Keep Your Eyes on the Ball - Keep Your Eyes on Jesus

My eight-year-old son was getting ready to step into the batter's box during the first inning of his Little League baseball game this past Saturday when his coach yelled out, 

"Hey Trev, what's the most important thing in baseball?"

Trevor yelled back, "Keep your eye on the ball!"

When I was learning to drive about thirty years ago my mother must have worn out her vocal cords saying, "David! Keep your eyes on the road." Then there was my fourth grade teacher who had a really sweet trick for keeping our attention and for assuring our behavior.  She had three small bean-bags on her desk and when I was fooling around I could count on one of those bean-bags sailing across the room, safely over the six rows of well behaved kids, landing upside my head followed by the words, "David, I've got my eye on you!"  I don't think that educational tool would fly today but it sure worked wonders in 1974.  It seems like most things of value require keeping your eyes on them.  You must look at them and pay attention to them.  

Fastballs, fourth graders, and the road you're traveling are all good things to keep your eye on if you're a baseball player, a teacher, or a driver respectively but here is the most important thing to keep your eyes on:

Jesus

Why?

Jesus said, "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day."

In Deuteronomy chapter 4 we read, "But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and soul."

Now, I personally did a lot of looking around before I came to know God in a saving way but most of it wasn't searching for God specifically. I looked for happiness, satisfaction, accolades, success, and I guess in some ways something spiritual to make it all look good but surely not God with all my heart and soul.  So I guess that in God's sovereignty he supplies even our ability to look.  He calls us and gives us eyes to see but we can still choose to look away and not believe.  If we look to the Son and believe God promises that he will never let us go.  Earlier in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John Jesus says, "Whoever comes to me I will never drive away." and  "This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day."

God calls us and gives us the ability to see but it's our job to "look to the Son" and "Look for him will all our heart and soul."  In the account of Saul of Tarsus' experiencing Jesus on the road to Damascus you might recall that Saul was a murderous man bent on seeing Christians killed or imprisoned when, in a blinding light, he met the risen Christ. But, Saul never saw Jesus on the road that day because he was blinded.  It wasn't until three days later when God removed "something like scales" from Saul's eyes that he could see again.  But here is where he could have picked up his belongings and gone back to his life of persecuting Christians but instead he spent the remainder of his life (until he was martyred) looking to the Son.  I think that the scales not only fell from his eyes but from his heart.  You see, even if your physical eyes can't see, you can still have a heart to see.  There is a song we sing at church called, "Open the Eyes of my Heart" and I think this applies.

Saul was given a new name that day, "Paul” who became the greatest preacher of the Gospel who ever lived.  He is the writer of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and possibly the book of Hebrews.  Paul was a new creation in Christ Jesus!

The writer of the book of Hebrews (Possibly Paul) wrote these words, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  You see, the penalty for sin has already been paid for on the cross at Calvary where Jesus endured the pain and scorn for us.  We need only look to the Son in faith to receive the gift provided.  We will receive new spiritual eyes with which we will be able to see ourselves and others and we will be able to recognize our sin and our need for a savior.  We will be given a heart with which to repent of our failures and a heart that can worship its creator.  It's like a caterpillar that becomes a butterfly.  No one really knows how is happens but it is truly a miracle of God.

If you’re here today it's no accident and I believe that God is calling you, giving you spiritual eyes to see, and giving you a heart that is able to seek.  It's up to you whether or not you will choose to look to the Son and have eternal life.  If you choose to look to him he will make you a new creation as well.  He will not only be the author of your faith but as you continue to fix your eyes on him, he will perfect your faith until he brings you home.  Maybe you already have your eyes fixed on Jesus,  if so then, AMEN.  Pass it forward!  

"Hey, what's the most important thing in life?"

"Keep your eyes on Jesus!"

Peace,

David