1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 Mother's Day and it's exciting to see everybody here. 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:11,020 The relationship of a mom to her kids is potentially 3 00:00:11,020 --> 00:00:14,920 one of the most influential any of us have. 4 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:19,080 The only one I think that even competes with that 5 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:21,480 would be maybe the relationship a kid 6 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:23,400 has with his father. 7 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:28,400 And I'm often concerned about using my own family 8 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:33,400 as an example or an illustration in my sermons. 9 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:36,560 But I don't have that much caution about it. 10 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:37,400 I do it all the time. 11 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:42,400 But I know what it means to be a mom 12 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,320 because I live with a mom. 13 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:50,080 I live with my wife and she is a great mom 14 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:51,480 and she does amazing stuff. 15 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:53,960 It's amazing how she loves our kids 16 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,080 and she loves our kids when our kids are not always 17 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:01,040 lovable, any moms in here feel that way ever? 18 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:02,640 Are your kids always lovable? 19 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:07,300 I see some nasi naa, okay. 20 00:01:07,300 --> 00:01:11,560 But with, I've seen an influence a mom can have 21 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:15,760 on our kids and it's amazing how my wife loves our kids 22 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,400 and mom's sacrifice, what do you sacrifice? 23 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:23,400 She sacrifice time, energy, emotion, even your own bodies 24 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:28,400 to do what it takes to be a good wife and mother 25 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,640 and so many men in here, you know what that looks like 26 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,240 because you watch it too, you watch it in your own families 27 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,120 and that's an important thing. 28 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:38,960 So I have some advice for you men. 29 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:42,960 If today, any married men here, married men, 30 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:45,120 raise your hand married men, okay. 31 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:51,400 Okay, if you are tempted today to think it's mothers 32 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:56,400 day, not wife day, okay. 33 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:00,440 And I'm not gonna get my wife anything 34 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:03,400 because she's my wife, not my mother. 35 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:06,160 That is a bad thought. 36 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:09,720 Don't think that, okay. 37 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:13,840 Let me help you, don't say that out loud, okay. 38 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:14,680 That's a bad plan. 39 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:17,240 And number two, you still have time after the service 40 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:22,240 you can go get her something like vacuums, crock pots, 41 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:27,600 drying wax for the dishes, anything like that. 42 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:28,640 They love that stuff, okay. 43 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:29,800 It's really good. 44 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,400 And so, so happy Mother's Day. 45 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:37,400 But I say that and just having already given my wife a gift. 46 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:43,320 So, but I said it in just, but really truthfully, 47 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:45,520 we ought to honor our moms, right. 48 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:48,280 And moms, it's Mother's Day. 49 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:53,280 And I think in particular that we ought to do that. 50 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:57,040 And in Psalm 139, that's where we're gonna be today. 51 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:02,120 We find a Psalm and we chose this Psalm for today 52 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:07,120 because it includes a reference to what makes women mothers. 53 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:09,520 God gave all of us an incredible gift 54 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:11,480 when he gave us parents. 55 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,240 And that certainly includes mom, a good parent, 56 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:18,640 a good mom ought to be, a good mom knows her kids. 57 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:22,480 I don't mean that they're just acquainted with them. 58 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:24,480 Moms know how their kids tick. 59 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:26,200 If you have more than one child, 60 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:29,360 you realize not any two kids are the same. 61 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:30,960 Has anybody noticed this? 62 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:32,320 Kids are different. 63 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:33,800 Some kids act a certain way. 64 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:35,760 Birth order matters, all of that. 65 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:38,120 And if you have more than one child, you know that. 66 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:39,440 And while they may be similar, 67 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:42,280 they have unique disabilities and challenges. 68 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,400 And I've done things before and my wife said, 69 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,280 you can't do that with her. 70 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:49,880 I'm like, well, I did it with her, this other one. 71 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:53,720 She goes, yeah, but she's not her, she's her, right? 72 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:57,280 And you definitely can't do that with him, you know? 73 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,280 And so good moms know their kids. 74 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:03,360 Good moms spend time with their kids, right? 75 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:05,000 While moms are very busy today, 76 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,440 moms often have the advantage of being the parent 77 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:09,960 that has the most opportunity to spend time with their kids. 78 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,240 And I think that's an important thing. 79 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:13,800 That's not just true day to day, 80 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:15,680 it's also true over the years. 81 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:17,720 They get a privilege of experiencing life with them, 82 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:21,840 doing life together, spending time together. 83 00:04:21,840 --> 00:04:24,400 Good moms not only do that, they nurture their kids. 84 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:25,880 This means they're concerned with their growth 85 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:27,880 in every area of life. 86 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:30,280 They want them to mature physically and intellectually 87 00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:32,960 and emotionally and relationally and spiritually. 88 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:35,880 They steward the conditions that help them do that. 89 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:38,320 And fundamentally, here's what we know, 90 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:40,600 a good mom loves her kids. 91 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:45,000 A good mom loves her kids and her kids know 92 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:46,680 that their mom loves them. 93 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:48,960 Kids respond to the love and care 94 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,400 that they receive from their parents. 95 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:56,760 And so human relationships depend on both sides, right? 96 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:00,080 To have a good relationship with someone, 97 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:01,920 they've got to invest in the relationship 98 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:03,320 and you have to invest in relationship. 99 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:06,320 It's not, good relationships typically aren't one sided. 