I am told that the invisible man and invisible woman had children... but they weren't much to look at… A guy went to the doctor because he thinks he’s invisible. The doctor says, “sorry I can’t see you right now”… If you have observed a total lunar eclipse without scorching your eyeballs…. You understand that even though your eyes tell you that the moon is turning into a crescent which eventually disappears altogether, like someone eating a pizza pie until it disappears one slice at a time…. You know the moon hasn’t changed regardless of what you just saw. You saw it differently because the earth came between the sun and the moon. This eclipse condition is what often causes us to see people and situations as something other than what they really are? Things get between the source of our illumination and cause us to see things different than they really are … To lay the groundwork, I share the story of John Blanchard … John sat on a bench where he waited, at Grand Central Station. He shifted in his Navy uniform, and studied the crowd of people, because He was looking for the girl whose heart he knew, but who face he didn’t, the girl with the rose. He had found her through a book in a Florida library and he was intrigued with the notes that were penciled in the margin. In the front he found her name, Miss Hollis Mayhill. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and invitedher to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the war, they got to know each other through the mail. A romance was beginning to bud. John had requested a photograph, but Hollis refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like…. Hmmmm… Now, this was the date they would finally meet… at the Grand Central Station in New York. “You’ll recognize me,” she had said, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.” So, at 7:00 he is in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he’d never seen. Suddenly, a young woman was coming toward him, her figure, long and slim. Her blonde hair laid back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. He started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. A small provocative smile curved her lips. “Going my way, sailor?” she murmured. Almost uncontrollably he made one step closer to her, and then he saw Hollis Mayhill. She was standing almost directly behind the other girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet shoved into low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. He felt as though he was being split in two, so strong was the desire to follow her, and yet so deep was his longing for the woman whose spirit had truly captured him and kept him strong throughout the war. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. His fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that had brought them together. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a deep friendship and kinship for which he would forever be grateful. He squared his shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though he felt choked by his sudden disappointment. “I’m LT John Blanchard, he said, and you must be Miss Mayhill. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?” The womanresponded with a smile. “I don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green suit who just went by you, begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said she was putting you through some kind of test!” A French Historian wrote “Tell me what you love and I will tell you who you are.” A tax collector of the first century wrote in Matthew 25:34 “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. v35 For I was hungry, and you gave me meat, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger, and you took me in. v36 I was naked, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came unto me. v37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and fed You, or thirsty, and gave You drink? v38 When did we see You as a stranger, and took You in? or naked, and clothed You? v39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and came unto You? v40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, I say unto you, as you have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me”. Has God been testing us this past week? YEAH BUDDY, YOU KNOW IT!!!! It was about the righteous and the unrighteous. The word righteous, which Jesus used here in the Greek is
(deek'-ah-yos …and means “equitable in character or action, a person of justice and principle, doing the right thing for the right reasons”) A bible college professor hung a large silhouette on the wall with a target drawn on it. Each student was to picture in their minds a person that they would want to throw a dart at. Each student took a turn until the picture was punctured and mangled almost beyond recognition. When they were finished, he took away the silhouette and underneath was a picture of Jesus, punctured and mangled almost beyond recognition. With the words, “As you have done it unto them, you have done it unto me”….. Every student sat in shock, knowing that their dart done the damage….. John the Baptist was for sure, the Grizzly Adams of the bible. He wore furs, lived in the wilderness, ate grasshoppers and honey, didn’t wear deodorant and Jesus said “there is none greater than John” (Wow, I would have missed that one)! Jacob was a mamma’s boy, he was sneaky, he lied, he cheated and deceived his dad and brother,yet God chose him to be Isaac’s successor and the father of the 12 tribes, through whom the Messiah would come. (Yuup, I would have missed that one)! When things look like they’re going to hell in a handbasket, God is still at work. When it looks like the powers of evil may be winning out over the forces of good, God’s day will still dawn. Though our efforts to serve others seems to make no difference at all, God is still blessing our labors. “For Your labor is never in vain in the Lord”! This all tells me that we need 1. New eyes to see. 2. New ears to hear. 3. And1. New eyes to see. 2. New ears to hear. 3. And a new heart to believe.. When Jacob checked into what some have called “The Hard Rock Hotel.” He had a vision which transformed his world. He saw something that he had not seen before, but it was there all the time. He would never have believed it in his waking moments, so God had to show it to him in a dream. In the very place where he had stopped to lay down for the night, there was a stairway to heaven. The angels of God were going back and forth between heaven and earth, and God himself was standing at the top of the stairway. When he got there at the Hard Rock Hotel, the only thing Jacob saw was a hollow in the ground, in the midst of all the rocks, where he could lay down and “rock-a-by-baby”.. He didn’t realize that all the time he spent there, running to get there, he was surrounded by the glory of God and the host of heaven. (come on) Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], let us strip off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, and let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, v2 [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [He is the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him, endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work]”. How many times have we only seen the natural world, when the reality is that we are surrounded by the supernatural. We become so preoccupied by the ordinary and the depravity, that we fail to see the extraordinary. We are so caught up with the temporary, pseudo world that we fail to see the real, permanent, eternal world. We want everything to be explainable, so we miss the unexplainable. So we are constantly handing God our script, and saying “here, follow this”!!! That tells me that we need New eyes to see. New ears to hear. And a new heart to believe.. One day as Moses was walking through an ordinary day, dealing with ordinary sheep and camels, and interacting with ordinary people…. When he encountered an extraordinary bush that was aflame with God. He had been trampling around in what he thought was ordinary stuff when God told him to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground. I sometimes ask myself how many times I have been trampling through some ordinary places and failed to see that it is on fire with the glory of the presence of God.
