Talk

The Power of Attention

Ben Stuart
July 23, 2023

Ben Stuart continues in our series, Church People, by showing us the necessity of awe in the human experience and how the church in Acts made space for awe by eliminating distractions and devoting their attention to the Lord.

Key Takeaway

Distraction from your attention impedes your ability to experience awe.

How do we get awe to be fully who Christ wants us to be?

  1. We can't create awe, but we can put ourselves in spaces that allow us to experience it.

  2. We choose what we give attention to.

  3. We seek information and interpretation. We try to understand what it is that we see.

  4. We can show evidence of the fruit of the Spirit so that other believers see the fruit of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

“
"We are made to live in awe and to worship a God whose glory and grace and power and love overwhelms and changes us."
”
Ben Stuart

Discussion Questions

  1. How do you make time for Jesus in your daily rhythm?
  2. What are you allowing to distract you from the Word of God?
  3. How can you limit distractions in your life in order to spend more time with Jesus?
  4. How can you put yourself in more spaces to experience awe?
  5. What are some questions you have that you're wrestling with about Scripture?
  6. What are some ways you have experienced awe in your own life?

Scripture References

41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
44All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

1Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the

Lord
been revealed?

2He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

5But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

6We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the

Lord
has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

8By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10Yet it was the

Lord
’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the

Lord
makes his life an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the

Lord
will prosper in his hand.

11After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

12Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

Ben Stuart
Ben Stuart
Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.