Jesus Sees Me: Overcoming Doubt and Healing Hurts

You can run but you can’t hide. Just kidding. In a way this is true, no matter where you go, no matter what you do, Jesus sees you. No matter where I go, Jesus sees me. Jesus sees me. Say that with me, “Jesus sees me.”

Let’s read our main text. John 1:43-51

In verse 47-48 As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.” ““How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

Something that I learned in preparing for this message is that the phrase “under the fig tree” was used as a metaphor to studying the scriptures.

Maybe Jesus knew that Nathanael was studying scriptures and maybe as God, Jesus actually saw him under the fig tree. Either way it is quite remarkable. And it meant a lot to Nathaneal. Jesus saw Nathaneal and He sees us too. He knows all about us. First of all.

1. He sees all your doubts and fears.

Matthew 28:16-17

I was looking for some unbelievable things and here are some of the things that I found.

• Ever use vick’s vapor rub? If you have a persistent cough instead of putting it on your chest before bed, put it on the bottom of your feet and wear socks to bed. It has been shown to really help with a cough.

• Rubbing buttermilk on age spots will help to make them lighter.

• Vitamin C doesn’t just help with the common cold, it has been shown to help with allergies too.

• Most of us have heard about aloe vera for a sun burn, but you can take a raw potato, blend it into a thick paste and add lemon juice and it will work also.

It is not, so much, that I doubt these work, but who was the first to try it? If it was up to me, I don’t know that I would have been the first to try them. Oh, that will never work.

Nathanael doubted who Jesus was, the disciples doubted, Jesus knew their doubts helped them work through their doubts and fears to use them for great things. Gideon doubted so much that he needed a sign from God. Not just one sign, but 2. Do you remember the story? God if you really mean what you say, then let me put a blanket down and make the blanket wet with dew and the ground dry. God did it. Ok God, one more, this time make the ground wet and the blanket dry.

God sees you. Jesus sees you. He knows that you have doubts and fears. He knows that Satan will use things, put storms in our lives, plant seeds of doubt, but Jesus will help to strengthen you both physically and mentally to get you through those struggles.

Here’s another one.

2. He sees your annoying flaws and bad attitudes.

Luke 9:54-55

How many of you would be honest enough to admit that you have some really annoying traits? How many of you would admit that you have a bad attitude from time to time? Everyone but the liars. How many of you like to point out other people’s faults and attitudes? How many of you would like to call down fire from heaven for their faults or bad attitudes?

If you lack in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control, it is a fault. When you think about it, if you lack forgiveness for others, if you lack mercy and grace for others… I hate to tell you, that is a flaw and it shows that you have a bad attitude. Jesus talked about removing the plank out of our own eye before trying to remove the speck from someone else’s eye. Matthew 7:4-5

We all have flaws and many of us have bad attitudes from time to time. It doesn’t matter if you act out in public or at home or even by yourself, because God sees it all. We can not measure our righteousness to anyone else’s. We can only measure our righteousness to that of Jesus Christ. The bible tells us that we all fall short. Romans 12:3 Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Sometimes our bad attitudes show up as disobedience and unwillingness to go the extra mile. Jesus said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Can you truly love God with all your strength and not be an active part of the body of Christ? Can you serve God without doing something because you don’t want to or because it isn’t your job?

Can you truly love someone and be bitter toward them, be unforgiving, gossip, or talk bad about them. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Come on, it is just us. Sometimes we say things out of anger, that we shouldn’t say. Sometimes we say things just to hurt other people because they don’t do what we think they should do. Jesus sees you in your annoying flaws and bad attitudes. How about another one….

3. He sees your past pain and failures.

Sometimes we can’t forgive ourselves. We think that we can never be accepted by Jesus because of what we have done or what we have said, or what we have been through.

John 4:17-18

One of the best stories of Jesus loving someone despite of what they had done. Here is this Samaritan woman, (Jews hated Samaritans and Jesus was a Jew), she was probably an outcast by her own people and Jesus not only spoke to her at the well, but she was also the first one that He actually told that He was the Messiah. The Son of God that was sent to give people eternal life.

Some of us have been through a lot. Some of the stuff that we have been through was our own fault and we made some pretty bad decisions to get us into a predicament. Sometimes it is not our fault and we went through a lot of pain and suffering and there was nothing we could do about it.

Satan loves to make us feel so unworthy that we just give up. Sometimes we think we can hide our past, bury it deep in our brains and we hope that no one ever finds out about it. You can hide your past from many people. But you can’t hide it from God. Jesus sees your past pain and failures and loves you anyway and wants to bring you to a point of forgiveness.

Speaking of forgiveness, let me give you one more.

4. He also sees your potential!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Back to the woman at the well, she had a lot of baggage. She was damaged goods, but Jesus saw her potential. John 4:39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Paul is another one of those that had a shady past. Persecuting Christians, putting them in jail, participating in their stoning, but Jesus saw his potential and used Paul in spite of his past. Moses was a murder, David was an adulterer and a murderer, Jonah was disobedient, Peter was a denier and the list goes on and on. Jesus saw the potential in these people and He sees the potential in you. You just have to let Him use you.

Jesus Sees Me