Follower of One : Missions For The Rest Of Us

We only follow One. In our previous 2 episodes we've spoken about authority. We need to respect those in authority and we need to honor them. This means people who are out bosses, or customers or the political or religious leaders God appoints over us. Check out episodes 252 and 253 for more on those topics. But here Paul also reminds us that we don't recognize anyone as being better or worse than anyone else. When I read this in contemporary translations, it makes a bit more sense. I read the New Living Translation. Judging people by who they look like or even what they do just doesn't fit the life of a Christ-follower. We regard One, Jesus. Everyone else we respect and value them because Jesus died for them. Not because of who they are or what they own, or the color of their skin. 

Today, let's follow Jesus and treat everyone else like they are who he says they are. They are people for whom he also died. We're all in the same class. Give respect to all and treat them with dignity and value. Ask God to show you where you fall short in this area. We still vote. We still make choices. We still have a duty as citizens, but out responsibility as followers of Jesus takes precedence. Let's live accordingly.

We've also joined a group called the Faith at Work Prayer Network. This is a private group on Facebook or LinkedIn for people who pray for Christians in the marketplace. We hope to reflect Jesus to our world without judging it. And we have a monthly prayer call to meet others around the globe as we pray for each other. Click here to register for the monthly call. 

As we bear down on the US elections, let's consider our response to authority. Yesterday we spoke about how we respect those who are our bosses, or those who put constraints on us. Today, let's talk about what it means to follow Christ and not show respect for those in governmental authority, especially in the US.

We show respect for those in authority over us because we trust God. Imagine being able to trust God to the point where we let someone else nail us to a cross and kill us. Could you do trust God to that extent? That's what Jesus did. He is a member of the Trinity. So, if you're like me, you almost make an exception for him. However, our world needs me to trust Jesus more than I often do. Our world needs me to trust him enough to be "for" those in political office. Even more so in a nation "of the people and by the people."

As an American, I often remember "for the people." I don't want to remember "of" or "by," because that means work for me. However, when Paul wrote this, even Roman "citizens" didn't have anything like the rights we have. They couldn't choose their leaders. And the non-Romans were even worse off. Yet Paul still tells them and us to "submit" or "be subject" to those in authority.

Why? Because there is no authority except from God, or except that which God has established. In my mind, Paul is telling us that even our political authorities are established by God. In Proverbs 16:33 says that the lot is cast, but it's decision is from God. God will not be surprised or disappointed by the outcome of this election. Yes, we should vote in an informed manner for those who most align with what we think Jesus would want. But in the end, we must respect and submit to the outcome because we trust God and we know he is sovereign. He is in total control. 

I hope I can trust Jesus more every day. That means I need to pray for our elected officials and our appointed ones because God put them in their positions and my submission glorifies Him.

Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Your life matters. How you act and what you say matters. When you serve others because you follow Jesus, it counts forever. Remember we have one more Marketplace Mission Trip this year and it begins on November 1, which is less than 3 weeks away. Join us? Check out MarketplaceMissionTrip.com to learn more and sign up!

Serving our Bosses - Do you check your attitude toward your boss? Or if you're a business owner or a sales person, how about your attitude toward your customers? It can be tempting to develop a negative attitude toward those in authority over us. In one way it's easy to be negative toward others, especially those who force us to conform to something like work goals or objectives. And our negativity becomes a problem. It affects our witness. When we can honor and respect those in authority over us, we glorify Jesus. Whenever our behavior is outside what others might normally do, simply because we believe in Jesus, we make Jesus visible.

In verse 2, he goes on to talk about those who have Christians for bosses. We don't need to take them for granted, either. We still need to show them respect and honor, too. It matters how we act. We're reminded that giving respect is a choice. As Jesus followers, when we give respect, to believers or non-believers in authority over us, our actions become a tool Jesus can use in the lives of others.

Is your life filled with joy? Jesus promises joy to us. We simply need to follow and trust him. How are you doing in that regard? If you'd like to join a community of believers who follow Jesus and help one another, check out the online community for Follower of One. Go to community.followerofone.org to find out more and join up. You will get the opportunity to meet with other marketplace Christ-followers and we're all working to experience the joy of being a full-time minister in our current line of work

This may be the best job summary of a marketplace missionary. Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. Based on what Paul says earlier in this chapter, we can die to sin. I tell people I began to bend my life to follow Jesus. But for many of my early years as a Christian, I had trouble following him. I wanted him to do things my way. 

Over time, as I read his word and spent time with other Christ-followers, I began to see the benefits of surrendering to Jesus. Little by little, I surrendered parts of my life. And I still must do more. I wish I could have given up my life easier, because every time I do, I experience God. I see him work in and around me. He's always at work, but I never see him when I'm focused on myself. 

Daily at work, and in my life, I must train myself to stay alive to God. Our world doesn't operate like he exists. So we must train, practice, evaluate and repeat. We learn some new method, like intentionally praying for our coworkers. We practice it. Then we ask God to give us feedback on how we did. And finally, we commit to tweak it or do it again and again. As we go through this feedback loop, we grow as a Christ-follower. And we see him make us alive to him.

