FOCUS ON JESUS!
FOCUS ON JESUS!
March 19, 2017
Sermon in a sentence: In all that I say and do, Jesus Christ will be the focal point of my life, for my entire life.
Congregational reading: 2 Tim. 1:7-14
Scriptures: 2 Tim. 1:7-14,8,17; Dan. 2:24-28; Dan. 6:1-4,10,16-22; Dan. 8:15-17; Dan. 9:20-23;Dan. 10:10-14,18-21
2 Tim. 1:7-14 NKJV For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesusbefore time began, 10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, whohas abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
In years gone by, there was a thrust in many large companies to diversify the businesses they were engaged in, to have many ‘irons in the fire’, so to speak. The reasoning was very simple. At some point in the business cycle, there would always be a department of the company enjoying success, even if other areas were not doing so well. They felt this was necessary to guarantee consistent profits. Maybe not very large or noteworthy profit, but consistent profit. “Diversification” was the name of the game.
After some time, however, investorsbegan to analyze the wisdom of this strategy. They discovered that overall, diversified companies were not nearly as profitable as they had hoped or expected them to be. So, they began to employ a different strategy, looking for companies that presented a “pure play.” These were companies that focused on what they did best and had become world leaders in markets where they had developed a competitive advantage. They performed exceedingly well in their areas of expertise and didn’tplay around with things they weren’t good at.
Here’s an example we can look at. CBS is a very large media giant in the U.S.A. From the 60’s to the 80’s, they were a prominent example of corporate diversification at work.[1] They ventured far outside of their media focus and bought companies that had nothing to do with their core business, including Ideal Toys (of Teddy Bear and Rubik’s Cube fame), and the New York Yankees.
At the same time, there was another small media company most people have never heard of called Capital Cities. They owned five small-market TV stations and four regional radio stations. CBS was 16 times their size.
Over the next 30 years however, while CBS struggled under the mountain of debt they incurred in buying these big, unrelated companies, Capital Cities just went about the business of becoming a highly skilled, highly focused media company. Yes, they also bought other companies, but they were all media outlets that they ran in a very efficient and profitable manner. Eventually, they even bought CBS’s main rival ABC. And in 1995, after 30 years of competition with CBS, Capital Cities was bought by the Disney Corporation, by which time it had become three times as valuable as CBS. Focus pays!
I realize this is only one example, but it highlights a very important point. There are many things we can do with our lives and many goals we can try to accomplish. There are many “good” activities we can be engaged in and many worthy projects we can undertake. But at the end of the day, we will do much better if we have been focused on something, andI would highly recommend that Jesus Christ be the focal point of our lives!
In 597BC, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. Jeremiah had warned Israel that this would happen because of their rebellion against God. Their best and brightest were taken as captives to Babylon, including a schoolboy by the name of Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar, the conquering king, did not wish to have lingering problems with the Jews, so he employed a very simple and powerful strategy to keep them in line: he turned them into Babylonians! He changed their names to Babylonian names, taught them the Babylonian language and culture, fed them Babylonian food and gave their children a Babylonian education.
Even as a young teen, however, Daniel resisted. He refused to use his Babylonian name and he refused to eat Babylonian food. He may have been a captive and a slave, but he was still a worshiper of Yahweh in his heart and in his lifestyle. Daniel held fast to his faith. There were many injustices he endured as a captive in a strange land – any number of things he could have protested and complained about, but he chose a different path.
As we read through the book of Daniel, we see that he chose to overtly and deliberately worship the God of Israel, giving Him honour and glory in the court of a heathen king.
It is evident that he studied hard, had a great attitude despite his situation, and earned the respect of those around him. But he devoted his best efforts to maintaining his relationship with God and was totally available for God to use at any time.
This lasted all the way through his long life. He interpreted dreams for kings. He ruled as a high government official with diligence and skill. He lived at the highest level in Babylonian society, one of the top three governors of the greatest military/political dynasty known to man.
None of his jealous detractors could find the smallest argument to make against his character and he continued to pray toward Jerusalem three times a day. When his enemies tricked the king into having him thrown into the lion’s den, God delivered him.
Daniel was highly regarded and highly favoured in heaven also! Both the archangel Gabriel and Michael the warrior angel were involved in getting God’s prophetic messages to him. He was an outstanding and exemplary man of God, faithful unto death.
With an example like that before us, here are a few questions we need to consider:
-How profitably are we spending our time?
-How worthy are the goals we are pursuing?
-What impact are we making on the world around us?
-What is the eternal impact of our activities?
-Are we focused on Jesus?
We have a host of talented people in our church with tremendous abilities to accomplish great things in life. Some are very skilled communicators, using the latest in social media technologies to get their message out. Some of you are using multiple platforms to reach your world and some of you literally have thousands of followers and viewerson Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Vine,Periscope, Viber, etc.
What an incredible opportunity is in your hands!
A few morequestions:
-What messages are you sendingto your world?
-What battles are you fighting?
-What people, places and products are you promoting?
-What trends are you pushing?
-Who are you taking selfies with to publish online?
-What music are you hyping?
-What philosophy are you supporting?
-What world view are you representing?
Let’s summarize it with one big question: Is your life and your communication actively and overtly promoting Jesus Christ, or have lesser causes taken priority?
From his youth, Daniel was diligent with his studies and as an adult, he was diligent in his career. And he always put God first. He continued walking with God into his late 80s and 90s, always maintaining his godly witness.
Daniel is not the only example we can cite. As a young man, a favoured son who became a slave, Joseph kept his focus on God and served him faithfully. He also continued to serve God until he was an old man and died a faithful worshiper of Yahweh. ‘Make sure you don’t even leave my bones in Egypt’!
Nehemiah was another slave who took his life into his hands to represent the interests of God’s people to a heathen king. Despite his situation, he honoured God.
Esther was a beautiful young lady, charming, intelligent and highly favoured. Of all the women in the land, she was chosen to be queen of Persia. However, she was also a descendant of one of the captives taken out of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. She was an alien queen. She could easily have left her people to their own devices and just worried about saving her own skin, but instead, she devoted herself to a higher calling and stood with the people of God.
Yes, there are many good things we can do and many noble causes we can stand for, but nothing should ever supersede our focus upon Jesus, His word, His cause, His mission, His great commission.
There are many around us fighting against crime in our neighbourhoods, political corruption, gender inequality, racial discrimination, substance abuse, economic inequity, etc. These are all worthy of attention, but who is standing for Christ? How many are engaged in pointing lost souls to Calvary? How many are consumed with the passion to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every man, woman, boy and girl?
You may not be a governor like Daniel, a prime minister like Joseph, a king’s aide like Nehemiah or a queen like Esther, but you do have power! You have an audience. You have people around you that will listen to you. You are not insignificant! God has created you on purpose, with purpose, but you must give yourself back to Him and let Him use you.
Paul reminded Timothy that we have a holy calling from God (v.9) and He has committed a good thing to us (v.14) – the gospel of Jesus Christ. This calling and purpose was assigned to us “before time began”, and leads to “life and immortality.”
So, in considering our options, wondering how to spend our time and expend our energies, we need to do something holy. Something godly. Something Christian. Something with eternal impact. Something that will lead others to Christ, through all the means we have at our disposal: our voice, our pen, our fingers, our hands, our intellect, our camera, our love, our compassion, our joy, our peace, His word.
We need to focus. On Jesus.
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[1]See William N. Thorndike, Jr., The Outsiders, Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, 2012, 13-16.