PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 388: FOLLOWING JESUS, Part 2
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 388: FOLLOWING JESUS, Part 2
How do we follow Jesus? We begin an acrostic of the word FOLLOW to see from the Scriptures how Jesus wants us to follow Him. In this podcast, we talk about Faithfully, Fervently, Obediently, Leaving everything behind, and Laying down our lives.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! We’re together again, and we are talking about following Jesus. Today I’m starting the acrostic. “F.” So, we follow FAITHFULLY and FERVENTLY.
The next letter is “O.” OBEDIENTLY
We see this when Jesus called His disciples. In Matthew 4:18-20, we read of Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee. He sees Peter and Andrew, and He says to them: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed Him.” I’m always amazed at that, that just one word from Jesus, and up they got and left.
He continued walking along the Sea of Galilee, and He sees James and John, the sons of Zebedee. In Matthew 4:21-22, it says” “And Jesus called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him.” Followed Jesus. So, we see the example of immediate obedience to what Jesus said.
I think that’s something that we should learn too, that immediate obedience to the word of the Lord. And also, to teach our children. I believe it is important to teach our children instant obedience, well, within a reasonable moment. I always used to say to my children, “Delayed obedience is disobedience.” You can tell your children to do something, but they want to do a thousand things before they get to do that.
But no, we have to train them. It is training, because they’re not going to do this naturally. Everyone is born with this selfish thing within them. They want to do their own thing. So, even when they’re told to do something, they want to do their own thing first. But no, we have to train our children how to obey when we speak.
Actually, I’ve shared with you about this before. But we start when our children are very little. When we tell them to do something, even a little thing, when they’re just maybe a toddler, we always have to make sure that they understand what we’ve said. You can never expect obedience unless you know your child has heard. Hearing, learning to hear, actually comes before obedience. You’ve got to have an ear that is alert to hear. And a true hearing ear is an obedient ear. It hears and it obeys.
So, you’ll tell your little toddler to do something, and then you’ll say, “What did Mommy say?” And you get them to repeat it. OK, they know. “OK, do it right now.” And you’ll lead them to do it, so they know that when you speak, they obey. These little ones, you train them like this, and you keep training them. Because training means doing it over and over and over again, and there will be times when you will have to discipline for outright disobedience.
Now you must always be careful. As I said, you must know that your child heard, because even for older children, you can call out some command from the kitchen and think they heard, but really, they may not have heard. They can be in some dream and they really didn’t hear at all. You can’t discipline someone for something they did not hear.
You must always know your child heard perfectly and understood. Then you can expect obedience, encouraging and training them into obeying immediately. If there is outright willful disobedience, then there will need to be discipline, because as parents, we are training our children on God’s behalf. We have to do it according to what God wants.
Just read through Proverbs. I think as a parent, we need to read through Proverbs continually . . . in fact, you can read a chapter every day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs and 31 days in the month. OK, whatever’s the date today, you can read that chapter of Proverbs. You will find lots of good advice there, coming from the Bible. It’s actually not coming from our humanist stuff that we get today. There is so much humanistic parenting today that is opposite to the Bible. We’ve got to get back to what the Bible says.
So, encourage your children in this, dear mothers. I know, often it’s just easier to let things go, but no, we’ve got to keep up with that training, because we are preparing our children to hear the voice of the Lord. If they have dull ears and they don’t listen to us and they don’t obey, they are not going to be ready to be called by Jesus.
I’m sure that as a godly mother, you want and you pray that your children will be called by the Lord. He will call them to do the things that He has planned for them to fulfill their destiny. But children will not hear who haven’t learned to hear and obey as children . . . so that they will be ready to hear the voice of the Lord. Amen?
All right. The next one is “L.” I have two things here for the letter “L,” “Leaving everything behind,” and “Laying down our lives.” The first one . . .
LEAVING EVERYTHING BEHIND
We see three things here. Firstly, these young men, and they were young. The disciples were not older men. Did you know that? It’s amazing, isn’t it, how we are impacted by pictures. All my life, I saw pictures of the disciples with their big beards. They looked to be about 30 or 40.
But no, it was only a few years ago that I suddenly realized as I was reading the Word (I have a whole article on this). If you really want to hear my thoughts from the Word, you can email me about it. But the disciples were actually young teenagers. They were very young. You see, back in Bible days, they fulfilled their education really quite early. By 13 or so, most young men had completed their education. Many of them would have understood so much of the Torah. Some could maybe even say it by heart. They had a very good education.
Then, when they got to about 13 or so and they’d fulfilled their education, they would do one of two things. One, they would go into their father’s business and work with him and help build up and strengthen the family business. Or they may go with a rabbi. There were a lot of rabbis in the time of Jesus.
1) PREPARED TO LEAVE EVERYTHING BEHIND
Jesus Himself was a rabbi. You could not be a rabbi until you were 30 years of age. Then you gathered young men around you to teach them in whatever you wanted to teach them. That’s what Jesus did. When He was 30, then He began His ministry, so He began to find these young teens to gather around Him. He found twelve who He began to teach and prepare to change the world. They were just young men. But it’s amazing how they were prepared to leave everything behind. Let’s notice these Scriptures, shall we? Matthew 4:20 is talking about Peter and Andrew. It says that when Jesus called them: “They straightway left (notice the word) “left their nets.”
Also, talking about James and John in Mark 1:20: “They left their father Zebedee, and the ship with the hired servants, and went after Jesus.” Wow. This poor father. They forgot him. They left their father. They left their business. They left their career, and they followed Jesus.
Luke 5:11: “They forsook all and followed Him.”
2) PREPARED TO LEAVE AND CHANGE THEIR CAREER
Secondly, they were prepared to change their careers, because they were fishermen. But what did Jesus say to them? Mark 1:17: “Come ye after Me.” I love that! “Come ye after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” So, they actually left their careers, left everything they knew behind to follow Jesus.
Of course, that should be our attitude in our following of Jesus, that we’re prepared to leave all the old things of the world, and all the things of the present world that tempt us. What does it say in 2 Corinthians 5:17? “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things are become new.”
We enter into a new life. So, even as we are living our life with Jesus, it’s a new life. We’re showing our children that we don’t live the life like everybody else does around, who don’t know Jesus. We live a different life. We are new people.
MARRIAGE IS ALSO A LEAVING
‘But also, it comes back . . . I think this whole principle of leaving, leaving, that’s what they did. They left everything. This comes to marriage too, doesn’t it? Do you remember, in Genesis 2:24? The first words God spoke, of course, the first words God spoke to man when He created him were: “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.”
But then, we go to the account in Genesis 2 where He created the woman out of the man. Then He brings the woman to the man, and He says: “Therefore shall a leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
So, right at the very beginning, when God is bringing the man and wife together, the first marriage, the first thing He says is “Leave.” Yes, that is the first thing about marriage, dear ones. We leave. When we get married, when you got married, when I got married, we left our parents’ home, and we left the lifestyle we had before. We leave our single lifestyle. We leave it behind, and we follow. As a woman, we follow after our husband.
Here it’s talking to the man, too. It says: “Therefore shall a man leave and cleave.” So, a man is also to leave his father’s house. Well, he may. Back then, he may still be in his father’s business. But there would be a leaving of that reliance on his parents. Now he is beginning a new family. And he is now the head of a new family. He’s establishing something new.
For the wife, we see the principle in the Word of . . . actually the woman will leave her home to go with her husband. We see that in the story of Isaac and Rebekah. Remember, Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac. He got to this place and God miraculously led him to the right place. He found Rebekah and told them this is why he’s here. He wants to take a bride for Isaac. It’s amazing here.
We see in verse 58: “And they called Rebekah and said unto her, will you go with this man?” Imagine it, dear ladies. Here she was, she’s a young teen. She was only young. And they say to her, “Will you go with this man?” She hasn’t even seen the man! She doesn’t even know what he’s like! And even in another country! He’s miles and miles away. She’ll never see her family again, maybe. She doesn’t know.
Would some teen today say they will go? But she says: “I will go.”
Verse 61: “And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels and followed the man” to somewhere she didn’t know, to a man she didn’t even know? But she was willing to go.
