Our Affection Follows Our Attention

Zachary Cargill shares a strong message to fix our eyes on Jesus and not live distracted by the noise of this world. Like Moses and the burning bush, there are powerful encounters with God waiting for those who stop, turn aside, and give Him our full attention. Zachary shares that our affection follows our attention, and if our focus is pulled toward lesser things, our hearts will slowly drift from the Lord. These are days to seek God diligently and refuse to let distraction rob us of His presence and our destiny in HIm. Now is the time to wake up, look to Jesus, and respond while His invitation is before us!

Our heart at Celebration Church Rarotonga is that this message will greatly bless your walk with Jesus and help bring you closer to Him. We pray that you would be stirred to live a life that is passionate about loving Jesus!

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Transcript

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Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Laratoga. We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough. Thanks for joining us.

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Awesome. Habat, let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for your incredible presence. And Lord, we declare we love you. And we declare our hearts are yours this morning. Lord, we thank you that your word says where two or three are gathered in your name. There you are in the midst of us. And Father, we thank you. Right now, we gathered in the name of Jesus Christ. And Lord, you are here. And Holy Spirit, we welcome you into our lives afresh. We thank you, God, for your presence. We thank you that you were alive, that you are not dead, but we thank you that you conquered the grave, that you conquered sin, you defeated the enemy, you defeated the powers and the chains of darkness once and forever. And we thank you, Lord, it is finished. And by the blood of Jesus Christ, we can be washed and cleansed from our sin and we can enter the throne room of God with boldness and confidence because of the blood. And we thank you, God. And Father, this morning I pray as I share these words, Lord. Let them not be my words, Father. Lord, let them not be empty carnal ideas, but Lord, let them be life-giving Rhema from your spirit. And Lord, right now I release the spirit of understanding. Open our eyes to see, Lord. Open our ears to hear we pray. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Awesome. So if we've got our Bibles here this morning, let's turn to the book of Exodus, chapter three. And uh as Dad mentioned earlier, we just came or have just come off the back of our Burning Bush conference for our youth and young adults, which was powerful. We had an amazing time in the presence of God. And uh as the name goes, it was called Burning Bush, and it was about Moses's encounter with the Lord. And both uh Mum and James shared powerful messages uh from Exodus chapter three about God's presence and his encounter with Moses. And uh, as we were leading up into the Burning Bush conference, I started to study uh Exodus chapter three myself, and I tell you what, there is power in the encounters of God in the Word. Absolute power. And for those of you who didn't know or who don't know, Moses is a man that was uh he was a Hebrew and Israelite that was raised in Pharaoh's Egyptian empire, and some circumstances happened around his life. He got caught in trouble, Pharaoh wanted to kill him, he fled away into the desert, and he was there for many, many years. And he lived there, I think it was about 40 years, and uh he was in the desert, he had a wife and children, and he basically lived his life out in the desert, out in you know, the Wat Wats, really. He had come from the the glory, so to speak, the natural glory of Egypt. And he laid everything out and he said, I'm going, I've got to get out of here. So he goes and he's in the desert, and uh he's one day he's out there, and let's read from Exodus 3, verse 1. It says this now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight. Why the bush is not burnt? Verse 4. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called him out of the bush. Moses. Moses, and he said to him, Here I am. This morning I'm gonna be talking about the power in what we see. The power in what we see. Moses is out in the desert minding his own business, unaware, kind of just oblivious to the fact. He's doing his daily routine. And God, through the angel of the Lord, appears to him in the burning bush. And Moses responds and he sees the burning bush and he looks. And I love this in verse 4, it says this when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush. God was looking at Moses to see if he would turn to the site, to the encounter. Moses goes on, and Moses basically has a radical encounter with the Lord, and the Lord declares his calling over his life, commissions him as the deliverer of Israel. From this moment, his life is radically changed, and he goes on and basically through the Lord's power delivers Israel, millions of people, and eventually that's the start of them entering the promised land 40 years later. Moses' calling and his commissioning comes because he saw, because he stopped and looked. This is what I want to share about this morning. The power comes when we stop and see. When we stop and see. See, Moses is out there and the Lord reveals himself. But you know what's interesting is the Lord just doesn't go Moses straight away. A big booming voice in the sky and he falls to his knees. No, no, no. He