- Sermon - Mickey Anders

"The Eyes of the Lord"

By Dr. Mickey Anders

First Christian Church

Pikeville, Kentucky

April 25, 2004

For today's Scripture I have combined three texts from the section we are currently reading in our adventure of reading through the Bible in a year, but I will be using 2 Chronicles 7:14 for the outline.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is a favorite verse for those who appeal for a spiritual revival in our country.

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

This text can apply to anybody in any country. When we humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face and turn from our wicked ways, God does forgive and heal.

The first thing this verse tells us to do is to humble ourselves. Humility is not always a popular topic or one that is easy to understand.

Last Wednesday our men's group studied the 2nd chapter of Philippians which is one of the great passages on humility and one of the most important passages in the Bible. In it, Paul quotes what was probably a well-known hymn used in the first century churches.

3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Our men confessed that this is a hard message. Most of us have been taught that we should not regard other people as better than ourselves. But we must remember that Jesus set the example of the Suffering Servant, and his view of real leadership was Servant Leadership. Those who serve are the real leaders.

5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

If Jesus humbled himself, then his followers must humble themselves too. Jesus taught his disciples to wash one another's feet, a symbolic act of servanthood. This is the path to true leadership in the Kingdom of God.

One of the best stories I have found on humility was told by an Episcopal lay priest named Garett Keizer. He tells the story about a man known as Cure d' Ars, eventually known as St. John Vianney.

St. John Vianney was an "uneducated and irritatingly zealous" rural priest, but a man of great humility. At one point in his ministry a number of his flock began circulating a petition declaring him "unfit" to hold his post. Most of us would be devastated to learn of such a petition.

When this priest learned of the petition, he was eager to get his hands on the petition. When he finally tracked it down and had it before him, he signed the petition himself. He also felt that he was "unfit" to hold his position. (1)

I suspect that any of us who are ministers or elders in a local church, if we are completely honest about our own sinfulness, would have that same attitude. In the first church I served as pastor, a wizened old farmer was chair of the nominating committee. When he approached someone to ask if they would serve in one of the key leadership positions in the church, he often heard the comment, "I couldn't accept that job because I don't feel worthy of it." The old farmer always replied, "That's Okay, we want you to consider it anyway because we wouldn't want you if you did feel worthy!"

Church historian Roberta C. Bondi teaches at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. One of her courses is called "Theology and the Christian Life in the Early Church." As a part of the course, she requires every student to commit to prayer. She says:

"I ask everybody to include three elements in their prayer. One is some portion of scripture every day. I explain to them the Liturgy of the Hours, and how the backbone of monastic prayer was the psalms. The other part of their prayer is conversation with God in which they really speak their minds. We talk about the things that make it difficult to speak our minds to God, especially about being afraid of God. The third part of their prayer is silence: just sitting in God's presence without saying anything or having any expectations of God or of themselves. I call it kitchen table prayer - just spending time with God as we spend time with a friend without talking." (2)

Here I want to bring in one of the other verses I have chosen for today - 2 Chronicles 15:2-4, which says:

"The Lord is with you, while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you. For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them."

I love that line, "The Lord is with you, while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you."

Photographer Jan Phillips published a book entitled God is at Eye Level: Photography as a Healing Art. She tells of a trip to Fire Island in an attempt to find some wildlife to photograph for the book. Then she says, "I was meandering along the wooden boardwalk and heard a strange clippety-clop sound behind me. Imagining it was someone in high heels, I never bothered to look back. The sound got louder and louder, as if the person were trying to catch up to me. When I finally turned around to see who was following me, I was stunned to see a whitetail fawn at my heels, looking up at me as if we belonged together. I held out my hand, and she nuzzled her wet little nose into my palm and followed me lovingly back into the woods. I had been looking intently for signs of life, and here was the wildest life of all, hot on my trail."

That's the way it is with God. When we seek him, he will be found. We find that God is hot on our trail.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face…

In my Introduction to the New Testament class we have talked a lot about a new word for them – "antinomianism." Most of do not know the word either, but we have often seen it practiced. The word means, "The belief and practice of certain early Christian groups who argued that faith in Christ absolves the believer from obeying moral laws."

In Paul's day, he often did battle against those people in the churches who said something like this, "If you have faith in your heart, then it doesn't matter how you live. Have faith and then you can live like the devil!"

In Galatians 5:13, Paul says, "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence…" Then Paul makes a list of them, "19Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Then a couple of verses later he gives a famous list of positive behaviors which we should have, "22By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things."

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways…"

What happens after we have done all this? 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, "then I will hear from heaven…"

Here is where I want to pick the third verse used in our Scripture for the day - 2 Chronicles 16:9, which says, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him."

God responds to our humility, prayer, seeking and turning from wickedness. God is looking, watching, seeing all that we do.

A quick search through the Bible reveals several times that the eyes of the Lord are mentioned.

Psalm 5:21 says, "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry."

Proverbs 15:3 says, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good."

Proverbs 5:21 says, "For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord, and he examines all their paths."

God sees us. Our ways are under the eyes of the Lord and God takes note of our behavior. God knows when we turn from our wicked ways.

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven…"

2 Chronicles 7:14 ends with "… and will forgive their sin and heal their land." I like the way 2 Chronicles 16:9 put it, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him."

God wants to forgive, heal and strengthen. The great theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said,

"Nothing worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.

Nothing which is beautiful or true or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone, therefore we are saved by love.

No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness." (4)

God will forgive our sin, heal our land, and strengthen those whose heart is true to him!

But we may protest saying, "But when I was wicked I was very wicked. No, I am not worthy. God will not forgive the likes of me. He might heal others, but not me. And he will strengthen someone else's heart, but not mine."

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of two hundred people, he asked, "Who would like to have this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up all over the room. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up in his hand.

"Well," he replied, "what if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty.

He gave the $20 bill to one of the participants and concluded, "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20 to you. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him."

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

2) http://www.religion-online.org/cgi-bin/relsearchd.dll/showarticle?item_id=302, Retrieved 9/15/2002.