The Light of God - Part 5: Light for the Eyes - Pastor Dave Jones

[Applause] okay we're looking at in our series that the lord gave to us through his word we're looking at the light of god why are we looking at the light of god because you can't do anything without the light of god you can't see nothing lives in fact nothing is even created by god unless he first says let there be light that's the first thing god speaks whenever god wants to do something he gives you light to see it first without light you don't even know god's done anything without light you don't even know god's there when god appeared there was always an explosion of light or uh eminence of light or some form of manifestation of light throughout the whole bible and everyone's testimony in the bible when they saw jesus in it in in a in a special way there was always light present shining on him through him out of him upon them in them there was all these aspects of this light being shown and we looked that looked at primarily the introduction that jesus is that light he's the light of the world without jesus you can't see anything you can't understand anything jesus made that clear in all of his teachings without him you have no life and you have no light and then we looked at how god displays his light in the face of christ and we looked at the light of god's countenance and then we looked at god's word bringing light how you have to have god's word coming to bring light otherwise you can't just want a physical feeling or manifestation you've got to have god's word shining on you and then last week we looked at the lamp of god the sources of light we looked at seven different things that god uses to give us light and so why are we doing this we're not doing this for teaching for the sake of teaching we're doing this so that you can have light you need light today you need to be able to see you need to know what god's doing you need to know what god's saying you need this and the only way you get this is through light if you don't know these things it's because you haven't got light you can't see yeah that's right you can't see but the problem is it's a light issue if you'd if you'd receive the light you would see and you would understand because that's how god works that's how god likes to do things and so we looked at seven lamps and each one of those seven issues we looked at last week is a whole topic in itself so i want to re-look at one of those things it said was a lamp uh but let's just look at it in a different way so let's go can we go into the king james version matthew chapter 6 and verse 22 matthew chapter 6 and verse 22. now last week we looked at luke the gospel of luke's version of this i just want us to now look at matthew's statement of it matthew 6 verse 22 it's found in the sermon on the mount i like the way the king james version puts it the light of the body is the eye now last week we looked at that the spirit within you is a lamp that produces light but this is talking about the body the light of your body do you want light in your body not talking just about spiritual things now we're not doing a spiritual enlightenment in revelation i want us to look at a very practical aspect of how god's light works through you by sticking with god's word we'll look at how god gives light so the light of the body is your eyes do you want light in your body right then it depends on what your eyes are doing if therefore your eye is single pure your whole body shall be full of light your body will be full of light if your eye is single now here's an interesting thing you've got two eyes yeah most of us now let's just do a little experiment with your left eye look at that wall now with your right eye look at that wall go why aren't you doing it because your eyes are single but you've got two i know but that's how vision works two witnesses right when you can see but they should be single you should actually be looking at the same thing actually there's something wrong if you can't look at the same thing your eyes have to be focused okay so singleness you've got what are you looking at i don't have light in my body well what are you looking at are you trying to look at two different things because have you noticed when you try and look at two different things you don't see either one properly next verse so we want our whole body to be full of light well it depends on what our eyes are doing but if your eyes evil the whole body will be full of darkness if it's not single if you're trying to look at two different things or trying to appropriate two different things or live two different lives or being one thing and another thing you know have you ever tried to be clean and dirty at the same time do you know what you're dirty if you try and do that if you try to have one foot in the bath and one foot in a in a bucket of mud not that i've ever done that but if you're dead you're dirty you can't say this means no you're dirty if your eye isn't single evil the whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in you is darkness how great is that darkness no man can serve two masters that's not a second this is not a different subject no man can serve two masters he will either hate one and love the other or he will hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve god and mammon mammon is that it's it is the metaphor for the god of this world money life wealth just which one are you looking at because that will depend on whether you've got light whatever else you think about those things whatever your opinion is as a christian you