Heavenly Father, thank You for seeing me completely—my heart, my struggles, and my worth—yet loving me unconditionally. Help me to rest in the truth that I am fully known and deeply cherished by You. Open my eyes to see others the way You do, beyond appearances and assumptions, so I can love them with Your grace. Teach me to trust in what only You can do, shaping my heart to reflect Yours. Amen.
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the weekday podcast with Pastors Chuck Allen and Bobby McGraw. Today's episode is part of a 25 part series entitled what Only God Can Do. Settle in and grab a cup of encouragement with the weekday podcast and be sure to stop by our resource tab at easterinsugarhill.com for more resources, helpful journal prompts and other tools. Now, here's today's weekday podcast.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Hi friends, Pastor Chuck Allen here and thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast. We're today diving into what only God can do and we're in our second week. Last week we had five episodes that Bobby and I recorded and it's really been interesting to get a lot of feedback from y'all. We want to explore the extraordinary ways that God works in our ordinary lives. I'm really glad you've joined us today. You know, I was thinking about vision recently. It was only a few months ago that I had cataract surgery and then they slid this lens in to my retina where I no longer need to wear glasses for the first time in like 40 years. Well, in the midst of that, you know, what happened is the doctor kept flipping between the lenses on that big thing that they put in front of your face where you try to read the different letters. And he would say, is it better with one or two? And then I would say, do it again. And honestly, they looked exactly the same to me. But it got me thinking about how limited our vision really is. We humans are master assumers, aren't we? We see a brief email and decide somebody's angry. We notice a stranger not smiling. We think they're unfriendly. We read a text and we assume something between the lines. We create entire narratives about people's intentions based on the tiniest fragments of information. The brilliant Maya Angelou once said, the greatest mistake in human judgment is believing you understand others motivations when in trut you're only seeing your own reflection in their actions. Ouch. Let that one sink in for a minute. The space between what someone does and what they do, that's fertile ground for misunderstanding. And that's where today's conversation begins. In 1st Samuel 16, there's this remarkable moment when God is choosing the next king of Israel. Samuel, God's prophet, goes to Jesse's home to find this future king among Jesse's sons. And what happens? Well, let me read to you verses six and seven. When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, surely this is the Lord's anointed. I mean Just my little paragraph would say, well, he looked like a leader, he talked like a leader, he walked like a leader. He was big, he was strong. But the Lord said to Samuel, back to the Scripture, don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. I find so much comfort in this passage, because even Samuel, God's prophet, was ready to make the same mistake we all make. He saw Eliab's impressive stature, and here's what he thought. This has to be the guy. But God gently corrects him. Don't judge by appearance. Look at the heart. You know, in my reading and study on vulnerability and connection, I've discovered something super powerful. Being truly seen is one of our deepest human needs. Not just acknowledged or recognized, but truly seen with all our complexity, our contradictions, our beauty and our brokenness. The problem is, we're often terrified of being fully seen. We worry that if people really knew us, I mean, really knew what goes on in our heads and hearts, they'd run the other way. And maybe some would. But God, well, God already knows. And he's still here, still loving, still calling you his own kid. In Psalm 139, David writes, Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down, when I stand up, you know my thoughts, even when I'm far away, just think about that. I mean, anybody who may know you really well, they don't have a clue compared to what God knows. As a matter of fact, the Bible says we don't even know our own heart. But here's the miracle. God knows it all, and his love doesn't diminish with knowledge. Unlike human love, which can really be conditional and it can be super fragile. God's love deepens with knowing. You ever felt unlocked? Nobody saw you. Somebody looked past you. You were unloved, overlooked. I remember a time early in ministry when I was passed over for a leadership position I really thought I was qualified for. I mean, it stung. I felt invisible. I felt undervalued. Maybe you've been there. Passed over for the promotion, not chosen for the team, left off the invitation list. It's worth remembering that even David's dad overlooked him that day. When Samuel had seen all seven of Jesse's sons present, he said, are these all? And Jesse said, well, they're still the youngest, but he's out there tending sheep. The future King of Israel, the man after God's own heart. He wasn't even invited to the lineup. Here's what I find so beautiful in this story. While people were looking at appearances, God was looking at their heart. While others saw the obvious candidates, God saw potential where no one else was even looking. It's not just a nice Bible story. All it's profound truth about how God operates in our world today. CS Lewis once said, it's a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses. To remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to might one day be a creature with if you saw it now, you'd be strongly tempted to worship. Wow. You know, when we think about being truly sane, there's another story that comes to mind in Luke 5 where Jesus encounters a paralyzed man. The man's friends are so determined to get him to Jesus, they lower him through a roof of a house where Jesus is teaching. And the text says, seeing their faith, Jesus said to them, young man, your sins are forgiven. How fascinating. Jesus saw beyond the obvious physical issue and when the religious leaders silently questioned him as his authority to forgive sins. Verse 22 says Jesus knew what they were thinking and he demonstrates the same heart vision that God described to Samuel hundreds of years earlier. Friends, here's what I want you to take away from our conversation today. Even though God sees everything in our hearts, every thought, every motive, every secret, every sin, every struggle, he still loves you. He adores you. This might be the most stunning truth of Christianity. The paralyzed dude came to Jesus physically broken, spiritually broken, carried by others because he couldn't walk on his own. And what did Jesus do? He didn't just heal his body, he restored his soul. He didn't just give him the ability to walk, he gave him the gift of belonging. That's what God wants to do with the hearts he sees so clearly. So today I I want to leave you with this challenge. Can you rest in being fully known and fully loved? Can you find freedom in the truth that you don't have to pretend with God? And second, can you begin to see others as God sees them, looking past appearances to the hearts that matter? Because the truth is, every person you meet today is carrying a heart that God sees clearly and values deeply. In a world of surface judgments and shallow evaluations, Remember that you are fully seen and deeply loved by the God who made you. And that, my friend, changes everything. I'm Chuck Allen and thanks for joining us on what Only God can do on the weekday podcast. God bless you. Bye now.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Thanks again for joining us for today's weekday podcast. Chuck and Bobby want to encourage you to dive a bit deeper into what only God can do by visiting our resource page@easternsegurhill.com have a great day.
