So it happened coming
out of the car wash. Daisy was in the middle row. Linux was in the
back seat buckled into his car seat,
which is always a process with a three-year-old. First, there's the season
where every time you have to buckle him in. Then there's the season where
he wants to buckle himself in, which is the season
we're currently in. Here's a little fun fact, he's
not very good at it, or fast at it, or thorough about it. So that's aggravating, but
he will cry if we go back and do it. I can do it myself. And so there's
always the waiting, and there's always the
triple confirmation. Did Linux finish
buckling everything up? Is it done properly? I mean, I'm talking
is it at his sternum? Is it tight enough? Or, oh, no, it's tight. [INAUDIBLE] It's like you could fit
nine of him in there. That's not going to work. And so we successfully
got the confirmation from Daisy, who is 10
and a details person. So Daisy says, no,
dad, he is buckled in. And so we come out
of the car wash, because during the car
wash, everybody's unbuckled. It's a circus in our car. Everyone's looking
up the sunroof and watching the
octopus attack the car, and there's tears sometimes. It's just there's lots of-- all the things, guys. And so coming out
of the car wash, turning left, spot the
opening, and so I gun it. We take the left turn, and
Daisy says, dad, dad, dad. And I say, what? She goes, Lenox. I go, what, Daisy? Did he unbuckle? She goes, no, he tipped over. At which point, I
said, he did what? So I quickly pulled over
onto the side of the road and looked back, and sure
enough, Lenox is tipped over. He is in his car seat, I
will let you know, buckled in perfectly to his car seat. The problem was his car seat
was not buckled into the car, and so this was
the first epiphany. Lenox knows how to unbuckle
his car seat, which is almost like the velociraptors
learning how to get out of the cages a little
bit because now, it's a new thing we have to confirm. Is he buckled in? Is the car seat buckled in? And so the second
epiphany, which I still don't know the answer to-- I'll have to get to Heaven
and pull out the DVRs-- how many days has it been since
that car seat was unbuckled and no one had just
done a quick left turn? And so we sorted
this out and had the conversation and the
learning opportunity, and as we continued
heading down the road, that's when God
began to speak to me. What are the areas
of my life that look like they're put together,
but that deep down, there's not that base, there's
not that foundation, there's not that root system? And this is what is
to be on our minds as we continue now week 2 of
our series of messages called, "Take Back Your Life," a
40-day adventure and journey, interactive, that
is all about us learning how to think right
so that we can live right, and trying to root out
dysfunction, areas of our lives that are not healthy,
are not productive. Relationships, habits, ways
of thinking that are toxic. And we're not just going
for the surface stuff, because I think it's pretty easy
in this life that's always go, go, go-- got to be there, got to
do this, got to get that done-- to have the quick check and
say, I'm buckled in, I'm good. But the question we're
asking in this series is, is the thing you're
buckled into buckled in? Because you can look
good on the surface, but still deep down not
have that anchor, not have that foundation, not
be scalable long-term. We don't want to just
have a good year or even a good decade. We want to last. We want to build
lives out of marble. We want eternal impact. We want Jesus to
tell us, well done, good and faithful servant,
when we stand before Him. So that's what we're
really trying to do, is we take our lives back. We're trying to take back
the control from things we've given it to
that are not long-term going to make us happy. And as we continue in the
second week of this series, I'll remind you that
we said last week this is all about testing. We're all about this 40-day
period that in the Bible, again and again, comes down
to this idea of testing, and we're being tested. I don't think it's any mistake
that if you take 20 and add it to 20, what you're
going to get to is 40. And we're in this
2020 time of testing where just about everything that
can be tested is being tested. These, as they say, are the
times that try men's souls, and so we're trying
to come to a place where we're passing this test. The Bible says that God
doesn't test us to destroy us. He tests us to prove
the work that He's capable of doing deep
down inside of our hearts. And if you have a Bible right
there where you are, would you turn with me to
Matthew chapter 6, and I want to give to you
a message that I'm calling, "Sight for Sore Eyes." Sight for sore eyes. And this would be a perfect
time to hit that Share button on Facebook or to send
a YouTube link to a friend, to someone in your life
who needs to be encouraged from God's Word, whether
you're watching this live or you're watching it
down the road later on. Just think about
anybody in your life you could be used to
encourage, to give them a lift, hey, I'm going through
this book with my church. It's a 40-day devotional. I thought you'd listen to
this message, maybe like it. Maybe you'd want to get the
book, maybe you wouldn't. I gave it to a friend
this week, someone I know, and he was really touched. He said, thank you so much. That really means a lot. I'm going to set it down
next to my Bible and read it. I love that. I love that I can check in
with him now in a couple days and have an easy
frame of reference, because we're going
through the same thing, and it's pretty neat
and pretty special. When I say, sight for
sore eyes, of course, I'm conjuring up those
images of someone you haven't seen in a while,
and now you're in front of them again, and just that
feeling of refreshment. A friend of mine who
I follow on Instagram, and we've been together
here and there in life, but I follow his-- it's
funny on Instagram, we know what each
other are doing, even when we're not
around each other. So when we do get to be
around each other, like, oh, how's that thing going that
I don't know about firsthand, but I did see you post
about it last February. It's really easy
to stalk people. So I just saw that he was
with his grandparents, but not with them in person. He was with them
through a window because he wanted to
be there with them, but couldn't be
there next to them. And so just that touching, like,
I'm close, but not right there, and how sweet it will be
when we can finally just hug without caring again
and be around one another. I think there will be a
lot of sight for sore eyes type of comments we'll be able
to make about loved ones we haven't seen because
of proximity, or the difficulty of travel,
or the fear of spreading a disease. And so that's what
we're talking. A sight for sore eyes. The idea of lenses comes
up again, and again, and again in this
book because there is such an import on what we
see, on the things that we say, on how we respond to
the things that we feel. And Jesus speaks directly to
this topic in Matthew chapter 6. This is a very famous passage. It's The Sermon on
the Mount, which is so named because He
gave this sermon while standing on a mount,
as you could expect. Verse 22, Matthew 6. This is God's Word. "The eye is the
lamp of the body. If your eyes are
healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are
unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light
within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" And Jesus, I pray that as
we pause our lives that can be so crazy, just to listen
to You, to hear from Heaven, to be refreshed, not just
through singing worship songs to You, but now as we
listen to words written by You, by Your Spirit. This is Your Word on this page. Eternal. Able to help, able
to heal, and we ask that You would give us eyes
to see what You want us to. Empower to change. And I pray for salvation. I pray for progress in the
journey of sanctification and becoming more like You. I pray for people discouraged
today, You'd encourage them, and I pray that we
would be inspired to live a better story. And we ask this in
Jesus' name, Amen. It was a while back
that I landed in Texas. I was on a little
preaching trip, and I was picked
up at the airport along with someone from our
team who was traveling with me. And while we were taken to eat-- there's a meal being
put on by the people who had brought us in to give a
talk at this church in Dallas. And while we were in the
restaurant, the person who was driving us around, he did
a little shopping, at least that's what I noticed, because
when I got back into the car, behind me in the-- not
that I was snooping, but there was a bag that
hadn't been there before. Urban Outfitters
is what it said. And I just thought to
myself, apparently, he's capitalizing on his time. Did a little shopping. And so we got to the church, and
I had to change pretty quickly. The event happened. And while we were in
the back room going over the program
for the conference, talking about different
flow, things, who's going to speak when, and
who's introducing who, and what band is doing what,
and all this was going on, I noticed that our host
who had been taking care of our details,
getting us around, slipped into the bathroom
and came out just before the pre-service prayer. And when he came out, he was
wearing a different shirt. He had been wearing a black
T-shirt, and when he came out, he was wearing a Hawaiian-style
shirt, buttoned up, collared. Only this one had a
print all over it. It was squiggles,
but the squiggles where this abstract
design repeated over, and over, and over again. I shouldn't have been
fixated on his shirt because I had to give a
message to 5,000 people in just a few moments, but I'm
thinking, apparently, this was the shirt
he-- maybe this was the shirt he bought earlier. I don't know. I'm like, OK. I see what's happening here. He's like, bought this shirt. He's like, this is the night. This is the night this shirt
will see the light of day. And so now we're huddled up,
and the band's over here, and we're over there,
and as I recall, it was Carrie Joe
about to lead worship. And so she's giving this
amazing little prophetic word in the pre-service prayer,
and this pastor's over here, and just before
the prayer began, I looked one more time at
the shirt, and I just-- am I seeing things or do
those little squiggly lines actually-- those are naked women. That's what I thought to myself. Those squiggly lines
aren't just squiggly lines. Those are naked women. OK. Now the prayer has begun. We are linked up in
hands, hand-in-hand. We are beseeching the throne
room of Almighty God for mercy and help in time of need. The pastor dropped to
his knees at one point, and I can't stop
staring at the shirt. I'm like, is it really that? Then I start to go,
no, it's not that. This probably says more
about me than the shirt. It's probably one of
those psychological tests. It's probably just nothing. Or you-- well, you see
what you want to see. So then I'm, well, then
I don't want to see that. So I'm like, no. And then, I mean,
just to be sure, I peek out of the
corner of my eye. It's my turn to pray now. I'm like, those
are naked people. I totally fumbled the prayer. Now we're getting escorted
out, the front row. Service has begun. There's thousands
of people in a room. Use your imagination. We are singing, and it's
worship, and it's powerful. The Spirit is moving,
and I look over, and my host has both
hands in the air. I think I saw a tear
trickling down his cheek. Then I'm like, you know what? How can I judge the guy? He is praising God. Maybe they're more
just free in Texas. Maybe this is just celebrating
the beauty of creation. And so if he's worshipping,
I'm like, who am I to judge? But that's pretty weird. Those are naked women on his
shirt in the House of the Lord. And so I just-- but now I'm like, I have two
