Psalm 139 says, Lord, you have searched me and
known me. You know when I sit down and when I
get up. You understand my thought from far away.
You scrutinize my path, that means he looks closely,
and my lying down and are acquainted with all
my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue,
behold, Lord, you know it all. You have encircled
me behind and in front and placed your hand upon
me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It
is too high. I cannot comprehend it. Where can
I go from your spirit or where can I flee from
your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are
there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you
are there. If I take up the wings of the dawn,
if I dwell in the remotest parts of the sea,
even there your hand will lead me and your right
hand will take hold of me. If I say, surely the
darkness will overwhelm me and the light around
me will be night, even darkness is not dark to
you. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness
and light are alike to you. For you create my
innermost parts. You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to you because I am awesomely
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 formed in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes have seen my formless substance and
in your book were written. All the days that
were ordained for me. When as yet there was not
one of them. How precious also are your thoughts
for me, God. How vast is the sum of them. Were
I to count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with you. And then we're
skipping to verse 23. Search me, God, and know
my heart. Put me to the test and know my anxious
thoughts. And see if there is any hurtful way
in me. And lead me in the everlasting way. God
knows you completely. Verse 1. Oh Lord, you have
searched me and known me. Think about a journal,
right? Who's got a journal in the room? Somebody's
got one. Alright, can you hold it up? You keep
one electronically? That doesn't quite count
in this case. Alright, so that's a journal. Think
about a journal. God knows every page that will
be, or if it will be long lost before it's finished,
or whatever. He knows every page of that journal.
He knows what will be written on every page.
Our life's a little like that. The book represents
your life. Most people only see the cover of
your journal. A few might know a chapter or a
page or two. But Psalm 139 tells us God knows
every page, every margin note, even the words
that you crossed out. And here's the good news.
He still loves the author's work. God knows what
others miss. Verses 1 to 3, he knows when you
sit and rise, when your thoughts are from afar,
when your paths, he knows your paths and resting
places. Parents may know when a child is quiet.
Teachers know when a teen is distracted, but
God knows why. God knows kids in the room, which
not too many of kids, but there's one. Zayden,
I see you. You hear me? God knows. God knows
when you're scared, but don't say it. Teens,
God knows when you smile, but feel pressure on
the inside. God knows the weight we adults carry
silently and say nothing about. But God knows.
God knows before you speak. Even before there
is a word on my tongue, it says in verse 4. So
the other day I... What was I about to say? God
knows. God knows everything I'm going to say.
He is not limited in his knowledge. Have you
ever said, I didn't mean to say that? Oops, I
hurt his or her feelings. It just came out. God
knew what you were about to say before you said
it. And he still loved you. And he still stayed
with you. And he's still working in your life.
God's knowledge is comforting, not crushing.
A lot of people think that knowing God, being
with God, sometimes you feel, you act like, feel
like it's some kind of a burden, like it's so
difficult, so hard, it's crushing. It says, you
hem me in before and behind, or behind and before.
But this is talking about protection, not a trap,
not like God has sealed you in some kind of a
trap, he stuck you, making, forcing you to go
a certain way. It's not like that. This is talking
about protection. It's terrible to have an exposed
back. One time years ago, we did a Belgarth event
out in the side yard and there was a young man
there and he was really good at Belgarth and
I was okay, pretty good at Belgarth on that day
anyway. And so everybody said, well, let's all
fight everybody against them. And so we went
back to back in the middle. And as soon as the
fight started, he left me. And then soon he was
dead and then I was dead too. Your back exposed
is a terrible thing. But God hems us in behind
and before. Protection. God's knowledge does
not expose us to shame. Just because God knows
and maybe even exposes what you did wrong doesn't
necessarily mean you have to have shame. God
doesn't do that. Rather, God's knowledge invites
us to honesty. Psalm 139 doesn't just say God
knows us, it says He stays with us. And that
truth matters deeply when life feels confusing,
overwhelming, or lonely. I want you to hear that
next from one of our students. Come on Haley,
don't forget to push your button. Oh my goodness.
I can hear myself well. God is with you everywhere.
Okay, I'm going to read a song. Where can I go
from your spirit or where can I flee from your
presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, you behold, you are
there. If I take up the wings of the dawn, if
I dwell in the remote part of the sea. Okay,
I lost the paper. There, okay, it's right there.
Okay. Where is my glow from the spirit? Okay,
the object lives in this flashlight in the dark.
RJ, can you... off the light over there? Thank
you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Okay. This light represents God's presence. No
matter where I walk, the light goes with me.
