Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the necessity of knowing God as our Father, asserting that our greatest need is not a change in circumstances but a deeper understanding of God's nature. He challenges listeners to reflect on where they turn in times of struggle and pain, urging them to seek God rather than worldly distractions or false comforts. The sermon highlights the importance of recognizing God as Elohim, El Roi, and El Shaddai, each revealing aspects of His character that provide true comfort and guidance. Beach encourages believers to diligently pursue a relationship with God, especially during trials, to find strength and purpose in their struggles. Ultimately, he calls for a renewed commitment to understanding God's heart as a loving Father who sees and meets our needs.

Thank you so much for your presence. Thank you for your... Just thank you for who you are. Lord, our greatest need today is not a new experience. It's not a change in our circumstances. It's not wishing that we could go back and make different decisions so that there would be a different outcome in our life. No, Lord, this is not the answer. This is not what You're saying to us now. What we need today is an unveiling to our hearts from the Holy Spirit and the Word of God of You. Of the substance of who You are. And I pray today, Lord, that by the grace of God and by the Spirit of God, that is exactly what You will do. Give us an unveiling of who You are. I pray, Lord, for the sake of Your Son, the sake of Your holy interest and passion, for the sake of all that You have purpose to do. Help us today, Lord, we come through Jesus our Lord. Amen and Amen. Sometimes what we do when we wake up morning by morning is we begin to assume that we need something to help us. And in doing this, we somehow are led astray from the source of what we really need. And we begin to engage in all kinds of mental activity and searching and seeking for something that we feel is dire as to a deep need in our heart. And often times, this exercise leads us down a dead road. It leads us down a dead end. And it can lead us into much confusion and much delusion. It can lead us into discouragement. So, today, we're going to continue along this theme of knowing God as our Father. And we're going to discover today that what we actually need is simply a continual unveiling to our hearts of who God is. And so today, I want to challenge you before we begin. What are you going through? What is touching you today? What pain? What struggle? What circumstance? What event? What is weighing heavy upon you? What is weighing heavy upon your thoughts? Are you aware of something that you have been struggling with or you have been wrestling with? As you ponder those questions, I want to ask you another question. Alright? I want to ask you another question. Where have you been looking? What have you found yourself doing in response to the struggles or the deep needs or the feelings of anxiety that you have had? What have you found yourself doing? Where have you been going? Who have you been turning to? Have you been aware in the midst of what you're going through of what you really need? Or has that become elusive? Distant? And you have begun to look to other things. And so I want to challenge you today to ponder those questions and ask the Lord to search your heart. Ask the Lord to search our hearts today and to see where we have turned, what we're doing, where we're possibly trying to find an answer. Some people turn to food. Okay? They feel that food is going to bring them a comfort. Food is going to take care of a deep need. I recently saw a program that demonstrated the epidemic problem in this country regarding bulimia and anorexia. And this is a very, very, very serious problem that is plaguing millions of young people today. And essentially the cause of this is young people are confused. They are without hope. And they don't know where to turn. So some people turn to food. Other people turn to living in a fantasy world. And they imagine the way things could be or the way things might be. And they derive incredible false security and peace from avoiding reality and living in a fantasy world. They go off in their minds into fantasies and pretend. And they live in a pretend world and they derive comfort from that. Others seek activities, activities, activities. They're constantly, constantly involved in doing something because they derive a sense of identity and they derive an association with things. And it keeps them from seeing the true condition of their own heart or the true condition of the things that are hurting them. And others embrace money. Others embrace various different things. My point is this. What are you embracing today? Not just today, but what are you embracing when no one sees you? Where is your heart running to? Where are you turning to when all the struggles of life and all the struggles of your world are coming at you at full force? What are you looking to? We can be sure that there are many, many roads that people are turning to. Many, many forms of medication. Not just physical medication, but mind medication, emotional medication, spiritual medication, social medication to try and