The Gospel Arrival

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Can you hear me?

Am I on?

Check, check, check.

Well, it says on.

So we're gonna.

There we go.

I'm in a tunnel.

All right.

Well, good morning.

If you didn't hear me on the front row, I said, I hope you had a happy snow week.

We got to play in the snow.

Six o'clock in the morning on whatever day that was, Friday, I think.

Heather heard a kid in the neighborhood yelling, Snow! Snow! So we were up and outside because we didn't want to miss it.

And uh man, I don't know.

In Alabama that may not happen again for a few years.

So thank God we got to see it.

And uh I'm gonna take a point of personal privilege, pastoral privilege, and ask you uh for some prayer.

Um is a blessing, and uh want you to be aware.

Melanie and Shannon Johnson gave birth to Samuel this week, and uh it was a little premature, but we are excited.

So be in prayer, yes, uh for baby Samuel, that he would have an appetite and continue gaining weight.

Everything is going well.

Melanie is well, and uh we are excited for them.

And then there are some folks who this week went through some um difficult, dark hours.

Want you to pray for Nathan and Kelsey Polk.

Nathan's mother, Lana, passed away uh early this week.

And then uh Darren Parsons lost his brother this week.

Maya Marcos lost her father uh this week.

So we want to be in prayer.

And then I have a um my sister in Delaware.

There is a family that is close to her that lost the small family, lost uh a young lady just 20 years old yesterday in a car accident.

So I want to ask that you'll be lifting the small family as well.

Uh turn your Bibles to Mark chapter one.

Uh let me go ahead and open in prayer.

Father, we love you, and we thank you for your presence.

God, I thank you for the blessing of the birth of baby Samuel, and thank you that Melanie is doing well.

And God, we just pray you continue to grow him up.

Lord, every baby.

Uh God is such a blessing, and to see them is is a reminder of your miracles.

And God, I want to lift up our church families who are walking through dark hours right now with the loss of family members.

And God, I just pray that you would show your grace.

Let our church be the body of Christ to those who we love.

And I pray that you would um use these things to draw people's perspective towards eternity.

And God, I pray that you would help them to be able to walk through it in love.

We love you, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

I've been excited about the gospel on the ground.

Last week was a vision picture from Mark 8, but this week we're starting in the beginning of the book, and just a few concepts about Mark.

Mark is the shortest gospel, and uh Mark is an immediate gospel.

Mark is an action gospel.

It is vivid and uh rapid in the way that Mark moves, and it has picturesque language as he moves from thing to thing.

Mark pictures Jesus as the servant, Lord.

And uh Mark, about the author, John Mark was not one of the disciples, but he was close and very much had a friendship with Peter, who is given uh much of the account of Mark.

They believe that penned through John Mark, but most of experiences seen through uh the life of Peter.

And it was written to a Roman audience.

And if you go back and track the time frame, uh the persecution of Christians in Rome coincides with the book of Mark through the Emperor Nero.

And uh, but I want you to know the picture in Mark.

It's action-packed Jesus serving.

It's more about his deeds than his words.

And so we're gonna jump in to Mark and verse 1, it starts and it hits you, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You could hear that and go, okay, I hear those words as background, but we're gonna dig into those words in just a minute.

The first point this morning is the commission of John the Baptist, which sounds like a weird phrase followed from the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we will uh catch up to what that means.

Ten words in, and boom, Mark says, with a great beginning.

This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

You might just miss that.

There's great beginnings in the Bible.

Genesis 1 1, in the beginning, all things.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1 1 also starts off in the ministry of Jesus.

Luke and Matthew give the birth account.

John and Mark start with the ministry, and it says, but but John goes and tells us, puts ties the two together, Genesis 1.1 and the beginning of the ministry.

He says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, telling us that Jesus Christ was with God in the beginning.

And John 1.14 says, and then the word became flesh and dwelt among us, starting the ministry where Mark is starting here.

And so he says, the beginning of the gospel, the beginning of the good news, the greatest news ever told.

And here at the starting line is Mark, the starter, with the pistol in hand, ready to start the race, pull the trigger, and run to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And that's what we see here.

