People have often paid large sums of money just for the opportunity to have lunch or dinner with a famous person. Last year, the annual auction to have lunch with Warren Buffett resulted in someone paying 2.34 million dollars just to have lunch with him. For some reason, no one has ever offered to pay that much to have a meal with me….I can’t understand that.
However, the point is, people will pay LARGE amounts of money just to get a few moments of the time of someone they think is “important”. Yet, it seems many people when presented the Gospel, question “What’s in it for me? What do I get out of it?” We have the many huge churches in the world today that preach what is commonly called “prosperity gospel”…in other words, if you give yourself and your money to God, He will make you RICH!! No where in the Bible does it teach that, yet thousands and thousands of people fall for that, because they are still thinking in the “FLESH” – It’s ALL ABOUT ME! What I want! What makes ME happy! What’s “Good” for me!
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly the opposite. When we come to God – we Get GOD! When we trust Him as our Savior, we “GIVE” Him our lives, and we get HIM!!
We then have the attention, protection, provision, care and fellowship of the CREATOR of this world. He has 10,000 times more power and ability to change and impact our lives than any living person we could even dream of having lunch or dinner with!
The great evangelist of the late 1800’s, D. L. Moody, once said,
“A great many people are afraid of the will of God, and yet I believe that one of the sweetest lessons that we can learn in the school of Christ is the surrender of our wills to God, letting Him plan for us and rule our lives. If I know my own mind, if an angel should come from the throne of God and tell me that I could have my will done the rest of my days on earth, and that everything I wished should be carried out, or that I might refer it back to God, and let God’s will be done in me and through me, I think in an instant I would say: ‘Let the will of God be done.’ I cannot look into the future. I do not know what is going to happen tomorrow; in fact, I do not know what may happen before tonight; so I cannot choose for myself as well as God can choose for me, and it is much better to surrender my will to God’s will.”
When we give our hearts and lives completely to GOD, we get GOD IN CONTROL of our lives!! That is WAY more valuable than all the money in this world!! That’s WAY more valuable than a FREE lunch with ANY “celebrity”.
Paul wrote in Philippians 3:8 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”
He knew that having a genuine PERSONAL relationship with Jesus Christ is WAY WAY WAY more valuable than ANYTHING this world can offer, more valuable than fame, than position, than money, than lunch with a person the world values highly. Paul said, I willingly GIVE UP EVERYTHING in order to KNOW GOD!!
When we give up everything in complete faith and surrender to Him – We Get GOD!!! What else do we need? There is NO WAY to even put a price on that relationship!