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ట్రాన్స్క్రిప్ట్
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If you have a Bible, we will be reading in John chapter 3, starting in verse 22, and we'll read through verse 30. Jesus has just gotten done talking to Nicodemus. Afterwards, we have a discussion not involving Jesus, but now some have come to John the Baptist and are wondering some things. And that's where we pick this up. It's in verse 22. After these things, Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea. And there He remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Anan near Salem because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who is with you beyond the Jordan to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom. who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease." Here we have in our text tonight some wisdom that John not only lived, but is conveying for us. He's baptizing, Jesus is baptizing, and they end up baptizing in the same locality because that's where the water was. And some have come to John and are concerned and are saying, John, all of these people are going over to Jesus. In essence, what they're saying is, you're losing popularity, you're losing your crowds, you're losing your influence. What are you going to do about it? And John in essence says, nothing. There's nothing I need to do about it because this is exactly how it should be. And he gives us four pieces of advice. Not really us, those that have come. But we may glean from the four things that John tells those that question him. And our points for this evening are just phrases that come right out of the text. The first is the idea that a person can only receive what is given to them from Heaven. Second, that John, you, and I are not the Christ. Third, that our joy comes from being the friend of the bridegroom. And last, but certainly not least, is the idea that he, Jesus, must increase and I must decrease. The first idea is this idea that a person can only receive what is given to them from heaven. I think it would help us today if instead of striving for the place we wish to have or think we should have, we should yield instead to what God's will is for us. I have had the opportunity to be a track and field coach for 17 years. I've been amazed as I've worked with these young men and young women that they're almost always discontent with how God made them. I can do a lot of things as a coach. I can take their abilities and help them improve as a runner. I can make them a better jumper or thrower or whatever it might be. But I can't change how God made them. If God made you without a lot of fast-twist muscle fiber, you'll never be a sprinter. And it doesn't matter how much you want to be and how hard you train and what you do. God didn't make you that way and I can't change what God put in you. And there are some people that have a lung capacity that others do not have. And you can train and train and train, but at the end of the day, you can only change so much. But I've been amazed over the years how often people that don't have enough fast-twitch muscle fiber come to me and say, Mr. Herman, coach, put me in the 100, which is the length, basically, of a football field. And they have absolutely no speed. And I'm trying to protect their gentle high school egos and tell them, you don't want to run the 100. Coach, coach, coach, you've got to put me in this. And we go on and on and on and then eventually what I do is I put them in it and then they get dead last and then they don't understand what happened. But what happened was they didn't accept how God had made them. And we shake our heads at these high school kids and say, how foolish. If God didn't make you a sprinter, why do you want to be a sprinter so bad? Step back a moment. How often do we do this in the church? How often do we look around and say, boy, I wish I had the ability to speak like them. I wish I had the ability to sing like them. I wish I had the ability to practice hospitality like this other person. John understood in our text that we can only receive what was given to us from Heaven. In the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 4, these crazy Corinthians were fighting with one another, looking around and being jealous and envious of each other. And he writes to them and tells them this in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 7, For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? We all have been given gifts from our Heavenly Father. And Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians, why are you boasting about what you just merely received? It was a gift. It was given to you. You didn't do anything to earn it or deserve it. It was a gift given. Treat it like that. And John would say in our text, don't be looking around and want what you haven't been given. I brought a children's book with me tonight. I don't have it up here, I have it out there in the narthex, so any of you youngsters, I guess any of you older people as well, if you want to look at the book after the service, you may. But it's a book entitled Full Moon Rising, F-O-O-L. And I just want to read you a little bit of this book. It said, I heard a cosmic story and wondered if it's true. The moon was stealing glory and this is what he would do. He bragged each night that his great might could make the darkness flee. And like a kite, he scaled the heights and said, hey, look at me. The pompous moon would only croon the songs that praised his name. He hoped that soon the cosmic tunes would bring him greater fame. And it goes on to talk about this moon that was bragging and boasting. And eventually, he comes to the point in the book where the moon says that I am the greatest light. Until one day, a piercing ray showed him a shocking sight. He saw his pride and then he cried for all that he had done. For he had lied when he denied his light. came from the sun. See, this moon thought that he was some great light, but in essence, he wasn't a light at all. Everything that he had, all that he displays night after night in the skies, does not come from himself. It comes from another light, a greater light, the sun. The sun allows the moon to shine. And the moon simply reflects what the sun has given. We need to be careful that we not only don't venture to desire more than what the Lord has given to us, but we must also be careful not to exalt ourselves more than what we should And we exalt ourselves because at the end of the day, we don't depend on the Lord. Or we're not satisfied with the position He has assigned. In Romans chapter 12, Paul tells us that the gifts that we have are given according to grace. He says, for I say, through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we