God is Watching

Introduction

We never heard the joyful sight. Jesus said Jesus said, Press the light on around. Jesus said an away, Jesus anyway. Where I can do it for the opening my eye. For the sea back cross of a death of what from the heaven. Jesus said there is Jesus saying. What is all the rolling time on eyes? Jesus there. Fell from there and I am far as what I was every Jesus say.

And for our consciousness, who was a good Jesus there anyway.

Oh shit, no other one. Jesus prayed Jesus say.

Jesus. Jesus.

Jesus. Jesus. Please receive it.

I am grateful for your presence this evening. Whether you are a member here or whether you are a visitor, I know that it took some effort on your part to be here. And I really do appreciate that. Thank you so much for coming. If you are a visitor, I know that the church here will treat you in the best kind of way as an honored guest. Please come back and be here as often as you can. They’d be delighted to have you worship with them.

It’s the first time in the meeting I’m trying to do that. And those of you who know me well know that I typically require a fair amount of refraining to do this. I only got about five minutes this evening, so that’s probably not going to be enough, but we’ll see how this works out. Before we get to any of the slides, though, let me see if I can get you to imagine something. Imagine you’re walking out of your front door. You’re in your bathrobe and your slippers because you’re just going to have to grab the morning paper. You take two or three steps out of your door, and you hear this click off to your side, and you look, and there’s somebody with a camera. And they got you.

Or you get in your car, you’re headed for work, you stop at a traffic light, and you’re still not quite awake, and you kind of rode in your head. And you look over the car next to you, and there’s a guy with a camera. Taking your picture. You decide you really need something to eat before you get to work. You stop at a donut shop, get you a donut, you come out of the store, you got it kind of half in, half out of your mouth. Click, there he is again, taking your picture. Later that night, you’re shopping for shoes with a friend or somebody a couple of aisles over. Quick, click, just taking pictures right and left. Or even at night, there you are in your home, you’re doing your Bible study while watching American Idol and working on your toenails.

And there’s a window, and you look at it and the shade’s up a little bit, and there’s some guy with a camera. Quick, click, take a picture. Probably none of us have been subject to that kind of attention before in our lives. But that is pretty much the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Folks whose lives are really rich and who are really popular and famous, their lives are documented almost constantly by photographers known as the paparazzi. Now you may not know this about the word paparazzi. The singular form of that paparazzo comes from an Italian word that describes the buzzing that a mosquito makes in the ear, which kind of makes paparazzi an appropriate word, doesn’t it? For people who kind of buzz around, these celebrities, all in the name of photojournalism.

But I have some interesting news for you this evening. You do not have to be a celebrity to experience that aspect of fame. For about $500 an hour, you can hire your own paparazzo to follow you around and to take your picture at the most unexpected moments. How do you think you would like that if you knew someone was stalking you? In fact, you’re paying them to stalk you. And to take your picture. I would be scared to death. I’d be afraid that he’d get me right when I had a piece of broccoli in my teeth, you know? Or right in the middle of a knee. Who looks good right in the middle of a sneeze? You know, capturing our every mundane mood with a telephoto lens, I suspect it would be unnerving to most of us to be watched that closely.

We’d be worried all the time. But I suspect we don’t want that. We don’t want people watching us all the time. But they are. They really are. In many cities, and you know this, there are cameras mounted in intersections that monitor whether or not a person goes through a red light. Or whether they come to a full stop before turning light at a red light. Photo radar van fit beneath free-way underpasses, snapping pictures as people speed by. The gun records the speed of the vehicle. The camera captures the license plate. There’s no policeman even around, and the person who has been speeding does not know that they have been taught until they get the ticket in the mail. YMCAs have mounted cameras, security cameras, of course, and weight rooms and mirrored aerobic rooms and inside tennis courts everywhere.

Every kind of workout is captured on film now. If you use a computer at work, it is virtually certain that your employer is making careful note of everything you do on the internet. They’re watching. The truth is we have less privacy today, probably than any people who have ever lived. And some people find that disturbing. More than a little unnerving. It just doesn’t seem right. I would hope, though. I would hope for those of us who are Christians, we’re not quite as concerned about that as the rest of the world. Because Christians understand that we are being watched. There is someone who sees. Christians are those who, in fact, expect that, and they even welcome that attention. There is an aspect in which we ought to welcome it.

