In my last two articles, I’ve been trying to show how the pulsating heartbeat of the Apostle Paul and us as a church is to make much of Jesus. And so in this final post, I want to turn from explanation to invitation and challenge!
Let me invite and challenge you. Living for and making much of Jesus is really an invitation to centre every aspect of your life around him – yes, every aspect of life! How you decide to shape your diary, who you invite over for dinner, how you handle (or don’t handle) disagreements and upsets, how you talk about others, how you look to be a witness in your workplace and neighbourhood and among your friendship groups, how you look to live as a brother, sister, mum, dad, husband, wife, aunt, uncle, grandad or grandma – all gets shaped by this one all-consuming passion!
And we want to do this together here in Great Yarmouth! Our greatest passion and thirst is that Jesus would be made much of in this Borough! In and amongst the kiss-me-quick hats and candy floss, we want Jesus to be made much of. In and amongst the pain and hardship that has been caused by job loss, family breakdown, addiction, illness and low aspirations among the young, we want Jesus to be made much of! And we want to do this together!
We’re not looking for solo shining knights to come and rescue people – no – we recognise that it is the local church that is the hope of the world, because it is through the church, as it says in Ephesians 3:10, that the “manifold wisdom of God should be made known”
Through the church! Our shared mission is to point the eyes of people’s hearts away from every other twinkling light and to point them to Jesus!
Like I’ve said on many occasions, I can’t think if anything more compelling and more life-transforming than living to make much of Jesus!
