I Left That Out (Jonathan Josephs)

0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:06.200 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:09.280 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:11.600 Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:21.800 new sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today. 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.720 So good to be with you guys today. My name 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.120 is Jonathan. Everyone calls me JJ. I get to serve 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:33.360 here as our Valentine campus pastor, and I'm grateful to 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:35.080 be able to share God's word with you today. 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.720 You know, I'm so we're just sinking God. 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:39.919 I'm just grateful for you, and I feel so grateful 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.280 this week, not only grateful for the opportunity to share 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:43.920 God's word. 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:44.720 But I was just thinking too. 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.880 In just a couple of weeks, we'll celebrate ten years 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:49.880 since this Valentine location opened. 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.360 Isn't that crazy? Ten years already? 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.400 And even as I look around this room, I'm so grateful. 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:59.280 I see people who have, you know, come at different 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.080 points along the journey, but so many OG's in the room. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.000 Katrina and Antonio all ten years you've been serving with 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.039 us here. Yeah, and whoel Tom and Lisa are on 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.560 the floor and Craig name you've been here all ten too? Yeah, Yeah, 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:12.319 it's amazing. 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:12.760 Thank you. 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:14.680 And Anna said in the car, She's like, can you 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.119 believe that you were just twenty nine years old when 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.840 Pastor Steven asked you to come help launch this Valentine campus. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.320 And I don't know what he was thinking, but I'm 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.759 so glad that he saw something in me and believed. 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:28.840 I'm so grateful for a pastor who would let me 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.280 grow with the ministry, and these last ten years, being 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.280 able to be a part of so many of your 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.600 lives has been such a privilege, and I want to 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.200 thank Pastor Stephen for the opportunity to preach today. And 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.280 even as I look back over the ten years, I've 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:42.880 been a part of the church longer than that, but 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.360 so many moments where the messages that God gave him 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.800 hit me exactly in the place that I needed the most. 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:52.559 Even on this Father's Day weekend, I was getting teary 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.360 thinking about how my firstborn, when I first became a dad. 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:56.920 Just a week later, we ended up back in the 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:02.080 hospital with him. Remember turning on ugh, oh man, excuse me, 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.000 but turn it on the stream in that hospital room, 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.480 watching Pastor preach in the series called How to Be Brave, 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.280 And at a moment where I needed courage. How his 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.080 words gave me courage and so many other moments along 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:15.520 the way when I wanted to give up and he 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.600 preached moments sermons like staying power, or where I felt 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:21.240 lonely and he preached lonely places. 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:22.760 All these amazing messages that. 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.919 Have just carried me through season to season, glory to glory, 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:26.760 strength to strength. 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:28.799 Or He's so grateful for our pastors. 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:34.760 Can we thank the Lord for them? And this whole 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:37.079 summer has been amazing so far. I mean, we've had 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.360 so many great people bringing the Word of God to us. 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.160 Pastor Jabon preached a powerful word for us last week, 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.760 and Pastor Robert mcdou what was that mess? 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:45.679 Unbelievable? 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.320 And who else I'll be preached one weekend. I'll be 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.320 at a great word for us and Forriscilla Shire, like 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:53.280 what was Oh my. 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:54.799 Goodness, Oh my goodness. 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.040 So but I have a scripture I'm excited to share 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.720 with you today. I've never preached on a psalm, and 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.000 I just came across the Psalm in my daily reading 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:04.840 and administered to me so much that I thought I 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.680 want to preach that. And as I begin to study 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.480 this passage, the Lord begin to reveal more and more 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.760 to me through it, and really challenged me in a 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.520 way that was pretty profound and personal. It's a long 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:17.560 passage of scripture. You good to stand for a little 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:19.520 bit while we read this together. I want to read 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.720 Psalm one thirty nine, and it's so rich. I don't 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:24.440 know what the sermon will bless you today, but I 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.720 know this passage of scripture will bless you today. Let's 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:31.040 read this together. The Psalmist said, you have searched me, Lord, 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.760 and you know me. You know when I sit and 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:37.480 when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:39.040 discern my going out and. 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:39.800 My laying down. 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.240 You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.320 is on my tongue, you Lord know it completely. You 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.880 hem me in behind, and before you lay your hand 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.240 upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.560 lofty for me to obtain. Where can I go from 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.120 your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? When 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:01.880 I go up to the heavens, you are there. If 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:03.720 I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.160 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.160 I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.000 Your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.360 me fast. If I say surely, the darkness will hide me, 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.440 and the light become night around me. Even the darkness 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.200 will not be dark to you. The night will shine 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:23.760 like the day, For darkness is as light to you. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.920 For you created my inmost being. You knit me together 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:30.720 in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.520 fearfully and wonderfully made. 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.120 Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:38.599 frame was not hidden from you when I was made 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:40.040 in the secret place. 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.159 When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.480 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:49.719 for me were written in your book before one of 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.080 them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts? God, 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:55.880 How vast is the sum of them. Where I had 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.360 to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.599 When I awake still I am with you. Search me, God, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.599 and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:09.360 See if there is any offensive way in me, and 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:13.520 lead me in the way everlasting. Before I give you 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.279 my title, would you just make David's words your prayer 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.480 this morning? Would you just say search me God. Now 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.880 say it to your father in heaven, say search me God. 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.560 The title of my message today is I left that out. 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:31.760 I left that out. You may be seated. 