The Lust of the Eyes

Okay, this is part three, part three of a three-part series. We started talking about the two trees. Actually, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil on this series, and talking about the age-old formula that Satan uses to capture us. Okay, just hope I don't have any build slides. There we go. Okay, let me put these up because these are the scriptures. We're talking about having a relationship with God. And there's three things that Satan does that hijacks our relationship with God. He did this in the Garden of Eden. He's done this down through history.

He's done this down through time. And if we look in the Bible, this pattern, this formula, these three things that he uses to interrupt our relationship are mentioned all over the Bible in so many different ways. And again, these are the key scriptures if you want a foundation to mark in your Bible just to write down. 1 John 2 16, Genesis 3 6, Jude 11, and Matthew 4, where Christ was tempted.

And we see that these things are mentioned. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life are the three things that are mentioned in 1 John 2 16. These things are repeated. These are the same three things that he used in Genesis to get to Eve.

And why is that important is because as we discussed before, a lot of times we have head knowledge. We have doctrines. We have things that we hold on to and cling to. But the way Satan works is through these attitudes, these influences, and these things to actually capture Eve. He did this with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Now if we stack those up next to each other as we see, they're parallel things. Lust of the flesh is equated to good for food. The example in the Bible in Jude is Cain. And in Matthew 4, Christ was tempted with bread. And you see that those are the same things that Satan used, even with Christ.

Christ himself, as we've talked about, had to fast for this. This is not a light thing. This is not a light thing. The lust of the eyes, you know, Satan took them up and showed them the kingdoms of the world. And in Genesis it looked, it was pleasant to the eyes. And the pride of life. If there's any one of the sermons in this series to listen to is the pride of life. This is something that underpins and undermines so many things, but we never talk about it. It's one of the most common mentioned sins in the Bible. We always think that it's over here, but really underneath is something that's pride.

This is the way that Satan operates himself, and he is. And if you have any amount of pride, you don't have a relationship with God. God resists the proud. God keeps his arm distance away from the proud. So if you want to talk about having a relationship with God, this is primarily a thing underneath it all to be thinking about. Are you lifting yourself up, or are you humbling yourself and letting God lift you up? That is one of the most important things out of all of this, and it underpins so many of the other things that Satan does.

He appealed to Christ, whatever pride may be there on a human level, by saying, you know, you can skip this. You don't have to go through this. I'll show you the kingdoms of the world. Man, you are probably one of the best rulers I've seen. You can actually help these people right here today. Just skip all that. Just worship me. And Christ himself had to fast, and he had to resist this in the polls that Satan tried to do with them.

And as we also found last time, that there's society gets to a certain point. This is how Satan works on society, and it develops it and molds it and pushes it until it gets to a certain point. Sodom is an example of that. When you read the example of Sodom in the Bible, the three things are mentioned there.

The exact same three things are mentioned there to the extreme. They had fullness of bread. The lust of the eyes was, it was all about, you know, what they wanted to do and not do, and they did not take care of the poor. It was all about themselves. And then they had pride. So we see that a society, and our society is being worked on the exact same way this way, that Satan will push until the society is completely about these three things to the nth degree. And when you see that, and you see that with Sodom, that's when a society's judgment comes, too, and to be destroyed.

And as God says, don't partake of her sins, lest you partake of the punishments that's coming in a nation. This is why these things are so very important for us to understand. Why do I keep talking about these three things? There's so many reasons why this is so important, because I think it's very much missed if we look at how Satan works. If you look at Ephesians 2 verse 1, Ephesians 2 and verse 1, the being that has this philosophy works this way.

It says, in you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. That's the description of Satan, prince of the power of the air. And this is understood and talked about by Mr. Armstrong in the past of like him broadcasting on airwaves, broadcasting in moods, broadcasting in attitudes, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we once were conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and where by nature children are wrapped just as others.

This is how he works. He works in the prince of the power of the air through attitudes, through moods, through these emotions, to cause disobedience.

