Title: Where Are Your Focus?
Contents
2 Timothy 3:1-5
This is a story about Cyrus, king of Persia, a character in the Bible. He is well known as a king of great character. He was a person who always tried to embrace his enemies by implementing a policy of appeasement without treating them harshly. So, as we well know, he issued a decree and took steps to return the Israelites from captivity in Babylon to their homeland.
This happened to him once. He conquered some neighboring countries. The king and queen of the country and their children were taken captive. He interrogated them. But looking back, it was too much to kill them. So he turned to the king of the enemy country and asked: “What would you do if I saved you?”
The king of the enemy country said: "If you spare me, I will give half of my fortune to the king." Hearing this, he asked again. "Then what will you do if I release all your children?" Then the king of the enemy country replied: "If you do that, I will give all my possessions to the king."
He nodded and asked one last time. "If I spare your queen, what would you do?" Then the king of the enemy country answered without hesitation: "If you do that, I will gladly give my life to the king, even right now." Upon hearing this, King Cyrus was very moved. The words of the king of an enemy country that he would give even his own life for the sake of his beloved wife moved him.
So King Cyrus gave this command to his servants. "Hello! Release all these people. They are too precious to be killed." In this way, all the children of the enemy's king and queen were set free. The king, who was released that night as he went to bed, said to the queen: "As I have heard, Cyrus the king of Persia must be a great king. He will surely rule the whole world. When I look closely at his face, even his character is not that great. What do you think?"
Then, unexpectedly, the queen replied: “I never looked at his face, because I could not look anywhere else to look at him with ecstasy at the face of a trustworthy man who was willing to give his life for me. because of."
Guys, isn't it a beautiful story? As we listen to this story, we think of a husband who is a king but can lay down his life for his beloved wife, and a wife who only looks at the husband who loves him so much and focuses only on him. “Who am I looking at now? Where is the focus of my mind now?”
Ladies and gentlemen, isn't the focus of my heart on the world? Are you distracted by these and other worldly thoughts and keep away from the God who loves me so much, Jesus, who died for me? Because we live and live in a foreign land, aren't our hearts focused on something other than Jesus?
If you look at the Bible, "No- is this also the Bible?" There is one very strange Bible book that makes you think. It is a Bible book called 'Son'. In the original Hebrew, it is translated as 'Shir Hashrim', which means 'song of songs'. If you've read this book, please raise your hand. As you read this book, you may also ask yourself, “Isn’t this a love story?” You must have seen a lot of lewd expressions that made you think.
The content of this Song of Songs is the tender love between King Solomon and a Shulammite woman, a country maiden. In a way, King Solomon and the Shulammite woman do not fit together as lovers at all. Solomon was the king of his time, and the Shulammite was a shepherd, a country girl whose face was burnt in the intense sun. However, the two make love very purely. Both of them fell ill due to love. Solomon always said to the Shulammite woman, “My beloved! my love! My sweet baby!” and uses various expressions of love.
If this book were only about the love of King Solomon and the Shulammite woman, it would be a love story. However, what is included in this book is that the content of this book is a book about the love between Jesus the groom and us who are his brides. In a way, we are like the Shulammite woman, a country girl who does not fit well with Jesus, the King of kings.
But Jesus loved us. He loved us so much that he fell ill. Although we are not proud and lowly, he laid down his life for us. And he loved us so much that he couldn't leave us. Therefore, Jesus said that He would dwell in us by His Spirit and be with us forever.
Regarding this, Jesus said in John 14:16-20: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, who is the Spirit of truth, and the world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, because he dwells with you and will be in you. In that day you will know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you” (John 14:16-17, 20).
Everyone, I always want to be together with loved ones. We want to spend more time together, we want to talk more together, we want to eat together more, we want to see more together. In other words, when you love, your focus is on the other person. And that's not enough, I want to be in me and me in me. This is the love of a married couple becoming one flesh, and the love between Jesus as the groom and us as the bride.
