(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And I want you to see in John chapter 1 verse 29 the Bible reads the next day John seeth Jesus coming on to him and saith behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. So John sees Jesus and he says behold the Lamb of God okay so in verse 29 John the Baptist sees Jesus okay then in verse 30 I want you to notice he says this is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me and so John says after me cometh a man now the reason why he says after me is because John the Baptist was born before Jesus right he also started his ministry before Jesus did so John the Baptist was born before and he also started ministry first so he's able to say after me cometh a man because Jesus came after John the Baptist in that sense but he also says which is preferred before me for he was before me that shows Jesus actually was before John the Baptist so because we know that Jesus was here at the very beginning and the beginning was the word but it goes into more detail here we look at verse 31 and we talked about this before but notice what it says in verse 31 and I knew him not the him there is still referring to Jesus but that he should be made manifest to Israel therefore might come baptizing with water and John bear record saying I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him still talking about Jesus Christ who came before him as John the Baptist said okay then it says in verse 33 and I knew him not still referring to Jesus Christ but he does sent me to baptize with water the same said on to me upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same as he which baptized with the Holy Ghost so John the Baptist said I saw the Spirit descending upon the one who's gonna baptize with the Holy Ghost and we still see the context that this person came before John the Baptist okay notice verse 34 what John the Baptist says and I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God now this is the same context going back to verse number 30 where he said that he's before me what does that show you that shows the Son of God was before John the Baptist even though he was born after so what does that prove it proves he didn't become the Son of God at his baptism right because the same context he was before him and I saw under record that this is the Son of God now I've never really heard anyone try to argue this until the last couple years and you have these oneness heretics that are springing up and saying well who became the Son of God as baptism where he became the Son of God you know when he was in Mary's womb or when he was born no before John the Baptist he was the Son of God that's what we see here in John chapter 1 because the context is still there and before Jesus before John the Baptist was Jesus and he was the Son of God before John the Baptist because he's eternally the Son of God because at the very beginning in the beginning was the Word we had God the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost at the very beginning the Trinity has always existed it wasn't one God that became three no it was always been the three at the very beginning there's always been one God we believe in the Trinity and I believe most everybody except a few weird calls you know the kingdom followers and INC I think everybody here believes in the Trinity but I mean it just shows right from the Bible and honestly sometimes you know until you have a false you know argument come up you don't even think of trying to see how you can disprove something but right there in John chapter 1 we see very clearly that the Son of God came before John the Baptist he was eternally the Son of God now I want you to look at John 1 47 so right there that disproves the oneness Pentecostals in these oneness heretics and one other thing we're going to disprove here is dispensationalism from John 1 verse 47 notice what it says Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and saith of him behold in Israelite indeed in whom is no guile now turn back to Psalms 32 Psalms 32 what he's basically saying is there is no sin in the thing in whom is no guile so let's look up this word one other instance and in Psalms 32 Psalms 32 it says in verses 1 & 2 blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man under whom the Lord imputed not iniquity this talk about a safe person and in whose spirit there is no guile now in John 1 47 you can turn back there so we see this time on a safe person in Psalms 32 and in John 1 47 he says about Nathaniel that there's no guile in him there's no sin but wait a minute dispensationalists they don't believe that you were saved by faith in the Old Testament they don't believe you're without guile they believe that you constantly had your offerings every single week all the time you made your offers all the time for your sin to make an atonement look they didn't believe people with without guile in the Old Testament the Bible clearly says before Jesus died on the cross before he rose again there's people that were in them were no guile because they got saved by faith and all their future sins were forgiven you didn't have to live after the time of Jesus Christ people in the Old Testament they got saved they became children of God and all their sins past present future were forgiven just like us today so he looks at Nathaniel says in whom is no no guile Nathaniel was already saved even though Jesus had never died on the cross so right there we see in John 1 that both oneness Pentecostalism is destroyed and also dispensationalism is destroyed in John 1 now let's go on to the sermon here and I want you to notice in John 1 verse 15 John 1 15 as we have three points here and we're gonna see from John chapter 1 what we need to do to cause other people to want to serve the Lord and to follow the Lord and the first point we have is simply this that John the Baptist proclaimed John the Baptist proclaimed it says in John 1 15 John bear witness of him and cry so he's bearing