medicate them from their problems. I once ran a number of years ago into a buddy of mine that I grew up with. I used to go to his house and his dad owned a bar and as a young boy, Andrew's age, I used to go to his house and spend the night. He would go down in the bar and get a pitcher of beer and bring it upstairs. Today, he's in a horrible state of being an alcoholic. His father died of alcoholism. It runs in his family. A number of years ago, I saw him. He was in the process of contemplating suicide. He prayed, Oh God, please, if you're God, just prove it to me. I ran into him. He asked me to go to his house and I did for a number of hours. The bottom line was this. I said, Jimmy, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? Why are you killing yourself with alcohol? These are his words. I'm medicating myself, Phil. Alcohol keeps me medicated. It keeps me numb. So I don't have to face the horrible pain and reality of who I am. Doesn't that break your heart? And of course, we say, Oh my, how horrible that is. And it is. But what are you medicating yourself with today? What are you medicating yourself with? What are you doing? How are you responding to the unique situation and pain that you're going through right now? Brothers and sisters, there is a war being waged right now. And it is against every single child of God. And the enemy is behind this war. And he is offering something to us today as a solution to the deepest pains and struggles and sorrows and difficulties that we're experiencing in our relationships one with another, in our endeavors to live a Christian life, in the pains and sorrows and confusions of the way circumstances have worked out. He's offering to us something to deal with what we're going through. And if we take his bait, it will lead us down a road of destruction today. And so, what we want to do today is we want to look into continuing this message of knowing God as Father and understanding that knowing God as Father is the answer to what we're going through today. As opposed to the answer that Satan threw the world, the flesh, the philosophies of this age is answering us or is offering us as the answer. Are you discerning today? Are you discerning today what's going on in your life, in your family's life? Whose answer are you following after? What solution are you embracing this morning in response to what you're going through? Whose solution? How are you coping? How are you coping with disappointment? How are you coping with a relationship that's not the way it ought to be? How are you coping with a disappointment? With a hope that hasn't been realized? How are you coping with a failure of the past that still gnaws at you and eats at you? How are you coping with disappointment? How are you coping with expectations that have not been met and aren't being met? How are you coping? In your family, in your husband, in your wife, in your children, in your in-laws, expectations that have not been met, in your friends. How are you coping? Well, ask yourself this question. What has been offered to you as an answer? What's being offered to you? What do you perceive as being offered to you as a solution, as a way to escape, as a way to deal with everything going on in your life? Have you discerned? Have you discerned whether or not the thing you're embracing, the thing that you're holding on to, the thing that you're following after as the solution to this particular struggle you're going through? Have you discerned? Have you asked God, Lord, is this your hand or is this the hand of my enemy seducing me and deceiving me, setting me up for the ultimate intention of his heart which is to destroy me and kill me and ruin me and defile everything that God wants to do? As I was praying this morning and last night, I was very, very aware of God's heart in relation to this matter. And God was saying so very clearly through His Word, as I was meditating on Him, I, the Lord, I am the answer. I am the answer. And so today, right before we get into this Word, I want to pray and I want to ask God to shine bright light into every one of our hearts and show us, search our hearts and minds and see the depths of our hearts, the depths of our desires, the depths of our thoughts and see what we have been following after, what we have been embracing. Maybe it's been at a distant or maybe we have embraced it, taken it right into our bosom and are involved deeply in it right now. Whatever it is, God, show us whatever we are embracing that has not been handed to us by You and that is intended by the enemy to lead us away from God's thought. Let's bow our hearts. Father, thank You so much for the Word of God. Thank You for the Holy Spirit. I pray, Lord, that You will help us to be honest in Your presence, that You will help us to be transparent in Your presence, that You will give us grace not to draw back from Your presence but to come boldly to the throne of grace there to find help in our time of desperate need. Today, Lord, search each one of our hearts, search our minds, search the inside of our lives and reveal to us that which we have embraced in thought, word, deed, meditation that we are using to medicate, to help deal with some particular struggle or