Our Bodies and Creation

If you don't know me, my name is Kevin. I'm one of the leaders here, and we are going to dive into our sermon for today.

I want to introduce it a little bit, and then Rachel's going to read the scripture to us.

The human body is the most fascinating and yet infinitely complex, whatever you want to call it, piece of machinery, ingenuity, or creation.

When I was in high school, I didn't do very well at high school at all for two reasons.

One, I didn't have the brains to do very well.

And two, I was a very terrible student. I didn't work hard.

But if I had the brains, and if I had worked hard and done well at school,

the only job that might have rivaled my interest in being a pastor would have been to be a medical doctor.

I would have loved to have been able to be a doctor.

When I was at university, I stayed in a house or an apartment with a med student, another doctor.

He was in his final years of med school.

And every night at dinner, I would say,

Okay, Justin, tell me, what did you get up to today?

What patients did you see?

What diseases did you diagnose?

What surgeries did you watch?

What diagnoses did you offer to your professors as you were doing your hospital rounds?

I loved asking my buddy Justin about med school.

And I wish I could have been a doctor.

But God did not equip me to do that.

The human body is a fascinating and remarkable piece of creation.

And even if most of us don't really know anything of what's going on inside of us,

here are a bunch of facts for us.

Did you know that your body has 100,000 miles of blood vessels in your body?

If you were to string those all together, that's halfway between here and the moon of blood vessels in your body.

Every second, you produce 25 million new cells in your body.

Amazingly, the human eye can detect between 7 and 10 million different colors.

I'm going to ask Professor Chris Leung to verify that later after the service.

He's an eye professor.

But that's what I read.

7 to 10 million different colors your eye can determine.

And Bill Bryson from his book, The Body, he says this,

The most remarkable part about your body is your DNA.

You have a meter of it stacked into every cell in your body.

And so many cells that if you formed all the DNA in your body into a single strand,

it would stretch 10 billion miles, which is beyond Pluto.

Think about it.

There's enough of you to leave the solar system.

You are, in the most literal sense, cosmic.

Bill Bryson.

Okay?

And so far from being the product of random chance,

our bodies are nothing short of utterly remarkable and amazing.

And the more our scientific technology advances, the more we discover,

the more we're able to find out and look into the smallest pieces of the human body,

the more we are blown away and astounded all that goes into it.

I just recently read Peter Atiyah's book called Outlive,

and it was way too technical for me.

But just thinking about at a sub-cellular level,

all the different bits and pieces that are going on,

that are opening cell walls and closing cell walls

and lying protein molecules in and other molecules out,

it's absolutely astounding what our human bodies do.

And so for the next six weeks,

we're going to pause our series on 1 Corinthians,

and we're going to do the series on the human body.

And we're going to be looking at the idea of what does the Bible say about our bodies.

Now, typically at Watermark,

we want to systematically work through books of the Bible,

like 1 Corinthians or Ephesians.

And we call this expositional preaching.

It's the best way to find out what is God saying to us.

But from time to time,

we want to take one topic, one theme,

and look at it systematically across the Bible and say,

what does the whole Bible say about this theme?

And so for the next six weeks,

we're going to look at our physical bodies.

And we're going to look at,

what does it mean that our bodies are created by God?

What does it mean that our bodies suffer and are broken

and are subject to pain and disease?

What does it mean that our bodies and our identity,

our bodies in heaven and glory,

will we have a body in heaven one day?

And finally, we're going to look at our bodies and gender.

Now, if you're in the youth,

if you're in high school,

you're going to be part of us for the month of July,

hopefully for the whole series.

And I hope that this is really applicable to you

as you think about what does God have to say about you

and your physical body

and the way that God has made you.

Okay, so to do that,

we're going to look at Psalm 139.

And I'm going to call Rachel up

to come and read our scripture reading for us today.

It should be in your bulletin or in your Bible.

Grab one of those, open that up,

and let's listen to the scripture reading for today

from Psalm 139.

Good morning.

Feel free to read along with me

from the screen or from the bulletin.

