An Open Opening Opens an Opening for Opening Openings, So Let's Open With That

You are my hiding place

You are my hiding place

You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance

Remember I am afraid, I will trust in you

Let the weak say I am strong in the strength of the Lord

You are my hiding place You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance

Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you

Let the weak say I am strong in the strength of the Lord

I will trust in you

You are my hiding place You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance

Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you

Let the weak say I am strong in the strength of the Lord

I will trust in you

You are my hiding place

You are my hiding place

You are my hiding place

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James the brother of Jesus understood it.

And so what happens is when we fail to miss the point, don't become an expert in others witnesses, don't become an expert in helping others with their issues, and even in the kindness of our heart we should not do that, then we start preaching righteousness.

Is rightness a good thing? Is it good to be right? Is it good to be honest? Natalie, is it good to be honest? Yes! It's like one of the greatest things, right?

But when you go and tell people to be honest, all you're doing is meddling in their life with the Word of God, but only sort of.

Is it a tradition to be honest? In the world, without the Bible at all, is it a tradition to be honest?

They know they should be honest. They've become a law unto themselves. People know that they should be honest, but do they lie? Yeah.

And what is the primary reason why they do it? Because everybody does. Right? Because they want something. Because they are embarrassed and don't want something.

Because they lie. And they'll tell you. And everybody lies. Don't you dare tell your wife she doesn't look good in that dress. Everybody lies.

So then if everybody lies, that tradition is invalid. But at the same time they carry around this understanding that they don't like to be lied to. No one should ever lie to them.

And so the bottom line is, when we preach righteousness and propose pathways to doing better, pointing to effectiveness, if you don't lie, people will trust you.

If you show up on time, people will respect you. If you do hard work in people's presence, people think you're a hard worker. Right?

If you do it appropriately for the occasion, people will not look down on you.

So when we propose pathways and we point to effectiveness, all we're doing, if we don't do it in God's power, is play God ourselves.

So we all have issues and we all have issues.

Notice though, he says, past issues, issues that are moved completely to the past, become present solutions.

Past issues become present solutions.

He says, first remove the beam out of your own eye before you try to take the splinter out of somebody else's eye.

Just as my mother was able to get that ash out of my eye, it's just like that. She knew exactly what to do.

Even though I was struggling away at it in pain, crying and screaming because it hurt, like somebody was sticking a knife in my eyeball.

In 30 seconds she saw that past issues are present solutions, so say Jesus.

What he means by that is whatever you turn over to God will be out of the way.

Hear me now very carefully because this is hugely, maybe the pinnacle, maybe the main thing to see.

Whatever you turn over to God will be out of the way so you can see clearly.

This whole thing is about seeing clearly.

It is not about doing right. Not even about that.

Can the speck be considered sin? Sure. Should it be dealt with? Sure.

Do we all have issues? Yes. But are our issues limited to sin?

If you don't like certain drinks vehemently, like you just can't drink them, that's an issue.

It can be used against you, but is it sin? Not necessarily. We have many issues that are not necessarily sin.

What we're talking about is the ability to see clearly.

If you've got something in your eye, if you've got a beam in your eye, the representation is you can't see.

You can't see clearly. So what he's saying is whatever you turn over to God will be out of the way so that you can see clearly.

So now if you recognize you have an issue, whatever that is, sin or not, you need to submit it to God.

If a situation arises where my issue would keep me from doing what God wants me to do,

I am not going to allow that issue to keep me from doing what God wants me to do because I am a follower of God.

A follower of God has Jesus as Lord. Lord means He tells me what to do and I do it, so He's telling me what to do.

And I have this issue that I'm still working on, but I've submitted the issue to God, therefore I can see clearly to do what I need to do.

Whatever you turn over to God will be out of the way so that you can see clearly.

First remove the beam from your own eye, then perhaps remove splinter from the eye of your brother.

When a thing is removed by God, it makes helping others possible.