situation in our life that has not been ordered by You, that has not been given to us by You and that if we continue to embrace it, it will destroy us spiritually, it will destroy our lives, it will destroy our fellowship, it will destroy possibly our family. Father, we call upon Your name which is above every name. Break every alliance, every affinity that we have made with anything, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the lie of Satan, the philosophy of this world, anything that is excessive that we are holding on to as a false form of medication. Break it, Lord. In the name of Jesus today, give us grace to acknowledge any area of our life that is out of order. And as you break this, Lord, by the power of Jesus Christ, bring that area of our life back into focus to see that it is You, a greater unveiling of who You are that we need to cope with what we're going through. Matter of fact, the reason why we're going through it is so that we can come to know You as Father in a greater way. Now perform this, I pray, Lord, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen and Amen. Knowing God as Father. We learned in Genesis 1.27 that the Father heart of God was first revealed. Genesis 1.27 As God began to move toward creating man in His own image and likeness. We know that that reflects what God did in time. Genesis 1.27 But what God did in time, Genesis 1.27 is only an action that was birthed in eternity, before time. Before time began, God revealed Himself as a Father wanting to have a family that would know Him and commune with Him and love Him such as the kind of relationship that He has had eternally with His Son. Everything that God sets in time, everything that God does in time is simply God's movement toward the accomplishing of what He determined to do in eternity past. Nothing that happens in time is arbitrary with God. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So everything that God does in time that we're going to look at today in particular, the way God reveals Himself in time is all connected to God securing what was in His heart from eternity past. So that when time is no more and we get here to eternity future, this period called time, which God created, God created time, but time exists to serve God's purpose. God created time to serve His purpose in order that what He purposed in eternity past might be worked out in time and so that in eternity future we will have that which is that corresponds to what was in God's heart from eternity past. There are no mistakes when it comes to God. There are no arbitrary thoughts when it comes to God. There is no waking up one morning and God saying, hmm, I didn't anticipate this. I think I'm going to have to change my plan. This is the kind of faith, this is the kind of assurance, this is the kind of knowledge that we need as Christians in the day that we live in in order to stabilize and strengthen our faith so that we do not become overthrown by the uncertainty and the changeableness of this world. Because everything is changing. This country will not be the way it is in a century from now of Christ Terry's. Our economy is going to change. Everything is going to change. There is nothing that you see today that is going on economically or socially in this country that is going to be the same in a half a decade. Everything is going to change. There is no certainty here. And so as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, as children of our Heavenly Father, God wants to lift us out of time, lift us out of having faith and confidence in what we see with our eyes and what we hear with our ears and be lifted into His heart and be governed by what He is governed by and have a faith in the unchangeableness of who He is. Boy, will that place us on a solid rock, will it not? And so from the very beginning we see God's heart as Father and as a Father He reveals His purpose and plan as a Father. And then we saw in 2 Samuel 7, verse 14 that the process, the means by which God accomplishes His Father heart to have a family is through revealing Himself as the Father in Heaven who corrects us, who chastens us, who child trains us, who scourges us, who allows us to go through all different times, kinds of tests and trials and difficulties and it is in this scenario of 2 Samuel 7, verse 14, the New Testament parallel scripture is Hebrews chapter 12. We've read it many times. Verses 4 on through verse 16. It is in this scenario that we must be very guarded because it is during the time of testing, during the time of chastening, during the time of child training, during the time when God is scourging us and allowing us to go through all different kinds of situations and circumstances that the enemy comes as a subtle crafty serpent and he recognizes the different things we're going through, the different feelings we're going through, the different anxieties that we're prone to as human beings. He recognizes we're fallible and we're susceptible and vulnerable to feel the darkness and confusion that any soul feels when they're being tested like Job did. He was so vulnerable to so many different things and so the enemy comes at that time of vulnerability in our life and he begins to offer us, he