‘Inviting God in’ by Karen Green - 26 October 2025

What does it mean to be fully known and loved by God? Can we trust that this is a good thing for us? Karen Green looks at how her understanding and experience of God have grown over years, and considers Psalm 139’s reflection that trusting God and growing a relationship with him can lead to intimacy and the release of anxiety. Can this help us to grow in love for people and enjoy a better quality of life?

Transcript

Good morning, my name is Karen and it’s great to gather with you this morning to worship. Don’t we worship an incredible God? A good God. A beautiful and worthy God.

Myself and my husband Dan lead a community group in our home, and earlier this year we did a study looking at the character of God – what God is like. In the book of Exodus 34 (v6) in the Bible, God chose to describe himself to Moses and to his people Israel. He said to them – I am the Lord. I am compassionate and I am gracious. I am slow to anger. I am loving and I am faithful. Another translation for the word faithful is trustworthy. Trustworthy.

And this morning I want to talk about what it looks like to invite this God, of this character, into the very core of who we are.

This morning we are going to focus on these verses - Psalm 139 - v 23 and 24 says ‘Search me oh God and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts . See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ 

I wonder if any of you have ever put your house on air bnb in the hopes of making a few extra pounds to pay for your holiday? In 2015 we did exactly that. We wanted to take a family trip to Jordan – the country we had lived in for 8 years.

It was our first experience of Airbnb, so we hadn’t really thought through too many of the issues involved. We were just super excited when, after popping it on the website, we began to get some bookings. Our first booking came in  -  a young lady and her friends were coming to stay – she seemed friendly on the chat – great! The second booking was an enthusiastic guy who wanted to visit Bristol with his family. Perfect, we were set. Off we went on our travels. 3 weeks later we returned.

It turns out that the first lady and her friends had fully intended to bring a party to the house – bottles of alcohol - and worse – filled the bins, they had been out on the trampoline bothering the neighbours well into the night, and were generally quite noisy. The second visitors weren’t used to electric kettles, and had put the electric kettle on the gas stove – burning into the plastic and making it unusable. They invited a whole load of extended family to gatecrash the lounge and used a load of extra bedding. Upon my return I realised I had no idea who these people were who had stayed in my house. I had welcomed them in and trusted them, but I didn’t know them. I had no idea about their  character or whether they were trustworthy. They were strangers!

How different would it had been if I had actually known them and they had known me? Would I have trusted them?

A few years later we got a dog – Trixie. She was just a puppy and we wanted to go on holiday. We needed someone to stay in our house again and look after the puppy. This time we found an organisation called Christain housitters.

A lady called Annemarie responded to our advert. To us she was another stranger but this time we were able to get some references for her – we asked 2 people who knew her a big question – is she trustworthy? They both said yes, so we booked her in. Anne Marie is the loveliest of people, and has stayed with our dog every summer since. We totally trust her with our most personal items, and with Trixie. We invite her in, we welcome her in enthusiastically, and we don’t mind what she looks at in our home – we totally trust her. She has proved herself trustworthy time and time again.

Trust is built over time, and character references certainly help. Today I want us to look together at what it means to truly believe that God – the God of the Bible who has a full character reference throughout the scriptures - is trustworthy, to the point that we feel able to invite him into our hearts and minds to search us and know us.

‘Search me oh God and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts . See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’

But to put these verses in context, let’s have a look at the rest of Psalm 139. If you have a bible follow it with me as it’s quite long, but its absolutely brilliant so I don’t want to skip it.

This Psalm was written by David. He was a shepherd boy who was called by God to become the King of Israel.  All through the Psalms, we meet up with David regularly. He loved to praise and worship God. That was because he led quite an extraordinary life that was filled with excitement, adventure, fear, anxiety, and sin. But he had learned to turn to God in every situation that he was in.

One of my favourite authors is AW Tozer – I love the passion with which he writes. He opens his book called the Pursuit of God with this – ‘Before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man’. (the word man encompasses everyone) The bible shows us that God has sought after us – the whole bible story is about God seeking after his people because he wants relationship with them. We are created beings, loved first by God, our creator. 1 John 4 says “We love because he first loved us. “

Psalm 139 v 1 shows us that God already knows us before we do anything.  It starts with ‘Oh lord you have searched me and you know me’

We have been sought after. We have been loved first. We have been searched, and we are known.

To be known is to be seen. I remember chatting to a friend a while ago about this idea that God sees us. I like these kind of chats. But sometimes there are moments when something strikes you in a way you don’t expect, and you know you won’t forget it for a long time. This was one of those chats. With a look of absolute wonder on their face they looked at me and said ‘God sees us.’  And honestly, it was like a revelation to me. I’ve always known it. But in that moment the reality of what that really means kind of hit me. Imagine being fully seen, fully known, all your ways fully known. All the quirky things, the good things, the hard things, the hidden things – all seen, all known.

This could come with a couple of responses. Run away from being seen, from a vulnerable relationship with God. Try to hide. There are certainly people in the Bible who did this. Adam and eve did this in the garden of Eden. Jonah tries to run away from God and ends up in the belly of a whale. Other prophets and kings tried to hide from God. But this Psalm teaches us that God is always with us, so hiding is quite hard.

