WEBVTT 00:01.603 --> 00:03.164 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, good morning, first free. 00:03.224 --> 00:04.485 [SPEAKER_00]: How are you all this morning? 00:06.166 --> 00:07.626 [SPEAKER_00]: Man, it is good to be here. 00:07.666 --> 00:08.527 [SPEAKER_00]: My name is Tex. 00:08.647 --> 00:10.128 [SPEAKER_00]: I am your senior high pastor. 00:10.148 --> 00:14.690 [SPEAKER_00]: That means I get the privilege of working with your high school students each and every week. 00:14.731 --> 00:17.872 [SPEAKER_00]: And let me tell you, it has been a summer. 00:18.633 --> 00:24.416 [SPEAKER_00]: Not just because of the amazing heat wave that we've had, but let me tell you, your students have been going nonstop. 00:24.436 --> 00:27.718 [SPEAKER_00]: We just got back a few weeks ago from our senior high conference where 00:28.058 --> 00:34.444 [SPEAKER_00]: We took forty-two students and leaders with us, partnered with CIY at the University in Nebraska. 00:34.544 --> 00:39.169 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, while there we had a great week, you can see some of those photos. 00:39.209 --> 00:43.152 [SPEAKER_00]: We had three students who came to know Jesus for the first time. 00:43.773 --> 00:47.336 [SPEAKER_00]: We had a twenty-six rededications of faith. 00:48.638 --> 00:50.220 [SPEAKER_00]: It was an incredible week. 00:50.240 --> 01:00.453 [SPEAKER_00]: And so if you have a high school student, definitely get them here on Sunday nights, six o'clock, or even have them be a part of our fall or treat coming in September. 01:00.513 --> 01:04.679 [SPEAKER_00]: And so you can find more information about that on our website at efree.org. 01:06.604 --> 01:32.176 [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to start by just sharing with you kind of what a day in the life of the rules kind of sometimes is like and we have a three year old and she's wild and fun and when we get in the car she's pretty good about keeping to herself so keep herself kind of entertained but we kind of reached this age in which inevitably anytime my wife and I try to have a conversation I start hearing from the backseat daddy 01:32.876 --> 01:38.779 [SPEAKER_00]: Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, and I'm like Alexis, mama and I are talking. 01:39.299 --> 01:42.721 [SPEAKER_00]: It's okay, we're gonna get your turn, but we're talking first. 01:43.161 --> 01:45.662 [SPEAKER_00]: Let us finish and we'll come talk to you. 01:47.103 --> 01:59.629 [SPEAKER_00]: Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, and it's like every time we start, and so we're like, all right, we're just gonna ignore her and we'll get back to her, and then from the back of my head, I feel a shoe. 02:01.908 --> 02:03.229 [SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, she's rear facing. 02:06.050 --> 02:09.671 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I took her mirror away thinking that was gonna solve the problem. 02:09.691 --> 02:11.012 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, well, now you can't see me. 02:11.392 --> 02:11.872 [SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha. 02:12.272 --> 02:13.493 [SPEAKER_00]: No, ha ha on me. 02:13.553 --> 02:14.353 [SPEAKER_00]: It's muscle memory. 02:14.393 --> 02:15.533 [SPEAKER_00]: She didn't be with the other one. 02:16.954 --> 02:21.996 [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's this reality for her that she just said, you know what? 02:22.036 --> 02:26.458 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're not going to see me, I'm going to be noticed by you. 02:27.818 --> 02:28.939 [SPEAKER_00]: And isn't that true, Church? 02:29.800 --> 02:34.201 [SPEAKER_00]: That for each and every single one of us, we all want to be seen. 02:35.701 --> 02:37.602 [SPEAKER_00]: Every one of us, we want to be seen in the room. 02:38.382 --> 02:44.463 [SPEAKER_00]: Not just notice, not scan, not like to follow, but seeing deeply, truly each of us. 02:44.723 --> 02:47.184 [SPEAKER_00]: We all have this deep ache within us. 02:47.704 --> 02:53.005 [SPEAKER_00]: That probably maybe even started in childhood, but it's something that's lingered on so now. 02:54.049 --> 03:19.210 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it was apparent that just never asked us how our day was, or took the time to connect with you, or maybe it was in junior high when you got overlooked for the team that you tried out for, or maybe it's in your marriage where you feel more like a roommate than a soul to be cherished, or maybe it's in the job that completely skipped over you for the promotion you felt you earned. 03:19.390 --> 03:22.093 [SPEAKER_00]: The ache to be seen doesn't just fade with age. 03:24.211 --> 03:28.395 [SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere we just started believing that it was bad and we started hiding it better. 03:28.415 --> 03:32.779 [SPEAKER_00]: And somewhere we started to believe that it's something we have to suppress. 03:33.659 --> 03:41.987 [SPEAKER_00]: But here's what I want to ask us today that what if the desire to be seen isn't something to suppress, but actually something to surrender? 03:43.878 --> 03:46.339 [SPEAKER_00]: What if the ache wasn't a flaw to be fixed? 03:46.379 --> 03:48.479 [SPEAKER_00]: But it was a signal like this breadcrumb. 03:48.739 --> 03:59.202 [SPEAKER_00]: This echo from the garden of Eden where we walked with God and face the face in this world that we now live in with brokenness and sin. 03:59.222 --> 04:02.023 [SPEAKER_00]: See, back then, God didn't just notice us. 04:02.083 --> 04:04.344 [SPEAKER_00]: He saw us face to face. 04:05.484 --> 04:09.125 [SPEAKER_00]: We knew it meant to be fully seen by the God of the universe. 04:10.400 --> 04:18.829 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet here as we dive into Genesis chapter sixteen and seventeen in some ways, it holds a mirror to that ache in each of us. 04:19.570 --> 04:27.960 [SPEAKER_00]: Exposes what happens when we forget we are seeing by God, and yet also offers us a way back. 04:28.950 --> 04:42.495 [SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to start in Genesis chapter sixteen today and what I'm going to ask you to do is when you see on the screen words that are underlined and bold that you would say them out loud with me today. 