For what end? To fulfill the desires of the flesh and the mind. If you look at the three things that he has, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life, all of these things would be summarized as, yep, those are the desires of our flesh and the mind. The things that we see to the nth degree, the things we want to be to the nth degree, the power that we think we want to have, anything else, these things are all of those things to the nth degree. And the way that Satan works is this very way.

A lot of times we think it's intellectual, and that's what Eve thought. She had the right response. God said we should not do this. We say that. God says, but yet we turn around and underneath we're influenced by the spirit of things. The attitude comes through. Why is it so important to understand? Because you know what? It's hard to discern an attitude is the thing. It's very hard to discern an attitude, but this is how Satan works.

Yes, there may be doctrinal issues. Yes, there may be things that are in the mix, but the way that he influences and gets people to go astray is by the attitude and the influence that runs along the lines of one of these three things. I want to give a follow-up sermon that's a practical application that goes through. Here's how this is applied. You'll see examples in the Bible of this very thing. A red herring is said and talked about, but underneath is one of these three things. A red herring is over here that gets people here, but underneath is one of these three things. You see this pattern? That's been in our church over the years.

Something is said, but underneath is one of these three things. And I think it's important for us to understand and dissect that, that these are the things we need to watch. This is how Satan works on us. We expect it to come somewhere else. We expect it to be like Eve, but it comes through the attitude and through the air and through the moods and emotions and affects people that way through one of these things. This is how he works.

He's the prince of the power of the air. That is why this is such a critical topic for us to understand as a church, is to understand as individual people, because this is how we get affected. Are you fired up? Are you stirred up? Is everything something? Then there's possibly something underneath there. Is there ever a time to stand up, to be fired up, to be this, to be convicted? Absolutely. But this is generally not what happens. What generally happens is people get stirred up against each other.

We get divided. We get split off. We get a lot of things. When you see that, that is not conviction. That is not that. That is something underneath. This is inserted in, and a spirit of division comes. And a spirit that has one of these three things, prodding things, is on the scene. It's why it's so very important to understand the spiritual principle underneath things to get what's happening.

This is a key thing through the Bible that we're warned about. And Satan works. He works from start to finish. You know what's also interesting, though? The Ten Commandments are the opposite way of life than those three things. If you take and dissect the Ten Commandments that are there, look at the first number of them. One, two, three, four. Actually, half of them, if you want a waiting, would have to do with the pride of life.

Right? That have to do with, am I going to lift myself up, or am I making God my God? I'm not making another image. I'm not going to take God's name in vain. I'm not going to be careless with it. The Sabbath day is all about you and your relationship with your God.

Or is it about you? And you lifting yourself up. And your parents. How does that fit? Well, guess what? You have to humble yourself many times with your parents. You have to submit to that and say, you know what? Maybe I don't agree with all this, but I have to take my pride out of this conversation, and that is a very important thing to do on a human level as well, is to not have that pride.

So fully, half of them have to do with the opposite of the pride of life, and lifting God up and not yourself. Then we have the lust of the flesh. Murder, commit adultery, stealing, bearing false witness, all the things that we as natural humans want to do. And then there's some overlap, but the lust of the eyes, right? You have to lust with your eyes to commit adultery and other things like that, but the very last commandment, you should not covet, directly is talking about that as well.

So if you look at the Ten Commandments God gave in a form, these are directly opposite of those three things that are Satan's way of life, the attitudes he transmits to us and gets us to do. We have the Ten Commandments, and we stop at just reading these, but Christ came and expounded these and said, no, it's not good enough just to say, hey, don't commit adultery. He said the attitude behind. Satan wants to get to your attitude. What did Christ say? No, I always intended it to be the attitude behind when I said don't commit adultery, right?

He's addressing the exact same thing that Satan is trying to pry out with you. The attitude inside, he's addressing the attitude of your heart and your spirit. So when you look at the Bible, it's this, those three things, encounters those three things in so many different ways. Now, the one that we talk about today is the lust of the eyes.

