The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 20: Your Works Are Wonderful

Episode Date: September 4, 2022

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. – Psalm 139:14 You are valuable and you should be treated as valuable.

1122, how are we doing? We doing well? Hey, please, stop. You are just setting yourself up to be let down. I'm just telling you. Man, what an amazing story for the Adam Acts, Austin and Lindsay. Come on, can we just honor God for that? I mean, man, I mean, you know,

that's going to be a good-looking boy. You know what I'm saying? I apologize to my children that this is half of their gene pool right here. Hey, it isn't always an honor to be here. I'm actually going to be sitting down a little bit in teaching today because I have massively hurt my back. And so I'm kind of trying to hold off a spinal fusion surgery.

So if you're around me later and you're like, man, what is that intoxicating aroma? It's icy hot. That is what is on my, that's what's on my body right now. My wife can't get enough of it. And that's not true, and she's here, and I apologize for that, sweetheart. It's always an honor to be at 11-20. and you know, I feel like every time I come and get to preach here, it carries so much weight for me, not only because your pastor is one of my closest friends and we've been friends for almost

17 years and we knew each, when we both met, neither of us had beards and we all had hair. And so I would like to point out how much darker mine is, though, than your pastors. It's all my clean living. And I don't know what that says about Jobie, but anyway. And so it's just an honor to be here. And I always want you to know that you are a part of something special. And what's happening at 1122? And I know Pastor Jobie's out at different campuses today. And I think y'all have a campus you're planting on Mars next year. And so what is happening in the growth of this church? And it's not growth for growth's sake, right? We're not building churches and planting campuses so that we can say, look how big 1122 is. We're doing that and y'all are doing that

to say, look how many people Jesus is saving. And look at how many people of what God is doing in the city of Jacksonville and Jessup and Mars and all the places that you guys are going to do stuff. And I just hope you understand how thankful you should be that you get to be a part of a church like this. And there's tons of great churches in America. I'm biased because I love your pastor so much.

Can you just honor him and put your hands together for Pastor Jobi? I think it's always important. I know I've been here a few times, but I think it's always important as a communicator that you know a little bit about me with what I'm about to share. So I actually brought a picture of my family because I want you to understand who my family is. That's me looking like Rip from Yellowstone because I'm a man of God. That's my son, Aiden, in the back with that hair is majestic, guys. Like I know that we're not supposed to covet, you know, in our hearts, but man, that hair, every time he comes in, I think he does it on purpose. He like flips his head back and like does this.

So I'm going to have to break the news to him that this is coming one day. But he is a sophomore at Kennesaw State in Atlanta. And then next year he will actually transfer to the University of Georgia and finish out his degree there. Hey, also, just a side note, this has nothing to do with my sermon. Everyone in here that's a Florida Gator fan. Hold on. Don't quench the Holy Spirit by cheering for the Gators. Okay, so God will leave.

He's like, I can't put up with this. Y'all better come to the altar at the end of the service and thank the good Lord y'all beat Utah last night. I'm just saying I watched it. I was watching it just for the Gators to lose so I could make jokes this morning at y'all's expense like a good pastor. That is my wife, Becca, behind our daughter.

On Tuesday, my wife and I've been married 19 years. And so, yeah, she is a lucky woman. And that is our daughter, Riley. Riley is 14 years old. And she is in high school. And usually I travel by myself, but my wife and my daughter are actually here with me. So could you honor them for putting up with me

for 19, 20 years? Guys, I don't know if you could tell, but living with me probably isn't always the easiest thing. and so I'm thankful for them and love them so much. So I'm excited about today. You know, when Pastor Jobi called me and asked me to preach, he said, hey, we're going to be in a series going through the Book of Psalms.

Now, that wasn't initially very exciting for me. And the reason is, and I know I shouldn't say this as a pastor, the book of Psalms is not one of my favorite books in the Bible. It's very artsy, it's very wordy, it's very poetic, it's like very just beautiful language. My brain doesn't work that way. Like, give me some Old Testament, Noah and the Ark, Jonah and the Whale. Let's go New Testament, Peter cutting a dude's ear off.

