1 Sam 16:7, But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 
	Because of the vital nature of our learning to see others as God sees them, in line with His truth and His values and His will, we will again deal with a major necessity of this truth. It will be through a number of New Testament writers of scripture, so inspired by the Holy Spirit as they were taught, by Christ, the true value God sees in the heart of people. After all, the very basic reality of every one of our lives now in Christ is that of John 3:16-18. 
John 3:16-18, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
	This is a great distinction that needs to be in place in the foundational essence of the Church of Christ on this earth. We cannot afford to be complacent in the manner of our treatment of others, especially if we self-centeredly see them as less than worthy of our expenditure of energy and time and help. Just as Christ came into this world as the essence of the very love of God for every man, woman, and child so lost in sin and trespass, so are we to see others with those eyes that behold them in their dire need of the love of God. We are not to judge them as worthless and unworthy of every effort of the ministry of God’s love. To do so is to judge ourselves in that same desperate and defiled and defamed vision of hopelessness and depravity.
	Rather, in the light of Christ, we see all others as those eternal beings who are so vitally in need of the salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ. Accordingly, as we are so loved by God, we are to love others and see them as the valuable creation of God on this earth. In His Light and through His eyes, our hearts are to be open and available to the downtrodden, the needy, the desperate, the orphan, and the widow in the every manner of the work of grace and mercy and loving kindness and patience and consideration of God as was so fully lavished upon such as ourselves. 
Please turn to Acts 15:7-11 where we have recounted the debate concerning the opening of the Gospel to the gentiles. This was a bitter animosity of the Jews toward the gentiles that had to be squelched by the Lord in the hearts and minds of that early church. 
Acts 15:7-11, And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. "And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? "But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." 
	Throughout his missionary journeys, the Apostle Paul was constantly harangued and harassed by those called the Judaizers. These were a group of people who tried to set the yoke of Judaism upon any who was a true believer in Jesus Christ. They were putting forth the idea that one had to follow the Jewish faith as well as being saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. This was a matter of Jesus plus circumcision in order to be assured of salvation. Again, this was merely a means of this world to try to enslave those who were freed from the law of sin and death through true belief on the grace of God in Jesus.
	As we can read in Rom 2:25-29, the Apostle set aside that foolishness of the appearance of salvation through any human action. How one was to see another was not based upon the circumcision of the body, but of the heart and the mind and the spirit through the working power of God, Alone.
Rom 2:25-29, For indeed circumcision is of value, if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? And will not he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
Then, in 2 Cor 10:3-12, the Apostle put forth the real issue at hand. Nothing is based on how a man sees himself in the terms of the eyes of this world. Everything, which determines the true beauty and value of a person, is that which is set in the realm of the beauty and the majesty and the magnificence of Jesus Christ.
It is in the basis of our relationship with Him, that we will find our purest evaluation of the worth and the essence of every man, woman, or child. It is nothing that our human eyes can behold. It is that which the Spirit of God reveals in the course of the walk of each person as a witness and a testimony of the Great Love of God so freely given to such as we are.
2 Cor 10:3-12, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. For even if I should boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame, for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. For they say, "His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible." Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present. For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. 
There is so much of this world, every moment of the day, which tries to insinuate itself into the manner in which we judge what is lovely and what is less than desirable in the people that surround us. We are so captivated with the spectacles of this age which try to dictate that which is to be admired and that which is to be ridiculed. 
Oftentimes we are brainwashed into the manner in which our eyes decree to our hearts and minds that which is of such immense value to this age. However, all this world’s glory is merely the fluff and paltry trash that will be burned away into the smoldering ashes of eternity. None of us are immune to this vile and deceitful manipulation of our thoughts and our physical valuation of one another.
However, thank You Lord God Almighty, we are indwelled with the power of God to cut through all the foulness and the cancerous growths and the deadened rot of this age in our hearts and in our minds. We have the Holy Spirit actively working in us, bringing to light, through the Word of God, that which is of true and eternal value and beauty and glory and majesty, from all that is banal and vain and worthless. 
