Let's move on to looking our Pursuit subject.
Then, as I said, we're looking at ozar, we arrived at this this
that the subject this week on something which is so crucial
and Central to our Christian walk and I've Loved about this
series and loved about reading toza, is that there are certain
things that are good reminders, in other words, truths or the
way in which he positions things that I've heard of.
But yet probably, Early forgotten or needed, a reminder
and then you come up with some gems that you go.
Wow! I've never seen that like that
before. And I'm pleased to say this is
one of those chapters I read it. And I was like, wow, I've never
seen it like that before. And he starts the chapter by
asking us to imagine what would happen if someone who had no
preconceptions of the Christian faith.
Someone that didn't know. The Bible was sit down with the
Bible and simply do an exercise, where by they would read
through. Ooh, that have a piece of paper
and they would jot down the themes that they would see
bubble to the surface. A bit like a word cloud to use
modern vernacular of course in 1948.
They didn't have such a thing but imagine if 12 were to do
that, he posits what would happen?
Well of course, what would happen is the process of working
out. What we call the doctrines of
the faith are the the tenants of our belief, those important
aspects of our Christian faith and he says that in that process
high up on the list of things that he would be writing in his
word, cloud would be this. Faith.
We're not surprised by that.
Are we high up on the list of his word?
Cloud will be faith and it would be obvious from this exercise of
its high importance. He or she going through this
exercise as he goes through the Bible would would determine that
without faith. It's impossible to please.
God. Why must be important without
faith? I can't do much because with
faith, I can do anything but can take me anywhere in his kingdom.
And and and he will discover, he or she would discover their
without faith. There can be no approach to God,
no forgiveness, no Deliverance, no salvation, no, communion no
spiritual life, at all. Such would be his exercise and
the conclusion with which he finds and then you'll get to
Hebrews 11, who knows? Hebrews 11 for those of you who
read the Bible, of course, a wonderful chapter of the whole
of Faith, the heroes of the faith.
And he would not be surprised by the fact that this whole chapter
was about faith. And then maybe after his read
the Bible, he go, all this interest interest in, let me
read about church history, he would come to the great
Reformation the Protestant Reformation and he would say
well nurse was land will about what it was about.
Out capturing by faith in Christ alone, not by works as well.
As Faith. As is that teacher in the
Catholic teaching, those Meritus acts that I bring myself know is
by faith alone. In Christ alone, his word alone
and he would say, right? Ok, that kind of makes sense.
We all there on the same page. What's Hozier is trying to do
before we continue and I think it's important is to put Central
in our minds, the question, and the importance of faith.
And so, given the agreement that we, I'm sure have all on the, on
the importance of faith that it is a must in our pursuit of God.
In other words, you know, if you signed up for this journey of
pursuing God, you must also realize that you need Faith to
do. So, the question that's going to
jump to your mind And is this do I have faith?
Do I possess this faith and then toes it suggests that if you
were to ask that question, you would naturally ask a secondary
question which is this? Wait a minute.
What a nerve is faith. You can't ask that question.
It's fine. You can be still a question.
And ask the question. What on Earth is fate?
Because I'll be honest with you. I think he's quite confusing and
complex actually, All, can he say that the pastor?
When you think about faith is some respects, it's feels like
quite a nebulous kind of thing, doesn't it?
And I think the, the truth is in scripture.
The reality is, is that no real effort is made to Define faith.
It rather assumes it that it is there.
Now, of course, you'll be saying to me.
Well, Mark, of course, a Hebrews 11:1.
Gives us a definition of Faith, does it?
Not faith is the Assurance of things hoped for the evidence of
Things Not Seen. But the thing about that is
that, that is quite a functional definition of what faith is,
what do I mean by that? It tells you what faith is in
its operation Faith. You can see when you have an
assurance of that, which you cannot see.
And belief in something, which you cannot see that's great.
But toza color wants to go a bit deeper in this chapter and I'm
rather pleased, he has done because often times we stay at
that place, but he asked the question.
But really, what is the essence of Faith?
It's move away from that. From that functional
operational, description of faith.
And what is the heart of it? What is it really mean to you?
And me and you know toes Who makes the point that if you
heard a preacher talk about faith in typically follows a
very similar model, the preacher would read Hebrews 11 verse 1.
