Jesus Chases (Psalm 35)

Welcome to our continuing series on the Book of Psalms. We are taking a look at this book through an expository devotional method. What that means is expository is we're taking an in-depth look at the word verse by verse.

We are not looking at a topical type message where you might have a theme and scatter around different verses or different ideas and come up with a conclusion. We're letting the word speak for itself, but it's also a devotional expository. And what we mean by that, it's not probably a technical, in-depth theological look at every verse.

It's not an academic look at it, but it's for the heart. And that's why I believe David and the psalmist wrote these beautiful poems, letters, and songs because he wanted to minister to our heart. We have finished 34 chapters.

We're starting today on chapter 35, and we are putting these in book form. The first 12 chapters is in book one called The Altar of the Heart, which is just coming out right about now. You can find that at worldchallenge.org or through any local bookstore or online.

We're excited about this series. Lord willing, in the years to come, there'll be 11 or 12 more volumes taking 12 or 13 chapters of scripture at a time of the 150 psalms. Oh, and it's my heart's desire that these messages so penetrate our heart, so transform our minds, so speak to the depths of our soul.

These are issues of the soul. These are issues of the heart. These are the depths of the pursuit after the things of God, of putting him first in our life.

What a great thrill to be able to go through these. It's been ministering to me, and it's my prayer that it ministers to you. Again, today we're in Psalm chapter 35.

The title of my message today is Jesus Chases. Jesus is not dormant. Jesus is not neutral.

When he sees enemies come against you and me in our life, he arises, and he begins to put to flight those things that are against us. Let me read a few of these verses. I may not read all of this as there's 28 verses, but I want to encourage you to take some time today and read through this verse by verse.

It begins by saying this is a psalm of David, and here's David's cry. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.

Take hold of shield and buckler and rise up for my help. Draw the spear and the dravel against my pursuers and say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life.

Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me. Let them be like chaff before the wind and the angel of the Lord driving them away. Let their way be dark and slippery with the angel of the Lord pursuing or chasing after them.

Father, would you allow the Spirit of God through the person of Jesus Christ to arise and contend with the enemies of the lives of those who are listening to these words today? For those who are physically facing an enemy, for those who are bodily facing an enemy, through those who are mentally facing an enemy, through those who are relationally facing an enemy, through those who are circumstantially, whether it be financial, marriage, children, emotional life. Lord, these enemies that come against us through the powers of darkness, through the fallen sin of the world, through these enemies come. Lord, we thank you that we can pray this prayer of David, sing the song of David, contend with those who are contending with us and arise and chase away our enemies.

We picture Jesus now just standing up on the throne, moving out and drawing his sword and his shield and coming against our enemies. And we thank you that this is not just intellectual discussion or comments on verses of the Bible, but this is the active two-edged sword of the Lord causing our enemies to flee and the victory to be ours. In Jesus' name, Amen.

In the early 1900s, a neurologist named Dr. Walter Bradford Cannon coined a phrase that I'm sure most of us here today have heard. It's called fight or flight. And what happens is when a threat is perceived, when a situation, a traumatic situation, whether it be through a person, an event, a circumstance, or even a personal emotion, it could even be in a dream, when a threat is perceived, the body automatically, it's called through the automatic nervous system, automatically begins to move in one of these two areas, to fight or to flight.

It's not a chosen response. It's not some are fearful and they just always run away and others are bold and they fight. It has to do with a nervous system that perceives these threats and then releases certain hormones in our bodies.

It's more technical than I can truly understand. I'm not scientific in nature, but I begin to understand this as you study this, there's these automatic responses. And what happens, it releases hormones in the endorphin system, your blood pressure rises, your heart rate increases, perspiration becomes, you can actually have physical pain in your throat, in your temples, even in a tightening of your chest, in your stomach.

These are physical situations that come when there's a perceived threat in our life. And it's one of these two responses that are going to happen in our life. And this psalm that we're reading here is a situation where David is not just facing a perceived threat, but a real threat, an actual threat.

And his systems has to go one way or another. Am I going to flee from this? And many times in scripture, he longs to do that. Oh, that I had wings of an eagle just to fly away.

Oh, that I could escape my enemies. Oh, that I could hide from these situations. But other times, something stirs in his heart.

