SPEAKER_00: Hey, good afternoon, new life.
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: It's such an honor for me to be uh to be here today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're aware of it, but you are in the middle of a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: I heard that in the few weeks, like in October, it's gonna be one year of full, full year of service every week.
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
SPEAKER_00: So it's incredible to see everything that God has done in less than a full year of service.
SPEAKER_00: Can we just uh say thank to God and giving glory to him this uh this afternoon?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that the the best is yet to come for new life.
SPEAKER_00: And just before I uh I dive in the message this afternoon, I just want to take a minute to uh to honor your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I'm glad you're you're now in the front row, uh Pastor Selvin, because I don't know your life if you're aware of it, but you are blessed to have Pastor Selvin as your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: You're very blessed.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're blessed to have a pastor who loves God, loves God's people, and is you know filled with so much passion uh for Jesus and seeing Jesus alive in the life of people.
SPEAKER_00: So today I honor you, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I love you very much, and I know that God will continue to use you in a mighty way in the future.
SPEAKER_00: So receive it.
SPEAKER_00: I love you very much, and uh, maybe as yeah maybe as you have noticed, I speak French, I have an accent, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I come from a small town near Quebec City, and uh preaching in English is always a challenge for me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it like maybe like three to five times a year, top.
SPEAKER_00: So it's always a challenge.
SPEAKER_00: So this afternoon I'm asking for your grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm saying something that you don't understand this afternoon, I just trust the Holy Spirit to translate it in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so I will just preach with my heart and the Holy Ghost will do the rest.
SPEAKER_00: All right, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: So uh this afternoon we uh we uh pursue, we continue uh together the uh the series on the book of Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have a Bible, turn with me in Psalm 18.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, uh there's no stress, all the scriptures will show up on the screen in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but turn with me in Psalm 18 if you have if you have a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, during the series we discovered a lot of different psalms, and you know the Psalms sometimes we don't know the background, we don't know the backstory of the Psalms that we are reading, but in Psalm 18, in this uh uh chapter, we know who wrote it, and we know the backstory of this psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 18 was uh written by uh King David.
SPEAKER_00: King David was the the greatest king uh of uh God's people histories, the greatest king, King David, he wrote a lot of different psalms, and David was Saul's successor, and we know that David wrote that psalm at the end of a very difficult season, at the end of uh many years of of struggle and battles with Saul, because when David was uh was ready to take the throne, it it was God's calling on his life to take Saul's place.
SPEAKER_00: But after a few years, not a few days, a few years of struggle because of Saul's uh anger and jealousy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh David will finally take the throne, but just before that, he will wrote Psalm 18.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the backstory of this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: When we are reading it in a few seconds, you have to put yourself in in David's shoes.
SPEAKER_00: He's at the end of a very difficult season with Saul's.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Saul's, you know, attacking him and wanted really to just kill him.
SPEAKER_00: And David is reflecting on God's faithfulness during that season.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have a Bible, we will read together verse 1 through 9.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: All right, Psalm 18, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: To the choir master, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I love you, O Lord, my strength.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge.
SPEAKER_00: My shield in the horn of my and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
SPEAKER_00: You can say amen, whenever you want, it's still good.
SPEAKER_00: I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
SPEAKER_00: The cores of death encompassed me, and the torrents of destruction assailed me.
SPEAKER_00: The cores of the grave entangled me, and the snares of death confronted me.
SPEAKER_00: In my distress, I called upon the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: To my God I cried for help, and from his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.
SPEAKER_00: And just right there, that's a word for somebody this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: Because maybe there's someone that's under the sound of my voice, and you're asking yourself, uh, is God really like does he care about what I'm going through?
SPEAKER_00: Does he hear what I'm praying?
SPEAKER_00: And that's a word for you right there.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, when you cry to the Lord, he hears every single time.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody should say, Amen to that.
SPEAKER_00: Then the herd reeled and rocked.
SPEAKER_00: The foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry.
SPEAKER_00: Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Glowing coals flamed forth from him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's verse number nine, one of the most beautiful verse I read in a long time.
SPEAKER_00: He bowed the heavens and came down.
SPEAKER_00: The title of my message today is The Battle I Didn't Choose.
SPEAKER_00: The battle I didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, now at uh 36 years old, I have a little bit of life experience, and I know that's you know, so some some someone is laughing at that right now at 36 years old, but you know, after I have two children, that they are now eight and eleven, and after pastoring for a few years now, I I you know I love to say to myself that okay, I have a little bit of experience now, and I have just enough experience in life to know that everybody under the sound of my voice right now will face sooner or later a battle that you didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody, I don't care about your uh annual revenue, I don't care how much zeros you have in your uh uh investments, I don't care how many letters you have in front of your name because of all of your diplomas and all that.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody, under the sound of my voice voice, will face one day a battle that you didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: We will all face that.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, that's just the truth.
SPEAKER_00: If we're also honest, there's some battles in our lives that could be avoided.
SPEAKER_00: There's some battles in our lives that are not just spiritual attacks, there are some battles in our lives that could be avoided.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, for example, if if somebody comes to me after the service and say, Pastor JP, can you please pray for me?
SPEAKER_00: I I have I need prayers in my finances, and I'm real attacked in my finances.
SPEAKER_00: I need prayer in my finances.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, I will gladly pray for you, my brother.
SPEAKER_00: Can you just explain to me what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't pay rent this month because you know, last month I I subscribed to an online course, uh, you know, because I really I pray I'm praying for a breakthrough in my finances.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what's the name of the online course you subscribed to last month?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the name of the course was uh how to become a millionaire in 30 days.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I will I will pray for you, my brother, but you don't need deliverance, you need just to develop the wisdom God is calling you to develop in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, somebody should say amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's a battle that could be avoided.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if I I just can open my heart to you uh this afternoon in Quebec City, uh, we just moved from a new in a new facility this summer, but we are still in a setup and tear down uh kind of church.
SPEAKER_00: So every Sunday morning we have to set up everything uh and just welcome people, serve the people of God, and after three services, every Sunday we have to tear down everything, uh, and it's a it's a it's a school actually where we are.
SPEAKER_00: So on Sunday it's a church, uh during the week it's a school, so we're doing it every week.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and all our most of our teams they they come at 6 30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: on Sunday mornings.
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty soon, it's pretty early, it's pretty early in the day, and I cannot count how many times I I heard people say to me during those five years uh in the church in Quebec that oh Pastor JP, I would love to serve in the church, but you know, 6 30 in the morning is it's too early for me.
SPEAKER_00: I just can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: I just I just I'm I'm not able to get up on time and be there 6 30.
SPEAKER_00: It's too early.
SPEAKER_00: And when you you dig up a little bit, you discover that all those people are the kind of people that just you know they're watching like seven episodes of their favorite uh TV shows on Saturday nights, and they go to bed like at 2 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: And after that they come and say, Pastor JP, 6 30 is it's too early.
SPEAKER_00: It's just pray for me.
SPEAKER_00: I need I need the Lord to renew my strength.
SPEAKER_00: No, you need to to to grow up in your discernment and just learn to go to bed earlier and be able to uh go up in the morning uh at five 5 30 or 6 and be ready to serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, it's just just for me, it's it just very it feels good just to share that with you, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But there's some battles that can be avoided.
SPEAKER_00: Every every battle is not a spiritual attack.
SPEAKER_00: But if we're honest, there are some battles that will enter our lives and they come without any invitation.
SPEAKER_00: And there's some battles that are not, we can we just can't avoid them.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you come to new life, even if you order salads instead of French fries in the restaurant, even if you learn by heart, you can recite by heart Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_00: There are some battles that will come into your life, and you cannot do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: For some people, under the sound of my voice this afternoon, maybe it's a battle like uh a medical report.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I have some people really close to me right now in this season that just received a very bad medical report.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's just a battle that they could not they could not avoid it.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like it's just a battle that comes to you, and now you're in the middle of a fight, you're middle in a battle that you didn't choose for someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this afternoon, it can be the loss of a person or a broken relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't you don't need a lot of experiences in life and in relationships to understand it, to learn that sometimes, even if you're doing your best to restore a relationship or or to save a relationship, sometimes there's there's there's just the reality that the other person would just, you know, their decision has been made and they left or they don't want to be reconciled, or and you can do anything you want, but you can't restore the relationship on your own.
SPEAKER_00: And you are in a battle that you didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe it can it can be an uh unexpected event at work, you can be in the middle of a crisis if you're a leader and if you are a parent this afternoon, you are a leader in your home.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you're a leader in the ministry or in the in your workplace, you will learn soon soon enough that sometimes crisis will come to you, and you did nothing to deserve that crisis.
SPEAKER_00: As a parent, do I have some parents that understand what I'm saying right now?
SPEAKER_00: You can be at work in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in a ministry, you can you can try to serve Jesus the best you can, you you try to love the people of God the best you can, and you will learn sooner and later that sometimes you just have a crisis on your hand.
SPEAKER_00: You have to deal with something very difficult, and you never asked for it.
SPEAKER_00: You are in a battle, battle that you didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: You, those are the battles that you were not prepared for, battles that you're not asking for, and you were not planning for it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the context of Psalm 18.
SPEAKER_00: David is describing a battle against Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And from everything we can learn in the Bible, since they won, David did all the right things.
SPEAKER_00: You know, at the beginning, beginning of the story, if you knew a little bit of David's life, he was tending sheep in his dad's uh field.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so it was a family business, and from everything we can know in the Bible, David was just a good boy, you know, a good son, just serving his father, serving the family business.
SPEAKER_00: And one day, God decided to make a change that Saul's times one was up, and God decided it was time to change Saul, and God chose David.
SPEAKER_00: So God called his prophet Samuel and just said, You will go see that guy, David.
