Believe 14 – Single Mindedness
January 25, 2015
Matthew 6:25-34
I’m not sure which I’ve heard more, men are simple minded or single minded? Maybe it’s both. I know men and I will include boys in this one who have a single minded focus. Generally speaking, if you ask a man to get you a bag of noodles from the cabinet they will tell you there are no noodles. Why? Because the noodles were in a box. Men have a divide and conquer mentality, which is also part of our single mindedness. Especially, when it comes to doing tasks like this. It’s happened within my family, and I will not say which one of us was guilty. But it’s happened more than once.
On the other hand, I’ve gone to the store believing I can remember the grocery list. How hard is it to remember 3 items? I suppose this is where the simple mindedness comes into play. I end up with 15 items. They were on sale and I had coupons. But I couldn’t remember what I was really supposed to get. So, that means I was simple minded, not single minded.
It’s easy for this to happen, isn’t it? We walk into a room knowing what we wanted, but when we arrive in that room, we have to walk out of the room hoping to retrace our steps so we can remember what we were supposed to get.
Today our focus is not on the simple minded, it’s the call for all of us to be SINGLE-MINDED. Let’s take a look at what Jesus had to say in the Sermon on the Mount. We are looking at Matthew 6:25-34.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
There’s a lot of anxiety in this passage. When Jesus said ANXIOUS, the word means to be divided / distracted or even to go to pieces as you are pulled apart. That’s a great description of what it means to be anxious. The word is used 6 times in 10 verses.
Are there things in your life which have you worried or anxious? — —
Issues like your family, your job, finances, relationships, school, your health, your future — then you can certainly understand a divided and distracted mind.
When your mind is divided and distracted, when you’re feeling pulled apart, it’s really difficult to focus on anything. Your mind is divided, even on decisions which are all good, we still have difficulty making decisions. Now add to that the complexity of life and choices we need to make and it’s easy to become anxious and have divided minds and feel like we’re being pulled apart.
I read a study which asked people to select their top three fears from a list of 10. Financial fears made up 66 percent of the responses. *(http://www.gobankingrates.com/
banking/study-finds-1-3-people-worry-money-time/)
That may be why Jesus told us not to be anxious about life. He gave examples of things we can be divided about:
1. What we will eat.
2. What we will drink.
3. What we will wear.
4. What our bodies look like.
5. What our life expectancy is.
What’s Jesus getting at? Not that you don’t need to have something to eat and drink and wear. Jesus has already taught the Father knows what we need even before we ask. He knows there are things we need to live.
In verse 32, Jesus told us the Gentiles seek after all these things. The word for seek means to “crave, desire or wish for.” The Gentiles are looking for these things as if something is missing. They don’t just need them. They crave more.
And here’s the problem. Oftentimes we’re no different than the gentiles Jesus was talking about. As long as we’re craving for more and more, and yet, we’re trying to follow God at the same time we will always be anxious. You can’t seek after two things at the same time. It will divide your mind. This is one of those areas of life where multi-tasking does not work.
Jesus knows a person who is focused on Him, a person who is single-minded will live each day yielding to God’s will and direction. He knows we won’t always like the plan He has for us. But the plan is always to bring good, even in the midst of what’s bad. Jesus reminds us in the garden of Gethsemane — He had a single minded focus as He placed the Father’s will above His own.
Ultimately, Jesus suffered and died an excruciating death. Nobody wants that. Yet, if He didn’t, we wouldn’t have the grace and hope, strength and power which is available to us right now.
The cool thing about God is that we “can have our cake and eat it too.” Because once we’re focused on God, we receive the incredible blessings of abundant life which Jesus offers us. That life starts here and now when we accept Jesus, and continues in the promise of eternal life with God.
So what can you do? One man tried something unique. He had so many worries he decided to hire someone else to do his worrying for him. He found a guy who agreed to the job for $200,000 a year. His first day on the job he looked at his employer’s bank account and asked, “How are you going to pay me $200,000?” His new boss said, “That’s your worry.”
