This is Our God : Psalm 139 | Lori Graham

Good afternoon, New Life Church.

How's everybody doing today?

Isn't it great to be in the house of the Lord?

It is great to praise Him and be in His house.

Amen.

I was just looking at those pictures behind me, and it made me go back to that time when I was working in television, and we had dedicated weather pixels that would send us beautiful photos.

There is one of those women here today, and I'm so happy that she's here with us today to uh join us for our service.

Uh, but it just brought me back.

I was looking at all those photos and thinking of the beautiful photos that I was lucky enough to receive when I worked in television.

Uh, we are in a series called Summer in the Psalms.

I just love this series.

Um, if you have missed any of the messages in French or in English, I would encourage you to go back and to listen to those messages because they have just been such a blessing.

And when I started looking at the Psalms, you know, you look at the book of Psalms, and it is the longest book in the Bible.

It's got 150 chapters.

And then I started going down this rabbit hole thinking, well, wait a second, what is the longest book in the Bible?

Like when you look at the word count.

And it depends how you look at it.

So if you look at the original Hebrew, can anybody guess what the longest book in the Bible is?

I did not know this.

No guessing, huh?

Everybody's too timid.

I'll tell you, it is the book of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, with over 33,000 words.

Genesis comes in second with just over 32,000 words, and the book of Psalms is third with over 30,000 words.

But when you translate it all into English, the book of Psalms is the longest book in the Bible.

And I guess it just took more English words to translate that big, beautiful book of poetry.

So it is the longest book in the Bible by word count in English, by chapter, and it also has more contributors than any other book in the Bible.

Most people think that King David wrote all of the Psalms.

He wrote most of them, but not all.

King David is credited with 73 of the Psalms.

Asaph, who was a Levite choir leader appointed by David, he wrote 12 Psalms.

The sons of Korah, who were Temple Guild musicians, they're credited with 11 Psalms.

King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, responsible for a lot of the Proverbs.

He actually wrote two of the Psalms.

He was David's son.

Moses, the ancient leader of Israel, who is credited with the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, he wrote one Psalm, Psalm 90.

And then there were a couple of other temple musicians that wrote Psalms.

And finally, there are about 50 Psalms that are anonymous that don't actually have an author attached to their title.

So they were likely written by temple worship leaders and prophets across Israel's history.

But the book of Psalms is a book of poetry, and it is the book of the Bible that is most often used in song lyrics.

Most often used in psalm lyrics.

It expresses raw emotion, anything from pure joy to anger to despair.

And I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes as I'm reading through the book of Psalms, I'll catch a line in there and I'll think, wait a second, I know that line.

And the reason I know it is because we sing it.

It's actually been turned into a song.

And I will give you an example.

So the very last line of Psalm 150 says, which is the last line of the book of Psalms, it says, Let everything.

That has breath.

Praise the Lord.

Right?

And now when I read it, I can't help but say it like that.

Let everything.

I need to get the musicians back up here.

That has breath.

Praise the Lord.

Or what about this one?

Bless the Lord, oh my soul.

Oh my soul.

Right?

That's Matt Redmond, 10,000 Reasons.

It comes directly from Psalm 103.

Or what about this?

Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

I'm gonna regret singing that on the podcast.

Maybe they can fix that in post.

But that comes from Psalm 84.

And then there's Psalm 23, of course, which is the most famous Psalm in the Bible, and that has been used in so many songs, so many contemporary Christian songs, but also in secular music as well, in hip-hop and RB.

You've got U2's Psalm 40.

That is a lyrical adaptation of Psalm 40.

And then just a couple of weeks ago, Pastor Mark was here and he was preaching on Psalm 137.

And when he said the first line, I was singing it in my head.

Boney M, anybody?

Okay, I'm going way, way, way back.

Whereas most of Scripture speaks for, speaks to us, rather.

The book of Psalms, they say, is the book that speaks for us.

It speaks for us because it is the book that expresses emotion.

And we can often relate to the emotions that the writers are expressing.

And more often than not, the book of Psalms really, they're hymns of praise.

So they're really hymns of praise that the Israelites would sing back to God, reminders really, just of who God is: his goodness, his faithfulness, his greatness, and his overwhelming, never-ending love for us.

