“Do you know who I am?” is a question that has been asked by more than one self-impressed person. If you’re a fan of YouTube, searching for that question will produce some hilarious results, most often from a police dashcam at a traffic stop.
Who are you? It’s actually a pretty important question.
Welcome to “Mornings with Bishop Robert” — whoever you are, I’m glad you’ve come. My goal is to introduce people to the Jesus they never knew, and help them get to know Him and His word personally – and better ! If our time together today speaks to your heart, then let me invite you to like, subscribe and share it with a friend!
Whether people stop you as you walk down the street and ask for your autograph or whether the only time you’re asked to sign your name is on the bottom of your credit card slip to pay a bill, the truth is that you are somebody.
You may have heard the story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was a very important job to be done, Everybody was supposed to do it. But Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.
Cute story, but a deep truth. Like it or not, our reputation is going to be impacted by the things we do.
If you’re a follower of Jesus, today’s verse gives an instruction about the things we do. It tells us WHATEVER YOU DO OR SAY, DO IT AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS.
Here comes another illustration from the US Marines, but it’s a good one. The 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Alfred Gray, said, “Every Marine is, first and foremost, a rifleman. All other conditions are secondary.” Now there are hundreds of different jobs in the military, whatever the nation. You’ve got everything from mechanics who work on multi-million dollar planes to the cooks who feed them; tasks that run the gamut from personnel to planning, intelligence to logistics and many more than I can list here. But General Gray’s point was a simple one – If you’re in the United States Marines, whatever else you do, your primary job is to be qualified to handle a rifle.
As followers of Christ, whatever else we do, our primary job is to represent Him well to a world that hasn’t met Him yet. They may have heard His name, though in today’s society it’s more likely that when they did His name was being used as profanity. They may have read about Him in a book somewhere; but that book probably was not the bible and likely didn’t present Jesus well.
Actually, that’s our job.
Whatever else we are called to, we who claim to be followers of Jesus — “Christians” — are His representatives to the world. They are supposed to see US and want to meet HIM.
Whatever your occupation, whatever your personal interests, hobbies or skills – every follower of Christ is, first and foremost, representing Him. When somebody has a job to do, we should work at it with all our heart, as for the Lord and not for an earthly boss. Because the quality of what we do will reflect on Him.
When somebody has an opportunity to speak, regardless of the setting, we should try and infuse the word of God into what we say. You can do that without saying, “the bible says,” you know. USING the word of God is much more important that announcing that it is the word of God. Like a sharp sword, His word works, whatever the situation.
When somebody has an opportunity to serve, we should do it as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. Our goal is that in everything we do and say, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
Big things or little things are all opportunities to point people to Jesus. Even our eating and drinking! When somebody has an opportunity to be kind, show the love of Christ, help out a neighbor or anything at all — WHATEVER WE DO OR SAY, DO IT AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS.
I keep saying “somebody” because YOU are somebody. Maybe anybody can do the things that pop up as opportunities to represent Jesus. It could even be a job that everybody is supposed to do. But YOU are part of “anybody”; and you’re certainly in the group of people called “everybody.”
So step up, step in and be the one who gets it done. Otherwise, maybe nobody will do it; and we can’t have THAT, can we!
