Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners, and welcome to Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Hardy Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If you've ever wondered just how special you truly are and how precious you are to God, then today's message is for you. I am wonderful and marvelous. God said that he knew you before you were even formed in your mother's belly, and he has a plan, a wonderful plan for your life. From the womb to the tomb, he will be with you because he calls you wonderful and he calls you marvelous.

R. G. Hardy: Amen. And that's how it is with us. God, he sees us. He saw us when we were in our mother's womb. He says that when all of our members were there, he wrote them. We read it here in this verse. He says, "In your book, you wrote all my members down in your book." I'm just paraphrasing this. He said, "You wrote all my members down in your book." God knows the day you would be born, and he knows the day we'll die.

God knows our lifespan. He knows the day that we'll come into this earth and he knows the day that we'll depart. That's something that none of us can know except God revealed it, and he does not do that because he wants us to serve him and be ready every day. How many say amen? So the day that you were born, God knew where your life would take you. He had it all written down in his book. How many say amen? He's mindful of you.

In Psalm 69:6, he said, "By thee, I have been holding up from the womb. You're the one who took me out of my mother's womb. Therefore, my praise shall continually be with thee." And then the next verse where I stopped, he said, "How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O Lord. How great is the sum of them." My God, the word says, "Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?"

And yet if I could have the privilege to just peek into one part of God's mind, the part that says Sharon Hardy Knotts, it would be so many precious thoughts. I would never be able to count them. If every day of my life, 24 hours a day, I tried to count them, I couldn't count the thoughts that God has towards me. You couldn't count the thoughts that he has towards you. He said through the prophet Jeremiah in 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I have toward you, saith the Lord God. I have thoughts to bless you. I have thoughts to prosper you. I have thoughts to give you a hope and a future."

The devil is a thief. I want to let you know all he's going to do is steal and kill and destroy your life. He's going to sidetrack you. He's going to try to get you on drugs. He's going to try to get you to become an alcoholic. He's going to get you to try to have a baby before you're married so that your plans take another turn. But God said if you'll give your plans to me, I have a plan for you. I will bless you. I will give you a hope and a future.

And if you've already made some of those mistakes, it's not over with. It's not too late. Give it to God. He can fix it. He can work it out. Amen. Tell the devil he's a liar. I'm wonderful. I'm marvelous. God loves me. He said in Psalm 40:5, "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful thoughts which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are towards me." They cannot be reckoned, that's an old English word, they can't be counted up in order to thee. If I would declare and speak them, they are more than they can be numbered.

And I don't think God has Alzheimer's, do you? I don't think God has a problem with dementia. And if he says that his thoughts towards me are more than they can be numbered, I don't know what to say, but tell the devil he's a liar. He said if I could count them, they're more than the number of the sands of the sea, if I could count all the thoughts.

Let me tell you what God said through the prophet Isaiah in the 49th chapter, verses 15 and 16. God asked a rhetorical question. You see, at least in Bible days, things have changed today, but in Bible days God could ask the question, "Can a woman forget her sucking child and not have mercy on the son of her womb?" Now unless the devil has come in to destroy someone's life, the answer to that is a woman will never forget her sucking child. She will do whatever she's got for that child, especially when they're still a baby and she's still nursing that baby.

They have found out by studying that there's something in a woman's brain, I read this recently, in a new mother's brain who still has a young infant, especially if she's nursing. There's actually something in her brain that kicks in when danger or something comes against her child. A chemical kicks in that brain and she is going to fight and do whatever she's got to do for that baby. It's something that God put in there, that mother's instinct comes up.

She'll go to the death for that baby, and God designed her that way. Somebody say we're wonderful. We're marvelous. Now I realize today people have children that don't mean to have them because they get on drugs and alcohol, and then they're not even... they can't even take care of themselves, much less a baby. And then we got this generation of these poor kids that they leave in trash bins and whatever. But that's the work of the devil. Let's take God's perfect design. A mother will not forget her sucking child. And yet God says if she did, she might, but I will never forget thee. Somebody say he won't forget me.

