God's Omniscience (08/26/2001)

Turn with me to Psalm 139. It's kind of nice to have our own resident counselor at college here in town brother

Russell appreciate that Psalm 139 and We're talking about the personality of God Intellect must direct

Sensibility must desire and will must determine so intellect sensibility and And will are the three aspects of personality whether that be a human person or whether that be

God Those are three human attributes that we use to try to determine what a person is

Well, we know that God is more than we can discern But he has revealed himself to us somewhat in the

Word of God to the extent that he chose to and we have that But this is we can certainly look in these three areas

And in the Lord and we can see that he has these attributes for example Under intelligence normally when we're speaking of God, we use the word omniscience and that's what we began to study last

Sunday morning but the Bible says in Psalm 147 5 great is our Lord and of great power and his understanding is infinite and So it shows that The the

Lord has that attribute of being a person. He has intellect it goes beyond that He has omniscience, which means all -knowing.

He is the all -knowing God Secondly God possesses sensibility First John 4 16 says and we have known and believed

The love that God hath to us God has love to us.

He has tender mercy toward us. He has loving kindness These fall under the category of sensibility and then

God has will Psalm 115 3 says but our God is in the heavens and he hath done whatsoever.

He hath pleased God does what he wills to do. He is a sovereign God So we see from these three attributes that he fits the theologians definition for personhood

Therefore God is not just some energy force out there in outer space who created all things some of the scientific world

Those who are agnostic at least they're not atheists But they don't want to think of God as a person because a person would imply morality a system of morality and perhaps laws

They want to think of him as an energy force out there because that's not personal It's just something that started everything in motion and we don't have to really answer to that and yet God has revealed himself as a person who has

Intellect sensibility and will so that's kind of how we began to introduce this topic

Last time we talked about the omniscience of God and we're continuing That study this morning if you would

Let's look at Psalm 139 and we'll read down through this some of you weren't here last time

So we'll comment just on a couple of things by way of review and get into some new Verses in this passage that we didn't cover last time

Psalm 139 and We'll be in verses 1 and following verse 1 says to the chief musician a psalm of David Oh Lord, thou has searched me and known me remember from last time that the word for search

Means an inside search the Greek the Hebrew word call car literally means to penetrate and hence to examine intimately and So he has searched me that's on the inside and then it says and known me

This is from the Hebrew word y 'all da which means to ascertain by seeing So he also sees what

I do on the outside So in this phrase the Lord has searched me on the inside and known me on the outside and known all my ways

And my goings forth we talked about last Sunday morning about the great Encouragement and comfort that comes to those who are right with the

Lord when they consider his omniscience He searches us on the inside. He searches us on the outside We think of Job We're studying through that on Monday night with brother

Otis and to think of Job all of his buddies came and were Trying to tell him how sinful he must be in order for God to have done all these evil things to him

And so they had God in a box so to speak They thought they had God figured out and they had their rules

About how God must behave and so forth and so according to their rules Job must have been an evil man or else these bad things wouldn't be happening to him and the whole story goes through and Job Keeps saying no.

I I search my own heart I know the Lord searches my heart and and I think you're missing you're not diagnosing this properly and He battled with that throughout the whole book

Well God it is a comfort to those of of us who wish to walk with the

Lord for those of us who want a Relationship with God a close relationship day by day moment by moment

It's comforting to know that he is omniscient which means he knows everything about us.

He knows our thoughts He knows our ways. He knows our inside. He knows our outside and it goes on into verse 2

Thou knowest my down sitting in mine uprising thou understandeth my thought afar off Thou compasses my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways.

Remember this word Compasses is from a Hebrew word, which means to winnow

So it means that God as we walk down the path God is winnowing us

Do you remember what? winnowing is you take the wheat you throw it up in the air and the chaff blows away and the good wheat falls back down and You keep doing that all day

And finally by the end of the day, you've got just the good wheat left That's what this word literally means in the

Hebrew when it says God Compasses my path it means as I'm going in my path and we can look at this from the human viewpoint and the divine

At the same time the human viewpoint we choose the path The divine viewpoint says very clearly that while we thought we chose the path.

God is winnowing us He is really the one who put us in that path and he's using the very path to get the chaff out of our lives and Then it says he's acquainted with all of our ways the word acquainted means familiar with but it also means in a sense of being

Familiar with in order to minister to so here is a sense in which God is winnowing our life

And getting the chaff out, but at the same time he is acquainted with our ways. He's familiar

He is ministering in a sense. It carries the connotation of cherishing So God cherishes the wheat the kernel of our life.

