WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:01.280 Amen. 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:02.640 Good morning, Eastridge. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:05.200 My name is Justin. 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:06.639 I'm the senior pastor here. 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:12.080 And I am, you know, we're we're we have a lot to talk about today, okay? 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:25.039 We're three weeks into the second half of our series where we're talking about the uh the the who God is, what is God uh who he is, what he's like, um, all these questions. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:38.719 And, you know, two weeks ago, we stood in Isaiah's throne room and saw that God is holy, that he is other, that he is completely set apart from anything that we can even comprehend or know. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:50.000 And then uh, you know, last week we sat in the ashes of Jerusalem and learned that God is faithful, that he never changes and he never fails. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:01:01.759 And uh both of those are enormous truths about who God is and how he works and how he is working here on this earth, and stuff that we can't fully comprehend. 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:09.840 And we talked uh, you know, the first week about things that we share with God, attributes that we share with God, and then attributes that we also do not share with him. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:25.280 And, you know, today we're going to uh uh understand that uh that this attribute that we know who uh God is is getting closer and closer to uh being more like us. 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:32.000 And uh and what I mean by that is we have attributes that are we will never share with God. 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:39.040 We can never be holy like he is, we can never be as faithful and unchangeable as he is. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:50.000 And this one is a little, is, is still, you know, what we're gonna talk about today is still out there as far as we can't get there, but it does not take away from the fact that we can still worship him. 00:01:50.319 --> 00:02:04.239 So today we're we're talking about uh a God who knows you, a God who knows who you are, knows, and uh not a God who knows about you, but a God who knows your history, your habits. 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:06.879 Uh the thought that you had at 2 a.m. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:09.439 that you never said out loud to another human being. 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:16.400 You know, the uh uh the theological word for this uh is omniscience, all knowing. 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:20.560 And the here is what I want us to land on this morning. 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:27.680 So let me say it very up front that God fully knows you and he loves you anyway. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:28.240 Okay? 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:34.479 So I'll say that again, that you are fully known and fully loved. 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:36.479 That is that is this whole message. 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:43.520 And I know you know Easterge exists to uh to lead people to know God, but this morning I want you to see the other half of that. 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:47.759 I want, you know, the the half that we almost never talk about. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:53.120 Before we you ever went looking for God, he already knew you completely. 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:58.159 And we can uh help people know God because he first knows who we are. 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:05.039 And you'll have to excuse me for a moment because I this there's allergies that that popped up this week. 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:10.479 So, or just yesterday, so excuse me while I you know grab a tissue here. 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:12.960 Um I will promise I will return that later. 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:15.199 But uh, but yeah, that that's also happening this week. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:18.879 So keep on praying for allergies and allergy season to come up and go. 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:22.159 But I want to start out with something honest, okay? 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:29.919 Um there's there's a part of me that that you know really sees that and understands that God knows everything and it's genuinely comforting. 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.039 And and I and I've you know can sleep well at night from it. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:42.240 But really, uh there's part of me that thinks that it that it's also terrifying that God knows everything because it is a it's a strange thing. 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:46.240 We want it and we run from it at usually at the same time. 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.520 Think about how carefully we manage the people that we see. 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:58.319 You know, there's the version that uh of me that stands up here on Sunday and you see me delivering this message and greeting people and and praying with people. 00:03:58.479 --> 00:04:01.759 Then there's the version of my neighbors who see what I'm like when I'm snowblowing. 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:08.159 And you know, it's it's loud and uh and and I normally have a uh you know a more of a grim face, okay? 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:10.159 Um anyone else with me on that one? 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:10.400 Okay. 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:12.639 Do you want to you don't want to talk about snow right now, do you? 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:13.439 Okay, good. 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:16.399 Uh and then there's the version of me that only my family gets. 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:27.040 You know, the the the the one who's maybe short-tempered, or when he's when he when I'm tired, or who says things that I wish I could take back, or who apologizes at bedtime more often than I'd like. 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:31.040 You know, my wife sees every one of those versions. 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:38.000 You know, she's she works full-time, she's in grad school right now, and she still knows me better than anyone else on this earth. 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:47.040 And here's the thing about that: the people who know us the most have the most power to hurt us. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:51.600 You know, that's why being fully known feels a little bit risky. 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:54.720 The people who know us the most had the most power to hurt us. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:56.079 That's just true. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:03.360 You can't really be wounded by a stranger, uh, which is why most of us keep a little distance from almost everybody. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:04.800 We don't want to get too close. 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:05.839 We don't want to get too known. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:10.319 We let people know enough to be liked and enough to be hurt. 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:19.759 So when Scripture says God knows me completely, every version all the way down, my first instinct isn't always comfort. 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:21.199 It's it's a little bit of flinch. 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:27.199 It's like, okay, I like being known, but I'm also knowing that I can be hurt by this. 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:33.199 So let me make this uncomfortable for you for just a second until I make it uh quite beautiful, okay? 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:36.480 Imagine that right now we put your phone up on this screen, okay? 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:39.600 We put it up, unlocked, all of it. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:45.199 Your search history, your uh your text messages, including the ones that you deleted, okay? 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:50.639 The things that you typed out and then thought better and re-erased you hitting send. 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:53.839 What just happened in your stomach? 00:05:54.160 --> 00:06:00.399 Because it happened in mine too, where where it kind of feels like, okay, uh this something dropped in there. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.199 It's like, oh, this is exposing me a lot. 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:09.920 So here's the harder thought that on everything on that phone, God has already seen. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:12.639 He has seen all of it. 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:22.319 Every search, every message, every TikTok video, everything that you've said, oh, you know what, I should buy that, I should look at that, I should, I should search for that, everything. 00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:24.079 He has seen all of it. 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:30.800 There's no version of you that God is going to discover later and then also be disappointed by. 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:33.040 He knows all of it. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:39.519 So he has already read the entire file on your life. 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:45.040 And some of you have led your entire Christian life with a low, quiet fear underneath it. 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:49.199 The fear that if God ever really saw all of it, he'd be done with you. 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:52.879 That he would say, I don't want to have anything else to do with that person. 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:58.399 That if the people in this room knew the real story about you, they'd think differently about you as well. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:06.560 So you perform, you manage, uh, you keep the good version out front and the rest of it locked behind a screen. 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:10.800 That is an exhausting way to live. 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:18.000 And so Psalm 139 is written to set you free from that way of living. 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:21.199 So let's let's go to Psalm 139 today. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:22.879 If you brought your Bibles, that's great. 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:24.800 You can follow along with me, okay? 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:31.279 It says here, starting in verse 1, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:34.079 You know when I sit down and when I rise up. 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:42.079 You discern my thoughts from afar, you search up my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:50.319 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all together. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:08:02.639 Now I'm going to stop right there because I want to slow down here and look at a couple words that are in the Hebrew language, the original language that this was written in, uh, because the first one is the word for searched. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:04.319 You searched me. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:06.240 You have searched me and known me. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:17.040 That word search is chakhar, which uh means to search out, to examine, to dig into, to explore thoroughly. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:21.360 This is a mining word more than it is a searching word. 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:26.079 It's used in the Old Testament for digging into the earth to find what's buried in it. 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:29.600 This isn't a searching for your keys kind of word. 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:34.159 This is a, I need to examine this, I need to get down deep into this thing. 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:39.200 It's the word for exploring a land, investigating a matter, getting all the way to the bottom of something. 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:45.840 So verse one isn't saying God glanced at you or mildly searched for you. 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:53.200 It is saying that when you know when he has mining for you, he is searching for you diligently. 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:58.399 He has gone down through every single layer to search who you are. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:03.840 And then comes a second word, the one the whole message uh rests on. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:04.559 Yada. 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:10.960 Yada means to know personally, experientially, relationally. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:14.879 It's not a word for knowing a fact. 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:16.879 It's the word for knowing a person. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:22.159 It's the word scripture uses for the deepest intimacy between a husband and a wife. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:29.279 It's the word God uses in Amos when he says to Israel, You have only have I known of all the families of the earth. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:33.440 Which obviously doesn't mean God had no information about other nations. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:38.639 It means you are the ones I have loved and bound myself to. 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:41.759 God doesn't know facts about you. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:44.559 In Hebrew, he yadaz you. 