My God, how great thou art. Our soul is thrilled with those words and the blessing that we have had this morning to sing praises to you, O God, for your greatness. You are truly awesome and the only thing or person who is really awesome. Thank you that we can worship you and praise you this morning and glorify your name because of your greatness. Bless us this morning, Lord, as we seek to look at the subject of your greatness. This, O Lord, your humble servant is unable to do it adequate justice. How can one man possibly proclaim all of the greatness of God? But I ask you to give strength that I might be able to impart to us a glimpse of the glory of God and His greatness and what it means, or should mean, in our daily walk with Christ. Bless our time together, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. I appreciate very much Andrew's selection of songs singing and it fits exactly with what we want to speak about. The title of my message is The Greatness of God. And through the process of preparing for this, at one point, going over my notes and things as I put it together, I looked again at the title and I started shaking. How in the world am I going to teach on the greatness of God? For no human being can do that. The greatness of God is something that probably we don't think about enough. But the question that I have for us this morning, after we establish in our human way, as best we can this morning, the greatness and power and awesomeness of God, what does that mean in your Christian life? I mean, we can accept the truth. We can say, yes, God is great. We can say that God is wonderful and we understand how big he is, but what difference does it make in your Christian life? It should make a difference, a big difference. So my desire is that we would have a fuller understanding of his omnipotence, of his omniscience and of his omnipresence and how they relate and should relate to our Christian lives. So, the knowledge of the truth is one thing, but what we're seeking this morning is the application of this great truth, that God is great. I realize that the Apostle Paul had the same desire. Listen to what he said, and I'll just read it. You don't need to turn there. He said in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 18 and 19, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the surpassing Greatness of His power toward us who believe. Paul's desire is the same as mine. Or my desire is the same as Paul's. And I realize he was saying exactly what I was meaning to articulate. Because God is great. And we want to gain more of an understanding of how great God is. His power toward us. The greatness of God, how then should we live? Establishing the doctrine itself would take an eternity. And I believe that we as believers will be spending an eternity learning about the greatness of God. Can you imagine learning something for eternity? That's how great and big and awesome and vast God is. So we can only take a few minutes this morning and attempt And to make an attempt to just get a glimpse of his glory, I'd like to invite you to turn to the scripture that maybe you're already there, that Greg read from Psalm 19. If you would turn to Psalm 19, I want to look at that briefly. We'll be going to some other passages. I don't know how many of you have seen the DVD or CD, I don't remember which it is, called How Great Is Our God by Louis Giglio. Some of you may have seen it. I think we've shown it on a Wednesday night. Incredible, when I first saw it the first time, I was just in awe of how truly great our God is. If you recall, he started out by talking about the Whirlpool Galaxy. And he was saying that that galaxy was 31 million light years away. And he explained that just in that galaxy alone, there are 300 billion stars And he talked you remember about our own solar system when he talked about our star our star was the Sun And maybe some of you remember this he took the illustration of the golf ball, and he said that's the earth Okay, that's the earth and then he said if you want to know how that compares to the Sun He said and then he had him blow up this on the overhead 15 feet in diameter which is by the way this screen is about 9 feet and So if you add six more feet, and that's how big it was in the auditorium, and you take the little golf ball, and, you know, golf balls will never have the same meaning to me again. Every time I see a golf ball, I look for little Fred in there somewhere, you know. It's just amazing. And he did such a really good job, I believe, in that way. And he also talked, remember, about another one, he called it Beetlejuice. He said if you take the golf ball, excuse me, fly to New York City and lay it at the foot of the Empire State Building and look up and add five more. And that was Beetlejuice. And then he talked about another one, Museffi, I think it was called. But then he got to the one he said that we have discovered. It's the largest one we know of yet. And it's called Canis Majoris. And it puts all the rest to shame. It is just amazing that in the macro you can keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And we don't know how much bigger yet. You know, another 20 years we may discover it's bigger yet and bigger and bigger and bigger yet. And God is bigger than anything he created. That's big. That's awesome. And that's powerful. It's just unbelievable how vast the universe really is. And you know, it's interesting, because in our own day, aren't we privileged, really, to be able to live in this day? You know, a hundred years ago, oh