think you can do and every christian has a different version of what god wants them to do or what they think they can do if you're trying to do two things you're doing nothing and you can't see do you know how i know that jesus said it there's not there's nothing upsets me more when i try and tell christians something and they say well that's your opinion no no that's not my opinion that's jesus you've got to be focused single on what god wants you to look at otherwise you won't have light you'll be in darkness the light of our eyes what in life are you actually looking at and i mean sometimes in a literal physical sense what do you like to do what's the sum of your joy what brings you blessedness what brings you happiness is it god or the things of god or is that something you don't actually like doing that you think you ought to do to get into heaven but actually you like looking at something else because it's the light of your eyes it's your eyes that let in light let's go to psalm 13 verse 1. let's look at some applications how david understood this king david um getting light through our eyes what i hope is happening as we look at god's word is that light's coming to get you to see don't reject that light or you'll step into darkness and once you're in darkness you'll try and focus on things and and live your own life without true light to the chief musician assam of david will go back into the niv i'm going to switch between different versions this morning how long lord will you forget me forever how long will you hide your face from me what's david's problem here he thinks he's been forgotten he thinks that something god said hasn't happened so god's forgot how long will you hide your face from me remember what we've looked at in this study the face the light of god's countenance is is is so essential to being in god's presence that it's actually the same thing and so david feels as though he's not in god he's lost god god's forgot about him and he's not aware of god and he's not aware of god's presence now that's pretty amazing for the man after god's own heart the the man that god holds up as the supreme example of someone who knew that knows him best is still saying i can't feel god so when you are saying i can't feel god you're not alone the greatest people in the bible thought that in fact one man's last words were my god my god why have you forsaken me the one man who never lost god because he was god still felt that how long will you hide your face from me you can't see the light of god's faith you can't feel it how long must i wrestle with my thoughts how often are you trying to think things through and you just can't do it do you know why you haven't got light i just can't understand this well you never will you're not god and day after day i've sort of in my heart doesn't matter how much i try and think this through doesn't matter how much i try and sort this out i've still got that knowing pain that sorrow in my heart about these issues how long will the enemy triumph over me how come i'm living in defeat how come everyone seems to like me picking on me how come how come i'm not i'm not winning do you know what david never lost a battle i mean david was undefeatable in battle but yet he still felt like he was losing you see that's what darkness does to you is anyone here scared of the dark can i tell you something if you are not scared of the dark you're weird you're supposed to be i hate the dark me i i still when i'm locking up this church on a night i run out as fast as i can so the ghosts don't get me i know there's no ghosts in this church there's only one ghost the holy ghost i just but i just don't like it i don't like being in the dark i don't renounce i think the ghost will get me i run out because i don't like the da i do a lock up as fast as i can turn the lights and run for the door because in the dark and you can't see anything and you don't know what oh i just don't like it it's not superstition you're not supposed to like the dark you're created to live in light we are children of light so if you're not scared of the dark seek help that's supposed to like the dark how long will my enemies triumph over me look on me and answer lord my god what's his prayer what's his prayer give light to my eyes david knows i need light coming to my eyes the eyes are the windows to the soul if our eyes are full of light our whole body will be full of light if we can see god's light in his light we see light the old testament tells us then all these other things will sort of melt because all these other things come from the darkness so thinking that we're hidden from god thinking we've been forgotten by god let me tell you something god can't forget you even if he wanted to if you're a parent you know exactly what you can't forget your kids whatever happens to them you know you just can't forget them they're there all the time on your heart god says see i've engraved you on on the palm of my hands i'll never forget you can a mother forget her nursing child god can't forget you you're hidden you can't be hidden from god even darkness is like to him you you're full of anxiety well god's not because god knows you're gonna be okay if you trust in him again as a parent you know that sometimes your kids they get all anxious and worried about things and you know as an adult that doesn't even matter by the time you've aged a few years you want it you'll realize that's not important it's me it does you don't need to worry about that no one cares anyway god's trying to show all these things but he knows that