Omnipresent

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Is on page six to eight. And it is psalm 139, starting at verse one.

You have searched me, lord, 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.

Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before. And you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, surely 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. For you created my inmost being. 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. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God. How vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I am wake, I am still with you.

This is the word of the Lord, and it's beautiful words, incredible words. And I'm really looking forward to getting into them a little later. But first we are going to stand and sing again. How great.

Dear Lord, we thank you so much that we can praise you and that we can say these wonderful things. How great are you, Lord. Amen. We're going to continue our time of prayer as we invite David to come up and lead us in our prayer time this morning. 39 even.

And that's great. Why don't I use this one for today?

Great. Yes, hello. It'd be great if you could have your bibles open. Psalm 139. That would be brilliant.

We're thinking about a God who is in all places at once. That's the big difference between God and us that we're thinking about today. We're in this series. If you've not been with us, thinking about ways in which God is different to us and why that's a really good thing. And today, I want us to remember all of God is in all places at all times.

All of God is in all places at all times. I said it twice. Now you're going to say it with me. All of God is in all places at all times. And that is massively important because we are not.

We're not. We are in one place at one time. Oh, hello. We're in one place at one time. And that is a big difference between us.

Now, how is God in all places at all times? It might be that you think God is a little bit like this. If I'm over here at the door now, put your hand up if you think that I am outside currently.

Yeah, I am outside. I can testify. My hand can testify. That is definitely outside with all of the benefits of the wetness out there. Put your hand up if you think that I am inside currently.

Ok, again, most of you, yes, definitely inside. You can see me inside and outside. Now, here's the question. Am I fully outside? Put your hand up if you think I'm fully outside.

No. Put your hand up if you think I'm fully inside.

Some of you just being difficult. No, I'm not fully inside or fully outside. I'm stretched across two different places. And sometimes when we think that all of God is in all places at all times, we think that God's kind of stretched out over this world. Like one of his eyebrows is here in Totley and maybe his.

His little toes over in Spain and he's got an arm in eastern Europe somewhere. It's not like that. It's not that God's kind of stretched out like a rubber band, this psalm, and in fact, the rest of the Bible tells us that all of God, God is fully present in every place at all times. Now, I think that this is one of the areas where it's less hard for us to get our minds around it. But let's just quickly see it from that psalm we see.

He says this, if I can get to the right page, he says this in verse eight. If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. We saw a little while ago that sometimes hebrew poetry, it takes one extreme and another extreme. And it says, if I go to the heavens, you are there.

If I go to the depths, you are there. And it says, if you are at both of the extremes, you are everywhere in between. A bit like, remember we said, if I said, oh, look, we're here from north and south and east and west today. I'm not saying we're just here from Scotland and Cornwall. I'm saying we're here from all over and we see that God is all over.

Now, I think that's not as hard for us to get our head around. It's still quite brain achy, but I think that what really happens here is when we get this, it changes everything. So I have got three volunteers. So, Izzy and Sophie and Sam, if you guys want to come on out, that would be great. And you guys are either already or will be dressed up great.

Sam, excellent. You're looking like you've got some things there, Iz, do you want to get stuff from Beth there? That's great. Do you want to pop that on? That would be good.

And, Sophie, if you want to pop that on as well. Now, if you can't see and you want to see, then feel free to either stand up or shuffle around a bit. That's okay to do as well. Now, Izzy, you have got here a bag and a black jumper on. Where do you think you might be going?

Kwit school. King Egbert school. And when are you going to King Egbert? September. In September.

So a big change. You're going from Totley, all Saints school, wonderful school, down to King Egbert. How are you feeling about that? What are you excited about?

How big it is. You're excited about how big it is? That's great. I'm glad we got something that we're excited about. Iz, is there anything that you're not excited?

Anything that maybe is a bit worrying about going to King Egbert? So many people. Lots and lots of people, yeah. Anything else? No, no, just that there's lots and lots of people.

It's a big change, isn't it, going from primary school to secondary school? How does the knowledge that, let's say it together, all of God is in all places at all times, how does that change how Izzy thinks about going to secondary school? We've seen, haven't we, that from the. If he goes up to the heavens, God is there. If he goes to the depths, he's there.

But before that, it says, where can I go from your spirit, that means is that when you go to secondary school, God is already there, but he's not there and slightly distracted. He's not there and slightly sort of watching tv. He's fully there. In other words, God is as much at secondary school as he is here in this building. Right at the moment.

