Focused on Jesus

Transcript S3E4

Focused on Jesus

[00:08] 

I'm Tony Kostas and welcome to Led Into Love.

I'd like to share with you about something that has been happening in my heart recently. It started with being stirred when I was in a worship meeting and we sang a song that is well known amongst many Christians because it's been around for quite some time …like over a hundred years. I learned it as a chorus when I was a young teenage Christian.

The words of it go: 

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, 

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, 

In the light of His glory and grace."

I've known those words for a long, long time. As we sang them in this recent worship meeting it kind of took me back to those very early times, when we used to sing it at each midweek meeting before we did a Bible study together in the church.

But it wasn't just a sentimental feeling. I kind of felt like I wanted to dwell on the significance of those words because they're well-known to me and they're well-known to a lot of people over the years, and it's still a song that is currently sung in churches and when Christians gather together.

What I didn't know was that my 25-year-old grandson, who leads the music at church, had also been stirred at that meeting about it … and decided to find out some of the background to the story.

[01:43]

The chorus “Turn your eyes upon Jesus,” is part of a hymn that was written by a woman called Helen Howarth Lemmel in 1922. And she in turn had been inspired by reading something that had been written in the form of what is called ‘A Story and a Song,’by Lilias Trotter – a woman who went out into Algeria in the late 1800s. She went out of her own accord just to give herself and to bring Jesus and the message of Jesus to the people.

She lived in the desert. She lived out there for 40 years, just for God. But she was a very gifted artist. She used her art and her writing skills and produced some beautiful poems and articles about God during that time. And one of these was this story and the song.

But the real point of it … the main heading … the main title, was actually just the word ‘focussed’. And having a link that my grandson had provided, I looked this up online and read this tract by Lillian Trotter: ‘A Story and a Song’. And it really touched my heart because it brought into literally sharp focus for me what it means to be focused on God.

[03:17] 

And also, I realized that because my heart's being stirred about this, it's really something that I'd like to talk to you about right now.

In fact, the more I think about it and the more I focus on this reality, the more I realize that it's actually ridiculous to think of having a relationship with God – any kind of relationship with God – that is not sharply focused on Him.

[03:48] 

When you look at the life of Jesus and you realize that whatever Jesus did, whatever He said, wherever He went, He had one focus. And it wasn't what He said, who He said it to, what miracles He did, where He went, what He did – His one focus was His Father. From the beginning to the end. Literally to the end when on the cross He said to His Father, “Into your hands I give my spirit”.

And then after He rose from the dead and after He spent some time with His disciples, then He actually ascended to Heaven to be back with his Father. But he went to his Father and asked His Father to send His Spirit.

And that was the beginning of the church – when God sent His Spirit to continue and extend what Jesus had begun.

[04:46] 

The only concept of a Christian that we have in the Bible, in the New Testament, is of a person – any person – whose life is completely focused on the God upon whom Jesus was focused on: the God and Father of Jesus our Lord. There is no other concept.

If you look at Jesus, as I just mentioned, or you look at the early apostles that Jesus left and who continued what he came to do. And then you look at the early church, the people who were brought to Jesus. The one thing that mattered to those people and the one thing for which many of them literally gave their lives was that their whole lives were focused on God, and on Jesus who came and paid the price to bring us back to God.

[05:47] 

And whenever I think of that kind of thing, I always come back to the kind of awful reality of a religious approach to God. And the awful reality of what so often passes for being a Christian, or being in a church, or even being a church, today … and probably historically too for a long time. The reality of people that see God as being there for them … see God as being there to meet their needs. Maybe to make them feel good, maybe to be there in emergencies. Even, like, someone that kind of just takes up a particular space in your life.

Yes. And the sad truth is that we're not talking about just nominal Christians. So many people who know that they know Jesus but then are encouraged just to kind of see God as being there for them. And church being there to meet a need in their lives and give them things that they benefit from … but not at any price to them that would cause them to have to actually wrap their lives around their relationship with God.

