Finding God When You Need Him Most - Experiencing God When You Feel Like a Nobody, Going Nowhere, Part 1

Do you feel lonely, depressed, or maybe just numb, kind of bland, like you're a nobody going nowhere? Life lacks purpose and focus and meaning.

And down deep, you don't really think anyone cares about you. If you have thoughts like that or have a friend who has that type of thinking, you're not going to want to miss today's program. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this daily discipleship program, Motivating Christians to Live Like Christians.

I'm Dave Drew. And as you could probably tell from Chip's setup, today's program will speak directly to an issue we all struggle with, identity. As he continues our series, Finding God When You Need Him Most, Chip emphasizes that no matter how we may feel or what other people may say about us, we were uniquely created by God and we deeply matter to Him. So let's join Chip in Psalm 139 as he reveals what God's Word says about our significance and purpose. How do you experience God when you feel like a nobody who's going nowhere?

God's got a plan. 1988, I had a two-year span of feeling like a nobody going nowhere. I made a five-year commitment to be a country Bible church. And I finished my schooling. We started out with about 35 people and God blessed and the church grew. But in year number six, my commitment was over and, okay, God, what do you want to do with my life?

And I loved it and the people were awesome and they loved me and they loved my family. It couldn't have been a better place to live, except I went to seminary after going through more school than I wanted to to be a missionary. And then God switched my path and said, no, I want you to be a pastor.

That didn't go well. But being a pastor in a rural area of 4,500 people with no stoplight, this is that life of impact I dreamed about. One day I remember when my car in a half-mile radius, I counted 16 churches in a half-mile radius. I thought, people want to hear about God in Kaufman, Texas.

There's plenty of people to tell them, why do you have me here? And I just felt like, you know, when God went through sort of the Rolodex of eternity and everybody's names popped up, when he got to the I's, he just sort of skipped down to the J's. And I just felt stranded.

Great people. But I wanted to be on the cutting edge. I had these dreams in my heart that I thought were from God and I was doubting about maybe they're not in God's dreams at all. They're just me. And then I went from there to thinking, well, maybe I'm not competent.

Maybe this is it. Maybe I just don't have the wherewithal that it's needed to make an impact like I believe God wants me to. I started to doubt. I remember going to McDonald's with a close friend who I just kind of telling this stuff and he kind of kept my faith alive. But boy, I felt like a nobody going nowhere. At the core later on, I learned I had some wrong perceptions of God, wrong perceptions of myself and wrong perceptions of my circumstances. And that was at the core of feeling like a nobody. I'd like you, if you would, to pull out your teaching handout. And before we jump into the text, I want to tell you a very silly story.

But it's a silly story that's true that God used to break me out of my self pity party when I felt like a nobody. On the front, you'll notice there was a ferocious bark. I'm sitting on the floor of my house with my kids. It's about six thirty seven time of the year. It was pitch dark. And I hear this ferocious bark. And then there's this pounding at the door, not like knocking, just like, let me in, let me in. I'm about to die type pounding. And then I open the door, flick on the light and the eyes of a terrified child. His name was Michael, one of my son's good buddies. And his eyes are like this inside.

Let me in. And it was like, I'm going to die. There's this huge dog. And, you know, you're waiting for a Doberman pincer behind him or a German shepherd that's salivating. And the kid, we're going to save his life. And as I flipped on the porch light, we all turned to see, because it had a big bark, a new dog in the neighborhood. It was about this big.

And, you know, you could just see his heart start to. And we all turned around and we laughed. We shut the door.

Michael came in. We goofed off. But that little thing happened when I was in my 1988 to 1990.

I'm a nobody going nowhere, living on the treadmill of life funk. And I remember just a little picture came to my mind. And the picture was this principle. Our perceptions determine our responses. It was like God brought Michael as a word picture.

Our perceptions determine our responses. He perceived a big, strong, vicious dog. His response, run, tear, fear, get help. But as soon as the light, just adding a little light, his fear turned to laughter. All he needed was just a little bit of light to see his predator himself, his circumstances in the light.

