Not Just a Fan

This post is gonna have to do with Sports and Facebook! I am a huge fan of sports, even though this year all my teams have let me down I am still a fan. I also enjoy Facebook, but I am not really the one who plays all of those games like Yoville or whatever other games there are.

On Tuesday I took my Dad to a Minnesota Twins game at the new Target Field. My Dad had never been there and so my wife and I said we would buy tickets for my dad for fathers day. I know it was a little late but oh well.

I went onto StubHub to look at the prices on tickets and I found seats on the third base line that are normally $36 tickets and got it for less then half of that. For those of you who are not following the Twins, they are 55 and 71. They have not had the season that all the fans were hoping for.

I began to think about how I got these tickets so discounted and tried to apply it to life. Sometimes in our world today I think that we have a lot of fans of Jesus. When things are going good they are all about going out to the field and wearing their jerseys and shirts about how Jesus is their homeboy. But when the going gets a little tough we sell off our tickets as cheap as we can.

In the same way on Facebook it is simple to put the Bible in your book interests on your "about me" page. You can become a fan of Jesus Christ on Facebook. I took the liberty to look up Jesus Christ on Facebook as a public figure and there were 3 million people who have "liked" Jesus.

While I think this is all good to be open on Facebook about your faith, I see at times where this boldness does not translate over into our real life. Now I don't want you all to think that I am just bashing on people, because I am writing this to myself probably more then anyone else. I am a pastor, on my Facebook page it says Youth Director at Hope Fellowship, and yet I find myself just being a fan of Jesus.

I think that if Jesus were to come back today he would be saying, "hey guys I don't just want fans, I want followers."

Matthew 16:24-26

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. ²⁵ If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. ²⁶ And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?^[l] Is anything worth more than your soul?

In my life I don't want to be just another fan of Jesus on Facebook or one who only goes to the games when the team is good. I want to be a totally sold out follower of Jesus Christ! I know that means that I need to give up my own life to serve Jesus whole-hearted! What good is a life of just being a fairweather fan, what do we have to gain? I want to follow Christ and lose my life so that Christ can give me life! Who is with me?