Paul Daugherty - Get Your Vision Back
So let's talk about getting our vision back. You know, Saul later on became Paul the Apostle and he wrote a book called Ephesians and he wrote in Ephesians 1 verse 18, a prayer. He said, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, may be enlightened. What was Paul talking about here? He wasn't talking about your natural eyes, he was talking about your spiritual eyes. That you would be able to see the hope that God has for you, that you would be able to recognize the riches of his glorious legacy, his inheritance for his holy people.
Why did Paul pray this? Because Paul had an epiphany. Paul had an eyeopening experience, an enlightenment. Later on in the book of Acts chapter 9 it says, scales fell from Paul's eyes, something like scales. And I looked up, what does that even mean? What does it mean to have scales on your eyes? To me, it means that someone suddenly realizes the truth about something, that someone finally sees the real thing that they've been deceived about something and the scales begin to fall. It's a common expression indicating a sudden realization, a revelation to to finally see the light, to finally see the truth, to finally have a revelation. Oh my goodness, I didn't see it. And your spouse is like, I've been telling you this for a long time.
How many of y'all have had one of those moments where you finally saw what someone had been trying to to help you to see? For a long time, that's been me in my life. I've had several revelations and my wife is like, praise God. My mom, when I was growing up, praise God, my dad, he would be like, praise God, Paul you're finally seeing the lights. Come on all of us in this room have had moments where the scales fell from our eyes and we finally saw what we needed to see. Our eyes determined the quality and the sense of contentment in our life. If the enemy can get in your eyes this is why Jesus said, protect your eyes. If your eyes cause you to sin. Jesus talked a lot about the eyes being the window to the soul, that if your eyes have become darkened in their understanding, if your eyes have become discontent with life, everything begins to be seen through a different filter.
I had my sunglasses and I don't know if they're here. Oh, here they are. Thank you so much Drew. And I was thinking about how, you know when you wear a certain type of sunglasses, if you've got the Top Gun sunglasses like Tom Cruise, you've got those big aviator glasses, you see things through a different filter. It's a little bit darker. It kind of hides the light, the sun. Yesterday I was rollerblading out on Riverside. Y'all weren't ready for that sentence right there. Y'all like, wait, what? You mean biking, running? No, I was rollerblading. People still roller blade. I think I'm the only guy in Tulsa that's still roller blades. But I was out there, I was rollerblading, I had sunglasses on, and I started hearing horns honking. I was rollerblading between 71st and Lewis and Riverside.
And I was trying to get down to Riverside. I'm rollerblading past Taco Bell, Braums, Popeye's Chicken, McDonald's, Starbucks. I start hearing horns honking. I start hearing all kinds of stuff and I start looking at the road and next thing I know, I've hit, I've tripped over some sort of thing that was on the sidewalk and I am flailing through the air, like Goofy from Mickey Mouse. I literally, my arms, my legs, and I'm on these roller blades and I start literally, I almost bit the dust. Praise God. It was a miracle I didn't fall flat on my face. I didn't have the elbow pads, the shoulder pads. I was just out there and I lost sight of the right direction. I lost sight of where my eyes needed to be.
This is what Proverbs 4 verse 25 says, let your eyes look straight ahead. If we were ever in a season for the church to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, it's right now, to keep our eyes focused on truth. It's right now, let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you and that scripture is good as long as your eyes are good. But even if your eyes are fixed in the right direction, if you don't have the right filter, you can be looking at God, looking at God's plan, his purpose, being in church, and yet seeing things through the wrong lens. Saul was in the temple. He thought he was following God. He was for sure he was obeying God, doing the right thing. And yet he was murdering people, thinking he was pleasing God. He had the wrong vision.
And so many of us in this room, we don't even realize it. We've gotten things that have clouded our vision, scales that have come over our eyes. While I was out there rollerblading on river walk, or not river walk, on Riverside, there was a man who was screaming at me yesterday. It was early in the morning, I'm rollerblading and this guy just starts cussing me out, blankety blank, you blank, you blank. And he is like, I hate Tulsa. He's screaming. And I almost stopped to help him. But then he started running at me. And so I started rollerblading farther. I didn't know if he had a gun or a knife and, but I was gonna go over there and talk to him and calm him down. And then I was like, this is I, this is not the right time. So I just started praying for him as I was rollerblading away from him.
