[0:00] All right, good evening, we're going to Vision Matter Church.
[0:14] Go ahead and stand with me. Let's sing together. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
[0:24] What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
[0:40] No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see.
[0:54] Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
[1:06] Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. Oh, no other fount I know.
[1:18] Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
[1:31] Not of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
[1:47] Oh, no other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. That makes me white as snow. That makes me white as snow.
[1:57] Well, good evening to everyone. You're welcome to have a seat. A couple of more weeks. You'll be all right. A couple more weeks. Well, I'm very glad to be in the house of God with you.
[2:11] We didn't get two mics ready, but Trish, could you handle that? And we'll have two men pray. If you're willing to lead in prayer, one of two men, hold your hands up. Chris will get you a microphone, and we'll have our men's prayer.
[2:24] There they are. You took it. Okay. Okay. All right. You want to start us? You pray, and then David can pray.
[2:35] All right? That sound all right? Let's go. Father, we thank you for giving us time. We honor and worship you, Lord. We thank you for this opportunity to gather in your name and to see everyone, even with all that is going on in this world, Lord.
[2:48] And we believe that you're still working in this world, Lord. We have seen the baptism today. We give you all the praise and glory. Lord, we also pray that you would work even more in the coming times, Lord.
[3:03] Help you, as you will, in Jesus' name. Father, we are just so grateful to be back here and centered around your word.
[3:13] Lord, we thank you so much for that. We thank you for what it does. We thank you for its purity, its righteousness, and its life-giving. Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes, that we may be able to see the wonderful things that are in it, that we would walk away changed, and that we would just continue to adore it, Lord.
[3:33] We pray that you'd be with Pastor as he brings it to us. We thank you so much for a ministry that is centered on it and is so passionate about making sure that it is implanted in the lives of this body and that it also goes out to the entire world.
[3:51] And we give you the praise for it in your name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, I wanted to tell you all, you know, we are in a process, Lord willing, of buying some land for the training center and the mission board.
[4:05] And we had raised about $400,000, and they raised about $105,000 yesterday. It puts us a little over half a million dollars in the bank when it all gets here. You should have seen some pastors recommending the guys, and you should have seen, you should have, some of you might have seen some of the craziness that left Brendan Wong looking like he belongs in a kung fu movie.
[4:30] And thank the Lord I wasn't here because if they'd try to do that to me, I just wouldn't have showed up. Watermelon with no hair on it. That would really look bad.
[4:41] But Adam Ragsdale came to me first, and he and Sam Quinn had both worked at a radio station at Tabernacle Baptist College in Greenville, South Carolina.
[4:52] And so they said they wanted to think about doing a share-a-thon. And I said, now that's a joke. I mean, I didn't say that because, you know, I'm a pastor. I've got to be nice. I said, you really think that would work?
[5:04] And they said, yeah, we do. And I said, well, you know, if you get $5,000, that'd be good. That'd be great. And so Sam Quinn organized 36 hours of content.
[5:19] And a note here says single-handedly. And the guys worked at the guys. I think they had a good time. Tyler Ellis sang so many songs that I thought he was going pro.
[5:34] Chris Fees, who is just amazing in a thousand things. This pulpit, behind the pulpit was a really bad spot on the floor. I just hated it. Every time I preached, I had a small rug, and everybody kept getting rid of it.
[5:46] That's because the floor was doing all kinds of junk. I mean, you would, too, if you had 250 pounds of ugly fat on you. And so I didn't like that that was happening. And so Chris Fees just tore up the floor and redid it.
[5:58] That was a blessing to me. I think he put a trap door in it. So if I preached longer than I was supposed to, he could get rid of me. But anyway, there's a whole bunch of people here that worked so hard.
[6:10] Brendan Wong, Jonathan Anderson, Travis Snowed. Allison Flowers was the church secretary. Put in a ton of extra hours this week. And I'm trying to read their list here. Andrew Pearson, Jacob Elsie helped fix AV problems.
[6:23] There were quite a few problems. They were helping with that. Amber Garcia and a bunch of teens were in a room all the time. And Chris Fees and Val Seifu and Regina Gordon were helping all 36 hours.
[6:36] They work in the office, and it just made a whole lot more work for them. I thought this was funny. Adam Ragsdale lost nine pounds in 48 hours. He calls it the stress eating diet.
[6:46] And so if you would like to go on that one, I could do that if I did that for 10 weeks. Okay. I'm trying to figure this out. But anyway, I really appreciate it.
[6:58] And thank you very much, all of you. And so I don't have very much of a way to commend you, but I do thank you so much for all you've done. And we will see the reality of having a place where we can house our students and get more students.
[7:13] We're going to between now and the time Jesus comes back, do everything in our power to get as many people as we can to the mission field. It's not what we talk about. It's who we are. And so I would really appreciate your prayer that God would raise the money and take care of that.
