Characteristics of God - Nathan Yoder

Greetings to each one tonight in the name of Jesus Christ,

our Lord and Savior. This is also a unique reality

for me. I've been we've been thinking about coming this

way for a number of years, and I'm not sure

what all the reasons and excuses were that we didn't

come sooner. But indeed, while in our mortal frame, we

can only be at one place at a time. If

we have committed to be elsewhere, then it didn't work

to come here. But eventually those things were ironed out

and we were able to and we are glad to

be here tonight. I don't think we've been in this

area once or twice before. I don't think I've ever

been in this congregation, and so there's many here that

I don't know. But hopefully by the end of the

week you'll know me a bit better, and maybe i'll

know some of your names. And for that matter, after church,

I wouldn't mind meeting some of you at least, and

i'd appreciate if you tell me your name, and as

long as I won't be offended, if I don't mind

asking you what your name is, and I'll be happy

to tell you what mine is. If you lose that

as well. And I see Matt Bank there. This is

such a privilege. Good evening, Matt. I assume marth is

here too, but very well, there she is, and Matthayer

is my nephew, and we've lived together there at Mission

Home and then he lives far away at Perkins, Oklahoma.

I don't know, maybe just a few words of a bio.

I don't want you to spend the evening wondering. I

guess if you have questions you can ask them afterwards.

Just a few thoughts. I grew up in Minnesota, little

outreach church from Hutchinson, Kansas, and lived there until I

was twenty one. Volunteered for a year of service at

Faith Mission, and that's been forty eight years ago, and

I never left, and so I haven't gotten very far

in life, but that has become home, and there I

met my wife and we continued working at Faith Mission

for I don't know. We were involved there with the

home in school for twenty five years or nearly that.

During that time, God gave us ten children. Today that

number has increased by thirty one grandchildren. And so when

we're together at one place, there's over fifty of us,

which I find hard to wrap my mind around where

just a few years ago it was my dear wife

and I and today there's a troop. When we're together,

the children are spread hither and thither. One family is

in Greece, one is going to Honduras day after tomorrow,

another son is leaving in wife are going to be

lease to serve later in the summer. He's teaching school

at this point. And my wife and I usually at

least annually and sometimes more than that, are back and

forth to Ukraine. Been there many times, lived there for

a while in six and seven, and are involved with

the Master's international ministries and the churches in Ukraine. And

so that has taken us across the Atlantic many times,

and we rejoice we have friends in many parts of

the world.

There.

Taught school at Faith Mission for a number of years.

I think I was in the classroom when you were there, Leland,

as I recall taught there in high school enough for that,

I too was blessed by the songs, O wonderful, wonderful

Word of the Lord, true wisdom. It's pages give to us.

And it goes on to say that though we may

read them a thousand times or they never know, never

grow old.

Do you find it that way?

Each line hath a treasure, each page has a pearl,

and we know that when this world passes away, God's

word shall forever endure. Isn't that amazing? And here we

have it tonight. We have the Word of God. And

then the song the second song we sang in the

phrase in that song that blesses me over and over

again and challenges me. The songwriter says, beyond the sacred page,

I seek the Lord. And that's really what we want

to do tonight, is as we look into the word

of God, we indeed want to look into the Word

of God. But beyond the sacred page, we seek the

author of the sacred page. We seek the one who

has written the sacred page, and pray that he may

do his holy work in our hearts. Maybe one comment

on that beautiful scripture from first Peter appreciated the opening

thoughts so much. I've been a farmer all my life,

or have off and on. I don't know if I'm

a farmer or not. I grew up on a farm,

milking cows, and I wasn't married long in Virginian. By

the way, there's about as many cows in Green County

as there are giraffes. But I needed a cow, said,

if we have a family, we need a cow. And

so I found one and we milked it by hand

and so on. But anyway, so I'm very familiar with

the issue of trying to bottle feet a calf and

the tongue wags around and it drools out of the

side of its mouth and so on. That word picture

is very relevant. But one thing that I notice in there,

I'm going to pick on Leland just a little bit,

but he ignored a comma in that first in verse two,

where it says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk

of the word Many people would put the word babes

as the subject of that sentence, and the word desire

is the verb. But I don't think that's the way

it is. Can somebody tell me what the subject of

that sentence is? It's you, thank you? Did you see

the word you in there? No, the word you is

not there. That sentence is as impart is an imperative.

