Train Your Hands To Hold | Chet Pete

Are you ready to hear something from the Lord today? So listen, if we haven't met before, my name's Seth. I'm the pastor at our university city campus, and I am so excited, honored to be able to preach God's word today. It is Pastor Appreciation Month, and it's an honor to be preaching in October, because I get to take a couple minutes to just appreciate my pastors. Do you love your pastors? Pastor Steven and Holly. One of the things I do getting ready to preach is there's a lot of thoughts that come into your mind, and the enemy wants you to kind of lose confidence on the way to the pulpit. Nobody understands the weight of trying to speak on behalf of God, and nonetheless, sitting behind this pulpit. And so I'm praying, and then one of the things I do, I go back to any of my text messages with Pastor. And what I'll do is I'm trying to encourage him all the time. I'm like, let me tell you a story about somebody at university city what God's doing in their lives. Let me tell you how that message just ministered to me. And as I was scrolling through our text message, I realized he kept flipping the encouragement back on me. I got to reach out to him and say, hey, I'm so grateful for you. And then he said, hey, Chad, I want you to know, you're an amazing husband. You're an amazing father. I'm so grateful to be doing ministry alongside you.

I reached out to encourage you today. I reached out to tell you, thank you. And time after time after time, I realized how he was depositing something into my spirit to give me confidence to be who God's called me to be. Can we thank God for our pastors? Now, it's been a long time since I've showed a picture of my family and my boys are getting so big. So we took pictures a couple of weeks ago. And so here's a picture of my family, me and my wife, Whitney. We've been married 18 years. And our twin boys, Carson and Carter, I hate taking pictures standing up next to them now. Because everybody's measuring, have they passed you yet? The photographer, Brittany, she had this idea. She said, Chad, do you think you still could hold them? And I said, I've been in a gym. Let me see what I can do. Let me see what I can do. So I got one on my back. I just wanted to know no matter how big they get, I'm still holding them. I'm still-- I still can hold them. I still-- I still can lift them. I still can lift them, I still can lift them. But listen, I'm excited. Who's ready for the word? Who's ready for the word? Who's ready for the word? OK.

We are going to start in John chapter 10, verse 10. Everybody remains standing for the reading of God's word at all of our locations. I love the fact that we stand at attention. And when we open up God's word, it's a posture that puts our heart in a position ready to receive, expecting it for what God wants to speak to you. And so if you can, stand and posture your heart. Say, God, what is it that you want to speak to me today? John chapter 10, verse 10, this is a verse of scripture. Many of you probably have heard quoted multiple times. I'm going to use this statement that Jesus said. And then I'm going to overlay it, and I'm going to use a story from King David's life to be able to walk through this truth. John chapter 10, verse 10, here's what it says. It says the thief-- everybody say the thief-- comes only to steal, kill, and destroy the only thing that this thief wants to do is steal, kill, and destroy. From the time the sun comes up to the time the sun goes down, all this thief is thinking about is stilling, killing, and destroying. But I love that Jesus is like, OK, that's what he came to do. Let me tell you why I'm here. But I have come that they may have life and have it to the fool no matter how much he tries to take, no matter how much he tries to steal, no matter-- life. There's no comparison, no comparison. And now let's just jump back. We're going to read one more verse of Scripture. This is 2 Samuel chapter 5. We're going to look at David's life today. 2 Samuel chapter 5 verse 17. Here's what it says. It says, "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. Before pastor left for tour, he kind of entered us into a training season. He preached a message called train your heart to truth. And I felt like we still need some training today. And so the message that God laid on my heart for you is a message called train your hands to hold. Let's pray. Jesus, we love you. We thank you. You're a good God, you're a faithful God. We ask that today you would do what only you can do. God, I pray that as I do my best to communicate your word, that as that words leave my mouth, you would snatch those words and you would add your power without your love, your grace, your mercy. And by the time it hits the ears of your sons and daughters, their lives would be changed. Have your way today. We love you. We thank you. And it's in the mighty name of Jesus. I pray, amen, amen, amen. Before you take your seat, give your neighbor a hug. Tell them welcome to church. Those of you online, welcome, welcome, welcome. I saw some extended hugs. He said, train your hands to hold. You were holding. You were like, thank you, Pastor Chad, for that opportunity. I'm going to start with a quick story to be able to set this direction. I'm going to tell you a story about the last time I played football. The last time I played football, I was in the eighth grade. I was playing tight in. And there was this scrimmage. Not a game. There's a scrimmage. And I line up in my position. And the play that was called was this play where I was going to give a slant route, cutting right across the middle. And so I line up. Quarterback says, "Hut, I give my defender a little shimmy, you know, a little shake, a little shake." And I left him. I left him. Now I cut across the middle. Quarterback throws a perfect pass right here, right on target, right here. I catch the ball. Now I'm thinking it's about to be showtime. I'm thinking I'm headed to the end zone. It's showtime, but little did I know it was about to be lights out. Because the moment I caught the ball, I got hit by the biggest guy on the football team. His name is John. Let's call him Big John. Big John was reading John 1010 because he came to steal, kill, and destroy. He hit me so hard that I fell down, broke two bones in my leg. I'm laid out on the ground. And win the birds. Finally, stop going in a circle. I realized something. I was still holding on to the ball. I was hit. I was hurt. But I was still holding on to the ball. I've been thinking that we don't have a receiving problem. We got a retention problem. I want you to understand, in football, the moment you catch the football, you're now the most dangerous person on the football field. There's a target on your back.

