This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Wintersprings, Florida, where Rev. Kevin Labby is our senior pastor. Today's message is Part 11 and a series on the Gospel of John titled Abide. This sermon is taken from John Chapter 3, verses 22 through 36. Now here's today's message. Thank you so much for being here. Hopefully you enjoyed the brunch. One of the things for which I am exceedingly thankful for this year is the staff of Willow Creek Church. I feel like our staff is wonderful. We genuinely love one another. It's kind of a family within the family here at the church. In this morning during the 830 service, I saw one more manifestation of that. I was commenting to Drew Taylor, our children's minister, who led the time of announcements that 830 services are very difficult for me. I've never been a morning person. It seems that no matter what I do, no matter how much coffee I drink, I'm still not a morning guy. He turned to me with compassion. He said, do you want me to slap you in the face? That's the kind of love that we have here for one another. It's truly a beautiful thing. But all kidding sides, sincerely, want to thank everybody involved with the Thanksgiving brunch, Pierre, Lisette, Mark, Susan. There are so many others, too many names. I hesitate to even say those names because it makes it sound that the other names aren't as important as not true. It's just such a wonderful team of people coming together to make that possible. Let's give them another round of applause and thank them for that. It's just so much fun to look around the gym and see an entire church family just join together. Met some new folks, new people to Willow Creek. Got a chance to talk to them over the fellowship. It's great what God is doing here. Let's go to Lord in prayer and pray for his spirit to do a work among us through his word this morning. Our Father, we thank you that you did not shroud yourself in darkness, even though we turned our back on you and went our own way. You shine the light of your son's truth into the world. First through the prophets of the Old Testament, gradually over hundreds and hundreds of years you revealed a little bit more of the plan of salvation. So that when Christ would appear we would recognize him and then to remove all doubt you sent that final prophet of the Old Testament era John the Baptist who went so far as to point to Christ visibly and say behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And we thank you Father that throughout his earthly ministry Christ revealed to us your will for our salvation. That we can be set right before your throne, not through the works of our hands, not through the inclination of our hearts, but instead by grace alone. That you came to do and accomplish through your son what we could never do and accomplish for ourselves. Live a life of perfect obedience and to establish a righteous record, but at the end of that life to lay it down to suffer a death on the cross that he did not deserve in our place that we might live. And not only live and be forgiven, but to be declared righteous to have his record transferred to our account by your grace through faith. So the father now you look at us as your beloved children in us you are well pleased because we are in your son. Father we thank you that as Christ descended into heaven he promised that the Holy Spirit would guide those he chose to lead that New Testament church your apostles. And they committed to writing those things brought to their mind by the spirit so that we could study them and search them and in them finds not only your will for our salvation, but your will for us to live a new kind of life, an abundant life. And so father we pray this morning that by your spirit you would reveal to us a little bit more of that truth that we might see our perspective transformed that we see you ourselves and others differently the world in which we live through your eyes that we would prioritize and live accordingly for your glory. And for the good of those you've called us according to your purpose we pray in Jesus name Amen. Last week we talked about forgiving others and how difficult that can be on the one hand it's difficult to forgive others sometimes we don't want to be bothered. It just doesn't seem worth the hassle what was lost doesn't appear to be big enough to endure reconciliation. Other times what we've lost is so painful and hurt so deep we can't bring ourselves to even relive it to bring reconciliation through it. Sometimes we feel so wronged by others that were justified in remaining alienated for them forgiveness is not easy for all those reasons and more. One of the keys to forgiveness we said last week is actually the change in perspective that comes through the gospel. That through the good news of Jesus Christ we gradually learn to stand more in awe of God's faithfulness to us than we stand in awe of what others have done to us. When we learn to stand in awe of God's grace to us rather than in awe of what others have done to us we find ourselves humbled. Whenever we stand in awe of God's holiness there's a companion realization concerning ourselves. The more we're drawn into the presence of God and understanding and seeing him the more we see ourselves as we truly are and the chasm between God and us become so great that we are literally humiliated. The prophet Isaiah understood that. He saw a vision of God in his glory it's recounted in Isaiah chapter 6 if you didn't grow up in the church you didn't read the scriptures growing up you may not know that Isaiah is one of those prophets that God sent hundreds of years before Christ to describe what Christ would be, what Christ would do, what he would accomplish and speak to the people of his age a message of chastisement on the one hand but ultimate hope and redemption on the other. God confronted him one day and this is how he records that confrontation and the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. High and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple above him stood the seraphim each had six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And one called to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord God of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called in the house was filled with smoke. And I said woe is me for I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts. You know when you survey the scriptures and you find any of those near encounters with God the human reaction is always