To use a sports analogy, the difference between fans and followers (players), is that players get in the game, or at least practice with the team to be ready to go into the game, while all fans do is pay the admission price and watch.  Someone said professional football games are all too often an illustration of the Church:  80,000 people sitting in the stadium who are in desperate need of exercise, watching twenty-two men on the field in desperate need of rest!

The proportions may be off a bit, but fans watch  in massive numbers while followers (players) in much smaller numbers follow (play).  As Kyle Idelman put  it:  It doesn't cost anything to be a fan.  It costs everything to be a follower.  As we move through these next six weeks, we're going to keep emphasizing the cost of commitment to Jesus Christ.  Jesus told us over and over again the cost of following Him is high.  He told us we must seek FIRST His Kingdom and His righteousness.  He told us that we must "hate" those around us and ourselves, by comparison to our love for Him.  He told us we must deny ourselves, and take up a cross--daily.  The list of Jesus' challenges to us is long.  Jesus never kept the cost of following Him a secret.  Jesus didn't use the old "bait and switch" technique used by so many salespeople down through the millennia--offering us something that sounds too good to be true and then actually delivering something much less.

Jesus offers us life in all its fullness.  He offers us abundant blessings relationally and materially--in heaven, and He tells us that in this life we will have..... persecution.   Jesus never soft-pedaled anything, and yet the brand of Christianity often pedaled in churches across America is easy, too easy.   At New Life, we have sought from the beginning to be up front about the cost of following Jesus.  The Not a Fan series is more direct than some we've participated in over the years at telling us just how great the cost is, but we've never backed down from speaking Jesus' truth in love.  In many ways Not a Fan, is more of the same thing we've emphasized for the nearly eleven years of our existence:  we become what we're committed to in life.  The Good News is salvation is free!  Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  When we've received that amazing blessing the difference is not just different beliefs--which we definitely gain as we continue to read, study and live out the God's word-- but also different behavior.  Jesus didn't die on the cross to give us new ideas.  He died on the cross to give us new lives!

Let's take some time today, to consider whether we're "in the game" or just watching, whether we need to take our commitment to a deeper level, or just continue with the level  we're on right now.

Let's pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for being all in for us!  Thank You for sending Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins and to give us a whole, new life!  Thank You for living in us by Your Holy Spirit!  Fill us right now, with Your Spirit that we may live boldly and confidently as "players" on Your "team."  This we ask in Jesus' name.  Amen.