My name is Tyler and so for those of you who don't know me
and I help serve in the families kids ministry and just excited
and thankful and just I think it's always an honor and a
privilege and a joy every time I get to be up here.
And so it's been a little a little while, but just thankful
and that I get to share the Lord with you guys, share his word
and just share my life in him with you and just pray that
you're refreshed. But just even watching those
videos, I mean, I think just the Lord was ministering to me even
as I was sitting down, just thankful for John and the team.
Just was thinking even about like, you know, we title those
letters to the church, but just even thinking about like Paul's
letters to his church and just the places of, you know, there's
testimonies being shared, there's encouragement being
given, there's things that John's sharing, that's it's
doing something deep, obviously in the team, but then we get to
receive it. And so I'm thankful for
technology that we don't have to wait till something's written
down that we get to hear from our family, but just so many
things that God is doing and that we get to be a part of.
And so, yeah, we've got team in Italy.
We've got Colombia leaving this week, right?
Yeah, on the 28th, Correct. Cool.
So yeah, many more people will be gone next week, but it's
good. God is doing a lot.
And then I think Italy Impact team leaves next Sunday.
Yeah, not just one guy going out, there's many more, but he's
the most excited. But yeah, God is doing so much.
And yeah, if if you have been with us over the last several
years, you know, our mission season and summer series have
become just a familiar part of our yearly routine here at
Antioch. And although we seek to live out
our vision of Jesus family mission each day of the year,
these two to three months, they give us a tangible opportunity
to actively live it out wherever we go, whether that isn't Italy
or Colombia or a lot of college students going back home, but a
lot of us here in Oviedo. And so just thankful for the
opportunity just to actually live this stuff out.
And this year, as John mentioned, and as Nathan and
Eric have already shared the last two weeks, we're seeking
the Lord for strength as we spend the summer in the Psalms.
And we're asking God to tender our hearts to see transformation
in our lives and our family strengthen and the gospel
reproduced in our city and in the nations.
And this is something God is inviting us into daily, not just
on Sunday mornings, but every single day of our lives.
And as I was thinking about what to share, like at the beginning
of this, Proverbs 423 came to mind, which says watch over your
heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of
life. And even in the NIV, it says
everything you do flows from it, flows from your heart.
And if you're in family ministry, if you're a guy, we
recently started a new book. It's a little one, but it's
called How to Lead Your Family. It's by Joel Beaky and just
talks about as being a man in the home to model what it looks
like to be a prophet, priest and king as Jesus was.
And I couldn't help but just even think about in the intro
there's a story about John and James Patton and just wanted to
share it. It's John is the son, James is
the father. But John was a Scottish
missionary to the natives in the New Hebrides Islands in the
South Pacific. He faithfully preached to the
cannibal Islanders despite receiving frequent death threat
threats. The Lord mightily used him to
convert many Islanders as well as influence other godly men to
become missionaries in the South Pacific.
Although Patton faced enormous difficulties and sorrows, he
persevered out of love for Christ.
And one way that God prepared patent for his work was through
the example of his godly father, James.
James worked in a shop in the family home in Scotland.
James's children remembered his fervent prayer for them before
the throne of grace. He used a small room in the
house as a prayer closet, and his regular visits to it deeply
affected his son and his son. John later wrote after just
thinking about his father says tither.
We don't use that word anymore. Tither daily and often times a
day. Generally after each meal we saw
our father retire and shut the door and we children got to
understand that prayers were being poured out there for us as
of old by the high priest within the veil in the most high place.
Just so sweet and just encourage me just even thinking about
being a dad, being a father, just as I read this past week,
just to to seek the Lord diligently daily and how many
times I struggle to do that. But James's life was one of
praise and prayer that greatly affected his family and those
who are impacted by the gospel. It started in the home, but you
saw his son impact so many. And if we want to make Kingdom
impact, then we need to bear our hearts out to the Lord and let
him strengthen us. And a great place to start
tending to your heart, to allowing the Lord to strengthen
you is the Psalms. The Psalms are sweet collections
of praises and prayers to God from his people who've
experienced everything, as you guys know, from the mountaintops
of joy to the valleys of despair.
