The Glory of the Father

Sermon Transcript

Well, good morning. We help me welcome all of our brave campuses who are worshiping with us this morning. So great to worship with all of you. And as we continue our worship this morning, let's prepare our hearts in prayer as we get ready to hear God's living and active word among us. Would you pray with me?

Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, all the honor and all the praise because you and you alone are worthy of it all. We thank you for your Son Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and your Holy Spirit who indwells all of us who have repented and believed the good news of the gospel. We thank you today for the privilege of gathering and hearing you speak. Because Lord, we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear.

And so now, for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word Amen. Amen. We're in the middle of the Only God series, and we've been talking about our Trinitarian God. And we started in December talking about who Jesus Christ is and what he has done, the person and work of Jesus. Then we spent four weeks talking about the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

And. And now we're in the middle of talking about who the Father is. And the Bible reveals our God, the Godhead, as a trinity. Three distinct persons, one complete essence. So the Father is not the Son or the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son and the Spirit.

I'm sorry, the Spirit is not the Father or the Son, and the Son is not the Father or the Spirit. And this is what we've been talking about throughout this. Sometimes you'll hear people talk and they'll say, I believe in three different manifestations. Sometimes he manifest Himself as the Father, Sometimes when He came to earth, he manifested Himself as the Son. Sometimes he manifests Himself as the Holy Spirit.

I reject that outright. God has always been co Eternally three distinct persons of Father, Son and Spirit. And last week, as we began to talk about the Father, we talked about the compassion of the Father. And we took a look at three distinct stories in Luke chapter 15 that talked about the compassion that God has which shows his love for us, his compassion for us and how he's moved to action. And it's important for us to study who the Father is.

And the reason for it is that our views of fatherhood come from our own fathers oftentimes. And whether you didn't have a good father or whether you did have a good father, the reality is the Father that's described in the Word of God is a perfect Father. So even if you had a great Father, you did not have a perfect Father. Which is why we need to look into the Word of God to see who is this Father and how do I relate to Him. He promises to be the Father of the fatherless.

Even when he teaches us to pray, we pray what Our Father who art in heaven. And so it's important for us to know who this Father is. And last week we took a look at the compassion or love of the Father. This week we're gonna talk about the glory of the Father. The glory of the Father.

There is no possible way in this message or in any other message I would have the ability to describe just how glorious our Father is. If we did a study on all the attributes of the Father and we spent two years and did 104 sermons on different attributes of the Father, we wouldn't even begin to scratch the surface as to how glorious he is. What I'm trying to explain to you this morning is no matter how big your view of God is, it's way too small. It's way too small. And so this morning, what we want to do is pull back the curtain just a little bit to give you a bigger view of who the Father is and how you can respond to Him.

Him. So we'll start by giving three traits or attributes of who the Father is, and then three responses as to how we should respond to Him. Because to know who the Father is demands a response from us. God doesn't reveal Himself just so we say, oh, he's really glorious. Oh, he's really good.

He wants us to respond to Him. And so to do that, this morning we're going to be in Psalm chapter 139, Psalm chapter 139. If you have a copy of the Scriptures, you can open up there. And we'll begin by taking a look at those first three attributes or character qualities of the Father. And then we'll take a look at the responses for that.

This is a song, that's a psalm, that's written by David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And in this Psalm, he really begins to pin out for us who Our God is. And so the first characteristic or trait I want to talk to you about the Father is this, that our Father is omniscient. He's omniscient. It's a theological term meaning he's all knowing.

He's. He knows everything. Listen to what the Word says. Oh Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up.

You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize, which means you carefully observe my path and my lying down and, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways even before there's 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 it. So he says, here's what I want you to know about God. He knows everything. He's all knowing. There's nothing that our God does not know.

There's nothing he doesn't know on a macro scale. There's nothing he doesn't know on a micro scale. And he knows you intimately because he says, you've searched me and you've known me. He knows everything about you. He knows things about you you don't even know about yourself.

He knows before a word is on your tongue, he knows it completely. He knows who you're gonna talk to later today and what you're gonna say. He knows what you're gonna say tomorrow. He knows the next day. There's nothing you've ever done where the Lord has been shocked and said, didn't know you were gonna respond that way.

He knew it all. He knows every single thing about you. He knows you better than you know yourself. Now, as a second grade child, I went to a Lutheran grade school. I began to learn about the omniscience of God, that He knew everything about me, that he knew every step I was gonna take.

And to an 8th year old mind, I remember being on the playground, I, I played sports and I remember being on the playground kind of playing football and stuff like that. And I remember, okay, he knows everything. So I kind of faked one way and went the other. And then to my eight year old mind, I'm like, I bet he knew I was going to fake. I'm telling you, the, the longer you live, the more profound this becomes.

