What Do You See? How God's Grace Changes Everything
Sermon Recap: June 21, 2026
The way you see people reveals more about your heart than you might expect. Genesis 6 confronts us with two very different kinds of vision: a predatory gaze that asks "what can I get from you?" and a gracious gaze that asks "how can I give life to you?" God's grace is the only thing powerful enough to move us from one to the other.
How Selfish Ambition Quietly Takes Over the Way We See People
It starts subtly. You walk into a room and your eyes start scanning before you even realize it. Our Lead Pastor Sean Busse described it this way: we can take a church lobby and turn it into a LinkedIn with coffee, sizing people up for what they can do for us rather than seeing them for who they are. That is not a personality quirk. That is a heart issue.
Genesis 6 opens with a pattern that should feel familiar. Verse 2 says the sons of God "saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose." The Hebrew word translated "attractive" is the same word used in Genesis 3:6, where Eve "saw that the tree was good." The author, Moses, is connecting these moments on purpose, like a hyperlink back through the story. See. Call it good. Take it. That is the anatomy of rebellion.
Selfish ambition does not always look obviously evil. Sean named several versions of it we tend to dress up in acceptable language: we call greed ambition, we call control responsibility, we call revenge justice, and we call relationships outside of God's design love. The danger is not wanting things that look clearly wrong. The danger is calling something good that God says is not, simply because we want it badly enough.
Sin often begins when desire becomes authority. The moment you look at something you want and declare it good for yourself outside of God's word, that desire has become your master. The sons of God were not asking what God called good. They were asking what looked good to them and how they could have it.
If any of this is landing close to home right now, that is not an accident. This week, try naming one relationship or area of your life where desire has quietly been doing the deciding. You do not have to figure this out alone; connect here to find a community group at ACF where you can process these questions with others.
What Does It Mean to Live for Your Own Name Instead of God's Kingdom?
Genesis 6:4 introduces the Nephilim and the "men of renown," which can also be translated "men of the name" — people who built their identity around making a name for themselves. The ancient world celebrated figures like these as legendary heroes. Moses places them inside a story of corrupted power moving toward judgment, and the warning is not subtle.
Our culture has not changed much. Social media tempts us to measure our worth by attention and engagement. Influencers are celebrated for being known, not for being faithful. Sean was honest about his own struggle here: he resists building a platform not because he thinks nothing good can come from it, but because he knows his own heart well enough to know it would make him the mighty man fast. That kind of self-awareness is rare and worth sitting with.
The issue is not whether we lead, build, or have influence. The issue is whether we are serving people or using them, building God's kingdom or our own. Having a platform is not the same as having the heart of Jesus. Church leaders have fallen in high-profile ways not because they lacked influence but because they lacked integrity.
Selfish ambition and gracious gaze cannot coexist for long. One uses power to take. The other uses power to give. Humanity multiplied in Genesis 6, but it multiplied the serpent's way, not God's way. Numeric growth is not the same as faithful image bearing. We can multiply influence, institutions, and followers without actually multiplying the character of God.
This week, ask yourself honestly: am I building something for God's name or for my own? Then take one step toward accountability by sharing that question with someone you trust. If you are curious about what ACF believes about who we are and why we exist, explore it here at our Who We Are page.
How God's Gracious Gaze Is the Only Thing That Can Change How You See People
Genesis 6:5 turns the angle completely. "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Humanity saw what it wanted. God saw what humanity had become. And it broke his heart.
Verses 6 and 7 describe God's grief and his coming judgment, and many people read this and wonder whether God changed his mind or made a mistake. Sean addressed this directly: God does not change because he regrets. He regrets because he does not change. Because he always loves life, violence grieves him. Because he loves his image bearers, exploitation and neglect move him to act with justice. His grief is not instability. It is faithfulness.
And then comes verse 8, and everything turns on one word. "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." The Hebrew word for favor is chen, meaning grace or gracious acceptance. The sons of God saw and took. The Lord saw and preserved. Grace is the source. Faithful walking is the evidence of that grace, not the other way around.
This is the heart of the whole message. God's grace does not ignore sin. It sees it truthfully, grieves deeply, judges justly, and then acts to preserve life. Those who have received that grace begin to share the mind of Christ. The question stops being "what can I get from you?" and starts being "how can I cultivate life in you?"
Sean closed with a challenge worth taking seriously: think of one person you have been viewing through a lens of usefulness, frustration, avoidance, or attraction. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see that person as an image bearer. Then take one life-giving step toward them this week, whether that is listening, encouraging, serving, forgiving, or simply showing up.
