Is It Just Me? | God Sees You | Pastor Alex Himaya

Well, good morning, church. It is so good to be with you this morning. Would all of you here in our Tulsa campuses put your hands together and welcome those at our Allen Gamble campus. Men, we are so glad that you are with us today. And church, let me just tell you over the last few weeks, both in and through our church across Tulsa, America and the world, we have seen hundreds of people, hundreds of people come to know the Lord. In fact, through our Allen Gamble campus, they put my testimony sermon on a Pando app, which is available to inmates across America on an iPad. And so far, just in the last couple of weeks, it has 34,000 views with 14 salvations. Come on now. Let's praise the Lord for that. 14 men have given their lives to Christ. Inmates in Kentucky, Florida, Ohio, West Virginia, Texas and Oklahoma have all come to know Jesus Christ. And listen to this, over 2,500 of those inmates have subscribed now to our weekly content. And let me just say this today, thank you to all of you who participated in our one day to feed the world offering last weekend. That one day will change every day for children all over this world. And I love how God is helping us to help all people of all ages all the time advance in their journey with Jesus Christ. And let me just say to you today, if last week was your first week with us and you came back, we are thrilled that you are here with us today. Let's pray together before we get started. Would you just hold your hands open in your lap and close your eyes and would you just in your own way say, Holy Spirit, speak to me today. I yield to you and I yield to your will and I yield to your way. Would you make the word of God come alive in my life today? In Jesus name we pray and together we all say amen and amen.

Now last week, we talked about the connection between the Exodus Easter and our every day. But there is so much more to this Exodus story that actually connects to us today. In Exodus, we start in the Egypt and look, there are lots and lots of reasons to go visit Egypt. The pyramids and the Sphinx and the ancient temples. You've got the Nile, the museum, which is the number one museum in all of the world and all of that stuff. And it is literally like a history book that you read in high school is coming to life. And it's not just ancient history, it's Bible history because so much of the Bible took place in Egypt. And one of these Bible stories that took place in Egypt is the story of the burning bush. And last year, we took a tour and we drove several hours in a bus to St. Catherine's Monastery which is beautiful at where they believe Mount Sinai is and it's a multiple hour drive each way. And they believe that the burning bush is there in that monastery. And in the bus on the way to the bush, our guide, I asked him, hey, what percentage, a scale of one to 100, do you believe you're at and believing that the bush we're gonna see today is the bush? And he said, I'm 99% sure. He asked me, what percentage are you? I said, I'm like 5% sure. And after we toured and went through the monastery and saw the bush, I even reached through the fence and touched the bush and we got in the bus and he said, Pastor Alex, what percentage are you now? I said, I'm zero, a 0% sure. And I hated to be that guy and I wondered on that bus, is it just me or other people skeptical as well? And I don't know if you ever wonder that. In fact, be honest today, don't raise your hand, but be honest. Do any of you ever say to yourself, is it just me?

just me or did life turn out a lot different than I thought it would? And when you hear about someone else's life, you think my life isn't like that. Or you hear someone else give a testimony about God moving in their life and we all clap and we cry and we praise God for it. But when you're alone, do you ever think is it just me? Or God doesn't really show up like that for me in my life. God woke them up at 3 a.m. with some incredible word or vision and you say, yes, I was up at 3 a.m., but it was the Mexican food that had me up. Do you ever think is it just me or does it feel like God doesn't answer your prayers anymore? Maybe he doesn't even hear you or he doesn't even see you. And is it just me or does it, do you ever feel all alone or overlooked or left out? Is it just me or is anyone else just out there waiting for God to do something that you have asked him over and over and over to do? Does it ever feel like faith works for everyone but you? Do you ever feel that's not my experience? And in a world that promises fairness and success or even just understanding, that's not how I see it, how I feel it, how I am living it. I think for all of us, there are times when we honestly ask why does everyone else experience what I don't and why don't I feel what others are claiming to feel? Is it just me or is there something else going on here? And here's the truth, we've all thought that,

