John: Hey, friends. Welcome back to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Gunter. This week we are in week 2 of our fix your focus series. Last week we talked about the need for fixing our focus to focus back on the main thing, which is Jesus, which is focusing on what God wants for us.
This week in part 2, we talk about really cheap substitutes. Maybe ways that we focus on other things or other people and substitute that for for really the way Jesus would have us live. And so focus today is what would Jesus do? Thanks for listening. If we can ever do anything for you, let us know.
Have a great week. Good. That is just out of focus, just like it is on my computer screen. Again, as we talk about this series on, fixing your focus. How many of you have trouble fixing your focus?
I love YouTube. I wish YouTube had been around when I was a teenager. It is a great resource. You need to, learn how to bake something, or you need to change something out in your vehicle, you can find it on YouTube. But many times when I am searching around on YouTube, I start out on one thing, and by the end of it I'm either an expert on that thing or I have traveled down the rabbit hole of who knows what.
You ever been there? That's exactly how we can be in our Christian walk. Sometimes, we're right on the path, walking down the path, and we're focused. Other times, we have a rabbit cross the trail and we follow it. And all of a sudden, we figure out that we left the trail a long time ago.
And so that's what we are talking about, in this series. It's just fixing our focus back on Jesus, back on God, making the main thing the main thing. Because as you live life, you understand that so many things are out there to grab our attention, to take our focus, and to try and get it back on something else. Last night, there was a football game in Kansas City. How many of you watched it?
How many of you couldn't watch it because it was on a different streaming platform than you had? What the Peacock channel did, I think, was spend like $110,000,000 to have the game on their channel so they could get all the eyes on what they are offering. And by the way, they are running a special, $29 for a year. Fix your focus on us, you need this, right? Always in life, there is something out there to grab your attention and to pull you away from where you need to be focused.
We start this morning with a re reading of a couple of scriptures we read last week. First of all, in Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4, Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Paul is talking to Christians and he's saying, you have pledged allegiance. You have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and because of that, you have died to yourself. You have given your life to Jesus. So that's the way it needs to be, right? Not that we just claim, I I love that Jesus guy, but our life is changed by that, that we now follow Him.
I said last week that churches all over, including ours, what we do most of the time is we gather and count. We count attendance and we count giving and all those things, and we need both of those things. Right? But a lot of times, we count success as either an increase in attendance or an increase in giving. And what we ought to start doing is measuring success in lives changed following God.
Amen? Because that's what success actually is, is bringing souls into salvation by them meeting Jesus, our Lord and savior. And so, let's count that as success. From Ephesians 4 verses 17 through 20, so I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of god because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
He's not saying all Gentiles are idiots. Right? Yes. You're dumb because you're a Gentile. You'd be talking to us.
Right? And y'all dumb. What he's saying is there's ignorance because people have hardened their hearts. Nothing's getting in. I'm always right.
You don't tell me any different. Right? I have hardened my heart to that. They are they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of god because of this, because of the ignorance that comes from hardening their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
That, however, is not the way of life. Euler. Verse 19 there is just saying, we can get off the track so much that we lose sensitivity to things we shouldn't have lost sensitivity to. I used the example last week of, driving a vehicle. You remember the first time you started driving?
I started driving in my mom's bright red 1986 Suburban. It is like a tank on wheels. And I remember the first time I had to take a curve with no, no shoulder and, and on a bridge, you know. And there's a railing there, and I'm going, oh, we're gonna die. But I remember, as I told you last week that, somebody had told me, you know, don't ever speed because once you start, you won't stop.
Anybody seen that to be the truth? Yeah. And I remember back, I said, dragging Main last week, a lot of y'all, like, it took you back, I think. You were laughing and everything. But I remember the first time I did that, I was I had gotten my little truck.
My first truck was blue 1994 S10. Stick shift, so y'all think more of me, okay? Well, an automatic. But the speed limit in my little town was 25 miles an hour, and here I came dragging Maine at 25 miles an hour. And it looked like there had been a wreck because so many vehicles were behind me, just waiting and wondering what in the world I'm slowing up for.
