Take A Good Look - Looking for the Blessed Hope
Titus 2:11 - 14
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, eager for good deeds.
For the last few weeks we have been considering “taking a good look.” We are to place our focus on Jesus as the writer of Hebrews reminded us. We are to stop looking back at past sin and failures. We are to look ahead, to press on for what God has given us to do today. And then last week we considered how very important it is to keep our eyes on holy things rather than sinful, lustful, worthless things.
All these considerations have something in common. They all have to do with temporal things, things we deal with in the here and now. But today, I want you to think with me about something permanent, lasting,and eternal. Consider the challenge of looking for the blessed hope - the coming of the Lord Jesus!
There is something I want you to know about me. I love being a pastor. And I have loved serving at every church God has called me to serve. I have loved the smallest church to the largest church, and every church in between. I love what I do. I thoroughly enjoy leading staff and lay leaders. I love organizing and launching ministries. I love preaching and teaching. I love helping people know God’s will for their lives. I love sharing the Gospel and seeing believers baptized. I love everything about being a pastor. And because of that, I find myself totally throwing myself into my job. Counting work hours never even crosses my mind; I love what I do and I do it joyfully and wholeheartedly. In fact, Gina will tell you that because I love what I do, she must encourage me to take time away to refresh and relax. Our favorite places to do that are the mountains or the beach. And when that travel date shows up on my calendar, I just cannot wait for it to get here. I love what I do each day, but I also love looking forward to going somewhere.
Sometimes in the hustle of the daily grind and all its joys, opportunities, challenges, and heartaches we forget that there is more to this life. Something else is coming - our Lord Jesus is coming back!!! And we need to be looking for His coming as if it could be today!
As Titus 2 says, we need to be “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” It is just so easy to let the day to day victories and defeats distract us from the truth that something greater is coming - the Lord Jesus will return. In II Peter 3:13 the Bible says it this way, “But according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.“ The sin and shame of this world can discourage us, and even trap us. I am weary of seeing the spread of sin in our world today. This verse is II Peter 3 reminds me that new heavens and a new earth are coming in which sin has no presence, only the righteousness of God.
So then how should we live?
Look at Jesus Today
We can live each day looking at Jesus, focusing on what He is doing in us and through us.
Look Forward to the Return of Jesus
Jude 1:21 says it this way, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously (looking) for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.”
In all of your looking around, keep your eyes out for Jesus’ return, the blessed hope of all believers in Christ. It just may be today!