Faithful Witness

Sermon Summary:

What does it mean to be a faithful witness in our generation? This exploration of John the Baptist’s life reveals a profound calling that extends beyond ancient history into our present reality. Through the Gospel of John, we encounter a man whose entire existence was defined by one purpose: pointing others to Jesus Christ. John the Baptist didn’t perform miracles, yet Jesus declared him the greatest among those born of women. His power lay not in spectacular signs but in his unwavering testimony. He baptized repentant Jews in preparation for the Messiah, a radical practice that confused religious leaders of his day. When questioned about his identity, John’s response was clear: he was simply a voice crying in the wilderness, making straight the way for the Lord. His humility is striking—he declared himself unworthy even to untie Jesus’ sandals, a task reserved only for slaves. The testimony of John’s life culminated in this truth: many believed in Jesus because of him. This raises a compelling question for us today: What if our primary calling is the same? What if we’re meant to be voices in our wilderness, preparing hearts for an encounter with Christ? The statistics are sobering—while 80% of us say we share our faith regularly, less than 2% of our community are new believers. We’re planting seeds, but are we cultivating the soil? John’s example challenges us to move beyond comfortable Christianity into courageous witness, preparing ourselves through prayer, equipping ourselves with our personal testimony, and proclaiming truth in ways that are authentic to who we are, faithful to the gospel, and led by the Spirit.

Watch The Service Here

Sermon Points:

JOHN THE BAPTIST:
· In fulfillment of prophecy, he was sent from God as a witness to The Light.
· Prepared the way for the Lord!
· Acknowledged the preeminence/preexistence of The Word.
· Testified that Jesus is The Light.
· Testified that Jesus is The Chosen One.
· Baptized repentant Jewish sinners to prepare them for the coming of the Kingdom of God in Christ.
· Baptized Jesus Christ!
· Testified that Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and that Jesus baptized His followers with the Holy Spirit.
· Boldly declared that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

EVANGELISTIC SENSITIVITY

God is calling us to be faithful witnesses to our generation.

PRAY!

PREPARE!

PROCLAIM!

Key Takeaways:

• The church’s 2026 theme is “Flourishing Together,” focusing on transformation through following the Jesus way
• John the Baptist was a pivotal figure who fulfilled prophecy and prepared the way for the Messiah through his unique baptizing ministry
• John testified that Jesus is the Light, the Chosen One, the Lamb of God, and the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit
• Jesus declared that among those born of women, none was greater than John the Baptist
• Church survey data reveals that while 80% of members share their faith, less than 2% are new believers, indicating room for growth in evangelistic effectiveness
• Three practical steps for evangelistic witness: Pray (asking God to send workers into the harvest), Prepare (being ready to share what you believe), and Proclaim (declaring the gospel in ways that are indigenous to you, faithful to the gospel, and Spirit-led appropriate)
• The church has joined the Ascent Movement, a multi-denominational effort focused on re-evangelizing North America
• Evangelistic witness should be authentic to who we are, centered on the gospel, and appropriate to our contexts

Watch other Sermons Here

Scripture References:

Sermon Transcript

And everybody said amen, Right? Wow. Thank you, choir, Orchestra. Well, let me just help connect you to where we are in our journey for 2026, just to make sure, you know, you know, our theme for this year is flourishing Together connects to our theme last year and next year. But this year what we’re focusing on is what it means to be transformed on the Jesus way.

So we are going to learn this entire year about what does it mean to follow the Jesus way, not just to heaven, but that’s pretty good, wouldn’t you all agree? The Jesus way to heaven, but actually the Jesus way on earth. What does it mean in your life to follow the way of Jesus? Tonight, Cindy and I are leading a marriage seminar at First Baptist Plano. And goal number one is to stay married until then, so we can lead it, obviously.

So we’re gonna. We’re gonna do our best to do that. But then secondly, we’re going to talk about following the Jesus way in your relationships. Well, we want to learn more about that here at our church. And so each season of the year, we’re going to focus on a different facet of that.

