How to Sparkle

Praise the Lord. What do you even say after that? That has got to be my, certainly one of my all-time favorite songs. It just absolutely touches me every time I even hear it. I mean, I don't care if secular people sing it, it just, there's a reality to it that's amazing. I just praise God. Well, I thank God I feel my weakness this morning because that gives the Lord an opportunity to show His strength because that's all we've got. We just give Him what we've got. That's all He's looking for. There's been so much that's been emphasized this morning that is in harmony with thoughts that I've been having this week. And I, you know, it's all about our relationship with the Lord and what He wants from us, what He desires. And you know, you go back to the beginning when Adam and Eve were created and they walked with the Lord. They talked with Him. By the way, who was it that they actually walked with and saw? Jesus. Yeah. How do you know that? No man has seen the Father. Yeah. No one has ever seen the Father. He is a universal Spirit. It's everywhere all at once. No one's ever seen Him. No one ever will see Him. So He has made Himself known through His Son.

So whenever you see people seeing the Lord or seeing God, that's who they're seeing. And so right back in the beginning, there was the one we now know as Jesus walking around with Adam and Eve and just having a fellowship with them. And there was no barrier. It was just all what He desired to do for them. There was the love of God that was shown through Him. And then, of course, we know what happened. The devil came and slandered the Lord, essentially, and just deceived our first parents into rebelling, into making an obviously bad choice. It's brought all that we see, and this was wrong with this world. And then you see Adam and Eve. What did they do then when the Lord came calling? They hid, didn't they? There's something about that that is baked into our nature that we just don't feel like we can have a relationship with God. And so they hid, but what did the Lord do? He called. He said, Adam, where are you? He went looking for them. That's the thing. In our condition, we don't go looking for Him. And I'll tell you, He goes looking for us, doesn't He? That ought to tell us something about Him and how He feels about us. Praise God. So anyway, we know that the Lord came and He clothed their nakedness, and there was at least an open door to have some kind of relationship, but then we see things going sideways, and it took a long time before you had even a handful of people that were serving the Lord. You see Enoch having a relationship with the Lord and walking with Him. And then you see Noah walked with God, and Noah was rescued from the flood, the judgment

of the flood. But all the way through Scripture, you see God continually reaching out. You see His heart is not to get mad at us because we've sinned. It's to reach out and to change what's wrong with you and what's wrong with me. And thank God for that kind of a heart that He has. And I pray that God will make that more real to us. Because I feel like it's one of those things that we can acknowledge with our heads, but we don't kind of live in that realm where God really wants to spend time with me. He loves me. He really does. Well, you see, things continue to move along, and the Israelites got to a point where the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Israel wound up as slaves in Egypt, but God still had a plan to show His mercy and His love, didn't He? And we see even in preserving Moses, and somehow Moses having a sense that even though I was raised in a royal household, that's not really my identity. My identity is with these people who were slaves. What was it that enabled that? Hebrews tells us, seeing Him who is invisible. There was a certain kind of spiritual sight where God was real enough to Him that He was able to take a stand with God's people, even in their condition, even how things were going along. And then we see Moses having to flee to live in a foreign land for 40 years, and he figured it was all over. And then he had an encounter with God once again and with the Lord. And of course, it was in a burning bush. It wasn't that he saw a figure necessarily that time, but nonetheless, he had an encounter with God and he began to learn something about Him. And of course, he learned he was holy. He's learned he was absolutely pure. You take your shoes off, you're on holy ground. And then even in spite of all that was lacking in his faith, God put his hand upon Moses, didn't he? Because he still loved his people in spite of their condition. Boy, do we see that everywhere. What an amazing God we have in spite of all that's wrong with us.

He keeps reaching out. He keeps extending himself because his heart is not to judge and condemn. His heart is to save and to reach. So anyway, he sends Moses back and the people are brought out and they see all the wonderful works and, you know, there's no excuse for not believing in God. And then they come to the part where he's going to make a covenant with them. And of course, he wants to make himself known as to who he is. And they see his power. They see a mountain shaking. They see all kinds of absolute expressions of his power and his glory. And they're terrified. They see the power of God and it just absolutely stuns them and terrifies them. And so they say, Moses, you go find out what he wants to just tell us. We don't want anything. We don't want to get close to this God. They absolutely see something that we all need to see, that he is a great and powerful and all holy God. So that there's no sense that we can just play with sin and it's okay and he doesn't care. But yet there was a God who made himself known. And the purpose of the law, we know, was not to give us a path so that we can keep it and go to heaven because of that. It was to show us our need. And even there, there was a picture in the sacrifices that they offered of what was yet to come because the one sacrifice that really took care of it was still coming in God's plan. But I find it's interesting that where Moses goes and he actually supernaturally, with supernatural help, he is able to stay up on that mountain with the Lord, in fact twice, for 40 days without food and water. And yet, you remember what happened when he came down? His eye, his face was glowing to the point where they said, you better cover that. We can't look at that. You know, isn't there a little bit of a picture there of how God wants to, of what happens when we do get with the Lord? Does it not change us? It changed Moses. There he was beholding the Lord, seeing him face to face, and he himself took on some of that glow and some of that glory. You think there's just a little bit of a picture that God wants to give us there? Praise God. Well, you go down through history and there were people like certainly David that knew the Lord. But one of the scriptures that came to me that we've heard so many times, where God made himself known was to Isaiah. Isaiah was called to be a prophet in a time in Israel's history when they were really going sideways. I mean, it seemed to be the greater pattern of their history that they were just rebelling against God, doing what they pleased, even serving foreign gods, even to the point of actually sacrificing their children to heathen gods. Can you imagine getting in a place where you believe that, hey, I need something and the price