Well, it's important that you don't miss that first line because he gives you something that would have been debated.

He says, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus, let's break down this name.

Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the word Jesus, the name Jesus means Yeshua.

And Christ is Mashiach or Messiah.

Yeshua means Yahweh is salvation.

So hold that, write that down.

Jesus, Yeshua means Yahweh is salvation.

And Meshiach, Messiah, Christ, means God's anointed one.

So he says here, God's anointed one is salvation.

This is the beginning of the gospel.

He's saying the same thing twice.

The good news is Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.

The gospel is that.

And then he says, this is the beginning of Jesus Christ, the salvation of God.

So he breaks this down in one quick phrase.

And then he further says, Jesus Christ, Yeshua, Mashiach, God's salvation, is the Son of God.

Seventy-six times in the Gospels, the phrase Son of God is used.

Now last week I talked about how major religious persuasions differ on this one thing.

Who is Yeshua?

Who is this Jesus?

And Mark right from the bat says, Jesus is the Son of God.

What would have been debated amongst many then, right here, you've heard it and you've heard it throughout your life, but he says, This Jesus is the Son of, this is God, this is the Son of God.

So right out of the start, Mark hits with a boom.

He says, This is the beginning of the good news.

That's the agenda.

That's his intro, intro.

And then Mark immediately gets to that point and abruptly, without any transition, in his writing, transitions to a completely separate character.

Look at it.

As it is written, verse 2, as it is written, the prophets, behold, I send you my messenger.

So he says, this is the start of Jesus Christ, right?

And then no transition, and boom, we're into a separate character.

You all have seen The Wizard of Oz.

Who's your favorite character in the Wizard of Oz?

We had two lions.

Nobody else likes the Wizard of Oz.

Well, as the scene of the movie opens, you're introduced to Dorothy Gale of Kansas.

Right?

And as you go throughout that movie, you're introduced to her troubles and her woes, and it's all about Dorothy and the Tin Man and the Lion and the Scarecrow.

Strange for a movie called The Wizard of Oz.

Right?

Not a wizard.

You don't find out much about this wizard in this movie.

Mark says, this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And then the camera pans over to an unorthodox wild man in the wilderness named John the Baptist.

And that's where we have to go today to get to the story of Jesus Christ.

Let's continue on in verse 2 through 5.

It says, Behold, I send you my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remissions of sins.

Then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

Letter A this morning is this a readied way.

A readied way.

I want to give you the invitation before we get to the end of the service right here.

A ready way.

What in your life needs clearing to be ready for God's work?

A readied way.

How many of you have lived in Chelsea or Westover for 15, 20 plus years?

Anybody like this?

Many?

Wow.

If you've lived here for a long time, then you have been able to see the changes that have happened in your community.

And for some of you that may have lived here even longer, that you go, it is amazing to see the differences from those days back then to right now.

Right?

Well, I started thinking about that in a place that I lived.

I lived on Salem Church Road for most of my life.

And there's this corner where Churchman's Road meets Salem Church Road, that there was a Dairy Queen.

And for the longest time growing up, I knew of this Dairy Queen, and the Dairy Queen was where my mom worked.

And my mom began to work there, she says, to help buy my sister braces.

This was her reasoning for working at this Dairy Queen at this corner of Salem Church Road and Churchman's Road.

Well, that all happened.

My sister got braces, and then something really exciting happened for an adolescent.

They began to clear land over there, and you can see I've circled a couple of parts there.

But they began to clear land on what was called Stanley Plaza Boulevard.

And when they cleared that land, they began to put in townhomes and houses.

And for a kid like me, that meant something very exciting.

Houses meant kids, and kids meant somebody was going to be outside.

And when we were growing up, that meant someone to play with.

And so I would ride my back through that, my bike back over there, and there were kids.

Well, sometime after that, in that very parcel of land, they put up what was called a Wilmington sports.

And I was like, it can it get any better than this?

There's kids back here, and now there is a sporting goods store for someone like me at that point in life who was aided with baseball and soccer and basketball.

There was nothing better than take my friends on a bike ride and then go scour through Wilmington sports with no money, just dreaming of all the sporting goods we could have.

