Spiritual Eyesight

Thank you, Carolyn. That was beautiful. Beautiful song, beautiful words. Certainly echoing the sentiments of Esther and Mordecai, if you caught that as it went along. And God has certainly called us to a time such as this, hasn't he? We live in very interesting times.

I know during these times it may be difficult to take an honest evaluation of yourself.

You ever find that difficult? I was reminded of that in a story I heard of a very old man standing in front of a full-length mirror taking a hard look at himself.

He said to his wife, look at me, I'm an old decrepit man. He said, all my hair's fallen out.

My face is entirely wrinkled up. He said, my backside's hanging out a mile. My arms are all flabby. My legs are fat. I'm so discouraged. Can you tell me anything to make me feel better about myself? She thought about it for a moment and said, well, at least your eyesight's not bad.

Now, why do I tell that bad joke?

Well, how's your eyesight? How's your eyesight? If the question comes up, I think they play that game. If you had to go through life without one of your senses, which one would it be?

I think I've played that before, and I think one that would be pretty tough would be losing your eyes. Because our eyes are such an amazing organ in our body that if we were deprived of our sight, how would you manage? We have this amazing gift that God has given us, that He designed in such a phenomenal way that we've got eyes that are better than an iPhone.

We can see through these amazing things that collect the light and sort out images.

They're even protected by our skulls and set back in them so that they're protected. If something were to come at them, we can blink our eyes and keep the dust out or an object from hitting us.

And when you look at how fearfully and wonderfully made they are, it begins to really be astounding.

I'm not a scientist and I don't play one on TV, but you can look up some of the things about our eyes that it's just absolutely phenomenal. We have this black part in our eye. It's just a hole that can be controlled through the eye to let more light in if we need to see something illuminated more or can close up to let just the right amount of light in so we can see correctly.

And then, of course, inside our eyes there's our retina. And that retina is just masses of all kinds of tiny nerves that help us sort things out like colors. Some of us may not be able to see colors and these different things in our eyes may not be working the way that they're supposed to. There's things called cones and rods and these cones are supposed to help us see colors and rods are supposed to help us see movements. Just to think about some of the things that our eyes do. And I've got some family members that are a little limited with the cone side of things and they can't really pick out their clothes very well because they're not sure if this matches with that or not. And when you look at that, that's a challenge. That is a challenge in your perception.

And everything has to work just right. Our muscles have eyes, our eyes have muscles, pairs of muscles that help turn them in the proper way. And if they don't work properly, you could be a very suspicious person and staring at yourself if they're not working. But I've had family members deal with that type of an issue too where they can do amazing things and take your eyeball out and operate on those muscles to get them working the way they're supposed to. Absolutely phenomenal! And when it all works together, you can see and not only images, but you can see depth. You have two eyes so your brain can look at things. This eye is a little different than that eye and it puts those images together and I can see depth. I can see how far something is from me. And I can determine that because there's two pictures that are going to my brain all at once. And yet, science says that when it arrives to your brain, it's not like you might imagine.

They say that image that actually comes to your brain is upside down. You ever heard that before? You can google it. Check it out. They say it comes upside down. Well, what happens?

Well, from the time we're really little, our brain starts to work on that and flips things around.

So things aren't upside down and we see them right side up. And now that we're adults, we don't even think about it. It just does it. Just does it. All point to the fact that our vision is simply amazing. God has blessed us so much with the ability to see.

Now, one interesting thing when we think about the connection to the Word of God is so many times throughout Scripture, we're pointed to our physical vision as a metaphor for spiritual eyesight.

For spiritual eyesight. So when's the last time you stood before a mirror, spiritually speaking, and went through an eye exam? An eye exam. I think this year especially has pointed us to 2020.

