Psalm 20

Speaker 1: Well, good evening and welcome back to the Baptist Tabernacle, if you'd please join with me and singing he is exalted, it won't be in your hand, but we'll have it up on the screen. His exalted we'll sing for through this chorus. He is exalted. The King is exalted on. I will praise him, he is exalted, forever exalted, and will praise his. He. Is the Lord forever, his truth shall reign, heaven and earth rejoice in his holiness. He is exalted, the king is exalted on. And just do it one time, because if we do too long, you don't have that long to preach and try to make up for this morning and let's just go ahead and sing it again. That first verse again, he is exalted, he is exalted, the king is exalted. I will praise him. He is exalted for ever so and I will praise his nay.

Unidentified: He is the

Speaker 1: Lord forever, his true sheltering heaven and. Rejoice in his holiness. He is exalted, the king is exalted on. A.

Speaker 2: This guy's got jokes, all right. Good to have you back with us tonight. I hope you had a good afternoon and glad that you're here with us at the Baptist Tabernacle. Good to see some faces we haven't seen in a while. And we are so thrilled to have you here with us in service. Let's go to Law and order prayer. Ask his blessing on our time together. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for everything that happened this morning, the wonderful service we had and the baptism that we got to witness. Lord, I ask that you would have your hand of blessing and protection upon our church, that you would be with the service, maybe honoring and glorifying to your name. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. It's gone. All right, we're going to wing this one. All right, see, brother Tyler, keep going with those announcements up there first Tuesday night. We are excited. Brother Clarence Thomas. Britney will be flying in and you'll be able to meet them on Wednesday. Clarence is the potential youth pastor that we are looking to possibly hire to come and work with our young people. And we're very excited to be able to host them. They'll be here from Wednesday through next Sunday, and there'll be many opportunities for you to interact with them. He'll be preaching to our teens Wednesday night. We'll have a teen activity on Saturday night and we'll have more information for you on that. And then on Sunday, he'll be doing Sunday school in the morning with the teenagers. There'll be a parent teen meeting on at four thirty next Sunday for you to be able to meet them, ask some questions, get to know them a little bit better, and then he'll be preaching next Sunday night in the evening service. And so very excited about this and bringing and possibly bringing the Clarence and Miss Britney here to help us out. We have a vacation Bible school meeting next Sunday after the morning service. Vibs is like not to scare you like six weeks away. That was that really just put a damper on the service right there. It's coming and we've already got a lot of stuff that we've started to order and we were excited about vacation, Bible school. I hope you will be excited as well. And it's one of the highlights of our year. And it's always so much fun to have the kids here. They bring so much energy and the decorations, the skits, the games, the music, the crafts, all of it is just a wonderful time. And so begin praying now, if you would, that God would work in the hearts of the young people and that we would see children get saved during that week. But we'll have a meeting next Sunday after the morning service for anyone that is interested in helping with vacation Bible school. And then also we heard this morning about our mother daughter brunch. And that'll be coming up May 8th at 10 a.m. you heard that the theme is Bloom, and we're excited about this. There'll be some great food, good, um, encouragement from the testimony. And then also just a just a wonderful time for our church ladies and their families to come and enjoy the mother daughter brunch. Please sign up at the welcome desk if you plan on coming. And then on Mother's Day, May 9th, we will have a small gift for each of the mothers that are here in the service that morning. And then, as is our custom, there will be no evening service. May 9th on Mother's Day teen kayaking trip is coming up May 15th. There was a meeting this morning. If you did not make that meeting, please see Brother Matt as soon as possible so that he can fill you in on the details for that cost is twenty five dollars a person. And so be a fun chance for our teens and a few of their parents to go and have this great experience together. That it. Oh yeah. How did I forget this one men's activity did any I didn't get to look at of any of you men sign up this morning for the men's activity. One, two. Three. All right, this is a lot of fun, we're going to go to Gulf Suites and that's down in Jinkx area and golf suites is one of those driving. It's like a driving range where you have the decks and you play different games. You hit the ball and try to score points. And so it's supposed to be fun for people who don't know how to golf, which is moi. And so I'm looking forward to this. I've always wanted to try it. And one thing I learned as a youth pastor, if you know, if you want to plan activities that are fun for everything, think what would you want to do? And if you would want to do it, there's probably some of the people who would want to do it, too. So we'll have a good time with that. Only six dollars a person. How many of your activities are only six dollars a person? You know, who am I talking to, either one of you? All right, guys, we're going to have the best activities. So anyways, there will be food that we can order while we're there. And so if you have to come straight from work, don't worry about it. There was food that you can eat and please do sign up so we can know how many to plan for. I believe that is all my announcements. That's it. All right, brother Matt's going to come. We're going to sing a few more songs. Let's all stand together.

Speaker 1: Oh, how I love Jesus. Not just a statement. A wonderful song. Five forty four. There is a name I'd love to hear. I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music

Unidentified: in my ears saying yes I'm on. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, no, I love Jesus.

