Jun 28, 2022
When was the last time you said not now to a prompting from God? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. Often I am tempted, when I get an idea from God, I get tempted to say not now or not right now, or can I do it later? Today's passage is Matthew 8:21-22, I'm reading from the English Standard Bible. "Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
Some people, when they first read this, the first time they read the scriptures, or the first time they come across this passage, they think that all this guy's making a reasonable request. He's just asking for delay while he goes to his dad's funeral. But the way this is done, a lot of scholars believe that this man's father isn't dead yet. He's talking about, I wanna do this as soon as I'm done working for my dad or when I'm done doing whatever it is I'm doing when I receive my inheritance after I've received my inheritance.
And Jesus is saying to him, look. Go with me. The rest of this is noise. What's happening in the world. If you're not following me is noise. There's another story in Luke chapter 10. Where Jesus goes over to Martha's for dinner and Martha's sister Mary, instead of helping with the dinner was sitting, listening to Jesus as he spoke, and Martha was distracted with everything she was trying to do. And so she asked Jesus to straighten out her sister, send my sister into the kitchen so that she can help me with what's going on. And Jesus, in, in Luke 10:42 says "only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good part, which can't be taken away from her."
Jesus is challenging us that focusing on and following Jesus isn't the top priority, it's the only priority. Following him is the one necessary thing we're being challenged in this passage to drop what we're doing and follow Jesus. Today in our workplace, are we being challenged to drop what we're doing and follow Jesus.
Now I'm not telling you to stop doing your job. Following Jesus means that we do our job well. We honor our commitments, but there are ways where we can focus our brain and our mind on the things that Jesus would have us do. We can pray for the people around us. That's one of the easiest ways to engage our faith and to follow Jesus in whatever we're doing today is pray for the person you're looking at.
Pray for the person across the cube from you or pray for your boss. Instead of whining, like I used to whine about my bosses wanted done, and I would disagree with the way that companies that I worked for were being run. Instead of criticizing them, why not pray for them? We can follow Jesus with our daily actions in this moment, by simply praying for the person that comes to mind. Ask God to show you how he would have you follow him.
And then let's do it today. Let's not delay or say not now. If God gives you an idea, and he's just given me one, as I'm recording this podcast, I have something to do as soon as this recording is over. So that I'm not saying not now to him, but I'm going with him when he goes. Now. It's interesting to note too, that in the next verse, his disciples followed him.
"When he got into the boat," it says "his disciples followed him." That's Matthew 8:23. If we're not following him, we need to question whether or not we're disciples. Let's try and make more and more of our life the simple act of following him. To become a disciple of his is simply to follow him. That's the reason why our organization is called Follower of One.
We want to follow him. Today, let's follow him, ask him how you can follow him in the very thing that you have to do today. He's there and he's in charge and he'll make it happen. And also if you want to join a community of people who are bent on trying to do this with their life, check out our online community at https://community.Followerofone.org.
Thanks very much.