And the Psalms help they, they give us words for what we're
feeling or what we're going through.
Even when you can't articulate it, you can sometimes read the
Psalms and say, man, I can't even express my excitement and
joy and the Lord. And they used to read Psalms of
thankfulness and joy. And there's times when you feel
low and you're like, man, I don't know how to express my
despair or my pain or my trial or the fear that I feel.
And the Psalms give us words and they're so rich.
We can like regularly find language for the things that
we're going through. And This is why so many of us,
we we turn to the Psalms in our times of reading and spending
time with God and we hold on to specific verses, we hold on to
specific passages and we go back to them in various seasons of
our lives. And that's even what we got to
see. Just want to honour Nathan and
Eric and just the ways, you know, bringing us in to, yes,
this is God's word, but this is how it's impacted me.
And that's what we want to share with you guys is how God's
personally impacted us through the Psalms.
And we're all in seasons. I mean, we can go around the
room. I can, I can even look out at
some of you guys that I know you're going through things and
we need the Lord's strength and he wants to speak to us.
But the constant truth, no matter what season you're in, no
matter what you're going through, is that God's truth is
for you, His promises are for you, and that everything that
you need is found in Him. And even as John was talking,
this is something we can read and we can know into
intellectually even, but is it something that we're actually
receiving and believing and walking out in?
And so I was talking to John, just even catching up this past
week and talking through some different things for ministry.
And just something he shared with me was God is faithful to
provide strength when we fully surrender to Him.
And some of you may know or may not know, but it's definitely
been a season of surrender for Sarah and I and our family.
And just a couple weeks ago, our daughter Olivia, she's just over
3, like 3 1/2. She had open heart surgery.
And we've known for a very long time she's had to have it.
So it wasn't emergent, but we got it prepared us and we needed
strength. And thankfully, you know, she's
doing great at home and she's back to her usual self.
It's crazy to see just what you know, what modern medicine can
do, but ultimately what God has done in her life.
And it's just been a season where we have had to throw
ourselves at the feet of the cross and throw ourselves at God
and say, Lord, there's anxiety, there's fear at times, there is
rejoicing. There is so many different
emotions and feeling that we're going through, but we're going
to trust you. And in that place, there's been
so many just Psalms that we've meditated on and gone to.
And so one of those that I've gone to and turn too often and
just pray. That'd be a great source of
encouragement to you guys. This morning is Psalm 139.
And so I titled the message Fully known and Fully loved.
And so if you guys want to go ahead and turn there with me,
but yeah, Psalm 139, it is one of the most beautifully written
Psalms. It's one of the most profound
meditations on God. It's also one of the most well
known. Most of us have probably read it
before I was even texting someone this week and they're
asking me, you know what I was preaching on and told them Psalm
139 and they just simply texted back my fave.
Like, like I was like, yeah, my fave too.
A lot of other people's faves and so, but it's just sweet to
see like, man, it's it's it's familiar, but just pray that God
would speak fresh life over you this morning with it.
And it contains great truths about God.
But the words of King David are extremely personal and intimate,
which is a lot of what John was even sharing.
What we're talking about this summer.
We see that David knew to be true, or we see that what David
knew to be true about God and what he experienced in his
walking with him throughout his life was his personal intimate
relationship. And I think James Montgomery
boys sums it up pretty good. And he says Psalm 139 has both
head and heart. It is strongly theological,
dealing with such important doctrines as God's omniscience,
omnipresence, and omnipotence, but is also wonderfully personal
because it speaks of these attributes of God in ways that
impact the psalmist and ourselves.