And as we sang those uh hymns earlier today, those songs, didn't that just change your heart as you poured out your praise to God?

And that's what the Psalms did.

They were hymns of praise, reminders of who God is.

And today we are going to dive into Psalm 139.

Psalm 139 is a psalm that I feel is one of the most poetic psalms in the Bible.

It's a psalm that's written by David, and it's the psalm that talks about being fearfully and wonderfully made.

You know that psalm?

Fearfully and wonderfully made.

And incidentally, our children are actually studying that psalm in children's ministry.

So, parents, you will have something to discuss with your kiddos on the ride home.

Psalm 139 talks about God's attributes, the attributes of God, and it deals really with big theological ideas.

So it deals with the omniscience of God, the fact that God knows everything.

It deals with the omnipotence of God, the omnipotence of God, the fact that God is all-powerful, and it deals with the omnipresence of God, the fact that God is everywhere all at once.

So it deals with really big theological ideas, but it deals with them in a language that we can understand and that we can digest.

And so as I was looking at Psalm 139, I was thinking that as David was writing this psalm, he was probably thinking, like, this is our God.

This is the God that we praise.

And that is the title of our message today.

It is, This is our God.

And we're gonna pick it up right from the very beginning.

We're gonna look at the first four uh four verses to begin with.

And David begins like this He says, You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise.

You perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down.

You are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, you know it completely.

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit, when I rise, you know when I come, when I go, when I lie down, you know me completely.

These first four verses of Psalm 139 deal with the omniscience of God, that God is all knowing.

And yes, He is.

God knows everything, He knows everything there is to know.

He has all knowledge, all information about the created world, of course, about heaven and earth, past, present, and future.

But David is saying that this God that knows everything knows me.

He knows me.

He knows everything there is to know about me.

And Jesus said that in Matthew 10:30.

Matthew 10:30

Jesus said, even the very hairs on our head are numbered.

That the God of the universe who created everything in six days knows me.

They estimate that there are about 8.3 billion people on the planet right now.

8.3 billion people.

And to think that God knows each and every one of them so personally, and that doesn't include all the people who have ever lived.

They believe, they estimate that over a hundred billion people have lived on planet Earth.

Can you imagine?

And that God knows every single one of them as if there were just one, as if there were just one.

And that was really a clear distinction in those days between Yahweh, the God of Israel, and all the other pagan gods who seem to just sort of rule from afar.

Because Yahweh, Jehovah, Jirah, he was a personal God, an intimate God.

Not only does he have all information and all knowledge, but he knows people inside and out.

And not only does he know everything that we do, like David said, you know when I come, when I go, when I stand, when I rise, you know everything there is.

He doesn't only know what we do, but he knows what we think.

I mean, that is amazing.

He knows what we're gonna say before we say it.

It says, before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you, you know it completely.

So he knows what we're gonna say before we even say it, because he knows our thoughts.

And he knows what we're gonna think before we think it.

I mean, that is amazing.

He knows past, present, and future, and some of you right now might be sitting there saying, Eee, I don't know.

The thought of an all-knowing God who knows everything there is to know might be a little bit terrifying.

Let's face it, there's nobody that knows everything there is to know about us, right?

I mean, that is human nature.

When we meet people, right, what do we want?

We want people to like us, right?

And so sometimes we try to hide the things that we don't like about ourselves because we think, hmm, if they knew that, would they still like me?

Would they pull away from me?

And God is saying here, we can hide from others, but we cannot hide from an all-knowing God.

We might try to look good in front of others, but God knows who we really are.

I mean, we might even try to do the right thing, but God knows why we do what we do.

God sees the motive, he sees our heart, he sees why we do the things that we do.

So, yes, we can hide from others, but we cannot hide from an all-knowing God.

And so some of you sitting there might be thinking, that is a little bit scary.

But when David thinks about it, this is what David says in verse 5 and 6.

He says, You hem me in behind and before, you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

When David thinks about it, David is in awe because he's saying that the God who knows everything, the God who knows everything about me, my flaws, my failures, my mistakes, he knows me completely and he still loves me.

