good morning church we're going to go into scripture reading this morning and we are inching our way through John we have a new passage today we're moving forward so that's exciting um so if you'd like to turn to uh John with me we're going to be in chapter three today if you'd like to follow along with the physical Bible there are Bibles and the pews in front of you and we're going to be reading from verses 22 through 36. all right John chapter 3 starting at verse 22. after this Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean Countryside where he spent some time with them and baptized now John also was baptizing at Inon near Salim because there was plenty of water and people were coming and being baptized and this was before John was put in prison in argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing they came to John and said to him Rabbi the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan the one you testified about look he's baptizing and everyone is going to him to this John replied a person can receive only what is given them from Heaven you yourselves can testify that I said I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him the bride belongs to the bridegroom the friend who attends the bridegroom Waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice that Joy is mine and it is now complete he must become greater I must become less the one who comes from above is above all the one who is from the earth belongs to the Earth and speaks as one from the earth the one who comes from Heaven is above all he testifies to what he has seen and heard but no one accepts his testimony Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful for the one whom God has sent speaks the word of God for God gives the spirit without limit The Father loves the son and has placed everything in his hands whoever believes in the son has eternal life but whoever rejects the son will not see life for God's Wrath remains on them amen good morning hey I'm Adam I'm one of the pastors here um my wife and I moved here just about a month ago or a little less than a month ago from California um where we spent the last eight years uh I was at a church in San Francisco area and so if we haven't met I'd love to meet you one of the first things when we moved to California eight years ago one of the first things I did was pick up surfing as a hobby because it was we were 20 minutes from the beach not like the beautiful beach but like the Northern California very cold Beach but the beach nonetheless right with the ocean and so I thought hey let's I'll pick up surfing this will be fun and what I quickly learned one of the things you learned when you are serving is one of the first things you got to do when you get out there is once you figure out where you are and kind of where the waves are and where you want to be you've got to find a reference point on shore all right so I got to figure out how to use this clicker all right I'm not used to that all right um because and so you've got to choose something on Shore right like a tree or a or a bush or a boulder something on Shore that you can line yourself up with so you can know where you are because you're just in this expansive ocean and you're moving and um because and there's all sorts of different forces pushing you in every direction right so there's rip ripped currents pulling you out there's ways pushing you in there's currents pushing you left and right in all kinds of different directions and they change and so and so you never quite know where you are and it can feel like you're just sitting still just bobbing in the water and pretty soon you're a quarter mile down the beach and so you need a reference point and and what I learned quickly is that not all reference points are created equal right and because you you want to pick something that you can like is obvious and you can see quickly right and so the first couple times out I picked like this you know a truck in the parking lot that was like pretty like a bright red truck or whatever well guess what trucks move right and so you know you like you get toppled over by wave and then you get up and you try to figure out where you are and where you should be paddling to and then the truck's not there anymore and you can't figure out where you are um and and so you can use all kinds of things that's a reference point but if you don't pick the right thing you end up lost or it worse um in danger and one of the great I think one of the greatest ironings of our time in our day and age is that in an age where we have instant and convenient access to more information than any human beings in all of human history has ever had we as a society are at least as confused if not much more confused about really Baseline things about what the truth is about about what constitutes reality about what produces good in the world and what makes human flourishing what is good what is a human being even like all of these questions we're more confused about them now with more information than we were before and the problem is we're living through this time and at this time is a little bit like a turbulent ocean and there's a lot of forces pushing in a lot of different directions and they change direction sometimes and so for individuals it's increasingly difficult for us to tell who's right who should we believe who's telling the truth who's authoritative on this particular subject when it comes to things like parenting or work or or politics or whatever right and so what we do we naturally do this as human beings we create reference points there are we we naturally look for sources of truth that we can trust that we can measure other claims of Truth up against right so for many people especially early on in your life it's your it's your family right or your upbringing that's what is the source of truth that gets measured against right so what your family says about things what your family believes about the world are the things that you believe about the world at least primarily and the way that you can tell if somebody else is telling the truth is how well it aligns with what your family has said and sort of the world view and the way that your family thinks about the world and how you've internalized that in your upbringing but there's lots of other reference points people choose sometimes people sometimes people kind of follow their upbringing their family their whole life but other times they'll change and they'll go you know maybe it's peers or friends or for others it's life experience you have some life experience and it becomes a defining reality which tells you what the world is really like or still others it's a scientific method or education or maybe it's simply societal Norms it's a dominant view the culture you exist in like kind of what everyone knows and believes that's your gauge for truth what's right and what the way the world really works and so then you measure everything else against that so anytime anybody says something different than that you go well they must be wrong most commonly what happens with us though is that we're not so singularly focused about it what we what you do what I do is you use your own sense like your own analysis your own intuition your own reasoning as a reference point and so you listen to things and you go ah that doesn't sound quite right based on some amalgamation of the things like your life experiences and your upbringing and your education and your right like and your own Intuition or whatever and so the problem with that with every one of those reference points though and particularly with the reference point of using yourself as the measure and your own like ability to analyze the truth is that all of those things move on you over time every one of them moves now listen that's not to say they aren't good things it's not to say those things don't have truth in them or they don't they'll contain truth but that is to say every one of those sources of truth will over time change their mind shift and move and sometimes so subtly that it's really hard to detect that that's going on but if you're using that as your reference point to know where you are to know what is true and where where that line is the problem is you can pretty quickly be a long way off the truth and not even realize it still be convinced in your own mind that you're right on and so what you really need is a better reference point you need a reference points that's not going to move you got to pick the right one that you can measure against everything else everything else against so whether your family or your friends or your Society or education or whatever the or the rest align with the truth you can identify it and affirm it and go yes that's that's right and when they are either opposed or even just subtly misaligned you can re you can realize it and correct for it but how do you pick that reference point what or who should be your reference point that will keep you aligned with what is true in the world and in a city with competing truth claims and turbulent tides of opinion well in our passage today John tells us why you should use Jesus as your reference point right maybe that doesn't come as a surprise at a church that's what that's the argument I'm going to make right but he implores you that you should believe in Jesus the one who has come from God okay so let's let's dive in first the one first thing we see in our passage as we make our way through the Book of John is that Jesus has grown in popularity and so Jesus and John the Baptist which is a different John than wrote the book there's two Johns um Jesus and John the Baptist are both baptizing people in this area of the Judean Wilderness known for its Springs of water and um and John disciples start to notice that while John had been like the rock star guy everyone was going to John well John's disciple started to notice the people were you know all of a sudden their crowd was thinning out a little bit and Jesus crowd is growing you know people were making their way over to Jesus in fact a bunch of the people that used to be following John had moved over to Jesus and so John and meanwhile John's disciples get in an argument with some guy yeah the texture says some Jew he doesn't doesn't tell us why it doesn't tell us what they were arguing about it most likely they were either arguing about like the merits of John's baptism versus other serial ceremonial cleansing in Judaism or they were arguing about like the marriage of John's baptism versus Jesus baptism either way whatever they were arguing about left John's disciples feeling a little bit insecure about what was going on here and so and you can feel how this would kind of happen right like like I'll put this in um business terms like if you were a social media platform let's say you worked for Instagram right and Tick Tock numbers keep going up but not been up and up right right and Instagram numbers you're starting to dwindle right you're starting you're on the Facebook curve right it's like the older and older people like Instagram and younger and younger people don't right and you're go you start and then