And something that you know, I was continually going back to as
I was meditating on this is that David knew God experientially,
which meant he had walked with him closely and would open his
heart to him frequently. And that's what I want for you
guys this morning. And that's what I'm praying for
every single day, that we would know God experientially because
we've walked with Him closely every day and we opened our
heart up to him frequently. This is what God is inviting
all, all of us into, not just this morning, but every day of
our lives as we walk with him. And so if you want to, if you
guys have it open, I'm going to start read it, all of it, and
then we'll go back through each verse and I'll give some
headings. But Psalm 139 says for the choir
director, a Psalm of David. O Lord, you have searched me and
known me. You know when I sit down and
when I rise up, you understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path in my lying down and are intimately
acquainted with all of my ways, even before there was a word on
my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before and laid Your hand upon
me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is too high.
I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I sent to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed and she'll behold you are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part
of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right
hand will lay hold of me. If I say surely the darkness
will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night.
Even the darkness is not dark to you, and the night is as bright
as the day. Darkness and light are alike to
you, for you formed my inward parts.
You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, for I
am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and
skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were
all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet
there was not one of them. How precious also are your
thoughts to me. Oh God, how vast is the sum of
them. If I should count them, they
would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with
you. Oh, that you would slay the
wicked. Oh, God, depart from me,
therefore men of bloodshed, for they speak against you wickedly,
and your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not load those who rise up against you?
I hate them with the utmost hatred.
They have become my enemies. Search me oh God and know my
heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if
there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting
way. Amen.
It's good. It's like almost.
Sometimes we just like close it and be done.
Just so so rich and so true. Doesn't need a whole lot of
explanation, but God wants us to see just how personal he's
speaking to us this morning. And I don't know, even before
going through this, if I've actually appreciated how well
the David has organized this Psalm and how beautifully
written it is. But just to give a little
summary of everything, it's kind of broken up into four, six
verse sections, verses one through 6.
David is writing about God's knowledge of him.
Verses 7 through 12 speak of God's presence in his life.
In verses 13 through 18, David acknowledges that God has made
him. And in verses 19 through 24, we
see David's prayer for holiness and righteousness, for a pure
heart and strength as God continued to lead him.
And so we're going to basically just have 4 points, and I'll go
through each six of those sections for the morning.
The first one is you are fully known there if anybody has Apple
devices or Amazon devices at their house, Anyone, anyone.
So this is a little bit of a struggle in our household.
Sarah does not like them too much.
And I think they're useful at times, but there's just times
when you know, the light doesn't work or something will just come
on and Sarah will just like stop, stop listening to us.
She'll like tell headquarters, like stop listening in our
conversations. And it's actually funny.
Last night we were putting our kids to bed and one of the bulbs
I had to change out. So it wasn't, it wasn't synced,
but like the kids don't know that.
Sarah doesn't know that. So yelling at the bulb and and
like finally turn it off and then Sarah's saying goodnight to
the kids and literally the little Alexa thing says sweet
dreams. It was, it was weird.
I was out in the living room and all the kids and Sarah were
like, oh, stop it. But it was just just those
moments, right? You guys even know, like
sometimes you'll just be talking with someone and then you'll get
a random app on your like a promotion on your phone and
you're like, I never have looked that up in my entire life.
Like who is listening to me? But there's just these types of
things that they make us uneasy because we don't know who's
listening to us on the other end.
There's a lack of trust because there's no relationship in in
those scenarios. On the other hand, was thinking
of it, you know, most of us parents, we have the baby
monitors in our households. And for some reason, you know,
our kids, they grow to know that they can trust that to be seen,
to be heard, because who's on the other end?
Their mom and their dad, they know that they're loved, they
know that they're cared for and they're being watched for their
good. And if it makes you feel uneasy
that God knows your thoughts before you thank them, then you
may not know him as you should. And I think that speaks true of
if you knew him, you'd know that He has, He loves you and He
knows you, and that's why He knows your thoughts and your
actions from afar. This is the invitation, again,
as I said, just to get to know God experientially, walk with
Him closely and open your heart up to Him frequently.
There may be something in your life that he is convicting you
of that may be pulling you away from greater intimacy with Him.
And He loves you so much and He presses on your heart and on
your mind the places that that no one else see that He's
actually drawing you back to Him.