100 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:07,600 Who agrees with me? 101 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:10,000 That's how human relationships are. 102 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,320 Sometimes mothers maybe feel that way 103 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,920 because kids don't always respond in a mature way. 104 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:17,880 But over time, you can have a good relationship 105 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,040 when you have a mom that's loving and a child 106 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,160 that responds to that love. 107 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,940 And in Psalm 139, where we find ourselves today, 108 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:30,800 this particular passage helps us understand 109 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:32,840 that our relationship with God 110 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:37,200 and our closeness to God, our intimacy with God, 111 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:40,480 sometimes I don't know if I want to use that word 112 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,080 because all the men in the room check out necessarily, 113 00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:46,920 but you can have a relationship with God. 114 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:51,240 You can have a close relationship with God. 115 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:53,200 In fact, I think God wants you 116 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,080 to have a close relationship with him. 117 00:05:57,520 --> 00:05:59,780 God doesn't change. 118 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:02,600 We call God, there's actually a word 119 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:04,480 that God calls himself. 120 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:07,280 He calls himself a father, right? 121 00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:08,440 And that's a parent. 122 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,280 He is a good parent. 123 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:13,520 All things that are true of a good mom 124 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:15,600 and are true of a good dad, 125 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:18,200 when you know Jesus as savior, 126 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:19,320 when you know God is savior, 127 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:21,600 even before you know him as savior, 128 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:23,200 there's some things that are also true. 129 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:24,920 I said a good mom knows her kids 130 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:27,760 and spent times with her kids and loves her kids 131 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:30,680 and all those things, the same is true of God. 132 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:32,800 God knows us. 133 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:34,600 God is with us. 134 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:38,440 God desires and acts to nurture and to grow us. 135 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:40,480 And here's what I want you to know today. 136 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:42,080 God loves us. 137 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:44,960 God loves you. 138 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:47,360 Aren't you glad for God's love? 139 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:49,560 We sang about it today for God to love the world 140 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:52,280 that he gave us his one and only son. 141 00:06:52,280 --> 00:06:54,680 You know, the love of God, how rich and pure. 142 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:58,280 This is what he is and what he does for us. 143 00:06:58,280 --> 00:07:01,520 And today I want you to know that the God who created you 144 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:03,880 wants to have a relationship with you. 145 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:06,480 He wants to be close to you. 146 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:08,640 That starts through being born again. 147 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:10,680 You can be saved in an inter to a relationship 148 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:12,240 with God through salvation, 149 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:14,120 through the reconciliation that happens there. 150 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:16,600 He created you and he wants to save you 151 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:18,120 and make you one of his kids. 152 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:19,960 And so if you're saved today, 153 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:22,960 I want you to know that you can be as close to God 154 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:24,400 as you wanna be. 155 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:25,520 Why? 156 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:28,480 Because God has done what it takes for you us to have 157 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,720 an incredibly close relationship with him. 158 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:35,640 You can be close to God. 159 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:38,880 The God who breathed out the stars, you can talk to him. 160 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:43,120 The God who created everything, you can know him. 161 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:45,960 He knows you. 162 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:48,120 In fact, that's what we're gonna learn today. 163 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:51,280 We can have an incredibly close relationship with God 164 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:54,040 when we acknowledge four realities of God's relationship 165 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,160 to us that leads us to submit to him. 166 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:58,640 And we'll see that in Psalm 139. 167 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:02,840 I wanna give you four realities about God's relationship 168 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:05,040 to you that are so important for you 169 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:06,000 to have a relationship with him. 170 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:07,560 Here's the first one, ready? 171 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:09,480 This is not a big deal. 172 00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:12,160 This is not a new thing, but I want you to think through it. 173 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:15,280 Number one, God knows us. 174 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:18,400 God knows us. 175 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:19,960 That means God is omniscient. 176 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:22,960 He knows everything, but he knows us. 177 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:26,000 Let's read these first six verses in Psalm 139. 178 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:27,400 You guys have your Bibles? 179 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:30,120 You have them on an app or in your lap. 180 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:32,480 Come on, Psalm 139. 181 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:35,320 Verse number one, here's what it says. 182 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:40,320 Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. 183 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:44,240 Now, there are some, you guys see this on the screen? 184 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:47,160 You see some words I underlined? 185 00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:48,640 I underlined some words for a reason. 186 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:49,480 Pay attention to them. 187 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:50,600 Here's what it says. 188 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:55,360 Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. 189 00:08:55,360 --> 00:08:58,920 Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising. 190 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:03,000 Thou understandest my thought afar off. 191 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,520 Thou compass my path and my lying down 192 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:07,840 and are acquainted with all my ways. 193 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:10,640 For there is not a word in my tongue, 194 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:13,520 but Lord, oh Lord, below, oh Lord, 195 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:15,480 thou knowest it altogether. 196 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,320 Thou hast beset me behind and before 197 00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:20,400 and laid thine hand upon me. 198 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:23,680 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. 199 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:25,040 It is high. 200 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:26,880 I cannot attain it. 201 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:31,880 What David is saying here is that he is so intrigued. 202 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:33,320 Why is he so intrigued? 203 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:34,680 Because God knows him. 204 00:09:34,680 --> 00:09:38,040 God knows everything about him. 205 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:41,960 In the first verse we see verbs in the past tense. 