1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,560 Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of 2 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:04,600 Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA. 3 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:08,039 I hope the following message challenges, encourages, and 4 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,120 ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us. 5 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:12,960 Let's get into the word this morning. 6 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:18,960 Okay, well, let's turn with turn to Psalm 149. 7 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:23,240 Before we do that, I don't think Pastor Adam did this, but I was, 8 00:00:23,240 --> 00:00:25,120 I was. I'm always writing my message 9 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:27,480 till the time I get up here. I already preached it once, but 10 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:29,680 I was writing some more things, so I didn't want to do this 11 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:31,600 twice. But if you have served in the 12 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:34,440 military, in any, any branch of the military, I want you to 13 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:36,720 stand. Go ahead and stand if you've 14 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:39,880 you're present or if you're. Thank you so much. 15 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:43,760 Amen. Thank you so much for your 16 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,080 service. Yeah, Bless you. 17 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:50,040 You may be seated. Yeah. 18 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:52,440 And you know, freedom isn't free. 19 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:56,040 We we have a tendency to think that the freedoms we enjoy are 20 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,280 the natural state of man. But it is actually a rare 21 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:01,560 experiment in human history, what we enjoy. 22 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:05,319 And that's largely because of those who have served to protect 23 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:07,680 our freedom. So thank you so much for all you 24 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:10,960 did and all you've done. All right, let's get into the 25 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:12,720 word this morning. Psalm 149. 26 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:16,040 All right, we are. I said, I told the first service 27 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:18,000 that I'm going to be preaching on this next week as well. 28 00:01:18,320 --> 00:01:22,640 I won't Roger will be preaching. But so we're we're we're in, 29 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:26,120 we're, we're talking about Psalm 2 and Psalm 149. 30 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,920 A couple weeks ago we looked at Psalm 2 and it's fascinating to 31 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:35,360 me that both the second Psalm in the book of Psalms and the 32 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:39,680 second to the last Psalm in the book of Psalms are bookends that 33 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:44,920 go together and it's talking about and praise how we what 34 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:49,080 Psalms chapter 2 says that the kings of the earth, the rulers 35 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,680 will try to shake off the shackles of the Lord and his 36 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:56,720 anointed. Psalm 149 says we actually place 37 00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:01,160 them, we hem them in and we shackle them and bend them into 38 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,120 God's will and we do that through praise. 39 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,280 It's an amazing thing. And so these two Psalms go 40 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:07,560 together. So we're going to continue to 41 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,080 look at this. And I only got through the first 42 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:13,160 verse this morning. So we're, we're going to be 43 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,880 dealing with this for a while at this rate till, you know, till 44 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:25,080 2027. But so in 2023, March of 2023, I 45 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:28,560 finally got to go to Israel. I had never been to Israel. 46 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,280 And I, I hate to admit this, some of you are going to gasp 47 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:34,000 and think this is horrible, but I, I never really had a real 48 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,760 desire to go to Israel. I had a couple of opportunities 49 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:40,000 and it just didn't work out. And now that I've been there, I 50 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,800 have a deep desire to go back. How many of you ever been to 51 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:43,800 Israel? Raise your hand. 52 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,400 Yeah, it's, it's, it's an amazing place with a mate, of 53 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:52,160 course, tremendous history. And so I went and got to see all 54 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:54,960 kinds of things. Matter of fact, we were in a a 55 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,440 small village overlooking Gaza that was one of the villages 56 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,880 that was to be attacked seven months later by Hamas. 57 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:06,120 And I'm glad I was there before that, but it was just an amazing 58 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:07,600 time. But one of the things we got to 59 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:12,040 see that is still closed to the public, from what I understand 60 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:16,280 it's going to be opening soon, was an archaeological discovery 61 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,680 of what's known as the Pilgrim Way or the Pilgrimage Rd. 62 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:25,680 And it was actually discovered, I want to say, in 2004. 63 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,640 What happened is there was a sewage break in a potato field, 64 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,400 so that when they went to fix it, they hit something. 65 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:36,760 And in Israel, when you're digging and you hit something, 66 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:39,160 everything stops. You call in the archaeologist 67 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,320 and you look at what you hit because there is so much history 68 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:44,480 there. And they discovered what they've 69 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:47,000 now understand to be the Pilgrim Rd. 70 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,400 And the Pilgrimage Rd. is a pathway. 71 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:55,640 It's about 25 feet wide, this sandstone pavement way. 72 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:57,440 It was buried deep beneath the earth. 73 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:01,040 And it was the the road from the Pool of Siloam, which was a 74 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,240 mikvah where they would wash themselves and be ceremonially 75 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:06,240 unclean. And then they would ascend to 76 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,000 the Hill of the Lord and worship at the Temple Mount. 77 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,160 And so that was the pilgrimage road. 78 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,080 And it's it they're excavating it now. 79 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,320 You see this picture of it. This is, it is the most 80 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:22,680 extensive archaeological dig and most advanced archaeological dig 81 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:25,520 in human history. And you can see they're, they're 82 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:28,320 digging underground and they're, they're creating these metal 83 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:32,880 arches so that you can go in there and these huge stones are 84 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:36,840 part of that pavement. This is a a stairway going off 85 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:41,080 into a would have been some kind of establishment off the that 86 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:42,960 way. And then there's a final picture 87 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:45,840 which is in. I just thought I'd throw that in 88 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:47,720 there. That's a hole in the ground, 89 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:52,920 which is the entrance to another level of archaeological dig 90 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:54,760 thousands of years before this one. 91 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:59,840 So I mean, it's layer after layer of history in Jerusalem 92 00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:03,800 and all over Israel. But what was interesting is this 93 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,680 is the this was the pathway that people would clot. 94 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:10,160 They would walk up to the Temple Mount in worship and it's where 95 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:12,240 they would sing the songs of ascent. 