God and You
This seems so random! I don’t remember being born, I wasn’t as good as I thought I was in little league and now I can’t even make a church softball team… I go to work, I love my spouse, I have kids or I want kids, I’ve had good and bad relationships, I’ve been hurt, I have flourished, I have grown and I have taken steps back… what is the point?! What is my purpose here? Is thinking about purpose just a silly exercise we do or is there an actual purpose that I have on this frustrating floating green and blue ball?
Well that question is answered in Psalm 139. Psalm 139 shares about God and about you. It speaks to the deep questions of life and it speaks to who God is. This passage speaks specifically to God and you. So why is it important to know who God is? If we don’t allow scripture to be the main factor in who God is, then we fill in the blanks with a whole bunch of nonsense. Our culture today has decided to cultivate a god of its own. A god that doesn’t hurt my feelings, a god that I am comfortable with, a god that fits into my rational 3 pound brain’s box.
Well, the problem is, that is no longer the God of the Bible. There are no checks and balances on a god that we create of our own design. And frankly, when we create a god, when the going gets tough, it’s pretty hard to believe and be rooted in a god we conjured up with our own imagination.
Psalm 139 invites us to see who our God really is. His immense power and presence, his incredible qualities and superiority. This text gives us thoughts about God that should challenge our insecurities and our fears. Reason being, if that is our God and this is truth, we have nothing to truly worry about. You have to know who God is, so that you can follow and rely upon his goodness and his power. With that, we can face anything as we rely upon him.
God Knows You
O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:1-6
This is mind bending, to say the least. It is actually kind of scary in a way. To be honest, when I read this I think of the Truman show. I might be too young to know that movie, but it’s a great one. Anyway, I mean wow to these verses right?
A few things amaze me about this. One, God knows all the mundane and plain things that I do. God cares about your cares, big and small. His love and affection for you, his attention to you, is that detailed. It is that intense because his affections are also.
Second, he is intimately aware of our thought process. Fear, anxiety, motivation, anger, dreams… he is keenly aware of all of it. Why is that important? Because he loves you in spite of those facts. Think with me, just one moment… nobody, and I mean nobody knows you or talks to you like you do. And if you’re like me, you shudder to think what someone would think of you if they did. Guess what? God does. And guess what? He loves you anyway.
No deep secret sin, no painful motivation you’ve never shared, no dark, sick, twisted soul sick sin can chase off God’s affection for you. Why?! Because he knows all of that about you and loves you anyway.
Third, even these words aren’t big enough to describe your God. Verse 6 invites you to a God too big for your puny brain. It tells you of a love and fulfillment more possible than reality and life itself. It tells you that the well is never empty, the cave is never fully explored, your God is a wonder.
God Pursues You
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. Psalm 139:7-12
So what does David say he wants to do here? Run and flee. Why? Same reason we do, because we are broken and sinful people, and if God knows all this stuff, he knows what a hypocrite and broken sinful wretch that we are. David understands that if God knows all these little things, he knows all the ugly things too, I have to run!
But nope, not so fast, that’s not the gospel. I talk to people about church, like constantly. Grocery stores, the gym, in my neighborhood. In my dealings with unsaved people a common response to why they don’t want to come is because the church is full of hypocrites. To which I reply, yes! That is what makes it so great! Broken people are drawn to this place to be made whole and watch God do a work in their life. And when they mess up, we welcome them back with open arms and love just like our heavenly father does.
“God knows you” can be a frightening first point to this sermon, but “God pursues you” is a redeeming second one. He pursues broken people and destroyed things. Jesus comes and does what? Eats with tax collectors and prostitutes. Can you imagine the scandal? Pastor has a house party where prostitutes come freely and people who have turned their back on God and their country openly come and hang out and have dinner together. It’s a scandal!
The gospel is a scandal. God pursues you and loves you: running from him is the tendency of the flesh, not of the Spirit. Hear me again, running from God in your brokenness is your flesh not the Holy Spirit. Religion says: I messed up. My dad is going to kill me. The gospel says: I messed up. I need to call my dad.
