God Sees and Knows

hi Matt Chandler here pastor of the village Church just want to thank you for streaming this sermon on your device I wanted to just before we get going here just lay before you a deep conviction we have that this video sermon that we've prayed really stirs up your affections for Jesus and shapes you and mold you into the image of the son would just be supplemental to your relationship with the Lord and in no way would replace the church you should be plugged into or the pastor that God has put over your life to Shepherd and care for your soul and so please enjoy the next hour or so of this message we have prayed that God would use it in a profound way in your life blessings from darkness to light this is the story we all share as the people of God he draws us out to draw us in from the birth of Israel to the church today God delivers and dwells with his people this story began several thousand years ago and it began with a promise from God to Abraham that he would make his offspring more numerous than the stars in the sky a great nation one day dwell in the promised land more than 400 years past and Ankara hams descendants had not seen this promise fulfilled instead the Israelites lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt fearing that the Hebrews would grow into a mighty nation and overtake them the Pharaoh of Egypt forced them to work as slaves but Israel continued to grow in response the Egyptians increased their oppression of God's people and Pharaoh gave a terrible decree every son born to the Hebrews would be thrown into the river but a Levite coupled divided the zoo trusting God's will for their son's life and God did have a plan for this child Pharaoh's daughter found the baby and took pity on him she named him Moses because he was drawn out as Moses grew older and saw the suffering of his people when he witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew Moses killed you and fled Egypt to hide in the desert years passed and Moses made a new life for himself in media day the voice of the Lord called out to him from a burning bush God told Moses that he saw the persecution of his people and he heard their cries he promised to deliver the Israelites from slavery and he commanded Moses to go before Pharaoh and on their behalf Moses was terrified so God sent me the brothers went before Pharaoh performing signs and wonders but Pharaoh would so God brought no plagues upon Egypt yet Pharaohs to prepare for the tenth and final plague the Hebrews mark their doors with the blood of spotless lambs that night the Angel of Death passed through the kingdom killing the firstborn child of every Egyptian household that did not bear the mark including arrows heartbroken Pharaoh told the Israelites to go they were finally set free and the Spirit of God led the people out and toured the prison but Pharaoh's grief soon turned to rage he changed his mind and then commanded the Egyptian army to pursue him when the Israelites came to the Red Sea Moses lifted his staff to the sky and the Hebrews passed you the towering waves and the Egyptians were swallowed by the sea God had indeed drawn his people out of bondage out of darkness and into the light of his presence the story of Israel is the story of us today we are God's people he draws us out of our sin our Egypt and draws us into his presence into relationship with him well good morning how are you doing well excellent if you have your Bible go ahead and grab those if you don't have your Bible grab one of those hardback black ones somewhere around you kids want you to go ahead and grab a Bible also if you grab one of those hardback black ones I'll tell you even the page number to go to and so here we are in week six of our study of the book of Exodus and like we've been talking about will be in Exodus through I believe May although we could eat a little bit into June we'll see what the Lord has for so once you once you have your Bibles if you've got the hardback black when we're going to be on page 46 and here's how it works the big number is the chapter and the little number is the verse and so kids if you have your Bible you're looking for a big two and a small 23 and we're going to look at three verses together today now a couple of things first through fifth graders I love family worship we can love that you are in here with us I think if we had the time I could just show you in the Bible where the Bible is letting us know as moms and dads and as other adults that you bring something to us that we need that you have a joy and an energy and a vibrancy that we have a tendency to lose as we get older and crustier and so for you to be in here today is a big deal for us because God wants us to look at you and consider the energy and life and joy that you have is something that he wants for us he says that to get into the kingdom we must come as little children so that's a really cool kind of little nugget from the Lord on your importance in the gathering of the household of faith and so I'm glad that you're here today here here's my promise I'm gonna go about 20-ish minutes and you can do that I know you can do that I believe that you can do that and then now moms and dads I know that 1st through 5th graders are in here all right which means what what I'm prepared for is for there to be you know questions answered that I wasn't really asking and they'll be a little bit more squirming the nest Cerie and maybe you have to flash a little evil eye over at your child for something I get that if you got a church background your mama was giving it to you in the choir back in the day and so I know that you might have to look over me like oh no all right so I get all that but I just want everybody to breathe out and then mom's dad singles here's the other thing I want to throw out to you these three verses the the whole book of Exodus turns on these three verses right these aren't three verses like oh this would be an easy spot to have Family Worship weekend it literally they are the fulcrum on which the book of Exodus shifts so at this point five weeks in all we've really seen is Moses and Pharaoh and Egypt and Pharaoh's daughter and Moses mother and you know you know who's been absent from the narrative other than we can see it retroactively Lee God God has not presented