Sometime later, they uh they were bought out and they changed the name of that place to Jumbo Sports.

But now, on the corner of church, listen to this, church men's, and Salem Church Road, there sits a place now that was readied and now it's impacting the heart of my sister, my cousin Carrie Ann, her husband Will, my niece, and other family members that are in my family.

Now on that parcel of land, when I look at it and drive by, I drive by with joy because now sits a building called the Journey Church.

I've grown up looking at this place and seeing all these things, and I think back on it and I go, wow, now at Salem Church and Churchman's Road, there sits a church that is investing in the spirit of my family.

It was just a dairy queen.

And I remember before that when there wasn't even a dairy queen, that thing popped up and then it moved down the road.

But it was a readied place.

Well, John the Baptist was prophesied about.

I want you to see in Isaiah chapter 40.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3 and 4.

Isaiah 40:3

It wasn't happenstance that John the Baptist, after Mark said, Jesus Christ the Son of God, that John the Baptist is introduced.

Isaiah 40, 3 and 4 says, 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 and hill brought low, the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth.

The glory of the Lord will be revealed.

Well, this chapter in Isaiah is known as the book of comforts, because the Israelites were in exile in Babylon at this time, and it was a prophetic message of hope with imagery that even in their exile there was going to be a way coming that they could get back home.

Later in Malachi, we see similar language, but it says, I will send Malachi 3, verse 1, if you want to check on it.

Malachi 3:1

I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me.

Then the Lord, your seeking, will come to his temple.

In Malachi, Israel had become unfaithful and taking part in corruption in the temple.

And this message was there is going to be a one coming for the Lord that's going to ready the way.

That was the last word of prophecy about something in this manner that was given to Malachi.

And for four centuries, as Pastor Dave preached in this Christmas message, for four centuries, everything sort of went dark.

And then the word comes in Luke from the angel to Zachariah and Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, that they would give birth to the forerunner of Jesus.

And you've seen in that scene at the sound of the voice of Mary, John the Baptist in the womb leaped in excitement over the sound, the unborn presence of Jesus.

It was a readying.

So what part did John the Baptist play in this introduction of Jesus?

What specifically did he do to ready the way?

Glad you asked.

Letter B.

A repentance from the wilderness.

Look there at verse 4.

It says, John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

See, John came with a message.

And he came baptizing.

He came with a message of confess your sins.

It occurred to me as I was thinking through this that John the Baptist's parents probably didn't call their son John the Baptist.

They probably didn't say, John the Baptist, come clean your room.

John the Baptist, it's time for dinner.

Hi, I'm John, middle name the last name Baptist.

Yet, you and I have ever only known John the Baptist as John the Baptist.

I'm guessing he was just John until he came into the wilderness right here, and it says he came baptizing.

The word is baptizo.

So if you go through our covenant members class, we go through this, and it means fully whelmed, totally immersed, and he came baptizing.

Well, why did he do that?

Jesus even called him John the Baptist.

He was called the baptizer, but why?

Well, look into this.

Don't miss this.

John the Baptist was proclaiming a message, and he was trying to nail home to the audience that he was teaching and preaching to what it really meant to be repentant and to have remission of your sins.

And so John, with a great physical, symbolic ceremony, began preaching.

This is how you can confess your sins.

And this is this is what literally needs to happen.

And he would have them physically, symbolically.

He would give them an invitation.

He says, if you believe this, if you'll confess your sins, now we're going to have a ceremony in a body of water.

And he would baptize people.

As far as I can tell, there was no baptism of people before this point.

Now we'll get into a little bit of that, but but this was a symbolism that John felt like brought his preaching home.

And so he began baptizing people.

We do things like this in culture all the time.

On New Year's, most of you that stayed awake watched a ball drop.

And it's not like watching a ball drop is even that exciting.

The shows have gotten worse and worse and boring.

The announcers talk to people that you've never heard of, and all of a sudden we're like, hold on, hey, hey, hey, here's a minute.

Watch the ball drop, kids.

And if you're a young kid and you're watching, you're like, what's wrong with my parents?

We did it.

Now we can go ahead and call it a new year.

The ball has dropped.

It's a ceremony.

It's something that we've taken on.

In weddings, weddings are full of ceremony.

You see the unity candle sometimes with different sides of a family, a vow exchange, the ring is a symbolism, right?

We had one wedding that I did, and they had a foot washing ceremony in the wedding, the bride and groom, and this was hilarious.

When we got to that part, that was the part was I was sharing the gospel over, and they had forgotten the water.

And so the groom goes back there and he's fake washing her feet.

He's got a towel.

He did an awesome job.

And he was wringing the fake water out, but there was no water.

But it was just a symbol saying, I am going to serve you in this marriage.

We do all kinds of things in this way.

Now, the origin of baptism might not be totally credited to John the Baptist, because Levitical priest would have a ceremony of cleansing before coming to the Lord.

But this that John the Baptist was doing was a different type of invitation.

Don't let it be lost on you that John the Baptist was to prepare the way.

In preparing the way, he calls, listen to what he does, to prepare the way of Jesus Christ to fall on a place.

For Jesus Christ to come and fall on a place on a land.

Listen, we want Jesus Christ to fall on.

See, see though.

He says, you've got to confess your sin.

You've got to clean this heart.

And as a picture of that commitment, he begins fully immersing anyone who would into baptism.

This is my old life.

This is my old man.

I'm confessing those sins and I'm turning to walk a new life.

And begins baptizing with this great picture of the symbolism of what's happening.

It says, there anyone who would, he would do that in the Jordan River.

So when John the Baptist came, a spiritual type of revival, a stirring happens in this place that's been quiet, it seems, of spiritual things for a long time.

It was the dry bones coming alive.

In 2 Chronicles 7 14, it was the if my people would humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and then will I heal their land.

And so this began to have this was John the Baptist preaching, and it says in verse 5, and they confessed sin.

They confessed their sins.

It says in verse 5, and everyone confessed.

Their sins.

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus Christ, and it reminds me of every study I've ever done on revival.

If you study what happens in revival, the preaching of someone calls to a confession, and people become receptive to the idea of confession of sins.

We don't like that.

People in here today say, I like last week better.

We were talking about goals.

Now you're talking about my sins.

I don't, Pastor.

You want me to confess sin?

And I think that Heather and I have had the unique opportunity to see and be a part of a few instances like this.

And I'll just tell you about the last one.

We were at Camp Gotel, and Weston in a circle of teenagers, Weston was about seven.

I'm throwing a number out there.

And they had, you gotta understand what's happening.

There's a preparing for these camps.

There's groups of people praying over them.

There's parents that are summons to pray.

There's preachers, and then they have services and they've had fun all day.

And then at night we would get to these small group circle times where we would have an opportunity to talk about how God was working in our heart.

And we're getting around some of the circle, and Weston gets up at seven, and I'm like, What's the boy gonna say?

Here we go.

Because Weston looks for something funny to say, and I thought, oh, here we go.

And Weston gets up and he's sort of emotional and says, I haven't been the best brother to my brother or sister.

And when he said that, his sister came up, walked across the room, and they embraced.

And then moments later, he embraced his brother, and then before we know it, the room, other siblings began to embrace, people got up, and as the time of testimonies continued, people started to get real and confess.

And when that confession happens, the Isaiah 6 thing happens.

Isaiah 6 is, Isaiah said, in the presence of God, when God fell, he said, Woe is me, I'm weak and undone, I'm a man of unclean lips.

When God really falls, to get as close as we can to him, the human spirit, the spirit that's within us, wants to be clean as we can to be with him.

And so Isaiah just started confessing.

And this circle of kids started confessing.

And I want to tell you, it made way for the Lord.

It made room for him.

Psalms 51, 17 says, God will not despise a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

Church, when we're willing to look into the mirror of ourselves, we're paving the way for Jesus Christ to fall.

John the Baptist preaching paved the way of Jesus Christ.

So I have to ask, CCW.

Are the things in your heart?

Are there things in your life that need clearing?

Is there a way that needs paving?

In 25, you say, we want to be the gospel on the ground, we want to sow these seeds, but I want to ask you, are you willing to be vulnerable at heart?

God will fall and God will use you and God will use your testimony.

