In The Presence Of Your Enemies Pastor Paul Adefarasin

first division of the five hymn books of the book of psalms the book of psalms is divided into five sections five divisions and this psalm belongs to the first hymn book in the book of psalms it's our custom to stand for the reading of the word of god if you're not handicapped or unable to stand please do stand as we honor the spoken word and we're reading just one verse and that verse is the fifth verse of psalm 23 psalm 23 and i read from the king james version of the bible psalm 23 and verse 5 thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oil and my cup runneth over i read again thou second person prepares a table for me or before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over it is absolutely lovely to be around people who like you it's wonderful to be around people who care about you that's why we have family and loved ones and dear friends it's also important to have uh association and fellowship with people who like the same things that you like and share your values that's critical and moreover that they also love the almighty god as you understand him biblically the same way that you do but what do you do when at work or at home or in the office or in some of your circles of operation you are surrounded by haters or enemies or tormentors or you're entrenched in a hostile environment in times like that your tendency is to back up from your dream or to run or to take to flight or fright or to be afraid and give up on your dreams and back down on god's promised possibilities in your life while on the contrary that would be the exact wrong thing to do instead what you ought to do is sit down chill and that he with whom all power resides and reposes anoint your head with oil to make you fatter than the yolk so that you can come into a space even though it's surrounding you with hostility and and every kind of enmity and and all kinds of enemies to sit in the presence of god and enjoy fearless feasting on the bounty that god has for you and walk into the overflow of the abundant life the abundance of the overflowing life where goodness and divine favor pursue you or follow you or look for you all the rest of the days of your life if that's what you want in spite of how hostile your situation is i want you to look for three people this morning and ask them do you know how to feast in the presence of your enemies do you not ask him do you know how to feast in the presence of your enemies because too many christians back down from their destiny simply because of the hostility in their environment simply because of enmity and enemies sometimes you want to define enemies as persons around you and that's inclusive but that's not the totality of the enemies that you have to fight or face sometimes the enemy is in you sometimes the enemy is your deficit it's your debt sometimes the enemy is your past ghosts from your past past could be yesterday or two weeks ago or two years ago 20 years ago and if you're one of those regressive people you live in yesterday and you allow people to force you back into yesterday but today is a new day it's a day that the lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it my subject this morning is very simply in the presence of man enemies let's pray our father bless david's mindset and understanding of who you were to him blessed to us so that we will also know you as shepherd we will also know you as great king of kings as you helped another king to make it through life in difficult times in his own season and surgery but bless us the more because we operate under a better blood a better mediator a better covenant than he did we make this our prayer expecting the bounty and the blessing of your presence in our lives with all that it comes with in jesus name and everybody who doesn't believe you just stand there like a pillar of salt at your house but if you do believe go ahead and get excited and get happy and shout a very big amen something is about to happen in your life you may be seated in god's wonderful presence and so this psalm in the first of five hymn books in the tome of psalms was penned by king david the occasion of the psalm as prospected by several scholars is that the psalm was not written in david's teenage years he was not a boy shepherd he was not the champion in the moment that conquered goliath and led israel to victory against the philistines he was not a novice king at this time because here as he pens the psalm he is an established king he is already matured he is writing in his maturity the kid has become a king and the child has become a champion and as we look closer at the text you will also understand as we teach a little further that david in the mind of one large school of scholars in fact the majority he is in flight from his treasonous son absalom and absalom has taken on a rebellion that david is very well able of defeating but he does not want to kill his own son and so he takes the flight and perhaps the flight was also occasioned by the fact that his chief counselor man of significant wisdom who the bible said when it referred to him that the voice of a heterofell was like the sounding of god's voice both in the ears of absalom and in the ears of david and maybe for that reason because he was a great strategist david said i don't want to get into a bad fight let me back up and back out and he took the flight trusting god that god would deliver him and israel from this treasonous and rebellious son called absalom and so as we study the psalm further i want to give you some theological background to the text david is a very incredible communicator he's a powerful orator he's a great songwriter he's a great music arranger he's a great strategist a phenomenal operations guy he's a great administrator he's a great military general and also a tactician at hand to hand in physical first front combat the boy's bad and he hasn't become bad as an old man he's been bad from his youth because he had to fend for himself as a little child and as he writes he uses two fundamental metaphors and the first metaphor takes us from the first verse to the fourth verse and that metaphor is the shepherd shepherding his sheep leading his sheep taking care of his sheep protecting his sheep and even whilst he leads his lamb he does lead the lamb through pleasant and sumptuous terrain and great abundance but ultimately he shifts at some point and he now leads him through dangerous terrain through difficult times and through death shadows and things are kind of tough there but he's training the lamb to be able to trust in the presence of god as always being greater than anything he has to face or to fight foe or future and then as he comes through the fourth verse he transitions into a second metaphor so that the fourth verse can stand in both the first metaphor and the second metaphor and the second metaphor is the king of kings calling the king to a banquet of honor where the king is the special guest of honor at this banqueting feast and this is why one of the metaphors in the metaphor is the anointing of the head of the guest of honor with a special fragrant oil like onto the alabasta box and there he brings david from