He still loves me, that God is all-knowing, and he is supremely loving.

He knows everything there is to know about me, and he doesn't pull away, he draws near.

And he still loves us.

He knows the worst there is to know about us, and he still loves us.

It's pretty hard to fathom because I think if we're honest, sometimes we might find it hard to love ourselves.

And we think, how could God love me?

How could he love me?

But God's love is not like human love.

Human love runs out.

Human love can be conditional.

Human love can be transactional.

I'll love you if, I'll love you when.

Human love can be fickle, but God's love is not like human love.

God's love never runs out, his love is unconditional, and God's love is not based on what we do, it's based on who he is, and God is love because the Bible says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That's how much he loves us.

That while we were dead in our sin, while we were not even thinking about God or going counter to his ways, Jesus died on the cross for us.

He said, Yes, our sin deserves death, but I'm gonna step in and I'm gonna pay the price so that you can be reconciled to the Father and you can have eternity.

You can live in heaven with the Father, so that when God sees us, he doesn't see our mistakes, he sees his son, he sees the radiance and the righteousness of Jesus.

That's what he sees when he looks at us.

What a comfort to know that there is nothing that we can do to make God love us more.

And there's nothing we can do to make him love us less because it's not about us.

It's not about us, it's about him, and God is love.

This is our God.

That yes, God knows everything.

He knows everything there is to know about you.

That is the omniscience of God, and he loves you anyway.

That is his grace, that he is not just all-knowing, he is all-loving.

I think of the story in the New Testament in the book of John, when Philip meets Jesus, and he's so excited to introduce Nathaniel to Jesus because he wants to tell him, hey Nathaniel, like this is the one the prophets spoke about all throughout the Old Testament.

This is who the prophets were speaking about.

This is Jesus of Nazareth.

And Nathaniel's response is, Nazareth, really?

Like, can anything good come from there?

And when Jesus sees Nathaniel approaching, he says to him, Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.

And Nathaniel looks at him and says, How do you know me?

And Jesus answered, I saw you, Nathaniel.

While you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you, I saw you.

And Nathaniel declares, Rabbi, you are the Son of God.

You are the king of Israel.

Now we have no idea what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree.

The Bible never mentions that.

Or was he experiencing a moment of despair?

Was he lost in his shame?

We don't know.

And it's probably nothing that he was doing or saying, but probably something that was happening within him, in his heart and in his mind.

But what we do know is that it was so secret, Nathaniel knew nobody else could have known what he was doing except the Son of God.

And he says, Rabbi, you are the Son of God.

You are the King of Israel.

That God knows everything there is to know about you.

That is the omniscience of God.

And he loves you and he's calling you.

That is his grace.

He's not just all-knowing, but he is supremely loving.

Psalm 139 goes on to say, Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you're there.

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me.

Your right hand will hold me fast.

Verses 7 to 10 speak of the omnipresence of God, that He knows everything, and He is everywhere all at once.

That heaven is not too high, the pit of death is not too low, that God is sovereign.

British theologian Adam Clark says, We witness God's glory in heaven, his power on earth, and his righteous judgment in the pit of hell.

His glory in heaven, his power on earth, and his judgment in hell.

That there is nowhere that we can go, that we can flee God's presence.

His presence is everywhere.

And when you think of that, 8.3 billion people on the planet, and he can listen and be there and respond to each one simultaneously.

It's amazing.

Notice also that David says, he mentions his spirit.

He says, Where can I go from your spirit?

Now keep in mind, David would not have had the same knowledge of the triune God that we have today.

But by the inspiration of God, he speaks of God's spirit as part of the essence of who he is.

That God is all-knowing and he is everywhere all at once.

That we cannot flee the presence of the Lord.

Jonah tried.

Remember that story?

God told him to go to Nineveh, which was the enemy of Israel.

Go and preach there.

And what did Jonah do?

He was like, uh-uh, I'm gonna go in the other direction.

He got on a boat, he went in the other direction, but the Bible says, but Jonah ran away from the Lord and he headed for Tarshish.

After paying the fare, he went aboard and he sailed for Tarshish to flee the Lord.

And it's like, how well did that work out for you, Jonah?