This is the third pillar, the third way that Satan does affect us. This is lust of the eyes. Or, as in Genesis said, when she looked at the tree, it was pleasant to the eyes. The example used in Jude is Balaam. And Balaam, as we know, was about the money, about what he could have, about this pot of gold, about he could not control himself. In fact, it was comical. He's sitting on a donkey, an ass, as described in the Bible, and he's, it starts talking to him.

If that happened to you, what would you do? I don't know about you, but I probably would jump off and run, but he starts arguing with it. So, this is how, and I know that sounds funny, but if you think about being driven irrationally through a lust, that's where he was at. And he's doing irrational things. That's what happens to you. You will do it, you do irrational things.

You think you're so this way, but you're doing something that's way over here. And the example that he had was he just could not control himself over the money. And then Christ was also tempted by Satan with all the kingdoms of the... Look at what you can see. What did he say? I will show you.

I will let you look with your eyes at the kingdoms of the world. Look at all the beauty of this. Look at all that you, look at all the suffering that you could help. I'm sure he wove a big story for Christ and said, look at that. You could have this right now. So, what we see is, it's a very important part. Now, something to call out in here, it's called lust of the eyes. The eyes are an important word in the Bible. Because what happened here after the aid of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it says, God knows in the days you eat of it, your eyes will be open. And he said, yep, the eyes of both of them were open later when the aid of it, and they knew they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Something changed here.

Something changed here. And what's very interesting about verse 7, about the eyes, is this phrase, this sentence, where it says, the eyes of both of them are open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings, is generally understood, however, B'r'imshan used to say this a long time ago, is generally understood to mean that things became hypersexualized. That all of a sudden it was, you know, the overwhelmingness of seeing and seeing the body and all these other things. The world became hypersexualized. The sex became hypersexualized. It became a thing. And that was one of the byproducts in the fruit, and the eyes of them were opened, and they started to see things like this. That's how they started to see it. God created something perfect and beautiful in a marriage relationship in the Garden of Eden, but it became twisted and became hypersexualized, and their eyes saw it this way.

There's a change here. Is that not true today? Is this not the way things are, have turned today? Let me just give you some stats. Every single second you're sitting here, 3,000 bucks has spent on pornography. Every single second you're sitting here, somebody's spending money on pornography. 28,000 users are looking at it. 372 people are putting search terms into... What's the average age of the first exposure to pornography today? 11. Why? Because you have access to it so easily. 11 years old. 11 years old. What's the largest group?

What did I hit? Yep. What's the largest consumers of internet porn? This age group. 35 to 49. Largest group of people that consume internet porn. What's the percentage of people in the eight-year-old to 16-year-olds who say they have viewed it online? That's who say it. 90% in that age group. 90% of the kids in that age group. How many people who visit porn sites today are women? You know there's a changing. One in three is the stat. Now, one out of every three people that visit porn sites, it's no longer just a man issue, a guy issue. Visit porn sites today.

And what about in churches? How many Christians say pornography is a major problem at home? How many Christians, self-proclaimed Christians, I must say who admit it? It's not an easy thing to come to church and admit that, but the souls who admit it, 47% say it's a problem in Christian homes. So are things hyper-sexualized today? I mean, if you look around you, I don't know how you can not say that they're not hyper-sexualized today. And this was the eyes that changed open to look and to see it different as things turned into be hyper-sexualized. But that's not all. It's not just about sex. Everything else out there wants to capture our eyes, wants to be the way to live. The fancy cars, the big mansions, the yachts, the planes, clothes, etc. All of this is seen as, I mean, what is, if you've ever looked at any of the, I love music, some of the videos are crazy, though, right? If you look at, you know, most of the videos, it's all about people who never could afford what they're showing you, driving a big boat and throwing money and cars and flying in planes. And it's to portray a lifestyle that's a pull to be like, wow, I want to be just like them. Well, guess what? You're going to buy their album and they're going to gee just like that. You're never getting there, right? So just telling you. But that's what the world wants you to think, that this is the pull that, you know, this livestock, and if you buy the album, you probably have a small taste of that lifestyle. You actually don't. You just spent your money. You know, this is the pull. There's so many things to pull at our eyes. There's so many things put in front of us to chase after, to go after, to look for, to want, to have. You know, the person next to you shows up with just a little bit nicer car. All of a sudden, your car feels old. My car is, I don't know, 10 years old. And I drive up next to some people work, and I'm like, oh, I like that Lamborghini a lot. I really feel I need to drive in that. It's not a want.

