Ellis
Need I say this morning that the eyes are a funny thing? They have been known to play tricks on you. Sometimes the eyes can see things that are not there, and the things that they need to see, they don’t see. The eyes are tricky, and sometimes they see things that don’t exist. They are the gateway to our imagination. The eyes are the light of the body, for the vision of the body comes through the eyes. The thing about the eyes is that we tend to make decisions or determine things by what our eyes see.
We make judgment calls based on the way things look to us. How many times have we misjudged something or somebody because our eyes told us one thing, but we found out it was not what it appeared to be? Tell the truth and shame the devil when I say we have been guilty of thinking somebody was looking at us because they were looking in our direction. We thought, “Why are they looking at me?” Our minds go to work, and Satan will whisper in our minds, “They are talking about you!” He will tell us that if we entertain that thought.
Some of us may have gotten offended and confronted somebody with the question, “What are you looking at me for?” because that’s what our eyes told us, just to discover that they were not looking at or thinking about us at all.
But isn’t it strange, community, that people who think that everybody is looking at them and that they are the center of attention are the people that nobody likes? They can’t get along with anybody, and nobody wants to be around them! They are the last person anybody wants to be looking at, but through their own eyes, they are the center of attention. The eyes will show us things that are not there. They cause children to see the boogeyman under their beds and monsters in the closet. Then some people have eyes, but they don’t use them. They see people, and they judge people through other people’s eyes. They form an opinion about somebody based on what somebody else tells them instead of looking through their OWN eyes. And that’s not good!
Some years ago, a pastor and I had become good friends. He told me one time, he said “You know, before I met you, some people made you out to be the biggest monster, but I got to know you for myself, and I see that you are nothing like what they said!” he said that’s why it’s good to get to know people for yourself, and I agree! Perhaps we all have been there. We were judged and crucified by people that don’t even know us based on what somebody else said. Friends, don’t let anybody be your eyes for you, don’t judge people and treat people differently, rolling your eyes at people because of what somebody else told you, looking through their eyes. Community, some people are evil and evil-minded. Some Christians are carnally minded, and if we allow them to be our eyes, we will see things and people the way they see them.
God gave all of us two eyes and a mind. Get to know people by Looking through your own eyes! It is through the eyes that Satan works. He paints the worst pictures before our eyes. Unless we walk by faith and not by sight, we will become a victim of our imagination, jumping at shadows and seeing ghosts where there are none. You all know some people this morning cannot even worship because of what we see with our eyes. Our eyes see everything that is bad. When we look at the world, we see all of the negative stuff that is going on, we see the shootings in our community, and it disturbs us.
We see our bank account, our circumstances, and how the wicked seem to prosper while we are struggling. It is what we see that frightens us, has us shaking in our boots, sweating bullets, and we lose sight of who God is, what He has done and what He will do. We lose sight of where He has brought us from. We forget His grace that has brought us this far.
We lose sight of the fact that our God is awesome, that He can move mountains. I told you all that the eyes are tricky; we see only the doctor’s report, we see only the giants, the servant of Elisha rose up early in the morning, and he sees an army of the enemy’s horses and chariots surrounding them (2 Kings 6:15). And he was afraid and said to his master “what shall we do?” Elisha answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” He prayed and said, Lord, open his eyes that he may see.
The Lord opened his eyes, and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16,17). Friends, the devil uses fear as a scare tactic. Fear causes your knees to shake in your boots, and you can’t move forward. But when we look through eyes of faith, we will see that we also have a host encamped all around us. We just have to look again! Community, whatever you are facing this morning, don’t believe what your eyes show you. Look again, through eyes of faith, and know that God has you covered.