And he's saying the way newborn babes desire the sincere

milk of the word you desire the sincere milk of

the word. It's a command to us, to each one

of us, that we would desire it the way babes

do as newborn babes. You desire the sincere milk of

the word. And so it's a you understood, it's an imperative,

it's a non negotiable. It's a command to us. And so,

like I said, I just appreciate the thoughts from that

that we're shared. Now a few other opening ideas. Sometimes

I've had a theme song or a scripture passage that

we do kind of as a memory or a memory

passion passage, and i'd like to do one this week

if you turn with me to Isaiah sixty two. And

then sometimes we are assigned a passage like the first

two verses of Psalm twenty three, and that's a nice

memory passage, but you already know it, right. I'm going

to pick on one tonight that I'm going to guess

that most of you don't know as a memory portion.

I'd like for you to memorize it this week. It's

a precious verse to me. And in Isaiah sixty two,

he uses an interesting word in verse three, verse four.

In verse four he uses the word hefsava. And I

don't know if that if that's a common word to

you or not, but most people haven't used that. I

doubt it you used it in your conversation today. But

the words that the verses that I would like for

us to memorize this week, that I will if I

remember to, and I'm my memories not like it always

like it should be, perhaps, But I'd like to read

verse three and four here in the at the beginning

of the service. And you might wonder what the preacher

has in mind with these verses. Well, let's read them

together in unison. Isaiah sixty two and verse three begin

Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the

hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the

hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken.

Neither shall thy Land anymore be termed desolate. But thou

shalt be called Hefzebah, and thy Land Beulah. For the

Lord delighteth in thee, and thy Land shall be married now,

if the Lord will, and we live until then. I

hope to unpack these verses more Sunday morning, And many

of I don't have the messages prepared in between now

and then, And I want to pray, and I want

you to pray that the Lord would have us, would

teach us what to share. But these are precious verses

to me, and I hope to think more about them

Sunday mornings. You can kind of put a marker in

your Bible there, and if you think of it before

you pillow your head tonight, you might want to just

refer back to that. Now turn with me to Romans

chapter thirteen. And this was the other portion that I

thought about using as a memory portion. And it's not

my text for tonight, but.

It gives me.

It gives us a little bit of a a reason

perhaps for our meetings here in Romans chapter thirteen. And

it's already been alluded to, but I'd like to read

from verse eleven to the end, and I think this

here gives us the impetus for a week of meetings.

Verse eleven says, and that knowing the time that now

it is high time to awake out of sleep. For

now is our salvation nearer than when we believed the

night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let

us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let

us put on the armor of light. Let us walk

honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness,

not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make

not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.

Some of us are sleeping. It's time to wake up.

We are living in last times. It's not hard to

see that the world is in a mess, and sometimes

that mess gets real close home. But the truth of

the matter is, the night is far spent, the day

is at hand. It's time to cast off the works

of darkness and put on the armor of light and

walk according to the will of God. I was thinking

about just answering the question why we need revival, and

there's already a few things were mentioned in the devotional,

But I think the primary reason we need revival is

because of the second law of thermodynamics. I don't know

if that rings a bell with you or not, but

I don't even know. I don't remember who came up

with these laws. But the second law of thermodynamics simply

says says a few things, but it simply says that

anything that is hot will cool off, and anything that

is real cold left to itself will warm up. It

tends to reach an equilibrium. And you know that's the

way it is. If your house in the wintertime, if

the heater is turned off, guess what happens to the house.

It cools off.

That's thermodynamics at work.

Today.

I was driving here from Portland, Oregon. Car takes gas.

Let's save gas. Let's just turn the engine off and

just keep on cruising without gas. We'll save gas, will

get good gas mileage until we park by the side

of the road. And that's with love thermodynamics. It involves inertia.

A cup that is dropped on the tile floor of

the kitchen breaks into a thousand pieces. It never goes

the other way. It always goes from hole to pieces,

never from pieces to hole unless somebody picks those pieces

up and glues them back together again. It always goes

the one way. A something that is living without input

and sustenance and.

Food, it will die.

It deteriorates, It weakens, it goes backward, it stops being

what it was intended to be. Any system, be it

an orchard or or a building, even or a vehicle.

Unless it is maintained without input, that system will deteriorate.

If we have an orchard and we say, well, let's

just let nature take care of itself, you come back

twenty years later that orchard's not going to be productive.

Guaranteed it will overgrow. Weeds will grow, other trees will grow,

the fruit quantity and quality will diminish.

Its Life's like that.

It's a factor of the second law of thermodynamics. And

your spiritual life is just like that too. There are

people who don't take care of their spiritual life and

it cools off and it deteriorates, and finally they're like,

where is God? Why am I even going to church?

