Father, we just ask you to open our minds and our hearts, Lord, to receive the message and the worship today. Lord, we just thank you for all your many blessings. Amen.

Amen.

It's not forever

It's not forever

The streets of living water's full

It's not the way you do

It's not forever

It's not forever

It's not forever

It's not forever

Fear of my Lord

Everlasting

Cover of my soul

On the mountain high

Are you, Lord, you know

The King of love, my shepherd is

The King of love, my shepherd is

Lost and foolish of our strength

The King of love, my shepherd is

And on the shoulder gently

And the heart was just about me

And the dust I fell would be no ill

The Lord was silent

I ride and stop my comfort still

The grace before to guide me

Never failing

Ruler of my heart, everlasting

Lover of my soul

On the mountain high

Or in the valley low

The King of love, my shepherd is

The King of love, my shepherd is

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Oh, oh, oh, oh, hallelujah, hallelujah

Never failing, ruler of my heart, everlasting

Lover of my soul on the mountain high

Or in the valley low, the kingdom of my shepherd is

Never failing, ruler of my heart, everlasting

Lover of my soul on the mountain high

Or in the valley low, the kingdom of my shepherd is

The kingdom of my shepherd is

And nothing else forever

I raise the hallelujah In the presence of my enemies

I raise the hallelujah Louder than the unbelief

I raise the hallelujah My weapon is the melody

I raise the hallelujah So heaven come to fight for me

I raise the hallelujah So heaven come to fight for me

Up from the ashes

Up from the ashes

Who will arise

Death is defeated

The King is alive

The King is alive

I raise the hallelujah

I raise the hallelujah

And I will wash the darkness free

I raise the hallelujah

I raise the hallelujah

In the middle of misery

I raise the hallelujah

In the middle of misery

I raise the hallelujah

You're gonna hear my praise

You're gonna hear my brains fall

Up from the ashes

The hope will arise

Death is defeated

The King is alive

Sing it louder

Sing it louder

Sing it louder

Sing it louder

Sing it louder

Sing it louder

It's a love, love, for you to be

It's so, louder It's so, louder

I'm so, louder

It's so, louder

Where's the truth of me?

It's so, louder

When the hell comes quite alone

It's so, louder

I feel the praise of my enemies

It's so, louder

I'll be a-dans on the head

It's so, louder

I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm

Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar

Up from the ashes, no will arise

Death is defeated, she is alive

We are going to be here to take them.

Praise the Hallelujah.

Praise the Hallelujah.

I live inside of me.

Praise the Hallelujah.

Never watch the darkness,

Praise the Hallelujah.

We're going to live for

I kill your blinds,

Hold on.

Praise, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

We want you to come

And we pray you always

For you always

You're holy

And you say you love everything

We pray for salvation

Oh, we raise a hallelujah

We want you to come

Hallelujah

Oh, we pray you always

We pray you always

We raise a hallelujah

Father, you're so worthy

You're so worthy of all our prayers

We're just so grateful

For everything that you do

I'm so grateful

We pray you always

I just want to soak up your presence

Sometimes

We just have to be a little quiet to hear you

Just thank you, Father, for coming down

Thank you for meeting us where we are

Give us a chance to hit that reset button

Give us a chance to just

Re-center

Remind us

What you would have us do

ž let us do

We love you, Lord

Oh my goodness

We'll be right back

Thank you for giving us that opportunity, Lord. We love you. Amen.

We are so excited to be hosting Perspectives of the World Christian Movement at Rhema this year.

So before taking Perspectives, I was already a believer for a long time and I thought I knew a lot about God and missions and the world, but I was so inwardly focused.

I was so, like, I had no vision for the bigger picture.

When I first started taking Perspectives, I walked in and I was excited about the course and I jumped right into Lesson 1.

It started talking about how our God is a missional God and it just broke my heart for the world and it broke my heart for the nations and what God calls us to be as believers.

And taking Perspectives and taking Perspectives, it made me zoom out of my own life and, like, transformed how I see God, how I see other people, how I see my role in my life.

And it's amazing. It's so good. It's so good. I can't recommend it enough.

I urge you to take the class. It'll break you for the Gospel. It's an amazing course.

I was in tears multiple times just reading the material and diving deeper into the Word and not even realizing things that the Gospel is calling me to do.

The thing about Perspectives is it's dangerous because if you take this class, you will be ruined for the ordinary.

You cannot unsee what you see. Your life will be changed and you'll be forced to embrace God's heart for the world and no longer live for yourself.

So I challenge you to take the time to take the course and in the spring, you won't regret it.

Good morning. The course actually begins in January, not in the spring, so it begins January.

It is a 15-week commitment and it's a tremendous opportunity.

And if you have an interest, please get in contact with Taylor Hours and we'll be thrilled to be able to help you through that as well, too.

