Witnesses to the Light

The Gospel of John has always been one of my favorite books of the Bible.

And I can remember time and time again when you have conversations with people who are not followers of Christ, the majority of them all agree and will tell you that they believe Jesus did exist.

But they will caveat that with, He was just a good man who did some good things.

And so this last Sunday, Pastor Justin did a great job of not only introducing us to the gospel of John, but more importantly, introducing us to who Jesus is in this.

That how John starts out this gospel and laying the groundwork to really understand that he is fully God, unlike the other gospels that start with his birth.

And so when we come to verses six through eight, it's kind of interesting when you get there, because it doesn't quite make sense in the midst of verses one through eighteen of the prologue.

It kind of seems out of place a little bit because the first 18 verses are by and large all about Jesus Christ.

But then all of a sudden, John introduces this different individual right here in the midst and then jumps back to Jesus.

But when we start to examine these verses, it does make quite a bit of sense that John would be introduced here as the first gospel witness throughout this gospel.

You see, the theme of witness is woven throughout the entirety of the Gospel.

Over and over again, we read about someone or something that bears witness about Jesus.

For example, in John 5 and John 8, we read about the Father bearing witness about Jesus.

In John 8, the Son bears witness about himself.

In John 15, the Holy Spirit bears witness about Jesus.

Again, in John 5 and in John 10, the works that Jesus does bears witness about himself.

In John 5, the Scripture bears witness about Jesus.

In John 15, again, the disciples bear witness about Jesus.

And in John 19 and 21, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the gospel writer John here, bears witness about Jesus.

But then we come to the end of the Gospel of John, where we get the purpose of the Gospel.

And Pastor Justin touched on this towards the end of his sermon last week when we read in John 20, verse 31, he says this.

John 20:31

So it makes sense that John would then introduce John the Baptist here as the first witness towards his purpose.

And so when we come back to these three verses, in six through eight, we're introduced to John the Baptist.

So let's jump into the text this morning, starting with verse six, where we see our summary is this being sent from God.

There was a man who was sent from God whose name was John.

Now let's get a little bit of background information, kind of a macro picture of who John was.

It was foretold all the way back in Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, of an individual who was going to come.

And if we were to look at Isaiah 40, verse 3, we'd understand that where it says this, follow along the screen, a voice cries, in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Isaiah 40:3

Now you might ask yourself, just by reading that, how do we know there's a connection here to John the Baptist?

How do we know that the individual that Isaiah is prophesying about is actually John the Baptist?

Well, if we were to look at the first gospel in the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, he helps us understand this in chapter 3, verses 1 through 3.

He says, This In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

So Matthew, in his gospel, tells us that all the way back in Isaiah 40, verse 3, he was prophesying about this moment, this moment where John the Baptist is being sent from God.

Isaiah 40:3

Now, why is it significant that God is sending John the Baptist here in this moment?

It helps us understand that John is actually coming from God and that he's not doing this of his own will or his own purpose.

There is a plan.

God does not sit back retroactively thinking about what's going to happen and then interject in history.

He has a plan that progresses throughout all of time and all of history.

And that time for the arrival of Jesus is here.

And so John the Baptist is coming to do that.

Now you've got to remember, up until this point when the birth of Jesus was announced, there had been 400 years of silence from God.

400 years.

And then we're some 30 years later after that.

So if Jesus would have just burst onto the scene and started doing miracles and teaching and healing and all that, people might have been pretty hesitant, except for the fact that they knew not only was a Messiah foretold to come, but there was a forerunner, one that was coming as a result of Isaiah, who was, they were waiting for the voice in the wilderness.

See, God's people were waiting for the forerunner, who is John the Baptist.

And so we see God's plan continuing to move forward.

But we have to ask ourselves a question: why was John coming?

And we see this in verses seven and eight.

And our summary of verses seven and eight is being sent for God.

Being sent for God.

So we had John being sent from God, and we have John being sent for God.

And so in verses seven and eight, we get a picture of who John was and who he was not.

Let's start with who John was.

John tells us that he came to be a witness.

His purpose was to be a witness.