SPEAKER_00: And when he found David in the field, he anointed him.
SPEAKER_00: That was the sign that God was really chose David to be the next king.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, David was just doing, you know, it was his his his day job, just serving his father, serving the family business.
SPEAKER_00: But on that day, with the oil on his head, his future changed.
SPEAKER_00: The trajectory, is that the right word?
SPEAKER_00: All right, changed that day.
SPEAKER_00: And David, from everything we can know in the Bible, he never tried to go, I will take Saul's place.
SPEAKER_00: It was not his ambition, not his idea, it was just God's calling on his life.
SPEAKER_00: And since that day, David did everything right.
SPEAKER_00: He served Saul, he served Saul, he honored Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Even in times that Saul, you know, was not doing the right things.
SPEAKER_00: David chose, he chose to honor Saul.
SPEAKER_00: David fought for Saul, he went on the battlefield for Saul.
SPEAKER_00: There's even uh even some verse in the Bible that said that David played music for Saul.
SPEAKER_00: When Saul was so under such anxiety and stress, David played music to help Saul.
SPEAKER_00: David did everything right, and even if David did all that, this could not keep jealousy to fill Saul's heart.
SPEAKER_00: And when Saul, you know, saw David and that the people of God started to love David, and that God was raising David up, you know, jealousy was filling uh Saul's heart, and anger was in his heart, and Saul decided that he wanted to kill David, but David David never did anything to deserve that.
SPEAKER_00: And David was stuck in a battle that he didn't choose, and that's the reality, that's the context of Psalm 18.
SPEAKER_00: So David, for years, you know, sometimes if you know a story, sometimes we we we think that it's what like oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: A few days I think that David uh ran from from Saul, a few weeks, maybe it was years.
SPEAKER_00: So for years, David was hiding, David was running for for his life because Saul and his soldiers wanted to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: So David was in the David was in the middle of a fight or of a battle that he never asked for and never did anything to deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: And in Psalm 18, David is giving us wisdom and principle, kingdom principle for us, for you and me in 2026, because you and I we will face battles that we didn't choose and we never asked for.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we do when we are in the middle of those battles?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Psalm 18 is about.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're taking taking notes, the first thing that we see in Psalm 18 is that the battle we didn't choose can become places or seasons of great revelation from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're taking notes, you can't just write the word revelation.
SPEAKER_00: The battles we did not choose are often the place where God reveals Himself the most, and that's just the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That that was the the truth for David.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the seasons of battle will lead you.
SPEAKER_00: Did you did you just uh saw that in your life?
SPEAKER_00: That when you are in the middle of your of a battle, you will run, you will run to the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: You will you will want to say, Oh Lord, you will pray like never before.
SPEAKER_00: Did you saw that in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Because that that's my testimony, you know.
SPEAKER_00: When everything's going, you know, good, everything's fine, everything's good, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I I will go to to new life uh if I have the time.
SPEAKER_00: Ah this Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go when everything's going well, uh, you know, this football season, so we see if the cowboys are playing, definitely I'll be in new life.
SPEAKER_00: There's no way I'm watching that game.
SPEAKER_00: But when everything's going fine, you know, we're going to the we're going to church if if if we have time.
SPEAKER_00: When when we pray, it's like we pray for meals, we pray with our children, like we pray for a good night of sleep and all that.
SPEAKER_00: All those cute prayers.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, I discovered in my life that but the when I'm in the battle, my prayers change a little bit, and my church attendance change a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Like I want to be in God's house because I need a word.
SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of the reality when we are in the middle of some battles.
SPEAKER_00: Seasons of battles will lead us to grow closer to God, and God will reveal Himself to us in those seasons, and that's the testimony of David, because I'm sure that David, you know, he knew a lot of things about God before entering that season of battle with Saul.
SPEAKER_00: David knew a lot of things about God, but this season of battles with Saul really God reveals himself, revealed himself to David on a personal level.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just that I know things about God, I know him personally.
SPEAKER_00: When I'm in the middle of a battle, that's that's where God will reveal himself to me.
SPEAKER_00: You can, you know, you can know things about God.
SPEAKER_00: You can come to church here every Sunday afternoon, and you can know things about God.
SPEAKER_00: You can't, we we can, that's what really we're we're trying to do uh every Sunday, uh every weekend, where we're trying to teach God's word and how to apply it in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: But you can you can be here, you can listen to podcasts, and you can you can learn you know things about God, but when you are in a season of battle, you don't need just knowledge, you need to know God personally, and that's where things change for David because it's not just that he knew some things about God, but during those years of battle, he he discovered God as a savior, but personally, and that's what we will uh discover.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's the difference between an explanation and an experience, and what when you are in a battle, I don't just need an explanation who about who God is.
SPEAKER_00: I I have to I need to know him personally, I need him to reveal himself to me.
SPEAKER_00: And that happened to me a lot of times in the past years, you know.
SPEAKER_00: For for many years, I knew that God, you know, could provide.
SPEAKER_00: I know that God can provide for me, you know, because I know the verse, I'm a pastor, I know the verse, the verse is about that, I know the scriptures about that, and I I suck God, you know, the Lord provided in so many ways in the life of people around me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but when we were at two services some some years ago and and at our church in Quebec City, we uh we we had two services at the time, and the two services were packed.
SPEAKER_00: And we needed to add a third service.
SPEAKER_00: But at the time we we did not have uh a budget for it because you know we the the where we were uh renting, it was uh it was a school, and if we were adding a third service, it means like they will, you know, uh the rent will be higher, and uh so many expenses because of the all the security team from the school are there, we have to pay them and all that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, at the time we we didn't have the money just to to have the third service and more time uh on Sunday for uh to have the third third service.
SPEAKER_00: So for many, many weeks, our team, we were in the middle of a battle that we didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: Like God, we're trying to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: You are sending a lot of people to your your house, you're in the church, but we don't.
SPEAKER_00: Have space now, and we don't have the money to do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a one of the struggles of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God is sending people, but we don't have the resources to serve them well.
SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of uh after five years, I'm learning that that's kind of a tension I think that I will be in for the next 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: That we have a lot of people to serve and not enough resources to do everything we think we have to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I knew that God can provide, you know, it's something that I knew, but I needed to live it, I needed to be real in my life.
SPEAKER_00: So we needed to God to reveal Himself to us in that season.
SPEAKER_00: So we were praying, just just Lord, provide.
SPEAKER_00: We need you to provide, and you know, anyway, we need you to provide.
SPEAKER_00: And I will always remember after the second service, one one Sunday, there's a man coming up near the stage after the second service.
SPEAKER_00: When he wanted to talk to me, and I barely knew the guy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I saw I saw him a few times in church, was not you know involved in the team, so I I I barely knew him, just knew his name.
SPEAKER_00: I knew he was a businessman.
SPEAKER_00: And he came close to me, said Pastor GP, can I talk to you for for a minute?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he he said, Okay, come close.
SPEAKER_00: And he just he gave me keys, you know, like car keys.
SPEAKER_00: And at that moment, you know, everything went very fast in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're like me, I I'm I'm kind of the worst case scenario type of guy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I'm not sure it might and my mind is running, you know, most of the time I I'm usually like uh going where you know everything could go wrong and all that.
SPEAKER_00: So I was thinking like those keys, uh, are those keys like an apartment keys, and there's someone dead in the apartment, and he he wants to confess something, or I don't know, like what is going on there?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you giving me those keys?
SPEAKER_00: And and and and the the businessman just said, No, no, I just I just wanted to know that this morning the Spirit of God convicted me, and this is my car keys, and I want to give my car to the church, and that could be a blessing, yeah, that's true, but it depends, you know.
SPEAKER_00: What's your car?
SPEAKER_00: Because that could be a blessing, and that could be a burden, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Just to you know, I want to give my car to church and then say, Can I can I show you my car?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_00: So after after service, we went outside, and when I saw his car, like my hands almost went up automatically, saying, Thank you, Lord, and didn't do that, but almost in my heart I did it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it was it was a very nice car.
SPEAKER_00: I won't you know tell you the brand of the car, but it was a very, very nice car.
SPEAKER_00: And and the businessman, you know, in a few days after that, he sold the car and write you know a check to the church.
SPEAKER_00: And on that Sunday, God revealed Himself to me.
SPEAKER_00: I knew He could provide.
SPEAKER_00: I never thought He could use a businessman.
SPEAKER_00: I barely know that after the service he will bring me car keys.
SPEAKER_00: You know, see what is that?
SPEAKER_00: And the guy who said just just like that, what not even a sermon on generosity or anything, just like the spirit of God convicted him that that morning that hey, you will give your car to the church, and he he didn't knew he didn't know that we were praying because we needed the finances to add a third service, and because of that man, we were able to add a third service a few weeks after that, and because of that, a lot of new people have space and seats, and but we were in a battle that we didn't choose, but God will reveal Himself in those battles.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few weeks ago, we moved into a new facility, a new building in Quebec City, and I don't know if you're aware of it, but when you are renting a place in a public school in the province of Quebec, there are some challenges challenges that come with that.
SPEAKER_00: Because uh, you know, last fall, I don't know if you saw the news, but there was a lot of uh uh discussion around the fact that the people and our authorities don't want churches to be in in public buildings and public schools, and guess what?
SPEAKER_00: We are in a public school, and we were disclosed last summer just to uh to be kicked out of the school we were in, and we were praying every single day.
SPEAKER_00: You know when I said that when you are in a battle, your prayer life will change.
SPEAKER_00: I can testify to that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was praying like my life was depending on it in the past few months, and we needed a building, but it's kind of difficult, you know, finding a building for a church like ours because you know a church like like ours is uh we need a big, big auditorium for people.
SPEAKER_00: We need like space like a like a school for uh you know, Nouvelle V kids junior.
SPEAKER_00: We need like a big auditorium, we need rooms like a school around the auditorium to serve our kids, and we need like a Costco parking outside.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the three needs we have, and it's very difficult to find a building, find find a facility that can that can accommodate that all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And in the past few months, God open opened uh you know a door, it was really a miracle, in a in a private school that needed you know the money, and we needed the place.
SPEAKER_00: So, right now we are in a new building.
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's uh eight weeks now that we are in a new building that it's much larger and cheaper than where we were at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: So, for me and and for our team in Quebec, for months we've been praying.
SPEAKER_00: We were in a battle that we didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: We're just trying to build Jesus' church in a province where it's difficult to do that.
SPEAKER_00: So we are in a in a battle we didn't choose, but God will reveal Himself in those battles, and He will provide, and that's what I'm praying for you this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: That in a few minutes when we will go back into worship and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I I'm just praying for you to pray that prayer, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal yourself to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in a battle that I ate I didn't choose, but I believe you're not just the God who provides for everybody else, you can provide for me, you're not healing just everybody else, you can heal me.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just giving directions to other people, you can direct my steps, and that's my prayer for you tonight.
SPEAKER_00: That's the testimony of David in Psalm 18, and I know that that's his testimony because look at the language, look at the words that David is using in Psalm 18, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I love you, O Lord, my strength.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my rock, not just a rock, not the rock.
SPEAKER_00: You know, slap your neighbors, say God is not Dwayne Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't understand, it's okay, just just bear with me.
SPEAKER_00: God is not just a rock, he is my rock, he is not a fortress, he is my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where I realized that for David, that season of battle was not just a wasted season, because that's the season where God revealed Himself to David personally.
SPEAKER_00: So David is not just saying, Oh, yeah, praise the Lord, the rock.
SPEAKER_00: No, praise the Lord, my rock.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is not just a fortress, he is my fortress, and that's my prayer for you today.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can go out this building, come out this building tonight tonight and say, The Lord is not just a fortress, he is my fortress, my rock, my shield, not just a shield, but my shield.
SPEAKER_00: And if we have time this afternoon, one of the David's, you know, most beautiful revelation in that psalm is in the verse, the verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: But I will read verse uh four through six and verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: And just you know, it just really touched my heart when I was studying the text because the language of David, I just like I just can feel his pain, you know, when you're reading Psalm 18.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just can relate to David when he's saying, like the cords of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you and I, when we are in the middle of battles that we didn't choose, it's like sometimes we feel like we're kind of trapped, you know, we've caught by surprise by some things, and the torrents of destructions assailed me like like waves that we didn't see coming.
SPEAKER_00: The cords of the grave entangled me, and the snares of death confronted me.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just I just relate to the language that sometimes we're just caught by surprise and we feel like stuck in those battles.
SPEAKER_00: And David will say, In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and maybe that's just what you need to do this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: As simple as that.
SPEAKER_00: Call upon the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: To my God, I cried for help, and from his temple, he heard my voice, and my cry to him reach his ears.
SPEAKER_00: In one of the beautiful verses I I read in a few in a few weeks and months, and he bowed the heavens and came down.
SPEAKER_00: God not just heard, he did not just hear, you know, David's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He bowed.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the look at the language, it's very beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: It's like he bowed the heavens, he bent the heavens like and he came down to rescue David.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: You know, David, when you're reading this, you understand that you know David was caught by surprise by the by this battle.
SPEAKER_00: He felt like he was trapped in this situation, was afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Like you and I, sometimes when when we are in a battle, we're afraid.
SPEAKER_00: You know, what's gonna be the future?
SPEAKER_00: Where am I going?
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00: We're afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And David could not get out of the battle by himself, so he called on God.
SPEAKER_00: And you you know, if if we're on us this afternoon, can we be honest?
SPEAKER_00: You know, after that, I'm just going back to Quebec City, so I will say what I want to say.
SPEAKER_00: My wife is waiting for me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I will say what I need to say and go back to my wife in Quebec City.
SPEAKER_00: But if we're honest together this afternoon, sometimes when we are in the middle of battles, we we call on so many things before we call on God.
SPEAKER_00: And we go to so many things, so many different sometimes some people, you know, sometimes it's it's easier to uh to be distracted by by you know the next the next good movie on Netflix because we don't want to see the battle, so it's easier just to just binge on a TV show or or just you know watch a movie.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we go on on that kind of stuff to distract us of the battle.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we we can just numb the pain.
SPEAKER_00: You know that you just read the Psalm 18 and you you can you can just feel the pain of David.
SPEAKER_00: He's afraid of it, and sometimes we we can just numb the pain or numb because we're scared.
SPEAKER_00: We can just numb it, numb it.
SPEAKER_00: Is that is that okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh you understand what I'm trying to say?
SPEAKER_00: You can just numb it with some, you know, just just just another drink or just just another something else, and and we we just can go to so many different things to to call it just to find comfort and in trying to forget about the battle.
SPEAKER_00: But David is is is teaching us to call on the Lord, and that's right there.
SPEAKER_00: That may be just a word for somebody this afternoon that you called on so many things, and maybe you're you're you're trying to distract yourself in so many things, doing so many different kinds of stuff, but maybe God bring you here this afternoon just to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: Call on him, try God because the Bible says that when you call on him, not only he hears, but he will bow the heavens and come down to be with you and to protect you and to rescue you.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody should say amen on that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like I just when I read that, it just came to my mind when you know when when a parent when I'm a dad, and I can remember when my my my daughter Emma, she's 11 right now, but but when when she was a little baby, when when you you just go to daycare and you you let your your kids to daycare, and and when you come back, you know it's it's always chaos.
SPEAKER_00: All the babies are crying and and all that.
SPEAKER_00: But as a parent, you can recognize when your child is crying, you know, when you're not the parent, you you can't you can't tell the difference you know between all the the different sounds, and and but when you are the dad, when you are the mom, you recognize your children's cry.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what David is describing in Psalm 18.
SPEAKER_00: When you cry to him, when you pray and say, Lord, you don't need to you don't need to have a perfect, you know, theological prayer with all the great words of the Bible and all that, you just can say, Lord, I need you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see where I am, God?
SPEAKER_00: I need your help.
SPEAKER_00: Please help me.
SPEAKER_00: If you say that, the Lord will hear and the Lord will bow the heavens and come down.
SPEAKER_00: And if I I just can take a few minutes, that verse, verse 9, right there, is one of the most beautiful pictures of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because in all the Bible, you will read scripture that God hears God's people cry.
SPEAKER_00: He hears the cry of his people from Exodus to to other books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You will you will read that that God will always hear.
SPEAKER_00: When his people are uh is crying for help, God always hears uh the cry.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a beautiful picture when when David is writing this this psalm, he said that God not only heard, but he bowed the heavens and came down.
SPEAKER_00: That's a picture of what Jesus did for us.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you and I we we could not just go and reach God by ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot do enough good things in life to to to be able to say, Well, look, God, I I did all that.
SPEAKER_00: I serve, I serve the poor, I helped this this lady go go across the street and all that.
SPEAKER_00: I I can't I cannot do anything to to to be able to reach God by myself.
SPEAKER_00: So God heard our cry and he bent and he bowed the heavens and he came down.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus came down, and Jesus went down and lived the life that you and I we will never be able to live a perfect life, a sinless life.
SPEAKER_00: And he went to the cross to uh to put my sin on himself, to pay my death on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: My sins, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_00: That's the same thing for you, and that's where God bent the heavens and came down with his son that paid a price for me on the cross, and three days later came back to life to to be able to be uh to uh you know, just give me the opportunity to be reconciled with God, and that's the a picture of the gospel, that you can be safe.
SPEAKER_00: That's the great revelation right there, and that's David's testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And in the battle, we didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: David is telling us too that those places, those seasons, can become seasons of great like formation or training.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're taking notes, you can can word that can write that word to formation or or training, and that will be probably a very uh uh quiet part of my sermon, but that's okay because I learned from uh from David himself in another scripture that I can you know encourage myself in the Lord, so you can be quiet in your seat and just receive the word.
SPEAKER_00: But the season of battles we didn't choose can become season of training.
SPEAKER_00: Because look at what what David is saying in verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: For who is God but the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And who is a rock except our God?
SPEAKER_00: The God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless.
SPEAKER_00: He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.
SPEAKER_00: He trains my hands for war, so that my heart, my arms, can bend a bow of bronze.
SPEAKER_00: You know what David is describing describing there?
SPEAKER_00: You have to remember that David is writing this psalm at the end of the season against Saul.
SPEAKER_00: So it's been many years of battle.
SPEAKER_00: But David is able to look back at that season and see that even if you know he never chose that season, God used that season to train him, to prepare him for the next season of his life.
SPEAKER_00: Because you and I, like David, we will go through seasons of battles that we didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not because we didn't choose it that God cannot use it.
SPEAKER_00: And God used that season in David's life to strengthen him and train him for the next season.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes when we pray, I really believe that God will sometimes he will remove the weight on our on our shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: God can do that, and sometimes he will.
SPEAKER_00: But after a few years of walking with God now and being a pastor, I know that sometimes God will let the weight on your shoulders, but he will help you walk with that weight, and that's David's testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we pray that the weight will go away, but sometimes God wants to train us to walk with the weight, and God can use our battles, and I don't want to say that lightly this this afternoon because I know that you're feeling pain in some areas of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I have battles that are painful too.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to talk lightly about that.
SPEAKER_00: But if God is not removing that battle right now, I'm pretty sure that God wants to use that battle in your life to train you for the next season of your life.
SPEAKER_00: The season that David was in was a great season of preparation for the next season of his life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure that David had no idea what was coming for him in the next season.
SPEAKER_00: You have to remember, he was just a little guy, little you know, teenager serving in the field, and one day, you know, a prophet come and say, Hey, uh, you will be the next king of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: So it's just like saying yes to God.
SPEAKER_00: So, okay, yeah, that's God's calling on my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just okay, I'll go.
SPEAKER_00: He had no idea the weight that will be on his shoulder to be, you know, the king of God's people, but God knew it.
SPEAKER_00: And I really believe when you study the story that God used that that season on his life to train them because during that season, David learned to serve, serve without being recognized.
SPEAKER_00: He was always in the shadows, you know, but he learned to serve without being recognized.
SPEAKER_00: He learned to be patient without you know manipulating people or things around him.
SPEAKER_00: He learned just to be patient and say, Okay, Lord, this is your battle, not mine.
SPEAKER_00: If you know the story a little bit, maybe you know that multiple times, at least two times, David had the opportunity to kill Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He had the opportunity to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And if you put yourself in David's shoes, you know, you know, I I cannot say I won't I would, you know, not kill Saul when I had a chance.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: For years David is running for his life, hiding in in caves and going, you know, the cities to cities just to just to try to stay alive.
SPEAKER_00: In two times at least he had the opportunity to kill soul, but he didn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: God was training David to honor God even when nobody was seeing it.
SPEAKER_00: David is looking back when he's writing Psalm 18, he's looking back and realized, okay, God trained me.
SPEAKER_00: God prepared me during that season.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm pretty sure that if David was with us tonight, probably David would say, if you're asking me, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I was praying that Saul would just go away after two days of running.
SPEAKER_00: But I realized that after many years of running, God used those years to prepare me for the next season.
SPEAKER_00: And I really believe that's the word for somebody today.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are in the middle of a battle and it's tough and you want it to go away.
SPEAKER_00: But if God doesn't make it disappear, I'm sure that God wants to use it in your life right now.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why David is saying, God gave me strength.
SPEAKER_00: And really, when when you're you're reading that verse, it really in the sense that he gave David the strength to walk with a weight on his shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: And after that, you can read the verse, but David is saying, like God, he made his feet like the feet of a deer.
SPEAKER_00: He was running for his life in in many years, and he learned during that season to be led by God.
SPEAKER_00: If God said, Okay, you go there, you know, his feet were was able to move quickly.
SPEAKER_00: And after that, David is saying, like, God trained my hands, my hands to to be able to uh to bend a bow of bronze.
SPEAKER_00: Because during those years, God was training David's abilities in leadership in all different kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Those kind of seasons are never wasted.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a word for somebody tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I'm closing shortly.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same problem in English.
SPEAKER_00: In all the languages.
SPEAKER_00: When we went in our church in Quebec City, my my family and I, my wife Valerie and I we moved and we knew nobody in Quebec City.
SPEAKER_00: And when we moved, there's something called, you know, the pandemic.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it rings the bell.
SPEAKER_00: But when we moved, you know, it wasn't in the same timing of the pandemic.
SPEAKER_00: And during the you know, the first days or the first few weeks, you know, I don't know if you're like me, but um at the beginning of the pandemic, you know, we were praying like God, please do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, probably is gonna, you know, it's gonna be over in a few days, I think.
SPEAKER_00: You know, did you did you did you thought yeah?
SPEAKER_00: You didn't you think that too at the at the time?
SPEAKER_00: So just put yourself in my shoes.
SPEAKER_00: We were moving in Quebec City to plant a church in a season when you know nobody can come to church.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty interesting.
SPEAKER_00: We're here to plant a church, and everybody are is stuck at home.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and you know, weeks go by and months go by, and that was a very, very difficult season.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm talking about battles I didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: Planting a church all by itself, it's it's it's like like I don't recommend it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if God is calling you to do it, then do it.
SPEAKER_00: But if not, you know, run, do something else.
SPEAKER_00: But planting a church in the middle of a pandemic, like seriously, and I I cannot tell you how many times my wife and I were praying, like just what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: We we we we just thought you you were you know calling us to Quebec City to plant a church, and now we're here, we know nobody.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're we're stuck like in our basement doing Zooms, like Zoom meetings, and and so yeah, we're sharing the vision with like 30 people on Zoom and say, Hey, you know, God is giving us a vision for Quebec City, we will win Quebec City over for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, bye everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Like it was to be honest with you, it was a very difficult season, but I don't want to compare myself with David in any way, but like he did when he wrote Psalm 18, it was kind of uh you know, looking back at the season of battle with Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Five years later, when I you know look back at that season, starting the church in the pandemic, I realized that you know clearly it was a battle I didn't choose.
SPEAKER_00: But even if I never chose that battle, God used it in a mighty way in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Because it it's it's in that season that God really trained me and and gave me, you know, just the courage to be a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you when you you're full of vision, like I I love vision, you know, I love you know sharing vision, and I'm kind of a passionate guy, so you know, I'm always thinking about reaching more people and and in preaching Jesus and all that.
SPEAKER_00: But when you're stuck at home and you have to do that on Zoom, you learn courage, you know, just to I will stand firm on the word that God gave me, and I will believe that I don't know how, I don't know when, but God will do what He said.
SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, can I be honest with you this afternoon?
SPEAKER_00: I had no idea what God was about to do in Quebec City.
SPEAKER_00: When we're we're talking about you know tree services and all that, and and hundreds of people.
SPEAKER_00: If my wife, my wife was with me on stage, she could tell.
SPEAKER_00: At the beginning, when we were in the pandemic, I I I was always saying to my wife, I have a vision for Quebec.
SPEAKER_00: If one day, like in when I'm I was saying one day, it was like in 30 years, okay.
SPEAKER_00: If one day there's 500 people in that church, it was worth it.
SPEAKER_00: If in 30 years it there's 500 people in that church that found Jesus because because you know we we inserted scholarly with a team and we we built Jesus' church, and if in 30 years that 500 people, you know, it was worth it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, God God had bigger plans than me, like clearly.
SPEAKER_00: But I learned in that season just to trust God's word.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you you can't develop in your heart courage if you're not put in difficult situations.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're praying for courage, God's way to train us for courage is go in difficult situations, and God really did that in my life, and and today I really believe I could not, I could just could not be the pastor of that church if it was not because of the pandemic.
SPEAKER_00: At the time I were I was praying, God, please just make it go away.
SPEAKER_00: But now it's very strange, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the only time I will say that in public, but I never said that in public, but now I'm kind of grateful for the pandemic for me personally, on a personal level, God used it in a mighty way to train me, to broke me, to prepare me for what he was about to do in our church, and that's where I want to come with with great love and say I don't want to, you know, talk lightly about it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's painful right now, maybe the battle is not fun at all right now, but maybe just maybe God is training you in that season, and God is is doing things in your life that no season of comfort could never do, and you are in a season of battle because God is training you for what's next.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I just pray you receive that this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe we need to change our prayers a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: But God, if you don't make it go away, change me.
SPEAKER_00: Show me what you're doing in my life, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Remove the parts of myself that you know are not glorifiers, you and change me, train me, prepare me.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the prayer you need to do this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: And I I'm closing the message, but if you give me just two minutes, what we learn in Psalm 18 is the battles we didn't choose sometimes are the greatest seasons because God will reveal Himself to us in those seasons personally, He will train us.
SPEAKER_00: But what we learn in in David's life is that those seasons can produce in our life a worship that is not just you know, a worship of you know, just on surface, but a deep worship from our heart.
SPEAKER_00: When you went through a season like David went through, you cannot just come to church on Sunday afternoon with your hands and your pockets and just say, Yeah, yeah, Lord, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that that song, we sang that song last week.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Pastor JP, oh he that guy is a he speaks French, he has an accent, and he's so many you know mistakes in his English, it's not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: When you go through battles that you didn't choose, and God showed himself faithful and he provided for you, and he took care of you, it produced in your heart a worship that is not just of surface, it's not just you know, a lip for my lips, it's from my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And when you read that psalm, Psalm 18, at the beginning of the of the psalm, you know, it's very it's very difficult to read, it's very like it's not positive at all.
SPEAKER_00: But the hand the the when when David is closing this psalm, you know, in verse 46 to 49, that's what we're reading, and I'm closing.
SPEAKER_00: David says, The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation, the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me, who rescued me from my enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me, you delivered me from the man of violence.
SPEAKER_00: For this, I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing to your name.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just closing with that.
SPEAKER_00: You can't, you know, stand up on your feet if you're able to do it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm closing, and when you're you're standing up, it helps me to to finish my sermon.
SPEAKER_00: This summit is describing a great tension in which we have to learn to live.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we are worshiping God, when what God, when we are lifting our hands and just praising his name, it's not that we are living in denial, that you know our lives, our lives are perfect, and there's no battle.
SPEAKER_00: There's a tension in the Psalm 18, where David is describing the battle, the reality of it, but at the end of the psalm, he is praising God's name, and there's a tension right there.
SPEAKER_00: We don't praise because everything's perfect, we don't praise because we don't have battles, we praise because we know that God is still on the throne, and when I'm facing battles that you know I cannot win by myself, I will lift my hands to the one who is my rock, not just a rock, my rock, because I know he lives, I know he's on the throne, I know, I know he will have the last word on this battle.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not praising because everything's perfect, I'm not praising because there's the battles.
SPEAKER_00: I'm praising his name because I know he is faithful.
SPEAKER_00: I know he will protect me.
SPEAKER_00: I know he will guide me, I know he will train me, I know he will use that season in my life.
SPEAKER_00: So as the worship team will lead us in worship, the name of the song we'll sing together is I trust in God! In that save its testimony, and maybe you are in the middle of a battle right now.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm challenging you this afternoon to lift your hands, lift your heart, and say, God, I trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: I trust in God, I trust my fortress, my shield, my truth, thank you together from the heart, not just from our lips, from the heart.