I wanted to, before we dismiss our kids, we have a couple of things, housekeeping.

I wanted to remind you that this coming Friday is the, our, it's the third Friday where we are down at his ministries serving.

And so we're still, it's, do I have the dates correct?

Yes.

Yeah, somebody gave me a blank stare, so I was like, did I have the date wrong?

Yeah.

So if you have, if you can help us out with either food or volunteer your time.

I know there's been some who've even telephoned me and asked me about volunteering down there.

So that's, that's huge.

And we need the help down there to feed food for the, those down at the Norwich Corridor.

It's on our website.

It's on our group me.

It's all the information is there.

And I think, yes.

They, they are still backing it up at this point.

Yes.

Yes.

And we're trying to get to that point where we feel comfortable, where there's enough comfort level where we can serve the food, but we're, we're not quite there yet.

But we're still being able to provide food for folks and still be able to interact with the, with masks and safe distance as well, too.

Good question.

I think that's really the only other announcement that we needed to make it.

Yes.

I was so wrong.

How about that?

Uh, because this Friday is this Thanksgiving celebration.

Thank you, Casey.

They're actually going to have a sit down meal with them.

So, um, wear your masks and, and all that good stuff.

And so, thank you, Casey, for reminding me of that.

But it is this Friday.

It's still at 4.30, Casey?

Yes.

Thank you.

There's still a little bit of a session.

It's a weekend.

Maybe it's a weekend.

Hot and ready to serve.

Hot and ready to serve.

There you go.

There you go.

All right.

Um, before we dismiss our kids this morning, we, uh, really quick.

We had two birthdays that I know about.

There's maybe more that we need to celebrate with Lori today, Lori, your birthday today.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Awesome.

the other day. Anyway, blah, blah, blah. Time flies, doesn't it? It flies. And then they get married and get cars and get gone. And then you get happy. And then, yeah, yeah. Just kidding. My wife says, no, you don't. Um, all right. This, at this point, we want to dismiss our children. If you guys will follow who we following out this morning. Oh, Jim and Cheyenne. Thank you.

Amen. The rest of us, let's take our Bibles and turn to John chapter three. We are going to continue in our study of John's gospel in our series, faith to believe again, uh, believing that if we study the John's gospel in its entirety, it will give, it will increase our faith. It will give us a greater faith to believe in who Christ is, who the Messiah is. John is painstakingly taking us through this.

And today's message, I've entitled it to grow down, grow down. And you'll see why in a minute, because in our, in our series this morning, in our chapter of chapter three, John the Baptist appears again for a couple of times.

He's back on the scene. But when I was younger, maybe you heard this, this as well, too. But when I was younger, I had a phrase that was throwing at me a lot.

Um, it was, uh, Hey, would you grow up? Why don't you grow up? Anybody ever heard? Anybody ever say that to you a little bit? Yeah. You know, would you grow up?

And usually what that meant was I was, I was acting obnoxiously or I was playing a prank on somebody that wasn't really a prank.

I should have been playing. I was, I was really good at that. And it's probably not good that I did that. But, uh, typically that that's what, uh, that's what it meant.

Um, but sometimes I've also discovered that people said that to me who actually just took life a little too serious.

Now there were times that I, I, I owned it and I earned it, but sometimes people just, they just take life a little bit too serious and they were a little over the top.

And I think sometimes people can grow up a little bit too fast. And, uh, I, I enjoyed my childhood. I mean, not all of it was, was, uh, rainbows and sunshines as, as Matt says, but I enjoyed my childhood, but, um, and I still have fond memories of it.

But somebody gave me a list of, um, some of the benefits of childhood. And I thought it was kind of interesting to kind of fill, uh, fit in today with our grow down, uh, message.

But here are some of the highlights in childhood. Your decisions were made by saying eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Don't you miss those days? What am I supposed to do? Okay.

Eeny, meeny, miny. There we go. I'm doing moe. There we go. No moe. And so, um, in childhood, your mistakes, mistakes were corrected simply by shouting do over. Remember that? Yeah. I get a do over.

And so, uh, money issues were always handled by whoever, whoever was the banker in monopoly. Okay. In childhood. And also, it wasn't odd in childhood to have two or three best friends.

Nowadays, it seems like, you know, it's so different. But back then you had, oh, you're my, you're my best friend too. You're my best friend too. You're, you're my best friend.

Right. And, um, and in childhood, the worst thing that you could get from the opposite sex was cooties. Right. And in childhood, it was amazing how your dad could make his thumb disappear.

It was like, whoa, you know, and in childhood, if you had boo-boos or scratches or whatever, mom's kisses always made everything better. Right.

But, you know, that was then. But, but we grow up, we grow up. And in fact, we should grow up. But the most important area that we should all grow is spiritually.

It's spiritually. Ephesians 4, Paul says that you may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ. And I think that you'll discover that, that we'll see that in our, in our, um, passage that we're going to look at this morning.

