Do you ever stop and marvel at the fact that the creator of everything in the universe loves you personally and thinks about you at every moment? Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers this incredible truth and the priceless treasure that you are when you see yourself through his eyes.
From God, I need some answers. Here's David to conclude his message, What is My Self With? And thank you so much for joining us here on Turning Point. We are so excited to have you along as we begin the fall season together. I don't know where you are with the sheltering situation, but one thing we know, radio goes everywhere. It touches us wherever we may be, and during these days that have happened to us, how grateful we have been for the ability to stay in touch on the radio, online, on television.
It's hard to imagine where we would be without those resources. It's been scary enough and challenging enough, but what we've been getting back from everybody across the whole country and around the world is the messages have been helpful and kept us going, given us hope in the morning, in the afternoon, whenever we listen. One of the things that has impacted us here at the Turning Point headquarters is so many things we had planned have been canceled, like fall rallies and Christmas in New York and all the things that we had become very accustomed to doing, but that doesn't mean we can't go forward and be innovative, and that's what we're going to do. I want to tell you about a very special event that will take place on the 30th of September. It's a virtual event. It's an online event, but we have worked really hard to bring in special guests, musical performances and interviews.
It's going to be like a rally online, a rally that brings us together. I'll have a lot more to tell you about this as we move through the month of September, but I want to give you the date. It's September the 30th at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. We're going to have a special time of prayer for our nation, and we're going to have some special interviews, and it will be a night for us to all remember and be encouraged about. So just put a circle around it on your calendar. It's September the 30th at 9 p.m. You don't want to miss it. I promise you, it will be a great night.
It's Wednesday night, September the 30th. Well, let's get started with the second half of our discussion of self-worth as we turn in our Bibles to Psalm 139. Let's begin our study. God is near you wherever you go. You can't get away from him. You can't go to a place where God is not, and I don't know what that does for you, but boy, I'll tell you what. If you get your worth from being near important people, you are near God, and he is near you. What that means, and the exciting truth is that he is immediately accessible to you wherever you go. When God designed to send his son into this world as his picture to us of who God is, a name was given to him that we cherish, especially at Christmas time.
He's called what? Emmanuel, and what is that? God with us. God is with us, and the psalmist wants us to understand that you cannot hide from God, but he also wants us to understand that God is near us. So you get your self-esteem from the fact that God knows you and that God is near you.
Here's the third one, and basically, this is the centerpiece of the whole Psalm. You get your self-esteem and your self-worth from this truth. God made you. He created you. You are the incredible creation of the infinite God, and I almost just took this section and put all the rest of it aside and just dealt with this because what a wonderful truth it is. The psalmist says, oh God, you have formed me and my inward parts and covered me in my mother's womb.
Saint Augustine once wrote, he said, men go abroad to wonder at the height of the mountains and at the huge waves of the sea and the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean and at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves in their wonder. Isn't it interesting that in the first six verses, the psalmist is talking about God's omniscience. He knows everything. In the second section, he's talking about God's omnipresent. He is everywhere, and in this section, he's talking about God's omnipotence. He's all powerful. Now listen, when he wanted to use an illustration of his power, he didn't choose the vast universe with all of its stars and galaxies and planets, but he chose the crowning creation called man. And he says, let me show you how powerful is God.
Let me show you man. And he says, man has been in the heart and thought of God from the very moment of his conception. God is involved with the conception of each of us. He says in verse 13, for you have formed my inward parts and have covered me in my mother's womb. These words describe reproduction in some of the most meaningful and tender verses in all of the Bible. If we read them honestly, we understand that they contain the secret for an incredible sense of self-worth.
Listen to me. God knew you before you were born, and he knows the moment when you were conceived, he knows the very beginning of your life. God was involved in it all.
In every phase of development from that moment on, he is there. So I want to tell you something in case you haven't heard it recently from this pulpit, that the human embryo is not the result of a biological accident. God is aware of the union of the sperm and the egg and the attachment of the embryo to the uterine lining and the development of human life. And God formed the inward parts and arranged the genetic structure and possesses our reigns and God is in conception. And we believe that the Bible teaches that human life begins at that moment. And God knows about that human life and God loves that human life from the very moment of that union.
And God is involved with the development of it. Read verses 14 and 15 with me. He says, I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. Do you know that the psalmist tells us that God protects even at birth our individuality? The word wonderfully in that little phrase fearfully and wonderfully made, do you know what that word means?
The word literally in the Hebrew language means you are fearfully and differently made. And you know, we can look around and we can joke about this sometimes and we can say, boy, is she different. Or boy is he different. Let's face it, we're all different. There has never been two human beings created anything alike. God has made us fearfully and uniquely.
We are all stamped with our own special genetic code that sets us apart from every other human being on the face of God's earth. And out of the billions of people, the billions of souls, God made certain that every one of us would be special, wonderfully uniquely made. My friend Don Wertzen, who is a pianist and a songwriter, wrote a little song about this verse and I never even knew it was around until I was studying for this message.