But what if our focus is not on Jesus, the groom, but only on the world? And what if the focus that should be firmly on Jesus is not clearly focused and blurred? One glance spouse, one glance student, one glance saint, one glance lover, isn't it a good word to listen to? Likewise, it is possible for Christians who should be focused on Jesus to look away from the world can upset the heart of Jesus.
However, in today's text, it is prophesied that there will be many such ignorant Christians in the last days. There will be Christians who love themselves more than God, who love money more, and who love pleasure more. Today's text tells us not to associate with people who seem to believe in this way, but whose heart, life, and body are in the wrong place. Because it is easy to fall together.
Today I want to ask you a question. What are you focusing on these days? Isn't it focused on playing all night long, saying, "You can't play when you're young and old?" As an international student who has to study the most, isn't it too brave to play and too tenacious to play? “No, Pastor, what are you saying that makes you so upset? Wouldn't it be great if you could answer, "I study all my life, and my focus is on glorifying God."
If you focus on studying, you will do well in your studies, if you focus on playing you will become a gnome, and if you focus on watching videos and chatting all night, you will end up with bloodshot eyes and tiredness coming to worship. It will be difficult, and if you focus on prayer, you will receive power and meet God, and if you focus on the preaching of the gospel, of course there will be many rewards in heaven. In other words, what you focus on determines your future.
Jesus tells us. “Seek first his kingdom and his work. And all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) In other words, let us focus our lives on the kingdom of heaven. At that time, it is a wonderful promise of blessing that God will add to you food, drink, clothing, everything on earth and everything in heaven.
People in the world often say, “Where is the God you believe in? If you show me God, I will believe.” Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible tells us about the secret of meeting the invisible God. “If you seek and seek me with all your heart, you will find me (Jeremiah 29:13). He who seeks me earnestly will find me. (Proverbs 8:17) If you seek him with all your heart and all your soul, you will find him (Deuteronomy 4:29). The Bible clearly says that when the focus of the heart, the focus of the ears, the focus of the eyes, and all the focus of life turn to God, we will meet God.
Also, the Bible calls out to the saints of the last days. “I want you to be cold or hot” (Revelation 3:15) The meaning of these words is that you must believe in God even if you believe in Him. It is not to become a two-legged faith that goes back and forth with one foot on the world and the other on the Lord. It is to keep the foundation of the faith. All focus is on God. Even if you eat, you should eat for God, if you starve, you should starve for God. If you live, you should live for God, and if you die, you should die for God.
The whole focus of the apostle Paul's life was on preaching the gospel with Jesus. But while he was preaching the gospel, he heard someone say, “Paul, you are crazy!” Then Paul replies: “I am not crazy, I speak true and sane words. I pray to God that all who listen to me today will be like me.” (Acts 26:25, 29)
Ladies and gentlemen, if we sincerely believe in God, the world and Satan will ridicule us by saying, “You are crazy!” But that's not the view of us believers. Rather, if you indulge in drinking, lust after worldly pleasures, become tainted with lewdness and gambling, and pursue vain things, you will say, “Tttttttttt, you are crazy!”
Guys, keep that in mind. If our focus is not on Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life, we become a wandering life. Think about it. To those who stare into space without their eyes focused, or who stare at the ground, we say, 'I'm lost. I lost my mind.’ In other words, if you believe in Jesus and fail to focus on Jesus, you will become a Christian who has lost his or her mind. And what can you expect from such a crazy Christian?
Naturally, a good student must focus on his or her body, study, to be a good athlete, focus on sports, and to be a good artist, focus on art. Likewise, to be a good Christian, you must focus on Jesus. But the world is not easy either. Either way, they deceive in order to blur the focus of those who believe. It makes you think crazy. In the end, it leads them to go down the path of fall by turning their focus away from Jesus.
Everyone, think about it. What blurs your focus? is it money? Is it worldly pleasure? Are you worried about the world? If you and I are to be good Christians, our focus must be on the Lord and not on the world. That is, our goal should be the kingdom of heaven, and our focus should be on the expansion of the kingdom. God loves those who focus properly in this way. And he delights in revealing himself to him. In the name of the Lord, I bless you in the name of the Lord that you may live a short life in this foreign land, focusing on our beloved Jesus and his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.