Rock Springs 7th Anniversary Service: Making Much of Jesus

One of the great joys I have as being part of Rock Springs is my own involvement in a Journey Group.  Right now, my group is reading a chapter a week from the gospel of John.  And each week we try to answer the same two questions:  What is Jesus saying to me, and what does He want me to do about it?  And a couple of weeks ago this Scripture popped off the page for me. “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working” John 5:17.  And what I gained from this truth was a great deal of encouragement.

For the same God who worked to help us launch this Church seven years ago, is the same God who helped us baptize 25 adults and helped us grow to eleven Journey Groups over that same span.  Our Father is always working.  Over the past seven years He has helped us pack and send over 15,000 Shoeboxes to children around the world. Over the past seven years He has led us to provide thousands of meals to the less fortunate of Eloy.  And over the last two years, He’s kept us together through zoom services and golf cart worship, through the loss of dear brothers and sisters, through the craziness of this pandemic, and through the racial, political and economic unrest that’s plagued our country.  But one thing I have learned over these past seven years:  Our Father has never wavered in His love for us.  He was with us in the beginning.  He is with us now.  And He is always working to this very day.

So the question we must ask ourselves today is this:  If our Father is still working today, then what is the work our Father wants to do through us?  And that answer has never changed. The work our Father wants to do through us is this: To Make Disciples of Jesus and Make a Difference with Jesus.

Now I could talk today about how we need to give ourselves to these efforts.  But to do these things, there’s one thing that must take precedence:  In order for us to make disciples of Jesus and to make a difference with Jesus, we’ve got to make much of Jesus.  For the more we make much of Jesus, the more Jesus will work through us.

1. The more we make much of Jesus, the less we will make of ourselves.

In other words, whatever we do together as Rock Springs Church – we must do so that Jesus gets all the glory. John the Baptist once said of Jesus, ^“He must increase, but I must decrease” John 3:30.  This was his goal.  He lived to point people to Jesus. He lived to glorify Jesus.  And his attitude should always be ours. You see, if we want to make a difference for Jesus: if we want love the less fortunate of Eloy, if we want to help take back the streets of Ocean Beach, keep blessing children with shoeboxes, and keep loving our neighbors right here at Robson – then we can never be about making a name for Rock Springs Church but making a name for Jesus.  He’s the One who pursued us when we wanted nothing to do with Him.  He’s the One who laid down His life to give us a life with God.  He’s the One who redeemed us and made us the beloved of the Father.  He must increase, we must decrease.  So whatever we do, we must always be focused on making much of Jesus.

2. The more we make much of Jesus, the more we will experience the life of Jesus.

In other words, in whatever we do together as Rock Springs, we need to reflect the quality of life that’s found in Jesus.  Jesus said it this way: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” John 10:10.   What Jesus is describing is the abundant life found in Him.  It is the life of Shalom, of peace, prosperity and well-being. It’s a life without fear.  It’s a life of total acceptance and love.  It’s a life filled with security, meaning, purpose and joy. It is life as good as it can be: the life God intended for us when He created us.  This abundant life is an alternative life to what’s being offered by the world.  And the more we make much of Jesus, the more we will experience this life.   You see what our world needs to experience today is not judgment but mercy; not criticism but kindness; not rejection but acceptance; not hatred but love.  And when we make much of Jesus, Jesus will make us into a people like Him.  And the more we become like Him, the easier it will be to make disciples with Him.  Our world hungers for a different kind of life, and more we make much of Jesus, the more we will experience that life with them.

3. The more we make much of Jesus, the more we will fall in love with Jesus.

Now this may be too obvious a statement.  But the more we see His compassion for the hurting; His acceptance of the different; His love for the unlovely; and His mercy for the sinner, the more His love for us will change us.  And we’ll not just fall more in love with Jesus, but we will start seeing people differently –  as He sees them – as people to love, to serve, to pray for and support in the midst of life’s hardships.  Life is hard.  It’s full of pain, sickness, disappointments, and heartache.  Every person you lock eyes with is looking for hope and longs to be loved.  No one wants to go it alone.  But the good news is that when Jesus saved you, He saved you for a life of love.  It was Jesus who said, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  That’s why we must make much of Jesus. For everything about Jesus reveals the love of the Father for us.  LOVE IS THE WORK OF GOD. Love is why God sent Jesus to us.  Love is why Jesus hung on that cross.  Love is what makes a way home to God. And love is what everyone needs.  That is why God is still working to this very day.  For the world needs love today as much as it ever has.  So, the more we make much of Jesus, the more we will fall in love with Jesus, and the more Jesus love will overflow from our lives into a world that needs God’s love.

That’s the work we must do.  We must make much of Jesus, for then Jesus will work through us to help us make disciples and make a difference in our world.  God has blessed us these past seven years.  He is always at work.  Now may He continue His of love so that Christ might be glorified through us.