Who Can Stop The Lord Almighty？

Message tonight from Psalm 9. We're back in Psalm 9. The title is, it's perfect with that song, Who Can Stop the Lord Almighty? Who Can Stop the Lord Almighty? If you have your Bibles or your journals, you can turn to Psalm 9. And I think as Christians, I don't know about you, but I need a reminder often that God is on my side. Sometimes we think He's not necessarily on vacation, but He's not listening to our prayers. He's busy running the universe, and He doesn't know what I'm going through. He doesn't see what's going on in our state or in our nation. But we have to remember that nothing, no one can stop the Lord Almighty. No plans of the enemy, no plans of God can be thwarted. No plans of the enemy will succeed. Your enemies, when they come against you, different things, God has the final say. And we look at Psalm 9. I will praise you. I think we have the text up there as well. I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart. And I was just, I just stopped on that verse a lot this week, Monday, Tuesday, and this morning, and reminded myself and even you tonight of our whole heart. Has anyone ever tried to worship God half-heartedly? How does that work? Maybe partially, maybe give Him an area of our life, but not everything. And we'll try to worship God a little bit, but also hang on to this. And I've got people have bad moods sometimes, or they don't really want to engage God. But the psalmist declares, I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart, even when I don't feel like it. Amen? Even when my feelings aren't lining up, I will praise you with my whole heart. And of course, many of you think of that scripture, as did I, that we need to praise God, not only with our whole heart, but to love God with all of our strength, with all of our mind, with all of our heart. And that really encapsulates everything, because with all of my strength means my energy. Do we give our energy to God? And that's why I want to remind you tonight as well, that the best time to seek God is when your energy is high. How many of us wait till the end of the day? Or when our energy is very low, and we don't have the time, we're just trying to squeeze God in. I think we should give Him that time when our energy is at our highest. All of our strength, all of our might, all of our mind, our whole heart. I will praise you, God, no matter what I'm going through. I will tell of all of your marvelous works. I will be glad and I will rejoice in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. Now, let me remind you here that this person who wrote this, a lot of these are set to songs, are set to music. A lot of times they had to remind themselves of the goodness of God. They're being sought after by an enemy. They were being stabbed in the back. They're having difficulties. And even in all of that, they reminded themselves, I will praise you. I will tell people of your marvelous works. But the tendency for many of us is to become critical and bitter during difficulties. Have you ever been there? Don't leave me hanging. Just me? No? Come on, every head in this room should be shaking and saying, we have a tendency sometimes to get bitter and angry and when we're supposed to rejoice in the Lord. And I've had people tell me, well, Shane, I can't fake it. If I'm mad or I'm bitter at God, I can't just fake it. And there's some truth in that. But there's also some truth in, yes, you can. Not fake it, but you can tell your spirit to rejoice in who God is and what God is doing in your life. You don't have to get caught up on bitterness and anger. And I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. So in a nutshell, we will bless His name even when the world is silent. We will bless His name even when Christians are silent. Is that something frustrating you today? Or is that just me? That it seems to be the MO, modus operandi of many Christians is to just remain silent and kind of just go with the flow and let society kind of tell us what to do. Let the government push certain things on us and just be quiet and turn the other cheek. But we will bless His name even when the world is silent. And on this issue of my whole heart, a divided heart cannot really praise and worship God. If there's a division in your heart, that division can be from sin, besetting sin. It can be from anger or bitterness or unforgiveness. And when we hold these things in, we can't really worship. That's why many people worship God as if they have handcuffs on. Now, if you don't feel like praising and lifting, I'm not talking about that, but there's a handcuffs on our emotions often. There's handcuffs on our arms. And we're handcuffed because of besetting sin and our whole heart is not engaged with God. Have you ever walked with God closely and your whole heart was engaged? And then you've drifted from Him and tried to worship? Big difference. It's the difference between night and day. And I've noticed that telling God or telling others of God's marvelous works help us rejoice in who He is. Reminding our kids of how good God is. Reminding our spouse how good God is. Reminding ourselves how good God is. And it really is a choice, is it not? I will be glad and I will rejoice in God. It is a choice. Every person is hit with a challenge. We're hit with attacks from the enemy. We're hit from obstacles in life. But it's a choice, God. I will look past this. I will look through this. And I will magnify Your name. I will lift You up. I will rejoice in You. Remember, you tell your feelings what to do. They don't have to tell you what to do. And it's very