It is always good to give thanks for the good men in our lives. And we have in our Bible study this morning in John chapter 3, a story about one of these good men, John the Baptist. His life is inextricably linked with Jesus Christ. In fact, there's a rhythm in these first three chapters of what John the Baptist or John the Evangelist is doing. You will tell us something about John the Baptist and then something about Jesus Christ. Then you'll go back to John the Baptist and to Jesus Christ. And back to John the Baptist again and then to Jesus Christ. There's a rhythm here that John the witness to the light is bearing witness that the Lamb of God has come into the world to take away the sins of the world. In fact, that's how he opens up this great gospel in the beginning. As the word and the word was with God and the word was God, verse 6, 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. And so in his first with these stories of people coming to Jesus Christ and being converted, there are little sections to talk about John and his ministry. How he was a witness to the light even though he was not the light. How he was the one who went before the Savior and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And now as a man who says to his disciples, as he's about to bow out from the center stage of human history, Christ must increase and I must decrease. You know, if you think of all the great heroes of movies and television and books, they always have a sidekick. In fact, let's just play a little game this morning. I'm going to give you a hero and you tell me a sidekick. Superman and Jimmy Olson. Batman and I knew you'd knew that one. How about this one? My favorite. The lone ranger and Tonto, these young people saying, how about get somebody our age? I don't know anybody your age. Now this may be tougher. The Cisco kid, Pancho, Zorro and a little guy named Bernardo, Frodo, Samblaya's Gamgee, Jesus and John. Their names go together in history. You can't talk about one without talking about the other. And what is true about all of these sidekicks is they always give the limelight to the hero. They refer to their hero as Kimulsabi, which is actually a word. It's a patchy for my good friend. And here is God's sidekick. The companion of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, who was introducing us step by step to his Kimulsabi, his good friend, his cousin, the hero of it all, Jesus Christ. John the evangelist who's writing this book, this gospel, is telling us that Jesus Christ is encountering different people, disciples of John, phenomenal believers, a Pharisee he needs to be born again named Nicodemus, a woman who's immoral, who he meets it well in the next chapter, in a place in Samblaya, the town of Sikar, a royal officer whose son is sick, a lame man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, and all of these people find as they come to see Jesus Christ something new, a new wine that purifies then from sins, a new temple in Christ resurrected body, a new birth through the Holy Spirit. And now, in this little pericopy, this little section rent today, a new baptism from the new and the ultimate prophet, Jesus Christ. And the one who points the way to this new baptism, this new prophet is the last of the great prophets himself, John the Baptist. He is, according to biblical scholarship, the pivotal man in redemptive history because John the Baptist brings to an end and a close the Old Testament as he opens up and begins the new. He is the last great prophet and the first great witness. He closes out the age of law and he opens to us the age of the gospel. He brings to a close the promises and introduces us to the fulfillment of those promises. He is Elijah of the Old Testament and John of the New Testament, all in one person. He was foretold and prophesied about in the very last verses of the Old Testament. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their father's list. I come and strike the land with a curse of utter destruction. It was the angel Gabriel who talking to John's father, Zacharias, quoted those exact words to tell Zacharias who his son John would be. Do not be afraid to Zacharias. For your prayers have been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you with son and you will call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the Lord. He must not drink wine or strong drink, but he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel back to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord of people prepared for him. In fact, John, when he described who he was, he quotes from the prophets, I, the prophet Isaiah, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of our God, make a highway for God into your heart. Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 17. You to the scribes say that Elijah is, Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. I tell you that Elijah has already come, but you did not recognize him, but did to him whatever the you pleased, so also the son of man will certainly suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that Jesus was speaking to them of John the Baptist. There is this person foretold from ages past, this pivotal person of history who comes to introduce us to one whom he says time and again is greater than I am. He is the ultimate example of a witness, and here I think in this little story this morning, he is a perfect example of what a Christian is. One whose soul, object and goal in life is to give glory to the hero of it all. His chemotherapy, his good friend, his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you look at this story, there are things you are going on that look a lot like the life that you and I have lived today. There are two branches of Christians here, and they are in competition with one another. Over something called baptism. In the context of this awkward story, John once again steps up and brings clarity to our lives and our thinking by pointing once again to the one who deserves the limelight, the hero himself, Jesus Christ. John, chapter 3 beginning in verse 22. After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Anon near Selene, because water there was plentiful, and people were coming and being baptized for John had not yet been put in prison. Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification, and they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he was with you across the Jordan to whom you bore witness. Look, he is baptizing and all are going to him. John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing, unless it is given him from above. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have sent before him. The one who has 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. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in earthly ways. 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 words 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. Peter John witnesses to one more thing that is new about this Jesus Christ. He is the new prophet who brings with him a new baptism. This prophet Jesus Christ does everything that other prophets do. He reveals the Word of God. He speaks forth and says, thus say of the Lord. And he baptizes and purifies his followers and calls him to repentance and faith. He gives them a miraculous manifestation of God's work in the world. This is what the prophets of all did. John the Baptist did. This is what Jesus Christ does. But Jesus Christ does it in the fullness of which the others were merely partial. So what John tells us this morning is that this new prophet Jesus Christ, who he says is greater than he is. The greatest of all the prophets brings with him a perfect and ultimate purification. He has immense and deserved popularity. And he has the first place, the place of preeminence because he is from God. Let's look at these three things. The John tells us about Jesus Christ and examine our own lives in the light of these truths as John does his life. First, that with Jesus Christ there is an ultimate purification. Notice again in verse 22, after this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing in Anon near Selene because water was plentiful there and the people were coming and being baptized for John had not yet been put in prison. Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification or baptism. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he was with you across the Jordan, that is Jesus, to whom you bore witness. Look, he is baptizing in all or going to him. John answered, a person cannot receive even one thing and let it is given to him from above. Now what we need to know folks is that all prophets baptized. Baptism is not a new testament invention. In fact, when the Old Testament Hebrew was translated into Greek in the Septuagint, the word Baptile or Baptizmus meaning to baptize and baptize it occurred frequently. In fact, when you read the word sprinkle or cleanse or purify in the Old Testament, those in the Greek are the words Baptile and Baptizmus, the prophets all baptized. In fact, they baptized with a ceremonial sprinkling or a fusion or perhaps a dipping immersion we don't know, but some kind of use of water to consecrate people to God, to dedicate people to the Lord, to ceremony cleanse them from uncleaneness. Let's listen to Ezekiel, I will take from you the nations and gather them for you from all the countries and bring them to your land, and I will sprinkle clean water on them, and you shall be clean from all your uncleaneness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and call you to one walk in my statues, and be careful to obey my rules. God says, Ezekiel, I'm going to bring the nations to you, and you will baptize them, and cleanse them, and I will put my spirit within them. Isaiah talks about this, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil from your deeds, from before my eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the Father, and plead the widows' cause, come now, let us reason together says, loathe, their eustinge are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, that they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool, wash yourselves. If you look at the Septuaget, it's baptize yourselves, and you will become clean. Listen to Zechariah, on that day there shall be a fountain open for the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse themselves from sin and uncleaneness. The Septuaget says, to baptize themselves from sin and uncleaneness, it was Moses, in Leviticus and in numbers who introduced the idea of sprinkling water on people who were ceremonially unclean, and cleansing them, baptizing them so that they could find their way back into the assembly, and back into the presence of the Lord. These rabbis of Jesus' time, they were well aware of baptisms, and they themselves practiced ceremonial cleansing of their people. The proof of this, we find in chapter 1, verse 25, when John is doing this, and the rabbis, the Pharisees come to him, and they say, who are you, and why are you baptizing? Are you ever neither Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet? So they give testimony that these prophets, Elijah, and the other prophets that they baptized, as they said, John, you are baptizing people, are you saying to us that you are a prophet? And of course, that is exactly what John was saying. And all of these priestly and prophetic baptisms were of ceremonial symbolic purposes, and they were baptisms of repentance. The difference with John's baptism, that of Jesus, John's was a baptism of repentance, Christ's baptism was a baptism of fullness. In fact, that's how John's baptism is described in the New Testament. John appeared baptizing the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John is very explicit about this, over earlier in chapter 1, he said, I baptize you with water. If there was one coming after me who will baptize you with a spirit and with fire, and all men will come to him. So this baptism of John is inferior to the baptism of Jesus, just as John is inferior to Jesus. His baptism is preparatory for Christ's baptism, just as his life is preparing us to meet Jesus Christ. His ministry of cleansing people is only setting the stage for the ministry of one who will wash away our sins and make us pure before God forever in a baptism of his blood and his spirit. So John, when these people come and complain, look, Rabbi, your cousin who was with you