Jesus is with us in our pain Jesus will be with us in our suffering in our trials in our tribulations Even in our failures and our mistakes there's going to be so many things this year that are going to come to try to bombard us to get us off course but I want to remind you that we can continue to fix our eyes on Jesus no matter what we're going through because he is with us in every circumstance hey everyone happy New Year it is awesome to see you in this brand new year and I'm
believing this is going to be your greatest year ever that you're going to step up and into the purpose and the promise of God for your life and you're going to see the faithfulness and the goodness of God you know for my 50th birthday which seems like forever ago can you even believe that I'm closer to 60 now than I am to 50 but for my 50th Nick surprised me with this awesome Vesper now I love Vespers because when I was in Australia I had a bright pink Vesper I know you're kind of thinking Chris
there is nothing bright pink about you I get it but I used to ride this Vespa and ever since we moved to America I always wanted a vest but we just travel so much it just never made sense to get one but anyway when I was 50 Nick comes in with this beautiful off-white Italian Vespa and it was awesome but in order for me to drive it in the States because here in America they drive on the opposite side side of the road than they do in Australia I had to take an instructional writing course
and pass a written exam which freaked me out a little bit because who wants to do a written exam when you're 50. but anyway some of that was daunting I had to learn a whole set of rules and just I had to study all of the manual but you know during the safety course my my instructor kept repeating this one phrase and just didn't stop this phrase that he kept saying over and over again was where you look you will go I mean it didn't matter what we were doing it was like Chris where you
look you will go now for weeks and weeks after I finished the course I I kept thinking about this statement I kept thinking about the phrase that he said you know where you look you will go it so captured my attention and I realized how true that one statement is you and I are always going to move in the direction of our Focus whatever we're looking at and wherever we're looking in life that's the direction that we're going to go now in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 I love this because the writer to the Hebrews
reminds us to fix our eyes firmly on Jesus Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith you see if you and I want to become like Jesus and if we want to follow him faithfully and become more like him this year then we're going to have to fix Our Eyes Upon Jesus because as my driving instructor said where we look we are going to go so we've got to fix our eyes on the word of God we have to fix our hearts on the purpose of God and we have to fix our affections
on the Promises of God now doing this in a world that is full of distractions and other attractions is not an easy thing to do I mean we are bombarded with things every single day and you're going to be bombarded for this whole year by things that are going to aim to take your focus off Jesus of his word of his promises for your life so you're gonna have to fight to fix your eyes on Jesus and the word of God and the promise of God you know especially when we're weak when we're tired we're
having doubts or uncertainty in life man when we're hurting or afraid that's when Jesus invites us to to take our Focus off those very things that are hurting us or that are happening to us and and to remember that not only we're not alone but in Christ we can be more than Overcomers Jesus is with us in our pain Jesus will be with us in our suffering in our trials in our tribulations Even in our failures and our mistakes there's going to be so many things this year that are going to come to try to
bombard us to to get us off course but I want to remind you that we could continue to fix our eyes on Jesus no matter what we're going through because he is with us in every circumstance you know I love John chapter 10 verse 10. it tells us that Jesus came that we might have life and you know not just a normal boring existing life but that we can have Zoe life the life that is more abundant I want you to catch that Jesus doesn't want us to just barely make it through this year just
kind of scrape on by get to the end of 2023 and go I I kind of just made it I'm just surviving I just got through I truly believe that the will of God for us this year is that we would have life and life more abundant according to John chapter 10 verse 10. an over Abundant Life a life that does not lack but a life that is overflowing in Grace a Life that is overflowing in goodness a life that is Overflow flowing in purpose Jesus wants that for you in the this new year so
you know what today no matter what you've left behind in 2022 I want to encourage you to look forward I want to encourage you to fix your eyes on Jesus you know don't ignore or dismiss or minimize the pain that you've suffered or or the challenges that you've had to overcome you know instead I want to encourage you to let the love and the hope of Jesus permeate those things transcend them and help you to take steps of Faith to step into your future because the truth is that you and I are not going to
be able to keep moving forward if we're constantly looking back we are going to have to make a decision the regrets of the past the failures of the past the mistakes of the past the hurts the struggles the challenges the disappointments the discouragement the disillusionment bring them all to the feet of Jesus you know I'm not saying deny or ignore you know you've heard me say hundreds of times before the blood of Jesus does not give us Amnesia it's not like those things didn't happen but I am saying at the outset of the year would
you consider making what Jesus did for you at Calvary bigger than anything else that was done to you said about you or maybe the mistakes that you made in your past would you consider taking all of those disappointments and bringing them to the foot of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ pleading the blood allowing the blood of Jesus to wash you Anew and afresh so that you can look forward with the purpose of God with the promise of God with the confidence of God you know even when it was time for Joshua to move
forward after Moses had died do you remember right there that the Lord said okay go tell Moses my servant is dead there are some things in your past there are some things that you've got to leave back in 2022 or 2021 or 22 20 or 2019 or 18 or 17 or 16 you've got to leave them back in the past and allow the blood of Jesus to cover that Moses my servant is dead the way God did things it's finished it's not going to happen like that some of those people some of those relationships some
of those friendships some of those jobs some of that stuff in your past it's gone it's finished so we're not going to look back anymore we're going to look forward to the ward the promise of God toward the purpose of God toward the future that God has for you all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yes and amen so we're going to focus on Jesus because the promise is in him the purpose is in him the provision is in him so we fix our eyes on Jesus and I want you to remember the
words of my Vespa instructor this year he said where you look you will go so we're going to look toward Jesus so we're going to move towards Jesus we're going to not look back we're going to make our windscreen bigger than that rear Vision mirror we're not going to go forward look looking back we're going to go forward looking at Jesus so I pray that you have a blessed and a Happy New Year thank you for watching and I hope you enjoyed this video make sure you hit the Subscribe button and tap the Bell icon
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