important that we understand this because this is where you tilt the scale back in the direction of worshiping and honoring God. A man by the name of B.P. Power said this, Who knows so much of the marvelous works of God as His own people? If they be silent, how can we expect the world to see what He has done? So if God's people are silent, how can we expect the world to know what God has done? It's interesting too, on this issue of marvelous works, I could have spent the whole sermon on this. I started to uncover many interesting things about how God has designed us, has designed the universe. But let me just show you a few here. Did you know if you were to put all of the DNA molecules in your body end to end, which is these little DNA molecules, if you were to put them end to end, the DNA would reach from the earth to the sun and back 600 times. And I had to check that on a few different websites, a few different NASA, you know, not NASA, but biochemists and different things, and expands our, you know, some gave different examples, not just to the sun and back, but expand within our galaxy. How far that would stretch and how wonderfully and masterfully you are made. And I think it's good to remind ourselves sometimes of that, that we are made in God's image. Can you imagine getting that into the hearts of young adults? Telling them or homeless people or anyone that you are actually made in the image of God. What you do with that, granted is up to you, but that should build a lot of confidence in created in God's image. So don't let the world beat you up. Don't let atheism or evolution sidetrack you. Remember who you are in God. And as I was reading there, many of these sites are obviously are evolutionary type sites. They promote evolution. And they said we share the same DNA with mudworms. Did you know that? And also cabbage. And my favorite, chimpanzees. And they say see, 98% chimpanzee DNA is in us. And see, a lot of our DNA is shared with mudworms. We must have all evolved from that. And to me, it actually would make sense more for a creator because he's using the same type of life-giving deoxyribonucleic acid, right? DNA. He's using the same type to create different things. Like when I give my kids, here's Legos. My son's going to build a fort. My daughter's going to build a Barbie house. Same building block. So it shouldn't surprise us that we share DNA, the life of the human body, the amino acids and different things with different parts of creation because God breathed life into all those things. I wouldn't expect to see a completely different DNA from a chimpanzee and we are completely different or because that life comes from that DNA that God has produced. And from that, he would make and create different things. And that's why man though is different. Do you know what makes us different than all other created things? It's the ability to reason and to love and to have emotion and to communicate the way we do. There's something that God took man above all of his creation and put in him the breath of life. God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul. And he began to think like God created him to think. The mind is incredible. Have you ever studied neuroplasticity? Or read on how the mind works? The memory and how it can focus with the eyes. I mean, it's mind blowing how all of this can just work together to form who and what we are. Let alone a baby. A baby. A husband and wife come together and here's this little something. This little tiny life. And it begins to grow. And the heart and the lungs and the kidneys and they're all working together and the air is coming through the umbilical cord and the nutrients. And how could all that just happen? By random chance. That takes a lot of faith. Tell an atheist this, they'll love you for it. You actually have a lot more faith than I do. What do you mean? You believe that all this just happened. That takes a lot of faith, sir. And atheism is a religion. It really is. A religion is a set of beliefs that a person uses to guide their life. They believe a certain way. So atheism is a religion that believes and rejects God. I don't know why I went on that rabbit trail, but hopefully it's worth something. Also, the Smithsonian Institution noted this in a recent article. When a giraffe starts chewing acacia leaves, the tree notices the injury and it emits a distress signal in the form of ethanol gas. And upon detecting this gas, neighboring trees start pumping toxins into their leaves. This is all real. And again, I checked, I double and triple checked a lot of this stuff. I went, sure I went to Snoop's. Is that what it's pronounced? Snoop's, Snoop's? Snoop's, yeah, I don't know. I've heard both ways. And like our DNA can't be 600. What is this? And sure enough, you find a lot of this is legitimate. That the way God created us, these living, even trees can communicate. Now it doesn't mean God's in the trees and we're not new age, but it does mean that God, this wonderful creation, Christians of all people should exalt His marvelous name. We should look at creation and say, oh, my God has done this. My God has, and we should be involved in apologetics. We should be involved in biochemistry. We should be involved in biology. We should be astronomers in all walks of life. NASA, wherever we can and see His marvelous works. And then verse 3, so again, reminder, who can stop the Lord Almighty? When my enemies turn back, they shall fall and perish at Your presence. For You have maintained my right and my cause. You have sat on the throne judging in righteousness. You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever. Amen? I