Made for What?

Psalm 139 takes us through a journey of understand how God has called us to respond to His presence in our lives. Denise McKinney walks through this with us as we start our series studying the Psalms. Made for What Psalms | Week 1 September 3, 2017 | Denise McKinney What are they? originally poems set to music truthful outpourings of the human experience What do they do? help us pray and worship invite us to expand our perspective “truthful, the sincere outpourings… And when we worship the creator God with our whole, truthful self…” it renews and remakes us. ~ N.T. Wright Psalm 139:1-12 (NIV) You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. OUR IDENTITY An identity grounded in God would mean that when we think of who we are, the first thing that would come to mind is our status as someone who is deeply loved by God. ~ David Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself HIS PRESENCE I am convinced that God loves each and every one of us with depth, persistence and intensity beyond imagination. ~David Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself Psalm 139:13-22 (NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. OUR PURPOSE Vocation is knowing you are fearfully and wonderfully made for something bigger than yourself. …the place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. ~ Frederick Buechner Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV) Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. HIS POWER Ephesians 2:10 (ESV) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. How do I get there? By saying yes to what is right in front of you. Give him your little, and he will make it much