appears in a burning bush, and Moses sees the burning bush and wonders why this bush is burning, but it's not fully consumed. Like, you know, if you have a uh like a bonfire or you're burning the rubbish, as soon as you put the kikal branches on there, within seconds, 10-15 seconds, that bush, that branch is consumed. It's gone. But this bush was burning, but it was not being consumed, so just continually burned and burned and burned and burned. What's interesting is God, it was almost like he was presenting an opportunity to Moses. There was an invitation for him to respond. So Moses is there, and because Moses was diligent to respond to the invitation of the Lord, the Lord revealed himself. Maybe the the outer courts can come into the inner court. There's an invitation for you this morning. So there's an opportunity for Moses. And Moses says this, he he responds to the Lord, and within himself, he says this. I'm coming to see. I'm wanting to see. What is that? And what I love is that the Lord honors Moses by giving him an encounter. The Lord honors him, he responds to him. And I want to say this this morning: there is power in what we see. Because there is power in what we see, there is a war for our attention. You need to understand this that you and I, there is a war going on in our life for what we see, what we're focused on, and what has our attention. As soon as it began to rain just before, half the congregation looks out. Oh, what's going on? What's going on? Because there's always something going on that wants your attention. But God is looking for ones that don't get pulled to the left and the right, but he's looking for the ones that look straight. That don't get buffeted by the distractions and the pulls, but they are focused in on the Lord. Like Moses. Moses could have just been like, oh, that's interesting and walked on. But no, he stopped, he looked, and God revealed himself. You and I, each and every day, we have an opportunity to see the Lord, an opportunity to encounter the living God in the secret place, in our time of prayer, in our time of worship, in our time in the word. But the problem is so many of us live distracted lives. We live lives where we're pulled to the left, we're pulled to the right, we're chasing all sorts of other things. But I want to say this morning, we need to focus in on the Lord. Focus in on the Lord. This is a clarion cry this morning for us as the bride of Christ to wake up and look to Jesus. Amen. So there are so many things that are fighting for our attention in life. Like, I mean, we live with living distractions in our lives. Our cell phones. You know, basically, the entire world has access to your life almost 24-7. That's the reality. You can get those random spam calls from some foreign country. Some random can have access to your life at 3 a.m. in another continent that we don't we have no clue about, right? But we live in a world of digital distraction. Our phones, iPads, social media, YouTube. We have distraction, these notifications that come 24-7. Have you ever been talking to someone and their phone starts going off while you're talking to them? And it's like ding, and then, oh sorry, go on that. Oh, yeah, yeah. Ding, and they go back on it. So, what's your problem, man? Like, I'm talking to you, and here you are, like distracted in your life. Because you know, and whenever that happens, we can all agree that if you're talking to someone and they begin to check their phone and just begin to focus on what's going on on their phone, you feel dishonored. You're like, am I not more important than a buzz? You know, is my mere presence not greater than your notifications that are going on? Right? We feel dishonored on the other side. But when we flip the script, often with us, we can do it so easily. Oh, such and such is text me. I just got to check, sorry, just be with you back there. And so you can see it from both ways. But when we come to the Lord, the Lord calls us to give everything and to surrender every part of our life. And that includes our attention, our focus. And so often in our life, we can be the ones that are pulled left and right by the dings of life, so to speak, by the notifications, by the pulls to the left and the right. Oh, sorry, I can't pray today, God. I've got to have this meeting. Let me tell you this: the greatest meeting you will ever have every single day is in the presence of God. And I want to encourage us to rearrange our thinking and our schedules to put time aside with the Lord in the morning and put that as your utmost priority. It doesn't matter if you're meeting the president of the United States, it doesn't matter if you're meeting the King of England, your moment with God is the most important. Because let me tell you who's more important, the president or the creator of the universe. The God who holds the world in the palm of his hands. He is the most greatest, the highest, the most powerful, the most important. But so often we grow familiar, which is oh yeah, God, I'll get to you. Let me just do what's really important. But I can tell you this that grieves the heart of God. And there is no fear of the Lord when that's the way we treat the Lord. Which is, oh yeah, I'll get to you, God, but let me do what I really want to do. But God is calling us up out of that. That we would live live lives as believers that are fully devoted, that we honor his presence with our attention and our focus. That we don't get pulled to the left and the right. That our hearts are truly surrendered to the Lord. See, what we look at