Is that 2020 vision? Yeah, I don't think anybody had 2020 vision this year because nobody saw all of this coming. And yet at the same time, we have to look differently. We have to have spiritual eyesight and view this world through those spiritual eyes. There's a passage that I'd like to begin with this afternoon over in Proverbs 29, 18. Proverbs 29, verse 18 brings us to that point to ask us about our spiritual eyesight. Proverbs 29, 18 may be a familiar passage. King James says this, Proverbs 29, 18, where there is no vision, the people perish. Pretty short little verse. Where there's no vision, the people perish. That's King James. Now your new King James, if you're following along in New King James, it says, where there's no revelation, the people cast off restraint. But then happy is he who keeps the law. You see, the difference in translation is this interpretation of the Hebrew word, hazon, H-A-Z-O-N, the Hebrew word for vision or revelation.

Because literally it means divine vision or divine revelation. Spiritual eyesight is really what it's talking about. When there's no spiritual eyesight, when we don't see God revealing things through our eyes, it says the people perish. The result of ignoring God, that result of casting off restraint, who cares, kind of an attitude, that's going to lead to death. The people perish.

And so when we have a vision, the opposite is true. We have a hope. We understand the purpose. We understand the plan. We understand prophetically that God is working and has a purpose and a plan.

And yet the warning here as well says, take care of your eyesight. Take care of your spiritual vision and to make sure that you stay healthy when it comes to your eyes. Because what's the opposite? In fact, how does Scripture define those who are on the other end of this passage, where there is no vision, the people perish, where you don't have this divine revelation and people cast off restraint? Where are they described as being throughout Scripture? Darkness. Darkness. Over and over again, the Bible describes spiritual states of individuals that don't have a relationship with God as darkness. An example of that. John 12, verse 35. Here's Christ referring to that type of a situation that people find themselves in with no relationship with God, no spiritual understanding, or very little spiritual understanding. Where are they? Notice what Christ said. John 12, verse 35. Jesus said, a little while longer, the light is with you. Of course, He's talking about Himself. Christ was with the disciples. He was there for three and a half years. And He told them, walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. I think that's critical. Think about that for a minute. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. It says, He who walks in darkness doesn't know where He's going. Back down to verse 36. I've come as a light unto the world, and whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

Think of this as an important concept to think about, especially at this time of the year. All right, we're after the Feast of Tabernacles. What's happening to our days? When we look out the window, our days are getting shorter. The daylight period is getting shorter and shorter, all the way until about the end of December. The days are going to get shorter. Next week, we're going to turn our clocks back, and suddenly, the middle of the afternoon, it's going to be dark. Okay, what happens? Every day, okay, the sun comes up, it gets brighter out, but darkness is not far away. As the world turns, right, darkness will come. Well, how are you going to deal with that as someone that's striving to be spiritual? Christ says, walk while you have light because the darkness wants to overtake you, just like the darkness overtakes the light during the day. Spiritually speaking, the same thing is happening out there in the world.

Now, we might say, well, Christ isn't literally walking with us like He did the disciples. Well, that may be true, but He is in us. We have the Spirit of God within us. We have the light. Are we going to walk with that light? It says if we don't, there's only one thing that can happen.

If you're not walking in the light, where are you walking? We're walking in the dark. Darkness overtakes you. And so, Christ uses that metaphor of light and darkness to emphasize our spiritual vision that we have had revelation. God has opened our minds to His truth, and now we better live like walking is representing that very thing. How do you live your life? How do you live your life? Are you walking in the light? If we claim to be with Christ, if we claim to be a Christian, then we must walk in the light. We claim to have the light. In fact, He talked a little bit more about this in Matthew 13. So, if you turn back to Matthew 13, verse 14. Here, Christ once again makes this point of how critical our spiritual vision is and how we've got to take care of our eyesight. And He uses the prophecy of Isaiah to make that very point. Matthew 13, verse 14, here's Christ quoting Isaiah. Look at the description of people in darkness. It says, hearing you'll hear and not understand. Seeing you will see, but you won't perceive. It's like receiving all those signals from your eyes to your brain, but your brain never quite figures out how to turn things right side up. And everything is still wrong and backwards. They're not going to be really able to perceive. Verse 15, we see why.

It says, for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing. Their eyes, they've closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see and your ears, for they hear. And so, Christ is using this very metaphor about spiritual vision and that connection to physically seeing. Oh, you can physically see, but you can still be in spiritual darkness. And people shut their eyes to the truth of God.