I want you to hold your hands up. Everybody hold up your hands. Now turn them around and look at them. Look at your left hand real good. Now look at your right hand. Now God said, "I've written your name on the palms of my hands." Your name. God said, "I wrote your name." What's your name today? It's on God's hand. Who are you today? Your name's on God's hand. When the devil's said God's forgotten you, just look at your hand and then raise them up and say, "Lord, I thank you that my name is written on the palm of your hand." That's it, give him a clap offering.

So he knew us before we were born. He knew us when we were in our mother's womb. And after we come forth, he's going to take us through. Turn to Isaiah 43, one of my favorite places in the Bible. I do want you to read this so that you know it's there. "But now saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; and thou art mine."

And here's a beautiful promise. If you haven't already marked it in your Bible, you probably want to. "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior." And I will give a ransom for thee. Here he's talking about giving the nations, but in other places in Job, in other places, the ransom is his Son.

"Since thou wast precious in my sight," now this is God speaking, this isn't Sharon speaking, this is God speaking, "Since thou wast precious in my sight, and has been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life." God says that I knew you before you were born. I knew you in your mother's womb. And now your life, wherever it takes you, I'm not promising you that you're not going to have troubles and you're not going to have trials. God never said that, don't ever let anyone tell you that because then you'll get saved and when the first trial comes you'll quit.

But he said when you walk through, somebody say through, through the waters, he said they won't drown you. When you walk through the fire, through the fire, it will not kindle upon you. He said when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll be with you, whether it's to bring you through and you're still on earth side or take you through on heaven side. Either way, I will be with you. God said that you are precious to me, and I have loved thee, and I have redeemed thee, and I'm not going to forsake thee. Wherever you are in your journey, God is going to bring you through. He said in Psalm 18:16, "He sent from above, and he took me; he drew me out of many waters."

Now I'm going to tell this very quickly. The Lord gave me a dream back in June, and it helped me and right now I'm really drawing on it. Some of you know I have a pool and I do water therapy. It's what keeps me going. But in this dream that I was in, I was not in my own pool. I was in somebody else's yard, I don't even know whose it was, but it was an above-ground, just a regular round pool. And I was in there doing my therapy. But they had those canopies with poles you can put up to keep the sun from off of you. They had one of those over it.

I was doing my therapy and I noticed that the clouds were coming and it was getting ready to rain. I thought, well, I'm almost finished, I'll finish what I'm doing and then I'll get out. But that quick, boom, it turned from just a few little clouds to a huge storm. I mean it started pouring buckets. And I thought, "Oh my God, I got to get out of here now." And when I went to walk across the pool to get out, I looked up and I saw that the water had come down so heavy on that canopy that it was sagging. I mean it was sagging.

And before I could get away, it gave. And when it did, that whole torrent of rain water just fell down on me. I knew it was coming so I quick bent over so it wouldn't hit me in my face, and I bent over. Well when I did, it came on my back, hit me right in the back and it was so powerful it pushed me right down in the water. There I was face down in the water, plus all this water kept coming on me. The more I tried to get up, the more I tried to push myself up, I couldn't.

I had no way of pushing myself out of that water. I knew I was going to drown, but I wasn't afraid. I wasn't scared, I wasn't panicky. I wasn't like, "Oh God help me, I'm dying." I thought, "Well, I guess this is how I'm dying. Oh well, I'm dying now." That's how I felt. A lot of times you'll have fear because let me tell you, I don't like the thought of water. I don't know how to swim, so generally something like that would bring fear to me. But I didn't. I thought, okay here I am, well I'm just ready to quit living.

And all of a sudden, something comes across the bottom of the pool. I couldn't see it but it was like you could see the wake of where it was coming, like a wake behind a boat. It came up and boom, it hit me in the stomach. And when it did, it just catapulted me straight up in the air. I was airborne. I was airborne and before I knew it I was flying through the air. And I was going across the yard and I was still flying and it took me into the house right through the walls and everything. Didn't feel a thing, just went right through the walls.

