[0:00] Okay guys, we are coming before God's Word tonight. It is a supernatural and powerful Word, but it will only work through the work of the Holy Spirit. So why don't we pray that that is what will happen. Let's pray together.
[0:13] Dear God, we thank you for the Psalms. We thank you, Lord, that they reach into our being, they hold our hearts. We pray, Lord, that as we look at Psalm 139 tonight, that your Spirit will work within us to change us, to love you more, and to be more like your Son, our Savior. We pray this in his name. Amen.
[0:32] We are taking a break from the book of Acts. We're going to be doing just one Psalm. That's tonight. And then we're doing two more weeks on Acts. One week in Acts. Okay. Okay. So, we're going to the Old Testament. We haven't been in the Old Testament at the night service in quite a while. Psalms, or as my kids call them, the Psalms are a fantastic part of the Bible. They actually mean songs. Right? You probably know it. They're songs. Right? They're songs. So, as songs are and should be, they are deeply personal parts of the Bible. They're deeply emotional. There is sorrow, and there's joy, and there's anger, and there's comedy, and there's love. Right? There's love in the Psalms, and there's love in this Psalm tonight. You'll see in a second. Psalm 139, I am told, is the most personal part of the most personal book of the Bible. So, that would mean it's pretty personal. Right? Does that make sense? It does have love in it, and it is the day of love today, isn't it? Right? It is a day of love, which is the second day of the Olympics. Right.
[1:40] You're right. I love the Olympics. It's the day of, and we got a gold medal, and I love that. And the Olympics are great because they make sports that are unlovable, lovable for about two weeks. Like curling, right? Like curling. Like who loves curling? I'm going to get swept after this service. Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep. A bit a little bit higher on the left. Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep. I love the curlers. They're great, especially if we get a gold medal. Psalm 139 is about two things. Okay? Two things. Here it is. God knows us completely. God knows us, and he knows us completely. That's the first thing. Here's the second thing. A little bit more complicated. Us knowing that God knows us is transforming.
[2:33] Right? Us knowing that God knows us is transforming. Transforming to our lives. There is so much in this psalm. You could probably do a whole series of sermons on it. I'm just going to go over the top of it to start off with, to give you an idea of how it holds together. Okay? So we're going to skim over the trees, kind of take a look down as we go along. Here's kind of how it works together, as far as I can tell. First of all, God knows us completely.
[2:59] This is verses 1 to 5. Right? Verses 1 to 5. So David, who wrote the psalm, is looking back over his life and reflecting on God. This is what he says. So verse 1 in Psalm 139.
[3:10] Oh Lord, you have searched me, and you know me. Right? You have searched me, and you know me. And the searching here, the actual Hebrew word is like sifting. Right? So sifting grain or sifting sand. Right? You're looking at every little part of it. That's what he's saying God has done to him. He's looked at every little part of him. And that's how he knows him.
[3:29] What does he know? Well, he knows all his actions. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. But not only that, he knows his thoughts and his aspirations. He knows his mind. He knows his heart. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. What I've done, what I will do, that's what God knows. He knows that for each one of us. Which is, it's a little bit spooky, isn't it? When you think about it, it's a little bit spooky. It's kind of, I don't think we quite understand it. We forget that that is what God is like. And we don't really get how God could know everything about each one of us all at the same time. And you know what?
[4:09] We're not alone. What does verse 6 say? Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. It's very comforting to know when we don't know that a psalmist, David, doesn't know either. He's just getting a glimpse of what God is like. I'm just getting a glimpse of it. So that's the first part. God knows us completely. Verses 1 to 5. Okay, here's the second part. God knows us completely and he is with us all the time. Right? God knows us completely and he is with us all the time. Right? From, it starts at verse 7. Here's a question. You answer it for me. Are you ready? Verse 7. Here's your question. Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? What's the answer? Nowhere.
[5:02] You all know the answer, right? Nowhere. It's a rhetorical question. In verse 8 he talks about heaven which is up high and Sheol which is down low. The wings of the morning is the east. Right? The east where the sun rises. The uttermost parts of the sea are the west and God is everywhere.
[5:18] Everywhere. All the time. At night and in the morning. Everywhere. All the time. That's who God is. That's how much he knows and that's where he is. Verses 13 to 15 talks about how God made us and I think it's actually the heart of the psalm. So we're going to come back to it in a moment. Okay? Before we look at that we're going to do, well I guess you call this kind of like the weird section of the psalm, right? Verses 19 to 22. I was doing this, it's odd. I'm going to read it for you. Verse 18 and 19. Here we go.
[5:52] I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I am still with you. Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me. It's kind of like going down the highway at 100 miles an hour and pulling on the handbrake.
[6:05] That's what happened there. I was doing this psalm with my kids a couple weeks ago and my little boy Jesse who's 8 years old, we were reading this and he's like, what's wrong with this guy? It's like so happy and so, and then all of a sudden it's like slay the wicked!
[6:19] Ah! Doesn't make sense, does it? Now, some commentators, the way they solve this problem is just by cutting it out of the Bible, right? So that's not really a good solution. So they kind of say, well it's obviously not meant to be in there because it doesn't make sense.
[6:31] Let's just take it out of the Bible, right? I don't think that's right. It's supposed to be in there and I think, I think it's David coming down to earth, right? So in other parts of the Bible, we read other Psalms and we know that David, King David has lots of enemies, right? That oppose him and he's mad at his enemies. He's especially mad at them if they oppose God, the will of God. So it's like David kind of looking, going through the universe and saying, God is all knowing and he's everywhere and he makes everything and bang, I come down to earth. Why do these people oppose me, God? Because I am on your side. It's like that.
[7:08] I think he's coming down to earth. That's actually what's happening. He's not talking about personal vengeance. He's actually talking about those who oppose God. Verse 20 explains who they are. Here's verse 20. They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. That's who they are. They're taking the name of God. We know that's right against the commandment, one of the Ten Commandments. And I think that David is saying, you know what?
[7:37] You know me. You know everything about me. And I am with you. I am with you. God, I want to hate what you hate. I want to love what you love. I think people take it out of there because they don't like what it says. They don't like what it says. But the truth is, if we're Christians, we should hate what God hates and love what God loves. That's what it's in there for. So I think we should leave it in. What do you think? I think we should.
[7:57] That's what we're going to do tonight. Okay. Now, we're going to go back again. That's kind of how it works together. In the last four verses, David looking forward and saying, this is what I want you to do for me, God. Jim read it for us already. And that's really the focus of where we're going to go. Let's look back again. Here's my question for you.
[8:15] I want you to talk to the person beside you about it. We've read this psalm, kind of gone over it twice now. Is this psalm about you or is it about God? Okay. Is it about you or is it about God? Talk to the person beside you about it. I'm not going to work all night.
[8:30] I'm not going to make you guys work. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Okay.
[9:04] Okay, what do we got? Who says it's about you or me? Who says it's about us? Come on. I must think that.
[9:15] No? Okay, who says it's about God? Who says it's about Jesus? Sunday school answer. Who says it's about both? It's the perfect Bible college answer.
[9:27] It's both. Of course it's both. If you ever get a question like that at Bible college, it's always both. It's always both. But I think primarily about God. Because the Bible is about God. As much as we want to think it's about us, it's actually about God.
[9:39] But I'm going to tell you why. It's deeply personal. That's why we think it's about us. It's deeply personal. I'll show you what I mean. David takes a look at the character of God. Some people call this the doctrine of God song.
[9:51] David looks at the character of God and he says, God, you are awesome. But you are deeply personal. Awesome and personal, both at the same time. That is the character of our God.
[10:02] So God knows everything. He knows who's going to get all the Olympic gold medals. He already knows that. He already knows. He knows history.
[10:13] He knows sports. He knows science. He knows mathematics. He knows astronomy. He knows the answers to questions we will never even think up. God knows everything. He knows everything. But that's not what the psalmist is looking at.
[10:26] What he actually says is, God, you know everything. And that means you know everything about me. That's the focus of the psalm. That's the focus. Awesome and personal.
[10:39] God is everywhere. God is at the bottom of the ocean. He's at the center of the earth. He's out in space. He's in different dimensions. I don't really know what that means, but Ben Short will tell me later. He's all over the place.
[10:50] He's everywhere. You can't get away from it. You know, the theological mumbo-jumbo is he's omnipresent, right? He's omnipresent, but he's everywhere. But that's not what the psalmist focuses on.
[11:01] What he focuses on is, God, you are everywhere, but you know what that means for me on Monday morning? It means you are with me all the time. It means I cannot escape from you. God is awesome and deeply personal.
[11:14] Deeply, deeply personal. Just as a side thing here before we keep going. I know when people are suffering and you talk to them about God, I think sometimes they think that God is like a magical vapor or something.
[11:31] Like he's in the room or he's kind of in the room or he's somewhere, he's a presence. He actually knows you better than your best friend. He knows you better than your husband or your wife. And he is with you all the time.
[11:41] That's what the psalm says. So if you're suffering, just like God knows what suffering is because Christ hung on the cross, he knows exactly what it means for you to suffer, what your suffering is. He knows it all. It's very reassuring.
[11:52] God is never an impersonal God. He's deeply personal and an awesome God at the same time. It's an amazing thing. That is our God. That is our God. Here's my question for you. If God can do anything he wants, and he can, why oh why would he choose to enter into a relationship like this with us?
[12:14] Have you ever thought about that? Why would he do that? I mean, I'm a mess. Why would he want to be in a relationship like this with me? Do you know why?
[12:25] Well, the psalm tells us it's because he made us. It's because he made every fiber of our being. He made everything that makes us us.
[12:39] I'm going to read this whole section because it's so important to us understanding who we are as human beings and who we are as Christians. Read with me from verse 13. Four.
[12:52] Four. The four is looking all the way back to what he just said. This is why all this stuff has happened. Four. You formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
[13:04] I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you.
[13:15] I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. And in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
[13:31] Two things. Look at some of the words that the psalmist uses here.
[13:44] The ancient world is not completely lacking in knowledge of biology. They understood where babies came from and all that stuff.
[13:54] That's not the words that he uses. Look at the words that he uses. You were intricately woven in the depths of the earth. I was being made in secret.
[14:05] My frame was not hidden from you. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. The Hebrew for that is actually embryo. That's what the unformed substance means. He's actually saying, the creation of a human being is a supernatural occurrence.
[14:21] We're not a biological oddity. We're not a biological experiment. This is a supernatural thing that the Bible is talking about. That's what the psalmist is actually saying.
[14:32] People who say, you know, we're just biology, we're just carbon. I'll tell you one thing. Being in ministry, one of the awesome things about it is you get to work with a lot of families who have young kids, baptisms, births and stuff. I've never seen a new father hold up a newborn baby and look at it and say, whoa, that's an interesting arrangement of carbon items.
[14:54] It's never happened. Right? Never happened. What do they say? This is amazing. This is amazing. The number of families we've seen come to become Christians because they had a child and all of a sudden the career and everything else is not that important anymore because all of a sudden they realize there is more to life than just making money and going to work every day because they're holding a little baby and it's not just carbon.
[15:17] It's a human being. It's a supernatural occurrence. That's what the Bible is actually saying. That's the first thing. Here's the second thing. Look at some of these words. Fearfully and wonderfully made.
[15:30] Fearfully. Some of the old translators actually translate that as awesome which is kind of good because they're saying, I'm awesome. I'm awesome, man. It's like 100 years ago. I'm awesome. So fearfully and wonderfully made.
[15:42] It's actually the character of God. Wonderfully made and your creation is wonderful. What he's saying is God is wonderful, his works are wonderful and I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
[15:53] God is awesome and I am awesome. That's how God has made me. It's actually saying we are created with a stamp of God on our heads. The Old Testament talks about this being created in the image of God.
[16:07] That's in Genesis. In Genesis chapter 2, we are created in the image of God. It doesn't mean we look like God. We might look like God. I don't know. That's not the main thing. What it's actually talking about, created in the image of God, is we have the attributes of God.
[16:19] But more importantly than that, God has actually put his stamp on our heads. And no other part of creation is created in the image of God. If you read the creation accounts, Genesis 2 and 3 are tightly tied to Psalm 139, created the mountains and the rivers and the animals and all that stuff.
[16:34] But you know what was better than all that stuff? Man and woman. That was more impressive than the mountains in the creation account. The pinnacle of creation is a Sabbath on the seventh day and on the sixth day, man and woman were created in God's image.
[16:48] That is an amazing thing. That's the way the Bible presents it. It's an amazing thing. God knows us because he made us. And he made us in his image.
[16:59] And because of that, he loves us. In the Old Testament, you don't take a human life because it's created in the image of God. That's what it actually means. So here's my question for you.
[17:10] We're going to have a mid-talk art appreciation break. Are you ready? Pick up your pictures. Pick up your Mona Lisa pictures. Okay.
[17:22] Now this is from Saxon, pre-Saxon times. This is from, what is it from? The medieval age? Something like that. Okay. Renaissance.
[17:32] Thanks, Jim. Yeah, I'm an engineer. So it's from long ago. Here's my two questions, right? It's Mona Lisa, right? I know that much. Who do you think the lady was?