It's not doing anything for me? And they turn their

back on God, they turn their back on the values

that they've been taught, and they walk away from it.

It's because they haven't kept their life up to date

with Jesus Christ. It's because they haven't been in the

Word of God. And the second law of thermodynamics guarantees

that if you aren't in the Word, you're going to

cool off from the Word. It's it's a fact, it's

a guaranteed law of the universe that is just that way.

The good news is Revival can reverse that. Revival puts

the cut back together again. Revival puts the gas back

into the tank. Revival puts the fertilizer back on the field.

Revival trims the trees and makes it possible for that

tree to be fruitful again. That's the purpose we are here.

That's the purpose we meet week after week. That's the

reason we open our Bibles at home, in the quietness

of our own bedrooms or office. That's the reason, as

a family we gather together and look into the Word

of God. That input must be there or we will die,

we will cool off, we will drift away from God.

And the intent of a week of meetings like this

is an encouragement of us spurring, an encouragement to draw

an eye to God. And He has promised that he

will draw an eye to us. Now, I invite you

to turn to psalmone thirty nine for our text portion tonight.

I see there are children here tonight. I'm going to

use some big words, and I hope that as children

you remember them. I hope the big children do. Two.

But the big children have already heard these words. The

younger ones probably not as often. But the goal of

tonight's message is that our hearts and minds might be

drawn to God and that in a fresh way that

we would behold Him and see what his will and

so on is for us. In this portion, I see

three characteristics of God that are their amazing characteristics, and

we're going to look at all three with the limited

time that we have. We see the omniscience of God,

and we see the omnipotence or the second one is

the omnipresence of God, and the third one is we

see the omnipotence of God. Omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence of God,

and then our response to it. Let's look at these

three characteristics as we think of our good God tonight.

And by the way, just in thinking about that, we

might ask you, I wonder if you would do a

short essay on who is God? What does it mean

that there is a God?

To you?

What would you write? What did you if we had

a discussion on that? I wonder what our open discussion

would be like what do I think of when I

think of God? And what? And you know, the amazing

thing is as we think of seeing God, we could

look at the example of Isaiah, who it says in

the year that King Usiah died, he saw the Lord

high and lifted up. And I hope that through this

week of meetings and maybe even particular killerly tonight, that

you and I will see God. Now I know we

don't see him with our physical eyes as such, but

there's something that happens when we see God, and that

is we see ourselves in light of that. That's what

happened with Isaiah. It says that as he was there

in the temple, he saw the Lord, and immediately he

saw himself, and he saw his undonness, and he said,

woe is me, for I'm undone, And he said, I'm

a man of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen

the King, the Lord of hosts, he said. And the

same thing will happen to us tonight. If you go

home tonight unchanged, if you go home unchallenged, it's because

you haven't seen God. And that is very likely because

the preacher hasn't done his work right. But I'm going

to try. I'd like to reveal him in such a

way that we see him, and in seeing him, that.

We see oursel as he sees.

Us, and in doing that we find I think what

the Psalmist here felt and realized to a degree. Here

in Psalm one thirty nine he starts this beautiful portion

of scripture. In verse one, he says, Oh, Lord, thou

hast searched me and known me. Thou hast searched me

and known me. I don't know if that makes you

feel uneasy or not, but there's somebody that knows all

about you, knows everything about you and me, everything, every detail,

every thought, every every idea. He knows it. And we'll

look more at that in just a bit. But many

people are they push back on that idea. They're they're

not sure about that. They feel uncomfortable with the idea

that there is someone and who knows everything about them.

Well, let's go on.

And read the first few verses, verses one through six,

to me describe the omniscience of God. And let's think

about that. Verse one, O Lord, thou hast searched me

and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting in mine uprising,

Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path

and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways,

for there is not a word in my tongue. But

lo o, Lord, thou knowest it all together. Thou hast

beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high

I cannot attain unto it. Omniscient, Our God is omniscient.

Will you say that with me? Our God is omnis

Let's say it again. Our God is omniscient. Okay, So

and children, I'd like for you to remember those phrases.

If I remember, I'd like for us to repeat each

one as we do the section. But our God is omniscient. Now,

omniscient has two words. It has a prefix and then

our root word. The prefix is omni, and omni simply

has the idea of all or complete, and niicient is

the root word of that is science, which simply means knowledge.

And so we have an all knowing. All science are

all knowledge God and omniscient God, omniscient. Notice what he

says about what God knows? He said, he knows you're

down sitting in your uprising, pretty insignificant details, but he

knows when you sat down today and when you got

up when you lay down and when you rose up.

