What You Lookin At Series

Hebrews 12:1-2

Christ The Perfect One

1 All these many people who have had faith in God are around us like a cloud. Let us put every thing out of our lives that keeps us from doing what we should. Let us keep running in the race that God has planned for us. 2 Let us keep looking to Jesus. Our faith comes from Him and He is the One Who makes it perfect. He did not give up when He had to suffer shame and die on a cross. He knew of the joy that would be His later. Now He is sitting at the right side of God

I want you to know how awesome the Holy Ghost is. On the second Sunday, while the trio preached, God dropped in my spirit I would be doing a three week series. I didn’t think anymore about it because He had already prepared the following week’s sermon, and figured it would be most likely coming from it. That Friday, when I was meditating and talking to God, He led me to Hebrew 12:1-2. When I looked at it I heard the Holy Spirit say “persevere” and knew immediately that would be the series sermon. That Sunday after church, the Sunday school met and decided they would teach perseverance in Sunday School Class. I immediately began rejoicing in God. So if you would be so kind as to write these three sermon titles down….

Number I What You Looking At? Hebrews 12:1-1

Number II You Got to go through it to get to it 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Number III Finish Well. 2 Timothy 4:6-8

When you were younger, and some of us even now, get offended when someone is looking at us in what see as an ugly or negative way. And our response is “what you looking at”

Even today, you could be in a crowded room, supposed to be listening to a speaker, your mind begins to wander and you begin to gaze around the room. The person across the room appears to be looking at you. You try to avoid eye contact, but keep glancing over to see if they are still watching you. If you are with someone, you eventually lean over and mention that the person is looking at you. Depending on their own level of maturity, they will either feed into the frenzy, or they will tell you that you are nuts… either way it is bugging you… to the point in some cases some of us will stroll over to the person and actually ask them what you looking at! But you know what, if you had remained focused on what you were supposed to be looking at… number one you would not have seen somebody “staring” at you… and number two, that person probably wasn’t even looking at you, but had just become bored like you and lost focus and was glancing around the room like you.

Turn to your neighbor and ask them… What you looking at?

In order to understand the importance of persevering you must know what it means… well the dictionary says… Steady persistence in adhering to a course of action, a belief, or a purpose; steadfastness.

This week we are going to touch on the first three things of the nine points God has given me on this three part series on perseverance. In this first segment we are going to talk about the first three steps in order for you to persevere, to endure, to hang on, to last - focus, fearless, and faithful.

Reading the chosen text, we find the author is giving instruction to folk who evidently have considered giving up and letting go. He has heard rumors or rumors of rumors that some are tired, some have been discouraged, some have become dismayed and he has come to offer a word to remind them exactly what they should be looking at. Many of us have been there, and some of us are there now. But God has a formula that will allow us a break through this morning.

First of all you must have a Focus….

Focus definition

A center of interest or activity. Close or narrow attention; concentration To concentrate attention or energy to one particular thing.

The scripture writer tells us in order to persevere in this race God, we must focus on Jesus. Why, because when we are looking around, we become distracted by what is going on around us. We become discouraged by the situation at hand. Our problems, our circumstances, our trials and troubles become the center of our attention. But the word let’s us know the only way we can overcome or endure is by focusing on Jesus. So, when we struggle with why we are going through God is asking “What You Looking At”