shepherd boy into king who is also shepherd of israel so it deserves some intricate look at the life of david and the psalm is written by him at this point in his life where he's established but enmity rises not from outside his house but from inside his house so this is not the shepherd boy writing this is not the teenager that conquered goliath writing this is david in his maturity his royal highness king david of israel he is at the time he writes he's living his dream he's fulfilling his prophecy that was given to him by samuel and has seen the promises of god come to pass in his life he has had many battles and several victories in all his battles he has had many victories on so many sides the kid has become a king the child has become a champion and the king has many kids also now when you look at his life as he was born he was rejected by man the family fold into which he was born ostracized him and left him on the outside of the family's fortune the family's possibility and all that the family could give him by the way of functional upbringing and homemaking however in spite of being ostracized david is chosen by god i don't know if there's anybody here who you've had difficult circumstances in your life at some point or in some season and it almost made you feel like you were not chosen but yet still something inside of you continue to remind you that you are chosen especially by god so that whilst you suffered disfavor from men there was a unique favor that you had from god that singled you out and caused you to be perceptive of who god was of who god is in your life and what god is fixing to do in your life and it made you feel a sense of greatness imminent in your life so that you were able to keep trudging along through life's difficult terrain and making it through life and surviving difficult attacks and assailants that came against you and your stewardship and this is david who now begins to understand as he grows up in a house that was a hostile environment for him that what jesus said was a truth that a man's enemies are they of his own household matthew 10 and 36 and he's chosen nonetheless if you're here in this house this morning or you're watching by television i want you to text a few people or look at somebody around you and tell them you must be chosen you must be chosen and then look for one more person and tell them just in case you didn't know it i am chosen by god and the signal then is that you ought never to really mess with chosen people because chosen people carry the abrahamic covenant the abrahamic blessing upon their lives whatever you do to them you do like unto a mirror so when you bless abraham you get blessed just because you blessed him when you curse abraham abraham is never meant to retaliate but god takes that on for him for god declares vengeance is mine i will repay saith the lord so it frees him up from vengeance he can keep keep a clean heart keep a pure spirit and keep traction with the purpose and the objective of his life and his calling and so you must celebrate the fact that you are chosen thank god for being chosen if you are chosen however david was ostracized and the outcast of the family but god says of him in 1st samuel chapter 13 and verse 14 first samuel 13 and 14 that hey samuel i have rejected saul but i have found for myself a man after my heart i want him to be the next king i've chosen him he's going to be the next king and david is not yet favored by his family he's the reject of the household he lives in a hostile environment his brothers have these privileges that enlist them in saul's warrior force and they've gone off to the academy and now they're part of saul's guard his front line for battle against all foes assailants and enemies however even though david didn't have those sort of opportunities he is still the chosen of god and he ends up going to a different school the backwoods school for hard nuts where the holy spirit was the dean of the faculty and god now becomes his partner in progress whilst he's taking on this mundane job anybody who's going to arrive at greatness normally has to start at the bottom but he is chosen by god and god has done with saul and he has identified david as the next king and samuel is consequently sent to go and anoint the king in jesse's house samuel doesn't know who the king is he hasn't been told his name but when he gets to jesse's house he says to him i've come to anoint the king one of your sons is the king and jesse parades seven sons before samuel and someone is the prophet of whom god said his words will never fall to the ground and when he comes into jesse's house jesse starts the parade and brings out the first son the first son is elia by name he looks absolutely kingly he looks like the royal he looks like the next king he looks like the part but looks can be deceiving if a man looks at the outward appearance but god weighs the heart of man and samuel is so convinced that he's about to pull the horn of oil and in his attempt to pour the oil the oil refused to flow because that oil for the anointing of the next king belonged to somebody else what belongs to you no person can give it to somebody else if it's yours it's yours and there's nothing the demon the devil or the deacon can do about it is yours uh somebody please give me a witness that means anything that god has set up for you no matter who tries to take it at best there will only be temporary caretakers to keep warm what god has in store for you glory to god it's yours it's yours he goes through the line and for all seven sons samuel said in his heart surely this is the lord's anointed but the oil still refused to flow when he got to the end of the line he was somewhat perplexed he says don't you have any more sons because the lineup had ended and even though there was an asa nobody was loving of the boy enough to remember him the only when samuel said where is is the king say oh eventually they remember he said oh he's out there looking after sheepdog in other words he's not meant to be a king he's out there looking after lambs he's not a king type it's not king material but listen at this carefully samuel said we will not sit down until he comes meaning that because he is the next king there will be no conference until he comes to sit down because nobody in their culture would sit down before the king and so for the first time david sits amidst his enemies and this is the first time he's sitting in a hostile environment that automatically becomes even more hostile because he has just come under the overtaker's anointing and whenever you have the overtakers anointing on your life those whom you overtake will be inspired by their flesh and the satan satanic force in their world to hate you even the more please give me a witness somebody so if you want to follow god into greatness you must be ready to have thick enough skin a gentle enough heart and the rigor and the vigor to handle haters because you can't handle it unless you know how to deal with haters and they will pop up from where you never expected them to pop up from and so there's david sitting down with his seven brothers and his father and in front of them all he is pronounced by the prophet who never misses the