[0:00] Take your Bibles with me to Psalm 59. He is the king above all kings. Amen? The only thing wrong with that special, I thought, was that she stood on this side of the pulpit, so her granddaddy wasn't watching her.
[0:16] So we need to build a little pedestal that puts it up here and gets her head up here. You ever been uneasy? See, years ago, Betty and I were living in our second house, and it was not in the best of neighborhoods.
[0:37] And, oh, I don't know, 2 o'clock in the morning or so, 1 o'clock in the morning, Betty woke me up and said, somebody's in the house. And I was in my baby blue boxers long before that was so popular, and I was a very fat 145, 150-pound guy.
[0:56] And I looked up, and every light was on in the house. And I jumped up and got my shotgun, 410, one shot, ran around the house yelling at the top of my lungs, you better come out, I'm going to kill you.
[1:13] And he didn't come out. And so I went to the front door and opened the front door, and there was a bicycle parked at the top of the driveway, of the hill, because we didn't have a driveway.
[1:25] I mean, we were in pretty poor housing. And there was a bicycle. It was a banana seat, small little bicycle. That was the getaway car. So in my underwear, I went outside, and I walked all the way down in my backyard yelling at the top of my lungs, I don't know where you are, but when I find you, I am going to kill you.
[1:45] And I had Betty stand at the front door so she could watch the bicycle to let me know if he got there. And all of a sudden, she started yelling, he's still in the house. I'd already checked everywhere in the house.
[1:56] I knew that was impossible. So I'm barefooted in my beautiful baby blues, and I go running towards the door with the .410 shotgun, and she jumps out of the way, and I forgot to turn it this way.
[2:08] And it busted into three parts, the stock and the barrel and the bullet. And in slow motion, I went, caught the bullet, shoved it back in, put the gun together, searched the whole house over again, and I could not find him.
[2:24] And this is a true story in the newspaper and everything. And so I'm standing in the hallway, and I said, I do not know where you are. I looked under every bed.
[2:35] I looked in every closet. I looked everywhere I could. And I said, if you don't come out, if I ever find you, I will kill you. And he opened the closet, and he goes, peace, man, peace.
[2:47] Don't shoot nobody. And so he came out, and I held the gun on him, and my hands were like this. I'm a real brave man, not really at all.
[2:58] And I'm sitting here in my underwear. He's on the floor, and I got his hands on his knees. And I told Betty, I said, go get the .22 and load it. And she comes back, and she goes, I said, just load it.
[3:11] You know, pull that down. Yep, do that. So she's making noise. And the guy's like, man, there's two guns pointed at me. Cops came to get him. Willie B. Montgomery was his name.
[3:23] I'll never forget, and he left. Well, that night, we couldn't sleep. We're going to talk about living in dangerous times. I loaded that shotgun. I laid it beside the bed so I could just reach down and get it.
[3:34] I went down through the basement. I got big old 16-penny nails nailed every window shut and fixed the doors where you couldn't get in. And it took weeks for us to get used to it.
[3:47] David is living with a crazy king. This king knows that God is through with him. There was a day when he was God's choice for Israel, but he blew that.
[4:01] And when he blew that, the Holy Spirit told him, you're out. You'll not be used of God. And then God sent evil spirits to torment him.
[4:11] So not only is he not the chosen of God, and he knows he's lost his position, and he knows God's going to put somebody else in, not only that, now these bad spirits come, and they mess with him.
[4:24] So his men got an idea. Let's get this guy, somebody who can play the harp. If we could get somebody to play the harp here, maybe that'd calm him down. Maybe good music could calm him down.
[4:34] And so they looked right through the kingdom, and somebody said, I know a guy who's a mighty man of war, and he's real good with the harp. And he's good looking, because you don't want no war-faced guy in the palace in front of the king.
[4:47] That'd just make the evil spirits come quicker. And so they got David in there, and David played the harp, and everything was going well. And then David took a break for about a month, and he went home.
[4:58] And while he was gone, Goliath showed up, and he terrorized Saul and Israel for over a month. And David returns, sent by his dad to go back, because they'd heard about the battle.
