Keeping The Eyes Fixed
You know, if a man could just keep his eyes on Jesus all the time,
he'd have it made. But the trouble is, these eyes are made to see
things that are material, and they're not made to see things that are
spiritual. Now, looking out across this building today, I don't see
anything spiritual. I feel; I sense something. But I can't see it.
I mean, there's the building; I see that; that isn't spiritual. I
see the light bulbs; that isn't spiritual. There's the board; that
isn't spiritual. I see your bodies; I see your clothes; that isn't
spiritual. Your eyes are made to see things that are physical. And
this passage says, "Looking unto Jesus." Well, where are you going
to look for Him? I mean, if I look around there, He's not there.
If I look behind me, He's not there. I look inside, I can't see
through my body. The Bible says my body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost, but I couldn't see the Holy Ghost if I could see through my
body. And so I've got a problem. And if you ever solve that
problem, 95 percent of your problems are solved.
Looking unto Jesus. Now, the first thing I want to say about the
text is, that He's yours to look at. I mean, some people don't have
him. But if you're saved, if you're God's child, then, He's yours to
look at. He's mine to look at. He's mine to behold. He's mine to
dwell with. He said the Holy Spirit will dwell with you, and my
Father and I shall come into that man and abide with him. He's mine
to dwell with; He's mine to behold. He's mine to bear my burdens.
He's mine to conquer my enemies. He's mine to share my load and
carry it for me.
One time a man went to a hospital in London and got to dealing with
different people, and as he was dealing with different people, he
came up to one fellow there, and he said, "Can I help you any?" And
the man didn't answer. And every day that young preacher went
through that hospital he stopped by that bed and he said, "Can I help
you any?" And the fellow never did answer. And about the fifth day
he went through there and went by the same bed and said to this young
fellow who was dying, "Can I help you any?" And the young fellow
said, "Well, I've been very rude to you, preacher." He said, "Maybe
you can, I don't know." But he said, "Would you please me
something?" He said, "Can you undo my sins?" He said, "They're a
burden to me." And, of course, there isn't a preacher in the world
who can undo your sins. But He can. Looking unto Jesus. He can,
see? He can carry them. He can tote the load.
He's yours for a burden bearer. He's yours to dwell with. He's
yours to love. He's yours to share things with. He's yours to
prepare a place for you in heaven. He's yours in life. He's yours
in death. He's yours in the grave. He's yours at the judgment.
He's yours at the marriage of the Lamb. He said, "Unto him that is
able to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with
exceeding joy." Uh, you can look unto Him. See? He's yours. He's
gonna get you through. He's gonna get you through clean, spotless,
perfect, sinless. My, what a job! What a task! But He's gonna do
it!
One time a lady back east hung a bunch of clothes out on the line on
winter afternoon. She was talking to a visitor, and they were
remarking how white and clean the clothes look. And about that time
a snow flurry came up and turned into a mild blizzard, and the snow
began to fall, and she said, "Well, my clothes don't look as white as
they did." And the visitor said, "Well, they're just as white as
they were. They just don't look quite as white alongside God's
white." See? When God's white comes down, the rest looks real
dirty.
And when you look at Jesus, see, you see the real thing. You see the
real whiteness. You won't see it looking in a mirror. You see it
looking unto Jesus. Keep looking unto Jesus.
All right, look unto Jesus. Look unto Jesus--how? Looking unto
Jesus crucified, buried, risen, coming again. And LOOK to Him. As
long as you can look to Him, look on Him, you're safe. Simon Peter
was out there walking on the water, and he goes along that water, and
pretty soon the winds begin to blow, and the waves begin to come up,
and he says, "I'm sinking." He said, "Lord, save me." And Jesus
hauls him out and says, "Wherefore didst thou doubt, O ye of little
faith?" He was all right as long as looked to Jesus, and when he
quit looking at Jesus, then he had problems.
All right, we're to look at Jesus, and we're to look at nothing else.
Looking unto Jesus--not Satan. Looking unto Jesus. You shouldn't be
ignorant of the devil's devices. You ought to know what he's up to,
but don't look at him too long. He'll hypnotize you. Looking unto
Jesus--not the devil. Not your obstacles. Not your defeats. Not
the sorrows. Not the troubles. Looking unto Jesus. Don't look at
the troubles. You'll quit. Don't look at the obstacles. You'll
give up.
