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See Clearly | Ps Jon Eaton · Citipointe Church Caboolture

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Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.
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Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to
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take hold of. So we hope this message inspires
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you and build your faith, but it helps you have more of a God
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perspective for your day. Enjoy.
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Thinking of, you know, seeing people who are good looking, but
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also just where people's focus is over here on this cross
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faith, love, hope. We have a stack of praise
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reports and a stack of prayer requests.
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But can I just encourage everybody here to not let the
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prayer requests that you have here be your focus, but rather
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let the answer, the hope be your focus?
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Because, you know, one of the privileges of being a pastor in
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this church is I get to hear lots of people's stories, both
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trauma and joy. So it's not all, you know, like
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this is mental health stuff. And in all of it, whether it's
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good or bad, rich or poor, all direction needs to be back to
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Jesus. All of it, absolutely all of it
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because there is literally no hope in anything except for God
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through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and hope in God
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is the only way to see clearly. So you'll focus what what do you
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see clearly and that's the title for today's message.
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During the week I spent the night at my brother in I love
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that she goes, Uncle John, she goes, I just want to be a better
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me. And just this morning Pastor
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Graham was saying, how do you be a better you?
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How do we do that? Is it through self help books?
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They might help a little bit, but they're definitely not the
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answer. What about yoga, drugs, being
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drunk all the time? The answer to being a better
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version of you is actually for you to see clearly.
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It really, really is. And one of the first points in
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this message about how to see clearly is you must see God,
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must see God. And so we'll begin in Matthew 5.
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Don't have to open up the Bible for those who are going to take
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notes today. You are going to have a hand
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cramp. I'm so sorry.
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All right, so Matthew 5 you've got the beatitudes as Jesus
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preaching on a mountain and it says in Matthew 5, verse 8,
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important verse for today's message.
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Blessed are the purer in heart for they shall see God.
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But there is so much more to this in Greek ortos Hotheus
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optomini, see God. But the word, see God there, see
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optomini. It doesn't just mean oh, I'm
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looking at God. It's been fully aware of God.
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It's seeing God what I love about Tom and I, It also means
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to be seen. Who wants to be seen by God?
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But this verse is not present. Sorry is not future tense.
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Jesus does not say blessed are the pure in heart for that one
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day they're going to see God when they die.
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He says blessed are the pure in heart.
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For they do see God. They see God.
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They're aware of him everywhere. They're seeing God right now.
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Not the toast. Ever seen that?
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You know, people, they say, I see Jesus.
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That's actually called pareidolia.
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Yeah. And people travel all over the
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world because someone on their window, you know, like someone's
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spilled the coffee and it makes a face and they're like Jesus.
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Pastor Mike actually said he preached here and something I
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wrote down from his message, he says lift up your eyes, let the
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invisible become invisible. That was great because God is in
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all things. We read that in Scripture,
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Ephesians 4 verse 6 where it says one God and Father of all
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who is above all and through all and in you all, but He is
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through all. If He's through all, then we
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should see Him through all and we need to see God daily.
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People say to me, but I don't see God.
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Well, you need to learn to see Him daily because blessed are
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the pure in heart. They will see God.
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You'll notice it says pure in heart, not perfect.
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Isn't that a good thing Or you sinners?
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Everyone's like he's right. Because the word pure here, the
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Greek word cathros, it doesn't mean you're a perfect person.
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It means pure. And there's a difference.
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Pure cathros really refers to being refined, refined in a
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fire, just like gold goes through refining process.
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Purity, not perfection, purity. Is anyone pure?
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Of course not. But what I love when Jesus says
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is this is actually in John 15 for those who want to write it
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down. John 15 one to three Jesus says
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and he's talking about being pruned.
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So verses one and two, he's talking about being pruned.
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In verse 3, Jesus says you are already clean, Cathros, you are
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already pure because of the word which I have spoken to you.
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Now Jesus never said to his disciples, geez, you guys are
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the most perfect bunch of people I've ever met.
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That's why you get to be my disciples.
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But He did say you are pure because of the words which I
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have spoken to you. Pruning is such an interesting
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subject to me. Rachel showed me this actually,
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because we have trees, actually we have anniversary trees.
