Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus: New Spiritual Sight

Notice Paul's not saying, after they cleaned it up, not after you got your vision straight, but while you were still seeing everything wrong, he died for you. See a, you are not saved because you finally looked at Jesus, you are saved because Jesus never stopped looking at you. Hebrews says, the joy set before him. That joy was Jesus looking at you even going to the cross. Do you know what that means? When Jesus went to the cross, he saw you. [00:34:41] (58 seconds)  #SavedByJesusGaze

Why will we fix our eyes on Jesus? Because he is the pioneer. Other translations say, he is the author. It is he is the giver of faith. It is a gift of his grace of faith. And not only that gift of grace to give you faith, but he is not just the he is the pioneer, but he is the perfecter. He is the author. He is the one who is writing a story and sustaining you and equipping you and leading you in this great story of your faith. See, faith is not our work, but God's work. [00:25:20] (40 seconds)  #JesusAuthorOfFaith

Because the Christian life is not sustained by us just trying harder to be better. It's sustained by repeatedly looking to Jesus until his mercy becomes the lens through which we see everything else. So today, don't leave trying harder. Leave here looking again to Jesus who is the author, the pioneer, and the perfecter of your faith. [00:53:02] (42 seconds)  #MercyAsLens

Not the cleaned up version of you, the real you. And he said, it's worth it. Some of you, you don't struggle to see Jesus. You struggle to believe he would look at you like that. But he does. He did. And he still is. Jesus saw the worst in you, and he stayed fixed on you. So Jesus has seen you and he loved you and he died for you, then something changes. So you don't just get forgiveness, you get new sight. [00:35:39] (78 seconds)  #LovedAsYouAre

See, we call temptation opportunity. We call envy motivation. We call greed wisdom. We call idolatry success. See, what has your attention, what our eyes get fixed on, will get our devotion. We'll get your heart. It'll separate you from God. See, sin does not just make us do wrong. It makes us see wrong. And if that's true, then I think we're in more trouble than we often think because our vision is distorted. So how would we ever fix it? And this is where God steps in. [00:32:38] (62 seconds)  #SinDistortsVision

And what you really don't realize is how blurry things were until you finally see clear again. And once you see clear, there's no going back. They can flip it like, no. No. No. You gotta go back here. Because once you see clearly, you understand what you have been missing. And here's what's scary. Most of us don't realize how blurry our vision is until Jesus clears it. See, when Jesus clears it, this world looks different. [00:38:03] (43 seconds)  #OnceSeenCantUnsee

And sometimes, what we don't see is exactly what can hurt you. And spiritually, we have blind spots. And a danger isn't just that they exist, it's that we don't know they exist. Ain't that what sin does? And it extorts it distorts our vision of ourselves and of others. And we do not see how our actions, our decisions affect others. And we often are shocked to discover them because we looked, We did the checks and yet we're still wrong. [00:29:14] (59 seconds)  #HiddenBlindSpots

Even Christians who get caught up into it because they don't have a shepherd, because we think we can do this journey alone. And when Jesus p sees people like that, he doesn't roll his eyes. He doesn't write them off. He moves towards them. He lays his life down for them. So when our eyes are shaped by Jesus, we don't just see crowds, we feel compassion and we too are called to move towards them and to lay our life down. [00:42:38] (45 seconds)  #MoveTowardsTheLost

And the truth is, it doesn't just happen with keys, it happens with life, it happens with people, and it happens even with Jesus. So here's a question we have to wrestle with today. What if some of the most important things in your life are right in front of you and you're just not seeing them? What if you're missing what God is doing? What if you're misreading the people around you? What if you're chasing what looks and feels right? But aren't life giving. And what if the issue is not effort, it's sight. [00:23:03] (78 seconds)  #SightNotEffort

I mean, think about it. He actually said, hey, I think your crazy plan might work. Why don't you drag me to this house, somehow lift me up through that ladder, rip through that person's roof, and and lower me down in front of Jesus? That that ought to be fun. But that's a redneck plan. Right? Come on. But that's what discipleship ship is. It's not just believing in Jesus, but it's doing whatever it takes, as I would like to say, short of sin to help people see Jesus. [00:45:17] (42 seconds)  #DiscipleWithRisk