songs till I have to preach. I need to actually-- what
message am I even giving? So I'm opening my Bible, and
I'm trying to figure things out. And just before the video
that's going to play that would introduce me to go
on stage, I look over, and my host has a windbreaker
zipped up to his chin. Just tight. It's not that it
doesn't fit him. I don't think it's his. It was somebody else's. And I look over, and
I go, are you cold? And he goes, there's
naked women on my shirt. And I go, I know! Here's the crazy thing
about this story. Those naked women
were on his shirt when he saw it on the rack
and said, I choose you. The naked women
were on his shirt when he tried the
small on and then chose to go with the medium. As he walked to
the cash register and set it down and
said to the person, I'm purchasing this
today, here's my Visa, thank you very much,
there were naked women all over that shirt. And they were on
the shirt when he put it on in the mirror,
fixed his eyebrows, and came out for the
service to start. They were right there in front
of him, hiding in plain sight. The truth is, in our lives,
we don't see the full story. We see what we want to see. And because that's true, we
mistake much of the reality that we assume is there for
what we want to be there, oftentimes. Leadership guru, Stephen
Covey, in his incredible book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People, put it this way, quote, "We see the world, not
as it is, but as we are, or as we are
conditioned to see it." The truth is, reality is made
up mostly of what we cannot see. Because God, and angels,
and demons, and eternity, and the true story,
this is what we're unable to see because of our
fallen state, the Bible says. So what we need to learn
to do is see the spiritual, to see the unseen. What we can see now,
what we can spend now, what we can taste now,
what we can handle now, these things are
all passing away. What we can see now
will soon be gone, but what we cannot
see will last forever. It's the unseen realm
that is eternal. And so what we need to ask is,
what are my blind spots that I am blind to? What am I missing? What are the squiggly
lines forming that I'm not seeing
because I'm not connecting the dots because
I'm just seeing what I want to see here in this shirt? We all know that we are what we
eat, because everything we eat comes into us and then
becomes a part of us. But the truth is, we
are also what we see and the way that we see it. David knew this, and that's
why he said in Psalm 101, "I will set nothing
wicked before my eyes. I hate the work of
those who fall away. It shall not cling to me." I think we all need to be
careful to watch what we watch. What am I taking in? What movies am I watching? What am I bringing in through my
eyes that I should be shunning? And as I say that,
of course, I'm talking about the wicked
things, like David said, to shun the vile things,
to shun the wicked things. But it's not just the bad
things that can get in our way. As we learned last
week, it's not just being bad that's a problem. It's also being busy
that's a problem. So perhaps, there's
things that we're watching that aren't wicked,
they're just worthless. They're just not helping us. They're just distractions
from where we want to be. In Psalm 119, David
also said, "Turn my eyes from worthless things, and
revive me again in Your way." God wants us to not just
avoid wicked things, but also to stay away
from worthless things. Things that are just
holding us back. Because as the old
saying goes, the eyes are the windows to the
soul, or as Jesus put it, "The eyes are the
lamp of the body." And what that means is, what
you see will impact you. What you see, and what you
make sense of in the reality that you're living in, the
story that you're writing, it will impact your life and
the lives of those around you. Now, here, as
Jesus puts it, He's describing a person
whose body is impacted. Essentially, He's
saying his whole life is impacted because of his vision. His spiritual vision
or the lack thereof. Now, there are two ways to
bump into things in your room. As you're walking
through your house, there's two ways to
smack into something, and one way would be for
there to not be enough light. And we've all done that. I need to get up and get
some water in the night, but I don't want to turn the
lights on because my eyes are all adjusted now. So I think, I know my house. Bang. Coffee table. Bang. Leg of the bed. That's when we really test
how much we love Jesus. There's some words that
might come out of our mouths sometimes that are
not that spiritual. Bang. Because there
wasn't enough light. But the second way would be
for there to be enough light, but your eyes not
to work properly. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying there's plenty of
light, but if that light in you is dark, if your
eyes aren't working, it doesn't matter
how much light there is if the eyes aren't
receiving that light and aren't using that light. It will still end up bad
for your body as well. That is to say that if your
eyesight is, spiritually speaking, an eyesore. An eyesore. If you're spiritually
an eyesore-- that is to say,
you're living darkly, you're living a
dark life, you're living a vindictive life, a
petty life, an anxious life, a worried life, a life that's
full of mistrust, mistrusting, or greed, or jealousy-- your
vision, how you see things, is going to be changed. It's not going to just affect
everything about your body. It's going to affect
everything about your health. It's going to affect everything
about your relationships. And so when we talk about being
blind and seeing, of course, we think about that
salvation moment. That Paul moment, who hated
Christians, hated Jesus, and he was blind. And then God, bam, touched him. Scales fell, and he opened-- I can see now. I see everything differently. And when we think about
spiritual blindness, I think a lot of times