96 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:17,640 I want to say it starts in Psalm 125 on through there about 15 97 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:21,240 passages, which were known are known as the songs of ascent. 98 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:24,400 And they were worship courses that would be sung as they're 99 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:29,680 walking up this pilgrimage way. And so it was the, it was the 100 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:35,480 way to ascend the Temple Mount. And so it was interesting, 101 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:37,160 fascinating. It's closed to the public, but 102 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:42,720 we got to go because comes with Kufai Christians United for 103 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,200 Israel and that was the organization I ended up going 104 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:47,120 with. And because of their close 105 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,440 relationship with Israel, we were able to go down into those 106 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,200 tunnels and see them. And, and I they're saying in in 107 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:56,520 about 20-4 months from the time that I was there, it was 108 00:05:56,520 --> 00:05:57,960 supposed to open up to the public. 109 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:01,040 I don't know if it is yet, but I just I thought it was 110 00:06:01,040 --> 00:06:03,160 fascinating got back home, but that that was cool. 111 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:06,960 And then two weeks after I got back, we had Dean Briggs and 112 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:08,680 Mark Breesbaugh. And some of you will remember 113 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:11,160 when we had them in and they were teaching. 114 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:16,200 We did a small conference on ascending the hill of the Lord 115 00:06:17,280 --> 00:06:21,680 and how in worship there is a dynamic where we ascend the hill 116 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:25,920 of the Lord and we we begin to move in authority that God is 117 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,840 granted to us. It was something that deeply 118 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:33,880 stirred my heart because of what God has called us to as a 119 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:38,600 people, as a church. But what I didn't expect is as I 120 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,800 was contemplating this, I was in prayer one day and the Lord 121 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:44,920 spoke to me about my visit to Israel. 122 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,760 I want to read you. I wrote down some notes from 123 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:49,040 that. I'm just going to read you what 124 00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:54,240 I felt like the Lord said to me the following week in prayer. 125 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,360 The Lord began to speak to me about the prophetic nature of my 126 00:06:57,360 --> 00:06:59,600 visit visit to the Pilgrimage Rd. 127 00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:04,120 I began to sense that my trip to the excavation site was not an 128 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:08,240 accident, rather, it was a sign of what the Lord is presently 129 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:10,680 doing. Here's what I felt him saying. 130 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,200 Now understand that the way this was discovered, there was a 131 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:19,400 sewage break underneath the ground and you you weigh it. 132 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,480 Scripture says let 1 prophecy and the others judge you weigh 133 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:23,920 whether this is from the Lord or not. 134 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:27,520 I believe it was moral. Sewage has begun to be released 135 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:30,640 into the nations. In response, God is going to 136 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:33,640 facilitate the revelation of an ancient path. 137 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:37,120 He is going to once again open the pilgrimage Rd. in the 138 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:41,280 spirit, a spiritual path opened up in the days of Pontius Pilate 139 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:44,200 by Jesus himself. What they've what they've 140 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:48,560 discovered is in excavating this, that that pathway was 141 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:51,920 built during the time of Pilot. So thus it was in the time of 142 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:55,200 Christ, and we know that the reason we can ascend the hill of 143 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:58,360 the Lord and go boldly before the throne of grace is because 144 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,720 of what Jesus, Jesus did. And so although the revelation 145 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:06,400 is not seen by all right now, He is excavating the pathway to 146 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:09,600 ascend the hill of the Lord. What a few are being granted 147 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:13,720 access to will be open to all over the next number of years. 148 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,240 We must excavate this revelation. 149 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:19,560 And I believe the timing of the conference was key to this. 150 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:22,920 I really do believe that the Lord is going to teach His 151 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:25,080 Church to ascend the hill of the Lord. 152 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,400 So what does that mean when the when scripture talks about that? 153 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:30,560 Is that just mere poetry? Oh, that's nice. 154 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:34,919 That's cute language. Or is is there a reality that we 155 00:08:34,919 --> 00:08:39,840 are tapping into in worship? If you look at Psalm chapter 2 156 00:08:40,039 --> 00:08:46,680 and Psalm 149, they are talking about ascending in worship and 157 00:08:46,680 --> 00:08:50,280 releasing the word of the Lord through praise. 158 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:54,880 And both of these passages talk about binding world rulers, 159 00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:00,400 literally bending them into the will of the Lord, forcing them 160 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:05,680 to do God's bidding. And you and I have a part to 161 00:09:05,680 --> 00:09:08,600 play in this in the form of praise. 162 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:13,360 Now, when I talk about the unique call on Heartland's life, 163 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:17,960 on our corporate life together, I want to be very careful when I 164 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:20,760 talk like that. I'm not saying that Heartland, 165 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:24,880 I'm not saying that it's the way we do things is better than 166 00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,440 other churches. There are certain things we do 167 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:30,280 that are different. I believe in corporate callings 168 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:33,200 and I don't believe there's any one church that can do all that 169 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:35,200 God's called. I don't believe there's a one 170 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:37,760 stop Jesus shop. I believe we every church 171 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:40,600 carries different things and that's why the body of Christ is 172 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:43,800 vast and we need one another. But we do need to understand 173 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:46,120 what we're called to. Now, I was talking to someone 174 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:49,760 this week and I was talking about how when I came to 175 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:53,440 Heartland as the senior pastor, there were things that came with 176 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:55,920 me because they're on my life. They're part of the call of God 177 00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:57,440 on my life. Same with you. 178 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:03,000 But there are other things when I arrived that came on my life 179 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:06,080 because they're on this church. And then there are other things 180 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,800 