[SLIDE 1]
I Can See Clearly Now the Veil is Gone
1
Scripture: Passage/Text:
2 Corinthians 3:15-18
Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.[16] But whenever anyone turns to the
Lord, the veil is taken away.[17] Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom.[18] And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed
into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
One Main Idea of the Sermon (Reduce sermon to one sentence.):
We see the Glory of God more clearly when we allow Christ to remove the veil from our hearts.
Goal for Life Application: (Briefly explain the transformational goal):
Recognizes the veils on our hearts and ask Jesus to remove them.
INTRODUCTION:
Good Morning New Life! I want to thank you all for giving Sweetie and I an opportunity to visit our
daughter Leslie and her husband Eric in Kansas City this last week end. We had a great time. Sunday we all
decided to go to Westside Church of the Nazarene in Olathe. For some of you Westside Church may sound
familiar – this last summer they sent 30 youth, 8-9 sponsors, and $3500 to breathe new life into New Life
Church of the Nazarene. They painted, cleaned pulled out old bushes, cleaned some more, carpeted the kids
playroom, build a shed for us and held a neighborhood youth rally, well in short they blessed our socks off and
started a movement right here. It was so awesome to go to that church and tell them thank you – tell them about
all of the great things that are going on here – share the spiritual dividends from their investment in our ministry
here at New Life Church. It was so encouraging for all concerned. I don’t think they had ever heard a report
back from any of the places they have blessed over the years.
2
I told them that we loved them and that we would be praying for them. So pray for the Westside Youth
as they work with the impoverished and oppressed in down town St Paul Minnesota this summer. I know the
area; it’s a pretty tough part of the city – a lot of homelessness, drugs, and human trafficking. Let’s lift them up
as they have us.
ME (Identifying with the audience and the need):
One of the first few classes I took with the Nazarene Bible College was History and Polity of the Church
of the Nazarene. Most found the class as something to get through (many said they were glad to have that
history class behind them). Not so with me – I loved it. In fact, it helped me tremendously to know where we
came from. In that class I came across the account of Uncle Bud Robinson one of the greatest evangelist in
Nazarene history.
Uncle Bud was born in 1860 to a moon-shining, horrible mean drunk of a dad, and a tough as nails
mother in the back hills of Tenn. He had no more than a 3rd grade education, dirt poor, and he had a horrible
stutter with a lisp. It was said that his dad died of meanness. After that 16 year old Buddy and his mom moved
to Texas to share crop. He got saved at a revival camp meeting in Texas – He laid down his 45 revolver, his
deck of cards, and his heart on the altar that night. Later, while lying underneath a wagon trying to sleep God
called this illiterate, stuttering, cowboy with a lisp to preach. When I first started out I could so relate to such
the unlikely call of God of an unlikely preacher. The more I studied him the more I just loved Uncle Bud. I
mentioned in a later preaching class that I loved Uncle Bud. The teacher told me that it was fine - just don’t
preach like him-he broke every preaching rule in the book. You see Uncle Bud had a very unique country way
of speaking, enhanced only by his stuttering lisp. Here is a prayer that he prayed every day.
3
"Oh Lord, give me a backbone as big as a sawlog, ribs like the sleepers under the church floor, put iron shoes
on me and galvanized breeches, give me a rhinoceros hide for a skin, and hang a wagonload of determination
up in the gable-end of my soul, and help me to sign the contract to fight the devil as long as I've got a fist and
bite him as long as I have a tooth, then gum him till I die. All this I ask for Christ's sake. Amen."
Ten years after he was saved at that revival Uncle Bud was still struggling with anger, pride, and envy.
He had gotten so mad at his mule that would not plow one more foot of ground. He grabbed the mule by the
nostril and told him that we are going to plow 5 more rows today. Well the mule reared up and kick him in the
chest. So Bud got up and grabbed that stubborn ole mule by the nostril again and bit the mule’s ear and got
kicked again, only this time the mule got loose from the harness and tore up his fence and garden. Right there
in the field God got a hold of Bud Robinson. No, God didn’t grab his nostril but He did get his attention.
The Lord pointed out to Uncle Bud that he had a veil over his heart - several in fact. In that corn field he
asked the Lord to remove the veils covering his heart. Buddy Robison said, “Right then, anger boiled up and
God skimmed it off, and pride boiled up and God skimmed it off, envy boiled up, and God skimmed it off, until
it seemed to me that my heart was perfectly empty. I said, Lord there won’t be anything left of me and God
seemed to say “there won’t be much left, but what little is there will be clean.”
Uncle Bud got up, spit the mule hair out of his mouth and got on with 60 years of the most effective
ministry of his day. He could see clearly now the veil was gone.
4
You see Uncle Bud had the power of the Holy Spirit helping him – to become the most noted evangelist
in Nazarene History. He traveled nearly a million miles (many of them on horseback), preached over 32,000
sermons and brought hundreds of thousands of souls to Christ.
WE (Connecting with the audience – the common shared need):
I love the picture for our slides this week - notice that the curtains are in a brick pattern.
Sometimes we don’t even know there is more to be had in our Christian life or we don’t know the way
out of the mess we are in. This is as good as it gets – I’m up against a brick wall, there is no way past
this. No it is not it is a veil or curtain covering a sanctified life on the other side. Has anyone here ever
wondered is this as good as it gets – is this as good as I get. Do I just do my best to manage my anger,
my pride, my stubbornness, my envy, my self-will, my fear, my desire for more.
Transition Statement (Moving from Introduction to body of sermon):
The short answer is no. Our focus passage for this the second week of Lent is 2 Corinthians 3:15-18.
God tells us just what these veils are – how to get rid of them – who gets rid of them, and what happens
afterward. Are you ready to be blessed by God’s word? Amen!
[SLIDE 2]
GOD:
What? (What does God have to say about this?):
2 Cor 3:15-17 - Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. In this case the veil is
ignorance. The Jews of that day were stuck in the old covenant. They simply could not see the value of the
New Covenant in Christ. It has been said that the Spirit of God blows righteousness underneath corner of the
veil to expose the fact that there is a veil and the fact that it needs removed.
5
On the other hand, in the previous verses it is noted that Moses put a veil over his face after being with
God on mount Sinai – not to spare the people from brightness of the Glory but rather to hide the fact that the
glory that shown from Moses’ face was indeed fading. So sometimes these veils are self imposed. Other times
they are simply there and need removed. There is something in the way – something inhibiting me from seeing
the Glory of the Lord. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now I want you note
what is not said here. It does not say that you have to remove your own veil that covers your heart. Take off
your own veil –pull yourseld up by your bootstraps – just get rid of whatever is in between you and the fullness
of God is not what is being said here. What is being promised here is that if we turn to the Lord – HE
REMOVES THE VEIL. He changes you – You need to believe that He will. Has anyone here had any success
changing themselves or anyone else under your own strength – me neither.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And this is done by the
Spirit of God – the Holy Spirit – not you. Your contribution here is simply turning to the Lord and experience
the freedom from whatever was covering your heart, veil of pride, the veil of anger, the veil of envy, greed, self
will, the veil of fear.
[SLIDE 3]
2 Cor 3:18
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, (there it is folks – we can then see clearly
now the veil is gone. We can see the glory of the Lord – the work of the Lord - The word of the Lord – yes the
glory of the Lord. We can see clearly the joy of our salvation.
6
We can clearly see that we (look at the next line of this verse) are being transformed into his image.
We know from Genesis that we were created in the image of God – Notice GOD says in Our image, the image
of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Genesis chapter 3 also notes that that the image of all humankind was
severely distorted from the image of God’s holiness because of the fall of Mankind.
Also note that we ARE BEING transformed. The veil is taken off, that is a sanctifying work of the
Lord that allows us to grow in God’s grace – being transformed with ever-increasing glory, which comes
from the Lord, who is the Spirit. This ever-increasing glory comes from the Lord. Yes this is a process. I
have been asked several times – is sanctification an event or a process? The answer is yes. Whenever I asked
my Grandpa if he wanted coffee or tea, he would always answer yes. He wanted both. Sanctification is indeed
both a crisis event and growing in grace is indeed a process. It was an event at conversion, and event at
consecration, and a process of growth in grace. Therefore the answer to the question is yes. Heaven forbid we
stop growing – stop maturing in Christ.
So What? (Why we need to know this – connecting passage with need):
A.W. Tozer says, “Don’t let anyone tell you how much of the Holy Spirit you can have.” I would
respectfully add to that statement in saying especially Satan. Don’t let Ole Sweaty Face tell you anything –
much less how much of the Holy Spirit you can have – you can handle, etc.
Next question, when a veil is exposed by God are you willing to turn to the Lord and have Him remove
it? You may have a known veil to shed right now – Turn to the Lord and You will see clearly the veil is gone.
Allow no Limits to stand between you and more of the glory of the Lord.
7
Finally, is there a self imposed veil in between you and God – something that rivals God in your life –
Turn to the Lord and He will remove it. I think if we try to tear off the veil ourselves that we have put on, there
is opportunity and a tendency to put it back on – Turn to the Lord and let Him take the off the veil.
Transition Statement: (Moving from the Passage to Life Application):
Church we all have room to grow in grace. Has God blown righteousness under the corner of a veil in
your life. Hopefully the Lord doesn’t have a hold of your nostril like a stubborn ole mule. Turn to the Lord and
you will see clearly the veil is gone.
[SLIDE 4]
CONCLUSION:
Now What? (What are we supposed to do in light of this text?):
I need you all to know something – this message is as much for me as anyone here today. We are on a
journey folks and we are walking shoulder to shoulder - not standing nose to nose. We are in this faith walk
together. Paul tells us, that as the body of Christ we belong to each other.
Bow your heads as we reflect upon the message the Lord brought to each of our hearts today. We have
a wonderful opportunity in this time of reflection to ask the Lord – is there anything in between You and I – is
there anything stunting my growth in Your grace. Is there a veil over my face that I cannot see things as clearly
as you would like me to? Am I too easily satisfied with what little bit of Your glory I can see? Maybe you don’t
know the way – turn to the Lord and He will lead you to the other side of what looks to you as a brick wall.
8
YOU (Clarifying the Response for the individual/congregation):
I encourage you to pray with me in the quietness of your heart. I want you to personalize Psalm 139:2324 in prayer. When the scripture says “me” or “my,” put yourself right there – make it your own. Praying
Scripture is just so powerful – Let’s turn to the Lord in prayer, Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and
know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Oh the
power of Your Word God. Lord we turn to You once again - expose and remove anything that is in between
You and us. Lord we turn to You now with unveiled faces and we contemplate the Your glory, and ask that you
continue to transform us into Your image with ever-increasing glory. Grow us in Your Grace and the
Knowledge of You Amen!
WE (Inspirational statement, “sticky statement”):
You may be leaving this place but you never leave the presence of the Lord. Walk in the coming week
in the clarity - in the growth, in the grace and in the freedom given to you today by the Holy Spirit of God. You
are dismissed.