Okay. You can't outrun... God, which is verses
7 and 10. Heaven, God is there. Lowest places,
God is there. Even places where you shouldn't
be, God is there. Sometimes that's comforting,
sometimes that's convincing, but it's always
loving. Darkness doesn't hide from us, verses
12, or not 11 and 12. Even the darkness is not
dark to you. Okay, so, okay, Zayden's another
kid, and, oh, Ariana, God, God sees you even
under your blanket at night, teens, which is
mostly in there. God sees you, your late night
thoughts and struggles, and adults, which is
all around the room. God sees the places you
don't post about. God's presence means you're
never alone, even when friends leave, even when
you feel misunderstood. There are moments when
I feel like I don't measure up, but Psalm 139,
reminds me, God never steps away. God knows us,
and God stays with us, but Psalm 139 also says
something amazing about how He made us, and I
think a child can help us understand that better
than anyone. Arianna. Okay. How do I... What
button? Ah, okay. Can you hear me? Okay. It's
not very close to my mouth, but that's fine.
And I also can't see up here. That's all right.
I'm very short. Okay. We need to read Psalms
139, 13 -16, which I was not given. Would someone
like to read that for me? Psalms 139, 13 -16.
For you created my innermost parts, you wove
me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to
you, because I am awesomely 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 formed in
the depths of the earth. Verse 16. Your eyes
have seen my formless substance, and in your
book were written all the days that were ordained
for you, when as yet there was not one of them.
Okay. So, in part of the verse, it says, I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Right here I
have a box. This box has a quite intricate puzzle
in it. 350 pieces. And I have one piece of it.
This isn't the whole picture. When pieces are
missing, the picture isn't right. This is just
a small swab of the photo. It's not even close
to the entire thing. God made you himself, as
the verse says, you formed my inner parts. Let's
explain this in a way that children may understand
better. God didn't just make your body, he made
your heart and mind too. He makes good stuff,
and you are good stuff. God doesn't make mistakes,
like we heard in verse 14. I praise you, for
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. We have
a reason to praise God. Talk about Him. Song
about Him. He made us so good. Okay. I have a
couple of questions. These are some pretty easy
ones. I'm sure we can get this. Just shout it
out if you know it. Who made you? God did. God
did. Okay. We're going to say that a couple of
times. I say it. You answer it. Who made you?
God did. Who made you? God did. Who made you?
God did. God has a plan for your life, verse
16, and all the days are ordained for me. It
doesn't do me any good to ask me not to if I
didn't mean to. Okay. So God already knows. He'll
know when you learn. He'll know when you will
learn. He'll know when you grow. He'll know when
you will grow. How he'll use you, maybe only
God knows. You might have thoughts about how
God's going to use you. You might have ideas
like what you're expecting. God knows the truth.
You matter to God. And God doesn't make junk.
Our response to a God who knows, stays, and shapes.
Look then again at verses 23 and 24. Can I have
somebody read them? Verses 23 and 24. Psalm 139,
yeah. Nice and loud. and see if there be any
purple way of being, and lead me in the everlasting
way. Amen. He says, search me, O God, dot, dot,
dot, lead me in the everlasting way. It's about
being open to God. I mean, listen, He's going
to see anyway, right? You can do everything in
your power to try to cover up or conceal, but
you cannot fool Him. So it's about being open
to the Lord. When I first read this when I was
a young Christian, I thought, you know, that's
pretty bold to say to God, go ahead, check me
out. See if there be any fault in me, right?
I'm like, I'm thinking, yeah, there's fault in
me. I've got troubles. I do things I shouldn't
do. But it isn't about me saying, God, look at
me. I'm not doing anything wrong. It's about
me being willing to be open to God looking at
me. So I'm not making any efforts to cover up
to the Lord. I'm not talking to the Lord with
haughtiness or pride or false humility. I'll
say, oh God, I know I'm so stupid. I'm so wicked.
I'm such a bad person. I feel so bad about it.
I want to change. But when I know actually I
don't want to change at all. Or I know the next
day I'm just going to keep doing those things.
Those same things that I just called wicked and
bad, I'm going to keep doing those things. So
when I say search me, oh God, what I mean is,
Lord, I get it. You see everything. And then
I say, lead me in the everlasting way. I want
to be on that highway of holiness, that road
that God has laid out for us that takes us from
where we presently are to where God sees us going.
