Dangerous Prayers Week 2 – “Search Me”

Series Big Idea: God’s dream for you is to be a fully engaged Christ-follower, to be on adventure with Jesus that is daring, life-changing, full of purpose. If you’re ready for something more, start praying dangerous prayers.

Message Big Idea: Lord, search me so that I can know my own heart.

Scripture: Psalm 139, Jeremiah 17:9-10

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Introduction: FOMOHave you ever hear the term “FOMO”? F-O-M-O? It stands for Fear Of Missing Out. Wikipedia says FOMO is “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.” In other words, it’s a fear of not being where the action is or simply not being included.

They actually made a movie about FOMO last year – and it’s truly terrifying:

Video: FOMOEdited version of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bErHawEbpA

OK, that wasn’t a real movie, but you get the point.

Now, there’s no doubt Social Media has increased the frequency and intensity of FOMO. I’ll admit, when I see people I know having fun together or doing something without me, my FOMO starts to kick in.

For example, when the Cubs were playing in the World Series and I saw some pictures like these of people I THOUGHT were my friends… Yes, I felt some FOMO.

FOMO might be harmless when it comes to missing out on parties or baseball games; but do you ever have a nagging fear that you’re missing out on the life you’ve always wanted?

I think a lot of us have an aching sense that we’re missing out. We long for something more. We feel like the life we’re living just isn’t what it could be or should be. Too often we find ourselves just trying to get through the day, but deep down we know there has to be more than this.

Even coming here on Sundays can contribute to this feeling. We hear stories from real life people who have incredible, life-changing experiences. We see videos of people who have gone all over the world in order to serve others and help more people find their way back to God. And when we read Scripture, we read about people like Daniel whose faith was so strong he would rather face death at the hands of lions than turn his back on God. We learn about men and women who walked alongside Jesus, witnessed incredible miracles, and then turned the world upside down. It gives us reason to pause and ask, “Is what I am living for worth dying for? Is there something more? Am I missing out?” Have you ever felt that way?

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Series RecapDuring this series, we're challenging one another to pray "Dangerous Prayers" -- prayers that invite God to work powerfully in our lives and lead us to a deeper experience as Christ-followers.

These are prayers many people in the Bible prayed…people who lived incredible journeys of faith.

(On Screen: CELEBRATE: Me & God) The prayers invite God to do something new in our relationship with him. Something we call “Celebrate”.

(Add: CONNECT: Me & The Church) They challenge us to connect more deeply in our relationships with one another in our church community.

(Add: CONTRIBUTE: Me & The World) And they stretch us to contribute to the world in ways that help others find their way back to God.

Here’s the truth - if we don’t want to miss out on the life God has for us, it’s going to involve some risk - a willingness to move out of our comfort zone. These dangerous prayers can help us do that, but they are not for the faint of heart. They will challenge us to grow, to change, to move forward in faith.

Today we’re talking about a very important dangerous prayer. It’s a prayer David prayed in Psalm 139, a prayer that can launch us on a journey to a deeper, more fulfilling life. And the prayer is simply this: “Search me.”

Praying “Search Me”Many spiritual writers call this prayer “The Prayer of Examen.” It’s not a prayer most of us pray often, is it? Maybe it’s because there is this gravitational pull toward what’s easy, what’s comfortable. Our lives get busy, we get distracted, we’re moving at 100 mph. We don’t take the time to stop and reflect. We don’t sit still long enough to let God search us.

Socrates famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” God wants to lead us to a better way, a better life. If we allow him to search our hearts and minds, we can begin to learn, to change, to discover the life we were made for.

Let’s read this prayer together:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

When we say to God, “Search me,” we are inviting him to put our hearts, our minds, our very lives under a microscope. We open ourselves up to his examination. We invite his Spirit to work in our hearts and our minds directing our thoughts to things he wants us to notice. “Search me” is a vulnerable prayer, but it is also a valuable prayer because through it, God reveals truths to us that may have previously been unknown. Unknown Love“Search me, O God, and know my heart…” (Psalm 139:23) As David prayed this prayer he discovered something. He discovered he was already known. David writes:

“You knit me together in my mother’s womb...My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place…your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13, 15-16)

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I love that as David created space for God to direct his thoughts, what he discovered was that he was known, loved, treasured by God. Maybe you need to discover that today too?

Show of hands - how many of you played “Hide and Seek” when you were a kid? Most of us have. But have you ever watched a 3-year-old play the game? Have you ever seen one stand in the corner with their hands over their eyes thinking they are hidden? Of course, they’re not. But it’s not until she opens her eyes that the child knows she has been found.