[5:11] And Saul, David kills Goliath. Now Saul is even more jealous than he's ever been before. He tried to kill him. He threw his javelin, his spear at him, and tried to nail him to the wall.
[5:24] He tried to send him out into battles that would get him killed. And in 1 Samuel 19, 1, which is the background passage for this, Saul's talking to his son, Jonathan, and to all of his servants, he said, You should kill David.
[5:42] And Jonathan's like, Now, come on, Dad. In verse 2, Jonathan said, Why do you want to kill him? To be honest, he's a good guy. He hasn't done anything wrong.
[5:53] And David and Jonathan talk, and there's a discussion about how Jonathan will try to find out what's going on, and he'll get word to David. And so Jonathan talks so well about David that in 1 Samuel 19, 6, Saul listened to him.
[6:10] And he said, Well, okay, I won't kill him. And David gets the news from Jonathan. And David returns in 1 Samuel 19, 8, and he goes out to war for Saul again.
[6:24] And he kills people. And things are going great because he's working as a general, a leader in the army. And then God sent that evil spirit. In 1 Samuel 19, 9, that spirit became upon Saul.
[6:37] Saul, David's over playing the harp. And Saul tries to kill him with a javelin, try to drive him up against the wall with a javelin. And Saul sent his men to kill David.
[6:51] David is married to Michael. One of his daughters is in his bedroom and in the bed. And she hears about how Saul's going to kill him. And so she says, Now, David, you've got to run.
[7:05] This is a movie script, man. You've got to run. So she lets him out the window. And then she gets a mannequin, maybe the first mannequin in history, because she gets this thing, makes it look like a person, puts hair there, covers it up.
[7:17] And they send for David. And she says, Tell Saul, tell my dad, he's sick and in bed and he can't come. And Saul says, Bless God, bring me the bed. I'll kill him in the bed.
[7:28] Just bring him right here in front of me. I'm going to kill him. So they went and got to bed. I ain't never able to get beds through doors very easily. So I'm not sure how that worked. You know, you get to bed at the door and you've got to turn it or something.
[7:39] I don't know how he didn't fall out. Must have had wide doors. But they got him into there. And when Saul goes to kill him, he finds out David is not in the bed. And so you need to understand before we start this psalm, David's living in a place with a crazy man.
[7:56] He's not just crazy. He wants David dead. He has figured out that David is going to be king. And Saul just wants his boy, Jonathan, to be king.
[8:09] Kings let their sons become kings after they die. So the prince becomes a king. David is doing nothing wrong.
[8:19] He is one super fine young man. And everybody in the community, everybody in the kingdom, everybody in the palace is like, man, he even answers right. He doesn't have a smart mouth.
[8:31] He shows complete respect. He does everything he's told to do. It's obvious that God is on him. And so David is afraid.
[8:43] Now, I don't know that you live in any kind of fear like that. Betty and I would go to bed at night and hug like we had never hugged before because I thought she was going to save me and she thought I was going to save her.
[8:53] And we were both scared to death. So David's in there not knowing if he's going to live or die. But here's what David knows. And I wish you'd write this down somewhere. I wish you'd mark it in Psalm 59.
[9:05] He knows there's only one person he can go to. There's only one person. He's the hero of Psalm 59. He is the answer to David's problems.
[9:16] He is the person that David will look to. He goes to God in prayer. Look at Psalm 59.1. I wish if you took the time to study these Psalms, which you should.
[9:27] It is the Word of God. Even though it's a songbook of the Hebrews and even though you may know the stories about it, you need to pay attention to what goes on. The Word God is mentioned over and over in this Psalm.
[9:40] He said, deliver me from mine enemies. Oh my God. A personal God. A God he knows. A God he has a relationship with.
[9:52] He said, defend me. In Psalm 59.3. He said, they lie in wait for my soul. But it's not for what I did wrong. Oh Lord. Verse 5.
[10:03] He says, oh Lord God of hosts. The God of Israel. Host, that's the armies. The God of the armies. The God of the angel, angelic host.
