Man, the title of my sermon this morning
is The Hairs of Your Head Are Numbered.
Matthew chapter 10, verse number 29, the Bible reads,
are not two sparrows sold for a farthing,
and one of them shall not fall on the ground
without your father.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear ye not, therefore,
ye are of more value than many sparrows.
And the idea here is that God cares about us
specifically, God is a God that's near.
He's not a God that's a very far off and impersonal
and sort of uninvolved in the things
that are going on in this world.
And that's what many people think,
but rather God is actually thinking about us individually.
He knows every single one of us.
He knows our thoughts,
and even the very hairs of our head are all numbered.
Now, if you would go to Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 is a great Psalm that deals with this subject.
And I'm gonna start reading while you turn there
in verse number one.
Oh Lord, thou has searched me and known me.
Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising.
Thou understandest my thought afar off.
And what David's saying here is that
even before he thinks something,
God already knows what he's going to think.
And God even understands his thoughts
even better than he understands them himself.
I mean, God knows us better than we even know ourselves.
And so God cares about us.
God takes an interest in us.
The Bible says in verse number three,
thou compassest my path and my lying down,
and art acquainted with all my ways.
There's not a word in my tongue, but lo, oh Lord,
thou knowest it all together.
And so he's bringing up some very mundane things,
getting up, sitting down, lying down,
every thought, every word that we speak.
The Bible says that God knows these things all together.
Now you might think to yourself,
well, maybe this is just David
because David's a really important guy.
But actually this is God's knowledge and involvement
with every single person on this earth.
Because even unsaved people,
even people that are very wicked,
even the reprobates of this world,
the Bible says that the unsaved,
every idle word that they speak,
they're gonna give an account thereof
in the day of judgment.
So in order for the unsaved to give an account
at the day of judgment for every idle word
that comes out of their mouth,
that means God would have to know
and take an interest in every idle word
that comes out of their mouth.
And so God knows everything.
God is aware of what's going on in this earth
and God is involved in the events
that are happening on this earth.
The Bible says in verse number five,
thou has beset me behind and laid that hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is high, I cannot attain unto it.
He's saying, you know,
obviously God's level of understanding,
God's omniscience, God's involvements in our lives
is beyond our comprehension.
We can't fathom it, we can't grasp it.
It's on another level.
Verse seven, whither shall I go from my spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from my presence?
Obviously we can't get away from
the watchful eye of God almighty.
You think about a story like Jonah
trying to flee from the presence of God
because God wants him to go preach in Nineveh
and he doesn't wanna go there.
So he wants to flee from the presence of God
and he goes the opposite direction to Tarshish,
which would be like modern day Spain.
And so he's trying to go west
when he's supposed to be going east.
And yet, how foolish it is to think
that you could flee from God's presence
because obviously God is everywhere.
And so he says, 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.
God has infrared night vision
and he can see what's going on in the dark
no matter how dark the place is,
according to the Bible here.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee,
but the night shineth as the day.
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
God sees everything.
God knows everything.
God is aware of everything,
but God also cares about everything that goes on.
The hairs of our head are numbered.
The Bible says a sparrow
shall not fall on the ground without your father.
Even the very hairs of your head are numbered.
Fear not, therefore,
for you're of more value than many sparrows.
You know what I've heard a lot of atheists say
over the years,
I'll bet you've probably heard this too,
from the scorners and the people who are mocking
of Christianity and the word of God.
I've heard a lot of these scornful atheists
say something along the lines of,
you really think that God cares,
you know, what you do with your body
when he created this whole universe
and all these galaxies and all,
everything that's out in outer space?
You know, do you think he really cares
about what you do with your body or whatever?
And the answer is yes, I do.
And the thing that's so stupid about this
is that sure, the universe is gigantic.
And I mean, it's actually endless.
There is literally no end to it.
The universe is literally infinite, okay?
It goes on forever in all directions.
And even if you could just somehow, you know,
travel at the speed of light
and try to just cross the thing,
you could never reach it.
You know, it's constantly expanding
and getting bigger, faster than you can even look at it
or travel to it, or it's literally infinite.
But here's the thing about that.
Even though the universe is infinite in all directions,
what do you think God cares more about?
Some burning ball of gas somewhere?
Or actual human beings with souls
that are made in the image of God?
The stars aren't made in the image of God.
So God isn't just sitting around
admiring the crab nebula or something,
and just like, oh, I got bigger, more important things to do
like, you know, Beetlejuice or whatever.
I gotta deal with, you know, Andromeda over here.
Because there's not really much going on, you know?
I mean, it's like God created these things.
He set them in motion.
You know, they're a big ball of whatever.
They're not alive.
They don't have souls, they don't have thoughts.
There's not really much to do with them.
You know, you make them, you look at them, they're cool.
But I believe that God is far more interested
in what's going on on earth
because God's greatest achievement
is not to create some kind of a black hole somewhere
or a neutron star somewhere.
You know, God's greatest achievement is man.
That's his greatest creation.
And so when you look at God's greatest creation,
the pinnacle of God's creation, day six, right,
the final crowning achievement of his creation
isn't like, all right, let's make the stars now.
He already made the stars on day four.
It's at the final day that he creates his greatest work, man.
And so we live in a day where the so-called agnostics
and people who are science-oriented and so forth,
they wanna downplay the importance of human beings,
don't they?
And say, oh, you know, we're nothing special.
And it's all about the animals and the environment
and animals are better than us or whatever,
weird things that people think.
Or, you know, we're destroying everything.
We're a virus, we're a parasite on this planet.
This planet was literally created for us.
Planet exists for us to use, for us to live in.
We're the most important thing
that's going on on this planet.
In fact, I'll take it separate.
We're pretty much the only important thing
that's going on on this planet, okay?
And the animals and the plants and everything else
is here for our use, for our enjoyment to support us.
This earth is a big old terrarium for humans, okay?
It's not a botanical garden or something or a zoo.
It's for humans, okay?
We matter.
We are the most important thing on God's program.
And so don't buy into this worldly philosophy
that tries to downplay the importance of humanity
and sort of play up animals
and play up astronomy and things like that.
And look, hey, I'm all for astronomy as a hobby
or studying science, astronomy, biology, whatever.
But at the end of the day, though,
absolute truth is found in the Word of God.
And we need to realize that God actually does care
about the little people.
No matter how big the universe is,
He can be homed in on one hair of your head, and He is.
And so don't ever forget that.
Don't buy into this wicked philosophy that says,
do you think God cares?
And this becomes a justification for sin.
Well, God doesn't see what I'm doing.
God doesn't care what I'm doing.
I don't matter.
There's 8 billion people,
and even the earth doesn't matter
because the earth is just a pale blue dot
in this giant whatever.
Actually, the earth is the only planet
that's actually worth anything.
These other planets are just kind of like
a little decoration in the sky to look at,
but they're not really worthwhile as far as,
you know, they're just, they're dead.
They're not alive.
There's no life on Mars.
There's no life on Venus.
These planets are sterile,
and earth is the only place that's alive.
And the life that matters the most is your life
and my life, our lives as human beings.
And so God does care about us.
The Bible says in verse 13,
for thou has possessed my reins.
Reins are the kidneys literally.
You think about like renal failure.
The kidneys literally, but in the Bible,
the reins represent the seat of human emotion.
Because when you get emotional,
even though thoughts are happening in our brains,
when we get emotional, we don't really feel it in our head.
We feel it in our gut, right?
We feel it in our abdomen.
And so the reins, the kidneys are a picture of our emotions.
And of course, the adrenal glands
are located on the kidneys, add renal,
it's like rain, add renal glands, right?
So, you know, the Bible says here,
thou has possessed my reins.
Thou has covered me in my mother's womb.
Thou is the, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Marvelous are thy works,
and that my soul knoweth right well.
And so again, human beings are the most marvelous work
that God has made.
Now, of course, David says in another Psalm
that he looks up at the stars and he looks up at the sky
and he sees all of these amazing works
that God made in the universe.
David is an atheist, which says,
oh, God doesn't care about me
because he really cares about all these, you know,
burning orbs that are out in the cosmos.
That's not what David says.
David says, you know,
what is man that thou art mindful of him
and the son of man that thou visitest him?
He looks at all of the greatness out there and says,
wow, isn't it cool that God does care about little old me,
that God does care what goes on on this planet,
that God does care about mankind,
and that God loves and cares about me specifically,
even in light of the magnitude of his creation.
Wow, what is man that thou art mindful of him
or the son of man that thou visitest him?
Thou madeest him a little lower than the angels.
Thou crownest him with glory and honor
and did set him over the works of thy hands.
Thou has put all things in subjection under his feet.
So David, yeah, he marvels at the creation,
but he says at the end of the day,
you made us humans with glory and honor.
You made us the Lords of this earth.
You put all things in subjection under us on this earth.
And of course that verse is later applied
to the Lord Jesus Christ,
because ultimately he, the son of man,
is the ultimate human being,
and he's the one who is going to rule and reign
over this entire earth someday.
And he rules and reigns in our hearts right now.
The Bible says, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.
That's a really famous phrase.
Most people have heard that,
most Christians have quoted that,
even probably a lot of non-Christians
have heard that famous quote
about being fearfully and wonderfully made.
It's kind of an interesting choice of words though, isn't it?
Because wonderfully made,
I think we all understand that, right?
You know, wonderful.
It's something that you wonder at.
It's something that you marvel at.
It's something that you stand in awe of it.
That's what wonderful means, right?
Wonderfully made.
What about fearfully?
What does that mean, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made?
You know, when you look at God's amazing power
and God's amazing intelligence
and God's amazing craftsmanship in creating human beings,
which are his greatest achievement,
all the other wonderful things out in this world,
they're cool, but humans are the greatest achievement.
This should cause us to fear God
because when you're dealing with someone
who is that intelligent, that much of an artist,
that much of a designer, you're kind of in awe of him
and you're kind of just awestruck at his creation.
And so we're fearfully and wonderfully made,
meaning it's almost fearful to consider God's greatness
and God's intelligence and just how amazing God is.
We stand in awe even to the point of fear
and trembling before God.
At least we should, right?
But then somewhere, somewhere, right now, someplace,
some guy is looking at some test tube somewhere
and looking at some microscope somewhere
and he's beholding the magnificence of God's creation
and just like, oh, the wonders of evolution.
Charles Darwin is so cool.
Dude, you're an idiot.
How can you look at God's creation
in that kind of detail and not fear
at that which God has fearfully and wonderfully made?
You see, the more that we learn about science,
the more that we look at the natural world
and especially the more we look at biology,
which is the most complicated of sciences
because life is so complicated,
that should build our faith in God
and only a wicked person would walk away from that
saying there is no God or a fool.
A wicked person because they just don't wanna believe in God
they want to reject the truth,
they wanna reject the Lord
because the more you look at the intricacy of God's creation
you know that it can't create itself
and that it's not an accident
but that is created by the Lord
and we should fear and tremble before the God
who has such power over the universe
and over our own individual lives.
It's not just that humans are fearfully
and wonderfully made,
it's that I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
it's that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
I don't believe that God just created humans
in the beginning, male and female,
Adam and Eve created He them
and then He just sort of just let them go
and then genetics took over
and the natural process took over.
I believe that God forms and fashions each child
in his mother's womb.
Obviously there are natural processes that are going on
but isn't God there?
Isn't God aware?
If the hairs of my head are numbered,
the hairs of your head are numbered,
sounds to me like God presides over
what goes on in the womb of every mother who is with child
and so He presides over each child,
He forms and fashions each child in his mother's womb
and He cares, this is not irrelevant unto Him.
The Bible says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made,
marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well.
Verse 15, my substance was not hid from thee
when I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth.
Now you say, what in the world?
That's not where babies come from.
You know, maybe some toddler in here is like,
whoa, that's where babies come from, you know?
What is this talking about, you know,
curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth?
Here's the thing about that.
First of all, the word curiously is a great word
because you see this a lot in the Bible,
the word curious to describe things that were embroidered
in the Old Testament with much intricacy.
Like for example, the ephod that the priest would wear
had what was called the curious girdle of the ephod.