There. There's nothing that you ever do outside of the knowledge of God. There's not an attitude you have, a behavior you display, a word you speak or an action you take that our God did not already know that's exactly what you were going to do. And David says, you know me better than I know myself. Isn't that amazing?

That's who our God is. He's all knowing. He says, you're intimately acquainted with all my ways. You carefully observe my path and my lying down. He knows the days you're going to act like a couch potato.

He knows the days you're going to work hard. He knows what you're thinking while you're doing everything you're doing. He knows you better than you know yourself. And notice this about our God. He's a protector.

He says, you've enclosed me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I'm overwhelmed by the fact that you know me that well. And here's the beauty of it. The Bible says that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And yet God knows us, even in our sin, and he still loves us. Why? Because he created us, as you're gonna see here in a little bit. And he loves everyone that he's created. And because we as human beings are created in the image of God, every human being has special value.

So he loves us and he's intimately acquainted with all of us in a way that sometimes we're not even aware of ourselves. So when God invites us to know him, he knows everything about us. He wants to reveal Himself, and He wants to reveal Himself to you so that you can learn about who the true you is. Because he's the One who designed you. He's the One that formed you.

He's the One that fashioned you. He's the One that put you together. He knows it all. I mean, in the most beautiful sense, our God is a know it all. I mean, isn't that interesting?

I mean, there's nothing he doesn't know. And yet, even in times of prayer, sometimes we pour out our heart to him thinking, he doesn't get me. He doesn't understand. Doesn't he see? He does.

He knows it all. There's nothing that surprises him. Him. He's omniscient. Now we live in a day of artificial intelligence.

How many of you use some artificial intelligence here before? Some AI I love it. You can type something in to AI. You can ask it a question, wait about one or two seconds, and it spits out everything. I've been told I'm not in school anymore.

I've been told it writes papers for you. You gotta be careful on that one. But all it knows is what the information out there dictates. It can just pull from what's there. Our God knows everything.

Our God knows beyond what human beings have discovered. I mean, think about this. Think about everything about our human body. Even when you talk to a doctor that's an expert in their field over a certain part of the body like the eye or the kidney or the liver or the heart or the lungs, and they've studied it for 30 or 40 years and they're an expert on the subject matter of that they know little compared to how much our God knows. There's nobody that's been able to say, I know the eyes so well and I know how to create one that we don't even need God anymore because I can make eyeballs as good as our God can't do it, right?

Because why? Because our God knows everything. He knows it all. When we talk about the God that's revealed to us through the word of God, there's nothing he doesn't know. And that's what David says.

Such knowledge, it's too wonderful for me. It's too lofty. I, like, I. It's beyond comprehension that there's nothing my God doesn't know. Isn't it good to know whatever you're going through today, he already knows the way.

He knows the way out. Isn't it good to know today that no matter what you've done and how much you've sinned, your God already knew it. He knows everything about you. And see, we forget that because even going back to the garden, when Adam and Eve sinned and they ate off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was the only thing they were told not to do. And that's what they did because that's our sinful nature.

And sin entered into the world. When God comes looking for Adam, he asked him this question. Adam, did you eat off the tree that I commanded you from which not to eat? Now, why was God asking the question? He knows it all.

He wasn't asking because he needed Adam to tell him, like, yes. Oh, good, I'm glad. I know. He knew. He was asking to see if Adam was willing to recognize his sin and confess it and repent of it.

And instead he does what we do in our sin. He blamed his wife, who then blamed the serpent, right? But God already knew. It's kind of like as a parent, you know, when you have young kids and your younger one comes running in and they have a massive handprint on their back the size of your middle child, and you Ask the middle child. Did you hit your sister on the back?

You already know the answer. You're just looking for the response. Amen. And God knows that he knows it all. So when God is speaking, he already knows you better than you know you.

He already knows the world better than you know the world. He knows everything that's going to unfold. He knows the beginning from the end. He knows everything that's vast, and he knows it down to a microcosm. He knows how many cells you have in your body, how many hairs you have on your head.

He also knows how the world is going to come together and how he's gonna rule and reign. There's nothing beyond his comprehension. That's how incredible and awesome and glorious our God is. Amen. Our Father's omniscient.

He knows it all. Let me give you a second truth about our Father. Our Father's omnipresent. Our Father's omnipresent. That means he's everywhere.

So he begins to ask these rhetorical questions. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? And the answer is, there's nowhere I can go that you're not going to be. And notice what he begins to say.

If I ascend to heaven, you are there. Well, how do we know? Because our Father, who art where, is in Heaven? If I go to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there.

