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What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford Podcast. I'm Bryson. Today we are breaking down Luke chapter three. I don't know if you guys are listening, but right now, if you're watching, I am actually wearing the. The crew neck of the gift that I opened up that says Santa's favorite on it. So I'm really looking forward to it. Before we break down Luke chapter three. God, my. Can I just get my. Where's my elf hand? Dylan. Coming, Coming. There. There he is. Dylan. Okay, we got a special gift today. What's the special gift? You'll never be able to guess. Oh, wow. This is a great gift. Okay, so basically there's a gift wrapped, but it's in the shape of an oval. So let me open this thing up. Let's see what we got going on. I can, like. I can barely grip the. The wrapping paper. All right, let's go. Wait, we got a football. You always wanted one of those. I mean, I've. I have always wanted one of these. Thank you so much for giving me this football. Oh, not just anyone in ESPN football. Bam. Let's go. Thank you, Dylan. I appreciate that. Take that one to the house for me. Amen. Let's go praise Jesus. Just got a football. Thank you, Dylan. I appreciate that. Now, as always, we got to get in the word of God. Today we're going to be in Luke chapter three, and we're going to begin to read about John the Baptist preparing the way. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate began governor of Judea and Herod, being tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip, tetrarcher of the region of Ituraria and Tricon. Okay, what is going on here? Traconatus and Lysanius Tetrarch, of Abilene. During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the Word of Isaiah. The Prophet. Okay, here's some context here. Okay? A lot of people thought that the Messiah that was going to come to take away the sins of the world was going to overthrow the Roman government. But this was different. Jesus had a bigger kingdom in mind. Not just a physical kingdom, but a. A spiritual kingdom that would reign over all. John says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. And the crooked shall become straight, and the roughest places shall become level ways. And all flesh and shall see the salvation of God. Here's what he's saying. The Messiah is coming. And those who. Who are everywhere in the lowest of lows, in the valleys and on the mountains and the highest of highs. He's coming for you. And then he says, and. And the crooked shall become straight. Those who are struggling can be made straight through the Lord. And. And the roughest places, if you're going through a hard time, can find peace through the Lord. And all flesh, not just some, all flesh shall see the salvation of God. He said, therefore, in the crowds that came out to be baptized to him, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruits and keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. John begins to address the hypocrisy and the religious pride that these Pharisees have. And he says, you brood of vipers, your faith is more in the things that you do than in the one who created you. Reflect on your own life. Is your faith in God determined on how good you can handle this thing? Or is your faith determined in how good God is and how good God is and how gracious he is? That should be fueling you to walk this thing out. He says, I ain't shaking. Checking for mouth breathers. I'm checking for fruit. The Lord checking for fruit. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Turn from your ways, stop living this way. And the crowds asked him, what then shall we do? And he answered them, whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none. And whoever has food is to do like the wise. This verse is referencing Matthew 25. For I was hungry and you gave me food, for I was naked and you clothed me, for I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. What you do to the least of these, you do unto him, saying what you would do to anyone. You would treat unto Jesus the way that you would treat the homeless man with. With. With bitterness and greed and selfishness is how you would treat Jesus. And. And how you would treat the richest and the most famous with favoritism is how you would treat Jesus. Not out of sincerity, but because you just want the benefits of Jesus without the King. There's so many people in this world that want the benefits of the kingdom without the King Jesus himself. I want the King Jesus. He's the prize. The blessings ain't the prize. Jesus is the prize. The blessings just follows from submission and obedience to him. And then he says, tax collectors also came to be baptized. They said, teacher, what should we do? And they said to them, collect no more than you are authorized to do. Because the tax collectors at this time, they were greedy thieves. They would add an extra tax, more money than they needed to tax people for the sake of themselves. The soldiers asked him, and what shall we do? And he said to them, do not extort from anyone by threats or by false accusation. And be content with your wages. I mean, don't be bribed. Be just as the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether or not he might be the Christ, here's something