1. God Is Watching

And I want us to think about that if we could this evening. I can’t help it. This looks like Amy Wiggins to me. I just had to say something. But she did not pose for this, okay? She really, she really didn’t. The first thing I would say to you is that God is watching. Now, of course, oh, I turned it off. Okay. See, that’s okay, every thing. There we go. We know that God is watching. Turn your Bibles if you would to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13. 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. The psalmist says in Psalm 33 and verses 13 through 15.

The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. From his dwelling place, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all, he who understands all their works. The God who made the earth is a God who sees. And he sees everything. You might want to put a marker there in Psalm 33, and then look in Psalm 139, the 139th Psalm. I want us to look at the first four verses. Psalm 139 starting in verse 1. O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

Even before there is a word on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it all. Not only is there no action that we can hide from God, there’s nothing that we do that he does not see. There is no thought. There is no motive, there is no agenda that God does not see. There’s nothing hidden from his sight. The paparazzi, at least don’t see everything. But God does.

Those who are ungodly do not want God watching them. They do not want to believe that there is a God who can see in that kind of way. Because to admit that there is a God like that will be also to understand that he’s going to call them into account someday for the things that they do, for the motives that they have, for the agenda that they set. And they don’t like that a bit. And yet the Apostle Paul does tell us that’s exactly what is going to happen. That each one of us will give an account of himself to God, the God that sees. Well, I know how the world feels about this in general, but how do we feel about this? Turn if you would to John chapter 10.

John chapter 10. We’re going to read verses 11 through 15. John 10, starting in verse 11, Jesus says here, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and they and my own know me, even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus says he’s the good shepherd. Those who follow him are his sheep.

We talked about sheep in the class about the parables on Sunday. We talked about what kind of creatures they are and how they can frequently wander away if left to their own devices. So we need a shepherd to watch over us. We need someone who sees what we do and who can help us to find our way back. Jesus says he is that kind of shepherd. He’s the good shepherd. Isn’t that what Christians ought to want? Someone who is watching? Oh, I know that when we do that, which we should not do, we don’t want anyone to know that. We don’t want anyone to see that. But God is going to see it. And it’s a good thing that he does. Because knowing that he does see it can help us to come back to him and to turn away from that sin.

We need to recognize that the fact that God watches us, that he sees everything is really a very good thing. Go back if you would to Psalm 33 now. And look starting in verse 18. Psalm 33 and in verse 18. The eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving kindness, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive and famine. And then another passage in 2 Chronicles 16, in 2 Chronicles 16, in the first part of verse 9, we can read these words. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. If there are times in our life when we are uncomfortable with the thought that God is watching us, I suspect it would be those times when our heart is not completely his.

When we know that we’re not really doing what he would have us to do, we’re not really thinking the way he would have us to think, not adjusting our attitude so that it’s more in line with his will. And that’s the only time we ought to be nervous about the fact that God is watching us. I, you know, it’s life to us for God to watch us, and that’s the way that we ought to see it. And my prayer for all of us is that we’ll never lose that sense, that awareness that God is always watching. Because I think that awareness will help us so much to continue to walk faithfully in his sight, to be what he wants us to be. Of course, God’s not the only one watching, is he?

2. Others Are Watching

He’s watching all the time, he sees everything with perfect vision, but there are also others who are watching. And this is also something that we realize. We know that other people see the things that we do. This evening, what I’d like for us to particularly remember is that this is also something that God desires. Not only does he see us, he also desires that other people see us as we endeavor to live the kind of life he would have us to live. You know the passage. It’s very familiar to us in Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 14. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand.

And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine in such a way that they may see your good work and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Yes, there are many things that the Lord desires that we do in private. Many of our prayers ought to be private. Much of the service that we offer to God is supposed to be done in a private kind of way. When we’re giving, even our own left hand isn’t supposed to know what our right hand is doing. But much of the service that we offer to God also is intended to be public. It is intended to be done in such a way that people will see it. The Lord wants other people to see his children.

He wants to see them living a certain kind of life. Because that will help them, perhaps, to come to that same kind of life. He wants people to see the change that takes place in a man of the world when he embraces the gospel of Jesus Christ and how his life turns around from looking at the way the world looks at things and desiring the things that the world desires, and now he wants nothing more but to do what God wants him to do. And everything else is so much less important. The Lord wants people to see that in his followers, so that they might also want it. He wants people to see in his children how much they love one another. Remember, Jesus says in John 13, I think it’s about verses 35 and 36.

