A Piece Of The Price – Ron Hutchcraft

I know a teenage guy who's trying to make his dream come true - to have a music group of his own. And so there are four guys spending long evenings - a lot of their weekends - practicing, writing, perfecting, and recording. Their goal is to do a professional recording and see if it can open some doors for them. Of course, they found one issue that needs to be resolved right up front. See, they need some fairly expensive equipment, plus it's going to cost them much to get the recording done. So, who's going to pay for all that? Well, obviously, some of the guys have more money than others, but they know that it's only right to divide it equally. So they're all working right now to chip in on that equipment. They basically agreed on a simple principle: It's only fair if we all share the cost.  Our word for today is taken from the Word of God, Philippians 2:5, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." Okay. Well, then he goes on to tell us what that attitude is, "Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Now, when you hear this expression, "Have the same attitude as Jesus" and you ask what attitude, the answer is very clearly spelled out. God was willing to pay a high price to save lost people. Well, here's the question, "Why should God make all the sacrifices?" See, Christians in other generations have paid for this gospel...for this faith with physical consequences, economic consequences, family persecutions, and many have paid with their lives and still are. This very day people are paying with their lives for their allegiance to Jesus Christ. Why should God's people in other generations make all the sacrifices to reach the lost? Today Christians in many parts of the world are risking everything to stand for the Gospel. Why should God's people in other places make all the sacrifices? Which brings it to you and I. Should we be getting off this comfortably; this conveniently? So many of us are figuratively speaking, throwing in our few pennies while God and so many of His people have thrown in everything they had to rescue a dying world. There's a world of lost people out there; we're surrounded by them, we know some of them. They are heading for a Christ-less eternity. We just can't be content with going to our Christian meetings, giving our little offerings, holding some office, singing our songs, and serving on our committees. This is a costly faith; it's an expensive faith; one for which God's Son gave His life. What are you and I giving? We all have to sacrifice some of our earth loves to reach the people that Christ gave His entire life for. Yet it seems that, we who have more than any other Christian in history, instead of giving more time, more talent and more resource, only keep more to and for ourselves.

The guys in that music group got it right. It's only fair if we all share the cost.