the only way this is sorrow fill my heart all the time well if so if if if your heart's full of light because god's love is contained in everything he does so it's in his light as well perfect love drives out all fear it drives out all sorrow but you've got to have the light to know that and if you've not got the light you'll still keep looking at darkness because the darkness is all around if you're not focused on god darkness covered the face of the deep in creation but god was speaking light and everything was going to happen as god said light be and so the sorrow and then all my eyes will sleep in death david even says there in verse 3 the fear of death dave is going to sleep in death do you know what david is alive forevermore it's going to be a life for all eternity because he was someone who believed in the lord who gave his heart to the lord was a man after god's own heart and so when you read david's psalms they usually start off like that but when he gets light for his eyes when his eyes can see the light of god then he realizes that he beholds the beauty of the lord and he will dwell in the house of the lord forever look get our eyes focused on the lord so that his light will reveal the truth to us we will all be tempted and we will look at other things like peter on the water the minute you look at the wind how do you look at the wind he says he began to sink in the water when he started to look at you can't even see the wind but you can be scared of it we can look at things and be scared of them and you can't even see them no look at jesus look at the light of his face so that our eyes receive that light and when people's eyes receive that light the fear disappears you remember the story of elisha and his servant he was afraid of the enemies around him and he says oh lord open his eyes and when he opened his eyes he actually saw what was really surrounding them which was the armies of the heavenly host god's angel armies and there were far more of them than they were enemies and they were there to protect them but darkness does strange things to you doesn't it when you don't receive light for a long time when you can't understand things for a long time the anxiety and the paranoia starts to build up and you start to worry and fret and get stressed i sometimes think of what they must have thought in the ark remember there was no electricity in the ark and there were no windows there was a hatch one hatch which you could turn a window at the top and they were in the rat that they were in the ark for a year or so just think what their eyesight were like after they were used to like seeing in darkness what's actually going on are we going to crash it any minute every day when the mountains have collapsed is the ark going to crash has nowhere built it right and then one day they opened the top of the ark well after it had stopped raining months after it stopped raining what must have happened when that light suddenly hit them blinding they probably couldn't see anything they sent out the dove it's going to be like when we come out with this coronavirus thing we're not going to know what to do can we talk to people again what's conversation what's going out can we go for a meal what's holidays can you remember holidays but if we look at the lord the light will come the psalms are full of this but it depends on the light coming to our eyes psalm 19 and verse 8 psalm 19 and verse 8 getting the light in our eyes that's what god's word is to do that's why we read god's word so light comes to our eyes so our body is full of light the precepts of the lord we looked at this the last time when we looked at god's word the precepts of the lord are right giving joy to the heart we love that god's precepts the things he the principles he lays down for us the commands of the lord are radiant giving light to the eyes the fear of the lord is pure single looking at one thing enduring forever the decrees of the lord are firm and all of them are righteous they are more precious than gold they are than much pure gold they are sweeter than honey than honey from the honeycomb so the commands of god that are radiant that give light to the eyes they're sweeter than honey than honey from the honeycomb you're you're not going to get light for your eyes unless you actually love god's word unless you actually want god to speak to you unless you desire that supremely do you really want god to talk to you because that's what brings light the entrance of thy words brings light right the commands of the lord are radiant how does it give light light to the eyes sweeter than honey honey was you know such a sweet with our you know sucrose and our refined sugars these day we we lose that appreciation for real sweet sugary things because we can just conjure it up with buying a chocolate bar but they had to find honey what was honey in the bible you see if you want light for your eyes you've got to want god's word you've got to have god's word to come to you now in the bible honey represents the promises of god you remember the manner that they ate man is a picture of god's word it tasted like honey the promises of god what are they received as a promise the promise was you will receive a land flowing with honey milk and honey so they understood that the sweetness like when they would find honey when they would find something that was sweet to them they equated that with god's word coming to them oh that's that's wonderful that was the thing they wanted that was the goodness they needed and you'll find that when they ate honey in the bible it