we think about that. But what we're forgetting
is that it's not always so clean cut as, I was
lost, and now I'm found. I was blind, now I see. There's also the
stages of seeing. The stages of growth. Don't mistake what I'm saying. There has to be a moment
where you call, Jesus Lord. There has to be a moment where
you invite Him into your heart. But I think there's also
degrees of blindness, and I think our emphasis on that
moment, when did you get saved? When did you give
your life to Christ? When were you amazing grace,
blind, but now you can see, and a wretch, but
you've been loved? We can forget about the
fact that even once we're saved, even once we're
forgiven, there's still areas where
we have blind spots. There's still areas where
we're not seeing correctly. There's still things that are
right there in front of us, on the shirt, we're
just missing them. And so God needs to touch
the areas of our life that are, spiritually,
an eyesore. But fortunately, whatever for
you is holding back your life from the progress that
you're meant to have, whatever that is, Jesus came
so that the unhealthy envision would receive sight. And those who have already
received some sight would receive more
sight, and those who have received a lot of sight
would even receive more sight. I don't care if
you've been walking with Jesus for 50 years
and growing grace, there's more for you to see. There's more in store for you. You're not done. You're not finished. There's more of God's grace
He wants to expose you to. More of His face He
wants to expose you to. More of even what's inside of
you that you're capable of. More people to touch. More He wants to trust to you. More He wants to do through you. God wants to bless you. Increase you. Cause His face to
shine upon you. I'm telling you something,
as long as we're living in a fallen world
where there's still going to be
explosions displacing hundreds of thousands of
people and killing people, as long as there's going
to be diseases that ravage the world, people who
are giving into their anxiety, as long as there's going to be
young girls who are not eating because they think if they
can just lose some weight and be pretty like the girls
they see on the TikTok For You page, that then
they'll have worth, then they'll have meaning,
then I'm telling you, there's going to
be Christians that need to rise up to share
the love, and share hope, and be kind, and give grace, and make a
difference in their high school this September, whether
it's online or in-person. I'm telling you that God
wants you to see more. He wants you to see clearly. He wants you to be aware that
you don't see right now as well as He wants you to see. There's areas for
all of us where there's an unhealthy aspect to
our eyesight, to our vision. He wants us to tap into
the fullness of sight that He came for us to have. And if you don't think this
is what Jesus came for, I got news for you. It's right there in his
mission statement, Luke 4:18, the reason he came-- this is
Jesus's purpose for coming-- "Anointed to bring the
gospel to the poor, to heal broken
hearts, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those
who are oppressed." And that vision is not just that
one time event of salvation. It's that constant
ongoing act by which our eyes are healed of areas
where they are unhealthy. Now, fortunately
for me in giving a message on what it's like
to have an unhealthy eye, I feel uniquely
qualified because of what happened in 2020. Yes, the irony of hurting
your eye in year 2020 is not lost on me. But I ended up in the
hospital on the 4th of July after a fire rocket shot
straight into my eyeball. And it was a-- there am I being wheeled
in to get the MRI, because they were
telling me at that moment that they were worried that the
cornea had two scratches in it, and that maybe the eye had
somewhat been ruptured. And yes, it was
not a pretty sight to look into those beautiful
baby blues on that day, but it's been a journey. And the way I see it,
anything you go through, God wants to teach
you something through, and He always wants
to give us comfort that we might receive comfort. And if I'm just being
completely honest with you, I needed to receive comfort. What you saw there,
being wheeled in to that hospital
back room, was really a difficult test for me. And a number of
times, I felt like I was going to
hyperventilate, and not just because I was wearing a mask. But I always feel like I'm
going to hyperventilate when I'm wearing a mask. They're supposed to be soothing
to breathe into a paper bag, but breathing into a
mask does not soothe me in any way, shape, or form. And I did get judged when I
posted one of those photos on Instagram. One of the first
comments was, how dare you wear that mask improperly. It's not even
covering your nose. I'm like, I'm sorry. The next time I almost blow my
eyeball out, I will really be-- I didn't even know I had a
mask on or what my name was, by the way. But I did walk into the
hospital with my hand like this. My wife was beside me. I bumped into the door frame
because she thought I had it. But she was a great nurse
through the whole thing, and the lady's like,
what's your name? I'm like, Lusko. She's like, you're my pastor. I was like, that's wonderful. But it was hard because that
is the exact hospital emergency room where we were taken back in
2012 when my daughter, Linnie, went to Heaven. And I had not been in those
ER rooms since that night, and it brought back a
lot of hard memories and challenging moments. And I was pretty sure,
as I got wheeled in, that I was never going to
see again out of that eye. And so it was just hard,
and there was a lot of fear and a lot of impact. Let me tell you, when
your eye is hurting, it impacts your whole body. I could tell you right now,
what Jesus said here is so true. If your eye is unhealthy, your
whole body does not feel right. It impacts your whole life to
not see like you're meant to. But the scary thing
