7-22-12 Sermon "When You Can't See Your Way Clearly"

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WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE YOUR WAY CLEARLY

Hoping For A Miracle – Part 3

07-22-12 Sermon

We’re continuing in this series on “When You’re Looking for a Miracle”. 

You often hear people say, I just don’t see.  I just don’t see how I’m going to make it through this recession…  I just don’t see how I’ll ever be able to change… I just don’t see that my marriage is ever going to get any better… I just don’t see any hope for the future… I just don’t see the situation working out…

When people say “I just don’t see,” they’re using a phrase of hopelessness.  We’re looking in this series on the antidotes to hopelessness. 

        

How you see life determines your stress, determines your success, determines your stability, determines your strength, it determines everything in your life.  How you see your life.  How you see God.  How you see your past, how you see the present, how you see the future.  How you see money.  How you see time.  How you see your strengths and weaknesses.  Everything in your life is affected by your perspective.

In the book of Matthew Jesus said it like this, Matthew 6 “The eye is the lamp of the body.  If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eyes are bad, then your whole body will be full of darkness.”   

Obviously, he’s talking about more than physical sight here.  He’s talking about vision.  He’s talking about perspective.  He’s talking about seeing with spiritual eyes.  What he’s saying here is that perspective is everything.  That it is so important that you see life clearly, that you see life correctly, that you see life comprehensively and completely, that you learn to see life from God’s viewpoint.

So this morning I want us to look at this issue of when you can’t see your way clearly. 

There’s a story in Mark 8, where Jesus does a miracle and has a conversation with his disciples that explains this to us.  He actually uses three things.  He uses a misunderstanding with his disciples.  He uses a miracle.  And he uses a critical question to clarify and help people get a better vision, a better handle on what am I supposed to be doing with my life?  How do I handle this situation? 

We’ll start first with what I would call an embarrassing misunderstanding between Jesus and the disciples.  We pick up the story where he gets in a boat with his disciples to go to the other side of the lake.  In Mark 8:13 it says this, “Then Jesus got into the boat and he crossed to the other side.  The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had in the boat. ‘Be careful,’ Jesus warned.  ‘Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.’  Now the disciples discussed why Jesus had said this [‘watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees.’] and they decided it was because they hadn’t brought bread with them.”

Obviously they totally missed the point here.  The disciples are going, “Why should we worry about yeast, Lord, when we don’t even have any bread?”  This is typical of the disciples.  They were often a little clueless.  They never kind of caught up and they were slow to understand what Jesus meant.  Here they totally miss the point.  Jesus is using a metaphor for life and they think he’s talking about it literally. 

So Jesus says this in verse 17 “Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, ‘Guys, why are you talking about having no bread?  Do you still not see [They can’t see their way clearly.]  Do you still not see or understand?  Are your minds closed?’”

You guys have eyes but you don’t really see.  And you have ears but you don’t really listen.  Then he gives them a little quiz.  He says “’Remember when I divided those five loaves of bread to feed five thousand people?  How many baskets did you fill with leftover pieces of food?  They said ‘Twelve.’  And he said, ‘What about when I divided seven loaves of bread for the four thousand people we fed?  How many baskets did you fill with the leftover pieces of food?’  They said ‘Seven.’  Jesus said, “And you still don’t understand?’”  You still don’t get it?

They got the answers right to the questions.  How many loaves were left over after feeding five thousand?  Twelve.  How many loaves did you pick up after feeding four thousand?  Seven.  But they still didn’t get it.

Here’s the point.  You can know all the facts of the Bible and still not get it.  Some people take pride in how much Bible knowledge they’ve got.  They can quote Scriptures back and forth.  They can argue theology.  They can talk about doctrine.  They’ve got a question for everything and an answer for everything.  But they don’t get it. 