And it doesn't mean like we think of curious like,
well, that's a weird belt or something.
The curious girdle of the ephod is referring to the fact
that a lot of care went into it, right?
Curious because the Latin word cura, like care, okay?
And so the curious work is that work
means that a lot of care went into it
because it's intricately embroidered.
That's what we're talking about.
And so here, when it says curiously wrought,
it means that God is curiously,
meaning he's putting care into it,
he's putting effort into it,
he's putting diligence and thought into creating
not humans in the lowest parts of the earth,
that's not where humans come from,
but rather the substance from which humans are made.
So when we think about substance,
we can just think about like elements
or just matter, you could say, right?
And of course, we know that there's a cycle on this earth
where elements are basically coming up from the earth
through what's called the geologic cycle, right?
Where a volcano erupts and when the volcano erupts,
you have all of this magma down in the earth
that comes out in the form of a lava flow, right?
And that's what makes new land masses and new soil.
So the theory of plate tectonics tells us
that constantly there are places
where the earth's plates are coming together
in a subduction zone,
where basically one plate is going under the other, okay?
So two plates are coming together
and there's a subduction zone.
And so what's basically happening is
that the earth is slowly being sucked down into the mantle.
And basically it's like it's being recycled in a sense,
you know, it's just getting like melted down.
So the earth is slowly being sucked in to the mantle
and melted down and then somewhere else,
basically magma is coming out to create fresh earth, okay?
And so the volcano erupts or in the ocean,
you'll have places where magma is coming out underwater
and so you have new sea floor that's being created.
And so this process is going on
and a lot of these places where a volcano has erupted
end up being a really fertile soil, okay?
As this fresh substance comes out of the mantle
and then, you know, eventually it gets colonized
by certain plants and bacteria and things.
And then, you know, ultimately soil is formed
over the course of different life cycles
of different species moving in and so on and so forth.
And so what the Bible is actually saying here
when it says my substance was not hit
from the when I was made in secret
and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth,
because we're not just talking about just the dirt
on the surface of the earth,
we're talking about something deeper, aren't we?
We're talking about the mantle.
Basically what the Bible is saying here
is that you've got elements and substance, minerals,
minerals in the mantle that basically came up
out of the earth in a volcanic eruption
and became part of the soil which grew the plants
which produced the food which is eaten by the animals
and then the animal was eaten by David's mom
and then that substance that literally came
from the lowest parts of the earth,
that matter that came from the mantle,
that mineral literally made it into his mom's food
and then her body took that material from that food
and used it to make a little piece of David.
And so that's where our substance comes from.
It comes from food that our mom ate
and the food came from somewhere,
came from an animal or a plant which got the minerals
from the mantle and so forth.
I mean, what the Bible is saying is God not only forms
and fashions the baby in its mother's womb,
but God actually is like producing the building materials
for that baby in a volcano somewhere that's erupting.
It's like, okay, this explosion of pyroclastic debris,
some of this is gonna be little Johnny 900 years from now
because his mom is gonna eat something
that has a little bit of this in it.
I mean, that's pretty incredible.
And again, these are things
that we couldn't even begin to fathom.
We couldn't even begin to fathom thinking
about eight billion things at the same time.
And yet God right now is thinking
about eight billion different people at the same time.
But he's not just thinking about eight billion people.
He's thinking about all the future people
that so he's gotta stir up the magma a certain way
to get the right minerals in the right spots.
I mean, it's mind boggling.
It's incredible.
No matter what computer human beings could ever produce,
it could never have that much RAM.
It could never have that much CPU.
It could never be able to process all of that.
And so don't ever for one second think
that you can comprehend the depth
of God's thought and understanding.
And don't think for one second, oh, God doesn't care.
He's probably meditating on some other galaxy right now.
No, God's right here paying attention
to everything that's going on on this earth.
That's what the Bible teaches.
And so he says, my substance was not hid from thee
when I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth,
because that's where the building blocks
for life ultimately come from.
Literally the mantle,
where you have this molten mix of minerals.
Then it says in verse number 16,
thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect,
meaning incomplete.
And in my book, all my members were written,
members are body parts.
All my members were,
you think of someone being dismembered, right?
That's where we get that.
All my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned.
So again, does in continuance fashioned,
does that sound like God just kind of set the process
in motion and then just took his hands off,
just backed off and just kind of just Adam and Eve
and then just backed off.
And that's a belief that's other.
There are people in this world that believe
that God created the universe
and then sort of just walked away
or that God created the universe
and that he's just sort of an observer,
that he just created the universe
and just kind of sits back and is just eating popcorn
and just kind of watching what happens.
But no, the Bible says that even his body parts
or members were in continuance fashioned,
meaning continually being fashioned and made.
And the Bible says that all his members were written
when as yet there was none of them.
So even before the hand is formed,
even before the foot is formed,
God looks into the womb
and he sees that developing blastocyst
and he doesn't say, oh, that's a blob of tissue.
He says, that's a hand, that's a foot,
that's a nose, that's a mouth, that's a heart,
that's a soul, that's a human being.
He doesn't look at that as just tissue.
He sees the hand before it's a hand
because he knows that's the part that's gonna be a hand.
Says in verse 17,
how precious also are thy thoughts unto me.
Now, what does the word precious mean?
Precious means valuable.
Comes from the same root word as our word price.
The price of something is how precious it is,
how dear it is, how expensive it is.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, oh God.
How great is the sum of them.
If I should count them,
they are more in number than the sand.
Now we think about there being more stars in the sky
than sand by the seashore and that's true.
God's thoughts are more than the sand by the sea,
but even just God's thoughts toward one person
are more than the grains of sand on all the seashores
in the entire world, which is obviously innumerable.
If I should count them,
they are more in number than the sand.
When I awake, I am still with thee.
Now keep your finger there in Psalm 139,
flip over to Jeremiah 23.
Flip over to Jeremiah chapter 23,
we'll come back to Psalm 139.
But this thing of God knowing our thoughts
and God caring about us and the hairs of our head
being numbered is sort of a two-edged sword.
On one hand, it's very comforting
to know that God loves us, that God cares about us,
that something isn't just bad accidentally
gonna happen to us and he doesn't know about it.
Like, oh, whoops, whose job was it to be
Stephen Anderson's guardian angel
because you screwed up and he got hurt?
Somebody's sleeping on the job.
It's not gonna happen.
If anything bad happens to me, God knows about it,
God allowed it, he's aware of it,
all things are gonna work together for good
to those that love God.
So it's comforting to know that God cares,
that God's aware, that God's paying attention,
that God loves us, that God's thinking about us.
But you know, this is a two-edged sword though
for the wicked because for the wicked,
this is bad news that God knows all the junk
that they're up to.
This is not a good message for them.
Look at Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 21.
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I've not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
But if they had stood in my counsel
and had caused my people to hear my words,
then they should have turned them from their evil way
and from the evil of their doings.
And then look at the next verse.
Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord?
Am I not a God afar off?
Can any hide himself in secret places
that I shall not see him?
Sayeth the Lord, do not I fill heaven and earth,
saith the Lord?
God's saying, look, your evil way
is not hidden in secret places
because whatever you do, I'm watching.
And the night is as day unto me.
Day and night are alike unto me.
I know everything, you can't hide from me.
I am at hand.
I am not a far off.
And so don't think that you're getting away with anything.
Okay?
The Bible says in Psalm 139, if you wanna flip back there,
we might as well read the entire Psalm
because we literally just read verses one through 18.
So we might as well finish it.
It says, surely, verse 19,
thou will slay the wicked, O God.
Now, up to this point, things have been very positive.
It's been a loving Psalm.
It's been a precious Psalm about how God cares about us
and forms and fashions us and thinks about us and loves us.
Because this is from David's perspective,
who's a godly man.
And so he likes the fact that God knows him.
He likes the fact that God's aware of everything
that he's going through.
But then it kind of changes gears in verse 19, doesn't it?
Surely thou would slay the wicked, O God.
Depart from me therefore, you 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 grieve with those that rise up against thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them my enemies.
Now notice it says in verse 21,
do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?
You know, God knows about the love
that we have in our heart for him as Christians,
but he can also see the hatred that the wicked,
that the reprobate has in his heart for God.
And he sees right through him.
Even if they fool anyone outwardly,
God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
And he knows the thoughts of the wicked
even better than they know their own thoughts.
And he doesn't just search their thoughts,
but the Bible says that God searches the reigns
and the hearts.
And again, the heart, probably more in that context,
referring to our inner being, our thoughts,
and our mind and so forth.
Whereas the reigns refer to the emotions.
God doesn't just search the heart,
he doesn't just search the thoughts,
he searches the reigns,
which is again, the seed of emotion.
God knows how we feel about him,
but God also knows how the wicked feel about him.
He sees the hatred that they have for him,
and they ought to be scared to death of that.
But look what David can confidently say in verse 23,
because it seems like verses one through 17
really go together, or verses one through 18.
Verses one through 18 are a really cohesive whole.
And then it seems like verses 23 and 24
go really well with verses one through 18.
It seems like we've got one through 18
that are really cohesive,
and then 23 and 24 are perfect to go with those.
But it's like we have this little commercial break
from 19 through 22 about just slaying the wicked
and hating the God haters,
and it's just like, whoa, what, whoa,
ah, what just happened here?
You know, it's like, you know,
I think part of this is because a lot of people,
they like to pick and choose what scriptures
they wanna think about, that they wanna preach,
what they wanna believe.
And I feel like God purposely intertwines
some of people's favorite passages
and some of their least favorite passages
just so that they can't avoid them.
They're gonna find it.
Like, nobody can really say like,
well, I didn't know that the Bible said that
about, you know, hating those who hate God.
I didn't know the Bible said,
nobody can really say that because Psalm 139
is such a popular passage, so famous.
It's like, it's not quite 1 Corinthians 13,
but it's close.
I mean, it's one of the most popular Psalms.
Both verses one through 18 and verses 23 and 24
are super popular.
So it's like God nestles in something
that maybe isn't so popular.
So you're gonna find it in a popular passage.
You're gonna have to preach it.
Although I guarantee you that there are innumerable
preachers who read verses one through 18
and then they're kind of like,
let's jump down to verse 23.
If I, I bet if I had a nickel for every time
a pastor did that, I'd be a wealthy man.
But you know, the person in the pew can't help
but just kind of, what's going on in that verse
19 through 22 and finding it.
I found it, you found it, right?
It's right there.
It's a famous song in fact, verse 23.
Search me, oh God, and know my heart today.
Try me, oh Savior, know my thoughts I pray.
Who knows the song?
Of course, we've sung it here, it's in the hymnal.
And so we're pretty familiar with this.
But look what he says in verse 23.
Search me, oh 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.
This is what's so cool about this passage
because in verses one through 18,
he's rejoicing in the fact that God knows him.
Then in verse 19 through 22, he brings up
some rotten wicked people that hate the Lord
and God knows that too.
God can see that too.
As we saw in Jeremiah 23 as well.
But then we see that David, because he knows
that he loves the Lord, he's confident to say,
search me, oh God, and know my heart.
I'm not trying to hide from you, God,
because God, you know that I love you.
It's sort of like Peter said in John 21 to Jesus.
Remember Peter said, Lord, thou knowest all things,
thou knowest that I love thee.
You know, when you're looking at the Son of God
and you say, you know everything, you know I love you.
I mean, you're confident if you can say that.
I believe that Peter did love Christ
because otherwise that would have been
a really stupid thing to say.
And I think we can see that Peter's being sincere there.
He really did love Christ.
But you know, the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak,
he'd screwed up, he'd made some mistakes,
but he did love Jesus.
And so he says, Lord, he's grieved to the Bible saying,
Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.
And so David has that same confidence where he can say,
search me, O God, and know my heart.
He's saying, you know what?
You know me, God.
And I'm willing to say to you, look at me.
Now here's the thing, whether we say to God or not,
examine me, God, he's examining us anyway.
But saying this shows the confidence of saying,
hey, I know I love God.
I know I'm sincere.
I know I'm for real.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
But not only do we see confidence in verse 23,
but in verse 24, we also see a desire for God to look at him
and let him know if there's a problem.
Show him what he can do to be a better person,
to be a better servant of the Lord.
See if there be any wicked way in me
and lead me in the way everlasting, right?
Like whatever you find there that's wrong, fix it,
he's saying.
So this is a pretty powerful prayer there
in verses 23 and 24.
Also, it's interesting that people today
would somehow teach that it's wrong
to ever hate anyone for any reason.
But yet we see David saying, I hate those that hate thee.
Right?
And then we have him saying that he believes
that his heart is totally right in doing so
and that he's willing to be searched and tried by God.
And of course we know that the book of Psalms
is inspired by God.
I've had some people literally,
I've pulled out this passage to show people
before I had them say, well, that's just David talking.
Folks, if you're gonna deny the inspiration of the Psalms,
if you're gonna deny the absolute truth of the Psalms,
is there any other part of the Bible
that you'd like to deny while we're at it?
Because you could just say, oh, you know, Exodus,
that's just Moses.
You know?
Well, sure.
I mean, yeah, that's Matthew.
That's what Matthew says.
Well, that's just Luke.
That's just Paul.
Now, obviously I do understand
that there are places in the Bible
where characters are having dialogue
and some of the things that the characters say,
those things aren't necessarily right.
You know, for example, there are people in the Bible
who lie to each other or something
or people who say something wrong
and then they get corrected or people do a lot of bad things
but whenever the narrator of the Bible is talking,
it's absolute truth, okay?
And if you don't believe that,
well, then I don't even know what your foundation even is
because if the word of God is not absolute truth
when the narrator of the word of God is speaking,
then, you know, at that point we have no foundation
and specifically about the book of Psalms,
what does the Bible say over and over again?
It says, well spake the Holy Ghost
by the mouth of David the prophet and then it quotes Psalms.
So the Bible specifically says that when we're reading Psalms
that's the Holy Ghost talking.
He's using David's mouth or some other Psalmist's mouth
but it's the Holy Ghost talking.
So this is divinely inspired scripture.
This is authoritative.
It's as authoritative as anything else in the Bible
and it's powerful to think that God knows
everything about everything that we say, think, do.
It's comforting if you're godly, forget being godly,
it's comforting just if you love the Lord
and you're at least trying to be godly
and you're at least, you know, in your heart
delighting in the Lord and trying to grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
then you feel confident about this.
The wicked should be scared to death about this.
And finally, many of their actions and statements prove
that there is no fear of God before their eyes
but someday they will be destroyed suddenly
and that without remedy.
I'll leave you with just a couple of verses before I'm done.
Psalm 37 verse 23 says the steps of a good man
are ordered by the Lord.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
We might think that we're going through life
and things are just an accident
and that we're just kind of tumbling through life
and we know what's going on and God doesn't care
but I don't believe that for one second.
I do believe that ungodly people or unsaved people
are sometimes just stumbling through life
and whatever happens happens but God's still aware
and he could intervene if he wanted to.
He could intervene but he does leave a lot of people
to their own devices because he doesn't really need
to get involved, there's no reason to get involved
but he's aware of every thought, every idle word,
everything that's going on with them,
every cell in their body, he's aware of it
but when it comes to the good man,
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
You know, God's not planning out the schedule
of reprobates today, they're ruining their own lives
and ruining the lives of the people around them
but God is ordering the steps of a good man.
So somebody who's actually saved,
somebody who actually cares about the things of God,
somebody who is actually trying to serve God,
you know, God has a plan for them
and things happen in their life and God is involved
and God is intervening in their life.
I mean, little things happen to me all the time
and I think to myself, well, this happened for a reason.
Even just meaningless things, even like,
that's just my default is to just think,
well, God's involved in my life
and things are happening for a reason.
So, you know, let's say I'm going somewhere
and I get delayed by 15 minutes,
I just think to myself, well,
there must be some reason why I was delayed.
You know, I just wasn't supposed to get there until later.
Now, here's why I think that,
because I think that my life matters
because I'm a born again child of God that's serving God,
that's why I think that I matter to that level
and so do you matter, okay?
Now, I'm not saying that every single person
who's late or delayed or, you know,
hurts themself is doing it for a reason,
but I do think that when God's people
who are actually actively serving God stub their toe,
it's probably for a reason.
