Knowing Where to Look

From Luke 17, verse 20 and 21, being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God is coming, he answered them, the kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, lo, here it is, or lo, there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. The kingdom of God is in your midst.

It's been in our midst since Jesus came, and the kind of life we live hinges on whether or not we are able to see that kingdom or whether or not we're willing to see that kingdom. For instance, you know, you may be in hard straits, just problems that go on and on, problems that seem to have no solution, but if somehow you're able, in the middle of all this shamazel, to behold the kingdom of God, right there in the middle of the mess, if you're able to have eyes that can discern God's hand moving in the middle of this, then you're able to keep your sanity, your life continues on its course, your heart is settled, and you're able to do the works of him who sent you to get your ministry done. On the other hand, if we aren't able to discern, see God's kingdom right where we are right now, then we're sure not going to make it, even through the difficulties we now face, much less the problems and difficulties which we may all be walking through in the next year or two.

The light of the body, Jesus says, is the eye. If the eye is single, unmixed, and so able to discern the kingdom of God in the middle of everything, then your whole body is full of light. But if the eye is not single, if it is divided, unsound, unable to discern God's kingdom, then your whole body is full of darkness.

When that storm came down on Galilee, and that ship on which they were sailing began to toss and turn and roll and take water, the disciples could see only really the storm, and they panicked like we do. Jesus, on the other hand, discerned the kingdom of his Father even in the midst of that, and seeing the kingdom in the name of the kingdom, took command of the storm itself. And there are many storms in our lives right now which would yield to us if we discerned God's kingdom in the middle of the storm.

For many of us, you know, I don't see the kingdom of God unless things are going nice. Or when that great multitude of people was hungry, and there were only five loaves and two fish, the disciples only see this depressing need, throw up their hands in despair. How can we feed these people with bread here in the wilderness? Where are we going to get the money to pay for it even if we could get some? Jesus sees in the very midst of the hunger and this vast multitude of people, the lack of bread, the kingdom of his Father.

So he begins with what's there, and this is always the way the kingdom works, and starts to thank God for that bread, and begins to break it, and he continues to feed them until there's not a hungry stomach in that place. John the Baptist sits in prison, and he hears that all Jesus ever does is minister to these misfits, these rejects of society. He's not getting on with a revolution.

And he begins to lose faith. He sends these messengers to Jesus, are you the one who comes? Are you really the Messiah? Or do we have to look for another one? Jesus has his eyes so clearly on the kingdom of his Father, that he's able to recognize that these very misfits, these people that the world despises and scorns, are the only vessels lowly enough to contain the new wine of the kingdom. And so he joyfully goes on, healing them, feeding them, cleansing their leprosy, and awakening them with the good news.

Always, in all circumstances, he sees the Father's kingdom, and he teaches his disciples to do the same. The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, lo, here it is, or lo, there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.

It's right here. Open your eyes. Why can't you see it? He said.

What a difference it makes when our eyes open and we begin to see, when we learn to see the kingdom right in the midst of where we are, instead of forever trying to find some sign that proves that it's there. What a difference it makes when we will open our eyes. Willing to do this.

We tend to be like those Pharisees. You know, we want a sign. We want some evidence.

Where the kingdom is already exactly where we are, if we'll learn to open the eye and behold it, then we will absorb its light. We'll be saturated with it. And in that light, we'll be able to perform what needs to be done right where we are.

How many of us, how many times we say, but I don't see God working in my life. Does that mean the kingdom isn't here? Nothing ever seems to come of my ministry. Everything I touch seems to fall apart.

Does that mean the kingdom isn't here? No. It means that you're hung up on signs. You're looking for evidence of the wrong kind.

You're not looking for the kingdom of God. You're looking for little bouquets of flowers to hide the nakedness of your insecure soul. And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow.

He knows not how. The earth produces of itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.

Notice. Does the man dig up the seed to see if it's growing every day? Does he stay up nights walking around his garden to try to help the seeds come up? He in no way tries to influence the seed once he puts it in the ground. He realizes, he doesn't presume to think that there's anything he can do to make it come up.

So he goes to bed at night and sleeps. He gets up in the morning and goes on with what needs to be done. And the seed grows, he knows not how, but he does know that it grows.

