The Faceless Man

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Over the last couple of weeks in sermon prep, I've been doing a lot of reflection. And in the reflection time, I was reminded of the rebellion of my early adult life. I know guy's got a man bun, wears sweatshirts on the pulpit. He would never ever rebel against anything. You know, he doesn't have a rebellious nature in his heart.

But the truth is I spent two years of my life that just completely rebelling, rebelling against the religious upbringing I had, rebelling against my parents, rebelling against everything that they had wanted from me. My parents are extremely hard workers. Both have owned their own business. They've been self employed for many, many years. They've also worked in corporations and stuff like that.

And they had high standards. My stepfather was a business owner, multi business owner. At different points in time they made good money. We lived in his suburbs. There was high expectations for us to follow in those footsteps.

But there's two years of my life where nobody could tell me what to do. Nobody could tell me what to do. I'm smarter than everyone else. Everyone else in the room, well, they're there to please me in some capacity or the other. And this is how I approach my life now.

At the same point in time, I got involved in what some people would classify as some of God's medicinal planting. And in doing that, I, from the moment I wake up in the morning to the moment I went to bed, I included this ministry. Medicinal. It's like Ritalin, but it's medicinal. And so you would have thought I was chill at that point.

I worked for a music store during portions of that. My bosses did the same thing. My bosses would ask about the same thing. You would think that I would have some chill at that point. No, no.

I still rebelled in every way, shape or form. Why? Because rebellion is a heart problem. It's a heart problem. It causes your heart to become brittle.

You know, last week we talked about the wineskins. And as the wine is depleted from the wineskin, it becomes brittle. When it becomes bone dry, it's completely brittle. And when you try to fill it with anything, it immediately bursts and explodes. Well, I had become brittle.

I also believe that rebellion comes from believing that God does not have your best interest in mind. I think sometimes we like to overthink things. In the end, we rebel because we don't believe that God's going to do what he said he's going to do. We don't believe that even if he says he's going to do it and he's going to do it. That it's in our best interest if God says, hey, I'm going to lead you to repentance.

Sometimes we'll rebel. And we don't want to repent because we don't believe God is steering us in the right direction. Like, well, it's not in my best interest to repent. Yeah. Funny how we consistently wrestle in our brain with what is and what is not in our best interest.

And most of the times when we're wrestling, we're wrestling with either God or someone. God has sent us to be a messenger of God. We decide we're going to take control over life rather than pouring out and letting God lead. And with the exception of those two years, I would say that I've spent most of my life wanting to please others, wanting to have healthy relationships. I wanted to thrive wherever I was planted, whether it was in the corporate sector or whether it was in ministries or whether it was in my house or whether it's in the financial.

In all areas of my life, I wanted to thrive. I wasn't. I've never been a maintainer. I've never been, hey, let's just get by. I want to thrive.

If we have joy, I want more joy. If we have peace, I want more peace. If we have money, I want more money. If we have clothes, we want more clothes. And I've tried to thrive in every place that I've been planted.

And not only have I tried to thrive, I've tried to make others around me thrive as well. I believe that this is similar to the majority of humanity. You know, this is a season where sometimes the worst comes out in people. It's like the polar opposites, where people will get super excited and super joyous, and then other people will get super mad and those get super bitter and super angry. And so we see extremes and personalities at certain times of year.

Halloween's another one. Everybody kind of just draws their line in the sand and sets up camp there for 30 days. It's like you got yourself an extended stay. You're just going to hang out in that place. But those extremes are not normally the majority of humanity.

Social media kind of brings that out in us. You know, it makes us think that more people think and care about what we have to say than is really true. It's just not true. Most humanity wants to do right, live healthy and have a healthy relationship. They want to laugh, have fun, prosper, and have joy.

Really, that's simple. The struggle is, how do we do that? How do you have joy when your boss is somebody that you want to punch in the face. I don't. I don't have a boss, so I can say that.

So what do you do with that? What do you do when the person who is checking you out at Costco or at Sam's literally looks like they wish you would just go someplace? What do you do? How do you choose joy? How do you choose peace?

How do you choose patience when others around you don't want that? Just because you know about something doesn't mean that you do it. What's the point of knowing how to live, knowing how to have good character, knowing how to have steady finances, knowing how to have freedom, but not actually having them? What's the point of knowing about something without having it? If we know about something, shouldn't we try to do something about it?