And He makes this point, we can't. And what's going to be the difference between eyes wide open, spiritually speaking, or half shut, or looking the other way, or ignoring and not perceiving what we see. I mean, He tells us here, He says it's a heart matter. It's a matter of the heart.

So when we recognize this, He says we should see and understand with our hearts.

But He didn't stop there, did He? If you look back at the end of verse 15, seeing, hearing, understanding with your hearts, and turning, and turning. And so, He gets to this point that what we see, how we perceive this world, should cause us to have a heart reaction.

That it should cause us to turn. And of course, scripturally, when we talk about turning, anything come to mind? Especially, what do we do with the ways of this world? Well, we better turn away. What happens if we're impacted by wrong actions or wrong thoughts?

Well, we better turn, because it's pointing to repentance. You hear, you see with your eyes, and when we're not following God, we're not walking with Him the way we need to, we better repent. We better do that spiritual eye exam, and make sure we have clear spiritual vision and walk in the way of Jesus Christ. Because Christ talked to so many people during His time that He walked the earth. And when they didn't follow Him, He said, you're in darkness. And in fact, many of them took it a step farther.

I mean, once you're in darkness and you get used to that, after a while, you can't see it all.

And so Christ oftentimes criticized the religious leaders of the day. He told them they were blind leaders, blind guides. They had gotten so used to seeing things their way, they couldn't visualize things God's way. And so it should be different for us. And by this process of conversion and receiving the Spirit of God, we have Christ in us. He's given us the means to turn from darkness to light. And like this world keeps turning, when darkness tries to invade our life, we have to keep turning. We have to keep repentant and turn to God and guard our vision. Not allow our vision to be overtaken by the wrong sights that are out here. Because after a while, this world wants to warp our perspective so that we lose our spiritual eyesight. And in fact, I think it does it in a number of ways. Ways that we can connect to the spiritual eye exam. Let's think about that for a moment. Maybe we can diagnose a few spiritual vision problems. If you're like me, you've probably been to the eye doctors sometime in your life, some of us more often than others.

One of the ways that they identify a problem with your eyesight is determining what's happening. And you have to look through those funny little instruments, and they turn these lenses and all kinds of things and try to determine what's going on. Oftentimes, an ophthalmologist might diagnose an eye problem as myopia. You ever heard of myopia? You're myopic? Anyone have a problem with myopia? That's... Okay, let's think about what that is. What that is is nearsightedness, which means you can see things close up, but as you look at things at a distance, they get kind of blurry.

Anyone have problems with my... I'm raising my hand, because if I took my contacts out, you'd be a blur. You'd be a blur. Wouldn't be able to see you at all. When you're myopic, okay, I could see things close up. I could pick up my Bible, and I can read that pretty well. That's not a problem. But as soon as I put it down, you can't see anything off in the distance. It starts to get very blurry and hazy. All right, think about that spiritually for a moment. What would be the connection in the metaphor that the Bible uses? Well, if you look at things clearly close up, but you can't see things far away, what's clear? Well, I can see things very close to me. In fact, I kind of like me. These things are important to me. This is what counts in my life. And if you're spiritually myopic, that's exactly what starts to happen. You start to focus on yourself and your issues, your problems, your struggles, your difficulties, your circumstances. Or, yeah, okay, I can focus on how great I am and how wonderful I am and all my successes. And I don't want to look at any of my problems or difficulties, because I'm so focused on this immediate right in front of my eyes. That's spiritual myopia. And in fact, when you consider that, our whole world suffers from that kind of myopia. Paul talked about that to the young minister, Timothy, 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. He describes now. He describes the time that we live in. And I think he's describing this myopia as he talks about the perilous times that we live in.

Probably didn't know a thing about COVID-19, but he talked a lot about different perilous things. And notice the focus. It's a familiar section of Scripture, but look at it from this perspective for a moment. 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. Paul talks about the last days perilous times will come. And how do you identify that? What do we look at in order to understand if this is the case or not?

Verse 2, men will be lovers of themselves.

