Persevering in Practice - Part 2

This podcast is made available by Vision Christian Media, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Your donation today means great podcasts like this remain available to help people look to God daily.

Please make your donation today at vision.org.au. It happens far too often. A high profile Christian stumbles, their testimony is tarnished, and their ministry suffers.

How can you keep that from happening to you? Today on Turning Point, Dr David Jeremiah continues to encourage you toward greater perseverance, staying focused on God, and avoiding the world's distractions. Listen, as David introduces the conclusion of his message, persevering in practice. Well friends, I don't know about you, but 2020 has been a very difficult year to stay focused. Every day things have changed, we've never experienced anything like this, and I've really asked God to help me stay focused on what I was supposed to be doing and not get off on rabbit trails that are so easy to follow during a pandemic. And thankfully, we've been able to keep our eyes on the goal. We've seen our ministry stable and strong going forward.

We've had major growth, both at our church and in our school, and on Turning Point. Focus is such an important thing. And today I'm going to give you four more principles.

Actually, we'll probably go back and retrieve the first one so you get them all together. And these are five things that I learned from John 17 that are the result of a focused life. Of course, our example in the focused life is the Lord Jesus himself, who came to this earth with one purpose, and that was to die for lost men and women. He never lost his purpose, never lost his focus. He never lost the reason for his being on this earth, and he teaches us how to live such a life as well. From a very doctrinal passage of Scripture, some very practical principles for living your life every day.

Let's go back now to where we were yesterday as we pick up our discussion from John 17, Persevering in Practice. Has it ever crossed your mind that you might be just kind of floating through life, missing the very best thing that God has for you? Listen to me. You say, well, I'm afraid to find out what that is, because if I find out what that is, I'm sure it's going to be something I don't like.

Isn't that what you think? Let me tell you what the Word of God says. Commit your way unto the Lord, and he'll give you the desires of your heart. Do you know what I'm doing, friends? I'm doing what I love to do. What I would do if I could design it.

I didn't know it at the time. God had this all in mind, and he planned it all out, and he sorted it all out. When I wake up every morning and get ready to face the day, I'm so excited because I get to spend my life doing what I really love to do. And God has a plan for every one of us like that. That's the plan he wants to focus your life on. When you find out what that is, and some of you have never even thought this way.

You just thought, well, I'm a Christian. I'm on my way to heaven. I got to do all this stuff on the way. No, God has a plan for your life. And that plan is going to bring meaning and purpose if you'll take some time to sort it out and find out what it is. And I'm telling you, it's the only way to stay focused. It's the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ could stay focused in his life.

And I want to give you five things that you can take to the bank. Five things that will help you understand how very important it is to have a focused life. Jesus lived his life according to purpose. He never lost sight of that. He was a human. And so he had all the same kind of experiences we had.

Do you believe that? The Bible says he was tempted in all points as we are, yet apart from sin. Do you think Jesus ever had days when he could have gotten off course and lost sight of his perspective? He had all the same challenges that you and I have. He could have... Do you remember when Satan took him out into the wilderness?

Do you remember that? And Satan tempted him. And I don't know if you've ever studied Matthew 4, but Matthew 4 is like this. It's Satan trying to get Jesus to accept the benefits of the cross without going to the cross. He was saying to the Lord Jesus, I'll give you the world.

You didn't have the kingdom. Just bow down before me. And the Lord Jesus said, no, Satan, you're not going to do that to me. I know what my purpose is.

I know what my focus is. Get you behind me, Satan. There's a little phrase in John 17, and it's found seven times throughout the gospels. It's all about the hour that has come. When you come to John 17, 1, it begins like this. Jesus says, glorify the Father, for my hour has come. What hour was he talking about, class? His death.

The next day, he's going to die. He said, the hour has come. But I don't know if you've ever noticed it, there are several places in the gospels where Jesus said that his hour had not come. And it's interesting to study those places and see what Jesus said when he said, my hour hadn't come. For instance, it begins in John chapter 2. Jesus is just beginning his earthly ministry, and he's invited to a wedding.

He goes to the wedding at Cana of Galilee. And you know what the problem was in John chapter 2. They ran out of wine.

They didn't have enough to service all the people that came to the wedding. And in John chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, we read, and when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does your concern have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come. What is that all about? We have to study that one a little bit, but let me tell you what it means. Jesus was not being disrespectful to his mother. I've heard messages where people said he shouldn't have said to her, woman.

You know, today in our culture, a woman says something to you, and you respond, woman. It's probably not going to be very well received, but in that nuance, it wasn't like that. And it certainly had nothing to do with his willingness to do the miracle because did he do the miracle?