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:55.840 So when David says, You have searched me and you have known me, he is not describing a God with a very large database. 00:09:56.159 --> 00:10:01.679 He is describing a God who has dug all the way down into his very soul. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:07.519 And the knowing that results is the knowing of intimacy, not the knowing of surveillance. 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:14.799 It's the knowing about how you work, what's going on in your mind, what what what what do you love, what what makes you unique. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:16.559 You know, that's the difference. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.919 Uh, you know, a stalker knows facts about you, okay? 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:37.679 Uh a spouse knows who you are and how you work, and what's going to um, you know, get get you going, what's what's going to help you uh motivate you, what's going to get you to, you know, really kind of be a better you for other people. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:39.919 God is not the first one. 00:10:40.159 --> 00:10:47.120 He is infinitely the you know the the the one who is always going to know you. 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:56.399 He is uh the the the the spouse that you know that you're a part of is going to know you here in this earth. 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:59.519 He is going to know you infinitely, infinitely more. 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:01.440 So he goes on. 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.840 I'm gonna go uh skip to verse 13. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:12.240 It says here, For you formed me in my inward parts, you knitting me together in my mother's womb. 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:16.480 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:20.399 Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well. 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:26.639 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:36.480 Your eyes saw my unformed substance, in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.360 Knitted together, intricately woven. 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:47.279 That's the language of craftsmanship, uh of someone leaning closer over the work. 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:53.519 And and notice verse 16 God saw you before you were finished being made. 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:58.080 He knew who you were, he knows who you are. 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:05.279 Uh you you you you knew you before your mother even felt you move, is how he know he knows who you are. 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:12.399 Before you had a name, a personality, a single accomplishment, or a single failure. 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:15.120 God knew who you were. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.639 God said the same thing to Jeremiah using the same Hebrew word. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.200 Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:23.519 And before you were born, I consecrated you. 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:25.120 That's the same word, Yada. 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:31.759 Before I formed you, I knew you personally, intimately, relationally. 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:37.679 This matters enormously for how you understand your own worth. 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:53.600 Because most of us build our sense of value on what we produce, what we do, how we manage it, what we what we perform, and how we how we uh what that looks like, what we accomplish, what we contribute, how useful we can be. 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:57.200 We have a lot of worth come from what we think about ourselves. 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:02.720 But God knew you and loved you before you had produced anything at all. 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:08.399 You were fully known and fully loved when you had done exactly nothing. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:16.799 Which means nothing you can do now can add to it, and nothing you can you've done can subtract from it. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:27.360 Because when we look at you know uh the rest of the psalm, we see you know how how much uh he loves us by uh just a quick visual. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:34.720 Okay, it says later in 17 and 18, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God, how vast is the sum of them. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:38.159 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:41.120 I awake and I am still with you. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:48.240 So I brought a jar of sand with me today to show you exactly what that looks like. 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:50.960 There's a jar of sand. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:58.320 And uh David says, God's thoughts toward him outnumber the grains of sand. 00:13:58.879 --> 00:14:00.960 So let's take him seriously for a second. 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:07.200 There's uh, you know, somewhere around uh a million or more uh grains of sand in this jar right here. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:12.639 And there are somewhere, you know, if we if we looked at a different jar, there'd be more. 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:18.720 If we took, you know, if we had a big bucket of it, there'd be a lot more, but that there's about a million in here. 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:27.840 So if you tried to, and it's very difficult to do, just pull up one single grain, it's it's difficult to do. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:29.759 You you almost can't do it. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:34.639 Many stick to your your your finger as you're trying to do that. 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:42.639 And that is just one single thought that God has toward you. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:43.759 Just one. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.200 Now try pulling out another and another. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:48.559 One per second. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:57.279 One grain of if you know if there were only a million in there, it would take about 11 and a half days to take all those grains of sands out of there. 00:14:57.600 --> 00:14:59.279 11 and a half days. 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:03.440 And this jar isn't even the full illustration. 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:08.480 This David didn't say, you know, that God's thoughts for you are more than a jar of sand. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:18.080 He said that they are more than the sand of every beach, every shoreline, every desert. 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:26.559 If you go stand at Park Point, you know, you're going to and look down at the shorelines as far as you can see, and then remember that's one lake in one single state. 