Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey

Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018

El Roi, God who sees

El Roi, God who sees

We are continuing our series on the names of God.

 We have looked at the names Elohim, God the creator

 We have looked at the name I AM, God who is always with us
 We have looked at the name ABBA, God who is our father.
 We have looked at the name Qadosh, God who is holy, set apart.

I want to look at another name that I think really shapes our understanding of who God is in a
positive light.

He is El Roi, God who sees.

That way of naming God is based on a statement uttered in the Bible by a lady called
Hagar.

Genesis 16:13  Hagar thought, "Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?" So from
then on she called him, "The God Who Sees Me." 

The background to this verse is found in Genesis 16:1-6.

Hagar was the servant of Abram and Sarai who decided that in order for them to get a
child, Abram would sleep with Hagar and once the baby was born, it would be the one who
would keep Abrams family line going.

It was something that apparently a lot of well to do couples would do who couldn’t have
children back then.

It was acceptable back in that society, but it obviously wasn’t godly.

It was a scheme that has massive flaws in it but the couple were desperate to have a child,
and Hagar as a servant didn’t have a say in the matter and she had to sleep with her master
Abram after Sarai had consented to it.

Of course when Hagar gets pregnant, there is tension between the mistress Sarai and the
servant Hagar and Hagar gets badly treated by Sarai, so Hagar as a pregnant mum decides
to run away back to Egypt where she is from.

In Genesis 16:8 Hagar is met by God in the desert who asks her, where she is going?

Hagar explains the situation to God who in turn tells her to go back to her mistress Sarai
and submit to her authority.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
In verses 10-12 God then promises her a son who would in turn have many descendants
and this was the case.

Ishmael Hagar’s son went on to found the nation of Arabia and today they are a blessed
nation with all the oil they have in the ground and all the wealth it produces for them.

Hagar is left in wonder of this encounter and as she ponders on the angel she has just seen,
she makes a statement that gives us an aspect of God we all need to know about.

Genesis 16:13 Hagar thought, "Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?" So from
then on she called him, "The God Who Sees Me."

God saw Hagar in her predicament.

 He knew that she was running away from a situation where she had been used.
 He knew she was running away from a situation where she had been mistreated.
 He knew she was running away from a situation that had been pretty painful for her.

So when she ran away, He knew Hagar needed to know something about who God was and
is.

Others may not have seen her pain but God did, because God is El Roi, God who sees us.

The Bible talks a lot about God being someone who can see where we are and what we are
going through.

Proverbs 15:3 The LORD sees everything, whether good or bad. CEV

When I was a kid, at times got into trouble for doing things I shouldn’t have done and
been in places that I shouldn’t have been in.

There was a time when a few friends and I broke into the local rugby grandstands in the
town where we used to live and started a fire thinking no one could see us, until someone
called the fire brigade.

That verse became quite relevant to me when I recalled that incident.

My friends and I didn’t think anyone could see what we were doing, but God has His eyes
on the good and the bad that we do.

You can take that in a negative light if you want to, but I see that as a positive.

God saw Hagar, a woman who had suffered a lot in recent times and being in a strange land
with bosses who had treated her badly, she thought that no one could really see, let alone
understand what she was going through.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
But God turned up when she was in a bad spot both physically and emotionally and gave her
an encounter with Him.

He turned up because He saw her and her predicament.

Hagar realised God had seen her and that’s why she responded the way she did!

Genesis 16:13 Hagar thought, "Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?" So from
then on she called him, "The God Who Sees Me."

There are other verses in the Bible that also give us insight into that particular name for God,
El Roi, the one who sees us.

 He sees us all wherever we are.

Job 34:21 For His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps. MKJV

Psalm 33:13 Jehovah looks down from Heaven; He beholds all the sons of mankind. 

Psalm 33:14 From His dwelling place He looks on all the people of the earth.  MKJV

 He sees not just where we are, but where we are at/ the state of our hearts

2 Chronicles 16:9  For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro in all the whole earth to show
Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him.