You can have the Bible memorized and still not get it.  Jesus said to the Pharisees: you know your problem, you guys?  You don’t know the Scriptures, nor the power of God.  That was an insult to the Pharisees because to be a Pharisee you had to memorize Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy completely.  And Jesus says to them you don’t know the Scriptures.  In other words you can have all this Bible content and still be out of the loop.  Does that make sense?

I want you to write something down.  Every miracle has a message in it.  In both of those miracles where Jesus multiplied the bread he was trying to teach something as well as meet people’s needs.  Obviously the disciples didn’t get it.  They were clueless.  They were spiritually blind.  They couldn’t see their way clearly.

You need to also write this down: blindness is a metaphor for a closed mind.  In the Bible whenever you see blindness it is also a metaphor for a spiritually closed mind.  It’s really important that you understand this because when we look at the miracle in just a minute when Jesus heals the blind man, he’s not just healing a blind man.  He’s teaching us truth about when we have our minds closed. 

The Bible teaches that physical sight is often a metaphor for spiritual insight.  Often Jesus would say, you blind guides...  you blind leaders… you don’t know what you’re talking about.  They weren’t physically blind.  But they were spiritually blind.  They had all the facts and doctrines of the Bible but they didn’t get it. 

What is it that keeps me from seeing clearly?  Why is it that sometimes I can’t see what’s the problem in my life?  I can’t figure out what’s the problem in my marriage.  I can’t figure out what’s the problem at work.  Why is it that sometimes I’m headed down the road and I have no idea where I’m going?  I just can’t see what God is doing in my life.

In this passage Jesus points out three barriers that cause us to not be able to see clearly. 

1.  My Pride

When I am prideful I can’t see what God is doing in my life, what God wants to do in my life and what God wants to do in your life.  

Jesus says, “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees.”  In the Bible “yeast” is often a metaphor for pride and arrogance.  That makes sense.  Why?  What does yeast do?  When you put yeast in dough what does it do?  It puffs it up and if you put in too much it blows it up.  It expands stuff.  It’s like pride; it gets bigger and bigger.  It puffs up and it blows up.

When you’re cooking you don’t need a lot of yeast, you just need a little.  That’s what pride is in your life.  You don’t have to have a lot of pride.  Just a little pride will get you in all kinds of problems.  Just a little pride will take over quickly. 

So when I am filled with pride, when I have the yeast of the Pharisees, guess what?  I can’t see life clearly.

2.  The second thing that keeps me from seeing life clearly: short term thinking.

When I am only focusing on the here and now and not what God wants to do in my life long term. When I’m thinking about current comfort rather than long term character. When I’m thinking about my happiness not my holiness, when I’m thinking about my success not my surrendering to God.  When I’m thinking about enjoying now instead of preparing for eternity, I’m going to miss what God wants to do in my life.  Short term thinking.

This is what happened with the disciples.  Jesus is trying to teach them a lesson.  When he talks about this he’s talking about life and they think he’s talking about lunch.  That’s short term thinking.  He’s talking about behavior and they think he’s talking about bread.  He’s talking about the need for maturity and they’re talking about their next meal.  That’s short term thinking. 

Short term thinking causes us to not see how God’s working in our lives.  This is so important because it is the great weakness of American culture.  It’s hard to think long term today because everything in our society teaches you to do the opposite.  

Whenever you’re thinking short term you can’t see what God’s doing in your life.  You can’t see his long-range plans for your character because you’re just thinking about your comfort.

3.  The third thing that keeps me from seeing life clearly is short term memory. 

Pride, short term thinking, and short term memory.  Here’s an example where Jesus has to remind the disciples of a couple things that’s just happened.  He reminds them of two miracles.  Remember they’re all worried about bread.  And Jesus says, Guys, who’s in the boat with you?  I’m the guy who just took a few loaves and fed five thousand people.  I’m the guy who just took a few other loaves and fed four thousand people.  And you’re worried about lunch?  Hello!  What are you thinking?  I’m with you.  You’re not going to get hungry if you hang around me.