begins to put before us something to medicate us. Something that he says will help us along the way. A dissatisfied husband with her wife for whatever reason may be will be offered by the sly serpent the thoughts, ideas, and opportunities to look to another woman and vice versa. The dissatisfied wife. Oh yes, this is real. This is what's happening. That's only one example. How are you dealing with the trial? How are you dealing with the process that you are going through right now? Remember, the process is connected to purpose and plan. Whatever you're going through is connected to God's ultimate and eternal purpose and plan and that is to etch into you the moral likeness of His Son. Those whom God foreknow He also predestined, that is, He chose beforehand to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. We're on the potter's wheel. Jeremiah chapter... I'm unsure. But we're on the potter's wheel. The potter's wheel is another picture of God's process to accomplish His purpose. Now let's consider the potter's wheel for a few moments and then we're going to move on to the Father heart of God unveiled in the scriptures. We have to understand that the battle going on right now and in our lives on a daily basis is this. Will we turn to the unfading, unchanging Word of God as the Word of God unveils the Father heart of God during our time of being in the process of being conformed to the Word of God, being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ during those times when we are plagued with confusion and depression and feelings of anxiety and even the fleshly feelings begin to stir and we begin to feel like we're in darkness. Are we going to turn to the Lord, our God, in Heaven, the God who says that I am all that you need or are we going to be led to follow after something that the enemy puts before us as his solution to what we're going through. When you're on a mountaintop, brothers and sisters, and usually this is the young Christian experience, it's usually the young Christian experience, and the glory of God is before your eyes and your life is just perfect and there's nothing going wrong, the enemy has a very difficult time offering before you something that he knows is a lie because your heart is just in flame with love for God. Hallelujah, it's the honeymoon Christian. And don't you appreciate the honeymoon Christian? Don't you love the honeymoon Christian? Don't you love to be around a honeymoon Christian? And don't you ever, ever, ever discourage a honeymoon Christian and bring into their life the discouragement that you're going through. You just need to sit at the honeymoon Christian's feet and let him or her talk to you all about the glories of Jesus because it's good for us. The honeymoon Christian. But what happens when the honeymoon Christian goes away and we begin to go through the process when God begins to deal with us, not as little children, but he begins to take on the posture I am your father in heaven. And as your father, I was there when you were born, I was there when you were being snuggled by your mother, I was there, yes, predominantly your mother did it, your mother burped you, you looked at your mother's eyes when you were feeding from her breasts. Whose eyes does baby make contact with first and foremost? Whose eyes? Daddy or mommy? Generally it's mommy. Whose eyes does the baby look at every time baby wants to feed? I don't ever recall a time when I stood there when my children were feeding and took them from mommy's eyes and said, look at me. No, it's mommy's eyes. I don't ever recall that. I was close by. At times I was there, other times I wasn't. But the baby's eyes see mommy. It's mommy. It's the loving mommy. It's the voice of mommy. And that's, listen, that is the initial revelation that God gives to every newborn. Every newborn. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. What a wonderful unveiling of that part of God's nature as the nurturing mother. The one who nurtures. The one who feeds. The one who coddles. The one who embraces. The one who protects us from all trials and tribulations. The one who just brings us into his bosom and feeds us nothing but good things. Hallelujah to that. Hallelujah to God for that revelation. But there comes a time when God begins to reveal himself as I am your heavenly father. And as father, I represent, I stand for my purpose in taking you as a beloved child and growing you up into spiritual manhood. And that's when the problem comes. Okay? And so Jeremiah goes to the potter's house. There he begins to see a potter and the potter is spinning the clay. The potter is pushing on the clay, molding the clay. The potter is applying the moisture necessary to keep the lump pliable. And the potter's eyes are always on the clay. The potter's eyes are on the clay because it's the potter who has in mind what he wants to make that piece of clay, what he wants to make that lump of clay. And so today, many of us, if not all of us, are on the potter's wheel. And how many are susceptible to motion sickness? I am. And many times I have gotten sick on the potter's wheel. And how many are susceptible to you don't like people getting real, real close. Give me my space kind of thing. Well, when