[10:13] The spiritual soldiers. And he says to God, awake. And be merciful. Be not merciful to any wicked. So I just want you to notice this. When you're in trouble, you need a previous personal relationship with God.
[10:29] When you're in trouble, you need a previous personal relationship. You know, a lot of people get jailhouse conversions or they get foxhole conversions.
[10:40] But David knew God. You remember how the prayer starts in the New Testament? Our Father, which art in heaven. You realize it's our Father.
[10:52] And in this Psalm, it's our God. My God. Prayer starts with a confidence that God is really there. And he really does hear. And he really does answer prayer.
[11:04] David has a relationship with God. I'd like to stop just a second. And I really want you to answer a question in your heart. Do you know God through Jesus Christ?
[11:17] Jesus Christ. Now listen to me. Not through baptism. Not because your mom and daddy told you about him. Not because you heard all about him. Not because you've been going to church all your life.
[11:28] But have you really come to the place where you realize you deserved hell. But Jesus died for you. And you trusted God. Hey, there's a lot of Christians going to go to hell because they're not Christians.
[11:41] There's a lot of Baptists going to go to hell because they're not saved. They're not Baptists either. They're not saved. You need to know that you know you know God. Can I get an amen right there?
[11:51] You need to make sure that parents, parents don't rely on a four-year-old prayer. Disciple your kids. Show them the Bible.
[12:03] Make sure they've had a chance to be able to say, He is my God. The God of your parents won't save you. It has to be your God. Psalm 59 and verse 1.
[12:16] David has enemies rising against him. They were workers of iniquity. They were bloody men. Saul has his men trying to kill David.
[12:27] And David has done nothing wrong. And today you may have problems. And you may have enemies. And things may be going wrong in your life. And you may need God to work.
[12:40] Now today we don't get to pray the same prayers David did. These are imprecatory prayers. I mean David's like, he's all the time praying God kill somebody. When we get the New Testament, we figured out something.
[12:53] We wrestle not against flesh and blood. But against principalities and powers. So my battle is not with you. My battle is not with wicked people.
[13:06] And my battle is not with other Christians. My battle is with the devil. And I can pray those prayers. I can say, God, demoralize the devil. God, weaken the devil.
[13:17] God, stop the devil. God, do a work. I want you to notice in verse 3. David says, I have not done anything wrong. He said, they lie in wait for my soul.
[13:30] The mighty are gathered against me. And it's not for my transgression. And it's not for my sin. David says, I have not done anything wrong.
[13:41] I have not tried to kill Saul. I've not tried to betray Saul. I've not tried to do anything to take over the kingdom. I've been waiting on God. And he's after me. Verse 4.
[13:52] Without my fault. Without my fault. Has your trouble come on you because of your fault? Or your sin? If so, we confess it.
[14:07] And get it right. But what we want to do. 1 Peter talks about this too. We want to live like David. And have the confidence to know. That the suffering that's being brought on us isn't our fault.
[14:19] We are suffering for doing right. Not because we did wrong. I would just like to stop just a second before I continue here. And say to you, most suffering that we endure here, we brought it on ourselves.
[14:35] We overspent. And we burnt the credit cards up. And we flirted with the other woman. And we looked at the porn. And we got prideful.
[14:48] And we got arrogant. And we got angry. And it started breaking our home apart. God's people ought to live holy lives.
[15:02] God's people ought to live holy lives. God's people ought to live holy lives. I'm going to say it to you.
[15:12] Do say amen. You realize that? We don't mess around with sin. That's not who we are. We are not who we were. We are who we are.
[15:22] We were wicked. We did lots of bad stuff. But we have chosen to serve Jesus. And we're going to do right. David calls on God to severely punish those that want to hurt him.
[15:35] Verse 5. Oh, Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit the heathen. Now, when he says visit the heathen, he doesn't mean go have tea with them.
[15:47] He doesn't mean go have a cup of coffee with them. He doesn't mean why don't we go out for lunch at old Charlie's. What he means is go whip their backsides. Go have a meeting with them and let them know.
[15:59] And he says, and when you're having a meeting, be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. He says, I want you to go see them. And I don't want you to be nice. I want you to leave the Mr. Nice Guy act at home.
