Making Much Of Jesus!

“MAKING MUCH OF JESUS” Heb. 9:27-28

FBCF – 8/21/22

Jon Daniels

INTRO – What are you living for? What’s your driving motivation in life? What are your priorities for living?

- Make a lot of money

- Success in career, school, athletics

- Good marriage – good spouse

- Strong home – good parent

- Be well-liked, well-respected

When you give your life to Christ, your priorities change. Not saying that you have to give up your desires to be successful, to excel in your field or at school, to make money, or build a career. Certainly, there are strong Christians who are very wealthy, who are leaders in the business world, medical world, political world, sports world, academic world. It’s just the that the TOP priority in life has changed, & everything else falls under this priority.

So what is that priority? Summed up in 4 words: Making much of Jesus.

If you’re a FBCF member, you probably – hopefully – recognize these words. Shortly after I got here 2 ½ years ago, the staff decided that we needed a short, succinct phrase that would sum up what we are about as a church. The phrase, “Making Much of Jesus” was born. It encapsulates what we want to do as a Church – what we MUST do as a Church as we seek to share the Gospel w/ those who are lost, & disciple those who are saved. Everything we do as a church must point toward making much of Jesus.

- Corporate worship services must make much of Jesus in the songs we sing in both our traditional worship services & in the Refuge contemporary service. The sermons must make much of Jesus

- Our preschool/children’s ministry & student ministry must make much of Jesus

- Every Life Group, on campus & off campus, must make much of Jesus

- Our deacons must make much of Jesus

- Our missions ministry must make much of Jesus

- Our discipleship ministry must make much of Jesus

- Our staff must all strive to make much of Jesus in their personal lives & in their work as a minister of the Gospel

- When we build a building, it must be constructed & dedicated to helping us make much of Jesus

- When we plant a church, that church must make much of Jesus in every way

If we don’t do this, then we are just playing church – going through the motions – just doing what we’ve always done just b/c it’s what we’ve always done.

- If we’re not making much of Jesus, then we are lost, b/c Jesus is the way

- If we’re not making much of Jesus, then we have no foundation, b/c Jesus the truth

- If we’re not making much of Jesus, then we are dead, b/c Jesus is the life.

It’s what we must do as a church. It’s what we must do as individual Christ-followers. It must be the top priority of our lives.

EXPLANATION – Hebrews 9:27-28

Someone once said that the Book of Hebrews was written by a Hebrew to other Hebrews telling the Hebrews to stop acting like Hebrews (https://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Hebrews.html). These early Christians were being persecuted by other Jews. As a result, they were slipping back into their old ritualistic observance of the Law to try to avoid the persecution.

But that isn’t what Christ-followers are called to do. We are called to stand firm in the face of persecution. We are even to expect the persecution will come. 2 Timothy 3:12 – “Those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

This awesome NT book warns us about several things in our Christian life:

- Don’t drift away & neglect your walk w/ Christ.

- Don’t harden your heart to the Lord when He’s trying to speak to you

- Don’t stop growing in your relationship w/ Jesus

- Don’t stop going to church & gathering w/ other believers

- Don’t refuse God when He’s speaking to you

All of those warning can be addressed in one way: Keep making much of Jesus! Keep Him as the priority of your life. Go all in w/ Him. Don’t shrink back from Him. Don’t quench His Spirit in your life.

APPLICATION – Every Christ-follower should be making much of Jesus in their lives.

Reasons we need to be making much of Jesus:

BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS AN UPCOMING APPOINTMENT – “…it is appointed for man to die once…”

Not trying to be morbid, depressing, grim, or pessimistic. Not trying to scare anyone or sadden anyone. Just truthful reality. 100 out of 100 people die.

- Got a flyer in mail from a local funeral home this week. Running a special on cremations. Crazy thing is my first thought was, “Hmmm…. that’s not a bad price!”