Is there anybody in the room you're anointed? You're called by God. His hand is on your life. Anybody saved, set free, and delivered? I want you to understand that hell isn't But after the hit and after the hurt, will you still be holding on to what God gave you? Any newlyweds in the room, wave your hand at me. You've been there a couple months, maybe. Sometimes this year, wave, wave over here, over here. Give it up for them. Give it up for them. On their wedding day, they hold each other's hands to have, and to hold. And I celebrate that moment on your wedding day. But I want you holding on to your wife's hands. And until God calls you home, I want your hands to be trained. I'm trained to hold Whitney Pete hands. We've been holding hands for a long time. We've been holding hands since we were 19 years old. I'm trained at holding that woman's hands. And I'm going to be holding her hands until the day the Lord calls me home. Anybody in the room, you just got a promotion. Just got a promotion, and it came with a bonus. Oh, I saw somebody wave their hands. But they did it like this, because I want you to ask them for no money. They're just like this, like this. Hey, listen, I'm so glad that God bless you. I'm so glad that you're making more money now. But when you get, oh, somebody tells you, you've got to set some money aside.

You want to be holding on to some of it. You want to be holding on to some of it when you retire. Tell your neighbor and say, are your hands trained to hold, to hold, to hold, to hold. I'm going to deal with it today. As I was thinking about David's journey, I noticed something in his journey that really spoke to me. You see, David is the king of Israel, the second king. And one of the things on his journey that I didn't realize until I started to study this was that David wasn't just anointed once. David would actually anointed three times on his way to becoming king. Three times David was anointed. The first time was one that Pastor preached about here recently when Samuel comes to Jesse's house. And Jesse brings out all of his sons, except for David. He's out in the field. He's out in the field. And he brings them all out. And this day he goes through all of the sun. Samuel's like, this isn't the one, this isn't the one. Do you have another son? And Jesse says, well, yeah, I got the youngest. He's in the back. He's in the back with the sheep. He says, I won't sit down until you bring him out. And he anoints David to be king in the presence of his brothers. The second time David is anointed to be king, Saul is still on the throne.

