Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, cc Midweek. How is everybody? Thank you so much.
[00:00:04] I am super excited to hang out with all you amazing, wonderful, awesome people. Everybody have a good summer?
[00:00:12] Yes.
[00:00:13] Maybe.
[00:00:14] Little bit, possibly.
[00:00:18] Sun is still shining, you guys. It's still August. Come on. There's still more to go. All right. Let me pray for us. Dear father, you are so incredibly awesome, and I am just over overwhelmingly thankful for who you are. I thank you for this night. I thank you for each and every heart here. I pray for all of us that you would speak your good word to us tonight. I pray that the reality of who you are and who you've called us to be in Christ would shine vibrantly in our minds and our hearts and our thoughts and our choices and in our souls. Help guide us. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:00:50] So I've always loved puzzles. Any puzzle lovers here? Okay.
[00:00:54] I love, like, the thousand piece ones, but recently we've been doing word puzzles. Anybody like word Pu.
[00:01:01] Wordle. I know I'm a little bit behind the curve here, but my daughter and I have been doing a lot of wordle together, and it's kind of a competition every day. Like, who's gonna get the word first, who's gonna get it in the least amount of guesses.
[00:01:14] We do wordle, and then we do all the other, like, connection strands. Have you played any of these yet?
[00:01:20] I love them when I can figure it out. And I think they're absolutely stupid when I can't figure them out. But what I love about them is you can, like, look at it and. And not see anything. Like, it makes no sense. And then you keep looking at it. You keep looking at it, you guess, you try, and you start to see it from a different angle, a different perception, and all of a sudden you start piecing it together. And connections is the one that messes me up. So here's how connections works. You have 16 words, and of these 16 words, you have to create four categories of four words. But you have no hints. You just have to figure out which four words go together.
[00:01:59] And sometimes they like to be tricky, and you're like, oh, obviously these go together, but they don't. They're just messing with you. And they do it on purpose. It's like a red herring. I get all fired up, guys. I get real serious about this. I love it and I hate it, and I love it when it works, and I get frustrated when it does it and annoyed. And sometimes I feel the same way about life. Like, I love life when it all comes together and Makes sense. It feels great. It feels awesome. I get frustrated and annoyed when it doesn't.
[00:02:27] I love life when it's, like, cruising along and things are going the way I want them to go and everything's working in the right direction. And I get frustrated when things aren't working out and I can't make sense of it. And I'm trying all the pieces, but they're not fitting together and I'm missing something.
[00:02:45] And I think for so many of us in this life, we're trying to do this. We're trying to, like, piece and puzzle our life together. And we feel like we have one piece, but may maybe we're missing another piece or we've been looking at it for this way for so long, but we're missing this other section, and we're trying to find that thing that we're trying to put in there to make it all make sense. And maybe for some of us, we're trying to find meaning in something or purpose in something. Some of us are trying to look for a connection, like if I just had a connection with somebody else, then it would all come together. Or some of us have really hard questions that life has kind of created for us, and we. We can't find the answer.
[00:03:23] Some of us are searching for meaning, like, what am I supposed to do? Who am I supposed to be? Where am I supposed to go next?
[00:03:31] And we're trying to puzzle our way through life, figuring it out.
[00:03:36] And we look in all different directions, right? Sometimes we think our friends can help us. Maybe they've been there before or they feel like they've got a more solid feel on things.
[00:03:46] School, family, social media. Who of us hasn't Googled a question before? And we're like, come on, Google AI got me here, right? Like, tell me what to do.
[00:03:57] Did that today.
[00:03:59] Something got deleted on my computer, and we're like, how do I recover what got deleted on my computer? Turns out it was useless. It was permanently deleted. But that's okay. All of us are searching and we're looking and we're trying to piece this all together and we're trying to figure out, how do I do that? Well, and so today I want to turn this around a little bit because I think sometimes we look at things a certain way for so long that we miss. Sometimes there's a better way of looking at it, a different way of looking at it that puts us on a different path. And we're going to look at the Psalms to help us. I've been reading the Psalms this summer. And it's just been so good for my heart and my soul and thinking about God and praying with God. And in Psalm 139, David is talking to God, and he just is talking about, like, wow, I'm just kind of amazed, God, about how much you know about me, like, from beginning to end. And no matter where I am, you're with me and you know me, and you knit me together and you made me in such an amazing way. And he is thinking about, like, when God thinks about us, like how precious God's thoughts are towards us.