See, discipleship, when eyes fixed on Jesus, we see the glory of God, we see the presence of God, we see the work of God even in our circumstances that are difficult in us and those around us. See, what would be different about your life? If you saw the world with the eyes of Christ? Who is it that you see that's spiritually dead? Who is it that is lost and needs to be gathered? Who is it that needs a spiritual words of in faith encouragement or clarity of a God who's working in their life, who's there that they can't see or feel because they're paralyzed on the mat? [00:50:08] (54 seconds)  #SeeWithChristsEyes

I was driving one day, felt totally in control. Everything was going great. Looked clear. I was sitting and going, gonna change lanes, look clear, check the mirrors. Right? Mirrors, check cameras even, and then started to chain lanes, and all of sudden I get this get this horn out of nowhere. And there's a car right there. It was in the blind spot. I didn't see it. But it was there the whole time. And in that moment, you realize something. Just because you don't see something, doesn't mean it's not there. [00:28:21] (53 seconds)  #WatchYourBlindSpots

Every year I I go sit in a doctor's chair to get my eyes checked, get that exam and they like put your head into this machine. It's kinda awkward and it's like in your face and then what do they do? They start flipping lenses. One, two. And at first, you're like, I don't know. One again. Two. I don't know. Flip it again. One, two, and then suddenly something happens and everything is sharpened. [00:37:33] (30 seconds)  #FlipTheLenses

moment of of faith. And they've been on this pilgrimage, a spiritual journey for this Passover. And, you know, Jesus is looking at him saying, they're blind. They're lost. They don't see what's going on. They are void of the spiritual realities that are going on around them, and he hurts for them. His heart is burning by it. And I don't think it's any different today. We see people helpless and harassed by the lies of Satan, the falsehoods of our culture that lead people astray. [00:41:37] (60 seconds)  #JesusGrievesTheLost

Have you ever been looking for something and like it was right in front of you the whole time? I mean, you're tearing the house apart. Keys, gone. Phone, gone. Glasses, no. On your head. Right? And someone walks in and in like two seconds goes, it's right there. And like you have two emotions at that time. One is like there's a sense of just relief. There it is. And then the second is like a little embarrassment. Right? Because it wasn't hidden. It was right there but you couldn't see it. [00:22:11] (52 seconds)  #RightInFrontOfYou

One of the greatest joys about being a pastor is when people come to me and say, man, I see Jesus in your church. As one of our regular guest likes to say, man, this is like hope in action. Because they're not just as this story says to the paraleg, their friends are not just carrying a body to Jesus out of some moral or emotional reasons, they are bringing their friend to Jesus to get help. Our church is not just providing hospitality because it's the moral southern right southern right thing to do, good practice. [00:43:33] (46 seconds)  #ChurchThatShowsJesus

Fulfill these traditions and practices, do some scripture, maybe even do some good things and yet still be dead because you can do all that without Christ. Jesus says, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as hens gather her brood under her wings and you are not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate. Jesus is lamenting those that are without him that don't know him. It burdens him. [00:46:38] (46 seconds)  #ReligionWithoutLife

Because the world knows that your eyes are drawn to what sparkles, what's impressive, what feels feeds pride, what feeds lust, and what makes you feel powerful. My eyes have been hooked on a conversion van lately. And and it started, it came up, and we had conversion vans and traveled with our kids. And so there's all these great memories and I started thinking, wouldn't wouldn't that be good today? I mean, we're doing more travel and driving stuff. Wouldn't that be good? Wouldn't it be great to have that today? [00:31:22] (43 seconds)  #DrawnToShinyThings

For some of you, you've been looking at everything else, Your problems, your past, your fears, your failures, and what everybody else thinks, and it's exhausting you. And you need to know Jesus is not standing at a distance saying, try harder, get better. He's saying, look at me. Look at me in my word. Look at me at the cross. Look at me in the empty tomb. Look at me at the front, font, baptism font, where I chose you. Look at me at the table where I feed you. Look again [00:51:49] (73 seconds)  #LookAtJesusNow

John's saying, look, the reason why you have these blind spots, all these things going because desires of the world, our sinful flesh wants that. And I don't know about you, but I feel that struggle. I feel that pressure. I mean, the world is discipling our eyes every day. It's telling our eyes what is good, what is pleasing, what is right. And because it feels good, it looks good, it appeals to our flesh, and the world's good at bombarding us with images, [00:30:37] (38 seconds)  #DesiresBlindUs