Jesus wants you to guard your EYES. NOT YOUR EGO!

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.

Welcome back, Saints. It's a new week. I hope you guys had a great weekend with the family, great weekend at church. Uh, we're gonna get right back into Luke today. Just before we do that, a huge thank you to all you guys who have been listening. I just opened up the stats for last week and we are almost at 6,000 downloads already, guys, which is kind of crazy to think that many people have listened to that much scripture. So I'm just blown away. Thank you so much to all you guys who are listening and following along. If you're new here, welcome. Uh, we are going to continue through Luke today. We're at about Luke 11, but if you want to go back and listen to, uh, things in sequence from the very beginning, that's— you're more than welcome to do that. Luke 1, uh, all the way through to now is available. Um, anything that's marked as the first season will be Luke. Uh, but without further ado, let's get down Let's get to it. So last week we finished off midway through Luke 11, and we were looking at Luke's rendition of the Lord's Prayer. We had Jesus kind of outlining the difference between Satan's kingdom and his own. And also he addressed a little bit of this notion that came from crowd members about Mary having some special position, authority, or reverence in the kingdom. And now We're gonna keep moving forward here, headed towards Jerusalem, slow and steady. But today we're gonna take a look at the sign of Jonah. So grab your Bibles. We're gonna finish chapter 11 out today. Grab your Bibles. I'm gonna read from the ESV. So if you guys aren't able to listen or aren't able to read directly from a physical copy in your own hands, don't worry about it. I'm going to read from the ESV. So. You'll have that at the very least. Uh, off we go. Luke 11:29. When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, Something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up the judgment, rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body, and when your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright. That's when a lamp with its rays gives you light. While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and reclined at the table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within. And behold, everything is clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God, those you ought, those you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves and people walk over them without knowing it. One of the lawyers answered him, teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also. And he said, woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do Do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets with your fathers, whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundations of the world may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering. As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say. So Jesus's calm, mild-mannered tone is very, very quickly going away here. Um, ever since the disciples came back, not the apostles, but the sending of the 72. Ever since then, Jesus's tone has changed from one of patience to one of irritation and frustration with the stubbornness and the ignorance of the people that they're coming across. It continues here as he rebukes them about Jonah, that that's the only sign they're going to get. Many people take the sign of Jonah as being a He's alluding to his upcoming crucifixion, the three days he is gone and then rises again, similar to Jonah and the whale. But in this lesson here, I think it's less about a foreshadowing what's coming and more so about the the teaching regarding people's absolute blindness to the lesson that's right in front of them. And I mean, it seems odd that he would sandwich this passage about a light and the eye being the lamp of your body in between these 2 verses, but I think it's there for a reason. We've seen that all throughout Luke, that when these stories are grouped together, they're grouped together for a purpose. And here you've got the generation that's calling for a miracle. We need to see something. Show us something. And then he's speaking to Pharisees and lawyers afterwards and saying, you guys just don't get it. You don't get it. You're so obsessed with appearances and and what the world thinks and the outer world, that you're missing the heart. And I don't think it's a coincidence then that we've got a passage where people are asking to see a miracle and they're not going to see it. And the lawyers are asking him for wisdom and teaching, and he's telling them flat out, you lack the heart, you lack the clean inside. And then right in the middle of those two, you've got somebody, you've got the teaching about your eye being this lens to the world. And when that lens is witness to darkness, your insides become dark, right?

Yeah.

I think this is very much the lesson, the teaching, and the caution that Jesus has for us here is this idea, this notion that if you surround yourself with— and back then they didn't have TV and internet, but even still, for your eye to lay witness to things that were underhanded, things that were not of God, and that is your day-to-day, that's what your eye knows, Then that's what the inside's gonna know. Now, far more than then, our eyes bombarded with things of this world. Our TVs, our Netflix, our small screens, our big screens, your computers, your phones, your you name it, right? You are bombarded daily with things, and I think it would be fairly safe to say the majority of it is probably not going to be edifying or godly, especially given that we are in the Academy Awards season slash. US election season, there's an awful lot of stuff that's going to be out there that isn't, isn't going to be conducive, let's say, to being a wholesome light that's wholly bright. So it's a real challenge here, guys. And perhaps this is a great one to start the week with. I imagine the only way that you're able to listen to this podcast is somehow on a digital device. And so I would really challenge you guys today to just pause for a moment. I know that there's a lot of men out there that struggle with devices and, and the shows that they watch and, and the type of media that they watch. And I would just pray that you take a moment, guys. Just consider what it is that you're, you're watching, why you're watching it. Some of us have jobs that require us to look at some of this stuff, but really, really try to balance it out. If you have to, if you're a police officer and you have to see things that are absolutely Darkness. Are you balancing it out with the word? Are you are you equally headed to the word and grounded in the word with that? And I think this is very much it. It's not a it's not a use the word to balance it out, but gauge what you're watching, gauge with gauge what's going in, gauge the people that you're around, gauge the events that you're at, and make sure that those eyes are are laying witness to things that are wholly bright. And if you can see some things that you're convicted that you might be able to cut out, um, there's lots of struggles that we have, and they could be things from an unhealthy obsession with sports to an unhealthy obsession with the female body and committing adultery online. There's, there's so many different veins and, and skews to this, but just for today, let that be your challenge. Are the things that you're reading, that you're consuming, that you're looking at, are they building you up or are they tearing you down? Are they cleaning the inside out or are they just filling it up with filth? Let me pray for you guys. Lord, as men from around the world There's all kinds of different media. There's all kinds of different TV and computers and you name it that comes at us daily. And just because there's more of it doesn't mean it's any more of an excuse to get sucked into it, Lord. So I just pray for all of us that we would edify you and that we would build ourselves up in the things that we consume, the things that we look at and read and involve ourselves with, Lord. I pray for the men out there that are struggling with vices online. Um, whether it's sloth with things like gaming or sports, whether it's adultery and lust with content that shouldn't be watched online, um, all kinds of stuff, Lord. I just pray that we would be able to have those eyes that are a lamp to you. Lord, I, I pray that we would be clean bowls Inside and out, but mostly the inside, Lord. Outward appearance matters so little when the inside's corrupt and filthy. Lord, bless the men that are listening today, wherever they may be. I pray that they're able to walk with their head high, their heart strong for you. In your name we pray. That is it for today, guys. Have an amazing day and I will catch you tomorrow. Take it easy.

Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.