9.12.21 The God Who Sees

greater things as you open up my eyes to see i am amazed at all you've done for me so i'll sing go i'll see you reign high above it all the kind who works impossible nothing is greater no one can stop our god he reigns high above [Music] impossible nothing is [Music] my life is yours and my hope is in you only in my heart you hold cause you made this sinner holy [Music] cause your glory is so beautiful i fall onto my knees and the heartbeat of my life is to worship in your life cause your glory is so beautiful your glory is so beautiful [Music] my life is yours [Music] [Music] your glory is [Music] [Music] [Music] is your glory so beautiful [Music] glory glory hallelujah [Music] [Music] this morning [Music] thank you jesus you are worthy of the lord [Music] thank you [Music] let's believe it today oh precious is [Applause] glory glory hallelujah jesus you are good we give him glory this morning glory glory hallelujah jesus [Music] glory hallelujah [Music] hallelujah jesus [Music] away my sin nothing but the blood of jesus [Music] what can make me nothing but the blood of jesus [Music] are you hurting and broken within overwhelmed by the weight of your sin jesus is calling have you come to the end of yourself to your thirst for a drink from [Music] the father's arms are open wide forgiveness was born with the precious blood of jesus christ [Music] leave behind your regrets and mistakes come today there's no reason to wait jesus said let's answer the call this morning church bring your sorrows and trade then for joy from the ashes a new life was born jesus is called bring your sorrows bring your sorrows and train them for joy from the ashes a new life is born jesus is called let's bring our sorrows one more time bring your sorrows and trade then we train it today from the ashes a new life is born jesus [Music] [Music] was the father's [Music] jesus christ [Music] oh [Music] sing hallelujah [Music] christ is risen [Music] bow down before him for he is lord sing hallelujah [Music] christ is risen oh what a savior [Music] [Music] christ is for he is lord of is [Music] to the altar the father's arms are open why forgiveness [Music] was the precious blood of jesus christ oh come to the altar the father's arms [Music] the precious god of jesus christ oh we thank you god for the course [Music] you are worthy of our friends we just give him the praise this morning [Music] we put you in authority on our lives god i submit to you i submit to you god [Music] you rescued us you rescued [Music] [Applause] [Music] we put you in a place of authority in our life [Music] thank you jesus [Music] from the moment [Music] i will see [Music] [Music] so i will [Music] [Music] [Music] declare his faithfulness this morning [Music] [Music] [Music] your goodness is [Music] yesterday [Music] [Music] is is [Music] [Music] this is [Music] faithful [Music] [Music] with every breath that is [Music] [Music] change [Music] [Applause] that of the goodness [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] how wonderful is my savior's love for me [Music] i stand amazed in the presence of jesus the next and wonder how he could love me a sinner come [Music] he down our sins and our sorrows today he took my sins and my souls he is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] to sing of his love for me singing [Music] [Music] let's sing that [Music] is [Music] father we give you thanks [Music] for your wondrous love that we can sing about your love that never changes that never fails we sing about that this morning we have confidence in that we give you thanks in jesus name amen amen that is good you may have a seat [Applause] good morning grace life just wanted to let you know about an upcoming event good morning chris life just want to let you know an upcoming event that we are going to be having on september 26 we will be having baptisms out at 1pm to sign up you can email office gracelifewb.com or you can sign up at the grace life website in addition to having baptism that day we're having an encounter night at 6 30 p.m hope to see you guys there hi kids welcome to kids corner you see i got my little testament i found a verse in here in romans chapter 2 verse 4 it says don't you know the kindness of god will turn you from your sin sin you guys remember what sin is sin is basically selfishness selfness is like i me my mind i me my mind he says i me my mind it's always thinking about and talking about i and me did you see i did why oh maybe didn't i know and then sometimes selfishness is trying to get everything for yourself like you could say that's my toy no it's not that's mine you see selfishness is really represented by those words i mean my mind but god is not selfish god's the opposite he is generous and fine matter of fact he showed us that when he sent his son jesus to show what he was like jesus cared for the poor he healed the sick and he even died on the cross for our punishment all the selfishness that we had all the i me my minds he died for that now that is really kind i think i want to turn for my selfishness and follow you jesus i'm yours i want to follow you well i can do that thank you good morning church how is everybody really let's try that in good morning grace life how is everybody okay okay that's better that's better it's hard enough to get up here but i need some interaction okay this morning so and first of all i have a little disclaimer i need everybody for one second to pick up your toes okay because this message may step on a couple of them okay you know you know that i love you you know that right i love you guys doug and i love you guys so much or there's no way we would ever do this right so let's go ahead and pray holy spirit i just thank you so much that you are here you are in the midst of us lord jesus your word says that where two or three are gathered in your name you are with us i thank you for that promise and i thank you for this message