That is what he is Bringing forth as he winnows the chaff out It's all seen in the

Hebrew here when we read verse 3 and I'm sure that the Jewish mind would see these idiomatic expressions as he heard this word

Now verse 4 says for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo O Lord thou knowest it all together

Now you see he doesn't just hear our words. He knows them all together. He knows the heart from which the word came

Sometimes we misjudge one another someone may say a word to us We take it the wrong way and they may not have really even meant harm by it

We just took it that way We tried to know their word all together, but we're not God because so we can't do that but God always does

Well, that's a comfort to us If we're wanting to walk closely with the Lord that that when we say things and do things

He knows the heart from which it came He judges that also he knows it all together

Thou has beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me Oh boy, that that was the part last week that that really

I Loved the most The when it says he is beset behind and before me the word beset in the

Hebrew is a word pronounced sewer It's hard to even say it in Texan But it means to confine

Now, isn't it interesting that from our viewpoint we picked the path? We decided we come up to it and we say do we go left or right?

In fact much of the book of Proverbs is exhorting us to pick the right path to take the right path

Listen to your father to your mother children Listen to the ways that your fathers and your mothers teach you

Principles from the Word of God and use that as you choose the paths when you go into college you college

Students you're not going to believe the paths that can be set before you by the world the flesh and the devil

Take the path that was set before you by your parents as they taught you God's Word and by your pastor and by your own personal

Bible study So from the human viewpoint we choose to turn left or right

But what's so wonderful about it is we also know this is true at the same time

Somehow is that God has beset behind and before us

It means he has confined us to exactly the path that he is placing us on is that amazing

But do you know you're still responsible to choose the right path? The great Spurgeon I've been reading a little bit about him this past couple of weeks

He was known of all things as a Calvinist He believed in the sovereignty of God But you know what?

He taught he also taught the responsibility of man when he came to a verse of Scripture that taught that He was not one who would try to change the

Scriptures. He would just preach them as they were and God has given us both And so we must take both we don't have to fully understand how

God can do this. That's what's wonderful about it We know a man didn't write these portions of Scripture because the man couldn't have thought him up Only the omniscient mind of God could have come up with plan that he has revealed to us in the

Word of God Now it says his hand is upon us Now we may not be aware of it, but his hand is upon us

Isn't that beautiful? It says his hand is upon us in the very next verse and we'll go into some

Message for today at this point in verse 6 such knowledge is too wonderful for me

What knowledge the knowledge that even though I'm responsible for choosing the path? God has beset me.

He has confined me to that place. He has protected me Into the very place he wants me to go

By his sovereign right hand, which is upon me every moment. It's on me when I sit down It's on me when

I get up. It's on me when I go to bed at night It's on me when I wake up in the morning. His hand is upon me

If I am his child This is too wonderful for me It's high.

I cannot attain into it the word wonderful in the Hebrew means Remarkable, but it has been translated in other places in the

Old Testament into the word secret The word secret is these things are like a secret to me that I cannot

Totally a mystery that I can't totally figure out how God can do all these things But it makes it remarkable and wonderful that he holds me responsible to choose the right path

But at the same time he besets Behind me and before me and his hand is on me when

I get up and when I go to bed when I sit down When I rise up to go in and out He's there.

He is Confining me to his perfect will for my life You can look at any of the

Saints of the scriptures the examples of their lives as we look back on their life With hindsight, we see the sovereign will of God we see how even as they made their decisions

They were right exactly where God placed them all the time These things are too wonderful for me.

They're hot. I cannot attain unto them But they are fact

Malachi chapter 3 Verse 16 Speaks of this

Then they that fear the Lord spake often one to another I Love to think about this verse back.

We we talked about it sometime this week I don't remember who I was with but we were talking about the Lord We're just I mean we were not having a

Bible study We were just talking about the Lord and this thought came to my mind and I tried to quote some of it to my friend

I said, you know, isn't it neat the verse in the Bible where it says they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and The Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him

For them that fear the Lord and that thought upon his name. God is omniscient

He knows every time you think about him. He writes it in a book of remembrance now whether that's a literal book

It doesn't matter to me. That's how God explained it to us. That's how we would understand it Perhaps if he had written this in the modern times

He said I got a computer disk and it's all on there. It doesn't matter what the means is it is stored

God has it before him all the time the eternal now I am

God is with us all the time every time we think of him He records it in his heart every time look at this that you're with a friend whether you're having coffee

Whether you're walking down the street whether you're going to Six Flags Whatever you're doing if you're with a friend and you're talking about the

Lord the Lord records it in his heart He's written a book of remembrance for those who love him and walk with him

He is omniscient You see how his omniscience is a great comfort and joy to those who are walking with him because it shows his omnipresence

This is so fascinating to me as we study omniscience I'm having a real problem staying away from omnipresence and omnipotence because they keep coming in together with it.