Today, ask God to make you aware of one place where you need to die to yourself and one way you can become more alive in him. I am confident he will deliver. He wants us all moving one notch closer to him every day. So what are you waiting for?

Don't forget to check out our friend Ryan Howard and his podcast, Your Faith at Work for more great ideas on being alive to God at work!

In this week's episode of the Follower of One Podcast, Mike speaks with both Shaquel Polacek and Bobby Jackson. Both Shaquel and Bobby serve in our country's Military. Shaquel is a current Life Coach as the CEO and Founder of God's Greatness Organization (Also has a podcast of the same name), and Bobby is the owner of PenStruck where he is a coaching consultant with fellow Entrepreneurs and Start-ups. Please give thanks for their service and welcome them to our community! 

Episode Breakdown

1:10 - Meet Shaquel and Bobby

3:30 - Shaquel's and Bobby's Story to Christ

7:15 - How Bobby and Shaquel Met

8:35 - Faith and Entrepreneurship (Shaquel)

12:05 - Bobby's Faith at Work and Entrepreneurship 

18:20 - Living Faith in the Military 

26:40 - How The Follower of One Community can pray for Bobby and Shaquel (Take mental notes!)

30:00 - Prayer with Bobby and Shaquel

Being Stuck

Life does not seem to always move forward. We have setbacks, leaps, and even stationary moments. Being stuck is a common problem in life but it doesn't have to last forever. Bobby speaks on this directly through a story he tells on his music career and how it led him to PenStruck (8:35 and 12:05 in the Episode). Bobby has learned that feeling like you are standing idle is not about the gift that God gave you but more importantly how you deploy and use those gifts in the world. What is your gift? Is the tools at your disposal not getting you anywhere closer to happiness with God? If not, it might be a good time to re-evaluate and come up with a better strategy. Are you meeting the right people that can help further your goal? Do you know when to stop chasing a dream that is moving you away from God? These are all important questions to ask yourself, and depending on the answers, you can assess your situation and come up with a better plan! Let us know in the comments! 

Be Yourself

Knowing who you are is probably one of the hardest things we learn in life. It takes years and years of practice and determination to decide who we want to be, who we are, and how to strive to achieve the latter. Shaquel shares an important story with Mike on how he enables his faith in the military. He believes knowing yourself is one of the most important tools you can use with everyone around you. But it isn't easy and comes with trials and tribulations. How much do you know yourself? Are you okay with that amount of knowledge you have? Have you reconciled your flaws and plan to make them better? When you can get your faith to relate to you, you can then relate yourself to others around you in a more impactful way. Afterward, it's all about focus and determination in the face of adversity and differences. Strive to be more understanding and take the cracked doors and opportunities when they present themselves to show others what you are all about!  

Interview Quote

"Be Yourself.. Being myself allowed me to impact more people" - "I try to find ways to open that door (Conversation about faith).. not force it on them but introduce them to my faith"

Connect with Bobby

PenStruck

Bobby Jackson Facebook

Connect with Shaquel

Shaquel Polacek LinkedIn

God's Greatness Organization 

God's Greatness Show (Podcast)

Shaquel Life Coaching

Connect With Follower Of One

Join us over in our Online Community, get social with us; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Listen to our podcast on your way to work and subscribe using your favorite podcast app. Be a part of our next Marketplace Mission Trip!

Mission Trip 2-5 - Your life proves who you believe Jesus to be. Often though, we choose our actions based on subconscious habit. Our habits power most of our decisions every day. Part of the struggle of being a Follower of Jesus is that we must retrain our own habits. That's why we practice knowing what we believe in the 3rd daily activity and it's why we realize we must be a good steward of our story. We talk about remembering your "Why?" 

Think about why you follow Jesus. Make sure you have a sensible reason based on your beliefs for your actions. What we give away matters. As we give prayer, appreciation and service to our coworkers, customers and vendors, people will ask. Make sure you're ready to explain your actions based on your history with Jesus. This is the most important question for each of us. "Who do you say Jesus is?"

If you think of Jesus as the active, living God of the universe, and you choose to listen to him, then do the things that break your old fleshly habits. Make new habits by intentionally giving more and intentionally serving more, and putting others ahead of yourself. Go the extra mile to join our online community where you can get others to help you focus on giving rather than receiving. Subscribe to this podcast where we will remind you every workday to get outside of your job description. Make a regular contribution to Follower of One so we can help you and others practice and grow as someone who lives and shares a new story based on who Jesus is.

Thank You for completing this mission trip, too, if you did. Why not sign up for the next one. And share this podcast or the Marketplace Mission Trip with one other friend. Who just came to mind? Don't put it off. Right now, pray for them, and then contact them and invite them to be your guest on the next Marketplace Mission trip. You will both grow to be givers, living joyfully every day at work as a full-time minister of Jesus Christ. Remember to go to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com to sign up.

Mission Trip 2-4 - Deliver Excellence - Why must we do excellent work? Anything we do projects on God. And we learn in Exodus 31 that God gives people skill. Sure, we learn it too. But God gives us abilities. He gives us access to information. We get different advantages, and we take advantages of them or not.

