What Are You Looking At?

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."