Sermon (22-May): The Omniscient (All-Seeing) God

Scripture:

1 Peter 5:6-11

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Big Idea:

To have a God who sees, means we have a God who cares.

Introduction:

- A.W. Tozer wrote in The Pursuit of God,

“He is omniscient, which means that He knows in one free and effortless act all matter, all spirit, all relationships, all events.”

- In the past, I talked about the importance of God in a number of respects

- I talked about having a God who speaks—millennia after millennia—post Adam, Moses and David

- We have a God who still wants to reach out to us

- Despite what we hear in the world…

- God wants to speak into our lives and help us to navigate not just in the bad times but also during the good times

- He’s interested in you—all of you—not merely your circumstances

- That being said, He wants to speak with you

- And, He wants to hear from you

- We see it throughout the Old Testament—from Abraham, Hagar, Moses, and the kings and prophets

- He wants to hear from us

- It’s not limited to a gender or race

- Or, a specific period of time—Old Testament or New

- The sooner that we understand that faith in Him is critical

- The better we position ourselves…to know God and to get a glimpse of what He’s capable of

- He is the God that speaks, hears and sees everything

- That’s what we want to talk about today

- God—the Almighty God—sees everything

- And I get that sometimes it’s hard for us to fathom or grasp it

- We see things happen all around us the time that can cause us to question it

- We experience hardship or trials as believers and think that’s not necessarily supposed to be intended for us

- That no matter the plight or tribulation we find ourselves in

- It leads us to wonder and question;

- How does the unrighteous seem to prosper?

- Well, if we trust the Bible to be true, which we do

- Whatever we are experiencing; know that it’s not the complete story

- There is an Omniscient, All Seeing God that sees all

- Not only does He see all; He cares specifically for you

- Regardless of what you feel or think, He is a God that sees and cares

- He sees your worry and concern; every issue that comes your way

- The thing is that these are the things that God specializes in

- This is what Peter preaches to his and our generation

- The early day church had questions just like we do except there situation was definitely different than ours

- Faced with intense persecution on various fronts, Peter looks to encourage them; I look at it as not only help them out but “hope them up”

- How does He do it? The Apostle Peter lets them know:

- God Sees What We Do

- God Sees What We Do Not

- God Sees What Has Us Down

- God Sees What Jesus Has Done

Transition: So, pretty obvious, but let’s start with God Sees What We Do

Message:

- God Sees What We Do

Psalm 33:13-15 – 13 “The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; 14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, 15 he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.”

- So, here’s the big truth that may shock some: God sees what we do

- I say that in jest but sometimes it seems as if we miss that very obvious point

- We can know with our head how big God is

- Yet still not grasp in context that each one of us is on His mind

- If you’re a believer, He has you on His mind…

- He wants to build you to where you are the most effective for His will

- If you are not a believer, He wants to beckon you

- He wants you to enter into a relationship with Him

- He cares so much that He rules and reigns over all His creation

- He can’t help but see what we do

- It can be scary and probably petrifying for some but consider what Proverbs says,

Pro 5:21 “For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths”

- He has plans for all of creation and our lives so He has to know our paths

- Our paths may not always be smooth sailing

- But, like the author of Chronicles writes,

2 Chronicles 16:9a – “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”

- He wants to support us as we are faithful to Him

- A lot of times we can question exactly what God is doing because our situation doesn’t add up in our mind

- That’s why our walk has to be one of faith

- Thankfully, His eyes are everywhere…”watching over the evil and the good” (Pro 15:3)

- Some may undermine or ridicule our walk of faith

- Still, our rewards is not necessarily in the present but rather in the eternal

- God has our heart needs in mind

- Our feeding the hungry, clothing the less fortunate and visiting the sick/imprisoned is music to His ears

- Please do not think that it goes unnoticed…

- Not in the least does it

- We may or may not see an immediate reward

- But that’s okay; it’s the eternal reward that’s endgame for the believer

- We’re not working for salvation

- Yet, membership has its benefits

- A relationship with Him has eternal benefits

- God sees and notices what we do

- Now, it’s not only the good He sees

- He sees our disobedience and sin

- Jeremiah the prophet wrote this from God’s mouth,

Jeremiah 16:17 – “For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.”

- So, every “misstep,” every wrong mouse click, in the dark, in the light…God sees it all

- The thought that “our iniquities/secret sins” are in the light of His presence don’t need to scare us

- However, it should nudge us to remind us that God is every where

- God sees our faithfulness and obedience and on the other hand…

- He sees our unfaithfulness and disobedience

- In the words of Scripture, “Nothing is hidden from His sight. Everything is laid bare before His eyes” (Heb 4:13)

- One thing that has always fascinated me is the truth that God knows my heart

- He knows its inclinations and intentions

- My ups and downs whether I am high or low

- Job put it this way, “He knows the way that I take…”

- My position—my responsibility is to be “blameless and upright like Job

- In case you were wondering; being blameless is being a person of integrity who trusts God as His redeemer/sustainer

- Not a perfect individual—someone who understands Jesus equals salvation

- Paul understood this, Peter understood this

- And Peter wants these believers who are facing persecution to know that God knows whether we will humble ourselves