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.159 This is always a big week in our household. Two 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.480 of my kids had birthdays this week and of course 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.840 Father's Day, and then just a week ago, me and 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:50.040 Anna celebrated sixteen years of marriage. Praise the Lord. They 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.920 said we wouldn't make it look at us. One of 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.000 the things we've really made a priority in our marriage 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.159 and our life over the last several years now is 0:05:58.240 --> 0:05:59.680 doing a marriage counseling together. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.120 So helpful. Every time I say that, people go like, oh, no, 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:03.520 what's wrong, But for. 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.280 Us, it was, you know, we just saw, wouldn't it 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.200 be good to talk with someone regularly, get perspective, get 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.920 healthy before something goes wrong, you know, especially as life 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:15.279 becomes more complex, is we're trying to raise kids and 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:16.800 all that, and so we've been doing this for a 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.360 few years now and it's been so helpful for us. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:21.800 Ninety nine percent of our time with the counselor is 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:26.239 Anna working through things. But now and then there's something 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:31.120 that comes up that pertains to me and anyone who 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.159 knows this knows that's very far from the truth, okay. 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:36.720 But one of the things that the counselor's been really 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:38.400 trying to work with me on that I can tell 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:40.240 she keeps nudging and it's taken me a while to 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.760 get the hint, is just being more open and being 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:44.799 a little bit more vulnerable. I can be a pretty 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:46.640 guarded person. I'm a nice person, but I can be 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.440 a pretty guarded person. And I can tell the counselor's 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.560 been working with me, trying to work with me on that, 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.040 because even in mine and Anna's relationship, it's like I'll 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.080 come home from work and I'm so interested in her 0:06:58.160 --> 0:06:59.640 day and what the kids are up to, and we'll 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.040 listen to her stories from throughout the day, and when 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:03.840 she asked me, how was your day, I normally give 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:08.680 her this answer it was good, it was good, and 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.880 it's not a lie, it's just limited. That's kind of 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.120 all I give her. And then I'm realizing something's wrong 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:15.560 with me when I see her using little tricks on 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.120 me that she uses on our boys, Like she'll ask 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:19.760 them around the dinner table, what were your. 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:20.560 Highs and lows? 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:22.800 And they seemed to talk a little bit more so 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:24.920 when she started asking me what was your highs and lows? 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.400 I go, oh, my goodness, I need to grow. God 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.200 help me. And so the counselor's been she's been trying 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:32.880 to help me in this. And I had a friend 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.720 this week he said it this way. He said, full 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:43.480 intimacy requires full access. Full intimacy requires full access. 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:44.920 And even as I. 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.320 Think about it in my relationship with Anna and other 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.200 relationships in my life, I'm realizing more and more that 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.680 even when it comes to my relationship with God, there's 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.000 a lot of things that I leave out when it 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:57.560 comes to my prime. 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.080 And prayer with Him, my walk with him. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.160 Thing is that I think, oh, that's just too small 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:03.920 for God to care about. Other people are going through 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.040 way harder things than that. Why would God care about this? 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.280 I'll just leave that out. Or things that I feel 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.520 are too messy, too shameful to bring to God, so 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.840 I just leave that out. But more and more I'm 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:16.760 realizing that to have an intimate relationship with God, to 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.880 really know him, it requires that I give him full 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.760 access to my life. This time last year, I'm father's 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:25.880 dad preached a message called All I Know. It was 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:29.360 about personally experiencing the power of God, the testimonies we 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.640 build through. That really is such a theme of my 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:33.960 life because I think that deep down I have such 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.440 a desire to know the Lord. One of my favorite 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.560 scriptures my life Versus Philippians three ten, where Paul says, 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.200 my one purpose is that I would know Christ. 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.480 It resonates with me. That really resonates with me. 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.600 And yet I think, as deeply as I desire to 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:51.640 know the Lord, there's a part of me that really 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:56.360 hesitates to let the Lord know me. But full intimacy 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:02.040 requires full access. This psalm is so beautiful because David 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.600 is laying forth a theology that tells us so much 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.000 about God. There's a simple structure to this. It goes 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.800 six verses, six verses, six verses. For the first six verses, 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.080 he's talking about this simple idea that God knows everything. 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.719 The theological term for that is God is omniscient. It 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.160 means there's nothing that he doesn't know. David says, you know, 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:22.800 you know when I lie, You know the words I 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:24.760 speak before they even come out of my mouth. Let 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:29.040 your neighbors say, God knows everything. God knows everything. So 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.920 he spends six verses talking about how God knows every 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.080 single detail of your life. And then the next six 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.199 verses he talks about the how God is everywhere. The 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:41.199 word for that is He's omnipresent. Everyone say, God is everywhere. 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.000 He says, Even if I go to the darkness, you're there. 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:46.920 God. It becomes light to you. If I go to 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:47.760 the heavens, You're there. 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:49.520 If I go to that, there's nowhere I can go 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:51.120 that your presence doesn't go with me. 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:52.880 And then for the next six. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.240 Verses, David begins to talk about the power of God. 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.600 He's omnipotent. He says, God, you're the one who made 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:00.720 me in the depths. Only you can for me and 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.800 declare over me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.000 David gives this beautiful structure. God knows everything. God's the 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.600 one who created me. God is everywhere. And yet so 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.000 I read through this psalm as beautiful as it was. 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.319 You know, every single one of these lines you could 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.360 put on a T shirt and sell them, and sell 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.319 them and sell a coffee mug, sell a T shirt. 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.000 It's filled with so many amazing verses. And yet as 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.200 I was reading this Psalm, I don't know if you notice, 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:26.559 But there is a part that I left out when 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.640 I read it to you. I left it out because 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.760 it was dark. I left it out because it gets messy. 