So we are. Wednesday night, we’re going to shift our seasonal emphasis because the Lenten Easter season begins for us as Christians on Wednesday, on Ash Wednesday. So our theme for the Easter season is going to be the Good Shepherd. And we are going to, as a church, in our daily Bible readings, we’re going to read through the entire Gospel of John. So if you haven’t signed up for those daily Bible readings, I would encourage you to do it.

Kurt Grice is writing the devotionals for us, as I have given him the daily Bible readings to consider, and he and I talk about them and we’re going to make our way through the Gospel of John. So we’ll begin that Wednesday night when we gather here at 6 o’ clock for our Ash Wednesday service. And for those of you that might be new to our church, we actually do impose ashes on those who feel led to respond to that. And it’s a very meaningful, beautiful beginning to this season. So we’re going to connect it all, though, to our focus on intentional discipleship.

Let me just remind you of the process of intentional discipleship as I see it, the stages, the phases, if you will, of intentional discipleship. The way I see it, as I’ve studied the scripture and as I have lived it, it’s knowing God, experiencing God and serving God, and those all overlap. They intersect. They’re very dynamic. But it all begins with knowing God and What that means is what it means to be saved.

And then once you’re saved, a lifetime, really eternal journey begins. You are shepherded into the faith and you’re shaped as a disciple. And then ultimately serving God means you’re sent into ministry somehow. And so what we’re going to focus on during the Lenten season is the shepherding part of that journey. What does it mean to be shepherded as a believer?

We have to be shepherded past our past. Once we come into the family of God, we’ve got to be shepherded into community, shepherded into the Christian life and coming into understanding of what that really means in our everyday lives. And so what we’re going to do during the Easter season is we’re going to focus on how Jesus shepherds us. And we’ll take those few weeks, those seven Sundays, those 40 days, and learn from Jesus about how he shepherds us. And so it’s a two pronged thing during the Lenten season.

On the one hand, I want us to have a deeper understanding of how Jesus shepherds us as believers. But then on the other hand, I want us to learn so that we can shepherd others, so that we can return the favor, so to speak, and learn how Jesus shepherds and maybe you and I can become better shepherds. Does that make sense? So I’m really excited about the season that’s ahead of us, but let’s don’t get ahead of ourselves. We still need to finish this series today.

And the theme for winter of 2026 is designed to flourish. You know, it’s my contention that the Bible teaches us that God has challenged us to live into this life. He has. For us, it’s a flourishing life. And so what we’ve been doing this winter is we’ve been looking at examples of people in the scripture who have flourished so that we can learn from them as they are intentional disciples.

We began the year just with the theology behind it all, designed to flourish and the path of life. But if you’ve been with us this winter, we’ve looked at examples from the primarily from the Old Testament so far to help us understand what it means to be a disciple. We looked at Abraham, his story, Moses, his story. Katie shared the message about David and how David came face to face with his own brokenness, his own sinfulness. And she shared that powerful message on confession.

And then we’ve looked at the life of Isaiah last Sunday. So here’s what I want us to do today, the last installment in this series. I want us to learn from the example of John the Baptist. And since I’m the pastor of First Baptist Church, don’t you think I ought to pick at least one Baptist out of the whole bunch to help us? So we’re going to look at John the Baptist today.

I’ve entitled the Message of Faithful Witness, which I think sums up the life and the ministry and the testimony of John the Baptist. So with that said, our text is found in the Gospel of John. This will get us ready. We’re going to start here on Wednesday, reading through the Gospel of John. This year, in fact, the Gospel of John is going to be our guide for the entire year.

We’re going to weave in and out of the Gospel of John. He shares a very unique perspective on the life of Jesus. I’m teaching through the Gospel of John on Wednesdays in the pastor’s Bible study. We’re just slowly making our way through. We’ve been going there for a little while.

