 Hey, we're actually going to be in Psalm 139. If you guys open your Bibles to Psalm 139. Psalm 139, I've entitled tonight's message behind the mask. I'll be providing masks for you here in a moment. No, I'm joking. Psalm 139. Now, Psalm 139, I'll be looking at verses 1, 2, and 3. And I know I can go beyond that, but I'm really going to zone in and just look at those three verses because there's a really interesting theme that's going on in those three verses. But I'll go ahead and read those three verses here. David says, Oh, Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thoughts of far off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. You know, when I was a kid, I would hear my friends say things like, My dad is bigger than your dad. Right? You guys remember that? Maybe some of you were involved in that. And I remember that it would go back and forth. You know, well, my dad makes more money than your dad, or my dad has bigger arms than your dad. And they would go back and forth, back and forth. And it's almost like this, this never ending argument that they're, they're comparing their dads. Who's the biggest dad? Who has the better dad? Well, as we come into this Psalm here, in the Psalms, David did the same thing. He did the same thing here in the Psalms throughout the Psalms actually, where he would compare false gods with his God, Yahweh. But he would say that my God is bigger than those gods. Let me give you some examples. Psalm 96-4, if you guys actually turn there with me, put your, your Bible marker there on Psalm 139, but go with me to Psalm 96-4 all the way to your left and check this out. This is how he compares false gods with Yahweh, the covenant relational God. He says this in Psalm 96-4, for the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. In other words, well, my God is a creator. Your God is just an idol. Now, go to the next chapter, Psalm 97, verse nine, listen to this one. For you, Lord, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods. Now, these are just two verses I just gave you out of the Psalms. He, you can find verses like this where he's comparing Yahweh, God, with these false God, and he would always say, well, my God is bigger than your God. He would be confident in that. But the question is just how big and powerful is God? How big and powerful is God? Well, he's powerful enough to create the universe, and he's big enough to care for everything in your life. That's mind boggling. That's how big God is. You know, tonight, I want to look at a very interesting attribute of God. I want to look at these three verses, and there's one characteristic that I kind of want to pull out out of these three verses that makes God big. And in fact, these three verses that we're going to be looking at, it's an attribute that most theologians call the omniscience of God. The God is omnipotent, or not, no, that's another one, but God is omniscient is what it is. And when the Bible teaches that God is omniscient, it's not saying that God is bright. It's not saying that God is sharp. It's not even saying that God is a genius. What it says here that God is basically the one who knows everything. And that's what the word actually means. Omniscience means the state of having total knowledge, the quality of knowing everything. So what does that mean? It means this. God knows everything. Basically, period, right there. God knows everything. He has complete knowledge of all the mysteries of biology, zoology, chemistry, geology, physics, medicine and genetics, and I failed them all in college. He knows all those mysteries. What these scientists are continually searching for, God already knows it. And we see here that it's very interesting that God's knowledge is not limited to time. He reads your future just as clearly as he reads your past. That's the knowledge of God. That's his, that's how big God is. Now, unlike that, unlike a computer, you know, when we look at these things, he doesn't have any memory problems. You know, when he's like he's forced to delete his memory bank to create more room for more information. And I have an old computer right now, and my wife just said recently, this computer's really slow. And what did I say to her? I said, listen, throw it away. No, I didn't say that. I said, let's delete things. Let's clean it out. God doesn't have, you don't have to worry about that with God. God doesn't get to a point where he's like, oh, I got too much knowledge. I got to empty some of this stuff out. No, God knows it all. He doesn't need to delete anything in his memory bank. That's how big God is. And we see here that as we look at this Psalm, Psalm 139, I want you guys to understand this, the Psalm 139, David writes, and he is in awe of God's greatness. He is in awe. Now, of course, Psalm 39, you're going to find some serious theology in there, that God is omnipresent, God is omniscient. I mean, you're going to find these amazing truths, these doctrines in there. But David did not write Psalm 139 for that purpose. He is just telling you how much in awe he is of this fact of this nature characteristic of God. He recognizes that God is omniscient. And this has caused him to praise God, to adore God, which is the proper response in knowing God. When a person truly knows God, the outcome is praise is to say, oh boy, this is awesome. You worship God, you praise God. You know, David in understanding this entire characteristic of God is so overwhelmed here, that all he can do is just simply just praise God. Now, I want you to understand one thing is that David is a good studier of God. He studied God very well. And you can tell how well he studied God by reading this Psalm, Psalm 139. And other Psalms in the book of Psalms, you see that, you know what, David