4 THINGS GOD KNOWS ABOUT YOU THAT YOU DON’T KNOW
Ps. 139:1-18
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR:
1. A lady called in a prayer request, “My husband got stung by a bee on the forehead. He’s in the ER now. His face is all swollen and bruised and he almost died.”
2. She continued, “Luckily I was close enough to hit the bee with my shovel!”
B. TEXT
“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. 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. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 16... all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!... 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. Ps. 139:1-6,13,16-18
C. THESIS
1. GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, the National Security Agency knows a great deal about us from our cellphone data trails. While each crumb of data may seem insignificant, when it’s combined and analyzed it provides “one of the most powerful investigative tools ever devised.”
2. Investigators can pinpoint where we’ve been and where we are, at any given moment. Far more superior to NSA’s data trail, God knows every cell in your body, every atom in the universe, every thought we think & every motive. [Jan. 5, 2025 Daily Bread]
3. That’s one of the reasons we should depend upon God. HE KNOWS ALL THE DETAILS. He knows the end from the beginning and He knows all our fears and all our dreams.
4. There are many things God knows that we don't even know: a). how many hairs are on our heads, Matt. 10:30; b). how many days we’re going to live; and where we’ll be 20 years from now.
5. Today we're looking at "4 Things God Knows about You that You Don't Know.” First, God knows...
I. YOUR POTENTIAL -- FOR GREATNESS
A. GOD SEES OUR POTENTIAL USEFULNESS
1. ILLUS. “MR. IRRELEVANT.” During the annual NFL draft, football teams choose new players. Coaches spend thousands of hours evaluating prospective player’s skills and physical fitness. In 2022, Brock Purdy was the last – the 262nd pick and labeled “Mr. Irrelevant” – that’s the nickname given to the last football player selected. No one expected he would play in a game in the upcoming season. But by some caprice of fate Purdy led his team to two playoff wins. The reality is that team executives don’t always do an effective job identifying potential. [Daily Bread, 2-7-25] But God does!
2. When Simon was brought to Jesus, the Lord spoke prophetically of him, that he would be called Peter, which means "a rock," symbolizing Peter’s strength (John 1:42).
3. God saw Gideon as a "Mighty Warrior" when he was afraid and hiding in a wine-press. God saw Abram as "Father of Many" when he had no children. God sees OUR potential. None of the aforementioned people saw themselves as God did.
B. HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR POTENTIAL
1. All of us have potential for greatness -- to accomplish something for the kingdom of God or the good of mankind.
2. It may be small, like the little boy who contributed his lunch. Or it may be something big – like a cure for cancer or a discovery that will help many people.
3. Don’t measure your potential by YOUR RESOURCES, because in reality, you have GOD’S RESOURCES! God doesn’t need your ability, He needs your availability.
4. Jesus took a bunch of ignorant, uneducated fishermen and used them to turn the entire Roman world upside down. No one saw that coming!
5. We must not put limitations on what God can do through us. Only God knows our true potential. Our job is to be available and obedient!
6. Second, only God knows...
II. WHAT’S IN OUR HEARTS
A. MAN’S FAULTY VIEW
1. Other people judge us when they don't really know us. They judge from incomplete information or from outward appearance.
2. Many people try to put on a good appearance, but they're not what they seem. We think we know ourselves -- but in many ways we don’t; we have blind spots, we don't see our darker side. Jer. 17:9, God says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"
3. JOKE:
a. While at work, a man called home to talk to his college-student wife, forgetting momentarily that she would be at a class. After leaving a message on her voicemail, he closed with his customary, "I love you."
b. As he hung up, he was startled by a co-worker who is standing in the doorway and had overheard his voicemail message. With a look of contempt she said, "Your wife is holding on line one!"
c. She had judged the situation wrong, thinking he was cheating on his wife, but he wasn't. Aren't you glad that God knows the truth?
B. GOD’S PERFECT APPRAISAL
1. "But God knows your hearts" Luke 16:15(Acts 15:8). “For He knows the secrets of the heart” Ps. 44:21, NKJV.
2. 1 Sam. 16:7; God said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance [David’s brother] or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. MAN looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
3. God sees us for who we really are. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows about our physical bodies, how we’re formed; he knows about our spiritual heritage, the faith that preceded us in our families all the way back; the formation of our thinking processes and how we judge things.
4. And the most amazing thing is that God loves us just like we are! Despite our many defects and failings, God loves us and wants to redeem us so that we can live forever with him in heaven!
5. THIRDLY, GOD KNOWS...
III. OUR FUTURE: ‘WHAT WE SHALL BE’
A. OUR LIMITED VIEW OF THE THIS LIFE
1. John said, “Beloved, now are we the children of God; and it has not yet appeared what we shall be, but we know that when we see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” 1 John 3:2.
2. We are ignorant of what will happen at the rapture/resurrection. We are completely content with our "worm" bodies (David said, "I am a worm and not a man" Ps. 22:6).
