The Master's Myopia Management
Pastor David T. Elms Preached on 2/2/2025
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Summary
Pastor David T. Elms warns against 'spiritual myopia,' a condition where believers become so focused on immediate cultural and personal concerns that they lose sight of eternal reality. Using the metaphor of vision health, he calls the congregation to adjust their perspective and prepare for their eternal destination through faith and consecration.
Key points
- •Myopia (nearsightedness) is defined as seeing close objects clearly while distant objects appear blurry, which serves as a metaphor for spiritual nearsightedness.
- •Modern culture, technology, and 'near work' (phones and tablets) are physically and spiritually reshaping our vision, making us lose sight of eternal perspectives.
- •A 'healthy eye' according to Jesus (Matthew 6:22-23) allows light to permeate the soul, whereas a distorted eye leads to great internal darkness.
- •Eternity must be defined by the One who has experienced it (Jesus Christ) rather than by cultural trends, personal opinions, or 'reductionism.'
- •Church and spiritual devotion serve as 'security checks' that help believers move from 'landside' (the common and worldly) to 'airside' (the divine and eternal).
Scripture
Vision
Eternity death
Culture
Discipleship
Life application
This week, intentionally practice 'distance vision' by spending time outdoors observing God's creation and setting aside devices to reflect on eternal priorities rather than immediate stressors.
Reflection questions
- In what areas of your life has your vision become 'myopic,' focusing only on immediate problems and ignoring God's long-term plan?
- How do 'near work' activities (scrolling, news, work stress) affect your ability to see the 'far off' promises of God?
- If the day after you die is your next 'trip,' what intentional arrangements have you made for your soul's destination?
- What 'baggage' from your 'landside' life are you trying to carry into your spiritual walk that needs to be left behind?
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Full transcript
0:00brain up, whatever. Doesn't make me better than anybody. My subject
0:03today is a master's myopia management. Say that fast. The master's
0:08myopia management. All right, doesn't sound like a shouting sermon,
0:14does it? I don't care if it is a shouting sermon. What
0:20matters is does it get down in your soul and make it
0:26quake? Our text is where Jesus says to his disciples, if the
0:31eye is single or if it righteous or if it is good,
0:37then the light in that eye permeates the entirety of the soul.
0:43And then he said, but if your eye is evil or dark
0:49or distorted, how great. is that darkness. Myopia is nearsightedness.
0:54It's an eye condition where close objects appear clearly, but distant objects
1:00appear blurry. Welcome to February 1st. It's Black History Month. We're going
1:06to celebrate all month all of those precious people of color who
1:12have impacted America and done great things. We appreciate it and know
1:18it. But the whole month of January was consecration And it
1:24was a time where we came and read from the Bible aloud from this platform.
1:29And of course, we had all the consecrations of fasting every week as a church.
1:35Then our conclusive event of a 24-hour throne room encounter. All of these were components
1:41of a measure that the church has taken, whereby we hope to have a vision
1:47and viewpoint of the things that are godly. We will resist as a church, but...
1:54trajectory that Christianity has taken, that is a biblical reductionism, big fancy word
2:00that means this doesn't mean as much as it used to, or relativism,
2:05whereby we judge truths are not settled, but they are adjustable according to
2:11circumstances, or even a syncretism, which is a word where you blend religions
2:17to try to come up with your own a measure of
2:22how one is to live. These are all things that we all fight every day.
2:28This idea of pluralism is another medical or theological term whereby people can mix and
2:34match different opinions and come up with their own idea of what eternity looks like.