that you've been working out in my heart for over a year lord jesus just be with us this morning and give us the grace and the ears to hear in jesus name amen so that what i prayed is true this message has been stirring in my heart for over a year and i had no idea what it even was going to be about but i remember the day so clearly i was in our kitchen i was home alone i don't know where doug and the kids were and i'm doing these dishes okay and i'm like going to the garbage to throw something away and the garbage can is overflowing and i just remember feeling so overwhelmed so this is so dramatic i know but this is where it was at okay i was so overwhelmed so alone doesn't anybody ever see this am i the only one that sees the overflowing garbage and dishes am i doug okay and you know what i know what happened in that moment i was walking to the garbage and i'm like oh i said i said out loud am i the only ones that sees this and all of a sudden i heard the holy spirit whisper i am the god who sees oh okay okay so i'm like okay so for those of you who are wondering whoa the holy spirit talks to you annie yes if you are a follower of jesus christ we believe that the bible says that we're his sheep and the sheep know his voice so god still talks to us today if you are a follower of jesus christ you have the ability to talk to the one who created you there's nothing better than that but in that moment when he said i'm the god who sees i'm thinking no this is kind of bad but i'm thinking okay good but i wish you were the god that does can you come help me take out this garbage i know that's terrible but what this did for me is it took me on a year-long journey asking the holy spirit what are you trying to tell me here because every time i'd be like all right you see me i get that thank you lord you know i i go to the scripture because we hear this where he um hagar in genesis 16 says you're the one who sees me and we're going to get into that but i'm thinking why do you want me to know this every time i chalk it up as all right he sees me he knows me and he still loves me he'd bring it back to my attention whether it be like something i was reading or something somebody said or a devotion or a video that somebody sent me i'm like nobody knew what was going on and i'm like i don't even know what's going on but lord what do you want me to know but god in his great kindness and lots of grace and mercy took a year to tell me that i have a problem with control i'm probably not the only one in here i mean i would venture to guess that in some way we all have an area of our life or a person or a group of people in our life that we struggle like to not control them right you know we know those people i'm sure it's nobody in here who are never happy with the food at a restaurant they're never happy with the people in their life their spouse their kids their in-laws their daughter or son-in-law just not doing it right what about other people's choices and oh my goodness if they can't just do it right i'm just going to do it myself they're not going to do it right so i'm just going to do it myself you know maybe they're passive-aggressive making comments that like are heavy hinting towards something but never get the point across just to undercut somebody maybe they're just overly direct maybe that's some of us in here maybe it has something to do with your home like if you can't keep this house clean you are all on my list i live that road for a while and it's so miserable so i'm sure some of you can relate what i'm talking with what i'm talking about jeremiah 31 3 says the lord appeared to us in the past saying i have loved you with an everlasting love i have drawn you in with unfailing kindness and this is what jesus did for me this past year he didn't come slap me in the face and say you girl you are a control freak you have got to chill out he could have done that i don't know how i would have received that but instead he took his time with me because he has an everlasting love for me and for you an unfailing kindness god's kindness his kindness towards you never ends and so he will gently lead you through the sin see even pastors wives struggle with sin and i needed to be led gently through this season of my life so we see where god is called the god who sees in genesis 16. but to give you a little um like history before in genesis 12 god called abraham to get up and go okay his name was abram at the time he's like abram go and he's like well go where i'm not going to tell you just get up and go so abram and sarai had to get up and go and god said that if you do this i will give you descendants in genesis 13 it says god promises abraham all the land that you see i will give to you in your offspring forever i will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if anyone could count the dust then your offspring could be counted and in genesis 15 god makes a another covenant with abraham and he says do not be afraid abram i am your shield your very great reward some of you need to hear that this morning that god is your shield he is your very great reward we need to cling to those promises and he promised abraham descendants as many as there are stars in the sky and then genesis 16 this is where hagar comes onto the scene and i'm just going to read from genesis 16 starting in verse 1. it says now sarai abram's wife had borne him no children they'd been there for 10 years at this point 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 that was the custom back in the day abram and i am so grateful that is not the custom now darwin is mine nobody else is right abram agreed to what sarah said so after abram had been living in canaan 10 years sarah his wife took her egyptian slave hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife he slept with hagar and she conceived when she knew she was pregnant she began to despise her mistress then sarah said to abraham you okay this is so good listen up you're responsible for the wrong i'm suffering i put my slave in your arms and now that she knows she's pregnant she despises me may the lord judge between you and me girls women how many of us have ever done that we make a choice and it's like it is your fault like why did you do this sarah i took control she took matters into her own hands oh what a great idea i'm going to give hagar to my husband so i can build a family through her no can you imagine the animosity between hagar and sarai and then poor abram he's like hey sure i'll take her you know i mean i'll do what you tell me to do i mean no it's just so funny though isn't it because we see a parallel story in genesis 3 when adam and eve were in the garden and and eve ate the fruit doug tells me off and when i'm struggling with something well baby you shouldn't eat the fruit okay okay um but when god came and he addressed the sin of adam and eve you know they just were so quick to put blame you know adam's like hey the woman you gave me god she made me do it you know and she's like well the serpent made me do it you know so it's all this finger pointing right away but then god steps in and he said okay listen these are going to be the consequence of your sin and genesis 3 16 says to the woman he said i will make your pains and childbearing very severe with painful labor you will give birth to children thanks eve your now listen this is the part we need to get your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you that word desire i've shared it from here before it actually it's the hebrew word tashooka it's fun to say teshuka everybody say it teshuka good okay you know what it means it means to stretch out after to control so eve's desire would be to control her husband but he will rule over her and that's the authority that's set up in our home is that jesus is the head then it's doug and then it's me now we have equal value but different responsibility and doug is held accountable to the way he leads our home and i am for one and i'm not i don't struggle with that i am so thankful for that you know sometimes us women we just want to control everything around us and i know it's not just a woman problem there are men who struggle with the same thing and there's certain areas of our life where we all need help let's just be real okay right but we find this same hebrew word teshuka in genesis 4 7 when the lord is speaking to cain and abel so the sons of adam and eve and abel brought a better offering to god and so god was pleased with abel cain was jealous so he's like i'm going to take matters into my own hands i'm going to control this situation and i'm going to what i'm going to kill abel i'm going to kill my brother but then god comes and he speaks to cain in genesis 4 7. he says if you do what is right will you not be accepted but if you do not do what is right sin is crouching at your door it desires tashuka to control you to have you but you must rule over it now i'm going to come back to that verse so don't forget about that one we know how the story ends we know that cain kills abel and he has to suffer consequence for that so the desire to control it's not just who we are see the desire to control people can be disguised so good so easily by good leadership or even boundaries and margin i struggled with that i would there's this book the best yes you know say no to good things that keep you from your best but after a while i was so overwhelmed and i just wanted to control our schedule so much that i would just say no no no no here's he's just going yes that's true oh and let me tell you it has been a stretch for me to get this but it's so gross but here's the thing church we have hope because the good news is if you if you are surrendered to jesus you have the holy spirit inside of you and the holy spirit gives us fruit he gives us gifts to walk this life out it's we're not alone we don't have to do these things in our own strength but one of the gifts one of the fruits of the spirit is self-control so how do those two go together right i mean that doesn't sound i mean it sounds like control but if you exercise the gift of self-control by accessing the power of the holy spirit you will actually have authority over the sin of control over the spirit of control because i truly believe that there's a spirit of control that wants to just really hinder and cause division and strife but also the sin to control things it's just a sin and it separates us from god and we're going to talk more okay you guys get me next week too so just here's a little thing we need to pray for our pastor because he's still struggling so if you guys could just remember to pray for doug wing that would really really be great and if he's miraculously healed he can be up here next week i'll i'll just throw everything else out the window but okay back to our program i so even though i fee and i'll get to where i surrendered and how on earth did that ever happen but i still struggle with it but when i access the fruit of the spirit of self-control it's easier for me to identify oh yuck i don't want that and so for example just last week i'm out planting mums in the yard you know i like i love fall it's probably my favorite season and i like to decorate for fall and i like to make the yard nice for fall and i like doug to help me make the yard nice for fall so i'm out planting these mums and he comes outside he goes hey babe i'm gonna go goose scouting and i'm like he doesn't even know this but it was like i just felt it like that need to control him rise up thinking in my head well why am i planting these moms by myself and you know i know you're hurting right now but man and then it was like that is the dumbest thing in the entire world annie you just chill out and i just told no i just said no he can go and you know when i released that when i took that thought captive and made it obedient to christ because this man