You’re not selling naming rights …

Arenas, stadiums and such massive public places for playing sports cost a lot of money.

A lot!

The newest stadiums used for NFL football are now costing more than a billion dollars to construct. The portion of that paid by a host city can be a harsh hit on public coffers, especially in today’s economy. So to contribute to the building and maintenance costs of these athletic monoliths, it has become a common practice to sell for very large sums of money the “naming rights” to stadiums and arenas.

For example, my favorite team, the San Francisco 49ers, now play football in the brand new Levi’s Stadium. For the right to tack their name onto the new sports edifice, the Bay Area denim company Levi Strauss & Co. will pay $220 million over 20 years.

No one from Levi’s will be playing football at the stadium.

Their employees won’t be able to get in for free, and Levi’s customers won’t get a discount for seat tickets.

Levi executives won’t be working in the 49er front office or calling any plays from the sidelines.

The denim company simply paid a big price to tack their name onto a very public structure. That’s the sum total of the real relationship between the 49ers and Levi’s. For a big cost, Levi’s gets some advertising via the naming rights.

A lot of Christians try to have a similar relationship with Jesus Christ, as if they’re selling naming rights to their Creator and Redeemer.

To have life, there’s a cost to overcoming sin that we can’t afford but Jesus was able to pay the cost. So some try to let Jesus purchase life and redemption from sin for them and then just tack on His name by calling themselves “Christian.” But they don’t really include Jesus in the life. They don’t let Him call plays or coach the game. They’ll tack on His name if He pays the costs for their sins, but that’s the sum total of what they want out of the relationship.

But you’re not selling “naming rights,” and it’s much more than advertising that Jesus purchased …

So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock — his church, purchased with his own blood — over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders. – Acts 20:28

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. – Revelation 5:9

When Jesus poured out His blood on a cruel cross for you, He purchased more than naming rights to you, He purchased YOU! As Paul wrote, “… for God bought YOU with a high price …”

Jesus didn’t shed His blood so that He could just tack His name onto you; He offered Himself as a sacrifice to redeem you from sin and so that you could be reconciled to God and transformed to be like Christ. In that case, wearing His name means something!

He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them – 2 Corinthians 5:15

Are you trying to limit Christ to a little advertising space linked to your life? Or do you live as one who has been purchased by God to live for Him?

Scotty