Kerry Shook - DNA of God
A few years ago, I was preaching in Stockholm, Sweden, and Chris and I had the opportunity to go to the building where they give out the Nobel Prizes, the same building where Francis Crick and James D. Watson, in 1953, were awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering the now famous double helix, deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. And scientists have now been studying DNA for 70 years, and they continue to marvel at DNA. This genetic information embedded in each of our bodies' over 100 trillion cells that determines our physical characteristics. And today, I want to do something very interesting, I want us to look at the "DNA of God".
Does God have DNA? Yes, not so much in a physical sense, but there's a certain DNA in each cell of his character, and God's DNA has never changed, his genes cannot mutate, his character is consistent. The Bible says, "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever," that's our God. And if I can just learn a little more about God's DNA, his character and what he's like, then I can learn more about how he wants to relate to me and what he wants to do in my life. I'll never understand what I was designed to be until I understand the DNA of the Designer. But before we look at what God is like, I think it's important to first ask, "Is there a God"?
Because if there's not a God, then who cares what God is like. And most people used to say, "That's just a theological question," because to believe in God you've got to take this blind leap of faith because there's no scientific evidence behind it, you gotta throw scientific reasoning out the window to believe in God. But the discovery of DNA is just one of the scientific discoveries over the last 70 years that points clearly to the existence of a Creator. For wherever there is complex information, there has to be intelligence behind it. And God has stamped on every one of your over-100 trillion cells evidence of himself, because wherever there's complex information, there's always intelligence behind it.
Let me give you an example. We have a lot of river rock in the landscaping in our front yard, our yard slopes upward, so sometimes when it rains, some of those rocks get washed out into the street or into the driveway. And there are times after a big rain that I'll pull into the driveway and I'll see landscaping rocks in the driveway. It frustrates me so much, but when I see that, I realize that no person hates me enough to come to my house and intentionally pick up several rocks and randomly place them in my driveway. I realize there's no person to blame, no person caused this, the rain just washes them into the driveway.
But when my oldest sons were in high school, I came home one evening and noticed there were landscaping rocks in the driveway, but this time it was very different, because I noticed those landscaping rocks were arranged in such a way that it formed an arrow pointing up the driveway. And as I went up the driveway, I noticed there were more rocks and they were arranged in a way that spelled out the words, "Hi, Joshua". When I saw that, I surmised from that, "There is information here, so this information had to have been caused by intelligence". I wasn't sure how intelligent the intelligence was, but it had to be some form of intelligence.
What I found out later was a couple of Josh's friends had come over and, when no one was home, they decided to write him a little note with my landscaping, which was really nice. The point is this, whenever there's information, there is intelligence behind it, and DNA is this powerful source of information that goes beyond any computer capabilities that we have today. And with all that complex information embedded in each cell of our bodies, there has to be intelligence behind it. And scientists are learning more and more about DNA each and every day, and the complexities behind it. But what's amazing is a little shepherd boy, 3,000 years ago, already knew this, and he wrote about it in Psalms 139.
So, would you stand in honor of God's Word, Woodlands Church? And just follow along with me, it's one of my favorite chapters, and we're gonna really study this today. "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous... how well I know it". I want you to turn to the person on your right and left, and say, "You are wonderfully complex". You are wonderfully complex, you're marvelous. You can be seated. And husbands and wives, especially husbands, I want you to look at your wife right now and say, "You are wonderfully complex," and wives look right back and say, "You're even more complex".
That's a whole 'nother sermon. David, here says, "Thank you, God, for making me wonderfully complex". Each cell of your body is wonderfully complex, and where there's complex information, there must be an intelligent Designer behind it. The evidence is so clear, but some people don't wanna believe in God. I believe it's because if there is a God, then they have to deal with the ramifications of that in their own lives. If there is a God, then I'm accountable to him, I have to live the way he wants me to. And some people don't wanna be accountable to anyone, and so they wanna live their life the way they wanna live their life, not the way the Bible says.
