Keeping our eyes on Jesus!

2. Living the Focused Life!
Phil. 3:14 I press toward the
goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ
Jesus.

3. “A hungry tiger started off his day tracking
the scent of a deer. As he continued to
follow the deer. He came across the scent
of a rabbit. He then turned aside and
started after the rabbit. Then as he was
tracking the rabbit, he was distracted by the
scent of a mouse and turned aside after the
mouse. He finally came to a hole into
which the mouse had vanished. He ended
the day hungrier than when he had started,
because he could not stay focused!”

4. Far too often we spend our lives
being distracted with this or that,
and at the end of the day we have
accomplished little if anything!
▪ It is important that we learn to stay focused
on the right things!
▸ 1Cor. 15:58 Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing
that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

5. I. Focused on the Right Person!
Phil. 3:10-11
▪This chapter begins with a warning to
“beware/look out!” (Phil. 3:2 “3 times!”)
▪Paul begins the chapter by stating “do not focus
on the flesh!” (Phil. 3:1-8) but rather “focus on
living by faith!” (Phil. 3:9)
▪We need to understand that our “only” hope in life
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified! (Phil. 3:10-11
cf. Act. 4:10-12)
▸1Cor. 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing
among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

6. Our number one focus should
always be on Christ!
▪Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me, and gave himself for me.
▪Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should boast
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world has been crucified to me, and I
to the world.

7. If anything in live ever causes us
to take our eyes of of Christ, then
we have the wrong focus!
▪Do you remember the story of Jesus walking on
water? (Mt. 14:22-33) Jesus wasn’t the only one
that walked on water!
▸When we keep our eyes on the Savior we can
rise above the storms of life, but if we start
looking at the storm we will begin to sink!
▸Don't lose sight of Jesus!

8. II. Focused on the Right Prize!
Phil. 3:12-14
▪ How many of you have ever
received a prize before? Did you like
it? How did it make you feel?
▪ What are we seeking after, what are
we work for? What are we focused on
as the “prize” of our lives? What is our
goal in mind?

9. Eye on the prize!
▪ 1Cor. 9:24-27 Do you not know that those
who run in a race all run, but one receives the
prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
And everyone who competes for the prize is
temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain
a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable
crown. Therefore I run thus: not with
uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats
the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into
subjection, lest, when I have preached to
others, I myself should become disqualified.

10. What are our goals in life? What
do we treasure?
▪“Crown of Life!” (Rev. 2:10)
▪“Heavenly Treasures!” (Mt. 6:19-21)
▪Are we willing to leave behind all worldly
treasure to pursue the prize of the “higher
calling of God in Christ Jesus!” (Phil. 3:14)
▪Imagine what we might do if we found
ourselves in the place of the rich young ruler?
Would we go away sad? Would we hold to
our money more than our Master?

11. III. Focused on the Right People!
Phil. 3:15-16
▪Php 3:15-16 Let us therefore, as many as
be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any
thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall
reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless,
whereto we have already attained, let us
walk by the same rule, let us mind the
same thing.
▪“Who” we spend our time with, has a great
deal to do with “how” we spend our time!

12. The Bible often warns us about
being careful who our friends are!
▪Pr 22:24-25 Make no friendship with an angry
man, And with a furious man do not go, Lest
you learn his ways And set a snare for your
soul.
▪The child of God can have friend “in” the
world, but we can never become a friend “of”
the world, a friend of worldliness!
▪We are “in” the world, but we are not to be “of”
the world! (Js. 4:4; 1 Jn. 2:15-17)

13. We need to focus on having the
mind of Christ, by spending time
with those that are like minded!
▪Do we fit in better with those of the world, or with
those that are walking with God?
▪This has a great deal to do with our “focus!”
▪We need to be united on the mind of Christ! (1
Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5)
▪This can only take place when we are united
and not divided!
▸1 Cor. 1:10-13

14. Conclusion:
▪Where is our life headed tonight? What has
been our focus lately?
▪Have we come to focus on these 3 things?
▸Right Person!
▸Right Prize!
▸Right People!
▪If you are here and not yet a child of God, then
become one tonight!
▪If you are a child of God then we ask you, “Have
you been living the focused life?”