[00:05:07] And then we come to the end of the chapter, and this is what David says to God in Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24.
[00:05:15] He says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
[00:05:21] Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
[00:05:28] So I love this. Cause David kind of turns the idea around of us. Like, we always think about, like, I'm searching for God, right? Like, I'm looking for God and I'm searching for meaning. And David turns this around and he says, God, I'm inviting you to search me.
[00:05:45] I'm inviting you to look at me and know me better.
[00:05:50] So instead of going on this journey to find God and search for meaning and getting to know him better, David says to God, God, I want to be known by you. I want you to be part of my life in the kind of way that you look at my heart, you look at my thoughts, you show me the right way to go.
[00:06:08] Now I find this interesting and intimidating all at the same time.
[00:06:13] Like, I'm not looking in myself, trying to find meaning somewhere in me.
[00:06:18] David saying, God, I'm asking you to search me so that I can be known by you.
[00:06:25] Isn't it a cool idea? Like, what does it look like to be known by God?
[00:06:30] So I want to break this down a little bit and look at some of the ideas here and kind of challenge us with this. So the first thing David says is, he says, search me and know my heart. And the idea for search here is like, examine, investigate, like if you've ever seen, like, a dig. And the anthropologists are, like, digging and they're investigating and they're pulling layers of dirt to find, like, bones and artifacts and discover something. And they go deeper, and they go deeper, and they go deeper to see what's going on. It kind of has that weight. Like, God, I want you to go deeper and keep pulling away the outer Layers and get to know me better. I want you to investigate and examine.
[00:07:09] But it has a more personal connotation to it. It's not just digging to get facts. It's going deeper, investigating with the goal of knowing in a personal relationship.
[00:07:25] So what David is saying to God is, God, I want you to just dig into my life and get to know me and know my heart.
[00:07:33] And, you know, when you think about, like, your heart and when we talk about heart, like, it's the seat of your emotions, right? Like, all the things you feel.
[00:07:41] And it's also the seat of, like, your longings and desires and what you most hope for and want.
[00:07:47] And David is saying, this is the part of me that I want you to know. I want you to know the innermost parts of my heart and what I truly am longing for in life. I want you to know all of my emotions.
[00:08:01] Now, this is a very vulnerable expression. Cause I think for many of us, we have parts of ourselves that we're, like, really happy to let God know. We have parts of ourselves that we're happy to let other people know, right? We call it a church phase. Like, this is my church phase. I show up and I'm a certain kind of way, and you can know this part of me. But then there's other parts of us that we're like, yeah, not there. That's far enough. You've gone too far. Right? This is my private space. You can't be part of that. I think there are part of ourselves that we're like, you can know this, but you can't know this.
[00:08:34] There are things that we want that we're happy to share and talk about, and longings that we think are noble and right. And we talk about those and we share those.
[00:08:44] And then there's other wants that we keep hidden and we don't talk about.
[00:08:50] And we think God can't go there.
[00:08:53] And the same's true for emotions, right? Like, we have emotions we think are good emotions and emotions we label as bad emotions. And we think, it's okay, I can share this part with God, but not this. It needs to be held back.
[00:09:05] But when you read what David is saying here, and when you read the entirety of the Psalms, that is not what David does with God.
[00:09:14] You can actually read through. It's funny because in this chapter, before you get to these verses, David's like, yes. Side note, God, like, this is all great, but there's some really wicked people. Can we just be done with them now? Like, I love that so much because Sometimes I feel bad, like when I'm thinking these thoughts about wicked people. But David's like, God, let's just be done with them, get rid of them, and then let's move on. That's a real emotion that David shares with God. And he doesn't try to, like, sugarcoat it or hold it back. He shares his pain, he shares his anger, he shares his disappointment. He shares his joy, his hopes, his longings, his frustrations, his worries, his fears. The whole gambit of the emotions. And you can see them when you read through the book of Psalms.
[00:09:59] And what I find is interesting about this is when you really get to know somebody, getting to know somebody is opening up yourself to be known by them. And it's not just a piece of yourself, and it's not just compartmentalizing or holding back. It's an invitation to be known as a whole.
[00:10:17] And that's what God wants to know us.
[00:10:21] Not just pieces that we find acceptable or pieces that we feel like, fit a certain mold, but all of us.
[00:10:29] And I think sometimes we confuse the goal of the Christian life. We think the goal of the Christian life is I do good things, and if my good things outweigh my bad things, then God's gonna love me and God's gonna be with me, and God's gonna bless me, and good things are gonna happen, and we miss. The goal of the Christian life isn't just being a good person or putting on a false facade identity one or two days a week. It's actually being in a relationship with God where he knows all about us, everything, top to bottom, inside and out.
[00:11:01] And our whole lives are open in this relationship to him.
[00:11:07] But David doesn't just say, search me. He goes on and he says, test me and know my anxious thoughts. And this test kind of goes along the same stream as the search, but it comes from more of a, like, make me see something that I can't see. Scrutinize, look up close, right? Like when you put something under a magnifying glass, you can see more clarity and more detail and get more perspective on it. But again, the goal of looking this deep is relational.
[00:11:36] It's getting to know, be known by God. Not just our hearts, but our minds, our thoughts, our worries, all the random things going on up there. I know we always joke around, like, if you could have one superpower, what would it be? And somebody's like, I wish I could read other people's thoughts. And I'm like, I am really glad that is not a power that exists.
[00:11:57] Because Number one, I love you, but I don't need to know what's going on up there, and I don't think you need to. What's going on in this crazy little bumbling mind of mine, right? Like, we all have all these things racing through my mind. Random things, good things, bad things, Great thoughts, terrible thoughts that should never see the light of day. And David is saying, God, not just my heart, but my mind. I want you to look through and dig in and investigate there. Go through all of this. And when you do, man, David, he just keeps going further. Can we just be comfortable for 30 seconds? David's like, no, don't just search me. Don't just test me. Once you dig and you investigate and you examine and you bring it up to light, I want you to show me the things that are offensive to you. I want you to point out to me the things that shouldn't be there.
[00:12:48] I want you to show me and help me see and give attention to what shouldn't be there. What's offensive, what isn't. Right.
[00:12:58] Have you ever thought you knew how to do something and only just doing it figured out you really don't?
[00:13:05] Years and years ago, we were on a project for a mission trip, and we had to do some drywall. Hello, my name is Katie Brown. I've never worked with drywall before.
[00:13:13] Don't know why. I was given this project, and we had. We were working on an inside house, and we had a wall that we had to patch, and we measured it. We had the drywall. So I'm like, great. I have this little drywall saw. I've got it measured. I've got how much I need, and I start sawing through the drywall to cut it, and it's messy. And my line starts here, and it goes here, this way. It's, like, real crooked. I didn't come out with a square. I came out with, like, a piece that looked like this. And I've got drywall dust everywhere. It's a complete mess. And one of my friends, God bless him, he came and he's like, what you doing? I'm, like, cutting drywall, obviously, like, we're gonna patch this. And he's like, can I show you something? And he took a fresh piece of drywall because clearly, mine was disaster.
[00:13:55] He took it, pulled out one of those straight razor blades, and he measured it. Went down the line on one side, flipped it, went down the other side, cracked it, and gave it back to me. I was like, okay. Didn't know that was a Thing or possible. See, I'm doing it, working my tail off. It's messy, it's a cluster, it's taking forever. It's not working.
[00:14:15] Somebody who was smarter than I am showed up and showed me a better, cleaner, right way to do things.
[00:14:23] And the same things happen in life. We're going along and we're hacking away at life, thinking we're doing the right thing and we're just making a mess and it's not coming out the way we want it to, but we're trying.
[00:14:35] And I'm a double down person. You know what that didn't try. I will try harder, right? Like I will triple down on this to make it work.
[00:14:43] But what we really need isn't to do more of what isn't working. We need somebody smart, smarter than us, who has a better knowledge to show us a better way.
[00:14:52] And what David understands that he wants us to understand is that's our relationship to God.
[00:14:58] Where life is messy and not working.
[00:15:01] The invitation is, God, could you know me in the kind of way that you could show me a better way that I cannot see on my own?
[00:15:09] Could you point out where I'm getting it wrong?
[00:15:12] Could you point out where I'm doing things that aren't working? And doing more of them is only going to make bigger mess. It's only going to make me more tired and more exhausted and more grouchy or more frustrated.
[00:15:25] See, all of us need to be shown a better way.
[00:15:28] And when we really understand who God is, nobody wants more for us than God wants for you and I.
[00:15:35] Nobody has more of a good direction in him to show us than God has for us.
[00:15:43] See, here's the reality. And when we're being honest, when we put aside like the fake and the false and the not real and the disingenuous and who we are trying to fight so hard to convince everybody. All of us have things in us that are not good.
[00:15:57] All of us do.
[00:16:00] It doesn't matter if you have never met Jesus before. It doesn't matter if you've known Jesus for 40 years. All of us have things inside of us that aren't good, that aren't working, that aren't healthy. Not everything in me should be in me.
[00:16:16] And what I need is God to show me a better way.
[00:16:22] And so David is giving us a path to invite God to know us, to show us this better way, to root around in our thoughts and our minds and our hearts and our emotions and our longings and our desires and our feelings and say, God when you really get to know what's going on in me, could you please bring to light the things that aren't working and just making a mess.
[00:16:47] For healthy things to grow, the junk has to get out of the way first. I'm a terrible plant owner, but I have two plants that I have been trying desperately to keep alive for about six years now.
[00:16:59] Don't judge me. They're still alive. They might not look fabulous, and they're not going to be on the COVID of any magazine anytime soon, but they are still alive. And one of the basic things I know is when there's a dead leaf, you got to pull off the dead leaf so that more healthy things can grow. And the same is true in our life. For our hearts and our minds to be healthy, for our souls to truly go grow, the junk has to get out of the way.
[00:17:24] We've got to get rid of the unhealthy dead things that are holding us back so the light of Jesus Christ can grow in you and I.
[00:17:35] And what David is showing us is, David says, God, I want you to be part of this process.
[00:17:40] And he's inviting us to do the same thing, to say, I can't do this on my own. When I try, I might think I'm doing a good job and I might know I'm making a mess, but I cannot do this on my own.
[00:17:54] And what I also love is David isn't saying, like, here's the 10 steps I have to follow to be a good person to get my act together. Then God will help me, and then he'll show me a better way. David comes right as he is and says, God, help God know me. Search me, show me a better way.
[00:18:11] The invitation of the gospel isn't, clean up your act and then go hang out with God and talk to him.
[00:18:16] The invitation is right in the middle of our mess. Christ already shows us how. He steps in and makes it better and right where we are, just as we are. We ask God for help.
[00:18:29] It's a full awareness of, I can't do this without you.
[00:18:34] I can't always see where I'm getting it wrong. But when I'm known by God, please hear this.
[00:18:42] There's nobody who loves you more.
[00:18:45] There's nobody who is more for you and your success and your future and your hope and wants greater good in your life than God wants for you.
[00:18:56] See, when God shows up and we invite him to be part of the process and he's showing us what's going on, it's all for Our good, it's all for our growth. It's not done in a mean spirit where it's like, I knew you were a terrible person.
[00:19:10] I'm so disappointed.
[00:19:12] It's not done in a, like, picking on us to say, like, these are superior people. You are clearly inferior. Now, don't you feel bad.
[00:19:20] That's not how God treats us. He's not trying to make life harder just to mess with humanity at his own joke.
[00:19:30] That's not how God works. He cares for my heart and for yours. He cares for the quality of your soul and the future that he is creating in you.
[00:19:44] His goal for you and for me is that we would grow with him, that we would follow him, that he can cultivate that within us, which will thrive and be healthy and grow.
[00:20:00] But here's my question for all of us.
[00:20:03] When's the last time we just honestly said to God, God, I want you to know me, all of me?
[00:20:11] When's the last time we just said, God, I want you to be part of my life. I want you to root around in my mind and tell me where my thoughts aren't healthy. I want you to root around in my heart and tell me where I'm getting my feelings and my longings wrong. God, I want you to root around in my choices and my actions and show me where I'm not getting it right and show me a better way.
[00:20:32] Because I fear most of us aren't saying, God, know me, search me, test me. We're hiding from God.
[00:20:41] We're hiding from who he's calling us to be. And we hide behind a lot of things. I think the easiest one is busyness. But I'm so busy, I have to be here and do this and go there and do this, and school and work and family and sports. And there's all these things that have requirements on my time. And I'm so busy, I'll do that later. And we hide behind busyness as a mask to really go deeper in our faith and the relationship with God.