So a number of times it's been hugely important in my witnessing where I'm talking with somebody and I realize I had an issue in the past.

I shared this illustration twice. I was at Myers. There was a young woman there. She was working at the cash register.

I began to talk about Jesus and Japanese spiritual beliefs and using church Jesus without fear to kind of begin the conversation.

She said, yes, I do. She believed in God. She had never accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

I started the conversation because she was complaining about her job.

I said, yeah, I totally get that. I used to work in retail myself. It is really hard. I had issues back then too.

Issues, I didn't say sin, although sin was true, but I didn't say that I had issues. She had issues.

I said, so what is your issue? She said, my issues with my schedule. Always changing all the places.

Plus, I have hours to actually pay my bills. That's my issue.

And I said, that was totally my issue when I worked in retail. I totally feel what you're saying. I had the same issue.

Are we talking about sin? Is it a sin that she's upset, not getting enough hours to pay her bills? No.

Where is the sin? The sin is that she did not submit her life to Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, I did not come to condemn, but they are condemned already by what they've done with the Son of God.

She was condemned by what she did with the Son of God. She felt about her schedule.

Or even if she gossiped or slandered about her schedule to somebody else and complained to her boss, whatever.

If she lied and cheated and stole to try to get more hours, none of that was what was causing her to be lost.

What was causing her to be lost was she didn't know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

She was condemned already by what she had done with the Son of God.

And I knew that. And she kind of knew that. And so I shared Jesus with her.

And I said, after I came to Jesus Christ, I found out that that issue is not really an issue.

And I was able to turn that issue over to the Lord. And I was no longer fearful that I wouldn't have enough money to pay my bills.

I was no longer angry that I didn't have enough hours. I was angry because my schedule was being all affected.

I was changed so that I could see that issue differently.

Just a couple moments. She prayed that she was Christ as Lord and Savior.

See, we're all about you going to hell because you have sinned.

People aren't going to hell because they have sinned.

The wages of sin is death. That separates them from God.

That's why they're going down. The problem has never been sinned. The problem is death. The problem is the separation from God.

And a bridge across that separation, a tunnel through to have a perfect relationship with God has been crafted by Jesus.

And not because they're going to hell, not based on the sins that they have committed, but because they are condemned by what they have done with the Son of God.

They're refusing to accept the lifeline.

When a thing is removed by God, it makes helping others possible.

We proclaim what we have seen and heard.

When a thing is removed by God, it makes helping others possible.

Especially in the kindness.

Especially in the kindness of your heart.

Trust God and submit.

See, we couldn't in the kindness of our heart deal with their issues.

We couldn't in the kindness of our heart become an expert on their issues.

But when a thing is removed by God, it makes helping others possible.

And especially in our heart, we can go out there and show them that by trusting God and submitting to God, that issue they too can see.

Genesis 1, 2, 4 says this.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter the house, knowing that the test in the case of endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Why do we not understand that the things that we go through need to be submitted to God?

When they are submitted to God, when they are submitted to God, they get out of the way so that then we can help others.

Why do we not understand that?

Rick Warren and his purpose-driven life has a whole chapter, which we studied way back in the day, and it really profoundly affected me, and another young man that I shared with in the youth group at that time,

about how whatever you go through, the difficulties you go through, once you survive it, it becomes fuel to help others.

That's what this is talking about.

He said, remove the beam from your own eye, deal with your issue, and in dealing with your issue, you become able to help others deal with theirs.

I have a magnifying glass, kind of one of my fun little things I have in my office.

Magnifying glass.

I really don't magnify my bicep.

Wow! That's pretty awesome to do that.

This magnifying glass. There was a young man, a child really, who got a magnifying glass.

I'm going to look at the magnifying glass and look at the paper.

Whoa! Look at ants.

Whoa! Six legs!

Moving fast!

So strong!

A cron that's four times its body size.

You went around magnifying things and looking at them, and it gave him a completely different perspective on the world.

