Focus Week 1
Focus • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 2 viewsA study from the Gospels and Psalms on spiritual growth.
Notes
Transcript
Focus On What God Has Said
Focus On What God Has Said
[INTRODUCTION]
So many things compete for our attention, not just during a staring contest, but in our real lives too. Sometimes there’s so much competing for our attention that it can be tough to get anything done.
Did you know...
There are over 3.2 billion images shared on the Internet every day?
The average teenager might view between 6,000-10,000- ads every day?
TikTok users spend close to an hour a day watching videos.
With all that going on, it’s not surprising that many of us struggle to focus.
How do you focus when you need to get something done?
Do you:
Turn off notifications?
Listening to your favorite playlist?
Chewing on a handful of skittles?
Setting a timer?
Locking yourself in your room?
It’s a good thing we have so many hacks to work with here because focusing can be a challenge. Sometime we need all the help we can get, like when we really need to...
Finish that school project.
Pay attention to what our friend is saying.
Stop loosing keys or phone.
Stay committed to training for that new thing we’re learning.
For some of us, one of the things we struggle most to focus on are the things that are supposed to help us grow closer to God.
Have you ever struggled to stay focused when you were spending time with God?
If there’s one thing I know, some things require some attention and practice. Like some of the all-time greatest athletes, musicians, or thinkers, who put in days, weeks, months, and years of practice for the thing that mattered most to them, we can grow in our ability to focus on the things that matter too.
[TRANSITION]
Reading and studying the Bible isn’t always the easiest thing to focus on. I get it! But why does it matter if that we focus on the Bible?
There’s a fascinating story in Scripture that talks about Jesus, someone who was fully God and fully human, needing to focus to survive a big challenge.
Even though he had all of the ability in the world, Jesus still experienced the same emotions, thoughts, and feelings that we do. In this moment, Jesus had to choose what to focus on and what to ignore.
Read Matthew 4:1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”
Then the devil left him, and angels came and began to serve him.
In this story, Scripture says the devil tries repeatedly to distract Jesus from the mission Jesus had come to earth to accomplish. But instead of letting himself be distracted, Jesus choose to do what would prepare him for the future - and overcome temptation in the present too.
This experience occurs before Jesus’ preaching ministry began, before he invited the first disciples to follow him, and before he ever healed anyone.
It’s clear Jesus knew the kind of strength his future would require and how important his focus would be - not just in the moment, but in the moments to come.
What’s even more incredible is that Jesus was fasting during this exchange. I don’t know about you, but when i’m hungry, focusing definitely doesn’t come naturally. Jesus’ hunger was a temptation that could have easily lured him to lose focus, but Jesus had another way to stick with his fast.
Jesus fought the temptation to lose focus by doing something simple but so important: in the midst of temptation, he chose to focus on the true things God had said.
When the devil questioned his identity as the son of God, Jesus focused on the words he learned from there ancient Scriptures when he was growing up. The devil tried to tempt him with food, but Jesus said God’s words were more important than bread.
When the devil told him to put his life at risk in order to test God’s power, Jesus quoted yet another passage from those ancient Scriptures, telling the devil to stop testing God.
When the devil tried to tempt Jesus with power in exchange for worshiping him, Jesus focused on Scripture one more time. He reminded both himself and the devil that only God is meant to be worshipped and served.
Jesus was in the habit of focusing on God’s Word, especially when he faced difficulties. But in those moments, Jesus didn’t have quick access to the Bible app on his phone. Instead, he stored the truth of God’s words in his heart and mind so they’d always be available when he needed them.
Check out how this works in Psalms 119. It’s the longest chapter in the whole Bible, and it has a lot to say about the value of God’s words.
Read Psalm 119:9, 33-37
How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word.
Read Psalm 119:33–37 (CSB)
Teach me, Lord, the meaning of your statutes, and I will always keep them.
Help me understand your instruction, and I will obey it and follow it with all my heart.
Help me stay on the path of your commands, for I take pleasure in it.
Turn my heart to your decrees and not to dishonest profit.
Turn my eyes from looking at what is worthless; give me life in your ways.
This Psalm is over 2,000 years old but these folks are basically asking God for the same thing we are. They were asking for the ability to focus.
We may not know exactly what the writer was going through when they wrote this, but we know the help they needed is probably the help we need too.
This song is written by someone asking God to teach them, give them understanding, direct, refocus, and save them from anything that might tempt them to lose focus.
The words, “teach” and “give” are asking God for wisdom through the words of Scripture. This person knew how important the words of God are - especially when we are wandering, confused, tempted, or needing wisdom or direction.
You’re probably not in the middle of a forty day fast like Jesus was, but you might be in the middle of a lot of stress or change you’re not sure how to manage.
When you’re not finding any hope, facing stress, hitting an academic hurtle, going through a change in your family, battling for your mental health, or sitting with someone else who is, there is something you can do to find focus in the chaos.
The psalmist found direction through God’s words. Jesus fought the devil’s lies and distractions with God’s words. In the same way, you and I can find direction and fight lies and distractions with God’s truth too. That’s the power of focusing on what God has said.
In order for us to focus on what God has said, we may need to build a little bank of words and promises in our memories that we can draw from like Jesus did. But where do we find them? How do we collect them?
READ GOD’S WORD: One way to begin is by starting with the words we find in Scripture. Read them, maybe by reading a book at a time, or following a reading plan, or maybe even starting at the very beginning. The point is to get in the habit of reading what God has said through Scripture, even it it’s only a few verses at a time.
LEARN ABOUT GOD’s WORD: There are so many ways to continue learning about what God has said besides just reading it on your own. We can also learn about God’s Word from others, study what God has said with others, and listen to Scripture taught at church or through videos or podcasts.
MEMORIZE GOD’S WORD: Just like Jesus did, we can also commit God’s words to memory so we always have quick access to God’s truth and promises. It doesn’t mean you need to memorize the whole Bible from cover to cover. It just means you might commit to remembering verses that mean something to you or you think could help you in a time of need.