DEDICATED OR DISTRACTED
(where is your focus)
1 Corinthians 7:29-35 (NLT)
Intro:
In one scene of the popular movie Robin Hood, The Prince of Thieves, Kevin Costner as Robin comes to a young man taking aim at an archery target. Robin asks, "Can you shoot amid distractions?"
Just before the boy releases the string, Robin pokes his ear with the feathers of an arrow. The boy’s shot flies high by several feet.
After the laughter of those watching dies down, Maid Marian, standing behind the boy, asks Robin, "Can you?"
Robin Hood raises his bow and takes aim. Just as he releases the arrow, Maid Marian leans beside him and flirtatiously blows into his face. The arrow misses the target, glances off the tree behind it, and scarcely misses a bystander.
Distractions come in all types, and whether they are painful or pleasant, the result is the same: we miss God’s mark.
. It is hard to remain focused isn’t it? Life for many of us consists of rabbit trails rather than highways.
We are always on the move, but not really getting anywhere. The distractions of life dictate our decisions and control our schedules. We make a lot of plans, but get very little done.
The phone rings. We need something at the store. We want to check our email. We get caught in the web of the internet following a story, looking up something, blogging, reading other people’s blogs, checking the weather, looking to see if the Braves have finally won a game, or just catching up on the news and the elections that are happening all across our country.
The kids need to be dropped off, and then they need picked up. Something needs cleaned or repaired. A stack of books are begging to be read. Even making lists of things that need to be done is a distraction.
The problem is that it all seems important, or at least necessary. Our lives are filled with the urgent, and we have no time for the eternal.
We have tended to a million little things and left undone the big things. We have filled the day with things that do not ultimately matter and left undone the things that do matter.
We have done what seemed necessary and neglected what was essential.
Days turn into months and months into years, and our lives have become trivialized by distractions.
. We are busy people, aren't we?
. We are back in 1 Corinthians this morning and Paul addresses the issue of not being distracted in our service to God. How we should not get so involved in the Earthly and forget the eternal.
. If you will remember, in 1 Corinthians, Paul is answering some questions that the new believers in Corinth had about various things.
The first question was about Christian marriage.
. We looked at the marriage relationship that God intended here a few weeks ago.
. We looked at the relationship that should exist between a husband and a wife.
. Paul continues those thoughts on into chapter 7 here and then close to the end starting in verse 29, he tells us what the marriage and family relationships should like in regards to our faith.
. As I told you when we started in 1 Corinthians, This is a letter of correction and can hit us pretty hard. This scripture this morning will challenge us and our dedication to God.
. Lets read our scripture. 1 Corinthians 7:29-3
29But let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage.
30Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions
31Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.
32I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him.
33But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife.
34His interests are divided. In the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and in spirit. But a married woman has to think about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband.
35I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.
. The first thing we see here is that we should not get so caught up in something that keeps us from serving God.
. Grab hold of something because Paul writes that we cannot get so caught up in:
. FAMILY
. Wait a minute Pastor, my family is the most important thing in my life.
. Granted, family is oh so important, my family is important to me but look at verse 29 again.
29But let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage.
. Paul does not say that we should not focus on our family. He says that our faith needs to be our focus also.
. We all have family responsibilities. That's what determines if we are a good father or good mother. How do we handle the responsibilities that come with these relationships.
. What Paul is telling us that yes there are familial responsibilities but there are also eternal responsibilities.
. In her book, A Practical Guide to Prayer, Dorothy Haskins tells about a noted concert violinist who was asked about the secret of her mastery of the instrument.
She said, “There are many things that used to demand my time. When I went to my room after breakfast, I made my bed, straightened the room, dusted, and did whatever seemed necessary. When I finished my work, I turned to my violin practice. That system prevented me from accomplishing what I should on the violin. So I reversed things. I deliberately planned to neglect everything else until my practice period was complete. And that program of planned neglect is the secret to my success.”
. I'm not advocating neglecting our family or our responsibilities but I wonder what would happen in your life if before you commit all of your time and energy every day to your family responsibilities.
. What would your life be like if you set aside some time for your other responsibility as a Christian.