really studied God. David was a true theologian. Let me ask you a question. Do you study God? How well do you study God? I mean, is your study of God just in here? Just Wednesday night, you go home and you put that Bible back in your drawer, you say, I'll see you Sunday. I mean, how, how do you, how is your study of God? See, everybody should be theologians. When we think of the word theologian, we're like, oh, I don't, I don't know the Greek. You don't have to know the Greek. You don't have to know the Hebrew. Listen, a theologian is somebody who studies God. Theology, that's what the word means. Theology is the study of God. We should all be theologians in some sense, because I think we should all be in pursuit of studying God every day. And the more you study God, it's not just so you can, you know, bring in some knowledge into your mind and walk around saying, Hey, I know every, no, it's for you to be praising him even more, more effectively, the more you know God. See, theology is important and that's a study of God. And this is exactly what we see in the life of David. He was a theologian. He studied God and we're only going through three verses. I encourage you tonight, go home and read the rest of Psalm 139. And you're going to be blown away with everything that he brings out about God. And you're like, wow, he studied God very well. So but we're going to be looking at only one aspect here. So let's look at our text Psalm 139 verse one. The first thing that he says to us is that God perfectly knows you. You're like, Oh, that's scary. God perfectly knows you. But notice how he starts Psalm 139 verse one. He says this, Oh, Lord, it's it's as if he is admitting right from the start that words won't be able to convey even a fraction of the power of this truth. I go to verse six, listen to this. He said this in verse six, he says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. I mean, he comes to a dead end. And he says, I'm done. God is amazing. And I find this interesting because there are so many people today when they study God, and they come to these attributes of God, instead of praising God, they question God. Well, why is God this way? And why does God do this? That's not that that's not what you should be doing. I mean, if you come to a dead end in your study of God, you should come to that dead end with praise to say, I can't go beyond this. And you see, when people begin to question God's character, they don't know God. They have a problem there. Their theology is not all strong that strong. And David is not saying, Oh, well, why is what God? How can you be all knowing? I don't understand. How could you know everything? And what about he's not saying that? I've talked to Christians today that do that all the time. Well, if God knows everything, then what about this? And what about that? Well, stop it. Just enjoy it. It's God. I mean, you can't bring God into your own level. If you could, then he wouldn't be God, right? So you have to keep God at a distance in the sense that, listen, he's above you. And the way he is, he created you respect that. Don't question him. Yeah, I'm not saying you can't ask questions. I'm not saying you can't, you know, have disagreeable things or you disagree with people. And I'm not saying you got to check your brains out. But what I'm saying is that sometimes Christians get so flustered with with God's character that sometimes they just quit. And when that happens, what happens there is that then to begin to live life the wrong way. You know, when something happens in their life, a trial happens, they're like, their theology goes out the window like, Oh, well, what kind of God is this? It's weird. But but she here, David isn't questioning God. He's praising God. The same thing with what Paul said in Romans chapter 11, at verse 33, listen to this, he said this, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, he says, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. It's like, I give up, I can't go beyond this. I'm just I'm just gonna enjoy it. I mean, have you ever gone on a great vacation, the tropics somewhere in the tropical area, you know, Fiji or whatever, and you sit there and you watch that ocean, you're like, man, that's pool water there. I mean, this is like, this is the ocean and as I can see right through it. And you're like, I mean, you're not questioned like, Well, how could that be? And why is it going like this? And how come forget it? You enjoy it, right? And it's vacation, go in the water, enjoy it, float around, enjoy everything that's there. But you see people look at God in that way, and they kind of begin to question him. And they don't enjoy him. They don't enjoy this aspect. So David starts off by saying, Oh, Lord. And then he says this, you have searched me and known me. Now, the word search means to dig. Dig as if you're looking for gold. It's interesting, because what David is saying, God digs in in my life, in my heart. He's digging, man. He's this. He's not just a surface looker. He's not just looking. They seem to be a Christian. They have a Bible on their lap. No, man, he's digging in. He's going deep. And David says that here. He says, You search. You have searched me. You see, what he's saying is that God understands us and is most intimately acquainted with our person, our nature and character. So basically, the truth of this is that no one knows us like God knows us. Nobody. I don't care how long you've been married. I've been married almost 19 years this month. And my wife, my wife sitting there with the baby. And I could say I know my wife. I've known her for a long time. I've known her since she was 14. I mean, we've known each other a long time. And I know that God knows her a lot more than I know her as well as God knows me more than my wife knows me. And God does know you more than anybody else. He knows everything about you. He knows your fears, your weaknesses, and he knows your heart. He knows everything about you. That's what John says in 1st John 3 20, for if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows what? All things. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Romans 8 1, right? God knows your heart. See, this infallible knowledge of us has always existed. When he says here, you have searched me. This continues unto this day, since God cannot forget that which he has once known. And I think that's a powerful truth. And what I mean by that is that there there never was a time in which we were unknown to God. You've always been known by God. And there never will be a moment in which we shall be beyond his observation. That is wild. Even if you're not a Christian today, God knows you. He created you. And yet, because you haven't connected with his son, and you haven't received his son, yet he knows you. You may not know him, but he knows you. Listen to what he said to Jeremiah chapter one, verse five, Jeremiah chapter one, verse five, he says this, he said to him, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born, I sanctified you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations. I mean, right there. I'm like, forget it. I just need to praise God for that. That's that's wild, right? Before I formed you the womb, I knew you. Could you say that about somebody? I've known you sons before you were in the womb. No, you can't. I can't say that to my son. He's almost 10 weeks old. I can't look to him and say, son, I've known you since even before you were in the womb, son, you're looking at daddy. Well, here's your crazy, you know, only God can say that because it's true. What we see here is that David is talk. He's not talking in general terms. He's not saying God searches everyone. No, he says, he says, you have searched me. I love that. He's not worried about anybody else. He's focusing on himself. Like, you know what you've searched me, he says, he's saying, you have perfect knowledge of me and all my thoughts and my actions are open before you. That is why at the end of Psalm 139, he concludes this deep chapter with this and go there with me real quickly versus 23 and 24. This is how he concludes Psalm 139. He says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting. He just, he just breaks down. He says, Lord, because of my understanding of your character, your attributes, Lord, then search me, know my heart and see if there's any wicked way in me. When was the last time you prayed that? Lord, can you search my heart, see if there's anything wicked in me? Because, you know, sometimes as Christians, we have blind spots. We think we're like doing well and we're on top of the world and whatnot. And God says, you're not there, man. You know, other people could see it sometimes, you know, they, you know, it's like, you know, brother, I don't know about that, but you know, what you're doing is not right, you know, but in your mind, you're like, what's wrong with it? There's nothing wrong with what I'm doing. And you know what? There probably is something wrong. And that's why it's important for us to have those spiritual checkups where we can be in our own prayer time. I mean, you don't want to go up to somebody says, do you see anything wicked in me? You know, you want to do that. You get the wrong person, man, they're going to pick your, you know, your trouble, you know. But if you go to God sincerely at your own private time and say, God, can you search me in the quietness of my heart? Can you, can you just see if there's any wicked way in me? If there is, hold on to something because he will show you the Holy Spirit is faithful to all of a sudden bring to your mind things that maybe you've been doing in the past or perhaps the day before or things that you're planning on doing. He begins to reveal these things to you. And that's a good thing. It's nothing to be afraid of. It's more like, thank you, God, because right there you can deal with it with God. Say, God, I'm sorry, I won't go there. I won't do this. You're right. We see here that people today, even Christians will wear masks. You know, they don't want to be known by anybody. And I'm sure there's people in this room that that you're like, I just come to church. I sit in the corner by myself once as I'm out of here. You know, I don't want nobody to say, how am I doing? Or if they do, I'm gonna say, I'm doing great. But inside I'm not. So we wear masks. People wear masks of confidence, masks of strength, masks of happiness. But inside they're not. You see, we can fool each other with those masks. But you can't fool God, right? There's no way you can. He knows you. And David here understands very clearly that, listen, I'm unmasked before God. I don't have to put on a mask and pretend to be somebody else or that I'm doing better or whatever. No, God already knows him. And he's asking God to search him. You know, David, out of all people, should understand this because he was exposed publicly. You guys remember what he did, right? I mean, he committed adultery, murder. He was a liar. And he just let it go. Kind of swept it under the rug. God's not going to call me to this. I mean, he's going to ignore it or whatever until what Nathan the Prophet came to him and said, Hey, you know, just to make a long story short, you know the whole thing about the story about the little lamb and all this, he says, you know, you're basically you're not right with the Lord. And at that moment, David came to his spiritual senses and says, I have sinned against God. God wasn't going to let him run around like that. And God is not going to let you run around like that. You know, he can't hide your sin for very long. Some people and people that you probably know, you're like, that guy has been running with that sin for a long time. Listen, he's going to get caught. It's just a matter of time. You know, right now, it's a period of grace because God is long suffering. God doesn't fly off the handle. You come back here. You know what I mean? He's very patient, incredibly patient. When I'm thinking right now of people that I know are not walking with the Lord, I'm like, you are very patient, you know. But that's just who God is. He's not like us. If we were God, forget it. I think none of us would be alive, right? We would have zapped everybody by now. But you would have said, I'm coming now, forget it. That's that's us. We're not patient with people. God is. It's amazing. Well, David was exposed publicly and he came to those senses, spiritual senses. God searched his heart. So when we're talking about God is omniscient, that comes into play in a very practical way in our lives. For example, for those of you who own businesses, when you're looking for an employee, I mean, you're trying to find the right employee. You know, I mean, another example would be for somebody who's looking for the right mate, you know, I want to find the right mate, you know, and this and that and all these things that you have or ministry or whatever it is. Listen, God knows their heart. This is where his omniscience comes into play. When you're when you're searching for an employee or employee or when you're searching for a spouse, this is where it comes in because now God can step in and say, well, let's hold on. I know the heart. Let me show you. Let's go here or whatever. Because one of the questions that Christians will ask all the time when it comes to relationship is how do I know he's the right person or how do I know she's the right one, right? Maybe there's a few here sitting that ask that question. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable here, but that's the question that a lot of Christians will ask. How do I know they're the right one? It's just a question they ask. Well, God knows their heart, so you really want to submit that to the Lord because he knows the heart. Let me give you an example. Remember in the book of Acts when Judas committed suicide, he hung himself and whatnot. Well, they needed to find another person to be a part of the ministry and they had a choice between two people. So what did they do? Did they, you know, any meaning might not do that? What did they do? They went to God and this is what this is what he said. Listen, you, O Lord, who know the hearts of all. I love that. Show which of these two you have chosen. I love that. So listen, you're looking for a spouse and maybe you have somebody in mind. Go to God and say, Lord, you know the heart. You choose for me. You show me because I'm sure there are some people here that have gone out with people and you say, this is it. This is the person. I know it is. And then they freak out and you're like, whoa, this is not the one. Right. I'm left counseled people over and over like that, you know, young people that go on and I see the flat, the red flies say, Hey, you're going the wrong way. No. And they go, it'd be cool. You know, it's all right. You know, and they go in it and all of a sudden they come back with eyes wide open. What happened? They freaked out on me, you know, they have anger problems and they slash my tires. Well, I could have told you that, you know, I saw the knife in their back pocket. But you see, what you do is you entrust the person to God. Why? Because God knows their heart. You have to be patient. How long is it going to take for God to say, OK, he's the one or she's not the one. Listen, you have to be patient. You got to trust him. You got to trust him. So we see here that David says that God knows you. He searched me. He's found me. The second thing we see in verse two is this, is that God knows your every move. He knows that guy's leaving right now. He knows your every move. Look what he says. Listen to what he says. I love illustrations that come alive like that. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought a far off. Our most common and casual acts are our most needful and necessary movements are noted by God. Seriously. I mean, that's what he's saying here. You know, I read an article about an iPhone. How many of you guys here have an iPhone? Raise your hand. iPhone carriers here. A lot of you guys. OK, great. Three G's. I'm shaking anyways. I read an article that was very interesting and very scary. This is what the article said. It says iPhone tracks your location and stores it in a hidden file, whether you like it or not. To make matters worse, the information is not encrypted, which means it is available on any computer that you synchronize your phone to. Anyone who has access to those computers or your phone can learn where you've been and when you were there. And because of the information is not protected, it is also subject to hacking. Give me your iPhones. I'm shaking. Does the idea that someone might be able to track your every move bother you? Pretty scary, huh? I'm almost turning off that location service. I don't care. You don't want to. You don't need to know where I'm at. Listen, if you're scared about that or if it freaks you out, maybe something else will probably freak out even more. And that is this, that God not only tracks your every move, he tracks your every thought. He already knows what you're thinking right now. You're like, no, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. He does. From a far off. Before that thought enters your mind, God has already seen that thing formulating. Whoa, that's