Psalm 139 reads,

O Lord, you've searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up.

You discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in behind and before

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high.

I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall overcome me

and the light about me be night.

Even the darkness is not dark to you.

The night is bright as the day.

For darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts.

You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw me, my unformed substance.

In your book were written every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God.

How vast is the sum of them.

If I would count them,

they are more than the sand.

I awake and I am still with you.

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God.

Oh, men of blood, depart from me.

They speak against you with malicious intent.

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 complete hatred.

I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts.

And see if there be any grievous way in me.

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Okay, great.

Thank you, Rachel.

Let me pray for us briefly.

Father God, as we come to your word,

we want to see what your word has to say.

As we think about this topic, Lord,

we really do want to think your thoughts after you.

Even here at the end of Psalm 139,

David expresses the desire to think your thoughts after you,

to love what you love and to hate what you hate.

God, we want to be the same.

And we want to think your thoughts.

So help us to do that, God.

In this topic that is so conflicted and challenging for many of us,

I want you to help us to really see ourselves

at the way you've made us,

to appreciate what you've made us,

to love what you've made.

And God, to think rightly and biblically and correctly in this way.

So I pray, God, as we look at your word,

speak to us and encourage us.

Lord, those of us that maybe are downcast,

I want you to encourage us from your word this morning.

In your great name we pray.

Amen.

Just to say, sorry, I meant to say earlier,

there are a couple of copies of this book on the piano

called What God Has to Say About Our Bodies by Sam Aubrey.

It's a really great book.

I encourage you to grab one of those if you want to find out more.

Okay, so I wonder how you feel about your body.

I think it's safe to say that most of us have a conflicted relationship

with our physical bodies.

And I think there's three reasons for that.

The first one is personal.

Most of us feel personally conflicted about our bodies.

Most of us, if you had a magic wand that could change any one thing about your body,

most of us would grab that wand and want to do something.

Maybe you want to be a bit taller.

You want to be a bit shorter.

Maybe you want a smaller nose.

You want straighter teeth.

Maybe you want that back pain that you suffer with all the time to go away.

You want that irritable gut to be cleared up.

Some part of our bodies, we all struggle with to varying degrees.

Now, some of it can be humorous, like my receding hairline.

And we can laugh and joke about that.

Or if you're my kids, you can cry about it.

But for others of us, it's a bit more serious.

There's deep pain in our bodies.

We live with constant pain, some of us.

Some of us, maybe the way we feel about ourselves causes stress or anxiety or angst.

So there's personal conflict.

There's also cultural conflict.

I think our culture is very confused about how do we think about our physical bodies.

On the one hand, our culture tells us our bodies are nothing really particularly special.

They have very little bearing on who we are and on our identity.

And we're told that our most true self, who you really are, is who you feel to be.

This is obviously a huge assumption behind the transgender movement, right?

That your makeup, your physical body has zero bearing on who you are.

But who you really are is who you most feel yourself to be inside.

And so we're told that our bodies are actually nothing at all.

It doesn't matter.

You can chop it.

You can change it.

It's completely irrelevant.

But on the other hand, our culture also tells us that our bodies are almost everything.

And that place such high premium on our physical bodies that you almost culture attaches one's identity and self-worth to it.

And so just think about how much pressure and how much stress goes into people thinking about the way that we look.

Or the way we come across.

Or how successful we are.

Or think about the insane amount of money spent in the cosmetic industry.

Either cosmetic surgery or cosmetic products.

And so on one hand, our culture says, your body's nothing.

It doesn't matter.

Just chop and change it.

On the other hand, it says, it's everything.

It's everything.

And you should put a lot of attention to it.

So we live in this constant conflict.

But then I think a third reason why we feel so conflicted is, for those of us that are Christians and followers of Jesus and take the Bible seriously,

I think we're conflicted about what the Bible says.

And part of that is because we feel that the Bible places so much emphasis on our hearts and our inner life that maybe God is not that interested in our outer world and our physical bodies.

I think of how Jesus will say, or how the proverb says, guard your heart, for above all it is the wellspring of life.