And then he would go on to give you an example of faith in the
Bible. And then possibly, he would end
with some testimonies of people who had faith and saw a miracle.
And that's true. But toes are says, but hey,
isn't there more to that than that?
What is the heart? What is the essence?
And he answers this by taking us to where we going to land on our
scripture this morning, which is numbers, 21 Verses 4 to 9 when
we turn to that together numbers, of course, is found in
the Old Testament is going to be on the screen.
If you're in the room and online, I'll be on your screen
as well. We're going to look at numbers
21, Verses 4 to 9. I'm going to read this account
to you. From Mount hor.
They set out, by the way, to the Red Sea.
This is talking about Israel to go around the land of Edom and
the people became impatient on their way.
And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, why have
you brought us our out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
But there is no food, and there is no water and we loathe this
worthless food. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people. And they bit the people.
So that many people of Israel died.
And the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned for.
We have spoken against Jehovah and against you pray to the
Lord, that he take away the Serpent's from us. so, Moses
prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery
Serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten when he
sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze Serpent
and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he
would look at the bronze Serpent and live.
You have a restriction that you want just happened there.
When you go, I need to find a commentary on that or somebody
because that it's need some explaining.
Glad, I'm not the only one. I've got some good news for you.
because Jesus himself explained this did you know, this Jesus
himself explained what on Earth happened and we read it in John
3 1415 and you see What happens here is, Jesus is explaining to
the people around him. How they may be saved and he
tells them that they may be saved, Bible them believe in.
And then he references, well, we've just read John 3:14-15 and
as Moses lifted up, the serpent in the wilderness so must the
son of man that's him. That's Jesus be lifted up now,
listen to this Dad. Whoever Believes in Him may have
eternal life. Mmm, thank you.
Jesus, that makes a little bit more sense.
You see that serpent on the, or on the pole, lift it up was a
foreshadowing. It was a pointing towards
Christ. Be lifted up becoming made sin
for us. It's like the punishment that is
do us. That's kind of what was going on
there. And this is where Tozer takes it
in a direction that as I said, was new to me and I never seen
before. He says this.
We would notice that look. And believe was synonymous
terms. Same or Mark, I shall look it on
the Old Testament. Serpent is identical with
believe in on the New Testament Christ.
Are you following me so far? I'm going to unpack this, don't
worry. That is the looking with your
physical eyes and the believe in are the same thing. and so,
while Israel looked with their external eyes and were saved, we
are called to believe as we look to Jesus in our hearts.
I love this. Go toes up.
So am I the only one excited? As I say, some Sundays, you can
be Pentecostal if you wish I know where charismatic but I
appreciate the amens and preach it brother.
It's all good. I won't get my chose discipline
book out if you do that, don't worry.
And then toes are arrived at a wonderful conclusion.
In summary about the nature and essence of Faith called.
This is quite the build-up, isn't it?
My word. So when so when you watch those
reality shows, they're about to you know say who the winner is
and then they cause and the music, we need some music.
So team when you need them, pay. You ready to this?
This is where toes arrives at the essence of faith.
Faith is the Gaze of a soul, Upon A saving.
It was on the screen already. That I love that.
Face is the Gaze of a sewn Upon A saving God.
My word I love you see, we walk by faith, not by sight.
We walk by fixing our Gaze on Christ not by using our physical
eyes, isn't that good? And then you see when you
realize it all of a sudden, all those verses that you have
hitherto read about looking come into sharp focus in a new way.
Let me give you some examples. Psalm 34 5, those who look to
him already installed and their faces shall never be a shame.
Psalm 123 122 to you. I lift up my eyes.
Oh, you who are enthroned in the heavens behold as the eyes of
the servants look. The hand of their Master as the
eyes of the maid servant to the hand of her mistress.
So our eyes of our hearts, look to the Lord, Our God until he
has Mercy on us 1/2. Does that mean?
It means here. The person, believe it in faith,
that God is a merciful god looks therefore at that, God at our
God for that mercy. And Faith Comes.
Don't you absolutely love this? Thank you.
Thank you, Richard. Now, what about our lord?
Jesus, look at this one. Matthew 14:19.
Then Jesus ordered the crowd to sit down on the grass and taking
the Five Loaves and the two fish.
What did he do? He looked up to heaven.
It wasn't some kind of dramatic, pause.
You can just imagine that's not what was going on here.
Faith is the Gaze of the Soul upon a living.
Saving God. You're there.
Faith Comes. Oh, come on.
And you know what? It says in John 5:19 21, Jesus
can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the
father doing. Mmm, so good.
But in addition to the specific texts, the whole word of God
points us to Jesus as the original originator and source
of our faith. Who knows Hebrews 12:2 look him
unto Jesus. The author and Perfecter of our
faith, oh my word. And what are this?
What do we learn? The faith is not some one-time
act. It's not like we work.
I sometimes look at Faith as some kind of super power.
I'm about to pray for someone Lord, imbue me with faith.
I need Faith right now. Come bring the faith.
Haha. Abby, thank you for that cup of
coffee. That double show was brilliant.
But times and makes the point faith is not a one-time hit.
That's my vernacular. It's a continuous gaze of
looking into the eyes of Jesus. He juice, you know, Most of the
time myself and the worship leaders will have a conversation
about what I'm speaking on and we will talk about the service,
that didn't happen this week. And yet look at the songs we
sang. They were all about looking to
Jesus. Well, they engaged in upon Him.
Aah. When I saw the setlist true
week, I'm like, oh my word, that's amazing.
So, believe in them with our hearts.
Is directing the heart, attention to Jesus.
It's lifting the mind to Behold the Lamb of God and never
ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives.
Now, That sounds great when you're listening to it here in
this, in this room, right? And you're like, wait a minute,
have you seen my afternoon? I hope you have a good off.
You don't know my Monday. You certainly have no clue about
my Wednesday and if you saw my first and Friday is diabolical.
Listen. We live busy lives.
And I want to quote, you what toes are said.
But it becomes easier reference in the distractions in our
world. It becomes easier as we looked
steadily at his wondrous person quietly and without strain
distractions of May hinder, but once the heart is committed to
him, after each a brief Excursion away from him.
The intention attention will return again and a rest upon
him, like a Wandering, bird coming back to its window.
In spite of the difficulties, he knows that we have set the
direction of our hearts towards Jesus.
And we can do it too. And our comfort there for
ourselves with the knowledge that our habit of soul is
forming. Which will become after a while.
A sort of spiritual reflex, requiring no more conscious
effort on our part. And I think this is so true as
I've reflected on that quote and indeed on this word, this
morning, I've looked at my own life And we all on this journey
of ennui of running the race and and if I look back I recognize
that when I first became a Christian, my Christian will
looked a bit like a formula. If I do this and that, then this
will happen. But as I matured and as I
realized it was more about relationship, The more I realize
that as I spent more time with him, that naturally, I'd want to
spend more time with and that is, I naturally wanted to spend
more time with him. My heart would naturally go
there without me, consciously saying to my heart.
Let's go there. I had genuinely seen it my days,
you know, I'm grateful to God that by his Spirit.
We looked at the very first week, on this Pursuit, there's a
by the way, if you've missed any of the talks you can of course,
watch them online. If you're on YouTube now when
you click that subscribe button so you can get a notification,
blah, blah, blah blah. But you can watch all those
talks. And we looked at the point that
the pursuit of God is there because by his Spirit, he puts
that initial urge in us as so, I'll pursuing, God is in
response to the The urge of God that he's placed in our hearts.
And so the point here is that as we more and more respond to
that, it does indeed become more of a spiritual reflex.
That, if you're washing up at the sink, you find yourself dumb
into that place of communion with him.
Because you know, it, right? As some of you are thinking I
want that will you can how you make that one small step of
saying Jesus, I want to be with you.
And then you put the time aside and before you know it you're
building your spiritual muscles. Listen, if you want to, if you
want to become muscley and ripped as goes the current
vernacular, I'm sure that's the phrase.
I wouldn't know about any of that, of course.
But you would go to a gym. Would you not?
And what would you do? You would exercise your muscles?
You would put effort into it and you would see the benefits
thereof. And it's the same with this.
If you want to exercise your spiritual muscles, you need to
exercise by seeking his face. Have I made my point.
So as we Gaze on Jesus as we exercise, our belief by
directing our attention to him, Faith builds.
Now here is where we can get a bit confused with some wrong
questions. And I like, where toes are takes
this, we often ask ourselves this question.
Do I have faith or how big is my faith?
And I know, in some respects, they're valid questions.
But my are suggest that in the context of what we've looked at
their, maybe not the most helpful question.
And the White House were explains.
This is a faith is like our eyes, which see everything
confronted it, but never see itself.
Your point faith is like I our eyes which sees everything in
front of it but never sees itself.
That is Faith. You see.
Faith itself is not the object. Faith is occupied with the
object upon, which it rests Jesus.
As you see, while we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves.
If we keep looking for faith will miss the object of it and
that I think is sometimes the danger, I need more faith.
I need more faith. Give Me Faith In Jesus and just
look at me. Look at me.
I need more faith.
Can you do it?
And we did look it.
Would he say, look at me? You try and look at your
eyeballs. It's difficult.
Unless you have a mirror, stop looking for your faith.
Just look unto Jesus and then Faith Comes.
Wow. I like it Tozer well done.
You see faith in in itself is not the thing which has the
power. The power is in the one towards
whom it is directed. And that's why I think there are
certain streams of Christendom that would do us this favor by
magnifying, this thing of Faith to the degree that we seek faith
without seeking. The god with whom we gives it
Because what we see is Faith is the thing that will now enable
us to get everything we want. And they have, it's so subtle.
Because what has happened is they've moved, Jesus, out of the
picture completely, and they're seeking faith more than they're
seeking Jesus. And just like, where you can
have faith to seek me. Oh, don't get me started.
If? You had the same coffee, good.
You see, we say we need more faith, but brothers or sisters,
what we actually mean is ID more Jesus.
And then Faith builds. And you see Freya mentioned this
earlier as she led us. So beautifully after worship.
You see what happened to his sin, has twisted our vision in
wood and made his self regarded. That was not how it was designed
to be. You see Faith looks out instead
of in and the whole one of Life falls into line there.
You want more faith, you recognize the importance of
Faith. Good, and look under you.
Cultivate a lifestyle, where your soul gazes upon the giver
of all things, and your faith will be built like to invite the
band up as I navigate this plane to what hopefully is a soft
Landing. What happens?
Toes are asked the question when we dare decide to fix our razor
Eyes Upon Jesus, maybe you're here this morning and you've
never done that for maybe you're not even a Christian and you're
saying what, who on Earth is this Jesus?
You're talking about? I've got no idea who this guy
is. Maybe you've heard about this
God and you think God is some old man in the sky with a big
stick, waiting to hit you over the head. and maybe because of
your own parent, you know the parent way you've been parented
or your life experiences you think that as soon as you cast
your eyes up to God, the first thing that's going to come out
of his mouth is Shazam better. Maybe your concern is if i gaze
My Eyes Upon God, the first thing is going to say to me, is
your life is a myth. Maybe your concern is the
fasting that God's going to say. To me, when I cast my eyes upon
Him is you've had too many chances and you're blowing, it
figured it that a, the kind of God that we worship.
And toes are says this, when we lift our inward eyes to gaze
upon God, we assure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us.
For it is written that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout all the Earth. The sweet language of experience
is God scenes met We can gaze upon God because he's been
gazing since eternity. When the eyes of the Soul,
looking out, Meet The Eyes Of God looking in heaven, has begun
right here on And the good news is, it's available to all.
No equipment is required. No tests.
Are required for you to pass. No processes required.
That you may forget, we simply just have to gaze Our Hearts
Upon Jesus and say yes. And since believe in is looking
unto Jesus, it can be done at any time.
Doesn't just need to be done on Sundays.
Can be done on a Monday, the Tuesday, or Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday at lastly Place does not matter either.
This place is not more special than your kitchen, our home.
This place is a more special than in your car driving home.
This place is a more special than when you're in the
workplace. Days.
Inn on to Jesus. Happens wherever, and whenever
you are, isn't that beautiful? Let us stand as I pray.
Thank you Jesus. Happens wherever, and whenever
you are, isn't that beautiful? Let us stand as I pray.
Thank you Jesus.