cannot wait until that day. However, this was written probably close to 3,000 years ago. And the Word of God is living and active. What was true 3,000 years ago or 2,000 years ago is the same today. It's living and active. This is a very important principle that you must remember. When my enemies turn back, they shall fall and perish at Your presence. We all have enemies. And when enemies fall back, what is that a sign of? Victory or defeat? They fall back. So the enemies come against the Christian. They come against the believer. They are coming. As soon as you understand that, life will make a lot more sense. When I first started ministry, I told my... Where did all these enemies come from? I thought I was in the center of God's will. This is ridiculous. All these people hate me. Oh, wait a minute. That's a sure sign maybe that you're doing something for God's kingdom. When I was in my 20s living like hell, not too many people were against me. A lot of people praying for me. But I was an upsetting hell. The devil didn't care. I was on his team. But once you start doing things for God, have you ever noticed that? You start to start a ministry. Or you start to get involved. Okay, Lord, I'm going to turn off my TV and I'm going to fast and seek You every morning for three or four hours. Watch out. Prepare. Get ready. Because the enemy's going to come in and try to sidestep that. So enemies falling back is a sign of defeat. And God, here's what I love, God's presence always disarms them. Always disarms them. You will not see a powerful worship service where demonic demons can come in and ruin it. Or come in and take charge. They flee when God's presence is there. You can't have both things. You can't have the demonic influence and God's presence right there and just kind of competing. God's presence drives them out in the same way when you flip on the light in the room, does the light and the darkness competing? Oh, it was kind of light, now it's kind of dark. Oh, what's going on? The light, but now the darkness is coming back in. They're pushing against each other. No, the light goes. When you turn on the light, that's it. The darkness flees. And it's the same in our lives. God's presence disarms them. And some people might not understand the dynamics of this, but I tell people often, I was just at a lady's house up the street that I've been wanting to visit for a while and her husband, and they had worship music on. You can tell the difference, can't you, when you walk in. You can tell the difference when you walk in in a place that's playing worship music. I walk in sometimes, I drop off mail at a post office and they've got worship music on. And you walk in somewhere else and they've got hard rock on. And you can tell there's a difference. And God's presence, when you put on worship and you begin to praise God and worship God, that disarms the enemy. It's usually when we're not worshiping, when we're out of the Word, when we're drifting, that we become easy targets. Because we're in that environment where the enemy can work a lot more adamantly. God is our defense. Did you see what he said here? God is our defense in a right cause. So what does he mean by that? Well, God is your defense, but make sure the cause is right. Because a lot of people think that, I think it was Abraham Lincoln asked about Republican-Democrats and different things, but he said I'm not concerned with God on our side. I want to be on God's side. I want to make sure I'm on God's side. God is the defense in a right cause. So many people, even the gay mayor who's running for president, he's using Matthew. And this campaign trail, using Matthew to support what they're doing. And then the other person running, Elizabeth Warren, said she's going to wear a Planned Parenthood scarf around her neck at her inauguration. I'm just venting. So God is our defense in a right cause. But you know what? Let me vent for just a minute. How did we get where we are today where there's actually people being considered for the highest office in our land that are okay with slaughtering children? It just shows you how far we have drifted. Delete my sermons. Ban them. I don't care. We have to speak the truth. When the enemy comes in like a flood, we raise up a standard against him. The enemy is coming in, and the enemy will fall back. That is a sign of defeat. God is our defense in a right cause. Many people think He's their defense in a wrong cause. Not living according to God's Word. But when you have the Word of God backing you, you're going in a spirit of humility and gentleness, yet boldness. You know that God is behind your cause because it lines up with His Word. So you don't have to worry, oh, I wonder what God thinks of my Lord and God's will. Are you doing the heart of God? Are you helping others? And are you doing it with the right spirit? Because God is your defense in a right cause. He rebukes the nations and destroys the wicked. And then verse 6, O enemy, destructions are finished forever, and you have destroyed cities. Even their memory has perished. Even the memory of the enemies. God would tell prophets in the Old Testament, I will blot them out forever. And guess what He did? He would blot out nations. Tribes of people. And cities. And different things. O enemy, destructions are finished forever, and you have destroyed cities. What happened with Sodom and Gomorrah? Destroyed those cities. Even their memory has perished, but the Lord shall endure forever. He has prepared His throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness, and