Known – Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

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Joke:  A pastor went out one Saturday to visit his church members. At one house, it was obvious that someone was home, but nobody came to the door even though the preacher knocked several times. Finally, the preacher took out his card, wrote out “Revelation 3:20” on the back of it, and stuck it in the door.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me. – Revelation 3:20

The next day, the card turned up in the collection plate. Below the preacher’s message was written a Scripture as well.  Genesis 3:10.

The pastor went home not remembering exactly what the verse said.  He opened his Bible and read. . .

I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.

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Known. Week 1 – Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Let me start out by stating this:  God fully knows us and fully loves us.  In spite of us.

Are you aware of that?

I ask that because I think far to often that message gets lost in the chaos of life.

We’ve got to reconnect with the Father and reconnect with His life giving words that He has spoken over us. And so for the next four weeks I will be trying to help us do just that in this series I’m going to call Known.

To know and be known, I think those are two of the deepest desires for humanity to feel.   And in this fast paced, disconnected digital world, it’s easy to have all the followers, all the connections, and all the fans but still feel completely alone.

Now it seems we are more concerned about how many follow us on Facebook or Instagram over anything else.

But truth is, we were made for more than relational dissonance. We were made in the image of God; and we were made for community, for fellowship, and kingdom centered relationships.

Over the next 4 weeks we’ll be looking at the Psalms, as well as the writings of Paul, Peter, and the very words of Jesus to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of God’s intention and design for His creation.

As we begin our series today, we’ll be looking into Psalm 139 and what it says about the very first moments of human life. But before we begin, I have a few questions for you, you can write them down, if nothing else at least tuck them away in your mind for some consideration later.

Question 1:  When was the last time you were called wonderful?

Question 2:  When was the last time you felt deeply – personally known by another?

Question 3:  When was the last time you thought about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, better yet a friend and family member of Jesus, A member of God’s holy priesthood?

 Here’s a spoiler alert, God has said all these things about you and He knows you more deeply and more thoroughly than anyone every has or ever will.

 Let’s pray together.

Now let’s get started by looking into Psalm 139, this Psalm is  credited to King David who you may remember from such stories as David and Goliath, David and Bathsheba, or maybe the not as familiar David and his mighty men.

David was the conquering king of Israel. A simple shepherd boy turned mighty man of God. He lived both a complicated and blessed life filled with stories of heroic triumph and agonizing pain and suffering.

King David was far from perfect, but he is known as a according to 1 Samuel 13 a man after God’s own heart and Psalm 139 is an amazing look into David’s relationship and understanding of God.

Psalm 139:1–6 (NIV): 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.

What an incredible passage of scripture as David marvels at the omnipotence and omnipresence of God in His life.

We’re going to be talking more about this first point next week, so I won’t spend too long on it today, but it’s clear that God has full awareness and understanding of David’s life.

And David understands he is fully known.

What does it mean to be fully known?

 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.

And a whole lot more.  To be fully known means you can’t hide anything from Him.

If you didn’t know better you’d think I was describing a stalker. . .But the truth is, David is acknowledging just how difficult it is to understand the breadth of God’s comprehension.

Isaiah 55:8–9 (NIV): 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I want you to imagine for a moment the smartest person you know personally.   Maybe it’s a mentor, a family member, a trusted adviser, your pastor, whoever it is, just think for a moment about how you interact with them when they’re sharing knowledge with you.

You trust them. You will often times share with others what they’ve said to you. You give them the benefit of the doubt because of their expertise and understanding. You don’t waste any time at all second guessing them.

And why should you they have the expertise, the knowledge, the understanding and wisdom that has gotten them to the place they are.

And that brings me to the next section of Psalm 139 we’ll be reading today;

Psalm 139:13–16 (NIV): 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.

 In the first section of Psalm 139 we see how complete the knowledge and understanding of God is. In this portion, we begin to understand how God’s level of comprehension and involvement extend all the way to the very moments of creation. And in these moments, you can imagine, as David did, that the very first words, thoughts and intentions over your life were in fact;

Wonderful.

Marvelous.

Beautiful.

 When you read about the creation story in Genesis everything God made Scripture tells us that it was good, until He created man it shifts to it was very good.

 You were/are Wonderfully Made

And these aren’t just the sleep-deprived utterances of a brand-new parent. These are the chosen words of the One who spoke the entire universe into existence. The one who watches over and tends to all things at all times. The one who is arguably the smartest being in the entire cosmos.

These words matter, and because of their source they are worth listening to again and again, and believing today.

Despite anything else you may have heard or come to believe, in spite of what family, friends, or enemies have spoken over you, you are in fact,

Wonderful.

Marvelous.

Beautiful.

