How To Tell If Your Life Is Out Of Focus

How To Tell If Your Life Is Out Of Focus Isaiah 45:22

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else”

Opening:

The story is told of a pastor of a large church who had a dream one night that really opened his eyes. He dreamed that he could see his own church worship service on Sunday morning. But there was something very strange happening.

The choir was singing. The mouths of the choir members were open......but no sound was heard.

The people in the congregation were singing. But there was nothing from their mouths, either.

The preacher himself got up to preach his typical Sunday sermon. He opened his mouth to preach.....but nothing came out.

There was absolutely no sound at all in the entire worship center. Then, the pastor saw a little girl up in the balcony and heard her little voice singing, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

The pastor was confused and suddenly woke up. "Lord, what was I dreaming? It doesn’t make sense to me." He asked.

The Lord spoke to his heart and said, "Pastor, you just saw a picture of what I see in your ministry and in your church every Sunday morning. People are singing and you are preaching.......but I hear nothing. Your heart is not focused on me. You are focused on yourself. The only one I heard in your church last Sunday was the little girl in the balcony who matters to very few people in your church. But she matters to me......because she came to church today with the right motive: to love me with all of her heart!"

If I were to ask you tonight…..what is the focus of the church……..could you answer?

Some may say to reach the lost……that is not our focus….that is our commission.

Some may say to fellowship…….that is not our focus….. that is commendable.

Some may say to learn the scriptures…….that is not our focus……that is commanded.

Our focus is the keep the main thing…the main thing. That is to worship our Lord with all our hearts, souls and minds.

Hebrews 12:1-2(KJV) 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God

So let me ask you a question…..What if Jesus showed you a dream of our church? What would He hear? What would you see? Whose heart is truly focused on the Lord?

Over the past year, God has truly blessed West Shiloh. And can I say that I think the best days are still to come! That is…..IF we are willing to lay some things aside.

One of the biggest concerns to me today….. is when I look at most churches…those churches that God is currently choosing to bless…..they often seem to be losing focus. They seem to become complacent and it seems they are unwilling to lay some things aside. It seems that as long as things are going good….the bills are being paid…..projects are being completed and God is still blessing…..then all is good. BUT IS IT REALLY?

ILLUSTRATION: There is a book called "The Power of Habit" (http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/) and it is about how so much of our daily life is lived by habit. We have to. Our brain needs habits in order for us to be able to function. Just about everything we do is habitual.

How we walk... you don’t have to think about how to move your legs and to lift your foot and bring it forward and to shift your weight. When you’re were 2 and just learning how to walk, your brain spends a lot of energy training your brain to do that. But now you don’t even think about it... until there is some disability or arthritis or when we trip over something... and then suddenly our brain has to move that thought to our conscious brain.

But if we had to think about every single movement or how we do anything, our brain would be so overwhelmed, we couldn’t get anything done. God designed our brains in a way that most of what we do is done in a small part of the brain that just takes over to free up our conscious brain, that takes more energy.

Try something once (just go with it here). Cross your arms.

Now do it the other way. You have to think about it don’t you?