Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Karma Chaj podcast.
[00:00:06] It's Mothering Sunday. Isn't that exciting? Mothering Sunday, a day when we celebrate mothers everywhere. And, you know, Mothering Sunday, as I grew up, it wasn't just about cards and gifts and praises for our actual mothers. It was about the gift of mothering, the unique capacity that all women have to bring nurture. I don't know if you knew that, but we do. Women do have this great capacity to nurture. And one of my earliest memories of being a new Christian and receiving this in the body of Christ, you know, women who nurture was actually a woman who was not a mother herself. She was in her 70s and she was this amazing intercessory prayer warrior. She was this tiny little woman and she used to fill up her house with all of us new converts, and we were all very young and wow, did she nurture us. You know, the lovely conversations and the good stuff and also the tough love as well. You know, the hard conversations about getting our lives sorted. And there were always lots of tea and biscuits, which is all part of, you know, let the women do what the women do. And the people of God said, amen. Amen. Mothering Sunday. And you know, for some of you here this morning, you may have forgotten it was Mother's Day. You may have forgotten that you're meant to get flowers or a gift or a card or something for your actual mothers. And if that's you, well, I just want to give you permission to leave a little bit earlier today to rush out and get that for your. The women in your life who deserve to be praised this morning. But for some of us, you know, Mothering Sunday is a hard day. For some of us, it's a reminder of hard stuff. It's a reminder maybe of bereavement. It's a reminder maybe of broken relationships or a painful childhood. For some of us, motherhood is a reminder of infertility or miscarriage. I remember when I was experiencing miscarriages, how hard Mothering Sunday was. For some of us, it's a really hard day because motherhood is just may be hard at a particular season. It's all very real. And what I want to say to you today, the gift that I want to bring all of us today is to say that God knows that God sees all and he knows us absolutely and he knows us. Wherever we find ourselves today, he knows. And, you know, the way in which God knows us, the way in which he sees us and knows us is something we can kind of grasp and kind of comprehend, but it's also a little bit out of our comprehension. It's hard for us to fully grasp because he's not like us. We're made in his image, not the other way around. So sometimes these things are almost beyond our comprehension. And we're going to meditate, but we're going to meditate today on this truth about the way in which God sees and knows us so that we can grasp a little bit more of it and be encouraged in our walk with him. So grab your Bibles, turn to Psalm 139.
[00:03:28] I'm going to have you up and down today because we're going to read it in bits. So why don't you stand as we read the word of the Lord? Psalm 139.
[00:03:37] It says this.
[00:03:39] O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all of my ways even before a word is on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You head me in, behind me and before me you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
[00:04:10] You know, in some translations it says instead of high, it says lofty. This is what I mean. It's like to know that God knows us and we're talking about big word, the omniscient character nature of God that he is all knowing entirely otherly beyond our comprehension. He knows everything about us all at the same time as we talk about that it's high. It's almost something that we can only just grasp. And so it's good to meditate on it. And I thought, particularly on Mothering Sunday, because kind of an analogy is the way in which mum always knows, you know, Mum always knows us, doesn't she? Mum always knows. Well, in my family, definitely Mum always knows. Let my children know that on Livestream. Mom always knows. You know, if my kids want to hide something from me, a new relationship, a change of direction, something that they're not yet ready to tell mom because they want to keep it private for a bit. You know, when they were teenagers, the outfit that I would not want them to wear if they wanted to hide it from me, then they just hid from me. They literally didn't come near me or, you know, they don't come round for a few weeks because there's something they don't want me to know. And they know the moment I look, I'll know what's up with you, what's going on with you. You know, we know our kids, don't we? We know our kids in a way that initially fathers perhaps don't know them. Fathers come to know them after a year when we've carried them. We carry them for a whole year, and then dad gets to know them. But we've already known them for a whole year. So we've got to know the hiccups. We've got to know all sorts of just things about them. Even as we carry them in the womb, we get to know our child. And then by the age of one, we know so much. We know their cries, we know what the look on their face is saying about their nappy. We know. We know what they want, we know what they like, we know what they dislike. By the age of one, when they have no words, we know them so well.
[00:06:12] And it's just a tiny, tiny little picture of how much more does our Heavenly Father know us?
[00:06:21] You know, the Bible says that God knows us to the extent that he knows, has counted and numbered every hair on our head. It's just so almost beyond our comprehension to know that he knows us in this way. And that's the point of the opening of this psalm. He knows us when we rise, he knows us when we sleep. He knows us where we're going, where we're coming. He has his hand upon our lives. He knows us when intricately, every part of our lives.
