Jan 22nd, 2020
Title: Jesus is calling
By Jeannie L Horton Life Christian University student#17122
Text: Psalm 139:1-18,
23-24
“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 am going to say even before I say it,
Lord. 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! I
can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If
I go up to heaven, 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 you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you. 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. You
watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in
the dark of the womb. 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, O 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! Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me
and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and
lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
Introduction:
1. Every time I turn on
the news, I learn of something tragic that is happening in the world. It has
become rare that there is ever a story reported on something good. I often
think that when the newsman goes on and on about how we can get prepared for
the 1% possibility of snow, nothing bad has happened (which is good), and they
didn’t have anything to report on.
2. The world needs hope:
People are desperate for it. Today we are going to be studying from Psalm 139.
It points the way to a God that is all-knowing, eternal, and present
everywhere. It is a psalm that gives comfort and hope because our God cares,
and with His mighty hand, He guides and leads us. He is a God that will not
abandon us ever.
Proposition: The
ever-present, all-knowing God thoroughly knows us and has a purposeful plan for
us.
Interrogative Sentence:
How can we be confident that God knows what is best for our life?
Transitional Sentence: As
we study the text from Psalm 139, we’ll see that we serve a big God who is 100%
present in our lives, so we can be confident in saying yes to the plan and
purpose that He has for us.
1. Reading from Psalm
139:1-6, we’ll see that God knows everything about us. It says,
“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 am going to
say even before I say it, Lord. 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!”
a.
God examines our hearts, and He knows everything about us
As
much as I think I know my own two teenage children, it is nothing compared to
what God knows about us. I don’t know what my kids are thinking, and I’m not
sure I’d really want to know at times. But God knows all about us. He knows how
many hairs we have on our head, to the number of tears that we shed, to our
every thought. Yet He purposefully chose, accepts, and loves us
unconditionally. In Mathew chapter 9, Jesus healed a paralyzed man and told him
that his sins were forgiven. The religious teachers accused Jesus of blasphemy.
Jesus said to His disciples in Mathew 9:4, “Why do you have such evil thoughts
in your hearts?” He didn’t say this to condemn them, but to convict them of
their wrong words. He wanted them to turn their thinking around for good, with
thoughts outwardly expressed are true, pure, and that speak only love and hope.
The verse is also saying that He examines our hearts. Proverbs 16:2 from the
amplified bible says, “All the ways of a man are clean and innocent in his own
eyes [and he may see nothing wrong with his actions], But the Lord weighs and
examines the motives and intents [of the heart and knows the truth].” We could
do something good and noble for God, but if our heart attitude isn’t right or
if we are doing it with wrong motives, God isn’t going to bless our actions.
Trying
to comprehend God’s infinite wisdom entirely is beyond our human understanding.
Romans 11:33, “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How
impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!” Just think
about it for a moment. God, who named every star in our galaxy, and they're
about 200 billion, knows everything about us. When He created the universe, the
stars, and planets, He already knew us. He knew what we’d be like, and what
we’d look like. He knew how many children we’d have, our joys, heartbreaks,
blessings, and disappointments. Nothing is shocking to God. So, don’t try and
hide from Him. If you sin, go to Him, confess it. He already knows what you
did, but confessing it and being open to Him makes us humble, which allows His
grace to be poured on to us in our repentance.
b.
God often arranges our circumstances
God’s ways are best, and He often
wants to test and strengthen our hearts. In the book of Exodus, God arranged
the Israelites to go the long hard way to the promised land. After Pharaoh let
the Israelites go, God did not lead them the shorter way, which was through the
Philistine territory. This area would have been a more direct route but was
also heavily guarded by Egypt. God says in verse 17, "If they face war,
they might change their minds and return to Egypt." He instead led them
around the desert toward the Red Sea. This route was hot, dry, and barren. The
Israelites complained a lot; They were utterly disobedient. What should have
only taken a few weeks, took 40 years. But God in His wonderful grace, never
left their side. Even thru their constant complaints, He kept showering them
with love through miracles, food and water. They were always provided for. God
kept His promise, and they were led into the promised land.
In
our lives, we need to get good about not complaining about everything that we
have to do. Things like slow store lines, discourteous drivers, and situations
that don’t go our way are going to happen to us, and it does no good to get
upset and lose our peace. Complaining is only going to make things worse:
getting upset over a small offense is only going to hurt you. The world is
getting more offended. It’s a decision not to be. And be quick to forgive. If
you feel offended by someone, learn to drop it and forget about it. There’s
probably nothing you can do about it anyway in most cases. Do not stoop to
their level by lashing back, that’s how strife starts. You’ll keep your peace,
and God will bless you for it.
Transitional Sentence: I
feel completely in awe that the God that created the universe, in His infinite
wisdom, knows so much about me, will pull me off the wrong path and onto the
right one. He arranges circumstances to get me back on track. Wow, I am so very
thankful. We’ll now move on to verses 7-12, where we will learn about the
omnipresence of God, and how choosing His plan for our life will ultimately
bring us the most joy, and His blessings.
2. Verses 7-12,
“I can never
escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to
heaven, 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 you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are
the same to you.”
a.
