Skip to content Looking Unto Jesus _ Tyler Gaulden Jul 1 · 27 min ...more
Looking Unto Jesus _ Tyler Gaulden
July 1, 2026 · 27 min
A pastoral call to fix our gaze on Christ in the final days. Hebrews 12:1–2 urges us to lay aside every weight and run with patience, looking unto Jesus.
Series Video Sermons with Pastor Tyler Gaulden July 1, 2026 · 27 min · Video Sermons with Pastor Tyler Gaulden
A pastoral call to fix our gaze on Christ in the final days. Hebrews 12:1–2 urges us to lay aside every weight and run with patience, looking unto Jesus. ...more Show the full description Show less A pastoral call to fix our gaze on Christ in the final days. Hebrews 12:1–2 urges us to lay aside every weight and run with patience, looking unto Jesus.
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Unspeakable Joy with Tyler Gaulden is fulfilling the Great Commission by using every platform to proclaim the Gospel and bring the light of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.
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The Hardest Fight: Keeping Eyes on Christ 0:00 The hardest thing you and I are gonna do in the last days is keep our eyes on Christ. It'll be the hardest fight in the last days. Our Lord made the statement in the Olivet0:12 Discourse before he went up to the cross. He's on the Mount of Olives and he made this statement. He said, when the Son of Man comes, will he even find faith in the whole earth?0:24 People are gonna walk away, people are gonna struggle, people are gonna battle, people are gonna be weary. It is the hardest thing to maintain faith in Christ. I want0:36 you to look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse number 1 and verse number 2. And again, I've danced around this scripture this year already, but I want you to look in verse number 1 and in verse0:48 number 2. Wherefore, seeing that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the0:59 sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Here's the word.1:11 Looking unto Jesus. Amen. I want you to circle that word looking. Now let me kindly set up the context of what's going on here in Hebrews chapter number1:23 12. We don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews. We we're not given a glimpse of his name. He never gives his identity. He just starts out in the book of Hebrews chapter number 1, and he starts out where1:35 we all have to start and that is with Jesus Christ. He said, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his1:47 son, Jesus Christ. And the writer of Hebrews is gonna set out for 1 mission, 1 goal, 1 melody, 1 theme, 1 thought, and that is this. He wants to prove to the1:58 Jewish people how that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Jewish scriptures, how that everything that they had looked for from Genesis through Malachi2:11 was summed up and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And he sets out and he starts about going through the different elements and things that the Jewish people looked to and2:22 trusted in and wanted to show how Jesus was better than those things. He starts out and he says, I want you to know that when we look at the angels, Jesus Christ,2:34 even though he was made a little lower than the angels birth from the virgin, he was made a little lower than those angels in that humble birth. God had highly exalted him and that Jesus is2:46 better than the angels. He goes forward and he says, alright. You all look unto Aaron, that high priest. He said, I want you to know our Lord has a better priesthood. If Aaron had an2:57 Aaronic priesthood, our Lord Jesus, he is not after the order of Aaron, he is after the order of Melchizedek. Having neither beginning nor ending as Melchizedek, he's got a3:09 better priesthood. As in the old testament, Aaron could only go into the presence of God 1 time and he had to make sacrifice every single year only covering the sins of the people. How much better3:21 is Jesus? Jesus had 1 time entered into the holy place and had cleansed and atoned for our sin, not covering them but washing them away. He said he's better than Aaron. He moves3:33 forward and he says, alright. Let's look at the temple. He said, you used to look at those temple sacrifices and you used to put your trust in the lambs and in the bulls and the ox and the rams and the doves and in all3:44 of those sacrifices and every single year you had to reoffer them. He said, our Lord comes with a better sacrifice and he's better than the temple. He said, for if by the blood of bulls and goats, we have been3:56 purged of our sin. How much better shall we be purged through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? I gotta back up, I'm spitting all over the Lord's supper. Say amen right there. He moves on, he says, now