And I started thinking, you know, sometimes when people are messed up in their mind. It's obvious. And then sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it can easily be hidden. It can be sitting in church and you can think I'm good, I'm right, my mind is right, my emotions are right. I'm in the right direction, I'm doing the right thing. And yet God says, there's scales on your eyes and it's time for scales to come off. It's time for you to get the real God vision for your life. And I wonder what scales might be on your eyes today that you don't even realize. Scales might be on my eyes that God needs to pull off, remove. And I started praying about what scales have clouded so many believers eyes and minds right now in our world.
I wanna just look at some of those scales. I'm gonna throw them up on this screen. One of the first scales I want to talk about is the scales of shame. Shame, where you can be sitting in church, but you're wearing these sunglasses, you've got these scales on and everything just feels so shameful. I just feel so ashamed. I just feel so embarrassed. I don't want anyone to know what I'm going through. I feel so regretful. I feel so guilty. I just, I'm ashamed of myself. The enemy has caused so many men to live in shame. Shame so many women to live in shame. If the enemy can keep you in shame, he can keep you in chains. Cuz shame holds us back from pursuing with confidence.
The Bible says the righteous are as bold as a lion. But if I'm filled with shame and regret, then I don't have the boldness God's called me to walk in. What Saul needed was he needed scales to fall off. Not just scales of religiosity but scales of shame. Secondly, scales of deception. Deception is to literally be believing something that's not true. To believe a lie that's not true, and what whatever you believe, you start behaving based off your beliefs. You start living based off of that deceived state of mind, that deception that the enemy creeps in with right now, there is an all out attack on America, on our world right now, to deceive as many people as possible, to create as much confusion in young people as possible. To get people to believe a lie from the enemy, that God didn't know what he was doing and he made some sort of mistake with your sexuality, with your gender, with your life, and that God doesn't know.
Listen, can I tell you that's a lie from the enemy. God does not make mistakes. God created you on purpose, for a purpose and the way he created you, God has a plan for your life and you might feel like you've messed up or you're too far gone. That's a lie. So many Christians are falling for the lies of the enemy. Deception, the enemy comes in with whispers. Little lies, like God can't forgive you. Your sin is too big. You're too messed up. You're born the wrong way. You don't know who you are. God doesn't know who you are. No one can define you. You're gonna be one of these people, just never knows who you really are. You can know who you are when you know whose you are. You're a child of God. For some, the scales of pride have come over our eyes. I'm never wrong. I'm always right. And my family's always wrong. And I'm always right. I know better than my dad. I know better than my mom. Praise God, when I was about, it happened multiple times.
But one of the biggest times when I was 19, I spent a summer away from my family and I worked at a camp. And as as I was cleaning toilets and I was cleaning hallways and I was waking up at 6:00 AM in the morning, going sleep late night, I shared a room with 12 stinky guys in Maryland. And I worked at this camp and I had an epiphany, I had a revelation. I had an eyeopening scales falling off experience, where the Lord broke some pride off of me. And I called my dad and mom, I started crying. I said, I am so thankful that I am your son. And I am so thankful that I have a room. Do I still have a room at your house? I'm so thankful for all the food you gave me. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful. And I found myself in a broken place of humility.
Guys, can I tell you, there is a beauty in brokenness. There is a beauty in humility. For some of us, pride has clouded our minds and we are so convinced we're right and mom and dad are wrong. But today scales are about to fall off in Jesus' name. For some it's scales of fear. We live with fear. We live with fear. So we look at, we look at everything and its, oh goodness how am I gonna make it? Look at the gas prices, look at the economy. What are we gonna do? Look what's going on in the world. We can't even go outside of our houses. We can't go to church. We can't trust anybody. I'm afraid. I'm afraid. I'm afraid. And fear keeps us trapped. Trapped. And God interrupts Saul on the road to Damascus and scales begin to fall off. For some the scales of fear need to fall off. For some it's hurt. Hurt from what people did to you. Hurt from what the church, it's church hurt, it's family hurt, it's hurt.
