Sunday
Morning Bible Study
May 23, 2004
Introduction
Background checks. Our insurance company is now requiring that we do
background checks on all people that work with the youth. We actually think it’s a great idea. We are planning on expanding it to include
people that work within the children’s ministry. We think it will help to insure the safety of
our kids by knowing the people working with them a little better. We decided to start by running background
checks on all the staff first, including me.
Pastor Greg sat down with me and went over my report. There wasn’t anything on the criminal report
– I guess my speeding ticket didn’t count.
But it’s amazing to see that there are records of where we’ve lived for
the last twenty-five years. I’d
forgotten the address of the first apartment we lived in after we got married,
but it’s right there in the report.
Amazing. Kind of scary too.
Speaking of background records …
Illustration
Area 51
You’ve all heard of the Air Force’s ultra-high-security, super- secret base
in Nevada, known simply as “Area
51?” Well, late one afternoon, the Air Force folks out at Area 51 were very
surprised to see a Cessna landing at their “secret” base. They immediately
impounded the aircraft and hauled the pilot into an interrogation room. The
pilot’s story was that he took off from Vegas, got lost, and spotted the Base
just as he was about to run out of fuel. The Air Force started a full FBI
background check on the pilot and held him overnight during the investigation.
By the next day, they were finally convinced that the pilot really was lost and
wasn’t a spy. They gassed up his airplane, gave him a terrifying
“you-did-not-see-a-base” briefing, complete with threats of spending the rest of
his life in prison, told him Vegas was that-a-way on such-and-such a heading,
and sent him on his way. The next day, to the total disbelief of the Air Force,
the same Cessna showed up again. Once again, the MP’s surrounded the plane,
only this time there were two people in the plane. The same pilot jumped out
and said, “Do anything you want to me, but my wife is in the plane and you have
to tell her where I was last night.”
There are no secrets with God.
:1-6 God knows me - Omniscience
:1 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Searching the internet
Sometimes you can find what you’re looking for. Other times it’s hard to find what you’re
looking for. I searched the internet
last night for my name to see what would come up with. I found pages that actually have my name on
them. I also found pages about my dad
(Richard Cathers Sr.). I also found a
guy in New Jersey named Rick
Cathers who works with a consulting firm and gives computer training seminars,
and another Rick Cathers in Idaho
who knows about plumbing.
God has searched and found out all about you. He’s got a better search engine than Google. He knows which one is you.
:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down
(Psa 139:3 NLT) You chart
the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know
where I am.
God knows right where you are, even without GPS. He knows what we’re thinking from a distance.
:5 Thou hast beset me behind and before
(Psa 139:5 NLT) You both
precede and follow me.
:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me
wonderful – pil’iy –
wonderful, incomprehensible, extraordinary
Knowing what God knows about me blows me away
Lesson
Omniscience
God knows everything. Specifically,
He knows everything about me.
For some of us, this is comforting.
He knows my needs.
(Mat 6:31-33 NLT)
"So don't worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. {32}
Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your
heavenly Father already knows all your needs, {33} and he will give you all you
need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary
concern.
He knows about my hurts and my pains.
(Isa 57:15 NASB)
For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is
Holy, "I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and
lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the
heart of the contrite.
For some of us, this is a bit scary.
He sees everything we do.
Illustration
The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic
school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun
made a note, “Take only one, God is watching,” Moving through the line, to the
other end of the table, was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. One of the
boys wrote a note, “Take all you want, God is watching the apples.”
Actually, God is watching everything.
He knows all about the things I try and hide from other people. He knows
all my thoughts, not just the nice ones.
He let Ezekiel take a peek at what was going on in the
minds of some of the elders of Israel:
(Ezek 8:12 KJV)
Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of
the house of Israel
do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The
LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.
:7-12 I can’t flee from You - Omnipresence
:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
For some, the idea that God knows everything makes us want to run – as far
from Him as possible.
:8 if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
hell – sh@’owl – sheol,
underworld, grave, hell, pit
:9-10 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea;
(Ps 139:9-10 The Message) If I flew on morning’s wings to the far
western horizon, {10} You’d find me in a minute— you’re already there waiting!