And that means that whether Iz has the best time at secondary school or whether actually, it's quite hard, Izzy will never, ever be alone when she goes to secondary school, because God is fully there. And it's not just going to secondary school, is it? Because some of us this week have got things that we're really not looking forward to. Maybe that meeting with that really difficult client is coming up, or that doctor's appointment, or that thing in your diary that you just really don't want to go to. The God who you meet and you spend time with here in church, the God who is there.

As you are doing your quiet time already fully there, you might feel like there's nobody else in the world who is with you. There he is. Before I come on to Sam, and I will come to you in just a moment, let me just tell you this. I went to see James Powell in hospital the end of last week, and it was wonderful. I always come away more encouraged from hospital visits than I think I do.

The encouraging. When I was there, somebody grabbed me on my way past and said, you need to come and see this lady here in hospital. It was a lady who had just been told that she was going to die, and she wanted to speak to somebody, a Christian, because she was a Christian. Is a Christian still. And for her, chatting to her, she was saying, I've always had people with me, and I'm going to be alone.

And do you know, coming to this verse, what does it say? If I go to the heavens, you are there. If I go down to the depths, the hebrew word there is the word it uses for the place of the grave, you are there. This psalm and this truth that all of God is in all places at all times meant that I was able to say to her, the Jesus that you have walked with every day is there. You might feel nobody else is there.

He is there, fully there, even in death. So God is in all places at all times. That gives you great encouragement. Let's come to you, Sam. Sam, you're looking well, like you're kitted out for a wet walk to church.

Are you going somewhere? What's going on? Yes. So me and some students from school, we've been given the opportunity by God. We're going to Kenya in Africa, and we're going to be working with some, with a school there, and we're going to be helping building towards it, and we're going to be doing some teaching work and some sports coaching there as well.

Wow. That is fantastic. And Sam, we as a church want to support you in doing that. And in fact, if you come back in two weeks time, we're having a cake bake sale for that to raise money to send Sam. And we're also going to have a bit more of an interview to find out a bit more about what he's actually up to in the service there.

But, Sam, question for you. What are you excited about in that trip? Well, I'm really excited because I want to help others and I love helping others and it brings me great joy and I believe it brings others joy as well. And also, it's just a very big adventure and going somewhere new. Brilliant.

Going somewhere new, big adventure and helping others at the same time. That's brilliant. It's a picture of Jesus heart to want to help others. But, Sam, is there anything that you're worried or anxious about? Yeah, I've never really done anything like this before.

I've never been away from my family that far. I've never been to where I'm going. I've never done something like this before. So, yeah, it is quite nerve wracking. Yeah.

So the unknown, what's it going to be like? Different culture, different people. I'm not trying to make you further scared here at the moment, Sam, but what's it going to be like? Do you know, what difference does it make that all of God is in all places at all times? Let's just look again at that psalm for a moment.

That psalm in the very next verse says this. If I rise on verse nine, if I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Do you know, the amazing thing about Sam going to the other side of the sea over in Kenya, is that God is already fully there. It will be totally different in lots of ways. But one thing that will be totally the same is the God who you know here, who you read about in the scriptures, is already there.

And do you know what? I think that brings you reassurance, or it should be. But it also probably brings your mum and your dad and your sister some reassurance as well. Fantastic. Okay, so if we go to the other side of the sea, if we go to heavens, if we go to earth, if we go to King Egbert school, even God is fully there.

But we've got one person here who's dressed a little bit differently, and I hope this one isn't because of something that you're actually going to do. Sophie, what are you dressed as a robber. You're dressed as a robber. Okay. Now, Sophie, this could be very revealing.

If you were planning on robbing something, stealing something, when would you do that? At night. At night now. Hmm. Why would you do that at night, Sophie?

Because no one's out. Like, no one's looking. No one's looking. And if they were, would they see you? No, because it's quite black.

Well, it depends if it's in summer or winter. To be fair, we're planning this quite thoroughly. Yes. Okay, so it is at night. It's dark.

Nobody's around. Nobody's gonna see you as you go and do your robbing. Let's have a quick look at that psalm. And the psalm says this, verse eleven. Surely, if I say surely, the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me.

Even the darkness is not dark to you. The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. What does it mean for you, Sophie? If God, if all of God is in all places at all times, what does it mean for you burglaring at night? It means someone is there and someone can see.

Someone is there and someone can see. Go on, join the dots. Who is it? God. Yeah, that's right.

That means that even at night, God sees what you do. And again, this is one of those things that should be really reassuring to us. But also, perhaps this brings a bit of worry to us. There's nothing that we say or do where God isn't fully present. Even those things that you want to hide, so you do them at night.

Even those things that you want to hide, so you delete your browser history. Even those things that you want to hide, so you make sure that there aren't anybody around when you're doing it. God is there and he sees and he knows, because all of God is present in all places at all times. You guys, fantastic. Thank you so much.

