Someone is Watching You
Psst… Someone is watching you while you’re reading this.
Big Tech’s endless appetite for your attention fuels constant investigation into your reading, listening, searching, and scrolling habits.
Big Tech knows more about you than you want to admit.
It is best to assume that Big Brother, excuse me, Big Tech, is always watching.
Many people are making deliberate efforts to take back their privacy.
I hate to break it to you, but your future does not involve privacy.
Despite what DuckDuckGo.com may promise, it’s impossible to live anonymously and privately in the digital age.
In fact, it has been impossible to be anonymous and private in every age.
The Lord Jesus taught His disciples that they should care more about integrity than privacy.
Jesus believed surveillance was not nearly as important as standing in the judgment.
Jesus knew we are all being watched.
Listen to the Lord’s instructions in Luke 12 as his disciples stand among thousands of people,
“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”
Jesus tells us a few things about hypocrisy:
Hypocrisy must be actively guarded against.
Hypocrisy can be infectious to a group.
Hypocrisy will be solved by exposure.
The leaders in Israel were playing a fool’s game to keep their reputation up for the moment. These leaders were ruining others by leading them in the short-sighted game of face-saving.
The Lord wants them to recognize that in the end, everything will be out in the open.
Exposure on the Final Day should empower the disciple of Christ to walk in integrity today.
Nothing will remain hidden. Nothing.
Your search history, text threads, private whispers… nothing!
The promise of exposure on the Final Day kills the allure of covering sin. There is no sin that you can successfully keep concealed!
Sin wants to stay in the dark. Sinners want to remain in the dark. No one wants their deeds exposed.
But they will be exposed nonetheless.
Christ calls people to exposure through repentance today so that they enjoy the light of the Final Day.
Your search history has two ends: exposure today or exposure on the Final Day.
Your gossip has two outcomes: exposure today or exposure on the Final Day.
Your flirting at work has two paths: exposure today or exposure on the Final Day.
I know many fears come to mind when you consider the cost of exposure today.
As a pastor, I’ve heard people caught in sin contrive every possible reason to keep covering up.
It seems our Lord knew that fear of man and fear of consequences would be a key to sin’s cover-up strategy:
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Let me press this in two ways:
You need to be far more concerned about God’s perspective of you than any other judge or jury.
You need to be far more confident in God’s provision for you than in anything that hypocrisy might offer.
You are invited through the Cross of Christ to watch sin die in the light of exposure because Jesus died for you!
You are empowered to live a life of repentant exposure of sin that will not fear the Final Day!
Will you embrace what Christ has won for you? Will you walk in integrity?
Will you live today in this world as God knows you to be and as the Final Day will reveal?
Reflect for a moment: What are you keeping covered? Will you bring into the Light today?
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John 3:19–21