2:40But I want to proclaim to you that eternity is to be defined not by
2:46the individual who has never experienced it, But eternity has got to have parameters
2:52put on it by those who speak from it. The only man that ever died
2:57and said he was going to die and spent three days dead and said he
3:02was going to spend three days dead and rose from the dead is the one
3:07who has the chops to decide my story on what eternity looks like. Now, I
3:12know a lot of people that want butterfly poems and unicorn tales to be told
3:17at their funeral. And if that's what they want, then have fun. It's okay. Nothing's
3:23wrong with just talking about the song of the mockingbird and the beautiful pine tree
3:28that points its finger to the sky. But the truth of eternity has got to
3:33be determined by the one who speaks from eternity into time. It doesn't matter how
3:39we couch the words or make them rhyme or bring fancy alliterations like the master's
3:44myopia management to the story. It doesn't change the fact that all
3:50of us get to live. You're blessed to be alive and we
3:56get to die. And after that comes the judgment. I'm asking you
4:01right now, where are you staying? Where are you sleeping tonight? Do
4:07all of you have where you're sleeping tonight figured out? Because where
4:13will you be sleeping the day after you die? Have you figured
4:18that out? I know you got an Airbnb arranged for your next
4:24trip. do you have anything arranged for that eternal trip
4:30that's on its way your direction because we're in an age that group think seems
4:36to drive us all and algorithms very much affect us this is why tick tock
4:42is under much surveillance and of course it's not just tick tock with its china
4:47obsession it's also facebook with its american obsession and it's instagram who is happy to
4:53sell your information to china There's a lot of these things that we get
4:59coupled in because of our culture. And you know what culture is? It's like a
5:04fish in water. Water is the culture of a fish. But when the fish is
5:08in it, it doesn't know it's water. It just knows this is the way things
5:13are here. And that's the way American culture is. We don't really know what we're
5:17in. We just know that's the way things are here. And after... Month of January
5:23whereby there has been appeals made for you to separate yourself from
5:28the common milieu and mixture of this American culture whereby you can
5:34buy your own strength of pursuing that which is divine Extract yourself
5:39for a moment from the all-going All-seeing news media press that's all
5:45around you on your phones everywhere you go and in that process
5:51you We can somehow dispatch a group think for a moment. We
5:56can relieve ourselves from trusted and false science for a moment. And the
6:02more and more we are tried to be put into silos and they
6:08want to make you a demographic instead of a person. They look at
6:14your different personalities. accomplishments and birthplace and your skin color
6:19and your age and try to silo you off as if you're
6:25not an individual on the way to eternity. But we will not
6:31fall prey to the common march of a society that is headed
6:37nowhere fast. I am a fan of science. My dad was
6:43Mr. Popular Mechanics my whole life growing up. I remember when I discovered Wired
6:49Magazine and thought I was on the front edge of knowledge. I've only lived
6:55to realize that most science has got to be adjusted pretty quick after it's
7:01been spoken because new discoveries are made all the time. That's today. I'm part
7:07scientist and a part sermon speaker. Nearsightedness squinting at the world.
7:13It's trying to see something a little far off because you're so used
7:18to just seeing the things that are close. It's like walking through life
7:24and considering your life a little tiny puzzle, but missing out on the
7:30big, beautiful picture that God painted all around you. Recognizing your purpose is
7:36bigger than your paycheck. Colossians 3.2 says, we set our minds on things
7:42that are above. When you do that, anxiety, panic, fear, death, and
7:47chaos are conquered at Calvary. I've said it many times. God doesn't have any
7:53panic. He only has plans. Hebrews, the second chapter, the eighth verse says, at
7:59the present, we do not see everything in subjection to him. In other words,
8:05the writer was saying, we know things are subject to him, but we don't
8:11know how much is really subject to him. We think we've got the God
8:17quotient over here and all the rest is somewhere out in the wild lands running
8:22on its own. And the writer of Hebrew said, no, what you think is in
8:28the wild lands is also subject to the one that you've got situated over here
8:34in the small corner of your thoughts and who you think you've got fenced in.
8:39You can't him. So we set our mind on things that are above. We
8:45also do not see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for
8:51a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus crowned with glory and
8:57honor because of the suffering and death so that by the grace of God, he
9:02might taste death for everyone. So our text crawls up and it tells us if
9:08your eye, the eye is the lamp of the body, but if your eyes are
9:14healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes
9:20are unhealthy everybody, would you please touch your eyes and say I
9:25want healthy eyes Lord give me healthy eyes if your eyes are
9:31unhealthy your whole body will be full of darkness if then the
9:37light within you is darkness how great Vision affects your whole being
9:42Helen Keller lost her her hearing and her sight due to a
9:48disease when she was very young and And she said this most
9:54renowned statement you all are familiar with. The only thing worse than
10:00being blind is having sight but no vision. If we are too
10:05focused on the immediate, then we will befall nearsightedness. If we never
10:11understand there's a bigger picture that's being painted. There's a higher purpose
10:17than this moment's particular setback. We can miss the broader
10:23divine perspective, which is that casting of your vision to a
10:28higher place. Vision refers not just to the physical act of
10:34seeing, but vision also speaks of insight and foresight and purpose.
