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All right. Well, if you have your Bible, go ahead and pull it out. John chapter 3 is where we're going to be. The last half of John chapter 3, we're working through the Gospel of John, the Gospel according to John. And we've been in this now for about six weeks or so. And we just want to invite you to read along with us this morning. And then after read this section of text, we're going to talk about what God has to say to us today. So John chapter 3, verse 22. It's on the screen above me if you want that. There's also some Bibles under the chairs around you. I encourage you to grab a copy. And if you don't own a Bible, we always tell you to take that with you. We'd love that to be a gift to you that you could read the Bible on your own during the week. Alright, so here we go. John chapter 3, verse 22. Let's start there. After this, Jesus and his disciples went to the Judean countryside where he spent time with them and baptized. Also, John was also baptizing in Anon, near Salem, because there was plenty of water there. That's a good reason to baptize, lots of water. People were coming and being baptized, since John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then a dispute arose between John's disciples and a Jew about purification. So they came to John and told him, Rabbi, the one you testified about and who was with you across the Jordan is baptizing, and everyone is flocking to him. Kind of have to say that in sort of like a sixth grade, you know, complaining, whiny voice, all right. John responded, No one can receive a single thing unless it's given to him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him. He who has the bride is the groom, but the groom's friend who stands by and listens for him rejoices greatly at the groom's voice. So this joy of mine is complete. He must increase, but I must decrease. The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Sounds familiar from John chapter one. The one who has accepted his testimony has affirmed that God is true. For God sent him, and he speaks God's words, since he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who refuses to believe in the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him. Alright. So every time we read these passages, I'm reminded that we have so much here that we could talk about. Okay, these are some really, really rich passages, which the whole Bible is so rich. I mean, I hope that you read it on your own on a regular basis and you ask God by his Holy Spirit to reveal the truths that are in it and that you're in community with others, reading the scripture together and asking that God would speak to you through your community, whether it be a life group or a group of men or women, you're meeting at a coffee shop, but be in the Word, okay? And there's actually a reading plan in your worship guide. We encourage you at a minimum to read along with that. It's a great way you can do that. But find a way to be in God's Word on a regular basis. I'm not going to be able to cover everything that's in this passage today. That's no surprise to you. We say that almost every week, it feels like. But I want to start with a question. When you think about Christians who are mature, like really mature Christians, and I'm not assuming that everybody in this room is a Christian. And by the way, if you're not a Christian, if you're not a follower of Jesus, you've never given your life to Christ, you never put your trust in Jesus for your salvation, we're glad you're here. I know it's risky to be here. Umbe you're just exploring faith, maybe somebody drug you here. We're just glad that you're here. And uh we want to encourage you that it's it's a safe place to explore and to work through some of those questions that you might have, because we don't have it all figured out, okay? Um for those of us who are Christians, we don't have it all figured out. It's a journey, it's a process. But um, if you think about a mature Christian, a mature believer, uh, when you picture that person, do you see a smile or a scowl? When you think about a mature, uh strong Christian who's been maybe a Christian a long time, do you think someone who seems very happy and just seems very joyful? Or do you see somebody who seems like, uh, I'm not completely sure that they're okay? Seem a little depressed, maybe. What do you picture? When you think about John the Baptist, uh, you know, thinking about him, uh, do you do you see a guy who seems like he's kind of a fun guy to hang out with? Or do you see a guy or picture a guy that's like, man, I think he's a little too intense for me. I mean, the reason I ask that question is because when I think about Christians, sometimes I think the rap is that if you're a mature Christian, that you're just super serious, super intense, you never smile, you don't laugh at jokes, you just can't, you can't, you just don't, you're just too intense. You just not you just need to lighten up a little bit, right? A lot of times people think that. Um, or John the Baptist, when I've really thought about him, I mean, he was an odd odd guy, okay? If he was around today, we'd be like, I don't know about that guy. Not completely sure what to do with him, what category to put him in. He's a little out there. But when you read the passage this morning, I think what you see, if you were just reading this passage about John, you go, man, this guy, I think he's a joyful guy. Seems kind of happy. All right? And he talks about that very thing, and I told you we won't be able to talk about this whole passage, but what really jumped out as I was praying this week and even preparing this text was while it's not the primary thrust of the text, when you get to this verse in chapter, in verse 29, he says this. He says, The one who has the bride is the bridegroom, and we're going to come back to that in a minute. 