[Music] We are um in the third installment of our true worship series, lessons from the Psalms. And before we jump into the message, I want to ask you if you recognize this place. And if you do, what is the name of this place? Do you recognize this place? And what is this place? Disneyland. Disneyland. Very good. Do you know how Disneyland is described? How people describe Disneyland? What? What do they say? Magical place in the world. The most magical place in the world. Yeah, maybe. But you know they represent themselves as the happiest place in the world. You've heard them say that Disneyland is the happiest place in the world. You know I have been to Disneyland once in my lifetime. I was about 50 years old when I went to Disneyland. When I stepped into Disneyland I went from 50 to five cuz I was like a kid, you know, and I was really happy to be there. But may I suggest that the most, no, I don't want to mess up my grammar, the genuinely happiest place on earth should be the place where the people of God gather in spirit and truth to worship him and to lift up his name. That should be the happiest place on earth. Do you agree? I think we all agree. Let's praise God. Now, this afternoon, are we going to do our part to make this the happiest place on earth? Okay. I don't know what you're going through, what your situation in life is. Remember last Sunday, Pastor Peter said, when life doesn't make sense, what do we do? We worship God. So, that's, you know, it's always the answer at the end of the day, whatever situation we're facing. What is our definition of worship? Let's all read together. Worship is our proper response to who God is, to what he has done, and our trust in what he will continue to do. So in today's psalm, Psalm 100, what did we read earlier? 139. Personally, one of my favorite psalms. We will see how David responded properly to God for all of these things, who he is, what he has done, and trusting in what he will do. But in the meantime, I want to share a story with you. When I was still a a vice president in one of the companies where I worked, I was called in by the Philippine operation president. So he was our local president and he called me into his office and he said, "I have an assignment for you." And I said, "Sir, what is the assignment?" And he said, "Our global chief executive officer is flying into Manila in a few days and I want you to pick him up at the airport, sit with him in the car and bring him to the hotel." And in my mind, what did I do to deserve this assignment? I I mean, the president himself should be doing that. Well, long story short, in my conversation with our local president, it was clear nobody wanted to do it. Nobody because they were maybe afraid. He'll ask questions and they cannot give the answer. You know, what are today's numbers and what were they a year ago? blah blah blah. So maybe the president thought the local president thought ah this guy is a Christian he will not say no. I did not say no. I said sir it's a privilege for me to pick up the global chief executive officer. Who knows when in the world he will come back to the Philippines. And as it is he never came back. Anyway, so the day comes and I I'm in the airport. I have my special pass. Of course I know what he looks like. He comes through the door. I uh move towards him. I extend my hand. I shake it. I said, "Mr. So ando, I am like this and I'm so privileged to meet you. Shall I take you to the car and bring you to the hotel?" So, we move. We go into the car and guess what? In the car, he never asked me what are today's numbers and what what were they one year ago? What is the increase in sales? What is your recruitment and retention rate? He never asked me anything. You know, he talked about his life. He said, "Many years ago, my parents were immigrants to North America. They worked very hard." Blah, blah. Amazing life story. So, we had a nice conversation in the car. And then eventually I brought him to the hotel. And you know, as I reflect on that experience, I realize what a privilege it was to be in the presence of our global CEO, to hear his voice, to allow him to hear mine, for him to tell me his story, for me to ask him questions. What a privilege. Too bad the other people who didn't want to do it, they missed out big time. But for me, I will never forget that experience. Why am I sharing this story with you today? Because today we are talking about celebrating, basking, maximizing, practicing the presence of God. That is our message today to practice the presence of God. We will learn what it means and how we actually do that. But according to our psalm today, Psalm 139, there are two specific ways. There's more than two, okay? But according to our text today, we will learn two ways to practice the presence of God. And the first one is to rejoice. Rejoice. Are you happy to be here today? Ah, we will have a chance to rejoice before God later. Okay, surprise. And the other one is to request to ask him questions and to to just basically bring our petitions before him. But the point is you and I need to be genuinely and consistently conscious of the presence of God. Look at what this man wrote. His name is Brother Lawrence. Look at what he said. The most holy and necessary practice in our spiritual life is the presence of God. The practice of the presence of God. What does that mean? That means finding constant pleasure in his divine company. speaking humbly and lovingly with him in all seasons at every moment. So my question and you don't need to answer this is do we genuinely practice the presence of God or do we forget that he's there? Do we take his presence for granted? Now folks in this series about worship, the objective is not to learn about worship. Hey, let me say that again. The objective is not to learn about worship. That's theoretical. The objective is to learn to worship. Do you see the difference? It means we actually do it. We actually respond to who God is and everything else we said earlier. Okay. So let's talk about rejoicing. Practicing the presence of God. The first response or the first way to practice is we rejoice. There are three reasons given by David who wrote this psalm. Why he rejoice in the presence of God and why we should as well. The three reasons are God knows me, God is with me and God made me. You see Psalm 139 is not a theoretical theological paper about the omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence of God. It is about that, but it is it chronicles David's personal reflection and response to all of those truths about God. And so in Psalm 139, it is like it's a catalyst to bring us to that point of responding and worship to God as well. So let's begin verse one. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down, when I rise up, you understand my thought from afar. First observation in verse one, it is in the past tense. You have searched me and known me. The word search here is in the original language. It means it's the action of digging in a mind going way deep below the surface. known. The word known here means an intimate personal knowledge, not theoretical, not superficial. But notice it's in the past tense. And as I was reflecting on this verse in my own quiet time, I realized that even before I became a follower of Jesus, God knew everything about me. He knew all of the dirt in my life. He knew my addiction to porn. He knew about my anger issues. He knew about my arrogant heart and all of the other crazy idiotic things I was doing in my life. And in spite of me, God still loved me. And God still pursued me and brought me to himself. Now verse two, you know when I sit down and when I rise up. Okay, let me ask you. How many of you in this room today, you know exactly the number of times you sat down and the number of times you stood up today? Who who remembers? Come on, there's got to be at least one. Okay, maybe there's one. Or maybe you think, okay, what about yesterday, the day before? What about 22 years ago? How many times did you stand up and rise and sit down? Only God knows. But you know that's not a an expression. It's a truth. That's how well God knows you and me. We don't even know how many times we sit down and rise up. But who knows? God knows. That's how much attention he gives us. And then it says, "You understand my thought from afar." Now the word thought here is not just okay what are the standings in the NBA? No, it's not that. The word thought here is about motives. Why am I doing what I'm doing? God knows the motives of my heart. Sometimes you and I don't even know what our motives are. We don't even understand why we do what we do. But God knows. Let me show you something. What are these things? What are those? CCTV. CCTV. Do you know that there is CCTV all over this room? All over this room and they all work. They're not only for display. Now, how does that make you feel? The fact that there are so many CCTV in this room. How does that make you feel? The answer is it depends. It depends. If you have something planned that is not good, you're going to do it somewhere in this room. You will be afraid because you know the CCTV will catch you. Do you know our CCTV even in total darkness, it can still see you and me. Wow. Yeah. But then again, if you are not planning on doing anything bad, you feel secure. you feel safe because if anything bad happens to you, we can always look at the CCTV footage. So, it depends. How do we respond to the fact that God knows us? Is it in fear or is it does it make us feel safe and loved and protected? You see, it's so important how we respond to who God is and what he does. Um, simple question. How much does God know? How much does God Have you guys ever watched that movie uh, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? You've seen that. It's kind of embarrassing, right? When the fifth graders always win against the adults. But let me ask you, how much does God know? Well, let's look Isaiah 40. Who has directed the spirit of the Lord? or as his counselor has informed him, with whom did he consult and who gave him understanding? And who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him of the way of understanding. It's all rhetorical. The answer is nobody taught God anything. Why? Because he already knows everything. God knows it all. And you say, 'Yeah, I've heard that before. What does that mean to me today? Well, let's look at a personal encounter with the omnisient God in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit." How I wish Jesus will say that about me. What about you? Would you like Jesus to say that about you? this person there is no deceit in either her heart or his heart. Anyway, Nathaniel said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." In other words, even before you were uh you could be viewed through physical eyes, I already saw you in my mind's eye. And not only did I see you your physical form, I could see your heart. And Jesus sees our heart. And again, how does that make us feel? Scared or safe? I pray we respond well to who God is and the fact that he knows us. What was the response of Nathaniel? Look, Nathaniel answered him, "Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel." I pray that will be our response. When we realize God knows everything about you and me, past, present, and future, we will respond in humility because it takes humility to worship God. Am I right? Yes. It takes humility to worship. It takes humility to admit that there is a God and we are not him. And that is the essence of worship. Let's continue. Verse three, verse four, you scrutinize my path and my lying down. The word scrutinize, this is a farming word. It's a farming word which describes separating the grain from the chaff. The chaff is useless. The grain is useful. It's edible. And so God is able to scrutinize or to even reveal to us what in our life is useless or harmful and what parts of our of our doing