But first, there may be some ways that need paving, some ways that need clearing.

I want Jesus Christ to rest on CCW.

But we have to be broken sometimes, and we have to be cleansed sometimes.

There's some people in here today you need to come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Well, let's see the second thing that happens.

The course of John.

His way.

Look at verse 6.

What was John's way?

Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locust and wild honey.

Sounds like a new series on Netflix, right?

You've seen Alone.

The course of John.

Letter A is John was a peculiar man.

I'm going to unload this in a later point because I felt through the week that it would serve its purpose better on our third point.

But John was peculiar.

John was a peculiar man, and John, letter B, was a power-filled man.

Luke chapter 1, the angel Gabriel said, John the Baptist would be great.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

In Matthew 11, 11, Jesus Christ said, There is none greater that was born of man than John the Baptist.

If you and I are told by Jesus that there has never been a greater man born of men or women, then maybe we should take note of what was the greatness of John the Baptist, because the origin of greatness, the source of great, the creator of great, Jesus says, John the Baptist is great.

And none were greater, we should pay particular attention to what makes that a great man.

In my study this week, I came across the Life Millennium Book.

The life, the the magazine life, put out a book when we became 2,000 years old, and it said, 100 most important people in a thousand years.

And I thought its discoveries of the most important people was interesting.

Number one, I wish I had time to get your ideas and guesses on who number one, according to Life magazine, was, but number one, according to Life, was Thomas Edison, the most influential man.

It said this, and I quote, we see the effects of Edison's genius all around us.

Because of Thomas Edison, we're entering the third millennium, bathed in light.

They give a lot of credit to Thomas Edison.

And it continues throughout there.

The hundred people are unpacked this way.

There's 18 scientists, ten inventors, 17 statesmen or national leaders.

There's 10 military conquerors, seven philosophers, seven explorers, seven writers, five artists.

There's only four theologians.

I was disappointed with life about that.

And there's four composers and two entertainers.

When life looks at the greatest people that's ever walked this planet for a thousand years, this is what they look at.

And 1 Samuel 16, 7 unpacks the secret of God to us.

It says, man, man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

So I should infer to be great in the eyes of God, then a person has to be great in heart.

Daniel 9, 23 says that Daniel was esteemed by God.

We see that Job, God boasted in his servant Job.

But John the Baptist was great, and Jesus said, none were greater.

We have to infer if God, if man looks on the outward and God looks in the heart, that John the Baptist was great because he was great in heart.

John the Baptist was great because he recognized in the womb who Jesus was and determined that he was going to be the gospel on the ground.

John the Baptist was sold on Jesus Christ.

And John the Baptist was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

At birth.

Matthew 11, 7, Jesus describing John the Baptist, he said, He was no reed swaying in the wind.

What does that mean?

Maybe you've seen a reed in the wind before.

We've got a picture of it, but I thought about what that means to us today.

He was no reed just swaying.

We got too many today who have this wherever the wind blows, faith.

Whatever is popular faith, whatever the majority says type of faith, whatever is politically correct type of faith.

And our community ought to be saying about CCW.

They don't take all that over there.

They don't take sin over there.

They won't take evil over there.

Don't try to sway them over there at CCW.

Don't try that flimsy faith stuff at CCW.

Because they won't stay on that because they stand on the word of God and they won't be moved.

Well, that was John the Baptist.

Well, let's see about the communication of John.

Point number three.

We'll continue again, verse 6 through 8.

Again, I'm hitting this again, and I'll break down why.

Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

And he preached, saying, There comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to stoop down and loose.

I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

John was this person that was full of humility, and that's letter A.

The personality of a humble servant.

The way that he communicates to people through the way that he looked and the way that he preached is found in this personality of a humble servant.

John, I said earlier, was a peculiar man.

Luke 1, 80.

You can read Luke 1, 76 through 80.

It says, John the Baptist lived in the desert.

And here we saw he was clothed in camel's hair and a big leather belt and ate locusts and wild honey.

You say, Pastor, don't we get enough from the world about Christians?

Why did John the Baptist have to look crazy?

We're supposed to emulate certain types of Christians.

Why this?

Why this type of wardrobe?