I can stand here and I can read you all of the writers who've given insight on what it takes to have good character, but that doesn't mean I have good character. I can stand up here and I can tell you all about Jesus. I can tell you all about the ancient near east, but that doesn't mean I have Jesus. I can stand up here and I can tell you all about what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, but that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is dwelling inside of me. Knowing about something and not actually doing it are not the same thing.

Just because you know something doesn't mean anything until you do something with it. Just because you know what good character is doesn't mean you have it.

This is a time in our lives where we know a lot.

Google. You know, it used to be the Google. Everybody's worried about the Google. Now we've got, like, Clarice from Silence of the Lambs is like an AI bot. And everybody's got a name.

So everybody's trying to come up with the weirder names. Like, oh, you know what would be great? Let's have an AI bot that's named Esther, and she'll just teach us all about the Bible. And you can just literally ask, hey, what is good character? And they'll scour the Internet and they'll give you every single thing that they can find.

It's pretty fun. We live in a day and age where information is at our fingertips. But just because I've read every single blog post or article or scripture reference to having good character doesn't mean I haven't in the end. Looking back to last week in the wineskin, if we are the wineskin, ultimately we have to Pour out every last drop of who we are in order to be submerged in the water, to be anointed with the oil and filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit in Jesus. The spirit of Jesus, as Paul calls it.

And then we go forward with the transformation of carrying a new wine, the power and the presence of the Lord. What happens when my old, prideful, egotistical, mean spirited wine mixes with the Holy Spirit? I look schizophrenic, don't I? May the Lord bless you and keep you. Seen a couple people on YouTube, TVN some places, they're showering you with blessings audibly.

But you look at their face and you're like, I want to run.

It has to be more than just a head transformation. It has to be a heart transformation. Last week we talked about being molded and reconditioned by Jesus. It's the same molding and reconditioning that happens throughout the Bible. We talked about the Wineskins parable.

But ultimately, if you look at the lives of the individuals who are talked about in the stories of the Bible, it's the same thing. Abraham, Joseph, Esther, so on and so on. There's constantly a conflict in life where you have a choice to make your decision or the Lord's decision. And when you heed yourself to the Lord's decision, the Lord steps in and does miraculous things. How many of you have any type of success rate in parting season?

Okay, I was hoping for one. No, I'm gonna have to go in a different direction here. How many of you have had any success in walking on water?

Okay, guys, I'm not good at pivoting on the fly. I was expecting at least one of you to raise your hand. How many of you? How many of you have raised somebody from the dead just by thinking about it?

All right, we're going to have to go to an intermission because this is not how I expected you guys, somebody in this room to have accomplished something like that.

We know one has. We know that that one who has done that says that that power, that new wine has the ability to fill us now, that doesn't make us Jesus. It never will make us Jesus. Jesus was perfection. It says there's only one who sits at the right hand of the Father with all power, all majesty, and all authority.

That's not Moses. It's not David. It's not Abraham. It's not Paul. It's Jesus.

Last week we talked about Passover language. We talked about the Feast of Freedom. We talked about every time that Jesus was dining with Sinners and tax collectors. How this was a revolutionary banquet. This was not something that the religious leadership of the day would like.

So today I want to keep with a Passover motif. I think it is awesome, during the season of the birth of Christ that we talk about all areas of his life. And so in the Passover motif, I have this unique situation. Probably none of you have done this. I'm going to expect none of you have done this, because I expected one person to have all done the things before.

We set up every Pesach, we set up this cup, and we overflow it, and we call it this Elijah cup. Has anybody ever done that in this room? Okay. Crystal has done it. Yes.

Okay. Oh, Evie, thank you. Hey, Evie. Participating today. I love it.

So we have Passover language where you fill up the cup for Elijah. And we've set it up. We set it there, and it just says vacant seat. And it's set up under the concept of the scripture that tells us that the spirit of Elijah will come before the Lord comes. And so every year, they set up, especially in the more Jewish seders, they'll set up the cup for Elijah.