[7:27] I'm going to have another word of prayer just because I want to say thank you for all the work of these young people. And then after that, Chesley Howell is our five-minute preacher tonight. Father, we love you, and thank you so very much for the chance to serve you.
[7:38] I thank you for how your people sacrifice so much to work so hard for so many hours. But I thank you most of all because you touched hearts and raised the money. And we give you praise for it.
[7:49] God, I just pray for a world that's dying and going to hell. I pray for people in countries that never have the privilege of doing what we do. God, I went without this meeting of these people, and it drove me crazy for a few weeks.
[8:05] And God, they never have a church. They never have the Bible preached to them. They never pray with their friends. They have no confidence of what would happen when they die.
[8:19] They have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ. They've never sung a psalm, never sung a song, never participated in a worship service. They believe with all their heart lies invented by the devil to keep them out of heaven and in hell.
[8:36] God, they've been wrapped in Buddhism and Islam and Hinduism and false religions and atheism and false religions all over this world.
[8:48] And they're in desperate need of hearing the gospel message. I'm not telling you anything because you sent us to the world. You told us to take the gospel of the world.
[9:00] God, as a church body, we have really attempted to do something about that. God, there's so much more we could do. And by faith, I'd like to ask you to help us step out and do more than we've ever done before.
[9:13] God, I pray that you'd raise up five or six hundred missionaries instead of 50 or 60. I'd ask you, dear God, to send so many students here we won't know what to do with them.
[9:25] I pray, God, that in these last days before you send Jesus back to take us home, you'd let us be involved in your ministry of preaching the gospel everywhere. I pray for China, God.
[9:37] If we could send a thousand missionaries there, they would get lost in the crowd. Not enough. If we could send a thousand missionaries to India, not enough.
[9:47] God, if we could send a thousand to Indonesia, not enough, but getting a lot closer because it's not so large compared to those two.
[9:59] God, there are cities all across America without one church in the inner city to work with people that are chained in darkness and sin, gangs and drugs and pride and money, and they've never had a preacher.
[10:21] Now places in our country, dear God, where people do not hear the gospel preached. God, you gave us a command, and I'm just asking you to help us obey you. I'm asking you to do something very special.
[10:34] I'm asking you, dear God, to raise up the funds and raise up the people and send your church forth. God, I pray that you'd send more young people. I pray you'd let us see churches started in every major city across America.
[10:47] I pray you'd let us see many churches started inside of 285 in Atlanta, in a place where almost no churches exist now, of our stripe that preach the gospel.
[10:59] God, I pray that you would do something massive and big. I pray, God, that you'd burden this church until the weight of the world weighs on our shoulders so that we don't get up or go to bed without thinking about souls that have never heard the gospel, who will spend eternity in agony and pain forever because they never heard the truth.
[11:23] God, help us not revel in the grace that you've given us and just lap up this goodness without thinking about those that have none of it. God, please do a work.
[11:34] Please move in our midst. Please save people. Please, God, let us be a part of it. We just ask you to let us be part of what you're doing as you rescue souls from hell.
[11:44] We'll give you praise for it all in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. We'll turn to Psalms 118, 19. And one thing that we all should do every single day is praise God for our salvation.
[11:56] It's one of the most magnificent and wonderful things that happened to me and all of us. I mean, it's the greatest thing in the world. It gave us life. It took us from going to hell to going to heaven.
[12:07] There's nothing greater than our salvation. And we come to Psalms 118, 19. David is praising God for his salvation. And he says in verse 19, Open to me the gates of righteousness, and I will go in unto them.
[12:19] I will praise the Lord, the gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee, for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner.
[12:34] This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, O I beseech thee, O Lord.
[12:45] O Lord, I beseech thee. Send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which has showed us light.
[12:57] Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee. Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. O give thanks unto the Lord.
[13:07] For he is good. For his mercy endureth forever. Whenever I first read this, I just pictured David. He's like the king of Israel. He's the greatest king. The king that they all look and strive to be like.
[13:19] He's the king of all history that they always talk about. Getting tongue twisted. But I just imagine David riding up to the gates of heaven. And he's on his stallion. He's on his black stallion, his steed. And he's got his battle armor on.
[13:30] And all his mighty men are with him. And all of his soldiers are with him. And the band is playing the trumpets and the cymbals. And he's like, open up the gates. Let me in. I've come to praise the God. I've come to praise the Lord.
[13:42] And the guard looks down like, who are you? And David's like, you know who I am. God knows who I am. He is my salvation. Let me in that I may praise him. And they open up the gates.
[13:52] They swing open the gates. And David marches in in all his kingly glory. But it's nothing compared to God. God is sitting on his throne. And in God's glory, David is absolutely nothing.
[14:03] And he just bows down before God. And he's like, praise thee, O God. Thank you for my salvation. Thank you for showing me the light. And I think about how much each and every day. It says, every single day God gives us.