And God doesn't understand it, really, really? He doesn't understand hurt? He's never been bruised, he's never been crushed? He's never been attacked by church people? You don't think Jesus understands hurt from religious people? He's the only one who knows how to heal. He's the great physician. It is time for scales to fall off because the same place, the same area where you've been hurt the worst, God says, that's where I wanna bring your greatest healing. And as long as you keep running from it, you'll never experience the healing that only can happen in the presence of God surrounded by the community of God that is broken and in need of a savior. And you'll never find a perfect church, but you will find a perfect savior who can minister to an imperfect church, who can love, who can work through you.
If you'll humble yourself. Scales are gonna fall, scales of anger. For Saul, he was breathing in murderous thoughts. He was inhaling anger. You owe me, you wronged me. He was breathing in religiosity, hypocrisy. He was born in a Pharisee's family. His mom and dad, they were part of the Pharisee sect. And that that group of people, they were really good at keeping the outside clean while the inside was ugly. You'll never understand the grace of God until you recognize the ugliness of your sin. And you go, well, my sins not as ugly as these people said, no in God's eyes, all sin is ugly. Whether it's murder, gossip, slander, strife, adultery, all of it. God says, sin is ugly. The wages of sin is death. And just because you might think your sin is less uglier than someone else's sin, doesn't mean that their sin does not put them in the place or you in the place of need for a savior.
We all need the grace of God. We'll never discover the real grace of God until we recognize the ugliness of our own sin. Cuz grace is a gift. For some, it's the scales of sin. Addictive cycles going back to old sinful habits. For some it's the scales of hopelessness, defeat, depression. This last week while I was preaching at OSU in Stillwater, the word that God gave me was to break the spirit of depression and suicide off of these teenagers lives. But when I was in the room, I was watching them play games and there was 800 teenagers, they were smiling, laughing, and I was thinking, they don't need a message about depression. They look so happy. Like they look like they're doing great. And then I was reminded that oftentimes the face of depression looks like this in front of everybody else.
Back in Acts chapter 9 on the road to Damascus, the road to de-mask-us, the road... to de-mask-us. Some of us have been wearing a mask. It's time to take the mask off. How many are thankful to take the mask off? But I'm not talking about the mask you might think I'm talking about. I'm talking about the mask we wear at a church, the mask we wear at to try to hide what's really going on on the road to de-mask-us. God interrupts Saul and he says, Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me? I'm so thankful for the interruptions of God. I'm so thankful that God loves us, even while we were still sinners. And God loves us after salvation, even when we still miss it.
Cuz how many of y'all know after salvation, you're still a work in progress? Anyone still being sanctified in the room? About half of us are gonna be honest. The rest of y'all can come to the altar at the end of service. And the men traveling with Saul stood speechless. They heard the sound, but they didn't see anyone. Saul got up from the ground. When he opened his eyes, he couldn't see anything. Sometimes God has to take away your natural sight, so he can restore to your spiritual sight. Sometimes God leads us in a dark season. For three days, Saul was blind and verse 9 it says, and he didn't eat or drink anything. He was, his appetite was changing. Have you ever gone through a dark season in your life, where you just lost the appetite to eat for a little bit?
Anyone been there before, where you've been so, it's like whatever just happened. It's like I can't even eat right now. And Saul had lost his appetite. He couldn't eat, he couldn't drink. He was blind for three days. And in Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. And the Lord called him in a vision and said, Ananias, he said, yes, Lord? He said, go to the house of Judas on straight street and ask for a man from Tarsis named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight. Lord, Ananias answered, I've heard about Saul, this man is not a good man. This man has hurt my friends. This man has killed my brother Steven. This man does not deserve to be healed.
Who are we to determine who God will use and who God will forgive and who God can restore and who God can redeem? What if you are Ananias and God's saying, pray for your brother. Lay hands on your brother. Stop judging your brother and believe that God has a plan for your brother. Mother Teresa said, we have very little room to love people when we judge people. And who's to know that someday down the road Ananias won't need somebody to lay hands on him. See, grace always seems unfair until we need it. It always seems undeserving when someone we think doesn't deserve it, gets it. And then all of a sudden we're like, hold up. I need grace.
And God says to Anais, go. I know you've heard rumors about Saul, but go, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the gentiles and their kings, to the people of Israel. God was telling Ananias, this man has a purpose. I'm about to redeem him. I'm about to give him a greater vision. I'm about to channel his obsessive personality in a better direction. And I'm about to show him how much he has to suffer. An Ananias is like, he's gonna suffer? All right, I'm in. I love reading the Bible. And he's like, he's gonna go through pain. Okay, I'll go and pray for him. I want the band to come out. Here's the truth.
