WHAT IS IMPORTANT?

What are the two most important things in your church?
Getting the services of a good pastor?
An attractive building that enables you to run all your activities?
The right kind of music to attract young people?
Being well organised in your meetings?
Being able to attract the right people to the church?
Having a dynamic youth pastor?
Having lots of ministries and activities?
Doing and saying the right thing?
Being doctrinally correct?
Not getting involved with the world?
Reading books about how to become a mega-church?
Promoting your denomination?
Building your church?

If it is any of the above, you have missed the point. The New Testament Church did not focus on any of the above. Despite that fact, they still changed the known world in 30 years. Despite the fact that we have what we have we have failed miserably to change our known world. This would suggest that we have got the wrong end of the stick.

There were two things that the New Testament Church focussed on. One was the person and work of the Messiah, and two, believing what he said and acting on it.

Judging by the results we don’t get, we don’t do either. When the disciples spoke to unbelievers their message was Jesus the messiah; what he had said; what he had done and what he was going to do. The four spiritual laws didn’t exist.

That was their entire message because they listened to what he said and believed it. They either had heard it for themselves or they were told what he said by the apostles. We seem to focus on anything but the person and work of Jesus. Most sermons are about what the preacher thinks about a particular verse in the bible. This happens because the person doing the talking has no anointing to teach. Usually they have been approved by man because they have done and said all the right things, but they are not approved by God.

The fact of the matter is, Jesus would not get a look in today because he had some very nasty things to say about church leaders in the New Testament. If he said the same thing today and he probably would, denominational leaders would not come out too well. How does ‘generation of vipers” sound? Not the sort of comment that is going to get you ‘credentialed” by a denomination for leadership of one of their churches. Certainly you would have no hope of being promoted to bigger and more prestigious churches.

If you want Jesus to be the focus of your attention, you will need to invite the Holy Spirit into your life and practice as he is part of the package. Leave him out and you can kiss the manifest presence of Jesus goodbye.

We can only obey the words of Jesus if the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding as he is the only one who knows what the Father is saying.

Makes you think how we get on without him. Perhaps we don’t. Perhaps what we do is not building the Kingdom of God. Perhaps Satan has well and truly led us up the garden path thinking that we are pleasing God by ignoring his word.