LIFE OUT OF FOCUS
Ps. 103:2
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR Sometimes it’s hard to find out what’s wrong.
1. After giving a woman a full medical examination, the doctor explained his prescription as he wrote it out.
2. “Take the GREEN pill with a glass of water when you get up. Take the BLUE pill with a glass of water after lunch. Then, just before going to bed, take the RED pill with another glass of water.”
3. The woman fixed the doctor with her gaze and said, “Doctor! What, exactly, is my problem?” The doctor raised his eyebrows and said, “You’re not drinking enough water!”
B. THE PROGRESS PARADOX
1. Americans are the most privileged and prosperous people who have ever lived on the face of the earth, and yet many Americans are not happy. But we should be.
2. Chuck Colson reports that, He says that:
a. Life expectancy has nearly doubled in the past century and continues to increase.
b. The average real per-capita income has doubled just since 1960.
c. At the same time, the price of food and many durable goods keeps falling.
d. Our standard of living has risen to levels our great-grandparents couldn’t have imagined. For most of our history, the average home had one room for every two people; today there are two rooms for every one person.
e. By any measure of affluence — health care, leisure, technology — the average American enjoys a quality of life beyond anyone’s wildest dreams even a few decades ago.
3. We have more of everything except, of course, happiness. The percentage of Americans calling themselves ‘happy’ hasn’t changed since the 1950s, but those describing themselves as ‘very happy’ is down and continues to decline.
4. During the same period, the percentage of Americans and Europeans who suffer bouts of depression have climbed to 25 percent and show no signs of abating. 7% of all Americans suffer at least one incidence of major, debilitating depression a year.”
5. Somehow we’ve stopped seeing how good and wonderful life is.
C. NEEDED: A CHANGE IN FOCUS
1. How do I keep from becoming ungrateful and taking my blessings for granted?
2. What we need is a change of focus.
a. Psalms 103:2; “Praise the Lord, my soul, and FORGET NOT all his benefits.”
b. James 1:2-3; “My brethren, COUNT IT ALL JOY when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”
c. Phip. 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, WITH THANKSGIVING, let your requests be made known unto God.”
3. The title to this Thanksgiving message is “Life Out of Focus.” We’re going to see three things, if focused on, that will give us God’s clear vision of Life’s Purpose!
I. FOCUS ON WHAT I DO HAVE
The first change of focus I need is: I need to change my focus from what I don’t have to what I DO have.
A. COMMERCIALIZATION
1. It used to be that people did not even recognize much of the poverty they lived in, because everyone was the same. They looked around them and no one was significantly better off than they were. My parents used to talk about this when they grew up during the Great Depression. They didn’t realize they were poor, because everyone lived like they did.
2. But now we have television showing us beautiful cars, clothes, electronic gadgets, new homes, new tools, new appliances, etc. We have malls crammed with the latest of everything. The internet is filled with ads. Even our bills come with advertisements disguised as “offers.” Game shows give away millions of dollars every day in cash and prizes.
3. People we know are able to afford things that we wish we could have. American businesses don’t want us to be content; in fact, they work very hard to make sure we’re NOT content.
B. RELEARN CONTENTMENT
1. Somehow we have lost touch with the Scripture that says: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” Heb. 13:5. When you have God, you have it all.
2. Greed is simply the desire to always have more. Greed is never satisfied. Paul warned Timothy, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows” 1 Tim. 6:9-10.
3. Greed kills gratitude. It also kills our spiritual sensibilities, and dulls our appetite for the things of God. It can, as Paul said, actually lead us away from God.
4. Paul wisely said, “But godliness with contentment is great gain” 1 Tim. 6:6. In fact, godliness cannot exist without contentment. Greed is the opposite of contentment and focuses on what you don’t have rather than the blessings you do have.
II. FOCUS ON BEING A BLESSING
The second change of focus: I need to change my focus from GETTING a blessing, to BEING a blessing.
A. ARE WE ALWAYS WANTING MORE?
1. Many people become Christian’s thinking that they are going to get something out of it, some benefit. They come to God SO THAT HE WILL SERVE THEM, instead of the desire to serve God. You don’t come to Christ to get a blessing, but to become a blessing. We need to move from getting to giving. Giving our wealth, resources, time and energy should become a blessing to us.
2. The problem is that the more we have, the more we want to keep everything we have to ourselves. Someone who has nothing does not mind giving something away, because they’re used to not having anything and doing without.
3. We see this reality in the countries which are in poverty like Africa. The people there are amazingly generous. But the more a person has, the more they want to keep.
4. I am often staggered by sports and media stars who are getting paid millions of dollars, but who go on strike for millions more. They can’t possibly spend it all, but they still want more.
5. Of course, I’m sure my life would look the same way to a person in Haiti or Honduras. They couldn’t possibly understand why I want more things when I already have so much, and the things I want, are things which I really don’t need.
B. THE VALUE OF PURPOSE IN YOUR LIFE
1. Move from getting a blessing to being a blessing. If you had all the money a person could spend, it would not bring purpose and meaning into your life.
2. In order for there to be meaning and direction in your life, your life needs to be used by God. Only when you invest your life in the lives of other people do you find purpose.
3. There’s no fulfillment in self-centered living. We find life by giving ours away. Jesus put it like this: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” Matt. 10:39.
4. Give your life to God and live for others, and life will be returned to you a hundred-fold. Keep your life to yourself, and your life will shrink to nothing and die.
C. SERVING OTHERS SHOULD BE OUR FOCUS
1. Jesus told us the path to fulfillment when he said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” Mk. 10:43-45.
2. Jesus was the perfect example of someone who could have demanded to be served, and chose to serve others instead. He understood that it was the path to joy.
3. Serving others gets our minds off ourselves. Feeling sorry for yourself? Go visit people in the nursing homes & hospitals. It won’t be long until you feel very grateful for how God has blessed you.
D. EXAMPLE OF JESUS REFOCUSING A LIFE
1. After Jesus healed the Gadarene demoniac, he wanted to follow Jesus and be with him. But Jesus told the man to go back to his village and tell his friends all the things God had done for him.
2. Jesus knew that his healing would be incomplete without being of service to God and the kingdom; he would never grow unless he did. Jesus always tried to get people to change their focus from themselves to the needs around them.
3. Until your life is being used by God in some form of ministry and service to others, you will not experience real joy.
4. The Bible tells us: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward” Col. 3:23-24.
III. FOCUS ON ETERNAL THINGS
The third change of focus I need if I am going to cultivate a grateful heart is: I need to change my focus from earth to eternity.
A. THIS LIFE CAN BE TRAGIC
1. Life is good, but life can also be very difficult here. Problems arise. Losses and setbacks occur. Disaster strikes. And if this world was all we had, then we might have reason to despair.
2. But Paul reminds us: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” 1 Cor. 15:19. We serve a God Who is preparing a place for us in heaven. We have a future and a hope.
B. THE BEST IS YET TO COME
1. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews recounts the great heroes of the faith who endured enormous suffering in this world because of their faithfulness. It says:
2. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. . . Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” Heb. 11:13,16.
3. As Franklin Roosevelt said, “We…hold to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” It’s not just a fantasy, but a solid future reality!
4. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man(kind) what God has prepared for them that love Him” 1 Cor. 2:9.
C. PEACE IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM
1. This is why the Bible can say, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:6-8.
2. DOES ‘PEACE’ MEAN THE ABSENCE OF PROBLEMS?
ILLUS. An art school had a contest asking its artists to paint a picture of “Peace.” Some painted pictures of quiet meadows; others of a still lakes. But the painting which won didn’t paint a peaceful scene. It was of the base of a huge waterfall, with water crashing on rocks, with spray and whirling winds of mist. In the center was a branch up against the cataracts, and on it a nest with a sleeping bird in it.
3. Peace doesn’t mean the absence of problems, but peace in spite of the problems; quiet trust in the Creator.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. In Budapest, a man went to his rabbi and complained, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can we do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man was incredulous, but the rabbi insisted. "Do as I say and come back in a week."
2. A week later the man came back looking more disheveled than before. "We can’t stand it!" he almost yelled at the rabbi. "The goat is filthy and stinks!" The rabbi then told him, "Go home, put the goat out, and come back in a week."
3. A radiant man returned to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there's no goat -- only the nine of us." [George Mikes, How to be Decadent, Andre Deutsch, London.]
It’s all about perspective!
B. ALTAR CALL
1. First, are you grateful for what you have? Do you have contentment?
2. Second, is your life focused on what you can do for others or what they can do for you? Our greatest purpose in life should be to serve
others. If it’s not, then we’re out of Jesus’ teachings.
3. Third, are you too focused on this life? Houses, lands, money, cars, achievements? Are you fearful, envious, unhappy about what you have and your circumstances?
4. Let’s refocus on pleasing God and on our eternal home in New Jerusalem – the heavenly glory and reward we will experience at Christ’s coming!