But I love the words of this. This is what he wrote, fearfully and wonderfully made. I'm unique, one of a kind, fearfully and wonderfully made. My beginning was God's design. He was with me before my birth and formed my being with care. I'm a person of infinite worth, a masterpiece beyond compare, fearfully and wonderfully made. I'm woven in his tapestry, fearfully and wonderfully made. I'm created for eternity. His imprint is seen everywhere and he has plans for me. In secret, he knew I was there, a mystery of God's decree, fearfully and wonderfully made. I'm woven as his tapestry, fearfully and wonderfully made. I'm created for eternity.
That's true. You wonder, do you have any worth? Well, let me tell you something. When God got done with you, he took the blueprint and tore it up and threw it away.
And he said, I'll never make another one just like him, just like her again. If value is in scarcity, you are worth a ton because there isn't anyone like you anywhere. And as you age, you will become more and more valuable. I don't know about that part, but the rest of it is true. You're uniquely God's protected creation. And then not only does he protect your individuality, but he protects your identity in the whole process of life. In verse 15, he says this, my substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth. The word substance here is a key word.
It means frame. It refers to the complete structure of the adult person. According to David, now listen up, according to David, the full grown body had actually been planned, designed and programmed when it was not even large enough to be visible in the unseen parts of the earth, says David.
Before you were born, the whole genetic plan of exactly what you would be as an adult was set by God. And scientists in molecular biology have not too long ago discovered this and we call it DNA. And I've read so much about this this week.
I mean, I feel like bowing down and worshiping God a whole new way. I discovered some incredible things. Do you know that in every cell of your body, there is enough information to recreate your adult person as if there were no other cell necessary? And that every time that cell divided in the process of your growth, all of that information was contained in each cell that was a part of the division. And there is so much information in each cell that if they just had the one, they could recreate your whole adult person. And someone has reasoned that if all of the instructions in one cell, in the genetic code, in the DNA of one cell, if all of those instructions were written out, it would take 1,600 page books to put all that information down in writing. God put it in a cell that no one could see except with the magnification. And it's in every cell in your body.
It's incredible. In fact, the DNA strands are so fine and so unique that if you put them all together from one human body, they would fit into a size of an ice cube. And yet if you spread them out end to end, they would go from the earth to the sun and back 400 times.
That's how much information is in one cell of the human body. God did it. And he did it so that you would have your identity. You are unique. You are individually precious to God. And not only does he protect your individuality and protect your identity, in the very process, he protects your importance. He says, you are so important that all of your days were written in his book before one of them came to be.
Isn't that incredible? God knew everything about you before you ever started out in life. And he has your whole life charted. He knows everything there is to know about you. You are so important to him. Well, there's one last thing I want to tell you about your self-esteem.
Just review for just a moment. How do I know I'm important? Hey, he knows me. He knows me. What I do, what I say, what I think, where I go, he knows it all. Number two, he's near me. Wherever I go, he's there. He makes sure never to let me get very far away.
Number three, he made me. Whatever I am, I've got no reason to complain. I just have every option to take what God has given me and max it out for his glory, use my ability the best I can because God made me distinct from every other person. And he did the same for you. But here's the most incredible thing. And I want you just to read verses 17 and 18 with me. You say, well, that's great theology, pastor. And I'm glad to know that, but here's something for right now, right now. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them.
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Your self-esteem comes from the fact that God knows you, that God is near you, that God made you. But watch now, your self-esteem comes from the fact that God right now, at this very moment, listen to me, he is thinking of you. In the great mind of God, he is thinking of you. Did you ever call somebody you love, who's a long way away?
And what do you say to that person? Just want you to know, I'm thinking of you, thinking of you. If you can't be in somebody's presence all the time, it's good to be in their thoughts. But the psalmist says, we're in God's presence and we're in his thoughts. And the psalmist says, the way God thinks of us is so incredible that he can't comprehend.
He said, if I tried to number up the ways you think concerning me, I wouldn't be able to do it. But God, even when I'm not aware that you're thinking of me, you're thinking of me because I go to sleep. But God, you never sleep all during the time that I'm sleeping. You're thinking of me. And when I wake in the morning, there you are. And your thoughts are of me. I want to tell you something. You are so valuable and so incredibly important to God that he knows you and he stays near you and he made you. And he's right now thinking of you. God has you in his mind and in his heart.
You are only man in relation to God. Let me finish all of this and try to help us really come to grips with it, with this story. During World War II, when the Germans were bombing London until it looked as if London would not survive the massacre, there were many episodes of heroic courage that found their way into the English history books. During one period of the bombing, I am told, the German bombers flew attacks on London for 57 consecutive nights, bombing that city eight hours at a time. They had over 1,500 bombers that came and each night they would come in waves of 250 at a time, just blowing the center of London away.
And it looked as if it was only a matter of time until the whole city and its culture would be destroyed, with the possible exception of one thing that stood in their way. That was the Royal Air Force. The Royal Air Force sent up their hurricanes and their spitfires to fly around those huge bombers from Germany. And the English people took their hope and their courage from those brave fliers. Every once in a while, these maneuverable planes would fly into position and shoot down one of the German bombers and the whole land would rejoice. When these men came home for their time away, they weren't the national heroes.