himself he has not introduced himself he has not spoken we have seen nothing of God except in the background sovereignly moving the pieces around and yet today he speaks and then especially next week where we cover chapter three which I'm a little already giddy about but I will hold off until then Exodus chapter 2 we're going to start in verse 23 so if you got your Bibles going to look at that during those many days the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and they cried out for help then their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob and God saw the people of Israel and God knew now three simple verses and what I want to do is I want to pull some things out of it just kind of put it in front of us for us to consider the first and one that I think it's important for us to always know regardless of how old we are is that the Bible never kind of shied away from or tries to back away from this reality that people can hurt and be in pain so we see in this text that the people of God are groaning they are hurting they are crying out for help that people hurt that people can be sad that people can be angry that people can have their hearts broken this is a reality that exists throughout the entire Bible it should never surprise us when this happens now why well people hurt because the world's broken so a lot of times when people are hurt when they're angry they're sad their hearts are broken it's because the world is broken they are sick that's usually not anyone's fault right when when someone gets sick they get sick because the world is broken right so we can hurt over that or they're there they're hurt because they've sinned against God and there are consequences for that or a third reason that we heard we can either be mad or sad our heart can be broken is that other people sent in their sin affects us and so the Bible doesn't shy away from the fact here that to live on planet Earth is that that that introduces the possibility for hurt and real hurt to take place in our lives we shouldn't be surprised at that so if you're older you shouldn't be surprised at that and if you're a first grader I'm just praying a little seed goes into your heart and and it begins to grow in an understanding that God is at work in the mess not that God says there won't be a mess you tracking okay and then from there I think one of the more stunning realities in the Bible is presented to us and it's so stunning that I think we miss it half the time we certainly have lost the all of it in our time and here's the second thing not only do we see that people hurt but we see that God hears the cries of hurting people that God hears the cries of his people now this is stunning to think about that God the Creator God of everything hears us like we live in a really noisy day it's really loud and there are a lot of people and a lot of people who are hurting and a lot of people who cry out to God and yet what we see here is that God hears his people his both individually as well as corporately as a group and so let me let me show you how we're limited and God is not on the count of three I want you to say not yell but just say at a good volume a projection of your normal speaking voice your full name alright your full name if you're embarrassed of your middle name just get over it nobody's really going to hear it right so so here we go on the count of three we're all going to say our full name one two three Matthew Lee Chandler okay now no one in here right now can go got it and kind of come up on stairs ago I'm gonna start over here and I work my way to the right and pick out every individual and go here's your full name in fact if I had to guess you probably didn't pick up on anyone's full name around you except maybe Danny loud voice behind you this cuz it was overpowering but by and large we don't possess the ability to hear like God hears right because that didn't bother God at all like I didn't need you uh you know let's do that one more time I got half of you which is better than any of you slackers could do but I can get all of you so let's do that one more like God doesn't hear like that he hears us all at once always and it doesn't stress him out so I don't know about you if I'm in an environment they're like forty different people talking I can get a little you know ello I'm just gonna need huh what right but that that's not how the Lord works so if you grew up praying where you kind of pray then squeeze the hand to your eye then they pray and squeeze the hand to their right until it made the full circle it's a very Baptist II way of praying but it's not ultimately necessary right that the Lord can distinguish the cries all at once from everywhere in the world and he hears them this is stunning reality and then it also has nothing to do with volume so on the count of three I want you to whisper your mom's full name or if you does just do this just whisper your mom's first name so as low as you can whisper we're gonna whisper our mom's name on the count of three ready one two three that sounded like a scary movie didn't it I'm not gonna live it weird me out a little bit to zero the crack it sounded like a hiss so in order for us to hear we need volume right so for us here we need like a singular person to say something we can't hear 40 different people saying something heck most of us can't see you don't hear three different people and yet God can hear us all and then volume doesn't matter to God he doesn't need you to be at a specific volume an order from God okay now I got it like God hears us when we pray when we cry out when we're hurting and we say God he hears us this is a stunning truth when you think of the size and scope of earth and the amount of people who in any given moment are crying out him all over the world that God is aware of us that God hears us in fact the bible says not only does does god just hear you but he's aware of you this text ends God sees God knows you know the Bible says that God knows every hair on your head another thing we can't do King David would say like this King David who killed Goliath an unbelievable warrior right also played the harp also killed a bear once like who can say that and don't spare me your you know 200 yards away old sickly bear there that you shot you know you know like a coward