God Knows

Happy New Year! We’re finally back and will pick back up our Romans journey tomorrow morning, Lord willing. For today, here is the first part of a quick New Year’s series reflecting on the extent of God’s knowledge of us and how we should react to that knowledge. Today as we dive into Psalm 139, we will marvel with David at God’s intimate knowledge of us and talk about some tools for remaining in that knowledge. Enjoy!

God Knows

A paradox is when two ideas which seem contradictory of one another are nonetheless simultaneously true, and we live in a world that’s full of them. Consider one particularly glaring one. We live in a world full of people screaming to be known. Depression and anxiety are off the charts these days in part because so many people feel isolated and alone, like no one really knows who they are. In response to this, and with the help of social media, many will invite the world into their most intimate spaces and times just so they can feel like somebody, somewhere, knows them. Of course, just because you show someone something intimate or personal about yourself doesn’t mean they really know you at all. Really knowing another person and being known by them takes relational investment over time. Without that, the presumed knowledge is merely a mirage. It may be a mildly comforting one (which is why so many people clamber for it), but when we are forced to face the truth, the shock of the cold water of reality can be debilitatingly intense. 

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Digging in Deeper: Psalm 32:1-5

“How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit! When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever done anything wrong? I have a sneaking suspicion the answer to that question is yes. How did that make you feel? Be honest now. If you did it right, in the moment it probably felt good. That’s the tricky thing about sin. In the moment it usually feels pretty good. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t be so drawn to do it. The thing is, though, that in the moment feeling doesn’t tend to last very long. After a while, it gets replaced by something else: guilt. Guilt doesn’t feel so good. Guilt is a feeling we want to get rid of. David in Psalm 32 here tells us how. Let’s see what he has to say this morning.

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Lean into God

Happy New Year!  In this New Year’s Eve sermon, we spent the morning talking about the tools we need to find success in our New Year’s resolutions.  More than that, with the help of God’s conversation with Joshua as he was taking over the mantle of leadership of the people of Israel, we talked about the tools we need to help move ourselves in the direction of God no matter what our starting point may be.  Keep reading to see what these are.

 

Lean into God

Today is New Year’s Eve.  A whole year’s worth of activity and life experiences comes to an end with the stroke of midnight tonight.  Now, in a sense, this is a day just like any other.  What significance it has is entirely constructed.  Tomorrow will be Monday just like it was seven days ago and just like it will be seven more days from now.  There is nothing in the Scriptures which proclaims that on December 31st thou shalt get reflective and throw a big, wild party that often ends with total strangers kissing each other amid a thronging crowd of hundreds of thousands.  I’ve read the whole thing a few different times and I haven’t found a single statement to that effect. Read the rest…