206 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,520 Thou hast searched me and known me. 207 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:45,440 It's already done. 208 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:46,960 He already knows you. 209 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:50,320 God knows everything about you. 210 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:53,920 Some of you are scared right now. 211 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:55,040 Everything? 212 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:57,840 Yes, he knows everything about you. 213 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:00,800 This is not unique to David. 214 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:02,960 Everything in this Psalm that David says about God 215 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:05,120 is true of our relationship with God too. 216 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:06,800 God knows you. 217 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:09,520 He knows you better than you know you. 218 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:15,640 He knows you better than you know you. 219 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:19,960 He knows as an omniscient person, he knows, 220 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:21,760 and here's something to think through, 221 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:24,480 and knowing here that all these knowing words, 222 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:27,120 this isn't just knowing data about you. 223 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:30,080 There's a personal intimacy. 224 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:31,480 He knows you. 225 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:33,280 He knows what makes you tick. 226 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:35,680 He knows why you do what you do. 227 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:37,320 Good and bad. 228 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:39,680 He knows you. 229 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:42,320 It's more than just raw data. 230 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:43,760 He is personal. 231 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:46,120 He knows everything about you as a person. 232 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:47,160 Look at all he knows. 233 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:48,000 Verse 2. 234 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,920 Now notice my down-sitting, my uprising, now understandeth my 235 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:53,200 thought, a far off. 236 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,320 This means when you sit down and when you rise up. 237 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:59,520 It includes all the mundane, everyday moments of life. 238 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:00,960 He knows where you are. 239 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:02,560 He knows what you're doing. 240 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:05,600 He knows what you're thinking. 241 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:06,440 Did you see that? 242 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:07,280 Verse 2. 243 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:11,240 Aren't you glad nobody else knows what you're thinking? 244 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:13,640 Some of you are thinking right now, it's hot. 245 00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:15,240 I want to get out of here. 246 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:16,760 You got to stay. 247 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,000 He knows everything you're thinking. 248 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:21,600 He understands why you're thinking it. 249 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:24,600 You don't even understand all the things you think. 250 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:27,400 Have you ever thought like, where did that come from? 251 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:29,040 Have you ever thought of that thought? 252 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:31,040 Why did I say that? 253 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:33,080 Have you ever thought of something that you haven't 254 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:34,680 thought about in a long time? 255 00:11:34,680 --> 00:11:39,520 Maybe you smell a smell or you go, you hear a song comes on the 256 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:44,520 radio and it transports you back to 1985 and the cassette tapes 257 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:46,840 remember that? 258 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:49,400 And you know, like where did that come from? 259 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:51,400 I haven't thought about that in forever. 260 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:53,400 God knows why that happened. 261 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:55,400 God knows how your brain works. 262 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:57,600 You don't even know how your brain works. 263 00:11:58,880 --> 00:11:59,880 God knows everything. 264 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:00,720 Look at verse 3. 265 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:02,960 He says, thou compass my path and my lying down and are 266 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:05,160 acquainted with all my ways. 267 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:06,760 You know that word compasses? 268 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:08,160 It's an old English word. 269 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:10,520 It means you're spread over everything. 270 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:13,520 And he says, you're my compass. 271 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:17,520 You're my path and my lying down are acquainted with all my 272 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:18,520 ways. 273 00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:19,520 You know what he's saying? 274 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:22,520 God is ahead of you knowing where you're going to be this 275 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:24,520 week. 276 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:26,520 God knows what you're going to face. 277 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:28,520 Aren't you glad that you don't always know what you're going 278 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:29,520 to face? 279 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:31,520 There are certain things I'm glad I don't know. 280 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:33,520 They're on the calendar but they're on the calendar in the 281 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:34,520 past. 282 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:36,520 I don't know what's going to come up. 283 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:38,520 But God knows what's going to happen to you. 284 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:40,520 He knows where you're going and what you're doing. 285 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:43,520 He knows what you're going to face. 286 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:46,520 The Bible says man looks on the outward appearance but God 287 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:49,520 looks at the heart. 288 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:52,520 This doesn't mean that God causes you to do what you do. 289 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:54,520 He's given us a free will. 290 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:56,520 His knowing and His causing are two different things. 291 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:58,520 He's already at your work. 292 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:00,520 He's already at your job. 293 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:02,520 He's already at your school. 294 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:04,520 He's acquainted with all your ways. 295 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:08,520 I've been here at the church for just right under four years. 296 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:10,520 I've been here for four years. 297 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:12,520 I've been at the church for four years. 298 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:14,520 I've been at the church for four years. 299 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:16,520 I've been at the church for four years. 300 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:19,520 And over time, you begin to see how people act in certain 301 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:20,520 situations. 302 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:21,520 You see how people talk. 303 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,520 You see how people walk. 304 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:25,520 Dave Curtis cracked me up today. 305 00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:28,520 I've seen Dave, sometimes you see Dave a long way off and 306 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:30,520 before you know that's Dave. 307 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:32,520 The way he walks, the way he talks. 308 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:36,520 We know certain people, people here know that George 309 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:38,920 Right, we all know that about him, isn't that cool? 310 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:40,840 We know how he is. 311 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:43,480 His wife really knows how he is, right? 312 00:13:44,420 --> 00:13:46,020 That's all of us. 313 00:13:46,020 --> 00:13:48,840 Some people talk a lot, some people are really quiet, 314 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:51,280 some people are really happy all the time, 315 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:53,080 others carry a heavy load, 316 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:55,120 and to be something more melancholy, 317 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:57,560 and some people are just grumpy. 318 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,320 And in human relationships, what we've learned about people, 319 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:05,960 I say this all the time, people are icebergs. 320 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:08,080 There's a part that you see above the surface, 321 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,080 and then there's a part that you do not see. 322 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:14,400 And God knows all of it. 323 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:15,880 God knows the whole thing. 324 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:18,660 Verse four, there's not a word, this is scary. 325 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:21,920 For there's not a word in my tongue, 326 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:26,920 but oh Lord, below oh Lord, thou knowest it all together. 327 00:14:26,920 --> 00:14:29,280 God knows what you're gonna say. 328 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:30,560 God knows what you're saying. 329 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:32,120 He knows what you have said. 330 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:34,680 Sometimes I start sentences, 331 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:36,960 and I don't even know how they're gonna end up 332 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:38,760 when I start them. 333 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:40,360 Anybody ever do that? 334 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:41,820 You just start a sentence like, where am I going? 335 00:14:41,820 --> 00:14:43,520 I don't know, here we go, okay. 336 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,480 But he says, there's not a word on my tongue 337 00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:49,920 you don't already know. 338 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:54,120 When you said, why you said it, what it meant, 339 00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:55,880 what your motivations were. 340 00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:58,420 God knows our words. 341 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:01,480 And then it says, in verse five, 342 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:03,640 thou hast beset me behind him before 343 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:05,840 and laid thine hand upon me. 344 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:08,600 This is an amazing verse because the word beset 345 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:11,120 means closed in or a hedge. 346 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:14,040 You ever heard maybe an old senior saint pray, 347 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:15,240 and when they pray they say, 348 00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:18,240 and God I would pray a hedge of protection around somebody. 349 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:20,440 How many of you guys ever heard of that? 350 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:22,000 And I always used to think as a kid, 351 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,360 like why is Satan worried about greenery? 352 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:29,240 Like bushes, but that's not the idea, 353 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:31,320 the hedge, are you guys with me? 354 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:33,600 I thought that was funnier than what you guys responded, 355 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:38,600 but anyway, the idea is that he's surrounding us 356 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:41,200 with protection. 357 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:43,960 He's saying, in front of me, behind me, 358 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,600 you've laid your hand upon me, 359 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:51,600 nothing happens to me that you don't allow to happen to me. 360 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:55,080 Because you know where I'm going, you know where I've been, 361 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:57,880 you know what I think, you know what I say, 362 00:15:57,880 --> 00:15:59,480 God is all knowing. 363 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:03,240 And what's amazing is, think about this, 364 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,400 he knows all of that and he loves us. 365 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:11,160 He knows all of that and he loves us. 366 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:13,920 He blesses us and uses us. 367 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:15,920 And that's why David says in verse six, 368 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:18,040 such knowledge is too wonderful. 369 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:20,560 Wonderful means it's immense, it's huge, 370 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:23,640 I don't understand it, I can't even comprehend it. 371 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,720 God knows how many hairs are on our head. 372 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,200 He knew how many hairs were on our head in 1985, 373 00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,840 on Thursday in August. 374 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:35,280 He knows a lot, who agrees, he knows a lot. 375 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:40,000 We don't know like God knows, he knows completely. 376 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:42,400 The implication of what he's saying, 377 00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:44,880 even just by saying it, is that God knows all of this 378 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:48,160 and still loves him and it's incredible. 379 00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:51,600 Paul expressed something similar in Romans 11. 380 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:53,760 Oh, the depth of the riches, 381 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:56,760 both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, 382 00:16:56,760 --> 00:16:58,520 how insurchable are his judgments 383 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:00,400 and his ways past finding out, 384 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:03,320 for who has known the mind of the Lord? 385 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,960 Or who has been his counselor? 386 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:07,280 Or who has first given to him 387 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:09,280 and it should be recompensed unto him again? 388 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:12,360 For of him and through him and to him 389 00:17:12,360 --> 00:17:17,360 are all things to whom be glory forever, amen. 390 00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:19,840 Do you get the point? 391 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:21,740 God knows you. 392 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:25,000 Here's the next point, this is so cool. 393 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,560 Number two, God is with us. 394 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:32,040 Not only is he omniscient, he's omnipresent. 395 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:34,920 All knowing, all present. 396 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:36,560 Look at what it says, verse seven. 397 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:39,760 "'Whether shall I go from thy spirit 398 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,000 "'or whether shall I free from thy presence?' 399 00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:47,340 "'What's the answer to this question? 400 00:17:47,340 --> 00:17:48,400 "'Where can I go?' 401 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:50,960 "'Everywhere I go, there you're gonna be.' 402 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:53,640 "'What's the answer?' 403 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:55,120 "'There's nowhere I can flee to. 404 00:17:55,120 --> 00:17:58,800 "'I can't go anywhere to get away from God. 405 00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:00,040 "'Who knows everything about me?' 406 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,440 "'Look at verse eight, he gives contrasting places here.' 407 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:03,560 "'Versate. 408 00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:08,440 "'If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. 409 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:12,440 "'If I make my bed in hell, or the word there is she-lo, 410 00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:17,440 "'the place of the dead, thou art there, she-o, 411 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,000 "'thou art there, even there.' 