(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

It's good, we're glad you're here, it's exciting, because I don't know about you, I'm gonna tell about myself a little bit this morning.

The older I get, the faster time seems to go.

I see a lot of this going on, because it happens.

And it's hard to believe that we stand six weeks before the end of the year.

We stand at Thanksgiving week.

And for many of us, it's Thanksgiving is this time-honored tradition where we gather with family and friends, we, in our house, we watch, I know this is gonna sound weird, is I have a very romantic side to me.

I know, thanks, Miss Diane, I heard you.

Is my girls, because most of you know I have two girls, so is one of our traditions, the girls and I, we watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade together, and we've done that for years.

Well, I'm sure you have traditions in your family, so we do that, and then of course, is you sit around a table, and you begin to talk about all the things you're thankful for, all the things that God has done for you, how richly we're blessed.

And let me just say, we shouldn't be doing that one day a year, we should be doing it every day.

We should be sharing of just how richly God has blessed us every day, how thankful we are for that, and then, and talking about that is then, then we share a meal, and then if you're in my house, then we're gonna watch some football, go Cowboys, no judgment, no judgment, this is a judgment-free zone.

And then of course, at some point in the afternoon, I'm taking a nap.

That's the tradition, you gotta do that things.

But as we think about Thanksgiving, and as we think about, as we move on into Christmas, because it's coming so fast, but I begin to wonder, with all the busyness of life, all the busyness of the Christmas season, going from here to there, and doing this, and doing that, I wonder have we forgotten the real meaning of Christmas.

Have we really stopped and really understand what it's all about?

Are we sharing that story with those around us?

Are we sharing the love, and the joy, and the peace that we have in our lives?

But I wonder, are we telling others about Jesus?

You see, now this morning I had the opportunity, and then the pleasure to kick off our Christmas series, because in case y'all can't tell, it looks a little like Christmas around here.

Thank you to some wonderful ladies who worked very hard this week to get that done for us, and we appreciate that.

And there were some other people that helped as well.

We look at this series, and it's entitled Be the One.

And you ask, well, what does that really mean?

Well, here's the thing.

It doesn't matter what part of scripture that you open up, doesn't matter what book it is in the Bible, you will find someone that God chose to be the one, who he chose to be his mouthpiece, that he chose to tell his story.

And here's the great news, here's the part that I love.

His scripture also tells me that God has chosen you and me to be the one, to be the one to share the love of Jesus, to share the story of Jesus, a story of grace and mercy and love, a story of redemption and hope and a future.

That's what he shared for all of us.

He's called each of us to do that.

Each and every day of our lives, he has shared us and called us to be the one.

And when you came in this morning, you found on your seat a packet of these.

These are our invite cards, our way of helping you to ask people to come and hear the story of Jesus.

And on the back of these cards, it has all of our holiday service times for our candlelight communion, our Christmas Eve services.

So as you're going this week, as you're gathering with friends and family, invite them, invite them to come and hear the story of Jesus.

The reason why we as believers celebrate Christmas, why we rejoice in Christmas.

So as we dig into God's holy word, I really want to start this morning by talking about one individual that God chose to be the one.

And in this particular case, this gentleman was the one that God chose to break 400 years of silence.

It was the one that God chose to come out of the wilderness and proclaim that the Messiah is coming.

His name was John the Baptist, and he was the one that God had a plan for.

So you might be thinking, and I really want to begin because it is really, we're going to look at two questions this morning.

And the first one is, is who is John the Baptist?

Who is he?

Because it's really a mouthful because sometimes we just say John and then we confuse, or is it the gospel writer, John, or is it John?

They are two different people.

But who is he?

Well, one of the things I love about the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is oftentimes stories that are told in the gospels, you have to go to each one of the gospels to get the whole picture, to get the complete understanding of a situation or a circumstance or an individual.

The same is true with John the Baptist.

You have to go to each individual gospel to get the whole picture.

Well, his story actually begins in Luke chapter one.

And that's where we're going to start this morning and to look at a very brief passage there in Luke chapter one because here's the thing that I love about God.

And hear me now, is what I love about God is it doesn't matter how young you are or how old you are, God can use you where you are.

And here's the thing about John the Baptist, the thing about Jesus, is God had a plan and purpose before they were ever born.

And he began that purpose while they were still yet not conceived.