witness of the Savior he's bearing witness of the Son of God bearing witness of Jesus Christ he bear witness of him and cried he's proclaiming Jesus Christ it says in John 1 verse 23 he said I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord so John the Baptist was crying in the wilderness proclaiming the Lord John 1 verse 36 it says and looking upon Jesus as he walked he said behold the Lamb of God so every instance that John the Baptist had to proclaim about Jesus Christ he took that opportunity every instance he proclaimed that talked about how great Jesus Christ was now you could look at the life of John the Baptist and be a little bit confused because some people would look at John the Baptist and say John the Baptist was a street preacher but you know I don't believe in street preaching street preaching is not a biblical thing and John the Baptist was not a street preacher you say well why wasn't he a street preacher if he's crying in the wilderness because John the Baptist actually had people listening to him he wasn't just yelling at them to repent of their sins okay that's not what he was doing it's just like for example right now we have a church service I am crying out I'm preaching I'm not preaching the gospel because of the fact as far as I know everyone in this room is saved but I'm crying out I'm proclaiming and look John the Baptist he proclaimed in sermons where people were gathered to listen to him but I promise you he was also one-on-one soul winner as well because anybody who's ever gonna be used by God is someone who wins souls to the Lord and you don't win souls to the Lord by getting up here and screaming at the top of your lungs the best way to win souls to the Lord is to just take 15-20 minutes from the Bible and just talk to them one-on-one and have a dialogue with them that's what we see throughout the entire Bible and so yes John the Baptist cried in the wilderness but he's not preaching the gospel when he's crying in the wilderness now he's proclaiming the Lord and proclaiming the things of God and preaching biblical things and he also was a soul winner talking to people one-on-one when he's crying in the wilderness though it's not the gospel that he's preaching there when he says make straight the way of the Lord but at the same time I'm sure John the Baptist preached the gospel probably more than anyone in this room just being a soul winner I'm sure he was just incredibly zealous so anyone who's greatly gonna be used by God they are gonna be preaching the gospel now obviously not everybody in this room is gonna preach sermons you know there's some people in this room I don't want you to preach sermons because you know if you're a woman in this room God doesn't want you to do that right but at the same time you're part of a church that is proclaiming the truth behind the pulpit which is something that cannot be said for most churches you know John the Baptist he was not afraid to cry out the things of God we're not gonna be afraid here to cry out and preach the truth but we're not just gonna get up here and scream in sermons we're also gonna go out there and do the Lord's work by going out and going soul winning just like John the Baptist did we need the balance of proclaiming from the pulpit but also just one-on-one increasing the gospel to people and getting people saved John the Baptist was a guy who had that balance now turn to Joshua chapter 2 Joshua 2 and so as John the Baptist was proclaiming the Word of God at all instances we have to ask ourselves this question who should we preach the gospel to who should we proclaim the Word of the Lord and the second thing we see here not the second point but the second thing under the first point is this that we really should make an effort to preach to those that we know our friends family and acquaintances now John the Baptist obviously he preached the gospel to so many people he didn't know we go out soul winning on Sundays and what are we doing we're preaching the gospel to people that we've never met that we don't know that we'll probably never see again until we see them up in heaven because we care about their soul whether or not they come here or not you know that's fine we want them to get saved but we need to in our personal lives as well really make an effort to win our friends family and acquaintances to the Lord in Joshua chapter 2 look at verse number 12 now therefore I pray you swear unto me by the Word of the Lord since I've showed you kindness that you will also show kindness unto my father's house and give me a true token this is Rahab talking and that you will save alive my father and my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death and the man answered her our life for yours if he utter not this our business and it shall be when the Lord hath given us the land that he will deal kindly and truly with thee so we noticed that Rahab says in verse number 13 she wants her father her mother her brethren and her sisters to be delivered she doesn't want to just be saved herself she wants to bring her family with her now it's interesting that Rahab had heard about the Word of the Lord no matter what time period you're talking about the Word of the Lord has gone out to the ends of the world everybody knows who Jesus Christ is that's just one thing that shows how powerful he is and why we know it's the truth because everybody knows about Jesus Christ yeah they might not have heard a clear presentation of the gospel but they've all heard of him you know if you had a religion that very few people in the world had ever even heard about you're gonna know that that's not the truth let me give you an example of that here in the Philippines INC guess what nobody knows who you are outside of the Philippines now they're a big cult here in the Philippines but look the first time I ever heard of who INC was was like three and a half years ago say why did you hear about him because I married my wife and I started to learn more about the