We’re still on page one, just to let you know where we are. So we’re going to make our way eventually through it all. But today’s passage, I want you to look with me at John 1. John the Baptist has introduced the Gospel of John we believe was written by the Apostle John. So let’s don’t get him confused.

But today I want us to focus on John the Baptist. He’s already been interviewed, introduced in John 1:6. But I want us to pick up the story in verse 19. So if you have your copy of the New Testament, let’s look at it. I’ll invite you to stand in honor of the Lord Jesus if you’re able, while I read this testimony from John’s gospel.

So John 1, verse 19. Now, this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levi’s to ask him who he was. This is John the Baptist. Now, he did not fail to confess, but confessed freely. I’m not the Messiah.

They asked him, then who are you? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? That’s a question about the prophecy in the Book of the Law about the prophet that was to come.

That actually is a reference to the Messiah. He answered, no. Finally they said, well, 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 wilderness. Make straight the way for the Lord. Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, why do you baptize if you’re not the Messiah, 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 straps of whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie.

Interesting little comment from John, because if you were a disciple of a teacher, whenever you arrived somewhere, you would always help the teacher do various things, carry his goods, take care of his clothing. Only slaves untied sandals. Does that make sense? So that was something only slaves did. So what John is saying is, I’m not even worthy to be a slave to this one, much less a disciple of this one.

And then John the apostle says, this all happened at Bethany, on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. Thank you. You may be seated.

So let’s talk about John the Baptist. He was a pivotal figure, obviously, in the scripture. His story is in all four gospels. You all remember the birth narrative in the book of Luke, right? About John the Baptist?

His birth was miraculous. The angel appeared to Zechariah in the temple and said, you and Elizabeth gonna have a baby. And y’ all remember Zechariah’s response. She’s an old woman. We’re not having babies.

And the angel said, well, just to show it to you, I’m gonna shut your mouth. And you won’t be able to talk until this baby’s born. Y’ all remember this story? And so, sure enough, he and Elizabeth have the baby, and. And the Lord told them, name the baby John and then shared the prophecy from the book of Isaiah.

So Zechariah and Elizabeth waited. And y’ all remember, while Elizabeth was pregnant, Mary came to visit Elizabeth. Y’ all remember this story, right? And Elizabeth said, the baby in my womb is leaping, just meeting you and the child that you’re carrying. And so from the very beginning, John the Baptist was going to be this forerunner for the Messiah.

One of our favorite stories out of our work in one of the countries in West Africa, one of the men who has been converted to Christ years ago and has become an evangelist among the people there in that nation where we are no longer able to go. But we still pray and work very hard there through our connections. But he told us that after his conversion to Christ, his wife was going to have a baby and had the baby. And there’s a naming ceremony that takes place in the village. So the chief brought everybody together and asked him, what is the name of this baby?

And he said, this baby’s named John. And the chief said, well, that’s not a name in our Islamic. We don’t have that name. It’s not a name in your family. And this evangelist said, I know, but he’s going to be John the Baptist.

And one day when he grows up, he’s going to bring Jesus to all of our people. Now come on y’. All. So John the Baptist special baby from the very beginning, right? I mean this prophetic announcement.

And then once he’s born, Zechariah shares this prophecy over him and he refers to the book of Isaiah, the one who’s going to come. So let’s talk about John the Baptist. So when we read the Gospel of John and the rest of the New Testament, here’s what we learn. He is fulfillment of prophecy he sent from God as a witness to the light. That’s what John tells us.

Page one of John’s gospel. If you look back beginning at verse six in John when we didn’t take the time to read it, secondly, he prepared the way for the Lord. Well how did he do that? Well, in various ways, one of the things he did, you’ll notice if you keep reading and get down to verse 30, 13, 14, 15 when all of a sudden John starts telling us who the Word is really, the words become flesh. Verse 15 we discover that he acknowledged the preeminence and the pre existence of the word.