God knows that about every one of us, and not

just us, but everyone. And he knows our downsitting, our uprising.

He understands our thoughts afar Off. He says here that

the idea is he knows your thoughts before you think them.

That's pretty outstanding. He knows what you're going to think

about after we're done with the message. He knows what

you're going to think about when you get home tonight

and you're enjoying popcorn or ice cream and you think

about the service and the preacher. God knows what you're

going to think about. He knows our thoughts afar off,

before we think them. That's what he tells us here.

He knows our words before we speak them.

Verse four.

He says, there's not a word in our tongue, but lo,

he knows it all together. He knows everything. There's twelve

ideas that I'd like to just briefly mention that I

found that the Bible tells us that our good God

knows about each one of us. The first one I'm

thinking about is from Matthew six, where he's talking about

our prayers and he says, there be nachi there for

like unto them. He's talking about the repetition, because he says,

your father knows what things you have need of before

you ask him.

So our father knows our prayer life.

He knows what we're going to pray before we pray it,

and he already has that. He knows about that before

we even ask him. Another thing that he knows the

Matthew tells us that he knows, he said, are not

two sparrows sold for a farthing? One of them? He said,

he knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. And

he goes on and says in verse chapter ten, verse

thirty of Matthew, but the very hairs your head are numbered.

Now that seems rather insignificant too. But God knows how

many hair you have on top there, and I guess

anywhere else for that matter.

But he knows the.

Number of hair that we have, just again, insignificant. We

do we even care, doesn't matter if we care not.

God knows, and he knows those details. Job said number three.

Job said that this was in the midst of his trial,

towards the end, and it was Job, of course, was suffering.

And he says, behold, he was looking for God. He

was trying to understand God. And he says in chapter

twenty three and verse eight, he says, behold, I go forward,

but he is not there. Backward, but I cannot perceive him.

On the left hand, where he doth work, but I

cannot behold him. He hides it himself on the right

hand that I cannot see him.

Job was like, God, where are you?

And then he says, as he recognizes that, He says,

but he knoweth the way that I take. He knows

the way that I take. And he says, when he

has finished working with me, I shall come.

Forth as gold.

God knows the way that you are on. God knows

the path that you are on. He knows the way

that we take. He knows exactly what trials to bring

into that way to perfect our character. He knows the

way that I take, and everything about that way. Indeed,

he knows everything about us. He knows we are the

sheep of his pastor. The Psalma says, he bottles our tears.

He knows the way that I take. Even when we

can't perceive him, he knows he's there. Another thing. God

knows what we do. Psalm one six for the Lord

knows the way of the righteous, but the way of

the ungodly shell perish. Indeed, God knows what we do.

Another thing that I found that God knows I take

from Psalm one oh three, where it says He knoweth

our frame and he remembers that we are dust. Isn't

that good news? God knows how much you can bear.

God knows your limits, and he will never put on

us anything but that.

We are able to bear it.

It's like the promise from First Corinthians ten where he

says that there's no temptation taken us, but such as

is common to man. But God is faithful and he

will not suffer us to be tempted. Above that we

are able. He knows our frame. I think that was

number five. Number six. God knows our imagination. Some people

here have a fantastic imagination. I'm sure there's always some

in every group that can imagine some pretty amazing things. Well,

David told Solomon, and thou, Solomon, my son, know thou

the God of thy father, and serve him with a

perfect heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord

searcheth all hearts, and he understandeth all the imaginations of

the heart. So even in your sometimes you have pretty

interesting I don't know if I should call them wild imaginations.

Maybe people in the West don't have wild imaginations. But

God knows even the imaginations that you and I might

have another thing that God knows. God knows our secrets.

God knows our secrets. Did you know that. When I

was a little fella, I remember after church we'd go

out back, and you know, we were the six and

eight and ten year old boys, and we'd tell each

other our secrets, and we'd swear each other to secrecy.

You know, we aren't going to tell these secrets to

anybody else. These are just our secrets. Well, big people

have secrets too, And Nebukinezzar had a problem.

He had a.

Dream and he wanted to know what this dream meant.

The dream was significant enough that he called his wise

men together and he said, he wants to know what

the dream meant. They said, well, tell us the dream

and we will tell you the interpretation. Nebukzer said, I'm sorry,

I don't remember the dream. You tell me the dream

and then tell me the interpretation. Well, they said, of course,

nobody can do that, and so Nebukanezer was not happy

with that answer, and he got very he got upset

angry with them, And finally, in the midst of that confusion,

Daniel comes on the scene. They send for him and

he comes in and they discussed this issue, and Daniel

answered this way, he said, blessed be the name of God,

forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. He

revealeth the deep and secret things. He knows what is

in the darkness and the light. Dwelleth with him as well.

