"Open our eyes" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

you know jesus said that if your eye is single your whole body will be full of light someone said once the eye is the window of the soul when you talk to a person you typically look at their eyes and sometimes we have to tell our children look at me when i'm talking to you you would never tell a person please look at my elbow when i'm talking to you because it seems like so much is communicated through the eyes is very fascinating to me how we're able to capture light and images and depth faster than any camera that's been created and transform those things into images and colors and meaning someone said once that as much as 85 of what comes into your brain every day comes through your eyes your eyes are not just physical you can close your eyes and i can speak words and you have a screen on your minds where you see things you know what i'm talking about and you imagine so the eye is something beyond just the organ and even as i look at the eyes in the animal world it's it's very fascinating the diversity that god has made you know the the eye of a penguin is probably one of the most powerful of any creature now i know eagles can see farther but a penguin when it's there on the ice in the middle of uh it's summer in the antarctic it is so bright it would blind any arctic explorer but the penguin has built-in sunglasses where it can dilate its eye to just a pinhole and it can see without any eye damage and they're just the very brightest environment for years and then that penguin jumps off in the water and you and i need goggles or a mask as soon as you go into the water you can't see everything's blurry but god made the penguin where it's got a built-in mask a little special lens that goes over the eye so it can see perfectly in the water but then the penguin will dive down to over a thousand feet no diver can go that deep and it can see squid in pitch blackness down there because its pupils will open so much that it can virtually see in the dark it can go from seeing in almost absolute darkness to being able to see and a brightness that would blind most people and just think it only took 50 million years for all of that to evolve just kidding i don't believe that you know one of the favorite miracles that i read about in the life and ministry of jesus is where he opened eyes of course you two blind men here probably bartimaeus was one of those one of the great miracles is where jesus in john chapter nine he opens the eyes of a person who had never seen before they say that you know if your sight is not restored by the time you're two or three that the part of the brain that that processes sight will never operate even if you had perfect eyes you couldn't see because the brain wouldn't know what to do with the images so the fact that jesus opened the eyes of this man who had never seen and just what a miracle that is to finally then look that same day on the face of jesus see the son of god you know we need our eyes open paul says we need to be able to see what the world isn't looking at that we might be able to see the unseen there's a great story in the bible i'd like to look at it's all within one chapter and if you turn in your bibles to the second book of king second kings chapter six and we'll start with verse eight second kings chapter six verse eight and hopefully we will learn how we can have our eyes opened this story talks about opening eyes and closing eyes and then opening them again it's a very very interesting story now the king of syria was making war against israel and he consulted with his servants saying my camp will be in such and such a place and the man of god elisha the prophet he sent to the king of israel saying beware that you don't go down to this place for the syrians are coming down there and the king of israel sent someone to the place of which the man that god had told or warned him and he warned him and he was watchful there not just once or twice all right so here's the story king of syria they're warring with the king of israel this had gone on for years capital for israel was samaria that was the northern capital for the israelites the ten tribes syrians up there in damascus just like today they're still fighting aren't they and they were at war constantly and um so the king of syria said well i'm going to set up an ambush for the king of israel and i'm going to set up a camp in this spot and when he comes down we'll we'll overpower him we'll take him and elisha the prophet would send a messenger to the king of israel and say you better be careful not to go through this valley or down this road because the king of syria is set up there to ambush you you know the secret to a successful battle most important thing is surprise in a war the element of surprise and so the king of israel would send his spies and they'd come back and say sure enough the syrians are all gathered they're ready to ambush you and he wasn't delivered once or twice that means on several occasions every time the king of syria had his secret war room and they'd talk about how they're going to attack the king of israel king of israel suddenly wouldn't go there anymore and he was just so flummoxed by all of this how does the king of israel always know what i'm up to well the first thing we should be aware of in this story is that you've got a war going on and there's an enemy that is seeking to ambush us have you ever been ambushed by the devil he gets you in your