of getting what I need from this God is that I've got to take my little child and burn them to death as an offering to this heathen God. That's how bad things got. So here's Isaiah sent to prophesy to them, and the early chapters, you see a whole lot of prophecy of doom and judgment, and boy, God's really mad at you, and things are bad, judgment is coming, and woe to these, and woe to that one, and woe to this group. And how would you feel if you were God's messenger in that situation? You might tend to think, hey, I'm better than that, I'm, you know, I'm one of the good guys. And then you come to chapter six, and then it says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. So he's just had messages from God, but now he's caught up. I saw the Lord high and exalted. Seated on a throne. And the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying, and they were calling to one another, Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty whose earth, the whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke." Whoa. But I see the Lord making himself known in a very powerful way to one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. You think of all the prophecies that he had about one who was coming who would gather the lambs in his arms, be a shepherd to his sheep, who would care for ordinary people, who would show mercy and love and all the awesome ... How did God get Isaiah from this whoa to all these bad people to there's something awesome coming? And here the step one is I'm going to show you who I really am. I want you to see my power and I want you to see my holiness and my glory. Well what did that do to Isaiah? Whoa to me, I cried. Not whoa to all those bad people, whoa to me. I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips

and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. You know there's something about being in the Lord's presence that shows something about us. And one of the reasons I believe that we shrink from that by nature is that we don't want to face the reality. But why did God show him this? Was it just so he could feel bad about himself and feel really worthless and oh God how could God care about somebody like me? We see the greatness of God. We see the reality of Isaiah seeing himself in the light of the Lord's presence and that manifestation of his power and holiness. But then we see God turn the whole scene around, then one of the seraphim, these are angelic beings, flew to me with a live coal in his hand, now where did he get that? Which he had taken with tongs from the altar. Now what's the altar? It's a place of sacrifice, isn't it? Oh what a picture you get here. Tongs from the altar, with it he touched my mouth and said, see this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. I'll tell you, when God wants to draw us, yes we need to see who he is, yes we need to see what we are, but then we turn and we see his heart toward every single one of us. That's the thing I need. And God, do you think God actually wants us to come close to him and be around him? Yeah. And of course that's easy for every one of us, right? You know, I was thinking about how, well let me go to this, because up to this point in the Old Testament what you saw were these special manifestations, I mean someone would see the Lord, Moses saw a vision of the Lord and Isaiah did and you had these different encounters with the divine and most of the time people were scared to death and overwhelmed

with the power of it. But there came a time when God wanted to make himself known in a different way, didn't he? And we just sang about it. What happened that the world celebrates right now? The one that Moses saw, the one that Isaiah saw, the one that Adam and Eve saw came and was willing to be born as a little tiny baby in a human body to live among us. And John talks about the invisible God, a person that we've never seen, never will see. But he said God has made himself known through his Son. You want to know what the Father is really like? He just seems so magnificent and distant and I feel so bad about myself and how can I know? And all of a sudden... the Lord, the God of heaven began to make His real character known. And where so many of the Jews were self-righteous and thought that they measured up in the eyes of the Lord and looked down on all those bad sinners down there, here comes Jesus who became known as a friend of sinners. Not that He was friendly with their sin, but there was a heart that reached out over and we see the examples that are listed for us and given to us in His life. I mean, what kind of a holy God would come and spend time with a woman at the well and the kind of life that she had lived? Someone who looked past her fault and saw her need. Someone whose heart reached out and said, I see what you are. There's no secrets here. I know all about you. In fact, He told her things that He could not have known naturally. And she realized, oh my God, this guy's a prophet. What's going on here? But then, but she looked in His eyes and she didn't see this condemnation and rejection that she was so used to. She saw love. She saw mercy.

