FINDING FEARLESS FOCUS
(All my sermons use illustrations found on www.sermoncentral.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted)
Focus is a word we hear a lot in the media, in conversation and especially in sports. Having focus can insure success, being distracted almost always spells failure. If you saw the movie “Chariots of Fire”, then you may remember the great runner Abraham. He had won so many races. His coach continued to preach discipline to this young man. But, Abraham finally lost one of those races because he looked to the side. Just as he was about to finish the race, he looked over his shoulder to see where his competitor was. His coach said to him after the race, “that look cost you the race.” He was not single minded on the finish and the prize that lay ahead.
Our lives are filled with so many distractions that keep us from being single minded and keep us from finding our focus. This morning I would like for you to turn in your Bibles to 2 COR 11:1-15. I am going to show a few points in scripture this morning that might help us FIND & KEEP our focus where it should be. 2 COR 11:1-15 I see Paul calling our attention to being single minded toward the goal of becoming like Christ. There are many things that are good in life, BUT there is only one thing that is really best. Those are the things that have an impact on eternity.
2 Cor 11:1-15 I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. 2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. 5 But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles." 6 I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. 7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. 10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! 12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
PRAYER
Paul is truly concerned here for the Corinthian church. He is worried that the devotion they have for Jesus and the church was in jeopardy because the Corinthian’s could be distracted. Paul did not want these believers, or us for that matter, to lose the single minded love for Christ that is essential for the Christian. Keeping Christ first in our lives, having the Lord as our only focus, can be extremely difficult at times. There are so many things in this world that threaten to distract us away from God’s plan for our lives and for our church. Just as Eve lost her focus by listening to the lies and false promises of the serpent, we too can lose our focus by allowing the distractions of this world to overcrowd and confuse our lives. Anything that weakens our commitment to keep Christ first in our lives, and in the church, is a distraction that we must get rid of.
So first thing this morning; let us see the need to:
I. IDENTIFY & AVOID DESTRUCTIVE DISTRACTIONS
What are some of the things that distract us from following Jesus the way we should? Why do we get off the path, lose the focus, and go another direction? One reason is money. Jesus warned us that the LOVE of money is the root of ALL evil. I think that people lose there focus fairly easily when it comes to money. Let me share this story with you:
"Those kids will drive you crazy!" That's what the old man's friends told him when he bought the small, well kept house just down the street from the local junior high school. Contrary to their warnings though, the man's first few weeks in his new house went without a hitch. Then the new school year began. The very next afternoon three young boys, full of pent up energy, whooped their way down his street, beating merrily on every trash can they passed. The crashing percussion continued day after day, until finally the man decided it was time to take some action. One afternoon he walked out to meet the young percussionists as they banged their way home. He said, "You kids are a lot of fun. I like to see you express your excitement like that because it reminds me of the things I used to do when I was your age. In fact, I like it so much that I'll give you each a dollar if you'll promise to come around every day and do your thing." The kids grinned at each other and agreed to continue their afternoon trash can performances.
After a few days, the old timer greeted the kids again, but this time he had a sad smile on his face. "This recession's really putting a big dent in my income," he told them. "From now on, I'll only be able to pay you 50 cents to beat on the trash cans." The noisemakers were obviously disappointed, but they accepted his offer and continued their daily ruckus. A few days later, the wily retiree approached the kids again as they drummed their way down the street. "Look," he said, "I haven't received my Social Security check yet, so I'm not going to be able to give you more than 25 cents. Will that be okay?" "A lousy quarter?" the drum leader exclaimed. "If you think we're going to waste our time beating these cans around for a quarter, you're nuts! No way, mister. We quit!" And from that day on, the old man enjoyed peace in the afternoon.
Through self-control, the old man was able to use wisdom in handling the matter with the boys in a calm way without losing his temper or doing something that would not be Christlike. Yet on the other side of the coin, the boys lost their self-control when they shifted their focus on the money, rather than banging on the trash cans for their enjoyment. When the money starting decreasing, they lost the joy of what they were doing. Money, or the lack of money, caused them to lose their focus. So many times we lose our focus of serving and loving God because of money.
SO many times, our focus is on what we can get out of life, rather then what we can give. The Christian should always be focused on giving and not on what they can get out of a given situation. Native hunters in the jungles of Africa have a clever
way of trapping monkeys.
