Father Who Sees in Secret

The exhortation this morning is a little unusual. Normally we seek to move toward confession by reminding ourselves of our obligations before God. Remembering his commands and our responsibility reminds us of our failures, and leads us to confess our sins. But this morning, I want to lead us to confession with a simple phrase that struck me in my Bible reading in the gospel of Matthew a week ago. Here’s the phrase—your Father who sees in secret.

It’s from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus tells us to do our giving, our personal praying, and our fasting in a certain way, not practicing our righteousness before men, to be seen by them, but instead to practice our righteousness so that our Father, who sees in secret, will reward us. As I reflected and meditated on that phrase, I was struck by two things that both encouraged and challenged me.

First, it struck me that it takes effort for us to get other people to see our good deeds, to recognize our righteousness. And I don’t just mean in a sinful way, in order to be praised. I mean to be understood and known. I mean that there are times that you’re attempting to be faithful, you’re attempting to be noble, you’re attempting to love God and love others, and other people don’t recognize it. They just don’t see it. In fact, they may misunderstand it completely. They may misconstrue your intentions. They may misunderstand your actions. They may misrepresent who you are. You may wake up one day and discover, much to your surprise, that some people have a very different impression of you than you thought. And sometimes that impression isn’t true. Because it takes effort for us to get other people to see our good deeds and recognize our righteousness. And in those moments, it’s easy to be discouraged. It’s easy to want to justify ourselves, to rise up and set the record straight. But I want you to take heart from these simple words about who God is. He is your Father who sees in secret. He knows. He intimately knows your business. And he’s understood you completely. He sees the good deeds you’ve done when no one else did. And he won’t forget. They won’t get lost. He’s your Father, and he sees in secret.

But there’s another side to this as well. If God is a father who sees in secret, then he sees more than the good deeds and the noble intentions. He sees all the junk. He sees the mess. He sees the sin. He sees the pride that no one else does. He sees the bitter thoughts that run through your head. He sees the envy that has you by the throat. He sees the covetousness that seethes in your soul. He sees the ugly and shameful images that play on the screen of your imagination. He sees the anger that festers in the dark crevices of your heart. You may be able to hide those things from other people. Just as it takes effort for us to get other people to recognize our righteousness, it’s possible for us to hide our wickedness from them. But not from your Father who sees in secret. He knows. He intimately knows your business. And he’s understood you completely. There’s no hiding from him. You haven’t gotten away with it. He marks it all, with a meticulousness and detail that would astound you. He even sees the wickedness and the sin that you don’t see, the corruption that is so sly that it hides even from you.

This morning, I have no doubt that there are some of you who need to be encouraged that, though other people have misunderstood and misrepresented you, your Father sees in secret. And there are some of you who need to be exhorted that, though your sins may be hidden from other people, your Father sees in secret. And in either case, remember, he’s your Father. He’s not fundamentally your task master. He’s not fundamentally your critic. He’s your Father. He sees in secret. And he loves you anyway. And so let that little phrase—your Father who sees in secret—lead you into his presence this morning.

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins, so let’s seek him together.

Confession

Our Father in heaven, our Father who sees in secret, how easily we forget your all-seeing presence. How easily we forget that you are present everywhere and see everything, even to the bottom of our hearts. We confess that in our forgetfulness, we have grown proud and self-reliant. We have sought fundamental approval from men, practicing our righteousness before them in order to be seen by them. We have done this because we’ve forgotten that we are seen by you. Forgive us for this forgetfulness.

Even more than this, Father, we have sought to hide from you. In our foolishness, we have thought that we could get away with it, that we could evade your all-seeing eye. In our shame, we have hidden in the trees and covered ourselves with fig leaves. We confess that we are terrified of being known, of being exposed, of coming into the light. Forgive us for forgetting that you are our Father, and in that forgetfulness hiding from you.

Father, we know that if we in the church regard sin in our own midst our prayers will be ineffectual. So we confess our individual sins to you now.