Looking Unto Jesus

What if?

We were created to need Him It’s not difficult to live the Christian life, it’s impossible without Jesus Christ.”

What do you spend your time looking at?

Yourself? Your abilities? Your self righteousness?

Your circumstances ? debt bad health Relationship problems discontentment your enemies

The world you’re living in? …with all of its…. …politics …explicit advertisements …economic disasters …corrupt morals …lack of absolute truth

…Or are your eyes fixed on JESUS moment by moment?

4 phases of gazes

1. Self!

2. Our need for God, because of our wretched sinful selfish condition. 3. The remedy found in the Cross. 4. Our new life in the Risen Lord Jesus.

We can trust Him

To the degree that we don't know Him (God the Father & Jesus the Son), we'll trust in other people & things.

Who do YOU say I am? -Mark 8:29

Who do people say I am? Stubbornness frustrated Him self-righteousness infuriated Him child-like faith thrilled Him. Spontaneous never boring or predictable A friend of sinners & the rejected. To a Samaritan social outcast in John 4. To a woman caught in adultery in John 8. To deceitful tax-collectors like Zacchaeus- Luke 19:1-10. Levi- Matt. 9:9-13. Simon the leper. a woman anointed Him with perfume, wiping His feet with her hair.- Lk. 7:44-49.

“If Jesus had never lived; we couldn’t have invented Him” Walter Wink

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

Israel & the Ark Keep your eyes on it. Follow it. Keep your distance. You’ve never been here before.

Stephen vs. the religious rulers…

…in a staring contest Stephen… full of grace and power 6:8 face like the face of an angel. 6:15 he gazed intently (on) Jesus 7:55 He died but more so he was….dead to self The religious rulers… full of religious rage; fueled by their self righteous flesh. they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. 7:54 fixing their gaze on him 6:15 waiting for the green light to kill & destroy

If I am to be like Him, then God in His Grace must do it, and the sooner I come to recognize it the sooner I will be delivered from another form of bondage. Throw down ever endeavor and say I cannot do it, the more I try the farther I get from His likeness. What shall I do? Ah, the Holy Spirit says, you cannot do it; just withdraw; come out of the arena, you are a failure... sit down, and as you sit there behold Him, look at Him. Don’t try to be like Him. Just be occupied with Him...through the Word. -Norman Douty

Looking UNTO JESUS ALWAYS