matters. The things that you and I look at, it matters. Because this, if you're taking notes, this is something you want to write down. Our affection follows our attention. The affection of our heart, the desires, they follow our attention and what we give attention to. You know, if you've ever been a sports fan, like have you ever watched, like, I remember back in the day when we used to have Australian Network on TV and uh just on our local TV, and we'd watch the the footy game, it'd be the league or the union, maybe the all blacks, and then you know, thank the Lord for those awesome sponsors that uh, you know, tall gas that you just hear that the heat is on, you know, that song that used to come in every week. But uh they sponsored the the um the rugby game, but after the sponsorship finished, it switched back to Australian network, right? And so it'd be like you know, be go to the weather in Australia, which has no relevance to us. So, you know, we used to always just switch it, switch it off and go to bed. But sometimes there would be Aussie rules, all right? Australian footy, and uh there'd be Aussie rules on the uh the AFL would be playing. I'm not an AFL fan, I don't know really any hardly anything about the game, right? Just like the bare minimum. But sometimes you know, you'd you'd switch it on, you'd be like, oh man, this is kind of cool. And then you'd stay up and you'd be watching this, and you'd be like, man, that's like yeah, I I I kind of see this, and you see that I mean Australians love Aussie rules, right? Like, you know, in Melbourne, they say like this Melbourne storm, like you know, they can walk the street and not be recognized because it's an Aussie rules place. But you know, for us over here, it's kind of like it's not really super relevant. It's not cookie rules, it's Aussie rules, right? So there's not vibe in here. But we would I would look at that and sometimes you'd be like, oh, that and you can kind of get hooked, your attention, it grabs your attention, right? And then like sure enough, maybe not with Aussie rules, but there's other sports like the the New Zealand cricket team. I'm not a cricket fan, but they just um took yeah, there's a Dave's a Dave and Craig, yeah, they're the cricket, cricket guys. But they they made it to the T20 final, I think it was last week. I I I don't even know really, I think it's 20 innings. I I don't know anything really about the sport, but I found out New Zealand was in, and all of a sudden I was a little bit hooked. And then I was like, I heard that they versed South Africa, and I'm like, well, South Africa's been flogging us in the rugby, so maybe we could get one back, and we did. And I was like, oh, that that was kind of cool. And then uh but like immediately I was a bit hooked. Like I was like, before I had no idea that the T20 World Cup was even on, like I had no clue, and it was not in my heart's desire to watch that. I had no care about any tense because I was completely unaware. But as soon as I found out, I was like, oh man, they're gonna verse India in the final. Wow, well, maybe maybe we should watch this. And immediately I began to get a little bit hooked in my heart. Why? Because the attention impacted the affection. Before I gave it any attention, I was completely oblivious. It had no pulling on my heart because I wasn't even looking, I didn't even know it was on. So I had no clue and no care. But then when I saw it, immediately my affection was gripped, and now I wanted New Zealand to win this final that a day earlier I didn't even know was on. And the heart begins to get a little bit nervous for this game. And I'm like, mate, I've got nothing to do with this, right? But this is what happens in our life is when we give things attention, immediately you'll begin to see the affection of our heart attaches to those things. So it's the same in your business. As soon as we begin, oh, that new product, mate. Or that new, if we can just bring in that new product, I'll tell you what, we're gonna we're gonna make some serious cash here. And it's like, mate, before you knew that product, you didn't care. But now you've seen it online and you can't get to sleep at night, right? Because you're dreaming about what it's gonna be when this arrives. Or it might be like the new truck that you saw at Pickering Motors, or Raro cars who drive past Raro cars is like perfectly positioned on the main road, right? Just drive past and you can see those new vehicles, right? And so immediately it grips your heart. And if for any man, it's just like, oh, that would be nice. Like, you know, we could upgrade this old danger we've got here and you know, drive that new truck. That could be cool. And immediately, like, we we change our heart and our desires change, and now we get begin to get dissatisfied in this car that we've been, you know, fine with the last five years, but now it's like, yeah, it's just nah, it hasn't got the right feel. It's like, mate, you you weren't thinking that last week, but it's because you saw the new truck, the affection of our heart begins to shift our perspective. And so what we need to watch in the faith is where our attention is going. Because our attention will lead us down a path, and that path is not always good, but that path can be idolatry, and it can take our eyes off the Lord and begin to put it on material things, it can begin to put it on our jobs, our careers, making more money, building that new house, right? Getting that new car, getting that promotion, being the man on the sports field, being the woman on the netball core, all