What To Look For

[0:00] Look to the Lord Jesus today. Lord, we look to you, we pray, guide and bless. Help us hear your word, help us to act on it, help us to hear what you want us to do and to do it. In Jesus name, Amen.

[0:30] Amen. People are looking, they're searching, searching, often in the wrong places for what really matters and we can search and search and miss the point. I know as a young man I remember with my family we watched a program called The Long Search and it was about all kinds of different religions and it's almost like they never found the answer. They never found the gospel because religions are vain without this truth.

[0:59] I want to tell you of a person to look for. There is a missing person, a missing person in many people's lives he is a missing person. Really he is Australia's most wanted or he should be Australia's most wanted. Certainly he's Australia's most needed.

[1:18] A most needed person. Who is this one? This person that we should look for and hopefully we'll find him. I know there's a scripture that says in Jeremiah, if you search for me with all your heart you will find me.

[1:37] You will find me. And Hebrews 12 verse 1 tells us of this one, of how there's a race and of looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

[1:51] Why should we look to this person? Why should we look to Jesus? Isaiah 45 it says, God says, look unto me all the ends of the earth and be ye saved.

[2:07] For I am God and there is none else. Look unto me and be saved. We should look to this person because without him we cannot be saved.

[2:18] In Zechariah 12 it says of a time when our Lord says that they will look upon him whom they have pierced. They will look upon him and they'll see the one they've pierced, the one they've killed.

[2:32] The world will see him. Philippians 3 tells us of our conversation, our citizenship, where we belong. It says it's in heaven. In heaven.

[2:45] From whence also we look to the Saviour. Look to the Saviour. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall change our vile body.

[2:57] Look for this person. You know, someone said tongue in cheek here that Jesus will do a better job than the gym can. He's going to change this vile body.

[3:07] He's going to make it perfect. It will be one day. It says that we'll have a new body. We'll have a new life. No more walking sticks or no more of those aches and pains and those nagging things.

[3:22] One day we'll look to him. From whence he comes, the Saviour, Jesus Christ. And when we see him, he will change our vile bodies.

[3:35] The dead will be raised incorruptible, never to corrupt again. And we'll have a new body, the Bible says. So instead of thinking, look out for number one, look for this person.

[3:47] Look for this person, Jesus. Secondly, there's a place to look for. There's a place that we should look for. We should search for that which is everlasting.

[3:59] This place. Some people look for the wrong place. They look for the wrong place. Lot made that mistake.

[4:10] Lot. There was a time Lot and Abraham were there and they had to go their own different ways. That it was getting too crowded for them to be in the one place.

[4:23] In Genesis 13 it says, Lot lifted up his eyes and he looked and he beheld all the plain of Jordan. And it was well watered everywhere. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan.

[4:36] And verse 12, Abraham dwelled in the land of Canaan. He chose a different place. And Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

[4:53] Lot chose the wrong place. He didn't choose Canaan as Abraham did, which speaks of heaven, speaks of God's place for us, God's will.

[5:08] Lot chose the plain. Of Jordan. He chose the place of Sodom. Lot looked for the wrong place.

[5:22] And we can make that mistake. We can make that mistake. To look for the wrong place. To look for the passing places of this world. Lot chose to set up his home there.

[5:33] He pitched his tent and before long he was living in the place called Sodom. We know what that means. Sodom. It was the wrong place. It was a foolish choice. It was a selfish choice.

[5:45] It was an ungodly choice. Abraham made a different choice. Abraham looked to Canaan. Canaan. This land that God had given. He looked to the right place.

[5:58] And it speaks, in effect, of heaven. It speaks of God's promised land. Canaan. God's blessing. Abraham moved in there.

[6:10] He chose the right place. And he built an altar there. He worshipped God there. And later on, Lot left the wrong place. Thankfully. But only just in time. Only just in time.

[6:21] In Genesis 19, verse 17. The angels came. And they urged Lot and his family, Get out of the place. Get out. Time's running out.

[6:32] Escape for your life. Look not behind thee. Neither stay thou in all the plain. Escape. Escape. To the mountain.

[6:43] Lest thou be consumed. He was told, Look not behind thee. Don't take another hankering look. Another look back at that place. Get out of there fast. Lot's wife looked backward.

[6:55] She still hankered after the things of the world. There was still a tug there. That sinful past. And she suffered God's penalty. Don't look at the wrong place.

[7:06] Don't look for this world to satisfy you. Don't look back where you've come from. You might have been in that place. You might have been where Lot was. Don't look back. Look to that place.

[7:19] To God. Look to him. To his kingdom. It says that having put his hand to the plough, a man looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God.

[7:30] Don't look for Sodom. Don't look back to where you've been. Look for Canaan. Look for God's land. Look for God's place. Be like Abraham. Who it says, He looked for a city. His maker and builder is God.

[7:43] He looked for a city. He was looking for heaven. And 2 Corinthians 4 tells us, We don't look at the things which are seen, but the things which are unseen. The things which are eternal.

[7:57] We don't look at the things not seen. Sorry, we don't look at the things seen, as in get tied up in what this world is all about and the trappings of the world. But we look at the things that are not seen.

[8:09] With the eyes of faith. We look at that city that Abraham looked for. What really counts. And the Lord Jesus says, I'm going to prepare a place for you.

[8:20] A place for you. And I will come again and receive you to myself. He was talking about that eternal home that he offers those who trust him. And so at this time, as we come around the Lord's table, we want to look to this person.

[8:36] And we want to look to that place. And we show, we declare, we proclaim loudly, the Lord's there until he comes.

