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you you you you you you you you All right folks welcome to pure words Baptist Church We're gonna go ahead and get started this morning if you would grab your hymnal turn to song number 100 or hymn number 100 rather day by day hymn number 100 day by day Hymn number 100 day by day Let's sing day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here, trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, gives unto each day what he deems best. Lovingly is part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest. Every day the Lord himself is near me, with a special mercy for each hour. All my cares he fain would bear and cheer me, he whose name is counselor and power. The protection of his shawl and treasure is a charge that on himself be laid, as thy days, thy strength shall be in measure. Tis the pledge to me he made, help me then in every tribulation, so to trust thy promises, O Lord, that I lose not face with consolation, offered me within thy holy word. Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, ere to take us from a Father's hand. One by one the days the moment's fleeting, till I reach the promised land. Amen. Good singing this morning. Brother Ian, would you lead us in a word of prayer? You know, we thank you for this day, and we thank you for this wonderful opportunity we have to get together, and praise your name, and we thank you for the time that you've driven, and we thank you for everything you've done for your glory, and we thank you. Amen. For our next hymn this morning, turn, if you would, to the right, to hymn number 120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Hymn number 120120, Jesus, Savior, Pilot, Me. Amen. Good singing this morning. Thank you for coming to Purist Baptist Church. If you didn't get a bulletin, there's some on this back cabinet over here. And if you want to lift your hand, Brother Jeffrey, he'll come by or one of our men will come by and get you a bulletin. On the inside we have our service times and soul winning times, as well as a couple regional times. And then also down below we have our salvations and baptisms, as well as a upcoming event. We have an event for the beginning of April, and it's the Texas, Oklahoma Easter marathon. And so I'm really excited about this. We're going to do something a little bit different this year, but just Easter is the 4th of April. And so in preparation for that, we want to try and do as much soul winning as possible. And I felt like what would be a good idea is to try and go soul winning the whole time that Jesus Christ would have been in the grave. And so I preached the whole sermon last year entitled, The Timing of the Passover. But I believe instead of it being Good Friday, it's actually Good Thursday when you study the scriptures. And in fact, that would give us a lot more time to do a soul winning too, so it's a double win, right? So the goal is that Thursday, instead of having a service, we're just going to do extended soul winning. And then Friday and Saturday as well, we'll have other soul winning. And so the goal is to just have as much soul winning in the entire area of Texas and Oklahoma as possible. By about March 7th, I'm going to have everybody that's interested in leading a time or kind of organizing that get back to me. And then I'll post exactly all the different times where they're meeting in these areas. And so I'm really looking forward to this. I think it's going to be a great time to go out and preach the gospel and invite people to church. Because, you know, Easter, you know, it just is what it is. It's kind of the one time a lot of people go to church. And so, you know, we might as well try to reach as many people as we can and try to encourage them to at least get saved and maybe come join us for Easter services. Also, that evening service, we're going to have the Lord's Supper. And Brother Nick Goma is going to help lead that right after the evening service. And so, really excited. We'll have the Lord's Supper in all different, all of our different church areas. For our preaching schedule, we have Brother Blake Renkin. He's coming the following Sunday, March 14th. And so really excited to have him come out here. He's from Shure Foundation in Vancouver, Washington. Their pastor is Pastor Aaron Thompson. He's a good friend of ours. He's come and preached down here for you guys a couple of times. And so he's going to be coming out here. Really excited to have him come. The best announcement here in the bulletins by far, Bellamy Blake Darnell. He was born the March 1st at 538 a.m. weighing 8 pounds and 8 ounces. And I heard he took his time to arrive, but he's here. And so, you know, joy that a man is born into the world. And so that's really exciting to them. We're excited for them. Also, we have several other expecting ladies. So please be in prayer for all of them. And we have lots there listed. Also, we have a prayer request. If you'd like to submit any kind of a prayer request that you have throughout the week, you can just email that to us and we'll try to update people in our midweek service. And I think that's pretty much all I have for now. It's really great to see you guys again on Sunday morning. I know some faces I don't always get to see on Thursday, but I'm glad to see you guys here on Sunday morning. And also, for those of you that completed Proverbs 1, part of your prize was possibly one of these Herb Meyer books. And so you got the choice of another shirt or an Herb Meyer book. And we've got Book 1 or Book 2, so you can pick whichever one you want. But did anybody need to get one of these? Brother Henry, you got one? All right. Okay, cool. Great. Is there another one? Yeah? Okay, great. There you go. All right. Anybody else? Okay. Congrats on those who completed the bio memory passage. That's great. And also we have some new cards on the back cabinet. They've been for a little while, but they're a God resource card. And kind of the goal with that is just to have a centralized website or web page that has as many different gospel presentations and as many different languages as possible. And it's not replete yet, but the goal is we can add more and more languages as we get that information. But it has, you know, maybe six, seven, eight languages already. And especially Houston. Houston is very diverse. I've been definitely in all kinds of different areas where they're speaking Arabic or they're speaking Hindi or they're speaking a lot of these other languages. And so, you know, and I can't speak every language. I can barely speak Spanish. Probably only enough to order a taco, but I'm just kidding. No, I can speak enough Spanish to get someone saved, but that's about it. And, you know, obviously it'd be great if we could, you know, have the just speaking in tongues automatically. But we're going to use this for right now until you guys can start speaking in tongues sporadically, you know, as far as preaching other languages in the gospel. OK, not the charismatic rolling on the floor. But so that's that card. If you want to hand them out. Basically the goal is I just take a couple with me. And if I run into someone and they don't speak English or Spanish or a language I can communicate, then I just hand them on those cards and say, hey, check this out. And, you know, even if it's not the language they have right now, maybe six months from now, we will. And they just check back and they'll have their language or something like that. So that's kind of the goal with those cards. It's very good to see you this morning. Let's go to our third song. We're going to go to song 162 in your hymnal. Song 162. All right. One hundred and sixty two to God be the glory. One sixty two. Sing to God. Be the glory. Great things he had done. So he gave us his son who yielded his life and atonement for sin. And open the life gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the Father through Jesus, the Son, and give him the glory. Great things he had done. Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood to every believer, the promise of God. The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus of boredom receives. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the Father through Jesus, the Son, and give him the glory. Great things he had done. Great things he had taught us. Great things he had done. And great our rejoicing through Jesus, the Son, but purer and higher and greater will be. Our wonder, our transport when Jesus received. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the Father through Jesus, the Son, and give him the glory. Great things he had done. Amen. While the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn, if you would, to John chapter number 3. John chapter 3, and we'll read that chapter as is our custom. John chapter number 3, there in verse 1 the Bible reads, There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you of earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Annan near to Salem, because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for allowing us all to gather here in your name. God, I pray that you will fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit. Help us to speak the words that you have for him and for us today. God, help us to lead to your change. Amen. John chapter 3, really great chapter of the Bible. Look at verse 25, the Bible reads, Then there rose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. And we see here in the Bible that the Pharisees are coming and they're trying to pick a fight. They're trying to start a conflict between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. They're trying to get John the Baptist envious of Jesus Christ by pointing out the fact that John the Baptist at this time is pretty much the most well-known person in all of this land, in all of this area. He's regarded as a prophet. All men came unto him to get baptized. All of Jordan's coming out to hear him preach. And now with Jesus Christ coming on the scene, there's kind of been a transition where everybody's interested in Jesus Christ and no longer John the Baptist. And in fact, they're making note of how Jesus Christ is actually baptizing even more people now than John the Baptist was. And so you can see, oh, he's stealing his thunder a little bit, or he's stealing some of his followers, or basically he's doing more work than him. And so they're trying to rile John the Baptist up and trying to make him envious of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 27. The Bible says, And the title of my sermon actually comes from this verse. The title of the sermon this morning is this. I must decrease. I