Absolutely. Listen to me now. Jesus was not rebuking his mother. He was not refusing to deal with the lack of wine. Jesus was saying to his mother, listen carefully, the time for me to be submissive to the authority of man in the hour of my crucifixion is not yet here. I will not be placed under authority to man. I will do what you ask of me, but I want you to understand that this is not my purpose right now. My purpose right now is not to turn water into wine.

My purpose now is the cross, and I will not let the activity of even a marriage ceremony distract me from that purpose. So I wrote down in my notes, when you live a focused life, nothing can distract you. Is that a problem to you? Do you ever have that problem? I'll tell you what, whenever I lose the focus of my goal, I get totally distracted, and I get off on other things. How many times do you get off on a cul-de-sac? Somebody's always got you doing something, and you wake up one day, you say, what am I doing this for?

This is not what I'm supposed to be doing. But when you stay focused on God's purpose for your life, listen to me, nothing can distract you. Now, the little phrase, my hour has not yet come, we pick it up the second time in John chapter 7 and verse 30. Notice this, therefore, they sought to take Jesus, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. And that same thought is in chapter 8 and verse 20. Listen to it again. These words, Jesus spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple, and no one laid hands on him for his hour had not yet come.

And I wrote down in my notes that when you live a focused life, nothing can destroy you. Was Jesus afraid that they were going to come and take him away and kill him right then? No, they couldn't do it. Why? It wasn't his time.

It wasn't his hour. Now, you got to be careful you don't go to seed on this. I remember a wonderful story that I heard Dr. J. Vernon McGee tell on occasion. He'd been studying the doctrine of predestination and some man in his congregation got so entranced by the idea of God's sovereignty that one day he came to Dr. McGee and he made this boast. He said, you know, pastor, I'm so convinced that God is keeping me, no matter what I do, that I believe I could step right out into the midst of the busiest traffic in Los Angeles at noontime. And if my hour had not yet come, I would be perfectly safe. And in his inimitable style, Dr. McGee said, Mr., if you step out in traffic at high noon, your hour has come.

Sort of easy to get this out of perspective. But let me give you a personal illustration that I believe with all my heart. When I first started and God began to bless what we were doing on the radio. And so we started doing some rallies and I was speaking at some conventions and things.

I'd go to the airport out here in Lindbergh Field and I'd get on the airplane and we'd taxi out to the end of the runway. And I had something I'd never really experienced before. I started to experience some fear. And I tried to isolate the fear. It wasn't a fear that something was going to happen to me. I was ready to go.

If God was ready, I was ready. I always wondered what would happen if it was the pilot's turn to go, but I knew that it was okay, you know. But the thing that bothered me more than anything else was my family. Well, what if something happens to me? What about Don and the children?

What will happen with them? And I would begin to be afraid. And it was kind of a, I mean, I couldn't get rid of it. And then one day I was talking to a friend of mine about this and he gave me this little thought and I put it in front of my Bible. And the thought goes like this. God's man in the center of God's will is immortal until God is finished with him. I'm telling you what, that's a tremendous thought. Now that doesn't mean you should go do something stupid like Dr. McGee's friend.

But listen to it again. God's man, God's woman in the center of God's will is immortal until God is finished with him. You know what I know about that is? I'm in the hands of the Lord. What is my purpose is to make sure I stay in the center of God's will.

I want to do that. Stay in the center of God's will and God's going to take care of you for as long as he wants you here on planet earth. You can get on an airplane and fly off to, you know, don't be stupid and fly into the storm.

Use your head. But by the grace of God, if you do what God has called you to do and you're in the center of his will, he's going to protect you. The reason Jesus had confidence in the temple, the reason he had confidence when they came and tried to take him was he knew it wasn't his time.

He had omniscience we don't have. When you live a focused life, nothing can destroy you. Here we find the word again in John chapter 12 and verse 27. Now my soul is troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose, I came to this hour. Here the Lord is wrestling with his own heart. The time of his struggle has come. This is pre-Gethsemane, if you will. In Gethsemane, he would say, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. But here in chapter 12, Jesus is going through a time of inward suffering, a period of internal grief and torture, and the scripture tells us simply that he was troubled.

Do you see it? He was troubled. But note what Jesus says. He doesn't say, what shall I choose?