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. Now, when I hear that, I'm like, maybe John was happy. Maybe he was like not so just, you know, intense and serious and scowling and you know, all the time. But here's what I know is that joy is something that we all long for, we all want it, but it seems to be elusive. It seems to be something that, you know, we want to be these happy people. In fact, we we even manufacture that or put on a happy face sometimes just because we want to be viewed as happy people. And and happiness is a is a high value in our world, but in general, we're we're we're not really all that happy. And part of that is because our happy is very superficial. Um, it's very rooted in things, again, as we're gonna talk about today, that are temporary, things that come and go, ebb and flow, and so our happiness kind of wanes based on the day or it grows as we have something good happen. But here's the thing, I want to start out before we jump back into the text and just mention a few things because I sense God was saying, uh, you know, Christians, we need to be reminded that we ought to be the most joyful people on the planet. We ought to be the people that everybody goes, man, they are really happy people. Like they're really joyful. And I'm not talking about, again, superficial happiness walking around being the life of the party all the time. Uh I'm just saying we ought to be people who really find joy in life. And we're going to talk about why a little more in a minute, but I think that ought to be the case. But here's the thing: the ultimate source of your joy is what controls your life. The ultimate source of your joy is what controls your life. You and I were created in the image of God. And I don't know if you think about this much, but being created in the image of God, God gave us a capacity to enjoy things. He didn't have to do that. When he made man and woman, Adam and Eve, and he put them in that garden, he could have made it ugly. He could have made it where they couldn't appreciate the beauty of the garden. But what do we see from the very beginning of the Bible? God giving them this beautiful garden to live in and food to eat and all these animals to see and interact with. And we see God giving man and woman the ability to enjoy pleasure. It's an awesome, I mean, it just reminds us of the heart of God that He is good to do those kind of things. Have you thought about that lately? Sometimes we think that God is the cosmic kill joy and that we're the ones that have to manufacture something out of this life to bring joy, but God is actually the author of joy and enjoyment and pleasure. God is the God who gave us those things. And I would say to you that because of that, just like everything else in the world, that God's good things get perverted. They get twisted. And that's what sin's all about, right? It's perverting, twisting God's good things. And so this good gift of being able to enjoy and experience pleasure and then happiness, these great emotions that God gave us that He didn't have to give us, they get twisted and we start to take these things that God gave us, and we start to make the target of those things, the source of those things, the temporary stuff. Or the things that are not God. And we forget, and I'm not, hear me out here, I'm not saying that you can't enjoy your spouse, or you can't enjoy your kids, or you can't enjoy your family, or you can't enjoy good food, or you can't enjoy good sporting events, or you can't enjoy taking a walk and a hike in the mountains. All those things are great, but you know, as a Christian, because we have the Bible, we understand that there's something behind that, something bigger, something transcendent beyond just that temporary thing, right? But when we let it terminate on the temporary, guess what happens? What was supposed to be this good thing God gave us, and we let it terminate on a temporary thing, when that thing's gone, when that thing's uh attacked or that thing's removed, whatever you want to say, it begins, our joy goes away because it was attached to that rather than seeing the bigger picture. Are you with me? Now, again, our ultimate source of joy is what controls our life because because we enjoy things, because we we we we like to uh have joy, and because we were wired for that, just to use that language, to actually we were created for that, um we spend our whole life, our money, our time, and our energy trying to chase after those things that we enjoy. Would you agree? Or actually try to eliminate the things that are killing our joy, to get rid of the things that are destroying our joy. Now, some may say that's an oversimplification, but I would just say to you, in the heart of man, that as we've said multiple times here at Point, you and I were made for worship. And enjoyment, and joy is a big part of that worship. Enjoying God. In fact, in the in the catechism, we teach little kids, if you've done catechism with your kids before, one of the things that the first question is, why does why do people exist? Why does man exist? And the answer is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Those two things go hand in hand. That Christians are actually thriving on, fueled by enjoyment of God. Let me say that again. We as Christians are fueled by the enjoyment of God. Enjoying God, finding pleasure in God. There's a guy named John Piper, some of you may know him. He's his whole ministry is built around this idea that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him, when we enjoy him, when