What had happened here?  How quickly we forget.  God does something good in our lives, he answers a prayer, he bails us out, he helps us with a miracle.  Then the next time a problem comes along we act as if it never happened.  We have short term memory and we forget.  When I can’t remember past blessings I start fearing the future.  I stop thinking God will do it again, because I’m not even remembering he did it the first time.  When I have short term memory I start worrying unnecessarily about tomorrow.

What we’re talking about – learning to see from God’s viewpoint, having spiritual vision – is absolutely essential.  As I said… to your success, to your stress level, to your stability, to your strength, to all of these different things. 

The Bible says in Proverbs “Without a vision, the people perish.”  Without clear vision you lose hope.  When you don’t have a vision for your family, you lose hope.  When you don’t have a vision for your career, you lose hope.  When you don’t have a vision for your health, you lose hope.  When you don’t have a vision for your children, you lose hope.  “Without a vision, the people perish.” 

When you can’t see your way clearly, it means you’ve lost your vision, which means you’re going to lose your hope.

Ephesians 1:18 says “I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened...”  What’s he talking about there?  Obviously we don’t have eyes in our heart.  You’ve got eyes in your head not in your heart.  He’s talking about seeing with spiritual eyes, seeing with spiritual vision.  You have physical vision and you have spiritual vision.  He says I want you to see the way God sees, from God’s point of view.  “…In order that you may know the hope [Circle that.  I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened so that you may know the hope…] to which he has called you.”

The place you get hope is from having a view of the world and of your life from God. 

Let’s look at this miracle.  Jesus is saying, I’m going to have to teach these guys a lesson because they’re not getting it.  The key to understanding life is learning to see life from God’s point of view, having a spiritual vision.  In Mark 8:22 it says this “They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.  Jesus took the blind man by the hand and he led him outside the village.” 

Jesus is going to use this miracle to do two things.  One, he’s going to teach us three conditions for a miracle.  When you need a miracle in your life these are the three conditions.  And second, he’s going to teach us the three lessons about seeing with spiritual vision.

First, let’s look at these three conditions for a miracle.  It says they came to Bethsaida; some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.

Circle the word “brought” and “begged.”  Some people bring a blind man to Jesus.  Notice Jesus doesn’t go to him.  They bring a blind man to Jesus. Here’s the first point we learn, the first condition for a miracle. 

1.    Miracles happen when somebody cares.

This guy didn’t come on his own.  He’s blind.  He had to be brought.  So he has friends who care for him.  Caring friends bring hurting friends to Jesus.

There’s a word for this.  It’s called intercession.  What is intercession?  Intercession is when you bring somebody before Jesus on their behalf.  You’re not coming to Jesus for your own needs.  You’re coming for somebody else’s needs.  When you pray for somebody else, pray for a miracle – “I have a friend, I have a neighbor, I have a co-worker, I have a relative and Lord, they need help.  They need financial help.  They need emotional help.  They need spiritual help.  They need physical help.”  When you start praying like that, that’s called intercession.  It happens when caring people bring hurting friends to Jesus.  This is what our intercessory prayer group does.

My question to you is who do you need to bring?  Who do you need to bring to Jesus?  A lot of times God’s waiting on you to do a miracle in somebody else’s life. 

This man who was blind would have never had his sight back, but he had some friends who cared.  Who in your neighborhood needs a miracle?  Who at work needs a miracle?  Who of your relatives?  Who of your friends needs a miracle?  Caring people bring their friends to Jesus.  Miracles happen when somebody cares.

Second, it says, “They brought the blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.”  Circle the phrase “touch him.”  Here’s the second thing we learn about miracles:

2.    Miracles happen when we get close to Jesus. 

Obviously you can’t be touched by Jesus unless you’re close to Jesus.  You can’t be touched by him if you’re far away.