In the Old Testament, Sheol is the holding place for the dead. It was the holding place for the wicked dead and the righteous dead. When Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, he took the righteous dead with him to Heaven. The wicked dead are still in Sheol or Hell, awaiting judgment for the lake of fire. But here's what he was saying at the time.

He's like, even if I go to Sheol, the holding place of the dead, you're there. Like, there's no place I can go that you're not. Now, here's why that's good news. Some of you walked in here today, and here's what you feel. You feel like you're alone.

You're misunderstood, and nobody gets you. Here's the truth. God knows everything about you. And you're not alone. He's right there with you.

Isn't that good news? He understands. And he's right there all the time. Cause there's no place you can go where God is not. Every down to the square centimeter of the globe.

Anywhere you go, there he is. Even if nobody's around for miles, he says, if I take to 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. Now, God the Father is spirit. He doesn't have a right hand. It's anthropomorphic language to describe his position of strength, that he'll guide you.

We live here in Denver, Colorado. Several of us have hiked a fourteener before. You've been on top of a mountain before. You look out at the vastness of all of that. And sometimes you're there by yourself or with a few other buddies, and you look out and there's no people for miles.

And God's like, I'm here. See that? Off miles away. I'm there too. And I'm also down on the ground.

I'm everywhere. Like, there's no place you can go that I'm not. If you go on a cruise and you're in the middle of the ocean on a cruise liner and you can't see anything but body of water all around 360, God's like, I'm right there and I'm right with you, and nothing at all has changed. Cause I'm everywhere. Amen.

That's what he's trying to describe. What does he go on to say? He says, 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.

He's saying this. Even if you say, I'm going down in my basement, I'm getting in the cellar. I'm turning off all the lights. I'm gonna put a black sheet around me. God's like, it doesn't matter what you do.

I see everything. I'm everywhere you are. Visa has a commercial saying. Everywhere you wanna be, God is everywhere you go. He's everywhere you want to be.

I mean, there's no place you go where God is not. Which means this. Anytime, anywhere, at any place that God reveals himself and you call upon the name of the Lord, he's there to respond. It means this. You are never alone.

God knows it all. And guess what else? God sees it all. There's nothing that you've done where God would be surprised because he watched you do it. He saw you do it.

He knew the attitude you did it with. There's nothing that's hidden from him ever. Everything is an open book to our God. It's why the author of Hebrews says it this way. In Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13 he says, and there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are opened and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do or to whom we have to give an account.

That's why you know deep down in your soul you're going to have to give an account for your life. Even the most hardened atheists know there's something inside of them and that something in them is the Holy Spirit trying to convict them. That one day they're going to have to answer for their life. Why? Because God's seen it all.

There's nothing that's hidden. Last week we took a look at three different stories. And one we looked at a younger son that went off and squandered all of his father's wealth and wild living friends. You think you can get away from things. You think you can do things alone.

You think nobody's ever going to find this out. And God's like, nobody's going to find it out. I was right there when you did it. I watched. I was like, right here.

Like children, you cannot escape. You can escape your parents knowledge, but you can be sure of this. Your sin will find you out. You're never alone. Whether you're in the backseat of a car, whether you're in a basement, you're never alone.

If you choose to do something wrong, if you choose to sin, God's right there with you when you do it. There's no place that you can escape his presence. That's why it's silly to try to play hide and go seek with God. Which is exactly what our first parents did right when they sinned. Not only did they try to, you know, lie to God and say, well, I don't know, it was her fault, all those kind of things, because they didn't realize God knew everything.

But what do they try to do? What's the first thing they try to do? Hide. Hide. You cannot hide from an omnipresent God.

So when God's saying, adam, where are you? He's not asking him because he doesn't know where he is because he's with him and he was with them when they ate the fruit. He, he's right there. You can't hide from God. You think you can?

Well, I'm just going to get away from this. I'm going to do. Geography does not change a thing. God's always with you. You cheat on a test, He's There, you cheat a neighbor, God's there.

You talk bad about someone else, God's right there. He. He's with you all the time. And that's why David's overwhelmed by the fact that he's omniscient. He knows it all, and he's everywhere.

Like, where are. Where am I gonna go where God is not? No matter where I go, there he is. Like, even if I turn out all the lights, even if I hide from him in the dark, he's right there. Because night is like day to him.

There's nowhere. Why? Because God is light. Our. Our Father dwells everywhere.

He's. There's no place that the Father is not. So he's omniscient. He's omnipresent. And let me give you a third word.

Our Father's omnipotent. Omnipotent means all powerful. Notice what he says here in verse 13. For you talking about the Father. For you formed my inward parts, you wove me together 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 full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. You know, it says, your eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in your book were written all the days that were ordained for me.

When yet. When as yet, there was not one of them. Our Father's omnipotent. He's all powerful. And notice how he talks about God's power.

He talks about God's power not only in the creation of the world, but in the creation of human life. David knows he's fearfully and wonderfully made because he knows that God made him. Because God is the author of life. God is the one who life to be. God is the one who creates life.

A husband and a wife may get together, mom and dad may get together, but they're not the creators. God is the creator of life. And all life is a miracle. Miracle. I just did a little research this week.

Those of you that are more skilled in this subject will know more than me. But I found this amazing. When you think about a human life, think about this. Think about what God put together. 60 trillion cells, 100,000 miles of nerve fiber, 60,000 miles of blood vessel, 250 bones, not to mention joints, ligaments, muscles, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

When you see a newborn child, you're saying, whoa, you can't create that Only our God can create that. And here's the reality. You as a human being, male or female, created in the image of God, you're his masterpiece. So he has an incredible love for you and a value for you because he created you. So if you're here today and feel like, well, I'm not very special, I'm here to tell you that you are.

Because the only reason you're here and the only reason you have life is, is because God's the one who formed and fashioned you and God's the one who gave you the life that you have. And every good and perfect gift comes from God. That's what our Father does. And as David is thinking about the creation of life, he's giving glory to his Father. And he's not praising himself.

He's not, hey, look at me, I'm awesome. He's not doing that. He's saying, I am who I am and I have the value that I have because my Father is the one in heaven who created me, who values me, who gave me this time and space for which to live. And the Bible tells us that, like, you're living in this season and in this time, because God's the one who's given you life to live in this season and in this time. And notice what David says.

He says, your eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when, and yet there was not one of them. Here's what he's talking about when he talks about the omnipotence and the all powerful God that we have. Think about this. Most of us know our birth date or we were told our birth date by our parents.

And that's what we believe. Our birth certificate says this. And when we were born, and then we live on the dash on your tombstone, we'll also have a date. And that's the date you die. Now, we don't know that date yet, right?

So we know our birth date and we're comfortable with the dash, but we don't know our death date. Here's what God is saying. I know all of them. And before I gave you your birth date and before you were living on the dash, I already know your end date too. All of your days were ordained before one of them came to be.

You say, how can that be? Because we see only from a human perspective. So every day in our life, there's tragedy. Every day in our life we see people that die. And there's not a time where someone dies that we Say, oh, that was good.

I'm so glad that they're not here. That's never a time like that. And even for loved ones that live over a hundred years old, that pass away, there's never a time we might say, oh, good. I'm glad they don't get to suffer anymore. But there's still a grief that we don't get to spend time with them.

Why? Because God's the creator of life and he never intended death. It was our sin that brought death. But God knows your birth date. He knows what you're gonna do in this life.

He also knows your death date means this. While we as human beings see things tragically, and we should, and we grieve when someone dies, especially someone that's young, and we say, that's not fair. They were too young. They had to suffer too much. Why did they die?

There's not one person that's ever died that's appeared before the glory of Jesus where Jesus has looked him in the eye and says, what are you doing here? I wasn't expecting you today. It's exactly the time they're supposed to be there. Now, from our perspective, we don't get it because his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways are higher than our ways. And there's certain things on this side of heaven, no matter how long you pray and how much you study, you'll never understand.

I get that. But here's the truth. All of your days were ordained before one of them came to be. So you could be 16 years old, and you can be looking out at life and what college you're going to attend and who you're going to marry and all those kind of things. You may only have two more days to live, or you could be an old man like me and you may get another 50.

You don't know when your end is coming. God does. And when it comes, it'll be right on time. But isn't it interesting that God already knows it all? And God's powerful in all of that, and God sees all of it before it comes to pass.

Which means if you're a young person here and you're like, man, I wonder what I'm gonna be when I grow up. And I wonder where I'm gonna go to school when I grow up. And I wonder who I'm gonna marry. And I wonder how many kids I'm gonna have. God's like, I already know all that.

I already know all that. Why don't you come to me? And I've Already got it. Well, I wonder why I'm in my 20s now, but I don't have my husband. I know all that.

Come to me. Well, I wonder why this went. Come to me. I know it all. I know why I'm doing what I'm doing.

And I'm good and I'm a good father and every good and perfect gift comes from me. And even the things that you don't understand, and especially the things that you don't understand, I'm still the same good father that's doing all of it. Come to me. Isn't that good news? And that's what he's trying to say.

I'm the powerful one. I'm the one that can do it all. I mean, you think about just little things in life. We talked about the creation of life. But just think about this.

