# For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro

December 29, 2025

Turning your Bibles, if you would, to Second Chronicles, Second Chronicles chapter number 16. I see the Johannans out there; they are about to leave us, and I want to call them Benedict Arnold, but with this cold weather coming in, some ways I cannot blame them. They will be heading to South Texas Thursday, sounds like. We will miss them. Great people looking forward to coming back already. They go down there for about three months or so. Good. We will take it. We will miss them already, and I hope they enjoy it. They will be good for them.

Second Chronicles chapter number 16 in your Bibles. Let me just kind of fill you in on what is going on in this story here briefly before we get started.

Down south now, Israel is divided. There is the north, the Yankee—I mean the north—and then there is the south, that is Judah; it is ten tribes. Asa is king down south, and he is a good king.

When he came on board, his dad was king, and he really did right before the Lord. It led Judah to do right. God blessed; they had peace, and they really built up their military during that time. They were very peaceful at that time, but then they had the Ethiopians come against them. They had built their military up; they had about 520,000 in the military for Judah at that time. That is a pretty strong military.

But the Ethiopians came over. They had a million-man army. They had 300 chariots. Back then, that is like tanks, planes, and fighters ready to go. They outnumbered Judah almost two to one, plus they had all this military power. And yet, Asa, the king, he has just a prayer meeting. He goes to the Lord and pours his heart out, cries before the Lord. He said, “Lord, it is no problem for you. You can save by few or by many, and you are a mighty God.” God blessed, and they whipped the tar out of the Ethiopians. They defeated them, chased them. They tucked their tails and were running, and they chased after them. It was a great victory.

About ten years fast forward, and we are to chapter 16. Chapter 16—let me tell you a little bit more about what is going on so you know as we go through the sermon. Asa is down here in the south. Up here in Israel is Baasha. I am sorry, Baasha. Baasha, he is king of Israel. Remember, Israel is the north. Down south is Asa and Judah. Baasha, King of Israel, sends his military down to start attacking Judah—a civil war, if you will. They are divided but kind of linked together. He starts sending his military down to this border city between the north and the south. They start besieging this city. They get the military there, and they are not letting anyone in or out, getting this strong fortification. They are probably going to send troops into Judah down there.

Asa down here—remember ten years ago, he had a great prayer meeting and said, “Lord, you can do anything”—but now ten years later, northern Israel is attacking them. He really goes to earthly measures, humanistic measures. It does not record him having a prayer meeting or anything like that.

He tries a different tactic. This time he takes money and sends it to Ben-Hadad, way up here north of Israel, in Syria. He sends this money up to Ben-Hadad, King of Syria, and says, “Hey, would you attack Israel? We have been allies; our dads had partnerships, alliance. I am sending you this money.” Ben-Hadad, well, money can buy anything.

So he starts attacking Israel. Remember, Judah is down here, and it works. Israel has its military down here between Israel and Judah, attacking, and then Syria starts attacking. So he pulls his military out and sends his military up where Syria is attacking, and it seems like it is working—the fleshly measures. Are you with me on all this?

It would all seem good until Hanani—he is the preacher—comes on the scene. Hanani goes to meet with Asa. That is what we are going to pick up with in this little sermon. Preachers mess up everything. You have to keep an eye on those preachers. We are reading the sermon that Hanani preached to Asa after that last fiasco, if you will. That is what we are picking it up at.

Would you grab your Bibles? We are in Second Chronicle 16. Would you look in verse number seven? Would you please stand if you are able? Verse number seven, and we will read what the preacher, Hanani, says to Asa after he sent the money to Ben-Hadad. It seemed like it was working, but just look and see what it says. Verse number seven. Second Chronicle 16, verse number seven. Are you all there tonight? Amen. Amen.

Good, here we are at verse number seven. “And at that time Hanani, the seer—that is the prophet, the preacher—came to Asa, king of Judah, and said it to him, ‘Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.’”