[17:44] Right? Is she smiling, frowning, or trying to decide? Talk to the person beside you about it. Get you guys to know each other, right? Get to meet each other. Thank you.
[18:22] Okay.
[18:34] Okay. Okay. Let's see what we got. Does anyone know who the lady is? I know it's a Mona Lisa, but besides that, anyone know?
[18:50] Some of the theories. She was, you know, someone that was around Florence at the time. Florence, right? Some people think it was a relative of Leonardo da Vinci's.
[19:01] Some people think it was actually him, kind of painted him, which is kind of odd, but anyways. You know what? We don't really know. We don't really know. How about this?
[19:12] Is she smiling? Is she frowning? Or is she trying to decide? Who says smiling? Is she frowning? Who says not sure?
[19:25] Trying to decide? Who says smiling? Oh, we got one over there. Carl? Well, apparently this is, I've been told, this has been a debate from artistic scholars for a long time.
[19:35] Is she smiling and frowning? They don't know. Something that Leonardo da Vinci did when he painted it. Made it. We don't know. You know who does know? Leonardo da Vinci knows.
[19:47] Get it? Get it? He made the painting. The person that actually, he painted, he knows who it is. He knows what he did, and he put all these different things in the background. There's all these little things.
[19:58] I've actually been told, I've actually been told this, that for really good painters, the way they do their brush strokes is like a fingerprint. So you look at the brush strokes and figure out, oh, this is obviously painted by Leonardo da Vinci because I can see his brush strokes, and that's like a signature.
[20:11] Right? And another person does it a different way. It's amazing, isn't it? The type of paint that he used, apparently he had some unique painting technique that no one else could replicate, and that's why if you look at her from one direction, she looks like she's frowning, and from another direction, she looks like she's smiling, and it's, I can't figure it out, but it's amazing, isn't it?
[20:29] Now, how many people a year look at this painting? Do you know? Ten million a year. Every person that comes to the Louvre looks at it. How many people know who she is? None. How many people know she's smiling or frowning?
[20:41] None. Who does know? Leonardo da Vinci knows. You can ask him if we see him somewhere in the future. Who is it? God knows us because he made us.
[20:52] Right? He's got his fingerprint upon us. We are unique, each one of us, and he knows us. We are created in his image. Now, here's the second point.
[21:02] Us knowing that God knows us is transforming. There is a tension in this psalm.
[21:13] There is a conflict in this psalm. Did you pick it up? Jim mentioned it at the beginning. David rejoices because God knows him completely.
[21:24] And he tries to flee because God knows him completely. See the tension? Verse 1. You know me completely.
[21:35] Verse 7. I am going to try to flee from God. I can't flee from him. What am I going to do? It's the human condition we all have. We want to be known completely. And at the same time, we don't really want to be known completely.
[21:47] Because if we are known completely, people are going to see all the dirt that's in our lives and stuff. And we don't really want to be seen. So we want to filter the information that people get about us. We want to actually massage it and edit it and lie about it even.
[22:00] So people will actually see what we are like. We are all like that. I am like that. We are all like that. We want to be known completely. But we don't want to be known completely. That's in this psalm.
[22:12] That tension is in this psalm. In Genesis, we see the fall. The fall. Humanity turns our back on God. And the results of that, among many things, are broken relationships.
[22:24] Broken relationship with God and with each other. Broken relationship with God. What's the first thing that Adam and Eve try to do? They try to hide from God. Broken relationship. So the second thing that God has to do, he has to cover their sinfulness.
[22:36] So that they can't show their sinfulness to each other. It gives them leaves to cover their sinfulness. And how about humanity? This close relationship between a man and a woman in marriage is flawed. Because of the fall.
[22:47] And we live in a world where there is disease which all of us suffer from. And which can be devastating. And I'm going to talk about it a bit. Because I think this psalm speaks right to it.
[22:58] And that is a disease of loneliness. It's a disease of loneliness. It's something which is part of our world. There is a quote that goes like this. A city is a large community of people being lonely together.
[23:14] Hmm. A lot of truth in that, isn't there? A lot of truth in that. My wife, Judy, who I love very much. We've been married for 15 years. Good marriage. Best woman in the world.
[23:25] About two months ago, we were talking to each other. I said, how are you going? She said, I'm a bit lonely. And I said, I'm a bit lonely too. We've been married for 15 years. Every one of us is lonely sometime in our life.
[23:36] Every one of us. Every one of us. Kids in school. Parents, you'll know this. What do you want your kids to have in school? Just one friend. Just one friend.
