(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, Psalm 20. One of the really interesting things that struck me right away in preparing for the sermon with Psalm 20 is, if you notice in pretty much the vast majority of the other Psalms, a lot of them have to do with seeking to the Lord as being your defense and being your shield and kind of going to the Lord in times of trouble. But it's always done from the first person narrative, right? Like, God help me, Lord, I'm seeking you and and, you know, the enemy is coming at me and all these various Psalms. But what we see in Psalm 20, and I really want to make a strong point of this, is and there's a few sections here, but look at the like the first four verses. The Bible says the Lord hear thee, not, you know, we're going to use this in the Lord. Hear me in the day of trouble. Right. But here is saying the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob. Defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice. See, Lord, grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. So the first four verses is meant like from from a believer, from someone who saved to, I believe, another believer, another one of the brethren and basically wishing blessing from God that God's going to hear you. Hey, I want God to hear you. I want God to defend you. I want God to be there for you. I want God to, you know, accept your burnt offerings and listen to you and hear you. And this is like a prayer for you. And what I love about this is an attitude that I believe that we ought to have towards each other. And it's not just while it is extremely important and you're going to see how often we see in the psalms going to the Lord to help us. Right. To help me, Lord. I'm in trouble. Help me. God, I've got this going on. Help me, Lord. I've got a decision made. Give me wisdom, Lord. Defend me. There's a lot of people attacking me. God, help me. And learning to just completely rely on the Lord to help you. Right. That is extremely important. That is primary. That is most important because, you know, if you're not helped, how are you going to be able to help other people? And there's a lot of teaching here on on just having that faith of completely relying on the Lord. But we cannot forget and we ought not forget. Just like we have our prayer requests, we're praying for other people to be mindful of others and to be praying for the good and the blessings on other people that God will hear them and do good for them. Just as Job, you know, he was not only praying for himself, but he would also offer his sacrifices for his children and say, unless, you know, they commit some sin or something like that. I want I want them to be protected. He was worried and concerned with his own family and making sure that, well, hey, maybe they said something amiss. Maybe they did something wrong. I'm just going to do this anyways and and and put a blessing on them. Turn, if you would, to Colossians Chapter four. Keep your place here. Of course, we're coming back to Psalm 20. Turn, if you would, to Colossians Chapter four. There's many places that we could find in the New Testament that talk about, you know, caring for the brethren and loving the brother and praying for people. But I just want to just turn to this one one point here that I think ties in perfectly well with what we're reading in Psalm 20. Look at verse number two in Colossians four Bible reads, continue in prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. This is the apostle Paul in treating the church at Colossae. The Colossians to pray for them, saying, hey, you guys pray for us. Pray that God's going to open up this door for us to preach the gospel. Please be in prayer for us. Think about us. And then if you jump down to verse number 12, the Bible reads here, Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis. So basically saying here we have Epaphras and Epaphras is he's one of you. So I assume he's from Colossae. I assume he's from that areas basically saying, you know, he's one of you and he's a servant of Christ and he saluteth you. Now, he could just be referring to the fact that he's saved like, hey, this is just another brother in Christ. That's another possibility. You know, I don't know if you could tell either way from the way it's written, but that's not what's important, right? It doesn't matter whether or not he's physically from there. What's most important is that he is a servant of Christ. And he's saying, hey, he wants you to know he's always laboring fervently for you in prayers. So he's thinking about you. He's praying for you, praying for your benefit, praying for your well-being. And he's doing this fervently. I mean, he is not forgetting. He is very sure to be praying and keeping you in mind in prayers to the Lord, you know, on a regular basis. And what's he praying for? They may stand perfect and complete and all the will of God. He's praying that God will strengthen you, that you'll be able to keep going and moving forward and bring a blessing on you, that you can keep being in the will of God. Let's go back to Psalm 20, because everything that's being brought up in Psalm 20 about God hearing you in the day of trouble is where it starts off in verse one. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. And for the next four verses, everything he brings up are all things that we've looked at already before in other Psalms, where if you want to have God listening to you like this, you're going to have to be listening to him. You're going to be in obedience to him. You need to be living righteously for God to be hearing you in your day of trouble, right? Where you're not just have this stiff neck and not listening to him, because if you do that, then God's going to say, well, I'm not going to listen to you. Right. So it's interesting how in Colossians 4, too, you say, you know, the prayer is that, hey, that you're going to be in the will of the Lord and you're going to continue doing the right thing, because in so doing, then God will hear us. Right. And what we see in some 20 years is, hey, the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. So this is a song about someone that I believe he knows is already living righteously. Someone who is doing a good work because he's saying, hey, the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble, the name. And I'll get to that in a little bit. I kind of jumped ahead just for a split second there, because we start to see that as it changes from these four verses of talking about thee to then we. Right. The people who are praying for thee. It talks about we. And then it goes further with the conclusion at the end of this song. And it's a short song, but it's great. What's with all the content that's in this song? So he's saying the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Right. Praying for someone else's benefit, praying that, hey, I want God to defend you. I want God to hear you when you come into troubles. I want God to be there for you. Send the help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. Verse number three. Remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice. See, like you're just basically saying, hey, when you offer up your offerings, I want God to see those offerings, to accept those offerings, that those offers will be acceptable by God. And, you know, the only way that those that will be the case is if the person