we find pleasure in him. Because that's we are creatures of that. We are creatures of worship, we are creatures of enjoyment. And so what you put as the ultimate source of your joy, it controls your life. We will direct our time, our energy, and resources into gaining it, obtaining it. And when we again see it removed, if it's something temporary, then our joy goes away. And one of the greatest enemies that this passage reminds us of, I would say this one of the greatest enemies to joy is jealousy. One of the greatest enemies. It's not the only enemy to joy, but it's one of them. This greatest enemy is jealousy. Well, what happens in the passage? Well, as we read, I told you the thrust of this passage is not just about joy, but I think it's a great uh application for us today. We're going to come to that as we work our way through the passage. But here's what's going on. Jesus is now out in the countryside. John the Baptist, not John who wrote the book of John, but John the Baptist is also out in the countryside, and both of them had their disciples. And apparently they're near some water, and part of the culture of the day is when you joined a movement, you were initiated into that movement through baptism. And so we still do baptism today, and we're going to do baptisms at the end of our service today, but they would do baptisms, and John says his baptism was one of repentance, okay? But they were baptizing them in the water, and they would become a disciple of John. They start to follow John and hear his teaching, and he's, of course, teaching about this Messiah that's coming. He's preparing the way for Jesus. Jesus is also out there with his disciples, and it says they were baptizing. We know in chapter 4, verse 2, that Jesus himself wasn't the one baptizing. John actually makes a note to that. He says Jesus' disciples were baptizing, just so we we're clear. He says Jesus' disciples were baptizing. And so there somehow becomes a dispute, because there always is, these religious leaders are picking apart the ministry of John, they're picking apart the ministry of Jesus. And as they somehow get into a dispute about purification, there's something about the dispute that we don't even know what it was, that it prompts John's disciples, John the Baptist, by the way, disciples, to go to John and say, Hey, John, Jesus' movement is growing faster than ours. It's growing faster. There's a problem, John. Don't you understand that like our movement is like a sinking ship and Jesus is like going? And I love that because, again, the Bible's full of stories with people that we can identify with. And these guys are just being human and they see that this Jesus' movement is growing, theirs is shrinking, and they're concerned about it. They're stressed about it, they're freaked out a little bit. What's gonna happen here, John? I mean, we've been following you, we gave our lives to following you, and now this movement's not going the way we thought it should go. You get the point, right? Jealousy in their heart. And really, jealousy and envy go hand in hand. Jealousy is when what you have is slipping through your fingers, you're afraid of losing it, you become paranoid about losing it. Envy is when you actually see other people's stuff and you're like, you want that, and you're like, I gotta have that, right? And they have a little bit of both going on here: jealousy and envy, and it robs them of seeing who Jesus is. But John doesn't miss it because John understands exactly who Jesus is. Charles Swindah talks a little bit about this trap of envy and jealousy when he writes about the book of John, and some of his commentary speaks to this. He says, you know, jealousy has full hands and never wants them empty. Um, envy has empty hands and wants them full. Envy languishes in self-pity because it doesn't have them full. Jealousy has full hands and never wants them empty. Jealousy rants in paranoia because it fears losing what it feels unworthy to own. But John the Baptizer, he avoids both traps. He clutched nothing and released everything to the Lord. I want to have that kind of attitude. Right? So many of us in this room are robbed by the joy of Christ because we're looking at everybody else, comparing ourselves, and we're saying we want what they have. We don't want to lose what we have, we want to compare. I can I just say, this is not a new idea. Some of you moms in this room, you probably need to get off social media so you can actually experience the joy of Christ and stop comparing yourself to other moms. Some of you are losing, you've lost your joy because you're like, I'm not as good a mom as them. I couldn't do that Pinterest thing. You know, whatever. It's like my party wasn't as big. Listen, I'm you know, I'm being facetious. I love you. But I'm not being facetious, I'm being real. You know, that we've got to stop comparing. It's robbing us of the joy because we're comparing and competing. Guys, can I just be honest with you as a pastor? Pastors do this too. They do it all the time. Pastors look at other churches, oh, yeah, that church over there, they got this. But you know, he's really screwed up. I'm around church planners a lot. And church planners have to really guard their hearts. God calls them to something, and then somebody succeeds in a way that they are not succeeding in, and they immediately start to like, oh, well, you know, they must be paying people to go. Or something. You know, they're coming up with crazy stuff, right? This jealousy, this envy. We are not exempt. We are we are we are we are all people who are working through our fleshly issues, and and we need God's help. But instead of finding joy in Christ, we're just comparing and competing. How dumb is