And I remember those days because I thought, You don't speed. Don't ask me what I do today. I'd rather not talk about it. But there are things that we can lose sensitivity to because of the way we live our lives, right? That because we have engaged or indulged in certain things, we lose sensitivity to the way we should be living, or the way we should be acting, right?
You've seen that all in your life, I'm positive. You've probably trained your children and grandchildren. Don't do that, right? Don't do it. You don't want to do that.
Evan had a, I think it was this past week, because they are 10 now, they had a heart to heart with the campus police telling them they could be locked up. Right? They come home kind of half grinning, half, this is what happened today, dad, we could be locked up for things, right? There is a way that we all ought to live. It doesn't matter if we are 10 or if we are 80 or anywhere in between or anywhere over.
Isn't that right, DC? Miss Murrow. There's a way we should live that we don't lose sensitivity. Paul says a couple of things here. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, this is in your bulletin this week.
Paul, as he is talking to the Corinthians there, he says his statement. He says, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. He said this another way in Philippians 3. He said, join together in following my example, brothers and sisters. And just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
Now this may fall into one of those things that I wish Paul wouldn't have said. You ever get to some of the scripture and you think, man, wish he wouldn't have said that. And it's not because of what he said. It's it's really because of how I've seen it play out in in some of Christian lives. Because Paul says, follow me, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
And that sounds great, right? Yeah. Do that. And and again, he says, join together in following my example. Follow Paul, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.
So you can watch other Christians, other followers of Jesus as they live the way I do. But I'm afraid how this plays out sometimes in our churches is that we have kind of cheap examples of this. That instead of following the example that Paul set for us, instead of following the example that Jesus and the and the life he lived for us, we kind of substitute that with, well, I I think so and so is a good Christian guy, and everything I do is kinda based on him. And what we do is just like we gather and count in attendance or in, what we raise or bring in in money. We look at someone else and we say, well, they're here on Sundays as if that makes a good Christian.
We need that, don't we? We need to be here and support each other, but does walking in this building mean that you're a good Christian? Sometimes, conversations I've had with people, they're they're really excited because brother or sister or so and so can quote a lot of scripture. I love that people can quote a lot of Scripture. I had to memorize a lot in school and that's difficult.
Aren't you impressed when somebody can really spit out some scripture? But does knowing a lot of scripture or being able to quote a lot of scripture make you a good Christian? No. You know who one of the best quotas of scripture is in scripture? Yeah.
Satan. You know that. But then we're impressed by the next guy who stands up and quotes a bunch. Right? And so it's not those things that we observe.
It's it's the heart. Right? It's the the person that actually lives by the example that Paul left, by the example that Jesus left. It's not based on attendance, based on your ability to quote scripture, or that they're a nice guy and I've never heard them cuss. Right?
And what we do a lot of times is we make those cheap substitutions and say, I'm gonna follow their example. Because if they were wrong, I there's no way I they're they're just better than me. But, when we're talking about fixing our focus, the focus, the lens, the thing that brings everything into clarity always has to be Jesus Christ. Amen? I'm talking about when you're listening to me, when you're listening to one of our elders, when you're listening to one of our teachers, anybody that stands up, anybody that's telling about the word of God or saying, follow me.
Right? The example can't start with me. What you do is you run that through the filter of remember the bracelets? What would Jesus do? That was a long time ago now, wasn't it?
Maybe we need to bring that back because it was a really good reminder right there. What would not you or me or whatever, which we may be doing the right thing, but run it through the filter of what would Jesus do? That's what I think needs to get our focus, needs to get our attention. Are you living a life, are you acting in a way that is consistent with the way that Jesus lived? Are you treating people the way that Jesus treated people?
They looked at Jesus and said, Why is He talking to a woman? Because He needed to. Because Jesus needed to show love to everybody. Are you living that way? Going back into, well, let me finish this first.
Verse 18, for as I have often told you before and now, tell you again, even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Do you understand that? That's not confusing to anyone, is it? Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. So you need need to be careful of whose example you're following, right?
