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[0:00] 2 Peter 3, I'm going to read from verse 10 through, it says there, 2 Peter 3 verse 10 through 14.! 2 Peter 3, I'm going to read from verse 10 through, it says, It's telling us here about three things to be looking for.

[1:17] A person, a place and a purpose. Firstly, a person. There's a person to look for. Everybody's looking for something and what are we looking for?

[1:27] There is a missing person, if you like, in most people's lives in Australia. He's missing, that missing person, isn't it? A missing person. They put, was it on milk cartons, I think, in the US?

[1:40] They put people's faces or you can see missing people's pictures in the police station. But really, Jesus is a missing person. People are missing him.

[1:51] And it's really Australia's most wanted. Certainly Australia's most needed. And we should be looking unto Jesus. It says we should be looking for a person. Looking for that coming of the day of God.

[2:04] Looking unto Jesus, it says in Hebrews 12 verse 1. Looking unto him. It talks about looking for a place, the new heavens, the new earth. It talks about looking for a purpose.

[2:16] And we look for such things to be found of him. But think about how we should look unto a person. Firstly, looking unto the Lord Jesus. And that's what we want to do as we come around the Lord's table.

[2:28] We want to look unto him. We want our focus to be Christwards, heavenwards. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And I've been talking with someone lately and he's saying, he's got Christian viewpoints, but he's saying that he's not saved yet.

[2:49] And he feels like he's not saved. He's not there yet. And I've just simply said to him, look unto Jesus. Really, that's how you get saved, isn't it?

[3:00] I know Spurgeon got saved as he looked at this verse, Isaiah 45 verse 22. Look unto me, he says, and be ye saved. Saved. All the ends of the earth.

[3:10] For I am God and there is none else. It's simply that, to be saved. Look unto him, he says. Look unto me, he says. Look unto Jesus. It says one day the whole world was going to look upon him whom they have pierced.

[3:24] We're looking unto Jesus today as we join together. And we look unto him. And we want to be reminded again of our saviour, of our great Lord and his great suffering on the cross for our sins.

[3:36] We look unto him and we're saved. He is the only one that can save us. We don't look unto ourselves. We look unto him. We look unto him. If we look to ourselves, we'll see all our faults and failings.

[3:48] We'll see our lack, our loss. But if we look unto him, we'll be saved. It says that our conversation or our way of life is in heaven. But once we look for the saviour, we look for the saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body.

[4:05] You know, Jesus will do, and this sounds a bit crass, but really the Lord Jesus will do a better job than the gym can. You know, our vile body is going to be changed. I'm looking forward to that.

[4:16] I think my body's changing for the worse, this side of glory. But on the other side of glory, it's going to change for the better. I'm going to leave this vile body. He's going to change this vile body and give me a brand new body.

[4:28] Who's looking forward to that? Amen. Jesus will do that work for us in the physical. But even this side of glory in the spiritual, he changes people.

[4:39] And so look out for number one. He's number one. Look for this person, the Lord Jesus. Secondly, there's a place to look for, and that place is heaven. It's towards his will.

[4:51] It's a heavenward look. Now, we can look to all kinds of places. Lot lifted up his eyes, and he looked at the wrong place. You know, Lot looked at a place that was the wrong place.

[5:03] As Abraham and Lot were there, and Lot lifted up his eyes, and he beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered there. And then Lot chose him, all the plain of Jordan.

[5:14] He chose the plain of Jordan, which is where Sodom and Gomorrah was. And then we see Abram, he dwelt in the land of Canaan. We've got a Canaan here this morning. He dwelt in the land of Canaan, Abraham, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain.

[5:29] And pitched his tent towards Sodom. So Lot chose the wrong place. Lot looked at the plain of Jordan, all that it had, and he chose his home there.

[5:39] To set up his home there, it was a selfish choice, a foolish choice. Friends, we can choose to reject Christ, or we can choose Canaan, the promised land.

