WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT????
Time Study -- Watching TV vs. Doing Things With or For the Lord
(Discuss the content of Television programs and movies.)
Do you think that what you are looking at will affect how you behave and how you speak?
"But it's only a movie!"
Scripture: Acts 4:16-20 "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Romans 8:5-9 "carnally minded" The world is carnally minded.
Does anyone know the theme of camp this summer? Will you dare to be different?
Romans 12:1-2 "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable"
Should the saint be different from the sinner in what they look at? What are you looking at?????
Does it really matter? If no one was looking, what would you look at? What are you looking at?
I. THE EYES --are more than just visual organs. They are windows to the heart and soul of man.
A. Attacks on the Eyes -- T.V. , advertising, billboards, pornography, books,
opposite sex--immodest attire (Here is the reasoning behind dress codes.)
80 % of learning comes by our vision.
B. Scriptures of looking the wrong way.
1. Prov 27:20 "Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of a man are never
satisfied."
2. I John 2:15 -16 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
The heart of man is narrow, and cannot contain both loves. The world draws down the heart from God; and so the more the love of the world prevails the more the
love of God dwindles and decays. (M. H.)
C. Scriptures of looking the right way.
1. Ps. 123:1-3 "Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens."
Ps. 25:15 "Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the
net.”
2. Acts 7:55 "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God."
Being full of the Holy Ghost no doubt helped Stephen to look up to God at such a
time as this.
If we expect to hear from heaven, we must look up stedfastly to heaven. (M. H.)
What did he see by looking upward? He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing
on the right hand of the Father. When we look up, we can see Jesus.
D. Temptations by the way of the Eyes
1. Matt. 5:28 "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
Sometimes, when we look too long at the things we should turn away from,
we begin to lust after them.
2. Job 31:1 "I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?"
That is, by the grace of God, I kept myself from the very first step towards sin.
MH
He made a bargain with his eyes. He would allow them the pleasure of beholding the
light of the sun and the glory of God shining in the visible creation, provided they would
never fasten upon any object that might occasion any impure desires, in his mind; and under
this penalty, that, if they did, they smart for it in penitential tears. Note, Those that would
keep their hearts pure must guard their eyes, which are both the outlets and inlets of
uncleanness. (M.H.)
3. What we must not meddle with, we must not lust after; and what we must not lust after, we must not look at. Some things not to meddle with are:
a. The forbidden wealth Prov 23:5
b. The forbidden wine Prov 23:31-35 You are at the age when some friends will tempt you to try alcohol. Too many lives have been destroyed at this point.
c. The forbidden woman Matt 5:28 You are at the age when peers will begin to experiment sexually. "Flee youthful lusts." Pregnancy and disease is tragic.
Loss of purity will hinder your marriage and affect you for a lifetime.
E. Examples of those who looked, lusted, and fell.
1. The first sin began in the eye. Gen. 3:6 "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
a. She looked -- Pleasant to the eyes
b. She listened
c. She lusted
d. She took. She did eat. Perhaps she did not intend, when she looked, to take, nor, when she took, to eat; but this was the result. Sin will take you farther than you ever intended to go and will cost you more than you ever wanted to pay.
e. She fell
f. She gave to Adam.
As was the Devil, so was Eve, no sooner a sinner than a tempter.
g. She died
Our first parents, who knew so much, did not know this--that they knew enough. (M.H.)
2. Genesis 13:10 -- Lot -- "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar." v. 13 "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly."
Those who in choosing relations, callings, dwellings, or settlements, are guided by and governed by the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and consult not the interests of their souls and their religion, cannot expect God's presence with them, or His blessing upon them, but are commonly disappointed even in what they principally aimed at, and miss that which they promised themselves satisfaction in. In all our choices, this principle should overrule us: that is best for us which is best for our souls. (M. H.)
3. Joshua 7:21 "When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
a. He saw.
b. He lusted.
c. He took.
d. He died -- not only he, but his family as well -- They must have taken part in his sin or went along with it.
E. Eyes affect the Heart
Lamentations 3:51 "Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city."
The more I look upon the desolations of the city and country the more I am grieved. (M.H.)
Or my weeping affects my heart; Or my eye melts my soul.
F. Eyes (and Ears) affect the soul
II Peter 2:6-10 KJV
filthy = unbridled lust, outrageousness, shamelessness
conversation = manner of life, conduct, behavior
II Peter 2:7-8 Amplified Version
v. 7 "And he rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless.
v. 8 For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard of [their] unlawful and wicked deeds.
G. We Must Guard Our Eyes and Cry Out
1. Ps119:37 "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in the way.
2. Ps 101:3 "I will set no wicked (worthless, good for nothing, unprofitable)
thing before mine eyes."
H. We must do as Job did and make a covenant (agreement) with our eyes not to fall into foolish and hurtful lusts.
Job 31:1 "I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?"
*Use a channel changer and discuss changing the channel of our viewing. In other words, how can we change our viewing habits to be more acceptable to Christ. Hand the remote control to someone in the group and then instruct them to point it at someone else in the group. That person will have to come up with one way he or she could change his/her viewing habits of TV or anything else that may have an impact on thinking and behavior. Be specific. Instead of saying, "Watch less TV," say something like, "Instead of turning on the TV the minute I get home from school, I could help my parents start dinner."
The remote is then passed to the next person and so on.
*At this point, consider constructing "Guidelines for the Eyes and Ears".
Spiritual Heart
Radio: Gospel Music Ear Christ-Centered Ear Bible Teaching
Preaching Gate Gate Church Singing
Christian Programs Bible Tapes
Philippians 4:8-9
TV: Christian Programs Bible Reading
Moral Programs Eye Eye Christian Books
Gate Gate
Mouth
Gate
Galations 5:22-23 -- Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance
Galations 5:25 "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."
Carnal Heart
Radio: Rock & Roll Ear Satan -Centered Ear Gossip
Country Gate Gate Filthy Jokes & Talk
Advertisements False Doctrine
Occult Discussions
TV: Violence Pornography
Crime Eye Eye Worthless Reading
Sex Gate Gate
Garbage IN Mouth Luke 6:43-45 "his mouth speaketh"
Garbage OUT Gate
Matthew 15:18-19 "Out of the mouth . . . from the heart"
"Evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies"
Galations 5:19 "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings"