You know, just because I do believe
that God is involved in our lives
and I'm talking about seriously stubbing your toe,
like where the toenail falls off, okay?
That's why I'm talking about the serious stuff.
I'm just saying, you know,
I believe that in the lives of God's people,
things are happening for a reason
because otherwise what does it mean when God said,
all things work together for good to them to love God?
Do you think that that just happens by osmosis?
All things work together for good to them that love God,
that proves that God's involved in all things
for those who love him.
The wicked, he's not necessarily involved,
but he's definitely aware of it
and he's making a list of all the junk that they do
so that they can eventually pay for it.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
but here's the second half of the verse,
and he delighteth in his way.
So not only does God order the steps of a good man,
but he actually cares because he delights in it.
He doesn't just delight in the natural world.
Oh, you know, God's just walking through nature every day
and just enjoying chipmunks or something.
God is delighting in his people.
He's delighting in a good man and his steps
and his way and his life.
He's delighting in godly men and women,
boys and girls, even babies.
You know, that's what God cares about, according to the Bible.
Steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord
and he delighteth in his way.
Last thought I'll give you, Psalm 56, eight,
God says, put thou my wanderings,
put thou my tears into thy bottle,
are they not in thy book?
God is documenting, he's collecting,
he's scrapbooking, as it were, our lives,
because he cares about who we are, what we do.
And so it's amazing that God loves us.
What is man that God is mindful of us?
But just because it's an amazing thought
that the God of this great universe cares about us
doesn't mean that it isn't true, because it is true.
And so the atheist just scoffs like,
God's way too big to be, you think that God cares
about what a woman does with her body?
Is her body her choice and God doesn't even care?
You know, that's spoken like somebody
who's never read the Bible.
Because according to the Bible, he does care.
And we should care about what we do with our lives
and what we do with our bodies.
If our body is a temple of the Holy Ghost that's in us
and we're bought with a price and we're supposed
to glorify God in our body and in our spirit,
which are God's, oh, just kidding,
God's light years away just kind of watching.
Nope, God's right here, ready to intervene.
And by the way, that's why you should pray.
Because you have not because you ask not.
I'm not one of these bozos that thinks,
well, you just pray and God was gonna do
what he was gonna do anyway, but praying
kind of makes you feel like you did something.
I've had, I've literally heard a preacher say,
he probably had Calvinist tendencies.
I heard a preacher say one time like,
you know, God's gonna do his will anyway,
but you know, if we pray and then it happens,
then it's like we participated in it.
That sounds super lame.
And then I heard this other pastor say, you know,
that he, you know, he gets in the shower
and he prays for the water to work
and then he turns on the faucet
and he says that his prayer was answered.
I mean, to me, that's a mockery of prayer.
Okay, does prayer actually change something or not?
Because if it doesn't,
I'm probably gonna do very little of it.
Because what's the point?
Like what, just going through some vain repetition,
just chanting, our father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, you know, what's the point?
I thought the whole point is asking
for something and getting it.
That's what prayer is.
It's about getting God involved.
And I do believe that if I pray more,
God will be more involved in my life.
And if I pray less, God will be less involved.
Because if we invite God to get involved,
he's gonna get involved.
He's gonna be involved anyway.
He's paying attention anyway.
But prayer changes things.
Prayer will get God more involved.
Otherwise, what's the point?
It's not just an exercise.
It's real.
Prayer is asking and receiving.
And it's real and it does something.
So you say, oh man, my life's a mess.
Okay, did you pray?
Oh, I got this problem, I don't know what to do.
Did you pray that God would fix it?
Did you pray for God to step in and do something?
Well then, don't necessarily just expect
that God's automatically gonna step in.
And so God cares, he's involved,
and he'll get even more involved if you ask him to.
Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much
for these great passages of scripture.
And Lord, we thank you for caring about us,
even though you are so much greater than us
and so far beyond us.
Thank you, Lord, for caring about little old us.
And Lord, help us to live our lives
in such a way that acknowledges the fact
that you are there, that you're present.
Help us to pray and think about you in all of our thoughts.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.