Follower of One : Missions For The Rest Of Us

How do we build spiritual strength? Today is the start of our next Marketplace Mission Trip and we begin with prayer. Prayer is the beginning of everything. We build spiritual strength like we build physical strength, through trials and tribulations. We have to pray, trust God, and let Him build that strength in us. Pray for God to show you the ways you need to trust in Him more. Pray for Him to show you ways to show Him to your co-workers during this mission trip and come leave us a comment or send us an email and tell us about how God is working in you this week.

In this week’s episode of the Follow of One podcast, Mike speaks with Keith Davis. Keith is a Minister for First Baptist Church Owasso here in Oklahoma. He oversees all of the local, regional and international mission efforts for the church! Please welcome him to the community!

Episode Breakdown

• 1:05 – Meet Keith Davis
• 3:30 – Keith’s change to Mission Efforts
• 4:40 – COVID’s Impact on First Baptist Owasso
• 7:00 – theMission with Keith
• 13:00 – Keith’s Thoughts on The Marketplace Mission Trip
• 17:35 – Inspiring Faith at Work Story
• 19:15 – Taking Your Faith to The Next Level
• 25:05 – Connect with Keith & First Baptist Church Owasso

What are your needs?

We all have different needs because we walk different lives but something in common between all followers of Christ are spiritual needs. What type of spiritual needs do you have? Keith talks with Mike about The Mission through First Baptist Church Owasso, which provides services to the needy but more importantly provides spiritual resources to those in a better environment. Most of the time we want to help people based on the few common things, however, your spiritual being is just as important. When is the last time you “fed” your spirit? What does replenishing your spirit look like for you? Is it praying consistently? How about doing something only for the benefit of someone else? Comment below with your favorite way to feed the soul! 

Building Relationships with Lost People

What type of relationships are you a part of? Do all of your friends believe in God? Sometimes, especially as we get older, we tend to have a set group of friends and stick with that group. Never expanding, or moving forward. It is a very special thing and should be cherished but Keith talks about how there are some very important reasons to make an extra effort in building relationships with non-believers. Why? Because it builds understanding. It structures new ways to think about things and gives you the opportunity to have a genuine, judgment-free, friendship with someone who may need your help getting on the path to God. Don’t take your neighbor for granted. Even if they are opposed to your beliefs, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them and in turn, they learn from you! Do you have any experience with this? Let us know so we can share in our community! 

Connect with Keith

• Keith’s Linkedin
• First Baptist Church Owasso
• theMission Ministry Page

“But I’m Not a Leader!” Is that you? Many faith-at-work messages are instructions for leaders and white-collar workers. But when Mike first became a Christ-follower, he realized faith was for everyone. He wanted a job working for God, but he also needed a job that paid his bills. In this passage, Mike discovered that God has a calling for every person, and often, God doesn’t choose the leaders as much as He makes leaders out of those who follow Him!

Colossians 3:13 tells us to bear with each other and forgive one another, the same way Jesus forgave us. How can we put this verse to use in our everyday lives? Ask God to show you who you should forgive. Then look for ways to get to know them better and serve them as Jesus would.

Do you keep score? Do you keep a record and try to get even? The Bible challenges us to bless others. We don’t do something nice to someone to get even. We do something nice because we trust God. We are each accountable for our actions. If someone does wrong with us, God will make that right. Can you maintain good motives and good actions toward others, even when they don’t do good toward you?

Mike talks today about how we can get sidetracked at work. We can get so consumed in the urgent tasks that we miss the eternal importance of our everyday life. If we walk through our lives focused on our daily tasks and our comfort, we miss the opportunity to gain wisdom and experience the joy of walking with God.

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.

Have you seen God? Do we know Jesus well enough to believe that we have seen God the Father? In John 14:8-9, Jesus shares how we can see the God.

The way we get to know God and follow Him is through Jesus. Jesus is the path and the human representation of God. Jesus is the way. The more time we spend with Jesus, the Bible and His people, then more we come to know God and can trust Him. Jesus prompts us to know God better and we become part of the plan.

We become the way other people see God in the world. Many people do not follow Jesus simply because of what they have seen in the behavior of people who claim to follow Jesus. Let us look to Jesus on how to live.

Today, Mike challenges us to try and live in such a way that we honor God. That we represent Him well in our world. Mike states that he prays each morning, punches in and says, “Ok God, here I am. I am your person. What do you want me to do today?”

One of the things He wants us to do is to pray for the people around us. He also wants us to listen to Him throughout the day. Another thing we can do is thank Him in advance for the things that He will do that day. Creating a design to know Him better.

All the things that we do for others because we believe in Jesus, they help other people see God. It helps others see the positive change that God makes in our lives. In Mark 10:45 Jesus states that, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Let Jesus lead the way we live. By doing so we make Him visible to those around us, to those who see us, and to those who encounter us.

Jesus came to make us free, but our freedom has a purpose. We are now free to serve one another.  Hear that as serving others. We naturally serve ourselves. But our job as followers of Jesus is to serve others. When we serve them we make Jesus visible. He entered our world, and because he was one with the Father, he was free to lay down his life for us.

Our passage challenges us to choose who we serve. We can serve ourselves or we can serve others. Serving ourselves is a trick. It ends in death. A few translations say we can use our freedom as an opportunity for our flesh. We’re free to drink, overeat, do whatever we want. We can do our jobs and live our lives for ourselves only. Or we can serve others through love. We’re either going to serve ourselves or serve others.

The freedom Jesus gives is the freedom to serve. Serving others is how we share the life of Jesus. Before we trusted and followed him, we could only serve ourselves. Even when we chose to serve others, I found I often even served others for my own selfish reasons. But when we follow him, we get another choice. We can serve others because we follow Jesus. We experience his eternal life, here and forever, when we do. We experience his joy and spend some of our time in eternity here on earth when we serve others. Jesus came to serve, and he calls us to serve, too. (Mark 10:45).

How can you serve others at work? Think. What do you have that can serve others? Time, Money, Energy, Attention? Take some extra time and think of ways you can serve others. You can buy a lunch, or you can stay late and do extra work. If your department hands off work to another team, find out how you can make their job easier. What can you do differently to make their life easier? Ask God to show you how you can serve others, and expect God’s joy when you do.

Finally, share this podcast with someone else. Send them a note and ask them to think about their work as an opportunity to become a full-time servant (or minister). You’ll experience God’s joy knowing you’ve done your job today.

A synagogue official named Jairus came to ask Jesus to heal his daughter. So Jesus begins going with him to his house to heal the daughter. But a woman sneaks through the crowd to touch Jesus’ garment and she’s healed from an illness that had lasted for years. Jesus stops to find out who was just healed. The official must be going nuts. His daughter is about to die. She’s been sick a while. In fact, we find out below that she’s probably already dead.

This is a great story because it shows us Jesus didn’t know he would be interrupted either. But he had made time in his schedule, even his life, for others.

Today, put some time in your life. I know if you ask God he will wake you up. He gets me up all the time. Use the extra time to talk to him. Get ready for work early. Get some of your work done ahead of time. You are a full-time minister. If you’re too busy writing software or selling cars or doing engineering work, you’ll miss your opportunities to minister. Yes, engineering is ministry. But if God interrupted Jesus, he’ll interrupt you.

Today, put some time in your schedule for others. Watch Jesus fill it. He will. You’ll find your life is more peaceful, and you will enjoy more time with Jesus. Let’s live like we trust him. He can do more with your day if you give him part of it first. Make time for others today.