Let's give them a round of applause as they head back to their seats.

Brilliant. Fantastic. Thank you so much. I'm getting a telephone call.

It's good to see you. I am practising for mine, a german bavarian dancing competition. But I know it's very important to be at the church, and so I thought I could ring through to the church and then I could be in zwei places at ein time. Yeah, I could be two places at once. But only God is two places at once.

Only God's everywhere. What do you mean, only God can be in two places at one time? I am there and I am here as well, not fully, though, are you? Only God can be fully in two places. But I am fully there.

I'm on the screen. Everybody is seeing the meals. Okay, if you're fully here, let me ask you, how is Joe Jennings getting on after operation? Well, how am I supposed to know how they are doing? I am only on the phone.

I cannot speak to them. I see the problem. Yeah, yeah. Darcy Stein, problem. I'm not there fully.

I get. Yes. And. Oh, what's this I am hearing that they have started without me? I am on the phone as they have started.

Excuse me, I see you later.

Okay.

Some of you guys, again, you're sitting there and you're like. And we said this last time, what's silliness for an all age service?

And it kind of is silly, isn't it? Again, we've heard that God is in all places at all times.

All of God is in all places at all times. But what's silly is that we try and do the same. We try and be in all places at all times. So some of you teenagers, how many times have you been sat somewhere and on TikTok listening to stuff? Probably better dancing than that.

But dancing to that, maybe even that very same tune. I chose it because it was trending on TikTok and is watched by lots of people, apparently. Not quite sure why.

Maybe you're the Facebook generation. Facebook lies to us, doesn't it? It says you can be everywhere. You don't have to miss out on anything. You can sit in your home, with your family, and at the same time, you can be seeing how that person got on on the other side of the world, and you can cheque in with that person and you can comment on that friend that you've not seen for 20 years.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have a beef against social media itself. Ultimately, social media is a great tool for showing us that we probably do have time to read our Bible every day. But other than that, it's great. We can be in touch with lots of people on social media, can't we? But the problem is that we cannot be fully in two places at once.

I can't be fully engaged in my german rap music and fully engaged in the world around me. I can't be fully in the different places on TikTok, on my phone and be fully engaged with the family around me. Maybe this comes to our diary as well. We want to be in lots of different places at once. So we pack out our diary with lots and lots of different things that we need to be at, rushing from one thing to the next thing to the next thing to the next thing.

And ultimately we're not fully at any of them. No, we're just hopping. I have a friend who comes back from the states and tries to see everybody all at the same time. And everyone's just a bit frustrated because they don't really get to see him because he's heading off to the next thing all the time. We try and be in multiple places at multiple times.

The thing is, we know only God is fully present everywhere. And yet as humans we try and do that, and the result is that we burn ourselves out. And the result is that we're not present. And when we sit down for our meals with a family, even if physically we're there, our minds are somewhere else. We can't be fully present in every place at every time.

But you know what? That's okay, because God, that means that I can trust when my child is on the other side of the world that the God who I know is fully present there. It means that I can trust when there's a party going on that I'm not part of that. It's okay that I'm limited because God has made me a limited human being. He's fully present there.

I don't need to be. It means when I'm worrying about things that are happening elsewhere, he's fully present there. I don't need to be, but very, very quickly. And I'd kick myself if this sermon didn't do this. The fact that God's fully present, yes, it challenges me.

It means that there's nothing that's hidden to him. It means that nothing that I would try and hide is hidden to him. But just as we saw, the God who can't be measured became a measured baby, just as we saw the God who had life in and of himself became a God who was born of Mary. The God who needs nothing to sustain him became reliant on those around him. The God who cannot be hurt and cannot change was nailed to a cross.

So we see the God who is fully present everywhere, experiencing the loneliness that we experience. What did he cry out on the cross? He cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now don't get me wrong. God was fully present there, but Jesus felt the absence of his father.

Why have you forsaken me? And he does that so that when we look back at the things that we would long to hide, we have a God who is fully present. He sees them, but he is able to forgive us and welcome us to himself. That is the kind of God who I long to be fully present in my life. Let's pray, shall we?

Heavenly Father, thank you so much that this psalm says, from womb to tomb, in every place that we could go, in every place that we could imagine being, whether virtual or real, you are fully present, Father. Show us the reassurance of a God who's fully present with us. Help us to know the comfort that we're never truly alone. Help us to hear the challenge that we're never truly alone. But thank you so much that Jesus took the loneliness that we deserve so that you.

You could declare us right before you. Amen.