I Mean he knows all things He's also present everywhere

He hears our thoughts. He sees our deeds He sees us when we get together and speak of him and takes great pleasure in it 2nd

Chronicles 16 9 says for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth

To show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

What does that mean? It is omniscience Works out into his omnipotence

His omniscience is not there just to be an end It is a means to the end of his omnipotence his strong arm

Which is displayed on behalf of you on behalf of you whose heart is perfect toward him

Job 23 10 you knew we would get to Joe when we're going to talk about The omniscience of God, but he says but he knoweth the way that I take

Job argues these three buddies of his are saying you're wicked job. You got secret sin

You're not telling us about if you'll just confess it out loud to us. God will take his Curses off you and you'll just be fine.

I think these may have been the first three Roman Catholic priests in existence They set up their little booth and they said come sit in here and tell me everything you've done

Joe wasn't gonna do it He why he knew God better than to do that But look what

Job said. He knoweth the way that I take You know, he already knows the way that I take when he hath tried me.

I shall come forth as gold Job said Isn't that amazing? He knew a lot about New Testament theology, didn't he

Job did? And so we find great encouragement and comfort in the omniscience of God Let me go into a second point as we go to verse 7 now in Psalm 139

And we're kind of following down through here is our main text We get out into 20 30 40 50 other verses as we study the omniscience of God I'm trying to give you a bit of most of the really key verses as we go on omniscience

Look at verse 7 Whether shall I go from thy spirit? Now we might think of this point men are always under God's continual

Observation. I know that's redundant always in continual, but I'm trying to emphasize it Trying to get us to think about the emphasis men are always

Under God's continual Observation well

You know omniscience then implies omnipresence He not only knows everything about us, but he sees everything we do because he's there

Whether shall I go from thy spirit? Is there any place you can go and hide from God? Brother Otis says go ahead and sin, but make sure you find a place where God can't see you first Mm -hmm

That there is no such place. Where can I go from thy spirit or whether shall

I flee from thy presence? If I send up into heaven thou art there and you know everything about me

You see the omniscience here implied in the omnipresence if I make my bed in the grave

It says hell hell sometimes In the English is could have been transferred translated perhaps a little bit better grave in some places

You can only tell by the context If I make my bed in the grave Behold thou art there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea

You are there now Let's look at a little part of the omniscience of God that might come to play when we are not right with God It's Not always as peaceful and pleasant and pleasant as it is when we are walking with the

Lord But it's still just as good and we'll see why as we look at some of these verses look at Psalm 90 in verse 8 we'll come back to our passage here in a moment.

So you might keep a marker in it We'll spend the rest of our time this morning

Talking about God's omniscience from the point of view of number one What it's like when we're not walking with him when we're not right with him and number two why that's good for us anyway

So keep that in your thoughts as we look Psalm 90 in verse 8

Thou has set our iniquities before thee Now you see now we're looking at the omniscience of God from the viewpoint of the fact that he sees everything we think and do

Even the sin is before him. It is not hidden from him He is aware of it our secret sins in the light of thy countenance

Now children, that's a good thing to learn at a young age. Is that there are no secret sins

When you sneak in there and you stick that hand in that cookie jar Mom and dad may not see it

But God does and if mom told you to keep your hand out, which normally she won't but if she did

God will see that if you disobey your mom or your dad now What's amazing about that and humorous to me is that it's amazing how

God then goes and tells the parents about it and you get caught You can't you know, then you think mom and dad are omnipresent watching everything

But really that's the Lord that's doing that. You know, why it's good that you get caught children for the same reason it's good that adults get caught when they sin because if we get caught

God will deal with the sin and If it's dealt with properly, we will see it as it is exceedingly sinful and wrong and Disgusting to God and it becomes disgusting to us and then we agree with God about how bad our sin is and that same thing is confessing sin and So then we can get right with the

Lord. Sometimes we face face chastisement but after that we get a hug and God says now it's over.

It's covered. Let's go forward and sin no more don't do that sin anymore and that's the proper way to deal with it and So God sees our iniquities our iniquities are set before God Our secret sins are in the light of his countenance

Nothing can be hidden for one moment of earth time from God Job 42 2 says

I know that thou can't do everything and that no thought can be withholding from thee

You can't even think a thought that God does not record instantly and understand and know everything about the thought

Isaiah 29 15 woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the

Lord in that amazing someone who would seek to Hide their counsel from the

Lord and to put their works in the dark and they say who seeth us and who knoweth us

The Bible says woe to a person that believes that's how it works Now listen, you can know that's not how it works and you can be deceived by the evil one to Rationalize or forget for a moment that that's how it works

Don't let that happen woe to the one who seeks to hide his own thoughts and his works and play like his works are in the dark and Says who sees us?

Who knows us Jeremiah 23 24 says can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him

Hebrews 4 13 says neither. Is there any creature that is not made manifest in his sight?

But all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do

Psalm 4 4 says stand in awe and sin not

Commune with your heart upon your bed and be still now. Let me take this one and make a point

Stand in awe and sin not would you turn with me to Exodus 20 and verse 17?

this is a passage we've been preaching through lately, so it'll be from very familiar to you and You'll remember when we were here

But I want you to see a point that deals with God's omniscience And with this concept that's found in Psalm 4 4 where it says stand in awe and sin not

Why are those two concepts related? Why is it that standing in awe of God and not sinning are related?

Well, let's look at Exodus chapter 20 start with me around verse 17 and You're gonna find out that the context here has is right after God has given the

Ten Commandments In fact, we're gonna read one of the last bits of it here in 17 as we go into this

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife nor his manservant nor his maidservant nor his ox nor his ass nor anything

That is thy neighbors now Right after hearing this look how the people respond and all the people saw the

Thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet. What does that represent? Up on that Mount the light and the trumpets and the thundering

Presence of God that which said, okay the presence of God and the awesome presence of God and the mountain

Smoking and when the people saw it they removed and stood afar off now

Did they walk closer to God or further from God? They moved away from God and they said unto

Moses speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us Lest we die

They didn't want their relationship This is part of the passage that we discussed in earlier sermons about how they rejected this kind of relationship where they could have been priests

Believer priests like we are today and they said no we we don't want that Moses you go do that we'll just do what you tell us to do they wanted law and Moses said unto the people now look at this is what

Moses said in response to this great fear that the people had they they moved away from this mountain as They saw the awesome presence of God and look what

Moses said and Moses said into the people fear not In other words, don't fear in the wrong way

Don't fear in the wrong way He is your father. He loves you Don't fear in the wrong way, but look here for God is come to prove you and That his fear now he's saying fear in the right way

Isn't that strange fear not now he says but God has come that his fear may be before your faces

Why? Somebody read that last phrase to him That you sin not so what is the purpose of this entire meeting?

That The proper healthy fear for God would be there to protect his people from sinning

So what do we see from this little passage in the passage in in? Psalm 4 4 where it says stand in all the only way you can stand in all

God is to be in his presence and To be aware of his presence Now whether we like it or not

We are always in his presence because not only is the omniscient knowing everything we think and seeing and knowing everything we do

But he's on my present. He's everywhere at one time We're never out of his presence and that's what the psalmist is talking about.

Where can I go be away from your spirit? No, where is the answer? but we're not always humanly aware of his presence because sometimes we allow our minds to wonder and Look at the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life and these things

Coming in choke the word from us We get out of his word and when and I I'm convinced of this that to the extent that you are in the

Word of God Filled with the Holy Spirit to that extent you will be more and more aware of his presence

You will have a closer and closer relationship to the extent that you're in the word more

Filled with the Holy Spirit and in the word you are more like Joshua who went out to that tabernacle and didn't want to leave

You're not so much like the ones who'd never went out there But stayed in their tent doors and nipped knelt on their knees and looked religious, but they had no relationship and so to the extent that you

Go out to that place in your own hearts and you become aware of the presence of God You then stand in awe and guess what the result of that is the byproduct of is is that you send not?

