Keep Your Focus
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This has been a week hasn’t it. I trust you are holding on to hope like I have been through this week.
I want to encourage you and myself today! We need to keep our focus on the mark on the goal!
Our focused vision keeps hope alive. It is a dream of a better tomorrow. Our purpose gives strength to move forward even when times are tough.
Purpose brings stability. With clear purpose we can persevere because we know there is a reason - a cause!
We are now two months into a new year, how are you doing? How are you feeling? What are your plans? What is your focus this year? What difference do you plan to make?
What if you could close out this day, month, and year knowing you fulfilled your true purpose and calling in life?
Imagine being certain beyond a doubt that your efforts were not wasted because they were God conceived, God directed and God honoring!
Our vision as a church is this:
Learning to love God, learning to love ourselves and learning to love our neighbors.
This is the example Christ gave us. Jesus knew He was placed on the earth for a reason, and He pursued His God ordained purpose at every step.
But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.”
Jesus had a message to share, to preach and he was focused on ensuring that happened.
Jesus knew his purpose in life and lived in a way to fulfill it.
We need to live as Jesus did and have a life with no regrets.
How? Discover your why?
Commit your life to God
Commit your life to God
Present your life totally to God.
You cannot find your purpose in life by focusing on yourself and leaving God out of the picture!
Life is not about using God for your purposes.
It is all about God using you!
God using you for His purposes.
It is about the Lord Jesus Christ showing you how you fit into His purposes.
He has the plan and we get a place in the plan. We must YIELD!!!
We have been made for this. If you don’t embrace God’s plan you will miss out on the purpose for which He created you.
Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
Following God’s plan for your life means you are walking in His vantage point for you.
The first step towards pursuing your God given purpose is to present yourself totally to God.
TOTAL SURRENDER!
He loves you!
He wants the best for you and you can trust Him!
Uniquely You!
Uniquely You!
You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Illustration:
Rick Allen was a world famous drummer with Def Leppard - a very successful rock group! He joined the group when he was 15 years old and the band sold over 100 million albums.
1984 at the height of his career he was trying to pass an aggressive driver on a narrow road in England and had a horrible accident. His arm was severed in the crash. Doctors tried to reattach it but it had to be amputated.
He was a one armed drummer but did not give up!
He came up with ways to compensate for his loss and became even better and more appreciated by his fans. He then took up painting, and his art became valued by collectors. Allen said he creates art the way he drums - one arm and an open heart. He did not want to compare himself to others and wanted to celebrate his uniqueness!
There is only one you!
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
You are God’s masterpiece.
Before you were born, He had a design for your life. He created you for your life’s purpose, and at the same time He was creating your work for you.
Not for anyone else, just for you.
He had a plan right from the start designed uniquely for you.
There will almost always be someone who seems more gifted than you or more successful than you. It is wasy to slip into the comparison trap without even realizing it.
You are an original not an imitation! You are the only you that God ever made! You are a work of art made by the Master Designer!
There are lots of times that someone might say they broke the mould when they made you. Well He did! You are a masterpiece!
If you look at a pattern there are times we often miss something and end up putting our own twist to it due to that.
My friend God made you special and then threw away the plans!
We need to thank Him for our strengths and weaknesses, our blessings and burdens! We need to offer them all to Him for His use and for His glory.
EE Cummings wrote this quote that I have to share:
“To be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting”
Once you understand your uniqueness you can then get on your way pursuing the purpose God created just for you.
Take Action!
Take Action!
God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
God has given us gifts and with that gift comes responsibility to use it to bless others. Our responsibilities - the ones that come from God - are blessings for they reassure us of our usefulness.
Someone once said “Responsibility is your response to God’s ability”.
Listen to this story about Chris Baker:
He is a Chicago area tattoo artist who came to know Jesus as an adult. He began leading a small group at his church and told teens to pray to know the next thing God wanted them to do. That God had made each of them for a purpose.
One day he realized he needed to take his own advice. He thought about former gang members who were ashamed and hindered by their tattoos so he started a ministry to cover those evil markings with works of art.
His ministry is called INK 180.
Dept. of Homeland Security’s gang division became interesed in Chris’ work. Chris visited their headquarters and discovered another need. He learned that hundreds of young women - domestic violen ce victims and runaways are held captive by organized crime members and ganes. Often they are tattooed by their captors so they can be identified and returned if they try to escape.
