The Eyes of the Heart

The sermon opens by comparing seven important words beginning with the letter T in Vietnamese: love, talent, intellect, money, death, spirituality, and God. People tend to devote all their time and energy to the first four—love, talent, intellect, and money—because these are tangible things perceived through the five senses. By contrast, spirituality and God are often neglected or dismissed because they cannot be seen or touched in a material sense.

The sermon presents a fundamental contrast between materialist thinking and biblical teaching. Atheists believe there is only one material world and one physical death. Scripture, however, teaches that there are two worlds—a temporary physical world and an eternal spiritual one—and three kinds of death: physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death. Spiritual death occurs when a person lives entirely in sin and separation from God, and without salvation, leads to eternal death in the lake of fire as described in Revelation 20:12-15.

The central portion of the sermon explains two kinds of eyes: physical eyes and the eyes of the heart, or spiritual eyes. Physical eyes can only perceive things belonging to the material world, while spiritual eyes alone can recognize the value of salvation and heavenly spiritual blessings. The story of Saul on the road to Damascus is used as an illustration: when his physical eyes were blinded, his spiritual eyes were opened to recognize Jesus Christ as the Savior. Only the Holy Spirit can restore sight to the spiritual eyes of a human being.

Paul's prayers in Ephesians 1:15-19 and 3:14-21 are presented as the proper model for church intercession. Notably, in all 42 instances where Paul prays or requests prayer, he never mentions material concerns but only asks the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of the heart so that believers may know the hope, the glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable power of God.

The sermon concludes with practical application: the difference between a growing believer and a lukewarm one lies in whether the Holy Spirit has opened one's spiritual eyes. When spiritual eyes are increasingly illuminated, Scripture becomes sweeter, the church becomes more precious, and the fruit of the Spirit grows more abundantly. The sermon calls every believer to pray for the Holy Spirit to open their own spiritual eyes and the eyes of those with whom they are sharing the gospel.