Scripture: Luke 11:33-36 [p. 671] July 19, 2026

Sermon: “The Window to the Soul” Pastor John Young

Our focus today is on a few verses in the middle of this eleventh chapter of Luke. Jesus began this chapter teaching the disciples how to pray. Soon afterwards, He paused to cast out a devil from a man. Then, as the crowd following Jesus continued to grow in number (v. 29 telling us “The people were gathered thick together”), Jesus rebukes the Jewish people for their unbelief in vv. 29-32; the Pharisee’s for their religious hypocrisy in vv. 37-44 and the religious lawyers (experts in the Laws of God) for imposing a religious standard on others that they themselves did not keep (vv. 45-52)! Nestled in between these rebukes is the little portion of scripture before us this morning is this issue about the eyes. Jesus says in v. 34, “The light of the body is the eye…”

If you think about it, without your eyes, you wouldn’t be able to see anything. When we look at each other, we don’t see the person, we see the body that person lives in. The real you and me is inside the body, peeking, as it were, out the eyeballs. The closest you get to seeing a person’s soul is when you look at them straight in the eye! You can’t get this revelation by looking down into someone’s throat or up their nose or in their ear, but you do when you look into their eyes. This is why the eyes are often referred to as ‘the window to the soul.’ They let us see what’s inside a person. But, the eyes are also a ‘door to the soul.’ I.E. the eyes also have the ability to shape the soul! If you look at the chart on the screen, you’ll notice the ‘five senses’ which are doors to the body (carnal). Of those five senses, our spirit is fed by the ear (what we hear). Paul wrote in Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by _________ HEARING, and hearing by the word of God.” That’s spiritual! What enters your eye is tangible: you can see it and touch it. But what enters your ear is intangible: it can’t be seen or touched. This is why music has been hijacked by the devil, creation’s first choir director! He took pure music, as God designed it, and distorted in order to create visible images in the mind or to accompany some visual image we are watching. The devil seeks to corrupt your mind through what you choose to hear.

You see, an unsaved person’s spirit is dead and needs to be born again, but every Christian is made up of body, soul and spirit. If you want to develop your body, you watch what you eat and you exercise; if you want to develop your soul, you do it with art, literature and music. Paul refers to this in Ephesians 5:19, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms [literature/poetry] and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart [a reference to the soul] to the Lord.” If you want to develop your spirit, you do it through Bible reading and prayer. A person’s character is determined (developed) by what enters the eye, the ear, and the mouth; but mostly the eye!

What goes into your mouth affects you, but not as much as what goes in your ears and eyes. What goes into your ears and your eyes determines how you think! And when it comes down to the ears and the eyes, what enters your eyes is always stronger than what enters the ear. This is one of the reasons the television (or media in general) is so destructive! It takes music and images and burns them into the fabric of our soul! Achan saw the garment and the silver and gold before he coveted them and took them (Joshua 7:21). King David would never have committed adultery with Bathsheba if his eyes had not been looking in the wrong place. This is the reason God told the nation of Israel, as recorded in Numbers 33:52, to destroy all the PICTURES when they entered into the promised land! What enters the eyes is always stronger than what enters the ear!

David, in Psalms 119:130 writes, “The entrance of thy WORDS giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” If a Christian wants light in their soul, they will commit themselves to reading the Bible. Doing so, helps you to think like God thinks!

Now, Jesus mentions three things in these verses that I’d like to consider this morning:

I. The Single Eye – v. 34a.

A. He’s talking about singleness of purpose (your main purpose in life).

1. As a Christian, we’re supposed to keep our eyes on the Leader, the Lord Jesus Christ.

a. The writer of Hebrews admonishes (Hebrews 12:2), “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”

2. If you’re a runner, you are to keep your eyes focused on the finish line.

a. The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:14, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

1) The ‘single eye’ is singularly focused on someOne and something. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

2) Paul was focused on living for Christ. This was his single purpose in life.

3) One of my favorite verses on the singleness of purpose is Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest expectation and my hope…that…Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.”

3. When we have a single purpose in life, notice what our text says results – “thy whole body is full of light!”

a. I.E. The soul is at peace with God and life is in balance with His will.

b. But, a “double minded man,” the bible says in James 1:8, is “unstable in all his ways.”

c. Clearly, the unrest many Christians have in their life is because they have not committed themselves to God and His will for their life. And, it affects the whole body, according to our text!

II. The Evil Eye – v. 34b

A. Rather than fixed on a Person and a singular purpose; this eye is aimless, wandering, discontented and short-sighted. As a result, it always drifts towards darkness.

1. Jesus said in John 3:19-20, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” The evil eye always seeks for darkness!

a. And according to v. 33, the darkness always finds its way to a “secret place-” the place where you feel you’ll never get caught because it is dark!

b. According to our text, 34b, when the eye is evil, the “body also is full of darkness.” It affects our whole life!

III. The Warning – v. 35A. It’s in our power to decide which eye we choose! “Take heed…”

Let’s Pray