scary, huh? So the next time you get in a fight with your spouse, think about that. All those thoughts that are coming, just move them out. You know, it's like, I don't want to go there. God knows. You can't hide from God. You can't hide your thoughts from him. That's crazy. But again, that's because God knows everything. That's who he is. So we see here that he's saying that the thought of God knowing my every move or knows every thought, he says here that if he just praises him, it brings him to a place of awe. Now this knowledge for us should actually comfort us. Really, it should comfort us. It shouldn't cause us to run away from God. It should cause us to run to God, because we just can't hide from him. We can't hide our thoughts. We can't, you know, every move that we make, all the movements or whatever, he sees it. He knows us. That's that's the important thing for us to understand. Let me give you an example. Term with me to John chapter 1, verse 43. John chapter 1, verse 43. In Jesus, as he was beginning his ministry, you know, everybody was bringing people to Christ and Jesus was calling disciples to follow him and this and that. And he met this guy named Nathaniel and in chapter 1, verse 43, something very, very amazing happened that blew Nathaniel away. And it says in verse 43 of chapter 1 of John, he says this, the following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see. Verse 47, Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said to him, or said of him, behold an Israelite indeed in whom there's no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? And Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Oh, man. It's like what? You weren't there. How did you see me? That's called God is omniscient. He's all knowing. He knows everything. That's exactly what Jesus did in this text. He actually exercised his omniscience that he saw him. He saw him. Not that he heard about him or heard of him being under the fig tree. What perfect knowledge that Jesus did that. When I sit down to think or rise up to act, God knows it all. He knows it all. Nathaniel was blown away. And that's what drew him to crisis. You are the Messiah. This is crazy. There's nobody that, you know, you weren't there. I give up. And that's exactly what David is saying here. Is that we are seen and we are read by God. So when you are opening up your Bible during your devotional time at home, God sees that. I'd have seen it. And I'm sure it's very practical. That's the ABCs of the Christian faith is that God sees everything you do. You know, but I want to see God. I want him to see me do something that honors him. Like reading my Bible, praying, you know, sharing Jesus with people, you know, obeying him when I have a when I have the choice to do wrong. I say, I don't want to go there. I want to go here. I want him to see that. I don't want him to be seen me do and things that are not right. I don't want him to see me do things that dishonor him. That's crazy because I know he sees it all. And this is exactly what we see here. Another person that comes to mind is Eve and Adam and Eve, actually, both of them. You remember, when they fell into sin, they hid from God, right? And they took off, right? And, you know, when it comes to sin and let me just say this real quickly as a side note, sin never encourages the offender to go to God. It always has the opposite effect. When somebody sins, the last thing they want to do is go to God. They go away from him. That's just what happens. And that's part of the devil's trick is that he condemns you when you sin and he says, you're a dirtbag Christian. God doesn't love you. And then the last thing you want to do is go to God because you feel horrible. And you're like, I don't want to go to God. Forget it. And a lot of people stay in sin for a while until they come to that understanding like, no, God does love me. Romans 8, nothing separates me from the love of God. And then that's what you repent. And the Bible says it's the goodness of God that what leads us to repentance. It's God's so good that even if I blow it, I can go to God and say, forgive me. God says, I forgive you. That's the goodness of God. That's what draws us to God when we blow it. But it has the opposite effect sometimes. We go away from God. So Adam and Eve, when they sinned, what did they do? They try to hide from God. And then the text says, as God was looking for him, he says, where are you? Now, a lot of people say, oh, look, there it is. God doesn't even know everything. He doesn't know. No, no, listen, that's not what it means. That's a term that is used for us as humans to understand that God was searching out for them. But what it really means is that God is basically wanting them to confess, to fess up. You know you've done wrong. And that's exactly what happened in that whole text. Here's another person that tried to hide from God. Guess where I'm going? Jonah, right? Remember Jonah, right? Hey, there's some crazy, wicked people that I want you to go and evangelize because I'm going to save them all. And he says, nope. I hate them. They can go to hell. That's pretty much what he said. Seriously, that's what it was. He hated God's mercy. He just didn't like God's mercy. And you've been there. You laugh. You're like, yeah, I remember my uncle, I could care less if you could save, you know? See, that's our attitude sometime. And here is Jonah talking about an entire nation that Ninevites, the Assyrians, were barbaric people. You think ISIS is bad? You do research on what these guys were like. You'd be like, it makes ISIS look like rookies, honestly. These guys were brutal. Just if you know your Assyrian history, man, they were nasty. People, let me tell you this. Before the Assyrians would