Keeping the Main Thing The Main Thing

I have been at the SC Church of God Campmeeting this week.  If you are not familiar with this it is a time where pastors, leaders and members across SC come together to hear preachers share what is on their heart.

For me it has always been challenging.  Many times it is a renewal of vision and purpose.  Sometimes there is a total "refocus".  Monday morning has been the most challenging for me so far.

Mitch Tolle reminded us an simple but important principle, "Keep the main thing the main thing."  How easy it is for me to get off track in life and in ministry.

We are reminded of this in Jesus feeding the 5000.  All four of the gospels (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:34-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-13) ) tells us the story, so it must be important.  He challenged the disciples to feed the people.  A young boy didn't have much but he had 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread;.

      Jesus took the small amount and fed the multitude.  The estimates are between 15 to 24,000.  This is no small feat.  

     John 6:35  gives us the crowds reaction.  They wanted to crown Jesus king.  The question is, is this the intention of Jesus?  Did he come to be king? 

       Jesus was upset about this.  He didn't want to be their king he wanted to be their savior.  They wanted him because he filled their belly.  Jesus was more interested in their soul than their belly.  

     Even the disciples missed it.  He had to send them on the lake to learn the lesson of who Christ really is.

       Christ wanted to be their Messiah.  He wanted to have a deep relationship with these disciples.

       I was challenged by this thought.  When it comes to benevolence am just feeding people or also introducing them to Jesus?  Am I bringing them to the Messiah?

       What a challenge.  Am I keeping the main thing, the main thing?  Is my ministry focusing on helping people change lives or just filling their bellies.  Feeding people is good but helping them see Christ has eternal  effects.

      It seems to be that churches gets caught up doing ministry instead of leading people to Christ.  The church can get so focused on maintenance and waiting on God's next blessing that we miss winning souls.

       My prayer is that the Lord will lead us back to being about the Father's business.

       When you get time reread the story of Christ feeding the multitude.  This time look at it as a lesson Jesus is trying to teach instead of another miracle to perform.

         

        So what do you think?