So what do they do? Scripture says they suppress the truth in their mind, they push it away and so far away. They suppress the truth and it's deep down in there, but it's buried pretty deep, so they can live the way they want to, rather than the way God wants them to. So, the question really isn't, "Is there a God?," the question is, "What is this God like"? Well, the Bible tells us and creation confirms that that God is bigger and greater than we could ever begin to fathom. Theologians call this God's transcendence, that is, he transcends time and space, He's outside of time and space because he created it all. He's greater than we could ever grasp, he is incomprehensible, he can't be completely understood by any of us in our human, finite minds, it's just impossible.
If I could comprehend everything about the Creator of the universe, then I would be as smart as God, and if God is not any smarter than I am, we are all doomed. I'm thankful that I can't understand everything about God. Now, sometimes I get really frustrated about it, "God, what are you doing in my life right now? God, why did you allow that? God, I don't get it". But ultimately, I'm glad I don't get it, that I don't understand everything, because he's God, he's way beyond me, God is bigger and greater and more powerful than I could ever fathom, but God is also closer than I could ever imagine, theologians call this God's eminence, he's close. He's transcendent, he's greater than time and space, but he's also eminent, he's close to us and he cares about us.
Look at what David said in this next Psalm, or, in this next passage of Psalm 139, as we do this study of Psalm 139. In verse 16, he said, "You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, You are still with me". David says the great Creator is also the great Connector, for, you see, God is powerful, but he's also personal. And if you don't fully realize this, you'll miss out on the miracles God wants to do in your life. If you doubt that God is all-powerful and he's also personal, you won't pray like you should, and you'll miss out on so many blessings God wants to give you.
You see, you can believe in God, but if you don't really believe that God is all-powerful and he's also personal, you'll live like God doesn't exist, it won't matter that there's a God. He's not just a powerful God, he's a personal God who knows you. Let's look again at Psalm 139. Verse 17, How precious are your thoughts about me, "O God. They cannot be numbered! I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand"! Did you know that God is thinking about you? He's thinking about you all the time. It says that his thoughts about you are so numerous they're like the grains of sand on the seashore, you can't even count them. God is thinking about you, he's thinking about me all the time. The God who created the universe thinks about every detail of your life. He's not just a powerful God, he's also a personal God.
God knows everything about you, he knows everything about you, every detail of your life, he thinks about you constantly, he's thinking about you right now. He's constantly thinking about me. That just blows me away, to think that the Creator of the universe, who created all that I cannot comprehend, is always thinking about me and he cares about every detail of my life. He's personal, and that's why Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship, a personal relationship with God through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Let's look again at Psalm 139. Verse 16, "You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed". God is personal, but he's also purposeful, God planned you before you were born, God planned you before he created the universe, he thought you up. Isn't that amazing? And then he gave you certain gifts and abilities and talents and personality and passions that you have in your heart for a reason, so you can fulfill the purpose he planned you for. You are planned for a purpose, innately, every one of us deep down knows that we were created for a purpose.
Now, there are times when we struggle to find that purpose, we all do at times, but we all know deep in our soul that we're not a random accident and all this isn't just an accident that happened. God has stamped it on the DNA of every cell in our body, that we were designed for a purpose. Sir John Templeton put it this way: "Would it not be strange if a universe without purpose accidentally created humans who are so obsessed with purpose"? Yes, it would be strange. The reason why we are so obsessed with purpose is because we have a God whose DNA is purposeful and he has embedded into every cell of your body and deep into your soul a desire for purpose. You're created uniquely for a unique purpose.
I see this generation of young adults coming up and the generation that's right below me really striving to be unique, really striving to stand out, really trying to be noticed, trying to be unique, trying to be different, maybe to stand out on social media, to do something unique that people will notice and they'll stand out. If you're a Christ follower, you need to stop trying to be unique, because you already are, God made you unique for a unique purpose.