They'll fill it. Sometimes they'll overflow it in bounty, because the spirit of Elijah is not just like the spirit of anything else. It's such an awesome spirit. And they'll fill it up and they'll wait for Elijah. There's a fun thing that happens, you know, because if you don't make walking out some of these things that are pretty deep fun for your children, they're not at a mental age to be able to comprehend.

And so you want to create awesome environments for your kids so that as they grow older, those mental markers stay with them. Well, one of the ways my kids would never be like, oh, okay, so, like, we're waiting for Casper the ghost, who we call Elijah, to show up at our table. One of the ways we make it real for them is we have them towards the end of the Seder. We have them open the door and go see if Elijah is here. They're out there and they're like, Elijah.

And of course, they're all running and tackling each other. They're all about the same size now, with the exception of Hannah, who's literally like a tree of Lebanon. But they're all running and tackling each other and trying to see, like, who gets to see Elijah first.

Except for that one year. That one year where we're having Passover kids. Go open the door. Elijah. Elijah, where are you?

Elijah. All right. Guys, like, he ain't here. Like, don't wake up the rest of the neighborhood. They come, they shut the door, they sit down, and the doorbell rings, and their face is like.

I gotta be honest, I was kind of like.

I mean, it was like an Amazon or FedEx guy, but, like, either way, in the moment, it was like, is Elijah a government employee? Is this usps? Like, really? The Elijah cup is set out as part of the Seder based upon Malachi 4, 5, 6. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord.

So every year, every year, they set out the Elijah cup with anticipation and they go through it over and over and over and over and over and over again. And I'm not sure I've told you before, in sermons, like, every year before the start of the spring feast, we reevaluate how we do things as family. Some years we've looked extremely Jewish in our customs and practices, and some years we've looked extremely Christian and all the way in between. Guess what? Welcome to me.

I'm a hot mess. So I love the ability to take and go before the Lord every year and say, what do you want to do? Because everything is cyclical. Literally everything is cyclical. And the Lord should be teaching, molding, and growing you towards him every single year.

So if you just say, well, this is how I've always done it, that's the quickest way for me to show up and say, we're going to do it the other way. Because how we've always done it doesn't leave room for the Lord to be the Lord. Then you're the Lord. Then you're the Holy Spirit. You get to dictate.

Well, this is how we've always done it. I love my traditions. I love my traditions, too.

But we have to make room for the Lord to be the Lord and us to be his servants. See, Elijah was a prophet, but he wasn't just like any prophet. At his words, the kings trembled, rain stopped falling, oil never ran out, the dead were raised, fire fell from the sky, the revival of humans was unleashed, and idols were removed. As far as Elijah goes as far as being a prophet, he was revered as one of the greatest prophets to the Hebrews.

Think of how excited the New York Mets are to lose 70 to 100 games with somebody who's making 700 and something. Million dollars. 765. I will take five of those. $765.

I need a Starbucks. Think of how excited they are to sign Juan Soto and they'll end up losing most games again anyways.

The Hebrews were way more excited than that with Elijah. Like, this guy had power. He had anointing. The Holy Spirit was all over him. He had a calling.

He knew his calling and he wasn't afraid to use it. We see also after Elijah is gone and Jesus is on the earth, we see that Elijah is one of the two witnesses that are on the Mount of Transfiguration who testify who Jesus is. You have old wine, testifying of new wine all in the same place. Yet we're told stories in Scripture about another one who would fit the Elijah. Like prophecies, the testimonies of one.

John the Baptizer. I love that. I think it was the chosen who kind of made that more popular. Normally we would call him John the Baptist. For all my Hebrew roots, loving people, they call him John.

John the Mikveh Man. Just sounds weird. Yeah. Literally has been said like somebody had a T shirt, like there's some crazy stuff that happens in the Hebrew roots. John the Baptizer.

John the Baptizer. I love that. John was a miracle baby. His parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, were older and an angel had appeared. Just like an angel had appeared to Mary and Joseph, he had appeared to Zechariah and told them that he would have a son who would prepare people for Jesus coming.

So this is in my notes, but I think it's very relevant.

Since Black Friday until about the end of the year, there will be one song that is literally on every time I walk in Walmart. It's literally on every time I walk in Target. It's literally on every place I go. And it's asking a question repeatedly. Mary, did you know?

I want to give you the short biblical answer. Yes, yes, yes. She knew. Yes. And Zechariah knew as well.

It's easier when things don't go the way a parent would think. See, like parents, when children grow up, there's a time where they love you. There's also a time where they hate you and they think that you don't know anything. And then there's hopefully a time that they come back and realize that you always had their best interests in mind. For me, it was right around 40.

It's not a secret. My mom knows. She lived it. She probably has the vhs. But parents traditionally have some sort of idea of what they want their kids to do, how they want their kids to go, what it is.

I had spent an entire day, like 9:30 to like almost 6:30. I think it was maybe even 7:30. Yeah, it was Wednesday night while house church was going on. I was still in a meeting with a brother of mine who runs an international ministry who is in town. And at one point in time, he asked me while we were hanging out at the house, he asked me, he said, what would your kids say your hope as a parent is for them?

Why don't you go ask them? Like they're sitting right there. He's like, well, what would you say? I said, I literally have no idea what my kids would say. I have five kids, one of which is just like me.

She's going to say something smart alec just because that's what I would do. Why don't we go ask him? He's like, well, as long as it's okay with April. I was like, april's not going to care. We're transparent.

We're an open book. So we walk inside and he asked them in front of us. And each one of them had their own answers. And praise God, we must be doing something right. Because all of them were true.

All of them were, they want me to grow up and love Jesus. They want me to grow up and be successful in that vein of things. So they didn't grow up and say, if I don't become a preacher, my dad's going to be mad if I don't grow up and wear a man bun because my dad looks like he's trying to hold on to his youth with his man bun. Like, I wouldn't have been mad. But parents have some sort of thoughts in what they want for their children or what they would love to be a part of their children's life.

You dream about being able to be there for their wedding. You dream about being there for the great moments. You dream about those moments where they get their driver's license and they drive for the first time. And then at some point in time, you also dream about when they'll grow older, stabilize, and they'll want you to come back and be more engaged in their life after they've settled and established theirs.

Zachariah knew the calling of John because an angel told him. One of the things I love about the Old Testament is there's a constant wrestle. And I love to wrestle with the scriptures. I love to wrestle with the Lord in prayer on what is your meaning? What is your interpretation?

But there is no wrestle when the heavens and the earth meet. When the heavens and the earth meet, whether you're talking about Sinai at the burning bush where God is speaking to Moses and Talking. When God is talking, there's. There's no argument there. Like, we can talk about a lot of other things.

We can talk about what the Israelites did with the Torah. We can talk about what the Pharisees did. We can talk about the Gospels, we can talk about modern history and all these things. But when God speaks, it's kind of a close handed, let's do this, let's be on board. We'll figure out the rest later.

When the angels come. The angels only come under the authority of one, and that's the Father.

Angels weren't trying to spill the tea when they weren't allowed to. It was intentional for them to understand what was the calling on John, just like it was intentional for them to talk to Mary and make sure Mary knew what was going to happen. Can you imagine being an older person and being barren and all of a sudden having an angel show up? And we're not talking about these cute little naked baby angels that the Roman Catholic Church shows us. Like, these things are not like, it's like, ooh, and saying, don't fear you're going to have a child.

Why, Lord, can we do it by December? Because my insurance rolls over. Like, that's not even a thought. Like an angel is speaking and saying, you're going to have a child. Well, that's an emotional woo.

Okay, all right. And then he says that he's going to prepare the way for the Christ.

Everybody in that culture throughout time is looking for Mashiach. And my son is chosen. Wow. Think of the burden. Think of the rejoicing.

Think of the glass case of emotions.

John had a different spirit. This hearkens us back to Joshua and Caleb in the wilderness. God took them out of slavery, led them through, told them to walk in the promises, and at that moment, some of them were scared that what they saw was going to be bigger than the promise that was given to them. They were ready to go back to Egypt. And this isn't in the New Testament.

This is in the Torah. A lot of times we see humanity hear a promise, be told of a promise, be told of a calling, and they want to go back to whatever thing they had before. No one puts new wine in old wineskins. John had a different spirit. In Luke chapter one, when Mary was pregnant with Jesus, she came to visit Elizabeth, and it says that John leapt in her womb, leapt with excitement in her womb, and his mother was filled with the Holy Spirit.

From conception, John was different and had a different calling. Zechariah was a priest who operated in the temple. Elizabeth, his mother was from the line of Aaron the Levite.

He wasn't just any Jew. They were from the Levitical line and they were serving in the priesthood. His family had pedigree and with that pedigree came a calling. John would have been expected to serve, study and follow in the family business.

We should have expected that John's life would have been studying in the temple.

When he became old enough, he would serve in the temple and potentially through his time even possibly rise to being a high priest. Maybe not, but the possibility, we should have expected that. And I'm pretty sure before he was born the parents were having a conversation about, okay, well if he's going to prepare the way for the Lord, guess what? The temple was the place. It was the house of the Lord.

There should have been the expectation that John would have been doing it too.

I mean I'm not God, but that seems like common, just basic rationale and logic. Yet God was about to upset all earthly plans, lineage and everything else that they had established because God's plan was to go global. I resonate with this because my parents owned their own business. My parents were self starters. I grew up understanding what the expectation was.

The expectation was that I was going to get a four year degree and after that I was going to get a career. Maybe if the career path went well, I could potentially work in my father's business. I might even possibly take over my father's finance business at some point in time.

Can you imagine what happened when I dropped out to be in a band?

One of these things is not like the other. And so when I dropped out to be a band member and then a leader, that's a far cry from being two years into architectural school, the University of Cincinnati. They probably should have already understood since all the rest of my siblings went to Xavier and I went across town to the Rival.

But I can feel this because I can remember the emotional times where I was trying to explain to my parents why I felt so strongly to do something and them saying, you don't understand, you're never going to make a living, you're never going to do this. Now they've changed their mind now a couple years later. But can you imagine the expectations some of you in this room have that some of you in this room didn't live up to what your parents expectations were or you made a decision to go in a different direction in your life than your parents would have liked. Some of you, you might be the first generation that doesn't work in the family business anymore. Some of you have kids who you know are not going to go in the same direction.

It happens.

If your family grew up working in Sears, they had no choice.

I understand what was happening in their family to a small degree. John knew he was different. He grew up strong in the Holy Spirit. The Bible says he chose at a young age to move to the desert and live what we would consider a unique lifestyle. This would be the equivalent of us leaving our house and living in a van down by the river.

He clothed himself with some amazing drip. He had camel's hair, a leather belt, and he ate locusts and wild honey. Some would say that the Essenes who were out in the desert, in the Qumran community, that John became an Essene. Yet it's a possibility until the fact you understand that Essenes writings were very strict. And then what you see is that he's eating locusts and wild honey, which that would not have been in line with what the Essenes would have allowed for a meal.

I'm not sure what his parents were thinking. I'm not sure what his friends were thinking. But at some point in time, somebody thought the dude was crazy. At some point, this guy could be a priest, he could be revered in the city, he could be all of these things. And at a young age, by the power of the Holy Spirit, which the scripture says was strong in him, he left the comfort of everything he had because he wanted to obey the Lord.

And him obeying the Lord looked different than others. Has there ever been a time in your life where you know the Lord's told you to do something and yet you know that by doing it that it's going to make the possibility of somebody's opinion about you change?

I'm not John, but I definitely understand what it means to constantly be on the not most common side of certain things.

But John knew what God called him to do, and he stayed steadfast in doing it. Yet everything John did, from his clothes to what he ate, to the message that he was preaching, was so much greater than following the family business.

The Essenes who lived in the Qumran community, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they all had some influence. They all had some discipleship program, some school, some law, some. Some responsibilities. And here is this guy saying, I'm just going to kind of go out by myself into the wilderness and live this life.

None of those religious groups or religious leadership was focusing on the baptism of repentance. The topic of repenting as a Whole was not a huge topic that was being taught. Yeah, this is exactly what John was doing. So not only is John moving into the wilderness and living a different lifestyle, but you would think he would come with, like, some sort of, like, Craig Groeschel message, like, the Lord loves you. The Lord wants to bless you.

If you do this, you'll have a happy life. Watch my leadership podcast. He's like, repent, repent, repent, repent. How many of you were like, oh, yeah, that's a church I want to go to on a regular basis? This was what John's message was.

He was steadfast in the calling.

The gospel tells us that people were leaving Jerusalem and Judea to come out and confess their sins and be baptized. Don't you love it when the crazy guy becomes a popular guy? It's like he was steadfast enough in the calling that all the people came and they came with him. Confessing our sins, repenting and being baptized was crucial to this new thing that was happening. While the religious leaders went about business as normal, they thought he was crazy.

And some of the things he did did match, obviously. Last week in the Gospel of Luke, we talked about the fact that John's disciples and the Pharisees and scribes were there questioning Jesus. And they said, why do your disciples not fast? John's disciples were saying the same thing. So obviously there was some training.

John understood whether it was young or as he got older, because he understood what the Pharisees would do as a temple leadership. They would fast and they would pray. But yet here comes Jesus and Luke, and they're rejoicing and eating. So when we get through the narrative, we see that John was well trained, even though he was out in the wilderness, but he was doing something different. He was doing something new.

John was teaching a different message. Pour out your old wine, confess your sins, and repent. Be submerged in the water, cleanse the wineskin, and purify. But John already knew he was just helping ease a transition for something that was to come. John knew his role.

Sometimes the calling on your life is to utilize our gifts to help somebody else in theirs.

Sometimes the gifts the Lord gives you in the calling he gives you, whether it's for a season or for many seasons, is not so that you can go flourish in yours, but it's to help somebody else in theirs.

I believe the Lord. It's not even believe. I know the Lord blessed me for using my gifts to help somebody else in ministry. I probably wouldn't be standing here today if I hadn't. I've walked that out and I've seen the fruit of the blessing of the Lord.

Because sometimes God wants to use your gift at some other point in time, but he needs, in order for how things work for his plan. Because his plan works better than ours all the time. Sometimes he needs you to use this person and lift them up to help them there. So then when it's your time, you can come in. And a lot of times we're just like, oh, well Lord, I want to use my gift now.

Can I use my gift now? I've been here three weeks. Can I use my gift now? And I'm over here like, go see Brent.

John's job wasn't to be the guy. His calling wasn't to be the guy. It was to prepare the wineskins for the oil and the new wine that John couldn't give. He didn't get cranky. He didn't try to take something that wasn't his.

He didn't covet and he didn't try to act like he was Jesus. He stayed in his lane and he did it with excellence. How do I know this? Matthew 3:11. I baptize you with water for repentance.

But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

This guy has people leaving from towns away and going into the desert. Now I want to give you, you know, a little bit of a picture.

There was no resort. They weren't coming out there to have a cabin in the mountains with snow covered things and having a marriage retreat out there. This was roughing it in the desert and they were leaving the comforts of their city and they were saying, this new thing that the Lord is doing, this new thing that's in front of us has so much importance that they were going out in droves to be baptized.

It would have been very, very easy for John to be like, guess what, y'all? I have this new tunic that has JB on it. Get it? John the Baptist, that's me.

He says, one is coming after me that is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not even worthy to car. I'm not even worthy to carry his footwear.

Now I understand feet and some of the things in the ancient nearing culture, but Ian and I talk on a regular basis. At no point in time have either one of us ever talked about anything close to carrying somebody's shoes.

He knew who was coming. John. Chapter One in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God, and he was the beginning with God. That word there word means the essence, the memorah, the essence of who God was.

In the beginning was the essence of God, and the essence was God, and the essence was with God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him. And without him was not anything made that was made. And him was life, and life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man who was 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 came to bear witness about the light. 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. This is why the birth of Christ is one of the most revolutionary things. He was involved in all aspects of creation, and 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 the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And he and we have seen his glory, Glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace. John bore witness about him and cried out, this is he of whom I said, he comes after me, ranks before me because he was before me.

Comes after me, ranks before me because he was before me.

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 only God who is at the Father's side and has made him known. Worship team, you can come back.

They were walking along, status quo. Three real sets of leadership. Two inside the popular area of the Israel campground, so to speak, the Roman occupation. And then one out in the desert who had a fallen out with the leadership, who were waiting for Rome to basically annihilate them so they could come back and step in and say, like, here we are. We were God's chosen the whole time.

And while they're all fighting out for power and majesty and might, while they're all doing all of that, in comes one who knew none of them were going to have the leadership, who knew that one was Coming, who not only was going to ransom Copt of Israel, but was one that the world didn't even know they needed. The Greeks just out there doing their thing, having a Greek salad, having some falafel.

