Today Family Worship

Confident Trust In God

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: TDYFW

Program Code: TDYFW200031S


00:02 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people
00:12 I want to spend my life
00:19 Removing pain
00:24 Lord, let my words
00:30 Heal a heart that hurts
00:34 I want to spend my life
00:40 Mending broken people
00:46 I want to spend my life
00:51 Mending broken people
01:09 Hello, and welcome to 3ABN Family Worship.
01:13 Forgive my squeaky voice,
01:14 but it's the end of a long week.
01:17 And we're so excited that the Sabbath is rolling in,
01:21 and we want to thank you
01:23 for joining us for this Family Worship.
01:26 Honey?
01:28 It's wonderful to be here
01:29 and it's wonderful to hear your little squeaky voice.
01:32 Something is coming out of it.
01:33 So...
01:35 You never know.
01:36 You never know what's gonna come out.
01:38 We're just surrounded with two of our good friends,
01:40 two people that I just love teach the Word.
01:45 And we're just going to take this opportunity
01:47 to be around the table and just say
01:48 what comes to our heart and glean from that.
01:52 Yes.
01:53 And I just wanted to say
01:55 that tonight what we decided to do
01:58 is we'd call this confident trust in the Lord,
02:02 but we're going to examine Psalm 27, a psalm of David.
02:09 And it is a beautiful psalm.
02:11 And I think it's very relevant to today's times.
02:15 So you want to have opening prayer?
02:18 I certainly would.
02:19 Father, as we come together today
02:20 in the name of Jesus just want to thank you so much,
02:23 Lord, for the Sabbath.
02:24 We just Thank You, Lord,
02:26 that we have this time to concentrate on You
02:29 to put the things of this world to the side and,
02:31 Father, as we just go through Psalm 27.
02:35 Lord that to the aid of the Holy Spirit
02:36 that we will be able to learn things
02:39 that perhaps we hadn't looked at before.
02:42 But, Father, main thing
02:43 we just want to keep our eyes focused on You.
02:45 Be with us, Lord,
02:47 take care of each person that has ears to hear.
02:49 We ask this in the name of Jesus.
02:51 Amen.
02:52 Amen and amen.
02:53 Has it been a difficult week for you?
02:57 Not a difficult week, but certainly a blessed week.
03:00 Busy week. How about you, Johnny?
03:03 It's been a busy week,
03:04 but the Lord has been helping us
03:06 through each and every part of the day.
03:08 Amen.
03:09 And if you haven't figured it out yet,
03:11 this is our Pastor Johnny Dinzey, Pastor Ryan Day.
03:14 Amen.
03:16 Both men of God, great teachers,
03:19 just love Jesus with all their heart.
03:22 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
03:24 And just as a little side note,
03:26 the reason my voice is so squeaky
03:28 is during surgery
03:29 I had an injury to my vocal fold.
03:33 But I'm afraid to have the surgery to repair it,
03:35 because every time I have surgery
03:38 it seems that everything
03:39 that can go wrong does go wrong.
03:41 So just bear with me
03:43 and it'll get better in a minute.
03:44 Let's just dive right in to Psalm 27.
03:49 And what we're going to do?
03:51 We're gonna read through the Psalm first,
03:54 then we're going to come back and take it apart,
03:57 unpack it verse by verse.
03:59 And I think this is something you can do at home
04:04 when you're sitting with your children,
04:06 read through something,
04:07 then come back and explain it.
04:09 So it's not just a quick read through.
04:12 But this is a beautiful Psalm
04:14 and it's brought me a lot of comfort.
04:16 And let me explain this.
04:18 In the first in Psalm 27:1-6
04:23 what we find is David is talking to himself.
04:27 He's having a conversation with himself,
04:30 talking about the privileges of divine protection.
04:35 Then in verses 7-12,
04:38 he starts talking to the Lord about his problems.
04:43 And verse 13 and 14, he's talking to himself again,
04:48 and this time it's about perseverance.
04:51 So we're going to look at divine protection
04:53 and those privileges,
04:55 the problem, and then perseverance.
04:59 Johnny, why don't you read verses 1-6?
05:04 One through six?
05:06 And without comment.
05:07 We'll just go through first, read it, and then come back.
05:09 "The Lord is my light and my salvation.
05:13 Whom shall I fear?
05:15 The Lord is the strength of my life.
05:17 Of whom shall I be afraid?
05:19 When the wicked came against me to eat my flesh,
05:22 my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.
05:26 Though an army may encamp against me,
05:29 my heart shall not fear.
05:32 Though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident.
05:36 One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek.
05:41 That I may dwell in the house of the Lord,
05:44 all the days of my life,
05:46 to behold the beauty of the Lord,
05:48 and to inquire in His temple.
05:51 For in the time of trouble,
05:53 He shall hide me in His pavilion.
05:55 In the secret place of His tabernacle,
05:58 He shall hide me,
05:59 He shall set me high upon a rock.
06:02 And now my head shall be lifted up
06:04 above my enemies all around me.
06:07 Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy
06:11 in His tabernacle.
06:12 I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord."
06:17 Oh, that's beautiful.
06:18 He's talking about the divine privileges of protection.
06:22 But then, Ryan,
06:24 now he's gonna start talking to the Lord.
06:25 Why don't you read verses 7-12?
06:28 Absolutely.
06:29 It says, "Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!
06:32 Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
06:36 When You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You,
06:40 'Your face, Lord, I will seek.'
06:42 Do not hide Your face from me.
06:44 Do not turn Your servant away in anger.
06:47 You have been my help.
06:49 Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.
06:54 When my father and my mother forsake me,
06:56 then the Lord will take care of me.
06:58 Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth path,
07:03 because of my enemies.
07:05 Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries.
07:09 For false witnesses have risen against me,
07:12 and such as breathe out violence."
07:16 Okay, so there's his problems.
07:18 And I love this part.
07:20 I can't wait to unpack it,
07:22 especially about seeking God's face.
07:24 And then JD, verses 13 and 14.
07:27 Now he's finished talking to the Lord
07:29 and now he is going to convince himself to persevere.
07:34 Amen.
07:35 Verse 13,
07:37 "I would have lost heart,
07:39 unless I had believed
07:41 that I would see the goodness of the Lord
07:43 in the land of the living.
07:45 Wait on the Lord.
07:47 Be of good courage,
07:48 and He shall strengthen your heart.
07:51 Wait, I say, on the Lord!"
07:55 That's beautiful. So let's start unpacking this.
07:59 Verse 1,
08:02 "The Lord is my light and my salvation.
08:06 Whom shall I fear?
08:07 The Lord is the strength of my life.
08:10 Of whom shall I be afraid?"
08:13 Kind of reminds you
08:15 of Paul in Romans 8: 31-32 where he said,
08:20 "Hey, if God is for us, who can be against us?"