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:35.720 I left it out. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:37.760 Because, honestly, as I read through this psalm, I thought, 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.080 I don't know how that'll work on a Sunday morning. 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.440 I left it out because it almost feels so random, 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.840 like David goes just right off track in the midst 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.440 of all these beautiful words that David is saying, you know, 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:51.760 he ends in verse eighteen, where where I had to 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.160 count them, they would outnumber the grains of the sand. 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.160 When I awake, I am still with you. And then 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.920 here's what I left out. If only you God would 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.240 slay the wicked away from me, You who are blood thirsty. 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.520 They speak of you with evil intent, Your adversaries misuse 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:05.920 your name. 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.160 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord? 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.560 And abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.719 I have nothing but hatred for them. I count them 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:15.360 my enemies. 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.680 Search me, Oh God, and know my heart, Test me 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:22.120 and see you're like whoa David once gets aphrendic them, David, 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:22.679 where did that? 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:25.520 Where did that come from? 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.880 All this amazing scripture telling us about who God is, 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.640 how God knows everything, the intricate details of my life. 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:33.880 There's nowhere I can go, know where I can run 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:35.680 that God isn't with me. And then you're going into 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.720 I hate my enemies. I wish you would kill them, David, 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.880 Where did that come from? And yet I'm so thankful 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:42.880 that God. 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:43.840 Didn't leave that part out. 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:46.720 So I was thinking through, how do I preach this message. 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.960 I'll just have to leave that part out. God began 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:50.920 to speak to me more and more he goes, no, no, no, no. 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.840 I left that in for a reason. I'm so glad 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.360 he left that part in because it teaches me something 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.679 about how I relate to God. I wonder if, when 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:02.640 God was putting together the scriptures through the inspiration of 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.839 his spirit, whether they were the ones writing it or 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.640 whether someone was writing it. How many times some of 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.640 these Bible characters are like, hey, God, can you leave 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.360 that part out? Like I wonder if Moses was like cool, 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:14.280 tell them about how I. 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:15.560 Was rescued out of the basket. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.040 That's pretty cool, and how I split the Red Sea, 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:18.880 that's pretty cool. 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.120 But the part where I got angry and just killed 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.600 the guy. Do you think we could leave that out? 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.319 Or Abraham, the father of our faith, do you think 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:28.959 he was ever like, hey, do you think you could 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:32.040 leave the part out where I've mistreated Hagar and or 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.679 when I conceived I was too impatient to wait with Sarah, 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.360 so I conceived the child with Hagar, Or how I 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.200 lied about who my wife was a couple of times. 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:40.920 Tell them the good things about how you know I. 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.320 Left the city I knew in faith believing God for 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.280 some tell him that part, but the parts about my mistakes? 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.840 Could you leave that out? Or if Rehab was like, yeah, yeah, 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:51.960 tell them about how I helped rescue the spies, how 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:57.360 I helped save them, but about my career choices, do 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.920 you think you could leave that out? Or even saw, 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.160 Oh Paul, the guy who planted so many churches and 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.600 reached the gentile world with the gospel, do you think 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:07.520 he was like, hey, yeah, tell them about the leaders 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.160 I raised up and the churches I planted, But God, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.080 maybe don't tell them about how I was the one 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.640 standing there when they stone Stephen. All these moments in 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.640 the scripture that people we read about. I'm so grateful 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.600 that God left those details in because it tells me 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:25.120 about tells me something about the way God wants to 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.120 relate to us. I'm so glad that David left this 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.480 part of the Psalmen in the midst of all his 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:35.040 language about who God is and the characteristics of God. 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.080 I'm so grateful that he got to a moment of 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:39.880 vulnerability and honesty where he said, God, I want to 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.920 tell you where I really am right now. It's so 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.800 deeply personal that it almost feels like uncomfortable for us 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.480 on a Sunday morning. I hate the bloodthirsty people. I 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:52.800 wish you would kill them. God, You're like, what What 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.760 you have to remember is this is David's personal diaries 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.760 that they turned into songs that the whole nation would sing. 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:00.000 That's wild, y'all. 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:02.880 Imagine coming to church on a Sunday morning and tif 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.200 gets done singing, God, You've been so so good to me, 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:06.280 and then we go. 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.480 Next song and I grab Eric. 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.000 Eric's journal would be too messing, Okay, I grab Deanna's journal. 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:13.720 I say, all right, I throw these up on the screens. 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.400 We're all gonna sing it together, y'all. The whole nation 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.920 would sing this psalm And I'm so glad that David 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.080 left it in He left in the parts that we 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.920 want to leave out. And I wonder sometimes if the 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.480 reason we come into God's presence, the reason we come 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:32.040 to church sometimes and hear a powerful word and leave unchanged. 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.360 I wonder if the reason we leave unchanged is because 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.880 we're leaving out some of the things that we're meant 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.320 to bring to God. There's things that we left in 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.360 the car this morning. There's issues you're going through that 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:45.920 you left at home. And I wonder what it would 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.480 look like for us to bring those things into God's 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.720 presence in prayer and submission and worship. What would it 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:53.920 look like to bring the parts to God that were 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:56.800 so tempted to leave out time and time again because 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.200 we think they don't belong, because we think God can't 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.680 handle it, because we think they're too messy, too dark, 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:04.200 too ugly. What would it look like to bring those 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.040 very things into the presence of God and lay them 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.080 down at the altar and say, God, would you meet 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.600 me in this place where I need a touch of 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.280 your presence right now, where I need your healing power, 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.840 where I need your hand to deliver me. And yet 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.640 the enemy will fight so hard to keep us stuck, 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:24.680 running and running and running and hiding, and hiding and hiding, 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.640 so we never bring those things into the presence of God. 