The person we may have a conflict with is not the problem, and they are not the enemy. The problem is our spiritual enemy who is blinding our eyes, blocking our ears, and hardening our heart. All of the frustrations, thedisappointments, the discouragements and depressions weexperience is the enemy’s way of causing us to totally miss the extraordinary, and supernatural thing that is going on in the moment.
Hebrews 11:1 (amplified bible) “Now faith is the assurance (the title deed, and confirmation) of things hoped for (and divinely guaranteed), and it is the evidence of things not seen [and the conviction of their reality—for faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. v2 For by this very [kind of] faith the men of old gained [divine] approval”.
(now that’s a mouth full)!! But there’s more…. Hebrews 11:3 “By faith [that is with an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God] we understand that the worlds (the universe, the cosmos, and the ages) were framed and created [shaped, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose] by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made of things which are visible”. I have always been amazed at the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection and the spiritual dullness of the disciples who failed to recognize him. After the resurrection several people reported having seen and talked with Jesus, but Thomas would not believe until he had placed his hand in his wounds.
We are told that two of the disciples were walking along the road to Emmaus, when Jesus came up and began to walk with them, but they did not know who he was. Their eyes were not seeing, because their minds were still reeling from the loss of the way things were. Even though He had told them all that was to happen, it was not part of their changing reality.
He began to teach them from the Scriptures but still they did not recognize him. They needed new eyes, new ears, and a new heart. But then He began to break bread with them and as He did, He broke into their reality, and brought them into their new reality…
God is speaking, is anyone listening…..People run along paths and trails with all the wonderful sounds of nature surrounding them, but they are wearing headphones. They are blessed to be with family members who love them and care about them, but they are buried in a video game. They go out to a nice restaurant and they sit beside their spouse with eyes and ears occupied with their cell phones. We live in a society where, we have become isolated from the very things that psychiatrists say we all need the most…personal connections, physical contact, belonging, giving and receiving love, acceptance and worth.
Matthew 13:11-15 Jesus said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. . . . ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused, they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes” There is a wonderful story in 1 Samuel 3:1-10 of an Old Testament priest named Eli and a young boy that he is grooming for the priesthood named Samuel. Samuel was only a child, but he had a heart for God, and his spiritual ears were open. During the night he heard someone calling him: “Samuel, Samuel.” But he thought it was Eli. He went to Eli’s bedroom and said, “Here I am. You called me?” Eli said, “I did not call you. Go back and lie down.” A second time this happened, and then a third time. The third time Eli said to Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”. Then the Word of the Lord came to Samuel. I’m wondering that if God wanted to speak to some folks today, He would have to speak through their cell phone, or their video games…. When is the last time you went off to sleep speaking to and hearing from God… When is the last time that the final moments before you got lost in slumber land, you were worshiping and praising Him? “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Stanley Jones tells of the time when he was about to board a plane when he heard God, in his spirit, telling him not to get on the plane. He learned later that the plane crashed and there were no survivors. When he shared his experience with someone, they said, “You’re going to tell me that you were the only one God told not to get on that plane?” Jones said, “By no means, but it is possible that I was the only one listening.” It is important to develop your ability to hear God and see what He wants to show you. When our eyes, and ears and mind become opened, it’s like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we realize that we are not in Kansas anymore babba loo. In the film version of the story, it begins in black and white. She saw nothing too exciting about Kansas. But as she travels to the Land of Oz the screen bursts with color, and she is introduced to a land she never knew existed before, but it was one that had been around her all the time. The point of the movie is that Dorothy was seeing what she had always missed before but it was there, everywhere. Paul told the church of Corinth, 1Corinthians 13:12 For now [in this season of imperfection] we see in a mirror dimly [a blurred reflection, a riddle, an enigma], but then [as the time completeness comeswe will see reality] face to face. Now I know in part [just in fragments], but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known [by God].
