Intentional About One Thing

Introduction

Last weekend Tessa’s sister Ashley was in town. On Monday she and her husband Dan stopped in for a few minutes before heading back to Grand Rapids. They were not there a real long time, but Dan carried in his backpack with him and let us know he had is binoculars with him. You see Dan is a bird watcher. He told us that he brought them in for the same reason I say that I bring an umbrella with me somewhere. If I bring an umbrella with me it won’t rain and I won’t need it, but sure enough the moment I don’t have it, it will most certainly rain. Dan said that he knows the moment he doesn’t have the binoculars with him some rare and exciting bird that he really wants to see will show up and he will be unprepared to see it.

It’s not just bringing the binoculars with him wherever he goes. Dan is passionate about seeing birds. He has told us about checking local reddit threads to see who is posting about seeing what, and where they saw it. He uses this information to plan on where to go in the mornings. He gets up early, chooses prime places and times to go see the birds. Dan does not sit on his porch and just wait for all the different types of birds to come to him. He knows that they will not all just come land on his front porch. If he wants to experience these interesting creatures he is going to have to be intentional about looking for them. But regardless of where he goes, he is listening for birds, thinking about what he might see, and prepared for an opportunity to see it.

SEAM- Dan does not sit on his porch and just wait for all the different types of birds to come to him. He knows that they will not all just come land on his front porch. If he wants to experience these interesting creatures he is going to have to be intentional about looking for them.

The same is true for us if we actually expect to accomplish this one thing that Jesus has set us to do in the great commission.

For the last two weeks we have been discussing this one thing. The first week we talked about how scripture is constantly helping us to see that God desires all of humanity to come to know him and the life to the full that he has provided to us in Jesus. And then last week we talked about the fact that we are going to have to develop a heart for the great commission and more importantly for the people around us. It’s really difficult to care about the task that has been set before us if we do not love our neighbors and care for those who we have been sent to.

But today we need to talk about how to approach this task with intentionality. I think we sometimes hope that if we can have a nice enough building, have worship music of a high enough caliber, a preacher who is engaging enough, children’s programming , enough activities and fellowship to make people feel at home, than people will surely want to come to our church. And hopefully if they sit here long enough they will realize that this place is good and the message is good and they will want to stick around. We stick to the field of dreams model of if we build it they will come.

It’s like sitting on the porch every morning hoping that rare bird will just come land on the rail and build a nest.

Or other times we know the great commission is important. We love people in our lives. And we are just sitting there praying every day, we are waiting for God to change their hearts, and bring them to us. Bring them to church, bring them to us with questions. We just hope that our prayers will eventually ware God down into fulfilling our request. I am not saying that prayer is bad, in fact I think it’s an essential piece to our intentionality. But I think it’s the first piece of many, and we stop short of taking any of the other steps to GO, therefore, and make disciples. Remember, those were Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:19

Matthew 28:19 CSB

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

We can talk about the great commission all we want. We can discuss how important it is. We can even love the theory and idea of it, and truly care about the people around us. But we sometimes are still just sitting here…unsure where to start. Uncertain that we know how to approach the challenge. We fell insecure, uncertain, unprepared, and therefore we just prioritize other things. We hope and pray that we find a way to fall into making disciples, but generally fix our attention elsewhere.

That’s why I want us to look at the opening chapter of a book we don’t talk about often, and one that I personally didn’t think I was going to land on in talking about the importance of this one thing. But as I prepared for this week God led me to Haggai chapter 1.

Historical context of Haggai

Haggai 1 CSB

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “The Lord of Armies says this: These people say: The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.” The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” Now, the Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways: You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to be happy. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.” The Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways. Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house; and I will be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord. “You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. “Because my house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house. So on your account, the skies have withheld the dew and the land its crops. I have summoned a drought on the fields and the hills, on the grain, new wine, fresh oil, and whatever the ground yields, on people and animals, and on all that your hands produce.” Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, delivered the Lord’s message to the people: “I am with you—this is the Lord’s declaration.” The Lord roused the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the spirit of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. They began work on the house of the Lord of Armies, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

John 4 CSB

When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were), he left Judea and went again to Galilee. He had to travel through Samaria; so he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.” “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.” “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.” Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They left the town and made their way to him.

Praying for people - this is setting our heart for them, fixing our attention and thoughts on then, and surrendering ourselves and our time and effort to God and his desires for them

Spending time in relationship with people where we truly know them. Care about them, understand what they are going through, requires listening and not just talking.

Spending time with them- We have talked about invitation and time at a table. This can be as simple as eating with people

Caring for their needs- Jesus was constantly addressing the physical needs of the people he interacted with. What can we do to help, to serve, to show that our love goes beyond words into action. Put our money where our mouth is.

This last part is the one that makes us feel like we cannot share our faith- it’s sharing who Jesus is to us. We worry about the theology, we worry about the hard questions. However, we simply have to offer an answer for the hope we have. Where did you meet Jesus? How has that changed you?

PRACTICE