INTRODUCTION
Life may be a bit full for you at the moment, a little too busy. Perhaps you’ve let things get a little out of control. But with God’s help things can be different – you can be different. God wants to simplify your life. Here’s how:
I. FOCUS IS THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL LIVING
"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD (Joshua 24:14 NIV).
To live with Christian focus simply means to “Fear God.” What does it mean to fear God? Fear is the idea of reverence and respect. It is the idea that you hold someone in such high regard that you will do anything they tell you because of how you revere them as a person. That is how we are to relate to God.
II. WITHOUT FOCUS YOU WILL LIVE FOR EVERYTHING
There are so many things we think that we HAVE to do. But in reality you don’t HAVE to do anything you don’t choose to. The Lord only requires one thing of you – to make him the focus of your life.
And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)
This is an issue of “quantity” in your life. How full is your life?
“A weakness of all human beings, is trying to do too many things at once. That scatters effort and destroys direction. It makes for haste, and haste makes waste” (Henry Ford).
The secret to a successful life is focus. Without it you will live for everything. Joshua said, "… Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:14b NIV)
What gods do you need to throw away in order to get Jesus back into focus in your life?
III. YOU WILL LIVE FOR ANYTHING
Without focus you will live for everything and anything. There are many, many good things that you can do with your life each day – but the best one is to live it for the Lord. Without this kind of focus you will live for anything – and miss the best thing. This is an issue of “quality” in your life. How excellent is your life? Are you living a life of excellence? Or are you so thinly spread that you aren’t doing anything well?
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15 NIV)
What are the idols you need to cast off?
CONCLUSION
By coming to church today you have you have shown your willingness and your ability to make the Lord the central focus of your life. And for this …
God is pleased with you.
God is pleased with you.
God is pleased with you.
Yes it’s true … God is pleased with you.