I don't know whose house it was, I never seen it before, but that doesn't matter. I went right through the walls and I was airborne and I'm going through all these rooms and I get into this... it brings me to the ceiling of this one bedroom and then it just drops me. And I go like a little feather and boom, I land on the bed ever so gently. And I sat up and I thought, "Wow, wow, oh God this is great. Oh my God, I got to tell somebody, I got to tell somebody."

Nobody's going to believe this, I have to tell somebody. And I get up and I'm running down the halls and there's all these bedrooms, one bedroom after another. I look into the bedrooms, every room is empty. There's nobody in any of the rooms and I'm just wanting to see a person to tell them. And finally, after going to all these rooms, I come to a bedroom and there was a person in there. And I got to the door and this person was sitting on the edge of the bed. It was a woman. She was sitting on the edge of the bed and her feet were on the floor, but she was lying back like spread eagle like this on the bed and she was crying and crying.

And I went over to her and I said, "Oh, I got to tell you," and I did this so she'd sit up. And when she sat up, it was me. It was me. And there I am, me telling me, and I'm saying, "It's going to be alright. Don't worry, it's going to be alright." But the me on the bed was so despairing and so under and crying so hard and just like... and I kept saying, "I'm telling you, it's going to be alright." And the me would look up at the me and like trying to, okay keep telling me that and trying to believe, and the me standing up was saying, "It's going to be alright, it's going to be alright." And that's how it ended.

And so the Lord knows, give the Lord a clap offering. Somebody say it's going to be alright. Because the storm came out of nowhere and I had no energy of my own to fight it. But God says, and let's drop down to verse seven where we are in Isaiah. He said you're precious in my sight and I like verse seven. You say, "Well he said Jacob and he said Israel. I'm not Jacob and Israel." Well no, neither am I, but verse seven said, "Even everyone." Is that you? "Even everyone that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him."

So God says that I knew you before you were born. I knew you when you were in your mother's womb and now wherever you go throughout your life, if you go through the fire, if you go through the water, I'll be with you. And now I'm going to come to the end and finish. Some of you say, "But sister Sharon, I'm older now. I'm getting up in years and I don't have the energy and the strength that I once had. Do you think God is going to forsake you then?"

Turn in Isaiah 46, verse three. "Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, borne." You're born now, born meaning that you came out and born that he's carrying you. "I'm carrying you from your mother's womb." You haven't been doing this on your own. No, it's not my strength, I guarantee you that. It's not your strength. God's the one who holds me up. I don't know who holds you up, but I know who's holding me up.

I have carried you, let's use the word "carry" so we don't get mixed up with the "born" as in giving birth, okay? "I've carried you from your mother's belly," verse four, "And even to your old age I am he; and even to your hoar hairs." Take the word "hoar" out and put "gray." How many know that? Don't raise your hand, that's okay, I know you use Miss Clairol. "Even to your gray hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and I will deliver you."

Amen. God said, "I will deliver you." And there's a Psalm that I want to refer to real quick, 71:4, says that, "You are my strong habitation, whereunto I will continually resort: for thou hast given commandment to deliver me." Now who does God give commandment to deliver you? His angels. Didn't he say in Psalm 91? He said that the angels, in Psalm 34:7 he said, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him to deliver them." Encamp means 24/7. Somebody say 24/7. He's encamped, he's always about you, what? Just to watch you? To deliver you.

How does the angel know when to deliver you? When God gives the commandment. Amen. "For he shall give his angels charge," commandment, order, orders, "over you, concerning you, to keep you in all your ways." And if it comes down to it and you get in a situation where it's necessary, they will even bear you up on their own hands lest you should dash your foot against a stone. And I want you to know that God's angels are not wimpy. They're not them little fat cherubs you see look like little kids with curls on their head, and they're not those ladies with those long hair and them harps.

No, that's not what God's angels are, the ones he sends. They're warrior angels. The Bible says in Psalm 103, they're "mighty in power" and they're "excellent in strength." They hearken to the voice of his command. And when God commands the angels, they come and see about you and me and they deliver us. The Bible says that there is a flaming fire. The Bible says in the book of Hebrews 1:7 and 14, said that there is a flaming fire that God sends forth to minister to the heirs of salvation.