04:43.215 --> 04:46.576 [SPEAKER_00]: So verse chapter sixteen verse one says this. 04:46.896 --> 04:50.278 [SPEAKER_00]: Now Sarah Abrams wife had what? 04:51.538 --> 04:54.340 [SPEAKER_00]: not been able to bear children for him. 04:54.700 --> 04:57.982 [SPEAKER_00]: But she had this Egyptian servant named Hagar. 04:58.562 --> 05:00.043 [SPEAKER_00]: So Sarah I went to Abraham. 05:00.103 --> 05:07.787 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord has prevented me from having children go and sleep with my servant, perhaps I could have children through her. 05:08.920 --> 05:16.765 [SPEAKER_00]: And Abram agreed with Sarai's proposal, so Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. 05:17.485 --> 05:21.288 [SPEAKER_00]: This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan. 05:22.188 --> 05:27.812 [SPEAKER_00]: Verse four, it says, So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar and she became pregnant. 05:28.592 --> 05:32.915 [SPEAKER_00]: But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai with contempt. 05:33.676 --> 05:37.278 [SPEAKER_00]: Then Sarai said to Abram, this is all your fault. 05:38.468 --> 05:43.172 [SPEAKER_00]: I put my servant into your arms and now that she's pregnant, she treats me with contempt. 05:43.632 --> 05:46.495 [SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord will show who's wrong you or me. 05:47.836 --> 05:52.259 [SPEAKER_00]: Verse six, Abram says, look, she is your servant, so do with her as you see fit. 05:53.160 --> 05:58.304 [SPEAKER_00]: So Sarah, I treated Hagar so harshly that she finally what? 05:59.345 --> 06:00.226 [SPEAKER_00]: She ran away. 06:02.008 --> 06:04.370 [SPEAKER_00]: Verse seven says that the angel of the Lord 06:05.637 --> 06:10.359 [SPEAKER_00]: found hay garbicide, a spring of water and the wilderness along the road to sure. 06:10.379 --> 06:16.502 [SPEAKER_00]: And the angel said to her, hey, garb, sarai, servant, where have you come from and where are you going? 06:17.763 --> 06:20.584 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm running away from my mistress, sarai, she replied. 06:21.284 --> 06:26.387 [SPEAKER_00]: Since the angel lords said to her, return to your mistress, submit to her authority. 06:27.087 --> 06:30.449 [SPEAKER_00]: And then he added, I will give you more descendants than you can count. 06:31.469 --> 06:34.811 [SPEAKER_00]: And the angel also said, you are now pregnant and will give birth to a, 06:36.328 --> 06:45.198 [SPEAKER_00]: Son, and you will name him Ishmael, which means God hears, for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 06:45.658 --> 06:47.440 [SPEAKER_00]: This son of yours will be a wild man. 06:47.500 --> 06:53.727 [SPEAKER_00]: As untamed as a wild donkey, he will raise his fists against everyone, and everyone will be against him. 06:53.867 --> 06:58.512 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he will live an open hostility with all of his relatives. 07:00.083 --> 07:04.065 [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who had spoken to her. 07:04.906 --> 07:09.949 [SPEAKER_00]: She said, you are the God who sees me. 07:11.110 --> 07:15.092 [SPEAKER_00]: She also said, have I truly seen the one who sees me? 07:16.473 --> 07:22.837 [SPEAKER_00]: So that well was named Bear La Arroy, which means, well, the living one who sees me. 07:23.485 --> 07:26.047 [SPEAKER_00]: It can still be found between Kadesh and Bared. 07:26.627 --> 07:35.913 [SPEAKER_00]: So, hey, Garg gave Abram Masan, an Abram named him Ishmael, and Abram was eighty six years old when Ishmael was born. 07:38.356 --> 07:48.060 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, when we met Abram, and chapter twelve, Abram was about seventy-five years old, and God interrupted the silence of his life of the voice that changed everything. 07:48.080 --> 07:57.484 [SPEAKER_00]: This voice that saw him in the midst of it, that shows him, it says, to leave your country, your people, your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you. 07:59.044 --> 08:02.749 [SPEAKER_00]: And that could have been enough on its own, but God didn't stop there. 08:02.789 --> 08:07.894 [SPEAKER_00]: And He gives Abraham this promise that I'm going to make you into a great nation. 08:07.954 --> 08:12.159 [SPEAKER_00]: I will bless you and all the people of Earth will be blessed through you. 08:13.726 --> 08:15.967 [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't want us to miss the power of that statement. 08:16.087 --> 08:17.867 [SPEAKER_00]: God saw Abraham. 08:18.648 --> 08:23.249 [SPEAKER_00]: Out of the millions of people on earth, God noticed one man in a marriage without a legacy. 08:23.289 --> 08:29.231 [SPEAKER_00]: He said, Abraham, I see you and through you, I will impact the world. 08:29.391 --> 08:32.432 [SPEAKER_00]: He was truly seen by God. 08:33.473 --> 08:36.794 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, Abraham didn't just receive a promise in many ways. 08:37.234 --> 08:39.595 [SPEAKER_00]: He received God's attention. 08:40.614 --> 08:42.456 [SPEAKER_00]: And in that moment, he didn't feel small. 08:42.657 --> 08:43.898 [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't feel lost. 08:44.379 --> 08:45.600 [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't feel forgotten. 08:45.620 --> 08:47.002 [SPEAKER_00]: He felt no. 08:48.163 --> 08:48.624 [SPEAKER_00]: Called. 08:49.365 --> 08:49.725 [SPEAKER_00]: See. 08:50.886 --> 08:55.152 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the kind of encounter that puts steel on our spine and peace in our soul. 08:56.727 --> 09:02.008 [SPEAKER_00]: But now we're in chapter sixteen and Abrams around eighty-five to eighty-six years old. 09:02.508 --> 09:09.549 [SPEAKER_00]: Close to maybe on the whole another year has even passed since last week in Genesis fifteen with the Starry Knight. 09:10.329 --> 09:15.370 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet there's still no child, no air, no progress. 09:17.091 --> 09:19.391 [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe worse, there's no word from God. 09:20.551 --> 09:22.471 [SPEAKER_00]: That silence has to be just deafening. 