It's a need. And so this is my conversation with myself, and I realize, okay, that's ridiculous. Right? There's always something out there that's going to be bigger, better, you know, faster to put your eyes on. Man, I don't know about you, but these are the scenes of, you know, these are the scenes of, that's Black Friday shopping, right? I just did a simple search, and there was probably 400 pictures, that's one, of people waiting in line, getting in fights over buying something. TVs. I don't know if you've seen the videos, you know, people going to the stores, and there's a pile of stuff, and they're running, and they wipe out an old lady, and she's on the ground, and they're all grasping stuff. This is for real. It looks comical, but it's ridiculous. The frenzy of the things that we can have. I know people need one looking for a good deal, and you know, presents, and money only goes so far, but it's a frenetic attitude is what it is.

When we talk about attitudes and the influence, it's a frenetic attitude that if you're in line, and you've got to get before somebody to get that thing, enough to get into a fight, think about that. Why are we talking about this subject? Because it's the attitude of it. You want to talk about how do you diagnose attitudes? This is how Satan works. You see the frenetic, I've got to have that. I'll get in line, and if you get in my way, I'm going to punch you. I don't care if you're an old lady. I'm punching you. This is where it goes to. This is what it's about. Black Friday is the epitome of that. The amazing amount of things. Now, in the Bible, God gives direct commandment, the tenth one, that says, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet.

What is coveting? This is you looking at with what? Your eyes. And saying, I want that thing. Your neighbor's wife, nor is a male servant, nor is a female servant, nor is ox, nor is donkey, nor anything is your neighbor's. We probably say, you know, I don't have a problem with that, because my neighbors don't have servants and donkeys.

Let's not miss the point, okay? You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, plies, anything that they have that would be status. That Lamborghini that's there that I really want.

The cars, the boats, or anything else. That's the same principle. It's a timeless principle. Back in the day, that's what they had. My donkey, you know, my donkey has these special, like, hair fins, and, you know, you can compare. You could take anything and compare, couldn't you? You could.

That's exactly what it's saying. Don't covet that. This is something you do with your eyes. The eyes become a key word in the Bible. They become a key word in the Bible. Why? Christ brought out why.

Brought out why. Pivotal scripture, eye, is the lamp of the body. If you look in Luke 11, verse 34, you look 1134, it says, the lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore, take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, then the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light. And then he also says in Matthew 6, the same thing. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? The principle he is giving here is pivotal, because he's addressing this very issue of the lust of the eyes. Why? So the lamp of the body is the eye. This is hard to get your brain around sometimes. I always read this and go like, okay, but does that mean like if I'm happy and my eyes are shining, people can see I'm happy, you know, and I'm living God's way? Nope. Does that mean that, you know, if I'm fully living God's way, my eyes will be bright? No. That's not what this is saying.

This is saying the lamp, the lamp of what? The lamp of the body, the body, your body, the lamp of your body. So this is shining the wrong way. We keep thinking of it shining outwards, but think of it shining inwards. The lamp inside your body, the one that lights inside you, the light coming in from the outside to your body, the lamp of the body, that's what that means.

That phrase means it that way, not the other way, not how your people see your eyes outwards.

The lamp of your body is your eyes.

If your eye is seeing good things, then it'll be good inside. If your eye is fixed on bad things, your body is going to be full of darkness, is what it's saying.