Do you understand that there are things going on around you all the time that you never see before?

In your body.

Your cells are replicating and dividing and splitting right now as you're sitting there.

Not a few.

I would say billions, trillions.

More than you can imagine. There is so much activity going on.

We're all sitting and thinking and listening to God being changed.

There is so much activity going on in this room at a cellular level that we can't see.

The magnifying glass opens up a new world to you.

When you pay attention to the right thing, you can see it more clearly.

The psalmist said it this way in Psalm 34, beginning of verse 3.

He says, oh, magnify the Lord with me.

Magnify the Lord with me.

He said it again.

Magnify the Lord with me.

Is that not what Sundays are about?

Everything that we're doing here, magnifying the Lord.

That's why you don't need your phone.

That's why you don't need to be distracted.

That's why you don't need a snack.

You don't need to get out.

You don't have to go to the bathroom.

You don't have to get up and do nothing.

Magnify the Lord.

And you are capable of turning off every other thing and just focusing on God because you have a relationship with God.

And if you're not capable of doing that, then you need to question whether or not you have actually seen Him.

So magnify the Lord with me.

He says, let us exalt His name together.

So we all have issues.

Don't ignore your own issues.

And don't become an expert on others' issues.

But realize we can exalt the name of the Lord together.

He says, I swore the Lord.

And He answered me.

And delivered me from all my fears.

Can you say that about God?

Did you seek God and God answered you and delivered you from all your fears, all your worry, all your anxiety, all the things of this life that prevented you from seeing Him?

That He has you being in doing?

Did He deliver you?

If He didn't deliver you, you're not saved.

And He did submit your life to Jesus.

I sought the Lord and He answered me.

And delivered me from all my fears.

They looked to Him and were radiant.

Notice they looked to God and their faces glowed.

And their faces shall never be ashamed.

If you are a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, if you have come to Jesus, you're not going to be ashamed of your living for the Lord.

Yes, you have issues with your work.

And every time you turn your issue over to the Lord, you become more capable to help others.

We looked to God and we were radiant.

Our faces shall never be ashamed if we rephrase it in the first person.

Verse 6 says, This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of his trouble.

The angel caps those who fear him and rescued them.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

How blessed is the man who takes refuge.

Don't you hear what the psalmist is doing?

Let me put it in the context of our verses.

This is what the psalmist is doing.

The psalmist is doing what he's saying to me.

And people like me have been submitting the log in our eye.

Opening up the opening.

And when we do that, God shows up and does amazingly.

What's that you say?

You have a splinter in your eye?

Well, here's what you can do.

Magnify the Lord.

Submit your issues to God.

And God will show up.

Will show up.

And He will deal with it as He has always done.

Cry out to the Lord and the Lord will heal you.

And save you from your issues.

That's what the psalmist is saying.

And he's giving us an example of how magnifying God,

which is what Jesus is telling us to do in these verses,

can help other people.

That brings us to our conclusion.

You need more than a clear eye.

Boy, a clear eye sounds good.

Truth is, a lot of people don't have it.

A lot of saved people don't have it.

Because they're not submitting their issues to God.

You need more than a clear eye.

It would be great to have one.

And it sounds like it's what Jesus wants for all of us based on these verses.

But you need more than a clear eye.

Everyone needs more than a clear eye.

Because no man is just an eye.

Are you just an eye?

You're like floating around two eyes and that's it?

It's just what you see?

And kids are sometimes like that.

They get wrapped up in everything that they see and they chase after this and that.

They chase after that chaotic everywhere.

But is that you? Are you just an eye?

Do you not have a brain? Do you not have ears?

Do you have feet? Hands? Heart? Lungs?

No. You are much more than just an eye.

So a clear eye would be great.

But you need something considerably more than a clear eye.

But where would your foot be if every part of you was an eye?

Right?

No.

You need more than a clear eye.

Jesus said this, he taught this in Luke 11.

He says, the eye is the lamp of the body.

