Known: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Psalm 139:13-16

Chaplain David Godley

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Prayer:

Big Idea:

God fully knows and fully loves us but this message often gets lost in the chaos of life. We’ve got to reconnect with the Father and reconnect with His life giving words over us.

Introduction:

- When we think of the two deepest needs that we face as humans, is to know and be known

- Yet, as we look all over the world, it seems less and less that we are known

- As social media continues to evolve, what was once looked at as a way to connect us with each other;

- Now, seems to be a source of disconnection among each other

- We have become a more digital world

-And it also seems that we have become more disconnected and less in person type of world

- When you look at the facts, they are amazing:

300 hours are uploaded to YouTube every minute; over 500 Years of YouTube videos are watched on Facebook every day; 40 million pictures are uploaded to Instagram every day; 500 million tweets are logged by Twitter every day; the average user has 155 friends

- The irony is that you can have 155 friends, all the connections and fans or even more

- Still, you can feel completely alone

- Picture that for a second—alone in a room crowded with others

- That’s what we seem to hear a lot more about day in and day out

- God made each of us for more than relational harshness and disconnection

- We have been handcrafted into the image of a triune God

- He made us for community, fellowship and kingdom centered relationships

- Over the next few weeks, I’d like to look to how we, myself included,

- How we can grasp a better understanding and appreciation of God’s intention and design for His creation

- Believe it or not, God had a plan when He crafted and shaped you in your mother’s womb

- You’re not too old, not too young

- You were created on purpose with a purpose and this message starts us off on this journey—

- That’s where I want to begin today—we are “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”

- Any of us who know a little bit about the Bible know the name David, the shepherd boy who would become king

- And, what we know about David is that despite all of his sins, mistakes and failures—

- He was passionate about God but more particularly knowing God

- David wasn’t perfect but we see time and time again He wanted to know God intimately

- God knew David inside and out—completely

- That should be a comfort to every one of us and not a hindrance…think about it

- When was the last time that you were called wonderful?

- When was the last time you felt deeply – personally known by another?

- When was the last time you thought about what it means to be a saint, a member of God’s holy priesthood, a friend and family member of Jesus?

- God has indeed said this about all of us

- To go even further, He knows you more deeply and more thoroughly than anyone you’ve ever met

- In Psalm 139, David wants us to know that by God, we are:

1 - Fully Known

2 - Wonderfully Made

3 - Restore the Connection

Message:

1 - Fully Known

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

- David marvels at God’s power and presence

- It shouldn’t take us long to understand just how great God is

- We can make many excuses about how big our problems are and what we’ve gone through or going through

- And I’ve been there where it seems as if it there is no way out

- Issues on your left, problems on your right

- Job situation, promotion and we’re trying to figure it out

- What move should we make next

- It can be downright frustrating and stressful

- Consider this: God alone had full awareness of David’s life…and ours

- David understood that he is fully known but do we?

- I can think back to years ago and times even recently…

- Wondering if God was fully in control and fully knows me

- See, it’s not like we’ll get to a “magical place” where all our cares and concerns melt away

- More than likely, they’ll still come

- And, I don’t know of any religion where those cares and concerns “magically” drift away

- But with Jehovah—the triune God

- He allows us to have a peace in the midst of whatever storm we face along our journey

- This is the God that:

He knows when you sit down and stand up.

He knows your thoughts and your words.

He knows what way you’re heading, and why you wanted to get there.

- Here’s a side note: If anyone knows our motives, it would be God Himself

- But going back to it—David knew what we would do well to know…God’s comprehension and understanding knows no limits

- I think on the New Testament where it reads (Rom 16:27), “to the only wise God”

- Our wisdom always pales in comparison to God—

- Because He is the source of all wisdom

- In God’s wisdom, I know that He knows me, loves me and wants the best for me

- David acknowledges just how difficult it is to understand the breadth of God’s comprehension

- It’s beyond anything that we ever could wrap our minds around

- David says, it’s “too wonderful…too lofty [high]” for me

- That’s exactly what I believe God intended

- Isaiah 55:8-9 says,

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

- When His methods and ways seem to confuse me,

- I remember that if He thought like man I’d be in a more difficult predicament

- Sometimes there is a purpose to our pain

- No one likes the pain or the problem(s)

- But God can use it to give you a greater awareness of the more important things—Himself included

- You can take this thought away today…

- God has abilities so far outside of ours that we cannot even imagine the extent of them

- We can be so prone to trust and believe the insight of the most shrewd and intelligent person—scientists, doctors

- Well, God can be trusted a million times greater than that subject matter expert

- He is that same One who knows you fully—inside and out

Transition: Why because He loves you, knows you—and made you as wonderful as you are

2 - Wonderfully Made

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

- David started off the psalm explaining God’s complete knowledge and comprehension

- That knowledge and comprehension has existed for eternity,

- Back to and even before the creation of humankind

- Think of these words for a second—Wonderful. Marvelous. Beautiful.

- Now, can you identify those words with you and what God thought about your life even before you were born?

- I’ve always been taught and it’s true, God is the most purposeful, intentional being that ever existed

- God doesn’t use the words—Oops, My fault, Aww man!

- He is very intentional with His communication

- He spoke the world and the entire universe into being on purpose

- There are times when I marvel at God…

- He is the One that watches over and tends to all things at all time

- We have a hard time keeping up with our daily or weekly schedule—at least I do

- In all the cosmos, He is arguably the smartest, wisest being

- So when He says, “Wonderful. Marvelous. Beautiful…”

- I’m prone to believe it

-No, we may not have someone calling us wonderful, marvelous or beautiful every day

- But, that’s exactly how God thinks about us

- David understood God enough to recognize His love for creation and also for each one of us individually

- This is the creator God with unlimited knowledge and comprehension

- He crafted and formed ever atom of our being

- He is intimately aware of who and what you are

- And, He loves the totality of you

- Allow this to digest for a second—God is in love with you

- That may be uncomfortable for some but for me I get encouraged just thinking about it

- It’s the absolute truth

- I’m aware that some of us may not feel wonderful, marvelous and beautiful

- In fact, some of us may feel unknown and unloved

- We may feel increasingly lonely in this crowded world of ours

- We may even feel like something is off…

- Like there is a disconnect between what God says and how we feel

TRANSITION: So, can we or how do we restore the connection?

3 - Restore the Connection

- Have you ever played the telephone game where you have a chain of people and you give a message to one person at the beginning to pass along and what happens?

- The message becomes convoluted and distorted from its original meaning

- Now, in the midst of knowing that God calls you and thinks of you as wonderful, marvelous, and beautiful

- Unfortunately, we run up against the contrary ideology of the world

- The world’s message results in chaos—do more, what you’re doing is not enough

- There’s enough mixed messages and distortion that we hear every day to last us a lifetime

- It’s enough to confuse, discourage, and if we’re not mindful—destroy any sense of self-worth that we may have

- Which is the exact goal of the enemy of our souls—who comes to steal, kill and destroy (Jn 10:10)

- There are ways to combat his tactics and ways

- And it’s not necessarily self-help, self-improvement techniques

- No, it’s being rooted and grounded in the Word of God

- Every now and then Scriptures that I have known come alive and begin to resonate again

- For example, just the other day in my normal routine, I came across these two verses (Ps 73:25-26),

25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

- Just those couple of verses gave me a push that I didn’t know I needed

- Have you ever experienced something like that?

- Unaware at the time, I was restoring the connection

- It’s like intentionally moving closer to your wifi connection to strengthen that signal

- Or, like moving to a window when you’re indoors to get more bars, a stronger connectivity on your phone

- God is that interested in you that He wants a better connection

- He’s into restoration if you’ve blown it

- The author of this psalm, King David, knows this firsthand

- His relationship and fellowship with God is legendary

- What if each of us pursued a relationship with God like that

- I’m not talking about David’s sins but his pursuit of God

- We see it detailed throughout the Book of Psalms

- David’s heart was to get back to the Source of wisdom so that He could clearly hear unquestionable, undeniable truth

- Similarly, you and I, and all of us need to make sure we are getting undistracted and unhindered time with our Father in heaven

- That is essential for us to hear and receive the truth as God originally intended.

- It’s interesting how we’re more apt to settle for a poor connection with God

- And, with anybody else, we’ll change position/location seeking that best connection

Closing:

- As I am closing, when we look at Psalm 139 we see,

- God’s comprehension and understanding of all things has no limits.

- And, the all-knowing and all-seeing God of the universe looks at as wonderful, marvelous and beautiful

- Lastly, He wants to restore and enhance our connection to Him

- Each of these points can get lost in the world we live in today

- We can get so preoccupied with our own affairs and forget God’s original message that He wants us

- In cellphone/wifi lingo, we’ve gone too far out of range

- Jesus made it His habit to connect to God regularly

- How can you connect just as regularly?

- If we’re willing, God can show us

- It could happen through a bible study, devotional, Sabbath day rest

- What’s it worth to you this week to get to the place where you can receive the truth that you are,

- Fully Known, Fully Loved, Wonderful, Marvelous, Beautiful

- Let’s take a few moments to pray

- And ask God to show us areas where we can say no and yes to Him…

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I ask you to forgive me for all of my sins known and unknown, I renounce them all. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I receive you now as Lord and Savior of my life. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He died for me and arose and sits at the right hand of God praying for me, interceding for me. Lord Jesus, I give you everything. I thank you for saving me, delivering me and setting me free, in Jesus’ name!