needs a break sometimes it was like oh my goodness go have fun and it didn't eat at me all night it was just really it was like in that moment i'm like yes i really have found healing i really have found a little freedom in this area but let's get back to abram sarai and hagar so sarah has just got done blaming abraham hey listen this is your fault but he's like hey your slave is in your hands in verse six abram said do with her whatever you think best then sarah mistreated hagar so hagar fled from her the angel of the lord found hagar near spring in the desert it was the spring that is beside the road asher and he said hagar slave of sarai where have you come from and where are you going i'm running away from my mr 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 towards 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 so there are some parts of the story you guys are so many lessons in this story and there's some parts that honestly i don't even understand like god gave her this huge promise of giving her many descendants but out of the just the father of the descendants would be a wild donkey of a man you know it's you know those are things i want to ask jesus when i get to heaven but hagar had a choice to make you know she had a choice to obey the lord and go back to sarai you know she knew what she was going back to but she obeyed so hagar abram a son and abram gave him the name ishmael which means god hears ishmael means god hears so god saw her and he heard her abram was six 86 years old and hagar boreham ishmael but we know the story doesn't end there in 17 and 18 god establishes his covenant with abram through circumcision he renames them abram abraham and sarah and they both laugh because god reminds them i have a promise for you and they're laughing but you know what church it was 25 years from the time that god told abraham to go until isaac was born until the promise was fulfilled 25 years and i know some of us in here have had words spoken over us about things to come or you have passions and desires and dreams and all of these things and you're like maybe it was a prophetic word maybe it was a something prayed over you last week and you're like why isn't it happening already we need to remember that god is in control from his perspective he can see the past the present and the future and we need to trust that we need to trust in his plan and trust in his timing and not take control in genesis 21 isaac arrives on the scene and of course when isaac is weaned so he was like two or three ishmael was like picking on his brother giving him trouble and so sarah didn't like that so she told abraham get rid of these two i'm done and so abraham did he sent him on their way with a little food a little water and but it says in 2120 but god was with the boy as he grew up so even in all of these circumstances god never stopped being faithful and in your situations god doesn't just stop being faithful because of something bad that happened to you or maybe a choice we made god is faithful even when we're not and we can trust him and that's some of the things we're going to talk about next week so how does this affect us how how did i get to the point i mean seriously you guys i i felt like you know the deer in the psalms is the deer pants for the water so my soul longs for you lord i know that's dramatic but it's been a year of holy smokes lord would you please just tell me but he told me the beginning of this summer i asked my kids permission if i could share the story but on father's day this year it was uh it was father's day and actually braylon's birthday and i we had kind of been running hard for a long couple months stretch there and it was father's day so i was trying to make it special for doug and it was bralen's birthday so i was trying to make it special for braylon and we were going to have a party and i remember being and doug wasn't feeling good that day and looking back it could have been the start of your problem and i just remember just being so overwhelmed and so exhausted and then jet was out and we were blowing up balloons for braylon's party and we had a helium tank and he kept blowing them suckers up and popping them and i'm like you need to quit that you need to quit that normally on a normal day i would be sucking a little helium with them and sounding like the chipmunks you know i mean we would be having fun with this but i was so bound by this need to control everything around me it seriously mr o's kid's corner it was set the stage perfect and he didn't even know i was gonna talk about this it was about me me me me and i snapped i snapped and doug's brother and sister-in-law were there and i so i snapped like nicely in front of them but then jet took off and i took off into the house and doug finds me on our bed i'm just sobbing like okay so just it was pretty ridiculous now but in that moment i felt like hagar i felt alone and i felt unheard and unseen because it didn't matter how much i did or how hard i tried it felt like it was never enough and i just i mean i i told doug these crazy things like i'm so tired i hate having people here it's like that's not even true you guys know that we love it when you come but i was so bound by making everything perfect and everything awesome for everybody and everything has to be fun and i just man i was done church we've got to be driven by excellence and not perfection if you struggle with perfection if everything has to be perfect or you can't be happy i'm sorry here's the toe stepping but that's sin you're bound by a spirit of control a sin of control i know i'm not alone in here and i'm not saying this to be like good luck i'm saying this because we have hope i'm saying this because we serve a god who's given us the holy spirit the counsel or the comforter who loves you beyond anything you can imagine he wants to set you free from that he wants you to walk in freedom so i laid in my bed sobbing to