All right. This morning, I wanted to talk with you a little bit.
I enjoy math. I enjoy science.
I'm nowhere near Mr. Science.
Ben Roy has been an inspiration to me many times,
and I'm sure he is to all of you too.
But I wanted to share with you a little bit some lessons that we can
learn from science and math and on into scripture.
We really can't understand the fourth dimension very much.
At least most of us can't.
We're three-dimensional beings,
and to think about the fourth dimension is a real challenge.
But mathematicians can calculate all things about the fourth dimension.
But let me back up to something that we can visualize a little bit,
and hopefully this is not something that will just bore you to death,
but for some of us,
it's interesting and even exciting.
If you take a point,
you've heard of that in your geometry class,
but a point is defined as having zero dimensions.
If you were to extend a point forever in both directions,
you would theoretically have a line.
How many dimensions does a line have?
It's just got one dimension, doesn't it?
I guess I'm cheating.
I put it up there for you.
A line has one dimension, just length, no width or height.
If you were to drag that one-dimensional line up forever,
you would have what they call a plane.
A plane has two dimensions.
It has length and width,
but no height or depth.
You could think of it sort of like a piece of paper,
but a piece of paper that never ends.
If you were to build a simple two-dimensional building,
you'd have a foundation and you'd have the three sides.
It would have four sides,
one of those being the foundation.
That's of a two-dimensional building.
Now, it starts to get a little bit more complicated for most of us that aren't mathematicians.
But if you were to pull that two-dimensional building up and make it a three-dimensional one,
and I've tried to sketch it out there,
you can sort of picture it,
you'd have a cube.
That cube would have basically four foundations.
Let's see if I can step down here where I can see what you're seeing.
That cube would have four foundations at the bottom and it would have 12 sides to it, 12 edges.
Now, that's three-dimensional.
We can picture three-dimensional because we live in that all the time.
But if you were to take that three-dimensional cube,
and expand it into the fourth dimension,
mathematicians tell us that it would now have 12 foundations.
A three-dimensional one,
that cube had four foundations and 12 edges,
and if you expand it into the fourth dimension,
it will have 12 foundations.
Do you know anything in the Bible that has 12 foundations?
The New Jerusalem, I don't know that that means it's a four-dimensional building.
I'm not sure of that,
but many mathematicians believe it is,
and they have written many articles and books about that.
For today, I want us to think about an example that we can understand,
and that would be the two-dimensional world.
Think of it kind of like a photograph.
We're three-dimensional, but we can take a two-dimensional photograph.
In a two-dimensional world,
people couldn't pass each other.
They couldn't come out around each other.
They could only climb over each other in
a two-dimensional world because they can't come out of that two-dimensional world.
If I were to stick my finger through their universe,
all they would see is the puncture mark where I stuck my finger through.
They would wonder what it was and where it came from.
If they were to build a two-dimensional room in their two-dimensional world,
and maybe they go inside it and lock the door,
nobody could come in there without breaking down the wall,
but at least no two-dimensional person would.
But as a three-dimensional being,
if I were to walk up to their two-dimensional room and step inside,
I could just step right inside,
and all of a sudden they would see my outline,
and they would wonder how I got there.
They would think I must have supernatural powers that I can come through,
lock doors and walls.
You remember some Bible stories where Jesus came apparently through some locked doors and walls?
In a two-dimensional world,
they couldn't see what's going on on the other side of the world.
They could only see what was on their side.
None of them could see anything outside their two-dimensional universe.
I can walk right over there and stand beside them,
and they can't see me because they're in
their two-dimensional universe and they can't see into the third dimension.
In fact, there could be thousands of universes,
thousands of two-dimensional universes stacked side-by-side,
and they wouldn't know that any of them existed.
All they could see is in their own two-dimensional universe.
It would be very hard for these two-dimensional beings to understand the text that was read this morning.
Thank you, Lenny.
That says, he is coming with clouds and how many eyes will see him?
Every eye. But they would say,
wait a minute, if he's coming,
let's see here, if he's coming from this direction,
how could the people down here see him?
We have that same question at times, don't we?
Jesus coming, how in the world could every eye on earth see him at once?
But it's really quite easy to accomplish.
In a two-dimensional universe,
if God were to open their eyes so that they could see into the third dimension,
instantly they would be able to see all those other universes.
They would be able to see me standing out here.
They would be able to see Jesus when he came,
no matter what direction he came from,
if they could see into the third dimension.
Mathematicians tell us that the same thing would happen if God were to
open our eyes so that we could see into the fourth dimension.
Suddenly, everybody on earth could see Jesus coming at once,
even if they were hiding in a cave,
even if they were in a prison cell,
everybody at once would be able to see him no matter where they were hiding.
Today, I want to talk about,
I want to study and think about having our eyes open.
