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Looking to Jesus: The Author and Perfecter of Our Faith · Clay to Crown

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  Speaker 1: You Hey everybody, welcome back to the Clay to Crown podcast.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Amanda Hughes. And it's a, you know,
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  Speaker 1: in my world, it's a beautiful sunshining day. And I
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  Speaker 1: have just a wonderful view in my home office as
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  Speaker 1: to where to record these things. So I'm just excited
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  Speaker 1: to get at it. Thank you for joining me today
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  Speaker 1: on our little weekly jaunts into all things God and
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  Speaker 1: theology and how God is refining us day by day
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  Speaker 1: from clay to crown. Wherever you're listening, whether you're driving
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  Speaker 1: or folding laundry, driving is how I usually listen to podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: but taking a walk or just sitting there and decompressing
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  Speaker 1: for a long day with a cup of tea or
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  Speaker 1: a cup of coffee. I pray that our time together
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  Speaker 1: strengthens your heart and lifts your eyes because that's exactly
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  Speaker 1: what we're talking about today is lifting our eyes. And
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  Speaker 1: that's probably one of the most foundational movements of the
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  Speaker 1: Christian life, lifting our eyes. What do I mean by that?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, looking to Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about a glance. I'm not talking about
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  Speaker 1: occasionally checking in, but fixing on our eyes on him
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  Speaker 1: as the author and perfecter of our faith. Now that
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  Speaker 1: phrase right there, author and perfecter, that comes from Hebrews
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  Speaker 1: chapter 12. And this is the anchor that we're going
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  Speaker 1: to be resting in today. And I'll read it. It's
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews 12 verses one and two. It says, let us
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  Speaker 1: run with endurance the race that is set before us,
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  Speaker 1: looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
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  Speaker 1: And so this isn't just a verse, right? Everything in
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  Speaker 1: the Bible is pertinent for knowledge, you know, it's wisdom
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  Speaker 1: for today, it's theology, it's spiritual, everything about it, right?
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  Speaker 1: And so I don't ever want us to think, oh,
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  Speaker 1: that's a nice verse. Everything in the Bible is a
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  Speaker 1: nice verse, right? You know, in Timothy, it tells us
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  Speaker 1: that the word of God is God-breathed, right? That it
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  Speaker 1: is sufficient for learning and encouragement and admonishment. And that's
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  Speaker 1: how I approach every single word, every jot and tittle,
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  Speaker 1: as Jesus would say. Scripture gives us the whole storyline
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  Speaker 1: of people. who learned to look to the Lord, starting
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  Speaker 1: clear back in the Old Testament and then going forward.
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  Speaker 1: There is a biblical pattern that we can trace. And
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  Speaker 1: so from the very beginning, God teaches his people that salvation, strength,
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  Speaker 1: and clarity come not from striving, not trying to earn something,
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  Speaker 1: not trying to have your own way, you know, but
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  Speaker 1: from looking. And I think a great example of this
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  Speaker 1: is in one of the first five books of the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: the Torah. Those books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to settle in into the book of Numbers,
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  Speaker 1: and specifically Numbers chapter 21. And a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: find this story that's very weird, right? And it is
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  Speaker 1: a weird story. Um, but it's so like powerful to me. So, uh, again,
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  Speaker 1: we're in, and we're in numbers 21. Um, and starting
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  Speaker 1: at verse four is where in this story starts. But
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to start at verse 5 for reading. You know,
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  Speaker 1: the Israelite people, they were in the wilderness. They were
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  Speaker 1: going from one place or another. They just had victory
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  Speaker 1: in battle over the Canaanites. And then they were setting
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  Speaker 1: out again, taking the road to the Red Sea to
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  Speaker 1: go around the land of Edom. But... What happens a
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  Speaker 1: lot of times in the story of the Israelite people
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  Speaker 1: in the wilderness, they start to grow impatient, right? They
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  Speaker 1: don't like the long journey. And which of us do?
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  Speaker 1: You know, which of us really do like a long journey?