You know what I mean? That's what I want. So when he called me and said, hey, I want you to preach a sermon on Psalms. I was kind of, on the book of Psalms, I was kind of like, oh, man, okay, I go, what chapter? He said, well, I want you to preach a chapter on Psalms 139. Now, what's interesting about me is I don't always like the book of Psalms, but I absolutely love chapter 139 in the book of Psalms. I think it is one of the most important chapters in Scripture. The reason that I think it is one of the most important chapters in Scripture

is because one of the first things it does is it gives us three attributes about God's power and who God is. The other thing it does is it tells us who we are in our relationship with God. And the reason that that is so important, and please hear me when I say this, you cannot know who you are if you do not understand your relationship with God. You cannot fully grasp what you have been created for, what you have been called to, and what you have been purposed for if you do not understand, A, the power of our God, but be the relationship that he has created you and desired you to have with him. So here's what we're going to do this morning. We are just going to walk through Psalm 139, and we're going to go kind of line.

by line. I'm going to sit down. So just consider this coffee with Uncle Josh. And so it's one of those things that this is a little bit more teaching. So there's a lot of different attributes about God that we're going to see. There's three of them. But then there's a lot of different Hebrew words that we're going to look at because, you know, Psalms was written in the Hebrew and there's different pictures that God gives us when you understand the context of the Hebrew word that it is written in. So if you're taking notes, the first thing that we see in the book of Psalms in Psalm 139 is God knows all about us. God knows all about us. It says this, O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.

You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I'm going to say even before I say it, Lord, which can we just be like, stop me sometimes, Jesus. Like, just help me out. Like, if I'm in heaven and you're going,

oh, he better not. And you know what I mean? Just a Holy Spirit would help me out every once in a while. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand. The biblical attribute that we would use,

that we would ascribe to God in this is omniscience. God is all-knowing. So that means that God knows everything, about everything. Nothing has ever occurred to God. God has never looked at Jesus and said, hey, you know what I was thinking yesterday? Because God knows everything. God is omniscient. He is all-knowing. Now, one of the things that always continues to blow my mind about God is that in all God's omniscient, all-knowing power, one of the things that he has chosen to know everything about is me and you. He chose to know everything about us.

He chose to know everything about you. Let me show you what I'm talking about. If you look at those first four verses again, it says this, Oh, Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. I think a lot of you are probably using the ESV version. The ESV version would say, Lord, you have searched my heart. But that word examined or searched in the Hebrew,

when you read it, that one word gives us three mental pictures. The three mental pictures it gives us is first of a minor that is digging deep down into the earth, looking for coal, looking for diamonds, looking for gold. It also gives us the mental picture of an explorer who has found a new land and is exploring that new land going through all the mountains and the valleys and the hills and really exploring, you know, everything about this land. The third picture it gives us is of a lawyer who is investigating a legal document. So in the very first verse of Psalm 139, David the psalmist that's writing this says, God, you have dug down deep

into my heart and examine me. God, you have you have explored every area of me like an explorer who has found land. And God, you have investigated me like a lawyer who is investigating a legal document. In the very first sentence, in the very first verse, what we see is that God knows a lot about us and it's not just surface stuff, God's digging deep into us. God knows everything about you and I goes on, he says, you know when I sit down or stand up. So God knows whether you're active, you're inactive. You know my thoughts, even when I'm far away. Terrifying to anybody else in here?

That God knows your thoughts? Like every single one of us in here, we should read this and go, oh no. Like there should be a little bit of that in us. I got tailgated coming in here when we drove in from Atlanta, and there was a guy on JTV. I'm going to be real honest with you. I didn't want the Lord to know my thoughts

about that person behind me that he fearfully and wonderfully created. We all have these thoughts, and what gets me about that verse in particular, it says even when I'm far away from you, it's amazing how we think that distance matters to God. Even when you are far away from God in your heart, in your mind, and your whatever, your distance to God doesn't limit his power.

It doesn't limit his knowledge about you. So God knows everything about as it goes on. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. I love the part that says, you see me when I rest at home. Resting at home is like the most mundane thing ever. Some of us in here today, we're going to leave church,

and we're going to do a lay on the couch, and we're going to watch NFL football all day long. And then if you're a Christian, you're going to watch Florida State tonight beat LSU, okay? And we're going to intercede for the Gators' souls. But we're going to do that, and we're going to just be mundane. And what gets me is that God is watching me in my most mundane activity.