you're on the potter's wheel, God gets very personal and begins to apply pressure in certain areas. Huh? Certain areas. Certain areas. You're spinning. He's applying pressure in certain areas. So, we're on the potter's wheel. This is the process that accomplishes purpose. And it is imperative that during this time of being on the potter's wheel, listen carefully, it is imperative that during this time of being on the potter's wheel, we are alerted to the danger of turning somewhere else to get help for the many needs that begin to arise in our life as God begins to show us our need to grow up. Oh, my, my, my. How we want to run to so many different places and people and things, some of them lawful, some of them unlawful. So, put this in your notes. Put this in your head. Put this in your heart. Ask God to write this on your heart. The most critical time to pursue God with diligence. Remember last week? How we closed this message right up here? With diligence, we must believe that God is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. The most critical time to pursue God is not when we are first saved, although it's important. It's not those who start out in the race. Everyone's got a lot of strength and endurance when they first start out, right? You run a marathon, you start out, and some people jump ahead and everyone goes, Wow! Hallelujah! Ten miles down the road, those who had jumped ahead are now running pretty much with the crowd. Eighteen miles down the road, now they're behind the crowd. Then you get to the end of the race and you say, Wait a minute, they didn't even finish. They burned out. Oh, brothers and sisters, let's hear the heart of God today. God is in our midst through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit and He is saying to us, Now, beloved ones, now is the most critical time. Now, in our lives, is the most critical time to be diligent in seeking God and to be alerted and guarded against seeking something else. Don't seek something else. Well, things aren't going to change. Phil, you don't understand the situation I'm in. I just... Okay, remember what diligent meant? To give attention to. To give attention to. To place value on something. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Brothers and sisters, we must in our daily lives, not here, although it's important here, but not here, because it's not here where the battle's lost. You know that. Here, there's an atmosphere of faith. There's encouragement. It's when we're home alone. It's when we're home in our normal circumstances, in our rooms, in our cars, alone with our children, alone at our jobs, driving in the car. It's there that we need to pray, God, keep me in remembrance of these things. He rewards those who diligently seek him. God is saying to us, we must place value during the times of our life when we're being tested. During the times of our life when we're spinning on the potter's wheel and we're getting sick and we feel like everything's out of control. We must at that time place value on knowing God. Because it is at that time we are most valuable to let that revelation slip from us. Isn't it true? Oh, of course it's true. It's at that time that we're most vulnerable to begin to allow the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and the lies of the enemy to begin to move us in a direction, maybe not physically, but in our minds, in our fantasies, in our hearts, in a direction that God is not leading us in. Diligent. What's the opposite of diligent? Remember the three words we learned about last week? Who's got notes? The three words. What are some of the meanings of the opposite of diligent? Number one, to neglect. Is that one we used? Okay, so listen. Listen, brothers and sisters. Make the connection. Make the connection. If we put diligence versus the opposite, we'll learn what the opposite is. In the context of what we're talking about, what is the state of our soul and spirit and mind during the time when we are in the heat of the battle? Not here. Not during a glory episode. They're all fine. They're all good. But believe me, they dissipate as you go on with the Lord. Paul didn't have many glory episodes, being beaten, being shipwrecked, being out in the sea a night and a day, being forsaken by his brothers and sisters, being lied about. He didn't have many glory episodes, but he had a governing vision and passion and he remained diligent to the end and he could say, I have fought the good fight of faith. I have run the race that is set before me. Why? Why could he do that? Because Paul recognized that in the midst of the process of being transformed into the image of Christ, he had to keep fighting the good fight of faith. He had to fight, not as one that was beating in the air, but one with purpose. One that was governed with the goal that God had set before him. And so, being diligent versus being lazy. Right in the midst of what you're going through. Are you being diligent or are you being lazy? Are you neglecting? What's another word we used? Overlook. To neglect or overlook. How easy it is for us during life to neglect and overlook and to esteem lightly. Esteem lightly. That's the opposite. We must believe that God is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Brothers and sisters, when the Scripture says faith is necessary to please God and we must believe that he is, we learned that that doesn't mean we can't come to God and believe he is the way we think he is. We have to know that God is who he is. Not who we want him to be. Not who we think him to be. But who he actually is. And that's the greatest need during a trial and tribulation. We must search the Scriptures and say, God, show me who you really are because an unveiling of who you really are is what I really need right now. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is. It's a play with the Greek language there. Here's what the writer was saying. He that comes to God must believe I am that I am that I am. That's what he was saying. He that comes to God must come and understand who God truly is and not who we think he is or who we want him to be. And it is faith in that that is rewarded. And what's the reward? An ever increasing knowing of the God who really is. Now, this leads us to our next transition. And what we're going to begin to do today and continue as God leads is we're going to begin to look at how God has, through the Scriptures, revealed his Father heart to us. And it is an ever growing knowledge of God in all the many aspects that he has revealed himself to us as that is the answer to what we're going through today. Don't look anywhere else. Okay? Matthew chapter 6, 9 through 15. That's just Jesus is teaching us how to pray. When you pray, pray, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Our Father. And so Jesus is introducing us to God as our Father. That's Matthew chapter 6, 9 through 15. And not only is he introducing us to God as our Father, but he's making an incredible statement. Holy is your name. That is, the name of God is everything that God has revealed himself to be. As the answer to everything that his people will ever go through. Holy is that name. And that is the name that we are going to become more and more acquainted with. And we will find, as we look into the Word of God and find all the different aspects of God's name that has been revealed to us, that that becomes an unceasing, unlimited, never-ending supply for everything that we're going through. And it's as we come to know that, that we are armed against the enemy who will offer us something other than God's name as the answer to what we're going through. Let's begin in Genesis 1. Genesis 1. It begins with Elohim. Elohim. Elohim is the name of God in the first sentence of the Bible. Genesis 1. It occurs more than 2,600 times. Brothers and sisters, as we're going through something, the Holy Spirit wants to take the knowledge of who God is as our Heavenly Father Elohim. And as we come to know our Heavenly Father as Elohim, He is able to bring us through what we're going through. Elohim is a word that God uses to describe Himself as the Father in Heaven who is the Creator of all things. He's the Creator of all things. He's eternal in His existence. Our Father speaks of Himself as Elohim to identify that He possesses the fullness of power over all things. He possesses the fullness of power over all things. And lastly, this word is associated with God as our Father as the reigning King over all things. Already we can begin to see this unveiling of our Father in Heaven as Elohim. And already we can begin to see how that can begin to touch the practical life that we're going through and begin to give us faith and encouragement during whatever we're going through. Today we need an unveiling of God, our Father as Elohim. We need an unveiling of God as the Creator. The One who spoke everything into existence. The One who is from eternity to eternity. The One who has no beginning or no end. We need to see Elohim as the reigning King that will minister to our soul. And cast out the lie that the enemy is putting in our heart and in our mind as the false answer to what we're going through today. Oh, I want to see by God's grace every lie, every lie defeated by the power of God's Word today so that every soul here, including my own, is looking nowhere but to God Himself as the answer to what we need. From Him comes all that we have need of. Elohim. And lastly, this word Elohim gives an allusion to the Trinity. It identifies God as the Triune God. And as we understand and see in the Scriptures, Father, Son and Spirit, we get this most amazing, awesome unveiling of the unity of the One True God and the basis, the basis of God's plan for unity and harmony within the Church. All that the Triune God enjoys, Father, Son and Spirit, the harmony, the submission, the selflessness, the preferring one another in love. The Father gives all His glory to the Son. The Son gives it back to the Father. The Holy Spirit is sent. But He doesn't speak of His own self. He only speaks of the glory of the Son. Incredible, unspeakable divine harmony within the Godhead. And when God said, I want to create a family, guess what God had in view? A family that would function exactly the same way. A family that would reveal and represent what God is like in the earth. He truly is the awesome Elohim. So you're having problems in your relationships. You're