[5:50] And we can choose to choose heaven by trusting Christ, as effectively we see pictured in Abram's choice. And he built an altar there, it says. Later on, it tells of Lot that he was taken out of that wrong place.

[6:04] As the angels led him out of Sodom, they brought him forth, and they said, Escape for thy life. Get out of the place. Don't look behind you, it says. Don't stay thou in the plain.

[6:16] Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And friends, as a believer, we look unto our Lord's provision of heaven, the free gift of salvation that he's made possible for us.

[6:30] And we reflect on that as we gather around the table of the Lord. Lot looked back. She looked backwards. She hankered after, maybe after the world, the sinful past, and she suffered God's penalty.

[6:41] Don't look at the wrong place. It tells how some will look back. And the Lord Jesus said, if you put your hands to the plough, don't look back. Don't look back.

[6:52] Look to the right place. That's what Abraham did. Abraham did by faith. He looked for a city which had foundations. His builder and maker is God. Look to the right place today.

[7:03] Look to heaven. Look to your Lord. Look to those things which are not seen. Not those temporal things, those temporary things. But look for that which is eternal.

[7:14] The things which are not seen are eternal. And by the eye of faith, that's what we do. Spiritually here as we're gathering, together as one family, brothers and sisters in Christ, we're looking unto the person, the Lord Jesus.

[7:27] We're looking unto that place, the place that he said he's prepared for us. He's a place prepared for a people prepared. John 14.3, our Lord says, I go and I prepare a place for you.

[7:40] I will come again and receive you to myself. Here at communion, we show the Lord's death till he come. And that shows, declare aloud to proclaim it.

[7:51] We want the whole world to know this good news of the Saviour, of the one who's made heaven possible, the one, the person, and the place that he has prepared for us that know him.

[8:01] And we want to show that, show the Lord's death until he come, until he come to declare it loud, to proclaim it. And here we see as we gather around the Lord's table, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we see that eternal transaction that he has made for us at the cross.

[8:19] We think about that eternal home that he's promised his own. This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. I feel a song coming on, but I better not. The things that are visible are temporal, but the things that are invisible are eternal.

[8:34] Amen? And we can know that this morning. The things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting. So we've got a person to live for. We've got a place that we're going to be living in.

[8:46] And thirdly, we've got a purpose to live. The act of God at the cross gives us good news to share this morning. And as our Lord says of the gospel, he says, The spirit of the Lord is upon me.

[9:01] He's anointed me to preach the gospel. It's the gospel, the good news. It's for the poor. It's for the brokenhearted. There's healing there. It's for the captives. There's deliverance there.

[9:12] It's for the blind. There's recovering a sight there. It's for those that are bruised. There's liberty that he sets us at liberty. So we can change our focus and take our mind off the temporal, the visible, the seen, and look at what is God doing spiritually for me?

[9:29] How can I grow as a believer? How can I get that new perspective to that revelation of his will? And it starts really, friends, this morning as we look to the Lord. Keep looking to the Lord.

[9:40] We see in Matthew 14, as Peter looked to his situation, as he was on those choppy waters, and as he stepped on the water by faith, he looked at his situation.

[9:53] He looked down at his difficulties, and he was sunk. But then the Lord lifted him up. We see in Acts 7, 55, where it says, Stephen, he looked up, and he saw the glory of God.

[10:04] He saw Jesus. He saw, and his face was as a face of an angel, despite the circumstances. And, friends, that's what we can do this morning, by faith, as we refresh our faith, as we honour our Lord in this fashion of communion.

[10:22] But we don't look at the situation, at the problems, at our circumstances. We don't dwell on our sin because it's covered, it's forgiven, it's taken. We confess it.

[10:33] We give it to the Lord. But we know his forgiveness and grace this morning. Of certain Greeks, it was sad how they came to Philip, and they said this, Sir, we would see Jesus.