And so one author put it like this.

He said, most Christians tend to see the soul as the true core of who we are.

And the body is just an empty vessel that will one day die while our souls will live on forever in heaven.

And of course, we read things like in the New Testament that Paul says, he seems to contrast the flesh versus the spirit.

And he says, put to death the things of the flesh, but so to the spirit.

And so we tend to think the immaterial is good and the material is bad.

Now, just by the way, when Paul is doing that, he's using flesh to talk about our sinful nature and the spirit to talk about what is alive to God.

And he's saying, don't sow to your sinful nature, sow to your relationship with God.

The contrast is not material versus immaterial.

It's what is done in rebellion against God versus what is life lived in surrender to God.

And so for all these reasons, personal conflict, cultural conflict, biblical, theological conflict, I think we feel confused about how are we meant to think about our bodies.

So let's consider the scripture.

And if you've got the scripture in front of you, open it up.

I want you to see something.

Psalm 39 is made up of 24 verses and it's broken up into four sections.

Each section has six verses.

And so the first section, verses one to six, David speaks about God's perfect knowledge of us.

He says, oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up.

You discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my line down.

You're acquainted with all of my ways.

God says, David says, everything about us.

Our thoughts, our moods, our emotions, our private actions, our secret desires, our conflicted feelings are perfectly and intricately and meticulously known by the sovereign God who is Lord of everything.

He knows absolutely everything there is to know about us.

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

He says that even before a thought is, even before a word is on my tongue, behold, you know it altogether.

Then in the second section, David takes comfort in the fact that there's no place in life, no experience in life, physical, mental or emotional, that is beyond God's reach or God's control.

So he says, where shall I go from your spirit?

Where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to the heavens, you're there.

If I go down to Sheol, the place of the dead, you are there.

There's no place, physical, mental, emotional, no sphere or experience of life that is beyond God's reach and ability and interest to be involved in that.

Your child is sick.

You lose your job.

You feel physical ache and pain.

Diagnosed with cancer.

Your loved one passes away.

God is there with you in that time and season.

But then in the third section is the section we're really going to look at today.

And here David says, the reason why we can be confident that God knows every sphere and experience of life and God knows us so deeply and personally is because he made us.

Look at what verse 13 says.

It says, for or because, it says, God, you know me perfectly and you're always with me.

Why?

Because you formed my inward parts.

Those minute subcellular particles that until recently we didn't even have any idea existed.

God knows every single one of them and he's known them for thousands of years and every single human being.

You know my inward parts.

You, God, knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you for I'm fearfully, wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your creative works.

My soul knows it very well.

My frame, that means my body, is not hidden from you.

When I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Think about that.

David is saying, before anyone knew of my existence, before your mom even knew that she was pregnant with you,

when all you were was a tiny zygote, I think that's the right way of saying it,

a minuscule cell that multiplied and multiplied and multiplied and multiplied and eventually formed the biological process to become you,

in that tiny moment, God knew you, he planned you, he formed you, he knew exactly what he's doing to bring about you.

Intricately woven the depths.

Verse 16,

And the point that David is making here is that our physical bodies are not random.

They're not arbitrary.

They're not just sperm and egg came together and voila, out popped you.

God was intricately involved in bringing together those two parts and forming your DNA in who you are and bringing you about.

Everything we are, including our physical bodies, is the consequence of the eternal, sovereign, creator God's intentional care.

There's a Dutch theologian called Herman Bavinck.

He lived many years ago.

And listen to how he says it.

He says,

It is the essence of humanity to be both physical and conscious.

The body is not a prison, but a marvelous piece of art from which the hand of God Almighty,

from the hand of God Almighty, and just as much the essence of humanity as the soul.

So notice what Bavinck is saying there.

He's saying we typically think our body is just this outward box, but the real part of me is my soul.

That's who I really am.

And the box will get discarded one day and my soul will live on forever.

And he's saying, no, actually a human being is made up of body and soul.

Both of these together are what God has made you and are intricately part of who you are.

