Known Part 1
Notes
Transcript
God Knows Your Heart
God Knows Your Heart
Intro:
We are in a new series called known.
And the whole point of this message is to look at our identity.
And identity can be this nebulous, completely changing sort of thing.
That is thrown around a ton and used in a wide variety of conversations.
But over the next for weeks, we are going to be examining the passage of Psalm 139.
Tonight we are looking at how God knows us.
And for us to kinda of grasp this, I want you to think about a question.
Like if had a magic machine where you could type in ANY question about your life and it would give you the correct answer, what would you ask?
Some possible examples:
· How many chicken nuggets have I eaten in my life?
What time will “bereal” pop tomorrow?
· How many gallons of energy drinks have I consumed?
· How many pounds of fingernails have I clipped?
· How many times have I said the word “dope”?
Heres the thing--
One of my favorite things about God is, He actually knows the answers to all these questions.
· He knows how many freckles you have.
· He knows how many seconds you've spent watching Netflix.
· He knows what you had for dinner four years ago.
· He knows the second you were born and knows the second you will die.
· He knows every text and Snapchat you’ve ever sent, and He screenshots everything (not in a weird way, but he sees and knows everything).
Check out this passage about God:
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
This was the cry of David, God you know me.
God You know where I am going, you know all things.
That is the God we serve, we serve a God who is all knowing.
We have a big word for this idea that God knows everything.
It is the word “omniscient” (all-knowing).
It means that God knows everything about everything and everyone at every point in history.
There has never been a thing that God hasn’t known.
For some people, this is scary.
They can’t imagine that God has seen all of the bad things they’ve done.
I don’t think it should be scary, but it should be something we think about.
Before we do something that we know we shouldn’t, we should remember that God is watching.
Someone once told me, “When you’re about to do something wrong, pretend that Jesus is sitting right there next to you on your couch, in your car, etc.
Picture him next to you, like you guys were hanging out, then ask yourself, would I do this if Jesus was right here hanging out with me tonight?
Because in reality, HE IS …”
He is also omnipresent (He is present everywhere), but that is a different message for a different night.
If you wouldn’t do something if Jesus was sitting right next to you on the couch, then you shouldn’t do it, because He is right there next to you, watching and asking you not to do it.
So in some ways, the fact that God knows and sees everything is a little intimidating, but it can also be incredibly relieving.
Have you ever made a bad impression on someone and never got a chance to fix it?
Have you ever disappointed someone or hurt someone, and you really were sorry, but you didn’t get a chance to say so?
Have you ever been blamed for something you didn’t do, and that person still didn’t believe you?
The relieving thing about God knowing everything is, we don’t have to try to argue our case before God, and explain everything that happened, or try to convince Him of how sorry we are.
He already knows.
So if you’re innocent, if you’re sorry, He knows.
Another good thing about God knowing everything is, it means that we’ve never disappointed God.
YOU HAVE NEVER DISAPPOINTED GOD, BECAUSE GOD ALREADY KNEW.
Being disappointed means you thought something was going to happen and you got your hopes up, and then something else happened.
God isn’t like that.
That can’t happen to God because He already knew from the beginning of time what you would do.
He didn’t get his hopes up thinking you were going to do something, and then you let him down.
He already knew.
There have been times when I’ve fallen pretty hard in sin, and I’ve started to ask, “God, do you still love me?”
“Am I still called?” “Am I still saved?”
But then I remember, God knew from the beginning of time that I would commit these sins, and He still chose me and still called me.
He still saved me all those years ago, knowing I would fall into this sin.
On the cross, Jesus knew all the sins of the world, and yet He still chose to die for us.
He isn’t surprised by our sin, and He isn’t disappointed in us. He loves us in spite of our sin.
HE ISN’T MAD AT US.
HE IS MADLY IN LOVE WITH US.
Look at this other verse that talks about how God knew us, knew our sin, and still called us.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
While God is speaking to Jeremiah and calling him to be a prophet.
We know that God does this for us as well.
He knew us before we were even in the womb.
God knew you before you were born or even before your parent’s were born.
God knew you and has a plan for your life.
God knows all about you.
He knows all the good, but he also knows all the crap.
God knows all the crap in your life.
And a lot of time, our crap stinks.
God created you and he knows you.
Now you might be saying that is great, I love that God knows me, but people still judge me.
Have any of you ever felt judged by your appearance?
Or maybe you’ve judged someone else by their appearance, instead of by who they really are.
In this series, we’re talking all about something called “IDENTITY.”
Your identity is who you are on the inside, regardless of your outward appearance.
Identity may be a confusing term, so let’s define it a little.
IDENTITY MEANS “WHO YOU ARE” / “THE REAL YOU.”
Its the real you.
Rant about BeReal
Your identity isn’t based on your outward appearance.
It isn’t based on your successes or your mistakes.
It isn’t even defined by you—it is defined by God, since He made you.
We will learn more about this throughout the next few weeks, but the cool thing about God being all-knowing is that He knows the REAL you.
He looks past your choices, your sin, your appearance, and sees your heart.
Look at this verse:
1 Samuel 16:7 - The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
Explain the story
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
God doesn’t look at what others look at.
He isn’t impressed by the things that people are impressed by.
He looks at the heart.
So you don’t have to go on trying to convince God of where your heart is.
You don’t have to try to impress Him.
He knows—but you also can’t fool Him.
You can fool everyone else by coming to church, taking notes, worshipping with your hands held high, going to FCA, and Bible Studies etc.
You can make everyone else believe that you’re in love with Jesus, but God knows your heart.
He knows if you’re faking it, or if it’s real.
GOD KNOWS YOUR HEART, BECAUSE HE CREATED YOUR HEART.
And here is another thing—yes, God already knows what is in your heart, but you still need to open it up to Him.
EVEN THOUGH GOD KNOWS YOUR HEART, HE STILL WANTS YOU TO OPEN IT TO HIM.
If I saw my kids take a cookie that they wasn’t supposed to take, I already know what they did, but I still want him to come and tell me.
That’s what a relationship is like.
God knows your heart, He knew your sin before you ever did it, and He still loves you, and wants you to open your heart to Him tonight.
So tonight, where is your heart?
Does God have your heart?
Will you open your heart to him?
Here are some things to pray over the students during the prayer time:
1. Pray that they would know that God is not disappointed in them or mad at them.
2. Pray that they would open their heart to God.
3. Pray that God would open their eyes to see their true identity in Him throughout this series.]