the same people fall to the ground in instinctive worship. There's something with deep within the human heart that knows God is God we are his creatures we are accountable to him. He alone is worthy Paul speaks of it in Romans one where he says the human problem is not that we don't know of God the human problem is that we know of God and we suppress that truth in unrighteousness. When that truth can't be suppressed any longer we are left with awe and reverence but his Isaiah found a companion realization one of humiliation one of recognizing the depth and breath not only the holiness of God but of our own sin. Our delusions of self righteousness and self trust they evaporate they received before the throne of God as we draw nearer to God we become more mindful of not only who he is but who we are we become more sober in our estimation of self are standing before him. On the one hand we realize that we're not like God in this holiness but on the other hand. We realize something about ourselves as we live in the world. It's not only that we recognize horizontally God's holiness our position before is thrown when that comes into view we better understand ourselves horizontally rather with our with our neighbors. The comparisons between us and them there's in ours before the throne of God seem minuscule. As we stand before the throne of God we realize that even the most wicked among us are more like us than we are ever like God and so what does that produce within us by faith. Well hopefully over time a deepening conviction that God is worthy of our worship worthy of our reverence worthy of our awe but also that as we stand before others around us who've done us great wrong. That we can view them as objects of compassion rather than as objects of contempt because we see in them what we see in ourselves and we see how sin so easily entangles and ensnared us and how it's done the same to the world around us. Have you ever noticed as the Apostle Paul grew in holiness over the course of his life as many missionary journeys how he refers to himself with a deepening sense of his own sin. He calls himself the chief of sinners as he grows closer to Christ in his understanding as he shares more and more in the holiness of God he comes to understand paradoxically the depth of his sin. He can forgive others because he knows he's been forgiven and he also knows pragmatically that it's through the initiation of love and forgiveness the initiation of undeserved love and forgiveness that God most delights to lead others to repentance and salvation. As we love others first God loves them through us and as he first loves them we pray that they come to love him in return. This was the prayer of Christ on the cross forgive them father for they know not what they do. It was the prayer of Stephen the church's first martyr forgive them they know not what they do. As we extend forgiveness and love God works mightily through that but that humility does not come naturally in fact everything in the human person according to the flesh the natural person apart from God is is pride. Everything within is pride creeping into the recesses of our hearts we have to stay on guard. Growing in humility is not something that happens naturally it's something that requires a spirit born vigilance Saint Francis of Assisi many of you grew up in the Roman Catholic church or in the Orthodox tradition. We still adored these gents from times past Saint Francis of Assisi was one who sought to withdraw from the world that he might contemplate God in his holiness and be drawn into holy service of the lost and others who needed so desperately redemption. And as he withdrew from the world and for for turned his back on his father's wealth and his standing in position and rather lived a life and radical poverty he drew to himself some degree of notoriety others joined him in his commune in and as his notoriety grew he knew to vote as he was to God how quickly pride could creep in. And so he gathered around him a trusted advisor a friend a brother who would remind him of his many faults daily so that he wouldn't think too highly of himself. I look back on that now and I think Francis you you could have done that much easier you just could have got married and had a wife or a spouse my wife does this for me all the time just keeps me humble whatever I feel getting a little puffed up. Molly should knock me down in love maybe sometimes not in love but it must land love some of you know Paul trip he's a Christian author a Christian counselor he's a man I'm very fond of and his writings are very very helpful if you are looking for a resource to help you appropriate what the gospel means for every day life I would say you Paul trip is a great great guy you should jot down his name and grab some of his books he shares in his book dangerous calling which is designed primarily for him. He's designed primarily for pastors but helpful to anybody he describes in there how as his notoriety has grown sometimes people want to meet with him and in one setting he gathered around this group of all call them he doesn't call them that he devotees people who are looking up to him and want to hear some wisdom from him they gather around him for lunch and his assistant is nearby and during the course of the conversation they ask the assistant why he's come to work with Paul. And he shares a little bit of why and his reason for working with Paul included the knowledge that Paul needs him because Paul from time to time can be a jerk and I read that and I laugh I thought you know when you write a book you can you can edit it you don't have to include that the very intentional choice you kind of how did yourself is somebody who from time to time is a jerk but he went on to say that that's true sometimes he is. The diagnosis is real pride creeps in humility is hard another thing that makes humility so difficult for us is that we don't properly define it oftentimes things that look like humility aren't really humility at all. Sometimes we ascribe to humility what's often a little more than a quiet and introverted spirit have you ever made that mistake you think somebody who's quiet and kind of unassuming not bold in social situations you ascribe to them the characteristic of humility only to find later that maybe they're not really humble maybe there's pride was the rest of us they just have to be pretty quiet about it. Several years ago my high school band I played the trombone way back in the day at a tiny