When you're sitting on the couch today, God knows you. He's watching you. And it makes me think, for all of us parents in here, you remember when you had your first kid? The first kid's always the favorite, right? I mean, the second one, you're just like,

whatever, my second one's over there. And so, she's my favorite, hands down. You remember when that baby was born? And you would just watch your baby for hours. They were doing nothing. But it was the best thing that a baby had ever done that has ever lived on this earth, ever. I think when I read this, this is the picture I get of God. As I'm sitting there watching football, God's like, Jesus, come here, look at him.

Yeah, he's eating Fritos again. Yeah, yeah, no, he's dipping him in cream cheese. He's disgusting. Yeah, I know, I don't. And he's just, he has chosen to know everything about us. even in our most mundane moments. So here's the question that I ask myself. If God knows everything about me,

you know, I think God, he knows us better than we know ourselves. Have you ever done something and gone, why did I do that? What was I thinking, God's in heaven going, I have an answer for that. Would you like me to explain? think about how many people pay a lot of good money for counseling. I see a counselor once a week.

We pay a lot of good money for counseling for people to help us understand ourselves better. And God knows everything about us. God knows everything about you. So my question I always find myself asking myself at times is, why do I fake it with him sometimes? Why do I try to lie to myself in my prayers to make God think that I'm doing better than I am.

Have you ever done that? Let me ask you this question. This is the thing that I've learned that I do. I was actually talking about with my counselor. You ever go to, like, let's say you sin and do something wrong, and you go to God in prayer to repent. But as you're repenting, you're giving God the reasons why you did it. Like, Lord, I'm really sorry about last night how I blew up at the kids.

I mean, but you know how she can be at times, Jesus. And I just was just asking, or you make some bad mistakes. and then you're like, well, you know, my boss was hard on me. Like, we try to justify things as if God doesn't know us, as if God doesn't know us to our very core. Like, there are times in prayer that I go to God and I say, God, I feel this way and I don't even know why I feel this way, I need you to help me.

He knows me that well. And not only does he know me that well, and this is one of the things that is always so hard for me to wrap my mind around, with the grace and the love of God. He knows all the worst things about me, the things that I don't want anybody else to know, the things that I'm ashamed of, the things that I still go,

Josh, how are you still dealing with this? He knows all those things about me. He knows all those things about you. And he still chose us. He chose us before the foundations of the world were laid. He picked you. He knows every bad thought, thing, sin, whatever you want to call it, that we will all do for

the rest of our lives, and he still chose us. He still picked us. He said, I want this man, I want this woman to be in relationship with me. So I'm going to have my Holy Spirit move on their heart to lead them. to Jesus so I can forgive their sins so that they can be in a relationship with me. He didn't look at us in his knowledge and go, they're filthy and dirty. I'm out of here. I've had it with this. I can't handle anymore. He knows you and he chose you. And that is just the most beautiful thing to me. I'm the one going, God, I'm filthy, I'm dirty, I'm sinful, I'm gross, I'm broken.

I have all these issues and he's going, yeah, yeah, but my son. My son paid for the way that you feel about yourself. And I actually already chose. you before any of that stuff happened anyway. Does that not blow your mind that right now as you sit in Jacksonville, Florida, that the sovereign God of the universe that knows everything about you, that knows the beginning from the end, knows how this whole thing plays out, loved you so much to know everything about you and choose you. It is beautiful. And here's other things. So this, listen, it goes on in verse five. He says, you go before me, you go before me and follow me, you place your hand of blessing on my head. So you go before me and you follow me.

Once again, when you read this in the Hebrew, it's giving us a picture. Now, I think your Bible actually says the ESV, it says hemmed in. And that's actually a very accurate word for it. That God goes before us, he comes behind us. He hymns us in and he leads us. The picture that David is painting when he writes this in the Hebrew is that it is the God of the universe hymming you in as if he is protecting something valuable. So every one of us, God knows us. Better than you know yourself. Better than I know myself.

He knows all the good things about us, all the bad things about us. And he's hemmed us in. And he's walking with us and guiding us and protecting us because to the God of the universe, we are something valuable. The first thing is, is that God knows everything about us. The second thing is this. God is always with us. I can never escape from your spirit.

I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me

and the light around me to become night. But even in darkness, I cannot hide from you. To the night, to you, the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. The biblical attribute that we would describe to God from these verses is that God is omnipresent. What that means is God is everywhere all the time.