I give you a new commandment that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, men will know that you are my disciples, that you have this love for one another. He wants people to see that. He wants people to see in his children that they are industrious, that they are uncomplaining, that they are content, that they are patient, that they are so many things that we find a directive for here in the Word of God. He wants people to see that. And he also wants people to see that these people have those qualities, not because they have suddenly awakened one morning and thought, you know, I really should be this way. But they have them because they understand that God wants them to have them.

God wants them to be that way. God wants people to see that in us. All of that he wants them to see in us. This is what brings glory to him. It is in fact one of the great purposes of the church to show the wisdom of God. Look, if you would, in Ephesians chapter 3. In Ephesians chapter 3, starting in verse 8. Here the Apostle Paul says, to me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. The manifold wisdom of God is made known through the church. The wisdom of God in saving men, the wisdom of God in transforming man can be seen, at least it should, be able to be seen in those who are members of the church, those who are Christian. Here again, now God wants people to see that. But others are only going to see that in the church if the church is what it ought to be, if it’s trying to be what it ought to be. So God’s people are exhorted over and over and over in scriptures, example after example after example, to be good examples. We’ve looked at Matthew 5 already, 1 Peter chapter 2, and in verse 12, says, Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of the visitation.

3. Brethren Are Watching Us

Well, let’s narrow that focus a little bit. We know that people are watching. Among those people who are watching, a smaller group of people, but people nevertheless is brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, are also watching us. They see how we live. Turn your Bible if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. 1 Corinthians chapter 8. As the gospel of Jesus Christ spread throughout the ancient world from Jerusalem where it began, it came into areas largely due to the work of the Apostle Paul and some others, into pagan areas, into cities where there were pagan temples. People served pagan gods, Corinth was such a place.

This could be a problem for those who became Christians in this area. And the Apostle Paul addresses this starting in verse 4 here, chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians. Notice what he says. Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through him. However, not all men have this knowledge. But some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled.

But food will not commend us to God. We are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Now I picked this passage because of verse 10, obviously. For if someone sees you who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience if it is weak.

Be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols. I want to make sure we understand the situation here. Paul has made it very clear, there are no idols. There’s no such thing as an idol. A meat that is sacrificed to an idol, they think it’s sacrificed to get to an idol. That idol doesn’t exist. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with eating that meat. Nothing wrong with it at all. But here we have this brother in Christ. Maybe he is a former pagan. He used to do this. He used to offer these kinds of sacrifices to the idol. Now he knows that there’s one true God, and he worships that God. And he tries to live his life according to how God would have him deliver it. He knows that false gods are abomination to the true God.

And he sees one of his brethren eating in a pagan temple, eating meat that had been dedicated to, sacrificed to an idol. And so he starts to wonder, well, wow, maybe. Maybe I don’t have that right. Maybe it’s okay. Oh, but that would be a terrible thing. But my brother did it. And so he is kind of encouraged, he’s kind of emboldened, he’s kind of persuaded, maybe even to do it himself, even though his conscience is going to bother him if he does that. Well, that brother doesn’t understand the truth. We understand that. He doesn’t have it quite right. He’s still growing in grace and knowledge. He’ll get there, perhaps. But the point is, what about the brother who he saw? Is that brother doing anything wrong?

No, not technically. And yet, because of what this other brother saw. Paul uses this language, verse 12, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak. You sin against Christ. Now, we’re Christians, and we do something wrong, and our brother sees that, then we’re certainly going to have a negative effect on them. Paul says here, sometimes even something that is not sinful, depending on the situation, might be a sin as well. What should be the lesson for us then? We need to recognize that our brethren are watching us. They see what we do, they see how we talk, they see how we dress, they see the things that we’re involved in, the things that we won’t be involved in. They are seeing those things, and we need to put them ahead of ourselves.

But I don’t want to put anybody ahead of myself. I’m my own person. No, we’re not our own person. We belong to Jesus Christ. If we don’t belong to Jesus Christ, then we got a whole other problem. But if we belong to him, then our brother has to come ahead of ourselves. And someone will say to me, and you’re quite right if you say this, but yeah, but listen, we don’t have that problem. We don’t have any pagan temples around here in Houston. You haven’t built any in the last year and a half, have you? We don’t have this kind of problem. Pagan temples offered meat sacrificed to idols, the dining halls there where people can eat the meat. We can’t do that yet. We can’t commit this sin.

It’s not a problem. Okay, I’ll grant you that. So let’s try to find another example that maybe illustrates the principle that we should apply. And when I think about this idea of someone is watching, the most obvious thing that comes to me is how we dress. When we first walk out our door in the morning, people see how we are dressed. Now, how is it that the world chooses what they’re going to wear? Well, there are a handful of reasons, of course. Some people will choose something to wear because well, because they think it makes them look a little edgy. And that’s the look that they’re shooting for. Some people will take something that they’ll put it on because they this is a professional look. I’m shooting for this.

Someone else will pick something else to wear because this says I’m my own person. This says that I am me. I am in the no one is telling me what to do, you know. Ernie and Jan and I went to a restaurant for lunch, and our waitress. She had a look. I don’t know how well she thought it out. I mean, she was a she was a cute young lady, you know, but this was a look that seemed to be saying, or trying to say, you know, I’m just a little bit naughty. I’m just a little bit bad, you know. I’m gonna I’m gonna dress this way. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s kind of the look. Now, different reasons for choosing what we wear, but what’s the common denominator here?

It’s how it makes me look. That’s how I decide. It’s how it makes everybody, even if it’s innately, even if it’s unconscious, they understand that they’re dressing because they know people are gonna see them in this and they’re gonna react in a certain kind of way. Well, Christians are no different. When we choose the things that we wear, we also have to give consideration to how we’re going to look to others. Someone may say, oh no, I just picked something because I think it looks good on me. Well, you don’t look at yourself all day. You say it looks good on you what you’re saying. I think other people will look at me and they’ll like the way that I look. That’s what it is.

But how should we think about this? Well, I want to wear what I want to wear, or what’s the best thing for me to wear in terms of what God would have me look like. I think we struggle with this principle sometimes. I think we struggle with it, and I think maybe especially when we’re younger, we struggle with it. I’m not pointing fingers, okay. I just I think sometimes we want to look like everybody else. We want to be, you know, in fashion, we want to be this, we want to be that, but what we ought to want more than anything is to be godly. And what we really need to do when we’re thinking about what we’re going to wear is this something that the Lord will look at and be pleased with.

If it passes that test, and if it passes the test of my brother, is my brother gonna be okay with this, then that’s that’s a good thing. But we have to think about the fact that people are watching. It’s an inescapable thing. We know it. We’re already aware of it, but we really have to give it very careful thought, especially in things like what we wear and the places where we’re willing to go, the things that we’re willing to do. Because people do see, and then they react sometimes according to what they see. And so I will say to you, young people and older people, you know, let’s make sure we don’t try to look edgy or a little naughty or a little whatever. Let’s try to err.

4. We Need to Be Watching

If we’re going to err on the other side. And let’s try as best as we can so that when people see us, they’re going to say to themselves, well, that’s the person who’s trying to live a certain kind of lifestyle. That’s what we want them to see. That’s a person who seems to be a religious person. That’s what we want them to see. That’s a person who’s trying to serve God. That’s what we want them to see. It’s very important. God is watching, but there are other people watching too. And of course, all of that would lead us to here. We need to be watching. Turn, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4, starting in verse 23.

Watch over your heart with all diligence. For from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put devious speech far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left. Turn your foot from evil. In the young people’s class we had on Sunday night, we talked a little bit about the idea of running the Christian race. And more than one comment was made at that at that study that, you know, it’s just so easy. It’s just so easy to kind of once you become a Christian and then you start going to church and you get you get you know a little accustomed to what happens at services and then you get a little accustomed to reading the Bible and you pray of just then starting to just get comfortable.

You know, well, I you know, I’ve I’ve pretty much gotten where I need to go now. And yet in the scriptures, we have admonition after admonition after admonition to watch. To be alert, to be circumspect. We have to watch. We know that other people are watching, so we have to watch ourselves. We have to examine ourselves. We cannot just be on autopilot and just kind of go through life. Well, I’ve obeyed the gospel, and I’m a regular churchgoer, and you know, well, I prepare for my Bible class sometimes. You know, I do a little bit of that. And, you know, that’s is there anything more really? I’ll talk to somebody about the gospel if I if they’ll let me, but you know.