That God was basically saying, Jonah, you can run, but you cannot hide, and I'm gonna send a big fish to bring you back.

I'll do whatever it takes to bring you back.

That is the God that we serve.

God is everywhere.

Proverbs 15, 3 says, the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

But this isn't some creepy eye in the sky type of thing or some type of cosmic surveillance.

Like I know we would probably feel very unsettled if we knew that there were video cameras watching us all day and all night, 24 hours a day.

Although we do have our devices, which I think are listening.

They're probably listening right now.

Watch your settings.

It's a public service announcement.

But imagine if there were video cameras watching us at all times.

That would make us feel uneasy, right?

It would make us feel unsettled because we would be thinking of the intentions of the people who are watching us.

Like, what are they doing?

Why do they want to know this?

Why do they want to know everything about me?

But here, David speaks of God's eternal presence as a comfort.

He says, Your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

When David thinks of God's presence, he thinks of it as a comfort.

Just as a child would be comforted by the presence of a loving parent, a loving parent who has their best interest at heart.

It's a comfort to know that God is with us no matter what we face.

Psalm 23, David says, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

God says, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.

He is the good shepherd, the one who will leave the 99 sheep under his care to go diligently searching for the one who loses his way until he finds it.

That is our God.

This is the God that we serve.

He is everywhere, and we are under his care.

That God is ever present and he is an ever present help.

God knows us and he loves us.

That is the omniscience of God.

But do we know him?

God is with us, that is the omnipresence of God.

But do we Spend time in his presence, do we love to just go to him and spend time with him?

Because I'm convinced that it's only when we get to know him, and it's only when we get to know how much we are loved that we can fully trust him in all things.

It's only when we know how much we are loved that the idea of God knowing everything and being everywhere brings peace and relief and comfort, not condemnation.

They say that most human misery comes from the feeling of being unloved.

That more than the challenges we face, more than the obstacles we face, it's the feeling of being forsaken that brings the greatest pain.

That often the feeling of abandonment is worse than the actual trial or challenge that people go through.

And for a long time they say that science treated broken hearts as just this metaphorical emotional state.

But now neuroscientific imaging has completely changed that view.

That because of brain mapping, studies led by researchers at UCLA and the University of Michigan show that social rejection and emotional abandonment activate the exact same neural pathways as severe physical pain.

That when a person feels unloved or abandoned, it says the brain processes that trauma using the same hardware that it uses for physical injury.

How interesting is that?

That the Harvard study of adult development, which was the longest-running study on human happiness in history, spanning over 85 years, its ultimate conclusion was that the single greatest predictor of human health, longevity, and joy was not fame, not career success, but it was the quality of our relationships.

And a study on the mortality risk was a massive study.

It showed that chronic loneliness and feeling disconnected increases a person's risk of early death by about 30%.

And the data explicitly noted that social isolation carries a health risk equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, far outpacing the damage caused by physical obstacles like obesity.

That is unbelievable.

But God is saying here in this Psalm, even though people reject you, I will never leave you.

Amen.

I was just listening to a podcast this week, and in this podcast, they were talking about shepherding.

And they were mentioning that every once in a while in the spring season when the lambs are born, every once in a while there is a mother that will reject the baby lamb, that a you will reject its baby.

For whatever reason, they don't know why, but the mother will reject them.

And even if they try to put them together, the you will kick that baby away.

And they call them bummer lambs.

A bummer lamb.

And if the shepherd doesn't step in to intervene, the lamb will die.

The lamb will die mainly of a broken spirit.

And so what the shepherd does is it goes out and it gathers that little lamb and it brings them inside and it bottle feeds them.

It bottle feeds them, it warms them by the fire, and the shepherd will hold that lamb close to its heart so that the lamb can hear its heartbeat.

And when the lamb is strong enough, the shepherd will bring it outside with the rest of the herd.

And what's amazing is that afterward, when the shepherd calls out to his sheep, when he goes out and he says, Sheep, sheep, sheep, the first ones to come running are the bummer lambs.

Because they know his voice.

And that is who God is.

God is the good shepherd who leaves the 99.

God cares for his flock, and God is saying, it doesn't matter if people leave you, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.

And not only will he never leave us, but his spirit is living in us.

