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OPEN YOUR EYES!

2 KINGS 6:13-20

Introduction

There was war between Israel and Syria. Elisha, the prophet of God, repeatedly revealed valuable information about the plans of the Syrian army to the king of Israel.

Benhadad, the King of Syria, suspected that a traitor had leaked the information to Israel. However, He was told that there was no traitor, but that it was the prophet Elisha who was the one passing on the information to Israel’s King.

Benhadad concocted a plan to capture Elisha. He first sent spies out to find out where Elisha was. He found out that Elisha was in Dothan. He then sent a large number from his army secretly by night and had them position their horses, chariots and soldiers around the whole city.

Early in the morning, Elisha’s servant got up and was going outside of the house. What he saw terrified him. He and Elisha were completely surrounded by the Syrian army with no apparent way out. To Elisha’s servant, it appeared to be a hopeless situation.

The servant ran to Elisha and said, “Alas, my master! How shall we do?” In other words he was saying, “What are we going to do?” Put yourself in the servant’s shoes. All he could see was the Syrian army. His heart and his mind were filled with negative thoughts because of what he saw in the circumstances they faced.

What he did not see was what the Prophet of God saw. Elisha saw God’s glorious provision that was already in place! Elisha prayed for God to open the eyes of his servant that he might see. It took God opening the eyes of Elisha’s servant for him to see what was there already. Elisha couldn’t get him to see it. It took God!

There is no such thing as a hopeless situation when you have God in your life! When you have God there is always hope! (Example–The Hebrew Children facing the fiery furnace.)

There are provisions of God that some folks just can’t see or don’t see that are available for every desperate situation of life. God is still at work today. We need our eyes opened to the glorious and mighty workings of God in and around us. When our eyes are opened to God’s glorious provision it will drive away our fear and it will strengthen our faith.

There is a lot more to life than what we see with our physical eyes. Things are not always what they seem to be. We can look at things with our physical eyes and let the circumstances of life get us down, discouraged and even desperate sometimes. We end up thinking that there is no hope and fearfully ask, “What are we going to do?”

What we need to do is to have our Spiritual vision renewed and see things through the eyes of God. That is, we need to see things from God’s perspective rather than from our perspective. When we don’t have a spiritual vision or when we lose our spiritual vision of the things of God the outlook is dim. However, when we God opens our eyes and we begin to see things from His perspective, we can realize we are better off than we ever could dream.

In much the same way that Elisha prayed to God for his servant’s eyes to be opened, I pray that God might open our eyes today to see some things we need to see today.

I.         WE AS BELIEVERS NEED OUR EYES OPENED TODAY.

I believe that Elisha’s servant was a believer. We as believers can lose our Spiritual vision if we are not careful. When that happens, we begin to view things from a worldly perspective rather than from a heavenly perspective.

The words from a hymn in our hymnal says:

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

The problem is that many of us as believers have our eyes turned everywhere but where they should be--upon Jesus.

            A.        We As Believers Can Be Distracted By The World. (Example–Demas) 

2 Timothy 4:10–“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica.”

                        1 John 2:5–“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”

The glitz and the glitter of this world will distract us from what God wants in our lives. There is pleasure in sin, but it is only for a season.

Too many of us can’t see what God wants to do in our lives because we’ve been distracted by the world and all that it has to offer.

Many of us have accepted a temporal comfort in the things that this world has to offer while letting the things that really matter slide by. All that really matters is what God says matters.

Too many Christians are so busy living out their lives in what the world has to offer that they can’t see what real life is all about. We get wrapped up in the pleasures and activities that this life has to afford and we think to ourselves or say out loud, “Now, this is the life.”

This isn’t life! Everything in this world is temporary. We’ll leave it all behind one day. The only true life that there is, is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 17:3–“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.”

Trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for our Salvation was just the beginning of eternal life. Too many Christians have never left the starting line good. They’ve forgotten that there is a race to be run.

Hebrews 12:1-“. . .let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

                        What have you done this week to know God better?

                        What have you done this week to know Jesus better?

                        Don’t be distracted by this world!

            B.        A Believer Can Be Deceived By The Flesh. (Example--Samson)

                        Samson failed to see that sins of the flesh are binding. (No Freedom)

                        Samson failed to see that sins of the flesh are blinding. (Keep Us From Seeing)

                        Samson failed to see that sins of the flesh are grinding. (Vanity)

Galatians 5:16–“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

Galatians 6:7-8--“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

            C.        A Believer Can Be Defeated By Satan and His Demons.

1 Peter 5:7-8--“Casting all your care upon Him (God), for He careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith. . .”

