Thank you crew. Thanks for helping me set up here this morning. I love this facility. I'm so thankful that we're here. Those of you that were with us during the wildfire cafe toi years or the comedy club with the statues of women on the walls and things. It was like, wow, we have come a long ways and thank you to those of you that helped make this all possible. I just, I feel thankful every time I come into this facility, I, I literally do. Thank you for sharing your Sunday morning with us here at Mission Grove, George Lucas uh released his first Star Wars film in 1977. Just to tell you how old, how long ago that was my wife and I just celebrated our 46th anniversary wedding anniversary last week. She's not here, but you can applaud anyway. That's fine. I'll, I'll pass along your applause and while we, we, we sat in the theater watching that movie, we were still boyfriend and girlfriend. That's how long ago it was. But I told my students, I said, you know, George is just one, he's just a one trick pony boy. What a nice pony that turned out to be, he sold his Star Wars franchise a couple of years ago to Disney for $4 billion. And that just amazing. The thing I, the reason I bring his name up is because he always gave the last lecture at the US C film school. He was a big supporter of US c being an alumni and he built him a nice film facility there. So they would give him the final lecture to the graduates before they graduate. And he would, he had this tradition where when he was done talking, he'd say, look, I know you've all paid your dues. So I'm here to help you. I'm gonna give you my personal phone number and you call me if you ever need a favor. But here's the thing, you can only call me one time. So use it wisely. And I thought, wow, that's pretty cool. Right. George Lucas's phone number even one time. But I thought, what if God did that? What if God said, hey, welcome to the family. Glad you're here. Call on me when you're in trouble, but you only get to do it one time. Well, that would be a conflict, wouldn't it? Should we call him? No, wait, let's call him. No, this, no, there will be something worse. We just wait, wait on that phone call. Right. You'd be wondering when to use it. When do I cash that in? But God didn't do that and it's not that we love God. But like first John 410 says this is love that He loved us. He first loved us. That's the amazing thing about God is when you accept Christ as your savior, you get adopted into God's family and now the phone line is open like a parent. You know, when you're working parents and you're busy and you don't want to be disturbed. But then it flashes on your phone that it's your son or your daughter. Most likely you're gonna take that call. That's the thing about God. He always takes the call, always takes the call. It's an amazing thing. We're going to learn about that today in the attributes of God. And I would ask you to open your Bibles to Psalm 139 if you want to follow along, which leads us to our big idea this morning. If you're taking notes, you could write this down, what do you think about God shapes, what you think about everything else? What you think about God shapes, what you think about everything else. And if you have the wrong thinking about God, there's a good chance you're gonna be on the wrong path of how you live, live your life. But if you have the right thinking about God, at least it gives you the chance to be on the right path to living the right way. Theology really is the right knowledge of God. And it's essential to living, fulfilled and fruitful life while we're here on earth. So I think it's important that we get this right. And the psalmist today in Psalm 139 who we're pretty sure is David, the writer talks about the attributes of God and we're gonna list four of them right now. They're his knowledge, his power, his presence and his holiness and theologians have given these fancy names through the years. They call them his omniscience, his omnipotence, his omnipresence and his impeccability, which is, I guess they ran out of omni words. I don't know, but it's really being flawless or pure. Ok. So we're going to learn about that today and let's open our Bibles to Psalm 139 and pick it up right away with verse 10 Lord. Thou hast searched me and known me now, search me is not a house search, it's not a search for treasure or accomplishments. It's an N word search. I want you to think of it this way. God isn't searching for us. God is searching in us. Thou hast searched me inwardly and has known me notice the past tense of the word known, he could have said and knows me. But no, he says, known, implying that God has known us all along. You've known me all along. God is what he's really saying here. Verse two thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up, thou dost understand my thoughts from afar, which is amazing to me because sometimes I don't even understand the thoughts that I have. And I'm the one thinking them right. But God does. God knows where we're going. Verse three, covering both when I'm awake and when I'm asleep, he says, thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, I'm awake, I'm