In your Bibles tonight Psalm 139 Psalm 139 I'll read this text to you and I hope it'll be a blessing encouragement to you it's a passage groups I go to many times and often and it is a declaration of The awesomeness of God. And then it ends with David declaring that I want to be on team God. I want to be where God is. I want to follow the Lord. I want to welcome and invite God to be part of my life. And I want to share this with you as we read together Psalm 139, 24 verses. David's writing it and God's working in his heart. It says in verse 1, O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? And whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written. which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Surely, thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I greed with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God. and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Verse 23, the Bible says, Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." I love the last phrase of this passage of Scripture, and we'll make it our emphasis tonight as we study this text together. Lead me in the way everlasting. I challenge you, make it your heart's desire to let God lead you. Make it your heart's desire to let God lead you. I'm going to tell you something, if you let God lead you, you will not be led in wicked paths. If you let God lead you, you will not be motivated to act in anger, bitterness, wrath. If you let God lead you, the decisions that you make are going to be made holy, righteously. Lead me, Lord, in the way everlasting. Is it your desire to let God lead you? In this passage of scripture, David is going to praise the Lord and David is going to acknowledge how amazing and awesome God is. At the conclusion of this passage of scripture, he's just going to say pretty much, basically, Lord, I want to be where you are. I want to do what you want me to do. Folks, that should be our logical and rational and reasonable conclusion when we see how wonderful God is. Our desire should be, Lord, I want you. Lord, I want you. God help us. Let's look at this passage of scripture together and we'll begin number one with this. I want you to understand that God knows. It's amazing to think about what God knows. Have you ever stopped and thought for a minute about what God knows? God knows. He knows everything. He is omniscient. He's all-knowing. All-knowing God. Now let's take that into consideration because the God that knows everything knows you and loves you and wants to lead you God knows. Let's just see some details. The Bible says in the first verse, Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Can I tell you a fact? There's nothing about you that's hidden from God. There's nothing about you that's hidden from God. Now, that will give you one of two responses. One, the first response is if you're trying to hide from God, you're gonna think, oh man, that's bad news. But if you want what's best from God and you want God's best for your life, the fact that God knows you is really, really good news. It's an amazing thing to know that God completely knows us and loves us perfectly. Isn't it awesome? Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. It's a fact. Verse number two. He says, thou knowest my down sitting and my uprising. Now the Lord knows when you are resting, you're down sitting. He knows when you are at ease. He knows your leisure. He also knows your uprising. He knows what your day is going to hold. He knows what's going on in your life when things are busy. And going on, the Bible says in verse 2, thou understandest my thought afar off. Isn't that amazing? The Lord understands our thoughts. Let me ask you a question. How many of you are dealing with thoughts right now that you just don't completely understand? I'm going to raise my hand. Because there are so many things in my world that I just don't completely understand. There's thoughts I have and considerations and concerns that are way above the capacity of my mind. But they're not bigger than God's. They're not bigger than God's mind. They're not bigger than what God can handle, what God can do. I just want you to know, folks, that God knows and we should rejoice. Thou knowest, thou understandest my thought afar off. Men, I want to tell you something. God understands women. Stand in awe. He's great. Men, women, God understands men. God understands our thoughts. And I don't know about you, but there's so many things that I don't understand, and that's okay. There's so many things that I can't completely process, and that's okay. There's so many things that are of concern in my heart. But God understands my thoughts are far off. I'm glad God knows. Verse number three, thou compassest my path. The word compasses means to winnow, to cover. He has got your path covered. I don't know about you, but I'm really happy to know that the Lord's got you covered. Have you ever had somebody come to you and say, hey, look, I got your back and it mattered. It's sweet. And I'm thankful for every person that has my back because I need folks to prop me up. I'm thankful for that. And I want to be the kind of person that is propping people up as they say on the leaning side. I want to be that kind of person, but I'll have you know something. There's a promise in God's Word right here about who God is and what God knows and what God does that will help you because God props His people up. God's got you covered. Lean on Him. He says, Thou compassest my path. He's got you covered when you're walking the path of life. and my lying down. I like that. I mean, if you have this emotion that it seems like while everything's moving and life is going that, you know, it seems like, okay, we're okay. But then you lay your head down on a pillow at night and worry rears its ugly head. I want to remind you of something. God not only compasses your path, He's not only got you while you're going, He'll be with you while you sleep. You can rest in the fact that God's with you, that He's there, He knows what's going on. You can rest in his care. He says, Thou compassest my path, my lying down, verse 3, and art acquainted with all my ways. I think it's quite fascinating that the same God who created the entire universe cares specifically and individually for me. I mention this occasionally, but it's one of my favorite illustrations of the specific nature of the care of God. It's one of our favorite verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I think about that and it's exciting. What a great verse. But the Bible says God loved the whole world. That's exciting, isn't it? He has enough love to love the whole world, but I'm going to tell you something. When I think about how little I am in comparison to the whole world, I think, man, I get lost in the masses. The Bible says He loves the whole world, but He says then, later, but whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know what the Bible does? God gets very specific and He cares about you. He cares about you. I read the text earlier from the book of Matthew chapter 10. The Lord knows the number of the hairs on your head and he values you far above a spare. He says that a spare doesn't fall to the ground, that he doesn't know about it. God knows all about you and even the amount of hair on your head. He knows the details of your life. Thou art acquainted with all my ways. Verse 4, look at it next. There's not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. I want you to follow along in your Bibles as I read verse 4 to you. There is not a word in my tongue But lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together." How many of you read that verse and immediately you're embarrassed? There's a certain embarrassment when we think about the fact that God knows every word that has come out of my mouth of late. Can I remind you of something? Watch your mouth. God hears every word. It's one of my favorite things to do. I try not to be the incognito preacher. I try not to be the surprise preacher. As a general rule, if I'm around a group of people that do not know that I'm the preacher, I always introduce myself. It's not because I'm like, I want you to know how awesome I am because I'm the pastor. It's because I don't want these guys to embarrass themselves. Because how many times have I come into a crowd and I'm in my blue jeans and boots and my typical daily attire. I come into a crowd and there's a few guys there that know I'm the preacher, but then there's the other guy that doesn't. And he just uses filthy language. And the next thing you know, someone says, this is Cody Sturge, the pastor at Chi Baptist Church. And he just goes, Oh no, what have I just done? Some folks say, I don't cuss around the preacher. I appreciate that. That's nice. I appreciate the respect. But I tell folks often, I'm like, don't worry about me. God's with you all the time. And God hears all of our words. And I want to encourage you to do something. You should clean up your language just out of respect for the fact that your Creator God is with you all the time. And by the way, you should clean up your language because your language is not the biggest problem. You see, when you have a foul mouth, that's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is a foul mouth is the byproduct of a foul heart. The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And folks, I'll remind you. That having a heart that's filthy is worse than having a mouth that's filthy. But if you have a mouth that's filthy, it's a testimony of a heart that's filthy. And God wants you to clean it up. God knows the words that are in your mouth. That's the negative side of that verse. The positive side of that verse is this. When I cry to Him in prayer, God hears and answers my prayers. When I'm burdened and I whisper that prayer in the morning and whisper that prayer at noon. I whisper that prayer in the evening. God hears my words and is concerned and touched and cares about the words of my mouth. God knows. He knows the words of my mouth and the words that come off my tongue. Verse 5, he says, Thou hast beset me behind and before. and laid thine hand upon me. I love this verse. What's it say? It has the same idea of the compassest about. He compasses my path and compasses my lying down. But he also besets me behind and before. What's that mean? He's holding me up. He's got my back and he's leading the way. He's leading the way. He's got my back. How can one person do that? He's all present God. And I'm thankful. As God showed Himself to the nation of Israel as a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, He came before them and came behind them, God, perpetually for His people. He's going ahead of us and He's coming behind. We have that promise. Look at the last phrase of verse number 5. And laid thine hand upon me. I love this picture. In my mind, I've got God in front of me, I've got God behind me, and then I've got God with His hand on me. Oh, it's sweet. I'm thankful that you and I have the privilege of the God of the universe. He puts his hand on us. The thing that comes to my mind is when the boys were little, directing the boys through traffic. How many of you have ever done this? I remember we'd be in crowds of people and I didn't want to lose one of my children. I mean, that's respectable, right? I had this method, and there's been numerous occasions where I've done it with both of them at the same time. But I'll have this hand around one of their necks, and this hand around the other neck. The back of their necks, not the front of their necks. That's at home. We only do that at home. The front of their necks. But I'd have one hand on the back of Hudson's neck and one hand on the back of Ian's neck, and I'd squeeze just a little bit so that they knew that I was there. And here's what you do, you walk through the crowd, and when you wanna go to the right, you go like this. And if you wanna go to the left, you go like this. And you can actually move those kids anywhere you want to with their neck. And if they get out of line, you go, and they get right back in line and you keep on going. And I don't know about you, But I'm happy to know that God, He puts His hand on me. And I'm just going to tell you There's things every day of my life, and you're the same way, I'm not special. There are things every day of our life where we don't know if we need to go this way or