“You weren’t put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity”. – Pastor Rick Warren
Take it piece by piece, is this not enough to fortify your conviction that you are not made to last only in mortal age, but promised to live for eternity? If yes, then be SOLD OUT. If we are all so sold out for God, He would tell us the words hidden on that word- He would tell you “TOLD U SO…” The Bible says we need God because we can do nothing if it is not through Him (John 15:5). But a lot of people just don’t believe in Him and say they don’t need Him, but if only they will spend time to know who He is, they’d want Him. Who wouldn’t want someone who knows everything, owns everything, perfect, loving, gracious, and merciful? Foolishness is when we reject Him after knowing who He is, and if we accept Him and be sold out for Him, He’d show us His beauty and would say, “Told u so, this is what I can do.”
But being sold out is not just a shallow knowing that there is God, it demands surrender.
In James 4:7, God says “submit yourselves”. Surrendering self to God means humbling yourself in front of Him. Let’s say the world knows about God and His only begotten son Jesus, a lot believe that He is the savior of the world, but so few believe that He is the savior of their lives. Just like how Jesus was rejected in His hometown Nazareth because they thought He is just a man like them (Mark 6:1-6), we reject His grace by not accepting Him and not surrendering ourselves to be used by Him because we are so reliant on our self-made capes that we think we have it all figured out. We must recognize who we are to God- limited beings, and we fall short of God’s standard because of our sinful nature. Being humbly aware of who we are will turn our eyes to Jesus, and direct our heart to the point of surrender. This is a crucial step to being sold out for God because a lot of us are prideful people. We think so highly of ourselves, we value our lives, our desires, our dreams, and our possessions, that when God asks us to leave it all behind and take up the cross, we’d choose the bad option- cleaving to temporal things. God’s offer is eternity, yet a lot of us trade that to be remembered here on Earth, hence going after earthly things. God offers eternity as a gift through Christ, yet some just don’t understand because they have a heart of stone that is just so hard to pinch to surrender.
Yet surrendering is not all that it demands, to be sold-out for God, one should sacrifice.
What should we sacrifice? In Romans 12:1, Paul said to present our bodies as a “living sacrifice.” While it seems like it is a part of the surrendering that we made for Christ, being a “living sacrifice” is not a one-time event, it is an everyday struggle. Although we already received Christ as our Lord and Savior, this does not make us perfect, we are still in the flesh and temptations place us in everyday combat. Nevertheless, our motivation to sacrifice should be the way Jesus saved us, that before He was crucified He was stripped of His clothes, they put on a robe on Him and mocked Him, they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand, they spit on Him, took the reed, and smote him on the head (Matthew 27:28-31). This should be our motivation to sacrifice knowing that God will never ask us to sacrifice more than what Jesus did for us on the cross. Every day, as a changed man, we should strive to be holy, acceptable unto God as a response to the mercy He has given us. Furthermore, the Bible gives us instruction on how to be acceptable unto God, Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”, not conforming to the world also means sacrificing what your flesh wants to nourish your soul, and true transformation comes in knowing that it is all about God, and all through God.
God wants us to sacrifice ourselves like the Old Testament time where before they offer, they set apart the best animal from their herd so they will be ensured unharmed and unmarked, the same way God wants us to sacrifice ourselves today- set apart from the world, unharmed by the temptations of the world, and unmarked by the evilness of the world- and these are only be done through His power in us.
Being sold-out for Christ also demands our faithful service. Serving God is not serving Him when it is the most comfortable for us. The early Christians served God in midst of persecutions, in the middle of being stoned to death, and in the hours of being imprisoned. We have all the freedom to proclaim the gospel of Christ to all the world just as God commanded us in Mark 16:15. But serving God is not just through preaching or going to missions because serving God is not just a mere task, it is a lifestyle. Ministry is also how we live our lives not just singing in the choir, playing our instruments, teaching Sunday school kids, serving God means our “everyday life”, and we are so blessed to have the Bible to tell us how we should live our lives according to what God wants. Christ’s life is the life we should live, which we can never be because He lived a perfect life. But there is comfort in knowing we can never be like Him, it releases the pressure we
put ourselves to be perfect and put it all to Christ, or else we’ll be living self-reliant. Yet in trying to live our lives just as how Christ lived will help us become the person God wants us to be as we walk everyday with Him. God gave us spiritual gifts we can use to serve him, he gave us treasures so we can minister to Him, everything we have is all God’s and who are we to not serve Him by what He himself gave us? Our life is also His, and who are we to not live a lifestyle that is worthy to be a service to Him?
I may not know everything about being sold-out for Christ, but this I know… I WON WHEN I SURRENDERED. It was my first step, and everything changed when I surrendered, including my view of myself, the world, and life. There is goodness in surrendering, much more when you surrender to the Almighty God. I am still perfecting life that is SOLD-OUT for Him, and still trying to catch up with His gentle and loving, all so good “TOLD U SO’s”, and if you want to know what are they…
Surrender… be SOLD-OUT and see it for yourself.
