"A Focused Heart"

    Dear Friends in Christ,       

   I wonder how many of you could tell me what you were doing exactly 34 years ago today on May 29, 1977.  Probably not many of you, if any of you.  But if you were to ask me that question, I would have no problem telling you what I was doing.  For that was the day that Marilyn and I were united in marriage as husband and wife.  It was a day that started out kind of rough for me anyway as I woke up feeling a bit queasy in the stomach.  I don’t know if it was from all the food I’d eaten the night before at the rehearsal dinner or just a bad case of nerves, but I remember feeling so bad that I couldn’t even help out when we decorated the reception hall that morning.  Instead, I just laid around and let everyone else do the work.  As far as my appetite was concerned, it was virtually non-existent.  Nothing sounded good to me until finally I forced down a bowl of Sugar Pops cereal around lunchtime just so I’d have something in my stomach for the wedding that was to start at 3:00.  And if you had looked for me just 2 hours before the biggest moment of my life you would have found me lying in bed, trying to do whatever it took to feel better again.  But finally I had to get dressed and get to the church, which I managed to do even though my stomach was still a bit queasy.  Then, as if all that wasn’t bad enough, about 15 minutes before the service began my little nephew came up to me and told me he had lost the wedding rings that we had tied to his ring bearer’s pillow rather than using the fake ones that always come with the pillow.  So I rounded up my groomsmen and as the people were arriving, there we were out in the front church lawn in our white tuxes, scouring the grass, desperately searching for those rings until we finally found them.

   Then it was time for the wedding to begin.  The church was packed, the weather was warm and humid, and there was no air conditioning.  It was the perfect storm for the groom to pass out especially in light of how I’d been feeling all day.  But then the music started and the bridesmaids began to make their way down the aisle escorted by their groomsmen.  Then my little nephew came down the aisle bearing the rings that were now firmly tied to his pillow.  And finally the moment I had been waiting for arrived and there standing at the back of the church was my beautiful bride holding on to the arm of her handsome and smiling father.  And in that moment something happened to me.  I forgot about all that I’d been through earlier that day – the queasy stomach, the jumpy nerves, the lack of appetite, the lost rings – and I became focused; no, I became hyper-focused on this vision of beauty now making her way down the aisle and to whom I was about to profess my undying love and loyalty for the rest of my life. 

    Well, today I want to talk to you about what I experienced that day.  I want to talk about focus, in particular, what it means to have a focused heart.  It’s a subject that I think is an important one for Christians today because it’s so easy for us to become unfocused and sidetracked by all that’s going on in our lives these days.  Recently I read that the average person today has only 12-14 hours of discretionary time each week – time that is not scheduled or taken up with some other necessity or activity.  Now I know what some of you are thinking.  12-14 hours???  I’d love to have 12-14 hours of discretionary time each week because truthfully, I don’t have any time that I can really call my own.  And the reason so many of us don’t is because we have a tendency to clutter our lives with so much busyness, so many extracurricular activities.  And if you have children in your household, the things you have to do seem to multiply exponentially.

   So today I want to spend some time taking a look at what it means to have a focused heart.  And what better example could we look to and follow here than that of our Lord Jesus Christ who had the incredible ability to stay on track and to keep his life in focus and on course, even though there were plenty of other things out there that could have easily distracted him. 

   And the 1^st thing we want to note from Jesus today is that he was focused upon God’s plan for his life.  And not just during his adult years, mind you, but even as a child.  Remember the story of the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple?  He and his parents had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.  And when it was over, Mary and Joseph headed back to Nazareth assuming that Jesus was with some of their traveling companions which was probably a pretty sizeable group consisting of relatives, friends, and neighbors.  But they assumed wrong.  Jesus had stayed behind in Jerusalem.  And when Mary and Joseph realized this, they hightailed it back to the holy city where they finally found him after what must have been 3 of the most unbelievably anxious days that anyone has ever experienced in the history of the world.  And where was he?  He was in the temple, wowing the religious leaders with his knowledge of Scripture.  And when Mary kind of scolded him for putting them through this rather intense time of worry and concern, do you remember what Jesus told her?  He said, “Didn't you know I had to be about my Father’s business?”  That shows focus on Jesus’ part, doesn’t it?  Focus upon carrying out his Father’s mission, his Father’s plan for his life.

   Later on we see that same focus coming through when as an adult Jesus reminds his disciples over and over again that eventually they will go to Jerusalem where he will be handed over to sinful men who will mock him, scourge him, and crucify him.  But he always added that on the 3^rd day he would rise again.  Isaiah 50:7 talks of how the coming Messiah would set his face like flint when the time came for him to carry out his work on behalf of sinful men and sure enough, in Luke 9:51 we see him doing just that as we read: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”  When I read those passages I picture Jesus looking in the direction of Jerusalem with this intense and focused look of determination on his face that basically said to his disciples, “Ok fellas, let’s get her done!  Let’s finish the plan the Father gave me to do!”