is, the human eye is capable of adjusting. And so even right now, while
I'm preaching this message, out of my left eye, things
are still pretty blurry, and I'll talk more to you
about that in just a moment. But I don't notice
it most of the time, because your brain adapts. God's made us pretty resilient. And so I have even
now, in this moment, adapted to not seeing properly. And that's the danger,
is that we might not notice areas of our
life, spiritually, where we're settling for
less than God has for us. You might even have heard
this message and go, I don't even see a thing. It's like, maybe
that's the problem. If you say you can
see, Jesus says He can't do anything for you. But those who are willing to--
and this is John chapter 9. Those who are willing to
admit that they're blind, He has lots more
in store for you. So I hope you're not saying,
this message, I don't need, but maybe there's someone in
my life who needs it more. We got to always put
the oxygen mask on us before we're able to put
them on somebody else. And so I hope for all of
us today, we're going, God, help me to see. Open my eyes up. There's areas where
I know I'm blind. I don't even know
what it is, but God, I want You to show it to me. And I don't want to be content
just getting by, looking mostly out of my right eye. Really, if You can touch this
eye, I want You to do it. I want You to bring
me total healing. I want total deliverance. I want everything that
Christ has for me. What are my blind spots
that I'm blind to? What is my car seat I
am buckled into that is not buckled into that car? So help me. Here's five words I wrote
down that I've been hearing my ophthalmologist toss around. These are just hotcakes. All right. Here's the words
I've been living in that God's been speaking
spiritual revelation to me about. The first is pressure. Pressure. There is pressure
inside your eyeball, and your eye should
be, normally, they say, between 10 and 20 as
they do pressure checks. And I've had the pressure
tested in my eye, probably, 100 times since the
4th of July, and that was ever since I was in
the ER that night. Immediately doing
pressure checks because the trauma, the
impact of that mortar round that hit the eye,
it caused damage. And part of the damage,
it caused bleeding, and that bleeding internally
inside the eyeball caused there to be unhealthy
amounts of pressure. Now, the highest
I ever got was 50, and the pressure when it reached
50, it made me physically ill. When your ears are off,
you get that vertigo, but when the eye is messed
up, it can do the same thing. I spent one 24-hour period,
when the pressure was at its absolute highest, in
bed, in the dark, completely disoriented and confused,
and could barely get up, barely eat anything. It was just sick, and
I felt pale and sweaty, and it really messes
when you have pressure. Well, here's the parallel. We live in a world of pressure. We live in a world of stress. There's so much pressure. We're being bombarded
by pressure to perform, pressure to succeed, pressure
in school, pressure in sports, pressure in family. We have pressure when
we're posting things in life, and just in every
way, we deal with pressure. The pressure of health things
that can all of a sudden go sideways. We have and are going
to deal with pressure. Here's my question for you. What do you do when
you feel that pressure? Do you lash out
at others, feeling entitled to be mean to someone
because you're just having a bad day? Do you freak out? Do you worry and obsess over
it, and just completely just let it running around, and
round, and round, and round, and round in your mind
until you're almost in a downward spiral? Do you medicate? Ah, I'm feeling that pressure. OK. I'm going to alleviate
it with this spending, or this drinking, or this
mindless entertainment to take my mind off it. It can be easy. Or do you worship, and
thrive, and evolve, and grow, and listen, and
do the things you need to, to build your
pressure up in here? Because like a submarine that
would be crushed like a tin can by the pressure of the
deep sea, the solution is to have a pressure on
the inside equal or greater than the pressure
on the outside. You and I can't do
anything about the pressure that we face in this world. 2020 or not, there
is pressure that we are going to experience. The solution isn't to try and
get rid of external pressure, but to rather have a greater
source of inward pressure. Pressure that comes
from the Holy Spirit. And that's why Jesus,
when you read the Gospels, will always be found, before the
day begins, in a secret place. Before the crazy trial
began, in a secret place. I was texting a friend
who I had been reading through the Gospel of
John with, and I said, isn't it interesting
that before the cross, Jesus went to the Garden
of Gethsemane to pray? Because pressure was coming, He
needed to get alone and pray. But it says, Judas knew
to go there and betray Him because Jesus often went
there with His disciples. So the Garden of Gethsemane
was a place Jesus frequented. Why? Because that was
a location where He could pump up the pressure
on the inside of His heart to deal with the
constant pressure that He was up against. So don't try and
get rid of pressure. Good luck with that. In this world, you will have,
say it with me, pressure. Type it in the chat. Pressure. The solution is more pressure
in here, air pressure, from the Holy Spirit who will
breathe His power, His pneuma, wind, power. Wind, power into your heart. Pressure is not the problem. The lack of pressure
in your heart is. Number 2. I wrote this word down. Trauma. Trauma. The actual trauma of the eye. Right now where I'm sitting,
the blood's all out of the eye. The pressure is healthy. I'm down from five daily
drops in that eye to one. Thank God, because that took an
Excel spreadsheet and my wife doing nothing but
chasing me down with the teal, or the purple,
or the pink, or the red, or the turquoise drops. Or we left the house, oh, we