did something to them look at first samuel 14. first samuel 14 and verse 27. first samuel 14 and verse 27. so this is jonathan they're fighting a battle and they're actually fasting and they're all a bit stressed out jonathan had not heard that his father had bound the people with an oath so he reached out the end of his staff was in his hand and dipped it into the honeycomb he raised it to his mouth and his eyes brightened now what that's really equating to think we don't necessarily think him putting something in our mouth affects light to our eyes but god's word does in fact if you go to verse 29 it says it again just jump down a verse to verse 29. jonathan said my father's made trouble for the country see how many see how my eyes brightened when i tasted a little bit of this honey do you know do you know how you know someone is really loving god's word their eyes brighten i can tell by preaching i can tell who's actually wanting god's word and who isn't you can see in their eyes their eyes brighten because they're receiving not just words they're receiving promises that they know god will fulfill and you can actually only live on promises you can only live because you know there is a purpose and a point and a future i know the plans i have for you says the lord plans to give you a hope and a future that brightens your eyes because you know that what god's saying is giving light that gives you the ability to keep living without that you'll fall into all the problems we just saw that king david listed but we live by the promises of god because the promises remind us of what god said not what the latest news has said not what the latest worry or anxiety or stress has come upon us the reminders of what god said and they bring joy and direction to us because god's promises are true and faithful yeah but if you haven't got light you don't believe anything i've just said it's just meaningless just words we're not talking about words we're talking about light we're talking about you being able to see it you know jesus could speak and some people would say this is god's son this the one sent police officers to arrest jesus the temple the temple police we will call them the temple guards and they says we couldn't arrest him we've never heard anyone speak like this and you know the the same people who were listening to jesus some of them could say he's demon possessed and raving mad he's talking nonsense what was the difference it's the same words some had single eyes to see the light some didn't some weren't listening they were just focused on themselves jump to one more sound then we're going to look at some examples psalm 38 verse 9 psalm 38 and verse 9 the light to the eyes all my longings lie open before you lord my sighing is not hidden from you my heart pounds my strength fails me even the light has gone from my eyes my friends and my companions avoid me because of my wounds my neighbors stay away from me he's in quarantine can't see his friends and neighbors everyone's avoiding him some people think it's because he got a disease at this time literally a physical disease no one wanted anything to do with him but all his longings lie open before god he's crying out to god he's saying he's not hidden from him his heart is pounding he has no strength but the main thing is the light's gone out of his eyes the light's gone so he can't see and so all these things now feel very real to him even my friends even my companions because of my wounds because of the the physical infirmities or diseases i've got my neighbors are staying away from me but that's not his problem they're the symptoms of the real problem the real problem is the light's gone out of his eyes you know this virus is rubbing the light from people's eyes people are just losing hope people's strength is failing them people just feel abandoned and hidden and avoided and isolated and stressed and anxious and they're saying what what's the remedy all the remedies open the pubs then we'll all be okay that actually won't change anything because that's not the problem the problem is the light in our eyes if we are focused on jesus if we're focused on god the light in our eyes stays lit because it's the eyes that is the light of the body it's the eyes that are the lamp of the body don't let the light come out of your eyes keep focused on the thing that gave you light in the first place the thing that gave you light even before this lockdown started even before all this trouble started the light you knew about probably even as a child you knew even as a child most people not everyone jesus is the light of the world don't ever look at anything else for the answers to this world because they'll only come in jesus god's not sending another answer god's not sending any more rules everything is perfect in jesus if you see jesus you see everything god wants and everything god has given to us if we believe in him we have eternal life and so all the symptoms are not the problem the problem is that we're not allowing light into our eyes just close your eyes a minute okay now as your eyes are closed what do the insides of your eyelids look like can you see them no you can't okay open your eyes why can't you see the insides of your eyelids now if you get a torch and don't do this it's dangerous when your eyes are shut and shine it right you can see the have you noticed you can see the insides of your eyelids because the light is bright enough to shine through your eyelids the reason you can't see the insides of your eyelids is because there's no light it's not because you're