Self-focus. Look how great I am. Myopia! That's what it's describing. Lovers of money.

How much can I have? This is what I want. This is what I need. Boasters. They're proud. Blasphemers. Who needs God? Who needs any of that? I'm self-sufficient. In fact, isn't that the good old American way? We take care of ourselves. So who cares what mom and dad say? I don't have to worry if I'm appreciative of anything because I provide for myself.

And so we see this list that just goes on and on and on. I think each one of these characteristics has a connection to myopia, a self-centered focus. And what we have to watch out for is what Paul is warning Timothy about. That's the effect if we let the world influence us. If we lose our eyesight, we could fall into these things. In fact, at the end of verse 4, he says, they're lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. What's fun for me? What's good for me? What's nice for me? What do I appreciate? You see that self-focus? Who cares about others or God?

And for us, verse 5 says, they have a form of godliness but denying its power from such turn away. From such turn away. You see, we can't just look like we're Christians. Right? When you see someone, especially today, you can't necessarily tell I'm nearsighted. I got my contacts in, so you really can't tell. Not wearing my glasses today.

We can look good. We can come to services on the Sabbath and we can claim to be Christians.

But if our eyesight is skewed and we're not really living this way, he says we're not really applying what Christ said about real spiritual eyesight. When we see things spiritually, that means change, doesn't it? It means we see it, we understand it, we perceive it, and we turn. That's what Christ said. We turn when we find sin in our life. We don't look the other way.

We change. We change. So no wonder he said, don't have anything to do with people that have this perception. Any of these things in this list that Paul gave Timothy. Because sometimes we don't realize what we're seeing. And this world would love to fool us in that matter. In fact, that's how I learned that I had an eye problem as a kid. My mom will appreciate this. I think she's watching online today. Hi, Mom. We were driving in the car one day. I think I'm probably about 12 years old.

And my mom said, look at that beautiful bird on the fence over there.

So I looked out the window, and you know what I said? What fence?

Couldn't even see the fence, let alone the beautiful bird on the fence. Yeah, I didn't even realize what I wasn't seeing. I didn't know it. I couldn't see it myself. Now, if you ask me, can you see, you know, the controls for the window? Well, yeah, it's in the car. It's close up. I can see that. And spiritually, that can be a major problem. If I don't see things that are farther away from myself, from me, I don't recognize their problem. I don't recognize their issues. How can I help them? How can I serve them? How can I be a brother or a sister? How can I be a true servant of people? If I can't help those that are farther away, then me.

And that can be an issue when we don't see the greater picture of God's plan and His purpose, and what Christ Himself is doing within the Church. In fact, the Apostle Peter may have put it very precisely in this way. 2 Peter 1, verse 9. Peter gives a different kind of a listing here just before this and talks about many spiritual characteristics. If we've got spiritual eyesight, this is who we are. And he lists a whole bunch of wonderful qualities there just before this. But then in 2 Peter 1, verse 9, he says, if we don't have those things, if we lack the character of Christ, look what he says. 2 Peter 1, verse 9. He who lacks these things is short-sighted, or near-sighted. Short-sighted, near-sighted. He says, even to blindness. And he's forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. He's forgotten and lost his understanding, his perspective.

And so we become spiritually myopic when we fixate on ourselves, when we fixate on the things of this world. We begin to take in what they say is important and begin to buy into that whole way of thinking, their morality, their perspective, and we lose sight of the big picture of God. And so our spiritual discernment is what can become cloudy then. That can become blurry. And so then we are making poor decisions, spiritually speaking, because the good things remain out there, and they're not so clear to us. And so if we take this spiritual eye exam, it can show up in a number of ways. We can even ask ourselves. I think this is one way it can manifest itself in our lives.

If it's about me, I could ask myself, well, am I a control freak? Do I have to have everything just the way I want it in my order, in this manner? And so by trying to control everything right around me, somehow I can make life work. Well, that's not the way it goes. We're the people of God.