right be a man just get naked and stabbed by tonight then I'll I'll respect that move but I in the end here you've got I don't I don't know why I do that sometimes it's just like I go off my notes and I shouldn't I should just stay right here and nah but but David he writes this when he begins to just think about and consider how big God is in comparison with how small he is and he says this when I look at your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him so here's his question when I think about how many stars star when I think about how big the sky is when I think about how massive the earth is who my that you are mindful of me that you know who I am that you hear my voice that you know what's going on in my world this is a stunning truth that gets lost on so many of us he hears us he knows and then we need to do something with this idea of him remembering because what the text says if you want to go back and look at it it says that they cried out for help their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God and then look at verse 24 and God heard their groaning and God remembered his promise or covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob now we need to do something with remembering because God doesn't forget stuff right so what does the Bible mean when it says that it remembers that God remembered the promise when he heard the cries of his children where it doesn't mean that he forgot but rather that the fullness of his plan has come together if we wanted to simplify it farther it simply means that God cannot be distracted so quick question first through fifth graders look right at me have you ever been watching television or playing on an iPad or playing on an iPhone or playing xbox and realize that when you do that you cannot hear your parents right if your parents ever coming in like hey I told you to put up your shoes you know huh because you didn't hear a word they said kids have any of that you've you've said when I'm looking at a screen my ears don't work okay go ahead and put your hands up but watch this mom's dance how many times have you been looking at the iPad you've been looking at the iPhone you staring at the television and all of a sudden your ears don't work and it looks something like this mom mom mom mom mom mom hey dad dad dad hey dad dad hey dad now how many of you found that that's happened to you all right so so here's what I like we live in a day of distract right constant noise constant things to look at and things to consider and when that happens we get distracted and forget what's important we forget what's valuable my kids have left things in certain places word I mean they're just gone now not cheap things just things that we were like hey this would be nice you do and then I'll just donate that to some lost and found at some random restaurant right it's distracting and yet the God of the Bible does not get distracted he's not aloof he's honed in it maybe this would be a good way to think about it you have God's undivided attention gosh that sounds weird doesn't it like in the immensity of the world that he not only hears me but he doesn't get distracted like he knows what's going on and I have his attention and then from there and and the kids have been learning this one way and we've been learning it another way but first through fifth graders here's the way you've been learning one of the truths that we're seeing in this text that God always keeps his promises perfectly in just the right way at just the right time now in here here's how we've been saying that we've been saying that God is working a plan and that that plan is good although that plan will rarely work itself out like we think it's going to and so what we see in this text is a God who not only sees and hears and knows but also a God who without distraction is working a plan that's for the good of his people and we're going to begin to see that pick up in the weeks to come God is now burst onto the scene because of the hurt in his people's lives and he's beginning to act on their behalf his plan is perfect and it works itself out at just the right time and just the right way this is how God works he's showing up after a period of time that really would rattle most of us I mean Moses has now been in the wilderness for forty years which means 40 more years of our brothers and in Egypt in slavery crying out to God and yet now is the time the plan is in place and it's beginning to be executed now what does this tell us because I think this is something to consider what does this tell us about who God is so not just what does God do but what does this tell us about who God is I think there are three things that this text helps us understand about who God is the first is that God is compassionate and so I know that's a bigger word so let me define it he sees cares and acts when his children are in need okay first through fifth graders and maybe grown-ups I don't even have a nightlight in your room go ahead it's okay it's fine it's fine you're safe safe place okay not it's okay to not be okay all right so so here we are we've got night lights in a room where a little we're a little nervous about a room right it's dark in there and when it's dark I can't see what's there but if the night lights on I can see so I like the night light because it helps me see what I cannot see well all yours here's a good way to think about compassion God knowing you have a nightlight in your room is it going what's up man you don't trust me like I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob how dare you have a nightlight do you not think I'm good you don't think I'll protect you you think I'm afraid of the dark why you gotta have a nightlight I am here no the Bible lets us know God knows it's scary to be us like he knows that he sees what he cannot see so he's not upset but rather compassionate he knows we're scared he knows we're afraid he knows we're lonely and he never responds with anger towards that but rather compassion that you are not alone in that fear he is there with you you learn about God's compassion in this text but you also learn that God is attentive but but attentive in in the best possible way so when we say attentive here's what we means that he hears and responds to the prayers of his children so I'm I'm