Do you know how it feels to be upstaged by someone? John the Baptist knew the feeling. For at time, he was the big shot, the prophetic voice calling out in the wilderness. But then one day Jesus showed up, and people began flocking to Jesus and not to John.
And for John that was just fine, because he recognized that Jesus deserved center stage. In this message, we see four reasons why Jesus deserves center stage and why we’re better off with Him at the center of our lives.
- Jesus sees more than we ever could. We get lost in the maze of life; the longer we insist on going our own way, the longer we stay stuck and lost. The sooner we yield to Jesus, the sooner we’ll find our way. And that’s what it means to put Jesus at the center, to let His perspective outrank our own instincts. Jesus deserves center stage by virtue of His position from above.
- Jesus knows more than we ever could. He is an expert witness, a master of ultimate cosmic reality. His knowledge is comprehensive; His wisdom is supreme; His statements are trustworthy and true. But when we go our own way, do our own thing, or trust our own instincts, we end up learning the hard way. Jesus deserves center stage by virtue of His expertise. We’re better off when He’s at the center because His wisdom is life-giving.
- Jesus has more than we ever could. He’s infinitely well connected, infinitely well resourced, infinitely able to execute. We are constantly limited by our resources. We amass all we can, but it’s never enough. We give our best, but come up short. We mean well, but fail to execute. We’re always bumping up against our limitations. But what if you put Jesus at the center? What if you could rest, knowing that He was enough for you in every way? Jesus deserves center stage by virtue of His resources, and He shares his infinite inheritance with us and give us the right to become children of God! We’re better off when He’s at the center because whatever Jesus asks the Father freely gives.
- Jesus fundamentally matters more. He is the most consequential person in the history of the universe. There is a gravitas, a substance, a weightiness to Jesus that we simply do not have. By ourselves, we simply do not have enough mass to stabilize our own orbit. But what if there was another way?
The secret to really truly living? We must let our ego die, let go of our control, let ourselves be displaced, and put Jesus at the center.
Jesus must increase, we must decrease.
John 3:22-36