and being are helpful to us and pleasing in his sight. That is how well he knows you and me. And then it says, you scrutinize my path. Path is basically my the way I live life and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. You know, when I was reading this phrase, lying down, it reminded me that God has taught me over the last several years, part of my prayer of practicing the presence of God is before I sleep, I ask God, "Lord, will you protect or guard even my dreams? I have no control over my dreams." Do you? That's true. You know, have you had bad dreams? Have you had dreams that you felt it was a spiritual attack? Yes. And so I have learned part of the practice of the presence of God. Lord, will you guard even my dreams? And then it says, even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it all. Do you know why God knows a word even before it comes out of our mouth? Do you know why? Jesus explained it. He said, "Out of the overflow of the what?" Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so if God knows our heart, which he does, then he will know a word even before it comes out. Let me ask you, do you need help with your words? Let me put it another way. Have you ever said anything that you regretted you wish you could take back? Yes or no? Welcome to the club. Welcome to the club. Do you know there's another prayer in another psalm that can help us because God knows our heart and therefore he knows our word. Look at this prayer. Psalm 141:3. Let's all read this together. Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth and keep watch over the door of my lips. Is this a good prayer? Yes. Because God watches over our heart, he can watch over our mouth. Does God know you? Does God know me? Amazing, isn't it? And then it says, "You have enclosed me behind and before and your hand and laid your hand upon me." Look at the the description. You have enclosed me behind. So let's secure before in front and laid your hand upon me on top. It is a picture of complete security. God not only has our back, he has our front and he has our top too. And the word enclosed here refers to a military military garrison like a a a an impregnable castle something like this. This is Edinburgh Castle in the UK. This is the most This was the most frequently attacked castle in Great Britain in the last thousand plus years. People laid siege to it at least 26 times, but they never got through. They never got in. And you know, one of the secrets of Edinburgh Castle is this. Look, look where it's built. It's built on what? Snow. solid rock. And guess what? Remember that song? My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. Remember that. On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Are you glad that your life is built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ today? Hallelujah. Let's give him the praise. enclosed me behind and before and on top. Jesus said something similar. He said, "I give eternal life to them and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand." That's how tightly God is holding on to us. No one will snatch them out of my hands. But you see Jesus is talking about his hands and then he talks about another pair of hands. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. You and I are so tightly held we don't even realize it. But that such is God's not only knowledge but love and care watching out for us. In Psalm 16, we're told uh about a practical way by which this writer practiced the presence of God. He said, "I have set the Lord continually before me." What does this mean? It means that this man is intentional in reminding himself that God is always present with him. Like we said earlier, many times we take his presence for granted. Many times we're just not conscious of the fact that God is with us. We say things and we do things. If we were truly conscious of his presence, we wouldn't say or do those things. And so this man said, "I have set the Lord continually before me." It's not that the Lord is not there and then he brought the Lord and put him there. No, the Lord is already there. What he set is his mind, his awareness that God is there. He said, "I have set the Lord continually before me." What is the impact of practicing the presence of God? Look, because he is at my right hand, I will what? I will not be shaken. Is something shaking your life today? The Lord is at our right hand. And then he says, "Therefore my heart," heart means my thinking, my emotions. My heart is glad. Remember, we're talking about rejoicing. And my glory rejoices. Glory means my entire being, everything about me is rejoicing. Even my physical body, my flesh also will dwell securely. You know when we practice the presence of God, the impact on our daily life is amazing. People will ask us, "How can you face whatever you're facing with confidence, with calmness?" And you'll say, "Because my God is at my right hand." Is your God at your right hand? Look at, you know, at this point, David, he pauses. It's like he says, you know, he's working on his laptop. Here's David, you know, writing down his reflections about about God's presence and the fact that he knows him. And then all of a sudden, David just shuts down his laptop and he said he stands up from his chair and he says, "Lord, this is too much. I It's mind-blowing. My finite puny brain cannot grasp the the greatness of you." And he says, "Such knowledge is too wonderful." The word wonderful here means something so amazing that only God can accomplish it. That's the that's the meaning of the word wonderful. And he says it is too wonderful. It is too high. I cannot attain to it in Filipino English. I cannot words. Can you words? I can't. God's amazing knowledge of me is through the roof. And that's why, folks, three reasons to rejoice. One is God knows me. Second, David says, is God is with me. Okay, so let's see what he's talking about. Verse seven, where can I go? Verse