Turn in your Bibles tonight to Lamentations chapter 3. That's where we'll start, Lamentations chapter 3. In our Wednesday evening services we've been for a little while in a series talking about the problems of the inner man and establishing the fact that God has the answers to the problems that we deal with. And I'd like to this evening bring a short message. I don't plan to preach for 45 or 50 minutes like I normally would on a Wednesday evening, but I'd like to bring a challenge to you this evening in regards to that series, but which I also believe is appropriate for the service tonight as we think about the beginning of a new year. Just a couple weeks ago, I had to go and see the eye doctor, and it's that time of year where I needed to get my eyes checked again and update the prescription for my contact lenses. And I've reached a point in my life where, unfortunately, I have the ability to see closer up than farther out. That's my normal condition. And I've developed something called presbyopia, which some of you are painfully familiar with. We all saw that Kim experiences that. And so for me, it's a challenging thing because my contact lenses correct my vision so that I can see farther out. but I can no longer see as well closer up and I'm having some trouble reading books and my Bible and screens. And so I went to the eye doctor and she said, yeah, you need to change your prescription. And I have these funny contacts that are multifocal. So they give me the ability close up on part of the lens to focus and on another part of the lens far out and it does funny things to your brain. So the last couple of weeks, I've had a little bit of, I guess maybe vertigo or dizziness associated with the disconnect between what I'm focusing on and what my brain is expecting and seeing, and I'm still adjusting to those, so you pray for me. And you say, what does that have to do with the message tonight? Well, I wanna talk to you tonight about being careful where you look. Be careful what you focus on. And it's important when we think about the inner man and we think about the challenges that we face in our inner man, one of the most important things to diagnose the problem is to take some time and figure out what it is that we are focusing on. Lamentations 3 verse 51, is an interesting verse which you've probably heard before. The scripture there says, Now you know here in this, the context of this verse, the prophet Jeremiah was expressing that what he was seeing in the city of Jerusalem, this was after the destruction of the city, after Babylon had come and taken many people away captive, they had burned the city, there was great destruction, and Jeremiah said as he went through the streets of the city, what he saw affected his heart. Many times when we are using this verse we're pointing to the fact that when we see something it can cause compassion in our heart and that certainly is an application and probably the primary interpretation of this verse is to understand that as Jeremiah saw the needs in people's lives, it affected his heart. But I want you to understand there's also another truth in this verse. And that is that what you look at or what you see affects your heart. Your heart is your inner man. Your heart is what you think and feel and choose. And what you look at or what you see is going to affect that inner man, that inner part of you. And I'm not primarily talking about what you look at with your physical eyes so much as I'm talking about what you look at with the eyes of your soul. This time of year, one of the things that we tend to do is that we'll try to take some time to look back, as I spoke about in Sunday School on Sunday, and we'll try to remember and evaluate some things that have taken place, and we'll also try to look forward and think about the things that we would like to do and the things, perhaps, that we'd like to set a direction in a certain area. And it's interesting, as you think about looking back and looking forward, it's a reminder to us that where we look affects our inner man. And one of the things that I've observed, one of the things that I've learned, is that many of the soul problems that people are experiencing in their life is because they are looking in the wrong places. They are focusing on the wrong things. They don't even realize how much they are being affected by the things that they are focusing on, by the things that they are looking at with their inner man. And so as we think about being careful where you look, I believe this will be helpful to you tonight, so please stay with me. I'll be finished in just a few minutes, but I'm telling you that if you can grab a hold of the truth that I'm gonna share with you this evening, it can be life-changing for you. So I want you to turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter three. Remember, we're talking about where we should look and where we should not look. Philippians chapter three, And verse number 10, it's a familiar verse, one that you've seen before, no doubt. And it's not verse 10 that we want to look at, because that's the wrong one. So look at verse 13 instead. And the Scripture there says, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." The first thing I want you to understand tonight is, in being careful where you look, be careful not to look back too much. The Apostle Paul said he was forgetting those things which are behind. The word forgetting, which is used in this passage, means that he is intentionally choosing not to remember. It's not as if he has amnesia or as if old age has set in and affected him like it does to some folks. I can't remember where I left my keys. I can't remember where I left my wallet. I can't remember what happened in the past. No, that's