The Bible talks about it quite a few times,
and it's not always referring to the fourth dimension.
There are a number of other situations that are also talked about.
But having their eyes opened is always about seeing something they couldn't see before.
It's always about seeing something in a way that they couldn't see it before.
In the first story that we're going to look at,
that is not a good thing.
It will be a good thing when our eyes are open and we can all see Jesus coming.
We will rejoice at that.
But this first story,
somebody's eyes were opened and it was not a good thing.
Let's read it in Genesis 3,
and we're going to read verses 1-7,
and I'm going to read this time from the New Living Translation.
You can follow along on the screen if you want to.
Genesis 3, 1-7.
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made.
One day, he asked the woman,
did God really say you can't eat from any of the trees in the garden?
Of course we may eat from the trees in the garden, the woman replied.
It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we're not allowed to eat.
God said, you must not eat it or even touch it.
If you do, you will die.
You won't die, the serpent replied to the woman.
God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it,
and you will be like God knowing both good and evil.
The woman was convinced.
She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious,
and she wanted the wisdom it would give her.
So she took some of the fruit and ate it.
Then she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too.
At that moment, their eyes were opened,
and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.
So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
Have you ever noticed that we humans always seem to want to see more than what we really can see?
We always want to learn something new,
and that's not all bad, that's good that we want that.
But sometimes there's a blessing in innocence, isn't there?
Sometimes it's good if we haven't seen everything that's available to see.
For instance, we love gossip.
I mean, we say we don't.
We say we don't gossip, but we all do it.
We all listen to it.
We say, did you know?
Did you hear this about them?
Did you see what I saw?
Suddenly our eyes are open to things that we didn't know before.
But are we better off?
Do people get along better because of the things that they're gossiping about as they share them around?
Is there more unity in the church when we're knowing all things about everybody that we've shared secretly?
Sometimes we'd be better off if we didn't know all of those things, wouldn't we?
Adam and Eve weren't content with just walking and talking with Jesus and angels.
That wasn't enough.
They were attracted by the idea that their eyes could be open to other things that angels and Jesus weren't telling them about.
And oh, what misery has been the result.
The next time we see someone having their eyes open is over in Genesis chapter 21, verses 8 to 19.
You know the story, but let's read it again.
Genesis 21, verses 8 to 19.
When Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion.
But Sarah saw Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and her Egyptian servant Hagar making fun of Isaac.
So she turned to Abraham and demanded, get rid of that slave woman and her son.
He is not going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac.
I won't have it.
This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son.
But God told Abraham, do not be upset over the boy and your servant.
Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.
But I will also make a nation of the descendants of Hagar's son, because he's your son too.
So Abraham got up early the next morning and prepared food and a container of water and strapped them on Hagar's shoulders.
Then he sent her away with their son and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba.
When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush.
Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away.
I don't want to watch the boy die, she said as she burst into tears.
But God heard the boy crying and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven.
Hagar, what's wrong?
Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation of his descendants.
Then God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well full of water.
She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink.
Now you know the Bible doesn't tell us whether God created that well right then or whether it was already there and she just didn't see.
The point is her eyes were open and she saw something she hadn't seen before.
Sometimes we find ourselves in the midst of a very difficult situation.
It isn't all our fault, but we are the ones that are suffering.
It can be a marriage, it can be a work situation, it can be whatever it is.
We suddenly find ourselves suffering and we may think that there is no solution.
But God has solutions we can't even imagine, doesn't he?
He can open our eyes and show us things we never thought of.
It's interesting to me that God here saved Ishmael by miraculously providing a well full of water.
And later he saved Isaac by providing what? A ram caught in the thicket.
Both of those are symbols of Jesus.
Jesus is the living water. We had that children's story today about the living water.
Jesus is the living water. Jesus is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
In the next story, a very familiar story about a donkey.
A couple of things get opened in this story. Numbers 22 starting in verse 21.
So the next morning Balaam got up, saddled his donkey and started off with the Moabite officials.
But God was angry that Balaam was going, so he sent the angel of the Lord to stand in the road to block his way.
As Balaam and two servants were riding along,
Balaam's donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with the drawn sword in his hand.
Now it doesn't say God opened the donkey's eyes, does it?
Maybe donkeys can always see angels, I don't know.
But it says that he saw the angel of the Lord staying there and the donkey bolted off to the side to try to get around the angel.
He bolted off into the field.
Let's see, am I on the right slide here?
Yeah, okay, the donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it back onto the road.
Then the angel of the Lord stood at a place where the road narrowed between two vineyard walls.
When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it tried to squeeze by and it crushed Balaam's foot against the wall.
So what did Balaam do?
He beat the donkey again.
Then the angel of the Lord moved further down the road and stood in a place that was too narrow for the donkey to get by at all.