being many are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Let us use them. We only receive what we've been given. When was the last time as you knelt and said your prayers, that you said to your Heavenly Father in your perfect grace and your wisdom and infinite knowledge, thank you for blessing me with the exact gifts that you have given. Because I know that they came from your fatherly hand and I know that you specifically chose them for me to use for you. Or was the last thing that we sometimes say and do before we go to sleep at night is look around with discontent hearts, wanting what somebody else has. And at the end of the day, really it boils down to we're accusing God that He didn't know what He was doing. when He gave them a gift and not gave it to us. This even deals with providences. We realize this, don't we? It's just not the gifts that He gives. He gives providences. He handpicks the road that He wants each one of us to walk down. He orchestrates it perfectly according to His plan that He wants to accomplish for your good and His glory. He makes no mistakes. This is a God that reigns and rules over the smallest details of life. And He's looking into the lives of each one of His children and says, I know exactly what gift to give. And I know when to give it. And I know how to give it. We can only receive that which is given. The true testimony of our lives is that we are and accept what God made us and intends for us to be. Maybe that's not saying it strong enough that we worship Him for how He has made us and what path He's leading us on. It's not just mere acceptance. It's a submission that turns into worship. The second thing that John teaches us in our passage tonight is, he says, I am not the Christ. And you and I are not the Christ either. I think this implies two things. First, we need to serve our Savior in such a way that we do not in any way obscure the honor of Jesus. The other way to say that is we should not divert people's attention away from Jesus Christ as we live the Christian walk. The Westminster Shorter Catechism opens with the glorious question, what is the chief end of man? And the answer is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Our lives need to constantly be pointing to someone else. We should be pointing to Jesus Christ in everything that we say, everything that we do. That when people interact with us, they get a savor of our Savior. 1 Corinthians 10.31 It says that this even applies to the very minute, ordinary details of eating and drinking. Have you ever stopped and thought about that? That how you eat and drink somehow is supposed to give glory to God? As you go about your job, as you go about your school work, as you go about raising children, doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom for the umpteenth thousandth time. But that also goes to be for the glory of God. And how is God most glorified? When His Son is glorified. See, when John says, I am not the Christ, what John is saying is, don't look at me. Don't give me any attention. Don't be concerned about the fact that people are going away from me. That's wonderful because I'm not the Christ. It was never about me. It was never about what attention I was going to get. It was about the fact that I came to point people to Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. John's saying my job was always to be a pointer. I am not the Christ. Peter understood this. He writes in 1 Peter 4.11, if anyone speaks, he should do so as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength that God provides so that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be glory. and the power forever and ever. Wise words, but hard words to live. Hopefully, you're not the same as I. Way too much pride still lives in this old heart. And I want more attention than I ought to have. That's not mine to have. It's my Savior's. And instead of reflecting the light and acknowledging that what I have has come from Him, that I'm not the Christ. I get in the way. and I block people's view of a vision of Jesus. It ought not be. The second thing I think the phrase, I am not the Christ, implies is that we as believers are not the answer to other people's problems. We need to be directing and pointing people to Jesus Christ. He needs to be their Savior. He needs to be the answer to the questions and the answer to the problems of their life. And too often we have a Savior complex. We want to come in and we want to save the day. We want to be the crush on which they lean. And we need to not be in the way of them learning to trust and lean wholly on Jesus Christ. That does not mean that God does not sometimes allow his people to be the means by which other people are ministered to. But what it does mean is that when we go about helping other people and coming into people's lives and either speaking truth in their lives or providing strength for other people, it should always be done in such a way that we fade away. And they ultimately rely and depend and put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ. Fascinating. I took a class last semester where we worked through the Gospels. Have you ever noticed Andrew in the Gospels? Every time Andrew pops up in the Gospels, do you remember what he's doing? He's always bringing somebody to Jesus Christ. Isn't that an incredible legacy to leave? That every time his name appears in Scripture, it appears in a context where he is bringing somebody to Jesus Christ. Wouldn't that be a wonderful way that we are remembered? That that's how our life is defined. That every time people see us and talk about us, they realize that we are always directing people to Jesus Christ. Because we know we're not the Christ. But we've had the great honor of knowing the Christ. The third thing is our joy comes from being the friend of the bridegroom. This is a tricky one. What is it that brings joy in your life? Have you ever stepped back and tried to think about, okay, how good am I at finding joy in the successes and joys of other people? The question really is, how good are you and I at playing second fiddle? John the Baptist in these verses is teaching us some valuable lessons about joy and contentment. Remember how the text starts. Disciples, people are coming to him all upset that people are leaving him and following Jesus. And in verse 29, John turns to him and says, his joy is complete because he gets to wait on and make much of the bridegroom. You see, you've got it all wrong. Why should this be upsetting to me? This is the greatest joy that I could ever have. I get to be by the bridegroom. His joy is my joy. And we can only have these same feelings if we lay aside our sense of entitlement and we lay aside our regard for ourselves. If life is about