The Greatness of Our God

Transcription

1 August 23,2015 Psalm 139 Pastor Larry Adams The Greatness of Our God Hi Everyone. My name is Larry Adams and I want to take a moment to thank you for downloading the podcast of this message. At Golden Hills we are committed to exalting Jesus and preaching the Word. Your downloading of this message is a great encouragement to us, as we know that our ministry is going out to spread God s Word all over the world. We want you to know, too, that in no way do we intend these messages to be a replacement for your involvement in a good local church, where, sitting under the authority of pastors and other teachers, you can learn to worship, grow and serve and be engaged with a body of believers where you can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We realize also, that some of you may be in areas of the world where there is no local church. Therefore, we hope these messages you are using, to gather with your family or other believers, or people from the community that it will be a great encouragement to you, as you hear God speak into your life, helping you to become disciples who are true, reproducing followers of Jesus Christ. If you have your Bible today, I d like you to turn with me to Psalm 139. We re going to continue in our series, People of Praise, Lessons from the Psalter. We re going to be looking at one of the classic hymns of the psalter. By the way, welcome to all the folks who are streaming with us on line. We re very happy to have you with us. Some of you are home because you are sick or recovering from surgery, and I want you to know we ve been praying for you. Some of you are writing in from across the country, and even around the world from the Middle East and from Africa, letting us know what, even at night right now in some places, 8 or 10 hours ahead, you are streaming live with us in places where this feed is going and you are letting us know what it means to you. We re glad you re here and hope you are having a great Sunday of worship. We are all glad that you are with us. Psalm 139 was written by David. One of the things that becomes clear through this psalm is how much David loved God. But not only that, how much God loved David. It speaks about a relationship that many of us want but few of us would ever testify that we re sure we have. Yet this is a book, a psalm, a song, written to give us encouragement that we might know really know the greatness of this God. Here s the way David recorded Psalm 139. It was meant to be sung. You can thank the Lord I don t know the tune, but it was meant to be sung. Psalm 139 For the director of music, of David, a psalm. 1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; Page 1 of 14

2 you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand when I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Page 2 of 14

3 God, these words are penetrating and powerful. Convicting and very reassuring. You are a God greater than we know. I am praying today as we sing and share this psalm together, that we will leave here knowing the greatness of our God. We ll thank you, Lord for all that You will show us. In Jesus Name, Amen. Sometimes, we are so focused on the journey of life, we actually miss the Author of Life. When I was at Multnomah University, a former professor of mine, David Needham, wrote a book called, Close to His Majesty. In that book, he tells about a time when he and his family came into Glacier National Park in Northern Montana, Southern Canada, for the very first time. They came in on the new route that had been established by the Canadian government, that came down from Revelstoke, Canada right into the park. He said, When my wife Mary Jo and our two children, with great expectation and a full tank of gas, headed East out of Revelstoke, Canada, ready and eager to drink in all the glory of this glacial masterpiece. Determined to have enough time to really see it, we sped along the highway with all eyes glued to the sides of the road, to watch for the first signs that we were entering the park. (You know those big signs, where everybody stops and gets their picture taken? You are now entering so-and-so park.) On and on we went. Yes we were on the right road. But where were the signs? Where was the Ranger s check-in station? From time to time, we stole hasty glances at the beautiful scenery, but mostly we watched the road, looking for some clue that the park was near. Finally, after what seemed hours, I happened to look back and noticed in the rear-view mirror, behind me, on a sign on the far side of the highway, it said You are now entering Glacier National Park! We were already through it! Now it was too late to turn back! Somehow, we had missed it all! The viewpoints, the pictures we planned to take, the side trips we hoped to make, the massive hanging glacial cliffs, all that we would never see. Though we could all say, We ve been through Glacier National Park! We would also have to add, but we never saw it! We never saw it. Far too many people could say the same thing about their journey with God. I live in His world, I eat His food, I drink His water, I breathe His air, but I ve never known Him. I ve been to church, I read His Bible, I ve taken communion, I ve been baptized, but I haven t known Him. I m in a small group, I teach a Sunday School class, I confess Jesus as Lord, but I don t feel like I ve ever seen Him or experienced God. I m not sure I ve really known Him as He deserves to be known. Like so many, we can be so focused on the journey of life, we fail to know the Author of Life. Psalm 139 is a psalm that beckons us to slow down and ponder the wonder and majesty and greatness of God - what relationship with Him can really be. This was written by King David, who we all know was less than a perfect man. He was a murderer. An adulterer. A lousy dad in many ways, and not always the best leader. It ought to give us encouragement because, you see, God knows our heart, He knows our sins and our failures and He knows whether or not we really love Him or not, and desire to do the right thing. So you know what God called David? A man after His own heart. This gives me hope, that despite all my sins and failures, God knows whether or not I really love Him and want to do the right thing. This is the song of a man who knew God, intensely and personally. This is a song that exposes the relationship that David had with God, but even more importantly, the relationship that God had with David. You see, David loved God and trusted God, and with good reason, because David knew who God is. In this psalm, we learn of the greatness of God from a man who really knew Him. Page 3 of 14

