Search Me Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

› Engagement

This week as we continue our series on Dangerous Prayers we’re going to look at a prayer that is not only dangerous - it’s kind of crazy, too.

I want you to imagine for a moment that you’re David. God calls you a man after His heart, but you’re also an immensely prideful person who is guilty of causing thousands of deaths because you trusted in your army instead of God. You committed adultery, a murder and a cover-up of that murder. It seems to me that the very last thing you would pray to God is “Search me”. That seems like a prayer that would be both dangerous and crazy. Would you really want God to look at every detail of your life, under every nook and cranny, in every closet? Wouldn’t you rather just keep your secrets hidden away?

› Tension

Now I want you to think about your own life. Is that a prayer that you’re willing to pray? Are you willing to open your life up to God’s scrutiny and allow Him to uncover your deepest darkest secrets?

› Truth

We began our series last week by defining dangerous prayer:

Dangerous prayers ask God to bless us by first breaking us.

That is undoubtedly true of the prayer we will look at today - Search me.

Go ahead and turn with me to Psalm 139. Although I’ll be referring to other parts of this Psalm this morning, we’re just going to focus on the last two verses. Would you read these verses out loud with me:

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!

24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Before we look at this prayer in more detail, let me begin by telling you why we need to pray this prayer:

I need to pray “Search me” because I have blind spots

For the most part, most of us are very good at seeing the sin in the lives of others, but we’re not nearly as good at spotting the sin in our own lives. That is because we all have blind spots.

› Application

There are actually four different elements of this prayer to “search me”. And each element of the prayer is useful in helping us to identify those blind spots and, with God’s help, do something about them.

FOUR ELEMENTS OF PRAYING FOR GOD TO “SEARCH ME”

• Search my heart

Why do you think David would ask God to search his heart? After all, in the very first verse in this Psalm, David acknowledges that God has already searched him and much of the Psalm is spent focusing on the fact that God already knows David’s heart. So David is not asking God to search his heart for God’s benefit, but rather for his own.

It’s one thing to know and even acknowledge that God knows everything about me. It’s another thing altogether to ask God to bring those things to my attention. That is why this is a dangerous prayer. We’re asking God to reveal to us some things that frankly we’d rather not see.

So what exactly is David asking here? In the Old Testament, the word translated “heart” is used to describe a person’s inner being. It is the seat of our mind, will, and emotions. So David is asking God to go beneath the surface and to dig deep inside his life.

The verb “search” is a military term that described scouting out enemy territory. It is used to describe digging for the truth. Here it is used to ask God to open up the recesses of my heart and reveal the secret stuff that is hiding there.

I know what some of you are probably thinking right now. “Why should I ask God to search my heart? I’ve got a good heart. In fact, people often tell me that I have a good heart”. If you’re thinking that, then let me tell you what the Bible says about your heart:

Go ahead and read this verse out loud with me:

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

You might think you have a good heart, but God says that your heart is deceitful - that is why we all have blind spots. And He also says that your heart is desperately sick. The adjective translated “sick” here literally means “incurable”. So that means you can’t find and remove those blind spots on your own. You need God to help you do that and the first step in that process is to identify those blind spots.