SPEAKER_00 0:00

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in behind and before you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit? Where could I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you're there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your rat your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. All your works are wonderful. I know this full well. 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, 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 precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I'm awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God, away from me, you bloodthirsty men. They speak of you with evil intent. Your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them. I count them my enemies. Search me, O Lord, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

unknown 2:20

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

This study surveyed over 3,000 American teenagers to try and take the temperature of their spirituality. In the year 2005, authors Christian Smith and Melinda Denton, they published a book called Soul Searching. And in this book, they summarized the findings of the national study of youth and religion and kind of commented on what the findings mean. And they labeled the spirituality of 2000's American teens in this way. They called it moralistic therapeutic deism. It was moralistic because American teens they generally thought they should be good. It was therapeutic because they generally thought that they should feel good about themselves. And it was deistic because they thought there's probably some kind of God out there somewhere. Moralistic therapeutic deism. Smith and Denton, they outlined a few tenets of MTD. And they said that these teenagers, they believe that God exists and he created the universe from afar. God generally wants the humans he created to be kind and fair to one another. The main goal of life is personal happiness. The only time God ever needs to be involved in someone's life is when they need someone, or need something, rather. And lastly, all good people go to heaven. These are some of the tenets of moralistic therapeutic deism. Now I know that all these teenagers surveyed over 21 years ago, 23 years ago. They're now in their late 30s and early 40s, but it seems like that research and it seems like that label of spirituality still is prevalent in our day-to-day, if not more so. The problem is it's a horrible worldview. And it's a horrible worldview because ultimately it's rooted in an incorrect understanding of who God is. This is why the famous theologian A.W. Tozer, he's quoted as saying: what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. If you start with a false understanding of God, nothing else will go well for you. You have to start with a proper understanding of who the one true God really is. And so the question this morning is this if we believe that God exists, which we do, and we believe the God who exists is the God of the Bible, which we do, and if we believe the God of the Bible is the one true God, which we do, then who is he really? Who is the one true God? That will be the aim of our Bible study this morning, is to answer that question. Now, to be fair, you can't fully know God this side of heaven. I can't fully know God this side of heaven, and we certainly can't fully know God in 30 minutes from one passage of scripture on a Sunday morning. But in our text today, Psalm 139, we learn a lot of key insights about some foundational characteristics of who the one true God really is. And so if you haven't already, turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 139, Psalm 139, and I'll meet you there in just a moment to answer the question: who is the one true God? Well, this morning we are continuing our sermon series, Songs of the Summer, looking at a different psalm each Sunday during the summer months. And this is a 13-week series, and today is week 12 out of 13. So we're nearing the end of our Songs of the Summer series. On Labor Day weekend in just a couple weeks, we will resume the Living Hope series through the books of 1 and 2 Peter. But I have enjoyed studying with you this summer the Hebrew hymn book, looking at a different psalm each Sunday. Today we're looking at Psalm 139. It's yet another Davidic Psalm. What we mean by that is it's yet another Psalm written by King David. It takes place here in a set of eight consecutive Davidic Psalms, beginning in Psalm 138 and ending in Psalm 145. These are eight consecutive Psalms written by King David. And speaking of Psalm 145, we're in 139 today. On our last Sunday in the series next week, we'll finish in Psalm 145. Psalm 139 is most well known and most famous for its pro-life statements and what Psalm 139 reveals about us when it comes to human value and human dignity. And we'll certainly get to those verses in a moment. But what you may not realize is the full scope of Psalm 139. All 24 verses reveal so much about God and who the one true God really is. And so this morning, from this text of scripture, we're able to answer the question: who is the one true God? And so if you're taking notes this morning, church, number one on your notes is this knows everything. The one true God knows everything. Look with me in verses one through six of Psalm 139. In verse 1, David talks about how God, you have searched me and you have known me. Now in English, verse 1, it looks, it looks very past tense. It kind of makes it sound like God did something once in the past and he's not presently doing those things. But really in the Hebrew, what David is trying to communicate is this idea of completion or completeness. God, you have completely searched me and you found everything. You completely know me. You know everything there is to know about me. David goes on in verses two through four to say