I don't even fully know how to process that, right? But right now, we're here at San Pablo. God's presence is here. God's presence also at the Mandarin campus. God's presence is also in a children's hospital room at Wolfson Children's Hospital. God's also probably in a room, his presence at Mayo right now. God's probably also in the Ukraine.

God's probably also at a wedding right now because a couple's getting married. God's presence is everywhere. Now one of the things that's very interesting about this scripture when you read it is that some scholars and theologians believe that actually what's happening as David starts writing, okay, I can't go to heaven,

heaven, you're there. I can't go to the grave, you're there. He says, I can't go to the wings on the morning, which represents the west, you're there. I can't go to the farthest ocean, you're there, which represents the east. And then he goes into darkness. So he goes, I can't go to the darkness because you're there as well. So David basically goes, God, you are absolutely everywhere. You know everything about me. I can't go distance. I can't go death, and I can't go darkness, because you're in all of these places. And what theologians some believe is that David actually starts freaking out a little bit. The David's like, oh, God, you're so great.

You know absolutely everything about me. You know everything that I'm going to do, think, or say. Oh, God, you know everything about me. And you know everything I'm going to do. And I can't get away from you. I mean, God, if I went at a far distance, you're still there. God, if I went to the death, to the grave or to heaven, you're there. If I can't go to the darkness, because the darkness,

and they said that he starts, like, kind of freaking out a little bit. Now, let me say this. I don't know if I 100% agree with that. You know, most, I hope you know this. All pastors, authors, commentary writers, leaders, theologians, whatever, at the end of the day, we're all men and women doing our best to communicate on behalf of a holy God and interpret scripture on behalf of a holy God. So there's tons of different people that have different mindsets and ideas of what certain

verses mean. So I say all that and say, I don't know if David is freaking out in this moment. I don't understand if David is like, God, you know everything about me, and holy cow, I can't escape. I don't know if that's what's happening, but I understand it if that is what's happening. I understand that David is having this moment where he's realizing, oh, my gosh, God knows everything about me, and there's nowhere I can hide from him. Because in all of us, sitting there this little bit of us at times where we want to hide from God, isn't it weird what shame and guilt will do?

You ever done something wrong or made a mistake and then you feel like you shouldn't even come to church? You ever done something on Saturday that made you not come to church on Sunday? You ever done something you're not proud of and you've actually thought to yourself, well, God will never forgive me for this? You ever done something and then not run to God with it

but you've actually made you kind of push back a little bit thinking that that was too much and he'll never? And if you're like that, I get that. But we also see it in Scripture. At the very beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis, we see the very first two people that God creates, Adam and Eve. He puts them in the Garden of Eden and says, listen, guys, you can do anything you want.

Just don't eat from this tree. Now, mind you, they're both naked, and God said, do whatever you want. That was a sex joke. Just don't eat from this tree. You can do whatever. Just don't eat from this tree. We know how the story goes.

Adam and Eve eat from the tree. They eat the fruit. They realize they're naked. What's the first thing they do? They hide. Holy cow, we messed up. Oh my gosh, God's going to know. Adam, what are we going to do?

I don't know, Eve, let's hide. Guys, we still play that out in our lives all the time. And they're hiding, and I think they're probably hiding because they think God's mad or disappointed. I think a lot of us hide. I know I do. I hide at times because I think God is mad or disappointed. Like he's walking through the garden going,

boy, where are you going? You're going to get a whippin. You know what I mean? Like that's what we think sometimes. I kind of channeled my father there a little bit. Daddy wounds. But that's what we think. That we've messed up too much.

We've gone too far. We did the one thing we said, would never do again. And so instead of running to God, we actually run away and hide from God, just like Adam and Eve do. We see it. There's a lot of phones going off in this place right now. It's like working at a call center. So, but what if, what if the whole reason that God went looking for Adam and Eve in the garden after they ate the fruit? And it's not like that God didn't know they ate the fruit. He is omniscient. he is all-knowing.

And it's not like he didn't know where they were. Adam's like hiding behind a bush. And God's like, where are you, Adam? It's like playing hide and go seek with a toddler. Oh man, you're such a good hider, Adam, you're the best. I'll never be able to find you. I can see his feet. You know what I mean?