Now contrast that to the view of our Buddhist friends,

who typically would say the goal of life is to reach nirvana or enlightenment,

that state of life where we are free from the desires and the entrapment of the body.

We want to be free from the body and reach that state of enlightenment

where we're not constrained by our physical desires and our physical body.

But Biblical Christianity says, no, actually your body is an important part of who you are,

just as much as your soul.

Here's another author, Kelly Capuch, writes and he says,

Unlike Plato's philosophy, Plato said the soul was trapped in a box.

The Bible frames original human goodness within our bodily experience, not apart from it.

Our physicality is not a problem to be overcome.

It's a gift essential to our existence, our essence, our being.

The Bible presents a unified picture of the whole person, body and soul,

with communion with God and others,

always meant to take place in and through our physical bodies,

not apart from them.

This is our created state.

This will be our ultimate hope.

Now there's a lot in there.

We're going to pick up on some of this over the next few weeks.

But two things I want you to notice that Kelly Capuch is saying.

The first is this.

He says,

The physical body is not a consequence of sin entering in the world.

Like we were made these disembodied immaterial beings.

Sin entered the world and now we've got a physical body.

And one day we're going to go back to an immaterial disembodied being in the heavens.

Actually our physical bodies is part of how God created us

and something we're going to get in glory, in heaven.

You know in heaven you're going to have a physical body.

And so our physical bodies are not just something fallen and broken

we've got to put up with in this world,

but one day Jesus is going to come and deliver us from it.

That's actually part of how God has created us.

This is our created state.

It will be our ultimate hope and glory.

And then the second thing he says is,

The Bible presents a unified picture, body and soul, of one human being.

And what this means is that our bodies are not incidental or arbitrary to our Christian faith.

The point is, God is not only interested in the immaterial parts of our lives,

but in the totality of us.

Body, mind and soul.

They all belong to Him.

They're created by Him.

We are to enjoy Him, to be used in His worship and His service.

Now we're going to come back to this in a few weeks time,

but just look at these two scriptures that reinforce this.

Look at Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Paul writes, he says,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,

by the mercies of God,

present your bodies to God

as living sacrifices,

holy and acceptable to God.

This is your spiritual worship.

Paul doesn't just say,

present your souls, just your heart to God.

No, present your body to God.

This is part of your worship.

Or in Corinthians, Paul writes, he says,

The body is not meant for immorality or sin,

but for the Lord.

And the Lord is for your body.

God raised Jesus bodily.

He will also raise us up bodily by His power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ

and temples of the Holy Spirit?

You are not your own.

You were bought with a price.

So glorify God,

not just with your heart,

but with your body.

And so the point here is that

all of us,

our heart, soul, mind, our bodies

are part of who we are,

part of our being,

part of what God is interested in,

part of what we meant to worship Him.

We belong to Him.

I think as Christians,

sometimes we can take our thinking

more from Plato and culture

than from the scriptures.

And we tend to think of,

the immaterial disembodied

as good and holy and righteous

and the body as bad,

material as bad.

And in scripture,

it says the opposite.

And many commentators have pointed out

that when God Almighty,

the eternal uncreated one,

wanted to come to earth

to redeem us and rescue us

and save us from our sin

and from hell

and to bring us back

into relationship with Him,

how did He come?

He came as an embodied being.

Jesus Christ came.

John 1.14 reminds us,

the Word became flesh

and dwelt amongst us

and we have seen His glory.

Friends, in order for Jesus to come to us,

He had to become a human being.

In order for Jesus to be a human being,

He had to take on a physical body.

And so while most religions,

especially religions here in Asia,

Eastern religions,

want to flee from the body,

Christianity says,

no, actually you need to embrace it.

This is an important part of who you are.

I think this is one of the reasons,

if I'm honest,

why in the West,

Asian religions like Buddhism

and transcendental meditation

and even yoga to a degree

are growing so quickly

because in the West,

we feel so conflicted about our bodies.

We don't like our bodies.

We feel the aches and the pains.

We are comparing ourselves to social media.

