The God Who Sees Me - Fredy Mashate

Hi there and welcome to the Garden Church Podcast.

We're excited that you've tuned in to hear a message from one of our team.

I know that you'll be encouraged in your faith and challenged to live for God.

We pray that you'll encounter Jesus in new and fresh ways as you listen to this podcast.

God has got something great for you.

Thank you so much.

This is such an honor.

But let me start by honoring the leadership that God has placed in this house.

The anointing that you bring to this place, together with your pastoral team, the leaders of the house.

The first time I walked into this place, and that would be approximately just after a week after we had arrived, what I felt was not only the word of God spoken, but I felt an encounter with God.

And that is the anointing that is upon this house that when we lean closer to Him, you get to experience Him.

I saw it in this house, and I said, This feels like home.

Then I went from this feels like home, and I went to this is home.

So it's such an honor.

And when you asked me to share the words today, heart palpitations everywhere.

Usually I don't show it here, and my wife says, But you don't show it, I don't show it here, but here, everywhere.

Trembling, and I was saying because there's there's many pastors in the house, and so it shook me, and I said, But what do you see, Lord?

I just remember that the Lord sees us.

So a little story.

Um Minana is at Minana is my daughter host six, she's at Pacific Coast, and often at times we go there for a sporting uh event, and what I've been seeing is phenomenal.

Hey, there's this one day I was chilled, minding my own business in my own corner, and uh there was a gentleman that was coming towards me, waving so vividly.

And at first glance, I said, uh, well, I don't realize this gentleman could not be waving at me, so I started to look around me to say, Are they referring to me?

Is there someone else?

And I noticed that I was the only one that was there, and they continued to come and as they waving frantically, and then when they arrived to me, they said, Hi Freddie, how are you doing?

How's your family?

Caught me off guard because I could see that maybe it's a face I've seen before.

But because I'm new, I'm meeting people almost every single day, learning names every single day.

But it struck, apparently, they were actually from church.

Uh so it struck that in this new land that we've come to call home, we are seen.

It struck that we belong and that here too we can find connection.

But the word that I am drawn to share with you today comes from the book of Genesis.

Uh if I'm in Zimbabwe, I would say Genesis.

So if I could read from the book of Genesis 13, from Genesis 16, verse 13, then we'll take it from there.

Genesis 16:13

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her.

You are the God who sees, for she said.

I've now seen the one who sees me.

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her.

You are the God who sees, for she said.

I have now seen the God who sees me.

Can someone say, I've now seen the God who sees me?

Come on, youth.

Can someone say, I've now seen the God that sees me?

Amazing, amazing story, and we'll go through it very quickly.

Of Hagar that is recorded in the book of Genesis, chapter 16.

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

And it is not a very popular story because unfortunately it's placed in the middle of the greats of the Bible.

Someone who had a hall of fame written in the book of Hebrews, that of the faith that they write of the faith that they had, and they say, because of that faith, they were credited to be righteous.

So their story is not looked at because it's mixed and mingled with the greats.

But today we're going to explore it a little bit further.

Hagar, if you get to know her, her name means flight.

And sometimes we do feel a little bit like Hagar, whether I should be staying or I should be running.

And maybe today I'm asking you a question: what is it that you're running away from?

Maybe let's sit down there for a while.

Because many a times we are running, it feels like life is an endless journey of running, and maybe sometimes we ought to sit with ourselves in self-introspection and say, Who am I?

And what am I running from?

You know, what am I running to?

I love young people because I often speak to young people.

Young people, it is very important for you to sit down with yourself and start to question who am I?

Where have I come from?

Where am I in my life at this moment in time, and where am I going?

It is important.

You'll see at the core of that that you are the daughter, the son of the most high, that you are loved, you are loved, you are loved by God, you are loved.

The word says, For God so loved the world that he gave love, only stops becoming an emotion, it becomes an action word, a doing word, a verb.

He gave his only begotten son for you.

So if you're sitting here and you're in doubt, does he know me?

Does he love me?

Oh, yes, he does.

My assignment today is to let you know that you are seen and that God loves you.

My assignment today is to let you know that you are sin and that God loves you.

You are seen, my brother, you are sin, my sister.

God loves you.

In a world where we have so many people, God loves you.

Yeah, He loves you.

Hagar is a girl from North Africa in Egypt.

Probably when this was happening, she was aged 18.

An outsider, a foreigner.

Yeah, sometimes you might feel like an outsider.

You're recorded in Hagar's story as well.