in the middle of I've got an elder initiative document due to our elders coming up so I'm leading a team of guys that are working on a pretty massive project and I got home I don't know I'm sure this is heavy I got home and I wasn't quite done with work when I got home and so I had to open up my computer and I'm on I'm on our little island and I'm just trying to knock out some things I needed about 45 minutes but but I'm home and so that's really confusing if dad's home but he's not home and so I'm home and I'm working on it and in comes my son and he's got cleats on you know and he's carrying his boys IGAD yeah Jack we yeah we need to go to Google okay hold on look right at me I need 30 to 45 minutes so I'm gonna need that time I was really tempted you know cause like well can't you just do that later I was really tempted to kind of go that do you like our house you like having a roof over your head what about dinner do you enjoy food and the eating of food you like that okay then well then that needs to finish this up right I didn't do that because you you're like those two are related you know he's just not ready it is understanding of economics to put that together yet and and so I just had meant I need 45 minutes and and Reid graciously gave me 45 and I finished it and shut my computer and went out and then we threw the ball around the front yard for a while and then had a little fun party in the backyard before it was time to shower up and get to bed cuz schools tomorrow right now here's when we're talking about the attention or the attentiveness of God ooh we're saying that that never happens don't we cry a father God in heaven then he immediately just turns and goes what do you need what can I do how can I help what's up see earthly fathers in their best form are just a shadow of the perfect father in heaven right so if you've got a great daddy right like he's engages you and encourages you and cuddles with you and prays with you and read story to you throws the ball with you and coaches you didn't does all that he can possibly do that he's still just a shadow of the God you have in heaven who's a father that never says give me 45 minutes let's do that tomorrow I don't have time right now no he's always what do you need what's up in fact the Bible says crazy things like like it says that God wants to be bothered right just keep asking just ask him again and again and again and again so I don't know like if I tell my kids ask me one more time I am threatening them I am NOT literally saying no you know what do that again I'm saying if you ask me that again I will never get that for you and not only that but they'll probably be other repercussions but the God of the Bible goes no no I love when you ask me I love when you come to me I love when you approach me keep coming keep asking keep asking and asking and asking and asking he is attentive and then finally we see that God is faithful he always does what he says he will do okay so let's do some more confession together husbands how many of you have I mean it was innocent you you I mean you just you've broken some promises to your wife you said you're gonna do this and some things happen you weren't able to deliver husbands you've done that okay so you're a liar and you break your promises so many of you okay but I get I already knew that because of the Bible but we've broken promises to our wives now wives how many of us have broken promises to our husbands I mean wasn't malicious wasn't we didn't mean to be unkind right we said dinner be ready in the next you know kid vomited all over the floor and how am I supposed to do dinner and vomit at the same time and so order Pete's we're gonna make it through this we're fine all right everybody right we I mean parents how many of you broken promises to your kids kids how many of you have broken promises to your parents okay so here's all I'm trying to prove this is a universal experience that we as human beings will fail and let people down look at me and yet is not like us he always keeps his promises he's always on time he is always attentive his words are always true we see here that God is faithful now here's how I thought we would end our time together because these things are true because we have a God that hears hurting people we have a God that not just hears but knows there's no such thing as secrets as far as God is concerned he knows everything so I don't know if you've got that family member that is really terrible at hide-and-go-seek like I know you've got your legit spot that even mom and dad can't find you but almost every family has the one person that didn't quite understand how the game works easiest to find you know like hiding mine I'm curtains but like their knees down or showing just terrible at hiding well as far as God goes that's all of us because God knows everything that's going on in our hearts and in our heads and everything that's going on everywhere at once he is stunning he is God and and since he hears from us any loves to hear from us any works for our good but I thought if we can talk to him we probably should do that so if I think we don't stop and just take a couple of moments and actually talk with God after talking about how God wants us to talk with him then it'd be a lot like doing a twenty five minute talk on chocolate cake on what all goes into öcalan cake about how good this chocolate cake is about all the ingredients in this chocolate cake but not actually getting to eat any chocolate cake and so I don't know about you but I would be like hey quit flapping the lips and give me some chocolate cake alright I'll I'll test it out I don't need to know how many eggs are in it bro just give me some cake and so what I thought we would do is let's just spend a moment or two thanking God and asking God because God here so here's how we're going to that first to fifth graders I'm going to task you with this because I'm hoping that your parents or some of our singles who are around here are going to think more quickly than you although it could be wrong so here's what I want you to first to fifth graders look right at me almost there I want you to think of two things that you're thankful for two things I'm thankful for this I'm thankful for this maybe it's friends maybe it's family maybe it's um you know