The omnipresence of God
David
recognized the omnipresence of God in these verses. He knew God’s presence is
everywhere: from heaven to sheol, in the light and the darkness. It is useless
to try and run from God. He is everywhere, and I am thankful for that. He is
eternal, He has always existed, and He will exist at the end of time. Even if
you could run from God, why would you want to? He is a God that loves and
provides all of our needs. In my life, I don’t want to do anything without the
Lord. I need Him with me at all times. I especially need Him with me as a
long-distance runner. Years ago, I was running all alone in Gasquet, CA.
Gasquet, CA, is a very small town, and the trail is right off the main highway.
The trail would go up about 3 miles and 2000 ft before it connected to French
Hill Road. Once on French Hill road, you could either go right, and you’d head
down for quite a while, or you could take a left, and it would go up for at
least seven or so miles. It wasn’t an easy running trail: I called it good
training. But there was only one way back to my car, the trail. I was running
20 miles that day, and I’m almost back on to the trail, but I kept thinking I
hear a rattling sound in the bushes. I knew there were black bears and cougars
that I could encounter, so I thought to myself, “if I hear that noise one more
time, I’m going stop and see what it is.” Well, I didn’t hear it again, because
about ¼ of a mile away is a huge black bear on the road. I stop, pull my
ear-piercing body alarm. I’m yelling, and waving my arms. The bear looks up,
and it starts walking towards me. I panic, turn around and head the other way.
I’m thinking, “I don’t want to go the other way. I want to go home.” I stop,
turn around, and head towards the bear to see if it left. It didn’t. I yell at
it again, and it starts walking towards me again. I say a prayer, “Lord, help!”
God tells me to get off the road and enter the forest and go around it. Well
that works, because I’m loud stomping through the trees and bushes. I see it
run away. I get onto the trail and run fast; it was a personal record all the
way back down to my car. I’m genuinely thankful God is always with me.
b.
Will you choose God’s plan or yours?
We
do sometimes have a different plan for our lives then what God wants for us.
But we’ll be happiest when we align our will with God’s. When Jesus was in the
Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed three times that God would take the cup from
Him. Jesus didn’t want to die; He didn’t want to go to the cross. But Jesus
also said in His prayer, “not My will, but Yours.” Even though Jesus didn’t
want to die, He still wanted to be obedient to God. He wanted to do the
Father’s will: which was dying on the cross for our sins so that all of us
could have right standing with the Father once again. We are in a partnership
with Him: He isn’t ever going to ask you to do anything without His hand on it.
He will strengthen you for the job. He isn’t ever going to ask you to do
something for Him, but leave you stranded without the ability to do it.
Jonah
tried to run from God. When God asked him to go to Nineveh and preach to the
people there, Jonah didn’t want to. He instead got in a boat headed towards
Tarshish. God, knowing what Jonah was up to, sent a fierce storm that left him
shipwrecked and in the belly of a whale where he stayed for three days and
three nights. After Jonah finally repented of his disobedience, God, in His
grace and mercy made the fish to spit Jonah up. Where? On the shore of Nineveh,
exactly where God wanted him to be. Jonah stayed there for 40 days preaching to
the people there until they turned from their wickedness in repentance.
Will
you do the same? Will you say like Jesus, “not my will, but Yours?” Or will you
refuse and try and run from God like Jonah? I can guarantee that if you say yes
to Jesus and His will? You’ll be significantly blessed.
Transitional Sentence:
The day of my bear encounter, I was so glad that God was with me. I need Him in
my life at all times. Don’t try to run from God, He knows where you are: and
He’ll just wait for you to come back to Him. He is extraordinarily patient. You
were created with a purpose, so come to Him with a heart of thanksgiving, eager
to do His will.
3. Verses 13- 16 from
Psalm 139 says,
“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. You watched me as I was being formed in utter
seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 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.”
a.
Here on purpose
Don’t
ever think that you are here by accident and that there isn’t a purpose for
your life. You are not here by mistake; God purposefully created you. You are
unique, one of a kind. You are special, God’s child, and He has a great plan
for your life. It is heartbreaking that in today’s world, people think they are
nothing, not wanted, not loved, and they feel as if they have no purpose. This
is a stronghold from the devil, who wants to destroy you and God’s good plan
for your life! Don’t ever let him. Don’t believe in his constant lies, refuse
to. Don’t let him bring you down. Work with God to find peace and joy for your
life. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we would live in darkness: in fear,
depression, confusion. He died so that we would have life, joy, peace,
happiness, love, and have a purpose in Christ. We are God’s children. Look to
Him who is the source of life, and choose right now to be happy. With that
choice, you can work with God to get out of any slump.
I
spent years in depression. Until one day, I said “enough,” and I cried out to
God, asking for help. He helped. He gave me step by step instructions, and I
did them all. It started with listening to only Christian songs, reading my
Bible daily, attending church, going on a mission’s trips. Everything the Lord
said to do, I did it. I can honestly say I am happy and have a great
relationship with God because of my decision to admit that I needed God and crying
out to Him for help.
b.
