763 Choose to Build Up Part 1 - 1 Corinthians 10:23-24

How much time do you spend building others up? Hey, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast. Today, I'd like to read 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 23 and 24. And I'm reading from the English Standard Version. 

"All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things built up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." 

When I thought about this particular passage, I was struck by the phrase building up or build up. I don't know that I build up others nearly as much as I want to believe. I often think that I build others up, but often I just keep to myself.

I keep my opinions to myself. And I want to be better at building others up. And one way that I can do that is by looking out for the good of the other person. It's good for others, if I encourage them, if I tell them how well they're doing. Often though, I have to make myself notice. Often I'm so absorbed in my own behaviors and my own thoughts and my own intentions and my own goals that I never see what someone else does. Therefore, I'm not grateful. 

Today. I want to challenge myself. I want to be more intentional in building others up. I want to speak about things that others have done and thank them for what they've done for me and be grateful, and show gratitude. I also want to notice those things. And so I'm asking God to help me notice what others do. 

Often, it's my own selfishness that takes me out of the game of building other people up. And so I don't want to be selfish anymore, although I probably will be. And keep your expectations low. 

But let's try today to move things along, by noticing the people around us by making a compliment. And let's look for ways to help other people feel better about what they're doing in the world. So much of our world seems to be tearing down today. And today I think as Christians, we can make a difference by building others up. So that's our challenge today.

Take it from 1 Corinthians 10:23-24, even though everything may be lawful, not everything builds up. Let's not seek our own good, but the good of our neighbor. 

Thanks so much for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for making a difference with your faith in the world. Let's take life following Jesus and go and stick it in the world in such a way that other people are blessed, and that other people are encouraged. 

That's our job as Christ followers. Again, thanks for being a marketplace minister, and thanks for making a difference with your faith. If you'd like to be part of an online community that is trying to do this, we're trying to help one another be difference makers in the world because we follow Jesus, then check out our online community.  It's at https://community.followerofone.org. You can join us there and take the next Marketplace Mission Trip, which starts in just a few weeks where we challenge ourselves to live our faith on a daily basis. Let's be difference makers in the world because we follow Jesus.

Thanks very much.