Talk—Mark Debu
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Let's begin by looking to the Lord for his help.
Our God and Father, we thank you so much that we can be here and that we have can have Thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the theme of our song.
We thank thee for this time together with thy people. Lord, we thank you for being able to sing these hymns. We thank thee too, for being able to open thy word and to look to him and to learn a little bit of his life and his example. And we just pray, Lord, that what is said tonight would be according to thy will, that it might be a help to each one of us. We ask this, Lord Jesus, in thy worthy name. Amen.
You know about A little over a week ago, a local brother called me and asked if I had been thinking about something.
And I had been thinking about something, but it was something connected with work and so I told him I'd pray about it and get back to him and.
The thing I had been thinking about.
I think fits or there's a direct correlation that we can use in our spiritual lives. And if you excuse a personal reference, a lot of you here know that I have a little house painting business. Most of the time I work by myself.
But over the years I've had a few people work for me and this summer my oldest son is working for me and you know, it's a little different dynamic working for your for your dad and so on.
And I was thinking about that because, you know, I want him to be a good employee. And I was thinking about what things I expect from people that work for me, what I expect a good employee to be, and in my line of business, painting.
What you don't need is a is a fancy degree. That's really not necessary for what I do. There's many.
Jobs that you do need a degree. We wouldn't want the person that designs our bridges to have good intentions but not know what he's doing.
But so as I was thinking about that, I came up with a couple of things. And actually when the brother called, I'd been talking with Jamin about that and I said.
What I what I expect out of you is focus and motivation, if you have those two things.
You'll become a good painter. You'll be a good employee. And I was thinking of how that correlates to with us in our Christian spiritual lives. You know, I don't think there's anybody here.
That would say, well, the Lord took up with me because of certain things I have to offer.
That's not why we are here.
The Lord took up which each one of us in sovereign grace. We were all dead in trespasses and sins. There's nothing that we could offer the Lord.
That's not what he why he reached out. It was because of his sovereign law for us.
But now?
That we belong to him. I do think there's something that he expects from us. And I think if we think of it in the same way, he wants us to focus and he wants us to be motivated. And what I mean with focus is, is to know what we're here for. When Jamin in the morning clocks in, I want him to be focused on the job at hand. We have stuff to do that day, and I want him to be focused on that. I want him to be motivated.
To get the work done.
And so I want to talk a little bit about that, about the focused Christian life. And as I as I was thinking about that, the first thing I thought of is the perfect example we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'm going to read a verse in Luke's Gospel chapter 2.
And I often think about this verse and it's it just strikes me every time I read it. And these are the first words that we have recorded that are spoken by the Lord Jesus. He was about 12 years old and it's in Luke chapter 2.
And.
Verse 49 We all know the story.
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Had been up to Jerusalem for the feast, probably with a large company. They've been there for the feast, and then Joseph and Mary and the others left, and after a while they noticed that the Lord Jesus was not in the company. And so they went back and they looked for him and it took a little while and finally found him in the temple.
And Mary asks him, You know, what are you doing here? We were worried, And this is what the Lord answers in verse 49. He said unto them.
How is it that you sought me with you, not that I must be about my father's business?
Those are some very striking words. First of all, he was a 12 year old boy, but he was the Lord Jesus and it really shows us in those words what his life was all about. Now if you want to talk about a person whose life had one goal, had one focus, this verse shows us.
A person like that, it was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whist ye not that I must be about my father's business? He only had one focus while he was down here, and that was to do his father's business.
And you know, if we read through the Gospels, we see that that was the case day by day. We do not see the Lord Jesus ever once turning aside after an earthly pursuit. Everything was about his Father's business. And if you look at the 3 1/2 years of the Lord's public ministry.
The public ministry is really a good word for it because I don't think there was ever a more public person than the Lord Jesus during that time.
From early in the morning to late at night, he was at the Publix disposal. We see him interacting with people all the time the late at night.
He was about his father's business and whatever he did, he was a real man.
He did all kinds of different things, but it was always being about the Father's business. Let's read a verse two in Isaiah chapter 50.
Because, as I said, I want to think about what the Lord Jesus did.
As an example for us, because I want, I believe the Lord wants us to be focused too.
With his work that he has for us down here.
Isaiah chapter 50 and verse four. It says the Lord God hath given me the tongue of the Lord, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary He wakeneth morning. By morning he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learneth the Lord God hath opened mine ear.
And so here we see the Lord Jesus, I believe, every morning.
Starting his day in communion with the Father, that was the strength for his pathway down here.
And so, for that whole time that the Lord was here on earth, we see him with a single focus being about the Father's business. Some of his last words before he went to the cross was not my will, but thine be done. It was the Father's business.
But we can say, well, that was the Lord Jesus. He was God.
But I think we have some other examples, two of others that were the same, that had one focus in life. And the person I was thinking about was Paul.
You know when, Paul?
He was a person that the first part of his life. He was not about the Lord's business at all, as a matter of fact, even though.