He says, what shall I say? Even though he is troubled, he understands that for this hour, he has been born. For this purpose, he came to this hour. And this tells me that when you live according to God's plan, when you live a focused life, nothing can discourage you. You can be troubled, but you still won't lose sight of your goal. You can go through anguish, but you will never lose sight. How many of you know that sometimes trouble comes into our lives to put even a sharper focus on our vision and our goal? Sometimes you're going along and you think you're going in the right direction and you really believe you're in the center of God's will, and he sends a little adversity so that you can make some mid-course corrections and sharpen the focus even more.

When you live a focused life, nothing can discourage you. Then you find the word again in John chapter 16 in verse 32. Indeed, the hour is coming, yes, now has come that you will be scattered each to his own and you will leave me alone, Jesus talking to his disciples. And yet, I am not alone because the Father is with me. Jesus understood the significance of this hour.

He knew that when the hour came, he would be left alone. He would be abandoned and rejected. All of his disciples would forsake him. Do you remember the scene at the cross when Jesus is hanging on the cross? He's spent all of his life investing in these men and he stands on the cross and when he looks down in his dying moments, who does he see? He sees his mother and one of the disciples, one of them.

I can imagine as a leader anything that would be more difficult. Then suppose I spent all 30 to 40 years of my adult ministry at Shadow Mountain Community Church and when it came time for us to summarize what had happened, my moment, perhaps at my funeral, one person showed up. What a discouragement. But you know what Jesus said? He said, it's all right because I'm not alone.

The Father is with me. He knew that he wasn't on this earth to gain the popularity, even of his closest followers. He was on this earth to do the will of God who had sent him and so he understood that though they didn't understand his plan and friends, I want to tell you something.

The same pattern is repeated today. If you get focused in your life and you know what God's called you to do, there'll be a lot of people who won't understand that. Kind of get a witness.

Isn't that true? Well, what are you doing that for? This is what God's called me to do. God's called you to do what? You ought to hear some of the things that relatives of our missionaries say to the young missionaries who've decided to take their doctor's degree, their medical degree and go to Asia or to Africa or to India and their family says, you're going to do what? You're turning your back on the multitudes of opportunities and the myriads of privileges and the money and you're going to Africa?

Why are you going there? That's what God's called me to do. And do you know when you do what God's called you to do, there's not enough money in the world to buy you off because you know that the joy of your life is being focused on his will. So Jesus understood that even though all of his disciples had left him and the only one that was left was John with his mother, he wasn't disappointed. He said, I'm not going to be disappointed because the Father's with me and I'm focused to do the will God has called me to do. And then let me give you the last one.

It's back in the 17th chapter again. Jesus spoke these words and he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said, Father, the hour has come, glorify your son. Now this is the end of the journey. The next day he's going to die. He says, the hour's come. How many of you today, if you knew tomorrow you were going to die, would stand up today and say with your hands lifted up in praise, the hour has come? The hour has come for what? I'm going to die tomorrow.

You're weird. Jesus said the hour has come and he glorified God. Why? Because that's the very purpose for which he was born. To everyone around him, it looked like this was the end.

Satan was dancing on the grave already. But this wasn't an hour of defeat. For when you live a focused life, nothing can defeat you.

Nothing. I'll just give you a little testimony as a pastor. There have been moments when the only thing that kept me here was the knowledge that God had called me and that I was in his will. I remember times when I would say, Lord, I'd rather be any place in the world than here.

I know it's Southern California and I know the sun shines every day, but not where I live it doesn't. And God said, Jeremiah, I called you here. This is my purpose.

And now I see why. He had a plan I didn't know. He had a purpose I couldn't comprehend.

He knew there was going to be a party someday and he didn't want me to miss it. And I praise his name for that. Let me tell you something. When you know what God wants you to do, when you focus on his will, you can have a sense of purpose and joy in your life every day.

Isn't that true? Why are you on planet earth? Did he just put you here to kind of pass the time until you go to heaven?

I hope not. God doesn't clutter up his universe with meaningless things. He puts you here for a purpose and in eternity past before you ever knew to breathe, God had a purpose for your life.

He knows what it is and I'm challenging you to find out what it is and get busy doing it. Then you can come to the end of your life like the Lord Jesus did. You know, when Jesus died, you know what his epitaph was? No, I know he's living today, but when he died and was in the grave, here was his epitaph.

It's in John chapter 17. What an epitaph. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do.

Wow. How would you like to come to the end of your life? No matter how many years you have and have written on your tombstone, he finished the work God gave him to do. You know what my problem has been? I've been trying to finish all the work there is to do. Do you know what I'm talking about? Oh, there's so much to do and you try, no, no, no, I can't do the work you're supposed to do.

