Mark Batterson - Fearfully and Wonderfully Made (12/15/2025)
Pastor Mark Batterson reminds us through Psalm 139 that God knows us intimately and completely, from our thoughts to our sighs, because we are fearfully and wonderfully made as unique masterpieces of His creation. He points to miracles in fingerprints, the human body, and the vast universe to show that we are not accidents but precious in God’s sight, concluding that every person is living proof of God’s miraculous work.
Unique Fingerprints and God’s Signature
In October of 1902, the Paris Police called a French criminologist named Alphonse Bertillon. Bertillon investigated a murder in a wealthy neighborhood near the Arc de Triomphe. He found a single fingerprint on a window frame that helped him identify the killer and solve the crime long before CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, and CSI: Vegas. How many are there? There was Alphonse Bertillon and CSI: Paris. In the rest of history, fingerprinting became a fundamental form of identification. Ever since, when a baby is born, one of the first things we do is take fingerprints and footprints.
Oh, and it is precious, is it not? Because we know that there are 8 billion people, give or take, on planet Earth, and no two of them have the same fingerprint. I mean, an estimated 117 billion people have lived and died over 5,000 years of recorded human history, and the fact that no two sets of fingerprints match begs a question, does it not? Why? I mean, is this the result of random chance, or is it possible that maybe, just maybe, God is trying to say something? And by the way, did you know that on day 162 of pregnancy, a baby about the size of an avocado has tiny little fingers? But those tiny little fingers have fully formed fingerprints.
How great is our God! There never has been and never will be anyone like you. Not a testament to you, but a testament to the God who created you. You have a unique fingerprint, voice print, eye print, and, wait for it, sweat print! The 373 chemicals that comprise sweat combine in a way that is absolutely unique. Now, we cannot smell it, for which I am grateful, but your dog can. And since we are on the subject, dogs have unique nose prints. Do you need to know that today to live a long, happy, healthy life? No, you do not. But it makes me love our 13-pound Cockapoo even more.
Did you know that Japanese potters used to sign their work by making the impression of a fingerprint? Is it possible you are God’s workmanship, His poema? Is it possible that that unique fingerprint is God’s way of saying you are invaluable and irreplaceable? You are not a cosmic accident, the result of random chance. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are the image of God. You are the apple of God’s eye. You were made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory. And then Scripture says that God is rejoicing over you with singing. This is the God that we serve. Welcome to National Community Church, either in person or online. In DC Nova, you will find some message notes in your NCC app. We are in a series called Million Little Miracles. Ready or not, here we go!
A Personal Story and Series Introduction
This happened 28 years ago, so I think the statute of limitations is over, and it is okay for me to share this. In the early days of NCC, in fact, this couple was part of our original core group of 19 people. A United States senator who would become Attorney General attended our church, and I would, every week, usually on Monday, pop over to the Russell office building and then eventually the Department of Justice for a little morning devotional.
I remember one Monday after a particular Sunday, he pulled me aside and said, «Mark, that was a great series you preached yesterday.» Seriously, I was not sure exactly what he was getting at. He was super kind and super encouraging, but he said, «Mark, the first half of the message was really good, but it was so long I do not remember it.» I would sometimes preach for an hour on occasion, and I thought I better reel it back in just a little bit. So now you are thankful for this former senator and attorney general, are you not? Thank you! He did everybody a favor, did he not?
All of that to say this: I preached a series last week, and you were so gracious. My heart is so full. I am grateful that even though I did not get to do everything I wanted to do, like we did, I gave you a book, so you got the message notes. I started preparing this week, and I was about to give you another series, but we are going to divide it into two. Where I want to get is «fearfully and wonderfully made.» It is one of the most beautiful verses in Psalm 139.
But before we get to that part, we are going to go verse by verse and get as far as we can go. Ready or not, here we go!
Wonders of Outer Space
On Christmas Day 2021, NASA launched a rocket with a unique payload. Its cargo was a 10 billion-dollar telescope, the James Webb Telescope, and a couple of months later, it started sending these images back from space. And yeah, you are at NASA, are you not? I love it! Let us give it up for NASA. We did land a man on the moon, how is that?
So one of my favorites among these images is incredible; I eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They are incredible, but I think my favorite is The Pillars of Creation. Now, this is 6,500 light-years from Earth, so the images we are seeing are about 7,000 years old. One of those fingers is 25 trillion miles long, just one of those fingers is bigger than the Milky Way galaxy, which we talked about last week, which is not small. The fact that we can even capture a composite image like this is kind of mind-boggling, is it not, when you think of the size and scope?
Can I show you one more? This might be a new favorite: The Butterfly Nebula is a bipolar planetary nebula. Its central star is five times the size of the Sun, with a surface temperature of 250,000 degrees Celsius. The star emits ultraviolet radiation, which causes its gases to glow, and all I can do is just echo the psalmist: «The heavens declare the glory of God.» I feel like we should clap; should we clap? I think you should clap.
I think the more you know, the more you know how much you do not know. Do you know Nikola Tesla, the inventor—not the car—who invented alternating current and electricity? That is his brainchild, absolutely brilliant! Do you know he had a habit that during thunderstorms, he would sit near the window, and every time lightning would strike, he would stand up and give God a standing ovation? Every day around the planet, there are 8 million lightning strikes. Is it possible that maybe we owe God about 8 million standing ovations every single day?
Where were we? Outer space is amazing. Stick with me; it is not as amazing as inner space.
Miracles in the Human Body
The greatest mysteries, the greatest miracles, friends, are not out there; the greatest mysteries, the greatest miracles are in here. Last week, I had a colonoscopy. You did not see that coming, did you? But when you get to my age, you got to do what you got to do. And it came back clean, so I do not have to do it for about ten more years.
Okay, oh man, question: when was the last time you thanked God for your colon? Like, never, right? I mean, the 27-foot-long digestive tract—and you know mine is a foot shorter because of ruptured intestines? I should have died two days on a respirator. They removed a foot of my intestines, but I woke up on the other side, and I will tell you this: you take a lot less for granted after that. You take a lot more for granted after that.
Do you know that the billions of cells in your colon are replaced every five days? Just, wow! Wow! 100 trillion microbes live in your colon. They have quite literally colonized your colon, okay? This is mind-blowing! You are only 43% human; the other 57% is your microbiome. Wow! In the words of Walt Whitman, «I contain multitudes.» In the words of John Mayer, «Your body is a wonderland.» Trillions of microbes in your gut digest food, produce vitamins, absorb nutrients, and release enzymes.
Anything else? Yes! They regulate mood, secrete electrolytes, and synchronize metabolism. Is that all? Nope! It is like an internal pharmacy that fills prescriptions all day, every day. It is a neurochemical factory; it produces dopamine, histamine, oxytocin. Ninety percent of your serotonin is produced in the gut. There is even a brain in your gut, or more accurately, a brain-gut axis (GBA). And so really, what my gastroenterologist was doing was probing a miracle, which sounds really weird, but you will remember it.
One more fun fact: when we kiss, we exchange 80 billion bacteria, and that number is even higher in France. Oh man! According to Dr. Anna Machin of Oxford University, when we kiss, we are sampling another person’s histocompatibility genes. I would not use this as a pickup line; I do not think it is going to work, but she argues that what we are doing is actually looking for an immunological match. And there is a driving question in the book: What is really happening when what is happening is happening? And all I am going to say right here is there is more than meets the eye.
I know people who would say, «I have never experienced a miracle,» but with all due respect, you have never not. In fact, you are one!
Psalm 139: God Knows Us Completely
And with that, Psalm 139, verse one: «You have searched me, and you know me.» He knows you! He is bigger than big—Transcendent God Most High. Oh, but good news: He is closer than close—Imminent God Most Nigh. He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do you just hold on to that today? He is an ever-present help in time of need. He knows the number of hairs on your head, your name tattooed on the palm of His Almighty hand. All of your days were ordained by Him, written in His book before one of them came to be. Collect your tears in His bottle.
I think every weekend one of my consistent prayers is, «Lord, no one is walking in by accident. Everyone is here by divine appointment.» But I know that every one of us is at a very different place in our understanding of who God is in our spiritual journey. I just want to say that some of you are far more mature spiritually than I am. You are down the road, and if that is you, thanks for listening to this guy preach. If you are further ahead, and if maybe you are coming out of church hurt, I am just so proud of you because you are giving it a second chance. I think it just says something.
