savior: Would you open your Bible with me to John chapter 1? We're gonna start in verse 19 in a few minutes here. we just wrapped up our series on prayer, learning how to pray like Jesus, following Jesus' teaching on the Lord's Prayer. And so, what we're gonna do for the next few weeks here, until Advent begins, is we're going to spend some time talking about good news. how many of you had had fun with Halloween yesterday? Some of you did it's it's okay to admit it. Jesus isn't mad at you or anything. you know Halloween has its historical roots in in the church. and and it was a way for for Christians to actually kind of make fun of death. You know, death has always kind of been personified in the biblical story, especially the Apostle Paul. He's always talking about death as if it's like a being. And and Christians, especially in the early church, there's all these writings about children being so. convinced in Jesus' victory over death that they would mock death and make fun of death, children, because they were so confident in the saving power of Jesus and his victory over death. And so Halloween kind of became this thing where you kind of make fun death. That's really where it comes from. And it precedes what today is, which is All Saints Day. Anyone ever heard of All Saints Day? It's a day where we remember, you know, there's like in the Roman Catholic tradition, there are particular saints who go through this process and we say, this person is now a saint. But more generally, All Saints Day is this practice of saying, there are people who've gone before us. women and men who have who have impacted our lives. I'm sure everyone in this room can think of people, everyday people, maybe people who are never on a platform in a church or ever preached a sermon, but man, that person prayed for me, or that grandmother taught me how to read the Bible, or that aunt or uncle did this, or my mother or my father, or my my my older sibling, or whoever it was, a Sunday school teacher. You might have people in your life, or maybe you're the first person in your family who's ever come to faith, and whoever told you about Jesus is like. that saint to you. All Saints Day is a day to remember those saints that have impacted the church throughout history and impacted our personal lives. And they have passed on, they have died, and they're now with Jesus, waiting for resurrection. That's the important part. They're not defeated by death. They are now with Jesus waiting for resurrection. And so the church has historically taken All Saints Day as a day to remember those official saints, but but the everyday saints more who have impacted our lives and have impacted the church and are with Jesus waiting for resurrection. Does that make sense to you? How many of you that's the first time you've heard someone explain Halloween in All Saints Day? Yeah, it me too. It took me a lot most of my life and I grew up in the church. I had no idea what they were about. Well, there There's one saint who's not really an official saint, but someone that in our tradition, our denomination, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, that we think about sometimes as someone in some ways we think about as someone who got this movement started and has had an impact on us. And that's our founder, A. B. Simpson. I think we got a picture of him there. He's got a nice big beard. I've had a beard that big before, but. it was just g it was just getting too crazy. but A. B. Simpson was a a Canadian pastor who eventually moved down to New York City, late eighteen hundreds. kind of in that gangs of new kind of time period I think that was like a Scorsese movie or something like that. And and it's this really rough, gritty, grimy, like there's mess everywhere. It's a it's a rough time. New York City is not what we think of today, right? And and it it is this just a really, really rough place. Well AB Simpson wasn't really experiencing that. He was in a very, very fancy Presbyterian church. They were paying him At that time, late 1800s, a six-figure salary. this guy was a really well-to-do pastor. He was probably doing like preachers and sneakers before it was a thing. and you know, like he's really good. And the congregation wanted him to teach them and do all this stuff, and they're like, Man, this is this is really great. This guy just knows the Bible, so he's a great theologian and everything. But then Simpson does this thing that his church wasn't really thrilled about. He started hanging out down at the shipyards and the docks as Italian and Irish immigrants were. We were pouring into New York City. And it was rough. And his theology at that time. didn't really have a way to make sense of the horrific hardship that these folks were enduring. Just to get out of the the land that they were in that was that was economically oppressed and and starving, many of them. This is like the potato famine in in Ireland. Like they there was no food for your everyday people. And they're just like hoping something can happen. And they're sick and they're dying, and and women or children are not safe in this space. Men are killing each other. Like it's a really violent and Grimy place. Again, Gangs of New York is a pretty accurate depiction of that time. Just warning, if you watch, it's really raunchy. Just be careful. But it's real. I want you to understand this is really the time Simpson lived in. And he was trying to make sense of the gospel that he had, the good news of Jesus that he'd been given was too small. For the situation that he was facing. Theologically, he he understood what say salvation was and all these things about the good news of Jesus was just about making sure you got into heaven. It was, you wanna, or what we'd call in in some some traditions nowadays: Jesus was your fire insurance. just make sure you don't go to hell. And and Simpson's looking at the the oppressive squalor and the rough sorrow that these people were living in and the suffering they were enduring and saying, the gospel's gotta be bigger than this. Just and patting them on the head and saying, Well, someday you'll be in heaven with God. And so he was so convinced that the scriptures had more to say about the good news of Jesus, he poured through the scriptures and came to this realization that God surely was not just about trying to punch our ticket to eternity, but God in Jesus had come to give us a good news that was so much bigger and far beyond that. And he developed this way of talking about the good news of Jesus. To tell to these doc workers and immigrants, he developed a way of talking about the good news of Jesus that we now call the fourfold gospel. And it's these fourfold truths, these four truths about the good news of Jesus. And they're this: that Jesus is our Savior. That we're saved from sin and death and all of its effects, destroying the universe. That Jesus is not just our savior, but he's also our sanctifier. That Jesus is making us holy and making us like him and transforming us, and we can actually live in the fullness of that life now as we're transformed more and more into his likeness. And then Jesus began to talk about the good news: that Jesus is our healer, that people that he was seeing dying could actually be. Healed of their physical injuries, of their diseases, of sickness, that the gifts of the Spirit were still at work in and through the name of Jesus today. And they were being healed of their sicknesses and their injuries and their pain. But then also the good news that Jesus was their coming king, that Jesus on the cross was actually enthroned, that Jesus was now ruling because he's been raised from the dead and was seated next to the right hand of the Father. And one day Jesus would return to renew all creation and make Make all things new. And this was the good news that Jesus that Simpson began to speak about Jesus, that he is our Savior, our sanctifier, our healer, and our coming King. And I want us to learn more about this and grab on this month to this good news, this fourfold good news of Jesus. Why? the the early Protestant theologian Philip Melanchthon tells us why. I love this. He says, unless you know why Christ put on flesh and was nailed to the cross, what good will it do you to know merely the history about him? I found that so helpful. Like if we just kind of come in and say, yes, okay, we sing songs and we say Jesus is worthy, Jesus died on the cross, he was raised from the dead. But if we don't know why that matters for our everyday life, then we will not understand why Jesus is good news. And so for us, because in four weeks from now, we're gonna come to one of my favorite times of the year: Advent. And Advent is a period where we wait for Jesus' coming, God coming to be with us in Jesus at Christmas. And as we as we go into that season of waiting, church, I want us to understand what it is we're waiting for. That there is such good news of God coming to earth, that He is our Savior, our sanctifier, our healer, and our coming King. I want us to be so enthralled by that good news when Advent comes that we are joyfully anticipating Jesus coming again. And so for these next four weeks to help prepare us for that Advent season, I want us to spend time thinking together about the good news of Jesus. And so we're gonna talk about Jesus, our Savior. Morning. And so to get us into that, I want to learn from John the Baptist's words in John chapter 1, verses 19 through 34. It'll be up on the screen, and you can follow along in your own Bible. But it says this. Now, this was John's testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely. I am not the Christ. They asked him, Then who are you? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? He answered, No. Finally, they said, Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? John replied, In the words of Isaiah the prophet, I am the voice. Of one calling in the desert, make straight the way for the Lord. Now, some Pharisees who had been sent questioned him Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? I baptize with water, John replied. But among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I meant when I said, A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. I myself did not know him. But the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel. Then John gave this testimony: I saw the spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, as we reflect on your word this morning, I pray that the Spirit would fill us and renew our eyes to see you, Jesus, as our Savior. Lord Jesus, I pray that the depths of the good news that you are our Savior would go far beyond any words I can offer this morning. But we would be illumined and have our understanding opened by you, God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. how many of you tried to take a lot of pictures of your kids yesterday? All the trick-or-treating and everything like that happen. Any? Any of you? Yeah, a couple of you. How how many of you were with nephews or nieces or friends and you're watching take pictures? How many times did they have to try to attempt to take a picture with all the kids like standing skill? Like more than three times, more than a hundred times, probably. I I was going through some pictures and I was just, nope, not that one. Nope, not that one. Nope, not that one. Like it's like, great, great. This one's this kid's finally looking, and then the other one's like. often it's just like just stay still. Trying to get a picture with all these kids smiling and looking at the camper can at the camera just doesn't happen. Inevitably, someone's gonna be looking elsewhere than where the camera is. And friends, I think this happens with us all the time, with our salvation, with the good news of what Jesus offers us. It's really easy for you and I to look elsewhere. There's, I feel like one of us or a few of us are always distracted by something else that we are suddenly putting our hope in. Maybe this will answer my problems. Maybe this will alleviate my suffering. Maybe this is gonna help me feel more confident about myself. Often we look elsewhere, our own abilities, our own achievements, our own knowledge, our own solutions. We look to, we have an election coming up this week. Many of us are tempted to look to an election result. way or the other for salvation. All of these things are looking anywhere but Jesus. And when we look everywhere else except Jesus, we are not being saved. We're falling into the trap of looking for a solution inside ourselves or what's in our grasp. We're trying to find a solution with our own pride, our own strength, our own skill or ability. We try to seek out special knowledge. Those of us who really like to study think that we've we've discovered something fresh and unique, and suddenly we are now the ones who have the knowledge. None of this saves us, friends. It's all Like little kids being distracted as Jesus is trying to take the picture, saying, Look here, come on, look here, look here. But when we look to Jesus, we are saved. This is what we hear over and over and over from John in this passage: Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I saw the Spirit come down from heaven and descend on this one. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God. Friends, we need to look to Jesus to be saved. Cornelius Plantinga, the theologian, says, though, that the idea that the human race needs a savior sounds very quaint to us. I don't know about you, but it often is very hard for me or anyone I know to grasp the idea that I need saving. My life is generally fine. Many of you maybe you're doing all right. Maybe you have moments that are bad days, we recognize there's an ebb and flow, but generally I'm doing okay. Maybe other people need saving, but I'm pretty good. How many of you find yourself tempted with that kind of rationality every once in a while? We generally think we're fine and we have a good life. However, when we do that, what we assume sin is, is that sin is just making our life like a little bit worse. If I just get over this feeling of being bad, or if I get over my feeling of shame or guilt, then I have alleviated the sin. And so if if we go on that great vacation, we get that promotion, we get whatever it is that we find is our solution, we feel a little bit of an alleviation sometime. You know, maybe I don't need a savior. I feel pretty good. Anyone want to admit to that? I'm putting my hand up. I something goes well for me, and I'm like, I'm doing pretty good. But so I recognize that it sounds quaint that we need a savior. However, sin isn't just about making us feel a little better, or being saved isn't about us just feeling a little better. We've got to recognize that sin is the very state of our world. It is decaying. The universe is slowly decaying. Not to depress anyone, but did you know our sun is going to go out in about five billion years? And we'll be long dead before that, because as the sun grows and gets hotter, it's gonna boil the oceans until they don't exist. Some good news. I said good news, right? No, the reality is, is a good God created this world and said it is good. And then he made humans and said they are? Very good. Some of you are listening this summer when we talked about Genesis. And so we're like, this is how God set up the world. But what sin has done is it has separated us from the life source. Creation does not exist outside outside of a self-giving, loving God who sustains all things. And so what sin is doing is the very fundamental structure of reality is slowly imploding. Again, I