Sometimes these tattoos are bar codes and sometimes they are branded or scarred like animals. This broke Chris’ heart and he did not know such brutality existed and longed to help these women.
Chris and Ink 180 ministry begame meeting with these victims and helped them by covering their vile markings with beautiful artwork of flowers and other images, giving them an opportunity to escape the pain of their past and embrace freedom in Christ.
You see we all have a calling, a set of responsibilities no one’s story is the same. Thank God for that.
The church is a big circle made up of all God’s children and everyone of us has a responsibility.
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
Develop a sense of responsibility to reach others and serve the world and made that decision before it is too late.
Chase the plan!
Chase the plan!
When you have surrendered totally to God, grabbed the fact of your uniqueness and realized you have a responsibility to serve the Lord and others the pursue God’s plan for your life. Chase that plan!
Run in the direction your purpose leads you.
When you sense God leading you in a certain direction, don’t be passive about it. Don’t take it for granted.
Be active
Ask questions
Make visits
Look for advice
Read
Study
Look for next steps and take them
Don’t wait for God to interrupt your tv program with a special bulletin.
If you’re not dead you’re not done when it comes to serving the Lord.
There are still things we can all do no matter what we are facing in life.
Keep pursuing God!
Obey Orders
Obey Orders
God’s Word is a master plan for our lives. WE must read it and apply it.
Read and Heed!
His will for our lives never deviates from the Word He has given us in scripture.
God’s instruction manual is our Bible!
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Note this translation uses this phrase “observe to do” - it is easy to pass over these words as unimportant but they present one of the greatest concepts of the Old Testament.
We are not to read the Bible just for curiosity or intellectual reasons only. We are to study it to discover God’s will for our lives. We are to read it and heed it!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
Open your Bible and study it searching for promises, commands, warnings, praise, prayers and words of comfort.
In these times you will learn to love the Word of God. That is why to have the daily habit of Bible reading and meditation.
Serve
Serve
It is not about us it is all about Him.
Remember the song:
It’s all about you, Jesus
All this is for you
For your glory and your fame
It’s not about me as if you should do things my way
You are Lord of all and I surrender
To your ways
Our work for God extends beyond the walls of our church buildings.
The purpose of the church is to prepare the followers of Christ to take the reality of the Gospel to the whole world.
We are ALL called to serve and to SHARE with our lost and needy world.
We can never find our purpose in life until we realize we are under the orders of the Great Comission and that is:
Go into all the world and preach the gospel.
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
The key to the Great Commission is the Great Commandment which tells us to:
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
The greatest joy of being a Christian is the joy of sharing Christ with others and then service others in the body of Christ.
Conclusion:
We have a God given responsibility and we need to actively pursue it.
Trying to find out what is next on God’s agenda for you.
Stay in scripture daily
Serve others selflessly
Look for opportinities to share
Pursue your purpose
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Everyone is looking for the kind of life that is abundant and eternal.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
God’s ultimate purpose for us is to experience, enjoy, and embody the eternal life Jesus died to bestow on us. He fills our emptiness with Himself.
He fills us with the certain hope of eternal life.
Do you have that hope?
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Your eternal life begins the moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ.
Did you know that?
As a believer that purpose for life is not going to be realized wholly here on earth. Your life has eternity stamped on it and it does not end if your should due before the return of Jesus Christ.
So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.
What you are doing today has eternal meaning. As you pursue your divine purpose you will increasingly see how this earthly world is connected to the heavenly world - home forever!
God realized we were lost in our closed system world of emptiness and chaos. He put His hand on the should of His perfect Son, Jesus Christ and sent Him out of heaven into this world. And He said “Go and give them life everlasting”.
There was no other way.
Almight God is holy, absolutely and perfectly holy!
The only way He could bring us to heaven and satisfy His holiness and justice was to send Jesus Christ to the world. Jesus Christ took our sin upon Himself. He bled and died. He was buried and rose again. By these actions He purchased a place in heaven for us.
He compressed the suffering of humanity into what he endured on the cross.
It was suffering in a magnitude we will never know.
The key to all this - get out of the emptiness and get into His purpose - to do this we have to go through Jesus!
He is the way, the truth, and the life!
When we receive Him as savior eternal life begins at that moment and with it comes a life of purpose.
If that is you today please pray this prayer with me right now:
“Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior”.
If you prayed that prayer share the great news of your decision with us - call us here at the church or message us online or comment on this page. We want to support you and celebrate what God has done in your life.