4 In fact, from David, we are learning some of the great omni s of God. Now while you ll never see that word in this psalm, it s all there. In fact the word omni is a prefix that means all or universal or totally. It is used when describing an attribute or characteristic of someone or something that is all-encompassing. We use it in our language a lot more than we think. An omnivore, for example, eats everything; it has a universal diet of meat and plants, it doesn t matter what it s eating. You and I are omnivores for the most part (unless you re a vegetarian). An omnibus is a large vehicle that can provide transportation for many people all at once, or it is a large collection of writings and works by various authors. One of my favorites is omnifarious, it includes all varieties or kinds of something. You ever been in an omnifarious candy store? Pretty nice they ve got everything in there! Or omnidirectional involving all directions, so a vehicle that can go up, down, back and forth, forward and backward it s omnidirectional. When it comes to the omni s, God is the ultimate. David knew Him as the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God. David wrote this psalm in response to God s greatness, but also marveling that this all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful God knew and loved him. He knows and loves you! That gave David such confident assurance, trust and strength in whatever he was facing. The very same trust and confident assurance and strength that God wants all of us to have, no matter what we are facing. Which is why David tells us in Psalm 139, there can be confident assurance in all our circumstances, when we know and trust the greatness of our God. Why can we have such confident assurance? David said, because God is omniscient, He knows everything. He is omnipresent, He is everywhere. He is omnipotent, He is all-powerful. We can have confident assurance in God because He is omniscient, He knows everything. David said, Psalm 139:1-6, You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand when I awake, I am still with you. Page 4 of 14

5 Years ago, I read an interesting story about a little boy named Johnny Sylvester. You probably never heard his name, but he became famous because of his connection with another famous name, Babe Ruth, the great Yankee baseball player. It said: In 1926, a young boy named Johnny Sylvester got kicked in the head by a horse. The wound on his forehead got badly infected. Doctors told his parents the sad news. Johnny would die. They couldn t save him. Johnny said, I wish I could see Babe Ruth wallop a homer before I die. So they sent a telegram to the great slugger of the New York Yankees, and Babe Ruth sent an answer back. He would hit a homer, just for Johnny, in the next game. Johnny Sylvester instantly became one of the most famous boys in baseball history. Did Babe Ruth slug one for Johnny that day? Yes, in fact he hit three homers in that game for Johnny. More than that, to top it off, he visited Johnny in the hospital. Were the doctors right? Did Johnny die? Yes, he did. The doctors were right. Johnny Sylvester died, but not until he was 74 years old! When I read that story, I thought, were the doctors wrong, or incompetent or poorly trained? No, they were probably very good doctors, very well-trained and very competent. But you see, those doctors suffer, like the rest of us do, with a dilemma: we are not omniscient. We don t know everything, or how everything is going to turn out. Sometimes, we think we feel omniscient. Sometimes, we think, you know, I got good investment advice this one can t lose! And it does! I ll be there is 10 or 15 minutes! And we arrive an hour late because we couldn t foresee the flat tire. Yes, I ll marry you and I ll be yours forever. But the I do becomes and I don t and you don t know all the reasons why. We never saw it coming. If we did, we never would have hitched our wagon to that horse. You see, we can t fully trust everything that humans tell us, because when it involves the future, they are as in the dark as we are. We could be well-intentioned, but we are not omniscient. God is. He knows everything. Past, present and future. David learned that that s why you can trust God. He learned that God knew everything. That s why he said: Psalm 139:1-6 1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. You ve searched me, God and You know me. You know my thoughts before I think them. You know my deep needs before I do them. You know my words before I speak them. You know those things about everyone in the past, everyone on the planet today, and everyone who will ever live. You know it all. Look at this: Page 5 of 14