Uh, to grow up, though, you first need to grow down. In order to grow up, you need to grow down. The mark of real growth in somebody is how they grow down in humility.

You're growing down into meekness. You, you submit, you submit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Humility is the opposite of what? Pride.

Pride. Exactly right. You know, pride. Let me tell you what. Pride ruins everything. Everything. All across the board.

John the Baptist is tempted with pride in this situation. There's a temptation for him to fall into spiritual pride. But we'll discover, as we see this guy, again, this guy has grown down. He has grown down. And he's growing downward into humility as we see his response. Because John is not about trying to climb the ladder of importance. That's not his heart. John is climbing the ladder down.

All right. All right. When it comes to importance. We begin where we left off last week. Let's look at verse 22 of chapter 3. After this, Jesus and his disciples went into Judea countryside, Judean countryside, and remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Anon near Asylum because water was plentiful there. And the people were coming and being baptized for John had

not yet been put in prison. Now, a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who is with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all are going to him. John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent

before him before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease. Now, here we have a struggle, you know, here we have, you know, an honest struggle and a humble servant or a humble servant, the humble

servant's response to an honest struggle. And just a little bit of background of what's going on here. The story begins with an apparent rivalry between two groups,

John, Jesus's disciples and John the Baptist's disciples. And John the Baptist is being eclipsed. All right. Jesus is growing in notoriety. He's growing in

controversy. And people have heard about the the the the wedding thing in Cana. They've heard about all the miracles that happened in

Jerusalem. They heard about his confrontation that Jesus had with the religious elite. And the news is spreading and more and more and more

and more people are coming to where Jesus is. And it says that both John and Jesus are at the Jordan River and they're baptizing.

But one thing that we need to know is that it was John's disciples who saw Jesus's disciples baptizing.

Jesus himself was doing none of the baptizing. OK, and we know that because chapter four begins when it says that when Jesus learned that the

Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not

baptized, but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.

So there's Jesus's disciples. They are baptizing people.

They are calling people to repentance, just like John. And it leads to an argument between John the Baptist's followers and some of the

Jews about purification. Now, we don't know what that argument was was about.

We don't know what the details were, but this in turn leads to John's followers going to John himself.

And they were complaining. Listen, Jesus's gig is getting bigger than our gig.

He's getting more attention. Look at verse 26.

And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing and all are

going to him. You see that we're all that is that's what they call an emotional exaggeration.

Not everybody was going to Jesus. OK, you know, just like when you say, well, everybody's doing it.

No, not everybody is doing it. OK, it's an emotional exaggeration.

But it sure seems like it to John's disciples perspective.

But here's a principle, guys. Please, please catch this.

It's illustrated very well here. God's own children can sometimes disagree.

hey, listen, if two people agree on everything that goes on, then one of you isn't thinking. I think that's true. I mean, that's a reality. Two human beings, they can share so many things in common, but they're not always going to agree on every point in life. It's the same with God's children. The church is not a society of perfect people. It's not a society of perfect people.

Now, we may know that, but you'd be surprised at how many younger people get so disillusioned by that. And when I say younger Christians, I mean younger Christians, not an age thing, but those who have walked with the Lord. They expect to find the church in perfect harmony. And they get disillusioned. And they go from one church to another church to another church. And it's this hopeless search for that perfect church.

If you ever find the perfect church, don't attend because you just ruined it. Let me just tell you that. All right. But they go in this search for this perfect church and they can't find it. The church is not a society of perfect people. It's a society of redeemed people who express their spirituality through their own imperfect personality. That's the church.

And that's the church. And that's the church. And that's the church. And that's the way it is. And see, here's here's a nugget for you to hold on to. Listen, God reserves the right to use people that disagree with you.

God reserves the right to use people that disagree with you. John's disciples, Jesus's disciples, they're not seeing eye to eye right now. But guess what? God's using them both. He's using them both. Now, I can hear some people say, well, you know what? I thought we were all supposed to get along perfectly and everything. I mean, after all, we're the family of God, right? We're all in the family of God. That's the church. That's exactly my point.

Hey, any of you ever been on a family vacation? I mean, holy cow. I mean, my dad, we were in the Air Force. We were stationed at Wichita Falls, Texas, and he got orders. We were moving to Minot, North Dakota. Look on the map. That's a big that's a big jump right there. Okay. My parents, the movers came, got everything. They had this great plan that we are going to as we drive from Wichita Falls, Texas to Minot, North Dakota, we are going to take a vacation, make it a vacation move.

thing. Okay. It was a great idea. But five of us in a Pontiac Catalina, the air condition didn't work so well. And my parents still smoked back then. And we were like, we loved each other. But there was fighting. There was fighting.