is, you know, basically doing right by the Lord. You can turn, if you would, to Jeremiah Chapter 14. We know going all the way back to Genesis. With Cain and Abel. That it's not just any offering that sacrifice. So when he mentions here in verse three, remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifices. God is not just pleased with every offering that people could possibly make. God is not pleased with every sacrifice that people make. Believe it or not, there are sacrifices that people could be making and in their hearts and I'm making this sacrifice to the Lord and the Lord doesn't accept it. And it does not please the Lord. And the Lord just say, will say no and just have just have no. And in fact, sometimes the Lord could even hate that. The Bible talks about the Lord hating the prayer of the wicked and he's not going to hear them. This is an attribute of God that we need to remember. You know, oftentimes here's a good example of people who may be even sincere in their their offerings, in their sacrifices. But God's not hearing them. And I think about all the Catholics on, you know, when it comes to Lent that we just got done with basically where they make these sacrifices and say, well, I'm not going to do this and I'm not going to do that. And there's so many people they sincerely are giving things up and they're trying to make do something good for the Lord and give their sacrifice. But you know what? Without faith, the Bible says it is impossible to please him. You say they have a faith, but they don't have saving faith because they're trusting in their works to be saved. They're trusting in being a good person. They're trusting in how well they obey the Bible. They're trusting in all these great sacrifices that I make for the Lord. All of these things are going to help me to get to heaven or help me to spend less time in purgatory or help me to avoid hell. Whatever their mindset is. That is what the Catholic Church teaches, that you need to do all these good things and relying on those works. They don't have their faith completely in Jesus Christ as their savior. And because they don't have their faith only in Jesus Christ to save them, it is impossible to please the Lord. So all of these sacrifices that they do are in vain. And this is this is goes all the way back to Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices unto the Lord. But God accepted Abel's offering, he did not accept Cain's offering. Abel offered a lamb, he offered he offered an animal sacrifice unto the Lord. Cain brought of the work of his hands, the work of the field. He brought in the best that he got. You know, look, did he work for it? Yeah, you bet. It wasn't a sacrifice for him. Sure, I believe it was. He went out. He worked. He brought us up and said, Here, God, I have this for you. And God refused it. Why? Because it wasn't the sacrifice that he wanted and that he said that that that he would accept. So just bringing something to the Lord doesn't just automatically mean it's going to be accepted because we have to do it according to God's will, with what God wants, with what God says. It's better to be obedient and just do what God says than it is to give sacrifice. Jeremiah chapter 14 is where I had you turn. Look at verse number 10. The Bible reads, Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander. They have not refrained their feet. Therefore, the Lord doth not accept them. So he's saying, You know what? This people, they love to wander. Right? They're just going and doing whatever they want. Yeah, you know, I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to live my life. I don't care what the word of the Lord says. I'm just going to go and wander around and just do whatever I want to do and just disregard the commandments of the Lord altogether. They love to wander. They have not refrained their feet. They didn't go, Oh, wait, this is wrong. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to try to walk in the right way. So for this reason, therefore, the Lord doth not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. So he's saying, You know what? Then they're going to get punished for that. I'm going to see their sins. I'm going to see their iniquities, and I'm going to go and I'm going to bring punishment because they're just wandering over. And you know, if you think about this, this is what parents do with their children. You know, if you have a child that's just wandering about is doing whatever they want to do and not listening to the parents rules. It's time for a discipline. It's time for punishment. Right? Look at verse number 11 here. Then said the Lord unto me. And this is really important to understand because this is an attribute of God that is not commonly taught today in general in Christian churches. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. This isn't the only place that it talks about this, but this is an important spot where he's saying he's actually calling out of people saying, You know what? Don't pray for these people. Now, the world leaders and the really popular preachers out there say, Oh, we got to pray for everybody. We've got to pray for the whole world. We got to pray for every single person and just pray for all of them. Well, no, according to the Bible, there's some people that you just ought not to be praying for. And, you know, they used to be like, Pastor, that doesn't sound right. The reason why it doesn't sound right is because that's all you've been hearing maybe for your whole life. But that doesn't make it true. If you want to know what sounds right, we got to get in the scripture because this is what dictates what's right and wrong. This is what tells us who God is. And this is what we go to if we want to understand what is the truth, regardless of what you may have heard for however long in your life. And we need to be willing and able to challenge our own beliefs and our own presuppositions and whatever it is that we've conjured up in our own minds about who God is and compare that with the scripture so that we have a clear and true understanding of who God is. Now, this doesn't mean that, oh, you just don't pray for anyone. I mean, we're not taking some weird, ridiculous extreme. And you don't see this often in the Bible. But there definitely are specific cases where God's saying, you know what? There are some people that you don't be praying for. There are some wicked people that you don't pray for their good. You don't pray for their blessing. You don't pray that God will bless them. Because that's going to ultimately that would make you partaker of their evil deeds. And the Bible talks about people that you don't bid God speed to, right? When people come to you preaching a false gospel, you don't go, well, God bless you. God speed. Because then you're partaker with their evil deeds. Verse number 12. When they fast, look at this, I will not hear their cry. So when people fast in the Bible, they're fasting to pray into the Lord. They're trying to get God's attention. They're doing, you know, they're afflicting themselves by withholding food, you know, maybe withholding water, just kind of withholding pleasure from themselves, because they're trying to be real serious about whatever it is that they're praying for. And they're making a sacrifice to the Lord through their fasting so that God will hear their prayer. That's what people do. So these