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So we, we try and buy a tree, you know, it's lovely.
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And as I've mentioned before, one of those trees, it's one of
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those trees that all the leaves is all the leaves every winter.
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Yeah, literally yesterday I walked out and I said to Rachel,
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it's dead again. She's like, how long is this
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going to persist? I'm like, I don't know.
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How long is it going to keep losing its leaves?
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So anyway, The thing is, is Rachel has been pruning some of
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the trees and on the outside when you see someone cutting off
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all the branches, it looks like they are destroying it.
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And sometimes when God's pruning our lives, it looks like God is
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destroying it. But pruning is an essential part
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of making a tree healthier and stronger.
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So Jesus is saying I have made you pure.
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Now if you are pure, then you get to see God.
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So don't get upset and don't get all broken and disappointed and
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depressed when there are things in your life that God's cutting
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off and you think God must hate me?
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No, He just wants you to see him.
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Learning to see, it's like taking up your cross daily.
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I've had people over the years, they're like, John, I'm still
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just a Sinner. I'm like, no, you are not.
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You are the righteousness of Christ.
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Anyone who believes in Jesus is completely pure.
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Are you perfect? No.
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Oh my gosh, you're disgusting. So we are right.
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But I heard years ago someone said, they said you will never
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know just how disgusting your church is because we all have
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things that we all deal with. But what happens is the lie of
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the enemy is to say, Oh yeah, there you go.
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That's your identity. It is not your identity.
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Your identity is in Christ. What do you see?
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What do you see? Yeah, that purity is a gift from
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God. It really is.
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Hey, 01 day, I'm going to preach the whole message on that purity
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because it is staggering what God has promised his people who
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just, we just want to lean into him.
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Absolutely staggering. It's just beautiful, mind
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blowing stuff. Anyway, get back to the actual
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message, John. So what do you see and why does
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it matter? Because where you focus,
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especially if you're not focused on God, will bring about other
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things in your life that aren't godly.
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Like we can actually choose not to see God.
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Let me give you some examples. OK, so in Genesis 20, so if we
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don't see God, we see other things in Genesis 20, Abraham,
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if you can read the events yourself, but Abraham gives his
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wife to some other guy called Abimelech, right?
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And God in a dream shows up to Abimelech.
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And this is in Genesis 20 verse 3.
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It's not on the screen, but it says indeed, you are a dead man
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because of the woman you have taken for.
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She is a man's wife. And Abim looks like, well, dude,
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I didn't know like, like this guy, Abraham literally gave me
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this woman and out of innocence, I thought it was going to be OK
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to marry her. And I was like, no, don't touch
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her. You're like, so Abraham.
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Abimelech then confronts Abraham and this is what Abimelech says
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to Abraham. He said, what do you have in
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view? What did you have in view?
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That's actually a very good translation.
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Not what have you done? What have you in view that you
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have done this thing? Hebrew word rah.
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Because Abraham here saw fear. He thought Abimelech was going
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to kill him. He's like, how do I Pierce this
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guy? I don't know, give him the wife.
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He saw fear, so his focus was fear.
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He forgot about the promises of God.
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His focus was not on God or the hope that God had for him.
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His focus was on fear. Now don't be hating on Abraham
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because we all do this. We often give away precious
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things because our focus is fear sometimes.
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And this generation is wildly persuaded this way is a very
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polite way of saying it. Some this whole generation is
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persuaded not to have children, and they go, no, no children.
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Why? Oh, because the way this world
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is going. So you're giving up something
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precious because you are focused on the fear?
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What about people who say to me, oh, you know something?
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I'm not, We're not, we're not getting married.
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That's crazy. Why?
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Oh, the divorce rate is so high? Oh.
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So instead of focusing on God, His promises for a marriage and
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wanting to do things God's way, you are focusing on your fear.
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See, we often give up things that are precious for fear.
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In Genesis 27, one and two. Genesis 27, the one of the
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patriarchs of the Bible, his name's Isaac.
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All right, so you can read this yourself.
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But Isaac, he thinks he's going to die.
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He's come to the end of his life.