What Genesis 6 Teaches Us About Two Ways of Seeing
Genesis 6:1-8 lays out a contrast that runs through the entire passage and through every human heart. Here are three movements the text walks us through:
1. The Predatory Gaze: See, Call Good, Take
Pattern: The sons of God saw, judged it good for themselves, and took without submitting to God's word or boundaries.
Application: This same pattern shows up in how we scroll social media, how we approach relationships, how we handle ambition, and how we treat people who can help us get what we want.
2. God's Grief: He Sees Beneath the Surface
What God saw: Not just outward behavior, but every intention of the thoughts of the human heart bent continually toward evil.
What this means: Humanity had not lost God-given value, but it had lost God's way. We do not just need better behavior. We need new hearts, which is something we cannot create in ourselves.
3. The Gracious Gaze: Noah Found Favor
The contrast: Where the sons of God took, God preserved. Where the mighty men made a name for themselves, Noah walked with God.
The takeaway: Grace is the source. Faithful living is the evidence. God's gracious gaze gives life, and those who have received it are changed in the way they see and treat other people.
A Word for Anyone Asking These Questions
There is something quietly exhausting about living in a world that constantly tells you to rise higher, gain more visibility, and make a name for yourself. That pressure is real whether you are navigating a career in the Alliance area, raising kids in neighborhoods like Tehama Ridge or Woodland Springs, or just trying to figure out what a life of meaning actually looks like. If you have been carrying that weight and wondering whether there is a different way to live, you are not alone in asking. ACF is a church family in Fort Worth that is trying to answer that question together, not as people who have it figured out, but as people who are learning to walk in the gracious gaze of Jesus. If you are somewhere in the Reata Ranch or Sendera area, or anywhere across North Texas, you are welcome to come find out what that looks like in person.
The Gaze That Changes Everything
The predatory gaze takes for itself. The gracious gaze gives life. Genesis 6 shows us that rebellious sons grasped, but the true Son gave. Jesus saw crowds and had compassion. He touched the untouchable, stopped for the overlooked, and looked at people who had failed him with eyes full of what they could become in light of his grace. That is the gaze he offers to you, and it is the gaze he invites you to carry toward everyone around you.
If you want to take a next step and experience this church family in person, we would love to see you on a Sunday morning. Plan your visit here to find service times and everything you need to know before you come. If you are walking through something heavy and need someone to talk to, take the next step here and submit a prayer request to our care team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How does God's grace change the way I see people?
A: God's grace does not just offer forgiveness; it reshapes the way you see the world around you. When you experience grace personally, it becomes harder to reduce other people to what they can do for you. Sean Busse described it this way: someone who has explained God's grace and someone who has experienced God's grace are drastically different, and the evidence shows up in how they treat people.
Q: How do I stop using people for my own gain?
A: The first step is honest recognition. Most of us do not set out to use people; we just follow desire without questioning it. Naming the pattern is where change begins. From there, the sermon points to one practical step: think of one person you have been viewing through a lens of usefulness, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you take one life-giving step toward them this week, whether that is listening, encouraging, or forgiving.
Q: Why did God regret creating humanity in Genesis?
A: God's regret in Genesis 6 is not a sign that he made an uninformed mistake or that his plans fell apart. The Hebrew word for regret is closely connected to grief, and the text explains it plainly: it grieved him to his heart. Because God's character never changes and he always loves life, the violence and corruption of humanity broke his heart. His regret is an expression of his faithfulness, not a flaw in his nature.
Q: Who were the sons of God in Genesis 6, and does it matter for my life today?
A: Christians have debated the identity of the sons of God for centuries, and Sean Busse acknowledged there are several credible positions. What matters most is the pattern Moses is highlighting: these were beings who used power without restraint, took what they desired without submitting to God's boundaries, and treated others as objects for their own gain. Whether or not you land on a specific interpretation, the warning is clear and personal: that same pattern lives in every human heart.
Q: What does it mean to be an image bearer, and why does it matter how I treat people?
A: Every person, regardless of their choices, status, or whether you agree with them, carries what the Bible calls the image of God. C.S. Lewis wrote that you have never talked to a mere mortal. That means exploitation, contempt, and using people for your own gain are not just social problems; they are grievous to God because they dishonor what he placed in every human being. Recognizing image bearers changes the stakes of every conversation and relationship you have.