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  Speaker 1: My family and I took a road trip over the
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  Speaker 1: summer out west to see my mom in Las Vegas
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  Speaker 1: and the Grand Canyon. And, you know, on the way out,
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  Speaker 1: it was a little tedious, you know, it was fine.
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  Speaker 1: But on the way back, like we just wanted to
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  Speaker 1: get home. Like we were over being in this, um,
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  Speaker 1: pickup pulling and travel trailer. You know, I was, I
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  Speaker 1: was over sitting, you know, I just wanted to get home. Right.
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  Speaker 1: So we grow impatient. We grow impatient with each other. Um,
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  Speaker 1: And so verse five in Numbers 21 says, they began
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  Speaker 1: to speak against God and Moses. Why have you brought
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  Speaker 1: us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?
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  Speaker 1: They complained. There is nothing to eat here and nothing
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  Speaker 1: to drink. And we hate this horrible manna. So that's
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  Speaker 1: all they had been eating is the sky bread from heaven,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the manna that came every day. And so
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  Speaker 1: the Lord You know, God, the father, the Lord, Yahweh,
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  Speaker 1: the great I am says, really people, you know, how long?
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  Speaker 1: Like what? Like, and this is my own paraphrase, right?
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  Speaker 1: I'm adding in the Lord's commentary because the very next verse,
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  Speaker 1: verse six says, so the Lord sent poisonous snakes among
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  Speaker 1: the people and many were bitten and died. Then the
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  Speaker 1: people came to Moses and cried out. We have sinned
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  Speaker 1: by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that
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  Speaker 1: the Lord will take away the snakes. So Moses prayed
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  Speaker 1: for the people. That's great, right? Because not even, you know,
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  Speaker 1: four verses before, not even that. Like three verses before...
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  Speaker 1: They were grumbling. They grew impatient. They began to speak
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  Speaker 1: against God and Moses. And then God passes judgments on
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  Speaker 1: them and gives them the snake, you know, sends them
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  Speaker 1: a snakes. And then they cried out saying, Oh, deliver us. Moses,
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  Speaker 1: please pray for us. It's great. I mean, but we
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  Speaker 1: do the same thing a lot, right? Okay. Verse eight.
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  Speaker 1: Then the Lord told him, make a replica of a
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  Speaker 1: poisonous snake and attach it to a pole and All
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  Speaker 1: who are bitten will live if they simply look at it.
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  Speaker 1: So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached
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  Speaker 1: it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by
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  Speaker 1: a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed.
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  Speaker 1: Think about that. Moses prayed for the people who were
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  Speaker 1: just grumbling against him. The Lord answered, gave a way
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  Speaker 1: of salvation, gave a way of life. All he had
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  Speaker 1: to do was make a bronze serpent and lift it up.
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  Speaker 1: And then whoever just looks at it, just looking. There
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  Speaker 1: was no ritual. There was no performance. Like they didn't
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  Speaker 1: have to say a prayer. They didn't have to do anything.
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  Speaker 1: There was nothing of their own that they had to do.
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  Speaker 1: They just had to look at it. You know, and
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  Speaker 1: Jesus himself picks this up when he's talking to Nicodemus.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when Nicodemus comes to him in John 3,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm turning there in my Bible right now, but
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  Speaker 1: Jesus himself picks this up. He, in John chapter 3,
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  Speaker 1: when he's talking to Nicodemus, starting at verse 14 and 15,
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  Speaker 1: he says, you know, and Nicodemus is asking, you know, how, um,
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  Speaker 1: somebody can be born again, right? Anyway. And so starting
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  Speaker 1: in verse 14, he says, and as Moses lifted up
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  Speaker 1: the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so
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  Speaker 1: the son of man must be lifted up so that
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  Speaker 1: everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. And
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  Speaker 1: In other words, that's a picture of the crucifixion. That's
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  Speaker 1: what Jesus was foreshadowing there, that he was going to
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  Speaker 1: be lifted up on the cross. And in other words,
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  Speaker 1: that salvation comes to looking... at Jesus. You know, in
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  Speaker 1: Psalm 34, 5 says, those who look to him are radiant.
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  Speaker 1: You know, radiance isn't something we manufacture. It's the result
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  Speaker 1: of attention and You know, go back to Moses, you know,
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  Speaker 1: in his time with the Lord on Mount Sinai, he
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  Speaker 1: spent time with God. And when he came back down
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  Speaker 1: off the mountain, he had to wear a veil because
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  Speaker 1: his face was radiant. So what we look to, what
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  Speaker 1: we behold, that's reflected inside of us, right? That's reflected
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  Speaker 1: in us. And then there's Isaiah 45, 22, and we'll
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  Speaker 1: come back to this verse a little bit later. But
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah 45, 22 says, look to me and be saved
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  Speaker 1: all the ends of the earth. It's one of the
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  Speaker 1: most simplest invitations of the Bible is just to look.
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  Speaker 1: All you have to do is look to Jesus as
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  Speaker 1: the author and perfecter of our faith. Focus on him.
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  Speaker 1: God doesn't complicate what he intends to make clear. Again,
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  Speaker 1: it's simple. So throughout the Old Testament, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: prophets look upward for vision. The psalmists look to the
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  Speaker 1: hills for help. The people are formed by where they
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  Speaker 1: fix their eyes. So what this does is it sets
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  Speaker 1: the stage for us as 21st century Christians, you know,
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  Speaker 1: in the stage for the New Testament for where the
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  Speaker 1: one we are meant to behold finally arrives, right? When
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  Speaker 1: Jesus arrives. But before Jesus arrives, who's on the scene?
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  Speaker 1: John the Baptist, right? It's Jesus's cousin. So we need
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  Speaker 1: to picture the scene in John 1, verse 29, you know,
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  Speaker 1: John the Baptist is gaining a following. People, you know,
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  Speaker 1: are thinking maybe he's the Messiah. You know, he's preaching repentance,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and all of that. But he's declaring his mission.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he says, I am not the Messiah, starting
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  Speaker 1: at verse 20. Then some of the followers asked, well,
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  Speaker 1: then who are you? Are you Elijah? No. Are you
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  Speaker 1: the prophet we are expecting? John again, no. Then who
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  Speaker 1: are you? We need an answer for those who sent us.
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  Speaker 1: What do you have to say about yourself? So John
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  Speaker 1: replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah. He's quoting
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah chapter 40 here. He says, I am a voice
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  Speaker 1: shouting in the wilderness, clear the way for the Lord's coming. See,
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  Speaker 1: so then the Pharisees who had sent him, if you
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  Speaker 1: aren't the Messiah or Elijah or the prophet, then what
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  Speaker 1: right do you have to baptize, right? And he proceeds
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  Speaker 1: to go and say that he baptizes with water, but
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  Speaker 1: right here in this crowd is someone you do not recognize.
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  Speaker 1: Though his ministry follows mine, I am not even worthy
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  Speaker 1: to be a slave and untie the straps of his sandal.
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  Speaker 1: Then the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him
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  Speaker 1: and said, this is verse 29 of John chapter 1, Look,
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  Speaker 1: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
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  Speaker 1: the world. Behold, John's entire ministry can be summed up
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  Speaker 1: with that word, behold, look, look toward the Lamb of God.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is walking toward him and he's saying, look, look
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  Speaker 1: to him. Don't look at me, look at him. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I first heard, not maybe first, I've probably heard others,
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  Speaker 1: but one of the most powerful messages I've ever heard
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  Speaker 1: about looking toward the Lamb and about how John the
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  Speaker 1: Baptist pointed to Jesus was actually at my father-in-law's funeral.
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  Speaker 1: The man who preached the message that day took it
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  Speaker 1: from John 1, verse 29, and it was such a
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  Speaker 1: powerful image because he was saying that that's what my
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  Speaker 1: father-in-law did, who was a long time pastor, pastored many
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  Speaker 1: churches over 50 years worth of preaching and pastoring. And
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  Speaker 1: it was just a powerful example of what we need
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  Speaker 1: to do, right? So before the salvation event, comes or
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  Speaker 1: after the salvation comes, you know, when we're, we're living
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  Speaker 1: for Christ, we need to be the one pointing people
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  Speaker 1: to Jesus and say, look, look, don't look at me.
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  Speaker 1: It's not about me. I hope nobody ever thinks it's
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  Speaker 1: about me. I want everybody to look toward Jesus because
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  Speaker 1: that's who it's about. He's the one that takes away
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  Speaker 1: to the sins of the, takes away the sins of
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  Speaker 1: the world, you know, and, and, and this, um, exchange
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  Speaker 1: in John chapter one, after John the Baptist says, behold, look,
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  Speaker 1: the lamb of God who takes away the sin of
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  Speaker 1: the world. He says these words, he must increase and
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  Speaker 1: I must decrease. And that's what every single one of
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  Speaker 1: us who profess Christ need to remember. It's in our
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  Speaker 1: humility that Christ increases, right? Spiritual maturity is learning to
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  Speaker 1: decrease the noise of self so Christ can increase in
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  Speaker 1: our field of vision. That's what John teaches us. He
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  Speaker 1: teaches us that the Christian life begins with a look. Behold, look,
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  Speaker 1: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
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  Speaker 1: the world, but then also continues with a look. It
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  Speaker 1: continues with looking toward Jesus for help, looking toward Jesus, again,
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  Speaker 1: as the author and perfecter of our faith, looking toward
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  Speaker 1: Jesus as the one who is our example, right? And
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  Speaker 1: so to go back to our Hebrews chapter 12, gives
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  Speaker 1: us two titles for Jesus, the author and perfecter. So
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  Speaker 1: as author, Jesus is the initiator of faith. He writes
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  Speaker 1: the first line of our story. Faith doesn't begin with
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  Speaker 1: our effort. It begins with his call. There is nothing
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  Speaker 1: that we can do. It is the Holy Spirit calling
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  Speaker 1: on us. And then the second being perfecter. Some translations
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  Speaker 1: in different points, that same Greek word is translated as
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  Speaker 1: captain or leader, right? So the perfecters or a completer,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus sustains and completes faith. He doesn't merely start the work.
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  Speaker 1: He carries it to completion. Philippians 1, 6 reminds us,
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  Speaker 1: he who began a good work in you will bring
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  Speaker 1: it to its completion in Christ Jesus. And that's exactly what,
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  Speaker 1: you know, God has been doing from the very beginning,
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  Speaker 1: pulling all things into completion, into the best functionality of
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  Speaker 1: what we have, right? Perfection. The Christian life is not
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  Speaker 1: about trying harder. It's about looking longer. And then the
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews verse gives us a metaphor of the race, right?
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  Speaker 1: Running this race. So those of you who are runners,
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  Speaker 1: I am not. I don't like running. The joke I
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  Speaker 1: make is if I'm running, other people better run too
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  Speaker 1: because something's chasing me, right? Like I don't run. I
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  Speaker 1: don't like it. I did it in the Navy. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't like it. You know, no. But when runners run,
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  Speaker 1: they're not staring down at their feet. They're looking straight ahead.
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  Speaker 1: They fix their eyes on where they need to go.
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  Speaker 1: They're fixing their eyes on the finish line. But for
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  Speaker 1: us as Christians, the finish line is not a place.
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  Speaker 1: It's a person. So looking to Jesus is how we
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  Speaker 1: run well. It's how we live well in this life.
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  Speaker 1: It's how we endure. It's how we stay steady when
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  Speaker 1: life feels heavy. We have to look to Jesus. You know,
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  Speaker 1: and I thought right here in my outline, this would
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  Speaker 1: be a good place to insert kind of a wonderful story.
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  Speaker 1: If you've heard of Charles Spurgeon, he was a very
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  Speaker 1: powerful preacher in the mid to late 1800s. This is
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  Speaker 1: his conversion story, and it fits beautifully in the theme
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  Speaker 1: of looking to Jesus. And this is where I said
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  Speaker 1: the Isaiah 45 verse, we will get back to it, right?
