Part 2 - Compass heading due North.
Last week I drew a parallel between a compass always pointing north with absolute truth. This morning I will be continuing this parallel as we examine yet another element of the compass. The first thing we must always do when trying to find our direction is identifying which direction is North. North is a vital direction when trying to find your way.
For Christians our true North is Jesus Christ. All of scripture points to Jesus! In Genesis we see the first prophecy of Jesus. The scripture says ¡§He shall bruise you on the head,And you shall bruise him on the heel.¡¨ Jesus will bruise Satan, and Satan will bruise his heel. The Old Testament declares that we need a redeemer. It declares that God will send His holy One to reconcile man to God. The OT provides from Genesis to Malachi a set of prophecies, which describe the coming Messiah.
The New Testament is a report given by eyewitnesses that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the OT. The NT reveals to us that we have hope because God has fulfilled the promises of the OT and sent to us His redeemer, Jesus Christ.
People who are seeking to find their way in life need to trust Jesus, as their compass heading. Each Christian need to also keep their compass heading set upon Jesus. Our Bible text this morning deals with this very issue. The author of Hebrews wrote this:
Hebrews 12: 2-3 -- "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
The author was addressing the Jew Christians who, because of persecution wanted to turn away from the Truth and the course that headed home to heaven. In the text prior to this the author provides an illustration using a person who is running a race.
1. In the text we are looking at here is saying that we are to look at Jesus.
He is saying that each person is to set his or her heading on Jesus. He is to be your daily focus in life. Here is what the author means: if I am running in this direction, I can not look behind me, or to the side. I must always look in the direction I am heading.
Just the other day my daughter, Sarah was walking down the side walk, but was looking over her shoulder for a friend. Before I could yell out a warning she walked right into a signpost. While it hurt it also reminded her and us that you not only need to have your eyes upon your destination, you must also see where your going to avoid dangers and hurt.
People today have hurt and pain in their lives because they are not looking to Jesus and have fallen into sin. People crash into the pole and wonder what happened. They do not understand what went wrong. Some people get hurt because of something that they have done while not looking to Jesus and then blame God for the problem. While as Sarah’s father I wanted to warn her about the pole and the potential of getting hurt, she still was responsible for the accident. It hurt me to see her get hurt, but it does not change the fact that she caused her own injury because she was not watching where she was going. Our heavenly Father is the same way. We can not blame him for our irresponsibility and carelessness in life.
What then do you need to do? Fix your eyes clearly on Jesus. And as the author said in verse three the result is that ¡§ you will not grow weary and lose heart.¡¨ There are two ways to do things the hard way and the easy way. The choice is yours as to which you will take.
Here are three steps to fixing your eyes upon Jesus:
1) First step is that you must remove obstacles from your life. You can not see where you are going if these barriers are in your life. The barriers or obstacles are sin. What sin is in your life that prevents your from seeing God.
„« Do you hold onto anger?
„« Do you refuse to forgive someone, and therefore can not move forward?
„« Do you have a problem with stewardship of your money or time?
„« Have you placed work before family?
„« Or have placed your life before your relationship with God.
„« Is there a sin that you are hiding from God, like a child hiding a cookie behind her back hoping that the father does not see it. Surprise, He already knows and you just need to confess these things.
Whatever it is, sin will block your view of Jesus. You, each of you, must confess sin daily in order to have a clear view of your Lord.
2) Bible study or a quite time is the next way to keep your eyes on Jesus. Paul wrote that scripture is useful for teaching, correction , and reproof. We learn God’s will by reading God’s Word. It has been said that the Bible is Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.
You need to have a plan. Haphazard Bible study not profit you at all. Here is an ideal Bible Study Outline time outline:
A. Spend a few minutes in prayer asking the Lord to give you a fresh word for the day.
B. Read your Bible for at least 5 minutes. There are many plans that will guild you through the whole Bible in a year.
C. Reflect on what you read. Ask these questions concerning the text.
„h What promise is there to claim?
„h What example is there to follow?
„h What command is there to obey?
„h What sin is there to confess and forsake (give up)?
D. Pray over the text.
E. Apply what is in the scripture to your daily life.
3) Prayer is the other way in which you can draw near to Jesus. Prayer is communication from our leader and King to His subjects. Paul advised us to pray continually, without stopping. You need to be praying daily, something like this.
A - Adore God
C - Confess all known sin
T - Thank Him
S - Supplication for others - you’re needs
GUARD YOUR PRAYER TIME
Satan will use every device to cause you to miss one day, and when you do ¡V BEWARE: distractions will cause you to lose focus of your goal, to be Christ like.
The author of Hebrews then gives us justification for this point on the compass. He gives us the reason for keeping our eyes on Jesus. He wrote that Jesus is the ¡§author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.¡¨ The Greek means the leader or head of the church is also the One who has established the faith. Everything that Christians believe is rooted in Jesus.
¡§Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising shame.¡¨ That’s right the text used the word joy. Which one of us would consider being nailed to a cross, spite on, cursed and hung there to die a JOY? Yet in His death there is victory! In His death there is salvation! In His death is life! And when you add up the positives and subtract the negatives it all adds up to Joy. And now He sits in heaven in the seat of authority and holds all power over creation.
Jesus is rightly our focus. He has undergone death so that you can have eternal life. The compass is arrow points to Him.
What will you do with this today. Do you need to ajust your compass heading. Do you need to spend more time in His Word and in prayer. This morning I challenge you to make a step in the direction of Jesus. sometimes we need to calibrate our instruments, get your heading set upon Jesus today.
