God Knows Me _ Psalm 139

Introduction

Game - Get to Know Pastor Jason -

Two Truths and a “Not-exactly-the-truth-but-not-a-lie-because-that-would-be-a-sin”

Two Truths and a “NETTBNALBTWBAS”

Two Truths and a

“Not-exactly-the-truth-but-not-a-lie-because-that-would-be-a-sin”

Round 1

*I once rode a thoroughbred.

I flew a stunt plane.

I once swam with sharks.

Round 2

I’ve never spent a night in the hospital.

I held a human brain.

*I had my tonsils removed as an adult.

Round 3

I asked my wife to marry me twice. 

I saw a c-section that was not my wife’s. 

*I named all of our children. 

Bonus Round

I sang a solo in a musical

*I won my high school hot dog eating contest

I am not allowed to cook bacon

It’s important that someone knows you, isn’t it?

The more someone knows you, the deeper they can love you.

Psalm 139 (ESV) To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

GOD KNOWS YOU

The key word throughout this Psalm is “know” (not NO)

Verses 1, 2, 4, 6, 14, 23

It is clear David wants us to know this simple and amazing truth: God knows me!

Parents - Say it!

Kids - Say it!

God knows who you are. (1-6)

He knows you personally

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

“known” = yada - more than knowing about

You all learned ABOUT me today, but only a few of you truly KNOW me.

God doesn’t just know about you - He KNOWS you!

(We’ll see this more as we go along)

God knows the good, the bad, and the wonderful!

God has searched you

“search” = “examine with pain and care”

dig deep - in to the earth, information about a city, truth for a legal case

He knows you exhaustively

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. . . . . . . 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. God knows everything about you

This can be comforting or convicting!

God knows:

Everything you do

Everything you think

Everything you plan to say!

This knowledge is too “wonderful” - used only twice, both in reference to God.

5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

“hem” - guard a valuable object or lay siege against a stronghold - This word has a different connotation if it is being done by friend or foe.

God’s knowledge about everything you do and are can feel comforting or convicting!

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.

God knows where you go. (7-12)

You can’t hide from God

If the thought of God knowing everything about you is convicting, you may be tempted to hide from Him.

ILLUST - Peyton hiding under the table when she did something wrong as though we couldn’t find her.

That is how silly it is to try to hide from God.

Genesis 3:8 ESV

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

How about Jonah?

Jonah 1:1–3 ESV

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

Hiding from God will only hurt you more.

You can’t be hidden from God

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.

God has night-vision or “right-vision” goggles!

Whether the darkness is covering you because you are trying to hide from God or because the darkness of the things of life leave you feeling hidden, the reality is, God sees you!

God knows how you’re made. (13-18)

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;

He made you on purpose

Someone once said,

“This is one of the greatest passages in literature about the miracle of human conception and birth.”

“In the presence of birth, we don’t calculate — we marvel.”

— Eugene Peterson

You are not an accident. You were not made incorrectly. There is nothing about you that God said, “Whoops.”

God formed you. He “knitted” you and you are

God formed your emotions, intellect, and personality (“inward parts” = kidneys)

You are cool just the way you are. (So is everyone else)

(I’m not speaking about our behaviors and actions - I’m speaking about our personality and intellect.)

The latter is about how we are designed and the former is about how we are aligned

Thank God for how you are designed!

Pray to the Spirit to be aligned!

God has woven together your body

What do you wish you could change about your body? Anything?

intricately woven = Other time this word is used is in Exodus in reference to the beautiful tapestries of the Tabernacle.

A great lie of the Enemy against many in this generation is that you are a mistake, a freak, not normal, an outsider.

The great lie of our culture today is that your identity is fluid and should serve you.

ILLUST - (from TGC)

A growing subgenre of YouTube influencers and videos promises quick, easy hacks for reinventing yourself and becoming a “new you.” Here are some examples:

Identity Shifting: Your New Way to Reinvent Yourself (in 3–6 months)

How to Become UNRECOGNIZABLE In 90 Days: Rebrand Your Identity, Build Micro Habits & Glow Up Fast

The Ultimate Guide to Reinventing Yourself in 2025

How to Reinvent Yourself and Level Up Your Life in 2025

Satan wants to separate you from people who love you — a community — and question the God who made you.

God made you a boy or a girl. You don’t need to figure that out. You don’t need to worry that you may be a girl in a boy’s body or a boy in a girl’s body.

What God designs, he aligns.

Gender is so much more than just our bodies, but it is not less than or separate from our bodies.

God designed a man for a woman and a woman for a man.

If you ever struggle in these areas, know that God knows and he has made you with a purpose according to His design and you can (and only will) be satisfied when you align with that design.

God designed you with your nose, ears, eye color, size, height, etc. on purpose and for a purpose.

He made you for a purpose

God didn’t just create you with your body, personality, and intellect on purpose, he designed you with that combination FOR A PURPOSE 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.

God didn’t just create you, wind you up, and let you go. He had every one of your days numbered and laid out.

He thinks about you (more than the sands on the seashore!)

You may not know what you will do when you grow up, finish school, or even have for lunch, but GOD DOES! And it is purposeful.

God knows what you need. (19-24)

or God knows what is right.

. . . for this life

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.

God knows the problems, difficulties, and issues you face. He knows those who do not follow after him and do all the wicked and evil.

God knows what is the right as he is the standard

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!

. . . for life everlasting

David asks God to search him to make sure he is doing what is right.

David is not asking God to get to know him. He’s not asking God to check his heart as though God doesn’t already know.

He asks God to test him — this word is the word for testing metal to see what it is made of.

It may look like one thing but be another. He is asking God to compare his heart against God’s standard to reveal if it is aligned with God or not.

David is asking God to test his heart and to lead him in the way of life everlasting.

Are you willing to ask the same? Do you REALLY want God to poke around, to look into your deepest thoughts and feelings? Do you really want him to search to see if you have any “grievous ways?”

Only when you open your heart and compare it to God’s standard can he lead you into life everlasting.

The gospel.

God knows you. Do you know God?

Communion kids

Moms spinach balls

Reminds me of my mom. 

I remember the things she did for me 

I remember the things she said to me

2. Communion reminds us of Jesus, and more

We remember the things Jesus did for us

We remember the things Jesus said to us

As great as my mom was, she was not as great as Jesus - that’s what she would tell me

When I I eat spinach balls, it’s like my mom is here again, but because Jesus is even greater than my mom, when we eat at communion it’s like Jesus is here again, because he is! 

3. It is something special for my family 

It’s an important food to my family 

It doesn’t have the same meaning for someone who isn’t in our family, and that’s ok - I don’t want them to pretend they like it or want it. It’s not bad or embarrassing to not have it. 

But I also would want someone to take it if it didn’t mean the same thing for them, because I made them for a special reason. 

In a similar way, communion is an important time to be shared with Jesus’ family. 

It’s not bad or embarrassing if you don’t take it, but you also shouldn’t take it if you are not a part of Jesus’ family or are not living Jesus’ family well. 

Being a part of Jesus’ family means you know you’ve sinned - not like Jesus and his family - Jesus came to forgive sin and you’ve accepted Jesus’ forgiveness, and want Jesus to be the leader of your life 

I always invite people to come to our table to try my mom’s spinach balls. You just don’t know how good they are until you try them. 

Kids, I want to invite you to be a part of Jesus’ family. If you haven’t been a part of Jesus’ family but you are ready to be a part would you tell mom or dad? Would you ask them to bring you up to the table so you can ask Jesus to be a part of his family?