[16:11] I want you. David says, God, Saul's trying to hurt me. All these guys running around with him trying to hurt me. I need you to go be rough and mean to him. I think you ought to notice two times in verses, I think, four and five, the word awake.
[16:27] David seems to think that God's not hearing him and not reacting. You ever feel that way? You ever get in trouble and you pray and you ask and it's like the ceilings are brass or the skies are brass and God's not hearing.
[16:41] He says, God, awake. God, look. God, pay attention. God, do something now. Now, real faith says this.
[16:51] I'll pray whether he seems to answer me right now or not. We pray trusting. We trust his character. We know who he is. When you're in trouble, you need to pray.
[17:04] David's prayer is based on the word of God. And I need you to understand that. See, David's over here saying, Saul's being a bully to me. Saul's trying to kill me. Saul has been throwing spears at me.
[17:16] Saul's trying to get my bed. So he can chop my head off while I was in bed. I mean, this is a really rough place. And here's what David says. It's not in the Psalm, but it's understood because you know the story.
[17:26] David said, but you told me I was going to be king. But you told me I was going to be king. It's one thing to die. It's another thing to die when I have the promise.
[17:37] See, when you pray, you need to pray based on what the word of God says. Facebook is not the word of God. And all that fake, false, religious joke.
[17:49] I was thinking this morning, I saw somebody on there and they seemed so happy. And I thought, I hope you're as happy as your Facebook says. Because it seems to me the happier you act on Facebook, the worse your marriage may be. But anyway, I hope that's not true.
[18:00] David has been anointed to be the next king. He is simply doing his duty while completely trusting in God.
[18:11] Now, David's enemies are mocking God and they're mocking David. And when David talks about it, boy, he gets descriptive. Look at you what it says. Psalm 59, 6.
[18:22] He said, they make a noise like a dog. Now, you don't compare people to dogs, especially when you're Jewish, especially when you're Jewish.
[18:33] When I went to Mexico, I learned quickly, you know, that you don't make comparisons between a Mexican and an animal. That's calling them an animal. And in America, sometimes we do.
[18:43] You know, we act like don't be a burro, don't be a donkey, you know, a sweet little rabbit. We may say, but you don't do that. Well, they don't do that. They don't make those comparisons.
[18:55] And he said, they like dogs walk around making noise. They were going all over the place saying, we're going to kill David. They were down at the bar. We're going to kill David.
[19:06] They were at the synagogue. We're going to kill David. They were in the street corners all talking. Just watch David. We're going to kill David. Everywhere David walks, he hears them going, you're dead. We're just waiting for the right minute to take you out.
[19:22] He says in verse seven, they belch out with their mouth. That's pretty descriptive. That's pretty descriptive. He said, they belch out with their mouth.
[19:33] And they even say, they got swords in their mouths. They want to kill me with their lips. He said, and then they say, and who cares? Who cares? Who hears it?
[19:44] The king told us to kill you. We have every right to kill you. We don't care what anybody thinks. The king said, kill us. It's amazing how quickly we doubt that God hears us when we belch with our mouths.
[19:58] They're running their mouths. They're forgetting there is somebody hearing them. There is somebody hearing them. I love what he says in Psalm 59, 8. But thou, O Lord, shall laugh at them and have all the heathen in derision.
[20:17] He said, God picked me. God anointed me. God said, I was going to be king. Y'all may be trying to kill me. I may even be getting a little bit nervous about it.
[20:27] Y'all may be walking around belching like dogs. You may be saying all your junk. You may think no one's hearing. But I know something you don't know. God's going to laugh at you.
[20:40] I'm going to win this deal. And then he says derision. I don't know if you paint word pictures. But I mean, he said, it's like God's going to have a laughing party at you.
[20:52] They're going to be, you thought you could kill David. Angels laugh with me at these idiots. Look at that derision.
[21:03] Go look up the word. I mean, they didn't pick words for us. The Holy Spirit didn't pick words for us that didn't have meaning. See, God knows. David knows this. Look at verse 9.
[21:15] God is my defense. Verse 10. God of my mercy shall prevent me. You know what that means?