must decrease. We see John the Baptist when confronted with the idea of being envious of Jesus Christ or envious of his ministry. John the Baptist's attitude is, well, he must increase. I must decrease. He realized that, you know, it's not about him. It's about Jesus Christ anyways. And I really only have two points for you this morning. I want to make it really simple. The way that you have to understand how you can have this attitude or you can be like John the Baptist is, and the way I believe he is able to accomplish having this attitude is, number one, he understands his purpose. He understands his purpose. The purpose of John the Baptist was ultimately to point to Jesus Christ. Therefore, he can make the clear statement, well, he must increase and I must decrease. Also, he realizes his purpose was not to be the groom. He's the friend of the bridegroom. He's not the guy who the wedding ceremony is about. And really it's considered very uncouth or very improper to steal the show or to steal the day when it's not your wedding. Sometimes they'll talk about a lady who might wear a really provocative dress or this bright flashy dress or something that everybody's talking about and she's the main focus of attention on the wedding day. That would be very shameful to do on someone else's wedding day because the bride is supposed to be the one whom everyone looks at and is oohing and aahing about and they really care about. It's not the bridesmaid's day. It's the bride. And it's not about the groomsman. It's about the bridegroom himself. And so they should be getting the preeminence. They should be getting the focus here. And really John the Baptist has the correct idea. He has the correct attitude because he realizes his purpose is to point people to Jesus Christ. It's not about him. In order to realize that you have to decrease, you have to understand the purpose of your life. And let's see the purpose of John the Baptist. It says in John chapter 1 verse 7, The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. Now it says the same. It's referencing verse number 6 where it says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. So John, his purpose, notice, is to bear witness of the light. And specifically that all men might what? Believe. What was the goal of John the Baptist? To get people to believe in Jesus Christ and he's bearing witness of this light. Verse 8, he was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh in the world. So notice it makes a clear distinction. He's not that light. The light is Jesus Christ. The whole emphasis of John chapter number 1 is about Jesus Christ. Yet, God ended up using another man, John the Baptist, to be a witness bearer, to be one to point everyone to that light and to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. You know, just someone coming on the scenes. It makes me think of a store that's about to open. A lot of times what they'll do before they open is they'll put huge big banners out and they'll say, you know, grand opening on this date. And they're basically trying to point everyone to the store. They'll hand out flyers. They'll do a lot of advertisements. And really the whole goal is to get people to come into the store. It's not about the banner. It's not about the flyer. It's not about, you know, the inflatable flailing guy or whatever. It's not about him, you know. It's not the guy standing on the corner with the little sign. He's spinning it, you know. And it's like, they're sometimes pretty cool, okay. And you could look at John the Baptist as one of those really cool cardboard guy spinners, you know. He's spinning the thing. But at the end of the day, it wasn't for people to just ooh and aah, to stand and be like, let's just watch the guy spin the sign. No, the goal was for people to walk into the store. The goal was for people to get into the building and buy the merchandise. That was the whole point of them hiring the sign waiver, of hiring the guy pointing into the store. It's not about the sign waiver, though. You know, and obviously John the Baptist, according to Jesus Christ, is one of the greatest men born, you know, of women. But at the end of the day, it wasn't about John. It wasn't about worshipping John or, you know, it's not about him getting all this recognition. His goal is to point to Jesus Christ. And it makes sense that before Jesus Christ comes on the scene, he asks someone to go before him and to get a lot of people riled up and stirred up and say, hey, there's someone about to come. There's someone really important coming. Let's all get ready. Let's all get excited. And then basically, you know, Jesus Christ is going to enter on the stage. You could think of an event or, you know, and especially in the secular world, they may have a concert or they may have basically some kind of a comedian or something. Before he comes on the stage, they try to rile everybody up. Let's already start, you know, giving a round of applause and they get everybody going. Maybe they have a pre-band. You know, they have people that play before just to get everybody kind of stirred up. So then when the main attraction comes on, then everybody's all ready to go. And so that's what you can think of John the Baptist. He was just the warm-up. He was just the guy, you know, there to point everyone to Jesus Christ, get everybody gathered together, people to hear about him. And you've got to think, back then, John the Baptist could not just put, you know, a Facebook status, like, hey, everyone, Jesus Christ is coming. Just want to let you know, okay? Tweet it. Tweet it out. Now, back then, you had a more in-person communication, right? So you have a lot of people being gathered and hearing and he has to preach, you know, and he couldn't have whispered because they didn't have a PA system. You know, it's just like today. I don't have a mic today, but I don't need one, all right? And, you know, John the Baptist is not a quiet preacher. None of the men in the Bible were quiet preachers. They weren't soft-spoken. They couldn't be. They're yelling. They're screaming because Jesus Christ at times is preaching to thousands. Can you imagine thousands of people that you have to preach to? You have no microphone system. If you actually want people to hear, I mean, these guys were leather-lung. These guys could lift up their voice like a trumpet to be heard, okay? They weren't just whispering and only the front row is getting to hear the preaching. No, I mean, these guys are preaching with a thundering voice today and, you know, if God gave you a thundering voice, maybe that's one of the reasons why, right? So a lot of people can hear you preach. But his purpose is to bear witness of that light. Look at verse 15. John bare witness of him and noticed his word and cried. Now, we think of the word cry as like weeping, you know, like, oh, I'm sad. But crying just means yelling in the Bible oftentimes. And John the Baptist, he's preaching very loudly. He says, this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me. Now, you know what's going to really help John the Baptist's attitude about Jesus Christ is the fact that he already starts with the right attitude. He's already preaching, hey, this guy that's going to come later, he's better than me. You know, he's preferred before me. It's someone that we should all, you know, basically look to. And so when the guy arrives, you know, the message isn't going to change. It's not like he's going to start changing and preaching a different message. He was saying there's someone coming and we're all ready. We need to be ready for him and his message and his ministry and we're preparing the way of the Lord, not the way of John the Baptist. Okay? He says in verse 19, and this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. So he made it very plain. I'm not the Messiah. I'm not the anointed one. I'm not the Christ. Verse 21, and they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Now here's the thing. John the Baptist is not Elias literally. He's literally John the Baptist. Okay? Now he did have the spirit and the power of Elias. You know, or Elijah as the Old Testament. We're kind of familiar with that name. And obviously that he was given a spirit of Elijah to be like him in power and might and have a similar testimony and a similar lifestyle. But he was literally John the Baptist. Now they say that prophet, they're talking about in the Old Testament, Moses talked about there being a prophet that would come from among the people and he would guide and teach them. And they're saying, Oh, are you the fulfillment of that prophecy? No. Because the fulfillment of that prophecy is Jesus Christ. Okay? So he's not the Christ. He's not that prophet. He's not literally Elijah. But he is in the spirit and the power of Elijah. And obviously Jesus Christ is later going to say, you know, this is that guy. This is the one that the Bible is really talking about. But he is John the Baptist. Says in verse 22, And they said unto him, Who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet, Isaias. So in Isaiah, we have these prophecies talking about making straight the way of the Lord. And he's just saying, Hey, I'm just this voice. I'm just here to give a message. It's not about him. Notice he doesn't say, I'm John the Baptist. Have you not heard of me? Of course, it's John the Baptist. He just says, I'm just a voice. I'm just one here with a specific message. And that message is about the Lord. And I'm here to prepare the way of the Lord. So he's a very humble person. John the Baptist is one of the most humble people in the Bible. And that's why God lifts him up with his own words. That's why Jesus Christ tells us that he's one of the greatest men born among women. Because of how humble he is. I mean, he's literally the most popular person anywhere. And all of Christianity at this time, which obviously we're saying, it's obviously Hebrew religion. We understand it's the old covenant, but it's still Christianity. And he's the most popular figure, the most listeners, the most followers, the most tweets, the most retweets. Just every kind of popularity you could ever wish or want for at that time is all given to John. And he's still, it's not about his name, it's not about him, it's still only about Jesus. He's just a voice of one crying in the wilderness. And that's a great attitude that we see him having because he understands his purpose again. What was his purpose? What was his purpose? John the Baptist Ministries. You know, John the Baptist, you know, get my merch at the store. You don't want his merch, okay? We'll talk about that in a minute. You know, John the Baptist