doug and he you know what he did he heard me and he saw me that day because sometimes if doug and i fight about anything it's the time thing you know and where we're having people and going here and there and everywhere and trying to keep our schedules organized but he just stopped and he heard me and he saw me and he said babe if we have to just scratch the things that we have planned the rest of summer that's okay i remember thinking well we'll never do that but at least he sees me you know god used doug that day to show me that i am the god who sees so i cried and i put myself together and then i went back out and it was a week later that i was still feeling a little overwhelmed still a little pressure and i remember i went and got prayer right away and one of the elders and his wives prayed for me and they're praying oh you guys i wish i wish we would have you know we don't videotape prayer time but the look on our faces because um paul he's like hey i just keep getting this verse where cain and abel are you know going and god says to cain sin is crouching at your door but you must master it and i went i snapped my eyes open and i'm like i know what it is i think i scared all of us and he goes what and i said i have a problem with control and james 4 16 says therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective trust me church i didn't say i have a problem with control like i was bragging about it i was embarrassed by it i was humbled by it but i was so sick of it that it was worth surrendering that day so they prayed and i found healing that day now it wasn't like this big dramatic thing like i've shared before it was just wow i'm responding different to different situations and maybe maybe some of you feel this way maybe some of you are going through the same same thing as i did or am my challenge to you is simple it's a simple question and we're going to get into it a little bit more next week but is do you trust god i think off the cuff most of us would say oh absolutely i trust god or i wouldn't be here or you know of course i trust god of course i do but do we really because i really feel like this need to control a situation and how we talk to people or how we operate our homes or it could even be here it's driven by this lack of trust somewhere in our life jeremiah 29 11 through 14 it's like everybody's favorite right if you ask somebody their life first half the people will tell you for i know the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future and that's where they quit but you want to know what the rest of that section of scripture says then you will call on me and come and pray to me and i will listen to you he's the god who hears you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart i will be found by you declares the lord and will bring you back from captivity we find that verse in jeremiah and jeremiah the prophet spoke these words over the israelites right before right before they went into captivity for 70 years this was god's promise to them this is our promise as well some of us have been in captivity to sin for a really long time and maybe some of us have never been freed from the power of sin by surrendering your life to jesus if that's you if you if you can say if i if i asked you today hey if you died today do you know where you'd go if you can't answer without a doubt that i will be in heaven with jesus then don't walk out of here until you do don't walk out of here until you can answer that question because if you don't have the power of the cross operating in your life you can't really you can't have freedom from sin there's no way the bible says that the way to the father is only through jesus so if that's you please please go see the prayer team come find me pastor doug we want to pray with you and we want to help you it's not just like hey we're not going to look down on you we're going to rejoice the whole heaven rejoices when one sinner repents and turns to jesus sin may be crouching at your door see this the sin of control crouched at my door for years and years i really don't remember it before i got married but genesis 3 a man i've been living that out really well and i've apologized to doug and i've apologized to my kids and maybe some of you just need to confess your sins to one another and pray for healing god wants to give you healing he wants to set you free and so if that's you actually i'm just gonna have everybody bow their heads and close our eyes we're not going to get weird i'm not going to make you come up front i'm not going to make you do anything special but if you struggle with wanting to control something or somebody raise your hand i want to pray for you today thank you dear lord jesus i just thank you for my brothers and sisters who have raised their hands lord who struggle with the sin of control and it just eats adam lord they don't even really couldn't identify it even lord but god holy spirit you come in your goodness and your great faithfulness and your great love for us to help us lord jesus i just thank you for them god i just come against that spirit of control that wants to steal and cause division and strife and harm in our relationships god would you help us surrender these things to you today lord forgive us forgive us for allowing the sin of control to rule our thoughts and to rule our our lives god would you come with your healing power through the power of the holy spirit to wash us clean [Music] to set us free to use us in the way that you want to use us lord jesus and i thank you god that you speak to us in powerful ways god may we have ears to hear this week lord i examine our hearts lord and help us to become quick to identify the things that so easily entangle us god and help us lay them down and surrender them to you in jesus name amen [Music]

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Length: 54min 9sec (3249 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021