Have you ever been driving down the road here in Colorado and all of a sudden like made a left hand turn or a right hand turn and all of a sudden the sun is like right in your eyes and you start squinting or you grab your sunglasses or you pull down the visor because you can't keep going in the same direction with your eyes wide open. Our God created that sun. That sun is 93 million miles away and you can't even look at it for a period of five seconds without squinting because our God is so powerful. And so we don't worship the sun. We worship the one who created the sun.

Amen. That's just one sun. It's not even a big thing. It was just part of day four.

And yet God is revealing in creation his glory. The heavens declare the glory of God. No matter what your ethnicity or background or where you were raised, if you wake up and you look in the sky and you see the stars, or you see the mountains, or you see the ocean, or you see the plains, or you see what you would have to say. There's a Creator behind all this. You can't see a newborn and say, oh, you know, I think things just ooze together once upon a time and pow, here it is.

I think nothing bumped into nothing and we have everything. I mean, you have to be the most hard hearted person to believe anything like that.

We realize there's a Creator. We realize there's one more powerful than us. We realize there's one all knowing and all powerful. And that's the God that we serve and that he's everywhere and nothing escapes his sight. One of the commentaries I saw this week kind of summed up this passage is Saying when you talk about God's omniscience, His omnipresence and omnipotence, it's really saying, there's nothing our Father does not know.

There's nowhere that our Father is not present, and there's nothing our Father cannot do. Isn't that good to know today? I mean, when you seek the Father, like, I don't know how I'm going to get out of this. I do. I don't know if there's anybody that can help me with this.

I can. I don't even know what to do. I know. I feel like I'm all alone. You're not.

I mean, that's what the text of Scripture is screaming about. Our good, good, good Father. And if that's true about our Father, then it demands a response from us. So then how should we respond? What should our response to the Father be?

And the text is going to tell us. Notice verse 17 and 18. He says, how precious are your thoughts to me, O God. That means how valuable they are. How vast is the sum of them.

If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Here's what he's saying. When overwhelmed by the intimacy of the Father, praise Him. When overwhelmed by the intimacy of the Father, praise Him.

Now, we've been talking about the fact that God's all powerful. He's all knowing, and he's everywhere. And yet this God knows every single thing about you. He knows things biologically about you that you don't know. He knows things about your temperament you don't know.

Why? Because he's the One that designed you and he put you together, and he knows you better than you. And David is overwhelmed by how often the Father thinks about him. He says, if I were to count the thoughts that you have for me, they would outnumber the grains of sand. Now picture this.

Just a handful of sand on the beach. Have you ever been to the beach? Or a bucket of sand? Imagine if your assignment was you have to count the grains of sand in that bucket and be like, forget that. Take all that would take forever.

No, that's just one bucket. David says, God's thoughts for us, the Father's thoughts for us outnumber the grains of sand. It means they're infinite. When you slept last night, what was God doing? He was thinking about you.

The God that's all powerful, the God that knows everything. The God that's everywhere. You were sleeping. You weren't thinking about him, but he was thinking about You. He can't stop thinking about who you are.

Why? Because you're valuable. Because he created you. Because he created you in his image and he has intimacy with you. David said, when I'm awake, I'm still with you.

He says, it's so precious to me. It's so amazing to me, God, just how much you think about me. And here's the reality. God knows you better than you know yourself. You know, a number of years ago when I got married, it was an interesting first year.

Because when you live with somebody whom you've never lived with before, they see things in you and they know things about you that you don't see or know about yourself. And if that person is a good spouse, they'll start to point them out and they'll start to say things to you like, do you realize that you do? I don't do that. Yes, you do. And then I realize, yes, I do.

Hey, what am I feeling right now, honey? You're angry. I'm not angry. I know. It's not that.

Yeah, you're angry, you know, or whatever. Because when you're with somebody that knows you well, they can point things out in you that you were blind to and couldn't see. How about the God of the universe that knows everything about you? He knows more about you than you know about you. And he's willing to reveal all those things to you.

Why? Because he designed you. He created you. He gave you life. He brought you into this world at this time for a purpose, and he knows what that purpose is.

So he wants to spend time with you. Because he's always thinking about you, always wanting to reveal Himself to you so that what? So that you can live in alignment with what he created you to be. So where do we feel the most distractions? I'm having a hard time spending time with God.

I'm busy. It's tough. I don't know that I want to do what God wants me to do. Because if I give my life totally to God, then I might end up doing something I don't want to do. Friends, I'm here to tell you every good and perfect gift comes from God.

And the closer you get to him and the more obedient you are to what he calls you to do and who he calls you to be, the more joy you're going to have in your life. That's just a fact. He knows you better than you know you. And if you align with who he created you to be and you do the things he wants you to do. That's where joy comes into your life.

And the reality is every single one of us is unique. We're similar in certain ways. We're male or female, right? You know, we're a certain age, we can be somewhat in the same range. But there's a uniqueness to you and to me that's unlike anybody else that he's ever created.

