Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us
that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the
Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do
what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,
checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us
questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things
that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
And let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for the chance to meditate it on this
morning. We ask that you would guide us by your Spirit, that you would illuminate your Word and
show us what you would have to say to us today. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Well, how many people would you say know you, really know you? Not counting those that know things about
you or know your perspectives on things. Those who know you deeply, interpersonally,
authentically, authentically, people that know you when you're not in active image management.
Those that know your hopes and fears. How many do you think know you like that?
One or two people, more, none.
One, well, what do you think it is that keeps us from being known in this sort of way?
Two or three things came to my mind. One is the societal pressure of fitting in, right? We want to
project to others what we think they want to hear from us. There's, of course, the practical
give and take of relationships where we want to be known proportional to the other person. We don't
want to divulge too much too soon. And perhaps, perhaps strongest of all, is the fear that we might be
known and that we might be rejected. The others might know us, our personality, our fears, our hopes,
our longings, and that they might reject us once they know these. There's all sorts of reasons for
why we are not known to others, why we might hide, why we feel the need to conceal.
Now, all of this talk of being known begs the question, well, what does it mean to be known?
Who are you truly? What is the innermost part of you that you try to conceal? Are you your darkest
thoughts or are you the best version of yourself or a mix of both? Is the authentic you the person who
you are when no one's looking or are you most truly you when you're in relationship? If relationship,
which relationships? To know thyself, right? The great Greek maxim is easier said than done.
And being known is not straightforward. And yet, of course, to be known, to know yourself, to be known
by God, that this is our greatest longing and certainly our most fundamental need.
Well, the psalm that we read this morning, Psalm 139, is a deep source of wisdom for those of us
navigating this question. The psalm presents us with someone living before the face of God, found out by
God, searched by God, and opening his life to the gaze of Almighty God. We don't know the context exactly.
We're told that David wrote this psalm. We don't know the exact time in his life when it was penned.
But the verses and images of the psalm suggest someone who has fled from God, or at least who's
tempted to flee from God, who's gone into hiding, who may be questioning God's intentions with his life,
questioning God's goodness.
But whatever the context the psalmist was writing from, the scripture invites us to be known
in the deepest sense that you and I need. As we go through the psalm, we'll see that we're invited to
be known by God, our maker. We're invited to be known by God, our knower, and God, our pursuer.
God, our maker, our knower, and pursuer. And we'll find that he alone is worthy and capable of knowing
us as we were made to be known. So first, our maker.
Well, so much of life is a competition. A career, those who get the job, athletics, those who win
the games, or who can lift the most. And while much of life is a competition, there's a lot more
in life that feels like a competition, although it's not. Maybe our looks or our status. And so it's
difficult for us not to be constantly comparing ourselves to others, measuring ourselves up against
one another. And unfortunately, in competitions, there generally is one winner and many losers.
And so many of us, as we frame life in this way, we get down on ourselves.
If only this part of my body looked different. If only I was a bit smarter.
If only I were a bit more outgoing.
We spend much of our lives feeling
stuck in our bodies, stuck in our personalities, held back.
Feeling inadequate, perhaps wondering whether we are worthy of love
or worthy of the good life.
And yet the scriptures that we read this morning in Psalm 139,
scriptures, in contrast, tell us,
they tell you that you've been fearfully and wonderfully made.
That the Lord knit you together while in your mother's womb.
We read,
your eyes saw my unformed substance.
In your book were written,
every one of them, the days that were formed for me.
When is yet, there were none of them.
Well, this is good news for us this morning.
We were made to live before God, our maker,
who reminds us each time,
each day, each moment,
that he made us and that he made us well.
You don't need to wonder or worry whether you measure up,
whether you're worthy of love or the good life,
that by function of having been created good by a good God,
you are told that you are wonderfully made.
Now, perhaps some nuance on this point will help
for those of us who struggle so much to receive and believe this truth.
On one hand, this is not a fatalistic conclusion
to say that however you find yourself,
whatever state you're in,
this is caused by God
and you need to accept it passively as a gift.
I don't think that's what the scriptures tell us.
There is sin, like a bad temper.
There is unexploited potential areas where we need to grow up,
areas where we need to mature.
And then there are weaknesses or circumstances
that God placed us in that his glory might be revealed.
Think here of the man born blind,
that where God's glory would be revealed in his healing, right?
There's all sorts of ways that this truth of us being wonderfully made
is more complex than first meets the eye.
And you might think,
yeah, thank God for my temper, you know,
thank God for the way that he made me.
Well, perhaps your temper is the downside
to a passion that God has given you to use for his good,
to stand up for truth,
to stand up for on behalf of others.