[21:26] That word prevent, that's an old time word. It's like when it says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, it said that the dead in Christ won't prevent us. What it's saying is they won't go before us.
[21:38] You know what he said? He said, what they don't know is that the God of mercy goes before me. When I walk out to go into battle, I'm walking towards you, but what you don't know is right there in front of me.
[21:51] He's already there. And David says, he laughs at you. He's with me. Fact is, he's not just with me. He's not sitting here beside me. He's not sitting here behind me.
[22:01] He's in front of me. He's going to take care of you. David says, verse 11, slay them not. And this one threw me.
[22:14] Slay them not. When I marked the word not. Slay them not. I mean, I'm like David. Kill them. Let's just wipe him out.
[22:24] Let's just get rid of Saul. Let's get rid of all those dogs that are belching out their mouths. And David says, no, don't kill them, God. And it made me remember back in Peru.
[22:37] When Betty and I arrived, there was a president named Alan Garcia. And he had brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy. And there was terrorism on every side. And I often preached with bombs literally blowing up outside church.
[22:49] We'd be sitting there and the bombs would go off. The lights would go off. Bombs blew the windows out of our house one night. And when Garcia was beaten in election and the next president took over, Fujimori said, I'll catch him.
[23:01] And he caught him. He caught Abimei Al Guzman. And he was just in a house. He looked like a little bitty fat nobody. I mean, when you saw him come out of that house in handcuffs, it was like, he ain't nobody.
[23:15] And they brought him out. And I thought to myself, firing squad, bless God. He's killed 50,000 people. Firing squad. Electric chair.
[23:26] Put him to death. And Fujimori said, we're not putting him to death. Slay him not. We'll make a martyr out of him. So they put him in a cage. In the middle of a large room, they just built a cage.
[23:38] No windows. Because they don't need windows. He's in a room. It's a cage. Just the bars. His bathroom. No privacy. And then they put soldiers all around the top.
[23:49] And for years, they just watched him. That's what David said. He said, don't kill him. Just humiliate him. Just bring him down and let him know. Slay them not.
[24:01] Lest my people forget. Be better if you didn't kill him. David said, instead of killing him, scatter him. Underline that. Scatter them by thy power.
[24:13] You're my shield. You have power to beat them. Scatter them. David said, I want them to be caught in their lies. In verse 12, he said, for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride.
[24:28] We should underline be taken in their pride. You see, he said, man, they are so audacious and so arrogant and so out in front of people that they want to kill God's chosen man, the anointed man.
[24:43] And they belch like dogs and they walk around the kingdom and everybody's running their mouth and everybody's talking about the same thing. And he said, and they say, even God doesn't hear.
[24:55] Bunch of proud, arrogant sinners. And that's what proud, arrogant sinners do. There's no God to watch them. They don't believe God's doing anything. That's what's going on. And David says, bring them down.
[25:06] Catch them in their lies. Let their pride take them. Verse 13. Consume them. Consume them.
[25:17] Two times. In wrath. Consume them. Let them know that God rules in Jacob. I need you to underline that. Saul, you are not king.
[25:29] God is. Saul can say, let's kill David. I don't care what God's plans are.
[25:41] And David says, now let's get something straight. You ain't in charge, big boy. God is. That'd be a good thing for all of us to learn, wouldn't it?
[25:53] Wouldn't it be a good thing for us to learn that God's who's in charge of what's going on in our lives? Wouldn't it be a good thing for us to realize you don't get to make your own decisions and do anything you want? Let them know that God rules.
[26:07] They say, who will hear us? We belch like dogs. We walk around floating our power. Saul gave us the ability. And David said, God, take them out and let everybody know.
[26:20] Let everybody know. You rule. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
[26:31] Thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Let's know that God is in charge. Let me just throw in.
[26:44] If you read the verse and didn't notice it, I'm just shocked at you because you go to vision and you listen to me too much. Unto the ends of the earth.
[26:56] Do you see that? He said, we got a petty king here. It's out of sight of your will and not doing right. And you're all powerful and you're here.