This time when the donkey saw the angel, it lay down under Balaam.
In a fit of rage, Balaam beat the animal again with his staff.
And this is the part that we all have heard since we were children.
The Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak.
What have I done to you that deserves you beating me three times, it asked Balaam.
Well, Balaam said, you've made me look like a fool.
Balaam shouted, if I had a sword with me, I would kill you.
But I'm the same donkey you've ridden all your life, the donkey answered.
Have I ever done anything like this before?
No, Balaam admitted.
Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand.
Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him.
But did Balaam's heart change?
You know, Balaam still went on.
He still tried to curse Israel.
It's just the words he wanted to say wouldn't come out.
You see, many times when our eyes are opened, it may change the immediate situation, but it often doesn't really change our heart.
Sometimes I think I'd like to have my eyes open so I could see my guardian angel.
But would I really?
What if he wanted me to do something different than I wanted to do?
What if he wanted me to wear something that I didn't want to wear or not wear something I did want to wear?
What if he wanted me to go somewhere I didn't want to go?
Would I be so determined to have things my way that I would go against an angel I could see?
Balaam did.
The next one is over in 2 Kings, Chapter 6, starting in verse 8.
When the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his officers and say, we will mobilize our forces at such and such a place.
But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel, do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there.
So the king of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of God.
Time and again Elisha warned the king so that he would be on the alert there.
The king of Aram became very upset over this, you can understand why.
He called his officers together and demanded, which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?
It's not us, my lord the king, one of the officers replied.
Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel, even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom.
Go find out where he is, the king commanded, so I can send troops to seize him.
Notice he didn't want to kill him, he wanted to seize him, bring him back so he could tell him what he wanted to know.
Go so I can send troops to seize him. And the report came back, Elisha's at Dothan.
So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city.
When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere.
Oh sir, what will we do now? the young man cried to Elisha.
Don't be afraid, Elisha told him, for there are more on our side than on ours, than on theirs.
Then Elisha prayed, Oh Lord, open his eyes and let him see.
The Lord opened the young man's eyes and when he looked up he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
It doesn't say Elisha saw them. Elisha had faith to believe that there were more on his side than on their side.
He didn't have to see them, maybe he did, we don't know, but it says God opened the young man's eyes.
And there may be days when we are terrified. It could be a security issue, it could be a health or financial problem.
But whatever our situation, if God would open our eyes, we would see that those who are with us are far more than those who are against us.
The last Bible story that we are going to look at is from John chapter 4.
It's a story you know well of the woman at the well. We won't read the whole thing.
Let's pick it up from verse 27 and this time I'm going to read from the New International Version.
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman.
But no one asked him, what do you want or why are you talking with her?
Then, then, meaning when they came, when the disciples came back, then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to town and said to the people,
Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?
They came out of the town and made their way toward him. You can almost picture the village and dozens, maybe hundreds of people coming out of the town
and starting across the open space toward that well where Jesus was.
Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about.
Then his disciples said to each other, could someone have brought him food? My food, Jesus said, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Don't you have a saying it's still four months until the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields, those people coming out of the city.
They are ripe for harvest. Oh, that God would open our eyes to see that the harvest is ripe around us.
There are millions of people in Ringgold, in Georgia, in the United States, and around the world, millions of people that are longing to know what's going on and how the world will end.
My neighbor lady sometimes says to us, it's got to be time for Jesus to come. So much is happening in the world.
They're frustrated when they see what people are doing in the name of religion. This religion, that religion, even the Christian religion.
People are frustrated when they see what people do and call it religion. They're longing to have an assurance that God loves them and accepts them.
Sometimes, though, we don't realize that they're really searching and longing. Sometimes all we see are the way they dress or the frantic actions that they're going through.
And we think that that one surely couldn't be interested, or that people group or that part of the world couldn't be interested.
They wouldn't be interested. They just don't appear to be interested. But maybe our eyes need to be open.
You know, the disciples, did they like the Samaritans? No, the disciples hated the Samaritans. They didn't go into that village to witness, did they?
They went to buy food and get out of there as quick as they can. They had no thought of bringing anybody from that village to Jesus.
But Jesus knew that a whole village were hungering and thirsting to know more of what He had to share.
And He pointed to those people streaming out of the village and He said to the disciples,
Open your eyes. The harvest is ripe. And that's it. Those are the only stories I could find.
Maybe you'll think of some others, but the only ones I could find that talk about people having their eyes opened.
And I want to ask you a question related to that last story especially. How do we get the kind of vision that Jesus wanted His disciples to have?
How do we get our vision to be opened? How do we have our eyes open so that we can see the ripe harvest around us?
You know, there was a lady, not an Adventist lady, way back in the 1800s, Lilius Trotter.
She was a missionary to Algeria. She left England. She was expected to be the greatest artist that England had ever produced.
She was wealthy, but she was extremely talented. She left it all and went as a missionary to Algeria and lived there for 40 years and is buried there in Algeria.
One day she was, she had an experience that made a powerful impression on her.
Just outside her house there were two bakers and they were street bakers. They had a little oven and they had rigged up,
they had invented some sort of contraption that they would sit on and seesaw back and forth while they needed their bread dough.
Those of you that need bread dough, you know how tired your arms can get and they were making lots of it to sell to everybody.
So they had this thing that would go thump, thump, thump, thump as they went back and forth needing their bread dough.
Nobody thought anything of it. They loved the bread that the bakers made. Everything was fine.
Until one day, suddenly, the pillar holding up the arch over there, over Lilius Trotter's roof collapsed by the bakers from all that thumping.
It took down part of her roof even.
Well, Lilius wrote later, I mean you might have thought, oh no, this is terrible.
Well, Lilius in one of the articles that she wrote later and illustrated, she said that prayer is like those bakers thumping.
She said, prayer is our constant vibration and it will bring down the pillars of Satan's kingdom.
I had never really thought of that. That's beautiful, isn't it?
Prayer sends shockwaves through everything that holds up Satan's kingdom.
We may not see the results today, but day after day we keep praying and then suddenly, unexpectedly,
someday a portion of Satan's kingdom will come crashing down.
That applies to our families that we're praying for. That applies to all the things that we're holding up in prayer.
We want to vibrate the kingdom of Satan with our prayers.
But prayer has another purpose. Partly it's to vibrate the pillars holding up Satan's kingdom,
but it's also to open our eyes to the possibilities that are around us.
As we pray for a person or a block or a city or a school that's trying to open in Rock Spring,
thank you for praying for us. Some of you said in your prayer group you're praying.
Thank you for praying for us as we try to open that school.
As we're praying, God can break down barriers that the enemy is putting up,
but he also can open our eyes to possibilities that were there all along.
Now, if I asked you what you thought of when you thought of North Africa,
Algeria and Morocco and that area, you probably would think of the Sahara Desert.
You might think of some of the rugged mountains that are there in that part of North Africa,
but you might not realize that Algeria and Morocco and Tunisia, those countries,
also are filled with farms and orchards, lots of them along the coast up there.
And Algeria has snow in the mountains. I didn't know that years ago,
but Algeria has snow in the mountains. And then Liliya Stratter had another experience
that I want to share with you. It came from traveling up into the mountains of Algeria
many, many times to study with people in different villages. She was studying with Muslim Arabs,
and many of them came to Jesus as a result. But she talks about seeing a vast expanse of unbroken
snow there in the mountains in Algeria. And as you look at it, it looks like nothing is happening.
It's just frozen, cold, white snow. Nothing is happening. But she said,
down deep underneath, a silent miracle is taking place. All through the summer in the warm months,
a little green plant, or many of them, were beginning to soak up the rays of the sun,
and they were storing that energy in their roots, and they were preparing for what would happen in
the spring. We didn't notice those little plants necessarily, but they were there, they were working.
And then the snow came and covered them, and we thought everything was frozen and basically dead.
But it wasn't. It was alive, and it was working. The cold of winter was there, the snow was covering
it, but that little plant was waiting for just the right time. And at just the right time,
unnoticed under the snow, it begins to send up a shoot. And as that shoot grows, it actually melts
the snow above it so that it can keep growing taller and taller. And just before it reaches
the surface of the snow, it forms a bud. And only when it bursts through the snow in full,
mature beauty do we see it. We didn't know what was going on before, and to Lilius,
that was just like her work among the Muslims. She said that work is going on, seems like nothing's
happening, it's silent, but someday, maybe just before Jesus comes, someday it's going to break
out in all its maturity. And I think the same thing applies to our families who are not worshiping
with us, who don't love God. I think the same thing applies to our neighbors and our communities.
As we are sharing, we're planting seeds. We're helping to shine the sunlight of Jesus on those
people around us, and they're storing up energy, preparing for the day when God will somehow
miraculously work in their hearts, and it will break out in full-blown beauty. And we won't get
the credit, because we didn't know what was even happening. The credit will go to God.
So don't get discouraged. If everything around you seems frozen and cold and nobody seems to be
responding, don't give up. Keep vibrating the pillars of Satan's kingdom with your prayers,
and keep watching for the time when suddenly that explosion of color is visible and we see that Jesus
was working. The snow can't hold the earth frozen forever. Spring will come. Flowers will burst
through. So open your eyes and see that the harvest is ripe. Open your eyes and see that there are
angels all around us. Open your eyes and see people the way God sees them. How do we do that?
We turn our eyes on Jesus and look full in his wonderful face. Then the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.