[14:16] It says, this is the day that the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Do you remember the day that you got saved? How was it? How great a day was it? Do we praise the Lord for our salvation?
[14:28] Every day when I wake up, I try to remember this verse and think about it. And just think about the salvation that the Lord gave me. And I remember the day that I got saved. It was a Monday morning. It was after my dad had preached the night before.
[14:39] And I just knelt down by myself in my room and just said, Lord, please forgive me of my sins. I want you to come into my heart. I want to live and I want to serve you. And I felt like just a weight was lifted off my shoulders.
[14:50] I know no matter what I do, I'm in God's hand. He's never going to let me go. Forever I will be in God's hand. It doesn't matter what I do, how dirty I am, how wretched I am. In God's eyes, I am righteous.
[15:02] And I can walk up to the gates and say, I'm the righteous one, Lord. Let me in. Let me praise you. So just challenge you today to praise the Lord each and every day. And another verse that really stuck out to me in this chapter is, he says, bind the sacrifice of cords even unto the horns of the altar.
[15:19] When David went to praise, he didn't just go and praise and do lip service. He also brought a sacrifice. So we're all challenged to sacrifice, to give to the Lord. It can be through our lives of serving others, through giving to, like yesterday we had a lot of people give to the World Evangelism Center.
[15:37] Each and every one of our sacrifice can look different. But are we sacrificing to God? And are we willing to go and tell others about the word of God, to tell them about our salvation that we have, that we can be so excited and so ready to praise the Lord?
[15:50] There are so many people around the world that when they read this verse, it means, or this part of the chapter, it means nothing to them. They don't know anything about praising God. They don't know anything about praising the Lord. They've never heard of Jesus.
[16:02] They don't even know who he is. Millions and millions of people. And we have a joy where we can wake up and we can know that we're going to heaven, that God has saved us, that there's nothing that anyone can do to pluck us out of his hand.
[16:14] But there are millions and millions of people all over the world who have never heard. They don't have that joy. They don't have anything. They wake up and maybe some people are, they live for money or for cars or for whatever it is that they desire.
[16:27] But at the end of their life, there's no hope. There's zero. There's nothing for them. So I just ask you today, one, be praising the Lord.
[16:37] Thank him for your salvation each and every day. He's a glorious God and he saved us. And then two, bind the sacrifice with cords. Go to the altar and offer to God your sacrifice, either to witness to others, to go into the world and preach the gospel, or to send people, or whatever it is that you're sacrificing.
[16:55] Even if you're sacrificing your pride of looking foolish when you witness to someone and they might reject you at work, just be willing to sacrifice for the Lord. Thank you. Again, we'll continue to sing together.
[17:11] Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have and ever hope to be.
[17:31] Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have. And ever hope to be.
[17:44] All of my ambitions. All of my ambitions, hopes and plans.
[17:54] I surrender these into your hands. All of my ambitions, hopes and plans.
[18:10] I surrender these into your hands. For it's only in your will that I am free.
[18:25] For it's only in your will that I am free. Jesus, all for Jesus, all for Jesus.
[18:41] All I am and have and ever hope to be. Complete in thee. Complete in thee. Complete in thee.
[18:51] No work of mine. May take dear Lord the place of thine.
[19:07] Thy blood hath part and bought for me. And glorified I too shall be.
[19:19] Complete in thee. Complete in thee. Complete in thee.
[19:31] Glorified I too shall be. Complete in thee. No more shall sin. Thy grace hath conquered reign within.
[19:45] Thy voice shall bid the tempter flee. And I shall stand complete in thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought.
[19:59] And sanctified salvation wrought. Thy blood hath part and bought for me. And glorified I too shall be.
[20:13] Complete in thee. Each one supplied. And no good thing to me denied.
[20:24] Since thou my portion Lord will be. I ask no more complete in thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought.
[20:37] And sanctified salvation wrought. Thy blood hath part and bought for me. And glorified I too shall be.
[20:49] Dear Savior, when before thy bar. All tribes and tongues assembled are.
[21:01] Among thy chosen will I be. At thy right hand complete in thee. Yea, justified, O blessed thought.
[21:15] And sanctified salvation wrought. Thy blood hath part and bought for me. And glorified I too shall be.
[21:28] Amen. Amen. You can never see. Bye, beforehand. Amen. Allli branching in thee. Well, nobody tells me anything, so I didn't know.
[21:41] It is a blessing to be together. I was praising God this morning and thanking Him. I was thinking about people all around the world. Many don't get the opportunity to meet, but we have the opportunity, even though it's in this unusual way.
[21:52] But still, we get the opportunity to meet, and it sure is good to see you all and fellowship a little bit from a distance from afar. But it's been a blessing to us. I've been asked to give an update real quick and then pray. But a couple things about us.
[22:04] Our meetings start back on the 17th, and we're excited about that. Our house will be selling on May 13th, and that's a blessing as well. I pray that that will all close up.
