Original Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6rgRML4OgE
Keep
Your Eyes on Jesus
Well,
praise Jesus today guys. I just wanted to make a short message about how we as
disciples of Jesus need to keep our eyes on Him. We know the story about Peter,
what happened when he was in that boat and they saw Jesus walking on the water.
They thought He was a ghost. But after they realized that He was their Messiah,
Peter says, “well, if you are the Messiah, command me to
step out on the water and walk to you.” And Peter starts to walk to Jesus. But
then as he looks at the waves, he becomes fearful and he sinks and he says, “Lord,
save me.” This is a perfect analogy of what happens to us when we're walking
well with Jesus, everything's going good, and then a storm of life happens and
then we look at the storm or we look at people around us. And as soon as that
happens and our eyes are off of Jesus, we start to sink into the world, sink
into despair, sink into fear. We lose confidence that we can walk with the Lord
because now the situation in front of us looks too scary.
And
a lot of these waves or bumps in life would have easily been overcome if we
didn't worry about that little bump, that little whoop in the road, that little
wave coming in. We wouldn't have been concerned about it at all if we were not
comparing ourselves to others or thinking about the world or worried about the
news or worried about our image in the world. If we were really focused on
Jesus and what He says, for example, seeking first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and then everything else will be added to you. If we were about
our Father in Heaven's business, then we would still be walking on water as Peter
would have still been walking on water if he didn't take his eyes off of the
Lord.
Now
this sounds very juvenile, very basic. It's one of the basic principles of
walking in our faith, keeping our eyes on Jesus. But sometimes the very basic
things have to be mastered. If we don't master the very basic things, then we
can't accomplish anything else. Some of the very basic things of the faith are
love, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, I mean true love for Jesus
Christ, true love for your neighbor, having genuine faith and keeping your eyes
on the Lord, keeping yourself unstained from the world. If we can master these
very basic things with Jesus, we will be doing good.
But
as soon as you are not mastering these things, you're going to let demons
quickly come into your life. And when these demons are coming into your life,
you're quickly going to allow sin into your life, bitterness, hatred, envy,
jealousy, fear, doubting, and you're going to start sinking so fast, you're not
going to be able to help anyone because you're going to be the one reaching up
your hand just hoping someone pulls you up.
So
I want to encourage you to walk the straight and narrow path with Jesus by
keeping your eyes on Him. You know, people understand how to keep their eyes on
things of the world. If they want to keep their focus on making money, they
know how to do that. If they want to keep their focus on health, they know how
to do that. Or winning a physical race, they know how to do that. But it seems
like when it comes to keeping our eyes on Jesus, that becomes too aloof of an
idea for people to understand.
So
if this concept of keeping your eyes on Jesus seems too hard to understand,
where do you start? I encourage you to start by reading the Gospels and praying
directly to Jesus. Say, “Lord Jesus, please open the ears of my heart, open the
eyes of my eyes, that I can see you and hear you and give me the ability to
walk in righteousness with you, that nothing may hinder me from going forward
in my faith.” So read the Gospels. Pay attention to what Jesus said in Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John. If you pay attention to what Jesus said and then you apply
it to your life, you're going to be going the right direction. And if you ask
Jesus for His guidance, the guidance of His Holy Spirit, He's going to start
teaching you right away.
Some
people have asked me, well, how if I'm in sin and haven't received the Holy
Spirit, how can I even pray? God won't hear me until I've received the Holy
Spirit. That's not true. If you as a sinner right now want to repent, God hears
the prayers of those with a contrite heart, with those of a heart wanting to
live holy, and He will start purifying your heart. He will start the renewing
process on you today. He will start purging you of sin and evil, but you have
to choose to go with Him each step. You have to choose to really repent of
things that you know are wrong. If you want to start hearing God clearly,
listen to your conscience. God gave every single one of us a conscience. We
know the difference between right or wrong. And listen to your conscience
because your conscience is your spiritual ear to hear. Your conscience isn't
the Holy Spirit, but if you listen with your conscience when you pray, then
Jesus can start to speak to you. He can speak to you while you're going
throughout your day, while you're dreaming at night, and He can convict you of
what's really true, and He can point you the right direction.
If
you're not listening to your conscience and you're doing things that you know
are evil and trying to get away with everything, then you're going the wrong
direction anyway. So go the right direction with Jesus, Listen to your
conscience, Read the gospel. Pay attention to what Jesus said and be quick to
have feet to run to obey, to do the things that Jesus said, and you surely will
be going in the right direction. May the grace of Jesus be with you.
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