asleep, still there. And here's the, here's the keywords and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Who we're gonna talk about that in just a second, intimately acquainted with all my ways scrutinize. There's different definitions of the word scrutinize the Hebrew definition of scrutinize here. It, it actually doesn't have the word scrutinized in the Hebrew. That's how we English people translated it. It basically means the person who goes first in the, in the journey, the guide, the person who makes the path clear. So if you're in the dense jungle, for example, you want a guide with a really sharp machete and he's going to cut the, the path open. He's going to cut down the brush and the trees and the leaves and he's gonna make a path clear for you to follow him on. That's what we're talking about here. God walks ahead of us and clears the path for us is what the psalmist is saying. Scrutinize my path. Verse four. Even before there's a word on my tongue. Behold, Lord, thou doest know it all. God knows us better than we know ourselves. Verse five thou hast enclosed me both behind and before and laid thy hand upon me. This is a walling in and keeping us safe from outside forces. The word enclosed here from the Hebrew is something that is most precious to you. You, it's, it's the most valuable thing. If you were, if you were living at home, it was what you put in your safe for safe keeping and lock up. So it could never be stolen. It's guarding or protecting that, which is most important. And that's what God is doing here. Verse six, the finally, the psalmist just throws up his hands and said, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's too high. I cannot comprehend it. I cannot attain to it. I'm just throwing up my hands here. It doesn't, it's just amazing to me. God is intimately acquainted with all our ways. But then I think as a sinner, as a sinner, do I want that? Do I want God to see everything I do and everything I think because I'm flawed and I screw up and I make shameful choices sometimes. Do I really want God to be part of that? I mean, honestly, I'm afraid of Alexa. Ok. Anybody else here? Yeah. It kind of bothers me. I'll be honest. I mean, I use it. What time is it? Set a timer? Ok. Play me a song. Ok. That's great. Now, stop listening to me. She's listening all the time. People. Oh, no, she only listens when you call her. No, she's listening all the time. She only responds when you call her. Right? Am I right? Anybody else have that little nine feeling of, I don't know if they're doing data mining on us or, or not with that. But I know I just honestly, have you ever done this? Have you ever unplugged Alexa sometimes? Just so, you know. Ok. Anyway, that's just me, I guess. But um that's not like that. It's not like that with God. He's not searching for evidence to convict us. That evidence came out pretty early in our lives. He's not looking to form revenge against us. Let me give you an example. There was a time when we were looking for a new church and I was, I took a job at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and I, and we were looking for a new church and we heard of a really good church. And so we got in the car and we're driving down to the church for the first time and in the back seat is my four year old son who I will not name here in public, not John. And he's sitting in the backseat. I know my other son was in the first service. He's like, thanks, thanks dad. And he's being as obnoxious as a four year old can be. You ever have that problem? He's just, I don't know his adrenaline's going he had too much caffeine. I don't know, too much sugar before for breakfast, but he's just being super obnoxious. It's the kind of behavior that makes stand up comedians do bits on, you know, where they're driving and they're trying to smack him in the backseat while they're driving. And I'll pull this car over, son, I will pull this car over. Right. So we get to church and, and we get into the nursery, the Sunday school room where he's supposed to go and it's a huge room with a lot of new people. And instantly this cocky little obnoxious four year old goes into this little scared kid. He's overwhelmed. He is completely intimidated by this room and he just stands there in shock almost and he's got tears coming down his eyes because he's afraid. And so I kneel down and I, I put my arm around him and I say not so cocky. Now, are you? I did not say that, not only did I not say that I didn't even think that I, I want you to know. It didn't even enter into my thinking for payback. It was 100%. I just wanted to go to him and hold him and hug him and say it's gonna be ok, daddy is here. It's gonna be ok. You're gonna be safe, you're gonna be fine. Why? Because he's my son and I love him. That's the relationship. If, if me and my human Father knows that. How much more doesn't our heavenly Father have that for us? You see, think of it this way because if God were looking at me now in my sinful loss condition, it would be, it would be depressing. But this is where grace comes in because Jesus is our advocate, Jesus is our intermediary. He stands in the gap between us and God. And