We think of Sarah who followed her husband. God told Abraham: “I want you to leave your home, and kindred, and country, and go out to a place that I will show you.” He didn’t even tell him where it was! He had to go by faith. And Sarah also had to leave. She was willing to go with him, not even knowing where she was going. Even Leah and Rachel, who were married from their own home and lived there for many years, but eventually they had to leave too, and follow Jacob where God wanted him to be.
I remember myself . . . way back when I began our marriage. We’ve now been married 62 amazing years. But when we got married, I actually did leave. I did come back to my home for a few months when my husband was in the Philippine Islands. I had to stay back at that time. I lived with my parents for a few months until our son was born. Then a few months later, I joined my husband in the Philippine Islands.
But apart from that time, apart from visiting our family, which was always the greatest joys of our lives to go back to my home and visit my parents, I never lived in that little town I grew up in ever in my life. We lived in the Philippine Islands. When we eventually came back to New Zealand, we lived in a different city. Then we moved to Australia. Then we moved to America. I actually, literally, left.
Although, of course, as a woman, you don’t leave (figuratively) your parents. You always love them and honor them. Of course, our visits to them were always so glorious, and their visits to us. But I did have to leave (physically), because that was biblical, and that was what was expected, especially in that day.
I’m amazed today, how that many times, many women don’t follow their husband. The poor husband has to follow the wife because she’s got this good job, and she’s not prepared to leave it. But that’s not biblical.
The story of the servant going to get a bride for Isaac is a story, and it’s true. But it’s also a type Every single thing in the Word of God is a type. It’s a prototype for us to learn from. We go to Romans. Let me give you a Scripture about that. OK, I’ll have to put it in the transcript. It tells us that every single thing that was written was written for our learning, on whom the end of the world has come. (* See below). So, we have to take note. This whole story of getting a bride for Isaac was the type of the wife leaving her home and going with her husband.
But, of course, dear lovely ladies, some of you may have left a career. Or maybe you did keep on with your career for some time and then God showed you that He had given you a much bigger career. You’ve come home from the corporate world, and you're now home with your children, because you know this is where God wants you. This is true, ladies.
When I left, married my husband and left, I left a high school teaching career. I was teaching high school at the time. I loved it, but I left it completely. Never, ever, ever went back to it at all. Maybe some of you have experienced that also. But I want you to know that you're coming into a whole new thing. You’re coming into a greater career, far greater than you ever had before, no matter what you think.
“Oh goodness me! This was a great career, and I was earning good money.” Your career as a mother is more powerful than anything you had before. It is the most powerful career in the world. To embrace children and raise godly sons and daughters who will impact the nation. To build a strong marriage. To build a strong home. It’s the godly homes that bless the nation.
You are doing something so powerful. Of course, society tends to make light of it. But the Bible makes big of it. And God makes big of it. In Ezekiel 19, there is an allegory there, where God likens motherhood to Judah. It tells us there that He exalts her. He exalts her. She is exalted above all the other trees round about. This is how God sees motherhood, as an exalted career.
I think of that Scripture in Proverbs 11:11: “By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted. But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.” The message of this Scripture is that the kind of families that live in a city are what the city will be like. Then ultimately, of course, the nation. So, the more upright, godly, trustworthy, and Bible-believing families that live in a city, the godlier that city will be.
This is what you are doing. You are home in this greatest career that God has given to women, to bring forth godly children, to raise them to be godly, to raise them in His ways so they will impact the city where you live, and eventually the nation, and maybe other nations as well.
It is powerful this word “upright.” Let’s see what it means. In the Hebrew, the word means “straight, righteous, doing that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.” We get these phrases, these modern phrases, I don’t know whether you use them. I’ve used them often in life. But they come from this word “upright,” which means “to be straight.”
STANDING STRAIGHT AND TALL
Have you ever heard the phrase “straight and narrow”? “You’re on the straight and narrow road.”
“Standing straight and tall.”
Or “Straighten up!” I often said that to my children. Maybe they’re not doing what is right. You say, “Come on! Straighten up!”
Or it’s “straight shooter.” That’s someone who always tells the truth.