you like start talking you're like a bar with your friends on Friday night and your friends are like well you know what I don't even think Instagram's all that great anymore I don't know if it was ever all it was really cracked up to be tick tock's way better right and so right and you work for Instagram you're like okay I gotta go I gotta go to the boss right so you go to your boss and you're like Hey listen I don't know if you know this but people are talking bad about us we're losing market share here the things this is this is going poorly we gotta we gotta get back to number one here right and that's kind of what happens it turns out though that John knew he was losing market share and Not only was he okay with that Not only was he at peace with it he was actually thrilled about it Overjoyed that people were going over to Jesus in fact that was John's Hope and plan all along because John says Jesus is the messiah God's anointed savior who would re-establish God's rule on Earth and John uses the metaphor of a groom a bride and a best man and he explains that he's the best man John says listen I'm the I'm the best man in the story okay Jesus is the groom and the crowds of people these that are flocking to us are the bride and the job of the best man was to get everything ready they were kind of like the wedding planner the job the best man is to get everything ready for the wedding and make sure the groom got there to make sure the bride got there make sure all the people got there there was food like everything is ready and take care of everything so that the groom can arrive and can focus on the one thing he's supposed to be focused on which is the bride and the Bride Can arrive and be focused on the one thing she's supposed to be focused on which is the groom and the best man function was was like this wedding planner and he's supposed to take care of all the details make sure everything goes according to plan but once the groom shows up so before the groom shows up the best man is like he's the man in charge he's the one everyone is looking to like like if you need something you go to the best man you ask him because he's the one that knows everything but as soon as the groom shows up at change the best man is supposed to fade into the background and he's not really supposed to be seen anymore his job becomes visible his job is in effect finished the best man's great joy the whole point of what he is doing is to watch the ceremony go off without a problem to see his best friend get married and to see that it all runs smoothly and so John reminds his disciples I'm the best man I'm not the groom here I like yes I have been in charge I'm the one that everyone's been going to but the point of that was to get ready for this other guy to come this Messiah to come and then everyone the once the groom shows up everyone should be focused on him no one should be coming to me and right John's like listen I clearly told you I'm not the Messiah it wasn't me my job was always simply to prepare the way for him to get here so that the the so that when the Messiah came the bride was there and she was ready right the right is the people all the crowds of people and that you would be United to him and in fact Jesus the fact that Jesus was there and the people are flocking to him in droves is what John had always dreamed of you know what he'd always hopes he was what he would work his whole career to get to and so now he experiences the complete and utter Joy of a best man who's watching his friend get married and it all go off without a hitch and so John tells his disciples he must become greater I must become less and then John gives us the reason for that namely that Jesus has come directly from God okay so John speaks as one who he says he speaks as one who's from the earth that is John is a human being someone who came from Dustin will return to dust he's a great prophet but then in the end of the day he's still just a man but Jesus he says is not just a man Jesus is fully human but he's also fully God and He Has Come From Heaven and he has been in the throne room of the father so when he speaks he knows what he's talking about okay so it's a little bit like this um I've never been to Lambeau Field I've I've also never been to Lambeau Field like in the winter but like in the snow for like one of those crazy games right about what that would be like right and so like and I and I've heard people talk about it and whatever and so I could tell you like if you ask me I could describe it to you I could talk about the wind and the snow and the hardcore fans and I could tell you about the tradition that the Packers have of losing to my niners in the playoffs and I can tell you like I can tell you all these things right it'd be pretty accurate you guys like that one great wasn't quite sure how that was gonna go um we'll leave that up for a little bit um right but my my description of what Lambo is like would pale in comparison to someone who say had season tickets who grew up in Green Bay had season tickets their whole life and um and and had actually been there had actually seen it had actually experienced it and felt the cold and and heard of the crowd right John is like someone who has seen Heavenly things on TV and he's heard about them but he's never actually been there so his description is not inaccurate it's it's right it's just not anywhere close to Jesus's description Jesus has been there for eternity he knows exactly what it's like so he's testifying and he's talking about things he's actually seen and actually heard not