I was very fortunate to play at a somewhat high level of baseball. God gave me a talent that I was able to use for many years. After my ball playing days were over, and Diana and I had kids who were old enough to play, I got into coaching some. However, I didn’t stay in coaching too long. I quickly realized that given my position as a pastor, it wasn’t easy nor fun to look into the eyes of a mom and dad who thought their kid was the next Derek Jeter, and tell them that he wasn’t good enough. Moms and dads don’t like hearing that. For the record, it was hard for me to hear one year that one of my boys wasn’t good enough to make the all-star team. However, having been around the game and see some of the best, I and the coach who cut my son, could recognize exceptional talent. You can look at some kids and they just have it. And then you can look at others and see that baseball or whatever sport just isn’t their thing. It’s not a value judgment on them as a child by any means. It’s looking at the needs of a team, the skill set of a child, and understanding that this isn’t the right fit. Christians are meant to be like the cream of the crop in sports or any other field, they are to stand out. How do I know this? Because of what Jesus said in John 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
One of the things that breaks my heart in many churches is how hard we try to fit in with the world. We don’t want to be called weird or Bible-thumper or whatever other word people might use. We rationalize doing things by saying, “well we have to do this so that people will hear the Gospel.” Do we want people to hear the Gospel? Absolutely we do! However, the reason that we do some things isn’t so that people will hear the Gospel, it is so that we won’t feel weird or be ostracized by those who don’t love Jesus. It’s interesting, when our child comes to us and says that someone called them weird or they feel like they are weird, we don’t try to make them fit it. I can remember when our middle son, Noah, came to Diana and I having some problems being called names and being picked on. I didn’t tell him to go do certain things so people wouldn’t call him weird. Instead, Diana and I told him that “weird is a side effect of being awesome.” We tell kids that it is ok not to fit in. In fact, we encourage them to not always follow the crowd. Do you remember wanting to do something with your friends that you parents though wasn’t real intelligent? What did they say? “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do that to?” For the record parents, that is a dangerous question with some kids! So, we know to tell our kids that it is ok to be different and to stand out. Yet, as adult Christians we don’t follow our own advice. We compromise in ways that will help us fit in, all while rationalizing it so that we can sleep at night. Jesus here is plainly telling His disciples that they were going to be persecuted, they were going to be hated. If we are going to live out the Gospel in our every day life, then we have to know that the world isn’t going to like it, and they are going to have something to say about it. And that is ok! We aren’t called to please them, we are called to please the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus chose us and saved us not so that we could fit in with the world He has called us out of. But so that by standing out, we could point others to Him. So, Christians, stand up and stand out. The world will never see their need for Jesus by the church trying to fit in with the world. It is only as we live differently, that the world will know that there is something different to live for than this life. Allow God to use you for His glory to stand out from the crowd, so that the world can be drawn to Him.
By His grace and for His glory,
Pastor Justin