If there's a trust in God's good character, if you actually know
Him as we should, which David had grown to know, then the
truth that he understands your thoughts from afar should bring
you an immense amount of comfort and peace every day of your life
that you are known this much by our Almighty God.
In verse 3, David, should I get the other one?
There we go. You scrutinize my path and my
lying down and are intimately acquainted with all of my ways.
And God shows his concern for us and that he gets into our lives
fully. God helps us see what is
beneficial and what is not. And that's what this word
scrutinize means it it's like a winnowing fork.
And if anybody has seen those, but you know when the you're
separating the wheat from the chaff, it gets in there and it
throws it up and the wind blows it away.
And that's what God does in our life is he scrutinizes and he
gets in there and he probes. He says this is not beneficial
to you and this is beneficial to you and I'm going to show you
and I'm going to actively get in there and, and do this work in
your heart and in your life. He knows everything about us,
our weaknesses, our strengths, the way we respond in certain
situations before we respond to them.
He knows our fears, what produces anxiety, what produces
anger, if we're struggling with any sort of depression or
control. He knows us better than we know
ourselves. Many of us.
Sometimes someone asks you how you doing?
Like I don't even know sometimes, but we need to spend
time with God because he knows Job 31 four says, does he not
see my ways and number all my steps?
David says in verse 4. Even before there is a word on
my tongue, Behold, O Lord, you know it all.
I want to pause throughout my day.
I don't, I don't do it enough. But just to say behold, O Lord,
you know it all. And not just intellectually we,
I mean, I think many of us could say I understand that.
I understand that God knows everything.
But in my heart do I actually believe and does it change the
way I live my life to say, behold, O Lord, you know it all
and I can't. I mean, last time I said this
was probably to my kids when, you know, trying to figure out
if they're lying or not about washing their hands or going to
the bathroom or brushing their teeth or did you actually push
her? Did he push you?
I don't know. But what we can say and what we
say often is that the Lord always knows.
He knows the intentions of your heart.
He knows it all. And Hebrews 413 says, and
there's no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are
open and laid bare to the eyes of Him whom we have to do.
Everything is laid bare before Him because we're fully known by
God completely and intimately. He not only knows our words
before we say them, but He knows the conditions of our heart and
saying it. Everything we think is uncovered
before God. And there are situations in life
that causes these. Almost hidden conditions of our
heart to start bubbling out. We don't want to get caught,
that's why we lie. We don't want to look bad, so we
exaggerate. We feel insecure.
So we either talk down about ourselves or talk down about
other people. But Luke 644 says out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
So just to encourage you guys, let the Lord deal with your
heart. He already knows it.
So that your words can be edifying, building up, honoring
to Him, loving, full of grace and sweet out of a true, true
and pure heart. We need to proclaim more often
and even make this part of your your day.
Behold, O Lord, you know it all as David said.
And verse 5, you have enclosed me behind and before and laid
your hand upon me. And some other translation says
hedge me in or hen me in, but it's just a hedge of protection
the Lord is putting around David and you.
And farmers would sometimes plant thorny bushes or thorny
tall plants to protect their vineyards or their crops from
animals getting in. And that's what the Lord saying
is like, I'm actually protecting you, this hedge of protection
around you. Psalm 34 seven says the Angel of
the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he rescues
them. Psalm 125 two says as the
mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people
from this time forth and forever.
Isn't that good? This understanding gave David
great daily confidence and security.
Isaiah 4110 says do not fear for I am with you.
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will
uphold you with my righteous right hand.
And verse 6, David's, you know, undone by just being known by
God. And he says such knowledge is
too wonderful me for me it is too high.
I cannot attain it. That's all he can say.
The complete and intimate knowledge that God has of David
and all of his life is beyond him.
His actions, his heart, his motivations, his thoughts, his
words and all of his ways are in God's hands.
And David can do nothing but praise God for it.
This is what we see in Romans 1133, says, Oh, the depth of the
riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments, and unfathomable His
ways. For who has known the mind of
the Lord, and who became his counsellor?
Or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to
him again? For from him and through him and
to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.