Young people--especially young men--they--uh--something about them,
this generation, I guess I was a bigger puzzle to my mother and
father. But they come along and they amaze me how soon they quit a
thing. It's just amazing to me how they start a thing and then just
drop it, you know. Just go along--QUIT. You turn around--where was
it, man? I don't know what in the world happened to the thing--
just--PPPFFT!--and go on!! I don't know what in the world happens to
folks like that. Uh, yes I do. They quit looking to Jesus. They
get looking at the wind, see? They get looking at the waves. They
look at the troubles, and they quit.
Why, a fellow said to a soldier over in Heartbreak Ridge in Korea, he
said, "Young fellow," he said, "wouldn't you like to be a Christian?"
And the fellow turned and said, "Who are you?" And he said, "Well,"
he said, "I'm a newspaper man who came over here, but," he said, "I'm
a saved man." He said, "I've been talking to some of these boys up
here on the front in these holes." And he said, "Well, what do you
think the trouble with this war is? If you don't want to be a
Christian, talk to me and tell me something I can give the paper."
And the young kid said, "Well, I'll tell you what the trouble with
this world is. And I'll tell you want the trouble over here is." He
said, "Your God has let us down." The fellow wouldn't get saved, you
know, he wouldn't trust God, but he told the Christian, "You're God
let us down." He was looking at the obstacles, see, looking at the
troubles.
Why, I know a Christian family one time, they're godly people, they
love the Lord, just about as fine a couple people as you ever saw,
they fell in love with each other, they got married, they didn't have
any children for five years, and they prayed all the time for God to
give him a child, and they finally got one. And it was a baby with
Down's syndrome, you know, what they used to call Mongoloids. You
know what they had to do? They had to look to Jesus, see? You can't
look at your troubles. You can't look at your problems. You'll
quit. You'll just give up. You'll give up.
Looking unto Jesus, not your problems. Not your defeats. Not your
troubles. None of those things. You can't let them get you down.
Not looking at Satan. Not looking at those problems. You know, God
doesn't always interfere and stop the wicked. God doesn't always
interfere and stop the devil. Sometimes it seems like He just lets
the devil just run away with the whole cotton-picking thing. And you
can't look at it too close.
There was a godless ol' captain back along there about, oh, 1600,
1700, called Hawkins. An English captain, and was of Bloody Mary's
kin. And he used to take a ship down around the African coast, and
he'd steal the Africans, you know, and sell 'em for slaves. And he'd
steal 'em and put 'em in chains on his ship. When he put them in
chains on his ship, they all sat there on the deck chained together,
and they saw the name of the ship on the bow, and written several
places inside the ship. And he christened that ship "The Jesus."
"The Jesus." You know. So every black fellow who was sold into
slavery would come over there thinking about Jesus carrying him off
as a captive and carrying him off in chains to sell him. Wasn't he a
fine fellow?
And, you know, that fellow didn't die until he was about 85 years
old, and God never sank that ship, and it never had a wreck, and
never got caught. And, you know, if you just look at the obstacles,
you'll just quit. The power of the devil is too great.
You look to Jesus, not your troubles. You look to Jesus. A fellow
one time had one thirteen operations and thirty-nine blood
transfusions. And a preacher talked with him at the hospital, and
said, "What do you think about these things? You're a saved man,
what do you think about them?" And the fellow said, "Well, preacher,
I don't know what to think about them." He said, "I know the end of
this thing is going to be death." He said, "I know in the end I'm
gonna die." But he said, "I just pray death will come right along,
but it doesn't seem to come." And, you know, when you get in a thing
like that, you know what you have to do? You have to look to Jesus.
Looking unto Jesus...there's no other place to look! See? Your flat
on your back. You've got to look up. And my text says, "Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." All right, you
can't look at the world. He says, "Looking unto Jesus, not to the
world." Looking unto Jesus, not to your brethren, not at other
Christians. Don't look at the world too long. I don't take any
newspapers or magazines any more at the house. I'm getting to the
place where if a newspaper or magazine comes to the house, I have to
smuggle it out of the place and burn it. If that stuff goes into the
trash, any more there's people in my neighborhood who come by and
look through your trash, pass the information on, sometimes throwing
something away isn't enough, because it could still do damage. Maybe
you should burn it. You can't look at the world too long. I have a
radio in my car, but don't have one in my house. I have a TV set,
but I'm finding less and less time or inclination to turn it on. I
don't take a great deal of time any more to try and find out what's
going on in the world. KNX NewsRadio used to be my favorite radio
station. Then, back around Christmas, my radio went dead in my car,
and I didn't bother to fix it. I found out I didn't miss it! Things
in the world are just too stinkin' bad! You know, if you just get
that ol' world in you and in your eye all day long, you'll quit too!