when you accept Jesus as your savior, you're adopted into God's family. And now God sees you through the screen door of Jesus Christ. And so he sees you through Jesus and he sees that beautiful, pure sinless person that's gonna be with Him in heaven someday. That's the intimacy God has with us. That's the God who wants to be intimately acquainted with all of us. So don't be afraid of that. Embrace it. It's a wonderful thing to have God on your side. And then he goes into verse seven, where can I go from thy spirit? Where can I flee from thy presence? Is he trying to run away? No. Does he know how to run away? Yes. If anybody knew about fleeing and running away, it was David. I mean, he spent years of his teenage life just running for his life because he was anointed the next king and the king didn't want him to be anointed the next king. And so he was going to chase him down and kill him. And it's some marvelous stories in there where he found him in the cave that day and spared Saul's life when he could have killed Saul. But he didn't. So he knows what it means to flee. And yet he says in verse eight, where can I go if I send to heaven? Thou art there? No surprise, right? I mean, if I go to heaven and oh, look, God's here. Not surprised. Right. Kind of expected that. But look at the second half of verse eight. If I make my bed and Shiel, behold, thou art there? Wow. All right, Shiel is a Hebrew word meaning grave. That's the technical definition if I go to the grave. But really, it's also used to describe the, the, the other world, the, the uh sinful, the separated from God world and the word, the word we use in English is hell. It's the place where we're completely separated and cut off from God. And the psalmist is saying, even if I go to the place of hell, even there, God is there with me who? Fascinating. No wonder he says I can't comprehend this verse nine. If I take the wings of the dawn. Wings of the Dawn is David's way of describing getting far up into outer space, into the atmosphere. Wings of the dawn because in David's time, no airplanes, no motorized vehicles, but they had birds and they would watch these birds go flying high and high and high until they were completely out of sight. That's what he's saying. If I were to fly high as I can tell, you wouldn't even see me anymore. That's what it means. The, the wings of dawn and then he goes the opposite. If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, that was easily understood in David's time because they had boats and sailors and ships and they had the deep blue ocean and it was a scary place to be on a stormy day. It would swallow ships up and they'd never be heard from again. And Dave said, even if I went to the deepest part of the sea, the ocean floor, which, by the way, even in 2024 we still haven't figured it all out. We're still exploring that part because it's so hard to get there. He said even there, even there, verse 10, even there, thy hand will lead me and thy right hand will lay hold of me. Sorry, left handers. You're left out. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Why does the Bible say right hand? Well, it's the Hebrew way of saying it's God's strong hand. It's God's mighty strong hand. It's not, it's not a bias against left handers. I have a son who's a left hander. I have a sister who's a left hander. I make fun of him all the time. But it's God's mighty right hand that will lay hold of me. You see, this is the, the, the beauty of it all. And then he goes in verse 11, if I say, and I love this verse, this is one of my favorite verses. Surely the darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be night and we'll jump right to verse 12. Even the darkness is not dark to thee. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to thee. Wow. Even the darkness is not dark to thee. Corey 10 Boom was a watchmaker with her father. She was the first licensed watchmaker in the Netherlands in 1922. And they had a great thriving business until the Nazis came along in 1940 overran the Netherlands and they started kidnapping and arresting Jews and putting them in prisons. And then beyond that even worse, they would send him to concentration camps where eventually they would be gassed, killed and then burned in the ovens. It was historically the greatest misuse of military power in the history of our world. There was no military sense to it. There was no political cause. It's just the fact that Hitler hated the Jews and he and, and, and over the years historians have tracked that he probably was responsible for the death of over 5 million Jews who this was an evil, this was an evil man with evil intentions and an evil life. The 10 Boone family were not Jews and they could have just sat on the sidelines and watched their neighbors get arrested. But the dad said, no, we have to help fight this evil. So he opened up a, a hiding room, a secret room in their home to hide the Jews so they could hide on their passage. And then they tried to smuggle them out to the west so they could get out of German control. And this worked great for four years from 1940 to 1944. They probably saved over 800 lives of Jews that