Now let's stop and consider for a moment what a witness is.

When we talk about a witness, a lot of times immediately our minds go to a legal situation, a courtroom where someone is there to speak about what they know or have seen or witnessed or they're there to testify about this event that's taking place.

Maybe it's a car accident where someone is there, they witnessed the two cars colliding or multiple cars, and the police are trying to figure out what actually happened, and they can say, listen, that car ran a red light, that car hit them, it's that's what happened.

And so if we think about it, a definition of witness, though, is the attestation of a fact or event.

It's the evidence of a fact or an event.

It's not speculation, it's not personal opinion.

A lot of times in this day and age in our culture, currently, people are confusing feelings with fact.

Right?

Well, that's what I believe.

Well, is that fact or is that a feeling?

Because feelings can lead you astray.

So this is a fact or an event, something taking place.

And so when John the Baptist comes on the scene as the first witness, we're introduced to the evidence of what is happening as the word being Jesus enters the world.

And what is John the Baptist showing evidence of?

He's showing evidence of the light.

The light.

Now, no one should be have to be told that a light is on.

It's very clear if a light is on or a light is off.

This past uh this past spring, we sold our house and we had to go through the process of showing the house.

You know that time where you have four kids and you have to act like you don't live there for a few days?

And and so you have to have everything right.

And so we're away, and so after the first day of showings, I told Chelsea, I said, I'm gonna go back uh and make sure all the lights are off, because it'd be easy to miss one.

If you live in my home, I I don't uh I don't really I'm not a fan of lights being left on rooms that people aren't in.

And so I'm constantly I have to like calm myself down.

Um but I I go back to check, and sure enough, I drive up and I can immediately see because all the blinds are open, there are certain lights on in the house.

Now, the reality was I didn't have to hire a consultant to come in who was a light expert to tell me whether these lights were on or off.

It wasn't like getting a home inspection when they tell you what's wrong.

It's very clear whether a light is on or whether a light is off.

But here in John 1, 7 through 8, John makes it very clear that John the Baptist was coming along to be a witness about the light.

He was having to come and declare that the light had arrived.

Why?

A.W.

Pink, who was an English Bible teacher and author born in the late 1800s, said this.

Who need to be told it's shining?

The blind.

How tragic then when we read that God sent John to bear witness of the light, how pathetic that there should be any need for this.

How solemn the statement that men have to be told the light is now in their midst.

What a revelation of man's fallen condition.

Now, why would mankind have to be told the light has arrived?

If light is so obvious when it is present, then why did John need to announce the arrival of Jesus as the light?

Look at John 3.19.

And this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

All because people love the darkness more than the light, and because their works were evil.

This is a direct connection and helping us understand that this goes all the way back to Genesis 3, when the fall takes place, where Adam and Eve and mankind reject God, and as a result, sin is passed down from one generation to the next.

Sin enters the world.

And here in John 1, we're getting a reminder and we're seeing the effects of the fall all the way back from Genesis 3.

Listen to Romans 5.12.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin.

So death spread to all men because all sinned.

If you want more proof that all have sinned, Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

So when we come back to John 1 and verse 7, John comes to bear witness about the light.

Why?

So that all might believe through him.

In the same way that sin and death spread to all mankind, in the same way that death has spread to all mankind, the gospel writer makes it clear that now in redemptive history, at this point in time, there is now solution to the problem of sin.

Where all have been affected, where all have been impacted, where sin has messed with everything, there is a solution.

This is why John the Baptist was coming.

This is why he was coming on the scene to prepare the way of the Lord.

He being John the Baptist was not the light.

I mean, look at verse 8.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

In the same way, we see this relationship between the sun and the moon.

I don't know how many of you have been outside very much at night.

And whether there's a cloud cover, uh, but typically not in a full moon, when you walk outside, you might have said to yourself, Wow, look how bright the moon is.

How many of you have said that to yourself before, or you've come back?

Like for me, I take the dogs out every night and I'm like, I come back and I'm like, man, the moon is so bright tonight.

Wow, it's incredible how bright it is.

You can see everything.

You don't need a light on at all.

Even when it's pitch black out, the m the moon seems really bright.

When in reality, the moon is actually not providing any light at all.

The moon is reflecting the light from the sun.

Some of you are like, what?

It's mind-blowing.

I had no idea.

The moon is a witness to the reality of the sun.

The moon is a witness to the reality of the sun.

The moon is attesting to the fact that the sun actually exists.

And we see the same thing here with John the Baptist.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light, who is Jesus Christ.

John is not the source of light, he is a witness to the true light.

Which brings us to our main idea this morning, and it's this being a witness to the light of the gospel.

Being a witness to the light of the gospel.

If you think about it, it's no different today than it was at the time John the Baptist came on the scene preparing the way for Jesus.

People at that time were blinded by their sin and rebellion against God.

And guess what?

People today are still blinded by their sin and rebellion against God.

And part of that problem is from the way we view sin.

One commentator put it this way, how we view sin.

He said, sin is not a series of bad choices, but a state of being from which bad choices continually come.

This means that humanity's moral, intellectual, even aesthetic capacities are fallen and poised to move away from the presence of the light.

Sin is not a series of bad choices, but a state of being from which bad choices continually come, which cause us to flee.

Sin drives us away from the light.

Because of sin, we run from the light instead of running towards the light.

In the past year, there was a fast food chain that came under fire for a video that surfaced from one of their employees.

And I won't tell you the name of the restaurant because you probably like this place.

And so I want you to keep going there.

Maybe.

So the video starts out with the individual.

He's in Washington, D.C.

You clearly can tell it's at night, it's dark.

He shows the name, the sign on the front of the building, and then he scans down to the glass walls, and you can see it's dark inside.

So he walks up and he's walking you through the restaurant and locks the door, walks in, and you know by the title of the video, he's headed to the kitchen.

But you're waiting to get there, and you're like, what are we about to see?

What chaos is about to happen?

And he gets back to the kitchen, he's shining the light, nothing there, and then he flips on the full lights in the kitchen, and rat after rat after rat scatters.

I mean, it's chaos.

I mean, it's like tons of rats, and there's rats scattering up a pole, uh, poles like one after another.

It looks like a movie, just one after another into the ceiling.

We're like, they live there.

Like they hang out, they're eating the food that you're gonna eat the next day.

And and the funny thing is, the rats were fine in the darkness.

They were loving their lives, right?

They loved it, they thought it was amazing until the moment the lights came on, and then they scattered.

They fled.

They wanted nothing to do with the light.

And we are exactly like those rats in the video before Jesus Christ.

We run, we flee from the light.

We want nothing to do with the light.

And this is why, as followers of Jesus Christ, as those who have professed faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, our goal is the same as John the Baptist.

We are witnesses to the light of the gospel.

We are pointing others to the light who is Jesus Christ.

That's our goal.

That's why we are here is to point others to Jesus.

What a the joy to be that song, where I decrease and he increases.

Why don't we do this?

Why don't we point others to the true light who is Jesus Christ?

And I believe it's because of this.

We reject our role as witness.

We reject our role as witness.

Now, I believe this is for a few reasons, and one of the reasons I believe we reject our role as witness is because we have a lack of gospel knowledge.

Now, I'm not saying we don't believe in the gospel, and I'm not saying we don't have like an understanding of the gospel, but if it came down to it and someone asked us what the gospel is, the details get a little fuzzy.

We become anxious, nervous, and like paralyzed.

Like, oh my gosh, I can't tell.

I could I couldn't share the gospel with anyone.

A sacred mission, one of our first core beliefs, what we are built around, is that we are a gospel-centered church.

And for a quick summary of the gospel, we could go to Romans 5.8.

But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And we believe that the context of the gospel is best seen in the gospel story throughout all of Scripture.

And at sacred mission, how we communicate the gospel is really through four words creation, curse, cross, and consummation.

We look at creation and we believe that God created everything very good, incredible, amazing.

But then, curse comes along because mankind rejects God and they rebel against Him.

And as a result, God places a curse on all mankind and everything we know and see.

Which let's just real quick side note think about that.

Everything beautiful in this world, like you've had your breath taken away, a moment at the beach, a moment in the mountains, something just rolling hills of just freedom of mountains and whatever it might be, and that's impacted by the curse.

Sin has even impacted that.

How beautiful and amazing God really is.

But then the cross.

Jesus comes and he bears the full weight of sin and the curse so that we can live under God's blessing and experience restoration.

But then there's consummation.

Where one day Jesus will return and he will fully remove all sin and the curse, and we will have perfect communion with the Father in the new heavens and the new earth.

So, what should you do?

Memorize Romans 5.8.

Then memorize these four words creation, curse, cross, and consummation will help you.

And think about it this way: we love stories, right?

Think about it in a story.

It's so much easier to memorize stories.

This is why we read books and why we watch movies, and kids love being told stories.

I loved when we would visit with my uncle, whether we were in Houston at his house or he was at my grandparents' house, because he was a phenomenal storyteller.

And every night we'd we'd be getting ready for bed, all the cousins, and we'd lay down and he would come in and he would tell us this story to be a to be continued.

Every night.

So every night we look, we he got us to look forward to bedtime, which was crazy.

But as I got older, I realized he was just telling us the line The Witch in the Wardrobe and putting our names in there.

And I was like, what?

He's not a good storyteller.

He just memorized his story.

But think about every great story.

Every story starts out with everything is great, it's it's perfect, life is good, it can't get any better.

And then tragedy strikes.

Something terrible happens.

People live under these terrible circumstances, they think nothing's gonna change, it's just catastrophic, it's just terrible.

And then a hero comes along and saves the day.

And they rejoice, and then what?

Everyone, what?

Happily ever after.

Thought people would get on that one.

That's literally the story of the Bible.

Every great story rips off the Bible.

Disney has made billions, probably trillions of dollars off of the story of the Bible, just ripping off that theme, that idea.

So when you're in conversation with someone, listen for those moments where they're sharing about their life, which means you have to be in conversation with people to where they feel comfortable enough to share what's actually going on in their life.

And you will start to see how the gospel using these four words can actually speak into their life and bring them hope.

You're in a conversation with someone, and they make the same like as a child, I had such a great family.

Oh, I just loved my time with my family, and then tragedy struck.

Mom or dad was killed, or or a grandparent died, or a car accident happened, and I became paralyzed, or whatever it might be.

And and I just wish I could go back to before when things were better, or wish things could get better.

Do you know what they are longing for in that moment?

Consummation, where everything will be made right.

But the only way for that person to ever get to that point where things will be made right one day for them, or even maybe now in the present, is through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And this is why we must be a witness to the light of the gospel.

We must point people, we must point others towards Jesus.

But another reason we reject our role as witness is from a lack of compassion.

From a lack of compassion.

About a month ago, Pastor Justin was preaching and he talked about gospel mission, and he said that gospel mission is driven by compassion.

He said that compassion is a merciful action to alleviate the suffering of another.

And when you think about it, and the fact that you and I have believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that means that God has showed you and he has showed me favor even when we did not deserve it.

He showed us compassion.

And when we begin to understand how massive the compassion of God is towards us, then how can we not be compassionate towards others?

Do you know how we show compassion?

By pointing others to Jesus, by telling them about the gospel.

And you can do nice things for them as well, but if it's devoid of the gospel, if you never get to the gospel, then what was the point of all this?

The problem, though, for a lot of us is that we struggle to believe we were really that bad.

We don't think we were that bad.

Maybe you did live a rough life before you came to the gospel.

You lived a life of rebellion, and you're like, listen, I understand how terrible I was.

But for some of us, it was maybe salvation as a child.

And so you're like, you know, I wasn't really that bad.

And if we don't really believe then we we were that bad, then we won't really believe the extraordinary act of compassion God has showed us.

It comes back to the fact we don't really believe we were that sinful.

And when we don't believe we were that sinful, then we don't understand how much God has.

Forgiven us, which results in us not understanding the extraordinary act of compassion through the gospel.

And as a result, then we lack compassion towards people who have not believed or who have straight up rejected the gospel to your face.

We lack that compassion.

I was in a class a few years back years ago in seminary.

It was a pastoral ministry class, and the professor asked the question, he said, What do you do when someone rejects the gospel?

Person raised their hand.

He said, Well, they deserve hell.

Everyone sat there and went, ooh.

And the professor went on for about 10 minutes to talk about why that's a wrong view.

And uh, and and just like, and we were like, oh man, this is incredible.

But it's it's that mindset that, yeah, we all rejected the gospel at one point, but God continued to show compassion towards us in the same way that we show compassion towards others by sharing the gospel over and over and over again.

When someone continues to reject it, you know what you do?

You continue to share it.

John the Baptist didn't reject his role as witness because he knew who he was pointing people to.

John the Baptist knew he was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

Why?

So that all might believe the actual light who is Jesus Christ, which brings us to our gospel conviction today, and it's this Jesus is the light who gives new life.

Jesus is the light who gives new life.

Later on in John 8, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, and he says this in John 8, 12.

Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

See, Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees here, and the Pharisees were a group of Jewish religious leaders that were predominant during the time of Jesus' life.

They knew the Old Testament better than anyone else.

If you wanted to have a conversation about the Old Testament, you went to the Pharisees.

They were legit memorization.

They would have had the majority of this memorized.

So when Jesus uses this picture of light here in John 8.12, and he's addressing this situation of light, it would have drawn their attention back to multiple places in the Old Testament.

Psalm 27:1, the Lord is my light and my salvation.

Psalms 27:1

Psalm 119, 105, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path.

Isaiah 49, 6, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel.

I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

Isaiah 60, 19.

The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for the brightness shall the moon give you light.

But the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

In John 8, Jesus is declaring that the light talked about over and over and over again in the Old Testament was pointing forward to him.

A light that ultimately would bring new life.

This is why Jesus is the light who gives new life.

The problem, though, is we struggle to believe this in our own life.

Everything around us is telling us that this is not true.

You don't need Jesus to have life and have it to its fullest.

And let's be honest with ourselves.

We as followers of Christ, we struggle to believe this as well.

It makes sense that the world and those who have rejected the gospel hold to this view, but it doesn't make sense that we do when we have the truth.

But we do.

We struggle all because of the dissatisfaction we have in our hearts.

Remember, I'm not even talking about those who have rejected the gospel.

I'm talking about us who proclaim to follow Jesus Christ.

Are we truly satisfied with Jesus Christ?

I mean, think about that for a moment.

Are you truly satisfied with Jesus Christ?

I remember a preacher at one point asking the question, and he said, if you were to die and go to heaven right now and Jesus was not there, would you still be happy?

If the answer is yes, then you're not, you don't care about Jesus.

You're not satisfied with him, you're satisfied with all the things that Jesus brings you.

Think about that for a moment.

Are you truly satisfied in Jesus Christ?

To be honest, this week for myself, there were moments where I thought, no, I'm not.

I gotta confess, I gotta repent of that.

I need to be all in on Christ.

I mean, the beauty of Christ is not only, if you go to Colossians 1 or John 1, not only is he the reason the universe and the cosmos are all there in the billions and trillions, and like we're talking like 10 with 27 zeros.

If you're in a mission group, you should have got that.

Ten with 27 zeros after that of the stars that are out there.

Not only is he a part of that macrocosm, but he's also part of that microcosm of holding even the atom together, and you just want to invite him in to be a part of your life?

He's all of your life.

Where is there dissatisfaction in your life then?

In what ways, other than Jesus Christ, are you today looking for satisfaction?

Is it pornography?

That will bring me satisfaction?

Is it alcohol?

Is it getting a promotion at work?

Getting a better job, making more money, having a better home, having more knowledge, being the perfect parent, having well-behaved kids, having kids who will succeed.

What about believing there's a better husband or wife out there than the one you currently have?

The problem, though, is that anything other than Jesus Christ is a pit that leads to more and more dissatisfaction.

You think it will bring hope, you think it will bring fulfillment, but all it does is bring you to despair and desperation, brokenness.

Everything we look to outside of Jesus Christ for satisfaction is like when C.S.

Lewis talks about making mud pies.

He says this.

We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

The holiday at the sea is life in Jesus Christ.

I don't know how many of you have ever been to the beach, whether it's the west coast, east coast, south, wherever it might be, around the world, somewhere else.

I'm guessing the majority of us have.

And you can remember that time of how incredible that trip was.

Looking out at the ocean, playing in the sand.

It was just an amazing trip.

But now think about it.

Instead of that trip, you decide, I'm gonna take this week, I'm gonna go in my backyard, I'm gonna dig a hole, and I'm just gonna pour water in it over and over again.

I'm just gonna play in it.

Cancel the resort, honey.

Cancel the trip, the hotel, whatever it might be, we're not going.

We're staying here.

And guess what?

You would get to the end of that week and you'd be like, this was the worst week of my life.

Just terrible.

The problem is, this is exactly what we do when we look to anything other than Jesus Christ.

Everything outside of Jesus Christ is a false light, a light that eventually burns up.

When that light fades and it goes out, you have to move on to the next false light.

Why?

Because that false light will never satisfy and bring you new life.

But Jesus is the light who gives new life.

We even saw in the text last week in John 1.4, where it says this and him was life, and the life was the light of men.

So what does this mean for us today?

What does this mean for you?

What does this mean for me?

It's this we are witnesses to the light who gives new life.

We are witnesses to the light who gives new life.

Our mission is similar to what John's mission was.

Where John's mission and our mission differ, though, is that John was preparing the way for Jesus' arrival.

Our mission is pointing to the fact that Jesus already came.

To be a witness about the light, the light that gives new life.

John 14, 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

If we truly believe that we know the way, which is Jesus, if we truly believe that we know the truth, who is Jesus, and if we truly believe that new life is only through Jesus Christ, then why do we keep this information to ourselves?

So what are your next steps?

Number one, who will I pray for?

Who do I know in my life right now who has never professed faith in the gospel and who maybe even has even outright rejected the gospel?

It can literally be anyone.

I would love for you to write this answer down.

If you have a phone, which I'm guessing you probably do, we're in the 21st century, 22nd century, something.

2023, everyone has a phone.

You all have no, I use notes all the time.

My phone.

I would encourage you, take that out right now.

Open up a note, put at the top of that note in all caps, pray for.

And under that, write down at least one person who has never professed faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And then begin to pray for that person every single day that they would believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And secondly, pray that God would give you boldness to share the gospel.

Because guess what?

God will give you opportunities.

But will you notice them?

Will you take them or will you be afraid?

Number two, where has God put me around people who need Jesus?

Where has God already put me around people who need Jesus?

Quite often what we do is we try we try to come up with ways to interact with more people, figure out ways to get around more people and new people, which is not a bad idea.

A great idea if you want to do that, do that as well.

But currently in your life, I'm willing to guess there are people you interact with on a more regular basis who don't know Jesus Christ.

Where are those places?

Who are those people?

Write down those places, write down those people, start praying for those people to believe in the gospel.

Start praying that God would give you boldness to share the gospel with them and then look for moments that open up in conversation with them where the gospel can bring hope into their life.

Remember those four words we use at Sacred Mission to speak about the gospel creation, curse, cross, consummation.

Every person who has never trusted in the gospel of Jesus Christ is looking for consummation apart from Him.

They're putting their hope in something that will make everything right.

Just look around today.

Everyone has a cause that they're fighting for.

I want to end hunger.

I want to clothe everybody.

I want to feed everyone, which are all great things, but if it's devoid of the gospel, it means nothing.

You can do both.

People believe that if they can solve that one problem, then everything will be right in this world.

That's why they believe if they if they do it right and everything goes the way they want, then they will be happy.

This is why our mission is so similar to John the Baptist's mission.

We are pointing people back to what Jesus did through his life, death, and resurrection, but we're also pointing people forward to the day where everything will be made right once again.

Let's pray.