[22:16] During this time, one of the most difficult things is not being able to share the gospel with people, because people don't want to even look in the eye a lot of times. But by selling the house, I've had many opportunities. The termite guy, the guys coming in to buy products.
[22:29] We're selling some things, so they come and we share the gospel with them. And then our handyman came yesterday. He was able to share the gospel with him, pray for him. His name is Paul. He's a Catholic. And, I mean, he's real close, so be praying for him.
[22:40] But that's been a blessing to be able to do that. And then Abby's wedding is coming up this Saturday, and you're all invited. It's going to be a different wedding. Things will be a lot different. It'll look a lot like this in here.
[22:51] And the order of service afterwards and all that will be different. It won't be traditional. We won't be tradition. You know, we'll be doing things a little bit different. And so be prepared for that.
[23:02] But you are invited. We're excited about that for their new life together. That's it on that. So let's pray for the offering as the men come. Father, we thank you, God, for this day.
[23:13] We thank you for the opportunity to meet together. What a blessing it is, Lord. You call us to, you tell us, Lord, we need to be gathered together to encourage one another. And I thank you for the encouragement from this morning and also from this evening already.
[23:25] And I just pray that you would bless this offering, Lord, for your honor and for your glory. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[24:16] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[24:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[25:18] Amen. in need of nothing.
[25:50] Empty-handed I rejoice. You deserve the greater glory. Overcome with joy I sing.
[26:07] By your love I am accepted. You're a good and gracious King. Holy, holy Lord almighty good and gracious good and gracious Holy, holy Lord almighty good and gracious King.
[26:40] You deserve the greater glory. Overcome I lift my voice to the King in need of nothing.
[26:57] Empty-handed I rejoice. You deserve the greater glory. Overcome with joy I see I see by your love I am accepted.
[27:19] You're a good and gracious King. Thank you. take your bibles if you would and turn with me to psalm chapter 20.
[27:33] I hope and pray that some of you have seen other folks saved two of our children and one family are going to get baptized shortly and maybe after this time of being at home cooped up locked away with your children you were able to share the gospel more and some people might have gotten saved.
[27:51] That's a great thing and I'm very excited about that. Charlotte Penrod lost a quarter inch of all of her fingers because she played the piano for 36 hours and so my wife told me she said you didn't mention Charlotte but if I start I just get in trouble so that's it.
[28:09] Now I was thinking about how fun it's going to be to watch Abby and her dad. Ty has to figure out how to get her in here. So whenever y'all set the seats up be sure and make it serpentine. I think you ought to have to go you know maybe backtrack a little bit to get through it just be fun to do that so y'all set that up if you would.
[28:29] I will take you into the word of God here. We're going to talk about a kind of a bad part of I think probably people don't like so much.
[28:43] You know when you we don't live in Bible days. So our society is so completely and obviously opposite. We're not warriors.
[28:57] I got more swords than all of you. I don't know how to use any of them. I just like swords. I like to think about what I could have been if I had have been. And I wasn't. But you know in the Bible they're in a war about all the time.
[29:12] In the book of Ephesians we're told to put on an armor. And so we don't like to talk about war. We're peaceful people.
[29:24] We don't want to talk about war. This is a war chapter. This is a war song. This is them getting ready to go to battle. And you need to understand that you know you got this kingdom here and all around it are people that would take their gold and take their silver.
[29:42] All around it are people that would make them slaves. It was a regular thing. Don't forget Joseph was sold into slavery. That's something we don't ever talk about or hear about but slavery was a part of what's going on in these days.
[29:58] And so it wasn't that unusual for your country to hear about a neighboring country. By the way you know countries weren't I mean Israel's a very small place compared to the United States of America.
