8.10.2025 - God Knows - ASM

Introduction: How do we know things? How do we think about big things? How do we study hard things?

I love the beach, I always have had a great fondness for the mountains, and I’m never too busy for a good sunset. I like to think about the magnitude of things: how great they are, how vast, how deep, how unique. There is never a shortage of wonder when exploring these things; the universe we live in is an abundance of marvelous things from the greatest start to the smallest atom. For one person to try to know all things about all things in one given moment would be impossible.

Recently, Emily Grace and I went to the beach to celebrate the beginning of our marriage. There were moments when we were there that I was utterly and entirely focussed on her and the time we were spending there; enjoying quality time and vacationing from the norm. Other times, my mind would wander to the fullness of the world around us: the ocean and all of its creatures, the intricate human influences on the things around us, and the people who were there enjoying these things like we were.

How did someone think of parasailing? Or skiing for that matter… Who figured out sunscreen? When did a person decide that sushi was a good idea? Who really thinks its a good idea to feed seagulls?

Who were the people around me? Where do they live? What are their lives like? What do they do for work, or for school? What kind of hopes do they have? What are they happy to be vacationing away from? The people who live here at the beach… do they get tired of tourists? What is life like for them? Etc. Etc.

On the last night, EG and I went out on the beach after it had gotten dark. As we looked out over the ocean and into the stars, I couldn’t help but think about how great God is…

He created all of this; He created all of us… and yet He isn’t overwhelmed by knowing everything and everyone.

I like to think of myself as a very smart guy. I like learning and knowing things. But I cannot fathom knowing everything. Just the other day I was thinking about things I had forgotten. I couldn’t tell you my 3rd grade teachers’ names. I couldn’t tell you how to do 99.999% of calculus even though I did a year of it in high-school. I can’t begin to explain the plot of half the tv-shows I’ve seen, and don’t even try to ask me about the, at this point, hundreds and thousands of tiktoks and reels I’ve watched because I frankly don’t remember them about five swipes later, let alone now.

Pick any given moment… God knows every detail of everything in the universe and beyond in that moment. How many grains of sand are there on the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama? I think humanity would be hard pressed to give an answer, but to God… that’s nothing.

So much has been forgotten by humanity that He knows. So many have been lost to time whose names are still on His heart. This is the amazingness of our God. He is all knowing.

How do we think about big things? How can we know something? How do we study things?

The Bible is not a textbook. It isn’t a rulebook. It’s not a legal code. It isn’t a story book. It is completely unique.

When I study Scripture, one of the major methods I use to read and understand it is the REAP method.

Read - Read the text

Examine - Answer, in your own words: What does the text say?

Apply - Answer, in your own words: How does what this text is talking about influence what I believe and do?

Pray - Seek after God’s will in your life, emphasizing what the passage teaches.

Today, I’d like y’all to practice this method; pick between Psalm 1, Psalm 2, and Psalm 8, you read it, examine it, think about its applications, and pray on it, then we’ll discuss (assign and give 5 ish minutes for reading and contemplation)

Discussion of the Psalms - who picked Psalm (1, 2, 8) ?

Can you summarize the psalm you read?

Can you tell me what you think the message is?

What did it make you think about?

What does it say about God?

How does it apply to what you believe?

How can we live out what it teaches?

What can we pray to God in light of this Psalm?

[Discuss quickly, ask the questions overarching - not individually for each Psalm, and get to Psalm 139]

Psalm 139 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. 19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! 20 They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 22 I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

— Examine : Psalm 139 is a worship Psalm that praises God for all that He knows. The big idea of the text is that God’s wisdom surrounds us in every moment of life and He holds fast all who love Him.

while we may not understand God’s timing (see the final verses of the psalm) we do understand that His ways are better than our’s

while we may not be able to know all things, we can rest in the comfort of the God who does - that He knows all things about us, and loves us.

while we may think we have fallen away from Him, or have gone too far astray, He is still there, with arms wide open for us to turn back to. From the lowest lows, to the highest highs, He is there with you.

(Differentiate between the follower and the non-follower)

== Apply : Psalm 139 invites us to live in peace knowing God is in control: to be in relationship with God is not hard, as He already knows you, and wants you to know Him. While others may try to sway us away from God, ultimately He is greater and wiser than they are, and while we live in a time of grace now, coming is the day when His enemies will be separated from His people.

>> Pray : (Not just a “will you” but a “thank you” and a “Praise you”)