The God who Sees
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Psalm 33:13-22
Psalm 33:13-22
Review Chapter 15.
God promises Abram an inheritance.
He promises Abram offspring.
Chapter 16 is an account of the mistakes that can happen when we get in front of God.
In this chapter we see the consequences of impatience.
There are times in all of our lives where we are praying and seeking God on a matter.
And often He says wait.
Just as often when God requires us to be patient, we often try to help God in whatever it is that we are praying about.
This is where the trouble starts.
This is what happened to Abram and his wife Sarai in Genesis 16.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
In these verse s we see the formulation of a plan.
We see the impatience of two individuals that believe in the promises of God acting in a way that is not in keeping with the will of God.
Both Sarai and Abram doubt the promise.
Because they allowed doubt to influence their decisions, they stepped out of the will of God.
They began to devise a way to help God along.
We are often guilty of this error as well.
I am guilty of this.
I can remember many times in my life where I felt God leading.
Rather than being patient and allowing God to bring about resolve to a situation according to His timing, I often interjected my own will.
It is a fine line between getting out in front of God and waiting on our couch and not doing anything.
Genesis 16:4-6
He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.” But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.
Suddenly there is a change of heart.
Suddenly they recognize their wrong doing and they regret their decisions.
Sarai recognized that she had sinned by suggesting this plan.
And how does she respond?
She acts harshly, other translations say Sarai mistreated Hagar.
All of them should have humbled themselves and repented.
Often this is a result of our sin.
Sin entices us.
The voice of temptation begins to influence our decisions.
When we act on temptation we act harshly.
Rather than humbling ourselves before God and asking for forgiveness.
Rather than seeking out those who we have sinned against, we often act harshly toward one another.
The guilt that we feel in our hearts because we have sinned before the eyes of the Lord turns to anger.
We take out the anger on others and it makes the whole situation worse.
We have to cut off the influence of sin before it brings destruction.
What are the reasons we act like that
out of despiration
Out of avaoidance
why did God put this in because they are people
we often think of the men and women who are pillars of faith as being icons
unattainale myths
Gary P. Comment on Bible readings.
Jesus verses about the demon who comes back to make it worse.
Rescue Mission guys got cleaned up, but if they chose not to replace what was removed with something positive, they went right back to the old lifestyle.
The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
An unfortunate situation cause by personal desire caused a lineage of catastrophe.
What name is Hager to give her son?
Ishmael is a descendant of what people group?
How was Ishmael described in these verses?
Did this prophecy come true?
The reason I am making a point of this is because there are people who argue that Christianity and Islam are the same.
The descendants of Ishmael are as the Bible states, “against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
The angel of the Lord encouraged Hagar in this time of trouble.
Remember she is out in the desert.
She is alone.
No one to comfort her.
She probably feared that everything she had known was lost.
Her life was meaningless.
She probably thought she was about to die.
The angel of the Lord encourages her instructing her to return because even in this difficult turn of events, God sees her.
Insert pic of the Hebrew text and point out Jehovah Roi
The God who sees me.
Jehovah Roi.
Define the term Jehovah first.
Show slide of name.
Talk about reasons we get nervous to use the word.
Talk about the bridge in the song Days of Elijah.
This instance the attribute given to God is Jehovah Roi.
The God who sees.
Hagar recognized that God saw her.
He saw her need.
He saw her distress.
He acted on her behalf.
He did not just leave her to her own demise.
He intervened in her life.
God is not some distant dictator who has no care for His creation.
He is a God who sees.
He is a God who watches over His people.
he is a God that loves us and encourages us to draw closer to Him.
He knows that if we in turn seek Him out, He will be able to bolster us in those times of need.
Turn to Psalm 33
From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
He watches over us.
He cares for us.
From His dwelling place He considers the need of mankind.
He fashioned our heart.
He made each and every one of us a unique individual.
The heart in the Bible speaks of the truth of the person.
God fashioned us to be unique.
He understands what makes us tick.
He understands what causes us to struggle.
He understands the difficulty we face living in a fallen world.
This is why He came here to Redeem us.
Jesus did not choose to remain in heaven.
He came down to get us.
He came down to speak life and hope and peace into our hearts.
He came down to lift us up in the hope of His glory.
He is a God that sees.
No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
The things of this world that we look at for deliverance have no lasting strength.
A who only hopes in his earthly army is a king that waits for his own destruction.
A warrior who trusts in his own personal strength finds victory only until the weakness of a physical body finds its limit.
The rider who trusts in the deliverance of a horse is secure only until the horse loses its strength.
All the hope we place in earthly deliverance is meaningless.
Only God endures.
Only the love of Jesus our Messiah endures.
Only His Holy Spirit has the authority to endure.
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
We are Redeemed by a God who sees.
We are saved by a God who loves.
We are strengthened by a God who endures.
We are given peace by the Prince of Peace.
The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him.
The Lord looks over those who have reverence for Him.
Benediction:
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.