Search me, oh God, and test me

How beautiful it is to hear those words sing, break my heart, break my life, I surrender my will to you. How nice it sounds. Don't you feel like singing it again?

But do you know why I say it, my brothers? It sounds very nice to sing it but how difficult it is to do it. How difficult it is to do. Lord, I only ask you now that these words that were changed in my heart at the last minute, Lord, help me to be faithful to what you want to say, Jesus, and that it serve as an edification for your people and your children and daughters tonight. I ask you, Jesus, I put myself as an instrument in your hands today more than ever, Lord, and I beg you to please help me to be so in tune with you, Lord, that I can listen to you well to know how to communicate this word and that all of us can have an open heart to receive it and act accordingly. I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Yes, brothers, I say that it is very difficult to be able to do that. And I believe that this is part of our life as believers, that we can pray in one way, we can sing some things, but as that saying goes, there is a long way from saying to doing. It is the mere fact of how truly we let the word of God work in us and align us more and more with the desires of God's heart. and what I want to share today is something that is based on a word that Pastor Miranda shared with us these past two Sundays, which has stayed there in my head but it kind of echoed, it caught on again.

And this fact has to do with us knowing what is truly in our hearts. We can truly know our character in such a way that we can say before God, wow, Lord, look I am who I am before you I can not hide anything. And I know that from the people around us, we can hide many things, but how good it would be to have the courage to be totally clear and full with the people around us and not have masks, and to be able to truly say, look, This is my heart, that's how I am, I'm not going to hide it from you.

But how difficult it is to be able to do that. Psalm 139, I would like you to go with me to Psalm 139. Many of us know it, verse 1 says:

"O Lord, you have searched me and known, you have known my sitting down and my rising up, you have understood my thoughts from afar, you have scrutinized my walking and my lying down and all my ways are known to you..."

I want you to jump now to verse 23:

"...Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts..."

Wait, let me pause for a moment, let me stop here. Read it in your mind first, and then decide whether to read it out loud. Read it first in your mind, just that verse. Think carefully about what you are going to say to God. I myself am thinking [inaudible] this is a very crazy request, what I am asking God for. So think carefully about what you are going to do or how you are going to read this. Because you are giving God permission here to sit you on a judging table and examine you.

How many of you have gone to the doctor, to the family doctor's office or something like that? And when you walk in that they're going to do a physical exam, they tell you, take off your clothes and put on this gown, right? And those are the moments when one feels most vulnerable because they are going to examine you, from top to bottom, and I am not saying it in a bad way, but the doctor who checks you, who does a physical exam is the only person who truly… well, the only person here on earth who can examine your physical condition and can tell you where in your level of health you are, can tell you where you should be or if you are below where you should be.

When you go to the doctor you can say, oh, it hurts here or it hurts here or my little bumps are a little more out of place, what can I do to lower them and many times we try to give the doctor instructions. Any type of medicine, even more so when we go to a dentist, I dare say this, what do we want to tell the dentist, this tooth hurts but don't touch me because it hurts. I have to deal with the tooth.

We want to give instructions to the doctors, but we don't know that if we are going to be evaluated we have to let them treat us as they understand what they should treat better, and we shut our mouths and put up with what they are going to do to us. do.

And so it happens in our life of faith, that when we say to God, Lord, examine me and know my heart, there you are throwing yourself on the physiatrist's table so that he can really check you up and tell you how the condition of your life is. .

You know Jeremiah has a very interesting passage that I'm going to parenthesize and divert to that passage now. Jeremiah Chapter 17, verse 9 look how it says, this is God speaking, God is speaking to the prophet Jeremiah and he is saying this:

"God who knows all things, he says, is the heart deceitful more than what?"

Listen, I have read that text several times, but today when I read it there was something that stopped me, because I read, "the heart is deceitful more than all things and wicked who will know it." But today I stopped at that phrase that he says, more than all things.

How many of us have known a cheat at some point in life? That someone has deceived us, that we have deceived others and these are experiences that are quite horrific, they leave a bad taste, not in the mouth but throughout life.

And when God himself is saying that our heart is more deceitful than all things, he is putting one's heart above anything that can cause deception, that in a way those deceptions come from the heart, and wicked.

There are times when my ears kind of trill when I hear someone say, ah, you're a pervert because they say it with such a bad and offensive meaning that it's like, wow, my God, look at that. This perverse person is.

And God here is telling one that the heart is wicked. Your heart, my heart is wicked. Many times we can lead a double life that we get so used to it and we think that we are totally fine, that this is something totally normal, that they have to accept me just the way I am. But God does not miss those things.

And there are times when we even look for a way to justify that double life that we can have. We come here to church and everything is like, oh, holy glory to God, hallelujah! We throw out two or three tongues and out, we are sanctified. We get to the house and it's like a whole other story.

There are times that I myself hear some stories that it's like my God, but in what head does it fit! How can a man think of doing the same thing? Or how can a woman do the same thing? But it makes me understand that the heart is deceitful, in our human nature, our heart, our character there are so many weaknesses that it has that I like how God asks the question, who will know it?