Out of that hand. Wait a second. If you understand the story, remember he sent the money up there to Ben-Hadad. They had allies; they were allies. So what is he talking about, “he escaped”? In other words, God is saying you would have not only had a victory over Israel, you could have had a victory over Syria, the big boy up there, Ben-Hadad. You had a little bit of a temporary small victory, but you could have had a major victory.

That is what he is saying. “Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.” We are not the Ethiopians; that was ten years earlier. Remember we told you about that. We are not the Ethiopians and the Libyans, a huge host, a million, with very many chariots and horsemen. Yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand.

Now here is the verse we want to focus on right here. Look, this is an amazing verse right here. Look at it: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” “Herein thou hast done foolishly; therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” By the way, he did never really have peace again. He ended up dying from a disease, and his end of life was not good. He got mad at the rebuke of the preacher and did not turn out well.

That little phrase, that one verse right there: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro.” That is even today, throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart. He does not look at your talent; he does not look at your height; he does not look at your looks; he does not look at your ability; he looks at your heart. By the way, he does not say a heart that is perfect because nobody has that—a heart that is perfect toward the Lord. He is actually talking about a heart that relies on the Lord. You study out the context I was talking about.

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him; herein thou hast done foolishly; therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” For just a bit, let us focus on this verse right there, verse number nine.

God’s eyes—does the Lord look for anything because he knows where everything is? But the Bible says the eyes of the Lord go to and fro. They are just always going all over, and they are looking for something. It is amazing what God is looking for. God is looking for someone that he can show himself strong.

Have you ever seen these guys who like to wear tight clothing so they can show off their biceps, or wear tank tops, or walk around with their shirt off? They are just trying to show off their muscle. But when God shows his muscle—wow!

The Bible says the eyes of God are going all over the whole world, and it is looking, maybe a young person, but it is looking for someone in whose behalf he can show himself strong. How about you? Would you like it if God showed himself strong on your behalf? The Bible says he is looking for that, even in our day and time. He is looking for someone in whose behalf he can show himself strong. That is amazing.

I do not want to get like that. Sometimes when we are young, ten years earlier, we had faith in God, but sometimes when we get old, we just lose our childlike faith in how mighty and powerful God is. They say old people are someone that always talks about what they used to do in the past, and a young person is one who is talking about what they are doing or what they are going to do. I do not want to get old. We do not serve a God that used to do mighty things; we serve a God that is looking even today to do mighty things on your behalf. He is alive and real.

I sometimes get a little weary of people whose philosophy is, “Well, we are living in the Laodicean age, and God cannot really do many mighty miracles in our day and time.” Friend, I do not care what age we are in; God can still work in great ways today. God can still do miracles today, amen. Even if we are living in the Laodicean age, God is going to be saving souls, answering prayers, doing miracles up to the very last second before he comes.

The eyes of the Lord are going throughout the whole earth looking for someone to show himself strong. It is someone that has a heart relying on God, someone that believes in God. They have faith in God. They are not focused on what God used to do; they focus on the God that is alive and can do something today. If we are not careful, we just kind of lose our faith in God.

I love the verse: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” What a verse! I love the verse: “Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Let them say continually, ‘Let the Lord be magnified, which has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants.’”

Friend, God is still doing financial miracles today. God can still heal someone. I am not saying every time it is God’s will for him to heal someone, but God can still heal an individual with sickness today. He is still moving; he is still working; he is still hearing prayers; he is still saving souls. I think of a good amount of men over the years that became: “Pastor, I drank so much, but God delivered me from that.” God is still making a drunkard sober, amen. I recall a lady telling me, “Pastor, I was an immoral lady, and God has made me a clean, moral lady.” God is still changing lives as 2026 is coming up next year, amen.

Friend, let us not get so humanistic that we have a problem with all these things. No, listen: Humanism out the window, God in the window. He is the one that does miracles today. He is still working. His eyes are going across the world looking for someone in whose behalf he can show himself strong. He is still putting marriages together. He is still changing mouths. He is still having children growing up living for God. He is still bringing revival to individuals, churches, and families. He is still doing that.