She saw grace that reached out and said, I know what you are, but I'm here to help. I've got what you need. Oh my God, what a picture we see of the heart of God Himself. It's not like some people have pictured, oh, God's this angry being off somewhere and He sends His Son, His Son tries to persuade Him to go along with, no, this is the very heart of God manifest in His Son. This is what He wants done. This is how He has reached out to every single person who's hearing the sound of my voice. And obviously a lot of others, thank God. And you see the woman taken in the act of adultery and everybody was there to condemn. And when they all left, because they recognized, hey, I'm not without sin, what did Jesus say? Has no one condemned you? He said, no one, Lord, and neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. There's a heart that God wants us to get in a deeper way, in a practical way. And I sense my own need for this because we can kind of bop along and we're not just as Him as He wants us to be. And it's not some kind of a duty, it's a relationship that goes way beyond duty. It's one that we'll have for all eternity, one that is founded upon His love and upon His mercy. You know, I was thinking about what Paul said about his ministry. Now, you all know, if you know anything about his history and his upbringing, he was brought up as a Pharisee. And they were the strongest, most legalistic sect anywhere. And they, all they wanted to do was talk about the law. This is how you get right with God. This is what you have to do to get accepted of God. And that's all he knew. Oh, I'm just, I'm going to be the best among the Pharisees. And then we see the Lord reach out to him and show him that he was not only not right

with God, he was the chiefest of sinners. That's his own testimony. God reached down to me, he said, the chiefest of sinners. I was the chiefest of sinners because here I was fighting against God. I was persecuting the very one that came to save me. Oh God, how could He love somebody like me? How could He have any mercy upon somebody like me? And yet He did. And so Paul went out to preach this message. And I find it interesting and revealing about what he focused on in his ministry. And you're familiar with the scripture. I'll just read it very briefly in 2 Corinthians, or I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong place. 1 Corinthians, I can quote that one. 1 Corinthians, in chapter two, he talks about what he emphasized in his ministry. He said, I was determined to know nothing among you. I had one message, it's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. His message was not, here's all the things you're doing wrong and you better repent and you better do something about it. That's legalism. How many of you remember the testimony we heard from Brother Carter Conlon about his early ministry and the people that he was among? And I can remember being in services like this where... A successful evangelist is someone who can go and hold a series of meetings in a church and their ministry is all about preaching against sin. And every night they'll pick a sin and they'll just hammer on it, hammer on it, trying to get people to come down and repent. And of course they get people to respond to all of that and they feel, oh, that was successful. And that's what his ministry was like in the early days. And then there came a point when he realized, hey, I went back to the same church and the same people are in the same condition, nothing's changed.

And he began to realize that's not the gospel, that's not the message. It's not to focus the light on all that's wrong with me, it's to lift him up. And guess what? When we lift him up, we see ourselves, don't we? But we see ourselves in a different light, it isn't straighten up and fly right. You know, I remember that Wednesday night many, many years ago when we sort of had like a Bible study and I posed this situation. Here's the situation, let's suppose I've really messed up. I've sinned, I've fallen in this way and I need help. So when I was trying to elicit response from the congregation to come up with, okay, now what do you need to do? And they were supposed to be giving scriptures and all of that and trying to help me to cope with all that, with that situation. It was a, well, I'm certainly not perfect. It wasn't a particular situation, but it was a, anyway, you know what I'm talking about. And one of our precious brothers who had obviously been exposed to a lot of legalism in the past, his first response when I said, what do I do? He said, straighten up and fly right. And somehow the Lord enabled me to immediately respond, thank you Moses. But that's what the law does. It's all the focus about me and what I've somehow got to do instead of what, who Christ is and what He's done. Because I'll tell you, if I really see Him, I'm going to see myself, but I'm going to see myself through His eyes and I'm going to see myself through the lens of what He has done to change what I am. Praise God. Praise God. So where does the focus need to be? It needs to be on Him, doesn't it? That's got to be our message from day one.

And it's a message that brings hope to every single person who hears it because He doesn't turn you away because you're a sinner. That's the other folks that He came for. He didn't come from the folks that think they're righteous because of what they do and how they're better, much better they are than everybody else. He came because He wants to redeem and save the worst of the worst. And the worst of the worst has already come. So I don't care who hears this and you think you're the worst. You're not. Paul is. And that's in the Word of God, so God actually made sure that that was recorded in there so nobody else could say, hey, I'm the worst. I'm too bad. There's nobody too bad. Praise God. Praise God that we can lift Him up. Praise God. I've had so many thoughts. And I'm just praying the Lord will organize them a little better than they are in my mind right now. But I thought about Paul's ministry. And I want to go over to chapter 2 of 2 Corinthians now. Chapter 3, I'm sorry. And this is a scripture we used to hear a lot and we still need it. And it has to do with the kind of ministry that Paul compares his ministry in a way. And we see the difference between his ministry and that of Moses. Because again, Moses was, here are the things you're not supposed to do and if you do, you need to come and offer a sacrifice. That was the emphasis. Laws to keep.

Laws to keep. Laws to keep. And where does that leave everybody with a feeling of worthlessness and condemnation and struggle and I just can't do it and oh God. And yet Paul's ministry was just the opposite. It was lifting up a Savior. It was a ministry anointed by God's Spirit which tells you where it comes from. I'll tell you, if God anoints a message that lifts up His Son, where is that coming from? That's coming from God's heart. And that was the ministry that Paul was given. Praise God. And so he lifted that up. He says, and he talks about how even to this day there are people who have a veil upon their hearts. are unable to see this. But then he says in verse 16, but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, that's kind of important, isn't it? There's somebody that may not be able to see. They don't understand. They don't know what's going on. But I'll tell you, there's one thing you can do, and God will help you do it, is to begin to reach out. Begin to say, Lord, I don't get this. I don't understand. But I'm listening, and I want you to help me. Praise God. Does God hear that kind of a prayer? That's what he's looking for. Praise God. Whenever, whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Boy, that's what it takes. It doesn't take, you know, wonderful speakers and all that kind of stuff. I'm glad it doesn't. But it doesn't take all of the doctrinal indoctrination and getting all the doctrines right. That's important. But we need the presence of the living God here actually reaching people's hearts. That's what this is about. Now it says, whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Do you see the connection between being in the Lord's presence and actually becoming like Him?

You know, I'm thinking about how the devil tries to turn us from this. And I think we're all pretty familiar with that. Because, you know, where are you looking? Where are your eyes? The law, where does the law have me looking? Yeah, me. It makes me conscious of all that's wrong with me. Now, what does that do if that's all there is? It leaves me in a state of weakness and condemnation and takes away any hope that I might have. Praise God. It brings death. That's right. We need to see ourselves. But when you do it in that kind of a light, and I'll tell you, Satan will absolutely try to shift the focus. There's plenty wrong with every one of us. No one of us lives up to the glory of God at this point. At best, we're being changed. But all the devil will constantly focus your attention on all that's wrong with you. Well, how does that make you feel when you think about spending time with the Lord and really coming into His presence? It kind of gets in the way, doesn't it? You think maybe the Lord wants to take us past that. Yeah, because this is a huge hindrance. If the essence of our being saved is a relationship with Him where there's no barrier between us and Him, now all of a sudden you've got one because the devil is causing us to be self-conscious and looking at what's all that's wrong and what do I got to do about it? That voice is not coming from the Lord. That voice is coming from the enemy. And of course, we're well aware that the devil is very good at distracting us with the things of the world around us. That's all we're thinking about. If our focus is on what's to me, I mean, it could minister pride, but it could minister earthly desires of all kinds. It can minister the anxiety that we've talked about so much, all of those things. But where is your heart? Where are your eyes? That's a good question. Where are your eyes? If our eyes are not really on the Lord and seeing Him as He is, where are they? What voice are we listening to? And I sense the Lord not saying this to, what's the matter with you? Straighten up. This is, wake up. I love you. I want you to know what I'm really like because the devil from the beginning painted a distorted picture of who God was and what He was like. Man, you don't want to be around Him. What kind of a spirit do you think was in the Israelites, affecting the Israelites, let me put it that way, when they saw all that power and they didn't want to get close to it? Boy, he's somebody you just, you need, you got to be scared of him. I'll tell you, I don't want to serve God because I'm scared not to. That's not what it's about.

And I'll tell you, you can, the devil can paint it that way. He can put, he can sort of picture God as almost like a crime boss and you better walk softly. You better not, you know, mess up here or you're going to be in a lot of trouble. If that's the emphasis, there's something wrong. Oh, he wants to change us, but my change doesn't come from trying to fix me. It's the more I see him, the more I want to be like him. Praise God. That's what I need. And so you see, you see Paul's emphasis was lifting him up in such a way that the more people looked at him and looked and saw what he was really like, the more they were changed like Moses was, wasn't he? Where did he get that glow? He got that from being in the Lord's presence, didn't he? You think maybe the Lord wants to take our faces, take us out of here with more glow in our faces and more faith toward him, more love and rest and peace in our spirits? You know, the scripture was quoted this morning about, come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I'll give you a bunch of laws to keep. I'll give you a life of struggle and discouragement. No, I'll give you rest. Oh, praise God. If we're not experiencing the things the Lord has promised, it kind of tells you that we're listening to the wrong voice. And there are choices that we make. Again, we've made this emphasis quite a lot lately. I believe the Lord is making the emphasis that God doesn't just make us do stuff. He teaches us and desires that we take the knowledge that he gives us and we use it and we grow up and we reach out to him. But what is his heart? Does he want us, every one of us?