We feel so conflicted with our bodies

and Eastern religions

typically give us a way

of escaping the body

and thinking,

the body doesn't matter.

You can hate your body,

change your body,

just if you meditate,

what's in your soul

is what really counts.

I think that's why

Eastern religions are growing

so much in the West.

But Christianity says,

no, your body is part of who you are.

Jesus died bodily

or came bodily,

died bodily,

rose again bodily,

ascended into heaven bodily,

is seated at the right hand

of the Father bodily

and will return again

in a physical body

and will bring us,

give us renewed bodies

and take us to a renewed creation

where we will live

in physical bodies.

And so the point of all this

is that our physical bodies

are not secondary.

They're not inconsequential.

This is part of what it means

to be human.

Our bodies

and our humanity.

Now here's the second thing.

Our bodies

and God's delight.

So look again

at Psalm 139 with me

and we're going to look at

verses

13 onwards.

Look at what

David writes here.

He says,

You formed my inward parts.

You knitted me together

in my mother's womb.

I praise you

for I'm fearfully

and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it

very well.

I remember the day

that we brought

our first daughter,

Sierra,

home from the hospital.

And she was born

on the 4th of April.

This isn't her,

actually.

This is Google.

Sorry

to disappoint.

I remember

standing outside

the hospital.

Sierra was in this

little carrier thing

and I went to go

get the car

and driving her home

and the fear

and the dread

of the responsibility

of taking care

of this most fragile

and most precious thing

we've ever laid

our hands on.

Right?

And I've never driven

so slowly

and so carefully

in all my life.

The thought,

the dread

of what happens

if I do something wrong.

I can't imagine

what it's like

in Hong Kong

if you have a baby

and then you've got

to take a taxi home.

Right?

You want to tell

the taxi driver,

listen,

just slow down,

buddy,

just careful here.

We've got a newborn baby.

Maybe if you haven't

had a child

but you've got

a new car,

right?

And the first time

you drive that car

you drive like

a 90-year-old granny

that's just so careful

and you're looking

all around you.

Why do we do that?

Things that are precious

to us

we treat with a sense

of dread,

a sense of awe

for fear of damaging them

or doing anything wrong.

Well,

David says here

that we are fearfully made

and the opposite

of this,

of course,

is something that's

dispensable

or worthless.

So,

you order something

from Taobao

and you get a whole bunch

of packaging

and what do you do

with the packaging?

You slice it

and you rip it

and you throw it aside

and you trample it

and maybe you use it

to clean up the dog's mess

or something,

you know.

It's worthless.

It's dispensable.

So,

you treat it like trash.

David here says

our bodies

are fearfully made.

There's a sense

of awe

and trepidation

about them.

They are so precious.

We don't treat them

just arbitrarily

or like trash.

They are awesomely made.

And then he says here

that they have been

wonderfully

or marvelously made.

I think the most

astounding thing

about this

is when you consider

what the Bible

has to say

about creation

in Genesis 1 and 2.

So,

the Bible's account

of creation

is not meant

to be a scientific

description

of how exactly

the world was formed.

The Bible's description

of creation

is who created the world

not how it was created.

And,

Genesis 1 and 2

the six days

before God rested

are broken up

into two parts.

Days 1 to 3

God is creating

the world.

Days 4 and 6

God is filling creation.

Okay?

These two parts.

And then on day 7

God rests from his creation

and enters into his rest

to enjoy it.

Now,

incidentally,

day 7

is the only one

in Genesis 1 and 2

where it doesn't say

it is morning and evening

and God

and the seventh day.

Right?

So,

remember day 1

morning and evening

the first day.

Morning and evening

the second day.

Et cetera,

et cetera.

The seventh day

doesn't say that.

Why?

Because the seventh day

hasn't ended.

God is still

at rest

and he invites us

into his rest

by being in a relationship

with him.

But,

so,

but the creation order

has a flow to it.

It starts off wide,

it starts off broad

and it narrows

and it narrows

and it climaxes

and climaxes

and becomes more

and more important

and the climax of creation

is

day 6

human beings.