across the Jordan, when you baptized him, that's what they're referring to. Look at this, this cousin of yours who had to be baptized by you now, he's baptizing and everybody's going to him. Well, sounds like American evangelicalism doesn't it? Jealousy and competition, strife, the old, the old Anglican bishop, J.C. Ryle, in his little book called Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Matthew, you listen to what he says about this, we have in these verses a humbling example of the petty jealous season, party spirit, which may exist among professors of religion to this day. The spirit exhibited in this complaint is an unhappy spirit and one too common in the churches of Christ. The succession of these complainers has never failed. They are never lacking religious people who care far more for the increase of their own party than for the increase of true Christianity in the world, who cannot rejoice in the spread of religion if that spreads anywhere except in their own domain. There is a generation which can see no good thing happening except in the ranks of their own congregations and which seems ready to shut men out of heaven if they will not enter their own banner. The true Christian must watch and pray against the spirit here, manifested by John's disciples. It is very insidious and very contagious, very injurious to the cause of religion and Christ. Nothing so defiles Christianity and gives the enemies of truth such an occasion to blaspheme God as jealousy and party spirit among Christians. How convicting. How will we be able to stand before God in heaven? We who are Christians and give a reason for why we divided the church between sprinkling, pouring and immersion. As if baptism had something to do with the amount of water and how it was applied to a person who came in repentance to be cleansed by Christ. I'm embarrassed to say that this may be our worst hour. And since it has divided us into denominations, now those denominations compete with each other. Think that they have more people sitting in their rooms who have had their water put on by their method that those people somehow are better Christians than others. How do we boast about how many people we baptized and how many people come to our church as if somehow we did it ourselves? It's a fact of life that the thing that is killing the Christian church in America is our jealousy, our critical spirit and our competition with other Christian churches. And it's true in our heart every pastor of every church battles against this and so do most people in the pews. This feeling of resentment when that church down the street has more people than you do and when your people leave your church to go there. Well, I've got a list of people that I've given to the Lord instructing him not to let them in the heaven till they talk to me first. It's in our human nature because we still think that this whole thing is about us and not about Jesus Christ. Folks, if it was all about numbers who had the most, then it appears to me that the Muslims win. If it's all about the fastest growing church in America, then it's the Mormons. If it's about how many people in the world follow one course of thought, then we've got to give it to the Buddha. The Buddha's they outnumber everybody, but it's not about that. It's about coming to Christ and being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Let me remind you some things that you know but that you often forget. No church is baptism saves. Jesus alone can baptize a person with the Holy Spirit. That's what John is saying. I only baptize with water. Christ is coming. My cousin will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with a fire that will purge away the dross of your life. No church can be 100% certain of their baptism that it is correct. So hold your doctor and humbly in point to Christ. Yes, I'm not 100% sure that our way of baptism is the right way. And neither are the baptists for that matter if they be honest or the Pentecostals. But one thing the three of us, Pentecostal Baptist and President Archer about is Jesus Christ. And how we can save. Thirdly, baptisms do not equal conversions. Many people are baptized and are unsaved. Fourthly, membership does not equal success. Most churches have many members who are unconverted. And that is not a mark of success, but a mark of failure. Fifthly, if bigness is the sign of God's blessings, then the unconverted must be favored by God because they outnumber those who are born again. Number six, arguing over our sacramental and ecclesiastical methods is simply proof that we've lost focus on Christ. This text tells us that Jesus himself baptized no one person. He was smart enough to know that the Presbyterians or the Catholics or the Baptists would claim him as one of their own. He baptized nobody. And lastly, we baptized and preached Christ as we see best, but never perfectly. But if we preach Christ, we can never go wrong. This could be about baptism. This could be about worship style. This could be about the personality of the pastor. The bigness and beauty of the complex. There's so many things that we could put in the place of baptism that would draw us to the same conclusion that we are filled up with pride and competition. Listen to what John says. Look again at verse 27. This is how John with his simple and blunt candid nature brings us back to reality. A person cannot receive even one thing unless it has given him from above. When these people were saying, John, look, all these years, all the people of Jerusalem and Judea came out to see you. He baptized all these people. You let us all, and now Jesus is stealing the limelight. John says, boys, listen. You got to remember this. All that I had, all the disciples who followed me, God gave them to me. I didn't win any of them. And now God is giving all these people to Jesus Christ. So God must want Jesus Christ to be more famous and successful and honored than me. And if God wants it that way, it's got to be right. You think about that the next time you get proud about anything. If you're a beautiful woman or an athletic man, if you're musically gifted, if you have intellectual powers, and you make a lot of money or you're elected to an office or you're