that God knows my thoughts, God knows my actions, and God knows what I say. Verses two through four. In verse two, David says, God, you know my thoughts, and you know them from afar. I like that phrase. Even when my thoughts are off base, even when my thoughts are way out in left field, even when my thoughts are far off, God knows those thoughts too. He knows everything I think. God knows everything that I do. God, you know when I rise up, when I lay down, you know my way, you know my actions. In verse 3. But then in verse 4, David says, God not only knows everything I think, verse 2, everything I do, verse 3, but he also knows everything I say. And verse 4 says, God knows it even before you say it. No matter who you say it to, no matter what volume you use, what words you choose, what tone you employ, God knows everything that you say, and he knows it even before you say it. He knows your thoughts, he knows your actions, he knows your words, he knows everything about you. In verse 5, David says that God has laid his hand of guidance upon his life. And God is laying his hand of guidance upon your life. You see, here's the thing, church. If God knows everything which he does, that means God knows what is best. And God is laying his hand of guidance on your life. It's kind of like when someone asks you for directions and in an appropriate way you lay your hand on their shoulder or on their back and say, Hey, instead of me telling you, let me show you where that is. I'll take you there. God is laying his hand of guidance on your life and he's showing you where to go. In verse 6, David says, This kind of knowledge is unattainable. This exhaustive knowledge, not exhausting, but this exhaustive knowledge is unattainable for anyone other than the one true God. It makes me think of, verse six makes me think of Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 through 9, where Isaiah says that, God, your ways are higher than my ways, and your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. I don't know everything, you don't know everything, but we should be comforted by the reality that the one true God, He knows everything there is to know. On February 1st of 2018, there was an episode of Jeopardy that aired. And at this time, uh, Alex Trebek was still hosting Jeopardy, and one of the contestants on the show, uh, he was named Ryan Finster, and Ryan Finster was on a three-game winning streak. Okay, he'd won the previous three games of Jeopardy, and he was going for his fourth game. Uh he was trying to win his fourth game of Jeopardy. On February 1st, 2018, it was uh just a couple weeks before Super Bowl 52 when the Eagles beat the Patriots, and so they included this category called talking football. Ryan was avoiding that category because he didn't know anything about football. Up until this point, uh, audience viewers were thinking that Ryan Fenster just might know everything because every question that came up, they didn't know the answer to it, but Ryan knew the answer. But in this particular episode, Ryan was avoiding the section called Talking Football because he didn't want to talk football. He didn't know that Tom Landry coached the Cowboys. He didn't know what an offsetting penalty was, he didn't know what a fair catch was, he didn't know who the purple people eaters were, he didn't know anything about football. You can YouTube this for yourself later. But it seemed like this guy just might know everything until he was stumped, and his mortality was revealed when it came to the topic of football. Now, I'll tell you that story because the reality is that the one true God will never be stumped by any category, including football. There's nothing that stumps the God of the universe. There's nothing that stumps the one true God, he knows everything. Period, end of story. Now, theologians call God's knowledge of everything, they call it his omniscience. And when it comes to the omniscience of God, there's two things that God's omniscience means for you today. One, you should be comforted by God's omniscience, and secondly, you should be convicted by God's omniscience. You can be comforted by God's omniscience because you may not know what the future holds, but you know who holds the future. But likewise, you should be convicted by God's omniscience because that secret sin that you think you've hidden from everybody is not at all hidden from the God of the universe. And so when it comes to the omniscience of God, be comforted. Don't worry. God knows the future. But also be convicted. Stop pretending. God knows what's going on in your heart and in your mind, and he wants to help you overcome it if you'll ask for his help. The one true God, he knows everything, and his omniscience means something for you today. Hey, church number two on your notes is this. Number two, exists everywhere. We believe that the one true God, he exists everywhere. Look with me in verses 7 through 12 of Psalm 139. In verse 7, David asks a couple of rhetorical questions. He really asks the same question twice, but he asks it in a different way each time. And David is asking, is there anywhere that I can run from your presence, O God? And of course, the name the answer is no. There's nowhere that you can run from the presence of God, because the one true God, He exists everywhere. David goes on in verse eight to say that as high as the heavens are, God, you are there. Even in the depths of Sheol, God, you are there. Now when you look in verse eight and you see heaven and Sheol, I wouldn't read into those words and into this verse, the eternal resting place for the righteous or the eternal place of torment for the wicked. There's other scriptures that talk about those places. But I think what David is doing here in verse eight is talking in a very physical, literal sense. God, as high as I can physically conceive of in the universe, you