6 Psalm 139:16 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. You know that future I worry about, God? You ve already lived it. There isn t a day coming You don t already know! You know the day I was coming into the world and You know the day I m leaving. You know the minute I m leaving! Where I ll be, and what I ll be doing. You know everything in-between. You know all my days before one of them ever came to be. David said, I don t have a capacity for this kind of a God! I don t have a capacity to understand how anyone can be like this! Such knowledge (vs 6) is too wonderful for me! Too lofty for me to attain! Not only that, but the assurance that an infinitely all-knowing God can have me in His thoughts 24-7! Do you know that there is no time when you are not in the mind of God? Look at verse 5: 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. You ve got my back, You ve got my front, and You ve got everything in-between. Your hand is on my life! I m not living by faith, I m living by sovereignty. Nothing in my past is hidden to You, and nothing in my future is hidden to You. Amazing. Verse 17: 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! (It could also be translated, How amazing are your thoughts concerning me!) How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand when I awake, I am still with you. How many grains of sand are in the world? However many there are, God s thoughts of you everyday are greater than the number of grains of sand in the world. You see, that s another way of saying that He is always watching over you. It s not just that God knows all things, but He understands us. Remember verse 1: You know me. A lot of people think they know me, but my wife knows me. I m amazed she is still sticking around. She knows me. God knows me infinitely more than that! Verse 2: You perceive my thoughts. Verse 3: You discern my way. For David and for us, God s omniscience can be a very comforting thing. Name one thing that s going to touch my life or yours that God hasn t known from eternity. Name one! You can t do it! So if God allows it in my life, even if He ordains it or causes it, we know it s for our good and He will hold us in His hands through it all. It has a purpose. When I sin or make a mistake, I don t have to worry about God thinking something like, you know that Larry guy? He is a way bigger sinner than I thought. I never would have given Jesus for him. Maybe we need to back off on this offer. That guy is a waste of time. That s never happened! God knew all about my sin before I was ever made. He knew it was going to cost Him. He is not surprised by anything I do. You Page 6 of 14

7 know that future I worry so much about? God has already lived those days. By the way, in Matthew 6 in the Sermon on the Mount, God basically asked the disciples and others, can you name one thing your worrying accomplished? The pagans worry. Why do you worry? Don t you understand that I m a God who holds the future in My hands? Amazing. You know, this omniscience is also not just a comforting thing, it s a cleansing thing. See, if God knows and sees everything I think, everywhere I am, everything I do, then that knowledge can help me to make better choices. You know, sitting in front of a computer screen and you are tempted to go to a place you know you shouldn t go because you think you re alone and nobody will know. I got news for you! You ain t alone! And God knows it. So if you re aware of that and you re going to give account to Him someday for those choices, then why in the world would you go there, if you know He is right there with you and He knows everything you re thinking? Why would you go there? That little shortcut you re going to take on your taxes? Or the little thing you re going to do at work that nobody is going to see? God sees it. When you are aware of that, it helps you to make different decisions because you know you are not alone. He knows it all. He is right there. But it is also a confidently reassuring thing because anyone who knows us like this completely, and still loves us, is someone you can trust. You can trust Him with anything. You may not be able to tell anyone else, but you can tell God and He will never misjudge you. He knows me and what s best for me, and how to use everything in my life to accomplish His eternal purposes, and to make me into the image of His Son. That s why the apostle Paul said in Romans 8: 31, If God (our God) is for us, who can be against us? David found great comfort in the greatness of God s omniscience and so can we. Not only in the greatness of God s omniscience, but we can have confident assurance in God because He is omnipresent. He is everywhere. Look at verse 7-12: 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Karla and I are re-living the time with our children, with our grandchildren. We used to play games with our kids like hide-n-seek. We re doing that now with our grandkids. Our grandson, Levi, is 5 and our other grandson, his brother, Owen, is 3. They like to play hide-n-seek once in a while. I like playing hide-n-seek at night, because you can shut the lights off and it s easier to hide. So Levi was counting, he counts very fast and very well, so you don t have a lot of time to hide. When he started counting, Owen took off for the back room, which was totally dark. A Page 7 of 14

8 great place to hide, but totally dark. I watched him and he stopped right at the door. He turned around, came back, grabbed by hand and said, Come with me, Bompa. He dragged me back. We went right into that dark room. He didn t hesitate. Because he had me by the hand. No hesitation. It was a great place to hide back there because it was so dark. (Although, with the noise Owen makes, he is not hard to find!) But he wasn t afraid. You know, you and I are a lot like Owen. We all have fears. All of us. Some of us have a lot of them. Don t we face those fears better when we know we are not alone? That someone bigger, stronger, has us by the hand. That someone is God. In Psalm 139, David rejoiced in the fact that no matter where he was, or what he did, or what he had to face, God was always with him because He was omnipresent. In fact in verse 7 he asked the rhetorical question: Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? The answer is clear: NOWHERE! There is nowhere any of us can go where God isn t already there. Look how encompassing this is: 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Amazing! (applause). You see what David is saying? If I go to the heavens meaning the canopy of the stars or beyond where at that time, man had never been. If I could go there, You d be there. People ask me sometimes, Larry, do you believe in aliens? Let me just tell you, I don t know if there are aliens or life on other planets, I doubt it, but if there were, they would have been created by the same God, under the same moral standards and the same rules, because God is the same, and the author of all life. I can assure you of this, that if we ever get the capacity to go beyond the canopy of the stars, to go out where no man has ever been (you know the Star Trek thing?), I don t care what world you encounter out there, how far in the universe you go, or even beyond the universe wherever you go, you re going to discover God is there! He is there! He is ever present. David said, if I go to the depths, not just the depths of the ocean, if I go to the core of the earth, I would find that God was there. If I got up early in the morning, on the wings of the dawn, or travelled to the farthest end of the sea, if I could go to where the sun rises, or go to where it sets, no matter where I go, I m going to know that I will find God there. And if I ever thought for a moment that even the darkness could hide me, that if I was in the valley, or I was hiding in the dark, you couldn t find me guess what, it s not that You find me, You are there! And where You are, light is. There is no dark to You. Amazing! God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at once, and people, that s different than saying that God is in everything. God is not in the trees, He is not in the rocks, He s not in the mountains, He is not in the birds that s pantheism. Or it is another form of animism God is that tree, that rock, that mountain, that moon. That s pantheism. That s animism. God is not in everything, He is everywhere. By the way if you ever want to feel special, remember this, the place that God does dwell in, is in Page 8 of 14

9 you, the believer. God comes to live in you. The fullness of God in the person of His Holy Spirit living in you. He is not only with you, He is in you! Amazing! He is so awesome! You see, God is spirit, He is not limited to a single space or time like we are. Even in the incarnation when God limited some of His attributes to take on human flesh, His spirit was still ever-present. He is always with us. That s why He could make the promise He did, to the disciples. Remember Matthew 28, when He told them, and us, in 28:19, Therefore, go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. How are we going to do that, God? I am with you always, to the very end of the age. God is not going to ask you to do anything that He is not going to be with you to do. He is not going to ask you to face anything that you re ever going to have to face alone. I don t understand everything God does, but He does it for good. He does it with us. No matter where we go or what we do, God is there. Not only in the greatness of God s omniscience and omnipresence, but we can have confident assurance in God because He is omnipotent all-powerful. David said, (Psalm 139:13-16): 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. I was reading a while ago, the story of a little girl who climbed up into the lap of her greatgrandmother. She was staring into the face of her great-grandmother for a long time. She wasn t saying anything. She was looking at her thinning gray hair, and her great-grandma s many, many wrinkles and age spots, and all the things she was seeing. The little girl finally said to her great-grandma, Grandma, did God make you? Yes, honey, God made me. Did God make me? Yes, honey, God made you. The little girl said, Don t you think He s doing a better job today, than He used to? You gotta love it! If you re around kids, you can just see that happening! That s the way they think! (laughter) Page 9 of 14