Four truths here. Number one, we all have scales. We all have scales, and we all have moments in our lives where we need the scales to come off of our eyes. It's not just a one time descaling event in a Christian's life. It is a constant journey. I remember sitting with my dad in the hospital bed before he passed and he just started weeping. And he said, I didn't rest as much as I should have. And I'm finally seeing it. Here was a man at 57, who was having scales fall off. And you think you don't have scales that can fall off? You think you got it all figured out? And yet the pastor who started this amazing ministry, in his final moments was still experiencing a revelation of God's love.
You know what it said to me as his son, is we're never too big to be humble. Oh, you should never apologize to your kids. What if apologizing to your kids is the only way your kids are gonna understand the mercy and the grace and the love and the compassion and the humility of our savior Jesus Christ? And like Johnny said, what if our example is in what we do, more than what we preach from stage? What if it's what we do in our dying breaths, to say, I'm sorry. I see it now. I see it. I see there's some things that God's changing in me. How many are still experiencing the change that Jesus wants to bring in your life?
Here's the truth. Number one, we all have scales that need to be removed. Number two, we all need Jesus to keep working in our lives beyond just salvation. Number three, Jesus loves us even when we're wrong, before salvation and after. He loves you, not just while you were a sinner before you got saved, but he loves you when you got saved and you still missed it. He says, I still love you and I still want to heal you and I still want to redeem you and I still wanna restore you. God never gives up on you. Everyone else might give up on you, but God doesn't.
Number four, Jesus wants to set us free, at salvation and continue that freedom through salvation. After Saul became Paul, life didn't get much easier for him. He pursued God's calling on his life, but he still dealt with hurts, wounds, rejection, people who didn't believe he was really changed, people who judged him for his past. He was imprisoned, he was beaten. He walked through all kinds of pain and trials, but yet he found and discovered the mercy, the grace, the freedom that came through knowing Jesus as his personal savior.
How did Jesus change Saul's life? How do we get our vision back? Number one, it's the light of Jesus. When the light shines, the darkness cannot overcome it. When the light shown on the road to Damascus, Saul had an epiphany. He had a revelation. He had an eye-opening experience where he recognized, Jesus you are my savior. I've been in church my whole life. I've heard about you. I've read about you. I've listened to great sermons about you, but now I see the light. I saw the light. I saw the light.
Number two, the words of Jesus. When Jesus began to speak to Saul. Saul, I have a purpose for you. I have a plan for you. Number three, the deliverance of Jesus. How do we get our vision back? He delivers us from the oppression of the enemy. Some of us need to be delivered today. We need to get our vision, our perception delivered. Number four, the purpose of Jesus. He gives us purpose. We need to get a vision of God, the purpose of God, that God put me on Earth for such a time as this, that he doesn't make mistakes.
See, God speaks a greater word. You might have been labeled as a sinner, as a failure, as a mistake. You might feel like you've missed it too bad, but God speaks a greater word over you. The blood of Jesus forgives you. God restores you. God can help you. God can redeem you. Every man should have the chance to write a new obituary midstream, to change his life. To say, from this day forward, I'm no longer walking in that direction. I'm walking in this direction. How many are thankful for the grace of God? And the last point here is God changes our vision through the people of Jesus. God used Ananias, a brother to go and lay hands on him.
In verse 17, Ananias went to the house and entered it in Damascus, placing his hands on Saul. He said, brother Saul, brother Saul, brother Paul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road. I'm so thankful for men and women. I'm so thankful for pastors and leaders who will put their hand and say, Paul, God has a plan for you. Daniel, John, Antonio, Sarah, Ruthie, Sharon, Ashley, Miriam, Troy, God has a plan for you, Derek.
God has a plan, Linda, God has a plan, and a purpose for your life, for your business, for your company, for your future, for your legacy. And he says this. He says, I have heard about you. God appeared to you on the road and he sent me so that you will see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be filled with a greater vision. Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see, he could finally see. He got up and he was baptized. And after taking some food, he regained his strength. Would you stand your feet all over this place today?