09:23.692 --> 09:25.192 [SPEAKER_00]: I can imagine it was heartbreaking. 09:25.971 --> 09:27.332 [SPEAKER_00]: painful, confusing. 09:28.313 --> 09:36.838 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, because that very promise, same one that made Abram and Sarah, I feel seen, now becomes probably the source of their deepest insecurity. 09:37.939 --> 09:38.980 [SPEAKER_00]: God's not speaking. 09:39.340 --> 09:46.625 [SPEAKER_00]: Sarah's room is still empty, and the egg for a child is tangled with the egg to know, are we still seeing? 09:46.645 --> 09:49.047 [SPEAKER_00]: To God forget us. 09:51.857 --> 09:55.320 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, Genesis XVI doesn't begin with bold obedience and faith. 09:55.380 --> 09:58.442 [SPEAKER_00]: If anything, it actually opens with a subtle panic. 09:58.502 --> 10:02.105 [SPEAKER_00]: And before we shake our head, that's obvious. 10:02.185 --> 10:07.230 [SPEAKER_00]: I want us to say that many of us live in this way when our waiting goes too long. 10:07.530 --> 10:11.653 [SPEAKER_00]: We feel like maybe God's forgotten us, or he's chosen someone else. 10:11.693 --> 10:12.954 [SPEAKER_00]: We've become overlooked. 10:13.375 --> 10:18.319 [SPEAKER_00]: When our ache goes too long, it can become desperation. 10:19.259 --> 10:20.720 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what chapter sixteen is. 10:20.960 --> 10:22.120 [SPEAKER_00]: It's wrong, messy. 10:22.440 --> 10:24.921 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really not PG by any means. 10:26.082 --> 10:36.787 [SPEAKER_00]: So Sarah is tired of waiting on God and the promise to Abram that he'd be the father of many nations has to be wearing thin. 10:38.467 --> 10:42.769 [SPEAKER_00]: So she does what many of us think we need to do in God's forgotten us. 10:43.049 --> 10:45.050 [SPEAKER_00]: She forces the plan on her own. 10:46.191 --> 10:48.372 [SPEAKER_00]: She offers Hagar as a surrogate. 10:49.188 --> 10:54.311 [SPEAKER_00]: And on the surface, there's some strange power dynamics that are really tough to navigate. 10:55.652 --> 11:01.315 [SPEAKER_00]: What we know is that there's some huge cultural differences from what we see when we read this on paper. 11:01.716 --> 11:04.797 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, this practice wasn't uncommon for their culture. 11:04.817 --> 11:12.162 [SPEAKER_00]: There's something many people did and would do, but it also wasn't how God planned on this coming out. 11:12.962 --> 11:18.726 [SPEAKER_00]: When he gave the promise, he said that he would have a child with Sarah later as we would even read again. 11:20.066 --> 11:32.390 [SPEAKER_00]: And so this, even though this was what they chose to do, it was really a best shortcut, a substitute, a human solution to a moment of sheer panic, and it goes badly. 11:33.560 --> 11:36.723 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Garb becomes pregnant, starts treating sarai poorly. 11:36.743 --> 11:39.666 [SPEAKER_00]: At a contempt, maybe she feels better. 11:39.766 --> 11:46.952 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's the hormones where we're not completely sure, but sarai then responds by treating her so poorly. 11:47.032 --> 11:50.335 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Garb, pregnant feels like she has to run away. 11:50.355 --> 11:55.140 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, Abram and sarai forgot who sees them and they panic. 11:56.162 --> 12:06.804 [SPEAKER_00]: And when we forget that God sees us, we settle for our own panic schemes to solve our problems because honestly, we just don't trust God in His timing. 12:08.364 --> 12:10.204 [SPEAKER_00]: We use people instead of honoring them. 12:10.264 --> 12:13.605 [SPEAKER_00]: We become harsh and jealous or anxious and controlling. 12:13.905 --> 12:15.945 [SPEAKER_00]: We lash out or run away. 12:16.685 --> 12:20.386 [SPEAKER_00]: We lose our identity because we stop believing that God sees us. 12:21.406 --> 12:25.587 [SPEAKER_00]: And when we forget that we are seeing, we live in panic, performance, 12:28.190 --> 12:32.473 [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to take a moment to also for something that can get so easily overlooked. 12:33.173 --> 12:43.720 [SPEAKER_00]: That when Sarah and Abram take the matters into their own hands and they have this child with Hagar, the consequences extend well beyond their own personal story. 12:43.740 --> 12:46.322 [SPEAKER_00]: It affects Ishmael for sure. 12:47.380 --> 12:51.423 [SPEAKER_00]: Ishmael goes on to have twelve sons who will have children and those go on. 12:51.483 --> 12:56.126 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, you can see a lot of the lineage and the many of the the aeronatians come out of that. 12:56.867 --> 12:59.869 [SPEAKER_00]: But what's amazing is this moment affects so much more. 13:00.630 --> 13:07.414 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, three of the major world religions of the day honor Abram Abraham is this important central figure. 13:07.434 --> 13:14.660 [SPEAKER_00]: We have Judaism and Christianity and you see the lineage that will follow out of Isaac, but you also have Islam. 13:15.200 --> 13:18.423 [SPEAKER_00]: that will look to Abraham and Ishmael. 13:19.984 --> 13:27.850 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, you see, for us, it's a sobering reminder that when we act out of panic and set a faith, the impact doesn't just stop with us. 13:28.570 --> 13:37.477 [SPEAKER_00]: Our actions, especially when we stop trusting that God sees us, can leave spiritual emotional, even maybe generational consequences. 13:38.277 --> 13:43.942 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's why when we're walking as people who know that they've been seen, that matters. 13:45.002 --> 13:49.644 [SPEAKER_00]: Because when we stop believing that God sees us, we start grasping for control. 13:49.684 --> 13:50.664 [SPEAKER_00]: We take shortcuts. 13:50.985 --> 13:54.086 [SPEAKER_00]: We try to make things happen by forcing the outcome. 13:54.526 --> 13:57.007 [SPEAKER_00]: And the consequences don't just die with you and me. 13:57.027 --> 14:07.091 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I think the hardest part of any story aren't the things that maybe we did at times, but it's actually maybe the things that we pass on to others. 