And so then nebucon Nezer said, well, I had this dream.

Can you tell me what the dream means? And Daniel said,

it's not in me. But listen to what he told

nebuc Nezer. He says, but there is a god in

heaven that revealeth secrets. There's a god in heaven that

knows the secret things about you. And he says he

will make known to the king, to King nebuk Nezar,

what shall be in the latter days. And he goes

on to discuss this dream. Now, I wonder what the

secrets of.

Your heart are.

Do you have secret fears, do you have secret desires?

Do you have secret things that you're hiding there that

you hope your parents don't find out. Do you have

secret screts that you hope the preacher never discovers. Do

you have secrets that you don't want anybody else to know.

There's one who does know. He knows them better than

you do. God knows your secrets. Bible tells us that

God knows the secrets of our heart. In fact, Hebrews

four thirteen tells us neither is there any creature that

is not manifest in his sight, But all things, all

things are naked and open before the eyes of Him

with whom we have to do. That's our good God.

There's nothing hid from his sight at all. And you know,

as we think of God's knowledge, his omniscience, there's another thing,

couple more things yet, that we need to look at.

The ninth thing is that God even has assigned names

to the inanimate things of nature. The Bible tells us

that He telleth the number of the stars. He calleth

them all by their names. The number of the stars.

I don't know if you know how many stars there are,

but I don't. The number is so far out of

our grasp we can't really wrap our mind around the

idea of the stars. There are millions of stars.

There are.

In fact, they tell us there are millions of galaxies,

and the galaxies have billions of stars, and all of

a sudden, the numbers just kind of we don't know.

There's just so many. But there's a God who names them,

and he talks to them, and he calls them by name.

He knows each one of them. Some people say that

space is infinite. I beg to differ. There's one who

is infinite, and that's our good God, and he makes space.

I think God holds the universe, the entire realm of space,

in the palm of his hand, and he looks at it,

and he counts the stars and numbers them, and talks

to them and makes them shine as bright as he

wants him and puts them back in their place.

That's God.

He tells the stars and numbers them. Can you imagine that?

It's outside of my comprehension? Says he calls them all

by name. I think the reason he does that. Psalm

one for seven, verse five says great is the Lord

and of great power. His understanding is infinite. His understanding

is infinite, and infinite means there's no end, there's no

way to describe it, there's no way to wrap your

mind around it. His understanding is infinite tonight. Now, if

he knows that about the inanimate things, what do you

think he knows about you? I'm thankful tonight that even

though I don't know your name, God does. God knows

the name. He knows you personally. And that's true regardless

where in this globe we may go. Everyone is personally

known to God. Certainly if the inanimate things, if he

takes care of the stars and calls them by name,

he knows you and your name, and your needs and

your wishes and your desires.

He knows that.

It's amazing, you know. For the If you go up

to Washington, d c. And visit the Arlington Cemetery, there

is there the tomb of the unknown soldier. He's not

unknown to God. I don't know if there's even a

soldier in there, but if there is, God knows everything

about him. The one that was killed out in the

the ocean and the fish consumed him, God knows, the

one the fire destroyed. God knows. There's just no way

to get away from that. God knows. The unknowns are

known to him. In fact, two, Timothy tells us, nevertheless,

the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal.

The Lord knoweth them that are his.

The Lord knows that what a blessing it is. In fact,

he told Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb,

I knew you, Jeremiah one five. Ponder that one. God

knew everything about you before you were conceived. God knew

you now again that that's beyond what we can comprehend.

That's that's knowing the unknown. I mean, how can you

know something before it is?

God?

Does God knew Jeremiah before he was born, before he

was conceived. He knew you before you were conceived. As well,

as we ponder this thing, I come up with a

few conclusions. We are never out of God's mind. He's

never distracted that he's not thinking about you. He knows

about us twenty four, seven, three, six, five, and all

the seconds that make that up. That's God. And he

says in verse seventeen and eighteen, here just jumping down

if you're still at one. Psalm one thirty nine, Verse

seventeen says, how precious are thy thoughts? Unto me?

Oh God?

How great is the sum of them. If I should

count them, they are more in number than the sand.

And when I am awake, I am.

Still with thee. I believe that if God had a refrigerator,

your picture would.

Be on it. If He had a bulletin board where

he keeps track of all his friends, your picture'd be

right in the middle.

That's our God. Each of us are that.

Known and that important, and that his friend, as it were.