08:22 That's right.
08:24 You know, he who did not spare his own son,
08:27 how much more willing not give us all things?
08:29 So what's he talking about here?
08:32 How would you explain the Lord is,
08:35 His light and his salvation?
08:39 Well, obviously here the darkness represents...
08:43 In contrast to the light darkness would represent fear,
08:46 a time of despair, a time of danger.
08:49 And, of course, we know David experienced a lot of that
08:51 in his lifetime.
08:53 In fact, I'll talk a little bit more about it as we get through
08:55 to one of these other verses in just a moment,
08:57 but, you know, I love the trust
08:59 and the declaration that he has,
09:01 because he's likening God, His light, His salvation.
09:06 And, of course, light we know it.
09:08 It does away with darkness, it dispels darkness.
09:10 And so, you know,
09:12 as I was reading through this particular verse,
09:13 I thought of that scripture of also in Paul's writings
09:16 in 2 Corinthians 6:14, where he says,
09:19 "What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?
09:22 And what communion has light with darkness?"
09:24 Right? Yes.
09:26 And so, you know,
09:27 we know that light and darkness cannot coexist.
09:30 And in this case,
09:32 I think, David is acknowledging that.
09:33 He's living in a dark time,
09:35 he's living in a despairing time.
09:37 You know, his enemies are around him,
09:39 whether it's King Saul or whether it's, you know,
09:42 other enemies that are encamped around him.
09:45 He's living during a dark time.
09:47 But even amidst that darkness, even amidst that time of fear,
09:50 that time of danger, that time of war,
09:52 he's able to look to Jesus and recognize that if,
09:55 you know, He's my salvation, He's my strength.
09:58 He's my only hope.
10:00 And so I believe that is what he's declaring here that,
10:03 why should I fear about
10:04 all of this worldliness around me,
10:06 all that is encamped around me
10:07 when I've got the King of the universe on my side.
10:11 He will see me through and He will get me through.
10:13 And you know, I personally identify with that
10:15 just because of my recent experience,
10:17 you know, and you go through 10 months of darkness.
10:20 And the only thing that kept me going each day
10:24 was seeking the Lord as my light, praising God.
10:28 And that...
10:29 I'm not gonna say that
10:31 there weren't any times
10:32 that I kind of got a little bit down, we all do.
10:36 But as soon as I would recognize that,
10:38 I would just start singing out praises
10:41 to the God of my salvation.
10:43 And He would shine His light into my darkness.
10:47 That's right.
10:48 Boy, I'm telling you, we need that in this day.
10:52 It was obvious that David had a lot of wisdom,
10:56 you know, brought to just is how old is he about now?
11:00 I don't know.
11:01 He was called when he was 16... Yeah.
11:03 So I mean, so we're saying he's a young man,
11:06 but yet, what a gift.
11:08 You know,
11:09 what a gift that he could even use words like this,
11:12 because it just paints such a wonderful picture.
11:15 Because he said, you know, light up my world, Lord,
11:19 illuminate things
11:20 so that I will be able to see clearly.
11:23 He's looking for clarity at this particular time
11:26 and it's just absolutely...
11:29 You know, He is the strength of my life.
11:31 Yeah. Amen.
11:34 I would love to be able to pray like this,
11:39 just to sit down and, you know, and just, boy,
11:40 this is just poetry you might say,
11:43 and just sit down and just have this conversation.
11:46 And I love it.
11:47 You know, when I used to journal
11:49 my prayers, I would write.
11:51 And I mean, it would be like
11:52 you're writing a letter to the Lord.
11:54 And one of the segments that I would go through,
11:58 I always start my prayer with praise.
12:00 Right.
12:02 But I noticed
12:03 when I first started doing this,
12:05 after I read back through a couple of weeks,
12:09 my praise was pretty meager.
12:11 I mean, my words of praise.
12:13 So what I did was, I went to the Psalms,
12:17 I would read through Psalm
12:19 and then I pick out verses of great praise.
12:23 And then that's what I would write to the Lord.
12:26 Oh, Lord, You are my light, You are my salvation.
12:29 And I found that when you do that,
12:32 and that's a wonderful way to learn how to praise
12:34 is to go through the Psalms.
12:36 Right.
12:37 It's just one of those Psalms where David makes a declaration
12:42 and then guess...
12:46 Something that he's going to have or not have.
12:49 You have the Lord is my light and strength.
12:54 Yes.
12:56 Notice the...
12:57 Lord is my shepherd, yeah.
12:58 Yes.
13:00 That's exactly right.
13:01 I was gonna say The Lord is my shepherd,
13:02 I shall not want.
13:04 Here's he's saying,
13:05 "The Lord is the strength of my life.
13:07 Who shall I fear?"
13:08 That's right.
13:09 So when you have the Lord, all these things can go away.
13:13 Your fear of, wow, what am I going to eat,
13:15 what are we going to be able to wear,
13:17 where am I going to be able to stay.
13:19 That goes away,
13:20 because you know the Lord provides.
13:23 And for those of you that have a Bible translation
13:26 where they capitalize the L, the O, the R and the D,
13:30 please know that he is saying, Jehovah, Yahweh.
13:34 He's talking about the Almighty living God.
13:37 So he's making a declaration. The Covenant God.
13:39 Yes, the covenant keeping God.
13:41 That's right. Amen.
13:42 Ryan, you want to take verse 2? Absolutely.
13:44 Verse 2 says,
13:46 "The wicked came against me to eat up my flesh,
13:50 my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell."
13:56 If you don't mind, I'm going to read
13:57 verse 3 with it.
13:59 Sure.
14:00 There's a little bit more we can say about it,
14:01 but I want to kind of tie that with it.
14:03 Verse 3 also says,
14:04 "Though an army may encamp against me,
14:06 my heart shall not fear.
14:08 Though war should rise against me,
14:11 in this I will be confident."
14:15 And so, it's powerful to consider
14:18 what he's saying here,
14:19 because he's acknowledging the fact
14:22 that he is in an impossible situation.
14:25 I don't think people really understand
14:27 probably more than any other person
14:29 in the Bible, obviously,
14:31 different scenario than, you know,
14:32 Job and some others faced,
14:34 but probably no other person in all the Bible
14:36 faced more adversity
14:38 in the entirety of their life than that of David.
14:42 And so when he talks about
14:44 the wicked came against to eat up his flesh.
14:46 You know, it's nice imagery,
14:48 it's nice symbolism there,
14:49 where he's talking about
14:51 how his enemies are like ravenous wolves
14:53 or vicious beasts that are constantly at him.
14:57 And, you know,
14:58 it has been suggested that perhaps this Psalm
15:01 was written maybe prior to David being king
15:04 that very well may be a possibility.
15:07 But whether it was before or after he became king,
15:10 you can look at the story of David's life
15:12 and see just how much adversity he really went through.