Cause it's a mess.
And looking unto Jesus, not at the brethren. And that's hard to do.
That's hard to do. You know, I see you all the time. And you see me
all the time, and we see US all the time! And those eyes just keep--
you know--looking and staring, and folks just get looking at each
other and criticize each other and analyze each other, and figuring
each other out. Why, you know, the dumbest person in the world is
just like a psychologist, you know that? You know some people are
proud of their education, of their degrees. Some men DIE by degrees!
I've met ol' folks up in the farm country, you know, never finished
high school. They got a mind just like a razor, boy. Eye just like
a gimlet, just figure you out in five seconds. You know what people
do? They just sit around and analyze folks and criticize folks and
weigh folks up and match folks out and compare folks to folks. You
know what they do while they're doing all that? They're not
witnessing, they're not passing out tracts, they're not winning
souls, they're not praying, they're not bearing fruit, they're not
doing anything but looking at each other. That Bible says, "They
measuring themselves among themselves, and comparing themselves by
themselves are not wise" (II Corinthians 10:12). You know what they
ought to do? They ought to look unto Jesus.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That's it.
You have to keep your eyes on Jesus. Looking unto Jesus, and, listen
to me. Not only looking unto Jesus, but looking unto Jesus and not
to the dearest loved one that you have. God's people, they say,
"Well, it's wrong to look at everybody and criticize them, but what's
wrong with loving your mother? What's wrong with loving your wife?
What's wrong with loving your children?" Well, I'll tell you what's
wrong, if they get your eyes off Jesus, the dearest person in this
world can be a stumbling block to you.
Looking unto Jesus--not the dearest and closest to you. It says,
"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."
The dearest person in this world, the dearest thing in this world, if
they get your eyes off Jesus, will cause you trouble. They say many
years ago, over in Germany--and this is just a story they tell--they
say there was a shepherd out on the hillside. And he found a
beautiful white flower that he had never seen before. And he bent
over and picked up that flower. And when he picked up that flower, a
hole opened on the side of the cliff, and that shepherd kid looked in
there, and there were diamonds, and rubies, and jasper and gold and
statues and vases and jugs and pottery and tapestries and silver and
gold and God knows what. And that shepherd boy RAN in there, just
elated. And he heard a voice say, "Take anything you want. Help
yourself. But don't forget to take the best." And, man, that kid
dropped that flower and began to pick up that stuff and crammed his
pockets full of that stuff, and he went through there and got loaded
down with so much junk he could hardly walk out of there. And, as he
walked through the hole, the voice said, "Don't forget to take the
best." And the kid went back and looked around there to make sure he
had the most valuable thing in the place, and walked back out to the
hillside. And, as the story goes, when he stepped out that old cave
closed up behind him, and everything in his pocket, his jacket, and
his haversack just turned to ashes. And the voice said, "You forgot
the best!" And then he thought, well, "I'd better go back and get
it." And when he went around but couldn't get back in the place.
And then he began to look for the flower. And then he remembered he
dropped the thing, you know, inside the cave, and it was back there
in the cave. And he never did get in again. You see, he forgot the
thing that opened the thing up.
And Christian people, I'll tell you, there was a time when some of
you were poor, but you're not poor any more. Some of you were in bad
health, and you're in good health today. And there was a time when
some of you were nothing but tramps and bums on the face of this
earth, and now you're somebody. And, listen, there was a time when
you had no treasure in heaven, your heart was down here, and God has
saved you, and you've got a lot of good things, see, but DON'T FORGET
THE BEST! I mean don't forget the One who gave it to you, that's
Jesus. If you hadn't run into Him you wouldn't have anything.
So, He says, "Look unto Jesus," see? That's the best. Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Don't look at your
beloved. Don't look at the brethren. Don't look at some cause. I
don't care if it's the greatest, most precious cause in this world--
it isn't the best. You know, you and I live in a day and age when
work is a substitute for loving Jesus Christ--you know that? You get
to going doing something for him, and all the accent is on what
you're doing for him instead of you and Him. And the best is Him.
The best is Jesus.