We see that in this chapter, a stirring in his heart. You see, if you live constantly in a flight mode, if you're constantly living fear, anxiety, stress, even if I could use a stronger word, cowardice. If you could picture David's brothers and all the soldiers of Israel standing on one side, while the Philistines are upon the other.

And no one is going to war. No one is moving. No one is fighting.

They are all in a sense of fear mode, flight mode, cowardice mode. And David comes up and he begins to believe that the Lord can give him the victory. That's what I want to talk to you about today, is trusting that the Lord can give you a victory and that you don't have to live in a flight mode, but he can move you into a fight mode.

I want to speak to you today about how to move away from cowardice into conquering. I want to cause there to be a faith rise in your soul and your spirit, in your mind, that no matter what you're facing, no matter what circumstances you're going through, no matter what hardships, no matter what you're contending against, you can have the Savior arise and these threats be put to flight. You see, being a coward, being unwilling to fight, running from conflict, not contending with the powers of darkness, whether it be sin in your own life, and you're just allowing it, tolerating it, accepting it, making excuses for it, that's the cowardice that scripture talks about.

In relationships, when things go bad, do you tend to cower away and not confront difficult situations? In your marriage, are you a coward and just let others run over you in other friendships that you have and not dealing with wicked situations, not contending with the powers of darkness that confront you in these realms? Maybe even it's in your own soul, in your own mind, you allow the cowardice of fear to cripple you. You don't move in faith. You don't risk things.

You hide away from events, from volunteering, from experiencing things that God's called you to. You speak to yourself in phrases of fear and inability and uncertainty, sensing yourself unable, unwilling to move, and that's the flight mode. And my message today is to try to move us from flight to fight, from cowardice to conquering.

You see, if we constantly live in flight mode, what happens then is we live under this chronic sense of threat. There's never a victory. There's this one threat after another and the threat built upon threat and it becomes chronic, which leads to another ailment that is a result of flight is chronic fatigue syndrome, this PTSD.

And it's where the body and the emotions and relationships have been so chronically under threat that systems begin not to have this rising of a heartbeat or perspiration, but a shutdown to where it's almost like you're not even fleeing anymore, but you're just almost like drop dead emotionally, physically, spiritually, relationally, and you check out. You're just not involved in life. You don't have zeal.

You don't have zest. You don't wake up in the morning refreshed. You don't wake up with the joy of the Lord.

You don't wake up saying, this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. You wake up and there's dullness, there's dreariness, and there's spiritual apathy in our life.

Psalm 35 is a glorious passage of scripture that's going to teach us how to shift from flight mode to fight mode. This passage is a guide to aggressively and successfully tackling all of life's greatest challenge. It's going to teach us today to stop running and to stand your ground instead of running away, to get engaged in the spiritual battle that God has called us to, to prepare you to go from being cowardly to courageous, from being cornered to being a conqueror, to finding victory in the areas that God has allowed you to be in contention with the powers of darkness.

And again, I said this earlier, but let me say it one more time. It can be relationally, marriage, family, church. It can be contending and having to stand up and fight for righteousness in culture, for standing up for the truth against the horrific forms of child sex trafficking, of transgenderism, of the abortion that is just so rampant in the world today, just for Christians not to cower and say, I'm going to check out.

And even in our own emotions to say, I'm not worthy, I'm not able, what good am I? And it just is the devil lying to you, causing you not to be like David who went to that front line and saw the giant and said, I believe God can empower me to slay the giants in the land. So let's take a quick look at some of these concepts that David is calling us to look to in order to be freed from the flight mode, from fear, from cowardice and become a man or woman of God who can stand up and be used mightily by God in this hour. It begins by saying that it's a cry for deliverance.

David is asking God to do something that he can't do in himself. Verse 10, look at that real briefly. All my bones say, oh Lord, as who is like you delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and the needy from him who robs him, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him.

And see, we oftentimes are in flight mode because there's a perception this neurologist to say the flight mode actually perceives quickly the level of threat and the empowerment of the threat against you. The reality of the ability of your perceived threat of being victorious over you. And when you perceive you have no ability over that enemy, that's when the flight mode kicks in.

Oh, but the opposite is true too. When you perceive that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, it begins to change the internal mode of your mind and your heart and your soul and your energy and your effort and your faith to engage in the battle. When you believe there's a perception that you have something stronger in you than your enemy, it begins to shift this.

And it starts by admitting there are things in your life that come against you that you perceive is too strong for you. And not only perceive they're too strong for you, but in reality, there are certain things too strong for you as well. And these are the enemies of God.