10 The truth is, God is not doing any better now at anything than He used to, because God has always been perfect, because He is always all-powerful. Especially when He creates. You see, rarely will you ever see more of a demonstration of God s omnipotent power than in creation. You see, that s what King David was singing about: God s omnipotent power in creation. He said in vs 13: 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. You see, that s what makes abortion such an assault on humanity. By the way, if you ve had an abortion, God forgives. Trust me. He is a forgiving God and I m not saying this to make anyone feel worse than they already do. God forgives. But I can t deny the point that David understood clearly and God makes known, that if anybody invades the womb of a woman to take a baby out, they are tearing apart the body interfering with the creation of a human being that God is forming for His own image and glory. That s what s happening. That s what the world doesn t want you to know or see. God you saw my unformed body. That s not a mass of cells, God says it is an unformed body. I m not done with it yet. I m not done with it yet. You see, David understood that God was the creator. It s basic. David also writes later when he talked about God making the sun, moon, stars and everything else, that God created the universe ex-nihilo (out of nothing). Scientists get all worked up and start slapping themselves on the back when they can take a mass of cells, discover the secret God has locked in those cells, clone those cells and make another sheep. I would say, you guys think you re so hot? Try making that sheep out of nothing! In fact God created the cells that had the life in them, that you could unlock it s secretive DNA and learn how to reproduce those cells to get another sheep. Try doing that out of nothing! There is only one Creator, and that s God. Man creates out of other things; God creates exnihilo! Out of nothing! That s why creation is such a divine display of His power. You remember the apostle Paul said in the Book of Romans in chapter one that famous passage that God s power in creation is so clear, nobody can say that God doesn t exist. You have to suppress it, it s so clear. That s what evolution is the suppression of God s creative hand in nature. Suppression of the truth. Romans 1:18: 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature Page 10 of 14

11 have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. You see David understood that God was the Creator. He believed Genesis chapter one: 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (if you miss that, the rest of your life is never going to be right) 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (God made an amorphous blob. He created it, a ball of watery liquid. He created that. He spoke that into existence, and then He suspended it in space. Contemplate that for a while! And then after doing that, God decided He was going to speak into that blob and create what was needed to make an earth suitable for those He loved: you and me. So, scripture reminds us that God did that with a word, out of nothing. He spoke the watery ball into existence and everything He put in it, He spoke out of nothing. ) 3 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. When your kids and grandkids come and ask you, where did the light come from? You tell them, God made light. There was no light before He created it. He is the light. Don t be embarrassed. It s the truth. Genesis 1:6-7 6 And God said, Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water. 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. And God created the sky and the atmosphere: Genesis 1:9 9 And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so. Go on down in Genesis: God said let the land produce vegetation and it was so. And God said, let there be lights in the vault of the sky the sun, the moon and stars. And it was so. And God said, let the waters teem with living creatures, and the air teem with birds, and it was so. And God said let the land produce living creatures, livestock, reptiles, insects, wild animals, and it was so. And God said! And it was so! And God said! And it was so! And God said! And it was so! (applause). God is the Creator. Genesis 1: Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. (God didn t make men Page 11 of 14