412 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:23,000 "'The best places and the worth places 413 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,680 "'are both inhabited by God.'" 414 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:26,680 He even says in nine, 415 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:28,280 "'If I take the wings of the morning, 416 00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:31,280 "'if I could put wings on and fly anywhere, 417 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:35,160 "'anywhere I would go, even the chaos 418 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:36,920 "'of the midst of the sea.'" 419 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:37,840 Verse nine. 420 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:41,120 "'If I could fly away and even go out to the ocean, 421 00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:44,120 "'to the ends of the earth, you're gonna be with me.'" 422 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,580 Verse 10, "'Even there, thy hand will lead me, 423 00:18:48,580 --> 00:18:51,440 "'that right hand shall hold me.'" 424 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:53,080 Is that protection? 425 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:54,920 Is that provision? 426 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:57,440 You can't get away from God. 427 00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:58,720 He's with you. 428 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,040 God doesn't just know where David is, 429 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:02,880 he's with David. 430 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:04,380 He's leading David. 431 00:19:04,380 --> 00:19:05,600 He's sustaining David. 432 00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:09,320 And I wanna tell you today, God knows where you are. 433 00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:10,440 Everybody ready? 434 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:11,360 Breathe in. 435 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:13,480 Breathe out. 436 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:18,520 God gave you that breath. 437 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:21,440 You couldn't breathe unless God allowed you to. 438 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:25,480 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. 439 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:27,600 And God is with you. 440 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:30,080 He is sustaining you. 441 00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:31,200 He says in verse 11, 442 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:33,080 "'If I say surely the darkness shall cover me, 443 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:34,680 "'even the night shall be light unto me, 444 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:36,240 "'the day the darkness highteth not from me, 445 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:37,760 "'but the night shoneeth as the day, 446 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,680 "'the darkness and light are both alike unto me.'" 447 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:41,720 What he's saying is, 448 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:44,960 there's nothing that can cover David from God's knowledge. 449 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:48,480 There's nothing that can keep God's presence away from David, 450 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:50,600 God doesn't just know where David is, 451 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:54,180 he's with David and the same thing is true for us. 452 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,480 There is never a time or place where we need God 453 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:01,560 and he's incapable of getting to us. 454 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:03,720 Did you hear what I just said? 455 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:05,680 There's never a place or a time 456 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:07,480 where you cannot turn back to God 457 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:09,800 and he is there waiting for you. 458 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:11,000 He's with you. 459 00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:15,680 Again, I wanna point to something David's, 460 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,160 or to what Paul said, look at Acts chapter 17. 461 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:19,080 This is amazing. 462 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:25,680 This is Paul and he's preaching to a bunch of Greeks 463 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:27,800 who don't believe in God. 464 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:30,520 He's a Jewish guy, he's on a mission, he's on a trip, 465 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:33,000 he's going around, he's in Athens, Greece, 466 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:34,520 and there's this place called Martys Hill 467 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:36,760 where people would go and just publicly speak 468 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:39,360 and not everybody that's there agrees with him. 469 00:20:39,360 --> 00:20:40,720 And this is what he says. 470 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,000 He says, when I was in town today in Athens, 471 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:48,000 I saw all these statues and idols to all these gods, 472 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:51,480 and I saw one that says to the unknown God, 473 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:54,440 they were so religious that they had put one up, 474 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,960 and just in case we missed one, here's one we wanna honor. 475 00:20:57,960 --> 00:20:59,760 And Paul saw that and he goes, 476 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:01,160 this is an opportunity for me to tell them 477 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:02,200 about the true God. 478 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:06,360 Here's what he says, verse 24 of Acts chapter 17. 479 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:10,000 God that made the world and all the things therein, 480 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,360 sing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not 481 00:21:13,360 --> 00:21:16,600 in temples made with hands, neither has he worshiped 482 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:19,380 with men's hands as though he needed anything. 483 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:22,600 Does God need anything? 484 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:23,760 Anything we can give to God 485 00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:25,520 that he's like waiting on us to give him? 486 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,920 No, he give it to all life and breath and all things, 487 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:32,840 and it's made of one blood, all nations of men 488 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:34,280 for to dwell on the face of the earth. 489 00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:38,040 Hey, sidetrack, there aren't really any races. 490 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:41,000 There's one race, the human race. 491 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:43,320 Right? 492 00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:48,040 Just thought I'd throw that in there, it's in the Bible. 493 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,480 And had determined the times before appointed 494 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:51,960 and the bounds of their habitation. 495 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:52,840 What is he saying? 496 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:59,360 He's saying God chose all these people he created 497 00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:03,080 to be where they are and to be when they are. 498 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:08,080 Why did God choose for Dustin to live in Finlay, Ohio in 2024? 499 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:14,880 Cause of Lindsay. 500 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:20,760 At least in part, he gives us the answer, look at this. 501 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:27,400 Back to 26, it has determined the times before appointed 502 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:28,720 and the bounds of their habitation. 503 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:33,360 Why, verse 27, that they should seek the Lord. 504 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:35,920 Who thinks that's cool? 505 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:39,040 He put you where you are and when you are 506 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:41,000 so that you would seek him. 507 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:43,880 Now notice this, if happily they might feel after him 508 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:48,880 and find them, though he be not far from every one of us. 509 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:52,200 You know what that means? 510 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:53,640 God wants to be found. 511 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:58,000 He's not far, he's with you. 512 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:00,840 He's not willing that any should perish, 513 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:02,520 but that all should come to repentance. 