15:16 And when he talks about his enemies, verse 3 there,
15:19 "Though an army may encamp against me,
15:21 my heart shall not fear."
15:23 When he talks about an army encamped against him,
15:26 if you consider the layout of Jerusalem,
15:29 you want to talk about an enemy coming against you.
15:32 He was literally encamped
15:34 on all sides by all of his enemies.
15:37 You literally head to the north of Jerusalem,
15:40 you had the Aramenes.
15:43 Okay, so the nation of Arab.
15:46 And then of course, to the east of Jerusalem,
15:48 you had the Ammonites and the Moabites,
15:51 to the south of Jerusalem,
15:53 you have the Amalekites and the Edomites.
15:55 And, of course, to the west of Jerusalem,
15:57 the Philistines.
15:58 Now that's looking at kind of post king,
16:02 like once he's been king onward.
16:03 But even prior to that,
16:05 I mean, he had Saul and his armies
16:08 against him day and night.
16:09 And if you look at the entirety,
16:11 he probably would have died
16:12 somewhere north of 70 years old.
16:14 But if you look at the bulk of that 70-year life,
16:17 more than 40 years,
16:19 potentially 45 years or more of his life he spent in war,
16:22 in running, in fighting, in battle.
16:25 And so to hear him pour out his heart
16:28 and talk about his enemies, his foes,
16:30 they stay all stumbled and failed.
16:31 Why?
16:33 I love this last part of verse 3,
16:34 here's "My heart shall not fear.
16:35 Though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident."
16:40 Where is his confidence?
16:41 In God. Amen.
16:43 And most of us will never have to face
16:45 that much adversity in our entire life.
16:46 But this man knew,
16:48 no matter if my enemies are all around me,
16:51 God is on my side, as long as I looked to Him.
16:53 It amazes me when you think
16:55 he was anointed as king at age 14,
16:58 I mean, 16, at age 16.
17:01 And he didn't actually take the throne till he was 30.
17:06 So he had 14 years that solace after.
17:10 And, you know, we read these Bible...
17:12 As we read through the Bible,
17:13 sometimes we read these stories
17:15 and we're not putting a timeline with it.
17:18 And it is amazing to think about.
17:21 David, I see as one of the...
17:22 Sorry.
17:24 David is one of the Bible persons,
17:27 you know, sometimes you say Bible character,
17:28 like we think, a character in something fictitious,
17:33 but these are real people.
17:34 That's right.
17:36 He's one of the individuals in the Bible that you see
17:38 that talks about his feelings more than any other.
17:42 And it's a marvelous thing.
17:43 Here he identifies
17:45 one of the things that cripples people,
17:48 paralyzes people, fear.
17:50 You know, you talk about fear,
17:52 he talks about the necessities of life and fear.
17:55 Fear just literally freezes people.
17:58 They won't know what to do.
17:59 But he's identifying God
18:01 as the one that can make his fear disappear.
18:07 I like that. Make his fear disappear.
18:09 So I want to read to you from Psalms 46,
18:12 where again, he mentioned something about fear.
18:16 Now this is a, not a Psalm of David.
18:19 It says, this is one of the Sons of Korah.
18:21 But again, it's one of the Psalms.
18:22 It says, God is our refuge and strength,
18:24 a very present help in trouble.
18:26 Therefore we will not fear,
18:29 even though the earth be removed,
18:31 and though the mountains be carried
18:33 into the midst of the sea.
18:35 Though its waters roar and be troubled,
18:37 Though the mountains shake with its swelling."
18:40 And so through God
18:43 we can overcome our greatest fears.
18:46 And when we realize He is our light.
18:50 You know, it's wonderful the way he said,
18:52 He is my strength.
18:54 I don't have to rely upon my strength.
18:56 God is my strength. That's right.
18:57 The joy of the Lord is our strength, isn't it?
19:00 Now verse 4.
19:02 I love this.
19:03 This is one... Can't wait to get to this one.
19:05 "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek.
19:10 That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
19:12 all the days of my life,
19:14 to behold the beauty of the Lord,
19:18 and to inquire in His temple."
19:22 So what does it mean?
19:24 What is he saying
19:26 about dwelling in the house of the Lord?
19:30 Well, it's powerful to consider that.
19:33 This is in response
19:34 to what he said up to this point.
19:35 Yep.
19:37 He's been declaring to himself, God is my strength,
19:39 though I have all these enemies around me.
19:41 Now I said in recently one of my seminary classes.
19:45 I was taking a class on doctrine of the sanctuary.
19:49 And my instructor actually did a little lecture on Psalm 27.
19:55 And before he went into this verse though,
19:57 he asked us, he says,
19:58 if you could ask the Lord for anything
20:01 that you could desire, what would that be?
20:06 And there was this long pause on our class.
20:09 You think, you know, people would speak up.
20:11 We almost thought it was a trick question.
20:12 But we're listening.
20:13 He's like, you know, little seriously,
20:15 if you could ask the Lord for one thing right now,
20:18 what would that be?
20:19 And, of course, you know,
20:21 some people started speaking,
20:22 well, you know, when Solomon was asked this question,
20:24 you know, he asked for wisdom.
20:25 So I'd probably ask for wisdom and so forth and so on.
20:27 And as we were going through,
20:28 but it's interesting that right here,
20:31 David declares after saying all of what he just said,
20:36 and you would expect someone in David situation to say,
20:38 oh, Lord, if I could ask one thing,
20:40 it would be take out all of my enemies,
20:43 just wipe them all out, just push them,
20:44 push back all these forces of evil
20:46 that are pressing around me
20:48 and choking out the life from me and my family,
20:50 and the well-being
20:51 and all of this chaos I'm dealing with,
20:53 but he says one thing I have desired of the Lord,
20:55 one thing that I seek
20:57 is that I dwell in the house of the Lord.
21:00 And so obviously,
21:02 he's talking about here
21:03 and being in constant fellowship with God,
21:07 being as much as he could possibly dwell.
21:10 Remember, God said,
21:12 build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among you.
21:15 God desires to dwell among His people.
21:17 And, you know,
21:19 in response to that we should also desire
21:21 to be among Him.
21:23 And so, you know,
21:24 it's interesting here that he says here
21:25 also at the end here,
21:27 to behold the beauty of the Lord
21:29 as I read that,
21:31 to be in his house to behold God and His beauty.
21:33 I thought of Isaiah's conversion, you know?
21:36 Isaiah's conversion began with what?
21:38 It began when he saw God.
21:41 He beheld God high
21:42 and lifted up in all of His glory.
21:44 But then another thing here just to emphasize.
21:46 He says, I will...
21:48 This is toward the end of verse 5.
21:49 Here it says, "And to inquire in His temple."
21:53 What does it mean to inquire in His temple?
21:56 I love how he's really breaking this down here.