not what he's talking about. This is an intentional choice about where he is looking and the Apostle Paul said, I am choosing to forget the things that are behind. Now if you look in the context of Philippians chapter 3, you'll see that many of the things that were in the past, which he references in the passage, that's how we know he didn't literally forget them because he tells us about those things. He tells us about those experiences and about that background that he had. In his life, those were some things that he might say, those were attainments, those were things that I achieved, those were some successes that I had, but he said, I'm going to forget those successes that are in the past. You know, when we look at the past too much, and we get a rear view mirror look, It causes a problem in our life because we'll find ourselves often exulting in our past successes. we'll be speaking about the things that we used to do, the things that we've done in the past. And it's a terrible thing to be a used to be kind of a Christian, to say years ago I did this, oh, I always did that before. I don't do any of those things anymore, but boy, there was a lot of things that I used to do. That's not what God wants us to do. He doesn't want us to focus on the past. He doesn't want us to get a big head about any attainments that we've achieved. He doesn't want us to look back too much. But the other reason we need to be careful about looking back too much is because we can end up being mired down by our past failures. and a lot of people are looking at the past and they're rehearsing the past and they're thinking about the past and for them it's all the things that they failed in. I wish I would have done this better and I failed in this area and I didn't do this well enough and I mean you get around some folks and you talk to them for a while and you realize that they're stuck in the past, but it's not in the sense of exalting in some sort of success, it's in being depressed about how I wish things were different. And it's an important lesson for all of us to learn, which is why we need to forget those things which are behind. We need to put them out of our mind, stop thinking about them, stop dwelling upon them. The past is not something that you can change. and dwelling upon the past over and over and thinking, boy, I so regret those things, is not healthy. And it causes a lot of soul problems in people's lives because they get stuck looking in the rear view mirror. You see, a focus on the past keeps a person from living in the present and reaching forward to the future. When you're stuck in the past, it's impossible to make the most of today, and you're certainly not maximizing tomorrow. So be careful tonight about getting stuck in the past. And let me just throw this in, that if you find yourself kind of like a broken record, Going back, do we even know what records are anymore? Some of you may remember, some of you are old enough to remember when the 45 would get stuck and the needle would just keep skipping back to the same part over and over and over and over and over again. then to get it off there you had to come in and go boop and bump it over you say you don't you're not old enough to understand that I know but my parents were poor so we had that sort of a thing for a while so I knew about how to how to do that you know if it gets stuck you got to bump it off of the groove and get it on to the next thing you know what That's a lesson, isn't it? Sometimes we get stuck in the past and we need to use a little bump to get that thinking changed. Let's not be dwelling upon the past. If you find yourself doing that, there's a problem in your thinking. So don't look back. But the other problem that we can fall into with our looking is that we can fall prey to the trap of looking within too much. Turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter one. We recently preached through the book of Ecclesiastes, so I'll not give a long commentary about the book. But Ecclesiastes chapter one and verse number 13 says something very interesting, and then this same idea is repeated through the book. The preacher, the wise man says, And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven, this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. And then as you go through the book, You see him repeatedly saying something like, I gave my heart, I said in my heart, I looked in my heart. It's the idea that he's looking within, he's looking into himself for the source of wisdom, for the answers to what is vexing his soul. And if you know the conclusion of the book, he didn't find the answers within. And it's possible for us, if we're not careful, to get so inward focused, so introspective, that we end up doing damage in our own lives. This worldly wise man of Ecclesiastes found no satisfaction and no clarity when he looked within his own heart for the answers of life. My dad used to say, When, if someone was over introspective, he might refer to that person as being prone to navel gazing. I don't know exactly why he said that, but it always struck me funny as a way to describe it. But he would talk about in classes that he would teach about counseling about how some personality types and certain individuals have just a proclivity, a tendency to be inward turned. They're often mulling over their life and looking deep within themselves. They're extremely introspective. And that can be very damaging. Now, we know the Bible says that a healthy amount of inspection of our life, introspection, is good. The Bible, for instance, says examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. It's a good thing to make sure that you're saved. It's not necessarily a good thing to then every single day, every hour