Philippines but look I've been saved for like a dozen years and had read the Bible and studied the Bible and learned a lot and I never heard of INC and look you go around the world guess what most people have never heard of INC nobody knows who they are unless they're studying the cults that are out there that deny the Trinity deny Jesus as God nobody knows who a Galatian increased to is nobody knows who they are now everybody knows who Jesus Christ is now if they were the true church because if you're not part of their church you go to hell according to them you're damned to hell if you're not part of their church well I mean how is that fair to like so much of the world who has never even heard of who they are there were no churches of INC in America until you know recently right it's like how would that be fair it doesn't make any sense but you see here with Rahab the word of the Lord has been proclaimed to the ends of the world everybody served throughout I guarantee you that in every country in the world except Vatican City there's somebody who's saved I promise you that because the word of the Lord has gotten out there and people heard about Jesus Christ here Rahab has heard about Jesus Christ and she knows that they're from God she knows this is the true Lord she knows in the living God and she wants her family to be spared she asked for her father her mother her brethren and her sister she wants them all to be spared she cares about her family look at verse number 18 Joshua 2 verse 18 behold when we come into the land thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by and thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy father's household home unto thee and it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street his blood shall be upon his head and we will be guiltless and whosoever shall be with thee in the house his blood shall be on our head if any hand be upon him look we must make a plan of how to win friends and families and acquaintances and the people that we actually love and care about to the Lord now earlier in Joshua we saw that she pleaded for her family and they told her if you bring your family into the house you're gonna be spared now if we go through with the story we know that she did bring them into the house they were spared but look we know the same message today that if we would preach the gospel to our families and they would believe it they come into the house and be spared but you know what a lot of Christians do they know that but they never preach the gospel to their family right there's people that go soul winning all the time but they do not make an effort to win their family and friends of the Lord why don't they do that well they're embarrassed they're worried about repercussions see we go preach the gospel in result Park if somebody gets mad and wants to kill me no big deal I'm never gonna see him again right but I preach the gospel to someone I know and then all of a sudden they get mad at me my cousin gets mad at me when I preach the gospel to him guess what he's gonna complain to his parents his parents are gonna complain to my parents and all of a sudden everybody in the household hates me even those that are saved you're gonna look at me and say you know can't you be a little bit nicer why do you have to cause we know he's not saved but why do you have to cause so many problems isn't that the way it works you know when you preach the gospel you're putting yourself out there because it can cause you cause you to get ousted from your entire family your family your friends your acquaintances they can reject you but here's the thing about this you know if you win a family member to the Lord I promise you it's like a hundred times more powerful than when you win a random stranger to the Lord why because you care about that person more you say well you know I preach the gospel and they've rejected it look you know sometimes it takes a little while and look the truth is family can be pretty stubborn especially you know if they're older than you because they think you know who are you to teach me because I remember you when you were in diapers you're crawling around and now you're telling me about you know that what I believe about the Bible is wrong it can be kind of offensive to them now look you know obviously I know that what I believe is the truth but here's the thing let's say for example my son were to grow up one day and tell me why what I believed about the Bible was wrong you know man it would kind of get to me a little bit you kind of make me mad at me it would be tough to be tough to take it from my son telling me that right and so we have to understand that is that can be the way that it is with family but look Rahab cared about her family she put in an effort to win them to the Lord so what we want to do is not just preach here at church not just proclaim we're going you know preaching at Rizal Park or door-to-door or in parks or whatever but also in our personal lives with our friends with our family and with acquaintances maybe you have certain acquaintances that you see on a regular basis those are people we need to preach the gospel to and you we preach the gospel to them and if it doesn't work out you know that that's the way it is but we want to give them a chance obviously if they reject it you don't have to keep pestering them about obviously when it comes to work that's kind of a tricky situation when it comes to work sometimes you got to be a little bit careful because some people you preach the gospel to could get really mad one thing I always like to do was to kind of test the waters with people I kind of say something and just see if they were completely resistant to it because sometimes you know you can we try to preach the gospel to people and we invite them to church and if they just immediately are shaking their heads and saying no okay we're not preaching the gospel to them right well at work if somebody does that then they're just not