Good Looking!

We will return to our Revelation series (just two left) after the summer holiday season.

Are you looking good this morning? 

When I say that we immediately think about outward appearances. But I want to think about the good things we are look at! If you are looking at the right things you will go the right way. 

Don’t Look at Others 

2 Cor 10:12-13: We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. 13 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. 

Whether they are successful or failing in some areas, it is unhealthy to compare. You are not on their journey, you do not know where they have come from or what cost they have paid to be where they are. 

Comparison is the death of dreams. Stay in your lane.

Only look to emulate those who are imitators of Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:1).

When you compare yourself to others you are either bigging yourself up or wishing yourself away. Both are unhealthy.

Don’t Look Lustfully

1 John 2:16: For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

Job 31:1: I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.Looking towards Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

When you are looking lustfully, at a man or woman, you are devaluing someone who is promised to someone else. You are devaluing someone who is created in God’s image and is precious to Him.

Don’t Look Longingly

This is similar to lust, but is also to do with what the Bible calls coveting. 

What you let in through your eyes will work its way inside. Jesus warned us multiple times in the Gospels that our eyes can cause us to sin.

Matthew 5:29: If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Matthew 18: 9: And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Jesus was not necessary literally telling us to maim ourselves, he is telling us how destructive coveting what is not yours is to the soul. It pollutes.

Remember Achan, who stole the goods from Jericho and triggered a curse? Here are his words about what happened: “I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid” (Joshua 7:21, paraphrase). 

If you are busy doing the do’s you’ll be too busy to do the don’ts.

So where should we be looking. Well I describe this as the cycle of seeing faith, kind of a circle. 

Look Lordward

Hebrews 12:1-3: 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, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The picture here is of an athlete who throws off everything unnecessary for the race! That sin that so easily entangles, ensnares or weighs us down. 

We focus on the prize, Jesus! 

Oswald Chambers said ‘Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ’.

It is a race for the weary! We are called to persevere. We gain strength by looking at what Jesus endured. By doing so we do not lose heart. 

Note; it is not the cross that saves you. The cross has no power, only shame. We have reminders of Jesus’ sacrifice here in church, outside in the garden, even around some of our necks. 

It was not the cross on which your sin was laid, it was on Jesus!

It is not the cross that saved you, it was Jesus! (Romans 3:25).

Look Forward

Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.Your word is a lamp to my feet.

How far forward in life can we look? In truth not more than the present. We have no idea what each moment will bring, let alone what the next hour or the next day will bring.

This is why James gives us this advice: 

James 4:13-15: Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

We look forward to many things. We have a forward looking vision as a church. I am looking forward to my holiday. I look forward to family events. I make plans. But these plans are in the hands and timing of God.

When the Bible says in Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.Your word is a lamp to my feet, the picture is of an old oil lamp, it illuminates the next few steps and the body of the person.

It is to do with our moral life. We set our direction and depend upon him to illuminate enough of what is ahead to keep us on the pathway (Matthew 7:13-14). It illuminates ourselves too, our character. We look forward in this way be immersing ourselves in the word of God, which is our lamp.

John Piper: "Our attention is one of the most precious things we have. What we give it to shapes our souls."

Look Outward

If we are looking Lordward and Forward we cannot help but look outward too!

Matthew 9:36-38: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

We may think that this is someone else’s responsibility, it is not! In the very next verse, which unhelpfully is in the next chapter, he sends out the very disciples who he was speaking to. Never think that looking outward is someone else’s responsibility, or someone else’s ministry.

John 4:35: Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

The idea of missions and witness terrifies many of us. We need to prioritise our walk with Jesus for as we do He will tell us to open our eyes!

We have misunderstood the five fold ministry task (Ephesian 4:11-13). In the list are evangelists. We think it is a special person who look outward. But that task of the five-fold ministry is to equip everyone else for ‘works of service’. What is a work of service? It is the things the five-fold ministers do - they equip others to do the same. 

The primary role of the Holy Spirit is not to teach us or give gifts, although He does all that and more. The primary role of the Holy Spirit is to empower the believer for witness (Acts 1:8).

So look outwards. 

Look Upward

Psalm 121:1-2: I lift up my eyes to the mountains where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

I want to show you a picture from my holiday last year. We went to visit a village called Llança, North East Spain. We have friends and extended family there.

We stayed in a lovely apartment but not in a tourist area. The buildings are built closely together. Each morning I would go onto the balcony and have my quiet time. Between the gap in the building, here was my view.

Photo of builders yard.

But beyond that was a mountain.

Photo of the mountain.

Yous see we may only be able to look through the narrow gap of our circumstances and see the mess of an emotional builders yard. But look up!

The Psalmist says when he sees the mountain he is reminded that is help comes for the very one who created the mountain and everything else! 

Is God too weak to help you? No He is the Maker of heaven and earth! Look Up!

Landing this message:

Look Lordward - Look Forward - Look Outward - Look Upward. The circle of seeing faith.