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.