When your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light.

But when it is bad, talking about your eye, your body also is full of darkness.

In some very real sense, hear this, this is huge.

In some very real sense, Jesus died to clear your eye.

When you learn that your whole body can be full of light by submitting your eye,

and all the rest of you to God, then you actually have a solution in the present for someone who has a splinter in their eye.

The solution is not to remove the splinter.

At least not by your efforts, or even by a miracle of God.

But to provide a body full of light.

That is the solution.

A body full of light.

People plead with God to do and to save them from circumstances they don't like.

Jesus asked back, do you want to be healed?

Like he did with the man by the pool.

And the man said, well yeah, I want to be healed.

I've been laying here for a decade.

But every time the water starts, someone else comes and says,

I've been laying here for a decade, but every time the water starts, someone else gets down on the water before me and they get healed.

I don't have anybody to help me get down on the water.

I want to do the manhack.

The manhack issues.

Was it sinful that he was paralyzed?

Was it sinful that he couldn't be the first one down in the pool to be healed?

No, he had issues.

Jesus said, do you want to be saved?

Do you want to be healed?

And he said, yes, I want to be healed.

Fast forward the clock in my life, some distance, I was playing paintball.

I kind of liked paintball, even though I hadn't played in a long time.

Playing out at Tito's Sultans used to be out past Williston, Ohio.

That was the end of a particular session.

They used to play morning session, afternoon session.

That day I was there playing the morning sessions.

I was playing from like 8.30 a.m. to like 11.30 a.m.

Paintball, I mean, you fire a 60 caliber paint round at other people kind of fast.

And it breaks on their clothing.

If they get hit, they're out, right?

So I was what's called a cheek paintball player.

I had a thing called a Splatmaster.

It was a gun that I bought at over here at Woodville Surplus for 16 bucks.

Paintball guns were very expensive.

It would hold 10 paintballs in it.

Two in the top, that's why there are actual two paintballs in there.

It was chocolate by pushing a thing in on the back.

I used to play paintball like James Bond.

I would sneak around behind any lines and shoot people in the back.

In my mind, I was playing like James Bond.

I couldn't shoot very far.

I acted like I was about 15 feet.

Most of the other people out there had 200, 300, 200 dollars or something like that.

Back in that day, if you went out there with automatic, full turret and it would go da-da-da-da-da, fire really fast,

they were 12 to 15 hundred dollars.

And there would occasionally be one on the battlefield.

I couldn't afford one, nor was I ever going to afford one.

If you could afford that, you couldn't afford a light unless you were rich.

And some people thought they were rich, put another credit card or I don't know what,

and they made $1,250 paintball.

So at the end of the session, it's almost noon, and everybody's going to break for lunch.

And I was debating with myself if I was going to come back and play the second session we started one or not.

I had paid again.

And then I probably couldn't bring it up.

I was feeling my oats.

We get to the end of the game, and there's this place called The Village.

That's like wooden houses.

And the enemy was always hidden in The Village.

Now because I was sneaking around behind any lines and shooting people in the butt, in the back, and like that,

I was behind any lines as we got to the end.

And the horn went off telling us we had whatever that time was three or five minutes left in the game.

As far as I could see, The Village was clear.

There was nobody in The Village.

The flag was in there somewhere.

There's only a few minutes left to win the game.

80 degrees outside, sun shining, plenty of green brush covers.

So I snuck up in the brush.

I'm like 10 feet from the nearest building.

I caught a glimpse of color in one of the buildings.

And I think, that's probably the flag.

And so I ran for the brush, and I'm up next to the wall of this building.

And now the flag is in the next building.

It's 20 feet away.

All I got to do is grab the flag and get it back to my side human.

Just a couple minutes left in the game.

The spot master's in my hands, ready with a round.

No opposition anywhere in the city.

Bugs chirping away, birds, sunshine, gentle breeze in the brush.

I'm having the day of my life, but a great day lately.

All of a sudden, I'm at the corner, all of a sudden a guy appears in the brush on the opposite of us, about 60 feet away.

The flag is about 15 feet away.

And the lines take it back across, it's about 10 feet behind me.

So my thought was, run from here, grab the flag, go out the other side of that building and head back.

And he'll shoot me, if he hits me I'll be out, but if he misses me, we win.

That's my thought.

And so as he's coming up out of the brush, I break from cover and I run toward the door.

As I run toward the door, I fire this flat master with the one shot that I've got in the chamber.

I can only fire once, and I have to cock, and I don't have time to cock, and I'm running as fast as possible.

I fired the shot, I fired him.

He fires at me.

As he fires at me, I think I'm going to be smart, and I slide like I'm sliding into base to try to slide into the building.

Two things went desperately wrong.

The first one was, I missed the door.

I hit this building.

So I'm lying on the ground, I'm not even in the room, so at that point I know I'm going to be dead.

He's going to walk up and shoot me.

But as I hit the building, I realized that something else went desperately wrong.

And what happened was, he fired the paintball gun as I slid down, and the paintball hit me right in the top of my nose, right here.

It blew my goggles off my head.

I was wearing goggles strapped on my head.

It blew my goggles off my head.

It filled my eyes with paint.

And I can't see.

I can't see anything.

Right?

And he says I could see a teeny bit around the edges, but nowhere I could see anything.

I'm thinking to myself, do I have water?

What am I going to do?

I'm screwed.

This guy comes charging down, throws his rifle on the ground.

He's wearing a rebel bandana.

It's a southern black from the Civil War.

He takes it off, and he begins to wipe the paint out of my eyes.

He said, oh, dude, are you okay?

And he starts wiping the paint out of my eyes.

And pretty soon I could see that this rebel bandana was covered with paint, was wiping the paint out of my eyes.

And I'm like, I'm okay.

I'm okay.

I was not okay.

But I'm going, I'm okay.

I'm okay.

Because that's what you say when you're 16 years old and you just got hurt, right?

I'm okay.

I'm okay.

So he got my eyes mostly clean.

He picks me up, and he carries me back.

Not literally, but I mean, it's like I'm leaning on him.

We go back out to the front.

He picks up the gun, and the game's over.

The horn blows.

We didn't win.

And I get back out there, and I'm pouring water on my eyes.

I get my eyes all cleared.

I spent the whole lunch break getting my eyes all cleared.

I am not playing around.

I'm done, right?

I rode my motorcycle.

I play paintball.

I go, and I get on my motorcycle.

He stops over and he's like, are you okay?

I'm like, yeah, I'm okay.

He said, well, I never played before in my life, and I'm super sorry.

I didn't mean to shoot you in the head.

I was aiming for your body.

I'm like, I know.

I slid.

I was trying to get in the building.

And he said, really?

I'm sure he was thinking that was a horrible slide into the building because you literally slid into the wall.

But he said, I saw it.

That happened.

I felt terrible.

And I got on my motorcycle.

And for two and a half months, for two and a half months, every day of my life for two and a half months, I had a little spot here on the side of my eye.

And every time I would blink, this little spot would go beep, go down, and up.

Every time.

How many times do you blink in a day?

Hundreds, thousands of times.

Great.

I'm 16 years old, and I'm literally forever going to have a little speck in my eye.

And I'm thinking to myself, how am I going to get rid of this little speck out of my eye?

I thought, I'm going to go to an eye doctor or something.

And you know how, like, you're 16 years old, and the last thing you ever want to admit is that you have to go to the doctor?

Well, that was me.

So I'm like, I'm putting it up.

I'm doing my schoolwork.

I'm working in school.

And I'm filling out the math problem.

And I go blink, blink.

And my left eye cannot see the page.

And then my left eye can blink.

And this little speck.

And that's all I could think about.

All day long, all day, every day, was how for the rest of my life, I'm going to have a tiny speck in my eye, blinking up and down, blinking up and down.