So what if the whole reason that God went looking for Adam and Eve was not because he was angry, Not because he was upset, but first off, because he was already in relationship with him, and that he wasn't mad, but he just loved him so much that it caused him to go look for him. So when I started reading this, it starts messing with me. What if I change my perspective? What would it look like for all of us in here to change our perspective?

And maybe having that little bit of fear in us or the fear that we're going to disappoint God, and so we just don't want to deal with it or we want to run from it or whatever. What if instead of that being our mindset, we actually flipped it and we're actually super thankful that we have an omnipresent God? Because if we have an omnipresent God,

which means God is absolutely everywhere at all times, then you know what else is everywhere all the time? His mercy. His grace. His compassion. His love. So that moment when you're at your house and you're having one of those dark nights of the soul and your life isn't going the way that you thought it should, maybe by your own choices or outside of your control circumstances, and you're on your floor and you're crying and you're crying out to God going, God, where are you in that moment that you get to, you get to actually say to yourself, he's here.

He's with me right here. He's by me in this moment. So what would it look like for us to say, God, I'm. I'm not going to be freaked out a little bit anymore. God, I'm actually so thankful that when I have to repent, or God, I want to give you praise, or I want to celebrate something with you, Lord, that I don't have to climb a mountain in some foreign country

to a hut that was built by a hermit 3,000 years ago to be able to be in your presence. God, I want to thank you that when I'm driving in my car and I have something to praise you about, that in that moment your presence is with me. God, I want to thank you that when I'm in a hospital room and we're about to go into surgery, that your presence is with me. God, I want to thank you that when I need to repent and ask for forgiveness, that your presence is with me.

I don't know about you, but I am super thankful that I have a God that knows everything about me and is always with me. That is walking with me at all times. So what we see is we see a God that knows everything about us, and we have a God that is always with us. And then the third and final thing is this is we have a God that personally created us. It says this in verse 13. These five verses are some of my favorite verses in all of Scripture. You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous, how well I know it. That's part gets me. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. Can we just, when nobody else knew anything about you, When nobody else knew what you would look like, the personality you would have, the color of your eyes, God was watching you being formed in the womb of your mother.

The God of the universe who laid the foundations is watching you be knit together. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. how precious are your thoughts about me, oh God? They cannot be numbered. I can't even count them. They outnumber the grains of sand,

and when I wake up, you are still with me. The biblical attribute that we would describe to God from these verses is omnipotent. If you're a redneck like me, it's omnipotent. But it's omnipotent. And it means that God is all-powerful. That there is nothing that God cannot do. There is nothing that is outside of God's power.

And in relation to us, I think it's one of the most beautiful things ever. Let me show what I'm talking about. I have a picture. I want to show you. I stole this from my friend Louis Giglio. This is a picture of the Milky Way galaxy. This is the galaxy that you and I live in. Now, there are hundreds of thousands of other galaxies out there.

There's actually NASA just released new pictures from a new telescope that they built that found other galaxies. They didn't even know existed. I show you this because these are the types of things that come out of the mouth of our God when he says let there be light. So when God said let there be light, this came rocketing out of his mouth at 186,000 miles per second because that's how fast light travels. There are just in our galaxy, just the small one that you and I live in, not the hundreds and thousands of other ones out there, there are 200 billion stars in just our galaxy. And scientists tell us that if we were to count one star per second, it would take a number one star per second, it would take a two and a half years to count every star in the Milky Way galaxy. The reason I show you this is because I think what we end up doing

is we end up looking at things like this and we go, that's amazing. That is unbelievable. I mean, I cannot believe. We look at planets, we look at stars. God spoke that into existence. God just said, let there be light and that came out of his mouth going 186,000 miles per second. Spoke it into existence.

But you, he made you with his hands. He took the time to knit you together. I don't know if you've ever made anything by hand. Most of the time you make something by hand, there's a purpose for the thing that you're making. There's a reason that you're making it. God made us by hand. He knit us together in the wounds of our mother.

And I think we look at the Milky Way and we go, I mean, that is incredible. 200 billion stars. Well, you have 75 trillion cells in your body. You have 375 times the amount of cells in your body that the Milky Way has stars.

You have a million optic nerves that move from the back of your eye to your brain. And here's the thing. They have to match perfectly. It's not like they just go down there and it's like, you know, spaghetti, you know, just matching together.