I love the story that John Rice, Lesterloff, and Jack Howells were going to do a School of the Lord conference in Atlanta back in the day when the School of the Lord was just thriving and the big thing across America. They had agreed; they had rented out a big, large facility. They had agreed to pray, and I believe I remember right, they had even fasted. They were praying for a thousand people to be in attendance. They were excited about it, and God was just looking forward to it. They had fasted and prayed for this, and they thought it was going to be great. They rented out a large facility, and when it came time, there was somewhat of a snowstorm, which is pretty rare in Atlanta, but it happens. They really only had about 100—I do not even know if they even broke 100 one of the nights—after praying for a thousand. They never had over a hundred in attendance. They had fasted and prayed and believed God to change lives and get some preachers on fire. They left a little defeated, but out of that little conference, there was a man attending named Curtis Hudson.

Curtis Sutton, before that, was a pastor, but he was bivocational. He was a mailman, amen. God stirred his heart in that little conference, and God did something. They taught about winning souls and seeing God work in churches. Curtis Sutton went home to his wife and said, “Hey, I am going to go full time in the ministry.” She said, “You know that little church cannot pay our bills.” He said, “Well, we will sell our furniture and pay the bills.” She said, “What are we going to do? We will run out of furniture.” He said, “If I do not have a God big enough to pay my bills, I do not want to have a God big enough to serve. I am going to serve him; he is big enough to pay our bills.” God built through him the fastest-growing church in the state of Georgia for years and years. Many people were saved left and right; the hand of God got on the ministry.

It was in that little conference where those preachers believed God. Sometimes it looks like a failure, but God can work in great, great ways. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. He is looking for someone to work through in their lives.

What was God looking for? Let us look back at that verse there, verse number nine: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart…”

You know the truth. Samuel, the preacher, came through, and he was going to know one of Jesse’s sons to be king. Eliab, the oldest one, big old boy, but that is the one. God said, “No, do not look at that. Man looks on the outward appearance; God looks at the…”

He says he is looking at—the eyes of God go all over the whole world. That is a shame on me. I probably should not tell the story, but it came to my mind. When we were boys, we used to go fishing, and you clean those fish. Come on now, some of you men did the same thing. Brother Joel, I bet you did the same thing. We would poke some of those eyeballs out of those fish. Hey, he is looking at you! We would just go around the corner. Hey, he sees you! You are like, “You did not have to tell that story right there.” Oh, come on, you ate fish anyway. You ate him, so he cannot say too much against me.

But the eyes of the Lord go throughout the whole earth, and the thing he is looking at is someone he can show himself strong on their behalf, but he is looking at their heart.

Notice it does not say—we have already mentioned—it does not say a perfect heart because none of us would be there. But a perfect heart toward the Lord: not relying on self, not relying on humanism and earthly measures, relying on the Lord.

Look back over in chapter 14. Chapter 14, this is when the Ethiopians had attacked and this million-man army had attacked. I want you to see what he did over here; this is when his heart was perfect, relying on the Lord. I want you to notice what he does in chapter 14. Look, if you would please, at verse number 11. If you are there, 14:11, would you say, “Amen”? Good deal. Look what he says: “And Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said, ‘Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power. Help us, O Lord, our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.’” So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

Now, here is one I want to get out for just a minute here. If my heart is truly relying on the Lord, how do I know if it is or isn’t? Here is a good way: If I truly am relying on the Lord, then I am going to be a man or a lady of prayer. In the heat of battle, he did not go to all these earthly measures. In the heat of the battle, he cried to the Lord; he poured his heart out to the Lord.

Here is what I am getting at: If we say we have a heart that is relying on God, but we never spend time in prayer, we are fooling ourselves. It is a joke; it is a fraud. If I truly have a heart that is relying on God, I am going to spend my time, my energy, my effort in the prayer closet. I am going to have a hot prayer closet, seeking the Lord, “I need your blessing because I am relying on you.”

Listen, if we are going to see a mighty God working in a mighty way, we have to show him we are relying on him by spending our time and energy in prayer. Prayer is where it is at, friend, I am telling you. We have a mighty God that wants to work in our lives, and he says, “I will give you a way to get things from me; it is called asking; it is called prayer.”