are people, he's saying when they fast and they're going to fast for the Lord, he's saying, I'm not going to hear them. I'm not. And when they offer burnt offering and an ablation, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. So we see here an example of people who disregard God's laws. They just want to go and do whatever they want. But then when it comes time to them going, oh, well, I'm going to fast and I'm going to offer a sacrifice. You know, there can come a time where God's saying, you know what? I'm not going to hear it. I'm not going to accept it. So all the more important reason to make sure that we don't get ourselves in a condition with God where he's saying, you know, I'm not going to listen to you now because you've been too stiff necked. You've been just wandering. Now it's just time for punishment. God is merciful and long suffering, and that is a great attribute of the Lord and not to be understated as well. And I, for one, am extremely thankful for the long suffering and mercy that God shows us, because it is great. It is wonderful. It is immense how much mercy God can show us and extend unto us. But we don't want to be pushing things with God. We've got to keep it real. We've got to keep our mind set and focused right and keep our hearts right with the Lord, because, you know, that is the most important thing. God looks on the heart. He knows we make mistakes. And again, I continually will do this because I think it's a great illustration that it's very similar to the way that we, you know, parents look on their children. They're merciful. They're long suffering. We know that they make mistakes. We know that they do foolish things. We have to correct them. We have to discipline them sometimes. But they could get a lot of leeway and some slack from us, the parents. But then there's definitely times where it's like, no, it's time to lay down the law. And that's the way that God deals with his children as well. But here's the thing. Just like in the family, if you've got children, this continue to be disobedient, continue to be wayward, do their own thing. It's going to get worse and worse and worse. You know, when you have a child who's behaving pretty good and they do something wrong and they go to you and they're repentant and they say, I'm sorry, you know, forgive me. I know I did wrong. It's a lot more likely to then forego inflicting a punishment on the child when you can see that they've already changed their behavior, that they're already sorry, they're not going to do it. You can extend a lot more grace and mercy in those situations. But when you have a child who day after day, they're not listening, not listening, not listening, not listening, disrespecting, doing their own thing. And then all of a sudden they want to give you sacrifice or they want to tell you, oh, yeah, I'm doing, you know, it's going to be too late. They're like, no, look, you have been doing this and this and this. Now it's just time for you to get punished. And that's just the way it is. Sorry, sorry, not sorry, right? Because God's not going to apologize for any punishment that He gives. So in Psalm 20, you go back to Psalm 20. And, you know, we're going to turn to 1 Kings 8 just in a minute, too. So if you want to get a place in 1 Kings 8. In Psalm 20, he says, you know, he's the psalmist is going, remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice. This is just another indicator, since he's praying that God will accept their sacrifices, is that he knows that they're he's they're not a person like is being described in Jeremiah 14, not some wayward person. He's not praying this for someone who's just completely, you know, backslidden and out of the way or some heathen or whatever. He's praying this for someone who is, you know, just a fellow believer, a brother in Christ that is, I would just say a normal brother in Christ, right? Someone who's just not extremely wicked. And then verse number four. And you can I didn't take the time to do verses one and two, but you kind of find the same things for that. We've I feel like we've done that sufficiently in the previous sermons about seeking the Lord, new day of trouble and stuff like that. Verse number four, by which grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. So this whole thing is kind of a blessing. So if you have a wicked person, you're not going to say, well, I hope God grants you according to your heart. Right, because you're a wicked person. I mean, maybe you would, because then it's like, you know, kind of a cursing if God blesses you according to your heart, if you've got a wicked heart. But obviously he's talking about, you know, I want God to just be able to fulfill the desires of your heart and bless you with the things that you want and fulfill all thy counsel. So when you're seeking the counsel, good Godly counsel, that that you'll receive, that that God will give you good wisdom. Right. All of these things are blessings and are being bestowed upon somebody else. First Kings Chapter eight. We start reading verse number 33. Sorry, I take this off this little warm in here. First Kings Chapter eight, verse number 33, the Bible reads, When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy because they have sinned against thee and shall turn again to thee and confess thy name and pray and make supplication unto thee in this house, then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy people Israel and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest on the Father. Now, before I continue going further, I forgot to give you the context of this passage. First Kings eight is when King Solomon is dedicating the temple. This is at the dedication of the temple. And it's a real long chat. There's a lot of things that he talks about. But basically saying, you know, in a nutshell, we're going to there's some specific verses that I want to make sure that we cover. But he's saying, you know, when when people backslide and start doing bad, Lord, you know, if they turn to you, if they repent and they pray towards this temple, you know, God, show some respect to this temple that we built you and to this house and hear from heaven and forgive their sins and help them out and do and, you know, basically bless them. So he's kind of dedicating this temple as being a special place that is a place where God's name, you know, it's basically God's home on earth. Obviously, he Solomon even knows there's no thing, you know, no house made with man's hands that could contain the Lord or contain God, that it's more symbolic than anything else. But that's what he's asking for is to show some respect to this place, that when that when Israel respects the Lord and you know, and such, then that God will in turn hear them. So that's where he's saying here, verse thirty four, then hear thou in heaven, forgive the sin of thy people, Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gave us unto their fathers. When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee. If they pray toward this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin when thou afflict us them, then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk and give rain upon thy land, which thou has given to thy people for an inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar, if their enemy besieged them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be, what prayer and supplication so ever be made by any man or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands toward this house. Then hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling place, and forgive and do look at this and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest for thou. Even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men, that they may fear the all the days that they live in the land which thou gave us unto our father. So one of the blessings that that Solomon is giving and saying, hey, when they repent of their sins, when they try to get back right with you, their heart is right with you, Lord. Then hear in heaven and forgive them and then give them according to their heart, because you know the hearts, Lord. So if their heart isn't right, then you're going to give them according to their heart. And again, it could be a blessing or a curse to have things done according to your heart. But and we ought to to regard that, too. And remember that that God can see the hearts and God does know your heart. So when you find yourself in sin, when you when you find yourself maybe backsliding, when you turn back to the Lord, you know, when you repent and get right with God, it's good to know that God can hear you. And it's also good to have other people praying for you, which is why it's good to establish, you know, get yourself established in a good church where you have other people praying for you. And, you know, a good church will be praying for other people, by the way. I mentioned that we have a prayer list. Just because we have a prayer request list doesn't mean that anybody in this church is actually praying for these people. But I would to God, I hope that you guys are praying for people that we put on this list. You know, I don't take the time to make this list for nothing. It's not just a show to say, oh, look, we're praying for people. It's actually because people have real needs and they're relying on you to pray for them. So, you know, maybe I don't make that point enough. But but this is you know, this is real. We ought to be sincerely praying for other people that are in need, that are in that need help from the Lord and pray for them as we're seeing the great example here in Psalm 20 of praying for someone else and praying for blessings upon them and praying for good upon them and praying that God will bless them according to their heart. Right. There's a lot of people that have good hearts are trying to do the right thing. And, you know, maybe they fall on bad times. But you know what? God knows the heart. So praying that God, hey, God bless them according to their heart. You know, their heart. If their heart's right with you, then give every man according to his ways. And, you know, that ought to be also when it follows up there in first Kings eight, verse 40, that they may fear the all the days that they live in the land which they gave us unto our fathers. We ought to be living that God will give us according to our heart. Because if you fall into into sin and get into some wickedness, you know, you don't want your heart being wicked and then God rewarding you according to your wicked heart. That's a good reason to try to keep your heart right in the right place so that God can bless you. Let's go back to Psalm 20. If you actually you're in first Kings, go forward a little bit to Second Chronicles Chapter 32. It's the next place I'm going to have you turn. But but just put a bookmarker there. We're going back to Psalm 20. If you want to put a bookmarker in Second King or Second Chronicles 32. So now in verse number five of Psalm 20, we're transitioning from the these and all and all the, you know, the prayer or blessing, if you will, on the on you to we. We will rejoice in thy salvation. So all these blessings I hope God hears you and God protects you and God answers your prayer and gives you according to your heart and gives you good counsel. We will rejoice in thy salvation. And, you know, again, as a church family, people who care for one another and pray for one other, we ought to be rejoicing when someone is delivered from sickness, from some trouble, some, you know, when God answers a prayer and God defends people and God's there with them. Hey, that ought to be exciting for all of us. We all ought to share in that joy because we actually care about the person and it's genuine, right? I mean, when you care about someone and they they have a great success, they have a great victory, they have a great win. We ought to be there rejoicing with them and supportive of them and not having any root of bitterness. Going, oh, you know, maybe someone maybe someone gets a boost at their at their job or something. Right. And it's a great blessing. And God's blessed them in that way. You know, you don't have people going, oh, well, he didn't need any more than that. Or, you know, like, look, rejoice with the people. They've got a victory or whatever the case may be. Right. They'd be a wicked hard to not be just glad and thankful for the person who has who's who's had a victory that we should all be rejoicing in their salvation and whatever, whatever and from whatever it is. Right. That's good news to hear. And on the flip side, you know, don't be having a bad attitude when people are going through hard times either like Job's friends who are trying to just pin some sin on Job, even though they didn't have any evidence of him doing any wrongdoing or sin, other than the fact that he had all these hard times come upon him. It's like, look, when people in the church are having problems and not doing well, don't just assume the world, man, they must be in something really bad because, you know, God's really striking them. They're like, look, you don't know that. And if you don't know that, then you ought to just be grieving with them, mourning with them, praying for them and and leave it at that. You know, we need to have our our own hearts. Right. Because here's what's going to happen. Bible is very clear on reaping what you sow. And, you know, if you're not showing forgiveness towards other people, then that's not going to be shown towards you either. And if you're having this rotten attitude, oh, man, they must be in some sin if something goes wrong. You know, what's probably going to happen is that God's going to bring that back around you and then, you know, put that maybe in other people's minds or you're just not going to receive any help when you need it or whatever. Right. Because because of your own your own actions. So just be aware of that and help that to rule your heart. Proverbs 20, verse five. We will rejoice in thy salvation and in the name of our God, we will set up our banners. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions and a petition is just a request. Right. So now this is the group saying, hey, we're going to rejoice in your salvation. We're going to set up our banners or banners like you're a flag. Right. We're setting up our banners. We're standing for the Lord. We're with you. And this is this is a symbol of everybody coming together in unity. Right. When when people are fighting behind a banner, you got a whole army together. They've got their flag and they're all coming together as one team, as one concerted effort, fighting for a cause. Right. Well, in the church, we're fighting for the cause of Christ and we're soldiers for Christ. And we all ought to be banded together. And hey, when when one member suffering, we're all suffering with them. And when one member rejoices, we're all rejoicing with them. And we're here together in unity as a church together. This is the type of church that I want to be a part of and I feel like I am a part of. I think we have great unity within this church. And you know what? That's only going to strengthen us. And when bad things happen, when bad people come in and infiltrate and they get cast out, you know, don't have the sympathies with the wicked doer. Let's just strengthen ourselves internally and not allow that to try to put any wedge in our own unity of, you know, fighting for the cause that we're fighting for. Because when those things happen, when we're real strong, that won't have a big impact. And like this recent one, I had zero impact now. If it had an impact on our church, we would be and we would have already been in really, really poor shape spiritually for something like something that's obvious and egregious to cause a problem. But I don't want to get into all of that because what's going to happen, though, and what does happen sometimes is, you know, some people will have other motives and other intents and could be a little bit more slick about it and things not so obviously wicked that that are more capable of steering people away. But that's why we need to be in unity together as a church, as a family, knowing, hey, man, we're all in this here and we're going to rejoice with you. It's time to rejoice. We're going to weep with you and it's time to weep and just and just strengthen our church family in general. As Hebrews 10 says, you don't have to turn their famous passage in Hebrews Chapter 10, verse number 24, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Again, the mindset that we have is considering one another, provoking one another unto love to good works, being there, cheering each other on and being a good support of edification and love unto the rest of the church. That's that is a huge portion. You know what? This is what you don't really get when you just do live stream only. This is what you don't really get when you're at home or just completely out of church. Right. Or and you just you don't get that. And this is extremely important, extremely important aspect of church to be provoking one another unto love and good works. I mean, I don't know about you, but the communication I think has gone down in general, right? With people that you normally would be provoking unto love and good works by being here in person at church, as opposed to, well, we're all just sitting at home now or whatever, right? Now, again, I'm not saying there's no need to ever quarantine when there's a big problem, but I mean, this is extremely important. And I do believe church is essential. I mean, if it's if it's OK to go out and do all this other shopping and spend money and get haircuts and everything else, you better believe people ought to be going to church. And I'm sick of hearing all the news and all of this. I mean, I've noticed this actually even more recently in the news of like just this focus on churches. Oh, the church, you know, this started in a church and then it went through It's like you think these people that got sick were only going to church. They weren't going shopping. They weren't doing anything else. Oh, but it all just started in church. Right. And they're demonizing church is just being like you can do everything else. But if you go to church, man, you are just, you know, doing the worst for for the cause of this, of keeping everyone healthy and that you are just horrible person for going to church. And how could you dare congregate in church and, you know, be so ignorant about spreading the disease or whatever, while the same people are just going off to all these grocery stores and touching all the product that everyone else is touching and, you know, whatever. Just all this just hypocrisy. And now we've got it to it. Sorry for the rant on this a little bit. This has been weighing on my mind a little bit recently, because everybody loses their mind and loses their focus. The whole point of this quarantine and staying at home was to flatten the curve, right? Just to flatten the curve so that the hospitals don't get inundated with a whole bunch of sick people. That's it. We're well past that, and it's been established by facts, by data, by people never, never getting to their capacity by these hospitals, by plenty of medical workers actually not working either now because all the elective stuff, everything else has just stopped. So you've got tons of medical personnel not working. You've got hospitals that are pretty empty now because they've dedicated all the resources to this. The whole point was for them, but now they're saying, oh, well, now we've got to go slowly. And now now the restaurants can go from having six people to 10 people to take. It was like, what is that going to do? No, seriously. Well, you go from six. It's a facade, folks. That is a facade. OK, I wasn't against completely, you know, putting in restrictions to try to ward off a really bad plague. I didn't think it was a bad plague, but I wasn't sure. I didn't know from the information that we had whether or not how bad it was going to be and the real danger to it. So I'm not opposed to taking efforts to stop something like that. That's going to have an impact on tons of people. And if there's going to be tons of deaths and everything else. Yeah, we should try to do what we can do to cut that off. And if that means, you know, no one's going out for a little while, you know, I don't have a problem with that. But this this whole now playing, you know, minigod, demigod with, you know, with, OK, well, now you can do this and now you can do this. And people that just think that they could just dictate, well, if you do this, it's safe. And if you do that, if you have six people, it's safe. If you have seven, it's not safe. If you're 5.5 feet away from here, then you could get that virus, but if you're six feet away, then you're OK. Nobody's that smart. People like to pretend like they're that smart and they just know it all. And oh, I need some, you know, these people need someone to tell them. Well, what's safe and what's not safe? What can we do? What can we not do? OK, everyone just needs to wear masks. Everyone wear masks. Everyone wear gloves. Put up the plexiglass, you know. And if people want to do whatever they want to do, have at it. But when you got governments telling you, well, you can do this and this and not this and not that, just kind of nitpicking through all this stuff, that's where it's just like, this is ridiculous. You do not know. You're not that smart. And I don't care who you're getting your information from those experts are not that smart to tell you that all of these little details, this is OK and that's not OK. Did the curve get flattened, which was the whole point? Then why are we even going through all this nonsense of stepping up and ramping up? Just let people open up and go back to normal. And if it becomes a serious risk or danger, then go back into into having restrictions again. But this whole ramping things up is just is just silly, because when you look at every little fine point in detail, it's just kind of like, what does that really do? What does that really do in a grand scheme of things? Nothing, nothing. We were going to go out to a restaurant because they're allowing people in. We can't sit together as a family. We called up a restaurant. We're like, hey, we want to know, are you guys having dine in? Are we allowed to dine in? Yeah, tables of four only. OK, well, we have we're a family of eight. And our kids are little. And it was Mother's Day. No, but we live together. We've been in contact with the same people. We're not bringing any more risk to you. It's all the same contact with all the same people in my house. No, sorry. If you want to come in, you have to sit at two different tables. It's not like we're going to be sitting next to each other, right? So, yeah, Mother's Day, I'm going to take three kids. She's going to take three kids. Happy Mother's Day. Can you pass the salt? Oh, wait, sorry, we might infect each other. You can't pass the salt. Maybe we could have a server come and wipe it down and then bring it to us. This is the nonsense. People lose their minds. OK, and I know this is getting way off topic. I'm going to get back to scripture now, but it's you know, we need to use sense. People just use some sense. I'm not for a lot of the government intrusion on a lot of different things. I really am not. I've been respectful and I've been trying to keep unity with everything here, and we're still going to continue to do what I think is wise to do while there's still this some level of uncertainty and still some level of risk. We are going to be doing that here, but I do not want to go. I mean, this is what's happening in governments is crazy. It really is just crazy. Anyways, church, that's where it all came from. It is essential. We need to be provoking one another into love and good works, and it's good to be here and it's good for the unity of our church and just for you individually in general. Psalm 20, look at verse number six. The Bible reads, Now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed. And this is just that assurance. Basically, he's writing from the fact of already he's prayed for the person, he knows they're a righteous person, and then you see the rejoicing. Hey, God saved you. Rejoicing your salvation, and then he's just seeing that added confirmation. Yep, Bible's true again. Now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed. I had the faith before, but now I see it, and yep, now I know. And this happens over and over and over again, folks. We don't need to be doubtful with our faith. We should be unwavering in our faith knowing that this is what the Bible says. This is what God's Word has said. These are the promises made. Look, be righteous. Do what's right. God will bless you. God will hear you. God will deliver you, and you could know that even before it happens. Now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed. He will hear Him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand. Look at verse number seven. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. What a powerful verse. And what this is teaching here when it says some trust in chariots, some in horses. This is human strength, human power, right? He's referring to military might. Chariots and horses, oh man. Some trust in tanks and bombers and all of this naval warfare and the ships and missiles and nuclear weapons and guns and whatever. Some people trust in this arm of flesh, right? But they're going to fail, and we're going to see that in the next verse. He says, but you know what? They, and this is like an us versus them. Some trust in chariots and horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Because God is the deliverer. God is the savior. God is the one who we really need to be trusting in when we have any problems no matter if it's on a really small scale with you individually in your life or on a grand scale even on the scale of a nation. Even on the scale of national security or global warming, climate change, whatever the threat is. Whatever the threat is. We need to be trusting in the Lord for our deliverance because the arm of flesh will fail you. It cannot save. If you turn to 2 Chronicles 32, we're going to see a great example here of King Hezekiah who put his trust in the Lord and didn't trust in his own forces and in his own military might, but trusted in God to save and be the deliverer when he was in fact faced with a huge army from a king who did trust in his military might and prowess and how strong he was. Look at verse number 1, 2 Chronicles 32. After these things and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered into Judah and encamped against the fenced cities and thought to win them for himself. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city and they did help him. So basically what happens is you've got Sennacherib, he's the king of Assyria, he comes and he besieges Jerusalem. He surrounds a roundabout and they see that he's coming here to besiege the city. So they go, hey, we're not going to let him come and just have this great water supply so they could just basically sit out there as long as they want. They decide to cut off that water supply to make it more difficult for them to encamp around the city to try to defeat them that way. So verse number 4 says, So there was gathered much people together who stopped all the fountains and the brook that ran through the midst of the land saying, why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? Also, he strengthened himself and built up all the wall that was broken and raised it up to the towers and another wall without and repaired Millo in the city of David and made darts and shields and abundance. So basically they're preparing their defenses. They're strengthening the wall, they're getting ammunition, they're getting ready because let's face it, while this verse rings completely true and we're going to see that it's completely true, we're still, while we trust in God, we should always be prepared and being ready to defend ourselves and things like that and we do what we can, but ultimately we were trusting in the strength of the Lord to be our savior. Now, verse number 6 says here, And he set captains of war over the people and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city and spake comfortably to them, saying, be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him, for there be more with us than with him. Now, he's not talking about physical numbers of people being more with us than with him because obviously the people in Jerusalem were a small number compared to this massive army that was coming against them, but he explains this in verse 8. He says, with him is an arm of flesh. That's the best he has. He's got an arm of flesh. It may be a strong arm of flesh, right? A big muscle, he's got this strong arm of flesh, but it's still flesh. But with us is the Lord our God to help us in the fight our battles. He saw, he had faith, he knows. Hey, the arm of the Lord being with you, I don't care how big of an arm any man has, any nation has, against God it is nothing, yea, it's less than nothing. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. So he comforts them and encourages them going, hey, we've got God on our side, they've got a big arm of flesh, but you know what? We've got the arm of the Lord to strengthen us. Verse number 9, after this did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, send his servants to Jerusalem, but he himself laid siege against Lakish and all his power with him, unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem, saying, thus saith Sennacherib, king of Assyria, whereon do you trust that you abide in the siege in Jerusalem? Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves, to die by famine and by thirst, saying the Lord our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah in Jerusalem, saying, you shall worship before one altar and burn incense upon it? Now this is what's funny about the heathen, they have no clue about the real true religion, about doing what's right, because Hezekiah was this great king that came in and kind of made things right within the country. See, people had been offering in the high places and they've been burning, offering unto idols and all this other stuff, and he came in and kind of cleaned it all up and he's saying, no, no, no, look, we're not gonna worship in the groves, we're not gonna worship in the high places, we're gonna worship here as God intended, we're gonna actually follow the word of the Lord and do it the right way. And obviously that would cause a disruption in the city, Sennacherib hears about this and he's thinking, he's just trying to get people to not trust Hezekiah, but it also shows his total ignorance of true believers on the Lord, but he's saying, yeah, see, he burnt out all these altars and stuff, he broke all this stuff down, and you think that God's gonna listen to you after this guy came in and did all this stuff? It's like, yeah, he did what was right. He's looking at it as he did all this stuff wrong, but he did it all right. But see, he doesn't even understand that because, again, it's the arm of the flesh, he's just blinded and in darkness and doesn't understand spiritual things whatsoever, he doesn't know the Lord. So that's what he says to them and he's saying, what, are you gonna trust in the Lord to deliver you? And verse number 13 says, know ye not that what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands were the gods of the nations of those lands? Any ways able to deliver their lands out of mine hands? So he's saying, you know, there's all these other people that I've defeated and they all pray to their gods and he's just equating the Lord to just one of these idols, one of these false gods. To him, they're all the same. He has no respect for the Lord. That's another reason why God's gonna fight this battle for them is because God wants his power and might to be known here on earth. Verse number 14 says, who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed that could deliver his people out of mine hand that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand? Now therefore, let not Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand and out of the hand of my fathers, how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand? And his servants spake yet more against the Lord and against his servant Hezekiah. He wrote also letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel and to speak against him saying, as the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine hand. Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews' speech unto the people of Jerusalem that were on the wall to affright them and to trouble them that they might take the city. And they spake against the God of Jerusalem as against the gods of the people of the earth which were the work of the hands of man. And you know what, when you are involved in some persecution or some battle and some wicked force is coming against you, they're gonna try to scare you, they're gonna try to use scripture against you, they're gonna try to use your religion against you and try to dishearten you and make you feel like we can't win, oh yeah, and just cast doubt in any way that they can. And here they're just, they're going on saying, see, no other God is able to do this, your God's not gonna be able to do it either, we're real strong, you can't do anything about it, and no one is able to stop us, right? And they wanna bring forth this image that it's an unstoppable force, so you might as well just give up now. That's why it's important to have the faith knowing that, hey, we're not trusting in an arm of flesh. Because if they were just trusting in their numbers and just how many people we have and how many weapons we have and our walls, they would lose. If it was just a physical fight, just a physical battle, they would lose. But there's more to it than that. God is their help and God is their strength and God is their defender, which is why they're able to win. Verse number 20, and for this cause Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos prayed and cried to heaven and the Lord sent an angel which cut off all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and captains and the camp of the king of Assyria so he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was coming to the house of his God, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword. So his own children killed him. In the house of his God, right? He wanted to say of all these other gods, oh they weren't able to help you. Isn't it funny how he dies in the house of his God, his false God that wasn't able to save him or deliver him just like all the other false gods weren't able to save or deliver their people but you know what? The Lord was able to save and deliver His people because He is the God. Verse 22, thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all other and guided them on every side. Turn if you would to 1 Samuel chapter 17. Isaiah 31 verse one, the Bible reads, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots. So the Bible's saying woe to the people that are gonna go down and trust in what man's help. Trusting on Egypt is trusting in the world. Trusting on just military strength and military might instead of trusting on the Lord. The Bible says woe to them that go to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel neither seek the Lord. So if that's all you're looking to for your strength is physical might and you're not going to God, then woe unto you. Again, Psalm 20 verse seven, some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. First Samuel 17 is another perfect illustration of this. And I'm running out of time here, we're almost done. The story of David and Goliath, right? Physically speaking, David had no chance. Just physically, humanly speaking, I mean, this is, you know, David and Goliath is real famous, why? Because you've got this ruddy young man, you know, he's not a warrior, this great giant Goliath, right? This Philistine, he was a warrior who was brought up basically from his youth to be a warrior. I mean, he was trained in fighting and built his muscles and his strength and he's got all these huge massive weapons that are real heavy and able to do just total damage and destruction. And this one guy, this one warrior was able to make the entire army of Israel just put in fear of him and nobody wanted to face him, nobody was. Because they're all afraid of how strong he was and how capable he was as a warrior. But David didn't fear him for a second because David was faithful in the Lord. He knew that it doesn't matter how big that stinking giant is, whether he's like 10 feet, which he probably was around 10 feet, or whether he's as big as some of the weird people think that giants grew to be like 50 feet or 200 feet or whatever they think. Even if he's that big, you