It’s not a real intensive kind of thing. Yeah, it’s supposed to be. We should be proactive in doing what God would have us to do. We can’t just be asleep. We have to be alert, we have to watch. And in 2 John. The Apostle John says these words. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. I’ll give you the second part I did. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. Okay. Well, we abide in the teaching. But it’s so easy to get out of that if we don’t pay attention to what we’re doing.

We have to watch. We have to be careful. We have to stay alert. And so God is watching. And people are watching, but we also have to watch. We have to watch carefully. And let’s use that knowledge that God is watching and that others are watching to motivate us to do that. I don’t want to do anything that might cause my brother to stumble. That would be bad for him. It’s also going to be bad for me. I don’t want to do anything that God looks at me and says, Oh, no. No, not that. I need to be aware that he’s watching. That’s going to help me to watch the things that I do. So get your song books out, if you would. We’ve already made the point that knowing that we’re being watched ought to make us careful in the way that we live.

Conclusion

But I will say to you that some people take the opposite approach. Some people who become cognizant of the fact that there are an awful lot of people out there, and people do see what we’re doing. It makes them take the other direction. They simply try that much harder not to be seen. They still want to do what they want to do, to go where they want to go, to dress how they want to dress, and they just try even harder not to let anybody know what’s happening to them. Even if it costs them relationships, they don’t care. They’re gonna hide. The thing is, maybe we can hide from other people. Maybe we can kind of hide things from them, but we can’t hide things from God.

The Apostle Paul says something very clearly in the book of Galatians. In Galatians chapter 6 and verse 7, he says, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. So with that verse in mind, I want to ask all of us to just think for a moment. Everybody. God is watching right now. What does he see in me? What does he see when he’s looking at me? What does he see when he’s looking at you? Are there things that he sees there that are pleasing to him? That glorify him, that honor him. Are there things that he sees there that are not an honor to him? That in fact are disrespectful to him and to his cause and to his son and to his people.

Well, the answer, of course, has to be yes to both questions. He sees both of those things in all of us, I’m sure. We’re always going to have things that we need to work on. Not talking about that. We need to keep working on those things. But maybe there’s someone here tonight who you know that when God looks at you, he does not see someone who’s obeyed the gospel. He does not see someone who has made a confession to other people that they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He’s looking at a person who is not turned away from sin in their life yet, not made a real effort to try and be what God wants them to be, and they haven’t been baptized.

And so he sees someone who is not in his son. Now, if that’s what God is seeing in you right now, maybe nobody else knows that. But God knows it and you know it. Why not take care of that this evening? Why not resolve this night to change that situation? You know that the Lord wants you to respond. You know he wants you to be a Christian. Why not tonight? Why not this night? As you walk out those doors, walk out as someone that God has his eye on, as one who belongs to him now. One of his children, one that he will watch from now on to support in all the ways that you need support. If you’re a Christian tonight and there are things in your life that, well, maybe there are a little bit more than just little things we need to work on.

But there’s some sin in our life. And we know it. Well, we know for sure then that God knows it, don’t we? He knows. What do we need to do about that? We need to turn away from that sin. Maybe it’s something that’s public in nature. I don’t know. Maybe there’s no one here who fits that category. I don’t know. But you know if you are here in that situation. If there’s something we could do to help you, to set that sin aside and to come back so that when God looks at you, he sees one whose robes are washed clean. Someone who’s pure in his life. Someone who belongs to his son. Then why not make that decision tonight? Make it happen tonight. You can do it this evening.

If we need to pray for you and with you, we’d be happy to do that, to hear some confession of wrongdoing and hear of your desire to turn away from that. We’d be happy to do that. Whatever your need might be. As we sing this song, we’re going to be watching. And God’s going to be watching. So let’s let Him watch us. Honor Him. You need to respond. Honor Him in that way. Walk together. We stand and sing the song earning selection.

But if you walk with Him for you to carry your love.

To be float can clean your heart and make you free.

Can feel your soul and you will see what for he and to happy to play with sea. Would you in his kingdom find the place of the ground? Would you prove his heart of speech for it?

Would you win his server cleaning her law? We ask your way.