So another option is to open ourselves up and allow ourselves to be seen.

Some of you may remember me talking a couple of weeks ago about a tree in our local park. Most days I get to walk our dog in the park, and it has become my time to walk and talk with God, to worship Him and to seek his thoughts – this psalm says how precious to me are your thoughts Oh God. I really do want to know God’s thoughts, so on my walks I often ask Him to speak to me. And he has often used a tree to speak to me. Here’s my tree.

To most of you, it just looks like a normal tree. But this tree will never be normal to me. Through this tree, God has shown me that I am fully known and loved. This might sounds a bit wired. It’s not the tree speaking, but it’s God’s spirit highlighting things he wants me to know  - and often I’ll look at the tree and something about it will represent something that God wants to speak to me about.

Sometimes it’s the structure of the tree, the way it’s formed, its life, what it holds in it, who and what surrounds it, it’s strong roots, its hidden roots, its damaged branches, its seasons and so on. Through tree analogies I have felt loved, seen and known.

Timothy Keller says “To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

Let’s take another look at our verse.

“Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”

What is David doing here? He’s making a choice. A choice to invite God in.

"Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make, makes you." - John C. Maxwell.

Who has been watching the Traitors? It’s certainly been on in our house the past few weeks! It’s a very popular, quite addictive tv show where a group of celebrities are based in a castle, and some of them are traitors and some of them are faithful’s, its like the game of mafia - but no-one knows which is which. They go around testing each other all day long through challenges and questions, watch each others body language, and see if they can find any reason to trust them, but basically at the end of the day, no-one really trusts anyone else. They can’t!  Honestly, its painful to watch! But quite fun!

What does it mean to really trust someone?

My favourite definition of what it means to trust in God I found in a book by Tyler Statton – Praying like fools, living like monks. He says that to trust is to have confidence in the character of God. Trust is confidence in the character of God.

David is giving God an invitation based on who he knows God to be. Trust needs to be based on a track record, not blind trust right?

So based on God’s track record through the scriptures, and David’s life so far, David has decided God is trustworthy.

Do we trust God? Do we choose to let God in to search us. And when he has searched us, what then? To trust God means to feel secure in your relationship with him. To feel you belong to him. To surrender to Him and his ways, his thoughts, his plans.

Isaiah 55:8-9, states: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Jesus said “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25)

I’ve lived with a health condition for 15 years now. Hundreds of times in that time I’ve asked God for healing. I’ve lived with anxious thoughts about my condition, I’ve been on my knees in the small hours of the night, unable to sleep because of my anxious thoughts. Time and time again I’ve chosen to invite God into that place, invited him to calm my anxious mind, to show me where I’m not trusting in who he is. And I’ve stayed in that place for hours sometimes  until I’ve fully surrendered and felt his peace come to me. Only then have I been able to sleep.

 I haven’t seen full healing in the way I’ve wanted to, God did not heal my condition. But he met me in my anxious thoughts. This was our secret place, our meeting point. Those moments of desperation turn into moments of holy intimacy. Just because God did not heal me in the way I asked for it, does not mean his character is any less worthy or trustworthy. I have learnt to trust God – to have confidence in his character – despite my circumstances.

Isaiah 26 v3-4 says ‘You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself is the rock eternal.’

As well as anxious thoughts, David also asks God to see if there are any offensive ways in him. When we invite God in, we belong to Him. We are his.

 And from that safe place we can ask God to show us our offensive ways. Interestingly, I’ve found that a lot of my own offensive ways come from not fully trusting God – trusting in who he is and his promises. My offensive ways cause Him and others hurt.

I’ve had to ask God to clearly show me my offensive ways. It’s not always easy, but I would say that it is essential because it gives me the opportunity to repent – to change my thinking, my actions, and to ask God to show me how to move out of my offensive ways into his life giving ways.

Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus we are forgiven for our offensive ways and we can have a full relationship with the living God and fully belong to him.

In the book of Matthew Jesus himself said his death was for our forgiveness - “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Psalm 139 finishes with David crying out to God to lead him in the way everlasting.

What does that mean? I think it means life with God. And that’s exciting!!

Life with God now through his spirit living in and through us, and life with God for eternity.

In our community group at the moment we are reading the book of Matthew in the Bible, and looking at what the Kingdom of God is. Each week, after dinner, we chat about what Jeus meant when he talked about the Kingdom of God. He used lots of parables, some which aren’t always very easy to understand. 

But one thing I absolutely do get , is that the Kingdom of God, which is the ways of God – the rule and reign of God playing out in this earth, is good news. For all people. In all places. At all times. It’s a place where God is glorified, and we are part of a much bigger story.

God’s ways are the ways everlasting and the most exciting part is that he invites us to partner with him to bring his life giving ways to earth in the here and now. For all people

It then becomes our great joy to live into the greatest commandment - “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22 v 37-40

Shall we stand? We are going to worship, and as we do, I invite you to to invite the God who already knows you, already loves you, into your heart to search you, to partner with you, that your heart, and my heart would cry out like David – lead me in your way Oh God.

“Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”

More about Psalm 139

We have a whole resource page with materials about this Psalm, and several podcasts too.