Heads Up!

Heads Up! Keep Your Focus! 2 Tim. 4:5

Intro: Life is crazy at times but you can keep your focus! I have dreamt and waited over the last 4 months for the painting blitz to happen. I never dreamed that we would have over 250 helpers impact our neighborhoods. I am totally blown away by how much support and help God raised up through the network He has established through New City. I have to be honest and say at times the amount of work that needed to be down was overwhelming. I have learned to keep my head up and eyes focused. God is always greater than any circumstance. I am humbled by what happened yesterday. God used the hands of 300 of His servants to touch a neighborhood.

1. Stay clear headed! Paul and Timothy lived during a time of intense persecution of the church. Paul had been one of the key activists against the new church before Jesus appeared to him and transformed him into the apostle to the non-Jewish world. One of the more difficult things in life is to stay cool and collected when bad things happen. The last thing you need in a crisis situation is someone who is going off or over or under reacting. The word does literally mean to be sober or clear minded. This obviously refers to the image of a person who is drunk and is incapable of functioning. When we become distracted by the circumstances around us or focus on lesser important things we become like someone who gets a DUI. God may not send us to jail but we end up with the consequences which means many are hurt.

How do you stay clear headed? Obviously if you had drunk alcohol or taken drugs you will be far from being capable of responding in the middle of a crisis. The amazing gift of being a follower of Christ is that God the Spirit is in you and with you in the middle of crazy circumstances. As you learn to trust Jesus even the worst circumstance you face God will help you live through it. 1 Cor. 10:13 becomes an amazing assurance that God isn’t going to test you beyond what you can handle. He isn’t going to necessarily give you an escape door to walk away from your mess but the ability to walk through it.

2. Understand that life is both good times and bad. I know that many Christians and even those outside the church believe that once you accept Christ that you will never face hardship or bad things in life. This is a total misapplication of what the Bible teaches. One of the marks of someone who is growing in their relationship with Jesus is that they are able to walk through any circumstance with Christ’s help and not give up or quit.

Most of us don’t want to hear that life even with God is going to be tough at times. Anne and I attended a conference on Thursday that focused on doing Church based community development. The speaker is a pastor from Chicago who started a church in the ghetto 35 years ago. He told story after story of how God seems to always use the worst circumstances to bring about miracles. The reality, which he mentioned often, is that it takes a long time, years, for things to happen.

Paul’s advice to Timothy, to you and me is to learn how to have a long haul mindset. I think most Christian are soft and don’t know how to do hard work and get spiritual blisters. This is not to glorify suffering but to see that it is part of life and often God chooses to use it to grow us up in the faith. How are you going to face your next challenge? Run from it or face it and allow the Spirit of God to give you spiritual power to overcome your circumstances. This means we have to be willing to admit we are hurting, need help and don’t have the answers. As Jesus works in us through his people and His Spirit we will have a joy that goes beyond a bad day. This will enable you to have joy in the face of heart ache which will touch the lives of those around us who don’t know Jesus.

Conclusion: Keep the message alive!

What Paul is concerned about for Timothy and for the rest of us is that it is too easy to become sidetracked with the hard things in life, yes bad things happen and people get killed, someone is robbed or you do something totally brain dead. Paul wants us to remember the reason why we are here and it isn’t for selfish purposes. We have a message to keep alive by both what we say and how we live. Paul understood that Christ had a job for him to accomplish. He knew at times his former Jewish friends wanted to kill him so he would stop talking about Jesus. Much in the same sense the Roman Rulers also saw Paul as a threat and had him arrested and eventually executed.

Jesus is our real example of someone who understood that his life involved dying on a cross. How is it possible to live a life full of joy and excitement when you know it is all going to end on a cross? The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross for the ultimate joy set before him in heaven. I never want to down play the fact that at times we will suffer, have horrible days, even get in trouble but the one who can come to us and give real rest and peace is Jesus Christ. Are you going to keep your head up? Are you going to ask Jesus to give you his peace that is able to overcome the worst situation? Ask him for help right now and discover the impact of the gospel in your life.