the present of some agency or you're the senior pastor of a church, you remind yourself you don't have one thing, not one thing including the next breath in your lungs that is not given you by God. Amen. Not one thing. So to God be the glory and to you be humble. And don't compare what you've got to somebody else because John is saying, you know, the first time you get proud, it's really easy for God to take that away and give it to somebody else. Because when it's all said and done, whether I baptize them or Jesus does, they belong to God. And God will do with them what he sees fit. Jesus, by the way, he says, they've got to go to him because he brings a baptism that purifies them from sin and I have never been able to do that. He has the ultimate purification and that is why people are taking my disciples and sending them to Jesus Christ. And John says, I think it's a great idea. Second thing he tells us is that Jesus Christ has this immense popularity and he deserves it. Look at verse 28, You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not theointed one. I'm not the Messiah, I'm not the Christ. But I have been sent before him. The one who has 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 takes the typical Jewish wedding and he uses it as an illustration of what's happening. In the Jewish wedding, unlike the American wedding, the person who has the limelight is not the bride in her white gown, the one who's center stage is the bridegroom, the man who's taking the bride from her father's house and bringing that girl to his house. In fact, there's one called the friend of the groom, whom we would call the best man. And it's his job to go from the bridegroom's house down the street to the house of the bride and to lead the bride down the street with a great celebration, not saying here comes the bride, but listen for the bridegroom. And when he finally brings the bride to the bridegroom's house, it is the bridegroom who pronounces, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This is my wife, I receive this woman into my house. And that is when everybody applauds and the wedding reaches its climax. The friends of the bridegroom are there and the friends of the bride, all the people are witnessing this great thing and once the bridegroom finally receives the bride, the best man backs out of the story. John says, I'm the best man. It's been my job to introduce this beautiful girl called the church to Jesus Christ and to say to her, you know, you really need to start dating him. He's the hero of it all. And once Christ has his church, John says, I am happy. I remember I only have one brother and he got married to a Greek girl. So I went to the movie, my big fat Greek wedding. I was actually in that thing. In the Greek wedding, the best man has a lot to do. He has a lot. In fact, he has the majority thing to do in the wedding service. It's amazing. It took me hours to study all I had to do in this liturgy. He has to lead all the dances at the wedding. He has to dance with his cake for about an hour up, you know. He stands there at the receiving line. He introduces everybody by name to the bride and bridegroom. He collects the cash gifts and puts them in an envelope. That's why you wanted to be your brother so it doesn't put him here. He puts them in the envelope. And then he makes this announcement at the end of the ceremony right before there is this great reception. He says, my brother now has his wife. And everybody applauds and guess what? No one remembers who the best man was. Back in December of 1975, I can tell you until you know how there's not one person at that church who remembers who that red headed best man was, but they will not forget the joy of Stephen County on that day. And John says, that's the way it is for people who serve Jesus Christ. It's not about them sharing the limelight, what an inappropriate thing for the bridegroom's best man to interject himself into the place of honor on that sacred and holy day of the wedding. No. He says, when I hear Jesus Christ say this church is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, my wife who I'm receiving to my home, then my job is done and my joy is complete. That tells you and me folks three things about being a gospel person, a Christian, that the number one goal is always what pleases the hero of it all, Jesus Christ. The number two goal is always the joy of the church as they find more and more riches and honor and glory in Jesus Christ. And goal number three, the Jesus is the hero of it all. And he always gets the girl, Tonto never gets the girl, rob and never gets the girl. No, the hero gets the girl, and that's the way it should be because it's Christ, not John, not you and me, who pays for the bride, who rescues her like a champion with his own life. And if our joy is not in what pleases Jesus Christ, if we can't back out, get off the scene when Christ marries, there's something wrong with us. I want you to notice a very important little verse that we use a skip over it's verse 24 look at it for John had not yet been put in prison. All of the evangelist Matthew, Mark, Luke and John date the beginning of Jesus Christ ministry to when John was taken into prison and was off the scene. Mark chapter one. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel. John said, I must get off the scene for Jesus to take the limelight. Why? Because John had an immense following. He was considered by people, even the Pharisees, a great prophet of God. John said, I cannot and it's inappropriate for me to compete with Jesus Christ. I must back out and let him take all these people as his own. My baptism must give way to his. My message of repentance to his of forgiveness. My prophecies about what will come to his cross that completes it all. I must leave the scene of the story and with leaving the scene of the story, two things happen. There's a rise in the popularity of Jesus Christ and a rise in opposition to him because John was a covering or protection who took some of the back and deflected things from Jesus Christ. But that's the way John says it must be. I must leave because Jesus Christ has a mission to embrace across and save the world and he can't do it as long as you're all looking at me. So I leave and now the story focuses on the hero of it all. That's the last thing he says. He tells us that Jesus Christ has this preeminent position of glory and that's the way it should be, 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. John says Jesus comes from God because he is God and he speaks from heavenly perspective. I am a man from the earth. I speak as a man of the earth. There's no comparison between what I say and what Jesus says. And then he tells us these things about Jesus Christ, why he must be preeminent because he comes from above and is above all. He who comes from above verse 31 is above all. Jesus is from heaven. He is the Son of God, God the Son and therefore God always glories over men. Jesus speaks of heavenly things from God, things he is personally known and seen and only he knows verse 31 and 32. 