He shall administer judgment for the people in unrighteousness. So the enemy's plans do come to an end. Let me encourage you tonight. Are you going through something difficult? This too shall... Finish your rest. This too shall come to pass. I've never seen God allow the enemy to continually harass a person. If a person's caught in addiction and besetting sin, they keep that door open. That can be a long battle. But if it's an enemy coming in and trying to cause havoc, their time is limited. They cannot continue to harass and continue to bring in possibly sickness or different things or depression or anxiety. Their days are numbered. God sets that number. The enemy's plans do come to an end. There is destruction in our path and in our past, but God will still see you through. And He will judge the world in righteousness. And what I mean by that, there is destruction from our past. We've made choices that we're probably not happy with. But the Lord shall endure forever. He has prepared His throne for judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness. Judge them the right way. I like what Henry Smith said. He said, the silly sheep, that would be us, right? When she is taken, will not cry out. But you may carry her and do whatever you will with her and she will be submissive. But the swine, the pig, if she be taken, she will roar and she will cry, she will squeal. Any of you work the farm, you've seen this. Do pigs like to be taken anywhere? Not at all. Because they know they're going to be slain. In the same way, the guilty conscience cannot abide to hear of this day. For they know that they will hear of it. They hear of their own condemnation. See, as the Word of God is pushed even more, that's why the enemies are upset. That's why there's civil unrest. Because they know their days are numbered. When they see the light of the Gospel coming in, that darkness gets even more irritated and more belligerent and more perverse. And they try to fight and fight and fight against God. When they know their days are numbered, they start to increase that oppression. And this is why I believe there is so much civil unrest. Many of you who are a little bit older, do we live in the same America we did 30 years ago? It's unbelievable. From fake news to lying and scheming and different things, it's just amazing. And I believe as the days are ramping up and civil unrest is ramping up, that they know that their days are numbered. Wickedness will abound. It talks about especially in the last days. That verse, I hate reading that verse because it's so true and it's scary that the day will come in the last days, they will be lovers of themselves. Boastful, arrogant, stiff-necked, lovers of pleasure, not lovers of God. Are we seeing that today? Disobedient to parents? Have you ever seen a time where kids are so disobedient? So destructive. So bent on getting their own way. And they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. And we see this manifesting itself in our own times. But I know you might not believe this, but of course, I get discouraged like all of you, but I also get very encouraged when I understand that God's not concerned with statistics. He's not concerned with the majority. He's concerned with the silent minority waking up and seeking God again with all their heart and with all their strength. He can bring revival. He can bring awakening. He can do more through one person than all of the devil's agenda put together. God is still on the throne. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Think for that in a minute. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Can the enemy ruin your marriage? And I've asked people, they say, yeah, he can. No, he can't. The enemy cannot ruin your marriage. All he does is present the bait. He cannot ruin anything. Well, I'm going to walk away from God. I feel myself drifting. The enemy says, no, he's not. He entices. He allures. That's where the word fishing lure comes from. Lure to allure. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? That's why I preach so hard in this church about holiness and being humble and being broken. And we offer morning worships and evening services and prayer times. That's how you stay in God's fence. That's how you stand under His umbrella of safety and protection. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Did you know that you, living according to God's word, obeying God's word, being filled with the Spirit. Again, not perfectly. I really want to get that point across because people think sometimes I talk about moral perfectionism. Boy, the way you preach, you think people should just live perfectly. Then I don't think you've listened to enough sermons. Because I do not say that. However, we need to raise our standard and see what the Bible says. The Bible has a lot to say about living that Spirit-filled life. Obeying God's word and being broken and humble. And when you do that, you have the Lord God Almighty on your side. And so that goes back to the sermon title. Who can stop the Lord Almighty in you? In you. Do you realize how much strength you have in you with Jesus working in you? The Bible actually says this. This blows the mind of many people once they realize it. The same Holy Spirit, the same power that rose Christ from the dead is in the believer. Just chew on that for a minute. The same Holy Spirit that allowed Christ to rise from the dead, that same power is in the believer. So we don't have to be defeated. We don't have to cower back. We don't have to live anxious. We don't have to live fearful. So many Christians are fearful. I