Stop minding your own business
Luke 2:40-2:49
I was thinking about a phrase that I remember hearing people say a lot when I was in high school I guess I heard it in lots of situations. It just seems that I don’t recall hearing it as much in more recent times… “Mind your own business!”
It is a statement that is often made by a person to tell someone to respect their privacy. It was a kind of scolding to another person for asking the wrong questions or making some statement or suggestion about another person’s situation.
I would think that all of us have had the statement made to us at some point and perhaps even made it to others. Perhaps we were sticking our noses in places that they did not belong or just over heard the conversation between other people.
Generally, most of us come to an understanding that we should not be the kind of people that are always trying to find out details of what is going on in other people’s lives.
Today we are considering a problem, perhaps the biggest problem in churches and especially in the lives of Christians today. The problem is simple and is wide spread and it has a profound impact on the success and failure of churches all over our country.
The problem is that of Christians that mind their own business!
Yes, you heard me right. I said the problem is Christians that mind their own business.
Maybe you are wondering, if I am not supposed to mind my business, then whose am I supposed to mind?
Let’s review our text. Jesus was 12 years old and He had gone with His earthly parents to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. They have been in town for at least a week and most everyone in town packs up had heads off toward home in all directions when the event is over.
At the end of traveling the first day Joseph and Mary figure out that they have a missing child. Their son is not with their group. They want to send out an amber alert but the technology is not around yet. They rush back to Jerusalem and search for their son.
We have talked about this situation before. We have considered how they felt as parents. We have even considered if they ever thought that they had misplaced Jesus and we have hopefully considered that question in our lives.
Our reading this morning tells us that after 3 days they found Him in the temple. He was sitting with the teachers…. Not just local small town teachers but teachers that hold classes in the temple. The men that would be considered college professors…. He is listening to them and He is asking questions…the people are astonished as how He clearly understands the answers to His questions.
Mom and dad appear on the scene and they are clearly upset and I would guess relieved, and angry, and amazed, and happy and angry.
They ask an obvious question, “Son, why have You done this to us?”
Ok, so we are caught up on the situation. We may have has some similar experience with our children or with friends.
But the problem is that the question is one that is pretty hard to answer.
Have you stopped beating your wife?
Yes, I stopped …no, I haven’t stopped…
Yes, I know what I did…..no I never considered you….
Jesus responds t the question like he does in many situations we read about in the NT with a question.
“Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
Joseph and Mary seem to decide not to make any bigger scene here in public. Besides that the scripture says, But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.
Speaking from my experience with children, the response I get to my pointed and direct questions often leave me at a loss.
Why were you late getting home? Dah….!!!
After some special revelation form god to Mary and Joseph some 12 years before thin incident…..as far as we know, things had been pretty normal around the carpenter’s household. We know from an incident in Nazareth 19 years from now that the people there considered Jesus to be the carpenter’s son. And wanted to throw him off a cliff for his explanation of scripture.
As far as we know this is the first time that Jesus has defined a difference between his earthly father and God the father. There is just enough truth that Mary and Joseph know that it might be pretty hard to understand.
But the point that I hope you connect to here is that the statement, “I must be about My Father’s business” is important.
That statement sums up the most important single truth in every Christians’ life.
“I must be about my father’s business!”
If not our business then…Who’s? Our fathers’!
Let me be clear….if you are not a Christian then you have not obligation to involve yourself in God’s business. You according to the culture are expected to mind your own bees wax and to deal with your life and if you had real close family ties and really good friends you might be invited to be a part of some small portion of their business.
-- Years ago I moved to Rome to participate in the business that my dad started. At first I was expected to work with an electronic engineer to come up with some special projects. Things that would benefit the business and ultimately to benefit our family and the families of the employees. Over time I picked up additional responsibilities in the business. Dad shared with me the business aspects of customer service and paying the bills. Later I was expected to run the business on my own.
The process started with education and later partnership and ultimately a level of independence.
--- It seems that any time we look at Jesus as a model for our lives we end up challenged to make changes in ours.
Here we have a scripture that describes a part of Jesus education process in the Law and prophets. HE is interacting with knowledgeable teachers to gain understanding. We know that later he will start his time of partial independence. At 12 years old, Jesus has an understanding that he needs to prepare himself for His father’s business. Nto the carpentry business but the kingdom business.