It looked religious, and it might have looked to a lot of people like what he was doing was pleasing to God. It wasn't at all. This afternoon we talked a little bit about.
Things that are displeasing to the Lord, the morality, and so on. Well, it doesn't seem like Paul was involved with that, but he was involved with persecuting, putting in jail Christians. That's not pleasing to the Lord.
And yet he came to a point later in life that he could say in Philippians chapter One.
Verse 21 For me to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ. So here's this person that was going in a direction completely opposite to God's will.
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And justice, like in each one of our lives guarding Sovereign Grace, came in and halted him on a certain road to destruction and turned them completely around.
And what was his life from that point on? It was a focused life. It was a life that has Christ as the one object and everything that he did.
Was in connection with what the Lord had for him to do. Down here now we read of the Apostle Paul traveling. We read of him interacting with other people. We know that he wrote letters. We read of him working, making tents. But it was all Christ. Everything he did was in connection with Christ.
Wanted for him to do down here and so once.
We are saved by the Lord by grace. We really do not belong to ourselves anymore. It tells us in First Corinthians 7 that we become Christ's Bomberman. We are bought with a price. We do not belong to ourselves anymore. And So what the Lord Jesus wants from us really is that same focus, that same focus in our lives, to live for him. Now, wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if we could say too, for me to live is Christ.
What we do in our lives down here is in connection with what the Lord wants us to do.
We often think and enjoy, and rightly so, that there's a time coming very soon when we'll all be with the Lord. And when we think of that, we realize that at that time there will be nothing anymore that will hinder or communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be perfect communion.
But you know the Lord.
Is looking forward to that very much. He died for his bride. He longs to have his bride by his side.
But I believe as he is waiting now for that moment to happen, he wants us as much for himself.
As we will be with him at that time, he doesn't reason in the way that, well, you're still down here on the Earth. It's OK if you give me 50% of your focus, if you give me 50%.
Of your attention he wants. All of us he wants.
Us to live in communion with him, to have that same focus.
And so it's beautiful that a man here.
That was going completely opposite of God's will.
He could say for me to live is Christ.
But then in the second chapter we have another person, and this person is kind of quite the opposite from Paul.
When I think of Paul, I think of somebody who was bold and it tells us.
In Acts chapter 19, when he was in Ephesus that there was a great riot and the whole city came together and they rushed into the theater.
And Paul says, well, I'm going to go in there. And the disciple says, no, you're not. They knew he was probably going to be torn apart. And so Paul was a bold man.
But here's another person he speaks of, Timothy. And I think Timothy was, in a lot of ways, kind of the opposite of Paul. He was a shy person. He was timid. Paul had to draw him out.
You know, Paul was a public man. He liked to go out and speak. Timothy was not like that.
Paul was a little older. Timothy was younger. Timothy seems to have been physically not that strong. I think Paul must have had an iron constitution, all the things he went through in his travels and his beatings that he got, and yet he got up and kept going. So here's somebody that maybe a lot of us can identify a little bit more with than with Paul.
But what does it say in Philippians chapter 2?
And verse 20 Speaking of Timothy, I have no man like minded.
He had no man like minded. Paul was a single minded person. It was all for Christ.
Well, Timothy was like minded. And I know I'm pulling this maybe a little bit out of context because here it's talking about the care that they had for the Philippine Saints. But I think if anybody could have such a care for God's people, it must be somebody who has a single focus on the Lord Jesus Christ to have that love of Christ for his people. And so here we have Timothy, we have Paul. I don't know, maybe we have some people here that are more like Paul.
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Maybe we have some that are more like Timothy. We have people in between, and yet both these men, they had one focus in their life and that was to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's turn to Chapter 3 of Philippians.
Because we see here that it was something.
Very real, very practical, you know, we can talk about.
Having a single mind for the Lord. But in Paul's life we saw it being real, something he did on a daily basis and in chapter 3 verse.
13 He says, This brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
So with Paul, this was a daily living thing. He had an object before him, Christ, and he pressed towards that.
You know, and I think this was written, this epistle.
I was told it's probably about 25 to 27 years after.
He got saved.
And he says this that he hasn't reached it yet.
He's still pressing towards that mark.
And I think we can identify with that. Umm.
You might say, well, we're not as energetic as Paul when it comes to pressing toward the mark, but Paul was still growing, he said. I have not reached the goal yet.
It's something that lies on the end of the pathway, but he was pressing towards it.
And so when we think of the life of the Lord Jesus and we see the perfection, we say, well, we don't even come close to that.
And that's very true. But we can be a small have Christ as our object.
And daily pressing towards that mark. Daily in communion with the Lord, trying to represent him here on the earth, because that's really what we are here for.
Once the Lord lays hold of us and saves us.
We have all eternity with him to look forward to, but we are left here to represent him in this world. That's the essence of what we're here for.