21:58 He says, not only do I want to dwell
22:00 in the house of the Lord
22:01 all the days of my life,
22:02 I want to behold His beauty
22:04 and I want to inquire of His temple.
22:06 Well, what does that mean?
22:07 So in the original Hebrew here,
22:10 it's the word bachar which means to consider,
22:14 to search, to seek out.
22:18 So he doesn't just want to walk in the temple and just,
22:20 ah, you know.
22:21 He wants to seek out and, of course,
22:23 what came to my mind is another Psalm
22:24 that he would write, Psalm 77:13,
22:27 "Thy way, O God is in,"
22:30 where? "In the sanctuary."
22:31 So not only is he there wanting to be
22:33 and dwell in God's presence,
22:35 not only is he wanting to behold God
22:37 in all of His glory
22:39 and to behold His righteousness,
22:40 but he also wants to behold
22:42 and to inquire that is to learn,
22:44 that is to seek,
22:45 that is to search out his righteous way,
22:47 and his way is found in the sanctuary.
22:50 Amen and amen.
22:51 Okay, JD, verse 5.
22:53 Verse 5,
22:54 "For in the time of trouble
22:56 He shall hide me in His pavilion.
22:59 In the secret place of His tabernacle
23:01 He shall hide me.
23:03 He shall set me upon a high rock."
23:06 Amen.
23:07 So what does that make you think of?
23:09 Well, it makes me think that in the time of trouble that,
23:13 first thing that I think about it,
23:16 biblically speaking is the mama hand
23:19 with her babies under her wings, you know?
23:20 Amen.
23:22 That's what I've thought about.
23:23 Right.
23:24 And what a precious sight that is
23:26 and how protective that is.
23:28 And so... Let me interject right here.
23:30 There was a story told
23:32 and I'm assuming this is a true story.
23:35 But what happened was
23:37 a farmer had a fire in his chicken coop,
23:41 and he went out the next day.
23:43 And here's this mama hen with her wings spread out
23:47 and she was fried.
23:50 Fried chicken.
23:52 Anyway...
23:53 I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that.
23:55 That's okay.
23:56 The story was calling for it.
23:58 Go ahead.
23:59 Anyway...
24:00 And it's sad.
24:02 I don't mean to make light of that.
24:03 But he picks up the mama chicken
24:05 and out from underneath her wings
24:09 were several baby chicks that came out.
24:13 This mama had sacrificed her life
24:17 to save these baby chicks.
24:19 Now that is an amazing story,
24:23 but it's what our God did for us.
24:26 You know, it made me think of Matthew 23:37-38.
24:31 When I was reading this and you just made that point
24:33 about the mother hen
24:34 where Jesus said in His last week,
24:37 when He's gonna go to the cross.
24:38 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
24:40 the one who kills the prophets
24:41 and stones those who are sent to her!
24:43 How often I wanted to gather your children together,
24:46 as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
24:49 but you were not willing!"
24:51 Amen.
24:52 Amen And we have to be willing.
24:53 We have to be willing.
24:55 And it also tells us here in Matthew,
24:57 I mean, in Psalms 32:7 that
24:59 "You are my hiding place.
25:01 You shall preserve me from trouble.
25:03 You shall surround me with the songs of deliverance."
25:06 And you know that song?
25:08 I used to...
25:09 When I'd have trouble
25:10 that's what I would break into is,
25:12 You are my hiding place.
25:13 That's so beautiful.
25:15 All right, Johnny, verse 6.
25:18 "And now my head shall be lifted up
25:21 above my enemies all around me.
25:24 Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy
25:27 in His tabernacle.
25:29 I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord."
25:32 Hallelujah.
25:34 What does it mean for your head
25:36 to be lifted above your enemies?
25:38 You know, it's interesting that he makes his declaration
25:40 after he says.
25:43 That in the time of trouble the Lord will hide him
25:46 in his pavilion
25:48 and in the secret place of his tabernacle,
25:50 he shall hide...
25:51 He shall set me high up on a rock.
25:53 So he's really a high up on a rock on Jesus.
25:56 And because of this his head is above his enemies.
26:02 Were he to speak of himself then,
26:05 you know, he would be speaking of his own ability
26:08 and would not have the victory that God gave him.
26:13 So his head is lifted above his enemies,
26:16 because the enemy will try not only to destroy you,
26:19 but to shame you, and to bring you down,
26:22 and there's nothing more than they would enjoy to see you
26:25 crying out and saying,
26:27 you know,
26:29 that things that you're giving up on God.
26:33 But here,
26:34 David is saying
26:35 that God is going to lift him up above his enemies.
26:37 In other words,
26:39 He's gonna give him the victory over all his enemies.
26:40 Amen.
26:42 And it makes you think of 2 Corinthians 2:14
26:45 where it says,
26:47 actually, that God leads us in triumph with Jesus Christ.
26:53 And I mean, it is amazing to think about that.
26:57 Now I want to get on
26:59 'cause we got to get to his problems
27:00 and then the solution.
27:02 And our time's...
27:04 We could spend four hours on this.
27:06 It's amazing.
27:07 But just remember this, 1 Corinthians 15:57 says,
27:11 "Thanks be to God,
27:12 who gives us the victory in Christ Jesus."
27:17 So these first six verses,
27:20 this is David just talking to himself,
27:24 reminding himself of the divine privileges
27:28 or the privileges of divine protection.
27:31 Now there is a little switch.
27:34 Now he is going to start talking to the Lord.
27:39 And I'm going to take verse 7
27:41 just because this is one of my favorite verses.
27:44 Verse 7 says,
27:45 "Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!
27:50 Have mercy also upon me and answer me."
27:55 And then he says to God,
27:56 "When You said, 'Seek My face,'
27:59 my heart said to You,
28:01 'Your face, Lord, I will seek.'"
28:06 I believe that there are many people who,
28:11 if we were to say,
28:13 we're running the race of faith and here's Jesus,
28:17 the author and finisher of our faith,
28:19 I believe there's many people
28:21 who are going in the right direction,
28:24 but they're looking back over their shoulder.
28:27 And, you know,
28:28 once the Lord really told me that's what I was doing.
28:33 And he said,
28:34 "Seek my face."
28:37 This is to seek God's personal presence.
28:43 And it's something that
28:45 God's been doing in me recently.
28:48 I mean, I learned in the year 2000,
28:51 how to really press into His presence,
28:54 how to seek His face.
28:57 But something that God's been doing recently is interesting.
29:01 It's been fascinating.
29:03 It's happened in the last few months.
29:05 I was listening to someone pray,
29:08 oh, Lord, be with so and so in the hospital,
29:11 be with so and so
29:14 on their trip, be with, be with.
29:17 And suddenly in my mind, you know what I heard?
29:20 I am with you, I never leave or forsake you.
29:26 If you will acknowledge my presence,
29:31 you'll become more aware of my presence.
29:34 And something that I've always done.
29:36 When I know someone is going through a difficult time,
29:39 what I do is I pray,
29:41 "Oh, Lord, give them a divine awareness,
29:43 a super natural awareness of Your presence."
29:48 Oh, Lord, let them, you know, help them to seek your face,
29:52 help them to feel your arms around them.
29:56 And when the Lord spoke that into my heart,
29:59 "I am with you.
30:01 I never leave you or forsake you."
30:03 This was something that
30:05 suddenly I started crying out to the Lord,
30:08 give me a divine awareness of Your presence.
30:12 And you know what?
30:14 Yes, every morning, I wake up and I pray.
30:17 And I say, "Lord, fill me again with Your Holy Spirit,
30:21 'cause we're leaky vessels."
30:23 And then I ask Him,
30:25 "Lord, give me a divine awareness."
30:27 I've been spending a lot of alone time.
30:29 JD is at work,
30:30 I've been working remotely as I've been recovering.
30:33 And all of a sudden,
30:35 when I'm writing to encourage somebody,
30:38 and I'm saying, I'll pray for you about such,
30:41 it's like I'm talking with the Lord at the same time.
30:43 I'm praying right at that moment.
30:46 He's giving me the words at the time.
30:49 And all-day long, it doesn't matter where I am,
30:53 what I'm doing,
30:55 I've just got this
30:56 constant stream of conversation
30:59 going on with God.
31:00 Because I mean, I know He is inside of me,
31:03 but His presence has become so real.
31:06 It's like He's sitting right next to me.
31:10 And I want to encourage you to pray that,
31:13 ask God for a divine awareness.
31:15 He's always with us.
31:17 We're just not recognizing it.
31:19 You know, I want to take that a step further
31:20 what you just said,
31:22 because pressing into His presence is essential.
31:25 But it's ironic that,
31:28 that David is praying out here
31:31 and he's stating the fact
31:33 that he needs to seek the face of God.
31:36 But from Moses perspective, in Exodus 33,
31:40 you know, Lord, show me, I want to see you.
31:43 I'll let you see my back,
31:45 but I can't let you see my face,
31:46 because you can't live if I show you my face.
31:50 Pressing into the presence of God is absolutely essential.
31:53 And that's essentially what this means,
31:55 when we're pressing into seeking God's face.
31:57 But I want to take just a little step further
31:59 and highlight the fact that
32:00 when you're pressing into the presence of God,
32:02 God doesn't just want you to be in His presence,
32:04 He wants you to acknowledge His righteous glory,
32:08 His bright, shining face of light.
32:11 It represents His glorious righteousness.
32:13 I'm thinking of other scriptures
32:15 in Psalm such as Psalm 4:6,
32:17 lift is what he says.
32:18 He says, "Lift up the light of your face upon us."
32:20 Yes.
32:22 Psalm 31:16,
32:23 "Make your face shine on your servant,
32:25 save me in your steadfast love!"
32:28 Psalm 44:3 says,
32:29 "Not by your own sword did they win the land,
32:33 but your right hand and your arm
32:35 and the light of your face."
32:37 There's many references of the Psalm 80,
32:39 "Restore so God let your face shine
32:42 that we may be saved."
32:43 And, of course, Psalm 89:15,
32:45 "Blessed are the people who walk, O Lord,
32:47 in the light of your face."
32:49 So when we are...
32:51 And I just want to take this a step further,
32:53 because there's a lot of people that want to spend time
32:56 in the presence of God,
32:58 but they don't want to follow God.
33:00 That's right.
33:01 They desire that.
33:02 I want to be in Your presence,
33:04 Lord, I want to sit in Your presence.
33:05 Lucifer is a perfect example of that.
33:07 Lucifer was closer to God
33:09 more than any other angel,
33:10 but yet, how can someone be that close,
33:14 just encompassed
33:15 and completely drowning in the glory of the Lord,
33:19 but yet still allow that heart,
33:21 that that evil selfish heart to rise up.
33:24 We need to press into the presence of God,
33:26 but even more than that, God says,
33:28 "Look, look up on My glorious righteous face
33:30 and seek My righteousness,
33:33 seek My ways,
33:34 seek the path that I have laid before you
33:36 that you might be saved."
33:38 A verse that the Lord...
33:41 Really caught my attention with was Jeremiah 29:11-13.
33:46 And I want to read that real quickly,
33:48 because it's interesting what the Lord is saying here,
33:52 He says, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you,
33:55 says the Lord, thoughts of peace not of evil,
33:59 to give you a hope and a future.
34:02 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me,
34:06 and I will listen to you.
34:08 And you will seek Me and find Me,
34:12 when you search for Me with all of your heart."
34:14 Now let me just stop for a second.
34:17 God is sitting here saying,
34:18 "Hey, I've got a plan for your life,
34:21 and it's a wonderful plan."
34:24 But then, after He says that,
34:26 He says, then you will call on Me
34:30 and seek My face.
34:32 When?
34:33 I mean, it almost seems like that's out of order.
34:37 It's when we recognize God has a plan for our life.
34:42 That is when we come before him.
34:45 Because even when you're in ministry,
34:48 you can get going under your own steam,
34:51 and not be doing the Lord's will for the day.
34:54 But when you recognize every day,
34:57 God's got a plan for my life and you seek Him as Jesus did.
35:03 And Jesus said,
35:04 "I only do what the Father tells me to do.
35:07 I only speak what the Father tells me to speak."
35:10 So it's what motivates our heart
35:15 to seek God
35:16 is when we really understand He has a good plan for life.
35:20 And I would say, every day of our life.
35:22 There's a difference.
35:25 There's a difference in seeking God.
35:28 Some people seek God because they're having trouble.
35:30 I'm having trouble, somebody's got to help us.
35:32 We tried this, we tried that.
35:34 Oh, maybe the Lord can help us.
35:36 Like, they've tried everything they can,
35:39 but oh, we've exhausted everything that we can do,
35:42 maybe God will help us.
35:43 David crossed this obstacle
35:49 that you're seeking the Lord
35:51 because you want to be in the presence of the Lord,
35:54 you want to know Him.
35:56 One thing I have desired of the Lord
35:57 that I may dwell in His house, that I may behold.
36:00 That's why God...
36:02 When you look at the Psalms,
36:03 you see David making declarations
36:05 of wanting to be in the presence of the Lord,
36:08 the Lord is my shepherd.
36:09 The Lord...
36:10 He had a, we call it, a relationship with God.
36:12 He recognized that God is a personal God.
36:16 There's a time when Jesus said to His disciples,
36:20 these people honor me with their lips,
36:23 but their heart is far from.
36:26 Yes, praise God, but praise Him with your whole heart.
36:30 And this is a wonderful scripture that you read
36:32 that says, you know,
36:34 and you will seek Me and find Me
36:36 when you search for Me with all.
