John the Baptist

Well, good morning, Belway Park. Hey, welcome. My name is Jeffrey. I'm the lead pastor here. And if you're uh relatively new around here, or maybe this is even your first time, I just want you to know how honored we are that you would worship with us today.

Um, you don't always get to see, every week is not a just a a way that you can learn how to dance from people like Dusty. Shout out Dusty. That was something. [laughter] I love Night to Shine. We've gotten to do it for years. It's a it's a really incredible event. Uh, it is it it is all over our south campus. It is packed. Four years, the gym, all the kids area. Uh, this year they had over 200, they call them kings and queens that were a part of it. 200 people. That's incredible. And then uh, that requires about 526 serve team over the course of that evening and it was 74 different partners that came to to be a part of what was going on. It was awesome and I loved it. And you heard it in the video. They they did so many things. They got their hair done. They got their shoes shined. They got to ride in fancy cars. They ate a ton of food. But they all loved to dance. And on Thursday, I was standing on stage about to preach. And I remembered, um, we're like historically Baptist. And we had a dance in a foyer. Let's go. All right. We're breaking some chains. And it it was a it just cracked me up. I was like, let's go. I love what the Lord's doing. And I love what he's doing through young people. You saw that on the video. It is a lot of young people that were a part of Night to Shine, spending a Friday night, a Valentine's weekend, pouring into people. And what I, I'm so thankful for our church because we got to be a part of that because of how generous you are week in and week out. We uh, we actually, it's it's partnered with the Tim Tebow Foundation and Tim Tebow gives money to different organizations to help offset the cost of Night to Shine because it's really expensive. Couple years ago, we stopped taking the money from Tim Tebow's foundation because you were so generous that we could put it on without having that money. That money can go be used for somebody else. And you might not know any of the 200 guests. You might not have been one of the 526 people that served, but because of the way that you are week in and week out, you touched lives that weekend. So, I just want to say thank you. Thank you very much for who you are.

And seeing all those young people up there uh doing all the the dancing and all the fun things they were doing. I I asked myself the question, when I was their age, would I have done that? And I don't know. I can't tell you. I can tell you what I did a lot at their age at that as a young person was hide. I grew up in a uh, I grew up and the school I went to was a small Christian school in Levelland that I got to go to because my dad was on staff at the church that the school was at. And I went to this school and all I did, like you wouldn't have described me as unpopular. You wouldn't have said popular though for sure. And I I wanted to be I wanted to be one of the popular kids. And so I did what they did. I I wore what they wore, which was Lucky Jeans at the time. Okay. Just I know you were you were dying to know. It was Lucky Jeans. Uh, I wore the same shoes they would wear, which the trend at this time. It was the most horrendous shoes you've ever heard of. Like I can't believe we they were called Birkenstocks. So [laughter] they're back and mullets. What are we doing? And so I would wear Birkenstocks uh and then, you know, I listen to the same music. I did all the same things that everybody else did. And I just wanted to fit in. And then my family moved here when I was a junior in high school. And uh, I had to go to a public school and I was terrified. I my my little group of 20 kids had grown up together from the time we were in kindergarten until I left as a junior and I was going to come here and step into a public school. And if you didn't grow up like in a school that was not public school, what you hear about like public school, it's the Hunger Games. It's every It's the worst thing imaginable. Hunger Games mixed with Jurassic Park and then Alien in there. They're like, "It's all wild." And so I walked in the first day of public school, which just for the record, my kids go to public school. I love our school system. We are tremendously blessed in the big country, but I did not expect that. So I came in and all I did is want to just disappear. I walked into WY the first time and I was like, I hope no one sees me. And guess what? No one did. I had one group of people ask me to sit with them at their lunch table and it was the parters. And they would sit every weekend. I mean, every week. And they would tell me about their weekends and what they did and the parties they threw and and how crazy it was and how awesome it was. And I would be like, "Well, I worked my shift at United and then watched Veggie Tales." Like, I just I we live different lives and I just wanted to never be seen.