They slice a coconut in two, hollow it out, and in one half of the shell cut a hole just big enough for a monkey’s hand to pass through. Then they place an orange in the other coconut half before fastening together the two halves of the coconut shell. Finally, they secure the coconut to a tree with a rope, retreat into the jungle, and wait.
Sooner or later, an unsuspecting monkey swings by, smells the delicious orange, and discovers its location inside the coconut. The monkey then slips his hand through the small hole, grasp the orange, and tries to pull it through the hole. Of course, the orange won’t come out; it’s too big for the hole. To no avail the persistent monkey continues to pull and pull, never realizing the danger he is in.
While the monkey struggles with the orange, the hunters simply stroll in and capture the monkey by throwing a net over him. As long as the monkey keeps his fist wrapped around the orange, the monkey is trapped.
It’s too bad-the poor monkey could save its own life if it would let go of the orange. It rarely occurs to a monkey, however, that it can’t have both the orange and its freedom. That delicious orange becomes a deadly trap.
The world sets traps for you that are not unlike the monkey trap. You hear constantly that if you just have enough money, enough stuff, enough power, enough prestige-then you’ll be happy. Under that illusion people spend their whole lives thinking you must have it all. The call of Christianity is unlike that of the world. The world focus’ on what you and get out of life. A Christian should focus on what they can give. PAUL sees this in the church at Corinth, he is worried that they will see the things of the world in the same way that Eve saw that fruit in the Garden of Eden, and that they will be led astray.
Yet Paul saw another way that the church was being led away and another lesson we too should learn.
II. IDENTIFY & AVOID DESTRUCTIVE INSTRUCTION
Paul could see that these believers, much like some believers today, can fall for smooth talk and messages that sound good and seem to make sense. Even today there are many false teachings that seem to make sense, but are not the truth told in God’s infallible Word. Paul says, “I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge.” Such important words for us to hear today. There are so many great speakers that catch the attention of the public today, but we can not believe someone simply because they sound like they are an authority on the word, or says what we would like to hear. We must search the Bible and check the teaching against what God’s infallible Word says. The Bible should be the only AUTHORITY we need. Anything that contradicts God’s Word is a lie, there is no way around that folks. The Gospel of John tells us: John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
You hear that last word, THE TRUTH!! But we must know the TRUTH, we must know the WORD. We can not let the distractions of this world keep us from hearing God’s Word.
If you were going to a sporting event, or concert what we would be the best seats? If you were going to a basketball game it would be center court front row. If it were football it would be the 50-yard line, front row. If it were a concert it would be center stage, front row. But, if it were Sunday morning church service, it wouldn’t be the front pew. The back pews always fill up before the front pews in church. The best seats in church always seem to be near the back. Regardless of were you set in church, this should be were we all get a front row seat with God. I’m not saying you can’t see God in nature, and through everyday events in our life. We should see God all around us and in all the events of our life, but here in church, is were we should get the best view. This is were all the distractions and obstacles in our life should take the back seat while our relationship with God takes the front seat. We should be here every chance we get to hear and learn the TRUTH because that is the only way that we can minimize distractions.
How many times we hear things that challenge us and we really don’t want to hear about it, so WE TUNE IT OUT. For thousands of years, feng-shui practitioners have used the sound of running water to dissolve negative energy. Modern psychologists describe the constant gurgling [of desktop waterfalls] as "white noise" that drowns out distractions. On the basis of such notions, the same companies that ushered in aroma-therapy are now cranking out Zen-inspired relaxation tools, dubbed "calming pools" and "serenity ponds." Over the past two years consumers have bought into the idea that burbling rock gardens are effective stress relievers. Americans purchased more than five million of this little rock fountains since 1999, and sales are expected to climb higher. Rather then dealing with the trials of life, that help build our faith and in turn allow us to become more mature Christians, many people just tune it all out.
I had a friend many years ago who called me one night and asked if I could help him change the brakes on his car. When I got there, we took off the wheels and found the drums and the pads and the calipers just disintegrated. My friend went in the house to talk to his wife about the brakes on the car and came out shaking his head, I asked him “How did they get that bad without you knowing?” He replied, “Well, my wife said they have been making some really bed scratching sound for the last 2 months, but when the sound got bad, she just turned up the radio so she didn’t have to listen to it.”
