Sermon - Seeing What God Sees: Kingdom Vision

Listen, there's a difference between looking at people and then actually seeing people.

And I believe one of the things that Jesus Christ wants to do with his church in our world today is to give us kingdom vision.

Because when Jesus changes your heart, church, he also changes your eyes.

You start looking at other people like you've never looked at them before.

Welcome to the Church of the Lakes weekly sermon podcast.

We're so glad you've joined us, and we're honored to be part of your spiritual journey.

This year, Church of the Lakes is focusing on having a kingdom mindset, and all we do by living out-culturally to the world is become more like Jesus.

Today, Pastor Jared Priestett constructs a new sermon series called Kingdom Digit.

Kingdom Vision seeds people the way God sees them.

Compassion overrides convenience and boundaries.

Which brings us to the title of today's sermon, Seeing What God Sees.

If we want to live for the kingdom, we have to learn to see with kingdom eyes.

And now, here's Pastor Jared.

Be blessed.

Well, it is a joy to be with you.

Um, church, let me start with this.

One of the greatest dangers, I think, in life is that you can look at something directly and not even see it's there.

Have you ever done that physically?

You open up the refrigerator, you look in for the ketchup, and you can't find the ketchup, and you start yelling to your spouse, Where's the ketchup?

I can't find the ketchup.

And Mirda says it's right there in the door, and you say, I can't find the ketchup, and she, of course, walks by and grabs the ketchup and hands it to you.

Not only is that an indictment on you as a person, but maybe on your gender.

I don't know.

Or you're running around the house looking for your phone, you can't find your phone anywhere.

You're looking under all the papers on desks and in the bedroom, and the only to find that it's in your hand.

Have you ever done that?

Right?

Something is right in front of you, yet you can't see it.

That doesn't only happen physically.

I think that also, church, happens spiritually.

I think we can become so familiar, so distracted, so consumed with our own little world that we stop seeing what God places directly in front of us.

We do it all the time, don't we?

Here's a few examples.

You walk past the same person every single day and you don't even know their name?

Or you sit by the same person at your place of employment every day and you don't even know what they're carrying?

Or maybe you're just three rows over from somebody in church and you see them every Sunday, but you have no realization that they're barely holding it together.

Listen, there's a difference between looking at people and then actually seeing people.

And I believe one of the things that Jesus Christ wants to do with his church in our world today is to give us kingdom vision.

Because when Jesus changes your heart, church, he also changes your eyes.

You start looking at other people like you've never looked at them before.

You start caring about other people that maybe you've dismissed in the past.

You start or you stop looking at people according to what they can do for you or their political affiliation, and you begin to see them the way God sees them.

That's where Jesus is going here in a very famous parable from Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles, I'd encourage you to open them up right now.

Let me set this stage for you.

There's a lawyer who engages Jesus, and he asks Jesus a really, really important question.

Jesus, what must I do to have eternal life?

Jesus responds, Well, what does the law of Moses say?

The man says, Well, the law says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, which is Deuteronomy 6.5, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is Leviticus 19, verse 18.

Leviticus 19:18

Jesus says, You have answered correctly.

Go and do rightly.

But the scriptures say the man wanted to justify himself, so he asks the question, this lawyer, and who is my neighbor?

That's really the question of today, isn't it?

Who is my neighbor?

Do you hear the question underneath the question from this lawyer?

You know how lawyers talk, right?

There's always a question underneath the question.

Here's the question the lawyer's asking underneath the question.

Jesus, how far does this really have to go?

Who exactly am I responsible for?

Where can I draw the line?

Because, friends, if we can define who our neighbor is, guess what?

We can also define who our neighbor isn't.

And so Jesus gives probably the most famous parable of his parables.

The parable that people even outside the church know.

It's the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Listen to how this story unfolds.

And maybe today hear it with fresh ears.

Jesus replied to the man about who my neighbor is by saying this.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a priest was going down the road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.

So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side.

But a Samaritan while travelling came near him, and when he saw him he was moved with pity.

