One Purpose

Ezra 2

Wow, so many people coming together for one purpose, to rebuild the temple. How exciting it must have been for God’s people during this time. We are not sure exactly how many people because the Bible doesn’t give an account for all the menservants and maidservants, but we do know that there was well over 50, 000 people that came back to Jerusalem. This chapter lists a lot of names and while I know that the names are important and there is much meaning behind many of them, I want to focus not so much on the people but on the purpose. Why do we do the things we do? Is it to please people, to please ourselves, or to please God? As a Christian we should already know our purpose, but that does not always mean we are focusing on it. I once heard this question asked … "Where do you spend your time, your energy and your money?" In the answer to this question you will find what you are focusing on. As Christians, we seem so spread out---we have who knows how many denominations and we argue over the craziest things. I have said many times that I am no theologian, nor do I understand every detail of the Bible, but I do know this, that God’s greatest commandment is to love and we don’t seem to be doing that very well. We give our money and sometimes we even give our time, but too many times we are not giving our heart and when we don’t give our heart than the other things do not even matter. One purpose, serving Jesus Christ! One purpose, loving one another! One purpose, spreading the Good News! It is really that simple, but we seem to make it so complicated. I think about all these people and the deep excitement and love they must have been feeling when they journeyed back to Jerusalem. They gave their time and their money, and they did it with a heart full of love for one purpose to rebuild what had been destroyed. While the destruction came suddenly for these people, it seems to be coming slow but steady for us now. We see tragedy through man’s fault or natural disasters and for a moment we come together, we pray out loud, and we love our fellow man, yet we don’t continue with all this way, it seems to always fade with time. So I ask you tonight what are you focusing on and what will it take for us to come together for one purpose?