INTRO.- My heart and my eyes. How important is your heart and your eyes? Both are important to life and one to a better life.
ILL.- A lady said to her doctor: "Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair 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?" The doctor looked her over for a couple of minutes, then calmly said, "Well, I can tell you one thing... there isn't anything wrong with your eyesight."
ILL.- I have struggled with poor eyesight all my life. I have both myopia and amblyopia. Myopia is nearsightedness and this is why I take off my glasses to read scripture when I’m preaching. The font size is a bit smaller than I would like. I need glasses to see far away (as in driving) because everything is blurry otherwise. Many of you may have myopia as well.
Amblyopia is lazy eye. In amblyopia, visual stimulation either fails to transmit or is poorly transmitted through the optic nerve to the brain for a continuous period of time. In other words, I don’t see well out of this lazy eye.
I was also born with a heart murmur. That sounds a bit scary but in reality, it’s not a big problem. Here is what I read about it: “Many parents fear the worst when their child is diagnosed with a heart murmur, but this diagnosis is actually extremely common. In fact, many kids are found to have a heart murmur at some point during their lives. Most murmurs are not a cause for concern and do not affect the child's health at all.”
I never did know if a heart murmur was serious or not. Perhaps when I was born they may have considered it to be more of a scary thing. I remember, however, when I ran my first marathon at age 44 (I think). I stood at that starting line in Huntsville, AL, thinking, “I wonder if I will live through this marathon?” I did live through it but sometimes people don’t.
Here is something I read about running and death: The death of marathon runners is less than one death per 100,000 racers. “Our data shows, quite strongly, that marathon running is safe for the vast majority of runners,” Dr. Pham says, “and I suspect that, for many of the runners, the activity saved them from suffering a heart attack that might otherwise have been brought on by a sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle.”
So actually running is a healthy activity and good for the heart if it’s not overdone, which I did. And even though my heart and my eyes are vitally important there is something more important. What’s that? My spiritual heart and my spiritual vision. Obviously, we all should be concerned about our physical health, but since we are spirit and will live forever in eternity we need to take care of our spiritual lives, our spiritual heart and our spiritual eyesight.
I Timothy 4:8 “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
Albert Barnes wrote of this Psalm: “This psalm was probably a private meditation on what David had done, and was a personal examination of his spirit and motives." We need this too.
II Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves."
PROP.- The path to greater spiritual strength and depth.
1- We keep pride and haughtiness far from us
2- We are not concerned with matters beyond us
3- We have become quiet and still before God
I WE KEEP PRIDE AND HAUGHTINESS FAR FROM US
1 My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty;
ILL.- A preacher was on program at a district convention to preach for twenty minutes. The other preachers from the district were sitting behind him in the choir section, giving him moral support and throwing in an occasional "Amen" to help the preacher along. The preacher preached his twenty minutes and continued on despite alloted time. He preached for 30 minutes, then forty minutes and then for an hour. He even continued for an hour and ten minutes.
Finally, a brother sitting on the front row took a song book and threw it at the preacher that was still going strong in his message. The preacher saw the song book as it was hurled his way and he ducked. The song book hit one of the preachers sitting in the choir section. As the man in the choir section was going down, you could hear him say, "Hit me again, I can still hear him preaching!"
It’s highly possible than any preacher who is told that he has 20 minutes to preach but then carries on for over an hour has an ego problem! We all could have an ego problem, depending on our area of expertise.
I have no pride when it comes to building something with wood, because I can’t build anything. The same is true when it comes to do electrical work. I can change a light bulb but that’s about my limit. If we are good at something, however, then it’s easy to become prideful if we are not careful. The spiritually mature person is careful and humble.
ILL.- Golfer Tiger Woods was the top of his game, but look what happened to him? I would venture to say that his pride got the best of him which led him into several affairs with various women which caused him to lose his wife and children.
Galatians 6:3 “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Romans 12:3 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
Matthew 23:12 “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
I Peter 5:5 “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
II WE ARE NOT CONCERNED WITH MATTERS BEYOND US
1 My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. CEV “I don’t waste my time on impossible schemes.” NCV “I don’t do great things, and I can’t do miracles.”
ILL.- The temporary Sunday School teacher was struggling to open a combination lock on the supply cabinet. She had been told the combination, but couldn't quite remember it. Finally, she went to the pastor's study and asked for help. The pastor came into the room and began to turn the dial. After the first two numbers, he paused and stared blankly for a moment. Finally, he looked serenely heavenward and his lips moved silently. Then he looked back at the lock, and quickly turned to the final number, and opened the lock. The teacher was amazed.
"I'm in awe at your faith, pastor," she said. "It's really nothing," he answered. "The number is on a piece of tape on the ceiling."