Speaker 1: Oh, I love Jesus

Unidentified: because he first love me. He tells me

Speaker 1: of a savior's

Unidentified: love who died, set me breaks and tells me. It's precious much,

Speaker 1: it is perfectly oh,

Unidentified: how I love Jesus. Oh. How I love this awesome. Jesus, because he first loved me, he tells of what he his loving heart and my deepest for a few minutes also bears a part that I can't bear being more. How I love

Speaker 1: Jesus.

Unidentified: Love Jesus, oh, how I love

Speaker 1: Jesus because he first love me, you can tell the little boys are in here today. I want to thank them for hearing their so I know, I know y'all can sing and good to hear the boys sing. Next song we're seeing. We sang it on Wednesday night. It's You are my all in all. You are my strength when

Unidentified: I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek, you are my

Speaker 1: all and all. Seeing you as a precious jewel. Together by me, you are my.

Unidentified: Plan. I've got one. They. Jay. Azar's Lambe.

Speaker 1: Is your name? Game taking mice in my crawl space

Unidentified: rising again, I bless your name. You are my all little. When I fall down, you the. I feel like. I only had.

Speaker 1: Jason.

Unidentified: I've got the. Your name. Suh's Lambourn. I've God worthy

Speaker 1: is your name. Hey, man, as you can see, we have the boys

Speaker 2: that are here, I just want to make sure we announce

Speaker 1: who's praying. I will have Brother Hayden come up and pray for us

Speaker 2: in just a moment. Well, you may be wondering why we got kids taking the offering. Well, you can rest assured they won't be counting the offering. They're going to go right back there, handed off to an adult. But as I mentioned this morning, we are looking to raise money for a couple of different projects right now. One being the teen room, but the other is the playground. And I have been so encouraged by the way, that our children have have really gotten behind this effort. And perhaps you've seen some of the different things on social media. I know of the match children sold baked goods at a local was the garage sale that was going on and made quite a bit of money selling baked goods towards that. And then Trace and his siblings have been designing T-shirts that can be purchased. And we got a few of those today and they look great. And so a portion of the proceeds that go towards the towards the playground as well. And then one of the things that we're going to do is the last Sunday night of each month, we're going to have a special offering to raise money for the playground. And you said, well, what about the teens? What's going on there? Late teens kind of had a head start. And so we're trying to help the playground catch up on the fundraising. And so if you give tonight in an envelope and it's designated ties or missions or whatever the case may be, that's where it's going to go. But if there's anything undesignated, then it's going to go towards the playground and you say, well, I don't have any money with me right now. You can use the the church app. Many of you are on the church app. You can give on there. And some have asked if I'm giving on the church app, how do I designate to the offering? If you put it Invision, then that will go towards the playground. And so just keep that in mind. And so anything that comes in tonight that is undesignated or is designated división playground, that's where that will go. And so Heyden, if you don't mind asking God's blessing on the offering, you want to come up here and he's like, yeah, I want to talk to the microphone. Ask God to bless the offering.

Speaker 1: Please bow your heads. God, thank you first. Thank you for all that you have done for us and our church and our blessed us offering to you for the playground in Jesus name, I pray Ayman. Matt. At this time, we'll have a special from Titus and Miss Alicia.

Unidentified: I, me. His wife,

Speaker 1: refueler.

Unidentified: I repented of my sins and won the victory of the. Jesus, my savior for ever. I mean, any baby with his baby. I knew him and now my love is giving plunged me

Speaker 1: to victory beneath our clinging for. Makes it for me.

Unidentified: Gloria, I heard. I still see.

Speaker 1: Short story and some sweet messed up Featherston. Gary Kadivar might

Unidentified: say goodbye for ever. He shot me, anybody will keep feeding me.

Speaker 1: I knew him at all, my life is good for him. He wants me

Unidentified: to be made for

Speaker 1: cleansing for.

Speaker 2: And. Thank you for that, brother Titus. Take your Bibles if you haven't been turned to the Book of Psalms, Psalm Chapter number 20 is where we'll be tonight and finishing up our second series of 10 chapters in the book of songs and looking forward in a few weeks to starting a new series. I am pretty sure I know what we're going to do. But Brother Clarence is preaching next week and then Mother's days a week after that. So we've got three weeks before I'll be preaching on Sunday night again, so I'll wait and let you know as we get closer to that. As far as what that new series will be, some Chapter 20, if you have found your place there and you wouldn't mind, join me in standing in honor of reading God's word Psalm chapter number 20. And it's a short psalm, so we'll read all nine verses. Bible says. To the chief musician saw of David. The Lord here, the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend the. Cindy, help from the sanctuary and strengthen the out of Zion. Remember all the offerings except I burnt sacrifice Seela. Grant the according to my own heart and fulfill all the council. We will rejoice in thy salvation and then in the name of our God, will we set up our banners, the Lord fulfill all thy petitions. Now, knowing that the Lord save his anointed, he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariot's and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord, our God. They are brought down and fallen. But we are risen and stand upright. Save Lord. Let the king hear us when we call, let's pray. Lord, I ask that you would help us now as we look into your word, which would help me to say the things that you would have me to say to help the folks that are here to listen and apply here to their lives in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Maybe seated. I think it's important for us to establish some things before we continue forward. How many of you that are here tonight would be willing to raise your hand and say, I have known someone who faced as well to use the terminology here, a day of trouble? I've known someone that faced a day of trouble. OK, pretty much every hand up. How many of you would be willing to say there have been times in my life where I personally faced a day of trouble. OK. Appreciate your cooperation with that. They have trouble, could be a lot of things and days of trouble, change in ferocity, change in in their size, in their what's the word on the mag? Magnificent, the magnitude change in magnitude from time to time in our lives. Sometimes it seems like an insurmountable mountain has been placed in front of us. Some some things that might consider to be a day of trouble would be like a sickness diagnosis that you receive that is unfavorable to you or a loved one. That would be a day of trouble. Pain that is inflicted upon a loved one could be a day of trouble. Sometimes it's harder to watch somebody we love go through pain than it is for us to experience that pain ourselves. Maybe it's the loss of a family member or spouse or a dear friend, someone that was influential in your life is no longer there. That could be a day of trouble. Perhaps it is a period of of abuse, an experience where you were taken advantage of, you were mistreated. That could qualify as a day of trouble. Life is full of days of trouble, isn't it? We would all agree that we're very blessed. God takes care of us. But this is a fallen world and there is evil in this world that affects the the just and the unjust, just because you're Christian doesn't mean you will go through this life scot free without any kind of problems facing you. Isn't that right? This passage we're going to look at tonight, there's two sections, there's two stanzas to this song. The first one is very important for the person who knows someone that is going through a day of trouble. How many of you have ever talked to a close friend or someone that you love, someone you care about, and they begin to pour their heart out to you. They just open up and they start telling you all that's going on in their life. And you're so burdened for them. You're so torn about what they're facing. You really have no words to say. All you can say is I will pray for you. Please, please, please, please, if you are the person who says I will pray for you. Then pray for them. So I don't know what to say. Well, of course, you know, the Holy Spirit helps us and delivers messages that sometimes we can't even put into words, as I was telling one of our folks this this past week, one of the great things about the Book of Psalms is many of them are written as prayers to God that we can literally pray the psalm to the Lord and apply exactly what we see here in scripture to the situation that we're facing personally or someone we know is facing. And so the first section is that it's a formula. It's a it's a template. If you use computers and you open up a new document, open all new documents. And now I finally came to my senses and created a sermon template because they all look the same. When I start off, I might as well make a template, just follow the template. Then of course it expands and changes as I'm working with it. But verses one through five could be considered a template for a prayer for someone you know, that is going through a day of trouble. But then he's going to switch gears in verse number six, he's going to give us some things that will help us, maybe when you're counseling someone that is going through a day of trouble or as we've all expressed already, when you yourself are facing a day of trouble, where do you turn? What do you do? Who can you believe? Who can you trust? Who will help you when it's your turn to go through a day of trouble? And hopefully I'm not overselling this, but I really think what we have seen, what we will see here tonight will be a help to us when we face those times where we don't know what to do. OK, so verses one through five, as I said, is a prayer for someone going through a time of trouble, especially in these first four verses. David gives us a list of petitions for the Lord where he is asking God to act on behalf of someone else. This is called an intercessory prayer. You are interceding on behalf of someone else. Of course, Jesus is the great intercessor. Jesus is daily standing before God, the father interceding on yours and mine behalf. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. That's great news. OK, because I may forget to pray for you, I may forget to bring your knees before the Lord, but Jesus never forgets and you are constantly on his mind. He is never unaware of what's going on in your life. He's bringing those needs before his father, even before we have a chance to ask, but when we go to God on someone else's behalf in this prayer of intercession, David gives us eight different ideas, eight different possibilities of things that we could pray for, for that person. And really, if you look at them, it's interesting because he's telling God what to do. That right? I mean, it's. It's pretty bold. The way he talks to God, I was talking to somebody this past week and basically telling me, you know. David prayed for God to kill people. That's pretty bold. I don't know, maybe you and I need some more boldness. In our lives and in our prayers. Maybe there's some wickedness walking around that wouldn't be walking around if some people were a little more bold in their prayers. We're supposed to be showing grace, but anyways. Look at these words versus one, three, four, it's just the list, OK, he starts off, he says the Lord here the in the day of trouble, the name of the God of Jacob. What do we want him to do? No. One, defend the. The best offense is a good. Defense, we're talking to our trustees just before the service about the need for more men to be on our safety team. Why do we need a safety team? Well, because there are people out there who want to harm the people that are in here. There are crazy people who hate you just for the reason you're church on Sunday night, think that you're a Christian. They wish you just didn't even exist. So they'll come in to a church if they want. Yes, they do. And they'll kill people. So we need the safety team. We have a meeting in a few weeks. God lead you so to be a part of that safety team. We could use some help with the safety team, a few more men that be willing to help be a defense. But David is here and he says the name of the God of Jacob. Defending, defending, he goes on. Oh, I missed one. I skipped one, the lord here, the. The Lord here, the. He recently, all three of my children have started talking not not OK. Titus has been talking for a long time. Jackson is known and talk. Carter is starting to jabber. And so those of you that have already raised your children, you know that once everyone starts talking, they haven't quite gotten it down to take turns. Yes, Samen. And so then there's three little chipmunk voices all talking at the same time over one another, and you're like, I can't listen to any of you because you're all talking at the same time. We all want to be heard. I mean, probably 90 percent of the counseling that takes place in my office is me sitting there not saying anything. Just listening, we want to be heard, we want what's going on, our life to be known by someone else. And so the first thing David said is the Lord hear. The second thing was the Lord defend the look at number two version or two. I mean. He says, send the help from the sanctuary. You ever watch somebody coming out of a grocery store and they're struggling to carry everything? Have you ever gone up to the person, say, can I help you? Are you just like, huh? It looks like they're struggling. Oh, well, and then you go on with your day. Davis says, I can see you're struggling, God can see you're struggling, I want God to send you help. May God send you help from his sanctuary. Not only did you help but also this version to strengthen the strength in the out of Zion. Oh, my God, here you. I want him to defend you. I want him to help you. I want him to strengthen you. Wouldn't you like it if somebody was praying these things for you? Yeah, I mean, these are things that all of us should desire that someone else would pray like this for me. Strengthen the army first, number three, remember all the offerings and except the burn sacrifice, so remember my offerings and accept my offerings, part of the history of this song is that perhaps it was something that was spoken right before a battle would take place. And the obstacle, the day of trouble that they would be facing would be a a wartime situation. And and then they would have made some offerings, some sacrifices to try and show God, hey, we're trusting in you, we want your help. And so Daviss, when you're going through a day of trouble, God, remember my offerings. Remember, accept my my sacrifices to you. Then version number four grant the according to thine own heart, grant the according to thine own heart. Remember, he's talking to the person. I mean, what he's saying is, I want God to grant you what it is that you're praying for yourself. I want God to grant you what it is you're asking for. I think I've said this before. I hate to make fun of certain things, but this just really I couldn't help it. In Youth group, Wednesday nights was our prayer meeting as well. And we had our own prayer team prayer sheet. And so we'd have a tough time where we let the teens ask for prayer requests. There was a certain teen who always asking for prayer for his dog. Maybe you pray for your dog. I've had lots of dogs, never prayed for my dog. OK, now there are something I will pray for that you might consider foolish, like the Dallas Cowboys. They need it, that's for sure. But I would never raise my hand on a Wednesday night and say, could you pray for those cowboys? Yeah, I really hope they get their act together before I die. So if you're going to ask for prayer for something, it should be in an understood thing that you're already praying for that. I'm not going to ask you to pray for something for me that I'm not already praying