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The God Who Knows It All!
Psalm 139:1-6
Skip Heitzig

Psalm 139 (NKJV™)
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
5 You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Rediscovering Our Foundations

A little boy climbed his neighbor's apple tree when he saw their car leave. He didn't realize that while he was stuffing his pockets full of apples, another neighbor was watching through a pair of binoculars and saw the whole thing! God isn't spying on people, trying to catch them doing something wrong; but God is aware of everything. Such a truth has a profound effect on us: it can either be very comforting or else extremely unsettling.

We live in an age where truth has become a relative term. But the Bible leaves no room for doubt when it comes to the absolute nature of truth. Unfortunately, our culture is vastly biblically illiterate. In this series, Pastor Skip Heitzig gets back to the roots of our faith, looking at what the Bible has to say about God, Christ, the Trinity, mankind, the church, heaven, and hell. Learn to stand on a firm foundation in the midst of an unstable culture.

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Outline

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  1. God's Knowledge Stated (v. 1)
    A. On A General Level
    B. On A Personal Level
  2. God's Knowledge Studied (vv. 2-5)
    A. He Knows Every Movement
    B. He Knows Every Motive
    C. He Knows Every Moment
  3. God's Knowledge Surrendered To (v. 6)

Transcript

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Good evening. I confess my weakness to you tonight. I've been traveling so much and I've come to a place where I officially hate traveling now. That's my new position. I just don't like it. And I said things a lot of different things, a few weeks ago I was in Puerto Rico, then I came back, then I went back to Puerto Rico, then I came back. Then the last week I had to go to North Carolina The Cove because I every year make a commitment to the Billy Graham Training Center and spoke five times there and then came back. And then last night I had to go to Colorado to speak for a church dedication up in Colorado Springs. So, I'm traveling so much, I think I passed myself going over Atlanta the other day and waved. Anyway we got in, last night we took this little airplane to Colorado because I wanted to get back last night. But the pilot who goes to the fellowship here, he's used to a bigger plane and we had a little Cessna 182 with crosswinds. So we got in about 3 in the morning last night. And the heater didn't work in this airplane. I'm driving to the airport and it was cold. And I said, "Does that heater work?" He goes, "I hope so." Great. So we get in the plane. Doesn't work. This is Murphy's Law of airplanes. Doesn't work. And you need to go about 13,000 15,000 feet in the air with no heater from Colorado to New Mexico. Hello! It was just Whoa, you're freezing. So what an interesting night and last few weeks. So I'm just saying that I may put myself to sleep tonight. And if I keel over you know what went wrong.

Would you turn to Psalm 139 please. Oh, we have a station to welcome in our satellite network. And then we want to welcome all of the 300 plus radio stations listening on the CSN Satellite Network. There is in Durant, Oklahoma, you get the prize, 90.1. (applause)

We all know what trivia is, don't we? In fact there's a game called Trivial Pursuit. I mean imagine of all the things you could pursue, trivia. And some people are really good at it. You know trivia is all of that stuff that makes you go, "Huh. Wow." But it's really worthless information for the most part. I have a big compartment in my brain labeled Worthless Information. There's a lot of stuff, I know lyrics to songs, I may forget the scripture passage but I know this lyric that's been stuck in there for many many years. All of this knowledge we accumulate.

Somebody from California gave this to me some time back. It's "Things I Bet You Didn't Know." I bet you didn't know that no piece of paper can be folded over seven times. Now don't experiment with that tonight. "Where's that bulletin, honey?" Or, I wonder if you knew that donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. That is worthless information. Mosquito repellents don't repel, they hide you. The spray blocks the mosquitoes sensors so they don't know that you're there. I wonder if you knew that dentists recommend that you keep your toothbrush six feet from your toilet to avoid airborne particles that can result from the flush. Now that is good to know. I know your hygiene will change after tonight. I can just tell. I wonder if you knew that the liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma. Or, you burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. I like that. That's what I need to be doing, not watching television, sleeping. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright Brothers first flight. Or, American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class. Man. I bet you didn't know that apples not caffeine are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. Or, most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. You'll never forget that I said that. (laughter) Michael Jordan makes more money annually from Nike than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. It takes three thousand cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for one year's supply of footballs. And finally, thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. Shame on them, now we know.

Now I read that, you probably didn't know that stuff. And if you did know all those things, you're probably a miserable person to hang out with. I remember a guy in school growing up named Bart. And I'm not going to say his last name because this message goes on lots of different stations. And maybe he's a believer now, God bless him. But I'll tell you Bart knew everything. In fact, it was hard to be around him. You'd say something, "I knew that. In fact..." and he'd add to it. You know potentially it could have been difficult to be around Jesus. Potentially. He knew everything. He displayed the very characteristic we're about to read and we discuss tonight, the attribute of omniscience. It could be very tough. "You know Jesus, I was thinking..." "Yeah, let me finish your sentence." And yet what is wonderful about him is he never used this attribute against someone, to attack them, to intimidate them. In fact, he was so approachable was he not? He used that attribute, when he used it, usually to either rebuke religious leaders who were against him or to draw disciples to himself.