that? So as we think about that, uh, let me just remind us that the truest source of joy is God. The truest source of joy is God. For those of you that like to read early church fathers, I don't know how many of you do. There's a few nerds in here like me. Here's what it says. Augustine, here's a quote about this. He says, Following after God is the desire of happiness. To reach God is happiness itself. Or Aquinas spoke this way. He says, God is happiness by his essence, for he is happy not by acquisition or participation of something else, but by his very essence. God is happiness, God is joy, God is the truest source of joy. We were actually made for God and to enjoy him. That's what we were made for. And when we're not enjoying God, we sin. If I could just put it really bluntly, my Friday morning group of men, we uh I say it's mine, we're just a group of men we meet together here at the building, and I love the conversation we've been having, but a big part of it is getting below the surface. What's the sin beneath the sin? What's the idolatry? What's the thing that I'm enjoying instead of God? What's the really going on in my beliefs that's driving me to this? And I would say that when we aren't enjoying God, we will sin because we will start to pursue things outside of him. But God is the greatest source of joy. And not just because Augustine and Aquinas say that, but because Scripture tells us that. Um, listen to this. Psalm 16.11, this is what I call a fighter verse. When you don't believe truth, you need to have verses you put into your heart and your mind. I think Piper may have also come up with that thought, but how do you fight against sin? How do you war for your affections and your soul and where you're finding your joy? Well, Psalm 16.11 says this you reveal the path of life to me. In your presence, this is God's presence, is abundant joy. Did you know that there's abundant joy in God's presence? That's why I can't wait for heaven. Because it is going to be abundant joy and no sin and suffering and hardship and all that other stuff. It's going to be full on. But in God's presence there is joy. The reason that men look at porn is because they think there's joy there instead of in God's presence, and so they go there and then they find dead end destruction, mess. But when we understand God is the one who holds eternal pleasures in his right hand, and we say, God, help me to believe the truth. It's not there, it's in you. In accordance, this is 1 Timothy 1.11, Paul writes to Timothy, he says, In accordance with the gospel, the glory of the blessed God. In the original language there, literally you could use the word happy, the happy God. Like if you know the beatitudes in Matthew and in Luke, you could replace the word blessed with the word happy. Happy is the man who whose uh hope is in the Lord, right? Happy is the poor in spirit. Those different beatitudes that are there, and you see that uh this this here that God is God of happiness. God is a God who is happy. And in him, through the gospel, we have happiness. We can have happiness. We don't have to just wait till heaven. We can actually experience tastes of it here and now. We're not just enduring till then, though we have to endure, do we have to persevere, but we actually can have tastes in the here and now. There's a present reality to our salvation. John 17, 13. This is later in the book of John that we're reading, and we're gonna work through it and we're gonna get there. And he says, Now I'm coming to you. This is high priestly prayer. This is what Jesus is actually praying for his disciples and for uh the believers that are gonna come, including us after them. And he says, Now I am coming to you and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. You know what God wants for you? He wants you to have joy in him. He wants that for you. Some people think, oh no, God's just waiting for me to screw up so he can smack me around. God's just up there trying to make sure I don't have any fun in this life. Complete misunderstanding of God. God wants to fill your life with joy, but real joy. True joy. Joy you don't have to regret when it's over. Happiness that springs from the goodness of Him. So, how do we actually experience this? I want to move relatively quickly here, but I want to give us three ways that John the Baptist, not John the one who's writing, but John the Baptist, shows us how we can experience greater joy in our life. And it's not just about greater joy, by the way. It's greater fulfillment, it's greater worship, what we were very made for as God's creation. The first one is this we experience this by resting in God's sovereignty. By resting in God's sovereignty. Did you see John the Baptist in his reply to his disciples who kind of get off? He says this to them. When they say that there's a in verse 27, he says, A person cannot receive one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. You know what John has a great grasp of? John the Baptist here has a great grasp of? God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty. That he was appointed by God, that he was given this role, this responsibility. John understands where he fits into the scheme of eternity. And he knows that he is not in charge. That he's not in control. You want me to tell you what robs your joy? When you try to act like you're in control. When you try to navigate and drive life apart from God, it will drive you nuts. And it will drive you into depression. When you stop trusting in, resting in God's sovereignty and saying, God, you are sovereign. I'm not saying life gets like you can avoid all suffering if you walk in resting in God's sovereignty. Not at all. But I am saying this that as you go through