You send not so what is the great? Practical application of the omniscience of God the fact that he knows all things

The great practical application for us as we look at it is that we realize that he knows every thought

He knows every word and the thought in the heart that it came from and he sees every action

He besets our path behind and in front when we sit down and when we stand up when we go to bed when we rise

Up when we go out into the world when we come back when we speak to our wives gentlemen when we first get home from Work, which is the toughest time?

ladies When the husband gets home What we present for him

God sees it all Isn't it interesting that there's a verse that says our prayers cannot and be answered ladies and gentlemen if we're not right with our spouse

Well a little rabbit trailed there, but my point is God is God is present. God is knowing it all

God is he not only knows everything, but he knows it in a way that we can't comprehend because he knows perfectly

I better be careful. I'm going to get into my third point But he knows perfectly What's behind everything that we do the reason the motives he sees it all

Stand in awe and sin not Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still still means at peace at peace with God Ezekiel 11 5 says and the

Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said unto me speak thus saith the Lord thus

Have you said O house of Israel for I know the things that come into your mind

Every one of them God tells the name you haven't hidden anything to me. I know what you've been thinking In it interesting that right before the flood

God said the thoughts of their hearts were evil were only evil Continually, how do you know that?

Does he knew their thoughts from afar off? And then one last thought under this topic

In Matthew chapter 6 verse 4 in Matthew chapter 6 verse 8 in Matthew chapter 6 verse 32 4 8 and 32 there we see some of the bit of the aspect of the omniscience of God with respect to our

Religion we talked about a little bit in Sunday school and out of James this morning about what pure religion is and so forth, but look what

Jesus says in in Matthew 6 4 that thine alms may be in secret and Thy father which seeth in secret.

That's omniscience Thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly think about as we go about to serve

God think about the omniscience of God and how different that is than the knowledge of man and Let the things that you do from your heart as the spirit moves you

The good deeds the good works that you do let them be in secret because God will still know them

Because there is no secret thing from God and Jesus instructed the people He said very clearly let when you give alms when you give to the poor when you do a good thing unto the

Lord Don't let men see you do it do it in secret Because that way only the omniscient

God can even know about it But he shall know about it and he will reward you openly now.

I like this one Look at verse 8 it speaks of a different aspect of the omniscience of God towards his children

Be not ye therefore likened to them for your that means like the heathen don't be like the heathen for your father

He had just told him don't be repetitious. Don't don't just babble in your prayers

Lord. Give me this. Give me this Like you're having a mental pep rally That's not what prayer is all about.

He says don't be like them For your father knoweth what things you have need of before you ever ask him

Now that's not teaching not to ask that's teaching omniscience That's teaching that God already knows what you're going to ask for before you ask for it

God already knows the need before you even recognize the need Perfect example of that was one time when we were driving home,

Mahalia, or I don't know at least from Dallas I don't really remember if it's from between Dallas and Coors County or between Coors County, Mahalia, but we were driving along and Katie Stan Katie, no,

I'm kidding. I Did that to him at a wedding recently and had him stand and Katie Katie let me know that was not the right thing to do.

So I'm gonna pick on her a little bit more publicly here So we're driving down the highway and Katie.

Oh, I don't know how old she was but She was about that age. You wish your children would eternally stay whatever age that is

You know a little a little age where they say that they're really nifty things and you want to write them in a book and then

You kill yourself because you didn't But she was wanting a horse Real badly. She had wanted a horse for many years long before she was able to have a horse

She wanted a horse and she just from time to time would throw out a little comment so mom and I would know, you know that she needs a horse and We passed by and she looked over there and said look over there mommy

And there was the most awful horse you've ever seen it what you could see more ribs than most horses even have

Sticking out through this dry hide and No leg muscles just you know, his head was just sagging down like this

Couldn't hardly eat and it was so skinny. You've never seen a horse that skinny ever And she said mom look at that horse.

You'll get that one for me. I'll feed him She Had a horse within six months

But you know what? We didn't get her that horse Because we knew her needs we knew what she needed

She didn't need a skinny old horse that she would have to feed she needed a smaller one That was a pony that was you know, she could ride and so forth.

So we got her the right horse We knew what she meant even when she asked kind of slightly amiss

It's just a little illustration of how God is in his omniscience Don't think for a moment that he doesn't have every need you'll have in your entire life on this earth already

Already within control He sees the needs and then when we ask sometimes we don't even ask for the right thing exactly

But he gives us the right thing And sometimes before we've grown to a place of maturity where we understand which is where we all still are

We think he didn't answer the prayer Katie comes up to me and said dad. That's not the horse

I asked for What if she had done that yeah, that's this horse is healthy and has muscles and You know, he's young and has teeth and I didn't want that one.