somebody was sick and now they're not sick but but just two things that you're thankful for the Bible says that everything good and perfect comes down from the Father of lights so that everything good and perfect in our life comes from God and so as soon as you have those two things one or two things that you're thankful for I want you to just stand up for me so we know that you've got your - alright so if your 1st through 5th and you can think of two things you're thankful for I want you to go ahead and stand up and then as soon as we've got a good group of you standing will actually start to thank God for those things specifically alright praise God now here's what we're gonna do we're gonna group up and we're gonna just spend two minutes maybe thanking God for these things so if it's your family your friends learn listen kids we there's no kind of magic to praying it's not you don't have to have your fingers interlocked a specific way or use a specific language we just want to say God thank you for and you fill in the blank and so here's what I want you to do why don't you gather up as a family if you're a single here you you belong to the household of faith and so just join a family and and you can say hey I'm joining you guys you heard a pastor Matt told me I'm part of your family right now part of the household of faith he said it I'm in with you guys so let's get together for the next couple of minutes I just want us to pray out loud God thank you for and you fill in the blank two things that we're thankful for let's pray you father we thank you for the good gifts you've given us we know that's not long to pray but we thank you that you just heard us we thank you for how you're generous to us and good to us and then you give us good gifts and so for our families and for our friends and for the dozens of other things we just said thank you for thank you we thank you most of all that you know us that you hear us and that you work for our good we bless your name thank you amen now the second way I want us to pray it so I want a nuance at a bit the the second thing that we see in the Bible that God loves when it comes to praying and crying out is God loves to be asked for something right this is the opposite of your parents in a store right parents in a store do not love to be asked for things in fact most of you probably have had the conversation with your parents where your mom and dad are saying don't ask me for anything in this store like here's what we're here for we're going in to get glue sticks and a pot roast don't ask me for anything if you ask me for something the answer is going to be no and I'm going to take all your belongings and catch fire to them don't ask me for anything I hope they don't really do that I was just a point for emphasis but the Lord loves to be asked for things but here's how I want to frame it I think if you wanted to ask for an Xbox or a pony or a slide that came out of your bedroom window and shot you down into the dining room table like all of those things the Lord would want to hear a I would like that but I want to encourage you in this direction I think the prayers of requests I would like this that the Lord most loves to hear are those prayers about our hearts about our minds and about our families and and so maybe you've picked up as even a 1st through 5th grader or a single or a married couple that that you've got like you just have an angry heart you're not really sure what that's about you have a sad heart and you're not just quite sure what that's about I wanted to give us the opportunity to just ask God since he hears since he knows since he helps since he responds since he's for us to take a moment or two and just go God will you help with this will you give me this will you help in this area of my heart in my mind in my family and so again let me give you just a couple of seconds here that's not as easy as what you're thankful for but it is a good kind of practice of kind of on what if I could ask God for anything what would I ask him for and specifically if it had to do with my own heart my mind my own family where I am with him how would I do that so now to kind of wrap up our service today why don't we get around our families again and singles again hop in with the family let's spend time just asking the Lord to move in those ways in our hearts and minds you once again father we just thank you we do ask these things of you where our hearts are sad help us where they're angry help us we just ask father that you in your hearing of our prayers would be faithful to love us and help us and serve us and thank you that you are with us and the good and in the bad that you never abandon us or leave us but you're always here and so we thank you that you're here we just ask for your help in our hearts in our minds and in our families we need you Father help us it's for your beautiful name I pray amen I said in the first week we were together in this series that I wondered and I'm almost done you've crushed at first through fifth graders you've done so great the that I wondered what would happen if we actually lived like we said we believed like what kind of difference would this make in our everyday life if we actually believed that God was attentive if we actually believed that he heard from us that he was for us that he knew what was going on in our lives I just have to wonder how life would be different if we actually believed those things not as concepts but as we actually embraced those things as being true God sees me God hears me God knows me wonder what would happen in the deep kind of level kind of those guttural places where we just be confident that I'm I'm okay I'm going to be okay when it feels like we're not father give us confidence in these things we don't want to just know them intellectually we want to in the deepest parts of who we are understand this have it shape us and mold us have it drive out loneliness and rage have it bring peace to our hearts that you're good you haven't forgotten us help us it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 40,790

Rating: 4.8680205 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, Exodus, Week 6, part 6, God Sees and Knows

Id: dpYGALrLHMI

Length: 38min 47sec (2327 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 26 2016