What Are You Looking At

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What Are You Looking At?

• Acts 1017-33

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Acts 101-2

• Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius,
  a centurion of what was called the Italian
  cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with
  all his household, and gave many alms to the
  Jewish people and prayed to God continually.

3
Acts 103-4

• About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw
  in a vision an angel of God who had just come in
  and said to him, "Cornelius!" And fixing his gaze
  on him and being much alarmed, he said, "What is
  it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and
  alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

4
Acts 105-8

• "Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a
  man named Simon, who is also called Peter he is
  staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house
  is by the sea."
• When the angel who was speaking to him had left,
  he summoned two of his servants and a devout
  soldier of those who were his personal
  attendants, and after he had explained everything
  to them, he sent them to Joppa.

5

• On the next day, as they were on their way and
  approaching the city, Peter went up on the
  housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he
  became hungry and was desiring to eat but while
  they were making preparations, he fell into a
  trance

6
Acts 1011-12

• and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like
  a great sheet coming down, lowered by four
  corners to the ground, and there were in it all
  kinds of four-footed animals and crawling
  creatures of the earth and birds of the air.

7
Acts 1013-16

• A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and
  eat!" But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I
  have never eaten anything unholy and unclean."
• Again a voice came to him a second time, " What
  God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy."
  This happened three times, and immediately the
  object was taken up into the sky.

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1. You Can See Without Seeing

• Matthew 1310-15
• And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do
  You speak to them in parables?" Jesus answered
  them, " To you it has been granted to know the
  mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
  it has not been granted. " For whoever has, to
  him more shall be given, and he will have an
  abundance but whoever does not have, even what
  he has shall be taken away from him.

9

• "Therefore I speak to them in parables because
  while seeing they do not see, and while hearing
  they do not hear, nor do they understand. " In
  their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being
  fulfilled, which says,

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• 'YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT
  UNDERSTAND
• YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE
• FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL,
  WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE
  CLOSED THEIR EYES,
• OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR
  WITH THEIR EARS,
• AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN,
• AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'

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2. What You Look At Most Becomes Normal to You

• Most people marry someone who looks like
  themselves.
• One of the deceptions of models or of Pornography
  is that people look like that-they really dont

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You Will Believe in What You Have Been Looking
At.

• The Bible
• Horror-scopes
• Tabloids
• CNN or Fox News
• Jay Leno or Conan OBrien

13
Idolatry

• IDOLATRY. In a general sense idolatry is the
  paying of divine honor to any created thing the
  ascription of divine power to natural agencies.
  Idolatry may be classified as follows
• (1) the worship of inanimate objects, such as
  stones, trees, rivers, etc. (2) of animals (3)
  of the higher powers of nature, such as the sun,
  moon, stars and the forces of nature, as air,
  fire, etc.
• (4) hero-worship or of deceased ancestors
• (5) idealism, or the worship of abstractions or
  mental qualities, such as justice.
• (from New Unger's Bible Dictionary)

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• In the New Testament period the term idolatry
  began to be used as an intellectual concept.
  Idolatry became not the actual bowing down before
  a statue but the replacement of God in the mind
  of the worshiper. ltColossians 35gt points in this
  direction "Put to death... covetousness, which
  is idolatry."
• At this point the modern believer must
  understand the vicious nature of idolatry. While
  we may not make or bow down to a statue, we must
  be constantly on guard that we let nothing come
  between us and God. As soon as anything does,
  that thing is an idol.

15

• In addition to material objects such as houses,
  land, and cars, idols can be people, popular
  heroes, or those whom we love.
• Objects of worship can even include things like
  fame, reputation, hobbies, pride, and deeds done
  in the name of the Lord.
• Idolatry is a dangerous and deceitful sin. No
  wonder prophets preached against it so often and
  so strongly.
• (from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

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4. You Will Become What You are Looking At

• Psalms 1151-8
• Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name
  give glory Because of Your lovingkindness,
  because of Your truth. Why should the nations
  say, " Where, now, is their God?"
• But our God is in the heavens He does whatever
  He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, The
  work of man's hands.