I love the story about Jesus in the first part of the gospel of John when Phillip found Nathaniel. And Phillip says, "We have found the one the prophets told us about, the coming Messiah, his name is Jesus of Nazareth." Nathaniel said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Phillip said, "Well come and check it out." So Nathaniel comes to Jesus. Jesus sees Nathaniel coming. Now Nathaniel it seems had this secret hideout that nobody knew about, a fig tree were he just sort of liked to hang out and be alone, he was a loner. And Jesus looked at him and said, "Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit." And Nathaniel said, "Excuse me but how do you know me?" And Jesus said, "When you were under that fig tree I saw you." At that point, Nathaniel just goes nuts. He goes, "You are the Son of God, you are the promised one." And Jesus said, "You said all that because I said I saw you under the fig tree. Stick around, you're going to see greater things than that." But he used that attribute of knowing everything to make disciples. One of the first questions that people have in life, kids, is "Well what's God like?" And it's a tough, it's a tough thing to explain isn't it? "Well, God is like... Well," we stumble all over this whole description of what God is like. Especially some of these lofty attributes that we could never ever attain to or compare ourselves to, like omniscience. And it's true, the finite, the limited can never grasp totally the infinite, the unlimited.

When a kindergarten teacher was walking through a classroom and the kids were drawing their little works of art. She came to one girl who was very intent on the drawing. She looked down and she was working hard and scribbling and wouldn't look up. And so the teacher just stopped, out of curiosity said, "And what are you drawing?" She said, "I'm drawing God." And the teacher said just kind of stepped back like blasphemous you know. "Well what do you mean you're drawing God? Nobody knows what God looks like." Without batting an eye she said, "They will in a minute."

Psalm 139 is what God looks like from David's perspective. It is his portrait. It's his portrait of God. In fact it's a picture of his attributes, what God is like. These are not trivial facts, these are essential facts. And by the way, David's Psalm is not a lecture in theology, it's his own personal musings on the nature and character of God. I call this his Wow! Psalm because that's tantamount to what he says in it. Look at verse 1, "Oh Lord you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue but behold oh Lord you know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it." That's his wow in other words. "Woww! Unreal! Too wonderful for me!"

Go back to verse 1 where he makes the statement of what God is like. He says, "Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up, you understand my thought afar off." On the general level we call this omniscience. Now that's a more formal theological-sounding term for God knows it all, God knows everything, he has infinite info. He is the ultimate knower of all things, past, present, future, everything we can possibly imagine, God already knows it. Which means that God knows more about every single field than any other expert in that field. And I always like to remind experts of that. You know, they are so smart. Well, God knows more astronomy than the expert astronomer. God knows more biology than the biologist. God knows more theology than the theologian or pastor or any other Christian. God is the ultimate knower. He knows more counseling than any counselor. Sometimes women will say, "I don't understand men." God does. Or men will say, "I can't figure them women out." God can. God understands men, God understands women. And do you know what else? Miraculous as it sounds, God even understands teenagers (laughter) completely and absolutely.

This attribute of knowing everything, omniscience is what is so God about God. It's one of the things that distinguishes him from ourselves. God never had to go to school or take tests or explore or learn something new. God's knowledge is instantaneous, intuitive rather than acquired. He doesn't have to study and he never forgets. Isn't that wonderful? We forget so much. I forget so much.

It's been estimated that man's accumulated knowledge from the beginning of recorded history, that if you could measure it from the beginning of time, that we started measuring knowledge until the year 1845, if that were represented by one inch, then the knowledge we've acquired from 1845 to 1945 would be represented by three inches. And the knowledge we have acquired as a race from 1945 to 1975 is the height of the Washington monument. And now they're telling us that accumulated knowledge doubles every few years, every couple of years, every eighteen months one report says. But you see that's learned, that's accumulated. God's knowledge is instantaneous and our knowledge compared to his knowledge is like near zero when you compare infinite knowledge with limited man.

The prophet Isaiah asked this in chapter 40, "Who has understood the mind of the Lord?" Now I've met people who think they understand the mind of the Lord but they don't. As soon as they say they do I know they don't. Or who has instructed him as his counselor? Well actually I know a lot of people who have counseled God. Unsuccessfully but, "Well God, you should have done that." "Why does God not do this?" Who are you, God's counselor? Who has known the mind of God? Who has instructed him that you could even presume to counsel him? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him? Who has taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?

We are part-niscient, we're non-niscient in some cases, micro-niscient perhaps. God is omniscient. The comparison is striking. So that basically life, I guess it'd be like a rerurn. You know when you see a rerun, you go, "Well I know what's going to happen." Imagine all of life being a rerun to God. He sees it all, he knows it all. And that's why God and we've dealt with this can predict the future so accurately. It's like no big deal to him. He can state things in advance before they happen. We have a tough time prognosticating the weather. I love it when the weather maps come up and people tell us what's going to happen. And then all of a sudden, they don't know it's coming but a shift occurs. I remember a few weeks back all the weather people in town, "It's going to be dry, it's going to be sunny." And then pfoom! Mega rainstorm. It was so cool. God knew that.

This guy was driving through West Texas, and pulled into a gas station to fill up and there was a little wooden plaque with a rope dangling from it. And it said on top "Weather Predictor." So the guy asked the gas station attendant, "Excuse me I don't get it. How can a rope predict the weather? Hw can you tell the weather from looking at a rope? He said, "Quite simple, sonny. Whenever that rope is dangling, it's windy. Whenever that rope is wet, rain. Frozen stiff, snow. When that rope is gone, tornado." So, was that supposed to impress people? I mean big deal. Anybody can predict something while it's going on. That's really not a prediction. But God is different, he's omniscient. Isaiah 46, "I am God. There is no other. I make known the end from the beginning." That's his ability with omniscience. Now what I want you to notice here is that David takes it from the general to the personal. He doesn't care to look at it as a theologian would examine God from afar but he looks at it from the vantage point of himself. Notice the personal pronouns. "Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path, my lying down. You are acquainted with all my ways." It wasn't academic to David, it was personal. Here is David the psalmist musing at God's omniscience, absolute knowledge of David himself which he will take comfort in.

Let me once underscore the fact that we need to do what David did with all truth, we need to personalize it. We don't have the luxury to philosophize or theologize. When it comes to God's word we must all move it from the arm's length into the personal and make it our own. There's three stages by the way of Bible study. There is observation, that's where you find out what it says. There is interpretation, that is where you find out what it means. And there is application which is where you find out what it means to me personally. Now a lot of people stop with interpretation. Or they stop with observation. David applies this to himself.

Listen to what J. I. Packer wrote, "Whenever we embark on any line of study in God's holy book, we need to ask ourselves, what is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God once I've got it. If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it's bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of such a subject will intoxicate us." You know I've met some drunk theologians, drunk pastors and teachers and Christians who are intoxicated on their own knowledge. What I mean by that is they knew a lot of stuff but it didn't change them. Some of them still had rotten marriages. Some of them still had poor quality of worship on a personal level. Bad friendships. It didn't really change them from the inside. So the ultimate is to take the truth and make application, put ourselves in it. That's what David does here.

And notice what he says, "Lord you have searched me." The word is you have pierced me through. You know sometimes we say, "I can see right through that person." That's the idea, god can see right through David and each one of us. "And you have known me," which means to examine carefully so as to know you from the inside out. God sees through you so to speak and God knows you from the inside out. Now just think about that for a moment. Dealing with a God like that can be a little unsettling. "He knows everything? Like, everything?" Yep. People do have a fear of being exposed. We live in a very interesting age, the electronic age, there's surveillance cameras all over the place. So, probably women roughed up their kids a lot in the past, but when it's caught on camera and we the world is shocked, "I can't believe that woman, what she did to her children. That was wrong." I'm not saying it's not but that's just what that camera caught at that time. Imagine what God sees all the time. We're afraid of that kind of exposure. We hide, we put windowshades in our house, we close the drapes at night, we don't want people seeing in. We meet somebody and we want to put our best foot forward and introduce ourselves in such a way that they'll only know part about us, not the whole truth. You never walk up to somebody and say, "Let me tell you the worst about me right now." Because they would probably say, "No thank you," and walk away from you. And because of that we are afraid of absolute vulnerability. The truth of the scripture is, "Too late. Too late, you are dealing with a God who knows absolutely everything." The God you're dealing with is described in Hebrews 4:13, "There is no creature hidden from his sight. All things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account." To put it bluntly you cannot pull the wool over God's eyes, so don't try. You know the worst thing to try to be before an omniscient God is a hypocrite because God knows everything about you already.

I read this story about an elderly but very wealthy grandfather who got hearing aids in his ear but he didn't tell his family. He went back to the doctor a couple weeks later for a re-examination and the doctor said, "Well how are those things working out?" "Great doctor, I can hear so well." "Well I'll bet your family's really glad that they have a father and a grandfather that can now hear." "Well actually I haven't told them. And it's probably good because you know doc, I've already changed my will twice. You want to hear what they're really saying about you."

"Lord you have searched me, you see right through me." Now after making that declaration, in verse 2 David kind of breaks it apart. For emphasis he studies this attribute. "You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, behold oh Lord, you know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before and you laid your hand on me." You should probably know that in the Hebrew language the word you in those verses is emphasized, it's brought forward in the sentence for amplification, for emphasis. YOU know this as opposed to anybody else. No one can hold a candle to YOU.

You know, when I was growing up I used to think, at least I sort of believed that God told my mom everything because she knew stuff nobody knew. She heard me whispering things like miles away, "I heard what you said at noon today at school." What do you mean, you she just knew where I was, what I said. And it's funny even as I watch my son growing up, in the same situation, I'm kind of dull and dense, and she can just see right through it. And just boom! Bullseye!

But God knows every single movement. Notice, "You know my sitting down and my rising up." Yep God saw me come in at 3 o'clock in the morning, put my head on the pillow. He sees when the alarm is set every morning, he sees it all. Now this perhaps is simply saying that God's power is inescapable, that everything in life, he's aware of the slightest movement, every single word we say. Now think about that for a moment. God heard you yell at your wife this morning gentlemen. If you did, he heard it. That word you said today on the golfcourse, he knows, (he told me, no I'm just kidding but he knows).That look you gave the driver when you passed him the other day and that thing you did, he was aware of that. You know everything Lord, your gaze is inescapable. Proverbs 5, "The ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he ponders all of his paths." So, that's perhaps the emphasis. But you know what I think it is? It's just interesting that he said, "You know when I sit down, you know when I get up," it teaches us I believe that God is interested in even the most casual acts of life. The first time I read this, I thought, "You mean you care when I sit down? When I get up?" There it is written. Remember Jesus spoke of the care of the Father and he talked about two sparrows falling to the ground, they're not even worth a farthing. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. You know how many hairs you have on your head? You don't know. I don't know. I'll never know because the minute you count them, one will probably be missing. That's right, the average person has about, and this is very general, a hundred thousand hairs. We don't know for sure. And every time you comb your hair or brush it or move it back or the wind, some more leaves, sometimes never to return. You lose fifty to a hundred hairs a day. Now God looks at a person with a full head of hair and God can say 150,268, 67, 65. He knows. Or, for others, you know it's easy: 2. But God knows, the very hairs of your head are numbered. And the point of this is that God is meticulous in what we would see as something that is insignificant and even casual.

Go down to verse 17 for just a moment, let's just skip ahead. "How precious also are your thoughts to me oh God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I am awake I will still be with you." Here's a good exercise, try it sometime, I dare you. Go out and get a handful of sand, there's a lot of it around here. Put a little bit in your hand, sift through it, ferret it out and just if you can, get a magnifying glass, start counting the grains, even estimating, and try and estimate how many grains of sand you are holding. And think of this verse, "How precious are your thoughts, they're more in number than the sand." Oh, what a comfort that is.

I remember when I first went to Israel and I was certain I was going to have a supernatural experience in the Garden of Gethsemane. I'd go into the Garden of Gethsemane, I'd wait a little while, I'd close my eyes and then I'd feel it. And I anticipated that. So I went to Israel and I sat in the Garden of Gethsemane. You've got to look to see if anybody's around. I waited a while, nothing happened. I waited a long long time and nothing happened. And I felt cheated. Until I went back to my little apartment in Santa Ana, full of cockroaches and I sat down on my couch and I had my Bible open one night and I felt the presence of God so strongly, the kind of experience I thought I was going to have in Israel, I had at home in an apartment with cockroaches. And I thought, "Lord I love it, here I am sitting down, rising up in the simplicity of life you care, you're here. Your thoughts are precious toward me, that's the thought I believe David is saying. And then he says, "You understand my thought afar off." That is, before I even think a thought, before the chemical and electrical exchange happens in the synapse of the neuron, you could give me a maping of every thought, where it came from. Have you ever had a random thought? Maybe you're having them right now. And you catch yourself and you think, "Where did that come from?" God knows the origin of every thought process in your mind. Jesus displayed this. Now you remember the story when he was healing a crippled man that was let down on a mat in a house. And Jesus saw that man who was lame and he said, "Your sins are forgiven you." And there were leaders around watching this episode and they were thinking bad thoughts. The thinking, not saying, thinking "He's blaspheming." And it says, "Jesus knowing their thoughts said, 'Why do you think evil in your hearts? Which is easier to say? 'Get up and walk or your sins are forgiven.'" He read them like a book, he saw those thoughts coming, he knew where they originated. And he busted them.

