Greetings everyone!
Hope everyone is safe and warm during this blizzard. Please continue to keep the Hurricane Michael’s team in your prayer as they have a week before departing for Florida. Team consists of MarWina, MarVina, D Aaron, and Jihyun. We will have a special offering & prayer time for the team this Sunday. There will also be a sendoff at the airport at 10am for those who can make it next Wednesday (3/20).
This past Sunday, Pastor Tim spoke on the last passage of John 3 where apostle John talked about John the Baptist (JTB) and his heart of serving and following Christ. In today’s society, it’s very common to see a “I must increase while others decrease” mentality when it comes to career, school, and even in ministry. However, John 3: 22-36 teaches us about the heart of Christianity. Previous passages in John 3 talked about being born again, Son of Man lifted up, and how God SOOO loved us. It shows us his unconditional love, sovereignty, and power to defeat death. JTB understands that he exists to promote Christ’s goodness as a messenger; therefore, finds joy that people are going to Jesus instead of him. He humbles himself by saying that “He must increase, but I must decrease.” in verse 30. JTB is DA MAN! He is so cool isn’t he? Haha. Are we able to say this as well? Only way we can say the same thing is if our object of our worship is Jesus Christ. Is Jesus Christ soooo good in your life that it’s easy to be humbled when you serve especially in a capacity that grabs lots of attention? As the object of our worship increases, we decrease naturally.
JTB also understands that he had a great role model that demonstrated the ultimate humility we’ve ever seen. Jesus Christ decreased by becoming the lowest of servant of all to serve us even to a point of death. Both his active (perfect life as a man) and passive (taking on God’s wrath still) obedience was an act of humility. As a result, He would increase to the right hand of God, defeating death once and for all. In the sermon, Pastor Tim mentioned that “decreasing and increasing” has an inter-dependent relationship most of the time. If we decrease, it means someone else will increase. But for Jesus Christ, because he decreased, he also increased and rightfully so!
New Life, let’s continue to humble ourselves (decrease) so that Christ will increase in all that we do. I end with with 1st Catechism to once remind us of our chief end as we continue to find joy in God.
Q: What is the chief end of man? A: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
-ET
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