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:28.240 That's one shoreline. 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:33.679 Every grain is one thought God has had toward you. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:36.080 This jar will run out. 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:41.440 But God's thoughts toward you will never run out. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:44.399 That is the volume of God's thoughts toward you. 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:47.039 And notice the adjective David uses. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:51.039 He says, How precious to me are your thoughts. 00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:53.440 These are not neutral thoughts. 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:56.240 They are not a running tally of your failures. 00:15:56.399 --> 00:16:01.759 The word carries the sense of something weighty, costly, valuable, like treasure. 00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:05.120 The thoughts he has for you are treasures. 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:11.440 God is not thinking about the way that, you know, uh thinking about you the way an auditor thinks about, you know, a file. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:16.080 He's thinking about the way that a parent thinks about their child. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:22.720 And then David ends with what might be my favorite line in this whole psalm. 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:28.879 It says, I awake and I am still with you. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:31.360 I'm awake and I am still with you. 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:36.559 Meaning, you know, I uh David fell asleep and God was still thinking about him. 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:40.720 I woke up and he had not stopped. 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:46.799 You have never once had a moment in your entire life when God was not thinking of you with his love. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:17:01.759 Now, if we go into the New Testament, which is where we find Jesus, in this New Testament, we have to think about, okay, what does that mean for God to know us if Jesus is there and understanding how we can know him more? 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:08.400 In uh the the Greek New Testament uh is is uh is has a word for it as well. 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:13.039 It's gnosko, to know by experience and relationship. 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:15.839 It's the the the Greek cousin of the word yada. 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:22.559 And Paul does something with it in Galatians that should stop us cold in our tracks and understanding. 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:45.759 He is writing to Christians and he starts to say uh in Galatians 4 9, he says, but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:53.039 He says, but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God. 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:56.240 That word or rather, that phrase or rather. 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:58.000 But Paul says, actually, let me flip that. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:01.279 The main story isn't about, isn't you knowing about God. 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:04.319 The main story is God knowing you. 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:09.680 Your grip on him, your understanding of God will vary. 00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:11.599 Paul knows this. 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:12.960 God knows this. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:19.680 That as we go from mountaintop to to valley, that that we will uh have a different understanding of who God is. 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:27.680 Some weeks that some weeks that's really strong, and then other weeks we can barely hold on uh to who God is and what he has done for us. 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:33.759 But his grip, God's grip on us and the thoughts that he has for us never fails. 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:38.160 It is a faithfulness that we have to understand. 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:46.480 So Paul intensifies it uh later with the with a with a prefix that is also in Greek. 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:52.799 So it's this Greek word epignosco, to know fully, thoroughly, completely. 00:18:53.039 --> 00:19:10.720 First Corinthians 13 12 says, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even I has been fully known. 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:14.160 Even as I have been fully known. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:17.839 Right now, your knowledge of God is dim. 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:18.720 Okay? 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:21.279 I'm not calling you dim, I promise you. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.279 But your knowledge of him is dim. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:26.880 It's it's it's partial, it's like a foggy mirror. 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:31.920 But his knowledge of you right now already is complete. 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:34.640 He knows everything. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:41.839 And there's one more Gonosco word, this knowing word that I'm gonna talk about. 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:44.160 It's prognosco. 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:47.279 Pro-gonosco, to know beforehand. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:52.559 In scripture, uh, it it's it means to set love upon in advance. 00:19:52.799 --> 00:20:01.039 So Romans 8.29 says, for those he he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. 00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:04.160 This is the crucial part of it. 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:14.079 In scriptures, God's foreknowing, his his him knowing before everything else, is never merely advanced information. 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:17.279 It carries the whole weight of yada behind it. 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:20.880 It means love set on someone ahead of time. 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:27.119 God didn't look down the corridor of history, gather some data, and then decide. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:30.880 He set his love on you in advance. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:36.880 He wanted to love you before anything else was even written. 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:42.720 And everything since has been bringing that love home. 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.160 Because we have to deal with the hard part honestly. 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:53.680 Because being fully known would be terrifying news if God were not also gracious in his love. 00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:57.440 Scripture does not soften this at all. 