Are you a Magnet for Moochers?

“From that time on many of His disciples turned back and walked with Him no more.” Jn6:66

                The vast majority of people are fickle. Fair-weather friends are not friends. Jesus did not need nor seek the approval of men. He knew human kind too well.

                The masses came for a free lunch. They thought they had found “the goose that lays the golden egg.” By force, they wanted to make Him King. But Jesus departed from them. It is this mass of hungry followers that would forsake Jesus when He challenged their commitment. “Eat my flesh and drink my blood” is covenant langue. It is commitment langue. Jesus is making them chose; put your faith in Him as Messiah and go all in. but they were just looking for physical food.

                One of the mistakes I made when we started the church is I used to take everybody out for meals. I would constantly pick up the tab after Bible studies or for church events. I taught people that if they came I would feed them. I remember overhearing a lady tell her friend; “just get baptized because then the pastor will take us for a good meal.” Can you believe it, when I stopped feeding their stomachs, they stopped coming to services. I was investing in their flesh not their spirit.

                Ministries and churches that spend resources advertising ‘big give aways” are attracting the wrong crowds with the wrong motives. My father used to say; “whatever you get them with you have to keep them with.” If you bring them in the church with free bikes, ipods, and meals, you got to keep that up. If you challenge them with the word and commitment to God, you will keep them. When your followers follow on for eternal life or fall away?