God shows us family relationships. And if I focus on my own control, or for that matter, my own feelings, is my perspective what becomes chiefly important? Or do I have that love and that concern for others? Or sometimes it can show up in a little different way as well. What if I'm trying to do my best, but I'm so busy and so preoccupied with what's happening now that I don't do the spiritual things that I need to? That I put off changing? I put off repentance? I put off growing in my relationship with God? You see, that takes control and I become spiritually myopic. And so we've got to make sure those wants, those desires, we've got to put them in their proper place so that we don't overlook what's out there and we overlook others. So watch out for that spiritual myopia as one of the characteristics that Christ Himself talked about. All right, a second example. Now, if you went on a trip to the ophthalmologist and they discovered you had a problem, they might tell you that you have hypermetropia. Hypermetropia, well, that's the opposite of myopia. Hypermetropia is farsighted. How many of you are farsighted, some of us? That means I can see things far away, but the things up close got trouble focusing on the things that are a little bit closer that way. Okay, imagine this in a spiritual perspective, a spiritual metaphor for today. I think it can lend itself to—I get it. I understand God's word. I understand His way. I know His plan. I can read His Bible. I mean, I understand God's law. I understand what He's doing. I realize that God has a plan and a purpose and Christ is going to return. But how do I apply those things? How do I live those things? What does this understanding translate to? You see, Christ talked about that understanding and perceiving should translate to turning, to repenting, to drawing closer to God. In this case, I think this spiritual hypermetropia is one of those things that tends to lead us to the problem of being good on theory, but not so good on application. Well, how do we apply that word that I understand?

How do I actually live this way? I can quote Scripture to you, maybe even chapter and verse, maybe expound doctrine. But do I apply it to myself? Do I recognize these are issues I need to be working with? Do I live this way? Or if it's hypermetropia, I can see your problem because you're out there. I don't have those issues, but can you think of a classic scriptural example of that?

That log that's in your eye, remember that one? Maybe we should take a quick look at that. That's over in Matthew 7. Matthew 7, we're all familiar with this story of Christ. It's a story about judgment. It's a story about putting down others or trying to solve others' problems. Remember the story? Yeah, Christ talked about this. Matthew 7, verse 3, why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but you don't consider the plank in your own eye? That's King James. You've got this giant log in you. How could you even see somebody else's problem? That's interesting, isn't it? But with that hypermetropia, well, yeah, I can see things at a distance. Look at that. I see that little thing in their eye, and here you've got this monster log in yours. That's the condition that we're talking about. Christ says, hypocrite, verse 5, first remove the plank from your own eye, then you'll clearly see to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Yeah, we should still love our brother and care for them. But first things first, get your own spiritual glasses on and take care of yourself first.

And I think that kind of ties in with what Christ talked about. In a similar case, just a couple of chapters later, if you turn over to chapter 15, 15 verse 8, I think this same condition is explained a little bit differently, but same thing, same thing. Get rid of this log out of your eye, and don't be so busy telling us about their problems. Matthew 15, 8 is a similar type of thing, isn't it? Christ said, people draw near to me with their mouth, they honor me with their lips. But remember that perception? Remember where it really counts? A matter of the heart. It says their heart is far from me. So we begin to see that is this hypermetropia, that I can pick out all these things, or I can quote you Scripture, but I can't seem to apply it to my own life. Christ says, take care of your heart. That's the prescription.

That's a prescription that the greatest ophthalmologist could ever give. Christ gave that prescription. Change your heart. Turn, turn. And so we could certainly pray and ask God to give us that direction. If you want to read a little bit more about this later, just write down Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11 describes a similar kind of situation. And so you can read about that perspective in Isaiah later. All right, let's look at a third diagnosis that I think is connecting to this spiritual metaphor we're making with our eyesight. Another issue that so many people end up with in their life is presbyopia. Presbyopia. What in the world is that? Anybody have reading glasses?

