John the Baptist who was sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the way for Jesus... has been challenged by those pointing out that Jesus is now more popular than he is... this is John's answer...
John 3:28-30 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease."
It is so easy for what starts out to be a great desire to serve Jesus to become all about us instead. At the installation service of the head pastor at a large church where I interned at during seminary, a renowned preacher came to deliver the sermon for the installation. The main point of her sermon as she looked into the eyes of the soon-to-be installed minister was, "It's not about you!"
And this doesn't just apply to ministers. It applies to anyone in service of God. Whether you are taking care of the nursery or preparing the sanctuary for worship or holding a Bible Study in your home. It isn't about you. Not about making you feel good. Not about supporting your needs. Not about you! Serving Christ is about doing God's ministry.
Often one finds that doing God's ministry bring incredible pleasure to the person doing it. But not always... maybe more times than not, it is rough going. You'll be confronted by people who won't love you in right ways. Who won't have your best interest at all. Who don't want you to interfere in their lives with the gospel message. Do it anyway... "it isn't about you."
John the Baptist said it clearly, "Jesus must increase while I decrease." John knew he had to get himself out of the way so that Jesus could work. And so it is with us.
When a big Atlanta company decided to spin off another company out West, a good friend of mine was named as the COO of the new company. He was a follower of Jesus and we had an interesting conversation about his new job. He said, "I need to get myself out of the way, so the good people that I have hired can do their job." Often, we need to get ourselves, our selfish needs and desires, things we think God owes us, out of the way so that God can work!
How can you decrease so that Christ can increase? How can your skills and talents be focused on God's work and not on prioritizing making yourself look good or providing you with some other benefit? You can do things for God and others that will never benefit you! This is the way of Jesus' followers.
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As an aside ... can you imagine what Jesus' reaction was to these statistics?
John 4:1-3 Now when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
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