be maybe ten people who would all profess to be saved,

but there may be ten. Half of them would be

and half of them would not, maybe not be saved.

And that's the imagery of the parable ten versins. Ten

virgins came out, they all declared that they were followers, right,

but there were Scripture describes five who were ready and

five who were not. And when Jesus returned, he disclosed

which one we're ready for Christ and which we're not

ready for Christ. And it's the same imagery in this

passage of scripture. When Jesus returns, he says he is

the one who has the fork in his hand. He

uses this imagery gives this a metaphor of Jesus being

a farmer. A farmer would take the grain at harvest time,

and he would take this windowing fork would be like

a fork is kind of like a like a shovel

fork like shovel and he would take that shovel and

he would lift up the grain, and he would throw

that grain in the air. And as that we would

go in the air, the chaff would the wind would

carry the chaff away, but the heavier grain would fall

to the threshing floor. He would gather that grain together

on the threshing floor, and guess what, he would take

it into the storehouse of his barn. But the chaff

that would be carried by the wind, he would rate

that together and he would burn it with fire. And

he's using this as a metaphor Jesus. And Jesus is

saying jonasan. When Jesus has come, he's a supreme judge.

He'll take every individual in the fork of his judgment

and he'll throw it in the air, and he will

divide who are God's people, who are believers and who

are not. And those who are believers he'll gather together

and they'll take them into storehouse of heaven. And those

who are not, he'll gather them together and he'll burn

them in fire. Listen to the imagery of this passage

of scripture. He says, he even describes this. He he

but but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

John is saying, listen, Jesus is supreme and rank. He

is the anointed one. I am nobody. Jesus is the one.

Jesus is not an anointed one. But Jesus has the

power to save, and he has the power to judge,

and he is lastly, he is the supreme judge. You

may fool man, you may fool your family, but you

can't full Christ. And when Jesus returns, he will separate

those her believers from unbelievers, and those her a believers

he will receive into heaven, and those who are not

hell cast into hell for all eternity. Can I ask

you today you have influence? Are you pointing people to

the one who has the power to save them? Are

you pointing them to the one who is a supreme

judge who knows whether they are right with God and

whether they're not? Now? Are you pointing them to the

one who can save their soul? You know? I don't

know if you know, but over the last week or so,

Kirk Cameron, many of your men know who that is.

He's an actor, celebrity. He's been a very vocal in

his faith over the last few years. I think the

last week or so, two weeks ago, he came out

with a view that he doesn't believe in an actual hell.

He believed in its annihilation of This view, this view

is that that those who are cast into maybe Hell,

I guess you would say, would be annihiliated. They won't

suffer for all eternity, They'll just be annihilated at the

day of judgment. It's a false view, it's a heretical view.

What he is saying in this what Kirk Cameron is saying,

he says, how can God? Basically Cameron question how the

turning suffering fit in the character of our merciful God.

So he believes instead of an eternal judgment, he believes

in annihilation of view. I bring that out because in

this passage of scripture, but the chaff he will burn

with an unquenchable fire. It's not according to God's word.

And I'm telling you that because Kirk Cameron has influence,

and he's using his influence to point people to something

that's not true. And here's the point. It's watering down

the gospel, it's watering down the supremacy of God's judgment,

and it's making that maybe it won't be so bad. Listen,

we live in a world that just constantly wants to

water down what God's word says. We need to be

people who say this is what God's word says to

warn them of the reality of what's coming. And here

have you. There's a temptation and all of us that

want to water it down. Isn't there? Well, Pastor? I mean,

have you ever told anybody, have you ever talked to

anybody that you may know that's headed to hell about

the reality of God's judgment. There'll spend eternity in hell

of unquenchable fire. You said, no, I have it? Why

have it? The reason why? It's because it's uncomfortable. We

want to, like Cameron, water it down. May it not

be so bad? No, it's it is severe. I was

thinking just this idea of unquenchable fire, just never being satisfied.

Just last year at Christmas, we had a Christmas party

and I was cooking. I have this big cooker and

I was in a hurry, and I kind of had

a little issue and the grille kind of blew back

on me and it burned all the hair on my hand,

and it burned my eyelids, I mean my eyelashes, my yeah,

my lids. And I burned my hand pretty pretty good.

And all day long my hen just would not stop burning.

And you know what I did. I wanted to find

something that would quench the burn. So I went to

I went to CVS to find something that would quench

the pain. I found some light of Kane, Praise the

Lord for Lydikane, and that helped. That helped quench the burn.

But in this passage they'll be cast into Hell, which

an unquenchable fire. There is nothing for all eternity that

will ever ever quench the fire and their reality that

we have loved ones and people that under our influence,

and we don't speak the truth of what God's word

says that is coming, John did. John used his influence

to speak of the reality of the the superior Cristi

is coming, who has the who is the anointing in

the one who has the power to say, but he

also has the power to judge. Lastly, I want you

to see here, he used, how do we point people

to Jews? We point people to Jesus, where we proclaim

the superior superiority of Jesus. But Secondly, we proclaimed the

Gospel of Jesus. Look at what verse eighteen says. So

with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.

Exhortations are like messages. There's different things that John said

over the next It kind of gives us summary. This

is the summary statement of John's ministry. But he's given

this imagery that what John continued to do after that

was continue to preach the good news. You know, if

you think about the good news, the good news, the

Gospel means good news. It's good news, isn't it. I

want you to think about something for a minute. We've

been talking about the goat the greatest of all time.

It's right, the great influence of all times, great music

of all times. In twenty twenty five, what was your

greatest sin? What was something you did in twenty twenty

five that you said, I wish I wouldn't have done?