that way, or we need to go whoa or go forward. But I want you to know something, when I'm living with a heart in tune with God, and He's promised to be there for me, when I'm living in tune with God, I know that His hand is on me. And if I'll just patiently, Wait for His nudge. God from heaven will nudge with His hand on the heart of His child. And He'll give me a little push here and a little push there. Because more than I as a father could ever care for my children, He loves me. He loves me. He's got me from the back, he besets me from behind, he besets me before, and he lays his hand on me. I'm thankful. I'm thankful God knows I want to be on team Jesus. I'll go with God. Number one, God knows. Number two, God is there. God is there. Until your heart's been broken, or you found yourself alone. It's not until then that this truth is of the utmost and greatest importance. God is there. You know what the Lord promised his children? He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Isn't that great? I'm just going to tell you, I'm resting in it. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Here's what the Bible says in verse 7. I skipped a verse. Oops. Verse 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? Where can you hide from God? Nowhere. Let me give you a little insight into Middle Eastern religion. Do you know that in the Muslim religion that they believe that there's actually places where God can't see. So in the places where God can see, they behave. They do the things that they think they're supposed to do. They do the things that God would have them to do. But they believe that there are actually places where they can go and hide from God. And it's in those places where they think that they can hide from God that they commit the most atrocious sins. Now, God in his word here says that, and we're going to see that there's not a place you can hide from God. And that's either really comforting or really scary. It should be comforting. David says, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Where can I go that your spirit's not there? The answer's nowhere. Whither shall I flee from thy presence?" Where can you go and hide from God? The answer is nowhere. I'm glad. You know, God has never lost me, aren't you? I'm thankful for that. He says in verse number 8, if I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. I can't hide from him in the heavens, in the sky. Make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. I can't hide from him in the ground. You might make the spiritual connection of heaven and hell in that verse, and I'm not sure exactly which one it is. It could be both, because all we know is that God is everywhere present, so you can't hide from God. The heavens, the earth, heaven, hell, God's there, verse nine. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Now what does he say here? He says, if I take the wings in the morning, I'll just give you a little hint what the wings in the morning are. They're the rays of sunlight that come from the sun as it rises in the east. the wings of the morning. He says if I take the wings of the morning, now David's imagining where it is that the sun doesn't shine. Now you think for a minute with me where the sun has shown its light today. It's pretty amazing. You think the post office is impressive at all the places they can cover in a day's time. They have not even scratched the surface of what God does with the sun and the wings of the morning in a 24-hour period. He says, if I go in places that only the sun shines and only the sun gets to, in the depths, in the furthest recesses of the great seas, he says, if I were there, God, you're there too. He says, God, you're everywhere the sun shines. And you're with me. He says in verse number 11, if I say, surely the darkness shall cover me. He says, okay, I'm going to hide in a cave. But the Bible says, even the night shall be light about me. Look, darkness is light to the Lord and there's not a dark spot or a bright spot. There's no spot that you can get away from the presence of God. He's not forgotten about you. You're not hidden from his view. Verse 11, if I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about thee. Verse number 12, yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the light. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. What does he want us to know? He's there. You see, God knows and God is there. I'm thankful that whatever we deal with today, tonight, tomorrow, God's there. Whatever life throws, God's there. I think I'll stick with Him. Number three, God cares. God cares. Look at what the Bible says in verse number 13. I won't have time to deal with all the depths of this text, but I want to consider the emphasis. Verse 13. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. Now this is fun, I love the word reins. Now this is an old English word, and the first thing I think about when I think about reins, I'm like whoa, Nellie. But that's not what that word is, reins. The word reins is literally kidneys. Kidneys, go figure. Now it makes perfect sense when you start to consider, here's what the Lord wants you to know. I got your kidneys. I got this under control. How many of you have ever had conversations with your kidneys? Kidneys, please, do what you're supposed to do. I don't. The only thing I think about my kidneys is when I've had a little bit too much Diet Coke to drink, they hurt just a little bit. Kidneys. He says, I've got your kidneys. I possess your reins. And really the emphasis here is that God knows what's going on inside of you. I'm thankful. Now look, some of you are battling with cancer on the inside. God knows. God cares. God is there. And I can't say why God would allow those types of things to happen in our lives, but I know that God cares. And God will use the work that he does in the hidden parts of our bodies. And we can trust him. Thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. Oh, this is so important. There's great value in God's eyes to unborn children. Great value. He says, Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. Who are we to act against the protection of God in a mother's womb? Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. Verse 14, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. What has God done? God made you exactly the way He made you. I want you to know something. Human genetics is not the byproduct of amazing chance. I know most of you look at me and think, well, he won the genetic lottery. But it's just not true. But I did win the greatest treasure that anybody could possibly win. Because God specifically chose for me every tiny detail of my genetics and my DNA and my heritage and who I am. And He made me exactly the way He wanted to make me and I praise Him for it. And you know what? He made you. with the exact same specific love and care and eternal sovereign purpose that only God can do. And I want you to know something, you not only can praise the Lord for how He made you, you should praise the Lord for how He made you. And it should be the burden and desire of your heart to find out why it is God made you the way He is and praise Him for it and use your life for His glory. He says, I'm fearful and wonderfully made. And David wasn't saying, it's just me and all you other losers didn't get this blessing. He's understanding and teaching us that God made us all the way he made us and we should rejoice in that. Because he has a purpose. That's what sovereign God does. God cares. He says, I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. You think about how God designed us, his people. And it's marvelous. Verse 15. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret. When I was conceived, that was no secret to God. I was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. God orchestrated who I would be and who you would be. He cares. Verse 16. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect, And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. Hey, look, I've been part of God's plan since the very beginning, and you have too. What a mighty God we serve. Verse 17, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. Have you ever wondered what God thinks about you? I'm sure that there's moments that God thinks, I really wish he'd do a little bit different. I wish he would trust me a little bit more. But I want you to know something. God's thoughts about you are, that's my child. I love him. That's my child. I created him. That's my child. I have a purpose for him. And God loves you. with a perfect love. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them." Verse 18, "'If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake, I am still with thee.'" What does God want us to know? He cares. God knows. God is there. God cares. Aren't you glad? Finally, David brings us to a conclusion. He says, with all this that's true about God, He says, I choose God. All these things are true about God and about you, whether you accept Him or not, whether you seek to be led in His everlasting way, whether it's your prayer or not to lead me in the way everlasting, these things are true about God, but I'll have you know that the most logical conclusion that any of us could ever make is to say, I'm going with God. That's what David does. He says in verse 19, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, you bloody men. David says, I know that there are folks out there that are against God and anti-God, and I know that there's judgment and punishment coming to folks who reject God. Don't forget it, it's true. Verse 20, he says, they speak against thee, God, wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. He said, there are folks who are anti-God, against God. He says, God, my response and my heart toward them and those that hate you, verse 21, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? I am not I agreed with those that rise up against thee." Now unless you take that verse and say, oh God encourages us, the Bible encourages people to hate other people. But we're to hate sin. And David says it like this, he says in verse 20, I hate them with perfect hatred. He says, I've got this right. I've got it in the right perspective. The hate that I have for the enemies of God is one that says I will not be associated. I will not be connected. That's not me. I'm not standing with them. I'm standing with God. I choose God. He concludes his passage of scripture, verse 23, with the two most famous verses in the psalm. He cries out in a prayer to God. God, in light of all that we've talked about, here's what I want from you. Now, I want to draw your attention back to verse number one. We're almost finished. In verse number one, David says, here's a fact. He says, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Here's the facts. God has already searched me and knows me. He knows everything about me. What's the difference between verse number 1 and verse number 23? In verse number 1, the fact is God does know. But in verse number 23, David invites God to search Him, to try Him, to know Him, and to lead Him. You see, these things are true about God. But there is something that all of us can and should do in our relationship to the Lord. He is everything He's ever promised to be. But you and I, guess what we need to do? We need to invite him. We need to invite him to do what he's doing and wants to do in our lives. And David, I can see it in a humble, broken spirit. There's joy in his heart and it's exciting and it's wonderful. But this humbleness, David comes to the Lord. He says, you're an awesome God. He says, Lord, will you search me? He says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my faults, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. David says, God, you are all these wonderful things. You know, you're there, you care. I choose you. Search me. We should make it our habit as God's people. to just ask the Lord to search me, try me, know me, see if there'd be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. I pray that it's your prayer tonight that you just say, Lord, lead me. Lead me in the way everlasting. Lead me, Lord, lead me. I want to tell you something. When you humbly seek God to lead you, You're not going to make wicked, sinful, rotten decisions. And every one of us, every day of our lives, need to make it our prayer, lead me, Lord, lead me in the way everlasting.