[27:08] And I want them to know that God rules in Jacob. And I want the whole world to know it. We ought to have in our mind like him. The whole world ought to know about our Lord and our God.
[27:19] We ought to be missions, world evangelism minded. David said, I want it clear that they have failed. Look in verse 14.
[27:32] Let them return. Now let them make noise like a dog. Yeah, come on back, big boys. Run your mouths. But this time while you growl and belch out of your mouth, I want you to verse 15 to be wandering around and you can't find anything to eat.
[27:49] You used to eat because you're Saul's henchman. But not now. And let them grudge if they are not satisfied. They're not satisfied.
[28:03] We need to remember that God hears everything. Back to Psalm 59 7 before I move out of here. Who say they does hear?
[28:16] I need to be careful not to think that I can get away with my sin. God hears and sees all that I do.
[28:31] I need to live respecting him. And what you do in a closet. What you do hidden. What you do in the dark.
[28:44] And then you say, who say they? Who say they does hear? We ought not be like that so flippant about our sin.
[28:57] Can I get an amen right there? Let me just explain something to you. If you go to the deepest part of this earth, he'll be there. And if you go to the highest part of the heavens, he'll be there. We can't live in sin and think God doesn't know what's going on.
[29:13] There's an almighty God. Go to Psalm 59 16 with me if you would. David begins to praise the Lord. I love how this goes.
[29:25] David starts off saying, man, I'm in trouble, God. I'm in trouble, God. And I use this all the time. I don't remember where I got it, but somebody famous I'm sure said it.
[29:35] And I stole it. Pray yourself happy. Pray yourself happy. So David starts, oh, God, deliver me. Oh, God, they're out to get me.
[29:48] And I ain't done anything wrong. Oh, God, give me out of this. God, kill them. Oh, God, kill them. And you could kind of hear him. He's just agonizing and hurting like you.
[30:00] Nothing wrong with you going to God like that. Just lay it out there and tell him, man, I'm going through the mess. And the God of heaven will say, that's all right. I love you. But by the time the psalm ends, old David's then figured out God is in charge.
[30:16] Look what he says in verse 16. I will sing of thy power. Now, wait a minute. What's that got to do with anything? Because Saul has all the power.
[30:28] Because Saul is in charge. Because Saul could do anything. But David realizes no human being has that power. It is God. And he says, so God, I won't even think about Saul.
[30:40] I won't even think about all the dogs that are belching around there. I'll sing of your power. It is you, God. Time to stop and recognize that. Verse 16.
[30:51] I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning. You know, you got up in the morning. Now, wait a minute. What's the first thing you do when you get up? You wake up and you go, whew.
[31:02] Made it through the night. I didn't know if he was coming last night or not. I didn't sleep that good. Oh, my. Honey, did you hear anything? Is anybody trying to get us? Are we in trouble? Is something going to go wrong?
[31:13] And you start off with all your junk. Say, man. Come on. Tell the truth. You start off with David. I plan on starting my morning. When I get up tomorrow morning, I will sing aloud.
[31:26] That means out loud. Amen. Amen. So he got up and said in the morning, they're going to hear the song coming out of my room. That I trust in the mercy of God. And I'll sing it in the morning.
[31:38] And I'll tell you why. Because God has been my defense. And God has been my refuge. David knows God has already worked in his life.
[31:51] I wish you'd. I know I look for things. And maybe you think I'm crazy. But he said, thou hast been. You've already taken care of me, God. You took care of me when I went into battle.
[32:03] You took care of me when I fought Goliath. You've always been there. You've always been the one that took care of me. It's time to stop and count your blessings. Do you know what causes you all the fear?
[32:14] Is you count your enemies. You count your problems. You count all the junk that's going wrong. When you need to sit down and say, boy, God's been good to me. And I'll be honest with you. We could take an hour and one of you wouldn't finish.
[32:28] Because if you really got honest and thought about all God's done. He's heard your prayers. He's answered your prayers. He's protected you countless times. He has protected you.
[32:40] That has been my refuge and my defense. Count your blessings. Name them one by one. And you'll be surprised when you see all that God has done. David recognizes his strength as the Lord.