for myself and David says, hey, I hope God gives you exactly what you're praying for. And he grant the according to thine own heart and maybe he fulfill all thy counsel. So grant the desire for assistance and then fulfill your plans. You see, it's clear that the person who is being prayed for is facing something that is bigger than their ability to face, and most commentators, like I said, agree that originally this was probably a military foe that seemed too big to fall. I just finished reading my devotions about Gideon facing the Midianites and how God sent him against that enemy with three hundred men. Against thousands and thousands. Sometimes. Go up against something, it just seems like this is impossible. I'll never get through this. I'll never get over this, my life will never be like it was. You know, a little bit we're going hear about horses and chariots. Typically, whoever has the most horses and chariots in the battle wins. But we've also seen several occasions in history, both in the stories of the Israelites and in other situations, where the guy who brings the most to the fight doesn't always walk away the winner. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm sure that probably most people that are here would be just fine with comparing life to a bit of a battle. When to. I mean, it seems like one battle after another battles sometimes just to get to work. You know, just to get out of the house is a battle sometimes. Some of you are sitting there saying, yeah, we hit 40, it's a battle to get out of bed. Well, this first part of the song ends with an expectation of praise in verse number five, David says, We will rejoice in thy salvation. I'm praying for you and I hope to rejoice in the day that God gives you victory. Now, if God is going to act on behalf of the embattled in the troubled Davidsen, if God will do this, then celebrations will ensue. And it is here that the Psalmist inserts himself into the story because remember, up to this point, we see over and over throughout the first four verses the God grant, the God here, the God defend, the God send the help, but the mercy of the five. What does he say? We will rejoice and just like we talked about this morning, it is good, it is healthy, it is right for us to rejoice with one another when God gives a victory, when God delivers salvation, when we see a life, a young life that is changed and given to the Lord and that that testimony is shared through baptism or health need, that is met a spouse that comes to God. I mean, these are all victories that we all should rejoice together. And. When he says we will rejoice in thy salvation, it's interesting because people rejoice in a number of different ways, some people are subdued in their rejoicing. I'll go back to football for a second because I miss football. The draft is this week, and so fingers crossed it'll go well for my team. But some people, when they're watching football, they're real subdued. Something good happens. They're like, yes. Other people are weird. They get up out of their seat, they start jumping around, they start pumping their fist because, hey, we just did something that's worthy of rejoicing. Some people rejoice privately. Some people rejoice publicly, some people something good happens in, and they just they're happy about it and nobody ever really knows other people. There are five hundred pictures on social media about, hey, look what great thing happened. OK, that's great love care like. Some people are dignified when they rejoice. Oh, yes. Praise God. The people are embarrassing. When they rejoice. The Hebrew word here, though, that is used to refer to this thing of rejoicing. It's it's more the over the top public embarrassing rejoicing than the private, subdued, dignified rejoicing, because the word actually means that we are going to shout over this Salvacion, we're going to shout together because of what God does. I know we're Baptiste's. We don't shout very much, but maybe we should. Maybe we should be a little bit more enthusiastic about God and what he does in our midst because. We've seen some pretty cool things, and he deserves the glory and he deserves for us to praise his name and to rejoice, as the song says, in his salvation and the name of our God. He says this, too, he says, and we will set up our banners. So he's not just going to rejoice privately so that he and his family know that he wants to rejoice publicly in a way that's going to be known to others. Why else would you unfurl large banners that in their day were meant to send? A message is they didn't have social media, they didn't have the Internet or anything like that to let a lot of people know that something good had happened. So they had banners or flags that represented different things. You if you were ever a sailor, you know that there are flags that you raise up that send different messages. Well, they had that, too. And so he says we will unfurl the banners that that tell everyone about the victory or the success that God has brought. Then at the end of number five. Solnit's tells his audience that he desires that God would fulfill all of their requests. Now, in the first five verses, there is a lot of hope. There are a lot of requests, saints are often ridiculed for offering thoughts and prayers, right. You've heard this in the news. We don't need more thoughts and prayers. We need action. Thoughts and prayers are not anything to snub your nose at. Thoughts and prayers are incredibly effective. But there is a certain amount of hope in the first section, I hope I'm asking God that he would grant you this. I'm asking God that he would help you. But how does verse number six start? First three words, what are they? Hopeful or is it certain? It's more certain. Version number six is the start of the second stanza of this poem, the Psalm, the song and the second verse is an expression of confidence in God. I love when a song starts off one way and then transitions to something else like like the song we sing for Easter starts off very somber,

