To Be Like Jesus--Focused. Loyal Evangelical Church, Loyal OK

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." ~Jesus Christ, in Matthew 28:18-20

Loyal, OK

Pastor Leon Seaton

To Be Like Jesus--Focused

One of the most tragic events during the Reagan Presidency was the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, in which hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded as they slept. Many of us can still recall the terrible scenes as the dazed survivors worked to dig out their trapped brothers from beneath the rubble.

A few days after the tragedy, an extraordinary story about the incident was told by Marine Corps Commandant Paul X. Kelly. Kelly had visited some of the wounded survivors then in a Frankfurt, Germany hospital. Among them was Corporal Jeffrey Lee Nashton, severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that a witness said he looked more like a machine than a man; yet he survived.

As Commandant Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and racked with pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it back to the Commandant. On the slip of paper were but two words -- "Semper Fi", the Latin motto of the Marines meaning "forever faithful." With those two simple words Nashton spoke for the millions of Americans who have sacrificed body and limb and their lives for their country -- those who have remained faithful.

- J. Dobson & Gary Bauer, Children at Risk, Word, 1990, pp. 187-188.

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

- Charles Kingsley, Bits & Pieces, December 9, 1993, p. 16.

Once we have discovered our purpose we need to focus on achieving it. This morning we will look at the ways that Jesus FOCUSED on completing His ministry. To help us in this study we will use the following acrostic:

F = Faithful

O = Obedient

C = Christ-like

U = Understanding

S = Spiritual

FAITHFUL:

To our God
To our calling
To ourselves
To our family
To our friends

Jesus was FAITHFUL to His calling as our Messiah. He who created us, walked among us as a Man so that He could understand the temptations and limitations that we endure, then paid the penalty for our sins by dying on a cross. He could have called a legion of angels to rescue Him, but He chose not to. He was faithful to His calling! Dare we do any less?

If you feel weary in well doing, do not faint, but be faithful to your calling! In the end it will be worth it all!

God is faithful to His word… and He honors those who respond in faithfulness to His word. God cannot be manipulated. He knows what our motive is in every situation. Sometimes we get frustrated because God does not answer every prayer. Well… He knows why we pray certain prayers. Sometimes we ‘ask amiss’. And God knows why we do and do not do things!

He honors faithfulness, love and obedience. If it is from our hearts, God will respond in kind. If your purpose is to manipulate God, well, forget it… it will not work!

OBEDIENT: (Submissive)

To our parents
To our God
To our elders
To our family
To our business or employer
To our Country.

This is a little tougher. None of us like to be told what to do! Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, "The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p. 22.

Romans 6:11-18

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

The question is not, “Am I a slave?” but “Who is my master?” (Verse 16)

CHRIST-LIKE:

In our thoughts
With our words
Through our actions

Jesus was committed to doing what His Father did. He said, “On My own, I can do nothing.” He also said, “I only do what I see and hear My Father doing.”

Our goal should be similar to Christ’s – of thinking that on our own we can do nothing and that we should only do what Jesus said and did. Thus the guiding principle in every situation is, “What would Jesus do?”

How would He teach school? How would He run his farm or other business? How would He pastor? With whom would He spend His time?

He spent time with the rich, with the poor, and everyone in between. He honored the outcasts. He loved to use Samaritans as good examples – much to the chagrin of the Jews.

He taught us to love everyone! The prostitutes, the tax collector, and our enemies!

However, Jesus was not a “Do gooder” rather He was a good man doing God’s work.

Jesus also set a high standard for our lives. He said, “If anyone will follow Me, let Him take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

UNDERSTANDING:

Of God and His way of doing things
Of our own shortcomings – “All we, like sheep, have gone astray”
Of the shortcomings of others – “In many ways we all stumble”
Of our needs
Of the needs of others
Of the needs of the church – the church universal as well as our local congregation.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

One of the reasons that the Son of God became a Man was so that He could truly understand what we are going through. He was tempted in every point as we are, yet He did not sin. However, at the cross He became sin for us… and bore all of our sin, sickness and sorrow. When He became sin the Father turned His back on Him – so He knew what it meant to feel rejected by God in a way that we will never experience.

Part of the reason that you and I have to go through tests and trials is so we can minister to others. In Romans 5 and James 1 we are taught to rejoice when we have various trials.

SPIRITUAL:

1 Corinthians 2:11-16

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:

"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?"

But we have the mind of Christ.

Everyone is a spiritual person with spiritual needs
We have constant spiritual battles. Your enemy is always Satan, not other people.
Spiritually dead people do not - and cannot - think and reason the way a saved person does. Therefore, we can only answer the questions that people are asking. If they are spiritually dead, then we have to so live that when God begins dealing with them, they will know to look to us.

As a human being you are Spirit, Soul and Body. Your Spirit is the real you – it is called the heart of man or our innermost being. Your Soul is your mind, will and emotions. The body is the earthly dwelling place of the spirit and soul.

An unsaved person is spiritually dead because he is not in tune with God. At salvation we are made alive to God. This is what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus to not be surprised – he needed to be born again. Poor old Nicodemus; he stood there pondering how on earth he could climb back into his mother’s womb. Jesus explained that it was a heavenly birth.

Spiritual maturity is when our spirit-man dominates our soulish-man. When dominates our intellect. “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Do It Anyway

Sign In Mother Teresa's Office

People are unreasonable,

illogical, and self-centered,

LOVE THEM ANYWAY

If you do good, people will

accuse you of selfish,

ulterior motives,

DO GOOD ANYWAY

If you are successful, you win

false friends and true enemies,

SUCCEED ANYWAY

The good you do will

be forgotten tomorrow,

DO GOOD ANYWAY

Honesty and frankness

make you vulnerable,

BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY

What you spent years building

may be destroyed overnight,

BUILD ANYWAY

People really need help but

may attack you if you help them,

HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY

Give the world the best you

have and you'll get kicked

in the teeth,

GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT ANYWAY.

John W. Gardner tells of a cheerful old man who asked the same question of just about every new acquaintance he fell into conversation with: "What have you done that you believe in and you are proud of?" He never asked conventional questions such as "What do you do for a living?" It was always, "What have you done that you believe in and are proud of?"

It was an unsettling question for people who had built their self-esteem on their wealth or their family name or their exalted job title.

Not that the old man was a fierce interrogator. He was delighted by a woman who answered, "I'm doing a good job raising three children" and by a cabinetmaker who said, "I believe in good workmanship and practice it" and by a woman who said, "I started a bookstore and it's the best bookstore for miles around."

"I don't really care how they answer," said the old man. "I just want to put the thought into their minds.

"They should live their lives in such a way that they can have a good answer. Not a good answer for me, but for themselves. That's what’s important." Dr. Dale E. Turner, MSC Health Action News, July, 1993, p. 7.

What is your focus today?

February 10, 2008