Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, do my coworkers know my secrets? This is prompted by an article I read in the Wall Street Journal about the rise of employee hotlines as a business. This is how it works. Your company contracts with another company whose whole service is to provide anonymous hotlines that employees can call to basically snitch on their fellow employees. Uh, and this is a booming industry, in fact, $18 billion worth of industry just this year. And companies providing tip lines to other companies for employees to talk about their coworkers. And it's gotten some big stories that generated, like, for example, Nestle, their CEO, recently was fired for cause, no severance, because an employee called the hotline alleging the, uh, CEO was having an affair with another employee. And in fact, it turned out that was true, and it costs both of them their jobs. Uh, what's incredible about this is not just the headlines it's generating and the money it's generating, but how many employees are actually using it. Uh, companies who contract with these services are hearing calls dealing with everything from immoral activities to bad breath. Even Warren Buffett, the famous godfather of investing, uses this in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, to make sure that he can keep tabs on any employees who are acting in a way that is not commensurate with the company's values. Uh, this is a fascinating concept for me. I mean, first that someone had this business idea, and then for someone to pick up the phone and call because the person next to them has bad breath, that's amazing. But there is a biblical principle here at work, and I want you to hear this. And that biblical principle is the certainty of accountability. The truth is that many of us think the things we do that we're not proud of. The corners we cut, the secrets we keep, the immoral actions, thoughts or behaviors we justify go unnoticed. But they don't. First of all, we should know this because Proverbs 15:3 tells us that the eyes of the Lord are in every place. I mean, one of the things I try to teach my kids is that when they lie to me or my wife, Amy, they are thinking that maybe, just maybe, they can get away with it. And maybe they can. We won't always know when they're lying. We certainly won't always catch them. But they're missing the point. Someone is always watching. Someone does always know, and that someone is God. So even if your coworkers don't know what you're up to and they're not calling the hotline to talk about you, God does know. And one day you'll stand before him and all hidden things will be exposed. Uh, but the second thing is this. God loves us so much. Accountability is a tool he uses to make sure that that day of judgment isn't the awful day it might otherwise be. In other words, in Numbers 32, when God says, be sure your sin will find you out, he isn't threatening us as much as he's warning us. If accountability is inevitable, than when someone butts up against my sin in this life, when someone picks up the phone to tell on me, when someone has a hard conversation with me, when someone points out my weaknesses, as much as I might hate it, they're actually doing me a favor. They're giving me an opportunity to seek repentance today when it's possible, instead of to have that sin brought up on the Day of Judgment when it isn't. Look, true leadership of our companies, of our churches, of our country, demands righteousness. It demands accountability. Proverbs 29:2 says, when the wicked rule, the people groan. I know it's tempting to think that work would be a better place if no one was paying attention to the things I was doing, but that isn't true. What that results in is just widespread, pervasive corruption. In other words, the hotline didn't make the Nestle CEO having an affair. He was already doing that. What it did is expose it and lead to the situation being dealt with. And God, he does do that. He uses the small things to shake the mighty. And 1 Corinthians 1:27, Paul says that God often chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. Uh, God is using even people on the lower rung to get the attention of the sinners at the top of the ladder. Because again, God's desire is for us to repent. Listen, instead of pretending that no one around you knows what you're doing, instead of hoping that no one calls the hotline, instead of getting angry when someone points out your sin, instead hear what God says in Hebrews 3:15 today, do not harden your hearts. Listen, I don't really care about company hotlines, and neither do you. What I do care about is that the day of judgment is not a day for you to be afraid of. And the step towards that is when your sin is called out to take it to Jesus first. For your salvation, and second, for your sanctification. The people around you know more than you think. The people around you see more than you think. Your spouse, your children, your colleagues, your friends. You should be inviting their voice, seeking their input, pursuing repentance. Because today is the day of forgiveness. Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day of judgment. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. 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Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!