Hello church family! How are you? I trust you are doing well during this time. I’ve been praying for you. Can’t wait to be with you on Sunday! It’s going to be a great morning for worship.
So, what is your why? When your feet hit the ground in the morning, why do you do what you do? Is it to pay bills? Is it to beef up the retirement account? Is it to make a little more money than you did yesterday? Maybe it’s to find self-worth through your accomplishments. Or maybe you are trying to prove someone wrong. What is your why? I would like to propose that if our “why” is not to further the Kingdom of Christ and to live on mission for Him in everything we do, we might need to evaluate our “why”.
Time and time again in the gospels we see Jesus asking people to follow Him. This is how he found His twelve disciples.
Matthew 9:9 says:
“As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed Him.”
Matthew 16:24 says:
“Then Jesus told His disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
In Matthew and Mark, it says:
“And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
All throughout the gospels we see Jesus asking people to follow Him. We see men dropping their fishing nets on the spot and leaving with Him. We see men getting up from the tax booth, leaving everything there, and following Jesus. We see people leaving it ALL behind to follow Jesus. And in Luke 9:23 we see the ultimate call to follow Jesus.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me.”
This is our why! Deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him.
Rather than our feet hitting the ground and thinking we have to do this or that to prove ourselves, or make an extra buck, or, “insert whatever you want to”…. we should be thinking; how can I make an impact for the Kingdom today? We can all do this. Rather than thinking you are a banker, teacher, grocery clerk, student, nurse, doctor, worship pastor, etc., etc., let’s shift our thinking a little bit to, I am Christian who is a banker, teacher, grocery clerk, student, nurse, doctor, worship pastor. What we do should not be our “why”. What we do is how we accomplish our “why”. God has gifted each of us uniquely so that we can be fishers of men in our societal context.
I encourage you today to shift your thinking just a little. Let’s get the “why” correct today. You are a Christian, a Christ follower first, who is making a difference for the Kingdom through what you do.
Love you all and praying for you today!
See you Sunday!
Pastor Tim Fus
Pastor of Worship Ministries