Amen. And this is what this is what
David's saying to him be the glory for knowing me this much.
These verses, like I said, this should cause a sense of praise
in us to pause and remind us that He has sought us out and
not left us alone. That the Lord has gone in to The
Cave into the dark places of your heart, and actually grabbed
you and rescued you and put you at the feet of the cross, and
you're His. And you can rejoice in that.
And as David has taken this understanding of God's perfect
knowledge of him and personalized it, so should we.
And sometimes I know that's even like we pause even thinking that
way when we're reading. I know sometimes I have.
But there's nothing but intimacy and personal, personal
relationship going on in this passage.
And so we want to personalize it and we should.
And something to bring just into your times this week is what
does it mean to you that God knows you completely and
intimately and just start writing those things down?
How would meditating on that change the way you lived and
respond to your spouse, to your roommates, to your Co workers,
to your kids, or even the way that you fought ongoing sin in
your life? How would knowing, knowing, and
believing that God knows you intimately in this way help you
fight those battles? So move on to verse 7.
David transitions by saying, Lord, not only do you know me
fully, but you are always with me.
So point #2 He is always with you.
You are never alone. David says, where can I go from
your spirit or where can I flee from your presence?
He was aware that God was always watching over him.
He understood that it was impossible for him to do
anything, which God was not a spectator.
And we see this in Jeremiah 2324.
Can a man hide himself in hiding places?
So I do not see him, declares the Lord.
Do I not fill the heavens and the earth, declares the Lord.
And many of us can attest there's been moments in our life
where we have tried to hide. We have tried to, in a sense,
run away from God in His presence.
We even see this in the first man, the first woman in Genesis
chapter 3. After they had sinned, they
heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the
cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the
garden. And then even in in Jonah, Jonah
one when God told him to go to Nineveh in verse 3 says, but
Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of
the Lord. There was fear, there was
disobedience, there was shame. The list goes on and on and on.
But what in your life actually causes you to draw away from
God, to hide to in a sense, run away?
Try to run away, As we'll see, and I love this quote by Charles
Spurgeon says neither by patient travel nor hasty flight can we
withdraw from the all surrounding God.
That good. Neither by patient travel, if
it's slow you feel that slow drift or by hasty flight.
We just want to get out of certain situations because
things start coming up in our heart.
Neither by any of those things can we withdraw from the all
surrounding God because God loves you.
He does not allow you to hide or run away from Him.
He is always with you and you are never alone.
And David in verses 8-9 just talks directionally.
He says if I send to heaven, if he goes all the way up to where
God is, you are there. If I make my bed and Sheol,
we're just talking about the grave and talking about death
downward. He said even there, behold, you
are there. If I take the wings of the dawn,
just talking about when the sun rises from the east, if I dwell
in the remotest part of the sea and in Israel the Mediterranean
Sea was to the West. He says if I go from where the
dawn rises to where this where the furthest spot I can possibly
think of, which is West far into the sea, you're with me.
He says in verse 10. Even there your hand will lead
me and your right hand will lay hold of me.
And wasn't this the promise of Jesus at the very end?
Matthew 28, he says, I am with you always in every direction.
Wherever you go, I am with you. God's presence is there.
Wherever David found himself shepherding sheep, king over
Israel, musician, fugitive in the wilderness or trying to
escape a father on the run, he trusted that even there God's
mighty hand would lead him and hold him.
And David was praising God for his consistent presence in his
life. In Psalm 7328 says, But As for
me, the nearness of God is my good.
It is good that God is so near the one I encourage you just to
take time throughout your day to thank God for his presence and
his nearness just how near he is.
Sometimes when you just pause. That's a lot of what I mean I'm
sharing this morning is just pause.
Take moments of your day to pause and this may be
challenging at times when we are confronted with situations in
life in which there we have no answers.
Often we find ourselves saying, God, bring me in on what you're
doing. Why is why is this happening to
me? Why am I at this place in my
life that I don't understand? And David expresses his heart to
God in verses 11 and 12, saying even in dark moments, even in
trial or frustration, doubt. He says, if I say surely the
darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be
light will be night. Verse 12 even the darkness is
not dark to you and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to you.