 Watch this, I love this. . .

 Psalm 139:17–18 (NIV): How precious to me are your thoughts,  God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

 I could be wrong but I’d venture to guess that it’s been a long time since someone called you wonderful. It’s probably been an even longer time since someone’s called you marvelous.

And what I love about these words is that when David wrote Psalm 139 he understood God enough to recognize how God sees His creation.

And what David understood that many even in the Body of Christ miss is that this applied to him personally.

So here we have before us God our creator with unlimited knowledge and comprehension who so intricately and intimately formed every life and knows exactly who and what you are and are meant to be.

He even knows the number of hairs on your head.

For some that might be an uncomfortable thought, yet for others I’m sure it is an encouraging and uplifting one.

Either way, it’s the truth we live in. And yet there are so many of us who don’t feel wonderful, marvelous, or beautiful. We feel unknown and unloved. We feel increasingly lonely in an increasingly crowded world and it all just feels like something is off.

So what’s the disconnect between what God says and how we feel?

And is there a way to restore the connection?

Has anyone here today ever played the telephone game?

Maybe it’s called something else as well, but I’m sure you know the game.  The idea is pretty simple.  You get a group of people together who have to verbally pass a message to one another. It begins with one person whispering something to the person next to them who then has to whisper whatever they heard to the next person and so on until you get to the last person who then shares aloud what they heard.

I’ve also seen it played where all the others have to wear headphones and all they get to do is read the lips of the other person.    That I think even makes it more challenging.   Now, as you can imagine the original message gets somewhat distorted the further down the line it goes. And by the end of the line a simple and clear message like, “My favorite food is pepperoni pizza,” can easily become, “Frank’s dog Charlie attacked my Aunt Harriet.”

With that illustration in mind can you imagine how a clear message like, “You are fully known, loved, and forgiven,” can so easily become distorted as it makes its way through all the chaos, disruptions, and circumstances that happen in our life’s.

Every day is another opportunity to hear mixed messaging, destructive messaging, damaging messaging, and confusing messaging about who you are. Not to mention, there is a very real enemy who wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy every good thing God has placed in your life.

That is why it’s so incredibly important to connect with and get yourself rooted in the truth every single day.

Think of this as restoring the connection. This is time you go back to the source of the messaging and hear clearly what is being spoken.

In the telephone game it’s so much easier to get an accurate message if you’re the first person in line. And you and I, and all of us need to make sure we are getting undistracted and unhindered time with our Father in heaven so that we can hear and receive the truth as it was originally intended.

Don’t settle for a poor connection, a distorted message.

You wouldn’t do that when talking to a friend on your cell phone.

How much more should you seek “full bars” when talking to your heavenly Father.

Maybe you’ve seen the T-mobile commercial about the costume party.  This is what was said over this is what was heard.

Psalm 139 gives us a clear picture of at least two things we need to hold close to us at all times.

• God’s comprehension and understanding of all things has no limits. He knows and sees all aspects of our lives, for better or worse.
• The all-knowing and all-seeing God of the universe says we are wonderful.

I also know this truth gets distorted and lost in the chaos of life. Maybe part of the reason so many of us feel disconnected, lonely, and unknown is because we’ve drifted too far from the original message. We’ve gone too far down the line in the telephone game and we’re out of range.

We’ve heard all the other messages much more loudly than what God’s original one was.

It’s important to establish a strong connection to the source every day to ensure we are getting the truth. We can this through;

• Reading and studying the Word
• Devotionals
• Prayer and meditation
• Fellowship
• Listening to worship music

And so many other ways as well, but the point being that there are a multitude of powerful ways to connect with God every single day.

In the gospels we see Jesus, the son of God, make a regular habit of doing some of things I just mentioned.  And if the Son of God needs to do it then I can absolutely guarantee you and I need to do it as well.

Where can you carve out time this coming week to get reconnected with the Father?

What can you say no to so you can say yes to Jesus?

What habits or practices can you eliminate that are only bringing more distortion, distraction and chaos into your life?

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 pray together.

Identity statement (to be repeated)

I am God’s wonderful creation. Throughout the ages God was thinking about me. He planned me before I was born. He had written in His book the plans for my life. His plans for me are for prosperity and not for calamity, To give me a future and a hope. He loves me. He sent His Son to die in my place. He redeemed me to bring me into my destiny.  And to walk in freedom.   I’ve been adopted into God’s family. I am loved by my heavenly Papa. He doesn’t withhold good from me. He delights to shower blessing over me. He has given me everything I need to succeed and overcome. All grace abounds toward me so I will have enough for every good work. Nothing is impossible for God.  I can do all things through Christ, Because greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.

Join us next week so we can be reminded that you are known by God.