mean, there's not a day I don't go on Facebook that somebody's not moving out of California because they are fearful. Now granted, I'm all for protecting your family. I'm all for a better life. I got it. But you better make sure you're in God's will. You better make sure you're in God's will. I would rather plant a church in East LA in God's will. Than move because of fear. Honestly. I know it's difficult. I know it's challenging. I know it's hard to live in this culture. But we're called to actually fight, not flee. Can you show me one verse where it says we're to flee? Sometimes, Jesus said flee when that day comes. Matthew talks about the sign of the times and fleeing certain cities if there's the enemies coming against you and different things. I mean, sometimes it's okay. Jesus actually would slip through the crowd and flee a little bit. His time had not yet come. He would get away. He's sneaky. He's good. So there's a time I understand when people say that. There's a time to get out of here. I understand that, but make sure it's according to God's will. We're called to fight and not to flee. The Lord also be a refuge for the oppressed. Are you oppressed this evening? Do you know what that means? Let me tell you. Subject to harsh treatment. Are you subject to harsh treatment maybe at your work? Maybe in your marriage? You know, that's pretty common nowadays. Harsh treatment in marriage. And harsh treatment in work, in the workplace. So He's a refuge for the oppressed. And I was reading commentaries. Interesting, I didn't know this, that many times, especially back in the time of Jesus or even before that. Egypt. Remember when the plague came of the lice and different gnats and different things? People would actually go up in a high tower above where those little bugs could fly to escape that harassment. Now maybe you understand more. He is my strong tower. He is our refuge in time of harassment. So there is. The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed and a refuge in times of trouble. Now this word trouble, if you look it up, this was of course written in the Hebrew language, it means distress, anxiety, discord. Anybody have discord in their homes? This is a good service tonight. Nobody has. Man, why do we even need church tonight? You guys are set. I know, I know, I know. Distress, anxiety, discord in our homes, discord in our life. There's unrest. There's challenges. So it's amazing. When we turn to God, but remember what did we say before? I will sing praises. I will tell of your marvelous works. I will rejoice in you. I will do it with my whole heart. As a result, the enemies will flee and the Lord will be a refuge for those who are subject to harsh treatment. He will be a refuge for those who are going through distress and anxiety and discord and restlessness and challenges. How do you do that change? You run to it. You run to the fountain of life. You run to the tower. You run to the rock that is Jesus Christ. How? By your prayer time, studying the Bible, in worship, all the things we talk about. It's practical application. You run to Christ. And have you ever noticed when you run to Him and you remove all the distractions and you begin to get into the Word how it literally changes your thinking? And you begin to be built up again and encouraged again? So the Lord will be all of this to those who seek Him with all of their heart. And those who know Your name, those who truly know Your name, this word, know, is not like you would know someone, just know of someone. It actually talks about when Adam knew his wife. There's a relationship there. So those who truly have a relationship with God, they put their trust in Him. For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. Maybe you need to hear that tonight. The Lord has not forsaken those who seek Him. Are you seeking Him tonight? So those who know Your name will put their trust in You. He will not forsake those who seek Him. And that seek, remember, I don't want to go over this again, but it's a strong word that means you're seeking God as the priority. Not the media, not the job, not this, not this. God becomes the priority and you're seeking Him with all your heart, with all your strength. That person He will not forsake. Then verse 11, sing praises to the Lord. Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion. Declare His deeds among the people. When He avenges blood, He remembers them. He does not forget the cry of the humble. Oh my goodness, the cry of the humble. Have you ever read this in the Bible? He does not forget the cry of the proud. What's the difference? The proud cries out because he's been caught. Or the proud cries out, God, You show them. Avenge me. The cry of the humble is like Jesus talked about the man who beat his chest and said, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Have mercy on me, a sinner. And he hears the cry of the humble. So even if you're going through something tonight, or going through a family situation, or different dynamics, he hears the cry of the humble. It does not mean you get an answer necessarily. But just, I don't know, call me strange, but just knowing that God hears my cry, I don't always have to hear yes or no. If I know He hears me, I know He's listening. I know His sovereignty is in control. I know that He will see me through. I know He's there for me. I know like a dad not answering their child, son, daughter, I can't tell you yet. I'm here for you though. I'm right here. So just knowing that He hears my cry, hears my prayer, that gives me a lot of comfort. A lot of comfort. And I've learned over