Fearfully and Wonderfully (2)

Intro: A Boston University study shows that depression rates in America have skyrocketed over the last three years, all the way from 8.2% to 32.8% in 2021. 1 in 3 Americans now report being depressed.

A Harvard study reports that 36% of Americans (61% of young adults) have reported being in serious loneliness.

We’re falling apart! 1 in 3 of us are depressed, over 1/3rd of us are incredibly lonely, and your children are astronomically more likely to be lonely as well.

What is there to do?

We try to find ways to fight this with legislation, school campaigns, drugs, alcohol, we all go to something. But I think that we are putting bandaids on a problem that is bigger than we realize. Something about is needs to fundamentally change.

Story of depression in school. *

What I needed, and what I think we need, is to know who we are and what God has for us.

Psalm 139:1–16 NASB95

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

God Knows You

Psalm 139:1-6 “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”

We know that God is all powerful and all knowing, so it would make sense that this same God knows you.

But, we believe something bigger than that. God knows EVERYTHING about you.

It is because of God’s love that He knows you.

He care’s enough to know.

We don’t have a God who made the universe and stepped back to let it run! He’s involved in your life.

God is With You

Psalm 139: 7-12 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”

There is nowhere that you could go where God couldn’t find you.

no physical place, and no mental place. (7, 11)

This means that when things are going smoothly you can praise God for being there.

He’s the one who has allowed all of these things to happen.

And, it means that when things are going terribly, you can lean on Him for comfort, because He’s there.

In the midst of your loneliness, in the midst of your depression, in the midst of you struggling to know who you are, you are never alone because God is with you!

Even when we run away from Him, He still takes care of us because of His love! (10)

We have a God that is immensely powerful, but He’s also intensely personal.

God Created You.

Psalm 139:13–16 NASB95

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

God didn’t just “make” you, He created you.

He took His time on you, He made you in the way that you were supposed to be made!

He did it perfectly, because that’s what God does.

You aren’t built wrong, God didn’t make a mistake.

Sin might have tainted what God has made, sin might have brought you further from God than you ever thought imaginable, but that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t love you, nor does it mean that you are stuck that way.

You exist because God wants you to exist.

The best example of this is the cross.

Gospel presentation.

Application: How could your relationship with God change with the knowledge that God knows you, is with you, and created you?