He went to him, bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them.

Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an end, and took care of him.

The next day he took out two dinari and gave it to the innkeeper and said, Take care of him, and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you have spent.

Jesus then ends by saying to the man, Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

The lawyer said, The one who showed him mercy.

The one who was moved with compassion.

Jesus then said, You go, go and do likewise.

Friends, this is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Gracious and loving God, I do thank you for this morning, this chance to gather in this space to celebrate you, Jesus, and to open up your life-giving word, and to receive not only instruction, but hopefully transformation through your life-giving word.

God, if I can confess so often I think we're the Levite or the priest in this story.

So, God, give us the eyes to see, and as I offer reflection on your life-giving word, may you just bless these words to edify and encourage and even challenge us today.

It's in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, Jesus tells a story about a man traveling on a road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

This was a very um frequented path of travel from these two cities.

But even with that said, it was a very dangerous path of travel between these two cities because there were always robbers hanging out to try to engage and victimize vulnerable people.

And sure enough, the man walking was attacked by robbers as the story goes.

He was beat, stripped naked, left half dead.

As Jesus continues the story, a priest passed by.

Levite walks down the same path, sees the man lying there, vulnerable, wounded, and what does he do?

He walks by.

And then Jesus says, but a Samaritan.

Now all the people listening to Jesus in this moment would have fallen silent, and their ears would have perked up.

And the reason being is because Jesus mentions the name of a Samaritan.

Jews and Samaritans did not get along.

And it wasn't like two competing sports teams we know today not getting along.

This was a bigger deal than that.

The Jews and Samaritans had generations of religious, ethnic, cultural, historical hostility between the two of them.

And Jesus is intentionally making the Samaritan the hero of the story.

Do you want to know why?

Reason being is because Jesus is trying to show us what kingdom vision looks like.

And we're going to kind of build a case for kingdom vision this morning.

And the first thing Jesus says about kingdom vision is that kingdom eyes see the person.

Notice something very similar with all three of the characters in this story.

The priest saw the man, the Levites saw the man, and the Samaritan saw the man.

They all had really good eyesight, but only one of them actually had kingdom vision.

Why?

Again, because it is possible to see someone or something without really seeing that someone or something.

The priest looks at this wounded, vulnerable man, and all he saw was an inconvenience.

The Levite, another religious leader, looks at this wounded and vulnerable man and all he sees is an interruption.

The Samaritan, however, looks at this wounded and vulnerable man and what he sees is a person.

I love verse 33.

The author says when Jesus, when this man saw the wounded and vulnerable man, he took pity on him.

Other translations will say he was moved with compassion.

Like something happened between this man's eyes and his heart.

Like he didn't just see a wounded and vulnerable body.

What he saw was somebody made in the image of God.

And church, I wonder if if one of our greatest spiritual problems right now is that we've stopped seeing people, that we've dehumanized people, that we've relegated people to labels or to categories.

Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal, Citizen, Immigrant, Black, White, Rich, Poor, Traditional, Progressive.

You know, we are incredibly good at extrapolating people into categories, are we not?

And here's why we do that, I think.

I think we put people in categories so we don't really have to know who they are.

Because if I can put you in a category, then I don't have to know who you are because I already know how your people are.

I already know how your people vote.

And before I've ever heard your story, I've already made my decision as to who you really are.

So rather than seeing people, when we do that and we've been conditioned to do that, what we see is nothing more than a label, a category.

We dehumanize a person.

Do you know Jesus never put people into categories?

He never labeled people.

Here are a few examples.

Luke 19, Zacchaeus, the wee little man who climbed up a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see, right?

All people saw when they saw Zacchaeus was a tax collector, a Roman sympathizer.

You know who Jesus saw?

A person in need of salvation.

Go to John 4, the woman at the well.

All the people of that village saw was a woman with a sorid past.

She was a person of ill repute.

You know what Jesus saw?

A woman who needed living water.

How about blind Bartiamus in Matthew, I think 16.