God Made You
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. Psalm 139:13-18
I know we have some people who are really good at sewing in this room. Look at the words here in this passage: God, the universe holder and speaker of life itself, knit you in your mothers womb. Like a garment that a seamstress perfectly puts together one thread at a time.
Verse 14, “I have been remarkably and wonderfully made.” That means God made you and threw away the mold. We don’t have any other like you! (Story of Holly’s ring) There has never been, and will never be, another like you. And God doesn’t make junk! What would that say about God??? (Ephesians 2:10)
If you don’t like what you see when you look in the mirror then you have been using a worldly mirror instead of a heavenly one. Do you have flaws? Absolutely. Can we all improve and grow as people? You bet! But you are not a mistake with no purpose or point. You are made in the image of God according to Genesis 1:26-27. His fingerprints are all over you!
Now the sand, this is an amazing thought. This is from my Christmas Eve sermon but the math brings such a beautiful picture.
Let me ask this. Would I be a good husband if I thought about Holly every 12 seconds for 40 years 24/7? Do you know how big that would be in sand? 10 square feet. For those that don’t know, that is 2 feet by 5 feet. Now notice, David says in this Psalm “more than the sand.” Not more than one beach, not more than an island, or the North American sand. All the sand. All the beaches, all the deserts, all the sand in the world! You can’t comprehend the love God has for you.
God Has A Plan For You
In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139:16, 23-24
God is like a filmmaker going to his own movie premier. He has already seen and created this whole story. When all the drama and the build up happens, he isn’t worried and we shouldn’t be either. Just as a film unfolds at a premier and the rest of the crowd is caught up in the suspense and living in the unknown of the plot, God is the filmmaker who already knows how it all plays out. We need to trust in the filmmaker.
God has a plan, always had a plan, and continues to have one for what is to come, so we can relax. When something huge happens in life: you lose your job, you go through a crushing divorce, you experience a health crisis, the Dawgs don’t go undefeated… God isn’t up in heaven yelling for an emergency meeting. Listen, he isn’t overwhelmed by the situation in the middle east. This election is in his hands. This economy is in his hands.
He isn’t pulling out the whiteboard trying to draw up a play before the buzzer or trying to pull off a hail mary (pun intended). He isn’t up there like, “Gabriel! Get Michael! We gotta get all the angels together and draw up a plan!” God. Has. A. Plan. For. You.
Not just for the world, but for you. Remember the beginning of this Psalm, he knows all the little mundane stuff about your tiny teensy life remember? That means, he’s got a plan for you too. He has thought out that plan as thoroughly and as fully as he has thought out the entire world.
Relax. Someone in this room needs to just hear that word right now, relax. God has a plan. You aren’t too far gone, the lady hasn’t sung, nothing is too big for him. If the criminal on the cross in his last moments of breath can figure it out and turn to Jesus and be restored for eternity, you can too.
Conclusion
He knows you. He pursues you. He made you with a purpose, and is ready to live out those plans with you each day. Will you allow yourself to hear His still, small voice?
This is a $20 bill. If I offered it to you, you would take it. But what if I ball it up and throw it on the ground – would you still want it? What if I stepped on it, kicked it, and even spit on it? Could you still go to the store and spend it?
Yes. This bill has value because of what it is, not because of how it looks, where it’s been, or what it’s been used for. A crisp, clean $20 bill is worth the same amount as an ugly, older, more used one. You may feel like you’ve been stepped on, beat up, or kicked around. You may feel dirty, unworthy, or useless. But know this – you matter to God. Who you are, fundamentally, as someone made in his image, has value simply based on that fact.
Maybe your parents have said words that ring in your ears to this day; or they didn’t say the words you were longing to hear! Maybe your spouse has rejected you, verbally, emotionally, or physically. Or your boss has turned on you and you feel like you are meaningless where you are. Don’t let what another human does define you. Don’t draw conclusions about yourself based on them. Look higher. You matter to God so much he sent his son for you. You belong, you are cherished, you are his, forever!