interested so sometimes I like to test the waters and I would just kind of invite someone out to lunch with me I pay for their meal and I would preach the gospel to them anyway I have one people to the Lord that I worked with and oftentimes I preach the gospel and they didn't get sick so I understand that there's there's a balance there of being kind of safe there we're preaching at work but we do need to make an effort to win those to the Lord that we care about and we have to understand God has given every single person somebody that's meant to give them the gospel see everybody in the world God wants to hear the gospel when I look at like friends and family and people that I know I just kind of assume that it's me God wants to give him the gospel because I mean obviously if I go soul-winning and very few people go soul-winning in this world you just got to assume that God probably wants you to give him the gospel so that that cousin that you have it's probably not me that's meant to give them the gospel obviously I'd love to preach the gospel to them but honestly you are probably the person that's meant to give the gospel and when we're going through Christmastime this is something we need to think about because I know a lot of us are going to be spending time with family and this is an opportunity to try to win them to the Lord now turn to 1st Peter 3 1st Peter 3 and so we need to make sure that we're proclaiming at all instances John the Baptist was someone who proclaimed at all instances and there's another verse to not just as with friends and family and acquaintances but we need to be so conscious always be ready for an opportunity to preach the gospel it says in 1st Peter 3 15 but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear we need to always be ready to give an answer and so whenever those opportunities come up we need to look for those opportunities take that time to try to preach the gospel and try to win people to the Lord now when you look at throughout the Bible there's a lot of people that you see getting saved from here in the gospel but when you really think about what's the most exciting story I would look at Acts chapter 8 as probably being the most exciting story where basically he just comes at the perfect time he preaches the gospel and afterwards he's just kind of gone that's called being always ready to preach the gospel we need to always be ready and if you want those exciting opportunities you have to be willing and ready to take those opportunities those are the ones that you remember years later and you know you talk about with your friends when you're talking about great soul winning stories obviously we love everybody who went to the Lord but you know when you win people where it's just obvious God just brought someone in your life and acts eight type of situation those are very exciting those stick with you we need to be ready then turn back to John 1 John 1 and so the first point we saw is just simply this that John the Baptist proclaimed and he proclaimed in a lot of different ways he preached sermons he preached the gospel he proclaimed with every opportunity that's the first thing we see here how we're gonna influence people to want to follow the Lord but the second thing we see here is this that John the Baptist not only did he proclaim but John the Baptist was pride lists meaning he didn't have pride he was humble he was pride lists notice what it says in John 1 15 he that cometh after me is preferred before me he's saying you know what Jesus is better than me I'm not as good as Jesus Christ John 1 let's look at verse 20 verse 20 and he confessed and denied not but confessed I am NOT the Christ they asked him what then art thou Elias he said I am NOT art thou that prophet and he answered no he makes it very clear that he's not the Christ he's not Elias he says no I'm not now here's thing about this John the Baptist he could have just allowed them to think that he was he could have not given such a clear answer but how clear is it when he says I am NOT the Christ he makes it clear then he says in the next verse I am NOT art thou that prophet and he answered no he makes it very clear he doesn't want to try to confuse them and make them think that he is he's making it very clear look I'm not the Christ I'm not Elias I'm not that prophet I'm none of those things see John the Baptist was pride lists he was not trying to lift himself up he was not trying to make a name for himself he was a humble person notice what it says in verse 26 John answered them saying I baptized with water but there standeth one among you whom ye know not here he it is who coming after me is preferred before me whose shoes latch it I am NOT worthy to unloose once again he says he's preferred before me verse 30 this is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me now I would say that most people in this world would claim they're humble most people don't think that they're filled full of pride most people think that you're humble but you have to realize something that you don't really prove you're humble unless you have an opportunity to lift yourself up and you choose not to do you understand what I'm saying you know like if you were really rich you'd be you'd have an opportunity to be lifted up full of pride and you have your opportunity and when you end up being humble and you show yourself humble in that situation that proves that you are humble now turn to Luke 7 I want you to realize that nobody nobody in the entire world outside of Jesus Christ had more of an opportunity to be lifted up than John the Baptist because the Bible literally says that John the Baptist was the greatest man that there was it says in John 7 verse 28 for I say unto you among those that are born of women there is not a greater profit than John the Baptist but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he Jesus says John the Baptist was the best there's none better than him you see John the Baptist had the opportunity to be lifted up full of pride I mean when Jesus Christ says you're the best man in the world wow that's a pretty big compliment I'll be honest with you that if God were to tell me that I was the greatest man in the world it'd be it'd be pretty hard not to be lifted up and start thinking man I'm a really great preacher I'm really great at this I'm a great soul winner John the Baptist was literally the greatest man in the world and look John the Baptist being the greatest man in the world according to Jesus Christ he had the opportunity to lift himself up full of pride and guess what he did not do he didn't lift himself up he didn't say yes I am a great preacher no he didn't he said I'm not I'm not Elias I'm not that prophet he humbled himself one thing that we need to keep in mind you know on Sunday afternoons you know we have give opportunities for guys to preach and I think it's great I think it's exciting I think it's awesome I've loved that the couple sermons we've had so far but when you get chances to preach if people start giving you compliments do not let that get to your head if people start saying man that was a great sermon you know what do not allow that to let yourself get lifted up full of pride and look when you listen to these preachers that are the big-name preachers you can just tell that they're filled full of pride the way they speak you know that sermon I just listened to from Benny Avanti part of the sermon I didn't even mention was he was talking about when this whole thing started with just us 11 you know it's just us and look at this great thing that God was did through us you know you could just tell as he was talking it was just filled full of pride and they try to mask it they don't want to make it obvious it's just obvious though he's filled full of pride and not just him I mean you can look at any of these false prophets you know if you were to look at Apollo Kibble I've never listened to him preach a sermon but I promise you you're gonna hear him I mean he says he's the Son of God that's pretty lifting yourself up full of pride I'm sure you can look at these I and C these big preachers that they have or Eli Soriano and you could just tell they're lifted up full of pride look John the Baptist was better than that he was the best man there was and John the Baptist stayed humble there might be a reason why he was such a great man because he was able to stay humble look a lot of people are not able to do that turn to John 3 John 3 and in John 3 we see about John the Baptist as well in verse 25 then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying and they came unto John and said unto him rabbi he that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou bearish witness behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him John answered and said a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven so we see this example where basically they're coming to him and they're basically saying people are leaving you to go to Jesus he could have been upset he could have been frustrated but he says you know what a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven he realized this is just the ministry that I'm serving in and whatever opportunities God gives me you know praise the Lord for that and you know what if people are following the Lord praise the Lord for that because that was the whole goal of John the Baptist he wasn't trying to keep all these members to himself he wanted people to follow the Lord now turn to 1st John 2 1st John 2 and in 1st John 2 we're gonna see the Bible talks about pride and says in 1st John 2 verse 16 for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world see the Bible says the pride of life when you live in this world this world wants to lift you full of pride you look at everything out there and people promote themselves and jobs they just talk about how great they are there's a certain pride of life it's something we need to be careful about because honestly when you look at really big sins that really strike down people pride is a massive sin the Bible says there's a certain pride of life because I mean if you were to turn on the television you see all these movie stars that are lifted up full of pride they think there's something special I mean you go to the mall and one of them's there and what what happens thousands of people are just surrounded because they just want to see this big celebrity because there's something special about them according to the world see the world wants you to get lifted up full of pride but look if you're in this room and God blesses you whether it's financially whether it's you know you're you become a mighty soul winner a mighty preacher don't let it get your head realize that came from God God gave you that opportunity and if you get lifted up full of pride guess what he's gonna do he's gonna take that away from you turn to Psalm 75 one reason why God might not always bless us with some of the opportunities we want is because he realizes that you know what if I do give them this it's gonna turn their heart from wanting to serve the Lord and you know in the Bible we see lots of different people King Saul is an example when King Saul started he was an extremely humble man that's what we see in 1st Samuel he was very humble once he had success I mean when he started he was too shy to even be seen amongst the people even though he's taller than all of them and then all of a sudden as the story goes on he gets tell that he's filled full of pride now in Psalm 75 verses 6 & 7 the Bible reads for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south but God is the judge he put it down one and set it up another see the Bible says God puts down one and he sets up another so if you lift yourself up guess what's gonna happen he's gonna bring you down but if you're a humble person he's gonna lift you up that's what the Bible teaches turn back to John 1 John 1 and so the first thing we saw is this that John the Baptist proclaimed