mark and says this is the next king takes the holy anointing oil sacred and sanctified for anointing kings and pours it on his head and declares him to be the next king of israel you don't have to have it to have it once god says it i don't care what anybody tries to do it is yours until you are done with it i don't know who you are but the promise of god uh enacted by prophecies over your life by the authentic prophetic voice of god i declare to you it will come to pass if it was god who said it god has already made it good in time and he will perfect it in the surgeon of your days but there is a process after the promise before the promise becomes fulfilled but we must commend jesse because jesse even though none of his first seven sons was king the prophetic voice recognized that they were kingly you must give it to the man that he raised seven kingly sons it was amazing so we look more closely at the first metaphor and the first metaphor starts with the first verse and it opens with this statement the lord third person in english grammar is my shepherd and i wish i could put it therefore there but there's an invisible therefore there therefore i shall not want in other words there is nothing that i want that i do not have or that i don't have the patience and the peace to hold me together whilst i wait for it to come and then he goes on in the second verse to declare to us that not only do i know not have any more wants everything i want has been satisfied and things that aren't good for me that i wanted god has taken that one to in other words he's in control of my desires he gives me what to desire and gives me what i have desires according to what he gave me to desire so i don't have any wants david is saying because everything i need has been satisfied he's writing in his maturity he's not a boy shepherd who still wants stuff then the second verse he says he makes me to lie down in everything i need to eat everything i want for my life i'm situated in the midst of its abundance then he said he leaves me besides still waters i wish i had time to tell you how important still waters are to a lamb but choppy outrageous waters are not good for sheep and they're not normally pastured or driven to pasture near rough waters then he comes into the third verse and he again is using the third person which means he's talking about god as his shepherd and in the third verse he says he restores my soul in other words i've had much opportunity for emotional damage and much of the things i've had to go through make you very tough emotionally and make you go through sadness sorrow bitterness pain but but god has been so faithful to restore my soul to a place of peace joy harmony salubrious uh equilibrium with myself and also with god so that i have peace the peace of god peace from god and peace with god the shalom nothing broken and nothing missing and then in the midst of that soundness of spirit soul and body he he says he makes me to walk in right path so i am not aiming in the wrong direction i'm not walking in the wrong path i'm walking in the right path for destiny for conformity to god's character for conformity to god's nature likeness and image i'm in the right path in other words my foot is not slipping i'm not veering to the left or to the right i'm exactly where god wants me to be and it's to the credit of his name can i get a witness from somebody so he now comes to the fourth verse and opens that verse with a conjunction which means he's about to make a shift and right there he says yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil and he opens that long sentence with the conjunction low in others everything has been nice and dandy it's been hunky-dory it's been beautiful and nice and very salubrious to to him uh but all of a sudden he's not in these lovely luscious grounds and pastures he's he's not in these lovely environments that are just peaceful to his soul an environment that is so nice to him and now suddenly there's a turn because sometimes the good shepherd that leads you through good past nice places great pasture green pastures can also lead you into trouble but if he leads you into trouble you must recognize that he's leading you wherever he takes you for the good of your soul your person and whoever's following behind you please give me a witness somebody and the injunction then is that don't be afraid the injunction then is trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding acknowledge the lord in all your ways but he's still directing your path so that even if you go through hell in high water he's there with you if you're in tough times and tough terrain he's there with you if you're surrounded by a hostile environment it's no longer hostile to you because he is your environment your natural habitat is the presence and the glory of god and so no matter where you are or what sort of grief is in your environment as long as god is there my friends he is your habitation for in him we live and move and have our being so even if you are living in a desert or a dead valley or in death shadows really you're living in him first and he is your environment before you can even take into account the outward environment beyond your physicality so as long as you are in god and hidden in christ who is in god friend you got it going on you are going to make it through this valley we talked about that last week and it's not really my concern but david did say that i will fear no evil that means there's something about god's presence in my life that causes me to be fearless even when i ought to be fearful when by natural judgment i should take to flight and come to fright and be trepidated by the outward hostility of the environment i'm in so we notice here a shift and the shift also appears in david's language for david now says in the second and third verse as he talks about god he refers to him as he in the third person but once he comes into the fourth verse he drops away from the third person he's no longer talking about god there's a shift in the theology of the text and he now calls god by the second person no longer refers to him as the third but he refers him as you in contemporary english in king james english he calls him thou i particularly like the thou because it's onomatopoeia has some volume to it it has some grandeur to it it shows for some majesty and so he says thou art with me meaning he's not just somebody who i follow at a distance or even with proximity but he is now a presence with me and because he is with me uh what can be against me because he's with me who can prevail over me because he's with me the shepherd says i can get through this as long as he's on my side and he's with me on every side i can make it through the forest i can make it through the fire i can make it through the fury i can make it through the flame i can make it through the flood i can make it through the foes i can make it through the fierceness of the day and the hour because if god is with me you have to take him out first before you can touch me oh pastor why do you say so well the last time i read my bible i read a place where it said that we are the apple of his eye inferring that you are not just the eye but the iris in