of these things that can come around our heart and they really pull us. If we are not careful, they will take us away from a desire and a heart to seek the Lord. So we need to monitor what we are giving attention in our lives. I'm here to say this this morning. We need to give our attention to the Lord, give our focus and our attention to the Lord. Now, what does that mean in my daily life? You know, Zach, I come to church on a Sunday. Is that enough? No, it's not. It's not. Jesus Christ did not come 2,000 years ago to die on a cross for you to live for him one day a week. He didn't give everything to be a Sunday morning believer. He gave his everything that we would give our everything. That's the that is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be a follower of Jesus is to pick up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow him. You know, the actual discipleship method of Christianity is death. Death to our desires, to our wants. Everything that we have and we desire has to be in and through the Lord now. The old man is crucified. You know, we are ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? That means that we don't have opinions anymore. So your opinion on totatovai's water, it's not even a relevant, it's not relevant anymore. Your opinion about what color the fence at the market should have been. It's not relevant anymore. Your opinion about what the government is doing, a lot of it, unless it is really birthed in the word of God, and it's we're finding for scripture here, so much of it is not relevant anymore. Our personal preferences, we have to die to those things. Oh, well, they should have done this or they could have done that. You know, I liked it this way, I liked it that way. Well, that's not actually our prerogative as Christians. You know, I heard a um a preacher in Africa, in Ghana, powerful man of God, literally leading millions of people to the Lord, having crusades, and you see the stadiums packed, like hundreds of thousands of people throughout Africa. And he said this: do not get caught up in the social issues of life, but preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. And I want to tell you this that even politically, like I follow politics quite closely, especially internationally, you know, because it does impact our life. And it's it's important that as believers we make a stand for righteousness. So I'm not saying, you know, oh, let's just abandon politics. No, no, no. But what I'm saying is this we need to make sure that we have a kingdom view in politics, that we view our politicians through the lens of scripture, that we view how things are happening with the economy through the lens of scripture, not about oh, just because we want it this way, or we prefer because my uncle is in this party or that party, or you know, my auntie said this, or my you know, it doesn't matter. What we need to follow is the word of God, and we praise God for politicians that stand by the word of God, and we pray that God would raise them up and raise up more born-again believers in the word into areas of politics. But I want to say this there is so much trivial stuff within politics that really is not a big deal. We don't need to get caught up about Trump said this, his latest post he said that. It's like, mate, who cares? Is it gonna impact your life? It's gonna have nothing. Five minutes later, no one's gonna care about it, right? Or this person said this, that person said that. This was on the news, that was on the news. And if we live our life that way and we respond to notification, to notification, to notification, I'll tell you what, we will live distracted lives and we'll be pulled to the left, we'll be pulled to the right. But we need to focus in on The Lord. See, there's so much noise in our world. There's so much like noise going on, and it's like, where is the voice of the Lord in this? And I want to tell you one of the best things that we can do is put our phones on, do not disturb, and go seek Jesus in the quiet, secret place where there's no noise, where there is clarity, where there is quiet, and we can seek Jesus. We can be with him. Amen. So not only does the Lord want our attention, he honors our attention. When we give attention to the Lord, he responds. The Bible says this that God draws near to those who draw near to him. Sometimes we live a life like, oh, you know, I just want to do my thing, and if God wants me, he'll come get me. But I want to say this God responds to hungry hearts that knock and knock and knock and knock. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6 says this. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. God rewards those who diligently seek. The Lord rewards those who knock and knock and knock and knock. That they don't wait for the big booming voice from the sky. Zach. I'm calling you. Like, no. God honors those that come and that want Him and seek Him. You know the word here that is used for diligently seek is in the Greek is the word exetio. And that word is to search out, it's to investigate, it's to dig deeper. There's two words there's seek and diligently seek. In the Greek, seek is zetiel, and in the Greek, diligently seek is exetio. So it's another level. So when the Lord says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you in the book of Matthew, that is zetiel. It's to seek. But in Hebrews 11, verse 6, when it says that he rewards those who diligently seek, that's another level. That's exetio. So that's a whole deeper devotion. It's a craving, it's a desire, it's an investigation. And you know