of the day, be doubting whether or not you're saved. There's one thing to examine and to find out and to look. There's another thing to be going back over and over and over again to the same thing, to the same place. That introspection can be damaging. And what happens is when someone starts looking within too much over introspection, It leads to one of two things. Either that person becomes hopeless and given over to despair, because frankly, when they're looking inside, they don't like what they see. They're discouraged about what they see. They see failure. They see not living up to the standard. They see, I'm not what I ought to be. And so they become very hopeless and they are filled with despair. And you might ask them how they're doing and they might express to you, oh, I'm just awful. It's horrible. It's terrible. What's going on? Oh, I'm such a horrible person. I'm just, I loathe myself. Now listen. A healthy amount of recognition of our sin nature and our failure is biblical. But focusing on it is not healthy. And it's not good for your soul. It's also not good for your relationship with God. Many people find themselves in a place of hopelessness and despair because they are so focused on themselves. The second thing that it can lead us to is a response of pride. And this is the exact opposite, obviously. We might look deep within and we begin to think very highly of ourselves and we think, boy, I've really got it figured out. Look at all the answers that I've found and all the things that I understand. This is also not healthy. This is not a good response. But really, when you're looking deep within yourself, you can only come up with one of those two locations. It's either hopelessness or pride. And neither one of those are a good position to be for a man's soul. The reason that neither one of these are right is because both of them are a self-focus. The reason I say to you don't look within is because God doesn't really want you to be focused on yourself. Do you know I came across this statement some time ago and I've thought about it and I believe it's true. It was a book about pride. And in the book, the author said something like this. I'm not quoting it exactly. It's not so much that we need to think less of ourselves as it is that we need to think of ourselves less. Do you understand the difference there? Sometimes people are so, you know, they're trying to humiliate themselves. They're trying to work up a feeling of humility to debase themselves but you're still thinking about yourself. You're still focused on yourself. You're still so inward turned. You're still focused on your problem. You're focused on the thing that is bothering you. And you're not gonna find the solutions to your soul problem, to your inner man problem by looking deep within yourself. What you're gonna find is that you're gonna go round and round and round and round, the merry-go-round, and you're not gonna be able to get off because you're looking to the wrong place. Now a corollary to this, this deep introspection, is that many times people who are involved in that start to also look not only at themselves but at other people. And they start comparing themselves to one another. And they say, well, I don't have what that person has. I haven't achieved what that person has achieved. I don't have the success that they have. I don't have the things that they have. I'm not where they are at this point in my life. When they were this old, they were this far, and I'm not to that same place. This comparison game is so destructive. It's so important that God addressed it and he told us that comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise. But it tends to be a feature of someone who's constantly looking within and they're comparing themselves with other people. There was a prophet of the Lord who had a problem like this. His name was Elijah. And he got really discouraged and depressed because he didn't feel like things were going the right way. He didn't feel like things were going in the direction that he wanted them to go, which is remarkable because he had just seen God rain down fire from heaven and destroy the prophets of Baal and answer his prayer. I mean, he saw a great miracle, but then he got discouraged and he ran off and hid in a cave And he started looking around in his heart. He started looking at himself and saying, I'm the only one. There's no one else. I'm the only one who's serving the Lord. Look at all these good for nothing people. And the Lord had to say to him, I just want to let you know that there's actually over 7,000 people in this nation who've not yet bowed the knee to Baal. You're not the only one. The Lord was gently reminding him, Elijah, get your focus off yourself. It will help us a lot with our soul problems if we can get our focus off of ourselves. The problem is that when your soul is in pain, it's like being physically in pain. It tends to dominate your thinking. You know, it's amazing how if you break your toe, you probably don't think about your toe hardly ever. But if you break your toe, you are very aware of that toe. All of a sudden that toe becomes the most important part of your body practically. You're walking around protecting that toe, trying to keep that toe out of trouble because boy, it hurts. Of course, that's not a good way to live life, walking around all the time like that. I wouldn't suggest it unless you have a broken toe. But you know, a lot of times, people have deep problems, deep hurts within the inner man, and they're trying to deal with that, and in the process of it, they become so focused on how they feel. so focused on what the problem might be, so focused on how do I get out of this, that instead of getting out of the problem, they