And his whole world was changed. If you happen for whatever reason this morning to feel like a nobody going nowhere, I want to suggest that what God wants to do for you as a gift, because he loves you, is to turn on the porch light of your soul through Psalm 139 and help you see five things, five truths that will pour light into your soul and your perspective to get a right picture of God, a right picture of your circumstances and a right picture of yourself that will give you hope, that will remind you that you're not a nobody, you're a somebody and you're not going nowhere, but you are going somewhere very special if you open your ear, open your heart and cooperate with God's plan. So open the notes, if you will, and what I want to give you is five things to remember every time you feel like a nobody, okay? Every time you feel like a nobody going nowhere, I want you to turn to Psalm 139 and read it over, and you might even put notes in your Bible or jot some notes here and then transfer them. First thing you need to remember is that God knows you. You know he knows everybody, but God knows you.

Follow along as I read verses one through six. Oh Lord, oh Yahweh, you have searched me 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, all my traits, all my tendencies is the idea of that word. Before word is on my tongue, you know it completely, oh Lord. Imagine that.

Think of that. Before word gets out on your tongue, the thought process, every single thought, every single day, God knows it before it even comes out of your mouth. You hem me in behind and before you have laid your hand upon me. Responses, verse six, such knowledge is too wonderful, too lofty for me to attain.

It's the idea, it's too incomprehensible, it's too overwhelming, it's too other. Wow, God, you know everything. In fact, pull out a pencil if you want to do a little Bible study. Look at the words here.

Searched, circle that. Verse one, know me, circle that. Verse two, know. Verse two, perceive, circle that. Verse two, discern, familiar, circle that. Then you know, in verse four, hem me in, laid your hand upon, knowledge. Ten different times, various Hebrew words. The author wants you to understand.

He wants me to understand. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, God knows you. And these words are a variety of words. Did you notice familiar, discern, perceive, knowledge.

They're a plethora of words to let you know it's not a cognitive knowledge. It's not just God knows about you. He knows you. He understands you. He knows how you think. He knows your dreams. He knows your motives. He knows your fears. He knows the things that happen on the kind of the dashboard of your life that send off a light for the future. He knows exactly how you respond and why you respond. He knows your dreams.

In a word, you could say, jot this down, you are understood by God. He is there. He is interacting.

He is working. He knows you infinitely more than you know yourself. 1988, I was really struggling because to be candid, God put some grandiose dreams in my heart. I had traveled throughout South America a couple different times. I'd been through the Orient, the Philippines. I saw the needs of the world.

I had no desire to be involved in ministry. You know, just let me be a basketball coach or a teacher. You know, great.

You know, I like that. And I went around the world and I saw needs and God gave me little opportunities where he used me in ways I never dreamed he would use me. And I saw scores of people come to Christ and I came home and said, okay, I'll do whatever you want me to do. But I want to do something that will make an impact, that will really change how the world is in some small way. And here I am stuck. And the hardest part of being stuck when you feel like a nobody is that no one understands. I mean, they sympathize and they empathize and they give you, well, I remember when I was your age.

It doesn't help me to know what you were thinking when you were my age. You know what I mean? I mean, I'm sure people mean well by that, but you don't understand the dreams in my heart. You don't understand the frustration. You don't understand how abandoned I feel. You don't understand how stranded and stuck I feel. You know what I didn't know?

The porch light in my soul didn't remember. God knows. He understands the most private thoughts, the deepest frustrations. He knows the private things that you think about your marriage, about your job, about yourself. He knows of your deepest self doubts.

He knows every corner, every cranny, every secret, every closet. You are fully understood. Now, I don't know about you.

That's awesome on the one hand, but it's frightening to me. If God knows that much about me and I know theologically it's true, my response is like David's in the next section, I want to run. But I want you to underline something in this first section, the phrase, you have laid your hand upon me.

Underline that, will you? It's a picture of God's protection and blessing. See, it's one thing for someone to know everything about you in order to use it against you. It's something quite different for someone, an infinite, eternal, unapproachable, enlightened being who is infinitely holy and compassionate to know everything about you in order to lay his hand upon you. It's a picture of a father. What did they do when you gave your blessing?

The Old Testament. They laid their hands upon them, the hands of protection, of security, of blessing. If you feel like a nobody, you can choose to feel that way, but here's the facts. The facts are you are understood completely by God, and he wants to lay his hand upon you to bless your life and to protect you.

It's pretty exciting, isn't it? And I know, you know, you've got all those tapes like I had, all those childhood experiences, you've got all those things that have happened that tell you, no one would want to do that for me. Yeah, there is.

One person. God would. God would. So much so that he sent his son Jesus to prove how much he loves you. But lest you, like David and people like me, run from that, look at verses 7 through 12 where we learn that God not only knows everything about us, but God is, get this, pursuing you.

Isn't that a wild thought? He's after you. He's pursuing you. He's seeking you out. We're going to learn thousands of time a day, thousands of time every day, your name comes to God's mind, and he thinks about you, and he is pursuing you.

Notice verse 7. David writes, where can I go from your spirit? Rhetorical question with the answer implied nowhere. Where can I flee from your presence? Nowhere. Well, if I go to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, or Sheol, the heart of the earth, you're there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, go as far in that direction. If I settle on the far side of the sea, the other direction, even there, your hand will guide me.

Your right hand will hold me fast. Hypothetically, if I say 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. That's one of the most profound things, I think, in all of scripture.

Did you get it? Now, it's obvious God is omnipresent. He's taught here. And he says, if I went as high as I could or as low as I could, you're there. If I went as far east, far west, you're there.

If I hypothetically, even in my own mind, said I could find a place. Remember little kids, how little kids would hide? If you've got a two-year-old, three-year-old, you play hide and seek, what do they do? They shut their eyes.

Can't find me, Mommy. What they don't know is that even though their eyes are shut, yours are open. You see, what this passage teaches, darkness and light are alike. God is other. Our problem when we think about God is we think he's a grand, big, better version of the best person that we know. He is not. We are tiny replicas made in his image with the capacity to love and feel and choose. But he is other.

That's what the word holy means. He is totally other. He's outside of time. He is all-knowing, all-powerful. He is the first cause. We are his creatures. He is the creator, the galaxies, the stars, the solar systems, on and on and on. Light, darkness, he's outside that category.

They're both the same to him. But notice what it says. He is pursuing you. There's nowhere you can hide. But notice again, underline a couple key phrases. Why is he pursuing you? Your hand will guide me.

Put a circle or a line under that, will you? And then make an arrow and write the word direction on your notes. God is pursuing you because his hand wants to guide you. He wants to give you direction for your life.

Wouldn't it be great to get direction from someone who knows everything about the past, the present, and the future and has all power to do anything with it that he wants? This sounds like a good position to be in. Notice the other thing. Underline the word will hold me fast.

Draw an arrow and write the word security. Not only does he want to seek you out, to pursue you, to find you, and to find me, but he wants to do it in order not just to give direction, but to give security. He won't let you down. When his right hand takes hold of you, no one, nothing has the power, according to Romans 8, 28 to 39. Not angels, not principalities, not life, not death.

Nothing can separate you from his love. God is seeking you. He's pursuing you, a regular person. It's true.

You're not a nobody. In fact, the New Testament teaches that John chapter 4, Jesus, woman at the well, conversation. The father is pursuing or seeking worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. See, we have a part.

We have to be honest. Luke 15, they're trying to figure out, Jesus, what are you doing? He says, I came to pursue, to seek, and to save what?

The lost. He said, you know, physicians don't come for well people. I came for messed up people. I came for drug addicts. I came for perverts. I came for liars and stealers. I came for people from dysfunctional backgrounds. I came for people that all society thinks is an F. I came for them and for all the people who think they're A's, if they're willing to admit they're not. See, I came to seek and to save that which is lost in the Psalms.

Listen to this. Here's how God describes believers in the Psalms as the apple of his eye. Let's let's put your name in there. Imagine today the sovereign God of the universe. He looks right at you and he says, You are the apple of his eye. The Psalms also talk about us as the object of his affection. Colossians chapter three pushes it a bit farther and says, You are chosen. You are holy. You are dearly loved because of Christ.