Isn’t that what we do sometimes? We hear God calling us to change our lives, we know that the Bible studies and the sermons are challenging us to make changes, and so we just tune them out and turn up the radio?
Perhaps the biggest reason people lose their focus is FEAR
III. DON’T ALLOW FEAR TO SHIFT YOUR FOCUS FROM GOD
In the book of Numbers, chapter 13 we read about the promise of the land that was rich and fertile being give to the Israelites. God promised that the bountiful land would be theirs: Num 13:30-33 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."
These spies reported back to Moses and they gave plenty of good reasons for entering the land, BUT they could not stop focusing on the fears. Talk of Giants and fortified cities made it easy for the people to forget about the promise God made to them. When we face tough decisions we cannot allow the fear we have of failing keep us from focusing on what God says He will do. We become institutionalized by seeing what the world can do, and forgetting what God says he will do.
In the movie “Shawshank Redemption,” an old prisoner, Brooks Handlin, acts unreasonable and threatens to take another prisoner’s life. They find out that the reason Brooks has reacted this way is that he’s scared. Scared because his parole has been approved. You see those outside of Shawshank see it as a prison, but Brooks sees as home. Later, in the prison yard Ellis Boyd, “Red” explains why Brooks acts the way he does. “Brooks is just.. institutionalized. The man’s been in here 50 years - 50 years! This is all he knows. You know what I’m trying to say? I’m telling you, these walls are funny. First, you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get to depend on them.” That’s institutionalized.”
I think that is the problem for some of us. We’ve become institutionalized.. To this world. We don’t look to see the other side! We focus our attention on these earthly walls, only what we can touch, feel, observe. And it’s true.. These earthly walls are funny that way... First we hate them.. What baby doesn’t cry when he leaves the safety of his mother’s womb? But then we do get used to them, enough time passes and we begin to depend on them. When God is over and over again trying to teach us not to be so narrow in our vision. He’s saying, “Look, true success is not measured in where you are, it’s in where you are going. True success in not about how comfortable you are here, it’s about how prepared you are for over there!
The church is famous for become an institution rather then a living growing organism. The church is full of “we’ve always done it this ways.” God wants so much more for His church and the only way we can ever get to where He wants us, is to lose the fear and place our trust in Him. Time and time again I read of Christians and churches who throw fear to the wind and trust in God, and they succeed. So many times we allow the fear, or what we call “REALITY”, to get in the way of God doing extraordinary things through us and for us. If only we would keep our focus, if only we could see the need to Find Fearless Focus, we too could succeed.
Folks, the fear we have in our lives and in our church is of losing the things we have here on earth during our attempt to store up things in heaven. That is really what it boils down to, we are fearful of what we might lose here on earth by storing up things in heaven.
The way we value our stuff can get out-of-whack. One day in San Antonio the temperature had risen to 99 degrees. Fred Arriola, a wrecker driver stopped his truck in the street because he saw two women hysterically running around a car and a neighbor trying to unlock it with a hanger. Inside was a 10-month-old girl, who’d been accidentally locked in the car by her aunt. Mr. Arriola saw that the baby was turning purple and had foam at her mouth. He knew it was a life-or-death situation, so he grabbed a hammer from his truck and smashed a window. You’d expect the baby’s mother and aunt were grateful. You’d be wrong. Fred talked about it later, “The lady was mad at me because I broke her window. I just thought, ‘what’s more important – the baby or the window?’”
You and I react to that story with some disgust, maybe anger. Why would anyone endanger that precious, irreplaceable life to save piece of glass?
But are we so different? People are dying around us while we focus on saving our stuff, or accumulating more of it.
We need to hear Jesus asking, “Do you love me more than these things you’ve gathered around?”
Is my affection invested in the possessions I’ve gained, forcing things of eternal value to take a back seat? Or is my ultimate allegiance invested in eternal values; laying up treasure in heaven?
This morning as we prepare to offer an invitation, and the ladies come forward to play our invitation song, “Just As I Am” # 62 in your hymnal, I would ask you to examine your heart and answer these questions. Are you allowing the distractions and false instruction of earth and the world we live in keep you from staying focused on Jesus? Do you allow fear to keep you from doing what God wants you to do? This morning we have the opportunity to say “NO MORE, DEVIL!” I will not be distracted, I will not listen to your lies, I will not be afraid. Won’t you answer God’s call this morning.
INVITATION