Is there anybody here that he doesn't want to come into his presence? What's the answer to that? No. Every single one. That's his heart. He can take care of what's wrong if we'll trust him, if we'll let go and hand things over to him. But, oh, he wants to bring us into a place where we could look him in the eye and feel his love. I don't even know how to express some of what I've felt, but I'm just going to say it. And just imagine you're sitting there in the Lord's presence and he's looking down at you with his eyes. His eyes are focused on you. And you know in your heart, there's nothing I can hide. He knows everything. He knows everything about me. But what do those eyes convey? Imagine that. What do you think those eyes convey to you as he looks right straight in your eyes? Is it, I'm so disappointed in you. Oh, why don't you straighten up? Why don't you, you did this wrong. You did that wrong. Oh, I'm so unhappy with you. I'm going to, I'm just going to have to, I don't know, I'm just about to throw you out. Is that what his eyes say? Oh, come to me. I long to, I long to love you. I long to, to be the one that, that you read about in the prophecies. Again, where he takes the lambs in his arms.

He feeds the sheep. Anybody here, you feel like a, a little lamb that's kind of gone astray and you've messed up? But what's his heart toward you? Come to me. And then he, then you have the parable about the, the lost sheep that, where the shepherd goes and rescues the sheep. And of course, David, you know, you see that in his writings. Somehow he came into a knowledge that God was not this terrible being that I've got to be so terrified of all the time. If I mess up, I'm in trouble. Oh God. He realized that this is a God that I want to be. I want to be around this God. I want to know him in a personal way. I'm not afraid to come into his presence. I want that. That's where, that's my best place to be. Because if I'm focused on my life and things that are happening to me, that just fills you with peace, doesn't it? There's no peace in that, is there? There's no peace in that. There's no peace in looking in the mirror and seeing what's wrong with me. But I need to, when I look into his eyes, what do I? I see. I see His love. I see His mercy. I see someone who has the ability to do everything that I could ever need. Oh, praise God. Praise God. And so, to me, this gives a little deeper meaning to a scripture that we're very familiar

with, and that's the one in Hebrews chapter 12, where we're told, you know, therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, these are the Old Testament saints that could say, hey, I've been there, done that, and here's how it worked out, and God was faithful. All right, we've got all these witnesses, so let us, now we're in the race, now let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. God's got a plan for every one of us, doesn't He? That's the one I want. But how do we do that? Fixing our eyes on Jesus. And I guess if I had to put a title on this, it would be fixing our eyes. But you know me, I tend to play with words. I think a lot of our eyes need to be fixed, because we're looking in the wrong way, looking in the wrong place. Where are your eyes? What are you focused on in your life? Where does your attention tend to be? Where are you getting your sense of who you are and how things are? Are you getting it, are you trying to get it from circumstances, are you trying to get it from friends, are you trying to feel good about yourself because, or do I just come to Him and know that I'm loved? That His heart reaches out to me and has everything that I need, that I can find that perfect joy in His presence. I'll tell you what, my eyes need to be fixed, how about yours? But fixing our eyes in the sense that this is written is, I need to make a choice. And I see that in my own experience, and I'm guessing that everybody here is in the same place. We need to learn how to focus our attention on Jesus more than we do in a very personal way.

And the devil will point out everything that's wrong with you and will focus your attention on your experiences and lie to you about them. He'll tell you, if God really cared about you, this wouldn't be that way. Well, that's not what my Bible says. I serve someone who can give me peace in the middle of the storm. Didn't Jesus experience that when they went out in the lake? Terrible storm came up and the disciples were, oh God, Jesus, don't you care we're going to die? And He was just as calm as He could be. Anybody here want that calmness in your life? You ain't going to get it looking at life and trying to get your strength from that, your sense of well-being, it ain't there. You're certainly not going to find it in the mirror. I don't find any hope at all when I look in the mirror. All I see is a guy getting older and still got plenty wrong, still got things the Lord's working on. But oh, when I look up, and by faith I see those eyes, and it's not just the eyes, it's what's behind them. Oh, all that He did, and He did it for me. Do you really believe that Jesus did what He did because of you, for you? Do you really actually believe that? Is there something in you that is a little bit hesitant to come into His presence? Or maybe you're just so busy you don't even stop and think about it. So you're muddling through life, dealing with this and striving about that, and here the Lord is, come, come, come, I'll give you rest. You're so full of burdens. You know, they're full of the burdens of life. I don't want you to have to live like that. You don't have to. You can come and just walk closer to me and have this consciousness.