suffering, you can say, God, you're doing something in this. We sang this earlier, didn't we? God, you haven't forgotten us in the fire and the flood. You're faithful. We know you are bigger than cancer. We know that you are bigger than losing a loved one. We know that you are bigger than the parenting struggles we're having right now. We know that you're bigger than my marriage falling apart. God, we know that you are bigger and you are more awesome and that even in the mess of this life, you can still work because you're good. And so we have to rest in God's sovereignty. It's interesting. This is the last thing we hear from John the Baptist before he dies. You know what happens? You know what John the Baptist? This guy who's fulfilling the role that God has for him. This is why you don't want to ever listen to somebody who says if you follow Jesus, you're not going to have any more problems. Okay? Don't listen to them. They are smoking something, they are off the rocker, okay? Because here's the deal John the Baptist is fulfilling the role God has for him, and he gets thrown in prison right after this, and he gets beheaded. His head gets served on a platter at a party. So anybody who tells you that following Jesus means no suffering doesn't know what they're talking about. We know every one of Jesus' apostles, his disciples, they all died, not including Judas. He did his own thing, but all the other eleven, okay, they died a martyr's death. So I can't promise you, I can't stand up here and say, well, follow Jesus and you'll never have hardship or suffering or difficulty. That's not biblical. But I do know this God is sovereign over our days. He is guiding our steps. He has a plan, he has a purpose. I don't understand it. I'm not God. It's a mystery. I don't know why. I had two professors in college and they both got cancer at the same time, and one of them died and the other one didn't, and he's still alive teaching. The other one died within three months. I don't understand that. Both men who love Jesus, who taught the Bible, and we're helping students have a love for God and a love for his word. I don't get that. And I don't get to decide, you know, if that's right or wrong. I just trust that God is good. Maybe for some people that just sounds like, man, yeah, Nick, I just can't go there. I get that. It's okay. Just know that to not believe that he's good doesn't change the circumstance. Okay? And we have his word. We have to cling to his word in those times. We have to have truth. We have to know. So we have to rest in his sovereignty. You guys, you know that God is a good, good God. And he loves us. And he's working. John is not trying to concede defeat to an opponent here, but he's embracing God's plan. He's embracing God's plan. Many people find their job, their joy is being robbed from them because they're trying to be God instead of letting God be God in their life. Trying to control God. Well, God, if you would just get on my page, if you just fix these problems, if you just give me a little bit more money in my bank account, if you just give me that car, that house, or those kids over there that are obeying a lot better than mine, then my world would be happy. Right? We say, God, if you do that, if you get on my agenda, God, then the world would be so much better. No, it wouldn't. We desperately need God to be in charge, and we're glad that he is. One of the main marks of the born-again person is that he loves for it to be clearly seen that his new birth, his new deeds, his new attitude, his new affections are carried out by God. That is, in the power of God, he loves to make it clear that his newness is a work of God, a work of sovereign grace. It's God's grace. If anything good comes out of my life, it's God's grace. Because apart from him, I am doomed. Apart from him, I am depraved, and it is not going to go well. Well you can rest in God's sovereignty. Secondly, gotta move. Find our significance in our relationship with Jesus. Find our significance in our relationship with Jesus. We are taught from the time we were very young to find our significance in the approval of others. Even in religious settings, even in church settings, Christian settings, we are taught that, you know, you look to other people to applaud you, to accept you, to acknowledge you. That's where you get your worth, your identity, your value, your significance. And that's one to be an encouragement to you today. The pressure's off to perform for others. The reason we can sit here at this church and say, you don't need to wear a mask when you come in, you don't need to put up a wall, a facade, you don't have to have pretense. Because we're all human beings who desperately need a Savior. Because we know our significance and our worth and our ultimately our salvation is not found in us. It's found in Jesus. It's found in the person and work of Jesus. Notice what John the Baptist does here. He not only says, God gave this to me, you know, uh echoing really the words of James, Jesus' half-brother, who was pastor in Jerusalem, saying, Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above. But he also goes on to say, he says, Um, you yourselves bear witness that I said, I am not the Christ. We've already seen John say those things in the text, right? He said, I'm not the Christ. I am not the Messiah. In fact, I'm not even worthy or fit to touch his sandals. That's how, that's how John saw himself in light of the glory of Christ. He says, I am 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. John is basically telling them, Listen, my significance is not in the number of guys that follow me, it's in the number of people that follow Jesus as I'm following Jesus. And my significance