the years, I know some of you have too, if you've been a Christian for a while, that we thank God for unanswered prayers. Amen? Some of you would be sitting by a different spouse if God answered every prayer. Come on, let's get real here. Isn't that amazing of God? We pray certain things and God says, no, I know that's not best for you. I'm not going to answer that prayer. Versus giving us what we want. So He does not forget the cry of the humble. And we just read, declare what God has done for you. I think we need to do that more often. Including myself. Declare what God has done for you. And you know why the majority of people don't? They're embarrassed. We'll tell people about a good movie we saw. But often, we don't declare what God has done for us. Even you can tell somebody in need, hey, can I pray with you? Do you need anything? Let me tell you what God has done for me. Sometimes that's all they need to hear. Is that encouragement. Look at what God has done for me. And I feel that's a part of our ministry as Christians is we tell people, look, God will get you through. Here's what He's done for me. We declare His marvelous works. But I want to just highlight this area. The cry of the humble. This might help. What does humble mean? It means to take a lower position. It means to go down, not up. To take a lower position. Others are more important. How you doing in that area? Usually it's about me, me, me, right? Others are more important when you're humble. I remember just, Morgan won't care if I tell this joke because it happens, or not story, it happens sometimes. I mean, I spent 30 minutes making this nice salad for me. And she decides to eat half of it. But is that the right attitude? It's like, Lord, help me. I should just be making, I just, I mean, you know, one with everything on. You spend a lot of time chopping everything up. Or my kids, they just grab things like, where's that? Where's that? Where's that? They ate it. It's about me. So that humble position, that humble position, putting others first. And this has to be supernatural. It does not come naturally. Selfishness comes naturally. So you have to say, okay, Lord, help. And often to develop humility, you will be challenged in this very area. God will put you in humbling situations to humble you. That's how it works. You don't, I don't know if, have you ever woke up from sleep? You said, I am so humble today. Man, God really did a work last night while I was sleeping. Let me tell you, wife, husband, I'm so humble. No, it's usually the crushing of life and the thinking, you know, you're not all that. You get humbled. And maybe you think a great, you know, something about yourself and somebody says something, it kind of humbles you. Or you think you've got this great marriage and you find out something's happening and it humbles you. Or you have, I think God uses our kids to keep us humble. Kids ever embarrass you? No, few people. Okay. Smiling, I guess means yes. But that doesn't humble you. Especially, especially if you have pastor's kids then you're under the microscope. They're watching every little thing your kids do. And then when they don't do something right or they act out, it humbles you. And God uses humbling situations to keep us in that point of just humility. And then also I like this part. It means respectful. It means gracious. It means teachable. To have a listening ear. Isn't that beautiful? Do you desire that more? I sure do. To just be respectful and gracious and teachable. And a listening ear. Maybe we can get this portion of Washington. Everybody running for office. Wouldn't that be nice? Could we just be respectful and gracious and loving and teachable? That's what humility is. And God blesses the humble. He actually fights. Do you know God fights against those who are proud? He resists the proud. And God resists you. That's fighting. He resists the proud, but He'll give grace to the humble. He'll actually give that person grace. He'll let them maybe slip up in a way. And He'll show them grace where another person, He would allow their sin to expose them and resist them because they're proud. So the humble person is receiving God's grace. Spurgeon said, the humble cry of the poorest saint shall neither be drowned out by the voice of the thundering justice nor by the shrieks of the condemned. God hears the voice. God hears the voice of the humble. Humble over all other voices. Did you know that? The Bible, the Old Testament talks about the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for those whose hearts are loyal to Him, who are humble to Him. And then we get into the New Testament. They talk about the humble. He teaches His ways. He's looking for humble vessels where the Holy Spirit can flow. And God humbles us. Kids humble you too. Like I said earlier, all my kids told me to shave this week, so I guess I have to do it pretty soon. I don't like you. You look old. You don't look like our dad. Like, okay, I'll stay humble. Have mercy on me. Verse 13. Have mercy on me. I don't know, that might be for someone this evening. It might be time to say, Lord, have mercy on me. God, have mercy on me. You know my heart. You know I've been trying. Please, God, have mercy on me. Oh, Lord. And it's really interesting if you look at what they call expository preaching, or you look at the law of first mention in theology. You look at how words are used. They call it an active tense of the verb or a present participle. And it's really interesting to study the original language because you see, you get a little bit more ambiance there. You get a little bit more