Nameless and Faceless
Luke 9:23Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. 27“But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”
Following Jesus is hard on the flesh. That means what I am naturally inclined to think success looks like is really the opposite of true success. But this is the catch: Eventually, if I stay in obedience to Jesus' value system, the actual success I will enjoy will surpass what I could have enjoyed by "shortcutting" Jesus' true message.
Right now, mostly because of technology, it is the easiest time ever to have a vision of success. There is so much possibility for impact, and even fame, right now due to the internet and social media. The availability of technology to communicate the Gospel is actually the main temptation to short-circuit the Gospel!
Technology, etc. is amazing. Used rightly, it is the most powerful tool the earth has ever seen to communicate the Gospel, BUT we can lose the Gospel itself in the midst of the amazing possibilities of what can happen when we communicate it well!
What I mean is this: if I sing an amazing song about Jesus' sacrifice, I can easily get caught up in how that is received, but the sacrifice I sing of wasn't well received!! Singing about Jesus for real should bring the same reaction Jesus got just for being himself!!
You could make the same observations regarding healing the sick, teaching, evangelizing. We live in the age of 'Christian celebrity'. This is a corruption. We have to come out of that thinking. I'm not saying Christian celebrities are necessarily off themselves, but WANTING to be a Christian celebrity is hypocritical (saying one thing but doing another). Following Jesus is a cross. We have to realize that this new idea of Christian celebrity is the greatest threat to the actual Gospel!
Jesus, Himself, actually avoided celebrity! Nine times it is recorded in the Gospel that Jesus instructed that the disciples, or people He helped, should tell no one who Jesus was, about His miracles, etc. Jesus literally rejected celebrity.
Matthew 16:20Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
Jesus isn't trying to win the world through popularity. Jesus is saving the world by revealing to it an ENTIRELY different value system than we naturally want to embrace. If we represent Jesus, we have to embrace this value system of His ourselves. We can't take Jesus' message and rightly turn it into an opportunity for us to get a better deal than He did with the world!
John 15:20“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Great communication of the Gospel also has to have integrity, otherwise it loses the Gospel...it steals something out of the truth, but loses the true part. We don't want to preach, sing, prophesy, etc. and then become disqualified ourselves!
1 Corinthians 9:25And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
This is very hard on the flesh, but it makes our spirit soar inside of us. When we get free of what anyone else thinks but God of our efforts to communicate His truth, then we find freedom to not corrupt the truth with the value system of the world.
It isn't just those the Church makes into celebrities that are responsible for the confusion. There would be no celebrities if the Church didn't make them. No one turns themselves into a celebrity. Other people turn a person into a celebrity. We have to see where we are all responsible for losing Jesus as He makes it more and more powerful to communicate who He is and what He cares about!
God is bringing forward a large number of talented and fiercely loyal friends who will communicate the Gospel with power and not be corrupted. If we ask Him, He will empower us to be a part of this great company!
Psalm 68:11 The Lord gave the word; Great was the company of those who proclaimed it: 12“Kings of armies flee, they flee, And she who remains at home divides the spoil.
The kind of followers Jesus is looking for are like those famous ones of old like Daniel, David, Gideon, Deborah, and Barak who rejected temporary fame for eternal greatness!!
Judges 4:9So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.
It isn't any one leader or amazingly anointed group of people that are going to lead the church into the final victory...no, it is the body of Christ coming together in humility...the Bride... that IS the victory Jesus paid for.
God will get the glory and then forever He will let His faithful and loyal servants dwell in that glory!!
Following Jesus is hard on the flesh. That means what I am naturally inclined to think success looks like is really the opposite of true success. But this is the catch: Eventually, if I stay in obedience to Jesus' value system, the actual success I will enjoy will surpass what I could have enjoyed by "shortcutting" Jesus' true message.
Right now, mostly because of technology, it is the easiest time ever to have a vision of success. There is so much possibility for impact, and even fame, right now due to the internet and social media. The availability of technology to communicate the Gospel is actually the main temptation to short-circuit the Gospel!
Technology, etc. is amazing. Used rightly, it is the most powerful tool the earth has ever seen to communicate the Gospel, BUT we can lose the Gospel itself in the midst of the amazing possibilities of what can happen when we communicate it well!
What I mean is this: if I sing an amazing song about Jesus' sacrifice, I can easily get caught up in how that is received, but the sacrifice I sing of wasn't well received!! Singing about Jesus for real should bring the same reaction Jesus got just for being himself!!
You could make the same observations regarding healing the sick, teaching, evangelizing. We live in the age of 'Christian celebrity'. This is a corruption. We have to come out of that thinking. I'm not saying Christian celebrities are necessarily off themselves, but WANTING to be a Christian celebrity is hypocritical (saying one thing but doing another). Following Jesus is a cross. We have to realize that this new idea of Christian celebrity is the greatest threat to the actual Gospel!
Jesus, Himself, actually avoided celebrity! Nine times it is recorded in the Gospel that Jesus instructed that the disciples, or people He helped, should tell no one who Jesus was, about His miracles, etc. Jesus literally rejected celebrity.
Matthew 16:20Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.
Jesus isn't trying to win the world through popularity. Jesus is saving the world by revealing to it an ENTIRELY different value system than we naturally want to embrace. If we represent Jesus, we have to embrace this value system of His ourselves. We can't take Jesus' message and rightly turn it into an opportunity for us to get a better deal than He did with the world!
John 15:20“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Great communication of the Gospel also has to have integrity, otherwise it loses the Gospel...it steals something out of the truth, but loses the true part. We don't want to preach, sing, prophesy, etc. and then become disqualified ourselves!
1 Corinthians 9:25And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
This is very hard on the flesh, but it makes our spirit soar inside of us. When we get free of what anyone else thinks but God of our efforts to communicate His truth, then we find freedom to not corrupt the truth with the value system of the world.
It isn't just those the Church makes into celebrities that are responsible for the confusion. There would be no celebrities if the Church didn't make them. No one turns themselves into a celebrity. Other people turn a person into a celebrity. We have to see where we are all responsible for losing Jesus as He makes it more and more powerful to communicate who He is and what He cares about!
God is bringing forward a large number of talented and fiercely loyal friends who will communicate the Gospel with power and not be corrupted. If we ask Him, He will empower us to be a part of this great company!
Psalm 68:11 The Lord gave the word; Great was the company of those who proclaimed it: 12“Kings of armies flee, they flee, And she who remains at home divides the spoil.
The kind of followers Jesus is looking for are like those famous ones of old like Daniel, David, Gideon, Deborah, and Barak who rejected temporary fame for eternal greatness!!
Judges 4:9So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.
It isn't any one leader or amazingly anointed group of people that are going to lead the church into the final victory...no, it is the body of Christ coming together in humility...the Bride... that IS the victory Jesus paid for.
God will get the glory and then forever He will let His faithful and loyal servants dwell in that glory!!
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