Week 1 – Jeff Maness – October 13, 2019
Until we have a single focus in this life we’ll never be satisfied fully with this life. Both the culture and the Church have fallen for the lie that if we just find “the right one”, we’ll be fulfilled. True fulfillment though is not found in the right one, it’s found in the right focus.
#Single — Focus
…When we expect a friend or lover to take away our deepest pain, (or fulfill our deepest longings), we expect from him or her something that cannot be given by another human being. — Henri Nouwen
“Lonely insecure single people become lonely insecure married people. Because problems like loneliness and insecurity are not cured by another human being, they are only cured by the infinite love of God.” — Pastor J.D. Grear
Big Idea: Until I have a single focus in this life, I will never be satisfied fully with this life.
Big Question: What should be my focus in life?
Main Scripture: Matthew 6:33
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Matthew 6:33 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
1. The Kingdom of God
Seeking it with the greatest earnestness and concern, as being the principal thing in life. — Benson Commentary
Matthew 22:29-30 29 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. 30 For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.
John 15:13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Romans 14:17 17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Goodness = righteousness, or the approval of God.
Matthew 6:33a 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously,
2. The character of God
3. A contentment from God (Pad goes here)
Matthew 6:33 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. One who seeks for this may well be content to leave all else in his Father’s hands. Even without his asking “they shall be added unto him” in such measure as is best for him. — Ellicott Commentary
Romans 14:17 17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink (or if we marry), but of living a life of goodness (righteousness) and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Peace = Wholeness. When all essential parts are joined together.
Joy = Joy, Delight, or the source of Joy
When lonely people with a strong desire for intimacy move closer and closer to each other in the hope of coming to an experience of belonging and wholeness, all too frequently they find themselves locked in a situation in which closeness leads to friction, friction to pain, and pain to separation. — Henri Nouwen
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