Let me let me help you get your arms around it because your faces are telling me like, Yes, this is true, but I can't quite get it from my head down to my heart. I mean, this is true, but you got all these tapes and all this baggage like we all do. And could God really feel that way about me? He more than feels that way.

He is that way about you by his sovereign choice, not because you're good, but because he's good. But just to get your arms around, here's how it works. Do you remember back maybe junior high or high school, depending on how your social skills were working or for some of us, maybe even college? Do you remember the very first time that a person of the opposite sex got interested in you?

Do you remember that? I mean, just I mean that they liked you. And the way it works in junior high is Betty tells Billy, who's a friend of Susie, that Mary is interested in you. And she tells Shirley, who tells Billy, who lets you know during break.

And then you go to the lunchroom. And when you look at her, she smiles and you go, Oh, do you remember that? Do you remember the first time that happened?

Do you remember it? Didn't that feel good? I mean, most of you did not marry that person, so it wasn't permanent, but it did feel good. Why? I want to suggest that we are made to be attracted to the opposite sex. Most of you have no problem with that.

But I'd suggest beyond that. It was the first time with a significant other, probably outside your family, you felt wanted. Wanted. You were valuable. You were precious. You were wanted. For some of us, it happened in different ways.

Do you remember being out on the sandlot, guys or girls? And someone says, Oh, I'll take so and so and so and so. And then someone took their finger and pointed at you and said, Hey, I want him to be on my team. So what if I was chosen number nine? I got on, you know, do you remember what it was like?

Have you ever been in a job interview and they broke off the interview and said, you know, we'd really like you to work for our company? All I'm saying is this. God is pursuing you.

And here's what you can write down. You are wanted by God. You're not a nobody. You are wanted by God. He's taking all the forces of the universe and orchestrating people and events and clips of this and a slash of that and the Holy Spirit working in your life. If you're here today and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm telling you, the God of the universe is pursuing you as someone made famous. He's the hound of heaven. He's seeking you.

He loves you. You are wanted. You are valuable. If you're a child of God, if you have a relationship with the eternal God through the shed blood of Christ and his resurrection, I don't know what you're thinking, how you're feeling discouraged, depressed. You got ups, you got downs, you got struggles. Welcome. But the God of the universe wants you.

And however much he has of you, he wants more and he wants to give more and he wants to be close. That's who you are. Third thing you need to remember is that God made you verses 13 through 16, the first half.

Listen to this. For you created, he writes, my innermost being, not just my physical body, but my psyche, all that I am. 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. Those two phrases, fearfully and wonderfully made powerful words, strong words. One commentator says the best English word we can to get the level of what it really means is the word awesome. We are made awesomely. We're the crown of creation. I mean the best sunset you've ever seen, the most beautiful sea, the most majestic mountains, they are like a tiny thimble of nothing compared to the grand creation that God made.

Life. You are awesome. You are magnificent. I remember at a graduate course at West Virginia University and I had a teacher in physiology and I never in my life, she taught me what the word holy meant. And she would talk, she had such an all of the human body that when she talked in class about the human body and she would talk about how individual cells and inside that cell, the ATP and then the mitochondria and how those things worked in the nervous system and the cardiovascular system and self-healing properties of the body and she would talk about it in almost hushed tones.

This body is such a magnificent, not machine, creation. And I remember her one day holding up a bone that was a part of a compound fracture. She said, do you want to know how magnificent, how magnificent the body is and it was bent like this? Before we ever set bones, back in the old days, I want you to know that when this bone would heal, it may take 10, 12 years and never get fully right.

But every year when the compound fracture, the bone would multiply always on the inside where the break was so over time in self-healing, it was attempting to straighten it out. And she would talk about the body as the most magnificent. You know what happens when you're cut?

Did you ever wonder what has to happen, specifically why it clots, when it clots, how it happens, how it heals? And you know what she understood? She understood at the physical level what God was saying about you. You are awesome. You are precious. You are unique. But it's more than just your body. He said, my innermost being, your psyche, your dreams, your gifts, your passions, how you process information, your bends, your ways, the dreams that you have in your heart. God made you.