[07:02] 

But a focused life, like a sharp focus … you know, you can only focus on one thing at a time. Our eyes are so designed – and not just our eyes – the lens of a camera, anything. Anything that's going to be focused has got to have a focal point. And our lives are meant to be focused on God. We were made for that.

When God made Adam in His image, Adam's life was totally to do with God. He was of God. He was from God. He was there forGod. He had the life of God in him.

We were made for God, and everybody, everybody, every human being that's ever been born in this world is incomplete. Has been incomplete, will be incomplete if they do not have – not just a relationship with God, but the kind of relationship with God for which they, you, we were made!

[08:10] 

And that means that your life has got to be all about Him. And I know when I say something like that, I know it – for so many people, even for so many Christians – you know, people will kind of think, “Oh, that sounds a bit extreme,” or “You've got to live in this world“ or “You've got to be realistic”. But let me tell you: not just the greatest reality … the only reality – the only reality in the whole universe is God Himself!

When you think, when you think of the God who created all things – everything! And the God who made you for Himself, and He offers you – He extends to you a relationship with Him for which you were created! And He says, “But it's going to take all of you”.And you think that is extreme?

Now, if we're talking about a religion, yep, it would be extreme. If we're talking about any other belief form or any other pursuit … 

And yet, and yet, what do we do when we look at someone, whether they're a great athlete or great at anything – anything at all. Any great achievement that requires total focus and total dedication and years and years and years of training, and setting aside time, and bringing their whole life – the whole focus of their life – to bear on this one thing that they've decided to pursue and excel in. And we give them acclaim and we say, “Wow, look at this person. Isn't that amazing?”

[09:53] 

And yet when God Himself extends Himself to us and says: “Come to me and be mine and live for me only,” we don't like it. And I'll tell you why. Because there is something in us, in all of us, that we inherited from our father Adam, that says: “there's got to be more, and I don't want to miss out on that”.

But you know … how can there be? How can there possibly be anything more, or be more or better than God? That's what the devil said to Adam and Eve: “Ah, don't just listen to God, because God is keeping something from you that you can have”. There is nothing. Nothing. In fact, if you miss out on this relationship with God for which you were made, you'll lose not only the greatest thing. You'll lose the very purpose of your existence.

[10:55] 

We do live in a world that is spinning out of control. We do live in a world that's falling apart. But it's a world that's inhabited by people whose lives are spinning out of control – whose lives are falling apart. Some people know it, some people don't. Some people cope. Well, some people don't cope. But it's not a matter of how well you cope or appear to be coping. It's whether or not you're fulfilling the very purpose for which you were created.

God is love, and everything that God does has love as its motivation. God is good, and everything that God does or says has goodas its aim and purpose. And this is the God who longs for you to live in intimate relationship with Him.

But to do that requires you personally, not just to come to Him to forgive your sins, not just to come to Him to solve your problems, not just to come to Him for the things that you obviously need from Him. But to come to Him and to surrender your life to Him, so that He can respond to you as He wishes, and He can do with your life as He wishes.

[12:22] 

Christians love to admire great people in the Bible, even great contemporary Christians. People who, like Lilias Trotter, that I mentioned before: the woman who went and spent 40 years ministering to people in the desert of North Africa and say, “Oh, well, that was a wonderful thing. It's lovely that there are people like that. But I couldn't do that.”

But, you know, all this woman did was simply yield herself to God. She was a brilliant, gifted artist. She had a great future ahead of her in England. But when God started to stir her heart about going to North Africa, and despite the fact that she actually applied to be a missionary and no missionary society would sponsor her going there, because she had health issues (she had some sort of Heart condition) it didn't stop her going – because she knew God wanted her there. She went there and she spent the rest of her life there. Forty years of her life. Died at 75.

So, was that a waste? I don't think so. In fact, I'm sure it wasn't!

[13:29] 

But, you know, nothing is wasted when it's given to God. But if your life is not given to God. If He is not the focus of your life. If he is not the purpose for which you live – and I really mean that – that will be a waste.