Fixing our eyes is like everything we've said. We talked about habits. Our habit generally is not, oh yes, Lord, I remember, Lord, I'm coming into Your presence because I know You love me. I know there's things right now that I need, but they're not going to get changed because I've tried to change so I can go. I can go because You have called me to go. You've already made the provision. I can come because I'm loved, and that's going to help. That's going to change me. I'll tell you, the more time we spend with the Lord, the less time we're going to ... the less sin will draw us. You think you could look into those eyes and say, well, I'd rather be out sinning. There's something transforming about it. being with Him. That's where the power, that's where the motivation, that's where everything comes from, is from being with Him, not from holding back because I'm not good enough and all the kinds of things the devil tries to plant in our heads and our emotions. Praise God. Looking under Jesus. So we see two senses of this looking. The one thing is we realize the power, everything comes from Him. That's where I need to get the resources to be the person that He wants me to be. But not only that, I see the example. He's just not in heaven, or He's not just somebody who has never been here and done that. He has absolutely walked the course that He's called me to walk. I have my own race, but I'll tell you, I can run my race just the way He ran His because there's a God who stands behind me and is willing to give me everything that I need in order to run that race. Praise God. And so you see these kinds of scriptures where we're encouraged to, since you come to Christ, set your heart on things above, not on things on the earth. Over and over you get this simple sense, the simple truth that you and I need to make more of a conscious effort to spend time with the Lord and to reach out. And it's not just about the

time we spend. That's certainly part of it. But I mean, because we have regular responsibilities. We have duties that we have to carry out. But in that, can we not be looking to the Lord? Can we not live with a greater consciousness that, Lord, You are with me. You care about me. You care about what I'm doing right now. You care about my responsibilities. You care about the burdens that I carry. You're with me in the storm that I'm experiencing. Lord, I'm so thankful that I can live with a sense of Your love and Your presence. Do you think the Lord just might want to reach out to every one of us and say, Hey, I need more of this. I love you. I want to spend time with you. Don't you want to spend time with people you really love? Does He love you? Yeah. He's looking for ... He's looking for more. Not just as a religious duty. He's looking for that relationship where we're not afraid to come into His presence and reach out to Him and know that we're loved and accepted. Not because we're worthy, but because of the cross and the blood that was shed there. Praise God. Simple truths. I thought about one other scripture in 1 John chapter 3. Talks about who we are and our destiny a little bit. See what great love the Father has lavished on us. Lavished is a good strong word, isn't it? He didn't spoon it out. He lavished it. That we should be called children of God. Wow. You look straight into that holiness that Isaiah saw. Me? You're kidding me. Child of God? Wow. Only God could do such a thing. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. As He is. All who have this hope in Him purify themselves just as He is pure. I'll tell you that's a big part of the transformation. It isn't just learning more scripture. It is that. It isn't just all the activities. It's the relationship where the more I spend time with Him the more it changes me. Because I just I respond to that love and it just motivates me. It changes my way of seeing life. It changes my way of seeing me because I see myself not as a worthless hopeless sinner but as one who has been redeemed and given a brand new heart and a brand new life.

And given the power to begin to make the choices that make me His child in a practical way. You know I thought about just a couple of scriptures. I'll just go ahead and read some from the Psalms. David was despite his mess-ups was a man after God's own heart and somehow in the midst of a history of the nation where the nation just went sideways throughout their history the great majority of people who had been descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who became Israel absolutely served the devil. They were blind. They had no clue what it was about. And in the midst of that, God had that remnant who loved him and served him. But here's David who sees past the law and sees a God who loves him, and he wants to be with that God. What a picture. Talk about a man after God's own heart, someone that says, yeah, I know that I'm, I know I'm in need. I know that I can't be all in my strength, my own strength. I can't be what you want me to be, but I know you love me and I want to be with you, Lord. That was the heart that you see in his writing, so many of them. Let's see where I want to, uh, all right, I'll begin in verse five of chapter 16. I didn't say that, did I? Psalm 16, Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord who counsels me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. Notice all of the I wills. Choices, right. Choices. Sometimes it has to be that way. You know, you get up in the morning, I will praise God.

I've, this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Sometimes we don't feel, oftentimes we don't feel that. It's a good way to start the day is to make that choice and lift our hearts and focus on Him. It can lift us right out of the gloom. I keep, now here's the thing that caught my attention about this one. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. You get the point? You saw, you see why David experienced so many things that he did? I keep my eyes on the Lord. That's always where I'm looking. I'm not just lost, so lost in my circumstances that I can't, that I forget His love and His mercy toward me and the hope that I, that brings. All right. So I, I keep my eyes on the Lord always. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. And then there's a word of prophecy right in the middle of this, nor will you let your faithful ones see decay. You remember that being quoted about Christ? Praise God. All right. Now, here he says this, you make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Praise God. The thing I see about David is he's not just talking about someday, somewhere, somehow. This was something he sought to enjoy all through his experience. He realized, I have the right to come into the very presence of God.