I believe the suicide rate would drop rapidly, if folks could truly see what has been right there around them all along. I believe folks would treat one another different, see one another differently and bring new value and appreciation into their ordinary life if they had new eyes to see, new ears to hear, and a new mind to understand… We would say like Jacob, as we wake up to the real world, saying every day…“Surely the Lord was in this place and I knew it not.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote…. The Earth is crammed with heaven, Andevery common bush is ablaze with God. But only he who sees ittakes off his shoes, while the rest sit round and pickblackberries.
It’s so easy in the struggles of life, to allow a dullness to come into our sight and our hearing. And in that condition to miss the bushes that are ablaze with God, and the stairway to heaven and angels going and coming… The greatest display of God’s glory is when His people are fully alive and fully entuned in the Spirit to what’s all around them. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 4:18 “So we do not fix our eyes on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”. What could be sadder than a life lived without everunderstanding that there is more than meets the eye. To be so absorbed in the material world that you never experience a personal face to face with God. To have God all around you and be totally clueless — as though you were sleepwalking through life and never truly waking up. I read about one person who woke up in their underwear,pushing the vacuum cleaner, which wasn’t plugged in, back and forth over the carpet, back and forth, back and forth ……Another person woke up late one night with all the sheets balled up in her arms, banging into the bedroom door, trying to take them to the laundry room….. When one guy was 15 he dreamed that he was skydiving, but his chute didn’t open. He hit the ground—hard—but miraculously, he wasn’t injured. So hebrushed myself off and got into the next plane to do it again, The next morning, he woke up with a sore arm and found out from his brother that he had jumped off his top bunk, screaming, “GERONIMO!” Twice. It can be dangerous sleepwalking…. God is saying wake up, see the things we’re missing, do the things we can do, and hear what He is showing us and saying to us! Someone wrote…. “There are two birds that fly over our nation’s deserts. One is the hummingbird and the other is the vulture. The vultures find the rotting meat of the desert, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. And each bird finds exactly what it is looking for”. God has promised that he can transform our hearts and our expectation as we come to him.
He said, Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (baw-sawr… an understanding, willing heart)”. We said last week, that David, in the midst of a time of betrayel, asked God for a “willing heart”…. To sustain him….. The day is coming when the dark cloudy glass of separation will be removed, and all that can be seen will be seen. We will see with new eyes, hear with new ears and understand with new hearts. But it can begin now, as we open our hearts to the world of experiencing God as we have never experienced Him before.Of beholding what has been all around us all of the time but we couldn’t see it. At the Straits of Gibraltar, under Spanish control, there were two immense pillars called the Pillars of Hercules. Scrolls were placed on the pillars which said “ne plus ultra,”which meant “No More Beyond”. However, some folks didn’t bother to read the scrolls, or if they did, they saw more than everyone else. Because they saw with different eyes, they went further south to Africa, then around the horn to Asia, and eventually across the Atlantic to the New World. And theyopened up a whole new world for everyone. They now understood what they never thought possible before. A radical shift in their worldview took place. They kept the scrollsfastened to the pillars, but now there were only two words….and it now said… “More Beyond”….
Church, there is more beyond what we know, but only those with new eyes will see its wonder; only those with new ears will hear its music, and only those with new hearts will experience its supernatural reality.
I want us to close this morning by finding some folks around us, reaching out and coming into agreement together….Regardless of what you may be seeing at this point in your reality, there is a new reality waiting to be reavealed! As we believe with one another for “MORE”, “MORE”, “MORE LORD”!!! Song… “More, more about Jesus, more, show me more, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see, more of His love who died for me.(repeat)
More about Jesus let me learn, More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my teacher be, Showing the things of Christ to me.
Closing Prayer of Agreement….
Heavenly Father, today, we come before you expecting this to be the greatest day of our life. A day filled with unique opportunities to share your love with every person we meet. We thank you, Lord, for the favor which will flow through us today in every conversation and for this to be a day in which you will be glorified by what we think, say and do, in the strong name of Jesus. Lord, we thank You for freedom in speaking and being a mouthpiece for You, for fearless confidence, for cheerful courage, and for boldness with supernatural assurance. We command stolen blessings to be restored seven fold for every blessing we have missed in Jesus name. We have angels assigned to minister and strengthen us in Spirit so that we can do those things that God has called us to do. Thank You Lord, that these mighty angels go before us to protect and to guard us and bring us to the place that God has prepared. The angel of the Lord is stationed at our side as we seek after God and His will. We are of good cheer for the Lord has overcome the world and given us His victory. We have been made more than conquerors in Christ... Praise the Lord!