14:09.352 --> 14:11.173 [SPEAKER_00]: So here's the grace in that though. 14:11.982 --> 14:13.483 [SPEAKER_00]: It's that God doesn't give up on Abraham. 14:14.203 --> 14:21.128 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, what we see later is that God will call Abraham back, not to believe but to living and walking in a whole different way. 14:21.148 --> 14:24.310 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a call to live with the awareness that God sees Him. 14:24.570 --> 14:30.934 [SPEAKER_00]: The God is present and that God is faithful even when He felt like the waiting is unbearable. 14:32.335 --> 14:33.336 [SPEAKER_00]: And let's talk about Hagar. 14:34.747 --> 14:36.930 [SPEAKER_00]: Because in some ways, she's like a footnote. 14:37.410 --> 14:41.655 [SPEAKER_00]: This Egyptian servant girl, upon is someone else's plan. 14:41.715 --> 14:51.346 [SPEAKER_00]: And now she's pregnant run away in the wilderness, afraid and feeling like she's unseen by everyone from her former home. 14:52.748 --> 14:54.510 [SPEAKER_00]: But she's not completely unseen. 14:56.313 --> 14:58.554 [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Gar runs, but she's not just fleeing Sarah, right? 14:58.574 --> 15:00.455 [SPEAKER_00]: She's fleeing the whole mess. 15:01.095 --> 15:01.796 [SPEAKER_00]: She's pregnant. 15:02.516 --> 15:03.377 [SPEAKER_00]: She's abandoned. 15:03.417 --> 15:04.397 [SPEAKER_00]: She's discarded. 15:04.457 --> 15:05.538 [SPEAKER_00]: She's in the wilderness. 15:05.658 --> 15:07.579 [SPEAKER_00]: No one's coming to look for her. 15:09.860 --> 15:12.762 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet then the angel of the Lord appears. 15:14.903 --> 15:21.146 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is a powerful moment because this is actually the first time in all of scripture that this phrase shows up. 15:22.300 --> 15:26.985 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is a big thing for us, because God spoke to people before He spoke to Noah. 15:27.005 --> 15:34.432 [SPEAKER_00]: He spoke to Abraham, but this is the first time we see a physical manifestation that we call the angel of the Lord. 15:35.373 --> 15:37.355 [SPEAKER_00]: And for us, that matters profoundly. 15:37.395 --> 15:40.378 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't just mean that there's some angelic messenger. 15:40.418 --> 15:44.482 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, when we see it in this moment, we're gonna see so much more. 15:45.826 --> 16:01.889 [SPEAKER_00]: And what I find fascinating is that the angel Lord doesn't go to Abram, he doesn't go to Sarah, he goes to this pregnant enslaved Egyptian woman, completely invisible, insignificant in the eyes of the world, but not to God. 16:02.929 --> 16:05.589 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is the first recorded encounter we have. 16:05.609 --> 16:10.650 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's amazing because we go, is it an angel or is it God? 16:10.710 --> 16:13.931 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's funny because when we look at what happens, the angel 16:15.095 --> 16:16.116 [SPEAKER_00]: here in this moment, right? 16:16.556 --> 16:17.837 [SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't speak like an angel. 16:18.878 --> 16:23.543 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, if anything, it doesn't say God told me to say, it says, no, I will increase. 16:23.983 --> 16:24.964 [SPEAKER_00]: I will do this. 16:26.665 --> 16:28.207 [SPEAKER_00]: It speaks with divine authority. 16:28.287 --> 16:29.748 [SPEAKER_00]: He speaks in the first person. 16:30.349 --> 16:32.711 [SPEAKER_00]: I, he speaks like God himself. 16:33.632 --> 16:37.335 [SPEAKER_00]: And when G-Hagar calls him God, he doesn't correct her. 16:38.433 --> 16:41.855 [SPEAKER_00]: When Hagar worships him, he doesn't say that that was wrong. 16:42.435 --> 17:07.168 [SPEAKER_00]: So I many of the scholars actually will believe that this isn't just some angelic being, but it is, in fact, what we call a Christophony, which is a fancy word that means it's the appearance of the pre-incorrent Jesus, the Son, the word physically made flesh here in the moment for us, that Hagar, the woman, the world ignored, responds, and one of the most intimate and powerful ways we ever get to see. 17:08.380 --> 17:11.361 [SPEAKER_00]: She gets to give, she gives him a name, a personal name. 17:12.141 --> 17:19.684 [SPEAKER_00]: Up into this point, God has said who his name is, and it says that, hey, Gar, we'll be the first to say this. 17:19.784 --> 17:24.947 [SPEAKER_00]: You are El Roy, the God who sees me. 17:26.867 --> 17:28.848 [SPEAKER_00]: She doesn't give him that name on doctrine. 17:29.228 --> 17:33.250 [SPEAKER_00]: She, she names him based on her experience with who he is. 17:34.452 --> 17:35.233 [SPEAKER_00]: And God lets her. 17:35.973 --> 17:36.874 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't correct her. 17:37.034 --> 17:43.258 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't stop her because in some ways I think it's true that God also delights and being known and seen by us. 17:44.219 --> 17:48.802 [SPEAKER_00]: That He wants us to be revealed to us and for us to know Him more. 17:49.831 --> 17:52.872 [SPEAKER_00]: So church, when we say to you, God sees you. 17:52.912 --> 17:54.452 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not trying to be cute about it. 17:54.932 --> 18:09.836 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not saying something that you can go so into a pillow, but we are declaring something so much bigger, that the same God who saw Hagar in the desert, who called her by name, who speaks a future over her, also sees you too. 18:11.465 --> 18:14.866 [SPEAKER_00]: And some of you are leaving in your own Genesis XVI right now. 18:15.046 --> 18:31.093 [SPEAKER_00]: You're trying to make something happen in your own strength, trying to control what may be only God can control running from pain and shame, and maybe you're sick of being overlooked, crushed by being misused, and hear me, God doesn't lose track of people in the desert. 