[00:21:08] Some of us are just hiding behind bad choices that we've rationalized into being good.
[00:21:13] It's very easy to talk ourselves into doing that which we know we should not do.
[00:21:19] Have you ever tried to quit something before?
[00:21:22] Anything? A habit, like, maybe I want to eat better this year, or I'm going to exercise, or maybe I'm going to quit drinking or I'm going to quit smoking or vaping or whatever. The thing is, okay, anytime you pick something, something that you're gonna quit, there's Always an excuse why it's okay. Here's what happens. You quit.
[00:21:39] You start out like, yeah, this kind of sucks, but I think I can do it. And then something bad happens.
[00:21:44] Here's life. Something bad always happens. And then in our mind, we start saying, well, why should I have to quit now? This is terrible. Clearly, if there was ever a reason for me to have this habit that makes me feel better, now is when I need it most.
[00:21:58] And we talk ourselves into, well, nobody would accept, expect me to have to quit right now when this terrible thing is happening.
[00:22:07] This is when I need it. And we hide behind things that we know aren't good for us, but we've talked ourselves into being okay and comfortable with.
[00:22:16] Some of us hide behind anger because we don't want to deal with the hurt.
[00:22:21] Some of us hide behind a fake identity because if anybody really saw us, like, if I really let God know me or somebody else really got to see behind the curtain, nobody would want to be around me.
[00:22:34] But all of these places, whatever we're using to mask it's hiding and what the tension is, which I think David wants us to feel a little bit, which is why he leads the whole chapter into this. Do you really think you can hide yourself from God?
[00:22:51] God who made you, God who knit you together in your mother's womb, God who created you for this life, this time, this purpose, and this generation. Do you really think that hiding is working?
[00:23:03] Are you getting out of it what you thought you would?
[00:23:07] Are you living the life you really want to live there? Or are you just feeling the pain, the worry, the tension, the fear, the anxiety that comes along with it, and it's rotting you from the inside out, hiding, hiding, hiding.
[00:23:24] God doesn't want us hiding from him. The truth is he already knows us.
[00:23:30] But this invitation to be known by him is an invitation to do life with Him. That's the goal of knowing anyone, right? Relationship, doing life together.
[00:23:43] And you can't really do life with somebody if you don't trust them.
[00:23:47] You can't really do life somebody when you don't really know them. Have you ever, like, hung out with somebody and like, all of a sudden out of know, you're like, oh, my gosh, who are you?
[00:23:57] That's not who I thought you were at all. Or somebody thought you were a certain way, and then they got to really know you and you're like. They're like, wow, I really had, like, a misconception. You're so different than I thought you were.
[00:24:10] What if the fear and the Anxiety that I have wrapped in and really being known by God. Like, maybe it's the fear of, like, good and bad and right and wrong and evil, sin, all of these things. What if I've really missed out on knowing who God is because I've let that be the thing that I hide behind?
[00:24:30] What if that wasn't the point?
[00:24:33] What if the point is that there is a God who is in control?
[00:24:37] He is mighty, holy and good. This whole universe he holds in his righteous right hand.
[00:24:44] The one who holds it all together wants to know me, wants to do life with me. Like, who in the world am I that God would even be mindful of me? Who am I that God would even be interested in my life, my thoughts, my heart? But the God of the universe loves us so much. He sent Christ into this world that we might know him and that we might not be separated by a vast difference between a holy, just God and a messy me.
[00:25:20] And through Christ, we have access to know God in a way we never could. And he loves us so much that Christ came into this world that we might be saved and known by him, that none of us would ever have to doubt just how loved and valued and seen we truly are.
[00:25:41] Really, the heart of the gospel is how much God loves us.
[00:25:46] The heart of the gospel isn't do the right things and don't do the bad things. Because then I'm still in control.
[00:25:52] I'm in control saying, God, I did the right thing. Now you have to bless me. The heart of the gospel is I can't do enough right things to get myself to God.
[00:26:01] So God, the creator of everything, stepped into my story, into this world, that we could have access to Him.
[00:26:11] The myth is that knowing God or being known by God is a scary thing that we have to hide. Because if God really knew us, he'd be angry at us. If God really knew me, if I really gave him access, then I'd have to give up all of this good stuff and my life would be miserable. If God really got to know me, I wouldn't get to be the person I want to be. The myth is that if I was really to give God access to me, life would be worse.
[00:26:39] But I'm telling you right now, that is a lie.
[00:26:42] And it robs you of the joy of living your very best life with the one who loves you more than anyone else.
[00:26:51] The strength and confidence that you need, it's not found in hiding from God, but doing life with God, the peace that you most long for in your inner being, Is is not found running away from God. But it's found when you invite God to know you.
[00:27:10] Cause the pressure is off.
[00:27:12] I don't have to convince anybody of anything if God says I'm worth it.
[00:27:16] I don't have to prove myself to anybody. Because God already said that I matter.
[00:27:22] I don't have to try to be somebody that I'm not. I don't have to fake that I'm some perfect person who gets it right all of the time. I can be honest and say, guys, I'm a mess.
[00:27:31] Aren't we all? Right? That takes the pressure off. And I don't have anything to prove. God already said I'm worth it in Jesus Christ. God already said I'm more than enough because of what Christ has done on my behalf.
[00:27:47] That's an awesome thing. That's the God that we get to open up our hearts to and invite into our lives the one who already gave it all.
[00:27:58] The one who already knows you.
[00:28:01] The one who created you and wants what's best for your life and your future.
[00:28:08] And David says, so here he goes. Lead me on the path everlasting. Lead me along the path of everlasting life. See, when God is leading, the path I'm following is always gonna lead for my good. Doesn't mean it's gonna be easy.
[00:28:23] It doesn't mean it won't have bumps and twists and turns and curves and divots and big old potholes that bump me up along.
[00:28:31] But it is always meant for my good. Not just in this life, but in the life to come. We were created to be known by God.
[00:28:44] And the truth is, what my heart most needs is a relationship with Him.
[00:28:50] See, a lot of us have tried a lot of things to make our heart feel better. To make our insecurities feel better. To make our worries go away.
[00:28:59] To make that tension we feel in our own skin. Some days, like, I just don't want to be me.
[00:29:04] What I most need is a relationship with God where I am known fully and loved by Him.
[00:29:14] The question is, am I letting God lead me?
[00:29:18] Am I letting God guide me and show me the way to go When I'm searching for the meaning and the purpose of my life? Am I trying to do that in my own accomplishments and what I can do and what I've already done and what people think about me? Or am I finding that in connection to Jesus Christ?
[00:29:38] I think for some of us, maybe it's just time to start letting God lead in our life.
[00:29:46] To just say to God, I've been trying to do this on my own for way too long. Turns out I'm making a mess.
[00:29:53] Turns out what I'm doing isn't working. And it's not getting me where I want to be. I don't feel better not doing better. Life isn't better here.
[00:30:01] Maybe it's time to admit I have been hiding.
[00:30:05] Maybe it's time to admit I've been lying to myself. I've been avoiding this, or I've been trying to stay away from that. And maybe for some of us, the first step is a conversation with God that says something like this. God, I want you to search me and know me.
[00:30:19] I want you to show me what's in me that shouldn't be and show me the way that I go.
[00:30:26] Maybe the first step for a lot of us is just opening up our heart to God and letting him lead us along a new path forward.
[00:30:36] Maybe for some of us, we've made that step.
[00:30:38] But life got messy. Life got hard, Life got scary. Life got busy. Life got confusing.
[00:30:46] And we got off the path somehow. And the way that we thought we were gonna go, that was gonna be better, didn't really get us there.
[00:30:54] And we got off. And we need to say to God, God, could you get me back on the path of life everlasting?
[00:31:00] Could you get me back on the path and get me right on the direction of where you're calling me to be?
[00:31:06] And maybe for those of us we need to say to God, this hasn't been working.
[00:31:11] I need you to show me the way back to you. I lost my way. I tried this. I thought it was good. It didn't work.
[00:31:20] Help me find my way back to you.
[00:31:23] And I think for all of us, whether God is leading us for the first time or God is leading us back when we open up our hearts to him, when we invite him to know us and be part of our life. I promise.
[00:31:37] I promise.
[00:31:39] You're not gonna find a God who's disappointed in you.
[00:31:43] You're not gonna find a God who is angry and ready to shame you.
[00:31:47] But you're gonna meet a God who has more love and grace and forgiveness than I ever could have imagined.
