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| Photo courtesy of allthingsd.com |
"The Kid Who Refused to Sell" were the headlines that accompanied the story of Mark Zuckerberg's, creator and CEO of Facebook, decision to refuse a billion dollar sell-out offer many years ago. Here's an excerpted story about this decision found in Wired magazine:
"...It was summer 2006, a little more than two years after Mark Zuckerberg had created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room as a way for him and his friends to better connect with schoolmates. In the intervening years, he'd raised $37.7 million from venture capitalists and transformed his modest Web site into a certified social phenomenon....But for all of Facebook's success, there were also signs of trouble. Zuckerberg wanted the site to be more than a campus thing. He wanted to supplant and surpass MySpace and make Facebook the largest social network on the planet. He wanted it to become the next Google, a site that people of all ages would find useful in their daily lives. But that hadn't happened. Facebook had cornered the market for college students, but its 11-month-old effort to capture the attention of high school students — and take users away from MySpace — was going nowhere....Some investors and executives began wondering if it was time for Zuckerberg to sell. It was starting to look like Facebook had peaked. Zuckerberg disagreed, but when Yahoo came calling with a bid of $1 billion in cash, the pressure became too much. He relented in July, verbally agreeing to sell Facebook to Yahoo....In the days after Zuckerberg agreed to sell, Yahoo announced it was projecting slower sales and earnings growth, and...Zuckerberg...walked away. Two months later, Semel reissued the original $1 billion bid, but by then Zuckerberg had convinced his board and executive team that Yahoo wasn't a serious partner and that Facebook would be worth more on its own. He rejected the offer and became famous as the cocky youngster who turned down $1 billion."
To date, Facebook has turned down offers from ELEVEN companies that have tried to buy them out. The largest offer has been from Microsoft for $15 billion!! However, Zuckerberg would say later that Yahoo's one billion dollar offer was harder to refuse than than any of these larger offers. Why? Because once one seriously considers a billion dollar cash offer and refuses it, they have made their stand, gained their ground, and are armed with the proper perspective needed to handle any offers in the future much more easily.
This story about Mark Zuckerberg got me thinking about how we as believers often feel defeated and all too often sell out in the face of sin. In my opinion, we often make two fatal errors. The first error is that we fail to recognize that the things which sin offers us are real, often immediate, and can be fairly impressive. I liken them to the $1 billion cash offer--definitely not chump change! By giving in and selling out in the midst of that early offer, our ego often does get the stroke it needs to make it through our week (so we perceive it) and we relish in the love and acceptance of our peers for a time. We assuage our stress by indulging in too much food or drink or a shopping spree or two and enjoy some immediate relief. But unfortunately, in agreeing to that immediate cash payout, we get robbed! Have you stopped to consider, like Zuckerberg, the value of what you would be giving up when you sell out? Zuckerberg could turn down a billion dollar offer by recognizing the value of all he had to gain--keeping a company that in his eye was worth at least twice that amount, with the potential to grow and become a world-changing social media empire. In fact, as of September 2014, Facebook has a value of $200 billion! In that light, the decision to stand firm and hold out seems pretty easy, does it not? And yet how often do we as Christ followers stop and consider ALL that we have in the Kingdom of God and the unsurpassed value of our joy, peace, love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control? The riches Christ can give us outstrips EVERYTHING this world has to offer us! And yet, we must take that first step of faith and refuse to sell out while the money wagered is comparably small.
The second fatal error we all too often make is the failure to see that refusing to sell out to those "lower dollar" temptations--those fleshly indulgences, unhealthy habits, negative attitudes and such--are truly the key to victory in those "higher stake" sins that get us down. So often we fixate on the BIG, seemingly insurmountable sins in our lives (an addiction, sexual sin, or destructive habit) and reason that it is much too hard to repent from these and truly change; in so doing, we essentially give up and sell out at any low bid offer of temptation. Dear one, have you considered the impact those "smaller" or "less important" sins have on your heart as they work to woo you away from the Lord and distract you from His voice and leading? Have you ever considered that perhaps victory in those areas will empower you to repent in the "larger" areas? I have been so surprised in my life how much God cares about how my small change is spent, my daily words are spoken, and the small bits of time in my day are spent! Perhaps obedience in those areas are the KEY to living a life of victory in all the BIG ways! I would submit to you that, like Zuckerberg, by refusing to sell out for $1 billion, by God's grace, you will stand strong in the face of that $15 billion offer!
So I will close with some questions for both of us to honestly consider before the Lord:
- What "small" sins do I need to confess to the Lord and repent from so that I, by His grace, will be strong in the face of "larger" temptations?
- How might I minimize sin in my life by choosing to rename, rationalize, or ignore it?
- How do I seek satisfaction from the one billion dollar cash payout my sin affords me? In what ways can I specifically repent of these attitudes and behaviors and turn to God instead?
- What are the "$200 billion" riches I have in Christ as His child? (I'd encourage you to think beyond Heaven and consider the DAILY riches we enjoy right now--check out Ephesians chapter 1)
May we all refuse to sell out this week to the power of sin--the "big" sins and the "small"--as we consider ALL the blessings and riches we have access to through Christ Jesus!!
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." --1 Corinthians 10:13
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