18:32.174 --> 18:37.696 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't miss what you're going through, and in fact, when no one else sees you, he does. 18:38.624 --> 18:44.669 [SPEAKER_00]: When others call you by what you do and what you fail that, he calls you by name. 18:45.229 --> 18:49.872 [SPEAKER_00]: He says, I see you, I hear you and I have more for you. 18:50.673 --> 18:59.900 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're running, you're hiding, you're barely holding on and you're just desiring to be notice and you're doing whatever it takes for the world to notice you. 18:59.940 --> 19:02.602 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to invite you to do something different. 19:04.392 --> 19:09.114 [SPEAKER_00]: because that longing to be seen will never be satisfied by attention. 19:10.395 --> 19:13.676 [SPEAKER_00]: It can only be surrendered to the God who sees. 19:14.757 --> 19:18.538 [SPEAKER_00]: What I say again, the longing to be seen won't be satisfied by attention. 19:18.578 --> 19:22.320 [SPEAKER_00]: It can only be surrendered to the God who sees. 19:23.761 --> 19:32.785 [SPEAKER_00]: You see, growing up, I was raised by my mom and my grandparents and honestly, I wanted nothing more than for my dad to notice me. 19:34.369 --> 19:36.572 [SPEAKER_00]: For me, my dad was kind of larger than life. 19:36.672 --> 19:38.814 [SPEAKER_00]: He was an all-American football star. 19:38.894 --> 19:41.937 [SPEAKER_00]: He was a Hall of Fame award-winning coach. 19:42.398 --> 19:44.700 [SPEAKER_00]: He held five NCAA records. 19:44.760 --> 19:47.503 [SPEAKER_00]: And when I walked around his hometown, people strangers. 19:47.563 --> 19:52.268 [SPEAKER_00]: People I've never seen before would stop me to tell me of the stories of my dad. 19:52.308 --> 19:55.311 [SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted nothing more than for him to notice me. 19:56.412 --> 20:01.197 [SPEAKER_00]: So, growing up, I joined every club, every sport, everything, every activity. 20:01.217 --> 20:02.799 [SPEAKER_00]: I was in the Latin club. 20:02.879 --> 20:12.348 [SPEAKER_00]: People, I tried everything because I just wanted him to show up and be proud and at every game and at every concert and every show and everything. 20:12.828 --> 20:16.131 [SPEAKER_00]: I invited him and looked to find him in the audience. 20:16.812 --> 20:20.636 [SPEAKER_00]: And every time I was heartbroken to not see him there. 20:22.847 --> 20:34.958 [SPEAKER_00]: And then the next day, rather than enjoying the achievement, I just got back to work believing that if I joined something new, if I was good enough, talented enough, musical and kind enough, he might be there next time. 20:36.263 --> 20:39.205 [SPEAKER_00]: And so my senior year, I did achieve a pretty big honor. 20:39.305 --> 20:42.468 [SPEAKER_00]: I earned a high placement with our all-state band. 20:42.488 --> 20:45.850 [SPEAKER_00]: I was fourth in the entire state as a trombonist. 20:46.751 --> 20:49.313 [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember I could not wait to call him. 20:49.693 --> 20:55.478 [SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, I was so excited not just to tell him that, but the concert for those people was going to be in his city. 20:55.498 --> 20:57.779 [SPEAKER_00]: Literally, ten minutes down the road from his house. 20:57.799 --> 20:58.980 [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't have to drive far. 20:59.381 --> 20:59.921 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd buy him. 20:59.961 --> 21:01.302 [SPEAKER_00]: I'd take all those kind of things. 21:01.362 --> 21:04.445 [SPEAKER_00]: And I called him and told him, and I'll never forget what he said. 21:05.145 --> 21:06.706 [SPEAKER_00]: He said, fourth. 21:08.607 --> 21:10.067 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I guess there's always someone better. 21:13.009 --> 21:15.230 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's done to say the least. 21:15.410 --> 21:15.990 [SPEAKER_00]: It hit home. 21:17.071 --> 21:18.811 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a big wound I had to work through. 21:18.831 --> 21:21.753 [SPEAKER_00]: And now I get it. 21:22.153 --> 21:23.454 [SPEAKER_00]: My dad's a Hall of Fame coach. 21:23.494 --> 21:25.815 [SPEAKER_00]: He was trying to coach me to go be number one. 21:26.455 --> 21:27.996 [SPEAKER_00]: But in that moment, I didn't need a coach. 21:29.296 --> 21:30.577 [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted my dad to see me. 21:32.418 --> 21:33.959 [SPEAKER_00]: And I can remember hanging up the phone. 21:35.085 --> 21:41.050 [SPEAKER_00]: and having tears in my eyes and sitting on my grandfather's back porch, and I didn't even notice that he sat next to me. 21:42.150 --> 21:48.275 [SPEAKER_00]: And when he asked me what was wrong, I shared with them, and I remember him putting his arm around, and he said, I'm so sorry. 21:50.517 --> 21:53.639 [SPEAKER_00]: You know you don't have to earn his or anyone's love. 21:55.080 --> 22:01.285 [SPEAKER_00]: Your grandmother and I already love you so much, just as you are, just because you are grandson. 22:02.545 --> 22:05.567 [SPEAKER_00]: And I promise you this will be there, front row, no matter what. 22:06.887 --> 22:08.508 [SPEAKER_00]: And the kept the promise, they were there. 22:10.149 --> 22:17.073 [SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know it then, but that same wound that I had with my father wanting to be seen had seeped into much more than that. 22:18.231 --> 22:25.857 [SPEAKER_00]: It took years for me to untangle this, but that I had even replaced my own faith in God in the same way with this treadmill of performance. 22:26.297 --> 22:34.043 [SPEAKER_00]: That I thought, be just like my father wouldn't show up unless I was good enough, that God wouldn't see me unless I could impress him. 22:34.063 --> 22:43.290 [SPEAKER_00]: And that if I lived and did enough and was better than the others, that maybe he would see me, not delight in me, but see that moment. 