Meeting Jesus At His Table - Come And Dine Series

Subject: Meeting Jesus at His Table - Come and Dine

Text: John 21:1-23

Introduction: What do expect to accomplish in your ministry assignment? What will capture your attention? Who will direct your path? What has God called you to do? How will you maintain your focus? When I am talking about focus, I am referring to vision. What adjustments and strategies will help you clarify your vision. How will you keep the vision in clear view with so much going on around you? Many of us start out well but tend to lose our focus. Goals are simply abandoned, and dreams are forgotten. They seem to spend all their time responding to crisis rather than preparing for the future. We work hard to recover from what we should have been prepared for. Many allow others to set the direction of their sail, make the decision for their life, and blindly go along to get along.

If you and I are to obtain our goals in life, we must choose the direction of our life. Your life is too valuable to allow anyone to choose your direction and make your choices for you. Your call is important, and you must keep focus on your assignment. In extraordinary times, when few things seem normal, common, or average, our choices are important. Every decision has brought and me to this day. As we look major events of life were so amazing! Remember those special events, occasions, and projects were special. Those conferences, crusades, revivals, book releases, and the like, seem to dominate our thoughts. Even though those days were special and blessed, we experienced many more small decisions, ordinary events, and practical steps that brought us to this place. In life, we experience more ordinary days than special days. If you really want to know where your life is headed, pay close attention to what you are doing on your ordinary days. If you want to know where you are spiritually, simply ask yourself, how much sin am I tolerating in your life? Check out your prayer life on ordinary days. There are ordinary days when there are no great problems, no major worries, no sleepless nights. Days when you received no new revelations, see no new vision or experienced no miracles. Can you stay focus in ordinary days? Yet during this season, how do we maintain kingdom focus in these Covid -19 Infested days? It's easy to get lost and overwhelmed in the chaos, weighed down with family responsibilities, and even abort goals of life. When we are overwhelmed, it is tempting to forget about the vision. It’s easy put our dreams on hold, and play follow the leader. Postponing your dreams can cause you to lose focus. Things that were so dear to your heart get lost. This can happen to almost anyone.

I have found that it's helpful to keeping asking myself, "What's really important?" Reminding myself of what's important helps me keep my priorities straight. We can quickly loose focus and get lost in the busyness of life. Keeping focus everyday, helps me keep my actions in line with my goals. Admittedly, this proves to be a challenge to almost everyone. If I don’t make the choices leading to my goals, I may find myself following someone else’s choice, follow some else’s direction, and never reach my goal.

The faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus found themselves faced with the same problem. These disciples in our lesson are experiencing an ordinary day. The turbulence of the last few weeks were a distant memory. The arrest of Jesus in the garden, the mocked trial, the guilty verdict, the betrayal by Judas and his suicide were fading in their minds. Peter’s denial had been put behind them, and they found themselves without direction. Even their special meeting with Jesus, the risen Lord, behind closed doors could not help them figure out their next move. What do you do during a season of silence? For more than a week, the disciples had received no word from Jesus. They had seen no signs or wonders. No one had come with a report of a sighting of Jesus. Ten days before, they were all excited. Jesus had breathed on them, and they had received the Holy Spirit. But now things had settled down. The disciples were waiting and wandering, not sure of their next move. They lost focus on their goals and were confused about their next actions.

This message is important because the Christian walk is filled with ordinary days. Days when we have not received a great revelation, or a great sign from Heaven. Days when we do not feel anything, not a chill, not a shake or a shimmy. Days when you may feel like your ministry is at a standstill. Somehow, we are challenged to maintain our focus and fulfill our given task. How do we keep from being sidetracked in our walk with God. The disciples were clear about their call. They were called to be fishers of men. Mt. 4:19 “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”