Speaker 1: low in the grave.

Speaker 2: You know, OK, I'm like the rest of. It's a very somber kind of. Depressed. But then the chorus comes up from the grave, he rolls, you know, and it just changes the whole mood. That's kind of the way David's writing here. I hope. I hope. I hope. I hope. And if God does this, then then we'll celebrate and we'll unfurl the banners and we'll shout. But in verse number six, he says now, no, I. This goes beyond just an aha moment. Hebrew phraseology indicates that the psalmist has come across, one author quoted as saying, an earth shattering revelation of information. And all of a sudden, David is not so much hopeful as he is certain that. That the Lord is going to work in a certain way. Now, we're not told what happens to provide the Psalmist with so much certainty, but in this second stanza, he moves from hope for prayer to confident declaration of God's salvation. I appreciate it, Brother Jimmy's testimony this morning. But you do realize that even if God had chosen to take the Jimmy home, it would not have been defeat. Well, Jimmy's hope is in Jesus Christ. The absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Many of you have had loved ones who have passed from this earth in the last few years, that is not a sign of God's defeat. For the Christian, that is salvation. Salvation doesn't just come when the physical body is healed. Salvation is fully realized when this body dies and we are taken to heaven with him. All the things that David had prayed for in the beginning, passage of this, the beginning verses of this passage are are realized, they are delivered. If you look in verse number six, he says for now, no, I that the Lord save with his anointed salvation is coming. He will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. All of that help and assistance and strength that David prayed for and David hoped for on behalf of this person, this person that is facing a day of trouble, all of it would be delivered. You see not everyone. Trusts in God and his ability to get them through life's days of trouble. Davis and I have hope in the Lord God will deliver the salvation, I'm certain of it. But not everybody can say that. And I mean, go so far as to say that not every Christian would be willing to say that. I hope my hope is in the Lord, my salvation comes from the Lord. Oh, sure, we expect salvation to come in the end. We expect to be taken to heaven because we've placed our trust in Jesus. But as I've said many times this year, the gospel God's message for us is not one of simply missing El. Jesus said, I am come, that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. David says, you know. There are some. We don't trust in this salvation, they don't trust in the strength that we have access to. Some trust in chariot's. And some in horses. You know, another way that you can say this is some trust in the strength, tools and tactics of man. What are horses and chariots, but. Tools of warfare. Things that men have come up with a way to use to accomplish what they want to accomplish. Know Paul talks a lot about the flesh. We will get rid of our flesh. Now, that's something we've got to deal with. The flesh is the remnants of our old way of living before we got saved. The flesh is the is the yeah habits, it's the the the behavioral patterns, it's it's the coping mechanisms that we come up with to to fix our problems without God. Horses and chariots, Gideons give great example that you need horses and chariots to deal with this issue. No. You need pots and lanterns. Three hundred men. But that doesn't make sense now when we turn our backs on the flesh, it usually doesn't make sense. Fleshly, living, trusting in the resources of man is antithetical to a life of grace. A life of grace is lived, relying on the resources of God. A fleshly life lives relying on the resources of humanity yourself. The people around you, the wisdom of man, the knowledge of man, the the habits of man. I like reading books that talk about good habits to put into your life. There's all kinds of different habits that a leader should employ. But just having good habits as a leader doesn't necessarily going to make me a godly leader. I might be an efficient leader, I'd be financially wise leader, but don't you want your pastor to be a godly leader? OK, well, then I have got to realize that there are some fleshly tools that are available to me, but the same is true for you. And when we faced days of trouble, which are we going to rely on? Horses and chariots. Or salvation from God. Salvation from God's strength for him, help from his sanctuary. The believer, especially a modern believer, must remember that their hope is in the name of the Lord. That's what David says, he says. But we will remember the name of the Lord, our God. Whenever you see this reference to the name of the Lord, our God, the name of God, there is hope in the name of God, strength in the name of God, all that kind of stuff which refers to the name of God. It's referring to all of his. Characteristics, everything God stands for, everything God is capable of means it's supposed to represent everything that encompasses God, it's wrapped up in his name. This is a cultural thing that you and I don't really have a modern equivalent to. I mean, we've talked about this before. My name is so far removed from anything true about me. It's funny. If I was true to my name, I'd be a spear carrier living by a waterfall with blond hair. None of that's true. Barely have a creek running by our house. It's definitely not a waterfall. And although I did buy a pickax this week, I do not have a spear. And there's no blond hair here, it'll go gray before it goes blond. That's not the case with God. God. His name encompasses what he's capable of, who he is, what he stands for. David says that we will remember the name of the Lord, our God. We will remember who it is we serve, who it is we say we believe in, and what he's capable of. When the day of trouble comes, he is capable of sending us help and strength and hearing us and remembering our sacrifices and sending us salvation. I remember one of the families that joined our church. They asked me what my opinion of counseling was. There is counselors. And I'm all for it. I've recommended many of our church family seek counseling if it's something that is beyond my ability to counsel, I'm not going to pretend and say that I can help you, but we can point you in the right direction. This upcoming week is my last week of grad school, and I've taken a lot of classes on counseling. And if there's one thing that I've become convinced of, one thing that maybe I've learned is that counseling will either do one of two things. It will either strengthen your flesh by pointing you to yourself as your source of salvation from your days of trouble, or they'll point you to Jesus as the source of salvation from your days of trouble. Counseling therapy was a name you could. Whatever counseling or there. Whatever you want to call it, it will either point you to yourself as your source of salvation for your days of trouble or it will point you to Jesus as your source of salvation during your day of trouble that. OK, OK, good. This morning's message was essentially about the same thing. The Pharisees wanted the new believers to look to the law, really