36:38 The assurance is given.
36:40 When you search for me with all your heart,
36:42 you will find Me.
36:43 Absolutely.
36:44 And so this is something that
36:46 I hope the people listening will say,
36:49 God is willing to be found, all I have to do is...
36:52 Seek Him.
36:54 With all my heart. Yes.
36:55 You know, I just want to make a point.
36:57 As you were saying all that it reminded me
36:59 back to what I was saying,
37:00 first of all, we had to keep in mind,
37:02 what did he say he desired more than anything?
37:04 To be in the presence of the Lord.
37:06 I want to be in God's presence, I want to be in His tabernacle,
37:10 in His temple, in His sanctuary.
37:12 In seeking the face of the Lord,
37:14 what David is essentially saying is,
37:16 the courtyard is great,
37:18 but I don't want to stay there.
37:19 That's right. Amen.
37:21 Lord, I want to be in Your presence
37:22 even in the holy place,
37:24 but, Lord, that's not good enough.
37:25 Yeah. I wanna look up on Your face.
37:27 The only way we can look up on the face of God
37:29 is if we're having a most holy place experience.
37:32 So you can see David's heart pouring out,
37:34 Lord, I desire to not just be just around You,
37:38 I want to be right next to You.
37:39 And, Lord, I know that Your righteous face
37:42 is in the most holy place.
37:44 So you can see,
37:45 you can almost sense a progression in David's life
37:48 as God has taken him from that courtyard
37:50 into that holy place experience
37:52 and then into that most holy place experience,
37:54 which is what we also must experience.
37:55 Amen.
37:57 And this would be a fantastic object lesson
37:59 right here for all the parents
38:01 those who are teaching their children
38:03 that God does have a plan.
38:05 And you will call, you will go, you will find.
38:09 That's right.
38:10 Amen.
38:11 All right, honey, verse 9. Yeah.
38:13 Verse 9, "Do not hide Your face from me.
38:16 Do not turn Your servant away in anger.
38:18 You have been my help.
38:20 Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation."
38:24 And verse 10.
38:25 "And when my father and my mother forsake me,
38:28 then the Lord will take care of me."
38:30 Wow.
38:32 You know, there are people...
38:34 My father was killed when I was six years old.
38:37 He was a pilot, he was killed in a plane crash.
38:40 And my mother married an alcoholic.
38:45 It wasn't very pleasant at home.
38:48 And then my mother developed some problems.
38:55 She was bipolar.
38:57 And often, I came to this verse,
39:01 and said, Lord, when my father and my mother forsake me,
39:04 'cause sometimes you can feel abandoned.
39:07 And, you know, in this current climate
39:10 we look at what's going on in our world.
39:14 There's so much fear, but there's so much animosity,
39:17 and it's gotten to the point
39:19 that when we even express an opinion
39:23 that is different than somebody else's.
39:26 Rather than sitting down
39:27 and having this civil conversation,
39:31 sometimes people just abandon you,
39:33 they don't want to be your friends anymore.
39:34 If you don't believe the way I believe,
39:36 you're not gonna vote the way I vote,
39:39 I don't want anything to do with you.
39:41 And it's like what's going on in this world.
39:44 But I just want to encourage those of you at home,
39:48 who feel like you have been abandoned,
39:51 God is always there and He will always comfort you
39:58 and seek him as a friend.
40:00 It's not...
40:01 He is not a slot machine up in the sky.
40:05 When you pray and praise God, and just tell Him,
40:09 I want to sense Your presence, I want to be in Your presence.
40:16 Lord, I want to know You.
40:18 Jesus said in John 17:3,
40:20 this is eternal life that they would know you
40:23 and the one whom you have sent.
40:25 This is an intimate knowledge.
40:28 And I'll tell you what?
40:29 God is a lot of fun to know, if I can say it that way.
40:34 All right, let's get to verse 11.
40:37 I would like to share something before we get to verse 11,
40:40 because it's interesting to me that verse 10,
40:44 he makes a statement concerning fathers and mothers.
40:47 Yeah.
40:49 You know, sometimes people trust in friends
40:52 and brothers and sisters,
40:54 but when he makes a declaration
40:56 about when my father and mother forsake me,
40:58 he's saying you would expect that
41:01 everyone will leave me except my mother and my father.
41:04 But He here,
41:06 and I want to praise the Lord for mothers.
41:08 They pray for their children, they stick to the very last.
41:12 But here God is making a declaration...
41:15 David is making a declaration that he knows
41:17 that God will never leave nor forsake him.
41:20 The Lord will take care of me.
41:22 He says, "The Lord will take care of me."
41:24 You know, I saw something interesting.
41:25 I think it was last night.
41:27 And somebody made an interesting statement,
41:28 the first part I liked, because it's biblical,
41:32 because the Bible tells us.
41:33 I think it's Psalms 1:46.
41:35 Don't put your trust in princes,
41:36 nor in the sons of men.
41:38 Don't trust in people.
41:39 We're supposed to trust in God.
41:41 But this person made, don't trust people.
41:44 Don't put your trust in people,
41:45 because even your shadow will leave you
41:48 when you're facing, when you're in darkness.
41:51 Well, that's kind of funny, because it's true.
41:53 The shadow cannot be there when you're in darkness.
41:55 But the fact is that in our darkest moments,
41:58 God is there to help us,
42:01 to strengthen us, to encourage us,
42:02 and give us that peace that we need.
42:04 That's right. That's right.
42:05 All right,
42:07 we're coming up on a couple of really great verses here.
42:09 So, JD, you want to take verse 11?
42:12 "Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth paths,
42:16 because of my enemies."
42:17 Okay, what is a smooth path?
42:19 A smooth path is a levelled ground.
42:22 You can see the beginning, you can see the end.
42:24 You go to New Mexico, and my goodness,
42:27 you can see for miles away.
42:29 You go to Colorado and you see the next mountain.
42:34 And you love both places.
42:35 But we're talking right here,
42:37 you know, about teach me Your way,
42:39 leave me on a smooth path,
42:40 because the smoother the path,
42:42 you would assume the easier it is to carry that backpack.
42:46 Amen. Yes.
42:48 I mean, it's tough putting the backpack on
42:50 and climbing a mountain.
42:52 He is been there and done that, I know.
42:55 So why don't you read Hebrews 12:12-15?
42:58 Because when we're talking about a smooth path,
43:03 it's something that what David is praying,
43:08 "Lord, teach me Your way."
43:10 This reminds me of Psalm 143:10
43:13 that I pray all the time.
43:15 He says, "Oh, Lord, teach me to do Your will,
43:19 lead me by Your good spirit."
43:22 You know, sometimes even when we're in the church,
43:24 we think we know God's will,
43:29 but we need to learn to depend on God.
43:31 Did you know that's what salvation is all about?