eight, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in Shaw, which is the place of the dead, behold, you are there. You know, if if we u don't know the context of what David is talking about, why he's writing what he wrote, we might even think he's complaining. It's like, I can't get away from this person. You know, no matter where I go, he's there. But no, he's not complaining. He is what? He's worshiping. He's rejoicing and he's saying, "Where can I go from your spirit, Lord? There's no place on earth that I can go to that you're not there. There's no getting away from you." Again, how does that make us feel? afraid or safe. Our proper response to who God is and what he has done. You know, as I was reading these two verses in my own quiet time, I asked myself even hypothetically, Lord, why would I want to flee from your presence? Why would I want to do something as idiotic and useless as that? But I put down some answers. I also asked the Lord, "Lord, when is your presence most precious to me?" And I put down my answers. Can I share my reflections with you today? Why would I want to flee from your presence, Lord, when I am in willful sin? When I am disappointed with circumstances and with God? when I insist on doing things in my own way and time, when I find this world more attractive than God, and when I foolishly think I can hide what I'm doing from him. So, in all of these for all of these reasons, I would attempt in theory to do the idiotic thing of trying to flee from the presence of God, which I know is impossible anyway. So I have some advice for everybody in this room. Don't even think about it. On the other hand, I ask the Lord, Lord, when is your presence most precious to me? And these are genuine answers from my heart. First one is when I'm alone in my dark bedroom and cannot sleep. Anybody can identify? Have you had some sleepless nights for one reason or another? Yeah. when the flight I'm on enters turbulence. I have been on some really bad flights with awful turbulence. But you know what I say? Lord, this is your sky. You command the winds where to blow, where to go? Will you ease off the turbulence? Lord, this is your world. You are here. When I'm having problems with technology, oh, some of you will laugh. Like come on. I mean you just Google that, right? Yeah, there's Google, but there's God better than Google. And even if God says Google it, at least I know he put it in my head, right? But you know, I'm just saying that even in seemingly mundane things, even like writing an email, the Lord has taught me over many years, Lord, will you help me write something that will please you, something you will bless? And then when I'm when I need to confront difficult people in tough conversations. You ever had one of those? Welcome to planet earth everybody. When I am sick and or need to undergo medical tests or procedures. You know I remember and this I've had I've gone through this more than once. You know the CT scan or the MRI where they shoot you into this tube all by yourself. Of course, you're by yourself and then they tell you like the technician told me, "Sir, this will take 45 minutes and you cannot move." Sir, if you move, we will have to do it all over again from the very beginning. Do you understand? And you know, when somebody tells me I cannot move, all the more I want to move. So they put me into the tube and you know, I just think of worship songs and inside the tube I worship God. And you know what happened in my last scan? They pulled me out after 20some minutes and I said, "Oh no, what did I do?" Nothing, sir. You're okay. We're done. Well, you said 45. No, it's okay, sir. You did not move. So, we were done sooner. Amazing what worshiping God can do. Even inside the CT scan or the, you know, whatever that machine is. Amazing, I tell you. Okay, go back verse 9 and 10. Ah, this is so beautiful. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea. This phrase, the wings of the dawn, the the 21st century translation of that phrase, taking the wings of the dawn is if I traveled at the speed of light. That's the modern day meaning. The reason why it's the modern day meaning is you observe uh when the darkness is finally broken by the light of dawn all of a sudden the sky is lit up. It doesn't go like no in in an instant light breaks the darkness. And so the psalmist says, "You know what? Even if I would travel on the in the at the speed of light and go to the farthest most remote place on planet earth, you know, a a station in the Antarctica or wherever it is." He says, "Even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will lay hold of me." And as I was reading this, I remembered a couple of things that my wife used to tell me. Uh the first thing is this. Uh there'll be times when we'd go to a mall or or a shopping place, a big place, and she'd have to go her way and I'd need to go mine because we need to get things done quickly. And there were times when she didn't realize that her phone battery had died. So there was no way for us to talk. But you know, she would always tell me, "I know wherever I am, you will always find me." And you know, she's right. She was absolutely correct. Of course, I'll pray like, "Lord, where is my wife? You need to leave me. Give me ideas where she could be." But ultimately, I would always find her. And she would say, and when finally I do, she'd say, "See, I knew wherever I am, you will always always find me." And then she'll tell me another thing. See, I'll ask her, "Where do you want to go? You want to see a movie? You want to have uh whatever food you like? Or do you want to go to this place or visit someone?" And you know many times he'll tell me it doesn't matter where we go as long as I can hold your hand. But you know that's the way it is with God. What do I mean these are the things we should tell the Lord. Lord I am never really lost because you are with me. You feel lost today. You're not lost. You're right here. And most importantly, God