I'm going to quickly move forward to a place where I just speak a little bit about how we greet in Africa.

When we greet in Africa, we say Sawbona, and it is a Zulu saying from Southern Africa in South Africa.

Sawbona literally translates to I see you.

And if you go to Ndebele, which is from Zimbabwe, where I come from, also from the same group of languages, there's Ndebele.

And in Debele we say Salibonani, Salibonani, and Salibonani is just a plural to say, even if you are a group of people, we see you.

If you are an individual, I see you.

Well, what is true about this greeting is that you only start existing within a greeting whilst you have been seen.

Once you have been seen.

Right?

I see you, I am here.

We're going somewhere with this one, and then I thought I would speak again from Kiswahili, which is a language that is widely spoken, most spoken language in Africa.

In Kiswahili, we say Habariyako.

And Habariyako literally translates to what is the news?

So it's not just a mere hello, it's not just mere high hi, bye.

It's I see you.

What is your story?

I'm here to tell you today that before anyone could ever say to Haga, Sali Monani and Habariyako, God said it to her first.

Before anyone ever said Habariyako to you, before anyone ever said Sali Monani to you, God said it to you that I see you.

What is your story?

I was not going to share this part, but I'm just led.

Uh growing up, it's a testimony.

I was born well, when I was conceived, let me start there.

I was conceived as a parental mistake.

But let me speak to someone that is in this room today that you might be a parental mistake, but you're never a divine mistake.

Three times my mom, at the pressure of my dad, who was not taking any responsibility, decided with the pressure that they were going to try and abort.

Three times it failed.

That is not a mistake.

That is the God that knows you before even you are formed in your mother's womb.

He says in his word that even the strands on your hair, as many as they are, I have numbered them.

Which means every single strand has got to have a number one, two, three, four, five.

And just in case you think that he doesn't know you because you are in this corner of the world on your own.

Our God is omnipresent.

At the same time, he is every single word, at the same time, he's in your living room, at the same time, he's in the hospital, at the same time, at the same time.

As I was raised, my mother decided that she would raise me up on her own, did not have much.

I was raised by a single mom, love my mom to bits.

Working as a domestic worker, there are days where we did not have food, she would take leftovers for her master's table, and that would be our food.

I often felt as if I was not seen, I often felt as if I was forgotten.

Being seen is a human need.

When we speak, I'm a law graduate, by the way.

When we speak of dignity, the right of everyone to have human dignity, it is the right to be seen, the right to be heard, the right to be understood.

The right to be seen, the right to be heard, the right to be understood.

And many a times I thought, why would the ground not just swallow me?

Because you're at school and you're not dressed properly.

Your lunchbox maybe might not be the right one.

You have kids who start making fun of you.

I know that too.

If you are in school and there's a little bit of pulleys in your school space, I know that too.

There's nothing new to that.

What I know is that there's a God that sees.

Oh my God.

Some of you have been hurt by your earthly fathers that you have neglected a relationship with the Heavenly Father.

Go back to Him.

He loves you, He sees you.

Go back to Him, He loves you and He sees you.

In my life, coming from such a low place, going into university, I was one of 49 to be awarded a scholarship from more than 40,000 people in Zimbabwe to study law at Rhodes University.

Coming from a low place, I was then one of about 54 from all 54 countries that had applied for a Mandela Roads scholarship, and I was one that got to have that to do my masters.

Coming from such a low place at age 27, I was the first ever foreigner in South Africa to be given South Africa's National Science Festival for me to run it as a project manager.

Yeah, he does it, he sees you.

So very quickly, I'm just going to two minutes I have with this story of anger.

There's a lot, I'll recommend that when you get home.

Please read through the whole story.

But you'd see that from verse 1-3, there's a little bit of pressure.

There's a promise of a baby.

The baby does not come.

Sarah decides that it is maybe time for me to cultivate my own plan.

Don't we all get into that space where you think God has delayed and maybe I can cook up something going ahead of God?

It happens sometimes, always happens to me.

So he says, I don't have a child, the Lord has stopped me from having a child, but I've got a slave.

The slave is not even referred to by name.

Very, very important.

There are times in life that people know you by your situation, not by your name.

Is this not the boy that is depressed?

Is this not the boy with this ill man?

Is this not the boy?

But guess what?

Even for Jesus, it was the same.

The young boy from Nazareth.

You are in good company.

Verse 1 to 6, the breakdown we understand from this uh whole chapter that uh Hagar ends up falling pregnant, and uh when she fell pregnant, she still started to feel a little bit special.

It you see, um, it happens sometimes.

You get a blessing, and all of a sudden you think you're too cool for church.

Yeah, I'm sorry, maybe I'm getting into someone's personal space.

That blessing that you cry to God so bad about, and once you have received it, you move away like the prodigal son.

Talihi here, remain in God, remain in Him.

Whatever happens, remain in your words that are true in God.

The encounter, she decides that she was going to flee.

And what is very, very interesting about this is that she flees into the desert, into a dry place, and there she finds a spring.

And it got me thinking, How is there life in the desert?

But then it reminded me that there is a God that was seeing all along and who is able to provide life.

He does say in his word that the devil might come to steal, to kill, and destroy, but I come to give life and life in abundance.

So she meets God who asks, Habari Yako, what's your story?

And she narrates a story, and at the end of the day, she is told, You should go back and you're going to have a child, it's going to be great.

ETC, ETC, ETC.

So this is the story.

Please do go and read it.

Um I just want to speak to several elements.

When we're saying that God sees, what does he see?

God sees the God that sees.

What does he see?

Number one, the Lord sees our story, the Lord sees you, he sees our story.

It is easy to go about life thinking that the Lord does not know you.

And especially in this world, Pastor John, neighbor does not know neighbor.

We can be in the same vicinity, but my mind in another through the phone.

Where it is easier to connect with the world so far away from you than it is to connect with the world around you.

That is the world that we're living in.

But I want to tell you something that in the midst of that world, the Lord still sees you.

I love it when I say he sees everyone, but then he's able to see the one in every.

God knows the crying we do behind closed doors.

I know that you might be here and you're saying that when I come to church many a times I wear a face and I smile.

But when I go back home, it's not easy.

I know that you might be here and you say that I try and show a happy face, but there's pain in my body.

Oh, the Lord is ministering to me.

I know that you might be here and you're saying, My heart is crushed.

Listen, I divert the heart, the heart, the heart.

If I can just minister to the heart, the word says, Guard your heart, for out of it comes the issues of life.

Protect it with every might, because out of it are the deep things of life.

But I know life in its nature will crush your heart.

But David then comes and says, Create in me a new heart, oh Lord God.

I'm coming in today with that heart wherever you are, wherever you are sitting.

You might feel that they did you wrong.

There might be a little bit of bitterness in there.

God knows you.

Let go, let go, forgive that person.

Yes, you might be saying, Freddy, you don't know what they did to me.

Oh, my father tried to abort me three times.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let go, let go, let go of that bitterness.

When the Bible says protect it, there's something that it knows.

It's so profound that there's a protect it.

And once you don't protect it, you see some illness is coming, starting to creep.

High blood pressure, depression.

But it started from a place of the heart.

Let go today.

Let go.

I'm not sure who I'm speaking to.

Let go, let go, let go, let go and let God.

Let go and let God.

Let go and let God.

Let go and let God.

Let go and let God.

God sees you.

He knows your story.

Number two, God sees where you are.

Where you are.

Doesn't matter where you have come from, but God sees where you are.

Hagar, if you go to back to the story of Hagar, she's actually outside the house of the covenant.

She has run away for where God has established the covenant.

And she finds herself outside, but God finds her there.

Many a times you think that because I've moved away from the will of God, will he see me?

Will he chase after me?

Yet there's assurance in this passage that no matter where you are, God will find you.

There's a book, uh, the book of Psalms 139, verse 7 says, Where can I go from your spirit?

Psalms 139:7

Where can I flee from your presence?

His presence is everywhere, and his presence is heaven.

So no matter where you go, you are in heaven.

You might think you've stepped out, but you are in heaven.

Hallelujah.

Whatever season you are in right now, far from home, between Jobs in a hard marriage.

Ah, God knows your address in the wilderness.

God knows your address in the wilderness.

The last part.

The Lord sees our future.

Isn't it beautiful that He can see where we are and equally see our future?

Stop worrying.

Oh my God, my God.

He says, Do not worry about anything, but in everything, give God the praise.

He says, Even the birds of the air neither know what they will eat nor drink.

But Allah may the Lord take care of them.

Why are we so worried about tomorrow?

Will I make the bond to buy a house?

Where will my next meal come from?

Will I move from this house to get into another?

We are worried.

Oh, we are speaking peace in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, peace in the mind.

The bad thing about worry is that the Bible says, as a man thinketh, so is he.

If you spend your time in thinking and worrying, you become worried.

It's biblical, that's what the word says.