   So what about you, my friends?  Are you living a life that is focused upon God’s plan for you?  Now I know what some of you are thinking: “I don’t know what God’s plan even is for my life so how can I know whether I’m focused upon it or not?”  And I understand that because I realize that God’s plan is often looked upon as this great nebulous mystery that’s floating around out there somewhere and that it’s up to us to somehow figure out for ourselves.  But it’s not that difficult.  It’s really no mystery at all.  In the Bible God makes very clear to us that his plan and his will for us and all people is our eternal salvation.  Like Paul says in I Tim. 2:4, God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 

   So if the plan and ultimate goal of God is the salvation of the world, then doesn’t it stand to reason that our goals and our plans should line up with his?  The Apostle Paul would apparently agree with that for in 2 Cor. 5:20 he says, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors.”  Did you catch that, my friends?  We are Christ’s ambassadors.  An ambassador is a representative of the king, one who speaks on behalf of the king.  In other words, we are put in this world by God not to see how much money we can make and spend or how many possessions we can accumulate, nor to see how high we can climb on the ladder of success or how far we can make it on the social scale.  Rather we are put here to reach others for Christ and thus bring God’s plan of salvation for all mankind to fruition.  That was Jesus’ focus in his life and if we’re going to be just like Jesus like we’re talking about in the sermon series that I’m currently preaching, then it should be our focus too.

   Then a 2^nd thing we want to note about Jesus is he was focused upon serving, upon meeting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of others.  Like he once put it: “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.”  And sure enough, that’s exactly what he did as he devoted his entire life to serving.  He healed the blind, the sick, the lame, the deaf, the lepers; he fed the hungry multitudes; he comforted the sorrowing and even raised the dead; he ministered to peoples’ needs right where they were and thus gave them a clear picture of the love and concern that God has for all people.

   And I might add that he also made it very clear to us that it’s only by serving others, it’s only by unselfishly giving of ourselves to others that we find our greatest joy and fulfillment in life.  Like he once said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  And yet sadly, as we look around us in our culture today, we so often see just the opposite happening as people get so caught up and self-absorbed in their own lives that they have convinced themselves that they don’t have the time, the money, or the energy to actively pursue service to others.

   Thankfully, though, not everybody is like that.  In fact, in recent months I’ve seen some great examples of service taking place right here in our own church.  For instance, when I received a desperate phone call a few months ago from one of our members who was unemployed with no income at all, no power for the past 7 weeks, little food in the house, and yet a wife and 2 children to support and creditors breathing down his neck, I didn’t know what to do at first because the problem was so huge, so monumental.  So all I could think of was to bring this need to you, the members of our church family, which I did through a phone call in which I not only apprised you of this situation but I also announced that we would have a door offering the next day for this family.  The result?  The biggest door offering that I can recall in the 18+ years that I’ve been here.  But it didn’t stop with that.  Some of our Elders took over working with this family.  Furniture was donated.  Job offers and suggestions were called in.  It was a great example of the kind of heart Jesus had for those who were hurting, a heart that was focused upon serving and doing for others.

   Then finally, one other thing we want to note about Jesus today is that he had a heart that was focused upon heaven.  He lived his life with an eternal perspective that enabled him to rise above and look beyond the trials and troubles of life that came his way.  This really comes out in our text for today where we are encouraged to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  How could Jesus find joy in the cross?  How could he find joy in all the agony, torment, and torture that he endured throughout his Passion?  Well, I believe his joy came first of all from knowing all that his sacrifice on the cross would accomplish and make possible for sinful mankind.  But it also came from living with a heavenly perspective.  He knew what awaited him at the end of the road.  And so he took his eyes off the struggles he was going through and instead fixed them upon the victory that he knew would soon be his.

   My brother-in-law Bill who died just a few weeks ago was so good at doing this.  The day after we found out that he had only a few weeks to live I called him and in the course of that conversation I asked him how he was handling all this.  He told me: “I’m doing great.  Think about it, Doug.  I get to go to heaven real soon.”  And when I saw him a few nights later for the last time and gave him a hug good-bye, I told him that since he was doing so good that night, maybe God was going to keep him around longer.  To which he said, “Oh, I hope not.”  And then he said something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.  He said, “When your bags are packed, you’re ready to go.”  His bags were packed, his eyes were focused upon heaven, and because of that he was ready to go.  

   And my friends, it is that same heavenly perspective that enables us to cope with the imperfections of this life that sometimes come crashing down upon us.  I know that some of you here today are experiencing some of those imperfections right now as you’ve had to deal with terrible health problems recently, or the loss of a loved one, or financial problems, or marital problems.  And you may feel as though God has deserted you or forgotten you.  Well, I’m sorry for what you’re going through.  But one thing you must never ever doubt is God’s great love for you.  For like Paul says in Rom. 8:31-32: “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, along with him, graciously give us all things?”  So when those unwelcome problems come intruding upon your life, do what our text says:  Fix your eyes on Jesus.  Focus upon him.  Realize that in him God has already taken care of your biggest problem in life, which is your sin.  And rest assured that if he would do that for you in the way he did it for you, then you can trust him to help you through any other tough times you face.

   So let me encourage you today to live each day with a focused heart, my friends – a heart that is focused upon God’s plan of salvation for you and for others; a heart that is focused upon service to others; and a heart that is focused upon heaven.  And you know what may very well happen?  Those nagging problems that once seemed so huge, so insurmountable, and so unbearable may suddenly become much lighter and much more manageable as you focus and concentrate on that which is most important for life and for eternity.

   Amen.