Sermon – Maintaining A Mission-Minded Focus Series

Sermon – Maintaining a Mission-Minded Focus

Scripture Lesson: Acts 6:1-7 “But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. 3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. 4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” 5 Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). 6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. 7 So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.”

Introduction: After dealing deception within, the church in Jerusalem must deal with discrimination. In the fast-growing church, makeup of Hebrew speaking Jews and Greek speaking Jews, the Greek speaking Jews felt neglected and overlooked. Ultimately, the apostles are responsible, because they had oversight of the ministry and administered the common fund (4:34-35). They have more work than they can handle alone. Since they are Hebrews, it is easy for them to be unaware that the Greek-speaking widows are being neglected. As soon as they learn that the immigrant widows are being neglected, they immediately take steps to correct the problem. They charged the congregation to choose seven men for this special work.” (6:2-6)

When the neglect comes to light, the Twelve gather the church together and tell the members that the apostles can no longer manage the food distribution program. They simply lack the time to do it right. The apostles are too occupied with evangelistic work to “wait on tables”. They ask the group to choose seven men to handle the daily distribution. The apostles will turn the responsibility of the “soup kitchen” over to them. Maintaining a mission-minded focus can help any ministry stay on course. Organizations of all sizes, religious and secular, acknowledge the importance of mission directives, setting goal and strategic planning to focus their time, energy, money, and human resources to accomplish the mission. Maintaining a mission-minded focus allowed the apostle to guide the Church through its present difficulties.

Satan was launching an attack against the leadership of the church to hinder the growth and productivity of the early church. In doing so, he wanted to distract the disciples from their most important task of prayer and ministry of the word. Maintaining a mission-minded focus helped the apostle stay on point. How they spent their time, resources and energy would be crucial in supporting the ministry and mission for this new Church. Jesus taught the importance of the ministry of prayer and faithfulness to God’s Word in order to hear God’s voice and lead God’s people.

It’s no secret that believers have so many things going on in their lives at any given time. There are a lot of good things that make demands on your time, resources, and energy. Dealing with personal responsibilities, family issues, employee expectations, job security, unexpected, long lasting pandemic effects, it’s easy to become overwhelmed as we try to find the best balance. Our lives are all full of things needing to be accomplished. The spiritual, mental, economic, social, and vocational demands are fighting for our attention. All maybe be genuine, but all are not created equal. Some things are more important than others and require more focus. Those things are more important, and more mission driven. That’s where maintaining a mission-minded focus comes in.

As believers who glorify God, His mission should always take that number one spot in our lives. Regardless of what’s going on in our lives or what has happened to our schedule, we must stay on point. Many are experiencing seasons in which our schedules, routines, and plans are in a constant state of change. In cultural moments like these, we need to realize that even if the events of our lives are changing, our priorities can remain firmly in place. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 6. When he talked about the anxieties of the heart, he said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, And all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

As we’re adjusting to the changes of life, it’s important that we keep our priorities straight. When we keep those priorities straight, we can experience life the way God intended. With every decision we make, we need to make sure that maintain a mission-minded focus. If we allow our decisions distract our focus from God’s purpose, our mission diminishes, opportunities loss and we need to rethink our priorities. We all need to do a priority check every now and then. We need to consider how much time and attention we are giving to each area of our life. If our priorities aren’t lining up the way they should be, don’t be discouraged, simply refocus. God wants to do a work in us and through us. Let’s return to prayer and the Word, asking the Lord to help us realign our lives with his goals. When our priorities look like God’s priorities, we will find that our lives are balanced in the best way.