That's the church. That's the church. We're all in the Catalina, man, with the AC. Don't work half the time, right? I mean, it was a mess. I mean, we just did this huge study as a church in Genesis. Remember Genesis 13? Abraham and Lot, they had this big falling out. They were family.

They were family. It was disagreement. Genesis 31. You have Jacob and Uncle Laban at each other. Bam. Disagreement. Family. You have Genesis 37.

Joseph and his brothers. They're family. Huge disagreement. And we get to the New Testament. It's there as well, too.

The reality is, don't get the idea that when we hang around other Christians, there's always this thing where we speak in soft, sanctuary voices. And the music plays in the background.

It's church, brother, sister.

We who have walked with Christ and each other for any amount of time, we know this to be true.

There are brothers and sisters in Christ that love the Lord dearly that get on my nerves.

There are those who walk with the Lord that have walked with the Lord for years that I get on their nerves. I get that.

I understand.

Now, sometimes, listen, sometimes such disagreements are carnal and they're frankly foolish.

I mean, think about the disagreement that the church in Corinth has.

And Paul lays it out.

And Paul says that, oh, one says I'm of Paul.

One says I'm of Apollos.

And one says I'm of Cephas.

And then super spiritual ones say, oh, no, we're of Christ. And Paul says, you're all carnal. Every last one of you, carnal.

And so there's a possibility of such disagreements, okay, just being carnal and downright foolish. Just, just foolish.

You know, I read a newspaper article quite some time back. And it said that a group of, a group of firefighters in Fort Worth, Texas, were arrested because they deliberately set 40 fires.

The firemen set the fires. And when they, when they were arrested and they were caught, they were asked why they did it.

And this was their response. They said, we had nothing to do. And we just like seeing the lights and hearing the bells ring.

Now, there are people that are like that. They don't have anything else to do. They just want controversy and they want to stir some mess up.

That's all they wanted. They want to see the, they want to see the lights and they want to hear the bells.

Okay. And it's wrong. It's wrong. That's carnal controversy. Okay.

But then there are occasions when it's not carnal. It's corrective.

The disagreements are corrective. And when it's corrective, it's done in a caring and loving manner.

Okay. There is a time for the Christian to put their foot down and to fight.

And sometimes we need to vehemently disagree when there is false teaching that would undermine the fabric of Christian truth.

Under, when it undermines the fabric of the, of the truth of the scripture, what the Bible says, we should come against that.

Scripture says that in Jude three, that Jude says that we are to put up a good fight or fight hard for the faith that was given to the holy people of God.

Okay. But that's the truth. And we see it displayed right here in this passage, John three, God's kids can sometimes disagree.

Now, there's something else on the heels of that, that we also find not only can God's kids sometimes disagree, but they can also compete with, with one another.

There are groups of servants for Christ competing with each other instead of seeing a compliment to one another.

You follow me on this?

The whole competition thing.

That's what's going on with John the Baptist's disciples.

This is a very human reaction that they're having.

They see Jesus's group growing larger.

They love John.

They've been committed to John.

They're loyal to John.

Okay.

And they're making it about Jesus versus John.

It's a very human reaction.

And why is that?

Because, I mean, John has been, he's been preparing for this this whole time.

He's been very faithful.

He's been in isolation.

He came down to the Jordan River.

He's been baptizing people.

Crowds of people have gathered around him.

They've listened to him.

People from all different sects of society, all of Jerusalem, even Herod enjoyed coming and listening to John.

And people were saying things like, this guy is so wonderful, he must be like Elijah the prophet, reincarnated.

And so now, all of a sudden, another star is rising higher than John's, who's getting more publicity, more notoriety, and more controversy.

And that's competition.

John's disciples feel very personal about it.

This is very unfortunate, but it's true.

And, I mean, even, do you know, as far back as Paul the apostle, this was going on, okay?

I know it sounds weird.

Why should people want to compete or get mad with Paul?

But Paul writes about this in the Roman prison to the church in Philippi.

And I'll just paraphrase this as best I can real quickly.

He says that some preach Christ out of strife and envy, all right?

And others preach Christ out of good will.

The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add to my affliction here in prison.

That's what he says.

In other words, they want to stir stuff up to make my stay in prison even worse than it is.

Man, that's contemporary stuff.

I mean, we are a competitive society, are we not?

We are a competitive society.

And in my opinion, everyone in ministry who has some position of leadership within ministry needs to study John 3 and needs to study Philippians 1 because this is so real, this whole competition thing.

You know, I read something that was sort of a shock to me.

There was a seminary, I won't name it, but it was here in the east side, and a professor of homiletics, okay?

That's preaching in seminary.