And he's growing in strength. He's actually on the run for his life. But he's growing in strength. And people are starting to realize he's the anointed one. And so they actually make him king over Judah, one of the southern tribes of Israel. And so they anoint him to be king. And then the last time that he's anointed to be king is the time that I just read. And this is when David becomes king over all of Israel. Well, why am I taking this time to give you this history of anointing? Because I thought that maybe somebody in the room forgot that you were anointed. Just like David needed multiple times on this journey to becoming king multiple times he gets anointed. I wanted you to know today that even if they didn't pick you, God chose you, you're anointed. God's hand is on your life. Even though the second time that David is anointed, Saul is still on the throne. I know you haven't sat in the seat that God has called you to yet. And it seems like somebody has occupied it already. I want you to know you're still anointed. God's hand is still on your life. I know you've been through some things. I know that it hurts sometimes. But I wanted you to know you're still anointed. God's hand is on your life. It hadn't come to pass yet.

But you're still anointed. Now there's another pattern that I saw in this journey of studying David's life. Every time he was anointed, it was followed by an attack. Every time David had oil poured over his head within the next couple of verses or chapters, like within a couple of-- you see, David immediately is in the middle of a new battle. I wanted you to know attacks usually follow anointing. So the first time David's anointed, you know, the story, there's a big guy named Goliath, a big John. It's a big guy, big guy. He is standing in front of the army of Israel, and he's shouting insults it. The second time David's anointed to be king, he is king over the southern trout of Judah. And now there's like a civil war about to break loose. And so Saul actually sends some of his men out to go and attack David. David defeats those men. And then the last time David is anointed to be king is what we just read. And it's followed by an attack. And here's the thing that I want to do today. I want to help you train your hands. There's a song that David wrote. And they believe that David wrote this song around the time that he became king over all the visual. This is Psalms 144. Here's what it says, "Praise be to the Lord of my rock,

who trains my hands for war. And my fingers for battle, he is my loving God. And my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I take refuge, who subdues people under me." This is David writing this, pinning this on his journey to becoming king. But remember, there's an attack. And so what I read at the beginning was 2nd Samuel chapter 5 verse 17. I want to go back there for a moment. Here's what it says, "When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him. The attack is on the way." But David heard about it and went down to the stronghold. So the Philistine army, they go up to search for David. But David goes down into the stronghold. Maybe you're like, what is the stronghold, Pastor Chet? What is the stronghold? Well, they believe the stronghold is believed to be the cave of Adulum. This is a cave that when David was running for his life, he would go to seek the Lord. And with his generals, they would create military strategy. And so David gets anointed to be king. And it says that the Philistine army, they go up to search for him. And then David goes down into the stronghold. He goes down into this cave.

He goes down into this cave. He put verse 18 up. Let's see what he does in his cave. Now, the Philistines had come and spread out in the valley of Raphael. Keep reading, keep going, keep going. So David, listen, inquired of the Lord. Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands? So the Philistines are on their way to search for David. And David goes down into the stronghold. He gets in a posture like this. We're going to train your hands today, everybody. When's the last time you did this? When the last time you did this, let's train the day. Put your hands like this. You see, when you pray like this, this is a posture of humility. This is a posture of saying, hey, my hands aren't strong enough to fight these battles by myself. David have enough sense to go down in the stronghold and inquire of the Lord, what is it that you would have me to do? He's in the stronghold saying they're coming after me again. Lord, what do you want me to do? Maybe you're in the middle of an attack right now. And when's the last time you went into the stronghold and said, Lord, what is it that you would have me to do? He's in the stronghold. He went down in the stronghold to inquire of the Lord. In the stronghold, there's two things

that you get, you get strength in the stronghold. You get strength in the stronghold, you want to know why? Because while he's in the stronghold, he turned his back on the Philistines. And he turned towards the one who could save. In the stronghold, you stop focusing on who's attacking you and you focus on who's backing you. It's in the stronghold that you're like, you know what, God's got my back. God's got my back. I know that they're coming from near and from far to attack me, but God's got my back. God is fighting for me. I'm serving the one that leads angel armies. He's fighting for me. God's got my back. I was convicted of this here recently. Me and my wife, last year, we were building a house and we're so excited to be able to move into our first home. And so we're working with an amazing realtor and this realtor was like, you know, she's amazing, amazing, amazing. And but let's just say we kind of planned out when we were going to sell the house and all of this because we needed to sell the house before we moved into our new house. We put it on the market. Let's just say it was moving slow, like slow, slow. Like are we ever going to sell this house? I'm like, what is going on?

What's happening, Lauren? And I start bringing out my calculator. And I'm like, well, if we had to end up paying two mortgages, how long could we do it? And I'm stressed. (audience laughing) I'm stressed. I'm like, what are we gonna do? And I'm talking to, I'm trying to figure out, I'm researching, what's an MLS even mean? I don't even know what that means. I'm trying to figure it out. And I'm reaching out to Marissa, what are we doing? What are we doing? And my relative, she's a praying woman. And she said, hey, listen, I know it's moving slow, but you know what I did today? I prayed for who needs to buy your house. She said, I prayed for who needs to buy your house. And I felt so convicted. I'm the pastor, you the realtor. I'm supposed to be praying. We had a prayer night at University City. Just a night that we just came to pray. There's no agenda. I didn't promote it much. It was just like, hey, I just wanna open up the space to pray. And guess what I did? I went down and I said, hey, Lord, I've been stressed, but I wanna repent.

I wanna repent for thinking I was strong enough to do this by myself. I wanna repent for thinking that I was wise enough to do this by myself. I said, God, I know that you love me. I know that you want the best for me. I know that this is nothing for you. So God, I give it to you. By the time I start praying, I stop forgetting about the house. And I'm just like, thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. I'm getting happy now. Has anybody ever went like this? And all of a sudden your hands went like this? He was like this saying, thank you, Lord. All of a sudden I just couldn't stop. But saying, thank you, Jesus. Thank you. I started to remember time after time that he had already healed, that he had already moved. Is there any, I don't know if there's anybody in the room that has a testimony. Is there anybody in the room that has a reason to praise them? That has a reason to say, thank you, Jesus. That's got a reason to say, Hallelujah. That's got a reason to say, God, you've been good. Got a reason to say, God, you've been faithful. Got a reason to say, God. (audience clapping) Go down before you go up.

I can't make this up. I'm at the prayer meeting. My relative sends me a text. And she says, hey, I think we got an offer. I text her back. Don't text me back till we got a contract. I go back down, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You're working, you're moving. Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. You're moving, God. I can't make this up. I can't make this up. We end up getting the contract the next day. The next day we end up getting the contract. No, no, hear me clearly, hear me clearly. Here's the thing, here's the thing. I'm not even gonna have a shout about the fact that we got the contract. I think the miracle was in the fact that God comforted me. The miracle was in the fact that God showed up in that moment. I got to the point that I didn't care about the house because I had Jesus. 'Cause maybe you're in the room and you're still waiting for the door to open up. You're still waiting for God. You're like, I've been going down, but I hadn't seen it yet. I want you to see Jesus when you go down into the stronghold.

So while you're in the stronghold, you get strength and you might get your next step. He might tell you, hey, here's some strategy. Here's the step you should take. Here's how you should move in. And so let's go back to verse 17. Let's go back to verse 17. It says, it says, "So 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." Now the Philistines had come and they spread out in the valley of Raphael. So David inquired of the Lord. Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands? You know, it's interesting. A lot of people think when you're in the stronghold that you're hiding. I want you to understand, when you're in the stronghold, you're not hiding, you're hearing. You're hearing, you're like, God, what is it that you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? To the world, it might be like, you're hiding. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't know I'm waiting for the Lord to speak. I'm waiting for him to talk to me. I'm not hiding, I'm hearing, I'm hearing, I'm hearing. And watch this, watch this.