So,

day 1

God made this

and it was good.

Day 2

God made it

and it was good.

It was good.

It was good.

God makes humanity

and he says

it was very good.

The climax of the whole

of creation

is mankind,

male and female,

you and I

made in God's image.

It's the high point,

the pinnacle of creation.

But,

but think about

the totality

of creation.

Think about how

insanely

intricate

and majestic

and glorious

creation is.

I mean,

think of what

David says

in Psalm 8.

When God creates

the galaxies

and the stars

and the universe,

God's point of creation

is that humanity

made in his image

is even more important

than the galaxies

and the stars.

It is climactic

above that.

And so,

in Psalm 8,

David says,

when I look at

your heavens,

the work of your

fingerprints,

the moon

and the stars

and if David

was made today,

he might say,

solar systems

and galaxies

and nebulae

and supernovas.

What is man

that you're mindful of him?

The son of man

that you care for him.

You have made us

a little lower

than heavenly beings.

Just a little lower

than angels.

You've crowned us

with glory and honor.

You have given mankind

dominion

over the works

of your hands.

You have put

all things

under his feet.

David is saying,

friends,

I'm not a cosmologist

by any stretch

of the imagination.

But one of the things

I'm astounded by

is the images

of outer space.

And especially

in the last few years

as the James Webb

telescope has been

sending back images

of space.

I think we've got

a picture here

of this Carina Nebula.

It's 7,500 light years

away.

This is a star

forming,

star birthing

kind of galaxy.

David is saying,

and Genesis is saying,

that the creation

of humanity,

male and female,

in God's image,

is even more

spectacular than this.

Than the stars

and the galaxies

and the sun

and the moon

and solar systems

and nebulae

and supernovas.

God's creation

of our physical bodies

is even more climactic,

more important,

higher,

than all of the solar systems

and outer space.

That's astounding.

I praise you

for I'm fearfully

and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works

out there

in those galaxies

but in here as well.

My soul knows it very well.

And of course,

the Bible says

that each one of us

is purposefully made.

Each one of us

is uniquely made.

God doesn't just simply

put 36 trillion cells

into a press,

hold down the handle

and out pops

another human being.

No, each one of us

is intricately made.

Now our bodies are broken

the result of sin

and the fall

and that none of us

have perfect bodies.

Only in heaven

will we get perfect bodies

so they're subject to decay

and disease

and problems

and pains and aches.

We'll talk about that

in two weeks time.

But yet,

each one of our bodies,

the DNA strands,

God has purposely

made them together.

It's not like

an Ikea table

or bookshelf

which we all have

in our houses, right?

Or an Ikea pan

that you have

the same one

as the other

7 million people

in Hong Kong.

No, no,

your body is unique.

It's intricate.

I remember a few years ago

our family went to

Chung Chao

for a weekend

and we stayed

at a guest house there

and on the bed

was a handwritten note

and it said this,

I've still got the card,

it says,

Dear Murphy family,

Happy Easter weekend.

We're so glad

that your family

will retreat here.

Please enjoy the gardens,

the food,

and rest well

and may God

meet your family

in a fresh way

this weekend.

You compare that

to when you go

to a hotel chain,

right?

And there's a card

on your bed

that says,

Welcome.

We're so glad

that you're spending

time with us.

If you need anything,

call us.

And you know,

you and the other

five million

have all got

that personalized card,

right?

You just took it

from the stock room,

put it on your bed,

nobody really cares

whether you're there

or not.

Versus

a handwritten note.

God says that

each one of our bodies

is hand formed

by the creator God.

He cares about us.

As Herman Barbing says,

Our bodies

is a marvelous piece of art

from the hand

of God Almighty.

Okay,

so that's what

we're going to look at today.

So,

how should we respond?

What does it look like

to live in light of this

this week?

Let me give us

three brief thoughts.

First one is this,

be surrendered.

Be surrendered.

We spoke about

Psalm 139

has four parts to it.

Part one says

God knows us.

Part two says

there is no place

in all creation

that we can flee

God's presence.

