What’s your day-to-day life look like? Do you take the time to truly inspect your heart and invite God into your daily life? Join us as we explore Psalm 139 together!
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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
You guys should be excited for me, last summer we were able to trade our minivan in and get me a truck without having to make payments – you know what it’s like being the pastor who shows up in a minivan :).
When we were looking at trucks, I had found one that was a great price, was in good condition and seemed like a great deal. So, I met the guy who had it at Steve’s shop to get it inspected by a mechanic to make sure I wasn’t getting into something bad.
Steve’s mechanic called me out to look under the vehicle. The frame was so rusted you could literally poke your finger through it. It was crazy… I was like, “um, so, I’m not going to buy your truck…”
The only thing that would have been cool about driving that truck would have been to see it split in half and it dip in the middle and seeing me driving around with it… lol
Over the last few years, I’ve seen lots of people’s lives rust through.
b
I have a feeling it’s because most people are going through their day to day life without ever inspecting their inner life…
What about you?
How much time do you spend in a day, week, month or year inspecting your heart?
Listen, I don’t mean having emotions. I mean taking deep thoughtful time away from binging shows, flipping on a phone, playing games on a device. I don’t mean dealing with problems at work or dealing with issues in your relationship.
How do you deal deeply with the questions of your heart?
Do I matter
Does God care
What do I do
b
I think much of our anxiety comes from a deep disconnect with who we are and whose we were created to be.
ILLUSTRATION:
Think about it, you live in a world that is designed to keep you from noticing who you are and whose you are. You have billion dollar companies who are working night and day to capture your attention and sell it to advertisers. Do a quick check and look just on your phone – open your settings and look at your screen time. I can’t prove it, but I bet there is a direct correlation to the anxiety you feel and the amount of screen time you spend.
I want to take you to an ancient way of inspection that has almost been lost to us in our modern world that your ancestors would have just naturally done:
5 reminders to help you become the kind of person who inspects their inner life and answer the questions, Do I matter, Does God care, What do I do.
What we are about to read is a psalm from King David. Psalms are literally the prayers/songs from someone. They are not meant to teach you theology as much as teach you how to bring your heart to God. with that in mind, listen to David’s words..
1. Remind Yourself of your Place in the Story:
Psalm 139:1-24
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
I love that David says “such knowledge is too wonderful for me – to lofty… It is…
David is reminding himself that nothing is hidden from God. His place in the story is he’s a person and God is God.
What would happen to your mental health if you started reading this psalm each day and reminded yourself that nothing you do is hidden from God?
ILLUSTRATION:
I have a friend who tells his kids “when I ask you a question, you need to know, I already know the answer…” God is like this. He knows everything, He’s seen it all, every potential eventuality. You are not Him, you are just a person in the story.
I personally try and go out in the country occasionally and find a spot to get out of my car and look at the grandness of the universe and remind myself of my place in the story…
2. Remind yourself of God supremacy in the story:
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
God is all penetrating – nothing is hidden from Him or outside of His purview.
ILLUSTRATION:
we are bound by time and place, light and dark. We are bound by our physical limitations. God is not bound by any of that. He is Supreme. When was the last time you reminded yourself of the supremacy of God? Spent time praying to Him and just speaking the truth of who God is outlaid?
3. Remind yourself of Your Value to God:
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 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. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.
After all this, David is amazed to think that God thought it fit to create him…
Can I just speak to the hearts of some of you right now. Some of you don’t have a sense that you matter much. You matter more than you can ever imagine to God. You are fearfully and wonderfully made – God thought of you and decided upon you. He desires you and longs to help you unravel the things that have told you are less than and to help you see who you are.
Look at the odds of you existing [Anthony, you can put these 3 on one slide – I’ll boogie through it quickly]
- Chance of Your Parents Meeting: Their geography, social networks, timing, and life circumstances. Any of these things are different, your parents might never have met.
- The Odds of Conception: The chance of a particular sperm fertilizing the egg that created you is 1 in 100 million. [There are around 100 million sperm vying to fertilize a single egg.]
- Generational Odds: The chance of your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., all meeting and reproducing as they did exponentially increases the odds..
A 2011 study from Dr. Ali Binazir tried to put a number to this improbability. After considering all the factors, he estimated the odds of any one person existing as roughly 1 in 10^2,685,000—a number so large it defies true comprehension.
The odds of you existing are: 1 in 10^2,685,000
I don’t even know how to say that number…
and it’s not just that you exist, but that you matter to God – He thought of you…
4. Remind God of the battles you are fighting:
If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
I don’t knwo that many of us would pray like David is here – but what he is doing is bringing his battles before God after settling his heart in the setting of who God is…
What battles are you fighting right now?
How are you bringing them before God? Are you being honest with Him about your feelings or are you telling Him what you really want
(He might not do what you want – He will act out of love, but He will understand your heart)
5. Remind yourself of your need for God:
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
David has poured himself out to God, he’s reminded him of his place in the story and the supremacy of God, he’s brought his battles to him and now he finishes by swinging back and reminding himself he still needs Jesus.
Search me and know my heart – test me and know my anxious thoughts..
David is inviting God into the story of his real life…
What about you?
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:
Something I’ve noticed in myself is that I’ve become a person who is reactive instead of a person who reacts. I think it’s because I had gotten to the point where my heart was hidden away and I was just existing. I had gotten to where I didn’t want to do things if I didn’t have to. I had to make some intentional moves to remind myself of the things that matter.
Today, what are you going to do? Are you going to keep going down the road your going down? How about you? Are you reactive or a person who is able to react – the way you would like to. This week, if I could give you one challenge it would be to read Psalm 139 every day and to take your heart to Jesus in prayer through it.