Will you deliver them into my hands? The Lord said one word answer, one word answer. Go. For I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands. Watch this. God said go, verse 20. So David went. God said go. So David went. So David went to Malbirism and he laid them out. Watch this. And there, he defeated them. He said, as we start talking junk, as waters break out. And the Lord has broken out against my enemies before me. So that place was called. Listen, listen, the Philistines abandoned their idols there. And David is when they went and carried them off. You see, David starts talking and beat them so bad. He starts talking junk. But here's the thing I really want you to catch in this text. God says, "Go." Next verse, David went. God said, "Go," next verse, David went. I was reading this slowly and I never see the Philistines throw a spear. I never see the Philistines launch a grenade. And all I see the Philistines do is is they were searching for him and David heard about it. Some of us, I think we'd be waiting for the enemy to try to take something.

What I see and David is is David threw the first punch. I want you to write it down this way. Hit the enemy before he hits you. Hit the enemy before he hits you. You see, some of y'all, y'all got this down. You know about praying hands, but you don't know nothing about swaying hands. You got this down, you got this down. But there's something, David was a fighting man. David was a fighting man. He didn't go down to the stronghold 'cause he didn't know how to fight. He went down to the stronghold 'cause he wanted the battle blessed. Some of you are fighting battles that God didn't bless and you're wondering why it's getting bloody. You're wondering why it's not working out the way that you want. When you go down to the stronghold and God says, "Go, don't wait for the enemy to hit you." Hit the enemy before he hits you. Now we go from praying hands to swaying hands. Let me see you square up. Let me see, look at your neighbor. Give him a, give him a say, "Hey, I know how to fight. "I know how to fight. "I got trained hands. "My hands are trained for this. "My hands are trained for this.

"Hit the enemy before he hits you. "How do I do that? "I do what the Lord told me to. "I do what he told me to." One of the first things that God says isn't good in the book of Genesis, he says what? It's for man to be alone. This is something God tells us, it's not good. It's not good. In every single week, we celebrated all of our campus pastors, my brothers. Can we thank God for our campus pastors? One more, one more time, one more time, one more time. Every week, your campus pastor, walk on stage. Hey everybody, welcome to Elevation Church. Today, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to sign up for an e-group. Come on, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Next week, next week, same campus pastor, same swagger, comes up. Hey, welcome to Elevation Church. Today, you have an opportunity to sign up for a serve team. Let's get on an e-team today. (audience laughing) (audience clapping) Many of you here, hear this, as if we get a commission for you signing up to serve, as if we get a commission for you signing up for an e-group. This isn't something we want from you,

this is something we want for you, because God said it wasn't good for man to be alone. That's not my idea, we're just giving you an option, we're giving you a next step and you come into church. Hear the word, walk right back out to your car and wonder, and wonder why the enemy is just having his way. 'Cause you're back here in the corner by yourself, with nobody to call, with nobody to reach out, he's just being, just, just where you are. Is there somebody that's willing to fight today? That's willing to say, hey, hey, hey, I'm gonna do what God told me to do. That's what it's gonna do. Where's the worst time to buy an umbrella? (congregation laughing) You don't wait, I'm so grateful for those of you that came to church, you haven't been to church in a while. I'm so proud of you, and you came to church because maybe you're at the darkest moment of your life. I am so proud that you said, I don't know where to go, so I'm running to Jesus. But I'm trying to challenge people today. Why are you waiting until you got hit to learn how to be in the presence of God, to learn how to fight, to learn how to worship, to learn how to make sure you go down before you go out to battle? Why are you waiting until it gets hard? Come on, Jet. I got another one.

When's the worst time to start an emergency fund? (audience laughing) So church, church, church, church. I want to understand this. When we talk about putting God first in the area of your finances with tithing, the first 10%, and maybe you've never heard this before, but here's the thing that I love. Any time I sit with someone that's like, I want to tithe, I just don't know where to start. I love sitting with them, because in order to talk about tithing, I can't stop talking about stewardship. So I'm able to sit down and I say, hey, listen, if we put God first with this, that means now, now that we have to prioritize some things, you see, a budget is offensive. A budget is hitting the enemy before he hits you. And so, when we talk about putting God first in the area of your finances, we're like, you're going to have to steward everything that he's given you in order to do this. In order to do this, this is God's plan. I didn't make this up. And so I want you to hit the enemy before he hits you. What is an action step that God is calling you to take? What is a step that God has given you? A strategy that he's given you? And you know it, you know the step to take. You know it, you know what to do,

but you're allowing the enemy to pick you off. I am sick and tired of him having his way with my mind. I'm sick and tired of him having his way with our families. I'm sick and tired of having his way with our kids. That's why I'm so excited about what God is doing through the youth at Elevation Church, because they're saying, hey, not on my watch, not on my watch, we're going to serve the Lord. We're going to hit the, we're going to learn how to pray while we're young. So we don't have to deal with some of the things that, that, come on now, come on now, if you were to hit the enemy first, he wouldn't have done, I'm just trying to help you. I'm trying to help you, but there's a question. There's a question in this text that, that David asked and honestly, I believe this is the question that we're out all asking. You see at verse 18, it says, "Now the Philistines had come and they spread out in the Valley of Raphael. So David inquired of the Lord, shall I go attack the Philistines? Watch this, will you deliver them into my hands?" This question just struck me because, I'm wondering if you're asking God the same thing, well, will you deliver me? Like, will you deliver us out of this financial crisis? Will you deliver us? I just got this doctor's report.

Will you deliver us? You know, me and my wife, it's a rocky place right now. Will you deliver us? Look, will you? He's not asking, can you? You see, some of us, some of us, it's like we could be honest. We're like, we believe God has the power. But if we could be honest, sometimes we're asking, I've seen you do it for them, will you do it for me? I saw you do it last time, but this time, it seems much bigger, will you do it this time? If we're honest, 'cause I made a lot of mistakes, and I don't, I don't know if I messed up, if I messed up too much for you to bless me, if I messed up too much for you to deliver me. And so, I kind of saw this pattern that I wanted to give you today. I want you to write this down, because remember, we started this message, I wanted to remind you that you're blessed. You are anointed. God's hand is on your life. So, I don't want you to forget that. But when you're anointed, right? The attack follows the anointing. So we start to feel this resistance. So anybody room, you're feeling the resistance right now, pressed on every side, you're feeling the resistance. And so, here's what I want you to understand. I want you, I want to put this in a way

so you can walk away and maybe you would, every time you feel the resistance, you feel the attack, this will be a thought process you can go to. And so, more resistance should lead to more dependence, okay? More resistance should lead to more dependence. What am I trying to say? Usually, when you get attacked, you call everybody else. You call everybody else, you call your auntie, you call your cousin, call your girlfriend, you call your guys, you call everybody else. What did I say? Go down before you go up. Depend on the Lord. I'm not strong enough for this. God, I need you, all right? So you get more resistance, that should be a trigger. Okay, I gotta go to the stronghold. I gotta go down to the stronghold, all right? So more, more resistance, more dependence. More dependence should lead to more obedience. Because the longer that I'm in the stronghold, I get to understand his heart. I get to experience his love for me, his love for my family. I get direction. You see, you see, but here's the thing. More dependent should lead to more obedience. I do what he told me to do. When he says go, I go. He says serve, I serve.

He says give, I give, I don't understand this strategy, but God, I trust you. 'Cause I heard your voice in a stronghold. You told me what to do, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. And if I don't know what to do, I'm gonna stay in a stronghold. Until you tell me what to do. And then I'm gonna get around some people. I'm gonna get in the community of people that pray, that talk to the Lord, and maybe I'll get wisdom. I'll seek Godly counsel. So, so, so, so more resistance, more dependence, more dependence, more obedience. And the more that you obey, more obedience, will lead to more deliverance. You see, I believe that maybe your breakthrough is on the other side of your, yes. I believe that what if the deliverance that God wants to bring into your life was on the other side of you taking a step towards God doing what he told you to do? What if, you're like, I'm waiting on God, what if he's waiting on you? I wanted to train your hands today, today, today, we trained our hands today, we trained our hands to pray. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Trained our hands this way. There's one more thing that I wanna show you in this text that really ministered to me. I love everybody can stand on your feet, stand on your feet.