Of course there’s a better way. The way of Jesus. In this passage, Jesus has been teaching on things that make us anxious. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, 24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Jesus said this right before He began talking about what makes us anxious in life. Single-mindedness is attained by deciding who you will serve: God or money. Or we can take it further, will you serve God or whatever the world is calling you to serve which is not of God? You can’t serve both God and the world.
But we try to, don’t we? We eat and spend and drink and buy. We throw in a little “God” here and there. Or we go about our business and make our plans and then ask God to bless our endeavors or fix our messes after we made decisions without Him.
And when we do that we worry. Jesus told us “not to worry.” Worrying is a vicious cycle. It’s not the big sins Jesus was talking about. It’s the anxiety and worry over daily things. Anxiety chokes the life out of us and leads us further away from God.
The problem is that when we’re anxious, as the word describes, we’re divided and pulled apart. When you’ve been worried and anxious have you ever given your problem to God, then 5 minutes later, you have another solution and you take back the problem from God and try to solve it again on your own.
When that doesn’t work, you blame God for not giving you the answer or seek another solution. Our deepest need is to turn back to God. To be focused on God, and work through God to solve our problem. When we’re divided we have no peace, no calm assurances from Jesus. Instead we’re ragged, exhausted, having no focus, no plan . . . and no peace.
Instead of living that way, listen to Paul’s words in Philippians 4 ~
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
It’s a matter of trusting that God will take action in our lives. We will be talking about. In verse 6, Paul tells us not to be anxious. It’s the same word Jesus used. Don’t be divided, don’t be pulled to pieces about what? About anything. So, don’t let anything get to you.
Instead, Paul tells us IN EVERYTHING . . . by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. In other words, pray to God, but make your requests known. Do you hear that, make your prayer personal. Ask for yourself, for your needs, and at the same time be thankful. Let those requests be made known to God. Then Paul gives us some great news!! He next tells us . . .
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Isn’t that fantastic?! Call upon God, and Paul tells us when we give it all to God, when we are have that single minded focus and don’t take back our requests, we will receive God’s peace which makes no human sense, other than the fact that it is all spiritual and we cannot contain or explain away the Spirit of God. That is great news folks!!
And next week we will move deeper as we talk about TOTAL SURRENDER, lots of fun topics in this Believe series!
Remember when you were younger . . . when you were a child you didn’t worry about your clothes. You didn’t worry how the car was going to get paid for. You didn’t lose sleep being anxious about your next meal. You weren’t thinking about how long you were going to live. When you were younger you really didn’t have worries and anxieties. WHY? Because you KNEW / you TRUSTED / you BELIEVED your parents were going to take care of everything for you.
In the same way, we have a parent, a heavenly Father who is already taking care of these things for you. We don’t have to do as the Gentiles do, who are craving more and more. Our focus must come through KNOWING God / TRUSTING God and BELIEVING God is who He says He is!
In our memory verse, Jesus said seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)
Put your mind on one thing. Put God first.
Seek God first in your family.
Seek God first in your job.
Seek God first in your finances.
Seek God first in your decisions.
Seek God first in your time.
There is only one thing you need to seek. There is only one thing you need to strive after. When you do you’ll find that you have food and drink and clothes. You’ll have what you need. Your worries will disappear as you discover the one thing that was missing.
You have a Father who knows what you need. Seek Him first. You’ll develop a single-minded focus. And you’ll come home with the light you’ve been looking for . . . along with anything else you need.
As we come to the end of today, remember what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 CoSLIDErinthians 5:21 ~ 21 For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The moment we embrace a relationship with Jesus. When we say yes to Him, all of our sin is placed upon Jesus. And we know and we trust that Jesus took it all upon Himself and our account is paid in full. We receive God’s grace and mercy, not what we deserve. We receive God’s righteousness. Everything is forgiven. The only unpardonable sin is not taking God up on His offer.
That’s an amazing gift from God to us. But we have to seek first His Kingdom, not our own! And once we’ve found Him, we must keep Him as our focus. That comes in never ending prayer, Bible Study, being part of church community! It’s not rocket science. That’s way too deep for me. The road is not always easy, but it’s always open.
It’s not impossible. Impossible is only an opinion. With God, nothing is impossible. Seek first His kingdom, seek His righteousness and you will find it!