[30:12] I mean it's going to take us 35 40 hours to drive from here to the coast and a bunch of us went to Israel together a year or so ago and we toured the whole country and I about died but I mean we drove all the way up to the top went across this way came down here went into another country came back in finished the bottom side came back up and flew out of the country do that in America in a week I mean you have to do some real driving and so there's smaller countries and there's war on every side and so when we read this we're going to talk about war I need you to understand it's written in the context that David lives in and you're supposed to when you study the Bible try to understand a little bit about what's going on so the Bible makes sense to you so you shouldn't feel like it's bad that he's at war he's protecting his country he never took over other people's country he never he never was he was never the aggressor he was a defender except when he took the land that God gave him and it had been given to his country since the days of
[31:17] Abraham so this country was his since God gave it to him and so that's the only time he gets into war so we'll talk about that in just a minute another thing I'd like to talk to you just briefly about is you know I think you ought to want to learn to pray the Psalms and sometimes and I don't do it all the time but I've done it many times and lots of times but when you read a Psalm two things you need to understand you know it's not written directly to you but it's very applicable to you so David writes this in their church their congregation it's not a church because the church is a very definite different person it's in the New Testament the Old Testament is the nation of Israel but in their worship services they would have sung this and this would have been what you sung right before you're going to battle in fact is the first part of this song will be the people singing and saying man we're asking God to take care of our king and give our king wisdom and help our king not mess up and help our king do the right thing and then somewhere in there the king stands up and it's like a musical you know the king stands up and he starts singing back and he said oh you don't worry I am the I'm God's anointed and I will win God will see to it that I win and things are going to work out but if you'll look at verse one just a second just for like praying the
[32:38] Lord hear thee in the day of trouble the name of the God of Jacob defend thee now this is for Israel but you know the name of the God that's my God the God of Jacob is my God and that doesn't bother me in the slightest that it's the name of the God of Jacob and but when you have days of trouble you can take and pray this song when you feel like you're under attack and things and you need to understand I think this bothers you and I think maybe some of you don't grasp it but you are pretty much in a war all the time yourself when you're a born-again believer you know what you're supposed to you're supposed to put on armor that's Ephesians chapter six you're supposed to put it on your head and on your chest and on your whole body you're supposed to be prepared to go to war and when you read that you're probably oh that's cute and maybe you made your son a shield of faith I made David a shield of faith and try to make him something that I am not a carpenter and I'm not an artist and you'd have never known that's what it was but David was young and he didn't know any better amen and so when he got older I'm sure he thought man my dad's a retard but anyway so so but we're in a battle we're in a battle we're in a war and Satan is attacking us we wrestle not against flesh and blood what's going on in these days of trouble in our country is for example he has been shooting darts of fear at you and so he just rears back and says you need to be afraid I can take you out and so he shoots that at you and you're supposed to raise your shield of faith and say that's not what the word of God says buddy I am not to fear what man can do to me I'm to fear the one who can determine if I go to heaven or hell so you answer the devil with the word and that's why you remember our scripture you remember our scripture so that when the liar says something you can say truth back to him and there's only one place somebody said I just don't know who to trust I said that's about it right there that's about it you can trust the word of God but about everything else you can't trust you can't trust it too well but you're in a battle and so this psalm works great for you you're in a battle when the devil would have you be afraid or the devil would have you he likes to bring pressure and tension he likes to step into your family and cause division you do know the confusion and division those aren't
[35:09] God things those are devil things you do know that the devil enjoys destroying families he hates families he hates families because God likes families he hates he hates your gender because God gave you that gender so he's against that he hates marriage because God's for marriage I mean you just gotta understand just think of this whatever God said the devil says just the opposite that's who he is so if you I'll probably do just a little bit of this with you if I still have time at the end of it but if you'd look here the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble the name of the God of Jacob defends you that's the people praying for David and saying David I'm praying that God's listening to you when you pray buddy I know we're having a day of trouble and I'm praying that the God of Jacob will defend you and send you help from the sanctuary and strengthen you because we're about to go into war and if you don't win they'll come and rape our wives and kill our daughters and kill our sons and kill our old men and it's the Bible's full of that stuff you hear the story of these wars so they're praying for him I want to go through this with you if you write things down write this under the banner of the cross you see what's happening here is
[36:27] David is establishing who he's gonna fight for I wish you go down if you would to verse five and just in your Bible underline set up our banners set up our banners you understand that our military people they fight for a banner it's called a flag United States flag they wear it on their uniforms they got it on about everything they got it flies above their place Francis Scott Key writes a story he writes a story about the the that becomes a star-spangled banner that becomes the national anthem about our banner and David said I'm fighting under a banner too and I'm gonna show you what the banner was look in your Bible if you would at verse one I want you to underline this this is all this all prelim we'll get to the real stuff in just a minute but underline this I want you to notice he says three times in these short little psalm he says three times in nine verses the name of the God so just underline name of God you see when David goes out to fight David saying I am not going out in David's name I am not going out in Israel's name