we're just afraid to say it. We've all felt it, we're just afraid to admit it. And in this series, over the next three weeks following today, we're gonna talk about the things that everyone is afraid to talk about. And I'm not talking about sex or death or something political. I think sometimes we talk about those things to distract us from talking about the difficult things. Like why does it feel like God doesn't see me? He doesn't hear me. Why do I feel alone or so left out or overlooked? Why doesn't anyone else get me? And every morning, we look in the mirror and we ask the questions, right? Is it just me or am I a bad father or a bad mother or a complete imposter at work? Why do I have no friends? Am I failing in my marriage? And the quick answer is no, it's not just you. And if we're honest, we all feel that way sometimes. But the bigger answer is one that has been answered for millennia and it has to do with God's promises to answer our deepest cries. Now, you go back in that Egypt experience that I had or didn't have at the burning bush, right? In Exodus three, that's where we're gonna start today. And we're gonna try to answer some of these questions. Let's look at this in Exodus chapter three. It says, one day Moses was tending the flock

of his father-in-law. Now, there's nothing wrong with working for your father-in-law, but in Moses' situation, this was not at all what God had called him to do. His life had taken a drastic detour for 40 years. And it now felt stuck. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt stuck? And look at what it says. He led his flock into the wilderness. He came to Sinai to the mountain of God. And there the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of the bush. And for Moses, this is his moment, right? This is his experience. And God speaks to him and says, I'm going to rescue you and all of the Hebrews from the hands of the Egyptians. It's a huge moment in his life. But he still has to go back home and tell his people, hey, God showed up to me in a bush, and I'm sure he faced some cynicism and skepticism. And he had people saying, are you sure, Moses? They probably thought, well, that's not my experience. And I wonder if anyone said burning bush, Moses. Are you sure you weren't burning some bush, Moses? But here's what God tells Moses. And this is kind of the outline for this series. Look at it. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.

I have heard their cries of distress because of the harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians. And when Moses asked, is it just me, God, God answered in these four significant ways. And this is the outline for our series. And God is saying to you today, I see you. I hear you. I know you. and I'm coming to rescue you. And we can all say at some time in our lives that we don't feel seen. We don't feel heard. We think that no one knows us, not the real us, that no one really cares, and no one is coming to help us. And we hear of other people's experiences and it's pretty easy to say, yeah, but that's not my experience. And the truth that I want you to catch in this series is it can be, and it is. If we just ask God to show us clearly, because the God that you can't see, he does see you. He does know where you are. He is aware of what you are going through. Psalm 33 says, look, the Lord looks down. He looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race.

He sees you, he sees me, he sees your neighbor. He sees all of us, but he also sees us individually because each of us matter to him. And it was especially true in Jesus' ministry. Matthew 9, 36 says that when Jesus saw, say saw, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. In Luke 19, 41, he saw Jerusalem and he wept over what he saw. Jesus is very involved in the lives of his people. And it seems to always begin by him seeing them. Let's look at this in the Gospel of John in chapter six. It says, Jesus looked up, say looked up. Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him. This phrase looked up in the Greek is so interesting. It literally says he lifted his eyes. It's a special Hebrew expression that is basically a word picture of someone looking down and looking up really quick, like they were surprised or they noticed something. And here's what I want you to hear today, church. God notices you, he has lifted his eyes to you and he sees you, he notices you. He notices things about you that no one else notices. When he sees you, by the way, he sees the best you. In Matthew, it says that Jesus was walking along and look at this, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector booth. Matthew is a tax collector, which was not a great occupation in that day.

And no one would choose a tax collector to be a disciple, but Jesus did, why? Because he saw something in Matthew. And Matthew was so grateful that he throws a party for Jesus. And the only people he really knows that are really his friends are other tax collectors. And so they all come over to this party with Jesus. Look what it says in verse 11. But when the Pharisees, same word, right? Saw this, that they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with such scum? Well, what did they see when they looked at Matthew and his friends? They said, look at these scumbags, right? But what did Jesus see? He saw a man with potential. In fact, Matthew ends up writing the first book of the New Testament. Same Matthew in this story. And when you turn from the Old Testament to the New Testament, his is the first name you see. And that's because Jesus saw Matthew and saw something special. And when God sees you, he doesn't see you the way that others do. And in fact, he doesn't see you the way that you see yourself either. He looks beyond the mistakes and beyond the mess ups. He looks beyond the shortcomings and all of the problems.