What’s the point of that?  They brought him close enough that Jesus could touch him.  Here’s the key:  Healing in your life does not come from religion.  Healing in your life does not come from rituals.  Healing whether it’s physical, emotional, spiritual or financial does not come from rules and regulations.  Healing comes from a relationship with Christ.  You’ve got to be close enough to get to know him.  It comes from a relationship.  The more I get to know Jesus the more God’s healing is able to be done in my life.

The third thing I want you to notice.  Then the third, it says “Jesus took him [the blind man] by the hand and led him outside the village.”  Circle “led him.” 

3.    The third thing we learn is that miracles happen when we trust Jesus to lead us. 

If this guy hadn’t let Jesus lead him outside the village he would have never seen the miracle.  But Jesus takes the blind man by the hand.  You see how personal this is?  Jesus takes the blind man by the hand, very personal, and leads him outside the village.

Imagine you’re this blind man.  Your friends have taken you to a guy you don’t know about.  All of a sudden the guy says, Come with me and he grabs your hand and he’s leading you.  You’re blind.  So a, you don’t know who it is.  And b, you don’t know where he’s taking you.  And c, you don’t know how long the trip is going to take. 

Some of you feel that way right now.  I have no idea what God’s doing in my life.  I have no idea where he’s taking me.  I have no idea how long it’s going to take.  Congratulations.  You’re getting ready for a miracle. 

This is called the walk of faith.  When you can’t see but God can.  You can’t see where Jesus is taking you; all you have to do is hang on.  That’s all you need to do.  You’re blind and you need to trust Jesus.  He’s not going to walk you over into a ditch.  He’s not going to take you into a lion’s den.  He knows where he’s taking you.  He loves you.  He knows what you need better than you do.

This miracle is very unusual and it’s very unique.  Let’s look at it.  Mark 8:22.  First it says “Then Jesus spit on the man’s eyes…”  How many would say that’s unusual?  Yeah!  If the guy’s blind, I would not think spitting in his eyes would be the way to heal him.  We think that is gross!  But it’s not only gross, if you’ve ever been to the Middle East you know that spitting is incredibly offensive.  If you spit on someone in the Middle East it means, you’re dirt!  Culturally, this is not an example of love.  It’s the exact opposite from what it appears to be.  Spitting meant you’re less than a human being.  I reject you.  I revile you.

Obviously Jesus isn’t doing that.  So he’s got a reason behind it.  Why did Jesus spit in this guy’s eyes?  I don’t know.  It’s one of those when I get to heaven I’ve got it on my list, “Lord, why did you do this?  That did not seem cool.  It actually seemed a little gross to me.” 

“Then Jesus spit on the man’s eyes and he put his hands on him.  Then he asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ The man looked up and said, ‘I see people but they look like trees walking around.’”  In other words, I’m not totally blind any more but I just see shapes. 

Jesus is not satisfied with partial vision.  It says “So Jesus put his hands on the man a second time.  Then his eyes were opened fully, his sight was restored completely, and he saw everything clearly.  And Jesus sent him home saying, ‘Don’t go back into town.’”

What do we learn from this?  We learn three lessons about seeing with spiritual eyes.  We learn three lessons about seeing life clearly.  Your family, your husband, your wife, your job, your future, God, yourself – three lessons.

1.    One, my spiritual vision grows in stages.

That’s the first thing Jesus is modeling.  It’s not instantaneous.  It’s incremental.  Spiritual vision grows in stages.  It’s gradual.  It’s progressive.  You don’t see everything clearly instantly in life.  You see it incrementally.  If I could and if I was able to, I would give you a pill that you could take and all of a sudden everything would make sense in your life.  “Oh, now I know why that happened!  Now I know why I have these problems.  Now I know why I’m having this conflict.  Now I know what you want to do in the future.  God, I’ve got it all.  Thank you, ten-four good buddy.  This is great.  I understand everything.”

It doesn’t happen that way.  Spiritual vision – insight, wisdom – grows over time in stages.  It’s incremental, it’s progressive and it is gradual.  If you’ve been growing spiritually, you see life a lot clearer than you did ten years ago.  If you don’t see life any clearer than you did ten years ago, you are not growing spiritually. 