we we come4:08 to the most better part. He said, if he's better than the angels and he's better than Aaron and he's better than the temple, he's got a better covenant than the old4:20 covenant. He said, the old covenant was a covenant of law. It was a covenant of works that if you did not keep every single point, you were unrighteous under the law. And4:32 he said, all are sinners in the eyes of the law. He said, but Jesus offers unto us a better covenant. It is better because it is not old, it4:44 is the new covenant, and it is the new covenant in his blood once and for all. He said, God has shown us that Jesus is better. And he said, don't believe it from me. He4:55 said, look back and he comes to chapter 11. And he begins in chapter number 11, that great hall of faith. And he said, it's always been by faith. You see the Jews5:07 had entered into a works based salvation that they had to keep works, and they were saying that all of the old timers and the old fathers and the old ants, that's what they always did. And the5:19 writer said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that that that's not the way it was. He said, even from the beginning by faith were the worlds formed by the word of God. You say, how did everything come into be? Now we we joke5:31 about it, and we say there really was a big bang, God spoke and bang it happened, but that's exactly how it happened. The Bible says that by the faith of the heart of the Son of God, in the mind of God and through the5:42 word of God, the worlds were not and then to the word, bam, they came into being through faith. He says, by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, showing5:53 that through that sacrifice he was he said it was always by faith. He said, Moses and Abraham and and all David, and he goes down through. He says there, if time would allow me, I'd talk about Jephthah, and I'd I'd talk6:05 about Samson, I I would talk about all these people. He said, it's always been by faith. Then he comes to chapter 12, this is what he says, he says, okay. Seeing then that we are compassed. Now chapter6:17 number 12, I wanna kindly give you a different thought on this. I've heard chapter 12 preached, chapter 12 verse 1, that the people in heaven6:29 are looking at us and they are the great cloud of witnesses that are compact. That's not what that means. What that means is that all those heroes of the faith,6:41 they are bearing witness that what we're doing today was just like what they did, it was by faith. Now I wanna you gotta think about something. Can I I got a wild imagination? Can I6:53 go with me? I got a wild imagination. My mind don't work like everybody else's. I've always thought about it like this. In heaven, there is no time. Heaven is beyond7:05 time. So down here, when someone dies, we can be separated from them for months, years, and decades,7:17 and it's heartbreaking to think that they will have been set, but brothers and sisters, in heaven, there's no time. You realize down here you may be separated from them by months and years,7:29 but the moment you get to heaven, it will be as if you both got there at the exact same time. You say, I don't understand that, boy, me neither, but the more I chew on it, the juicery it7:41 gets. You see down here we are bound by that thing called time, but when we step out of this realm and we step in to that realm, time will no longer bind us.7:53 And when we step in, I've heard these, I'll meet you by the river over Honey, you don't have to meet me by the river, we're gonna probably get there at the same time because up there there is no time. And when you see8:04 that person, you won't even think about the fact you've been separated because it will be like you were never apart because there is no time restraint. I don't understand that, but boy, I like preaching8:15 that. You see, everything we do down here is bound by time, but in heaven, nothing binds.8:27 So brothers and sisters, you don't have to think that they're standing around watching us. It's not like that. When we get there, it will be like8:39 we were never apart. Now down here, it don't like that. It don't make a lot of sense, because we want something that makes us feel connected, But here's what Paul said in the book of8:51 Colossians chapter 2 and 3. He said, when we get saved, we are already seated together in heavenly places. So the day I got saved, it was9:02 as if I'm already up there. Tyler talk about that. Boy, I don't understand that. How can I be here but yet I'm there but I'm there but I'm I'm still here and I'm here9:14 and I ain't got no idea that I'm there but yet I'm supposed to be there because I'm already seated there, but I'm I'm I don't know? There's some things that bear witness on the inner man and will understand