And this week, as I was thinking about that, I was thinking, how much of an impact did I make really? I mean, I had a finite amount of time there. Did I leave a mark at all? And you compare that to other people. Like let me tell you, this is Barrett and Molly, one of our youth pastors. I think is on the screen. Yeah. And uh, so he is a senior at Abilene High, right? Senior. Okay. And uh, and his life is different than mine. He goes to school at Abilene High. You know what he does? He tells people about Jesus. He goes and works at the coffee shop. You know what he does? He invites people to church. He comes and serves in our middle school ministry. You know how weird that is for a high school kid? High school kids and middle school kids, as somebody with a parent of both, they don't love each other. He shows up at 5:00 on Wednesdays to pray over the middle school service and the high school service. And then when the middle school kids come in, he high-fives them. You want to know how cool that is for a middle schooler to be like, "A high school kid acted like I exist." He comes on Monday mornings at 6:30 in the morning to pray with our BSM leadership team over what God's doing. If you want to know one of the reasons that God is moving so much in the young people at our church, it's people like Barrett. So Barrett, if you will, if you'll stand up. This is Barrett. [applause] And I said this first service, but I'm going to say it again. I'm really, really proud of you because I know how hard it is to stick out. And it's not always fun. And we're going to talk about that the rest of the morning. But when I was writing this sermon, you were on my mind the whole time because what happened is I went to the student ministry team and I said, "Hey, I am going to talk about this this week and I need a kid that really sticks out in his school and loves like Jesus." And I didn't finish my sentence and they were like, "You got to hear about Barrett." And I love that you make that kind of impact everywhere you go. So, I just want to tell you I'm really proud of you.

All right. I could also tell you about Molly, who was the other person in that video. Uh, Molly is one of our student pastors now. She grew up in our student ministry. And Molly, Molly did that same thing. Everywhere you went and you were around Molly, you would feel and know two things. One, she was going to make you laugh and make you feel better about who you are. And then two, she was going to tell you about Jesus. I can't imagine how many people are going to spend eternity in heaven because of the way that Molly has lived her life. Like that's really cool. My wife, she when we were uh, when she was a senior in high school, she went every she made a decision before she started her senior year and she every single day sat at a different lunch table and asked kids if they knew Jesus and if she could pray for them every day at Abilene High. And we were at her prom because we were dating at this point in time. We were at her prom and they're doing all the, I think they call them superlatives. It's like where you give all, you know, the most likely to succeed, you most likely to commit a felony, and then it was like that's the one she won. It was crazy. No, I was just kidding. [laughter] It was most friendly. And they called Sarah House. And it was crazy to be sitting there even in the moment going, you spent every day telling people about Jesus and asking if you could pray for them and still you were looked at that way. Like that is making an impact. That is that is moving in a place that you are positioned.

So, how does God call us to live? Because it's not just high school kids. It can't just be the Barretts. And I love that Barrett's doing it. But there is a calling on each of our lives. God calls us to live lives that help others see Jesus. Calling on you and me to help others see Jesus. And we have a world that really needs lots of Barretts. I don't know if you've glanced around lately. We're experiencing a lot of what John 10 says. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. We like to go to the second part of that verse because it's way more fun, right? I like to hear Jesus came that I may have life and have it in abundance. That's awesome. I like life and I like abundance. I am for those things. And we like to skip over the first part. The problem is this is a compare and contrast verse. This is you have to understand the first part. So the second part really matters. And it begins with the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. You want to know who he's doing that to? You and your friends, your co-workers. Look at the world. We can see the enemy is doing a mighty fine job stealing, killing, and destroying. Our world is ugly and it is dark and it is overwhelming and things don't seem that great. A lot of the times the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And when the world feels darkest, the way we live matters most. When our world feels pretty similar to how it feels right now, the actions of Jesus followers matters immensely. And if this feels heavy, I get it. This is not one of those sermons that's rah rah everything's because we have a a responsibility on our hands. There there's a call to arms. There's a call to action that the big C church needs to grasp. It can't just be the few and far between. It's got to be the church realizes how desperately we know the savior. We know the one who won. We know. We know the one who's going to return. We know the one who offers salvation and freedom and hope and life. We know the one who the thief might come to steal, kill, and destroy. He came that we might have life and have it in abundance. And we get the opportunity but also with the responsibility to live our lives in such a way that people see that savior.