And I want to tell you, his wardrobe, from all that I could find, only pointed to his lack of concern for the aesthetic.

His diet, wild honey and locusts, was just a marker of his eyes being on God's provision.

He's compared often to Elijah, and Elijah was a man in the wilderness from Tishbi, a Tishbite from the wilderness, who was given manna from God.

His eyes were not concerned about his diet.

He ate what was available.

He was committed to God.

Spurgeon said this, Lord, let not my meat, my drink, or my garments hinder me in thy work.

We are a generation caught up in the aesthetic.

That's why Samuel said, man, looks on the hour.

We are caught up on size and aesthetics and foods and diets, and this new year, it's all starting all over again.

And all you have to do is watch one award ceremony and catch one red carpet, and you'll find out that the post-game ceremony of red carpets is all about people looking at what people wore and judging people for their size and the greatness or lack of greatness in their apparel.

John was peculiar in this way because his humble heart did not allow him to get caught up in the aesthetic.

He was no reed.

He wasn't just going to be swayed in the aesthetic.

And I want to tell you, you know, you sound, well, that's not a big deal, Pastor.

Church, for a person to be humble, they also have to work not just on the inward, but the outward man.

John wasn't caught up in that.

Proverbs 31:30 says, Charm is deceitful and beauty is fleeting.

Proverbs 31:30

Now, listen, I'm not telling anybody here to go out and buy a leather girdle, grow your hair, quit shaving, and consider homesteading.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm not telling you to start sewing homemade clothes or to look homely.

Our new motto at CCW is not going to be home of the homeliest.

I'm saying, Proverbs says, pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall.

There's so much more that is important than being caught up in the things that aren't important, the things that don't matter for eternity.

Somebody here probably needs to know this.

God looked at you and he said, It was good.

He said, It's beautiful.

We live in a world suffering in the mirror.

Be you, God was delighted with you.

So maybe 2025, a good goal would be be happy with being you.

John further goes on and he says about this one that he came before.

He says, I am unworthy to latch his shoe.

What does that mean?

There is one coming, and if anything in my message you have received, if this paving of the way is for anything, I can tell you, he that is coming, I, John the Baptist, am not worthy of.

John, who Jesus says is the greatest man that has been born on this earth, he says, I am not worthy.

Hecanos.

That word Hecanos, not worthy, means I am not competent to stoop down and touch his shoe.

Say, Pastor, that's pretty dumb.

Not able to touch his shoe.

Why would they teach that?

Rabbis would teach that a teacher might require most anything of a student except to make a student unlatch their shoe.

And John the Baptist's self-assessment, his humble assessment, he says, I'm not, I'm not worth enough to touch this one that's coming shoe.

David Wilson came to me one day needing something, and man did my chest flare up.

David Wilson.

Now, if you don't know who David Wilson was, David Wilson in the world of business, to me, and my limited experience, was the greatest businessman that I'd ever met.

And he loved the Lord.

And David Wilson needed something of me.

And he thought enough to come across the street from his office to my office and do business.

He said, Rick, this is what I need.

He said, I've asked, and he told me intelligent people's names.

I won't say their names here because some of you would know them.

He told me people's names.

He said, I have asked some people over and over to get Ben signed up for college courses.

Ben Delima, Ben's over here.

And he said, Nobody seems to be able to get this done.

He said, I need you to get this done.

I was like, I still stuck on David Wilson needing me.

And I was like, like the hungry lion.

I'm about to go out and get this done.

I don't know what I'm doing.

So I did probably like what everybody else did to start with the request that I got online, and that was like reading Greek.

How do you register somebody for Montevala College?

And I'm like, this tells me nothing.

So I'm like, Ben, we need to meet on a Thursday and we're going to go to Montevala College.

Right?

And so Ben meets with me.

We ride, I have no clue how to register someone for this college, other than I'm just going to go down there and we were still figuring out.

I'm not lying, right?

And so we ride down there, we get on campus, which I've never been to the campus, we ride to a random spot on campus and just park.

I'm like, this is probably a good spot, we'll figure it out.

We get out of the car, and I promise you, we're walking a few steps, and this man says, Can I help you guys?

True story.

And I'm like, actually, you can't help us.

I'm like, I need to register this guy for college.

And to this guy, he's like, a student, money, all the things that come with that.

And Ben needed help.

And I'm like, all of this time I'm thinking of one thing.

David Wilson needs me.

And this man that we met, first step on Mount Nevala, was the dean of the college.

Am I correct?

President of the college.

And he's like, I'll take you right to the right place.

And he gets signed up, everything is right in the world.

And all I could think about, Ben thought about his school, the dean thought about the money.

I thought, David Wilson needed me.

And I got it done.

I am awesome.

Such humility.

What I really thought, y'all don't know all this, David Wilson had done a lot for me and my family.

We lived in his house for a few months.

David Wilson sold me a car for a dollar.

And I just got to watch someone who loved the Lord.

And I thought, if I can help, if I, little if I can help somebody like that with something, I'd do whatever I can.

And then I thought about church.

Jesus Christ has done so much.

He's done so much for you and for I.

Jesus Christ forfeited all the glory and exchanged his life.

He was the living gospel.

Yahweh is salvation on earth.

And John the Baptist says, There's a man who is coming, and there's no value in my words.

I can't say other than to say, the one who is coming, I'm not even worthy of his shoe.

John was the forerunner of Jesus Christ because his humility allowed him the emptiness of self.

Jesus was all that he saw.

John the Baptist did what Mark 8 said.

He denied himself.

We talked about that last week.

He looked at what life had to offer and he said this, like the old song we used to sing, I have decided to follow Jesus.

No turning back, no turning back.

The world, the cross before me, the world behind me.

No turning back, no turning back.

That was John the Baptist, and John the Baptist paved the way for what we are standing in today.

Christianity continued after this man paved the way for Jesus Christ.

So I have to ask you.

I got some clearing.

There's some path clearing that needs to make way for this heart to be totally humble before God.

I need it.

Well, let's look at letter B.

The preaching of a holy savior.

Look at verse 8 through 11.

Again, he says, I indeed baptize you with water, but he, Jesus, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

And it came to pass, look at this, in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and baptized, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

And immediately, there's that word, you'll see it alive.

Coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove.

Then a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

John said, I baptized with water, but there is one coming.

John the Baptist, don't miss this.

Because of his belief, because of what he was doing, Jesus took part in the ceremony.

John the Baptist paving the way, and Jesus said, I'm going to be baptized by John the Baptist because this thing that he's preaching, this remission, this is right.

And he had the opportunity to baptize.

Who in history had the opportunity to baptize Jesus?

One person.

John the Baptist.

And it says, and in that moment after he baptized, and the Holy Spirit fell from heaven.

Can you imagine John taking this in?

I don't know what living in the desert or the wilderness or all the what all that was like, but all of a sudden, the apex point of your ministry to me, he baptizes you, and the heavens open, and a spirit descending like a dove falls on Jesus.

Imagine.

And then you hear the voice of God, the heavens part, and the voice of God saying, affirming, This is my son.

Why does Mark say son of God?

God, Son of God, Son of God.

Peter affirming this message of John the Baptist said, There was a day, the clouds opened, and God spoke and said, This is my beloved son who I am well pleased.

This was all the confirmation John the Baptist needed.

He already was confirmed in his heart.

He already been preaching and teaching about this.

Can you imagine today?

The roof splits open and God speaks, church.

John the Baptist had one life mission that everyone would know that Jesus Christ was coming.

And now this baptism was a demonstration of repentance.

And he said, But Jesus Christ, John preached this message, but Jesus Christ, who is coming, could, I'm preaching the forgiveness of sin.

He said, but one is coming who actually can forgive it.

The Son of God, Yahweh is salvation, the anointed one, Yeshua Mashiach, he can forgive it.

He can take that sin that's in your heart, he can take the thing that's in your life, and he can wipe it white as snow.

He can forgive it.

I'm preaching of it and I'm showing you it, but this one, oh, this one.

He could in fact cancel sin.

We talk about cancel culture.

Well, how about that?

Jesus was the original canceler.

He said, I cancel something, I'll cancel their debt.

I frustrate Heather some.