Do you realize there's no one else in the world like you? Of all the billions of people who've walked on this planet, there's never been anyone else with your fingerprints, with your footprint, with your voice print, you're completely unique. And when you try to be unique, when you strive to stand out, you just become like everyone else, you just become like everyone else, trying to be noticed. All you need to do is be who God needs you to be. So, how do you discover the unique purpose God created you for? Well, it all starts by getting to know God and then growing closer to God, because how do you know what something is made for until you ask the One who made it what they made it for?
You see, then, after that, you look at the unique gifts, abilities and passions that God has given you, and even your struggles and your problems, because, if you're a believer, there's no problem without purpose. Sometimes we don't know what the purpose is right away, and some problems that come into our lives, we won't understand the purpose until we get to heaven, but there's no problem without a purpose. And so God gives you gifts and abilities and passions in your heart and allows you to go through certain struggles for a reason: to fulfill the purpose and the plan that he created you for.
But let's look again at Psalm 139. Verse 18, "When I wake up, You are still with me"! You, God, are still with me. As a believer, God is always with me, he will never leave you, he'll never forsake you. Some of you maybe had a dad who was never there, maybe he was always gone on business trips, or maybe you had a parent who abandoned you or maybe you had a parent who wasn't emotionally engaged with you. God will never abandon you, he will never leave you, he's the perfect heavenly Father who's always present, he always has time for you, he's never too busy for you.
And when I pour out my heart to God and I tell him all my deepest hurts and all my overwhelming problems, I am so thankful that God doesn't say, "What was that? I'm sorry, I wasn't listening, I missed what you were saying. Could you repeat that? You gotta understand, I was busy making sure the universe was clicking and everything was going smoothly, I've got a big job here. Sorry, I missed what you were saying, but can you repeat that for me"? I'm so glad God is never too busy for me, he's totally present, the great and powerful Creator is also the great Connector, and he's placed deep within us a desire for connection. It's this deep desire for connection that we can't get away from, it's to connect with him and to connect with others.
Look at Ephesians 4:25, it says, "In Christ's body we're all connected to each other". God created me for connection, but we live in a very disconnected society. I mean, years ago, it used to be that you would grow up in the same town, you would live in that town your whole life. Your parents would be there in that town, your grandparents would live there, your aunts, your uncles, your cousins would all be in the same town. You'd have this extended network of connection that was very healthy, but now we live in a very mobile society, and you may live in a place where you have no relatives or maybe you have one or two relatives or your relatives are spread all over the country, because we live in this very mobile society and we've become very disconnected.
It seems like the more connected we get with social media and technology, the less connected we really get to relationships, real relationships. You see, we live in this very mobile society, so many of us are so disconnected, but that's where the church comes in, the church is to be that extended family, the church family is to be that powerful form of connection where you're connected in an extended family that produces spiritual, emotional and even physical health, because you were made for connection. You can ignore it, you can deny it, but you were made for connection, and eventually it will catch up with you.
I was talking to a really wise friend about our fast-paced, crazy, modern culture recently, and he said, "You know, I think our culture pushes people to either be robots or animals". He said, "A lot of people just turn into robots, working themselves to burnout, but with no overarching purpose, but then other people just act like animals, doing whatever they feel like to anesthetize their pain, and they just live for the moment with no purpose". He went on to say, "But we aren't robots and we aren't animals, we're human". We were created for relationship, we were created for a relationship with God and other human beings, we need a deep and real connection with God and we need strong and genuine relationships with others.
But too many times, we're going 100 miles an hour, doing all these different things that are okay things, good things, but we miss out on the main thing. You know, Chris and I decided to start a new tradition this year, that is, when one of our grandchildren turns seven or eight, we will take them on a short trip by themselves wherever they want to go, as long as it's in the lower 48, and we try to gear them to a national park that maybe is not too far away. But wherever they wanna go, we let them choose, and we kicked it off this year with our oldest grandson, Ben, and he chose Utah for some reason. He had read something about it, so we're going, "Man, Utah is pretty far away".
