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The River ChurchSermons

Chained

Justin Dean · Sunday, 26 July 2026 · 46:28 · 6,693 words

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The sermon explores Psalm 139, presenting three themes: God made you, God knows you, and God is with you. Drawing on the hydration image, the speaker explains that prayer, worship, and Scripture refresh the soul like water refreshes a dry body. David’s prayer in verses 23‑24 models asking God to search the heart, reveal any wayward path, and lead to everlasting life. Listeners are encouraged to rest in God’s intimate knowledge, and to respond with humility, inviting God to transform areas that do not match his design.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

create 32 god 151 intention 9 knit 8 intricately 7 design 10 picture 17 everlasting 10 wonderful 16 david 22 o 9 darkness 10

Topics

Prayer 6 Sin 4 Salvation 1 Sanctification 1 Faith 1

Scripture referenced 12

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 139 5:13 Psalms 139 6:10 Psalms 139 7:37 Psalms 139 8:54 Psalms 139 9:18 Psalms 139 9:39 Genesis 1:27 14:22 Genesis 1:27 14:36 Isaiah 64 17:49 Romans 5:8 29:12 Romans 5:8 30:00 Romans 5:8 30:03

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

me. Thank you for coming, and we're going to throw back to the location pastors. Good morning, River

Church. Morning, good morning. For those of you who don't know who I am, my name is Pastor Justin

Dean. I'm the location pastor here at the River Church, and it's been a little while since I've

gotten a chance to see you all. A couple weeks ago, we were at the fair, and so I saw some of you

sparsely, but people were slipping by me left and right. And then last week, we were on, my wife and

our family, my wife, daughter, and I, we were on a family trip, and so we're excited to be back and

be with you. And some of you are like, Justin, you're just saying that. And here's the deal.

There's a reason why I said family trip and not vacation. A couple years ago, Pastor Josh Combs,

he made the distinction to me, and it always stuck with me. There's a difference between a vacation

and a family trip. A vacation is just you and your spouse, and a family trip is pretty much anyone

else, and there's a reason for that, right? And I'll tell you this. If you want a test in patience

and self-control, get a 19-month-old. You can borrow mine if you need one. And go sit in traffic

in Chicago and listen to the Bluey theme song on repeat for an hour, and then you will have a true

test. That needs to be like a form of torture, let me tell you. I'm a changed person. I'm a changed person.

I'm a changed person because of that hour in traffic and the Bluey theme song in my head.

And so when I say that I'm excited to be back, what I'm really saying is I'm just excited my

daughter's in the nursery for a little bit. No, but I am excited to be back. I'm excited

to have a chance to dive into God's Word together with you, to really spend some time this morning

dissecting God's Word and spending some time together with my family, the family of God.

And so really, I'm excited to be diving back into the Psalms. We only have a couple more weeks here

in the book of Psalms. And so it was interesting because last Sunday, my wife and I went to our

in-laws' church. And while we were there, the pastor was actually in the book of Psalms as well.

And he said that they were starting a series. He wasn't clear on whether they were starting it in

Psalms for a period of time. But he specifically was tackling one of the Psalms. And I loved the

illustration that he used. And I loved it so much that I was mad at myself that I didn't come up with

it. And so I was sitting there and I was like, I'm going to steal that, right? Any of you guys ever

have that where someone says something funny or a catchy one-liner and you're like, I'm taking that.

And so what he described was that our souls or our spiritual lives are very much the same way like

our body in need of hydration.

Hydration. And so when our bodies are dehydrated, when our bodies are just so dried up, right? What

do we do? We grab a water, we grab a Gatorade, we grab whatever. And we look to hydrate ourselves

to stay hydrated, right? And for our souls, a lot of times we don't do that, right? When we come

into this period of dehydration, we come into this, this dry season for our souls, we really

just try to, uh, grit our teeth and tough it out, right? Push our way through. And so he described

how there is this need in our souls for hydration. He talked about prayer, time in worship, uh, time

in God's word. And as these aspects, these water, Gatorade, whatever it is to hydrate and to refresh

our soul. And when we look at the Psalms, the Psalms are these individual pictures of hydration.

What they're designed to do is give us these examples of what it means for our hearts and our

souls to be refreshed and how there are each and every one of these Psalms, no matter who the

author is, is a picture of what that looks like. Whether that's a picture of walking through a

really dry, desperate, desolate period of our lives and pouring that out for the Lord, asking

him for hydration, or whether that's in these moments of joy and praise, or whether that's

remembering God, or whether that's in these moments of joy and praise, or whether that's

finding ourselves as the character of God through prayer or worship or whatever that may be.

There is this reality that our spiritual lives in our spiritual lives, we are in need of this

constant refreshment. And so the Psalms teach us how to do that. Give us example. When we are

lacking understanding, we can turn to the Psalm and say, I don't even know what I need. Let the

fill that in in our lives, but also an example of how to personalize that to us. So this morning,

as we come to the conclusion over the next two weeks of our series in Psalm, we're going to be

looking at Psalm 139. It's a pretty lengthy Psalm, but I'm excited to dive into it this morning.

But before we dive into God's Word, let's pray and ask Him for wisdom and understanding

as we dissect His Word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You. We thank You so much for Your Word,

the way that it teaches us, the way that it guides us, the way that it refreshes our soul.

Lord, I pray that this morning You would teach us through Your Word, that as we come to Your Word,

we would have a heart open, ready to hear, ready to have You transform our lives.

Lord, I thank You so much for who You are, a God that loves us, a God that cares for us,

and a God that gave us His Word so that we have a chance to understand and be transformed.

In Your precious and holy name, Jesus' name, amen. And so if you look at Psalm 139, we see that it

is written by David. Right off the bat, it says, to the choir master, a psalm of David.

One of the things that I love about the different psalms that David wrote specifically is he is

his emotions, right? There is this sense of maybe he's feeling immense sorrow, or maybe he's feeling

immense triumph and joy, but he's outpouring his emotion. But as he does that, as he outpours his

emotion, he also gives this picture of his understanding of the character of God. And so

when he talks about his emotion, he either exhorts himself, right? I'm feeling this way,

but God, You are this. Or he links whatever he is celebrating as, you know, this happened,

and it's because, God, You are these things. And so it's not just an outpouring of an emotion,

but it's this picture of how God is in and shapes all these different things of our lives.

And so as he writes, he's constantly bringing up different themes and demonstrating the character

of God and looking to say, here is why we praise God.

Or here is why we need to be reminded of who God is. And so with that being said, as we walk

through Psalm 139, this morning's passage lends itself very easily to rabbit trails. There are so

many different theological and cultural things that we can look, and we can go down those avenues

of application this morning. And it's a long passage, so I'm going to do my best not to go

down those rabbit trails. But if you are struggling with any of those rabbit trails, or if your mind

goes off on any of those rabbit trails, feel free. My card is back to guest services. Grab my phone

number. Let's talk this week. I would love to talk through God's Word with you. There's nothing

that brings me more joy. But as we look, we're going to see, and I'm going to give them to you

beforehand. There are several themes, and I kind of tried to boil it down to three themes that we

see daily. And I'm going to give them to you beforehand. And I'm going to give them to you

that kind of comes out of his outpouring of his emotions and his praise to God. The first one is

God made us, God knows us, and God is with us. Or if you want to put it down specifically for you,

make it very applicable to your life. God made you, God knows you, and God is with you. And so

we're going to read all of Psalm 139. It is a lengthy passage. I know for some of you,

it might make you uncomfortable. Here's the deal. We need to sometimes be comfortable in our

uncomfort, right? We need to turn to the Lord. And sometimes the things that God asks us to do

are uncomfortable. We need to look and say, God, we will submit to those things regardless. And so

we're going to read all of Psalm 139. It's going to be on the screen. But I'd encourage you, if you

have your Bibles, open it up and follow along with me. But if you're someone who's an audible

learner like me, feel free, sit back, close your eyes, listen to God. And if you're someone who's

God's word, but hear God's word and hear the outpouring of David to the Lord. It says this,

Psalm 139.

"'O Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You

discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path, my lying down, and are acquainted with all

my ways.'"

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all together.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high, I cannot attain it.

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 and shield, you are there.

If I take wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even 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 bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

For you have 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 book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me.

When, as yet, there was none of them.

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.

O, that you would slay the wicked, O God.

O men of blood, depart from me.

They speak against you with malicious intent.

Your enemies take your name in vain.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against me?

Do I hate them with complete hatred?

I count them my enemies.

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 of the everlasting.

What a wonderful passage of Scripture.

And if you look, hopefully you can see those three kind of themes sticking out to you as you read.

If not, I have some work ahead of me this morning, which I'm okay with.

I had a Red Bull, I'm ready.

Here's what David does, is he asserts that he is known by God.

Look, very beginning, verse 1.

O Lord, you have searched me, and you know me.

But one of the things that he does is he takes a second out of that picture.

Once he lays it out, he starts by saying, why?

Or he takes this period in this passage, and he reminds each and every one of us as readers,

why God knows.

Why is it that God knows us so well?

And the reality is, he created us.

Look at this passage.

Time and time again, we see there is this picture of God being our creator.

You hem me in behind and before, and lay your hand on me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high and I cannot attain.

Jump down to verse 13.

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 book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there were none of them.

So there's this.

There's this picture of creator God.

Creator God Almighty, who created the universe and created humanity.

When we look back at Genesis 1, verse 27, lays it out very completely.

We see there is this picture of God creating not just Adam and Eve,

but this creation of humanity, this design for humanity.

Genesis 1, 27.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him male.

In female, he created them.

People, men and women, are image bearers of the Almighty by God's design.

God looked at humanity.

He says, here is my design.

Men, women, I create you in the image.

of me and he creates very intricately and with purpose but more than just this general creation

of humanity what david says in 139 is not you created humanity he says you created me me there

was this purposeful intent behind the creation of david of people not just humanity and so when we

look we can see that it's easy for us to say well genesis 127 is this ideal blueprint this was

the initial design but then we know later in genesis sin creeps onto the scene and so that

picture of image bears that picture of how god creates

well

it's flawed from there on out but david and there's other passages in the scripture that

look back and say no the same design happens even though sin has marred us god still creates us

intentionally and with purpose god did not just create humanity god created you god created you

every man woman child in this room god created god created me there is this deep purpose of this

intentional design where we look and we see this expanded truth where we see each and every human

is created with unique intentionality by god look back at verse 13 for you form 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 for you

when i was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth

your eyes saw my unformed substance and in your book were written every one of them the days

that were formed for me when as yet there were none there is this picture this unformed substance

right as he uses this analogy or this illustration of a weaver there is this thread to be used and

god with full design with full intention with immense care created you at the moment of your

conception and began to knit you together there is this picture of this craftsman this weaver and

in isaiah he uses this other illustration isaiah 64 8 says this but now oh lord you are our father

we are the clay and you are the potter we are the clay and you are the potter

the work of your hand we are the creation of god both generally as humanity and specifically as

each individual person god is not bound by the limitations of us as people right where you think

how could he create that many people that fast right is he just like really good at the assembly

line right is is ford and gm like have him on the line trying to get him to come work for them no

god is not bound

by our time god is not bound by our finite minds he is so greater right david even says

i couldn't hope to comprehend there is this picture of he knows you not only because he sees you or he

watches you he's not like santa claus knows when you're sleeping knows when you're awake

no he knows you because every piece of you he made and so when we talk about this

introspection of god he's not bound by our time god is not bound by our finite minds he is so greater

intrinsic value of human beings, right? When I talk about the heart that we should have for people,

the reason that each and every person has intrinsic value and that we should love and

care for is because they are a person who is created by God. They are a creation of God.

They are God's workmanship. Whether believer or unbeliever, they were created and knit together.

They were woven together. They were formed. Their clay was formed by the potter. They are a creation

of God, and so they have deep value. No matter their race, no matter their culture, no matter their

gender, no matter their age, their ability, or their disability, they are a creation of the most high

God, and so they have value to him, and so they should have value to us as children of the most

high God. God created each one of us so perfectly, and throughout our lives, we may have been marred

by sin, right? Some of you maybe see that talk of substance, and you're like, God, couldn't you

have used like a little bit less substance, like specifically right here, right? No, those are the

actions of our choices, right? Those are the actions of our pursuits, but when it comes to

how God made us, he made us with such value, and we have this value intrinsically because

of our creator, but not only that, not only did he make you, but he placed you here and now.

One of the verses I think we talk a lot about, I think, verses 14 or 13 through

15.

Through 16, right? That gets said a lot, but one of the ones I think gets looked over in this

passage is verse 5 and 6, and it's such a wonderful illustration. He says,

You hem me in behind and before. You lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful

for me. It is high. I cannot maintain it. So not only did God knit us together, not only did he

weave us together, but he also made us whole. He made us whole. He made us whole. He made us whole.

He made us together and create us personally. He placed us personally. He put us in the time

and the place that he wanted for us. He hemmed us in. He stitched us right where he wanted

us to be. He looks and he says, he not only made us specifically, but he placed us in this time

and this season, in this situation, whatever. He hemmed us in for whatever reason.

For me, I know this is true because I simply could not make it without AC, right? Living in

the 1800s, no thanks. I need a shower every day, right? And if I don't have a shower every day,

it's really bad for everyone around me, right? And as much as that is a joke, right? God knows us

because he made us. And because of his divine purpose, he wove us into this time and place

intentionally. You've heard me say it before. God has placed you in your workplace specifically.

That was not an accident. God placed us in your, or placed you in your family specifically. That

was not an accident. God placed you here in Davison or in the greater Davison area, Genesee

County, for a reason, for a purpose. Now, I'm not God. I don't know that reason. I can speculate,

but God knows that. And we look and we say, God, we want to follow your divine purpose.

As you have hewn us in here, as you have

knit us together intentionally as you've hemmed us into this place, Lord, help us to find our

purpose in this patchwork. Help us to be the people that you want us to be here. And so we

look and we say, God not only made us, he placed us, and these intricacies that are in our lives

are not mistakes. They are known by our maker.

Which takes us to this second point, one that I've kind of brushed up against or touched several

times here, but we haven't dove into. God knows you. Look back to verse one through four. Now we

see this reality, right? So he lays this reality out, but then he comes back and he says, here's

all the reasons he knows you, but now we see even more intricately what he says in verse one through

Oh, Lord, you've searched me and know me.

You know.

When I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You searched out my path,

my lying down, and are acquainted with my ways even before a word is on my tongue.

Behold, oh Lord, you know it all together. This picture that David uses or these illustrations

that David uses to describe God is so wonderful.

is this deep knowledge of us. He knows us. He knows your actions. He knows your speech. He knows

your thoughts. He knows your intentions. So completely does the God of the universe know you

that he knows you better than you know you. He knows your intentions better than you know your

intentions. He sees the desires of your heart and he knows them. What is oblivious to you is obvious

to him. He looks and he knows you so completely. And notice that David does not say that God

approves all those things in our lives. He doesn't look and say, well God knows all these things so

he's okay with all these things, right? God knows when my intentions aren't right and so he's okay

with my intentions not being all right. He knows what I said and so he's okay with what I said. No,

he says he knows us. God knowing and seeing our sin doesn't mean that God approves of our sin,

but David looks and he says, God, you know the parts of me that I want to ignore, that I want

to hide, that I'm ashamed of, that I'm proud of, that bring me great joy, that others see in me

that I don't notice, right? David knows this reality very deeply. David, and to everyone else,

David is this incredible man. He's this great king.

He's this wise leader. He's this godly individual. This man after God's own heart. But when God

see, what God sees and knows, others do not. God knew David's flaws. God knew the intentions of

David's heart, both good and bad. God sees his intentions. He saw his lusts. He saw his failures.

The reality is God has this complete picture of David. God sees us too. God sees all of us. He sees

both the wonderful and the wretched. And the reality for us is that we fall short. God knows

you. God knows you fall short. Sometimes we want to put on a mask, a facade. The New Testament is

called this idea of whitewashed tombs, right? We want to paint the tombs of our lives so that they

look beautiful, wonderful, as this marvels for everyone to see, but inside is wretched and

decrepit. God sees. He sees the tombs of our lives. He sees the tombs of our lives. He sees the

external, but he also sees what cannot be seen. He knows. He knows. He knows the sin that you're

hiding. He knows the feelings, the selfishness. He knows the poor intentions. He knows the

deceptions. He sees through them. God knows. But the subtitle to this section is, and he still

loves you. God knows you, and he still loves you. God saw through the great king,

wise leader of David, and he saw the adulterous murderer, and he still loved David. God sees you.

He sees through whatever deceptions. He sees through whatever facade. He sees through whatever

sin. He still loves you. Some of you in this room struggle with the thought, if God really knows me,

he knows I can't be saved. God knows us all. We are all sinners, evil and wretched, but that is,

simply, how deep God's love is for you, for us. I love Romans 5.8. If you don't have this

verse underlined in your Bible or highlighted in your Bible, I would encourage you. This is a

wonderful passage, or this is a wonderful verse, really passage, but for the sake of time, we're

going to look specifically just at this one verse. If you're struggling with discouragement, if

you're struggling with feeling like a bad Christian, or that

God has you kind of as the outcast, oh yeah, I'll still keep you saved because I have to, but

you know, I'm going to keep you as far away from me as possible because you're just bad at this.

You need to know the truth of Romans 5.8.

You need to combat those lies in your head with Romans 5.8.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I'm going to read that in.

But God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Enemies of God, our sin put us at enmity, which is literally war, strife.

There was a battle between us and God because of our sin.

But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I love, I'm going to continue.

I said I would stay out of the context.

I just can't here.

Verse 9, it's not going to be on the screen.

Since therefore we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son,

much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we now have received reconciliation.

This is the gospel, folks.

The reason why we can have hope, the reason why we can turn to God in the midst of our sin

and our failure time and time and time and time again is because God loves us so deeply

and he saved us.

Christ, while we were still sinners, went to the cross, died the death that we deserved,

had the wrath of God poured out on him to spare us, even though we were deserving.

And he died the death that we deserved.

And on the third day, he rose again, conquering sin.

Paul reminds us if we confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our hearts,

he is risen from the dead, we will be saved.

That confession is what gives us hope.

That confession is what reminds us.

That God loves us.

And I love what Paul says here is even though while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.

That is the love that God has for us.

And if God loved us while we are at war with him, how much more will he love us now

that we are his children, that we are reconciled with him,

that we have this ability to rejoice even though we sin, even though we make mistakes,

even though we do things that would disappoint our father, our father,

and heaven loves us because we've been reconciled to God.

And so those days when you're like, I need to stop calling myself a Christian because I'm such a failure.

I don't even know why I go to church because the rest of the week I just fail and fail and fail and fail and fail God.

I try and I try with my kids.

I try and try with my family.

I try and try with my spouse.

I try and try at work.

And time and time again, I fail.

Well, if God loved you while you were an enemy of his, how much more does he love you now?

As a child of his, what a beautiful truth to combat the discouragement of sin in our lives.

And those lies circle our hearts on Saturday night and Sunday mornings,

trying to prevent us from coming to the community of God.

We can say, no, no, no.

I have a God who loves me and cares for me, even though I am flawed, imperfect.

God knows us.

He sees us.

He speaks truth into our lives.

He sees us.

David looks and he says, there is this heart that God has, even though he knows us and

he knows our fault and our failures.

He is with us.

Go back to that Psalm passage.

He lays out in this middle section, this reality of even though God knows us and he knows us

so deeply, he will not leave us.

Where shall I go from your spirit?

Where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to the heaven, you are there.

If I ascend to the heaven, you are there.

I make my bed and shield 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 no matter

where I go he will hold me he will lead me even if I descend to the darkest places and then he

he really ties that direct idea into verse 11 if I say surely the darkness shall cover me

if I try and hide from God if I try to flee from God if I in my own selfishness and in my own

failure take myself to a place that I think is too far for God to see me to know me to be with me

it's not far enough and the light shall be night verse 12 even the darkness is not dark to you

the night is bright as the day for the darkness is as light with you

you

he knows us and he's with us he's with you whether that darkness that you're running to is

a darkness to hide whether that's the darkness of trials and tribulations suffering in your life

for whatever reason you've ended up in this place of darkness and you look and say God can't see me

I'm hiding from God or I'm in a place where God can't see me God not only still sees you but he's

there with you nothing has changed nothing has changed why because God can't see you

because God loves you so deeply he saved you through his son Jesus Christ and he loves you

he will walk with you he will see you and be with you he's a very present help in times of trouble

whether that's trouble that you've freely walked in on your own accord or whether you found yourself

there by accident and this is an important truth one that we must remind ourselves of taking our

looking back at that hydration of the soul in times of drought in those times where whether we have

gone on thirst strike right or whether we found ourselves in a period of desert in our lives

we can look back to this passage and say God I know you're with me nourish me encourage me

remind me of these truths God you created me God you know me God you are with me God you are with

me there is this truth that we can encourage ourselves with that we can remind ourselves of

that we can look to praise God in and so sometimes for me I struggle with knowing what my response

should be these are wonderful truths these are things that I I need to know and need to be

reminded of what should my response be the first is to be encouraged this morning if you are

my prayer is that God were God's word nourished your soul this morning that you hear these truths

that God created you that God knows you and that God is with you and you leave this morning

encouraged strengthened to go to his word to go to him in prayer but the second is how David

finishes this passage of scripture look at verse 23 and 24 he goes to God with this this prayer

whatever it may be and he gives this interesting request of God he says this verse 23 search me

oh God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts which I think is a very interesting

way to finish talking about how God does know you and created you and knows you so deeply he looks

and really what he's saying there is God look at my life you know me much better than I know me

you see me much better than I know me and so look at my life try me look at these things in me

and then verse 24 and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting

He looks and he says, God, you know me best.

God, you created me.

You knit me together.

You've woven me in.

You have placed me here.

You see how I'm living, and you know every piece.

So look at my life, and whatever is not congruent,

if there's any way in which I'm living contrary to the way of you,

life everlasting, lead me out and lead me back.

To this way everlasting.

Because you created me, God, because you know me,

because you walk with me, and because you know my ways so intricately,

show me what in my life needs to be lived differently.

Lead me to life everlasting.

You know what that life everlasting is?

You see in the New Testament, that life everlasting is the way of Christ, our Savior.

What is wrong in me because of my choices, my pursuits, my vanity because of sin,

me.

Make right in me, God.

Conform me to you.

What a great response in the picture of God's character.

God, you know me so deeply.

So lead me out of the ways that are contrary to how you designed for me, placed me.

The ways that I found myself off track, the ways that I've led myself into wrong,

that I've strayed from the past, gotten lost, whatever.

God, lead me to life everlasting.

My prayer for you is that first,

you would leave encouraged, uplifted, knowing that God loves you.

He sees you.

He knows you.

He's with you.

But the second, my prayer for you this morning is that this heart that David has,

in light of all that, is the same heart that you have.

One that looks and says, God, transform me.

Lead me.

You know me best.

Lead me.

Lead me to life everlasting.

This is a prayer.

This is a heart.

This is a praise that we must give to God.

The one.

The one whom we love and serve as Lord.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for the wonderful words of scripture.

Lord, this morning, that we have a chance to dive into such a rich song.

Lord, I thank you for the reminder, the way in which you created us.

Lord, that there was not an accident.

Lord, but that you intricately made us.

And you've placed us, Lord, in a world where it's so easy to be unknown.

It's so easy.

It's so easy to hide.

It's so easy to deceive.

It's so easy to put on facades and only put out in the world what we want people to see.

Lord, I thank you that you see through it all.

Lord, that you us.

You know our fears.

You know our insecurities.

You know our failures.

You know our successes.

You know our joys.

You know what brings us laughter.

Lord, you know each and every piece of us because you designed it and you placed it

and you've wired us.

The way in which we want.

Lord, and as sin has creeped in and marred us, it's deceived us.

It's distracted us.

It's lied to us.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to know that you still deeply love us.

Christ died for us.

Salvation is for us.

Lord, I pray for whoever it is in this room who's resisting that truth.

For whatever reason, whether it's a feeling of being too deep in sin.

Maybe there's fear, apprehension.

I pray that your Holy Spirit would step in and work on their hearts.

Lord, maybe give them boldness to ask some questions.

Courage to seek wisdom.

Maybe just give them that first move to put their faith in you.

Lord, for those of us who put our faith in you, Lord, I pray that you remind us.

of that truth that you love us, even when we fail, even when we slip up, even when we backslide. Lord,

that you love us because you saved us, because you created us. Lord, and that you are with us

in times of sin, in times of failure, and in wonderful times of rejoicing. Lord, I pray lastly

that our heart would be that of David's. Lord, that we would look to submit to you, submit to

your leading, that we would look to you and say, God, search us, know us, because you know us better

than anyone else. Lord, and show us what needs to be transformed. Lead us to root out sin in our

lives. Lead us to be transformed, to be conformed to the image of your son, to life everlasting.

In your precious and holy name, Jesus' name, amen.

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