that I carried for years, and when I got here, it was on this 181 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:12,000 church as well. And there was a synergy between 182 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:16,240 the two. One of the things give you an 183 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:19,720 example, you know, Paul Judah was here last week. 184 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:23,320 I was telling the elders how when the first time Paul came, 185 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:27,200 he was praying over me on a Saturday night and he began to 186 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:29,600 declare. He said, I see eagles with 187 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:33,000 broken wings landing at Heartland being mended and 188 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:36,600 relaunching in the ministry. And I thought, that's nice that 189 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:40,320 Leif shared that with him. So the next day on the way to 190 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:43,480 church, I said, oh, so life shared that that word with you. 191 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:45,120 So what you talking about? I said that thing about the 192 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:47,640 eagles with broken wings. He said, no, life didn't say 193 00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:49,320 anything. I saw it when I was praying for 194 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:51,200 you. I saw eagles with broken wings. 195 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:55,680 And I about drove off the road because life had given me that 196 00:10:55,680 --> 00:10:58,400 word a year earlier. He said, this is a this is an 197 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:01,920 eagle's nest for eagles with broken wings, that ministers 198 00:11:01,920 --> 00:11:03,840 would come here and be restored to ministry. 199 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:07,040 What he didn't know is that my brother had given me that word 200 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:10,560 five years earlier. And what I didn't know at that 201 00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:14,360 time is there was a pastor that pastored this church some 25 202 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,680 years earlier that got up in the pulpit on a Sunday morning and 203 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:21,200 said God told me in prayer this week that Heartland it was, it 204 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:24,240 wasn't called Heartland at the time that this church would be a 205 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:27,560 healing place for wounded ministers to be restored to 206 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:29,600 ministry. Now, what do you make of that? 207 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:34,920 Let every matter be established in the the mouth of two or three 208 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:37,600 witnesses. God is trying to bring an 209 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,480 awareness to this church. Some of the unique fixtures in 210 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:44,160 the spirit, some of the unique calling on our our church. 211 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:46,640 That doesn't make us better. It makes us different and we 212 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:49,160 need to be about the the Father's business. 213 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:55,840 Another dimension to what God has called us to as a church is 214 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:59,400 the unique praise and worship that comes out of this house. 215 00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:05,880 There's something different at times about Heartland. 216 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:11,440 The way I was trained in Bible school is you launch and praise 217 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:15,960 you get, you celebrate and praise, and then you landed into 218 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,600 this intimate worship. And it's the slow songs at the 219 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:21,520 end and you know, everybody's wiping their eyes and then you 220 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:23,800 get up to preach. There's nothing wrong with that, 221 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:27,440 that that's a valid way to do it, but that's not how Heartland 222 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:30,040 usually does it. We start out in intimacy and we 223 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:32,200 ended praise. Why? 224 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:36,920 Because it has to do with the call of God on this church. 225 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:40,240 You see, praise is different than worship. 226 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:45,360 What the psalmist in Psalm 149 refers to as high praise. 227 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:51,000 He says in high praise you bind kings with fetters and rulers 228 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,160 with shackles of iron. What is he talking about? 229 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:57,320 He's talking about this element of warfare that comes in high 230 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:00,840 praise. You see, worship is there, it's 231 00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:03,840 for an audience of one. When we're in worship, we're 232 00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:07,800 singing straight to Him. It's the IT, it's similar to the 233 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:11,000 sweet nothings you whisper into the ear of your spouse if you're 234 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:14,840 married. It's that those intimate 235 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:19,240 exchanges that we talk there, there, there's, it's just for 236 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:20,600 Him. That's what worship is. 237 00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:25,200 But praise is different. Praise is the declaration of who 238 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:30,400 he is, not just towards God but towards the atmosphere, towards 239 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:33,680 even the rogue rulers and the and the principalities and 240 00:13:33,680 --> 00:13:38,680 powers and heavenly realms. So praise is a way to re 241 00:13:38,680 --> 00:13:43,160 acclimate our mind and recalibrate our minds and also 242 00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:45,240 to impose those truths on the enemy. 243 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:48,600 There is a warfare element to praise. 244 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:55,080 So when we're worshipping, we're talking to him about who he is 245 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:59,200 and we go into this high praise. There are times where we're when 246 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:02,480 people are shouting and jumping and pumping their fists in the 247 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:03,080 air. What is that? 248 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:04,800 Is it just because we like music around here? 249 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:09,960 Although we do, there's more to it than that. 250 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:15,360 It's it's enforcing the will of the Lord in praise. 251 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:24,120 You see, praise is about confronting the false narrative 252 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:28,200 of the enemy. We come in here and praise is a 253 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:35,040 protection for our own minds to protect us from a fence because 254 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:40,520 life begins to crowd in on us and and make us feel like God is 255 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:44,480 abandoned us. At times the enemy tries to 256 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:49,520 create a narrative, reinterpret the circumstances of your life 257 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:54,080 to rob you of victory. And so praise is the way you 258 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:56,840 establish that victory and you hold the line. 259 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:00,320 What does Paul say in Ephesians 6 in the evil day, when you've 260 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:03,800 done all you can stand? And then he says it again, and 261 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:07,880 when you've done all you can stand, sometimes that's all you 262 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:09,960 can. But you, all you can do is stand 263 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:12,160 on that ground and say, I'm telling you, I don't understand 264 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:13,560 this. I don't know why all this is 265 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:17,520 happening, but this I know God is good. 266 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,560 And we hold that ground. And that's an act of warfare 267 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:25,440 because the enemy wants to create a narrative in your mind 268 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:29,680 to interpret your