OPEN: The NCAA college basketball competition begins this week, so I thought we might start our sermon today with a bit of trivia.
Do you know who the world’s best basketball free throw shooter is? (various people in the congregation took guesses).
I guess it wasn’t a fair question to begin with. You’ve probably never heard of this man unless you had read about him in The Guiness World Book of Records. His name was Tom Amberry! And back in 1993, this 71 yr. old foot doctor, set world’s record by shooting and making with 2,750 freethrows in a row! He’d have gotten more… except they had to close gym for the night
What’s his secret? When questioned, he replied "Concentration! The more I read about it and looked into it, the more I realized the only way you do it is practice. You have to perfect all parts of your technique; then it’s just focus and concentration. You have to put all other thoughts out of your mind."
He’d bounce the ball three times, focus, shoot ... and swish!
APPLY: In Hebrews 3:1 we’re told: “fix your thoughts on Jesus!” Put all other thoughts out of your mind and simply focus on Jesus. As Christians, we need to Focus on Jesus and Jesus only.
I. Fix your tho’ts upon Jesus because unless you FOCUS your attention on Jesus…
… something else will always be more important to you
… something else will draw your attention away
… and you may miss out on what God wants to give you
FIX YOUR THO’TS UPON JESUS
In Hebrews 3:7ff we’re told that if we don’t fix their tho’ts on Jesus we run the risk of repeating what the Israelites did in the wilderness. Turn to Hebrews 3:7-14. The writer here has just gone telling us why Jesus deserves to listened to:
"…as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, (now talking about Jesus) do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me/ and for forty years saw what I did.
That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’"
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”
What’s he mean by this? He means if we fix our tho’ts upon Jesus, if we determine to listen to Him and obey Him in all that we do we’re not going to get into trouble. Our hearts won’t become hard. We’ll avoid developing a sinful, unbelieving heart that will turn away from God. And we’ll be assured of entering His rest.
If you fix your thoughts upon Jesus, the temptations of this world will lose their attraction.
ILLUS: Paul R.Van Gorder tells the story of a young man went off to college for the 1st time.. When his mother visited him at Thanksgiving, she was not surprised to find his room in total disarray. Papers and books were scattered all over the place. But what shocked her the most were the obscene pictures hanging on the walls.
At Christmas time, she sent her son a box of presents, including a portrait of Jesus. He thanked her for the gifts but didn’t say anything about the picture. In the spring, when she visited the school again, her son was eager for her to come to his room. Upon entering, she found on the best wall space the picture of Christ. All the other pictures were gone.
Wisely she said, "Jack, there is something different about your room.
Did you get a new rug?" "No."
"Is this new paper on the wall?" "No."
“When I was here before, it seemed to me you had more pictures than now."
"Yes, I did, Mother, but those other pictures seemed out of place after that one of Jesus came into the room."
When we fix our thoughts on Jesus everything else will seem out of place. His presence will help us stay away from the influences that will cause us to sin.
II. Fix your thoughts upon Jesus - not only because it will keep us from sin but because He deserves our sole attention. Nothing else should even come close to demanding our allegiance
ILLUS: A young man was seated next to his girl in church one Sunday and his intentions were more upon her than upon the message. Leafing through his hymnal till he found what he wanted, he placed it in her lap and pointed to the hymn: "I need thee every hour."
She took the hymnal and searched until she found the appropriate hymn to respond: "I’d rather have Jesus."
ILLUS: (pause) The song writer wrote:
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold
I’d rather be His than have riches untold
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands
I’d rather be led by His nail scared hand
Nothing else should even come close to demanding our attention. We should fix our tho’ts on Jesus.
ILLUS: A man in a church I once knew was needing confrontation. He had openly sinned and the church was struggling about how to deal with him. One of the church’s Elders was this man’s friend and didn’t want him punished. Seeking a way to avert this, he took another of the Elders aside and said "You and I are members of the Masonic Lodge, and so is this man we’re thinking of disciplining. Let’s forget about the church for a moment. Let’s talk about this like Masons…"
What was this Elder saying? He was saying that his friendship with this man caught in sin, and his membership in the Masonic Lodge were more important than his responsibilities as an Elder of the church… and more importantly, his loyalty to Christ Himself. (Interestingly, I believe God was instrumental in this Elder later resigning his post and never regaining his position again).
Fix your thoughts upon Jesus. There is no organization and there is no man that should even come close to influencing your life.
III. That’s what the writer of Hebrews had in mind when he wrote this letter. The writer starts out his letter by saying: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
In other words, as great as the prophets of the Old Testament were, we need to focus our thoughts on Jesus and focus what He has said.
But he goes even further. The greatest of all the Old Testament prophets and leaders was Moses, And yet look at Hebrews 3:3-6
"Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast."
Moses was a great prophet – but Jesus deserved greater honor than even Moses. Why? Because, while Moses was a faithful servant, Jesus was the Son… He was the Son of God.
IV. AND because He was the Son of God Jesus did that which no mortal, no human being could ever accomplish. As Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us:
"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."
What mortal man could ever hope to overcome the power of Satan.
What mortal could ever pay the debt for someone else’s sins.
Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
… that’s you
… that’s me
… that’s anyone who has ever been born
EXCEPT Jesus. Not because of who Mary was sinless, but because Jesus was God in flesh.
Philippians 2 tells us:
"Christ Jesus… being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!"
Because Jesus willingly shared in our humanity...
Because He humbly allowed Himself to suffer and hurt as we do...
* Satan has been destroyed…
* we have been freed from our sins
* and we have the privilege to be called the children of God.
This is what Jesus did for us. In his book "Improving Your Serve" Charles Swindoll told a parable to describe the importance of what Christ has done:
"Think of yourself as living in an apartment house. You live there under a landlord who has made your life miserable. He charges you exorbitant rent. When you can’t pay, he loans you money at a fearful rate of interest, to get you even further into his debt. He barges into your apartment at all hours of the day and night, wrecks and dirties the place up, then charges you extra for not maintaining the premises. Your life is miserable.
Then comes Someone who says, "I’ve taken over this apartment house. I’ve purchased it. You can live here as long as you like, free. The rent is paid up. I am going to be living here with you, in the manager’s apartment."
What a joy! You are saved! You are delivered out of the clutches of the old landlord! .
But what happens! You hardly have time to rejoice in your new-found freedom, when a knock comes at the door. And there he is - the old landlord! Mean, glowering, and demanding as ever. He has come for the rent, he says.
What do you do! Do you pay him! Of course, you don’t! Do you go out and pop him on the nose! No-he’s bigger than you are!
You confidently tell him, "You’ll have to take that up with the new Landlord." He may bellow, threaten, wheedle, and cajole. You just quietly tell him, "Take it up with the new Landlord." If he comes back a dozen times, with all sorts of threats and arguments, waving legal-looking documents in your face, you simply tell him yet once again, "Take it up with the new landlord." In the end he has to. He knows it, too. He just hopes that he can bluff and threaten and deceive you into doubting that the new Landlord will really take care of things.
Now this is the situation of a Christian. Once Christ has delivered you from the power of sin and the devil, you can depend on it: that old landlord will soon come back knocking at your door. And what is your defense! How do you keep him from getting the whip hand over you again! You send him to the new Landlord. You send him to Jesus."
Fix your thoughts on Jesus. Or, as one song writer put it:
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of His glory and grace."
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
Better than Angels - Hebrews 1:1-2:9
The Jesus Fixation - Hebrews 2:14-3:14
The Only Priest - Hebrews 7:1-7:28
New and Improved - Hebrews 8:6-8:13
The Better Blood - Hebrews 9:11-9:28