And so while you will need to ask God's help for your temper,
it may be the flip side of a God-given gift.
The boldness that allows the entrepreneur to succeed
also causes him or her to perhaps too quickly say the wrong things
and lose friendships.
The shyness that keeps someone from career opportunities
may also have the introspection to bless the world
with writings or sympathize with someone in need.
The aspect of you that you may feel holds you back.
How might this be recast as a new opportunity,
perhaps an advantage,
or else like the man born blind,
an opportunity for the glory of God to be revealed?
So affirming that God made you well
does not necessarily mean we sit back passively,
helpless to change anything.
Instead, we're called to seek out how God truly made us.
What are the God-given aspects of myself, of yourself,
that I am to accept as a gift?
What areas am I called to receive as gifts to be developed?
And what aspects of myself am I called to accept
that certainly don't feel like a gift,
wondering how God might use these for his glory?
In all cases, we can know this morning
that you were made by a God who doesn't make mistakes,
that the raw materials that you are made of,
made from,
the blueprint of yourself,
that this was made by a good God.
When you think there's aspects of yourself
that you don't like,
you can know God made you well.
You were fearfully and wonderfully made
to bring about the greatest amount of good
for the glory of God
and for the good of others.
Society tells us,
be yourself, right?
That's,
I'm sure you've heard that one before.
Be yourself.
And of course,
there's good truth to this,
but the scripture puts it somewhat differently,
doesn't it?
Be who God created you to be.
You don't find this by simply turning inward,
but by turning to another,
to the one who made you
and tells you who you are.
And so that's what we see first in this psalm,
that God made you
and we desperately need to be found by this God.
More than having made you,
he also knows you.
He knows all about who you are today.
He knows about your experiences,
the things that brought you in,
the door today,
and the complexity of life.
He knows your ways.
In the words of the psalm,
we read,
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord,
you know it all together.
I don't know how it is for you,
but I've been in many conversations
where I've tried to express my viewpoint,
and at the end of it,
I think,
I don't think this person understands what I'm saying, right?
We can go through life often feeling misunderstood,
and yet the scriptures talk about a God
who knows our thoughts before they hit us,
before they can be conceptualized
and formalized or formulated by our words.
When looking to buy a house many,
some years ago,
my wife and I,
we looked at our budget and thought,
well,
we can't do as well as we had hoped,
and so,
why don't we buy a fixer-upper?
Now,
if you know anything about me
and the skill of these hands,
you know that that would be a bad,
bad idea,
and often we look back on that time
and think,
you know,
how silly of us to think
that we might be able to do this sort of thing,
but is this not what we do all the time, right?
How often do we misunderstand our ways
and our gifts
and how we were made?
We are,
in many ways,
so blind to our ways,
and yet,
all of our ways we read
are known to him.
St. Augustine,
he knew this well
when he wrote famously,
in his words,
you were more inward to me
than the most inward part of me.
You get that?
You were more inward to me
than the most inward part of me.
He's saying that
better than he can know himself
is the God that knows him,
that made him and knows him.
And there's some days
where I'm quite overwhelmed
at all I want to be and become,
find it extremely comforting
to know that the one
who knows me better
than I know myself
is the one who is working on me,
the one who's sanctifying me
and leading me in this,
the way of eternal life.
In a culture
obsessed with self-exploration,
personality tests,
DNA tests to figure out,
you know,
where you're from,
psychoanalysis
and making sense
of childhood experiences,
you know,
all good things
to know ourselves,
but the scriptures show us
that the deepest way
to be known,
more existentially important
and prior to all these things
is to know
and to be known
by the God
who made you
and knows you.
And so in this sense,
all our therapy,
all our introspection,
all our psychoanalyzing
is to be reframed
to emphasize
that we need
to keep in step
with the spirit
who knows us deeply
and personally
and that on our own,
our efforts will be
limited.
Now,
some of our ways
that God knows
better than
we know ourselves,
some of these ways
are,
in all honesty,
deeply troubling.
Well,
worse than
we would be willing
to admit
on a Sunday morning
to one another
that the degree
of selfishness
and pride,
our evil desire,
we wonder,
can we really
tell the full truth
about these?
Can we be known
in this way?
Are some truths
not too difficult
to stomach?
Can we bear
the weight
of these?
We so desperately
want to be thought
of well
and we so desperately
want to think
of ourselves well.
And so we,
of course,
have this desire
to hide,
to not look
our sin in the eye,
to turn to
delusion
because we can't
entertain the reality
of the depths
of our sin.
Now,
all this leads
to our third point,
that God,
he made us,
he knows us,
and yet,
he still chooses
to pursue
you and I.