I love the innocence of the little boy raised by atheistic parents. The parents said, "We don't believe in God." And he said, "Do you suppose God knows we don't believe in him?" Oh yes he does. He knows what we do, he knows what we think, he knows every moment of our lives. Verse 3, look at it, "You comprehend my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. There's not a word on my tongue but behold oh Lord you know it." Absolutely, completely, totally, altogether. "You've hedged me behind and before. You've laid your hand on me." In the Hebrew language, opposites in poetry like this are often used to convey completeness. And what he means by this basically is that at all times, at all times throughout your life God is absolutely aware. There's not a time, whether you took your first faltering steps as a toddler or you're marching toward a grave in death. Every step, every word, every action, every thought, at all times, God knows.

Now I already mentioned this, that could be unnerving to you. It could be unnerving. I'm dealing with a God who knows that much all the time about me. It is unnerving unless... It's unnervig first of all if you're not living right. You know, I know a lot of people who, they're living so far from God that the thought of God knowing them absolutely makes them tense. But if you're walking and obeying God why should that make you nervous? If you're living in uprightness and righteousness, why should that bother you? Number two, it all depends on what you've done about your exposure. Here's what I mean, remember Adam and Eve in the Garden, and it says "They were naked and not ashamed," right? Until they sinned. As soon as they sinned, do you remember what they said? "Hey, we're naked." Like you didn't figure that out before? No, it never bothered them before. Suddenly they're self conscious. They're exposed outwardly because their sin is acknowledged inwardly. God comes to them in the Garden in the cool of the day, exposes their sin, they had covered themselves up with fig leaves to hide themselves. And God says, "What have you done? Did you eat of that tree?" Busted. But God does something else. He immediately gives them the skins of what? Animals. And clothes them with it. Predictive of the sacrifice at Calvary. And that's the message of the gospel. You are dealing with a God number one who knows everything, every mistake, every faltering, every bad thought. But, who clothes you with his righteousness, who clothes you with salvation, who puts the robe on you. And doesn't just say, "You're bad." He says, "I know all about you, here let me cover you." Let me cover you."

Isaiah 61 verse 10, "My soul rejoices in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness. Remember the prodigal son? He came back and stood before his Father exposed, "I have sinned." His father immediately said, "Get the best robe and drape it on that boy." And he clothed him with the righteousness.

Verse 6 is where we close tonight. This is David's wow. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain it." In other words, my paraphrase, Wow! As I muse on the greatness of God and his knowledge, it's unreal, it's inconceivable, it's out of my ballpark. I'll blow a fuse if I go any further in trying to grasp it. It's too high, the bar is way up there. Can't make it.

This all goes to show you that a proper understanding of God doesn't give you a big head but a burning heart. This word ought to lead you to it. "Wow, I'm dealing with Him." A burning heart. That's what led David to worship and to surrender. In fact, if you look down at verse 23 he prays now, "Search me oh God and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties. And see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Here's God's knowledge, I can't figure it out. It's so overwhelming but I'm going to bask in it a while. I'm going to rejoice in it a while. I'm going to surrender myself and ask God to search me even fuller.

So, would you just set your minds at rest if you can't figure out certain things about God? "I can't figure out the Trinity." Goodness. You're going to let that bother you. You'll be a wreck. If God were small enough for your mind he wouldn't be big enough for your problem. Let God be God, give hm some transcendence. And David's response to transcendence was, "I can't figure out omniscience." It's "Wow, I'm glad you love me. This is amazing. Search me, know me, lead me in the way everlasting."

So tonight if your sin is not covered, if you're not clothed with the righteousness of Christ, you have a good reason to be really dreadfully afraid of what God knows about you. And aren't you glad God hasn't told everybody the truth? But if on the other hand, you are not only naked and exposed but clothed by him, you have every reason to rejoice tonight. Omniscience should, you ought to go out of here joyful that God knows everything. Because number one, it means God knows the worst about you. God knows the worst about you and he still loves you. That's the point. You know we're afraid whenever we have, I watch it with people dating, we have a fear in a relationship. The fear is what will they do when they find out really who I am? So we don't want to let them really know who we are til after a while. So we guard ourselves. And we put on the happy face. We're afraid, "What will that person do when that skeleton comes out of the closet? Will the relationship get broken off?" Not with God. You can't surprise him. God never gasps, "Well you know what? Things have changed now, I didn't know that about you til now." Never. God remembers our frame, Psalm 103, and he knows that we're dust. He already knows. He knows the worst about you. Second, because God knows everything, he knows the best about you. He knows what others don't know about you. You might be misjudged right now by somebody in your community or in your family. And they've looked at something you've said and done and they have shunned you. But the whole truth is God knows the good side, the best about you. In I John, "If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows all things."

And number three, you ought to rejoice in God's omniscience because if God knows everything about you, he knows not only the worst and the best but he knows where you're going, what he's going to make out of you in the end. He who has begun a good work will continue it until the day of Christ." You know God is an artist. You and I are the canvas. I don't know what shape your life is in tonight. But maybe you look at the canvas and you go, "you call that a work of art? That's workmanship? I know your word says we're your workmanship but that doesn't lok good." And that's because you're not seeing through the eyes of the artist. The artist sees the finished product in his mind's eye. You just see the green and the brown stroke, and the little piece of pencil marking and you're "Oh." You get discouraged. But your Father sees the finished product, knows where you're going. Ever see the bumper sticker, "Christians aren't perfect, they're just forgiven." Now be careful, don't use that as an excuse to drive poorly. But it's true. You're not perfect, you are forgiven.

A family went on vacation, a thief was watching their house. As soon as the family left, on the darkest blackest part of the night, the thief picked the lock, went inside the house and was looking at things to steal. Then he heard a voice, "I see you. And Jesus sees you." He was petrified, who said that? He looked around, his flashlight, he couldn't see anybody. Went into another room, "I see you and Jesus sees you." Couldn't find anybody. Went into the kitchen, it was louder, "I see you and Jesus sees you." He turned his flashlight and there on the counter was a parrot. He turned on the kitchen light, looked at the parrot in the cage and the parrot said it again, "I see you and Jesus sees you." And the guy breathed a sigh of relief until he looks down by the counter and sees the Doberman pinscher in attack mode and the bird said, "Attack, Jesus, attack."

Now the real Jesus does see you but he won't attack you. That's what Satan does. Satan will attack you. The real Jesus sees you and would say, "Yep, you're naked, you're poor, you're miserable, you're wretched, you're a sinner. Let me clothe you in my righteousness." That's the difference.

Lord, how amazing that you know all about us and that your omniscience included knowing how bad the human race would get and how much we needed redemption, how much we needed mercy and forgiveness. And so Lord, we stand before you in all of our faults and failures. And are so grateful for the blood of Christ that was shed at the cross so that we could have forgiveness of sins. This is the God we are called to know, the god who is high above us knowing absolutely intuitively instantaneously everything which includes everything about us, even our motives and our secret thoughts. Knowing that Lord we are naked before you. But knowing your love that comes through Christ we are clothed and for that we are grateful. We rejoice and surrender to this attribute of yours, like David did. Search us, try us. See those things that re unpleasing and then lead us in the way everlasting we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Additional Messages in this Series