This statement was made by a prophet called Hanani to one of the kings of Judah called
Asa, who made a military alliance with the Syrians to protect Judah against Israel, who was
warring against Judah at the time.

Asa had previously trusted the Lord to give him victory against the enemies of Judah but
for some reason this time his heart had turned away from God and he started relying on
alliances with ungodly kingdoms.

Hanani came to remind King Asa what God was like.

He is looking for people whose hearts are set on Him, because He wants to bestow His
favour upon them.

He looks because He can see. He is El Roi, God who sees us!

I have been reading a book this week about a powerful preacher called Clark Taylor.

He was a really powerful man of God who started a movement here in Australia called
Christian Outreach Centre in Brisbane.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
God used him all over the world but his life got out of balance and he didn’t invest enough
time into his family and to be honest into himself and he fell morally.

He had everything in ministry but in his mid-fifties lost the lot, his reputation, family,
finances, even his health.

He has even preached here in this church.

But part of his story was that God opened up some doors for him to minister in America
and while over there God slowly restored his ministry.

He was divorced and after everything that happened, was getting back to where he had been
in God previously but sin takes its toll and he wasn’t the same as he was.

So in his early 60s he was invited to go and minister in some churches up in Alaska and
while he was there, he decided to seek the Lord intensely for six weeks.

He did that and his life started to change for the better, with God restoring his marriage to
the point where he remarried his first wife and God also gave him a release to come back to
Australia, in spite of all the pain he’d caused and start up another church.

This was all because God saw this man’s heart.

God, El Roi was roaming the earth, found this man in Alaska, found that this man’s heart
was seeking Him and rewarded him accordingly.

God can see the state of our hearts because He is El Roi, God who sees us.

A. God sees where we are.

B. God sees where our hearts are at.
C. God sees what we are doing.

Jeremiah 32:19  great in wisdom and mighty in work; for Your eyes are open on all the
ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit
of his doings. MKJV

That thought is echoed by Jesus in the New Testament as well.

Matthew 6:3 But when you do merciful deeds, do not let your left hand know what your right
hand does, 

Matthew 6:4 so that your merciful deeds may be in secret. And your Father who sees in
secret Himself shall reward you openly. 

I was once in conversation with a pastor who said that a lot of people are going to be
surprised in heaven because Gods reward system is a lot different to ours.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
He said that it may be that a pastor with a church of 50 people may well get a greater reward
that someone with 500 people because God will reward openly what faithful people have
done in secret.

 He can do that because He is God who doesn’t just see where we are.
 He can do that because He is God who doesn’t just see the state of our hearts

He can do that because He is also God who sees what we are doing.

He is El Roi, the God who sees!!!

I have talked about how God sees where we are, where our hearts are at and what we are
doing.

According to the Bible, these three areas are all in Gods seeing capacity.

But as I was meditating on this particular name of God, I had another revelation on Him
seeing us.

In order to understand He is El Roi, God who sees us it’s important for us to realise not just
what He sees, but where He sees us.

As I looked at this passage about this lady running away from her station in life and her
encounter with the Lord, I saw that the Lord saw her in three different stages of her life.

As we have a look at these three stages today when we have a look at this passage, you might
identify with one of them, and you might realise that while you are in that stage God is still
seeing you, making Himself real to you as El Roi, God who sees you.

When did God El Roi see Hagar and where does He see you?

1. God, El Roi sees where you have been.

The Bible says a little bit, about this women’s past!

Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, did not bear. And she had a female slave, an
Egyptian, and her name was Hagar

A. She was a female.

B. She was a slave.
C. She was from Egypt.

We don’t know if she was found in Egypt by Abram and Sarai when they went there to
avoid famine in Canaan or that she joined the household at another time.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
But that was her background and she’d risen through the ranks of the workers enough for
Sarai to put her name forward to Abram to bear them a child.

The Bible mentions in the first three verses of this chapter that she was a slave.

God knew she was a slave. He’d seen her doing everything she needed to do in order to keep
her job.

God knew she was a female. In that society females had no rights at all.

So she wasn’t just a slave, she was a female slave, the lowest of the low.