22:44.195 --> 22:59.140 [SPEAKER_00]: It looked back, I can't help but wonder how different things could have been, had I really known deep in my bones that God saw me, that I didn't have to earn his gaze, that I didn't have to perform to be loved, that I was already his. 22:59.560 --> 23:05.622 [SPEAKER_00]: There was nothing that I could do to be any loved, any more or any less than I was right, then in that moment. 23:07.127 --> 23:27.444 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what it looks like for you and I, that we would learn to live as people who are seeing, not scanning the crowds, hoping God would notice us, but it means that we learn to stop living by trying to earn Jesus' love, but we would learn to walk differently, to not prove ourselves because we already are seeing. 23:28.224 --> 23:32.288 [SPEAKER_00]: The question for you and I is not will God see me, because he already does. 23:33.147 --> 23:37.848 [SPEAKER_00]: The question is, is will I live like I believe he sees me? 23:39.008 --> 23:41.409 [SPEAKER_00]: And you see, that's where chapter seventeen comes into play. 23:42.149 --> 23:47.510 [SPEAKER_00]: And why it's so important and it's not some just caveat of the story that gets kind of weird. 23:47.911 --> 23:51.571 [SPEAKER_00]: Because in chapter seventeen, it starts like this in verse one. 23:52.092 --> 23:57.673 [SPEAKER_00]: It says, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, so some time has passed. 23:58.712 --> 24:14.170 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord appeared to him and he said, I am El Shaddai, God Almighty, serve me faithfully and live a blameless life, and I will make a what, a covenant with you by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants. 24:15.408 --> 24:23.029 [SPEAKER_00]: At this Abram fell face down on the ground, and God said to him, this is my covenant with you, that I will make you the father of many nations. 24:23.089 --> 24:25.670 [SPEAKER_00]: And what's more, I am changing your name. 24:25.690 --> 24:34.692 [SPEAKER_00]: I will no longer be Abram, instead you will be called for you be the father of many nations. 24:35.352 --> 24:42.233 [SPEAKER_00]: And I will make you extremely fruitful, and your descendants will become many nations, and the kings will be among them. 24:44.578 --> 24:45.440 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think about this. 24:46.343 --> 24:50.473 [SPEAKER_00]: We fast forward thirteen years in between the stories. 24:51.227 --> 25:03.109 [SPEAKER_00]: That's how Genesis seventeen opens, quietly, almost too simply in some ways, since Hagar ran away dramatically in the woods, thirteen years God's been silent to Abram. 25:03.609 --> 25:09.550 [SPEAKER_00]: And here he is, ninety-nine years old, Ishmael is a teenager, a sarah is about eighty-nine. 25:09.570 --> 25:13.931 [SPEAKER_00]: And from every human angle, you have to assume that the dream is dead. 25:14.391 --> 25:17.052 [SPEAKER_00]: The promise probably, like it expired somewhere, right? 25:17.112 --> 25:19.152 [SPEAKER_00]: Ninety-nine's too old to have a child. 25:19.972 --> 25:24.014 [SPEAKER_00]: And the hope might even feel a little embarrassing to mention out loud. 25:24.774 --> 25:26.475 [SPEAKER_00]: But this is when God shows up again. 25:27.576 --> 25:30.137 [SPEAKER_00]: And he doesn't just say, like, hey, Abraham, what have you done? 25:30.217 --> 25:31.998 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just say, fix it. 25:32.058 --> 25:34.279 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just say, try harder. 25:34.299 --> 25:37.161 [SPEAKER_00]: He actually says, Abram, this is who I am. 25:38.361 --> 25:39.242 [SPEAKER_00]: Walk before me. 25:40.806 --> 25:43.107 [SPEAKER_00]: It's like this personal invitation church. 25:43.187 --> 25:50.132 [SPEAKER_00]: It's literally this moment for us to see, not just that we would walk in front of him, but it means that we would live our life knowing he sees us. 25:52.253 --> 25:55.755 [SPEAKER_00]: Walk like we live like someone who knows they've been seen. 25:57.356 --> 26:00.718 [SPEAKER_00]: It's funny because then God says he's gonna do this covenant with them. 26:00.758 --> 26:04.980 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's gonna be a sign of the covenant, which is weird to our modern ears. 26:05.361 --> 26:09.143 [SPEAKER_00]: It introduces a circumcision as the sign of the covenant. 26:10.422 --> 26:14.323 [SPEAKER_00]: And our modern ear say, well, that's weird, that's awkward, that's messy. 26:15.763 --> 26:18.804 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet, it's probably not even the sign many of us would chosen. 26:20.444 --> 26:27.026 [SPEAKER_00]: And for many of us, he's asking for this mark to happen in the midst of one of the most hidden, vulnerable personal parts of our body. 26:28.346 --> 26:32.927 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think of big part of it because the covenant wasn't about what other people could see. 26:34.033 --> 26:38.215 [SPEAKER_00]: It was about what happened between us and God when we know that we've been seen. 26:38.576 --> 26:44.819 [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't about others' applause, but it was this private mark of a personal God who sees you in me. 26:44.839 --> 26:49.622 [SPEAKER_00]: This isn't God saying, hey, go show the world that you're in mind with this mark. 26:49.682 --> 26:57.767 [SPEAKER_00]: It's for us that our faith would be something so personal, so intimate for us that it would change us from the inside out. 26:58.988 --> 27:04.312 [SPEAKER_00]: Because when we've been truly seen by God, this isn't a weird thing for us. 27:05.133 --> 27:11.038 [SPEAKER_00]: Because when we've been found and pursued, renamed and restore, we stop trying to live for performance. 27:11.278 --> 27:14.861 [SPEAKER_00]: When we start living like we've been seen, it means that things will be different. 27:15.682 --> 27:19.325 [SPEAKER_00]: Because when you've been seen by God, we won't live like it. 27:20.324 --> 27:23.987 [SPEAKER_00]: And I said again that when we've been seen by God, we will live like it. 27:24.448 --> 27:26.610 [SPEAKER_00]: And circumcision for us wasn't public. 27:26.670 --> 27:30.173 [SPEAKER_00]: It was this quiet, sacred, deeply symbolic thing. 27:30.774 --> 27:38.381 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's the call that God gives Abram is the same that he gives each and every single one of us in the room today, which is walk before me. 27:39.693 --> 27:44.156 [SPEAKER_00]: It's right here in the middle of this homie moment, God affirms His covenant. 