Our response will be to submit ourselves to His loving purpose. How God Sees us. We try to break free from some confinement or trial that God has put us in, thinking that then we could really live. It’s better for you to be in a local church, with all the imperfect people and their faults, than to be in the world, where God is not known. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. There is debate among scholars, but I believe that it is the Lord Jesus Christ in a preincarnate appearance. But God is not matter; God, in fact, created matter. T F If you’re married, you need to commit yourself to your partner, in spite of the difficulties. That means that Hagar told Abram of her meeting with God and of God’s command to name the boy “God hears.” That was a gentle rebuke to Abram, who had taken Hagar as his wife because he was beginning to wonder if God did, in fact, hear. Almost every incident involving sin in the Bible verifies that God clearly sees man’s iniquities. She must have wondered if that God knew or cared about her situation. ), It’s terrible to feel abandoned by your parents. Luk 14:27 – And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, he cannot be My disciple. God’s Divine Perception 2. When the orders came, school was in session, so James was told that the family would leave as soon as he got home that afternoon. God Sees Your Situation El Roi is not blind to your plight. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love. Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Breaking the Scripture down 3. God often mercifully checks us in our disobedience to prevent us from even greater damage. “The kindness of God leads you to repentance” (Rom. D U B At last he found a window he knew would be unlocked, pried it open and crawled through. OpenBible.info The Lord says that He heard Hagar’s affliction, not her prayer (16:11). God’s love covers us …and cleanses us. And somehow God even used me in her life as an example of a good father. He sees the sins of individuals, cities, and nations! 2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., 1976 in Bible exposition) and Califo... More. The Christians to whom Peter wrote were suffering, some as slaves under harsh masters, some as wives under disobedient husbands, all as citizens under an unjust government. Crazy right. Wherever in the Bible you find God asking a question, you can assume that He is not looking for information. (The NASB takes this interpretation.) For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”. ‣ ‣ But, clearly, she wasn’t seeking after the Lord and His will. Psalm 139 talks about the way we are fearfully and wonderfully made. In verse 13 it is stated that it was the Lord who spoke to Hagar. It’s in that context that we read, “Now the angel of the Lord found her” (16:7). The Bible is clear on this point. Q. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com. 11:33). Part 1 of 3. God sees you through Christ. She felt abandoned by everyone on earth and forgotten by God in heaven. I don’t know about you, but I’m not always to thrilled to take a good … It literally reads, “I have seen here after the One who saw me.” The expression is almost identical to Exodus 33:23, where God tells Moses that he will see His back, but not His face, for no one can see His face and live. M And yet Ishmael and his race were responsible for their sin and rebellion against God. Hagar wouldn’t have seen the Lord if it hadn’t been for her trial. God came down to see the Tower of Babel. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. This fact creates two immediate responses. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? I’m in this mess because of my own rebellion and sin, and yet You didn’t strike me down or let me go. However, God's words can lead us to discover what our individual meaning of beauty truly is and should be; that is deter from looking at physical appearance for God looks at the heart in all people and things. part 2 of 3 God’s Love: We are Rich and Famous Ephesians 1:3-10 August 10, 2014 Last week we started looking at what it means for God to love us. Is it ever right for Christians to stand up for their rights, to rebel against their government, or to fight for the abolition of unjust social institutions, such as slavery? He was so excited he could hardly wait. Some are terrified. Isaiah 30:1-18. Our real need in a bad situation is not to escape, but to seek and to submit to the Lord. A town built on a … 2:13, 18; 3:1). Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Hagar submitted to God by returning to Abram and Sarai. Our response will be to submit ourselves to His loving purpose. Where was she going? “You are the light of the world. And Father, help us to see all those truths in those around us as well. But one day we will stand before God and all will be seen. You can try to run from difficult circumstances, but you can’t hide from the God who put you there. But the Lord graciously hears our affliction, even when we fail to call out to Him as we should. Some people never grow in the Lord because they have a habit of running from difficult situations where He has put them for their training. Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both. Interestingly, Hagar is the only person in the Bible—male or female, Jew or Gentile—who’s named God personally. We Americans have a history of not submitting to anyone who oppresses us. Publisher: OpenBible.info. Many Christians are staggering under a heavy load of guilt, afraid they have disappointed God, but if you know Jesus Christ as Savior, God sees you as forgiven. E Our struggles can bring us closer to God and heighten our faith as we experience his faithfulness in forgiving us and drawing us closer to himself (see Hebrews 12.4-13). Was God being unfair to her. 1 Peter 2:9 says we are a “royal priesthood.” God sees us … All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Whether you need encouragement today that God sees tremendous value in yourself or that you need the reminder of how He sees all of us, here is what the Bible has to say with Scripture on Self Worth: Jeremiah 1:5 – Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. When can we rightly seek a way out (e.g., of a difficult job)? Psalms 139:13 - 