Latest / The Daily Word / July 27 – Keep Your Eyes on the Light
Transcript
- Cory: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good wee hours of the night, whatever time you are joining us. Welcome to the Daily Word Podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes, and it's my privilege to pastor our Kitauba Campus. I'm excited to be sitting down with you for another Daily Word episode. We're going to be doing a devotion out of the New Testament portion of our church Bible reading plan. Today is July the twenty seventh And our New Testament portion of reading came from 2 Peter chapter 1. And I'm gonna jump right on into the verse that I'll be doing this devotion on, which is verse 19. Reading out of the NIV today. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it. As to a light shining in a dark place. Until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Now, this prophetic message that Peter's talking about here is the return of Christ Jesus. And what he's saying here is that we would do well to keep our eyes fixed on it, to watch on. To look to Jesus and his return as you look to a light in a dark place. Now, I used to back in Alabama attend a church. I was on staff at a church as well, in a building that had previously been a furniture warehouse. Now, this is big open spaces and at night. When the lights were out, it was big, open, dark places. And it was always kind of creepy in there at night, especially considering like the roof was like warehouse roofing, it was metal. So at night during the summer, that ceiling would start cooling off and it would crack and it would pop and it would always be really eerie when you're in there alone. At night. Now, in order to leave that building, you had to cut off all the lights, and the switch was way away from the door that would lead to the church offices, which happened to be where like the alarm panel was to set the alarm before you left. So you would have to cut off all the lights and then make your way to the office door. And the office door like wasn't Fully flush with the door jam. So when there was the lights of the office was on, like the silhouette of the door, you could see the light shining around it. So you would fix your eyes to that light and you would ski daddle towards that door, and that's the image that comes to mind with what. Peter is saying here that we should look to Jesus, pay attention to the message that Jesus is returning as a person in darkness pays attention and fixes their eyes to the light. Now, I think that this is particularly valuable to us today because we are walking through. Darkness, and there are things in the darkness that are absolutely screaming for our attention. And we live in an information age where we can go down entire rabbit holes of YouTube and forums and the internet before we go to bed every night. Like we could live our lives in those places. And I remember like thinking about this, like Looking in the darkness, nothing there is ultimately going to benefit us. I remember when the Epstein files were released, this wasn't that long ago that there were people Christians that were pouring through those files, trying to figure out what was going on in the works of darkness. And I have to tell you that that time that they spent doing that, it didn't honestly profit them anything. No, they took their eyes off of the light and they started looking into the darkness, and that's not beneficial to us. Our eyes should remain fixed on Jesus and upon his return. And when our eyes are fixed there, it's going to make sure that we are walking and living our lives wholly, properly. Righteously, and it's going to keep us motivated to be about the work of the kingdom. It's going to keep us motivated to be winning souls and being a witness to those around us. Because when we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and his return, it keeps the cost of living this life set before us constantly. We remember that Jesus is coming back and he is coming back for a spotless bride. Without blemish or wrinkle. He is coming back to judge the world. He is coming back. He came the first time as a lamb that would be led to slaughter. And he is coming back. What we see in the book of Revelation, he is coming back as a lion to wage war with the kingdom of darkness. And it's this light, this man, this God man. That we should keep our eyes focused on as we are traveling through the darkness, no matter how much things in the darkness might creak and pop like the ceiling in my old church, or may scream and say, Look here, look here, look here. Whatever those things are, unless God is calling you to specifically minister to people that are are dealing with certain areas of darkness, none of that profits us. Anything, it's just a waste of our time and waste of our attention to go down all those little rabbit trails and to get our eyes off of the king. So, in terms of application, what have my eyes been on recently? Have I been focusing on the king? Have I been keeping my eyes set on Jesus? When was the last time I honestly considered the fact that Jesus is coming back? And there's a reason he's coming back. And I will have to give an account one day for how I have lived this life and what I have done with it. Have my eyes been set on Jesus or have I been knowing what the light is, knowing who the light is, but stumbling through the darkness? That's our application today. Let's pray. Father, I just thank you for who you are. And I thank you that every time we come to your word, you open it up and you reveal things to us. I thank you, Jesus, that you are the light and that we can keep our eyes fixed on you. If we keep our eyes fixed on you, our steps will not lead us astray. I thank you, Jesus, for your goodness and your mercy and the reminder that you are coming back. And when you come back, you're coming to do business, Jesus. We praise you and we thank you, Lord, for who you are and what you do in our lives. We love you, Jesus. Amen.