And that's one of the things I want us to look at very quickly this morning because you look at that, of course, the parents of John the Baptist was Zachariah and Elizabeth.

And as you look at their story, well, scripture just simply, depending on which translation you use, and I'm just going to use the short version, is they were old.

And they were beyond having children, or at least what in our minds, any of us, if y'all ever noticed that in scripture, God seems to use the very old to have come and bear forth a child.

Have you ever noticed that?

I know the women in the room were thinking, Lord, no, help me, Jesus, don't let that happen.

But if God calls you to it, God can make it happen.

We'll pray with you and for you and around you.

But that was what the plan is because they didn't have children because Elizabeth was barren and wasn't able to.

But one day when Zachariah was in the temple performing his duties as a priest, an angel, Gabriel specifically, came and told him, hey, your wife's getting ready to have a baby.

I don't know about you, but as the father, I'd be freaking, especially at his age.

So he shared with that, he goes back, and so that continues.

Well, also there in Luke chapter one, you get the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and how the same angel, Gabriel, came to her and said that you're also going to have a child and bring forth a son, and you're going to call him Jesus.

Well, Gabriel had told Zachariah as well, you're going to call your son John.

And at the end of that conversation he had with the angel, he became where he could not speak anymore.

And he didn't speak for months and months until after the birth of John.

Well, one of the things that I love about this story, this part of the story, is Mary decided to go visit her cousin, Elizabeth.

Both of them were pregnant.

One is pregnant with our savior, the Messiah, Jesus, and the other is pregnant with John, the one that's getting ready to proclaim that Jesus is coming.

So I want you to pick up with me in Luke chapter one in verses 39 through 41.

And it says this.

He says, now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zachariah and greeted Elizabeth.

Here's the cool part.

He says, and it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now I want you to picture this for a moment.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, walks into the room carrying our savior.

And at the very sound of her voice, the unborn John in his mother's womb, Elizabeth, jumps and leaps for joy in the mere presence of an unborn savior.

I mean, think about that for a moment.

He knew immediately by the sounds that he was in the presence of the Lord.

He knew who he was.

My simple question to you this morning is, what is your reaction when you're in the presence of the Lord?

What does that look like for you?

Are you excited about it?

Do you leap for joy?

I don't know sometimes for all of us.

You know, as my grandmother used to say all the time, I think some of us, when we're in the presence of the Lord, we simply sit here to sit sour and soak in the way she put it.

Some of you've probably heard that expression before, especially if you're from country rural Georgia, because that's where she was from.

But, you know, I think about that.

I mean, because, you know, especially at Christmas, we should be excited about Jesus.

We should be excited about what's going on, because as you think about it, as John grew and began to understand through his father, you know, who he was and who God was, what his purpose was, is he understood that John the Baptist understood that he had a very special job.

He had a very special purpose because God chose him to be the one, to be the mouthpiece that Jesus was coming.

After 400 years of silence, God chose him to be the one.

Now, John was kind of, in my house, we're not allowed to say weird.

Let's say he was unique.

Is John was, you know, kind of a rough kind of dude.

He was, you know, he wore these really scratchy, itchy clothes made out of camel hair.

And, you know, he probably had, you know, long scraggly hair, a big bushy beard.

And his diet was kind of, well, scripture says it was locust dipped in honey.

Well, I don't know about you, but he was probably eating the honey to disguise the taste of the locust, because this ain't Survivor and I ain't getting in it.

You know, I don't want any grasshoppers would be another way to describe locusts.

But he was just kind of this unique guy.

And he had this message that God was wanting him to live.

He was wanting him to live.

And in a nutshell, here's what the message that God wanted John the Baptist to share.

He wanted to tell them, God wanted John the Baptist to tell us, stop running from me.

Stop running from me.

So let me say to you, stop running from God.

Because I can tell you from experience, God's gonna chase you down and he's gonna win.

Because I can tell you, and some of y'all have heard the story, I ran from God for 20 years.

Whether or not I was gonna be a pastor or not.

God won, obviously, because I'm standing in front of you.

But stop running from God.

Stop running from what he wants you to do and why he wants you to do it.

You know, the simple thing is, when God is chasing you, there's a reason.

He has a plan and a purpose for your life.

We may not know it, we may not understand it, but we simply gotta trust it.

That nothing he does is not for his good.

Not for his glory.

It's not to hurt us or anything else.

He wants us to glorify him.

So his message through John the Baptist was stop running away from God and run to me.

He told them, you need to be rescued.

I don't know about you, but I needed to be rescued.

Because I was simply a sinner.

Still am, by the way.

But yet the blood of Jesus makes me clean and righteous in the presence of God.

He says, you need a rescuer.

And I'm gonna send him.

I'm gonna share this person with you.

And I want you to see it.

I want you to be ready for it because he's coming.

He is coming.

I want you to make your heart ready.

Because Jesus is coming.

So as John's, his simple message was just simply, he was telling people to repent.

He was telling people to turn away from lives that are not focused upon God and lives that are focused upon everything but God.

And as John began to share this news, and I don't know about you, but oftentimes when we're saying things and we're proclaiming things, people begin to question.

They begin to say, well, what makes you holier than thou?

We used to use these expressions, those Jesus freaks.

A lot of people look at that term as a negative.

I don't know about you, but I think it's a good thing.

If somebody calls me a Jesus freak, praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Because that means I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

I'm doing as John did.

I'm announcing, I'm crying out from the wilderness that there's one greater than I. So that was what was happening with John.

People were questioning, why are you saying this?

And what authority?

So if you would, turn with me over to John chapter one and we'll pick up some more of his story.

John chapter one, and we're gonna look at verses 19 through 22, and it says this, is now this is the testimony of John.

When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ.

And he says, and they asked him, what then?

Are you Elijah?

He said, I am not.

Are you the prophet?

And he answered, no.

Then he said to him, who are you?

That we may give an answer to those who sent us.

What do you say about yourself?

So basically, he's questioning, he's like, by what authority are you saying these things?

What gives you the permission?

So he answers them in verse 23.

He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

You see, so John was fulfilling prophecy.

Back in Isaiah, Isaiah had prophesied that there would be one coming before the Lord that would proclaim his coming.

Well, John the Baptist is saying, hey, that's me.

I'm the one.

And so the first thing he says when asking us who is John the Baptist and what was his witness is, he's saying, I am the voice.

I am the voice that was talked about.

And you know, it's interesting, as you think about the voice, and I'm not talking about the voices in our heads, because those are tough enough as they are, but I'm talking about the voices that surround us.

There are so many things around us, voices telling us that we should do this, and we should do that, and we should go this way, and we should do that way.

And what John the Baptist is saying, listen, I am the voice to proclaim that the Messiah is coming, that he's on his way, and you need to hear it.

But what John's also testifying and telling us and showing us is we too need to be the voice in the wilderness in which we live today.

Of all the things that are going on, and I don't know about you, but I just stopped watching the news.

Because I mean, there just ain't nothing good on anymore.

You know, it's who did what to who and why, and makes no sense, and I mean, we can go on and on.

Of all these voices, God has called you, he's called me to be the one, to be the voice that's heard.

But God didn't want, and John didn't want his voice to be missed, misunderstood.

So he made sure that people heard him.

The other thing that John talks about here is that he is a witness.

Jump back up to verse number six in John chapter one.

He says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John.

This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe.

He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.

Now see, these verses, this particular passage, John the Baptist tells us that he is giving witness to the light of Jesus.

That in spite of all the advantages, all the things that Israel, the special treatment that God was giving Israel, they were people that were still living in darkness.

Even though in the midst of all that, John was called to be the one to shed the light to them, to point the way to Jesus.

And here's the thing, we've been called to be the light as well.

We talk about it all the time, that we purposefully built that beautiful building over there by the way, that's getting prettier and prettier every day, that's getting completed more and more every day, and we're getting really, really, really close.

And so you can clap for that, that's okay.

When God's ready to move us, he will.

You know, lately, just jokingly, lately I feel like we've been wandering in the desert for 40 years, we circle it, I think maybe we need to circle the building and shout.

But anyways, God has called us to be the light.

He's called us to share the light of darkness that's going on.

And as you think about light, and I know y'all been looking at these funny little things over here, all service and not mean, that's fine, but it is, they have a purpose.

You see, God has called some of us to be a hundred watts for Jesus, to shine brightly to those around us, to proclaim the good news of who he is.

But you see what I've also realized, what I've also understood, and from my own pain and struggles and those things, is sometimes, number one, we don't listen to God.