But I think all of us never stop really deconstructing and reconstructing who we think God is. We are all kind of imagining, and now I mean be really careful because this is the only accurate picture of who God is. This is a 1500-year portrait, a longitudinal study. It is a progressive revelation of this God who is bigger than big, closer than close, and good than good. But our objective every weekend is that you feel seen, heard, and loved by God and by us. I hope you receive that today!
«You have searched me, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is even on my tongue, you know it completely.» Dr. Curt Thompson spoke at NCC earlier this year, really a renowned psychiatrist and author, and we got him on the books for next year again. He will be back, but he said something I have been thinking about ever since he said it: «We come into the world looking for someone looking for us.» That someone is the Creator. Uniqueness is God’s gift to you; what you do with it is your gift back to God.
This is such intimate, caring, tender language. So this idea is we come into the world looking for someone looking for us. Well, Scripture says that you are the apple of God’s eye. I want to explain that a little bit because the Hebrew language is revealing; it can actually mean «hallowed.» So is it not that curious that we pray, «Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,» and then it is almost like God returns the favor: «Hallowed be thy name.»
I am not talking about the name your parents gave to you; I am not talking about the names that other people call you. One of the most beautiful promises in the Bible is in Revelation 2, and it says that someday, God is going to give us a white stone with a new name written on it, and that name is only going to be known to God and to us. I think in that moment, everything is going to make sense: «That is who I am.» Because it is God who begins to reveal our true identity and our true destiny.
That word «apple» can mean «aperture,» or it can refer to the pupil of the eye, which is kind of this gateway to the optic nerve and into the visual cortex. I will never read it the same way since a couple of months ago when I held our new grandson in my arms—and all you do is just stare; you just stare at new babies. There was this moment where I am holding my grandson, and I see it in the pupil of his eye. Do you know what I saw? What did I see in the pupil of his eye? We never get close enough to even realize this; we do not do this in real life with real people, usually only with babies.
I am holding him a few inches away, and I see myself in the pupil of his eye. I see my reflection; I see my image—I see a miniature me! And my grandson is like, «Oh!» It is just a moment I will never forget for the rest of my life. Question: what does God see when He looks in the pupil of your eye? I do not know what other people see; they usually see what is wrong with us, do they not? They usually see the problems, the issues, the imperfections. But what does God see? He sees Himself; He sees His image; He sees His reflection; He sees mini-me.
You are the image of God, the apple of God’s eye, and I think there is just such deep affection. No one knows you better, and no one loves you more. Now it says, «Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely.» Let us just kind of divide the house. Some of us grew up in more of a legalistic, fear-based sort of relationship or environment where, I mean, God is almost this cosmic police officer just kind of saying, «I have got my eyes on you, just waiting for you to mess up.»
But I just think that is not the image that is portrayed in Scripture. God is not a cosmic killjoy! God is in a good mood, news flash! I think He cannot take His eyes off you because He loves you that much. So it is this idea that when you have a love-based relationship, you want to catch people doing things right; you just love being a witness to their life. He knows your thoughts, which can sound scary if you come from one of those backgrounds—like, ooh, I got to hide things from God? You do not have to hide a single thing. He knows you perfectly, loves you completely, and this is beautiful because God does not hear based on volume; He does not hear based on vocabulary.
What if you begin to drill down here? You do not have to pull out the KJV and pray really fancy prayers where the answer is the result of the right combination of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. God hears your heart; God hears your hurt. God is aware of every subconscious desire and motivation. God knows all the hopes and fears of all the years. He knows you completely, perfectly.
I love the story about the little girl who was praying before bed one night. Her grandfather was walking by and heard her. The little girl said, «Lord, A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y and Z, amen.» The grandfather walked into the room and said, «Sweetie, why are you praying the alphabet?» The little girl said, «I did not know what to say. I figured I would let God put the letters together however He wanted to.» It takes the pressure off of us, that He knows, He cares.
In fact, I am going to push the envelope a little bit because this is such a meaningful moment in my life. We sigh on average 12 times per hour. Give me a sigh! When we are stressed, when we are grieving, when we feel overwhelmed, we sigh much more than that. Sighing is an expression of the parasympathetic nervous system; it is a physiological response to things that we just cannot handle. It is just too much; we got to alleviate the stress.
The moment that I am referring to was when my father-in-law passed away, and that week we were grieving. You are going to a funeral, a graveside service, and I just realized, «Why am I sighing all the time? Almost nonstop!» Then I found a verse that would forever change the way I talk to God. Psalm 51: «Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my sighing.» This is the God of the things you cannot put into words; He understands!
Do we understand this today? He knows the thoughts and the feelings; He identifies with the sigh. He hears them, interprets them, intercedes for them, and then He flips it, and He intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be put into words. Not only does He consider our sigh, He collects our tears in His bottle.
Now, a Danish artist named Maurice Meckers once put his tears under a microscope, and I will show you a slide. He started throwing crying parties because he became fascinated with tears on a microscopic level. I think we have that slide. So almost like snowflakes, it is almost like the Mandelbrot set or fractal geometry where the more you zoom in on something, it reveals infinite detail.
These are tears that were captured, photographed under a microscope, but let me show you the next slide because what I find fascinating is that tears of grief look very shattered; they look very different than tears of change, which are different than onion tears, which are different than laughing tears. What does it say about our God that He collects them, labels them, records them, and then someday will wipe them away? This is our God!
It is the shortest verse in the Bible—two words—every kid’s favorite memory verse: «Jesus wept.» But it speaks volumes. The God who created The Pillars of Creation, the Butterfly Nebula, who with four words said, «Let there be light,» and those four words are still creating galaxies at the outer edge of the universe. That is the same God who weeps for us and over us and with us! He is closer than close.
We have a high priest who is not unable to sympathize with our weaknesses because He was tried and tested just like us in every way, yet without sin.
God Hems Us In Behind and Before
Verse five: «You hem me in behind and before.» Let me try to make this short and sweet. God does not exist within the four dimensions of space-time; He created it. He is not limited to past, present, and future. With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
We are stuck in a moment we cannot get out of. It is hard for us to imagine a God that is not subject to those three time tenses, but He is not. He is the Ancient of Days; He exists outside of time. That is why this will mess with your mind, but if you can wrap your mind around it, you will start getting a theology of time. Like in Joshua 6:3, where it says, «Before they even start circling, I have delivered Jericho into your hands.» I read it; it is the wrong verb tense. It should be future tense because it has not happened yet, but it is past tense!
That is because everything is created twice. The first creation always happens in the spiritual realm; the second creation involves blood, sweat, and tears. God has already done it. You are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works prepared for you in advance. This then begins to give us a little bit of holy confidence as we live our lives when it says He hems us in behind and before.
Chronologically past, present, future—geographically He is here, there, and everywhere. Thomas Merton said it this way: «The Lord travels in all directions at once. The Lord arrives from all directions at once. Wherever we are, we find that He has just departed. Wherever we go, we find that He has just arrived before us.» What a beautiful depiction!
Let me share a testimony, kind of put some skin on this, and bring it down to earth. Twenty-eight years ago, the church office was a spare bedroom in our DC row home. In the summer, our second child was born, and it became the church office by day and her bedroom by night. I would literally plug in the church phone, unplug it, set up the crib, and tear it down. That got pretty old pretty quickly, so we started looking for office space.
I remember finding a place not far from Union Station where we had started gathering, and it was perfect. I gave God the address, and a realtor drew up a contract. We put it in, and we discovered that the night before, someone beat us to the punch and got a contract on that property. I remember being so disappointed because, again, I had given God the address and thought, «Well, alright.»
So we kept looking, found another place, and I thought, «Well, I mean, this is pretty perfect too.» I gave God the address again, put in a contract, and the night before, someone beat us to the punch again. Exact same scenario. At this point, I am thinking to myself: God, I am not going to tell you the address of what we want because this is like an anti-petition prayer! I mean, it was really confusing and discouraging because from my vantage point, it seemed perfect.
Then one day, I am walking home from Union Station, and I walked by a crack house, which was just a crack house at the time. But right next to it was a row house, 205 °F Street. As I walked by, there was no «For Sale» sign; there was nothing. It was just the strangest thing. Call Robert Thomas—that is what was not audible, just a thought dropped into my mind.
To be honest, I had met the owner maybe a year before, and I am not even that great with names. I am not sure like what they call Robert Thomas. This was before Google, so I had to actually go to the White Pages, and there were eight Robert Thomases. I am like, «Eeny, meeny, miny, mo!» I do not even know if that is his name, let alone which one.
I remember picking up the phone and, by faith, just dialing that number. He picked up, and I quickly said, «Hey, this is Mark Batterson. I do not know if you would remember me; I pastor a church that meets at Union Station.» He interrupts me, does not even let me finish the sentence, and says, «I was just thinking about you.»
