(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Hey, man, it's great to be here tonight. I appreciate Pastor Mejia is a good friend of mine. And I'm sorry that he's sick and I didn't get to see him. And I'm just happy that somebody showed up to church tonight. So I appreciate you all coming out. Tonight, I'll try to keep the sermon under three hours. And I know some of you have to work tomorrow. Otherwise, it'd be like four. But anyway, no, I really do. I love this church. And it was a beautiful day in sunny California today. It was like, I could see my breath when I was walking into the airport this morning. So when I got here, it was sunny. I was like, hey, got some vitamin D. It made me in a good mood. So I'm very happy about that. So anyway, it's my pleasure to preach to you tonight. And I do have six pages of notes. So you know what that means. But I'll try to preach fast. And when you get right with God, maybe I'll stop at that point. But anyway, we're in Lamentations, chapter number three. Let's look down at verse number 46. The Bible says, all our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare has come upon us, desolation and destruction. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any intermission. Till the Lord look down and behold from heaven, mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. And the title of my sermon tonight is, Mine Eye Affecteth My Heart. Mine Eye Affecteth My Heart. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this great congregation of believers down here in Anaheim, California. And I just pray, Lord, that you'd fill me with your spirit and boldness and power as I preach. I pray, Lord, that you would fill the congregation with your spirit, Lord. I just pray that you would help me to get across the message you put on my heart tonight and pray that people would receive it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so we see here these, you know, lamentations obviously means that a lot of it is crying. And Jeremiah the prophet is really affected by what he's seen. Now, Jeremiah saw his prophecies come to pass live and in HD. He was prophesying that people would, you know, get to the point where they're eating their own children. You know, the cities, you know, people are starving to death and burnt with fire. The city's destroyed. The temple's destroyed. And Jeremiah is looking out, and he says, the things that he sees with his eyes are affecting his heart. And what is that doing? It's making him cry tears or weep tears. And it says, my eye runneth down with rivers of water. Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any intermission. So obviously, if we see destruction and things like that, and we see things that are really sad, it makes us weep, doesn't it? And if it doesn't, you know, you're still a real, Jeremiah was a real man, wasn't he? He was weeping. There's nothing wrong with weeping. I'm not preaching about weeping tonight, though. And, you know, I think that there's a time and a place for weeping, and obviously, that's not going to be for me tonight. So anyway, but what I wanted to get across, though, is that mine eye affecteth my heart. What Jeremiah saw with his eyes affected his heart and made these emotions come out of him, and he was sad. He was upset. And obviously, anybody that sees that kind of destruction and death is going to be sad or upset or weep about it and grieve about it to the point where it affected his heart. And the things that we see with our eyes affects our heart also. Mine eye affecteth my heart. And that's true. You know, everybody here is seeing tonight, right? We see with our eyeballs. That's kind of how, you know, we take everything in with what we see. And in Matthew chapter 6, verse 22, I won't have you turn. I'll have you turn to Genesis chapter 3, verse 4. But Matthew 6, 22 says, the light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thine whole body shall be full of light. And that word single, it's talking about free from deceit or in genuine, you know, not being genuine. It's, you know, someone that's not filled with guile. If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But it says, but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? So obviously, if someone is a wicked person, you know, the things that they see with their eyes, you know, they have an evil eye, then that's gonna affect them in a bad way. And so the things that we looked at that are wicked also will affect our hearts in a bad way also. We don't wanna have, you know, a soul full of darkness and a heart full of darkness because of sin. We wanna be able to make sure that we're looking at the right things. And so when your, you know, when your eye affected your heart, you know, if you're looking at good things and you're thinking about good things and you're putting good things in your eyes, then that's gonna affect your heart in a good way. But if you're soaking in the evil and wicked things, it's gonna affect you in a bad way. Now, if we're in Genesis chapter number three, the Bible says, and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened. So what's the devil promising Eve that her eyes are gonna be opened? She's gonna be able to see things for what they really are. That's the trick, right? And so the eyes are something that the devil used to try to deceive Eve, and it worked, didn't it? It says, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And then look what it says in verse six, very interesting. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, see, she looked at that fruit, and was she supposed to eat that? She wasn't. And it says, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat. Eve saw the fruit, and that affected her, and it also affected all of mankind, because all of mankind became sinful because of the devil being able to deceive her. And how did he do it? With her eyes. She looked at it, she saw it, she desired it. And so with our eyes, we can do great things, and soak in the great things, but we can also cause a lot of damage to come into our lives. And when it says desired, there's a synonym for that, it's called lust. When you're desiring good things, that's not wrong. But when you're lusting after something that you're not supposed to be, that's called being covetous, right? So we see that the first woman ever made, her eyes caused her to basically bring that to Adam, and Adam ate, and all of mankind is sinful now because of Eve seeing that fruit, and Satan tempting her, and saying your eyes are gonna be open. You're gonna be able to see this hidden knowledge that you never knew you could've had. Now let's look over at Genesis chapter 12, verse number five. Genesis chapter 12, verse number five, and I just kinda wanna take you through some situations in the Bible where people looked at things, and it affected them in a bad way. Genesis chapter 12, verse five says, and Abram took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran, and went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came. So remember Abraham was with Lot also, and Lot traveled with him when he left his hometown, and they went to Canaan. But now skip down to verse number 10. It says, and there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. Now Abraham went to Egypt, okay? So Lot, I would assume, went with him. Everybody that was with him went to Egypt, didn't they? And now let's turn over to another chapter, chapter number 13, verse 10. So you have Abraham leaving his homeland. He goes to Canaan. Then there's a famine in the land. He goes to Egypt. Now, then there was this strife between, you know, the next chapter there's this strife between Lot, or yeah, Lot and Abram's, you know, the cowboys started fighting, and then, you know, they needed to separate their ways because they just had too much substance. Well, look at verse number 10. It says, and Lot lifted up, what? His eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. So Lot got a taste of Egypt when he was there. He got to see what Egypt looked like, and the Bible specifically tells us that the land that he looked at, you know, he had a choice. Abraham said, I'll go to the right, you can go to the left, or, you know, vice versa, and he allowed Lot to choose which place he was gonna go, and what did he do? He lifted up his eyes and beheld the plain of Jordan, and he saw this place where, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah was, and it says even, and it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. So Lot looked at this land, and he was like, hey, it's just like Egypt, and you know that Egypt in the scriptures represents the world in a lot of different places, and God would say, don't go back to Egypt. When he brought the children of Israel out, he said, I'm gonna take them a different way lest they repent and go back to Egypt, and he, multiple times, the Lord said, don't go back there, you're not gonna go back there. He got them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, but my point is here is that Lot looked at that place, and he's like, that's like the land of Egypt, and so when we look back at our old life, when we look back at the old things we used to be into, sometimes we need to keep our eyes away from Egypt. We need to look forward to what the Lord has for us and stop looking back to Egypt because this situation here where Lot had a choice to choose any place he could, what did he do? He looked at the land that looked like the land of Egypt. Lot got a taste of Egypt, and he chose accordingly, and also the Bible in, yeah, the Bible talks about how Jerusalem is like Sodom and Egypt, right? So Sodom is tied to Egypt, and what was wrong with Sodom? Well, look at verse number 11. It says, then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves to one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent towards Sodom. So first he looks at all the plain. He's like, that looks like the land of Egypt. I wanna go there. Then he's pitching his tent towards Sodom, and we know that Sodom was a wicked place because the Bible says it is. Look at verse 13. It says, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. You go to this church, you know exactly what Sodom is like because the pastor tells you about it all the time, doesn't he? Because our land is becoming kind of like the land of Sodom, isn't it? Now obviously it's not as bad, nearly as bad as Sodom is, but there's a lot of filthy homos and queers that we have to deal with on a daily basis. They service our food. They're working at every place. It used to be where they were in the closet. They had to pretend like they were straight. They had to look normal. Now you go into Walmart, it looks like they got into the Easter egg aisle and everybody dyes their hair a different color. But what happened to Lot's heart? Later on we see that Lot, he is calling them brothers. Name my brethren. Do not so wickedly. He's calling the people in Sodom, these filthy faggots, his brother. And his daughters are all messed up and his life is all messed up and everybody around him, look, he compromised. How do you get to the point where you're just comfortable being around a bunch of queers? Well, Lot was looking at the wrong thing, wasn't he? Lot was looking at Sodom. It's like, that's like the land of Egypt. That's like the land of Egypt that I liked. And so we gotta stop looking at the land of Egypt and we gotta look towards Canaan land, right? And looking at a bunch of filthy faggots all day is enough to, you know, make me sick. And I don't wanna be around them at all. But yeah, unfortunately we have to be, right? Look at 2 Peter chapter two, verse six. Now let me tell you something, that affected looking at, that stuff affected Lot's heart. Just looking at Egypt, look it's, you know, it seems like an innocent little thing here but it doesn't, it turns into a big snowball of problems for Lot and his family, doesn't it? Look at 2 Peter chapter two, verse six, it says, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that should live, after should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot. And it's not just saying just like it was only him that got saved, because we know that's not true. Just means righteous. Just means saved. Lot was saved. And it says, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. So this is the filthy lifestyle, the filthy way that they lived their life, he was vexed by that. You know, so he's there, he's judging with them, he's around them all the time, he's looking at their piercings in their face and all their lewd pictures and the way that they talk. And he had to be around that and the Bible says it vexed his righteous soul. Look at what it says in verse, yeah, verse eight. It says, for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. So see, first he chose the plains because it looked like the land of Egypt. Then he's pitching his tent toward Sodom, you know, and I didn't have you turn there, but he's judging in the gate and then now he's, you know, the Bible's explaining to us in the New Testament that it was a vexation to him. And so when those angels came to town, he knew what they were gonna try to do. But you know, I feel like he was so compromised, he felt trapped. But you know, the angels had to drag him out of there. Literally, they're like, come on, let's go and they grabbed him and drug him out of town. And his wife and daughters were with him, but his wife, they took, you know, the Lord said, don't look back. Don't look back. See, God wants us to look at the right things. And what happened to Lot's wife? Well, her eye affected her heart. Lot's eyes, what he looked at, affected his heart to the point where he ended up in a cave with his two daughters without his wife because she looked back, right? She looked back and became a pillar of salt. And so God does not want us looking back to what we leave behind. He wants us moving in a different direction and looking at different things. Because you know what, your heart is gonna be affected by the things that you look at. You know, I get vexed when I have to look at faggots. I do. I get vexed. It makes me sick. You know, and especially these trannies. Like that's like the new thing. Like, you know, the regular queers or whatever which is bad enough are already accepted in society. And now these trannies, you know, they get up with their high heels and their big Adam's apples and all that stuff. It's disgusting. And you know, if I was a woman, I'd be really offended because two times now, the woman of the year is actually a man. You know, they wanna talk about feminism and you know, the man, you know, they should be equal with men and all this other stuff. But they literally have men that become women and become the woman of the year. Bruce Caitlyn Jenner was the first one. And you know, that was a celebration of his coming out and being some filthy transvestite that nobody wants to look at. And then this Richard Rachel Levine, the minister, what is she, the secretary of health. She's not really a picture of health, by the way. I say she, it's a man. And a hideously ugly looking man thing or whatever it is. And you know, it's funny because now all these women are getting their records broke in collegiate athletics by men. That Leah Thomas freak, it's like a six foot five swimmer or whatever, with his knuckles dragging on the ground, being called a woman, being called a woman and smashing the NCAA record for swimming. And women are upset about it, but you know what? It's falling on deaf ears because, and you know what? Maybe they shouldn't have been so out and proud about their women's lib and burning their bras and all this stuff for all these years. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. And guess what? Men are still messing you over because now they're becoming women supposedly and breaking all your records. Weightlifting, rugby, I mean, just whatever. I was watching this Australian like rugby player and the chick is just like, you know, just humongous. And it's just like shows are like smashing all these women and stuff. There's this like UFC fighter named like Fallon Fox. I don't think she's actually, or it's actually in the UFC, but it's a full blown man pummeling other women. And it's like, nobody wants to look at that, but you know, our eyes get vexed by that stuff. And we don't want to see that, but you know what? This country's become like almost like Sodom and Gomorrah. We have to look at it and see it. And you know what? Mine eye affected my heart. And you know, when I look at it, it affects me in a bad way because I don't want to see that. And so, hey, if you can just steer your kid's eyes away from it, that's a good thing. So Genesis chapter 34, verse number one. But you know, Lot's wife looked back. See, this is about how we look at things and how it affects our heart. What did she do? She looked, didn't she? She looked back and became a pillar of salt. Then his daughters end up making moab and ammon through incest, you know? So how did that affect their family? She just had to look back at San Francisco and then became a pillar of salt. Now I'm gonna turn the emphasis a little more to Dinah. Dinah, the daughter of Leah. Look at Genesis 34, verse one. The Bible says, and Dinah, the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to what? To see the daughters of the land. Men, protect your daughters. Protect your daughters. Where are they at? They're in the land of Canaan. You know, I don't think the Bible's making a mistake by just showing us this. It's teaching us something. It's saying, hey, don't let your daughters just go out wherever they want, go off to the workforce, go off to Beer Pong University, go off to work at In-N-Out or whatever, which, In-N-Out's good, but we should be protecting our daughters and not allowing them to just go out and see the daughters of the land because look what happened in verse number two. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and defiled her. You wanna let your daughters just go out and do whatever they want? Oh, I feel bad. I feel like they're just trapped and they're in church and they're just, they're not getting to interact with people. They interact with people here. What's wrong with having friends at church? What's wrong with having friends that are actually on the same page that you're on? Why do they have to go out and see the daughters of the land? I know what the daughters of the land look like in California, and you gotta turn your eyes away from them most of the time because they're not fully clothed. I mean, in California, it's sunny all the time, so it's a little worse here than it is in other places sometimes. But you have to literally look away and, hey, do you want your daughter dressing like that? Do you want your daughter wanting to be like the daughters of the land? You don't. But you know what? Your eye is gonna affect your heart. It's gonna affect your heart. And when the daughters, they see the daughters of the land, how they're dressing, what they're listening to, what cell phones they got, what apps they want, you know, or TikTok or whatever. I'm sorry, I'm just like old, okay? TikTok is like, I'm done. I can only go so far with my technology, okay? I know TikTok can be good or whatever, but most of it's a bunch of idiots dancing around to stupid music. Let's just be honest. But I know that there can be, we can reach people with that, so don't get me wrong. You're like, Pastor Thompson, you're just old, you know? Yeah, you're right, I am, so. But hey, you know, she went out to see the daughters of the land, seems innocent enough, gets defiled. See, her eye affected her heart, and somebody else saw her and was like, hey, that's easy pickings. Do you want your daughter to not be able to go to the marriage altar not defiled? You should make sure that she's not out just doing whatever she wants. Hey, man, we gotta, look, we gotta protect our daughters. We gotta protect our sons, too. And we gotta be careful what we allow them to do and see. So let's look at Genesis chapter 39, verse seven. So Joseph, you know, he's sold into slavery by his brothers, and he's taking care of the house of his master Potiphar. And verse number seven, it says, if it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife, what'd she do? Cast her eyes upon Joseph. See, women can do the same thing. Men have a real bad lust problem, you know, comparatively to women, but women still have a problem, too. We like to gloss over what the women looked at, but the women looked, too. And this woman here, you know, she's not saved, obviously. She's a heathen. But she cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, lie with me. The problem is, she's married. You know, Joseph's a Christian. It says, but he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, my master was not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? So Joseph does the right thing here. But here's the problem. What she did affected his life, where he was in prison for two years because of a false accusation. So I'm just saying that, you know, we gotta be careful, you know, ladies. You gotta be careful also who you're looking at and who you're interacting at, because, you know, it can be a problem for that man. And it was a big problem for Joseph. Her wickedness affected her heart and caused a lot of problems for innocent people, including her husband, right? Numbers chapter 33, let's turn to Numbers chapter 33. I'm trying to make it easy for you so you don't have to flip around too much. But, and I'm sure I missed a lot of different Bible stories talking about looking, but look, we only got so much time here. So I only got four hours to preach. So anyway, Numbers chapter 33. Now look what it says in verse 52. Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you and destroy all their pictures and destroy all their molten images and quite pluck down all their high places. Why did God say that when they go into the land of Canaan to conquer it, that they need to destroy their pictures and destroy their molten images? Do you look at pictures? Yes, you do. I'm sure they had all kinds of perverted pictures or pictures of their God, but there's no new thing under the sun. They probably had dirty pictures back then too. And God's saying, hey, destroy all those things and destroy all their molten images because they're wicked, right? And quite pluck down all their high places. Why would they do that? Well, because you look at the high place. Everybody just naturally looks up a mountains and their high places were decorated with their gods and all that stuff. God said, hey, drive them out and destroy everything. And skip down to verse 55. It says, but if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come to pass that those which you let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your side and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell. And basically what he's saying is it's gonna assault your eyeballs because a prick is something you stab something with. It's like a thorn or whatever. And it says, it'll be pricks in your eyes. It's gonna assault your eyeballs. It's just like when they, we had some protesters come protest our church. You know what they always like to do? I'm sure you guys had the same thing happen with you is they like to show pictures to little children, don't they? They like to show dirty pictures to your children to defile them because they know that once that image gets in their mind that they can't unsee it. And so God said, hey, destroy their pictures, destroy their molten images, pluck down their high places. You know why? Because we ought not to be looking at it. And hey man, we ought not to be looking at pictures that we shouldn't be looking at. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. And so we should, there's things that we need to avert our eyes away from and these heathens pictures are one of them. You know, like speaking of Caitlyn Jenner or Bruce Jenner or whatever it is, splashed all over the magazines, all over the place when it first transformed or whatever. Those are pricks in your eyes. You know, having to see these freak shows, you know, it's a prick in your eye. It's like assaulting you. That's why God said to destroy it. And the best thing you can do is just avoid those types of situations. And obviously we have to live in this world. And they set it up to where they have all these stupid magazines at the counter. You know, they got all your candy bars and stuff that you want to grab and then your sodas and your bang energy drinks and all that stuff. But then they got all these freak shows and all these holly weird stars and what's new with them. And then trannies on the front covers of them. You know, they want to, you know, assault your eyeballs. We got to be careful with that stuff. And we got to make sure that we're not allowing that stuff into our homes and that our children aren't looking at stuff they should be looking at. And you're not looking at stuff you shouldn't be looking at. Because you know what's going to assault your eyes? You know what? Your eye affecteth your heart. Your eye is going to affect your heart. And that one thing that you look at that you shouldn't be looking at can sow a seed in you that germinates and grows and causes you to sin. And you don't want that. Turn to Joshua chapter seven verse 20. We'll see another story about a man named Achan. And Achan, you know, he was the troubler of Israel. Achan was executed for what he did. Why? Because his sin affected the rest of Israel. Our sin does affect other people. You say, well that's sin, you know, that's sin. Nobody knows about that sin. That sin doesn't affect other people. It does affect other people. Because you know who sees it? God sees it. And when God sees it, he wants to get the sin out of the camp, doesn't he? Look at Joshua seven 20, it says, And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus, and thus have I done. When I saw, so he looked at it first, didn't he? Among the spoils of goodly Babylonish garment, and 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight. Then I coveted them and took them. And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. Achan's eye affected his heart. He saw those things, those spoils. And it was an accursed thing. God said, you know, this victory right here, you know, this is, all this stuff belongs to me. Don't touch it. And so Achan became an accursed thing when he took that stuff because it didn't belong to him. Who did it belong to? Belonged to God. And all the other battles they got to take the spoil from, but not that one. That was kind of like God's tithe from all the battles or whatever. And so what happened? Well, they stoned him with stones, and the valley's called the Valley of Achor onto this day. And his eye affected his heart, and that sin that he committed, he coveted, and then he took it. He saw, he coveted, then he took the stuff. And he hid it. You know what? You can hide every sin you have. You can cover everything up that you've done, but you know what? God sees it, and he's gonna deal with it. And so this is, you know, everybody has some kind of sin in their life. You know, I'm not up here acting like I'm sinless, Aaron the Sinless. I'm not Aaron the Sinless. Everybody has sin. But you know what? If God is dealing with you with that sin, you need to deal with it because otherwise he's gonna deal with it for you, and it's gonna be way more embarrassing than if you just deal with it now and get that sin taken care of. But Achan's eye affected his heart. Turn to 2 Samuel 11. I see another person in the Bible whose eyes affected their heart in a bad way, and it's King David. King David was a man after God's own heart, and he took a day off that he shouldn't have taken off. Look what it says in verse number one. It says, and it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle. You see how the kings are supposed to, was David a king? He was a king, wasn't he? That David sent Joab. Why are you sending Joab? It says the kings are supposed to go forth to battle. David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. David should not have been there, number one. He should have been with his people, and then it says in verse two, and it came to pass in an evening tide, evening tide, excuse me, that David arose from off his bed and walked up the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. So he saw her. He's out walking after dark. She's bathing herself. He sees her bathing herself, and she's very beautiful to look upon. So he saw something that he shouldn't have been seeing because he shouldn't even have been there. He should have been off battling when the kings go forth to battle, but instead he took the time off and he's tearing at Jerusalem, and then you know what? He's got too much time on his hands, and when you got too much time on your hands, you're gonna fall into sin. You're gonna fall into sin, and so David put himself in a very compromising position, and obviously you know that the sin that he did, that sin of seeing and looking upon it affected his heart, and he took that woman. He committed adultery with her, and then to cover up the fact that she was pregnant, murdered the husband, one of his mighty men. He had his mighty man Uriah come back, and Uriah wouldn't even go and be with his wife, so the plan didn't work, so he had to murder him, and God forgave him for what he did, but it was a wicked sin. It was multiple wicked sins, and the sword did not pass from his house because of that. His own sons turned against him. When I say the chickens are gonna come home to roost, that's talking about reaping what you sow. When you sow wickedness, you're gonna reap that wickedness back to you, so David's eye affected his heart, and it'll affect your heart too, these types of things, and obviously I'm gonna just be delving into some things that guys have a problem with, and it doesn't get preached about a lot because it's uncomfortable, but I'm gonna preach it anyway because it's in the Bible, right? So turn to Psalm 101 verse three. Psalm 101 verse three. The Bible says in Psalm 101 verse three, give you a second to turn there. Psalm 101 verse three says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. Now David, the same man that had his heart affected by looking at Bathsheba while she was taking a bath wrote this same scripture. So, but I think David learned a lesson. You know, David learned a hard lesson. You know, we'll learn hard lessons too when we're looking at things that we shouldn't be looking at also, and somebody else's wife that you're not married to, and you know, God is gonna bring these things to light, and you don't want that happening, so it's something that men need to get a hold of, a reign on in their lives. You know, we need to make a covenant with our eyes, guys. Gotta make a covenant with our eyes because the Bible says, we'll turn to Matthew chapter five verse 27. We need to make a covenant with our eyes because looking can get you tempted to do other things. Okay? Now is looking as bad as actually doing the act? No, it's not as bad as doing the act, but you know, it does lead to other things. And it leads, it led to adultery for David, didn't it? He was a man after God's own heart, and he fell. If he could fall, anybody could fall. It says in Matthew 5, 27, you have heard that it was said by them of old, thou shall not commit adultery, but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. So look, the Bible talks about not looking at him. Don't look with lust. And it's like, that's a hard thing. It's a hard saying, but we need to hear it. It's a hard thing, but we need to, you know, get our eyes, you know, looking forward. If looking forward is looking at the wrong thing, then turn your head a different way. It's something you have to discipline yourself at. All men. And you know, if you're like, well, that's not my problem, well then, you know, you might go to San Francisco or something like that instead. Because any man that's red blooded will have issues with that from time to time. So look at Proverbs chapter six, verse 25. Proverbs chapter six, verse 25, this is the quiet part of the sermon. All right, this is the quiet part where, you know, it's, the stuff is convicting. The stuff that we need to know, though. Stuff, you know, your eye affects your heart and we gotta get our eyes in the right places. Look at Proverbs chapter six, verse 25, says, lust not after her beauty in thine heart. Neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulterous will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes? Not be burned? So, you know, to lust after them, you have to look at them. And so, looking at a woman's beauty, you know, these whorish women that it's talking about, hey, if you play with fire, you're gonna get burned. That's what it's saying. Can you take fire into your bosom and your clothes be not burned? No. If you play with fire, you're gonna get burned. The Bible's saying, lust not after her beauty in thine heart. Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. That's what the Bible says. And you notice there's a lot more verses about this geared towards men than there is about women. You know, I pulled the Potiphar's wife one out of a hat, but like, you don't see it talked about that much in the Bible. It talks about women being whores, but it doesn't give us some specifics, a lot of specific stories. So, Job chapter 31, verse one, you don't have to turn there, you can if you want, says, I made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then shall I think upon a man? So, Job said, and then Job was a good guy, wasn't he? He said, I made a covenant with mine eyes. He made an agreement. Said, I'm not going to look at other women besides my wife even if she says, curse God and die, you know? She said that before he said this, and he still loved her and still respected her and said, you know what, I'm not gonna look on a mane. Men, we gotta make covenants with our eyes and say, hey, I'm not gonna think about a mane because when you look, you know, you think. It's stuck in your head. So, don't look and then you won't think about it. Your eyes are gonna affect your heart, men, and this is something that needs to get under control in your life. What is another thing that we shouldn't look at? I'm gonna move on and give you guys a break here for a second, all right? Proverbs chapter 23, verse 31 says, look not thou upon the wine. When it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. The Bible is talking about alcoholic beverages here. It's talking about specifically wine and the type of wine that you're not supposed to look upon, and I get made fun of about this. I've had people just mock me because what I preach about this is that I say, hey, don't even go down an alcohol aisle, especially if you've had a problem with it in the past. You've been a drunkard in your past. The last thing you need to do after getting done, working a hard day at work, and you've been a drunkard before, or you drank alcohol before, is walk down a liquor aisle, or a aisle where the beer is like sweating, the wine is just like, wine was never my thing, but obviously, I was talking about the beer sweating, so put two and two together. Well, look, I don't even go down the aisle unless it's an accident. I'll be walking through the store, or maybe I'm on my phone, like, oh, man. And you know, people make fun of that. I don't think I'm gonna burst into flames because I walk down the alcohol aisle like a vampire. Come on, that's not the problem. The problem is the Bible says not to look upon it. So if you're not supposed to look upon it, why would you be walking down the aisle? Like, oh, you Baptists are just, yeah, because that's what the Bible says. What makes me a Baptist, I believe this book. That's what makes me a Baptist. And if God says not to look upon it, he meant business. He's not talking about the grape juice aisle, folks. Don't look at the Welch's, you know, when it moveth itself a riot in a cup. Come on, it's ridiculous. But yeah, you'll have people just, you know, just saying, oh, wine always means alcohol in the Bible. No, it doesn't. That's ridiculous. And if that was true, then we're not supposed to look at any wine. We're not supposed to look at any grape juice. We're not supposed to look at anything. So how are you gonna look at it if you can't, or how are you gonna drink it if you can't even look at it? You just like put a blindfold on? Develop a drinking problem where you can't get it in your mouth? It's ridiculous, come on. So, you know, God has a lot of things he doesn't want us looking at, and alcohol is one of those things. He doesn't want us looking at the wine. Why? Because, you know, and this is the thing that really pisses me off about these preachers that'll get up and preach about it's okay to drink alcohol still, because they probably got people in their church that have had a problem with it in the past, and they're sitting there saying, just one drink, it's not bad. You're not supposed to be a drunkard. And that's like saying sickum to a dog when you're talking to an alcoholic. Oh, well, the pastor says it's okay. I'll just have one beer. I'll just have one glass of wine with my dinner. They're like, I'm not getting drunk. Well, why are you drinking it, though? For its health properties? That's tired. That's a tired excuse. It's healing, you know what, grape juice has the same healing properties? Look at the science about it. It's a fact. Fresh squeezed grape juice. You know, we probably don't, you know, Welch's has a lot of sugar in it and all that stuff. Probably not that great for you. But fresh squeezed grape juice is good for you. Has a lot of healing properties in it, and the Bible says it's a blessing. So, but you know what's not a blessing? The kind of wine that you're not supposed to look at. So that's why I say, don't go down the aisle. You know, if you've ever had a problem with it, don't touch it, don't look at it, don't think about it, just move your eyes in a different direction. Go down the milk aisle. Milk's a lot better. Because you know what, men and the ladies, your eye affects your heart. And when you look at that wine, why does God say not to look at it? Because he knows that someone has a problem with it, or someone just wants to experiment with it, he's gonna look at it and lust after it and want it and drink it. They're gonna ruin your life. Like, well I know people that just drink and it's okay. It's gonna ruin your life. It's gonna make you, you know, say perverted things, the Bible says. It's gonna make you get beat up and you're not gonna remember it. It's gonna make you do face plants and be at someone's toilet, praying to the porcelain God at the end of the night. Or someone pissed all night at the party, pissed all over the toilet seat and everything. Am I grossing you out? Good, because you should be sickened by that. Because, but you know, I've seen people like this. It's disgusting. They didn't go in there with the Windex first or with the 409, the Ajax. They're just like, ah! Turn to 1 John 2, verse 15. 1 John 2, verse 15. 1 John 2, 15 says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The lust of the eyes is of the world. And so it's something that we need to get ahold of because, you know, it's of the world. Isn't that what the Bible says? It says, and the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Hey, what do we wanna do? Get away from that lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and get on God's program. They're like, you just want us to think about God all the time? Yeah? God wants us to think about him all the time. God wants us when we wake up in the morning to think about him. He wants us to pray to him and acknowledge him. He wants us to learn more about him by reading the Bible. He wants us to pray to him for the things that we need. He wants us to meet regularly with the believers. Why? So we can edify each other and sharpen each other like we're, you know, because look, it's us against the world. Us against the world. And the more you're here, you know, I was gonna say Wednesday, but it's Thursday because we got Thursdays too up in Vancouver. Thursday, Sunday morning, Sunday night. Come to the prayer meetings. Come to the events. Replace the old stuff that you used to do with good stuff. Stop looking back to Egypt and start looking forward to the promised land. So Romans chapter seven, I'll have you turn to first Samuel 16 verse seven. I'm gonna move on to the more positive part of this sermon, okay? But Romans 7 seven, while you're turning there, says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said thou shalt not covet. So the Bible is equating here, lusting with covetousness. Thou shalt not covet is, you know, so when the Bible talks about lust, it's used interchangeably with covet. So lust is not a good thing. The lust of the eyes, not a good thing. Lusting after your neighbor's wife, not a good