It says she was also from Egypt, so living in Canaan she was away from her family, a
female slave who was also a foreigner.

There was a lot about her past before she met God that wasn’t ideal.

But El Roi saw all that before she met Him in the desert and scripture includes these three
details for a reason.

God saw her and everything she was and did up until she saw Him.

God also saw that her past was something that wasn’t a hindrance, rather it was being used
to guide her to an encounter with Him and her destiny as the mother of Abrahams first
born child who would go on to start the nation of Arabia.

We might see someone’s past and not really see the connection to how that got them to
where they are in God now.

But God sees the connection. He sees where you have been in the past can get you to where
you see Him now.

Paul says in Philippians the following about where he came from.

Philippians 3:5  I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As regards the Law, I was a Pharisee; 

Philippians 3:6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness in the
Law, blameless. 

He was someone whose past was tied up to being Jewish. He loved being Jewish and
everything about the nation of his forebears.

But God had a calling on his life.

The Bible says in Acts 9:15 the following about Gods plan for Paul’s future.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
Act 9:15  But the Lord said to him, Go! For this one is a chosen vessel to Me, to bear My
name before nations and kings and the sons of Israel. 

This guy had a God given calling to reach non-Jews and even non Jewish leaders.

Logic would suggest that Paul be used to reach Jews instead of Gentiles because that’s
was where his past was.

But God saw his past and used it to guide it towards his encounter and calling with the
Lord, where he saw God and went blind for three days.

He was so zealous for the Jewish religion, he went to Damascus to destroy any Christians
he could find in that city.

His love for the Jews compelled him to eradicate anything he saw as a threat to their way
of life.

But that past life was actually guiding him towards his junction, the place where He
would see God for who He actually was.

In the same way Hagar as an Egyptian slave woman running away from her employers, God
used what had happened to her in the past to bring her to an encounter with Him.

God will do that because He can see where you were, and where it can take you into the
future. .

When I was growing up in New Zealand my parents would take us kids all over the North
Island to live and I think from 8 till 14 I attended 7 different schools, always having to adapt
to a new environment.

I didn’t like it but I either adapted or made friends or I could be miserable so I chose to
adapt to the people I was forced to be with.

Then later on as an adult I volunteered to go on the Mission field in Estonia and after
being there for seven months was asked by one particular missionary would I be interested in
staying.

My response was, “Why do you want me to stay and be part of your team here?”

I really didn’t think I could bring anything of value.

But this missionary said, “But Mike, you fit in with everyone here.”

So I asked the question, “Where did that ability to fit in come from?”

I think it came from all those years of being dragged all over the country having to
change schools almost every year and being forced to adapt to new surroundings.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
Then we moved to Australia which was another opportunity to learn to adapt.

God saw what I’d gone through and knew He could use it in the future.

God saw this Egyptian female slave and how her reaction to her circumstances had made her
run away, but all that had happened in her past was guiding her to Gods purpose for her
life.

God, El Roi sees where you have been.

2. God El Rohi sees you when you are “in between.”

Genesis 16:6  But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your slave woman is in your hand. Do to her
as it pleases you. And Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.

Genesis 16:7  And the Angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness,
by the fountain in the way to Shur. 

This lady was on her way back home to Egypt. The town of Shur was on the way back
there and this lady was in between settlements when she found a place to stop and have
something to drink.

In this out of the way place, where she was running away from an unpleasant situation, in
between where was coming from and going to, she discovers that God has seen her.

I’ve discovered something about El Roi, God who sees us.

Often He sees us and finds us in a place where we are “in between.”

Hagar was “in between” where she had come from and where she had decided to go to, back
to Egypt.

But in that moment where she was “in between” locations, she discovers El Roi, God who
had seen her and had found her.

I have read a lot about that sort of thing happening, where God finds people when they are
on the way to a certain course of action.

That’s where Hagar was, in a place where she was in between her past and her intended
future and it was where God spoke to her.

Hagar had an intended future when God found her at the “in between” moment.