If you want to know how it looks like, scripture shows us a great example. It's in the life of a man named John the Baptist. So if you will grab a Bible, we're going to open up to John chapter 1. We're going to be in 23 verses today. So you really want to open up to John chapter 1. If you don't have a Bible, your physical campuses, there's one around you. Open up your phone Bible. I don't care. But I want you to see the story of of this man and kind of what how God chooses to use him. But for us to kind of grasp it, we've got to go back. So the Old Testament ends with Malachi chapter 4. Malachi, he writes some prophetic literature and then Malachi 4 is over. And if you ever go from the Old Testament to the New Testament, it takes you point four seconds to turn the page. And you go from Malachi 4, the end of the Old Testament, to Matthew 1, the beginning of the New Testament. It's very fast. You know what? It wasn't for the people of God very fast. That is called the intertestamental period. And it is approximately 400 years of relative silence from God. 400 years. We know nothing of what God says, nothing of what God does. We don't know what happens to God's people. 400 years of generations of people going, "Well, is this savior coming yet?" Like, is it him? Like when like four centuries. And there at the time the when we pick up the New Testament, Caesar Augustus is in charge. He's the emperor of Rome and he doesn't make things great for God's people. Things are really oppressive. The world is pretty dark. It's not popular to be religious by any means. That there's cruelty as as Caesar Augustus got older, he ramped up his cruelty on cruel cruelty on the church. He made things really dark and ugly for the people of God. Does that sound familiar? The climate of where they were at this time is not that dissimilar from where you and I are. When our world is longing, what our world is longing for is exactly what Jesus is about to bring on the scene in the New Testament. Our world needs that same thing that Jesus brought. Our world needs what we are about to read about in John 1.

Now, John is a he's a quirky individual in scripture. He uh, he is born of a supernatural birth. His mom, she was barren and she was old and then she supernaturally got pregnant and then she uh has John the Baptist. He is prophesied about in the book of Isaiah and he's going to say that here in just a minute. He as he grew up, he kind of lived a very different life than than most would have lived. Uh, he actually before he's even born in the book of Luke, the Bible says that he is filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb, which is really crazy. And then he as he as he grows up, he doesn't get less strange. If anything, he gets more strange. He decides one day that he's going to go move into the desert because that's what people do. And then he uh puts on a cloak of camel skin. So his clothes is camel skin. He's hungry and he looks around for a snack and there's no Fritos and there's no like hamburger. And so he gets locusts and honey. And he lives and survives on locusts and honey. Like John is a quirky individual and I was trying to like wrap my head around how we because I think us understanding who he is and the way he seemed, I think it matters for us to grasp what he's about to say. And so I I spent some time, I found what scholars believe is a pretty good image of of John the Baptist. [laughter] Old Dave. And he's not Pastor Dave is not even at church this Sunday. I didn't know that when I got the joke, but I was like, you know what? I'm doing it anyway. So, no one tell him he does not know. Okay, silence. That's not what John the Baptist looked like, but didn't have camel hair on. That was fun. All right, let's pick up our text in verse six.

"There was a man sent from God whose name was John. And he came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light." John is described as a witness in the gospel multiple times. But I love that it begins with this line. There was a man, an individual. And then it tells us that John is going to bear witness about the light. He's going to talk about the one who can save. It's not John. John is not the one that's going to do it. And what I love that it says there is a man. There was a man is we can go like this. Hey, there was a woman. There was a you. There was each of us carrying the same responsibility and calling that John has. Now John's the forerunner of Jesus for the very first time. But the responsibility and the calling is just the same on our lives. God calls us to live lives that help others see Jesus. John did that.

"Our text goes on, the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Remember the climate that John's stepping into? The the world is pretty dark at this time. It is pretty overwhelming. And there John comes in and he goes, "All right, I'm going to tell you about the light that you can have that you can walk in." And the way that you find that light is make good decisions, do the right thing, be a good person. Know that that is what we still struggle with at times that I can be a part of my own salvific experience. And the reality that John is saying is it's found in one place. Receive him, believe in his name, and then you will become a child of God. You'll find the light. And I I know I'm not naive enough to to know that the amount of people in this room, there are there are those who have never found the light, who've tried to do all the right things, make the right decisions. And the reality of John 10 weighs heavy on me for you because I know that in this compare and contrast of John 10, outside of Jesus, the light that John is talking about, we experience the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy. And outside of Jesus, we walk in that in our marriages, in our jobs, as we go about our lives and our friendships. We can't walk in anything else other than stealing, killing, and destroying. And everyone will experience that outside of Jesus. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. No one is exempt from that. And everyone needs the light. And the light our hearts is searching for is found in Jesus, nowhere else. And if in your life you have never said yes to that light, here in a little while, the when we close service, I'm going to give you a chance to receive him. John said, believe in his name and then become a child of God. There's nothing on planet earth that matters more than that.

