Battlefield Benediction

Battlefield Benediction

come on in. Thank you. Um, I see uh, you all had to come and see what your friends are up to because the instagram and algorithms were showing you a bunch of ads and people that weren’t even your friends. No, no, the joke flopped. Well there’s difficult times in being a pastor and humor is a difficult topic for me. I never tend to figure it out. But there’s good times and difficult times and there’s times of peace in your life and there’s hard times in your life. There’s times of ease and times of war. I just, I understand that. And so psalms 20 is looking at a difficult time in the passage of that we’re looking at today, it’s known as a royal wartime benediction. I’m calling this sermon battlefield benediction battlefield benediction. So I think it’s fitting that we open up a word of prayer as we jump into this message today. God I thank you for psalms 20. I just enjoyed looking at it, studying it, digging into it. Lord. I just uh, we just enjoy you enjoy the word of God. And I said, just really help help us to really wrestle the text today. Help us to do business with you today. I pray that you would encourage and instruct convict challenge exhorts. I pray you would let the word of God convict the people of God in the way that only the word of God can I pray? I would get out of the way that we would get out of the way and we’d really do business. A few as individuals. Lord. As people We would really wrestle with this passage today and see what you’re calling us to do as a response of being here in this room and spending 30 minutes looking at this passage, I said, just really do what only your word of God can do, instruct and change lives. We pray this in jesus name. Amen. Okay, So psalms 20 is written by David. So who is David? David is the second king of Israel. And basically, David made a career of high stakes situations. Let’s say David was clutch. His middle name was clutch. He just always came through as needed. Uh, specific high stakes situations. We’re talking about our foreign military war into different, you know, military campaigns seems like every single summer. He led massive yearly campaigns into enemy territory to secure the borders and the terrain of the nation of Israel. And David was the goat of military leaders and was known in and out of Israel for his military might. His battlefield leadership and his victories. He was a genius general and he led many biblical battles. He was a gutsy leader, a savvy leader and a courageous leader. It said about Saul, he killed his predecessor killed his thousands. But David killed his 10 thousands. David was a dangerous man to be reckoned with. This is one of the oldest David in psalms that he wrote. So what is the benediction? So that’s who wrote it. What is the benediction. Benediction is a prayer blessing over people. It’s a practice we adapted about nine adopted about nine months ago as a church. It’s just the idea is that a picture of benevolent father figure praying for God’s blessing over a group of believers as we go and follow and respond to the word that was preached to us. That’s the concept behind the benediction. You see benedictions all throughout the bible today. Psalm 20 is a benediction before David and the armies of Israel go into battle and it’s an amazing and inspiring song. So what’s it about psalms 20 and psalm 21 could have easily been together at one time. There’s things of thanksgiving intercession and pleading for a nation asking God to intervene on their behalf. And it’s speculated that’s prayed on the eve or the morning of a very important critical battle in Israel’s history, which I’ll get to later. These first few verses, these first five verses that really talks about the voices of people praying for God to move on their behalf. It’s the we you’ll see throughout the first five verses, we this we that we this we that the multitude of the nation is praying a prayer and then you’ll see it shifts later in the passage to II and that’s David talking. So there’s two main people in this passage where we’re going to read through. So psalm 20 verse one, it says this May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. They’re focusing their attention to David in the army May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion. May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor, your burnt sacrifices. So this is the nation’s they’re crying their heart that God would lead and protect their soldiers and their king as they go into battle to represent them where they cannot be at this time. The day of trouble. The day of trouble. You see in verse one don’t forget us on the day of trouble. So you have a God that is available not just on the dark days, the hard days, the lonely days, but he’s available in the good days too. He’s there on the wedding days and the funeral days. He’s there on every day of your life. But this is focused on a very dark, troubling day. On the day of trouble. Don’t forget us, Lord, don’t forget our people on the day of trouble. Protect us. You see that in verse one. Protection and hard times. Don’t forget us when you feel forgotten. Protect us. I’m gonna move quickly cause I have more. I want to say later in this chapter verse to send help. Not just send help but send support for your people. We could relate to all these cries of this nation, praying. We can relate to all verse one verse two very naturally. You can pray that today for your day today. And we get to verse three remember is referring to a portion of the sacrificial offering a special sacrifice that David would have engaged in. This reminds us of the importance of faith placed in a sacrifice. We talk about sacrifice at this church, we talk about generosity at this church talking about being generous with your time, your talent, your treasure. Let’s just look at the concept of time of you sacrificing your time to serve a church. What does that look like? Well, we should model what David did and do it in faith. Make a sacrifice and faith just an example. We just sat through worship and Lincoln did a great job. You walk out of a church experience and like that, that I just he seemed authentic. He seemed genuine. He led us, he cared about us, he cared about the Lord, his his his heart was warmed and stirred as he walked in and it would seem like an authentic experience. Your authenticity meter goes off. When you think someone’s unauthentic, unauthentic, right? Like that Pastor. I don’t believe anything. He’s saying. He doesn’t seem authentic. You you get what I’m saying. This is like a skill, you learn how to be authentic as you consume what’s authentic and what’s not authentic as we serve as a church going forward into the next month, which is gonna be some peak seasons for us as a church. We should model David and we should authentically give our sacrifices of our time. Hand out a donut as authentically as you can tell someone where to park. But that vest as authentically as you can greet someone as authentically as you can. You get what I’m saying, Be authentic and genuine when you’re teaching sunday school, those little kids upstairs will know if you don’t want to be there and they can read it. I mean, I’m not saying nothing, but I do have some kids and we get and have lunch sometimes sunday afternoons, if I get back in normal time and we talk how was sunday school? And they’ve said some hysterical things and I thought it’s okay, let’s keep going, you know, But I’m saying like they they read exactly what’s happening. If you authentically are sacrificing of your time. It’s it’s very it’s very obvious. We’re not full of knowing. So as you come to church and you’re sacrificing time, just in that one concept of your sacrifice we make every week is a church. Let’s be authentic as we give, as we give God time as we serve in faith, Heaven is watching and men are watching and God wants to reward things that are done in faith, not in the flesh. So let’s give of our time this next few months really generously with a sacrificial faith, that God will redeem that time. David made sacrifices. But we know that jesus made the perfect sacrifice for the souls of mankind, Jesus, the perfect sacrifice and he died to buy us back our souls to redeem us. His life was given. He sacrificed his life and the burnt offering of God’s wrath was poured out on jesus for the judgment that we deserved on him, on the cross. Why for you and for me to ransom us and redeem us that we might be with him in heaven, Jesus didn’t just go through the motions. He was all in on his sacrifice. David was all in on sacrifice. There’s death, danger and destruction. The life of a nation and their loved ones are on the balance here on the scales of war. And they’re asking God would remember the sacrifices of those people as they went into battle. Moving on Verse four may he grant you your heart’s desires and fulfill all your plans. May he grant you your heart’s desires and fill all your plans. Again, the nation of Israel, praying this on behalf of their military and their leader. The desire of David, Their king was divine help. David wanted to defend the people of God and the nation that he’s in charge, stressing of leading for the enemies, isn’t that our desire, that God’s help, his hand would be on leading us and blessing us and all of our preferences and our wants and our our desires and our dreams and our opinions about life God will just be behind us unanimously blessing everything that we want today and everything we want tomorrow, that’s that’s what we want. That’s not what we need. And it’s definitely not what we need as people. We obviously want God’s help in hard times. But I think we missed something. If we miss this whole concept, I mean God, we look to God to bring our we need to look to God to bring our desires in line with his desire. We need to look to God to bring our desires in line of his desire. Davids desires were right. He had a mandate, he was anointed and appointed the leader of Israel and he was given a mandate to do what he’s doing. We may or may not have a mandate to do what we desire. And our plans are verse four talks about your desires and your plans and those may or may not be under the holy authority. Lordship of christ They might be very selfish, they might be evil, they might be very immature, They might be very foolish. They might be Godly, they might be mature, they might be appropriate. But our desires and our plans might not be right. David, the king of Israel had a desire and a plan that was right, jesus, the King of Kings had a desire to and you can see his desires and how the rustle of his desires and the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his betrayal and his crucifixion. The following few days luke 22 verses 42 jesus talking, he says, father, if you’re willing remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will be done, but your will be done, jesus models, a yielding of his desires, A yielding of his plans are releasing in a trust, not trusting in what his preferences are, but trusting in God’s plan for his life. Why did jesus do this? Why is verse four in psalm 20 and why did jesus mere this in the new testament? He did it for you for me to model what it looks like to live a yielded life when it comes to your desires and yielded life when it comes to your plans. Just think about this an unyielding church that is consumed with its desires and its plans is no threat to satan an unyielding christian that is consumed of its desires and its plan is no threat to satan and then yielded christian is consumed with their desires and their plans and that christians do for humbling from God, it is better to join God in his plan for your life. His desires for your life, then move ahead with your plan and your desires for your life. I mean if you’ve ever hung out older christians, you’ll hear things like if God wills it or Lord willing or God willing, you’ll hear these like, you know these clauses, they’ll drop in conversations and you’re like just we’re meeting tomorrow for coffee. What’s the big conversation like? Well Lord willing, I’ll see you tomorrow at nine a.m. They’re like, do you know something? I don’t know what’s going on. I mean tomorrow nine a.m. At scooter’s great. I’ll be there. But it’s, there’s just a culture among people who have walked the Lord along that have a sweetheart, that they have an open handed posture to their plans, their desires because they’ve seen a thing or two and they realize that desires and plans and mankind don’t always happen, especially young men and women don’t always happen. It’s a very holy appropriate spot to have an open handed yielded nous that jesus models that David modeled when it comes to our desires and our plans especially think about praying for what we desire and what we planned for. But isn’t that how the christian walk works? We get when we give, we grow when we let go and we move when we stop. Too many christians today have big plans and bold desires that have little to nothing to do with God. So a quick analogy, I got invited to a four man scramble and I told the guy, I’m like, I’m bad and he’s like, that’s okay. I’m like, no, really? I’m not just being polite golf etiquette, I’m actually bad and he’s like, it’s okay. I’m like, I’m gonna be fun, but I’m not gonna be good. Like, don’t expect me to make the shots. He’s like, that’s fine. And then one of his clients dropped out so he said, hey, mike, I need another guy. I’m like, okay, I got a fun guy who’s free on monday. I don’t have a, I don’t have a good guy unless I have to ask God to take it. Anyways, so me and Ryan lovey were at a golf course, uh, an 18 hole four man scramble and these two brothers were killing it. It was really a two man scramble. But anyways, me and Ryan lovey, we’re just hanging out, cracking jokes talking the whole day. I’ve only got golfing I think twice this year. So it’s not like I’m anyways, so we, we missed and we’re going to our first ball, my ball was over here and his balls over there and they were way ahead and so we had time to get our balls and so I got my ball and you know, you lean out the cart as he’s driving and I grabbed the ball and then I’m like, all right, your turn Ryan and he’s going to get his ball and he’s driving and he’s leaning up to grab his ball and I’m riding beside him and I grabbed the wheel and I twist a little bit more were on the golf course at the golf cart, what’s gonna happen. So Ryan’s like, hey, now, stop it. He’s like, no touch the rest of the day. And so I’m like ha ha ha he had a loop around at his ball, but that’s how we are as christians, We’re driving our little life and our big plans and our bold desires we have in our life, we’re going along, going along and then God reaches over to nudge the wheel a little, you’re like, stop it, stay in your lane, sunday morning from 99, 10 to 11 15, that’s when you get to talk, but the rest of the week zip it and you should be moving to the back here. You know, some of you got got got locked up in the trunk or something and you’re like, I’m sick, but God and you have different desires at times God and you have different plans at times and those are not always in conflict with each other, They’re not always in conflict, they’re always in conflict, especially younger christians, we gotta have an open handed posture, a yielding of our desires and our plans to God. One bible teacher I respect, he paraphrased this concept about a critique of a generation of christians that is coming up through the ranks right now. They’re leaving their homes. They he said they’re real God is the God of options. They want to keep those options open. Am I going to study abroad here, I’m gonna take this internship there, I’m gonna date this person, I’m gonna work here, am I gonna do that, am I gonna do this. They really want to keep their options open. They really hold onto tightly their desires and their plans. Oh, mike’s camping here a lot. I know I’ll move on. But we see jesus with a very yielded desires and plans to God, his father. We see David very yielded desires and plans and verse four and that seems to be how healthy things operate. A softening and a yielding to God’s sovereign hand. Look at me at verse five may we shout for joy over your salvation and in the name of our God set up our banners, May the Lord May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. So banners are used by the Israelites as a standard of warfare. Kind of like a rally cry and you can sing a song of songs. Chapter six verse four, you see also like in numbers to, to where they would tell tribes of symbol under each banner kind of like each city in America has their own banner of an NFL team that they all rally around behind. That’s a stretch. I know, but it’s, it’s the same thing if you even the Egyptians, another power at military part of this day, they would have different banners for different deities, different gods that they would worship. But it’s like we worshiped cats and we worship the Nile and we worship the sun God and they would rally underneath those banners. But the idea is when the banners held high, its sign of direction in victory for that army as they go into battle. So let’s read verse five again, may we shout for joy over your salvation and in the name of our God set up our banners for the May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. There’s a bible commentary john trapped. Who said this in light of the concept of banners in psalm 20 verse five, he says this, our flag of defiance to the enemy or our token of triumph to God’s glory, who have given us the victory. Think about this. Any victory you have over the world, the flesh and the devil, any good thing that occurred in the gospel or the word of God changing your life for the blessing of christian community. I mean anything that is occurring in your life, it’s not like something you can go like this about. You’re not like patting yourself on the back. I save myself. I redeemed mankind. I mean, no, that’s pathetic. Our triumph is in God’s work, our glory. Our boast is in the victory that God has made. Our defiance is because jesus was defiant. We could be defined. Does that make sense? Our banners in christ? It’s not itself, it’s not each other, it’s in christ. This should be a stirring psalm. Life and death hang in the balance. I know we’re like 6000 years removed from Britain and there’s not rowdy warriors on the other side of the valley and we’re praying before our soldiers, our sons and husbands go off into battle. I mean, this is like our stirring life and death hang in the balance. The nation’s in danger. We’re praying desperately. But the first five verses, what do we see? We see a cry of the Lord’s favor. The idea is that David is about to go to war into battle and so are their loved ones. We see these battles where danger and difficulty and death are hanging in the balance. We see prayer for protection, provisions, favor and support for our guys. We see a yielding of our plan and our desires to God’s master plan. It shouldn’t be too hard to see that, but it shouldn’t be too hard to also see this foreshadows a greater battle with one greater than David with that. This prayer points to jesus when he fights with the greatest battle ever waged for the souls of mankind or life and death of everyone hang in the balance of eternal life and eternal death. We see David responding. In verse six, we’re shifting now, verse six, we see David responding. He uses the words I because he’s speaking in first person. David talking says now, I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his Holy heavens with the saving might of his right hand. And in verse seven, I love some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God. Isn’t that good. Amen Isn’t that good. Amen some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. So David knew that people were prone to trusting in the wrong things. So like, let’s just kind of get some paradigm here, raise your hand. If you’ve seen some of these movies, raise your hand. If you’ve seen Lord of the Rings, raise your, keep it up, keep it up, raise your hand. If you’ve seen Braveheart, raise your so keep it up, keep it up. You can raise two hands, raise your hand if you’ve seen Gladiator. Okay, so like warfare, that’s good. That’s enough. That’s enough audience participation. Warfare at that time was pretty much not different than it was in those movies. Does that make sense? It’s hand to hand combat. And a horse and a chariot was an ally elite fighting unit at that time. That would cause a lot of mayhem for actual soldiers on the ground with boots on the ground. So the most sophisticated weapons of that day were chariots and horsemen, knights on horses, soldiers on horses or threats and chariots were an incredibly dangerous thing. And so in biblical battles, you can read about the kind of armament and the kind of like siege things they have in our churches library, there’s this biblical battle book, which is awesome. They got loaned out to some teenagers and it’s not finding its way back yet. And uh, I’ll look for your parents afterwards and try to get it back. But there’s some really fun books, but they’re not like fancy, get what I’m saying compared to those movies. That gives you a paradigm, historians think that possibly this battle was this psalm 20 relates to David when he and his soldiers fought with 700 chariots from the Assyrians and 40,000 horsemen. So David’s about to go and fight 700 chariots and 40,000 horsemen. And he says some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust the name of the Lord Our God. I love about David. He is so practical. He’s so practical in his walking. That’s probably many of you love David his writings because he’s just so practical. He trusts in God. David. Trust in God. Why? Because it works. That’s why I trust, thank God some trust in the most advanced technology of their day. But we trust the name of the Lord our God. When you find yourself in a can’t lose situation, you can’t lose the opportunity to pray. When God’s people pray the prayers work and it makes it a can’t lose situation, prayers work and prayer works christian and we trust in the name of the Lord our God verse eight, they collapse and fall. But we rise and stand upright. These verses represent the anticipated results of an already achieved future victory that is to be realized by faith by christ and how incredibly easy it is for us to trust in our own ability. It just seems to happen when things go well and things grow and do well, heads grow and do well and people tend to boast in themselves. They tend to trust in themselves. Look at verse 90 Lord save the king may he answer us when we call so what is psalm 20 about the ever king was anointed and then they were appointed for the office of being a king. And David is referring to himself as king. But it also understood that a perfect and eternal anointed and appointed one would come and reign and rule on the throne of the world and the ultimate thrown the hearts of mankind and that’s jesus christ. We don’t have King David in our church and we do, but we do have many men and women who are courageously leading out and as a pastor, it’s so encouraging to hear when people are praying for me. Generally encouraged we say how Frankfurt. I mean that’s a big blessing in my life. I know Shane can relate. That’s encouraging banks relate. That’s encouraging dans encouraged by that. I’ll ask that I purposefully try to get done quick so I can kind of bring this home for us to be very practical. Does that make sense? So the rest of the time I want to make this passage very practical to our next 90 days as a church. I had asked that you would pray for courage of the pastor it and the pulpit as that. You would be praying for courage and the pastor in the pulpit and those are kind of two different things, but the same thing, you need courage for both. I was on the phone of a young man who’s not a leader in our church who’s doing a very complicated, messy, painful, hard situation. He said, this is what you do all week. And I said, well not every day, but most weeks, Yes, this is part of the gig of being a pastor. It’s not always roses and rainbows. It’s kind of hard and sad and difficult and very heavy and painful at times. But I ask that you pray for courage, the pastor in the pulpit because we as a church are about to go into that high stakes couple of months where there’s a ton of new people coming to church, not by design or desire. I wish that kind of slowly came all year, but instead there’s a surge of people that tend to come the next few months and it’s a difficult job. We pray for courage and the pastor in the pulpit, if you’re easy, more men would desire to do it, but pray that we would preach the word at all costs and church. No, this actually having a pastor who actually preaches to you non squishy sermons when the bible is very firm. Non murky sermons. And the bible is very clear, that’s gonna cost more and more. It’s gonna cost him more and more. It’s gonna cost the church more and more to have a pastor who actually preaches through the bible. The painful, uncultured, early suave, cool parts of the bible. There’s a temptation and pressure to compromise and be not filled with courage and I love the men we have and I’m confident there’s more solid Godly men coming through the ranks that have that courageous stout heart. But pray for courage in the pastor in the pulpit, ask that you pray for our campus, There’s seven people on staff at christian challenge. Our local college group Alex preached here and did an excellent job three or four weeks ago and Zane’s up next next week um they pray for courage of our leaders of christian challenge and their student leaders to their about to go to war at U. N. L. For the souls of men and women and many huge decisions are made for christ and that will impact the rest of their life. The next couple of weeks of school pray for courage for our campus directors and our campus staff. It’s nonstop activity for the first two months of school and you remember that if you’re a student pray when I was the campus director, I’d pray for wisdom of wolves and pray for good sold students and the wisdom to know which is which because there’s a lot of interesting things to happen the first couple weeks of school you may or may not know but if you ever leading a christian organization on a non christian campus, it’s a very intense draining couple months. So pray for courage and all of our staff at christian challenge. There are college group team, they need our prayers, Pray for our community group leaders. I mean like I said earlier last year I think we had 80 some new people walk into our church that no one knew that we got to know and I think 60 some of them became members at our church. This following last year pray for courage and wisdom for our community leaders as we look forward to another fall these next couple of months will be very busy at sewer. You get what I’m saying like we’re going into spiritual battle the next couple of months is the church psalms 20 is very timely for us as a congregation to stop and pause and think about where we are and what’s happening next few months. These next few months we’re hoping to launch 2 to 3 God willing to to three brand new community groups to help absorb and find community for people that are coming to our church. We have 20 some community leaders that are leading some of them for many years of them for this is their first fall pray for courage and wisdom for them as they should from re mobilizing their christians from the summer relational time to the fall it’s go time and they go from a monthly or bi monthly meeting to a weekly meeting, pray for wisdom and courage, pray for a 30 some discipleship group leaders are leading 3 to 5 men or women to really dig into people’s lives ministries messy, pray for them, pray for all our ministry team leaders that have been running ministry teams over the summer and now we’re gonna go to maximum capacity the next couple of months, pray for wisdom and discernment as we attempt to serve people and lead them to christ. Why mike, why does all this matter? Why you’re going on and on you have four minutes, why are you going on and on about prayer mike, why are you talking about this? All this matters for the sake of serving christ to help leave people in a deeper walk with God but this is a spiritual work and it rages on the spiritual battlefield of prayer. We gotta be laboring in prayer before we labor in person. Church, we have to be laboring in prayer before we actually labor in person. It’s a spiritual reality of a healthy church and unhealthy church. I mean we have some really sharp leaders and some razor sharp plans and but we trust in our fancy plans and our leaders good over here. So I got the nose over here. Alright 123 we’re gonna say 123, no, okay 123, there we go. We trust in the name of the Lord, our God. Amen, right? Not chariots, not horses, not search engine optimization or social media branding or parking lot. God bless that parking lot, but not a parking lot. We trust in the name of the Lord are. There we go. Yes, that’s my celebration, so we need you. So I’m gonna try to be painfully practical like David, what is needed? You? We need you to be praying for your church. So if you’re a member of this church first service might have cleaned us out folks, we’ll order more of these, but like this is our membership thing and you pray for people that don’t know, jesus on this side and some prayer requests that lourdes had any heart on this side of the card, that’s why Chloe spread it all out. So it’s easy to read and this side of some objectives were praying for as a church and what’s unique is God answers these prayers. God answers your prayers as a church and I think it’s super encouraging to stop and think about what God has done. We have prayed for things in the past of the church to buy this building, we could not afford a long time ago in a galaxy far away. God made that happen. I mean a new roof as soon as we close this building, that roof went out, we had to pray that God help us, you know sell an organ and build a path that new roof, expanding our parking, doubling our parking, expanding our property, new staff missionaries, church planters and the missionaries. God answered those prayers. People with derek and brock emerge growth to services to service. It was a joke for years and then God answered your prayer, you get what I’m saying. So when you pray things happen church healthy churches, a praying church, you can be praying for these things. That’s what we’re looking at as a church going forward. Intercession prayers of a healthy church for the needs and the wants and desires and the plans of that church is a very holy and healthy thing for a church, I have a gift here, I spilled water on it in the first service accidentally. I have a gift here for you. If you want one of these you can have one of these is a gift from us to you as a church but this is the nine marks of healthy church, they have all