This week’s message is going to be very simple; Greater
Than. “More of you and less of me, oh my
Father, I want to be”, these lyrics I’ve heard sung by an a capella worship
group called “Glad”. How simple are those words? We sing similar songs such as;
“More Precious Than Silver”, “More Love to Thee, O Christ”, and “More Like
Jesus”. What’s the theme here? More, more, more! Sound familiar? More is the
world we currently live in. I don’t have to go into much detail about how much
the world salivates over new stuff, more stuff, and better stuff. I don’t need
to elaborate on how much people of the world run after the world and seek more
for their own wealth and self-satisfaction. It’s unnecessary to spend much time
expounding upon the darkness of this world and those who choose to stay in that
darkness, because we all know of that pain, loneliness, shame, and defeat. You
see, we view that dark place as such because as followers of our Lord Jesus
Christ we have stepped into His eternal light. We can look back and see the
darkness in which we once treaded all alone. We can even go as far as seeing
how enticing and pleasurable that place once was. But there was still something
missing, out of order…empty. I heard a man on tv the other night say that the
world is an intense place, its message is intense, its people are intense, and
Christianity is falling behind because Christians are losing their intensity
for the message of the cross. Is that true? Are we falling behind? Is it
impossible to keep our same soul saving gospel message and communicate it in a
way the world understands? Speaking to Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus says, “we speak of what we know, and we testify to
what we have seen but still you people do not accept our testimony.” Why
doesn’t he accept Jesus’ message? I think he had a “more” problem. In fact I
think most of the people who came face to face with Jesus had a “more” problem.
But all of those who came face down to Jesus, they were on to something. You
know, those people who recognized who Jesus was. It’s like they got the answers
to the test, the tip on how to get their promotion, the extra bonus, the secret
to life… they got more. They simply stood before Jesus with their hearts bowed.
They reached out only to touch his cloak. They exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sins of the world”; “He who comes after me has surpassed
me because he was before me”; “He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of
whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”They had it, and John the Baptist
really knew his place. He goes on to say in John 3:30, “he must become greater;
I must become less.” How different is that? How intense? When the whole world
is running to increase itself, to bring honor to itself, and glory to itself,
there were people like John who lived out a message exclaiming that “He is
greater.” Is it time to take a step back and examine who is greater in your
life? Do you live as if God is greater than…everything? John 3:31a- “The one who comes from above is above
all…”
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