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  Speaker 1: And so this is what Charles Spurgeon wrote in his autobiography.
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  Speaker 1: It says, I sometimes think I have been in darkness
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  Speaker 1: and despair until now, had it not been for the
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  Speaker 1: goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning
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  Speaker 1: while I was going to Catch that. So essentially what
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  Speaker 1: he's saying, he's saying, if not for this snowstorm, He
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  Speaker 1: doesn't think that he could be saved or that he
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  Speaker 1: would be saved at the point that he's writing this.
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  Speaker 1: He was heading to a certain place of worship. Back
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  Speaker 1: to Charles Spurgeon words. He says, when I could go
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  Speaker 1: no further, I turned down a side street and came
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  Speaker 1: to a little primitive Methodist chapel. In that chapel, there
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  Speaker 1: may have been a dozen or 15 people. I had
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  Speaker 1: heard of the primitive Methodists and how they sang so
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  Speaker 1: loudly that they made people's heads ache, but that did
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  Speaker 1: not matter to me. I wanted to know how I
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  Speaker 1: might be saved and if they could tell me that.
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  Speaker 1: I did not care how much they made my head ache.
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  Speaker 1: The minister did not come that morning. He was snowed in,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man maybe a
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  Speaker 1: shoemaker or a tailor or something of that sort, went
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  Speaker 1: up to the pulpit to preach. Now it is well
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  Speaker 1: that preachers should be instructed, but this man was really stupid.
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  Speaker 1: It's Charles Spurgeon words, not mine. He was obliged to
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  Speaker 1: stick to his text for the simple reason that he
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  Speaker 1: had little else to say. The text was, look unto
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  Speaker 1: me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that
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  Speaker 1: did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of
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  Speaker 1: hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus.
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  Speaker 1: My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed.
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  Speaker 1: It says, look. Now, look and don't take a deal
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  Speaker 1: of pains. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger.
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  Speaker 1: It's just look. A man needn't go to college to
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  Speaker 1: learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and
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  Speaker 1: yet you can look. A man needn't be worth a
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  Speaker 1: thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look.
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  Speaker 1: Even a child can look. But then the text says,
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  Speaker 1: look unto me. Yes, many of you are looking to yourselves,
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  Speaker 1: but it's no use looking there. You'll never find any
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  Speaker 1: comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No,
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  Speaker 1: look to him by and by. Jesus Christ says, look
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  Speaker 1: unto me. Some on you say, we must wait for
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  Speaker 1: the spirits working. You have no business with that just now.
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  Speaker 1: Look to Christ, the text says. Look unto me. Then
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  Speaker 1: the good man followed up his text in this way.
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  Speaker 1: Look unto me. I am sweating great drops of blood.
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  Speaker 1: Look unto me, I am hanging on the cross. Look
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  Speaker 1: unto me, I am dead and buried. Look unto me,
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  Speaker 1: I rise again. Look unto me, I ascend to heaven.
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  Speaker 1: Look unto me, I am sitting at the Father's right hand.
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  Speaker 1: O poor sinner, look unto me, look unto me. And
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  Speaker 1: when he had gone about that length and managed to
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  Speaker 1: spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at
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  Speaker 1: the end of his tether. And then he looked at
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  Speaker 1: me under the gallery and I dare say with so
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  Speaker 1: few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just
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  Speaker 1: fixing his eyes on me as if he knew all
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  Speaker 1: my heart, he said, young man, you look miserable. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I did, but I had not been accustomed to have
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  Speaker 1: remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However,
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  Speaker 1: it was a good blow and it struck right home.
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  Speaker 1: He continued, and you will always be miserable, miserable in
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  Speaker 1: life and miserable in death if you don't obey my text.
