Hey friend!
This past week, I had the privilege of preaching on the joy of discipleship. A short excerpt is below.
You can watch the full sermon here (or listen on SoundCloud).
May the Lord bless you through His Word!
~Blake
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Discipleship begins with looking up!
My family would often go on road trips when I was little. I loved passing the time in the car by playing Mario Kart on my Nintendo DS.
One of my favorite parts of Mario Kart was the maps. You could drive through breathtaking terrains—tropical forests, open deserts, and vast mountain ranges.
Just look at these beautiful pixelated mountains!
But I remember the time my family went to Yosemite National Park. As we were driving—and I was playing Mario Kart—my parents kept telling me, “Blake, look up!” And I’d see that we were driving through real, stunning mountains.
To this day, I remember being mesmerized by a particular waterfall cascading down a mountain into a glassy stream.
It’s sobering to think that I was initially so fixated on the blurry, pixelated images of the Mario Kart mountains that I almost missed the real thing! In my distraction, I almost missed the beauty my heart was actually longing for. It wasn’t until my parents told me to “look up” that I saw it.
Being a disciple of Jesus begins with looking up. It begins with taking our eyes off distractions and lesser beauties and seeing Christ in all his beauty.
The other day, I heard a father say that his little girl asked him, “Daddy, where do all the stars go during the day?”
He said, “Honey, when the sun is big and bright and high, all of the other stars fade into the background.”
In the same way, when we put Jesus on the throne of our hearts—when he becomes high and lifted up in our eyes, like the sun—every other star (and earthly charm) fades to the backdrop.
Do you remember the chorus of the hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus?
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace
Every day, we will wake up and naturally look to earthly pleasures to fill us. But every day, we must redirect our attention—we must look up and re-turn our eyes upon Jesus (Heb. 12:2). In his face, our souls find fullness.
As Robert Murray Mc’Cheyne put it:
For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief! Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in His beams. Feel His all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in His almighty arms.
Discipleship begins with looking at Jesus. It begins with taking our eyes off the pixelated charms of this life—off the stars of the night sky that could never light your world the way the sun can—and fixing them onto Jesus.
Will you turn your eyes upon Jesus with me today?
Watch the full sermon here.
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Blake Glosson (MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is an assistant campus pastor at Chapelstreet Church in Geneva, Illinois. He has been published and/or republished or referred by:
- The Gospel Coalition
- Life Bible
- Crosswalk
- Eternal Perspective Ministries (Randy Alcorn)
- Challies.com/Tim Challies (here, here and here)
- Ann Voskamp
- DashHouse (Darryl Dash)
- Moody Radio (here, here, and here)
- The JOY FM (here and here)
- ChurchLeaders.com
- Monergism.com
- The Aquila Report (here, here, here, and here)
Previously, Blake served as the director of young adults at New Covenant Bible Church in St. Charles, Illinois.
Read or watch “How to Do (and Enjoy) Discipleship” here.
Read “5 Habits for Better Prayer This Year” here.
Read “10 Ways the Sunrise Reflects Jesus” here.
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