27:44.216 --> 27:55.483 [SPEAKER_00]: He renames Abraham and Sarah, and Sarah into Abraham and Sarah, and He repeats the promise of a son, and Abraham laughs. 27:56.744 --> 27:59.966 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't laugh as the hearing of a good joke. 28:00.326 --> 28:02.067 [SPEAKER_00]: He laughs not at celebration. 28:02.107 --> 28:05.870 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a laugh to someone who has learned how to live without hope. 28:07.824 --> 28:16.668 [SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, if you read verse seventeen, it says that he laughed to himself, will a son be born to me at a man of a hundred and my wife, like the age of ninety? 28:18.229 --> 28:27.213 [SPEAKER_00]: This man, Abraham, the man of faith, is laughing at the idea that God sees his story as fertile ground, no pun intended for a miracle. 28:28.594 --> 28:39.297 [SPEAKER_00]: And after all these years, after the silence, his own compromise, his own mistakes, his own bitterness, the pain, all that he've done, which many of us would do is he's tried to protect his heart. 28:40.458 --> 28:41.718 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe even from what God said. 28:42.738 --> 28:45.679 [SPEAKER_00]: But God's that thrown off, not even what bit. 28:45.919 --> 28:47.240 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't revoke the blessing. 28:47.260 --> 28:48.900 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't shame Abraham. 28:49.160 --> 28:54.522 [SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't make him feel wrong about, in fact, God sees the last and he presses deeper. 28:55.240 --> 28:59.541 [SPEAKER_00]: He sees the pain that's underneath it and the disappointment and the wounds that he's had. 28:59.921 --> 29:05.783 [SPEAKER_00]: And he says, no, your wife Sarah is gonna bear you this son. 29:06.983 --> 29:13.285 [SPEAKER_00]: This is powerful because in this moment Abraham fully can feel the weight that God sees him. 29:14.385 --> 29:16.326 [SPEAKER_00]: God saw the cracks in his armor. 29:16.706 --> 29:23.027 [SPEAKER_00]: He sees how his faith has been mixed up with fatigue and performance and he doesn't reject him. 29:23.348 --> 29:24.808 [SPEAKER_00]: He just reaffirms him. 29:25.902 --> 29:31.645 [SPEAKER_00]: Because let me tell you guys, sometimes being seen is not warm and fuzzy. 29:33.106 --> 29:48.655 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it means being exposed and vulnerable and it means letting God into places we've already decided that we don't want him to get into because we've even hurt and we've even pain and it's the space where we want to maybe laugh and dismiss and just move on but yet God wants to speak to each and every one of us. 29:49.175 --> 29:50.396 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not done. 29:50.476 --> 29:55.019 [SPEAKER_00]: I see you and I know you and I still keep my promises. 29:57.714 --> 30:01.981 [SPEAKER_00]: And so for you and I, I want to encourage us that we learn to do this word today. 30:02.001 --> 30:13.178 [SPEAKER_00]: And like Abram, who goes and he takes his whole house and they take on the circumcision, the sign of the covenant that we would do something similar that we would surrender. 30:14.400 --> 30:17.563 [SPEAKER_00]: that finally Abraham surrenders to the God of the universe. 30:18.104 --> 30:20.185 [SPEAKER_00]: Because when we're seeing, we walk different. 30:20.226 --> 30:21.086 [SPEAKER_00]: We lead different. 30:21.106 --> 30:22.127 [SPEAKER_00]: We pray differently. 30:22.668 --> 30:23.709 [SPEAKER_00]: We give differently. 30:23.769 --> 30:24.990 [SPEAKER_00]: We love differently. 30:25.010 --> 30:32.077 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's the beauty of this moment for each of us that we see and have been seen. 30:33.253 --> 30:36.674 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, the longing to be seen isn't just something that's answered one time. 30:37.194 --> 30:43.376 [SPEAKER_00]: It's fulfilled in the incarnation of Jesus because God didn't just look down from heaven and notice us. 30:43.396 --> 30:45.237 [SPEAKER_00]: He came to us. 30:45.937 --> 30:49.458 [SPEAKER_00]: He literally put on flesh and he enters the wilderness of our world and sin. 30:49.858 --> 30:52.621 [SPEAKER_00]: not just haygars, but of humanity's itself. 30:52.941 --> 31:05.755 [SPEAKER_00]: And in Jesus, we get to meet the fullness of Eloy, the God who sees us so clearly, who chose us to be hanging on a cross for our sin and rise three days later to conquering that sin and death. 31:06.116 --> 31:09.980 [SPEAKER_00]: And why would he do it because he sees us? 31:11.073 --> 31:20.069 [SPEAKER_00]: Not the cleaned up church version that we come with, not the polished and impressed version, not the one we want to be, but who we are and he runs after us. 31:20.955 --> 31:28.777 [SPEAKER_00]: And so this is where Genesis points us, not to just the God who sees us, but the God who tame for us, Jesus. 31:29.198 --> 31:32.639 [SPEAKER_00]: The full expression of the God who sees. 31:32.739 --> 31:36.060 [SPEAKER_00]: Church, you have been seen because Jesus was pierced. 31:36.080 --> 31:42.862 [SPEAKER_00]: You are known because Jesus was forsaken and you were brought near because He took the distance and that's the gospel. 31:43.720 --> 31:46.262 [SPEAKER_00]: that the God who sees us came for us. 31:46.342 --> 31:58.130 [SPEAKER_00]: And Elroy didn't just notice our pain, he entered it and he rose for it, that we would never have to confuse being noticed with being seen again. 31:58.150 --> 32:01.112 [SPEAKER_00]: And so for you, what do we do with this? 32:01.152 --> 32:03.254 [SPEAKER_00]: What do we do with a God like this? 32:03.994 --> 32:09.598 [SPEAKER_00]: The God who sees runaways in the desert, a God who doesn't leave us feeling useless and nameless? 32:09.739 --> 32:11.460 [SPEAKER_00]: What do we do with that? 32:12.438 --> 32:13.999 [SPEAKER_00]: Because the answer isn't try harder. 32:14.960 --> 32:16.301 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not tidy up the mess. 32:17.361 --> 32:20.083 [SPEAKER_00]: That longing can only be answered with surrender. 