DEAL!
In our text Paul was concerned that in the time frame and given the present circumstances that being married would be a distraction to their commitment and devotion to God.
When the Children of Israel came out of Egypt Moses sent messengers to the King of Edom requesting passage through his land.
Numbers 20:17 Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.
Isaiah 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness;
A train is a mighty moving force, (Powerful and Productive, useful, Helpful) But for all their power and unstoppable moving force They can be rendered totally helpless, powerless, and useless in a moments time.
What Thousands of pounds of direct opposition could not do can happen instantly not by attacking the train itself but rather the wheels, (where the wheels meet the tracks) Derailment ( De track)
Lives are lost and millions of dollars worth of inventory and equipment are destroyed when a train is derailed.
This is exactly the danger we face as believers, that of being derailed, detracted, (distracted). The devil is very subtle and deceptive,
we are warned to be sober and vigilant toward our adversary the devil.
1Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
2Corinthians 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Wiles: Cunning arts, craftiness, deception, trickery.
Seldom does satan launch full scale frontal attacks against the believer, this would cause us to quickly recognize our own weakness and need and would cause us to run to the Lord and trust completely in him.
No his tactic is to use subtility, and deception, distractions, Things that in themselves are not really wrong, but they divide our powers,
David Knew the Power of unity and Focus
Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Like the mighty locomotive, when you become derailed or distracted, you become powerless, You lose your momentum and eventually if it is not corrected you will crash.
So 2:15 tells us: it’s the little foxes that spoil the vines:
It is almost unbelievable but the truth is in the times when we should be the most settled and the most established and set upon the things of God, is the times that we are the most vulnerable to satans sneak attack (distractions).
1Corinthians 10:12 wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
Satan wants to break your stride, destroy your momentum, side track you, When your
Distracted, you are divided, and when you become divided, you are disabled.
The devil knows he can’t stop God, and he can’t change the purpose and the destiny that God has for your life so his only hope is to get you distracted.
Focus: This is the key to momentum, (power and productivity).
When focus becomes divided or blurred we lose supernatural energy, God can only empower us for what we are focused on. You can not focus on multiple things, simultaneously, To focus means to draw the attention, to concentrate on.
Distract: To disconcert, to draw someone’s attention away from, To draw apart, To preoccupy.
Matthew 6:33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
David Said:
Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. ( He knew how important it was to have all of his being unified, and focused in the right direction).
Distractions: Things in your peripheral vision that are not in line with your calling and purpose.
Peripheral: Marginal, On or near an edge constituting an outer boundary.
1Corinthinas 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.
These distractions are sent by satan with the knowledge that in order to see them clearly we must sacrifice the focus and the clarity of God given purpose
-You can’t look two ways at once
The Tortoise and the Hare
The hare: a lean mean running machine, ...
The tortoise: a short fat legged bulky creature with a heavy shell on his back.
The Challenge: The tortoise was tired of hearing the hare bragging all the time so he finally said, even you can be beaten, ( So the challenge was on).
The whole forest showed up to watch the tortoise be humiliated by the longlegged hare
On your mark, get set, Go: They’re off, like lightning the lean longlegged hare leaped into the lead
The hare ran ahead a ways, then decided since he was so fast and tortoise so slow, he would take 40 winks, so he did. Then waking up he saw tortoise only 1\3 of the way .
Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbage he had noticed in a nearby field.
A carrot here, some cabbage there, a nap here and 40 winks there, and all of a sudden he wakes up to see tortoise nearing the finish line, Like a bolt of lightning the hare ran but it just wasn’t enough the tortoise stretched out his neck and won the race by a nose.
Some would say that the tortoise won because he just kept plodding away, slow and easy, In one sense of the word that is true,
but what really made the tortoise the winner in that race ( was the hares over confidence and inability to disregard distractions).
The hare had all the advantages, and he had all the strengths, and that was his downfall,
the hare believed himself to be so strong and so fast that he could entertain distractions and still win the race.
The genius of distractions is that satan uses your strengths against you, The fact that you feel yourself strong enough to entertain distractions and still win the race,
But you can’t.
This story is usually viewed from one side or the other, as though You are either the slow steady purposeful undistracted tortoise, or the fast overconfident undisciplined easily distracted hare.
But God almighty would have us understand that like the Hare we have all the advantages, we have been redeemed by the blood, we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we have the Word of God, and the name of Jesus, We have the power and the privilege of prayer.
*Then like the tortoise we should move through life in a very purposeful, disciplined, and focused manner.
Let us realize tonight that we have everything we need to fight the good fight of faith and run the race and win, But we must not become distracted.
The key to fighting distractions: = (Don’t )
Like thoughts, distractions need your attention to grow, If you feed them they grow and become stronger, if you ignore them or refuse to feed them they die.
What is the answer? = (Stay focused on Jesus )
Proverbs 4:25-26 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. 26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
Hebrews 12:2 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.
Jesus Said:
Luke 9:62 No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
No man is effective in Kingdom work while his mind is occupied with earthly things.
Distraction leads to division, when we are divided we become unstable (Rueben was strong but he was unstable). When one is unstable they are undependable, undependable becomes unfaithful, unfaithful becomes unconcerned and unconcerned becomes unrelated = disconnected.
And it all starts with what we call little distractions,
No wonder the apostle wanted to help us stay free from possible distractions in our lives.
And that my friends is the lesson we learn from the tortoise and the hare.