What you think about not in twenty twenty five, But

how about your life? What was the greatest sin you've

ever committed? You know, I promise you right now every

one of you can think of something. And when you

think of that one sin that you've committed, what comes

to your mind is regret, shame, and guilt. When you

think about that sin of your past, whether it was

last year, or whether it was twenty or thirty years

or forty years ago, you can all remember it, and

you all wish you have were Michael J. Fox, and

you can get in the time machine and you could

go back in time and you could undo that sin

that you committed. But you can't. You can't get over that.

You can't forget it. You can't get over the shame,

you can't get over the guilt. But the good news

of Jesus is what he can forgive you of it, Kenny.

He can wipe that sin away, as Scripture says in Isaiah,

though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be whiter

than snows. And isn't that the good news of Jesus,

that though we may be far apart because of the

sin we committed, it, he grants us the baptism of

the Holy Spirit that comes ends us. When we put

our faith in Him and we repent of our sin,

he comes into our hearts. He saves us from our sins.

He cleanses us from our sins, and he sets us

on a path with it. For a right relationship with him,

and that is the good news of Jesus. Right, no

matter what great sins you committed against the Holy God,

there is forgiveness and cleansing with the Savior. That is

good news, isn't it? I wonder today you all have influence.

You all know what it's like to be forgiven of

your sins, your greatest sins. Isn't that goodness news to

tell other people? I wonder today? Who do you know

today in your family? Who do you know that you

maybe have an influence over in your family and your friends,

in your neighborhood, at your workplace, at your school. Who

needs to hear the good news that they can be forgiven?

Who right now is battling sin as you've battled sin,

and they need to hear about the one who came

to save them. They need to hear about the anointing

one who has the power to save them. How might

you point them to the good news, the good news

that you received as we finished this morning? John did that. John,

in his ministry, has lived his life to proclaim and

point people to Jesus by proclaiming superiority of Jesus and

proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus, the good News of Jesus. Hey,

how might we also do the same of proclaiming that

Jesus is greater. Jesus is superior, He's superior in rank,

superior judge, and he provides a superior baptism for all

of us. How might we proclaim the good news of Jesus.

You know, the one of the largest person people who

in the entire world that has the most followers, you know,

it is Kristin Ronaldo. He's a soccer player, Portuguese football player,

soccer player. He has over one billion followers that follow

him on Instagram. He makes three point two million dollars

per post. Now, imagine imagine if he had one billion followers,

and imagine he lived his whole life and he never

one time used that following to tell others about Jesus.

You would say, what a waste. You would say, Oh,

how people could have seen that Jesus was better than

Christian Ronado, as great as he may have been in

the sports world, as greater as he may have been

popular in this world, Jesus is more superior. He's superior

than Christian Ronado, that he has a rank, that he's anointed,

that he has the power to save people, he has

the power to bring judgment upon people, and he is

the supreme judge. Oh, how people could have seen if

he would have just proclaimed that Jesus is superior. Oh

how Christian Ronado. What it would have been like if

he would have told people the good news that he

was a sinner, but by the grace of God Christ

saved him and forgive him of his greatest sins. Oh well,

how people could have heard the good news. Just think

about all the lives that could have been changed. Think

about how people could have repented from their sins and

turned from Hell and turn the found eternal life in Jesus.

Oh what a waste if he would have just told

people and just pointed people to Jesus. Can I tell

you today, it's a waste if one billion people don't hear.

But it's also a waste if we only have one

follower and we don't tell them the same thing. Whether

you have one billion and you have one follower, we

all have the same responsibility. We must point them to Jesus.

I ask you today, will you use your influence, will

you use the attention that you received to point people

that there is there's one who's greater and his name

is Jesus. Will you point them to the good news

of Jesus. Let's pray together. Lord, we love you God.

I thank you Lord for this morning. I thank you

Lord that Lord, as we look to John's life, Lord,

just the humility of John to always long to point

people to Christ. Lord. I pray that we would live

our lives in such a way Lord, that we want

to point others to you. Lord. We want to people

not to see our greatness, but to see your greatness. Lord,

that you're superior and rank. You are the anointed one

of God. You have the power to save. Lord, to

give us the holy spirit that empowers us to live

for you, that cleanses us from our sins, that gives

us Lord your righteousness. Lord, we might recognize that. Lord,

you're the supreme judge. You have the power to judge

all man. Lord, I pray today that we would Lord

long to tell people the good news of Jesus, that

you can cleanse this of our sins, our greatest sins.

Or we love you today. Or I pray that Lord,

we would ponder these things on our hearts. Lord, your

spirit would move within us. Lord, bring conviction upon us

to go and tell Lord about you, others about you. Lord,

I pray today, if there's someone here that doesn't know

you as Lord and Savior, Lord, they would see the

reality of their sins. They'd see the reality that they

too have a choice on that day of whether when

you come again, whether you will divide them, whether they

will enter into the storehouse of Heaven or be cast

into hell forever.

And Lord, today is a day of salvation. Today is

the day that they can put their faith in You

for salvation. Today's the day that they can be forgiven. So, Lord,

I pray they'd be those today would put their faith now.

Then their goodness and their works are trying better. Lord,

Today they'd put their faith in what you have done

for them on the cross.

And Lord, they would put their faith you for salvation,

to repent of their sins and find a relationship with you.

Lord Today, peace with you. Lord Today, Lord, if there's

anyone here today that has never done that, Lord, I

pray today would be the day that they would put

their faith in you. Lord, lead us now in this

time of invitation. Some of this alter need to come

to this altar and pray. I pray you lead them

to do that. Some Lord I can pray with today,

maybe how they can put their faith in you. Whatever

it may be, I pray there'd be those who respond

to the Lord your word today. Lord, we love you.

We thank you Lord for this morning. Lord lead us

now this time we respond in your name. We pray Amen.