The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E25 - Psalm 139

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

Hey church, it is time for Devo. If you've got your Bible, we're going to be in Psalm 139. Now, if you have been around Bible study for a long time, and you know what Psalm 139 is all about, let me just say this. Psalm 139 is not reserved only for women's ministry. Psalm 139 is a gift to every single one of us and has a lot to say to every single one of us. And so let's dive in. I've been in the Psalm, like in my own personal just time with the Lord, I've been in the Psalms a lot more lately, like Psalm 61 and 91 and 34 and 46, and 101 and 100 and 138.

So anyway, we're going to study Psalm 139. And really the theme is the sovereignty of God and his love for us. Oh, 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 all together. 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. That God knows you like no one else knows you. God doesn't just know what you do. God knows why you do it. God doesn't just know what you say. He knows why you say it. God knows the words that are going to come out of our mouth when they are just an idea in our head and when they are just stirred up in our hearts. He searches us and he knows us. I mean, he really knows us. He doesn't just know the church version of you. You know that version. when we do show up to church and you put on your best face

and everybody asks you how you doing and you say, I'm blessed and highly favored, but you know your marriage is a train wreck, God knows it. And you know that you lost it on your kid on the way to church that day. Or you know that when you were getting ready, you looked in the mirror

and you didn't love what was looking back at you and so you just filled with all kinds of insecurity and began to compare yourself to what everybody else looked like or when you pulled through the parking lot of the church, you wonder why everybody else's cars are so nice and your car is not very nice at all, and you don't even want to go to church anymore. He knows.

And the crazy thing about it is even though he knows us so well, and yet he still chooses us, he still pursues us, he still loves us. He continues to still invite us, not only for us to be known by him, but that we can know him. See, if you've ever bought a car,

or a used car, you run a car fax on it. it. Because when somebody's going to sell a car, they get the thing all shined up and polished up, and they don't tell you everything about it. You run this Carfax because it gives you the truth on the car. Well, the reality is that God ran a Carfax on you. And he knows. He knows about that wreck in college. He knows that it leaks oil. He knows that it's been repainted and it's got some Bondo in the back. He knows that the AC doesn't work like it used to. He knows that if if you let go with a steering wheel, that thing, just will go right into the ditch.

And yet knowing all of the busted up problems that come along with us, he decides to pay full price to purchase us. He has searched us and he knows us. And he goes on to say, verse 7, where shall I go from your spirit? Which is kind of weird. Why would you want to leave the spirit to God?

But he says, where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in chio, you are there. Sheo is the Hebrew word for hell. If I take the wings on 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 too. you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. I'm going to tell you, either that's really, really good news for you, or it is simply terrifying. That not only just God know everything about you, he knows where you are and you cannot flee his presence. And again, for some, that is really good news. Jesus said you would never, you would never be alone because he would

never leave you. He would never forsake you. Even if you used to know God, you used to, you used to be in church, you believed in Jesus when you were a kid, but for a long time you have been sprinting in the opposite direction. That you have torn your life down, you have rejected God, you have denied him, then there is no way you can outrun the love and grace of God. Where could you flee from his presence? If you rebel like the prodigal son did and you were just at the very pit, if you're flat on your back, then good news.

Look up. Jesus is right there with you. It could be really good news. or it could be terrifying, that God sees you all day, every day. And sometimes, sometimes we treat God like he is an old grandpa babysitting us, and we could go sit in the living room with him on our best behavior to impress him, but as soon as we're out of his sight, then we can do what he want, and he has no idea. At an elder-led prayer one time years ago,

Elder Rusty said something that's rooted, like in these kinds of verses that I found very profound, He says there were areas in my life that I was asking God to bless. And simultaneously there were areas of my life that I was asking God to ignore. God, would you look at my finances? Would you look at my family? Would you look at my business? Would you look at my ministry? And would you bless this?

God, when I'm on the Internet too late, would you not look at that? God, when I'm filling out my taxes and I'm not being completely honest, we did you not look at that. God, when I'm talking to this girl and she's not my wife, would you not look at that? The fact that God knows you and the fact that we cannot leave his presence, either could be the best news you've ever had

because you're never too far gone, or it could be terrifying if you're trying to play hide-and-seek with the Lord. Then he goes on to say this, very famous verse, verse 13. For you formed my inward parts, and you knitted me together in my mother. There's a lot here. Goes on to say, I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works. I know that full well. Every night that I tuck Reagan Capri in the bed. She's 10 years old now. She praises. I prayed it over, braided it over, and prayed it over.

Because what I want to do is I want to take this anchor and lodge it deep into the heart of my little girl. This is true for boys and men to win. girls, it's true for every human being, that God formed our inward parts. First and foremost, the Bible clearly teaches that God is in the act of forming us and making us while we are in the womb. Part of the reason believers in Jesus must speak up for the unborn and must fight for the unborn is because there are no accidental children that we are purposed and planned by the all

Almighty God. And he made us just the way he wanted us to be made. Part of the reason I pray this over my little girl is because we grew up in a world, man, that's going to lie to her. It's going to lie to her. Everything from the Disney Channel to everywhere she goes to buy clothes, it's going to lie to her and say, what you look like is more important than who you are.