Well, oftentimes we don't listen to God.

But then sometimes because of the valley we may be in, the darkness that we're in, the sin that we may be in, that our light doesn't shine the way it should.

That God has called us to be a hundred watts for him, but the problem is because of everything going on in our life, our life gets dim.

Our light for him can barely be seen.

So I challenge you this morning, if you've got those barriers, if you've got those blocks in your life where your life is not shining the way it should for Jesus, I've been a firm believer, I've always said it, you should never have to tell anybody in your life that you're a believer in Christ Jesus because it should be evident by the actions and the way you live every day.

But for many of us, our light is real dim today and we need to get it back.

Because here's the thing, there's a lot of us in our life today that God, well, he's called us to be a spotlight.

He's called us to shine really bright to everything that's going on around us, to be that one that's gonna be the light in the darkness.

Because I don't know if you know this or not, but technically there's no such thing as darkness, it's simply the absence of light.

And the reason that we walk around in darkness, people surrounding us that walk around in darkness is because they have an absence of light and that light's name is Jesus.

And it's our job, it's our responsibility, it's our calling, all of us, to tell people about the light and what he can do for them, how he can fill that void in their life and get rid of the darkness.

One of the other things that, and I won't make y'all stare in this thing the whole time.

One of those things that this passage also shows us is that John was humble.

And here's how I know that, because looking at verses 26 and 27, it says, John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know.

It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.

So John is, the Baptist is expressing humility because he's saying, listen, I am not worthy to even loosen the sandal strap of Jesus.

And so the reason he used that analogy in that context is because during that time, the job of the person who did that, who loosened the sandal strap, was the lowest of lows of even lower than that servant.

It was the worst job there was.

And John is saying, listen, I'm not even as good as that person.

I'm not worthy.

We have to remember as we stand before the Father, because of the blood of Jesus, we are still nothing more than filthy rags.

And that's what John was saying is, listen, I'm not worthy to do this.

I'm not worthy.

Jesus himself spoke about the humility of John.

Over in Luke chapter seven and verse 28, Jesus himself said this about John the Baptist.

He said, for I say to you among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

You see, Jesus gave high praise to John.

The purpose of John the Baptist was simply to introduce people to Jesus.

The people of the world.

He was supposed to be the forerunner.

He was supposed to be the one that comes out before anything else.

He was to prepare the way for Jesus.

But see, here's the thing.

Jesus is coming back.

And because of what Scripture says, Jesus left us here, all of us, to be the one to prepare the way for his coming again.

So my question is simple, how you doing?

How you doing at preparing the way for Jesus?

Telling people about him.

Sharing about his love and his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness.

The second question I wanna get to very quickly this morning is what was his testimony about Jesus?

What did John talk about looking at John, first, or excuse me, John chapter one, verses 29 through 31?

It says, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He says, this is he of whom I've said, after he comes, a man who is preferred before me.

For he was before me.

I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel.

Therefore, I came baptizing with water.

So the first thing that John testifies, the first thing that John witnesses to is that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

And at that time and in that day, the Jews of the time, as they were thinking about, is when you say there's a lamb, they're thinking, well, there's a sacrifice.

But the Jews are thinking, well, hold on a minute.

So God is gonna send a lamb, a sacrifice, but there's no way that it's gonna be the Messiah.

There's no way that could actually happen.

So they were confused, they didn't understand, and John is saying, no, look, he is the Lamb of God.

He is the one that I've been trying to tell you about.

He's the one that I've been preparing you for.

Because the Jews were familiar.

I mean, you think about, go back to Isaiah 53.

They were familiar with the story of the suffering servant.

They understood that there was one coming to pay that price, but again, they couldn't believe that it was actually gonna be Jesus who did that, the actual Messiah.

They remembered how Abraham was commanded to take his only son Isaac and go up the mountain and sacrifice him.

But they knew and understood at that last moment that God stopped it because of the obedience of Abraham and provided that sacrifice.

They're thinking there's no way that God's gonna allow his only son to go to the cross, he'll stop it.

You remember the testimony, the challenge to Jesus, if you are who you say you are, then take yourself down.

But Jesus is like, no, I have to fulfill my mission and my purpose.

The second thing that John shows us is that Jesus is the Son of God.

Verses 32 through 34, it simply says, and John bore witness saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained upon him.

I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptized with the Holy Spirit.

And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.

Now this particular story, you begin to think and wonder, well, when did John the Baptist see this?

How does he know this?

And again, that's back where you have to look at other parts of the Gospels to get the full story.

Well, the story that he's referring to is that day and that time in which John the Baptist actually baptized Jesus.

And you find that story in Matthew chapter three, and I'm gonna read you a couple of verses in just a second.

But see, I love this particular passage, and here's why.

Because this is one of those times in Scripture that it proves the Trinity exists.

Because in that passage, you have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all in one time.

And here's how I know that, because here's what it says.

Matthew chapter three, verses 16 and 17.

It says, when he, being Jesus, had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him.

And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him.

And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom, excuse me, I am well pleased.

So picture this, as you have Jesus in the baptismal waters, having just been baptized by John the Baptist, and as Jesus comes up out of the water, all of a sudden, heaven opens up.

The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove, as it says, so we've got God the Son being baptized, God the Holy Spirit descending, and then it says, then a voice came from heaven, and says, this is my Son, in whom I'm well pleased.

You know, it's one of those things, I've always believed if God said it, then that settles it.

If God himself proclaimed, this is my Son, then what questions do we have left?

And that's what John was testifying to, is he was saying, listen, this is the Son of God, because I heard God the Father say it.

John testified that there was no other but him.

You see, but I wonder in our own lives, do our actions and our attitudes, the things that we do on a daily basis, do they reflect God?

Do they bear witness to who God is?

Let me close with this quick story.

Back in the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas and Pope Alexander IV, they were having this discussion about the beauty and the riches of the Vatican.

And they were alluding to Acts chapter three, and they were talking about the story where Peter and John were said to the crippled beggar, they said, you know, gold and silver, I have none to give you, but what I have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Natharas, arise and walk.

And as the Pope said, well, Thomas, you know, the church really can't say anymore that gold and riches it doesn't have, and which Thomas replied, well, nor can the church really talk about how to say to a cripple, rise up and walk.

Here was his point.

His point is, is the church faces many issues today.

And I mean, big C church.

Is we face, I wonder is because the reason we face these things, we face these struggles, we face these battles as churches, as believers, is because we've forgotten the mission.

We've forgotten the purpose of what God has called us to do.

We've forgotten what the early church already knew.

So I wanna challenge you this morning, is will you help us revive the mission of the church?

Will you be the one to tell people about Jesus?

Whether it's Christmas or not, will you be the one to share love and mercy and grace toward others, the redemptive story of a father through his son?

Will you be the one to invite somebody into repentance, to turning away from their old selves and walking anew out of the darkness and into the light?

Will you be the one this morning to invite somebody to church this Christmas?

Because not all of us are called to be that mouthpiece in the way we wanna be.

Sometimes our mouthpiece is simply to invite someone so somebody else can tell it.

And that's okay too, because we all fit together in the story of how to share it.

You have the power to change somebody's life if you'll simply speak the name of Jesus.

Will you be the one this morning that does that?

This morning, if you're here, and you don't know what I'm talking about, you don't know what it means to be a follower of Christ, to be a believer in Jesus.

Well, scripture just simply says that we have to admit that we're sinners.

And sinners or sin is just a really big word for saying we do things that God doesn't like.

Well, I can tell you right now, each and every one of us do things that God doesn't like each and every day, each and every minute.

And then we simply have to believe that Jesus is the one and only Son of God, who was sent to this earth to die upon a cross to pay the price that you and I deserved, but yet he took it upon himself.

That he was buried, but yet rose again on the third day and now sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you and I each and every day.

Because every time a sin becomes our life and we pray to the Father, Jesus says, no, Father, it's covered.

No, Father, it's covered.

That's the power of the blood of Jesus.

And then we simply have to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord of our life.

Turn away from where we were and walk in the light.

So I don't know where you are today, but I just simply pray that you give your life to him because he will change who you are.

Let's pray.

Father God, we love you.

Father, we thank you that you're God and we're not.

Father, we thank you for your son, Jesus.

We thank you for the message of Christmas.

Father, I thank you that you've called each and every one of us to be the one, to be the one, to say the name Jesus.

Father, we love you, we thank you, and we thank you mostly for Jesus.

And it's his name we pray. and all of God's people said, Amen.