What God Sees
Promises • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsIn our pain and despair, let us cry out to God; He sees, hears, remembers, and delivers.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
“How long do we have to wait mommy?”
“I want to go outside and play now!”
Parents know how to navigate the daily demands thrown at them by their kids
Most of the time the issues are not life or death
However, parents will perform superhuman feats to deliver their kids out of immanent danger.
How much more will our Heavenly Father watch out for His Children?
He knows everything happening in every life simultaneously
He responds according to His wisdom
He responds based on His love for us
His responds in harmony with His Covenant promises
In desperation we might cry out to God, “How long?”
King David’s songs and poems reveal His anxious heart at times
Psalm 13 is a perfect example
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
When God’s people were enslaved in Egypt, they also reached a point of unbearable suffering
Exodus 2:23-25 records a snapshot of their situation
They had grown into a large nation during the many years since Jacob came and settled in Egypt to be with Joseph
Over time the Israelites transitioned from Joseph’s honored descendants to a people under the controlling thumb of Egypt’s king
Now the king died
Perhaps they thought a new king would treat them better
They were wrong - it only got worse for them
They began to crumble under the increasingly heavy burden of forced slave labor
The same cycle every day
Making more bricks out of mud and straw so the Pharaoh could build more edifices to his own glory
Each day they found themselves breaking their backs for this cruel and powerful ruler
There was no light at the end of the tunnel for them
The historical context, in essence:
Moses had been a fugitive from Egypt for some 40 years
He fled Egypt and the Pharaoh because He killed an Egyptian while defending a fellow Jew
He made a life for himself as a shepherd in Midian
Moses was quite comfortable raising his family far from the shadow of Egypt
Back in Egypt the oppression of His fellow Israelites was increasing daily
Text
During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Prayer
In so many words, the badly oppressed Israelites cried out “How Long?”
Something about their cry for help impacted Heaven
The situation was beyond urgent
This is the reason God called Moses out of obscurity (Exodus 3)
It was time
God hasn’t changed
He still works the same way
Big Idea: In our pain and despair, let us cry out to God; He hears, remembers, sees, and delivers.
Transition: God sees the long periods of time in which we sometimes wait for answers
Suffering Often Feels Like it Will Never End
Suffering Often Feels Like it Will Never End
“During those long years, the King of Egypt Died”
Pharaoh died, and the people cried
Was there anyone with the ability to hear them?
During those 40 (approximate)years God prepared both Moses and the Israelites for the next step in fulfilling His covenant promise to Abraham.
Sometimes things seem to get worse before they get better
It was a very long time between Adam and Eve’s original sin and the covenant God made with Abraham
It was also a very long time between God’s covenant with Abraham and His covenant with the people of Israel at Sinai
It was a very long time before God’s promised Messiah was born
We have waited a very long time looking forward to Christ’s return for His church
God isn’t on vacation during those long periods of time
His timing is of Divine design
He always moves in accordance with His covenant
The Holy Spirit is constantly moving and stirring the hearts of the Lost
God is not willing that any should perish
He is always moving on behalf of people that seek Him
During the struggle, let us cry out to God; He hears, remembers, sees, and delivers
Transition: God sees and hears our struggles and our cries for help
Seasons of Extreme Suffering or Trials Move People to Cry Out For Help
Seasons of Extreme Suffering or Trials Move People to Cry Out For Help
The people of God in Egypt had reached the breaking point
They “groaned” because of their harsh treatment
Groaning is a spontaneous and natural reaction to a serious crisis or pain of some kind
The word “groaned”indicates the heavy burden they carried
They “groaned” under the weight of an unbearable burden
They were exhausted from the relentless push to work
There was no relief in sight
It is likely that many of them died each week
(Tell story of helping Adam move a boom lift)
The whole nation carried the burden
Not just the leaders
Not just the fathers or family units
The people “cried out” because of their unbearably harsh situation
This phrase has the connotation of “shrieked”
It was a natural and spontaneous response to their increasingly intense pain and suffering
If you stick a knife in my arm without warning I’m gonna scream out in shocked pain
In whatever situation you find yourself today, cry out to God; He hears, remembers, sees, and delivers.
