WHEN JESUS INCREASES IN YOUR LIFE
Below are notes to a sermon preached Sunday morning, Oct. 17, 1999, at Gospel Light Baptist Church, Albany, Georgia:
WHEN JESUS INCREASES IN YOUR LIFE
By Michael D. O’Neal Pastor, Gospel Light Baptist Church Albany, Georgia
Scripture Reading: John 3:23-36
Text: John 3:30
John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
Introduction: In Matt. 11:1, Jesus said that “among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” One of the reasons for his greatness, I believe, was his attitude, expressed in our text, when he said of the Lord Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
That was not only a statement of the transition between the ministries of John and the Lord, but it was also a statement of John’s perception of his Lord and of himself.
The Psalmist wrote by inspiration of God,
Psalms 34:3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
Actually, you and I cannot make the Lord any bigger or greater than He already is, EXCEPT … in our own sight! A magnifying glass doesn’t affect the actual size of its subject. It just affects the perception of the beholder!
When we perceive how great the Lord Jesus Christ really is, we will perceive how small, sinful, and insignificant we really are. When the Lord increases in your life, you and everything else will become smaller. Let me mention a few things that will decrease when Jesus increases in YOUR life:
I. PRIDE WILL DECREASE
John 1:27 He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
A. Pride in self will decrease
B. Pride in our speech will decrease
C. Pride in our own sanctification (holiness) will decrease
II. PERSONALITIES WILL DECREASE
Psalms 8:3-4 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
1 Corinthians 3:1-7 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
A. You will see men as dead in their sins – Eph. 2:1
B. You will see men as dependent upon the Savior – Jn. 15:5
C. You will see men as drawing from the Spirit of God – 1 Cor. 12:4-6 (read)
III. POSSESSIVENESS WILL DECREASE
1 John 2:15-16 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
A. You will see possessions as temporary
B. You will see possessions as temptations
C. You will see possessions as tools
IV. POLLUTION WILL DECREASE
Isaiah 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
A. You will have a greater consciousness of sin
B. You will have a greater confession of sin
C. You will have a greater cleansing of sin