the eye of god a natural lateral response if the head is attacked and somebody points something at the eye the defenses that the two hands will rise to block the assailant or the missile or the arrow because the eye is very important to the mankind and therefore a natural instinct innate response is to defend the eye help me and tell three people right now god has your back he has your back he has your back tell somebody else he's got you covered he's got you covered and so we see the shift in the text and that he's no longer talking about god he's talking to god he's no longer talking about what he is or what he has done he's talking to him personally and he says to him thou art with me that's why i'm not afraid thou art with me your rod your authority uh and your staff your caution uh it protects me it holds me together and so david is subtly calling the singers and the choirs and those who would sing the hymn to a place of prayer he say it's enough to praise him but now you've got to come a little higher and let's now start talking to him because praise is talking about him worship and prayer are talking to him in fact worship is said to be the highest form of supplication of prayer to god we're talking about prayer it's one thing to talk about the goodness of god and it's a good thing to do yes but it's another thing altogether to talk to god with confidence and knowledge of who he is and who he is to you and what he has in his hands to be strong on your behalf jeremiah brings some import to this reality and tells us in the third verse of the 33rd chapter of his prophecy and he's speaking for god and he says there call on to me and i will show you uh and answer you with great things and mighty things that you do not know yet there are things that god is getting ready to show somebody who shifts from talking about god because anybody can talk about god but now you're able to bring about god's presence in your life and focus in on him and talk to him you have his direct line if i had the direct line to boris johnson or to the president of the united states or to the president of canada or france uh that's some action that something's going to happen if i had the direct line i could call on aliko dangote or jeff bezos or the president of microsoft there's some action there if i'm close friends and in close fraternity with any of those guys if i really need something and i know their disposition to me and their capacity something's going to happen and so he therefore says even though i'm going through death shadows i fear no evil i will fear no evil why because you are with me and we learned three things last sunday or two sundays ago and those three things were this when you're faced with the valley i'm not going to teach it but i want to list it there are three things you must respond to the valley with number one you must walk we said don't run because he that believeth as isaiah said shall not make haste and that means you're going to walk through the valley there's a reason for walking because in walking you're going forward and walking you're leaving some things and some people behind and walking you're able to absorb the things that you're meant to learn in the valley in walking you find out who your friends are and who they are and who your enemies are and who they are you find out who you are and who you aren't and you find out who god is that's why it's important to walk and generally when you're not afraid you don't run you don't rush you're calm so the walk evidence is that there's a calmness to you in spite of the hostility around you david comes through the end of that verse and he brings us to our text this morning but before we get to our test the first thing david does and the valley is he decides i'm walking in other words i'm not retreating i'm not going back i'm not going to run with fright to get through it quickly because that will probably make me stumble and fall but i'm going to walk second thing he says is i will fear no evil that fear is not just a decision on his part it's a cognitive knowledge of the fact that that because god is with him he has no basis for fear and then the third thing that david decides is i'm not going to die in this valley but because god is with me i will get through the valley i feel god's presence and so trouble will come your way at some point in time in your life there are valleys that have your name written on them and it's never going to be one valley because the valley is the place which you must travel through when you're traveling from one glory to another from one mountainous glory to the next mountainous glory there's always a valley in between and so your graph though it may always be upward if you magnify the graph your graph will have valleys and peaks yet it's still in its upward trajectory so your last valley was lower than your next valley your next valley is going to be higher than your last valley but it's still a dip compared to where you're coming from and a bigger dip compared to where you're going to but you're going to get there look at your graph and be honest with it and look at the line if you shrink it you'll notice this one straight line upwards but if you magnify it it speaks in values in an upper trajectory going forward if i put three hot seating pails of water here and i put three different substances in those boiling pots of water they would all come out differently last week you looked at the fact that if you put an egg inside this boiling pot of water the water would make that egg that was soft on the inside become hard on the outside if i took vegetables and put it inside the second pot it would take those vegetables and make them softer than they were before they arrived in the pot and if i took coffee starbucks and put a load of it inside of there is going to flavor the whole house with the aroma of macchiato or intenso or latte skinny latte or mocha yeah likewise if you take certain people and put them in a boiling hot trials they all come out differently so one fellow you put him in boiling hot water he comes out hardened bitter vengeful cunning covet sorry covert he comes out mean wicked he comes out treacherous because trials only bring out what's on the inside of you and they're magnified second fellow you put him inside a ceiling hot trial what happens to her or him they come out soft and they're beaten by their brand they're all weak and they recluse like hermits and they become weaker than they were before they went into the trial in fact they give up and just climb up and hide in their own corner but but the third kind of person you put them in the hot fire and soak them in that boiling water what happens to them they come out and they flavor the whole house that's what happened to david his whole life was a trial and by the time they brought him out of the trial of 16 years he's standing before goliath with a hostile environment from the philistines yet in the trenches of israel even they were hostile to his challenge to say i can take on the giant and david's flavor filled the whole of israel that a completely obscure unknown individual became the most popular the most famous and the most known champion in all of israel even beyond the king