514 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,320 He wants, he knows you, he knows where you are, 515 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:08,000 he's with you and he wants you to come to him. 516 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:09,520 He put you where you are and when you are, 517 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:10,680 that you would do that. 518 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:14,040 For in him, verse 28, we live and move 519 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,440 and have our being as certain also of your poets have said, 520 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,280 for we are all also his offspring. 521 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:20,600 If you know Christ as your savior, 522 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:22,560 the truth is that God is in you. 523 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:24,680 His Holy Spirit lives inside of you. 524 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,720 And if you don't know Christ, Paul tells us 525 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:28,640 that God decided where you would be 526 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,000 and put you where you would be and when you would be 527 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:32,560 so that you would seek the Lord. 528 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:35,680 He's not far from any of us, he is with us, 529 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:39,240 he's available to you, so my suggestion to you today is this, 530 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:40,280 call out to him. 531 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,360 Call out to him, recognize his presence and go to him. 532 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:48,040 Here's a third reality that helps us to have a close, 533 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,800 you guys wanna have a close relationship with God? 534 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:53,880 Okay, he knows you, he's with you, number three, 535 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:58,000 he made you, he made you. 536 00:23:58,000 --> 00:23:59,520 This is the mom part. 537 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:05,320 Omnipotence, look at what he says in verse 13. 538 00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:07,920 For thou hast possessed my reigns, 539 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:13,440 thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. 540 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,000 David gives us this truth about God. 541 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,080 David says that he belongs to God 542 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:21,560 because God made him. 543 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,080 David was covered by God in his mother's womb, 544 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:29,440 the same's true for you, God owns you and he made you. 545 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:32,080 You might say, I thought that was just a natural process, 546 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,320 that's not theology, that's biology. 547 00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:37,280 Nothing happens in this creative world 548 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:41,480 that was not designed by God and is not allowed by God. 549 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:45,880 God made you and you didn't start becoming you 550 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:47,360 when you came out of the womb. 551 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:50,800 God made you, you in the womb. 552 00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:57,640 He goes on to say in verse 14, 553 00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:02,080 I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully, 554 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:03,400 what does it say? 555 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,600 Made, marvelous are thy works 556 00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:08,360 and thou soul know right well. 557 00:25:08,360 --> 00:25:10,680 My substance was not hid from thee 558 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,960 when I was made in secret 559 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,880 and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 560 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,280 Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect, 561 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:23,640 meaning not complete yet in utero. 562 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,960 Before you were fully developed, he knew you 563 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:30,560 and he's making you and then notice this, 564 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:34,320 this is a crazy phrase for David to say 565 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,120 and for what we know now, check this out. 566 00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:41,120 And in thy book, all my members were, what is it? 567 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,960 Written, which in continuance were fashioned 568 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:46,240 when there was none of them. 569 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,240 The moment you were conceived in your mother's womb, 570 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,720 all of the resources to make you, you were there. 571 00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,480 Verse 16 says in thy book, all my members were written. 572 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,520 Now I'm not sure that David was referring to DNA, 573 00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,480 but that's not a bad description of what DNA actually is. 574 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:07,120 Have you guys ever heard of DNA? 575 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:11,840 In almost every cell of your body is found DNA. 576 00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:14,400 Two guys named Watson and Crick discovered 577 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:18,080 in the last 50, 60 years, the structure of the DNA. 578 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:22,520 They also discovered that DNA stores information 579 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:26,240 in the form of a four character alphabetic code. 580 00:26:27,120 --> 00:26:30,000 Strings of previously sequenced chemicals 581 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,120 called nucleotide bases, store and transmit 582 00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:36,040 the assembly instructions, the information, 583 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:40,480 the data for building the crucial protein molecules 584 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,600 and protein machines the cell needs to survive. 585 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,080 Crick later developed this idea 586 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,520 with his famous sequence hypothesis, 587 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:49,720 according to which the chemical parts of the DNA 588 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,240 or the nucleotide bases function, 589 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:55,560 here's how they function, like letters in a written language 590 00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:57,680 or symbols in a computer code. 591 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:00,840 Just as letters in an English sentence 592 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,280 or digital characters in a computer program 593 00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:06,480 may convey information depending on their arrangement, 594 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:09,840 so too do certain sequences of chemical bases 595 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:12,160 along the spine of the DNA molecule 596 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:15,520 convey precise instructions for building proteins, 597 00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,280 but not just proteins, everything about us. 598 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:21,640 The chances of this happening by random chance 599 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:23,640 are infinitesimally small. 600 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,840 In his book, Signature of the Cell, Steven C. Meyer 601 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:30,120 performs updated calculations of the probability 602 00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:33,800 of the origin of even a single functional protein 603 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,000 or corresponding functional gene, 604 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:37,520 which is the section of a DNA molecule 605 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:40,000 that directs the construction of a particular protein 606 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:40,960 by chance alone. 607 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:43,400 So he figured out what's the probability 608 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:48,400 that just sheer chance would make this one protein, 609 00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:52,640 which is just one part of one cell by chance. 610 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,560 It would be like a million monkeys 611 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,160 and a million top writers, 612 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:02,800 and somehow coming up with the collected works of Shakespeare. 613 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:07,080 Okay, who thinks that's gonna happen? 614 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:09,720 Never. 