Very important to understand what your eyes are looking at, and you're allowing in, is what this is saying. The lamp that lights you inside is your eyes, shining that way. Think of it like that. And it's saying, if your eye is bad, if you're stuck focusing, looking at things you shouldn't be looking at, then you're going to have darkness in you. You're going to have darkness inside you. You shouldn't be there. Can spring have fresh and bitter water at the same spring? Christ said over and over things like that, you cannot have those two together.

He said, if you have this darkness, that's going to be dark, full of darkness inside of you.

Full of the whole body will be full of darkness. And Christ brings out that lamp. If you want to understand how to heal the junk, how to heal the stuff, the darkness, the dark spots, the things that are there, the things that come out that you keep hidden, that could come out in different ways to different people. It's to change what you fix your eyes on. What are you fixing your eyes on?

Christ says it changes everything inside you. If you fix your eyes on things that are good, not on things that are darkness, what is Satan trying to do again? To get your eyes to focus on things you shouldn't be focusing on. Lusting after things you shouldn't be looking at.

Looking at things, desiring things that you shouldn't be looking at, that causes you inside to be dark. Christ says if you focus on good things, then they're full of light. The light's important. The light, sorry. The eye. The eye is important. This is a key word when we talk about this subject. The lust of the eyes is there. Satan's saying, I'm going to get you to lust after things with your eyes. God is saying the eye is the window. It's the lamp inside that lights you up. And if you're looking at the wrong things, your body is full of darkness. Your body's full of darkness. Is this reaffirmed? Yes, he says, Matthew 5, 28, but I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Okay? Throughout the Bible, he's saying this. He's expounding. The teachers of the day were very much into just I'm keeping the law so that I can be seen as righteous and I can beat other people over the head. Christ said, I'm sorry. I gave that law. And here's what I meant when I gave the law way back then. Never has changed. That even if you look to lust again with your eyes, you're committing adultery. That's what I intended with this. I didn't intend it to be a system to set me up over somebody else. This is for you to change and for your eye not to lust after somebody and for you to take that as a correction. And then he gives the principle if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it's more profitable that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Two things about that. One, do you pull your eyeball out? Is that what that means? No. That's not what that means. If there's something that's causing you to look and causing your eye to look at it, just get it out of your life. Get it out of your life. If that's your computer, by the way, you might have to go without it. If that's causing you to have darkness in you and to look at the wrong thing. Sorry, he might have to. But I need to search that. Yeah, whatever. This is what Christ is saying. It's better for you to get rid of that and make it to the kingdom than to hang on to that. So if your right eye causes you to sin, take it away. Take that away. There's a principle here for the body of Christ, too.

If there's people that are there, like the Corinthians, that are sinning bladedly and it's causing problems, then sometimes you remove that so that you don't have that.

Sometimes that has to be addressed. Your body, yourself, and your body of Christ, like Corinthians, if a person comes back and repentance says, yep, I get it, I was wrong. Absolutely mercy, compassion, everything is there. Absolutely. But the key is, is it sin or not? Is it causing sin for the body? So we find Christ addressing the looking, the eyes, and how important that is to address, and that the law that He gave addressed the very attitude, the very thought behind it all, just as Satan, because when he, it wasn't like God's law was written down, I just do this physical thing way back then, from the very get-go it meant this.

It's not different. It meant this. It was perverted by religious leaders of the day, in Christ's day.

But it meant this from the start. Let me address the attitude behind with my law. Satan, let me attack the attitude, let me attack that with the an attitude behind it.

Okay, you see why we're talking about this? Remember why, I don't know about you, but I used to sit in the, in here, Mr Armstrong, say, I have you people don't get this about the two trees.

And I'd sit there and go, yeah, yeah, here we go again. But you know what? I think it's true.

I think it's very true. I think we missed it. I think this we need to understand so deeply. This is why, sorry, I'm repeating myself, but this is so very important for us to kind of dive deep into. And what we fix our eyes on is important. There are so many scriptures in the Bible. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. David says, turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things.

