Eyes #9

I think it is safe to say as we have been looking at the eyes, God expects us to keep out focus on Him and not the world. Here is another verse that says just that:

1 John 2:16
16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

The devil sure is good at providing things of the world to draw out attention off of God. The sad thing is so many of us fall for his tricks! 3 key points of warning here:

1. desire of the flesh- sex (all forms outside marriage defined by God), drugs, alcohol, addictions, appearance, etc. Our fleshy desires are badddddd! One of our big problems here is marketing firms attack us from all angles because of our problem with this and we fall for it!!!

2. desires of the eyes- we want what we see!!!! Food, beautiful sexy people, cars, houses, cell phones, all kinds of material things we want, want, want. These things may not be bad themselves but when we put them before God they become sin. All of us are in danger of this if we are not very careful!!! Desire of the eyes has been a problem from the very beginning:

Genesis 3:6
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Covet is another word for desire, here is a warning about covet:

Luke 12:15
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

3. pride of life-bragging on what we do have. Every good thing we have is from God:

James 1:17
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

The only thing we can brag about in life is Jesus!!! He deserves all our praise, honor, and glory. Everything else is on loan to us from God and we had better keep that in proper perspective because:

Job 1:21
And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

So once again this morning we see from God's Word that what our flesh desires, what our eyes desire, and our pride must be kept in check by keeping our focus on Jesus. If He is in constant focus, the others will not happen!

Tom