came through and they were actually labeled as part of the Dutch resistance. Then one of their neighbors betrayed them and turned them in. And in February of 1944 the Nazis came knocking and they arrested the 10 Boone family and they split them up and they sent the dad to Auschwitz where he died within 10 days. And they sent uh uh Corey and her sister, Betsy. I think we have a picture of her when she was still before she was arrested. I think that's her on the left. And that's Betsy, her sister on the right and that's her friend in the middle. They sent her to Ravens Brook, which was one of the two worst concentration camps in the history of our world. And Betsy's health started to decline. They were there 10 months. And in December of 1944 Betsy woke her up one morning and said, Corey, the Lord talked to me last night in a dream. And he said, we're both gonna be out of here before the new year comes, which is only days away. And Corey said to, oh my dear sister, I'm sorry to tell you, but we're in a pit so deep. Not even God can find us down here. And then Betsy said, the lion that has lived through the ages and made history. She said, there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still, even the darkness is not dark to thee. There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still. Let's show the picture of that concentration camp. It's not, it's not Coy timber and her sister. But you get the idea. It was, it was horrible. And Betsy died before Christmas Day and she was at peace now because she was with her Lord in heaven. And Corey was called in on December 28th and released. It was a clerical error instead of saying this prisoner not to be released. They omitted the word not. And it said this prisoner to be released and she was just let go and she just walked out and she learned later that everyone in her barracks, everyone that was over the age of 40. They killed every woman that week after that, they sent him to the ovens and killed every woman over 40 from that concentration camp, but not Coy Tembo because the Lord had other plans and she did a ministry of, of helping Holocaust Survivors. And she went on to write a book called The Hiding Place. I think we have a picture of that and I would encourage you to get that book. It is a powerful story. It is a wonderful story. And then it was made into a film in 1975. And uh again, my wife and I went to see it as boyfriend, girlfriend. We were still just dating at the time, but it was a powerful story. Try to find it. It's, it's really amazing story that Corey 10 boom had and the faithfulness that she had through her whole life. And then she died finally in 1978 at the age of 91. Wow, there is no darkness that's too dark from God. There is no pit so deep that the love of God is not deeper still. And then the psalmist goes on in verse 13. Let's pick it up in verse 13 for tho its form my inward parts thou it's weaved me in my mother's womb friends. It's just hard to read that and not recognize how horrible abortion really is. And I don't wanna be judgmental. It's not my job, but this is strong wording from the writer, giving us a beautiful picture of God, the creator already at work, weaving together the intricate details that need to come together inside a mother's womb. And I know we might have people here this morning. So I'm very sensitive to this that have had to deal with this in their own lives. So I reached out to a good friend of mine who is a counselor to women who struggle with abortion. And before, both before and after, and she said, uh I said, can you give me a quote that I can read to the, the congregation? And she said, sure. So she wrote this down and I want to read it to you as a Christian mental health professional. She wrote this, I have seen firsthand how abortion can deeply affect a person's emotional and spiritual well being, feelings of guilt, sorrow and regret are common and often lead to psychological and spiritual struggles. For years to come. We need to provide compassionate care and empathetic support to help individuals navigate these complex emotions and deep rooted pain. And then the psalmist goes on in verse 14, I'm so overwhelmed by this creation of God. I will give thanks to thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made wonderful. Are thy works? My soul knows it very well. Verse 15, my frame was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Verse 16, this verse means so much to me. Thine, eyes have seen my unformed substance and in thy book, they were all written the days that were ordained for me. When as yet, there was not one of them. It's a complex problem. This, this cultural struggle we have. It's a stain on our humanity. I believe personally, it's a complex problem. But I think the Bible is very clear that this fetus is really a person magnificently woven together by the father's hand while still in the mother's womb. Now, why does verse 16 mean so much to me? Most of you don't know this. But Jonathan, your pastor John was a preemie. He was born seven weeks early and the 1st 72 hours were touch and go. It was life support. In fact, we first finally got to go back and see him, which