I know that surprises y'all.

And this week, I frustrated her talking about the people that cancel stuff because of the threat of weather.

I'm a northerner.

She's a northerner.

We grew up different than this.

What are these people thinking?

You know, I got calls on Monday about church Sunday, and we got stuff that was coming.

I'm like, it ain't even snowed, and they're canceling, and the word said fret! The threat! And I'm like, it ain't right.

And I'm, you know, I'm frustrated because she's smarter than me and she understands.

She's like, people have to make predictions based on the technology that they have, on the weather, and their and they have to help other people who are leaders of things to make decisions so that everyone has a chance to make these choices.

And I'm like, but it's Saturday and there's no snow on the ground, and I can't get a Chick-fil-A biscuit.

As a leader, I gotta tell you, I'm sitting on G waiting on O.

That's how I feel as a leader, and I know sometimes that gets me in trouble.

I've been at Six Flags in the Rain because I wasn't saying no to the weather.

Yay.

John the Baptist believed in something prophesied about.

Before the world had ever seen or experienced, and he was preaching about something prophesied about the one who was coming.

And he preached the remission of sin and a man who would die and resurrect and raise, he'd be raised again.

But he never experienced seeing it.

He believed it.

He believed that Jesus would die and resurrect.

He believed in the picture of baptism that he was showing to people, yet he didn't ever see it.

Consequently, for John the Baptist belief, you want to believe if he is all in or not all in, for his beliefs, John the Baptist was beheaded.

He died preaching and teaching this truth, and he never saw it.

Jesus died on the cross approximately three years after John the Baptist was beheaded.

But I tell you this: the moment John the Baptist was beheaded and he awoke in heaven, everything he ever preached was confirmed.

As he strolled heaven and he saw Elijah, the one whom he was like, and he sat at the feet of God.

I bet John the Baptist just felt overwhelmingly.

I am so glad.

There was never a shadow of doubt.

I always was gonna lay down my life.

I got to be the forerunner of God, but he never saw it.

Church, do you get that?

We live in a world with the confirmation that Jesus Christ, history proves Jesus lived.

It takes faith to believe the Christian account, but there were witnesses, 500 eyewitnesses, there was this testimony of these early Christians, the church that lives today, that Jesus Christ died on a cross, that he was buried and rose again.

John was a forerunner of something he had never seen.

We're called to carry the gospel on the ground, and we have eyewitness accounts of it.

John was the first forerunner, and we're called to continue running, to be that gospel on the ground, to continue the way.

You know, the first time the Christians were called anything, they were called the way.

We're continuing that way.

It takes paving, it takes clearing of this heart, it takes readying.

But you know what the Bible says about these seeds, about what John was preaching about Jesus would come to do?

It says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

And how will they hear unless somebody preach?

And for you to do those things and believe in the prayers of these people's names that we put in these baskets last week, for you to do that, it takes a confession of sin, a humble heart, a clearing of my own way.

God wants you to be gospel on the ground in 25.

Will you be a way paver first?

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes this morning.

In a moment, we're gonna have an invitation.

And I'm gonna ask you to be somebody that's willing to set the way for Jesus Christ to fall on this body.

And to do that, you have to look into your heart.

Is there anything in your life that needs lined up with Jesus Christ?

Will you clear the way?

Will you clear obstacles?

You say, Yes, Pastor Rick, I am ready.

And if I asked you and said, who here is ready to be the gospel on the ground in 2025?

I think a lot of hands would be raised.

Right now, before that can happen, all I can say is it's a little bit of prep time.

Will you take part in the preparation that you can see that goal come to fruition?

Right now it's prep time.

Is your heart in line with God's plans?

Is he your one thing?

Today, will you make room?

I'm gonna pray.

And as I do, I'm gonna ask you when that prayer is finished, this altar is gonna be open.

If God's speaking to you about something going on, listen, it's not about somebody around you, this is about you and God.

Is there something that needs clearing?

Is there something that needs writing?

Is there something today that's keeping you from being the humble servant of God that you need to be?

I don't know what it is, but I so long to see revival of God's presence.

I don't want to show up here and just have a habit or tradition.

I want God to fall.

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