Hallelujah.

The Lord sees our future.

He speaks to Hagar and He starts to speak.

And the Lord is reminding me something again, and I won't pass this one by.

Because before He speaks about the future, she's told to return and submit.

He's reminding me that someone somewhere in here, return and submit.

Yes, we can talk about returning to your work and submitting to your work.

But I'm talking about Revelation 2, verse 4.

Revelation 2:4

I have this against you that you have forsaken your first love.

You don't pray like you used to.

When I received Jesus Christ as my personal savior, I went crazy.

I used to walk in the road and I would be speaking in tongues.

I used to walk in the road and I'll be singing praise.

I was crazy, crazy for the Lord.

They would look at me and they say, This one is going crazy.

But the word says the things of God are like foolishness to those that are perishing.

Listen, there are things that we do in God that people won't understand.

For Zacchaeus to be able to see God here to climb a tree.

When he was climbing a tree, people would have said, Oh, what is this one doing?

Famous tax collector, what are you doing?

Why would you want to embarrass yourself?

There are things that we do in Christ.

There are things that we do in Christ that might seem foolishness to the world.

Young people.

Oh my god.

There are things that we might do in Christ that your friends will say it's not cool.

There are things that we will do that they'll say it's not cool at all.

Why are you doing that?

We don't want to play with you.

But blessed is he that remains rooted.

Return back to that place.

Return and submit yourself to worship.

Return and submit yourself to the word.

Retain and submit yourself to the Lord that is ever caring, ever loving.

Amen.

So you speak to the future and says, You shall bear, son, and you shall be great.

All these good things are told.

The book of Jeremiah 2029, famous verse, For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord.

For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord.

Plans to give you hope and a future.

These are plans to give you hope and a future.

Why do I need hope?

Because faith is the substance of the things we hope for.

So for faith to be able to be activated, there still should be an element of hope lurking somewhere.

And I understand that the things that have crushed you have made you not believe in anything, and you don't hope anymore.

Go back to that place of hope.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

I want to wrap this up.

Being seen changes how we go back.

He sees and he speaks.

Hallelujah.

That's the one of the second last slide.

God does not watch from afar, he does not watch from a distance.

He comes near, speaks a word, and gives a promise.

God does not watch from afar, he comes near, he speaks a word and gives a promise.

In this year of his promises, God will come near, God will speak.

Jesus Christ is on the water.

The word, word, he speaks a word, he speaks a word.

He says, God, Messiah, can I come to you?

Jesus responds and says, Come.

There's an instruction that has been given.

Come.

I believe that when Peter walks out of the boat as he steps, his first step is upon come, the word that has been spoken.

It is the only thing that elevates him and keeps him afloat.

The second step is come.

And that moment where he starts stop believing the word come is the moment that he starts sinking.

He'll come near you, he'll give you a word, hold on to that word.

He'll come near you, he'll give you a word, hold on to that word.

He sees and he sends.

Hagar returns, uh Hager returns to a hard situation, but she goes back carrying a word from God, not just wounds.

See people.

This one is a potent one.

I want us to be a church that sees the person that is in the corner.

I want us to be a church that sees the hurt of the hurt that is unspoken.

Let me get into this one a little bit, Pastor John.

That even our kids they are able to look at other people directly in their eyes and say, I see you.

Yes, this generation of kids that we have, including my own, will go with them to people and they'll say they're a little bit shy, they don't want to engage.

Let's teach them to be able to see people, to acknowledge people.

Because to be seen is to be known, to be seen is to belong, to be seen is to be significant, to be seen is to connect.

Hallelujah.

So as I close, your seen, your seen, your story, and I'm not too sure if this is the time where we say the band because I'm going towards the end.

But your stock, your seen, your story, where you are, where he's taking you.

Saguona.

God said his first.

God sees you, but he not only sees you.

The word Ishmael says, The Lord has heard me, the Lord will see you, but the Lord will hear you.

Praise God that is not only a God that will see, He's also Jehovah Jireh, the God that will provide.

The Lord our banner, the Lord our source.

And if anything, please be reminded today that you are seen and you are loved.

Thank you so much.

How good was that message?

I know that you would have been blessed.

Garden Church is a flourishing, life-giving church based on the northern rivers of New South Wales.

We have a passionate commitment to see you make a difference in your world, thrive in community, and most importantly, connect you to Jesus.

Visit our website gardenchurch.com for more details of ministries, our heart, and even some great resources to empower your life.

Be blessed, go and be life giving.