They couldn't walk down the streets in London without being mobbed by the citizens who wanted to express to them their appreciation for their courage. Unfortunately, many of these Royal Air Force people, many of these men paid a living price for their sacrificial service to their country. You see the hurricane was a marvelous plane, but it had one basic problem and that is this prop-driven fighter plane. The engine was just a few feet from the cockpit. And if that plane ever took a direct hit, oftentimes the plane would burst into an inferno of flames.
And while the pilot could eject and get out of the plane because the fuel lines came up alongside of the cockpit to the engine, in the two seconds that it would take for him to pull the lever and reject, there would be such intense heat in the cockpit that it could basically erase all of the features of his face. And many of these handsome young Air Force pilots came out of that fray and they had their noses burned off and their eyelids burned off and sometimes their ears scorched off and many times their cheeks and their skin just taken from their face. And they were sent back to the military hospitals and there they had to undergo consecutive plastic surgeries to try to repair the damage and put back together some kind of feature that they could go home with. And many of these men, even though they were admired for their bravery, went back to periods of great loneliness. One pilot by the name of Peter Foster described what it was like to go through the surgeries and prepare to reenter public life.
And this is what he said. He said, your fears and concerns came to focus in the mirror every day. For months you used the mirror as an objective measuring device to scrutinize the progress your surgeons had made. You studied the scar tissue, the odd wrinkling of the skin, the thickness of the lips, the shape of the nose, and from this survey you asked for certain adjustments to improve appearance.
And the doctors tell you whether or not they can make this adjustment. But he said, nearer to the time when you knew you were going to be released, your view of the mirror changed. And now as you gaze at the reflections of a new face, not the one you were born with but an inferior imitation, you try to see yourself as strangers will see you.
In the hospital you've been the object of pride, supported by the camaraderie of your friends and the ministrations of the staff. On the outside you will be a freak and fear creeps into your spirit. Will any girl dare to marry this face?
Will anyone give this face a job? And at that critical moment, said Peter Foster, one factor alone begins to matter to you. The response of your family and your intimate friends. The surgeon's success in rebuilding your face doesn't really matter anymore because your future hinges on the reactions of those who are closest to you. Will they love you and accept you?
Or will they hold you at arm's distance because of the changes in your facial features? Peter could write this because he was one of the fortunate ones. His girlfriend came to the hospital where he was soon to be released and insisted that they be married before they left the hospital. And she told him in no uncertain terms that she loved him, not his facial membranes. And when Peter returned home, he came home on the arm of somebody who loved him for who he was. But of course he came home to face some pretty painful rejection too. Some of his adult friends would look away quickly. You've known that as you've seen that happen.
And some of the children, not trained, not taught, teased him with cruelty and laughter and mocked him. But Peter Foster said, whenever that would happen, I would always look to my wife. And she was the one who gave me the image of myself. And he said, even now to this day, regardless of how I feel, if I began to feel unworthy, I just looked at her and she gives me a warm, loving smile that tells me I'm okay. And Psalm 139 is God's loving smile to you.
You are okay. He knows you. He's near you. He made you.
He's thinking of you. You're worthy because God is smiling on you today. Amen. You know, it's wonderful to realize that our worth isn't ourselves. It's our relationship with God. And he tells us we are worthy. And to remind you again of my favorite little praise course, I am who he says I am.
And so are you. Well, here's the question for tomorrow for our Friday edition. It's how can I be happy? Wow, that's an important question, isn't it? It's an important question when everything's going well. But when you go through a coronavirus and everyone's sheltered at home and you're losing your job and your economy is looking bleak, how can I be happy? Well, I have good news for you.
This is not affected by any of the things I just mentioned. And tomorrow we'll find that out as we open our Bibles to the first Psalm. Don't forget to be with us for the Friday edition of Turning Point. And don't forget to order your calendar for 2021. During the month of September, we've moved this back so that we can be sure to get your calendar to you and plenty of time for you to fill in the dates at the end of the year. It's got the last two months of this year in the calendar. It's a 14-month calendar. It takes you all the way through the new year of 2021.
You can begin to fill it in. It can be your guide through the new year, and it's beautiful, friends. The theme of the calendar is colors of creation.
And I have to tell you, I appreciate color for the beauty of it, but I'm colorblind, so I don't know what colors are in here. I just know they're looking great, and you're going to enjoy them. I hope you'll get your calendar. Send your gift today and ask for it. We're happy to send it to you.
It's our way of saying thank you. We'll see you right here tomorrow. Today's message originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor Dr. David Jeremiah.
We'd love to hear how Turning Point is impacting your life. Write and tell us at Turning Point, Post Office Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. Or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. Ask for your copy of our 14-month 2021 calendar, Colors of Creation, highlighting God's breathtaking handiwork.
It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard and New International versions and in Standard or Large Print in the New King James, with notes from over 40 years of study by Dr. Jeremiah. Visit davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio for details. I'm Gary Hoogfleet. Join us tomorrow as we continue, God, I need some answers. That's here on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. Thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media. To find out more about us, go to vision.org.au
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