Listen.

People do not need you.

I could stop right there.

It's really what they need is Jesus.

People do not need you to go and tell them what they have to speck in their eye.

Just the same as if you're in this room and you're a Christian, you know very plainly that you have issues.

Some of your issues are sinned.

Some of them are not.

If you have an issue, and you know what it is, and you're ignoring it, that is sin.

It's sin.

If you recognize an issue in somebody else, and begin to ignore your issues to try to fix their issues, that is sin.

Even if you do it in the kindness of your heart.

Even if you do it with the greatest of compassion, thinking you are denying yourself while you are solving their problems, by allowing your issues to persist, that is sin.

Rather, Jesus said, submit your issue to me.

Let's you and me work together to get this out of your eye, so your whole body can be filled with light.

John 1,4 says, In him, in Jesus, was light.

And the light was the light of him.

John 8,12 says, Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of light.

Everybody knows they have issues.

They don't need you to go and point it out.

The key to this is to submit your issues to God, so your eye can be cleared and your body can be full of light.

And then the last problem, you will actually be able to go and show people how they can submit their issue to God and have an eye that's open and a person that's full of light.

And the title is this.

An open opening.

That is to say, if your eyes are open, be clear.

An open opening opens.

An opening.

That is to say, an opportunity.

To open openings.

That is to say, the eyes of others.

So, let's open with that.

Let's take the problems and the issues and even the sins that are messing with our vision and submit them to the Lord so we can have a clear eye and be filled with light.

And then let's go and show others how they can do the same thing.

They don't need you to tell them they have issues.

They already know.

They don't need you to give them action plans on how they can do better struggling through difficult times.

What they need is the know-how to submit their issues to the Lord.

And then you fill the hole.

Here today, you're a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, which you recognize in yourself, the great skill of being able to go around and find the things that are wrong with other people.

You realize you can be offended easily when somebody does something that you don't like.

Maybe you're a student. You're smart, wise, discerning.

You can tell others good action plans, good steps on how to make their situation better.

And you find that you've been majoring in that rather than showing them how to submit the beam that's in their eye, the issue that they have, that they should not be ignoring to the Lord.

Have their eye cleared and their whole self full of light.

I submit to you that there's a whole bunch of Christians in the book that are walking around with issues in their eye.

It doesn't have to be sin.

Now, if it comes to you, you need to be there. Your issue could just simply be, I struggle with myself.

It could simply be, I stay out too late.

But when those issues remain and they block your view so that the God of heaven, Jesus, who died on the cross for this very purpose, cannot fill your whole inside with light, cannot enlighten you, that is sin.

You need to repent and turn those issues over to the Lord.

And the next time you hear yourself say, I can't because, even if it's true, ask yourself, is that an issue?

Is it an issue that I should submit to the Lord?

The next time you hear yourself say, man, he or she may be ganged.

Man, they hurt me. Oh, I wish they wouldn't do that.

Is that you ignoring the issues that you have and focusing on the issues that others have?

Because if it is, it's sin.

And if it's sin, it's surely a beam in your eye.

And if it's a beam in your eye, it will surely block your eye.

And if your eye is not open, your whole self will not be filled with light.

That's the mathematical equation that is here in containment.

Jesus said this, he said, why do you look at the speck that's in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and behold, the log is in your own eye?

You hypocrite.

First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly that it is the speck out of your brother's eye.

Pastor Dan, it's like this way.

And it opens, it opens, it opens, it opens, it opens, it opens.

So let's open that.

Would you please come forward and lead us in our final hymn today?

And if the Lord has spoken to your heart and you need to respond, and you come and do so,

you can publicly say something, this is a perfect opportunity to put something in the hands of the Lord,

whatever it might be that you're struggling with, and say I'm giving that over to God today,

and I'm going to let God do with it as my thesis so that I can sing.

As we are led, stand and sing with me and with them, and then if the Lord so will be, then you respond.