That’s why we have Forest Grove Church.  Everything in this church was intentionally designed to help you grow gradually, incrementally, and progressively.  That’s why we have sermons on Sunday. That’s why we have bible studies.  That’s why we have Sunday school classes.  That’s why we have an intercessory prayer group. You can’t get it all at once. 

As I said, Jesus wasn’t satisfied with this guy having blurred vision.  He says do you see anything?  And the man says I see people but they kind of look like trees walking around.  So Jesus puts his hand on him a second time.

Here’s the second truth we learn from this:

2.    The test of my vision is how I see other people. 

The test of spiritual vision is how I see others.  My spiritual vision grows in stages but the test of my vision is how I see other people.  It’s the number one way you know you’re looking at life from God’s viewpoint – how you see other people. 

The number one test of your maturity is not how much Bible you know.  It is not how often you go to church.  It is not whether you’re in a small group.  It is not whether you serve or tithe or pray.  The number one test, acid test of your maturity, your vision, is your relationships.  How you see other people.  Because it’s all about love.

So let me ask you some very pointed questions.  Do you see your spouse the way God does?  Or do you see them the way you do?  How does God see your spouse?  Valuable.  Acceptable.  Lovable.  Forgivable.  Deeply loved. Is that the way you see your spouse?

How about other people around you?  What do you see when you look at other people?  The people you work with, do you see them as enemies?  Do you see them as competition?  Or do you see them the way God sees them?

I believe in the truth of God’s Word, that every person is valuable.  Every person matters to God.  It doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done or even what they believe, Christ died for them, Jesus loves them, God has a plan for their life, and he wants them to know him.  Everybody matters.  There are no little people.  There are no insignificant people.

The Bible says “When Jesus saw the crowds he was moved with compassion.”  Are you there yet?  That’s the way Jesus sees people.  That’s the way I want you to grow to learn to see people.  So that you learn to have compassion for your own family and you learn to have compassion for your neighbors.  You learn to have compassion for middle Tennessee.  You learn to have compassion for America.  You learn to have compassion for the whole world.  That your vision is getting larger and larger and clearer and clearer and stronger and stronger.  And you learn to see people the way Jesus does.

Three lessons about seeing life clearly.  Spiritual vision happens in stages.  The test of my vision is how I see others. 

3.    And the third: Jesus heals my sight three ways. 

There are three ways when Jesus touches you and he changes the way you see things, it changes three ways.

·      One, my focus gets sharper. 

The Bible says that when Jesus touched this man his eyes were opened.  That’s not even that good of a translation – his eyes were opened.  Literally in the Greek it means, “He fixed his focus.”  That’s what it says in Greek.  He fixed his focus.  The New American Standard says “He looked intently.”  Intentionally.  Another translation says “He looked with purpose.”  Another translation says “He stared.”  The Amplified says “He focused his attention…”  in a very concentrated way.  Like a laser.

What’s happening here?  What’s Jesus pointing out? That really, when you get touched by Jesus, your life gets focused. 

If your life is out of focus right now, it means you’re not being touched by Jesus.  If you say, my life is really unfocused and I’ve got this going on and this going on and this going on and this going on.  I’m distracted and I’ve got all kinds of different things.  I have no focus in my life. 

You need to be touched by Jesus.  Because the first thing that happens when he touches you, your focus gets sharper.  Your life becomes more focused the more you see life from God’s viewpoint.

·      The second thing that happens: my perspective gets larger.

That’s another way he heals my sight.  My perspective gets larger.  Notice it says “His sight was restored completely.”  In other words complete vision, full vision.  What happens when Christ really takes over your life, not just “I believe in Jesus.  I know about Jesus.”  When you let him take over your life –  you are surrendered, you are submitted to his will.  What happens?  All of a sudden I see the big picture. 

