Regaining Your Focus

If the condition of ADD/ADHD was around when I was in elementary school there is no doubt in my mind I would have been diagnosed with both and most likely put on heavy doses of medicine to help me. I much liken myself to the dog on the Pixar movie Up. If you remember the movie there was a dog in the movie with a human voice (well at least a collar that transmitted a human voice) and every time something moved it distracted him and he would yell out, "squirrel." That's me in a nutshell, ask my wife if you already don't know me well enough to have discerned it yourself. As much as I would like to say, "it was me" I have to admit it is me. I struggle with focus, with paying attention longer than 20 seconds.
In our passage for this Sunday's sermon this is precisely what Paul, the author of the letter of Ephesians, encourages the church to. To stay, gain, regain focus. Listen to a couple of quotes from this passage we will be using: "let no one deceive you" (Eph 5:6) that is to distract you, to turn your attention away from that which is most important. Another one, "For at one time you were darkness, but now you are the light int he Lord. Walk as children of light and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord." (Eph 5:8,10) Paul is saying gain clarity, get perspective don't be distracted by other things that may be well and good but not what is necessarily pleasing to the Lord's desires for you.
A third quote, "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness" (Eph 5:11) That's the equivalent of your mother coming up to you and putting both hands on your face and turning it towards her own and saying, "now look at me when I talk to you!" She is serious and she wants your undivided attention because either you have done something worthy of a spanking or you are about to and she needs you to focus on what she is saying to you. 
And finally look at verses 15-21 of chapter 5 and Paul starts that section out with the exhortation, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise..." This section is screaming out at us to stay, gain and regain focus. Focus on Christ and that which pleases Him and that which He desires for us. What is stealing your focus away from that which is most important?

Sexual Purity

Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. Eph. 5:2 Walk as Christ walked. These two passages seems overwhelmingly impossible don't they. How can we imitate God? The Greek word for imitate is to mimic. You have seen 2 pantomimes facing each other and they mimic each other so well you swear that they are actually using a mirror and there is only really one of them. You can't tell which is leading and which is following. You understand that they didn't decide to do such an "act" when they got on stage but rather they have been working on it for a long time, they face each other and practice what the other is doing for hours on end and that's the key; facing each other and copying what you see the other do. That's what Paul is saying to us here, turn your face toward God and copy what you see him do.
This is difficult in every area of life but it is most difficult in the area of Sexual Purity. We have a tendency to look at Sexual Purity as something that teens have to be concerned with before marriage, and they do, but that's not all there is to it. Sexual Purity is an issue the whole church needs to be concerned about. Men seem to have the struggle with their eyes. For a guy the eyes are the gateway to impure thoughts which almost always turn into impure actions. What men allow themselves to see (there is enough to see but we don't have to look, when we choose to look and gawk is what I am talking about) and fantasize about is a tremendous struggle for almost all men.
What women tend to struggle with isn't so much look as it is for attention. Most women want to be noticed, this is a healthy, God-given desire that is to be met in the confines of marriage. The problem is that women often look to be seen in ways that aren't glorifying to God: immodesty, dressing in such a fashion to be seen.
Both men and women have to battle for purity, I've mentioned only a couple of struggles we face together. I am confident there are many of you who struggle to remain Sexually Pure and that this battle is a battle sometimes won and sometimes lost. Ephesians gives us the power and tools to be victorious. I'll talk about them more at length this Sunday but for now know that it starts with turning your face to God, copying what you see him doing and walking as Jesus walked.
May God give you grace and power to walk purely before him and for his Glory today.

Hope For A Hurting World

As Christians how do we cope with or explain tragedies, accidents, heartaches, pain and sufferings? Why are there so many trials, personal attacks and persecution? Why is life so complicated, convoluted, difficult, out of control, filled with setbacks, why so much stress, unrelenting, one thing after another? why do we go through so much of what we go through, when it comes to health, trials, why is life in general so difficult at times? Isn't life supposed to be easier and better as a Christian?
We have all been there or walked with those who have asked these or similar questions and at times we have wavered in our faith and belief in a loving, caring, all powerful God. We have struggled to make sense of the pain and heartache and have found ourselves to be at a loss for answers.
My goal is to in no way make light of the circumstances you find yourself in or to try and cover up your pain or questions with cliches that seem to hurt or induce guilt rather than heal and produce wholeness. What I would like to do in brief is use two verses as backdrops or underpinnings to make three very broad but fundamentally important statements, three principles of the Christian faith that you cannot go without. Three paramount truths that if you miss them you will be subject to a life of frustration and even despair and will succumb to thinking yourself a victim in every painful and trying situation in life.
I will give the two verses first in hopes that you will go to the scriptures to discover the freshness of God's amazing love for you and then I will give the 3 principles, one day at a time that you may have opportunity to consider each of them on their own and to contemplate them as you dwell on each.
The first refreshing Biblical text:
Romans 8:18-39  "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)
I know it's long but hang in there, one more verse for you to chew on then tomorrow the truths we learn from them.
1 Peter 1:3-9 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (NIV)