the inside of your eyelids are not there they are and if you shine a light into them you can see all the veins and you can see you can see that pink ready as it shines through your skin the issue isn't that you can't see the issue is there's no light the issue is not all these things the issue is there's no light the issue is not anxiety and stress and worry and longings and hiddenness and feeling forgotten and feeling depressed the issue is no light because when the light comes the darkness flees when jesus comes all fear disappears when jesus appears we know what to do and that's why jesus gives us light before stuff happens we've mentioned that god warned us about stuff was going to happen a year ago it's interesting i was just thinking about more stuff that god told us to do that if we hadn't done we'd be in real trouble now you know god a couple years ago told us it was time to close the preschool now if we hadn't closed that we'd been a real mess now it was only a year ago that uh joseph came to me and and said let's set up bethel tv so that we'd already got stuff on youtube but it wasn't all coordinated so a year ago exactly a year ago just the month before all this coffee happened we set up the bethel tv facebook page and linked it to our youtube stuff do you know what until a year ago that only been a few tens of thousands watched our youtube videos now there's over a million people and and there's thousands every day watching it literally thousands every day new new watchers new people why god gave us light so we did it and if we'll obey the light when we get the light we'll see the light light will come to our eyes but if we rebel against the light you'll end up walking in darkness and then you'll wonder what's gone wrong and what went wrong is you didn't put your faith in the light when it came your eyes weren't single to watch and obey the light so you fell into darkness and sin what happened you stopped looking at the light that's the first thing you did we've got to look at the light okay i'm going to look at some examples just one more and if we go to proverbs and we go to the book of proverbs chapter 15 they'll look at an example to help us practically proverbs 15 verse 30 proverbs proverbs 15 verse 30 light in a messenger's eyes brings joy to the heart and good news gives health to the bones whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise now you read the proverbs i love reading the proverbs there's always much deeper meaning than what's going on in its in its initial understanding light in a messenger's eyes brings joy to the heart now when a messenger comes bringing good news the gospel that's what gospel means good news you would think that the joy to the heart from hearing good news would come from the words of the message but that isn't what it says it says the joy comes from the light in the messenger's eyes here's a good rule to know if someone really likes you don't look at whether the mouth's smiling look at whether their eyes are smiling look at their eyes i remember coming to this church first the first time this is like oh 30 years ago or so longer more than 30 years ago and i had been to other churches and i you know heard a lot of people and i always used to even as a you know a 19 year old i used to i used to like try and assess preachers so i know you assess me i'm i'm fine with that and i used to look at them and think do they know what they're talking about or don't they i remember coming here and seeing pastor john preaching and he preached i went to a youth meeting and he preached on the doctrine of the trinity you know in the days when people preach proper stuff at a youth meeting the doctor i remember it and i remember do you know what i remember the most his eyes i thought this man knows what he's talking about he's seen something because there was light in his eyes he went telling stories and just trying to keep people happy he'd seen something he's still got it by the way you see pastor john and look in his eyes he's still still sees the lord the light in a messenger's eyes when someone's preaching or testifying or giving something it's the the good news the messenger bringing good news what's happening in their eyes what have they actually seen you can't listen to anyone who hasn't seen something and their eyes will tell you their eyes will show you what's really giving them illumination what's really happening in their heart it's the shining in their eyes you know the apostles you read the stories in the bible on the resurrection day but all the prophets in the old testament you remember isaiah my eyes saw the lord and from that moment on his life was he always knew i've seen him the light shone in his eyes this the cherubim the seraphim were covering their eyes they couldn't look at him but isaiah saw him because god wants to reveal his light through the face of christ and so their eyes had seen something and i love it when you read the resurrection stories and they came bursting through the door what was the first thing they said we've seen the lord it's true we've seen him these were guys who hadn't got a clue what was going on but they saw him the women came we've seen him they weren't quite sure to believe them then thomas came and says well i've not seen him he says well we've seen him and i think they knew just by looking at their eyes whether it was true or not it's true they have seen him look at their eyes you remember the story of the people on the road to emmaus he says they were downcast they were looking at the floor but when they broke bread