John the Baptist said, the Word has come. He’s come after me, but he’s greater than me because he’s before me. So it was a theological statement about the pre existence of the Word of God. He then testified that Jesus is the light, John is not the light, Jesus is the light. And then if you were to keep reading in John 1, look at verse 34 of John 1 if you still have your Bibles open.

He testified that Jesus is the chosen one. And so what was the hallmark of John’s ministry? It was very unusual. It was something to our knowledge no one had ever done, no one was doing. That’s why it was so confusing to these leaders in Jerusalem.

That’s why they sent someone up there to Perea where he was baptizing to ask what is it that you’re doing? Well here’s what he was doing. He was baptizing repentant Jewish sinners to prepare them for the coming of the kingdom of God in Christ in the Messiah. Just unheard of. We have evidence that the Jews would baptize gentile proselytes, but we don’t have any evidence of Jews baptizing other Jews.

And John is not baptizing Gentiles. He’s baptizing Jews. So why would a Jew need to be baptized? That’s really the question. So they’re saying, then you must be Elijah.

You know, Elijah didn’t die. Y’ all remember that story. He was just taken into heaven, remember? So there were some folks who thought, well, maybe he’s going to come back. Or maybe it’s the prophet, it’s the Messiah.

But who are you and why are you doing this? Well, he’s baptizing Jews to prepare them for what’s about to happen. He didn’t just baptize Jews, y’. All. He baptized Jesus Christ.

Okay, so John the Baptist is somebody. Wouldn’t you agree? The very unusual guy in the history of the story of redemption. Then he testified, if you keep reading, in John’s gospel, verse 33, he testified that Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and that Jesus will baptize people with the Holy Spirit. Now, the evidence of that is in history now, because this morning, if you are a Christian, you have been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

That’s a gift from God to you through Jesus. So you’re a fulfillment of this prophecy from John the Baptist. He didn’t just baptize with water. Jesus was baptizing. His plan was to baptize with the Holy Spirit.

And then John boldly declared this, that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And that’s why he pointed to him. Now, this ministry will cost John the Baptist his life. Remember, he’ll be beheaded by Herod. But he was a faithful witness.

He’s a major figure in the grand story of redemption. He is. His mother and Mary were cousins. And John came just in time to prepare his world for Jesus. So what’s the testimony of the scripture?

Well, later in John’s Gospel, if you were to flip over to John 10, you have this one final verse about John the Baptist in John’s Gospel. Let me read it to you. Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. And there he stayed. And many people came to him.

And they said, though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man, about Jesus was true. And then it says this. And in that place, many believed in Jesus. That’s the testimony of John the Baptist. Because of him, many people believed in Jesus.

Don’t you love that? What a legacy. And what an example. What an inspiration for me and you. What a testimony.

You remember what Jesus said About John the Baptist, you remember, Let me give that to you. Matthew 11:11. Truly, I tell you, among those born of women, anybody here born of women today, I mean, that pretty much, I think covers the gamut. Among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. So what a high compliment from Jesus.

And so let’s just pause for a minute and thank God for John the Baptist. This man played an incredible role, a unique role in salvation history. Pave the way for the Messiah boldly. And if y’ all remember, John used the direct method of evangelism, things like this, you brood of vipers. Okay.

That that would be considered a direct method of evangelism. I don’t necessarily recommend it, but it works for him. Okay. But God used him powerfully. Many, many Jews were prepared for the coming of the Messiah because of him.

So what do we learn from John the Baptist? Well, first of all, just gratitude, obviously, in terms of redemption, we’re grateful for the role he played. But let’s talk about me and you in 2026. I would remind you that one of our goals at our church is to achieve this evangelistic sensitivity. That’s one of our goals here.

For you and I to just have a predisposition towards evangelism. Just sharing the good news of Jesus, giving an account for the hope that’s in us being willing to let people in our sphere of influence know that we’re followers of Jesus and why we are just being willing to be sensitive to opportunities when they arise. You just heard Bokeh and Sherry’s testimony. A co worker that they knew to be of another faith. Just taking that small step of entering into a conversation.