end up perpetuating the problem. They're thinking entirely too much about themselves. I think there's a fair chance that nearly every person in the auditorium understands exactly what I'm saying, because we've all done it. We've all been there. Looking within will ultimately give the wrong answers and it is a trap of the enemy that he draws our attention and he points us in. So don't look back and don't look within. You say, well, where am I supposed to be looking then? What am I supposed to do? Here's the answer. Here's the truth that could be life-changing for you, Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, again, it's a familiar verse. Many of you could probably quote it. Isn't it amazing how many verses we know by heart and fail to apply in our daily lives? Hebrews chapter 12, verse number one, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. You say, Pastor, if I'm not supposed to be spending all my time looking back and looking within, then where am I supposed to look? I'm gonna suggest to you that you ought to spend the majority of your time looking unto Jesus. Get your eyes on Jesus. You say, I don't know, boy, how could I ever be saved? Well, the more that you look at yourself, the more that you focus on yourself, the more confused you're gonna get. The more perplexed you're gonna be, the more downtrodden you're going to be because you're gonna say, there's no way that I could ever be saved. Stop looking at yourself, you can't save yourself. Look to Jesus. When you lift your eyes to Jesus, you find out He's the only reason any of us could be saved. None of us are saved because of our righteousness. None of us are saved because of our goodness. If you're saved, you're saved because you look to Jesus. But if you needed to look to Jesus to be saved, don't you think you need to look to Jesus to walk by faith? There's a couple reasons for this. First of all, because Jesus is our supreme example. If you want to know the right way to live, you look to Jesus. You study the life of Jesus. You say, what should I do? Find out what Jesus did. I'm not sure what to do in this situation. What did Jesus do? You say, how am I going to find that? Well, we have these wonderful books in the Bible called the Gospels. where God tells us about the life of Jesus here on this earth, and there's so many wonderful lessons about how a person can live, and Jesus is a supreme example. He's the one that we ought to compare to. He's the one that we ought to seek to be like. Jesus is our supreme example. But the other reason that we ought to look to Jesus, you know, He's already run the race. He's already finished the course. He's the author and the finisher. He's already ran before us this race to show us how to do it. He's our example. But the other reason that you ought to look to Jesus is because Jesus, who is our supreme example, is also loving and gentle towards us. You know, if you're saved, the Lord Jesus is not sitting in heaven looking down at you saying, you lousy, good-for-nothing person, what are you doing? You failed again! That's not our Savior. You say, but I didn't read my Bible today. That's not how Jesus is talking to you. He's reaching out to you. He's encouraging you. He's saying, come on, you can do it. Keep on running. Okay, let the past be in the past. So there is a failure. Fine, keep pressing toward the mark. I'm here. I'm calling you to come to me. He's loving and he's kind and he's gentle and he's encouraging. Jesus isn't harsh. He's not vindictive. He's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. You look back at 2024 and you say, Pastor, you gotta understand, I set some goals at the beginning of the year and I didn't keep them. Guess what? Me too. But you know what? Jesus isn't sitting in heaven saying, shame on you for not keeping your goals. He's saying, come on, keep pressing on. Keep coming. You're on the road to glory. Keep pressing ahead. I'm cheering for you. You know, we're looking unto Jesus. And the picture that's painted in Hebrews 12 is that He's cheering for us. He's encouraging us on. Not only is He encouraging us on, but He's giving us everything that we need to run the race. Do you know this evening, that when you begin to understand biblically who Jesus is and what your position is in him, there is so much security in that. Because I'm not accepted by the Father because of who I am. I'm not accepted and invited into the presence of the Father because I read my Bible, because I pray, because I go on visitation, because I do all the right things. I'm accepted in the presence of the Father because I'm in Christ. I'm in Him. His righteousness has been attributed to me, is seen in me by the Father. So when I understand that, when I get a glimpse of who Jesus is, I begin to understand I could never be turned away by the Father. I could never be rejected by the Father because that would mean the Father would have to reject the Son. You see, I'm in Him. Now, listen, if you start looking back and you start looking in, you can't look up. You study it in your Bible how many times God says that we need to lift up our eyes. We need to look up. We need to get our eyes off of ourselves. We need to get our eyes off of our problems, off of our circumstances. Stop looking back over your shoulder and lift your eyes and look up to the Lord Jesus. Now, what would we gain if we look to Jesus? Well, we gain hope. Hope. People need hope, don't they? You say, how would it give us hope? Because Jesus is your sufficiency. Because Jesus has made some promises to you. I like to say that the future is as bright as the promises of God. And it is. And the reason that we know it is is because of Jesus. Jesus is the reason that we know all of God's promises will come true. It