Having The Right Focus in the New Year
Matthew 6:24-34
As we face the end of one year and the start of a new year, it would be good to evaluate what our desires are for the coming year. What are the priorities that we have or will establish for ourselves in this coming year?
E.M. Gray spent his life searching for the one trait all successful people share. His essay entitled "The Common Denominator of Success" revealed successful people's common characteristic was not hard work, good luck, or astute human relations, although these traits were important. The one factor that seemed to transcend all the rest was the habit of putting first things first. He observed, "The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either, necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose."
German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe grasped the importance of priorities. He said, “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
Priority has as its root the word, prior. It is that which comes before anything else, or is ahead of anything else. It takes precedence. As John MacArthur says, “It is then what is supreme, what is essential, what is foundational, what is preeminent, what is antecedent to everything that follows. So when you talk about priority, you're really saying what in my life comes before anything else? What is before anything else and everything else? (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-145/the-christians-priori, Copyright 2007, Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission).
Therefore, the question remains what am I going to make as the focus or priority of my life? Christ told us in Matthew 6:33 to “... seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness...” Will your priorities be eternal or based on the temporal things of this world?
I. The Wrong Focus -Focusing on or making material matters the priority in life.
A. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus tells us that we cannot have a divided allegiance. This just doesn’t work. Christ points this out saying, “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.” (Mammon – a Semitic word for money).
B. After saying this, Christ, then, addresses the result of placing the material as the priority of one’s life instead of Christ. Four times He speaks of the anxiety and worry that results from not focusing on Christ in verses 25, 27, 31, and 34.
C. Worry and/or anxiety is the natural result when our hopes and focus are centered in anything short of God and his will for us.
D. Crystal McDowell - Distraction is the nemesis of focus. We are constantly tempted to pull away from a consistent focus on Christ. As a result, we often find ourselves being tossed to and fro by the concerns of life.
E. When our focus is taken off Christ, we move Christ off the throne of our hearts and make idols of things we desire and ultimately make idols of ourselves.
F. When asked, “what is an idol?”, John Piper replied, “Well, it is the thing. It is the thing loved or the person loved more than God, wanted more than God, desired more than God, treasured more than God, enjoyed more than God. It could be a girlfriend. It could be good grades. It could be the approval of other people. It could be success in business. It could be sexual stimulation. It could be a hobby or a musical group that you are following or a sport or your immaculate yard. I was looking for some yard stuff the other day and I clicked on a video ad for a yard service and three people came on and all of them made the point that this yard service enabled them to brag that they had the best yard in the neighborhood. I thought: What a motivation? I want to be number one in green grass. So that could be an idol. Or your own looks could be an idol. It could be anything.” – What is Idolatry, John Piper © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org
G. We need to realize that the heart is bent on keeping the focus on self and what we want or desire rather than Christ or His will. We find ourselves placing our trust in self and what we want rather than in Christ and what He wants.
H. Psalm 146:3 “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.”
I. Matthew 6:25, 27 “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?... And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?”
J. Ray Pritchard writes that “Worry is excessive concern over the affairs of life. The key obviously is the word "excessive." Worry happens when you are so concerned about the problems of life that you can think of nothing else. It is an all-consuming feeling of uncertainty and fear. And it is a sin. Worry is a sin for two reasons: First, because it displaces God in your life. When you commit the sin of worry, you are living as though God did not exist. And you are living as though you alone can solve your problems. Second, because it distracts you from the things that really matter in life. As long as you are worrying, you can't do anything else. You are strangled by worry.” - Three Things Not To Worry About, www.keepbelieving.com
K. As believers we are to be free from fret and friction and feverishness by have the right priorities and focus.
II. Focusing on Christ and His will
A. Matthew 6:24 “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...”
B. Life can go in one of two directions, but it cannot go in both. Life cannot have a divided focus. You must choose what your focus will be in the coming year.
C. Matthew 6:31-33 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
D. The world has a single eye with only one focus. They give it everything they got. They run after it. The focus of most people is, make as much money as you can, enjoy life as much as you can. Keep as much as you can for yourself. Many are like the rich farmer in Luke 12, who having amassed wealth, says, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. (Luke 12:19)”
E. This is vividly seen in the example of Frank Sinatra. Sinatra’s daughter, Tina, recalls her father’s unceasing drive to succeed and make money even when his health was at risk. He refused to stop giving concerts. ‘I’ve just got to earn more money’ he said. His performances sad to say were becoming more and more uneven. At one show he forgot the lyrics to “Second-Time Around”, a ballad he had sung a thousand times. His adoring audience finished it for him. He wanted to retire at the top of his game and I always thought he would know when this time came but pushing eighty, he lost track of when it was time to quit. After seeing one too many of these fiascos, I told him ‘Pa you can stop now, you don’t have to stay on the road.’ With a stricken expression on his face he said ‘no, I’ve got to earn more money.’ – adapted from Tina Sinatra with Jeff Coplon, My Father's Daughter (Simon and Schuster, 2000)
F. The believer is to have a single eye; but the focus is to be a heavenly focus not an earthly. “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” (Colossians3:2)
G. Christ’s command to us is to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (verse 33). We can only find contentment and the “peace that passes understanding” when we turn from our own desires, denying self, to seeking that which God desires in our lives.
H. This means trusting in God’s omniscience.
1. Matthew 6:32 “...your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
2. God knows what I need. In His infinite wisdom God knows everything about us in the minutest detail.
3. Psalm 139:1-4 “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.”
4. He knows what you need. Before you ask. Are you hungry? "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?" (Matthew 6:26) Do you need clothing? "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" (Matthew 6:28-30) No matter what your need is, God knows. And He will answer in His own way and in His own time. Therefore, focus on Him.
I. This means trusting in His Sovereignty.
1. There may be times in this coming year, when faced with difficulties or struggles, you and I might be tempted to focus our thoughts too much on our circumstances. When that happens, there is a tendency to become bitter or to begin questioning God.
2. But understand that God is Sovereign. In our text I do not see God sitting by idly while His children have need. Rather I see Him promising His sovereign care and provision in verses 26 and 30.
3. Storms will rise: and conflicts may assail you. But understand that is exactly the time when you must have Christ as the priority in your life. If you keep your focus on the Sovereign of the universe Who is in control of your circumstances, as you realize you have no strength in and of yourself, you’ll get to know more about His great power and love, which will enable you to overcome worry and trust God more.
4. There are no accidents with God. Tony Evans tells this story: “Our God is sovereign. That means there’s no such thing as luck. Anything that happens to you, good or bad, must pass through His fingers first. There are no accidents with God. I like the story of the cowboy who applied for health insurance. The agent routinely asked him, ‘Have you ever had any accidents?’ The cowboy replied, ‘Well no, I’ve not had any accidents. I was bitten by a rattlesnake once, and a horse did kick me in the ribs. That laid me up for a while, but I haven’t had any accidents.’ The agent said, ‘Wait a minute. I’m confused. A rattlesnake bit you, and a horse kicked you, Weren’t those accidents?’ ‘No, they did that on purpose.”
5. Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”
6. Baptist theologian and pastor Lehman Strauss said, “We do not expect to understand fully the purpose for our trials until our Lord calls us home to be with Him. But we do know that He loves us too much to harm us, and that He is far more concerned with our welfare than we are. God's choices are always right.”
7. “The more you focus on yourself, the more distracted you will be from the proper path. The more you know Him and commune with Him, the more the Spirit will make you like Him. The more you are like Him, the better you will understand His utter sufficiency for all of life’s difficulties. And that is the only way to know real satisfaction.” - John MacArthur
J. Practical steps to keep our focus on Christ.
1. Commit to reading God’s Word. –
a. 2 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
b. In the Bible alone, God has given us all things that are necessary for the proper understanding of who God is, who we are, how God has acted in the past, and what God expects from us.
2. Spend time daily alone with God in prayer. – 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.” To get to know someone, you must talk to them. This is pretty basic social science, but when it comes to knowing God better, we often skip the "talking" part! Prayer is talking with God.
3. Stay clean –
a. Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
b. Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
4. Run with endurance – Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”
Commit your life to Jesus and allow Him to rearrange your priorities, He will change your life and eternity in wonderful ways.