Yeah, me too. Yeah, it's blurry vision that comes as we get older. That's when you need those reading glasses, or you can't quite get the thread through the eye of the needle anymore. Yeah, that's when you start to realize, okay, maybe I got to get some reading glasses. Maybe this presbyopia is something that's affecting me. And so when that started happening to me, I found you could get bifocals. What an awesome thing! Bifocals are pretty cool. And so I got a pair of bifocals. And boy, I could pick up my book and I could read exactly what it said if I got my head in the exact right position where the bifocal was, right? Yeah, I can read it perfectly now. And of course, what's really cool about that, you could look down and you could read your book and then look up crystal clear. Absolutely amazing! The contacts never seem to get quite that clear, but glasses are awesome that way. And bifocals, how cool is that? I can see close things and I can see long things with those bifocals. So it's absolutely remarkable. So I thought I'd really put it to the test. When I first got those bifocals and saw how crystal clear things could really be, I thought this could probably help me be a better basketball player. And so I put those things on to go play some basketball. And so playing some basketball, somebody threw me a bounce pass and I went to grab it and as I reached for that ball and I, it was two feet behind me all of a sudden.

It's like, uh-oh. Crazy. It's like, oh, that was, well, that wasn't the first thing I thought. First thing I thought, what a lousy pass! That was terrible! I don't know how to throw the ball. No, it's like I was reaching to the wrong place, looking at the wrong thing because of these silly bifocals. Of course, then it's just shooting the basket. Then, okay, it'll be fine. You shoot the basket, there it goes! It's heading up and it's... Yeah, just like that. It was silent. Nothing. It was total airball. Totally missed. It's like, where is that basket, anyway? Because of that very problem. Because I needed the reading side of the glasses, as well as the distance.

Bifold was wearing exactly the answer in the sense that I was sure it was there. I was sure that's where the basket was. I was sure that's where the ball was, but it wasn't! And it skewed reality is really what it was doing. It was a skewed reality. And so I started to recognize that my experience of reality really wasn't true. And that's what happens, spiritually speaking, when we see things with this spiritual presbyopia. We see things, but that's not reality.

And physically what happens, as we get older, supposedly our eyes aren't as liquid. They're not...

they start to harden, some describe it as, and that's what causes us to have to need reading glasses. And of course, that's interesting to think of that in connection to the metaphor today.

Our heart gets hardened. Our heart gets hardened. And if we don't do something about it and change that perspective, we can be in trouble. Now, it is something that happens over time, physically.

And I think an interesting connection can cause us all problems because many of us have been around for a long time. Many of us, many of you, grew up in the church, even though you're young, you've been around for decades. Some have been around 50 years. I think this spiritual presbyopia can show itself in that way as well, that just because I've been around for so many years must automatically translate into spiritual growth. But that's that misunderstanding of reality.

It gives us a wrong idea of our spiritual state. Our spiritual state, our standing, is determined by our relationship to God. That's what it's all about. It's not how many years I've been around. It's not how many scriptures I can quote. It's how many I can live, how many I can put into practice, and how I can grow to put on the character of Christ. And so this presbyopia can cause us to think, well, I've been around so long and I've changed so much. I've changed so much. Oh, well, that little thing there, that's not that big a deal, because after all, look at all the other things I've gotten a handle on. And we can lose our perspective if we don't see it for what it is, because any sin that is left untreated, what does it earn? Wages of sin is death.

The wages of sin is death. We've got to deal with it. And so those things can turn progressively into a disease that will ultimately destroy our spiritual vision, destroy our spirituality in that sense. And so we just have to see things for what they are, see this world for what it is. It is a counterfeit. It is a fake. It is not real. It's temporary. It's not lasting, even though it can appear good, even though it can seem to be in the right place. And fundamentally, it is a lie.

It is a lie. And so when we consider this, I mean, the real blessing in all of this, it's like going down to Walmart and buying those readers. You can get them and it's not that difficult to get the solution so you can read. Right? You might even get the three-pack, right? They're pretty cheap. It's nice. Because that's really nice because this is like plus one and this one's plus 1.25 and this is 1.5. Hey, I got every variety so I can get just the right ones at a bargain. Spiritually speaking, this is treatable. Spiritually speaking, God says, this is 100% curable. You know, it's not about catching the ball or shooting the baskets. Yeah, that's probably going to change over the years whether we like it or not. I think about it spiritually, though. Even though our sight may become diminished, does my ability to repent become diminished? Does my ability to recognize sin for what it is, does that have to diminish?