food industries. You don't want his food, okay? John the Baptist, it's not about John the Baptist. It's about Jesus Christ, okay? Look at verse number 36. Now, this is John, he finally runs an encounter with Jesus. It says in verse 36, Now, he finally has his reckoning day. He's been talking about someone coming. He's talking about preparing the way of the Lord. He's talking about someone who's preferred before him. And finally, it happens. Finally, Jesus Christ comes on the scene. And does John the Baptist change the message? Nope. He just points, he's like, What happens? What's the first thing that happens after he points to him? Verse 37, So he's literally taking of his ministry and saying like, here's the guy, you know, follow this guy. It's, you know, and obviously what he's doing, his actions are going to result in people following Jesus Christ because he's been leading all these people up to the fact of, hey, follow this guy, be a disciple of this guy. So it's not going to be surprising when eventually Jesus Christ now has more disciples and Jesus Christ is now baptizing more people and Jesus Christ's ministry is bigger than John the Baptist, okay? And what was John the Baptist's attitude? Well, he must increase, but I must decrease. How do you know that? Because of his purpose. He understands his purpose was to get people on Jesus Christ's ministry, get them following him, being a disciple of him, not about being a disciple of John the Baptist. And go to Matthew chapter number three, Matthew chapter number three. John the Baptist realized that his purpose is only about Jesus Christ so much that he literally did not care about the things of this world. He did not care about himself. He did not get distracted with any of the lusts of the flesh. I mean, this guy is living one of the most austere lives you could ever imagine because his whole goal is just to be that literal voice, you know? There's nothing appealing about John the Baptist except for his message, okay? There's nothing great. You don't want to go out there. It's not a fashion statement, okay? Let's read some verses and I'll explain this. But look at Matthew chapter number three. Look at verse number one. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet, Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. And they went out to him, Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized in Jordan confessing their sins. So we see he had a big following. All these people are coming out to see him. But again, number one, you had to go out to see him. Number two, it was in the wilderness. It wasn't like some awesome palace or something. It wasn't like this fantastical sight. It's like everyone's seen the wilderness, okay? And they went to the city, okay? They were like, no one wants to be around here. And then John the Baptist, it's not like it's a cool fashion show. I mean, he's just wearing leather clothes, you know, just some durable clothing. There's nothing real fancy about it. There's nothing really great about it. And as far as diet, you know, it wasn't like they were going out for the great cafeteria line. They weren't going out for the great meal that he was preparing. You know, he wasn't making some brisket, you know, stew or something. I mean, this is locusts and wild honey. You're like, hey, John, what do we have to eat around here? Don't ask John. Well, I'm just going to ask some locusts and wild honey over here. Like, what's the only reason to go and see John? To hear his message and get right with God. That's it. I mean, that's all it really was. But notice a lot of people were willing to do that. A lot of people were going out to see him today. And at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself this question, okay? Let's think about it for John and then we'll ask ourselves. Is John's personal decisions, every decision he's making in his life, is it about increasing John the Baptist or Jesus Christ? Okay? Living in the wilderness, is that about increasing John the Baptist or Jesus Christ? That's about Jesus. How about his clothing? Is that about John the Baptist, you know, leather line? You know, it's not happening. It didn't catch on, okay? Nobody's really interested in that. You got the Canadian tuxedo up north, but I mean, it's not that popular, all right? And that's jeans, anyways. But, I mean, his food. Was his food really, I mean, were you going to say, hey, John, I just feel like, man, you just really care about food and not Jesus Christ here? Eating those yummy locusts and that wild honey? And that wild honey out there? I mean, you understood the organic benefits of that wild honey, didn't you? You know, you didn't want that GMO. They didn't have GMO back then, okay? You wanted the refined honey. You didn't want to go out and work for it. You know, wild honey might have to fight off some bees or some bears or some other, you know, wildlife or whatever. You'd rather just come in a jar, okay? And you don't want to eat, no one wants to eat locusts, okay? Don't believe these weird freaks that are saying eat grasshoppers now and eat bugs or whatever. You know, that's a lesser food, okay? This is not high quality food. When we look at John the Baptist's life, his decision making is not about himself. It's clear. His decision making is about what? His purpose. And what's his purpose? Jesus Christ. Pointing people to the Lord, preparing the way for him. And at the end of the day, you can't serve everyone. You know, and if you're going to serve Jesus Christ, here's a person a lot of the times you have to put on the back burner, yourself. You have to put yourself on the back burner, you know? If you put yourself on the forefront, oftentimes what's going to happen is you're going to put Jesus Christ on the back burner in your life. Go to 3 John chapter number 3 for a moment. Go to 3 John chapter 3 for a moment. And you say, well, that doesn't sound like fun. That doesn't sound like a good lifestyle. That doesn't sound like something that I would enjoy. But that's just because you don't understand true joy anyways. Because serving yourself only has so much potential when it comes to joy. And the reality is true joy, or the best joy that you can possibly get, is not from serving yourself, but it's actually serving others. Look at 3 John and look at verse 3. The Bible says, For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. What does the Bible teach us the greatest possible joy? The greatest possible joy is seeing your children walk in truth. Now, let me explain this to you, though. Your children walking in truth is not going to happen automatically. It doesn't happen in a vacuum. You know how your children end up walking in truth? You are sacrificing of yourself, and you are serving them and teaching them the right ways, and then inevitably you see them fulfilling the calling and the life that you set before them. The Bible says, Train up a child in the way he shall go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Hey, you start dragging your kids to church and making them read the Bible and study the scripture and do memorization, and they go out and they go soul wanting and they do the right things. You know, it's not going to be a coincidence that the children that grow up doing the right things end up continuing doing the right things, and the kids growing up doing the wrong things end up continuing doing the wrong things. You know, the Bible says a child left to himself bringing his mother to shame. And the reality is today, if you want to have that great joy, you know you're going to have it is by sacrificing and serving your children. You say, oh, that's hard. Well, you know what, the greatest joy is going to be often met with a very great difficulty, with a great sacrifice. You know, when it comes to some of the greatest joys in the Bible, I guarantee the Gospel is a great joy to us. I know it's a great joy to me. But you know what, it was at Christ's sacrifice, wasn't it? It was at God the Father's sacrifice. It was at a lot of other people's peril. And when it comes to something that's really joyous, you know what, it's often going to be because it was very costly. It took a lot of effort. But things that are really easy, they're not that enjoyable. You know, the thing that's very difficult or the thing that takes a lot of work or a lot of energy, that's where you get the greatest joys. And you know what, to raise a child from diapers, to go through all the sleepless nights and all the whining and complaining and spanking and discipline and putting on their clothes and cleaning up all the poop and the vomit and just all the difficulties in the teenage years, I don't even know what that's like, you know, from raising them. I know what it's like from watching it and observing it. But I mean, all the difficulty and all the struggle and all the effort and all the energy and all the prayer and all the, you know, worry. And then you finally see them walking in truth. I mean, it's like there's no greater joy. You're like, why would I want to spend all that effort and that energy and that time and that dedication for it to just be wasted? You know, for them to be a drug addict and in jail or die or just someone that just doesn't even love the Lord. What if they were really successful in the world? They've got all the money. They've got, you know, this great fancy job, but they don't like Jesus. They're not going to church. That's going to hurt a Christian's heart. That's going to hurt a Christian mother, a Christian father's heart, even if their kid, you know, is Joe Biden. I mean, how many moms in here wish that their son was Joe Biden right now? Oh, he's so successful. You know, that would hurt your heart, right? To see him be one of these type of people. You know, oh, what if he was LeBron James? Or, you know, oh, I'd be so proud. Would you, though? Is that really what you want your kids to turn out to be like? And the reality is, you know, you have to realize what is my purpose because when you lose focus of your purpose, you know, things go haywire. When you don't realize what's the purpose of my child, what's the purpose of me being a parent, what's the purpose of my life, you know, then you start doing things that don't make sense. You start living selfishly and you're not making the right sacrifices and then you'll look back on your life and you'll say, oh, I've wasted it. I don't have the potential to have the greatest joy anymore. Go, if you would, to John chapter number 17, John chapter number 17. The decisions that you make, are they increasing you or are they increasing Christ? And let me tell you what, investing in your children is also investing