[32:54] Not himself. Now, David's a mighty warrior. I think personally he's probably 25 years old in this psalm. Maybe a little bit older. 25. He's in that area of his life.
[33:06] Now, you've got to know who he is. He's got a purple heart and a bronze star. And every other kind of military recognition you can get. I don't know what he did with Goliath's head.
[33:17] But I know he carried it around with him for a long time. He's walked right over where he went just carrying a head with him. I mean, he's like, here I am. Hey, y'all. Y'all want to drink a glass of milk? Pass it over here. Goliath ain't going to be drinking none, but I got it.
[33:30] I mean, he's a tough guy. He's going into battle. Saul killed his thousands. David kills his ten thousands. He's a mighty man. But here's what David says. Amen, buddy. Look at verse 17.
[33:42] Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing. God is my defense and the God of my mercy. Do we live praising the Lord?
[33:57] Let me give you just a few ideas you might take home with you. When you're surrounded by problems, remember you're not the first. Remember that God will work in your life. I don't know what might have you uneasy.
[34:08] I don't know if you watch enough news to get uneasy. I don't know if you watch enough social unrest to get uneasy. But I'll give you a hint. The center person in Psalm 59 is God.
[34:22] And you know what? God is bigger than anything anybody can do anywhere. And you and I don't focus on the news. We focus on the God of heaven.
[34:34] I think this psalm makes it abundantly clear. You need a previous relationship with God. A previous personal relationship.
[34:45] When you come to trouble and you come to fire and you come to problems and your life is falling apart, if you haven't learned to spend time with God, you just might get blown around in the wind.
[34:55] But if you have put down anchors and if you have drilled into the word of God and you've drilled the word of God into your heart, when the trouble comes, you may get crying. You may go to God with all your problems, but you'll be able to pray yourself happy and come out on the other end saying, I may die tomorrow, but my God is my defense.
[35:14] And my God is my strength. Let's not suffer for our own foolishness. Let's not suffer for our own foolishness.
[35:27] Let's not suffer for our own foolishness. Let's not suffer for our own foolishness. You have 66 wonderfully inspired, powerful, not one mistake, things to help you not mess up.
[35:49] You got a book of Proverbs slapped full of how to have victory. Let's not suffer for our own foolishness. If you've done wrong, accept personal responsibility.
[36:02] Go back to where you messed up and see what you got to do to fix it. But folks, let's get in a book. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word.
[36:16] Maybe you think I'm crazy, but I really believe it's alive.
[36:29] I really believe it's powerful. I really believe it sees into the depths of my heart. I really believe that when we open this book, we open the very word of God, and God reaches down and starts talking and working in us.
[36:44] Get in the book. Live a life of praise and gratitude. Remember, complaining and criticizing are like praise to the devil.
[36:55] That's not what we do. And David starts out in Psalm 59. Boy, he's torn up. Saul's marching around his room, and everybody's looking for him. Everybody wants to kill him.
[37:07] And David's like, God, I'm a little nervous. I need to get my heart calm. I need to get in the word. I need to get in prayer. And by the end of it, he's going, Oh, praise God.
[37:21] God hears, and God answers, and God takes care. You do not have to be a victim. In Christ, we are victors. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.
[37:32] We are more than conquerors. Stop letting sin win. Father in heaven, I love you. I pray you bless your people. I pray your name would be glorified and honored in this time.
[37:44] And I pray, God, that Christians would be edified and lost people might be saved today. And I'll give you praise for all you're doing. With every head bowed and every eye closed, you know whether or not the Lord's dealt with your heart.
[37:59] You know whether or not you've been whining and complaining and praising the devil instead of praising God. And maybe you ought to come put some things on the altar today. You know whether or not the Lord's dealing with you about anything that was in this message.
[38:12] And also, there may be somebody here, and you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You are a church member. You're even a Bible reader. But you don't have a personal relationship with God.
[38:26] Today's the day to be saved. Would you trust Christ as your Savior? Would you let him do a work in your life? Father, please work and move.
[38:37] In this time of invitation, I'll give you praise. Amen.