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9/15/2002
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Does the Truth Really Matter?
2 Timothy 4
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Today I begin a new series I am calling Rediscovering Our Foundations. I am concerned about the vast biblical illiteracy that exists in our country in general and in our churches in particular. Truth is commonly seen by our culture as relative and not fixed. Often sentiments such as, "Well, that is your truth, but it's not my truth," are expressed by many. But if truth is absolute, then why not stand up for it? Why be embarrassed about it? What do you really believe about God, the Trinity, Christ, mankind, the church, heaven, and hell?
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9/22/2002
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Is Anybody Up There?
Hebrews 11:1-40;Romans 2:1-29
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We all remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her three friends come to approach the Great Oz. Out of the corner of their eye they notice a man pulling levers behind a curtain, working the mechanical, smoke-breathing Oz. The man then reacts by announcing, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" But how can they not? The man is the explanation for everything to them. They discovered that Oz didn't really exist! So how do we know that God exists and isn't a fabrication or projection of our own imaginations?
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9/29/2002
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The Bible - From God or From Men? - Part 1
2 Timothy 3:15-17
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In this series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, it's time to consider your own personal foundation. What is the final resting place for your cares, concerns, griefs, surprises and sorrows? Where do you turn for answers to life's deepest questions? What is your authority? How sure are you that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired Word of God? Can you articulate to others the difference between the Bible and other "sacred" religious works?
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10/6/2002
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The Bible - From God or From Men? - Part 2
2 Timothy 3:15-17
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Last week, we discovered exactly what the designation "Scripture" referred to and how books of the Bible were considered as part of the inspired text. We also learned what inspiration means and how God used humans in His process of having exactly what He wanted written down. But anyone can claim inspiration for their work. Yet how do we know that the Bible is the authentic Word of God? Moreover, how can we share with others its uniqueness so they, too, may listen to its message and apply it?
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10/20/2002
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Are You a Big-Godder or a Little Godder?
Psalm 139:7-24
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11/10/2002
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Wholly Holy!
Skip Heitzig
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In this current series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, we've considered some key attributes of the God we know and love. He is omniscient (knows everything); He is omnipresent (everywhere present); He is omnipotent (operates at full power). But there is another key attribute that is seldom considered, yet is fundamentally key in understanding the Bible—God's holiness. Let's observe one man's encounter with this holy God and what it means to us.
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11/17/2002
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Good Man, Mad Man, Con Man, or God-Man?
Matthew 16:13-17
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No other person from history has generated so much controversy and speculation, as well as written literature, as Jesus Christ. Theologians, philosophers, poets and pundits have all weighed in concerning who Jesus is. What is often forgotten is that Jesus can never be overestimated! John said that the, "world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25) about His accomplishments.
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12/1/2002
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A King Among the Critters
Luke 2:1-7
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In our current series, Rediscovering Our Foundations, we've come to the person of Christ. Last time, we considered His identity; today, we contemplate His nativity. For the next few weeks, we'll look closely at Jesus' birth, His early years, ministry, and death on the cross, which was the very purpose of His birth. It's my hope that we'll all emerge with a fuller understanding of Jesus and a deeper desire to worship and serve Him. Today, let's look at the strange circumstances of His birth.
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12/8/2002
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Jesus - The Boy With a Purpose - Part 1
Luke 2:1-52; Matthew 2:1-23
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Jesus' upbringing and boyhood has been the subject of much speculation and endless controversy throughout the centuries. Myths have developed about Jesus based (interestingly enough) on what isn't written. The Bible gives us five cameo glimpses of Jesus from early boyhood to age 30. We'll look at three of these today and then two more next week. We discover that Jesus' whole life was marked with purpose.
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12/15/2002
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Jesus - The Boy With a Purpose - Part 2
Luke 2-3
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We don't give much thought to Jesus growing up, developing into adolescence and then into manhood. But of course He did. Luke is really the only New Testament author who gives us information about these early years. He speaks generally about Jesus' growth as well as specifically about Jesus' capacity as a young boy of 12. At each stage of His life, Jesus demonstrated He knew His purpose for His life on earth.
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12/22/2002
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A Lamb at the River
Matthew 3:1-17; John 1:1-51
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When Jesus turned 30, He presented Himself to the nation of Israel in public ministry. His first appearance, however, seemed so out of character for the kind of Messiah that people were anticipating. What was He doing getting baptized in a river with everyone else? John was about to find out—and so was everyone else.
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1/12/2003
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The Holy Spirit: Invisible, Personal, Powerful
John 14-16
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Today in our series Rediscovering Our Foundations, we consider the Holy Spirit. Most of us have heard of Him, but who is He exactly? What does He do? How important is the Holy Spirit to your personal life, your family life, your work or your leisure time? Perhaps A.W. Tozer was right when he said, "For multitudes of Christians profess today the Holy Spirit is not a necessity. They have learned to cheer their hearts and warm their hands at other fires." It is my sincere prayer that will change for us in the few weeks ahead.
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1/19/2003
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The Gracious and Holy Hound of Heaven
John 16:5-11
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Having understood Who the Holy Spirit is (Person, not just power; Deity, not just dignitary), we now find out what He does, specifically what He does in the world of unbelievers. Since the greatest gift God ever gave to the world was His only Son (John 3:16), it stands to reason that the greatest sin one can commit is to reject the Son (John 16:9). How does the Holy Spirit both sentence the world as prosecutor and yet lead people away from judgment? And what role do we play in all of this?
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1/26/2003
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I Need Somebody, Help! Not Just Anybody
John 14-16
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To live one's life for God in an ungodly world sounds like mission impossible, right? It would be as if we had to do it without help. But be strengthened by this thought: God never intended for us to do it alone! That's why He has provided His people a Helper, the Holy Spirit. This ever-present divine Person is very busy helping God's people become all He wants them to be.
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2/2/2003
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Brand-Spankin' New Apostles!
Acts 1:1-8
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The legendary missionary to India, William Carey, didn't see obstacles; he saw opportunities. He was the "Let's go for it!" kind of guy. In fact, one of his most famous sayings was, "Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God." Carey did both and saw results! The Holy Spirit can take ordinary men and women and do extraordinary things with them. He is the God who "makes all things new" (Revelation 21:5). Such a truth can only create a sense of wonder and excitement in the heart of a child of God. After all, what new thing could God do through you?
