27 Sep We Value what the World values not what God values.

How does it feel when someone tells you how brilliant you are? How beautiful you are? You are so handsome! You’re so special! Or how about this one: “You’re so unique”. Compliments are the opioids for our soul. We love to hear how great we are. How different we are. How much of a fantastic job we’ve done. It’s the one thing that never gets old. We love to love ourselves, and we love to feel good about ourselves. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually very normal. That’s why we have emotions. To feel. It only becomes bad, when it becomes the driving force in why we do things.

Much of Gods best work is done in the “dark”. He does his best work outside of the public’s view. It’s outside of the ranks of “cool”. His way would not get a billion likes or views. It wouldn’t get a million shares. It wouldn’t go viral around the globe. Instead, his best work is done in an intimate setting. Away from the public eyes of social media. I look at how entrench we are in Social media acceptance today. I myself have falling victim to it. We post something, and when someone likes it or shares it, a natural endorphin releases itself in our brain like, “Yes, I knew that post was good! Here’s the confirmation of it!”. If Jesus was on Social media today, he would also go viral, with the most down votes ever recorded. It’s the main reasons Christians don’t post anything Biblical on their Social media. Many of us have a lot of friends (if you want to call them that. I’ve never had 30 friends in my entire life, let along 3000) on Social media, and we don’t want to upset the status quo. Many of us have so many friends because we don’t upset the status quo. Our go along to get along nature is why were able to maintain such a huge following.

Jesus is not popular. He does not increase our friend pool, he decreases it. Jesus can be a very uncomfortable person to be around. Because he lives what he speaks, and speaks what he lives, he makes many people uncomfortable in his presence. Think of a Policeman. How comfortable would you be if everywhere you went there was one. Not only that, but every room you got to, there’s one in the room with you. You would feel like you’re under constant surveillance. You would find it hard to be yourself. His job is to uphold the Law, so you would always be conscious of your actions. Being mindful not to accidentally break any laws. Things you felt were never a big deal, now become magnified, and every action scrutinized. So to make people feel “comfortable”, the Cop may let some things “slide”. He may not react to someone who may reek a little of marijuana. He may not lay the hammer down on someone who reeks a little of alcohol. They are going two lights down the street from the bar to where they live.

Don’t we do this with Faith? It’s only a little nudity in this movie. It’s no big deal. They only cuss a few times in this song, that’s not that bad. I know Kate and Samantha are in a homosexual relationship, but it’s their life. It’s not my place to say how they should live their lives. I looked all over, but I can’t recall where God said that if it’s a little sin, it’s not that bad. This is the illusion that we have fallen victim too. That a little “sin” is not that bad. Objecting or making little changes is far worse, because then I would loose friends, subscribers and Facebook likes. I remember I posted something on my personal Facebook page concerning a particular Charity I was involve with. I can’t remember the specific one at the time. But what I do remember is no one commented on it, or cared to donate. I had asked if anyone can give even “1” dollar that would be helpful. No one gave a dollar. Out of all the “friends” and “family” on my list. But if I post a video of a puppy doing something cute, viral.

At the heart of all this is acceptance. We still secretly desire the acceptance of others. We love God, but we secretly seek acceptance from the World. We must come to grips with something: “We are not of this World”. Jesus’s words, not mine. “They hated me long before they hated you”. Jesus’s words, not mine. We cannot expect anything less than unacceptance. And more importantly, we need to become comfortable with it. We need to become comfortable with the reality that some people will walk out of our lives. That as you become bold with your Faith, your mere presence and lifestyle will become a thorn in the flesh for many people. They will become increasingly uncomfortable around you. They will stop texting you. They will stop returning your phone calls. They will top liking your Social media post. They will stop following you. This is not the end of you, but the beginning of something better. This is the time you will see who clearly cares about you. People who clung to Jesus despite the persecutions, are the ones who cared for him. The ones who don’t, are the ones who leave as soon as associating with you makes them lives uncomfortable. When that happens, they will take off and find someone else to form another superficial relationship with.

Jesus is anything but superficial, that’s why if you are following him, you will not have any superficial people and relationships in your life. The Spirit of God weeds out the superficial from the authentic. And since you are “in Christ”, when people are around you, you are bringing Christ everywhere you go. You will attract those who are drawn to Gods spirit, those who are not will be repelled. Listen to this carefully. As you go about your life in Christ, you will attract those who are drawn by the Spirit of God, and you will be an eyesore to those who hate God. To not become discourage when you are rejected by people via Social media or in your everyday life. Know that God will bring those to you who he wants to be in your life, and he will repel those who he does not want to be in your life. The choice is not yours. The decision is his. Jesus prayed to God and thanked him for his disciples. He thanked God for giving them to him. Thank God for who he puts in your life. These are the ones who are not repelled by his Spirit.

Let’s change our view on how we view Social media. Let’s not use it as the world does. As a platform to go viral for a ridiculous video. A platform to show how important we are or a way to get famous. Fame is by definition, a person that is recognized across large geographic areas, held in high regards and beloved by many. If this is what you seek, then you seek the love and attention of the World. God usually does not make people famous. Usually following God makes you “infamous”. Those two are not the same. When your infamous, people don’t want to take a picture with you or get an autograph. They want to hurl stones and insults at you. They want to distance themselves from you. Remember Jesus words, they hated me long before they hated you! Be what it is Christ as called you to be. Know when you are rejected, they are rejecting the Spirit in you.

The different in you. Learn to accept the rejection. You may think I’m crazy with this next statement but learn to rejoice in the rejection. These experiences is what bonds us to Christ, and allows us to experience some of what he experienced. Ask yourself, who are you going to make walk away from you today? The more people who walk away from you because of Christ, the more will be drawn to you because of Christ. And they’ll be drawn to you authentically. Not because you have the same fashion sense, both like to play guitar, both like to golf, both like to go to concerts etc. It won’t be anything superficial.

Remember, what is superficial falls away. The authentic people are the ones who are searching for Christ, who are searching for healing in their lives. And since Jesus went to be with the Father, where the ones they’re searching for. No one who is drawn to us when we walk with Christ is an accident. It’s an opportunity. Instead of looking for “likes” and “thumbs up” on Social Media, let’s use it to look for the broken; for the weak; for the weary in life. If we all decide today that were not going to look for the world to accept us, that we don’t want the world to accept us because it didn’t accept Christ, we may not get a lot of “likes”, but we’ll make a lot of impact…..