Fix your Eyes on Jesus

The first part of the video sermon is missing. We take it up from here:

1. This last week, two people I, Brian and Evy know committed suicide in the last week. This is the highest rate of suicide ever recorded in history. It is easy to look at things and cultivate no hope, cultivate fear. Sometimes we can look at our physical body or our bank accounts, or situations within our families and we feel that it is not good. His words were not that you won’t see those things, but He warned us to take care, to be careful, and not allow those things to come on the inside. Because, remember, that what you allow on the inside, will be reproduced on the outside.
2. We, as children of God, are more than fear; we are more than doubt; God has destined more for us. I know that we can be sick; I know that our bank account can say zero. Jesus is not asking us to be silly, or say things that are not true. But He says, “I’m calling you to move to a place, that even in the worst of times, our eyes will be set on what is healthy, what is good”, and the only One that is good, is Jesus. We’ve got to fix our eyes on Jesus.
3. Luke 5:20, I love this whole passage here. Jesus, has been busy teaching, and He’s in a house that is basically filled with enemies. The Pharisees are crowding around Him, and they are the religious ones. They had a lot of knowledge, and they wanted to control the people with that knowledge. And here is Jesus in this house teaching. Now at the same time, there are 4 friends, and they have a friend that is lame, he cannot walk. And these friends had heard about Jesus, about the good things He does – I love these friends, I mean, they were thinking about their friend. This is important, and do you know why? Because one of the tricks of the enemy today, we can think that we are a good friend, but it is just, we give them a call once in a while. And life goes on.
4. But these 4 friends, they begin to think about their friend who is lame. And they heard about Jesus. And they think, maybe if we can get our friend to Jesus, maybe Jesus can help. They’ve just heard about Him, and that want to try to help their friend. So they go to the house, where Jesus is teaching surrounded by enemies, and the place is so full that they cannot get in the house – these are really good friends. Let’s pretend that this is the house of Lars and Marina’s. So, they knock on the door, and they are told that there is no room, the house is full. But they say we got to get to Jesus. We’ve got to help our friend.
5. They climb up on the roof of Lars and Marina’s house, and you know what they do? They take a hammer and they break open that roof. Really, that’s how determined they were. It may have been straw and dried mud, but they had to do something to break apart that dried mud. They got dirt under their fingernails; they got dust in their lungs. We’re going to get our friend into Lars and Marina’s house, because Jesus is there.
6. I think this story is so funny, it’s amazing. There’s this house, full of people, and somebody’s up there trying to break into Lars and Marina’s house, and the story doesn’t seem to say that they did anything. Dirt is falling in their eyes and in their hair, nobody is saying, “Hey, what’s going on?” I kind of get the impression, that those mean old Pharisees, those religious people, were looking so hard at Jesus, and Jesus was saying, “I’m here”, but they didn’t care about anybody else, they just wanted to torment Jesus. Jesus already knew that the friends were up there, He knew, He knows when we bring our friends together, and I like this about Jesus.
7. The friends get a rope, I don’t know where they got it, maybe it was on the roof; and they lowered their friend down into the room. And I love this verse, This is Jesus “Seeing their faith, (and He didn’t mean the faith of the lame man, but the faith of the 4 friends), then He said, ‘You are healed’ – No, He said ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you’. He saw their lives were full of light; there was no doubt, they were coming for Jesus. They weren’t thinking about themselves, they were thinking about their friend. Sometimes, we think about ourselves a little too much. And when that young man was brought down in front of Jesus, what an amazing comment, He doesn’t say, ‘Get up from your bed’, He says, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’. That’s amazing.
8. The man hadn’t come there for his sins, he came there to be healed, because his body was sick, but Jesus was looking with a different eye. The friends could only see the healing of the physical body, but Jesus was looking with a different eye. If your eye is clean, if your eye is clean, if your eye is generous, then your whole body, is full of light. Remember that the environment that you cultivate on the inside, is the environment you create on the outside. The friends could only see physical healing, but Jesus saw a new creation. I love that! Hallelujah! Benjamin, how old are you? 50, you may think that you do not have any wrinkles, but guess what, form the moment you were born, your body started getting old; it is true. And we so often, me included, I want to take care of this physical body, but this is just a cage, a casing, just a box.
9. Jesus sees the real us inside. He sees us as a new creation that will never have wrinkles. So, now what do we do? We need to get fascinated about Jesus. See how He sees. He saw me lost, parents not wanting me, but he sees what we can be, even more than we can imagine. You may want to go home and read the whole of Like chapter 5, because if you read a little bit before this story, the apostle Peter, he wasn’t yet the apostle, he’s out in his little boat fishing, and remember, he’s not a disciple yet, he’s been fishing all night and cannot catch anything. He’s got to catch fish, because he has to pay his bills; his wife’s gonna have a fit if he cannot pay the bill. He had a little fear, and then what happens?
10. Jesus comes into the situation. Peter was tired and dirty; he was fishing all night in his boat. ‘Peter, throw your nets on the other side of the boat’. I kind of think that Peter was so tired, he didn’t know if he could lift the nets. But the good in Jesus, it encouraged him, to throw the nets on the other side. He does and a miracle happens. They had so much fish, they could barely get the nets in. Now Scripture says, when Peter came out of the water, and he saw Jesus, he fell down on his knees and he said, ‘I’m a sinful man’. This is how Peter saw himself. He could only see his sin, he could only see his brokenness, he only saw the needs and the lack; sin was his reference point – I am a sinful man.
11. I love this story, because maybe a few hours later, a few days later, Jesus is in the room, with all these religious people, and the roof opens, and the lame man is lowered down. And in one moment, Jesus takes apart the whole religious system, he takes apart the whole economy; instead of saying ‘You’re healed’, Jesus says, ‘Son your sins are forgiven you’.
12. Jesus wanted to teach the people in the room, two things: 1) How valuable they are – isn’t that amazing? Healing the body was kind of secondary, wasn’t it? You’re so valuable to Me, He is saying, I’m going to forgive your sins so that you’re going to be with Me forever. 2) How great their inheritance was. Inheritance is not something you work for; you just receive it when someone dies. Because He lives – He died, and lives, I have the inheritance of eternal life. I cannot work for it; I just received it. Of course, we know those religious people, those Pharisees, ‘Who is this man who can forgive sins?’ It was like asking Jesus, which one is easier? But to prove the point who He is, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you. Stand up, take up your bed and walk.’
13. Your inheritance this morning, all that God wants to provide for you, listen its not attached to our problems; so many times, we pray about our problems, and we ask ‘God will You please provide’. God does not attach resource to your problems. He attaches resource to who you are in Him and not your I am a child of the King. When we discover, that as the King’s children, that our sins have been forgiven and our eye becomes healthy, we see our identity as a child of the living God. And because of that our problems are addressed. And instead of praying about your problems (I do), that should not be the priority, instead we should be saying, ‘Father, show me who I am’. Because when I discovered that, I discovered the resource, I discovered the answer, the provider, He is my healer. When I know who I am in Him, I know He can heal relationships, and I can pick up my bed and walk, and be healed, amen. Because I see with healthy eyes, with good eyes, I cultivate the goodness of God inside.
14. So, I ask you today, with which eye are you looking. The Pharisees only saw sin and brokenness, but Jesus sees when we look to Him, a new creation in Him. Oh, Holy Spirit, please change the way we see, help us to see the inheritance we have in the King of kings, help us to really know, that when we ask to be forgiven of our sins, we are forgiven, and Jesus, You, set us free. Whom the Son sets free, is free indeed. Oh, Lord, whom the Son sets free, My Spirit lives, in the freedom of Jesus. Thank You in the Name of Jesus.
15. I think that probably all of you here today know the Lord, but I want to just ask you, you can stand or sit or whatever, however you want to, but let’s just say ‘I will bless the Lord forever’. Don’t lie. Let’s make a decision this morning, even when I don’t feel like it, ‘I will bless you Lord, I will make up my mind, to fix my eyes on Jesus, because I’m a new creation, in Jesus Christ. Amen.’
16. Lord, we thank You for today, how good You are, You are the good One. God we thank You for who we are in You. Lord, help us this week to have the victory, in who You are and to share it more, share with friends around you. Lord that the sick may rise up and be healed and know that Jesus has made me a new creation. Amen and amen. God bless you. Thank you for coming today.