March 1, 2026 - You are a Voice (John 1:19-23 - Brian Allison)

In a world of echoes, choose to be a voice for God. As a believer, we are called to come out of some things and come to into something different. We're called to not play the game the way everybody else plays it, to fall under the thumb that everyone else has chosen to fall under, to not be an echo, to be told what to think, but to learn how to think in Jesus. To to stop being a parrot for what our favorite news station or our favorite commentator or what our friends at work or what our spouse tells us even, but [00:28:59] (42 seconds)  #BeAVoiceNotAnEcho

To to stop being a parrot for what our favorite news station or our favorite commentator or what our friends at work or what our spouse tells us even, but to be a voice for Christ, to be a voice for God, to not just echo, echo, echo. You ever feel caught in the echo chamber at times? Just all the same stuff coming at us all the time, and I just wonder, what are we missing? Isn't there more to life than the things that we're being told are important? Jesus tells us what those things are, but we have to break free of the echo chamber and come to find our own voice for God. [00:29:31] (39 seconds)  #BreakTheEchoChamber

Do you think that Jesus wants to be more present in Northern Michigan than he is today? Yes. Yes. Absolutely. He wants to be more present here. He wants to be more present in city hall. He wants to be more present in the grocery store. He wants to be more present in my house. How's he gonna get that done? How's he gonna accomplish that? By putting voices all around Northern Michigan to be his hands and feet, to speak for him, to prepare the way for people to meet him. That is my greatest mission, and that is your greatest mission. [00:52:46] (40 seconds)  #BringJesusToCommunity

God spoke it, and now it's my job and my privilege, and your job and your privilege to bring that message into existence. Don't echo, speak. Can I pray for us this morning? Father God, thank you for your word. Thank you for the examples of men like John who were full of fire. They weren't meant to be copied, but they were meant to be studied. Lord, I pray that you would help us in our own way to live out our relationship with Jesus, to stop living in the background, to stop hiding our light under a bush, but to shine that light for everyone to see. God, show us what that means for us as individuals. Teach us how to follow you better. [00:53:38] (54 seconds)  #ShineDontHide

So day one in the story, the religious leaders come to him and interrogate him, and he says, I'm just a voice. I'm not the Christ. Day two, Jesus is there and he approaches John, and as he approaches, John says, look, it's the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Look, there he is. That's the one I was telling you about yesterday. The one who I'm not worthy to untie his shoe, that's him. [00:37:38] (29 seconds)  #PointToTheLamb

To be the right kind of voice requires humility. You see, John could have sat out there and talked about all the things that were important to him, and all the things that mattered to him, and how great he thought he was, and talk about himself all the time, but that wasn't his heart. His heart was not to be seen, but to be heard. Because you can't see a voice, you can only hear it. To step out of the way and point people to the one that he really loved, the one that excited his heart. [00:32:47] (29 seconds)  #HumilityFirst

we believe him to be now. He's the Messiah. He's the chosen one of God, come down from heaven to be with us. And now, we're kind of pivoting towards what difference did that make in people's lives. It's one thing to say that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the son of God. It's a completely different thing for that to change your life, for that to make a difference in how you live and breathe and move in your life. [00:21:25] (25 seconds)  #MessiahChangesLives

Jewish slaves were considered too good to take the shoe off somebody's foot, and so they reserved that job for the Gentiles who they considered the lowest of the low, the dogs, the unclean. And John, who's out here giving his life, surrendering what what could have been something different, could have been something bigger, he gives himself to Jesus. And he says, I'm not even worthy to act like a Gentile slave. I'm not even worthy to bend down and loosen the first strap to untie his sandal. [00:34:33] (38 seconds)  #UnworthyHumility