Following The One With 20/20 Vision

Sermon for CATM - January 5, 2020 - “Following the One with 2020 Vision”

Welcome to the year 2020 AD. We made it! And we have so much to be thankful for. It’s the first Sunday of the first year of a new decade.

And it’s not a bad time to give God thanks for his love and faithfulness to us for the past, say, 10 years! God has been good, we have received his grace over and over again.

We have heard his voice when we have attuned ourselves to his presence.

When we have gone off the path, he has come for us, to rescue, to reclaim, to revive, to enliven again. Aren’t you glad that we serve a God who leaves the 99 in order to find the one who has strayed off the path.

We should be glad, because at any given time, one among us is likely struggling or straying, and at some point, that person has been us.

We serve a God who leads us through mountain and valley, and He leads us to still waters so that our spirits might be revived.

And when the way forward has been murky, has been riddled with doubts; when our next steps have been unclear, we have hopefully learned something about our limitations.

And perhaps the most important lesson, our most important limitation, is our greatest blessing.

That’s because the truth is that we cannot see what’s coming in the future, we sometimes can’t even trust our best instincts as to how to prepare for tomorrow.

But here’s the thing, and if you hear only one thing in this message, I really hope it is this: we have the joy of following the one who sees ahead with perfect vision.

We have the joy and privilege of following the one who knows where we are going, who knows what’s coming, who is completely prepared for all things, who sees the future with 20/20 vision.

And this one, this Jesus who sees with perfect vision is good. How good?

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, LORD. They rejoice in your name all day long; they celebrate your righteousness. For you are their glory and strength, and by your favour you exalt our horn. Indeed, our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.”

??Psalms? ?89:14-18? ?NIVUK??????

So since this is true, how should we approach the coming year?

Do you want to approach it with your eyes open? Do you want to approach it with growing faith in Him? Do you want to hear His voice?

Do you want to grasp in a fuller and deeper way just how much God loves you?

Just how much God wants to love the world around you TO Him? Do you want to remain in Him?

Let’s talk about these things, because these things are what really matter.

Moving forward, as we follow Jesus, May we See Him

If you think for just a moment, it won’t be hard to think of what Jesus has done for you. Think of your life up to now.

It won’t be long before you recall how gracious and kind and patient he has been with you.

If you’re like me you’ll be able to identify many things, many good things that are in your life because of Jesus: friendships, peace, and genuine hope. All kinds if great and small things

But we do need to be careful.

Pastor Jeff Strite tells the true story of a professor who was teaching a class called “Jesus of Nazareth.” On the opening day of the class he gave a standardized psychological test, the same test, to all his students.

The first part of the test was all about Jesus.

It asked students to imagine Jesus' personality with questions like, "Would Jesus prefer to go his own way rather than act by the rules?"

And "Was he a worrier?" The second part of the test asked the same questions of the students. But instead of "Was he a worrier?" it asked, "Are YOU a worrier?"

The prof said the results were phenomenal. The test revealed that most people tend to think Jesus is like THEM. Introverts thought Jesus was introverted (for example), and extroverts thought Jesus was extroverted.

These students hadn’t fixed their eyes on the Jesus who WAS. They only saw the Jesus who was like them, and who agreed with them.

Jesus wasn’t the measure of who THEY should be. Instead, THEY were the measure of who Jesus should be.

That’s what happens if we’re not careful to fix our eyes upon Jesus. It gets kinda dangerous.