10:40And the book of Proverbs said, the 29th chapter, the 18th
10:45verse, where there is no vision, the people perish. There is
10:51a spiritual myopia that is over America. Really, it's over the world,
10:57but this is my assigned parish, if you could call it that. I'm an American
11:03by birth, and I'll be an American when I die, Lord willing. So I'm going
11:08to deal with Americans right now. We have a myopia of only seeing what has
11:14been. And we become blind to the transformative and eternal things that are
11:20spoken of through time. In fact, there's never been a godless hour in the history
11:25of the world except in the last century. Last couple of centuries where atheism really
11:31took off. Before that, atheism, which back in that day, atheism wasn't belief in no
11:37God. That wasn't even possible. Atheism was the belief in one God.
11:44Until people said, no, I'm going to do away with the whole God story
11:50and we're going to hijack the word atheism and make it mean the belief
11:56in no God. There's never been an era until the last couple hundred that
12:01we even had people who lived in atheism because everybody knew prayer. Now, are
12:07we smarter than everybody? Are we more brilliant than every? Can we build pyramid?
12:13And so this haughtiness that comes in this hour where we think we're really
12:19got it like that. So we don't need to pray. We don't need to
12:25see the eternal. We don't need to walk in the understanding of godly manners. Then
12:30you're living in a myopic condition where all you can see is those things that
12:36are close. Psalm 119:18 says, "Open mine eyes that I may see the wonderful things
12:41in your law." There's a lot in this Bible people have decried and talked bad
12:46about. And if you want to find out some supposed bad stuff about the scripture,
12:52it's everywhere. But it's people who have a myopic understanding and they don't look through
12:58it the culture of the time and so they find anything that might be Anathema
13:03in our generation and say they did it in that generation. How can I God
13:08do that? They don't read history They don't read how the measure of all mankind
13:13has got to fit in this narrative 2nd Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes
13:18not on what is seen but what is unseen since what is seen is temporary
13:24But what is unseen is eternal. A cat does not have the capacity
13:30to see a king. A king on a throne is nothing but a
13:36man and chair to a cat. He doesn't understand the meaning of a
13:42throne, has no comprehension of the definition of a crown. A cat thinks
13:48that a scepter is just something to roll around with because a cat
13:54only sees rats. They don't see a king. To be able to see
14:00the things that are divine and eternal and powerful with purpose
14:05You've got to have the capacity to look beyond the size of an
14:11animal's vision and get into the realm where you're just a little lower
14:17than the angels and see things that are eternal. For decades we have
14:22been taught that myopia or nearsightedness was a genetic condition. Just a couple
14:28years ago, Marina Sue, which is a doctorate at the University of California
14:34at Berkeley, Berkeley, Berkeley, noticed a trend. The percentage of the
14:40population with myopic condition was increasing. If your parent had it, your likelihood
14:45of having nearsightedness had doubled. If both parents had it, it quintupled. If
14:51you had that, and of course, if your parent had it, your need
14:56for an ocular correction or glasses or contacts or LASIK was very real.
15:03This, though, is something that lately has been looking at from around the globe, because
15:08in America, we just think of glasses as sort of the way things are. But
15:14the shift has been most dramatic in the Asian continent, because the population of teenagers
15:20and young adults with myopia in Asia has jumped in the last 50 years from
15:26a quarter of the population to more than 80% of the population.