what's interesting is Moses investigated the burning bush. And the Lord rewarded him with an encounter. He said, I need to search this out. Why is the bush not being consumed? And his as he exetio, as he investigated, the Lord rewarded him, like he says he will do in Hebrews chapter 11, with an encounter that radically transformed his life and radically transformed the lives of a million people plus that were in slavery in Egypt. So God honors your attention. So he just doesn't want you to just, you know, look at me, look at me, and then do nothing. No, if you look at the Lord and begin to diligently seek him, switch off the noise, switch it all off, and follow the Lord, he will reward you with himself. There will be radical encounters, moments in his presence, deliverance, renewal of our mind, freedom from fear, freedom from the fear of the future, of worry, of anxiety gets delivered in a moment in his presence. Why? Because we sought him, because we looked to him. We didn't look to the 10 tips to overcome anxiety. We looked to the one who crushes anxiety under his heel through the one drop of the blood can deliver you for a lifetime. We looked to him, we looked to Jesus. What if Moses had an iPhone and he was in the desert? Saw the burning, going, Oh yeah, that's not bad. Not bad. Just cruising on his phone, scrolling, doom scrolling. Oh my gosh. Jethro, my father-in-law has put up this story. It's so funny. Like we live in a world where we are so easily distracted. And if Moses had this phone right and he's getting notification after notification after notification, and he sees this burning bush, oh yep, yep, that's cool, and just keeps it moving. Or maybe take a picture, I don't know, but it's not being consumed, put up a poll on Instagram, let's keep it moving. Right? Why? Because if that happened, he would have missed out. And maybe the Lord would have been gracious and given him a second chance. We don't know. But let me tell you this there is a moment to respond, and you and I do not want to miss it. God, I believe, you know, I've heard ministers say this that uh O Roberts, one of the most famous televangelists in America, he said this, he believes the Lord had five winds that blew on his life. And what he means by that, there were five moments where the Spirit of the Lord came and he had to respond. And he said, By the grace of God, I responded to all five. And you know, we think like, you know, God's gracious and we'll always have a second chance, but the Lord, I don't actually believe that's true. I believe the Lord gives us moments to respond, and he tests our heart like he tests Moses. And he tests us to see if we're willing to respond, to stop what we're doing, to stop our schedule, to leave the sheep for a moment and go investigate. And he pulls and he tugs, and it's not the big booming voice, it's the subtle tug on our heart. And there is an opportunity, a season of grace for us to respond. But if we continually say, Oh no, I've got better things to do, I believe the Lord lifts his hands off and he goes and he finds someone else. Reinhard Bonke, probably one of the greatest evangelists in you know modern human history, led millions and millions to the Lord. And what I love about Reinhard Bonke is his ministry, you know, there was not one controversy, there was not one accusation of sexual immorality because he was diligent and faithful in his marriage and he protected it, he safeguarded it, he wasn't loose. And you never ever hear of anything about Reinhard Bonkey with the you know, a minister that's a bit, you know, we're not sure about, no, he's a man of God, and he led literally millions to the Lord in Africa. And you know, he says this, he he believes, you know, he was a young evangelist and not much was going on in his ministry at a young age. And there was another minister that was a similar age, but God was using this minister, this evangelist, through Africa. And Reinhard had small meetings, but this other evangelist had big meetings. And what happened is one night Reinhard Bonkey has a dream, and in the dream, he sees the continent of Africa washed in blood. And then the Lord began to reveal to him that he's gonna give Africa to Reinhardt or use Reinhard to be a man and evangelist that will impact the entire continent of Africa. Reinhard found out not late not long later that the man that was similar age who had the successful ministry at that same moment or that same time gave up the ministry. And he threw in the towel. And I don't know if he continued to walk with the Lord, but he just he just basically gave up evangelism. And Reinhardt believes this he says, I was not God's first choice. I believe it was that man, but when that man threw in the towel, I believe the Lord searched for someone else, and by the grace of God it was me. We need to understand this that God has seasons in our life for us to respond. And if we are too busy scrolling, we might just miss it. If we're too busy concerned about what's the next Netflix season that's coming out, or the next show that's going to be revealed, the next this, the next that, the big thing. If that's how we live our life, we will miss an opportunity that might just radically transform our lives and the lives of countless others, like it happened with Moses. God is calling us and he wants our attention. He wants our attention. How many encounters do we miss out on because we are just looking at the wrong things? Or we don't stop to look at the right things. You know, Moses had to stop what he was doing. He had responsibility to tend the flock. Oh, he