is another story. We couldn't even recognize that there was a child in there because they were so bandaged up in tubes coming everywhere and everywhere. And they told us about 10 things that probably would go wrong with him. It was rough. See him sit there and he was in intensive care for 11 days. And God gave me this verse in the, in the, in the deepest darkest pit that I was in. At that time, God gave me verse 16. Let me read it to you the way the Holy Spirit read it to me. Thine eyes have seen the unformed substance of Jonathan. And in the book, they were all written the days that were ordained for Jonathan when as yet, there was not one of them. His life wasn't mine to give his life wasn't in my care. God had him in his care. And here's the crazy thing. Not one of those 10, not one of those 10 things came true. God said nope, not this one. I got other plans for this one and he's your pastor now today because God said nope, you keep your hands off this one. I'm gonna take care of this one. And I know it's not always a happy ending parents that go through things like this. But boy verse 16 just so dear to my heart. II, I made a promise to God to memorize the entire psalm 139. And, and at one time in my life, I think I actually did, don't ask me say it now, I couldn't do it. But that verse just means so much to me all the days that were ordained when, as yet there was not one of them. And if you have someone you're worried about, you go to this verse and you put their name in there because God has a, you see, I, I think it all comes down to the illusion of control. We like to think we're in control. I'm a, I'm, we all have lean towards wanting control, but I'm, I'm on the far end of that. I'm, I'm, I'm with those that really want all the control all the time. You know, you know, those people, I'm one of those, I mean, if you said, OK, you can either drive or you can ride. I will pick driving every time, 10 out of 10 times. Why? Because I get the control. When I'm driving, I'm in a passenger seat and I'm like, where are you going? Right. Anybody else like that? No, you, you don't want, trust me, you give me a ride, you either take my mouth shut or you let me drive. Ok. It's one of those two things and, and like airplanes. I hate airplanes. I hate them. I'm not afraid of them. I don't afraid to die. I'm not afraid to fly. I afraid to die. Not afraid to fly. I just hate giving up that control. I have control over nothing. When I fly, I don't have control over my shoes when I fly. Come on. I hate it, but I do it. So I'm, I'm that way, but it's really an illusion of control because we really don't. And John has mentioned this more than once up up here. He said, you know, there's no one's life who can't be gravely affected by just one phone call. Your life can change in a, in an instant with a phone call. And ours did in April of 2016, we got that phone call. The one you never want to get. It was my brother in law. It was my wife's sister, Karen. Her husband was tragically killed in a car accident in Nashville, Tennessee. 66 years old, really good strong Christian gave a lot to the church there, there was no, there was no sense out of it. There was no reasoning of why he was sitting in the left turn lane at an intersection. He wasn't even the first car in the left turn lane. He was the third car in the left turn lane, which turned out to be the worst spot he could be in because unbeknownst to him coming from his left was a guy running from the law, I'll just do the short version of it. He was on parole. He went and kidnapped his kids from school and then was in a high speed chase with the police through the streets of Nashville and he was high, who knows on what high as a kite and he came up to the intersection and it was all full of cars and he saw that the sidewalk was clear and I don't know what his end game was, but he thought I'll take the sidewalk didn't slow down. We know this because it's on the security cameras at the corner of Walgreens. They have it all didn't slow down. Went on the sidewalk going a high rate of speed, smashed into John killed him instantly, Kareem off his car hit four more cars sent many people to the hospital. John was the only one killed. Just a complete hard to understand why this happens kind of a moment and we got the phone call so we packed up and we made the drive to Nashville. But that's not the story. The story is what happened with his wife Karen. She went out that night as you would imagine just questioning everything. And she sat out there at three o'clock in the morning and their house backed up to a nature preserve. It was a nice piece of wood behind their house. And she just sat there and she said, God, are you there? I just want to know you're there. And as she sat there in the quiet, a sparrow started chirping and I know there are birds that sing during the night because I have some in my house, which really amaze me because in Ohio we don't, but sparrows don't sing at night, they wait till the sun comes up before they start chirping. But this one started chirping at three o'clock in the morning. And Karen's like, is that, is that you got another bird started