these different marks and this is what this healthy prayer look like in a church. So if you’d like one, come and grab one after church, is that okay come and get one after church. But the healthy prayer and a healthy church looks different than it does in the other church because prayer is so powerful. But think when God’s people pray God answers those prayers many of you you have your alarms go off at 10 02 in the morning or 9 38 because you are gonna be reminded about that passage in luke or in Mark Matthew I forget right now. But there’s two different passage where he talks about pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers into the field because the job of reaching Lincoln and reaching the nation’s is too big for any of us to accomplish. We’re praying that God will bring in more labors and raise up more labors through our church to do the work of ministry because we need more people doing more, not fewer people doing more. We need more people to do more, not a few people doing more. So at 10 02 my alarm goes off and I’m reminded to pray for more laborers and you know God’s been answering that prayer and our our leadership team is like doubled and a half since we started praying that prayer as a church, I mean God answers your prayers, christians you realize prayers are under utilized weapon. We don’t, well that’s a christian or as a church but God answers your prayers. Where can I learn to pray? I’m leading the witness, where can I learn to pray? Well I’m sure there’s many people I would show you your community groups prey. Here’s a photo that john Tesla took over men’s prayer meeting. We have Tuesday morning at six a.m. You’re like mike. The waters don’t rise in my soul at six a.m. That’s fine. You know, we can find at other times, but that’s Tuesday at six a.m. Wednesday morning at six a.m. Is open Thursdays, open Fridays open. I’m here most weeks, most days at six am I meeting started seven. I’m willing to lead other prayer meetings. There’s a sunday night’s prayer group that meets that I think pioneer park, I can get you connected with that lady who’s leading those groups. We have two groups and they’re kind of full. I think this is intimate enough where we can pray and not have you show up and 50 people pray and you sit around for an hour and fall asleep. This is intimate enough where you have to engage. We’ve been working through the book of psalms as a group of men for a year and a half and it’s been great. We’re willing to launch other times. Does that make sense? Um, you just eat, pull out your phones, put your phones and email. Hello at dot com and say I’m in and then we can coordinate when and where and what not, but we can get you connected to some prayer groups and I’m sure we’ll be launching more in the coming months and years. But a healthy church that is given over to praying strategically for our plans and our desires and praying specifically for the things that occur is a healthy thing. So you have a gift, you have a book, you have an opportunity. We have stories of what god has done, but I’m just so grateful for the paragraphs that God has answered from this leadership team. I remember a guy named brian used to come up and give me a huge bear hugs before church when he knew I was kind of scared looking uh, when I was preaching and he just pray with me. Now another lady, he stopped, he got married, moved to different city, which is great and it’s what happens here in Lincoln in our area of town. But another lady came up and started doing that the last couple of months and it’s been really encouraging my heart when people pray. I’m sure you have testimonies of God answering prayers in your community group. I just think it’s amazing when God’s people pray. I think we have an opportunity now looking at psalm 20 to realize that this is an opportunity for us to really get serious from the summer months. Looking into the fall, This psalm 20 has a genuine Messianic echoes of looking forward to the future King of Israel. The nation of Israel prayed over their king going into battle. But the church praise and look forward to jesus, the triumphant messiah that we now look back to. What do you see in this passage? You see three things, you see, jesus in verse three, jesus offered the perfect sacrifice that is always remembered and always accepted by God, David. Maybe jesus. Yes, Verse five, Jesus is the one who whose every prayer and every request is answered. David, maybe Jesus Yes And verse six, this is the ultimate atone anointed one for all time. David had victory because people are praying, Jesus had victory because he prayed, you can have victory when you learn how to pray And Psalm 20 models a yielding desires and our plans through our prayer. Life Amen Church. Let’s pray. Bow your heads. God, thank you for uh these men and women. I pray you just really teach us. Take us on a journey of what it means to be in a praying christian and being in a praying church I pray, we would just really yield our plans and our desires to you for this day and every day of our lives. I just pray, Just encourage us Lord as we follow you, jesus name. We pray amen

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