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And this is what it says in Genesis 27 one and two, it says.
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Now it came to pass when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim
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that he could not see, that he called Esau, that's his oldest
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son, and said to him, My son. And Esau said, here I am.
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And then Isaac says to him, Behold, now I am old and I do
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not know the day of my death. So the story continues where
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Esau and I Esau goes out, makes him a meal, and then there's
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this big hole, jumble, jumble between Esau and his brother
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Jacob. It's a mess.
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What I want to focus on here isn't the mess of hit their
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sons, OK? No, I want to focus on the fact
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that Isaac did not die for chapters later.
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Many, many chapters later. There are some scholars who
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believe that between what is it, Genesis 27 and Genesis 35 where
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Isaac actually dies, is about 50 years.
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You think Days of Our Lives has a long death scenes, 50 years.
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His focus, his view, was on the death and actually he made a
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mess of the whole situation with his sons, Esau and Jacob,
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because he rushed the story instead of actually waiting for
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the moment he was dying. No, no, he got everyone worked
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up and they all went and did silly things.
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Can you be a Mac? Can you imagine being married to
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Isaac? It's like the wife says, honey,
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what do you want for dinner tonight?
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Well, considering it's my last meal.
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And he did that for 50 years. I think probably after about 20,
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she was like, just toy. Sorry, I don't know if that's
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disrespectful. But seriously, that was what his
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focus was. His focus was not on any hope at
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all. Then we got Nebuchadnezzar,
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Daniel 4:30 That was a great king, and this is what it says.
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The king spoke, saying, is this not great Babylon that I have
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built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honour
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of my My Majesty? Remember that My Majesty in 31
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while the word was still in the King's mouth, God was like Nope.
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And for seven years he became this mental animal, eating, it
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says in verse 33, that very hour the word was fulfilled
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concerning Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men in a
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grass, yeah, like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of
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heaven, till his hair had grown like eagles feathers, and his
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nails like birds claws. Horrible.
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But at the end of four, sorry, seven years in verse 34, it says
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and at the end of the time I Nebuchadnezzar, what'd he do?
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Lifted my eyes to heaven. So now he sees now he has the
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right focus and I understand and return to me and I bless thee
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most high and praise and honoured him who lives forever.
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You will notice in these verses he did not go and then I'm like
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God, why did you do that? He was like, I've changed my
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focus. And then he found his answer
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because all of our answers come from him.
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So .2 I got this inspiration from Pastor Isaac last week,
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Just see it. And last week he's like, just do
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it. Just see it.
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All right? Now, this is really easy to say,
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but how do we just see it in our house?
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Rachel will say, and I think some, maybe a lot of people can
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relate to this. Rachel will say, John, can you
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please get the bread out of the cupboard?
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I hate that. I really do open the cupboard.
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It's not in there. She's like, yeah, it is.
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Nope, I'm not even making this up.
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Hey, I know it's not so cliche, but I've just done this so many
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times. And then sure enough, she'll get
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up and it's right in front of me.
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OK. We call it a boy.
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Look, I don't know if that's sexist or not.
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OK, cool. It's accurate.
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Is it? I just can't believe it.
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It's actually embarrassing. And I get really, like, nervous.
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I'm like, I'm going to fail. I just know it.
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Maybe that makes it worse because I'm focused on the fear
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instead of the bread. Anyway, yeah, I don't know.
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I'm preaching to myself. It's OK.
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You know, sometimes we don't see.
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We don't just see it because we want to keep the status quo.
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If you're familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan, you
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know, the leaders of the temple establishment and the priests,
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there was someone beat up, dying and bleeding, but they were
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concerned that it would disrupt their position.
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So they chose not to look, you know, so they didn't see what
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they were meant to be seen. And it was actually the Good
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Samaritan who came along and did see it.
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Other ones, actually, there's a very interesting terminology.
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It's called the Badda Minehoff. Has anyone heard that?
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Byda Minehoff? It's where you see things that
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you wouldn't have seen beforehand.
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A good example. If you suddenly decide one day
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you want to buy a motorbike, yeah, it's always a great thing.
