(Image Link Below)The song, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" has really simple yet powerful lyrics:
"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 was listening to a sermon by Francis Chan entitled " You Have Everything You Need," this morning and he used this song to emphasize that if we seek an intimacy with our Creator, that we have everything we need. He based the sermon off of a passage in 2 Peter 1 verses 1-4. It says this:
"Simeon Peter, a servat and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the rightesouness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and exellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." ESV
I really encourage you to listen to the sermon yourself if you have time to get the full extent of what God is saying in this passage through Francis but I guess the area that convicted me the most is, I often see my faith as weak in comparison to someone like Francis, or Simeon Peter or even my friends. However, Peter says " to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours." We have obtained our faith through the righteousness of God. Can you be anymore righteous than what was given to you by God? No! Peter did not obtain the righteousness of God and then had a little more because his name was Peter----it was all from God and it's all from God in your life as well!
The second area that really stirred in my heart this morning was that grace and peace comes through the knowledge of God. So often, I find myself seeking grace and peace through other things in my life: peace in accomplishing a goal or crossing things off of my to do list. "You know if I can just get through this week of tests and projects, then I will have peace in my life." Or " You know, when I get married and start my career, I will have fufillment in my life and be able to be at rest in my relationship with God." No! No! No!! Our grace and peace comes through the knowledge of God. Now this knowledge is not just "know things about God," it's KNOWING God. Do you believe that all your problems can be solved through having a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ? It is says in 2 Corinthians 9:8
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work."
Do we really believe that? Do I live my life truly trusting that God is able to be all suffcient in all things at all times. We don't need anything more than to ask God for a more intimate relationship today.
To listen to the sermon:
Go to "Get a Sermon" bottom right corner
11/1/2009 "You have Everything You Need"
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