[00:31:54] You're gonna meet a God who already loves you right now with an uncritical, satisfied love.
[00:32:03] That's the God that we're inviting to know us, to do life with us.
[00:32:09] I was driving home from Virginia Beach a couple weeks ago and took me a way that I never usually went. Because usually when you're in south, you get to 77 North. You head up and you get home. But it took us actually through Maryland, west through Pennsylvania, into Ohio. So I was very unfamiliar with where we were. Didn't know the roads, didn't know the path. And of course, thunderstorms.
[00:32:30] Hate driving in thunderstorms. Anyone so stressful. I'm on a highway. It's me and my two kids, and the storms come in. We've got flash flood warnings coming on the phone and all these things.
[00:32:42] Really scary and stressful. And then in one of these waves. It was probably the worst storm I've ever driven through in my entire life. I couldn't see anything. And we're out on a highway. It's the mountains. There's, like, big hills, big cutoffs, nowhere to go. Like, I couldn't even stop if I wanted to because I'm not even sure I could find the exit. The wind was blowing. My wipers are going as fast as they can. The only thing I can see in front of me is the flash of the lights of the people who put their hazards on. Like, I can't see the lane, I can't see the road. I can't see the cutoff. And I was literally pleading with God, like, God, please, you have to get me through to the other side. Like, I can't do this on my own. I'm, like, trying to, like, play it cool because my kids are in the car. And, like, for a while, they're, like, kind of nonchalant, but then it's kind of hard to avoid, like, how intense the storm is. My hands are shaking like this. I'm trying to keep them on the steering wheel. Like, it's fine. It's no problem, dear Jesus, but please see me through to the other side, okay? And thank God he did. He got me home. But, you know, I had this map telling me where to go, and I had this map telling me where the road was and which way to go and what to do. And I had these little blinking lights in front of me, so I at least knew I wasn't going to go in a ditch. I at least knew I wasn't going to go off a hill and, God forbid, get into a terrible crash.
[00:34:02] And it was terrifying. But God led me through and got me home. We crossed out of the storm into the light. And you could see it. You could see the sun up ahead. I'm like, okay, we just gotta get to the sun. We just gotta get. And then you could see behind you in the mirror, like, the dark and the gray. It was so crazy. The difference.
[00:34:21] So we got through because we had this direction and this path to follow.
[00:34:27] I think some of us are lost in that storm right now, and we need God to get us back on the path to follow Him.
[00:34:33] I think some of us have had really bad storms blow in, and it scared the crap out of us. And we got lost in the wind, and we got lost in the confusion, and we got lost in all the things that were going on. But God is still there, leading us in the way that we should go. And he's got little lights blinking along the way, and maybe it's a person, or maybe it's coming to church, or maybe it's a scripture that you read, or it's a moment where your heart might just be open to saying, God, would you lead me back to you?
[00:35:07] You have a God who loves you, who's with you, who knows you, who cares for you. He's willing to show you the way to go.
[00:35:16] I promise.
[00:35:18] He wants to get you clear to the other side.
[00:35:21] He's not gonna leave you in the midst of the storm. He's gonna see you all the way through.
[00:35:27] Maybe the best choice we could make today is just like David saying to God, I want to be known by you.
[00:35:34] I want to do this life with you.
[00:35:37] There's no better time than today to just invite God in, to be known by our faithful, loving God and let him lead you in the way that you should go.
[00:35:50] Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us. I pray for myself and I pray for every heart here. I pray that we would not hide. I pray that worry and fear and confusion and bad choices or bad advice would not stand in the way of us fully being known by you.
[00:36:06] I pray for all of us here, Father, that we would open up our hearts and say, search me and know me. Know my heart, know my thoughts, know my choices.
[00:36:16] Show me a better way.
[00:36:18] I pray that we would not hide. I pray that we would not run, but we would step forward in faith with you tonight and be known by you. I pray that you would get us back on the path to everlasting life. I pray, Father, that you would hear the cries of our hearts.
[00:36:34] I pray where our longings, our fears have gone the wrong way. That your voice of truth and faith and courage and hope would speak louder than any doubt. I pray, Father, that we would be known by you in the kind of way that gives us confidence, strength and hope, that gives us a sense of direction and peace in who you've called and created us to be helpless I pray in Jesus name, amen.