So how many of us has said or said thought something like
David saying surely this darkness that I feel in this
moment is it will overwhelm me and the light around me will be
night or at times I know our hearts can cry out just even in
love. Where, where are you God, where
are you? I need to hear you.
I need to know that you're near. I know I've had those fair share
moments of my in my life, whether it be driving on the
road by myself or just moments of and seasons of weariness and
and tiredness. Just God, I need you.
I need you to show up in my life and it may not even be sin
related. It could just be a valley season
that you're going through that we even we see David went
through many, but he says even the darkness is not dark to you
and night is as bright as the day in first John 15 says this
is the message that we have heard from him and announced to
you. This is this is what we all
believe that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
The Lord is, is present in the darkness of your despair,
hopelessness, and depression. And he has, he overcomes it.
He's not just present, but he overcomes it.
Psalm 1828 says, for you, light my lamp, the Lord my God
illumines my darkness. And then John 812 Then Jesus
spoke again to them saying, I am the light of the world.
He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the
light of life. Darkness cannot shut out
anything and in verses 13 through 18, David praises God by
writing. He's not only do you know me,
not only are you with me, but God who knows all and is in all
or with all, made you. He made you point #3 He made you
and will sustain you. You are fearfully and
wonderfully made. He made you.
He made you and sustained you. You're fearfully and wonderfully
made. I know this is, you know, some
of this part of the Psalm. We've read it so many times or
we've heard it so many times, but I just pray that you'd
receive it fresh this morning. It says in verse 13 for you, 4
in my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb.
And David is just talking. It's such relational language.
Again, just this forming. It's talking about being bought
or acquired or created and possessed and just his inward
parts. Talking about everything inside
of him, not just his physical body, but his spiritual body as
well. His his heart, not just his
physical heart, but just who he is.
He says you wove me, You've covered, protected, You've
hedged me in, You weave me together.
No one can create as God can create.
And Isaiah 4424. Thus says the Lord, your
Redeemer, the one who formed you from the womb.
I am the Lord. I the Lord am the maker of all
things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading
out the earth alone, and just thinking just how vast got it
and how big he is. And this is what David has in
mind, and thinking how intricately he wove him in his
mother's womb. Verse 14 I will give thanks to
you, for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.
Again, David's just. He's this fearfully, he's just
in awe, He's astonished about what God has done.
And this word wonderfully just means distinct.
It's distinguished and it's kind of a weird way to word a
question. But said, have you ever been in
awe or astonished that God created you?
You have you ever been in awe or astonished that God created you
you. And maybe that's something you
never asked before or thought of, or maybe it's something that
you don't want to think about. But David is basically saying,
God, thank you for making me me. And I was just even looking up.
And some of us have probably heard just about how every
person in the world has a unique fingerprint and even read even,
you know, I guess I didn't think about this before, but identical
twins, I mean, we'll have to check on like Logan and Hudson,
but even identical twins have different fingerprints.
And it's just amazing that God can design in such a way that
says you are, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
You are unique. And my fingerprint is on you
specifically and how you were made.
And so we, we so often look poorly at ourselves or compare
ourselves with others. We wish our physical features or
our giftings or characteristics were different.
I wish I was more like this. I wish, I wish I was more like
that. I wish I was better at this.
All of us, every single one of us, has those thoughts.
The way we speak, the way we think, the way we act.
We so much look at ourselves and through this Psalm, God is
calling us to have godly confidence in Him and to thank
Him for making us distinct and distinguished.
You are made exactly the way God intended you to be made, and we
should praise Him for our uniqueness.
We were created according to His perfect plan and He made no
mistakes in making us just as we are.
He roots out our our sin nature and he cleanses us over time.
But how are you are wired and made and the characteristics
that you have and your physical abilities, everything God has
made you and he had thought about it.
David says my frame was not hidden from you when I was made
in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.
