INTRO.- ILL.- A Bible college student came to preacher Charles Spurgeon one day, greatly concerned that he could not grasp the meaning of certain verses in the Bible. The noted preacher replied kindly but firmly, “Young man, allow me to give you this word of advice. Give the Lord credit for knowing things you don’t understand.” God knows everything!
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
ILL.- When Henry Norris Russell, Princeton astronomer, had concluded a lecture on the Milky Way, a woman came to him and asked: “If our world is so little, and the universe is so great, can we believe that God pays any attention to us?” Dr. Russell replied, “That depends, madam, entirely on how big a God you believe in.”
Our God is quite big. He is all-wise and all-knowing and all-powerful. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows us from inside out. HE KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT US! 1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
PROP.- The Psalmist declares that God knew him. And this Psalm describes how God knows us.
1. GOD KNOWS OUR ACTIVITIES
1 You have searched me, Lord, 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.
ILL.- A man selling vacuum cleaners knocked on the door of a remote farmhouse. When the lady of the house opened the door, he walked in and dumped a bag of dirt on the floor. “Now,” boasted the salesman, “I want to make a bargain with you. If this super-duper, new vacuum cleaner doesn’t pick up every bit of this dirt, I’ll eat what’s left.” “Here’s a spoon,” said the farmer’s wife, “we don’t have any electricity.”
If that man had been God he would known better than to make an offer like that. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had foreknowledge of things? It sounds like it would be a good thing but it might not.
Knowing certain things or maybe certain negative things were going to happen, however, would worry us to death. Some foreknowledge might not be good but God can handle everything. We humans can’t.
God knows all our activities and even before we plan them. I like to plan my days. Of course, there are times when unexpected things come up, but nothing is unexpected to God. He knows when things happen and even before they happen. WHAT AN AMAZING GOD/CREATOR WE HAVE! Does it bother you, knowing that God knows your every move?
ILL.- Dr. John Baillie made it a practice to open his course on the doctrine of God at Edinburgh University with these words: “Gentlemen, we must remember that in discussing God we cannot talk about Him without Him hearing every word we say. We may be able to talk to our friends, as it were, behind their backs, but God is everywhere, yes, even in this classroom. Therefore, in all of our discussions we must be aware of His infinite presence and talk about Him, as it were, before His face.”
We are always in His presence and this thought should make a difference in everything we say and do.
ILL.- The theologian Charles Hodge wrote about his early years at Princeton: "It was my privilege to be the pupil-assistant of Professor Joseph Henry, the illustrious scientist.
When, for the first time, electric signals were sent from point to point, the earth itself being used for the return current, Professor Henry put me at one end of the circuit, while he stood directing the experiments at the other. I can well remember the wonderful care with which he arranged them. Very often, when the testing moment came, he would raise his hand in adoring reverence and call upon me to uncover my head and worship in silence. He would say, 'Because God is here, I am about to ask Him a question.'"
HOW WONDERFUL! Realizing that God is with us always we should be quick to ask of Him. talk to Him, and praise Him!
2. GOD KNOWS OUR THOUGHTS
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. How important are our thoughts?
Proverbs 23:7 “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” We are generally a product of our thinking, which means that we must set our minds on good things if we want to do good things. And those who think about doing evil will do evil.
ILL.- There was a saucer on the desk while Henry Ford was speaking. He flipped it upside down. “You know atmospheric pressure is hitting there,” he said, “at 14 pounds per square inch. You can’t see it and you can’t feel it. Yet you know it’s happening. It’s that way with ideas. The air is full of them. They are knocking you on the head. Just suspend in your mind the thought of what it is you want. Go about your business and suddenly the idea you want will come through. It was there all the time.” I don’t know about the air being full of ideas but man is full of ideas and they’re not always good.
Romans 1:18-25 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
When people stop believing in God and worshiping Him as the only God there is, they start to think evil thoughts and and do evil things. Man without God in His heart and mind is evil and does evil. What are you thinking? What is in your heart?
Matthew 9:4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?”
Knowing that He knows our thoughts we must work hard to entertain good thoughts!
3. GOD KNOWS OUR SPEAKING
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
ILL.- Eight-year-old Joan, anxiously watching the sunny sky for rain, suddenly asked her mother: “Mommy, didn’t the weather man on TV last night say it would rain?” “Yes, dear,” Mother replied. “Well,” the little girl responded with a sigh, “I guess God didn’t hear him.”
