MAGNIFY Jesus

Intro

Peak Interest

Burning everything on a magnifying glass as a kid

Magnifying glass signifies SEEING and SEEING CLEARER

Goal of the next 4 weeks: TO SEE our identity as the youth ministry of BCF Church

Goal of tonight: TO SEE CLEARER the moment that we are in

PHRASE THAT PAYS

We SEE CLEARER when we MAGNIFY CHRIST.

Body

Passage

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NIV

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Moses was the leader of God’s people who led them out of slavery from Egypt into a new & promising land. These are Moses’ FINAL WORDS (picture the moment) to the next generation. He doesn’t get to go into the promise land & neither does the oldest generation because even though they got out of Egypt, they couldn’t get Egypt out of them.

SHEMA (means “active hearing” in Hebrew) prayer (v4-5). Jews pray this prayer everyday and they even take the next part literally.

Have you ever had your parents tell you something so important that they had to sit you down? (i.e. Papa talk in 2015)

Moses is sitting the next generation down to say: I want you to SEE CLEARER than me and my generation. How? I want you to MAGNIFY GOD in your life.

We SEE CLEARER when we MAGNIFY Christ.

Point

1. (v4-6) MAGNIFY CHRIST with your LOVE

LOVE that DEMONSTRATES

John 3:16 NIV

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Heart (lebab) = center MIND (What do you take in?), WILL (How do you make decisions?) & EMOTIONS (Do you own your feelings or do they own you?)

Soul (nepesh) = body, soul & spirit - Are you so spiritual that we neglect our BODY (sleep, diet, exercise) & MIND (mental health)?

Strength (meod) = EVERYTHING (Friends, Money, Ambitions, Talents, Political views, Sexuality, Culture, Colour of your skin)

2. (v7-9) MAGNIFY CHRIST with your LIFE.

Some of us want the life of Jesus without wanting the LIFESTYLE of Jesus.

What are some new lifestyle things that you picked up during the pandemic (i.e. RUNNING)

Start where you are, not where you want to me - What is one lifestyle that the Spirit is asking you to let go? What is one habit that the Spirit is asking you to take up?

We SEE CLEARER when we MAGNIFY Christ.

Outro

Person

John 3:16 NIV

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Eternal life = QUALITY > QUANITY = Eternal LIFESTYLE

Jesus was the model of eternal LIFESTYLE. He MAGNIFIED GOD. He even quoted Deut 6 when asked what is the greatest command.

He knew that He was the only one and we couldn’t perfectly LOVE & LIVE like Jesus. Because of sin, we are LOVELESS & LIFELESS. For some of you, these two words describe the last 2 years of your life:

Lost friends, a family member

Parents lost a job or so busy keeping theirs that you feel neglected

Lost motivation for school

Jesus GAVE the perfect act of LOVE by giving His LIFE (Romans 6:23)

And He rose from the dead to prove that Himself true & that our LOVE & LIFE could be MADE NEW through His Spirit IF we put our trust in Him. In other words...

We SEE CLEARER when we MAGNIFY Christ.

Practice

Response #1 - You’ve never experienced this kind of LOVE & LIFE. Put your trust in Jesus today.

Response #2 - The last two years have been nothing short of a deficit of LOVE & quality of LIFE.