But there are often times when you are caught in between a certain past and an uncertain
future.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
You don’t have an intended destination because you really don’t know where you are
going, so you just go anywhere.

We all know in between the period of Jesus crucifixion, resurrection and ascension into
heaven, his disciples were in a place where they were “in between” not sure of what to do
next, especially Peter.

So Peter makes the announcement he is going back to Galilee to go fishing.

Like Hagar he’d come from a past experience (in denying Jesus) he’d prefer to forget
and move back to where he felt more comfortable in his own environment.

So he moves back to Galilee to do what he did before, go fishing.

But you know as well as I do; that when Gods call is on you, so is His eye.

God who calls us is also El Rohi, God who sees us and God knew exactly where Peter was in
his “in between” period.

Genesis 16:7 And the Angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness,
by the fountain in the way to Shur.

Like Hagar, Jesus found Peter out there on the boat trying to catch fish unsuccessfully.

You will always be unsuccessful when you go back to your past when you are called to face
your future.

But in that “in between place” Jesus found Peter and gave him back his sense of purpose and
direction.

Peter got back his direction and calling because El Rohi saw where he was and the
uncertainty of where he was trying to get to.

That’s often the place where El Rohi does see us, in the land of “in between.”

When I saw that about Hagar’s life, where she was at that moment where God found her “in
between” an awful past and an uncertain future, I had to ask the question, “Where has God
found me the most?”

I would have to say in the same place, coming from somewhere and on the way to
somewhere else, even when I wasn’t quite sure where that was.

 Eg: When John Clark cornered me in the kitchen one day in October 2008 telling
me in an “in between period” of my life where the next step should be.

God El Rohi saw where I was back then and made sure I would end up where I was meant
to be next.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
God does that.

God El Rohi sees you when you are “in between.”

3. God El Rohi sees where you should be

Genesis 16:9  And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, Return to your mistress and submit
yourself under her hands. 

Genesis 16:10  And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, I will multiply your seed exceedingly,
so that it shall not be numbered for multitude. 

Genesis 16:11  And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, Behold, you are with child, and shall
bear a son. And you shall call his name Ishmael, because Jehovah has heard your affliction. 

Genesis 16:12  And he will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man, and every
man's hand against him. And he shall live in the presence of all his brothers. 

In saying that, God El Rohi was giving Hagar directions to turn around and go back to where
she had come from.

He knew where Hagar had come from, what the state of her mind and heart was “in
between times” and in seeing her future, He knew where she was meant to be.

Hagar may not have liked what she heard but the word was pretty clear.

God El Rohi had told her to go back home to Sarai, a source of pain for her and submit to
her leadership.

God El Rohi can also see where you should be.

We don’t always know why, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

We all have hindsight but aren’t you glad God has a lot more foresight that we will ever
have.

He can see our past, our present but He can also see our future and the place we need to be
now in order to get there.

God had his eye on Hagar.

He knew she would have a part to play in history that would be bigger than she could
possibly imagine.

God knew the child she was carrying was a boy.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
So when God came and met her in the desert He gave her instructions as to what name the
child should have.

Genesis 16:11 And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, Behold, you are with child, and shall
bear a son. And you shall call his name Ishmael, because Jehovah has heard your
affliction. 

That’s what the name Ishmael actually means, God hears.

A lot of people say that Ishmael was a mistake. Abram and Sarai should never have put
Hagar in the position of having a child for them.

They look at the conflict between the descendants of Isaac, the Israelis and the descendants
of Ishmael, the Palestinians who are over in the Middle East fighting it out.

They say that it never would have happened if Ishmael wasn’t born into Abrams family.

But you have to look at something about Ishmael and the meaning of his name.

It means God hears.

To Hagar God was El Rohi, God who sees, but through Ishmael God was also someone
who heard.

There is a story in Genesis 21, where the tension between Hagar and Sarah comes to a head
and Hagar and Ishmael as teenage boy are kicked out of Abraham’s camp.

To Hagar it may well have seemed like that was the wrong thing to do to go back.