Seminary students were thinking. And he discovered that there was a lot of bitterness and resentment in these, these students, these, these young people who were going through seminary. For instance, he would give them, he would give them the word truck driver. And their response immediately was lazy. Lazy. And they listed several different things that this group of peoples had said, and they were shocked at their response. And so the, the professor said this, and I quote, he said,

very often, very often those who go into ministry are negative and highly competitive people. And we see that illustrated with John's own disciples who are saying, and saying what they're saying, and feeling what they're feeling with Jesus. And there's, there's competition that's brewing here.

And I think we get to the best part of this right now, because we go from the honest struggle to the humble servant. All right. In other words, now John the Baptist's response, he's going to give it to all of this. And you're going to discover something.

John the Baptist has four things that I want you to see in proper order as all of this, this takes place.

First of all, the first thing that John has is he has the proper theology. John has the proper theology. Look with me in verse 27.

John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. And that's a high view of God, isn't it?

That, that is absolutely a high view. Here's John the Baptist telling, hearing what his disciples are saying to him and telling him,

hey man, Jesus' gig is growing bigger. His church is getting bigger than yours, man.

You put, we put all this time and energy in this. John says, you know what?

God is sovereign and no man can receive anything unless God has given it to him.

How many of you really believe that?

I mean, how many of you really believe that God is powerful enough to run this entire universe?

How many of you really believe that God is powerful enough to run what's going on in this world,

this community, our community, our nation, that God is really in control?

How about your own life?

Is he sovereign enough to run your own life?

Because if you believe that, what that means is this,

that if somebody is displaying superior gifts or is more successful than you are,

another brother or another sister, do you know why?

God gave it to him.

God gave it to him. That's why.

And if you believe that, what it means is that God, God gave it to him.

And isn't that great?

I mean, that's the, that's the mindset that we have to have.

I mean, that's what we pray for, isn't it?

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And okay, if we pray that and we believe that, then, then why are we surprised when it happens?

Or why are we even mad when it happens?

We're, we're upset.

We're mad.

The reason why is because it didn't happen to us quite the same way it happened to them.

I feel like I'm more deserving, you know, they got more, they got more.

I mean, in the spirit of transparency, I wrestle with this a lot of times as well, too.

I look and I see, I see very prominent pastors of churches.

And I'm like, are you serious?

They have to have a jet?

Are you serious?

They have to have that, that they're worth $7 million.

That's their net worth?

How is that?

How is that right, Lord?

How is that fair?

I thought God was sovereign.

Well, you are God.

But if Ramah could just have a fingernail of that, we would, we would pay everything off

and we would do more ministry.

We would love your people greater than he would.

You know why he has it?

Why they have it?

God gave it to them.

What's the purpose?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I either trust that God is sovereign and he's going to work out all things to good for those

who love the Lord and call accordingly to his purpose, or he's not.

It doesn't say some things.

It says all things.

Beyond Curtis's perspective, absolutely beyond Curtis.

Beyond Matthew's perspective, absolutely beyond Matthew's perspective.

All things.

And I love John's response.

It's amazing.

See, the best way, the best way, the best way.

Thank you.

God gave it to them. God gave it to them. And I'll tell you why that's so important. Because what it means is that if you ever find yourself on the end of the being, the blessed person, that God gives whatever that is to you, guess what? You can't brag about it. You can't brag about it. God gave it to you. You can't say, well, it's because of my... God has blessed me because I was so... I've been so faithful. No. No.

I mean, this whole... It has nothing to do with you. God is just so good that He gave that to you. That shuts the door on the whole prosperity gospel. God will bless you more if you're faithful. No, no, no, no. God did it. Why? Because He just did it. It's His universe, isn't it? It's His universe. You are His children. We are His children, right? So He is going to take care of you in the way that He sees fit.

We either trust that or we don't. We either trust it or we don't. I mean, Paul even says in 1 Corinthians 4, he says, what makes you better than anyone else? What do you have that God hasn't given you? And if all that you have is from God, then why do you boast as though you have accomplished something on your own?

Shut the door, Paul. Shut the door. It's a great view. And that's John's view. John has a high view of God. He is sovereign and nothing escapes his notice.

I mean, I hope you believe that nothing escapes God's notice in your life. And nothing escapes God's notice in your brother's life, in your sister's life.

And my challenge is, can you really rest in that? And let stuff go. Let stuff go. And be content with that.

I mean, seriously, friends, do you know how revolutionary it is to believe that God gave it to them?

It's revolutionary. And it means that I don't have to worry about all of other God's kids.

I don't have to worry about all the other ministries. I don't have to worry about all this.

All that's going on that makes me sideways sometimes, guess what? That's between God and them.

John. Leave it alone. John had the proper theology. John had proper theology. The second thing that John has, he had a proper understanding.

John has a proper understanding. John is saying, I know my role and I know my limitations.

As my friend Chuck Westcott says, John says, I'm going to stay in my lane.

I'm staying in my lane. I know where my lane is. That's not my lane.

I'm staying right here. Look at verse 28.

You yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

Now, I would say that John the Baptist has a really good self-image.

He knows who he is and he knows who he's not.

He knows who he is and he's not the Christ.

He's looking at Jesus and saying, see that guy right there?

That's my cousin.

But I also want you to know something about my cousin.

He's God and I'm not.

I'm not. I'm not. I am not the Christ and I'm okay with that.

I'm okay with that.

I know what I'm called to do.

I know what my role is and I know what my limitations are.

And in knowing, again, I'm telling you, in knowing who you are and who you're not,

but in knowing who you are, there's great freedom in that.

There's great freedom in being content in who you are.

You don't have to be anybody else.

I can't be Louis Giglio.

I'm not Louis Giglio.

I'm not.

I'm not.

Fill in the blank.

I've just got to be me.

This is who I am.

Good, bad, and different.

I'm okay with that because that's who God created me to be.

You need to be okay with who you are, how God has gifted you.

You don't have to be faster than a speeding bullet,

able to leap tall buildings in a single bound,

to be the uber servant.

You know?

You don't have to volunteer for everything at the church.

But that doesn't mean you don't volunteer for nothing.

Let me say that, too.

Well.

God loves us. He loves us. He loves us. He loves us. He does. He loves us. He loves us. He loves us. And I can't fix that. God can't but I know my limits. And while I say that, let me just say for a second, I speak about gifts and everything. And spiritual gifts, in the New Testament, there are three places where the spiritual gifts are listed.

1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4, they have this huge list of gifts, okay?

It's not gift, it's gifts.

There are different gifts, all right?

And the idea is that we get from this little list, okay, is one of the things is that God loves a variety, all right?

When you see all the gifts, God loves a variety.

And there's not a single way, there are many different expressions, okay?

There's many different assortments of people and gifts and the combination therein.

And it's beautiful when you really look at it, okay?

And also, by the way, even if two people, listen, even if two people have the same spiritual gift, it comes out different.

It comes out different because the Bible says that not only are the gifts different, but there are different administrations of the same gift.

And that means, let's just say, the example I gave, you give two people, two people, a text of Scripture.

You give a text of Scripture to Chuck Swindoll and a text of Scripture to Louis Giglio, and you tell them both to preach on that.

They're going to come from it from two different sides.

They're going to have two different views of that Scripture and how they want to teach it.

It's going to be powerful.

It's going to be anointed.

It's going to be of God, but they're both going to be different.

And that's okay.

There are some people who cannot stand in front of an audience of people and talk like this and be able to share.

But you know what they can do?

They can go knock on someone's door and tell them about Jesus Christ.

You know, for some of us to go up and knock on the door, what we're thinking is, I hope they're not home.

Seriously, right?

But they don't want to do this, but give me that one-on-one thing.

I want to build a relationship.

I can do that.

I can do that.

It's very powerful.

Same gift, different expressions.

All right, let's move on.

The third thing that John exhibits here is also our proper attitude.

John has the proper attitude.

John the Baptist, he has an attitude of not being bitter, not being resentful, not being angry.

And he's joyful.

He's joyful.

Listen, he's joyful that he's even participating in the process.

Look at verse 29.

I lost my page and my spot.

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.

The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete.

John uses a wedding illustration.

It's beautiful.

And just a little bit of background here.

Listen, the friend of the bridegroom, as it says right here, is like the ancient days equivalent to the best man.

And in those days, the best man, the friend of the bridegroom, he arranged the whole wedding.

It was his job.

And it was his job.

He arranged it all.

And he was the liaison between the bride and the bridegroom.

And according to William Barclay, he said that the friend of the bridegroom had one special duty.

And that was to guard the bridal chamber to let no false lover in.

And it's interesting.

He would only open the door in the dark when he would hear the bridegroom's voice and he recognized the voice.

And he was glad.

And he went away rejoicing that his task was completed.

And what John the Baptist is saying is that, man, I'm the best man at the wedding.

And I'm happy.

I'm happy that my friend, my cousin, who is also the Lord, is getting the bride.

I'm so happy about that.

I mean, maybe some of you have been a best man at your friend's wedding.

I've been a best man a few times at people's weddings.

And I didn't stand there at the wedding as the wedding is going on and go, man, I'm so sad.

who's being blessed. Anyone who is being used by God. Anyone who is successful for kingdom's sake to rejoice in their accomplishments just like a best man would rejoice over the wedding. I'm so excited for you. I'm so happy for you. And in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about, you know, the whole human body that if one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. And if one part of the body is honored, the whole body suffers.

All the members are also honored with it. You with me on that? You know, there's a great story in the Old Testament of Moses going up to Mount Sinai and coming back. And on one occasion, he goes up with the 70 elders. And they're coming back down. And as they're coming back down from the mountain, okay, there are two guys that start prophesying. These two guys, Eldad and Medad, they begin prophesying to the camp.

