650 Go Preach and Heal Part 2 - Matthew 10:7-8

Are we all called to heal the sick? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One, thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast. We're talking about Matthew 10:7-8, and I'm reading from the New American Standard, the 1995 version of the New American Standard Bible.

"And as you go preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Yesterday we talked about how Jesus made this mention that as we go, we are to preach, we're to tell others that the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

We do that sometimes by the way we live. And we do that other times with words. Often when we live differently, people will ask us, and then we can explain to them that we live in a different kingdom. We live in the kingdom of heaven once we start following Jesus. Once, though, we go into the world, our daily calling is to "heal the sick, raise, the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons."

What does that mean for us today? I believe this is a call for us to help improve and fix the world. The world's been broken since the first sin took place and all of the world, and all of the brokenness that we see in it are all opportunities for us to make a positive difference in the world. We have many opportunities to be a blessing to other people, to pray for them, to look for ways to serve them, to contribute to their well-being in some way, shape or form. All of these methods, The four examples that Jesus uses in this statement may not exactly be available to us today. I'm not in a good position to medically heal anyone. I'm not trained as a doctor. I've never raised anyone from the dead, but I can speak life into my relationship.

I can help the friends that I work with find and follow Jesus. I can do things to serve other people than I interact with on a daily basis. These are all calls that I have as a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that we're still here in the world because we have an opportunity to serve other people just on the outside shot that we might get to explain to them that the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The kingdom of Heaven is where I live. And when I go to work, I think I take that kingdom with me. 

I believe that kingdom is part of the way that I live. I obey Jesus. A kingdom is the domain in which what the King says goes. And the King that I follow is Jesus Christ. And so I'm in His camp

. Today, I want to challenge us as believers. Let's go into our world. Our job today is to do our job. It's to be a blessing to others and to appreciate others and to serve them. To pray for them. And to be ready to answer the question, why are you doing this? That's our calling. We're given that job every day. We do it "as we go" it says in verse seven. 

We can serve and heal others and be a blessing to others as an opportunity to interact with them on behalf of Jesus, that's our calling. And then we experience joy when we see Jesus working in our lives, we see the things that we did without thinking about it, make a difference in their life.

We see all kinds of things happening because we're paying attention to Jesus and to the people around us. Join us on this. Go into your workplace today and punch in and say, here I am God, put me to work. Show me what you would have me do today in the lives of the people I work with. 

In fact, you can practice this whole activity with us as part of what we do in the Follower of One community. We do this two week exercise called a marketplace mission trip, head over to https://community.followerofone.org. Create a profile in our online community. And we'll invite you to go on the next marketplace mission trip. Take the two week exercise to practice serving your coworkers as part of your relationship with Jesus.

There is no cost. Check it out at https://community.followerofone.org. And thank you very much.