The text says, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith." Don't look to some cause. Don't look to yourself. If you
want the blessing, we shouldn't look to ourselves, people. Don't
look at yourself. You're weak, you're stumbling. Don't look at your
successes. Don't look at your failures. Don't look at your
weaknesses. Looking unto Jesus. Don't look at your doubts. Don't
look at your personality. Don't look at your gifts. Why, you can't
get the victory that way. I know some Christians spend all the time
looking at the gifts God gave them. Why, you look at the gifts God
gave you, and what if you lose them? You'd think God took them away
from you. But then you say, "Well, the gifts and calling of God are
without repentance," so I still got 'em. Then you get proud of them.
You say, well, "So and so can't speak in tongues. But I did!" You
get your eye on the gift.
Looking unto Jesus. You don't look at your doubts. You don't look
at your faith. Why, I don't even try to analyze my faith in Jesus
Christ. I've known people in the last five years that got so busy
analyzing how they felt about Christ, and whether or not they
exercised the right kind of faith, and whether or not they did the
right thing, they just about went stark raving mad thinking about it.
You don't look unto your mind, you don't look unto your feelings, you
don't look unto your heart, it's looking unto Jesus.
Don't look at your victories. Don't look at your defeats. You know,
a person who looks at their victories all the time, they're going to
get a false view of things. Nobody wins every time. I think some
young people think you've got to win every time, you know, or you're
a failure. Well, man, you're not anything till you've flopped three
or four times in a good faith way. I'm not recommending that you
drop out or anything, you know, but I mean you'll learn some things
by messing up you can't learn any other way. And you'll never learn
to outdo anything unless you make some mistakes. Uh, you take ol'
Adolph Hitler. You know what one of his main problems was? He never
looked at his defeats. He just looked at his victories. And, pretty
soon, he got to thinking that EVERYTHING was a victory, when it was a
DISASTER! Did you know the Union armies had that trouble in the
Civil War? All they looked at was their defeats. They were just the
reverse. Every time they got whipped, they'd go home and think,
"Well, good night, we're outnumbered, we don't dare attack, we don't
dare counterattack." And when ol' Robert E. Lee hit them in
Gettysburg, after that battle was over, General Meade could have
wound up the war in about three hours, if he would have attacked.
But he was scared to death! You know why he was scared to death?
He'd been whipped so many times before, all he could do was get his
mind on the defeats. Same thing at Antietam; they could've cleaned
them up them. You can't look at your defeats. You can't look at
your victories. You gotta look unto Jesus. You gotta look unto
Jesus.
You take ol' Elijah. He was out under a juniper tree, remember, and
he got there under that juniper tree, and lay down, and wished that
he'd die. And he said, "I'm no better than my fathers." Of course,
that was true. But the Lord knew that all along. And he said, "I'm
no better than my fathers. Take my life," you know, and all that
business. You know what his trouble was? He had a tremendous
victory. And when he had that tremendous victory, he got his eye on
that victory, and then right after that victory, he had a defeat.
And then he got his eye on the defeat, and he just was up, and down,
and flopped, and ready to quit. You can't look at your victories.
You can't look at your defeats.
The verse says, "Looking unto Jesus." Paul said, "Forgetting those
things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press forth for the mark of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus." The Christian should keep his eyes on Jesus. I wish
I could keep my eyes on Jesus like some unsaved man keep their eye on
a goal. You know, I've known some unsaved men, and God knows they're
lost and going to hell, and that was that. But, I'll tell you one
thing. They sure had an eye, and they could sure keep their eye on
the goal too, brother.
I think of a fellow whose name was Adolphe Topervine. In 1906 he was
the world's best rifle shot. He put Annie Oakley in the shade. And
Adolphe Topervine, you know what he said? He was a Vaudeville trick
shooter, and he told a bunch of folks out in Texas one time, he said,
"I'm gonna do something nobody's ever seen, and the world's never
seen before." And bets were wagered on it, and here's what he said.
He said, "I'm gonna have a man throw up little clay squares, and they
were manufactured two and a half inches square." And he said, "I'm
gonna have them thrown up eight hours a day for twelve days." And,
he said, "I'm going to try to hit every one of them." And he went
out there in front of a big crowd, and for twelve days, that old boy
fired that rifle, not a shotgun. A rifle--EIGHT hours a day in
December 1906--out there in Texas. He fired those shots EIGHT hours
a day for twelve days, and he missed NINE pellets--NINE of them--out
of 72,000. They threw one up every five seconds. And threw that
things up, and out of 72,000, that bird missed nine of them. You
know that's some shooting? And about the ninth day that fellow came
out to shoot, and that arm was almost paralyzed from bursitis. Just
about tore to pieces the ninth day. He fired for twelve days. Now,
that fellow had an eye, you know that? Just--bam, and bam, and bam,
and bam, and bam--eight hours. I mean, eight in the morning to four
in the afternoon for twelve days. That fellow had his eye on it.