It has to be one has to match with one. $215,000, $212 has to match 215,215,209, 343,209, has to match with 343,209. Or you don't see. And what I'm trying to get you to understand and see is that the God of the universe, who knows everything about you, who is always with you, personally made you. He personally knit you together and puts you together by his hands. And I don't know if you're like me.

when I read the Bible, it's like movie scenes sometimes or like just, you know, film or the way that I imagine that's happening. And every time I read this, I just always think that God and Jesus are in heaven, which they are. But I think that they're having this conversation of God's creating someone. He's like, hey, Jesus, come here. Hey, this one right here, this guy, he's going to be the missionary that takes the gospel to this tribe in this country that have never heard about you. Yeah, you, you, you. And they're actually going to get saved and they're going to start a movement and we're going to see a whole country get saved

because of what I'm doing. Jesus, this lady, this lady right here, she doesn't know it. Jesus, because listen, what I'm going to do? What I'm going to do, Jesus? She's on cure cancer. I'm putting her together. I know. It's crazy. And this redneck from Dylan, South Carolina, we're going to use him to plan a church in Jacksonville, Florida, called 1122, and then we're going to see a bunch of people get save and then we're going to see people start changing a city and I'm going to use this guy right here and I think that God gets so much joy out of knitting us together with a purpose and a plan. You realize there will never be another you. You don't have, you may have someone that looks like you. People often tell me that I look like Ryan Reynolds. That's what you call name it and claim it,

guys, often confused with Brad Pitt. There will never be another you. There may be people that look like you. There may be people that have similar personalities. There will never be another you. Because God made you unique. And he made you with a purpose and a plan. I think a lot of you know, I have a, our daughter, Riley,

is the 12th known case in the world of a rare genetic disorder. and so I was going to go pray for her one night in her room as she was going to sleep. So I go and I kneel beside her bed and I put my hand on her and I start praying for God to heal her. God would just strengthen her muscles and God thank you for who she is and God just heal her and as I'm praying she goes, stop. She goes, don't pray for God to heal me. She goes, God made me this way for a reason and God doesn't make mistakes. And I was just like, I didn't even know what to do.

I was like, all right, well, see you later. Good night. Becca, you know, your daughter wants you, you know. I'm going to play Fortnite. Sometimes the world that we live in can make us feel like a mistake. And there may be some of you in here that right now you feel like a mistake. Some of you may be in relationships, not marriages, relationships. You always have to be very careful with that because some guy married goes, yes, I'm out.

get out of here, Sheila. You know what I mean? So it's like in relationships, and that person has made you feel a certain way about yourself and think a certain way about yourself. And it's something that God has not spoken over you. Every single one of you in here, you have a purpose. You have a plan that God created you with. And one of the most beautiful things about this is not only did God create you with a purpose and a plan, not only does he know everything about you, not only is he always with you, but the Bible tells us he has good thoughts about us.

It actually says he has so many good thoughts about you that they outnumber the grains of sand on the earth. So I googled how many grains of sand are estimated to be on the earth. What I got back, I can only assume was a number, but it had letters in it, so I did not know what to do with that. I was like, I don't even know how to communicate this. So then I googled, how many grains of sand are estimated in eight ounces? This is eight ounces of sand.

There are over five million grains of sand in this eight ounces. And the Bible says that your creator that knows everything about you. you that is always with you, that personally made you, just in this, over five million good thoughts about you. So just try to comprehend all the sand on the earth. Just comprehend the Sahara, Jack's Beach, St. Augustine. I don't understand it. I don't understand how the God that laid the foundations of the earth and the world, who knows everything about us, who is always with us and personally created us, has that many good thoughts about us. But I'm really thankful. I don't have to understand it for it to be true. And I'm really

thankful that God's truth is not based off of our understandings all the time. That God's truth is based off of His Word. And His word tells us that he has good thoughts about us that outnumber the grains of sand on the earth. And you may be in here and feel a terrible way about yourself and think that there is no way that God could feel any way different about you. His word says very differently. And there's probably some of you in here this morning that you need to respond to this message whatever the Holy Spirit spoke to you. Some of you need to come to this altar is Olson and the team lead us here in a minute. I say, God, I actually want to help.