He looks beyond that to see your eternal potential. In 1 Samuel 16, God told Samuel to go anoint a new king. And he said, it's going to be one of Jesse's sons. And so he rolls up to Jesse's house and he tells him, I'm here to anoint one of your sons to be the king of Israel. And Jesse had to be excited at that moment. And he goes and he grabs his first son, Eliab, right? Who's probably the biggest. And I imagine he's country strong, right? He had to be to be the next king. But God said, no, not this one. So he grabs his second son, Abinadab, right? And he was the handsome one. But God said, no, it's not him either. The third son, he's the smart one. Surely it's him. No, it's not him. The fourth one, he's the popular one, but he's not the king either. The fifth one, he's the good one, well behaved, right? But he didn't make the cut either. And one by one, right? Samuel goes down the line and one by one, he cannot find the next. of Israel. And finally, he says to Jesse, do you have any more sons? And Jesse says, well, I've got one more. He's the runt. He's out watching the goats and the sheep.

I left him out there because he's not really a part of this. He doesn't belong with me and you and these guys yet. He's nothing special. But Samuel has him come in, and this is what God says in verse seven of chapter 16. The Lord doesn't see things the way help me. The Lord doesn't see things the way that you see them, people judged by outward appearance. And by the way, that includes how we see ourselves, right? Because we are people. That's what people do is judged by outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart. He looks at the heart. And that's when God saw David and said, this is the one. What others couldn't see or wouldn't see, God saw. God is a God who sees you. In fact, when you look at the names of God, this is one of the names of God, El Roy, the God who sees me. It's one of his names. That means that he sees like no other. But the story behind this name, El Roy, is incredible. It's an amazing story that teaches us so much about God and us and how he sees us. Let's go look at this story together. In Genesis chapter 16, first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 16. Let's look at it together in verse one. Now Sarah, Abraham's wife, has not been able to bear children for him, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarah said to Abraham, the Lord has prevented me from having children. Go sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her. And Abraham agreed to Sarah's proposal. Now look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat this.

This is a really messed up situation. And I wonder if Hagar is standing there hearing this conversation and asking, is it just me? Or should we not be doing this or having this conversation? But there's a detail in the text that actually gives us a logical reason for why Sarah would even think of suggesting this. Look at this in verse three. This happened, look at this. This happened 10 years after Abraham had settled in the land of Canaan. And if you know the culture and you know the context of the time and the place, this phrase right here, 10 years, makes a whole lot of sense. Because in those days in that culture, if you were married for 10 years and you did not produce an heir, your husband could divorce you, no questions asked, and replace you with another woman. But under the same cultural laws and customs, if you were to give your servant to your husband and she gave birth to a son, then you were safe as his wife. That's what's happening here. Sarah is afraid and she is seeing the world. She is seeing Abraham through that lens. She's seeing everything, including herself, through the lens of fear. And that fear has blurred her own vision. And it didn't just blur her vision of how she saw herself, but it also blurred her vision of how she saw Hagar also. Now think about it. Just a few chapters earlier, Abraham and Sarah go down to Egypt, and it doesn't explicitly say this in scripture, but I can just imagine how it played out, that they were walking around the marketplace and they saw something. They saw a little platform over there with young Hagar standing on that platform. And people were bidding on her to buy her. And Sarah took one look at her and said, she could help me. It'd be nice to have another hand around the house to cook and to clean.

She saw Hagar as someone who could help her as something useful, not as a person. And that's why it was so easy for her to use Hagar. So Abraham agrees with Sarah's plan, maybe a little too quickly. Hagar gets pregnant and now they have new problems, right? Look at verse five. Then Sarah said to Abraham, this is all your fault. I put my servant into your arms. This phrase about I put my servant into your arms, that's the same verb used in Genesis three, where it says Eve gave her husband the forbidden fruit. But look at what she goes on to say. But now that she's pregnant, she treats me with concern. Listen, there's a whole nother sermon to preach about Sarah and sin, and all I'm gonna say about this today is a lot of times we can't stand our own guilt, so we shift the blame to other people. Now look at verse six, what Abraham replies. Look, she's your servant, so deal with her as you see fit. Then Sarah treated Hagar so harshly, she finally ran away. Abraham takes that blame and throws it right back at Sarah and says, that's not on me, it's on you. You deal with this problem. And it's so interesting how he said it. He said, as you see fit. Literally it says, what is good in your own eyes. And again, Sarah is not seeing straight. So she reacts with fear, and she makes things so intolerable that Hagar leaves. Now look at verse seven, the angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness

along the road to Shur. Now notice this, she is in the wilderness, which is often in the Bible, where you meet God. You go to the desert to meet God. And it says she was on the road to Shur. That's in Northwest Sinai, heading back towards Egypt. In other words, she's going back to Egypt, which was incredibly dangerous. And if it came out that she had abandoned her master, it could mean death for her. But look who finds her. Look who finds her, the angel of the Lord. This is the first of 48 times this phrase shows up in the Old Testament. And it usually means the physical presence of God. In other words, it's Jesus showing up in the Old Testament. And it says that he, look what it says, he found her. He found her, meaning what? He was looking for her. Jesus is the good shepherd who leaves the 99 behind to go looking for the lost sheep. And this angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her authority. A tough decision for Hagar to make. But look at verse 10. Then he added, I will give you more descendants than you can count. In other words, there's always a promise. There's always a promise attached to your obedience. God sees you and he can see your future.