said it was good news today. Wars will continue to go on, deaths will never be stopped, pandemics will be out of our control. We keep hurting each other, our friends, our spouses, we keep doing the same thing over and over and going, I did it again. All of these, great and small, are signs of the fact that sin is still in our world. We cannot save ourselves because all things in this reality are subject to the same brokenness. We can't build something new with broken pieces. We need someone qualified, someone who is worthy. And the Christian tradition tells us, according to John the Baptist's witness, that there is one we can look to to be saved. Look. The Lamb of God. Takes away the sin of the world. We need to look to Jesus. This is where John helps us understand that we need to look. To Jesus. And John helps us see three ways we we need to look to Jesus in this passage that I believe are really helpful for us to understand this good news of salvation. And I want to just reflect for a moment on each of these briefly. And the first is this: John teaches us that we need to look to Jesus by looking beyond. And by looking beyond, I mean we need to look beyond ourselves, what we can do, the solutions that we think exist within this world. We need to Instead look to Jesus. Verses 19 through 23, the priests and the Levites, the experts in religion come from Jerusalem because they hear that John's doing something out in the wilderness. Who is this guy? What's going on? You've got to understand, hundreds of people, maybe even thousands of people, were leaving cities and towns to go out to hear the preaching of John the Baptist. This is the most powerful and significant preaching that has been happening. In the Israelite world, the Jewish world, up to this point. They're like, whoa, what's going on with this guy? And so the religious teachers and leaders come out and they want to know who this guy is. Are you the Christ? The Messiah. By the way, that's not Jesus' last name, it's a title. The Christ is the Greek word, it just means the anointed one, the one who God has chosen. That's what that term means. And so there this is a time where a lot of people think that the Messiah is coming. We can't get into all these things, but there's all these things they're looking to in the Old Testament, especially the book of Daniel, some other things. And they believe that this time is when the Messiah would come. If you look historically at this time period, there are so many people that emerge on the scene in the Jewish world that claim to be Messiahs in different ways. And it's so it's ironic that all of these different claimants to be messiahs are happening in their midst. I have the solution. I have the solution. Solution. I have the solution. And they come to John and say, So are you the Messiah? This is pretty impressive. And he's like, No, don't look at me. I don't have the answers you're looking for. I know it looks like it, but I don't have any answers. Okay, you're not the Christ. Boy, you must be Elijah the prophet because the Old Testament says that Elijah, one like in the spirit and power of Elijah, is gonna come and is gonna begin to declare that the Messiah is coming. And ironically, in in Matthew, Jesus actually says that John is Elijah, the one coming to make the way for him. And so it's a little bit odd, but but John responds and says, no, I'm not. Okay, are you are you the prophet? Are you one of the prophets that's paving the way of the announcement of God's kingdom? No. Absolutely not. Leon Morris, the the New Testament scholar, says the increasing curtness of John's successive answers should not be missed. It appears to stem from a dislike for answering questions about himself. He had come to bear witness about another. I think we could all learn from John a little bit, couldn't we? Here's what's happening. They've come to John and they want to know who John is, because this is amazing what's happening. And John isn't interested in who he is. He knows that that won't do them any good. That won't do John any good. That's not going to do the world any good, focusing on what they have to offer. All too often we look to ourselves for solutions. But in a broken, sinful world, it's not possible to find salvation from within. Do you follow me? Jay, I already explained a little bit about sin, but just so we can understand this a little more, here's what sin is like in our world. there were a couple of gentlemen back several years ago who learned they won the Nobel Prize in medicine for learning and understanding that cancer cells are actually mutations of our own human g DNA. This is what cancer is. It's your own cells that have mutated and are attacking you, right? And they're the ones who discovered it. And do you know what they said? They were so excited. You've found the you've found this this great truth out. You've discovered this. Do you know what their response was to this? They said this: the in they said, We have not slain our enemy, the cancer cell. Or we have not figuratively torn the limbs from his body. Instead, they said, in our adventures, we have only seen our monster more clearly, and described his scales and fangs in