circumstances and push you off the ground of 269 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:31,840 victory. And once you give up that 270 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:33,360 ground, it's a whole different deal. 271 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,280 It's one thing to fight from victory, it's another thing to 272 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:39,920 fight for it. You have you give up the high 273 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:42,520 ground and now you're trying to get back to where you were. 274 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:47,280 And I use that terminology very carefully when I talk about the 275 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:49,440 narrative. That's where we get the word 276 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:51,960 narrator. And a narrator, of course, is 277 00:15:51,960 --> 00:15:56,160 when there's a scene on the screen or there's a scene on the 278 00:15:56,160 --> 00:16:00,240 the stage and there's circumstances happening, but 279 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:04,920 then there's a voice off screen infusing those activities with 280 00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:08,240 meaning, filling in the back story so you know how to 281 00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:10,120 interpret what's going on in front of you. 282 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:12,000 That's the purpose of a narrator. 283 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:17,360 And the enemy has a narration for your life and God has a 284 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:20,520 narration for your life. And depending on who you tune 285 00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:23,680 into will determine whether you live in victory or defeat. 286 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,040 And so when we come in and worship and we, we, there's 287 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:33,720 times, let me put it this way, your praise is at its most 288 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:36,800 valuable when you're going through the hardest times 289 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:39,440 because that's when you need it most. 290 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,360 And that's when you are in the thick of the battle and you're 291 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:45,040 pressing back the narration of the enemy. 292 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:47,720 You're imposing the truth upon him. 293 00:16:47,880 --> 00:16:52,360 You're encroaching on his activity and saying I refuse to 294 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:55,600 listen to your interpretation of my life. 295 00:16:56,920 --> 00:16:58,440 And you're fighting for that ground. 296 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,600 And that means something. And it means something more than 297 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,920 just between your two ears. That's where the first battles 298 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:07,040 won. That's where the first battles 299 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:11,119 thought fought in the area of your thoughts. 300 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:16,680 But the fact is it there's an effect that our praise has that 301 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:21,480 goes beyond what we believe in between our two ears and so and 302 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:25,960 praise and worship where it's more than just us having 303 00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:30,120 intimacy with the Lord. There is an external expression 304 00:17:30,120 --> 00:17:34,400 and environmental effect that our praise has. 305 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:38,520 When we're worshipping God and we go into the high praise and 306 00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:41,600 we begin to declare the goodness of his character, what we're 307 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:46,080 doing is we're declaring the excellencies of his nature and 308 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:49,640 character and imposing them on the narrative of the enemy. 309 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:52,920 And when the enemy begins to tell us that God has abandoned 310 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:56,480 you, he really doesn't care if if God really loved you, X 311 00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:58,000 wouldn't be happening in your life. 312 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:01,320 And you fight and you stand and you declare those things. 313 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,960 You're pushing back the enemy. And there's a breakthrough that 314 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:08,160 many of you have felt in worship, may not have been able 315 00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:10,840 to articulate it, but all of a sudden it's like you broke 316 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:14,000 through something and all of a sudden the rarefied or the air's 317 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,840 clear. You can see farther. 318 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:20,480 Things are clear. You have the victory between 319 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:24,200 your two ears, and you walk out of that service and you're 320 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:27,600 looking at things differently. And here's the crazy thing is, 321 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:29,960 your circumstances haven't changed yet. 322 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,680 You have the same circumstances you had when you walked into 323 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:39,160 church, when you walked out, but there's something different 324 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:40,400 going on in your heart. Why? 325 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:44,000 Because you have secured the victory in high praise. 326 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:48,880 High praise is warfare. We are enforcing the crown 327 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:53,240 rights of King Jesus, declaring his goodness on the earth in our 328 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:56,640 circumstances. We refuse to give into that 329 00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:02,280 false narrative of the enemy. And that is crucial, especially 330 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:07,000 when you feel like it the least, because that's when the battle 331 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,920 is the thickest. And we take that stand and we 332 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:16,680 impose that on the enemy. But again, that has it's, it's 333 00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:19,400 goes beyond what's going on between your ears. 334 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:25,200 There really is an environmental cosmic effect that praise has 335 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:29,320 that Psalm chapter 2 and Psalm 149 talk about. 336 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:34,960 And so we need to grasp this because if we don't, what 337 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,160 happens is we come in here and we think, oh, we sing because we 338 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,960 like it. It's like singing these cute 339 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:45,520 little ditties, you know? Oh, I like that guitar riff, you 340 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:48,400 know, And it prepares for the worship or for the word. 341 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:51,640 We just kind of blow past this and we don't realize that we are 342 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:55,040 doing Kingdom work here. This really matters. 343 00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:59,080 The mindset that you grab, that you come in here and you 344 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:02,640 understand I'm going to engage heaven and I'm going to impose 345 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:06,040 heaven's edicts on the earth, and I'm going to shift events in 346 00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:11,880 my life in the place of praise. Some of you were here when Paul 347 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:16,200 was speaking last a week ago this Saturday on soaking and, 348 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,160 and he, we, we come in, we, we were in soaking. 349 00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:21,520 And then he said, stand up, make some declarations. 350 00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:23,560 And I'm going to tell you I already had some in the holster. 351 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:26,120 I was ready. I, I pulled him out and I knew I 352 00:20:26,120 --> 00:20:28,400 didn't have to search for something to declare. 353 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,080 There's some things I want to see some movement on in my 354 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:33,200 personal life. There's some things I want to 355 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:35,440 see movement on in my family, in our region. 