should have been faithful. Tend the flock. He said, I'm leaving that there, I need to investigate. He responded to the tug of the Lord. Sometimes the call of God is inconvenient. It pulls us out of our schedule. Oh no, I've got to do this, I've got, you know, I've got plans. God says, throw your plans out the window, mate. I've got a higher calling, I've got a higher plan, there's a higher purpose for you. Don't settle for the carnal things, don't settle for the natural things, but come up, come up in the realm of the spirit. Look to me, look to my kingdom. Colossians 3, verse 2 says this fix your eyes upon the things of heaven. Look upwards at the things of heaven. Why? Because Paul is writing to the church of uh Colossi, whatever it's called. Colossus. So you say, look up, look up, fix your eyes upwards, don't get caught on the things around you. Don't get caught about the latest trends and the latest this, the latest that. Who sang what? She said this, he said that. Don't get caught up there. Look heavenward. And you know what you see when you look heavenward? You see the Son at the right hand of the Father in full victory and full control. And you begin to realize that the things of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. That there's so many things on our earth and on in our life on earth that just don't matter. That honestly, they just don't matter. It's not a big deal. But we invest our heart, our affection into building something. But I'm gonna tell you what, one day we will die, and literally all of the things that we build on here on earth in the natural are gonna remain. But it's what we build in the kingdom of God that will last. The Bible talks about wood, hay, and stubble. That if we build in the natural and the carnal things, that will be wood, hay, and stubble. And when we die and go to be with the Lord one day, it will be tried by fire. So you can imagine this. We're gonna walk up an eternity. I don't know exactly how it's gonna look, but everything that we're built on earth is gonna be presented before the Lord. And if it's natural, carnal things, I'm talking about the things that aren't really that don't have God attached to them. Those things are wood, hay, and stubble. But the things of the kingdom of God, the souls that we saved through the Lord, that we evangelize, that we want, the service in the house of God, our faithfulness and obedience, our purity, our character, all of the things that are inspired by the Lord, those will be gold, silver, and precious stone. And so everything we go we've done is going to be presented and it's gonna be tried by fire, and it's all gonna be burnt. And all of the wood, hay, and stubble will disintegrate to ash and will be blown away, and no one will ever know ever existed. But the things that will remain will be the gold, the silver, and the precious stone. That when the fire comes, it doesn't burn them, it refines them, it makes them shine, and they will be presented, and we will be rewarded by the Lord for those things. So let me say this be a wise businessman, a wise investor, and invest into the kingdom of God. Invest in the things of eternity. We can invest into the things of this world, but I want to tell you it's gonna burn one day and they all disintegrate. But if we are wise, if we have eyes to see, wisdom will tell you this: invest in the things of God. Jesus Himself said this: do not store up for yourselves treasure here on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourself treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves cannot break in and steal. Because where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. If we're building treasure here on earth, oh my gosh, I've got to get this amount of money, gotta get that truck, gotta build these houses, and do all these things. I'm talking about like the Western view that we say is success in the West, right? If that's our heart, I want to tell you what. If that's our treasure, that's where our heart is gonna be. But if our treasure is in the kingdom of God, winning souls, living a life of purity, living a life of obedience to the Lord, our heart will be where our treasure is, which will be with the Lord. We'll want to be with Jesus. Amen. All right. I've written this down. The enemy does not need to destroy us, he just needs to distract us. He just needs to distract us. Sometimes we think, oh, the enemy is out to wipe me off the face of the planet, I've got to survive this game. No, the the the enemy is just out here to distract you, just to get you off your calling, just to get you to stop looking at the Lord, to turn your eyes. Right? And if he can do that, he will stop your effectiveness in the kingdom of God. He will stop you responding with peace, he will begin to get your eyes to look on carnal things, and you'll lose the grace to overcome in victory, and then all of a sudden, sexual sin begins to be an allurement and a charm in your life again. No man, I overcame this. I thought I got free freedom from looking at this stuff. Why? Because you took your eyes off the Lord, and you lost the grace of God, and the grace of the Holy Spirit is the divine enablement to overcome sin. So you lost God's divine enablement, his empowerment for you to look to live and walk in victory, and now you're beginning to entertain sin. Why? Because it's not a big destruction that's taken place, it's a distraction that's taken place. We've taken our eyes off the Lord, and when we take our eyes off the Lord, we are vulnerable. We are vulnerable. You know, I believe this, the church