Under The Oakes

Reels are the greatest thing since sliced bread, right? They are usually a short, 30-45 second clip that features something funny, intriguing, or just straight bizarre. For most people, the hope is that you will go to their page or off to another website via a separate link. I have seen them used correctly in ministry purposes (and non-ministry purposes), & I have seen them used incorrectly, either using copyrighted data or using inappropriate things in the reels. However, they truly “reel” you in, don’t they? I have a few people I follow on Instagram who are great to use reels for a short mini-sermon. Sometimes it is just the right pick-me-up I needed that day.

Last week, I saw a reel from a British evangelist. He often has some pretty funny, silly jokes that reel people in, but this one was different. He shared that he knew the top two reasons why people aren’t Christians. According to Google’s AI Overview, they claim that 30-40% of the U.S. population are not practicing Christians. Truthfully, that number seems low to me, which is why I never trust the Google AI overview. Regardless, let me get to the point. Would you like to know the 2 reasons most people are not Christians? It was quite simple, & I think there’s a lot of truth to them.

The first reason most people aren’t Christians is that they HAVEN’T met a Christian. They haven’t met someone to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them. The second reason this evangelist says that most people aren’t Christians is that they HAVE met a Christian. Ouch… That hurts….. I have been a Christian since I was 5 years old, & to think that I may have pushed people away from Christ?! That one stung a little bit…. However, it brought me to this point, which is where I am today: how effective of a Christian am I? I can either push people away from Christ, or I can draw them to Him. (I don’t do the drawing, Christ does it, & can use me in the process).

The reality is, the worst way I can push people away from Christ is to be fake. Our world is full of fake. We don’t know who or what to trust anymore. I was just telling someone, I have gotten to this point where I am not interested in reading from new Christian authors anymore, because I just don’t want to wade through the process of who to trust. I have a group of well-established, biblical authors I trust & read from & if I read all & only their literature, I would probably run out of time, long before I ran out of books… However, we have fake news, we have fake AI reels, & we have photoshopped images that we can’t trust. We, as the American people, are sick & tired of being lied to in all areas of our lives! Whether it be political or spiritual, we are over it. Every year that elections roll around, I have gotten to the point that while I have a candidate that gets my vote, I don’t care who wins, because God is in control, but what I do care about is that it is a genuine, honest election. If my candidate wins, great! If not, that’s fine too, as long as it was a legitimate win. Fakeness & falsehood & lack of authenticity are one of the biggest turn-offs for our culture, & I get it.

Let me put some scripture to this to help get my point across. In Acts 4, we read that in the early church, there was “not a needy person among them”. Why? Certainly not because there weren’t any needs to be met, but because all the landowners & homeowners were bringing the proceeds of their sales, or at least a portion, to the apostles’ feet so they could use that money to help those in need. They weren’t required to do this; they just saw a need & wanted to fill that need. While tithing is talked about in the Old Testament, that is not what we’re talking about here, so we won’t go there today & apply this passage out of context. Actually, this concept was laid before the Israelites in Deuteronomy 15:4-11, so we see the early church perfectly acting that out. We read in verses 36-37 that a man named Barnabas, yes, the same Barnabas who accompanies Paul on his missionary journey, comes & lays the money from a sold field at the feet of Jesus. Barnabas will do many mighty things in the New Testament. While he didn’t write a book, he was with Paul & did many signs & wonders, as well as being a great encourager & speaking on various things throughout scripture. We see that Barnabas was authentic. He brings this money because he saw a need & wanted to help; he didn’t do it for the recognition.

Sadly, Acts 5 leads into the story of a couple named Ananias & Sapphira who were not authentic. They sold a piece of property, & then they lied to Peter when they brought the money in. They decided to keep back a portion of the profits & lie to Peter. They weren’t required to give any money, but they chose to, & unfortunately for them, they lied about it, which cost them their lives. They wanted the recognition more than anything! Ananias went before Peter & Peter immediately called it out. Immediately after Peter read him the riot act, Ananias breathed his last breath. Men came in, carried him out, & buried him. Sapphira, his wife, was sitting at home, probably awaiting for him to come back so they could go spend the money they had held back. Sapphira waited about 3 hours before she started to worry. So she went before Peter. Peter tests her; he asks her if she knows what the land sold for. Peter was trying to discern whether this was only Ananias’ sin? Or was this both Ananias & Sapphira’s sin? Sapphira committed to the lie, & Peter let her know that her husband was dead because of their sin, & after Peter read her the riot act, she fell dead & the same men who buried her husband just hours prior came in & carried her out & buried her.

Let me come to a point here. I don’t want to be fake. I don’t think any of us do. Sometimes, we convince ourselves that the love of others towards us is tied to a lie. Friends, if that is true, then it isn’t true love. That is not a real friend. My family loves me on my best days, but even better, they love me on my worst days. Praise God for that! I have had bad days, we all do, & I have family & friends that I can tell when I am having a bad day. They don’t tell me to get over it, they don’t tell me to go to my room & come back tomorrow. They love me & support me. That is true friends & family. If you are reading this & you feel attacked, I’m sorry, that is not my heart behind this. My heart behind this is to say, don’t pursue the appearance. Don’t worry if your kids are dressed sloppily for church, or if you don’t have it all together, come as you are. Maybe you worry your imperfection will rub off on those around you. The New Testament is FULL of stories of Jesus making unclean people clean, not them making Him unclean. The Pharisees couldn’t wrap their heads around this.

God is not wrapped up in your appearance (I am not talking your outfit, FYI, appearance can be the words you say, what you wear, where you go, etc). In my classroom, where I teach Bible, I have gone to putting up cheesy, cringey church signs on my board, one per day, for the remainder of the school year. This week, one of them was, “Acting perfect in church is like dressing up for an X-ray.” There is some truth in that, as corny as it is. The One who matters, your Heavenly Father who loves you in all things, already knows all your weaknesses. He still chooses to love you, no matter what. Let me end with this verse, while Samuel is choosing the 2nd King of Israel, & is at the home of Jesse, he is going through all of Jesse’s sons. He starts with the oldest, the strongest, the best looking; each of them is the King. Eventually, God will lead Samuel to David, the next King of Israel. Before that, the Lord reminds Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

Did you catch that? God looks on the heart. That is what matters. We need to be authentic. If we’re having a bad day, be honest about it. If we don’t have life together, be honest about it. The reality is, there is someone in your life who probably has you on a pedestal as a perfect human being, & they are wrapped up in who you are & comparing themselves to you. Where if you were vulnerable, it wouldn’t destroy them, it would only encourage them that you are an authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Pursue Him, honor Him, glorify Him, in ALL you do! Be blessed!