new ways, a distorted version of our normal selves. Friends, this is what sin is. It's like a cancer. It is, it is God's creation, but twisted, malformed, and disintegrating and destroying itself. And and so imagine taking something that is destroying itself and saying, Let's fix our problems with these building blocks that we have. It's impossible. This is why there was a story several years ago with Harvard. They wanted to right some of the wrongs about the lack of equity and who gets accepted into Harvard. And so they they tried to make some changes. And I think this is a good thing to do, to try and find equitable ways for people coming from different backgrounds to be able to have an opportunity, to have great education, right? This is a good thing. But what they did was they made another twisted version of the same problem. And and and one theologian commented on it, Harvard is trying to be better than Harvard's past self. It's like we can't be more than what we are or different than what we are. How many of you have done our emotionally healthy relationships class? And you'll know from that when we talk about families of origin. That that we have things that we carry, good and bad, from our families of origin that are just kind of ingrained in how we operate and how we relate with each other, right? If you've not taken that class, a really a simple way to think about it is that that phrase, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. There are things about you and I we go, that's just like my mom. man, that's just like my dad. And there's great things about that, and there's not great things. And we perpetuate these things from one generation to another to a certain extent. That's another example of sin. We can't escape the building blocks we're working with. Does that make sense to you? And so we need something or someone that is outside of the corruption of the world of sin to save us. And if we keep looking in our world for a solution, we'll never find it. And so this is what salvation is. Salvation is God in Jesus entering creation to redeem the creation. Think about it. The very thing that's corrupted, God enters into to make it uncorrupted. This is why the scriptures talk about corruptible flesh and incorruptible flesh. Jesus enters the world in a mortal body that can be killed. That's crazy talk. I wouldn't do that if I was God. That's a bad plan. But this is what he does, and and it and it means that in the very fabric now of creation It is now tied to the new creation of G in Jesus. This is why when Jesus is raised from the dead, now he can suddenly pass through walls. He's not a ghost, he's fully human, he's eating food. Hallelujah. We're gonna eat food in the new creation. But now he but he's risen and he's reigning and he's ruling and he is holding creation in his own life. God, fully God and fully human. That's the I'm gonna try not to get too in the weeds with the theological tangents, but I want you to see that salvation is so much bigger than you were bad, and now God forgives you for being bad. It is, it is the very essence of everything is all corrupted, except God has now entered that creation and made it incorruptible in his very flesh and life. And so this is why one of my teachers and theologian, Beth Felker Jones, loves to say this. She says, Jesus' work as Savior is inexhaustible in its breadth and depth. Because everywhere we turn, we see a corruptible world and we see a distorted, cancerous, if you will, world eating itself alive. And when we cling and look to Jesus instead of ourselves, we are entering the saving life that He has for us. And so we need to look to Jesus. Because when we look to Jesus, by looking beyond ourselves, we are saved. But that's not all John teaches us here. He also says this: he says, when we look to Jesus by being humbled. Verses 24 through 28. These Pharisees start asking more questions. All right, you're not gonna tell us who you are, fine, this is weird. but let me ask you this question: why are you baptizing people? Whose authority did you have to baptize people? What are you doing baptizing people? Now, now there's a little bit of subtext going on here. sometimes the Jewish community used some ritual bathing or cleansing as a sign of kind of ongoing cleansing. But more often, in this time period in particular, Baptism was used for Gentiles who wanted to convert to Judaism. Okay, so think about it. John is being gathered, having gathered around him Jews, not Gentiles, who have seen their salvation connected to one, their ethnicity, and two, being circumcised and then following the law. And now John is saying: hey, do this thing that Gentiles do to get saved and enter the family of God. Do you hear how you might get a little offended? Excuse me? You hear the Pharisees going, why are you having them do? Whose authority do you have to do this? Who do you think you are? In order to receive the good news of salvation, they had to be willing to suffer offense. They had to be willing to humble themselves to say, if this is what God is doing, I need to repent of my sins too and enter the water. I find that our pride often disables us, but humility positions us to receive salvation