of the West is distracted. The church of the West is distracted. You know, dad mentioned earlier, and we prayed for believers across the world that are suffering persecution. That lady, literally a bullet through the eye for the faith. And she says, I forgive him. Nope, like almost like it wasn't even a problem. And yet here we are, we get cut off and we're struggling for two weeks. Oh, that guy, here he is again. I see him. He's pulling over there. Learn how to drive, mate. You know, like like that, these are the the the the I don't know, maybe maybe you guys are godly and I'm that guy. I don't know. I I pray I'm not. I'm not, but uh just to clarify, don't worry, I'm not that guy. Uh but you know, we we we live these lives really where we're distracted, but these churches overseas that are going through persecution, they literally give everything. They're not what they're not trendy, no one wants to follow them on Instagram, they don't have 200,000 followers, they don't have the latest edits on their reel about the Christian faith and you know, all the like that's that's our Western model of success, but I don't believe that's a success in the kingdom. It's actually it's foreign. When we study scripture and study church history, this is just like in the last 10 years. It's just honestly it's so irrelevant. But God is calling us back into his presence to not get distracted, to not, you know, God Jesus Christ is returning, he promises to return, he is coming back, and there will be a day where the skies split open and the trumpet sound, and our Lord Jesus Christ returns back to earth. We don't know when that day is, it could be tomorrow, it could be this afternoon, it could be a thousand years. We don't know, but there are signs in the Bible, and Jesus says, watch, watch, watch, not watch Netflix, not watch your phone. He says, watch for the signs, be alert, be aware. Not watch your bank account, not watch that number increase. No, watch, stay alert, stay alert of the things of the spirit, and God is calling each and every one of us to be alert in the spirit, to open our eyes and fix on the Lord, to fix our attention on Jesus. You know, the Bible says this that we are the bride of Christ. If you are a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are the bride. Not if you come to church, not if you attend church faithfully, but if you are born again and you've surrendered your life and you're living completely for Jesus, we are the bride of Christ. And Christ is returning for the wedding supper of the Lamb, where he will marry his bride. But guess what? He's marrying a bride without spot nor blemish, the scripture says. And it says this in Revelation the bride has made herself ready. What does that mean? It means that the bride has walked in purity and holiness, was cut out the sin, cut out the carnal desires, the appetites, the greed, the selfishness, the desire to be famous, the desire to be cool, the pride, the arrogance, all of that is purified itself, that it would be worthy of being married to the Lord Jesus Christ. Says the bride has made herself ready. And it's like this like we are heading into times. I believe that the West is, dad's been saying this for years, that the biggest attack against the church is going to be legislation. There are going to be laws that are going to come into the West where it's going to be illegal to preach the gospel. You know, like even in Australia now, they say the safest place for a Christian is in the pulpit at the moment because they have freedom of speech to be able to preach the gospel. But there's like laws that you can be taken to jail, and in Canada, it's crazy. Australia, Canada, these countries, you can be taken to jail for praying for a homosexual person. Just even if they want the prayer, somebody can come up and say, oh no, mate, that's hate speech. That's a hate prayer. That they are got that they were made that way, right? And then you can be taken to jail for it. And it's gonna intensify, intensify, and intensify, and until it's like, okay, we have to make a decision here whether we're gonna preach the truth and get arrested or get persecuted, or we compromise the gospel so we can fit in and live a nice good life. But things are heating up, and things are heading up for the wedding supper of the Lamb. And it's almost like this we're uh like things are taking place in some like the prophetic ministries that are saying, look, sound the alarm, sound the alarm here, things are shifting. And they're saying it's almost like we're on the wedding day, and the wedding's in the afternoon, and we're on the wedding morning. But it's like the bride of the church of the West is on our phone scrolling on the wedding morning, and you've got the you know, the makeup artist, and you've got the hairstylist, and they're saying, Hey, hey, um, do you think we should probably start your makeup now? Oh, no, no, it's all good. I'll get to that. I'll get to that a bit later on in the afternoon, I'll be fine. It's like, no, no, no, no. The bride needs to wake up and get ready, or else she's gonna miss the wedding. Because the wedding's at two o'clock, it's nine o'clock, and if you're not getting ready and getting your makeup done and your hair done, it's gonna come one o'clock when you need to drive to the wedding and you ain't gonna be ready for it. And it's like that in the spirit. If we don't wake up and fix our eyes back on the Lord, we might just miss the wedding. We might miss the call of God that He has for us. Now is the time to respond. Now is the hour in Jesus' name. The book of Psalms, chapter 119, verse 13, uh 37, excuse me, says this. This is becoming one of my favorite scriptures. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way. I love that. Turn my eyes, Lord, from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way. What does that mean? It means this if our eyes are looking at worthless things, our heart will grow dim. Because the scripture is saying this if you turn my eyes from those worthless things, then my heart will be revived. But if our eyes are fixed on the worthless things, then our heart grows dim. Our affection is followed by our attention. If we give our attention to the Lord, our heart will be revived. But if we give our attention to the things of this world, you watch, you watch, you watch, you watch, your heart will grow dim. Your heart will grow dim. You will never have revival fire without first looking at Jesus. You know, we want revival in our nation. Hallelujah, but we've got to look to Jesus. We don't look to revival, we look to Jesus, and Jesus will light the revival fire. You know, as soon as we take our eyes off Jesus, our spiritual fire begins to die. If your heart is dim this morning, say, look, I'm not even hungry for God, I don't even want the things of God. I can guarantee you you're not looking at Him. When you look to Jesus, when you look to him, your heart, there's something something switches. That is like there's a match and there's flint, and it's been lit and lit and lit, and all of a sudden that fire takes off, and your heart is burning for Jesus. Why? Because you can't look at the Lord Jesus Christ and not be moved. And not be moved by his glory, by his majesty. God is calling us church. Jesus Christ is not an add-on to our life. Jesus isn't the sugar in our coffee that makes it sweeter. He's not the salt on our steak that gives it flavor. Jesus Christ is the reason for our existence. We don't add him on to our already good life. Oh, yeah, bless me, Lord, bless me, Lord. You know, if I just give my life to you, then it's going to get better. I'm going to level up. No. If my life got tremendously worse, I would still serve you, Jesus. Because I know my life is yours. He who loses his life for my sake will gain it in eternity. But he who lives and gains his life here on earth will lose it in eternity. This life is not our own. This is the gospel that we don't add Jesus on. No, that we give everything up to serve the Lord. Everything that we have belongs to Jesus. Acts chapter 17, verse 28. For in him we live and move and have our being. That means everything flows in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that we do, everything is in and through the Lord. He is the author and the perfecter of our faith, the scriptures, the scripture says. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Everything in between. That's our Lord Jesus Christ who we serve. So let me tell you this: He's worthy of our full attention. He is worthy, he is worthy, he is worthy of our full attention. And if you're here this morning and you're saying, like, look, I just want to go scroll on my phone, mate. I'm a little bit bored here. I'll tell you what, your heart's in a desperate, wicked place. You need to look to Jesus because if you get a hold of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll tell you, everything in your life will change. You don't want religion, you don't want boring, empty Christianity. You want the power of the Lord Jesus Christ flowing and living through you that you're in love with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Hallelujah. I'm going to finish on this scripture. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. And this is the part here, verse 2. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Looking to Jesus, looking to Jesus. Looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith. The word looking in the original Greek literally means this to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something. The scripture is saying this: turn your eyes away from looking at other things and fix them on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Look to him. Look to him. You know, this morning we might be a million miles away from the Lord. But here the Lord is, the grace is here to respond. The grace is here to respond to Jesus, to look at the one who gave his all for us. You know, one of the great things we can do in our prayer time is to get alone, to block out time, to shut that door, and to begin to imagine Jesus on the cross. And you picture the God of heaven who humbled himself and became a man and lived a perfect, sinless life, healing, delivering, raising the dead. Yet he was crucified. And he went through the most excruciating death known to man. He didn't just give his life and die. No, he went through torment and physical agony. But he did not say a word, he did not resist, he did not fight. And here he is on this cross. And there are people mocking him, laughing at him, the Roman soldiers, thinking he's a big joke. He claimed he was king. But look at him. Go save yourself if you're really king. And then Jesus on the cross says, Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do. And he died for the ones, the very ones that were killing him. And he died for you and I. And this is the incredible humility and the love of the God that we serve. So, like I mentioned, when we get alone and we pray and we begin to imagine the Lord, I tell you what, something shifts in our heart. Why? Because we're looking unto Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.