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You then suddenly be care, become aware that there are many
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other motorbikes around. Yeah.
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So something that you have suddenly becomes very obvious.
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Like I, when I was young, I actually owned one of those
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little mini miners. Little mini.
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I did not realize how many were they were until I had one.
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They're everywhere. Now that I haven't got 1, I
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don't think they even exist anymore.
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All right, so this does actually occur because your brain having
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recently focused on a item, just simply becomes attuned to it.
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But are we being attuned to God? Like that's that's a God-given
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gift. It's where God's like, you know,
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when you become aware of me, when you see me, I've actually
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got something in your brain that's going to see and learn to
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see me everywhere. It's not just there so that you
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see other minis or other motorbikes.
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It's a cognitive based biased route.
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Actually, sometimes we're focused on previous herds.
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Are you focused on your past so much that you can't see your
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future? And maybe you're just simply
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looking at the wrong thing, like that's not your wife.
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Maybe you're looking at your own success, like Mr.
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Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah, and often we're so
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overwhelmed by our circumstances that we're actually no longer
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able to recognize the answer right in front of us.
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So, you know, I understand OK, I've got my own story and I've
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got my own journey as well. And a lot of time I've had to
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go, I need to refocus and engage the correct like looking pattern
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and see God again because when we.
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Re engage when we find our hope, when we lift up our eyes, often
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the answer has always been right in front of us.
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In Genesis 21. There's an event here where you
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have what's called Hagar. That's one of Abraham's wives,
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right? Hagar and she gives birth.
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She has this child named Ishmael.
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And basically the whole house erupts.
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It's just turns to pure hell. And so they kick Hagar and
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Ishmael out. Like, I mean, I think this is
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for the second time, but it's permanent.
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It's like go away. They they so they leave rah rah
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and they are about to die of thirst actually.
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And so in Genesis 2116, it says, and I'll just read it through.
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Oh, something good. Then she went and sat down
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across from him. That's across from Ishmael at a
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distance of about a bow shot. OK, so, you know, actually a
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fair distance because she could not deal.
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She's like, my child is about to die of thirst.
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This, this is too much. I I can't even I can't even see
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it anymore. I just can't deal with this.
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So she goes away right? And she says to herself, let me
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not see the death of the boy. So she sat opposite him and
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lifted a voice and wept. Genesis 27/21/17 And God heard
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the voice of the lad. Then the Angel of God called out
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to Hagar out of heaven and said, What ails you Hagar?
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Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.
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Interesting point. God didn't say Hagar.
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I've heard you cry and I'm here to answer your prayer because
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God's focus was already focused on the problem.
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God's focus was already I'm going to fix this.
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I've got an answer. God's focus is always on your
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prayer requests, not just on you.
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And then he deals with you like he did with Hagar.
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So God's like, you know something.
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I know that you couldn't deal with this trauma, but I'm right
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there at that moment with a purpose and a plan for this.
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And verse 18, it says, arise, lift the lad and hold him with
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your hand, for I will make him a great nation.
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Verse 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water
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and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a
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drink. Now there's a bunch of theories
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about this like was the well already there or did God just
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make a well happen? The thing is that the well was
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probably already there because it does not say that God made a
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well. It just says that she lifted her
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eyes and then God opened her eyes because her focus was back
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on Hope, her focus was back on God.
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And when you bring your focus back to God, your eyes are
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opened. Always do, always bring yourself
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back. In Second King Six, there was a
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bunch of enemies surrounding the building called Dothan, which is
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where Elisha was staying, and Elisha's servant was freaking
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out. OK, because the Syrian Army has
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surrounded it. They were going to slaughter
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everybody and then Elijah prayed and said, Lord, I pray that you
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open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of
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the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of
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horses and Chariots of fire. That would be awesome to see.
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Hey all around Elijah .3 singers and musicians you can come up
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now. That'd be great.
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Thank you so much, Alex. He just literally sat down.
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He just did like we've been 10 seconds ago.
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Lovely. All right, you know, in Joel,
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I'm not going to go through this because we've run out of time,
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but I do want to explain some principles of how to do this
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because .3 is see your position. See your position.