-- Far too many Christians/children of God are more concerned about their own business than they are God’s.
They make time for all the things that they want to do and squeeze a little time in here and there for God. Why….because they are minding their own business as a first priority and God’s business as a leftover.
Most Christians do not give sacrificially to the Lords work…but often find the time and the money for the special event or big sale. They are minding their own business as a first priority and God’s business as a leftover.
Folks, you need to know that God is not happy with leftovers. We are guilty of forgetting that God has always called for first fruits. The best of the herd. He wants genuine offerings of love.
God has an expectation that his children will be about the father’s business!
He is not expecting simply lip service of reciting a phrase. He is talking about a life style that actually considers each decision each day what the Father expects from his Christian Children.
I believe that if you quit minding your own business and start minding God’s business amazing things will happen.
The fathers business starts with a change in priorities.
In this scripture Jesus is reported to be 12 years old. What do you think a 12 year old boy would be doing back then. Chores, playing with friends, wrestling, looking for fun.
However, Jesus was in the temple sitting with educators…why... Somehow this 12 year old boy identified that He needed to prepare for his father’s business. His priority was to step up to the opportunity found in the temple for training.
The apostle Paul was a man that got it. In Philippians 3 he wrote about his heritage and his education and his passion for God….And he says in V7-8, But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
In other words, Everything he did for standing and position and wealth were a waste of time and effort. It was not about his life.. It was about God and what he offered through Jesus Christ. The offer was an invitation to be in the family and to be about the father’s business.
When we begin to be about the father’s business our priorities change.
We won’t find or make excuses to not serve God.
We start to respond to opportunities to do the things that God wants to do.
Priorities and excuses are signs that we have a problem of minding our own business and avoid and ignore our father’s business.
What we desire becomes our priority and not God’s desire. When we are focused on God’s desire, god’s business our priorities will be connected to serving others, to helping the hurting and lost, it will be about showing love and hope and light to a dark world.
-- The father’s business will involve a change in our schedules.
Most of the visitors to Jerusalem that day had a schedule to keep. They were headed home. However Jesus was not focused on the schedule, he was open to interruption.
When we mind our own business, we are too busy to be interrupted. We are too busy to worry about someone that needs help, or some project that is planned in the church.
When we mind our own business we offer a standard response to any request, I am too busy…I am too busy…
I did a quick search in the bible for times when Jesus told someone, anyone that he was too busy.
Do any of us have more to accomplish in our time on earth than He did? Most of us in this room have lived longer that Jesus did already. Have we allowed our schedules to be about the father’s business or are we spending it all on our business?
It is offly easy to spend our time and have nothing to show for it.
-- If we are about the father’s business we will be about others.
We will be servants. In Philippians 2: 5-7 Paul describes Jesus’ nature and role.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
Jesus did not claim a superior position because of his heritage, his knowledge or his power. He did not claim his right or position as the son of God. He claimed the roles of teacher, healer…servant.
If we are about our father’s business we are humble, we will be givers and not takers. We are to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to reach out to those that have a damaged or no relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
It is not about what God can do for me, but what I do for God to reach others.
Man this Christian thing sounds like a lot of work. To have to reorient our whole lives to be about God’s business. What about me…what about my family….
I believe that when you mind your own business you get stingy, selfish, worried, resentful, and you never have enough. You want people and even God to stay out of your business…..unless something goes wrong in your life…Then we tend to beg for God to take care of business for us.
I hope you will consider something. Jesus life on earth, his healing, his blessing, his invitation, were not leftovers. His death on a cross to satisfy the requirement from God’s for the best…was not a leftover.
God sent the best and most capable… His Son to take care of business on our behalf.
Jesus being about his father’s business is the entry point for us to be able to call out to God as a child of God.
Adopted into the family and made a full heir in the kingdom.
As children of God we gain all the opportunities and all the obligations that are a part of Kingdom business.
We end up with opportunity of and eternity in the kingdom of God. And we also have the opportunity to be active participants in the family business.
Who’s business are you minding today…..how is that working out for you?
When we mind our fathers business, we can expect to find many levels of blessing. We witness God working through us in simple ways. We build strong friendships.
We grow in our trust in God and find that we will see God trusting our church with more responsibility and power and opportunities to touch lives.
I hope you will renew your commitment to be about our father’s Business!
All glory be to God.