in Christ because, you know what, that's the next generation that's going to carry the torch of Christianity and if we don't invest in our children, you know, how is Christianity going to continue to thrive? You know, we invest in others because Christ invested in us and that's the same spirit, that's the same attitude. You know, there's certain institutions, there's certain things that God gave us that we're supposed to invest into, to sacrifice for, like the local church, like our families and, you know, winning the loss. These are the three big areas that we need to be investing in and putting a lot of effort and energy into and saying, you know what, am I really increasing Christ or am I increasing myself? The decisions that I'm making. What would be something that's usually at the forefront of this? Money. Money. Money's always at the forefront. You know, the love of money is the root of all evil is what the Bible says. And, you know, you can ask yourself this question, you know, am I really increasing my personal money and my personal wealth or am I increasing the riches of Christ on this earth? Am I increasing my treasure in heaven by investing in other people and loving other people? Hey, you want your bank account to go up in heaven? You know what you have to usually do? Give your money to people on this earth. Like, what, to the church or the poor or helping people or doing good? I mean, that's how it goes up. So, you know what, if you invest in yourself here, you're not investing in Christ. You're not increasing Christ. And, look, John the Baptist, I don't think he had a great 401K. I don't think he had this great, you know, retirement package. I don't think he was worried about, you know, all the lusts of the flesh. I don't think he had a Corvette in the garage, you know, that he's driving around getting the locusts and wild honey, okay. I don't think that he's worrying about things. And, look, there's nothing wrong with having a house or having a car or having retirement options or having these things. And, you know what, sometimes that's needful, especially when it comes to your children. You know, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children is what the Bible says. So, there's nothing wrong with investing in your children and, you know, providing good substance for your children and doing well for your family and providing, you know, the Bible makes it clear, if any man provide not for his own and especially those for his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. So, we have to balance the Scriptures here. But, what I am saying is the decisions that you're making, are they really ultimately selfishly for you or are they for Christ? You know, are you making decisions to serve the church and to serve your children and to help others or is it really just for personal and engrisement? Now, look at John chapter 17 and look at verse 13. You say, well, how would I figure out what my purpose is? You know, John the Baptist, he knows what his purpose is. What's my purpose, Pastor Shelley? Well, let's figure it out. John chapter 17, look at verse 13. And now come I to thee and these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Now, this is Jesus Christ speaking to God the Father and notice he wants something. He wants us to have joy. But, how do you get that joy again? Oh yeah, seeing your children walk in truth by sacrificing like Jesus Christ does. Okay, verse number 14. I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. It says, Thou hast sent me into the world. Even so, have I also sent them into the world. So, Jesus Christ is talking about his disciples. And look, he's got a lot of joy here because his disciples, he's kept them. Except for Judas, which was purposely not kept. He was never going to be saved because he was a devil from the beginning as the Bible describes him. But those that Jesus did pick, notice they're all still with Jesus Christ. And they all end up becoming apostles. And they all end up going out and being some of the greatest men for God. And talk about having great joy. I mean, what if Jesus Christ had picked 12 guys and only one of them panned out? That would be kind of frustrating, wouldn't it? All of them panned out. Every single one did exactly what they were chosen to do. Obviously, Judas had his own ministry. But we know that the good disciples, the good apostles, they were all some of the greatest Christians to ever live. And Jesus Christ has this great joy. And he's wanting them to go out into the world. And he's asking for the Lord to sanctify them. Meaning to set them apart, to clean them up by the word of God. And they're sanctified through the truth. Now, I love this next verse though. Verse 20, it says this, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. So Jesus Christ not only prayed for his specific disciples at that time, but also every disciple, every believer after them. Jesus Christ is praying for the exact same prayer. For them to be sanctified, for the Father to protect them, for them to not be taken of the world. They're in the world, but they're not supposed to be of the world. He says in verse 21, That they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. So what does Jesus Christ want for us? What is our purpose? Our purpose is to be in the world, but not of the world. You say, how do you know that? But he didn't pray for just them, he's praying for everyone that believed. And let me tell you something, if you believe in Jesus Christ, he's talking about you. If you haven't believed in Jesus Christ, then go back to John 3.16 and believe. And then as soon as you believe, guess what your new purpose is? Now to be in the world, but not of the world. Now to be a witness of that light. You know, Jesus Christ said, ye are the light of the world. And why? Because Jesus Christ is no longer here. If Jesus Christ was here, he's the light. As long as Jesus Christ is in the world, he's the light of the world. You know what, he's up in heaven, and so he allows us to be the ambassadors for Christ. He allows us to be the salt of the earth. He allows us to be the light to go out and shine the gospel today. And you know what, when you understand your purpose is about Jesus Christ, it can help you say no to yourself. It can help you say no to the things of this world. Go to 1 John chapter number 2. Go to 1 John chapter number 2. You know, in the great hall of faith in Hebrews, you know, they talk about how they're sojourners. They're just passing through the land. Is that how you really view your life today? As just, it's a temporary thing. You know, when you're just traveling somewhere, and you're just staying at maybe a hotel or a house or whatever, and there's issues with the property or there's things you don't like or there's things you don't have, you just say, well who cares, we're not going to be here that long. You're not thinking like, oh, I've got to fix these pipes over here and this is a little bit loose and I want to, you know, get this mark out of the carpet over here and I want to change, you know. You're not really concerned with those things. You're just like, look, we're leaving in a few days. See ya, you know. As long as you didn't cause it. You know, as long as it's not going to come out of your deposit or your money or whatever, you're just like, that was already here, so we're going to leave it just like that, okay. And really it's kind of a renter's mentality, right. A renter's mentality is different than an owner's mentality. And while I'm not saying that you should take this approach to your own personal possessions, you should always be a good steward of your personal possessions, you should have this view on your life, though, that it's just a renter's life. Hey, this world, I'm just renting, I'm just sojourning, I'm just traveling through. You know, I'm not going to try and fix all the problems with this world. I'm not going to fix the environment. I'm not going to fix the U.S. government. The only way to fix that is to nuke it, okay, and start over. That which is crooked cannot be made straight, okay. I mean, there's so many problems in this world today. You know, I try to pick up trash every once in a while, but my life's goal is not going to pick up all the trash in this world. Good luck. You know, my goal is not to try and feed every single poor person. Good luck. My goal in life is not to save every puppy and to save every kitten and to save all the wildlife and to save every forest and to save every, you know, dolphin and to save every duck from getting caught in a can, you know, the plastic can or whatever. Some people, that's some people's purpose. You know, I'm not joking. Some people, there's people, they literally take roses and they go to the grocery store and they walk down the meat aisle and they literally plant roses on the hamburger. You know, they plant roses on the roast beef and they're just so sad. And I'm just thinking, like, sweet, I got a roast for my wife while I cook some steaks, you know. Perfect. This is a double win. But look, it's just, what is your purpose in this life? Your purpose is about Jesus. Your purpose is about getting people saved. You know, at some point, you're going to stand before God, you're going to stand before Jesus Christ and He's going to judge you according to your works and He's going to say, you know, what were you doing? You know, I like John the Baptist's testimony because I don't feel like he had a lot to really worry about. Like, I don't think Christ is like, you had a little too many locusts there, buddy, you know. That leather and girdle was a little too nice, wasn't it, you know. He just completely just lived the most austere life, just all about Christ, and we know He's going to be one of the most greatly rewarded people ever. Jesus clearly said He was the greatest man born among women. He literally died for Christ. His head was beheaded for Christ. I mean, this guy is awesome. And, you know, at the end of the day, anybody that looked at his life from a secular world physical perspective would say it was the worst life. I mean, you're just hanging out in the wilderness, he didn't get any good meals, he had the worst clothing, he died a martyr's death, he was in prison. I mean, there's nothing really grandiose about that life. Why? Because his decision making wasn't about himself, it's about Jesus. But what is your decision making like? Are you just, well, I can't wait to get a whole bunch of money, and I can't wait to build my new business, and I can't wait about my own personal ambitions. Why don't you turn and look at 1 John 2, look at verse 15. The Bible reads, Love not the world. That's a commandment. Well, I don't like the world, but I like my car. Wait a minute. Neither the things that are in the world. Like, I like the world better than I like the things in the world. I mean, look at the mountains and the ocean and that stuff. That's a little more pure. The things in the world, they're a little more tainted. But you can't love either. And the lust of the, if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That verse hurts. And look, we all naturally, just our sinful nature, love the things in this world. We love the beautiful landscapes, we love the cool locations, we love, you know, the beach, and we love all the fancy things, and you know, I love golf. A beautiful golf course is amazing to me. You know, I love seeing the beautiful Mon fairway and the perfectly, you know, manicured green and all the water features and all the beautiful trees and just, it's gorgeous, you know. I mean, there's so many cool things. I mean, there's just even cool, like, gadgets, you know. Our cell phones are one of the coolest gadgets ever. Just, they can do literally everything. It can spy on you when you're not looking. It can check your face and it can scan it and it can tell your face versus other people's faces. Not for any government databases or anything like that, okay. It knows your fingerprint. It knows your social security number. It knows the sound of your voice. I mean, just by only your voice alone, it can unlock. And nobody would ever use any of this information against you for any reason, okay. I don't know why you don't love this device that knows everything about you. I mean, pretty soon, maybe you get a blood sample, your COVID passport, and everything else that you need, okay. But look, there is cool things. I mean, the electronic car that Elon Musk makes, I mean, it goes 0 to 60 in like 2.2 seconds or something like that. It's like, you know, all those gas guzzlers can't keep up with the electric car all of a sudden, you know. I mean, some of the cool things, I mean, an airplane. Have you ever ridden an airplane? It's amazing. It's incredible. But you know what the Bible says? Love, not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. You know, what we're supposed to love is we're supposed to love God. We're supposed to love the Word of God. We're supposed to love souls today. We're supposed to go out and preach the gospel today and you know what, not get carried away with the deceitfulness of riches, with the pleasures and the lusts of this world and worry about how many gadgets we have. I mean, how many gadgets did John the Baptist have out there? Doesn't sound like many. Didn't sound like he cared about those type of things. Why? Because his life was not about I must increase. It was about Christ. I must increase, I must decrease. Go if you would to 2 Timothy 4. No, this is the sad reality. As you preach this, you scream this, people yell amen, but not everybody is going to end up doing it. I think in your spirit, you know, in your soul, everybody's like, yeah, but the flesh will overcome the spirit in a lot of cases and a lot of people, you know, it sounds great, but John the Baptist's life is hard. Some people walk out there, I'm ready to be John the Baptist. Five minutes later, it's like, what's to eat? I'm going back to town to get something to eat. I'm done. I might want to serve. And look, serving Christ is not as hard as John the Baptist's life. He's living a pretty extreme life here. But look at 2 Timothy 4, verse 10. The Bible says, For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed with us alike. Even in Paul's life, one of his own personal disciples and one of his own personal companions, one of the people he's ministering with and a companion with and doing things with, this guy literally forsook the Apostle Paul. I mean, of all the people that you have mentoring you, I mean, there's not many greater options than the Apostle Paul himself. And he's saying, you know what, this one guy, he just liked the things of this world too much. And you know, if we all travel back into time to the time of the Apostle Paul, okay, none of us would be thinking, like, this world's great. I mean, they don't have, you know, the indoor plumbing that we have. They don't have the cars. They don't have the air conditioning. They don't have all the food, delicacies. I mean, you'd go into the store, and you'd be like, where's all the grapes? It's like, it's not that time of season. Time of season, what are you talking about? It's like, it's not that time of season, you know? And do you have a trillion dollars? I mean, look, do you have all the money? You know, we live in so much, you know, exuberance and wealth, and we live in so much, you know, luxury today, and we don't even realize it. And notice, he back then, if we travel back, we'd be like, this is terrible. This is awful. I can't wait to get out of here. But he loved it. And the reality is, if you compare this life to heaven, you'd be like, this life sucks. But then people end up just, they love this life. They love the pleasures and the things of this world. Even though they don't realize, there's way greater riches and way greater pleasures to be had in the future, they're just all about now. And so they're not laying up in store for the future. They're not willing to invest and have a long-term, you know, financial strategy, okay? Which is what? He must increase, I must decrease. You know, they spend every dollar. You know, some people spend every dollar that they get on their paycheck, just every time. In fact, some people, they spend more than they got on their paycheck. It's like a paycheck advance or whatever. You know, they go and they spend their paycheck before they get it. They get a payment advance, then they get interest on that. Some people, they spend all that, and then they get a credit card and spend a whole much more of their income and wages that they still haven't even earned yet. They still don't even have their name. They have no money. They're negative. And then they have loans. They have student loans. They have all this just money and debt. I mean, they're just spending and spending and spending. Why? Because they just have to gratify now and now and now and now. And that attitude is the same spiritually of people that aren't serving God at all. They just keep racking up more debt financially in a spiritual way by just going out and living in the world. And you know what? It's debt today because when you live in the world, there's consequences to that lifestyle. There's sin to be accounted for, and there's consequences and there's evil, and you'll be like, oh, man, why did I make this decision? Why did I put this on this high-interest credit card? Why did I spend all the money for next month before I got it? Because guess what? I still have to eat next month, too. And I still have to get clothes and do all these different things. And you know what? People are just financially irresponsible. Why? Because they have to have it now. Everybody's just a now only, an instant gratification, and people have gotten away with it for a long time, but eventually there will come a reckoning. Eventually it will catch up to them. You cannot get away with this, and you can't get away with it spiritually either. Go to Proverbs chapter 24. Go to Proverbs chapter 24. Let me tell you about planning. Look, when you understand your purpose, it's going to be easy to say no to things. Say, hey, you know what? My purpose here is Jesus Christ. It's not me, so I can say no to me. I can say no to certain things. You know, whenever you have a budget and you have an option to buy something that's out of your budget, you can say no. But when you don't have a budget, yeah, woo! Hey, I'm going to call the bank and see if they'll increase my credit limit. And let's see if they'll just keep increasing it. Eventually you're going to have to pay that. Eventually you're going to have some kind of a reckoning. And we have to have a wise mentality of planning for the future, of having a vision, of realizing the frailty of our life, how it's a vapor. There's nothing to it. If my purpose is all about Jesus Christ, then why do I want to live my whole life for me? And then stand before Jesus and he's like, what'd you do? I had a good time. You won't even want to say that. Just feel ashamed. Just feel ashamed. And you know, the Bible warns that there are going to be people that are ashamed of this coming. And obviously the people that are unsaved, they're terrified because they're going to have wrath and all kinds of other stuff poured on them. But even Christians can be ashamed because you know what? Their life was just wood, hay, and stubble and it's all burnt up. And the Bible says they even suffer loss. Okay? I would rather try to live as much as I can for Christ. And in all of your past it's already gone, so don't worry about it. Start thinking about decisions today. Start thinking about decisions you can make now. Proverbs 24, look at verse 27. I like this verse. I wish I had learned it earlier in my life. It says, prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards build thine house. Now that's an interesting verse because basically what he's saying is, you know, figure out your work, figure out your financial situation, allow your finances to come to fruition, and then build your house. That's the thing, build your house. Because typically building your house is a picture of like establishing yourself, you know, setting down roots, and really kind of saying, this is the course that I'm settled in. Okay? And I think if I was going to give anybody advice in any area of their life, you know, figure out where your income is coming from first before you're going to just start building a house. Okay? Now obviously we all need to live somewhere, and we all need to have an abode, and we need these things, but building a house is kind of a picture of like a long term, hey, I want to be here. I want to have a strategy to have this for a long period of time. Because you don't want to build your house and then realize, oh wait, your work's like 30 miles that way. You're like, oh man, I'd rather have like waited, got that all kind of settled, figured out what's going on, and then been there, as opposed to just kind of moving everywhere and doing all these things and just juggling. You know what? Moving is expensive. Traveling is expensive. Buying and selling houses is like literally just laying up piles of money and lighting it on fire. It's horrible to your finances. And honestly, you know, you can in certain circumstances make profit by buying and selling houses, but that's for like investors