John 3:22-36 “The Best Man’s Humility and the Bridegroom’s Supremacy”

0:56But I'm very thankful that we could be here with you this morning. One of the things that my family enjoys doing is going to the movie theater to watch a movie. And of course, as you all know, during this COVID era, the past couple of years, the movie industry has kind of gotten disrupted a little bit, and a lot of the new releases went straight to streaming platforms. But I, for one, was happy when the theaters reopened and you could go back into that dark room with that gigantic screen and that immersive sound and just enjoy watching a movie. On the big screen.

1:32Of course, when you go to the movie theater, the first 20, maybe even 30 minutes are taken up with what? Trailers, right? The previews of the coming attractions. And I have to admit, sometimes those trailers work. It hooks me, and I go back to see the actual movie when it comes out. But I have found that way too often these days, the movie rarely lives up to the trailer. I don't know about you guys, but an example of that would be Rise of Skywalker, okay? I'm a huge Star Wars fan. I grew up a Star Wars fan. I saw the original movie so many times I had it memorized.

2:16And I saw that trailer and all that music and the imagery. And I was like, yes, finally. And I went and saw the movie. And it was just, eh, you know, so-so. So it's a pleasant surprise when occasionally, occasionally, you go to a movie and it's so good that you forget all about the trailer. The trailer actually served its purpose. It got you to the movie, you saw the main attraction, and the trailer was no longer necessary. Reminds me of today's text. John the Baptist was sent to humbly point people to the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

2:56He was sort of like the trailer, he was a preview. Of the coming attraction. Despite all that he had taught, despite all the popularity, despite all the people who had come to him to be baptized, the one who was yet to come was much greater, far superior, and infinitely better. So, as we examine John's humility and Jesus's supremacy this morning, I want us also to think about our own lives, our own ministry, our own sphere of influence, and remember that we too are designed to humbly point to the supremacy of Jesus in all things. John the Baptist, he knew that it was his job to fade away.

3:47Once he had pointed people to the main attraction, if he had pointed people to the main attraction, then he had done his job well. But as we'll see in today's text, some of John's disciples didn't fully understand John's role and didn't fully understand who it was that he was pointing to, and that led to some tension. So, we begin here in verse 22 of today's passage, and it says this: After this, and this is me referring to after the events of where Jesus has been speaking to Nicodemus that y'all studied, I believe, in the previous couple of weeks, after this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and he remained there with them.

4:29Now, I first. Want to just point out what's happening here. This verb that says he remained with them, it actually means that he rubbed shoulders with them. It was a verb that implied a closeness and a camaraderie. Therefore, this was a season of intimate fellowship between Jesus and his disciples. This was a season of close-knit discipleship. And we believe that this phase of Jesus's ministry lasted between six to eight months. And during this time, Jesus and the disciples were baptizing.

5:06We actually know from John chapter 4, verse 2, which you'll get to here in a couple of weeks or so. We know in John chapter 4, verse 2 that Jesus himself was not actually doing the baptizing, he had delegated that task to his disciples. And I think that makes practical sense, don't you? I mean, I can imagine people getting a little bit jealous or envious. You know, I was baptized by Jesus. You were only baptized by John. You know, I was baptized by Jesus, especially a few years later, you were baptized by Judas. Oh, my. You know, I think you need to get re-baptized, brother.

5:41Jesus's baptism ministry, though, overlapped with John the Baptist's ministry, as we see here in today's text. So we read in verse 23 that John was baptizing at Anon in Salim. Now, and it says he was baptizing there because the water was plentiful. And that should tell us, I'm not going to go off. On a side tangent here, but that should tell us something about the mode of baptism. If you need a lot of water to baptize, I'll let you draw the proper inference from that.

6:10So he was baptizing, and it says people were coming to him. Now, I didn't realize it until I studied the text this week that John the Baptist was actually baptizing in a location that was actually a good distance from where Jesus was baptizing. I always pictured this text in my mind as John's on one side of the Jordan baptizing, and Jesus is on the other side, and they kind of see each other, and John's disciples can see all these people over there with Jesus, and they start getting jealous. But that's not what's happening here.

6:38This area called Anon is actually in Samaria. Most scholars believe that this was located in Samaria, a good bit north of where Jesus is baptizing in Judea. Now, we don't know for sure, but some believe that John moved his ministry to Samaria in order to get out of the way of Jesus. Jesus had begun his work, and John wanted to make way for Jesus to do his work in Judea, and so he moves his ministry a little further north to the area of Samaria.

7:14But regardless of whatever his motivations were, we see that these two baptism ministries are overlapping, they're happening at the same time, and so this led to a discussion. We read in verse 25: a discussion arose between some of John's disciples. And a Jew over purification. Now, that translation, and I'm reading from the ESV this morning, that translation, discussion, is a pretty tame translation. The Greek word actually means debate or argument. So it was a heated dispute between John's disciples and some Jew. Now, we don't know who this Jew was. Some speculate that this was a Jew who had been baptized by Jesus, and now he's come up to where John is and is disputing with John's disciples. Others believe this could be one of the Jewish leaders, perhaps a religious leader who's come out to argue with John's disciples. But the exact identity of the person isn't what's most important. What we do know is that there was an argument, and the argument was around the issue of purification.

8:19So that begs the question: well, what is this purification that they're arguing over? And because the context of today's text is baptism, we can assume that the purification being referred to is baptism. And that makes sense because baptism referred to here is the baptism of repentance. It was a symbolic washing on the outside to demonstrate a desire to be washed on the inside. So apparently this Jew was comparing Jesus' baptism to John's baptism, and some sort of argument broke out. Some sort of argument that led to comparison, which led to Jesus, To jealousy and potentially even resentment from John's disciples. So that's why we read in verse 26.

9:07They came to John and said to him, Rabbi. Now let me just pause right there. This is the only place in John's gospel where anyone other than Jesus is called rabbi. John's disciples come and call him rabbi. And I think John the Apostle, who wrote this, is writing this here to draw a comparison, to draw a contrast between the authority of Jesus as a rabbi and the authority of John as a rabbi. So they say, Rabbi, he who was across the Jordan to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.

9:45First, we need to notice that the very fact that John's disciples refer to Jesus as just simply some man, that man you were with, he who you were with, okay, that shows some sort of either at worst resentment or at the very least, ignorance, that they didn't fully understand who Jesus was. They should have known what John had already shown them, what John had already taught them, namely that this Jesus, this other man, was the Christ, the Lamb of God, who had come to take away the sin of the world. That should have made them happy that others were going to him. But instead, they see, they hear about the numbers of people going to Jesus and they get jealous. Reminds me of my daughter, Emma Kate, here. Her best friend, when she was younger, would come over to our house and they would play Barbie dolls together. But this other friend of hers wanted to have all the Barbies at once. And so she would grab all of them and hold them like this. So she'd have like 10 Barbies in her arms so that no one else could have any, but then she wouldn't do anything. She'd stay there the whole two hours at her house. She'd just hold those Barbies. She couldn't enjoy playing because she had to have all the numbers. She had to have all the Barbies. And so here, these men cannot enjoy what's happening. They can't see the glory of what's happening because comparison and jealousy has infected their hearts. They should have been happy. They should have known what you guys have already seen in John chapter 1, verse 6, which says this. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

11:46That text helps me to think about John the Baptist and Jesus in this sort of way. Just as the moon is the lesser light in the sky and only reflects and bears witness to the glorious light of the sun. So too, John came only to bear witness to the Son. And now that the Son has ascended, just like the moon, John needs to descend and fade away. So, the rest of this text this morning breaks into two main parts: number one, the humility of John, and number two, the supremacy of Jesus. And so, let's look at both of those parts. First, the humility of John, and we'll see that John the Baptist's humility was empowered by three things. Number one, it was empowered by a proper perspective that shaped his ministry. His humility was empowered by a proper perspective that shaped his ministry. Look at verse 27. John answered them: A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. John understood the providence of God and that he could do nothing apart from God.

13:02This is the root of all true humility. Humility blossoms to the degree that we submit to the sovereignty of God. Let me say that again: humility blossoms to the degree that we submit to the absolute sovereignty of God. And because John had a proper perspective, he was not going to take even an ounce of credit for his ministry. Was he going to compare his ministry to anyone else's? A perspective shaped by God's sovereignty has a way of mortifying our pride, eliminating comparison, and thereby diffusing any spirit of competition.

13:48Let me quickly remind you of one of the early churches, the church in Corinth that Paul wrote at least two letters to. We know that he wrote more, but the two we have in scripture are 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. And this was a church that was filled with pride, filled with comparison. And so we read in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12, that some were saying, I follow Paul. And others were saying, I follow Apollos. And some were saying, I follow Cephas. And of course, the super spiritual in the church were saying, I follow Christ.

14:22So Paul chastises them. And we read in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5 and following. He says, What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed. Listen to this, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. And then a few verses later in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7, the Apostle Paul this time is castigating them for comparing their spiritual growth. Gifts to one another. Well, I have this gift, and this person has this gift. And it was leading to a spirit of superiority amongst some and a spirit of inferiority amongst others. So Paul reminds them of the very thing John the Baptist has just said here in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. He says this: What do you have that you did not receive? And then, if you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? There's not a single gift, there's not a single ability, talent, there's not a single ministry, there's not a single sphere of influence that God has given you that you can take credit for. It all comes from Him. So, we dare not act like we didn't receive it. Humility begins by recognizing that we, in and of ourselves, are nothing, and that we, apart from God, can do nothing, and that unless God gives us what we have, we have nothing.

16:05Friends, how many times do we compare? We compare our church with the one down the road, especially if we feel that church has inferior doctrine and all these people are going there. How easy it is to compare or compare our lives to that of our friends or families on social media, those perfectly curious. Lives on social media. Or how easily we get pumped up with pride and arrogance thinking that we're all that. Or how easily we're deflated by envy when it seems that God's blessing someone else more than he's blessing us. If we're honest, we know that we need a dose of the perspective that John the Baptist had, if we're honest. So, John's proper perspective regarding his ministry, his ministry that God has sovereignly empowered in him, it gave him a humility. But also, we see that John's humility came about because he understood the primary purpose that fueled his ministry. Number two, the primary purpose that fueled his ministry. Look at verse 28. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. John understood his purpose, he understood his mission. It was crystal clear to him. And he had made it clear to his disciples. That's why he reminds them that you yourselves bear me witness. They were with him when he described the purpose of his ministry to the priests and the Levites in John chapter 1, verse 23, when he said this, I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah has said. They were with John when he saw Jesus and declared.

18:01In John 1, verse 29, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me. They were with John when in chapter 1, verse 34, he said, I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God. John understood his purpose. He was to be the moon to Jesus' Son, and therefore he refused to deviate from his mission. He diffused, I mean, he refused to be made the center of his solar system. John the Baptist had one purpose: point people to Jesus. That's it. Friends, do we understand our purpose? Do we understand why we have been created? You do understand that God has created every single one of us for his glory. We are created to glorify him and enjoy him forever. And again, that arrogant Corinthian church, Paul had words to say to them in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31. He said, Whether you eat or whether you drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. And God is most glorified when we joyfully point people to Jesus, the only means by which they can be reconciled to God. Friends, we live in a celebrity culture.

19:31Okay, and I think our social media age has made everyone think they're a celebrity, but we live in a celebrity culture, and that celebrity culture has infected the church. We're tempted to make much of ourselves and to make much of our preacher and to make much of our church and forget the fact that all of that's for the purpose of making much of Jesus. I remember I was at a conference and I heard someone introduce the pastor who was coming to preach next. He introduced him as an up-and-coming young pastor. And I thought, up and coming, what the heck does that mean? Up and coming. What are we?

20:13Is this a celebrity? Are we all supposed to get our cameras out now and start clicking shots as this pastor comes to the stage? John the Baptist wasn't an up-and-coming minister. John the Baptist wanted to be a down and disappearing minister. And that's what we should want too. The degree to which we take attention away from Jesus makes us idolaters. So we should want to disappear in the light of the sun as long as we're making much of Jesus. So John the Baptist's purpose, my purpose, your purpose, your church's purpose is to make much of Jesus.

21:00Moon shining forth the glory of the sun. So, John the Baptist, his humility was empowered by number one, a proper perspective that shaped his ministry. Number two, a primary purpose that fueled his ministry. And number three, a profound pleasure that infused his ministry. Look at verse 29. Really, we're going to look at verses 29 through 32 here. Look at verse 29, referring to Jesus. John uses an illustration. Now, he says, the one who has the bride is the bridegroom. And then referring to himself, he says, the friend of the bridegroom, the best man, who stands and hears him, listen to this, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete.

21:44The best man at a wedding finds his joy, or at least he should, find his joy in the joy of the bridegroom. As he sees his friend pledging covenant love to the bride, he doesn't try to take center stage. He doesn't demand attention. Instead, he sits back and he rejoices in the joy of the groom. I don't think this is merely an illustration here that John is giving us. Because we see in the Old Testament that Israel is referred to as Yahweh's bride. And of course, in the New Testament, the church is called the bride of Christ. And so, regardless of your views of the relationship between Israel and the church, we can say that without a doubt, God's people. Are the bride. And in redemptive history, the bride does not belong to any prophet, to any preacher, to any apostle. The bride belongs solely to the bridegroom. And the bridegroom, of course, is Jesus. In the culture of Jesus' day, the best man had a very, very important role to play in a wedding. As you probably know, weddings in those days were a big deal. They lasted for sometimes a week. And it was the best man's job to plan the wedding and to get everything in order. I'm very glad that tradition has changed because could you imagine if best men today were in charge of planning the wedding?

23:11Mine would have been Star Wars-themed, by the way. But it was the best man's job to plan the wedding, to put the pieces together. And then it was also his job to be the liaison between the groom and the bride until the wedding day arrived. And on that wedding day, he would present the bride to the groom. This adds a lot of depth to what John is saying here. He's saying that my job was simply to get things ready, to let the bride, God's people, know that the groom was on his way and to introduce God's people to the bridegroom. And now that he's here, my job is done. I'm out. And that gave John enormous pleasure, enormous joy.

24:01And in some way, we're still doing that today in the sense that we are called to share Christ in our neighborhoods and among the nations. And we are to do so fueled by joy. Okay, now we don't know who the bride is. In God's sovereignty, we know that he has elected some unto salvation. We are simply called to share the gospel with everyone. And so we share, we introduce people to Jesus. We don't know who the bride is, but we know that some of the people we're introducing Jesus to are part of the bride. And so we introduce them to the bride, and that should give us great joy. But I will be honest with you, too often evangelism to me comes across as a duty that I begrudgingly have to carry out instead of a joy. But I think that's because we haven't focused on who the bride, bridegroom, is and how glorious the bridegroom is. And my prayer for me after studying this passage this week is that God will renew my joy. And then I'll be like John the Baptist wanting to introduce people to the bridegroom. And so John the Baptist's understanding of his proper perspective of his ministry and the primary purpose of his ministry and the profound pleasure of his ministry, they're all summed up perhaps in the most famous words that John the Baptist ever uttered in verse 30. He must increase, but I. Must decrease. And these words really are the main point of the whole passage. This is the center point of the entire text. And this is what should drive all of us, that Jesus will increase in our lives and that we will decrease. And this is also the hinge of the passage. So at first, John had to make his disciples aware and make us aware that he needed to decrease. And now, more importantly, John needs to make sure his disciples are aware and that we are aware of the supremacy of Jesus. He has to make sure that Jesus increases. So we've seen the humility of John, and that now leads to the declaration of the supremacy of Christ. So the supremacy of Christ, I want us to see that the supremacy of Christ, the supremacy of Jesus, is evidenced by, number one, where he is from, and he is from the very presence of God. Look at verse 31. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. John is saying that the first reason Jesus must increase is that he is of a divine, heavenly origin, whereas he, John, is only of an earthly, fleshly origin. Now, John was a great man. That's why Jesus in Matthew chapter 11, verse 11, actually says that among those born of Women, there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. He was the greatest man outside of Jesus who ever lived, but he was only a man. He was of the earth. His birth, though miraculous, was still a natural birth. And he was born with a sin nature, just like we have, under Adam's curse, just like we are.

27:23Jesus was fully man, but he's the God-man, and his origins are from on high. His birth was a supernatural, virginal birth enabled by the Spirit of God. As the angel told Mary in Luke chapter 1, verse 35, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God. So it's in this sense that Jesus came from above. Multiple times in this very gospel, Jesus speaks of coming down from heaven. Matter of fact, that claim of coming down from heaven became one of the chief complaints against him. In John chapter 6, verse 42, the Jews grumbled against Jesus, saying, Is this not the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he say that I've come down from heaven?

28:17Jesus' supremacy is seen in his divine, heavenly origin. Now, I'll use the word origin here carefully. I'm not saying that the Son of God has a beginning, he is coming. Co-eternal, coexistent with the Father. And that's why John the Apostle wrote that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, John 1:1. But that eternal Word, as we read in John 1:14, did in a moment of time become flesh and dwell among us. And that is in that sense that he came from God. He came from heaven. So John the Baptist is saying that Jesus is supreme because of who he is. Unlike John, Jesus is from heaven, from the very presence of God, God of very God, and therefore Jesus' words are also from God. And that's the next thing John the Baptist wants us to see. Jesus' supremacy is evidenced by what he says. And what is it that he says? Well, he speaks the words of God. Let's look at verses 32 through 34. Unlike John, who speaks in an earthly way, we read in verse 32 that Jesus bears witness to what he has seen and heard. Jesus is witness. Jesus' words were not secondhand. He was an eyewitness to the Father himself and had first-hand knowledge of the Father's words. Jesus said in John 8, 26, He who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.

29:52I don't know about you guys, but I love watching courtroom dramas. I actually had the opportunity once to be a father. Foreman in a trial that lasted a few days. But I tell you, it's a lot more exciting on TV, okay? And you love that part where there's someone giving a testimony, and the opposing lawyer jumps up and says, Objection, Your Honor, hearsay. Hearsay. What does he mean? What he means is that the testimony that was just given was not first-hand. That person was telling you what they heard someone else say about what they heard someone else say. And therefore, it's not admissible in court. It's hearsay. Friends, Jesus is the only one who has first-hand, absolutely accurate testimony of the Father's words and the Father's deeds. Therefore, He is the intermediary between man and God. He is supreme.

30:52But despite Jesus' first-hand knowledge, John goes on to say that no one receives his testimony. By and large, Jesus' words and his deeds were rejected by those who heard him and are still being rejected today by those who hear him. His words were too heavenly for their earthly ears to receive. His deeds were too bright because their eyes were too darkened. As you studied in the previous passage in John chapter 3, verse 19, the light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light. Because their works were evil. And so not everyone can gaze into the light of the sun.

31:37But a small minority did and still do this very day receive his eyewitness first-hand account. And so we read in verse 33: whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. To set a seal in Jesus' day was to press a unique emblem into hot wax over the flap of a scroll to keep that scroll closed. And so that if anyone wanted to open the scroll, they had to break the seal. And so when a person received perhaps a written message from you, if the seal on the scroll was unbroken and the seal was your seal, your emblem, then the person would know that the letter was directly from you and were truly your words. And so, too, the one who believes Jesus's testimony is accepting it as what it is, the very words of very God.

32:34For he who has, verse 34, for he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the spirit without measure. You understand that the Old Testament prophets were given, and this includes John. John is the last of the Old Testament prophets, by the way. Okay, that's a whole nother discussion, a whole nother sermon. But all of the Old Testament prophets, including John, were given the Spirit to a degree that they needed. To fulfill their task, but Jesus was given the Spirit without measure. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from the time he was in the womb, according to Luke 1:15. But Jesus, as the Son of God, has the Spirit of God in all of its infinite fullness. Therefore, he has power, and his words are absolutely supreme. And so we see the supremacy of Jesus evidenced, number one, by where he's from, and he's from the very presence of God. Number two, by what he says, he speaks the words of God, and finally, who he is, and he is the Son of God. Look at verse 36. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. What a glorious truth this is. Jesus is the eternally beloved Son of God, and it's the Father's joy to give all things into the hands of the Son. And this is really the whole redemption story in a nutshell. The creation and the redemption of the world, what is seen and unseen, was all for the Son. And the crown jewel of this creation and this redemption, is the redemption of humanity as a bride for the Son. It was all a love gift from the Father to the Son. And because the Father has given all things to the Son, this means that Jesus is supreme in power and in authority. Luke 10, verse 22, Jesus says, All things have been handed to me by my Father. And no one knows the Son except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Friends, Jesus is absolutely supreme. He is supreme over life and death. He is supreme over forgiveness and punishment. He is supreme over salvation and condemnation. All things are from him and through him and to him forever and ever. Amen.

34:56This is our supreme Jesus. Ephesians 1, verse 21 says this: Jesus is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every other name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he has put everything under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all and all. Do you see why he must increase and we must decrease? You see why we must take our eyes off the moon and gaze into the sun?

35:31We all, like the apostle, like John the Baptist, were created to humbly point to the supremacy of Jesus in all that we do. John the Baptist wanted everyone to know that he was just the trailer, he was just the preview of the coming attraction. His ministry was to point to someone greater yet to come. But unlike so many movies that don't live up to the hype of the trailer, Friends, Jesus does not disappoint. Jesus does not disappoint. Colossians 1:15 and following says this, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent, for in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Do you know him? Have you gazed at the sun? Do you believe in what John says in verse 36, our last verse for today? Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him.

37:10My challenge to you this morning, if you're here and you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, listen to what John says. Let him point you to the bride. Put your hope, put your faith in him, believe in him, and have eternal life. Don't get Confused by this word, obey. The obedience that Christ requires is belief. That is the obedience. We're not saved by works. We're saved by faith alone. We're saved by faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. So if you're here this morning and you've never known Jesus, I encourage you to repent and believe in Jesus. Believe in the Jesus that John is pointing to, the supreme Son of God, who speaks the words of God, for he is the very God of very God. And for those in here who are believers this morning, just ask God if there's anything you need to repent of in the area of pride, comparison, envy, jealousy. We, like John, are called to humbly shine forth the supremacy of Jesus in all that we do. He must increase. We must decrease. So ask God to give you a proper perspective.

38:33Ask God to fill you with that pleasure that comes only from knowing Jesus and exalting him. Let's pray. Father, as we continue to worship this morning, as we come to the table, Father, help us to see that this act of worship that we're participating in is meant. To do the same thing that we're supposed to do with all of our lives, and that is to point to Jesus. So, God, I pray that you would cause Christ to be made much of here in the remainder of this service through the Lord's Supper, through the singing, all for your glory. May you increase and may we decrease. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

39:26Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.