and looked at jesus their eyes were opened and they saw him and then they ran back to the other disciples and says we've seen him and you can tell when someone's telling you can tell when a messenger is telling the truth because their eyes testify that they've really seen something and they know what they're talking about and the good news the gospel that jesus is alive brings you that health and life because you can see it in their eyes you can usually tell when someone's lying you might not know what they're lying about you might not know everything but you can usually tell by their eyes and you can tell when someone's at least trying to tell the truth you can tell by their eyes the message is coming through their eyes okay then i just want to look at some examples to help confirm this and the best example to look at is is abraham because abraham is a man who lived by faith and had to keep looking to see through his eyes what god was doing and so we see this example in the old testament so let's go to the first example then let's go to genesis 13 genesis 13 and verse 14. right the lord said to abraham after lotta departed from him look around from where you are to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west all the land that you see will give i will give to you and your offspring forever now that's in our modern english god says look have a look have a look around north south east and west in the hebrew that's not what it says and the king james it has a better translation for this than modern english so if we go into the king james and the lord said unto abraham after lot was separated from him lift up now thine eyes in the hebrew which it doesn't mean look it's it's there's two words being used it's nasa and nasa means physically lift up ayin means eyes that's totally different than just look it means purposefully focus on something physically not just look at it purposefully focus on that thing you know when you've been to the opticians and the optician well if you go to the opticians i have to go a lot i i've got a bit of a problem you know because um i've got two eyes we've all got two eyes but my eyes light weird i'm color blind that's one thing but one of my eyes is like i can't focus on it i can't see anything and the other eye you can see that one one lens is really thick one lens is like really thin my other eye is what's called a lazy eye which means it can't be bothered it's not that it can't focus it just won't it's really annoying i've tried disciplining and talking to it and when i was younger i used to have to wear a patch on the other eye to try and make the other eye work but it wouldn't it's like christians it's two types of christians those that can't see and those that can't be bothered and there's three types there's those that can be bothered anyway forget the illustration oh yeah the illustration so the optician's telling you to focus and as you were focusing on the letters and trying to read the letters i've learned if you memorize the letters when you first go in he thinks he can he thinks you can see and then as he's telling you to focus it points this laser into your eye and tells you to focus everyone was wearing glasses or you know exactly i'm telling you i can't see anything you put you're pointing the light in the eye and then as he's pointing the light in my he's seeing how he's looking inside my eye and then he's putting different lenses on the special glasses that he makes you wear and put in different lenses so he's trying to get you to focus but the only way you see correctly is by keeping focused on the letters at the other side of the room lift up now your eyes focus on what god is telling you that's a nice word forget the word forget the preaching focus on jesus lift up now thine eyes nasa ayn look at it jesus says the son of man will be lifted up so whoever looks at him look at jesus don't analyze the words don't just try and look around don't try and assess what other people are thinking look at jesus abraham look what's he looking at north is looking at the promise that god has given him why he was already living in the land he'd already seen the land he'd been walking around in the land don't focus on it don't just think you already know it focus on it focus on what god has promised lift up your eyes focus on god's word notice there it said there after lot was separated out from him why is that important well if you go back to verse 10 which is a couple of sentences before you see why and lot lifted up his eyes seven essential times in the life of abraham you find this phrase it doesn't mean look it means they purposefully made a life-changing decision to focus on what they wanted i'm going to focus on what i want when i wanted carolyn as my wife you know what i looked at her a lot i sit in church worshiping god and gays at caroline because that is what i wanted more than god sometimes yes she's saying not so much now what was lot looking at lot lifted up his eyes lots of member of his family and it was causing all kinds of arguments because you've got two people in the same family but they're looking at different things how can two walk together unless they be agreed do not be unequally yoked why because you'll have two eyes looking in two different directions you'll not see anything and he beheld all the plane of the jordan that was well watered everywhere before the lord destroyed sodom and gomorrah even as the garden of the lord garden of eden the land of egypt as though it comes out of zohar the best things in the world lot believed in god and lot would