their interpretation of the law as the source of their spiritual growth. Peter and the apostle says, no, no, no, you need to look to Jesus for that. Those the trust in the flesh, those that just get really good at using their own fleshly resources to deal with life's problems. Well, according to David, they will not succeed. Mercenary says they are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand up, right, this is in direct connection to what he said, some trust in horses and some trust and chariots. These are brought down and fallen. We will remember the name of the Lord, our God. We are risen. And stand upright. You can look at the military history of the world and see that horses and chariots usually entail victory, but many armies have learned that sheer numbers alone don't guarantee success. David states those who trust in the flesh will be pulled down. Not that they will trip and fall and make a mistake. No, they will be pulled down. Man, I don't even know how many times I saw the illustration when I was growing up at different functions where they would talk about peer pressure and the preacher would say, OK, you son, come stand on the chair and you son come up here. All right? And I'll try to pull him up. Oh, it's so hard you can't pull him up. Is that right? Now you try to pull him down and the kid would give him a good Yank and the guy would fall down. Well, that's kind of the idea of those that trust in the flesh, they will be pulled down. What about those arrests in the name of the Lord, our God? Says that. You know, they get knocked down. They get back up again. Whereas the the ones you trust in the flesh will succumb to the day of trouble and they will remain fallen. Those that are remembering the name of the Lord, our God, though they get knocked down, they will get back up and it says not only will they get back up, but they will stand upright. All of us have to come to the place where we learn that our flesh is incapable of sustaining us through life's troubles. Flesh is incapable of getting us through. Those that are able to get back up, those that are able to stand up right through a day of trouble and after a day of trouble are the ones who have learned to live based on the identity of God's grace and who and what he can do in their life. I've not known you for very long, but I've seen some of you go through some pretty difficult things, and the fact that you're still standing after you get through those those days of trouble is is a testimony to God's grace. Because human flesh isn't capable of getting you through it. How many of you are under the age of 40? How many of you are over the age of 40? No way. I read something that I've been thinking about for several weeks now. And it kind of goes along with this, I wanted to read it to you. I hate when preachers read things because you're like me checking out, but just try to hang with me for this. I think it will resonate with your experience. OK. The author said this, he says, We begin to attain more mature thought at about age thirty five. You don't want to know what he said about the 20s in the teens. But about thirty five, we begin to attain more mature thought, since we have made enough mistakes that we. Should have profited from experience as we get older, we should get wiser, doesn't always work that way, but that's the way it should work. If we could chart emotional maturity, we would find that emotional symptoms from our youth are amplified as the body begins to lose its reserve of physical stamina in our younger years, we have sufficient strength to maintain our fronts or defense mechanisms and to continue to be somewhat productive in our various life roles. As our physical strength wanes, we are faced with the fact that there is insufficient brain and brawn to fight the battles on the inside and the outside. Our responsibilities may deter us from copping out on external activities, but we are increasingly ineffective in maintaining our facade and the emotional symptoms we have had all along become more glaring. This is the reason we see so many in their forties yielding to a variety of neuroses and nervous breakdowns. The symptoms can simply no longer be kept under wraps. This guy is writing from a Christian perspective, saying that the strength of the flesh will fail you. And it usually happens around your forty's. Ever heard of the saying? Midlife crisis. Realization you're not as young as you used to be. Realization that you're still dealing with some of the same problems you've been dealing with since you were in your 20s. The revelation. Of a life lived in reliance upon the flesh. You can't keep up the facade any longer, you can't put up the front anymore, you're tired of always having to pretend that everything's OK and we've been going through days of trouble, but it doesn't bother us now as your physical strength, your flesh begins to weaken. You can't hide it anymore. You know, a midlife crisis is not an unavoidable certainty. You don't have to get into your 40s and feel like. I just don't have anymore to give, doesn't have to happen that way. It can be prevented. But the prevention starts in your 20s, in your 30s, so I'm way past that brother. It's never too late to learn how to depend on God. But if you want to avoid the crash, young young adults, I'll speak to myself here as well. You want to avoid the crash in your 40s? Learn to live in God's strength. Not in the strength of your flesh. You're learn at a young age to rely and live in God's strength and not your own. S. David prayed that the person in trouble for the person in trouble, that they would be moved by confidence in God to trust his strength and not man's. Oh, yeah, but. How many degrees does God have? What? Oh, well, I mean. God's God, and and he's just he's never faced what I've faced and, well, you know, so and so they've been through this and this really helped them. OK. Valid point. But does it push you to finding salvation in yourself or does it push you to finding salvation in God? Does it make you your own savior or does it make Jesus your savior? And that ought to be the standard for whether or not you accept what they're saying. A lot of advice, a lot of counsel that is given out these days pushes us inward to ourselves and the answer is not in here. Just so happened to be pointing to my heart. Your heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, don't trust it. Have you ever faced days of trouble? I've already admitted that you did. Ask you. How did you deal with it? We're that part in the New Testament, where it talks about the older helping the younger older men investing in the younger men, the older ladies investing in younger ladies. Part of what that means is you have experienced some of the things that the younger generations are experiencing. And perhaps as you went through it, you you know how you dealt with those days of trouble, those of you that have raised your kids, you know how you dealt with the days of trouble that come with child raising. Those of you who have been married for a long time, you have dealt with the days of trouble that take place within a marriage. Those of you that have been even alive into the grandparent years, you've dealt with the loss of a spouse or a loved one or a child. So you know how you dealt with that. Did you rely on your