Y’ all heard Newshin’s testimony. Last week, one of our boys in our church invited her son to children’s camp. You remember that testimony? I see David Butz sitting right there. David was leading that camp.

Just a small step, right? Preston? Just inviting a friend changed the whole family’s eternity. And so just being sensitive to those opportunities, we want to cultivate that through the life of the church. So let me share with you what we’re learning about ourselves.

I have with me today. This is an 80 something page report from our flourishing survey. We have been through two sessions already of interpreting these results. We have another one planned in March where Kate Long has met with us because on the face of it, sometimes it’s a little bit hard to understand why some of these questions were asked what your answers reveal. And so she’s still helping us interpret it.

We’re still walking through it, trying to understand. So what does this mean when our people say this about themselves? This is the first time we’ve ever had this kind of hard data about all of us. So I’m really excited about it and looking forward to continue to unpack it with you. But here’s one of the things that we’ve learned when we look at this material.

When you were asked, do you share your faith even with people who may not have the same faith? That’s a question that was asked of you. And you just were asked to give a response on a scale of whether you do that, yes or no. And according to what you have told us, what you have said in the answer to this survey, about 80% of our church members we had right at 1300 of you took this survey. So wouldn’t you all agree that’s a pretty good collection of a snapshot of First Baptist Arlington.

That’s a lot of adults. Okay, 80% say, yes, I share my faith regularly. I share it with people who are maybe not even of the same faith as me. But then another interesting statistic. How many of you have been a believer less than two years?

In other words, you’re a new believer in our church. It’s a little. Less than 2% are new believers in our church. So what that tells me is we are sharing our faith, but there are not as many people responding as we would like. Does that make sense?

Less than 2% say they’ve been a believer less than two years. So what I would say is we’ve still got our work cut out for us and better learning how to share our faith. Now, granted, we’re not in charge of conversions. Only God is. We’re.

We’re in the planting business. Right. We’re the ones that are sowing the seeds. I just want to encourage you to keep doing it, and I want us to get better at it. And I’m talking about myself, because here’s the thing.

God, just like God, called John the Baptist, it’s a little bit different, perhaps for us, but God is calling us to be faithful witnesses to our generation. John the Baptist played a pivotal role, unique in history. Absolutely. But I think we would all agree that we now live in this generation and the gospel is in our hands. Don’t we agree with that?

If God could. I mean, if God chose to, he could just write it in the sky and he could. Right? That’s just not how he’s chosen to do it. How he’s chosen to do it is put it in the hands of people like me and you.

And now we have it. And we’re supposed to steward it, first of all in our own lives. And then we are to make sure that others know about it and have the opportunity as well to respond. And so we’re supposed to be preparing the way for the Lord being faithfully present, just like John was. That’s true for our whole church.

You know, our church has made a decision. As our leaders of our church, we have joined the Ascent Movement. Some of you already know about Ascent, but we are having our public launch of Ascent in March of this year in Virginia, in Falls Church, Virginia. I’m very excited about it. I should be.

I’m the chair of the leadership council. So if I’m not excited about it, we’re in trouble. Right? But it’s a multi denominational movement. There are all kinds of denominations across the us, across North America that are part of this.

Into Canada, also our reach into Central America. And we’re finally having our launching in March. It’s going to be a great event for us. I’m excited about it. Charlie Dates, a very powerful preacher in Chicago, is one of our keynote speakers.

Julio Guarnieri, our executive director, Beth Moore. Some of you are familiar with Beth, Ed Stetzer. They’re just. There’s an array of people who will be there, all kinds of seminars that will be held as we launch it. And here’s what our commitment is.

Our underlying commitment is re evangelizing North America. But the way we put that publicly is we’re sowing gospel seeds in North America, church planting, blessing and affirming some seminaries. We’re a centrist theological movement, a missional movement. I’m very excited about it. And our goal is to be a faithful witness in North America because we believe the North American church plays a role in global evangelization.