because when you put the right substance in a trial the trials don't knock them down they cause them to shine up the bible says in daniel 11 and verse 32 that the people who do know their god they will be strong and they will do exploits that means when you know god in a way that david knew him that his brothers didn't know him trials make you stronger than the trial trials become opportunities for you while they become moments for shrinking it for the others because when you know god you know who he is to you who know who he is for you you know what he means to you and you know where he's taking you to and this moment introduced david into the banquet of his life from here forward david is feasting on the future that god has focused on him and the second metaphor is not the shepherd shepherding his sheep and that's a great metaphor because god is the shepherd and the sheep is also a shepherd and so he understands the metaphor quite well and he's able to use it because as god does to him and is to him so he does to his lambs and and so he is to islam and it's a great transition to go from shepherd shepherding sheep being shepherded by god to being king who remains a shepherd of a people no longer lambs and everything that that the king is to this king he is to the people of israel so the metaphors have a connection and the picture in this metaphor is of david the king being honored by jehovah the king of kings at a banquet and a banqueting table and the culture of honor was very important to the people of those times particularly to the israelites so that he is here the guest of honor at a lavish party put on for him to honor him by the most honorable in all of time and eternity and then in that honor what would normally happen is as the dignitaries arrive at the party they are set aside and the therapist comes with fragrant oils with all kinds of acacia cinnamon uh cumin frankincense and myrrh and it's massaged into the face to give the face a particular glow and a lovely look then they take a more concentrated form of that and they now anoint the hair of the beneficiary and it smoothens the hair and it's able to be patterned and shapen into a nice form so that by the time they've had their time of working their therapy on you you stand out but you also have an atmosphere called a fragrance and that fragrance is exactly the same as the king the host has on his head and on his body so that table smells different from every other table and when you study the word mashach which means to anoint or the anointed one massage simply means come here for a moment abraham that all that he is as god is rubbed off on abraham on jesus who is the anointed one so that the thing that makes god god is now smeared all over him so that when you see him the visible image of god because christ is a man it's also god you see an experienced god god remains invisible but his anointing has visible impact through a physical man because that's what anointing is the smearing of oil from the one upon another and it's always the the greater the blesses the lesser hallelujah do you get that so when he goes out into the world all they see and discern and sense is that that is god and they beheld his glory as the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth are you ready to work let's work today so here we are he's come to the table of honor the guests are all gathered the dignitaries are separated to a high table and there they they are adorned with majesty with dignity with the largesse of the king and they have been smeared with oil they've been blessed with oil and their fragrance is so pleasant that it reaches into the whole atmosphere and this perhaps is the reward for coming through the valley of verse 4. i want to stop here for a moment how many of you have been through hell in 2020 all your situations turned out to be the exact opposite of what you anticipated in 2019 in fact we came into 2020 with great hope that this is going to be a prophetic year of fulfillment in our lives but instead by the time we got to march the dip started and we have been in the valley economically all the indices show that we are in a valley if i come to your house or i look at your bank account i can tell that you are in a valley hallelujah but who led you into the valley you could not be in the valley except it was god leading you there that's why i'm afraid for people who go into a valley and the lord is not their shepherd maybe the president is their shepherd or or the potentate is their shepherd or or some chap is their shepherd but as for me and my house the lord is my shepherd and even though i go through a valley i shall not want even though i pass through dark and difficult times i will not be afraid even though it looks like it's lasted a whole year i want you to know i am coming out of this year and with this year will pass the valley but whether it be in the valley or the mountain peak i am blessed of the lord i read it in ephesians one and verse 3 blessed be god the father of our lord jesus christ who has pastors blessed us pastors with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in christ jesus that means i've got all it takes to thrive i'm not just a survivor i'm a thriver i'm never going to be vanquished i'm a victor i'm never going to be beaten down and if you get to beat me down you better watch out because when i come back i'm coming back seven times stronger are you here somebody you are blessed by god to survive this valley now we're talking let's go a little further i want to show you some important things that i think are going to change your life and so here is david he's about to enter the reward for his faith in the fourth verse the valley verse and this is also the blessing after the valley help me and reach to somebody right now and tell them after this i'm going to take my breakthrough you didn't say it like you want it that means you ain't really been through anything so the rest of you who ain't been through anything please don't do this but if you've been through something this year and you know you don't even know how you survived it help me look at somebody and tell them after this i want my stuff in other words the valley precedes the breakthrough and i'm going to give you four p's of the prepared table and i need you one more time look at somebody tell them after this i want my stuff in other words i did not go through this valley for nothing 2020 is going to pay me back for everything that i went through in this year if you don't believe that you don't need to get excited but if this is your word you need to know it within yourself whatever you went through in 2020 god is going to make sure that the thief when he is called he will pay you back seven times over the first p i want to give you is that there is a prepared table a banquet table that is set up for you the psalmist said thou he's in the first person he's talking to god he has revelation knowledge of what god is like and he tells god that god you have prepared a table for me the word prepared means in etymology that it was cut that's the word paired and pre it was pre-cut beforehand in in in other words friends before you even got here god already set up your banquet feast for