that know what they're doing, they have a very clear strategy, and usually what they're doing is they're putting a lot of effort, energy in fixing the house, and they have a lot of sweat equity that's going to overcompensate the purchasing transactions and all that other stuff. And a lot of times they become realtors themselves, so they like get rid of a lot of the fees. And let me say this. Realtors don't care if you burn your personal assets and your personal finances and your net worth so that they get a commission check next week, okay? And in fact, they'll come to you and be like, you should fix a lot of stuff about your house, you know? You should put all this money and effort and energy in so it'll sell quicker. And they know you're not going to get any more money. You're going to actually lose money by putting all that extra profit, but it'll jack the price of the house up a little bit more just so they get a bigger commission check again. Why? And that they'll sell it quicker, they'll have a quicker turnaround, and they don't have to worry about it being on the market. And then they come to the next seller or buyer and they say, oh, we sell houses quick, or we buy houses quick, you know. Like it's all a scam. There's so much about that. And buying houses is good. It's one of the best long-term investments because it protects you against inflation. You can build equity. I'm all for owning a property. But what the Bible does teach here is you kind of want to settle your work first and then, you know, build your house. Then figure out what's going on. So let me make your spiritual application then, okay? Figure out your purpose in life, like serving Christ and winning souls of Christ and get all that established, and then figure out where you're going to build and where you're going to invest in and get established in because you know what? You don't want to get established in the wrong way, have all these strings attached to your life, and you know, when I make a practical application of this, when I thought I wanted to go in the ministry, I pretty much alleviated myself of all kinds of strings that were attached to my life. You know, I owned lots of rental properties and I had all kinds of, you know, things going on with my job or just my personal life or personal finance, and I'm just like, you know what? I want to declutter my life so that if an opportunity arises, I'm just there to step in. You know, I'm there to be used by God. And you know what? John the Baptist, he's ready to go. It's like, hey, can you come follow, can you go do something? It's like, well, I'm worried about those locusts I got back over there, you know. I mean, here's one, you know, that people won't like. I'll tell you, go to Mark chapter 8. It's called hard preaching for a reason, but I even wanted to get rid of my pets just for the ministry. You say, pets? What in the world? Look, when you have a pet, sometimes it ties you to the house. It's like, who's going to feed the dog, and we can't travel, and we can't go on this trip, and we can't do extended soul-winning. I've literally had people tell me they can't go soul-winning or to church because of their pets. And you think I'm joking. I'm not joking. It's like, kill the pet, you know, like. And you're like, that's horrible. But think about it. If you were really to stand before Christ and say, all right, Fido's life, or this one person you could have gotten saved, it wouldn't be a hard decision. But it just only sounds like a hard decision. And look, I'm not saying having a pet's a sin. I'm not saying kill your dog today, okay? What I am saying is this, that you should start thinking about your life and saying, well, what is my life about, and what are the decisions I'm making? Are my decisions about me, am I just going to tie myself down with a family farm? Or am I going to empty myself of those things and say, you know what, I'm just here to serve Christ. I'm here to win souls to Christ and to do His service, His bidding. Mark chapter number eight, look at Mark chapter number eight, and you say, this is kind of extreme. Well, I don't think I could preach as extreme as Jesus because His statements are way more extreme than anything I've even said. Verse 34, look at this. And when He had called the people on Him with His disciples, also He said on them, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Look, He's saying just lose your life. Now, when you say lose your life, you think of like dying, okay, but that's not what the Bible's saying. What the Bible's saying here in losing your life is losing your own personal ambitions in life. Whatever it was that you wanted to set out that's all about you, lose that. Just get rid of it. Just stop, just crucify it. Just say, you know what? Me being a professional golfer, that wasn't hard to sacrifice, it was sacrificed by itself, okay. But, you know, some people hang on to that even when it's not realistic. You know, once I realized it's not realistic, I was like, okay, you know, I need to figure something else out, right? Or maybe I want to own my own business one day or I want to, you know, travel the world or I want to, you know, do X, Y, and Z. You know, you just lose your own personal ambitions and just say, you know what? I just want to serve Christ. I want at the end of my day to look back and say, wow, I didn't do anything that I wanted, but I did everything the Bible was saying for me to do. Everything Christ wanted me to do. Notice what it says. For whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's the same shall save it. And again, this is not talking about going to heaven, okay. A work salvationist would love this passage to twist it. Going to heaven's as easy as, you know, drinking water. It's as easy as eating a piece of bread. All you have to do is one time believe in Jesus Christ, trust him, and accept his free gift of salvation. You're saved forever. You know, there's another way of saving your life is in the sense of, you know, saving it from sin, saving it from deceit, saving it from wasting it, saving it from vanity today, saving it from things that don't matter. Because why? Your purpose is in Christ. Your purpose is the serving the Lord today and having the attitude, I must decrease. Look at your life today and say, hey, is there anything that I could decrease in? Is there anything in my area? Is there any ambition? Is there any life goal? Is there any possession? Is there anything in my life that's stopping me from serving Christ more? Is there something I could sacrifice today? Is there something I could lay on the altar? Is there something I could say no to? And say, you know what, I must decrease. Have John the Baptist's attitude today. How could I have that purpose? Because you realize it's all about Christ. What does it mean to deny yourself? That's what it means. Not what you want. What does Christ want? Go to Philippians chapter two and I'm going to get to my second point here in a minute. Philippians chapter number two. Point one, what's your purpose? It's about Christ. It's about getting people saved. It's about, you know, investing in your children and the next generation. You know, obviously the Great Commission is not just preaching the gospel. It's also baptizing. It's also teaching the, you know, disciples or teaching Christians all things. Whatsoever Christ commanded. And the reality is, you know, I can't teach everybody everything. You know, I need moms and dads to teach their children the word of God at home. You know, I don't spend, you feel like I spend hours preaching, but it's only like a little over an hour, okay? And it's not enough. It's not enough. Mom and dad need to sit their children down. Mom and dad need to preach the Bible to their children. Mom and dad need to instill in them the virtues and the morals of Christ and how to love Christ and how to be spiritual. You know, you need to show them how to pray. You need to show them how to go out and sacrifice and to love others and to do good and to minister unto people because you know what? Your pastor can't fill that role in a person's life. And if you're hoping that the pastor will, your children will not be the children that they should be. I am only a small part in your child's life and in your life you ultimately have to make your own decisions and you have to teach and train your children. That's one of your purposes. Getting people saved, getting them baptized, getting your children and others to love Christ and learning the Bible and ministering unto other people, disciplining them, taking them under your wing. Philippians chapter 2, look at verse 4. Look not every man in his own things, but every man also in the things of others. Now that's a hard verse. Do you only care about your stuff or do you ever care about other people's stuff? Do you ever care about other people's things and think, well, you know what? We could sacrifice for our kids so that other people's kids could have something better or other people's church could be better or other people's life could be better or other people's dinner could be better or other people's just anything. Drive, commute, work, just any. You just look at opportunities or how can I make someone else's life better? Because you know, honestly, in order to make someone else's burden lighter, you have to help carry something. In order to take someone else's burden, you have to bear some of it. And you say, oh, I don't like ministry. It's like I have to do work and bear other people's burden. Yes, ministry. You know, ministry is not being served, otherwise everyone would do it. All, everybody would love that. Hey, just people serve me. You know, ministry is serving others and doing good to others and taking off other people's burdens and lightening their load. And you know, when I look at wanting to put people in leadership, I try to look at the people that are taking the most load, not the people that are willing to give the most load, the people that are the most, you know, difficult to deal with and they can't even take care of themselves, you know? You know, a lot of people can't take care of themselves as young single guys. They just struggle to take care of themselves and it's just like, you know, why? Because they haven't had a child, they haven't had a wife to take care of. You know, getting married and having children will mature you very quickly because you have to start thinking about other people, their needs, their wants, helping them, providing for them, becoming more self-aware. John the Baptist is his minister. I mean, do you think it's really beneficial for John the Baptist to live in the wilderness, eating sand when the