God knows.

Two more things. God knows our future. For I know

the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,

thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you

an expected end. God knows where you're going to be,

what you're going to do tomorrow. And he knows our

future just as though it had already happened. And that

leads me yet I save the best to last. And

I want you to ponder this. I hope you never

forget it. And that is that God knows all the

what ifs of your life. And I take that from

several things from let's think about what Jesus said, Well,

look at several examples. You know, when we think of

we know some of the things that happened in the past.

We know some of the things that are happening today.

We know nothing of the future, but God does, and

so we say, well, that's enough.

But it's not enough. To God. He knows the what ifs, for.

Example, the what could have been, the what might have

been if we would have And you can finish the sentence.

Let's look at some examples. Jesus said to these towns

of Chorasin and beth Sayeeda. He said, woe unto thee,

because he says, if the mighty works, if the let

me get it right here. For if the mighty works

had been done entire and sidon which were wicked cities,

if the mighty works had been done entire inside in

which you have seen, they would have repented. How could

God say that with surety? Of course he could have.

But the works were not done entire inside. But he

said if they had been, that's what would have happened.

They would have repented. Jesus knew that He knew what

would have been had those conditions been there. Now I

know we can't go there, but he knows. You know,

you can make the sentence however you want to. How

would I be tonight if I had been born in China.

God knows the answer to that question. What would my

life be like if I would have only had two

siblings or twenty two? God knows the answer to that question.

What if I would have gone to town today, who

would I have met? God knows the answer to that.

What if I wouldn't have gone to town, or whatever

the case may be, the what if? And now another

example from scripture that is I find just amazing. It's

the story of David in Keela. David was running from Saul,

and Saul was after him and hunting him. And David

came to the little town of Keila. He and is,

what was it four hundred men? I think, And he

was there with them. They were brothers of his and

I mean friends. And then Saul heard that David was

in the town of Keila, and he says, I'm going

to go get him. This is this story is in

First Samuel twenty three. And so David, of course, is

concerned about this situation, and so he prays, and he

asked the Lord, and he said, will Saul come and

to find me here? And God said he will come.

And then he said, oh Lord, will the men of

Keilah deliver me? Up to Saul or will they protect me?

And God said, they will deliver you up. That's the

way it's going to be. Now, if that's all we

knew of the story, we'd know that's what God said,

and that's what happened. But that's not what happened. What

did happen?

So David, because God.

Knew that and told him what would happen, David flees

Keyla and guess what. Saul did not come Keila. The

men of Keilah did not deliver him up. So figure

that out. So did God not say the truth? He said,

Saul will come, the men of Keilah will deliver you up.

But it didn't happen that way. Now, what's going on

there is God knew what would happen if David would

stay there. But because David knew God's will, or David

acted from what God told him, David went elsewhere and

Saul didn't come. In other words, God knew the what ifs,

what would happen if he would have done this certain thing,

and the very thing that God said would happen didn't

happen at all.

And the point here.

Is that God knew what would happen if David would

stay there. He also knew, of course, what would happen

if David would leave, and he didn't tell David that.

But the whole point is that is still true in

your life tonight. So God knows where where, God knows

what could be if we dedicate our life to him.

In other words, we could say, well, so this man

the way he is going now, he is going to

run off the track. He is going to drift away

from God. And God knows that. But that can change

when we repent and we humble our heart before God.

Suddenly that trajectory is changed in a completely new directory,

in a new direction. God knows what would have happened

had we continued on in that way. It's like the

Jonah goes to Nineveh and he says, in forty days

Ninevah will be destroyed. Was Nineva destroyed in forty days? No?

Why not?

Was God wrong?

Of course? Not Ninevah would have been destroyed. But Nineva repented,

And therein there is another glorious truth, and that is

it's the whole thing of what the change that prayer

and repentance brings to this whole idea of God's foreknowledge.

So God knows that when you go on the road tonight,

you're going to have a head on collision and be killed.

But we pray Lord protect us when we go on

the road and it doesn't happen. That's the whole thing

of prayer. Prayer changes what would have happened so that

the thing that would have didn't happen. That's one aspect

of the what if, And of course the other is

what could have been. So we are living here tonight,

and we are you know, we live day by day

and so on. What could be if I dedicate my

life to God? What could be if I go speak

to that neighbor? What could be if I repent and

am reconciled with that strained relationship.

God knows.

God knows that, and he gives us the opportunity to

uh to find our way to the to the if,

to the carrying out of that possibility. It's an awesome

thought as we ponder that. So God not only knows

what was, what is, what will be, He knows what

could be. He knows the what ifs in our life.