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  Speaker 1: But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved. Then,
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  Speaker 1: lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a primitive
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  Speaker 1: Methodist could do, young man, look to Jesus Christ, look, look, look.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: You have nothing to do but look and live. I
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: saw at once the way of my salvation. I know
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: not else what he said. I did not take much
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: notice of it. I was so possessed with that one thought.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: people only looked and were healed. So it was with me.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I had been waiting to do 50 things, but when
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I heard that word, look what a charming word it
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: seemed to me. Oh, I looked until I could have
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: almost looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: was gone. The darkness had rolled away. And that moment
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I saw the sun. I could have risen that instant
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: precious blood of Christ and the simple faith which looks
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: alone to him. You know what? And then Charles Spurgeon
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: wrote later, I looked unto him and I was saved.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: A simple look, a simple gospel, a simple savior. His
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: testimony is the heartbeat of Christianity. Look to Christ and live.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: You know, we talked about the Old Testament testimony. And
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the New Testament kind of continues this theme of fixing
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: our eyes on Jesus, right? Of looking unto the Lord.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: You know, when Peter walks on water in Matthew chapter 14,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: he stands while looking at Jesus, but then he sinks
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: when he looks at the waves. Where he looks determines
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: whether he stands or he sinks. And then in Acts 7,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: when Stephen is being stoned after his great sermon to
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the Pharisees, and they accuse him of blasphemy and all
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: of that, at the end of chapter 7 of Acts,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Stephen looks up and sees Jesus standing at the right
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: hand of God. His gaze to the heavens, his gaze
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to Jesus Christ gives him courage. And what does he
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: say at the end? He says, do not hold this
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: sin against them. as they were throwing rocks at him.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: And then in second Corinthians, Paul says, we look not
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: to the things that are seen, but to the things
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that are unseen. The early church lived by a forward
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: gaze that gaze was anchored in Christ's presence and promise.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: When we say look to Jesus, we're not talking about
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: poetic language. It's a spiritual practice that shapes how we live,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: how we suffer, how we hope, and how we endure.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: It's a practical formation. We're forming our Christian experience. So
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: how do we cultivate this posture? You need to read.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: You need to read scripture. You need to read it slowly.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: You need to see how the text is pointing to
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Christ and then let your heart rise toward him. Use prayer, prayer,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: not as, um, attention, like not just given God your
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: grocery list, but prayer as beholding who he is. Um,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: You know, Jesus taught us how to pray, our father
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: It isn't until you get to like the fifth line
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: that the focus starts shifting. The focus always needs to
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: be on God and who he is first and foremost.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Worship reorients the gaze of the soul. So we read
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: the word, we pray, we worship. Because when we worship,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: it shifts our focus again, focus off our day-to-day lives
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: and puts our focus back on the one who is
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: worthy of all praise. We need to be in community.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: If we're not in community, sometimes our eyes will grow tired.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: If we're not in community and have people around us
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: that are holding us up, encouraging us, encouraging us to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: look toward Jesus. You know, I have brothers and sisters
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: in Christ who tell me, you know, if I'm going
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: through something, they'll say, well, what does Jesus say about it?
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Or have you taken it to the Lord? Or, you know,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: just don't think about the situation. Think about God. You know,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: what does God say about it? And then I would
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: also recommend a Sabbath in some way, creating space to
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: see Christ clearly. If you listen to a previous podcast
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: of mine, one of the episodes... I've done, it was
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: on rest, and you know that I don't necessarily believe
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Sabbath to be a 24-hour period, but I do believe
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Sabbath is important. We need to create that space to
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: see Christ. Looking to Jesus is not a one-time act.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: It's a daily rhythm, a way of being. Something that
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: we do every day in order for us to build
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: up our faith. So as we close today, I want
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: to leave you with this. Look to Jesus. From Genesis
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: to Revelation, the invitation is there. Look to Jesus. Look
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: when you're weary. Look when you're joyful. Look when you're confused,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: when you're overwhelmed, when you're running the race well, when
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you're stumbling. Jesus Christ is the author. He is the perfecter.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: He is the one who began your story, and he
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: is the one who will finish it. May your eyes
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: be lifted from the weight of your race to the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: one who runs beside you, strengthens you, and waits for
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you at the finish. Until next time, friends. Grace and peace.