is right there where you are. And the other thing we tell the Lord is this. Lord, it doesn't matter where you take me or what situation I'm in because I know your hand is holding me. Isn't our God amazing? You can count on him. Let's go back to our psalm. If I say surely the darkness will o overwhelm me and the light around me will be night. Even the darkness is not dark to you and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to you. There is no such thing as darkness in the presence of our God. God is light. The Apostle John wrote, "And in him there is no darkness at all." Darkness flees at the presence of God. Are you in a dark place today? Do you feel like you're in a dark place? And if you are, maybe you actually brought yourself there. It's a consequence of poor choices in your life. Or maybe you had nothing to do with it. It's just circumstances and you're in a dark place. Well, God is with you. And in him there is no darkness. You may not know your way out, but God knows the way out. And he you take his hand and you let him walk you out of that darkness. No matter what it takes, no matter how long, he can lead you out. Many years ago, this Christian lady named Stormmy Omarian, yes, she has a very special name, but she has written a number of books about her own practice of the presence of God. One of them is just enough light for the step I'm on, trusting God in the tough times. And you know, one of the quotes from that book is this. Sometimes what seems like the darkest step we've ever been on comes just before the brightest light we've ever experienced. So folks, if you and I feel like we're in the dark, we take God's hand and we take one step and we take another step and we take another step and we take another step until God leads us out of the valley and to the mountaintop. Are we good so far? Are we okay? Are you amazed with our God? He is so amazing, I tell you. Anyway, so practice the presence of God. First response is rejoice. God knows me. God is with me. Ah, this is one of my favorites. God made me. God made me. Look, once upon a time, this was you. Once upon a time, this was you. Tell the person next to you, "Oh, this was you." Once upon a time. Yeah. And ask them, "What happened since that time? You used to be so cute, you know." Anyway, so what does Psalm 139 have to say about this? You see, this is so important because some people feel like they're an accident. They shouldn't even have been born. Some people were rejected even while they were still in their mother. Well, in Psalm 139, it says, "You formed my inward parts. You wo me in my mother's womb." Folks, who did the forming and the weaving? God. You and I are his personal masterpiece. You formed me. The word formed means since that person himself created this then that person is the owner of this creation. That's what it means. You God owns us because he made us. We are his. You wo me. That takes that means detail. That requires focus. It's about intricacy. And then it says I will give thanks to you. That's my that's my response. Part of worship is giving thanks to God. Uh, I'm fearfully, wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret. Ah, look at this. I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. You know that phrase, the depths of the earth, is a poetic expression or description of the womb of the mother. Nobody else is allowed in there. Did you know when you were being formed in your womb, when God was forming you, there was nobody else allowed there. It's only you and God. That's how exclusive your being was. You're the creation of you. Have you ever watched an artist work, a painter or a sculptor? Chances are you have not watched him work. You know why? Because they want to work by themselves. An artist, for example, a sculptor, he will have a studio isolated from everybody else. because he needs to focus. He wants to create the most beautiful thing possible. And that's why the Bible says, "You created me in the depths of the earth. I was not hidden from you. You wo me. You put me together. We are God's masterpiece." And mothers, the studio of every masterpiece of God. Mothers, you were that studio. That's why you're so special. That's why we have Mother's Day. Yeah. You know, there are a few things in the Bible that talk about mothers. For here, for example, can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? It is unthinkable for a woman not to have compassion or love for her child. But God is saying even in the event of the unthinkable, he says, even these may forget, but I will not forget you. I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. You know, when I was reading this, it reminded me of the days when there was no cell phone yet, so you couldn't take notes on your phone so that you'd remember stuff. So, I don't know if you've ever done this, but before the advent of cell phones, or maybe you didn't have your phone on you and somebody told you, "Write this down. This is important. And you didn't have any paper. So you got a pen and then you wrote it on the palm of your hand. Anybody ever done that in this room? Yeah. Okay. So it's not only me who lived in the 19th century. Very good. But see that word inscribe. It's not writing. That word inscribed means there's cutting. There's engraving. Whose hands were engraved? Whose hands were cut? Whose hands were wounded for you and for me? Whose hands? Jesus. And you know if ever we doubt, if Jesus knows what's going on in our lives, he says, "I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands." Verse 16. Your eyes saw my unformed substance and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them. This is one of my favorite parts of this psalm. In your book were all written for me the days that were ordained for me even when as yet there was not one of them. U a long time ago especially for young women, young ladies, they kept a diary. Maybe you still do. I don't know. Maybe some men do. So they would keep a