I don't think so. Can I have the ability with God's help to choose what is wise, what is good? Can I choose? Even in a very difficult, depressing world, I can choose to be hopeful because I understand God's purpose and His plan. You see, that doesn't have to diminish. We don't have to have diminishing returns when it comes to being discerning. I can discern what's right and what's wrong, and I can choose to submit to the power of God's Spirit working in my life.

So God says, hey, this is 100% curable. And so how important that is that we take that exam, not just once in a while, but really check our vision every single day, no matter how old we are. Am I seeing things from a godly perspective? And that's what Christ talked about and inspired Paul to write about. Ephesians 5, verse 8 talks about this very fact. In fact, it says it in such an interesting way. Notice the way that it says it here. It's one of those things that is unique and maybe unexpected. Look at the—at least I find it that way. I find it kind of unexpected the way it's worded here. Ephesians 5, verse 8. It says, once you start again, Ephesians 5, 8, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children in the light.

He says, For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

So we have this contrast going on, but it gets right to the heart of the matter.

And it doesn't say that we were walking in darkness, and now we should be walking in light.

Did you notice the difference here, the way it's worded this time?

It says, you were once darkness. You were darkness!

Now you are light. So it's not just that we're trying to live in the light. We are light.

We were darkness. And so we have these beautiful images being portrayed here. God's called us out of darkness. We, as individuals, were dark. We were darkness. We were darkness. We were without God. But with the power of God's Spirit, you are light. So no wonder Christ said, let your light shine. You are light!

If you've got Christ living in you, that's how you walk. You are light. And what happens when you walk into a room and you flip on the switch?

It's not dark anymore. It's light. What happens when we walk in this world?

Wherever we are, there should be light. That absolutely recognizable shining that is given off from a child of God. We can change the world by living our life wherever we are. And that's such a powerful thing that it shows that each one of us has been given a mission to be that light that shines. We all have a part to play when it comes to preaching the gospel, to living that gospel, to shining the light. And so we're told, be that light. Be the light. Now it's not by our own power. Of course not. It's by the power of God in us. And so he says, when we perceive all these other things that are coming from a different perception, he says, listen, verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but expose them.

That's flipping on that switch because you can't help but see it. Not going to hide. It's not going to be able to sneak up on us because it's not dark anymore. It's brilliantly bright.

And so verse 13 says, all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. Verse 14, so wake, awake you who sleep, he says, arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.

So these powerful things that are spoken here should help us then to have that proper vision, in able to do our part within the body of Christ to preach the gospel, to do our share. And Paul just got done talking about that because if we don't, he says, the darkness can overtake us. The darkness can overtake us. And if we don't continue to take this spiritual high exam, we can go blind. We can go blind. Heard an example of this about a man who always wanted to buy a horse. He always wanted to buy a horse. And one day he's driving out in the country. He sees a beautiful horse out in the pasture. And he says, this might be my opportunity. So he saw this beautiful horse. He drove up, got ahold of the farmer, and he said to the farmer, hey, I was driving by, and I think your horse looks pretty good. So I'll give you $500 for him right now.

Farmer thought about it. He said, no, he doesn't look good. I think he got it all wrong. He's not for sale. Man was not happy about that. So he thought, okay, well, listen, I think your horse looks pretty good. So I'll up my price. I'll up it to $1,000 because I think he looks pretty good.

The farmer says, listen, I don't think he looks so good, but if you're willing to pay $1,000, fine, he's yours. So the guy went and got his trailer hauled off the horse. He was just thrilled to death. The next day, the man comes back screaming mad. He says, you cheated me! You sold me a blind horse! The farmer just looked at him. He said, what do you mean? I told you he didn't look so good. See, it's all in the perception, isn't it?

Now, as you think about that, we can look good, but is that the real reality? Is that reality? You see, I think that's a choice we have to make in order to make the spiritual choices in our life. And it connects to who we are. Do we really choose the proper vision? And I think that manifests itself at least in three ways. One of those ways is hindsight. We have to have a proper hindsight, which means I got to be able to look back.

