Distracted

Have you ever had a goal or something important that you just needed to get done but the issue occurs where you just keep getting distracted.

You know whether you are writing a paper and you keep wondering on to facebook

Or you are trying to just get something at the store but you see that person in the store and get distracted and talk with them.

and thats really the worst way to get distracted from something when a person starts to talk with you.

Because people like to talk

Some of you know this because you are the talker. You are the distracter!

How many of us would fit into this category?

Are there any of you who are the person trying to stay focused but the talkers keep distracting you?

But in our lives there is always going to be something that is distracting us. There is always going to be something that distracts us from accomplishing some sort of goal or accomplishment in our lives no matter where we are.

whether its because of facebook, a fear that we have or a person talking to us; Distractions come up in our lives that make it hard to get things accomplished.

and how true is this for when God is calling us somewhere or do something?

because often times God will call us to do something but then we allow the distractions in our life to get in the way of where God is calling us.

God calls us to talk to our neighbor but we allow our social anxiety to get in the way

God calls us to help someone but we allow finances to get in the way of helping them.

God is wanting us to get more involved in the church or even come to church but then we don’t do it because we get distracted by some event in our life

God is calling you to a relationship with him but we get distracted and stray away

But God calls us to do something (He always is) and what happens is as He is calling us, different distractions will often pop up which interfere with where He is calling us and what He is calling us to do.

and the issue with these distractions is that God is calling us to do amazing things.

He is calling us to change our life and the lives of others, He is calling us to be a part of restoring a broken world back to Him.

but when we get distracted we are not accomplishing these amazing things God is calling us to do.

and today we will be in

because in this passage Jesus is in the middle of His ministry and we see a major distraction comes Jesus’s way.

And we are going to be looking at how Jesus handles this distraction and compare it to how sometimes we can handle distractions in our own lives.

So turn with me to … It says:

Luke 13:31–35 NIV

At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

So as I mentioned Jesus is in the middle of ministry and he is actually in a village on His way to Jerusalem

and what happens is this group of Pharisees (who were teachers at the time) approach Jesus and they tell him “Look you needs to get out of here because Herod (who was a ruler during this time) is going to kill you.”

“because you have been causing some commotion around the area with what you have been doing with your ministry.”

And you know there are some arguments on whether the Pharisees were actually watching out for Jesus and trying to help Him or if they were just trying to get him to scare him into leaving because they didn’t like Him

but regardless in this passage we see Jesus carrying out ministry (really what He is called to do)

and in the middle of Him doing this and being faithful this distraction pops up where people are saying get out of here because someone wants to take your life.

You know I have never had anyone tell me someone is trying to take my life but I imagine that would be a little hard to focus and be a little distracting to whatever is going on in my life.

So we see this distraction of fear pop up where it could have easily scared Jesus away from pursuing what He came down to do

but look what Jesus responds to this distraction

because he says “tell that fox that I will keep driving out demons and healing sick people today, tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.”

that is some courage right there

because Jesus gets this distraction and instead of going I am getting out of here He repeats why He is there and really what his mission is.

He goes I am here because I am

He states why He is here immediately but then he also tells what his goal is.

because when He says ill be here today, tomorrow and on the third day i will reach my goal what He is referring to the very reason He came down (the resurrection)

)

To die and raise for our sins

So you get this picture

So what He is saying is look I have this God given goal, mission or vision in my life and I am not going to give in because of fear, anxiety or whatever is trying to distract me from accomplishing this goal.

Jesus points out “why” He is here.

Because He had a clear mission and when He got distracted he went back to why he was here.

He was here to save lives so we don’t have to be separated from Him.

because the truth is when we face distractions in our life or as a church we are going to let it get to us and slow us down unless we know why we are doing what we are doing.

And thats why we need to know what God is calling us to do.

because when a distraction comes our way we don’t loose our focus but we go no God has given me this mission, this vision this goal, and I am not going to let something like this get in my way.

Some of you may know this but our church board has been working on a vision, mission and values and that really is one of the reasons why because there are so many distractions and different things we can do as a church but we can say no this is our God given vision as a church and we are going to pursue this.

and its the same for our lives when we look at our why’s in life (why we are doing something) we are going to make it thru when we feel discouraged, stressed or distracted.

because when we are going through a trial we are not going to give in because this is our God given mission and we don’t have time to be distracted.

And look at the beginning of verse 34 because Jesus starts to talk about how prophets have been killed in Jerusalem

and he reflects on this because he knows thats where He is heading.

because if you look throughout the Bible their would be people who we call prophets that would talk about the direction God wants His people to go

and sometimes the people would listen, but other times we see the people would stray away and want nothing to do with God.

and often times this would be because there was something that would pull them away from God (that would distract them)

It could be war, famine or just the person was really annoying.

But they would end up getting distracted and pulled away from God’s message and take the prophets life or imprison them.

And you know what I realized often times we are the same way.

We might not kill a person for it. but like I said we get distracted from where God is calling us and what we do is we just silence however God is speaking to us.

But in the midst of us getting distracted and even trying to silence God look what the Bible says about how God treats the people who have killed the prophets and really how He treats us.

It says he

Because in verse 34 it says “how I have longed to gathers your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. “

Thats kinda a weird picture of God...

God as a mother hen

and I did not grow up on a farm but I have google to look up what this image means.

and a hen naturally takes care of its chicks and it spreads its wings over the chicks to protect them from the elements, other animals and things like that.

and when it can’t the

But you know some chicks will run away from the mother hens protection (there babies do they get distracted a little easy)

but if something happens to these chicks its actually been shown that the mother actually is in pain because of what has happen to her chick because her empathy is so high.

And you know in our lives we are given a choice where we can get distracted from where God is calling us.

We get get distracted from reaching out to our neighbor

We can get distracted from coming to church

We can get distracted where we are not even in a relationship with Jesus.

But look how he responds

He is saying look you can live in this desolate place where you are going to get hurt, things wont be fun, and really it breaks my heart because I want to be there for you.

Or you can come to me where I am going to love you.

I am going to hide you under my wings where I will take care of you.

God is constantly expanding his arms for you. He is constantly wanting to pursue you on a deeper level even when you want nothing to do with Him.

and what we have to decide is am I going to allow Him to cover me with his wings

But the mother looked me in the eye and said, “Pastor, I know God understands that I have done everything I can.  I have to let her make her own decisions.  I am at peace.”

am I going to allow him to change my life

and my brother has the dream job for every teenage boy he is a video game reviewer for a company called game informer

Knowing what it’s like to love someone who doesn’t want protection.  Knowing the pain that comes in realizing that you can’t save them, you can’t make them change, you can’t make them choose a different path.  Knowing a mother’s pain and yet giving her peace.  I think those are qualities I want in the God I worship. 

After a moment, the mother added these words.  “No matter what happens, my daughter knows my arms are always open to her.”

It does not matter how far away or distracted you are from God this morning He is waiting for you to say I need you in my life.

He went to the cross because he wanted to be in a relationship with you that badly.

If you have not let Him in your life. this morning I just want to invite you to do that

and turn around to Christ.

Will you pray with me?