WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.679 This week I was listening to a podcast as I like to do to try and stay trendy. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:14.880 It's quite hard. And I was listening to Dr. Craig Aventer who was a pioneer in 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:21.160 sequence in the human genome and he was saying that from the smallest skin cell 00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:28.760 or even a bit of your hair that he could know you from that. He said that he 00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:33.480 could get his computers at work and print down your DNA letter by letter 00:00:33.480 --> 00:00:40.880 which would fill more than half a million pages. And from this he said I 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:47.600 would know that person. And this got me thinking is it possible to know someone 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:51.320 from their DNA? Take the person that's sitting next to you on your left. If you 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:56.920 got a book of their DNA and you read those half a million pages could you 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:02.120 save that person next to you. I know you now. I know what your favorite color is. 00:01:02.120 --> 00:01:08.400 I know what food you like. I know what ticks you off and makes you happy. I 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:14.320 doubt it. If you all could get the book of Chris my DNA which I'm sure would be a 00:01:14.320 --> 00:01:22.400 riveting read. Would you say at the end you know my hopes and my fears? Of course 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:27.719 not. You wouldn't. We have to make a distinction between our physical 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:35.760 makeup ourselves and who we are. Our character, our essence, our soul. You 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:43.080 want to get to know me through this book. We are far more complex. We are more 00:01:43.080 --> 00:01:50.200 than the sum of our parts. We have depth. And we have as the Samus says here in 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:58.000 his words we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And to be known is a human 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:03.359 desire. We want to be known. We want to be seen, heard and understood as we go 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:08.240 about our lives. We long for a closeness of relationship where someone sees the 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:13.120 real you. Maybe the you that sings in the shower dances in the kitchen. We long 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:18.840 to someone to know us on that intimate level. But sometimes we can feel pressure 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:25.560 to put a veneer on our lives. To suppress or to hide or to put on a false face 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:30.439 every day. And there's pressures in the world to do that from advertisement to 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:37.120 media. To try and make us subtly conform and to fit into a mold. These subtle 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:43.920 pressures daily can make us hide our true self. But yet under the surface 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:53.359 bubbles this desire to be known and to be loved. Sam 139 is the text we're going 00:02:53.359 --> 00:02:59.599 to look at this morning. It was written by King David and the King is pointing 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:08.119 out here that we are known completely by God here this morning. Luke tells us 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:14.719 that God knows every hair on your head. You are completely known. Look at verses 00:03:14.719 --> 00:03:21.439 two to four. You know when I sit down and when I rise up you discern my thoughts 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:28.280 from afar. You set out my path, my laying down and are quainted with all my ways. 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:35.640 Even before a word is on my tongue. Behold, oh Lord, you know it all together. 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:43.519 Then 13 and 16 for you formed my inward parts. You netted me together in my 00:03:43.519 --> 00:03:49.959 mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful 00:03:49.959 --> 00:03:55.719 are your works. My soul knows it. The soul knows it well. My frame was not hidden 00:03:55.719 --> 00:04:02.000 from you when I was being made in sikha. Intrigal woven in the depths of the 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:09.240 earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:16.279 of them. The days that were formed to me. When as yet there was none of them. The 00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:21.160 beauty of this Sam that David is trying to communicate to us is that we are known 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:27.040 fully and completely. God knows your thought, your form and your substance 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:33.520 here today. This Sam acts as a double-edged sword in one capacity. You 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:37.520 know that we read this and we can take encouragement. The Lord knows your weak 00:04:37.520 --> 00:04:42.200 that you're having. He knows your fears, your hopes. The worries for your children, 00:04:42.200 --> 00:04:47.600 the worries about your work are known to him. But also on the flip side of this 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:55.520 sword, a double-edged, is that you are known by God. He knows your character. He 00:04:55.519 --> 00:05:00.560 knows the secret parts of your heart. The things that you wish no one else could 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:06.719 see are known by him. I was thinking of like asking Ali to flash some things up 00:05:06.719 --> 00:05:11.599 on the screens about like maybe that we could all connect with. But I was worried 00:05:11.599 --> 00:05:16.159 that that would empty the room. You know like secret sins that were all partial to 00:05:16.159 --> 00:05:22.240 that we would die if anyone else knew about. Actually God knows you completely 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:28.720 and knows these things. So I have two points this morning that we are completely 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:37.680 known and the beautiful gospel truth that we are completely loved by