Jesus Must Increase

Praise God for His Word! It is in God’s Word that we find the wonderful principles that we are to live by (and will be judged by). One beautiful principle found in John 3:30 is the principle of humility. Humility is a foundational biblical principle considered as one of the most important virtues in the Christian life. It is defined as a heart attitude of meekness, self-abasement, and a proper, realistic view of oneself in relation to God—not thinking less of oneself, but thinking of oneself less. Humility is a sure sign of a believer actually “decreasing”. According to John MacArthur, “Humility is the first law of ministry. All faithful, al honorable ministers of Christ make much of Christ and nothing of themselves.” We make much of Christ by allowing Him to “increase” in us and increase in popularity.

Jesus increases in us by our surrendering our own will and desires in exchange for His. Jesus increases when we willingly foster a deeper relationship with Him through, prayer, studying and obeying His teachings in the Bible, and serving Him and others.

By God’s grace, our worship experience turned our hearts toward Jesus in humility. Humility enables us to decrease and allow Jesus to increase in our hearts, mind, and actions.

I reminded the brothers, that like John the Baptist, our purpose as disciples of Jesus is not retain a following of people for ourselves but to point them to Christ. To be sure, to be an effective followers of Christ, I must decrease, but Jesus must increase!

I encouraged the brothers to be like John the Baptist and take joy in pointing others to Jesus to follow Him - even when it results in them not following us.

Love,

Pastor James