[00:06:51] And it's so important that we really try to comprehend this because it is such a great comfort, it's such a great comfort to us in our everyday lives to know that God really knows. He sees everything. There's nothing that he cannot see in our lives or know about us. And just to meditate on this encourages us because, you know, sometimes we can feel like no one sees and no one knows, you know, within all of us there is this deep desire to be seen and known. And it starts with creation.
[00:07:25] Because at creation, God created us to be known. In the garden with the first man and woman, they were fully known and knew God. That was the beauty of creation. And then there was the fall. And sin entered the world and shame and hiding entered the world. But at the beginning of time, we were created to be fully known and to know God.
[00:07:50] And so there is this natural, deep, deep. You may not even be aware of it. You may not be a Christian here today, but you know, you want to be known and seen. And I'm telling you friends today, that is a longing to be known and seen by God.
[00:08:04] And sometimes we look to be known and seen in all the wrong places. You know, it's not wrong to want people to know and see you.
[00:08:14] But actually, ultimately we need to know that we're known and seen by God. You know, we may long for our boss to notice our special gifts. We may long for our spouse to notice that thing we do over and over again that they don't notice.
[00:08:30] We may long for our children to understand fully how much we love them. All that we've done that they can't even remember.
[00:08:38] We may long for that injustice or abuse we experienced in our lives to be fully seen and fully known.
[00:08:46] And yet, in an imperfect world, these things are not always seen and known. But we can rest in the assurance that God has seen and God knows. That's the promise of scripture. He's seen everything.
[00:09:02] And then we can rest on the further promise of Scripture that says for everything in our lives, we will stand before Jesus and he will say, well done, good and faithful servant. Why? Because he's seen and because he knows. He knows it all. I don't know how it's going to work. I don't know whether he's going to call out so many things I don't know. I know that we'll talk to him and he'll say, I saw, I knew. I know.
[00:09:30] Things that we think are unseen, things that we think are hidden. Our own private experience. He sees and he knows. Be encouraged, and we can rest in the truth that we reap what we sow. That's an interesting verse to rest in when we think about how he knows us.
[00:09:49] It's where my mind went as I was meditating on this. Because we reap what we sow. Why? Because he knows.
[00:09:57] Because he's seen. And that is such an encouragement when we go about our daily lives in an imperfect world. And we feel like people don't always see and they don't see, always know. He does.
[00:10:09] I was listening to a story this week. It was a beautiful story of a woman. And she was just telling us, giving us testimony, just talking about the way in which she had been in a job for about 20 years and she had not been recognized or promoted in this job for 20 years. And she watched many other people getting promoted over her. And she was doing exactly the same thing as them. And she was like, why are they getting promoted over me now? Maybe she was quieter. Maybe she didn't push herself forward. I don't Know, but what she began to feel was a great injustice as she watched peers, friends, people, colleagues being promoted over her for 20 years.
[00:10:53] And as she walked this out with the Lord, she said as she prayed, she prayed and prayed, she knew that God saw her, she prayed. But she never felt permission to actually address this thing until the last few years where she felt the Lord give her permission to say that she had not been seen in the workplace. She felt the Lord give her courage to say that she had not been seen in the workplace. And as she said it, she explained it as a racial injustice.
[00:11:23] And she said that because she had experienced this thing for 20 years when this grievance was brought, and as she prayed it through with the courage and the peace and the strength of the Lord, not only was the story and narrative corrected in her life, it was corrected for all the other people that will come behind her because it was a grave injustice. And she said that she recognized the prophetic story of her life this last 20 years was, as was Esther's, that it was for such a time as this, that she had been in this place for such a time as this to say after 20 years and to have this thing corrected for many people who would come behind her. But you see, we can trust God in those places when no one else sees and knows that he will walk with us, that he will journey with us, that he hears our prayers and that we will reap what we sow. We trust in the promises of God because he does know.
[00:12:27] And here's the other great encouragement about the way in which God sees us, that there is nothing hidden from God.
[00:12:37] That is an encouragement we don't have to hide from God. Do you remember that second thing? In the garden? They were in the garden with the Lord. And then when sin entered the world, when the first man and woman disobeyed God, shame entered and they hid.
[00:12:53] They hid their nakedness.
[00:12:56] And humanity has been hiding from God ever since. But you know, as Christians, as born again believers, we don't need to hide from God anymore. We don't need to hide the things we're ashamed of from God anymore. Because of the cross, because of the blood of Christ, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He has you covered. This relentless love of God that has pursued us since the beginning of humanity when the first man and woman sinned. It is a relentless love that will chase you down, that is pursuing you, searching you out. That's the meaning of this psalm. And he already knows. That's why he sent his son to redeem you, to rescue you, because we needed to be redeemed.