Here it says God filled them with skill. We've each been given a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. That's our spiritual gift. However, many of us never find it or put it to work. We do what we get paid to do, and nothing more. As you get to know your coworkers, customers and vendors better, you can figure out how to deliver excellence. You will get an idea for some way to add just a little "something" to your work. That extra something comes from God. You get the idea when you pray. And as you look for ways to serve others, God will show you.

Today, go the extra mile. Your excellence makes Jesus visible. When someone compliments you and says that your actions were extra thoughtful, You can say, "Well, I did that because of an idea I got while praying. Did you like it?" And then drop back into listen mode and ask how you can do it better. Your commitment to serve others with excellence will make others want to know more about your motives.

Please today, think of one person you know who you think would like to hear this message. Copy and paste a link in a text or email to them right now. Your actions will make a difference in their life and your own.

Thank you for delivering excellence so that Jesus becomes visible to your coworkers today.

Mission Trip 2-3 - Listen Today, listen. Listen to the people you interact with. Ask a question. Ask to learn. When we listen to someone, we show the value we place on them. Time and attention are valuable. The time you spend listening to someone today may just make their day.

In the verse before this, James tells us we are the first fruits. We're the early harvest. Jesus saved us, but then he left us here so we might make a difference in the lives of others. Do you know how to make that difference when every person is different? No. That's why we need to listen.

We listen to God and then we listen to them. When you listen, others will open up. They'll tell you what's important to them. Listening is a ministry all by itself. And as you listen more, God will show you how to bless them. Your listening shows appreciation and it also informs your actions. You get in tune with Jesus, and you learn more about the other person all at the same time.

Yesterday, you made time by coming in early or staying late. Today, use some of that time to listen. Find someone who is not listened to very much and ask their thoughts on a business issue. Ask them what they think about something. Ask someone from a different background, or skin color or ethnic background to give you their thoughts on an issue and avoid stating your own. Ask God to use you and then listen to the next person you interact with.

Thanks for listening to this podcast and being a marketplace minister. And if you're part of this mission trip, please also comment about today in our private Facebook Group. Are you not on the trip? Then go to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com and sign up for the next one! 

Mission Trip 2-2 - Make time - When we die to ourselves, we live. Many of us understand this concept. We acknowledge it in our brains. We know it to be true, like we know about the inside of the space station or an expensive sports car. We've seen it. We read about it. But we only truly know something to the extent we actually did that thing.

But until we actually get inside, until we put ourselves in that spot, we don't know. When we talk about making time for others on a mission trip, we want to challenge you to give your time beyond what you have. Get in deeper than you have ever gone. Give away a little more and watch Jesus work. He will give you life to the degree you can die to yourself. 

This principle applies in scripture. We read it in this passage too. When we die to ourselves, we receive the life and the promises of Jesus. We get the freedom from sin, to the degree we can be alive to Jesus. When we die to ourselves, we become alive to Jesus and we begin to live his life right where we are.

Give some extra time today. Listen for Jesus. He often shows up in strange ideas, maybe an email to a friend or a thank you note. Sometimes these ideas appear while we're praying. So ask while you pray today, but listen for his voice all day today. He will ask you to give up something you "can't afford" to give up. He may show up and challenge you to stop your current project to help a coworker. Protect others, make your service to them optional and give them choices, but be available to help others and watch Jesus work. We free ourselves from selfishness and sin when we're in the mode of serving others.

Would you contribute so someone else can take this mission trip in the future? Your willingness to pay it forward will enable us to equip others. Our world won't improve until we learn to minister to others the way Jesus did. Consider making a donation to Follower of One to help mobilize Jesus' followers. Go to  https://followerofone.org and click Donate today!

Mission Trip 2-1 - Go.  Ananias got a call from the Lord. And he responded with "Here I am, Lord." Sometimes we're tempted to think that if God showed up, everything would be alright. Life would be good. But Jesus had different plans for Ananias. He sent him to the man who was hunting down Jesus-followers. This would have been a difficult task. 

How do you go, when you have to go someplace difficult? Today, we all go. Some go to hard places, and others, well, not so much. When God sends you to a hard place, how do you go?

As you go today, make disciples. We can't not go. Good or bad, trust that God goes ahead of you. It's the promise he originally made by Moses to the Jews as they went into the promised land in Deuteronomy, and the promise applies to his people today, too. Everywhere we go, God goes with us. As we go today, wherever we go, we're commanded to make disciples. Sometimes we need to speak truth to power. Sometimes we need to simply live as a servant and wait for God to move in the lives of our coworkers. Either way, God is glorified when we do what he says wherever we are or wherever he sends us.

Do you have to go to a foreign country to go on a mission trip? Or can Jesus put you to work, right where you are? We're doing a Marketplace Mission Trip right now and we experience Jesus moving in the lives of the people we work with. We simply pray for them, and trust Jesus to use us as he works in their lives. Care to join us for the next one? Go now to MarketplaceMissionTrip.com right now and sign up. There's no cost and you won't need to take any time off of work, either! Check it out!