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 and yet no one receives this testimony. Thirdly, Jesus can only reveal the true God in the truest sense of the word. Verse 33, whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this that God is true or God is real. It could be translated. Then Jesus speaks words from God that no other man ever spoke and he gives us the Holy Spirit. The only one who can do that. Verse 34, for he whom God has sent others the words of God for he gives the spirit without measure. Listen to this. Jesus must have the preeminence because God loves Jesus Christ more than all the rest of us combined. Verse 35, the Father loves this Son and is given all things into his hand. This is how much he loves Jesus Christ. He takes the universe and all the angels and men and animals in it and he says it's your son. It's all for you. I've made it for you. And finally, you must believe in Jesus Christ to have life with God and if you don't, you die. Verse 36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John has this thing in clear perspective. Jesus holds the preeminent position over all other beings. He holds first place because he is first in God's love, first in God's grace, first in God's power. He is God for us because he is God in us and all of us belong to him. Just as the book of Revelation says, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Why would Jesus Christ not have the preeminent place and why would it ever be appropriate to take just one smithering of that preeminent glory and give it to any other being? But Jesus Christ, this John, he's got a way about him, doesn't he? He just pierces right into the soul and ask you in our hard questions. Question number one, in what do you find your sense of satisfaction? In your successes as Christians, in your numbers and your size and your notoriety and competition, or is it satisfaction in what God has given you the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ? No one has anything that has not been given to him from above. Question number two, in what do you find your greatest joy? Is it in being in the limelight of life, you and your friends and your popularity? Or is it in the fact that Jesus is the hero of a law to whom all the world is flocking? And thirdly, in what do you find your meaning and purpose in life? Is it to make a name for yourself or for your church, for your family, your company, your institution? Or is it to exalt Jesus Christ until everybody loses sight of everything else and all decrease as Christ increases in glory? Can you honestly say, Christ must increase, but I must decrease. This is what makes John great. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? Was it a read shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing, behold, those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, and more than a prophet. For I tell you, behold, as it is written, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before me. Truly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist. And yet, the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. For John was a burning and shining lamp, and he rejoiced for a season as you rested in his light. Why was John so great? Why was he this burning lamp that drew people to himself? Why is there no man born to woman of the stature of John the Baptist? I'll tell you why. Because John always remembered that he was nothing but the sidekick. And at the end of the story, Jesus gets the girl. And John liked it that way. And so should you and I, we must decrease so Christ can increase and all the world can fall in love with him. Amen? Let's pray. Father, it's good to be reminded of who we are in comparison to your son, Jesus Christ. It would be a sad ending to our story, if we did not know who got the bride, the church, who received the glory, who was the hero of it all. Our lives would be a failure if they pointed only to ourselves into our accomplishments and no one through us ever saw the glory and beauty and heroic nature of Jesus Christ. We ask you to forgive us for all of the times that we get in the way of Jesus Christ and bring attention to his church or to our ministries or to ourselves. And in so doing, we blind people to this great champion who's come to rescue us and take us home to the kingdom of heaven. Even this morning, Lord, I pray for people in this congregation who need to receive the Holy Spirit and to believe on Jesus Christ, give them these twin gifts of the gospel, the gift of repentance and the gift of faith. So they could turn away in repentance from their own glory seeking, their own self-centered lives, and turn in faith to the glory of God found in Jesus Christ and surrender in trust to Him. And I ask that you would continue to make our church here at Christ Covenant and in the Presbyterian Church in America, the church in the whole country, to be one that honors you, that ceases its strife and competition and petty jealous season remains one, content to be the sidekick and the recipient of the love of the hero himself. Save us from the worst of all idols, the worship of ourselves and save us for Jesus Christ, rescue us and in so doing, give Jesus great glory for He deserves it, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And we ask this for our good and for Christ's pleasure as we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.