He says, Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.

God promises to be with us, and he promises to help us.

Isaiah 41, 10 says, So do not fear, for I am with you.

Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

His strength and his power is available to all who call on his name.

This is our God.

That God knows us and he loves us.

He is with us and he promises to help us.

Not only is he all-knowing, but he is supremely loving.

And not only is he ever-present, but he is an ever-present help.

He is everywhere, and we are under his care.

We might think, how could God love us so much?

How could he love us so much?

Because he created us.

That is the omnipotence of God.

And verses 13 to 16 speak to the omnipotence of God.

David writes, For you created in my inmost being.

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I was fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works are wonderful.

I know that full well.

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, your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

He says, You created me, my inmost being.

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

Your works are wonderful.

You knit me together in the secret place.

I was woven together.

That God is all powerful and God is deeply personal.

There are many other Psalms where David speaks of God's power in terms of his creation.

Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

But here David talks about the awesome power of God, speaking about the intricacies with which he created his children.

And his children are the crown of his creation.

That we are created in the image of God.

God says, You matter to me.

Your life has value.

And not just from the moment you were born, but from the moment you were conceived.

Your life was valuable in the womb, in the secret place, because I knit you together.

My uncle used to say when his boys were fighting, he used to step in between them and he used to say, I brought you into this world and I can take you out.

And I think he was partly joking, but I think there was some seriousness in there as well.

And you know, people like to think that they are responsible for bringing children into the world.

Our society says that it's our decision.

But God says, no, I created that life.

I knit that person together.

I wove them together.

I saw their unformed body, and I have a plan.

Their life is valuable because I created it.

The God who created the universe with such precision created you.

Jeremiah 31, 3, he says, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

My father used to tell me all the time about the day that I was born.

And I know most children love to hear those stories about the day that they were born.

My father used to say that he held me my whole body right in his forearm with my head in his hands.

And he said, The day that I was born, he held me, he took one look at me, and he said to my mom, I would die for her.

That's how much he loved me.

He said, I would die for her.

He used to say, if anyone lays a hand on her, watch out.

And my dad was an RCMP officer, so I believed it.

But that's how much he loved me.

He used to say, I would die for her.

And you know what?

God didn't just say it.

He did it.

Jesus died for you.

Jesus died for you.

And not only did he die for you, it wasn't quick and painless.

He suffered.

He was tortured.

He was humiliated.

It was the worst, excruciatingly painful death.

And it lasted for hours.

And as physically painful as it was, that speaks nothing of the spiritual torment that he went through, taking on all the sin of the world.

He took on all the sin of the world, your sin, mine, all of the murder, the rape, the genocide, he took it all on him, and he experienced separation from the Father.

Isaiah 53 says, He was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

He was pierced, he was crushed, he was punished, he was wounded, he was whipped to bring us peace.

That's how much you are loved.

You are loved and your life has value because God created you and Jesus died for you.

God created you and Jesus died for you.

God created you, He has a plan and a purpose for your life, and Jesus died so that you never have to, so that you can have eternal life.

You don't have to fear death because he conquered it.

He has total victory over death.

And that if you put your life in his hands and your faith in him, you can be born twice and never die.

Just as you have a birthday, if you put your life in his hands, you can have a spiritual birthday and never die.

And that is a promise of God.

That is good news.

I have worked in television news for over 25 years, and let me tell you, there is nothing in the world that compares to knowing that.

Doesn't even come close.

That God created you and Jesus died for you.

So we don't have to fear death.

That when we leave this world, we are moving into the immediate and literal presence of God.

That death is a homecoming.

You know, people talk about living their best life.

We have no idea what awaits us.

No idea.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard.

If we think life is great here on earth, just imagine what awaits us in heaven, in eternity with God the Father.

And not only did Jesus die to give us eternal life, but he wants us to enjoy this life.

He wants us to live this life with that peace and that assurance that he has conquered death.

He wants us to have joy.

He wants us to have peace.

He wants us to live fearlessly here and now, knowing that everything is taken care of because he is with us and he promises to uphold us all the days of our lives.

God says in Isaiah 46, listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, you whom I have upheld since your birth and have carried since you were born, even to your old age and gray hairs, I am He.