least expected temptation first peter 5 8 said be sober be vigilant be on your guard because your adversary the devil is going around like a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour we all know how lions work they ambush alliance can't run very long they can run fast for a short time but they really depend on sneaking up on the prey and catching them off guard when they're not being watchful first timothy 3 7 said be careful lest we fall into reproach in the snare of the devil the devil wants to snare people tries to catch them now how was it the king of israel was able to avoid these pitfalls the word of god through elisha the prophet gave him warning and he listened to the warning does god give us warnings in his word to help us avoid being ambushed by the devil amen the word is our weapon thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path you know one of the important ways that we stay out of trouble is through how we focus our eyes is one of the most important things to keep from temptation because it is really hard to resist a temptation you are focused on the idea is to refocus away from the temptation i remember growing up in our home we had a dog he's pretty useless his name was zipper he was a beagle uh but my father and my stepmother just totally spoiled zipper he kind of had the run of the house and uh but during dinner time you know you tell a dog you're not supposed to beg but zipper would sit there at the table and he'd beg but he did it with a certain amount of self-control he'd sit there and he'd look at my father and my father he'd cut a piece of steak and he'd put it on the ground and he'd say no no and zipper knew a piece of steak that he would get it eventually was on the ground right in front of him but he'd look at my father and he knew he couldn't look at the stake if he looked at the stake it was over with and he just he'd be going like this and he's just waiting for my father to say okay and then he looked down and he gobbled up because he knew if he looked at it he'd have to eat it and so even instinctively animals know it is really hard to resist a temptation that you're staring at the bible says you're supposed to flee from temptation so now while we're talking about eyes remember how important it is to focus in the right direction so the way that we avoid being ambushed by the devil is through the messengers that come through the word it was the message of elisha that said don't go here don't go there and as long as the king listened he was safe and our safety depends on heeding the word of the lord through his prophets and his law ii chronicles 20 20 believe in the lord your god and you will be established believe his prophets and you will prosper now we don't know where the devil's going to attack us next uh he's sneaky but we know what the word says about how to avoid temptation i i understand reading years ago that people involved in the ancient art of falconry they would take hawks or falcons and they would train them and they they'd have them hunt small prey for them and when they'd release them from their wrist they'd go they'd start circling looking for prey and pretty soon the falcon or the man on the ground who who owns these birds he's looking around he doesn't know where they are so he kept another bird called the shrike in a little wooden cage and he would watch the bird because that bird the hawk or the falcon was a natural enemy of the shrike and wherever that bird was wherever the falcon was in the sky the shrike was always watching him and so all he had to do was look at the bird and he's oh he's over there he's looking here he's over here he's looking and you know we need that just like extra guidance that god gives us in the word if we keep our eyes on christ he will keep us from temptation why do you think in the lord's prayer it says it's a daily prayer lead us not into temptation it says give us this day our daily bread and lead us not into temptation because we're attempted almost daily almost certainly daily right matter of fact if you don't think you're being tempted daily you're probably totally lost because you just have not even resisted in a long time but if you're trying to live a holy life you'll find all kinds of temptation around you and we need to daily pray for wisdom to avoid it now in the lord's prayer when it says lead us not into temptation it's not that god is trying to lead us into temptation we're really praying him to lead us away from our natural inclination towards temptation so the king of syria he is just so confounded how is it that the king of israel always know he always knows what our war plans are and what our ambush is going to be you know during world war ii the the nazi luftwaffe was coming across english channel and hammering england but that was right about the time that the english developed radar spelled the same forward and backwards and the radar would show up it was pretty primitive but they could see when a squadron of bombers was coming across a channel they would send up their forces along with some american planes and they always knew where they were and then they would do a counter-attack to prevent the bombing and the german high command didn't know about radar yet they were so sure that they had a traitor on the inside all kinds of people in their war room were punished and tortured because they said which one of you is telling them what our plans are well it wasn't any of them it was that they had developed radar well you know elisha had radar and eventually one of them said it says you read here in second kings 6 11 therefore the heart of the king of syria was greatly troubled by this thing and he called his servants his commanders and captains and said will you not show me which one of us is for the king of israel who's the traitor in our midst and one of them said uh none my lord o king but elijah isn't that interesting that uh the forces of the king were pretty loyal to the king even though he was the enemy sometimes the devil's forces are more loyal than gods but he said elisha the prophet who is in israel he tells the king of israel the words that you speak in your bedroom now that would make most of us nervous i was doing some marriage counseling i could probably share this with you a long time ago and you don't know who it was or where it was and and then talking to the couple uh there had been an extra marital affair and the way the wife found out was her husband called one night and said you know something came up and work's going to keep me out of town another day he called from a hotel room and she just thought something didn't sound right about his voice and so he went to hang up the phone this is back in the days when the home it wasn't a cell phone you hung up on a regular receiver he didn't get it all the way in the cradle and it stayed off the hook and she didn't hang up right away and heard something that no wife would ever want to hear and if only that husband knew that the words in the bed chamber were being broadcast i've got news for you there is nothing hidden from god god knows everything it says all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we have to do i remember i was in a small church kovalev and we had a very primitive radio shack sound system and it did not have what they call shielded wires when you have audio wires that go from your amp to your speaker they're supposed to be shielded the reason they're shielded is because those wires can end up working like an antenna and pick up radio frequencies that get broadcast through your speaker and sometimes we'd be in the middle of the church service and all of a sudden we'd hear truck drivers talking on their cbs coming over our sound system we'd hear ambulances we'd hear planes flying over and i remember one sabbath in particular i was up there preaching last time we heard the ambulance driver talking to the base station saying stuff that he would never have said if he knew it was being broadcast in a local church heaven hears everything we say he said elisha the prophet now you know how you say elisha elisha is very much like the name of jesus it's elohim is savior jesus name is yahweh is savior elijah is like a type of jesus in this story you know luke chapter 12 verse 2 says there is nothing covered that will not be revealed nor hidden that will not be known therefore whatever you've spoken in the dark will be heard in the light and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetop god has tried to teach me the hard way which is how i learned most things you shouldn't talk about people it's never right never feel good but sometimes we all do a little bit of that i won't ask you to raise your hands because on more than one occasion i've been saying something that may not have been complimentary about somebody turn around there they are ever do that with your parents you're talking about when you're a kid they're listening yeah and then there's swift in immediate retribution so the king of israel comes up with an idea he says go and find out where he is this is their secret weapon i can't conquer the kingdom unless i get through elisha because he's flirting all of my plans so i'll go after him why did the devil go after jesus if the devil wants to destroy us he's got to get through christ and so he focuses on the big problem in israel was this single prophet now in in thinking about this i can't help but wonder out of the whole king of israel they had trained generals and captains and sergeants and soldiers they had their champions and their men of valor and and the king of syria is worried about the prophet are you a threat to the devil you should be has god had people on earth that were a threat to the devil when god said to satan have you considered my servant job oh just the name of job just made the hackles go up on the back of satan's neck oh not job i haven't been able to get anywhere with job and job was a threat to the devil the apostle paul was a threat to the devil as were most of the apostles and he gave him special attention that's why jesus said to peter peter satan has desired to have you that he might sift you as sweet the devil knew that if peter was thoroughly converted he was such a a good communicator of course he was the spokesman there at pentecost that the church would fly peter was a natural leader and so he had to bring down peter jesus said peter i've especially prayed for you because you're a threat to the devil you know even before peter denied christ peter had been out preaching and he met with great success and so the devil was focusing on him and jesus says i prayed for you that your faith does not fail and when you're converted strengthen the brethren you know paul was out traveling through asia one time with silas and he um he was casting out evil spirits and there was this one man that was possessed by the devil that was a special uh problem and there was a jewish priest named skeva he had seven sons and they fancied themselves exorcists they had heard you know that uh there's a lot of problems with demonic activity and they said you know for price we'll cast out devils they said well this is one man here he's really filled with devils and so the seven sons of skiva went to cast the devils out of this man and this was a genuinely demon-possessed man and they said well you know paul is doing this with some success and he's using the name of jesus and so without even knowing jesus these boys say to the devil in the name of jesus who paul preaches come out and the devil laughed at them and said the demon possessed man he said i know paul and i know jesus but i don't know you and he leapt on these young men and beat them up and then by the way that's acts 19 15 leapt on them beat them up and they all fled naked and wounded but i always was struck by the thought that the devil said i know paul but i don't even know you so which way do you want it you're probably going to think about your answer do you want the devil to know who you are don't you want to be living the kind of life where god says have you considered my servant put your name in there that you're living the kind of life that is a threat to the devil but part of you is thinking i don't know that i want any special attention from the devil i'm already getting a hard time so i'm sure if you're like me you feel kind of that's like mixed that's a trick question well elisha was a special threat because of his godliness and his relationship with the lord i hope we want that kind of relationship the king naturally reasoned if he could capture elisha he could overcome the people you know even christ quoted that scripture smite the shepherd and the sheep will scatter so they went after the shepherd of the people the devil was trying to attack the source of communication the way that god was communicating with the king was through elisha how does god communicate with us through prayer we pray in christ's name and the devil knows that if he can cut off the lines of communication you know one of the first things that happened during the first gulf war when the allied forces went in to liberate kuwait and they attacked iraq all those first bombers they came and they didn't bomb people you know what they bombed those missiles took out their radar took out their communication towers took out their television stations their radio stations it cut off their communication and that's one of the first things you do to weaken a kingdom how do you think the devil weakens us cuts off our community gets us to neglect prayer we're in too big a hurry matter of fact karen and i this morning here i'm the pastor hurrying to go to church and teach everybody about god and i'm running out the door karen came to the garage to put some potluck food in there and i thought we haven't prayed together and so standing there in the garage we stopped and prayed you know we kind of pray together as a family we got so busy doing the work of the lord we forgot to pray together oh but i'm doing god's work so it's okay if i neglect communication no we gotta make sure the devil doesn't trick us for that old trap so the king says if we could just get elisha he said go and see where he is so they've got these spies that are kind of roaming around they're inquiring where's elisha they said surely he's in dothan now anyone know where dothan appears another time in the bible when joseph goes looking for his brothers he ends up wandering dothan's not far from shechem it's up there in the middle of israel and he he found them it's a little town it's got short walls just big enough to keep the cattle out and the cattle in and the word dothan means too well so the city it was a nice little place had two wells in it but it was comparatively small and as elisha went on his circuit visiting the different parts of israel to encourage people you notice he he would go visit the different schools of the prophets for this time being he's in dothan you remember elisha also he would stay with the woman of shunam and she had an upper room she built for him so he went on a circuit to encourage people they never knew exactly where he was they said well he's a dothan right now therefore the king of syria he sent horses and chariots with a great army now usually chariots that's like you're taking out the tanks horses and chariots in a great army for this one unarmed prophet reminds me of when king herod went to arrest peter with 16 soldiers and they came by night and they surrounded the city we've got him now no way of escape he's surrounded now it would seem to me that the king of israel or the king of syria would realize if elisha knows what things i say in my bed chamber he's going to know about this plan too so what good is it going to be you know the devil knows that the way to get to god's people is he's got to go through jesus and so the king says i've got to get elisha that's why the devil wanted to kill jesus he thought if i can get christ to bow down to me then i'll have the world you know the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light and christ has warned us i send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as dove so during the night the king of syria with his says great army probably wasn't his whole force but it's significant he's got chariots and horses he's got big enough army to surround the city and maybe the dogs were barking early in the morning they heard all the horses out there kind of snorting they're the first to know and the servant of elisha now he's got a new servant because you remember in chapter five gehesai was strict with leprosy now we're in chapter six of second kings so this young man he doesn't maybe have the same kind of faith he wakes up and he says okay well probably time to get up and go draw some water from one of the wells and and he goes up the sun is just beginning to illuminate the sky and he sees the glint of something shining and then he realizes as his eyes adjust and he hears the horses and the the murmuring of the men that the city is surrounded by an army and his heart seizes him with fear and he drops his bucket there at the well and he runs inside and shakes and wakes elisha says master alas what will we do and elisha gets up like jesus when he awoke in the storm and he yawns and stretches and doesn't look at all worried and he walks to the window and he looks out and he sees the the soldiers out there and he says young he says come on let me get a better view and they walk out on the roof and there from the roof he can see the syrian army all around the city and the young man says what will we do what will we do so he said do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them now if there was one thing that you could remember today i think that'd be a great part of the sermon to remember that when you are afraid and you think that the problems are too big or that you are outnumbered or there's no way of escape or there are no solutions does the lord want us to live in fear how many times does jesus say do not be afraid there in the storm the disciples woke up jesus and they said we're afraid we're dying and he said where is your faith why are you so afraid fear not fear not fear not i am with you god said when you go through the water i'm with you when you go through the fire i'm with you when you go through the lion's den i'm with you through the red sea through the jordan he said i will never leave you or forsake you but we forget that we don't need to be afraid if we are walking with christ you know that you and jesus are always the majority you don't ever have to be afraid he said don't fear those who are with us are more than those who are with them now elisha at this point is he concerned about the syrian army or is he concerned about the faith of his servant elisha wants to disciple his servant the same way that elijah discipled elisha he says i want to build faith in him this is this is what they would call a teachable moment that was a great teachable moment so one of the first things that elisha's thinking about is here's this crisis i'm going to show him i'm not afraid because i walked with elijah and i know from being with elijah that when god pulled aside the veil i saw chariots and horses of fire around elijah that if you're with elijah you have nothing to be afraid of and he said i need to teach you that if you're with god you have nothing to be afraid of has god ever said to you why are you afraid you know i first heard an indian pastor on the reservation preached this and uh in the navajo reservation and he said he said god is on his throne we don't need to worry and for the first time that picture came to me and i thought you know sometimes i thought in my mind that god was somehow up in heaven and there's this problem on earth and god is wringing his hands and worried and the veins are standing out in his forehead and he's saying oh no what will i do have you do you ever think god's worried is god ever worried about anything no then if we're abiding in christ how worried should we be no we don't need to worry god is still on his throne and if we turn to him with our problems he can deal with them and elisha said o lord i pray open his eyes that he may see hence the title for the sermon now elijah doesn't say open my eyes he didn't need his eyes open you know jesus said to thomas you believe because you've seen he said i won't believe unless i see the nail prints in his hands and the scar in his side unless i thrust my hand in the scar decide just very you know some of you are from missouri right you just you need to see you got to be you need the evidence elisha didn't say open my eyes jesus said blessed are those who believe without seeing but sometimes we need some encouragement he said lord he needs he needs a lesson open his eyes and behold the lord opened the young man's eyes and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around elisha does jesus ever have anything to be afraid of when the disciples pulled out their sword remember they came to arrest jesus peter pulled out his sword and he went and peter was a pretty good fisherman but he wasn't much of a soldier and he went to cut off the head of malcus and all he got was his ear and jesus healed the ear of malcus and he said peter put your sword back in its sheath those that live by the sword will die by the sword and he added do you not know that i can now pray my father and he'll send more than 12 legions of angels. bible promises the angel of the lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them do we need to be afraid of the last days psalm 27 3 though a host an army should encamp against me my heart shall not fear the war should rise against me in this i will be confident well this is very literal the host was camping against them david said you don't need to be afraid psalm 3 6 i will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves round about me there are plenty of promises that were written before this event that young man could have known you don't have to be afraid and then of course psalm 91 he'll give his angels charge over you to keep you in all of your ways the angel of the lord encamps around those who fear him now are they there today are they there right now when adam and eve were first created they were clothed with garments of light adam and eve could talk to angels the way you and i are talking to each other matter of fact their vision was better we right now are confined to the three dimensions that we operate in but adam and eve had complete access to that fourth dimension we called the spirit realm we can't see it's easier for us now to believe in that because there were probably six thousand years of human history you never could have convinced the person that sound could go through the air that tv pictures could go through the air right now you and i know most of us believe that radio frequencies and x-rays and all kinds of things are going through the air matter of fact we believe it so much some are afraid we're going to get cancer from it but we know that words can go through air that you can't see them but they're there we know the tv pictures somehow can go through the air why do we find it hard to believe that there's another dimension scientists haven't yet discovered a spiritual realm that's very real and that there are angels in this room hopefully more good than bad there's probably a few bad angels the bible says there's two times as many good angels and i think the good angels are stronger than the bad angels because they're vegetarians i can't prove that but uh they do eat angel food cake so we don't need to be afraid but they're there they're real so if you know that you've got god angels around you you know you've probably read some of the the wonderful testimonies of ellen white gives how at times when there was a crisis her eyes were open and she saw angels sometimes the angels were seen right by her visually and giving her messages that she should share but we need to remember that reality that god has his angels there you know a flounder and a halibut fish when they're born like most fish they got a an eye on each side but something happens af before they turn a year of age they go through a metamorphosis where suddenly they're swimming like most fish you know what do you call it vertically and then all of a sudden one day they go and they start swimming flat and about that same time something happens and the eye on one side of the flan to the bottom eye that's looking at the bottom migrates around and talk about evolution happening quickly i goes from that side to this side and so the fishermen call it the blind side of the fish is the side that looks down and if we spend our lives looking down we're blind we need to be looking up and living in a reality of things that are not seen but are very real he said lord open his eyes so his eyes were open he felt much better now elisha walks out of the gates of the city says the syrians came down to him i'm in second kings 6 18 and they think they're getting ready to put them in handcuffs and elisha prays again and elisha prays and says lord strike this people i pray with blindness and he struck them with blindness according to the word of the lord so now the whole army goes blind and i don't know if they just got confused they couldn't figure out why they were there or if they physically went blind but now they can't see anything whole army struck blind now jesus talked about the blind leading the blind well here you have a case of someone who can see leading the blind army and so elisha says to him i'm you're not looking for me you're only looking for me because you're really trying to get the king here's a picture of the whole army struck blind and by the way you know there's other times in the bible where godly people prayed that someone would go blind i know you always think that the saved are going to pray that people get their sight but sometimes you got to pray a person's blinded temporarily and this is what paul did in acts 13 9 saul who was also called paul matter of fact this is the story where paul's name goes from saul to paul he goes where originally barnabas was the chief spokesman this is the time where paul finally speaks up and he becomes the spokesman acts 13 9. saul who's also called paul filled with the holy spirit he looks intently at this sorcerer who is trying to dissuade someone from accepting jesus a guy named sergius paulus and he says to the sorcerer o full of deceit and all fraud you son of the devil you enemy of all righteousness it's like paul is talking to the devil in the man not just the man how long will you not cease to pervert the straight ways of the lord and now indeed the hand of the lord is upon you and you will be blind not seeing the son for a time now why did paul say lord strike him with blindness to bring him to repentance so maybe he would see the lord why would paul in particular pray that prayer was paul once struck blind paul thought i have great spiritual truth i'm a pharisee of the pharisees and i'm going to go kill off all those christians and on the road to damascus god said you have no idea what you're doing you are spiritually blind and god struck him blind to illustrate that paul prayed and his sight was restored so paul was converted as a result of losing his sight then he got it back now paul is praying for the same thing to happen to this false teacher not that he'd be permanently blinded but that he'd be blinded long enough to know that he was blind nothing's more dangerous than a blind person who thinks they can see i'm talking about a spiritually blind person who thinks they can see and he prayed the whole army goes blind and then he says to the king he said you're not really looking for me he said this is not the way nor this is the city follow me and i'll bring you to the man who you seek you always say following elisha right now this must have been a sight when i get to heaven and they say is there any particular dvd of earth's history you'd like to withdraw and look at this is one i would like to take off the shelf here you've got elisha he hooks his finger in the bridle of the lead horse and he starts walking down the road between dothan and samaria with an army in tow and all these syrian soldiers are on their horses and they're just totally confused about where they're going uh wouldn't that have been something and as the guards are up on the walls of syria they see dust in the distance and they're wondering what's going on and they say there's an army coming lock the gates get everyone get your spears prepare for battle and they said yeah it looks like the syrian army's coming but they don't look like they're in a war formation they're just walking down the road and and if we're not mistaken it looks like elisha's leading them and all the hebrew soldiers gather on the walls of samaria and they're looking at this very bizarre sight of elisha and his servant who's really having a good time now and he sees the prophet leading the army and he comes within the gates and he yells up to the king of israel open the gates king doesn't argue they don't look like they're they have no arrows in their bows and they're not ready for battle they open the gates and into the capital city of the northern kingdom they lead this army and they bring them all in and they shut the gates and they're there in the central courtyard of the city and then elisha prays you know that prime moment he says now lord open the eyes of these men that they may see you know it's only being led by elisha after being led by elisha that they could really see it's only by following jesus that we ultimately see and the lord opened their eyes and they saw and they were inside samaria you know this is a great great story because here the surrounders became the surrounded they came to surround dothan and the eyes of elisha's servant are open he says oh the chariots and horses of god are surrounding you and then the soldiers are led inside samaria they originally thought we've got them where we want them now their eyes are open they're going wow talk about turning the tables now they are in the city the king of israel who they've been trying to trap has surrounded them and oh that's that must have been a great scene they finally when they got their wits about them and all the the hebrew soldiers they're up on the walls and on the roofs and they get their spears ready to launch and their arrows ready to fly and they're just waiting you know the little laser beams are on their their targets and they're just ready for the word and the king looks to elisha it says shall i smite them now shall i smite them now just give the word ready aim say it fire elijah's no you're not going to smite them you've captured them you captured them all alive you captured them without firing an arrow so often battles in the bible god gave deliverance and he says you won't even have to fire an arrow because the angel of the lord encamps round about those that fear him and what did he say you people think the gospel is not in the old testament it certainly is elijah said said food and water before them that they may go to their master you know the teaching of the bible is you overcome evil with good feed them give them something to eat show them love show them that they have been pursuing you you have not been pursuing them you ever have an enemy you want to get even with you need to kill him with kindness you don't get anywhere fighting evil with evil i think it was gandhi that said if the whole world lives by the principle of an eye for an eye he said soon the whole world is blind way you conquer evil is with kindness he said give them food they're probably hungry give them water send them home show them that you're not waging war against them they're waging war against you and it's unprovoked so they made a big provision a big feast you know proverbs says this solomon said if your enemy is hungry give him bread to eat if he's thirsty give him water to drink for so he will heap coals of fire on his head that's not saying that in doing this you're going to ha i'm going to burn them up it means their conscience is going to smite them and they're going to go oh man they're being so good to me and i'm being so bad to them some of you might need to practice and overcome evil with good in your families you've got somebody that's been giving you a hard time you're looking for a good way to get even someone says something that's mean and you say i got a good comeback that's i got to fight that all the time because you know i can think of a clever comeback and and uh do a gotcha but that's not what jesus would do you don't overcome evil with evil you overcome evil with good romans repeats what proverbs says in romans 12 20 and that's where paul says in romans 12 21 do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good jesus said in matthew 5 43 you've heard it said that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but i say to you love your enemies hear elisha is doing that in the old testament bless those who curse you do good to those who hate you pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you you know this to me is one of the hardest places to be a christian is to love those that hate you to be kind to those that take advantage of you you've got stories i've got stories of people that have done maybe very mean things and it's hard to pray that god will love and bless them but isn't that what we should pray for their ultimate conversion that you might be the sons of your father in heaven he makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and he sends rain on the just and the unjust remember hearing a story about this old scotsman that had just a mortal enemy he just hated he could not forgive his name was mcclintock mcclintock's the old scotsman and he just spent all his time brooding thinking of ways to get even with his enemy that you know it was like a long-standing feud that had happened with his neighbor in town and one day the angel appeared to him said i've got good news mcclintock he said anything you ask now i will give you he said but just know that whatever you ask for i will give twice as much to your enemy you ask for pot of gold i will give it to you but your enemy will get two pots of gold you ask for a new horse i will give him two new horses you ask for a home with 10 rooms he gets a home with 20 rooms that bothered him so much he was ringing his hands and anxious and stewing about i don't want i want to ask for i don't want him to get it in he just could not forgive and finally he said ah i want you to strike me blind in one eye some people just never get it proverbs 24 17 do not rejoice when your enemy falls and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles peter says first peter 3 9 nor returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary blessing knowing that you are called to this that you might inherit a blessing if you are good to those that are unkind to you who will win in the end god will bless you in the end he'll bless you with peace for one thing because when you're always thinking bitterness and revenge is like an acid that corrodes the container that holds it if you have unforgiveness that you are nurturing in your heart it is corroding you so one of the first blessings that comes when you learn to forgive and do good to those that say look this is their problem i'm not going to feel about them the way they feel about me you'll receive a blessing and the wonderful thing would be if they're converted in the process someone said make it a habit of getting even with people especially the ones who help you it says so he prepared a great feast for them and they ate and they drank and he sent them away and they went to their master notice this part so the bands of syrian raiders came no more into the land of israel what do you know here the story starts they're just going after the king of israel time and time again they're relentless they will not give up how did they finally stop the onslaught love them do something good for them show them kindness is the way to get even and now how did jesus overcome the evil in this world he overcame evil with good while we were yet sinners christ died for us he didn't wait for us to love him before he started loving us while we were his enemies he showed love for us and died for our sins why that the love of god might melt our hearts and that we could learn to love him in return that's what the story of the gospel is being a christian is really about a new point of view i love this story it talks about opening eyes closing eyes opening eyes i'm glad it ends with eyes being open we need to pray god will open our eyes and help us to spend our time looking up and thinking about the eternal realities not becoming distracted by fixing our attention here the bible says fixing our eyes on jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him this is hebrews chapter 12 endured the cross despising the shame that we might be saved that's the one we ought to fix our eyes on we're going to sing about that in closing it's open my eyes that i might see 326 i invite you to stand as we sing together and we'll close with prayer so [Music] this is [Music] is [Music] silently [Music] everywhere oh [Music] open my heart [Music] father lord it's so easy for us to become distracted with the literal carnal world we forget the spiritual realities give us the gift of the holy spirit open our eyes so that we can remember that you promise first of all to never leave us and forsake us you promised that you have your host of angels that are about us that nothing is troubling you and that if we follow your word we can be safe from the devil's ambush lord and even even as important as all this we pray that you'll help us to know the simple principle and practice in our lives not to get even with our enemies but to overcome evil with good lord we pray that you will bless each family here i pray that we can be christians in life and indeed that we can be your witnesses we ask your blessing on your people on your church on every family and let our light shine as we go from this place we pray in jesus name amen please be seated for just a moment pastor ross has a brief announcement

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Id: 28_-JcZSpw8

Length: 51min 58sec (3118 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 05 2021