it by9:26 and by. Now it's what Paul or Apollos or Luke or whoever wrote down the book of Hebrews said, he said, alright, seeing that we walk by faith. That's what he's getting at, we walk by faith.9:39 He says, we walk by faith, I wanna show you, this is how you walk by faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for9:51 the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, at the right hand of the throne of10:03 God. There are 4 reasons we look at Christ. He's the author and the finisher of our faith. He endured the cross. He despised the shame, and he has sat down10:14 at the right hand of God. But I'm not worried about all that. I'm thinking about that word, looking. I looked up that word looking. How do you keep walking by faith? Looking unto how do10:26 you what does that mean? Are y'all ready? I'm gonna pull out my Greek skills. Somebody get ready to say oh and ah. Here we go. What is that Greek word? The Greek word is. Boy, y'all are getting good at that. I'm10:38 telling you, I feel so good when I get done in this church, I could float off the cloud. That word does not just to mean look at something. It's10:50 a word that literally means to turn away from something and to focus your eyes on something. It's not just looking, it's turning awayJesus is Better: Faith Over Works 11:02 from them looking. Brothers and sisters, looking at Jesus ain't the hard part. Keeping your eyes off all the other junk is the hard part. Now I'm talking to a11:14 Sunday night crowd tonight. I don't imagine that I'm dealing with all the the alcoholics and all the people that are shacking up from kingdom to come and from Dan to beer. I'm probably talking to what I would call the11:23 cream of the crop. It's not just sin that keeps us from looking at Jesus. There are things that11:35 pull worry, anxiety, trouble, all of the hiccups and all of the heartbreaks and all of the situations.11:48 So I took that word looking, and I broke it up. And I wanna talk to you for just a 2nd on how do you keep your eyes on Jesus. Number 1, youHeaven's Timeless Faith and the Meaning of 'Looking' 12:00 take that word, you take that Greek word apart, and the 1st thing you learn about keeping your eyes on Jesus, it's it's a present look. Every Greek word has several components to12:12 it. 1 of the components that every Greek word has, a verb, it has a tense to it. In English, we've got 3 tenses, past, present,12:23 future. In Greek, there are 5 tenses. 2 of them really don't make any sense to us because they don't translate over. Do you know what that word right there looking, what tense it's in?12:36 It's in the present tense. Now I'm gonna pull out and save some of you children about 15000 dollars in the 1st 2 years of college.12:47 Can I show you what you're gonna learn in English 1 0 1? Do you know what present means? Right now. Right now. You know what past12:59 means? Just before. Past is where you've been, present's where you at, future's where you're heading. Brothers and sisters, you cannot keep your eyes13:11 on Jesus if you're always thinking about tomorrow. You cannot keep your eyes on Jesus if you're always wondering about what you could have done different. How many of you tonight13:23 have got mess up bad stuff in your yesterdays? Okay. I do, you do, your mama does, Andy does, Barney does, Lorelei Hobbs does, 8 b does, and13:35 even Otis the town drunk, we all got mess ups in our yesterday. But if you're constantly worried about how you could have done or what you should have done, Jesus said, right now, keep your eyes. Oh, in the13:47 fear right now, Jesus, I'm looking at you. In the anxiety right now, keep your eyes on Jesus. In the moment right now, keep your eyes on Jesus Christ. And here's what I'm finding,13:59 the further you get with Jesus, the problems you and I face are not between right and wrong. The devil keeps us occupied14:11 between good and best. And he gets us so confused because we're not sinning. Now, last week, my beloved wife14:23 and I and our 2 just scrumptious children, we decided to go to Florida. We said, you know what? We don't go out of town a14:35 lot, pastor Troy. We're just gonna get on an airplane, and we're gonna go to Florida, we're gonna enjoy a little bit, then we're gonna hop on an airplane, and I'm gonna go to Washington14:47 DC, I'm gonna preach at the museum of the Bible, we're gonna go up there, go to the different places for for a day. We're gonna pray at the different places, and then we're gonna get back on a plane and fly back to14:58 Nashville, and we're just gonna have us a luscious, industrious time in the Lord Jesus Christ. That went well for about 2 days. We woke up15:09 Saturday. We left Friday, Saturday. Saturday night, we turned the TV on. And we turned it to the local NBC