I am He who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you.

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

He promises to be with us all the days of our life, no matter what we face.

He says in Isaiah 40 43, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.

The flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

This is our God.

Who is like our God?

Yes.

Can I get an amen in this place?

Who is like our God?

He is all-knowing.

He is ever-present and he is all-powerful.

He is omniscient.

He knows everything.

He knows everything there is to know about you and he loves you.

He is omnipresent.

He is everywhere all at once.

He is everywhere.

And we are under his care.

And he is omnipotent.

He is all powerful.

And he is deeply personal.

He created you and he died for you and he prepared a place for you.

It's no wonder that after writing all of that, David starts to think about people who just don't love God.

You know, he starts thinking of people who don't love God and speak evil of his father.

And then he starts to write, like, I hate those who hate you, Lord.

They are my enemies.

Slay them.

For four verses, he goes on, like, I hate those people.

If anybody does not love God, I hate them.

But then in verse 23 and 24, he comes back and he says, Search me, God, and know my heart.

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Search me, God.

Know my heart.

Test me.

Know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

I don't just want you to know me, Lord.

I want you to change me.

I want you to change me.

That's what David's saying.

Change my heart.

Thank you for loving me the way that you do.

Thank you for accepting me, warts and all, but I don't want to stay the way that I am.

Just like a child would say to a parent, I want to be like you when I grow up.

I want to be like your son.

Lord, I want to love the way that you love.

I want to care about the things that you care about.

I want to see, Lord, with your eyes of compassion.

And that change is possible.

Radical change is possible with his power.

He says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Christ.

His strength is available to us, his power is available to us, his resources are available to us when we invite him into our hearts.

When we invite him into our hearts, we're not just his creation.

We become his child.

We become a child of the Most High King.

And then all of his resources are available to you.

You're not only a child, then you become an heir.

And an heir inherits.

Could you imagine if somebody came to you and said, you know what, we just discovered that you are related to royalty?

Or guess what?

You're in the will of Bill Gates.

Would that not change the way that you lived your life, knowing that?

Like, come on.

Would that not change the way that you lived your life?

And I mean, even some of us can feel like that just knowing that we're going on a vacation, right?

You know you're going on a vacation and all of a sudden it's like, nah, all the little things, the trivial things, they don't seem to matter that much anymore.

You know, the things, let's say you're at work and you know that you're going on a vacation.

The things that bug you, the people that get under your skin, all of a sudden you're like, I'm like Teflon.

Nothing sticks to me.

It just slides off because I know I'm going on vacation next week, right?

Yes, no, you see you're nodding your heads.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

We have that idea when we're going on vacation.

And you know what?

When I was thinking that very thought, a good friend of mine wrote to me, and this is what he said about going on vacation.

And I was smiling to myself.

He says, Life is always better with a vacation on the horizon.

He says, There's a special kind of joy that comes from knowing the next adventure is around the corner.

That quiet excitement, that little lift in your step, that feeling that something wonderful is waiting.

The daydreaming, the countdown, the promise of great times and peaceful moments.

The anticipation alone makes everyday life feel lighter, brighter, and full of possibility.

And as I read that, I thought it's so true.

That special kind of joy, that quiet excitement, the lift in your step, the expectation, the countdown, the promise of great times, the anticipation alone makes every day feel lighter, brighter, and full of possibility.

And that he was talking about a vacation.

Imagine if you were going to inherit a kingdom, and you are, you are going to inherit a kingdom with riches that will last for eternity.

2 Corinthians 4.18 says, so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, not the things of this world, but we fix our eyes on what is unseen, on that, the greatest vacation of them all.

We fix our eyes on what is unseen because what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

No matter what we are going through right now, and I don't want to minimize what you're going through, but no matter what you are going through, this is temporary.

This is not the end of the story.

That just like a woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of the joy that a child is born into the world.

Amen.

That you may grieve in this world, but your grief will turn to joy.

Overwhelming joy.

And God doesn't want to just replace your sorrow with joy.

He doesn't want to just replace sorrow with joy.

He wants to turn your sorrow into joy.

He wants to turn the sorrow into joy.