influence of what the text is saying. But it's one thing to say, have mercy on me. But then He says, Oh, Lord. It says, especially in Hebrew, it says, it's worth it. Coming up from the belly just says, Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. So it's not just have mercy on me. It's have mercy on me. Oh, Lord. It's the cry of the humble. Oh, Lord. Crying out from the depths. They used to think your heart and your emotions were in your belly. There's some truth there actually, but I won't get into that. I'll save it for the health expo. How's that? But there's this crying out. Oh, God. Oh, Lord. Have mercy on me. Consider my trouble from those who hate me. Who lift me up from the gates of death that I may tell of Your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in Your salvation. No matter what the enemies are doing to me, I will rejoice in Your salvation. That's why David, I believe, cried. And he said, Oh, God, would You return to me? Return to me the joy of my salvation. You can take anything away from me that You want, but please don't take Your peace and Your joy. God, has anyone ever lost that? You're miserable. I mean, I'll go through financial challenges. I'll go through enemies attacking. I'll go through people just posting hateful things. Lord, just don't take Your joy and Your peace from me. I can get by with God's grace, with His joy and His peace. And that's what he's crying out here. I will rejoice in Your salvation. And reminding yourself, listen, as a believer, God saved you. God saved you. This life we live is gone. It's actually less than that. If you put it on the scope of eternity, how do you measure it? That's it. That's your life. And so you rejoice in that salvation. Yes, life is difficult. Yes, some of our children aren't doing what we'd like them to do. Yes, people aren't doing what we should like them to do. Yes, people hate us. Isn't that sad? I'm well aware of many people who hate me. They've made that clear. But where do I find my strength? I rejoice in Your salvation. Your salvation. Even when people hate you. Brant posted one of my sermon clips and somebody said, that's hate speech 101. I said, I don't think so. I don't think so. It's love speech. But you see how any time you start to stand up for what God's Word says, any time you proclaim that light, the darkness is going to hate you. But as Christians, when we're not filled with the Spirit, we try to be everybody's friend. Don't we? This is coming from a guy who my struggle was people pleaser. You'd be hard to, you probably wouldn't know that now, would you? But that's when I was a people pleaser. And if you listen to that prophetic word that I received in 2003, we shared it just to mainly the congregation. I don't think I'll open it up to others necessarily. But when he said, you've got to break out of a shell, I knew exactly what he was talking about. It was a shell of people pleasing. And he said, that's the only way you're going to be bold is to break out of that shell. And that was my people pleasing, don't want to upset, don't want to offend. When I was a public speaker, I was gauged on how much of the audience enjoyed the message and gave me high marks. It's a people pleaser. And if we're not careful, it will follow us right into our everyday living until you're filled with the Holy Spirit of God and He just wrecks that out of you. Because pleasing man is way down here and pleasing God is way up here. Did you know that's where boldness comes from? People confuse when I get bold, oh, he's so angry. Morgan, how is it living with him? I talk to my little baby and I play with her. I play with the kids. It's righteous indignation. It's a boldness wanting to declare how good our God is and that there is a right way and there is a wrong way. You better choose the right way. You know you felt it. You felt it for the unborn. Felt it for homeless. I could show videos that would make you sick about drag queen story hour with kids. Doing pole dancing and wearing. What is this? In our libraries? Have we lost our mind? And I'm the hater? And I'm the narrow-minded bigot? Are you kidding me? That's child abuse. That is child abuse. When you groom a child for sexual perversion, that is child abuse. And so that raises... I don't want to please man anymore. I want to please God. I want to shout it from the rooftops. And tell the nation we have departed. We must return to God Almighty. Because, uh-oh, what's the title again? Who can stop the Lord God Almighty? So when we do this in righteousness, when we fulfill the wills and ways of God and we stay broken before Him and we declare God's Word with boldness and authority, who can stop the Lord God Almighty? Who can stop? The enemy tries to stop us. God gives us four radio stations with five million vehicles. The enemy tries to stop us. More radio stations want to pick up the service. God just says, here you go. Here's more, here's more. The enemy says, what do we do with this? Where does it come from? From the boldness of proclaiming His truth. I believe that God is looking for bold men and women. You don't see passivity being praised. Show me where passivity is being praised. Well, Shane, Jesus was a pacifist. Really? He was a pacifist? He was the boldest man that ever walked on the planet earth. People say, well, He might have been passive for war. He said, if My kingdom was of this world, My servants would have fought. But My kingdom is not of this world. He went to the cross willingly. He defeated hell's sin in the grave. He stood up to the religious leaders. He rebuked entire cities. He was bold, but full