WEBVTT 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:09.519 You're listening to the road. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:11.759 Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:14.320 You've heard me say this before. 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:15.839 Face the shame. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:18.399 Second Corinthians 4. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:20.160 Face the shame. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:23.920 But then surrender the shame. 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:26.000 Don't keep facing it. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.000 Surrender the shame. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:29.440 Quit running from it. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:30.239 Turn it. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:31.920 Acknowledge that it happened. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:33.759 Acknowledge that it's true. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:35.280 Surrender it to the Lord. 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:37.119 Surrender it to the Lord. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:38.719 Surrender it to the Lord. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:40.320 Surrender it to the Lord. 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:44.960 And God's confidence and strength is going to flow in greater measure in your life. 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:51.359 At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ. 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:55.840 For more information on the road, visit the Road.org. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:01.119 We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:09.680 So we're on a book series on the life of David. 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.079 We've been in 1 Samuel 16. 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:18.239 I'm not going to go back to 1 Samuel 16 today, but if you're new with us today, you can look there if you desire. 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:22.319 But we're doing this series based on my book, Worshiper Warrior. 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:26.799 I want to talk about David as a warrior. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:36.959 In over 30 years of being a missionary and a pastor, I've heard on numerous occasions this kind of phraseology. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:40.640 I didn't get that much out of worship today. 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:45.280 I didn't get that much from worship today. 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:50.480 Do you know that worship's not about getting something from it? 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:54.239 Worship is about giving something to him. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:56.400 It's not about you. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:01:59.599 Everybody look at me. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:01.040 It's not about you. 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:02.480 It's about him. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:04.719 Worship's about him. 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:09.199 Turn to your neighbor and say, Worship's about him. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:25.680 Heard the story of this mom was telling someone who told me about it that the son was having a party and they had the party, birthday party. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:33.280 And they lived here in this area, I think out in Briargate or something, and they had a porch. 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:36.879 Big banner across the porch. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:38.800 Happy birthday. 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:40.719 Whatever his name was. 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:46.479 And there was a stack of presents on every one of the presents that had his name on it. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:55.680 And the sister came in, and she's getting madder and madder and more incensed. 00:02:56.479 --> 00:03:06.879 And she's getting, she's kind of stomping around, and her brother's name is on all the presents, and his name is on the banner, and his name is on the cake. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:11.120 And she's just really upset. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.919 And finally the mom looks at her and says, it's not about you, it's about him. 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:21.280 It's his birthday. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:25.039 You'll have your birthday, but today it's not about you, it's about him. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:27.680 Many women, worship's about Christ. 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:31.680 We come here and it's about him. 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:38.080 Now, let me just tell you, man, I love the feelings, I love the vibe. 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:42.319 I love when the presence of God comes down and I feel it. 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:44.479 I love that. 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:54.400 But ultimately, worship is gazing upon him, and it's all about him and our relationship with him and giving him glory. 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:56.159 How many of you like the cop shows? 00:03:56.319 --> 00:03:59.919 Anybody watch cop shows, you know, like the police stuff and everything. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:05.520 There's some that are sort of realistic, there's some that are, you know, TV programs and stuff like that. 00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:06.479 So there's different kinds. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:09.680 There's so many, NCIS and all that stuff. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:17.519 And you see, when they arrest the bad guy, usually it's like this or like this, right? 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:21.759 Universal sign of surrender. 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:25.199 Universal sign of surrender. 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:29.279 I think the key to worship is when we surrender to Christ. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:36.879 And when we raise our hands, we're not raising our hands because we're charismatic or we're not charismatic or we're Pentecostal or not Pentecostal. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:43.519 We raise our hands because we're surrendering to Christ and we're uplifting his name because we know that worship's all about him. 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:47.279 And I know for some of you that's uncomfortable to raise your hands. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:47.680 It's fine. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:48.959 You don't have to raise your hands here. 00:04:49.040 --> 00:05:01.360 I'm just saying, though, that that that this sign right here is often the way in which we we exhibit our surrender to him in worship. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:03.199 And David got it. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.959 David really got it, even as a 13-year-old. 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:10.480 Today we have a 13-year-old on the stage. 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:16.319 There's a day coming when this stage is going to be a band of all young people. 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:23.199 Because we're going to raise up a new generation of worshipers of the Gen Zers. 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:34.959 Those young people are going to come up and they're going to know how to worship because we trained them here at the road when they were little guys to be outliers and not fit in. 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:43.279 You see, on the value system, I don't want any of our kids to fit in to the world system out here, in this culture. 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:57.199 But I want them to not fit in to such a degree, though, that they're not monks and nuns, but that they can engage the culture in their school as radically committed worshipers and warriors. 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:00.879 Because God has called us to make an impact. 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:04.800 And so David at 13, we've been studying it the last few weeks. 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:08.319 He comes in into the secular ground. 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:10.319 He comes into the secular ground. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:12.000 This is how it defines secular. 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:14.399 Secular is without God. 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:18.000 Secular meanings without God. 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:20.000 Sacred means with God. 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:21.439 He comes with God. 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:27.439 And as we've talked about, that servant in Saul's court notice David because what did he say? 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.959 God is with him. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:30.800 God is with David. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:38.399 David comes, and listen, he brings the sacredness of his relationship as a worshiper skilled on the harp. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.800 Skilled on the harp in the hills of Bethlehem. 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:54.639 He comes into the secular court of Saul, who is the lead king of Israel, and he turns the secular into the sacred. 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:55.600 That's what we do. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:00.879 See, when we learn to worship, we bring the presence of God where there's no presence of God. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:09.439 When you go to work, if you're learning to be a worshiper, you're learning to behold his glory, you bring the sacred into the secular. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:20.319 And unfortunately, too many believers today that have been in the church are sacred on Sunday, but the rest of the six days of the week, they're secular. 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:23.199 And they wonder why God's not doing anything at work. 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:26.560 But God wants us to daily have a relationship with him. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:29.360 I was talking to Ron Lent this week. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:30.399 We had coffee together. 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:45.839 We're talking about Outlier University in his class, and he said, This little guy named Sam, and I think Sam's about 13, was the most studious, most focused student in his OU class for 10 weeks. 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:48.800 13-year-old, taking copious notes. 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:50.720 Man, that fires me up. 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:56.720 Dave is 13 in our story, and he's already become a worshiper. 00:07:57.279 --> 00:08:02.240 So, men and women, worship is how we do taxes. 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:06.560 Let me say that again because I'm really treading on some thin ice here. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:09.759 Worship is how we do our taxes. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:15.360 Worship is how we handle our money. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:23.279 Worship is about how we work when we go into our job and we're being submitted to our boss. 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:28.480 And if you haven't really worked for a demonized boss yet, you really haven't had a job. 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:32.960 And so David goes in and he's got a demonized boss. 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:42.080 His first job, besides just staying in the family business, is he has to work for a demonized boss who's got a spear right next to his throne. 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:44.879 David's a worshiper. 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:55.600 There's no way that he could have handled that kind of pressure without throwing his own spear, or maybe in his case, slinging a stone back if he hadn't been a worshiper. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:07.679 So God, as God's working in our lives, church, to make you more sacred, to make you more of a worshiper, I can promise you he's going to put you in some environments where there's some spear-throwing people. 00:09:08.720 --> 00:09:13.519 And the only way you're going to be able to handle that is that you're a worshiper. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:29.279 Because when we know it's about Him in His glory in our lives, God gives us the wherewithal, God gives us the composure to handle that kind of pressure. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:34.799 And actually, instead of us running from it, we can face it and change it. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:37.759 So turn in your Bibles to Psalm 27. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:40.960 And we've looked at Psalm 27 before. 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:45.279 But I want to hit it again because David wrote it. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:57.120 And in the context of David's life, for 17 years on the run from Saul and his men. 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:01.840 Isn't it amazing the betrayal that's all through this story? 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:05.360 I mean, it's an amazing story, the story of David, of such betrayal. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:14.799 I was just reading chapter 18 last night because next week we're going to talk about the famous David and Goliath story. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:20.960 And I was just fascinated to look at what happened after this great victory for David. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:35.039 And it says that David, after Goliath, after the Valley of Elah, starts leading all of the armies of Saul into battle against the Philistines and all these skirmishes that they have. 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:45.759 But these are the very guys that under Saul's orders turn on David, and David's on the run from the guys that he was just leading a few weeks before. 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:58.879 Is that you run with some folks, and where it really hurts is that you loved them, you ministered together with them. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:00.480 You were in the battle together. 