There are many members that make up our body. God willing, a series of sermons discussing different body parts will be spoken.

The speaker initially wanted to title this series: Common Human Illnesses. Because he wanted to talk about different aspects of the body where we may be ill. But he thought this may be too depressing/negative and that there’re many good examples people can do with their bodies too. Hence the current title.

1 Cor 6:19-20
Paul reminds us that we should glorify God in our body. Why? Because our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and it’s bought at a price. So we must not abuse this body that the Lord has blessed us with. If we understand that the Corinthian church was doing that exactly; they didn’t bring glory to the name of God in many ways but shame instead; what about us today? Do we glorify God in our body? Or do we bring shame to His name?

This sermon will discuss the eyes. It will probably take two sermons. Thereafter, other body parts will be covered.

What kind of eyes should we not have? Some of us say we like round, big, glossy eyes

A video clip:
Two men were side by side. The title was: there’re some things the China cannot copy. On the left was an Indian man. His eyes were very big. On the right side was a Chinese man with small eyes. No matter how hard he tried to open his eyes, he couldn’t open them to the size of the Indian man’s.

We think about the kind of eyes we want. Blue, green, brown. Some wear coloured contact lenses.

What kind of eyes should we have? What kind of eyes should we not have?

Actually, how our eyes look physically doesn’t quite matter. But from a spiritual angle, there’re certain types of eyes we should not have. The next sermon will discuss the type of eyes we should have.

Type of eyes we should not have:

1. The eyes of Eve - lustful eyes
   1 John 2:16
   These are of the world. One of them here is the lust of the eyes. These aren’t of the Father but of the world. Do we have this kind of lustful eyes?

If we look at Eve, what is the start of all the problems we have today? How did sin come into this world?

Gen 3:5-6
How did the serpent/Satan tempt Eve? He told a lie. “God knows that the day you eat of it your eyes will be open!” What does that mean? Were the eyes of Eve shut; was she blind? Was the creation of God - Eden - not beautiful to behold? What else was she hoping for? “The day you eat of it your eyes will be open!” Wild thoughts filled her mind! “What else am I missing? What else should I be seeing that I can’t see?” Underlyingly, she wanted to be like God. But it’s interesting how it was phrased: your eyes will be open. Her mind would be flooded with a lot of possibilities that she hadn’t received.

What happened next?
v4 “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food…”
The tree was there all this while! Suddenly it looked good!
“…it was pleasant to the eyes”
She didn’t know if it was sweet and sour. Yet she already imagined it was good.
“She took of its fruit and ate.”
What was her experience? Did she say: “Wahhhh this is the best I’ve eaten!” That wasn’t it.

It’s really quite unimaginable. If God said, “Of all the trees of the garden, you cannot eat. You can only eat of this one tree!” You can say to God, “Wah God you torture me. Just make one tree then I’ll have no choice. It’ll be easy to keep this commandment. I have no comparison anyway.” But God was so loving. “Every tree you can eat.” Have you tried all the food in the world? Have you tried all the fruit in the world? There was so much to eat and only one they couldn’t eat. Was that difficult to keep? No.

Yet we see here the strange mentality of human beings we are often guilty of. Somehow, that one thing I have never tried/do not know is the most interesting and exciting! All the blessings in the world seems to be nothing to that one thing I’ve never tried! These are lustful eyes and covetousness in the heart. The thing I do not have is the very thing I always want. The thing I have and have been blessed with I give no thanks for.

This is a common human illness we need to be aware of.

The moment the eyes saw, and she entertained that thought, suddenly it became good for food. It LOOKS good. Then it became pleasant. “Whether nice or not I don’t know, but I know it’s definitely nicer than what I have today.”

As we go about our lives, it’s important to calibrate the things we see.
Some people say: I need to see!
Why?
Don’t see cannot sleep. Don’t see cannot seem to be missing.
Really?
How many of us have experienced that we think something is good but when we try it it isn’t. Worse still if it’s bad!

With the rise of social media and technology, there’re many things we can see today that we couldn’t see in the past. Be very careful what we see. Sometimes our eyes are so flooded with so many things, we get so confused in our heads. Let our lives be a bit simpler.