If the North American church is healthy, that’s really our hope. It’s our desire, it’s our goal. I’m very excited about it. So that’s on the church side. But let’s talk about me and you in our everyday life.

What can we do Monday through Saturday? Just when you go about your life, going to the grocery store, going to the ballpark, hanging out with your friends, walking through your neighborhood, engaging people in your everyday life, how does this apply to you? Let’s do that. Can I do that real quickly for all of us? Here are my three suggestions for you.

First of all, pray. I just can’t emphasize the power of prayer. I put a reminder on my phone 9:38, not on Sunday, because I’m here with you a lot of times at 9:38. But Matthew 9:38, Ask the Lord to send workers into the harvest. So I’m praying a 9:38 prayer asking the Lord to send workers in the harvest.

And when I pray that, I’m asking the Lord to include me in that, send me into the harvest. I want to be used by you. But let’s pray and ask God to send people. Pray for yourself. Pray for you to be sensitive to those opportunities.

Pray for God to give you boldness when you need it and to move past some of those self imposed barriers that we all have. I don’t know enough. I’m not sure how they’ll respond to me. It’s easier. Maybe somebody else is better at this.

I mean, I get it. But let’s pray and ask God to help us. Let’s pray for our networks of people. Maybe start there, people that you know, that need the gospel, bring them before the Lord. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel with them.

And then secondly, prepare, get ready. You know, you need to be ready. The Bible says we’re supposed to be ready to give an answer for the hope that’s in us. So what do you believe? If I were to walk up to you somewhere and say, hey, how are you doing today?

Could you tell me real quickly what you believe about life? I mean, do you have like a elevator speech of what you believe? What do you believe about God? What do you believe about purpose? What do you believe about eternity?

What do you believe about Jesus? I mean, what are the ways that you think you. In your own way, you don’t have to be somebody who has a PhD in Systematic Theology. That’s not what’s necessary. You just need to be a follower of Jesus.

And why are you a follower of Jesus? Why does it matter to you? Those are the kinds of things that people respond to. So prepare yourself. I’ve been thinking about that myself.

I’ve tried to come up with a couple of, what would you call them, stories or illustrations that will help me somehow communicate this quickly. And I’ve been thinking about that and asking God to help me get ready. I know what I believe, of course I do. But I want to get better at sharing it in a way that’s understandable for somebody who may have no clue. And I’ve been praying about that.

And then the third thing I would share with you is you have to proclaim.

So you need to think this to yourself. I am a Proclaimer. If you’re a Christian, just absorb that. What does that mean? Well, proclaim just means to declare something, means to tell something because it matters.

What people believe matters. And when a door opens, walk through it again. It’s somehow finding the way to communicate this truth. Here’s what I’d say about it. There are three rules that I try to follow.

First, it needs to be indigenous to me. The way I proclaim. You know, I’m not Billy Graham. I’m not Joel Gregory. When I think about the way God’s called me, I’m not Paul Powell.

You know, I’ve been influenced by a whole lot of people, but that’s not who I am. I’m me. So when it comes to proclaiming something in your life to somebody else, first of all, it’s just got to be indigenous to who you are, I think. Second of all, it’s got to be faithful to the gospel. What you share needs to be gospel centric.

And then thirdly, I believe it needs to be spirit led appropriate, you know, because you have a sense of what’s appropriate in a conversation with someone. You know, you brood of vipers might not be appropriate in your sphere of friends. I don’t know, because I don’t know who you hang out with. Okay, that might not be appropriate, but spirit led appropriateness. What is God saying?

You heard the testimony from Nooshan last Sunday, right? Little boy Preston in our church invited Arya to camp. Y’ all remember the story? He comes to camp, he becomes a follower of Jesus, he goes home and tells his mom and dad. Right?

You know, Newsham didn’t tell you the rest of the story? Of course. Aria was baptized here, grew up. She did talk about that. She didn’t tell you the rest of it.