Please don't start grabbing your phone. There's a truth that I wanna show you today. And I believe God wants to minister in this moment, and so stay with me. So David, he beats up the Philistines real bad, starts talking junk. But the Philistines, they stubborn. The jokers are stubborn. At verse 21, they abandoned all of their idols, but at verse 22, it says this, "Once more, the Philistines came up "and spread out in the valley of Raphael." David just beat them down. And the Philistines show up and say, "I want some more." Philistines show up and they're like, "Okay, we got more for you." And I understand in your life, sometimes you're thinking, like, "Hey, I just got out of that battle." And I just got out of this, there's a target on your back. - Yeah, yeah. - When you catch the ball, you're the most dangerous person on the football field. I'm trying to help somebody stop being so surprised that you're getting hit. Stop being so surprised that you're being chased after. Stop being surprised, stop being surprised. And so they come right back. They come right back for more.

In verse 22, "Once more, the Philistines came up "to the spread out in the valley of Raphael." Watch this verse 23. So David inquired of the Lord. David says, "Run it back. "I go down to the stronghold and inquire of the Lord. "What is it that you would have me to do?" David, you just won. Why are you praying about this? You know what to do. David says, "Every battle that I fight, I want to be blessed." I'm not going to let my past victories rob me of present wisdom for what God wants to speak in this moment, in this moment. Maybe in the room you're like, "Hey, God's blessed me immensely." And maybe your victories have robbed you of intimacy. You're with God. You let your past wins rob you of worship. David, David says, "No, no, no, no. "The Philistines came back one more, one more time." Verse 23, "So David inquired of the Lord and he answered." Now listen, this time God gives him some different strategy. He changes it up on him. Last time he just said, "Go, okay, but watch this." So David inquired of the Lord and he answered, "Listen, watch this, do not go straight up, "but circle around behind them "and attack them in front of the poplar trees."

Okay, so don't go straight. You want me to go around, poplar trees? Got you God, we on the same page. We got it, we got it, okay. Verse 24, "As soon as you hear the sound of marching, "of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, "move quickly because that will mean "that the Lord has gone out in front of you "to strike down the Philistine army." at every location. Let's see what is marching sound like. Everybody just... Everybody march. Just close your eyes and imagine the sound of marching at every location. Stop. I know what marching sounds like on the ground. But he didn't say marching was going to be on the ground. He said the marching was going to be at the tops of the popular trees. What does that sound like? I think it sounds like angel armies going out ahead of me to fight for me. It sounds like it sounds like it sounds like God's got my back in this. It sounds like this battle won't be won by my wisdom. This battle won't be won by my strength. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. It's not God's feet marching because he seated on the throne. God's feet aren't marching but his hands are moving. His hands are moving. He says, hey, go and encourage her. Move now. Go and strengthen him. Move now. Go and fight for them. Move now. I'm providing over here. God's seated on the throne. His hands are moving. Here's what I'm trying to get you to understand is that I want our hands to be trained to pray. I want our hands to be trained this way. But if I'm going to hold on to it, God gives me. It won't be by my hands. It'll be by the hand of a mighty God whose hands are trained in holding you, whose hands are trained in fighting for you, whose hands are trained in holding you up, whose hands are trained in building you up. My life won't be held together by my hands. It'll be by the trained hands of a mighty God. Everyone bow your head, close your eyes. There's two groups of people that I want to pray for today. The first group of people that I want to pray for is that you walked in today and you do not have a relationship with God. No one moving. You do not have a relationship with God. You've never given your life to him. And you would love to experience that intimacy with God that you can come to him. And you know

