Doing What is Right in Our Own Eyes

Sermon Outline for Sunday, September 19, 2021

Over the past several weeks, we have been talking about Keeping the Blessings of God. In the very first sermon, I asked a question. That question was:

Can we loose the blessings God has given to us?

The answer at that time was YES and NO.

Yes: undoubtedly. No: this blessing also is entrusted to him as a talent which must be used; and only by use does it become secure and win success. Just as the Lord Jesus after He was baptized with the Holy Spirit had to be perfected by obedience and submission to the leading of the Spirit, so the Christian who has received the blessing of Pentecost has to see to it that he guards safely the deposit that has been entrusted to him.

I want to tell you a few stories from the Bible about loosing the blessings from God.

 

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

 

Genesis 6:9 ESV

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

Genesis 6:11–13 ESV

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.

And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Judges 16:28–30 ESV

Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.

And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

Luke 22:50–51 ESV

And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.

But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him.

We have seen in the above stories from the Bible and there are many more examples, of men and women doing what is right in their own eyes and NOT following the path that God had laid before them.

• In the case of Adam and Eve, we seen that they was offered power and knowledge and they decided to throw away their relationship with God for the ability to be as gods.

• In the case of Noah, the entire earth had turned its back on God for a good time.

• In the case of Samson, a woman caught his eye and she had evil intentions. (The genders is not relevant.)

• In the case of Peter and the ear, he felt that Jesus couldn’t defend himself and he decided to take matters into his own hands.

We see in these examples, even those close to God, were not immune to the tricks the devil throws our way to cause us to stumble and fall.

Judges 21:25 ESV

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Every person did whatever seemed right in his own eyes, doing what he wanted, when he wanted. There was no moral leader in Israel, no leader whose heart was full of mercy and justice. And the Israelites were not willing to acknowledge any king or ruler, neither human nor divine. Wickedness was running rampant, with every person forsaking God and doing his own thing.

God warns us against backsliding, against turning away and forsaking Him. Far too many of us are living carnal, fleshly lives: doing our own thing, doing what we want, when we want, and how we want. We are not following God, not obeying Him; we are disobeying Him, breaking the commandments of God. And Scripture warns us against turning away from God and violating His Holy Commandments.

So, back to the question that started all of this these past few weeks: How can we keep the blessings of God?

There are several that we have talked about:

• We talked about allowing Jesus to keep us in the palm of God’s hands.

• We talked about allowing God to turn the lies of the devil into a blessing.

• We talked about putting God first in our finances.

• We talked about putting God first in our time management.

There are many more, but I want to leave you with two verses that are very familiar, especially to our CV FAMILY:

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

2 Chronicles 7:13–14 ESV

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Pastor Andy Lambert ~ pastorandy@cvcog.church