He's just talking about, you know, back then they didn't have
echocardiograms, X-ray, they didn't have ultrasounds, they
didn't have 3D images that we get nowadays.
They don't didn't have DNA testing.
But he's saying in the hidden secret places that no one sees
until that baby comes out, You made me and you knew me.
And he places God places value on every child from the moment
of conception. From the moment of conception,
he says you are mine and I made you verse 16.
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in your book we're
all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet
there was not one of them. God is creator and sustainer of
everything. But more personally, which is
what David's trying to communicate through this Psalm.
God, God, you made me. You don't just you didn't just
create everything you made, you created me.
And you don't just sustain everything, you sustain me.
David was expressing his full trust and surrender to God that
he made him and was leading his life.
God made no mistakes in making David and he had guided him
perfectly and would continue to do so, so that his own glory
would be magnified and David would be blessed.
And all of our limitations and ailments difficulties, we must
trust God has a mighty plan for us and even thinking of our
daughter Olivia and you know when we were in Gainesville, for
those who don't know we we're going to have the surgery got
rescheduled, come back home had to be like quarantine.
So it was a crazy season. But just before we left
Gainesville that first time, there was some disappointment.
Obviously there was just we had to change a lot of things and
thinking like the night before she's about to go through the
surgery. We got to pick up everything, go
back home and come back in four weeks.
And so it was late. And Sarah and I, you know, I
just said like, Hey, let's just get out our, our phone and let's
start a note and just write like, you know, God's
faithfulness over Olivia's life since we knew that, you know,
that you were pregnant with her. And we just went like line by
line by line by line by line, since we knew that we were
pregnant with her. I mean, early on and just the
things that doctors told us about her and then things we
found out along the way and just seeing just, I mean, if you guys
have seen her, you cannot tell anything is like wrong inside
her body. But she's got a list of things.
But she's got a smile on her face and and you know, I'm
praying that, you know, as she grows up, she can say, Lord, I
am fearfully and wonderfully made.
And you know, we get to look at God's faithfulness in her life
and that's that glorifying God is, is why he's made you unique.
It's not so that you can be up here or like I can be up here
and bring glory to ourself. And no way it it, it takes the
glory and it puts it back on God.
Everything that happened with Olivia, I mean, it was for God's
glory. And we get to magnify him
because of it. And I can't help but think of
John 9123 when Jesus and disciples were outside the
temple and his disciple, there was a man who was born blind.
And Jesus, or, you know, his disciple said, was it this man's
sin or was it his parents? And he just said, no, it was
neither this man's sinned nor his parents, but it was so that
the works of God might be displayed in him.
And that's what all of us can say.
If you feel weak, if you feel like, man, I'm not like this.
I'm not like that. Or physically, if you're going
through something, say God, I can praise you because I'm
fearfully and wonderfully made. You know exactly what you're
doing in my life, and you're going to bring your glory.
And David says, how precious. I mean, this is our response,
right? How precious also are your
thoughts to me? Oh God, how vast is the sum of
them? If I should count them, they
would outnumber the sand when I awake.
I'm still with you. And just thinking about the
video where they, they took 30 minutes just to write out
everything they were thankful for of God.
I mean, this is saying if I should count the thing, they
would outnumber the grains of sand on all the seashores.
And it's an unfathomable number. We can't stop in our writing a
remembrance of God's precious thoughts to us.
And it's just, it's sweet and intimate what David's saying.
So question, are the thoughts of God to you of great worth, or do
sometimes your thoughts take precedence?
What hinders you from meditating on them more often?
We need to spend less time in our own thoughts and thinking
about ourselves and more time thinking about Him and
recounting the precious thoughts that he has of us.
And so as we come to the final six verses, it does seem like
there is an abrupt shift and David's focus.
But these verses, in the form of a prayer, actually give us a
glimpse into David's situation and why he's drawing on God's
perfect knowledge, presence and power in his life.
They show David's thoughts and emotions towards those who are
continually rejecting God and deliberately practicing evil.
