A Sighting

January 20, 2019

SMUMC

We Are Beloved

We are Known On Sight:

Called To Be…

Psalm 36:5-10

Psalm 139:1-16 HCSB

Jeremiah 29:11 HCSB

John 1:46 HCSB

A Sighting

Let us pray… (pray for the Spirits leading)

A Reading from the poetry of the Psalms…Chapter 139 verses 1-16…Known on sight...called to be

(Read from Holman Christian Standard Bible)

Good Morning… I was thinking and contemplating on the Psalm that I just read this week. We live in a world that is so big and we can tend to get lost in the shuffle. We can feel small and insignificant because of the vastness of it. We try to find our significance in the world around us…just to be known by…fill in the blank. We want to make our mark on the world but feel we jus keep failing to do so. We just want to be known…we just want to feel we belong somewhere…that we have a place where we can go and be accepted for who we are…where we are…how we are…

Oh…just to be known…

^“1 Lord, You have searched me and known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. ³ You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. ⁴ Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord. ⁵ You have encircled me;
You have placed Your hand on me.”

I love the parable of the prodigal son in the bible. Now this son wanted all his in heritance…must have been a young man. His dad knew him… he had raised him… He probably knew this son’s character and that he would probably do just as he did…spend all his money on wild living and women… He knew his son…he also knew that his was a life lesson for him. So, he gave him what he asked for… well…didn’t go so well for this son so he went back home. So, the son decided that enough was enough and he was going to go back home…not as a son but as a hired hand… That is all he could have expected… He had done wrong.

So, he goes home. Now here’s the kicker…you se the son was far off and the father sees his figure on the horizon…he raised this boy…he was known by the father and so even his silhouette was known by the father…who came running. Now this son didn’t feel worthy enough to be called son anymore, so he began to tell the father this and his father wasn’t listening…This man that I have called and known as my son I back…oh I have looked for and sighting of him on the horizon and today…my prayers have been answered. My son is home…

⁷ Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? ⁸ If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. ⁹ If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, ¹⁰ even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will hold on to me. ¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night”—¹² even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You.

No matter where we are…no matter where we go we are known on sight by God…there is no place we can go or hide that we are not seen and known by Him… Even if we are like that prodigal son…or daughter…He never forgets our frame and is waiting …searching the horizon for our silhouette that he knows so well…

This Psalm reminds me that I…that you…that we are knit together in our mother’s womb by the hand of God. We are fully known by God and He delights in us. He created you and I just because He wanted to…not because He had to. Every intricate part of who we are is known and loved by God…

¹³ For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.
¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw me when I was formless;

And we are called to be…whom He has created us to be…

all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Jeremiah 29:11 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Unfortunately, we live in a world…live in a place …live in a society that may say…as they said of Jesus…in John 1:46

⁴⁶ “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.

“Come and see,” Philip answered.

Can anything…or anyone good or worthy come from (Fill in the blank)

God’s answer is… (Like Philip) Beloved…Yes…come and see. To those who feel unworthy…come and see. To those who are on the outskirts He says…yes…come and see…when we question our own validity, He answers…yes come and see… He says come…and fully be whom I made you to be…fearfully and wonderfully made…called for a purpose…known and to be known…carrying my name…Child of God…

Amen