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:03.200 Some of you feel this in your marriages and in your families. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:06.399 If you've been through a divorce, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:15.840 And you remember those happy times, you remember those joyful times, and then something happens, and suddenly there's a betrayal, and you're stabbed in the bat. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:20.000 And everything in you wants to re-stab in the bat. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:23.600 But as we grow to be worshippers, something changes. 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:28.720 And I think we see David, who learned this probably better than anyone else in the Bible. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:34.399 What he wrote in Psalm 27 is beautiful because the narrative, there's two narratives here. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:41.679 There's a narrative of fear, and when I think of a narrative of fear, I think of someone who's gonna get back. 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:45.039 They're gonna get back at those people who've done that to them. 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:48.320 And then there's also a narrative of faith and worship. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:50.960 The Lord is my light and my salvation. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:52.720 Whom shall I fear? 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:57.679 The Lord is the strength of my life. 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:00.720 Of whom shall I be afraid? 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:10.320 When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:13.840 So the narrative of verses 1 and 2, church, is fear. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:15.919 And all of us struggle with fear. 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:23.200 That fear, that betrayal, enemies, war, foes. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:25.039 You know what he's talking about, right? 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:28.960 Sometimes you feel that with your own spouse when you're coming to church on Sunday. 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:38.799 It's an American Christian tradition that you have to fight from your house when you get in your car all the way to church, and then you're supposed to put on a happy face and worship God. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:41.679 Anyone know what I'm talking about? 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:44.240 Okay, I've I've solved the problem years ago. 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:47.120 I go separately from my wife. 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:59.279 Listen, folks, if you look at what you fear, listen, if you look at, stare at, gaze at what you fear, you will always stumble. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:10.320 Because there'll always be another thing they say, there'll always be another move they make that you weren't expecting, and you're all in turmoil inside. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:17.200 David has a choice here, and if anybody had a bunch of enemies, it was David. 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:18.639 Look at verse 3. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:24.399 Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:29.360 Though war may rise up against me, in this I'll be confident. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.360 It's a focus. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:33.039 Worship is a focus. 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:38.399 It's a refocusing away from fear into confidence in God. 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:40.960 And he's gonna tell us in just a moment how to do that. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:43.120 But men and women, I guess what I believe. 00:13:43.279 --> 00:14:02.720 After all these years in highs and lows, betrayals, deep wounding, I think as the years go by, God wants every one of you in this room to be growing in confidence in him and losing confidence in yourself. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:04.879 We need less of you. 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:07.120 Just ask your spouse, do we need less of me? 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:10.399 And they'll go, yeah, amen, brother, sister. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:13.039 And we need more of him. 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:16.080 You see, worship's about him, it's not about you. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:20.639 And so the more we take our eyes off ourselves and put it on him, you're gonna grow in faith. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:30.320 You're gonna grow in confidence, you're gonna grow in your expertise in your job because there's gonna be a supernatural power flowing through you increasingly. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:40.159 Because you're focused on him, and as you focus on him, his spirit then has more access into every area of our life, and especially the wounded areas. 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:42.000 And everybody here's got wounded areas. 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:46.720 We've got areas where we've been betrayed, we've been hurt, we carry shame. 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:50.960 And you've heard me say this before face the shame. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:58.960 Second Corinthians 4, face the shame, but then surrender the shame. 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:01.120 Don't keep facing it. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:20.399 Surrender the shame, quit running from it, turn it, acknowledge that it happened, acknowledge that it's true, surrender it to the Lord, surrender it to the Lord, surrender it to the Lord, surrender it to the Lord, and God's confidence and strength is going to flow in greater measure in your life. 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:22.240 Here's how He did it. 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:23.600 Here's how the confidence grows. 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:24.720 Verse 4. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:32.559 One thing, one thing I've desired of the Lord, that will I seek. 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:35.039 There's a lot of things we can seek. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:16:03.919 We can seek vengeance, we can seek uh intrigue, we can seek manipulation, we can seek talking behind people's backs and slander and gossip, or this one thing David has chosen to seek is this that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord. 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:10.559 Now understand that at the time of David, there's no temple yet. 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:13.200 Because Solomon, his son, is going to build the temple. 00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:19.039 So when he talks about the temple, he's speaking of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant. 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:22.320 He's looking at that because that's where the presence was. 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:33.200 Men and women, now that we are we are uh born again in the New Dispensation since Calvary, since the cross, you are the temple of the Lord. 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:35.360 You are the temple of the Lord. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:46.799 So wherever we are, whatever we're doing, we can turn to the house of the Lord, which is the Spirit of God, the Ark of the Covenant that's within you, and we can worship right there. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:49.840 David says, I'm gonna be, I want to behold the beauty of the Lord. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:51.279 I don't care about being king. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:57.600 I never wanted to be king, never wanted to be a commander, never wanted to be a soldier, never wanted to be a leader. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:02.559 I just want this one thing to behold the beauty of the Lord. 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:08.400 And some of you are going through some horrific stuff right now. 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:12.880 Some really difficult times in your life. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:17.839 It might be physical, emotional, spiritual, vocational. 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:25.200 I want to challenge you to be a worshiper, and that means to take time to behold the Lord. 00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:27.839 To take time to behold his face. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:30.079 Look, look down at verses 8 and 9. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.079 This is this is amazing. 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:40.079 When you said, seek my face, my heart said to you, Your face, Lord, I will seek. 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:42.480 Do not hide your face from me. 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:45.440 Do not turn your servant away in anger. 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:47.359 You have been my help. 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:50.559 Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:54.160 I've underlined, seek my face, your face. 00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:58.480 Same word, same root word for the presence. 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:00.720 The presence of the Lord. 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:05.680 David is saying, I want your presence more than anything else. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:07.440 I want to seek your face. 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:08.720 I want to see your face. 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:10.160 I want this one thing. 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:12.160 I want the presence of God. 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:17.359 We have three labs, three Labrador retrievers. 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:20.559 By the way, it's two, too many. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:21.920 But I've got three. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:25.279 And I've got one that's two that are old and one that's young. 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:34.160 And sometimes it drives me nuts, but but the reality is they teach me a lot, and those dogs are loyal. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:36.559 And they follow me everywhere. 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:40.240 And when I lay down in bed, they're all right around the bed. 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:53.279 And I'm glad I'm not any older than I am because I probably would have broken a knee or an ankle or a hip just trying to get to the bathroom at night, just kind of going over bodies of dogs. 00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:57.519 Now, fortunately, they love our kids too, so they all head up into the different parts of the house. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:18:58.799 I don't know where they're at most of the time. 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:00.079 I usually have one there. 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:02.880 But they they want my face. 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:06.240 They want my face. 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:16.559 And man, when I look at that dog, which is not often because they wag their tail and knock things off tables and stuff, but but they love my face. 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:22.240 And some of you know the story that I met Liz smuggling Bibles in China. 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:28.319 And then she's at UCLA, I'm on the East Coast, so we're letter writing. 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:32.160 Then we saw each other briefly in LA while I was going through training to be missionary. 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:35.759 Then I went over, and for 18 months, we didn't see each other. 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:38.720 But we were crazy in love with each other at the time. 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:45.839 And there at this little Japanese-like desk that I had were three pictures of Liz. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:49.599 And I stared at him like all the time. 00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:53.759 We didn't have FaceTime men and women, young people. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:05.759 We didn't have computers, FaceTime, um, uh, cell phones, or any of that, but our we were dependent on a phone call, and and we we had these things called photographs. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:18.480 A little, they're they're like kind of on a that you could hold them like this, and they did, and they wouldn't change, they didn't move or anything. 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:28.880 They it was like there was like one spot where that person was, and someone clicked like a picture, and then it was there, and then they like sent it to you. 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:31.359 Photograph. 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:33.839 Staring. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:40.640 Same photograph because I was in love with her. 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:44.480 We stare at what we love. 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:47.839 That's what worship is. 00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:51.039 Staring at Christ. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:21:01.440 I love what Tim Hughes, the great songwriter, said the first thing God calls us to do is to watch him, to gaze into his eyes and behold his greatness. 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:03.839 Staring at him. 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:04.960 David gets it. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:05.839 David gets it. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:10.160 He brings his stare into Saul's court. 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:12.799 And Saul doesn't know what to do with him. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:18.240 Because here's what happens, men and women, when you favor God, God favors you. 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:24.240 When you favor God with your stare, he favors you with his stare. 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:24.400 Okay. 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:26.799 And his favor is upon you. 00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:32.960 It'll be upon you at work, it'll be upon you with your colleagues, it'll be upon you in your marriage. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:39.519 If you'll make the focus of Christ your ambition, this one thing, he'll take care of many things. 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:42.960 If you'll take care of the one thing, he'll take care of the many things. 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:45.599 David gets it. 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:53.119 You see, the temptation here, as he writes in Psalm 27, is a fear narrative or a faith narrative? 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:59.599 And the fear narrative is what Satan, some of you are camping out too much in fear. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:06.319 You have fear of finances, you have fear for your families, you have fear for for your future. 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:08.079 And I get that. 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:09.440 I have those too. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:12.000 But we can't camp out there, church. 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:13.359 We can't camp out there. 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:20.319 We we have to refocus ourselves toward the glory of God, toward the majesty of God, toward the beauty of God. 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:30.400 And I want to just say this, and I know it's this is I'm probably out of line to say this, and I'll probably get a lot of we'll probably have a staff meeting over this statement. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:44.799 But I would love it if even though our doors are locked, you can ring the doorbell, you can come in, and some of you, God might be calling to come here during the week and just worship the Lord. 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:50.319 If you would like to come into our sanctuary, you would come in here and you just worship God. 00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:51.839 I just say, come do it. 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:59.759 Wouldn't it be cool if in the days ahead the house of the Lord had 24-7 prayer and it wasn't even planned? 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:02.240 But it's because people want to come. 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:04.400 Because people hunger for the house of the Lord. 00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:05.680 They believe in the house of the Lord. 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:07.920 They want to be where the house of the Lord is. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:08.720 They want to be in it. 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:09.759 They want to be around it. 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:10.559 They want to feel it. 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:11.440 They want to sense it. 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:13.839 They want to open heaven. 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:17.279 And in our church right now, there's an opening heaven. 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:19.759 It's not open yet, but it's opening. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:21.119 Have you felt it? 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:22.079 Have you felt it? 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:22.720 Keep coming. 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:23.519 You'll feel it. 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:25.279 There's an opening heaven. 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:26.720 The power of God. 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:28.799 We are seeing more salvations. 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:32.559 More people get healed than ever in the history in our brief five years. 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:36.160 And me, I've been doing this thing for a long time and I haven't seen so much happening. 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:38.400 We're trying to figure out how to document them all. 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:41.039 Because people keep coming up and saying, My back was healed. 00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:42.240 My knee was healed. 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:43.680 My ankle was healed. 00:23:43.839 --> 00:23:45.680 I got saved last week. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:47.759 We need some systems here. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:50.720 Because it's happening all over the place. 00:23:51.279 --> 00:23:59.200 We've had, as far as people who've raised their hands to indicate they want to give their heart to Christ, nine people in the last two weeks. 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:00.559 It's fantastic. 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:01.759 It's fantastic. 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:02.640 It's super. 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:11.599 So, so that next week after Christmas, which is December 30th, we're going to have a baptism service. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:22.640 So if you've recently given your heart to Christ or you've never been baptized, or you were baptized as an infant and you'd like to be baptized as an adult believer, put down December 30th during the service. 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:25.599 We're going to have baptisms because people need to get baptized. 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:31.839 And even if you have been baptized, but you're just now getting saved, then get baptized as a believer. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:40.160 I was reading about a gang member out of Miami on Fox News last night. 00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:57.839 I was scanning down some stuff and I and I can't remember the guy's name, forgive me, but some guy, he he was an MMA fighter, gang member, just a whole life of in and out of prison, lost most of his friends to shootings and rumbles and stuff with gangs and everything. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:00.400 Just radically got saved in 2016. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:08.000 And when you listen to his testimony, it was just a three-minute thing I listened to, he said, something happened when I got baptized. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:10.160 He said, Man, I don't know what happened. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:18.319 And I think he said, dude, I don't know what happened, but like when I went down in that water and I came out, all I know is I was a totally different person. 00:25:18.720 --> 00:25:21.200 There's something powerful about communion. 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:23.440 There's something powerful about baptism. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:27.200 There's something about the presence of God in the house of the Lord. 00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:34.480 This place, though all of us are the house of the Lord, there's something about a place where people come and worship every week. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:37.519 And year after year after year. 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:42.400 And this sanctuary's been here for almost 20 years. 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:44.799 And congregations have come here and worship. 00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:59.039 This area right up here, I can tell you in the last year and a half, and then before that at Chapel Hills, is stained with tears of people getting saved and healed right here. 00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:02.000 This is holy ground. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:04.880 Not all ground's holy ground. 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:12.079 I know some of you Bronco fans think that you know, mile high and everything in Vesco Field is holy ground. 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:12.960 It's not. 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:15.920 This is holy ground. 00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:19.920 Right here is holy ground. 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:27.440 Because the presence of God inhabits the praises of his people, and there's been a lot of praise happening in here. 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:30.400 God loves houses of praise. 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:32.960 God loves places where we worship him. 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:36.720 Look at that, look at that, look at verse 5. 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:44.559 For in times of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle, he shall hide me. 00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:47.200 He shall set me high upon a rock. 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:52.480 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies, all around me. 00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:57.440 Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. 00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:02.559 I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. 00:27:02.720 --> 00:27:06.960 This is the same man, David, who said, God inhabits the praises of Israel. 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:16.720 So God is in those praises, and as he as he comes, let me just say this, church, it's up to you to draw near to Christ. 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:20.400 He says, Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you. 00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:29.599 So it starts with you, even though it started with him, because the desire for you to draw near to him comes from him, but you still have to be obedient. 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:40.799 And so when you make a choice to rejoice with an attitude of gratitude, when you don't feel like it, that's a sacrifice of joy. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:41.920 That's a sacrifice. 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:48.720 If we can only do it when we feel like it, first of all, you won't do it very often, and a lot of times that's from the flesh anyway. 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:55.759 But when you make a sacrifice, in other words, today, when we go into worship, next thing we're gonna do is we're gonna go into worship. 00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:04.160 I'm gonna encourage some of you to come up front and worship right here on this holy ground so you won't be distracted. 00:28:04.640 --> 00:28:21.039 Come and worship, or wherever you're at, you're gonna worship, and you don't feel like it, you got a million things in your head, you're going shopping right after, your your stomach's making sounds like something out of Cinderella man when he's going into his big fight, and you don't know what to do, but you do it anyway. 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:28.400 That's a sacrifice of praise, and God inhabits says praises, and he'll meet you in a mighty way. 00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:40.480 Listen, when we worship the Lord, make a we make a sacrifice to worship the Lord in times of prosperity, he will be there in times of poverty, and times of poverty will come. 00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:44.240 That's what David's saying here. 00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:49.759 Is that God, because I worship you, will you now not hide me in your tabernacle? 00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:52.400 Some of us need that hiddenness, don't we? 00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:56.079 Sometimes at night when I'm all jumbled up, I'll take the covers. 00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:03.279 Liz isn't there yet, and I just put the covers, I put my knees up and I put the covers all the way over my head, I tuck it in back here. 00:29:03.359 --> 00:29:05.039 So they're not sitting there like that. 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:09.599 But they're coming up here and it's in that, in that place, almost like a cave. 00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:13.359 I like to make a cave and hide myself there and pray. 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:16.240 Now let me close with this. 00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:20.400 2 Corinthians 3.18. 00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:24.960 Look in your Bibles, just go to the right, come to 2 Corinthians 3.18. 00:29:26.720 --> 00:29:30.799 This is really important in relation to what David is saying about worship. 00:29:31.119 --> 00:29:36.880 He says this, but we all, all means all, with unveiled face. 00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:47.680 So his, if you look at the whole context, church, he's talking about Moses who had to veil, he had to put a veil over his face because of the glow from being in the presence of God. 00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:58.079 We with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image. 00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:02.319 From glory to glory, just as the Spirit of the Lord. 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:03.680 Do you get it? 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:13.839 He's saying that as we stare and behold the glory of the Lord, his image changes us. 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:17.279 He's transforming you, church. 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:18.640 Isn't that exciting? 00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:33.519 So you could take a young person who just got saved, no history in the church, no relationship with God, maybe a life of sin and debauchery and rebellion. 00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:40.720 And they start to set aside 30 minutes a day, and they just worship the Lord. 00:30:40.960 --> 00:31:00.400 They just put on their iPod, they put on their computer, they put on their earphones, they worship the Lord 30 minutes next to someone who's been walking with the Lord for 30 years, and the only connection they have with God is maybe five seconds on Sunday morning with a few hymns. 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:07.039 Who is gonna get changed more and quicker? 00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:11.359 Well, the answer is obvious, but the process isn't. 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:18.000 You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:21.039 We hope you have been blessed by today's message. 00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:25.119 To connect with us further, visit theroad.org. 00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:29.119 If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you. 00:31:29.359 --> 00:31:36.480 Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request. 00:31:36.720 --> 00:31:44.480 Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.