615 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:11,840 The question is, how many chances 616 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:13,360 are there for that to happen? 617 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:17,800 This is what he said. 618 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,200 His calculations are based upon recent experiments 619 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,440 in molecular biology, establishing the extreme rarity 620 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:28,800 of functional proteins in relation to the total number 621 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,600 of possible arrangements of amino acids 622 00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:34,440 corresponding to a protein's given length. 623 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,200 He shows that the probability, here it is, 624 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,400 of producing even a single functional protein, 625 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:44,400 which is just part of what it takes to make you, 626 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:49,400 with a modest length of 150 amino acids by chance alone, 627 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:51,120 what are the chances? 628 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:56,120 One in one times 10 to the 164th power. 629 00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:00,720 That's one with 164 zeros behind it. 630 00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,360 Who agrees that's a big number? 631 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:06,480 Like one in a million are a million times better 632 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,680 than that number, okay? 633 00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:12,080 My point is, you didn't just happen by accident 634 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,880 for something that specific to happen. 635 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:20,640 Someone had to write, who thinks that when you see a hymnal, 636 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,960 you guys look in the, we still have hymns, okay? 637 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:27,840 Would anybody ever say, you know that hymnal, 638 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,320 it's amazing how the ink just fell from heaven? 639 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:34,840 Write to that little open page, 640 00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:37,080 an amazing grace got written. 641 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:38,440 Who agrees, that's stupid. 642 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:42,280 Yeah, that stuff doesn't happen. 643 00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:44,480 Whenever you see information like that, you go, 644 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,840 if there's a hymn, there must be a hymn writer. 645 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,240 There's a book in every cell of your body 646 00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:55,360 that is all the information that it takes to make you. 647 00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:57,000 And what he says, David says, 648 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,600 before he even understood what a DNA was, 649 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,200 he says in your book, all my members are written 650 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,320 when they weren't even made yet. 651 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:08,720 You guys are not excited. 652 00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:18,760 God did it, God did it. 653 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,200 And then he made a process through which your mother 654 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:23,040 carried you for nine months 655 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:25,120 and they became your lifelong caretaker. 656 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:28,440 We didn't arrive on the planet out of the ground 657 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:30,600 unattached to anybody else like a tree. 658 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:34,200 Right? 659 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:38,520 We were born to a family, to a mom 660 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:40,520 who loved us and cared for us. 661 00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:42,360 One of God's very first gifts to us. 662 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:45,000 He gave us life, he gave us life through a mom. 663 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,040 Who's grateful here for mom? 664 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:48,680 We are so grateful for her. 665 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:51,200 Why did he do it? 666 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,360 Last one, he loves us. 667 00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:58,000 God loves us. 668 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,000 He's omnibenevolent. 669 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:01,400 Look at verse 17. 670 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,280 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. 671 00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:06,000 How great is the sum of them. 672 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,000 If I should count them, they are more in number 673 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:09,200 than the sand. 674 00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:11,920 When I awake, I am still with thee. 675 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:14,000 God knows everything about me. 676 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:15,240 God's with me all the time. 677 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:16,840 Anybody do something this week 678 00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:19,800 that you would be ashamed for God to know you did? 679 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,280 You don't have to raise your hand. 680 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:23,120 I'm there. 681 00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:25,160 How many ever thought something, 682 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,000 maybe a little bit of shame God knows you thought. 683 00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:31,200 Anybody here say something this week? 684 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:37,560 Maybe a little bit of shame that God knows that you said it. 685 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:45,560 This God created us. 686 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:46,820 He knows us. 687 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:49,560 He made us. 688 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,840 And when you woke up this morning, 689 00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:55,400 you did because he loves you. 690 00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:58,960 Another chance to know him. 691 00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,240 Another chance to love him. 692 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:05,520 And if you're not saved, another chance to be redeemed. 693 00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:12,400 He's not saying in this verse, please don't misunderstand me. 694 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:15,040 This is not saying that all God thinks about is you. 695 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:18,880 You are not the center of the universe. 696 00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:21,440 I am not the center of the universe. 697 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:24,680 What it's saying is God's gigantic. 698 00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:26,960 God is keeping everything going. 699 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:28,000 He knows everything. 700 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:29,320 He sustains everything. 701 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:32,360 And yet he cares for us. 702 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:34,200 And gives us the ability to wake up. 703 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,960 We don't always do what he wants. 704 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:40,840 We don't always live as he wills. 705 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:42,080 And yet in his mercy and grace, 706 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,320 he makes salvation available to us. 707 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:46,320 He's merciful. 708 00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:47,360 He does forgive. 709 00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:49,840 And though he knows everything is everywhere 710 00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:51,040 and is all powerful, 711 00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:53,000 yet he shows mercy and grace to us. 712 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:53,840 Why? 713 00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:55,520 Because he loves us. 714 00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:56,800 He loves you. 715 00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:59,200 So here's what I wanna tell you this morning. 716 00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:00,400 Did you get the outline? 717 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:06,920 Relationships are two-sided, right? 