You can make a difference in this world if you’re focused like Jesus.
How’s Your Focus?
After hearing and reading all the health warnings the media consistently blesses us with, someone wrote this tongue-in-cheek observation.
"Brace yourself.
Somewhere, they’re plotting the scare of the week.
Air is polluted; water is too.
Fish that swim in it are not good for you.
Fresh fruits and vegetables, ’Delicious," you say?
Don’t eat them. They’re loaded with pesticide spray.
Avoid dairy products. Say ’no’ to red meat.
Cholesterol levels must go in retreat.
The rays of the sun will most certainly fret you.
Stay in the house, and radon will get you.
If you walk in the woods, you can really get sick.
Lyme disease is spread by a pinhead-sized tick.
If one thing won’t get you, another one will.
But don’t worry; be happy, because worry can kill."
Well, there’s a list of things to watch out for that’s growing ridiculously long every day. Let me add to the list one great thing to beware: Watch out for the “fuzzies.”
Your life will never be fulfilled until you are clear of the “fuzzies.”
Some years ago, I was having a real problem with one of my eyes. It would not focus. It was as if there was something clouding my eye. I went to the Opthamologist, and he told me I had a cataract. I was troubled by that, because I thought you were supposed to be a Sr. Adult before you had problems like that.
I told him I was too young, and he wasn’t impressed at all. As a matter of fact, he told me that even some babies have cataracts. After surgery and after the trauma of surgery, he fit me with new glasses. And there was an added dimension ... now I have to have bifocals, because the lens implant in my eyes ... and five years later they fixed my other eye ... but I have to have bifocals because the lens is not as flexible as a natural lens. Before the operation, there was nothing the doctor could do by way of glasses that would enable me to focus.
Without a proper focus you live in a distorted world. Some lives are out of focus and people are living in distorted worlds.
Harvey Pennick, the legendary golf guru, wrote the best-seller entitled The Little Red Book. In it, he gives philosophical, simple approaches to the game of golf. One of his major teachings is: "Take dead aim." Don’t just try to hit the ball in some general direction. Take dead aim. Attempt to put it in a specific place. The people whose lives make a difference take dead aim. They are focused and pointed at some worthy goal. Anyone who tries to infect us with a fuzzy, non-defined approach to living is an enemy.
Focus on the Fact That You Are a Child of God
Jesus had a head-to-head encounter with the enemy. In the very first days of His mission, He encountered His enemy and ours. It is very evident the devil simply tried to fuzzy His thinking about Himself and His activity. The same way old Red Legs tried to blur the life and impact of our Lord is the way he infects us with the “fuzzies.” So we need to keep a sharp focus on who we are.
In Luke 3:21-22, just before facing the encounter with the tempter, Jesus was baptized and He was praying. Heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove. And the Father said, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." Every Christian has the same experience. We ask Christ to come into our lives to save us. In His Holy Spirit, He comes, and we become children of God. John 1:12 says, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name."
Focus on the fact that the Heavenly Father has said to you, "You are My child. I love you. In you, because of Christ, I am well pleased." Keep that focus.
Remember who you are because the enemy will try to take that confidence away from you.
Three times, the enemy said, "If you are the Son of God..." But Christ could say, "I am the Son of God," and stand firm because He remembered the Father had said, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." When you are focused on the fact that you are a child of God, you can be focused on helping others become children of God.
Those who are not clearly focused in their relationship to God become fuzzy in their activities for God. Look at Luke 4:3: "The devil said to him, ’If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’" He said, "Think, if You’re here to help people ... so many of them are hungry just like You ... if You will make bread for them, You’ll have them eating out of Your hand. Become an economic Messiah, a bread king." But He would not do that. Why? He did feed people on occasions. He will identify His people in judgment as those who fed him, a.k.a. "the least of these, My brothers and sisters." But He knows there is a starving in the soul of people much more serious. He said, "I have come to give life, and life is not in food alone. You ask Me to become benefactor.
I came to be a Savior."
The enemy said, "Okay, You won’t be the world’s cook, why don’t You become its president? You want to influence people. You want to lead them. You said You’ve come to give peace to the world. Listen, I’ll make You president of the world. Prime minister, if You like that title better." In verse 5, "The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, ’I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.’" And he could.
He is the prince of this world ... only temporarily, of course. But when you worship the world ... its power, its lusts, its ways ... you are worshipping Satan. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13 and said, "No way. I didn’t come to be president. I came to be a sacrifice."
Satan said, "Well, You know, they’ll love You a lot more if You cook for them than if You die for them. They’ll applaud power and position a whole lot more than a death like a criminal on a cross. But if You won’t be cook and You won’t be president, at least let’s introduce You in some kind of dazzling way." Verse 9, "The devil led him to Jerusalem..." He said, "I’ve got a great idea. You know, the rabbis have said that when the Messiah comes, He will be seen first on the highest point of the temple. Well, when the biggest crowd is gathered, I’ll point to You. I’ll be Your Ed McMahon, and I’ll say, ’Here He is, The Rev. Holiness Angelic Divinity, Jr.’ And You jump from all those hundreds of feet.
