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THE FIX |
| I’d like to begin this morning
by encouraging us to ask ourselves a simple but very important question: What is your life ambition? Take a look at this motivational poster from www.despair.com: (Ambition: The Journey of a Thousand Miles Sometimes Ends Very, Very Badly.) It is true, though, isn’t it? Some long journeys end very, very badly. For many people, in fact, the journey of LIFE ends very, very badly. Some people swim upstream all life, persevering against great adversity, only to find something like this at the end: destruction. So how can we prevent this from happing to us? How can we be sure that our ambition leads to life and not death? The answer is found in Hebrews 12:2. We read: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus… This is the key to success. Jesus. Success is being close to Jesus. Success is keeping your eyes on Jesus. If you want to succeed, your great ambition must be this: to fix your eyes on Jesus. If you do this, you will succeed. If you do not fix your eyes on Jesus, your life will be a failure. Success? Failure? Which will we choose. If you choose to fix your eyes on Jesus, then the next logical question is this: How? How do we fix our eyes on Jesus? As we look at Hebrews 12:2, we’ll see three things that we can do to fix our eyes on Jesus. The first thing that we can do to fix our eyes on Jesus is this: Flee self-sufficiency! We read in Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus is: the author and perfecter of our faith Jesus is the author of our faith. What does this mean? It means he is the originator of our faith. He started it. Why do you believe? Why are you saved? Why do you experience God’s grace? Did you one day say to yourself, “I think I’ll seek God today?” Well, if you did, we know something for sure: Jesus was working on your heart first to cause you to seek Him. That is what it means when it says that Jesus is the author of our faith. He started it. And how about the next word: perfecter? What does it mean that Jesus is the perfecter of our faith? That Jesus is the perfecter of our faith means that he is the one to bring it to a successful completion. Why are we going to grow in our faith? Why are we going to grow in holiness? Because we set our minds to it? Maybe we do set our minds to it. But one thing is for certain: Jesus has already set his mind to it! Jesus is the perfecter of our faith. He will do it! So what do these things mean for us? How does it impact the way we live? Do we sit back and resort to a lazy spiritual life because “Jesus will take care of it?” No. A thousand times… No! We are so assured of victory… we are so certain that we will not utterly fail, that we can give ourselves wholeheartedly to pursuing holiness and closeness to Jesus. Because we are certain to win the battle, this is why we fight. To be certain of winning the battle and therefore refusing to fight… why that would merely mean you weren’t certain of winning the battle after all. We run the race because we are certain that we will win. To be certain of winning the race and therefore not running, why that would merely mean that you weren’t certain of winning the race after all. I am reminded of one of David Livingstone’s experiences as he tried to share the gospel with tribes in Africa. He had befriended a tribe Chief named Bubi, and he was hoping to share the gospel with him. Unfortunately, Chief Bubi died before David Livingstone could see him again. And how he died is so sad: Chief Bubi was convinced that someone had put an evil spell on him; so he asked the village witch doctor to remove the spell. The witch doctor thought that he could scare away the evil spirits by standing the Chief next to a tree and then blowing up the tree with gunpowder. Unfortunately, the Chief was standing too close to the tree, and he was killed by the explosion. What a needless death. What a waste of life. And yet we, like the Chief, do the same thing, but in a more ‘sophisticated’ way, of course. Our lives aren’t quite working out as we want them to; so we look to our own ‘village witch doctors’ (pop culture, self-help books, pseudo-spiritualtiy, etc). As we go to these false ‘religions’ to set us free, we only get closer to death. We tell ourselves over and over again, “I can do it! I can do it!” But we can’t. Only Jesus can do it. The solution? Flee self-sufficiencey and fix your eyes on Jesus. And the second thing that we can do to fix our eyes on Jesus is this: Impress on your mind the reward. We read about Jesus in today’s Scripture: who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame There are two key words here that are very important for us to understand. The first word is the preposition ‘for’. The sense of this word can better be translated “for the sake of”. In other words, “For the sake of the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross.” Why did Jesus endure the cross? Because he wanted the reward of saving those he loves. The second key word here is ‘scorn.’ What does it mean when it says that Jesus endured the cross, ‘scorning its shame?” The idea here conveyed by “scorning it shame’ is that Jesus thought so little of the pain that he didn’t bother to avoid it. Why? Because the reward was so great! As you know, the author of Hebrews is exhorting us to persevere in running the race. He is telling us how to persevere so that we run the race and win the race. And of course, you only talk about persevering when things are difficult, not when they are easy. So why does he tell us here that Jesus endured the cross for the sake of the joy set before him? What is his purpose? His primary purpose is this: that we would look to Jesus as our example, and that we, too, would persevere. That we, too, would endure hardships. That we, too, would ‘take up our cross’ ‘for the joy set before us.’ He is telling us to impress on our minds the reward! The author of Hebrews is telling us that Jesus, for the sake of the rewards of saving those he loves, he endured the cross. And we can ‘fix our eyes on Jesus’ by doing the same thing: impressing on our minds the reward of knowing Jesus and therefore be able to endure the trials of living lives of faith. When I was a young man, coming home to the Bay Area for summer break from college, I had a great job. I washed windows. (insert picture of me washing windows) I would hop on my bike (I didn’t have my own car for the first couple of years of college), and I would ride to the home of one of my client’s. I would work for five hours or so in the heat of the summer. I would climb up ladders. I would sweat. I would fight against thorny rose bushes, pressed against windows. Once in a while I would even have to work around a bee hive (I wish I knew Fred back then!). Why did I persevere against such harsh conditions? Because of the reward, of course! I couldn’t wait to get that big fat wad of cash in my hand at the end of the day! And this is the time of year for graduations… Why do young men and women persevere through homework and projects and tests in school when it is so hard? It is for the fruit! As Aristotle said: "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” School is hard work, but we do it for the sake of the rewards. May we be reminded here that living a life of faith… that running the race… that fixing our eyes on Jesus…. May we be reminded here that it is not an easy life. If you want above all else an easy life, don’t become a Christian, go to Disney Land! But Jesus promises us that that life will be difficult. Jesus promises us that just as he had to endure the cross, we too must take up (and endure) our cross as well. Let us remember: God loves us to much to be too concerned for our happiness. He wants our holiness. God loves us too much to be too concerned for our comfort. He wants us to have character. God loves us too much to be concerned for our earthly pleasure. He wants us to have heavenly bliss. Yes. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, for He is the GREAT REWARD. Let us endure, for the reward is worth it. Impress on your mind the reward. And the third thing that we can do to fix our eyes on Jesus is this: Xpect God’s best. We read about Jesus: and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This past week has been a great week of graduation ceremonies and celebrations! I have had so much fun being a part of such an important moment in the lives of many of our youth. Two of the highlights for me this week were seeing the Petiti girls graduate! Kimmy graduated from Cruickshank middle school, and Lauren graduated from Merced High. Kimmy gave a speech at her graduation, and Laruen sung a song at hers. They both did fabulous jobs. And I was bummed when they both sat down. You know why? It meant that they were done. When Kimmy sat down after giving her speech, I knew she was done. And I had the honor of video taping Laruen’s song. And after she finished singing, I kept recording – until she sat down. There is a finality of sitting down. When you sit down, it means you are done. We get the point, right? What is so important about Jesus sitting down? He is God, isn’t he? What… did his legs get tired? He sat down because he was done. He endured the cross out of love for us, and then he sat down. How does this encourage us as we seek to persevere and run the race in the midst of difficulties? It should encourage us because we can expect God’s best. Jesus loves us so much that he died in our place. And it is a done deal. He did the job and sat down. The work is done. He is not going to change his mind. He is not going to rescind his offer. He died for you. Do you think that he will now turn his back on you? He rose again as victor over death; do you think that he will not also give you victory? I am reminded of Romans 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Are you really convinced that God wants what is best for you? Are you willing to suffer in this life, trusting that it is all worth it because God knows what He is doing? Do we trust God this much? Do we really believe that following Jesus is the best possible life that we could have? Not the easiest life, but the BEST life? The abundant life? Do we believe this? We can be sure because he endured the cross out of love for us, and then he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He not only wants to do it. He can do it. He is at the place of authority! He is at the right hand of the throne of God! So let us expect God’s best. He loves us; we can trust him. Flee self-sufficiency. Impress on your mind the reward. eXpect God’s best. Fix your eyes on Jesus. And now it is time to close with another motivational poster: (Achievement: You can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor.) Are you motivated now? I love this poster because it reminds me of Jesus. Let me explain. The world around us tells us that we can do anything if we just set our minds to it. This poster reminds us of the truth (in a jokingly way of course); we can’t do anything we want if we set our minds to it! If you have lived more than a few hours of life in the real world (and I believe most of us here fit into this category), you have experienced failure. You have set your mind to achieve before, and you have failed. That is life. It is kind of depressing, but it is life. But there is one thing that we are guaranteed success in! We are guaranteed success in finding peace with God. And this is not because of anything we do! It is because of what Jesus has already done. The most important thing in life – peace with God – is the one thing that we are guaranteed success in – if we want it. Do you want it? Do you want peace with God? Do you want to walk with Jesus? Do you want to live a life of faith? Jesus himself says: “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door shall be opened.” That is why the answer is to fix our eyes on Jesus. It is not about you and what you do. It is about him and what he has done. This is The FIX. Let us pray…. Jesus… thank you for being the fix! Thank you for promising us success when we seek you. Thank you for promising us life when we give ours to you. Thank you that it is not about what we do but about what you have done and promise to do. Thank you that you promise us the great reward! Thank you that you give us the best life – better than we could ever ask or imagine. Help us to fix our eyes on you, for there is no other life that we desire. Amen. |