actually go in and conquer a city, the inhabitants of the city would actually commit suicide before they would come in just because they did not want to be captured by them. That's how cruel they were. Now, those are the people that God said to Jonah, go evangelize them. He says, no way. What does he do? He goes the opposite way. Gets on that boat, pays this fare, heads out. Now, you think he's hiding from God, right? You know the story. God says, you're going to really run away from me. All right, I'm going to create a storm for you. Because if you notice in the text, those circumstances that came against Jonah, the Bible says clearly, and God created a storm and God created a big fish. It was God who created these circumstances to bring him back. That's exactly what he will do in your life. You kind of begin to steer your life away from God and you kind of go into the wrong direction. Listen, God is going to create circumstances in your life to bring you back, whatever it is. He goes through a storm and maybe a real fish. I don't know. But he's going to get you. He's going to go after you because he loves you. You're his child. He's not going to just let you walk away. That's called the discipline of the Lord, chastening of the Lord. So we see that Jonah tried to hide from God, didn't work. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to shut God out of his life. He couldn't do it. Why? Because God is omniscient. That's why. God is omniscient. God sees it all. He knows it all. He knows where you are at all times. Another example, Genesis chapter 11, the Tower of Babel. These guys were like, hey, we're a great group now. Let's create or let's erect this tower far above the heaven. So basically it's just before God scatters us throughout the face of this earth. And what did God do? He was like, ah, no, you're not. And then he begins to, there's a trinity in place. They say, let us go down and confuse their language. Now everybody was speaking different language. You can't work well if you cannot communicate well, right? Try to put together a team of workers that all they all speak different languages and try to work together. You're like, I don't know what you're saying. What do you mean? No, do it this way. What? You know, I mean, it didn't work. So God squashed their plans. Again, why? Because God is omniscient. He saw it. He knew what they were doing. Here's another example. But I want you to turn to this example. Go to Genesis chapter 16. Genesis chapter 16. Here's another example. This example is a little bit, it's discouraging, but it's also at the same time encouraging because of what God did here. But in Genesis chapter 16 at verse 7, this is what it says. 16 verse 7. Now the angel of the Lord found, OK, let me back up. Let me just kind of give you the premise here in case if, you know, am I going out of context here. This is Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was barren. He wanted a child. So basically she said to Abraham or Abram, hey, God's taken too long, basically. You know, I'm going to stay in this state. So let's go to the main servant, go into her and have sex with her and get her pregnant, basically. And then we'll have a child. And what did Abraham say? You got it, honey. He did it. That's what he just said. He just said that. He goes, yes, son. Not like that. That was my interpretation. He went in. Now this wrongdoing was so bad that when finally she conceived, Hagar, conceived and she had the child, the Bible says that Sarah despised her all of a sudden. Sarah wasn't a nice lady. Would not want her as a neighbor, seriously. She was really mean. And she treated her harshly all of a sudden. And then she basically threw the blame on her husband. May my wrongdoing or something be worse on you than any. I mean, it's like poor Abraham. You know, I was like, you told me what I did. What you told me what to do or whatever. And she treated Hagar harshly. And here's where we pick up in the story. Where did Hagar go? Notice in verse seven. She took off into the desert. She fled from her presence. And it says, the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to sure. And he said, Hagar, Sarah's maid, where have you come from? And where are you going? She said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress, Sarai. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted it for multitude. And it says, and the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you are with child and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. And he will be a wild man. He shall be against every man and every man's hand against him. That's pretty encouraging, right? And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. Verse 13, then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you are the God who sees. El-Roy, as it says in Hebrews. For she said, I have also here seen him who sees me. Therefore, the well was called, Bir-Lahai-Roy, observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered, the God who sees. That's awesome. Here is Hagar going through a really hard time, treated harshly. And yet God steps in and says, I know what you're going through. And listen, you may be going through a hard time in your life right now. Listen, God sees it. He sees it. He's the God who sees, because he's omniscient. Nothing escapes his sight. Don't say, well, God doesn't understand. He does understand what you're going through. He sees everything. He sees the turmoil that's going on in your heart. That's because that's who God is. And we see these things that throughout scripture that God shows his omniscience, that he's there, he sees, he knows everything. And lastly, in verse three, God knows your path. God knows your path. Notice what he says, verse three. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. The word comprehend, the word literally means winnow. What's the word means? That is to winnow out all the chaff. If you remember, you leave the grain because that's the valuable part of this thing. You throw it up in the air and the chaff would be kind of blown away and all the grain, the heavy stuff would fall on the ground. That was the valuable part of that stock. What he's saying here is my path and my lying down. The idea is this, is that God sifts all our actions. He sifts all our actions. God has perfect knowledge of us and all our thoughts and actions are open before him. So what it means here is that God discerns and separates the good from the bad when it comes to our thoughts and actions. He's sifting you out. That's bad. That's wrong thinking here. That's a good thinking. Wrong action. This is a good one. He's constantly sifting you. All of your paths. This shows how much God is involved in our lives. He sifts us to bring out the best in us and the things that are valuable and he removes the things that may hurt us in the long run. That's why he's sifting us. And God wants to keep us on the right path daily. He wants us to stay on that path of righteousness. You know, the thoughts he wants us to have are right thoughts. I mean, God created us with a purpose and that is to bring him glory and God doesn't just leave us to chance regarding that purpose. He's working with us so that we can worship him so we can fulfill that purpose as why we were created. He helps us out. He doesn't just say, you're saved now. Well, we'll see what happens. Hopefully you'll worship him. You know, he helps you and he begins to sift you. Anything that you're doing that's not right, he begins to sift it. He takes it away from you so that you can have that open channel to go up to God and say, I love you, I worship you. He works with us all the time. God will direct our paths without taking away even our freedom. You know, the children of Israel were given that path. God says, this is the direction I want you to go to that flows with milk and honey. They went around for years in circles because of their disobedience. It took them longer to get to that promised land but they had the choice. The purpose of God's intimate knowledge of us is not to play gacha. It's not about that. It's basically for us to protect us. It's intended for us to be protected, to guard us and to keep us on that right path because we are the object of his care. He cares for us. He really does. I mean, that's who God is and when he exposes our paths as being wrong, he always gives us a chance to get right. That's what happened in John chapter four, verse 18 with the woman at the well, Jesus exposed her. Not to say, I gotcha, you sinner, no. It was just a show. Hey, listen, I know you. I know who you are. He said this, the fact is that you have had five husbands and the man that you now have is not your husband. It's like, whoa, oh, you must be a prophet, she said. More than that. That's Jesus showing his perfect knowledge of her life because he knows her. It was the path that she was on and Jesus revealed it to her and that blew her away because of that perfect knowledge. And then he says here that he's acquainted with all our ways, all the paths that I tread, the whole course of my life, all that we do in all places at all times is fully known by God. This is what he's saying very clearly. You know, David himself went through a very bleak time in his life where he was going from cave to cave. In the daytime, he's running away from the maniac Saul because Saul wanted to kill him and he was going from cave to cave at nighttime. This is where all these Psalms came in. David pouring out his heart to God. I mean, what we have in the Psalms is really his journal. It's David's journal. It's heartfelt because it's him sharing with God what was going on. He was honest, he was open to God. And sometimes when we wear masks and when it transfers into our relationship with God, we're not open with God, we stay closed. And it's really useless because God already knows what's going on. So it's really important for us to be honest with God. If you've never been honest with the Lord, if you've never really shared your heart, poured out your heart before God, I encourage you to do it. It's really awesome. It's very cleansing if you will because you're taking stuff off your heart and you're being real with God. Lord, I'm struggling here. I've been a Christian for a year and it's very hard. I still have friends that are constantly tempting me, Lord. Just pour out your heart. He understands, he's listening, he's hearing you. But sometimes we stay so closed to God as if we don't want to share this with God. No, listen, he already knows, just talk to him. And we see here very clearly that David himself went through these bleak times in his life because he was being chastened by this guy named Saul who wanted to kill him and yet he was pouring out his heart as we see throughout these Psalms. That's what it is. It's his journal. Job said this in Job 34.4, does he not see my ways and count all my steps? It's a rhetorical question. The answer is yes, he does. He sees my ways and he counts all my steps. Proverbs 5.21 says this, for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he ponders all his paths. Think about this. God is watching your life right now and he's going, hmm. So that's where you're going. That's where you're gonna go, okay? Okay, interesting. So that's what you wanna do. I mean, he's pondering upon every single, and you know what blows me away is that there's a lot of people in here and I'm thinking God is so intimately involved with every single one of you. I mean, he has time for you. That's