Episode 1333: The Call of the Light

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,333 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Caroline Boudreau: I am Caroline Boudreau I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasure to live out your calling. Having the ability to impact the lives of children is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:37] Scott Maderer: He's not, even though it spends most of the time talking about the bad stuff, he's not actually telling us to pay that much attention to the bad stuff. It's not about the enemies, it's about the friend who stands with us. It's not about the unknown. It's about having faith. It's not about saying I'm right and you are wrong.

[00:00:56] It's a God is on our side and there's nothing we [00:01:00] cannot do for the Kingdom if we just tried. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true caller.

[00:01:18] In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:34] In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Matthew chapter 10, verses 24 through 39. I share how our call often comes with fear and discomfort. And I also explain what we can do in response. Matthew chapter 10 verses 24 through 39 says, A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master.

[00:01:57] It is enough for the disciple to be like the [00:02:00] teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house, basil bub, how much more will they malign those of his household? So have no fear of them for nothing is covered up, that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known.

[00:02:15] What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light and what you hear whispered proclaimed from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body. And hell are not two sparrows sold for a penny yet, not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.

[00:02:34] And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others. I will also acknowledge before my father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my father in heaven do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.

[00:02:55] I have not come to bring peace, but a sword for I've come to set a man against his [00:03:00] father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

[00:03:15] And whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life, for my sake, will find it. Have you ever been in a building that often during the day is just teaming with people, but you've been there maybe late at night when it's all empty?

[00:03:34] This could be a church building. This could be a school, a hospital going to a public place where you're used to going there with lots of people around, but going there in the dead of night when it sits empty is a really creepy experience. The old churches at night are often spooky places, and when we visit sorts of spooky places filled with shadows and sounds that we're [00:04:00] not used to hearing.

[00:04:01] Especially if you're young or if you have an active imagination, you begin to picture all of the bad stuff that's present in the shadows. And often during those moments, I've seen people begin to sing or begin to whistle or begin to hum, or begin to call out and sing, whether it's hymns or whether it's other friendly songs that they have in their head to just put that sound out there.

[00:04:31] To allow them to begin to overcome that fear. In fact, there's actually an expression for this whistling in the dark. Any activity that keeps fears from overwhelming you, we often will express that as whistling in the dark. It allows you to keep going and function and complete the mission at hand even though you're overwhelmed and hurt and afraid, or those sorts of things.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] You're just whistling in the dark. It's often used as a disparaging term that's not really going to do anything, but sometimes it actually can help you continue to function. It allows you to say, yes, I know this is scary. Yes, I know this is overwhelming. Yes, I know this is rough, but I'm going to choose to live with hope anyway.

[00:05:26] That's what the gospel passage seems to be talking about this week. Jesus is not in this passage nor anywhere else. Saying that choosing to follow him is going to be easy. He never says, oh it's, oh yeah, this is easy. Just don't worry about it. Just follow me. Instead, he's almost overwhelmingly honest in the kind of appre oppression and opposition that we might be facing.

[00:05:53] But he gives us a simple mission. Anyway, simple but not easy. That simple message mission is [00:06:00] simply be like me. This passage begins and ends with that idea to be like Christ. It starts with, it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and at the end he says, whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

[00:06:18] Be like Christ. But then he says it's gonna be really hard when you do that. They're gonna call you names. They're going to reach out and say that you've been taken over by demons, that you're doing good, but you're doing it for the wrong reasons and therefore it's bad. And even those that are close to you might look at you and show up and say that just like Jesus' family seemed to think that he was crazy sometimes.

[00:06:48] A lot of times those people that are around us that claim to also follow Christ aren't necessarily gonna cheer you on. He's asking us to choose sides, but the sides here [00:07:00] are not for or against any person, but simply to choose to follow him and not pay attention to what other people are doing or saying about you or about anyone else.

[00:07:15] But that then leads us to start to think that this is going to be a place of loneliness and fear. But he says, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot still kill the soul. He tells us this power is caring for you too. He says, you are of more value than many sparrows. In other words if God has the power of life and death over sparrows and cares about them.

[00:07:43] Then surely he cares for us as well. That seems to be the point that Jesus wants us to hear. He's not, even though it spends most of the time talking about the bad stuff, he's not actually telling us to pay that much attention to the bad stuff. It's not about the enemies, [00:08:00] it's about the friend who stands with us.

[00:08:02] It's not about the unknown, it's about having faith. It's not about saying, I'm right and you are wrong. It's a God is on our side and there's nothing we cannot do for the kingdom if we just try. It's about that. And he says what I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, proclaim from the house tops.

[00:08:26] Jesus isn't saying we don't feel like we have all the answers and we can just go on like we do, because we know where the answers are. It's not us. To determine what's right or what's wrong or what the answers are. It's instead our job to point towards Jesus and say that's the only one that can figure out what's right and what's wrong.

[00:08:49] We have to shout with love beyond anything else. That is the key that seems to be the message to overcome [00:09:00] shared in this passage. Thanks for listening.

[00:09:10] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired.

[00:09:34] Stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we are serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures.

[00:09:58] Develop your influence [00:10:00] and impact the world.