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.200 And like I said earlier, though, but full intimacy requires 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:32.040 full access. 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.240 What does it look like to say, God, here, I 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:35.760 am have everything. 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.040 I want to relook at this scripture together through that 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:41.000 lens of some of the things that we do, because 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.960 one by one David is giving us a theology that 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:46.680 leads us to a place of honesty. 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:46.960 See. 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.440 I read those verses and I thought those are too random, 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.680 And yet I realize everything David is laying out from 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.280 verses one through eighteen, He is laying a belief about 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.840 God that actually leads him to the place where he 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:00.800 can say those things. 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:02.520 Do you understand what I'm saying? 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.480 His theology, his view of who God was, let him 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.840 to the place where he says, God, I can trust 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:09.920 you with all this. I can tell you how I 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.320 really feel, I can tell you what I'm going through 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.040 right now. And so one by one he dismantles it. 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:16.840 And the first point that I want to talk to 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:17.880 you about from those. 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:19.520 First six verses is this. 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.640 He says, Essentially, what's the point in hiding? If God 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:30.320 knows everything? What's the point of hiding. If God knows everything, 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.520 One of our tendencies in our relationship with God is 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:40.200 to hide, And David keeps going, why would you hide 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:40.600 from God? 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.360 If he knows when you sit, he knows when you stand, 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:44.080 If he. 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:46.200 Knows every word that comes out of your mouth before 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.600 you even speak it, what's the point in hiding? If 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.600 God knows everything? When I read these verses to my 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.000 oldest son on the porchrain day, I read those verses, said, 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.120 and what do you think this means? He goes, God 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.400 sees everything I do. And he said it like that, 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:00.680 and he said, I don't know a way that I 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:02.440 think a lot of us feel. When we think about 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.400 the omniscience of God, how he knows everything, we still 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.879 think that God is like the Nessay, just surveilling us, 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:11.680 waiting for us to mess up. Where he's Santa Claus. 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:13.960 He knows when you're sleeping, he knows when you're away, 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:15.600 he knows if you've been bad or good. And we 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.119 think God is out to catch us, and so we 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.439 keep trying to hide, hide, hide from God because we 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:22.959 think he's a father waiting for us to mess up 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:24.000 so he can strike us. 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:25.879 But that's not what David is saying. 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.480 He's saying God knows every God is so intimately connected 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:31.639 to our lives. When it says that you hen me 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:34.159 in before and behind, some of us view that like 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.040 a prison, But David wants you to see this as 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:39.560 an embrace. He's saying, God's right there with you. Whatever 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.399 you're walking through, whatever you're going through, He's right in 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.159 it with you. He knows everything already, So what's the 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.040 point in hiding. If God knows everything, you can tell 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.080 him the truth. He already knows everything you've been through, 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.040 everything you're going through, everything you're feeling. You can bring 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.400 it to God. There's a story in John chapter four 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.119 where Jesus goes. He sits down at a well in 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.320 an area called Samaria, and at noon, in the heat 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.280 of the sun, a woman comes up to catch walk 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.320 kid to get some water. She's coming at noon because 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.760 she's hiding. She's hiding from people. She doesn't want to 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:14.679 be seen by anybody else, so she goes to the 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:16.760 well at a time when she knows nobody else will 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.800 be there. She's hiding from her mistakes, she's hiding from 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.280 her past. And yet when she gets to this well, 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.560 Jesus is there waiting for her, and Jesus asks her 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.280 a simple question, he says, as they're interacting, he says, 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:29.520 where's your husband? 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:30.880 And she says, ah. 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.399 He doesn't ask her that question because he needs information. 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.200 He's asking her that question because he wants access. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:38.280 Access. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.960 Full intimacy requires full access. Where's your husband? She says, Oh, 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.240 I don't have a husband. He says, you're right, You've 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.360 had five and the man you're living with isn't your husband. 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:50.960 He didn't bring all this up to condemn her, but 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:53.200 he brought it up so he could offer her something better. 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.040 He offers her living water so that she wouldn't have 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.560 to keep running to other people to find satisfaction. 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:02.080 He brings it up to say, already know everything you've done. 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:04.640 I already know everything you're going through, so why don't 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:06.520 you just be honest about it so I can give 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.280 you the solution to what you've been going through. And 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.120 something so powerful happens in this story because after Jesus 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.880 brings up everything she's done, it says in John chapter four, 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.920 verse twenty eight. Then leaving the water jar, the woman 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.000 went back to the town and said to the people, well, 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.520 what people, the very people she was hiding from. 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:26.920 She's now running too, and she. 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.320 Says, come, come and see a man who told me 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.440 everything I ever did, the very things. 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:33.600 That she was trying to hide. 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:35.960 She says, come see a man who told me all 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:38.240 about the things I was trying to keep hidden. He 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.080 already knew at all, She said, Could this be the Messiah? 