You know, he grew up, went to high school, graduated. He went to Auburn.

Graduated from Auburn. That’s what I call flourishing. That’s real. That’s real evangelism right there is what I’d say. Fine young man, obviously.

And Aria is a good friend of mine. I love him. But the point is it just started with something that was indigenous to a little boy in our church, was appropriate to him. It centered on the gospel. God used it.

Pray for those opportunities. I’ve been praying for that opportunity with a couple of folks. And the door opened this week, and so I was able to use what I had kind of been working on. Can I just share with you what I’ve been working on? Here’s how I did it, because I’ve been thinking about how this might work.

You know, one time we were in West Africa, and we were in a village, and the chief decided to take us way yonder, out where none of us had ever been before. We got out there, and the little children ran from us. And the chief told us. He said, don’t be alarmed. Of course, we had a translator, because we couldn’t understand.

He said, don’t be alarmed. These children have never seen a white person before. They think you’re a ghost.

So here in a little while, one of the dads, the chief talked to them, comes with a little boy. And the little boy walked up to us and just touched our skin, because he had never seen white skin on a human. He just wanted to know if it was real. Then he took off running. He touched him, boom, he was gone.

So here’s my story. I’ve said this to a couple of folks. I got to do it this week, who I knew I wanted to share the gospel with. I said, I want you to imagine that little boy that touched me and kind of ran away. Never seen anything, doesn’t know anything.

Let’s just imagine that somehow, miraculously, he learns how to speak English. And we bring him here to the. To the US For a little while to go to school. So we get him here, and I buy him one of these, and I give it to him, and I say, you’re going to love this. And he knows nothing, and he says, okay.

So he gets it. So let’s say a while passes, and he finally comes up to me one day, and he says, this thing here is awesome. It’s a flashlight. Did you know this is a. I mean, I can use it. I can in my room at night.

Sometimes I’m using it. He said, you know, we don’t have air conditioning in my room. I’m from Africa, so I get cold. So we leave the windows open, and sometimes the wind will blow my papers off my desk. But you know what?

If you’ll put this on top of the papers, they don’t blow off. Thank you for giving this to me. This is awesome. And I stand there and go, dude, this right here, this is a telephone. You can call other people with this and talk to them.

It has a map on it. In fact, it’s got everything on it. And he would have no clue. So here’s how I segued. When you die, and you’re standing before God, and you look at the Lord, and he says, so what did you do with the life I gave you?

And you say, man, this was a great flashlight and a paperweight. And he’s going to say, you mean you lived your whole life just for yourself, and you never realized that what I gave you is for all. You missed all of this because all you thought you had was a flashlight and a paperweight. And so I shared it that way and said, so when you stand before the Lord, is your whole life going to be just what you did for yourself? And you think this is it, and you actually have missed out on everything else that God planned for you.

It was a very sweet time to open some more doors. I hope for me to have more conversation about meaning and purpose. But it was indigenous. I’ve been waiting on that opportunity. One of them opened the door to me and said, I’m just trying to figure out what’s the purpose of life?

And I thought, dude, it’s about this phone. I didn’t say it was about this phone. What I mean is, I thought, where’s my phone? I’m ready, y’. All.

We can do this. We do it in a way that’s indigenous to us, focused on the gospel and hopefully give God then the opportunity to bring the increase. That’s his job. We’re just put the seeds out, that’s all. We’re farmers.

We just put the seed out. Let’s be good at that. May God find us faithful in being sensitive evangelistically. Let’s pray together.

Lord, we do thank you for this gospel, this good news. We thank you that it’s powerful, changes lives. And thank you this changed our lives that someone shared it with us. And so, Lord, I do thank you for the life of John the Baptist. My goodness, what a faithful man he was.

And I just pray, Lord, that our role, which may be very different than John’s role, but our role help us to be faithful in our day as well. We pray that in Jesus name, amen.