flesh? Or did you rely on God? I would say if you've been through any number of trials, you probably have experience with both. I'm only thirty two, I could tell you some situations where I depended on my flesh and I can tell you some situations where I depended upon God, I there were some times where I looked at myself. I looked inward into my own heart, my own experience, and said, oh, I can handle this. And there were times where I. By God's grace was able to depend upon him, allow him to direct and guide and lead me in the way that I should go. And so if you experience that, you answer the question. Or the outcomes different. Those times you depended on Flesche, those times you depended on God, the times you depended on horses and chariots and the strength the men and the times that you depended upon the name of our Lord. Let me ask you this. Do you think that most young people tend to rely on the energy of youth to get through troubles? I mean, some of you are young, you can answer the question, do you and your peers tend to rely on your own strength and energy to get through the days of trouble? Consider this. Having been through trials yourself. How has that affected the way that you pray for others? So sometimes we are so wrapped up in how life affects us, we forget that there are others who are going through the exact same thing. Do you pray for them like we saw in the first four verses of this song? Or hear them, Lord, defend them, send help to them, strengthen them, grant their desire for assistance. Or are you cold? To the troubles of others. I think whether or not you have a heart for people that are going through something you've been through and whether you're cold to them really depends on how you responded when you went through that if you relied on your flesh. I can't prove this, but I think the the tendency would be to say, well, you know what? I made it through. I'll make it through. I've heard people say that kind of stuff. Now, I think they've got it bad. We had it worse than that. We're fine. None of us are strong enough in our flesh to make it through the troubles of this life. We all need the power of God's grace to help us. We need him to save us from trouble. We need them to strengthen us, help us understand. We need him to help us forgive. One of the biggest hurdles that people have to get over is that issue of being able to forgive. Other people. We need God to protect us from bitterness because you see a day of trouble can either be something that is a defining moment in your life where you grow closer to the Lord, or it can be something that dominates the rest of your life as you look back at it in bitterness towards God and man. I believe if we will allow God's grace to help us in the time of days of trouble. He will help us to get to the point where we can then help others who are going through similar circumstances. There are plenty of people interested in strengthening the flesh. But those who've been through trouble. What are you doing to strengthen your dependance on God? One of the first things I always ask. Reading your Bible. Are you talking to the Lord? It's like the number one thing that you can do when you're in a day of trouble. Is that God talk to you and spend time talking to him? You face a day of trouble. You can either ruin you. Or it can draw you closer to the Lord. David prayed for this person that it would draw them closer to the Lord. We need to pray for each other to that same Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the folks that are here tonight. God, I pray that you would help each of them to. Examine their lives to think back, to spend a few moments of reflection on the different days that have been troubling in their life. You don't have to live long to face a day like that. God, I pray that they would be honest with themselves as to whether or not they have depended more on their own ability, their own resources. Or if they have depended upon you and your resources. We can't go back in time and change anything that's happened. Lord, I pray that you would convince us tonight. Whether we're in a day of trouble or we will face another day of trouble. Lord, help us to commit this evening, when that time comes, we are going to remember your name. We're going to look to you for salvation and help and strength, Lord, to hear us when we are in pain and struggling. God help us to be like David, be confident that you will help us, you will save us. Those are the folks that are here tonight who are Christians. They'll be convinced tonight of the fact that as your child, you love them more than anyone else has ever or could ever love them. Or do you want only what's best for them? Even the evil that comes in their life, you can use. To draw them closer to you. God, I prayed that we would not be derailed by the troubles that we face or that we would not grow bitter and allow the evil that we experience. To pull this from you, Lord, that it would push us towards you or we love you so much and thank you for all you do for us. It's in Jesus name. Amen. Let's all stand, we're going to sing a song. The invitation I need the every hour. If God has spoken to your heart, there's something you need to pray about. This can be an awkward thing, some would think, oh, look at him, he's been depending on the flesh. Luckily, nobody would think that. But even if they did, don't let it deter you from talking to the Lord, expressing your need for him, your desire to have him save you. Perhaps you have been relying on your own fleshly resources and you have found them to be lacking. Tonight, God offers himself to you as a source of strength. Why don't you take his hand, won't you accept his offer? You need to be saved. You'll never face days of trouble successfully without Jesus Christ whatever you need. His brother Matt sings, You do business with the Lord.

Speaker 1: Heidi, the every hour, most gracious lord, no tender voice like thine and peace of Lord, I need the Almighty. They have every hour. I need the old bless me now, my savior. I come to thee. I need the every hour. Stay that. Nearby temptations lose their power when the. Lord. I need the all I need the. Every hour I need the oh, bless me now, my savior, I come to this him.

Speaker 2: Well, thank you all so much for your good attention tonight. I hope that the message and Psalm 20 has been an encouragement and a challenge for you and giving you something to consider and apply to your life as you go through the rest of the week. Maspero brother, Brandon Morgan, if you don't mind, come on up here. And he's going to close this in a word of prayer and appreciate your presence here tonight. I know it takes effort to get here, uh, to get up from your nap, to get ready and to be back in your place. And you hope that God will bless you for making that effort here tonight. Brother Brandon, you come closest in prayer. After he's done, then you'll be dismissed. Let's bring. Thank you, Lord, for giving us this day. Thank you for allowing us to gather in your house and being able to worship you, Lord. I pray that we take the message Brother Gary has delivered tonight and apply it to our lives. Thank you for all the blessings you've given us and please protect us on our way home. Jesus name, I pray, Ayman.

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