having problems with selfishness. You are having problems with contention in your marriage and with your children. The source is this. You have too much importance for your own desires and your own needs. You haven't seen Elohim as the God who is love, the God who prefers, the God who comes to a problem and says the answer is to pour out my life. Are we seeing this? Are we seeing this? I don't care how practical your need is. How earthly it is. The answer is not what the media is telling us. It's not what the magazines tell you. Girls, watch the magazines you read. Watch the images that come before your eyes. Watch the programs you look on TV. Watch it. Watch it. They're misrepresenting God's heart. They're telling us that the answer to our deepest need is a physical change or to look like someone that's alive from that pit of hell. It is not true. It is not true. It's bringing an entire generation of young people into the captivity of lies that can never be met. 99% of those ridiculous images on magazines are not even real. They're fixed by computers. If you ever saw the person in real life, you wouldn't even recognize them. They don't shine like that. They don't have that eternal smile on their face. They're getting divorces and committing suicide and they're in drug rehab centers. They're miserable, depressed. They're cutting their hair and running around half naked. That's what they're really doing. That's what they're really doing, young people. Don't let the world define who you are and what you are to be. But let the revelation of God define it. Because God is the one who created us with his own purpose and view. Number two. Elohim. Number two. El Ruai. The first place that this is mentioned. By the way, the word Elohim is used, oh, I already told you, thousands of times, several thousand times. El Ruai. Genesis 16, 13 and 14. Genesis 16, 13 and 14. Listen carefully, brothers and sisters. God is here to destroy the lies of the devil. I sense there are lies that the devil has put into our hearts and minds, especially over this issue. And I believe they're going to be dispelled right now. I believe by the word of God, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. El Ruai. I don't know if I'm pronouncing these correctly. I'm not a Hebrew student. I'm not a Greek student. I simply am able to extract this from the scriptures and by the study helps that I have a number of books and that's where this is coming from. So forgive me if I'm not pronouncing things correctly. But it's the spirit of this that I want to get out. El Ruai. The first mention of this name of God is Genesis 16, 13 and 14. And it was when Hagar was driven away from Sarah because Sarah became angry that she was pregnant. And the name of this word that God uses to describe Himself is this. It is God saying, I have the ability to see every act, word and deed that you have ever committed and that has ever been committed against you. I have the ability to see. The simplified version is simply God sees. But it's more than that. It's more than just God sees. God is saying, I know exactly every thought, word and deed that you have ever committed against another person, good or bad, and I know every thought, word and deed that has ever been committed against you. And I, God, will evaluate and judge everything that has been done and will surely evaluate and judge rightly. This word is only used a couple times in the Old Testament and another place where it is used and this is an amazing unveiling in 2 Samuel 16, 7. This is where the sons of David or the sons of Jesse stood before the prophet Samuel and he wanted to keep anointing one of them as king because he was looking at the, what? Outward appearance. And God says in 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, Man looks on the outward, but God sees the heart. This is God saying that I do not make my judgments based on what the natural eye sees, based on what the natural ear hears, based on what the natural mind assesses and evaluates, based on the standards and criteria of the world. I do not judge that way, but I am God and I see, I evaluate, I judge, I determine based on what is in the heart of a man. Hallelujah to God. God sees. Cast out that bitterness. God sees. Cast out that unforgiveness. God sees. Cast out that despair. God sees. God knows. Cast out that temptation to do something stupid that you'll regret the rest of your life. God knows. God knows. Cast out that desire to seek vengeance. God knows. God sees. That's what he was saying to Hagar. I know you were treated harshly. I know this is a hard thing, Hagar. I know Sarah kicked you out and here you are in the desert. But I see. I see. I've come to let you know. I see. It is our failure to see God as El Rolai. That the enemy comes and offers us his pathetic and pitiful solutions to the pains and problems and difficulties that we're going through as a result of what circumstances or people have done to us. We forget that God sees and God knows and we begin to embrace what he says we need to medicate us, to help us through. And this is the root of where we are moved in jealousy, wrath, vengeance, anger, plotting plans to hurt people. Come on. Let's get real. Someone hurts