Followers Need Filters And Focus

O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and on earth: Put away from us all hurtful things, and give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

What are hurtful things? What things are profitable for us? How do we tell? There are things that seem good and right yet can be hurtful. Likewise there are things that seem uncomfortable and risky yet can be profitable.

And, we have to be aware that these things are not just external, but also internal. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

How do we filter the harmful and focus on the profitable, both inside and out, so that we can be fully devoted followers of Jesus? This week’s lectionary reading gives us some insights.

Filters

1 Kings 19:19–21 ESV

So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

Luke 9:57–62 ESV

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

There is some hyperbole here, but we need to understand the Rabbi and disciple relationship to understand the extreme language.

What are the things, even seemingly good things, that are clogging things up, the hurtful things blocking you from fully following Jesus?

Hand in hand with our filter in determining what is hurtful and what is profitable, is our focus. Focus has to do with where we are looking and what our attention is on. Again, this can be external and internal.

Focus

Psalm 16 (ESV)

A Miktam of David.

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you.”

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

or take their names on my lips.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;

in the night also my heart instructs me.

I have set the Lord always before me;

because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Galatians 5:1 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:13–25 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

The Galatians were struggling amongst themselves with things concerning Jesus and living a holy life. They couldn’t agree on what was hurtful and what was profitable. The church has a long history of being hurtful to its own.

There was a time when I would have described all the trappings of our Anglican way as a yoke of slavery. It can become that. Any form, of church, even what would be called low church, can become legalistic and rigid.

I now experience the freedom in Jesus that it provides as long as my focus is on Jesus by the power and work of the Spirit. And that’s as it should be in all things.

Application

So how do we do this? How do we filter and focus the hurtful and the profitable? By looking at everything, considering everything, processing everything, through Jesus’ cross and empty tomb. In other words, through the gospel.

Are there frustrating people and situations in the media? At your job? In your house? In your church? In between your own ears?

Filter and focus “those people” through the gospel.

Filter and focus your reaction to “those people” through the gospel.

Discard the hurtful, even if it’s good, hang on to the profitable, even if it’s uncomfortable.

Keep Jesus between your eyes and ears, and your mind and heart, to be a filter and to provide focus. Then, rely on the power and the guidance of the Spirit to build God’s kingdom in you and through you.