The psalmist
prays,
where shall I go
from your spirit?
Where shall I flee
from your presence?
And later on,
O Lord,
you have searched me
and known me.
Now,
transparency
and being known
has,
does it not have
the worst
wrap
in our day?
You think about
airport security,
there's nothing
less comfortable
than going through
that scan
and having to
return to take
off the belt
that you forgot.
And we think
about the internet
and how the
going wisdom
is that the
government
and service
providers should
know,
you know,
absolutely nothing
about what
we're doing
online.
When we think
about transparency
and being known,
many of us
think back to
George Orwell's
famous 1984
Big Brother
sense of transparency,
this oppressive,
impersonal knowledge
that seeks to
catch us.
Of course,
in contrast
to that
in Psalm 139
is
that God
seeks us out
not impersonally,
not,
yeah,
not impersonal
omniscience,
not uncaring
knowledge,
but this
deep sense
of caring
and loving
to know us,
to know us
deeply.
The scriptures
tell us
that the
God who
made us
knows us
deeply,
that this
God came
down to
earth
in the
person
of Jesus
Christ
and died
for each
and all
of our
sins,
that our
sinful ways,
the things
that we know
about,
the things
that we don't
know about,
our sinful
choices,
even the
things that
we most
seek to
conceal from
others,
that Jesus
died for
these things
that we
might be
freed from
sin and
reconciled to
God.
This
relationship
of safety
and security
that God
provides to
us is the
thing that
our hearts
long for,
that outside
of this
relationship,
the stakes
are too
high for
full confession.
confession.
I don't
know how
it is,
but when
we're
confessing
or you're
saying
something
that you've
done wrong
to one
another,
we'll often
tell those
stories in a
way that
best reflects
us,
right?
Because we
want to
manage our
image and
we don't
know what
that will
do to
us if
somebody
else knows
the full
weight of
what we've
done.
So we
half confess,
but when we
come before
God whom
we cannot
successfully run
and hide
from and
who loves
us the
same,
we can be
fully transparent
about our
sins and
we have the
safety of
this relationship
where as
we deeply
need and
as we
deeply long
for to be
known and
to be
loved,
to allow
him to
transform our
hearts and
lead us in
the way of
eternal life.
One
pastor and
writer,
he put it
this way,
he says,
if there
was even
one thing
God did
not know
about me,
that might
be the
thing that
would put
me beyond
his grace.
If I
could hold
back anything
from him,
I would.
Of course,
keep back
my darkest
deeds,
my most
shameful
secrets.
I would
display my
best and
hide my
worst.
But then
when the
books were
opened in
the last
day,
it might
be found
that these
sins were
the ones
for which
there is
no forgiveness,
the ones
he had not
foreseen when
he accepted
the sacrifice
of his
son on
my behalf.
My
confidence
would be
undermined
and destroyed.
But,
no,
all of my
ways are
known to
him,
and even
this complete
knowledge does
nothing to
diminish or
destroy his
love for
me.
And so,
this morning,
if you
haven't come
before the
face of
Almighty God
who knows
you,
who loves
you,
who pursues
you in
the person
of Jesus
Christ,
he welcomes
you to do
so.
This is the
relationship you
and I
most need.
And if you
have, he
invites you to
live more
fully before
his face,
to live
knowing and
embracing the
reality that
all aspects
of your
life are
lived before
God,
and that
there's no
part of
your life
that will
go well
if you
try and
conceal it
or lock
it off
from God's
pursuit.
Our longing
to be fully
known and
fully loved
is met in
the person
of Jesus
Christ.
This is
the relationship
we most
need,
and so we
can pray
with the
psalmist,
search me,
O God,
you've
searched me
before,
now search
me again,
get rid of
everything that
keeps me from
you,
that holds
me back
from the
way of
life
everlasting.
Let's pray.
Father, we
are grateful for
this, your
word that
speaks to
us, the
ultimate
relationship
that we
need to
live lives
that are
exposed,
that where
we will find
forgiveness,
where we can
be known and
loved and
cherished by
you as we
were created
to be.
We ask for
each of us
in this room
for the
areas that
we conceal
before you
and others
that you
would help
us to
come clean
before you,
that you
would shine
your light
in our
lives,
that we
would say
the same
thing as
you,
as you
already see
in our
lives,
and that you
would do
far more
than we
can possibly
ask or
imagine,
knowing the
mess in our
lives,
knowing the
sin and
all the
things that
we wish to
be different
about our
lives,
and that you
would bring
transformation
by the power
of your
spirit,
that you
would lead
us on the
way of
everlasting
life, we
pray in
Jesus' name.
Amen.