you and you think of a way to hurt them back. You have forgotten. God sees. God knows. You punish them. What did Jesus do to those who hurt him? Did he punish them? No. Because Jesus was the embodiment of every one of these names. And Jesus blessed those who cursed him. He did good to those who despitefully used him. He prayed for those who persecuted him. And ultimately, he poured out his life for those who were his enemies. Jesus said, you see, God, what they have done and I commit the outcome in your hands. But what I will do is show them what you're like. El roi. God's ability to see every act, word and deed we have ever committed against others and that has been committed against us. The God who says, I see the heart and I judge based on what's in the heart. One more we're going to look at. Believe it or not, brothers and sisters, there are 26. 26 unveilings of God. Each one. An aspect of who he is as God, our Heavenly Father. And it is our failure to lay hold of, in diligence, who God is that becomes the ground by which the enemy comes and seduces us. Next, El Shaddai. We've all heard the song El Shaddai. This is a most amazing unveiling of God as our Heavenly Father. And this aspect of who he is is imperative in the day and time that we live in. Genesis 17, verses 1 and 2. This is what God called himself when he was affirming to Abraham the promise and covenant that he made with him. El Shaddai. This is our Heavenly Father as the Almighty God who is able to perform all his covenant promises to us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Almighty God who is able to perform all his covenant promises. This occurs 48 times in the Old Testament. And each occurrence is always referring to his ability to perform his promises. His ability to perform what he has promised. And now, brothers and sisters, again, every one of these aspects of God's name, while they have application to time and our struggles in daily life, we must not limit them to a God that we can call on in order to deal with the now. Although we can, God is supremely interested in our struggles. But more than that, all of these names relate to God revealing himself as the one who ultimately is able to take the purpose and plan in his heart from all eternity and in time, through the process of chastening, bring us into conformity to the image of his Son. This is all God's promises to bring us into the image of his Son. This is God's promise to perform all of that which he has committed to do in his Son, Jesus Christ. Now, we know that Abraham got this revelation, but that many times Abraham failed to believe. And he struggled. And when God's promise wasn't fulfilled to Abraham, he went to Hagar, didn't he? And he had Ishmael through Hagar. And then often times too, when there was a famine in the land, what did Abraham do? When there was a famine in the land of Canaan, he went south. He went south. He went to Florida. But each time he went south, what happened? He ended up going back up to where God called him. And he built an altar. And so, brothers and sisters, today, when God sent His Son, in His Son, God revealed Himself as the El Shaddai. The One who is able to fulfill all His promises to man. And He did it in His Son. And the fact that His Son ever lives at the right hand of the throne of God to make intercession for us, and that He's able to save to the uttermost, to the very thoroughness of His salvation, He's able to save us completely, is living proof that El Shaddai still lives today. And He's able to perform all His promises. El Roi, Christ sees all things. Every one of these things have a personal application to the ministry of Jesus Christ. And we can see in some aspect of the ministry of Christ, every one of these names being fulfilled. I see. Didn't Jesus say to one of the churches in the book of Revelation, I am the Lord and I search the hearts? And I know what's going on and I'll reward everyone according to His deeds. Every one of them. Elohim. He prayed to His Father. He had conversations with His Father, the triune God. And now El Shaddai, the one who has promised. What we want to do now for a few moments is bow our hearts and we can pray out. We'll have a time of prayer. But I want to go back for 30 seconds to the initial comments that I made. Because I think now we have a clearer understanding of those comments. What are you going through? What is before your eyes and your heart? Who or what are you looking to to deal with what you're going through? What have you possibly embraced? What is controlling your life right now that you know today God has shown you it needs to break? It needs to break. God wants to renew a diligence in our hearts. Heal us from a lack of attention, neglect, and esteeming lightly, knowing God. And rekindle in our hearts a passion to know Him in the midst of what we're going through right now. And deliver us from anything we're embracing that is the devil's lie. Every fantasy, every dream, every vice, every direction that is not leading us to God. He wants to break it now in the name of Jesus. And renew our faith in the God who is so we can seek to know Him. So, let's just open up a time of prayer now. And let's pray and ask God to make this real.