You need to understand what it is that that you're getting into, who you're following. Many people don't live in the right way. So follow Jesus. Right? We know he did.
Paul is and again, as Paul says, follow my example, he doesn't mean that he's perfect. Paul is the first one to tell you, I'm a chief I'm the chief sinner. Right? But there's a way you live, there's a way I'm going to be an example, and I'm going to run that through the filter of who Jesus is. He continues here, he says, their destiny is destruction.
Those people who are not living the right way. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. Now, this is all describing a person who says, their god is their stomach. That's that's just saying this person is about them.
Like, what I want, what I desire, that's what I'm going to follow. Not running it through, would Jesus do this? But this is the way I'm going to live my life because this is the way I want to live my life. That's the kind of people that he's talking about here. He said, their mind is set on earthly things.
Again, we know, we've raised our hands, we've shaken our heads, we all know that there are things out there trying to grab for our attention. Right? But if you focus on those things, you've lost focus on the main thing, who is Jesus. Verse 20, But our citizenship is where? Our citizenship where?
Heaven. Amen. That's where I want to have citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Again, Paul is saying, focus on the person that does this.
Right? So many things seem important in the moment here. Right? You ever been mad about something and you knew you were real mad and then later you walk around the house, you're like, I can't remember what I'm mad about because it really wasn't that serious. You just took it that serious.
I'm just mad. Stay mad. Not not even sure what I'm mad about. Yeah. Well, focus on him.
Focus on what actually matters. The the person that can save your soul, not on all the stuff that tries to get at you here. Focus on that. Back in Colossians 3, Paul continues, we read through 1 through 4 earlier. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now, you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these. But Paul does this all the time. He gives you a little list. You go, okay.
Good. I don't think I'm in that one. And then he adds more to it. Get get you also rid yourselves of all such thing as these. Anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
You have died. You have been raised. You have died to yourself. Your life is hidden in Christ. So this does not need to be a part of your life.
And guess what? It wants to be a part of your life, And your coworker wants it to be a part of your life. And that person at HEB may want it to be a part of your life. That guy that cut you off in traffic definitely wants it to be a part of your life. I won't get it.
Don't do this. Get rid of it in your life. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge and the image of its Creator. Here, there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all. If you have been raised with Christ, He's talking to you.
There's a way now that you should live your life. Don't lose focus of it. Don't let something in your life pull you away. Hebrews 12:12 is our focus verse, and I want to end here today. Because as we live as a church, we want to keep our focus on Jesus, and as I think about this lesson, I think one of our focuses that could take our focus off of Jesus is a church building.
Is the wind we're gonna build? Is the what's it gonna look like? How quickly? All the things that we could be focused on that might take our focus off of Jesus. Is that fair?
Because what does the church building do for us? If it doesn't do it, what it needs to do is help us reach people. Right? But if God doesn't want us to have a church building, we ought not have one. If he wants us to meet here, we'll just keep meeting here.
If he needs to needs us to meet in my home, I'll give you the address. But throughout everything this church does, we have to keep our focus on Jesus Christ. As we've talked about, building, I just want to let you know that, the committee is still meeting. We're still planning, but you should know that that building, is going to be probably at least 3 years away. As we talk to people that are are financing for us, because of inflation, because of the cost of materials, because they say every church that builds right now goes over budget, they said you ought to wait at least 3 years.
And so you can get upset about that if you want, or we can ask the question, god, what is it you want us to do right now? And I think the answer to that is to be faithful. Be faithful followers of him. That means faithful in being here. That means faithful in reaching out, encouraging people.
That means being faithful with your money so that we can build when the time comes. But don't ever let something like a building or the next thing. Grab our attention away from following Jesus and who he is. Would you stand with me as we read this together? Hebrews 1212.
Read with me, please. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We've got an invitation song picked this morning. If you'd like to fix your eyes back on Jesus, if you need the prayers of the church, you need to begin that walk with him.
Would you come as we stand and as we sing?