every opportunity he had and also the John the Baptist was privates two basic points and it leads to the third point where John the Baptist provoked he provoked people to want to follow the Lord in John 1 look at verse 35 again the next day after John stood in two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked he said behold the Lamb of God and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus once again he has the opportunity and he proclaims Jesus Christ says behold the Lamb of God and then all of a sudden he has two disciples they follow Jesus he has two people that leave him to follow Jesus it'd be like for example if Jesus was going by here tonight and I just said behold the Lamb of God and then two people quit coming to this church to follow Jesus now obviously we want people to follow the Lord but you know honestly that could get to your head if all the sudden you used to preach to these crowds of people that wanted to hear the Word of God and all of a sudden they're just leaving you to go follow Jesus and in the Bible you see people coming up to John the Baptist say hey people are leaving you to go over here I mean that's kind of an insulting thing to say like hey John the Baptist you know Jesus here now people are going to follow him but John the Baptist did not let that get to him and you notice how he's able to provoke people John the Baptist was able to look at his ministry and see that it was a big success now the determination of whether or not this ministry is successful it's gonna be based on how many people decide they want to start following the Lord as a result of the preaching and the soul winning and the church that we have I don't necessarily expect this church to ever become like 1,000 people because honestly mega churches are pretty hard when you're preaching like this right you're just not going to get big crowds but you know honestly if I can look back in my life and I see that people that have have been mighty soul winners for years and decades and churches are started and even if I'm only preaching to a crowd of like 70 people on a Sunday morning you know what that's perfectly fine because if we're able to get churches started and people want to follow the Lord that's the goal now honestly when it comes to a lot of preachers they have a goal to have a huge congregation because it looks good to say hey we have a thousand people at church here this morning and you have big ties and things like that but honestly that's not what I want I would like to see a lot of great churches get started I don't want this become some mighty if it grows to a thousand people hey that would be great but you know what it would be terrible if we never get any churches started right now we want to get churches started and John the Baptist was able to get look at his life and realize you know what it's a success John the Baptist I'm sure was able to motivate people to read and study the Word of God that's what I would like to see I want people to read and study the word for themselves now look if you were to study the Bible and we were to talk about every single topic in the Bible I guarantee you that none of us would agree a hundred percent on every single thing every single verse our interpretation our understanding what's the main point look there's gonna be minor differences here and there I don't agree a hundred percent with Pastor Jimenez on every single thing but I agree on all the big things which is the key we agree on all the big things it's okay to have minor differences here and there so I'm not talking about being watered down it's obvious if you have differences on eternal security that's something you got to separate oh that's a big issue but look I am NOT afraid of you reading the Bible for yourself and coming to a different conclusion on a topic I'm not afraid of that I want you to read the Bible a lot and if you come to a different conclusion you say you know what I think this verse is talking about this hey that's fine because if you're reading the Word of God and allowing the Spirit to guide you maybe I am wrong about that I'm not necessarily right you have to understand this does not benefit John the Baptist personally he's out there preaching in the wilderness this does not make him rich when people are leaving him to go to someone else but it does John the Baptist does not allow it to bother him notice what it says in verse number 40 it says in verse 40 one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother he first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto him we have found the Messiah's which is being interpreted the Christ and he brought him to Jesus and when Jesus beheld him he said thou art Simon the son of Jonah thou shalt be called Cephas which is by interpretation a stone notice that Andrew tells Simon Peter about Jesus he gets him to follow now if we were to look throughout the Bible I think we would agree that Peter was probably more successful in his Christian life than Andrew but Andrews the one who brought Peter to the Savior he had a big influence on him to bring a bringing him to follow the Lord and look when we go soul-winning we go so winning every single week and we get people saved honestly most of the time they're not going to start coming to church they're not going to start becoming a soul winner but honestly you never know when you might have the next Simon Peter in your hands you preach the gospel for years and years and years and you never know and honestly when it comes to living for the Lord there's very few people that live for the Lord but those that do live for the Lord win a lot of people you have to realize hey man I've never brought someone to church I've never brought someone who became a soul one or anything like that but you have to realize it really only takes just a couple and you've made a huge difference in the world because if you bring a couple Simon Peters to follow in the Lord and they end up winning a thousand of the Lord in