Both the man and woman have to leave and to cleave. I remember listening to Charlie Kirk. I do love listening to him. Do you enjoy it? He had so many good things to say. He promoted family. It was so amazing to see a young man not only speaking out so boldly and loudly and clearly for family and for having children. Not just to the church but to the whole of the secular world. Out there in the colleges, which are the most hostile places where he could ever speak such a word.
“Get married young and have more children than you can afford!” It seems a very reckless statement, but no, it is not a reckless statement at all, because it is God’s Word. God said: “Get married, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth!” You say, “How can we afford to do that?”
Well, I know many of you know how God has provided for you. He miraculously provides and that is His promise in Deuteronomy 28, the blessing chapter. “I will bless the fruit of your womb.” And then He says: “I will bless your cattle, and your sheep, and your store, and your provision.” Those blessings come after the blessing of the womb.
But I love what he says to the men. Did you ever hear it? He likens getting married to the man as actually a funeral. He says . . .
“You are saying good-bye to your previous self. The woman is the icon, the symbol of beauty, almost always in white. The man, usually in black and white, like he’s attending someone’s death, because at his wedding, it is a death.
It’s the death of the bachelor mindset.
It’s the death of promiscuity.
It’s the death of the wandering eye.
It’s the death of immoral behavior. It’s the death of texting girls casually.
It’s the death of ‘I get to do what I want to do.’
It’s the death of going to the bar with friends.
It’s the death of acting like an infant.
It's the death of playing video games until 1 AM in the morning.
And it’s the birth of a man.”
And it is similar for the woman too. We leave behind, because we’re coming into something so new and even greater.
3) JESUS CALLED THOSE WHO WERE HARD WORKERS
Now the third thing I noticed in leaving behind is that Jesus called young men who were industrious and hard-working. In Matthew 4:18-19, when He called Peter and Andrew, what were they doing? Do you remember? They were “casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.” They were already doing something. They were busy with their career.
When He was speaking to James and John, and calling them, what were they doing? They were “mending their nets; and He called them” (Matthew 4:21). They were industrious. They were already doing something. They weren’t just basking on the shore of Galilee, just lying there sunbathing. No, they were working.
Jesus didn’t call loafers. He called workers and He said to those workers: “Follow Me.” Jesus didn’t want lazy people. So, therefore, ladies, in our preparing of our children to be called by Jesus, we’ve got to train them how to be industrious, how to be hard workers, how to love work. It seems that children often don’t want to work. They would rather not be bothered. But must train them to work.
Once again, they will see it by our lifestyle, by watching us. They see our attitude to work. What about your attitude, lovely mothers? Do you sometimes sigh and groan and complain of all you have to do? Your children see the complaining spirit. “Oh, I’ve got all this laundry to do! Oh, look at all these dishes! Oh, oh!” They see a complaining spirit. Well, if you have a complaining spirit, of course you’ll have complaining children.
But if you have a positive attitude, “Come on, children, let’s get stuck in! Isn’t it great to work? We can get this job done!” You have a positive attitude about work, and you love work, because work is wonderful. Work is therapeutic. God gave work before the fall of man.
I have to tell you a secret. When I was a child, I had this understanding; I thought that work came into the world after sin came into the world. But that’s not true! No, work came into the world before sin came into the world. Work is something that God gives us for our blessing. It’s very therapeutic and it’s very good for us.
We need to train our children in how to be good workers, how to have a good attitude about work, and about the chores that you give them. That’s training too. Not just training them to do those chores. It’s training them to have that great attitude about doing it. They do it with joy. They do it with gusto. “And I take so long to do it, and it’s such a painful process.” No! They know how to get stuck in and do it! We have to train them to do that. And, of course, they’ve got to see it in our lifestyle because we’re saying to our children, “Children, follow me. Just imitate me, and you’ll know what to do.”
I was reading in Proverbs, and I noticed there are so many Scriptures about work in Proverbs. Here are just two or three for you. This is from the Passion Translation, and I wrote it down, because it’s in rhyme. I love things that are in rhyme.
Proverbs 14:23:
“If you work hard at what you do,
Great abundance will come to you.”