718 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,680 If you're gonna have a good relationship with your kids, 719 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:15,080 at some point they gotta reciprocate back, right? 720 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,280 If you want a good relationship with your mom, 721 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:18,760 you can't slap or remove away. 722 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:19,960 Never talk to her again. 723 00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:23,160 You gotta have a good, don't do that by the way. 724 00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:25,400 You gotta have, it's two ways. 725 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:27,880 And what you just learned this morning is this. 726 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:30,800 God's done all that it takes 727 00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,920 for you to have a close relationship with him. 728 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:35,200 Why? 729 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:36,040 He knows us. 730 00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:37,360 He's omniscient. 731 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:38,440 He's with us. 732 00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:39,760 He's omnipresent. 733 00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:40,840 He made us. 734 00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:42,040 He's omnipotent. 735 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:43,480 And he loves us. 736 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:44,920 He's omnibenevolent. 737 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,840 So how should we respond? 738 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:49,480 How should we respond? 739 00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:53,640 If he knows us, we should seek to know him. 740 00:33:57,320 --> 00:33:58,880 We should seek to know him. 741 00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:03,560 If he's with us, we should spend time with him. 742 00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:10,440 If he made us, we should be grateful. 743 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:12,400 We should thank him. 744 00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:13,680 We should serve him. 745 00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:15,200 We should submit to him. 746 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:20,200 And if he loves us, how unworthy are we? 747 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,640 If he loves us, we ought to love him back. 748 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:28,400 What's the greatest of all the commandments? 749 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:33,400 Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, 750 00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:36,480 and strength, the seconds like to it Jesus said, 751 00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,640 to love your neighbor as yourself. 752 00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,840 When we love this way the right way, 753 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,440 then we'll love this way the right way. 754 00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:50,440 And God's done everything possible for that to happen. 755 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:53,320 So what's our part? 756 00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,520 Well, if you're not saved, the Bible talks about salvation. 757 00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:02,320 There's a knowing God knows you, but do you know God? 758 00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:03,960 And it starts with this. 759 00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:06,880 The first thing you need to know about God, 760 00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:09,040 not just that he knows you and he's with you 761 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:10,760 and he loves you and he wants you to be saved. 762 00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:15,760 That's cool, but also you need to know that he has a will. 763 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:20,960 It's called his law and we've broken his law. 764 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:26,080 We haven't recognized him as God in every area of our life. 765 00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,080 We haven't always said what we should say 766 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:30,600 or think what we should think or do what we should do. 767 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,320 In fact, every day, multiple times a day, 768 00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:35,120 we don't do what he wants. 769 00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:37,060 We don't recognize him as God. 770 00:35:37,060 --> 00:35:42,060 God knew that if you were to be just and holy with us, 771 00:35:43,740 --> 00:35:48,740 that that means we would face his wrath for eternity. 772 00:35:50,140 --> 00:35:52,180 But God being holy can't let's then go 773 00:35:52,180 --> 00:35:55,980 and God being loving, he can't let's then go, 774 00:35:55,980 --> 00:35:59,580 but he doesn't want us to spend eternity separated from him. 775 00:35:59,580 --> 00:36:01,060 So what did he do? 776 00:36:01,060 --> 00:36:04,820 God became flesh and dwelt among us. 777 00:36:04,820 --> 00:36:09,820 He became sin, who knew no sin, 778 00:36:11,660 --> 00:36:14,260 that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 779 00:36:14,260 --> 00:36:16,580 Christ came, he lived a perfect life, 780 00:36:16,580 --> 00:36:18,540 he died on the cross for our sins, 781 00:36:18,540 --> 00:36:23,260 he was buried and he rose again the third day for our sins. 782 00:36:23,260 --> 00:36:25,620 And the Bible says if anyone received him, 783 00:36:25,620 --> 00:36:28,380 to them gave he power to become the sons 784 00:36:28,380 --> 00:36:30,400 and the daughters of God. 785 00:36:31,620 --> 00:36:33,840 He knows you, he made you, 786 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:36,380 but he also wants you to recognize 787 00:36:36,380 --> 00:36:40,220 that you're a sinner in what he did for you on the cross. 788 00:36:40,220 --> 00:36:42,260 So how do you come to know God? 789 00:36:42,260 --> 00:36:44,500 You come through salvation. 790 00:36:44,500 --> 00:36:48,220 You believe in Jesus Christ. 791 00:36:48,220 --> 00:36:50,340 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus 792 00:36:50,340 --> 00:36:51,700 and believe in that heart that God has raised him 793 00:36:51,700 --> 00:36:53,460 from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 794 00:36:53,460 --> 00:36:55,620 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 795 00:36:55,620 --> 00:36:57,620 shall be saved. 796 00:36:57,620 --> 00:37:00,020 And if you're here and you've already been saved, 797 00:37:01,260 --> 00:37:02,860 then you need not, there's salvation, 798 00:37:02,860 --> 00:37:04,820 but there's sanctification. 799 00:37:04,820 --> 00:37:07,460 We grow in Christ as we get to know him. 800 00:37:07,460 --> 00:37:10,980 We spend time with him in his word, we abide in him. 801 00:37:10,980 --> 00:37:15,340 He empowers us to do his will and to love him 802 00:37:15,340 --> 00:37:19,580 and to love him as he grows us. 803 00:37:19,580 --> 00:37:24,160 So he knows us, we should seek to know him 804 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:25,900 through salvation and sanctification. 805 00:37:25,900 --> 00:37:29,820 He is with us, we should develop our relationship with him. 806 00:37:29,820 --> 00:37:34,660 He loves us, he made us, we should be thankful to him 807 00:37:34,660 --> 00:37:37,100 and love him in return. 808 00:37:37,100 --> 00:37:42,100 And when we do that, then we can say the last two verses 809 00:37:44,260 --> 00:37:45,780 of this Psalm. 810 00:37:45,780 --> 00:37:48,260 When we believe that God knows us and is with us 811 00:37:48,260 --> 00:37:51,980 and made us and loves us and we believe that God is in charge 812 00:37:51,980 --> 00:37:54,900 and we submit to him as God, then we have the chance 813 00:37:54,900 --> 00:37:59,900 to get close to God by saying to him, search me, oh God, 814 00:38:00,420 --> 00:38:02,740 and know my heart. 815 00:38:02,740 --> 00:38:04,420 Now that's a weird thing to pray, isn't it? 816 00:38:04,420 --> 00:38:07,260 He just spent six verses telling us, God already knows our 817 00:38:07,260 --> 00:38:10,220 heart, but you know what the difference is? 818 00:38:13,820 --> 00:38:16,300 Whenever, when someone knows everything about you 819 00:38:17,300 --> 00:38:20,260 and still loves you, you know what that's called? 820 00:38:20,260 --> 00:38:21,180 Intimacy. 821 00:38:21,180 --> 00:38:25,680 You can have a good relationship with God when he knows 822 00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:27,320 everything about you and loves you. 823 00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:29,800 And when you're honest and transparent with him, 824 00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:31,920 transparency leads to intimacy. 825 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,360 Search me, oh God, and know my heart. 826 00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:38,840 Try me and know my thoughts and see if there'll be any wicked 827 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:43,720 way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. 828 00:38:43,720 --> 00:38:48,720 God loves you. 829 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:56,120 God loves you. 830 00:38:57,520 --> 00:38:58,360 God loves you. 831 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:00,640 God loves you. 832 00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:03,560 Point to who God loves. 833 00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:08,560 God loves you. 834 00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:31,560 Would you pray with me?