Turning On Focus Mode
Sunday Morning
Pastor Jim Lowe III
Sunday Morning,
1/2/22 (1st Sunday Message)
{All scriptures are NIV84 unless stated}
This is the first Sunday of 2022!
God has allowed us to see another
2021 has now come and gone!
Just when you get used to writing 2021…it’s a new year!
We’ve been through a lot the last couple of years.
We left 2019 going into 2020 saying “This is our year!”
We all know what happened in 2020.
We spent most of
2 Years Ago:
Many of us may have lost someone we knew.
Many of us lost our jobs.
We had a worldwide virus SWEEPING the world.
We ALL had to cope with the effects of quarantine.
The mask debates…
2021:
Then the vaccines begin.
Many of us changed careers.
Started self-employment.
We have the delta variant.
Now we have the Omicron variant.
The last few years have shown us many challenges.
Things that hit us as ALL people.
Even in the midst of the UNEXPECTED things of the
We can say CONFIDENTLY in 2022:
1. God Has Been Faithful
2. We Are Still Here
This tells us that God has kept us.
2 Timothy 2:11-13
11 Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
13
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
Same scripture in the MSG version:
2 Timothy 2:11-13 (MSG)
This is a sure thing:
If we die with
If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him;
If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us;
If we give up on him, he does not give up—
for there’s no way he can be false to himself.
If we die with him…
We
if we endure bad times with him.
we will go through great times with him.
If we leave him…
He will leave us.
But even if we lose all hope and faith…
He will remain faithful.
There may have been many times during the last year that we didn’t know how we were going to make it.
Our health may had been in question.
Our finances may had been in question.
Our sanity may had been in question.
The WEIGHT of everything may have been heavy.
We may had wanted to give up.
But God did
God has kept us.
{repeat}
“God Has Been Faithful"
2 Thessalonians 3:3
3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
If we don’t have anything to thank God for…
We should thank him for his
And there is a scripture we can use every time God makes a promise.
Hebrews 13:8
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
This and other scriptures like it are to remind us that if God has done something before…
He can
If God was faithful before…
He can be faithful again…
So if we can trust God to be faithful to us…
If we can trust God to keep us…
Then instead of worrying about our circumstances…
(…instead of wondering how we may make it this year…)
Let’s regain our focus for 2022.
Let’s Re-Focus For 2022!
Who does this happen to?
You set a plan to do some yard work.
Yet the day you want to do it…you wake up tired.
…you get an unexpected call.
…you realize that there are things in the other room that need to be put up.
…the kitchen had some dishes in the sink you forgot to do.
…you open the fridge and realize something is in there at needs to be thrown out.
…something else happens that AT THE MOMENT seems more important.
…when the day
…we didn’t set out to do what we accomplished.
How often does this happen?
We set a goal…
And distractions keep us from the goal.
This is why they say resolutions fail!
We set out to do things and end up letting other things STOP us from doing them!
Don’t Let Distractions Become More Important Than The Goal!
Distractions MAY be important!
If you wake up tired, you might NEED rest!
You might NEED to clean the fridge!
You might have other things that need to be done…
But you SET out to
Many of us set out to accomplish goals last year…
We spent last year talking about purpose.
Many of us set out to walk in that purpose last year.
Things We Tried To Do In 2021:
- Get Closer To God
- Walk In Purpose
- Come To Church More
- Let God Work On Us
But as we started to do those things…
Distractions came up.
With all that was going on.
We weren’t able to go after our goals like we wanted.
The things that stopped us may have been important.
But we STILL have those goals to accomplish.
How does the bible say we should accomplish these goals?
The bible talks about what we are FOCUSED on.
Proverbs 4:25
25
Fix our gaze…
Focus our attention…
Straight ahead…
Look in the direction you’re trying to go.
When you look in different directions…you SEE things that distract you.
You SEE things outside of the goals you set.
In 2022, Let’s Turn On Focus Mode!
Focus mode means to do what’s necessary to lock out distractions.
It means to
Even our phones have some type of “focus mode.”
They will prevent you going to social media and entertainment sites…
They do this so you won’t get distracted from what you’re
Where is our focus?
What are we focused on?
What SHOULD we be focused on?
Psalm 121:1-8
1
What can we see from this?
from Psalm 121:
-My Help Comes From The Lord
-He Will Not Let My Foot Slip
-He Is
-He Will Protect Me
The Lord is doing all of these things.
All we need to do is one thing…
Psalm 121:1
1
All we
is FOCUS on the Lord.
To keep our EYES/ATTENTION/FOCUS on the Lord.
Affirmation:
“I Will Accomplish My Goals, Because I Am Focused On The Right Things!”
We MUST watch our focus!
If we are to go after any goals this year…ESPECIALLY what the
Philippians 3:15-16 (MSG)
So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.
Stay Focused On The Goal! Stay Focused On God!
Anytime you really want to do something…something usually comes up to stop you from doing it!
There is always something
We should be going after the things of God…
To do that, we have to fix our attention on what’s important.
Stop Allowing Distractions! Turn On Focus Mode!
There is always something else that needs to be done.
But what are we
Psalm119:37
37
The things we’re trying to do…
They may be important…
But are they WORTH stopping you from going after God?