32:21.444 --> 32:23.725 [SPEAKER_00]: And it looks different from many of us in the room. 32:23.805 --> 32:27.007 [SPEAKER_00]: And for some of you, let me say that you've never surrendered. 32:27.828 --> 32:30.109 [SPEAKER_00]: That you've been around church maybe a few times. 32:30.129 --> 32:31.730 [SPEAKER_00]: You prayed once in your life. 32:31.791 --> 32:35.513 [SPEAKER_00]: And if be honest, Jesus isn't much to you in your life. 32:35.593 --> 32:36.774 [SPEAKER_00]: He's been a good idea. 32:36.794 --> 32:38.315 [SPEAKER_00]: A backup plan. 32:40.754 --> 32:42.635 [SPEAKER_00]: But maybe today you've heard something different. 32:42.675 --> 32:50.780 [SPEAKER_00]: You heard that there's a God who does know you and sees you in the midst of your life and your pain, that there is a God who came near in Jesus. 32:51.300 --> 32:53.682 [SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to hear me today if you hear nothing else. 32:53.942 --> 32:58.685 [SPEAKER_00]: That God sees you and knows you and loves you and wants you to know him. 33:00.231 --> 33:10.758 [SPEAKER_00]: And so maybe today is the first day you would say, I want to surrender my life to you, Jesus, that I need you to have all who I am, my whole life is yours. 33:10.778 --> 33:21.405 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's another group of us, those of us, maybe who do believe in Jesus, but somewhere along the way, we've kind of numbed out, like we've gone through the motions. 33:21.445 --> 33:26.368 [SPEAKER_00]: You still serve, you show up, you sing songs, but your soul's tired. 33:27.450 --> 33:31.492 [SPEAKER_00]: Not because God left, but we forgot who sees us, right? 33:31.852 --> 33:35.494 [SPEAKER_00]: We've replaced his presence with our performance. 33:36.475 --> 33:39.616 [SPEAKER_00]: We've kind of settled for quiet quitting and our walk with Jesus. 33:40.837 --> 33:45.279 [SPEAKER_00]: We've become like Sarah, we've frustrated, bitter, forcing outcomes. 33:47.000 --> 33:49.621 [SPEAKER_00]: But today, maybe God's trying to remind you, I haven't left you. 33:50.522 --> 33:51.262 [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't moved. 33:51.282 --> 33:56.305 [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't stopped seeing you, and it's time to come home and surrender that to him. 33:57.727 --> 34:00.990 [SPEAKER_00]: There's some of us in the room, you've walked faithfully with Jesus for a long time. 34:01.611 --> 34:13.923 [SPEAKER_00]: You've prayed and you've worshiped, you've led, you've read, you've served faithfully with no one else came, you've walked in that obedience, and I want to remind each of us today that there's things to surrender. 34:14.869 --> 34:18.691 [SPEAKER_00]: Because surrender is not just like a one-time prayer that we do, right? 34:18.992 --> 34:22.694 [SPEAKER_00]: It's this daily decision that we have to wrestle with every day. 34:23.014 --> 34:25.175 [SPEAKER_00]: That surrender isn't a starting point. 34:25.235 --> 34:28.117 [SPEAKER_00]: It's surrender really is the path of faith. 34:29.278 --> 34:33.701 [SPEAKER_00]: And so for us that we would choose the greatest call in our life in many ways. 34:33.861 --> 34:36.222 [SPEAKER_00]: Isn't just to go be a better Christian. 34:36.262 --> 34:40.305 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the challenge of that is that we need to become a surrendered one. 34:41.262 --> 34:46.924 [SPEAKER_00]: to let God knows that He sees us, and that He knows what we need, and He knows where we are. 34:46.984 --> 34:51.846 [SPEAKER_00]: And we can say, God, I need more of you, unless of my own work. 34:52.766 --> 34:59.029 [SPEAKER_00]: And I believe that the invitation is the same for each of us that we would surrender to the God who sees us. 35:00.489 --> 35:03.711 [SPEAKER_00]: Because for many of us, the greatest struggle isn't whether God exists. 35:04.657 --> 35:17.908 [SPEAKER_00]: It's whether he sees us, whether he still sees us in the panic, the shortcuts, the compromises, years of silence, whether he still is with us in our waiting and our wondering and our doubt. 35:18.429 --> 35:28.797 [SPEAKER_00]: And if anything, I hope that this passage awakens that ache within us, this resounding truth that is there beyond, do am I seeing to, yes, he does. 35:29.878 --> 35:36.540 [SPEAKER_00]: The God who saw the overlooked servant girl sees you, his response for you is, come home. 35:37.601 --> 35:41.782 [SPEAKER_00]: And this egg won't ever be healed by attention in the world. 35:42.823 --> 35:48.065 [SPEAKER_00]: But solely this pain of hiding can only be solved by surrender to Jesus. 35:49.079 --> 35:55.242 [SPEAKER_00]: The one who carried our shame, who lived and died and rose for you and I to be made whole. 35:56.203 --> 36:02.066 [SPEAKER_00]: That right now, in this moment, God still says, I see you walk before me. 36:02.907 --> 36:03.687 [SPEAKER_00]: Would you pray with me? 36:05.428 --> 36:07.609 [SPEAKER_00]: Father, you are the God who sees. 36:08.850 --> 36:10.611 [SPEAKER_00]: You saw a haygar in the wilderness. 36:11.591 --> 36:13.232 [SPEAKER_00]: You saw Abraham and his doubt. 36:14.133 --> 36:17.675 [SPEAKER_00]: You saw Sarah in her ached and you see each of us here. 36:18.712 --> 36:22.414 [SPEAKER_00]: You see every student, every child, every adult. 36:23.574 --> 36:27.777 [SPEAKER_00]: Not the performance version we put out, but who we really are. 36:29.477 --> 36:33.399 [SPEAKER_00]: You see the secret place is the places we hide, the striving we carry. 36:33.419 --> 36:39.743 [SPEAKER_00]: And so God, we come to you, not to be impressed, but to surrender. 36:40.783 --> 36:48.047 [SPEAKER_00]: We open our hands and we open our hearts and we lay down the pressure to do more, to be in more, to perform. 36:49.613 --> 36:57.597 [SPEAKER_00]: We ask God that we could not just hear UCS, but help us to know, deep within who we are. 36:58.317 --> 37:03.140 [SPEAKER_00]: That we are fully seen, fully known, and fully loved. 37:04.801 --> 37:11.304 [SPEAKER_00]: Teach us to live like people who are already seen by El Rui, the God who sees us. 37:12.264 --> 37:15.646 [SPEAKER_00]: We ask that in the name of your Son, Jesus, amen.