43:34 Right. It's total dependence.
43:35 That's His plan of salvation by grace through faith,
43:38 its total dependence upon Him.
43:41 But when we ask God make a level path for our feet,
43:47 there's something that God does to pave the way.
43:52 But then I love what Hebrews 12:12 says,
43:55 because it shows us that
43:59 when God opens the door and paves the way,
44:01 there's something we need to do.
44:03 JD? Now this is really neat.
44:05 "Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, "
44:08 or you can just see sometimes when you're depressed,
44:11 you know, you just walk around
44:12 and your hands are hanging low
44:13 and you have feeble knees.
44:15 He says, "Therefore, strengthen that situation.
44:19 And make straight paths for your feet,
44:22 so that what is lame may not be dislocated,
44:24 but rather be healed."
44:26 Thank you, Jesus.
44:27 "Pursue peace with all people and holiness,
44:30 without which..."
44:31 Don't swallow holiness.
44:33 Pursue peace with all people and holiness.
44:37 Thank you. Thank you for the...
44:39 Thank you.
44:40 "Without which no one will see the Lord."
44:43 Without holiness, you do not see the Lord.
44:45 That's right.
44:46 "Looking carefully lest anyone fall short
44:49 of the grace of God."
44:51 So I guess sometimes you'd be going so fast
44:54 that it just...
44:55 That's right.
44:56 But you know to me what this says in part?
44:58 And then I'd like...
45:00 I know we still have
45:01 a couple of really important scriptures to get to.
45:03 But what this says in part is,
45:06 I mean, this is something
45:09 that we are being told
45:11 to do strengthen your feeble knees.
45:13 Yes.
45:14 Put your shoulders back, let's get on with this.
45:18 But I think when you have a straight path,
45:21 it's interesting.
45:22 Pursue peace,
45:24 you're not gonna have a straight path
45:26 if you are always the one who is trying to stir the pot.
45:31 Can I say it that way?
45:32 You got it.
45:34 And pursue holiness.
45:37 Be careful not to fall short of the grace of God.
45:40 So when God opens the way for you,
45:43 and like David said,
45:45 you know, give me a smooth path,
45:47 but then here,
45:48 the writer of Hebrews is saying,
45:49 you've got a part in it,
45:51 you've got to put those shoulders back,
45:54 you've got to stand up straight,
45:56 but don't go out there and be a pot stirrer.
46:01 I'm gonna let him finish reading.
46:03 You got to the grace of God,
46:04 there's a couple lines left there.
46:06 "Lest any root of bitterness springing up causes trouble,
46:10 and by this many become defiled."
46:14 You know, as I'm reading this here,
46:16 there's something we can learn from David.
46:20 If we didn't get anything else out of this passage,
46:24 I would hope we would certainly not forget verse 11.
46:27 Not that
46:28 there's not another important verses in this passage,
46:30 but verse 11 really speaks to me.
46:34 "Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth path,
46:37 because of my enemies."
46:38 Teach me God.
46:40 We live in the day and age,
46:41 we live in the land of Teach me O, Pastor.
46:46 That's good.
46:47 Teach me O Book that I can go buy at a store somewhere
46:51 and read commentary on other things in the Bible.
46:53 And we live in a day and age
46:56 where people are more allegiant
46:59 to their pastors and to their church systems
47:01 than they are to the Holy Spirit
47:03 that wants to guide them to the truth.
47:04 Amen.
47:06 And I love the humility.
47:07 You can see the humility of David here.
47:09 This man has been anointed by God,
47:12 he's been told at a young age, you're my man.
47:14 That's right. You're gonna...
47:16 I'm gonna raise you up,
47:17 you're gonna be the king of the most powerful nation
47:19 in the world one day.
47:20 This young man could have let this get to his head,
47:22 you know, oh, I'm the king, I'm the anointed,
47:25 but you can still see the humility of him here.
47:27 Amen.
47:28 Teach me God,
47:29 because I still have lots to learn.
47:32 And it reminds me
47:33 of what Jesus says to us in John 14
47:35 and also John 16.
47:37 When he talks about
47:38 when the Spirit of truth has come,
47:41 he will lead you and guide you into all truth,
47:44 He will bring all things to your remembrance.
47:47 And this particular very small,
47:49 but significant verse speaks to me
47:51 because in our lifetime, we may gain a lot of knowledge,
47:57 but the mistake that
47:58 a lot of people make is they gain so much knowledge
48:00 and they're so blessed by all the knowledge
48:02 that God has given them
48:04 is they hit the pause button or they hit the power button,
48:06 and they turn off that divine connection
48:08 that the Holy Spirit wants to continue to have with them,
48:10 because they think they've reached
48:12 a sufficient amount of knowledge
48:13 enough to get them through,
48:15 so they can just slide into home plate
48:17 or slide into the kingdom of God
48:19 on the rest of their own knowledge.
48:20 And I love the fact that this anointed man of God
48:24 who is going to lead an entire nation of people.
48:29 He's saying, "God, I still need You to teach me."
48:32 To me that's significant.
48:34 We need to constantly always be in a state of humbleness,
48:38 humility and say, Lord,
48:39 as much as I know, praise God,
48:41 but Lord, I still need You to teach me.
48:43 And if there's anything that I need to unlearn,
48:45 help me unlearn it,
48:47 so that I can know Your way and not my own.
48:50 When God called me to full-time ministry
48:53 in December of 1999,
48:57 I started off the New Year praying.
48:59 And I was praying,
49:00 "Lord, if You're calling me to full-time ministry,
49:04 what do You want me to teach?
49:06 Show me what You want me to teach?"
49:09 And the Lord clearly when you say...
49:12 Sometimes people say, oh, you can't say the Lord said.
49:16 Yeah, He said it.
49:17 You've had thoughts that you knew weren't your own.
49:19 And what thought came to my mind immediately was,
49:23 forget what you think you know,
49:25 come sit at my feet and I will teach you.
49:28 That's right.
49:29 And you know what?
49:30 It wasn't anybody
49:32 who led me into the Seventh-day Adventist Church
49:35 other than the Lord,
49:37 because what He did when I sat at His feet,
49:40 I had to unlearn so much.
49:43 And I wasn't looking at commentaries,
49:46 I wasn't going by what anybody else said,
49:49 what I did was, I was going from Genesis to Revelation,
49:53 letting the Lord lead
49:56 and He wants to teach us His work.
49:59 He taught me the truth
50:00 about the Ten Commandments in the Sabbath.
50:04 I remember when I came down and told JD
50:06 I've been woefully wrong about the Sabbath,
50:09 'cause I preached against it.
50:11 But God will teach you and...
50:15 Oh, our time is just nearly up
50:17 and I have to get to this point.
50:19 Let's look at verse 12.
50:20 And that's the end of this segment,
50:23 where he's talking to God about his problems.
