Sermon Tone Analysis

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message.

The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

This week as we continue our series on Dangerous Prayers we’re going to look at a prayer that is not only dangerous - it’s kind of crazy, too.

I want you to imagine for a moment that you’re David.

God calls you a man after His heart, but you’re also an immensely prideful person who is guilty of causing thousands of deaths because you trusted in your army instead of God.

You committed adultery, a murder and a cover-up of that murder.

It seems to me that the very last thing you would pray to God is “Search me”.

That seems like a prayer that would be both dangerous and crazy.

Would you really want God to look at every detail of your life, under every nook and cranny, in every closet?

Wouldn’t you rather just keep your secrets hidden away?

Tension

Now I want you to think about your own life.

Is that a prayer that you’re willing to pray?

Are you willing to open your life up to God’s scrutiny and allow Him to uncover your deepest darkest secrets?

Truth

We began our series last week by defining dangerous prayer:

Dangerous prayers ask God to bless us by first breaking us.

That is undoubtedly true of the prayer we will look at today - Search me.

Go ahead and turn with me to Psalm 139.

Although I’ll be referring to other parts of this Psalm this morning, we’re just going to focus on the last two verses.

Would you read these verses out loud with me:

Before we look at this prayer in more detail, let me begin by telling you why we need to pray this prayer:

I need to pray “Search me” because I have blind spots

For the most part, most of us are very good at seeing the sin in the lives of others, but we’re not nearly as good at spotting the sin in our own lives.

That is because we all have blind spots.

Application

There are actually four different elements of this prayer to “search me”.

And each element of the prayer is useful in helping us to identify those blind spots and, with God’s help, do something about them.

FOUR ELEMENTS OF PRAYING FOR GOD TO “SEARCH ME”

Search my heart

Why do you think David would ask God to search his heart?

After all, in the very first verse in this Psalm, David acknowledges that God has already searched him and much of the Psalm is spent focusing on the fact that God already knows David’s heart.

So David is not asking God to search his heart for God’s benefit, but rather for his own.

It’s one thing to know and even acknowledge that God knows everything about me.

It’s another thing altogether to ask God to bring those things to my attention.

That is why this is a dangerous prayer.

We’re asking God to reveal to us some things that frankly we’d rather not see.

So what exactly is David asking here?

In the Old Testament, the word translated “heart” is used to describe a person’s inner being.

It is the seat of our mind, will, and emotions.

So David is asking God to go beneath the surface and to dig deep inside his life.

The verb “search” is a military term that described scouting out enemy territory.

It is used to describe digging for the truth.

Here it is used to ask God to open up the recesses of my heart and reveal the secret stuff that is hiding there.

I know what some of you are probably thinking right now.

“Why should I ask God to search my heart?

I’ve got a good heart.

In fact, people often tell me that I have a good heart”.

If you’re thinking that, then let me tell you what the Bible says about your heart:

Go ahead and read this verse out loud with me:

You might think you have a good heart, but God says that your heart is deceitful - that is why we all have blind spots.

And He also says that your heart is desperately sick.

The adjective translated “sick” here literally means “incurable”.

So that means you can’t find and remove those blind spots on your own.

You need God to help you do that and the first step in that process is to identify those blind spots.

Reveal my worries

In the second part of verse 23, David asks God to try him and know his thoughts.

This is one of only two places in the Old Testament where the word translated “thoughts” is used.

If you’re using the ESV, you have a footnote that reads “or cares”, but even that doesn’t really capture the essence of this word.

It literally means “disquieting thoughts”.

The NIV does a good job of translating this as “anxious thoughts” and the NKJV renders it “anxieties”.

So David isn’t just asking God to reveal his thoughts in general, but rather those things that he worries about.

And he asks God to reveal those thoughts by “trying” him.

That verb means “to put to the test for the purpose of proving something genuine”.

It was used to describe how precious metals were tested by fire in order to prove their authenticity.

And here is why it’s important for us to ask God to reveal our fears.

I’m not sure exactly where this statement originated.

I wish I could take credit.

But I think it is one of the most important things that we can take away from this message today:

What we worry about the most reveals where we trust God the least

So what do you worry about?

What makes you anxious?

Are you worried about losing your job?

Are worried about being stuck in a lousy marriage that isn’t getting any better?

Are worried about failing in school or in your job or in some other activity in life?

Are you worried that you might not have enough money to live on when you retire?

Are you worried about your health or the health of someone you love?

Are you worried about contracting COVID?

You need to ask God to reveal those things that you worry about deep inside because often you are unaware that you’re even anxious about those things.

And until you bring them to the surface, you’re not going to be able to address those worries in a healthy way by giving them over to God and learning to trust Him in those areas.

Uncover my sins

In verse 24, David prays and asks God to uncover anything in his life that grieves Him.

He says, “God, show me anything in my life that is inconsistent with your purposes, plans and ways.

Show me anything that is displeasing to you”.

As we talked about earlier, we all have blind spots.

And that is particularly true when it comes to our sins.

Most of us are really good at discerning the sins of others, but frankly we tend to be blind to our own.

No wonder Jesus spoke this word of warning to His disciples - and to us:

We all have a tendency to excuse our own sins in some way.

We’ll even do what Adam did and blame someone else.

“That’s the way God made me”.

Or we’ll become very defensive and tell people that it’s none of their business.

We’ll even misuse Scripture and tell them “Judge not, lest you be judged”.

We don’t have time to delve into that verse in detail, but what I will say is that it is clear that Jesus never intended it to be used in that way.

As we saw just a bit ago, our hearts are wicked and they are deceitful and so we are often blind to our own sins.

That is why we need to pray and ask God to reveal them to us.

Lead me