What Is Your Objective?

Shalom my friends.  This blog entry is somewhat personal to me.  I hope you receive it with the same respect as I have taken to personalize it.  I was out with two of my leaders having lunch, discussing our plans for our new home groups and the implications of such an endeavor. 

I readily admit I was somewhat excited at the prospect of supernatural growth as I had been studying about the ramifications of such a ministry.  Towards the end of our conversation, one of my leaders asked a profound question, “David, what is your objective in all this?”  I looked puzzled and he asked again, “What do you want to get out of this?”  I attempted to answer his question to the best of my ability.  I forget what I said exactly, but was more intrigued by the fact that I could not answer him succinctly.  We went on with our conversation, but his question haunted me the rest of the day.  What exactly did I want from this?  What was my objective?  I thought I knew, but had never been asked directly in such a manner. 

I had to go back to the beginning to ascertain why I even started a congregation, especially, knowing that it is something that I have never really looked forward to.  That is when I realized that this was not my idea.  The inception of The Lord’s Table actually began when the pastor I was under at the time asked me to lead a Messianic congregation within his church.  After much prayer and seeking the Lord, I knew that it was God’s will for me to pastor.  I am still doing what God has instructed me to do to this very day.

When Yeshua was 12 years old, He was separated from his parents for three days (interesting, huh).  The Sages and Rabbis marveled and were amazed at His wisdom, as well as His questions, as He spent those three days with them in the temple.  What was Yeshua doing?  What we do know is that He had questions that needed to be answered and answers to questions that left all who heard amazed.  But, what exactly was Yeshua doing?  Well, He said as much to his mother and father when they found Him.  “Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?”  I submit to you all that this should be our answer whenever we are asked such a question as was posed to me on that day.  If your answer is anything else, then you must question your own motives.  Yeshua is our example.  He received His instruction even before He was placed in Mary’s womb.  His task, according to Luke 19:10, was to seek and to save that which was lost.  Like a good son handling His father’s affairs, He was gathering deeper understanding of what He had to do to accomplish the task that He was sent to complete. 

I cannot articulate all of the points that came forth on that last Sabbath message.  But, one thing stands sure, I now know what my objective is, and that is to be about my Father’s affairs, nothing more, nothing less.  Yeshua understood what we all must come to understand.  We have a job to do.  We are commissioned to carry out the plan that our Lord and Savior set in motion.  By His blood, we have the authority to seek and to save that which was lost, and, thereby, attending to the affairs of our Father.

I issue you a mandate in whatever capacity that you find yourself in today, whatever you think your motive might be, to arrest that motive and yield it over to the plan of your Father.  I earnestly beseech you to repent of any false motive that has led you to this message and in so doing from this day forward be about His business and not your own.  As I taught on that Shabbat, my dear brother and leader had tears rolling down his face as I was able to answer his question once and for all. What is my objective in this?  I am to be about my Father’s business.  And if this is your objective as well, then we are united in this endeavor and are joined in the hopes that we will hear those beautiful words, “Well done, thy good and faithful servant.”  Amen.