They didn't even know they needed Jesus. They had no idea. Rome, they had no idea. We've got Pilates and we've got Caesars and we've got all these people. We're not going to be allowed to worship anything other than them.

Like they. Nobody outside knew. The Hebrews knew. They knew that one would come. Some of them saw it, some of them didn't.

But John uprooted his 401k. He uprooted the family business. He threw it all aside, had, you know, an interesting dietary thing and went to the wilderness to prepare the way.

John could have stayed in Jerusalem. He could have became a priest. He could have chosen a path that probably would have led to a really good life. He probably would have gotten a lot of accolades for that. Especially if this is a lineage of the family.

Get to go to work with dad every day. It's either good or bad, depending upon your relationship with. I mean, sons always have a good relationship and a bad relationship with their father. At different point times, he chose to testify about a different light, a different path, a different calling, a different peace and a different joy.

He knew what the calling was. He was in the desert, this Hebrew man from the line of Aaron, a Levite.

Are you the Christ? They would ask him. And he's. He's shouting out in the desert.

I'm just one in the wilderness, preparing the way for the Lord. Make straight his path. It's king language. You get the heck out of the way when the king comes in. And he wasn't coming in.

And no little old popemobile.

But see, that's what they expected. They expected a triumphant king to come with a sword to come in the clouds and come and take out the Roman occupation, to free all the Hebrews who were enslaved to the Roman system and to replace them and rebuild the temple in his name and in his honor. And instead he came in the temple of flesh and bones and he laid in a manger where literally he was helpless. Think of that for a second. The God who allowed you to have breath, who allows you to have breath, who sustained your breath.

He came and was born in a little barn. A stone. You know, we always see the little wood things, but it was stone. They were masons. And so lays in a stone trough, so to speak.

And literally was helpless. This ain't boss, baby. That's a movie. It ain't real. Literally.

Herod's trying to kill babies. Where did we see that before? Oh, that's right. Egypt. The Exodus.

John knew nobody could stop that plan. John knew nobody could stop that. King John knew. And John did his job. He went out and he shouted it from the mouth mountains.

He went out and he baptized. He went out and he said, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight the path of our king. Mashiach is coming.

We know he'll come again. The scripture tells us he will come again. A lot of people spend a lot of time, make a lot of money, speculating on when that's going to be. Not my cup of tea.

But I do know that we're commanded every single day to act as if it's our last, because we're not guaranteed our next breath. And not everybody has the same call.

Not everybody has the same gift. But I can tell you this much.

When is there a bad time to prepare the way for the king? Isn't that what we're supposed to do on earth as it is in heaven? On earth as it is in heaven. We've been modeled to do what the heavens do, which is, what are some of the things the heavens do? They praise without ceasing.

They enthrone the king. What did God do in heaven when Jesus ascends? It says, all majesty and authority on heaven and earth are given to you. What way are you preparing when you leave here today? What were you preparing?

You go out to lunch. What way are you preparing? You go home and take a nap. What are you preparing? Are you preparing your way or are you preparing his way?

Because in the end, it doesn't matter how you were born. You have to be born again. And through the born again process, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit so that you can operate in a different spirit when we come to the Sabbath. Different spirit, the feast, different spirit. You're supposed to have a different spirit.

One that says, prepare ye the way for the Lord. Make straight, straight the path for his coming every day. Lord Maranatha. Come, Lord. I didn't know I was going to be all Brent today with Maranatha.

That's Maranatha Evangelistic Ministries. That was not in my notes.

What path are you preparing for your children, for your friends, children, for your colleagues, for your workers, for your parents?

What path? In the end, we can choose to stay at any one of our camping spots. God gave us a promise. We can choose to say we're comfortable with what we had. Let us go back to Egypt.

Let us stay here, Lord. Or we can go after the promise. The promise is, if you seek me, you will find me. If you knock, I will open the door. If you ask, I will come to you.

I'm not taking December off, guys.

I'm not going to shut down just because some people go out and do some stupid stuff in December. Prepare you the way for the Lord? Make straight the ways in the path of the desert for our king?

That could be in here? That could be in here? That could be in here? That could be out there?

You have a calling and you have a king? Stand with me and let's worship?