In other words, when he created you, he threw out the mold. He doesn't create another you. Even twins that look the same, think the same, they're totally different when you get to know why. Because they're different in the image of God and the way that God created them. Friends, you're unique.

God wants you to know that. He wants you to know he's thinking about you because he created you and he loves you. He's got purpose for you. And that's our response to him. So when you know that he's that intimately acquainted with you, praise him.

Thank him. Thank him for who he made you. Thank him for who he didn't make you. So many times, like I heard this when I taught on spiritual gifts. So many times I teach on spiritual gifts.

Some people will say, I know what my gift is. That's not the gift I wanted. I want their gifts. So often we wanna be what somebody else is. We wanna do what they do.

We wanna become what they become. And God's screaming at us all the time like, I made you to be you and only you can do what I put you on the earth to do. Come to me, I'll show you how to do it. And when you get comfortable with who God made you and how much he loves you and how intimately acquainted he is with you, he's not asking you to be anybody else. He's just asking you to respond to him.

And there's joy in doing that. Amen. So our response to him is praise when we realize how intimately acquainted he is with us. And as a Christian, here's what I would say to Christians that are here. First, I'll talk to the non Christians.

I want you to know something that even those of you who don't know Jesus, God has a certain love for you because he created you and he has value for you and that's why he's pursuing you. But for the Christian, I want you to know something too. He loves you in such a special way that he can't stop loving you. And so one of the ways that the devil lies to us is with all the coulda, wouldas and shouldas, since we've become a Christian now that I'm a Christian. I shouldn't have done that.

Why did I do that? How come I did that? I should have known better. I could have done that. I wish I could rewind the clock.

Listen, he already knew all that. He knew all that before you did it. That's why the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Because while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. He already knew you were going to do that.

That's why he already paid for it all. And friends, that's really, really good news. Because sometimes as believers, we think, I got to keep being perfect or God's not going to accept me. No, he accepts you because of what his son did. The gift that he sent to the earth.

Amen. That's who he is. Amen. Let's give God praise for that.

So when you're overwhelmed by his intimacy, praise Him. How about this? When you're overwhelmed by. By his holiness or by the holiness of the Father, honor him. When you're overwhelmed by the holiness of the Father, honor him.

Here's the truth. The the longer you walk with Jesus, the more you're going to desire a holy life. The more you're going to want to reflect his glory. And the more that you do, the more you're going to see this world differently. Notice how David prays, very authentic, as he pours out his heart.

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God, depart from me therefore, men of bloodshed, for they speak against you wickedly, and your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies.

Do you hear his heart? Here's why David's upset. Because David, as a man after God's own heart, the more he grows with God and the more he sees God, and the more he wants to follow God and honor God and be obedient to God, the more he looks out at his world and says, they're not coming your way, God. And it really bothers me. And here's the reality.

The longer you walk with Jesus, if you're walking in obedience to him, not perfectly, but increasingly in obedience, the more you do that, the more this world is going to become sick to you and the more you're going to have in your heart. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. You can't get here fast enough for me. You're going to feel that. And what David is doing here in the Old Testament.

He's pouring out his heart to God. He's like, I can't stand the way that the wicked are living. I can't stand that they shed innocent blood. It sickens me. And they're my enemies, God.

And I know you hate that, too. And here's the reality. He's pouring out his heart before the Lord. Because sometimes we don't do that as Christians. We think we shouldn't go to God with the things we're angry about or the things we see.

No, you should be completely authentic. Why? Because God already knows every way you feel. He knows when you're frustrated, he knows when you're sad, and he knows when you're angry. And it's okay to see unrighteousness and call it out in your prayer and pour out your heart before the Lord.

When you see the slaughter of the unborn or people that don't align with gender, being male and female, or a picture of marriage that's unbiblical or injustice to people that can't take care of themselves. And you're pouring out your heart before the Lord. Lord, I know you hate that, and I hate that. And Lord, I've been praying to love the things you love and hate the things you hate. And I know you hate that God.

And I can't stand it either. And why do you continue to allow this to go? David's pouring his heart out to the Lord because when he sees his holiness, and he's walking in holiness, he wants to honor his God. He wants to take a stand and honor the Lord. He wants to show God, I'm standing with you, even if nobody else does.

And so he's pouring out his heart to the Lord. But let's be clear on this, too, because if anybody knew he was a sinner, it was David, right? I mean, David, quote the man after God's own heart, the one who brought the presence of God back into Jerusalem, the one who slayed Goliath, the one who was going to be king. But he's also the one who committed adultery with Bathsheba. He's also the one that had Bathsheba's husband murdered.