Let's continue on in our text. "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, 'This was he whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.'" John 1:14 that we just read. The word became flesh. It is the It's the verse we read at Christmas. The word became flesh. Jesus born of a baby, like just a little baby. Little cute baby Jesus grows up. See, Easter and Christmas, we're kicking off our Easter series this week, but Easter and Christmas are are woven together. They are one story. We remember it two different times. The word became flesh. Jesus came onto the scene as a baby and then he grew up and he lived a perfect life and then he goes to the cross and he takes on the sins of the world. And what John says right here is there was a law before and it was from Moses. And this law meant that for the people of God to become clean, to to find salvation, they had to take an innocent animal and it had to be slaughtered. Its blood had to be shed. And Jesus and John says, "Hey, that that's about to be different. That law was for Moses. Jesus came bringing in grace and truth because that that payment still was required. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

As I was reading this week of the story of John and how incredible it is that what he did and the way he lived his life, I got to this part of the text and just felt overwhelmed because if we're honest, it's pretty easy for us to lose our sense of awe when it comes to Jesus. I grew up in the church. I was been a follower of Jesus since I was eight. Like I I am used to church things. I've been on staff here like 18 years. It's easy for me to read these first 10 verses in John and not feel overwhelmed at just Jesus. The word became flesh. He came here, not here, but to earth. He was living a perfect life up in heaven. Came to earth knowing coming to earth was was setting in motion a destiny a few decades later of him taking on the sins of the world and dying a brutal death. Like that's that doesn't make any sense for people who according to scripture, while we were still sinners, when we didn't care about him in that place, he still went to the cross. Like it's easy for at least me, maybe this is just me preaching to me. It is easy for me to lose my sense of awe. I can't believe the Father loved us enough to do that. That [snorts] Jesus loved us enough to do that. And then when he left, he left us. The Holy Spirit who empowers us every single day. Like I want to stay in awe of Jesus, in awe of who he is, in awe of what we just read. And if Jesus is the light, the only light that can illuminate darkness, we have a response in our lives just like John did.

"And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?' He confessed, 'I am not,' and he did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ.' And they asked him, 'What then? Are you Elijah?' He said, 'I am not.' 'Are you the prophet?' And he answered, 'No.' So they said to him, 'Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?' He said, 'I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord," as the prophet Isaiah said.' Now they had been sent from the Pharisees, and they asked him, 'Then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?' John answered them, 'I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.' These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. And the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'"

Now, we get at the very beginning of this and it's starting to tell the the testimony of John of what happens with John. And it begins with John getting pressured by a bunch of religious people going, "Hey, who are you? What are you doing? Why are you doing what you're doing? Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet? Are you the Messiah? Like, what is happening?" And what I love about scripture is sometimes it uses really, really, really specific words to communicate huge truths. It doesn't say John said no. It says John confessed. He did not deny. And that word confessed, if you go all the way back to the original language, it is a public declaration. It is a it is a response meant with some force behind it. It's John going, "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The guy who you're expecting, I can't tie his sandals. The one who is to come, he's the greatest thing you could ever imagine. Like, no, no, I am not the Christ. Let me tell you about him." And then the next day, John's like, "Hey, there he is. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." What a declaration, John. There he is. There's the light. I've been telling you. I've been telling you about the light. I've been telling you that you know you receive him and believe in him and then you become in his family. Let me I there he is. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And we have been called to live our lives as that as our declaration, as as clothes we put on as we go into a dark world. We have the responsibility to go, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And the reality is the church has lost the burden for the lost. I'm not talking about Beltway, but but probably in some aspects, us too. But the big C church, especially in America, especially in the big country, we've lost the burden for the desperation that the lost people have for Jesus. It should weigh us down. There are 8,500 people at the AI plant every single day. Every one of them has a destiny outside of Jesus of eternally being separated from him, never walking in anything good. Thousands, tens of thousands of kids in our school system. Everyone desperately needs to know the saving grace found only in Jesus. [clears throat] People at Das and Hendrick and all over town that their hope is only found in one place, Jesus. And we should feel the burden of, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Should feel the weight. So even in the big country, there's roughly a 100,000 people who don't know Jesus. Cowboy stadium full of people with a destiny of hell. And the the opposite side of that is every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights, of whom there is no shadow or variation due to change. Every good gift found in Jesus. Everything not good experienced by everyone who has never said yes to Jesus. Our lives are supposed to be a declaration of, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."