just heard about and Devin talked about last week how Jesus because of this Jesus is often confusing to us because he is speaking of these Define this category defying realities we simply don't have the full capacity to in our human understanding to understand because we've never been in heaven or from the earth and Jesus from above therefore when Jesus speaks he does so with ex supreme authority everything that Jesus does and says is exactly what God doesn't says so much so that whoever that John says this Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful that's a weird statement right like of course God is truthful like like God tells the truth God defines what truth is right so of course God is truthful but what John is saying here is that to believe Jesus is to believe God that when you believe Jesus you are saying yes God you are truthful God Jesus is saying exactly what Jesus what God has said and to not believe that Jesus the opposite is true to not believe Jesus is to call God a liar so it's a little bit like Imagine a King sends his son the prince to another country on like a diplomatic Mission and the whole point of the Diplomatic mission is to is to be like Hey listen we just want peace and that's that's all we've ever wanted we just want to be friends with you and the the son gets there and he conveys the prince gets there and he conveys exactly what his father has said he says only what his father has said exactly what his father has said and all that his father has said and the the court of this other the people in the court of this other country they go they go you're lying no way you you guys are just you're trying to manipulate us you really want to attack us you're lying we don't believe you right what are they also saying they're also saying that the king is lying right and John is saying that that that is that same Dynamic is at work here with Jesus like Jesus is speaking directly from God and so for those who if you will accept what he says you are declaring that God is truthful but if you are if you reject what he says you are declaring that God is a liar and John says that he's so he's John says he's glad that the crowds are going over to Jesus and away from him because Jesus is talking about things he's actually seen and Jesus is full of the spirit of God without limit every other Prophet including John previously who'd had the spirit of God on them had it to the degree which with with which they needed to accomplish their assignment right God gave them the spirit that they need he gave them their daily bread right would be another way to put it but Jesus had the spirit without limit and God has entrusted everything to Jesus Jesus is from God now this has three implications for us three imperatives that that requires of us um the first is this the first is to believe Jesus okay believe Jesus that is it is imperative that you believe the things that Jesus said okay so um right because what good is a reference point if you don't believe it's if it it tells the truth right now that sounds really simple it sounds yeah of course I should believe what Jesus said right but it's actually incredibly difficult to do because there are a lot of other competing voices out there and many of them are louder and more popular and frankly they make more sense to us and so what happened what ends up happening though is that we we find these human beings or these societies of human beings or these groups of human beings or whatever that we like that have some truth or some wisdom that sounds right to us or makes us feel good and we believe them and it's at some point even if what they say at the beginning aligns with what Jesus says and it is true but at some point they're going to say something that doesn't mean either that's adamantly opposed to what Jesus says or may just be a little bit misaligned but just a little bit misaligned gets send you off in the wrong direction and what will happen is you'll go oh well they're my reference point they're what I believe in so therefore they're truthful and then you'll end up off of the truth and you have and what and here's how you can know this is happening to you you'll have this subtle switch of using their opinion to judge if Jesus is right as opposed to using Jesus to judge if they are right right and so it might be a politician like President Biden or former president Trump or some other politician it might be a political party platform that you ascribe to it might be cultural commentators that you like or even other religious figures or most people though don't even think so singularly about it right they just most people it's just simply like sort of societal Norms or the culturally agreed on assumptions whether that's the culture at Broad or like a particular culture that you like and ascribe to and kind of fit Within right the thing but the things that everybody knows right the things that we simply acquies to instead of measuring those assumptions against what Jesus said we measure what Jesus said against those assumptions well everyone knows this so Jesus can't be right about this right so questions like how should you parent how should you date how should you treat other people how should you use your disposable income how should you interact with power how should you live right Jesus should be the reference point he's the first thing that he gets the first say in all that and everything else has to align to him because he has the Divine knowledge and wisdom but what's so difficult about this especially especially for educated people sometimes the educated people think they're like oh no we're smarter than this we don't have this problem no no educated people it's almost harder for you right which Madison is a place of great education right is it because sometimes Jesus is really confusing he's talking about these Heavenly realities that are so far beyond us and so sometimes even often what he says doesn't fit into your plausibility structures which another way a more simple way to say that is it doesn't sound right to you sounds like Jesus is wrong right so let me give you a few examples of this right Jesus talks about loving your enemy a lot okay well that we'd all like to think that sounds good except when you actually experience an enemy attacking you what it feels like you should do at work in your home life or political stage or whatever is you should discredit them you should fight back you should destroy them you should obliterate them on social media right and and and and right and and because that's what somebody told you is the best thing to do like if somebody attacks you you gotta hit back otherwise you're gonna be a doormat right somebody told you that at some point and you believed him and so when Jesus says you should turn the other cheek you're like that doesn't sound right right or he tells you to turn the cheek you're like all right I'll take you I'll do that Jesus and then you do you turn the other cheek and you get hit on the other cheek too and you're like well that didn't work Jesus must be wrong or Jesus tells you to forgive people and but some things really ought to be like some things really are unforgivable aren't they somebody told you that at some point right you believed him Jesus tells you to be generous with your money to give it away that's the way to True wealth and happiness and joy and all the right like who like that's so counterintuitive that it giving away your money is not gonna make you rich right that's sort of the whole point richness is the accumulation of money if you give it away you're doing the opposite of accumulating I can't that can't be Jesus can't be right about that maybe Jesus should stick to this religious Lane and we should like you know talk to some investors about what to do with our money or Jesus tells you not to get divorced because right and and you but you go he can't possibly expect him to stay in a bad marriage that can't possibly be what God would want right like it's making me miserable and God wants me to be happy and and and my my friends told me that I should get out of this marriage it's bad for me right and so you start to measure Jesus's words about by what other people have said or other other kind of ways of thinking have said he tells you that you should tell the truth and have integrity which seems like a highly ineffective way to get ahead in business he tells you to reserve sex for marriage which if you're single sounds almost like not just bad or unfortunate like it sounds repressive like psychologically repressive doesn't it because we've been told it it is he tells you to honor your father and mother and man high school students that sounds nuts doesn't it right like because someone along the way told you your parents should earn your respect and if they don't earn it then you shouldn't have to respect them and if they're crazy then you shouldn't have to honor them and you go on and on I mean there's hundreds of these right but the point is at some point you have to decide who you're going to believe who's the reference point is it Jesus or is it someone else right and we and we use all kinds of respiratory right Freud or Taylor Swift or Jordan Peterson or whoever right Ted lasso like like we use all kinds of reference points all the time most often I really think what we use is our you believe yourself your own wisdom your own knowledge your own analogue analytical ability to go to figure out what is right what is true and you believe that and when that doesn't align with Jesus you go with your gut instead of going with Jesus right when those different possible sources of Truth are opposed to each other are misaligned with each other which is the one that gets to be your reference point which is the one that interprets all the others which is the one that says this is what's true therefore this one over here is wrong must be wrong right believe Jesus he the one that comes from above he's the one who sees heavenry has seen Heavenly reality every other potential source of Truth is from the earth even your own intuition Jesus is the one who comes from above he's seen full reality reality isn't Beyond you so that's the first imperative believe Jesus second believe in Jesus which is related to believing Jesus but is slightly different Okay so um believing in Jesus is believing Jesus about a specific thing so in last week's passage Jesus talked to Nicodemus and he brought up this story in the Book of Numbers where God God's people had been disobedient and they grumbled against God and they accused God and so what God did was God sent snakes poisonous venomous snakes to as his wrath upon them and these snakes started biting everyone and all these people that got bit started dying everywhere and it was it was God's punishment on them it was God's Wrath mediated out to them for their sin and the snakes were biting people and killing people and because of his wrath people repented they went oh my gosh we we totally messed up we turned away from God we feel bad about that and so they went to God and they said God we're so sorry we shouldn't have done that please forgive us and God said okay I