I think many of us are a lot like this. Our eyes have never been opened to the great truth that though we do not see God, and perhaps think he can’t see us; he not only sees us, but also knows us intimately and loves us deeply.

David was so thrilled by this discovery that he wrote:

“Oh Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit or stand. When far away you know my every thought…Every moment you know where I am…This is too glorious, too wonderful to believe! I can never be lost to your Spirit! I can never get away from my God.” (Psalm 139:1-3, 6-7 TLB)

It is generally believed that David wrote this as an old man who was reflecting back on his life. He had a lot in his past that could bring shame and for which he might want to pretend that God could not see. But as he allowed God to direct his thoughts, what he found was that he was known, that he was loved.

Do you know that you are known? Do you know that you are loved? We might fear being examined by God because we think it will lead to guilt and judgment, but what being examined does is create a chance to be found...to discover the truth that we are intimately and completely known…to discover we are loved to a depth that we previously didn’t understand.

As we pray, “Search me,” we discover the truth that we are loved.

Unknown SinThe prayer, “Search me,” also reveals truths that are harder to face. When we ask God to search us, we ask him to draw our attention to the words we have spoken, the actions we have taken, the thoughts we have entertained that are not good, right, or pleasing to him.

David prayed, “See if there is any offensive way in me…” (Psalm 139:24) Asking God to show us the dirt in our lives is a pretty bold prayer.

Our human tendency is to ignore our sin. It’s so easy to live in denial or even ignorance of our sin.

The prophet Jeremiah warns us that our hearts can be so hardened that we don’t recognize our own sin. He writes:

“The heart is the most deceitful thing there is and desperately wicked. No one can really know how bad it is. Only the Lord knows! He searches all hearts and examines all motives…” (Jeremiah 17:9-10 TLB)

The word “deceitful” could also be translated “fickle.” Isn’t that fascinating? My heart, your heart is sometimes prone to telling us we’re “okay” when we’re not.

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Now understand, there are things God knows about me that I don’t even know about myself. In fact, he knows me better than I know myself. He knows that in some ways, I am better than I believe myself to be; and in other ways, I am far worse than I would ever want to believe. When we pray, “Search me,” we ask God to bring to our attention the broken parts of our lives that need to be confronted, the fractured parts that need to change.

Most of us are resistant to that, aren’t we? It’s understandable. It’s kind of like being afraid to go to the doctor for an annual check up because you’re afraid there might be something wrong with you. I understand that feeling, but it’s a little crazy, isn’t it? I have been one of those people. I’ve been hesitant to go to the doctor because what I don’t know feels less threatening than what I might found out. However, twice now, I (Earl) been delivered from cancer because of early detection. Had it not been for my doctor insisting on me having certain routine tests, my future here could be quite dismal.

Asking God to “Search me” is like putting my life into the hands of a skillful surgeon. He can help me identify, diagnose, and remove things in my life that are diseased. Sin, if left unaddressed, will damage and even destroy us. Asking God to “Search me,” to reveal my unknown or unacknowledged sin, isn’t easy or comfortable, but it is so worth it.

Author Richard Foster writes:

“Without apology and without defense we ask to see what is truly in us. It is for our own sake that we ask these things. It is for our good for our healing for our happiness.” -Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.

As God brings things to our awareness that we previously didn’t recognize, we have the opportunity to confess them, to turn from them, to begin to be formed into who he created us to be. We have the opportunity to grow.

Unknown PurposeNot only can the prayer, “Search me,” reveal the truth that we are loved as well as shine light on areas of our lives where we need to grow, “Search me” can also reveal how God is at work in our lives and our world.

David prayed, “…lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:24) He’s asking God to show him what next steps to take, to direct him in the way God would have him go.

When we slow down and ask God to search our lives and direct our thoughts, we begin to see more clearly evidence of his activity in our lives, our relationships, the spaces we inhabit. We begin to recognize ways he is leading us to carry out his purposes in this world.

Have you ever had the experience where you are driving somewhere in your car, and when you arrive at your destination, you realize your mind was so disengaged from the journey that you actually have no idea how you go there? You were sort of on autopilot. Has that ever happened to you? I think it has to most of us.

What we may not realize is that a lot of us go through life that way. We wake up in the morning and go through the motions of our day disengaged from what is really happening around us. We’re on autopilot and miss so much of what’s happening during the journey.

