What Would Jesus Say To Britney Spears? Series

[This message was written in November 2002. But despite where Britney’s life and career has gone since, I believe a lot of this message is still relevant. Stats may be updated at Wikipedia.com]

Britney Spears was born on December 2, 1981 to proud parents Jamie and Lynn Spears.

Growing up, she appeared at local dance venues and church choirs. She knew from the beginning that she wanted to perform. At the ripe old age of 8, she auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club, but was turned down because she was too you. So off to New York young Britney went to study performing arts and star in the lead role in the off-Broadway production, Ruthless.

She eventually re-auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club at the age of 11 and was accepted, appearing on the show for two years. After leaving the show, she began to pursue her solo music career. At the age of 15 she was invited to performed in front of 10 representatives from Jive Records and was signed immediately.

Her first album “Baby One More Time” was released on January 12, 1999 just after her 17th Birthday, and debuted at the #1 spot on the Billboard charts. It never left the top ten for a full year, selling over 11 million copies in that year. The album contained not just one but four hit singles. The album went platinum 12 times over, making Britney the youngest artist ever to achieve this.

Her second album was released in May of 2000 entitled, “Oops!... I Did It Again”. And oops, she did it again. It had more sales in the first week than any other female artist in history – over 1.3 million copies. Her third album simply titled “Britney” was released about a year ago in November of 2001 and didn’t sell quite as well as her first two albums. But it was still good enough to shoot it straight to the top of the charts.

Even if you don’t follow music and never turn on the TV, you have probably heard of Britney Spears. And if you don’t recognize her name, then you’d recognize her music. You can’t go anyplace without hearing it playing in the background. In fact, while we were bowling last night I noticed one of her songs come on.

Her songs have included such hits as:

Baby, One More Time

Lucky

Stronger

(You Drive Me) Crazy

Sometimes

Oops!... I Did It Again

Don’t Let Me Be the Last To Know

I’m A Slave For You

I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman

She has won almost every award she could be eligible for, including:

Best Female Solo Artist

Best Dancer

Best Female Video

Viewers’ Choice Video Award

Album Artist of the Year

She has performed at:

the 2001 Superbowl

The 1999, 2000 and 2001 Video Music Awards

The 2001 and 2002 American Music Awards

The 1999 MTV Video Music awards

The 2001 Billboard Music Awards

And everyplace else, it would appear.

She even sang with Michael Jackson at the Michael Jackson Tribute Concert this past year.

She hosted the 2001 American Music Awards, has had several TV specials of her own, has written two books, and this year starred in her first movie Crossroads.

In 2001 she signed an endorsement deal to do commercials with Pepsi, with the first one debuting during the Academy Awards. The deal will net her upwards of 10 millions dollars US.

She has appeared on the cover of:

Allure

Bazaar

Cosmopolitan

Elle

Entertainment Weekly

Glamour

People

Rolling Stone

Teen

Teen People

Seventeen

TV Guide

Vogue

YM

and many, many more…

She’s been named by…

Teen People as one of the 21 hottest starts under 21

E! as one of the top 20 entertainers

People Magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful People

and this year by Forbes as the number 1 most powerful celebrity in the world

Not bad for someone who celebrates her 21st birthday next month.

So the question is, what would Jesus say to someone like Britney? What I want to do over the next few minutes is share with you five things that I think Jesus would say to Britney Spears, and see how they apply to us, too. You can use the notes provided in your Sunrise Update to follow along.

What Would Jesus Say to Britney Spears?

1. Britney, I made you special.

You’re unique. You have talents. You have charisma. You have abilities and a persona that nobody else has. I made you special. In fact, I made you in my image.

Genesis 1:27 (NLT)

So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.

Britney, God made you. He loves you. You are his masterpiece.

What does it mean to be created in the image of God? It means a lot of things, but let me highlight three of them this morning.