Introduction:
A. The story is told of a woman who rushed to her doctor.
1. Looking very worried and all strung out, she rattled off, “Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair was all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were blood-shot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What's wrong with me, Doctor?”
2. The doctor looked her over for a couple of minutes, then calmly said, "Well, I can tell you that there isn't anything wrong with your eyesight!”
B. I hope that nothing is wrong with the physical eyesight of any of us!
1. But even more important than having good physical eyesight is what we do with our ability to see.
2. There are critical spiritual implications with regard to our eyes that we need to talk about today.
C. Today, we return to our series on being wholly devoted to God.
1. In this series, we are exploring what it means to love and serve the Lord with all that we are and have.
2. There are two verses that provide the foundation for this series.
a. Jesus taught that the greatest command is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
b. Paul gave this command “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).
3. So we have been trying to learn how to wholly devote every part of ourselves to God.
a. We began by looking at how to have a wholly devoted mind.
b. Then we explored how to have a wholly devoted heart.
c. Last time we looked into having wholly devoted tongues.
4. Today, I want to help us consider what it means to have wholly devoted eyes.
I. The Spiritual Importance of Our Eyes
A. Just like the other subjects we have covered so far in this series, the Bible has a lot to say about our eyes.
1. One of the things the Bible addresses is the spiritual blindness that some people experience.
2. In Matthew 13:14-17, Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9-10,
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
3. Because we live on this side of the Cross, we have the opportunity and ability to understand more about what God was doing and has done than those in earlier times.
4. We have the opportunity to see, hear and understand like never before, but that does not make seeing, hearing and understanding automatic.
5. We still have a responsibility and must put forth the effort to focus our minds, hearts and eyes on spiritual things, so that we might be able to serve God with all that we are.
B. In another interesting general passage about our eyes, Jesus talks about the importance of our eyes.
1. Matthew 6:22-23 reads, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
2. What Jesus is saying here is that we should have singleness of vision and purpose.
3. We should set our eyes on the goal and keep them there.
4. Just prior to these verses, Jesus said that where our treasure is, there our heart will be.
5. And right after these verses, Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters.
6. Later in the chapter, Jesus challenged us to seek first His kingdom (6:33).
7. So as we will learn today, the focusing of our eyes on the right goals and on spiritual things is one of the most important aspects of having wholly devoted eyes.
II. The Wrong Uses of Our Eyes
A. The Bible talks about a number of negative or wrong uses of our eyes.
1. Let’s spend a few minutes surveying them.
B. First, the Bible warns against having haughty eyes.
1. Psalm 18:27 says: You save the humble, but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
2. Proverbs 21:4 says: Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin!
3. So we want to avoid having an eye attitude or eye condition that sees ourselves as better than we are or sees ourselves as better than others.
4. We want to have an eye attitude that is humble.
C. A second and similar thing that the Bible warns us about is being wise in our own eyes.
1. Proverbs 3:7 says: Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.
2. Isaiah 5:21 says: Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
3. Humility is again the right attitude for our eyes.
4. Where does that humility come from? For one thing it comes from having a proper view and attitude toward God - one of healthy respect and fear – which leads to the next point.
D. The Bible warns about having no fear of God before our eyes.
1. Psalm 36:1 says: An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes.
2. When we look at our present culture, we can see the negative results that come when people no longer believe in God nor have a proper fear of the Lord.
3. When there is no fear of God before our eyes morality disappears and sinfulness abounds.
E. A final wrong use of our eyes has to do with having lustful eyes.
1. 1 John 2:16 says, For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
2. Peter described false teachers with these words: With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! (2 Pet. 2:14)
3. Eyes that covet and lust after things or people will get us into all kinds of sin and trouble!
III. The Right Uses of Our Eyes – What are the proper and godly uses of our eyes?
A. First of all, wholly devoted eyes are focused on God.
1. Psalm 141:8 says: But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign Lord…
2. Hebrews 12:2 tells us to “fix our eyes on Jesus.”
3. There is no better place for our eyes to be fixed than on the Lord.
4. But how do we go about fixing our eyes on the Lord?
5. First of all, to fix our eyes on God, we must focus on what God has done in the past and look for what God is doing in the present.
a. In Deut. 4:9, Moses told God’s people: Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
b. Moses reminded them: You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear (Dt. 7:19).
c. Moses continued: He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes (Dt. 10:21).
d. God is always at work in our lives.
e. We must develop spiritual eyes that can focus on God’s faithfulness in the past, so that we can trust in God in the present.
f. The more we can see God at work in the present the more we can join Him and be used by Him to accomplish His will.
6. Second, we fix our eyes on God by focusing on His Word.
a. Psalm 119:18 says: Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
b. Psalm 119:97 says: Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
c. Look at the benefits that come from our focus on the Word of God (Psalm 1:2-3):
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
7. What great strength and blessings will come into our lives when we have our eyes focused on God!
8. One of my favorite Bible stories is the story of when Peter walked on the water (Mt. 14).
a. It was the middle of the night, and the disciples were struggling to paddle their boat across the lake against the wind and waves.
b. Jesus came walking to them on the water and when they saw him, they were terrified, thinking he was a ghost.
c. The Bible says: But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
d. As long as Peter had his eyes on Jesus, he was able to miraculously walk on the water.
e. But the second he took his eyes off of Jesus and looked at the wind and waves, he sank.
9. Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus makes all the difference in the world!
10. So, wholly devoted eyes are, first of all, focused on God.
B. Second, wholly devoted eyes are focused on only what is good.
1. This is not an easy thing to do, and must be something that we make a serious commitment to.
a. Psalm 101:3 says: I will set before my eyes no vile thing.
1. Is that a commitment that you are striving to make?
b. Job 31:1 says: I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.
2. Again, is that a commitment that you are striving to make?
2. I could spend a lot of time at this point condemning the media because the entertainment industry is putting all kinds of vile things before our eyes.
a. I don’t think I have to tell you that there are many TV shows, movies, magazines and websites that are not appropriate for anyone to be viewing, whether young or old.
b. There is no doubt that one of the ways that Satan is trying to destroy the things of God is through the secular and sinful agenda of the modern media.
c. And there is no doubt that watching this stuff has a negative effect on our society and our individual lives.
a. This stuff pollutes our minds and warps our morals.
d. Certainly there is a time and place to discuss how we might take steps to change the industry – but that is not the point or purpose of this sermon.
3. For our purposes today, the most important thing we must do is to do everything we can to not look at that which is vile and impure.
a. If we are not in the practice of doing so already, then we need to start changing the channel or turn off the TV or the movie or the computer.
b. We need to keep our eyes away from the things that are sinful and that lead us into sin.
c. For some that may mean avoiding the magazine isle, for others it means not gazing at the things of others, whether it be the possessions of others or the persons belonging to others.
d. That’s why commandment number 10 of the 10 commandments is “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Ex. 20:17)
4. Had King David made a godly covenant with his eyes he would not have ended up sinning with Bathsheba and experiencing all the negative consequences that went with it.
5. I know that we could spend a lot more time on this subject, but I think you get the point.
6. If we are going to have a life that is wholly devoted to God, then we must have eyes that are wholly devoted to focusing on only what is good and holy.
C. Third and finally, wholly devoted eyes are focused on others.
1. Wholly devoted eyes are not selfishly focused on ourselves, but are focused on the needs of others.
2. In Philippians 2:3-4, Paul wrote: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
a. Then Paul went on in the rest of the chapter to show us how Jesus did this very thing and served and sacrificed himself for us.
3. The story of the good Samaritan is an excellent of an example of what I’m trying to get at with this point.
a. In Luke 10, Jesus told a story about a man who had been beaten, robbed and left for dead on the side of the road.
b. Three different men came down the same road and saw the man, but only one man who saw the man and did something to help him.
c. Jesus told the story to shake up the Jewish people and shock them out of their prejudicial attitudes toward Samaritans.
d. But I want to use the story to illustrate how we can go through life and have the right kind of eyes.
4 Wholly devoted eyes are eyes that look beyond ourselves and not only see the needs of others but also have eyes of compassion that cause us to do something to help others.
5. It is so easy to “see” and then to pass right on by.
a. Proverbs 28:27 says: He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.
b. Isaiah 58 is an amazing chapter in which God challenges His people to understand the true kind of spirituality that He desires. Here are a few verses from that chapter:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Is. 58:6-7)
c. Jesus echoed those words when He delivered His famous “Sheep and Goats” parable. Jesus said: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Mt. 25:31-40)
d. So, God wants us to see the needs of others around us and do what we can to help them and when we do, we are ultimately serving the Lord.
6. The most important needs of others that we need to have our eyes open to are the spiritual needs of others.
a. In John chapter 4, we witness Jesus ministering to a woman in great spiritual need.
b. Jesus taught her about the living water and the fact that He was the messiah and the woman became a believer and then helped many in her town become believers.
c. Jesus’ disciples were surprised that Jesus would minister to that woman, and so He said to them: “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” (vs. 35)
7. Let me ask you, how open are your eyes to the physical and spiritual needs of others?
8. If we want to have wholly devoted lives then we must have wholly devoted eyes and those are eyes that pay attention to others and seek to serve them.
9. I want to challenge us to look around and see the people whom God wants us to serve.
a. Who are the people in your home, neighborhood, workplace or school who are in need, physically or spiritually?
b. Who are the people in this church family who are in need physically or spiritually?
c. Who has been missing lately? Have you noticed? What have you done about it?
d. Who seems down or burdened? Have you noticed? What have you done about it?
10. Remember, when we turn our eyes away from people, then we have turned our eyes from God!
11. But when we “see” and then “serve,” then we are serving God Himself!
Conclusion:
A. So in summary, what should we do with our eyes so they will be wholly devoted to God?
1. Focus our eyes on the Lord and His Word.
2. Close our eyes and turn them away from evil.
3. Open our eyes to the needs of others.
B. Do you remember the wonderful song we teach little children about their eyes?
O be careful little eyes what you see,
O be careful little eyes what you see,
For the Father up above,
Is looking down in love,
So be careful little eyes what you see.
C. Pretty good advice for having wholly devoted eyes, don’t you think?
