Good morning.  Last week we ended our look at some of the crime scenes from the Bible.  We have about 3 weeks until we run into a vacation Sunday, and our next Revival.  So, I tried to think of something that I could do that would last just 3 weeks.  Finally, I found 3 interesting children’s songs that we are going to take a look at over the next few weeks.  Today, we begin with, “Be Careful Little Eyes What You See.”

To start, I want you all to sing this song with me.  In case you have forgotten the song, don’t worry, it will be on the screen.  It may be a little different than what you are use to, but it will work for today.  So, let’s sing that song together.

Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see (repeat),
For the Father up above, is looking down in love,
Oh be careful little eyes what you see.

Oh, be careful little mouth, what you say (repeat),
For the Father up above, is looking down in love,
Oh be careful little mouth what you say.

Oh, be careful little hands, what you do (repeat),
For the Father up above, is looking down in love,
Oh be careful little hands what you do.

Oh, be careful little mind what you think (repeat),
For the Father up above, is looking down in love,
Oh be careful little mind, what you think.

I’ll open us up with a word of prayer, and then we will take a look at that song.  Let’s Pray!

In the 1950’s, the conventional wisdom of the day was that crime was caused by a person’s environment.  How they were raised, where they were raised, how poor they were, if they were mistreated, and so on.

A couple of psychologists believed that very philosophy, but there had never been a scientific study to confirm it, so they began a 17 year study involving thousands of hours of clinical testing of 250 inmates in Washington D.C. to prove it.

To their astonishment, they discovered that the cause of crime cannot be traced to environment, poverty, or oppression of criminals.  Instead, they found that crime is the result of individuals making, as they put it, wrong moral choices.

In 1977 they wrote a book where they documented their research called The Criminal Personality.  In that book, they concluded that the answer to crime is, “…a conversion of the wrong-doer to a more responsible lifestyle.”

So, in other words, the solution to crime is, “Be careful little eyes what you see.  Be careful little mouth what you say.  Be careful little hands what you do.  And, be careful little mind what you think.

Plain and simple, be careful!  That’s essentially what Paul is telling us in Ephesians 5.  He tells us to be careful.  Ephesians 5:15 says, “Be VERY careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

Be careful what you see, what you say, what you do, and what you think.  Don’t live as unwise people but as wise.  Make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Paul also says in Ephesians 5:6-7 that, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.  Therefore do not be partners with them.”

So, what is it that these people are doing that makes Paul so unhappy with them.  What is it that they are doing, that we ought not to do?

Let’s look first at Ephesians 5:4, “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.”  Well, there is our, “Be careful little mouth what you say.”

Gregg, a preacher in Monticello, Indiana tells the story of when he was a child.  He and his brother Scott walked into the local barber shop.  It was crowded, so, they took seats sort of behind the door where they walked in, sat down, and started reading comic books.

A few minutes later, a guy walked in and just started cussing and swearing.  To Gregg’s surprise, it was one of the guys from his church.  Initially the man never saw Gregg or his bother, and he soon sat down on the other side of the room.  And he proceeded to tell one dirty story after another using curse words and the Lord’s name in vain; and Gregg and his brother were just beside themselves as they listened.

Now this man wasn’t an elder or deacon, but he had been someone Gregg and his brother looked up to and respected.  This very same man had also gone up front before the church just the previous Sunday to sing a very touching special.  He had a beautiful voice, but a corrupt mouth.

When he finally realized Gregg and Scott were there, he apologized; but, wrote Gregg, “I never thought the same of him ever again after that.”

I’m told that Billy Graham was once traveling in an airplane, and found himself seated next to a fairly rude salesman.  The man used curse words on a fairly regular basis.  Graham finally turned to him and asked, “Are you paid anything for all the swearing you do?”

The salesman was startled but he finally replied, “No, I do it for nothing.”  “Nothing?” cried Graham.  “You certainly work cheap!  You throw aside your character as a gentleman, inflict pain on your friends, break the Lord’s commandments, and endanger your own soul, and you do all that for nothing!  You certainly do work cheap, too cheap!”
Jesus said in Matthew 12:35-36, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every CARELESS WORD they have spoken.”

Now, you may think that a few curse words, a couple of dirty jokes, or using the Lord’s name in vain don’t mean anything, but they do.  Whether you tell them at the barber shop, on a trip, or in an e-mail to friends, you really don’t want to do that sort of thing.  So be careful little mouth what you say.

Next, let’s look at Ephesians 5:3, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.”  There is our, “Be careful little hands what you do.”

A couple of years ago, the Barna Research organization did a survey.  They interviewed young adults between the ages of 20 and 40 and found that:
· More than 2/3 of those interviewed said “living together” was morally acceptable.
· Most of these young adults contended engaging in sex outside of marriage was NOT

  morally wrong.
· Almost half of those interviewed believed sexual relationships between people of the

  same sex were acceptable.

