Taking Back What the Enemy Stole - Journey to the Heart of God

First of all, I'm going to give you a little geography here that um just to show you we've we've actually been talking about it quite a bit. You know how David said, the Lord is my rock? Well, look at where we believe he was when he was writing that. This is called Wild Goats Rock in Israel. You say wild goats? I kid you not. Anyway, uh this this but I don't know what you were picturing when when we he says the Lord is my rock But this is his rock. So we're talking about a place to hide, to be safe. uh to get out of the sun uh and uh the and the caves are in there in that area. Uh this is the area where he he came up came up on Saul So I I thought it might be interesting just to picture kind of when you say the Lord is your rock, don't just picture a boulder. It's huge and it's safe. All right. We uh we've we're gonna look and uh before the I'm doing several befores. We I will get to the real thing. I want to take you over to an incident we didn't have time to talk about, and it's kind of out there by itself, but it's a point for you. In 2 Samuel chapter 5, verse 10. He became more and more powerful. This is David, because the Lord God Almighty was with him. And now he is becoming king And it says, Hiram, King of Tyre, sent envoys to David along with cedar logs, carpenters, and they're starting to think about this is building a palace at this point, and they built a palace for David. Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel after 14 years of being a fugitive from the time Samuel anointed him. He finally is king and exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. After he left Hebron, he took I'm sorry, this is one of his issues. Ladies, sons and daughters were born to him. That's why he had such conflict in his home, honestly. And then, but this is what I want you to see. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, They went up in full force to search for him. But David heard about it and went down to the stronghold And that's when he starts to ask the Lord and seek the Lord, whether the Philistines had come and spread out in the valley. Well stop there. Here's the point. God is on the move. His anointed king is on the throne. And immediately the enemy makes a move. Be prepared for that when you get home As soon as God does something significant, and if he has in your heart recently, when God is on the move, the enemy's on the attack. That's not in your notes. You've experienced it, haven't you? When God is on the move, the enemy is on the attack, and what does David do? He says, Lord, he checks with God. What should I do? And God says, go attack. So when the enemy attacks you, you counterattack, and if he pushes an old button that has always worked When he pushes that button, you usually do what he wants you to do. Just this time counter-attack and say, I know who this is, and you are not going to steal from me what God has just given me. That's all. No extra charge for that. Okay. Now let's get down to the incident in 1 Samuel chapter 30. It is a rather amazing story. Now here's the deal. David, as the warrior that he is, he's had a there's a lot of battles described. He's been victorious in battle after battle. But right now, even with Saul chasing him all those years, This attack is the cruelest of them all. This this is the one that tears David up. And he weeps aloud and takes all of those warriors with him. And it says they cried till they could cry no more. What in the world just happened Well, most of his men in what they what this attack happened, they will, if they're looking at it, they see devastation. That's the dot And David, their leader, even in this most grievous moment, what does he do? He sees it through God's eyes 1 Samuel chapter 30 verses 1 and 2. We'll start just working our way through the story. David and his men reached Ziklag, that was their wilderness camp, on the third day. The Amalekites had raided the Negev and Zikleg, and they had attacked Zikleg and burned it. So while the guys are gone, And just their families are there. These Amalachites who are really nasty people. That's when they show up. They had taken captive the women and everyone else in it. Both young and old. They killed none of them. They carried them off as they went on their way. So David and his men get back And the enemy has stolen their families. Purposely keep them alive. They don't kill them. David and his men don't know that. All they know. They may never see their families again. Now, I want to stop for a minute and think about who David's men were. This ragtag army, I called the Motley Crew the other day. Let's go to 1 Chronicles. 12 so you know who's in this group that's been affected. 1 Chronicles, day after day, men came to help David. They came to the cave of Adela where he wrote Psalm 34 and a couple other Psalms They came to help David until he had a great army, like the army of God. These guys just keep showing up. Who are they? All these were fighting men who volunteered to serve in the ranks. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king. Now, uh another passage tells us that these were people who were in debt, people who were outsiders, people who were Kind of rejects, but they and they just somehow felt a magnet in David, and they become his mighty men. Look at the mission they were on. To put the rightful king on the throne. And they will fight overwhelming odds for a cause they will give their life for, to enthrone the rightful king That's our job is to help enthrone the rightful king in people's hearts, isn't it? Because they got the wrong king on the throne. And so that was their mission. And now we'll find out how they are affected by this loss. So the enemy resorts to the most heinous attack of all, to stop the rightful king stealing families Guess what? He's doing it today, isn't he? To stop the warriors He is stealing families. Couldn't be more relevant. John 10, 10. Jesus speaking of the enemy says, he comes only. The entire agenda of devil, the devil. Steal, kill, destroy. He has no life. He has no love to offer. He steals, he kills, he destroys. And here he has stolen. And 1 Samuel chapter 30 and verse 3 now says, when David and his men reached Zikalag, They found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. When some of you read that, You think of a name, taken captive, a son, a daughter, a grandson, granddaughter. So the enemy has attacked at the most vulnerable point in these guys who otherwise are invincible warriors. You know what his real target is? Their real target. It isn't so much that they care about the family members they've stolen. Their real target is the Holy Warriors. This is to get the warriors to quit their mission, to push them back, to neutralize them. That's who they're trying to stop. And if they can't beat the warrior, we'll take their family, and that'll stop them. And it almost did. Even warriors melt down when the loss is that great. Your job as the one who is fighting for and praying for a stolen loved one is to not let the devil win a double victory. Because he wants you through them Do not give him a double victory. The accuser of the brethren, the devil is called in Revelation. And that voice says, so you think you can do something for God, huh? Why, you your own kid, your own grandkid. Do not let the devil take you out. That's his goal. Is to neutralize the warrior by trying to steal their family Here's the promise of Jehovah Elohim in Isaiah 49. Can plunder be taken from warriors? Now in this passage, the warriors are enemy warriors. Can captives be rescued from the fierce? The fierce is again the enemy warriors. This is what the Lord says. Yes, those captives will be taken from those evil warriors. And plunder will be retrieved from the fierce. And I will contend with those who contend with you and your children I will save. Hang on to that. He says I'm fighting for them. You keep fighting for me, I'll fight for them. So let me just say, and I we don't have time to go spend time on this, but You'll see that David and his men end up going and going after what the enemy has stolen. It's the name of the session. Taking back what the enemy stole. Your battlefield to do that is the throne room of Almighty God. Much more than you uh trying to say what you've said over a dozen times to them again and again. You will get more done probably talking to God about them than you talking to them about God. You've already done that. How do you pray? Things like this. Lord, frustrate their sin. Lord, block their exits Lord, send them a messenger who's somebody like them but who loves Jesus. Bring somebody like them with Christ into their life that they'll listen to because they'll say, well, he gets me. She gets me Pray, Lord, remind them of Jesus. Show them it's all about Jesus. It's not about Christians. They got a problem with Christians. It's not about church. He ain't got a problem with church. What's the problem with Jesus? There is none. Remind them of Jesus. And Lord, do whatever it takes within your perfect will to bring them home. That's not what this morning's session is about, but I hope that helps a little bit. So let's look at 1 Samuel 30 verse 4. Now it gets internally nasty. David and his men wept aloud Till they had no strength left to weep. Have you ever been there? Probably have. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him. What? This is the guy they're supposed to be putting on the throne. But when you let grief turn you inward and turn on your turn into yourself, It can become a monster. We forfeit the battle when we let grief turn us inward. We stay away from people, we withdraw, we bottle up the grief. You are never more vulnerable than when there's a heartbreaking loss. I mean these guys, who would have believed if you told them you're going to want to stone David by the end of the day? What? But grief, grief can do that. Because when you're grieving and you've had a major life loss It rips your heart wide open. Your heart's open in places it's never been opened before. And something's going to come in there and take root deep in your soul. But it's up to you what you let in. It can be bitterness, it can be doubt, it can be anger, it can be depression, it can be unbelief, or it can be Jesus. And all I know is that I cried out to Jesus when the great love of my life was gone. And all I can tell you is that he went deeper than he's ever gone. Because my heart was totally exposed. And he became a more personal, personal savior to me. Than he's ever been before. That's a whole long story. But to turn inward instead of upward is devastating. Don't deny your grief. Shakespeare said, though not to me personally, but Shakespeare said, give sorrow words Don't stuff it. You may have grown up in a family where they stuffed grief. That's when it becomes a monster inside of you that will consume you and hurt people you love. These guys didn't handle it very well. And the grief of David's men almost causes them to unknowingly increase their loss. And increase their pain. They're not doing anything that's going to help. Well, the man who saved the day when there was a giant And the man whose courage had fired up a despondent retreating army, David, does the same thing on his darkest day So uh you ready to do a little uh Hebrew with me? Hazlaq! Well that was miserable. Hi Jack Let's be strong, huzzat? What is that? Hazak! Hamats! Let's be strong! And courageous. Be strong. Be courageous. You got it. And so it's Hazak. And You got it. Oh, you're speaking Hebrew. Awesome. We'll have bagels. So he seeks God's heart That's where David goes. Where does he go? The man after God's own heart goes after God's heart. And says, God, what do you see here? My guys, all they can see is the loss. I want to see the Lord. And he asks that life-changing question, what do you see here, Lord? And God saw then what he still sees now. Prisoners whose only hope is a rescue. Prisoners whose only hope is a rescue. Except the ones that you know are down the street. The ones that you know are at work with you. The ones you know are neighbors, perhaps family members And what then when God, what do you see when you see them? God sees spiritual prisoners whose only hope is a rescue. We were at um the Jersey Shore at Ocean City with the youth conference I was speaking for. Um one of our volunteers, Jamie, left early, uh, probably because I was speaking, and she was out on the boardwalk. And uh uh the and of course then there are no lifeguards, it's totally dark, you can't even see the water, you know it's there. Um and um and all of a sudden she's like she thinks she hears a scream From the water. Well, there's a lot of buzz on the boardwalk and uh and so she's like wait a minute and she walks closer. There's somebody out there in the in the dark. You can't can't sing anything, but she hears a scream. There's a apparently a lady in trouble out there in the water. And Jamie's like thinking about I don't know what to do. She tries to yell and get some help and at first nobody comes. Eventually a couple guys did come. She walks up to the edge of the water, pulls her shoes off, and plunges in. Well, she and with the help of a couple of those guys that joined her, By the time the meeting was over, none of us knew that was going on. And remember, no lifeguards at night. And uh we went out there and the lady whose life she saved was there on the beach being tended to. I said, Jamie, what were you thinking? She said, what I was thinking was, there's nothing more scary than the ocean at night. I said, but you went in. Why? She said, because someone would die if I didn't. We stop short of telling someone lost that we know about Jesus because we're afraid of what might happen to us They might not like me anymore. They might not understand. I might mess it up. I'm not perfect. Notice they're all about you. Rescue's all about them. There's a bigger fear than what might happen to you if you actually told about your Jesus. Is the fear of what will happen to them if you don't Someone's dying. And I happen to be the one there. Well, can we get a professional rescuer? Somebody who can do this better than me? No, you're there on the beach. It's up to you. So what do you see when you see the people in your world? Wait, you want this is a life-changing fear. God help me see what you see. You'll never be the same. So the final passion on life's greatest journey is fighting for the lost ones. Because that's what's about to happen in this story. When you get close to the heart of God, you're getting close to a heart that does not want one to perish. And you'll start to feel that way. That's part of the heart of God in our journey. If you're after God's heart, you will find his heart is with the lost 2 Peter 3. 9, I just quoted it. He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish. Matthew 9. 36. When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. Because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. What do you see when you see you see Republicans and Democrats, progressives, conservatives. You see race, gender. Sexual orientation. Jesus' heart is moved with compassion. He sees sheep without a shepherd. So I can tell you what he sees. I can tell you what his heart does. Those words harassed and helpless, they're very interesting in the Greek. I'll get to that in just a second. I asked a Navajo lady, our first year, I think, in in with on Eagles Wings. She's an 80-year-old shepherdess. She's been shepherding sheep since she was a little girl. And her face just looked like leather. Her name, still remember her name's Elizabeth. I said, Elizabeth, can you tell me what happens to a sheep when they get away from the shepherd? I've never forgotten her answer. It was one word. She kind of squinted and she said, Coyotes. Yeah. Now let me tell you about harassed and helpless. One of the words can be translated torn apart. And helpless, one of its translations, is discarded. Sounds like a coyote and a sheep. Torn apart, thrown aside. Jesus looks at the people in that crowd, and I don't know where they saw Romans and Jews and soldiers and farmers and tax colours. I don't know what they saw. But Jesus said, I see people torn apart and thrown away like sheep without a shepherd. What do you see? It's a life-changing way to look at people. You say, well, I I I don't like the fact that they act that way and they have this habit and they do this and they believe this and they're demonstrating for that, fine. They're lost. Oh my, they're acting lost. What a shock. They need somebody to tell them about Jesus. So Luke 15, suppose one of he has a hundred sheep Loses one of them. He leaves the 99. I often picture the 90 and 9 going, hey, where are you going? Take care of us. What's the deal? That's the folks of church. Look out for us. We're here. He leaves them. He said, you're fine. You're in. You're safe. Goes out in the open country and goes after, pursues the lost sheep until he finds it And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, goes home, calls his friends and neighbors together, rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep. If we see what God sees, we will follow him into the rescue When he goes out to rescue them, we'll be right with them. Who is lost? Here's the problem. We tend to become addicted to the comfort of the fold. And the company of the ninety and nine. That's comfortable. My friend Karen Abers is one of the guests here. You may have met her. And she and her husband started the uh magnet eating place in our area. But that isn't what Karen's going to share. And she is, this is her favorite thing. She said, could I please talk to the whole group? It was my fa it's her least favorite thing, believe me. But Karen and Mike cooked this summer in the last part of the trip for the Eagles Wings team. And uh we go to the same church and Karen shared something with the church about that experience, but It really touched me and I said, would you be willing to share that here? Just listen to Karen's heart for a minute. Well, I did go on the cook team. Eat the mic. And uh that's a very safe place for me to be in the kitchen. Kind of hiding. Um I'm quiet. I got to watch the young warriors Boldly give their hope stories. And I came back changed So changed that I'm not satisfied any longer to sit silently about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have a hope story. You have a hope story. Ron is telling us how to create our hope story. We all have got to get up and get out of our comfort zone and go out and tell our friends and neighbors about Jesus Christ. Thank you, Karen. Joseph of Arithmetic. That's what I always thought it was. I always thought it was Joseph of Arithmetic. Joseph of Arimathea was, I read the Bible differently than most folks. You know what it says about him? It says he was a disciple of Jesus. Wonderful. You know what it says after that? But secretly. He loved Jesus. John 20 says he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear. Well, he's still around today How many of us could put our name in that verse? A disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear, in his case of the Jews, he was on the Sanhedrin That's a group that just had Jesus crucified. Huh. You talk about a crowd that is hostile to your message. You can see why he'd be afraid to talk about it But something happened. Joseph goes to Pilate and says, bury him in my tomb. There goes his cover. Everybody in the city will know that he's a follower of Jesus. At that point There's no more secret, Joseph. What happened? Well, the Bible doesn't tell us, but we know what happened in between. He saw what Jesus did for him. He saw the price Jesus paid for him. He said, I guess I can pay a little price for him. And he comes out of secret, comes out of hiding, and takes this bold choice Bury him in my tomb. Where's the body of Jesus? Joseph of Arimathea said that bury him there. No secret no more. Maybe you can um make for Joseph bold choice. Alright, let's go for fighting for the captives. You ready? Check with God for his orders. 1 Samuel 30 again David said to Obiathar the priest, son of Ahimelech, bring me the Ephi. Abiathar brought it to him. And David, here we go. This is where we came in. Inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them? Pursue them, God answered. You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue. David and the 600 men with him, now he's got them turned outward instead of inward. Come to the Besar Valley where some stayed behind and and uh the story goes on here and some things we won't cover. But he checks with God for his orders. And what are the orders? Pursue them. That's been Jesus' orders about lost people for 2,000 years. That's the Great Commission. Go and tell everybody about me. Pursue them, which leads to the second part of the uh of the fight for the captives You've got to go where the captives are. They're not coming in by themselves. You're going to have to go where they are, and that's dangerous there. That's risky. John 1. 14. Jesus did it. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. So Obviously, Jesus came where the captives were. Luke 19, 10 is the mission statement of your Savior. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. In the Greek It's look for and rescue. It's life or death. Just like Jamie by that dark ocean that night It's a life or death rescue mission. But folks, you don't save them if you don't seek them. He says, seek and save the lost. Generally, our approach to reaching the lost is to get them to come to where we are. We're having a meeting. Would you like to come? Jesus doesn't say come. Well he said come to me. Yes he did. But he's where they are. He's at the party. He's at the dinner. He's at the beach. He's on the street. He's not holding a rally at the temple and saying y'all come or all y'all or you. He is saying, I'm coming where you are. So you've got to go where the captives are. You can't save them if you don't seek them. John was a machinist. He had no knowledge of Jesus. And then their six-month-old baby died. And John decided he would take his four-year-old son, thought he should somehow take him to a church So we drove around their neighborhood and found one about three blocks away from their apartment and dropped little Ronnie off. Where little Ronnie heard about Jesus for the first time. John sat in his car. He didn't look what didn't bother to go home and come back. Every week he'd sit in the car, smoke his cigarette, read his newspaper. And one week another man named John saw him and he's like, seems like that guy's been there other weeks So John goes out to the car and says to John Hutchcraft, uh, I see you here every week. He said, yeah, I drop off my boy here, yeah. Um Well, you know, uh we have a men's class uh for men too, and uh um I this John had come out of the church, he's in a suit and tie, good man, good obviously good Christian And my dad says, I don't have clothes for church, you know. And he said, no, we don't care how you're dressed. Why don't you come sometime? And eventually my dad accepted that invitation and he he did go in. And as I remember, I think it was a Christmas Eve program and I had a speaking part, go figure. And I think it was that night when my dad went forward and gave his heart to Christ. I got a new daddy. I got a new mommy shortly thereafter. But you know what stuck with me? John didn't wait until my dad came in. And my dad may have never come in. He left the walls to go get him. Didn't have to go far, but isn't it interesting? I've spent much of my life outside the walls. I love the church. I'm an ordained minister. But I've been outside the walls where the lost people are most of my life. You gotta go where they are. My dad will be in heaven because some man didn't wait for him to come in. I'm glad. Here's another point. There is no rescue without risk. Yeah, there's no rescue without risk. I cannot give you risk-free rescue because We don't know how people are going to react. 1 Samuel 30 verse 17. David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day. 24-hour fight And none of them got away, the Amalekites, except 400 young men who rode off on camels and fled. I mean it is it is a total victory, but he has to go and they've got a 24-hour battle on their hands. John 10 verse 12, the hired hand is not the shepherd, does not own the sheep, so when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. And then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. But you don't see the shepherd running. There is risk. The wolves do come. Rescue is expensive, but I'll tell you what's really expensive. If you leave them lost, that's an unthinkable eternity. And then the enemy is not expecting a fight. Look at this. 30 verse 16. He led David down and they were s where they were at where they were, that's the Amalekites, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking, and reveling, because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines. and from Judah. So they're having a party. They're like, woo! We took care of David and his guys, didn't we? Listen. The devil does not expect us to fight back because usually he can count on us to be apathetic and afraid. So he's not even expecting a fight for the people he's taken. And I love that. They're like, the party's over, baby, when David arrives. And it's over when the son of David arrives. And then look, look at the great joy in bringing the captives home. Verse 19. Nothing was missing, young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back. And today the son of David, the Messiah, Yeshua, Messiah, is still going into battle for those the devil has stolen. And he's taken you with him. I pray the rest of your life will be a story of boldness, winning, not fear. There's too much at stake. We saw, I don't know if you saw some of the hostages coming home, the Israeli hostages. Did you see any of that? Keep your Kleenex box handy, folks. People were wearing shirts. Bring them home. I saw one scene I was telling Ryan about it where a dad came back and there's like three girls and the wife and the their enveloping dad and And the one little, maybe she might have been 10, 11, I don't know, and she's literally jumping up and down going, Daddy's back, daddy's back, daddy's back. And she tries to get into the huddle around him and she goes, I have a daddy, I have a daddy And I thought about a scene somewhat like that in heaven. When a hostage comes home And a prisoner goes free. And it's angels celebrating. This outburst of emotion in heaven. When one comes home. Go in and get one, will you? Bring 'em home. David's journey. We're going to wrap this up. David's journey, what I call the Jehovah journey. has shown us how we can do with our life what he did with his. You can't change the past, but whatever you got left, to serve the Lord's purpose. in your generation. So look at the blanks there. How about you write your name there? Are you ready to? Ron, a man after God's own heart. Put your name there and I left the other blank for gender. See how that looks to you. I've let other passions take a lot of my heart before. I don't know how much I got left, but it's gonna be pursuing God's heart. Let's review. Seeing life through God's eyes is a life that's driven by these holy passions. Checking with God regularly. And then bold choices. What does that mean? That's seeing your giant through God's eyes, whatever giant intimidates you and holds you back. That's saying, Lord, what do you see here? And he says, let me tell you, you see a giant that's stopping everybody. I see And the end result is bold choices. Because the closer you get to God, the bigger you know he is, and the bigger you know your God is, the bolder you can be. And then worshiping in your wilderness. We see it all through so many of David's Psalms. That he makes the choice to not be defined by his environment or his situation. Or anybody else, even here in this story, even by all his troops, the guys he works with, turning on him. He refuses to be defined by any of that. His default reaction to a cave, to difficulty, to hardship is praise. That's his default response. He praises God. The God who's Tesed is the blanket of his life that he has wrapped himself in. And then Giving out grace. Now, that's God helped me see people through your eyes Help me see my husband, my wife, my children, that one I struggle with, that person I have a hard time getting along with rubs me the wrong way. Lord, help. What do you see? You see someone you died for. You see someone made in your image. What do you see? Imago Day, image of God? And you treat them like that. And you give out grace. Boy you want a verse for social media. You go to Colossians 4. 4. It says, let your speech always be full of grace. How about that? Is that, was that, how are you doing on that one? Your speech, listen to a tape of yourself one day and see what percentage you would say is full of grace in your words. Always, it says. Always full. Let your conversation, it says, be always full of grace. So when you see, now so you see your your giant through God's eyes You see your cave, so to speak, your wilderness through God's eyes. You see other people through his eyes and then your your heart breaking for what breaks his. You see your sin through his eyes. God what do you see in what I'm doing? He'll tell you And then Lord, what do you see when you look at the lost people? I want to see what you see and I want to feel like you feel. It was interesting that we were at a reservation that is called a closed reservation. Several years ago. And one of our great young warriors. was pretty scared to give her hope story the last night. A pretty intimidating place to do it And she came to me for prayer and we prayed together. And about 10 minutes later she was out there and I thought, well, I hope she does okay. And she got out there and she took charge. I was like, what happened to scared little girl? I mean, she was bold, clear, had everybody listening. It was a good night in a tough place. So later I said, uh, what just happened? She said, right before I went out there, I remembered a prayer that you taught us one time. Dear God, please break my heart for what breaks yours. And she said, I looked in their eyes. And that's what I saw. I saw me without Jesus. I was them. And she was bold. That question, what do you see, Jesus? What do you see, Lord? That's key to being after God's heart. So let me give you some encouragement here. Our journey to the heart of God, here are some things you can count on. I'm not going to elaborate on them, but based on David's Psalms. You can count on his promises paving the way. Every step of the way, his promises will be your anchor. Psalm 145. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, David said. Your dominion endures through all generations. I want you to read this one out loud with me and read it with some hair on it, okay? The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. You hang on to that. You can count on it. Every step of the way. His promises will pave the way. Here's the second thing. You can count on him being your rock that will never move. You saw that rock, right? Psalm 61 2 says, From the ends of the earth I call to you. I call as my heart grows faint. I want to get above the stress and the circus. Lead me to the rock that is, we saw it, that is higher than I. I need to be able to see things from above them, not in the thick of them. I love Psalm 29. Look at this. Ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. He makes Lebanon leap like a calf. The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. I think he's like, yeah, yeah, that was the voice of the Lord right there. And the voice of the Lord shakes the desert. The voice of the Lord twists the oaks, strips the forest bare, all in his temple cry glory, then listen to his conclusion. The Lord sits and proned Over the flood. I don't know how where your flood's coming from, but your Lord sits enthroned over it He is not in that flood. He is over it. He is your Lord. The Lord is enthroned as king forever. So what how does that help me? The Lord gives strength to his people and blesses his people with peace. In the midst of the violent storm, he writes about strength and peace. So you can count on the rock that will never move, and you can count on the rescuing hand from heaven I love this, Psalm 18. He reached down from on high and took hold of me and drew me out of deep waters. How many of you have known that hand to come out of heaven and intervene? You can count on his intervention. Count on his intervening hand. That hand comes out of heaven. And grabs you and pulls you out of the deep waters. You can count on it. And you can count on grace that is greater than your sin Back to Psalm 51. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love. God says, where sin increased, grace increased more. There is always more grace than there is sin. Praise God. There will always be open arms. You can count on love that never fails. Psalm 52, 8. I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God. I trust in God's unfailing love forever and ever. Our um family doctor in New Jersey uh as a teenager No, and I was a teenager. He started then. He was a really, really good kayaker, a lot of experience kayaking and rafting, river rafting, rapids rafting. He said what fascinated him as a teenager about that was that he would watch people going through the rapids. But there were certain rafters that he called it just hanging out He said they were literally sitting here in the middle of the roaring rapids on a raft Fine. It's not going anywhere. It's like, how does this happen? It's magic. No. How did this happen? Well he knew now, of course he's a he's really good at it. He said they learned that on the other side of the that big rock, some of them uh little eddies would form, little whirlpools. And they knew the trick of how to get into that spot and sit there calmly while the rapids are roaring by. Because of that big old rock in the rapids. Mm-hmm There is a quiet place. There is a safe place in the Roaring Rapids It's your big rock in the river. My rock, David said. My big rock in the river. A place to rest in the turbulent waters. Find that spot We're going to wrap up in just a minute. Let me uh ask you to consider something. I would suggest that I and perhaps you have lived our life for lesser passions. than the passion to journey to the heart of God. For some of us, we've worked hard to get people's validation. through our performance. For some of us, we spend a lot of our life trying to get attention. to get recognition. For some of us, a lot of our life has been about control. Control the people we love, control the kids, control the spouse. And if we did an EKG, our heart has been a lot about control. For some of us, there's been a passion for financial success or ministry success. Or family success. I'm not saying these things are bad. We're never meant to be the central passion, the driving passion of our heart. Some of us it's just to be comfortable. And we'll obey God until we reach the comfort line My thought is this, that God brought us together so he could have at least a few of his kids who for the rest of their life are consumed as Paul was 30 years into an awesome Christian life by saying, I want to know Christ. You don't? Oh, I do, but there's more to know I want to be there. That's why I was so addicted to studying what does it look like to be a man after God's own heart. I'll be different if that is my consuming passion. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and Everything else will be taken care of. Doug was 12. We were coming out of a meeting where a man had spoken on the second coming. and the signs of the times and how much it looked like Jesus was coming back soon. Doug said, Dad, I don't want Jesus to come back yet. I thought, I have a heretic for a son. No, I understood. You know, you're young and you wanna you wanna have some experience. I thought I knew what he what he meant, I didn't I said, why duh? Why don't you try Jesus to come back yet? He said, because I want to have more devotions first. Because I want to know him better before I see him. Don't you? Then let your let your passion be, your journey be, a journey to the heart of God.