Real Sacrifice
There are a lot of fake things all around us. Fake bodies. Fake lashes. Fake nails. Fake purses. Fake merchandise. Fake technology. Fake news. Fake entertainment. Social media is mostly fake stuff! Wrestling, which some people love? Fake. We know it's fake, and we still watch it with anticipation!
Did you know you can get fake diplomas? Thousands of people worldwide purchase diplomas, and it would horrify you to know the kinds of diplomas you can buy, for something like $250,000. You can get a diploma to be a contractor (a defense contractor, of all things), a consultant, or a nurse. Here's the scariest one. A doctor. Yeah. How would you like to go to one of those fake doctors? Maybe you have. I hope not.
There is so much fake stuff around us that we have become numb to it. We tolerate it as just a way of life, how things are. We can deal with fake stuff, but the one thing we can't tolerate, we don't like at all, and we don't want to even be with are fake people. Are you with me? How do you feel about fake people? Not so good? That's right. We don't like fake people.
And of all the fake people, the kind of fake people I think we and everyone else gets frustrated by are fake Christians. How do you feel about fake Christians? Right. A thumbs down for sure. So does the world. So many people are leaving the church because they feel like they're walking in and seeing a whole bunch of fake Christians.
We've been talking a lot about sacrifice this week. These may not be my most popular social media posts, but I'm convinced they are most important. As Christians, and as the body of Christ, we are called by Jesus to be "in" the world but "not of" the world. We are not to be who we used to be, nor who we would be if we lived by the ethos of a worldly mindset (by worldly, I mean what is described in Romans 1:18-32).
Not surprisingly, this is hard for all of us. When Jesus said, "follow me," he expected his followers to leave much behind. He still does. Leave fake behind, especially when you sacrifice for God. He's not fooled.
When we sacrifice, we must do so in humility, honesty, integrity, and obedience. We don't sacrifice to win points with God or manipulate Him to do as we wish. We don't sacrifice to make ourselves better than others or even to stand out. We don't sacrifice to make ourselves righteous, good, or holy. We don't sacrifice to earn a reward.
We sacrifice because He did. He did. Did. Do you see that period? The ultimate sacrifice is done.
Send this to a friend, and lets commit to being real with God together.
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