What was the second thing I needed? Focus. When we walked that coastal path it had stopped raining and we thanked the Lord for that, but the gale force winds had started to blow. We were walking into a westerly wind, and as the day went on the wind got stronger and the sand began to blow up from the beach into our faces, and our eyes, our noses and our hair. How did we keep going? Focus. Why were we doing it? We were doing it for Phil. What was the purpose? That we might encourage him, let him know that he was loved, and to raise some much needed funds for a practical need. We kept the focus clear. And as the Hebrew writer said, ‘Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.’ Don’t look at your church, loved as they are by God, because often it can be a discouragement. Don’t look at that fellow Christian who’s stopped running the race; love them and pray for them to get back into it, but don’t be distracted and let your vision wander. Fix your eyes on Jesus and he will enable you to go the distance.

Do you see the very last word in the book of Revelation? It’s there in verse 21. It’s a wonderful ending; it simply says, ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.’ As you go home from Keswick, whatever you face, God’s grace is with you. You don’t leave it behind here; it’s not something you stock up on and wait till next year when you get replenishment. God’s grace is sufficient for everything that you face. Embrace the fellowship of God’s people and maintain that focus with your eyes fixed on Jesus. Run well and run to the end. Amen.

Ian Coffey
Jesus is coming soon – Revelation 22:8–21

This is an extract from the 2012 Keswick Convention Ministry Book which contains talks from the 2012 Keswick Convention.
If you would like to read the rest of this talk, details on how to buy the book can be found here.

All around us there’s the pull of the world to follow this kind of attitude, to live this sort of lifestyle. But we’re called to live differently: we’re called to live righteously. Hear what I say very carefully: the Bible doesn’t call us to live self-righteously but to live righteously, not a pharisaic self-righteousness that looks down on other people and has a ‘holier than thou’ attitude to life. You know the sort of folk who feel that godliness means having a miserable countenance, the sort of people who take the swing out of the budgie’s cage on a Sunday, just in case. The Bible calls us not to self-righteousness but the kind of righteousness that Jesus had. One of the things that challenges me continually is the way in which the Lord Jesus, holy as he was, attracted sinful people. What was the criticism? He hangs around with all the wrong people; he hangs around with the drunkards, with the gluttons, with the immoral. What was it about Jesus that created in these people a hunger? What was it about him that was so magnetic? It was the sense that they weren’t written off, they weren’t looked down on. There was no element of self-righteousness that said how holy I am and how inferior you are. Jesus lived clean in a dirty world and people were drawn to him, and that’s the call for you and for me to live clean in a dirty world.

Let me remind you of what the Hebrew writer said. Hebrews 12:1–2: ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.’ How do we go the distance? We go the distance by throwing off anything that hinders, by getting rid of the sin that so easily entangles. And, friends, I don’t know about you, but for me that’s a daily business, a constant business. Let’s run and go the distance with our eyes fixed on Jesus.

Ian Coffey
Jesus is coming soon – Revelation 22:8–21

This is an extract from the 2012 Keswick Convention Ministry Book which contains talks from the 2012 Keswick Convention.
If you would like to read the rest of this talk, details on how to buy the book can be found here.

All around us there’s the pull of the world to follow this kind of attitude, to live this sort of lifestyle. But we’re called to live differently: we’re called to live righteously. Hear what I say very carefully: the Bible doesn’t call us to live self-righteously but to live righteously, not a pharisaic self-righteousness that looks down on other people and has a ‘holier than thou’ attitude to life. You know the sort of folk who feel that godliness means having a miserable countenance, the sort of people who take the swing out of the budgie’s cage on a Sunday, just in case. The Bible calls us not to self-righteousness but the kind of righteousness that Jesus had. One of the things that challenges me continually is the way in which the Lord Jesus, holy as he was, attracted sinful people. What was the criticism? He hangs around with all the wrong people; he hangs around with the drunkards, with the gluttons, with the immoral. What was it about Jesus that created in these people a hunger? What was it about him that was so magnetic? It was the sense that they weren’t written off, they weren’t looked down on. There was no element of self-righteousness that said how holy I am and how inferior you are. Jesus lived clean in a dirty world and people were drawn to him, and that’s the call for you and for me to live clean in a dirty world.

Let me remind you of what the Hebrew writer said. Hebrews 12:1–2: ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.’ How do we go the distance? We go the distance by throwing off anything that hinders, by getting rid of the sin that so easily entangles. And, friends, I don’t know about you, but for me that’s a daily business, a constant business. Let’s run and go the distance with our eyes fixed on Jesus.

Ian Coffey
Jesus is coming soon – Revelation 22:8–21

This is an extract from the 2012 Keswick Convention Ministry Book which contains talks from the 2012 Keswick Convention.
If you would like to read the rest of this talk, details on how to buy the book can be found here.

Now if the point is be there and be sure you’re going to be there, and if this is part of Luke’s gospel, and this is part of Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom, then, when you and I speak the Word of God in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation, shining like stars in the universe, when we make disciples of all nations, when we preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name, this is what we’ve got to say; it’s what Jesus said. You are invited to heaven. Jesus wants you. He doesn’t have to have you; he invites you because he wants to; no one’s making him, he really wants you. And not only are you invited but you’re not being invited because you think you’re good enough, you’re being invited because Jesus wants you and he can make you good enough. You’re not going to get in because you’ve kept some rules and you’ve been religious for a while, you get in because the King wants you in. All you need to do is to receive the gift of this eternal life from the King; you can’t earn it, you can’t buy it, you don’t deserve it – none of us do – Jesus just gives it, and what he has in store makes the very best of this world look cheap, niggardly and hollow by comparison. Be sure that you will be there; I mean that this evening. If you’re not sure, be sure that you will be there by saying, ‘Yes,’ to Jesus who even now is inviting you to come into his eternal home. And when you go out with the gospel, don’t go out with the gospel which just says, ‘Jesus can tweak your life and make you happy now,’ go out with the gospel which says, ‘Jesus wants you and he wants you forever.’ Will you come to him?

Dominic Smart
Be sure: the wedding feast – Luke 14:1, 7–24

This is an extract from the 2012 Keswick Convention Ministry Book which contains talks from the 2012 Keswick Convention.
If you would like to read the rest of this talk, details on how to buy the book can be found here.