They come in the form of Satan and his powers of darkness that are scheming against you. They come through other people that despise and use you and hurt you and speak maliciously against you and gossip against you. It comes through even friends that they love you, but they hurt and harm you.

It can come through a church and it comes through your mind. The negative thoughts that you speak against yourself. Sometimes we don't even need the devil to speak against us.

We're so versed in speaking negatively against ourselves. And as we do that, it causes this flight, this fear, this cowardly sense within us to arise at greater proportions than the fight mode that God wants us to have. And David is overwhelmed.

This is no small trite chapter. This is an overwhelming chapter. If you dig into these words here, you're going to see if you're going through something difficult in your life, you can relate to these things.

I did a quick survey of this in verse one. He's overwhelmed by the contending against him. In verse one, he says, there are those fighting against me.

And verse three, it says, they're not just fighting against me, but they're pursuing me. Even if I'm in a flight mode, they keep chasing after me. What good is it to run away when they chase me down and catch me? When they catch me and pursue me, they seek for my life.

In verse four, they devise evil against me. They hide a net for me to be caught in. Verse seven, they dig a pit for me to fall in.

Verse seven, they are malicious witnesses against me. In other words, once they catch me in this pit and this net, they bring me to trial and they falsely accuse me. And then in verse 12, they repay my good for evil against me.

Verse 15, they rejoice at my stumbling. Verse 15, they tear at me without ceasing. Verse 16, they have profane mock against me and they gnash their teeth at me.

And verse 20, they devise words of deceit. It's just a relentless onslaught. It's a chronic enemy attack.

And you know when things come at you chronically, it's more difficult than when it's a quick activity. If somebody just accuses you once, you can get over it. But if it's day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, if you're in a marriage that you're just hearing the voice of the accuser constantly, if you're on a job where the environment is so negative, or if you're in a church that seems to be condemning and full of guilt and shame, you'll find that this becomes a chronic, relentless onslaught.

Recently, I caught a sinus infection and man, I just, it was clogged and it gave me a headache and a neck ache. And I had trouble breathing. I was breathing through my mouth at night, so I couldn't sleep because the dry mouth and the pressure of that.

And man, for the first few days, it was tough, but I just thought, you know, it went on a week, two weeks, three weeks. And by the third week, it was just so miserable. Not just the sinus itself, or the throat pain itself, or the sleeplessness, but it's just the day after day after day, just this onslaught, relentless onslaught of the same thing.

And thankfully, obviously, you know, the Lord's power and our own physical healing agencies can cause us to get through that. But certain circumstances in our life, we don't get through it like that. It doesn't have a natural healing element to it.

And you'll find yourself almost in this PTSD thing of being under this so much and wanting just to give up, wanting to surrender, wanting to run and hide. And under these circumstances, these things are too much for me. They're too strong for me.

In other words, all these 14 things I just mentioned are difficult, but each and every one of them in themselves are too strong for me. I can't overcome their contention. I can't overcome their pursuing.

I can't overcome their evil plans. I can't overcome their profane mockery. Each and every one of these in themselves have that kind of power.

And that's why David begins this. I believe it's a prayer. I believe it's a desperate cry.

And he starts off by saying, contend. Oh, a powerful word, contend. The Hebrew word, there's a very simple word, rib.

And it means to cry, to shout, to quarrel with noisily, to strive against. It involves bodily struggle. It's asking God to stand up and fight, fight for me, be our lieutenant, be our colonel, be our general, be on the horse in the cavalry that leads the armies forth against these that are contending against us.

Contend with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. Verse two, take hold of your shield and buckler.

Interesting, the word buckler is another word for shield. So it's kind of an unusual thing. Take hold of your shield, which is probably a smaller shield, but then also take hold of your buckler, a large, almost covering the whole body.

Take with you, Lord, as you fight, grab hold of that shield and that buckler and then rise up. Or another way of saying this is, take a stand. In the Hebrew, that rise up could mean take a stand to come up and help me.

And this first stand that the Lord gives us as he contends with our enemies is to put a shield around us, to protect us. Isn't that glorious that God loves us so much that he sees us when we're overwhelmed in a relentless onslaught of all these things that come against us, causing us to want to be in a flight mode. The first thing that comes up in his picture is he's just covering us.