sure, we could know about the vastness of the skies, and you could look at all that, but man, we've had Hubble, we've had all kinds of technologies that have enabled us to know these things. Isn't it exciting? God put us on the earth at this time. And really, I know there's been some bloggers that have kind of been critical of Giglio, and I've heard of some things, but I'm going to tell you something, any way you look at it, He gave glory to God because it spoke of the vastness of God and how great He is and that brings glory to God. I don't care who you are. I don't care how many mistakes you make. It brought glory to God. Remember in our solar system, let me just do this and I'll move on, but he talked about our solar system. Remember he started with Mercury and a little bit bigger Mars and then he went to Venus and then Earth, you know, about golf balls. And then he went to Neptune and then he went to Saturn. And then they're minuscule compared to the Son. Amazing! And that has been a devil on my mind. That just keeps going over and over. And I just kept looking at them. Here's this little bitty pin and all. Our Father which art in heaven. Oh my goodness. And He looks down on that little golf ball and He sees you and He sees me. And He knows me intimately. He knows you personally. Wow! Thy kingdom come. To that little blue marble. Wow. Incredible, isn't it? Turn with me to Psalm 33. Here's another psalm. Oh, it's just so wonderful. It's a great joy to speak about the greatness of God because it's so exciting. And the psalmist certainly does a lot. And we want to look at a few of the Psalms. Psalm 33, we see here the sovereignty of God in creation. I want to pick it up at verse 5. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. The earth, the blue marble, is full of the goodness of the Lord. Now, notice he did not say Neptune, Jupiter or Mars. He said the earth. Because it is the earth He chose to inhabit. To make it habitable. That creating us so that we would have things, resources in the ground. Things to grow, to eat, air, water. He made it so we could live on it. And that's the one He chose. Isn't it amazing? And that's the one He chose to send His Son Jesus Christ to. He didn't have to go to Jupiter. He didn't have to go to Mars. But to earth. Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. And verse 6, by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and the host of them by the breath of His mouth. What power is that? Canes and Majoris, I guess they called it. Remember the biggest one? God did it with His breath. That just takes my breath away. I can't even put words to that. I am so awestruck by this God that could do that. I mean, it's just amazing to me. And then look. OK, so my question to you is, how then should we live? Look at verse 8. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done. Stand in awe. There are a few rare times in my life when I have been so in awe of God that I couldn't speak. I remember the first time many, many years ago when I saw the Grand Canyon. And you used to be able to get pretty close. I don't know if you can anymore, but it was amazing, you know. And it's just like, God. And there have been a few times in my life when God has done such marvelous, merciful works in my life or my family that I couldn't even speak. Because I'm in awe of what He did. That's how we're to live. Be in awe of your Creator. Well, let me go on reading. Verse 10 says, The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the people no effect. Drop down to verse 13. The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. Now, He doesn't just look. Look what else it says. He fashions their hearts individually. He considers all their works. Wow! He knows me and He knows you. Aside from the fact that He is the Creator, He fashions and knits my heart and my life. It's wonderful stuff. You know, I'm impressed with verse 10 when I read that. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. Oh, the pride of the nations. The pride of the kings and the dictators and those in certain movements around the world that think they can control the weather or think they can do this and that. And puny man cannot stand up to an awesome God. And yet we think we know so much and we know nothing apart from what God has revealed in His truth. And when I look at that, turn with me to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 is such, I just cannot talk about the greatness of God without going to Isaiah 40. Excuse me, I don't know if I said Psalm 40, I meant Isaiah 40. Such a great, great chapter. I tell you, it's just so wonderful. I know when Pastor Tim was in Isaiah, oh, some of you were here for that and what a beautiful, beautiful time that was to be in this great book. But in Isaiah chapter 40, We read, let's see, let's pick up at verse 15. Behold, the nations are as a drop in the bucket and are counted as a small dust on the scales. Look, he lifts up the aisles at a very little thing. Drop down to verse 17. All nations before him are as nothing. My goodness, are we talking about a big God or what? I don't know. I wonder, do you think God is big enough to handle your problems? Do you think God is big enough to keep His promises? That he said he will provide for you even in famine. Do you think he could do that? Do you think he could get you out of a very tight situation? Do you think he can get you to heaven? Do you think he's preparing a place for you in heaven? And do you really think he'll get you there? I kind of think he's big enough to do that. Wow. All the nations