But anyway, we decided to go to Moab, Utah, to Arches National Park, and one of the things we did was white water rafting. And as soon as we got onto the raft and we pushed down into the river, Ben was asking, "Hey, can we go swimming"? He kept bothering our rafting guide and saying, "Hey, can I just jump in and swim"? And she was a young lady who grew up rafting, her parents were river guides on the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, and so she knew what she was doing. And she said, "Ben, you can swim in a little while, but right now we're coming up on some rapids. So, when the water gets a little calmer, then you can jump in".
So, after we went through the white water, everything calmed down, and the guide said, "Okay, the pool is open now," and Ben just jumped in. And he started shivering because the water was 55 degrees, but, you know, he's a kid, he doesn't mind, he's like, "It feels g-g-good". And I said, "Ben, don't you wanna come out"? "No-o-o". He's there floating in his lifejacket, couple other kids jumped in, they were playing together, and Chris looked at me and she said, "You have to jump in and watch him, we're responsible for him, you need to jump in". I said, "What? That water is freezing, he's only 40 yards away from the raft, floating down river, we'll catch up with him, eventually". And she said, "No, you gotta jump in right now".
So I got over the side and I just slowly slipped into that awful water, I felt like it was the Titanic, you know? I'm just slipping down, it's all over. It was freezing, but I focused on Ben and I kept trying to get him closer to the raft, and he would float away, I'd get him closer to the raft. And then the guide said, "Okay, it's time for everybody to get in now, the pool's closed because we're coming up on some pretty big rapids". And so she picked up and lifted in Ben and the two other kids. And then I got on the side and started to pull myself up, and nothing happened, I didn't move. They go, "Come on, get in," and I'm going, "I'm trying, with all my might, just because I'm not moving doesn't mean I'm not trying".
And the guide said, "Hurry up, we're coming up on these rapids". "I got it, I can handle it, that's okay, you just go and take care of everybody else and I'm gonna be okay". And then she said, "Just put your right foot on that little handle on the side of the raft," and so I did. And then she said, "Now, just pull yourself up". And I said, "I've been trying to for the last 10 seconds. Just because you can't tell it, I've been trying". And nothing happened, you know? And then I said just, "Hey, I'll be okay, I'm gonna get up," you know? I just kept trying, and my leg was just up here and nothing was happening, I kept trying and trying, and finally I saw a panicked look in her face and she said, "You've got to get up here, the rapids are coming".
And I said, "I'm getting it," you know? "Just because I haven't moved an inch". And all of a sudden this little gal just grabbed the back of my lifejacket, right there at the headrest, and she just hurled me onto the raft without me helping one bit. It was humiliating, it was like she's pulling a whale out of the water and it just flops onto the boat, and I'm just laying there on my stomach. And we hit the rapids, I'm just bouncing, you know? It's humiliating. After we got through those rapids, the water was calm again. And Ben said, "Is the pool open"? She said, "You bet". He jumped in, and Chris said, "You know what you gotta do". I go, "Oh, come on, you go this time, I can't even get back in the raft". She goes, "I know, this is gonna be fun to watch".
And so I got back in again, sure enough, rapids were coming up, and Chris said to the guide, "Hey, can I try it this time"? And so they're up there talking about how to do it, you know? And it's like the river guide's giving her lessons, "So what you do is you grab this, then you fall back, and it's gonna be so funny, he's just gonna flop up, you just watch," you know? And sure enough, Chris, with a big smile, grabs the back of my lifejacket, the headrest, and then she falls back and boom, I just flop over like a big whale and just land right in the middle. And Chris's going, "That was awesome". It's humiliating.
In life, a lot of you are living your life in such a way that you're headed for the rocks. Maybe you've been living like a robot, thinking you don't need a lot of relationships, you don't need some deep and close relationships, you don't have time for them. You haven't realized you're human and you think you can make it on your own, and God is saying, "If you admit you need help, I'll pull you onto the boat, the same boat every one of my children are in. They're all human, and they all need me and they need each other". Chris Shook: We're so glad that you joined us for the message today, we hope that it impacts your life all week long.