He's putting his arms around us. He's sheltering us under the shadow of the most high. He's allowing you to have a sense that there's someone there for you.

You're not alone. You're not alone in your financial struggles. You don't have to try to figure it out all yourself.

You don't have to try to move from this account to that account and stress living week to week. You can say, he's protecting me from sinking into financial stress or difficulties. He's protecting me from family falling apart.

He's protecting me from the career and the calling on my life amounting to nothing. He's putting his shield around me. But not only is it a shield, in verse three he says, draw the spear and the javelin against my pursuers.

And so here's the picture. There's pursuers. They're chasing me.

God comes up on the scene. He takes a stand. He puts his shield and his buckler around you.

And now all of a sudden he's moving not away from the pursuers that are striving against you. Those are too strong for you. Now Jesus is moving towards them.

He is moving into the battle. He is with you in the battle. He's not leaving you behind saying, just stay here.

I'll take care of you. He's saying, come on, let's get engaged in the fight. I want to train your hands for war.

I want to teach you how to battle. I want you to get involved in winning the victory over those who are pursuing you because I want you as my children and as my servants not to be cowards, but I want you to be conquerors. I want you to be more than victorious in every realm of your life.

So we see here there's the defensiveness of the shield and the buckler, but offensively God is driving them away. He is moving into the things of the battle. Verse four says, let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life.

Let them be turned back and disappointed. What a powerful phrase here. They have an ambition, an agenda against you.

Even the powers of darkness that work in your own mind accusing you, it has an agenda to diminish you, to defeat you. And as God arises and defends you against those lies, and then he begins to get you on the offensive to fight with him, those things that come against you now are turned back and they're disappointed. Could you picture your enemies just in some form or fashion, the powers of darkness disappointed, like meeting together saying, man, we had them on the run.

We had a victory. We were about to crush that person, that child of God. And all of a sudden we see Jesus rise up, put a shield around his children and his soldiers and begin to move towards us, causing us to do nothing but flee.

And they're discussing this. Oh, I'm so disappointed. Thought we had the victory, but no, they did not.

And verse five, let them be like chaff before the wind. Now, this gets really exciting and gets really interesting right here. And I want you to catch this.

It's so important. Let them be like chaff before the wind with the angel of the Lord driving them away. In verse six, let their way be dark and slippery with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.

Now, this gets more exciting when you understand who the angel of the Lord is. It's not just a cherubim or a seraphim. It's not just Gabriel or Michael.

The angel of the Lord, when it's recorded in that phrase in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, literally means that pre-incarnate Christ. It is the second person of the Trinity coming down in form of a man, but it's calling him the angel of the Lord. It's used throughout the Old Testament scripture.

And I love this. It's the angel of the Lord, verse five says, is driving them away. Jesus is there with you driving away your enemies.

It's not, it's not you, your own self. It's not your own anointing, your own power. It's Jesus in front of you leading the charge of the armies of God against the powers of darkness.

And in verse six, the angel of the Lord pursuing or the Hebrew there can be chasing them. That's where I get the title of this message today. Jesus chasing them away.

Hallelujah. Jesus chasing away Satan and his powers of darkness. Jesus chasing away sickness in your body.

Jesus taking away financial ruin. Jesus taking away fear of darkness. Jesus taking away physical ailments in your body.

Jesus taking away a broken marriage. Jesus chasing away the things that come against your mind to cause you to be defeated and discouraged and downcast. Hallelujah.

Jesus chasing away every weapon formed against you. Not one of them will prosper as Jesus arises. He takes a stand.

He puts a shield around you. He puts a sword out there and says, let's go, let's charge these enemies. Let's cause them to be like chaff before the wind.

And as they run away, it says in verse six, their way will be dark and slippery. You can picture them. They don't see even where they're running and they're slipping around and falling.

You just see the crushing of the enemy. You see that in scripture so many times where the angel of the Lord rose and caused the enemies to be, even some of God's Israel's enemies began to think that even with their own tents, they began to fight with one another, thinking that the enemy had come into the camp and they destroyed even themselves. You see this chaos that's breaking out against God's enemies, against those who are coming against you and the powers of darkness that are formed in your life.

In the middle of this text, I skipped over, but it's important to go back to it and say that in the end of verse three, he says, say to my soul, I am your salvation. It's like right in the middle of the battle, David is having to say, okay, remember I am, which is the phrase God uses to say his name. When his name comes, there's Jehovah Jireh, there's Jehovah Nisi, there's the God who provides, the God who saves, the God who rescues.

It's just the fullness, in other words, of the Godhead coming among you and he's saying, I am the one who's going to deliver you, to save you. Your enemies aren't going to be too strong for you because I am the one who's going to bring you salvation. So that's a word that causes us to rest, to breathe, to trust and to believe that God is going to do something great in our life.

When we do that, we see that verse eight, for instance, or verse seven, they made a net for me, they caused a pit for me, but they fall into their own net and into their own destruction. God uses the resources that they have, the weapons that they have formed against you actually become formed against them and they fall into their own pit. As a result of that, verse nine, I like this, then my soul will rejoice in the Lord, exalting in his salvations.

All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like you, delivering the poor, and as we read this before, from him who's too strong, from the poor and needy, from him who robs him. So now you're not reading this in the defeatist mentality, oh, I'm being overwhelmed, this chronic attack's against me, I don't know how to fight, I'm going to run in flight. Now you're reading this, no, my soul is saying to me, there's this, I'm speaking to myself, God is my salvation, and he's asking God, God, you say this to my soul, you are my salvation, and as a result, there's rejoicing, there's exaltation of salvation, and the bones that were once weary are now saying, Lord, you know how to deliver the poor, and no matter what happens, no matter what, verse 11, as these malicious witnesses rise against me, and we now look at this, and there's a difference now, we're in the fight, we're engaged, and we're winning the battle.

Now verse 12 through 17 begins to take almost a caveat around, it deviates somewhat from the main theme of the chapter, but it's an important one, because here's what it says, they repay me evil for good, and my soul is bereft, but I, when they were sick, I wore sackcloth, I afflicted myself with fasting, I prayed with my head down on my chest, I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my mother, as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning, but at my stumbling, they rejoiced and gathered, they gathered together against me, wretches whom I did not know, tore at me without seizing, like profane mockers at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me, how long, O Lord, will you look on, rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions? This is such, this is so real life, this is not, even though it was written 3,000 years ago, it's teaching us how to live a victorious life, and even when we have behaved in a godly manner, and those that we love and care for, when we have cared for them, and we have mourned when they're hurting, and we have brought them comfort when they're in pain, and when we have prayed and bowed our head, these are serious words that David is using, he's not just saying, I sent you a card or some flowers, he's saying, man, when you were sick, I wore sackcloth, I afflicted myself, I didn't miss a meal to pray for you, I afflicted myself, seems like maybe long-term fasting, I prayed with my head down to my chest, in other words, there was, as my heart was panting for your victory, for your freedom, for the enemies that were attacking you, your body, your mind, your circumstances, your relationships, man, I stood in the gap for you, I was fighting for your victory, and I grieved like I was grieving as if my own mother was dying, oh, but when I was under attack, you just added to it, you just, somebody else attacked me, and you just joined in the attack, somebody said something wicked against me, and you just went ahead and agreed with them, and added fuel to the fire, you just heard their gossip, and you began to gossip, you saw them take up arms against me, and you joined in the battle, you saw them digging the pit, and you joined in the pit, this is somebody that has loved you, that somebody has cared for you, and now they have betrayed you, they have broken trust, they have broken your heart, they have caused you to be downcast and discouraged, and this is such a reality in life, no one escapes this life without pain and suffering of hurtful things that come to us from people that we once trusted or loved, or were near and dear to us, and to see them treat us not the way we treated them, but to see them treat us as a way we would in no way, form, or fashion ever imagine to be able to treat them, and we just begin to wonder, why Lord, why do I deserve this, why do I have to act like this, why is so much hurt in my life, why is so much pain in my life, why is so much suffering in my life, and that's why he says in verse 17, how long, oh Lord, will you look on, you see, he's almost reminded, in verse 1 he's saying contend, but he's seeing the length of the battle go on, and he's seeing even those that he treated well mistreating him, and so he said, Lord, will this continue to go on, oh, but he understands that God will rescue him from destruction, from his precious life, from, he calls them lions, so he's being attacked, these teeth that are biting at him, and then in verse 18, I will thank you, God, in the congregation, in the mighty throng, I will praise you, this is beginning to teach us how to move from coward to conqueror, and praise is a part of that, we'll talk about that a little bit more in our closing moments, but this is a great transition in David's heart, as he cries to the Lord, he sees the Lord contending on his behalf, he now begins to become one who's thankful, this is the opposite of fear, it's thanksgiving, it's praise, praise and thanksgiving don't come out of a fearful coward's heart, they come out of a bold heart, a faith-filled heart, a confident, trusting heart in the Lord, and sometimes you have that confidence, and you begin to praise, listen to this, but other times you begin to praise, and the confidence follows, you begin to praise in the midst of your battle, you begin to sing songs of the goodness of God, you begin to remember all his wonders, his signs, his victories, you remember that he's never failed you, you remember that he's killed all of your diseases, you remember that he has been there for you day and night, he has never lost a battle, he has never run from a battle, he never fears or cowers, he is there and he's present, and this brings praises up again, but you see, David, you see the contrast here, my enemies are coming against me, Lord, how long, I feel like I'm being defeated, I feel like I want to run, and then it begins to praise, but then all of a sudden there's another wave, it's like wave of wave crashing against you, again, this is the reality of life, and David says in 19, don't let them rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, in other words, they're wrong about being my foes, if they were Philistines, they would rightfully be my foes, but if it's Saul, why should he be my foe, if it's my son Absalom, why should he be my foe, if it's my church, why should they be my foe, if it's my family, why should they be my foe, and they hate me without a cause, and verse 20, they are against those who are quiet in the land, in other words, I'm not making any trouble, I'm leading quiet, peaceful life, I'm working with my hands, I'm caring for those who are hurting, I'm praying and fasting for those who are sick and in need, I'm quiet in the land, but yet they're still coming against me, and verse 22, you have seen, oh Lord, be not silent, oh Lord, be not far from me, and here he is again, once again, saying the same thing he said earlier, arise, in other words, stand up, rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, for you are my God, vindicate me, oh Lord, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me, let them not say in their hearts, ha ha ha, we have our heart's desire, let them not say we have swallowed him up, let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether, who rejoice at my calamity, let them be clothed with shame and dishonor, who magnify themselves against me, you see the prayer here, there's praise as I just mentioned, but there's prayer as well, and you're praying, Lord, just be with me, guide me through this pain and suffering, and let my enemies be put to shame, let them not magnify themselves against me, and verse 27 and 28, we begin to bring to a closure, and then I want to bring a couple things to your attention that are very practical steps that you can take, moving from flight to fight, moving from cowardice to conquering, and it begins, it ends in this next few verses by saying, let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad, and say forevermore, look at this, great is the Lord, great is the who delights in the welfare, that word there in Hebrew is shalom, he delights in the peace, in the rest, in the comfort, in the victory, in the fight that the outcome is God's conquering power over the enemy, he delights in that, he doesn't just do it, he doesn't just, he's not just aroused to fight in some neutral way, no, there's a delight in his heart, can you picture that, it's not just a conquering, victorious king in front of us, but could you see the smile on his face, it's like this is good, I delight in this, I love setting you free, I love breaking the chains, I love breaking down the powers of darkness, I love seeing your enemies flee, I love seeing the joy on your face when circumstances change, I love seeing you healed, I love seeing you delivered, I love seeing calamities come to an end, I love seeing you rise up and become bold and courageous, I love seeing you filled with faith, this is the delight that God has in his servants, and then as a result, verse 28, then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and I shall praise you all the days long, not just a one-time praise but all day long, and I want to encourage you, God is calling you to stand firm, he's saying this is the hour for you to believe that I'm moving in great power, this is, as I said earlier, this Psalm 35, let me recap, this is a guide to aggressively and success, excuse me, this is a guide to aggressively and successfully tackling life's greatest challenges, to teach us to stop running, to stand your ground instead of running away, to teach us how to shift from flight to fight mode, so real briefly in conclusion, let me encourage you how, how do we stand firm in the midst of a conflict, how do we engage in the battle, first of all, number one, look to your king, David doesn't look to armies around him, he doesn't look to his, the mighty men that he had, the Bible tells about the 30 mighty men of David who could have come to his defense, but he goes, right, he says, contend, and the next two words are, oh Lord, and I want to encourage you to know that Jesus is chasing your enemies, Jesus leads the battle, Jesus is on the horse out in front of the cavalry, charging ahead, causing your enemies to flee, so number one, look to your captain, Hebrews 11 tells us that, looking unto, excuse me, Hebrews 12, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, the author of the story, he begins to author a story of victory, of conquering, and he finishes that story in your life, number two, look to the end result, not to the present predicament, look to the end result, not the present predicament, if we look to the end result, in our history, we can see every time we've been in the midst of a battle we wanted to run from, if we called on the Lord to contend, he won the victory, and we see it time and time again, I have a testimony of prodigal children, who I wasn't sure would ever turn back to the Lord, I thought maybe even their life would lead them to death in the circumstances that they were living, and to see all four of my children serving the Lord and all their spouses, my 11 grandchildren serving Jesus, delighting in the Lord, and I remember the battles we were in, I remember the fight we were in, and the uncertainty, is he going to pull through, will he come out of this prodigal lifestyle, this addictive lifestyle, and to see that physical sicknesses I've had, to see that as I stand before the Lord, he gives me victory, and even if I were to succumb to some kind of physical ailment, and it would be my last breath, he brings me up to heaven, so there's the eternal ultimate healing, so I know I can trust Jesus in the battle that I'm facing, he's never lost, he's never run away from a battle, he's always been victorious, number three, remember your reward for showing mercy, even to your enemies, David speaks to us in Psalm 35 here about, man I put on sackcloth, and I fasted, and I prayed, and I mourned, and I wept, and I comforted those who were sick, and hurting in the battle, and in need, don't ever shy away from that, sometimes when you've been hurt by people that you have blessed, and they have cursed you in return, it's easy to get bitter, oh it's so easy to get full of hatred, it's so easy to say, I'm not going to risk relationships anymore, I'm not going to show love, I'm not going to show mercy, I'm not going to care so much, because it just gets me hurt, no, remember that God's going to give you the victory, so you can be the person he wants you to be, you can be Christ-like, and love people that are against you, you can love even your enemies, number four, pray, prayer and praise are weapons he gives you to join with Jesus as he chases down your enemies, they're oftentimes in the Old Testament where God put the singers and the instruments in front of the battle, not a good strategy in human terms, but in the spiritual terms, in a supernatural fight, prayer and praise comes to the forefront, and they become our weapons, and we can chase down our enemies through praise, we can chase down our enemies through prayer, the prayer we're reading in Psalm chapter 35, and last but not least, put on Ephesians 6 armor of God, you know, I think it's very important to understand, no one puts on armor when they're getting ready to run, you put on armor because you're getting ready to stand, you put on armor because you know there's a fight coming, you don't put your armor on when you're in for a fight, I want to encourage you in this fifth point of how to stand firm is, stand firm in your armor, keep on the armor, the armor of faith, the shield, the sword that fights, the battle, the word of the Lord, the helmet of salvation, put on these things daily, when you wake up say, God, give me a fight mode, give me a courage mode, give me a conquering mode, let me not be a coward, let me not cowardly be in fear and run from the battle in my life, and now all of these elements can be for us in our own personal life as the mind fights against us, as Satan comes and tempts us to sin and to fail and to surrender, as our friends begin to oftentimes become those who would accuse us falsely as we've been reading in here, in all these things, and all these things you're standing up and fighting, and even one more I would say, that to contend for the things and the battle that we're in nationally and internationally around the world, as I said earlier about the sex slave trade, about abortion, about sexual confusion, about the taking of the minds of children and causing them to listen to and be taught in our public schools such perverted things that we can ask Jesus in our nation in America to stand up, arise Lord, put a shield around us to protect us, but also let us engage in the fight, this is not weapons that are carnal, but they're spiritual, and we're praying, we're believing, we're trusting, and we're loving, and we're energized in the battle that God has called us to. My friends, I'm asking you to get in the battle, to turn today, to say, I'll no longer Lord, you're going to go before me, and I'm not going to be a coward, I'm not going to fear, I'm going to engage, I'm going to contend, I'm going to move into the things you would have me move into with faith. Jesus, thank you for chasing our enemies away, and thank you for calling us into the fight with you, you didn't leave us on the sidelines, you called us to engage, you put a sword in our hand, and a shield in our arm, and a breastplate of righteousness around us so that we could engage.

Now I'm asking you to put some gumption back in the hearts of believers who have been chronically under assault, and have their systems are just about shut down, Lord renew them now, strengthen them now, engage them again in the battle, put praise in their lips, put prayer of faith in their hearts, the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth, in other words, it is victorious in what it prays for, we thank you for that in Jesus name, amen. God bless you.