Because God is El Roy, the God who sees, we can be still and trust Him even when life makes no sense.
No matter how alone or forgotten you feel, God sees you and hears your cries even when you're not calling out to Him. Through Hagar's story in Genesis 16, we learn that when circumstances don't change, God still has a plan—and He invites us to stop hiding and let Him see us fully.
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Point 1 of 6
Names of God reveal His character, and El Roy means the God who sees
Pastor Daniel opens the series by explaining that names in this culture carried deep meaning, showing the very nature of who God is. El Roy, the name given in this story, means the God who sees, which becomes the anchor for the whole message.
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Point 2 of 6
Sarai and Abram forgot God's promise and tried to help Him out, leading to sin
After ten years of waiting for the child God promised, Sarai devises a culturally accepted plan to have Abram sleep with her servant Hagar to produce an heir, and Abram agrees. Pastor Daniel draws the parallel to Eve convincing Adam in Eden, showing how forgetting who God is leads people to take matters into their own hands instead of staying still and trusting Him.
“Because God sees, because God is El Roy, I can be”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
“what was supposed to be a blessing will become a massive burden”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
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Point 3 of 6
Hagar, treated as worthless property, is the one God pursues in the wilderness
After Sarai treats her harshly, Hagar runs toward Egypt, and the angel of the Lord—identified as a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus—finds her at a well. Pastor Daniel notes this is the first theophany since Eden, and it comes to a slave girl with no perceived value, paralleling Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.
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Point 4 of 6
God asks Hagar where she's going because running to what's comfortable isn't the answer
God's question isn't for His own information but to get Hagar—and us—to admit where we are and where we're headed. Pastor Daniel points out she was running back to Egypt, her comfortable place, and applies this to how we all have an 'Egypt' we reach for when life gets hard.
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Point 5 of 6
God tells Hagar to go back and submit, giving her enough revelation to take the next step, not the whole plan
Rather than rescuing her from the hard situation, God gives Hagar a promise of descendants and a son named Ishmael, meaning God hears. Pastor Daniel shares his own story of staying in a toxic church job because God gave him revelation rather than rescue, comparing scripture to a lamp that lights the next step rather than a floodlight into the whole future.
“friends, is the thing that rises up when we still sit in the tension and the uncertainty of the mystery”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
A story from life
Daniel's years on staff at a church in San Diego with a toxic culture, repeated closed doors, and learning to pray for revelation rather than rescue
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Point 6 of 6
Hagar names God El Roy, the only name in the series given to God by a human and received by Him
After the encounter, Hagar responds by declaring, You are the God who sees me, and asks herself whether she has truly seen the One who sees her. Pastor Daniel highlights that every other name of God is self-revealed, but this one was given by an overlooked slave girl who realized she was never alone.
“you are the God who sees me, El Roy”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
“have I truly seen the one who sees me”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
Illustration
A photograph of the preacher's daughter covering her eyes during hide-and-seek, illustrating how many people hide their face from God even though He already sees them
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Take it into your week
Pastor Daniel's charge is to stop covering your face like a child playing hide-and-seek and let the God who sees you actually see you.
Application
Stop running to your Egypt
When life gets hard, notice the comfortable place, person, or vice you instinctively reach for, and recognize that going back to it won't be what you think it will be.
Be still and trust God's unseen plan
In seasons that don't make sense, resist the urge to help God out or take matters into your own hands; trust that He is working even when circumstances don't change.
Ask God for revelation, not just rescue
When God doesn't change your situation, pray for Him to show you what He's teaching you in it rather than only praying to be taken out of it.
Uncover your face before God
Like Hagar, stop hiding your mistakes and mess; bring them into the open before God this week and let Him begin a new work in you.
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI