Sep 23, 2022
Do you consider yourself to be the slave of a habit or a practice or a person?
Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast. Yesterday, we spoke a little bit about 1 Corinthians 6:11, and today our verse is 1 Corinthians 6:12.
"All things are lawful for me. But not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything." And that's from the New American Standard Bible.
The apostle Paul is talking to the people in Corinth. And in this letter, he is talking about our freedom in the Lord, how we're free to do the things that God would have us do.
How free do you feel? How free are you. People may be listening to this who aren't free. We may be addicted to food, or we may be addicted to other habits. We may even be addicted to a way of thinking. The apostle Paul actually refers to it here as being mastered. Other translations, use the word dominated or to be a slave.
We can be a slave of our actions. We can become a slave to drugs. To some degree I'm addicted to sweets. I eat way too many sweet foods and I'm not in shape. We can let certain things have a pull over us. But this verse is a reminder that God made all things lawful to us.
Through our salvation, everything is lawful, but not everything is profitable. And that's the comparison that I want to make today. What's profitable? What makes our life better? What makes the life of the people around us better? The only things profitable are those things that move us closer to God. The only things that are ultimately profitable are those things that help us and the people around us be more like Jesus. If we make money, but it makes us less like Jesus, that's not a good trade. If we feel better, but it makes us less like Jesus, that's not a good swap either.
What we want to do is we want to live as people who are helping others and ourselves achieve this ultimate profitability. The ultimate profitability is our proximity to the Lord. How close can we get to Jesus? Because it's there that we are right, forever. And any place else, we might be right a little bit in the short run, but we will be wrong in the long run.
Today, our goal is to remind ourselves as we go into our workplaces, how can we aim for the highest, best good for the people that we work with? Let's do a great job. Let's pray before we act. Let's ask God to use us to bless the people around us. Our life on this planet is still designed to be so that other people might draw nearer to God, and so that we might be more like him. That's our goal. And that's our purpose. And we can wake up today, remember our why, go to work, serving the Lord. It begins with punching in; just telling God, "OK, God, here I am. Would you please put me to work today? Would you please show me how I can be ultimately profitable for the people around me?"
This is not about what's right or wrong, legal or not legal. This is about what's best. How can I do what's best for the people that I work with today? That's my challenge. And I want to make that challenge to you as well.
Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for considering the difference that Jesus would have you make in your workplace today. You are not there by accident. Our job is to be God glorifiers in our present situations. Join us in that. You can join a community of people who are focused on that by joining https://community.follweorofone.org. Go check it out.
Thanks very much.