I think there is something about billboards that irritate me. Especially ones that are placed inside the limits of small rural cities.
This might be happening all over and I just don't know it, but there is a local jewelry store that we use to shop at that puts up some very irritating billboards. Things like "He spent how much on his golf clubs?" or "If it was a 14 carrot truck, he wouldn't hesitate." Over the last couple years they have tried their hardest to make women feel that they deserve to splurge on bling just for putting up with their husbands.
I know if Cabela's started taking this approach, the N.O.W. would be burning their bras.
There is a particular billboard across the street from our High School, in the corner of a church yard that currently reads "Get Wasted." This is a message from another community church that apparently is trying to get the message of Matthew 16:25-26 across. That verse says "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
This might be happening all over and I just don't know it, but there is a local jewelry store that we use to shop at that puts up some very irritating billboards. Things like "He spent how much on his golf clubs?" or "If it was a 14 carrot truck, he wouldn't hesitate." Over the last couple years they have tried their hardest to make women feel that they deserve to splurge on bling just for putting up with their husbands.
I know if Cabela's started taking this approach, the N.O.W. would be burning their bras.
There is a particular billboard across the street from our High School, in the corner of a church yard that currently reads "Get Wasted." This is a message from another community church that apparently is trying to get the message of Matthew 16:25-26 across. That verse says "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"
I'm assuming that "Get Wasted" refers to where it says "but whoever loses his life for My sake..." If I'm correct, aren't they saying that becoming a Christian is a "waste"? And remember, this is posted across the street from a high school, on church property.I think that whomever is in charge of placing this ad should be posting a retraction of some kind. Some very poor judgement on the churches part.
Is this a reflection on the state of the church as a whole.? Is the state of the church a reflection on the state of the nation?
I think so!
How about an allternative version...
Courage and God Speed!
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2 comments:
Hey. First of all I would like to thank you for noticing our billboard, expressing concern and inviting this opportunity for explanation. This billboard is an advertisement for our Sunday morning message series here at Real Life Church. You are very correct in your first assumption in your blog where you wrote – “I'm assuming that "Get Wasted" refers to where it says "but whoever loses his life for My sake..." That is exactly the premise on which this series of messages is established.
The term “waste” or “wasted” is defined by www.dictionary.com as the following: to wear down or reduce in bodily substance, health, or strength; emaciate; enfeeble; neglect, instead of use: waste of opportunity; to kill or murder.
Jesus was teaching His disciples the “heart” ingredient of following Him . . . He was teaching them that in order to receive the present and eternal benefit of a personal, covenant relationship with Jesus Christ there was a heart change that has to be made. Romans Chapter 10 teaches us that it is not just a decision that we just make in our mind our something that we just speak out of our mouth, but that it is an extreme decision to embrace Christ with everything!
Romans 10:9-11 (NKJV)
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
Romans 10:9-11 (The Message)
9 Say the welcoming word to God - "Jesus is my Master" - embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. 10 With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!" 11 Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this - heart and soul - will ever regret it."
This heart “change” or decision is the choice to put aside one’s self in order to fully embrace him. This is the very one Jesus talked about in Matthew 16:24
Matthew 16:24-26 (NKJV)
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
The New Living Translation breaks the “denial of self” into the more understandable statement: “to put aside self-ambition”. This means that when we give our lives to Christ, we are literally to lay to “waste” to our selfish ambition – our will, what we want, our plans and our dreams.
Matthew 16:24-26 (NLT)
24 Then Jesus said to the disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. 26 And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?.
In Luke Chapter 14 Jesus taught His followers that in order to follow Him we have to give up everything.
Luke 14:25-35 (NLT)
25 Great crowds were following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26 "If you want to be my follower you must love me more than your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, more than your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27 And you cannot be my disciple if you do not carry your own cross and follow me. 28 "But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills? 29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh at you! 30 They would say, 'There's the person who started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!' 31 "Or what king would ever dream of going to war without first sitting down with his counselors and discussing whether his army of ten thousand is strong enough to defeat the twenty thousand soldiers who are marching against him? 32 If he is not able, then while the enemy is still far away, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace. 33 So no one can become my disciple without giving up everything for me. 34 "Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? 35 Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for fertilizer. It is thrown away. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand!"
I personally have experienced a significant paradigm change in my experience over the last 25 years since I first received God’s gift of salvation for my life. “Get Wasted” is a series of messages pointed at bringing God’s true message of Abundant and Eternal Life. Having been “raised in Church” all my life I have experienced what most “Church” has to offer – and I’m saddened to say that for most the experience of salvation has become weakened and watered down by the wills and ways of men. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came to give eternal and abundant life. The heart of “Get Wasted” and the heart of Real Life Church is to bring the element of authenticity that Jesus intended and requires of all who follow Him. Which is for us to follow Him with all of our hearts, all of our souls, all of our minds, and all of our strength – Laying “Waste” to our past, to our mistakes, our successes, our hopes, our plans, and our dreams in trade for His power to overcome, His purpose and plan for our lives, the God size dreams that can only come from Him and which are a part of the Real, Abundant and Eternal Life that He came to bring.
I cannot apologize for our message, and I won’t apologize for our methods. You see. January 2006 a small group of people started Real Life Church here in Charlotte, Michigan with a mission to share the love of Jesus with this community in a real, powerful, and creative way. We stand in agreement with the entire community of Bible believing and preaching Churches in this community to reach those outside the Church with the true message and hope of the Gospel and to encourage those inside to truly become “ambassadors” for Christ – representing Him for who He is, What He did, and What He offers.
I believe that there are many, many great churches in this community striving to be Christ like and to reach the lost. I also believe that the message of the Gospel, and the irrefutable truth of the scriptures are unchanging and unshakeable – and therefore I refuse to compromise it. However, I believe that our methods for delivering that message to the World should meet those in the World where they are. And that is what I am, and we at Real Life Church are striving to do.
It is my hope and prayer that the Church in America truly will “Get Wasted”, that they truly will return to their first love and raise up a standard to the World of what the Body of Christ really is and what we are really about.
And as for the students of this community, the hurting and broken our community, the people who seem to have it all together, the young and the old and every person in between it is my life purpose that they would experience God, that they would know Him, follow Him with their Whole Life, and make Him known to all the World.
Again I sincerely thank you for this opportunity to explain not only the meaning of this “billboard”, but also my heart, and the heart of Real Life Church for God and for this community.
Your Friend,
Andy Shaver
Senior Pastor,
Real Life Church
Charlotte, MI 48813
517.541.LIFE X1
www.RealLifeToday.com
Email: andy.shaver@RealLifeToday.com
Thank You Pastor Shaver for responding to my blog and expaining the message behind the billboard. Even though I disagree with the way you get your message out, I do not disagree with your message. I wish you and your budding new Church all of Christ's blessings and success in reaching the lost.
Courage and God Speed.
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