You know, if I could just get my eyes on the Lord like that, you
know. And, I imagine his arm was hurting him, but he had his eye on
the pellet, see. And, I imagine his body was hurting him, and his
eyes were going bloodshot, and his mouth getting dry, and his arm
muscles twitching. But he had his eye on it, you see? And the verse
says, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."
And I don't care how bad it gets, and it's going to get pretty bad,
folks, if the Lord tarries--there's ONE thing you should do. Like
the Lord said in one place, "One thing is needful." And, I'll tell
you, if there's anything in this world that's needful for the
Christian, it's to keep his eyes on Jesus Christ. Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
We shouldn't have our eyes on our sorrows. We shouldn't have our
eyes on our disillusionments. We shouldn't have our eyes on our
ideas. We shouldn't have our eyes on trials and tribulations. They
ought to be on Jesus.
A fellow one time, an old Dutchman, was up in the rigging of a ship
many years ago, when they had the old sailing vessels. And he fell
down. And when he fell down and hit that deck, they thought he was
dead. And he came to about thirty minutes later, and asked how
manage had been done. And they said, "Well," they said, "You're just
bruised up pretty bad, but you did break a leg." And he said, "Well,
thank God it wasn't my neck!" You know, that's the way to face it,
see? Don't get your eye on the leg that was broken, get your eye on
the one that isn't broken.
One time a railroad man lost an arm in an accident, a railroad
accident, and had to have it amputated, you know. And he said,
"Well, thank God, it was the one that had arthritis!" That took care
of that, brother! And, you see, there's a way to look at that thing,
you see?
Now, many of you folks you know me. I'm about as negative as I can
be when it comes to a lot of things. But like I told someone
recently, there's one place you can ALWAYS be positive, and that's in
the Lord's dealings with you. See? I mean, Romans 8:28. There's
one place you can be positive, if the Lord's dealing with YOU now,
it's gonna work out. Looking unto Jesus.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Don't put
your eyes on your sorrows, your joys. Look unto Jesus. Look unto
Jesus NOW, brother. NOW! Look unto Jesus ALWAYS. Look unto Jesus,
and look unto Jesus ONLY. Don't look anywhere else. Don't look at
the Law. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Don't look at your
feelings. Your feelings change. Don't look at your neighbor; he's
probably just like you. Don't look at yourself--you're no good,
never have been, never will be. These folks--I mean, until the Lord
comes, you'll get by, the Lord'll feed you. But you're never gonna
be perfect until Christ comes. There's no use looking at yourself.
I'll just let you in on a little secret--I think about 80 percent of
all the psychologists in the world are half crazy. I really do. You
know why I do? I've lived with myself and tried to counsel people
over these years enough to know that if a man just sits around,
analyzing his own mind and other people's minds all the time, he'll
go BUGS, man! You can't keep looking at yourself forever, you'll
crack!
They gave a South Pacific woman a mirror, you know, one of those
missionaries. She took one look at that mirror and she slapped that
thing down and broke it all to pieces, and they heard her say in her
own dialect, "Well, now I won't look like THAT any more!" You know,
she got rid of the mirror, thought she got rid of herself! They say,
these love birds die of a broken heart. I don't know what kind of
birds they are, but they're two little birds, you know, you buy them
in pairs and put them in a cage, and if one of them dies, the other
one dies, you know. You take one out, the other one dies. And they
said one fellow found a way to beat that thing. He bought one bird
and put a mirror in there. Every time that bird would hop around and
see itself in the mirror, you know, and think it was another bird.
And one day somebody broke the mirror. And that little bird, instead
of dying of a broken heart, he died of a broken mirror.
But, you know, the moral of that thing is, folks, you just can't
spend all your time looking at yourself. I think of a couple of
folks I know, that I've watched over a period of years, watched those
people, and instead of those folks growing in grace and growing in
the knowledge of the Lord, and instead of them appreciating their
blessings more and feeling sorry for other people, and getting out
ministering and doing something for God, I've watched those people
through the years, and those people have withdrawn into themselves,
and withdrawn into themselves, and withdrawn into themselves, till I
honestly believe if they don't quit it they're going to wind up in a
sanitarium. You just can't go that way! You got to get out with
them. You got to deal with folks. You got to minister to folks.