Walk right pluck can eat. Walk left pluck can eat. Why must go to the one you can’t eat? One day eat this one day eat that, one year also cannot finish trying. Why even go near the tree you can’t eat from? Lustful eyes.

We must really learn to control our eyes.

2 Sam 11:2
A good guy - David! What happened? How did he commit such a great sin against God? He slept the whole afternoon, very relaxed. Woke up. Walked on the roof of his palace. From there he saw a woman bathing. He didn’t plan to see it; it wasn’t a scheme. That’s where the danger is. Even if we don’t plan to see, there’re things we ought not to see that appears before our eyes. When these things happen, what should we do? David indulged. There was a problem: he saw! And then he made an observation. Sometimes things start out and we turn away! All the more don’t seek to see. Sometimes we have the attitude: see a bit will die meh? See only what.

Really die leh. Eve saw and died. Brought the death to us.

See will die meh? See a little bit ok lah.

Look at David. It led to murder.

He didn’t plan to see. Some of us plan to see. Some of us want to try and see.

David saw, he didn’t plan it. He processed it and concluded that the woman was very beautiful to behold! Problem started.

Job 31:1
This was how Job dealt with it. Job was very very well aware of the danger. Before the temptation even came, he made a covenant with his eyes. “Why should I look upon a young woman?” This is the kind of attitude we should have in our life of faith.

The example of David was for women. But this is applicable to many aspects of our lives. A lot of time we’re curious and inquisitive. It’s okay to want to learn things but let’s not hide behind the excuse of “it’s good to have more experience”. Some things don’t have to see. Some things NEVER have to see. Don’t have lustful eyes. Don’t have the eyes of Eve that wasn’t content with so much blessing she had but wanted the thing she wasn’t supposed to have.

Second type of eyes we should have:

1. Pharisees’ eyes
   Matt 7:1-5
   Eyes that are hypocritical and judgemental. That’s why Jesus says here, “Judge not and you will not be judged.” If you judge, the same measure of judgement will be done to you.

This is probably a very common human problem.

v3 “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eyes but don’t consider the plank in yours?”
Let us first recognise the fact that there is indeed a speck. There IS a problem. But what’s the problem? We look at others and don’t look at ourselves.

“He talks too much.” You don’t?
“
“He’s so arrogant.” Are you really that humble?

If you are, great.

But why would Jesus leave us a passage like that? Because often times, we are guilty of this. Or at least there’re times we commit this.

Think about it ourselves. As the speaker says this he has to look at himself too if not he’s precisely guilty of this. When he reflects on himself, he finds this very true.

It’s not that others don’t have fault. But we often approach the fault of others as if we ourselves are completely faultless. If we are not more guilty, we are at least as guilty. If we are not at least as guilty, we are at least somewhat guilty. We’re not perfect.

So when the adulterous woman was brought before Jesus, it wasn’t that she didn’t commit adultery or that adultery was okay. The problem was that (1) the people were trying to trap Jesus (2) were they seriously trying to make the world a better place? If they were all that noble, maybe okay! But that wasn’t the case! They brought this adulterous woman to Jesus to test him; to find another reason to accuse him of. Not because they cared about the righteousness or holiness of the world. They didn’t care about her either. They felt they were righteous.

What did Jesus say? “He who has no sin throw the first stone.” One by one they left, from the oldest to the youngest. Of course we know adultery is wrong - a mortal sin.

But herein lies a very important lesson: (The speaker qualifies that he by no means is saying wrong is right. The sinful MUST repent. Those who don’t know things are wrong must be taught they’re wrong) We need to examine our motives. We must be sincere in looking at ourselves FIRST

Not that there’s no speck in the brother’s eye. First, remove the plank in your eye. Then you’ll be able to see even clearer the speck in your brother’s eye. Then you’ll be able to help him remove that speck much easier.

“First remove the plank from your own eye. Then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye”

Jesus didn’t say to leave the speck. The problem must be resolved. The wrong must be right. But we must be very honest with ourselves. Remove our plank first. Then removing the speck will be far more effective.

For everything we want to accuse someone of, it’ll be good discipline to examine ourselves. Have we been consistent? Have we first repented ourselves? We should. Then it’ll really be more effective. Sometimes when teaching others it’s not effective because we’re worse; we’re not that great after all.

We should avoid Pharisees’ eyes. Eyes of hypocrisy; eyes that are judgemental.

After David committed sin, he saw what he did not see. When prophet Nathan confronted him and told him a story of a rich man who took his neighbour’s only lamb. What happened? David was really a good guy. His heart was righteous. “How can! This man deserves to be punished!” Nathan said he was that man. David wasn’t a bad guy. He was a man after the heart of God. Yet he was blind to his own sins and hypocrisy.

Let us not suddenly think we are better than David. If David could be so blind, we’re probably also guilty of being as blind.

It’s just a reminder for us. Before we throw a stone, before we reach our hand out to remove a speck, seriously look at ourselves first.

Don’t get the speaker wrong: we MUST remove the speck. But remove the plank in ours first.

Third kind of eyes we shouldn’t have:

1. Saul’s eyes - eyes of jealousy and hatred
   1 Sam 18:9
   English version: Saul EYED David from that day forward.
   Chinese version: 他怒视大卫 which means ‘everything David did Saul was angry about’. Have we ever done this?

There are people we don’t like just because. Once we see them, we get angry. Every time and everything they do makes us angry. Your eyes scan their bodies, trying to find fault. If you want to find fault with people, you can from hair to toe. “He didn’t comb his hair. Some strand is out. Forehead got problem. Cheek too high. Chin too pointed. Neck too short. Shoulder too droopy. Stomach too big.” No matter how you look at him, you just cannot take it. He walks left, you don’t like the way he walks. He walks right, you don’t like the way he’s going. He opens his mouth, you don’t like his mouth. You find fault in everything.

That’s what happened to Saul. Because when they returned from battle, women sang, “Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.” Just like that, he couldn’t take it. Fear. Hatred.

Saul looked at David with eyes of hatred. He watched every step he made trying to find fault and a way against him.

As Christians, we should never ever have such eyes for anybody. It’s not good for our soul. We’ll only get angry. All the good things anyone does we’ll never see. We’ll think every good thing they do has an ulterior motive. But every shortfall you see so clearly. These are Saul’s eyes.

Did David ever ever plot to usurp the throne? Never. But Saul felt he wanted the throne.

Has David ever harboured any ill intention against Saul? Never. But Saul just couldn’t believe it. Nothing David did was ever right.

Saul’s eyes.

If we really think about ourselves and our lives, there may be people in our lives we viewed with Saul’s eyes. Sometimes it’s sad because these could be people we should love! Just like David! David was his son-in-law! David was such an honourable general. Saul should have cherished him!

Sometimes we’re like that.

Sometimes we watch couples. While they’re in courtship, she walk left, you look left. She walk right, you look right. These are eyes of glue LOL. The eyes are like the emoji 😍

Then get married.

5 years. 10 years.

Still eye her. But the eyes change. No longer the same symbol. The emoji changes 🙄. After that don’t even want to see, see only angry. Talk only quarrel.

Why like that? Do we need to be like that? Is that really what it’s all about?

Why do we look at each other with such anger and hatred?

Some used to be good friends. But something someone said/did. Something happened.

“Saul has slain his thousands. David his ten thousands.”
Something happened. Start to eye David.

Certain things may have happened in our relationship.

Could have been a misunderstanding. Could have been a genuine offence in a moment of weakness/folly. Do we need to look at this person with such eyes from henceforth forevermore?

Anyone in church we look at like this? Something to think about.

Amongst our brothers and sisters, and friends. Maybe someone said, “Your son so dumb.” “My son cleverer then your son he killed ten thousands yours only killed thousands.”

The speaker uses this analogy to be applied to many examples.

Let it go. Learn to let go. A lot of times it’s not as bad as you think it is.

Sometimes even if it’s true, do you want continue like that?

We know the story of Saul. What was his hand? Doing this let’s the devil work in our lives. This kind of anger and hatred gives the devil a foothold in our eyes. Anger becomes hatred becomes bitterness becomes ‘suspicious of everything’. Leads to a bad end.

Three kinds of eyes:

1. Eyes of Eve: lustful eyes
2. Eye of Pharisees: Judgemental and hypocritical
3. Eyes of Saul: jealousy, anger and hatred

May that be far away from us. May God help us.