little country high school we were awful we were not very good band at all and so we're always looking for places to play places that could endure us and nursing home seemed like good victims you know so our band director would sign us up to go down to the nursing home and bless the residents. With our with our beautiful music and I remember going in there and seeing all the residents and they seem to be so kind because largely they were quiet you know they're just quiet sitting there and we walked in following all these people are been softens by age there's so much wisdom in this room so many humble people and we started to play and halfway through the first song a guy stood up and he said this sounds like crap. I will never forget that. I actually thought yeah right on it it really does and then speaks the truth the very humble but he speaks the truth we can ascribe the humility what is paradoxically oftentimes pride in in a self facing manner people can run themselves down have you ever been around somebody who runs himself down routinely you know they they they say oh I'm no good at this I'm no good at that or I wasn't as good. As you say it was or that sort of thing they run themselves down say the worst person in the world and you come away and you're tempted to think that they're very humble but really a case could be made that that's not born of humility you could say in a very maybe countertuitive way that's born of pride people who are so self focused that they expect themselves to be better and are shocked when they're not there might be a seed of pride there. We actually see something of that in the New Testament in the Apostle Peter. Peter actually is called by Jesus to have his feet washed along with the other disciples in an ancient Near Eastern society servants had many tasks the lowest of those tasks ascribed to the lowest of servants was to wash feet and so Jesus takes a towel and he gets ready to wash the disciples feet and Peter objects says no you'll never wash my feet. And when you're reading the passage you might think to yourself wow that sounds humble but you know that's not humble Peter's actually correcting the Lord of the universe saying that he knows better what Jesus should do humility is a tricky thing we don't always know how to define it we don't always know how to live it so this morning we're going to look at it just very quickly in our passage verses 22 through 24 at first and then down to verse 36. But before we get there I want to give you a definition. This is a definition called from the definitions of others how we could maybe rightly define humility. I would submit to you this morning that humility is knowing, living and even willingly leaving your place before God for his glory and others for their good. And I want to give you a proposition along with that definition that growing in humility is the consequence of finding Jesus more beautiful and believable. John the Baptist was privileged to grow into a deeper understanding of God's work through Christ by virtue of his call and by virtue of the spirit's work and in view of viewing Jesus that way he could evidence humility as he grew so let's look at verses 22 through 24 and see the problem presented in the text. After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing near Ena, near Selene because water was plentiful there and people were coming and being baptized for John had not yet been put in prison. I do hear that by the way. I don't want anybody to think I don't. I was actually like should I acknowledge it? I was like now I shouldn't acknowledge it will go away. It's clearly not going away. So I'm just going to acknowledge it and we're all good with it and I'm talking louder than the least for now. Hopefully available pay attention. One time at my previous church I was preaching in this hugely loud train whistle went off and it was just so disruptive in the middle of the server. The huge train whistle and I had to pause because it wasn't a train anywhere near the church and I'm still baffled by it. I don't know. So these things happen. Let's acknowledge them. Pause and then we'll move on. All right. Very good. Okay, there's a problem here. John the Baptist has been baptizing and gained a lot of notoriety. For six months he's ministered very publicly calling God's people to repent of their sins to be baptized with water and this baptism with water is rooted in an Old Testament tradition of ceremonial cleansing. Where God's people would ritually purify themselves. The water didn't take away their sins. It just was a means by which they evidenced their fate. They laid hope to God's claim that he would one day wash them with the power of the spirit. The baptism was a was a sign and a seal of God's coming grace through the Messiah and the work of the spirit and view of what Christ would accomplish on the cross. And John gained no small amount of notoriety doing this. He became preeminent in the society, religious leaders like the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes and others were even coming down to check it out at the very least. Some of them even participating. John the Baptist was a big deal. He got to be quite the big deal. But here we see Jesus, his ministry, his influence expanding. About six months later after John's ministry starts, Jesus starts ministering and gradually gathers to himself many disciples. And now the throngs, the crowds of people are coming out to be baptized even by Jesus. Now it would have been a game changer to have Jesus followed by so many. But when Jesus starts baptizing, this is the bread and butter of what John the Baptist is about and what his people are known for, his disciples and the disciples sense that their position is going to change. That with Jesus growing in influence and now even baptizing with his disciples, that John the Baptist ministry is in decline and that his disciples ministry by consequences in decline. Now I imagine that all of us can relate with this at least at some level. You have a task, a role, a responsibility, a position, a standing. But what happens when somebody else comes along and starts doing what you've been known to do or perhaps what you've been known to do for so long is no longer as necessary as it once was. If you have your identity wrapped up in what you do, if what you're doing is the ground of your identity, then you seem to lose a whole lot more than a task, don't you? You seem to lose yourself. Now I imagine some of you parents can relate with this as I watch my children get older. I know that some days going to come when I'm no longer going to be dead in the way that I'm dead now. It's going to be hard and for some of you, I imagine it's been very hard. For those of you who in the workplace have functioned in a certain way and gotten a certain level of status, but now see perhaps the industry changing, the corporate culture changing, new people on the rise and your position coming down. If your worth is wrapped up in that, that's a real blow. That's not indifferent to that. That's exactly what was happening to John the Baptist disciples, this internal question of what does the rise of Christ in this situation mean for me? When God elevates others and we seem to be humbled, how are we to respond? Verse 25 begins to answer that question. How should we respond to that loss of status? Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples in a Jew over purification and they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, that means teacher, he who is with you across the Jordan Jesus to whom you bore witness. Look, he's baptizing and all are going to him. We're losing our business, we're losing our crowd. John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it's given to him from heaven. In other words, all good things come from God and if I'm not receiving something right now, it's according to the hand of God. You yourselves bear me witness that I said I'm not the Christ but I've been sent before him. The one who is the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase. But I must decrease. John responds to their fear with two declarations. The first is that they should know better. He's told them from the very beginning that his role was temporary. It was to prepare the way for the Messiah, not be the Messiah. And he's been faithful to prepare and part of that preparation is to bring Christ in his message to public view and now this has happened. And secondly, he reminds them that this is a source of joy because even though his earthly status has changed, his heavenly status has not. His heavenly status is the same. He's a friend of the bridegroom. He's not there to marry the bride. He's there for the bridegroom. And as the bridegroom approaches and he hears his voice, he rejoices that he's been able to do what God has called him to do. Now we know something of this and are admittedly limited, darkened way, husbands. You know this in your own life. When in those moments of premier sanctification you're able to lay down your life for your spouse, your wife, that she might be lifted up, it's your joy. Even as you are sacrificing and your wife is exalted, her joy is your joy. There's joy in the sacrifice. Why do you know the same thing when you honor your husband and the authority that God has given him that he could be lifted up? Even as you're seemingly brought low, your joy is his joy. Children are the same. When you choose your parents' will over your own, when you honor them with your speech, when you follow their desires for you, and you see them happy, it brings you joy. Your joy and their joy is tied together and that's what John the Baptist is saying. My joy is not my own joy. My joy is the bridegroom's joy. Christ the Messiah. And so in verse 31 he shows these disciples that his status is higher, that his values are higher and his status can't be lost, spoil or fade. 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. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard yet no one receives his testimony, whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this that God is true. For he whom God has sent others the word of God, for he gives the spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him. The first thing that John the Baptist remembers is that his status is anchored in heaven, not earth. He's a child of God. The one who gives him an identity is higher than all things. He's from above and he who comes from heaven is above all. No earthly circumstance can change his position or is standing, nothing can add to it, nothing can take from it. As Jesus said, if we gain the whole world but lose our soul, the prophets is nothing. If we anchor our identity and our status, our joy and position in this world, we can gain the whole world. But in the end, the prophet is nothing but if we lose the whole world but yet gain eternal life, the Bible tells us we gain everything. That's why Paul could say to live as Christ but to die as gain. That's why Jesus could endure the pain of the cross for the joy set before him. His earthly circumstance being brought low, being humbled more than any human in history was for him joy because he knew that through that humiliation would come exaltation. His position and standing, his status as the son of God was not anchored in earth, it's in heaven, it's irrevocable, it cannot be lost. So even as John the Baptist's fortunes changed in the world, nothing for him really changed. He's loved of God and loved of God, he could never be forgotten of God. God would care for him in plenty and in want and join in sorrow as long as he would live. So the charge to you this morning as we closed is simply this, that many of us live our lives forgetting who we are. And in forgetting who we are, we run around the world trying to find a source and an anchor for our identity. And when our fortunes change and our source of identity seems to diminish, we feel as though we've lost our worth, but we haven't. God gives us our identity. And if it brings God glory and honor for us to sacrifice and suffer and be brought low, we can commend ourselves and entrust ourselves to him that his glory means our good. Because he loves us and cares for us. And as he cared for John, he cares for us. And as John has now ceded in glory and can never be lost from that privilege position, we are ceded with him and one day we'll see that face to face. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the good news that we do not need to run around the world looking for a source of identity and worth. We have it in you. And as our fortunes change here, as our stock rises in falls, as it were, we never lose the great worth we have before your throne. You alone are worthy, but you have given us great worth by grace. And we thank you for it. And we pray you'd help us remember in Jesus name and man. Willow Creek Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. Our website is www.Willow Creek Church.org and our phone number is 407-699-82-11.