And he can see you living it out if you obey him. Now watch this because this is amazing. Jump down a couple of verses to verse 13. Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who had spoken to her. She said, look at this, you are the God who sees me. And in the Bible, there are different names for God. There's Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah Rapha. But this is the first time that anyone looked at God and named him. Hagar is the first person to name God. It wasn't Abraham, it wasn't Sarah, not Adam or Eve or Noah. It's this little slave girl from Egypt. It's so incredible. And personally, I'm not surprised, right? It was an Egyptian. But you see, Hagar knew other names of other gods. She grew up learning about Osiris and Isis and Ra, the Egyptian gods. And she knew those names, she'd heard all about them. But in the day of her greatest need, none of them showed up. They left her and they abandoned her, but God didn't. And that's because they couldn't see her because they are dead gods. God can see you because he is the God. And his vision, his ability to see you is because of his greatness. Now look, if you were to go out in the country

away from city lights and you look up at the sky, you would see all of the stars, right? When it's a nice clear night, no full moon, you can see stars in the sky. How many of you have done this? Like you've been away from light pollution and you've just seen stars everywhere. But do you know that if you were to look at that same part of the sky through the James Webber telescope, this is what you see. And that's because the telescope can not only see beyond all the lights, it actually can go above the atmosphere. And what I'm trying to say is that we need to be able to get the perspective that comes from getting rid of all the distractions around us and get above all the failures that have held us down. And when no one else does, God sees you. He sees all the good, he sees all the bad. He can even see the things that you can't see. And because he can see them, we can trust him. We can put all of our faith in him to do the right thing. For us and we don't have to be afraid that he will fail us look look life will fail you Your body will eventually fail you people will fail you but God won't fail you And it's okay that the other things will fail you and to admit that the other things will fail you because it's true But we got to get above that truth that you will you will be failed by others To find the truth that you have not been failed by God And the name that Hagar gave God is Elroy the God who sees me And all of us need our own

Elroy experience we need to get above the Atmosphere that holds us back and get a clear view of the God who has a clear view of us And you know, I've always wondered What gave Hagar? The strength to go back to Sarah and Abraham the ones who used her and abused her And I don't have all the answers and hear me on this one. I don't believe God leads people back into abusive situations, but but Isn't it ironic? That the God of Sarah and Abraham the ones who used and abused Hagar Shows up and says to Hagar. I see you And then she believes in him And I wonder if it's all about experience if she had heard from Abraham about his experiences With God the burning bush experiences with God and she said that's not my experience But then wait one day she did experience God for herself And it was that experience that made all the difference for her today. You cannot substitute Anyone else's experiences for your own you cannot live off of their experiences and any testimony from any believer about their experience is really an Invitation for you to experience him for your self And maybe one reason that you feel like God doesn't see you That you would say is it just me is Because you've never had a real experience with God Maybe you're afraid to Met maybe you're wounded. Let me tell you God has made a way for you to experience him and he is a God Who wants to be known? He is El-roy the God who sees me and he wants to be that for you Let's pray together Across all of our campuses today. And and if you're here and you've never seen God, you've never experienced God You've never come into a relationship with God. I want to lead you in a prayer helping you do just that And I want you to pray out loud and you're gonna hear people praying out loud all around you

But I want you to pray this prayer that I pray to God in heaven And right where you're seated, would you just pray and say dear God? I Know I'm a sinner But today I ask you to forgive me For all of my sin Jesus come into my life to be my Lord my Savior my forgiver in The best way that I know how I turn my back on my sin and I trust you alone Jesus to save me Thank you for saving me Father you said if we seek you we will find you if we search for you with all of our Hearts Lord today. May we be a people Who seek you with all of our hearts and may we know? May we know in our hearts that you are the God who sees us in Jesus name we pray and together we all say Amen, and amen church put your hands together and thank the Lord who sees you Today come on campus pastors