It was a prayer he prayed. If you have an issue with things and seeking after, just ask God. That's specific. Do you think God can help you with that? For sure. Does God want you to pray those things? Absolutely. These are the things that God wants to hear coming out of your mouth. Help me to like put away what I'm looking at. Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle towards heaven. The frenetic desire to be rich and to catch up with the next person next to you, etc., is a fleeting thing. So set your eyes. Why set your eyes on things that are not? And Job, Job said, I made a covet with my eyes.

Job said, I made a covet with my eyes. Great phrasing, right? What is the key word in all these? There's the eyes. I made a covet of my eyes. Why should I look upon a young woman? He said, I will not look to lust. I will not look on a young woman like that. I made a covenant with my eyes. The eyes.

The eyes are such an important part of things. When we get to a society, we get to a place, this is where it ends up. 2 Peter 2 verse 12. 2 Peter 2 verse 12.

Talking about certain people, these are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin. That darkness in you becomes full. Eyes full of adultery would describe the society, and I would dare say it describes some people, be even in the church, who cannot stop compulsively full of adultery, cannot cease from sin, that it's just constantly there, have to be stimulated by it, constantly. TV shows, everything, the internet, whatever it is, talking, jokes, it doesn't matter.

Eyes full of adultery cannot cease from sin. Enticing unstable souls, they have a heart training covetous practices in our accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

Ah, the example again. We have the same example. Training covetous practices. I want things.

He loved the wages. He loved the wages of unrighteousness. The money for doing unrighteous things. The way of life that it was. And Satan wants you to get to a place where that's what you like to. It's not a, hey, I just slipped once and I'm repenting. This is, I'm so far over here, and you know it's not so bad. I don't know what all the big hype is in your church. You guys are so conservative and you're so like, fuddy dities and you just judge me. It's not that bad. Now that I'm in it is where he wants you to be to where you love it. That's a difference. That is what he's trying to get us to do. Eyes full of adultery is where it ends up. You can't stop. You can't see. This is where Sodom was. And Gomorrah. Eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, and God passed to judgment and said, enough is enough, and boom, they were gone. Our society definitely going there. What do we do with our eyes? Proverbs 4, 25. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Let your eyes look straight ahead. And your eyelids look right before you.

What are you focused on? What are you focused on? You're focused on your Savior Christ. You're focused on the kingdom you're going to. You're focused on God your Father. You're focused on His Word, His law. You're focused on doing the right thing. That's what that means when it says, ponder the feet of your, I mean the path of your feet. What direction are you walking in?

And don't let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the left or to the right. Remove your foot from evil. As you focus and look and you walk, you're going to have things that come at you to make you look, guarantee you, going to make you look. He wants to make you look. He wants to stick it in front of you so that you, just for a bit, I'm over here. Right? The Proverbs says, look, let your eyes look straight ahead. Walk that. Resist that. Don't look to the left or the right.

Don't look at those things. So, super important concept of the eye. The eyes.

What you look at. Now, shift gears for a second for the last part of this. We're here on a day, when you look at coveting, when you look at lusting after things, it's not enough just to say, don't don't don't don't. Right? I didn't remember we talked about last time walking in the Spirit. It's not just a matter of a defensive position. Oh, I've got to resist everything. It's a matter of putting on something and walking in it. Right? Put on and walk in it. What is that? One thing that we are just celebrating this past week. That's Thanksgiving. This one lands on the right day to talk about this topic, because the antidote of walking in his way has everything to do with being thankful and Thanksgiving. There's a lot of things we can think about when we think about Thanksgiving and the blessings we have and what God has given to us, even the trials.

It's very important for us to figure out a way to be thankful. Now, there's ways that are talked about. Oprah Winfrey talks about being thankful. She's got good principles. Other pop psychologists people do too. They're good principles because they're founded on something that's spiritual, that's in the Bible. They didn't come up with it. God defined it and gave it to us, and there's so many things that we can learn. What does he say over and over in his Bible?