are there. And as low as I can physically conceive of in the universe, you're there too. From the north to the south, so to speak, God is there. And then in verse nine, David says, From the wings of the morning to the darkness on the horizon, God, you're there too. In verse 9, the the wings of the horizon is most likely referring to the rising sun. And the darkness on the horizon is most likely referring to the west, where it's still dark because the sun is rising. And so if you put verses eight and nine together this morning, brothers and sisters, you'll see that from the north to the south, verse eight, and from the east to the west, verse nine, God is there. God exists everywhere. In verse 10, David says that God is holding me up with his right hand. Is God biased toward right-handed people? Can you be left-handed and still be a Christian? Well, of course. But when it comes to the right hand, the right hand is a symbol of power. And David is saying, God is so powerful that no matter where I go, his hand can reach me, and his hand can sustain me. And the same is true of you this morning. No matter where you go, God's hand can reach you, and God's hand can sustain you. In verse 11, David says that even in the darkness, God is there. And in verse 12, David says that the darkness is really not very dark to God. He can still see as if it is light. In verses 11 and 12, when David is talking about darkness, he's not necessarily talking about physical, literal darkness. What he is talking about is a dark night of the soul. In his darkest hour, in the midst of depression and grief and shame, God is there. And when David is blinded by grief and depression and shame, God is not. God can still see clearly, and God can still see the way out, and wants to leave David out of those dark nights of the soul, and lead David out of those darkest hours, if David will ask for God's help. And the same is true of you. In your darkest hour, in your dark nights of the soul, God is there with you. Not only does he physically and geographically exist everywhere, but he also exists in every moment, in every season of your life. He's present and he's there with you. The one true God exists everywhere. I remember a couple years ago, Hannah's older sister, Rachel, telling us a story. Hannah has one older sister, Rachel. I have two younger sisters, uh, Carly and Kayla. And at the same time, uh, Rachel and Carly moved to the Tampa Bay area independently of one another, and they were independently searching for a local church to attend. And so, as Rachel tells the story, Rachel visited a local church, a sister church. What I mean by that is a church very similar to First Baptist Leesburg. And she went in and she found her seat and she was standing worshiping the Lord. And when the worship set was over, she sat down and the lights came up and she looked to her right, and just a couple seats over with no one in between them was my sister Carly. And they had accidentally gone to church together. There's no accidents with the Lord, you know what I mean. They had accidentally gone to church together, and Rachel says, Carly, what are you doing here? And then Carly turns to her left and says, Rachel, what are you doing here? Because they had accidentally gone to church together that day. I tell you that story because there is no place on the planet where it is sensible to ask the one true God, What are you doing here? Because here's the thing, brothers and sisters. God was there before you got there. And God will be there long after you're gone. God exists everywhere. He's always been there, and he always will be there. But what I want you to think about this morning is not just the physical and geographic nature of his omnipresence, which is what theologians refer to as him existing everywhere, not just the physical nature of that, but also how he exists in every moment and every season of your life. I don't know what you walked in carrying this morning. Maybe it's one of those things that David was talking about depression, anxiety, hurt, confusion, shame, grief, guilt. Even in those moments and even in those seasons, God is there with you because the one true God exists everywhere. You know, I didn't know um, I didn't know what our mission's prayer focus would be this morning about people helpers. And you're like, Pastor, you should know that. I probably should, but I didn't know. And I hadn't watched the video, and uh, so I didn't know that we were going to interview a bunch of counselors, which was super cool. Uh, but one of the counselors that popped up there on the screen, his name was Joe. And you could probably re-watch it online and you could see the interview with Joe. But um, I don't know, I just I just feel led to tell you this morning that um that's my counselor. That I've been going to People Helpers about once a month to see Joe. And you're probably like, what's wrong with my pastor? Well, how much time do you have? Um nothing's wrong, everything's fine. Sometimes it's good to be preventative. Um, but I go to see Joe because People Helpers is awesome. And so I want you to know, just from personal experience, that if you are walking through a dark night of the soul, if you're in the midst of your darkest hour right now, not only is God there with you, but you can have a counselor there with you too. And he or she will walk through it right there with you. And so I don't know, I just I just told a couple hundred people that I've been going to counseling, but uh, I just think it's it's taboo. Like people sometimes think counseling is weird, but it's not. It's good for you. And this is good Christian counseling that our church, that our church offers. So take advantage of it today. Hey, church, number three in your notes is this number three, creates everyone. The one true God creates everyone. Now look with me now in verses 13 