[10:44] That's the whole point of why we're here this morning, isn't it? That no matter what the clouds and the fog of this time that we're living in, and the confusion and the difficulties, that we see Jesus.

[10:58] That's what we want. We want to get the focus there, that we want to focus upon him. And we want to have a faith that we want to declare. We proclaim his death until he comes.

[11:09] We want the whole wide world to know that there's a saviour, there's Calvary, that's made heaven possible for those that would trust Christ. And, friends, this psalm, you know, we want to make it as clear and as simple as possible.

[11:21] If you trust Christ, if you look to Jesus, you are saved. That's it. Look to Jesus and be saved. You don't have to add any striving or effort or strain of yourself.

[11:36] You don't have to... It's not faith plus you. It's faith that saves. Faith saves. His grace, faith. Simply trust.

[11:49] I often hear people that just tie themselves up in knots, not having the assurance of salvation, thinking they've got to do something to deserve it. You can do nothing to deserve his gift.

[12:01] Nothing at all. It's a gift. Get that. Friends, there's a whole world outside these walls that need that gift. There's people crying out to know him, to see him.

[12:13] Sir, we would see Jesus. There's people out there that want to see Jesus, that they can't see him yet. That's why we have an evangelism program. That's why we've got leaflets.

[12:24] We've got tracks galore. There's thousands of them. And I'm going to commit to delivering some of them these next few weeks. You might want to do your part. Take some tracks and deliver them.

[12:37] Let's get the word out. Friends, we don't know how much time we've yet ahead of us. And there's a whole world crying out to see him, to meet him. We are the ones that have to introduce them to him.

[12:50] He's not going to send angels to save people. He's sending human beings like the people sat in these chairs, you and me. Let's live the life and let's show them Jesus.

[13:04] Let's introduce them to him. We've got a purpose to live for, every one of us. A purpose. And we're here for communion, fellowship. It's a foretaste of eternity.

[13:15] Our Lord says, Now this is only for a short time that we have such an occasion, such a reminder of the cross.

[13:31] One day we won't need it because we'll be drinking it new with him in his father's kingdom. So for the meantime, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, I urge you today to look to the Lord.

[13:45] Look to the Lord. That's what this is all about. It's looking to the Lord. It's reminding ourselves of what God has done for us, our saviour. We look to the cross. We look to his coming again.

[13:57] It tells us there that there's a whole new world ahead. And the whole world's going to get changed. As we look to that new heaven and that new earth, we look to his coming again.

[14:08] He says, I'm not going to do this until we do this until I come, he says. Then it will end. We'll have the reality of his presence personally.

[14:18] We'll be face to face with him. For the meantime, we're looking spiritually ahead. And live the cross life. Live the life of the cross.

[14:30] We've got a purpose to live. A purpose to live for. Allow God's grace to work in you. You know, we often can mark a time as the world does.

[14:42] It's an artificial time really, isn't it? A new year. That we're stepping into a new year. Really, it's just another day. Even your birthdays, whatever.

[14:55] I mean, really, it's just another day. It doesn't mean any more than the days before or the days after. But it's sometimes a way you can say, yeah, I've come to a milestone.

[15:06] It's a new year. Maybe it's a good time to make a new commitment. A new dedication. A rededication. Have a new purpose. Really, it's the same old purpose, isn't it?

[15:18] It's his purpose. That's the purpose to live for. So let God's cross. Let the cross do its work in you. That you live the crucified life. That you've got a purpose to live for.

[15:30] Let God's grace work in your soul. And we're not to partake unworthily. So it's a good time to say, hey, there's things I need to pick up on.

[15:41] There's things I need to work on. Lord, work on me. And so without God's grace, none of us are worthy. You know, you might think, I'm not worthy. Look, nobody is.

[15:52] But he is worthy. And he's made you worthy. Because his righteousness is yours by faith. So by faith and because of grace, we can truly look to the Lord.

[16:02]  Let God's grace.