Part three says

that the reason

this is true

is because God

has made us

perfectly and intricately.

But part four

is a bit challenging

and interesting,

right?

I don't know if you

winced a bit

when Rachel read it to us.

In verse 19,

David says,

Oh,

that you would

slay the wicked,

O God.

Men of blood,

depart from me.

He says,

Do I not hate

those who hate you,

O Lord?

I loathe those

who rise up against you.

I hate them

with complete hatred.

I count them

my enemies.

Okay?

Not very nice.

But part of

Christian maturity

is growing

to love what God loves

and hate what God hates.

We typically think

as Christians

we shouldn't hate anything.

But actually,

growing in maturity

is thinking

God's thoughts

after him

and loving

what God loves

and despising

what God despises.

It's why it's right

to be angry

and to be hateful

towards wickedness

and injustice.

When someone's body

is violated

in something like rape,

it's right to be angry

and to hate that

because God hates it.

But then,

David says,

verse 23,

Search me,

O God.

Know my heart.

Try me

and know my thoughts.

If there is any

grievous way in me,

lead me, O Lord,

in the way of everlasting.

Friends,

the fact that

everything we have

and everything we are

belongs to God.

We belong to

body, soul,

mind, and strength

means that we should

bring all of our

totality before the Lord

and say,

Lord,

if there's anything

about me

that is grievous to you,

anything about

the way I'm living,

my mind,

what I think,

my soul,

what I love,

my heart,

what I do,

my body,

what I do with my body,

anything about me

that is contrary

to your ways,

O God,

lead me in your ways.

God,

have your way

in my life,

mind,

body,

and soul.

Jesus,

have your way.

Jesus,

you are my king.

I crown you

with many crowns.

You've died for me.

Jesus,

have your way

in my body.

Live surrendered.

Secondly,

be intentionally grateful.

As we said

at the beginning,

most of us

have an unhealthy

relationship

with our bodies.

We dislike

the way that we look.

We compare ourselves

to others.

We wish that we

looked different.

Many of us

struggle with pain

or sickness

or disease

and therefore,

sometimes we

don't see our bodies

as blessings

but as working

against our joy.

Scripture wants us

to see that our bodies

are an important part

of who we are.

It's a gift

that God has given us.

In two weeks' time,

we're going to consider

the fact that our bodies

are broken.

But for now,

to consider that

they are a gift from God.

They're not to be idolized

and worshipped

in front of the mirror

but they're also not

to be despised

or rejected,

abused

or hated.

Typically,

we don't think about

how amazing our bodies are

until they don't work so well

and age creeps up on us.

But next time you scoop

to pick up a child,

either your child

or a grandchild

or another child,

next time you go to the gym,

next time you carry

something heavy,

next time you strung a guitar,

strum a guitar,

next time you play the piano,

next time you are intimate

with your spouse,

think about the wonder

of the human body,

how amazing

and delightful it is,

the God who made you

fearfully and wonderfully.

Friends,

next time you feel pain

or you look in the mirror

and your hairline

is receding further,

you experience age

creeping up on you,

just consider how the fact

that for 99% of our lives,

we don't consider

how amazing our bodies are

and thank God,

rejoice and thank God

for the gift

of a body that works.

Here's the third thing

and finally,

be intentionally present.

One of my favorite movies

in the world

is a movie called

A Good Day in the Neighborhood

and it's about

Tom Hanks plays this actor,

this character called

Mr. Rogers

and in the movie,

Mr. Rogers is a TV personality

and there's this journalist

from some kind of

pretty small newspaper

that has assigned

the project of going

and interviewing Mr. Rogers

and the journalist

is a bit upset

because he thinks

this is a lame assignment.

I mean,

who wants to interview

poor old Mr. Rogers,

this doddery old man

on TV

and so he's not interested

but he has to do

this project

and so he gets hold

of Mr. Rogers

and he gets to have

a conversation with him

in between sets

while Mr. Rogers

is filming

these two shows.