[23:48] That's all you want. One friend changes a grade one classroom from being horrible and the worst place in the world to my grade one classroom. Just one friend.
[23:59] That's all you want your kids to have. You can see your kids change. Kids don't hide loneliness very well. We're better at it. My kids don't hide it very well. You just want one friend. The movie Castaway, Tom Hanks, when he was on the island, he started to talk to, remember?
[24:14] Wilson? The volleyball, right? The best part of that movie. Do you remember the movie? Okay. Remember the best part of it? Gets rescued. You know the deal. There was not much of a movie. Gets rescued. Goes back to wherever it was, the mainland.
[24:27] And he's having all this fantastic food with all his friends. And I think the most poignant part of the film is when they all leave and he's by himself. And he's lonely. He's been on the desert island for ages.
[24:38] And he's lonely in the middle of this big city because his wife has married somebody else. And nobody understands where he ends. He's lonely again. It's the best part of the movie. He's very human. We're lonely because our relationship with each other is hard.
[24:52] And we're lonely because our relationship with God is hard. We have a spiritual loneliness without God. Some people call it a spiritual longing. Some people call it a soul craving. Whatever it is. We are meant to be in a relationship with God.
[25:04] And we're going to be lonely without that relationship with God. What does Psalm 139 say? Knowing God knows us should transform our lives.
[25:20] To transform our hearts. If we see God like David does, we might want to flee away. Right? Now, who wants people to have unfiltered access to every part of their lives?
[25:35] To know them inside and out? Does anyone want that? I don't want that. Does anyone want that? We can't embellish our lives. We can't edit it. We can't cover it up.
[25:46] We can't lie about it. We can't knock the edge off. We can't disguise. We're great at this. We can't compartmentalize it. Take this horrible stuff in our life. Put it in one place and ignore it until we pull it out again. We can't do that anymore. Right?
[25:57] You can't do that. Because God sees everything. Right? God sees everything. Does anyone want that? Think about all the stuff just from 4 o'clock today that's gone through your head. And just think about the top 50 worst things.
[26:08] Right? Would you like that to be broadcast? Nobody does. Right? Nobody. But this is what David says to God. Verse 23. How can he say this?
[26:25] Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. How can he say that to God?
[26:43] Well, David was a prophet. He knew God's mercy. He knew God's love. He knew God's forgiveness of his people.
[26:55] Now, for us, after the coming of Jesus, we have seen in flesh God's mercy and God's love and God's forgiveness.
[27:08] For all those who are created in his image and that he loves. That's what we've seen. And Christ's death for us makes it possible for the spiritual loneliness that we have for God to be torn away.
[27:22] Because he's torn away the sin. And we can be seen by God completely. And loved by God. Because of what he's done for us. That's true love. That's real love. That allows David to say boldly to God, search me and know my heart.
[27:37] And that is a gutsy thing to say to God. It's not on us. It's on Christ. For him to be able to say that to God. And the struggle that we have to be known when we don't want to be known is blown away.
[27:50] It's gone. Because God can know us. And we can know God. And God does know us completely. I'm going to read from Romans chapter 8. This is verse 38.
[28:01] You're going to hear an echo of Psalm 139 in this, okay? So Romans chapter 8. Who we are as God's people.
[28:37] Is in Psalm 139. It's a very personal psalm as I said. You see it's what God sees that matters. Not what each other sees that matters. It's the only eyes that really count in the universe. Are the eyes of God when they are upon you.
[28:48] And when God sees you because of Christ. You are perfect. And you're holy. And you're beautiful. Now when we look in the mirror. We don't always see that, do we? We see what we think other people want to see in us.
[29:01] I'm not tall enough. Or I'm not thin enough. Or I'm not sporty enough. Or I want better skin. Or I wish I was just smarter or funnier. Or I could speak. All these different things.
[29:12] You know what? God is completely unimpressed by those. What does God want from us? What does God impress God? It's someone that says to God, search me and know me and lead me. That's what God is impressed by.
[29:22] That's what he wants. It's not what the world says. But that's what God says to us. Now I'm just going to say something here for a second. Because I did raise something earlier. And I want to talk to it.
[29:36] I talked about how the unformed being is actually an embryo. Psalm 139 is a psalm which we go to.
[29:46] To talk about life being at conception. Which we believe as Christians. So we don't agree with an abortion. Now why I'm bringing it up is because I mentioned it. And I want to speak specifically that I think in a church this size with this many people.