She is now in the desert with her teenage son, in the desert about to die due to a lack of
water.

But then something happens.

Genesis 21:17  And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar
out of the heavens, and said to her, What ails you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard
the voice of the boy where he is. 

Genesis 21:18  Rise up, lift up the boy and hold him up with your hand, for I will make him a
great nation. 

Genesis 21:19  And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and
filled the bottle with water, and gave drink to the boy. 

It seems after reading that story that God had a plan for Ishmael. When he was in trouble and
cried out, God assured his mother Hagar that God hears.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
Ishmael was used by God to tell his mother and anyone who reads that story in the Bible
that God is interested in the people rejected by others.

He is God who sees and God who hears.

Had Hagar 13 years before been disobedient to Gods leading and not gone back to
Sarai, she would have continued on to Egypt, to an uncertain future and we would never
have heard from them again.

But God wanted to bring good out of something bad, and God knew that even though
going back for Hagar was going to be tough for her, in the long run El Rohi could see that
through her obedience people for generations to come would discover something about God
through Ishmael’s testimony.

When you cry, God is God who doesn’t just see, He hears us as well.

How many people throughout human history have read that account of Ishmael crying out to
God in a time of crisis and God answering their cry, because He hears!

He hears the cries of those who need to be heard!

Eg: Brian Houston writes in his latest book “There is more” of a man who was on his way
to Mount Gravatt in Brisbane where he planned to end his life by throwing himself off a cliff.

 He was divorced.
 He didn’t have access to his children any more.
 He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

He concluded he had nothing else to live for and was on his way to end his life.

He had come from somewhere and planned to go somewhere else, until God saw him.

He found on the way to the look out a church called Hillsong Brisbane campus and found
himself being drawn into the building where he was met with friendly people and a life
changing message.

While there in the meeting this man made a deal with God that this was Gods last chance
to speak to him.

Well God did and the man gave his life to the Lord that night and his intended direction
was changed after meeting with God who had seen him.

God to this man wasn’t just someone who saw Him, God was also someone who had heard
his cry for help.

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
God El Rohi saw 13 years into the future that Ishmael would be in desert crying out to God
for help and God would hear him.

In turn that cry would inspire others to cry out to God as well taking on board the
example of Abrams unwanted son.

Psalm 139:16  Your eyes saw my embryo; and in Your book all my members were written,
the days they were formed, and not one was among them. 

That applies to every child or legitimate or illegitimate birth. We have all been seen by
the Lord and He knows the good we are going to bring into the world.

God knew that Ishmael would be used to let people know, God is someone who hears!

God knew that because God is El Rohi, the one who sees where we should be.

God knew where Hagar was meant to be. He knew that if she went back to Sarai,
eventually she would be put in a situation where through her son she would discover that
God wasn’t just God who sees, but God who hears.

She would never have known that if she hadn’t gone back.

God El Rohi could see that but she couldn’t at the time.

When Peter went back to Galilee fishing because he was disappointed with what his three
years with Jesus had bought him, Jesus, El Rohi saw him and found him.

Why? Jesus could see a future for Peter that Peter couldn’t see.

He is El Rohi, God who sees.

When Paul was knocked off his horse in a place called Damascus in Syria and blinded by
God for three days, it was because God El Rohi saw Him.

He saw a future for Paul that Paul couldn’t see. He knows where we are meant to be.

That’s because He can see what we can’t.

I guess knowing that leads us to a final question.

Do we trust Him to lead us?

If we believe He is God El Roi, God who sees, then we must believe He knows where He is
going and we can trust Him enough to hold His hand as He leads us.

My younger kids do with their dad because I can see further than them.

Will I do that with my heavenly dad?

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018
 Senior Pastor Michael Hennessey
Notes for the Names of God a sermon series given in 2018
El Roi, God who sees
1. God El Roi can see where I have been.
2. God El Roi can see when I am “in between.”
3. God El Roi can see where I should be.

He sees you and likes what He sees.

Amen!!!

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Cornerstone Christian Church Epping NSW 23 09 2018