The way that we do that is we begin by living with a surrendered identity. You are not the star of your own show. I am not the star of my own show. And the problem is from the time kids are little, everyone tells them like, "You're the greatest. Everything's about you. How can I drop everything and and do what you need?" And we create this system where we as people get to the place that we believe everything's about me. John's like, "It's not. No, that's not me. No. No. No. No. I don't. I'm not Elijah. Not a prophet. Not a savior. No, no, no. It is not about me." And as long as we continue to be the main character in our own story, we will never choose to live a life that's going to be countercultural to the world around us. As long as it's all about what I want, what I need, when I want it, and how I want it, and it's not surrendering my identity and who I am and every aspect of who I am to the Lord, as long as that maintains the case, I will never be willing to go into a dark world and be pointing to the light. When our lives stop being about us, though, we become free to say the hard things, to live differently, and point people to him. John John says later on in the book of John, "He must increase and I must decrease." That's a hard prayer, but it's an important one. If we're going to go be light into the big country, he must increase and I must decrease. When we remember who we are in the whole grand scheme of things, then we're positioned to let our actions play a big part in the world. We can live with visible devotion. We're called to outwardly point people to Jesus. And I don't just mean with a Christian t-shirt. Oh, it's not bad. I'm fine with Christian t-shirts. It's not just that. John did the outward things. I mean, you know, when people saw John, they're like, "That's John." Camel hair, got locust in his teeth. Like, people looked at John. But it wasn't just what John did on the outside that made the impact. He was declaring, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And this week, the Holy Spirit made me wrestle with a question I'm now going to invite you into. So, you're welcome. Does the way I live actually look different from the world in a way that points people to Jesus? Really not what I want, but when I go into United for the 15th time today, does the way I live look differently than people who don't know Jesus? The way I talk to the gas station attendant? Does the way I live look differently than than people who don't know Jesus? Let's get real personal and a fun time. Does the way I post about politics online look real different than people who don't know Jesus? Does the way I chase after my wife look different than the people who don't know Jesus? I mean, it should be there should be outward evidence of a life that is spent full of the Holy Spirit. That's why the fruit of the spirit is there. It is telling us we should be growing in love and joy and peace and patience and kindness. Like these are things that should grow in us. Visible devotion means our lives make Jesus easier to see, not harder to find. And let's just be real raw honest and pull everything out of the closet. This is one of the areas that the world despises the church. And we've earned it in lots of ways. Is the church, the world is going, "All right, if you know Jesus, why is that not showing up in in the way you talk to people? If you know Jesus, why why isn't that showing up in the way you love people that are different than you? If you know this Jesus you keep talking about, why is it that it seems like politics is what I hear from you, not Jesus?" Of those two things, one is eternal and one is not. And I like politics. Yeah, I promise you I do like talking about it. We'll talk with you about it sometime. But of the two things, what's on our Facebook page more? If one is eternal with eternal consequences and one is temporal, where do we place our value? Jesus. It should be outwardly seen in our lives.