Transition: What happens when our cries reach Heaven?
In Difficult Seasons Our Groans and Cries do NOT go Unnoticed
In Difficult Seasons Our Groans and Cries do NOT go Unnoticed
The New International Version Chapter 2
and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God
In other words their PRAYERS ascended up to God
Sometimes our prayers reflect very powerful truths from God’s Word
Other times prayer is so lifeless and aimless it shouldn’t be called prayer
Sometimes we pray sloppy and indistinct prayers out of gut-wrenching instinct
Sometimes our prayers are excruciating to express, so they come out as groans and cries
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
If your child feels fear or gets hurt they cry out - they might groan or squeal or wail
We jump into parent mode and do what needs done
We don’t wait for an explanation
Prayer is our opportunity to bring our needs to God
The Israelites corporately cried out to God
No particular individual prayed
When one suffers all suffer together
The church is weak in this area
Lord help us to become a united people - in mind, heart, prayer
Transition: Corporate prayer often has no agenda except to cry out to God from the depths of our souls
It is often a move of the Holy Spirit in the Body that leads to this kind of prayer
When We Cry Out to God, He Hears and Acts According to His Covenant Promises
When We Cry Out to God, He Hears and Acts According to His Covenant Promises
God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
What does it mean “God Remembered?”
This passage makes it seem like God absently picks up His ringing phone with no idea what to expect
On the other end of the line He here’s His people in Egypt crying out “God we are in a mess!
And God says “By George, I’d quite forgotten about them.”
Of course it did not happen that way
The wording brings a mental image of God needing a tap on the shoulder to remind Him, and their prayer did the trick.
Of course God doesn’t forget but the passage powerfully shows us how seriously God takes our prayers.
He hears, He sees, He remembers, and He delivers
Because of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection we can freely lift our prayers to Heaven
We now have access to the Father through Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us
We can boldly come to Him in prayer and ask Him to fulfill His promises
The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
God “remembered His covenant”
What is a covenant?
A formal bond that ties two people or two parties together
Marriage is a great example of a covenant
A man and a woman fall in love
They decide they want to spend their lives together
They develop a deep personal attachment to one another
In a sense, nothing can add to or take away from that relationship
They choose to guard that precious bond with a formal binding commitment (Covenant)
They can now live under the protection and security of the public commitment they have made before God and man.
The covenant allows the married couple to nurture and grow their love and commitment for life.
God has bound Himself in covenant with His people
He loves His own
He has a personal attachment to them
He has formalized that love and attachment by making a public pledge to them
Here is how He describes His covenant to Abraham
I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Recap
Suffering sometimes feels like it will never end
We can’t see the end or an answer
The church is facing times like that right now in our nation
Many of us are personally struggling emotionally or in other ways
Seasons of confusion, attacks and suffering drive many people back to their knees
This is a good thing
During difficult season of suffering and confusion, God absolutely hears our cries for help
In our pain and despair, let us cry out to God; He hears, remembers, sees, and delivers
God responds to our cries according to the New Covenant
God is a covenant God
to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
God’s covenant with His people is the theme of the Bible
It shows His love and commitment to redeem His own from bondage and darkness
God acts in History to fulfill His covenant to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and His people
Jesus is the one that makes God’s covenant pledge to us complete
His new and completed covenant now includes all who call upon the name of Jesus
On the night when Jesus was betrayed He broke bread with His Disciples
He pointed them to the New Covenant
This is why we regularly share the Lord’s Supper as a constant reminder of His sacrifice and His promised return
Today we take time to gather at the Lord’s table
Read with me the instructions Paul recieved from the Lord
After this we will share together in the Lord’s supper and prayer
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.