left the turquoise one behind. OK. Someone get the turquoise
eye drops, and all that. Because the trauma. And now the visible evidence
of it is all but gone, but there's still just
the lingering impact from the trauma. Some of you today,
being around you, none of us could tell what's-- because the blood's gone, and
the actual physical evidence of the difficulty may
be no longer there, but there's still the impact
of the-- what's the word-- trauma. Hardship from your childhood. Difficult things that you went
through that no one would know. The fact that when
you went to school, you didn't have lunch
money, or you didn't have clothes for back to school. Oh, all your friends
went back to school. You're like, back
to school shopping? Yeah, right. That was like back
to school, what can I wear that
still fits me, even though I've grown like a weed,
but my family doesn't have any money to wear these things? Making up stories
about what'd you do on your "family vacation." It's like, worried
about what I was going to eat because the
school wasn't providing lunches for me. There's trauma that can come
from these things, these things that we face, these
things that we endure, these things that we go through. And again, the question is,
what do we allow that trauma to accomplish in us? Because it's going to
have an after effect. You can't get hit
by a train and not be different from
the experience. And these things
in life that feel like that, the grief, the sexual
assault, the hard challenge of watching your mom
pack up a vehicle and choose to not live
with your family anymore, you've gone through hard things. That's trauma. There is going to be an impact
for the rest of your life and mine. The question is, what
will that impact be? Will we become a bitter person? Will we be defined by the
worst day of our life? Or will we allow God
to heal the trauma and allow that scar
that will remain, not festering an ugly
and an unhealthy, but a healed scar as a badge,
as a settled symbol of something that God victoriously,
with His mighty right arm, brought you through. That you are now eager
and actively looking, that you might
find somebody going through a similar situation,
that you might swoop in to give the comfort you received. You see, that is also being
impacted by your trauma, but in a positive way. A lot of us are trying to
maybe live like, or make it like, the trauma
didn't happen, which is what leads
to so many problems. Masking a deep seated thing
will never help it heal. Pretending it's not
there, ignoring it, hoping it will go away,
it will not go away. It will manifest, bubbling up
to the surface in some other way that you end up becoming
addicted to gambling online when your family is asleep. It's going to find its way out. The question is, will
you let it find its way out in a settled, joy-filled,
helpful way, that you're changed by what
you went through? Who wouldn't be? But changed for the
better, now positioned to watch God work in your
life in massive ways. Some of you think that
the problem and the reason you are the way you
are is the hard things that you've gone through. I'm just going to let you
know, that's not true. It's never the thing
you went through. It's always what you see in the
thing that you went through. How you think about the
thing that you went through. They tell me, when this is
all over, the shape of my eye might have changed. They're not looking at
that yet because we're just getting through the
trauma, getting healthy. But they say that when
it's all said and done, they might test the
eye and find out my prescription has
changed, and how useless would it be for
me to still insist on wearing old contact lenses
when I have a new prescription. Don't pretend the
trauma didn't happen. Just let God fit
you for new lenses. And I'm hoping, by the way,
that if my eye has changed, it's for the better,
and not for the worse. They're going to tell me
when this is all done, it's freakishly bad, but
you got eagle eye vision. And I'm like, better than Lasik,
get shot with an eye-- no, don't do it. Don't do it and just think,
all right, here we go. I got two of them. No. Listen, let God lean into what
God is trying to do in your eye through the hard
thing that you faced. Because He always turns
trash into triumph, and turns the suffering we
face into a story of His grace, and what our good God,
who is able to make all things turn around for the
good, is working in your life. Trauma. Pressure. Third word is focus. My big eye-- my big eye. My big eye. That was when there
was a lot of pressure. No, my big problem
right now is focus. They're telling me my
eye's not automatically focusing like it normally would. It's not-- if I look
out of this eye, automatically pulling
in the foreground. It's all kind of
blurry, but then I have to try and focus it. And what the ophthalmologist
explained to me, with incredible bedside
manner, by the way, was just, basically,
that it stunned-- the moment the impact
happened, it just got stunned, and
just freaked out. It was like, we're just going
to chill here, if it's cool. And it's not rebooted
yet, and that when we deal with all the big
problems, and keep it healthy, and deal with all the
trauma, eventually, he says, it should start focusing again. Here's my question. What are you focusing on? What means the most
to you in this life, and what's your go-to when
you lose control, when things are out of your control? If you're like many, you
end up like Snoop Dogg, with your mind on your money
and your money on your mind. You're focusing
on it, and you're like, that's a weird connection. Actually, no, it's not. The reason Jesus told
this Parable of the Lamp in Matthew chapter 6
is in fact because He was trying to teach on money. He said, in fact, the verse
right before, verse 20 and 21, "Store up for yourselves
treasures in Heaven, where moths and
rust do not destroy, and where thieves don't