actually be saved but he'd lose everything because he looked at sodom and gomorrah he looked at the wealth of this world he wanted god and everything else and he ended up getting nothing abraham ended up getting the whole country because abram was looking at god lot was looking at the world and what he could get out of the world abraham was looking at what god's word gave him light the promises of god lot was looking at what he wanted and what happened everything lot looked that he lost but abraham who saw him who is invisible received everything man's desire or god's desire what are you looking at what i can get out of this world you won't get anything out of this world the only thing you will get is god might get you out of this world but you won't get it the judgment was coming on sodom and gomorrah in fact lot's wife was still looking at when it when it got destroyed and she was turned to a pillar of salt jesus said remember lot's wife don't look at that that's all falling down look at to where we are going lift up now thine eyes focus on what god said focus on his word focus on what jesus is telling us go to genesis 18 verse 2. next time abraham has to nasa and ayn he has to lift up his eyes and focus on something he lifted up his eyes and lo three men stood by him and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground that's the word therefore for worship hebrew word for worship and said my lord now if i have found favor in thy sight pass not away i pray thee and he he encounters god how does he encounter god he lifts up his eyes and sees three it's emblematic of the trinity it's actually the lord jesus and two angels who are actually going to go and destroy sodom it's interesting that the same day abraham lifts up his eyes lot is still living in sodom the same day that we can be living for god one of our relatives might actually be just living for this world even on the day sodom's going to be destroyed lot's still in sodom abraham's not he's had nothing to do with sodom even refused any money from sodom and what's he doing now he's now going to encounter god in a different way and the promise the promised son of isaac and the promise of the land is now going to be given to him again how does he get the promise and how does he receive the promised child how does he receive the promise of god and the promise of the land he encounters god how does he do that by lifting up his eyes and seeing god is that what we're doing well i'm looking at the world or so were lot's wife she was still looking at the world when it got destroyed and she ended up turning into a pillar of assault because that's all she was looking at a house a life a career whatever look at god he was going to see god face to face just like all the people we've been looking at throughout this so this study he was going to receive the promise and encounter with god but you're only going to get that if you lift up your eyes and look at god that's where the light comes from that's the light for your eyes look at the next one genesis 22 genesis 22 and verse 4. this is the fourth one the seven times really you can look at abraham lifting up his eyes in this correct way then on the third day abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place far off what place after three days he journeys from where he was and he comes to a hill a mountain called mariah we would call it calvary he lifts up his eyes and he sees the place where the sun is gonna be sacrificed have you seen that what does the cross mean to you have you seen it have you seen the place i don't mean our trips to jerusalem where we've gone to mount zion mount moriah calvary golgotha the place of the skull i don't just mean the physical place i mean have you seen what actually took place after three days what had he seen for the previous three days he'd seen nothing but after three days he saw it he saw that hill after three days jonah was in the belly of the whale what did he see nothing it was totally dark but after three three days jonah came out with the belly of the whale jesus says just as jonah was in the belly of the whale so the son of man should be three days in the earth then he'll come out have you seen it have you seen the cross have you seen calvary have you seen what it cost because if you've really seen the cost if you've really seen what happened for you to be forgiven that light will never go from your eyes jesus says when i the son of man when i am lifted up i will draw all men to myself jesus says he was going to be crucified but after three days he was going to rise again have you seen that do you know that has that light gone into your eyes yes he's the savior of the world he died in my place at exactly the same incident look at verse 13. just when abraham thought everything was lost and he would even have to lose his own son verse 13 abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by its horns and abraham went took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son and abraham called the name of that place yahweh girard jehovah jireh as it is said to this day in the mountain of the lord it shall be provided it shall be seen how did abraham know that his son would live because he lifted up his eyes and he saw the ram the lamb that was taken instead of his son have you seen that have you lifted up your eyes and seen that jesus died instead of you and instead of your family because if you've really seen that the light will never go because that light into your eyes because you've gazed upon the beauty of the cross you've gazed upon the beauty of jesus christ even after a three-day trial you have seen that jesus is alive and your eyes have seen that and you will never deny that you know what the disciples ran around saying why they were persecuted why they were killed why they were stoned they says we've seen him and we're never going to deny that one thing i know i was blind but now i can see yeah all i know is i couldn't see anything now in jesus i can see everything nothing can change that no fine sounding for philosophical argument no humanistic wisdom nothing can change what has been seen he saw the provision of god the payment for sin jump to 20 chapter 24 chapter 24 verse 63 we'll bring this to a clause so at the last stage in the life of abraham especially in the life of his son isaac isaac went out to meditate in the field at evening tide and he lifted up his eyes and saw you see you can look and not see but if you lift up your eyes you'll see and behold behold don't just look behold the camels were coming and rebecca who's rebecca his bride lifted up her eyes she didn't just look she was looking for a specific person they hadn't met at this point the marriage had been arranged but they'd never met rebecca lifted up her eyes and when she saw isaac she got off her camel she stopped her journey they both lifted up their eyes and saw each other the bride saw the bridegroom the bridegroom saw the bride how did they see that because they physically made an effort to look and they saw and behold this is why the word look is not sufficient it's much more important than that they beheld each other they nassard they lifted up their ayin their eyes and they saw each other do you know the bridegroom is gazing at his bride the church and he sees us isaac saw her first jesus saw you before you were born and he loved you jesus saw you before you were born and he chose you jesus knew you before you were conceived in the womb and he appointed you to belong to him but although he can see that he's lifted up his eyes have you lifted up your eyes in a reciprocal process so that you can see that so that you can see him because if if when i gazed at carolyn if she didn't gaze back i'd be in trouble actually she was gazing at me before i gazed at her but will not go there yes she was can you see him behold he comes last words mentioned in the bible some of the last words behold don't just look don't just say i believe jesus is coming behold he comes can you see that he is coming the bridegroom is coming for the bride the bride better be ready because he's only taking the brides that are ready behold he comes whenever jesus did something you'll find that he often did this thing he says he looked open it he looked up to heaven jesus looked at where the light was coming from even when he gave thanks he would look up to heaven even when he was opening people's mouths or eyes it says he would look up to heaven say a pastor be opened he knew light was going to come to a person when he opened their eyes when he opened their ears when he opened their mouth he looked at where the light was going to come from if you need that light this morning and we all need it you've got to look at jesus we fix our eyes on jesus we look at that which cannot be seen so that we can see that which is eternal abraham in those examples in hebrews it tells us he was looking forward to the city that was yet to come he was looking towards his god he received the promises on earth but he was looking beyond that he was looking for the building and the city and the land that was far beyond that we need to gaze and behold jesus because then light will be given to our eyes so we've seen there in god's word that the light of our eyes only comes through this process but we have to lift up our eyes you can't just casually look when you're driving you can't just look around you have to fix your eyes on where you're driving or you'll not see what's happening and that's what we're here gathered to do this morning it's just all about our heads and fix our eyes on jesus all the prophets said we saw him we saw the lord in his glory some of them saw him in a vision some saw them physically some saw them with the eyes of faith but they all saw him we beheld his glory the glory of the one and only son of god full of grace and truth because he came as the light of the world the team are going to lead us in one song and we're going to fix our eyes on jesus we're going to focus on the lord that's the primary thing you need to be doing in this time of darkness is focusing on jesus beholding his glory so as the team leaders in this song we're not going to sing because of the restrictions but we are going to see the lord and we're going to gaze upon him and let the light of our eyes be renewed so that we're not in fear and darkness but we're in the light of god that the team lead us let's worship the lord thank you team

Channel: Royston Bethel TV

Views: 2,240

Rating: 4.9452057 out of 5

Keywords: End, Times, Pastor, Dave, Jones, Bethel, Community, Church, Royston, Barnsley, Revelation, Revelations, Biblical, Bible, Book, Study, Preach, Judgement, Fire, Wrath, God, Jesus, Christ, Devil, Satan, Anti, Antichrist, Second, Coming, Signs, Latter, Days, Trumpets, Angels, Apocalypse, Maranatha, World, Final days, Prophecy, Prediction, Wars, Repent, Israel, Scripture, Word, Heaven, Hell, Holy, Spirit, Father, Eschatology, Theology, Future, Tribulation, Christianity, Testament, Gospel, Prophetic, Literature, Royston Bethel TV

Id: 0QlQtSFRnHg

Length: 57min 11sec (3431 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021