I'll just read a few scriptures. Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving. Walk in here with Thanksgiving. Enter into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name.

My son David, his favorite song, which Ken picked, is Thank You, Lord. That's his absolute favorite song in this entire world. If you ever you hear how excited he gets, right, did you hear how excited he gets? That's his favorite song ever. I find that fascinating that he loves that song. We heard the feast once in Alaska, after the feast. Looked around the room, and there's probably 550-600 people in that room. Every single chair, every single Bible was out and opened, you know, to Luke 11, you know, to pray. And then he had the song books open to Thank You, Lord, right?

It's like he gives a better sermon, sermonette message than most every person I know, just by those things, and the excitement of saying Thank You, Lord. It's a beautiful thing. We should give thanks when we're here. And it says, oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known as deeds among the people. Sing to him. Sing songs to him. When we sing, we should be giving thanks.

Yes, we do privately, but that's part of what singing is, giving thanks as well.

You know, and if we hold it in and we don't say it, that's not good. That's not good.

There's something that changes in us when we start to become thankful. There's something that changes in us when we start to become thankful. Colossians 3, 15 says, let the peace of God rule your hearts to which also you are called, and when body and be thanked. Search the Bible. It's all over the place. Be thankful. Not a nice saying. It's a spiritual principle, as we'll see. In fact, here's a warning for you. Romans 1, 21 says, because although they knew God, this is talking about some people who actually understood God at some point in life, knew God.

Somehow, on some level, some way, they knew God. But they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful. Glorifying and thankful go together. As I wrote in a letter last night, if you didn't receive it, let me know. I'll send it to you. Coming back to glorify God and being thankful are two things that go together. The proper praise goes to the proper being to the one who can do these things. It's not an insecure God who says, oh, I need people to worship me.

It is saying things that are good should be declared good. Not like his world, it declares bad things as good. And I want you to look at wrong things. We should glorify God, being thankful for the good things that he does to him and tell him so that good things and the being that can save us and has, we are very thankful. And we bring glory to his name, his ways, what he has done.

That's what it means for us when we're thankful. But they didn't. They were not thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. I won't read the rest. There's a path that will affect your life that has everything to do with your eyes and thanksgiving. You don't do it. These are people that knew God at some point. It's what it says, became futile. And you don't even know it. If you stop being thankful, if you start thinking, I deserve, I should have. Man, I didn't get that. I don't people recognize how great I am? And I want this. Abraham had riches. I should have... If you stop being thankful for the things that you have, you start down a path where you can't see it. You think you're wise, but you become futile. Think about that. Thanksgiving has everything to do with the course and the path of your life. Philippians 4 verse 6 says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Spiritual principle, 100%. Oprah Winfrey, whatever. Spiritual principle God gave us, right here.

You can ask God for things that you need or even desire. He may tell you, no, that's fine. You can ask him, but do it with thanksgiving. You know what? If you start praying with thanksgiving, you actually probably stop asking for a lot of things that you thought you really needed.

And you start being thankful of the things you have. There's a spiritual principle here. There's a peace that will come to you of God. You can't understand it. It surpasses understanding. It will guard your hearts. I don't know about you, but that's a spiritual promise that I would love to have. It has everything to do with being thankful. Again, thanksgiving. Not just a nice day, not just a nice proclamation, but a spiritual principle to guide the path of your life, to change the path of your life. Trust me, people have discovered it that are humans. It's a spiritual principle that's so key. Let me take a couple minutes to read a story. I'll go over just a few minutes here. This is a quick story called, Learning to See the Stars. It says, During the war, my husband was stationed at an army training camp near Mojave Desert in California. I went to live there in order to be near him. I hated the place. I loathed it. I'd never before been so miserable. My husband was ordered out on maneuvers in the Mojave Desert, and I was left in a tiny shack alone. The heat was unbearable, 125 degrees in the shade of a cactus, not a soul to talk to. The wind blew incessantly, and all the food I ate and the very air I breathed were filled with sand, sand, sand.