[30:01] There are some women who've probably had abortions. Or have been involved with it. God can cover that. The death of Christ can cover it.
[30:13] You're forgiven for that. The death of Christ can cover over that happening. Psalm 139.
[30:27] God knows us completely. This is a transforming truth. It brings intimacy with Christ. That we all need. We all have to have.
[30:38] I'll tell you what happened to me. Three years ago. Many of you know I had a very bad back injury. I was in bed for about four months. I was on a codeine for quite a long time.
[30:51] And I remember one time. You ever tried to bargain with God? Right? Where you're like, okay, God, if you get me. If you do this for me, I'll do this for you. Right? You ever tried to do that?
[31:02] Maybe I'm the only one. So God, if you get me out of this jam. If you heal my back, I will never do this again. Because I know you don't want me to do it. And you know what? I miss because I was on codeine at the time.
[31:12] But I had this perfect moment of clarity. This Psalm 139 moment of clarity. Where I just thought, I am lying to God. And God knows I'm lying to him. I will probably do this thing again.
[31:24] And he knows I'll probably do it again. Why do I try to fool myself? That was the most important thing that happened to me in those four months. I actually realized, I come to the table with God with nothing.
[31:37] I have nothing. I bring nothing to the table. We throw ourselves in the grace of God. And the great freedom of knowing that God knows us completely. Absolutely. Inside and out. And he still loves us.
[31:47] And Christ is still put on the cross for us. That is a great freedom. It's a great joy. I'm going to pray for us as we finish up. I'm going to pray for us. From the last two verses of Psalm 139.
[31:59] Which is David looking forward. And with the assurance of the grace and the mercy of God. Which we see in Jesus Christ. Knowing that he can pray this prayer with confidence. Let's pray.
[32:21] Dear God. We thank you Lord that we are fearfully and wonderfully made in your image. That within your creation.
[32:34] No other thing is made in your image but us. We thank you that you love us. As your children. Lord we ask for forgiveness for our sinful hearts.
[32:45] At the same time. We come before you with confidence. In the death of our Savior Jesus Christ. On the cross for us. We pray Lord that you will search us. And know our hearts.
[32:57] We pray Lord that you will try us. And that you will know our thoughts. We pray Lord that you will see if there is any grievous way in us. And that you will lead each of us in the way everlasting. Amen.
[33:19] Let's pray. God we do thank you that you know us. God that you made us. That you are with us.
[33:30] God we thank you that we can't get away from you even when we want to. God that you love us. And we do ask that you search us and that you know us. God we ask that when you find those things that we are not proud of.
[33:43] That you will forgive us. And that you will make us more like you. God we ask that you would give to your people an increase of grace. That we may hear your word.
[33:55] Receiving it with pure affection. And bringing forth the fruit of the spirit. Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer. Lord we come to you in the midst of the winter Olympics.
[34:09] Which have come upon our city. And we ask that as people have gathered from all over the world. That you would gather them into your church. Father we ask that you would work.
[34:19] Through the Olympics to spread your gospel. And Jesus you taught us that your word spreads like leaven. And we ask that. Your word would spread deep and wide. In the next two weeks.
[34:32] God you have made of one blood. All the peoples of the earth. You sent your son to preach peace. To those who are far off. And those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you.
[34:43] And find you. Bring the nations into your fold. Pour out your spirit upon all flesh. And hasten the coming of your kingdom. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord.
[34:54] Lord in your mercy. And Lord we also ask that. In the excitement. And maybe distraction. That is going on right now.
[35:05] That we would also remember. The downcast and downtrodden in our city. And remember the homeless. And we ask for housing. And we remember the unemployed.
[35:16] And we ask for jobs. And we remember the oppressed. And we ask for justice. And God we ask that you would move us. To care and to love. For even the least of these.
[35:27] And we ask for justice. And we ask for justice. So Lord we ask you to care for the sick. To show your mercy to prisoners and refugees. To defend and provide for widows and orphans. And all those who are desolate and oppressed.
[35:39] Help and comfort all those who are in danger. Necessity. Or tribulation. Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer. Hasten Lord.
[35:52] The day when people will come. From east and west. From north and south. And sit at table in your kingdom. And we shall see your son in his glory. Lord in your mercy.
[36:05] Hear our prayer. As our Savior Christ has taught us. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
[36:17] Your will be done. On earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins. As we forgive those who sin against us.
[36:29] Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom. And the power. And the glory. Forever and ever. Amen.
[36:40] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.