That's what I want to be. And if your life becomes
about that, then there is an eternal success
that's available. On the other hand, if your
life becomes about thinking you're okay, thinking
you're good enough, thinking you're going to
get by today, or maybe like you're going to fool
God somehow. It's going to lie, sneak, cheat,
steal, and then praise God for your victory,
right? If it becomes about that, that road of
lying, cheating, sneaking, and stealing is also
an infinitely long road. It just ends a place
that we don't want to end. It goes to a, I should
say it never ends, but it goes to a place that
we don't want to end, right? And so we know that
there are people who went before us, and demons,
who went before us who were, in some sense, a
lot smarter than us. They know the word a lot
better. They can make a better argument. They
probably can sing a better song, write a better
book, create a better painting. They can do all
of that. They can create a more complicated and
more successful plan. They can do all of that.
And yet their road ends in hell away from God
for eternity. So do you want to be like them?
Is that what we want to do? We want to be the
wisest person in our generation, or the wealthiest,
or the most successful, or everyone thinks that
we're the mighty, powerful Christian, loves God,
does all the right things? That will really not
benefit in the long run. It really does not matter.
There's a lot of times in life where you want
to say to yourself, it doesn't matter what other
people say about me. There's a lot of times when
you want to say that, it'll give you the strength
to go on, it'll give you the strength not to
be stuck in people defining you and things like
that. But there is a time in life where you say,
I want to have a good witness. I want to represent
God and be good. I want to be as good as I know
how to be. But the moment you start thinking
that you're already good, you're already there,
and you can kind of haughty say, I'm arriving,
I'm doing a good job, then arrogance has become
your friend. So we say to God, no, search me,
meaning I am open to be examined. If there is
a wicked way in me, I want it dealt with. I'm
not trying to hide it or put it away in my back
pocket for later. I'm trying to let it go. God,
help me let it go. And then we say, and lead
me in the way everlasting. We know now on this
side, the psalm was written a long time before
Jesus was born, by the way. We know now on this
side that there is a Lord and he will lead you
daily. that the Holy Spirit of God, because of
the sacrifice of Jesus, comes and lives in Christians
and we can be led, we can be convicted of our
sin, led to do the right thing, empowered spiritually,
trained through spiritual gifts and spiritual
disciplines. We can do things. I have already
done things that now I look back at them and
go, what? I did that? I can't believe that. That's
crazy. First of all, because I never would have
done that before. And then secondly, because
I can't do that. I couldn't do that. Right? It's
not possible. And yet, with God, all things are
possible. And so there is a God who will lead
us and actually lead us in the everlasting way.
So your journal then, Psalm 139, says, it ends
not with fear, but with an invitation. We say,
God, you already know me, so lead me. You already
know me, so lead me. For the children and young
people in the room, you are loved and you are
safe with God. Even if your parents get it wrong,
your grandparents, your teachers, and you will
have teachers who will get it wrong. They are
not your parents or grandparents. You will probably
have parents. Ariana, I will probably get it
wrong. Right? We've had that conversation before.
And so we know that. And yet, even as we know
that. We know that God is taking care of it.
Sometimes we learn from other people's bad examples
as much as we learn from people's good examples.
And so when your teacher tries to teach you something
that is contrary to what God says, you side with
what God says and realize that it's possible
for even somebody that you know that's maybe
honorable or good or caring or educated to be
wrong. You are loved and safe with God. Teens.
You don't have to hide from God to belong. The
truth is that there are a lot of people already
in your social groups, already Christians. Maybe
they're a little quirky, but then if you have
a true sense of yourself, you're a little quirky
too. And you're all trying to be not quirky,
not your odd self, not different, not unique.
But at the same time, outwardly say, but I am
different. I am different. I'm not like them.
So you're different but not different. It's a
confusing choice to make as a teenager. The truth
is, you don't have to hide from God to belong
in your set, in your circle, in your section,
in your hobbies, in your recreation. In our church,
we've got artistic people, we've got gamers,
we've got hard workers, we've got every kind
of creative mind. And we're not that big of a
church to have all of that. We're very blessed.
You do not have to hide from God to belong. We
have a young person that goes to Bowling Green,
and she said she was sitting in her school class,
and one of the students in her class is a devout
atheist, and will argue the point to no end.
And so she would sit there day after day and
say nothing, because she didn't want to start
a fight. She wouldn't say, God bless you. She
wouldn't pray for people, talk about Jesus, whatever,
because she didn't want to start a fight with
that person. Only to find out later that of the
five people, three of the five, her, the other
three, all Christians, all doing the exact same
thing. All four of them. One devout atheist was
shutting up four Christians who loved the Lord.