through 18 of Psalm 139. In verse 13, David says that you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I always love connecting Psalm 139, verse 13, to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, where Paul says that you are God's workmanship. Other translations will say you are God's masterpiece. Here's the thing you're not God's manufactured good. Manufactured goods are just like all the other manufactured goods, and when there's a defect, that manufactured good gets thrown away. But not so with masterpieces. Each masterpiece is a one-of-a-kind, it's unique, and there's no such thing as defects with masterpieces, just differences. You are God's masterpiece. You were formed in your mother's womb, you were knitted together in your mother's womb. In verse 14, David says, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Now we know David to be a man of praise because of 1st and 2 Samuel, what we learn about David, the rest of the Psalms. But it is interesting in the context of Psalm 139, in these 24 verses, this is the only spot where David explicitly praises the Lord. And he says, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. David is praising God for human existence. Human existence should cause us to fear, not in the sense of trembling, but in the sense of being awestruck. Human existence should cause us to wonder, not in the sense of being curious or confused, but in the sense of being amazed. We should be awestruck and amazed by human existence, and as a result, just like David, we should praise the Lord. In verse 15, David says, God, when I was being formed in secret, you saw me. And then in verse 16, David says, Even when my substance was unformed, you saw me. Here's the thing. Even before my mom knew that she was pregnant with me, God knew that the miracle of life had taken place in her womb. Even before any modern medical test will tell a mother that she's pregnant, God knows that the miracle of life has taken place in the womb. When you're being formed in secret, God can see the miracle of life. When your substance is unformed, God can see the miracle of life. I hope that you know something. I hope that you know at First Baptist Church Leesburg, we are unapologetically a pro-life church. We will fight for life at all ages and stages. And let me point you to some resources. Our statement of faith at our church is called the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. It's on our website or you can Google it. It's a readily available statement of faith. In our statement, there's 18 articles of doctrine. And what I mean by articles is simply just a paragraph or two about 18 different doctrines. Article 15 in our statement is about the Christian and social order. One of the sentences in that article says that Christians should contend for the sanctity of life. Check this out, from conception until natural death. That's what we believe as a church. Article 18 in our statement of faith is about the family. And in that article, one of the sentences says that children are always a blessing. Check this out, from the moment of conception. We believe that life begins at conception. And that is today a countercultural belief. We live in a nation where there are a bunch of pagans practicing the sacrament of abortion in their worship of themselves. And we will not stand for it. We will fight for life at all ages and stages. But here's the thing: being pro-life doesn't just mean fighting for the unborn. Our statement of faith does not say that we contend for life from conception until natural birth. It says we contend for life from conception until natural death. We fight for the lives of the unborn, but also for the lives of the disabled, the elderly, the needy, the poor, the marginalized, the forgotten. We fight for all lives at all ages and stages. That's what it means to truly be pro-life. Let me give you an extreme example, okay? Artificial intelligence is on the rise. AI is on the rise, okay? I'm not as apocalyptic in my view of AI as some people are, maybe as you are. Like, I don't think AI is demonic. I don't think it's the end of humanity, okay? I actually use it quite a bit. Now, I tell you that, because I want to make this extreme point, okay? There's probably already an AI system in existence that can do the work of ten human beings. It would take ten human beings to do this work in a year, and this system could do it in a week by itself. You place that AI system next to a human being that is in a vegetative state, that is incapacitated. You know what's more valuable? The human being. Because that human being was formed in their mother's womb by the one true God. That human being was knitted together in their mother's womb by the one true God. And even though they're not contributing to society by the world's standards, they're made in the image of God. And they are more valuable than any AI system ever will be. And that's what it means to be pro-life. We fight for life at all ages and stages. You guys got me fired up. We got like eight more verses to go here. Let's get to um whatever's next. Verses 17 and 18. Let's get to verses 17 and 18 in this section really quickly. David says in verse 17, uh, God, your thoughts, they amaze me. The sum total of your thoughts are precious to me. And then in verse 18, David says, if I actually sat down and tried to count God's thoughts about me, they would outnumber the grains of sand in the sea. It's interesting in verses 17 and 18 because David is not saying that, God, the content of your thoughts about me is what amazes me. David is saying the frequency of your thoughts about me, that's what amazes me, which is pretty cool. David is saying, God thinks about me often. Isn't it cool when you call an old friend that you haven't talked to in a while and that old friend picks up the phone and says, Hey, I was just thinking of you. Isn't it nice to know that someone was just thinking of you in a positive light? That's kind of what it's like when you cry out to the one true God. He will always say, he will always respond to you and say, I was just thinking of you. Because he never stops thinking of you. The one true God created you, and the one true God always has you on his mind. Hey, church, number four on your notes is this. Number four, desires allegiance. The one true God desires our allegiance. Look with me now in verses 19 through 22 of Psalm 139. In verse 19, David takes a pretty dark turn. It's a very abrupt dark turn as well. David says, God, would you please slay the wicked? There are a bunch of bloodthirsty men out there, and I want you to slay the wicked. We've been talking all about God's omniscience and his omnipresence and his omnipotence. He knows everything, he exists everywhere, he's so powerful. And then verse 19, God, would you slay the wicked and all those bloodthirsty men? It's a very abrupt turn that he makes here in verse 19. He really continues this tone all the way through verse 22, the next four verses here. In verse 20, David says, God, there are people out there taking your name in vain. Now, when you hear about the Bible speaking on taking God's name in vain, like elsewhere, maybe in the Ten Commandments, Exodus chapter 20, it's sort of with regard to cussing, but it's so much more than that. To take the Lord's name in vain means to attach God's name to something that it should never be attached to. To take the Lord's name in vain is to use God's name to deceive someone or to manipulate someone. To take the Lord's name in vain is to say to someone, God told me to do this, when you know he didn't tell you to do that. That is taking the Lord's name in vain. And David is saying in verse 20, God, there's a bunch of people taking the Lord's name in vain. And then he goes on in verse 21 and says, You know what? I hate those people. And then he goes on in verse 21 to say, I loathe those people. And in verse 22, David's like, in case I'm not being clear, I hate those people with complete hatred. He really doubles down. What is he doing here? How do you reconcile verses 21 and 22 with some teachings of Jesus? Maybe Matthew chapter 5, verse 44, where Jesus says, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Well, we don't believe that the New Testament contradicts the Old Testament anywhere, including Matthew 5, 44 and Psalm 139, verses 21 and 22. So what's going on? As one theologian puts it, we should never love the sin because of the sinner committing the sin, but we should also never hate the sinner because of the sin they're committing. Let me say that tongue twister again, okay? We should never love the sin because of the sinner committing the sin, but we should also never hate the sinner because of the sin that they're committing. Put more plainly, it's the old cliche. You've got to hate the sin without hating the sinner. You've got to hate the sin and love the sinner. And as one preacher puts it, that seems very trite and that seems impossible to do. But here's the thing: we do it with ourselves every day. We hate the very sin that we commit, yet we love ourselves anyways. And if we can have that posture and that attitude toward the man or the woman in the mirror, then why can't we have that posture toward other people? Hate their sin, yet love the sinner. When you pledge your allegiance to the Lord, he expects you to know the truth and stand firmly on the truth. Do not compromise. As one preacher puts it, check this out. It's better to be divided on truth than it is to be united on compromise. When you pledge your allegiance to the Lord, he wants you to know the truth and stand firmly on the truth. That's what the one true God desires. In the year 1776, we signed the Declaration of Independence. We declared our independence, but we hadn't yet secured our independence as a nation. We spent the next seven or eight years doing that in the American Revolution. In 1780, in the midst of the American Revolution, President George Washington appointed Benedict Arnold to oversee West Point, a key outpost in this revolution. Now, Benedict Arnold's name lives on today in infamy as basically synonymous with treason because of what he tried to do. Arnold was getting frustrated with some of the wartime decision making. He was getting frustrated with some promotions that he felt he'd been overlooked for. And so what Arnold did is he started talking to the British behind the Americans' backs and making plans to just hand over West Point to the British. Thankfully, his plans were discovered before they were executed, and Benedict Arnold fled to Great Britain, and he ended up dying in London in the early 19th century. But today his name is synonymous with treason. And I tell you that story because we need to avoid becoming a bunch of spiritual Benedict Arnolds. We need to avoid committing spiritual treason. And when we affirm sin or when we tolerate sin, that's exactly what we're doing. We're committing spiritual treason. We're conceding ground to the enemy. We are in a real spiritual war against a real spiritual enemy. And affirming or tolerating sin is simply giving over ground to the enemy in this spiritual war that we're fighting. When you pledge your allegiance to the Lord, to the one true God, he expects you to know the truth and stand firmly on it. Do not compromise. So God, He, the one true God, He expects us to pledge our allegiance to Him. And then lastly, number five on your notes is this illuminates the heart. We believe that the one true God illuminates the heart. Look with me in verses 23 and 24, the last two verses in our passage this morning. In verse 23, David says, God, please search me and know everything about me. It sounds very similar to verse 1 again, but in verse 23, it's more of an invitation for God to do it again. Now here's what verse 23 is not doing. We have to be careful with verse 23. David is not inviting God to learn something. We already know from verses 1 through 6 that God knows everything. So David's not inviting God to learn something. But David does want to learn something about himself from the one true God. What does David want to learn? In verse 24, David says, Search me, know me, verse 24, and reveal to me if there is any grievous way in me, so that you may lead me on the way everlasting. God, verse 24, reveal to me if there are any blind spots in my life, so that I can recalibrate my life to your design. David prays this prayer in verses 23 and 24, and God calls us to pray a similar prayer today. You know, it was a couple years ago. I was up early in the morning, I was making a smoothie for breakfast. And this was something I'd done this many times before. I would get up before everybody else and I would assemble the smoothie in the dark and make the smoothie and drink the smoothie in the dark, so everyone's still asleep, and I'm trying not to wake anybody up. And so I did something I'd done hundreds of times before. I build the smoothie in the kitchen in the dark. I take it in the garage actually to blend it because that part's loud. I don't want to wake anybody up. I come back in the kitchen, I put the smoothie on the counter next to the sink. I turn around to grab a cup. You can see what's coming. I turn back around and boom, knocked over the whole blender. The smoothie spilled all over the blender and the counter and the sink, and I was so frustrated. I cleaned it all up. I cleaned up the blender and the counter and the sink, and I basically spilled everything. So I made another one, I drank the second one, and I just went on with my day. Now that particular day, I not only got up before anybody else, but I left before anybody else got up. So I left, everyone was still asleep, the house was still dark. I hadn't been at work for very long when I get a call from Hannah. And Hannah says, What in the world is on my kitchen ceiling? And I thought for a minute and I was like, I think it might be my smoothie. And just for the record, I've I had a clear conscience when I left the house. I thought I cleaned up all the smoothie. I never thought to look up at the ceiling. Apparently, what had happened is I knocked it over and it kind of bounced off the counter and just splattered the whole ceiling. And you couldn't see it in the dark, but the first thing Hannah did when she walked out was she flipped on the lights and her eyes were drawn to the smoothie that's spotted all over her nice kitchen ceiling. True story. But I tell you that story because what David is doing in verses 23 and 24 is he's inviting God to step into his heart and turn on the lights. And we should pray a similar prayer. We should invite God to step into our hearts and turn on the lights. We may think we've got it all cleaned up, but when God steps into our heart and turns on the lights, we're going to see some things that we didn't see until we invited him in. The one true God wants to illuminate your heart, but you have to invite him to do so. And if you invite him to do so, he will reveal to you any grievous way. He will reveal to you any blind spots and lead you on the way everlasting, help you recalibrate your life to his design for your life. The one true God illuminates the heart. Well, church, this morning we've sought to sift through all the world's false understandings of who God is. And we discovered from Psalm 139 who the one true God really is. The one true God, He knows everything, He exists everywhere, He creates everyone, He desires allegiance, and He illuminates the heart. But maybe you're here today and you're not a Christian. I want you to know that we're really glad that you're here. But maybe for the first time, you're realizing that your relationship with the one true God is still broken and there's nothing you can do to fix it on your own. The only way to restore your relationship with the one true God is to repent of your sins and believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Would you surrender your life to Jesus today? If you're here today and you're not a Christian, at this time we want to extend an invitation for you to join the family and become a Christian today. Here's what's about to happen. In just a moment, I'm going to pray to ask God's blessing on our time of Bible study. And when I say amen, everyone in the room will stand to sing one more song of worship. And you'll see Christians praying and reflecting from their pews all around the room. You'll see some Christians come to pray at the altar right here across the front. But as we sing, myself and some other members of our team will be standing across the front. And if you want to become a Christian today by placing your faith in Jesus, then as we sing, you walk forward and talk to one of us. We'd love nothing more than to talk and pray with you about becoming a Christian today. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, God, we love you and we praise you. We believe wholeheartedly that you exist, the Bible is your word, and you alone are the one true God. We look forward to the new heavens and the new earth when we can know you fully. But between now and then we commit to knowing you as best we can through what you've revealed to us in nature and in your word. God, I pray for that one person here today who does not yet have a relationship with you through Jesus Christ. Would today be the day of their salvation? Would you continue to convict them of their sin right now and compel them to walk forward as we sing? Everything we've done today, everything we've thought and said and done today has been for you. We pray that it's all honored and glorified your name. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.