gives us great hope. Again, you may be mired down looking at yourself and saying, there's no way that I could ever be saved. There's no way that I could ever make it to heaven. There's no way that I could ever be accepted to God. If all you're looking at is yourself, I agree completely and wholeheartedly with you. But if you just look to Jesus, you'd find out that there is one reason that you will be saved, that you can be saved, if you'll come by the way of the cross. Jesus has already won. He's already purchased your salvation. He's already shed His blood. The promise has been made. So stop looking at your insufficiency and look at the sufficiency of Jesus. It gives us hope. It causes us to say, no, I'm not everything I ought to be. No, I haven't achieved all that I want to achieve. I'm not where I want to be. But praise God, one day I will be. A view of Jesus also gives us direction because it says, I want to be like Him. I know there's a lot of things I don't know, but I know this. I want to be like Him. I want to keep working towards that goal. I want to keep changing in my life. I want to keep submitting to God's purpose in my life. And I want to be what Jesus wants me to be. And do you know a view of Jesus also leads to worship? Because when you realize who He is and what He's done for you, what other response could you have but to fall on your face and say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you for all that you've done. But do you see how different this is than a focus that is turned in on yourself? and all your problems and your failures and all the things that are wrong. Do you see how different this is than looking back at your past and saying, oh, I didn't do everything right and look at where I am. I'm not where I should be because of all those mistakes. Look at Jesus instead. And you know, when you get a view of Jesus, the right view of Jesus, what it does, is it turns your perspective inside out. You stop being so worried about yourself. So worried about how you feel. So worried about what your emotions are. You stop doing calculations about, am I sad? Am I anxious? Am I discouraged? Am I this? Am I that? I'm keeping a journal. I'm keeping a log. Boy, I noticed a bunch of times yesterday, I was just, listen, that's not good. That's not healthy. Because what happens is, it's still an inward focus. You get your eyes on Jesus, He'll turn your perspective inside out. All of a sudden, instead of being worried about all your problems and all the things that are going wrong in your life, and, oh, I don't know what to do about this, and I'm depressed about that, and I'm discouraged about this, God lifts up your eyes and He says, look around you, wouldn't you, for just a minute. Don't you see all these other people around you? Don't you see the people who are hurting? Don't you see the people who are needy? Don't you see the people who need to hear about Jesus? Don't you see that there's many, many people who need you to serve them? God wants us to get our perspective from the inside to the outside and start looking around and realizing there's a lot of work to do. You know, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how I feel. when there's a lot of people who have deep needs. And I have some answers. I've learned some things. I've found some things. The primary thing I've found is that Jesus has all the answers. And if I could just tell them about Jesus, I can let them know about the things that I found out about Jesus, it could change their life. And oh, that's a much healthier way to live than always sitting around in a corner looking at yourself and thinking about yourself and moaning about your circumstances and getting all inward turned. And I'm telling you, the more that you focus on it, the worse you're gonna feel. But God has made us in such a way that the more that we get our focus on the people around us and we start meeting those needs and serving other people, it changes the way that we feel on the inside. So that service will be directed to our fellow man, but it'll also be an outward response of service to God. And this is that response of worship, right? Because you're going to worship the Lord Jesus for all that He's done. You're going to be thankful for His goodness to you. What is the response of someone who feels so loved? Of someone who feels so accepted in the beloved? Of someone who senses, I've received something that I don't deserve. Here's my response. Lord, what would you have me to do? Where do you want me to serve you? What would you like me to do? I am so thankful for what God did for me. I am so thankful for salvation. I am so thankful for his blessings in my life that some days I just feel like, Lord, I wish I could do a hundred times more for you. If you get your focus on Jesus, it'll change the way that you think about God. It'll change the way that you think about others. And maybe most importantly, that's too much. I shouldn't say most importantly, but it's really important. It'll change the way that you think about yourself. In other words, you'll actually start to think about yourself less because Jesus will dominate your thoughts. Now, you might be sitting here tonight saying, Pastor, you said you were gonna give us a really great truth. I did. This is not my truth, by the way. It's the Lord's truth. It's right there in Hebrews 12. And I'm telling you, before you say, oh, that's not gonna work, I'm telling you, it'll change your life. In 2025, make it your goal, every day of your life, to get up in the morning and just take a long, Long look at Jesus. Just look at him and think about him and meditate on him. And I guarantee it'll change your day. It'll change your week. It'll change your life. Be careful where you look.