He's also the one that hid and covered it up, knowing, even though God knows everything and sees everything. And he's also the one that was called out by the prophet Nathan. Does David understand sinners? Oh, he does. And so here's what I want you to know.

As you pour out your heart, David's pouring out his heart before the Lord. He's not telling other people what they must do. He's pouring out his heart to God. He's saying to the Lord, lord, this is how I feel, and this is what I see. And here's the reality.

At the end of every service here, I tell you three words every single time. What do I say? I say, you are loved. I think it's biblical. The reason I think it's biblical is because you were created in the image of God and you have value.

And even if you don't love God and you've never repented and believed in Jesus, God has a love for you. But here's the truth. It's not an admirable love. God doesn't look at you and say, wow, you are awesome. When I created you, you're better than me.

I mean, you're incredible. I don't know what I did without you. That's not the kind of love God looks at. God doesn't look at you with an admirable love. You know how God looks at you?

He looks at you with a merciful love. Because in your sin, you're an agent of wrath. And God is going to pour his wrath out on all sinners because he's so holy, he can't have sin in his presence for all eternity. And he knows that every unrepentant sinner is gonna experience the fury of his wrath. And so in his mercy and so in his love, and so in his compassion, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world and to show us mercy and show us. I don't want you to die in your sin. I don't want to pour My wrath out on you. It was never intended to be that way. I want to rescue you.

I'm going to bring you to myself. And anyone who repents and places their faith and trust in Jesus is completely forgiven. Even the people that are working injustice right now, even the people that are doing wrong right now. Even the people that are going against God right now. So when we pour out our heart against injustice, we're also making sure we realize that apart from the grace of God, that's me.

And he's being authentic with God because He's pouring out his heart for holiness, for what he sees in his nation. But he also recognizes who he is. And here's the reality. God doesn't look at you with an admirable love. But, friends, if you've responded to the merciful love of God through repentance, and faith.

Here's the kind of love God has for you. It's called unconditional love. No one can snatch you from the Father's hand. No one can snatch you from the Son's hand. If you're in the family of God.

He never kicks you out of his family. He disciplines his family. He disciplines his sons. He disciplines his daughter. Why?

To keep you in the family. That's what discipline's for. He doesn't kick you out. Friends, here's the truth. If you could lose your salvation, you'd lose it.

If I could lose my salvation, I'd lose it. Because I can't be perfect enough to be perfect. God gives salvation for those who are repentant. God grants it. And when you receive it, it's yours because it's a gift from the Father, and He's never going to take it away.

Amen. And so when you see his holiness and you grow in his holiness, then you honor him, live the life he wants you to live, and pour out your heart when you don't see it. But it begs what he tells us next. It's a third response that's equally important. When you're overwhelmed by the love of the Father, follow Him.

Now, I want you to see how David prays next. Because of the text ended right where it is. You would think, well, these are impregatory psalms, like Lord, kick their teeth in, Lord, they did wrong. They voted wrong in the last election. We hate them.

That's not where he stops. He pours his heart out before the Lord. But then notice who he prays about next. He prays about himself. Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my anxious thoughts. And see if there be any hurtful way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting. And those two verses use the word me and I six times so Lord, when I'm pouring out my heart before youe and I see injustice in the world and people that aren't going after your Before I start pointing fingers at them, Lord, here's what I'm asking. Look into my life, search me.

See if there's any offensive way in me, any anxious way in me. Lord, guide me, lead me in the way everlasting. Cause Lord, I can't change anybody else. And I'm not spending my life trying to change anybody else. Cause only you can change other people.

I poured out my heart that you change them. But Lord, here's what I know I can do. I can partner with you. And if I'll humble Myself before you, Lord. I know you can change me.

So search me and try me, oh God. See if there's any offensive way in me. Lead me in the way, everlasting Lord. That's what I want. I want you to guide my steps.

It means we become a follower of Jesus, right? A follower of the Father who sent his Son. When Jesus was here on the earth in Matthew 4:19, what did he say? Follow me. I'll make you fishers of men.

Paul said in First Corinthians 11, 1, Be imitators of me or follow me as I follow Christ. Right? Be imitators of me as I imitate Christ. So what's David saying? He's saying, when you're overwhelmed by God's love, follow him.

David does not spend his life pointing out all the things his enemies are doing wrong. David spends the majority of his life saying, God, point out in me what you need to change in me. Which, by the way, if you're having trouble in your marriage, this is an awesome prayer. If you're having trouble with your children, this is an awesome prayer. If you're having trouble with your parents, this is an incredible prayer.

If you're having trouble in business, this is a great prayer. If you're having trouble with finances, this is a great prayer. Because you can't change anybody else. But here's what you can say. Instead of change my spouse and change my child and change my mom, change my dad and change my boss and change my employees, how about this?