God. So let 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:42.139 us begin with the main drive of this Sam. We see it in the very opening where 00:05:42.139 --> 00:05:46.960 David leaves us in no doubt of his intention. Verse one, oh Lord you have 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:53.639 searched me and know me. This is not like a cursory Google search. Like when you 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:57.399 put your name in Google and it comes up with loads of stuff. This is a searching 00:05:57.399 --> 00:06:02.199 to the matter, to the depths of your heart. God is looking at you and can see 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:07.599 the real you. This searching and knowing means that God knows the very heart of 00:06:07.599 --> 00:06:14.399 his people. It is not unlike the words in 1 Kings 839. Then here in heaven you're 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:20.399 dwelling place God and forgive and act to your people according to their ways. 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:27.560 Those hearts you know for you alone know the hearts of all the sons of man. That's 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:33.319 all people. God knows the hearts and being known by God is an amazing truth. 00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:38.239 David is in complete office. Don't we see this in verse six? If you look at verse 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:47.240 six, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:53.240 Through the Sam, the depths of God's knowledge of you is flushed out so 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:58.639 completely. Like God knows your actions, your coming and going, knows your thoughts. 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:03.600 That's why we can pray without speaking. God sees that and hears that and knows 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:09.480 that. Your situation, what's going on around you, that's the part towards the 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:13.840 end. It talks about those who seek to take his life. God knew David's position 00:07:13.840 --> 00:07:21.120 and substance. What character of person you are is completely and utterly known 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:28.320 by God. In the ancient world they had a real desire to be known from China to 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:36.040 ancient Greece. There's one of the Delphi aphorisms that says know yourself. It's 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:40.959 one of the key Greek philosophies to know yourself would make you a truly 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:47.519 complete man or human as they thought in the ancient world. Unfortunately for us, 00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:54.480 the Bible teaches us that this isn't possible, completely possible because sin. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:08:00.759 We were told in the Bible that sin blinds us. There's actually elements of 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:06.680 ourselves that are cut off. We see that when sometimes our behavior surprises us. 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:12.520 We think to ourselves, where did that come from? That reaction, that mood, that tone. 00:08:12.520 --> 00:08:17.360 Sins that we thought would never ensnare us, suddenly we were caught by. It 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:22.360 shocks us because we thought that's not like who we are. There's an element to 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:29.280 us that are unknown because of sin. I recently went to see Christopher Nolan's 00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:33.519 new movie Dunkirk. It was really good but there's one thing that fascinated me 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:39.120 about that movie. Christopher Nolan's a great character director. He flushes out 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:45.519 characters well. In the movie you see people, you know, are they covered? Are 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:50.879 they brave? Things got revealed to you as the story went on. Each character 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:56.360 developed. It got me thinking, I didn't really know much about Dunkirk so I 00:08:56.360 --> 00:09:01.519 watched a few programs after that on the Victoria Cross winners which is the 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:07.799 highest award in the British Army for valor and bravery. One guy was saying 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:12.840 that on this show you would go into a field of battle and you'd look around 00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:17.879 and you think the big strong guys are going to be courageous or stick with them. 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:21.879 And then before you know it, most of them are crying in the corner looking for their 00:09:21.879 --> 00:09:26.279 mum. And it's the wee, wee guy that you didn't want to sit next to who's charging 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:31.480 the front line. Character, something that was brought out that was unknown to 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:39.759 everyone around them. Josh Wheaton, the director once said you can live next to 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:46.559 a man for 40 years. Share his home, his meals. Speak to him on every subject. Then 00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:52.439 tie him up and hold him over a volcano and maybe on that day you will meet the 00:09:52.439 --> 00:09:57.719 real man. So certain situations can bring out things that are hidden within us 00:09:57.719 --> 00:10:06.000 but the reality of sin is when we never truly know ourselves to that depth, to 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:10.319 the depth where we are whole. Because Christians believe something rather 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:17.160 simple. But it has profound and complex implications on our lives. And that is 00:10:17.160 --> 00:10:25.280 sin has broken humanity. It's broken you and me. We are disjointed in ourselves and 00:10:25.280 --> 00:10:30.840 we are disjointed from one another. And we can see that throughout our culture. 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:35.040 It was fascinating this week that BBC had an article online. I don't know if anyone 00:10:35.040 --> 00:10:38.920 noticed it about an MP calling for people to get to know their neighbours. 