FOCUS
Part 1: Fix Your Focus
(Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV) Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Microscope – to see the ___________.
Kaleidoscope – to see the ______________.
Telescope – to see the __________________.
(Proverbs 29:18 MSG) If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.
Focused on the Wrong Things
- We put ___________ under the microscope.
(Luke 7:44 NIV) Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
(2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV) So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
- We see our ___________ in the kaleidoscope.
(Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
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- We have ___________ in the telescope.
(Hebrews 3:7-11 NLT) That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
Focus on ________________________.
(Romans 12:2 MSG) Fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
1. Put __________________.
(Genesis 1:1) In the beginning God…
(Exodus 20:1-3) And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
2. Give God the _________________________.
(Leviticus 27:30) A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.
(Deuteronomy 14:23 LB) The purpose of tithing is to teach you to always put God in first place in your life.
- The first of my ___________.
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- The first of my ___________.
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- The first of my ___________.
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- The first of my ___________.
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3. Expect God to ______________________.
(Proverbs 3:6-10) In all your ways acknowledge him…Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.