you and there was a purpose to the feast because the feast was going to empower you enable you restore you strengthen you uphold you uplift you for all that will come in the future of your life in other words friends this was not merely just a table this table was intentional a lot of thought went into it god already knew about it a long time before you did and he knew what you were going to go through in the nice years and the nice months of green pastures still waters restoration of your soul and of course laying down besides still waters but he also knew of the valley and the hostility in that environment but he also knew that i'm going to give you a banquet now figure this if i was the shepherd and you were the sheep and i loved you i would want you to come through still waters and green pastures and restore your soul uh make you uh walk in the right path for my own credibility my own namesake and i'm sure that i could find other ways to get you to the banqueting table without having to go through death shadows i'm sure there was another way but but why would he lead me there because he's trying to teach me something that no matter what you go through i am still stronger than all your adversities adversaries enemies and enmities that's why i take you through those hard times and i show you enemies that are much bigger than you and in it i'm able to remind you that i am with you and i am greater and stronger than any enemy i allow to stand before your face so that they will know my power is greater than them and that you will know that my power with you is greater than any power from the enemy that's why i took you through the valley but now again he's bringing me to the banquet and i'm asking god you've got a banquet in front of me but why have you put enemies there too why do you put so much hostility around my heritage why do you put so much adversity around my advantage why do you put so much pain around my power why do you invest so much grief in proximity to the glory you have invited me into and god says because i want you to trust me that no matter what they throw at you i allowed it and if i allowed it you can be certain that i can deal with it and that if you trust in me by me and with me you can deal with it too and so he's in front of a prepared table maybe he hasn't gotten there yet but he can see it and the master probably is telling him that there's a prepared table and so it's there it's intentional it was put in place beforehand it was there all the time i was driving somewhere and i saw a sign food is ready in other words ready that means it's not you waiting for god it is god who is waiting for you in other words friends it's not you saying god what are you going to bless me god has already set it up and made it ready for you the question is are you ready for what god has for you oh i feel god and so it was predestined it was set up it was set in place and when god says something is said friend it is set that's why i need you to tell somebody i may be in a valley right now but god is taking me to a banqueting table i may be going through a challenge right now but god is taking me to the feast of my life and by feast he's not talking about culinary condiments or food on a platter he's talking about the food of your soul the food of your mind the food that fuels you for your future do you want to know what he has prepared for you or are you happy to miss it and live on what you've been living on and live how you've been living for the last 50 years or do you really want to know what god has in store for you do you really want to know why did i go through all that hell why did i go through all that persecution and hatred why did i go through all that temptation and tussle why did i have to face all of that hell well paul says it to us eye has not seen neither has ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man the things which god has what prepared that's the same kind of word as you see in verse 5 for those who love him and he says these things are revealed to us by his spirit give me first corinthians 2 verse 9 10 11 and 12. i has not seen air has not heard hasn't entered conceptually into the heart of man what god has already set up before you got here that's why you're panicking in your storm that's why you think you're going to die in the valley because it hasn't entered your heart yet but what he's saying is if you get it in your heart as advanced knowledge that anything you go through is a going through and it's also a going to something much better than what you went through so he tells us that god now reveals to us by his spirit what he has prepared for us the spirit searches all things even the deep things of god next verse for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him so your spirit understands but your mind doesn't know except you get revelation from god that's communicate to your mind even so the things of god knows no man but the spirit of god verse 12 this is the one i want now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of god that we might know that we might know the things that are freely given to us do you know what you have do you have any idea what tomorrow brings that's why the hostility was placed in your environment because they cannot stop what god has already given but they try to stop you so you do not get to what god has given they want to prevent you because they cannot prevent the blessing so they try to prevent you and that's why there's hostility in your life and god wants you to trust in his voice trust in his prophetic word trust in his presence so that you will get through the hard times because on the other side of the hard times friend there's a blessing and a breakthrough that nobody in your village nobody in your town has ever seen the likes of before it's unprecedented what he's getting ready to do with the clan of jesse and so it's a set table and the table is set in place and in time there's a timing to it and i sense certainly that there's somebody here 2021 is your time 2020 has been your valley but you're coming through that valley and by 2021 you will be ready for what god had made ready from before the foundation of time the second p god places enemies at the table and enemies come in different forms so i'm going to discuss a few of them they are the haters those are people who just don't like you and they don't like you i mean they don't like the ground you walk on they don't like the way you talk uh they don't like anything about you but if you examine them closely they are actually admirers because there's a fine line between envy and hatred you have to envy somebody that you hate because the reason why you hate them is because you have they have what you like they are where you would like to be but you just resent the fact that it's them there and not you that's human nature or perhaps they are overtakers and they've overtaken you in the path of life and they weren't trying to and the fact that they've overtaken you and you and your concept feel that they are lesser mortals than you and they're now ahead of you you resent them because they have what you wanted to have and that's common to all of us we all have the hater in in our flesh so don't