It's not necessary. You do not have to hide from
God to belong. And ultimately, those who are
fighting against God will not belong with God.
And we do, in the end. So choose your way according
to his love for you. Adults, let the God who
knows everything lead everything. And now at
that point where the truth is, tomorrow you're
going to get up and you've got to make your own
decisions. What you wear, where you go, your
schedule, your finances, your work, what you
do for work, whether or not you work, do you
work hard, do you work just as hard as you have
to, do you not work very hard at all? Will you
take the medicine? Will you get the diagnosis?
Will you get the procedure? All of that. You
have to make all of those decisions. If you submit
yourself to the doctor, the doctor makes all
of those decisions for you, then they're going
to make them based on the input that you give
them. And if you go in telling them that you
have pain, then they're going to give you diagnoses
and medicines for pain because you have pain.
And that's what they treat. If you go in and
you say, well, something's not right in my body,
then they're going to keep searching, ordering
tests, whatever, until they find the thing that's
not right in your body. And that's a good thing
about doctors. But that's all they are. They're
a sounding board for patients. So this I learned
when I was a teenager. I was a young teen, and
I busted my knee up pretty good playing side
yard football. I caught an interception and ran
it back, and the all -time QB, who was the 350
-pound junior linebacker for Northwood High School,
he tackled me. And as he tackled me, Their receiver
also tackled me, and the receiver hit me on the
top, and the big guy hit me on the legs, and
I went to the emergency room. Long story short,
I sat with the specialist, and he said, you've
got to have this special surgery for your knee
because you've got a bone in there that doesn't
belong. You've got to get it removed. It's going
to be six months recovery, but if you don't do
that, it's going to be bad. And I wasn't a Christian
at the time. My dad was a Christian, but he was
backslidden out with the Lord. My mom wasn't
a Christian. We didn't have anybody to appeal
to for our higher knowledge. But we didn't know.
So my parents said, well, it's up to you, Dan.
Do you want the surgery or not? I'm a young teen.
I'm in pain. I mean, you say no, you don't want
the surgery, but you don't want the pain either,
right? So I didn't know what to do. So he says,
well, let me talk to him alone. And the doctor
told me, he stood in the room, and I'm sitting
on the bed, and he's towering over me. He was
like 6 '2", looking down at me with kind of a
mean look on his face. And he said, you don't
have this surgery. By the time you're 19, you'll
be going pooping your pants every day. You will
lose control of your bowels. You will not be
able to take care of yourself. You'll be an invalid
by the time you're 25. That's what he told me.
Now, you imagine you're 13, 14 years old hearing
that from a medical professional. As I was sitting
there, I'm saying to myself, this doesn't seem
right. This doesn't seem right. This doesn't
seem right. This can't be right. So my parents
came back in the room and they said, well, what
do you want to do? And I said, well, I'll tell
you one thing for sure. I'm not letting that
man operate on my knee. If I need a surgery,
if I really need a surgery, somebody else can
do it, but I'm not letting him do it. And I said,
but I really need it. I said, at the very least,
we need a second opinion. About a week later,
my needs started to feel better. We kept putting
it off and putting it off, as you tend to do
when you need a surgery. And about six months
later, there was a girl in my high school who
got the same diagnosis. She had a surgery and
it took her a year and a half to learn to walk
again. I never got the surgery. I didn't need
the surgery. I was 55 years old now. That's over
40 years ago. I didn't need the surgery. But
that doctor... was saying all kinds of very harsh
things about going to the bathroom in your pants
and stuff like that to try to get me to take
that surgery. And if I had given in in that moment,
I'd have had a surgery. You have got to make
the decisions of your life. And the great blessing
that Psalm 139 points out is that there is a
God who knows everything, who made everything,
and He is worthy to follow, and He will lead
you if you let Him. At this point in time, we're
finishing up. We're going to pray together in
a moment. But first, we're going to have just
a moment's worship. So Brother Tim is going to
come at this time and he's going to lead us in
a song. We've got a PowerPoint coming up up here.
It's on. I'll let it shut off. Alright, so you're
going to stand. Stand, stand. We're all going
to stand. And we're going to sing this song with
Brother Tim. Come on! You can be seated for a
moment. That same God who knows us best loved
us most. Of all creation, elevated man to have
dominion over everything ever made. And then
when man misused that dominion and took sin as
an alternative, that is to say, did not honor
God with... His and her choices. God sent Jesus
to bring us on. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. For those of you who are in the
room who have already accepted Jesus Christ as
your Lord, that means He tells you what to do.