Lord, search me, Father, know my heart, try me. Know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And here's what I find in walking with the lord for over 30 years. There's times where I can pray that prayer, where I'm not really hearing anything back, where I get a sense that I'm kind of in the right spot.

But I can tell you there are other times where I pray that prayer and the Lord, it's almost as if he has a megaphone in my ear, downloading all the ways that I can change. You got a problem in your marriage, Quit trying to change your spouse. Ask God to search you and change. You got a problem with your children, quit asking God. You can ask God to change your child, but in the process, ask God what you need to change.

Because if God's really sovereign and he's really unfolding everything and he's really doing everything, every single circumstance in your life, he's allowing or authoring even And I would say, especially the stuff you hate where you're saying, God, why is this going on? And why is that going on? And why do I have to deal with this? Because God loves you so much. He's trying to build something in you he couldn't build any other way.

So thank him for it, praise him for it, follow him in it. Know that his ways are higher than your ways. His thoughts are higher than your thoughts. And one day you'll understand. But you probably won't understand on this side of heaven.

So search me, Lord. What do you want to change in me? How do you want to grow me? It doesn't look right over there, but you deal with that. You change me, you grow me, you move me.

And here's the reality. You will never get to a place where God will stop speaking to you in your life. There's never been a time, and there will never be a time on this side of heaven where I say, search me, oh God, and try me. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way.

And God says, jeff, you've arrived. Don't worry about it, you're home. I just wish everybody else could be like you. That will never happen on this side of heaven. So we continue to pray that why?

Because we're constantly in a process of repentance and change. That's to know our Father. Because the more we get to know him, the more unlike him we realize that we are. And however big your view of God is, as I started off telling you, it's way too small. When we talk about the holiness of God, you understand and I understand about this much about the holiness of God.

We talk about the love of God. You and I understand about this much of the love of God. I mean, one day he's going to be revealed to us. We're going to see Jesus Christ in all of his glory. He's going to present us faultless before the Father, at which time we'll probably fall flat on our face as we're overwhelmed by all these truths of him saying, I thought I knew God, but I didn't know you were like that.

He's that. I mean, just think about it. Sometimes when I'm driving up and down I 25, you know, I look at the front range sometimes, and God obviously doesn't have a physical body. He's spirit. But I kind of imagined to myself, like, if.

If God had a physical body, like, as you see the front range from like Longs Peak all the way down to Pikes peak. If he opened his eyelid, that would be like his eyelash coming over the top of that or something. I mean, that's how vast our God is. And he's bigger than that. So he goes with you everywhere you go.

He knows everything that you've ever done. He's powerful over everything in your life. And your response to him is praise, it's glory, it's honor, thanks, and obedience because of how incredible he is. Which means this. If you've wandered from him, he's pursuing you with a merciful love because he wants you to know Him.

He never wants to pour his wrath out on his children. He doesn't. But you must repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ. And if you know that Jesus is the Christ, he wants you to know today just how special you are to him, that he's your Father. And even if you had a great earthly father.

I had a great earthly father. I didn't have a perfect father. I had a very good Father. But even if you had that, you never had a heavenly father like the Heavenly Father I'm describing. The one who can lead your life in a way that no one else can.

And he will guide you into all good things. Don't ever listen to the voice of the enemy that says this. Well, if you go on with God, he's going to make you do things you don't want to do. The reality is, everything he'll lead you to is exactly what he's designed you for. And the more you walk in obedience with that, the greater joy you're going to experience and the greater glory you're going to give our Father.

Amen. He's a good, good Father. And he is for you. He is for you. He is for you.

And God wants you to respond to the Father in that way, whether you're an earthly father or whether you're a lady. And you're responding to the Father. Because when God creates family and God creates what he creates, he has generations of people that he wants to be a blessing to. And when we respond to the Father, no matter who we are and we do the things the Father wants us to do, we create a legacy. And we create a generation of people that come after us that follow that Father too.

Friends, here's the deal. There's some people that would say, I never want anything to do with the Father. That's because they don't know Him. To know the Father would be to love the Father. And my encouragement is that you get to know him so that you could love him.

Amen. Amen. Would you stand with me? Our Father in heaven, we give you glory, praise and honor. We thank you that you're omnipotent, that you're omniscient, that you're omnipresent.

And Lord, we just respond to you and all your glory by saying thank you. We praise you, we honor you. Our desire is to follow you all the days of our life and to be a living example for the next generation and the generation after that, and the generation after that. All for your glory. God, we give you praise and glory today.

Be honored as we sing to you in Jesus name. Amen. And amen. Can we give God praise this morning for his word?