WILL YOU BE A PART OF UPSIDE DOWN?

Do you remember the original commercials advertising the latest ice cream wonder of its day from Dairy Queen? It was called the Blizzard, and it was nothing short of a genius creative work consisting of two elements. Those building blocks were your choice of ice cream flavor and your choice of candy assortments. The carefully chosen ingredients would then be marvelously blended together for an out of this world ice cream experience. …..Where was I, oh yeah, back to the commercials. A Dairy queen employee after mixing a patron’s newly created Blizzard, would then do the unthinkable right before the very eyes of a watching world. They would turn the Blizzard upside down, can you believe it, not one drop was spilt and then they handed it to the bedazzled customer. Getting past the amazement for a moment, have you ever wondered or thought about WHY they turned the ice cream upside down? It was for one sole purpose, to show the world that there was rich genuine desirable substance in the cup and not cheap imitation fluff!
I’ve been taken back of recent days by a phrase that I read in Scripture while studying for an upcoming sermon. The phrase was spoken by an angry society who, while they did not understand what was being offered, still had the capacity to appreciate and label the substance as genuinely life altering. They cried out in staunch defiance of the substance of the good news of the gospel. They rejected the proclamation of Jesus Christ as God’s Son, the One who came to save men like them and us from that which separates us from a holy God, that is sin and death. They screamed for all they were worth at the men who were employees/servants of the Heavenly King, the ones who were heralding the message of Jesus. They yelled this phrase, “These who have turned the world UPSIDE DOWN have come here too!”
Question, would anyone make or has anyone ever made the same accusation against you or our church for that matter? Are you, or we as His church, walking with Jesus in such a close personal relationship that your daily experience in His presence and your subsequent obedient service to Him would cause the people around you to take note? Is a lost world seeing something so amazingly different about your life than the common variety garbage pile of ideology so prevalent around us today? Would they or could they shout about you that you’re turning the world upside down? I want to encourage you today, if that is not true of your life or of the life of our church it is not too late! God has blessed us with another day and He commands that we give Him our all in making a difference for the cause of Christ and the Kingdom of God. If we belong to Him it is our privilege to serve Him with all that we are letting others see Jesus in action. Well, isn’t it certainly getting hotter outside as summer approaches? Go have a Blizzard, turn it upside down before you eat it, and think about it. Am I of such genuine sold out substance to be an impact player for Jesus? God, please help First Baptist this day to be part of turning Travelers Rest upside down for You!