diary and then every day or every so often they would write in their diary they would write Roselle you know this dear diary am I correct dear diary today I met a handsome young man and he bought me soft drinks I feel tomorrow he will ask me to marry him okay these are the funny stuff that people would write in their diaries but you know But God wrote a diary of your life. God wrote a diary of your life. He didn't write it yesterday. He wrote it before we were born. He wrote it from eternity past. Is that amazing? In other words, regardless of the imperfections and the fallen nature of this world and all of the foolish decisions you and I make or we are victimized by the foolish decisions of other people, no matter what, God still has a wonderful plan for your life. And he wrote it ages ago. And then again, David says, "Oh, wait, Lord. Uh, here I go again. This is too much." Look at what he said. How precious also are your thoughts to me, oh God. How vast is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. What are you thinking about today? What are you thinking of right now? Regardless of what you are thinking of, this I can tell you based on God's word, God is thinking of you. Yeah, God is thinking of you. How often does God think of you? Look at the answer. They would outnumber the son. He thinks of you when you're asleep. He thinks of you when you are when we wake up. When I awake, I am still with you. So folks, if you're here today and you think you're an accident, maybe you should never have been born. Maybe God made a mistake. Maybe he didn't make a mistake somebody else's life, but in your life, he made a mistake. Maybe God plays favorites. He loves that person more than he loves me. Folks, I want you to hear a story of one of our brothers, JP Oko. Will you come forward, JP? Let's welcome our brother JP Okampo and let us hear God's amazing story in his life. Greetings in Jesus' name. I am JT Okampo. I had entered this life with many challenges. I was born with a cle lipit and pallet and bilateral microsia. This means that my left ear is underdeveloped and my right ear was never formed. As a result, I have profound hearing loss on my right side and I rely mostly on my left ear to hear. From birth, I face medical and developmental challenges particularly with feeding, speech and hearing and I wore a hearing aid for most of my childhood. My parents also struggled with their own medical issues. My mother had lupus during her pregnancy which contributed to my complications while I was in the womb. She continued to face frequent surgeries and hospitalizations after I was born. My dad was an ER doctor. Hence, I was no stranger to bleeding machines and doctor's visits. Vote for my mom's health and mine. At 2 years old, after some surgeries, my dad was finally comfortable enough to introduce me to the rest of the family. He had been deeply ashamed that his son, a doctor's child, was born with so many congenital deficiencies. At what they could afford, my parents gave me the necessary medical care. I was placed in special schools to help me overcome my hearing and speech difficulties. They even wrote letters to my school requesting that I be seated at the front and exempted from the school's haircut policy so my hearing aid could be covered up. At the same time, my parents struggled with their relationship and eventually separated. I witnessed their fights while trying to focus on my studies and I saw my dad smoking late at night after coming home from the ER. All the while, my mom cried at night, ashamed of the weight gain from her steroid treatments. She knew her life was going to be short, but that was just the beginning. As I entered my teen years, my life took a tragic turn. My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer. Years of smoking has finally caught up with him. He refused surgery and I watched as the cancer slowly ravaged him. He had passed away when I was 14 years old. Just a few months later, my mother suffered her second stroke, which left her bedridden for four years. She passed when I was 17 years old. I was left to cope with the loss of both parents, all the while wrestling with insecurities and questions about my identity and my faith. Well, all along my wonderful grandmother took me in and supported my education and music endeavors. For years, I struggled with feelings of inadequacy, questioning my self-worth, my sexuality, and whether God was really in control of my life. After all, why would I follow a God who took both my parents away so soon and gave me all these defects? Why would I even find love in a world that val that values physical beauty? But in the midst of the pain, something in me began to love music. It was my refuge. Despite all my hearing challenges, I found joy in serving in the CCF music ministry. But but as I served, I faced depression, bitterness, and thoughts of suicide. I was fighting a battle within myself while pretending to be okay on the outside. I developed toxic leadership habits that hurt others in the music ministry. But when I was 19, at a CCF retreat, God broke through. And there, I truly understood God's love for me. As I played the piano during the worship session in the retreat, I heard God's quiet but powerful voice saying, "Don't you know I love you? I created and planned for you. You are here playing for me. Is this an accident? This is where I want you to be." It was then that I truly surrendered everything to God. I genuinely accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and made a covenant to love and to serve him. I gave up my harsh ways as a music director and learn to be kind and gentle with other musicians and singers. Even with all the challenges I grew up with, the cle, the hearing loss, surgeries, bullying, hospital visits, and losing both my parents, I have come to realize that none of it was a mistake. God intended for me to be here to serve him in music and to minister to the world. Psalm 139 reminded me that God saw me, formed me, and wrote every single day of my life before I took my first breath. For so long, I thought I was a defective, disposable burden. But I now know the truth. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The enemy tried to steal my joy, distort my identity, and silence my faith. But Christ secured everything. Not just a survival, but my life to the full. I was placed exactly where God wanted me to be. And from the life of doubt came a life of blessing and security in the Lord. Since then, God has called me to be part of his flock and to serve here at CCF in the Exalt music ministry as music production coordinator. I lead worship with the music team every Sunday behind those curtains. By God's grace, I was also given the opportunity to join the Papuli music team for their 25th album launch in 2023 and to participate in a worship conference in 2024 as part of the team as well. What once seemed impossible because of my condition became a testimony of God's faithfulness and power. From a person with disabilities to a person with these abilities, I can declare and testify that my life is a living proof that the Lord God loves me, has a plan for me, and will continue to use me in the way that he intended. Once again, I'm great. To God be the glory. I want you to look at this picture. This is one of the largest parks I have ever been to in Sydney, Australia. I love going to parks. I love walking. Now, do you see these two tiny figures there? That is my then 10-year-old granddaughter, and that's me. We were walking this huge park together. It was so big, we almost got lost. But you know someday I believe my granddaughter years from now when she's grown up she will look at this picture and she will say my lolo walked with me every step of the way. And you know God is like that. God is like that. He will walk with you and me every step of the way. And so we respond to the goodness of God. We respond to the presence of God not by sitting down but by standing to our feet and declaring the fact that when you and I look back at our life even from today we will declare with one voice never once Lord never once did I ever walk alone. Remember Psalm 139 teaches us that there are two responses to the presence of God. The one the first one is rejoice and the other one is request. And we'll do this quickly. There are two requests at the end of Psalm 139. One is Lord protect me and the other one is Lord lead me. What is this about? You see prayer is a form of worship because prayer requires humility which worship also requires. So when did David pray Lord protect me? In verses 19 to 22 he said oh that you would slay the wicked oh God. Depart from me therefore men of bloodshed for they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you oh Lord? Do I not loathe those who are who rise up against you? I hate them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies. Folks, first you do not have to copy this prayer. Exactly. Okay. Okay. You don't need to pray this way. You and I need to draw the principle. The most important principle in these verses is this. David considered his enemies those that were God's enemies. He said, "They speak against you. Your enemies take your name in vain." In other words, God, whoever is your enemy is my enemy. Now, folks, you and I know, or maybe we don't. Spiritually speaking, we have an enemy. Often times, however, we fool ourselves into thinking that we are each other's enemy, which we are not. The Apostle Paul wrote this. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of who? The devil. Not your wife, not your teenage boy. The devil. He is the ultimate enemy. He wants to shame God's name. And therefore, we can declare, Lord, the one who is your enemy is my enemy. However, we cannot fight this enemy. We need God's power. It is a supernatural struggle. And that's why it says, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood." Tell the person next to you, "You are not my enemy." Tell that person, "You and I are on one team." And tell each other, "We are on the winning team, and that's team Jesus." Yes. [Applause] Finally, Lord, lead me. Why is this an important request? And this is the ending of the psalm. Search me, oh God. By the way, do you remember the first word in verse one? Search. Digging in a mind. Lord, dig into my heart as deep as you want. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, meaning test me. See where I'm genuine. See where I'm fake. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any hurtful way in me. And finally, lead me in the everlasting way. What is the everlasting way? The everlasting way is the way that pleases God. The everlasting way is the way of life that makes people say there is an ambassador of Christ. That is a person whose Jesus I want to know. That is the everlasting way. And why is this prayer important? Because you know our lives, our lives are like houses. On the outside, our house can look very nice. And then people step inside the house. And then they see, oh, the living room looks okay. And then they go into the dining room. The dining room looks okay, too. But many times in our lives, you and I, we have this secret storage closet aka bodega full of trash, bitterness, anger, insecurity, woundedness from whatever experience or whomever people, unforgiveness, lukewarmness in our Christian life, all kinds of garbage. all kinds of burdens and we refuse to give them up to God for whatever reason. And remember we said God sees everything about you and me. He sees that trash. He knows that bodega in our life. And he wants us to give it up. He wants us to say, "Lord, I don't surrender 90% of my being to you, of my house as it were. I give you 100%. all or nothing. Some of you need to do that today. Some of you are already followers of Jesus, but you have that secret closet in your life. Still not fully surrendered. Some of you do not know Jesus. You know about him. You may be a religious