[00:13:48] And he already knows. So don't hide. We must never hide our sin from God. You know, a few weeks back, Steve was talking about, confess your sins to each other, and he's faithful and just and will forgive us from all unrighteousness. Confess your sin. But, you know, sometimes we find it hard because we want to hide.
[00:14:11] We don't want to be exposed. But, you know, again, the promises of God, you see, he already sees. He already knows. So there's no point hiding it. And, you know, the Bible says that actually, for your redemption, God will shout it from the rooftops. Don't hide it. Because eventually these things are exposed, Whether in this life or the next, it's going to be exposed, it's going to be seen, it's going to be shouted from the rooftops. So we might as well say it now.
[00:14:37] Confess your sins to each other and be free.
[00:14:43] And first confess to God, because He already knows.
[00:14:49] Don't hide.
[00:14:51] And, you know, again, this analogy of motherhood, you know, mom always knows.
[00:14:59] We always know when our kids are trying to hide stuff, right? We always see how much more God.
[00:15:07] You know, I remember the first time I discovered that my son, my first child, was not, in fact, perfect. You know, we all think our children are perfect, don't we? They're absolutely perfect. Well, I did anyway. And nobody else is saying, yes, I think my children are perfect. You're all very quiet. Maybe you don't think you're perfect. Your children are perfect. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Little. Little Malachi on the front row here. You think he's perfect. We think our children are perfect until they're not. Until we see that moment where original sin takes place and we see that they need the salvation of Jesus Christ, too. I remember the first time with my son when I was literally calling, joel, where are you? You know, like the garden, the Garden of Eden, where God was calling Adam, where are you? I was literally calling my son like this, joel, where are you? Where are you? He was about 18 months old. Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Joel? And I found him behind the sofa, and he was eating Dad's Easter egg. And I was like, how does he know that? Number one, he's not meant to have that. Number two, that he needs to go behind the sofa and eat it. He's like 18 months old. He could have been hardly walking. I'm like, there it is, there it is. Hidden, hiding, busted. But you Know, we read what we sow, right? And it was Steve who first did the secret hiding sin. I'm sorry I'm blowing your cover today. Just cheap shot. Analogy. Good analogy, right?
[00:16:37] I remember when Joel was about nine months old, just a baby. And of course, I had never given my son any chocolate. First child, no chocolate before the age of one. No sugar, really. And I remember watching Steve opening the fridge door and he was going to get some Cadbury's chocolate, and Joel was crawling up his leg, going, da, da, da. And I said, you haven't given him any chocolate, have you? And he went, well, secret hidden chocolate.
[00:17:09] Oh, my goodness. The hidden things in family life. We see it all the time, don't we? And then there was the pizza. The pizza, the hidden pizza. Whenever I used to go away, whenever I used to go to a conference and Steve was in charge, he'd shut the door. Sorry, I'm totally busting you this morning. He'd shut the door and he'd say to the kids, pizza all weekend long, just take away pizza. That's what we're gonna do, kids. Don't tell your mum. Don't tell your mum. And it was Domino's and Pizza Hut and what we gonna do tonight? And nothing healthy whatsoever. And of course, Joel never told me, and of course Steve never told me. But Emma, Emma is the healthy one. And Emma would say to me, oh, Mum. With a sullen face, mum, I have had pizza all weekend and I just want vegetables. Give me some fruit.
[00:18:05] Hidden stuff. Mom always knows. Mom finds out how much more. God, I'm playing with you. I'm joking with you, but I'm just trying to say, just don't hide stuff. Bring it into the light. Tell God, tell each other, and you can be free. And you know, if you are here this morning and you are not a Christian, or maybe if you are a Christian and you know you have hidden secret sin in your life, and you knew, you now know that God sees all. God knows all. And you're feeling a bit uncomfortable, Don't.
[00:18:38] Because this is the way that we get free. We were never meant to carry the baggage of sin. Because he already knows and he's already sent his son and he wants to rescue us from these things that are in our lives. He already knows.
[00:18:55] And if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian. You know, I remember coming into church for the first time and I was weighed down with my sin.
[00:19:06] I was so grieved by my sin, just beginning to realize it for the first time. And I wish it had just been chocolate and pizza, but it was much worse than that. But oh, how wonderful to know that God knew anyway. And he'd been pursuing me in love, and he'd made a plan to rescue me. Jesus, his son, and I could be set free. God sees. God knows. We don't have to hide from God. Will you stand? We're going to read a bit more.