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We may have missed clues that a co-worker is struggling and might have been open to an invitation to church.

We may have missed an opportunity to pray for our kid who is facing a tough exam at school. We may have missed a chance to serve a neighbor because we didn’t slow down in the driveway

long enough to realize they just had a new baby.

And those are examples from our own personal world, but what about those who maybe we don’t see, those who are outside our personal world?

We may have missed a chance to help someone see how their comment or action was perpetuating a harmful racial stereotype because it was easier just to ignore it.

We may have missed a chance to show God's love to a homeless person because we were in such a hurry to get to our next destination.

We may have missed a chance to learn from someone who thinks or looks differently than we do, because it is more comfortable and easier to spend our limited time with people who are like us.

As we pray, “Search me,” we give God the opportunity to bring our mind to the clues we may have missed…ways God had positioned us to follow his lead and carry out his work in this world. Praying, “Search me” trains us to be more alert to the activity and purposes of God in the future.

We become more aware of our surroundings, our relationships, and the ways that God is calling us to join him in his mission of helping people find their way back to God. And here is something I believe with all of my heart, friends: We discover a better life when we discover our role in carrying out God’s purposes in this world. Praying “Search me, O God, lead me in the way everlasting” gives God an opportunity to direct us to those purposes.

ChallengeSo here are three things we want to challenge one another with this week:

1. First, pray this Dangerous Prayer every day: “Lord, search me so that I can know my own heart.” God really wants to answer that prayer. Let him examine you. Let him direct your awareness to his love, to the sin in your life that needs to be addressed, to the purposes he has for you in each day.

2. Second, create space in your life to talk to and hear from God. There is nothing that you do this week that is more important than hearing from God. This Dangerous Prayer isn’t a prayer that can be prayed on the run. It requires space. It requires slowing. Create space in your life to pray, “Search me.”

3. And third, take advantage of the new online 3C Spiritual Growth Plan we’ve created to help you learn where you’re at spiritually and how you can grow. This idea of allowing God to search us may be new for many of us and this 3C tool can be a good way to get started. The assessment portion of the tool leads you through a number of questions about your relationship with God, your relationships with others in the church, and your relationship to the world. As you complete the assessment and read through your results, ask God to show you how he is at work in your life and to lead you to your next steps. We would love for every person who attends COMMUNITY to take advantage of this tool during this series. So visit www.communitychristian.org/3C today to get started!

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ConclusionA number of years ago, fifty people over the age of 95 were interviewed and asked the question: “If you had your life to live over again, what would you do differently?” Three answers emerged over and over again. They said if I had it do life over again…

I would reflect more. I would risk more. And I would do more things that would live on after I am gone.

Pretty good answers, huh? I especially like the first one: “I would reflect more.” I think that’s because at the end of the day or at the end of our life, we all want to know we made the most of every opportunity, every gift, and every resource God has given us.

I think the greatest antidote to FOMO – the fear of missing out on the life we’re meant to live -- is praying this prayer: “Search me.” When we invite God into even the most hidden parts of our hearts and minds, we are freed to become who we were always meant to be, and isn’t that really what we all want? To be all that we were meant to be?

This side of eternity, I think we’ll always have a little FOMO. As a matter of fact, I think that’s how God wired us. Augustine said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” We long for love, purpose, and meaning. And, sadly, too often those longings lead us to people and places that take us further and further from God. It’s not until we turn to God and say to him, “Search me” that we can begin to discover the path to the life we are meant to live.

Communion IdeaEvery week we celebrate the Communion together. For me it’s an opportunity to say to God once again, “Search Me” because I want to get the most from this life. But it’s also a reminder to me that there is a better life coming, a life where there will be no more pain, no more tears, and no more suffering. And it’s a life that is promised to those who trust in Jesus. That’s it – no more. No less. No hoops to jump through, no bar to exceed. Just a decision to trust and follow the one who would rather die than live without you.

If there is a fear that is greater than the FOMO, it’s probably the fear of death. And for so many people, they fear death because they suffer from a fear of missing out on the life after this life. Communion reminds me that, while I may have unfulfilled longings in this life, I am guaranteed a life I could never dream possible in the next life. Jesus’ good friend and follower, John, who wrote several books we find in our New Testament, gave this reason for what he wrote. And in his words are a promise we can cling to: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.” (I John 5:13)

Because of his sacrifice, his death, and resurrection, we have no fear of missing out because in the end, we can KNOW for certain that we will have all we need, and all we’ll need is Jesus.

Let’s pray.

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