will be I'll be merciful to you but what he what's really interesting about the story is God doesn't take away the snakes snakes are still there the snakes are still in the camp and they're still biting people and and people are still getting sick from the Venom but God tells Moses here's what you're going to do you're going to make a bronze snake and you're going to form it and you're going to put it up on a pole and you're going to stick it there and if anyone gets bit and they're dying if they just look at the snake they they'll get better they won't die my wrath I'll remove my wrath from them and Jesus says he's talking to Nicodemus Compares himself to that snake right Jesus is the one that if you have been disobedient to God and grumbled against him and accused him and sinned against God which is everyone therefore you are under his Wrath and then you are in the process of dying right you've been bitten by a snake and you're not dead yet but you're gonna be and it's only a matter of time before the venom does its work but if you would just look at Jesus you will not die but you will be saved right if you would just have enough Faith to go okay I'm going to look up at Jesus and as I do I believe that the Venom will stop it's work of killing me that symbol Act of Faith of looking at Jesus reverses the curse of sin and will save you from death Jesus says that's me I'm I'm the snake that you need to look to to save you from God's Wrath and so when John says in verse 36 whoever believes uh in verse 36 that whoever believes in the son has eternal life that's what he means that's what he's talking about believing in Jesus in the specific claim that is only by looking at him and trusting in Him that you can be saved from the curse of God's Wrath that you look up at Jesus on the cross on the pole to be saved that it isn't by the accumulation of your good works that outweigh your sin that you are saved it isn't by turning your life around that is you are saved it isn't by achievement or success or wealth that you are saved it is not by your education or great learning that you are saved it is not by other people's willingness to forgive you that you are saved it is not even by your own willingness to forgive yourself for the things you've done that you are saved none of those things will save you from the Venom that is flowing through your blood now listen some of those things that might make you feel a little better right they may be like ibuprofen they'll stop the pain for a little bit but it's coming back it's still going to kill you the only thing that will actually save you that will remove God's Wrath is to look to Jesus and if he won't look to Jesus what it says is that God's Wrath Still Remains on you so if you're stubborn and you continue to look to other things to save you that Venom is going to kill you it's only a matter of time and so if you won't look at Jesus upon the cross and go this is the thing this is it this is the this is the medicine I need this is the anti-venom I need then you won't live but if you believe in Jesus that is to say if you believe simply by looking up at him lifted on a pole on the cross you will live and if you've never believed in Jesus like that before you can do that right now right your sin the thing that has caused you to experience the curse of death and that that and that is keeping you from experiencing life to the fullest can be forgiven and you can be made right with God such that he sees you per as perfectly just and righteous despite everything you've done simply because you believed in Jesus you looked up to him on the cross and you believed that that was sufficient to heal you now that sounds too easy but that's exactly what John is saying here and it's what Jesus has just said so believe him believe in him believe him about this specific reality and for those of you who are already Christians this is the truth that you have to keep believing right because um because we have this tendency to believe that initial salvation comes through believing in Jesus but the sanctification or growing in Holiness comes through like doing good stuff and feeling really guilty when we do bad stuff but that's not true sanctification comes through the same faith that saved you in the first place that when you sin all God requires for forgiveness is for you to believe both eternal life and the utter fullness of life right now comes through looking at Jesus so that when you're a terrible parent that day right or you compromise your integrity or you laugh at something you shouldn't laugh at or you look at something you shouldn't look at or whatever else you can look to Jesus and your sin can be removed from you and you can live in the freedom to do what pleases God and experience the joy that comes from that trust that though you have sinned if you will just look up at the cross you can have life forever and the fullness of life right now to believe in Jesus and then third point to Jesus in some sense John gives us the aphorism that ought to Define all of our lives right he says he must become greater I must become less right and and John John was uniquely pointing forward to the Messiah and but we are pointing back to the Messiah we the our our live ought to exhibit the same sort of purpose to point back to and that is everything you're working towards is meant to point people to Jesus that they might see him and believe in him right you're like someone who was bitten by the snake if you're a Christian you're like someone who's bitten by the snake and who is looked up to Jesus and and been