thing. Lusting after their car. Lusting after their house. Well, they got such a nice house, why can't we have a nice house like that? Hey, all good things come to those that wait. That's not a scripture, but it's a saying. And you know, sometimes, maybe you just will never have the house that your neighbor has, but why are you looking at your neighbor's house when you could be making your own house better? Be happy with the things you have. Be content with the things you have. If you have food and raiment, the Bible says therewith we should be content. A lot of people wouldn't be content with just that, though, would they? So God gives us a lot more. He's able to give us much more than this, isn't He? And He does. You know, He realizes that, but we're spoiled rotten here compared to a lot of places. We are. First Samuel chapter 16, verse seven. We gotta start looking at things the way God looks at things. We need to look with our eyes of faith. Look what it says in verse Samuel 16, seven. It says, but the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. You're like, well, Pastor Thompson, I can't look at people's hearts. You actually can. Not the way God does, but you can see it through His Word, right? The Bible tells us how to act. The Bible tells us if a certain person acts a certain way, that you can, it says like people that are like flatterers. If someone's just a big flatterer, then you know that there's something wrong with that person. You know that there's something wicked in their heart. And so the Bible is gonna tell us the things that we need to know. So God looks on the heart. He doesn't see things how we see things. We look at things with our human eyes, and that's all we understand. But we can look through eyes of faith at things. God tells us we can. You know, why would He say read the Bible? You know, that's the mind of God. We have the mind of Christ. You know, look, this book right here, it has everything you need to know. He didn't leave anything out that was important. The book of Enoch, not in the Bible. You know why? Because it's stupid. Because there's no such thing as 450 foot tall giants. He left things out that aren't in there because they're not God's word. He gave us God's word so we can read it and understand it and accept it. And we can start to look on things and see things how God sees things through His word. Your eye is gonna affect your heart. So if you're just not reading your Bible, guess what? You're flying blind. You're like a jet fighter with no navigation. You're just flying all over the place and eventually you're gonna crash because you don't have the things that lead you to the right places. You don't have the instruments to direct your paths. To look upon, you know, we have to look at the Bible in order to read it. Does God say just listen to the Bible? No, He says we're supposed to read it. As a matter of fact, in Matthew chapter 19 verse four, it says, and He answered and said unto them, have you not read? He's asking them, He asked this multiple times in the Bible, have you not read? Why, because God expects us to read in the morning and in the evening. And so if we're supposed to read, how do you read? With your eyes. You know, unless you're blind, then you would read Braille or you could read in a different way. But if you have eyes and you can see, you read the Bible with your eyes. So what are we supposed to be looking upon? Not the things that I mentioned earlier. Not to get trapped in the things that, you know, the patriarchs and some of these other people got mixed up with even David himself. We're supposed to look on other things. Let's look at Hebrews chapter four verse 12. Go ahead and turn to Hebrews four verse number 12. You're like, well, how do you see hearts how God sees them? Well, look at Hebrews chapter four, 12. It says, for the word of God is quick. That means it's alive. It's alive. You're like, it doesn't look like it's alive. Look, it's breathing. No, I'm just kidding. But it is alive. God's word is alive. That's what it says. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the joints of marrow, excuse me, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. What's it say is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart? God's word. So you're like, well, I can't see people's hearts. The Bible can help you see people's hearts. It can help you see your own heart. It doesn't help you see your own heart. When you're hearing God's word preached or when you're reading it in your daily study, you're like, man, I really need to get ahold of that truth in the Bible because it shows you how wicked your own heart is. It shows us the right things that we should be thinking about and it shows us the wrong things, the wrong way to think, and it shows us the right way to think. It shows us the right way to look and the wrong way to look, right? That's what this sermon is about. The word of God is gonna help us discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And really, the main heart you need to focus on what your heart is intending to do is yourself. Because if you're broken, you can't help fix anybody else. It says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him. So all things are manifest in his sight. God can see everything. God can see all the hearts at the same time. He knows what everybody's thinking all at once. He's omniscient. He's all-powerful. He's all-knowing. And he can be everywhere at once. He's God. And we have a hard time probably understanding that because we're not God. We're made in the image of God, but we're not God. We have a lot of his attributes, but we also, God doesn't have a sin nature, and we do. So when your eyes look upon the Bible, it discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart, others' hearts. We can see the world for what it is instead of looking as man looks. That's the bottom line. I mean, if you get one truth out of this message, the fact that we look at God's word and that's gonna help us and navigate us and tell us the right things to look at, you wanna look at something good, look at the Bible. Look at God's word. Jeremiah 17, verse nine. The world's message is just follow your heart. Listen to your heart. There's all kinds of stupid pop songs to talk about. Following your heart, listening to your heart. The heart wants what it wants. That's what the homos say, right? The heart wants what it wants. But my Bible says in Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So when you look into God's word, it's gonna tell you what your heart is really like. It's wicked. And in order to get it right, you gotta follow God's word. But it's always gonna try to do the wrong thing. It's always gonna try to deceive you into saying, hey, you should just keep doing this. Hey, why don't you look at that? Go here. You know, it's gonna, it's gonna, our nature, you know, our sin nature is at war with our spiritual man. And there's a wrestling that goes on every single day. Excuse me, and some people have good days and some people have bad days. You know, sometimes you're not walking in the spirit when you should be. We're supposed to walk in the spirit and then we won't fulfill what? The lusts of the flesh, which are caused, first of all, by looking with our eyes, right? So Psalm chapter 119, verse 105. Psalm chapter 119, verse 105. The Bible says in Psalm 119, verse 105, I'll give you a second to turn there. The Bible is gonna teach us right from wrong. The Bible is gonna tell us what we should look at, what we shouldn't look at. And the word of God, the Bible says, in Psalm 119, 105, says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Who's gone camping before? I know you're in LA, but some people have gone camping. Some people are like, I've never left the city. That's okay. You come back all dirty and stuff, you have to clean everything. Anyway, it's fun to go camping, but it's kind of a drag too sometimes, especially when you have lots of children. You gotta wash all that stuff. Yeah, it's rough. But anyway, thy word is a lamp unto my feet. When you read God's word, it's gonna help you see things that you need to see. When you're out camping and you don't have a flashlight, if you're that guy, oh, I forgot to bring a flashlight. There's always somebody that forgets to bring their lamp. There's always someone that forgets to bring their flashlight. And it's like, God's telling us, hey, his word is gonna be a lamp unto your feet. Isn't it nice to know where you're walking? It's nice to know where you're walking. It's nice to know which direction you should be walking. And there's paths that God sets us on, and there's a way that's right, and there's a way that's wrong. There's paths that people have trod before, but you know what? If you don't know how to get to that path from God's word, then you're gonna be in the dark. You're gonna not know where you're supposed to be going. It says, and it's a light unto my path. The path that we're on should be the path of righteousness, obviously. But God's word is the one that's gonna be the flashlight for you. It's gonna show your feet where to go, and it's gonna light your path so you know which way to go the right way. So if you don't read God's word every day, you're gonna lose your way. You're gonna get lost in the woods, and you're gonna turn from the path eventually. You have to read the Bible every day, folks. You have to read the Bible every day. Otherwise, you're gonna get caught up in stuff that you shouldn't be getting caught up with. You're gonna forget the Lord, and what did he say? You know, to the children of Israel all the time, it seems like he's just harping on it over and over again. If you keep my commandments, everything's gonna be good. All the sickness is gonna be away from you. Everything's gonna bring forth the way it's supposed to bring forth, and I'm gonna bless you. But if you turn from the way, or if you get ensnared by their gods, or if you get ensnared by their pictures, you know, and that's what happened to the children of Israel every time. But that's a picture of how we are, too. In reality, we're a lot like the children of Israel. We'll be doing good for a while, and then we're like, oh, hey, I'm gonna start watching My Little Pony. I heard Pastor Mahin was ripping on anime, the other leg in one of his sermons recently. I was like, who's the anime watcher in here? I will find you now. Have you guys ever heard of bronies before? I preached a sermon, like, I had, there's like subcultures in this world that I wish I'd never seen. Bronies is one of them. Grown men that love My Little Ponies and watch the cartoon for real. Like they're really, that they're interested in it. They just like got a heavy queer population, big surprise there. But I like preached a sermon about it, and I had bronies that were on there saying, hey, I'm a man, and I watch My Little Ponies, like, how can you actually write that sentence down? Bro. You need to take the bro out of ponies, okay, because you're not a bro. It's girly. And anime's just weird anyway, so. Well, we don't wanna go down the anime path. We wanna go down the path that God wants us to go on. So turn to John 4.35. John 4.35. Let's finish off with things that, the right things we should be looking on. I already talked about the Word of God. That's gonna tell us, it's gonna teach us, it's gonna show you what your heart's like, it's gonna show you what other people's hearts like, it's gonna show you what's right in the world and what's wrong in the world, what we should avoid, and what we should cling to. But there's other things in the world that we can look at, but you know, guess what? It all has to do with God, okay? Sorry to disappoint you if you didn't. Well, what about working on my monster truck or my side-by-side or what? Look, you can have hobbies. I'm not saying you don't have hobbies, but if your hobbies are taking up more time, if that's filling up more time than God is in your life then you're off into the weeds. You're already out of church. If you think that following some hockey team, you know, oh, I just like hockey, cool. I like basketball, I like football. I've watched it my whole life, but you know what, I don't care. They're probably all, the games are rigged anyways. Who cares? The fights are rigged. Sports are rigged. The world is gonna, you know, they've been rigging sports for years. I'm not saying everyone is a conspiracy, okay? With Tom Brady coming back against the Atlanta Falcons, I was like, okay, I've seen enough. There's no way that's real. But anyway, Lewis says, John 435, says, say not ye there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, look on the fields for their white already to harvest. What did Jesus say to look at? He said, lift up your eyes. Now, some people just have their eyes of their own, everything else, but he said, hey, look at the fields. What's he talking about? He's talking about people's souls. Do you look at people like they're a soul that needs to be saved, or do you just like, you know, that only goes on when you're in soul winning mode? Like, I care about people when I'm in soul winning, but I don't care about it when I'm not. We need to look at the fields, Jesus said, and look on them, look on the fields. Lift up your eyes and look. Acts 4 20 says, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard, and we haven't seen Jesus. He didn't talk with us audibly, but you know what, we still have faith in him, and you know what, we've seen a lot of great things in our lives. You know, you're a Christian today, I'm sure you've seen prayer work. You know, do you get up here and pray every Thursday night for no reason? No, because your prayers get answered. I'm sure if I ask people in this room right now, have your prayers ever been answered? You're gonna say yes. You know, do all of them get answered the way you want them to be? Not necessarily, but we can only, you know, we can only speak the things which we've seen and heard. Hey, you know what, I know I got saved, so you know what, I can speak about those things. I can go to someone that's not saved, and I can speak to them and say, you know what, I used to not be saved, but now I am, and I wanna show you how to get saved. So we can see, you know, the Bible reading works in our lives. We can see that church attendance works. We can see our lives being transformed by preaching. You know, everybody in this room probably has a great story to tell about why they're in this room right now. Why are you in this room? You heard some hard preaching. You started coming here. You started making changes in your lives. You can only say what you've both seen and heard, and everybody in here has seen and heard the word of God work and prayer and Bible reading and church attendance and soul winning. When you saw your first person get saved out of soul winning, you're like, I'm hooked, right? You know, and sometimes you don't feel like going. I get that, but Jesus said to lift up your eyes and look on the field. They're white and ready to harvest. Philippians chapter two, four, you can turn to these scriptures if you want them up. I'm almost done preaching. I know it's getting a little late here, so I'm into my third hour. No, I was kidding. It's not that late. Anyway, I do gotta hurry up though. So Philippians two, four says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. So that's not saying be a busybody. That's saying, hey, you know, don't just look at your own life, but try to help other people, others. Try to help others. Jesus helped others, didn't he? And so we should be, it says, look not every man to his own things, but the things of others. So we should be willing to help other people. Let's look at people we could help. Second Corinthians chapter four, verse 18. Second Corinthians chapter four, verse 18 says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. What's the Bible saying? It's saying, hey, stop looking at everything that you can see and start looking at your, through your eyes of faith, the things which are coming. You know, you wanna talk about, you know, your retirement and your 401k. What about your retirement and 401k up in heaven? Look at the things which you can't, we can't see Jesus. We can't see what heaven looks like right now. But you know what? We know it's real and we should start thinking about and focusing on things that are eternal and not just the things of the here and now. I'm not saying like, you know, don't ever think about anything here. We gotta do certain things here. But the Bible's telling us, while we look not at the things which are seen, it's telling us, hey, we need to look at things that are not seen sometimes and focus on things we gotta realize with our real eyes. You know, the eyes of faith. Because if you don't have faith, it's impossible to please it. It's impossible. Look at Hebrews 11, nine. I'm just gonna start reading because I know I got limited time here. Hebrews 11, nine says, by faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Verse 10, for he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. What are we supposed to be looking for? The house here? The big house and all that stuff here? No, Abraham was looking for a city that God built. He's looking for the New Jerusalem. We should also look with our eyes of faith and say, hey, New Jerusalem's gonna be here someday and we're gonna be living in it. Those are the things we should be focusing on. You know, don't lay up treasures on this earth. You know, we need to lay up treasures in heaven. Luke nine, or James chapter one verse 25 says, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. Again, talking about the Bible, looking into the Bible, but also not just looking at it, but actually doing what it says. So that's when you're gonna be blessed in your deed. Luke 962, Luke 962 says, and Jesus said unto him, no man having his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. You know, Lot's wife looked back. Jesus said, don't look back or you're not fit for the kingdom. It's not saying you're not saved. It's just saying you're not fit. So once you get saved, it's time to do some work. And once you start doing some work, if you're looking back, where do you think they're looking back to? Egypt, the things of the world? You know, the prodigal son left for a while, didn't he? But then when he got tired of, you know, eating with the pigs, he came back. You know, just because you've blown it in the past doesn't mean that God's done with you. If you've looked back, you're like, Pastor Thompson, I've looked back. I've taken my hand off the plow and I've looked back. Well, you're not the only one. The prodigal son did too. And he's a son. He's a saved guy. And you know, what happened when the prodigal son said, I'm gonna come back? His father saw him afar off. And what did he do? He ran to meet him. So even if you're like in a state right now, and I don't know where everybody's at in their life right now, maybe you're just kind of drifting away from the things of God, but you know what? You can come back. You can come back. The Bible says, draw nigh unto him and he'll draw nigh unto you. Once you're like, when God sees that you're taking that step, he's gonna run to you. And he's gonna be there for you. And he's gonna love you. And he's gonna, all things will be forgiven. He's gonna slay the fatted calf, you know? So don't look back. Don't look back and think that all that junk is good. All that, I remember all that stuff. Numbers chapter 11, verse four, I'm not gonna have you turn there, but I'll just read it for you. Says, and it makes multitude that was among them, fell a-lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There's nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. See, this mixed multitude got to the point where that manna, who represents Christ, by the way, they were abhorring Christ. They were abhorring this manna before our eyes. They were looking at the manna. They were looking at the things of God and saying, you know what, I want Egypt. That's why they fell a-lusting. We don't want to fall a-lusting. We don't want to look back at our old life. There's nothing there for you. It's not gonna be the same when you go back. It's gonna be worse. The latter end is gonna be worse. And I'll have you turn to one last verse here and then we'll be done, okay? 8.30 on the dot. We're gonna have an altar call, seeing five, six stanzas. Just kidding. Well, I showed you some things you shouldn't be looking at tonight. And how it affected people's lives. And I also showed you some things that you should be looking at, things you should be thinking about. But also you gotta consider how other people are viewing you. And you're like, I don't care what people think about me. Well, you know what, you should care what people think about you if you're a Christian. Well, I don't care. People's like, I don't care what people think. I don't care if people like me or not. You should care because you know what? The way you live your life has an effect on people around you that aren't saved. At your work, in your family, your old friends. And when they see you acting like you did when you were in Egypt, they're gonna be instantly turned off to anything you have to say. You only have one chance with people in most cases. If you've already blown it, you might as well just hope that somebody else reaches them because they're not gonna hear what you have to say. Matthew 5, verse 14. Matthew 5, verse 14 says, you're the light of the world. See, people are supposed to see us, right? We're the light of the world. Jesus is gone. We're the light of the world. Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. No matter how much you try to hide that you're a Christian, people are gonna know. They're gonna know. They always know. They do. They know how the way you talk. Maybe they don't know because of the way you talk. I don't know. But anyway, verse 15 says, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. See your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. And that's what we want, right? We want people to glorify our Father, which is in heaven. And the Bible says we should care about how we look. We should care because he said, I set you as a light on a hill. It can't be hid. So how you act in your daily life around people, it does matter because people are gonna see either your good works or they're gonna see your wickedness, and they're gonna go, oh, it's just another hypocrite Christian. And I know there's hypocrites at Walmart. There's hypocrites at the bank. There's hypocrites at Starbucks. But it's not quite the same, is it? Because God is depending on us to get people saved. And if we're blowing it and people are looking at us and they're not seeing our good works, then guess what? They're not gonna glorify our Father, which is never. So your works that people see are gonna affect their hearts, right? So it's really important what we're looking at. Don't look at the wicked stuff. Don't look back to Egypt, but look at the things that God wants us to look at. The Bible, soul winning, thinking about the new Jerusalem, thinking about the things which are not seen, rewards in heaven, thinking about coming to church and seeing our brethren. It's a great thing to see our brethren every week. And you might get sick of each other sometimes, but you know what? You get way more sick of people in the world. And we don't wanna have to look, this is our safe space, isn't it? We need a safe space away from these freaks and weirdos. And we don't have to deal with that stuff here. We do need a safe space. So we get away from those freaks, right? This is our place where we can get away from the world and we can be God's people and we can worship Him and we can serve Him and we can edify each other and edify other people. And you know what? Our works matter. How people see us matters, right? Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much. God, just for your word and how it just pierces. And Lord, it shows the intense of the heart. Lord, I pray that you'd help us. This is a vast subject, Lord, but it's really simple. You know that what we're looking at is if it's wrong or if it's right, and Lord, we know that by your word. And I just pray that you'd help us to be discerning. Lord, I pray that you'd just help us to be just Bible readers, read the Bible every single day and every single night. And Lord, help us to not, and if we fall, we get back up and we come back to you, Lord. Pray that you'd just help us to be lights in this world in a dark place. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.