is in Christ because he's given me this role, he's given me this position in his kingdom that I'm supposed to do this thing. And my job is not to be the bridegroom, my job is to be the best man. That literally, in the in the culture there, they would have totally resonated with this, that he had this really big responsibility. It was a little different than our current world, but he had a very significant role to prepare this thing, and this is exactly what John's job was is to prepare the way, to point the way, and to get out of the way. He had to get out of the way so that Jesus could increase, that he could decrease. Jesus could come and take his bride. Who's his bride? Well, the people of Israel then becomes the people of us, the all of us today. We know that the church is called the bride. John is not the groom. Jesus is the groom. And so John sees that and he sees that his significance is in pointing people to Jesus. It's in Jesus Himself, and his relationship and his role with Jesus. Remember last week what we said in John 3.16? God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him would not die, but they would have eternal life. God loved, God gave, we believe, we receive. And that's now brought us into this place where we have a position that we do not deserve, but we can boldly and confidently walk in, which is what? A child of God. Ephesians tells us that. That Jesus paid the ultimate price. He sacrificed himself so that we could be brought into the family. We could be adopted. That's why adoption is so beautiful because it points us back even to what God has done for us, that He's adopted us in, and Jesus paid the price for that adoption. The Holy Spirit sealed that adoption. Okay? And so our significance doesn't come from how many times we go to church or how many good days we have as a husband or a dad. It comes from the person of Jesus. That we are his child, we are God's child. And the only hope that we have of a decreasing self, I mean, John uses this word. He says, He must increase, but I must decrease. How do you say that? Sounds like the opposite mantra of the world today. Today it's like he must decrease, I must increase, so that I have significance, worth, and value. How do you get to there? You see that Jesus Christ is everything. You see, the only way, the only hope of decreasing self is in increasing Christ. Have you ever tried to kick an addiction without replacing it with something, i.e., Jesus? You know what happens when you do that, when you have a sin habit or you have a thought pattern or you have an addiction? What happens is you say, I'm gonna stop doing this, and you muster up enough strength to stop it, but guess what? It comes roaring back either in some other addiction or maybe you go back to that same well. Why? Because again, we were made for worship. We were made to enjoy, and if it's not Christ, it's gonna be something else. And for many of you in this room, you're struggling, you're battling with addiction, but you're trying to battle it on your own. Trying to battle through this thing on your own, apart from Christ. And what we need is if we are gonna decrease, we need Christ to increase in our lives, in our hearts. We need a bigger view of God, not a better view of ourselves. You know the self-esteem movement? I grew up in it. I created a bunch of entitled little punks. I'm one of them, okay? I'm working through that. But the self-esteem movement says, you know, if you just feel good enough about yourself, the whole world will be better, right? We need to see rightly. We need to see God rightly, we need to see ourselves honestly, and we need to understand our significance doesn't come from just thinking we're awesome. It comes from thinking God's awesome, that he loves us, that we are his child. Because of the work of Jesus, because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Thirdly, gotta move. Submit to the authority of Jesus. Submit to the authority of Jesus. Anyone heard the word submit and joy in the same sentence? You know why? Because we think if you submit, you obey somebody, that just means it's gonna be a drudgery. Oh man, obedience, that sounds more common, like submission and sadness. I'm just gonna submit. Just gotta do it. Just gonna obey, you know, so hard. Hate life. It's just hard to be a Christian, I have to obey God. No, obedience brings blessing. Submission brings joy. Tell my kids that, right? Submit to the authority of Jesus. Verse 31 through 36, the author, John, is now going to make some commentary about this. This is not John the Baptist talking now, this is John the writer. He says this he who comes from above is above all. Christ is supreme. He is above everything. He is he who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. That's us. That's John the Baptist. He was just a human being, just of the earth. Okay? He who comes from heaven is above all. Reiterating the point. Jesus is from heaven. He is above all. He is God. View, expanding. Remember what John's purpose of this whole book is. So that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And by putting your faith in him, your belief in him, you might have life in his name. That's his purpose, John 21, right? But here's the deal. He says, Whoever receives, oh wait, sorry, verse 32, he bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. I said that earlier, it sounds like John 1. And even last week we talked about how that the light came into the darkness, but the darkness didn't want to receive it because the darkness likes the darkness too much. Likes the deeds of the darkness. But he says, Jesus has come, and he's got this testimony of who God is, and he's got this testimony of what salvation really is and where