Wisdom for Living: “Focus” | Mac Hammond

Recap

No other generation in history has the number of things that vie for our attention. The world has so many distractions that it sometimes can be difficult to keep our focus on God. But as Pastor Mac taught us in his sixth installment in his series, “Wisdom for Living,” we must ruthlessly guard our time with the Lord because without it, it will be difficult to hear from the Holy Spirit the wisdom we need to fulfill His will and plan for our lives.

Dive Deeper

Proverbs 4:7 tells us that wisdom is the principal thing. Dake’s Annotated Bible defines wisdom as “the ability to discern the best ends and the best means to attain those ends.”

You need to know what the will of God is for your life. If you don’t know the will of God for your life, then you are unable to move your life in the appropriate direction.

The first definition of wisdom is that you discern what His will for you is. He will begin to orient our lives toward His high purpose for each of us. Many live their lives in His permissive will and never find that high purpose of God.

Basic Text: 2 Corinthians 4:17, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The subtitle of the message is “Focus.”

A question we must ask ourselves: “Do I have the ability to focus, close out the other distractions and focus my whole attention in a particular area for any length of time at all?”

Today, there are so many distractions to focused thought that earlier generations could never have imagined.

The level of distraction is so high that we have to be consciously aware of protecting the time that we have to focus our attention in order to achieve the desired results.

Your time with the Lord should be invested in a level of attentiveness to His purpose, His wisdom, and His person and love. We must guard it ruthlessly because without it, we’ll never get wisdom from God that we need to direct our lives.

The enemy will work to bring distractions and adversity to your life. God says that when adversity comes our way, we’re to count it all joy. If you want your challenges and difficulties to be light and momentary, then count it all joy like James 1:2 says, “knowing this, that it’s the trying of your faith.”

The enemy’s most common form of warfare is to bring distractions to cause you to change your belief system. He can’t do anything to interfere with your destiny in God unless he can change what you believe. Everything that comes your way as adversity, difficulty, or challenge is intended by the enemy to dissuade you from the Word of God.

Our affliction becomes light and momentary only as we, “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” This is talking about what you give your attention to, what you focus on.

That means we are to focus our attention on the Word of God, what the Word says.

Read About It

2 Corinthians 4:17–18, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

James 1:2–4, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

Discussion Questions

Can you think of a time in your life where you went through a trying time? Were you able to fix your attention on the Word of God? Or were you distracted?

What is the spiritual principle when we “count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations”?

How does God reveal His will and plan for your life?

These sermon notes are from the opening minutes of this weekend’s message. If you would like to hear the entire message, click on the link above.

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