So he's in between sets,

he's at the studio

and he has a conversation

with this journalist

and the journalist says,

listen,

you've got things to do,

I've got things to do,

I've just got to ask you

a few questions,

let's just get through

this quickly

and we can both get back

to what we really want to do

and Mr. Rogers stops him

and says,

hey,

just by the way,

son,

do you know

what is the most important

thing to me

in the whole world

right now?

And the journalist

rolls his eyes

and says,

what?

And he says,

this conversation

and I've always been

astounded by that.

When I'm talking

with people,

I must confess,

quite often

my mind is somewhere else.

Things I need to do,

emails I need to send,

that conversation.

I think it's one of the reasons

why we don't remember

people's names.

People introduce themselves,

hi,

I'm Kevin,

hi,

I'm Joe

and where's our mind?

It's somewhere else

and 30 seconds later

we can't even remember

who it is

that we're talking to.

What it would look like

to be intentionally present.

To be a human being

is not just to have

a heart and a soul,

not just to have a mind

on a stick.

It's to be present,

it's to be intentional,

it's to be an embodied

human being.

I must confess

that I thought about this

as the start of the service

walked in,

I was on my phone

because I was checking

something about the parking

and Joseph walked in

and as Joseph walked towards me,

rather than me looking him

in the eye and saying,

hey Joseph,

good to see you,

welcome,

I was on my phone

thinking about somebody else

that's not even in the building.

And so one of the problems

with our phones

is that we are

so susceptible

to being digital beings

in a digital world,

we're not even present

to our children,

our loved ones

or our family members.

And I'm the worst at this.

How often am I at home

and I'm sitting at home

in the lounge

and my children are around me

and I'm watching,

taking the sports score

and the tennis results

and then the football results

and then the Formula One results

and then the cricket results

and then the election results

and I'm not even present

with the most important people

in my life

because I'm in some other

digital world.

So what does it look like

to be intentionally present

in our lives?

So friends,

what do you think about your body?

Do you love your body?

Do you despise your body?

Do you hate your body?

Do you not care about your body?

Friends,

you may not love your body

but the sovereign God

who created a billion galaxies

and more,

who created the solar systems,

He made you.

He made you heart,

soul,

mind and body

and He loves all of you.

He loves your body.

And so this week

as you go into Hong Kong,

don't despise your body,

don't abuse your body,

take care of it

but more than anything,

thank God for it.

Be present

and worship God

with the body

that He's given you.

Let's do that now

as we come to Him

in prayer.

Let me pray for us.

Heavenly Father,

Scripture constantly amazes us.

It tells us things

that we wouldn't have thought

about ourselves

but God,

Your Word is often

what we need to hear

and we live in a world

that is so conflicted,

so confused

about what it means

to be a human being,

what it means

to have a body.

God,

we pray,

we want to think

Your thoughts after You.

We want to think like You.

We want to have

the mind of Christ.

And so God,

I pray help us.

Help us in this area

in particular.

Help us as we go

into Hong Kong this week.

Maybe as some of us

travel this week

and board an airplane

and fly somewhere else,

may we be amazed

at the intricacy

of the body

that You've given us.

God,

may we worship You

and thank You.

I pray God

when we wake up

tomorrow morning,

we will once again say,

praise be to God

for the body

that He's given me.

God,

for those of us

that struggle,

maybe we've had comments

our whole life,

maybe our parents

have said things to us,

friends,

colleagues,

for those of us

that struggle.

God,

I pray,

by Your Spirit

and in Your power,

God,

Lord,

I pray that

where words

that people have spoken

have been harsh

or hard

or derogatory,

I pray God

that those words

will lose their sting.

I pray God

that we won't

think of ourselves

according to what

people say about us

but what the sovereign,

glorious,

eternal,

uncreated God

says about us.

That You've made us

and You love us

and that we are

precious and fearfully

made and wonderful

in Your sight.

God,

I pray those of us

that struggle with our bodies,

God,

won't You set us free?

I pray we'll leave

this place today

convinced that we are

made by You

and loved by You

and precious in Your sight.

Help us,

I pray,

in Your great

and glorious name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.