[8:49] We look at the person of Jesus right now. We look at what he has done. We look at the place of the cross. And the place that that means for us means heaven.

[9:01] We look at the cross and the eternal home that he's promised to those who trust him. And we don't have to make it complicated. Now sometimes we think it's complicated.

[9:14] And there's a whole kind of ritual that's got to go on. Or a whole kind of striving of a human kind to make heaven your home.

[9:27] But no. It's faith. Like Abraham. By faith he looked for that city and he found it. By faith Abraham looked for a city. This world's not my home.

[9:39] I'm just a passing through. I'm just a passing through. Let's not get too tied up with it. And so these visible things that we see, this world is temporary, but yet there's one everlasting.

[9:53] And we can look to that place because of the cross this morning. Because of that person. Because of that place of Calvary's cross. We have purpose today. We have a person to look for, a place to look for, and a purpose to live for.

[10:09] A purpose to live for. Jesus came for a reason. He wasn't just a religious teacher. He just wasn't some other religion of all the smorgasbord of philosophies and religions you can pick from.

[10:22] He is the name above every other name. He is the name by which we can be saved. The one name. No other name. But the name of Jesus is the only name.

[10:35] He's the only person. He's the only one who can give us that eternal purpose, that eternal life. And he says, I've come. He says, The spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor, to the broken hearted, to the captives, to the blind.

[10:52] And this look, to look to this person, it changes everything. To look to this person. It changes our perspective. It changes our lives. It changes our whole way of thinking.

[11:05] And we can look to the Lord this morning. That's my plea to you. And we know our preacher last week talked about Peter and the occasion of the Lord coming to Peter as he was in the boat across the water.

[11:21] And by faith, Peter looked to the Lord and he was going strong. He even walked on the water. As amazing as we could think such a thing. But when he started to look around, he lost his strength and he started to fall.

[11:44] But as we look to the Lord, we can be strong. And I urge you today to look to the Lord. Stephen looked up to the Lord as they were stoning him to death. And it says the glory of God was evident there.

[11:59] And his face was like the face of an angel. As they were hurtling their stones, their rocks to kill him, to bruise him, to break him, to kill him.

[12:10] He had the face of an angel as he saw Jesus. He looked unto Jesus. And Jesus stood, as it were, ready to receive, to welcome him. So don't look at the problems.

[12:22] Don't look at the situations. Don't look at those things that would distract and cause you to slip. But look to the Lord. Look to the Lord this morning. Don't dwell on your sin, but look to the Saviour, the answer, the solution.

[12:37] And give yourself to God. Confess your sins to God. Confess your need of him today. And stop trusting in anything else.

[12:49] Be as those in John 12. Sir, we would see Jesus. Jesus. One thing about gathering together with God's own people is I trust that there'll be some measure of looking to the Lord when we gather.

[13:06] That we'll see something new. We'll see something fresh. We'll see something real. We'll see something that urges us. We'll hear God as he speaks to us through these pages.

[13:18] We'll look to the Lord. That is my heart's desire for you. That you'll look to the Lord today. Look to him. Sir, we won't see Jesus. Don't be selfish with our faith.

[13:31] Share it. There's a world out there that needs this message. There's many crying out. This person is a missing person. He's a missing person in many people's lives.

[13:43] There's an emptiness there because there's a missing person and that person is Jesus Christ. And I urge you today to meet him.

[13:54] Each one of us as believers let's refresh our relationship with him. Let's look to the Lord as we gather now. As we come as he's instructed us to.

[14:05] As he says I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day. until that day when I drink it near with you in my Father's kingdom.

[14:16] Look to this person. Look to that place. The Father's kingdom is coming back. And he'll come in clouds of glory. And he'll change this vile body.

[14:27] And we'll have a whole new dimension. Look to that place. He's preparing a place for you. If you trust him. If you're his. He has promised that he's preparing a place for you.

[14:40] For you. For you. For you that trust him. He's preparing that place. Look to that place. Look to that place of Calvary this morning. As it makes that place possible for you.

[14:52] That Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again for our justification to make us alive. To make us worthy.

[15:07] Because of his grace. and look to his coming again. Until that day. Until he come. We are to do that which he's instructed us to.

[15:19] Just as a picture. As a reminder. And so we do that just now. And this table is an open invitation for any who trust the Lord Jesus Christ.

[15:32] Christ. And how do you do that? How can I explain how you trust him?

[15:44] Do you trust him to take care of you? Do you trust his blood that he shed to be that blood that had to pay your price? Do you trust him?

[15:56] What he says is he going to do it? Do you trust him? Trust him. How do you trust him? In an instant faith can come on like a light bulb moment.

[16:13] As God urges you and as you say yes to him that's faith. Say yes to Jesus today.

[16:27] Don't say no to him any longer. Say yes to Jesus. Trust him now. Trust him now for your life for your eternity for your soul and say I want to see Jesus.

[16:39] I want to see Jesus. Say that this morning. I pray you'll have that faith that person to look for that place to look for that purpose to live for there's joy this morning because of the cross and he saw it as he was looking unto Jesus.

[16:55] He saw the cross. He despised the shame of it but he saw the joy that was set before him. He saw the joy of you and me trusting him.

[17:07] That was the joy that was set before him. The pain was utterly limited limited in effect because of the joy that the pain was I'm trying to think of the word it was just totally secondary to that joy that joy and he had joy on the cross because of the joy of knowing that you would trust him.

[17:40] and he would to to to to to to to to to to to to!