3. This "worm" body is so gross and limited. Once we become transformed, like butterflies, we will be amazed that we ever wanted to remain worms; it will seem so base and primitive.
B. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE RESURRECTION BODY
1. Paul compared our current bodies to "seeds" and our future bodies as the full-grown wheat or corn plants.
2. “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. “first …the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man…of the dust, the second man from heaven. Mortal...shall put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:42-53.
3. How great it's going to be to never get old; to never be sick, no more troubles, separations, no more time, no more nights were darkness, but only joy and happiness!
4. HUMOR: CREATED BY GOD
a. A little girl was visiting over at grandma's house. She crawled up into her lap and said "Grandma, did God make you?" She said "Yes, dear, God created me a long time ago."
b. She said, "Did God make me, too?" Grandma said, "Yes, my dear, God created you a little while ago."
c. The girl thought about it for a moment and said, "God's gotten a lot better at it, hasn't He?"
5. Lastly, GOD KNOWS...
IV. THE LIMITS OF OUR TESTING/ TEMPTING CAPACITY
A. IMPOSSIBLE CHALLENGES
1. Paul said, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And GOD IS FAITHFUL; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” 1 Cor. 10:13.
2. None of us know how much we can stand, but God does. Many times I’ve felt like a drowning man, sinking beneath the waves and being overwhelmed. But GOD HAS NEVER FAILED ME and I know He’s never failed you either!
3. ILLUS. THE VICIOUS DOG
a. I’m reminded of the true story, when Steve Taylor was a boy, of how he rode his bike past a neighbor’s house who had a fierce dog. The dog would run along by his bike and try to bite his feet.
b. So Steve would put his feet up on his handle bars. The dog’s owner saw this & called him back. “Are you afraid this dog will bite you?” “Yes!” He laughed and pulled the dog’s mouth open to show the dog didn’t have one tooth!
c. Our Adversary the Devil may threaten and bark at us, but aren’t you glad that at Calvary, Jesus defeated him and pulled all his teeth out?! In this world he can persecute us, but as to eternity & our souls – we are kept safe in our Father’s hands. And no one can take us out of His hands! John 10:29.
B. GOD IS FAITHFUL!
1. Joshua 23:14, “You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.” (21:45; 1 Kg. 8:56)
2. Jeremiah, who suffered much, said, “But this I call to mind...The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21–23).
3. Someone has said, “Like a canopy of stars, the promises of God shine brighter as the sky gets blacker.”
4. Excerpt FROM JOHN WESLEY’S DIARY
a. Sunday, A.M., May 5, “Preached in St. Anne’s. Was asked not to come back anymore.”
b. Sunday, P.M., May 5, “Preached in St. John’s. Deacons said “Get out and stay out.”
c. Sunday, A.M., May 12, “Preached in St. Jude’s. Can’t go back there, either.”
d. Sunday, A.M., May 19, “Preached in St. Somebody Else’s. Deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return.”
e. Sunday, P.M., May 19, “Preached on street. Kicked off street.”
f. Sunday, A.M., May 26, “Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow as bull was turned loose during service.”
g. Sunday, A.M., June 2, “Preached out at the edge of town. Kicked off the highway.”
h. Sunday, P.M., June 2, “Afternoon, preached in a pasture. Ten thousand people came out to hear me.” [https://bible.org/illustration/diary-john-wesley]
5. God doesn’t give you trials to “break you,” but to “make you” into the image of Jesus. You’re either walking into a trial or coming out of one. Aren’t you glad that...
a. "Greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world" 1 Jn. 4:4.
b. "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper" Isa. 54:17.
c. “The battle is not yours, but God's!" 2 Chron. 20:15.
d. "It's not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts" Zechariah 4:6.
e. "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us!" Rom. 8:37.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUS.: POLICE SAVED THE CHRISTIANS BY ARRESTING THEM
1. A musical team from a church in India traveled to Tikapur, Nepal, to attend a church conference in October, the Indian Mission’s Association reported.
2. Hours before they were scheduled to return to India, police arrested the team leader and confiscated their van. Several officers then used the van for a personal trip to Dhan Khadi, 150 miles away.
3. Robbers attacked the van as it traveled through a forest. The robbers expected the van to be full of Christians and were planning to kill them and take their equipment, but police jumped out of the van and shot at the robbers, forcing them to flee.
4. “Praise be to God who saved our lives,” said the Indian pastor. When he told the Tikapur police chief that God used their arrest to protect the Christians, the chief agreed that the team was blessed and decided to release them.
5. The pastor then preached to the police chief and other officers at the police station and prayed with them, the IMA reported. [Owen Bourgaize]
B. THE CALL
1. Sometimes our deliverance looks the opposite. But God knows what He’s doing! Trust Him and do not look on the surface; God is working for your good.
2. How many of you are going through a trial? Do you need wisdom to respond correctly? Strength? Endurance? Joy in sorrows?
3. LET’S PRAY
