Keeping Spiritual Focus

Intro: a few years ago I learned a valuable lesson about focus. At the end of hunting season my gun was zeroed in, so I figured it would be fine at the start of the next hunting season. So I didn’t check it and on opening day shot at a deer and didn’t even come close. So I checked it out and found the scope was way off. In our spiritual walk we must constantly make sure we don’t get out of focus. Especially during the hectic season from Thanksgiving to New Years. Our key verse is Hebrews 11:6–that states God rewards them that diligently seek him.

Keeping Spiritual Focus

Hebrews 11:1-10

* we are given here the definition of faith and how it is applied in our lives. Today, lets look at the four key figures in these verses, and realize that God will reward us if we will keep our Spiritual focus in this busy world.

---- before we discuss Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham–let’s examine the word diligently. Keeping Spiritual focus isn’t a hit and miss proposition. You have to work at it all the time, you have got to give your energy into your spiritual life to have one. These four examples of faith, all had one common factor, they kept spiritually focused so they could obtain from God.

I. Abel–a more excellent gift–v.4

As we read the story of Cain and Abel, we find a secret to spiritual focus. One offered his very best to God, the other just tried to get by. In our walk with God we must make a decision, are we going to give it all we have got, or just try to get by with a second best effort.

• to offer an excellent gift to God requires sacrifice. Abel offered the best he had, Abel gave this example, something must die, so something can live. It is the story of salvation, the old man must die, and a new man must be born. Cain was very upset that God didn’t recognize his gift, but God isn’t going to bless anything that doesn’t require a sacrifice. Cain is flesh, Abel is Spirit, and every day we must determine is our offering to God a carnal or spiritual.

Our prayers, our giving, our worship, our witness–if we get out of focus we will fail in every area of our lives.

II. Enoch–v.5 A Consistent Walk with God–to fully understand Enoch’s life we must read Genesis 5:22-24. We find that Enoch had a consistent walk with God. He kept his focus by building a close relationship with God. It is impossible to keep focus if we become distant in our relationship with God.

• you won’t please God until you know God. If you don’t diligently seek after God don’t expect to receive His rewards. If you aren’t close enough to reach out and touch him, then he won’t be close enough to reach out and touch you.

• you don’t please God just by service, you please God by surrender. Jesus said, I no longer called you servants, but I call you friends. A servant gets only what he deserves, friends get special blessings that are above what they even asked for or could even dream.

III. Noah–Obedience–prepared an ark–v.7

Noah kept his spiritual focus by doing what he was asked to do. With God obedience is even a higher call than sacrifice. We get out of focus by missing the mark a little every day. It isn’t one giant step that takes people away from God, but little steps here and there cause them to drift away from the presence of God.

• to the saving of his house–by doing what God told him to do, he not only saved himself, but his entire family. When we lose our focus it affects others. No one is an island, our obedience brings blessings our disobedience brings pain.

IV. Abraham–looking beyond–v.8-10 Abraham kept his spiritual focus by looking beyond the present, and seeing the promise. The best way to keep spiritual focus is don’t spend your life looking around, but spend your life looking up.

Abraham didn’t know where he was going–v.8–but he knew who he was going with. Focus isn’t our circumstances, focus isn’t our obstacles, focus is our future.

Paul said it best in Romans 8:18–I reckon the suffering of this present time isn’t worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.

Sometimes it is easy to get bogged down. Problems, pressures, broken relationships, daily stress. The physical and emotional can try to smother the spiritual. But when you learn to focus higher, when you learn to focus beyond, you see the things of this life are temporary, but the things of God are eternal.