Ah but God didn’t have to hear him, did He? But God does hear our speaking, regardless of what we say and how we say it. Before we speak He knows what we’re going to say. And this thought should make a difference in our speaking.
Matthew 12:33-34 "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Our speaking reveals our hearts. If we speak it then it is in our hearts. And if we speak bad, negative or nasty words or evil words then those things live in our hearts, which means we have a heart problem.
ILL.- Johannes Brahms of the 1800's was a German composer and pianist. It was said that he was absolutely truthful. But he was never accustomed to restraining himself nor holding back his tongue. If he disliked anything he would say so frankly. This bluntness combined with his rough manner frequently made him appear very harsh. One evening, Brahms, on taking leave of his hostess at a party, said, “Kindly excuse me if I by chance have forgotten to offend one of you guests.”
If a person is so frank as to offend anyone and everyone then he or she had better learn they are in the presence of God and will give account to God.
Mark 12:36 David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared...” Wouldn’t it be great if we all could speak by the Holy Spirit? If the Spirit empowered all our speaking?
Ephesians 4:29-30 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
4. GOD KNOWS OUR PLANS
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. God knows all our plans, regardless of what they are.
ILL.- In 1917 there were only 40,000 followers of Communism. But in 1925, their leaders met to formulate plans to conquer the world. Lenin said: “First, we shall take Eastern Europe, then the masses of Asia. After that, we shall surround and undermine the United States which will fall into our hands without a struggle!” At various times, Khrushchev boasted: “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. WE WILL BURY YOU.” And on American television in 1957, he declared: “I can prophesy that your grandchildren in America will live under socialism.” BUT IT DIDN’T WORK.
Our plans often change OR they may get changed by God. We should always be open to God’s change of plans in our lives. We should always “seek first” His kingdom, His will, His plans, etc.
ILL.- Napoleon Bonaparte, when intoxicated with success and at the height of his power, is reported to have boasted, “I make circumstances.” NO, there is only one person who can make circumstances happen and we know who He is! And we should always seek His circumstances for our lives.
James 4:13-17 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
5. GOD KNOWS OUR BEGINNING
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. HOW POWERFUL!
You created me in my mother’s womb. We do believe this but not everyone in the world believes this. Here is a birth.
October 5: Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet, but it is I already. And I am to be a girl. I shall have blond hair and blue eyes. Just about everything is settled though, even the fact that I shall love flowers.
October 19: Some say that I am not a real person yet, that only my mother exists. But I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is yet truly bread. My mother is. And I am.
October 23: My mouth is just beginning to open now. Just think, in a year or so I shall be laughing and later talking. I know what my first word will be: Mama.
October 25: My heart began to beat today all by itself. From now on it shall gently beat for the rest of my life without ever stopping to rest! And after many years it will tire. It will stop, and then I shall die.
November 2: I am growing a bit every day. My arms and legs are beginning to take shape. But I have to wait a long time yet before those legs will raise me to my mother’s arms, before these little arms will be able to gather flowers and embrace my father.
November 12: Tiny fingers are beginning to form on my hands. Funny how small they are! I’ll be able to stroke my mother’s hair with them.
November 20: It wasn’t until today that the doctor told my mom that I am living here under her heart. Oh how happy she must be! Are you happy, mom?
November 25: My Mom and Dad are probably thinking about a name for me. But they don’t even know that I am a little girl. I want to be called Kathy. I am getting so big already.
December 10: My hair is growing. It is smooth and bright and shiny. I wonder what kind of hair Mom has?
December 13: I am just about able to see. It is dark around me. When Mom brings me into the world it will be full of sunshine and flowers. But what I want more than anything is to see my Mom. How do you look, Mom?
December 24: I wonder if Mom hears the whispering of my heart? Some children come into the world a little sick. But my heart is strong and healthy. It beats so evenly. You’ll have a healthy little daughter, Mom!
December 28: Today my mother killed me.
God knows our beginning and He wants us to live. He is the giver of life.
CONCLUSION-----------------
1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. The Lord knows us all very well, far better than we know ourselves.
II Timothy 2:19 “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
The Lord knows if we belong to Him, that is, if we believe in Him, trust Him and are seeking to obey Him. He knows us BUT DO WE KNOW HIM? And how well do we know Him?
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
If we truly know Him, we will seek to do His will in life.
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO
shepherd111@hotmail.com