And then we live as a faithful witness. It's going to be in what we do. It's also going to be in what we say. When I sit at the softball game with my friends' parents who I know don't know Jesus, like the words I say should point people to Jesus. What I do should point people to Jesus. Because if we know, if we know the one who offers salvation, if we know that outside of Jesus, there is no hope, there's eternally [snorts] eternal damnation, constant separation, and we know the one, the antidote. Think about it like this. If you were really sick and I had the medicine for you and I'm healthy, why would I not give it to you? Well, maybe I'm going to get sick later. Oh, but but I have an eternal amount of this medicine, all that I could ever need. How selfish would I be knowing the power of the gospel? How selfish would we be to remain silent if I know that the options are the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. There's a calling on the people of God to action. God calls us to live lives that help others see Jesus because we're talking about eternal things, not temporal. James describes our life like this: "Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." James says, "Our time on this planet Earth is short." But you know what is not short? Eternity. You know how long it is? Neither do I. Can't wrap my brain on eternity. Like the matters that we're talking about when John says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." These are eternal things. The way I go to the office tomorrow, it's not just about the paycheck. Those people that are there that don't know Jesus, their life is but a mist, but their eternity is still eternity. We have a calling and a responsibility to point people to Jesus. John might have been the forerunner of Jesus's first coming, but we live as forerunners of his return because he's coming back. He'd come back with tattoos on his thigh and a sword riding his horse, ready to set up his kingdom. But until then, we should feel an utter desperation for the lost, for people to know, "Behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world." And here's what's so great. There's times that we can hear a message like this and we can feel burdened for like, how can I do this for everyone? You can't. That's okay. Jesus says it like this in Matthew: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so they may [music] see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." And we know from John's gospel that that the light isn't something from John. He explicitly says it [music] is not my light. But when you catch this, the reality that you can be a forerunner, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," and then somebody over here catches it [music] and somebody over there catches it, we make way more of an impact than we could imagine. [music]

So here's what we're going to do. We're going to see this. Fron, wherever you are, if you go ahead and come up here, both [snorts] campuses in a second are we're going to black out all the lights. And what I want is I want you to pull out your phone. It's okay. Jesus is okay with you pulling out your phone right now. And I want you to turn on your flashlight, but I don't want you to show it. I want you to put it down face down. And I'm going to go through the months of the year, hopefully remembering them all. When I say the month you are born, I want you to shine your light. Okay? [music] All right. Let's go ahead and black out the lights. Don't shine them yet. John, if you'll kill the Can you kill that one, too? If you can't, that's okay. [music] Uh, if you were born in January, shine your light. Okay, look, just for a second before we go on, look how much light already is in the room just from one 12th of the people being who [music] they are. Like that little sphere. So much brighter. But you over here, you don't have to like to you on the far right, you don't have to be the light for the far-left people. They have their own light. February, January, keep yours up. March, April, May, June, July, August, [music] September, October, November, December. Look around. I mean, that this is this room is bright. All it takes is you just using [music] Did Did you make the light? Did you fabricate your phone to to to put the light out? No. You're letting that [music] light which was not made by you shine in a dark space and just you did you. And if that's if the church will just figure that piece out, I have my own sphere. I don't need you to to be the light in my sphere. I have a responsibility to be a light in my sphere. You have a [music] responsibility to be a light in your sphere, in your schools, at your jobs, with your friendships. And when we do that, look at the impact. That's all it takes is us to be who we're called to [music] be and declare, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." All right, you can put your phones down. Thank y'all.

If you will, if you'll just bow your heads, we're going to spend just a few moments doing some business with the Lord. I said earlier I was going to give you a chance if you've never said yes to the light. Here in a second, I'm going to pray a prayer that this is a decision that that matters tomorrow. It's not just now and the next [music] day. I'm going to ask you if you're wanting to to surrender your life to Jesus, to experience the life and abundance that is found [music] in him. After service, we've got prayer partners that are going to be up here. Come talk to one of them and see [music] talk about what it takes, like what the next steps are for you. And for the rest of us, I'm going to ask for a prayer of boldness to boldly live our lives pointing people to Jesus, to boldly declaring, "Behold the Lamb of God [music] who takes away the sins of the world."

So God, we we pray as your church and I thank you for the way you love us. >> [music] >> For anyone in here who wants to say yes to Jesus, would they know that it is only through your saving grace, that we can be [music] made right. On our own, we cannot. It's just you. So God, I ask for boldness for them in just a second. When we end service, would they march up to the front? Where they talk to somebody about what does it look like to live a [music] surrendered life chasing after you, trusting that it is your grace that saves. God, for the rest of us, I pray two things. Would we feel a deep burden for [music] the lost, the ones in the big country that we see, that we work alongside, that [music] go to schools with us? Would we feel a burden for people to know you? We know the light. Would you allow us to be okay sometimes looking a little weird, not always looking like the world around us, knowing it's worth it for people to know you. Would you give us boldness? [music] Give us a boldness to be who you call us to be, which is people who [music] live lives declaring, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the [music] sins of the world." It's in your name we pray. Amen.