of love. That's the combination, isn't it? I don't care how, I mean, some of them, and I hear some of these guys too. I mean, some of the loudest preachers, you know, I mean, you think I'm hardcore. I can send you some videos of some hardcore dudes, man. They're just, but there's no love. And you can tell they're beating people up. You know, the whole, the Bible, you're going to hell. You perverted, that's not good. Your heart's not right. You have to be bold, but filled with God's love. That's how you really change lives. That's the key to this. So ask for mercy in the day of trouble. And I will rejoice in your salvation. Let me tell you something that is really, I'm hoping changes my life. And it's finding pleasure in God. Finding pleasure in God. Let me kind of back up a little bit. Many of you know John Piper. He said, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. And he has something that's Christian hedonism. Hedonism is a word that usually means finding pleasure. And it usually doesn't mean a good thing. It's finding pleasure. But he teaches, and I agree, finding pleasure in God. But there's a part sometimes that can creep in in our own lives where we think that pleasure is bad. I shouldn't feel good about this. I shouldn't be, it's just hard work. But we should find pleasure in God. There should be a joy and a peace. And like he said, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Finding pleasure in God. Regardless of our situation. Those in difficult marriages or singles who are having a difficult time. Find pleasure in God. Pleasure is good if it's focused in the right direction. Because see, then you trust in His sovereignty. You trust in His love. You trust in His control. You're finding pleasure in Him. It's not about following all these rules and regulations. And that's legalism. I want to obey God's Word because I find joy in obedience. That's the difference. If you're miserable obeying God, something's way off. Because that's what legalism is. I'm not doing these things. God must love me more. Look how holy I am. Look how spiritual I am. That's pride. But when I obey God's Word, I'm drawn closer to Him. That holiness is, the more holy a person is, the more filled with the God Spirit they are. And you begin to take pleasure in the things of God. You want to obey His Word. You want to listen to the will of the Father. You want to live closely to God's Word. And then verse 15, And the nations have sunk down in the pit which they made. In the net which they hid their own foot is caught. That will happen to you. Let me tell you, that will happen to you. I'm sorry, that will happen to you in a good way in that your enemies will get caught in the same trap they're trying to devise for you. Their foot will get caught. I don't want to say a lot because I don't know what's going to happen, but with all this stuff coming out in Washington, you might be surprised at what comes out. And who actually gets caught in their own trap. If they were able to release a lot of the reports and different things, you would see that there is so much corruption. They actually call it a deep state. What I mean by that is there's another group working in Washington, D.C. that is not executive legislation or judicial. They are a deep state portion where there's people in the Department of Justice and Homeland Security and the FBI and the CIA. They're all wanting to get rid of our current president. It's from the administration before him. They are deep in there trying to get all this out. They are lying. They're manipulating. And things could come out that would reveal all of this. And they'll be trapped in the same trap that they're trying to set. I'm not a prophet, but let's see what happens. The Lord is known by the judgment He executes. The wicked is snared in the work of His own hands. Praise God. And then it says, Meditation, selah. I took time and I studied that word. Very interesting. Think about this. It's to their music. And it's weird how this is music sometimes. Psalms are songs often. And they would put this to music. This means meditate and pause. Tune your instrument. So I thought that's cool for a sermon application. Meditate on everything we just took in. Meditate. Let's pause. And do you need to retune your instrument? Do you need to retune your life? Do you need to go back? Maybe because I've just been studying all week. But that theme of who can stop the Lord Almighty, it has given me great boldness this week. I have been able to walk a little stronger. I've been able to hold my head a little higher. I've been able to prepare. I've been able to take on challenges a lot more. Because who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who is going to dethrone Him? Who's going to shut your mouth? Who's going to stop you? If God's in it, nobody can stop you. Isn't that wonderful? That's beautiful. Now many times we get hit back and things aren't working out. Maybe God's not in it. Or maybe He's teaching us something. But anything that God is going to start, He will finish. He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Job actually said if he imprisons a man, there is no release. Who's going to stop God and His plans? Do you think the next president? Do you think some country? Do you think God is biting His nails because of China and Russia? Do you think North Korea is a threat to Him? He laughs at the nations. He ridicules the nations. He holds the nations in the palm of His hands. He raises one king up and He will pull another king down. What the Lord speaks will come to pass. Who's going to stop the Lord God Almighty?