It is difficult to see God when you’ve been defeated by Satan.

                        Satan defeats us and we’re looking down instead of looking up!

Satan tempts us to look at things with our reason rather than in faith. When he does that, we can’t see the glorious provision of God that is right within our reach!

            My prayer to God today is “Oh God, open the eyes of your Children that they may see.”

            Not only do many believers need their eyes opened today, but. . .

II.       UNBELIEVERS NEED THEIR EYES OPENED TODAY.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4--“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

            A.        Unbelievers Are Blinded About Their Origin.

                        Satan has blinded many folks into believing the lie of Evolution.

                        1.         God wants you to see the Bible account of creation.

                        2.         God wants you to see Him fashioning man of the dust of the ground.

                        3.         God wants you to see Him breathing life into man.

                        4.         God wants you to see the wonder that we are–Created in God’s image.

                        5.         So many are blinded by the lies of evolution.

                        6.         So many choose to remain blinded in spite of the light available.

                        7.         Satan has some so blinded by his lie that they just can’t see the truth!

            B.        Unbelievers Are Blinded About Their Condemnation.

                        Satan has blinded many folks into believing that everything will be alright.

“Just sit tight, it’ll be alright!,” he says and they continue on a trail that will lead them to hell!

                        1.         The Bible says that God laid down some laws. Exodus 20:1-17

                        2.         Ever since God laid them down, man has been breaking them.

                        3.         Deuteronomy 27:26–“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

                        4.         Romans 3:19-20--“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and every mouth may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

                        5.         James 2:10–“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

            C.        Unbelievers Are Blinded About The Solution To Their Problems.

                        1.         The thief looks for the solution in the next robbery.

                        2.         The murderer looks for the solution in the taking of another’s life.

                        3.         The drunkard looks for the solution in the next bottle of alcohol.

                        4.         The drug addict looks for the solution in the next fix.

                        5.         The harlot looks for the solution in the next trick.

                        6.         The immoral person looks for the solution in the next illicit relationship.

                        7.         The helpless person looks to the next handout from the government or from some social organization or from some individual.

                        8.         The rebellious child looks for the solution in doing his own thing.

                        9.         The liar looks for the solution in telling the next lie.

                        10.       The covetous person looks to the next windfall. (Job, raise, lottery, etc.)

                        11.       The hopeless person looks to suicide.

                        12.       The person who is trying to get by the best he can is looking to himself.

                        13.       Jesus says in John 14:6–“I am the way , the truth, and the life. . .”

                        14.       Peter said in Acts 4:12–“Neither is their salvation in any other. . .”

            D.        Unbelievers Are Blinded To The Gospel Of God.

                        The word “gospel” means “good news” or “glad tidings.”

                        There is some good news and some bad news!

                        First the bad news:

                        1.         The Bad News Is You’ll Never Make It To Heaven Using Your Methods No Matter How Right They May Seem To You.

Proverbs 14:12–“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

                        2.         The Bad News Is You’ll Never Make It To Heaven Using The World’s Methods.                    

1 John 2:16–“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

                        3.         The Bad News Is You’ll Never Make It To Heaven Without Submitting Yourself To God’s Method–The Righteousness Of God.

Romans 10:3–“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.” His name is Jesus!

                        4.         The Bad News Is You’ll Spend An Eternity In The Lake Of Fire If You Die In Your Sin.

Revelation 20:15–“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

                        That was the bad news, now here is the good news:

                        1.         The Good News Is That God Wants You To Live.

Ezekiel 18:23–“Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways and live?”

2 Peter 3:9–says that God “. . . is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

                        2.         The Good News Is That God Provided A Way For You To Live--Jesus Has Paid The Price For Sin.

Romans 5:8–But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 Peter 3:18–“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:”

                        3.         The Good News Is That The Gift Of God Is Eternal Life Through Jesus.

Romans 6:23–“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Ephesians 5:8–“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

                        4.         The Good News Is That You Can Receive This Gift By Faith Today And Be Saved And Have Eternal Life Today.

Romans 10:9-10–“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.. For with the heart. . .

Conclusion

Why don’t you let God open your eyes today?

If you are saved and your vision has been distracted by the world, deceived by the flesh, or defeated by Satan–let God get your vision back on track!

If you are here today and you have never known what it is like to really see the things of God.

The Bible says that you are spiritually dead. A dead man cannot see.

1 Corinthians 2:14–“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.”

You need to let God give you sight today.

You need to let God give you life today.

Let God show you your origin.

Let God show you your condemnation.

Let God show you the solution to your problems.

Open your eyes to the bad news, then let God show you the good news today.

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NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!