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:45.319 Such a weird thing to ask people to do. But 61% of people don't know their 00:10:45.319 --> 00:10:50.399 neighbours in Britain anymore. Don't know their names. It was something like 75% 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:54.919 wouldn't trust them with the key to their house. We're becoming more and more 00:10:54.919 --> 00:11:01.120 disjointed, more and more isolation from each other. Our culture communicates this 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:04.919 and the songs that we listen to, the disjointedness of our own souls. 00:11:04.919 --> 00:11:11.279 Lana Del Ray, who's a singer-songwriter, has a song called Right. Where she sings, 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:18.120 I was always an unusual girl. My mother told me I had a chameleon soul. No moral 00:11:18.120 --> 00:11:26.039 compass point in June-Ort. No fixed personality. No inner decisiveness. I 00:11:26.039 --> 00:11:33.759 was so indecisive that it was wide and as waving as the ocean. So we know there's 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:38.120 a brokenness. We know there's a disjointedness. People don't function 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:43.919 together. People are singing about it. Sin has blinded us to realms of our 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:50.840 self that we cannot know. But there is no cure in and of ourselves. That's what the 00:11:50.840 --> 00:11:56.240 Bible teaches. We see this in Jeremiah chapter 17 where he writes, the heart is 00:11:56.240 --> 00:12:04.240 deceitful above all things. Beyond cure. Who can understand it? As Jeremiah's 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:11.480 plea. Sin perplexes us even in our self. Our brokenness means that we cannot 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:17.159 truly connect our pieces back together. But Jeremiah in the same chapter goes 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:23.240 on in verse 10 and says he speaks the words of the Lord. I the Lord, search the 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:30.840 heart and examine the mind to reward each person. What we're being told here in 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:37.360 Jeremiah and Psalm 139 is that you may not know yourself completely but God 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:46.639 does. They are completely known by him. Heart, head and soul. Tolstoy once wrote 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:50.919 that if we start rummaging around in our souls that we often dig up something 00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:57.519 that should have laid unnoticed. But the reality of the Bible's truth is that most 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:03.360 of our soul, if we're rummaging around in it, goes unnoticed. We don't really know. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:09.679 We can't really comprehend the extent of our brokenness. We need the light of the 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:16.240 gospel to shine in our lives before we actually truly see ourselves. And this 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:21.440 leads me on to our second point this morning, that beautiful truth that 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:27.680 we are known and still loved. And for this point is really, as Timothy Keller 00:13:27.680 --> 00:13:32.960 writes in his book on the meaning of marriage, he says to be loved but not 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:41.120 known is completely superficial. To be known and not loved, sorry, to be loved 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:46.759 but not known is completely superficial. To be known and not loved is our 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:53.279 greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved, well it's a lot like being 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:58.960 loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:05.840 pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us from 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:14.440 any difficulty life can throw at us. Sam 139 communicates this reality this 00:14:14.440 --> 00:14:22.080 morning, that we are known and loved by God. God in his love is pursuing you 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:28.960 today. He's seeking you with his grace and he'll never give up. Look again at 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:36.759 Sam 139 verse 7. It says, where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:43.360 flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:48.680 and she'll, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the 00:14:48.680 --> 00:14:53.800 utmost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand 00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:59.559 shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and light about 00:14:59.559 --> 00:15:06.479 me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as a day, 00:15:06.479 --> 00:15:15.199 for darkness is a light with you. The Sammest highlights here that our 00:15:15.199 --> 00:15:21.839 sinfulness, our brokenness, once it drives us in a sense to try and escape 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:26.920 God, to flee from God. Because his light shone in our lives is uncomfortable 00:15:26.920 --> 00:15:32.480 because he exposes every part of our being before him. Verses 7 to 12 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:37.879 describes the effort of us, the Sammest describing the effort of a sinful man 00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:46.320 trying to escape God, so that God can't see his true self. The brokenness of this 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:52.040 man drives him to hide, try to hide in heaven, try to hide in sheol, which is 00:15:52.040 --> 00:15:57.879 like the depths of the earth, almost the core of the earth. It's not unlike that 00:15:57.879 --> 00:16:02.400 song by Nina Simone, Sinnerman, you know the words it says, Sinnerman, where are 00:16:02.400 --> 00:16:06.520 you gonna run to? Where are you gonna run to on that day which has been Jesus 00:16:06.520 --> 00:16:11.920 comes back? Are you gonna run to the rock and shout, hide me rock? And the rocks 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:20.279 cries out, I can't hide you. The running Sinnerman in Psalm 139 turns within a 00:16:20.279 --> 00:16:27.559 second in these verses to being led by God in verse 10. Well the Sammest, what 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:32.399 David is describing here is the wonderful beauty of Christian conversion. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:41.959 May you may run, we may hide, but God is pursuing, God is after you, God wants to 00:16:41.959 --> 00:16:48.639 know you as they say, works in all. He wants you to live in the light of his 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:56.439 gospel. God knows you completely yet still loves you, he loves the broken, 00:16:56.440 --> 00:17:05.640 hurt, angry, frustrated person that you may be. He loves you completely, holy. He 00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:12.320 loves you so much that his son Jesus Christ gladly, gladly went to the worst 00:17:12.320 --> 00:17:19.600 death imaginable on the cross. Hebrews 12 2 says, looking to Jesus the founder 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:26.599 and perfecter of our faith, for who the joy that was set before him 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:33.639 endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the 00:17:33.639 --> 00:17:40.480 throne of God. Yes being known by God is uncomfortable, it can make us feel like we 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:46.959 want to run, but when we know we're loved as well, it's such a safe place to be. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:55.519 It's a place of rest being in the hands of Jesus. Running from God can exhaust us. 00:17:55.519 --> 00:18:01.799 It's great, there's an element of comedy within this Sam here that sometimes 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:05.200 doesn't get flushed out in sermons, you know. It's like one of those cartoons, you 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:07.920 know, you open the door and the guy's there and you shut the door and they run 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:12.319 up the fight stairs and open it and there's the person again. Sam is to say, 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:16.839 I'm going to heaven and you're there, so I'll go to the depths of the earth, you're 00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:25.240 there, I'll try and flee, you're there. He is pursuing you with his grace. And the 00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:30.200 thing is as we run in our sin, it becomes exhausting and crippling under the weight 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:37.639 of the weight of our sin, which is unseen and clings to our souls. Hebrews 12 00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:44.880 talks about this again, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:50.840 closely. One of my favorite books ever written and I tried to read it at least 00:18:50.840 --> 00:18:56.000 once a year. I find it every time I read it, I love it more and more. It's Pilgrim's 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:01.120 Progress. I'm sure many people have read it. If you haven't gone by it, it's written 00:19:01.120 --> 00:19:06.960 by John Bunyan. He masterfully uses illustrations to drive home points with 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:12.960 Christian message. And it tells the fictional story of a man called Pilgrim 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:19.200 who was tormented by his sin. The soul was in anguish, we are told, at the start. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:25.120 And the first quarter of the book is all about Pilgrim trying to find the king to 00:19:25.120 --> 00:19:29.920 set him free of this burden. So he sets his course to go to where the king lives, 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:35.960 as you would, which is the celestial city within John Bunyan's book. In the book, 00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:42.079 after dealing with a bog that was called the sloth of despond, and being deserted 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:48.160 by his pal, Pliable, each name represents the character of the man. After 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:52.720 nearly being led to his death by a worldly wise man who said to him, you can 00:19:52.720 --> 00:20:00.799 live a life without God. Pilgrim finds himself alone on a wall, and the wall's 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:06.480 name was salvation. And as Pilgrim was walking alone, reflecting on what had 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:12.759 happened to him, how he had got so lost in his life, he looks up and sees an empty 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:18.799 tomb. So what Pilgrim does is he naturally goes over to investigate. And as he 00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:23.960 goes over to investigate, he looks up and sees a cross of Jesus Christ. And at that 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:31.400 moment, the straps on his back snap, and the burden falls away. And he hears a 00:20:31.400 --> 00:20:37.920 voice say, peace be to you. And he looks up and sees the angels, and Bunyan 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:42.440 gives us the name of the angels. He says the first angel's name was the Angel of 00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:48.920 Dawn, and he proclaimed to him that his sins were forgiven. The second angel was 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:56.120 the Angel of Daybreak, who clothed Pilgrim in new shining garments. The third 00:20:56.120 --> 00:21:02.480 angel was called the Angel of Dusk, who gave to Pilgrim the scroll that directed 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:08.200 him to the celestial city, who guided him on a safe route, and who would give him 00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:14.960 entry into that great kingdom. And what John Bunyan is doing here, masterfully, 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:22.319 is illustrating to us the atonement, the work of Jesus on the cross. What we have 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:27.799 on the cross is God the Father pronouncing us just, that our sins are 00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:35.400 forgiven because of Jesus Christ. We have Jesus, the Son, clothing us in his 00:21:35.400 --> 00:21:43.279 righteousness. They shine in new clothes. We have the third angel representing the 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:48.799 Holy Spirit, who indwells us, who gives us wisdom in this life to guide us through 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:57.240 it, gives us insight, who helps us to know ourselves fully and realized before 00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:04.960 God, who is healing us and making us more like Jesus every day. That's what we 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:09.519 have in the great story of the Bible, like we have the creation of Adam and Eve, 00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:15.960 two perfect human beings who knew themselves completely and who knew God 00:22:15.960 --> 00:22:21.480 completely. And then what happens when they sin and they fall? They are broken, 00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:27.079 their relationship no longer works we ease, there's parts of them that are 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:33.720 broken, and they are disjointed from themselves and each other because of 00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:41.559 sin. And what we have here is Jesus coming to heal us, to restore us, to make 00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:48.880 us new in him so that we can know ourselves and know him fully. That is 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:56.480 the beauty of the Gospel. I was watching on YouTube this week, something that was 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:00.759 called optimistic nihilism, which I found fascinating, I almost found it a 00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:04.000 contradiction. And nihilism is a worldview that basically everything is 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:09.160 pointless, meaningless. Frederick Nietzsche came up with it and it nearly 00:23:09.160 --> 00:23:13.440 drove him mad, well did drive him mad. And then we have someone who comes up 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:18.400 behind him, like Camus, these existentialists who came up with absurdism, 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:21.839 which literally means that yeah everything's absurd in the world, but 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:26.960 let's kind of get on with it. And now we have this new movement called optimistic 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:33.799 nihilism. The guy was basically saying that we are a collection of cells, pieces 00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:41.079 of dust, on a ball of dust, circling a dying star in a universe that is going to 00:23:41.079 --> 00:23:46.160 one day either freeze or snap back. And he was trying to say that we should be 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:53.759 optimistic in amongst all this. That's hopeless. What is the point in pursuing 00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:58.720 knowledge if he's one day just going to be lost? What is the point of knowing 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:04.799 ourselves? What is the point in beauty, love, right in music? It is all lost under 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:16.160 that view. We are far more than chance, time and matter. What the Sam says is that 00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:23.039 we are, it made in the image of God, formed by him. That we have value and 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:32.440 dignity. What we do matters. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We will 00:24:32.440 --> 00:24:38.920 not be forgotten once we are placed in Jesus hands, the minute we trust in him. 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:45.240 How could he forget you? He went to the cross to die for you. He loves you so much 00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:51.839 that he could never forget you. Martin Luther, the great reformer once wrote, 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:58.480 I have held many things in my hand and have lost them all. But whatever I placed 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:05.359 in the hands of God, still that I possess this morning, the minute you place your 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:14.959 hope, faith, trust in Jesus, there is no way that that can be removed. You are his. 00:25:14.959 --> 00:25:21.799 So this morning, if you're struggling, if you're hurting, if you feel the broken 00:25:21.799 --> 00:25:27.359 ness in yourself, take heart from the Sam that you are known and that you are 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:34.559 loved. But yeah, again, the double edged shard comes into play. That you are known 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:41.159 by God completely here today. He knows the secret parts of your heart that you 00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:51.759 wouldn't dare expose to anyone. He knows you intimately. The Sam enables us, 00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:59.640 forces us to come before God honestly and openly, knowing that as verse 15 says, 00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:05.880 our frames are not hidden from him, that nothing is secret to him, not even the 00:26:05.880 --> 00:26:13.360 depths of the earth. So again, Kellers quote so beautiful, to be loved but not 00:26:13.360 --> 00:26:22.480 known is comforting, but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest 00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:29.880 fear. But to be fully known and truly loved. Well, that is the most beautiful 00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:35.680 thing. Today, that is the position you stand in that you are known and Jesus is 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:50.520 offering himself to you so that you can be fully loved. Let us pray. Dear heavenly 00:26:50.520 --> 00:26:57.560 Father, we do thank you for the wonder of this Sam that we are known and loved. 00:26:57.559 --> 00:27:05.440 Lord, it is our greatest fear for us to expose ourself to you in fear of 00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:11.359 rejection. But we thank you for the Sam today that teaches us that is impossible 00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:20.159 because you know us. Help us Lord, be honest before you. Help us surrender our 00:27:20.159 --> 00:27:27.319 all to you. Lord, we thank you for that wonderful truth that Jesus died for us in 00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:35.159 mind. Lord, that there is no power principality, no dominion or authority that 00:27:35.159 --> 00:27:41.519 can remove us from your hands. So we pray Lord that you would send your Holy 00:27:41.519 --> 00:27:49.039 Spirit to make us more like Jesus, the one that we love above all. Lord help us 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:58.359 live our lives in the light of you. In Jesus name, amen.