When was the last time we shed some tears in our prayer closet? Now, I am preaching to myself too, friend. But when was the last time—the Bible says, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” When was the last time that we got effectual and fervent in prayer to the Lord?

What has happened to God? Nothing has happened to God. It is not our day and time. God’s promises are still true. “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” He said, “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest.” Prayer.

It is the men and the ladies that are most effective to God that are men or ladies of prayer. The only thing God says to do all the time is: Pray, pray without ceasing, praying always. Prayer. A vacuum cleaner does not work very good unless you plug it in, amen. The way us Christians plug in is in the prayer closet. We plug into an unlimited source of power through prayer.

We are going into the New Year, friend, and I want you to have financial victories, and I want you to see the loved ones you are praying for. I want you to have influence at school. I want God to use you in different ways and help people. But, friend, those things do not happen by our might and our power. It happens through God. God says, “I am giving you a source to get these things; it is called prayer.” If my heart is truly relying on God, how do I show that to God? Prayer.

Ten years earlier, he had a heart relying on God; God blessed. They whipped the tar out of those million people because he was praying.

Over here in chapter 16, it does not record Asa praying at all. He is using earthly methods to bring the victory. He is using all the networking, methods, and techniques. I am not saying they are bad, but somewhere along the line, there has to be a heart that is perfect toward the Lord, and that is going to show in our prayer closet. So important, so important.

If I am saying I am relying on God, but I am not praying, I am full of myself. A self-reliant man came by a house and wanted to visit the lady of the house. The kids were at home, and they said, “Well, you are going to have to wait for a long time because Mom is in the prayer closet.” When she goes in the prayer closet, it is a long time.

Tom Williams, evangelist, he is in heaven now. He said he had a widow lady that would pray for him. He would stop by and see her. He knocked, but she would not answer, and he could hear she was in her prayer closet. He sat out there for an hour, two hours—if I remember right, three hours. Finally, she came to the door, happy and smiling, and said, “I have been in here praying for you. You are one of the ones I was praying for.” He said she had a towel that had been wet with tears. Prayer.

The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for someone whose heart is relying on God. If I am truly relying on God, I will be praying. Let me say this: If I am truly relying on God, I will be obedient to God. If I truly believe in and rely on God, I am going to do what he says; I am going to obey his Word.

When Miss Tammy had cancer and she had surgery, and you wait for the full pathology report, we did not want to go through the chemo thing. We went through the surgery, but we did not want chemo. Chemo was chemicals; we did not want to put chemicals in the body. The doctor came back and said, “Well, it seems a little bit… just the way to do it. Well, it probably will not have to have it; it is not that bad.” Then they come back, and the full pathology is a little bit worse than they say typically. “Well, we suggest you do chemo so it will not come back.” We did not want that, but we said, “Well, he has been to college; he is the doctor.” By the way, do you know what they call a man or a lady that graduated at the bottom of their medical school? A doctor, yes. We said, “Well, he graduated no matter what, and he had all the studies and percentages and charts.” So we said, “Well, we are going to trust what he says.” So we obeyed, and Ms. Tammy was on chemo for a while.

I say that to say: If I am truly relying on God, whether it be marriage, ministry, finances, whatever it be, if I truly am relying on him, I am going to follow up; I am going to obey. This is what he said. He is a mighty God; he is able, and he is giving me instruction. I am going to follow what he says. If someone came up and said, “Hey, Brother Patterson, I will give you a billion dollars if you do such and such”—it was not sinful, not wrong—but if you do such and such, I hope he would obey because he could tie off of that, and we could build a building over there. I imagine he would; he is a smart man, not simple, but obeying.

We have a God that can do anything. Are we obeying him? “Well, I am relying on him.” If you are truly believing him, you are going to do it. He says just obedience. God is looking for someone that relies on him in the crisis.

Here is probably one of the biggest enemies to our reliance on God: self-reliance, especially in the clutch. These basketball teams—the star basketball player can win a lot of games, but in championship games, typically when it comes to the clutch, they will say, “We will see if he can trust his team or not.” Everybody else can be a guard; he is a superstar, but he is going to have to trust somebody else.