Your DNA, both spiritually and physically, is different than anyone else's. He made you that broke the mold. Here's what I want you to jot down. You are awesome in God's sight. Chip will be back in just a minute with his application. You've been listening to the first part of his message, Experiencing God When You Feel Like a Nobody Going Nowhere, from his series Finding God When You Need Him Most. Through this study in the book of Psalms, Chip helps us develop a biblically-grounded perspective toward our most difficult circumstances and experiences. Hear what God wants us to know when things aren't going well, and why we can totally trust His promise to be there for us, again and again and again. To learn more about this series, go to livingontheedge.org.

The Chip Engram app, or call 888-333-6003. Well, Chips, join me in studio now to share a quick word. Thanks, Dave. Before I come back and talk about some application to today's message, you know, Christmas is right around the corner, and I don't know about you, but I have given books to people, things I really want them to read, and I find that I give them, and they're big, and they're thick, and they're really important, and the people that I want to read them usually don't read them. And so at Living on the Edge, we're doing something special this Christmas to help you get something impactful and encouraging into the hands of those that you love, that you want to encourage spiritually, but you realize some big book, they're probably not going to read it. We have four mini-books. One is on discovering your divine design. A second one is about what's it look like to be a dad. A third is for moms or sisters about precious in His sight. I mean, how does God really see a woman? And then the last one is called The Art of Survival for that person that just feels like the world has crushed them. There's no hope.

Where is God in the midst of it? And we put these four little mini-books. They take maybe 45 minutes or an hour to read. They're small, but what we've seen is they've produced great impact in the lives of people. If you don't know what to get some people for Christmas and you want to have a spiritual impact but not come off too strong, I think these small books will be a real winner. Dave, why don't you tell people how they can get them?

Be glad to, Chip. Well, I can't encourage you enough to get these four mini-books, Your Divine Design, Portrait of a Father, Precious in His Sight, and The Art of Survival. And right now we've bundled all of these together and discounted them just in time for the holiday season. Go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003 to learn more. And if you're wanting to gift these to someone in your life, place your order by December 12th to receive them by Christmas.

Again, to order this mini-book bundle, go to livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. App listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, with that, Chip, let's hear that application you promised. As we close today's program, you heard some powerful things from God's Word, things that are easy to hear but hard to actually believe.

I want to review two or three things and I want you to listen as though you were the only person in the world, the only person in the universe. Number one, God knows you. He understands you. He understands the hurts. He understands the baggage. He understands the pain. He knows the parts of you that you don't like. He understands when you try, try, try, and then blow it. He understands every aspect of you and He is for you. He's not down on you. Would you let that register deep in your soul?

He knows all about you. So just give it up. Raise the white flag. Quit trying to perform, trying to hide, and just say, okay, God, if you know everything, you see the good, the bad, the ugly, I need help. I don't feel like an anybody.

I feel like I don't matter. Number two, He doesn't only know you. He's pursuing you. You are listening to this because you are being pursued by the God of heaven. He wants you to hear what I'm saying and it's not me saying it.

This is the truth of God's Word. You are awesome in His sight. You are valued. He's coming after you. It's like that time when you saw that boy or girl across the hallway in junior high and you've never had a date and you started to pursue them and you started writing little notes and then you thought, you know, gosh, maybe someday somehow I could sit next to them at lunch.

But you begin to have an intentional pursuit of another person because you're attracted to them. That's how God feels about you. So stop.

Quit running. Let Him catch you and ask Him to help you. Let me encourage you to get into Psalm 139 or better, maybe download the notes for free at the website, but get this into your heart and your mind. He knows you.

He's pursuing you and in His eyes, just the way you are, you are awesome. Well you'll find the message notes Chip just mentioned in a couple of places. Go to livingontheedge.org and click the broadcasts tab. App listeners will find them by tapping fill in notes. You'll get his outline, all of his scripture references and lots of fill ins to help you remember what you're learning. So I hope you'll take advantage of this resource the next time you listen. Well for Chip and the entire team, I'm Dave Drouy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.