you can find it. And whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves his son and he's given all things. I can't even go there. I don't have enough time. That's so much right there. But I would just simply say, remember that Jesus is in charge. And as we submit to his authority, as we surrender to his ways, we will find joy. We will find joy. I promise you, you will find joy because to surrender to his ways is to live life the way that it was intended to be lived. It's to live life the way that God actually created us to live. And so when we follow his ways, when we don't lie, when we don't steal, we don't kill, we don't covet, we don't commit murder, we don't do all these things, whatever it might be, when we don't do those things, we find life. We find joy, we find peace, right? That's part of the way that the world works. That's the way God's designed for us. There is life there. There is life in Christ. And so when we submit to authority, we actually find joy. And the very last verse is very interesting. I want to draw your attention to it. I'm going to read it from the ESV. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. You want to know where real joy comes? Knowing that you have eternal life, regardless of what happens in this life, right? Knowing that you know your final destination is with God forever. That one God who there is abundant joy in his presence, that there is pleasures in his right hand. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Can I just be honest with you real fast about the way that we are calling people to Christ in our culture today? I'm not saying everybody, okay? I'm saying maybe even me at times because we don't want to be offensive. We don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. We don't want people to walk away from Jesus. And so we we tend to soften the gospel sometimes. But I want you to understand something that's really, really key. Why, the reason I like the ESV here is because he doesn't just use the word believe, but he says what? He does not obey Jesus is condemned. Now, some people are immediately going, red flag, red flag. He's getting ready to preach a gospel of works. He's gonna start telling me that I've got to behave, and then that's how God gets me in. No, the word believe in the scripture is not just mental ascent. It's not just Jesus died on the cross for my sin. All right, done. Great, awesome. I believe that. Yep, I believe it. You see, the whole Bible, the whole New Testament speaking to belief is a belief that there is a faith that produces action. I recently heard a pastor say to his congregation that you don't have to turn away from sin to receive salvation. Where is that in the Bible? No, listen, you have to turn away from your own way to Jesus to receive the gift of salvation. You don't earn it, but by the gift of faith, you turn, you, it's called repentance. And it's where we say, I'm going my own way, I'm rebelling, God, I'm in charge. This is my salvation plan, my self-salvation project. I'm gonna turn from that, I'm gonna turn to you, and I'm gonna receive by faith the gift of salvation. Now, the reason I say that is because some people have been told, well, you know, just say you believe in Jesus. But you know what the scripture says in Romans 10, 9, it's not just confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, but believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you'll be saved. If you want to know that you know Christ and you want to know where your eternal home is with him forever, and if you want true joy, then you can't just say, I, oh yeah, I believe that. I've heard that story, I believe that. You have to turn, by God's grace, turn to Christ and say, Christ, I receive the gift of salvation. I'm gonna turn away from my way, I'm gonna turn away from my good works, or I'm gonna turn away from my damnable good works, I'm gonna turn away from my rebellion, and I'm gonna turn to you, and I'm gonna say, Jesus, you're enough, you're sufficient, I receive you by faith. That's conversion. When we say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not just saying give mental assent to that. We're saying actually turn to Christ. It's a supernatural work. But we have to submit to the authority of Jesus. He is a testimony. In fact, did you notice verse 33? In the ESB, it uses the word set his seal. Set his seal to this. You know what he's talking about? Well, in that culture, that day, you had your seal that you would seal your documents with, your legal documents with, your wrong, a ring, you know, to press that in into that wax and say, this is official, this is legal. If you broke that, I mean that's that's bad news. Your your whole reputation's on the line. Bottom line is this. When we believe in Jesus, it's not just a lightweight, I believe in Jesus. It's a, I'm gonna commit myself to this, to following Jesus. I'm committing to follow him, I'm committing to be his disciple, I'm committing to give my very life over to him. And here's the deal: when you do that, you get life. You get life, eternal life. You get hope, you get joy, you get peace, you get life. Ephesians 2 says, for by grace are we saved through faith. It is not from ourselves, so that no one can boast. It is from what? It is from Christ. We are God's creation that he created to do good works, but not so that we could earn our way, but so that we could demonstrate his goodness and his glory in all the earth. That we could tell the whole world about him and his goodness and worship him the way he deserves. So I just would close out with this. Um, a couple things. We need to realize, I think this is the only thing that melts the human heart, uh, to be honest. It's it's the spirit, first