and another sparrow and another sparrow and another sparrow. And soon there was a whole chorus of sparrows just singing to her. And she felt some comfort in that. But that's not the craziest part of the story. She went into her house that morning and she had to start going through her emails and sending out emails and it was a hard thing to do. She saw an email from an old friend. They had, they've been good friends, but they lost touch with each other. She opened the email. She thought maybe she heard about the accident. She hadn't. She said, hey, Karen. I, I, how are you doing? Blah, blah, blah. All these wonderful greetings, by the way, in my devotions this morning, the Holy Spirit put this on my heart that I should send you this Bible passage. I don't know what it means. I hope it blesses you have a good day, blah, blah, blah, blah. Ok. So Karen opens the email, the attachment and it's Matthew 10 verses 29 to 31 and I think we have it for you. Here are not two sparrows sold for a penny and yet not one of them will fall apart from your father. Next verse. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Verse 31. Therefore, do not fear you are of more value than many sparrows. Isn't that amazing? Just out of nowhere. She gets this email with this passage sent to her, but that's not the craziest part of the story. Wednesday night. That was on a Monday, Wednesday night, Sandy Patty was coming to do a concert in Nashville. Now, if you don't know Sandy Patty at one time, she was the top female Christian recording artist in America, seventies, eighties, nineties, the voice of an angel. She was semi-retired 2016. She was coming to Nashville to do her final concert in Nashville. Her daughter was the worship leader at Karen's Church. So she said mom while you're in Nashville. It would mean a lot if you could come and do a concert at our church and Sandy was like, sure. Ok. So they booked it. They, they set it up months ahead of time. Karen and John were thrilled. They love Sandy Patty. So they were the first to buy tickets and we thought that would have been so wonderful but tragic, tragic. So we didn't expect Karen to go. But for some reason, she said no, I I really feel John would like me to still go. Ok, but I don't want to talk to anybody. So we knew the head usher really well, they were good friends. So she called him up and he knew what was going on and he said that's fine. I'll meet you at the side door, I'll have some chairs set up in the back. You don't have to talk to anybody. We'll sneak in, you can hear the concert, you can go back out. You don't have to say anything to anyone. That's what we did. And I tell you within 30 seconds, we just knew this was the right thing to do. She was up there belting out this wonderful graceful hymn and it was just so awesome. We sat there looking at each other, we already started crying just in that first song and then Saddy Pandy did something that was just completely unpredictable. She's she, she turned her back to the audience and spoke to her band, she still had her microphone on so we could still hear her. And she said, guys, I'd like to break open the playlist of what we were going to do tonight. And I want to add a song because the Lord laid on my heart that somebody is here tonight that needs to hear this song. And I brought a clip of that song along for you to hear. This is a song that Sandy Patty sang that night and, and you my portion, I it's you his He, he's a one watch it. So isn't that they're just amazing true story. And I'm here to tell you speaking just for myself during one of the hardest weeks of my life, I never felt closer to God than I did that week. There were other examples too where God just kept coming at us. I'm here, I'm here, I'm here and I don't know what you're going through today. I don't know what the darkness is for you or the pit that you're in. But I can tell you with all confidence in what the Bible teaches that if you reach out to Him in your greatest moment of need, if you earnestly seek God with all your heart, he will respond to you in a way that's unique to you and that you probably never even imagined He would. He is the God of intimacy. He is the guy that goes everywhere with us and he is the God who has your life in his hands all the days that ordained for you. Let's pray together heavenly Father. We thank you and we praise you Lord. We thank you that for your omniscience and your omnipotence and omnipresence and your holiness. Lord. It's just, it's too high, it's too high. I can't comprehend it. I can't attain to what it means to be loved unconditionally. But I thank you for it. I thank you that you, you gave us your son Jesus Christ, who paid the debt for our sins so that we could be reunited with you once again, not only in heaven with you someday, but even here on earth that we could tap into the intimacy of you being acquainted with all our ways and the fact that you have us Lord to the point where there is no pit so deep, there is no darkness, so dark that you're not there. Still dear Jesus. We thank you. We praise you. May we walk worthy of being adopted into your family? Once again in jesus' name, we pray amen.