Most people have about that much vision in life, a little small parochial me, myself and I viewpoint.  And they don’t see the big picture.  They don’t get the big perspective.  Why?  Because they’re not looking at life from God’s viewpoint. 

What am I saying?  I’ve got to get away from my situation to get perspective.  How would you like to have God’s perspective?  He can stand not even on the earth.  He can stand above history and see the beginning and the end all at once.  That’s perspective.  You can only get that from God.

My focus gets sharper, my perspective gets larger.  And the third thing Jesus does when he heals my sight…

·      My vision gets clearer. 

That’s the third thing it says.  His eyes were focused, his sight was restored completely, and he saw everything clearly.  No cloudy vision.  No corrupted vision.  Just a clear vision.  Because when Jesus takes over your life you get a focus, you get a framework – that’s what makes sense! And you get foresight.

How do I get that?  You need to pray the prayer of Job.  Job 34:32 “Teach me what I cannot see; if I’ve done wrong, I won’t do it again.”  That’s a prayer! 

I want you to pray that every day this week.  When you’re going to work this week and you’re driving the car, “Lord, teach me what I cannot see.”  When you’re in an argument, “Lord, teach me what I cannot see.”  When you don’t know what to say to a friend who is grieving, “Lord, teach me what I cannot see.”  Because you can’t see everything.  But you can pray and God can see.  “Lord, teach me what I cannot see.”

So the disciples have a misunderstanding and Jesus uses that.  And he gives us a miracle.  Finally, Jesus uses a clarifying question to correct their vision.  Mark 8.  This is after the miracle.  “Then Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi.  [This is about twenty five miles away from Bethsaida.] On the way he asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And his disciples replied, ‘Some people say you’re John the Baptist; others say you’re Elijah; [That’s the guy we talked about last time who lived nine hundred years before Jesus.]  and still others say you’re one of the other prophets.”  Isn’t it interesting that people are often more willing to believe he was a dead prophet come back to life than who he claimed to be.

 “So then Jesus said, ‘But what about you?’ Jesus asked.  ‘Who do you say I am?’  Peter said, ‘You are the Christ.  You are the Messiah.”  What’s that?  Christ and Messiah are the same word for Son of God.  Not a nice guy, not a good prophet, not a great moral teacher.  Son of God!  You are the Christ!  You are the Messiah!  You are God’s Son!

Why did Jesus ask this question?  Because How I see Jesus determines how clearly I see everything else. 

How I see Jesus reflects how I see everything else.  If he’s not God then we should close up shop and go home.  If he is, he deserves my love and my trust and my total obedience even when it doesn’t make sense.  Even when he grabs my hand and I’m blind and he says follow me and I have no idea where he’s taking me.  I have no idea of the job, the location.  I have no idea about who I’m going to marry.  I have no idea about what’s going to happen in my health.  But he’s taking me by the hand and said Come with me.  You’re about to have a miracle. 

The only thing Jesus cannot be in your life is moderately important.  If he’s not who he says he is, forget him.  If he is who he says he is, you need to worship him.

It’s never too late to let Jesus correct your vision. 

Prayer:

      Would you pray this prayer in your heart?  Father, you know that I don’t always see things clearly.  My life needs more focus.  I often miss the big picture.  My perspective is limited.  Father, because I see others from my viewpoint instead of yours, I often have conflict and disappointment and pain.  Jesus, I need you to touch my eyes and heal my blindness.  Help me to see you as you really are.  Help me to see myself as I really am.  Help me to see others the way you love them.  Forgive me for my pride and my short term thinking and all the times I forget the things you’ve done in my life and I start worrying again about the future.  Help me to see what’s really important in life.  Help me to see what doesn’t matter, what isn’t worth getting stressed over.  I want my life and vision to become more focused.  I want to see the big picture.  I want to have compassion for people and for the world the way you do.  Thank you for this church family that helps me grow gradually in my own spiritual vision, and allows me to be a part of your vision for what you want to do in the world.  I pray this in your name.  Amen.