[00:19:40] It says this, where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to the heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night. Even the darkness is not dark. To you the night is as bright as day, for darkness is as light with you. Will you take a seat? This is the word of the Lord.
[00:20:18] You know, the thing about this psalm is that what David is saying, he's saying, God sees all. God has searched me. And then there is an invitation for us to say in response, and so search me, O Lord, come in and know what you already know.
[00:20:38] And for those of us who have given our lives to Jesus, we are now sons and daughters of the living God. And we are known and fully know him by the indwelling presence of the Spirit. We know this right. We are heirs. The Spirit has sealed us as a guarantee of our future hope. We walk as children of the Spirit, children of the light, and we are led by the Spirit of God. And there is nowhere we can go from his presence. He is with us in the highs and the lows of our lives. But do you know, it is not enough for us just to know this as a theology, as a something we read about in the book, as something I just know. I know that God is with me by his Spirit. He is the person of our three in one God whom we can fully know and be known. It is a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. And you know, David was the anointed king. He was the one in a few who walked with the Spirit of the living God in that day in the old covenant. But for now, because of Jesus, we know this because of Jesus, there is this promise where Jesus has said, I will not leave you as orphans. We will come and make our home with you. We are now temples of the Holy Spirit. We have what only a few had in the old Covenant now we are all sons, daughters, heirs of living with the very presence of God in our everyday life. And it is not enough for us to just know it. We have to live it. We have to honor Him. We have to honor his presence in our lives. We are to know what he loves and know what grieves him, to think of him and know that he is present every moment of our lives. Do you know, that really helps us with the things that we might want to hide from God? Because not only does he know us, he is present with us. He is there.
[00:22:38] He is there in the highs and he is there in the lows.
[00:22:43] And, you know, Steve talked about our trip to Aviva Miento a few weeks ago when we went to our beloved church in Colombia, the church that's in revival, where we have friends there who have talked to us about what it means to be a church that is led by the Holy Spirit. You know, we went because we wanted to see revival in the uk. We wanted to see a move of God in the uk and there was in us just this unction of the Spirit to go.
[00:23:13] But when we got there, we discovered that this great and glorious revival is the product of one thing, that these people have a deep and intentional relationship with God by His Spirit, and they do just what he says.
[00:23:28] And, you know, this for us was a journey of learning and knowing as well. Because when we went, I remember the earliest conversations that we had, we would say, you know, we need revival in the uk. We need the power of God in the uk. We need a move of God in the uk. And they would say to us, no, you need a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, and you just need to learn to do what he says. That is the story of revival Pentecost, beautiful outpouring of power. But it was an invitation into a relationship with the living God where He is with us every single moment of every single day. It's corporate and it's individual. And this is the story of this psalm. Where can I go from you, Holy Spirit? You are always there to honor and acknowledge the precious Holy Spirit in our everyday lives. And, you know, Steve talked about the glory cloud that when we were at Viva Miento and there was an evening meeting where the glory of the Lord manifest in the room in a tangible, physical way. And there was a cloud moving over the room. And, you know, some people have sort of said, oh, well, maybe it was this or maybe it was that. I was. And I just say to them, you just had to be there. And then you know, it was the glory of the Lord. Because what had happened just before was Pastor Ricardo had said to us, I'm just gonna. I just feel that this is what the Holy Spirit has asked me to do. He wants me to invite you into my precious time with the Holy Spirit. This is a man who has walked with the Holy Spirit as his best friend for 32 years and has this deep, loving relationship with him. And as he said that, he said, I'm going to invite you into my time with him. And he turned as if he was turning towards his friend, turned away from us, and just began to worship and commune with the Holy Spirit in such a beautiful way. It was like he was looking at the face of Jesus.
[00:25:27] And just the moment he started, there was a tangible manifestation of the glory of God in the room where we were all just undone in his presence. He taught us what it is to have this personal relationship. But a personal relationship that goes on and on and on. We know, just as in marriage or in any other relationship, deepens in intensity as we understand the rhythm and the flow of the Spirit. And then he said, the glory of the Lord is in the room. The glory of the Lord is in the room. And as we turned, we could see the glory cloud. But it wasn't like, it was awesome, but we weren't. It was. As Steve explained it the other week, he said it was personal.
[00:26:09] It was as if we all turned around and went, oh, yes, of course you're here, Lord. It's like he had manifested the beauty of his glory as a gift to us.
[00:26:19] We can know him personally. Friends, that's the invitation of this psalm.
[00:26:26] And, you know, it says that he is with us in Sheol.