As I ponder that, on the one hand, it's kind

of a frightening thought. On the other hand, it brings

us a total security. When we are in the will

of God and in his hand, and he knows where

we are going and what we are doing, and we

submit to that, the possibilities are incredible. Oh, the depth

of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out?

We must go on.

Let's look at the second idea here, in verses seven

through verse twelve, we look at the idea of omnipresence.

Omnipresence Verse seven, Whither shall I go from Thy spirit?

Whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend

into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed

in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the

wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts

of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me in?

Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely

the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be

light about me. Yeah, the darkness hideth not from thee,

but the night shineth as the day. And the darkness

and the light are both alike. And to THEE our

God God is omnipresence. Say it with me, our God

is omnipresent, and here he gives those examples. You know,

as I think about the omnipresence of God again, it's

an awesome thing. I have had the opportunity to worship

with believers in Ukraine and in Beliefe, and in Papua

New Guinea, and in Kenya and many other places Canada,

and in Virginia and now in Oregon. And guess what,

There is a personal God there with us wherever we are.

It matters not where we go, and I'm so thankful

for that. I did a little bit of math. I said,

what if God would just go from your house to

your house, to your house to your house, Even if

God would spend one minute at each house, how long

would it take him to get around? Well, there's about

the Google says there's one hundred and thirty million households

in America, and if he spent one minute at each house,

it would take it would take what was the math here?

It would take two million hours to get around, or

ninety thousand days, two hundred and fifty years. So if

God just spent one minute at your house just to

get around the US would take two hundred and fifty years.

Isn't that incredible? Well, God can be at every house,

in every heart, all the time simultaneously. We really again

can't wrap our minds around that. But that's our God.

The only way that's possible is what it says in

Jeremiah twenty three, where he says, do not I fill

the heaven and the earth? He asked the question in

verse seven, whither shall I flee from thy presence? Jonah tried.

He tried to flee from the presence of the Lord.

Was he successful? Of course not the Some years ago

we had a brother come to our school when I

was teaching, and before class he went around and had

he just took construction paper, I don't know, two inches tall,

six inches wide, and he put two very realistic eyes

on there. It looked like somebody was looking like this here.

And he had maybe fifty of them, and he put

them over there, on top of the door, right here,

over there, one here, one by the bench, one back

in the classroom, one in the bathroom, one in here,

one there, one downstairs, one upstairs. He put those eyes

all over the place, and then he taught us a

little lesson the eyes of the Lord are in every place.

Beholding the evil and the good, and we learned anew

that you can't nowhere in school, everywhere you went there

was eyes. Over there there was eyes. And it reminded

us that the eyes of the Lord are in every place.

He is the one that inhabits eternity. Indeed, I am

so thankful for the omnipresence of God. I'm going to

move on. There's much more that could be said, but

I want to spend a little more time with the

third omni factor. Here in verse thirteen through sixteen, notice

the omnipotence of God. Verse thirteen says, for thou hast

possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise THEE, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.

My substance was not hid from THEE. When I was

made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts

of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet,

being unperfect, and in Thy book all my members were written, which,

in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none

of them. The omnipotence of God. Can you say it

with me? I'll say it. Our God is omnipotent.

You help me.

Our God is omnipotent. And David uses the creation of

our bodies to prove that, or to paint that picture.

Other words omniscience and omnipresence and omnipotence are not used

in this portion, but the ideas are painted all over it.

As you think of omnipotence, there's many things that could

have been used that would be as meaningful. Salvation, for example,

is a wonderful factor of omnipotence. That God can take

a sinner and turn him into a saint, and turn

around a person who is on his way to hell

and set him on a track going to Heaven. That's

a miracle. That's a factor of the omnipotence of our

good God. And so we see that in salvation, we

see it in creation. There's so many different things we

could look at in creation. The vastness of creation and

the millions and billions of stars that we already had

reference and there's it's so big, and God made them.

God made them with a spoken word. That's omnipotence in

six days. God made these things, but then he turns

the attention to us. And the simple truth is that

in a little speck of watery mass, the size less

than the size of the dot of an eye and

your bible, that's where you and I started. And in

that little speck there is the DNA recipe that determines

what color your hair is, and what color your eyes are,

and your facial features and all the recipe that.

Makes you you your.

Fingerprint, your eye iris thing that makes it that you

can walk through an airport and you don't have to

do finger printing or whatever. You just look at the cameron.