Whatever else you do with your life, no matter how noble it might seem, no matter how much in this world's scale of values it's esteemed, it will be a waste. Because there is only one purpose for you and for me. How that will be lived out, I don't know.

You know, when Jesus walked by the shore of the Sea of Galilee and he called Peter and James and John. And then when he called Philip. When he called Nathaniel. Matthew the tax collector … and He called them. And you know, you know it. If you know the stories, you know it. It's as plain as anything there in the Gospels. You know, those people just dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus. 

How stupid! How foolish! How reckless! But they did. And their lives were about Him from then on, because they recognized that the only thing that mattered was Him.

[14:50] 

Now, I can't make God matter to you, but you can come to Him and trust Him with your life. And if you open your heart to Him – if you approach Him – He will approach you. If you open your heart to Him, He will make Himself known to you. If you feel His heart stirring you right now, or at any time, or ever have … don't put it off. Because you can be sure that if you desire God, He will reveal Himself to you.

And not only that, but you will discover how personal a relationship with God is. You'll discover a purpose for your life that you never thought possible. But we're not talking about imagination. We're not talking about ambition. We're not talking about any sort of fantasy that you might have. We're talking about the living God who loves you and cares for you more than you could ever imagine. Who desires you to focus your life on Him.

[16:07] 

You think of Moses at the burning bush. This man who'd been a prince in Egypt for 40 years, then when he had to flee from Egypt. Spent 40 years as a shepherd out in the desert, in the wilderness. And then, one day when this man is 80 years old, God makes Himself known to Moses … and the whole course of his life changes, because God spoke to Moses out of that burning bush! And Moses wasn't very excited about what God told him He wanted him to do – but he did go and do it … and that changed the course of history.

One man … one man. If you saw this 80-year-old shepherd out in the desert, you wouldn't think for a minute … you’d think that his life was all but over. But God had His eye on that man.

When Saul of Tarsus, the enemy of the Christian church, was pursuing Christians and dragging them out of their houses and throwing them into prison. When God decided He was going to get that man, and He revealed Himself – Jesus revealed Himself – to Saul of Tarsus when he was on his way to Damascus from Jerusalem to round up more Christians and throw them into prison.

And from that time on, that man who became Paul the Apostle, had only one purpose in his life: to live for Jesus. And towards the end of his life, he talked about running the race as if it was, like, his life which was all for God, was like running a race. And he said, “I just do this one thing. I have this one focus.” 

You think of an Olympic standard … a world standard … athlete – a runner who trains and trains and trains and trains. He's got one purpose. And when he's in any race that he wants to win or needs to win, he's not in the race to run the race. He's not in the race even for bronze or silver. He's in the race for the gold and he does everything he can. And the most foolish thing he'd ever want to do is run part of the race and say, “I think that's enough”. He's going to go all the way. 

That's what Paul said: “I just want to finish the race that is set for me. I want to run the race. I want to finish the course.”

[18:30] 

God can give your life a purpose. In fact, if you give yourself to Him, God will give your life a purpose. It doesn't matter what it is, because you'll know that you'll be living it with God and for God. God will give your life a purpose that doesn't even compare with any other thing else. 

Life lived without God is pointless. Life lived without God is purposeless. It's a waste. 

Trust God with your life. Make God your focus. See Him clearly – and you can if you open your heart to God. God waits to make Himself known to you. 

And I'm talking predominantly here to people who know Jesus. And I want you to realize that to be a part-time Christian, to be a Christian fitting God into your life where you want, is the most foolish thing to do. But to abandon your life to God is the wisest thing to do. Yes, it will cost you everything. It should cost you everything.

[19:39]

The world today is crying out for what it doesn't know it needs desperately, and that is to know God. I don't know how God wants to be glorified in your life, but I do know – and I mean it, Christian – I do know that everybody who comes to God and knows Jesus, and know that they know Jesus … everyone, without exception ...

God's intention is that He will be glorified in your life. And that can only happen if you are focused on Him.