This is exactly what Jonah tried to do.
God called Jonah to go to the east and preach to the city of Nineveh. But Jonah didn’t want to obey God, and
instead he bought himself a ticket to Tarshish, the farthest known place in the
west. Jonah found he couldn’t run from
God.
We call this the “omnipresence” of God.
He is everywhere present at the same time.
:13-18 Made by God - Omnipotence
:13 For thou hast possessed my reins
reins – kilyah – kidneys; thought
by ancients to be the seat of emotion and affection.
:14 I am fearfully and wonderfully
made
Lesson
God does good work
Illustration
Here are a few facts about the human body that we bet you didn’t know:
Nostrils switch on and off every three to four hours, so that one is always
smelling and breathing while the other closes down and rests. In almost every
language on earth the word for “mother” begins with the “m” sound. This may be due to the fact that babies all
over the world learn the consonant “m” first. Women smile more than men. For immediate proof of this, leaf through any
high-school yearbook. ln right handed people, the middle fingernail of the
right hand grows fastest. In left-handed
people, the opposite holds true. Scientists have found that within the
“nonmusical” population the left ear is better at recognizing melodies than the
right ear; however, the right ear of trained musicians is superior. Sleep
studies show that if your sleeping partner is absent when you’re asleep, you’ll
almost always move over to the side of the bed normally occupied by him or her.
-- Marc McCutcheon,
The Compass in Your Nose and Other Astonishing Facts About Humans, 1989.
Illustration
The body is a masterpiece of exquisite design. Beautifully “engineered,” it is governed by
several hundred systems of control—each interacting with and affecting the
other. The brain has 10 billion nerve
cells to record what you see and hear. Your
skin has more than 2 million tiny sweat glands—about 3000 per square inch—all
part of the intricate system which keeps the body at an even temperature. A “pump” in your chest makes your blood
travel 168 million miles a day—equivalent of 6720 times around the world! The lining of your stomach contains 35
million glands secreting juices which aid the process of digestion. And these are but a few of the involved
processes and chemical wonders which operate to sustain your life.
Illustration
In A.D. 399 Saint Augustine
said, “People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of
the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars—and they pass by themselves without
wondering.”
:15 curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Speaking metaphorically of his mother’s womb
:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect
Lesson
Life in the womb
God knew us even while He was forming us in our mother’s womb.
Life exists from conception.
Abortion is the taking of a human life.
Illustration
Situational ethics is now being taught in many schools. However, one
teacher who wanted to illustrate the faultiness of human reasoning gave the
following situation to a class of students:
“How would you advise a mother who was pregnant with her fifth child based
on the following facts.
“Her husband had syphilis. She had
tuberculosis. Their first child was born
blind. Their second child died. Their third child was born deaf. Their fourth child had tuberculosis.
“The mother is considering an abortion.
Would you advise her to have one?”
In view of these facts, most of the students agreed that she should have an
abortion.
The teacher then announced, “If you said ‘Yes’ you would have just killed
the great composer Ludwig von Beethoven!”
:17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!
precious – yaqar – to
esteem, be prized, be valuable, be precious, be costly, be appraised
:18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand
Lesson
Overwhelmed by His thoughts
Someone once estimated that there are 1025 grains of sand on the earth. Maybe David is just being poetic, but what if
we took this number literally?
How often do you have a thought about someone you love? Maybe 100 times a day? (It’s probably more
like 25 times a day, for some of you less romantic types it’s probably once a
week J)
If the average person lives 80 years, that is 29,200 days. If you thought about your loved one 100 times
a day, you’d think about them 2,920,000 times in your life (assuming you could
think about them as an infant). That’s
roughly a “3” with 6 zeroes after it. There
are 86,400 seconds in each day. If you
could think about a person once a second for eighty years, you’d be thinking of
them 2,522,880,000 times which could be rounded to a 3 with nine zeroes after
it. That’s assuming you’re thinking
about them in your sleep. You’re quite
obsessed with this person, aren’t you?