us, if life is about my felt needs and what I get, then we're going to have trouble playing second fiddle not only to Jesus Christ, but we'll have trouble playing second fiddle to anybody in life. I had an older brother that was two years older than I was. So what that meant is we went through school together. And he always amazed me. I'm going to make a confession that I always kind of thought he was an odd duck and I never could totally understand him. God definitely made us different. And though I love him dearly as a brother, I'm going to say I don't quite understand him. But one thing I always just absolutely admired him for, he and I played basketball together, we ran track together, we ran cross country together. And for whatever reason, God gifted me with more athletic ability than my brother. And so what that meant was when I was a sophomore and he was a senior, he was sitting on the bench in basketball and I was playing. It meant that when we stepped on a cross-country course together that I would beat him, or on a track together that I would win. And what was always so humbling was I did not have a greater fan than him. He understood what John was talking about. That in the high school years, he had learned what it means to die to himself and take joy in being what God had made him to be. And honestly, when I had success, I think he got more joy than I did. And it sprang from his relationship with Jesus Christ. Because that's how he was with his Savior. That's how he was in his relationship with Jesus Christ. He found joy because his Savior got attention. And what happened is because he learned how to do that with his Savior, it spilled over into the rest of his life. That he lived it in his interactions with everybody else. And that's how our life should be. If you have trouble finding joy in the success of those that you rub shoulders with day after day, my guess is you also are going to have trouble taking joy in being a friend of the Bridegroom. I think they go hand in hand. Remember how Paul talks about this in Philippians 1? He's writing this from prison. And he writes, starting in v. 15, Some indeed preach Christ, even from envy and strife, and some also from good will. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains. but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice." Yes, and I will rejoice. Paul is saying, don't be worried about the fact that some people are preaching Christ in order to bring me more harm in prison. Why should I care? Christ is preached. What difference does it make if it creates more difficulties for me as I sit in here in this jail? Christ is preached. And if Christ is preached, I can have joy. He not only says He rejoices, He says it twice in one verse. Oh, to understand and to live out that her joy comes from being a friend of the bridegroom. And that can only happen if point number four is true. That he increases and we decrease. John 3.30 was the text that was preached at my wedding. The minister said, if you want to have a successful marriage, understand John 3.30. That he must increase and you must decrease. Galatians 2.20 says that I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live That's decreasing. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Paul is saying the same thing John is. That I no longer live. It's Christ that's living in me. I'm decreasing. He's increasing. Paul, in talking about this in the book of Philippians, says that I count all of this rubbish that I might know Him. We live in a culture that so much emphasizes the individual. Be all that you can be. Do what makes you happy. Live for you. It's not Christianity. Christianity is about decreasing so that Jesus Christ might increase. Dying to self, dying to desires, dying to those things that aren't necessarily bad, but things that we have on our agendas that we want to accomplish, that we want to achieve, that we want to get. And John is saying to us tonight, no, we need to decrease. It's not about what we want. everything that we have on our agenda. We need to let that go so that Jesus Christ might increase. Maybe it's that our financial goals for life aren't necessarily bad, but they're misdirected in why we want to achieve them. Why do we want what we want? Is it so that we get more pleasure or comfort or whatever it might be? Or is it because we then somehow can we use those means in order to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ? See, we need to ask ourselves the difficult questions. Do we really want Jesus Christ's glory to fill the earth? As we fade away. Psalm 115 says, Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto us, but to Your name give glory. Not unto us. At the end of the book, full moon rising ends with these words. So now each night a new delight is what He loves the most. Reflecting light with all his might, the sun is now his boast. So, God, I pray for grace each day to find the joy that's true in all my days, in all my ways, in making much of You. Simple kid's book. but not simple in its message. Because the book reflects what John is saying. That Jesus Christ must increase. That we must decrease. That our job is to make much of Jesus Christ. Not unto me, O Lord, but to Your name be glory. May this be the testimony of each one of our lives as we point away from ourselves to our gracious and faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we recognize that Left to ourselves, this cannot be. We need You to do a work within us that by Your great grace and by the power of Your Spirit, that You would change our hearts and help us to decrease so Jesus Christ might increase in our lives. Our desire is to bring Him glory. Teach us how we might do that. And forgive us when we go astray. Father, we pray this all in Jesus' name, Amen. We'll stand to sing number 546. It's interesting that the song that started tonight, 689, Be Still My Soul, and the one that we're closing with, The Sands of Time, these are actually the two songs that were sung at my mother's funeral. And I was 10 at the time, and I remember the words of The Sands of Time are sinking, making a big impact in my life. It's always been the last verse that has been powerful in my mind. That the bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my king of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hand. The lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land. And may it be that He's not just all the glory of Emmanuel's land, but may it be that He's all the glory in each one of our hearts and in each one of our lives, day by day, until we reach Emmanuel's land. So let's stand to sing number 546.
He Must Increase
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వ్యవధి | 38:02 |
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