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:08.400 Uh in Hebrews 4 13 it says, And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:11.119 Naked and exposed. 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:20.079 No file is completely sealed, no search is deleted, and every one of us has things in that file that we would not want to be read aloud in this room. 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:27.359 So, how does a fully known sinner like us survive a holy God? 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.880 A holy God who knows all things and is faithful. 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:38.480 This is where the gospel becomes unbearably good. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:46.720 When Jesus came, he knew people completely, the only way that God can know them. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:59.839 John writes that Jesus never entrusted himself to the crowds because he knew all people, and he himself knew what was in man, he knew what was in man. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.680 Was in us, all of it. 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:04.640 And he came down to this earth anyway. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:08.400 Think about who he chose to spend his life with. 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:14.319 He looked at Nathaniel and said, I saw you under the fig tree, a private moment that nobody else witnessed. 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:20.559 And Nathaniel was completely undone by that interaction with a holy person of Jesus. 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:25.599 He looked at Judas and knew from the beginning exactly how it would end. 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:29.599 And he washed his feet anyway. 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:36.880 He looked at Peter and told him plainly, Before the rooster crows, you will deny you ever met me. 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:40.240 And he still went to the cross for him. 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:42.240 That is the point. 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:51.759 Jesus went to the cross with full knowledge of all of our flaws in the past and in the future. 00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:54.240 And he still did it anyway. 00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:58.079 He didn't die for the version of you he hoped you might become. 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:03.759 He died knowing the whole file, everything on the screen. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:07.359 And on that cross, something happened that we can barely take in. 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:17.920 The one who had known perfect intimacy with the Father from eternity past cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:26.559 The Son experienced the horror of being cut off so that you and I would never have to hear the words. 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:32.319 And he was bleeding for us. 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:45.680 It's hard to even fathom that a God who fully knows us, his son who fully knows us, the Holy Spirit who fully guides us and knows us as well, would still go to that cross and bleed and die for us. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:50.559 Because there is one sentence in all of Scripture more frightening than being fully known. 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:53.599 It is Jesus saying, I never knew you. 00:23:55.119 --> 00:24:03.759 And he went to the cross so that he could be with us because he fully loves us. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:07.119 Now watch what happens after Peter fails, because we know that he failed. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:11.279 We know that he denied him those three times. 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:17.279 And Jesus finds him on a beach after Jesus has risen from the dead and asked him three times if he loves him. 00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:26.240 And Peter, out of options with his failure fully public now, because people know that Mo knows that he's denied him, reaches for the only thing he has left. 00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:30.880 Lord, you know everything. 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:34.799 You know that I love you. 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:37.920 Do you see what Peter just did there? 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:46.480 He appealed to the omniscience, the all-knowing power of Jesus as his comfort. 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:48.640 It wasn't his fear. 00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:52.319 The very attribute that should have condemned him. 00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:57.279 You know everything, Lord, including how badly I have failed you. 00:24:57.599 --> 00:24:59.920 Peter turns it into his defense. 00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:00.799 You know everything. 00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:04.160 So you also know that underneath the failure, I love you. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:08.240 Lord, you know everything. 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:11.200 You know all of it, and you still love me. 00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:14.720 That's what we need to pray this morning. 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:19.279 If you have never come to Jesus, the invitation is very simple. 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:24.160 If you don't have to explain yourself, he already knows everything about you. 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:25.920 You don't have to clean up first. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:28.160 He has already seen all of it. 00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:30.799 Your past and your future failures. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:32.799 So turn from your sin. 00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:40.079 Trust in the one who died, knowing everything, and be known by the God of the universe. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:46.000 So what do we need to do, knowing that we have that in our mind and in our hearts and our thoughts? 00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:49.279 We need to know something, we need to feel something, and we need to do something. 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:56.480 So the first thing we need to do is know you are fully known and fully loved at the same time. 00:25:57.279 --> 00:25:58.160 At the same time. 00:25:58.319 --> 00:26:02.160 Most of us have experienced being partly known and partly loved. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:05.200 And that's by our human experience. 00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:10.880 We're loved by people who don't know the worst of us and avoided by some who do. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:18.079 And God, for the first time, those two things are complete all at once. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:20.480 Fully known, fully loved. 