Will-He-Spew-You-Out Part 1

Thank you for those lovely songs. One of my favorites about the old violin, oh yes. The touch of the master's hand, what a blessing that is.

Yes, amen. Glad to see you all tonight. I'm so glad you children brought your parents along.

That's a blessing. Let's see here, may I have this one? Alright, see if I can get it out there. Okay.

So, I'm going to need two volunteers tonight and you don't have to drink coffee, okay? That's not part of the story. So why don't we get one from over here, let's say anywhere from 6 to 12. One over on this side.

Anybody ready to go? How about over here? Yes, okay, you may come. And we need one more. You're not going to have to do anything hard tonight.

It's going to be real easy. Yes, alright. And let's see, I think you were up here before.

Alright, good, good, welcome. And let's see, what's your name? Dennis. Darius.

Darius. Is that right? Okay, Darius, good. And you are? Michaela.

Michaela. Were you here before one time? Good for you. I like that.

Yes, alright. Tonight, tonight, Darius and Michaela, we're going to learn something about God, and we're going to actually learn about God's eyes. There, can you hold that one? Look at that now.

Ah, yes, look at that. Darius, God's eyes. We're going to learn what the Bible teaches about our heavenly father, our almighty God, and his eyes.

It tells us in 2 Chronicles 16.9, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. So God is up in heaven, and his eyes are running to and fro across the whole earth to show himself strong. So he's up there, and he's looking, and he's looking to see where's that person whose heart is perfect.

Oh, there I see one. There's another one. Oh, and it makes his heart so happy.

His eyes are going to and fro across the whole earth looking for that one whose heart is toward the Lord, and they love the Lord. He's looking for those whose heart is trusting him and whose hearts are turned toward him. Isn't that wonderful? The eyes of the Lord, they are looking.

Now God is so mighty and so strong, he doesn't need binoculars to see all the way from heaven to us. Isn't that amazing? But if I want to really see something, I need binoculars. Oh, that brings that man right in front of me.

Yes. Wow. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.

The Lord is watching everywhere. He's keeping his eye on us. Isn't that amazing? God in heaven is keeping his eye on us, and he sees every one of us.

He's watching. Can anybody go to where God can't see? Did you ever play hide and seek? Yeah, and you try to hide from him. They can't find you.

They can't see you, you know. But do you think anybody can go where God can't see them? You think they can? You think they can hide where God can't see them? Well, let's see what the Bible says. It says in Psalm 139, Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend all the way up into the heavens, as far as I can go, oh, God is there.

And if I should go down into the lowest part of the earth, down into hell, he calls it even, he says, even there God is. And God is everywhere. Then he says, well, if I take the wings of the morning, and if I could fly like the strongest eagle or the strongest bird, and I'd fly way out into the ocean, into the uttermost parts of the ocean.

You know, the ocean's really big. Ocean is really, really big. It's hard to describe.

There's more ocean than land. So you travel all the way from Pennsylvania to California, and you think, wow, we went really, really far. The ocean's much bigger than that even.

But do you know what he says? If I go to the uttermost part of the sea, all the way out into the ocean, Darius, he says, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Isn't that wonderful, Michaela, that God's hand is right there, no matter where we are in the ocean, on the mountain, in the valley, in the plain, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania. No matter where we are, God is there with us.

If I say, surely the darkness shall hide me. Hey, pull the lights once. Can you grab that cord? I forgot to tell you.

The darkness shall hide me. Oh, it's getting dark. The darkness shall hide me.

Surely God can't see me now. But plug them back in. Let's see what happens.

What does the word of God say? He says that the darkness is the same as the day. They're both alike to God. So even in the dark, God sees us.

That's very comforting, because we don't have to be afraid of the dark, because God sees us in the dark. You know, I asked you about playing hide and seek. When I had my little children still at home, and they were all young, oh, we loved to play hide and seek.

Darius, do you like to play hide and seek? Oh, that is so much fun. Do you like to play it in the dark sometimes? Yeah, when we turn the lights off, it's so much easier to hide, and people can't find us. And, oh, my, we used to turn the lights off in the house, and my children, all eight of us, and all eight of them, and mom and dad, we'd all get in and help, and we'd play hide and seek in the dark.

And whenever we'd ask our children, well, what do you want to do tonight? If there was a little bit not sure what to do, hey, let's play hide and seek in the dark. Do you like to play hide and seek in the dark? We played hide and seek in the dark, and, oh, we had so much fun. But you know what? Afterwards, we had to all help clean up, because we made the house a mess.

Some people pulled the covers off the couch, the blankets and, you know, and all this stuff, and hid under and pushed the couch a little bit forward so you could slip behind it, and under that table and everywhere. And, oh, we had so much fun. You know, the Bible tells us about the eyes of the Lord.

They are upon the righteous, and His ear is open to their cry. Our Heavenly Father is always watching over us, and He always sees us, and He cares for us. And you know what? Darius, I don't think there's anywhere you can hide that God can't see you.

Maybe you can hide that your brother or sister can't find you, or your mom and your dad, but you can't hide anywhere that God can't see you, because He can see us everywhere, and that's really comforting to know. That way we know that we are never alone. God is with us, and God sees us.

All right, thank you very much. Now, because you came up and helped me, you're going to get another eyeball, and you're going to get another eyeball. There you go.

Thank you very much. Now, all the rest of you from age 1 to 12, come up and get your balls. Come real quick.

Yes, come and get your balls. 1 to 12, get your balls. Mom, if you need to help him to get them, that's okay.

Well, why not? Tommy can have two. I guess if Tommy has two, then the others should as well. All right, because we have two eyeballs, don't we? Yeah, we have two eyes.

We want to see with both eyes, right? We want to see real good. Oh, you lost your eye. That's too bad.

Can you get another one? All right, you may get another one. Okay, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous. Hey, do we still have some balls left? We do? All right, ages 13 to 19, come get your balls.

I don't want to have to throw them at you. Come get your balls. 13 to 19, all the teenagers.

How many teenagers do we have? Come and get your balls. All right, all right. Wow, are we going to have enough? Or did I spread myself a little thin? Or do we still have some? Okay, we got a few here yet, just a few.

So who's going to get those last few? I wonder. Yes! Whoa! There you go. You can have that one.

You want it? Throw it. He says throw it. Okay, we'll throw it.

See if I can throw hard enough. There we go. And one over there yet.

Yes! Oh, you're good at the catch. All right, very good. Hey, there's a few more here yet.

I thought we were done. Okay, so we'll have a lot of fun playing hide and seek. And when we see these balls, we're going to remember that the eyes of the Lord are in every place.

Come on, Dad, keep your eyes open. There's one for you. All right, yes.

And if you have too many, you can give them away to somebody else. Well, thank you so much. We love the children.

And Jesus loves the children, yes. Praise the Lord.