saved from the brink of death and you got all kinds of other madisonians walking around all around you who got bit by the exact same snake what should you do the point points Point them to the thing that saved them or that saved you and that's not to say you don't become great or accomplish great things but that when you do all of that serves a greater purpose of somehow pointing people to the one that is greater than you so that your life and your ministry it's all simply a sign pointing to Jesus so that you no longer parent to be your kid's hero anymore but to make Jesus their hero which is going to result in you doing things like disciplining your kids and apologizing to your kids and doing like the other hard parts of parenting that come along with it serving your kids you no longer exist to be your spouse or your significant others god or goddess right but you do the hard relational work to point them towards Jesus even if they already know Jesus to continually Point them towards Jesus you no longer exist to impress your boss but to be a sign pointing your boss to Jesus through your integrity and your work ethic and your righteousness and your graciousness you become okay with the idea that after a generation or two you're gonna die and No One's Gonna remember your name and you become okay with that so long as they remember Jesus's and not only okay with that but it will produce great joy in you you're like the best man you're pointing here who's pointing the bride these crowd crowds of madisonians who are dying to Jesus and when these people see Jesus and they go to Jesus and they believe in him and they receive eternal life and the joy that you experience both now and forever is indescribable but listen if you've been in church a while you've probably heard this you probably know you're you know you're supposed to share your faith point to Jesus right but what I found in my life is that it does not take long for my vision to leak on this right like like without even intending to I find my finger pointing back at me again that I want people's attention I want my people's admiration rather than Fading Into the background and simply pointing to Jesus right like like I had this Epiphany this week as I Was preparing the sermon I was like you know it's funny I I am preaching a sermon about pointing Jesus and I and thinking about what people are going to think about me right like that's the thing like that's it slips that easily right like are people gonna say am I as smart as Nick and am I am I gonna be funny and right like right like how quickly that can happen in the midst of you thinking you're doing this religious thing the thinking you're pointing people to Jesus and you actually are focused like like you have to be so intentional and wary about this of watching yourself because otherwise you will flip on this right is your life right now pointing to Jesus are you living like the best man or are you trying to upstage him upstage the groom Jesus says elsewhere in the Book of John I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except for me right in a world with competing truth claims everywhere in a world in a city with polarized views and a world with advice that seems to come from every direction remember that Jesus is the only one who has come from God he's the only one who has Divine Authority who has the fullness of God's spirit in him so that he can be your reference point he's the only one who actually knows what he's talking about he is the reference point who can guide you in the tides of the world push you in every which direction so believe in him believe the things he said believe that he is the one the only one who can save you from your inevitable death the curse of sin and the wrath of God and then believe that at the end of your life the thing that will have brought you the most Joy is not how great everyone thought you were but how great or or that in the moment but the moments that you pointed someone to Jesus and they saw how great he was and they were saved and so at the beginning of the series Nick said that what you believe is the most important thing about you yeah so what do you what do you believe you are going to use something as your reference point for truth everyone you you will use something whether you realize it or not make Jesus your reference point believe in the one who has come from God and as you live your life like the best man you'll find Joy your joy complete when he comes again let's pray father um we we trust you 've got our Jesus is our only plea he's our only opportunity for salvation so God we pray that I pray for anyone in this room who's not placed their faith in Jesus God I pray that your spirit would work in them in such a way that they would believe that they would look to Jesus for their salvation they would be saved from the curse of sin I pray for those of us who who already call you our savior who have looked to you that we would continue to look to you and that through that we would find uh joy and fullness of life in all new ways and God I pray that you would help us to get out of the way to not upstage you as we go about living Our Lives whether it's with our kids or our spouses or significant others or our co-workers or our friends or whoever Lord got to pray that you would help us to point others to you such that they would believe in you they would look to you hanging on the pole and that they would be saved and Lord we pray that we would get to rejoice in heaven with you for that for all of eternity and we pray these things in the name of Jesus Amen