before him are as nothing. Russia, France, The Roman Empire in its day, and the Medo-Persian Empire in its day, and go on and on. Then it says, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. You know, it's bad enough to be nothing, but to be less than nothing is pretty bad shape. Now, put that in perspective. He said the nations are a drop in the bucket, less than nothing. And I am a minuscule part of a nation that can't even be seen. It's funny how small I feel. You know what? That's where God wants us. He has to humble us before He can exalt us. And humility will bring us to worship and to praise. Verse 18, to whom then will you liken God? Verse 21, have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth? Verse 22, it is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Oh my goodness, now we're grasshoppers. You know, at other times we're worms. Sometimes grasshoppers, sometimes we're nothing, we're insignificant, we're less than nothing. God puts us in our place because he has to. I shouldn't say this. No, I guess I won't say it. Yeah, I guess I will say it. I wish Al Gore would be hearing this, but I won't say it. Strike that from the record. Well, look at verse 25. To whom then will you liken me? He says it again. Or to whom shall I be equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things. Who brings out their hosts, the stars, the planets, by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one is missing. He calls them by name. Billions and billions and billions of them. I wonder if He knows my name. I kind of think He does, don't you? And I think He knows your name. Now look at how They make Jacob feel it's kind of foolish argument. Look at verse twenty seven in light of everything we've been saying. Look at verse twenty seven. Why do you say, oh, Jacob, and speak, oh, Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord and my just claim is passed over by my God. The Lord doesn't really see or he doesn't hear. I'm being we're being unduly punished. We're going through trials. God, where don't you hear us? Yes. See how foolish that is. And sometimes we get like that, it is foolishness. Because God knows all about us. You know, the amazing thing is, look in the same chapter. Mine's on the same page. I don't know if yours is. I can go back up to verse 11 of this chapter. And look at this. In the midst of all this greatness, look at this. He will lead His flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom and gently lead those who are with Him. Oh. Out of all this magnificent creation, out of all the millions and billions of people, God says He will shepherd His people. What gentleness, what love, what mercy, what grace. Right in the midst of this, how grand He is. He can look down into our very heart and our soul. And He works in our life and He shepherds us. How marvelous and how beautiful that is. Well, God is big enough to take care of any problems we have. And indeed, as the psalmist said, the heavens are telling of the glory of God. You know, in Isaiah's vision earlier in the book of chapter six, angels called out, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. But what exactly is the glory of God? Well, it's not all that easy to answer. We have to really go to scripture. We have to look at creation, of course. But it encompasses all that he is. The radiance of his person, his attributes, his divine nature. And then even as we look at his work among men. He receives glory. It's so incredible. Remember Moses. In Exodus, remember Moses said to God, show me your glory. But Moses was not allowed to see God's face, was he? In fact, God said, you cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live. But you know, Moses was allowed to see the backside of God, which you might say sort of represents the afterglow of his glory and his majesty. And he just kind of went the backside and he got to see it. Now, you know, I think it's interesting as we just read in Psalm 19 about the sun and the tabernacle and how it shines from one end of the earth to the other. Like, you know, when you when you read that, it's just amazing. I just marvel at that. It reminds me of the old Tarzan movies when Tarzan came out. I remember that it got to be pretty old, I guess. But anyway, it's more than that. Let's look at that a second. Look at that again. Second. Psalm 19. Well, I'm going right by it. When Greg read this, the heavens declare the glory of God. It is declaring it. And the sky shows His handiwork. Don't you love it? Of course. And all we've got to do is look out and see it. Then it says, day unto day, and I'm reading from the New King James, by the way. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. Literally, it's saying every day reveals speech. Every day is the voice of God. All right? Then it says every night reveals knowledge. Just look up. Now, here's the interesting thing is, mine says there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. That could be a little misleading, because literally the Hebrew is simply saying, no speech, no language, voice is not heard. So what we discover is that this language is non-verbal. You don't hear it with your ears. You hear it with your heart and your soul. And notice what it says then in the next verse. Their line has gone out throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world." Now, maybe yours says their voice or their sound, and that's okay. But I really like the way the ESV presents that because I think it's better. It says, the measuring line has gone out because that's a reference to the extent of the voice of God through creation. It speaks to us all. To every man, it speaks to us. And it says it's going forth to the end of the world. In them, he has set a tabernacle for the sun. Wow. Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. It's rising is from one end of heaven and a circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. Wow. See, these first six verses are giving us general revelation of how God speaks to mankind. To every man, alright? Every man receives this challenge of God's existence just from creation. You have to reject that. Because that is just the way it is. Every man that has the mental capacity to know or learn anything, God is showing every human being of His greatness and His existence through creation. General revelation is one of the ways that God speaks. That's why Paul said, you remember in Romans 9, we talked about the wrath of God and how they suppress the truth, and he said creation in verse 19, all of this God speaks to the heart of man through that. And then what does he say in verse 20? They are without excuse. They are without excuse. You see, I don't believe there is any real atheists. Because the truth is, Romans tells us two things. That God speaks to us by creation. We look all around, every man has it. You have to reject it or repress that. And we were born with a God consciousness. You see, you have to suppress that and go beyond that. That's why I said I don't really believe there is a real atheist. And when you look at that, I always think of I explain the first service year. This was years ago already. I don't know when Shirley MacLaine stood out on the West Coast, looked out of the ocean, said, I am God. That was back then when everybody was God's, you know, preachers were everybody was a little God and everybody. But anyway, it was a big movement. You know, we're God's. Now, isn't it interesting that the her. Creation said, I am God. When the truth is God shows you creation, he's saying you aren't God. I am God. They are without. Excuse. Now, when we read about the brightness of the sun there, I think it is interesting. Perhaps when I talk about Moses in this afterglow, it was kind of like the radiance of the sun. You know, we only see the light that comes off the sun. And, you know, I remember, I think of Giglio and his talking about that takes, I don't know how many million miles the sun is, but he said, I think it takes eight minutes for the rays to like hit your hand when you go outside. That incredible distance. It's unbelievable it can move that fast. Okay. But think about this. What if you got a little closer? What if you got closer and closer and closer? You see, We can see the light, we can feel the light that comes up, but if you get too close, we will be automatically consumed. If the sun is so brilliant, what must God be like? I challenge you to go out this afternoon, I think the sun shining, take your sunglasses off and look directly at the sun. Can't do it, can you? No. And I tell you that if God came in this building, every one of us would fall prostrate on this floor. We could not behold the glory of God. We would be blinded, probably dead. That's how great a God we serve. We're seeking to establish His greatness. We've seen it in creation. We talked about it, we sung about it this morning. Indeed, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made by the breath of his mouth, he spoke and it was done. And God preserves the universe he made, by the way, we're told in Colossians as well as Hebrews. Basically, Jesus Christ holds all things together, because you see, frankly, if he didn't, it would all fall apart. He holds it together and He holds us together. The Lord Jesus Christ. Chaos would result otherwise. But you know God's power? It's even seen at the cross. Satan was subdued. Death was conquered. And the penalty for our sins was paid. Now listen again after everything I've said. We love this verse. Romans 1.16. Listen. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. That verse ought to make you a Calvinist. Because salvation is by the power of God. God's power saved us and God's power will give us the strength to live our lives in pleasing Him. He made us a new creature. Amazing, isn't it? The universe maker became our Savior. And I tell you that every salvation experience, every one that occurs is a creative miracle by your Creator. Power, it takes power for salvation. And yet we got these people that are out here wimping around about salvation. Well, anybody can be saved. You just do this. God is waiting on you. Please walk the aisle. Please come up here. And you know, we remember, oh, God needs you and he can't do anything without you. He needs you in heaven. He's got to populate more. He needs you, you know, and poor God. And it's truly sad. And it must grieve the heart of God to see that kind of evangelism. The power of God is also made evident in resurrection. in the resurrection. You realize that someday God is going to resurrect every human being who ever lived? The Bible tells us, John, the Apostle John, in John as well as in Revelation, he talks about the righteous will be raised to eternal life and the unrighteous to eternal damnation. Billions and billions of people resurrected at the same time. All over. Billions. What tremendous power is that? Just as He spoke the universe into existence, He will speak. And for some of us, the trumpet will sound. And we will be raised. Oh, glory be. Glory be. Here in Isaiah, I didn't read that verse, but it's interesting that in light of everything that I read regarding that verse, that verse 41 says this. Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. Waiting on the Lord. This is a marvelous verse. It says, why will we gain strength? Because when we wait on the Lord and wait for Him to do it, we have His strength doing it. Therefore, we gain in strength and we can run and not get tired. We can walk and not become weary. Why? Because it's God's power. You see, we can't wait on anything. We can't wait to have a baby. We can't wait to get a husband. We can't wait to get a wife. We can't wait to graduate from college. We can't wait for this. I need this shotgun to go hunting. So I've got to use my credit card. We never wait. But when you wait upon God, you let God do it for you. And I'm hearing to tell you, you will do it through strength and you will not be weary because it's God's strength and you will see His mighty hand. Let me keep going on this. In this sense, when you think about Understanding God's power, it should give us great confidence. I love this verse in Ephesians 3 20. God is able to exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. Oh, my goodness. I love that. I love that. You know, as you know, waiting has been hard even for us as a church. We've been waiting for a building for a long time. 2002, we bought this building. We even in that year put on a new roof and we thought it would never leak for 30 years. And it's leaking, and we hire roofers, and they keep patching it, and it keeps leaking. And we have the bucket brigade that goes around from time to time, and we're putting in buckets. We keep buying more buckets. We keep getting... But you know what? This is a building God gave us. You know that? I still love this building. I still love this building because He gave it to us. Leaks and all. We all know we'd love to meet in one service. You'll probably meet some people you never knew. It'll be exciting to have one service. We'd like to build that up, but at a minimum, we're probably talking about a million and a half. Maybe we can scale that down a little bit and we're waiting on God. You know, we don't have a million and a half. But God does, and when he decides to give it, we will gain new strength, and I tell you, when he does do it, We are going to be able to run and not get tired and we will walk and not become weary because it will be the strength and the power of God who did it. We want no man to get the credit for that building. We want God to get the glory. And we've always said all along, it's going to have to be God. I've been to the bankers. I can borrow a million dollars for the church, but we don't want to borrow a million dollars. And we keep saying, God, you have it. We will wait on you. Just pray with us in that regard. So when I'm attempted to worry, I'm comforted to remember that God's power is greater than any problem I have. I love the psalmist. Remember Psalm 121? It said, I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord. Not just any Lord who made heaven and earth. See, that's the difference. It's not just some God. It's not just some idol. It's not some pastor. It's not some banker. No, not at all. It's the God who created the universe. So I guess there's no problem for God. To take care of my trials, turn with me to Psalm 139, the last few minutes want to spend there briefly in Psalm 139. It's just such a great passage. I want to just because there he talks about the greatness of God. I would like to. Briefly, look at some of the verses we can't do justice to all of them, but I first of all, he starts out with omniscience. All-knowing. And let's look at how it starts out here. Psalm 139, verse 1, O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. Wow. God says he searches me. That's kind of a powerful word. It really means to search, you know, like with a spotlight. But you know what I like to think about? Have you seen those shows with the SWAT teams go in and the, you know, the drug houses and they go, they go through everything, don't they? They're looking for the drugs. OK, this is kind of the picture. The the only difference, folks, is that you see. God doesn't have to learn whether I'm naughty or nice. He already knows it. You see, he's just telling me that's how deep he knows every recess in my heart. Fred, you think you got by with that little secret sin you did in dark? No. You think, oh, when you cussed out that driver, well, my wife wasn't in the car, so it's okay. No. You see, God sees everything. And he knows everything. That's the kind of powerful God we serve. And then it says, notice, not only search me and known me, he says he knows me. It doesn't say God knows everything. Yes, God knows everything. But it says God knows me. That's intimacy. That's personal. He knows you better than you know yourself. And he says in verse three, you comprehend my path and my lying down. and are acquainted with all my ways, and there is not a word on my tongue. But behold, O Lord, you know it all together. God knows it before I'm going to say it." My goodness. What a God we serve. I like that word comprehend. It says you comprehend my path. I'm reading in the New King James. Yours might say it a little different. But it's kind of interesting because that word means to winnow. I don't know if you've seen films out in third world countries or somewhere where they'll have a... it's kind of like a screen and they have the wheat or something on there and they shake it and then the shaft goes away. That's the picture. Did you know that God winnows your life? Now, let me make this