What can you afford? Often it’s easy to take on a poverty mindset when it comes to giving our time, our effort, or our possessions. I cling so tightly to the things I own or my own identity because I am afraid there won’t be enough to go around. I hold on to my house, my car, my clothes, my food, my money, my time, my independence, my life, as if when I give them up I will become nothing and have nothing to live for. Do these things give me purpose and value? Out of my own lack, I decide to forsake those around me. But God has been teaching me something this month that is POWERFUL and at the very center of the Gospel:
As Sons and Daughters of the King of Kings, we have been given a position of Great Honor in heaven.
With the Inheritance God gives us, we will sit higher than the angels. We carry the very name of the Most High. We belong to His family. We are a Royal Priesthood. We are Kings and Queens. We have a position of power in Christ.
I have a position of high honor in the family and the kingdom of the King of Kings. I am His Son. This is a position far above the greatest kings and presidents and leaders of this earth. Even the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than any who walk this earth.
But in this, we should follow our King’s example. For He humbled himself to reach us, to save us, to love us. He willingly gave up His honor, His glory, His position, His name, His body, Everything, that we might know the Father.
We have full freedom and no law of this earth can tell us what to do. No one can strip us of our identity in Christ. No one can determine my worth or my value for it has already been determined by my God.
Yet, there is something even greater.
We, following Christ, can take this position of great honor and freedom and give it up daily for the sake of others. WILLINGLY, we can choose to sacrifice. WILLINGLY, we can choose to suffer. WILLINGLY, we can choose to take a position that does not have glory or honor attached to it and instead serve for the sake of another. We can love in this way. We can take on the likeness of something we are not in order that others might become something they are not. That they might be loved. This is true love. To lay down one’s own life…
John 18
Then Judas having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees came there with lanterns, torches and weapons. Jesus therefore knowing all things that would come upon Him went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” They answered “Jesus of Nazareth” Jesus said to them “I am” Now when He said to them “I am” they drew back and fell to the ground…
Do you understand? Do you get that? This Jesus spoke I am and hundreds of soldiers drew back and fell to the ground. He spoke and they fell. This is His authority and Power. No one took Him. He went of His own free will. This is our example. If He can afford obedience even unto death. Surely nothing is beneath us.
When it comes to missions, when it comes to reaching others and telling them about Jesus, I can afford to wash their feet. I can afford to take on another’s shame—to sit with the despised. Or serve someone “different”. I can become a servant to all. This is the mind of Christ. I know who I am, but I love you and serve you and wash your feet. God has given me a position of freedom and honor.
He has called me His Son.
It is of little consequence for me to sacrifice to love others. I can change the way I dress, change the food I eat, the way I eat, the things I say, the way I speak, the time I go to bed, even the way I pray, the things I hold tightly to I can let go to love another. If they receive love differently than I do, I can learn to become something new in order that they might see and feel and know the Love of Christ for them. I can sacrifice. I can be less free. I can afford that. My identity does not change simply because I choose to give up my freedom so that someone else might better see Christ. Do you know who you are? Are you confident in it? Even more so, do you know who HE IS?
Paul says it this way (1 Corinthians 9)
Though I am FREE from all men
I choose to make myself a servant to all so that I might win the more.
To the Jews I became as a Jew that I might win Jews
To those who are under the law, I became as under the law that I might win those under the law
To those who are without law, I became as without law that I might win those without law
(not being without law toward God, but under the law of Christ) [the law of love]
To the weak I became as weak that I might win the weak
I have become ALL things to ALL men, that I might by ALL means save some.
Now I do this for the gospel’s sake that I may be a partaker of it with you.
I like to also say… To the Muslims I become as a Muslim, to the Atheist I become as an Atheist, to the New Age I become as a New Age, to the American I become as an American, to the Spaniard I become as a Spaniard, to the Catholic I become as a Catholic, to the Greek Orthodox I become as a Greek Orthodox, to the Nomad I become as a Nomad, to the Aboriginal I become as a Aboriginal, to the Businessman I become as a Businessman, to the Engineer an Engineer, to the Actor an Actor, the Athlete as an Athlete, so that by doing so MANY might be won to Christ.