look at your neighbor like that because i'm really talking to you yeah it's the flesh the nature of the flesh and everybody has the same flesh just as some flesh has had some opportunities that other flesh hasn't had that's why you think you are better than them but you are not then there's one of the hebrew words is distressor somebody who is so set on hating you that they want to cause distress in your life do you know there are people like that and your greatness your success will bring out the distressor just like fire will bring the snake out of the woods so your greatness will bring the distress into attack upon your life but when you are nobody and the shoot has not grown into a big and fruitful tree nobody is going to hate you but once you become they're going to start attacking so you have the haters you also have the jealous they want what you have and they want it badly they also what you see in matthew 5 from about verse 40 to 43 the observers they're watching to see you trip or to make a mistake and boom they're going to pounce because they're looking for the opportunity to pull you down they are what we call enemies of your progress and the day they have power they're going to use it against you and yet the power derived from your authority but they still use against it that's a different type of enemy that's called a traitor that's treachery and when the enemy plants them in your life they have not come to fruit so you cannot tell the wheat apart from the tears that's why as you go through the years you've got to keep keeping an eye on everybody around you because people change people change even your best change remember that because you'll need it in the year i'm speaking from experience but there's also another type of enemy that enemy is your insecurities those enemies are in you your deficits your past and the ghosts from your past these are enemies in you your addictions your confusions your bad habits your infirmities you're easily besetting sins all join and yet god says that i i've presented to you a table in the presence of your enemies and he says whilst all these enemies are there the enemies within you and the enemies with you and the enemies far away from you whilst they're all at the table i want to know are you going to pay attention to them and lose focus on me as your protection in the face of your banquet or are you going to back down from your banquet and refuse what i give you because you believe more in your enemies than you believe in my ability to protect you what are you going to do if you can't handle the enmity and the adversity and the pain of your own infirmity and deficits you can't handle the blessing many of you will turn down your blessing because you feel you're not good enough whereas it is the goodness of god that makes you good enough when you're consistently the recipient of god's goodness friend the god that made you great in any other area of your life can make you great in every area of your life likewise your enemies no matter who they are or what they are how fierce they are are they greater than your god god could bring up one thing about every one of your enemies they will shut up in a hurry god can remove the terra firma from under their feet that they will slip and stumble because he prepared the feast for you never worry about your enemies never give any credit to your enemies don't think about them don't factor them in your thinking because god is greater than all your enemies that's how i live i have enemies i have to look at them almost every day smaller than what i know they smile at me is fake and i must learn to know that i'm called onto a high call and i'm in pursuit of it no matter what they do or say when god puts his blessing on you it's an endorsement when god puts his hand on you i don't care what man tries to put his hand against you stay with god and in any case he will teach you in those moments who your friends are and who your enemies are i can tell all of them they are pretenders all of them say ouch or amen anyone you like [Music] so he places the enemy the word place is a word i've chosen carefully because he places them properly he puts them in proper places where it trains you that if i give in to them it's going to destroy me i might as well just focus on god and trust him that if you put this banquet in front of me i will eat it i will enjoy it hallelujah look at three or four people time don't worry about your enemies and if you don't have any enemies yet keep getting great because when you get to greatness you will know enemies hallelujah it is not human nature for people to love you for overtaking them it is human nature to hate you for overtaking them you are just simply running your race look at somebody tell them i didn't bless myself it was god who blessed me it's not my fault that i'm blessed so what god does is he's poured the overtaker's anointing on david's head and now the overtaken have become the enemies of his progress and listen to this god wants your enemies who wanted to your progress wanted to hinder your progress for your progress he wants them to come and sit down and see you succeed so the reason why he brought them to the table in the first place was not to eat they are there to see you succeed when they had worked as sidiously spoken a cdc plan that seriously to make sure you don't succeed now god wants to let them know fighting use and in futility and all you need to do to trigger that reality is believe god no matter what hostility you have to face believe god because god is an expert at blessing the worst have you not heard it said did you not see it written he has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise he has chosen the bastions of this world to confound the mighty he uses the least likely to do the most mighty so that the most mighty are confounded by the fact that the excellency of this power is not of man but it's of god who put the treasure in ordinary earthen vessels you get that pasta coker when israel came out of egypt by the deliverance at the exodus god could have killed the pharaoh and his cavalry in egypt but he let them go so that he would chase after them later and gave them a front row seat in virtual reality cinema israel gets to the red sea god opens the red sea over a mile wide to cause a passage for three million jews they come through the flat sea bed that was dried up by the blast of god's nostrils and egypt are looking front row cinema at their success at exiting their task masters and captors israel egypt sees it god could have killed egypt in egypt but he allowed them to come and see their success and they see them go through the red sea they follow them they watch israel come out of the red sea and then god now closes the red sea on them what did god want he wanted them to see it god will bring your enemies to the banqueting table the reason why he brings them is not so that they can eat but so they can see and so you can see that they have seen that everything that they wanted to do against you they were unable i'm talking to you right now and i'm not only talking about physical i'm talking about these enemies too the ones inside you your insecurity your deficit your past your ghosts are