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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/john-fitzpatrick/the-apple-of-thy-eye/
Let's take about 10 or 15 minutes of that. Deuteronomy, please. Chapter 32. Deuteronomy 32 and verse 10. And he found him in a desert land and in the waste howling wilderness. And he led him about. He instructed him.
Here's the phrase I wanted. He kept him as the apple of his eye. Psalm 17, please. Psalm 17 and verse 8. Eighth verse, 17th Psalm. Keep me as the apple of the eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy wings.
Proverbs, please. Chapter 7. Proverbs chapter 7 and verse 2. Keep my commandments and live on my law as the apple of thine eye. Lamentations, please. Chapter 2 and verse 18. Verse 18 of the second chapter of Lamentations.
I'm just going to read the last part of the verse. Give thyself no rest. Let not the apple of thine eye cease. And a final reading in Zechariah 2 and 8, please. Zechariah, just towards the close of your Bible.
Chapter 2 and verse 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts after the glory, hath he sent me unto the nations which spoileth you. For he that touches you touches the apple of his eye. Now, we know the Lord will bless what we've heard already on the reading of the good word of God.
Just a few simple little meditational thoughts. The apple of the eye is the little man of the eye. I asked Linda one time, I says, I have an experiment for you. I says, I want you to come up very close and I want you to look in my eye and tell me what you see.
She says, I see myself. I says, excellent. She says, that's all I need you for right now. You can go. Well, I don't know if she thought that was funny or not or so, but the apple of the eye is the little man of the eye.
But you know, when you get something in your eye, the only way to get it out is either by the physician or by water. And if something's in your eye, I've had metal in my eye from working, and the doctor told me, he says, now, you're going to have to go home and rest.
I told him, well, I've got meetings a week later. I never knew that when you have children and they get married, you all of a sudden have to help them on their home or something like that. So this little piece of metal got in my eye and he got it out.
And I says, well, I've got a meeting at the end of the week. He says, well, you better go with memory and with your heart. So you know what I learned? Good eye follows bad eye, and you don't want to read and you don't want to eat.
You don't want to do anything. The little eye, the bad eye is hurting and the good eyes, and they're all moving together. The Lord says, you're the apple of his eye. His well-beloved son, as we enjoyed this morning, remembering him that he loved us, he gave himself for us, as demonstrated at the place called Calvary, with the precious blood that's been shed, ransomed, redeemed, developed, but how you want, you're the apple of his eye.
And because you and I are the apple of his eye, you and I owe him everything. Simply clear, as we've heard on discipleship briefly this morning, as clear and as bold as could be. So I want to ask you a little question.
Is he the apple of your eye today? Is he sweeter as the years have moved by, if you want to develop it and label it that way? Then I come to Proverbs. Keep me as the apple of the eye. Linda said to me, what were you doing?
Well, I was looking out the window. Well, she says, you better start watching the road, because you're getting off to the edge. Yeah, I said, I know that. And so I was hoping you wouldn't see that. Did you ever get distracted?
Did you ever daydream? I'm sure, well, I guess we confess we did. I could sit in school sometimes with a boring teacher. Shame on me. You students, don't do that. And the bell would ring, and I'm like, oh, no.
What did she say or he say anyway? Well, keep me as the apple of thine eye. You know where your heart is? It's where your feet will follow. I had meetings up in the Rose Isle area this summer. It's a sister, Mrs. Dick there, older and infirmed.
Meetings were seven days a week, and she was at every meeting but Saturday night. What an example. Pain, difficulties, husband that passed away. It was very simple. Little granny was asked one time by the sisters or brothers, younger in the assembly, that says, granny, you've got a lot of aches and pains, but you're at all the meetings.
How come? Oh, she says, you know what? Where your heart is, your feet will follow. That's very simple. It's the apple of your eye. And where your heart is, where my heart is, my feet's going to follow.
And he says, you keep me distracted in life. Look at the big picture, not the little picture. Frank, it doesn't matter if the picture on the wall is crooked. It's only going to get crooked again and again.
Don't worry about it. Look at the big picture. Then he says in Proverbs 7, keep my commandments as the apple of the eye. Word of God. You know what I've found in some of my travels, and this is the first time I've ever been in an assembly to speak in Iowa, some of God's dear people don't even read the book every day, let alone study it or meditate on it.
The old preachers would tell us, and I know I'm old now, this book will keep you from sin, and sin will keep you from this book. This is our lifeline. This is our food. This is our substance. This is our vitamins and nutrients, minerals, all those ramifications to give us strength.