I remember the days back in the day when Michael Jordan would play. I remember—I am not talking about LeBron—but back in the day when Jordan would play, he was just an amazing player, but it was kind of early in the Chicago Bulls days where they were not winning championships. They always played the Detroit Pistons, and the Detroit Pistons would beat them. Some of that, I believe, was because Jordan was so good, but he had not learned to trust his team. He had to learn to trust his team and play as a team. Then they started winning the championships. In the clutch moment, it is so easy to rely on self. That is what Asa did. In the clutch moment, when Israel was coming down and attacking, he went to his own humanistic thinking: “What I will do, I will take money; I will send it up there instead of relying on God.”

Friend, that is the crisis moment. Make sure you are relying on the Lord. Paul said, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.”

It would be wonderful if God—his eyes—if the eyes of the Lord came by Brother [Patterson] of the Academy Baptist Church and said, “You know what? I see some people. They truly are; their heart is perfect in the way they are relying on me. I can tell it. They are praying. In the clutch of the moment, they are not turning to themselves; they are turning to me. They are obeying. They are not perfect—nobody is perfect—but they are trying to obey God.”

God says, “Boy, I can show myself strong in your marriage, in your life, in your pursuits, in your future.” God can look down and say, “Paul, I have been looking for someone.” That is what my eyes go throughout the whole world looking for: someone whose heart is perfect, totally relying on me. God says, “I can let me flex my muscle for them.”

Years and years ago, in the early days of America, there was an influence from France and many agnostics and speakers coming over. There was a little town, and an agnostic was going to come speak there. He was very gifted. Wherever he spoke, he swayed people to atheism, deism, or agnosticism—they are all very similar. It was coming to this town, and the Christians said, “What are we going to do? This guy is coming; he is very gifted. He can influence people.”

This little band of Christians made a deal. They spent hours in prayer: “Lord, you have to stop this. Do not even let him speak. We are trying to win these people to the Lord. Do not give him any influence. Do not let him even speak. Please stop this.” They prayed and prayed and prayed. They got their hearts perfect toward the Lord, just relying on God.

The night came, and where they were meeting, it was packed out; the audience was full. Even then, they were just praying, “Lord, you have to stop this man. Do not let him influence these people for the wrong.”

Sure enough, they introduced the speaker, and he came to the platform. The Christians were praying, “Father, please stop him.” The man got up to speak, a very gifted speaker. He said, “Ladies and gentlemen,” and he just paused—a brief pause. He started again: “Ladies and gentlemen.” He paused again, collected his thoughts, and said, “Ladies and gentlemen.”

Finally, he said, “I do not understand it, but I have such a cloud over my mind right now. I cannot even speak. I am sorry.” And he left; he never spoke. What a wonderful promise: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect.”

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? It would be a good night for us to get our hearts right before the Lord. I fear we are looking to so much of man-made tactics. Somebody has to say, “I believe in you, God. I believe in you, God. I am going to rely totally; I am going to show you that by prayer. I am seeking to follow you and obey you.”

Maybe you are here tonight. You said, “Preacher, somewhere along the line, God spoke to my heart tonight.” I want to believe God is working now, and he is working in the future. He is a mighty God; he will change lives, saving souls. Let us just spend some time with him tonight. Would you please stand? We will have an order of prayer.

Father, thank you. You are mighty. Lord, forgive me; sometimes over the years, I have lost my faith that you can work in our day and time. You can do miracles today. Father, help us to believe in you and your power. Father, help our hearts to be perfect toward you: relying, praying, and obeying you. We will thank you, Lord, for what you do in Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

We have a mighty God, and let us not lose our childlike faith in all the mechanical things of this day and time. He is a mighty God, and let us have a heart perfect toward him. I am looking forward to Wednesday night; that is going to be a good service. Come on out; be in God’s house, amen.

Original File: 2025-12-29 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro＂ - Sunday PM 12⧸28⧸2025