Heaven Only Knows

Heaven Only Knows Psalm 139:1-6;13-18 September 9, 2001

I. Introduction:

A. Heaven Only Knows

1. As a child I now you will find it hard to believe but I was rather precocious, always talking and asking questions - why this why that? My mother would always try to answer my questions the best she could - but sometimes children’s questions are beyond rational answers:

(1) why don’t brown cows give choc. Milk

(2) why do people say the moon is made of cheese if it isn’t made of cheese

(3) If you step on a worm does it go to heave?

(4) Do alligators have to wait one hour after they eat before they can get in the water?

(5) why does daddy throw tools when he fixes stuff

(6) To questions like these my mothers answer would always be the same - Heaven Only Knows

2. As parent I still have lots questions that the only answer seems to be Heaven Only Knows:

a) why do kids freeze up as soon as you want to show them off

b) why do kids insist on wearing their food instead of eating it

c) why don’t kids come into the world potty trained

3. As I prepared this sermon I wondered did others had questions like mine - questions with the only possible answer of Heaven Only Knows So I got onto internet in search of questions I ran into some rather interesting ones like:

a) Why do they call it chili if its hot?

b) What was the best thing before sliced bread?

c) What hair color do they put on the driver’s license of bald men?

d) Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of a bottle?

e) Can atheists get insurance for what the insurance company deems as "Acts of God"?

f) Why is a carrot a carrot if it is more orange than an orange?

4. But I think in all the world the most common question of frustration is "Why don’t people understand me?" From pre-teens, to teenagers to senior adults

a) It is common complaint among people like us is that people don’t understand us. That we are misunderstood.

b) We act and speak, as we believe, in all clarity, in all sincerity and yet afterward we find that our actions have been misinterpreted and our intentions misjudged.

c) And it seems the only answer is "heaven only knows"

5. And in all truth the is the answer is "Heaven Only Knows"

6. When all the world doesn’t seem to understand you, doesn’t seem to really know you there is one who does

II. God Knows You

A. Psalm 139

1. Tradition says author David - others don’t know

2. Either way it is interesting that it is written in the first person

a) when we read it it becomes our prayer, our words

b) it becomes an intimate understanding of our personal relationship with God

3. VS 1-Psalm 139:1-6 1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

a) When David said "you have searched me and know" he is not saying God looked him over - he speaking as if God has examine him in a judicial sense - he looked deep into him not to his actions but to the motives of his heart

b) He is saying God even from afar - from heaven beyond time and space you know when I sit and when I rise, my thoughts, my going out and lying down - from the beginning of the day until the night - you know my words even before I speak them

c) God you know me better than myself, through and through

d) He know everything there is about you. He sees your sins and weakness

e) he sees your pains, your sufferings and your anxieties

f) He see it all

g) With People we pretend, we keep part of ourselves back for fear if they really get to know us they won’t like us or approve of us

h) When can pretend we are very spritiual, we can pretend we don’t care what others think, we can pretend it doesn’t hurt us when we are rejected or made fun of - we can fool people but we can’t fool God

i) He knows the real rules we live by and whether they are his or not

j) God knows where we are struggling to grow , where we are having troubles accepting his ways