Again, consider what the Writer to the Hebrews had to say to all this in dealing with those who were the victims of this earthly campaign of disinformation and manipulative machinations. With all rejoicing in the goodness and the grace and the mercy and the power of God, please open to Heb 4:12+13. Let us rejoice in the every provision of Jehovah and His Omniscient and Omnipresent and Omnipotent Victory in dealing with all the intrigues of this age in its vain efforts to bind us under its power once again. 
Heb 4:12+13, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. 
There is no way to hide from the eyes of the Lord the full intentions and designs of the heart of mankind. All are fully open to the eyes of Our Creator. Nothing can be done to deflect His view or to distract Him with some kind of magical slight of hand or disinformation of any kind. He sees all and He knows every ambition and plan of the heart and essence of humanity. He works, perfectly and consistently and ceaselessly, to reveal the manifested course of each person’s walk on this earth. 
That is why the gifts of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the magnitude of His opening of the Word are so effective and necessary in our every day life as a Christian. It cannot be stressed sufficiently nor fully how amazingly awesome is The Lord God Almighty! He has so loved us and cherished us that He has made this eternal provision for us to be taught the truth of His perfect valuation of humanity. He is working in us a truer and increasingly glorious view of others with eyes that are free from the blinding scales of makind’s skewed and prejudiced perspective. 
The Apostle Peter, in his first letter to the believers, 1 Peter 2:1-10, relates the reason that we need to be gifted with the Holy Spirit’s ever more perfect vision of others. We want to be very clear on this point that we are not looking at others with eyes that are divine. We are not becoming any kind of deity unto ourselves. Everything is only because of the indwelling Holy Spirit by whom we are made alive unto God through the salvation that He has so freely given us by the death and resurrection of the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus. That needs to be emphasized over and over and over again, because of the tenacious tentacles of this age which constantly try to draw our hearts and minds away from Christ. This world power continually but futilely attempts to deify humanity in its every effort to derail in our sojourn on this earth. 
The truth is and ever will be that our eyes are being constantly and more purely focused on the beauty of the Lord only as we seek to know Him, to obey Him, and to fellowship with Him. That is the arena in which we are more open to the spiritual reality of having our eyes cleansed from the filth of this age. 
As we look to Christ, as we gaze upon Him and His glory and His awesome victory, we will be brought into the focal reality that He, Alone is worthy of all praise and honor and adoration. Then, as that becomes more the focus of our eyes, we will see those around us who also worship and praise and adore Him, enrobed with a loveliness that can only be by the work and the majesty of God.
1 Peter 2:1-10, Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: "Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed." This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, "The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone," and, "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense"; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 
In accordance with this, the Apostle then describes how we are to garb ourselves in the manner that will bring honor and glory and adoration to God for the great work that He has done. It is not the manner of this world with all the gaudiness and the fleeting and fickle trends and customs and rituals. Everything of true and eternal beauty is set in that which has ever been the design and the plan and the purpose of God in His creation of humanity.
We will draw this discussion to a close with the encouragement of the Apostle in 1 Peter 3:3+4. Please turn to it and let it show forth what the true splendor is in every born again believer. 
1 Peter 3:3+4, And let not your adornment be merely external — braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
	Our eyes need to be trained to see people as the Lord God Almighty sees all of us, in the love and the grace and the mercy of Christ Jesus. We need to set aside all that this world purports as to be valued, and rather look at the heart of each person. Those who are in Christ Jesus will show forth His beauty. Those who are not of Him will shew forth their desperate need of the love and the mercy of God which was and is our continued need. So be it! 
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Joel 2:23. So rejoice, O sons of Zion, And be glad in the Lord your God; For He has given you the early rain for your vindication. And He has poured down for you the rain, The early and latter rain as before. Amen.