Jun 27, 2022
Where has following Jesus taken you? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast, I'm grateful that you listened to these, and hopefully you share them as well. Today. I want to talk about the call to follow Jesus. And I wanna read Mark 1:17 from the English Standard Version. "And Jesus said to them follow me. And I will make you become fishers of men."
I wanna think a little bit today about what following Jesus does. It transforms our life. It's like my life changes in proportion to the degree that I can follow him and pursue him and do what he would have me do. The more I learn about Jesus and the more I get to know him. By doing what he asks and by hanging out with his people, by studying his word, and by listening to the holy spirit that lives within me. The more I follow Jesus, the more I become different, and the more I experience things differently. I love the command to follow Jesus. I think that's what makes us unique.
As Christians, we can believe in Jesus and never really follow him. But I believe when we follow him, he starts to transform our lives. And what ends up happening is we start to abandon things that we were hanging onto. Our flesh wants to hang onto the world. It wants to hang onto a comfort. It wants to hang onto its own peace and its own sense of self, fulfillment. But when we let go of those things to grab a hold of Jesus and to follow him more closely, we learn that those things are actually a distraction. The real act is in following Christ. We start to see things happen that matter forever.
We will take actions that make a difference in the lives of the people around us and people are what we'll live forever. And so the things that we do to interact with people, to help them move one much closer to Jesus, those things matter forever. And that whole phrase about helping others move one notch closer to Jesus is something that I kind of thought up through a combination of resources and ideas when I was trying to figure out how to be a missionary in my workplace.
I wanted to go into full-time ministry. I wanted my life to matter for Jesus and the idea of helping the people around me move one notch closer to him seemed to be a good idea. It seemed to be something that I could do every day in any of my jobs.
That helped me beyond mission with Jesus in spite of my circumstances or my situation or where I am today. And I think that's our challenge as Christ followers. If we've responded to this request in Mark 1:17, Jesus is actually calling Andrew and Peter or Simon. He's calling them, he's saying, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. They left everything. They left their ships, they left their job, and their career. They left everything. I wonder the degree to which we follow Jesus if it doesn't also end up being our eternal reward. And therefore I want to follow him better
Today, I wanna challenge us as Christ followers, let's follow him better. Listen to the promptings that you get. If you get an idea that will bring glory to God, figure out how to do it. Today's the day. Let's follow him a little more and become fishers of men. Let's become the people that Jesus would have us be drawing people and encouraging them to move one notch closer to him.
Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for making a difference in the world and in the lives of the people around you. Our actions, because we follow Jesus matter. And therefore your actions today matter. I wanna challenge you ask the holy spirit what he would have you do today and then figure out how you can do it.
One of those things may be to join us in Follower of One. We're a community of believers who are committed to this idea that there's a calling for us every day. You can check it out at https://community.Followerofone.org.
Thanks very much.