Pure Motives

SCRIPTURE

Great crowds were following him. He turned around and addressed them as follows:  “Anyone who wants to be my follower must love me far more than he does his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters—yes, more than his own life—otherwise he cannot be my disciple.”

~Luke 14:25-26, NLT

QUOTE

A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.

~Martin Luther

Jesus drew large crowds every where He went. Obviously His ministry of healing to the sick was a huge part of His appeal but people were attracted to Him for other reasons such as His teaching, His stories, His empathy and His unconditional love. Ironically, Jesus goal was not to attract large crowds nor to make a name for Himself. In John 8 Jesus addresses the crowd with these words, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I am he. I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me.  And the one who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.”

There you have it in a nutshell: Jesus passion and purpose was to please His Father. The purity of His motive was also attractive. The first thing that preachers do on Monday morning at the Pastor’s Conference is report the numbers. Every preacher wants to draw a large crowd. Of course you have to learn to be subtle if you want to keep pace with the brethren. When asked about his worship attendance, I heard a preacher say, “Well, we had less than 500.” We all want to draw the big crowds but that should not be our primary motive.

• TODAY WE PRAY FOR STUDENTS
• No Deacon’s meeting Sunday: everything else will be normal.
• Judy Blackwood’s mom Beatrice Freeze fell and broke her hip. She is in HH and quiet a bit of pain. Pray for Mrs. Bea.