Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 139:13-14 NRSV - For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

I want to start with something I saw online and it was so applicable to this message I kept it.

A father said to his daughter “You have graduated with honors, here is a Jeep I bought many years ago.

It is pretty old now.

But before I give it to you, take it to the used car lot downtown and tell them I want to sell it and see how much they offer you for it.”

The daughter went to the used car lot, returned to her father and said, “They offered me $1,000 because the said it looks pretty worn out.”

The father said, now “Take it to the pawn shop.”

The daughter went to the pawn shop, returned to her father and said, “The pawn shop offered only $100 because it is an old Jeep.”

The father asked his daughter to go to a Jeep club now and show them the Jeep.

The daughter then took the Jeep to the club, returned and told her father,” Some people in the club offered $100,000 for it because “it's an iconic Jeep and sought by many collectors.”

Now the father said this to his daughter, “The right place values you the right way,” If you are not valued, do not be angry, it means you are in the wrong place.

Those who know your value are those who appreciate you…Never stay in a place where no one sees your value.

Credit: Unknown

How many of you have ever had a time when someone made you feel less than?

Like you weren’t worthy of basic kindness, of compassion, of love?

It may have been the words they said to or about you.

Maybe it was what wasn’t said.

Perhaps it was how they treated you or the fact they ignored you.

You went into a store or a restaurant and they looked over, around or through you to service or seat those who came after you.

Whether it was through word or deed, the result was the same, you felt like you were less than, like you weren’t worthy of being treated with respect or good enough to receive the best.

Made to feel as if you had to accept leftovers or secondhand stuff.

Made to believe you had to take the stuff others didn’t want and not only were you supposed to take it, you were supposed to be happy to get it.

Sometimes it was that you were a younger child getting the hand-me-down clothes.

Maybe you were the child trying to get your parent’s attention, but you were in a one-parent home, and they were working three jobs to make ends meet so by the time they got home, they had neither the time, nor energy to spend with or on you.

Or, you may have been the kid on the playground who was always the last one chosen for the team.

Maybe you’re a wife desperately wanting her husband’s attention, just a little bit of time and affection, but he’s lost interest.

Or a husband desiring his wife to notice how hard he’s working to provide for the family, but all she seems to want is more.

Perhaps there was betrayal or infidelity in the relationship and the part of the marriage vow that said, “forsaking all others” has been forgotten.

Or the Scriptures that tell husbands and wives to submit to one another, the one that tells wives to submit to their husbands as to the Lord and the one that tells men to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it have gone by the wayside because the couple has neglected to pray together.

Whatever or whomever is making you feel less than, I want to encourage you, and you, and you today, even if no one else says it, you are valuable to the Kingdom of God.

But here’s the thing, you have to believe it for it to have a positive effect in your life.

The title of today’s message is, “Self-Worth”.

You have to know your self-worth, because you may discover at times that you must be like David and encourage yourself.

That person who was your biggest cheerleader, may no longer be with you and you must find another source of reassurance and inspiration.

And if you don’t know from whence you came, that can be a very difficult thing to do.

This 139th division of the Psalm begins with a realization, that God knows all about us.

David says Lord…

• You have examined my heart - not only does God examine our hearts, he knows our intentions, he knows all our ways, so he knows the motive for why we do, what we do, even if we won’t admit it.

• You know everything about me - there’s nothing we can hide from God

• you know when I sit down or stand up

• you know my thoughts even when I’m far away

• you see me when I travel - there’s no place you can go to get away from God and not only does he see where you go, he sees who you go with

• you see me when I rest at home — when you go to what you think is your secret space, God is there

• you know what I’m going to say, before I say it

• you go before me and follow me

David is acknowledging that God knows everything, He’s omniscient and that He’s everywhere, He’s omnipresent.

Now depending on where you’re going and what you’re doing, some of you will find great comfort in that fact, some may have fear knowing that, and some may be embarrassed to know that God is there with you, that he sees your improper acts, hears your inappropriate conversations and knows your indecent thoughts.

We can’t believe that God hates sin and not think he doesn’t see and hate our sin.

Conversely, we can’t think that the God who loved Israel and took her back over and over again, when she repented, won’t love us, and take us back over and over again when we repent.

But for David, he says such knowledge is too wonderful for him and too great to understand.

As Christians, the fact that God is everywhere and knows everything, should give us great comfort and peace, because no matter what, no matter where and no matter who, God is there to protect, to correct, to comfort, to remind, and to love us.

For those who are not Christians or those Christians running from God, knowing that there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide might not be so comforting.

But here’s the thing, coming to our focal scripture, it was God who formed your inward parts, he put you together while you were in your mother’s womb.

• So not only did God know you, He was with you,

• molding you,

• shaping you,

• deciding who you were going to be,

• what gifts you were going to have

• what you were going to look like

• the color of your eyes

• whether you were going to be a boy or a girl

• short or tall

God was working all that out while you were still in your mother’s womb.

You were not an accident, you were not a mistake, no matter how you were conceived, you are here on purpose, for a purpose and God determined your purpose before you were born.

He planned your life before the world began.

Every time a child is conceived, a miracle has just occurred and after the baby is born, and mom and baby are ok, that’s miracles two and three.

We see childbirth so often; we sometimes forget how dangerous it can be for women and what can happen to that child and mother during the process of pregnancy and childbirth.

Being the teacher and researcher that I am I had to look up some information and give you some numbers about childbirth so you could get a complete picture.

The CDC reported that, “In 2020, the U.S. maternal mortality rate was 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births, with 861 known deaths due to maternal causes.”

Maternal causes are anything that happened or was brought on as a result of the pregnancy.

In that rate, “Black women are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as white women.”

Why is that you may wonder.

The article went on to say this, “Due to systemic racism and discrimination at the individual level, Black women and birthing people face unacceptable (and mostly preventable) risk during childbirth and throughout and after pregnancy.”

I tell you these numbers so you’ll understand, the frequency of childbirth, doesn’t lessen its miraculous nature.

Pregnancy and childbirth are not always a joyous occasion.

So when the Scripture says God formed your inward parts, that He knit you together in your mother’s womb, you are a part of God’s handiwork on display yet again.

You are a part of God’s creation and what God makes is beautiful and while man may try to imitate it, what God creates cannot be duplicated.

Man has been trying for years but the creation of life begins with the seed of a man and the egg of a woman and mere man is not capable of creating either of those things.

In light of this fact, we should be like David and say, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

What you look like, who you are, the gifts and talents and abilities you have, are all because God gave them to you, because God designed you specially and specifically, it is God who made us and not we ourselves.

So forget about those who proclaim they are self-made men and women.

There was and is nothing they did or will do that was not ordained by God.

We must recognize that without God, we can do nothing and that all praise and glory and honor belongs to him.

The next thing that happens in our scripture is David gives God props for how well he is made.

He says, “Wonderful are your works;”.

David includes himself in “God’s works”, in other words, God you done goooood.

You should be no different about yourself.

You need to be able to look in a mirror and say to yourself, God you done gooood, because to deny your self-worth is to say Jesus’ sacrifice was pointless.

To find fault with your self is to say God did something wrong or that he messed up in some way.

So answer me this, how is it that

• the one and only true and perfect God,

• the one that never makes a mistake,

• the one who provides all our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus

• the one who created the heavens and the earth and everything on them

• the one who was, is and always will be

• the one who sits high and looks low

• the one who gave his only Son to die for our sins