759 Don't Make Room for Selfishness - Romans 13:14

Who's in the center of your universe? 

Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast. Today, we're on day two of the Marketplace Mission Trip if you're taking part in our Marketplace Mission Trip in our online community. And on day two, our second daily activity is to appreciate others.

Our verse today is Romans 13:14. "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." And that's from the English Standard Version of the Bible. 

Paul's actually talking about and contrasting living for ourselves versus living for others. And he talks about how we want to live as people of the day and be in a transparent situation and be public and visible during the day.

So he gives us this command, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." We do not want to gratify the desires of our flesh. Appreciate others is our daily activity. As I said, in Philippians chapter two, Paul also talks about this very much, the same way.

He says, do nothing from selfishness. But consider others more important than yourself. He's telling us to take ourselves out of the center of the universe. And that's why I asked the question, "Who's in the center of your universe?" We all tend to put ourselves there.  

One of the ways that we understand the truth of the biblical worldview is by looking at our fallen nature. When we look at our fallen nature, we see that all of us choose for ourselves naturally. We want what we want. But today I want to challenge you to think about how we might deny our selfishness, how we might make no provision for the flesh. Instead we provide for the needs of others around us. And that's why this kind of lines up with our second daily activity of appreciating others.

One way I try to do this is to focus on the eyes of someone else. If I can see their eyes, can I make them my focus? Can I pray for them in that moment? Can I listen to discover a way to bless them? Can I make a mental note to remember their name or something else about them? Can I find out more about their family and what's going on in their world?

Chances are they're in the center of their world. And if I can discover more about their world, I can find ways to show appreciation. I can simply ask God to grant me some measure of appreciation toward them. And for me, that's a code word for love. I believe the Great Commandment in our Bible is "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself."

It's love God and love people. And so when we show appreciation to the people around us, We help send the message of what Christ would have known in the world. He would have us be this kind of a difference maker in the world. 

For most of my life, the people I worked with were an obstacle to my success. Just like in traffic, they were in between me and what I wanted or where I wanted to be.

But when I became a Christ follower, I wish I could say that stopped. It began stopping. I still wrestle with this a little bit to this day. But I don't have as much trouble with it now, as I did when I first became a believer. But I'm not sure I'm even proud of the progress that I've made.

So today I want to challenge us. Let's come up with ways to actively, intentionally show appreciation to others, help them feel appreciated. That's the first step in loving someone. The great commandment, like I said, is to love God and love people. So let's love the people around us today. Let's find ways to help them believe that they are appreciated. And let's ask God to give us genuine appreciation for the people that we interact with. If you can see their eyes, let's concentrate on them a little bit today and be intentional blessers of others. 

Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for choosing to make a difference with your faith in the world today.

What we do because we follow Jesus matters. If you'd like to be part of a community, that's trying to do this more and more on a daily basis, check out our online community. It's at https://community.followerofone.org. Thanks very much.