that he hears you. You want to walk with him. I want to let you know that Jesus modeled this. You see, before Jesus went up on that cross, he went down in a garden to inquire of the Lord if there's any other way. Before Jesus went up on the cross, the Daffy, he modeled what it looked like to go down into the presence of God. He laid his life down for you. God says whoever believes in the heart, that Jesus is the Son of God and confesses with their mouth that God raised him from the dead will be saved. So with all his bow and all eyes close, if you've never made a decision to put your faith in Jesus, or maybe you used to walk with God. You used to talk with God, but you walked away from the faith. Maybe this is your moment to come back home. So with all his bow and all eyes close at every location, you're going to repeat this prayer after me for the benefit of those that are coming to God. Repeat after me. Say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he died on the cross and rose from the grave to forgive me of my sins. So I'll give you my sins. I'll give you my shame. And from this day forward, I'll follow you. This is my new beginning. I am a child of God. With all his bow and all eyes close, if you just said that prayer, you meant it, making a decision to put your faith in Jesus, or you're coming back to him. I'm going to count to three. And when I get to three, I want you to shoot your hand up boldly so we can celebrate with you. Here we go. One, two, three, shoot your hand up as you're making that decision. Today, God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Come on, church, let's celebrate. Here's where to put a Bible in your hand. Here in a moment, I'm going to dismiss you. I save time, so I hope that you stay for this moment because I believe that God is still ministering to people. Those of you that made a decision to put your faith in Jesus, I'm so proud of you. Best decision you could ever make. Campus pastors will give you direction when I get done. But I felt strongly that today I wanted to give you an opportunity to practice what I just preached. As I was praying, I thought that there were people that would be in the room online somewhere at every one of our campus, that there would be someone. It's an attack in your mind, seeing your finances, maybe it's a child, maybe it's an addiction that you're believing God to deliver you from and break. And God wanted me to let you know that he hadn't forgot about you.

(gentle music) And so here's what I'm gonna give you an opportunity to do today. Sit down, you have to go down before you go up. And so before you go up out of here today at every one of our locations, everybody bow your head and close your eyes. I wanna pray specifically for those that are under attack. If you're under attack right now, and the moment that I said it, there was something specific that immediately, that immediately just came to mind. I want you to go down, I want you to sit down. That you, you're under attack right now. Sit down. Don't think about the person to the left or the right of you. You're under attack right now. It's your marriage. Find it something in your mind. Every location, if you're under attack right now, just sit down. See, before you walk out of here, before you go up into the next thing, I want you to give you an opportunity. Put your hands like this, put your hands in, praying position. Go down, make a stronghold right now. Make a stronghold right now. You don't have to be in church to do this. You can do this in your car every single morning.

You do this in your bathroom. You can, it is anytime. You can make a stronghold. Go down and have a moment to inquire of the Lord. And so Heavenly Father, those that have acknowledged they're under attack right now, we first acknowledge that you are a good God. You are a faithful God. You are a loving Father. And these are your sons and your daughters. And so God right now, I pray that you would do what only you can do. Deliver your sons and daughters in the mighty name of Jesus. The enemy can't have their minds. Hallelujah, thank you. To devil, take your hand off their child. Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. Right now, we lift up everyone that's under attack. Believing that you have whole power, you have all authority. God, we believe that right now your hand is moving. Touch your son. God right now, let them feel your presence. Let them feel your embrace. God right now, I thank you for the deliverance that is on the way. For the way that you're going to break chains. From the way that you're gonna move back and press back, the enemy, we love you God. We thank you and we're gonna praise your name.

And so can we take a moment every single person and praise God in events? Take that right hand, take that left hand, put them together and show Hallelujah. It's your faith in Jesus and give God glory. The King of angel armies is fighting for you. The King of angel armies is encouraging you. We love you God. We thank you to the mighty name of Jesus our friend. Amen. Hey, thank you for watching the Elevation Church YouTube. I want you to subscribe. That way you can know when we go live and post new content. Make sure to leave me a comment. Let me know what spoke to you today, where you're watching from and what we can pray for you about. And if you'd like to support the ministry financially, you can click the give button now and help us continue reaching people around the world for Jesus Christ. Thanks again. I'll see you next time.