15:32And so this doctor is noticing this trend. What's going on here? We
15:37thought it was just genetic. I was telling my daughter-in-law who is an
15:43educator extraordinaire and she's given herself to the upbringing of children and training
15:49of curriculum processes. I was trying to tell her what the Lord I felt was
15:54laying on my heart to preach this week. And I said, but I don't know
15:58if I can unpackage it in a manner that the people even get, because I
16:02it's just too broad and big for me. And I want to make it to
16:05where it's, it's got a handle on it. So I told her a little bit
16:09what I was doing. And she sent me a text this week of a educator's
16:13handbook that she got many years ago. It's one of the premier books in that
16:17genre. And in it, she had highlighted these words that said, children have
16:23the tendency to see the near and the minute, but can only be made
16:29with effort to look at the wide and the distant. And so educators and
16:34parents who care need to take the time to get their children from the
16:40places where everything they're looking at is right now. and
16:46get in places where they see broad expanses and far away
16:52stars and elegant birds and a far away tree because the
16:58exercise of healthy vision casting literally shapes the eye. A perfect
17:04eye, one that has great sight, has a normal shape of
17:10a good oval eye that has this pressure of only seeing
17:16the near. can have it reshape to be more like an olive
17:22and it continues because of this it has been come this has become
17:28a national security concern in china there is a concern that they cannot
17:34find enough sharp-eyed children to become pilots for their military the nations right
17:39now with the lowest rate of myopia after intense research This
17:45myopia, which comes from intense near work activities, they
17:51have reduced outdoor time. The rural population of Nepal
17:56has the lowest case of myopia in the world.
18:021% of their children after academic studies have this
18:07condition. South Africa has the second or third lowest
18:13in the rural populations. The children have only about
18:184%. of this condition. In 2019, the American Academy
18:24of Ophthalmology declared it an urgent global health care problem.
18:30Myopia is coming on kids that it shouldn't be coming
18:35upon. And it's all after this research, they're determining that
18:41it can be very much influenced by near work phones,
18:47tablets, laptops, and books. One school in China has gone so
18:53far that they've made laws that the children lower than three years of age
18:58cannot be involved, or third grade, not three years of age, lower than third
19:04grade are not to have hardly any exams, forcing them to go and read
19:10things only close up. Something about our modern life is destroying our ability to
19:15see far away. Among the wealthy, here in America, myopia control is starting to
19:21break out. glasses and contacts lens that control how
19:27light enters the eye with also some taking atropine eyedrops to
19:32keep the eyes from being misshapen. Cooper Vision, which is a
19:38major conglomerate on vision here, has a brand new program called
19:44MySight. There's four optomagists. That sounds like I'm talking in tongues.
19:50That sounds like I just got the Holy Ghost. Say
19:56that real fast. There's four around this church really close that offer
20:01Cooper Visions MySite as an option for young children. It's targeting the
20:07wealthy because while there are cheap and less expensive answers to this,
20:13why not make a dime? So they target the wealthy and what
20:19should be accessible to all, they're making patents on it to where
20:25it's going to be difficult for you to afford it. They're marketing
20:30the wealthy. So your children are to be
20:36fixed only with technology and medicine by adding chemicals and putting plastic
20:42in your eyes. It's what big pharma companies want. And really the
20:47problem is a bad vision habit. Nobody in their life is teaching
20:53them. You need to go outside and you need to look at
20:58birds in trees a long ways away. You need to go study
21:04the clouds and see how many shapes you can find.
21:10Tell me what God told you from watching the clouds dance today. It's bad vision
21:16habits. I'm almost finished. Ethan, my son, we were going through the process of planning
21:22the funeral, which Tuesday night is just the worship set for my dad's funeral. And
21:28thank you for indulging me this month and just worshiping the Lord about a world
21:34that is coming. But my son, Ethan, read this
21:39at my dad's funeral that he sent to his grandchildren
21:45on the year after the shutdown of the pandemic. New
21:51Year's Day of 2021. My dad said, welcome to flight
21:572021. We are prepared to take off into the new
22:03year. Please make sure your positive attitude and gratitude are
22:09secured and locked in the upright position. All self-destruct devices,
22:15pity, anger, selfishness, and resentment should be turned off at
22:20this time. All negativity, hurt and discouragement should be put away.
22:26Should you lose your positive attitude under pressure during this flight,
22:32reach up and pull down a prayer. Prayers will automatically be
22:37activated by faith. Once your faith is activated, you can assist
22:43other passengers who are of little faith. There will be no
22:49baggage allowed on this flight. God, our captain, has
22:54cleared us for takeoff, destination greatness. Wishing you grands
23:00a new year filled with new hope, new joy,
23:05and new beginnings. Stay blessed and welcome to 2021.
23:11If you fly, you know going to the airport
23:16is an adventure. Sister Elms Company. They have logistically
23:22divided the airport into two spaces. You don't know
23:28this, but the security protocol people do.
23:33In the context of airport logistics, there is airside
23:39and landside. And the difference between airside and landside
23:44is this very huge component known as security checks.
23:50Landside, anybody can get there. It's the baggage. It's
23:56the check-in areas. It's the ground transportation. It's public
24:01parking. That's all landside. But airside, you have to
24:07go through all the components. Of making sure you
24:13don't have the wrong amounts of liquid. You don't have anything you
24:19could harm somebody with. You're going to get scanned, maybe even patted
24:24down. You're going to take off shoes. You're going to empty your
24:30computers. I've got, because of my travels, I've got clear. I've got
24:36TSA pre-checked. All these things to help me get through
24:42airports and it's always an adventure which airport is what
24:47good at. If you're clear, you got to go to
24:53all the one spot in Miami. If you're TSA pre,
24:59sometimes that long line is longer than the other one.
25:05There's all these things of trying to figure out the
25:10journey of how to get airside. You know what church
25:16is? It's security. When you come here, I don't have
25:22any scanning device. I'm not going to pat you
25:28down. I will lay hands on you, at least most of you.
25:34It is a Bible thing, and I'm a Bible preacher. But only
25:39you can determine what your vision is doing. Because if you don't
25:45ever, as the psalmist said, lift up your heads, O ye gates,
25:51and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting door, and the King of
25:57glory shall come in. If you don't ever lift up your eyes
26:03above all the immediate near work that you're doing, then you will
26:09have this myopia, Where you cannot see things
26:15far off. So you're going to travel? Where are you
26:20sleeping tonight? Guarantee you, very few of you leave on
26:26the road without knowing where you're going to sleep. Where
26:31are you going to sleep the day after you die?
26:37Have you made any planning? You know, you can't take
26:42anything here with you. You have to send it ahead.
26:48There's no baggage allowed. You don't get to pack up
26:53your company and say, God, look, look, I was a
26:59company owner. You don't get to pack up your
27:05credentials and say, look, I got this college and this university and
27:10that school and this vocational training. You see my uniform, Lord. You
27:16have to send it ahead and you have to make sure you
27:22don't think your smile works when it gets to heaven. Your smile
27:27is cute down here, but up there, you're not going to be
27:33able to wink at him. You're not going to be able to
27:39smile at him. Say, look, I'm a victim. The game is up.
27:48Well, my daddy did this or my mama did this. You don't know what
27:53neighborhood I was born into. You don't know who I went to high school
27:59with. None of that works. He's going to say, what did you do to
28:05look ahead? That's why when we open this altar, it's just for a moment
28:11for you to come and say, Lord, I am not praying and presentation style.
28:17I'm not praying for others to hear. I'm going and getting locked in for
28:23me. And I'm saying, oh God, am I filled
28:29with your spirit? Have I fed the Holy Ghost in
28:35me? Have I walked in a manner that's pleasing? Not
28:41to the pastor, but to you. Not to my wife,
28:47but to you. Not to my husband, but to you.
28:53Was I pleasing you? Because he said, if your eye
28:59is evil, if your eye has darkness, how great is
29:05that darkness. Have me not, gentle Savior.
29:14Humble cry on others thou art calling I'm opening
29:20this altar for a season of time with the
29:25Lord. You're not walking right? You need to get
29:31right. You're not standing in the way of godliness
29:37You need to get standing in the way of
29:42godliness where you're gonna sleep the day after you
29:48die You may have it figured out tonight. You
29:54might be a rich man on this earth What's
29:59your bank account like after you get to heaven
30:05how much you got there? You got anything laid
30:11up? You laid
30:15up any treasure in
30:21heaven where Jesus said
30:26moth and rust cannot
30:32corrupt, thieves cannot break
30:37through and steal. Lay