But most of all, most of all, you got to keep your eyes on Jesus.
Now Paul said this. He said, "Forgetting those things which are
behind," he said, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus." In plainer words, upward, brother,
and onward.
Years ago a daddy was doing some carpenter work at a certain house,
and his own house was right next door. He was helping out a
neighbor. And he got up there about a third story, and was doing
some work up there. And he was horrified. He looked down the
shingles where he was working, and coming up that ladder, which was
over 15 feet high, was his four-year-old boy. And that four-year-old
boy had seen the daddy climbing up the ladder. And the little boy
was just following Daddy, you know, took him on up. And so the boy
climbed up the ladder after his daddy, the daddy looked at that boy
and hardly dared breathe to see what that boy was gonna do. And
then, what he feared would happen happened. That boy suddenly looked
down. And when he looked down at the bottom of that ladder, he got
dizzy and giddy. You know, the ground began to swim up there, he was
up about 13 feet high in the air. And the old man thought he was
going to fall off for sure. And the old man said, "Boy," he said,
"look up!" And that boy was hanging on that ladder, and suddenly
looked up and saw his daddy and smiled, and came on up the ladder and
forgot about how the ground was going, you know.
And when it gets rough, you know, and that thing begins to swim under
your feet, and you begin to lose your balance--look up! Look up.
Looking unto Jesus, see? Looking unto Jesus. Looking unto Jesus.
Not yourself, not your neighbor, not the devil, not the world, not
your feelings, not your victories, not your defeats, not your
successes, not your faith, not your doubt, not your sincerity, not
your resolutions. Jesus! Jesus! Looking unto Jesus. The author
and finisher of your faith.
Napolean at the battle of Marengo had a drummer boy. And that
drummer boy was supposed to know all the beats a drummer boy was
supposed to know. And at a certain place in the battle things really
got bad. And Napoleon thought his troups were going to have to
retreat, and saw it was going to be a disaster if they didn't
retreat, and he called that drummer boy and he said, "Beat a
retreat." And that drummer boy said, "Sire, I don't want to seem
insolent." And he said, "I can't disobey an order." But he said, "I
was never taught how to beat a retreat." And Napoleon said, "Well,
WHAT do you know how to beat?" And the kid said, "I know how to beat
a CHARGE!" And he demonstrated, BRRRRRRRR he rolled that thing on!
And those troups were all heading one way, they heard it and started
heading the other, and they got to the main point and got passed the
plank, and the battle turned, and the thing was over, and it was won!
And I'll tell you folks, when it gets bad, real bad, there's only one
solution in the world for the Christian, and what I'm going to say, I
say for every man, woman, and child in this building, you gotta look
unto Jesus. And, listen, if you're an unsaved person here, the
solution is exactly the same for you. You unsaved people, you get
your eyes off the preacher, you get 'em off your wife, you get 'em
off your husband, you get 'em off your kids, you get 'em off the
church, you get 'em off the government, you get 'em off the
newspaper, you get 'em off yourself, you get 'em away from the
mirror, and you get your eyes on Jesus, you'll be saved before I
finish this message. That's the trouble with folks. Looking.
Looking. What you lookin' for? Look unto Jesus. Look unto Jesus,
brother. Don't look at the person sitting next to you. They may
never lead you to Christ. Don't look at the person sitting next to
you. You're going to stand at the judgment alone. There may be 20
million between you, when you get judged, and the person sitting next
to you right now. That Bible says "Every one of us shall give
account of himself to God." Maybe God will judge you, and after He
finishes judging 300,000 other people, the person sitting next to
you, it'll be their turn. Looking unto Jesus. Looking unto Jesus.
You know, I've drawn you kind of a wild picture here. And I guess
you know that song about stairway to the stars is not exactly a
scriptural thing, and yet you know Jacob went to sleep one night, and
when Jacob dreamed he dreamed about a ladder, and he saw a ladder
whose bottom was on the earth, and the top went to heaven, and he saw
the angels of God ascending and descending on that ladder, and Christ
said to a man in the New Testament, "You're going to see the angels
of God ascending and descending on the Son of man." So, you know
what a Christian is like? A Christian is like a man who's got the
ladder, he's got the One who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the
life," and he's just trying to keep his eyes on the right place.
See? You don't look behind you. Paul said, "I press forward." You
don't look down to the earth. The things that are seen are temporal.
The things that are not seen are eternal. Keep looking up.
And my text says, "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."
Let's bow our heads for prayer.
Index of Preacher's Help and Notes
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