know, David still wouldn't have had hesitation. Would have been interesting for him to get a stone up that high to knock him in the head. But I digress, we're running out of time, I can't get into that foolishness, I don't wanna deal with that foolishness. David wasn't looking on how powerful physically Goliath was because when you have God with you, it doesn't matter how strong the opponent is. We don't need to trust, he didn't need to trust, he didn't even go with, you know, they're trying to outfit him with this armor and a sword and all this stuff, and he's like, no, no, no, no, no, I don't need that, I haven't even proved that, I don't know what that is, I haven't tested that. Let me just go with what I'm comfortable with. Because you know what? That's not even what matters anyways. It's not that David was the best shot in town with his slaying or in the world, that he was just the best and that's why he won, that's not it. It's because God was with him. And he even tells us this, look at verse number 42 of 1 Samuel 17, and when the Philistines looked about and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth and ruddian of a fair countenance. Fair countenance means he was kind of good looking, he didn't have any scars, he didn't have any bruises or any battle wounds. He wasn't this warrior, just a normal, good looking guy. I mean, he's looking at him like a pretty boy. Like, who's this pretty boy coming here to fight with me? I'm this hardened warrior, who does this guy think he is? Verse 43, and the Philistine said unto David, am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods, and the Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, unto the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, look at this statement, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, right? Those are all strength of the flesh. Your sword, your spear, this is what you're coming at. This is all you got. This is what you're bringing against me. You've got a sword, you've got a spear, you've got a shield, and that's it. You know what I'm coming against you with? He says, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defied. He says, I'm coming to you with God on my side. The Lord is with me. All you've got, look, this is an outmatched match here. This is, you're outmatched. You don't have enough stuff. All you got is a sword, a spear, and a shield. I've got the Lord of hosts. You need to get something else because this ain't a fair fight. Verse 46, this day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air. So he's not even saying, I'm gonna give your carcasses. I'm gonna give the carcasses of the Philistines. All y'all, not just you, unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. And all throughout this story, and we're gonna stop, there's a long story. David just continually gives honor and respect and praise unto the Lord and gives him the credit for all that was done. He said, and the only reason this is even happening right now is just so that you know and the whole world knows, God doesn't need a sword or a spear. He doesn't need that stuff. He doesn't need the weapons on this earth to destroy who he wants to destroy. He just needs someone who's willing. He just wants somebody to stand up and fill the gap. He wants someone to actually stand up for the Lord. See, God's not gonna go there and defend all these cowering, fearful people who didn't really trust in the Lord enough to save them. But he did use David mightily and was able to destroy an entire army because of David's faith. Standing there, willing to face the enemy no matter how strong they appear and knowing God's able to do this. All the great victories in the Bible, they come through means of just small man ultimately that have put great faith in the Lord. We don't need, that's why I'm not worried. Now, I will do things that's the most wise thing to do in preparation to be able to defend myself in various situations. That's why I have guns. That's why I have other things because I just wanna be wise. I'm gonna build up the defenses like they were doing in First Chronicles. We're gonna build up our defenses. We're gonna make some weapons. We're gonna be prepared, but we're not trusting in all of this stuff. We're trusting in the Lord. I mean, David didn't go there empty handed. He had his sling and he had his stones, right? He had what he had. He armed himself. He was prepared enough and was willing and knew that God was able to be there with him. I'm gonna do the same thing, defend myself, get myself prepared as much as I can, but you know what? I'm not trusting in those things. I'm not trusting in the money I have. I'm not trusting in the weapons I have. I'm not trusting in my house and the locks on my doors or anything else. I'm trusting in the Lord to keep my house. I'm trusting in the Lord to keep our church. I'm trusting in the Lord to help me individually just to stand up against the Goliaths in this world, the spiritual Goliaths that are gonna try to shake your faith and get you not to have faith in the Lord and to give up and to roll over and to not fight. I'm gonna trust in the Lord. Go back to Psalm 20, verse number eight. We're almost done here. So the some that trust in chariots and some in horses, this is the they in verse number eight. They are brought down and fallen. The people who are trusting in the arm of flesh, the people who are trusting in these things, they're gonna fall. They're brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright. And I love that we are risen, right? I think it's just that extra foreshadowing and throwing in there of we're gonna have, all of us who are saved, there's a resurrection and there's an ultimate victory over death that we have. These people with their arm of flesh, they're fallen. People who are trusting in themselves, trusting in the might or the physical might of humankind, of the human race, of their own works, their own deeds, they're fallen, but we who are faithful, we are risen. We have a lively hope of a resurrection through Jesus Christ, that even when we breathe our last breath and our body falls over dead, that's not the end. We have an ultimate victory over death with the resurrection that those who are trusting in themselves and trusting in their own might don't have. They don't have that hope. They're fallen and they remain fallen, but we are risen and stand upright. Save, Lord, let the King hear us when we call. And the King here, I believe he's referring to God, the King, not just a physical King, but he's gonna let God hear us when we call. So it started off with the thee, it transfers over to us. And what a great song, what a great encouraging song. Let's remember to be mindful of other people, to bless other believers, to have strong faith in the Lord, not to put trust in horses and cherries in the arm of flesh, but trust in God. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all the great doctrine and content in these Psalms and all the encouragement that we get, dear Lord. I pray that you would please help us to stand strong, help us to be faithful, Lord. Help us to be considerate of others and to be thinking about other people and praying for other people and encouraging and edifying, dear Lord. Strengthen our church, build our church, Lord. Help us continue to grow and to reach more people. God, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.