Listen to me if I ask you, do you know yourself well? who can tell me here that you know yourself super well. Because if you know yourself super well, then I want to take counseling with you, I want to learn how to do that. Only God is the one who knows it. And verse 10 says:

"I, Jehovah, who search the mind and try the heart to give to each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his works..."

You know what you are asking God for when you say 'examine me', you are saying to God, "You see beyond what I can see, I need you to do something in my heart."

You know, what I really like about that psalm is that that psalm is coming down as if from the throne of the heart and is saying, look, I can't do this by myself. So, I like it because that psalm in some way or another indicates that for me to be able to tell God to examine my heart, it is because I have recognized that I have tried to do it by myself and I cannot. I myself have deceived myself by trying to examine my heart. I think I found something that I met him and the next day I visit him again and it's like, come here, but you're different, what happened?

I am here on a Sunday in church, I hear the word of God. Wow, how cute. I leave here ticklish and Monday arrives and I forgot that word and another person comes out who is like wow! But what happened here? what happened to your coming and getting down on your knees and crying and praying for you or something? What happened to all that?

Examine me oh God. I return again to Psalm 139.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me and guide me in the way everlasting..."

Look, my brothers, for me I can say that in these last two Sundays that I have heard the pastor preach along these lines, I have left the church with a totally new challenge. And I can tell you that it will not be easy. That challenge for me is not going to be easy. And it is the mere fact that I can understand that if I want God to lead me on his eternal path, I am going to have to let him examine me, that he removes things from me that he has to remove, things that for me maybe they're like, but Lord, I think this is cool, I think this is good. I have lived with this and it has allowed me to get to this point, but perhaps in the eyes of God they are things that they are going to say, like, there is something that I want to work on there even more.

And I believe, my brothers, that God wants to work with each one of us in the same way. I believe that with a purpose God is leading us as a church to meditate on the condition of our hearts. The pastor has been preaching about this passage from Judges, where God says to Gideon, look, those who take water by the hand and lick it, versus, those who drop to their knees like this and stick their heads in the water, those are the ones that I want you to divide. God was looking to do something there. God was looking for something much deeper. That perhaps those men at the moment, who knows if there were even some who took off their clothes and jumped into the water to bathe and cool off as I would have done if I had been hot and they gave me a break in the middle of the battle, okay, a break, let's take a bath and clean the blood that I have lying around.

Who knows if I would have thrown myself, God would have said, that's the first one out, no. he took off his armor too quickly. Get him out of there, send him to the booth again. But there is something that God is looking at.

Gideon himself at that moment who knows if he didn't even understand it, but God knew what he was doing. And that's where this element of faith comes in again. That Gideon had the faith, had the courage to trust what God was doing to see the miracle that God was going to do later. When we dare to expose ourselves to God testing us, to God examining us in our hearts, prepare for what God is going to show you.

Now, a very important point. God testing us does not mean that God tests us on our own terms, but it means that God tests us on his terms.

Ah, Lord, I let you examine me and if you do it like this and like this and like that, and you let me continue doing this and this, touch this part of my heart but it is not. That is putting terms, conditions to God. But if we really want to follow this biblical pattern of letting him examine us, then we have to say like, no, Lord, look, without reservations, without conditions, here I am.

I do not know, my brothers, if these words are reaching you, if these words are calculating there. I even began to think about James Chapter 3, if I'm not mistaken, it says that we must not only be hearers but also doers of the word of God. And I tell you, my brothers, if there is one reason that I can pray tonight, it is to ask God to give us both the courage and the desire and the willingness to let him deal with us.

Many times, my brothers, I do not know if I am speaking prophetically here to someone, but many times we want God to work for us but on our terms, we ourselves set conditions and we say, no, I want this to happen like this and so and so.

And look, I understand that there are times in our life that we can, as if to say, when we are praying for some blessing, seeking confirmation or something from God, look, Lord, I need to see this and this happen. And those times God allows that and that and that to be at their level chronologically according to the time that we enumerate.

Didn't Gideon himself say, ah, you want to take me to battle, well, look, this piece of skin gets wet and everything around it is dry. Ah, fantastic, do you want it like this? Happened. The next day, okay, are you already convinced? No, no, wait, let's do another test. Now that everything around it gets wet but that this edge of skin stays dry. Oh, you want it like this too? Let's do it like this. When he comes the next day, it's like okay, are you already convinced or do you want me now to make the stars come down and dance around you so that they convince you that I'm the one calling you to do this? No, no, I already convinced myself.

So, I believe that there are moments in which God allows us to put those terms. But when we are talking about our hearts, do you know why we cannot put terms to God? precisely because our terms are infected by sin, they are perverse, they are deceitful.

Look, today you can feel one way and tomorrow you will wake up thinking in another way. What is going to cause his moods to change like that so fast? The hormones? Fine, it's okay. Hormones can cause that. To whom they apply the hormones, well, although that goes for men and women too. That goes for everyone, but in some it happens more than in others, I have to say it that way.

But look, my brothers, behind those hormones there is a heart, there is also a character. Today you can leave thinking, this pastor Omar, he dropped the ball, he is tremendous. This Pastor Omar is first on my list. And tomorrow if I don't call him, Pastor Omar will go down to the last place on my list, forget it. What is going to cause me to go up and down your life preference list? It is the heart of one, my brothers, who knows if the same thing happens from you to me too. [Inaudible] today I have her up there, tomorrow she left my side.

But that's right, my brothers, everything is in here. Proverbs 4 says so, above all things kept, and we have been listening to it these past Sundays, above all things kept, keep your what? Your heart because it is from there that everything that you are, everything that you say, everything that you think emanates from there.

All the things to which I expose myself will, in one way or another, reach my heart. Jesus says that the eyes are the lamp of the body. Everything that I receive through my eyes, everything that I put in my ears to listen to, the words that I hear from someone, the music that I hear, the videos that I watch, the conversations in which I get involved that if that he handled me better than the other, all the things he hears, what's more, even the preaching that God hears from you is going, in one way or another, to infuse his heart. And then you are going to have to try another kind of examination, which is the one that appears in Thessalonians Chapter 5, verse 22, which says:

“Examine everything, retain the good and throw away the bad.”

It doesn't say try everything, it says examine everything. Do you want to look for it? Let's find it just in case, I don't want to invent the Bible. If I am wrong, I want to be corrected. First Thessalonians Chapter 5, verse 21, says… unless it is another version that says, try everything… hey, anyone would say that they took you to a buffet and they are saying, 'try everything you want here' and from suddenly you eat something that later you come out with an allergy and your face, nose, ears swell and then you wanted to try everything? Take.

Examine everything. When you are examining something, remember that the examination process, the object is there and you are here. You are examining, you lift here, there and before putting it in your mouth then, examine it first, retain the good and undo the bad. And who knows if I would add another part to that that says, and leaves some little things on standby because you don't know when you're going to have to revisit them again.

But it is like this. When God examines us and he tests our hearts and lets us know how we are, we have to exercise the same medicine concerning the things that we have around us, because those are things that are going to test how our hearts are in front of us. God, how we're doing.

When we face temptation. Look how cute. Today I was reading, I am preparing for the Sunday message and I came across a reading that said, every temptation is an opportunity to do good. Have you ever thought about that? Usually we read it as each temptation is an opportunity to screw up, to do wrong. Because we associate temptation with evil. But in this reading what he was saying is, every temptation is an opportunity to do good. Why is it an opportunity to do good? Because if you respond according to what God wants, what God asks of you, to avoid falling into temptation, if you avoid falling into temptation, what are you doing? Are you doing good?

I have to examine those things around me. So my brothers, I'm not going to continue singing this, I think we understand today's message, right? How many can now truly dare to say the words of Psalm 139? Please don't tell me amen. If there is a moment in which I as a preacher do not want to hear an amen, it is today. And I'm serious. Because they are harsh words, my brothers. I myself have to think, meditate on this and let God truly work in me so that I can say, okay, Lord, look, examine me. I know that I am going to face ugly things that maybe are there, that you see them and they make you cry and I have gotten used to them but you see them and you don't like them. I'm going to have to do something about it.

So if I want you to examine me, I'm going to have to let you show me things that are in me that I'm not going to like. But for your purposes to be fulfilled in me, I'm going to throw myself on your operating table so that you can do what you have to do with me.

So, Lord, look, I ask you that this word, Lord, does not remain in the air, please, Jesus, I rebuke anything that wants to cause this word to remain in the air and that it does not truly reach our heart.

Jesus, I know that right now there are forces of the enemy that are going to try to prevent these words from coming, in any way that they may be manifested, but I ask you, Jesus, that the efficiency of your word, the effectiveness of it reach deep into our hearts and truly give us the disposition we need, the courage we need, Lord, to be able to tell you, Lord, examine me, know my heart, test me, God, as difficult as that may sound, but to dare to say, Lord, test me and I don't know if I'll crash the exam or if I'll pass with a C or maybe I'll have an A but, God, test us.

Take a good look at what is in our hearts, there are things that you want to do in our hearts, Lord. I ask you to please enlighten us, Jesus, to help us to know in the midst of all things your grace and your mercy that is there to lift us up, to sustain us, to lead us through those dark paths of our lives, Jesus . You are there to take us.

So, Jesus, I ask that as we prepare to leave this place, return to our homes, I ask that this word please continue to echo in us and that we do not ignore the principles that this word really wants to bring to our heart.

These are things that apply to many areas of our lives, not only in our relationship with you, but also in our relationship with our neighbor.

Lord, guide us through this process, even if it takes time, but as it says right there, guide us on that eternal path. If it is an eternal path, it is because it has no end, Lord, and its end will be seen in eternity and it will continue to continue in eternity.

So, Lord, we put ourselves in your hands. Do with your people as you want, bless, Lord Jesus, my brothers and sisters tonight. Fill them with your love, fill them with your peace, fill them with all the good that is in you Jesus and allow, Lord, we can align ourselves more and more with the desires of your heart, Lord. Thank you I give you for this time, thank you for your word, Lord. Thank you for each of my brothers and sisters, and on each of them I declare your blessing.

For your son Jesus we pray and we thank you. Amen, Lord. Amen, Jesus.