Good Monday morning everyone! Yes, it's true that I'm on the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure this week. But you didn't think that would stop our daily Bible studies did you? No way! I worked ahead so we could continue in one of my favorite parts of Scripture. Last Friday we learned the first truth about treasure and riches. Today we learn the second, and along the way learn about the evil eye. Do you have an "evil eye?" Don't know what an evil eye is? Join me as we study Matthew 6:22-23.
#150: The Evil Eye from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.
If you have any difficulty watching the video above, it is also available on Vimeo and on YouTube. Also you can listen to the audio version either on the Church Requel Audio Blog or take it with you by subscribing to the Church Requel Audio Podcast.
Would you like to read my notes for today's Bible study? Just click on the "Continue reading" link below.
Do you have an “evil eye?” Don’t know what an evil eye is? Stay tuned for Bible Study #150 and I’ll tell you all you want to know about “The Evil Eye.”
READ: Matthew 6:22-23: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Seems like an odd thing to say at this part of the sermon, but really it flows well. Jesus just finished giving us the first truth about treasure - to treasure the right treasure, not earthly, but heavenly, not temporal, but eternal. What is Jesus saying now with this “eye is the lamp of the body?”
#2___Focus on____ the Right Treasure.
Key to understanding is to understand word, “Healthy” = simple, single, not double folded, healthy. When considering the eye, an eye that doesn’t see double is “healthy.”
How we look at things determines our perspective, attitude. Do we have an eternal perspective or an earthly perspective? Jesus used metaphor of the lamp of the body. We might use the indicator light – lets us know that something is wrong. But what if the indicator light is broken? How would you know something is wrong with the car if your light is burnt out? “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
There’s also another problem. What if the indicator light isn’t burned out, what if it stays on all the time??
STORY: Indicator Light always on in my car.
A light that’s on all the time is ignored!!! Was there a time when someone would talk about eternal things and you’d get really excited? Do you remember when you were motivated more by what God thought than what someone else thought? It just might mean that you have so succumbed to satisfying your own need for possessions and performance for such a long time, that you just don’t even notice the indicator light any more.
The “evil” eye – in Judaism, the eye that’s always on the wrong thing, wanting what someone else already has.
Don’t we have the same problem? Our eye is always on someone else’s possessions, someone else’s performance? “If only I could be as thin as her.” “If only I was taller, or stronger.” “If only I could be as smart, or as rich, or had her husband.” “If only I could preach like him!”
It’s easy to be double eyed! Unfocused! Especially as Christ followers in America we try to keep one eye on God and another eye on our bank account.
HOW DO WE KEEP OUR EYES FOCUSED ON BEING RICH TOWARDS GOD?
Be sure to join me on Wednesday when I talk about the third truth about treasure!