He said, «I was thinking about putting my row house on the market, but before I did, I thought to myself, I wonder if Pastor Mark or NCC would perhaps want this row house.» I said, «Let me pray about it, yes!» You know, and we could not even afford it, but we did a lease with the option to purchase.
I do not want to discourage anybody today given the current real estate dynamics, but we bought that row home for $225,000. Yeah, wish we bought two of them, but it was not about 205; it was about 2011 because those walls at 205 abutted the walls at 2011. For years, we would not only circle, but we would also lay hands on those walls in 2011.
God, would you give us this piece of Promised Land? Lord, help us turn this crack house into a coffee house! And look at what the Lord has done! Then the real estate miracles just kept on happening. I mean, that is one corner of the prayer circle; the capital turnaround, a city block, is the other corner. A and M Street—I mean, what is next, church? He is not done. But here is my point: the domino effect of a church that never even thought we would really own property—but then we start accumulating some properties for the third and fourth generation.
But the domino effect started with what I think would be called a word of knowledge. It was not even something I knew how to pray for; I could not even formulate the words, like, «Lord, would you just put it on Robert Thomas’s heart to maybe just think about selling this row house to this church?» I did not know what to pray; I did not know what to say.
But it is almost like God took the disappointment and the frustration and crafted an answer to the prayer that I had no idea I was praying. What I have learned since then is—and this is a word for someone—you cannot pray half a promise. And what I mean by that is this: Revelation 3—"I have placed before you an open door. What I open, no one can shut, and what I shut, no one can open.» We love open doors; closed doors—not so much.
But in my experience, closed doors often lead to those open doors. What I am saying is this: my self-confidence is below average; my holy confidence is off the chart. Why? Because He hems us in behind and before.
No Escaping God’s Presence
Verse seven: «Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there; if I rise on the wings of the dawn; if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me; your right hand will hold me fast.»
Where can I go from your Spirit? The implied answer is nowhere, never! God is present; all that is absent is our awareness. Can I invite you to re-invite the Holy Spirit to take over? To just take over? The Holy Spirit wears so many hats; He is always gifting, guiding, and growing the Holy Spirit in us. He is animating and energizing. In Him, we live and move and have our being.
The Holy Spirit is always convicting and comforting. The Holy Spirit is doing all these different things. But what is the first revelation of the Holy Spirit? Hovering over the chaos! He is hovering over the chaos of our lives, and if we invite him in, He will not just fill us, but He will create new capacity within us. The danger with that is, you know, I do think physicists feel like beyond the four fundamental forces, there might be this mysterious fifth force, and we could have a fun conversation about that.
I think in Him, we live, move, and have our being. Read Colossians 1: «All things were created by Him and for Him, and in Him, all things hold together.» He is holding the whole thing together, but we have to be careful not to depersonalize the Holy Spirit. R.T. Kendall said it this way: «If we think of the Holy Spirit as merely a power or influence, our constant thought will be how can I get more of the Holy Spirit. But if we think of Him in the biblical way as a divine person, our thought will rather be how can the Holy Spirit have more of me?»
Would you surrender yourself to the working of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit dwells in the 40-nanometer gap between the trillions of synapses in the human mind. The Holy Spirit dwells in every atom in the universe. According to quantum mechanics, 99,99% is empty space, which is mysterious because you look pretty solid. But Ephesians 1:23 calls Him «the God who fills all things in all ways.» If God were to withdraw His breath, we would return to dust.
All of these miracles, be it consciousness or conscience, or how a heart starts to beat, or how cells know what to become, the more we know, the more we know how much we do not know. The whole thing is just a big mystery, a big miracle. And so maybe a good place to finish is where we started. I know people who would say they have never experienced a miracle, but with all due respect, you have never not experienced one. In fact, you are one! In Jesus' name, amen!
Closing Prayer
Lord, we receive your word today. God, let it speak to our hearts and minds. God, I pray that your word would renew our minds, would shape the desires of our hearts, and would sanctify the motivations that are within us. Lord, I pray for just an increased sense of your presence in our lives. The Spirit of God is filling us and leading us and ordering our footsteps, and working things together for good even when we cannot see it and feel it. He is working! So, Lord, we bless you today. Come, Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen!