Week Three.

Welcome to our third week in our Route 66 Bible Study. I am thankful you are here. Over the past two weeks we covered the first two points in this study. They were Be aware of the road signs and stay on the road until you reach your destination. This week we will be covering our third point in this study. It is titled Focus on the Road.

On the trip down Route 66 there will be off roads, attractions, signs, and billboards to distract you as you drive. As we know, while we are driving if we take our eyes off the road and become distracted, we put ourselves at risk of having an accident or possibly causing someone else to have one if we swerve due to taking our eyes off the road.

As we travel on this journey with Jesus the same thing happens in our lives and we must focus on the road and not get distracted. The distractions that the devil would have us fall to are meant to blind us to the things of heaven and get our focus on the world. The devil would have us looking at temptations and temporary things of this world rather than our eternal life and our walk with Jesus while we are here. It’s during the times we take our focus off Jesus and put it on the world that we end up in a mess and end up falling to sin. We must learn to avoid the distractions and stay focused on our walk with Jesus.

When we come to the point in our lives where we feel the pull of the on our hearts to step away from our sinful lives and we turn ourselves over to Jesus and come to the realization that we must follow the plan of salvation in Acts 2:38 that says Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, that is when we are saved. After this begins the process of sanctification. Sanctification is the process of learning to walk with Jesus. It if when we chose to allow His will to be done in our lives and allow Him to lead us and guide us. We begin to pray, fast, and seek his face in every aspect of our lives. This process happens in our lives and in our heart when we surrender to the will of God and allow Him to reign in our lives. We begin to die out to the desires of the flesh and walk by faith not by sight. Paul was a mighty man of God but even he said in 1 Corinthians 15:31 “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” Here Paul was not talking a physical death but a death of his fleshly desires to do the will of God in his life.

As we discussed last week, if we are to stay on track with God’s will for our lives, we must learn to identify the distractions that pull us off focus and develop a plan to counteract the distractions in our lives and stay focused on what God has for us to do. We spoke last week about making a list of the distractions in our lives and then making a list of things we can do to help us avoid these distractions. We also spoke about counting the cost of our actions and how they effect our lives. As we go through life each decision can cost us time, things, jobs, relationships, possessions and at times it can cost us our walk with God. If we allow ourselves to be overtaken by the distractions and sin that the enemy tries to pull us aside with, we can lose everything and find ourselves like the prodigal son in Luke 15, eating out of a pig pin wondering how we could have ever gone so far.

Deuteronomy 28:14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

We must be mindful and not get distracted. No matter how much you love that person or family member… No matter how fun you think that situation, party, drink, or drug will be… No matter how much you think you need that relationship… they are not worth missing heaven to enjoy an off-road excursion through momentary excitement that will leave you feeling empty and lost at the end of the adventure.

To stay focused on this journey we have to learn to walk in Hebrews 12:1-2 that says: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So, as we come to a close on this week’s series, I pray that God will help us to Stay focused and stay on the road that He has us on in our journey with Him. I want to close with two questions for you this week. I pray that this study is helping you as much as it is helping me and that our Lord Jesus can help us all to continue to stay focused on Him and stay on the right road.

QUESTIONS:

1. Identify some distractions that the devil uses to distract you and get you off track? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What are things you can do that help you stay focused and on track?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________