person, but you have no relationship. And you have that pile of junk in your life. You need to give to Jesus today. Shall we bow our heads? And if you want to surrender 100% to Jesus, whether you are already his follower, but you're still holding something back or you've never come to a point of knowing Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are here for a reason. You are in the presence of the living God. He sees your heart. He knows your life. He loves you like you and I will never deserve. So tell him, "Lord Jesus, today I surrender absolutely, completely without any reservation in all humility and sincerity. I come before you and I confess that I need you. I need you to be my Lord, my master, and my Savior. I need you to save me and forgive me. I need you to cleanse me and try me and search me and lead me in the everlasting way. Lord Jesus, from this day forward, I belong to you. I will follow you as my shepherd. I will worship you in thought, in deed, in word, in song, every day, every moment of my life. My life is yours, Lord Jesus. Thank you for giving yours for mine. And so, God, we thank you for this day where you have taught us not about worship, but you have taught us to worship. Help us to live that life consistently so that we will respond to you as you and you alone deserve. This is our prayer in Jesus name. Everyone said amen. Amen. Good day CCF family. Welcome to Sunday FastTrack where you ask real life questions and we give you biblical truths. I'm Charlene Serento from Elevate Youth Ministry and we're here today with Pastor Ricky to answer some of your questions. Good day, Pastor Ricky. Thank you for your message today and we'd also like to greet everybody a happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. And that's you. Yes, me too. So, Pastor Ricky, are you ready to answer our questions? Yeah. Okay, let's Okay, question number one. You mentioned God's divine plan for our lives. For someone who feels their life has taken an unexpected or difficult turn, how can they reconcile their experiences with the idea of a pre pre-ordained loving plan? I will never claim to be able to completely reconcile, God's sovereignty on the one hand and the fact that we make choices on the other hand and the fact that this is a fallen world on the other hand. Yes. And um there's just some things we can't fully explain. And if we could fully explain them, then we would be God, right? But that's not a copout quest uh answer. What I'd like to say is in times when we can't understand what's going on. We need to go back to God's word and God's character. And if we believe that God is too wise to be mistaken and that God is too good to be unkind, then we cling to who God is and we wait for him to sort things out by faith. And so rather than looking for an explanation, we just hang on to the God who knows everything including the things we cannot explain. Wow. Thank you, Pastor Ricky. Um, for our second question, how can we reconcile the teaching of God's intricate and wonderful formation of each individual with the reality of genetic conditions or congenital disabilities? Okay, my first answer to that is listen to the testimony in the message a while ago. That speaks volumes in terms of an answer to this question. Now, I also remember when we first opened this building, our guest speaker then was Nick Buit. Yes, I remember. Nick Poic was born in horrendous conditions. No arms, no legs. He tried to drown himself out of desperation, I think more than once. But today, God is using him in amazing ways. First of all, God uh changed his heart. He became a follower of Jesus. And he's been like for decades an inspirational speaker for all kinds of people, especially young people to tell them that there is hope in life because there is hope in Jesus. I also uh messaged one of our members who had one of their children has special needs or disabilities and he said something similar. He said we couldn't fully explain or understand then why our daughter was born this way but it was through their daughter that doors for evangelism were opened. people asked them how are you coping with your situation etc etc and so they were they were able to share Jesus with these people and many of these people who came asking how are you guys doing how are you coping are now strong solid followers of Jesus so we have no clue how God will use a so-called imperfect life with disabilities and deformities because God is sovereign he is who he is praise God amen so for our third question with the midterm elections coming up tomorrow. Some of us may be disheartened with the front runners and later on even the results. So what comfort does the passage Psalms 139 bring to those who are struggling to accept the state of our nation? At the end of the psalm, David prays, "Lord, search my heart. Know my heart, know my anxious thoughts." Uh for me that implies the need for wisdom. It also reminds us that in the context of the elections, we can only do our part. We cannot do other people's part, right? We do our part. First of all, we vote. We don't oversleep or whatever it is. We go out and we vote. We pray for wisdom. We vote for people whom we believe uh God can use to be channels of blessing to this nation. We leave the results to God. The Bible says God sets up kings and he deposes them. He can put whoever he wants there and he can remove whoever he wants. But as far as we're concerned, we as Christians should be good examples of what good Filipino citizens are. Obedient, humble, uh, and of course praying and wanting for everyone in this nation to eventually know who Jesus is. Thank you again, Pastor Ricky, for answering our questions. Tomorrow is election day, so let's ask God for wisdom, how to vote, and also for a peaceful election. Prayer points are shared online through CCF accounts for you to use and share. And that's it for today's CCF Sunday Fastrack. Happy Mother's Day to all. Mal and to you and to me. [Music]