When the Lord Jesus was down here, he perfectly displayed the Father's heart of love to this world. But now that he's gone, it is up to us to do that, and that should be our goal or focus in this life.
In chapter four, he says I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Now we might say, well, that's a little too difficult for us. It is not.
Paul was a man of like passions, like us. So was Timothy. So was everybody else.
And yet having that same new life that's been given to us too, they were able to lead lives that were had a razor like focus.
And I want to tell you something else too. I've been really impressed lately with the book of Philippians.
And the thing that really has stood out to me was, well, let's go back to Chapter 3.
I'm not going to read it, but there's some verses there in the beginning that if you read, Paul speaks of things he has given up, things that were very important to him before he was saved.
He gave up after he had to say after he had been saved, and he had.
New motivations. We talked about that little this afternoon too, when the question was asked. If we have certain problems, how do we get rid of them? How do we break those habits?
And the answer was given, or part of the answer was that we fill that void, you might say, if we give things up with better things. And Paul had done that he before he was saved. He lived a very full and a very energetic life. But it was misdirected.
But after he got saved, he got a glimpse of that man in the glory on the road to Damascus.
And what had occupied all of his time, he says. I'm setting that aside.
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But what did he do? He filled his life with new desires, with a new object, and everything that was connected with that. His time was spent preaching the gospel, encouraging the Saints, visiting with them, and so on. And So what does he say when he looks back on those things? Does he say, well, I really lost thou everything that meant something to me.
It's kind of gone, no, he says this.
Verse seven of chapter 3. But what things were gained to me? These I count at loss for Christ.
Yeah, doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done or filth that I may win Christ.
And so there's a progression there too, and it's something that we all have to learn experimentally when we follow the Lord, He says. What things were gained To me? All those things that in the previous verses meant everything to him.
Those I counted loss for Christ and I think that verse speaks of early in his converted life.
He counted. It's in the past tense.
But now he's 2527 years down the road, he's been serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you might say in the next verse we see what has happened, he says, Yeah, doubtless I count he's now speaking in the present tense. All things but loss for the excellence Excellency of Christ. So here's a man that could look back and says, 25 years ago I gave up everything that meant something to me.
And now I'm 20 years, 25 years further.
And those things mean even less to me today than they meant when I first gave them up. I haven't drifted back towards them. And why is that? Because he had something so much better. He had the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ to motivate him and to be occupied with day by day.
And so when we ask ourselves the question, how can we?
Be more focused How can our life?
Be more focused with the things of the Lord.
The answer is.
That we, just like Paul, need one object. We can only have one focus if we only have one object.
And that object should be the Lord Jesus Christ, and everything else will follow from that.
But another thing that's interesting here is.
When Paul wrote this epistle.
He was in jail.
That the whole epistle.
Is bursting with energy and rejoicing.
Isn't that beautiful?
And sometimes.
I think we all thought that or felt that. I certainly have is.
We know that we could do better very practically. We know we could do better. We know we could be more dedicated.
Do the things of the Lord, but we're afraid that if we're going to give up something.
That we're going to lose out.
Whatever it is that we enjoy, that we realize it hinders us or it slows us down in our focus and our pathway for the Lord. Oftentimes we're so afraid to give that up because we say we can't do without that. It means a lot to me.
Paul was happy. He was.
You know, at some point he was pretty much left of every person that was close or bereft of every person that was close to him. He didn't have his freedom anymore. What he loved to do most was to go out and preach the gospel and encourage the Saints. He couldn't do that anymore right now at this time. And yet the whole epistle over and over, it says rejoice in the Lord. It's full of joy. He didn't feel like he had lost out on anything.
And so.
That's what the Lord Willie wants from us. He wants us to trust him, and the Lord is no man's debtor.
If we're willing to give.
Certain things that are not helping us in our pathway, He will more than make up for them and it will help us.
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To be more focused on Christ, it will help us to be happier down here, because a Christian can't truly be happy unless he's occupied with the things of the Lord. And so I trust that that would be.
It is there of each one of us, and you know, this little time here no doubt will help us we.
We often need to be refocused in our lives. The Lord didn't need to be refocused. He never lost his focus, but we do.
But I trust that it would be our desire for each one of us to have more of a single eye, to have more of.
Christ before us that we might follow more closely. Let's pray.
Our gone father, we.
We pray that thou wouldst help us to realize more of what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
And that as we are occupied with thee, Lord Jesus, it might help us to.
See the world, the things around us, more in proper perspective, things that will fall away and come under judgement.
Help us, Lord, to follow closer to be occupied with Thee, Lord Jesus, and thy life as we see it in the Gospels. The perfect example.
We prayed As for each one here, Lord, young and old.
And as we think of the many distractions that the enemy.
Puts in front of us, We feel the need of dependence. Help us, Lord.
To be dependent upon thee, to start our days.
Independence and in prayer, asking thee for help.
So we might be followers, disciples indeed, we pray to the Lord Jesus and thy worthy name.
Amen.