Yet God thinks of us more times than a 10 with 25 zeroes after it. God
would have to be thinking of us more than billions and billions of times a second. That’s a lot of thinking.
Do you get the idea that you’re on God’s mind?
And what does He think about when He thinks of you?
(Jer 29:11
KJV) For I know the thoughts that I
think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give
you an expected end.
Wow.
I mentioned how Jonah tried to run away from the Lord.
Jonah wasn’t running because he was afraid of how God
hated Jonah. Jonah was running because
he knew that God was amazingly, incredibly merciful, and that God wanted to show
mercy to a nation of people that Jonah despised.
:19-24 Hating wickedness
:19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God
We are all sinners
(Rom 3:23
KJV) For all have sinned, and come short
of the glory of God;
The consequences of our sin is death
(Rom 6:23
KJV) For the wages of sin is death; but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The person who sins will one day have to pay the price for their sin. The price is death, separation from God.
God will slay the wicked.
Yet God doesn’t want to slay the wicked.
God’s desire is that the wicked would be saved.
(1 Tim 2:4 NKJV) who desires
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
(2 Pet 3:9 NKJV) …not
willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
He’s done everything possible so that the wicked could be saved.
He sacrificed His only Son, allowing Him to die on a cross and pay for the
sins of the wicked.
He offers us forgiveness and the gift of eternal life if we will only trust
Him.
(John 3:16 KJV)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Yet He is also just. If a person
refuses to accept Jesus, they will spend eternity paying the price for their
own sin.
(John 3:18 KJV)
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God.
:22 I hate them with perfect hatred
perfect – takliyth – completion,
completeness
:23 Search me, O God
In verse one, David said that God had already searched him. As He has thought about who God is, he says,
“Keep searching me …”
My background check was only for addresses and criminal records up through
April 30. It doesn’t include our new
address since we’ve moved two weeks ago.
It doesn’t include any criminal activity since April 30.
:24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting.
Lesson
Self examination
For the believer:
Not just hating wickedness in others, but looking for it in me.
When you see wickedness in others, we ought to turn and examine our own
lives as well.
(Mat 7:1-5 KJV)
Judge not, that ye be not judged. {2} For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again. {3} And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but
considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? {4} Or how wilt thou say to
thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is
in thine own eye? {5} Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own
eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's
eye.
Illustration
Sometime ago Denalyn, Max Lucado’s wife, bought a
monkey. He goes on to write,
I didn’t want a monkey in our house, so I objected.
“Where is he going to eat?” I asked. “At our table.”
“Where is he going to sleep?” I inquired. “In our bed.”
“What about the odor?” I demanded. “I got used to you; I guess the monkey can
too.”
-- Max Lucado, In
The Grip of His Grace (Word, 1996), p. 164.
Illustration
Years ago the London Times ran an article asking the
question, “What is wrong with the world?” It encouraged readers to respond. I
am sure the editor must have read the following reply more than once before its
profound truth sank in.
Dear Sir,
In response to your question, “What is wrong with the
world?”
I am.
Yours Truly,
G. K. Chesterton.
A word for the person who has not yet decided to follow Jesus.
Illustration
Imagine a businessman checking into a fine hotel. He goes into the dining room and orders a
steak dinner. He goes up to his room and
watches a pay-per-view movie. He calls
room service and orders an ice-cream sundae.
He calls home on the telephone and talks for a long while,
long-distance. He goes to the salon
downstairs and gets a haircut. He goes
to the gift shop and buys some toys for his kids. He buys a new suit for himself. The next morning he gets up and orders room
service for breakfast. He gets dressed,
packs, and goes to the front desk to check out.
The clerk hands him the bill for his stay. Shock!
There’s a bill to be paid?!? “Why
I would have never thought I’d have to pay for all of this!” he says. He’s a fool.
Of course you have to pay at checkout.
Are you ready to do something about your sin? There will be a day when you will have to pay
your bill.
You can pay it yourself, or let Someone else. If you wait until “checkout”, it will be too
late, you’ll have to pay yourself. Let
Jesus pay for you now. Today is the day
of salvation.