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2/9/2003
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Unholy Responses to the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 4:30
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You might say that we live in the "Age of the Holy Spirit." Jesus promised Him to us after He was done with His own earthly ministry. We have seen that He is very active both in the world among the unconverted and in the church among God's own people. But He has one overriding goal-to bring glory to Jesus Christ in every life. What does that mean to us? It means a total surrendering to Him. As Oswald Chambers said, "The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a guest in a house. He invades everything." But what happens when people don't respond to Him rightly? Then what?
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2/16/2003
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How Can Three Be One?
Matthew 28:16-20
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1+1+1=1. Is this new math? No, it's the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. At the very heart of the Judeo-Christian faith is the belief that there is only One God. Yet the Bible clearly teaches the plurality within the Godhead—three persons who are distinct from one another yet perfectly One in essence. What are we to make of all this? Why is it important? And more fundamentally, how should it affect us personally?
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2/23/2003
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The Exceedingly Un-Holy Spirit
1 John 5:19
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Satan, the prince of darkness, has been around a long time. He has studied mankind for thousands of years, marking his strategies according to what he sees in us and what God's plan for the world is. He hates what God loves; he fights what God establishes. And let's remember, he's got help! Other spirit beings have joined his rebellion and control the system known in Scripture as the world. John even said, "the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). What should we know about this arch-nemesis of God in order to stand against him?
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3/2/2003
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Touched by an Angel
Luke 1-2
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As even the title suggests, angels have become popular in modern culture. But whether we know it or not, we've all been "touched an angel." Martin Luther helped us to understand their role by remarking, "An angel is a spiritual creature created by God without a body, for the service of Christendom and of the church." He was partially correct, but angels serve an even greater role than being strictly for the church. Their ministry goes beyond us and is principally concerned with the glory and majesty of God.
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3/9/2003
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Man, Has God Got a Plan For You!
Genesis 1-3
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Alexander Pope once remarked that, "the chief study of man is man himself." That may be true, especially in our culture, but this could also be the reason why mankind is so desperate and spiritually thirsty. Looking only to ourselves rather than beyond ourselves can get pretty lonely! But why are we here? What is the purpose of mankind inhabiting this planet? How can I fulfill the God-given destiny that He originally designed for me?
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3/16/2003
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From Creation to Corruption
Genesis 2-3
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How did we, as the human race, get into the colossal mess we find ourselves in? Was it always this way? And what do Adam's actions, acted out so long ago, have to do with us in this modern technologically advanced age? Am I at all responsible? Can the effects ever be undone? Let's look at these issues in the opening chapters of Genesis.
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4/27/2003
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Church-Building 101
Matthew 16:13-20
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The church was God's idea; it was never man's notion. Jesus Christ is the founder, director, architect, owner and builder of the church. But there is an awful lot of confusion about what a church is supposed to look and function like. Today, we look at the first New Testament mention of the church and look at our spiritual origins. As we are Rediscovering Our Foundations, let's also rediscover our spiritual roots as the people of God.
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5/4/2003
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What Jesus Wants His Church to Be - Part 1
John 17
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The church is not a place, but a people (a called-out assembly of people who gather together and whose heartfelt conviction is that Jesus is Lord). Jesus laid claim on the church—it belongs to Him ("I will build My church"). So then, what does He want His church to be like? What should mark us overall? In Jesus' longest recorded prayer before His crucifixion, He prays for four characteristics that are to mark the people of God. Today we look at the first two.
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5/25/2003
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What Jesus Wants His Church to Be - Part 2
John 17
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Church shopping and church hopping have become one of American Christians’ favorite pastimes. We want a church that suits us, helps us, and pleases us. But since Jesus paid for it, it’s His church (Acts 20:28). So what does He want from us? What should the people of God be like? What ingredients and activities ought to be part of our makeup? In this series, Rediscovering our Foundations, we must rediscover the foundational purpose for our existence as His church.
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6/1/2003
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How to Build a Beautiful Body
1 Corinthians 12:3-22
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6/22/2003
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The Last Days
2 Peter 1-3
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On October 30, 1938, the day before Halloween, the novel War of the Worlds was made into a radio broadcast featuring Orson Welles. As millions of Americans were listening, the play was performed so it would sound like a news broadcast about an invasion from Mars. Many thought they were hearing an actual news account of an invasion from Mars and concluded this was the end. Some even committed suicide as their final fatal act! In Rediscovering Our Foundations, what can we know about the last days of this world and what can we do to prepare?
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6/29/2003
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I'll Be Back
John 13:31-14:6
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A little boy was trying desperately to tell his friends about what Jesus' return would be like. He described Jesus' coming in glory as being "greater than Superman, Batman, and the Power Rangers put together!" Of course even that would be an understatement. Jesus came here 2000 years ago and then left; but He promised to return. What will it be like? What difference should it make to us right here, right now?
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7/6/2003
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The Burning Question
Revelation 20:11-15
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Hell is an eternal and biblical reality that has been relegated to the junk pile of modern myths. Woody Allen once said that hell is the abode of all people who annoy him. The word hell is used on a daily basis in people's dicey language patterns—usually as a fill-in expletive. Of all the Christian doctrines unfolded in Scripture, hell is the toughest one to handle. Most love the notion of a blissful heaven awaiting them; few cling to the idea of a literal hell to punish the lost.
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7/13/2003
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Heaven: Our Final Frontier
Revelation 21:1-27
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Captain Kirk and his starship Enterprise weekly traversed the galaxies on the famed Star Trek episodes. That was fiction! But one day you will inhabit the recreated millennial earth in a glorified body and then explore the vast kingdoms of heaven in the eternal state. That is reality! It will be so different than what you're used to that it's linguistically impossible to convey its vastness. But there's enough here to whet the appetite for heaven!
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There are 29 additional messages in this series.
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