A great man once said:
“They will not believe in Jesus if they do not SEE Jesus”
It is this mind that I need to learn, need to cultivate, need to grow. To be first and foremost a servant of Jesus, and He will raise me up to be a Son. I am a servant. I humble myself. I need the humility and will to seek to understand and love others so that in doing so I can learn to know how THEY see Jesus, not how I see Jesus.
Through their own lens, their own culture, their own life, they can see Christ in me.
I cannot do that if I am set on continuing to cling to myself.
For the entire law is fulfilled in this statement:
Love your neighbor as yourself
And there is no greater love than this that one might lay down his life for another.
He shows us His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
He became like us…
that we might become like Him.
He bore our shame…
that we might bear His honor.
I can afford to bear another’s shame or another’s burden that they might know His love for them. I can become less so that He becomes more. I MUST become less. I can die to myself that others might live. I have been saved and given Freedom… what will I do with it?
This is what my Lord did with it…
John 13
So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things blessed are you if you do them.”
If the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of All, the Most High can afford to take on the likeness of a servant then surely, I also can afford to take on the likeness of a servant, take on the likeness of the most humble and shameful places on this earth to love my brother and sister beside me.
He is STILL the Great I AM, but took the position of a servant
Do you understand?
I am STILL a Son of the Most High, but can take on the position of a servant
The GREATEST shall take on the most shameful to Honor the LEAST. And the LEAST shall be honored as if they are the GREATEST. If you KNOW these things, blessed are you if you DO them. If you DO them. Not just agree with them.
I follow His example. I need to learn more how to follow His example.
Let the greatest among you humble yourselves and honor the least as if they, the least are the greatest. For even greater honor will be given to the least among you. Honor each other. Love each other. Prefer one another over yourself. Look to others interests not just your own.
I can afford to place my brothers and sisters before myself… for my God placed me before Himself
I can afford to go without a meal… for my God sustains
I can afford to give away everything I own… for my God provides
I can afford to stand in another’s place… for my God has given me a place in His Kingdom
I can afford to be beaten… for He is my health
I can afford to be tired… for He will be my rest
I can afford to be homeless… for He is my shelter
I can afford poverty… for my Father has a bank account the size of heaven
I can afford to be mocked… for He is given praise and glory
I can afford to be unheard… for He hears my cry
I can afford to be put to shame… for He has given honor
I can afford to be humbled… for He will exalt
I can afford to be nothing… for He is my everything
I can afford to not know… for in Him is all Knowledge and Wisdom
I can afford to wait…. for He will remember every promise
I can afford obedience… for He will reward
I can afford mercy… for He is merciful towards me
I can afford to forgive others… for He has forgiven me
I can afford to become less… for He will become more
I can afford to suffer for the sake of the Gospel… so that others also might share in this truth and freedom
I can afford all things for though I am poor He is rich
What can you afford?
With Faith, Hope, and Love
Nathan
The mind of Christ
Isn’t this also the call that we have towards one another? To daily lay down our own life, our own freedom, to love one another?
Hebrews 12
Strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but rather healed. Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Romans 14
I am convinced by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved because of YOUR food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food (actions) the one for whom Christ died. Do not let your good be spoke of as evil for the Kingdom of God is NOT eating and drinking (or clothes or movies or tv or music or chores or the way you do church or anything else) but of RIGHTEOUSNESS, and PEACE and JOY in the Holy Spirit… Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which we may edify one another.
Romans 15
We then who are strong ought to bear with the weak NOT to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please himself but as it is written
“The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on me.”
2 Corinthians 8
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
Galatians 5
For you have been called to FREEDOM. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through LOVE serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”
Philippians 2
Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship in the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or vein conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not for your own interests but also for the interests of others.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance of man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Colossians 4
Walk in Wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
Abide in Love
Sacrificial Love Speaks Loudly
If you made it this far, thanks for reading 🙂