356 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:39,240 And so there's a place where we ascend the hill of the Lord and 357 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:42,280 you hit that pocket of authority where you can begin to declare 358 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:45,640 and move things. And this, this is very, very 359 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:48,920 important because otherwise what you do is you're just this 360 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:52,400 little stick tossed to and fro down the little stream of life. 361 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,720 Life happens to you and you can't try to keep a good 362 00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:57,920 attitude while you're being thrown about by the waves. 363 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:00,680 And God never intended for you to live that way. 364 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:04,240 No, it's not that we can just Willy nilly just declare 365 00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:08,200 anything we want. Psalm chapter 2 talks about the 366 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:11,320 decrees. It says there's decrees. 367 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:16,880 Psalm 149 says that we carry out the sentence written against 368 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,120 them. So both of them, there's 369 00:21:20,120 --> 00:21:24,200 something that's been decided in heaven that you and I pick up on 370 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:27,200 earth and we begin to declare those things and we use the 371 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:32,680 authority given to us to do so. Now you hang around here any 372 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:35,880 time at all, you're going to hear me quote Psalm 8 and 373 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:40,320 Hebrews chapter 2. This is a big deal because if we 374 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:44,360 don't understand the principle in those two verses, what we end 375 00:21:44,360 --> 00:21:48,000 up doing is we end up giving away our authority and we let 376 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,560 life happen to us rather than imposing the will of God through 377 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:54,880 us on the earth. Psalm chapter 8 is very clear. 378 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:58,400 What is man that you are mindful of him, the Son of man that you 379 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,320 would visit him. You made him a little lower than 380 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:06,520 the angels and put everything under his feet. 381 00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:12,120 God delegated the earth to man. Yes, we abdicated that through 382 00:22:12,120 --> 00:22:14,440 sin, but we have it back in Christ. 383 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,400 Ephesians chapter 2 chapter one last two verses. 384 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:19,600 God put everything under Christ's feet. 385 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:23,560 Comma for the church, the fullness of him who fills 386 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,800 everything in every way and by the way, the reason the church 387 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:31,400 is the fullness of him and the reason this this the context of 388 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:35,280 this passage we're going to get into in a minute is the 389 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:39,960 assembly. The ecclesia is because that's 390 00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:42,920 the fullness of him. Every one of us have a portion a 391 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:44,600 measure that we bring to the table. 392 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:48,400 Every church has something they carry and together the body of 393 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,360 Christ is the fullness of him. And so we need one another. 394 00:22:52,360 --> 00:22:57,240 So let's look at this here. Look at look at verse one, if I 395 00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,880 can get my computer to cooperate. 396 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:05,400 Look at this praise the Lord sing to the Lord a new song, his 397 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:08,320 praise in the assembly of the godly. 398 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:13,520 So right from the outset, the psalmist, the second to the last 399 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:18,320 Psalm playing off the second Psalm in the book, he says 400 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:20,880 praise the Lord. So this is our marching orders, 401 00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:23,040 Praise him. And it's different than worship. 402 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:25,560 He's not talking about this intimacy thing. 403 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,240 He's talking about warfare where we come in and we make it. 404 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,440 We begin to declare the goodness of God over our circumstances, 405 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:35,880 over our nations and the nations of the earth. 406 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:39,280 He says sing to the Lord a new song. 407 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,200 That word, new song is very specific. 408 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:46,240 It means what it says, a new song, something that's never 409 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,200 been heard or seen before. It's new material. 410 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,120 What he's talking about is prophetic worship, where we 411 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:57,400 declare what, what is the now of God, not just the knowledge of 412 00:23:57,400 --> 00:23:59,200 God. See, there's a lot of good 413 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,240 things we could release. There's a lot of good things we 414 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:06,360 can preach on it's, but it's not about the general knowledge. 415 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,320 What is the now of God? What's on God's heart right now? 416 00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,600 Prophetic worship is nothing more and nothing less than 417 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,760 singing. What is on the heart of God in 418 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:17,240 that moment? We're directed by him to release 419 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,800 his word and has an effect. What is the word in season? 420 00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:24,560 And so as we're up, we're in worship. 421 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:29,120 We're looking for that What what has oil on it and you can feel 422 00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:30,360 it. There's times we'll hit that. 423 00:24:30,360 --> 00:24:33,040 It's paid dirt, man. There's something there's oil on 424 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:34,960 that thing and it's going to make a difference. 425 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:39,480 See, the danger is, is that you and I think that what we see 426 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:43,240 around us is all there is that we come into worship and it's 427 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:45,320 nice songs and then we hear a nice sermon. 428 00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:47,880 Five points to having a good marriage and we go home. 429 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:55,800 But in reality, we step in here. We're engaging the spiritual 430 00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,960 realm. Hebrews chapter 12 is very 431 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,880 clear. He says you have not come to 432 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,800 Mount Sinai. We're talking about ascending 433 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,840 the hill of the Lord. He says the hill that we ascend 434 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:12,400 is not Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai was a it was the 435 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,840 the, the mountain where they received the law and there was 436 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:19,280 condemnation and there was tremendous fear. 437 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:20,920 They weren't allowed to touch it. 438 00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:24,720 And even Moses, who would talk to God as a friend face to face, 439 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,120 was trembling in fear and thought he would die. 440 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,600 And the writer says that's not the mount we come to, but you 441 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:36,040 have come to Mount Zion. And Mount Zion, it says, is the 442 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:39,920 spiritual Jerusalem. So this this idea of the 443 00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:44,600 mountain of the Lord of Mount Zion is this spiritual reality 444 00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,960 that the the writer of Hebrews is trying to paint for you and I 445 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,000 and he says a number of things about it. 446 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,240 And what he's talking about is what is the reality that we 447 00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,000 encounter when we come together as the body of Christ? 448 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,920 What are we encountering here? One of the things he said we 449 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:06,440 it's the spirit spirits of men made perfect, the redeemed were 450 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:09,200 made holy. And he says, I love this phrase 451 00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:14,640 of myriad of fest of angels and festal gathering. 452 00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:19,080 That's a wild phrase. Millions of angels and festal 453 00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,000 gatherings. You know, when we gather to 454 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,440 worship, the angelic begins to settle in around us and we join 455 00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,560 in worship with them. It's not just us down here. 456 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,680 And we need a grid work for this because if we're if we're not 457 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,240 careful, we just think that we're down here jumping around 458 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,080 trying to get God's attention and God's come some disconnected 459 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:40,440 way. Every now and then he'll bump 460 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:42,000 Gabriel. Hey, Gabriel, they're down there 461 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,560 doing it again. Why don't you, you know, answer 462 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:47,400 a prayer form or something get you know, that's not what's 463 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,120 going on. There is an engagement of heaven 464 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:54,520 and earth when we gather in his name, when we be, especially 465 00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:57,480 when we begin to praise, because what we're doing is we're 466 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:02,000 declaring his goodness over against the situations in the 467 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,520 earth. And it's that dynamic that 468 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:08,920 Scripture says he inhabits, or he enthrones himself. 469 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:15,040 In the midst of literally high praise is a coronation of the 470 00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,560 king. It's us crowning him all over 471 00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:19,520 again. And he comes and he begins to 472 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:22,760 exert his rule. From the midst of that, he, he 473 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,760 begins to move in and begins to move out and do things in the 474 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,080 earth. But again, if we don't realize 475 00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:34,480 that, we come in, we sing some songs in disconnected ways and 476 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,920 then get ready to hear a nice little sermon, when in reality 477 00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:40,280 we need to come prepared because we've come. 478 00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,280 We've stepped in to do Kingdom business. 479 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:47,080 We come to Mount Zion, the spiritual Jerusalem. 480 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:52,080 We come and we engage heaven, and God begins to move through 481 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:54,480 our praise. And that is what this passage is 482 00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:58,320 about. Now, again, these psalms are the 483 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:03,040 records of prophetic seers, of psalmists. 484 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:08,800 David was known as a prophet Asaph, one of his primary guys 485 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,800 in the House of prayer. What David established, the 486 00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:17,560 Tabernacle of David Asaph, it says was a seer, meant he saw 487 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:21,600 things in the Spirit and he ministered as a prophet under 488 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:25,200 David's direction. And So what the Psalms are is 489 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:29,560 they are records of what they encountered as they saw things 490 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:34,160 in the Spirit and they left them behind through scribes for you 491 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,800 and I so that we could find the tracks to discover the same 492 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:41,000 things. You see, David broke into some 493 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,200 things and then he, he, he articulated those so that we 494 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:47,040 could enter into the same thing David is. 495 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:52,080 Let me let me just say that until you are able to articulate 496 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,440 what you've broke into, you haven't really fully learned it 497 00:28:55,440 --> 00:29:01,280 yet. The final, the final building 498 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,600 block of what God does in you is your ability to give it away. 499 00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:07,840 And until you can give it away, you don't really have it yet. 500 00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:10,360 And have you ever heard of the Trivium? 501 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:14,760 The it's, it's a classical education. 502 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:17,680 It was, you know, kids learn Latin and it's a dead language, 503 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:19,680 but it's the base of a lot of different languages. 504 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:23,560 Well, for, for centuries, what was called the Trivium, it was 505 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:25,880 the way in which children were were taught. 506 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:32,280 And the Trivium, it starts out with memorizing many facts, then 507 00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:36,200 it's argumentation and then it's giving it away teaching others. 508 00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,360 And so it's a progression. And it's, it's fascinating 509 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,760 because it really matches the stages of a child, a little 510 00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,040 child. They can memorize volumes of 511 00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:47,080 material. That's why you just teach them 512 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:50,360 songs about all this stuff. I can still remember Conjunction 513 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:52,880 Junction. What's that fun? 514 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:54,280 How many? You know what I'm talking about? 515 00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:56,160 See, it's you could sing along with me. 516 00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:58,560 How do I remember that? Because it was put to music. 517 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,400 I was a little kid. I learned that stuff. 518 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:03,800 Or a noun is a person, plays or thing. 519 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,680 You know all those. So you have all these songs. 520 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:09,960 Some of you are looking at me. Whoa, you dated yourself. 521 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,640 So you you learn, but then it's that debate. 522 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:16,720 How many of you had kids that will debate you? 523 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:21,120 They're in that stage, but in under that mindset that that 524 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,600 ancient way of training children. 525 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,840 They believe that until you can give it away, you haven't really 526 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:28,520 learned it. And that's true. 527 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,120 So much so that Philemon tells us, and I want to say it's verse 528 00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:36,120 six of the book of Philemon. He says I would that you would 529 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,960 share your faith comma so that you know what you have. 530 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,160 In other words, it's in the process of giving it away that 531 00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,240 you learn. I had a Bible school professor. 532 00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:52,320 He said one time he was asking the Lord or the Lord asked him. 533 00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:54,440 He said, do you know why I called you to ministry? 534 00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:59,640 And he thought, man, I guess because I'm so committed, I'm 535 00:30:59,960 --> 00:31:02,280 naturally insightful. Lord, why was it? 536 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:06,040 He said the Lord spoke this to him and it was very humble of 537 00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:08,080 him to do so. He said the Lord said it was the 538 00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:12,480 only way to keep you holy, to keep you handling holy things. 539 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,960 There's something about forcing, giving it away. 540 00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:21,760 It causes you to really kind of press it out and articulate it 541 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:26,520 and learn it and grasp it. And So what God does in your 542 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:28,720 life is meant to be given away to others. 543 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,840 And it's in the giving that you get further revelation and 544 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:36,040 understanding. And so David broke into some 545 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:38,120 things. And then what he did is he 546 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:40,440 systematized his form of worship. 547 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:44,720 David discovered some things about God, and he created this 548 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,120 whole system called the Tabernacle of David. 549 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:51,560 He broke the rules. Moses had the three court 550 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:55,440 system, got it from God himself. God said build it according to 551 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:57,880 the blueprint. And God took Moses in these 552 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:00,000 encounters and showed them there's a three court system, 553 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,360 the the whole outer court, the holy place and the holiest of 554 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:05,200 all and how it's all supposed to work. 555 00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:09,760 And David is looking at that saying, but it's not fair. 556 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:15,800 I'm left on the outside. You got to look at Psalm 132. 557 00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,640 I wish we had some time to look into Psalm 132. 558 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,520 It is an amazing passage. But David says this. 559 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:27,400 He said we heard about it in Ifathra. 560 00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:31,840 I came upon it in the fields of jar. 561 00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,600 What David was saying is that is a young boy living in Bethlehem, 562 00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:40,280 which is another word for Ifathra, another another phrase 563 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,040 That's that's if father was Bethlehem. 564 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:45,920 David was saying as a young boy, I was raised in a father in 565 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:51,880 Bethlehem and I'd heard a rumor that the ark of God, this box 566 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,400 that God said I will dwell between the cherubim. 567 00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,520 It was literally a throne that they would carry and God would 568 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,400 go with them and they knew this is a meeting place. 569 00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:08,320 And David heard a rumor. See, Saul had taken it into 570 00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:11,200 battle. It got captured because they 571 00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,080 weren't honoring the presence of the Lord. 572 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,240 And the Philistines broke out, depending on your translation, 573 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,240 if they broke out in tumors or some translations say they broke 574 00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:21,440 out in hemorrhoids, they didn't want it anymore. 575 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:25,360 We don't know which. Suffice it to say, if you don't 576 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:28,000 honor the presence, being in the presence is an uncomfortable 577 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:31,920 thing. So they sent it back and they, 578 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:34,360 the, some of the Israelites opened it and were killed. 579 00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:38,800 And so they took it out and they put it in the fields of jar or 580 00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:42,920 another word for Koriath, Jerem. And that's where the ark dwelt, 581 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:44,440 I want to say for about 20 years. 582 00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,800 But David gives us a little insight in Psalm 132. 583 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:52,160 He said, he said, listen, when I was a young guy, I heard there 584 00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:57,480 was a rumor that the ark, the creator of the universe, sits on 585 00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:00,040 that box, and it was in my region. 586 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:01,600 And David said, I got to get there. 587 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:05,560 See, this explains a lot about David. 588 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,520 There's something in David's heart that said, if God's there, 589 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,120 I've got to get there and I've got to check this thing out. 590 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,360 He said, I heard about it in Bethlehem and I came upon it in 591 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,880 Kariath Jerem and it ruined David for the rest of his life. 592 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,520 The first thing he did when he ascended the throne, he said 593 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:28,040 I've got to get that arc to me. I've got to put it smack dab in 594 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:31,520 the center of my regime and everything is going to orbit 595 00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:35,440 around the presence of God. And he called it the Tabernacle 596 00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:37,760 of David. And it didn't have a three court 597 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:41,719 system. It had one court and they didn't 598 00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:44,199 have a veil to protect them. You know what protected them? 599 00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:48,880 Intercessors who we just sang it day and night, night and day, 600 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:52,800 would worship the Lord. David hired on his own dime 601 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:57,640 hundreds of worship leaders and intercessors and prophets and 602 00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,480 scribes. And they would just worship God 603 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,480 day and night. And they would go into these 604 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,000 encounters and they would write them down. 605 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:05,880 And we have them in the forms of Psalms. 606 00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,800 And it explains why the Kingdom exponentially increased under 607 00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:17,680 David's regime, because David entertained the presence of God. 608 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:21,760 David was hungry. And what he discovered in 609 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:25,200 private, he created a system that other people could enter 610 00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:28,960 into. And it became known as the 611 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:32,080 Tabernacle of David. And by the way, it's the one 612 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:35,960 that God said, I will rebuild. God isn't interested in 613 00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:40,360 rebuilding the temple of Solomon or the tent, the Tabernacle of 614 00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,560 Moses. What he wants is the Tabernacle 615 00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,680 of David, where night and day he's entertained. 616 00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:51,040 So when the psalmist says, come, bless the Lord, all you servants 617 00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:55,440 of the Lord who stand by night in the House of the Lord, it's 618 00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:59,440 referring to those that David had hired and around the clock. 619 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:01,920 They were entertaining. They were, they were around that 620 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:07,480 ark worshipping the Lord. And God began to move powerfully 621 00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:12,320 in the nation of Israel, and it expanded and their enemies fell 622 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,440 before them. And many of these psalms were 623 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:18,520 psalms that they received and encounters, and they declared 624 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:22,160 over their enemies that we will bind those kings with fetters in 625 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:27,480 these rulers with shackles of iron, says God says in Psalm 2. 626 00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:34,320 As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill, saying that 627 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:36,320 God's going to rule from that place. 628 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:45,800 Zion is just a very small mountain in Jerusalem, right 629 00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:48,160 outside not too far from that tunnel. 630 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:52,000 They discovered it in another potato patch in an old garbage 631 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:53,320 dump. They were looking for the 632 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:57,440 David's palace and what was known as Mount Zion, and they 633 00:36:57,440 --> 00:36:59,840 discovered it literally outside the city wall. 634 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:03,400 And I remember seeing that we went, we went through David's 635 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:05,120 palace. And there's reasons they know 636 00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:07,920 it's David's palace because some of the carvings that were talked 637 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,960 about in Second Chronicle or First Chronicles and so forth. 638 00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:15,480 And I remember looking at that and reading about Mount Zion. 639 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:20,360 As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. 640 00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:25,120 Mount Zion is the, the, the envy of all the other mountains. 641 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:29,080 There's no greater mountain and I'm looking at things go, wow, 642 00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:34,280 that's pretty generous, Lord, that's almost borders on forgive 643 00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:36,440 me, Lord, dishonest. You know what's calling that 644 00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:38,880 great? It's just a little Knoll. 645 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:45,360 Well, obviously the conclusion is God has a different metric by 646 00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:49,440 which he measures things. Wasn't the size of the mountain, 647 00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:52,600 it was the impact. And it was a place where David, 648 00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:55,520 God said, I've set my king on Zion, my holy hill. 649 00:37:55,720 --> 00:37:59,240 And now that Zion has become a metaphor for the Kingdom of God 650 00:37:59,240 --> 00:38:01,840 in the governmental mountain. And it's what you and I are to 651 00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:04,600 ascend the hill of the Lord in praise. 652 00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:07,760 And once we get to those places where we catch the word of the 653 00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:10,680 Lord and we begin to release them into the earth over our 654 00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:15,280 families, over our situations in government, over the nations. 655 00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:19,640 And that is the purpose of high praise. 656 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,040 So we don't have to get we don't have time to get into the rest 657 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,520 of this passage. We will next week. 658 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:28,560 Roger will be here and then we'll jump back into this. 659 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:33,920 But suffice it to say, listen this thing of high praise is 660 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:37,760 crucial. And if we get a grid work for 661 00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:41,680 what's going on realize when we gather there's a reason it says 662 00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:44,520 verse one sing to the Lord a new song. 663 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:48,480 His praise where in the assembly of the godly, you know, the 664 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:51,000 Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament. 665 00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,080 You know what that word assembly is? 666 00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:58,240 Ecclesia. It's the New Testament word that 667 00:38:58,240 --> 00:39:02,840 we translate church. It's a governmental ruling body 668 00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:07,120 that exerts legislative rule in a region. 669 00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:11,480 And so where do we do the high praise? 670 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:14,080 You see, there's, there's authority given to the body of 671 00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:15,960 Christ that's not given to the individual. 672 00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:20,640 And there's something about when we gather, when, when the the 673 00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:25,040 ecclesia is in session and we begin to declare the goodness of 674 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:27,000 God. We come in in intimacy and we're 675 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,560 beginning to talk to him. And then we begin to that. 676 00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:33,240 We begin to mount, you know, begin to ascend the hill of Lord 677 00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:36,800 and we begin to declare his goodness over our circumstances. 678 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:40,640 And we begin to declare his, his character and his nature, 679 00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:44,720 contrary to everything that's pressing in upon us, contrary to 680 00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:48,200 what culture saying, contrary to to even what our present 681 00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:52,640 experience may be, and contrary to what the enemy wants to how 682 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:54,720 he wants to interpret our circumstance. 683 00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:57,200 And we take that stand and we press it back. 684 00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:00,480 And we hit those spots of authority and it's where we 685 00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:02,520 catch the word of the Lord. And I want to encourage you, 686 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,560 there are times on Sunday mornings where we're in worship 687 00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,040 and God wants to drop a word in your heart. 688 00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:11,520 And you begin to declare that over your family. 689 00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:14,320 You begin to declare that over your situation. 690 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,760 Over your job, your circumstance, or even the 691 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:20,120 nations of the earth. There are times we'll do that 692 00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:23,360 corporately when we get up and we begin to do business. 693 00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:29,120 I remember one Sunday morning we were in worship and also my wife 694 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:31,040 leaned over. She said we need to pray for the 695 00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:33,080 president right now. This is a number of years ago 696 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:35,960 and I knew it, man. We began to go into that praying 697 00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,320 for the president and man, something shifted in the air. 698 00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:43,280 You see, God wants to release those things. 699 00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:50,600 He wants to bend kings and rulers into his will. 700 00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:57,480 There are times where we're to pray over China and move the 701 00:40:57,480 --> 00:41:01,040 ruler of China and make him bow to God's will. 702 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:06,080 Not, not something that we just, you know, we're, we're slinging 703 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:07,720 hash and saying anything we want. 704 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:09,800 We're catching the word of the Lord. 705 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:14,600 And through his ekklesia, he begins to turn human affairs. 706 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:16,280 Amen. Let's go ahead and stand. 707 00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:19,280 Thanks for listening to our podcast. 708 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:21,760 If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you 709 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:24,400 can get the word out by subscribing and sharing it on 710 00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:26,720 social media. If you'd like to support the 711 00:41:26,720 --> 00:41:29,560 ministries of Heartland Church, you can do so at Heartland 712 00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:31,760 Church online.com/give.