By David Shannon
Vincent Thomas Lombardi is best known for his legendary accomplishments with the Green Bay Packers from 1958-1967. During these nine years as head coach, they won five NFL (NFC) championships and two Super Bowl championships. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971, but surpassed most Hall of Famers in honor as the NFL renamed the championship trophy after him. Lombardi was tenacious about fundamentals. He began each preseason by holding up a football before professional athletes and saying, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” If they had a crushing defeat during the season, he would give the same speech again. He leaned heavily upon a “back-to-the-basics” approach. “Why worry about elaborate passing schemes or complicated blitz packages if we can’t block or tackle?” was his mentality. It is one thing for a coach, elder, husband and father, or preacher to say he is focused on the main thing; it is another thing to live a life that proves it! Is God’s main thing your main thing? 
Paul labored in Ephesus for about three years. After his departure he called the elders to meet with him in order to give them what he knew to be  his final charge. Paul rehashes things they witnessed about him as a leader in order to demonstrate the principles he lived by. In other words, as Paul would teach the elders a leadership principle, he would then say, “You saw me exemplify that when I lived among you. Now you go and live that way among those you lead.”  One of the clear messages is his “Main Thing” approach. Pain, trials, tears, detractors, nothing, or no one was going to steer Paul off the course. He was determined to keep the main thing the main thing, and teach the elders of Ephesus to do the same thing. Notice how the following verses are leading up to Paul saying in spite of all that has happened he never stopped proclaiming “it to you.” The “it” was his main thing. Read to see what it was. “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: ‘You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ’” (Acts 20:17-21). The “it” for Paul was teaching Jews and Gentiles, in other words all mankind, to practice “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Repentance is rooted in change. Repentance involves a change that is sorry for committing past sin that has hurt God and welcomes a new life that seeks God (Acts 26:20). The new life was found in “faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith is formed from learning the Word of God (Romans 10:17). In learning the Word of God, we come to know Jesus. Peter wrote about digesting the Word of God by saying, “If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:3). The problem with the Pharisees was that they would read the Scripture and miss the Christ (John 5:38-40)! So Paul’s “main thing” was to help people change their lives by coming to know Jesus. The change can be difficult, and coming to know Jesus isn’t lip service, but a commitment to deny self in order to exalt Christ (Matthew 16:24). 
But there was more wrapping around this teaching in Acts 20 than Paul simply saying, “Let’s keep the main thing the main thing.” Paul knew the enemy would try to take leaders off course. Concentrate on the sidelines and miss the game. Fight a little battle here and lose the war. So Paul is challenging the elders to make sure that they do not allow people or situations to detour them from the main thing. It is easy to allow cluttered schedules to mask the most important thing. Without realizing it we can become entrenched in sideline activity instead of what is happening on the field. Leaders must carry the gavel that calls everyone’s attention to the main thing! A penitent life toward God and faith toward Jesus Christ must be our battle call. Everything else must support this, point to this, lead to this, emphasize this, and accomplish it. 
Paul mentions at least three things to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20 that could have detoured him, but he refused to be shaken. Paul would not allow persecution, false teachers, or greed to corrupt his life of ministry. You are leading people on earth, point “A.” The main thing is to help them arrive and maintain a course toward point “B,” Heaven. So the main thing is repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Do the people you lead know that a penitent life of faith in Christ is the main thing? If not, maybe you need to set them down and say, “Gentlemen, this is a …” 
Next issue we will discuss the three distractions Paul mentioned.