so important right now. These people, they've never heard a message like this before. And so they're beginning to wonder if John the Baptist is the Christ. This is how he answers them. He says, I baptize you with water. But he who is mightier than I is coming. The strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn. And but the chaff, he will burn with unquenchable fire. He says, look, I'm not the hope. I just have the hope. You and I are not the hope. Let's not get this thing twisted. You and I have nothing to be prideful about. We are not the hope. We can't save anyone. How do we know that? We've tried to save ourselves before we submit our life to Jesus. I tried to save myself before I gave my life to Jesus. I tried everything in Bryce's own willpower to break myself free from my bondage, my shame and my sin. And it led me wanting to Take my own life. I've tried to save myself. You and I, we are not the hope, we just have the hope. And John the Baptist says, I am just here to proclaim about the hope. And he says, I'm not even worthy to touch the strap of his Santas. The feet of a human being in this time period was the dirtiest part of their body. And he says, the dirtiest part of Jesus body I'm not worthy to touch. I'm not even worthy to touch his feet. Isn't that crazy? The Lord is so holy that the dirtiest part of his physical body, he is not worthy to touch. And the funniest part about this statement is if the highest place you and I are able to reach is just his feet, we've gotten everything we need. The one with the bleeding disease touches the fringe of his garment. She doesn't put all over herself all over him, just touches the fringe of his garment. So with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. But Herod, the tetrarch, who'd been reproved by him from Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all that he locked John up in prison. Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus had also been baptized and he was praying in the heavens were opened up and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased. So two things just happened here. King Herod at the time arrests John the Baptist. He doesn't kill him. He arrests him, throws him in jail for preaching. And then it says when Jesus was baptized that the Holy Spirit descended on him and bodily formed like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You're my beloved Son with who I am well pleased. Two things to take from this. First thing, the sign that the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus did something. It was to recognize that he was the Christ. But notice how Jesus doesn't start any of his ministry without the fueling of the Holy Spirit. It breaks God's heart when he sees you preaching on TikTok or social media, praying for your friends and pouring yourself out spiritually and doing it out of performance and striving and not out of the strength of the Holy Spirit. It breaks God's heart watching you trying to live this Christian walk out out of your own strength. And we watch Jesus not do any ministry without the power of the Holy Spirit. And that should be the same in our lives. But secondly, Jesus, Jesus hears from the Father in heaven. This is my beloved Son with who I am well pleased before Jesus Christ. This is so freeing. I believe that this is so freeing for anyone who struggles with working for God's love. Before Jesus did any sort of ministry, God, God the Father said, I'm pleased with my son, Jesus. Before you do any good deeds, any good works, know that the Father is just pleased with you. You are his son or his daughter. And before you ever get caught in this mumbo jumbo of trying to work your way for God's love, just know my brother or sister don't work for his love. He's already pleased with you. Delight in the love of God and let his, his pleasing, his pleasing heart for you empower you to go do good things for the Lord. And then from verse 23 on to 38, we see the lineage of Jesus, where he came from. Notice how he goes. The lineage of David. We see this in Matthew, the beginning of Matthew, but this is important right here, that the family tree of Jesus goes all the way back to Adam. Jesus is the new Adam. Do we understand this? Jesus is the new Adam. Adam got perverted in the garden. Jesus is the new Adam, but his family tree stems all the way back to Adam. This is why he's. He came from the family of Joseph, the root of David, that, that the Messiah would come from the root of David. He is the new Adam. And so this lineage is proof that all the prophecies of the Old Testament that the Messiah would come from the lineage of David, the and and and would be a restoration of the Garden of Eden. That this thing is true. And that's what that lineage is for. My friends, I pray that Luke chapter three was an encouragement to you and we will see you guys tomorrow for Luke chapter four. Hey, thank you guys so much for watching the Luke series. I pray that this thing is a blessing to you and the ultimate heart is so that you go and read this word daily. You don't rely on the podcast, you rely on the word of God and the Holy Spirit. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you like the episodes, subscribe follow us on social media and we'll see you guys in the next episode.