Now, that’s easy to teach your children, isn’t it? Because when something’s in rhyme, they will pick it up. So, that’s a good Scripture put to rhyme that you can teach your children. “If you work hard at what you do, great abundance will come to you.”
I can think of a great little tune for that. You could think of that too. Make it into a song, a song that you can sing when you're doing work around the house and when your children are doing their chores. You could make a great tune for that little rhyme so they can sing it as they work.
In the New Living Translation, that Scripture says: “Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty.”
Proverbs 12:24: “Work hard and become a leader. Be lazy and become a slave.”
That’s an important principle to teach your children too, because, as I said before, this is the point. Jesus did not call loafers. Jesus called young men who were actually doing something, who were industrious when He called them. Jesus still looks for industrious people to call into His kingdom and to do His work.
And also, even in the secular world, as our children grow up, especially our young men, they’ve got to be providers of the home. They’re going to make their way in life. They’re going to be successful if they have a good attitude about work. They will always go the extra mile.
LEADERS GIVE THE MAXIMUM * LOAFERS GIVE THE MINIMUM
When they go to work, they arrive early. When they end work, they don’t look, oh, they’re watching the clock. Wow! Whatever the time is, they’re meant to finish maybe at five. “Oh! Right! I’m gone!” No, they’ll stay five minutes, ten minutes longer, sorting out things. They’re prepared to give it everything. They don’t just give it a mere, “OK, this is the minimum.” They give the maximum! That person will rise, and they will rise to the top. But they’ve got to start when they’re young.
But I see our time is going. Just another little thought. Back to that story of the servant of Abraham, going to get a bride for Isaac. There’s a Scripture there. It’s in Genesis 24:27, and I love it. It’s the servant speaking, and he says: “I being in the way, the LORD led me . . .” When he started off, he didn’t actually know where he was going. But God led him.
He didn’t sit and wait, and think, “OK, God, I’ll sit here with my camels, and when you tell me where I’m going, we’ll all start.” No, he began. He began to take his journey along the road. As he began his journey, God led him.
This is how God works. He doesn’t pick up people who are just sitting on the sofa doing nothing. He picks up people who are moving already, who are finding something to do. “Yes, I see a need there. I will do it.” And so, they’re moving. They’re working. And God will begin to lead them and guide them, little by little, into all that He has for them. That is a principle. It doesn’t ever start by sitting on the sofa waiting. It starts as we get moving. Amen?
All right. Let’s pray, and we’ll carry on next week with more of our acrostic.
“Dear Father, thank You again for the way You teach us by Your Holy Spirit. We thank You for Your precious Word. Every single word teaches us another principle of Your ways. We thank You, Lord God. We ask that You will continue to teach us, to lead us, to guide us. And once again, we ask that, Father, You will help us to be true godly examples to our family, that they will see You in us. That they will see, Lord, how to live for You as they watch our lives. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Scripture references:
- Romans 15:4: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:6: “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:11: “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris
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“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”
DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.
IT IS ENCOURAGING FOR ALL WIVES AND MOTHERS.
MY HEART IS FULL
I am sure you love the song introducing this podcast. Well, it’s not a new song. Serene and Pearl wrote it and recorded it many years ago, but the words are still so anointed for every mother in her home.
You can download the full song from www.aboverbies.org from the Book and music store. Go to: Above Rubies Bookstore
The following is the link for the single:
MY HEART IS FULL - Music Single from Peace All Over Me - Downloadable MP3 Format Album
Here are all the words for you:
MY HEART IS FULL
Little arms reaching for me,
Grubby fingers touch my face
And love is what I feel.
Little eyes looking at me,
Chubby cheeks burst with smiles
And joy is what I know,
Peeking in while they sleep at night,
I thank God for the gift of life,
I thank God for more that I deserve.
CHORUS.
My heart is full, my heart is full,
Why would I want for more?
When my cup overflows?
My heart is full, my heart is full,
This much I know.
Strong arms reaching for me
Circle my waist for the millionth time
And love is what I feel
Sometimes I watch him sleep at night,
I thank God that I am his wife,
And joy is what I know.
CHORUS.
Sometimes when discontent creeps into my soul
A still small voice reminds me of the ones my arms can hold.