00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:22.559 There's no gap between that. 00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:26.160 We need to feel this in our hearts. 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:29.680 Security instead of hiding. 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:34.640 Hiding is exhausting, and it has been our instinct ever since the garden. 00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:38.240 Adam and Eve heard God coming and reached for leaves. 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:42.000 But you cannot hide from someone who has already searched you out. 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:44.799 And here's the freedom in that. 00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:46.640 You don't have to. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:54.240 Forgiven. 00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:56.640 It's already been done for you. 00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:00.799 You can stop managing your image before God. 00:27:01.039 --> 00:27:11.599 You can stop hiding from a God who already found you and decided to stay with you, to be faithful to you, to allow you to be holy and set apart as well. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:14.000 And here's the thing that we need to do this week. 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:15.440 One thing we need to do this week. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:22.000 Pray the last two verses this week of Psalm 20, of Psalm 139, 23, and 24. 00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:28.559 It says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:38.559 Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:45.599 The same two Hebrew words that we talked about, the Shakar and Yada, search me, know me. 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:49.519 But now they're invitation. 00:27:50.640 --> 00:27:56.480 That is the whole arc of this psalm, and if and it should be the arc of our lives here today. 00:27:57.599 --> 00:28:06.960 Moving from God searches me as a fact you can't avoid to God search me as a prayer you actually want answered. 00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:09.920 That you actually want to have him answer. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:15.039 And nobody invites that search unless they are certain that the searcher loves them. 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:17.920 So we can be assured of that. 00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:22.240 So see this week, pray those two verses every morning. 00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:23.200 Every morning. 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:28.079 Then be still for 60 seconds and let him answer. 00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:32.160 That is what putting down deep roots looks like. 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:40.720 And I believe Easters exist to help people know God and become lifelong learners of Jesus, not just Sunday attenders. 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:44.160 That is where that starts, not in a classroom. 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:49.039 It's in an honest 60 seconds with an all-knowing God. 00:28:49.839 --> 00:28:56.240 Maturity is moving from God searches me to God search me. 00:28:57.519 --> 00:28:58.480 Know me. 00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:01.519 And here's what happens when we all do that together. 00:29:01.680 --> 00:29:07.759 You know, we start to understand that God has searched you out every layer, all the way down. 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:13.680 He knew you before you were formed, before you had done anything right or anything wrong. 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:19.200 His thoughts toward you outnumber the sand on every beach that you have ever walked. 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:28.319 And he proved every bit of it at a cross where Jesus died with full knowledge of exactly who he was dying for. 00:29:29.359 --> 00:29:32.559 Fully known, fully loved. 00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:35.839 We're going to close by singing today. 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:38.640 We're going to sing a song called In Christ Alone. 00:29:38.720 --> 00:29:40.799 So the team can come back up here. 00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:44.400 And as you sing it, listen for what that song is actually about. 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:50.079 It's about a foundation that holds because it doesn't depend on you. 00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:56.000 It walks all the way from the cradle to the cross to the empty tomb. 00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:04.000 And it ends with the promise that no power on earth or under it can pull you out of his hand because he loves you. 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:06.000 Because he knows you. 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:10.079 That is the promise of a God who knows you completely. 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:14.480 He knew everything about you before he took hold of you. 00:30:14.799 --> 00:30:20.880 So there is nothing left to discover that could ever make him let go of you. 00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:25.519 Let's stand, let's pray, and then let's sing. 00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:30.880 Father, you have searched us and known us. 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:35.039 You know when we sit down and when we rise up. 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:40.720 You know the words before they reach our tongues, and you love us still. 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:49.440 Thank you that you knew us before we were formed, before we had done anything to earn or forfeit your love. 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:55.759 Thank you that your thoughts toward us outnumber the sand. 00:30:56.319 --> 00:30:57.759 All the sand. 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:02.720 Jesus, thank you that you knew everything. 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:08.400 Every one of my failures, every one of my denials, every hidden thing on me. 00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:11.200 And you went to the cross anyway. 00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:17.920 Thank you that you were forsaken so that we would never hear the words, I never knew you. 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:29.039 For everyone here who has been hiding, exhausted from managing what people see, let them rest today in being fully known and fully loved. 00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:35.519 Holy Spirit, make us a church where people don't have to pretend. 00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:40.480 Search us, O God, and know our hearts. 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:44.559 Try us and know our thoughts. 00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:51.599 So if there be any grievous way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting. 00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:54.559 In Jesus' name, amen.