Well, Joshua doesn't like it. Joshua doesn't like it. He gets upset. And he thinks, you know what? Moses is the guy that's supposed to be the spokesman around here. Not you two jokers. And so he goes to Moses and he says, Moses, these two guys are prophesying in the camp. Stop them right now. Put an end to it. And this is what he said. I mean, even Joshua gets caught up in this nonsense. I want you to listen to Moses' response. He said, Joshua, are you jealous for,

my sake? I wish that all of God's people were prophets and that the Spirit of God was on them all. Beautiful response.

Our worship team sits up here on Sunday mornings. Does a phenomenal job.

Really, they shouldn't be the ones leading anyone in worship. We should all be worship leaders. We should all be worshiping. I wish that the Spirit of God would fall on.

That doesn't mean we all run around and dance. If you want to, that's great. I don't care.

That's not what that means.

But that the Spirit of God would fall upon you

and you would be moved in such a way

to where you would

unashamedly give glory

to God.

I have to confess

this morning

I didn't do what I was supposed to do

this morning. I was supposed to

step up and read a passage during

the third song

because God was wanting to challenge us

in some things like that

because

I really sense

I really sense this morning that God is calling us

whatever this means for you

but this is the word I got this morning

in my prayer time for you guys this morning

he's calling us to lean forward

in the Spirit

lean forward a little bit in the Spirit

so you

you hold on to that

but that was John the Baptist's response

I'm just the friend of the bridegroom

I'm so happy that this stuff is happening

I'm okay with it

I'm sure John's disciples were like

what?

We've put all this time into this thing?

You're going to allow this church to exceed ours?

What?

And the fourth proper thing

is that there was a

John had a proper

there was a proper relationship

a proper relationship

to me

this is one of the most beautiful verses

especially in the New Testament

he must increase

I must decrease

he must increase

but I must decrease

more of him

and less of me

more of him

and less of me

say that with me

more of him

and less of me

now say it like you mean it

more of him

and less of me

you

you

hey man Jesus and his gang they're getting more people and John is saying you know would you quit making it about me it's it's it's not about me this is about it's about him it's about more of him and less of me it's a beautiful solution William Carey the great missionary to India he was dying and as he was dying he turned to his friend and he said when I'm gone don't speak about William Carey but speak about William Carey's Savior

and that's the attitude of John the Baptist John's statement is a statement of divine necessity it's divine necessity he must increase I have to have that prayer in my life on a daily basis he Curtis okay I see where we are in our walk right now but truth be known he must increase he must increase this has

you know this is what John's saying this has got to happen fellas this has got to take place he um I'm simply the herald that's my job that was my role I'm the forerunner for the Messiah I pointed the way but guess what he's here he's here and now that the king has come the herald doesn't have to be around any longer now that the king is here okay I pointed the way but guess what I was the forerunner but he's here right now he must

he must increase I must increase I must decrease it's sort of like the sun and the moon the moon is beautiful and has it has its properties and it has its value but once the sun starts coming up then the moon needs to get out of the way because the sun's got business to do it's got it's got work to do okay it doesn't need to hang around his sun must rise I must diminish

God's sun must rise and you must diminish and so you know here's the question you know that you know could it be that that you may be dealing with something very similar you're feeling eclipsed by by somebody else in your your family you're feeling eclipsed by somebody in the workplace maybe one of your peers one of maybe your brothers or sisters they're eclipsing you they're more successful than you are how do you handle that

well you realize that there's a sovereign God who gives everybody whatever he thinks they should have and secondly if you if you have that mindset then you're like okay I can handle this then and secondly you recognize the limitations of your own gifts and be content with the function that God has you to function in and function in that and third be joyful

be joyful be joyful that you're even able to be part of the process that God would use you

will use you for his kingdom's sake what value do you and I have to bring to the table that God should use you absolutely zippo absolutely nothing

and finally finally to come to to the uh to the position where you say it's not about me it's it never has been it never has been about you

he must increase I must decrease less of me and more of him and I want to conclude this point by reading something I don't know who wrote it the author is anonymous and I think it's really great that the author is anonymous because the piece is called dying to self and I think that's kind of appropriate but it gives a great it tells us

it answers it answers the question what does it really mean that's a phrase that we hear a lot die to self die to self what does it really mean to die to self and I think the author of this short piece puts it perfectly when he says this here's what it means to die to self when you are forgotten or neglected or purposely set at zero and you sting and hurt with insult or oversight

but your heart is happy being content being content being counted worthy to suffer for Christ that's dying to self when your good is evil spoken of

when your wishes are crossed when your advice is disregarded when your opinions are ridiculed

when your hopes are hopeful

when your

Here we go.