They take a picture of your iris and they do

facial recognition because your face looks different from mine and

anybody else on the planet. Can you imagine that? And

that is that those details were all determined when there

was just two cells, just two cells, and from that

small beginning we grow and there's sixty trillion cells that develop,

and you and I have about one hundred thousand miles

of nerve fiber. We have about sixty thousand miles of

blood vessels that carry blood throughout your body. You have

two hundred and fifty bones. To say nothing of the

joints and the ligaments and the muscles. Verse thirteen says

that God knit us together in our mother's womb. And

he says such knowledge is too wonderful for him. You know.

He says that in his book all our members were created,

they were imperfect. Yet it says all our members were written,

which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was

none of them. Before there were any of those members there,

God recognized them and identified them and knew them, and

made them and put them in the right order, and

put your eyes right in the front of your face

instead of on the ends of your toes, and those

kinds of things God did, those kinds of details ongoing

for every one of us. It's incredible. It's the omnipotence

of our good God. We are His workmanship, created in

Christ Jesus onto good works. Many things we could ponder

as we reflect on that.

We could look at the.

Example of Mary and how that baby was put in

her womb by the power and shadowing of the Holy Spirit,

and so on. We won't have time to go there tonight,

But as we reflect now, just for a moment, on

God's omniscience and God's omnipresence and God's omnipotence. Then what

is our response to that? What is our response? He

says in verse twenty three. And this is a revival message.

And I'd like for you to consider that, he says, Lord,

as I ponder your greatness and your goodness, he says,

search me, o, God, and know my heart, try me

and know my thoughts, and see if there be any

wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

I think what he was saying is, Lord, you know

everything about me anyway. There's nothing that I can hide.

You know every detail of every thought and every prayer

and everything I do, and even what could be. You

know all those things about me. And so he just

opens his life and he says, Lord, search me. You know.

At the first I said, sometimes we get a little

uneasy about somebody knowing too much about us. But as

David reflected on God, he came to the place where

he said, my life is open.

Search me, God.

And then he even invites him to test him, to

prove him, to help him, to cleanse him, to show him.

And that takes a that's a step of vulnerability.

Are you willing to do that?

Tonight, are you willing to open to have God search

and try and see if there is a wicked way there,

and then to lead us in the way everlasting. I

don't think David did this arrogantly. He didn't say, Lord,

just take a look at me. I'm just here and

you can just you know. No, it wasn't that at all.

It was with deep humility that David invites God to

do his work in his heart. And the amazing thing

there is as I look at that is God knows

You're not perfect. I'm not perfect. We have works, we

have flaws, we have things that are imperfect. There's things

about us that we need to grow. There's things that

we want to mature yet and that we're working on.

And God knows that, and he knows that much better

even than we do.

But he still loved.

Isn't that amazing that God knows your weaknesses and he

knows your shortcomings and he still loves you as his child.

That's our God. He watches over, he cares for. There's

no skeletons that will tumble out of our closet that

will take God by surprise. He knew all along they

were there might take you by surprise or me, but

not our good God. God knows that. And so this

week I hope, as we consider this and we recognize

who God is and his greatness and his goodness, that

we will not shy from Him, but that we will

run to Him and open our life before him to

the best of our ability, to draw an eye to

Him and have him draw an eye to us. I'd

like for our conclusion prayer, I'd like for us to

simply stand and pray together. If you're still there at

Psalm one thirty nine, and maybe you haven't memorized I

don't know, but those last two verses, if you can,

in the sincerity of your heart, invite God to do

that in your heart, I'd like for us to do

that together. Some of you are still flipping to it

Psalm one thirty nine for our concluding prayer, the opening

of that, let's pray that together. Shall we stand and

let us pray Psalm one thirty nine, Verse twenty three

and four, Search me, O, God, and know my heart,

Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there

be any wicked way in me, and lead me in

the way everlasting.

Oh Lord God.

We we mean that prayer. We desire for our life

to be open before you. And indeed that's not even how.

We should pray. Our life is open before you.

We've considered that tonight, that there is nothing hid from you.

But Lord, help us to see that, help us to

recognize that our life is open, and to be willing

to do inventory ourself. And as you test us and

try us and reveal yourself to us, Lord, we want

to drawn to you, and we invite you to draw

nie to us. We pray or dismissal blessing upon each

one that is gathered here. I pray that you would

keep us from the enemy of our soul. And as

we go from here, may your grace and peace and

mercy be upon us. Direct our paths to your will

bring us together again tomorrow night, as we open your

word again and look at those wonderful truths that are

there that will endure forever. We pray this in the

precious name of Jesus our Lord. Amen, you are dismissed.

God bless you.