12 out of monkeys, He made men to rule over monkeys! And over all of His creation. Applause.) 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. David was not gender-confused. There were only two choices, man or woman and God determines which is which. (applause). God made all of this with the breath of His mouth. Then He reached into the dust that He spoke into existence, and He made a man. Then He put that man to sleep, and pulled a rib out of that man and formed it into a woman. That s not a fairy tale, that s the story of creation! God not only creates all of this, but He holds it all together by His power. Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. How do the planets spin like they do? And the various moons? And the stars in their places? And all the other things that God moves and creates and forms in the universe how do they all stay together? He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. You know, someday, when God is going to destroy all that we know, and make a new heaven and a new earth, people have asked, how in the world is God going to destroy the universe? Like this. (opens hand). He just opens His hand and lets it go and it ceases to exist, because God holds it all together by the power in His hand. (Applause). That s the God you serve. This is our God. David knew that this God was all-powerful. He created him, He created everything. So David knew that no matter what happened in his life, or how badly he failed, or what messes he created, God was big enough and strong enough to work them out if he would just follow God and trust Him. Do you and I know God like that? Because you will, someday. David Needham, in his book Close to His Majesty, closed out that book telling about how he and his family used to go hiking in the Sierras in California. They hiked all over the place, climbed many mountains, went a lot of places. But there was one hike his parents always talked about, saying, someday, David, we re going to take you up the O Grade. Someday we re going to take you up the O Grade, someday we re going to take you up the O Grade. He had no idea what it was, couldn t find it on a map. He finally said, Mom, Dad, what is the O Grade? Does it come before the P Grade?! They said with a smile, no, just wait. You ll see. So one day, it was time to climb the O Grade. It was a very difficult climb, apparently. He said they climbed through twisting switch-backs, through scrub and pine sage, hours and hours they walked. When it seemed they would never get to the top of the ridge, finally they did and he said, When I came over that ridge and saw what was in front of me, I screamed, O!!! You know that you and I, on this journey of life, with Jesus Christ in our hearts, if you re trusting Him as your Savior, you are climbing with God the celestial O Grade. Someday, you re going to come to the end of that road. And imagine this, you and I, with Christ in our hearts, we re going to walk into the throne room of God. For the very first time, with your own eyes, you re going to see God. And everything you though about greatness, is going to be gone! Because you re going to see in front of you, what true greatness is. I can assure you, in that moment, you ll stand with the rest of humanity and all of creation, and go WOW! GOD! WHOA! THAT S YOU! You re the one who has been with me all this time! You re the one who walked with me through that disease! You re the one who was there when I lost my job! You re the one, when my little one died! You re the one who was there for everything I ve ever gone through! Page 12 of 14

13 That s right! That s Me! (applause) You know what David said? You don t have to wait until then to know His greatness. You can know it now. We can trust this God, when you know who He is. Like David, when you know who He is, you ll trust Him because He is omniscient He knows everything. He is omnipresent He is everywhere. You ll never be alone. And He is all-powerful. What He promised He WILL DO. That s why I think David went on to say (vs 19), I can t stand it when people tear You down, I can t stand it when people lie about You, I can t stand it when people misuse Your name. I hate them God! I can t stand what they are doing to You. I know You now! I know You now! I can pray for their salvation and try to help them see who You are, but I can t stand it when they don t get You right! And look at this Lord, what about me? Do I get You right? Is there anything in my life I m not seeing that You want me to see? Psalm 139: Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. A little later on, David would write another psalm. I hope we get a chance to look at it, Psalm 145. Psalm 145:1-3 1 I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. 2 Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. 3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. God thank you for this. You deserve to be glorified in every way, and I am so sorry, God, for how in my life, I have at any time diminished You. When I doubted You because I didn t know You. When I tried to fit You into a box in which You cannot be fit. When I thought You weren t there, or thought You didn t care. Or thought You didn t have the ability. Thank You for this reminder today, that I can have confident assurance and trust in You, because You are the God who knows everything, who is everywhere, and who has all power. Just like David, we stand amazed to realize, this is our God. This is my God. And You love us. Thank You, God, for this. When we walk out these doors today, let us see You in the world around us differently so that on the journey of life, we ll go every step with the Author of life. Thank You, in Jesus Name, Amen. Page 13 of 14

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