"We Are Not Suppose To Fit In"

"We are not Suppose to fit in"

Matt. 5:1-2

2 Cor. 6:17-18

We live in a world where for the most part everybody feels the pressure to fit in. This starts at a very early age. We even have 4 & 5 year olds trying to get their parents to buy the in styles.

On our jobs we feel the need to find "our places", so that we don¡¦t standout. We allow the fight for success to cause us to do things that we would not normally do.

Our children don’t watch TV for entertainment anymore; to them it is a place where they go to get the latest fashions. Here we are in the church, loving the Lord & our kids are dressed like Little Kim, Foxy Brown, Mary J. Blige, little Bow wow, Method Man, & Snoop Doggy Dog. There is something bad wrong with that picture.

Dr. Chuck Swindoll, host of the internationally syndicated radio program, Insight for Living, said he could imagine asking the child Christ what he wanted to be when he grew up. Keep in mind that though he was God incarnate he was still very much a child. He was all man & yet all God. He played. He cried. He thought. He was a child. But his answer would not have been that he wanted to be a carpenter, a blacksmith or even an earthly king or ruler of his age.

Our children want to be doctors, lawyers, and professional athletes. But to ask the child Christ makes this question so much more important. Dr. Swindoll said that the child Christ would simply answer, "I want to be different . . . to be a servant¡¨.

Think about it, have you ever seen anyone, out side of a church service that claims to want to be a servant. Now I’m not just talking about saying it in words, but we need to see some works that follow, service to others.

Think about it. To be a servant; to labor for the advancement of someone other than yourself; having to endure humiliation. Can you imagine always having to have to always be second and third, always in the background? This is a position that is lacking in all dignity. A gofer, A flunky. This is how the world sees it, but not God. God said there¡¦s no greater love than a man that would lay down is life, his personal agenda, for a friend.

Can you imagine how much better businesses, schools; communities and Governments would run if we all had a servant¡¦s attitude that says, ¡§I desire nothing, what can I give.¡¨ If you look real close at corporate America you can find many biblical principals at work. But the one that they have missed is the key to real success.

Mark 10:44-45 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. 45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

The church is no different than the world when it comes to real servitude. We love the thought of serving God, because of his great benefits; (Ps. 68:19). But we all have to agree we look at serving others as a consequence & not the privilege that it is. Oh, yes everything maybe well with us right now, so we don’t have time to visit the sick, care for the homeless. We are saved, our children are in church, so rescuing the perishing & saving the dieing is not tops on our things to do. But God¡¦s got a way of using circumstances to change your mind about everything. We need to be different!

Christ’s desire for us to be different is so clear through out scripture, especially in Matthew chapter 5.

Verse 21-22, "You have heard . . . but I say to you. . ."

Verse 27-28, ¡§You have heard . . . but I say to you. . ."

Verse 33-34, "Again, you have heard . . . but I say to you. . ."

Verse 38-39, "You have heard . . . but I say to you. . ."

Verse 43-44, "You have heard . . . but I say to you. . ."

This same pattern goes on into chapter 6 with illustrations. Then he tops it off with one key verse.

Matt. 6:8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: ...

Not only does God want you different, he doesn¡¦t want us like them. This is what he meant by, ¡§be not conformed to this world¡¨, placed in the form and mold of. The only way that we can be different from the world is to be a servant. Hypocrites go to church, pray and give tithes and offering. If you don¡¦t believe it look at Matthew 6:1-7. There are Hypocrites that can pray for hours.