[37:36] I'm going out in the name of the God of Jacob that's whose name I'll fight by the way that's how he fought Goliath nothing new here nothing like David's making up a new thing to say when Goliath hollered at him and mocked him and basically calls him a dog and and said I can't believe they sent this punk out here to fight with me David's response is say what you want to say you got big mouth and big guns and big stuff but I come in the name of the God of Israel I'm here in God's name that's what his banner was and they're about to go into battle and that's in that banner again look at verse five underline name of our God second time we will rejoice in thy salvation in the name of our God that's what we're flying here you didn't get saved by the Baptist Baptist Church that's not your banner you didn't get saved by vision Baptist Church that's not your banner you got saved in the name of the Lord Jesus that's your banner and every knee and every tongue every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ skip over if you would to verse seven and underline name of the
[38:50] Lord our God three times nine little verses three times let me make it clear who I'm fighting for the name of our God I prefer peace and you prefer peace I don't like war at all but David Psalms often talk about war but he's fighting God's battle and I just need you to know this the devil would do anything he can to get you to deny truth the devil would do anything he can to get you to live a discouraged and defeated a lifestyle the devil the devil wants to ruin you every way he can because you belong to God and because you belong to God you got this very special you remember what we read just a lot long ago God takes delight in you and pleasure in you and so the devil's like if I can mess up his kids I'll I'll hurt him and so you need to get up every morning you need to know that though you may not like the terms of war you're in a war and
[39:53] I have I'm in a war I'm probably worse than any of you and I lose so many times that's why you got a helmet of salvation to go over your head and get your mind under control I don't know how many times I could tell you that the devil just works me over he makes me think like I ought to quit he makes me think like I'm nothing he makes me think like everybody's against me he brings all kinds of junk into my head and I've got to know that when he throws that stuff at me I can lift the shield of faith I can control my thoughts I can honor God in it you're probably going through more of that than you'd realize you'd probably going through more of that than you'd realize we wrestle not against flesh and blood go with me if you would to verse one God's man prepares the leading people into battle and his people begin to pray for him the people pray that God will hear and answer prayer now they're singing at church and the king is I mean it's not church it's the congregation the church will be that's a New
[40:55] Testament thing but you got to understand they're in the congregation and maybe the soldiers already dressed up for battle I have no idea and maybe the horse is already outside and maybe all the all the weaponry is already but they're all together and and the song leaders up there and he's singing all right together let's all sing it the Lord hear you David in the day of trouble we need you to hear that we need God to hear you and we need God to defend you the people knew that only God could win the battle that God would hear them the people knew that their joy was found in his name go down to verse five if you would we will rejoice in thy salvation and in the name of our God now that salvation right there isn't a Bible salvation like we teach though it definitely applies but they were in the middle of they're fixing to go to war and we're praying that God will bring my son home we're praying God will bring my husband home we're praying God will let our country win and that would be salvation but by the way that is what
[42:00] God's done when he saved you he let you go home when he saved you he got you a place in heaven and he's in heaven preparing a place for you their joy was found in their salvation in his salvation that he gives and in the name of our God in the name of our God their strength was in the name of their God Psalm 20 verse 7 some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God so before they go to battle they're all getting together and they're singing and they're discussing this and David's saying his part and they're saying their part and when a normal president or a normal king might bring all of his missiles out and roll them down the road and he might have all of his soldiers go marching by they're singing it'll be the name of our God it'll be the name of our God you I'm sure you know all this and it's all background to hear but
[43:01] God didn't like him counting their soldiers because it don't y'all count your soldiers you'll you'll start depending on your soldiers you don't count your soldiers don't count your weapons fact is I'll kill more than you kill I'll be there and I'll do more and by the way when Moses is leading them and Joshua's leading them and whenever they're going into battle if they need it God just stops the sun in the middle of the sky and let's them win God takes care of his people thank God we're his people could I get an amen there but they wanted God to hear and answer David's prayer and defend him in Psalm chapter 20 in verse two send the help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion I want you to underline that word sanctuary is like we know God has a place we know see you got to understand they really believe that God was real they really believe God was somewhere and they're like God's up in heaven and God can just send the soldiers if he needs to you remember when
[44:03] Joshua's about to go into battle don't you and this angel shows up and Joshua arrogantly like a punk preacher like me looks at him and said whose side you own and the angel said son you got that backwards that ain't how things work around here you can get on God's side and I'll be with you or you just forget it I'm the boss around here and so he says God sent help from the sanctuary strengthen out of Zion they wanted God to remember and accept David's worship look at your verse three remember all thy offerings oh God we pray that you'll remember all of David's offerings and you'll remember and accept all of his burnt sacrifice they want God to hear David's prayer they're singing about David chapter 20 verse 4 grant thee according to that own heart God answer his prayer God give him what he's asking for God give him what he's got planned they will rejoice in the fact that God has heard and answered Psalm 20 and verse 5 basically