So I want you to know that the angels of God are watching over you. And when we come down to the end and our hair is gray, God is not going to forsake us. How many say amen? He said in Psalm 71:9, "Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth." He's not going to forsake you because he's already given commandment to deliver you.

Psalm 71, verses 17 and 18. Now this is what David says. "O Lord, thou hast taught me from my youth." Now I can say that literally. Some of you here can say that literally. The Lord's taught me from my youth. "And hitherto up to this time I've declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy saving power to every one that is to come."

He said, "Lord, you've been with me all these years and now that I'm old and my hair is gray, don't forsake me. As long as you leave me here, give me the strength to declare your goodness and your power. Let me tell the generation coming up: trust in the Lord. Do good and serve the Lord and he'll never leave you and he'll never forsake you. It pays to serve God." I've been serving the Lord a long time. I once was young and now I'm old, but I can say I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging bread.

Hallelujah. When you're young, he'll be there with you. He'll help you plan your life out. He'll put you in a good path in a good direction. And if you serve the Lord and you follow him and you come to the end of the your days, he said, "I won't leave you then. I'll be your strength when you're weak. I'll be your help when you need help." If you're a widow in this place and you don't have a husband anymore to support you, he said, "I'll be a husband to the widow. I'll be a father to the fatherless." If you're divorced and you're trying to raise kids on your own and you're having a hard way to go, he said, "I won't leave you in that place. I'll be right by you. Don't despair."

Gray hair. Well, a lot of us have gray hair, and some of us have it we just aren't showing it, but it's there nevertheless. But I have a special word for you before I close. I believe God spoke to everyone here from the young to the old. Because when you're young, you think you've got your whole life in front of you. It just seems like it's forever and ever and ever. And before you know it, you're on the other side looking back and you see a new generation coming up. But for all you moms and grandmoms and granddads, Proverbs 16:31: "The gray head is a crown of glory, if," somebody say if, "if it be found in the way of righteousness." Because like the saying in the world, there's no fool like an old fool.

Amen. But when you've served God and you've walked the path of righteousness, the gray hair is a crown of glory. And he said in Proverbs 20:29, and I'm finished with this, "The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of the old is their gray hair." God said, "I will beautify you. I will beautify the meek with salvation and I will take pleasure in my people."

The message God wants you to know this morning: He loves you. He has a plan for your life. And if you will give your heart and your life to him, he will take you from the womb to the tomb, from the cradle to the grave. God will take you and see you through. God bless you.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen, what a beautiful word of the Lord for each of us. I am wonderful and marvelous. Have you ever really contemplated how precious you are to God? He said that even when you were in your mother's womb he covered you, and you were created in an ornately and intricately work of his design. There was nothing accidental or random about our creation.

We are made up of a complex four-chemical alphabetical sequence, each with its own unique code that determines the function of every cell of our individual 60 trillion cells. The DNA of just one cell stretched out is about 40 inches long. This requires intelligence of a designer.

God made each of us with purpose. God told the prophet Jeremiah, "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb, and I called you to be a prophet unto the nations." And Paul said that it pleased God to separate me from my mother's womb to call me by his grace and reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen.

What has God called you to do? If you don't know, it begins by answering the call. "For whom he did foreknow, he also called," Paul said in Romans. But you must answer the call, and when you do, he promised, "I will be with you when you pass through the floods, when you pass through the fire, through great trials, even unto your old age and gray hair. I will carry you from the womb to the tomb. God will carry you and he will never forsake you."

For he said, "I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "to do you good and not harm, to give you a hope and a future." David said, "I was young once and now I'm old, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken." God said, "I will not forget you because I've engraved your name on the palm of my hand."

If you would like to order I am Wonderful and Marvelous on CD, send a love gift of $10 or more to the radio ministry. Request offer SK111. That's SK111. Mail to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or order online at rghardy.org where you may also order on an MP3. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request offer SK111. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, "Maranatha."