[00:26:32] Different people translate that in different ways. But what I think that means is the grave, the darkest places that we could go to. The darkest places of life that we experience where we think God might not be with us. This psalm tells us he is with us. He comes to us in that place of suffering. He is with us in that place of suffering. Of suffering by his Spirit.
[00:26:59] You know, it says in Romans 8, it talks about this in Romans 8. It talks about how all creation is groaning, as in the pains of childbirth. It talks about this longing for the kingdom come. It talks about that in the context of our suffering and our yearning for the kingdom come in our own lives. And it says, the Spirit who is in you is groaning and longing for your new creation to come. He is with us in our suffering.
[00:27:32] He walks with us in our pain. The highs and the Lows he is there. What a great encouragement to know and be known by the living God. And then I'm just going to finish this.
[00:27:48] Why don't you stand as we finish?
[00:27:51] I'm going to finish the psalm and you know, just as I finish it.
[00:27:58] You know, ministry times, we don't have to wait for ministry time. You know that, don't you? If you know that, you need to say to the Lord just as David did.
[00:28:09] You know me, and so I want you to know me.
[00:28:13] You've searched me and I want you to search me. You can just start to say that to him now as we read the rest of this psalm. You can put your hand on your heart. You can hold your hands out. You can have a moment with the Holy Spirit. You won't disturb me. Just begin to tell him you love him. Just begin to tell him that you want him in every part of your day and every part of your life. And you know what? If you've got sin in your life, you can confess that too.
[00:28:36] Nothing's hidden. Just have a glory moment with him as we finish reading this psalm says this. For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your books were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet, there was none.
[00:29:12] You know, some of us, we were born in a great situation.
[00:29:17] We were born to loving parents who wanted us and were good to us. Some of us, not so much.
[00:29:26] You know, some of us were born in a difficult situation. Some of us were born and not loved. Some of us were born and not wanted.
[00:29:34] You know, I was born and I think I was loved and wanted, but I definitely wasn't expected.
[00:29:41] I was born to a teenage mother and my father disappeared.
[00:29:45] I was an accident, a mistake.
[00:29:50] But not according to the word of God. God doesn't make mistakes. He created you in the womb. He created you and he has a plan for your life. There are no mistakes with God. Be encouraged by the God who knows and God who sees and God who created you. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I am still with you.
[00:30:21] You know, when we know that we are his. When we know that we are seen and known by God when we know our identity in Christ, that we are sons and heirs, planned and chosen. When we know all of that, we have the mind of Christ, we have his thoughts. We can think like God. We can pray. Lord, let my thoughts be your thoughts. Let me love what you love. Let me hate what you hate.
[00:30:46] And he says this, oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God. O men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malice intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not load those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them as my enemies. Now, David had a specific situation of battle, but we are in a battle too.
[00:31:12] We watch the world around us and we see things that we hate.
[00:31:18] We never hate people, we never hate people, but we hate the enemy of God. And that is right for the people of God to rise up with a righteous anger against the things that are against God. And we intercede and we pray and we think with the thoughts of God. And we rise up as a people of God in intercession, loving and knowing what he wants for our friends, our family, our workplaces, our lives.
[00:31:46] We love what he loves and we hate what he hates. And that is a righteous right response.
[00:31:54] And he says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me. And lead me in the way ever everlasting.
[00:32:10] He finishes with the response to where he started.
[00:32:14] You have searched me and know me. You know me by your spirit. You made me. And so I say, come in, Lord, know me and search me.
[00:32:28] Let me be yours.
[00:32:31] Let me be yours, Lord, fully yours. Let me comprehend your greatness.
[00:32:37] And you can say that to him now. You can say that to him right now. Wherever you are, you can put your hand on your heart. You can say, lord, you know me. Search me.
[00:32:50] Let me know how much you know me, oh Lord, that we would know your grace upon our lives, the forgiveness of our sin and the things that we think we could hide.
[00:33:03] Lord, you see everything. The moment when we got cross in the car, the moment when we got cross with our kids. Nothing's hidden from you.
[00:33:12] And we praise you, Lord, because you have forgiven us.
[00:33:16] And you wash us.
[00:33:19] Come in, Lord, let us know you by your holy spirit. Spirit. Thank you, Lord, that there is so much more that we can know of you, oh Lord, we want to see you move in our land. But Lord, we want to see you move in our lives first.
[00:33:37] Holy Spirit, come in.
[00:33:41] Holy Spirit, come in.
[00:33:44] Thanks for listening to the Chroma Charge Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Chroma Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Chroma Church.