The devil said, "You know, the Scriptures say in Psalm 91:11-12 the angels will guard You, and You won’t even get a stone bruise." The devil really likes to quote Scripture when he can use it for his purpose. He said, "Be a holy stuntman. Make a show. Do a trick. It’ll really draw them to You."
Well, how about that? It would work today, wouldn’t it? We could get a holy stuntman show.
The Reverend Glory Bedazzle, Traveling Jesus Extravaganza. Maybe we could build a ramp on the west side of the Crystal Cathedral and a landing ramp on the east side of the Mormon Tabernacle. On national TV, we could get the Reverend Glory Bedazzle to rev up his holy Harley and go super-natural speeds up the ramp and jump from the Crystal Cathedral to the Mormon Tabernacle.
But such an idea about gospel presentation is out of harmony with the character of God. Jesus would later say, the way of extending God’s kingdom is as subtle as salt and light. The powerful in His kingdom will be the weak. The greatest will be the servant of all. Jesus said, "I have not come to be a holy stuntman but to be a humble servant." He understood clearly who He was and the ways of His Father. So He refused the idea of economic manipulation or of power politics and dazzling stunts.
Focus on What God Sent You to Do
What, then, did He do? In verse 15, we’re told He taught in their synagogues. In Matthew’s account, immediately following the temptation, "... Jesus began to preach, ’Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." In reply to the very first temptation, which I think was the strongest temptation, because He loves people so much, "Jesus answered, ’It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone.’"
That is Deuteronomy 8:3, and that Scripture goes on to say, "...but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." The Matthew 4 account of the temptation gives the total reply from Jesus. Jesus made it His priority to tell people what they must know to live. He must speak the word of God, else the cross would have been seen as nothing more than the unfortunate result of a quarrel between a good man and those who opposed him.
We must know why He died on the cross, or there is no hope. The cross is the clear, unfuzzied focus of how serious our sins really are. He died for our sins.
The cross is the clear, unfuzzied focus of how wonderful His love for us really is. He died for our sins. The cross is the clear, unfuzzied focus of God’s only way of salvation. He died for our sins.
Knowing who He was and what He was about, what did He do? He preached God’s intention to save people. Then what is the business of people like you and me?
People have been told, "As the Father has sent Me, so send I you." He intends us to tell people about Him.
We are here to commit our lives, our talents, our resources to the task of telling as many as we can about the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Now, I know that sharing a witness is sometimes discouraging. We must draw up all of our courage to say it. When the times seem opportune, we say, "If you died today, would you..." but they interrupt and say, "Well, I believe religion is a personal thing" or "I never discuss religion" or "I’m quite happy in the church I never go to." They talk about their high and low church traditions and backgrounds. One man said "I’m an Episcopalian ... you know, thoroughbred, registered, papers and all." Another said, "I gave my heart to Brother Mosely when I was ten years old. It’s enough." Someone said, "I send ten dollars to Sister Victoria of the Miracle Crusade every time her make-up starts to run."
Another said, "I don’t believe in organized religion." One man said, "My father was a Baptist. My mother was a Methodist. And I’m a four handicapper in golf."
Everyone has their own religion. Yet, buried beneath that veneer of their self-protected rhetoric is a starving soul and a hurting heart. We can’t really blame the world for their fuzzies. The leader of this world is great at inflicting the fuzzies. But we should have a clear focus of ourselves.
In one of the Winnie the Pooh episodes, Eeyore has fallen into the river. This poor stuffed animal is floating on his back downstream in great trouble, soaking up water. Winnie the Pooh is walking along the bank, and Pooh asked, "Did you fall into the river, Eyore?" Eyore said, "Silly of me, wasn’t it?" Pooh asked, "Is the river uncomfortable this morning?" "Well, yes, the dampness, you know." "You really ought to be more careful." Pooh said, "Well, thanks for the advice."
Then Pooh said, "I think you’re sinking." And Eyore said, "Pooh, if it’s not too much trouble, would you mind rescuing me?"
D. L. Moody led many people to faith in Christ. A friend asked his secret of effective witnessing, and Mr. Moody led him to the window of his office and pointed to the many people walking across a busy street. He asked, "What do you see? The man said, "I see a crowd of people." Moody said, "I see people who are going to spend eternity in hell without Christ."
When Jesus looks at people, He sees their greatest need. He said, "I did not come to the world to condemn the world, but to save it. He who does not believe is condemned already." He sees people who are going to spend eternity in hell without him. When Jesus looks at our world, He knows our greatest need is not a political leader to bring absence of war, but a Savior to bring peace with God. Our Lord knows our major need is not a holy stuntman to bedazzle the dull, but a loving Father and a serving Brother to bring them into the family.
Before cataract surgery, things were out of focus ... it was difficult to see, I felt like the world was a blur. Out-of-focus people seldom make an impact. You can make a difference for the kingdom of God in this world if you’re focused like Jesus.