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.040 And this woman who was hiding in shame became an 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:49.800 evangelist for the goodness of God? Is it possible today 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.520 that the things that we're trying to leave out are 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.240 actually the places that not only does God want to heal, 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:57.600 but that God wants to use in our lives to 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.960 impact and reach other people. What does it look like 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.760 to bring the things that we've been hiding to God 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.359 and lay them out at his feet? But the enemy 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.199 will tempt us to view God the wrong way, so 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:11.879 that we keep things hidden because he knows that what 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:16.119 goes in the dark grows in the dark. And God 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.719 cannot heal what you keep hidden. So what does it 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.879 look like to bring everything to God? Because David says, 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.800 he already knows. He knows everything. Before a word ever 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.119 came out of your mouth, he knew about it. The 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:34.200 next thing David wants to confront is our tendency to run, 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.280 and for six verses he talks about how God is everywhere, 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:43.040 Touch your neighbor against say, God is everywhere, and what's 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:44.000 the point in running? 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:45.720 If God is everywhere? 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:49.760 All of us have a tendency to run, whether that's 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.200 from God, whether that's from our reality, whether that's from 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.760 our emotions or situations in our lives that get heavy. 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.880 But what's the point in running if God is everywhere? 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:00.960 You know, running only where if there's a place that 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:05.160 God can't go, And the Psalma says there isn't even 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.040 if I go into the depths, You're there, even darkness. 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:09.720 If you show up, it just becomes light. 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:13.720 There's nowhere I can't go that His presence hasn't already gone. 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.600 So what's the point in trying to run if His 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:18.879 presence goes with me? 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:21.440 As I was reading this passage, I don't know why. 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:23.560 I think it was the Holy Spirit, but it brought 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:25.840 to mind a memory of a woman I already mentioned, 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.760 a woman named Hagar. Her story in Genesis is so powerful. 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:32.280 Hagar was Abraham's Egyptian slave. 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:33.440 She's an Egyptian. 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:37.840 She's outside of the Covenant, and Abraham and his wife 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:40.280 Sarah really mistreated her. And there's a moment in the 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.080 scriptures where she starts running to escape her situation. See, 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:45.760 sometimes we're hiding from the things that we've done. Other 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:47.639 times we're running because of the things that have been 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.119 done to us. She's running from the mistreatment, the betrayal, 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.880 the abuse, and she's on the run in the wilderness. 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.119 And even in her running it's so beautiful. God meets 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.080 her there and he calls her in the wilderness and 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:01.919 he says, Hagar, where are you coming from? 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:03.920 And where are you going again. 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:07.119 He's not asking because he needs the information. He's asking 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.959 because he wants access, and he encounters her in her running. 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:13.679 He encounters her in the wilderness, her trying to escape 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.320 everything that she's going through. God meets her there and 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.480 calls her by name, and she becomes the first person 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:23.080 in all of Scripture to give God a personal name. 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.159 She calls him el Roy, the God who sees me. 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:31.720 Not a priest, not a patriarch, not someone not a Hebrew. 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.360 The first person in all of Scripture to give God 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.359 a personal name is an Egyptian slave who on the 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:40.400 run encounters the Lord and says, I found the God. 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:42.040 Who sees me. How beautiful is that? 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:45.920 And later she ends up going back to Abraham's household, 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:48.000 and fast forward a little bit. She has a son 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:50.640 with Abraham and they're on the run. Abraham and Sarah 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.320 eventually kick her out of the house. And this ministered 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:55.040 to me so much when I saw it, because she's 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:58.560 back in the wilderness again, running, running, not because it 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:00.480 was her own fault, but just the realcy of her 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:03.280 life caused her to run, and she's running out of water, 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.399 and she realizes her son is about to die, and 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:09.280 so she places him under a bush and walks away. 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:11.600 She wants to be at a distance because she doesn't 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:14.639 want to watch her son take his last breath. And 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:17.159 once again, the Lord shows up for her in the 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:20.439 middle of the wilderness, because remember, friends, there's nowhere you 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:22.560 can go that his presence can't find you. 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:24.359 And she says that look at this. 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.720 In Genesis twenty one seventeen, it says, and God heard 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:30.240 the voice of the boy, and the Angel of the 0:23:30.280 --> 0:23:32.479 Lord called the hagar from heaven and said to her, 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:33.600 what troubles you, hagar? 0:23:34.200 --> 0:23:35.440 Fear not look at this? 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:40.800 For God has heard the boy's cry from where he is, 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:45.600 from where he is. That blessed me to know that 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:48.560 God will hear you from where you are, not where 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:51.280 you pretend to be, not where you think you should be, 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:54.080 not with all your polished words that you clean up 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:57.160 for church. God will hear you from where you are. 0:23:57.680 --> 0:23:59.360 Henry now, and he said it this way, I hope 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:01.280 I can find it in. He says, crying out to 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:04.400 God is not a sign of weakness, It's a sign 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:07.480 of faith. Cries out to God. I have heard the 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:11.000 boys cry from where he is. Just the other day, 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:13.520 it was such a God moment. I'd been reading this 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:16.320 psalm just personally, not knowing if I was going to 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:19.080 preach it, and I decided to reach out to a 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:20.959 friend of mine who lives in the UK. She used 0:24:21.000 --> 0:24:22.920 to work for us here at the church. A few 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:25.080 years ago, while she was still here, her mom had 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:30.160 a brain aneurism and passed pretty quickly, so tragic. And 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:31.960 I texted her the other day just to check in, 0:24:32.000 --> 0:24:33.480 and she said, I'm so glad you've reached out. 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:34.560 I've been meaning to text you. 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:37.639 She said, my dad just got diagnosed with brain cancer 0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:39.040 and had surgery on Wednesday. 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:40.600 He just got out of the hospital today. 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:43.280 She said, they're giving them twelve months to live. So 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:46.000 I pick up the phone, I call her. Parents were amazing, 0:24:46.080 --> 0:24:48.080 They've served their life, served God their whole life. 0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:50.960 Their pastors over there, and I pick up the phone 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:51.879 and I call her, and she's. 0:24:51.760 --> 0:24:53.800 Just talking me through all the details, and she said, 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:55.840 you know, my dad's so amazing. He's so full of 0:24:55.840 --> 0:24:58.000 faith right now, believing that God is fully going to 0:24:58.080 --> 0:25:01.480 heal him. And she said, but I'm really struggling, she said, 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:03.640 I don't feel like I have the faith he does. 0:25:04.720 --> 0:25:07.600 She said, because when my mom got sick, I prayed 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:10.560 and believed for her healing and God didn't heal her. 0:25:11.280 --> 0:25:13.359 So she said, So, if I'm being honest right now, 0:25:13.720 --> 0:25:16.960 I don't know if I believe God can heal my dad. 