[45:07] David's answering but it says we will rejoice in thy salvation I hope that you pray for those that you have in spiritual leadership in your ministry I hope that you realize that they are in a battle and the devil would like nothing more than to take them out let me just sum up for you in my own words what the people wanted from David if you read this here they're praying for David this is what they wanted they wanted a man of prayer as their leader they wanted to know that David had prayed to God and that David was more skilled in spiritual warfare than spirit than physical warfare they wanted David more of a man of God than a man of a sword they wanted a man that could trust God in every step of the way so their song here is David we're singing for you buddy and this is a prayer to our God that you would be the man of God you ought to be read the stuff it's like you could tell they're talking about him they wanted a man that worshipped
[46:07] God they wanted a man that worshipped God they talk about his offering they talk about his prayer they wanted a man that listened to God or got direction from God they wanted a man that would go into battle for the Lord and not for himself they wanted to fight under God's banner not David's banner they were looking for a man to lead them in obedience to the Lord's commands can I just say here this is what your wife is singing it's what your children are singing this is what you ought to be singing about me and others that are here to serve you we are asking God to give us a leader a husband a pastor whoever who is a man of prayer a man that worships God a man that listens to God if you want a strong marriage you work on this psalm right here it'll work on you because when we become men and women of prayer our children need that they go into battle every day the world would take them to hell in a heartbeat they need a dad who stands with a sword in his hand the word of
[47:20] God and says to his kids I'll teach you what to think and I'll teach you what to do you will not accept all the false beliefs that the world gives you only one way that's gonna happen and that is if you become a man of the book yourself you know you have men I'm the pastor of vision Baptist church I'm your pastor but man would you look at your wife you're their pastor you pastor your wife the greatest man of God your wife and children should know should be you they should know that daddy gets alone with God in the back room and they should be able to sing a song and say oh God there's trouble in the land and I need daddy to be a man of God and we believe he is that's what they need to have happening before I go on oh wait dad you are so important did you know in the New Testament I'm gonna make you mad you know but in the New Testament if your wife had a question she wasn't supposed to ask it at church she's supposed to ask you she's supposed to go home with all of her big questions and say honey would you explain this passage of scripture to me well ask the pastor well God told me to ask you amen that that's a pretty heavy weight on a man it's a pretty heavy weight on a man when your wife walks in and says this is what the word of God said and
[48:48] I'm not sure I'm understanding it teach me oh man of God it's a big responsibility to be a husband it's a big responsibility to be a dad I would like to ask you to think about those who have no pastor I'd like to think I'd like to ask you to think about that boy whose mama dies in China and no matter how many times you say to him well he she was just matter you know like a dog or a cat or a rabbit that you run over the road son she's just gone don't worry about it but inside he's going I need something I need something and they need somebody could hold the book open and say let me tell you what the word of God says hey when your little animal dies it breaks your heart but when your loved ones die you know where they go and you know what the word of God says but they don't in
[49:49] India and they don't in China and they don't in Peru and they don't in so many places we have to get men of God around the world because they have no one to turn to where could you get a little truth my mama died my baby died my wife died my kids died I need help these people were praying for their leader the king not a preacher he's a king he's a warrior they were singing about him after they've been singing we get to the second verse in the song go down with me to verse 6 if you would and he's going to start answering them but I would like to say to you that this is basically what David is going to say before we ever look at it David's going to say don't worry the battles already won he won it excuse me you need to catch that he can see one I don't have to buy your salvation God bought your salvation I don't have to defend you from the devil God will defend you from the devil I have the answer because I know the God of heaven in Psalm chapter 20 and verse 6 David says I know we got to victory look at what he said now no I he's singing he goes I know I don't know if you can hear him as a voice of echo I know I know I know that the Lord saves his anointed and I want his anointed that's the king that's the king David said I know
[51:15] God will save me God picked me God anointed me and God named me king when Solomon when Samuel came to my house and I tell you what I'm fixing to go into battle don't worry about it I'm God's man and then he says and I know this much God will hear from his holy heaven and with the saving strength of his right hand I yeah number one I know that I'm taking care of I know God's gonna watch over me I know what's gonna happen I know I'm his but not only do I know that I know this that when I pray God hears you should be able to say that now let me just throw something at you we're in the Old Testament but you know if you're in the New Testament y'all are anointed y'all been marked as a child of God say amen right there do you know what you can't lose just back up and think about that a second greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world amen huh the devil can't win what can separate you from the love of Christ nothing can separate you from the love of
[52:15] Christ hey when death knocks on your door and everybody's all worried and scared you're laying in the bed dying you can look at him and say I'm a little nervous about this but don't worry I know where I'm going I am his anointed and then David says in verse 7 I'm not trusting how many chariots we got out there anyway chapter 20 verse 7 some trust in chariots and some trust in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God David says I'm not trusting my guns I'm not trusting my bows and my arrows I'm not trusting my chariots and that's where daddy you you can't trust your bank account can I get an amen right there you can't trust your bank account and you can't trust all the doctors and lawyers you know and you can't trust all your best friends there's only one you can trust just like David said change that to our day and time some trust in retirement retirement funds and some trust in savings accounts and some trust in all the people they know but some some but I will remember the name of the Lord our God we know this hey they can take all our money they can take everything we have but the God of heaven will still take care of us you should say amen right there