All the people saw was an inconvenience who they wanted to quiet, but Jesus, it says, stopped.

Addressed the man and healed him.

Jesus saw people.

And friends, if we're ever going to become kingdom people, then we have to pray the prayer.

Jesus, teach me to see other people as you see those people.

Because we live in a world, we're in the midst of a culture that keeps asking us, what side are you on?

Jesus says, stop it.

Do you see them?

Do you see them?

That's kingdom vision.

Kingdom eyes see the people.

Here's the second thing as we're building this case for kingdom vision is that kingdom compassion crosses the line.

So Jesus says the Samaritan went to the wounded man.

Now don't move past this little detail too quickly.

Like he went to him.

He was moved with compassion or pity.

Friends, compassion moves your feet.

Like it did this man.

He crossed the road, he crossed the inconvenience.

He crossed the cultural divide.

He crossed generations of hostility.

Friends, compassion crosses the line.

And this is where I think the parable gets a little uncomfortable for those of us within the American Church.

And the reason I pull out the American Church is because we are living in a culture that is just incredibly divided at this current moment.

Politically, racially, idea of immigrants, sexuality, education, economics, everything in our culture seems to be forcing us to choose a side or choose a team.

And increasingly, disagreement in our culture doesn't mean I think you're wrong.

What does it mean?

I think you're bad or you're part of the problem.

Now, church, hear me.

Christians must live with conviction.

We must.

Truth matters, holiness matters, biblical justice matters, biblical faithfulness matters.

Jesus never asks us to abandon the truth in order to exhibit or demonstrate compassion to another.

But somewhere along the way, we've started believing that conviction requires contempt, a deep dislike or disdain for the other.

It doesn't.

You can disagree without despising.

You can speak truth without humiliating.

You can believe somebody is profoundly wrong and still cross the road when they're bleeding.

That's kingdom vision.

Now imagine Jesus has given us this parable in modern day America.

There's a man lying beside the road, wounded and half dead.

Person walks die with walks by with a t-shirt with the same political affiliation the person lying on the road has.

Another person drives by with a bumper sticker on their car that the person laying on the road would have had on theirs.

But neither men stop.

And then Jesus says, but then somebody from that group walked by and engaged with compassion.

Now we're getting uncomfortable.

Why?

Because every single one of us has a Samaritan, right?

Every one of us has categories of people that we find very frustrating and very easy to dismiss.

And Jesus asked the question in the parable, can you love that person or those people?

I'm not asking you to agree with everything they believe.

I'm not asking you to surrender your truth.

I'm not asking you to pretend the differences don't matter at all.

I'm simply asking, can you look at that person, the Samaritan in your circle, and remember that Jesus hung on that cross and died for them too?

Friends, what if?

What if, while everyone else is retreating to their respective corners, the church starts crossing the road?

What if?

What if instead of asking the question, what does my political tribe say about these people?

We start asking, Jesus, how do you want me to love these people the way you love these people?

Because, church, compassion doesn't mean truth doesn't matter.

No, compassion means that the person matters even while we're talking about truth.

That's kingdom vision.

Kingdom compassion crosses the line.

Here's the third and final thing I see Kingdom people change the temperature.

Something I tell my kids all the time when you enter a space, be a thermostat, not a thermometer.

Set the temperature, right?

Don't just read it.

Kingdom people change the temperature.

And church, I believe this is maybe where we can have one of the greatest opportunities in our day as the church in America.

Because every single person within our culture knows how to raise the temperature, right?

Social media raises the temperature.

Cable news raises the temperature.

Algorithms raise the temperature.

Politicians raise the temperature.

Outrage gets the clicks, anger gets the attention, fear gets the votes.

And into that environment, man, Jesus places his church.

And he tells us in Matthew 5, verse 4, blessed are the peacemakers.

Matthew 5:4

Not peacekeepers.

Talked about that several weeks ago.

There's a difference between the two, isn't there?

Peacemakers.

Peacekeepers, what peacekeepers do is they avoid the tension in situations.

Peacemakers, they step into the tension with the presence of Jesus Christ.

Not again because we don't have conviction, but because our ultimate allegiance is not to an elephant or a donkey, it's to a lamb.

Jesus the Christ is our king.

Friends, kingdom people ought to be able to walk into a room where everyone else is screaming and somehow change the temperature.

Again, because Jesus is king.

I don't need to hate you because you voted differently than me, because Jesus is my king.

I don't have to fear you because your worldview is different than mine, because Jesus is my king.

I I don't need to destroy you with arguments on social media because you disagree with me, because Jesus is my king, and because my identity is found, not in winning a cultural argument of the day.

My identity is secure in Jesus who is my king.

So what do I do in response?

I can listen.

I can love, I can serve, I can speak truth, I can forgive, I can cross the road.

Church, what if our neighbors who disagree with us because we're Christians, but what if our neighbors said, you know what, I don't agree with next to anything Christians believe in?

But man, I cannot deny how they love me.

Or what if our neighbors said, you know what, we voted differently in the last election.

And I really don't like them for that.

But man, when my family was in need, it was only the church that showed up to help.

You want to know what that is?

That's kingdom witness.

And the more consistently and frequently we can exhibit a kingdom witness, people are gonna eventually come up to us and ask the question, why are you so different?

And that's when we get to say, because somebody crossed the road for me.

Isn't that the beauty of our faith?

Friends, Jesus crossed the road for you and me.

Okay, here's the danger of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

You may hear the parable of the Good Samaritan and leave here today saying, Alright, here's the goal, preacher.

I just have to try as hard as I can to be more like the Samaritan.

And certainly that's part of the lesson.

Jesus says, go and do likewise.

But before you leave here trying to be more like the Samaritan, trying to love the neighbor in your own strength, you have got to understand the gospel.

Because church, ultimately, the gospel will share to us that we were the people lying on the side of the road.

Listen, sin left humanity broken and lost and wandering.

Romans 3.23, Paul says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Like there is nothing we can do to save and rescue ourselves.

We can't.

Religion can't do it, morality can't do it.

Certainly our politicians can't do it.

No, we need somebody who will come to us to save us and to rescue us from the condition we find ourselves in.

And praise be to God, Jesus did.

But Jesus crossed infinitely more than a roadway to come to us.

He crossed all of heaven and earth.

Like he condescended, he entered into our brokenness.

He touched the unclean.

He welcomed the sinner like you and me.

And he carried those sins to the cross.

And there the one who had never sinned shed his blood, was crucified, so you and I could be made whole.

So you and I could once again have access to heaven.

What does Isaiah say about the man on the cross?

It is by his wounds.

That you and I have been healed.

Friends, Jesus did not look down from heaven and say to the Father, they've gotten themselves in quite a mess.

I hope they can get themselves out of it.

No, what did he say?

He came.

He saw us, he loved us, and he rescued us.

Like at the cross, Jesus didn't give us what we deserved.

He gave us mercy.

And I think once we realize that in the most profound reality, that it was mercy we have received, it becomes a whole lot more challenging for us to decide who is worthy and isn't worthy of our mercy.

Amen?

Friends, you want to know what the gospel does for us?

It destroys superiority.

I can't look down from the foot of the cross because the ground beneath the cross is level.

I don't care who you are, we're all sinners.

Filthy, rotten sinners.

We are failures.

We are selfish.

And we are all dependent upon God's grace.

We are all saved by the same blood of Jesus.

Christians, I think, should be the most compassionate people in our world.

Why?

Because we know what it's like to be rescued.

So let me bring you, let's bring this back home.

Let me ask you the question: who in your circles are you not seeing?

They're right in front of you, but you're not seeing them.

Who are you not seeing?

Maybe it's somebody in your neighborhood, maybe it's somebody in your office at work, the one that annoys you?

Maybe it's the family member that you stopped speaking to years ago because of a rift you had.

Who are you not seeing?

Maybe it's somebody whose politics caused your blood pressure to rise and boil over.

Who are you not seeing?

Maybe it's the person God is putting directly in front of you, but you're so busy getting to where you gotta go that you're passing by on the other side.

Friends, kingdom vision says, slow down.

Look again.

There's a person there.

A person made in God's image, a person carrying a story, a person whose wounds you may not understand, but a person Jesus Christ loves nonetheless.

And perhaps God has placed you on this road for such a time as this.

Remember where the whole conversation started?

The lawyer asked the question, Jesus, who is my neighbor?

Jesus turns the question around.

Says, which of these three do you think was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

To which the lawyer said, The one who had shown mercy.

Jesus says, Go and do likewise.

In other words, stop spending and exhausting your energy trying to figure out who qualifies for your love.

Instead, be the kind of person who loves whoever Jesus puts in front of you and then puts in front of you, and then puts in front of you.

Church of the Lakes, imagine what God could do through a church filled with people who see with kingdom eyes in homes, in schools, in workplaces, in communities, in neighborhoods, and yes, even in our politics.

What if we refused to contribute to the outrage?

What if we refuse to demonize the other?

What if we refused to confuse disagreement with hatred?

What if?

What if we became so secured in the kingdom of Jesus that we could cross boundaries everybody else is afraid to cross?

Because, friends, the world already has enough people standing on one side or the other, pointing across, saying, look at those people.

No, Jesus is forming a people who will cross the road and say to those people, How can I love you best?

Church, that's kingdom vision.

Kingdom eyes see the people.

Kingdom compassion crosses the line.

Kingdom people change the temperature.

So maybe our prayer this week says simple.

Jesus, give me your eyes.

Give me your eyes so I can see the overlooked.

Give me your eyes so I can see beyond the politics.

Give me your eyes so I can see beyond my assumption.

Give me your eyes so I can see people the way you see people.

And then Jesus, secondly, give me courage.

Give me courage to cross the road.

Friends, if if we're going to live for the kingdom of God, we've got to learn to see with kingdom eyes because, yes, even today, Jesus still says, you go.

Go and do likewise.

Amen.

Will you pray with me?

Jesus, I start with that simple prayer.

Jesus, will you give us your eyes?

Will you help us by the power of the Holy Spirit to see other people to way you see them?

Worthy of love, worthy of compassion.

However, Lord God, there are some here today, I know there are who don't yet know you as their Lord and Savior.

So for those people, I want to pray, God, a special prayer that your Holy Spirit would simply stir in their hearts a sincere desire to come and know you and be made whole by you.

Because, Lord, before that they can see as you see, they need to be seen and rescued by you.

So, Jesus, for anyone here who does not yet know you, will you meet them right now in their brokenness?

Lord, will you crash into their lives with your grace?

Will you forgive their sin?

Will you wash them clean by your blood?

Will you take what is broken and make whole make it whole?

God, will you give them faith to believe that you died for them, that you rose again, and that in you there is forgiveness, freedom, and new life.

Lord, if they are struggling to know how to receive you, it is as simple as echoing this prayer of salvation.

Lord Jesus, I confess that I'm a sinner.

I'm in need of a savior.

And you indeed are that savior.

You died instead of me, paying the penalty for my sin.

And I believe your blood has cleansed me and made me whole.

Lord, I trust you as my Lord.

Give me the Holy Spirit so I can walk with you all the days of my life and be with you forever.

Thank you for walking across the road to rescue me.

And Lord, for all of us who have been rescued by your grace, Jesus, again, give us your eyes.

Help us to see the person others overlook.

Help us to see beyond the labels and the politics, the fear and the division.

And Lord, then give us the courage to move.

Give us the courage as a church to cross the road, to step across the lines that divide, to love without compromising truth, to carry mercy into places of hostility, and to change the temperature by carrying your presence wherever we go.

Jesus, you cross the distance to come to us.

Now send us to go and do likewise.

We pray this in the mighty name of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and all of God's people's son.

Amen.

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