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.119 And I said, Dear, she said that I know that 0:25:22.200 --> 0:25:24.600 kind of sounds like weak faith at faith. I said, Gabby, 0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:29.679 that's not weak faith, that's honest faith. And it blessed 0:25:29.680 --> 0:25:31.840 me to know that God will hear you from where 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:33.920 you are, not where you think you should be. See, 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:35.679 sometimes when we come to God, we think we have 0:25:35.760 --> 0:25:38.400 to have it all cleaned up. But God will hear 0:25:38.480 --> 0:25:41.239 your cry from the realest place. God will hear your 0:25:41.240 --> 0:25:43.119 cry when you say, God, I don't know how to 0:25:43.160 --> 0:25:45.720 believe you for this right now because last time you 0:25:45.840 --> 0:25:49.320 left me disappointed. How powerful is that to think that 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:52.600 faith isn't just certainty and his promises, It can be both. 0:25:52.640 --> 0:25:54.760 You can say, God, I believe you have the power 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:57.159 to heal. God, I believe you have the power to deliver. 0:25:57.560 --> 0:26:00.359 But if God is big enough to do all those things, 0:26:00.920 --> 0:26:03.080 what does it look like to trust his character and 0:26:03.160 --> 0:26:06.439 believe that he's big enough to handle our doubts, handle 0:26:06.480 --> 0:26:10.600 our fears, handle our questions, handle our concerns. Do you 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:12.679 think God is big enough to handle all that? 0:26:13.440 --> 0:26:14.400 And so I loved her. 0:26:14.320 --> 0:26:17.000 Honesty because she says, God, last time I believed you 0:26:17.080 --> 0:26:19.200 for it, and you didn't do it. So I'm struggling 0:26:19.200 --> 0:26:21.359 to trust you right now. That's the type of faith 0:26:21.400 --> 0:26:24.520 that God responds to. She gave him access. And God 0:26:24.560 --> 0:26:28.159 will always hear your honest prayer. God will hear you 0:26:28.320 --> 0:26:30.600 church from where you are. And David says, you don't 0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:33.359 have to keep running. You don't have to keep running 0:26:33.359 --> 0:26:36.040 away from everything that you're facing. Just bring it to 0:26:36.119 --> 0:26:38.840 God and he will meet you in that place. 0:26:39.640 --> 0:26:41.240 Amen. Amen. 0:26:44.080 --> 0:26:47.600 That really ministered to me because I think sometimes in 0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:50.720 church we can be come so conditioned to always bring 0:26:50.760 --> 0:26:51.800 God the right answer. 0:26:51.880 --> 0:26:52.080 You know. 0:26:53.240 --> 0:26:56.000 It's like maybe there's someone in this room who time 0:26:56.040 --> 0:26:57.919 and time again, it's been your fourth time going to 0:26:57.960 --> 0:27:00.640 the fertility doctor and they said not this time, and 0:27:00.680 --> 0:27:03.040 your tendency is just to go God, I trust your timing, 0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:06.520 And it's okay to say, God, I do trust your timing, 0:27:07.000 --> 0:27:09.040 but I'm also really disappointed right now. 0:27:09.880 --> 0:27:11.600 It's okay to say, and God. 0:27:11.440 --> 0:27:13.480 It's really hard for me to be happy for other 0:27:13.520 --> 0:27:15.600 people while we're going through this ourselves. 0:27:15.840 --> 0:27:17.000 God can handle all that. 0:27:17.600 --> 0:27:19.240 Some of us come to church and we can't even 0:27:19.280 --> 0:27:21.360 lift our hands because we're white knuckling our way through 0:27:21.359 --> 0:27:23.560 in an addiction. And God is saying, you don't have 0:27:23.640 --> 0:27:25.320 to hide all that. You can say it over and 0:27:25.320 --> 0:27:27.720 over again. God, I believe you for deliverance and it 0:27:27.720 --> 0:27:30.440 didn't happen and I relapsed again. You can bring all 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:31.840 that to God, and I want you to know that 0:27:31.920 --> 0:27:35.040 He will hear you from where you are. David says, 0:27:35.040 --> 0:27:38.320 there's nowhere I can go that God isn't with me, 0:27:38.920 --> 0:27:43.480 And then perhaps most powerfully David. In the next few verses, 0:27:43.920 --> 0:27:46.600 he addresses our tendency to pretend, and he says, what's 0:27:46.640 --> 0:27:48.200 the point in pretending? 0:27:48.720 --> 0:27:50.719 If God's the one who made me? 0:27:51.440 --> 0:27:54.800 You created my inmost being, You knit me together in 0:27:54.880 --> 0:27:58.280 my mother's womb. Every day of my life was ordained 0:27:58.280 --> 0:28:00.320 and written in your book of life. He's saying, God 0:28:00.359 --> 0:28:03.800 already knows everything about you. He's the one who made you, 0:28:04.760 --> 0:28:08.639 So what's the point in pretending? You know, pretending is 0:28:08.720 --> 0:28:11.359 some in some ways one of the most sophisticated ways 0:28:11.359 --> 0:28:14.119 that we leave things out from God's presence. You know, 0:28:14.240 --> 0:28:19.280 running running can be exhausting. The thing about running is 0:28:19.320 --> 0:28:21.639 that we end up circling the same issues and running 0:28:21.640 --> 0:28:23.200 away from the very person who can heal. 0:28:23.240 --> 0:28:24.480 See. I don't know a lot about running. 0:28:24.520 --> 0:28:26.240 The one thing I know is and the most important 0:28:26.240 --> 0:28:27.440 thing is that it's exhausting. 0:28:28.920 --> 0:28:29.720 We run. 0:28:29.800 --> 0:28:30.200 We run. 0:28:30.600 --> 0:28:36.520 Someone just testified over there, Okay, can run, we can run. 0:28:36.640 --> 0:28:38.960 We can try to hide. But maybe one of the 0:28:38.960 --> 0:28:41.440 most sophisticated things we do is we try to pretend. 0:28:41.440 --> 0:28:44.240 And I think we do it to preemptively avoid rejection. 0:28:44.440 --> 0:28:47.120 Sometime there's a belief that if people really knew who 0:28:47.160 --> 0:28:49.720 we were, they would reject us. And maybe we built 0:28:49.720 --> 0:28:52.800 that defense mechanism because it's true, maybe people have rejected you. 0:28:52.880 --> 0:28:54.600 But what David wants you to know is God will 0:28:54.600 --> 0:28:57.680 never reject you. He's the one who made you, and 0:28:57.720 --> 0:29:00.680 when He created you with all your quirks, he declared 0:29:00.720 --> 0:29:04.320 over you that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. So 0:29:04.400 --> 0:29:06.440 when it comes to God, you don't need to pretend. 0:29:07.320 --> 0:29:09.320 You don't need to act like you have it all together. 0:29:09.880 --> 0:29:11.960 You don't need to act like you don't have hang ups, 0:29:12.160 --> 0:29:13.880 you don't need to act like there's things that you're 0:29:13.880 --> 0:29:15.720 not ashamed of. You can bring it all to him 0:29:15.760 --> 0:29:19.080 because he created you. He kniche you together by his 0:29:19.200 --> 0:29:21.959 power and by his will. He designed you, He placed 0:29:22.000 --> 0:29:24.760 you here and every single thing you've gone through and 0:29:24.840 --> 0:29:26.760 every single day of your life, he says it was 0:29:26.800 --> 0:29:29.920 written in his book. His sovereign hand has been guiding 0:29:29.960 --> 0:29:32.120 you the whole time. And so David's saying, you don't 0:29:32.160 --> 0:29:34.800 have to pretend. This is the God who created you. 0:29:34.840 --> 0:29:37.320 And yet I think so often, and maybe I'm just 0:29:37.360 --> 0:29:40.120 speaking for myself, I come into church and I feel 0:29:40.120 --> 0:29:42.400 like I need to pretend with God. 0:29:42.440 --> 0:29:44.840 Anybody else that I need to act like I have 0:29:44.920 --> 0:29:45.560 it all together. 0:29:46.160 --> 0:29:49.440 There's a parable that Jesus gives in Luke chapter eighteen. 0:29:50.080 --> 0:29:52.560 He says two men went up onto the temple to pray, 0:29:52.760 --> 0:29:55.520 one a pharisee and the other the tax collector. He's 0:29:55.520 --> 0:29:57.480 talking about the best and the worst. Right here, he's 0:29:57.480 --> 0:30:00.960 given a contrast, and the pharisee good by himself and 0:30:01.000 --> 0:30:03.840 prayed God. I thank you that I'm not like other 0:30:03.880 --> 0:30:10.240 people robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 0:30:10.280 --> 0:30:11.200 How awkward is this? 0:30:11.320 --> 0:30:15.280 The guy can probably hear him. God, I thank you 0:30:15.320 --> 0:30:17.720 so much that I'm not an adulterer. I thank you 0:30:17.760 --> 0:30:19.680 that I'm not a tax collector. I thank you that 0:30:19.720 --> 0:30:21.400 I'm not a pharisee. God, I thank you so much 0:30:21.440 --> 0:30:23.360 that I'm not like Chris sitting over there. God, I 0:30:23.440 --> 0:30:24.880 just I don't know if I have a lot to 0:30:24.920 --> 0:30:26.560 praise you for, but I'm just glad I'm not like 0:30:26.640 --> 0:30:27.080 that guy. 0:30:27.360 --> 0:30:30.720 That's what he's doing. It's so arrogant, it's crazy. He says. 0:30:30.760 --> 0:30:32.840 I'm thank you that I'm not like this tax collector. 0:30:33.200 --> 0:30:34.280 I fast twice a. 0:30:34.240 --> 0:30:37.360 Week, and I give a tenth of all I get y'all. 0:30:37.360 --> 0:30:43.400 He's treating his prayer time like a performance review. He's 0:30:43.400 --> 0:30:45.200 coming to God and he's listing all the things. Do 0:30:45.280 --> 0:30:48.880 you ever do that? Sometimes negotiating with God. Hey, God, Hey, 0:30:49.040 --> 0:30:50.960 I'm here, just checking in. I want to let you 0:30:51.000 --> 0:30:52.840 know I've been doing I've been doing really good lately. 0:30:54.240 --> 0:30:56.960 And God, I've been going to church a lot more regularly. 0:30:57.040 --> 0:30:59.160 I even started tyed. I signed up for an e team. 0:30:59.200 --> 0:31:01.360 I'm going to start serving at the church. And God 0:31:01.440 --> 0:31:03.400 just want to let you know. See what the pharisees 0:31:03.440 --> 0:31:03.920 say is. 0:31:03.840 --> 0:31:05.800 Not a lie. It's just limited. 0:31:06.720 --> 0:31:10.840 He probably did fast, he probably did tithe. The question 0:31:10.960 --> 0:31:12.560 is not what he did. The question is what is 0:31:12.560 --> 0:31:15.520 he leaving out? What were the secret things that he 0:31:15.600 --> 0:31:18.400 was struggling with that he didn't bring before God? What 0:31:18.480 --> 0:31:21.160 about the pride he was carrying? You notice he left 0:31:21.200 --> 0:31:23.000 that out? He says, God, I just think you that 0:31:23.040 --> 0:31:24.800 I'm not like these other people. Look at all the 0:31:24.800 --> 0:31:27.760 things I do. And then Jesus, by contrast, shows us 0:31:27.800 --> 0:31:30.880 the tax collector says he wouldn't even look up to heaven, 0:31:30.920 --> 0:31:33.880 but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me. 0:31:33.960 --> 0:31:36.200 A sinner. Jesus says, I tell you that this is 0:31:36.240 --> 0:31:39.280 the man who will walk away justified? Why because he 0:31:39.400 --> 0:31:44.080 was honest. One man came before God saying, Hey, God, 0:31:44.120 --> 0:31:44.920 this is what I've done. 0:31:44.960 --> 0:31:46.320 Look at me. But he left the lot out. 0:31:46.400 --> 0:31:48.720 The other came before God and said, God, I just 0:31:48.760 --> 0:31:51.080 got to be real with you. I need your mercy. 0:31:51.880 --> 0:31:55.240 I need you God. I'm a sinner. I don't deserve this, 0:31:55.520 --> 0:31:56.680 but this is who I am, and. 0:31:56.640 --> 0:31:56.960 You know me. 0:31:57.040 --> 0:32:00.480 Would you meet me in this place just as I am? 0:32:00.600 --> 0:32:02.680 One man walked away justified? 0:32:03.320 --> 0:32:05.320 And I think sometimes in our walk with God, we 0:32:05.480 --> 0:32:07.640 do the same thing where we come before him and 0:32:07.680 --> 0:32:10.560 we feel like we need to pretend to earn his love. 0:32:10.720 --> 0:32:13.200 We feel like we need to pretend to convince them 0:32:13.280 --> 0:32:15.320 that we're worth blessing. We feel like we need to 0:32:15.360 --> 0:32:17.920 pretend to convince them that we have it all together. 0:32:17.960 --> 0:32:20.680 And David saying, are you joking me? He knitch you 0:32:20.720 --> 0:32:23.640 together in your mother's womb. He knows everything about you. 0:32:23.920 --> 0:32:25.920 He saw when you stood up, he saw when you 0:32:26.000 --> 0:32:28.280 laid down. He knows everything already. So what are we 0:32:28.360 --> 0:32:32.120 pretending for? And I wonder what encounter would look like? 0:32:32.480 --> 0:32:34.720 What kind of encounters with God we would have? What 0:32:34.840 --> 0:32:38.400 kind of intimacy with the Father we would experience if 0:32:38.400 --> 0:32:41.760 we came to God and refuse to pretend. It's wild. 0:32:41.880 --> 0:32:45.400 It's wild. There's a story back to Genesis. You know 0:32:45.440 --> 0:32:48.440 I've mentioned Abraham. Abraham had a son named Isaac. Isaac 0:32:48.480 --> 0:32:52.000 had a son named Jacob. Tracking with me. Jacob was 0:32:52.040 --> 0:32:55.600 the second born, but he wanted the firstborn blessing, and 0:32:55.640 --> 0:32:59.640 there's a story in Genesis thirty two where he goes 0:32:59.680 --> 0:33:02.400 to his father, or sorry in Genesis twenty seven, where 0:33:02.440 --> 0:33:05.760 he goes to his father and he wants the firstborn blessing, 0:33:05.760 --> 0:33:07.480 and to get that he has to pretend to be 0:33:07.560 --> 0:33:11.480 his older brother, Esau. So he puts fur on his 0:33:11.520 --> 0:33:12.200 back because his. 0:33:12.200 --> 0:33:13.000 Brother was Harry. 0:33:13.280 --> 0:33:15.520 Abraham's gone blind at this point, but he goes, if 0:33:15.560 --> 0:33:17.440 my dad touches me out, he'll feel the fur, He'll 0:33:17.440 --> 0:33:20.080 think I'm Esau. And he changes his voice, and so 0:33:20.120 --> 0:33:23.920 he goes to his father and he asks, and Jacob 0:33:23.960 --> 0:33:27.720 asks his father Isaac for the blessing, and Isaac. 0:33:27.480 --> 0:33:30.040 Go, what's your name? Who are you? 0:33:30.120 --> 0:33:33.880 That's the question he asked, and he answered, I'm Esau. 0:33:34.560 --> 0:33:37.360 He was pretending to be someone else, and in his 0:33:37.480 --> 0:33:41.040 pretending he's got his blind father's blessing. But the rest 0:33:41.040 --> 0:33:42.720 of it, I don't know if it was really a blessing, 0:33:42.760 --> 0:33:45.920 because he would spend from that four point forward having 0:33:45.960 --> 0:33:48.640 to outrun and live in the consequences of his deceit, 0:33:49.080 --> 0:33:50.160 living in the consequence. 0:33:50.200 --> 0:33:51.720 See the thing about pretending. 0:33:51.400 --> 0:33:53.440 Is you got to keep up that image time and 0:33:53.480 --> 0:33:55.480 time of goet day after day. He had to keep 0:33:55.480 --> 0:33:57.440 it up. He spends his life on the run. But 0:33:57.480 --> 0:34:01.240 there's this beautiful moment of redemption that happens in Genesis 0:34:01.280 --> 0:34:04.240 thirty two, because remember when he went to his father 0:34:04.320 --> 0:34:07.160 with fur on his back, with his voice change, pretending 0:34:07.240 --> 0:34:09.680 to be something else. His father asked him a simple question, 0:34:10.120 --> 0:34:10.680 who are you? 0:34:11.239 --> 0:34:13.680 And he said, my name is Esau. But later in. 0:34:13.680 --> 0:34:16.600 Genesis thirty two, God shows up with him and is 0:34:16.680 --> 0:34:19.200 running and meets with him and they begin to wrestle 0:34:19.520 --> 0:34:22.840 in the wilderness. And as they wrestle, as an angel 0:34:22.840 --> 0:34:26.000 of the Lord wrestles with Jacob, he asks them the 0:34:26.040 --> 0:34:29.640 same question that his father asked him. He says, what's 0:34:29.640 --> 0:34:34.200 your name? And this time Jacob. This time he answers Jacob. 0:34:35.360 --> 0:34:38.399 The last time he was asked this question, he said Esau. 0:34:39.200 --> 0:34:43.600 This time he's done pretending. He says, my name is Jacob, 0:34:44.280 --> 0:34:47.080 and the scripture says that God blessed him there. Because 0:34:47.120 --> 0:34:49.799 there is a blessing that you can only receive through 0:34:49.840 --> 0:34:52.920 being honest. There's a blessing that you can only receive 0:34:53.320 --> 0:34:55.520 when you decide to be who God really created you 0:34:55.560 --> 0:34:57.000 to be. Sae, I want you to know today that 0:34:57.080 --> 0:35:00.480 God does not love the version of you that you created. 0:35:01.160 --> 0:35:04.719 He loves the version he created. That's the version God 0:35:04.760 --> 0:35:11.440 wants to counter. And Jacob says, my name is Jacob, 0:35:11.800 --> 0:35:14.360 and the Lord bless them there. What a beautiful moment 0:35:14.360 --> 0:35:17.000 of redemption to know that at any moment we can 0:35:17.000 --> 0:35:19.960 come before God and be completely honest. God, I've been pretending. 0:35:20.400 --> 0:35:22.640 I've been trying to have it all together. I've I've 0:35:22.640 --> 0:35:24.600 been wearing a mask. I've been showing up time and 0:35:24.640 --> 0:35:26.319 time again, trying to be something I'm not. 0:35:26.400 --> 0:35:27.640 But God, you created me. 0:35:27.800 --> 0:35:30.600 You know me, You know exactly who I am, and 0:35:30.640 --> 0:35:33.560 you love that version of me. So God, when you 0:35:33.640 --> 0:35:36.200 ask me you're my name, I'm gonna tell you my name. See, 0:35:36.239 --> 0:35:38.440 you might be able to fool your kids, you might 0:35:38.480 --> 0:35:41.560 be able to fool your spouse, You might be able 0:35:41.640 --> 0:35:44.840 to fool your blind father, but you can't fool the 0:35:44.920 --> 0:35:48.279 father who created your eyes. He knows exactly who you are. 0:35:49.800 --> 0:35:51.759 And David says, if he knows you, what's the point 0:35:51.760 --> 0:35:52.240 of pretending? 0:35:52.280 --> 0:35:52.560 You see? 0:35:52.600 --> 0:35:55.080 I think Dad's and maybe I'm stereotyping, but I think 0:35:55.120 --> 0:35:55.880 sometimes as. 0:35:55.800 --> 0:35:57.960 Men, we have a tendency to do this more. 0:35:58.400 --> 0:36:00.240 And I want you to know, even on this Fire's 0:36:00.320 --> 0:36:02.800 Day weekend, that your kids don't need you to pretend. 0:36:02.800 --> 0:36:06.000 We're so wired to pretend to be strong, to pretend 0:36:06.000 --> 0:36:07.839 we have it all together, to pretend. 0:36:07.520 --> 0:36:09.600 Like we have all the answers, and then. 0:36:09.520 --> 0:36:11.200 Our kids start to grow up and they start to 0:36:11.200 --> 0:36:14.120 see through all those cracks, don't they They see it anyway. 0:36:14.560 --> 0:36:16.719 And I've been really challenged because my kids don't need 0:36:16.760 --> 0:36:18.480 to see my strength. Why am I trying to build 0:36:18.480 --> 0:36:23.000 their confidence around my strength, my perfection, my ability. I 0:36:23.040 --> 0:36:25.040 want to be honest and show them my doubts, and 0:36:25.080 --> 0:36:27.200 show them my fears and show them my struggles, so 0:36:27.239 --> 0:36:28.520 that their confidence isn't in. 0:36:28.520 --> 0:36:30.080 My strength, but in God's strength. 0:36:31.320 --> 0:36:34.200 That's what it means to stop pretending and to just 0:36:34.239 --> 0:36:38.560 be honest and allow them to experience the blessing of 0:36:38.560 --> 0:36:41.200 the Lord that comes from only from his hand. When 0:36:41.200 --> 0:36:44.680 we get real with him, David says, you search me, 0:36:44.719 --> 0:36:46.440 you know me, you know my heart, you know when 0:36:46.440 --> 0:36:47.919 I sit, you know when I lie down. 0:36:48.640 --> 0:36:50.279 Says, if I go to the heavens, you're there. If 0:36:50.280 --> 0:36:51.640 I go to the depths, you're there. If I go 0:36:51.640 --> 0:36:52.919 to the edge of the sea, you're there. 0:36:53.280 --> 0:36:55.400 You created me in the depths, you knit me together 0:36:55.440 --> 0:36:56.359 in the secret place. 0:36:56.440 --> 0:36:58.960 God. That was all you, That was all you. And 0:36:59.000 --> 0:37:00.680 then he gets to the point where he says, and so. 0:37:00.600 --> 0:37:03.960 If all that's true, if all that's true about you, God, 0:37:04.280 --> 0:37:06.040 I might as well be honest. And he says, can 0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:08.879 I tell you where I am right now? Because it's 0:37:08.960 --> 0:37:11.040 likely that David is writing the Psalm while he was 0:37:11.120 --> 0:37:12.960 hiding in a cave from people who are trying to 0:37:13.000 --> 0:37:14.920 kill him. But even though he was hiding from people, 0:37:14.960 --> 0:37:18.759 I love that he refused to hide from God. And 0:37:18.840 --> 0:37:21.759 David begins to say, I hate these people who hate you, Lord. 0:37:22.200 --> 0:37:24.799 He starts processing what he's going through with the Lord. 0:37:24.840 --> 0:37:27.000 You see, David's trying to say, I don't want the 0:37:27.120 --> 0:37:30.080 evil that's happening to me to become evil within me, 0:37:30.600 --> 0:37:33.319 So I need to bring this to you Lord, and 0:37:33.360 --> 0:37:35.480 he starts laying it all out there. He's being honesty. 0:37:35.600 --> 0:37:37.920 I love that the Bible says that David was a 0:37:37.920 --> 0:37:40.239 man after God's own heart. I always wrestled with what 0:37:40.280 --> 0:37:42.960 that meant, because David had a lot of mistakes in 0:37:43.000 --> 0:37:45.759 his life, the infidelity, a lot of poor decisions that 0:37:45.840 --> 0:37:48.239 David made in his life, and yet Scripture says he 0:37:48.280 --> 0:37:49.759 was a man after God's own heart. 0:37:50.760 --> 0:37:52.560 And I think, as I read this passage, I'm. 0:37:52.480 --> 0:37:55.360 Starting to realize more and more that what made David 0:37:55.360 --> 0:37:57.960 a man after God's own heart is that he was 0:37:58.000 --> 0:38:00.080 a man who is willing to let God into his. 0:38:00.920 --> 0:38:01.920 And I want to be like that. 0:38:02.880 --> 0:38:04.799 I want to be the type of person who says, God, 0:38:05.080 --> 0:38:07.120 come on in and have all of me. So David 0:38:07.200 --> 0:38:09.600 starts saying, God, I'm just gonna be honest. 0:38:09.640 --> 0:38:13.399 I hate them. I wish you would kill them. That's 0:38:13.440 --> 0:38:14.480 where I am right now. 0:38:14.840 --> 0:38:17.760 But this is not a message about authenticity because David 0:38:17.800 --> 0:38:20.640 doesn't say all that to stay there. He brings it 0:38:20.680 --> 0:38:23.799 to God so God can lead him somewhere else. And 0:38:23.840 --> 0:38:26.600 he moves on from that place and he ends with 0:38:26.680 --> 0:38:31.359 search me, God, and know my heart, Test me and know. 0:38:31.360 --> 0:38:32.400 My anxious thoughts. 0:38:32.800 --> 0:38:35.759 See if there's any offensive way in me, and lead 0:38:35.840 --> 0:38:39.359 me in the way everlasting God, in my running? Would 0:38:39.400 --> 0:38:43.279 you find me in my search, in my pretending God? 0:38:43.320 --> 0:38:45.440 Would you see me in my hiding? 0:38:45.480 --> 0:38:49.160 God? Would you know me? And God, would you lead me? 0:38:49.239 --> 0:38:53.160 It's interesting this psalm ends similar to the way it begins. 0:38:53.239 --> 0:38:55.600 At the beginning of the psalm, David says, you have 0:38:55.760 --> 0:38:58.640 searched me, and you know me. Now he ends the 0:38:58.640 --> 0:39:02.239 psalm with saying, so search me, God, and know my heart. 0:39:03.160 --> 0:39:03.799 I wondered if. 0:39:03.760 --> 0:39:05.799 David was saying it that way, because really, when it 0:39:05.800 --> 0:39:08.319 comes to being honest with God, is not a one 0:39:08.360 --> 0:39:08.879 time thing. 0:39:09.680 --> 0:39:10.400 It's a cycle. 0:39:11.080 --> 0:39:14.160 You search me once before, God, you knew me once before. 0:39:14.160 --> 0:39:16.359 I need you to seach me once, search me once again, 0:39:16.480 --> 0:39:19.520 know me once again. I wonder if that's the reason 0:39:19.680 --> 0:39:21.839 he ended the psalm the same way he started it, 0:39:21.960 --> 0:39:26.239 or or isn't it interesting that what he first declared 0:39:26.480 --> 0:39:30.239 as a fact about God, you have searched me, you 0:39:30.360 --> 0:39:35.279 know me God, he now turns into an invitation. So 0:39:35.280 --> 0:39:39.520 search me, God, So search me God and know my heart. 0:39:39.880 --> 0:39:43.520 Test me, see lead me God, he says, God, I 0:39:43.560 --> 0:39:44.640 want to invite you in. 0:39:45.280 --> 0:39:47.520 I want to give you full access because I want 0:39:47.560 --> 0:39:54.560 to experience full intimacy with you. What does that look 0:39:54.600 --> 0:39:58.120 like for us to approach God differently, not out of 0:39:58.120 --> 0:39:59.840 fear of what He might do when he sees us, 0:40:00.120 --> 0:40:02.200 catches us, not trying to run, not trying to hide, 0:40:02.239 --> 0:40:05.080 not trying to pretend, but to come before God and say, God, 0:40:05.120 --> 0:40:08.480 you already know, you, already see, You're already with me. 0:40:09.000 --> 0:40:12.440 So here I am, and lay those things down at 0:40:12.440 --> 0:40:14.560 the altar. Would you stand to your feet as I close? 0:40:20.000 --> 0:40:21.920 And I know we started this way, but one more time? 0:40:21.960 --> 0:40:23.640 Would you make it a prayer? Would you say, search 0:40:23.719 --> 0:40:26.240 me God, Search me God? 0:40:30.520 --> 0:40:32.600 Tim Keller. He said, to be loved. 0:40:32.400 --> 0:40:36.360 But not known, it's comforting, but superficial. 0:40:36.880 --> 0:40:37.400 You catch up. 0:40:37.400 --> 0:40:40.600 To be loved but not known, it's comforting but superficial. 0:40:41.400 --> 0:40:44.560 To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. 0:40:45.520 --> 0:40:49.520 But to be fully known and truly love, well, that's 0:40:49.520 --> 0:40:53.759 a lot like being loved by God. What do you 0:40:53.800 --> 0:40:55.520 need to bring to the Lord today? What have you 0:40:55.600 --> 0:40:58.480 been leaving out that you need to surrender in His 0:40:58.560 --> 0:41:01.440 presence today? What have you been trying to keep out 0:41:01.440 --> 0:41:03.640 of the story because it was too dark? Too messy, 0:41:03.719 --> 0:41:06.160 too shameful. Maybe it felt too small, Maybe it's too 0:41:06.160 --> 0:41:08.000 hard to pray. What were the things that you've been 0:41:08.080 --> 0:41:10.760 leaving out that you need to bring into God's prices 0:41:10.800 --> 0:41:12.480 today so that he can touch it, so that he 0:41:12.520 --> 0:41:14.719 can heal it, so that he can redeem it, so 0:41:14.760 --> 0:41:17.160 that he can set you free. Just with your hands 0:41:17.200 --> 0:41:19.920 out where you are right now, just bring that thing 0:41:19.960 --> 0:41:23.560 to mine. Not going to make you tell your neighbor 0:41:23.680 --> 0:41:25.319 right now, it's not for them to know. But you 0:41:25.360 --> 0:41:28.480 can let your father know. Can't you Just lay that 0:41:28.520 --> 0:41:32.600 thing before him and say, God, I trust you, I 0:41:32.680 --> 0:41:36.000 trust your character. The things I believe about you lead 0:41:36.040 --> 0:41:38.080 me to the place where I can be confident God 0:41:38.080 --> 0:41:40.920 that you are compassionate enough and big enough and merciful 0:41:41.000 --> 0:41:43.240 enough that I can be real with you and bring 0:41:43.280 --> 0:41:45.960 these things to you. There's someone in the room it's 0:41:46.000 --> 0:41:47.800 so hard to show up to your married e group 0:41:47.880 --> 0:41:50.520 and have conversations because you and your spouse haven't talked 0:41:50.520 --> 0:41:54.120 for three weeks. There's someone in the room who feels 0:41:54.120 --> 0:41:56.160 like they can't be used by God because you keep 0:41:56.200 --> 0:41:58.680 going back to the same thing over and over again. 0:41:58.719 --> 0:42:00.960 What's that thing that you've been trying to leave out. 0:42:01.000 --> 0:42:05.440 Would you bring it to the Father today? So, Father, 0:42:05.480 --> 0:42:07.560 we want to give you full access to our lives, 0:42:07.600 --> 0:42:08.719 full access to our hearts. 0:42:08.760 --> 0:42:10.440 You're the one who made us. You're the one who. 0:42:10.280 --> 0:42:12.520 Knows us, and you declared over us that we're fearfully 0:42:12.520 --> 0:42:16.360 and wonderfully made. You love us, Lord, You love us, Lord, 0:42:16.760 --> 0:42:18.279 So we don't have to hide, and we don't have 0:42:18.360 --> 0:42:19.120 to be ashamed. 0:42:20.120 --> 0:42:22.120 We don't have to keep pretending to be something that 0:42:22.160 --> 0:42:22.879 we're not. God. 0:42:23.560 --> 0:42:25.480 But Lord, we know that you bless us when we 0:42:25.520 --> 0:42:27.439 come before you just as we are. 0:42:28.200 --> 0:42:30.399 God. I want to know your heart, and. 0:42:30.400 --> 0:42:35.160 So today I invite you to know mine. Hmmm, bring 0:42:35.200 --> 0:42:37.440 these things before you God. I refuse to keep putting 0:42:37.520 --> 0:42:40.480 fur on my back. I refuse to keep trying to 0:42:40.520 --> 0:42:42.799 trick other people. God, Lord, I want to come to 0:42:42.880 --> 0:42:44.759 you just as I am and ask that you would 0:42:44.840 --> 0:42:46.920 meet the real me, the version of me that you 0:42:47.040 --> 0:42:50.439 made in this place today. I don't know what's coming 0:42:50.480 --> 0:42:52.480 to mind for people in this room, God, but with 0:42:52.520 --> 0:42:55.040 our hands out, we just lay them at the altar 0:42:55.120 --> 0:42:57.840 before you, and we ask God that these would be 0:42:57.880 --> 0:43:00.560 the places that you would touch, that you heal, that 0:43:00.600 --> 0:43:03.440 you administer to in your perfect presence today. 0:43:04.280 --> 0:43:05.000 Thank you Lord. 0:43:07.760 --> 0:43:09.640 Right now, I want to give an invitation to someone 0:43:09.680 --> 0:43:12.040 who's been running from God. You've never made a decision 0:43:12.080 --> 0:43:15.520 to place your faith in Him, And maybe the message 0:43:15.560 --> 0:43:17.759 today was simply to let you know that you have 0:43:17.800 --> 0:43:20.959 a father in heaven who's never left your side. Maybe 0:43:20.960 --> 0:43:23.680 you thought you were too far gone. Maybe you thought 0:43:23.719 --> 0:43:25.959 the things that you've been through, the mistakes that you've made, 0:43:26.000 --> 0:43:28.359 made you unlovable, and that God couldn't find you there. 0:43:28.360 --> 0:43:30.840 But the word of the Lord for you today is 0:43:30.880 --> 0:43:34.239 that God's been there the whole time. And I want 0:43:34.239 --> 0:43:36.160 to give you an invitation to make a decision to 0:43:36.280 --> 0:43:39.919 surrender your life to Him. When you give your life 0:43:39.960 --> 0:43:42.319 to Jesus because of what He did for us on 0:43:42.360 --> 0:43:45.040 the cross, when he died for the forgiveness of our sin, 0:43:45.600 --> 0:43:49.960 It wiped the slate clean his His death on the 0:43:50.000 --> 0:43:52.879 cross is what makes you righteous because of what he did. 0:43:53.360 --> 0:43:54.319 And the Bible says that. 0:43:54.320 --> 0:43:55.920 If you are in Christ, one day, you're going to 0:43:56.000 --> 0:43:59.080 get the heaven up and you're going to stand before God, 0:43:59.440 --> 0:44:01.320 and God's not going to bring up all the mistakes 0:44:01.320 --> 0:44:03.680 you made. He's gonna look at you and say, well done, 0:44:03.840 --> 0:44:04.960 good and faithful servant. 0:44:04.960 --> 0:44:05.680 You're gonna be like God. 0:44:05.719 --> 0:44:07.759 You left some things out and he said no, no, no, no, no. 0:44:08.800 --> 0:44:12.720 Well done, good and faithful servant. Not because of anything 0:44:12.719 --> 0:44:15.680 we've done, but because of His grace, his mercy, and 0:44:15.719 --> 0:44:18.120 the work of Jesus on the cross. If you've been 0:44:18.160 --> 0:44:20.319 far from God, you've been running, you've been hiding, you've 0:44:20.360 --> 0:44:22.879 been pretending. But today is your day to come into 0:44:22.960 --> 0:44:26.759 a relationship with your heavenly Father, who knows you, created you, 0:44:27.120 --> 0:44:27.680 and loved you. 0:44:27.760 --> 0:44:28.319 I want to give you. 0:44:28.360 --> 0:44:31.720 An invitation to receive the gift of His grace and mercy. 0:44:31.920 --> 0:44:34.800 We're gonna pray out loud together as a church family 0:44:34.800 --> 0:44:37.200 today for the benefit of those who are making the 0:44:37.280 --> 0:44:39.279 decision to come to Christ. Can we pray together with 0:44:39.360 --> 0:44:42.160 heads bowed and eyes closed, repeat out there me say, 0:44:42.239 --> 0:44:46.600 I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God 0:44:47.440 --> 0:44:48.600 and the savior of the world. 0:44:49.560 --> 0:44:53.840 I believe he died and rose again to forgive my. 0:44:53.960 --> 0:44:59.880 Sin and give me life. I receive your grace by faith, 0:45:00.600 --> 0:45:03.200 Come into my life and make me new. 0:45:04.280 --> 0:45:05.680 Head still bowed, eyes still close. 0:45:05.760 --> 0:45:07.840 If you just made that decision today, when I count 0:45:07.840 --> 0:45:09.880 the three, would you throw your hand up in the air. 0:45:09.920 --> 0:45:12.080 I want to celebrate the work the Lord has done 0:45:12.080 --> 0:45:12.880 in your life today. 0:45:12.960 --> 0:45:14.400 Don't hesitate even online. 0:45:14.440 --> 0:45:16.840 Let us know in the chat at other campuses. Shoot 0:45:16.840 --> 0:45:20.080 your hand up in the air there too, one, two, three. 0:45:20.080 --> 0:45:24.080 If that was for you today, hands up in the air, Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:45:23.920 --> 0:45:24.640 Praise the Lord. 0:45:24.640 --> 0:45:28.719 God bless you, God bless you. Yeah, keep your hand up, 0:45:28.760 --> 0:45:30.759 God bless you. Us are awesome coming around with the 0:45:30.840 --> 0:45:31.759 gifts for you. 0:45:34.760 --> 0:45:37.319 Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did, 0:45:37.880 --> 0:45:40.480 make sure to share it and subscribe so we can 0:45:40.520 --> 0:45:43.120 get you all of these new messages as soon as 0:45:43.120 --> 0:45:45.920 they're available. I also want to take a moment and 0:45:46.000 --> 0:45:47.800 thank all of you who are a part of Elevation. 0:45:48.280 --> 0:45:51.600 Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or 0:45:52.040 --> 0:45:54.719 just share these messages, it's because of you that we're 0:45:54.760 --> 0:45:57.719 able to reach people all around the world. And if 0:45:57.719 --> 0:46:00.239 you want more information on how to be a part 0:46:00.239 --> 0:46:04.160 of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again 0:46:04.200 --> 0:46:07.160 for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message, 0:46:07.200 --> 0:46:17.640 and subscribe. God bless you.