I was so utterly wretched, so sorry for myself, that I wrote to my parents. I told them I was giving up and coming back home, and I said, I couldn't stand it one minute longer. I'd rather be in jail. My father answered my letter with just two lines, two lines that will always sing in my memory, two lines that completely altered my life. Two men looked out from prison bars.

One saw the mud, the other saw the stars. I read those two lines over and over, and I was almost ashamed of myself. I had made up my mind I would find out what was good in my present situation. I would look for the stars. I made friends with the natives, and their reaction amazed me. When I showed interest in their weaving and pottery, they gave me presents of their favorite pieces, which they had refused to sell to tourists. I studied the fascinating forms of the cactus, and the yuckas, and the Joshua trees. I learned about prairie dogs. I watched for the desert sunsets, and I hunted for seashells that had been left there millions of years ago, where the sands of the desert had been an ocean floor. What brought about this astonishing change to me? The Mojave Desert hadn't changed, but I had. I changed my attitude of mind, and by doing so, I transformed a wretched experience into the most exciting adventure of my life. I was stimulated and excited by this new world that I discovered. I was so excited I wrote a book about it, a novel that was published under the title Bright Ramparts. I had looked out of my self-created prison and found the stars. A simple example. Can you change your life? Is this false positive Pollyanna? No, this is an attitude of being thankful. One of my favorite movies in life.

Character so well-defined. Winnie the Pooh. I don't know. My kids would watch it, and they still... there's certain movies you just see over and over and over and just say, man, that's just timeless. You know, Piglet. Simple little creature. Always thankful. What's the opposite? Eeyore, right? They really well-defined those creatures. Even things that were good were bad.

You know what? Simple little creature. Always was thankful, etc. I know it's a simple example.

But you know what? It's so true. It's so very true. So very true of the friends and the things he had in life. One last scripture here that I will read. A great example. If you look at Jonah 2, verse 2. Jonah himself wasn't always thankful. In fact, he was a bitter, wretched being for what happened to him. But notice the change that happened here in the belly of a whale before everything turned around in his life. It says, I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and he answered me out of the belly of Sheol or the grave. I cried, you heard my voice, for you cast me into the deep and into the heart of the seas and the floods surrounded me. All your bills and your waves passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast out of your sight, yet while I look again towards your holy temple. The water surrounded me, even to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds wrapped around my head. I don't know about you, but I'm claustrophobic. I could not deal with this. Water, not only you're in the belly of a whale, there's no fire in there or a lamp. And you have weeds that are wrapped around your body. I would freak out if that were me.

Just saying. But this is where he was. Can you imagine that? And that's where he was. And he says, I went down to the moorings of the mountains, the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. You have brought me up in my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord. My prayer went up to you into your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols, your eyes forsake their own mercy. Did you read that? Your eyes, what you look at.

But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And so the Lord spoke to the fish and vomited him out. Is there not a change here in this man? And guess when things turned for him when he was thankful? Not saying, just go say a prayer of thanks and everything changes. It could. You never know. But you never know. But what he learned and what he knew, at that point, his life changed. Thankfulness, spiritual, the antidote, how we walk in the Spirit of God. Now, to close this out, since we are to be thankful, to finish up the sermon, just wanted to just read a short passage of scripture that is to be thankful. And then we'll close. And to do that, I'd like to ask my son, Cameron, if he would come up and read to us just a few verses from Psalms 107. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed for the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way. They found no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to the city for its dwelling place. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness, those who sat in the darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons, because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High. Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They dwelled down, and there was none to help. They cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of the darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he has broken the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron and two fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, and afflicted, their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them for their destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, and to his wonderful works to the children of men.

Thank you, Cameron. Let's all give thanks today.