STAY FOCUSED  

MARK 8, 22-25, "And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. 23. And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw ought. 24. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. 25. After that He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly." This is the only time in the gospels, Jesus touched someone twice. While the proper interpretation is a spiritual indictment against the blindness of Israel, there are some applications for us.

I. STAY FOCUSED ON CHRIST

It was the Lord Jesus who touched the blind man and allowed him to see. Do you remember the day when Jesus touched you, opened your blinded eyes and you saw light for the first time? It flooded your darkened soul, enlightened your mind and you could see and understand clearly. You knew you were a sinner lost and undone, but you also knew what He could do for you. He would forgive your sins and make you His child. Do you remember that day? He touched this man and said, "what do you see?" The man said, "I see men as trees, walking." He was not in focus. Jesus touched him again and then he saw clearly. Even though there was a time when Jesus touched you, opened your blinded eyes and you could see spiritual things, if your not careful, you can loose your focus. There are so many distractions in your life that can get your eyes off Jesus and you won't finish the race, you will loose your focus. If it gets to the place in your life, where Jesus Christ can not be clearly seen, then everything else becomes blurred. Nothing will be in proper perspective in your life, you will be totally out of focus. There are so many things that can get you out of focus. People, problems, pressures and pain can distract you. Some hypocrite, gossiper, trouble maker, somebody you know is putting on, can get your attention and cause you to get your eyes off Jesus. You see them in the choir, you see them in Sunday school, you get to looking at that person, instead of looking at the Savior. All of a sudden your whole life is out of focus and your looking at people. Get your eyes off of people, they are a distraction. Get your eyes on the Son of God. Be careful about looking at people. Get your vision cleared and see the Savior one more time. HEBREWS 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The only way to live straight is to keep your eyes on Jesus, look toward Him. The only way you can keep it right, have peace and joy, is to keep your eyes on the lovely Lord Jesus Christ. Don't look at people and problems, look at the Savior. You say, "well preacher that sounds good and I'm in agreement, but how do I do that?" "How do I stay focused on Jesus Christ with so many distractions and so many things around me?" MATTHEW 22:37, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." When someone asks you if you love Jesus, you say, "yes, I love Him with all my heart." What about all your mind? That means you pull your thought life into focus and you love Him through your thoughts. You love Him in your mind, with all your mind. If you love Christ with all your mind, then you stay focused. Every God called preacher in the world knows how hard it is to stay focused when their preaching. Its hard enough to stay focused with the supernatural elements all around them without having to look at some of their congregation, yawning and looking at their watches. Every preacher knows the spiritual, mental warfare that goes on while he's preaching. It takes an enormous amount of focus to preach one sermon to one congregation. That's why, when the preacher goes home, he is totally exhausted. It took everything he had, to get it done. Holding the congregation in attention and being intense in your presentation is like driving your car on ice. You have to focus. Don't hold your head down when your preacher is delivering God's message. You need to listen to what he is saying because a lot of prayers and tears have gone into the message God has given him. The preacher has to answer for the way he presented the message and you have to answer how you received it. So many things will take over your mind if you don't discipline yourself to stay focused on Jesus. If you don't stay focused, you will become distracted by people, problems, pressures and pain. You will live a life of distraction and you will miss the joy of a close walk with Jesus. When your focused on Him, your heart stays warm, your head stays cool and your life is in order, because your looking at Jesus. If you can't see Him, everything else becomes blurred. Don't look at anything, but Him. Please stay focused on the Savior.

II. STAY FOCUSED ON THE CHURCH

We must see the Church as our Lord sees it. How important is the Church in the economy of God? EPHESIANS 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it." Christ died for the church. That makes it the upmost of importance. We are commanded to be faithful to it, to love it, to give to it. What is the church? It is a living organism that has organization. In the organizational aspect, it is known as a local New Testament Church consisting of Born Again Baptized Believers, getting out the gospel of Christ. Our churches should have the intent for old fashioned preaching. The services should be spirit filled. The Church should have a strong witnessing program, winning souls for Christ and teaching them the Bible so they can go out and win more souls for Christ. There must be strong fellowship among the saints reaching out to the community through visitation and reaching the world through missions. Whatever you did at the beginning, you can not let up. Keep on having gospel preaching, spirit filled services and visitation outreach. The zeal must stay the same. Stay on fire the same as it was in the beginning through fasting and prayer. When your Church began you wanted to see souls saved, the pews filled, to reach out in the community, to make a difference. Whatever you were doing in the beginning you have to continue or your Church will not survive. Stay focused on the church. You say, "well I know what your talking about, but I'm getting older, let the young ones have it now." I PETER 5:1-2, "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed." 2. "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind." It's your responsibility to work with the younger generation, teaching them what God has revealed to you in your years of service to Him. Work together. It's about preaching and spreading the gospel.

III. STAY FOCUSED ON THE CONCLUSION OF YOUR LIFE

ACTS 14:22, "Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." Everyone will finish the journey. The question is, will you finish well? Will you finish right, with honor, with dignity? Will you die properly? You need to stay focused on the conclusion of your life. There are many believers no longer in the ministry, they lost their focus. They got their eyes off Jesus and began looking at areas not pleasing to the Lord. You better stay focused on the Christian life or else you won't finish well. Don't put yourself in a situation that may cause your testimony to be questioned. So many believers fall because they get caught up in the world and get their eyes off Jesus. Finish right. HEBREWS 12:1, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." The cloud of witnesses are children of God that have already gone on before us. They finished their race and are now with God. I am sure if they could communicate with us they would say, "keep on going, keep the faith, it will be worth it all at the finish line." We are to put aside the cares of this world and keep our eyes on Jesus. You must trust Him to take care of you. Let Him handle the cares and worries of this world. If there is sin in your life that is causing you to stumble and fall, stop it. Get your eyes back where they belong, on the Lord Jesus Christ. HEBREWS 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The finish line is not a place. The finish line is a person. The person is Jesus Christ. Stay focused on finishing. Keep your eyes on Jesus and when the race is over you will hear Him say, "you stayed with it, you did good, now you're here with me, safe and across the finish line." Stay focused for His honor and glory.....