· Over ½ of these young adults said they did NOT follow a set of principles or guidelines

   when making moral and ethical choices.
· And nearly half of them believed ethics and morals are based on “what is right for the

  person.”

Paul tells us, as Christians, we can’t live that way.  We are called to be a holy people.  Living like that would be improper for us.  In fact, it would be dangerous for us.

People who live the way a lot of those people interviewed by Barna live make God angry.  They make Him mad.  Ephesians 5:6 says, “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things GOD’S WRATH comes on those who are disobedient.”

Now, before we get all high and mighty about that, Ephesians 2:3 tells us that, “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”

The only thing that separates us from the judgment God will bring on others is the blood of Jesus Christ.  It is God’s mercy alone that will save us.  Not our good deeds, now how good of a person we might be, not even the fact that we go to church.  The only thing that is going to save us is God’s grace.

But now that we have received salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, now God expects us to live differently than others do.  We’ve been bought with a price and we are not our own.

God wants us to be careful, to be very careful how we live.  So, how are we going to do that?  How can we live our lives “carefully?”  Well, we can begin by being careful little minds what you think.

In Ephesians 5:1 Paul says that we should, “Be imitators of God…”  We not only want to live our lives a certain way, we need to think like God thinks.  As Ephesians 5:10 says, we need to, “… find out what pleases the Lord.”

Well, we know what DOESN’T please Him.  Things like cursing, foul jokes, using His name in vain, and things like that.  And things like living together, and viewing things that we shouldn’t see, and being greedy, and other things like that.  Those things we know God doesn’t like.

But thinking like God, there’s got to be more to it than what we don’t do, isn’t there?  Looking again at Ephesians 5:17-18 it says, “Therefore (because we need to be careful), do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”  That is where the thinking part comes in.  Then Paul goes on to say the oddest thing.  “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.  Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

That doesn’t make any sense does it?  Well, yes it does.  Have you ever seen a drunk?  How can you tell they’re drunk?  You can usually see it in the way they talk, the way they walk, the way they think, and the way they act.  But why do they walk, and talk, and do the things they do?  They do that because they are controlled by the alcohol.  The alcohol dictates how they behave and how they think.

In the same way, we as Christians, should be so controlled by the Spirit of God that every aspect of our lives is under God’s control.  The spirit of God should control how we think, how we talk, how we walk, and how we act.

So, how can I make sure that God’s Spirit controls me like that?

Before we explore that, we need to backtrack a little and revisit some Bible truths about your relationship with God’s Spirit.

As a Christian you already have God’s Spirit residing in you.  Peter told the crowd at Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

So, if you have believed in Jesus, repented of your sins, and been baptized for the forgiveness of you sins, then God’s Spirit is inside of you.  In fact, you can’t be a Christian unless you have the Holy Spirit living in you.  Romans 8:9 says, “…if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
But Ephesians 5 teaches us that God’s Spirit should do more than just live inside of us.  He should also control us.  He should fill every aspect of our lives.  Now, if that is the case, then how can we get Him to do that?  How do we get God’s Spirit to control our lives?

Well, I guess it boils down to, be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little mouth what you say, be careful little hands what you do, and be careful little mind what you think.

Now, you might say, “That’s too simple.”  And yes, it is.  God never intended for it to be complicated.  So, God made it simple.  As simple as a little child’s Sunday School song.  If you want God’s Spirit to dwell in you, then you have to make your heart a comfortable place for Him to be.

If He’s not comfortable, you won’t be either, because when the Spirit dwells comfortably within us, He makes us comfortable.  In fact, He’s called the great comforter.

In John 14:26 in the King James Version of the Bible, Jesus Himself says, “But THE COMFORTER, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Now, part of the reason God’s Spirit dwells within us is to bring us God’s comfort because God loves us.  Do you remember the song we started with?  Be careful little eyes what you see.  Be careful little mouth what you say.  Be careful little hands what you do.  Be careful little mind what you think.

Why? Why does the song say we need to be careful?  “For the Father up above is looking down in love.”

The Bible is filled with instructions about what we should do and should not do in our lives.  It tells us repeatedly to be careful what see, what we say, what we do, and what we think.  Why?  Because God cares about us and He is looking down in love.

Ben Franklin once observed, “Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, it is forbidden because it is hurtful.”

God hates sin, but He loves us.  In fact, “He loves us so much, that He gave His one and only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

So, be careful little eyes what you see.  Be careful little mouth what you say.  Be careful little hands what you do.  And be careful little mind what you think.  For the Father up above is looking down in love.  So “Be VERY careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise…”                                                            Let’s Pray!