He can create beauty out of ashes.

He can turn graves into gardens, crucifixions into resurrections, and he is the only one that can.

And when you see how God heals and restores, how much sweeter is the joy.

How much sweeter is it?

My sister-in-law comes from South Africa.

And when she first came to Montreal in the summertime, she said, I have never seen people enjoy summer as much as you.

We rejoice when it's summertime.

But summer is so much sweeter, and it's probably because we go through the long, hard winter.

Amen?

Summer is sweeter.

The joys are sweeter when we put them in God's hands.

Notice after the resurrection, the apostles never speak of the death of Jesus with sorrow.

Not once, only joy, because there is reason to rejoice.

He conquered death.

He was resurrected with the promise that we too would experience the same.

And some people might say, you know what?

That's just wishful thinking.

Human beings just want to live forever.

That's just a survival instinct.

But the Bible says, uh-uh.

God created us with an eternal desire.

He put that divine desire in us.

He set eternity in the human heart.

There is an inherent knowing that there is more to life than just this physical world.

He put it there because he wants us to search for him.

And he says, When you search for me, you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart.

He wants to be found.

He's not hiding.

He's there with his arms wide open, waiting to receive you.

He is omniscient, he is all knowing, and he loves.

He loves you.

He is omnipresent.

He is everywhere.

He is everywhere.

But you are under his care.

And he is omnipotent.

He is all powerful.

He can do all things.

But he is a deeply personal God who created you, who died for you, and who has a place prepared for you.

A place where there are no more tears.

Revelation 21:4 says he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Revelation 21:4

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

This is our God.

What do we have to fear, church?

What do we have to fear?

This is our God.

He is all-knowing and supremely loving.

He is ever-present and an ever-present help.

And he is all-powerful and deeply personal.

This is our God.

He is great and he is worthy of all of our praise.

Can we stand to our feet and applaud our God?

There is no one like our God.

There is no one like him, none beside him.

He was, he is, he is to come.

He is the Alpha and the Omega.

He holds all time in his hands and he holds your life in his hands.

He loves you.

He loves you.

The Psalms were hymns of praise to remind people of who God is.

God's goodness, his greatness, his righteousness, his love.

They were hymns to encourage God's people.

That as we pour out our praise to him, something happens in us.

It changes us.

When we get our eyes off of our problems and up to him.

Pastor Selvin preached it last week.

Above the mountains, he is where our help comes from.

We get our eyes off of our circumstances and onto him.

And it changes us.

If you want to be encouraged, be in the word.

There is nothing like being in the word of God.

Pour out your praise to him.

And I would encourage you to read at least one psalm every day and read it out loud.

There's something about speaking the word of God out loud that changes how we feel.

It changes our hearts.

It changes the way we think.

And then it changes our lives.

It's great to know that God loves us the way that He does.

That we are fully known and fully loved.

But we want to know Him so that we can trust Him.

We want to know Him so that we can trust Him and we can live with total peace in our hearts.

He wants us to experience the peace that surpasses understanding.

And that peace is possible when we put our lives in His hands.

We put our lives in His hands.

We can experience His joy, His peace, His power, His strength.

Everything is available to us as a child of God.

If you've never given your heart to Him, what better time than right now?

If you've never said to Him, I want to be your child, what better time than right now?

And the words don't matter because God sees your heart.

He knows what you're thinking right now.

And He says, Come.

If you've never given up your life, you can say it right now.

Right in your heart, right where you're standing.

Jesus, thank you.

Thank you for dying for me.

Thank you for taking all of the sin of the world on you.

Thank you for paying the punishment that I deserved.

I couldn't earn it and I couldn't deserve it.

But Lord, you took the punishment so that I could have life.

I give my life to you right now.

I want you to be my king, my savior.

I want to know you, Lord.

As much as I know how, right now, in this moment, I give you my life.

I give you my life, knowing there is no better place that I could be than in the hands of the Father.

All of my days were written in your book before one of them came to be.

What do I have to fear?

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

You will turn beauty into ashes.

You will give beauty rather for ashes.

Turn graves into gardens.

And crucifixions into resurrections.

Church, can we sing together?

Can we pour out our praise to our God?