I'm learning that now as I get older. I can't do the work any of you have been called to do. I can just finish the work God's given me to do. And you know what, in doing that, there is joy and satisfaction and excitement. Paul had a similar experience. You remember what he said in 2 Timothy? He said, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. What a triumphant way to end your life because you searched out during your life what it was God wanted you to do. Then with all of your heart, you gave yourself to it and then you came to the end of the way and when it's time for you to check out, you can say, hey, what a great run we had, God, you and me on this earth. Wasn't it a great run?

I tried to figure out what you wanted me to do and with all my heart, I gave myself to it and I finished the work you gave me to do. Now I'm gonna pass the torch on to somebody else, go on to glory and enjoy heaven forever but I had a great run while I was down here, amen. Isn't that the way you wanna live? That's called living with gusto. That's called living with excitement and enthusiasm every day, getting up every day knowing that God has given you a purpose and that purpose is divine and has to do with eternity. You're gonna be the star of the show but you're really not the star of the show because it's all about Jesus Christ and what he's trying to do on this earth through you. When I was ordained, seems like a long time ago, my father gave the ordination sermon.

I'll never forget it. My mother came to the ordination, can you believe that? She came to the examining council. She asked me some questions. Bless her dear heart, she's with the Lord now, she knows the answers I didn't know but I remember one time they were examining me on angels and one of the guys asked me if I believed in guardian angels.

My mom popped out in the car. She says, well, if he doesn't, I do. She'd watched me grow up and she knew I wouldn't have been around if the guardian angels weren't around. My father gave the ordination sermon and he based his sermon on a passage in Acts chapter 13 and this is what the passage was. David served his own generation by the will of God and he challenged me that day. Of course, this isn't about this, I'm not in the Bible. Believe me, I'm not in the, this is another David. This is the David from whom I got my name, I'm sure. But David the King in the book of Acts, it says about him that he served his generation by the will of God and I've never forgotten that.

That's kind of been a touchstone for me, kind of a vision for me. God, I just, that's what I want to do. I want to serve my generation by the will of God. I can't serve the generation that's past, they're gone and I can't serve the generation that's just starting that's coming up.

I probably won't be here to do that. But God has given me this little window of privilege and opportunity to serve my generation by the will of God and by his grace, I want to stay focused and when you do that, when you live that kind of a life, these are the five things that we've learned that will happen to you. When you live a focused life, here are the promises that God gives to you. Nothing can distract you and nothing can destroy you and nothing can discourage you and nothing can disappoint you and nothing can defeat you. You say, well, Pastor Jeremiah, I've tried to kind of live that sort of life. There have been times when I've been distracted and times when I felt like I was being destroyed and times when I was discouraged and disappointed and I even felt defeated sometimes.

That's all true but let me tell you what I've learned. Whenever those things start happening to you, it's because you've lost your focus a little bit and you know what I have to do when I start feeling those emotions? I have to just shut down, get away someplace, get my Bible and my notebook and my journal and back away from all the pressure and say, Lord, I'm starting to feel some things I shouldn't be feeling if I stay focused. Now help me to get focused again.

Do you ever do that? What a great time to do that. Lord, help me to focus on your will for my life so that I won't be distracted and I won't be destroyed and discouraged and disappointed and defeated and I have victory in my soul when I do that and so will you. Amen, amen. Well, tomorrow we're going to talk about writing your story from Proverbs chapter four and we'll finish up this month with a message entitled Eight Spiritual Blessings. 2021 is off to a great start. I hope you're in a good place, having learned all the things we need to learn from the year before and now as we go forward, we're going to grab hold of new spiritual truth and it will be in a different way because now our experiences are different. Because of what we've been through, the Word of God is going to mean more to us in many ways. If we approach it with that perspective, this will be a great year of growth for all of us as we share together the timeless truths of the Scripture. I'm so excited to have the privilege to do what I do every day here, open the Bible, share with you God's Word and encourage you to walk with Him even as I find my own self being encouraged.

We'll do it again tomorrow right here on This Good Station. Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr David Jeremiah, the Senior Pastor. Would you like to tell us how Turning Point ministers to you?

Please write to us, Turning Point Post Office Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163 or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. Ask for your copy of Jack Countryman's new book, God's Blessings Just for You. It features 100 inspirational readings and reflections and it's yours for a gift of any amount. And if you still haven't requested David's new daily devotional for 2021, Strength for Today, there are still copies available. It's a great way to get a dose of biblical truth every day. Ask for your copy when you visit davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. I'm Gary Hooke Fleet. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series, The Life God Blesses. That's here on Turning Point with Dr David Jeremiah. Thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media. To find out more about us, go to vision.org.au