[53:33] David is trusting in the Lord and not his armies and he knows that God has already given the victory verse 8 is kind of obscure to me but I think of it as just funny I mean it's word of God just like David says they're already they're already defeated look at it he said they're singing and David says oh you can trust that God will take care of me I'm his anointed and he hears what I pray and I'm not trusting in my bow and arrow and I'm not trusting in my slingshot I'm not trusting in my sword I'm trusting in the God of heaven and they're already brought down and fallen and we are already living and look at it we are risen and stand upright God has already given us a victory read the verse that pretty sweet stuff amen you have the victory in Jesus David knew that God would honor his word we need men and women of God that know God didn't know that God hears and answers prayer I like verse 9 and we've separated it off but look at verse 9 save Lord let the king hear us when we call I think
[54:49] David is saying I need you Lord I don't know if it's like the PS in the verse or in the song I don't know how it's being sung I don't know if it's a chorus but David said save Lord God Almighty save me you're the king hear us when we call hear us when we call it's all about God hearing and answering prayer God alone can save the whole Psalms not about how strong David is but how strong God is too often we look to men of power prestige and influence they can they have the answers I've been known to do that I've got friends they got money they can help me they know people they can help me you know that lady in the New Testament she spent everything she had on doctors when she couldn't do anything she just touched the hem of his garment and he did everything we trust God let me give you some thoughts from the psalm when you're in trouble pray to the one that can hear and answer and save you look at verse one the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble the day of trouble is coming your way by the way there's no way that we're going to get out of having trouble I don't care how much they tell you you can have your best life now it's not happening best life's heaven say man best life's heaven you know what awaits you sickness and death and if it's not a virus it'll be a cancer if it's not that'll be old age or a car wreck you just need to know this there's a day coming and you need God the day is coming when we hear those awful words you need to get your stuff in order it's coming so you're gonna trust in the name of the Lord you need to realize that true help comes from the Lord in heaven I love verse two and I think of me practically you pray and say God send help God send help God strengthen me God send help God strengthen me I'll be afraid I'll be nervous I'll be wondering if I'm gonna make it I'll be wondering what's gonna happen I've never done that before I've never been that road before but I can pray and I know God can hear this afternoon my wife's in another vehicle we pull into the house I'm a little bit slow getting out of the car and and I tell her they're about to kill
[57:31] Chloe and Betty's like we got a granddaughter named Chloe and she's like do what I don't know it's in it's in the book it's in the book I'm listening to and so Betty's like freaking out ready to kill me and they're just about to take Chloe to the guillotine she will get her head cut off in the story and in that time she says God I need help and God helped her God strengthened her and that's what God will do for you but before the day of problems comes you need I like verse three and I just like to remind you of it I got four minutes but just like to remind you of it when they're praying for David they said God please remember David's offerings in other words David had a custom of making all friends is it I'm not amazed and to you how everybody in the hospital gets religious and everybody in jail gets religious and everybody in trouble gets religious but when they're singing for David they're like God you know David's a praying man God you know
[58:34] David's a worshiping man God remember David's prayers and accept his sacrifices second time I'll just get you a couple more of the verses but can I say to you it won't work you won't make it trying to catch up on your praying when they say you got the cancer it won't I mean God will still be there I'm not saying he would abandon you but if you you need to be pre-prepared this needs to be a prepaid card not a credit card you don't need to be praying on credit you need to be prayed up David God remember David you know he's made offerings you know he's made sacrifices remember maybe we'd have to say God you know he wants to he never did but he probably will now if you'll just help him now don't do that say man it's the name of our God he's our banner he's our flag and then I just say the last one that we'll look at verse 6 live confidently that God will take care of you I love how David said now know I y'all need to hear something
[59:56] David said I'm about to go out and do battle and my soldiers are gonna go with me but here's one thing I know I'm glad you prayed for me I already have the victory God has given me the victory I have the victory you need to live knowing enough Bible and enough promises of God that when all hell breaks loose in your life that you will say I know I know I'm saved I know my name's written in the land's book of life I know I've been forgiven I know God hears and answers my prayers and I know I'm going somewhere I've never been before but I can trust that God will take care of me now know I that the Lord saves he is father in heaven I thank you for the chance to talk to your people I pray you'd encourage them I pray you'd help them to trust you and believe you I pray you'd help them to get ready for the battle and I'll give you praise and honor for all you do in Jesus precious name amen
[61:00] Lord I remind you that the Pepperdines invited us to the wedding on Saturday at two o'clock with Joseph and Abby getting married and we'd love to help you any way we can looking forward to that time let them know that you'll be coming if you're able to and in this last 85 people downloaded the app this morning between morning and now either in the auditorium or online going forward I'll just refer to you as the good church members and appreciate you doing that if you need any help let me know one feature I like to tell you about the reason you might want to download it is a push notifications inside it when you first downloaded it you could decide what ministries that you wanted to hear about youth ministry kids I want and so on well inside of settings you can add more or take those away and pastor has pastor's memo so if he wants to send something out maybe reminds you about tomorrow night we'll be streaming a sermon at at seven o'clock or something else going on but those push notifications will be really nice they don't have any fees to them I don't think anybody pays for text messaging anymore but if you do you won't be paying for it that notification and you can turn those on and off and that'll be a great way for us to stay connected hope all of you have a great afternoon God bless