Trust in the Name of the Lord
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Prayer
1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion!
3 May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
4 May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!
5 May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!
6 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8 They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
9 O Lord, save the king! May he answer us when we call.
If you were with us last week, you’ll remember that we walked through a portion of Psalm 19...
..and what we saw was how...
The Truth of God:
protects us from this world
make us wise for the cause of Christ
awakens affections for Christ
brings the blessing of God
And so as we think back to those truths, it makes ALL THE MORE sense why David approaches chapter 20 now in the way that he does.
1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
David here is speaking - on behalf of Christians - TO Christians
SLIDE: RESOLVE TO: Petition the Lord on Behalf of His People
Petition the Lord
Petition the Lord
that WE are called to plead for the Lord to SHOWER His people with MERCY...
1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion!
3 May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah
David here is PLEADING that the Lord treat His people like the Lord has treated him...
HOW OFTEN do you pray for the Body of Christ…fellow believers?
**I heard David Platt say this -
“The greatest hindrance to the spread of the Gospel is not the self-indulgent immorality of our culture…it’s the self-sufficient mentality of the church. It’s why you and I spend hours every week in our church devoted to the ministry of the Word while we spend minutes every week in our church devoted to the ministry of prayer.” ~David Platt
And David - from this Psalm....reminds us of our call to prayer for the people of God.
And knowing ALL that God is for us - David pleads for his brothers and sisters in Christ...
WHY???
Because David KNOWS what awaits the people of God!
Answer: TROUBLE!
What kind of trouble is David referring to here?
The first things to consider here i think is:
The nature of trouble
The cause of trouble
Regarding it’s nature...
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Don’t worry, TODAY, about tomorrow - why?
it will have it’s OWN trouble...
The Bible is SOOO certain of this!
It KNOWS that trouble awaits us....tomorrow.
NOW - as you know - today is yesterday’s tomorrow!
was the Bible right?
TROUBLE has a variety of looks in this world!
For us:
trouble comes...
with money
with health
kids
work
school
time
taxes
relationships
It’s everywhere - and it’s everywhere because of it’s CAUSE - SIN...
…and who is accountable for SIN?
WE ARE...
6 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
7 but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
1 “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.
Now - don’t be mistaken, we know the Bible tells us - Don’t be anxious about anything!
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
But understand - Jesus here is talking to FOLLOWERS of Him!
UNBELIEVERS should certainly be anxious about their lives!
They should CERTAINLY be anxious about tomorrow!
And so - when the Bible says - “Hey, don’t WORRY about tomorrow” - that command is directed at followers of Christ!
See Christ KNOWS that for His followers, the ULTIMATE TROUBLE of mankind has been taken care of...
BY HIM!
That’s why to the Christian - Jesus says - Don’t worry about tomorrow!
See - Jesus loves to pour out His mercy on His children in times of trouble!
1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
And 2 mercies we see in our text today are these!
SLIDE: Two Mercies for Christians: Hearing Us, Defending Us
Two Mercies for Christians
Two Mercies for Christians
*You ever look around at creation and see something that just blows you away...
…And then you think - Yeah, God made that...
…And then you think - AND HE HEARS my prayers!
I’d actually go further than that! He INITIATES them!
9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
We see here that God INITIATES prayer...
How often do we praise God for our DESIRE to pray?
I don't think I ever have...
This is RIGHT after man became ETERNALLY damned...
Mankind was now a slave to sin...no Desire to pursue God...
If God would NOT have initiated this conversation, would ADAM have ever done so?
NO! And so God asks - Where are you?
How many times have you been running from the Lord...
Maybe indulging in sin...
and it HITS you to ask yourself - Where AM I? WHERE AM I?
WHAT AM I DOING? You know where that thought comes from?
God Himself! He's asking you - WHERE ARE YOU?
AND
When we ANSWER HIM in prayer - He HEARS us!!
And if that wasn’t enough to make your brain explode....
He actually DEFENDS US
22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause of his people: “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
23 and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.”
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
When we sin, Jesus pleads our cause - FOR US!
He defends us in judgment
And just THINK of how David TASTED this reality!
*David and Bathsheba (Uriah) (God forgave David)
DAVID tasted this MERCY of God…and NOW PLEADS for God to dispense this MERCY to his fellow believers…!
How about our enemies?
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,
28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.
Christ HEARS his people....and DEFENDS His people!
And SO what David shows us here is ...
A CALL TO PRAY FOR FELLOW BELIEVERS!
Is this easy?
It seems that it most certainly SHOULD BE - no?
And yet it’s not!
You know why?
It’s because we haven’t RESOLVED to do so!
4 May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!
5 May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!
v4 - David says - May GOD do this - may HE grant your heart’s desire...
but v5 he says - MAY WE - shout for joy over YOUR salvation!
May WE - after we have prayed FOR our brothers and sisters in Christ...
and after God has HEARD, and DELIVERED...
May WE SHOUT for JOY, over that deliverance!
**How many of you have ever run in an IRONMAN Triathlon??
consisting of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.20 km) run, raced in that order and without a break.
Ok, no one has RUN in one of these...
Should I assume then that no one has TRIED to PREPARE for an IRONMAN?
We all know that working out is good for us - so why hasn’t anyone PURSUED this?
Here’s why - because the benefits, IN OUR MINDS, don’t outweigh the pain.
It’s NOT WORTH IT - is what we think.
Is this why we don’t pray for the Body of Christ?
If we TRULY understood what happens in...
God answering prayer
God saving a soul - converting a heart...
we WOULD find that REASON to REJOICE...
INSTEAD...
Other things get our JOY...
Yet DAVID says here - may we SHOUT for JOY over your SALVATION!
And SO - i would contend that that will ONLY happen when we live out the 2nd part of the verse!
“And in the NAME of our God set up our banners!”
SLIDE: RESOLVE TO: Plant Our Joy in Christ
RESOLVE TO...
RESOLVE TO...
David says this here because he KNOWS - that when our JOY is NOT in Christ…we will NOT pray from a heart SEEKING to REJOICE in the Lord!
And he knows that when our JOY is NOT in Christ, our lives will contradict the faith we claim!
It did for David!
Now - the Bible says that David was a man after God’s OWN HEART!
Yet...
We KNOW of David’s SINS!
Adultery
Murder
Things that if seen today within the church - we declare - Well that person just isn’t a Christian!
Problem IS!- -
Do we ever consider - How many people failed in PRAYING for David before he fell into sin?
We always JUMP right to the EVIL DEED and GASP thinking - HOW COULD THAT PERSON DO THAT?!
All the while, ignoring the fact that we have failed in our RESOLVE to PLANT our JOY in the LORD to the extent that we GET ON OUR KNEES and LIFT up those around us - THAT.THEY.MIGHT.NOT.FALL!!
We must resolve to PLANT our banner on the Mountain of the Lord!
And this implies many things here...
To Plant Our Banner On the Mountain of the Lord is to Acknowledge Our Allegiance to the Lord
See, if you live in the Middle East....it’s pretty easy to see who has planted their banner on the mountain of the Lord...
WHY?
Because it can lead to great suffering if you do so!
In this country?
In this country it’s easy to live out Revelation chapter 3, and THINK that it’s not talking about us...
15 “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!
16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
What does it mean to be - LUKEWARM?
Cold - is to be an unbeliever = declaring with your lips that you DO NOT FOLLOW Jesus Christ.
Hot - is to be a FOLLOWER of Christ = pursuing Christ in heart, soul, mind and strength...
Lukewarm - is someone who hears about Jesus - but it doesn’t change them.
The LukeWarm have NOT planted their banner on the mountain of the Lord...
they simply come to the foot of the mountain every Sunday morning…look up...
…nod their head, and then walk away....
David here in Psalm 20:5 says - RESOLVE your allegiance to the LORD...
5 May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!
This BANNER talk also points to this...
To Plant Our Banner On the Mountain of the Lord is to Claim Possession of Christ
If you think about how war used to be conducted, and even nowadays, what do countries do when they conquer another country and take over their land…?
They raise their own flag...
This talk here of setting up our banners in the name of God is to - CLAIM POSSESSION of Christ!
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Notice what this says - Feel the weight of what this says -
IF YOU HAVE Jesus - you have LIFE...
If you DON’T HAVE Jesus - you DO NOT have - LIFE.
To Possess Jesus Christ, and yet NOT proclaim Jesus Christ - is NO different than walking this earth right now - WITH THE CURE for CANCER and choosing NOT to say anything about it...
Actually, withholding Christ from the world, your family, friends, co-workers, is INFINITELY worse than withholding the cure for cancer from the world.
What else about this banner talk...
To Plant Our Banner On the Mountain of the Lord is to Declare War Against Sin
We’ve said it before, if you come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior...
If you’ve come to have a new relationship with Jesus...
YOU WILL - by implication - come to have a new relationship with your sin!
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Because SAVING FAITH entails God coming and residing in our hearts...
…the Christian life becomes us working to get ourselves out of the way so that the world would see Christ living in and through us!
And so if we’re going to LIVE for Christ…and set up our banner....
THAT would be us - declaring TO THE WORLD whose TEAM we’re on!
And the best part is this...
To Plant Our Banner On the Mountain of the Lord is to Signal Triumph Over Death
This past college football season, Baker Mayfield, did something that not too many people do nowadays...
and that’s BEAT Ohio State - IN Ohio State.
And who knows what Baker did following the game?
He did this!
SLIDE: Baker Mayfield
What was he doing? - - Signaling VICTORY!
We came - we saw - we - - CONQUERED!
15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ conquered the grave...
We see here that the VICTORY over death NEEDS to be GIVEN...
And God GIVES us this victory THRU Jesus Christ! IF you believe
And so WHEN you SET UP YOUR BANNER in this world...
When you PLANT your flag into this earth...
What you’re saying is - Christ has WON - the VICTORY is HIS!
and NOW MINE - thru Him...
If we could truly grasp the reality that IN CHRIST we have CONQUERED the world...
I think we’d find that our lives would LOOK different...
Different decisions would be made
Different priorities
We would spend more of our time in prayer…AND IN DOING SO....
we’d be able to say with David:
6 Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.
In COMPLETE trust we would cry out to Him...
KNOWING that the world wants us to TRUST it...
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
WE all put our TRUST in one thing or another...
Either in:
God
or
the World
And as we’ve seen, if we RESOLVE TO:
Petition the Lord on behalf of the Body of Christ....
Plant our Joy in the Lord...
THEN - - SLIDE: God Will RESOLVE TO: Turn the Tables
RESOLVE TO...
RESOLVE TO...
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
8 They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.
Don’t let it be lost on you (Platt says) - that God often will use sorrowful tragedy to set the stage for surprising triumph..
Been there?
Now - there’s no promise that:
You’ll get the cure
you’ll get into the school you want
get the guy or girl you want
get the job you want
This life CAN’T COMPARE to the glory that God has waiting for us...
But - this life - ESPECIALLY as a Christian - will be FILLED with sorrow and heartache...
But we can TRUST in the Lord!
We can REST in the Lord!
And in doing so - may we:
SUMMARY
SLIDE:
Resolve to Petition the Lord on Behalf of His People
Resolve to Plant Our Joy in Christ
God Will Resolve to Turn the Tables
And so as we leave here today, let’s finish with verse 9....and then live it out
9 O Lord, save the king! May he answer us when we call.
Let’s Pray...