wind blows? Eating those locusts and wild honey? I don't think his diet was really up, you know, to par. Taking people in the water and baptizing them, screaming all the time, preaching all the time, rebuking the Pharisees. I mean, this is an unhealthy lifestyle. But you know what? He's doing it for other people to get right with God. He's doing it so other people can end up finding Christ and getting right with Christ. Hey, you think it's fun to go in the ghetto and to knock on doors and to get sunburned and, you know, have people yell at you and scream at you and call you and harass you and get, you know, zero star reviews on your Facebook? It's like, this cult came and they were knocking on our door and trying to get people saved. Oh, they're so terrible. You know, it's not fun. It's not enjoyable in a physical sense. But you know what? It's fun when you get someone saved. It's fun when you realize someone was thinking that going to heaven was all about being a good person and now they realize it's all about what Christ did and just entrusting Christ. And start thinking, you know what? I'm not worried about my own things today. I'm worried about the things of others today. Let this mind be in you, verse 5, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Yes, Jesus Christ knew he was equal with God while he was on this earth, FYI. Verse 7, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. Now, you know, that's another thing, just like John the Baptist was kind of ultimately having this attitude, I must decrease. Jesus Christ was also about just elevating God and not himself. He didn't go around with some reputation and trying to really elevate himself or try to show himself off or be really fancy. He did miracles to prove and to verify his word, but that was at the commandment and obedience of the Father. Everything he did that gave any kind of glory to himself was only because it was in obedience to the Father. He wasn't going around with a self-glorification attitude. I must decrease. Christ had to literally decrease in order for what? For us to be saved. This is the minas in Christ. Go to John chapter 3, go back. I'm going to give you a few quick verses to also think about my second point. Point number 1 is the most important. What's your purpose? When you have the right purpose in mind, when you're thinking about your purpose, it helps you make better decisions in your life. My purpose is to get people saved. My purpose is to go and worship and serve God at church. My purpose is to raise a godly family. When I have those purposes in clear mind, then every decision I say, which one is going to help that decision and which decision is going to help me personally? I'll deny self and I'll take up my cross daily and I'll just decide to go ahead and sacrifice again for what? For Christ. For my children. For my family. For the things of the Lord. Look at John chapter 3 and verse 27. Here's my second point, my final point. Why does John the Baptist have the attitude that he must decrease? Because he understood his position. He knew his purpose, but he also knew his position. What was that position? Friend to the bridegroom. He's not the bridegroom. He's not the groom. He's not the star of the show. He's the friend to the bridegroom. You know, when you have the right position, you realize, okay, well it's all about Christ. Go to John chapter 1 again. I'll show you another verse here. John chapter 1. It's kind of an interesting verse. Someone showed this to me the other day and it's really great how the Bible makes this clear. But we already read a lot of portion of chapter 1 and verses 20 through about 25 where he's talking about he's not the prophet. He's not Elias. He's not the Christ. And so in the context of this passage, he's basically saying, well who are you, right? And he was just saying he's the voice of one that's crying in the wilderness. But look what he says in verse 26. whose shoe latchet I'm not worthy to unloose. Now this phrase, whose shoe latchet I'm not worthy to unloose, I always just thought it was just an interesting phrase to just say something about how he's just humble. You know, like, I'm not even worthy to go down and untie the guy's shoes or something like that. But there's actually a spiritual picture here. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 25. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 25. There's also another very clear reference to why he would say something like this because if John the Baptist took the preeminence, he took the status of Christ or the prophet or whatever, he would end up being taking something that was Christ's. Imagine the friend of the bridegroom on the wedding day marrying the bride, you know, standing in the, taking that position, taking his place. It's like, well that's not appropriate. That's not right. That was a weird wedding, okay, you know. But look at Deuteronomy 25 verse 5. The Bible says, The wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. And it shall be that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders and say, My husband's brother refused to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. The elders of his city shall call him and speak unto him, and if he stand to it and say, I like not to take her, then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto the man that will not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him that hath his shoe loosed. So there's actually a phraseology here of having your shoe loose as not being able to fulfill the requirement of taking on the inheritance that's become yours. In this situation, there's a bride that's without. There's a wife without. And so there's supposed to be someone to come in and take that role. If the guy refuses it, if a guy's unable to perform his duty, then he ends up getting this bad reputation as him that has his shoe loosed. Well, if John the Baptist is there and he's taking over Christ's position, he's basically saying, Oh, Christ is incapable of fulfilling that role. Christ is not the one to take this inheritance on. And he's saying, Look, I'm not worthy to lose his shoe. Now go if you would to Romans chapter 7. I'll show you another verse here. And that's actually fulfilled in the book of Ruth where Boaz ends up marrying Ruth, but he was not the one that was the first to have the opportunity. There was someone that was closer, a kinsman closer, and so he was the guy that would have the bad reputation of him that had the shoe loose. And Boaz is a picture of Christ being that redeemer, being the one who's going to come and rescue us. And you say, Well, how does the dead thing work? Well, look at Romans chapter 7 verse 2. Romans chapter 7, look at verse number 2. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she should be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, he also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that he should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So the Bible says our first spouse, in a spiritual sense, was the law. All men were first married to the law, but here's the thing. We became dead when we died through sin. We died, and you know what, we're still bound to that husband, in a sense. But you know what, through Christ we can be freed, and then we can be married to another, and that another is Christ. And so that's why the Bible often alludes to the Christians. You know, there's kind of this illusion of the bride of Christ, which is all Christians. Why? Because we're enjoined unto him. We're rescued and redeemed by him. And you know what, John the Baptist is not going to loose Jesus Christ's shoe and become our savior. No, he's not worthy to unloose that shoe. Why? He understands his position. He's the friend of the bridegroom. He's not the bridegroom. He's not the groom. And so what does this look like in reality today? There's a lot of people that they want to start taking a position that they don't have. They want to fit into a role that they don't have. You know, like a woman being a man. Or a man being a woman. That's not a position that God gave you. It doesn't even make any sense. It's foolishness. It's nonsense. And there's a lot of times people, they can get lifted up because they start doing a good job and then people start treating them like they have a position they don't have. You can be at work and you can start doing a really good job and everyone starts treating you like the boss. But here's the thing, you need to continually remind them, I'm not the boss. I'm just the worker. Can I get time off? That's for the boss to decide. That's for him to decide. When you start usurping that authority or the position that you've actually been placed in, now all of a sudden you're going to cause problems. Because you have to know your position. You have to stay within your rank and stay within your position in order to be right with God, right with man. Sometimes people, they're put in a position where they're a spiritual leader in a church and they start thinking they're the pastor, even though they're not the pastor. I've worked in a church where I was helping a church plant in Phoenix. It was called the North Church Plant because the original church is in Tempe. There's Tempe and then there was North Phoenix and I was helping this church plant. Sometimes people mistakenly would come up to me, maybe a visitor or someone that's not with the church, they'd call me pastor and I'd say, whoa, I'm not pastor. I'm just like you. You see people in heaven worshiping an angel and he's like, whoa, no, no, no. I'm just a fellow brother to you, buddy. You worship God, right? And it's like I'm not the pastor, that's reserved for the pastor. And so even if you're fulfilling a role or you're doing some kind of a work, you could see John the Baptist looking like this guy looks like the Christ. This looks like the guy that's the prophet. He's in the wilderness, everyone's getting baptized in him, everybody's pointing to him. He's like, I'm not the Christ. I'm not the prophet. Look to Jesus. Follow Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God. And you know what? There's pastors today, they can get so popular, they can have such a big following that instead of constantly pointing people to Christ, they start pointing people to themselves. You know, Joel Osteen Ministries. Making it all about him and making it all about how bright his star is. And look, it doesn't matter about the pastor. The pastor's just a person in a role. You know, we're here about Jesus. Or they'll elevate their opinion above the Bible. They'll start saying, well, I know what the Bible says, but I'm the pastor. And it's like, whoa. No, no, no, no. The