from God. God the Son, think about his example. We just talked about God in Jesus, human. As Philippians 2 said, he empties himself. God is fully human, he humbles himself, makes himself obedient to death, even death on a cross. The Apostle Paul says that this should be our way of living too. But so often we hear, I don't need and to be redeemed from anything. I'm good now. I I I'm fine now. I'm I I yes, amen. I was saved, but now I've got some work I've got to take care of. Sometimes we say that there's so many times where we don't actually continue to live dependent on Jesus for our salvation, and our pride gets in the way to say, I've got it now. Thanks, God. You got me started, and now I'm gonna do my thing. So I want to encourage you if you feel offended. Along the way. We we pray this confessional prayer on the first Sunday of every month for a reason to remind us that all of us continue to need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. There are ways that we sin and continue to sin against ourselves, against God, against our neighbor, against people. And we need to continually confess and come into the humility that brings God's saving power. So I want to invite you and encourage you, if you find yourself ever feeling offended, like I don't have to repent of that. That's not a problem. Ask yourself, why do you feel offended? What is keeping me from the possibility of entering into God's grace and mercy right now? Do not let pride be a barrier. Let humility posture you to receive the salvation that Jesus has for you. We look to Jesus by being humbled. And then finally, this number three, John teaches us that we look to Jesus through. The Holy Spirit's enabling. This is so crucial for this text. Look at verses 29 through 34. After he explains all this, the text says the next day it says John saw Jesus coming toward him. And he's able to say, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, but if you keep going, John explains how he knew it was the Lamb of God. God told me that when I'm baptizing people, that the one the Spirit lands on is the one who God has anointed as the Messiah, the one who will save us from our sins. So John had no idea. He even says, I had no idea who he was. This is his like distant cousin, by the way. John and Jesus are relatives through their, through their mothers. Mary and Elizabeth are like distant cousins. So they he knows Jesus. They've probably been at different festivals and shared things together over the years. He has no clue. Except when the Spirit reveals who Jesus is. When the Spirit reveals who Jesus is, John is able to see. This is what we have to really grasp with salvation. Salvation is not our work of saying yes to Jesus. Salvation is primarily God's work of the Spirit enabling us to say yes. Enabling us to see, of course it's Jesus. Look, it's the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Remember, we're dealing with this fractured, broken set of resources. We don't have the ability to look to Jesus. But the Spirit enables us. We were hiking yesterday. And we're going up this kind of steep rock and going over this big boulder near the top. And and my youngest was trying and she was slipping a little bit. She didn't have the greatest shoes. And and and she was trying to get up this thing, and I just come up behind her. She didn't know that I was coming up behind her, and I just lifted her real quick and just put her right on top of the rock. And this What the Spirit does with you and I in salvation. Lifts us. We don't even know why we're struggling. We don't even know where to put our feet. We're clawing in life and grasping for something. But the Spirit comes and lifts us and places us firmly upon the rock of our salvation, Jesus. The Holy Spirit, my friends, wants to lift you right now in this moment. Wants to lift you. Maybe you came here today curious about Jesus, not sure about Jesus. Maybe you've been in church your whole life and you're kind of like, I still don't know what's going on here, and I'm afraid to admit it at this point. I want you to know at this moment, the Spirit wants to lift you up over the struggles, over sin and death, and place you firmly on the rock of Jesus, your salvation. AB Simpson put it this way: He said. If we lack anything, God will put his arms around us and lift us up to him, breathing his faith into us and carrying us himself until we are able to walk. This is what God has done for you. Because God loves you. Because God loves this world, because God created this world. And God has never abandoned this world, but God knew that this world could not save itself, and we needed someone to look to. And so God came into this world in Jesus so we could look to the one who is fully God and fully human, and by God's spirit be lifted up to be rested safely and securely in Him. Friends, this morning, do not resist the spirit that wants to help you come close to Jesus. This morning, if you sense an invitation, if you sense in yourself an irritability that things are not right in your life, allow that to be the voice of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit in you that draws you closer to Jesus' salvation this morning, taking you out of this world that cannot save you and into the arms of the one who can. Wanna close with this? Have you ever been at a complicated intersection where there's four or five roads that merge together? it that's normal, every day in New Jersey, I feel like. and and and you're and and you're in this road situation. I've been in one of these situations once and I and I at a stoplight and I'm stopped there and I'm looking at the light and I'm waiting at the light and I'm watching the light and I'm waiting for the light, and then all of a sudden everyone's laying on their horns behind me, freaking out, and I panic and I suddenly realize I've been looking. At the wrong traffic light the whole time. I don't know if that's ever happened to you, but ever since I'm like paranoid, like which one's for me? I don't know. I'm like, I'm like a scared animal in a backed into a corner and I don't know where to look. Friends, I want you to know that while you have been maybe looking at the wrong light. Jesus has had a green light before you this entire time saying, Come to me. He has been saying, Come to me, come towards me, just like John pointing us, saying, Look, it's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Would you draw near to Jesus as he is saying yes to you? Would you say yes to him? Don't keep looking at the wrong lights and missing the life of salvation that Jesus has offered you. Out of this world of sin and death. Start right now living in the new life that is already at work in Jesus and wants to be at work in you too. We look to Jesus to be saved by looking beyond ourselves, by being humbled, and by being enabled by the Holy Spirit to save us. We look to Jesus because Jesus alone is. Save. Would you stand with me? As we prepare to close, I want to give you a moment. If you have not heard the good news of receiving Jesus to be your savior, to say, I want, I want to live in that life. How do I live in that life right now? I want to give you a version of what A.B. Simpson himself would teach to the immigrants and the doc workers. To to to pray. So would you close your eyes and and bow your heads right now? Because we all can grow into the the scriptures teach us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. So as much as this is a salvation that is fully received once, it is also something we are constantly working out and coming into. So maybe you need to say this again, anew today, and maybe you need to say it for the first time. But if you want to respond to Jesus as your savior, just keep your eyes closed and head bowed. If you want to respond to Jesus as your savior this morning, would you lift your hand and just say, I want to step into the saving grace that you have for me, Jesus. If that's you, awesome. Yeah, we're gonna pray for you. We're gonna pray for everyone around you. And let's begin to step into that. And I just want to invite you into this four-part response. You can put your hand down, and if you need to, you can look at the screen, but you can also just keep your head bowed. And here's here's this four-part response of receiving this good news that Jesus is your Savior. First, you have to have a need for Jesus. You need to recognize that your life needs saving. The distortions, the death, the unpredictability, the pain, the hurt you have caused to others, the hurt that has been caused to you, the guilt that you have for what you have done, all of these things, the recognition of this disintegrating universe we live in, recognize that you need Jesus. And then, number two, very simply, come to Jesus. He's standing before you right now in this place. He is not far from any of you. Simpson said about this that we don't have to get up into some exalted ecstatic state to find Jesus. And we also don't have to be all the way down in a woe is me depths of terrible experience to find Jesus. Simpson said, we can find him everywhere we are. So just come to him right now, in this moment. You don't have to feel anything special or important. Thirdly, this, as you come to Jesus, you need to receive Jesus. Apprehend and recognize that this Jesus, whose body is now redeeming all of creation and making all things new, recognize that He is to be received by you. That as the scriptures say, you are now justified, where the Father looks at you and he doesn't see you, he sees the life of Jesus in you. Receive the life of Jesus for yourself. And finally, number four, follow Jesus. For some of you, this might mean if you have not been baptized. Please don't leave today. If you want to follow Jesus, come talk to me about being baptized as we prepare in the new year for our next round of baptism classes and baptisms in the spring. If you want to follow Jesus anew and you have not followed Jesus into baptism, follow him. Just as John saw Jesus baptized in the water, so are we baptized in the water, and so follow him into that. And as part of following him, rest in the good news that your salvation is secure because Jesus has done the work, not you. And so recognize your need for Jesus. Come to Jesus. Receive Jesus and follow Jesus. Let me pray for you as we're in this moment now, and then we'll prepare to take communion together.