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You know, in Joel 232, Romans 10/13, Acts 221, it says that
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all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
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Beautiful verse. It's very good for you to etch
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that one in your mind actually, because sometimes we think we
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know who will make it to heaven and who won't.
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And I like to think, well, all who call on the name of the Lord
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will be saved. But let's go to the next one in
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Matthew 721 to 23. Important verse in context it
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says on that day many will say to me, Lord Lord, did we not
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prophecy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do
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mighty works in your name and then I will declare to them I
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never knew you depart from me. Wait, isn't this a
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contradiction? Isn't there a bunch of
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scriptures that I just said all who call on the name of the Lord
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will be saved and now Jesus like no, all who call on the name of
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the Lord will be saved. But that word there, I never
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knew you knew The word new is gonosco.
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Gonosco is a marital intimacy word.
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It's not knowledge fully. It is a form of knowledge, but
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it's very it's biblical knowing. How's that trying to be kind
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children? So I want you to remember that
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point, Gonosco intimately involved with our God.
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It's so close where you are focused on each other, you're
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married to each other, you're intimate with each other.
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Like my eyes are on my wife because she's beautiful.
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But here's the thing guys, God thinks you are beautiful.
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Do you think he is? Because the God that I'm madly
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in love with, deeply in love with.
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Like yesterday I watched the sunset and all the colours and
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you have to think to yourself, if there are such a wide variety
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of colours and such a wide variety of spices and herbs and
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tastes and just so many like laughter, children's laughter,
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My gosh, if there are so many beautiful things in this world,
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then surely the Creator is far more beautiful.
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But how do you begin this journey of intimacy with God?
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Well, you have to have have him as your first hope.
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Hope your first focus and Jesus. When Jesus said I never knew
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you, what he was saying is I was not the focus of your affection
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was Jesus saying you. You didn't hope in me, You hoped
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and you had focus in what? Your own achievements?
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Because from the verse they're yelling out, you know, hey, we
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cast our demons in your name. We prophesied, we did mighty
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works in your name. It's like Jesus, like that was
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your focus. I wasn't your focus.
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Focused in your own achievements, focused in your
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own spirituality. Oh, what great things you did in
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my name. Good for you.
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But I was not your only hope. So I don't know you, and if
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you're not in an intimate relationship with Jesus,
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remember we're not perfect, but an intimate relationship with
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Jesus is. If he's not your first hope,
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then it means that we're intimate with other things
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because we're always intimate with something.
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It's actually by default, we're either married to Jesus or we're
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married to other things. Ever heard people say, oh,
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they're married to their career? Yeah, maybe they're married to
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their art or one of the ones I've heard often they're married
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to the 'cause it's so easy to be married to the cause, the
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casting out demons. They're doing wonderful,
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powerful things in his name. God's like, well, and that's why
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please understand this. And that's why Jesus said depart
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from me, get away from me. You know why?
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Because he doesn't break his own rules.
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Jesus is like, I don't commit adultery.
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You are married to something else.
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Does that make sense? Yeah.
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She's like, whoa, I don't fool around with someone else's
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spouse. You're already married to the
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'cause you're already married to your own spirituality.
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You're already married to your own career, You're married to
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the whole world. You're married to lots of stuff.
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I'm not touching you because I don't break my own rules.
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Here's the beautiful thing. And you can read about this all
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through Scripture. At any moment you can
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categorically stop having intimacy with the world and
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everything else by simply placing your hope in Jesus.
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How great is that? There is there is no big journey
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or story here. It's like a I'm changing my
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focus simple decision. And then then we have Cathros
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where it's Jesus who prunes you, then he purifies you.
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So I just encourage you, let let Jesus ignite that intimacy in
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your heart. And just like the song we sang
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this morning, I love how in tune our churches with Holy Spirit
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where it says I didn't even know this song was going to be
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played, which is Jesus. I belong to no one else.
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That were the words we sang this morning and I was like, that's
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the message for today. I belong to no one else.
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There's a quote, and I'll finish with this.
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There's a quote from CS Lewis, Beautiful quote.
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It says I believe in Christianity as I believe that
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the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by
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it I see everything else.