We're in a wilderness scene. I'm the Vietnam generation. God preserved me by deferments, working on aircraft. I asked one of my buddies, I says, Tom, what has gotten into you? You're running, you're swimming, you're weight training.
What's the matter with you? He says, John, I'm drafted. I'm going to war. I hope to come back home. Training, nothing else matters. Training, nothing else matters. This book will keep us from sin. Sin will keep us from this book.
And it's rich. If you ever get discouraged, get in the word of God. You'll get encouraged. If you ever need guidance, it's got an answer for every aspect of life. It's more up to date than the current newspaper.
I got a newspaper at the motel this morning. I didn't read it. I tossed it on the little fridge in the room, but this is more up to date than the newspaper. It's one that loved you, one that gave you self-worth across the Calvary.
The last day in August, a year ago, I pulled into the auto parts store. And I looked, I says, oh, this guy got hit by a car. Came down inside, I ran over, and the girl, the clerk, she said, he got out of the car, and he said, dial 9 -1 -1.
Pulled him over. I foolishly unbuttoned his shirt because I didn't want to wreck it, it looked so good. And I began CPR to the paramedics came. And we'd met together. And I says, John, the doc told me if you didn't start CPR now, I'd be dead.
Anything you need in life, you let me know. I owe my life to you. We've met three times, and we've talked the gospel message. We owe our all to the lovely man of Calvary, who died on the cross to save us, to set us free.
And I get distracted. Shame on me. And I get disappointed or discouraged. Shame on me. I've got everything that I need to be encouraged and strengthened and guided in the right ways of the Lord. Keep my commandments, the word of God.
It's rich. Lamentation. Let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arizona and Alberta, I don't know the statistics of other areas, the 60 to 66 of the marriages fail. How'd that happen? Well, I know there's a whole list of reasons you could give it.
But the Christian life, assemblies, souls, family, children, you'd have to purse the walls down in almost every place through the years and see what happened. It's not a physical problem. It's not a geographical problem.
The apple of their eye ceased. They got their eye on something else. I know what could happen to me. Demons hath forsaken me, having loved this now world. God doesn't want part-time Christians. During the Gulf War, we were living in Oregon.
And there were more National Guardsmen from that state, maybe, that were sent from any other. There were more that died overseas than maybe any other. You can't be a part-time soldier and be as effective as a full-time soldier.
It doesn't work. One weekend a month and two weeks in the summer of training is not sufficient. We can't be part-time Christians and think it's going to work and think we're going to make progress. He says, don't let the apple of your eye cease.
Mr. Carl Payne up in Newfoundland and Parsons Pond, he says, John, in the breaking of bread, I saw a moose. Well, I says, what window was it? The hall's low in the window. He says, that's not the problem, John.
Well, I says, what's the problem then? He says, I'm sitting down trying to remember the Lord. And in my mind comes a moose. And I saw a moose in the breaking of bread. We get distracted sometimes. And maybe that never happens to you.
Don't let the apple of your eye think. Concentrate. The Christian life is made up of habits, diligence. I remember I stopped at a gym up in Fort McMurray one time. And this fellow was a hunk of a fellow with enough tattoos.
He didn't even wear a shirt. And I gave him a big Bible paper, the matchless pearl, that's all I had on me. He says, what's this? He says, I never read so much stuff in my life. I says, man, you better start reading because you're going to die and be in hell if you don't read it.
And he looked back at me like, what are you saying? I said, that's the truth of the word of God. God wants us to be on fire for him in our own way, in our own shape, in our own form, in our own manner.
He said, well, he's got him right around your neck. Nah, it won't happen. Zachariah, he that touches you touches the apple of his eye. God's got a bodyguard. And at 70 years of age, he's watched over me.
The gang's coming at me and guns held on me and dogs and rattlesnakes and everything else. And you know, I'm still happy in the Lord. And he watches over us. He does it for everybody. He's the apple, you're the apple of his eye.
Do you know that? Calvary, the cross, and the savior. So when we leave this afternoon, could you please put in your pocket, beloved, you're the apple of his eye. He says, you keep me as the apple of your eye.
You keep me as the little man of the eye. And the book, you keep it as the apple of your eye. It'll preserve you, it'll guide you, it'll help you, it'll strengthen you. It'll help you to move and make progress, build testimony for the one who gave himself for us.
He says, don't let it cease. Don't get distracted. Don't let an enemy come in and do a sneak attack, as it were. And he that touches you, touches the apple of his eye. You're precious to him. Precious love is shame.
May God help us, day by day, to be redeemed. He's the apple of the eye. And he wants us to keep him as the apple of the eye. Praise the Lord, say amen. Amen.