And if you're not beautiful, then you're not lovable. And she is beautiful. But the standard that this world puts on our girls is impossible and it's a lie. any time male or female, we begin to compare ourselves to other people, it's actually an affront against God. God made you to you that He thought would best glorify Him. And one of the most God glorifying things that you can do is be the you that He created you to be. One of the most faith-filled things that we can do as believers in Jesus Christ is trust that God knew what he was doing when he put us together. You see, if you go back to Genesis 1, you don't have to turn there. But when God created

everything, he just spoke and it was there. He said, let there be light and there was light. He just spoke and the sun and the moon popped into the sky. He just spoke and there was a sea and there was land. He just spoke and there were animals and there were plants. But when it came to mankind, he used his hands and his mouth and his breath and he intricately formed this thing together. When he makes you and me, he does not just speak us into existence, but he knits us together in our mother's womb, that we are his masterpiece created for good works. And we should praise God, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Fearfully means reverently, not like to be afraid, but to be reverent. God revered you when he made you. Now Romans will say, we're but a piece

of clay, and yet somehow, because we are image bearers of God, and God, and God, does not make mistakes that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and I hope that you know wonderful are the works of God and you are a work of God. And when you mistreat yourself, you're mistreating a work of God. And when you allow other people to mistreat you, you are allowing other people to mistreat a work of God. His works are wonderful, and I need you to know that full well. Listen to me, men and women, you are valuable and you should be treated as valuable. He says, my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in the secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance.

And in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet, there was none of them. You can't number my days. God has a purpose for you and me. God's got a plan for you and for me, that he has numbered your days, that we would walk in accordance with them, and that we would walk in a manner worthy of a gospel of Jesus Christ. And one of the worst things that you can do is be down on you because you are down on a creation of God. One of the worst things that you could do is to allow other people to mistreat you because they are mistreating this wonderful work of God. Verse 17, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them. The

will say, who am I? Who am I? That you would be mindful of me. And God would say, you're my son. You're my daughter. That in the kingdom of God. And I don't want to make too much of us, okay, because sometimes preachers make too much of us and not enough of God. But the almighty sovereign one that is all glorious and all holy and all righteous, he thinks you're a really big deal. Like he is really into you as an image bearer first and foremost. And even and more importantly as an adopted son or daughter, God is really into you. Then David says, your eyes saw my unformed substance and in your book were written. Every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet none of them were written,

how precious to me are your thoughts, oh God, how vast is some of them. If I were to count them, they are more than the sand. This is how much God's thinking about us. I awake and I am still with you. and then right on the heels of this, it says, oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God, oh men of blood depart from me, they speak against you with malicious intent,

your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with a complete hatred. I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and oh my heart. All right. It's almost like, David, you just messed up a great psalm.

I mean, this was so awesome. You were talking about we were fearfully and wonderfully made. Our works are wonderful. We know that full well. God, your thoughts of me are like the sands, and who are my that you would even consider me? And then all of a sudden, he goes on this little rant about it. And I hate the people that you hate, and those are enemies,

and would you bash their heads against the rocks? All right? All right, maybe David came off his meds. Now, listen, I'm not trying to make light of mental health at all. Really, really big deal. but I don't know what it has to call this. Does it seem like a bit of a, this is a prayer, by the way, okay? This is a prayer.

God, I am fearfully, wonderfully made. I know that full well. Would you bash my enemies? Search me and know my heart. See if there be any evil in me, to which I think, David, I think you got some evil thoughts in there, which leads me to this. Not only should we not fake it in this world

because God knew exactly what he was doing when he made you, and one of the worst things you can do is try to be anybody other than the you he created you to be. I think a part of what this prayer in Psalm 139 shows us is one of the worst things that you can do with God is fake your prayers and try to string together some beautiful poem that you think is going to impress God because if you have it on your heart

that there are wicked people trying to slay you, then maybe you need to spew that all over the Lord because he's a big God and he can handle it. He will never be offended, he'll never be surprised. He'll never be like, what in the name of me is she talking about? No, no, no, no. I think this is an invitation from the God that made us, called us, numbered our days, and knows us to say, amen, in your good times and in your tough times, bring it all to me.

This is why, because that's a part of what it means to be an image bearer of God too. Sometimes we have some wrath because God has wrath. Sometimes we have some anger. Now, don't sin in our anger, but God, God is angered. Now, God is love, but God can be provoked to anger, just like we can. And what we need to do in our humanity is bring that to him with the same intensity that we deal with it down in here. And then he says, search me, oh 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 of everlasting. Now, as post-resurrection spirit-filled followers of Jesus, you and I have an advantage over King David.

Did you know that? That from Pentecost until today, any believer that puts their faith in Jesus, the Spirit of God resides in us. Jesus said that the real teacher, he was going to send the comforter that was going to teach us everything that we needed to know. the only one that can actually teach you his word, and especially the only one that can teach you what's going down in secret places of the soul is not me. I can expose, expository preaching just means to expose. That's what I do.

I try to read a verse and say this is what it means. That's expository preaching. And so when I teach or preach from the Bible, I can expose you to the scriptures, but only the Spirit of God can expose the scriptures. to you. I hope you see the difference. So I dare you to pray this prayer

and open up your hands and open up your hearts and open up your soul and invite God. Say, search me, oh 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. And in particular, pray that prayer in light of Psalm 139. God, do you knit me together? you formed me you you you you have intricently woven me together God would you search my heart would you search my soul

in my relationships in work in my family in my walk with you and would you point out to me God any way that does not line up with what you have planned for me let me we're good and grace is Heavenly Father God may we never take to life your invitation for us to call you Father. And may we respond to you as a father. May we come running to you.

May we trust you because you are so trustworthy. And God, we invite you search us. And Lord, would you convict us to the places where we are not being the us that you created us to be when you came up with the idea of? God, we thank you that you're with us always, wherever we go. God, for areas of our life where we have asked you to ignore, Lord, would you expose those areas that we would repent of our sin?

And when we sin, that we would come running to you instead of running from you. God, we thank you that we can confess that your works are wonderful and we know that full well. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen.