The Main Thing

PRAY

Charles R. Swindoll, in his book “Dropping Your Guard” tells of Flight 401 bound for Miami from New York City with a load of holiday passengers. As the huge aircraft approached the Miami Airport for its landing, a light that indicates proper deployment of the landing gear failed to come on. The plane flew in a large, looping circle over the swamps of the Everglades while the cockpit crew checked out the light failure. Their question was this, had the landing gear actually not deployed or was it just the light bulb that was defective?

To begin with, the flight engineer fiddled with the bulb. He tried to remove it, but it wouldn't budge. Another member of the crew tried to help out... and then another. By and by, if you can believe it, all eyes were on the little light bulb that refused to be dislodged from its socket. No one noticed that the plane was losing altitude. Finally, it dropped right into a swamp. Many were killed in that plane crash. While an experienced crew of high-priced and seasoned pilots messed around with a seventy-five-cent light bulb, an entire airplane and many of its passengers were lost. The crew momentarily forgot the most basic of all rules of the air -- "Don't forget to fly the airplane!"

The same sort of thing can happen to the local church. The church can have so many activities, programs, projects, committee meetings, banquets, and community involvements -- so many wheels spinning without really accomplishing anything of eternal significance -- that the congregation forgets its primary objective.

The Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

Jesus in our Gospel reading today does something that many might find astonishing.

He has just begun His ministry, and He is manifesting the power of God in ways that      have never before been seen.
- He's healing all kinds of physical illness and
- He's casting out demons

He was so astounding that the "whole city was gathered together at the door," (vs. 33) and "everyone is looking for you" (vs. 37)

One would think this is exactly what He should be doing.
(recall the Lakeland revival of last summer?)

But what does Jesus do?
He leaves!
He says to Simon, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also..."
That is not what happens when the Holy Spirit shows up these days.
     The leaders of revivals camp there until people stop coming.
And Jesus is recorded in the Gospels as showing us that He and the Father
     are working... so in a sense He says to watch for where God is working...
          and join Him there.
But in our Gospel reading, when Jesus is making a big splash,
          when the Father is doing great things, because Jesus said that no one can
              come to Him unless the Father draws them...
          He doesn't "join the Father" in His work... no...
     He heads to other towns.

Jesus leaves, because He is keeping the main thing the main thing.
He says to Simon that He came out precisely to preach (and teach c. f. Mt. 4:23)
Jesus refused to let Himself be distracted from His mission for any reason.

Paul saw this in the life of Jesus, and he imitated Jesus in that respect.

He kept the main thing, the main thing in his life.

Our passage from 1 Cor. 9 comes in a part of the letter where Paul is sharing
     what motivates him.

Explain "the Gospel" so we can keep the main thing the main thing.

Paul was willing to do whatever was needed to bring someone to Christ. "I have become all things to all people so that by all means I might save some." (vs. 22)

Do we have that attitude?

Only 10 % of population are natural "sharers"
          the rest of us have to learn how to do it.

Story about "Bill" and his men's group...

Want to learn a bit more about how to share the Gospel?
Plan to come here Sat. Feb. 21 at 9:15 A.M.

Pray.