statement. It's a very important one. Nothing enters your life that God didn't allow. I'm going to say it again. Nothing enters your life that God didn't allow. That's how great He knows us. Jump ahead to verse 5. You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Oh, my goodness, he did. He just protects us around. He goes behind us. He's in front of us. I can't go so far back that God's not there. I can't go so far forward that I that I've left God behind. No, God is there. He is there and it says that he lays his hand upon me. And boy, David just breaks out in praise. Verse six, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. God knows everything. You know, we live in an information age. I just can't believe, you know, computers, they work around the clock. They store a glut of information from all kinds of different branches of knowledge. And this flood of data just keeps growing bigger and bigger all the time. I just can't believe what, you know, the knowledge that we have out there. You know, the other day, and I said in the first class, this has been a while back, but You know, you all Google, right? Okay, then my wife, we needed to Google. So I think it was Joe Banks. He came in and he said, Hey, you old people, you know about he didn't say that he was very nice. But he was talking about you remember the the show? Bonanza? Okay, you gotta be pretty old. But Bonanza said, you know, the Cartwright brothers. I know three of them. I know Haas. And I know I know the little Joe, who is the other one? And we said, Oh, well, we know. We couldn't say it. You know, old people get the blocks. It was their block. Can't get it out. So Joyce googled it. Joyce googled it. And she googled it and it came back, Adam. But then the interesting thing was, you know what it did? It rebuked us for being old and said only old people watch it. I said, well, thanks, Google. You don't need to talk to me about my age. Just tell me the facts. That was Google. Now, look. Here's the amazing thing. God is omniscient. He knows everything without googling it. Who taught him, Isaiah said, who gave him knowledge, who advised him, and the answer is no one. God never learns a thing. And you know, when you pray, you're not telling God something he doesn't already know. He just chose to work through your prayers. You know, we tend to sit down with God. God, you know, boy, you don't know what's going on at the office here today. And, you know, I've got all these problems. We we tend to advise God as if God doesn't know. He already knows. Well, then you say, well, why does he make us pray? I'll tell you why, because he's your heavenly father. What father doesn't love to hear from his child? It's beautiful to hear the voice of your child, isn't it, parents? Don't you love it? You know, your heavenly father wants to hear your voice. And He is so ordained that when you pray, He answers these prayers. Because then He gets the glory, and there's love between the two, and there's intimacy. Your Creator wanted that. That's why. Well, God knows every detail of our lives. Well, I'm going to have to move on here, but let me say this. David found it very comforting. He found omniscience extremely comforting throughout his life. He said, God knows me. He knows me so well. And he found that really comforting to just read the Psalms. And, you know, sometimes you might be frustrated in your Christian life. Things happen and you think it's unfair or maybe your sin and you commit the same sin over and over and you don't understand it. But, you know, happily for us. God still knows that we love him. In spite of our failings. Let me tell you about something you already know. A story about Peter. You remember Peter? It's in John 21. And Peter was trying to convince Jesus Christ that he loved him. You remember that text? Although his words and his actions didn't always prove it, did he? He often stuck his foot in his mouth. He often got himself into trouble. But he kept telling Jesus, I love you. Now listen to what he finally said. Finally, Peter said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Peter appealed to God's omniscience. Isn't that amazing? I can just see I'm just convinced, you know, here he was going through all this. Lord, I love you. I'm kind of convinced. Oh, wait a minute. You know all things. And you know how much I love you and how little it really is. See, you can't fool God. You can tell everybody you want to how much you love Jesus. You can get up and you can sing and you can sway and put your hands up. You can have a great time. And I've seen some of these, they get so emotional in these songs. They pump you up and we love Jesus and we're just dancing around. How many of them really love Jesus? Let me tell you something. The only ones of those that really love Jesus are the ones that walk out those doors and live for Him and obey Him. It's just a simple fact. You want to know if you love Jesus, you obey him. You know, the truth is it just doesn't for me to try to. Why should I try to fool God? I guess I could fool you how much I love Jesus. You can't fool God. So quit trying. Just be honest with him. Take the opportunity to say, Lord, I've been a sinner. I have not prayed enough. I have not been intimate enough with you. I'm not reading your word enough. Please, God, forgive me and help me to love you more. That's all you can do. It doesn't pay to fool Him. Oh, how much I love you, God. Forget it. If you're not living the life or the walk, don't tell God you love Him. Instead, tell Him, God, my love is so weak. Please forgive me. I want to love you more. Let's be more of us like Peter and acknowledge God's omniscience. And the way you're going to determine that, again, is the way you live. Well, let's look at omnipresence quickly. Verse seven. Let me move here. Here we got verse seven. This is omnipresence and God's everywhere. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell or she or the grave, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea like Jonah, remember Jonah? Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you. Darkness and light are alike to God. To God, darkness is light. You can't get away. You see, the truth is you can run, but you can't hide. You can run all day long, but you're not hiding from God. Remember Jonah? He did. He ran, didn't he? But you can't hide even if you end up in the belly of a great fish. You still can't hide. It is impossible for us to go anywhere or do anything where God is not a spectator. No matter how big the universe, God is bigger. He fills up infinity. And his omnipresence encourage us in times of distress and difficulty. It's a great comfort, I think, as Christians to know. That. God is present with us. You know, it's kind of interesting, some might be perplexing, let me just say this briefly, Isaiah exhorted the people when he said, call upon God while he is near. But listen, Proverbs 1529 says this. The Lord is far from the wicked. Question. How can he be near some people and far from others when he is everywhere all the time? Good question. And there is an answer, and the answer is this. We must distinguish from God's essence. And his relationship to people. See, he is everywhere in essence. But with specific individuals, He is far or near relationally. You see? When we became a Christian, Christ dwelt in us. He fills us with His fullness. His Spirit lives inside of us. You see, before God's Spirit indwelt us relationally, His essence convicted us of sin and brought us to salvation. See? That's how it works out. So that's a great comfort to know that God, I have his essence and I have his relationship. He may seem far away, but friends, that's just the devil trying to trip you up. Because just the opposite is true, he promises never to leave, you know, per se. You see, omnipresence means that you think you're all alone at the office. You're being ridiculed because of your faith in Christ and you think you're alone. You are not alone. Omnipresence is true for those of us who have families that are unbelievers. And Joyce and I have been through that. We know what it's like. That's very hard because they just don't understand what we believe. And it's difficult to communicate sometimes. I'm going to tell you something, that though you are around unbelieving family, you are not alone. God is always there to support us. The omnipresence of God should motivate us to stop sinning and to gain in a life of holiness. You know, the truth is that we prefer to sin in secret. We would like to do it when nobody's around. We'd like to do it in the dark. And we might tend to think, you know, but the truth is, friends, whether thought, word or action, we sin in the presence of God. Listen to Proverbs 15, 3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place watching the evil and the good. Don't do anything you don't want God to see. Don't think anything you don't want God to think. And when you do, confess it. Verse 13. The last one we'll look at. Omnipotence. For you formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. Notice, you in verse 13. That's emphatic. Because that's saying that God, David says, God knows me intimately there. You've got that personalization again of the great creator and you. And then notice that word there. It says you covered me in my mother's womb. That's an that's an interesting word. And it really means basically to weave or to knit. You're in a basket weaving class. You know, you've watched them. They take them and they do this and they do this. Or we weave, you knit, you get the picture. This is the idea. Think of how beautiful it is that God, when I was in the womb and when you were in the womb, God is forming you and knitting you exactly the way he wants you. God makes no mistakes in the creation of babies. He created them. exactly the way he wanted them. And the beauty of that, that's power. My goodness is that power. But this causes David to break out into a praise. That's why verse 14, he just praising God here for God in this knitting process, if you will. It just describes God's superintendence over the process of reproduction. And this is overwhelming to David, as it should be overwhelming to us. God made you just like you are. There's no sense in complaining, I'm too tall, I'm too short, I'm too dumb, I'm too smart, I'm too this, I'm this. Why didn't I have different parents? Why didn't I have? Why wasn't I? Why this? Why that? God made you just the way he wanted you. David stresses the features of God's superintendence in the womb. Again, look at verse 15. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret. I was skillfully wrought. That language again speaks of weaving the beauty of that in the lowest parts of the earth. Metaphoric for the womb. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. You see, in the womb we were being woven and embroidered and knitted with our brains and our arteries and our veins and our bones and our skin and our eyes and everything that God did within the womb, just as God intended. Now, God molds every baby He allows to be made in the process of reproduction. He molds every baby because God created that person and superintended that process. He knows him or her intimately. Because he was the one who created every bit of her or him. Now, God molds and he weaves just the way he wants. Now, isn't it sad that God weaves the child in the womb and many are aborted? The creation of God. To strike a blow at the unborn is to strike a blow against the creator, the creative hand of God, and in my opinion, it's blasphemy. Again, Lou Giglio in that in that DVD, he talked, I like where he went from macro to micro. He talked about the intricacies of the body. And I don't remember. We talked about the eye. And that seems to be the greatest miracle. What God did with the eye to put that all together in creation, the way he described, he talked about, you know, the way we came together with our our mother had one cell, our father had a cell and they came together. And he said then in three days there were 16 cells. And I don't know if you remember seeing the picture. It's the head of a of a needle. Unbelievable. The miracle of God. How we started out and what God did and how He was molding. It's so beautiful to see that. Well, look at the middle of verse 16. It says, And in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. Wow, is that power. God planned my days before I even had any. I don't know, folks. Can you understand that's power? That's power. And it led David to praise God again, because look at verse 17. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. He is overwhelmed. How great is our God! God has plans for His men and His women and boys and girls that He creates. And he has a plan for you today and he has a plan for you tomorrow. You know, in light of everything we said, should we start our days out by being mad at the kids, kick the dog, be mad at the spouse, be mad at the neighbor because he trespassed? Go to work, you're mad at the boss, you're mad at this. Should we get up fretting because we can't trust God for the day? A day that He gave us, that He caused us to live in order that we might glorify Him one day, loving others. We should be encouraging others. Find a sick believer. Help those who are discouraged. Reach out to others. That's what He wants us to do. Now, here's the interesting thing, and it's what I want you to remember in light of everything I said, based on the greatness of God. You know what Paul said in Ephesians 5.16? Making the most of your time because the days are evil. Use your time wisely. You know, in eternity past, God prescribed the specific time that we are to live, and only as we maximize that time can we maintain the potential for the fulfillment that God intended. Paul knew very well. Remember, he talked about, you know, the fight he had before him in the ministry and finishing his course, he could say at the end, I finished my course. See, God has sovereignly given you and me a specific period of time to live in. He's planned it all along. He knows the beginning from the end. He predetermined both. So let us walk wisely. Let us redeem the time and take the opportunity we know, because the days are evil. We know they're evil. Just read the newspaper. They are very evil. The days are evil and we need to take opportunities to do good. Bring in a little bit of sunshine. In the midst of a very dark world. And do you know Christians can do that because they are a reflection of their creator and their savior, Jesus Christ? You see. If God gives you a small opportunity today or tomorrow, will you take it? Someone needs to be encouraged, maybe somebody needs some financial help, maybe some maybe you can do this for the glory of God. Whatever it is, I hope you will remember to redeem the time. And by the way, one translation says redeem the time. And why does it say redeem the time? It says that because you know what it is literally saying? It's saying literally buy up for yourself time. You say, wait, redeem the time because the days are evil. How do you buy time? You know, there's only 24 hours in a day. And the way you buy time is by taking one hour or one day and giving up what pleases and pleasures you, and sacrifice for another, either for the glory of God or helping somebody else. That's how you live wisely. You buy time by sacrificing time. That's all you can do because we've only got 24 hours in a day. Well, praise God for His power. What does it mean for us? I close with this thought. Omniscience means that we are to trust Him Because he knows everything. He understands our situation. Omnipresence means we trust him because he's everywhere in essence, as well as in a personal relationship. We're not alone. We can't lose. We're not alone. And omnipotence, we trust in his great power to provide for our needs and to keep his promises and to help us in our trials. I've given you a lot to think about. I'd like you to stand with me, please, as I close in prayer. As your heads are bowed and eyes closed, I want to give us a moment just to think about this. You know the purpose of all creation, friends, is to glorify God. Think about the mirror that probably you used this morning and how it reflected light. We are to reflect His glory to a sinful world. I challenge you to live a holy life. And to be that reflection that shines so brightly. Make it your desire to glorify Him, will you? Father, I thank You for Your greatness. I am in awe in all that You do. I thank You for all that we've learned. Bless us as we go from this place. Challenge our thinking. And make us the Christians we ought to be. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.