There are some things that we can’t do. They are beyond our reach in this life. If we could reach them, then we would be full of pride.
ILL.- Back in 1972 I competed in the Iowa State Olympic Weightlifting Championships and won first place in my weight division. And because of that win I started to dream a bit. What kind of dream? Well, you might find it to be silly but I was thinking, “Could I ever become one of the better lifters in the US in my weight division?” It was an interesting thought but an awful big dream. And thankfully, it never came true.
Why am I happy that it never came true? Because if it had it probably would have taken me into an entirely different life and a life that could very well have led me away from Christ. When people’s desires become too high or too worldly they sometimes (and maybe often) forsake Christ.
I Timothy 6:9-10 “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Some people, in their quest for more and more money or material things, have ruined their lives spiritually.
ILL.- Look at what happened to Bernie Madoff. He was Jewish but it’s doubtful that he practiced his faith. He is like many who don’t follow the Jewish faith but still claim to be Jewish. That’s why he got swept away with his ponzi scheme and ripped off people for billions of dollars and is now paying for it with a prison sentence of 150 years.
II Timothy 4:10 “For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me...” Falling in love with this world can cause a person to desert or forsake Christ.
ILL.- Johanna Maria Lind (6 October 1820 – 2 November 1887), better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook an extraordinarily popular concert tour of America beginning in 1850. This story is told about Jenny Lind.
“The Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind, won great success as an operatic singer, and money poured into her purse. Yet she left the stage when singing her best and never went back to it. She must have missed the money, the fame and the applause of thousands, but she was content to live in privacy. Once an English friend found her on the sea sands, with a Bible on her knee, looking out into the glory of a sunset. They talked and the conversation drew near to the inevitable question, “Oh, Madame, how is it that you came to abandon the stage at the height of your success?” “When every day,” was the quiet answer, “it made me think less of this (laying a finger on the Bible) and nothing at all of that (pointing to the sunset), what else could I do?”
If the story is true then we understand what she did. She decided that worldly fame and fortune were not worth losing her faith in the Lord. Smart woman. We all face choices every day. Do I follow the Lord or forsake my faith for the things of this world? Many people want both, but it’s hard to straddle a fence and not get hurt.
III WE HAVE BECOME QUIET AND STILL BEFORE GOD
2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
ILL.- Preacher Warren Wiersbe wrote: “One day King David was walking through the palace and he heard a child crying. What was going on? The mother was saying, “Now, my child, you are growing up, and it is time for you to be weaned.”
The child was saying, “You don’t love me. You hate me. If you loved me, you wouldn’t do this.” Then David went to his desk, got his pen, and wrote Psalm 131.”
Obviously, we don’t know that this is true but there is certainly an element of truth to the thought.
Wiersbe wrote: “The problem with too many of us is that we have grown old without growing up - we still need to be weaned. The weaning process is important. God’s goal for your life is maturity, and His method for maturity is weaning. He has to wean us away from many things we think are important.” There probably are many things that we need to have taken from us in order for us to put our trust in the Lord and grow up spiritually.
We all are far too dependent on this world and the things of this world. Instead of trusting God, we trust them.
ILL.- I remember that a high school boy said many years ago, “I just can’t live without my truck.” A high school girl, “I just can’t live without my nice clothes.” What about you? We all can live without many things and God just might wean us from them in order for us to learn to lean on Him!
Psalm 37:7 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”
Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
ILL.- In a letter to his friends, hymn writer Wendell P. Loveless related this story: One evening a speaker who was visiting the United States wanted to make a telephone call. He entered a phone booth, but found it to be different from those in his own country. It was beginning to get dark, so he had difficulty finding the number in the directory. He noticed that there was a light in the ceiling, but he didn't know how to turn it on. As he tried again to find the number in the fading twilight, a passerby noted his plight and said, "Sir, if you want to turn the light on, you have to shut the door."
To his amazement, when he closed the door, the booth was filled with light. He soon located the number and completed the call. In a similar way, when we draw aside in a quiet place to pray, we must shut the door on our busy world and open our hearts to the Father. Our dark world will then be illuminated. We will enter into fellowship with God, we will sense His presence, and we will be assured of His grace for our lives.
Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” There were other times when Jesus would spend the whole night in prayer. Lk. 6:12.
ILL.- William Wilberforce, Christian statesman of Great Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, once said, "I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of private devotions starves the soul. It grows lean and faint."
CONCLUSION---------------------
3 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.
Colossians 3:1-3 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
We died with Christ . We should have died to sin and self when we surrendered to Christ in faith and obedience, that is, in baptism when we were raised to walk in newness of life.Consequently, we should set our hearts, our minds, and our eyes on things above. And if we do, we find a blessed assurance and a blessed life in our short stay on earth.
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO, shepherd111@hotmail.com