station, and I saw this15:21 word, Milton. Milton, what's that mean? Well, down there in the Gulf of Mexico,15:34 there's a group of clouds that was decided to have a powwow together. And that thing, it went from nothing to we woke up on15:46 Saturday night, Sunday morning. We woke up and brother, let me tell you, to say it went from something nothing to something like that, it got booger big, and I thought,15:58 well, okay. It's gonna be fine. They're showing that cone. They're showing that cone and I'm thinking, you know, we're right in the middle of that cone. I don't think that's gonna end well, but you know, it ain't no16:10 big deal. Sunday night, that thing's getting closer. Me and Mason and Erica and Ella, we got our our our Chrysler Pacifica minivan that we had rented, and it was a it16:21 was a a hybrid, and that means you can have electricity or you can have gasoline. It took me 2 hours to figure out that front door was for electricity and not for the not a hard plug you plug gasoline into. So I I me and16:33 Mason, we go to Walmart. And honey, we walked into Walmart, and I knew it was bad. Went, okay, okay, I'm16:45 as long as it ain't mom, I thought that was me. I thought I'd started crying thinking about this thing. I'm okay with that. That don't bother me. Okay. I'm good. I'm good. It's okay. It's okay. Okay. And we walk into16:54 Walmart, and beloved, I knew I was in trouble. When I walked into Walmart in Florida and the Walmart17:06 associates were worried. I'm talking nervous. When you can make a Walmart associate in Florida nervous about a17:17 storm that's coming, it ain't good. I got back in that minivan. I said, Erica, we got to go. She said, what do you mean? I said,17:29 we're gonna get stuck down here. So Monday night, me and the 1st lady of this fine house, it makes me I hate that word 1st lady, it irritates me to death. And me and the 1st lady of this17:41 house, we got in the minivan at 7 o'clock, and got on the I 4 corridor between Tampa Bay and Orlando, Florida.17:54 We got on that exit, and how many of you know that lady on the GPS is the lionest woman God ever created? When we started, here's what we were gonna do. We're gonna get in the minivan, forget the18:06 flights, I'd already canceled the flights. We were gonna get in the minivan, drive to North Carolina. I was gonna drop her in North Carolina. I was gonna get her on airplane to Greensboro, head up to Washington DC,18:15 preach at the museum of the bible, come back to Greensboro, get back in the minivan, get back in said minivan, and drive back to Nashville, and we were just gonna call it a week. And here I am trying to think about what18:26 I'm gonna preach at the museum of the bible, and all I see up ahead are brake lights. Brake lights. Horns cutting off.18:40 I learned so fast, I'm not nearly as spiritual as I thought I was. Am I the only person that feels that18:51 way? Isn't it amazing what little thing takes our eyes off of Jesus Christ?Present Look: Hurricane Distractions 19:04 That's why the apostle said in chapter 12 verse 2, he said, right now, wherever you're at, whatever you're dealing with, take your eyes away from that thing, and keep them focused19:16 on Jesus Christ. You say, how do I do that? I don't really know that there's a method. I don't really know that there's a mechanism. But I do know this, when the fear and anxiety and worry and doubt and confusion comes19:27 on you, the best thing you can do is bow your head and and say, lord Jesus, in this moment, let me bring honor and glory to your name. It's a present look. Number 2, it's a personal look.19:39 Every Greek word, it's not just has a tense, but it has what's called a voice. There are basically 2 main voices in the Greek. There's the active and the passive. Now I'm a none of that means19:51 anything at all, but this word's in the active. Do you know what when a word's in the active, what it means? You ready? It means you do the action yourself. Passive means somebody20:02 does it for you, but when it's active, you the 1 gotta do it. Here's what he says. If you want to put it in the King Tyler version, here's what that word say that verse should should say.20:14 Right now, you turn away from what's bothering you and focus your eyes on Jesus Christ. You, not your mama, not your daddy, not your husband, not your wife,20:26 not your family. You. I've been married now going into 16 years. When me and Erica got married, I learned on my honeymoon, didn't20:38 take long, not all women are the same. You know what I learned on my honeymoon? That woman wasn't my mama. She20:50 didn't treat me like my mama. She didn't talk to me like my mama. She's different. We were at the apple barn on our honeymoon.21:02 And on said honeymoon, we already didn't have a lot of money. So every time I'd ever gone to the apple barn with my mother or my sister, my mother, when the fritters came, mama would21:14 take the fritter out of the bowl, out of the the basket, and would put 1 on everybody's plate. She'd put 1 on my sister's, she'd put 1 on mine, mama would serve me.21:33 Mama would serve me, Troy. And if the fritters were fresh, I'm gonna tell you what mama would go so far as to do. She would take her knife and cut said fritter, and would wait21:44 until we ate before she even took 1. So I'm sitting there with my wife of about 3 days, and the basket of fritters comes, and21:56 she reaches in, and I'm thinking, what a godly woman. She takes said fritter and puts it on her plate.22:09 Then she commences to take her knife and cut her own fritter. She sticks her fork in that and I'm she's gonna feed me. What22:21 a woman is this I have married. Great God, what a woman. She takes that fork and sticks it in that fritter, stuck in her mouth.22:35 And I looked at her and I said, what are you doing? She said, I'm I'm eating. I said,22:48 my plate's empty. She said, I noticed that. I said, how do you expect me to eat a fritter? And I23:00 should have known. She got that real high pitched voice that women get when they wanna belittle you, but they don't wanna be out and out disrespect. She said, you can take your little finger or your little23:12 fork, and you can reach little finger or little fork into the little basket, and you can take your own fritter and put it on your own plate. And if it's real hot, guess what you've got the23:23 ability to do? You can cut your own fritter and let it cool off, and then you can take your fork and stick it in that fritter and stick it in your own mouth.23:36 And I said, that ain't what my mama did. She said, son if I pick up that fritter, it ain't going in your mouth. Say amen right there. Now23:48 here was a lesson. If I wanted a fritter, I can't rely on somebody else to get me a fritter. I got hands, I got a fork,24:00 and I got a brain. You know, we'll laugh about that in this setting, but we won't laugh about it when we say, God, why aren't we hearing answered prayers and why24:11 aren't we seeing God move the mountain? And God says, what are you doing about it? Well, Lord, I'm waiting on so and so. No. God says, I it's not so and so's responsibility to do that for you. You do24:23 that for you. It's a personal look, here is my question to you tonight. You are the only 1 being distracted, and you are the only 1 that can do it for yourself.24:35 What's keeping you from keeping your eyes on Jesus right now? Number 3, it's not just a personal look, it's not just a present look, but 3rd of all, it's a persistentPersonal & Persistent: Keep Looking 24:48 look. Do you see that word looking? Do you see how it is spelled? L o 0 k I n g. Whenever you25:00 see an I n g on a word, it means that it's a participle. Whenever a word is a participle, it literally means it keeps on going. It's25:11 a ongoing process. That word, it doesn't say, look unto Jesus. It says, keep looking unto Jesus. Let me put it25:23 in the King Tyler version. I ought to write me a Bible 1 day. Here's what that verse ought to say. If I was gonna translate it in redneck English where you and I would get get the get the gist of it, here's what it would25:33 say. Instead of looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross upon his shame, and sat down at the right hand of the mighty stone high. Here's what it25:40 would say. Right now, no matter what you're going through, you yourself look at Jesus and don't stop25:53 no matter what comes your way. Every moment the devil is gonna try to get you and I to turn our eyes away, and I'm gonna tell you something. The more you try to keep your eyes26:05 on him, the more he's gonna try to keep your eyes turning back off of him. The more you pray, the more the devil's gonna come after you. The more you seek God, the more the devil's gonna come after you. The more you try26:16 to live for God, the more the devil's gonna come after you. That's why every day, you've gotta say, you know what? Right now, I don't know what's gonna come tomorrow, but I know right now, I'm looking at him. I know26:25 right now, I'm thinking about him. I know right now I'm praying to him. Right now I'm having faith. Right now I'm not turning aside. Right now I'm gonna be holy. Right now I'm gonna be true. He says,26:37 you in this moment right now, keep your eyes on him and don't turn away.In this video 0:00 The Hardest Fight: Keeping Eyes on Christ11:00 Jesus is Better: Faith Over Works12:00 Heaven's Timeless Faith and the Meaning of 'Looking'19:00 Present Look: Hurricane Distractions24:40 Personal & Persistent: Keep Looking
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