break in and steal. For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also." Then He immediately said, the
eye is the lamp of the body. So what He was
saying is, your body can't be healthy if you're
staring at the wrong things, and the unhealthiest
thing you can stare at would be just money. And that's where
your treasure is. That's where your heart's
at, because your money is not a good god. Your money can't save you. Your money can buy nice
things, but guess what? It can't help your marriage. It can't actually help your
relationship with your son. It can't actually change
anything about your heart. And then the sneakiest
thing about money, and the reason He connects it
to being blind and thinking you can see, but you can't,
is because money sins, unlike other sins, you
can do without knowing you're doing them. That's creepy. Which is why in Luke chapter
12, he says, watch out. Everyone say, watch out. Watch out for
greediness in your life. Now, why would you say,
watch out for greediness? You would never say
that about murder. Watch out for murder. No. Most sins, you know you're doing
them while you're doing them. It's like, oh,
you're not my wife. No. You know you're
committing adultery. You know you're stealing. You know you're telling a lie. But you can accidentally
fall into greediness. Why? Because there's a
deceitfulness to it, and your eyes will trick
you, and all of a sudden, you're making
unhealthy decisions. You're focusing undue
attention on this or that. You're looking for this
to bring you true joy. You're looking for
this to define you. You're deriving
your identity from some earthly accomplishment or
possession, and we all do this. We all think, if I had
that, I'd be happy. If I had what she
has, I'd be happy. If I could afford the
things that-- and what are those people that you're
looking to as the standard of happiness thinking? If I had that, I'd be happy. There's always that
bigger fish, and that's the deceitfulness of riches. It can make you think there's
something that they can bring you that they actually can't. So what you spend your
money on reveals values. What you spend your
money on, actually, gives a map of your heart. Someone said, if
you want to find out what's really the most
important thing to you and where your true riches
are, ask the question, what do you have the easiest
time spending money on? What is not hard at all? The money basically
grows wings and just shoots out of your wallet. That shows your passion. That shows what you
truly care about. And it's not to say that you
shouldn't care about travel, or shouldn't care
about buying a boat, or buying a vacation
cabin, or whatever else you might have as
your financial goal, and your new snowmobiles. But it is to say that if when
it comes to the Kingdom of God, and Heaven, and being the
hands and feet of Jesus, and seeing His Church built,
and seeing hungry people fed, if you aren't just full
of joy at giving resource, if the idea of giving
your tithe of offerings above and beyond that to extend
the reach of the Kingdom, if that to you is
like pulling teeth and pain-filled, then how can
you say that your heart is truly anchored in Heaven? How can you truly say
that God and His Kingdom matters more than
everything else to you? So it's a test of
what you truly value. So as you take that
test-- and again, we're in a year of testing, of
40 days of testing in 2020. 20 plus 20 is 40. 40 is the year of testing. As we test ourselves,
we locate our true God. Then we can relocate assets
to actually cause our heart to be shifted into the
things that we want to be most important to us. Focus. Trauma. Pressure. Fourth word, dilation. If I can get close
enough to the camera, you would see that my left
pupil is still pretty dilated. Dilation is all about how
much light is coming in or how little
light is coming in. Trying to see the stars, we
stay dark as long as we can. Snipers actually save
their night vision. They keep a patch
on, or whatever, to keep-- oh, no,
this eye's adjusted. I'm not letting any light in. How much light is coming in? Too much or too little? They're both a mistake
at the wrong times. If I want to see the
stars, I need my pupils to get really dilated. If I'm in a bright environment,
it would be really nice, left eye, if in these
lights, these lights I'm under, if you would
just come down a little bit. But no, it's like, I've got
to be dilated all the time. Spiritually speaking,
there's a parallel. God wants to open the eyes of
our heart to let more light in. We don't need more light. The light's come. Jesus is the light of the world. He is right there
with you in your home. Right there with you
in your apartment. Right there with
you in your car. You need to open up your
eyes to see what He sees. To see what He's doing. To remember that He is
right there with you. To remember that He
is always for you. To remember that He loves the
people that you're annoyed by. Ephesians chapter
1, Paul prayed, "That the Father of Glory,
the Lord of Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches
of the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation, to
know Him through your deepening intimacy with Him." Here we have it, "I pray
that the light of God will illuminate the eyes
of your imagination, flooding you with
light until you experience the full revelation
of the hope of His calling." And it goes on from there. The question is,
are you letting God dilate the pupils of your soul
by spending time in His Word, by spending time
with His people, by spending time
in church, where you're able to
listen to God's Word together with other people? Getting a watch party together. Are you doing the
things that will dilate the pupils of your soul,
and let you see that there's more than just this world? The last word is brilliance. Brilliance. You saw in that picture, my
left eye, the white of it was not white. There was nothing
brilliant about it. My eye was cloudy, and
my vision was milky, and my eye was
just not brilliant. I've always been told I
have really pretty eyes, but no one was
complimenting my left eye. Even Jennie was like, oh, yes,
you're still pretty to me. Brilliance. Intensely brighter, vivid. My kids were the best, though,
because they were like, yeah, we can hardly notice. Trying to be natural. Linux goes, though, dad,
you look like Nick Fury. But he said, Mick Fury. You look like Mick Fury. The guy with the cat that
scratched his eyeball out. Thanks, son. Psalm 13, verse 3. We're winding the
plane down here. David said, "Turn and
answer me, oh Lord, my God. Restore the sparkle to
my eyes, or I will die." Church, God doesn't just want
to bring sight to your eyes. He wants to bring the
sparkle back to your eyes. He doesn't want your eyes
to be dull, glossed over. He doesn't want your
eyes to be flat, and faded, and chronically
tired, given over to stress and to worry. He wants your eyes shining with
hope, and shining with purpose, and resolve, whimsical, full
of wonder, full of passion, almost mischievous, like
a twinkle in your eyes. He wants you to wake up
with that excitement, what's going to happen today? What does God have
planned for life today? He wants life to be
that adventure, where there's a sparkle. When did you lose the
sparkle in your eye? And do you realize
that your King Jesus wants to restore to you
the joy of your salvation? So how do you get
the sparkle back? You're like, I'm
asking for a friend. Just curious, because
it would sound really great to not be jaded,
and skeptical, and cynical. To not always assume the
worst is going to happen and just expect for things
to go wrong, because you're living this victim story. The answer, I believe,
comes from embracing fully the extravagant
love of God for you, and remembering the fact that
He doesn't just love you. He also likes you, and
He rejoiced the day that you gave your heart to Him. He's going to rejoice for some
of you that, in just a minute, you're going to open
your heart up to. He's rejoiced even
for some of you, you opened your heart
to the grace of God, even while this worship
experience was already happening, and you
didn't want to. You just got saved, and
you're not even happy about it right now. You're almost furious. You're like, I do believe,
but I hate that I do, and the world has nothing to
offer me, that kind of joy. There's not a politician,
there's not a job-- no one can offer you that true
lasting sparkle in your eye, not just for an evening, but
for a lifetime on into eternity. There's not a drug,
there's not a paycheck, there's not a European
vacation, there's not a luxury yacht that can offer
you the sparkle in your eye, not just a year, not
just a month, I'm talking about for a lifetime. Even when you're old,
even when you're sick, even when you're
dying, there can still be that sparkle in your
eye that comes from love, from your Creator to you. You're like, why would He
want to do that for me? You're looking at your life
like, even as a Christian, I don't think my life
for God is that great. Levi, I feel like I'm
a spiritual eyesore. Well, don't forget that
He still looks at you, and every time He sees you,
it's like the first time He saw you and says, you are
a sight for my sore eyes. I love seeing you. There's not a thing
my children could do that would ever make me stop
embracing them and loving them. They are, every morning
that I see them, a sight for sore eyes. I can't wait for them to
wake up most mornings. When I see them, though, I'm
always excited to see them. And your Father feels
that way about you, and when you stop resisting
that kind of love, and stop trying
to earn His love, and instead just let Him
smother you with kisses, and let Him wrap His arms around
you, and let Him say to you, you are a sight
for sore eyes, you will begin to watch
that love transform you from the inside out. So church, set your
sights on pleasing Him. Set your eyes on Him
as you run this race, and you will realize there
is incredible power that comes flowing into your
heart as it's set on Him. His eyes are actually
scanning to and fro, looking for opportunities
to bless any of His kids who are putting
their eyes on Him. And Father, we thank You
for this time in Your Word. Thank You for what You're doing. I feel Your Holy
Spirit, even right now, just moving so powerfully. If you're leaning
into this right now, would you just raise
a hand up, saying, I'm a spiritual eyesore, but I
receive the extravagant love of Jesus for me. Raise your hand up. You're just saying,
I needed it anew. I need it brand new today. I've been walking with Jesus
for a year, 10 years, or 50, but I need that love again
right now to change me. Raise your hand up. Raise your hand up. Raise your hand up. Raise your hand up. I want to pray for you. I want you to
raise that hand up. Father, bless these. They don't have to change a
thing for You to love them. But I thank You that as they
are changed by Your love, they're going to
begin to see what the car seat is in their
life that's not buckled up. They're going to see the print
on the shirt they didn't notice before, and I thank You for it. So would You dilate the
pupils of their soul, Jesus? Would You bring
healing to sick bodies? Would You bring Your
peace to anxious minds? You can put your hands down. If you're watching right now,
and you've never yet said, yes, to Jesus, today's the
day and now's the time. He died on the cross for
you, rose from the dead on your behalf, and
stands right now at the right hand of the
throne of Almighty God, willing and able to save you
should you so much as give Him an indication that
you're ready for it. If you are, if that's
you I'm describing, I want you to pray
this prayer with me. Say it out loud. Say it, mean it in your heart. Dear God, I know I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself,
but I believe You can. Please, come into my heart. Make me new. Help me to see. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen.
