MAKING MUCH OF JESUS!

³ Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. ⁴ Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power.  Psalm 145:3-4 NLT

 

John the Baptist Exalts Jesus

²⁶ So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.” ²⁷ John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’  ²⁹ It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. ³⁰ He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. ³¹ “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. ³² He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! ³³ Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. ³⁴ For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. ³⁵ The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. ³⁶ And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” John 3:26-36 NLT

 

JOHN IS CLEAR; JESUS MUST INCREASE AND I MUST DECREASE.

¹ In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  ² He existed in the beginning with God. ³ God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. ⁴ The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.  ⁶ God sent a man, John the Baptist, ⁷ to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. ⁸ John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. ⁹ The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  John 1:1-9 NLT

NO OTHER NAME LIKE JESUS

¹¹ “For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’¹² There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:11-12 NLT

 

JESUS GIVES US VICTORY OVER SIN AND DEATH

⁵⁴ …“Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?” ⁵⁶ For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 15:54b-57 NLT

 

JESUS CAME TO SAVE US

¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17 NLT

 

MADE RIGHT WITH GOD THROUGH JESUS

¹³ If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. ¹⁴ Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. ¹⁵ He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. ¹⁶ So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! ¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! ¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:13-21 NLT

 

JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY

⁶ Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6 NLT

 

HOW DO I MAKE MUCH OF JESUS DAILY?

• Begin each day with worship.
• Memorize Scripture.
• Share Jesus with others.
• Take every thought captive.

1. As soon as you wake up, prioritize God by giving thanks.
2. Don’t be passive with your thoughts. When negative, non-God honoring thoughts enter your mind quickly combat them with what the word of God says.
3. Give God your day. 
4. Look to Jesus when the day doesn’t go your way; you can shift your day at any point. Take every negative thought captive.”

 

Next Steps for me today…

• Surrender my life to Jesus for salvation.
• Choose to live a life that glorifies Christ in every way.