And your Savior, that means you know that He
paid the price for your sins. This message is
clear. Trust Him who knows. and still loves,
and still saves, and still has the right to lead.
For those of you who have not accepted Jesus
Christ as your Lord and Savior, and I'm fully
aware that someone could accept God as Savior,
that means, oh, I'm so glad he saved me, yay,
I get to go to heaven when I die, I accepted
the free gift of salvation, and has not accepted
him as Lord, except it is the quality of Lord,
not the quality of Savior, that Romans 10 says
we must embrace. And so if you have accepted
Jesus just as Savior, and oh, thank goodness
he paid the price for my sins, but not Lord,
he has the right to lead me, then it is a message
to trust his leadership. To commit yourself today
to follow him. I think that Ariana and Haley
and myself had to trust in God to do this lesson
today. And we did. You had to trust in God at
least a little bit to come here today, or maybe
you trusted. The safety of the place, the friendliness
of the people, the comfort of the chair, the
warmth compared to the outside cold. I'm telling
you that those things all come and go in life.
But there is only one God. And you'll be saved
by trusting Him with your life and having Him
as your Lord. We're going to close in prayer.
And as I pray, I'll pray a prayer of salvation
that will include those two facets of this lesson.
Then we are done in this room. We'll retreat
to the cafeteria where we have... cake in honor
of birthdays, and mini hot dogs. Right? Is that
what we're calling them? Mini what? Chili dogs.
Yeah, mini chili dogs. Not chili as in cold,
but chili as in they have chili sauce on them.
All right? So let's pray. Pray with me, because
there might be somebody listening who's not saved.
Even if they're not in this room, this message
will go out across the world. Father in heaven,
great creator, giver of all good things, designer
of all functional patterns, a layer out of the
borders of all nations, assigner of all tasks,
giver of all kings and presidents, sovereign
God. We recognize that even in a day when to
recognize, Who and what you are doesn't mean
the same thing to everybody. Lord, we recognize
that you are Lord. When light hovered just outside
of existence, and that's hard for our minds to
fathom, I understand, you said, light be. Let
there be light, as the English translates it.
And we are grateful that you did that because
our eyes collect light. And by that we see as
the light bounces off different colors and shapes
and things. And then we know that there are those
who suffer from blindness. From birth sometimes,
later, or near the end, or while they still have
a lot of time left. And we're kind of partial
to being able to see. It's a great gift from
you. It goes on. We turn down water in favor
of coffee or soda or juice. But you made water
the stuff that life needs. It's made of. There
is a part of us, even as we recognize you as
Lord, that fails to trust the pattern, the design,
the plan that you have for us. We want to say,
well, God knows best, but... Today, I know better.
In this moment, I know what I want. God knows
what I want, and if I wait around for him to
give it to me, he may not. Lord, we need to trust
you. And for the Christians in this room who
have you as Lord, that means we're supposed to
do what you say. And Savior, that means you paid
the price for our sins. We commit ourselves to
trust you now. It means we know that things are
going to happen. That shake us a little. Make
forward progress more difficult. Maybe even stop
us in our tracks. Maybe even drop us in a pit.
I think of the prophets and how they suffered.
The apostles and how they suffered. One of us
could wind up on a cross. Or in front of the
barrel of a gun. Or worse. Lord, we commit ourselves
to trust you with what is and with what's coming.
And we are grateful to know that you already
know what is and what's coming. For those of
us in this room, Lord, who do not know you as
Lord, moving in our spirits just now, I pray
that that person, whether they're actually in
this room with us or dialing in on Facebook or...
whether they catch this later on one of the other
social media outlets or whether it comes out
on the podcast and they listen to it. Let's see
if I can remember one of those cities, Bangladesh
or Burma. I don't know. Lord, wherever they might
be in the world, if they listen to this, I pray
that right now that their soul will be crying
out and saying, I need a savior, but I realize
I'm being offered a Lord and I need that. And
they would say, okay God, whether I ever talk
to Dan Stevenson or Haley or Ariana or anybody
else that was in that room that day singing that
music, reading those verses, thinking of me,
whether I ever talk to any one of them or not,
I give my life to you to do with what you please.
Because I realize now it was already yours in
the first place. Father, go with us as we go
out. Make us your messengers of mercy, your reconcilers
of sinners. Help us bring people to you the best
we know how. Go with us as the light. And let
us serve you. And we pray it in Jesus' name.
Amen. Thank you very much.