Heart of thanksgiving
We
can see in verse 14, David thanking God. Again, he says, “Thank you for making
me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it.”
God inhabits our praises. When we praise and thank God, that is when He moves
on our behalf, that is when we see our situations turn around, even ones that
seemed like would never get better. God moves when we give thanks to Him. Make
it a habit. Find something good in each day and thank God for it. Someone once
said to me, “Expect the worse, that way, you can’t be disappointed.” That is a
sad way to live. Expect something good to happen every day. When you wake up in
the morning, say to God, “I need you.” Say, “something good is going to happen
to me today, and something good is going to happen through me today.” And
expect it to. God wants to bless you; He is just looking for someone He can be
good to. Open your arms, and say, “Be good to me, Lord, I love you. I only want
to do your will. Choose me.” If you do, you can expect good things to come your
way.
c.
Purposeful life
God
has a good plan for your life. It is a plan that is uniquely yours, that can
only be fulfilled by you. He isn’t going to give your plan to anyone else. You
are never too far beyond His reach. He’ll bring you back in so His will can be
fulfilled. He is just waiting for you to desire to do His will. He sees the end
from the beginning: God knows who you are now, but He also sees your potential,
and where you’ll be if you keep working with Him. He is extraordinarily patient
and will never give up on you. If you are not sure what His will is, ask Him.
You can discover His plan for your life by reading daily His word and spending
time with Him. You’ll discover it soon enough. And sometimes, you just need to
step out in obedience and see what happens. If it is His will, He will open the
doors for you to succeed. He desires an obedient heart. If you’re standing
still, anxious, and afraid to step out, there is nothing God can do. Step out
in obedience.
Transition: God didn’t
just create the earth and leave you all alone. You were not an accident. He is
with us always, and He has a good and purposeful plan for each of us. Expect
good things to happen to you each day. Have a heart of gratitude, and humbly
ask Him to reveal His good will for you, and then step out in obedience. He is
waiting for you. Are you willing? He adores you and has so many good thoughts
about you. He never thinks bad of you. We’ll look at that next.
4. Verses 17-18, “How
precious are your thoughts about me, O 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!"
Unlimited
thoughts of God
God has so many thoughts about us that they
outnumber sands. He thinks about us all the time, and He wants to bless us in
our obedience. When the Israelites were living in Babylonian captivity, they
believed that God had abandoned them. But, He hadn’t. He was always with them.
Reading from the amplified Bible, He said to them in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I
know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts, and
plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.”
God adores you. His thoughts of you are ones of welfare, peace, prosperity, and
hope. Even repented of sin, He remembers no more. For it says in Hebrews 8:12,
“And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember sins.”
This verse means we don’t have to live in condemnation: listening to the lies
of Satan. God forgets our sins, and if He completely forgives you, then you
should too. Don’t let the devil steal your joy; forgive yourself. So many
people live beating themselves up for something that happened years ago. Repent
of it, let it go, and move forward. We cannot live up to our full potential in
Christ when our thoughts are on something dumb we did years ago. God wants to
work with you, strengthening you and molding you more into His image so that He
can do those good works that He predestined for you to do.
Transition: Refuse to
live in condemnation over your past. God doesn’t. He has too many good thoughts
about you that they cannot be contained. Live feeling God’s love for you: know
that He wants to pour out His blessings to you. Have a heart that is completely
open to Him: asking Him to examine you fully and choose to have a relationship
with Him.
5. Verses 23-24, “Search
me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out
anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting
life.”
a.
A heart that is open to God.
Know
He loves you and has a good plan for your life. Don’t hide from God; invite Him
into your life, all areas. Don’t try and keep specified areas from Him. Ask Him
to prune away anything that isn’t pleasing to Him, and in obedience, watch Him
mold you into Christ’s image. He wants to use you for His plan and purpose, but
He needs to change you into Christ's image. Let Him. Don’t run away from God;
don’t try to hide from Him. Even as Christians, we can avoid God by being busy,
even with church activities.
b.
Alone time with God
We
need daily alone time with Him, a quality relationship with Him. As a wife, I
can’t have a healthy, quality relationship with my spouse if all I ever did was
work, come home, cook, clean, but ignored my spouse, never spending any quality
time with him. It wouldn’t work. The relationship will likely fail. I could
say, “but I did so many things for my spouse: I worked, made dinner, and the
house is all cleaned.” But I didn’t spend any time with my husband. I no longer
know Him. It’s the same way with our relationship with God. We can’t be so busy
doing things for Him, that we never spend any one on one time with Him. We
won’t have that intimate relationship with Him that He desires and we need.
Conclusion:
Psalm
63:1-8 is powerful. I believe it wraps up everything that we studied today:
“O
God, you are my God: I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my
whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no
water. I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.
Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise
you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me
more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy. I lie awake
thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. Because you are my
helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your strong
right hand holds me securely.”
Humbly
come to the Lord with arms open wide, ask Him to search your heart thoroughly,
and then watch Him move on your behalf. He’ll fling the doors of blessings on
to you so wide. He desires to pour out all of His love on you. You have to be
willing and obedient to Him. This is your time, your moment. Say yes to Him.
