Written Sermon by Pope Shenouda III on Sep 29, 2010 in Cairo : The Lord Before Me Always

The Lord Before Me Always. The Lord sees and hears everything.

† The spiritual person must keep the Lord before them at all times. Not only during prayer, not only in church or in any holy place, but before them at all times.

Elijah the Prophet 🔗

† I admire a statement made by Elijah the prophet when he spoke to Obadiah: “As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand,” (1 Kings 18:15 KJV). Elijah was not praying at that moment, nor was he in the temple, but he constantly felt that he was standing before God.

David the Prophet 🔗

† And David the prophet, when he was in distress, said, “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (Psalm 16:8 KJV). David knew and felt that the Lord was before him at all times.

† Likewise, when David sinned, he did not say, “I have sinned against Uriah the Hittite,” nor did he say, “I have sinned against Bathsheba,” but he said to the Lord in Psalm 51, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” The verse reads: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” (Psalm 51:4 KJV).

The Prodigal Son 🔗

† Also, the prodigal son, in his return to his father, said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” (Luke 15:21 KJV).

The Lord is before you at all times 🔗

† You are before God everywhere: in your home, in your work, in your bedroom, when you are with people, and when you are alone, even if you are in a closed room.

† For example, a chaste and modest girl is not only modest in front of people, but she is also modest in her own room, when she is alone. She is never in a wrong position. She feels that even when she is alone, the angels and the spirits of the saints see her, so she can never be in an immodest position before them.

† My beloved brothers, every person is naked and exposed before God. The Lord sees and hears them. He even sees what is in their mind, what is in their heart, and what is in their intention. He knows it all, in detail.

† So, if you speak badly about someone, know that you are standing before God, and He hears you, and it will be counted as a sin against you. And if you sin in the body, even if you are alone, God sees you. And you are sinning before God. And if you are a hypocrite, and what you show is different from what is inside you, know that God sees that. Before God, you are exposed and naked.

In the moment of sin, Satan makes you forget everything about God 🔗

† It is strange that a person cannot sin in front of people because they are ashamed of them. But they are not ashamed to sin before God. In the moment of sin, Satan makes a person forget everything about our Lord.

† Therefore, one of the saints said, “Every sin is preceded by lust, negligence, and forgetfulness.”

† Lust makes a person negligent and makes them forget everything. It makes them forget that they are before God. It makes them forget that they are a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells in them. It makes them forget communion, and it makes them forget the danger of sin and the punishment of sin, and it makes them forget God who sees and knows everything. And they only remember the sweetness of sin in their eyes.

† And Satan encourages a person to forget in the moment of sin, so they forget God’s kindness towards them, how much the Lord has been kind to them, and they stand before their conscience as an ingrate. Even during the sin, they forget that they will need God later, and they forget that they will ask God, and with what face will they ask Him?!

The Lord is before you while you sin 🔗

† The Psalm says about those who harm others, “They have not set God before them.” The verse reads: “They have not set God before them.” (Psalm 54:3 KJV). There is a person who devises a plan carefully in secret from all sides. And the plan fails because they did not put God before them. For God sees everything.

† The Lord Jesus says, “That which ye have spoken in the darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” (Luke 12:3 KJV).

† God sees every sin. He who is proud and arrogant, or who desires greatness, or who treats people with pride and forgets that they are dust and ashes, and forgets the story of Herod when he accepted greatness, and God sent an angel who struck him, and he died and was eaten by worms (Acts 12:23 KJV).

† We forget God and we forget that we are before Him, and therefore we sin.

The Lord says, “I know thy works” 🔗

† May every person put before them the word that the Lord said to each of the angels of the seven churches, the pastors of the churches, where He said, “I know thy works.” (Revelation 2:2, 13, 19 KJV; Revelation 3:1, 8, 15 KJV).

† The phrase “I know thy works” is a word that reassures and frightens at the same time.

† It reassures the person walking in the way of God, and it frightens the person who harms others or the person who sins in general.

† The person who walks in the fear of God hears the Lord saying to them, “I know thy works,” as He said to the angel of the church of Ephesus: “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:” (Revelation 2:2 KJV). And as He said to the angel of the church in Smyrna: “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” (Revelation 2:9 KJV)

† Our Lord says to every person: I know your good works and your bad works. I know them all. I know the good that you do in secret and do not want to take a reward for it from people, and I will reward you for it openly. As I know the sins that you hide and are ashamed for people to know.

† The Lord says to one of us: I know every good deed you do. And He says to another: “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” (Revelation 3:1 KJV) God knows.

† May we put God before us in every action we take. Because God hears and sees and knows our thoughts and knows our hearts from within and knows our intentions, so each of us must pay attention to this and be careful.

God is before you in tribulations 🔗

† Likewise, if you are in distress, put the Lord before you. As David said, “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (Psalm 16:8 KJV). In your tribulations, you can know that the Lord is before you, and I will give you examples of this:

† Jacob the Patriarch 🔗

Jacob the patriarch was fleeing from his brother Esau, and that was tiring him. And Esau said, “Then will I slay my brother Jacob.” (Genesis 27:41 KJV). (See more about this topic here on the St. Takla website in the articles and other books sections). And while Jacob was fleeing from his brother, God appeared to him at the top of the heavenly ladder connecting heaven and earth and said to him, “And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” (Genesis 28:15 KJV).

† God who stands before you protects you and delivers you from your enemies. As the Psalm says, “For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous;” (Psalm 125:3 KJV).

† And David feels this, so he says, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” (Psalm 23:1, 2 KJV).

He even says more than this, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4 KJV).

† The feeling that God is with a person does not make them fear at all. David says, “I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” The verses are: “In God I have put my trust: I will not be afraid what flesh can do unto me.” (Psalm 56:4 KJV), “In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.” (Psalm 56:11 KJV), “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?” (Psalm 118:6 KJV), “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” (Hebrews 13:6 KJV). As long as God exists and you see God before you, no one can trouble you.

† God said to Paul the Apostle, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee:” (Acts 18:9-10 KJV).

† And before the Red Sea, He said a word that Moses repeated, “The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” (Exodus 14:14 KJV).

The Lord is before you during prayer 🔗

† The Lord is not only before you during sin and during tribulation, but also the Lord is before you during prayer. There are those who pray and do not know what they are saying. And it is possible to say psalms without understanding them. Or a hymn without grasping its meaning. But the one who stands before God must understand every word they say before God. And also, as long as they know that they are before God, they are filled with reverence during prayer. Many pray without reverence because they do not feel that they are standing before God.

The Lord is before you during confession 🔗

† In confession, you are before God in confession. In fact, you confess to God in the hearing of the priest. And you receive absolution from the Holy Spirit from the mouth of the priest. The priest is merely a mediator between you and God. Therefore, the person who kneels during confession feels that they are kneeling before God.

And they feel that they are receiving absolution from God.

† Therefore, the priest also says in the liturgy about the people, “They are absolved from my mouth by your Holy Spirit,” meaning your Holy Spirit is the one who absolves them from my mouth. So, in the liturgy, we are standing before God.

May we feel that we are constantly before God.