I wanted that one. We saw out by the highway We do that sometimes

Let me say God didn't answer my prayer. Well, the Lord knows our needs. He is omniscient

He knows exactly what we need now Let's move back into Psalm 139 and close this little passage off and we'll leave the third point for next time verse 10

Brings I'm not presence together with omnipotence as we've already seen happen in many other verses

To the extent that it brings God's sovereign will into our lives Now this is too wonderful for me

This is so high that I cannot attain to it. But this is what the scriptures say

You are supposed to choose your paths wisely Young people going to college.

It's almost a sermon for you Yours you are held responsible for by God By the omniscient

God who knows everything you say everything you do and sees everywhere you go To go to the right place

You're held responsible. But look what verse 10 says Even there shall thy hand lead me now.

Where did we just leave off who could read verse 9 to me? Now you're probably not going to dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea and look at verse 8 if I take my bed in hell now this is

Exaggerated language trying to make a point that there's not any place you can go Anywhere where verse 10 is not going to happen.

Now look at verse 10 Even if I were in the grave, even if I were out in the middle of the sea

Even there shall my hand Lead thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me

When we think of the omniscience of God we must understand that can be both a comfort and A motivator to stop sinning at the same time

But we need to realize as we think of the omniscience of God that even as we choose our paths

God's hand is leading We never do that alone.

We may think we do but this word lead in the Hebrew is fascinating. It is not call and it means to transport

Almost makes you think of Star Trek where they beam me up Scotty beam me up Scotty. I love that bumper sticker

You know, you see Dallas traffic and it's horrible and you're bumper to bumper

You're not going anywhere and the guy in front of you is bumper sticker said just beam me up Scotty I'm ready to get out of here

Well think about this transport this idea of God being able to transport us to the place.

He wants us to be in Even there shall thy hand Transport me

Shall thy hand Govern me is another way. This word has been translated into English Shall thy hand put me is another

English word that this has been translated into in the Old Testament To guide me to transport me to bring me to the place where I'm supposed to be

That's what the hand of God is doing in all of our paths. He is omniscient

He knows everything. He knows every choice you make you know, why? Because his hand is leading you in those choices and you're not aware of it sometimes and sometimes you are

And then he goes on in the same phrase and he says and I right hand shall hold Me when even if I'm out in the midst of the sea

That's not a good place to be by the way He's not talking about an island a desert island a beautiful island in the midst of the sea

He's talking about you just got transported out there and left Alone in the midst of the sea or if you were in hell in the grave you face death

He says even then shall your hand Transport me and bring me and put me in the right place and your right hand shall hold me

This word hold is the word all cause which means to seize and It carries the connotation to the

Jewish mind to own in other words To seize something with the idea of holding it in possession

Now think about this even there shall thy right hand transport me and put me where I am supposed to be and Thy right hand shall own me

Shall seize me for ownership all the time every day every minute you can be far away from home

If you're a young person Just coming out of the nest you might find those wings take you out in the middle of the sea from time to time into a place that's

You're worried you're upset You know, you don't have mom and dad right there to ask.

What do I do here? You're not even around your home church You're trying to find a church Trying to find a church to go to and you keep going to one after another and you just it's not where you want to Be and you're out in that sea

Realize that the Lord's hand is leading you and Possessing you he owns you

What a beautiful thing to know both from the point of view of comfort and The point of view of avoiding sin, let's stand and have prayer together

Father we ask that you be with our young people as we see many of them go to college this week and To leave that Protected nest that we've tried to create in our homes and in this church and in our little school here and father may

They be very aware of your omniscience that you know their thoughts You know what they're thinking before they do anything and you ascertain with your eye everything that they then do and You know their ways and you know their thoughts and the motives

But also you're present with them always and there's no place that they can hide from your spirit

Lord, may they be comforted by this in time of fear I bet may they be comforted by your omnipresence and your omniscience that you know

Their need before they ever ask me, but may they be comforted by this in their time of need the father may they also be

Corrected in time of temptation if they ever begin to forget

That you're watching may they learn to stay in that tabernacle before you like Joshua did the young man who was probably about their age and Who was like that when he was their age and he would stand before God and The very awe of God would keep him from sin

Holy Spirit, would you use this? Bring these truths to mind and the young people's hearts and minds in the days to come this year

And Lord may we as adults not forget these truths because the enemy has a way to cause us to rationalize things away

And to have that childlike thought that we can get away with it and we cannot

So father we thank you For being a father to us and having an all -seeing eye of love and compassion and strength

And chastisement when it's necessary But that eye that sees your children all the time

Go with us into our time of fellowship bless our meal together and we ask it in Jesus name.