crazy, isn't it? I mean, it's like, no, Lord, give me the time. No, you know, no, it's, he is intimately involved with you, every single one of you in here, whether you're right with God or you're not with God. He is working with you either to get you to him or he's working to help you produce more fruit in your personal life. He's working with everybody here. It's wild. That once you leave here and you're out of here from this corporate gathering that wherever you go from here, that God is watching you. God is working with you, right? You go to bed as you go back to work, whatever you do. I mean, he is involved in your life. It's just wild. There's not a time where God says, I'm sorry, Billy Graham's on the phone. I can't handle you right now. Hold on. I'm talking to Chuck up here. Hold on, he's got a question. No, none of that. It's like, yes, can I help you? Yes, can I help you? You know, my daughter, four years old, this is something that has been really interesting to me is that no matter where I'm at, whether it's a church and home, I know we're teaching her not to interrupt us when mommy and daddy are talking. We were teaching her how to wait patiently, but if I'm here or if I'm at a store and I see my little girl running to me, daddy, I embrace her. I don't say, no, no, no, get away. I don't, and God always reminds me that you know what, that's exactly how I am with you. I never feel interrupted when you come to me. When you're talking to me in your car, when you're talking to me at home, when you're talking to me when you're walking, I'm listening because I want to hear from you. The same thing with my little girl. I would never reject her no matter where I'm at. Even if I'm talking to somebody here and I've done this before, I'm talking, and she's running, I'll let her come right to my leg and boom, and then I give her a hug, love her. Then I say, okay honey, I'll be right over, but I let her come. I don't say, stop, because I love her. And I'm thinking how much more my heavenly father, when I go to him and I run to him, he's like, absolutely, what's going on son? What's going on daughter? Tell me, I see what's going on, but let's talk. That's just who God is. And this is what he's communicating here that he's acquainted with all of our ways. He's intimately involved in our lives. Now let me conclude here with a few thoughts. What does this all mean to us? Let's bring it even more practical. God is omniscient. What does it mean for us personally? It means this, that God will never misjudge you or wrongly misinterpret you. That's what it means. Listen, our inmost thought is perfectly understood by God's impartial mind. Other people may misunderstand you. Have you ever been misunderstood by other people? You're like, oh, come on, I didn't mean to say it that way. I know that's not, remember, you're constantly trying to protect yourself and all this. Listen, God will never misinterpret you. Why? Because he knows you. He knows you deep inside. And God would look at you and say, I know what you meant. Even though they're messed up, they won't understand, but no, I know what you meant. See, we don't have to do that. God never does that. He knows us so intimately that he'll never misjudge us. He'll never misjudge us. That's cool. I don't have to worry about other people if they judge me or misjudge me or whatever. God will never do that because he knows exactly who I am, my motives, my intentions, my thoughts. That's what we have here when it comes to the practical application of Psalm 139, at least these three verses. It should honestly give us peace. It should give us comfort. It should draw you closer to God tonight. I hope that every person in this room is drawn closer to God because of this text. That you're gonna walk out of here and say, Lord, you are amazing. I want to continue to walk with you. I wanna talk with you. You're listening, you're seeing, you're watching me. That tonight, everybody here truly will be transformed in some way. That your relationship with God, even though you think, oh, it's strong, that it's stronger now. And for those who are maybe like, I'm not there, now you are. And if you're not a Christian, you know what, God knows where you're at. That you're gonna say, I surrender, I give up. I want Jesus in my life because he sees everything that I'm doing. He knows my thoughts. God is acquainted with all our ways. So we don't have to hide behind a mask, if you will. We can be real with God, just like David is real here in the Psalms. But the question is this. You know, God knows you, but the question is, do you know him? Do you know God? See, God already knows you, but do you know him? Are you studying God? Perhaps you've never even studied him at all, and you're like, this is great. And here's another question. Are you in awe of God? Are you in awe of God at all? Because that is exactly what this Psalm is all about, is to draw you to that amazing greatness of God for you to be like a little kid in a candy store, right? I take my little girl, there's a place at a mall where it's full of candies. I mean, everything is like colorful. I mean, everything's, there's just one smell. Everything just comes together, there's just one smell. And it's like, wow, strawberry. There's a big strawberry smell here. My little girl walks in there, it's like, no, no, no. This is what you're gonna get right here. This little iPop, this big, honey. Not the one this big. I know you're like, oh, what a mean dad. Hey, I'm protecting her, cavities. But anyways. But the question is, are you in awe of God? Read the rest of Psalm 139. Read the rest of Psalm 139. And at the end of the night tonight, you're gonna lay your head on that pillow. You're gonna be like, Lord, you are amazing. Cause he is, amen?