- Or will we choose the way of Old Israel—to rebel and disobey

- Allow the fact that God sees you to motivate you to stay in the game to endure

Transition: He sees. God sees what we do. Secondly, God Sees What We Do Not

God Sees What We Do Not

Jeremiah 17:10a – “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind…”

Proverbs 21:2 – “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”

- I alluded to this earlier but let’s talk about it a little deeper

- Again, here’s the obvious, God sees best not just better than us

- His perspective and outlook will always be different than ours because He sees things that we simply cannot see

- To know that God sees deep which means the intricacies and motives of our heart

- Of course, we can guess and some of us can possibly discern someone’s motives

- But God surely knows why I did what I did and why you did what you did

- I remember back when Samuel was told to go and anoint the next king after Saul’s disobedience

- Jesse, David’s father, shows off all his sons…except David

- Samuel knowing that he heard from God is not understanding why it’s not clear to him who’s the next king

- Samuel sees all Jesse’s sons that are before him and then comes David the shepherd boy

- God reminds Samuel and us, “…the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)

- This should remind us that God sees and cares

- But, here’s a question:

Why is it that sometimes he doesn’t answer our prayer in the way we want him to or ask him to?

- The question is rhetorical but think along these lines…

- God is the ultimate air traffic controller; look at this slide (slide)

Aviation Flight Companies like FlightAware that keep track of most all planes in our skies at a given time. According to them in 2017 there were an average of 9,728 planes carrying 1,270,406 people in the sky at any given time.

- What we can understand is this, God sees ALL the pieces at play

- He sees what will do us harm, bring Him the most glory, the cause and effect of every choice we make before we make it

- Lastly, He sees that for everyone walking the face of the earth

- But this we know, God is causing all things to work together for our good…

- For those called according to His purpose

- I’ve learned to accept that my sight and knowing is not enough—it’s limited

- Being that God is unlimited in his seeing and vision

- The onus is on me to accept that “undeniable truth”

- Listen to what John Piper writes,

“God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.”

- Understandably so, we can get caught up in the here and now

- Problems begin to take center stage; what's going on around us cries for our attention

- We forget that there's a problem solver Who has literally seen it all

- Peter captures that who we are fighting against is not of the flesh anyway

- The Apostle Paul preaches that we are dealing with "spiritual forces of evil—principalities and powers" Eph 6:11-12

- And, we cannot deal with what we cannot see

- The realm that's in the heavenlies as a battleground is up to God and His angelic host

- Rage and fight as the enemy tries

- The end result is a fixed fight; we win

- That's why we desperately need God

- As far as I can tell, we need Him from Day 1—even today if we haven’t chosen Him

- In this passage, Peter urges these persecuted believers to stand firm in the faith

- Their faith should allow them to seemwith their spiritual eyes more than their physical eyes

Transition: God sees what we do; He sees what we don't

3) God Sees What Has Us Down

- If we don't learn anything today, know this...

- God is vitally aware of those who believe and trust in Him

- Regardless of your hurt, pain, struggle, confusion or tears

- God has not forgotten and sees you

- God reminds us of that in the story of Hagar—Abraham and Sarah’s servant

- God promised Abraham and Sarah a son; yet they didn’t want to wait for God to unveil His plan

- They thought God had forgotten them so they come up with their own plans

- Sarah offers up her servant, Hagar; Abraham doesn’t refuse the offer

- Hagar gets pregnant and flaunts it in front of Sarah;

- Sarah feels some type of way (“[Sarah] dealt with her harshly) and they decide to put her out of the camp and Hagar leaves…

- Feeling forsaken—but God didn’t forsake her

- Hagar is tired, alone…with nothing and no one

- Then, she is visited by an “angel of the Lord”

- Who tells her to go back and submit to Abraham and Sarah

- But, He also delivers a promise…that she will have a son

- Her response should enlighten us all,

“You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” (Gen 16:13)

- In the Hebrew “Jehovah Rohi” – which means “the God who sees me”

- As a believer, that is the God we serve

- He sees you—what you are going through—He’s looking after you and cares for you

- Imagine truly feeling and knowing…whether you’re facing a broken relationship

- Been abused in the past, in a financial crisis, facing an addiction

- God sees…and in his seeing, He cares

- 1 Peter 5:7 has been in my “scripture toolkit” for many, many years

“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

- God allows us the opportunity to freely, intentionally and purposely to cast our burdens on Him

Transition: Lastly, God Sees What Jesus Has Done

God Sees What Jesus Has Done

Closing:

- When God looks down on us, He sees two categories of people

- Those who are “in Christ” and those who are not

- The good news is this…

- When we place our faith and trust in Jesus, God no longer sees us and our sin, but instead sees His Son

- Scripture puts it this way (Col 3:3-4),

3“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

- What will He see when He sees you? Christ as your only substitute or you trying to do things your own way?

- This I know -- God sees and what He sees is always certain

- There is an opportunity for you to know Him in a personal way

- We have four candidates for baptism after service who are ready to make the public declaration that they know and have accepted Him

- Let’s close out in prayer

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I ask you to forgive me for all of my sins known and unknown, I renounce them all. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I receive you now as Lord and Savior of my life. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He died for me and arose and sits at the right hand of God praying for me, interceding for me. Lord Jesus, I give you everything. I thank you for saving me, delivering me and setting me free, in Jesus’ name!