In her debut message at Westheights, Christina Main, our Director of Student Ministries, continued with our Verses to Memorize series. Kudos to Christina for delivering an inspiring and encouraging message on what it means to know and be known by God.
VERSES TO MEMORIZE: PSALM 139:23-24
Message by Christina Main – August 25, 2019
GOD’S KNOWLEDGE IS …
1. INESCAPABLE
Psalm 139:1-6 NLT O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
– He knows the outward
– He knows the inward
Romans 11:33 NLT Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!
2. PROTECTION
Psalm 139:7-12 NLT I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
3. INTRICATE
Psalm 139:13-16 NLT You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
4. UNQUANTIFIABLE
Psalm 139:17-18 NLT How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
5. HIGHER
Psalm 139:19-22 NLT O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers! They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name. O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you? Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies.
6. TRANSFORMATIVE
Psalm 139:23-24 NLT Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
BEING KNOWN BY GOD IS …
1. SECURITY FOR OUR INSECURITY
EUGENE PETERSON: “All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.”
2. COMFORT FOR ANY DISCOMFORT
3. AN INVITATION TO PURSUE REFINEMENT
MICHAEL YACONELLI (MESSY SPIRITUALITY): “Do we encourage people to fail so they can grow? No, we encourage people to grow, which means they will fail.”
A.W. TOZER: “How unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us; no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew him and called us to himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.”
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