. What if you set aside some time for God?
. Paul is saying that we should not get so focused and distracted on the things that come along with marriage that we neglect to focus on our relationship with God.
. Folks, we can't let our responsibilities in life overshadow our relationship and our responsibilities to God.
. We must be dedicated to both our marriage and family but we also must be dedicated to our God.
. Paul warns that not only can we lose focus with our family but we can also lose focus through:
. FINITE THINGS
. We all like STUFF don't we.
. Look at verse 30 again:
30Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions
. We should not be absorbed by the joy of our possessions.
. We cannot let earthly things, ie possessions, cause us to be distracted from or lose our focus on the eternal.
. You see possessions are earthly, they will go away, but our relationship with God is eternal.
. We are not to be distracted from God through our possessions.
. He who dies with the most toys wins right.
. That's what Paul is writing about. we can't rejoice over our possessions to a point that they distract us from God.
. When things become more important than God. then they have taken God's place and they are now effectively our god.
. We all have stuff don't we?
. It's hard for me to point fingers about having stuff with all the toys that I have. My Harley, which sits in the garage, my house on the lake that I haven't seen in six months, boats, jet ski's, you name it and I have it.
. If I am not careful, these things can get in the way of my service and worship of God.
. Maybe my Wednesday night folks will remember this. Last year, tony and Kelley's son drove up in the church parking lot with a beautiful, gorgeous, yellow Camaro.
. Folks, I sinned. I coveted that Camaro.
. For some reason, probably God, we were talking about sins that night in bible study and we were looking at coveting.
. I had to confess to the class my sin.
. Let me tell you how that possession, that thing could pull me away from my service and responsibility to God.
. If I wanted to buy a car like that something in my life would have to change. You see, I can't afford it. So I look for a way to fit it into my budget. They only money that i have that is not committed to other bills is my tithe. What I give to God. If I buy that car, I will have to stop giving the meager amount that I give to God altogether.
. I have just placed that thing, that possession above what God has called me to do.
. That's just a small example but I believe that many Christians today allow things to get in the way of being the Christian that God wants them to be.
. You see, we get caught up in the Earthly and God becomes second or third or fourth etc,etc place in our lives.
. It's hard to imagine that when Paul was writing to the Corinthian Christians that they had a lot of stuff. Obviously they did.
. I believe that Paul was writing through God's inspiration to us as much as anybody because God knew that our love of stuff would one day become a problem.
. Not only can family responsibilities and finite things come between us and God but something else can also come between us and God.
. FUN
. Look at verse 31 again:
31Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.
. There you go Anthony, validating the stereotype that Christians cannot have fun.
. I'm not saying that and neither is Paul.
. We all have things that we enjoy. Things we have fun doing.
. Family stuff, fishing with the kids, picnic's, ball games with kids or grandkids.
. We enjoy our toys don't we? Our stuff that we have bought to have fun with.
. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that until we become so attached to it that it gets in the way of our relationship and our service to God.
. I enjoy fun as much as the next person.
. Went bowling with the children's department Wednesday night. Had a blast. Great Fun.
. I am going fishing with my two sons next Friday over in Alabama. If I am not careful though, I will let this enjoyment my attachment as Paul puts it, to those things, they can and will get in the way of my relationship and my service to the God who loved me so much that He came and died for me.
. You see, I will get so consumed and involved with the Earthly that I let the Eternal fall to the wayside.
. Paul sums all of this up for us in verse 35 when he writes this:
35I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.
. Paul writes that we are free to do what we choose, there are no restrictions placed on you as a Christian but be careful that you do not fall prey to the distractions he just wrote to them and to us about.
. Don't let the Earthly become more important to you than the Eternal folks.
. Christian, I ask you a question this morning.
. What is the most important thing in your life? I hope that it is your relationship with God.
. If your answer is God, then is the way you are living reflect what your answer is?
. Christian, have you slipped away from that relationship with God? He is waiting on you to come back.
. For those who do not have a relationship with God, you start it with the acceptance of Jesus Christ and what He did on a cross over two thousand years ago.
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Rodney Buchanan, Distractions, sermon central