when you can face when you can stand face-to-face with extravagance with waste extravagance spiritual insensibility and endure It as Jesus endured It that is dying to self when you are

content with any food, any offering, any clothing, any climate, any society, any attitude, any

interruption by the will of God, that is dying to self. When you never care to refer to yourself

in a conversation or record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly

love to be unknown, that is dying to self. When you see your brother prosper and you have

and have his needs met and you can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy

or question God while your own needs are far greater and in despite of circumstances, that

is dying to self. When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than

yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment

rising up within your heart, that is dying to self and all of that just proves how far

we need to grow and we need to grow down, don't we? In humility and in meekness. And you

know what? God is committing, is committed to allowing us grow and he's patient with us that

we would come to this wonderful freeing position. It is freeing. When you truly are dying to self

and it's a freeing position when you can really get to the point when you can say in all honesty

and all sincerity, you know what? It's not about me. It's not about me. It's about making much of the

the Lord. So let's grow down together. Amen? Let's close in prayer.

Why don't you stand with me?

What song are we closing with today?

Let me challenge you with this.

Because I want to be faithful to what God has called me to do. And I didn't do it earlier, so I'm going to do it right now.

When Rob was leading us with, and Jill Holmes was leading us with a raise of hallelujah,

it just, it echoed in my heart that many times we come into this place on Sunday mornings and we say,

you know, come on in and cast your cares before the Lord. Church is a great place. Let's come and let's leave it at the altar.

Let's leave it here and leave it here for the Lord. And there's truth in that. I'm not disregarding that whatsoever.

But I, can we all say that we understand that the scriptures say for, it's a command that God gives us to cast our cares upon the Lord.

Right? And if we're to cast our cares upon the Lord, then guess what?

But we should be doing that on a regular basis, should we not?

So when we come in here on Sunday mornings,

I would just challenge you to let, let Sunday mornings be less about trying to think about casting our cares upon the Lord

and surrendering this to the Lord. We should be doing that already.

We should be doing that. We should already be moving in that direction.

On Sunday morning, it should be a time when all, everything else can be,

all the obstacles can be cleared away and everything can be disappeared.

And that should cause us, just as we sang a minute ago, I'm sorry I didn't step up, to raise a hallelujah. To raise a hallelujah to the Lord. And so, I know our time is drawing to an end right now, and I just don't want you to have to rush out of here today. If you need to go get your kids and go home and do that, that's great. But I just want to give you an invitation just to simply come before the Lord.

Lord, as our team leads us in this closing song. And to remove everything. To remove everything in your thoughts, your minds, your cares, your worries, your concerns, just for a little while. And just come here and experience the goodness of the Lord.

Can you close your eyes with me for a minute? Just close your eyes, right where you are.

I mean, we're not going to burn any incense. We're not going to get any of these essential oils going for you or anything like that, guys, okay? I'm just going to be real with you.

I want the words of the Lord to wash over you this morning.

After this, I heard what seemed to be a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,

Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just.

For He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of His servants.

Once more they cried out, Hallelujah!

The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.

And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne, saying, Amen! Hallelujah!

And from the throne came a voice, saying, Praise our God, all His saints, all His servants, you who fear Him, small and great.

Then I heard what seemed to be a voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters.

And then the second, then the sound of the mighty appeals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns, let us rejoice and exult and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come.

The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.

It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, Write this, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper.

Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And He said to me, These are the words of God.

Then I fell down at His feet to worship Him.

But He said to me, You must not do that.

I am a fellow servant, with you and your brothers, who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

For the testimony of Jesus.

Before the start beyond the edge

As far as East is from the west

floating

angels

Open skies, devotion, dance

More than men can comprehend

Man's way

Your love is without meaning Your love is constant Your love is all forever Your love is endless Your love is overwhelming

I can't contain it I can't contain it Your love, Your love, Your love is endless Know how vast and know how wide Far beyond all space and time

I can't contain it Your love is endless Your love is endless Your love is overwhelming I can't contain it

Your love is endless Your love is endless Your love is endless No doubt, no doubt, no doubt, no doubt No fear, no shame, no lie

Not come%.

Not come, I am convinced I am convinced I do.

You could never know I am convinced I am convinced Even the good Could never have good

Nonewe are blessed No doubt, no doubt No doubt, no doubt, no will

No fear, no wisdom No fear, no shame, no lie I am convinced Me beheld the sun

The days that we need in the grave

Could never celebrate

Your love is without limit

Your love is constant

Your love goes home forever

Your love is healings

Your love is overwhelming

I can't be changing

Your love, your love

Your love is weakness

Your love is without limit

Your love is constant

Your love goes home forever

Your love is weakness

Your love is overwhelming

Thank you God

That we are invited to the table

That we are invited to dine with the Lamb

Show us how we can minister to those

Who need to know that truth

Who need to come to the table God

We love you Jesus

Thank you

Hallelujah for that gift

Thank you God

Have a blessed week

Have a blessed week

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you