I need to look at the past, learn from the past, but I can't get stuck in the past. I can't dwell in the past. I certainly can't be living in the past. If there's sin in my past, and I've repented of it, I've got to leave it there. It's got to be gone. Get rid of the guilt, get rid of the anxiety, get rid of all of those things, and get over the past and have the proper hindsight. And God can certainly help us to do that very thing when we are repentant before Him. And we begin to realize that when we leave the past in its proper perspective, and we get rid of the anxiety and the guilt and all the problems and have that sin forgiven, that helps us then to fulfill the calling that we have.

And we know our calling is not just for me, myself, and I. It's not just a personal thing. It's not just personal salvation. That's spiritual, you know, my being myopic. We can't be spiritually myopic. We have to recognize God set a vision for each one of us in that way. In fact, if you were to go into the conference room, there's the vision statement of the United Church of God, which isn't just for the United Church of God. It's for each of us, because it's taken from Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, 16 points to this very fact for each one of us.

And that vision statement says we are a church led by God's Holy Spirit. If we claim to be gods, that's us. It says we're joined and knit together by what every member supplies. And having correct spiritual vision means just that. Every one of us have a part to play. No one is without value. Everyone has a responsibility to be that light. Every one of us. It says, all doing their share. All doing their share. All growing in love to fulfill God's great purpose for humanity. And so, having the correct spiritual vision begins with putting the past behind and fulfilling that calling that I have a share to do.

I have a part to play. Every one of us needs to have that proper perspective. And part of that perspective is having spiritual insight. You have to have the hindsight to put the past where it belongs, but we also have to have the spiritual insight to really see what's most important in life.

To have the insight to recognize we're not just playing a game here. We're not just playing church, but we are living a lifestyle, a way of life based on the Word of God, based on His direction.

And so, to pray for that insight, like it says in Psalm 119 verse 18, it says, open my mind, open my eyes to your truth. We can pray that prayer so that I can see those wondrous things it speaks of in Psalm 119. We can pray for that insight in that direction, and God promises to give it to us so we can see that big picture without missing the details.

And I think that third thing we add in this spiritual eye exam is foresight. Yeah, we look back and put the past where it needs to be. We have the insight to see what's happening now and applying it to our lives, serving, giving, doing our share, and also having that foresight that we can look ahead. And we understand and recognize God is creating a spiritual family, and He will reward us. He promises rewards. He gives the gift of eternal life, but He certainly gives blessings beyond that. And so we can recognize that, and we can visualize that goal of the Kingdom of God, and we can have confidence. We can have confidence because we understand He's given us the foresight that we can be in the Kingdom. In fact, when we follow God and we correct our spiritual shortcomings, we will be there because we know Christ said it's our Father's good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. That's what He wants. He wants us all. In fact, He wants the entire world to come to repentance. And so Paul, the Apostle, summarizes this in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. Kind of a summary passage where it puts all of these different aspects of the spiritual metaphor for our eyesight into perspective. Let's notice that. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. As a summary, we see it summarize this hindsight, this insight, this foresight, as well as how we can overcome these spiritual difficulties that we may face.

Notice what Paul wrote to Corinth in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16.

He says, just don't see the problems alone, but recognize how we can overcome. He says, therefore, don't lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. He says, for our light of fic fliction, which is but for a moment is working for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

And notice why. He says, while we do not look to the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things that are temporary, that are the things that are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Let's pray and ask God to give us that spiritual vision. Because if we continue to take a spiritual eye exam, we can certainly go to God and thank Him for the vision that He's given us, for the mission that He's given us. And we can rededicate our lives, even as the year gets darker as the time goes on. Spiritually speaking, we can maintain that focus when we zero in on God the Father and Jesus Christ and His plan and His purpose, His kingdom, His way of life that we put more and more into practice. Because ultimately, when we consider it, the opposite of Proverbs 29 18 is true.

Without vision, the people perish. But where there is spiritual vision, there's eternal life.