off, has to move on our heart to help us understand truth. But we need to realize that we are a joy to Jesus. I've heard so many people say, I don't think God likes me. Maybe your spouse doesn't, but God does, okay. No, what am I saying? I don't know if you understand how much God loves his children. Now, if you're not a child of God, if you've never put your trust in Christ, if you've never put your hope in Christ, you're God's creation and you're created in his image. He cares about you, but the Bible also says that apart from Christ, we are enemies of God. Okay, and you need to understand the seriousness of that to be an enemy of God. And if you die in that place of being on the other team, of saying, I'm gonna do my thing and I'm gonna save myself or I'm gonna just reject God, there is wrath coming. I can't, I can't I can't save you from that. Christ can if we turn to Him. But if you're a child of God, you are loved by God. He loves you so deeply. Did you know that? God loves you. Hebrews 12, verse 2 says, this is the writer of Hebrews says, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before him endured a cross and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of God's throne. If you put that into context with the rest of Hebrews, I mean, what we understand he's saying there is that the process that Jesus went through, he saw it as a joy because he knew what it was going to do to reconcile and redeem humanity. He actually saw it as a joy to go to the cross so that he could rescue us. Awesome is that. That God loves us that much. That Jesus came to die for us. That Zephaniah 3.17, some of you read or heard, maybe it's even on the wall of one of your homes. Maybe if you have more than one home. Um He says, The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love, he will exult over you with loud singing. That's how God feels about you. He loves you, he rejoices over you. Or Psalm 149, 4, for Yahweh takes pleasure in his people. His people. God takes pleasure in his people. Again, some of you have this very distorted, messed up view of God. He loves you. If you are his child, he loves you deeply. We will never embrace the joy of Christ until we realize that we are a joy to him. But also this, we need to surrender to the Holy Spirit. John was a man full of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember the first time we hear about John the Baptist? Anyone know that story? He was in his mom's womb. You know what happens? Mary tells Elizabeth, John's Baptist's mom, I'm gonna have Messiah, Savior, Jesus. I got this angel came and told me. And what is going on in the womb? John the Baptist is leaping inside her womb. She's like, uh hey, something's going on here. How awesome is that! Before John the Baptist even breathes the first breath, he's already in the womb, rejoicing, because the Spirit is on him. You want me to tell you how you live with joy? Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. And when you become a child of God and the Holy Spirit comes in your life, you will produce joy. The Holy Spirit will produce joy in you. And so if you're a child of God, joy ought to be a characteristic, it ought to be a trademark of your life. Have you put your trust in Christ? Have you received the gift of salvation? Have you turned away from your own ways to the personal work of Jesus and said, I believe that's enough? If you have, are you walking in the joy? Are you resting in God's sovereignty? Are you aware that your significance is not tied to your performance, but it's tied to the person and work of Jesus and his relationship with you that he pursued, that he initiated? And are you aware that if you, as you surrender to his authority, as you submit your life to him, you will find incredible blessing there. By the work of his Holy Spirit, Christians ought to be the happiest people on the planet. Because we have a bigger perspective. Even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of trial, we have a bigger perspective. We don't just throw cliche, trite scripture verses at stuff when people are suffering. But we do know that God is bigger than all that. He is sovereign, that he loves us, he's at work in us. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for every person in this room. And I pray that right now, in this moment, you would remind them of your goodness, of your grace, of your mercy. God, if if anyone in this room has kind of given you a mental ascent, like they've they've said, yeah, I believe that Jesus Christ died on a cross for my sin. I believe that. But they've never actually turned to you for salvation. They've never actually turned away from their sin and received forgiveness and confessed and repented. I pray God that right now, in this moment, that you would lead them to that spot so that they could have life and joy and experience all the pleasures that are available in your right hand. We know that, Jesus, you are our greatest pleasure. You are our greatest joy. Just thinking about the reality that for the joy set before you, you endured the cross is an awesome and amazing reality. Would you let that sink into my heart again, fresh today? You didn't just rescue me. First off, you didn't rescue me because I deserve it. But out of your great love and mercy. And you didn't just rescue for my own sake, but for the sake of the world. So that I would tell the world to be a kind of your love and your grace to the world around me, to the people in my neighborhood, my workplace, everywhere I go. God, that every place we go, that we get to share the love of Christ. That we start with understanding you are our joy and our significance is in you. So thank you for that. We love you. We need you. Praise in your name.