17

• They have mouths, but they cannot speak They
  have eyes, but they cannot see They have ears,
  but they cannot hear They have noses, but they
  cannot smell They have hands, but they cannot
  feel They have feet, but they cannot walk They
  cannot make a sound with their throat.
• Those who make them will become like them,
  Everyone who trusts in them.

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People can be Idols
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• Isaiah 449-20
• 9 What fools they are who manufacture idols for
  their gods. Their hopes remain unanswered. They
  themselves are witnesses that this is so, for
  their idols neither see nor know. No wonder those
  who worship them are so ashamed. 10 Who but a
  fool would make his own god-an idol that can help
  him not one whit! 11 All that worship these will
  stand before the Lord in shame, along with all
  these carpenters-mere men-who claim that they
  have made a god. Together they will stand in
  terror.

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• 12 The metalsmith stands at his forge to make an
  axe, pounding on it with all his might. He grows
  hungry and thirsty, weak and faint. 13 Then the
  woodcarver takes the axe and uses it to make an
  idol. He measures and marks out a block of wood
  and carves the figure of a man. Now he has a
  wonderful idol that can't so much as move from
  where it is placed. 14 He cuts down cedars, he
  selects the cypress and the oak, he plants the
  ash in the forest to be nourished by the rain. 15
  And after his care, he uses part of the wood to
  make a fire to warm himself and bake his bread,
  and then-he really does-he takes the rest of it
  and makes himself a god-a god for men to worship!
  An idol to fall down before and praise!

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• 16 Part of the tree he burns to roast his meat
  and to keep him warm and fed and well content, 17
  and with what's left he makes his god a carved
  idol! He falls down before it and worships it and
  prays to it. "Deliver me," he says. "You are my
  god!"
• 18 Such stupidity and ignorance! God has shut
  their eyes so that they cannot see and closed
  their minds from understanding. 19 The man never
  stops to think or figure out, "Why, it's just a
  block of wood! I've burned it for heat and used
  it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can
  the rest of it be a god? Should I fall down
  before a chunk of wood?" 20 The poor, deluded
  fool feeds on ashes he is trusting what can
  never give him any help at all. Yet he cannot
  bring himself to ask, "Is this thing, this idol
  that I'm holding in my hand, a lie?"

31
Acts 1017-18

• Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as
  to what the vision which he had seen might be,
  behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius,
  having asked directions for Simon's house,
  appeared at the gate and calling out, they were
  asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter,
  was staying there.

32
Acts 1019-21

• While Peter was reflecting on the vision, the
  Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are
  looking for you. "But get up, go downstairs and
  accompany them without misgivings, for I have
  sent them Myself.
• Peter went down to the men and said, "Behold, I
  am the one you are looking for what is the
  reason for which you have come?"

33
Acts 1022-23

• They said, "Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous
  and God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire
  nation of the Jews, was divinely directed by a
  holy angel to send for you to come to his house
  and hear a message from you."
• So he invited them in and gave them lodging.

34
Acts 1024-26

• And on the next day he got up and went away with
  them, and some of the brethren from Joppa
  accompanied him. On the following day he entered
  Caesarea.
• Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called
  together his relatives and close friends. When
  Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his
  feet and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up,
  saying, " Stand up I too am just a man."

35
Acts 1027-29

• As he talked with him, he entered and found many
  people assembled. And he said to them, "You
  yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who
  is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to
  visit him and yet God has shown me that I
  should not call any man unholy or unclean.
• "That is why I came without even raising any
  objection when I was sent for. So I ask for what
  reason you have sent for me."

36
Acts 1030-33

• Cornelius said, " Four days ago to this hour, I
  was praying in my house during the ninth hour
  and behold, a man stood before me in shining
  garments, and he said, 'Cornelius, your prayer
  has been heard and your alms have been remembered
  before God. 'Therefore send to Joppa and invite
  Simon, who is also called Peter, to come to you
  he is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by
  the sea.
• "So I sent for you immediately, and you have been
  kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here
  present before God to hear all that you have been
  commanded by the Lord."