127:16 - For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. God saw Hagar’s affliction: “The angel of the Lord found her ....” Isn’t that great! Because He sees, you can see His mercy, and submit to Him. ‣ And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. How does God look at us? We are equipped with all we need. S God sees you as righteous because the death of his Son cleansed you from your sins. This is “to the praise of [God’s] glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). That is the way God sees humanity. O Bible verses about God’s love for us. Some of you may be in trying situations right now, but you haven’t submitted to God. Your number one need in a time of trial is to submit to God--humble yourself under His mighty hand. Is every trial from God or can trials come from Satan? John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ‣ One of the greatest challenges believers face on a regular basis, is what will we believe – our feelings and emotions or God’s Word. Copyright 1996, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved. G How does God see us, what does He see when He looks at us? ‣ The Lord goes on to tell Hagar how He will greatly multiply her descendants. The way of obedience is hard, but the way of disobedience is even more difficult. Here are some of the ways the Bible helps us understand our awe-some God: 1. But God sees that our real need is to submit to Him in the trial. From 1977-1992 he was the pastor of Lake Gregory Community Church in Crestline, California. She could have been abused or taken captive by nomadic traders. We're not invisible to Him or without value. There’s an application here for us: God allows U-turns in the desert! Who is this angel of the Lord? (Read More...) Ephesians 2:4-9 - But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (Read More...) Matthew 6:25-34 - Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. While we often have a negative impression of ourselves, God sees us as His wonderful creation, His children. God Sees, God Cares By Glenn Davis “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.’” Gen. 16:13, NIV. The well was called “Beer-la-hai-roi,” which means either, “the well of the Living One who sees me,” or, as the scholarly C. F. Keil argues, “the well of the seeing alive,” since Hagar saw God and remained alive. So Hagar was found by and was speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ! For by grace you have been saved through faith. God sees our need in our affliction: To submit to Him in the difficult situations where He has sovereignly placed us. They seek counseling, but they don’t like what the counselor tells them, so they either quit or else look for a counselor who agrees with them. They join a church, but can’t get along with the people or don’t like something, so they find another church. Women are so important to Jesus that it was two women who first witnessed evidence of His resurrection. God sees us even when we think we are hidden. ‣ First, the bad news: Hagar needed to go back and submit to Sarai. He was trying to help God out. Now, truthfully, none of us think we have a distorted view of anything. You are children of God, heirs of God (1 John 3:2; Romans 8:16–17). Is it always God’s will for a Christian in a difficult trial to submit? And it's not just so that He can make a note of when we get things wrong but so He can protect us, and guide us through life's many twists and turns. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. We need to realize that even as God saw Hagar, He sees us. It almost seems as though Someone designed the sermonette to go with the sermon. Genesis 11:4-5 Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. That he doesn’t see our pain or hear our groaning. But Dobson saw what the hamster did not: the family’s pet dog, watching expectantly from a few feet away. Why will you still be struck down? If we want to understand life as it really is, we have to look at humanity in that way. They discover that the new church has the same problems. The story of Hagar in Genesis 16 is amazing. If you’re a teenager, you need to submit to your parents. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. God can be seen directly by angels, though, because they are spirit creatures. ‣ To be sure, the natural eyes and ears and brains are part of the process. If the hamster had worked its way free, it would have met sudden death. P The Lord wanted Hagar to think about two things: Where have you come from? Yet, in Scripture we find Jesus crushing the societal norms and treating women with honor, respect and love. It was a dangerous thing for a woman to do. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. He sums it up, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you” (1 Pet. This is the circumstance that gripped her. There are lessons which our rebellious nature cannot learn except by submitting to God in trials, even when we’re being treated wrongly or unfairly. We believe we see things as they are, but that cannot be true. Isaiah 55:8–9. We are not God; eternal, perfect, omniscient, omnipresent. God sees man’s sin. He will be a fighter, whose hand will be against everyone. And you don’t learn to submit to Me by running from the situation.” Ouch! Hagar, glimpsing here something of God's omniscience and power, names Him The God Who Sees Me. ‣ Rather than seeing my sin, God sees the righteousness of His Son. If in our trials we will look, like Hagar, we will see God in His mercy toward us. Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? He looked at you, and He looked at me, to see if there was anyone … Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. Geocoding When our spouse injures us, yet we love and forgive, God sees. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Hagar could flee from the presence of Sarai, but she couldn’t flee from the presence of the Lord. Why will you continue to rebel? When we are tempted to think of all the negative ways that others don’t measure up to our standard, help us to remember all the beautiful ways you created them. He looks from heaven and His eye sees through the darkness. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 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