50:26 He says, "Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries.
50:29 For false witnesses have risen against me,
50:32 and breathe out violence."
50:34 Okay, such these people are that.
50:37 But now he's talked to himself
50:40 about the privileges of divine protection,
50:43 now he's finished talking to the Lord,
50:45 now he's going to talk about perseverance.
50:48 Listen to this, "I would have lost heart,
50:52 unless I had believed that
50:54 I would see the goodness of the Lord
50:58 in the land of the living."
51:00 What does that mean, JD, in the land of the living?
51:03 It was where the dead aren't.
51:05 Where the dead aren't?
51:07 Are not. Yeah, it's okay.
51:08 So the land of living is in contrast
51:11 to the realm of the dead.
51:14 So what is David saying here?
51:17 You know, as all of his problems and...
51:20 Oh, boy, I will tell you.
51:21 This is something that I have claimed this,
51:24 saying Lord, I would have lost heart
51:26 if I didn't believe.
51:28 You were gonna bless me while I was still alive.
51:30 Amen.
51:31 In the land of the living.
51:33 He was confident,
51:34 God was going to get him through this trial,
51:36 but here's the great verse.
51:39 Wait... This is verse 14, Psalm 27:14.
51:43 This is David, I can hear him.
51:45 He's talking to himself,
51:46 he's building up his confidence.
51:48 And he says self,
51:50 "Wait on the Lord.
51:52 Be of good courage,
51:55 and He shall strengthen your heart.
51:57 Wait, I say, on the Lord!"
52:02 Amen.
52:03 That is a place
52:07 I wrote and had a message
52:10 about being in God's waiting room.
52:12 I am beginning to see, that's where we all should be.
52:17 We all need to be waiting on the Lord.
52:21 And this word in the Hebrew,
52:24 it's talking about anticipation.
52:26 And it can mean a tense anticipation
52:29 where you're like, O Lord, get me out of this.
52:32 But it also is an eager,
52:35 an expectant anticipation
52:38 that we know of God's goodness.
52:40 I mean, here David was anointed at age 16.
52:44 He didn't take the throne till 30.
52:46 So for 14 years, if anybody knew about waiting,
52:49 you know, he waited patiently for the Lord.
52:53 But when you're waiting,
52:55 it doesn't mean you're just sitting back,
52:58 got playing a game on.
53:00 You know, this isn't waiting on the Lord,
53:03 waiting on the Lord is to seek His face,
53:06 to seek His will,
53:08 to say, Lord, teach me.
53:10 And that's a position we're all in.
53:14 It's perseverance.
53:16 That's why Jesus said
53:17 those who persevere to the end shall be saved.
53:19 I think of Moses going up that mountain,
53:21 he's up there for 40 days.
53:24 And you can imagine the people after a week,
53:26 you know, like, man,
53:28 Moses been up there a week,
53:29 and what he probably got to do up there for a week,
53:31 a whole week.
53:32 I know he went up there and died.
53:34 He's not coming back down.
53:36 Two weeks, yeah, he's not coming back.
53:37 Three weeks, yeah, he's for sure not.
53:39 You know, all of this time went by,
53:41 they had been given the word of the Lord,
53:42 but they didn't trust in the word of the Lord.
53:44 That's right.
53:46 And to me that's where a great factor comes in.
53:49 In order for us to wait on the Lord,
53:51 we must first come to grips with our trust in God's word.
53:55 And if we believe in what He has said,
53:57 for instance, I will come again.
53:59 I go to prepare a place for you,
54:01 I will return again,
54:02 and I will gather you into myself.
54:04 That's why there's, you know,
54:05 Bible speaks of scoffers in the last days.
54:07 Where's the sign of His coming? When is He coming?
54:09 And we're seeing even in the church today,
54:11 God forbid, God have mercy.
54:13 We're seeing this,
54:14 but we're seeing in the church today
54:16 people who are, they have lost hope.
54:19 They're...
54:20 Oh, I know, there's a God I believe, but, you know,
54:22 their life tells the story of someone who has lost hope.
54:25 And those who persevere, wait on the Lord, I love that.
54:28 Wait on the Lord, be of good courage.
54:31 Those who persevere to the end shall be saved.
54:34 And some roads are long. It is.
54:37 You know, Lord increase my faith.
54:39 If you got that information and everything,
54:41 you got it tucked away in that teaching, well,
54:46 Lord, give me the patience.
54:47 This man taught me too.
54:50 What he prays every day is, Lord, increase my faith,
54:53 Lord, increase my humility, Lord, increase my courage.
54:57 And that's a good way to pray. Yes, it is.
54:59 But Let me read this real quickly
55:01 'cause our time is almost gone.
55:03 He says in Psalm 33:18-22,
55:07 I want to show you there's a blessing
55:09 on waiting on the Lord.
55:11 Psalm 33:18-22.
55:15 I'm reading this from the Amplified.
55:18 "Behold, the Lord's eye is upon those who fear Him."
55:22 This is those who revere and worship Him with awe.
55:27 "Those who wait for Him
55:30 and hope in His mercy and His loving-kindness,
55:34 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
55:38 Our inner selves wait earnestly for the Lord.
55:43 He is our Help and our Shield.
55:47 For in Him does our heart rejoice,
55:51 because we have trusted, we've relied on,
55:54 we're confident in His help and in His holy name."
55:58 Now listen to Psalm 33:22.
56:02 "Let Your mercy and loving-kindness,
56:06 O Lord, be upon us, in proportion,"
56:13 in proportion,
56:15 "to our waiting and hoping for You."
56:19 Quick comment. Got a minute.
56:22 This Psalm 27:14 where it talks about be of good courage,
56:27 he is talking about taking hold of the Lord.
56:31 That's really a connotation of that.
56:33 And then he shows strength in your heart, see.
56:38 So we have to speak words
56:41 positive and be in encouraging the Lord
56:43 because we have to talk faith.
56:45 Amen. Amen. Amen.
56:47 We got to hold on to the word of the Lord.
56:49 It is enduring.
56:51 And we have to believe as 2 Corinthians 1:20 says that
56:55 "All of the promises of God
56:57 are yes and amen in Christ Jesus."
57:01 He is a covenant making, covenant keeping God
57:05 and He keeps covenant.
57:06 The Bible says with those who keep covenant with Him.
57:10 Well, gentlemen,
57:12 we could have probably spent several hours on this,
57:16 but I want to thank you, Johnny, for being here and,
57:19 Ryan, and, of course, Honey,
57:21 it's always good to be with you.
57:23 Amen.
57:25 Our prayer at home for you is that the grace of our Lord
57:28 and Savior Jesus Christ,
57:30 the love of the Father
57:31 and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
57:34 will be yours always.
57:36 Wait on the Lord.
57:39 Amen. Amen.
57:40 Amen.


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Revised 2020-11-02