Matthew 28:16-20
Is it hard for you to keep focused on the main things in living life? If you have ever done any farming or gardening, you know that if you want a good crop or garden you must do certain things. The main thing in gardening begins with soil preparation. Good soil preparation gives the things you plant a chance to sprout and grow. To keep growth going you must remember to keep cultivating the soil to keep down weeds and grass such as rag weeds or morning glories. If you do these main things and God sends some rain you will experience a good harvest time. The harvest time is the reward of keeping the main thing the main thing. It allows us to enjoy the fruits of our labors.
What is the main thing in having a home? It is not about the size of the house. It is not just about the material in building a house. Many people live today in a house, but do not live in a home. The house is about things but a home is about the relationship of the people that live in the house. It is about the love, the care, the respect the people have for each other. If the people know the love Jesus has for them the house can become a home because God’s love produces in our human lives a love, a real concern and respect for each other. Broken family life comes from houses that do not have the love, care and respect that builds and grows a home. When love, care and respect are not part of our daily lives we live in a decaying house. When the main things (love, care and respect) go missing you do not live in a home, you live in a lonely house.
When our government forgets the main things that are written into our Constitution freedom suffers. The chief role of our federal government is the defense of our nation. It is to defend our borders from attacks from the outside and from the inside. The role of government is not about telling us how to live our lives. It is not about telling us what doctor we can have or what treatment we can receive. It is not about telling us what job we can have or what school we can attend. It is not about what church we can attend or not attend. It is not about limiting our right to speak freely. A communist or socialist government does that to you. When you are an American citizen you can stand up to those elected leaders and you can tell them the main thing is to keep us free and safe.
We can take our God given gifts and use them as a free people. We will enjoy the main thing – our freedom – that we have in our nation.
In today’s scripture lesson Jesus gave the main thing to those of us who belong to His church. We are to take the authority of faith in the living resurrected Christ and go make disciples. We are not a welfare station. Yes, because we have experienced God’s love, grace and forgiveness we do care about the needs of people. This is good, but it is not the main thing that Jesus gave to his believers to do. To make disciples we are to teach, preach and bear witness to our faith that is guided by God’s Holy word. The disciple knows there are times we need help and there are times when we need to give help. The true disciple knows we are called to work and serve. We are not called to set down and let others take care of our needs. God has given us minds and strength to do for ourselves and others.
We need to return to disciple making by our teaching, preaching and bearing witness to our faith that the cross of Jesus took away our sins and death and gave us a new life. The main thing for us as Christians is disciple making. In real disciple making we offer a new life in Christ. We offer the faith found in God’s word. We offer a chance to be free from eternal death. We offer the freeing power of faith in Jesus Christ that will set us free to use our God given gifts. Jesus has called us into disciple making so that is the main thing of our faith. To keep the main thing the main thing we must worship with other believers. We must study God’s word so we will be guided by its message. We must pray so that the Holy Spirit will give us the courage to witness to those that are lost from God. Let’s go and make disciples this week, month and year so that we will live in a new community with life now and life forever.
