He Only Has Eyes for You

He Only Has Eyes for You

[Machine transcription]

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text is the Old Testament reading that you’ve heard read. You may be seated.

Surely you’ve heard of the song, “I Only Have Eyes for You.” I’m not going to sing it to you because I quite can’t get the pitch in my head. Amen. But I do want to challenge you. How old do you think that song is? What year do you think that song, “I Only Have Eyes for You,” was composed or written? 30 years ago? 60 years ago? You will be very surprised. It was written 81 years ago. Now, granted, Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra and even Art Garfunkel have made it very famous in their renditions of “I Only Have Eyes for You.” But it was written 81 years ago. Hard to believe.

In it, the lover talks about his beloved as being the only thing that his eyes can fix upon. Everything else fades from view as he only has eyes for you, focusing in on her and her alone. And nobody or anything else comes in between him and his beloved.

Now, another love song was written about you. And it was written over 2,600 years ago through the prophet Isaiah. This evening’s Old Testament reading. And in it, God talks about loving you. And the word “you” that’s mentioned 25 times in just those seven verses is not plural. For you Texans, that would be “y’all.” For everyone else, it’s “youse guys.” However, it is singular. The word is singular in all of those 25 cases in Isaiah 43:1-7, because it is all about you. He is the lover, you are his beloved, and you draw all of your definition from him. It is he who gives you value, and it is he who gives you worth.

Yet, you and I are surrounded by voices that say the opposite to us. These voices come to us through our television screens, our iPads, laptops, and computers, the printed media, and these voices describe something else that has value or worth, and either it portrays something to us that is far beyond our reach, far more perfect of a family, far more obedient of children, far more glamorous of a job and better paying. All of these things are foisted upon us by these voices, leaving us saying, where’s our value and worth for just an average guy or an average gal?

Well, hold on. The voices are also for that side of you, too. You see, the other side of the voices is you get to watch television shows and such that you look at the person on the show most to lose, and you think, my goodness, I don’t have 200 pounds to lose. And so you come away from that voice saying, I’m not that bad. You watch the show about hoarders and you come away from that thinking, man, I save stuff, but nothing like that old boy. You can’t even get through his house. I’m not as bad as they are.

And then you watch the talk shows, like Jerry Springer and those with Phil, and you see all these dysfunctional couples and parents, and you think, my goodness, I’m much better than they are. I’m not as bad as they are. So the voices that we draw our worth from are always assaulting us, telling us either we don’t have it all together and we just need to be more diligent, disciplined, and educated about it, or it tells us the other, turning us into self-righteousness.

It was the people of Israel… who the people of Babylon took into their culture, stripping them of everything that defined them in the Holy Land. Took them away from their homes and their place of worship and their synagogues. Assimilated them into their culture, integrated them into their way of thinking. And how long were they there? Oh yeah, 70 years. Giving them ample time to break them down as to where they found their value and worth as well.

Kind of like you and me living in this culture. Far cry different than when we were little boys and little girls, isn’t it? And it seeks to pull us away from where we ought to be deriving our value and worth—not from what we see or from what we hear, but from God.

Well, then let’s not stop there because Satan doesn’t want to let a scab alone. He loves to pick them. And Satan picks your scab for you to find value and worth in your family. Right? Because your family has obtained something of notoriety or an economic status. Satan tempts you to take worth and value in your marriage. And your spouse doesn’t get you to heaven. Jesus gets you to heaven.

Or you take pride in your children because they’re a cut above. There’s a lot of children in hell who are a cut above, and a lot of children in heaven who were hellions in this world. None of these are where we find our value or our worth. And we can’t say, like Satan loves to do, “Well, if only, if only I had a husband like, if only I had a wife like, if only I had children like, if only I had a church like, if only I had a pastor like, if only I had parishioners like.” None of those are where we derive our value or worth, are they? But boy, are they thrust at us and shoved upon us for us to think that is where value is to be found.

Value, first and foremost, is based on ownership. Let’s say I had a ’67 convertible Mustang. Beautiful one. Let’s say it was in a car sale along with a car exactly like it— a ’67 convertible Mustang. But it was owned not by me, but by Steve McQueen. Which one would get a better offer? Yep, I might as well pull that one, wouldn’t I? Who owns you gives you value. The price that something is paid for gives it value. The baseball that you caught at a Rangers or an Astros game may not be worth much, but if it was hit by a certain person… then people are going to pay for it a lot, like that Mustang that’s owned by Steve McQueen.

The other part of value and worth comes in how much someone is willing to pay for it. And what was it on? It’s been years since that goofy pancake in the shape of the Madonna or Jesus? Okay, you guys don’t remember, but it was something like that, that someone paid a whole bunch of money for. Crazy. Crazy.

You’ve heard of the term, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Who looks upon you and calls you beautiful? Not this world, not those voices, not Satan, and not within your own bosom. There’s only one person who calls you beautiful, and it is he who paid the price for you. God owns you. God paid not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death to make you his own.

What is your value in his eyes? Insurmountably immense. Listen again to all of these short phrases that contain the word “you” in this text. And remember, he’s talking about you, his beloved.

He who created you. He who formed you. I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. I will be with you. Nothing shall overwhelm you. The flame shall not consume you. I am the Lord, your God, your Savior. You are precious in my eyes. You are honored in my eyes. I love you. I am with you. I will bring your offspring. I will gather you.

That’s where your value and worth comes from, dear brothers and sisters. Sadly, in today’s world, there is this thought that we need to give children more self-esteem. Maybe you can say, I didn’t get enough self-esteem. Your esteem ought not to come from anyone else than from your God, who alone paid your price and called you his child forever, and bought you as his bride. Not from your children. Not from your marriage. Not from your job. Not from your retirement. Not from your family. Not from your friends. From your God.

It is he who owns you. He alone has eyes for you. But not just eyes. He has hands. And he has feet for you, for they were pierced for you, weren’t they? And he not only has hands and feet and eyes, he also has a head that was crowned, not with gold or silver, but with thorns for you. He not only has a head and hands and feet, but a side that was riven and outflowed blood and water for you, that you would be his beloved, redeemed by him.

And he has a heart for you, burning in his bosom as he died and was abandoned by the Father for you. He has ears for you. He loves to hear you pray to him. He loves to hear you complain to him. He loves to hear you cry out to him and sing his praises. He has a mouth for you. He loves to speak and whisper tenderly in your ear, telling you, “You’re my special daughter. You’re my beloved son. You are mine. I love you.”

And besides all of that, besides that he has eyes for you, he has a body and a blood for you, that you would eat and drink him and be made more certain and sure that his beloved is you.

You singular, you individual, you alone. That’s where we draw our value and our worth from. Resist this world, dear brothers and sisters, and its voices that cry out to you something other than God’s proclamation. Hearken unto the voice of your owner. Let him tell you again and assign you value and worth, for he only has eyes for you.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.