And one commentator wrote the wickedness in view here has
resisted love. And Isaiah 65, two talking about
God's outstretched arm, He says I spread out my hands all day
long to a rebellious people who walk in the way which is not
good, following their own thoughts.
And even David says in return for my love, they act as my
accusers, but I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil
for good and hatred for my love. We see David's passionate
loyalty. And his love for the Lord and
how he wanted to separate himself entirely from those who
are speaking against God. And Psalm 26 five says I hate
the assembly of evil doers and I will not sit with the wicked.
Psalm 31 six that I hate those who regard vain idols, but I
trust in the Lord. And James Montgomery boy sums it
up pretty good. He says his decisions, his
decision was to separate from evil persons entirely.
This separation does not mean that David never had anything to
do with sinful people. He himself was one.
It only means that he did not want to be with those who were
openly marked by evil or or hatching evil actions.
So taken was he with the greatness of God that he wanted
nothing to endanger his relationship with God.
He, his relationship with God, his nearness, his closeness was
everything to him and he wouldn't let nothing stand
against it. The important thing to know is
David, he went on the offense in his prayer life and he trusted
the Lord to vindicate. And so we cannot remain neutral
towards evil or sin, especially in our own hearts.
We must bring all of our thoughts, our desires and
motivations to the Lord in prayer, which is where we'll
land this morning if the band wants to come up.
And as we just go into ministry time, I know there's a lot
there. And I'll finish with the last
two verses, but just if anything stuck out to you, pray that you
would again, rest, pause, even just say going to ministry time.
Behold, O Lord, you know it all. You know, you know me, You know
every part of me. David knew God experientially,
which meant he had walked with him closely and would open his
heart to him frequently with everything that David had
already written down in mind. God, you know me fully,
completely intimately. You're always with me, I'm never
alone, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made and you will
sustain me. He goes on to write.
Search me, oh God, and know my heart, try me and know my
anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me
and lead me in the everlasting way.
Just a sweet prayer that we can pray every single day.
David was inviting God into his heart to examine him thoroughly
and to purify him of anything that might hinder his walk with
God. Same, God, search me.
You know me better than I know myself.
You know me. You know everything about me.
Before there's a thought in my mind, before a word leaves my
lips, you know me. He was asking him to purify him
of anything that might hinder his walk.
God, is there, Is there things that I'm believing or running to
that hinder my closeness and my intimacy with you?
Because that is everything to me.
So just I wanted to invite you to turn to him this morning and
say that same prayer. God search me, know my heart.
Ask him to help you walk closely with him to abide in
relationship with him and lead you in the living way.
This is the enduring way. God your way.
It's, it's narrow, but it, it produces life.
It brings life. So yeah, I just encourage you
guys come to the front, turn to a neighbor.
If there's anything, any anxious thought, any thought that is
just it's in your mind, it's preoccupying your, you know,
ability to even be present and worship or just to sit with him
throughout your day. Don't just keep going throughout
your day. Pause and spend time with God
and turn to him. So I'll pray for us and
encourage you guys to receive prayer this morning.
Thank you Lord, and thank you for the Psalm.
Thank you for just not David's life, but God, your life through
David that we get to see how you knew him.
God, you know us that you made us in our mother's womb.
God, you gave us everything physically.
God, you gave us our heart. God, you gave us, You made us,
you created us. You weave us together.
God, I pray that we bring our anxious thoughts to you.
God rid our hearts of and our minds of just God wanting to to
be someone we're not or be something that we're not.
God, I pray that we'd rest and have godly confidence in you
that would produce joy. It would produce a fear and an
awe in you, God, that we would come running God into your
throne of grace and find help in our time of need.
Because we know that we have a a heavenly Father who cares, a
heavenly Father who is present, a heavenly Father who is active
and pursuing us every day of our life.
But no matter what we're going through, where we're at, what
we're thinking, what is our mind got, the things we're struggling
with at home, I thank you God. You're saying I am there and I
am with you and I am for you. Come to me, come to me, come to
me. Give me your anxious thoughts
and I will lead you on the everlasting way in Jesus name,
Amen.