First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And the only other thing this man does is when the grain is ripe, he comes with a sickle and harvests it. The person whose eye is on the kingdom of God does only two significant things as far as his or her life among men is concerned.

Two things. He scatters the seed and when he sees a soul that's ripe, he harvests it. As our master originally scattered the seed and at the end soon comes with a sickle to harvest.

Everything else is God's responsibility and God will take care of it very nicely without all our sweat and without all our attempts at manipulation. We don't make that seed grow in somebody's heart. We don't cause that person to grow up in the image of Jesus.

Can I ever say that man, that woman is my work? Heaven forbid. We exhort, we rebuke, we encourage. We watch for people who are being messed around with by the false shepherds maybe.

But we never, never, never get into the person's heart and try to fool around with a seed that's been planted there. Now in many quote Christian circles, this is what is being done. It is not to be done.

Once the seed is in that person's heart, it's holy seed, I better not mess with it. For if I reach into that person's heart, it's like Uzzah reaching out to touch the ark and steady it. It's none of my business.

It's God's business. The marvelous, absolutely, unbelievably wonderful things which God is doing on the earth right now are being done independently of us. He does it.

Right now through His Spirit, the Son of God is causing hearts to come under conviction, opening eyes to His reality, making them to hear the voice of the shepherd, changing lives, healing them, healing families all over the place. He's bringing people to life. He's correcting them.

Without our help. All we have to do is fit in at that place where He puts us to fit in. And to do that little simple, tiddly thing God has given us to do.

And we will know how to fit in and when if our eye is single. That is, if we get our eyes off the seed we planted, off the ground where we planted it, off the signs of its growth and get our eyes on the Lord. Jesus, in the midst of all these things He did, had His primary focus on the Father.

He was so full of love for His Father, so absolutely and utterly certain of His Father's goodness that He knew exactly what to do when the storm came. And He wasn't overwhelmed by that vast multitude of hungry people. And He wasn't depressed for three weeks because John the Baptist didn't like what He was doing.

He was so alive in His Father, so full of love for His Father, that He knew just how to handle it. And now our eyes need to be on Jesus in the same way. His eyes were on the Father.

And when our eyes are on Him and we truly see Him and we are filled with love for Him and absolutely alive with confidence in His goodness, we too will know what to do with our storm. We won't panic and do dumb things. And we will know what to do when people come to us with these overwhelming needs.

And we will also know what to do and not panic and not get depressed because somebody doesn't like or understand what we're doing or because somebody points out an absolute fault, a wrong indeed, they caught us. But we'll thank God. So somebody says, oh, that's very nice, but I'm not Francis of Assisi.

I don't have that kind of vision. I don't see Jesus. You know, maybe St. Catherine saw Jesus.

I don't see Jesus. But the promise Jesus makes is not for some kind of spiritual giant to be able to discern these things. The promise Jesus makes is that the simplest believer who abides in His Word, soaks it up, tries to live in that mercy, will very soon begin to become aware of His presence.

He says, I will come to that person and I will manifest myself. And he does it. If we stop looking for signs and concentrate on trying to find His presence right where we are.

See, the effort is to be expended, not in our ministry, bearing fruit, getting things to happen, making people's lives change. The effort is to be expended in practicing the presence of the Lord right where we are. And if we do that, if we concentrate on abiding in the vine, on conforming our lives to His burning truth, on rising in the morning and going to bed at night and getting up again in the next day with a mind of Christ which is lowliness and trust, we're going to bear fruit.

We're going to know when we put that seed in, it's going to grow. And we're going to know that when we harvest, that's going to be harvested. God help us to get our eyes on the right thing, to learn where to look, that we might be lights shining in the darkness until the source of all light scatters that darkness forever.

Let's pray. Lord God, how much energy we waste trying to make the sun stand still and trying to make people do what we want them to, trying to play amateur providence over other people's lives. And how little time we spend and how little effort in the most glorious and wonderful occupation of all, seeking your face.

Lord, we know that once we spend five minutes in your presence, we'll get more done in the next five minutes than we could get done in five years out of our flesh. We pray that by your spirit's power, you would create in us today, that you, Father, would create in us today such a thirst to behold your son and such a delight in what we see as we begin to see him, that all other things in our lives will fit in their proper place and that we will be a source of healing and of peace, of mercy and of life instead of infecting everything we touch with death. We ask it in Jesus' name, Father.

Amen.