Bible gets to the preeminence here. Okay. We all submit to this. If I'm out of line, then you know what? You go with the Bible. You know, you want to keep the right position and everything. You know, make me think of Absalom. He's trying to be the king when he can't. You know, the devil. He wants to be like the Most High. I mean, the same attitude. You know, there's even people on this earth, they start thinking that they're God. Because people like them so much. You know, there's people on this earth that literally claim to be God. And it goes through their head. They even think that they're God. They're even deceived. And they allow people to worship them. I mean, I think the leader of North Korea is worshiped as God. And there's a cult in Russia where a guy's going around saying he's Jesus Christ. And literally has people worship him as Jesus Christ. They all have a picture of him in their house. They're worshiping him. You know, throughout history, we have people thinking that they're God throughout history. And accepting worship like they're God today. You know what? We need to know our position. We need to know our place. Hey, we're just man. And you know what? It's easier, I think, for women than it is for men. Go if you would to Judges 8. I'm just going to kind of finish with two more verses. It's kind of later. Go to Judges, chapter number 8. I don't want to preach forever. But there was an opportunity given to Gideon to end up becoming their king. And you know what? He's not going to do that. Because he knows his position. Judges, chapter number 8. Look at verse 22. The Bible says, Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us. Both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also. For thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you. Neither shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. Notice he's being put in a position he shouldn't be put into. They're trying to offer him this role. And he says, No. And you know what? We need to also have the same attitude and the same vision. Go, if you would, to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 3. 1 Corinthians, chapter number 3. And we'll finish there. And let me make practical application of this quickly. You say, Well, how do I understand my position? Well, obviously, as a woman, you know, it's not your role to be the pastor. Sorry, Joyce Meyer. Sorry, Beth Moore. Sorry, Jezebel. It's just not your role to be the pastor. Why do you have to be? You know, just accept your role that you've been given. You know, be the wife. Be the greatest mother that you can be. Be the greatest wife that you can be. Be the greatest Christian that you can be. You know, there are certain women that were greatly laboring with Paul in the gospel. You know, Phoebe and other women in the Bible that did great ministries and did great things for the Lord. You know, just stay in your position, though. Don't feel like you have to go above your position. You know, I find that women just have this, like, there's so many women that just want to be in charge. They just want to be the leader. They just want their voice to be heard. They just want all these women to follow them. But that's just not a biblical model. When do we see any great, like, woman army in the Bible? Physically or spiritually? It just doesn't happen. You know, they're there to just support other people. Saying, you know what, I must decrease. But a lot of women, they're, I must increase. I've got to come out of my shadow. I've got to come out of my cocoon. I'm a beautiful butterfly, and I'm going to fly, baby. And it's like, that's just not a righteous attitude. You know, the righteous attitude to say, you know what, I must decrease. I can support my husband. I can support my family. You know, I hope my children increase. You know, I hope they get to accomplish their goals, not, you know, me getting my goals and my desires met. You know, that's all the feminist movement is. It's all about them. My job, my career, my blog, my clothing line, my sewing, my whatever. It's just like, who cares about that? Why don't you care about your kids just being great people? I'm focusing on a spiritual heritage today. And, you know, even for men, it could be the same way. You know, we don't want to think, you know, oh, I hope pure church becomes the biggest and the greatest and the most well-known church on the planet. Why is it about us? It should be about Christ increasing, shouldn't it? 1 Corinthians chapter 3, look at verse 3. For ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and striving divisions, and are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man, I have planted Apollos' water, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planted any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Says now, he that planted and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For your labor is together with God, your God's husbandry, your God's building. Stop worrying about being the groom and just start worrying about being the friend of the bride. You know when it's your friend's wedding, your great friend, your best friend's getting married. You should think, well I'll do anything to make sure his day goes off well. I'll get down on my suit and I'll fix the oil in his car, or I'll drive around town and I'll fill his car up with gas, or I'll cut something, or I'll beat someone up. Whatever I have to do to just make sure the day goes well, you're just willing to get down and get dirty and it's not about you, it's not about your time to shine, it's not about any recognition, you're just there to work and to serve. And if nobody even realizes it, but your buddy's day goes well, it's just like great. If you're standing there on ticks, you got a tack in your shoe and it's hurting to stand, you're like, well I'm just going to stand though, because I don't want to like fall over and everybody's like, oh what's happening to him? You're just like, I'm just standing here hurting and just pretend like that's great, you know. And you know some people, their attitude is like, I'm only going to serve Christ if people notice. You know, God notices everything you do. And it's not about your ministry, you're nothing. It's all about God, let's give God the glory. You know some people, they don't want to go soul winning, I mean they think, well if I go soul winning by myself, nobody will know. If I clean the church when no one's looking, no one will know. If I, you know, if I see a mess and I clean it up, or if I help do something, if I love on somebody, if I give money to the poor and no one's going to see, God will see. What's the point? Look, your position is not to get the recognition. Your position is just to serve. You know the servant, it's not about you, it's about God anyways. And you know what, God gets more honor and glory when people do things in secret, rather than in public anyways. You know it's not about this great public ministry, and you know when I think about Pre-Words Baptist Church, we're a humble church, but I want us to stay humble. I don't want us to ever have this attitude of thinking like, well I can't wait until we increase. Who cares if we increase? You know, what I hope is that the word of God increases. You know, what did God all the words of people were prophets? You know, Moses didn't want to just be this solo guy that everybody's looking up to. He wanted everyone to be a prophet. He wanted everyone to go out and minister. You know, I hope that there's great men. You know, a true master as far as a teacher or someone that's in a leadership position, he should want his disciples to do better than him. You know, you want to be like, oh I want Elisha to have a double portion of my spirit. Not to do like, well I don't want him to kind of get better than me, or have a bigger church than me, or do more works for me, or get more people saved. You know, when I go soul winning, I don't think, you know I'm a better soul winner than this guy, I'm going to get the door. And I thought, you know that could creep in your mind. You could have that temporary thought and you think that's a bad thought. That's a stupid thought. So I think, you know what, I want to give this guy the opportunity to go to the door, and I want to help him so he can be a better soul winner than me. I want to let this person, you know, work on it. It's not about you. It's not about how great you get. You know, a great leader inspires other people to be great. He doesn't just get everybody to look to him and just, oh I'm the bee's knees, and I'm the person you should pay attention to, and focus on me, and it's all about moi, and it's all about our church. Look, it's about Christ here. And we should want Christ to increase, and we should want His ministry to go forth, and we want the word of God to go forth, and we want people to get saved. And stop worrying about yourself so much. Stay in your position. It's not about you getting honor and glory. It's about Christ getting honor and glory. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Father so much for your word. Thank you for this great attitude we found in John the Baptist, and thank you for having it yourself through your son, the sacrifice that he did of him decreasing to the uttermost, from going from the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, to having Noah to lay his head so that we could increase. He is steaming others better than himself, and loving us. And I pray that we could have the same mind, we could have the same attitude, that we would realize our purpose in this life is for you, and that we would not usurp our position or go above our position, we would stay in our position, and that we would worry about the cause of Christ increasing, not our own personal, selfish will. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Our final song, Psalm 150, in your handout. Psalm 150. All right, Psalm number 150 in your white handout. Psalm 150 in your white handout, or alternatively in your Bible, but in your white handout, 150. Praise ye the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his power, praise him for his mighty acts, praise him according to his excellent reviews, praise him with the sound of the trumpet, praise him with the psaltery and harp, praise him with the timbrel and desk, praise him with strength instruments and organs, praise him upon the loud cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, praise him everything that had breath, praise the Lord, praise ye the Lord, praise God the Father, praise God the Son, praise God the Holy Ghost, praise God in three verses. Amen, and with that you are dismissed. Have a good day.