#Gaze of the Soul

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.

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.

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.

Hebrews 11:1

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

Numbers 21:4–9

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

Numbers 21:4–9

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

John 3:14–15

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.

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

John 5:19

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

Hebrews 12:2

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.

Look at me. I need more faith.

I need more faith. Can you do it?

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.