their lifetime man that's a big accomplishment that's why you know it's worth it to keep going so and just to find that one person that's really gonna follow the Lord and even if they never do we we still got them saved we still save them from hell that's our whole goal here is to go out there and win souls to the Lord Andrew brings Simon Peter and that also brings to this idea of bringing your family to the Lord because of the fact it's just a lot easier for someone that you get saved if they're a family member to start following the Lord look a lot of people get saved but they're still nervous about visiting a church for the first time they're just nervous they walk in here they're like man I don't know anyone am I sitting in somebody's chair am I doing everything right they're worried they're nervous they might not come just because of that but you have to realize that if you're already at this church then you can bring someone who's a family member a friend and get them connected honestly one thing we need to do everyone in this room try to bring your friends and your family and your acquaintances to come to church anyway hopefully they'll end up sticking around they are more likely to stick around than just some random person that you get saved at business for the first time they are more likely to stick around because they know you they already know somebody at this church notice in verse number 43 the day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and findeth Philip and saith unto him follow me now Philip was of Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him we have found him of whom Moses and the law of the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph and Nathanael said unto him can there any good thing come out of Nazareth Philip saith unto him come and see Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith unto him behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile once again the implication here is Philip finds Nathanael and that he already knows him so once again this is somebody he knows and all of a sudden he follows the Lord and he becomes a mighty soul winner as well look that's that's a big thing we see in this chapter is that when it comes to our family and friends and acquaintances we should make an effort to win them to the Lord I originally on my preaching calendar was planning on preaching a whole sermon on winning family the Lord and I decided not to do that because it's really focused here in John chapter 1 but it's a message I think we need to take the heart as we're coming to Christmas time because obviously Christmas is really big for spending time with family and many of you in this room maybe most or all of us are going to be spending some time with some unsaved relatives I will be I'm going to have some unsaved relatives that we're going to be spending some time with during the Christmas season here in the Philippines you know with my wife's family probably everybody in this room we should try to make an effort to win these people to the Lord now we look at the life of John the Baptist this is a pretty basic sermon this is kind of a three-point sermon I see here from the text it's just the fact that John the Baptist just proclaimed that's what we need to do is always preach the gospel every week for the rest of our lives that's what we need to do as a man take your opportunities to preach and proclaim with boldness what the Bible says that's what we need to do we also see that John the Baptist despite the fact that he was such a great man of God he still stayed humble he was pride list anybody who's gonna be used by God must be a humble person and if they get lifted up full of pride that's gonna be the end of them you know I know somebody who's a pastor and you know I'm not gonna name who he is here he's a pastor in America but he was a kind of a big thing like 25 years ago and he was really in a really prominent position at a Bible College and I don't think the bad guy was a bad guy I believe he saved and I believe God was using him in a big way very good speaker I've heard of preached sermons where he's very good but I remember visiting his church for the first time you know about a decade ago and I remember just think I mean he was treated like a rock star at the church you know once he entered in he had like a back room here all of a sudden everyone started clapping for a normal church service it wasn't a big event it was just a normal Sunday morning and I was just kind of turned around looking at the crowd it's just my first time there is a big church and all of a sudden everybody's clapping so I started clapping just not even knowing what I was doing and also I looked around I looked at my friend pastor Jason Robinson was with me and I asked you know why are we clapping and he said he's like all the pastor just entered and I'm like oh okay but I know a lot of people in my myself I've talked to him personally one-on-one many people say the same thing about him that when you talk to him he's just a really arrogant person I don't think he started that way though see he was used greatly by God now yes he was at a Bible cause I understand we don't believe in Bible colleges but honestly you know he was a really good speaker that tons of people listen to and he preached a lot of bold dynamic sermons but you know I know tons of people who said the same thing as me that when they met him he was just an arrogant jerk and he went honestly if you looked at his life over the last like seven eight years his life was destroyed you know and that's the thing you could be a mighty preacher and a humble person like King Saul started if he can lift it up full of pride it's going to destroy you and it's gonna prevent you from provoking and causing others to serve and follow the Lord let's close in a word of prayer your Heavenly Father thanks for allowing us to be here today and just allow us all to take this sermon to heart God and you know it's difficult for all of us God