I want you to change my perspective, and I want to be thankful that you know everything about me. And God, I don't have to fake it with you. I don't have to dress up my words to you. I can just be raw and real and honest. And God, you're right there with me in that moment. I think I've said this here before. There's a band that I love called the Avet Brothers.

And their grandfather was a pastor, and they took some of his old sermons and turned him into songs. And there's just this, the first time I heard it, I like rewound it. I was like, that's a weird line. And they said, I sometimes use cuss words when I pray. I've been there. I about a lot of you in here have as well. And can I just say this to you? God can handle it.

He just wants you to keep coming to him. So you can be real with him. Some of you need to come down and go, God, help me to be real with you. Some of you need to come down and say, God, help me. Help me to be thankful that you're always with me. Some of you need to come down and say, God, I need you to help me figure out what my purpose is. God, I've been trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with my life, but, God, I wasn't the one that created me. So how am I supposed to figure out what I'm supposed to do when I didn't create me with a purpose in the first place you did?

So, God, I need you to give me wisdom and guide me and open and closed doors that come from you. and God, I will follow it to the best of my ability. But maybe for some of you in here, the first step for you is committing your life to Jesus Christ. Guys, it's always about Jesus. Do you understand that if it were not for Jesus, that none of us in this room, and nobody that has ever walked this earth

except for Jesus would ever be able to be in a relationship with God? Because we all have sin. The Bible says that all have sinned and all have fallen short of God's glory. That means everybody, in the Hebrew means everybody, everybody. We all have. And we're able to have a purpose and we're able to have hope and we're able to have a future because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. And maybe you don't know what Jesus did for you.

So let me just tell you, we are all sinners who have fallen short of God's glory. and because of our sin, we were separated from God. But God loved us so much. See, so many people think that God sent Jesus because we were so messed up. I think God sent Jesus because he loved us so much. He said, I love you so much that I desire a relationship with you. I desire to walk with you. I desire you to know me.

So the only way that that can happen is I need a perfect sacrifice to pay for what you cannot pay for, which is your own sins, and Jesus is that perfect sacrifice. So the Bible tells us that Jesus went to the cross for us, all the punishment that you and I deserve for our sins. God placed upon Jesus. What always was in my mind, Jesus took it. He took it for you. And he stayed on that cross for you.

and it tells us that when we confess with our mouth and we believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he was crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected, that in that moment we are reconciled to God. So some of you right now in this moment, I'm going to give you an opportunity. You can say, God, I am a sinner. Your son is my Savior. And I believe that he was crucified. I believe that he was dead.

I believe that he was resurrected to save me. Jesus be my Savior. And in that moment, you are reconciled to God. You are brought into right relationship with God. And all your sins are separated from you as far away as the east is from the west. What that means is they're not even close. They keep going.

There's some of you today. You need to respond to the message. But there's some of you that you're here, because for the first time ever, you need to surrender your life to Jesus. So I'm going to give both groups an opportunity. So if you just close your eyes and bow your heads with me, if you're in here and you would say, Josh, I'm, I need to commit my life to Jesus for the first time ever. I need to accept what Jesus did for me on the cross. And I need forgiveness for my sins that can only come for him. If you're in here and you would say, Josh, today I want to commit my life to Jesus for the first time.

I'm going to count to three. I'm just going to ask you to raise your hand. If you're in here and you need to commit your life to Jesus for the first time ever, I'm going to count to three. I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. One, two, three. Raise them. Amen.

Amen. You guys can put this down. Now, if you're in a few, three. here and you would say, I just need to respond to this message. Whatever that is for you, whatever the Holy Spirit spoke to you, I'm going to count to three and I want you to raise your hand. One, two, three, raise them. Lots of hands. God, we thank you that you are a good God. God, that you love us. God, that you know all about us and you chose us. Thank you, God. God, for every person in here that is raising their hand for this right now, God, I pray that as they take this step out and come to this altar here in a few moments, that you would meet them in the place that they need you to meet them, God.

God, would you let them know how you see them and how you love them and how you care for them? And God, could you let them know some of the good thoughts that you have about them? 1122, I'm going to lead us in a prayer for everyone in here. It's just a statement of faith. and let's say it like we mean it, and let's speak it out, say, Lord Jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all my sins. Jesus, right now I confess with my mouth, and I believe in my heart that you are the son of God. That you were crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected for me. Save me, Jesus, and be the Lord of my life.

Amen.