He loves me. The needs that I see, he, he's taken care of them. I don't have to be afraid to come into his presence. I don't have to feel, oh my God, I don't know if I'm comfortable with that. Yes, that's where my hope is. That's where I get my strength and my joy, my peace. Thought of another scripture that we're very familiar with because we sing about it. That's in Psalm 34. All right. I'm going to read part of it anyway. I will extol. I'm going to praise. In other words, the Lord at all times, his praise will always be on my lips. I will, again, glory in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Now there's a word of testimony in the middle of this. I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Interesting way to put that. A lot of times he doesn't immediately deliver you from every circumstance, but he can deliver us from the fear that we naturally experience in that circumstance. You get the difference. Now he can change the circumstance if that's his plan, but I believe in a God, and I believe he wants us to get this, who can give us the peace in that storm so that we can still be strong and have rest on the inside that's genuine. It's not some fantasy. It's, Lord, I know I'm close enough. I've had enough experience with you.

My relationship with you is real enough that I have the strength that I need to stand in this time. That's what he wants. Is that what he wants? Question is, what do we want? It's there. All right. Those who look to him are radiant. It kind of sounds like Moses, right? Those who look to him, bang, there's a glow that comes on their face. word there, kind of gets used in mostly in a different sense, but in the Scripture, the actual original word means sparkle. How many of you want to sparkle? That's what the Lord's saying, those who really look to the Lord, we can just come to Him with an open face and say, Lord, here I am in my needs, but I come to you and I'm looking to you. I'm entrusting everything into your hands. I know you've called me. I know you want me. I know you love me in spite of all of this. And I'll tell you, the more we're gazing at Him, the more we sparkle. You think the Lord wants us to sparkle? Interesting way to put that, isn't it? Those who look to Him sparkle. Their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him, saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him. Fear the Lord, you His holy people, for those who fear Him lack nothing.

Praise God. I'll tell you, we've got an awesome God. You know, I thought about another Scripture. Sue mentioned the other day about the hymn under His wings and what a picture that is. Remember how Jesus talked about Jerusalem and said, how often, how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens, but you were not willing. That's what I wanted, but you didn't want that. Boy, I want what He wants. Praise God. But what a picture of a place of safety and joy and love. And without the details, I mean, she mentioned somebody that she was thinking about how they're doing and the Lord said, they're under my wings. Praise God. What a simple picture that is. Do we realize that if we're His, we're under His wings and we can rest and we can have joy and peace, that we can come to Him and spend time with Him and not be afraid to do it, not think it's a duty, not think of all the ways that the devil tries to distract us and keep us from doing such a simple thing of just spending time and acknowledging Him in every one of our ways. Do you really believe, you, right now, this is the way God feels about you, that He really wants you to come to Him just like you are? Did that song mean anything? Or is it just a nice sentiment that we sing, just as I am? He knows that we can't fix ourselves. That's why it's called salvation. But here's someone who loves us enough to have come and paid the price that we could have eternal fellowship and enjoy the love and the peace that He has, not just from a little while, not just a passing feeling, but forever and ever and ever. And He wants us to enjoy that more here. I'll tell you, the more we spend time with Him and reach out to Him, the more we're going

to sparkle. I almost decided to make that part of the title, then I said, that's a little too cute. So fixing our eyes, I guess, because I need my eyes fixed, but I need to make a choice to fix them on Him. And I'll tell you, we serve a God who is so loving and faithful. Don't we need to see Him that way? Don't we need to see Him through those eyes that He really loves me and wants to spend time with me? I'm guessing, I don't have to guess very hard, that every one of us needs more in this area. We need to live with this reality. Is this not what He's revealed? Is this not what He revealed through His Son who came and walked among us? Did He come down and just blam-bast everybody and run around trying to condemn and do all? No, there was a heart that reached out to the worst of the worst and showed love and showed mercy. And whether you're here, whether someone hears this later, I'll tell you, you reach out to God with all of your heart. He will reveal Himself, and you'll find out He's not the bad guy that the devil tries to paint Him. He loves you, and He has everything you need, not just to get through life, but to stand there in white before Him. Isn't that incredible that you and I, with all that's lacking in us, could actually be brought to a place? where we could be a part of that scene that Isaiah saw, and be at home in it, and full of joy and peace and rest, and just this is what my whole existence is about. This is why I was created in the first place, so I could enjoy the presence of this. Yes, there's a holiness that's scary to a more like Him. Why do we want that? Why do we want anything to do with that? I just want more of Him. I want more of Jesus. So many songs that we sing, I thought about, and I can't hardly remember them, but anyway, what an awesome

God we have, who wants, what an awesome Savior we have, that wants us to come and spend time with Him, and know that we're accepted, know that we can go and be received, not because we deserve it, but because that's His nature to love us, that He's made every provision. Thank God. Thank God. Anybody here need this? Yeah, I certainly do with both hands, but oh, what an awesome God we have. To Him be all the glory. Praise God. I had the scripture on my heart a lot as Phil was speaking this morning. I want to turn over to Hebrews 10, and look at what he's, something he's talking about here. Of course, you know, he's talking about the law, and he's writing to the Hebrews who grew up under the law, and that was their concept of how to get to God, was through the law, like what Phil had mentioned about Paul. But it says here at the start of chapter 10, he said, the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who are all near to worship. Because, you know, there were sacrifices that would be offered for all kind of different reasons, but there was one they did every year, sort of for the whole nation as a, you know, as a sacrifice offering for sin to maintain that relationship with God. The high priest did that. He says here, these same sacrifices endlessly year after year, if it could, if it could make those perfect, then wouldn't they have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. You see, in that system of sacrifice, that couldn't take away sin. Christ had to do that, but that covered sin, to where God could dwell with the people and be there with them, but it just covered the sin, and because it wasn't gone in the way that Christ took it away, there was still a sense of guilt there, and it left people in that same routine, like what he was talking about, about going to the churches, and it's the same things over and over and over again. There was kind of a struggle with that, over and over the same things again, and so they still felt the weight of that guilt, and that was still that barrier between them and God, that sense of guilt, and so this

this this sense of guilt was the indication that that sacrifice hadn't taken away the sin. It did cover it, and it was in accordance with what God had told him to do, but it couldn't take him away, and God had prophesied there was a sacrifice coming that would do the job, and they were expressing faith in that by doing the sacrifices they did, but it wasn't the same as what Christ did. So at that point, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins, and so he talks about when Christ came, and how he acknowledged that sacrifice and offering, that's not the end game, that's not what you really want, and Christ said, I've come to do your will, and so that he could take that covenant away and replace it with the true covenant. So then in verse 11, he says, day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again, he offers sacrifices which can never take away sins, but when this priest, talking about Christ, had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down on the right hand of God, because it was finished. Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. It's an interesting mix of tenses, isn't it? He has made us perfect, but we're still in the process of being made holy. We haven't gotten there yet, but the sureness of his purpose is absolute. It's going to happen. It's as good as done. That's why he sat down on the right hand of the Father. There was nothing left that he had to do. It was done, and so he wants us to see that, because this is what takes that barrier away, it takes that guilt away, so that we can come to him. That's what he says here. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First, he says, this is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. So it's different from the law. This is the covenant he's making now. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. In other words, he'll talk to us, he'll teach us, we'll fellowship with him. He'll change us from the inside out. He'll come on the inside and work those things out

instead of them being imposed from the outside. It's a whole new covenant. And then he adds, their sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. Praise God. Do you know that when we, as we do, because we're humans and we have those moments of guilt or we feel the weight of something and we, you know, we repent as is proper, but you know, if we try to wallow in that and just go on and on and on about it, there comes a point where God says, I have no idea what you're talking about. That's casting the sea of forgetfulness. That was judged and taken care of on the cross. What are you going on about? I've got something more for you. Let's go forward. You know, there's a place to repent and acknowledge that, but I'll tell you what, it is done. It is finished. And that is what gives us the foundation to come to him. In fact, what he quoted here, that he quoted that from Jeremiah 31. If you look at that, he's talking about the picture of how the nation of Israel was in judgment. You know, the Assyrians conquer in the Northern kingdom and the Babylonians conquer in the Southern kingdom. But he's speaking about a time of restoration after that,

where they were gonna be restored. And he starts that passage with the statement, I have loved you with an eternal love. That's where that quote came from. And so because of that, and because he's made it possible through the blood of Christ, he wants us to enter into a new relationship. It's not like the one under the law. And this is what he says here. And when these, at where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. You remember why they had to keep offering the sacrifices? Because that sense of guilt wasn't gone. Because they weren't really taken away. But now they've really been taken away. And God wants us to live, not just with the knowledge that he's not gonna remember our sins. He doesn't want us to live in a place of just constantly remembering that. Because his sacrifice did it once for all. It didn't just take away the sin, it took away the guilt. And that's what he offers us. That's what he enables us to be able to come into his presence. Knowing that, yes, I'm still being made holy, but you said I've been made perfect because of what you did. That's ground to stand on, folks. That is ground we can come and fellowship with him

and know that he longs to receive us and accept us. And he made all that possible. He, we didn't first love him. He first loved us. Praise God. I just, it's a blessing to me. And I thought about this. I don't know if, does anybody else have anything on your heart? You feel like the Lord would have you share this morning? If everybody feels good about it. I thought about this while we started with talking about God giving a song and how that could speak to us. And as Phil was speaking about looking in his eyes and what we see when we look in his eyes, the thought about our song, Let's Go to Jesus. Did you think about that too? I thought it came back to my mind over and over again when it says, look on his face now. What do you see? Love in his eyes, scars in his hands. That's what we see when we look at him. So I don't know. Could we think maybe we could get the choir up and sing that? Would that be all right? Praise the Lord.