you with me i hope somebody's listening i really hope you are he wants them to see that the fellow who has said nothing is going to happen in his life they have to admit that something is about to happen in your life they are all at the table look at joseph they meant it for evil but what they meant for evil god used to raise him to his destiny through a 14-year process he gets to the crown the crown is put on his head he's the most powerful man in the world even the king of the lamb is subject to him by influence by divine engagement his brothers eventually are brought to come and see they also get a first row seat in the cinema of virtual reality they have to watch him succeed can i prophesy to you there are some people who meant you harm across the expanse of your life god is going to bring them to see you succeed you just hang in there and keep believing god and know that god who is with you who led you through the earlier parts of your life is with you in the dangerous times of your life he's also the same god that's going to bless you beyond the curse beyond what you know to be blessing in such a way that those who see it who never wanted it to happen are going to have to bow down and call you uncle it's going to happen in your life and when they got to egypt they didn't know it was him because his transformation was so great that they did not recognize there's a blessing coming on somebody that by this time next year when people see you driving see you living see you operating see you moving see you traveling see you fly they will not recognize you because they could never associate you with that level of blessing so that when they came he saw them he recognized them they did not know who he was he had to pull the visor off his face so they could see that it is i your brother and they were in lamentation he said don't worry about it you meant it for evil but god intended it for good so that he could give us all a destiny are you with me i hope you get it in other words there's a time coming in your life in the near near near when you will go back to people who hurt you and was in their power to help you who cursed you when it was in their power to bless you who slandered you when it was in their power to cover you who hit you when it was in their power to block for you and you say to them thank you that you didn't help me when it was in your power because if you had not hurt me i would not be who i am today there's so many people in my past that i am thankful for when i see them because the hurt they hurt me with it didn't do me bad it felt bad at the time but when i look back i am so happy that they hurt me because it has blessed me i only wish i could do that with contemporary enemies because of hindsight vision and treat them so nicely today because i know by the nature of god that when they do me that kind of evil it's only going to work for good because there's something on you called romans 8 28 we know that all things work together for the good of a particular category of people those who love god and are the called according to spirits you know why god keeps doing goodness to bad you because he wants you to love him [Music] because once you love him you enter your purpose once you love him it has evidences and he decides everything that they do against you i'm going to make it work for your good and goody two shoes you know the older brother in the house he doesn't get any of the blessing it was his right but he never had the mouth to ask or the liver to talk to god he was always talking about god in the third person never in the second and that's why it will shock you who god blesses i still hold fast to it my god jehovah the father of our lord jesus christ he's the god of the bad boys take that one home that's free of charge take that one home that's free of charge can i go a little further so they're all at the table it's a hostile environment and you are expected by god to eat and feast fearlessly on a table that is hostile to you but your blessing is on the table look at somebody tell them they are all at the table surely god could find another table to bless me at surely god if he wanted you could put put my banquet at another group of people's table but why did he put them there because he's after something he wants you to know this that the battle is not yours it belongs to god exodus 14 14 therefore hold your peace second chronicles 20 verse 15 the because thus saith the lord be not afraid not dismayed because of this great multitude for the battle is not yours the battle belongs to god are you with me yet i'm going somewhere so you have all your enemies your insecurities your deficits your paths your addictions your confusions your easily besetting sins your weaknesses your infirmities and why god put them at your table is because he wants your enemies to understand that he is bigger than them and wants you to know that he is stronger than all your enemies that they amount to nothing when they sit at your table of banqueting he wants the haters the overtaken the secret enemies the open foes the traitors the once loyal the ahitophals and the pharaohs to know that he who is your god is greater than all of them and wants you to know that as great as they are the one that is with you and for you is greater than all your enemies and their hosts and so here we are i'm called to the table what a banquet huh look at that banquet it's got rose venison it's got antelope it's got awol it has venison it has goat meat it has como it has broccoli it has all kinds of fresh fruit it has foreign it has domestic and and it's beautiful look at the bread but but but it also has traitors it has judas it has your best friend who's become your worst enemy a hitopel and he's joined your rebellious treasonous son absalom oh god it's got your past it's got your ghost from the past it's got your deficits it's got your addictions at the table it's got your temptations and your lusts at the table they're also your enemies it's got your anger at the table all of them are there but god is here and god says sit at my right hand and so all these enemies are there he's prepared the table he's placed the enemies and now he has presented the table to you it was present and there you are all these enemies are there the ones within the ones without what are you going to do are you going to pay attention to all these enemies around your table not just the ones that are in the auditorium where there are other tables but even at this table what are you going to do are you going to look straight forward at god or are you going to look at your enemies let me tell you who's going to feast the guy who looks at all his enemies he ain't going to eat nothing but the guy who looks straight forward at god and notices in the glance of his eye that all the enemies are scared rotten of god if he had only just taken a better look and glanced properly he would have noticed that their hands are tied that they don't have hands with which to eat and their mouths are locked they cannot speak when yesteryear they were talking all the time but now they are dead silent what are you going to do when you're surrounded by your enemies are you going to look at them to the detriment of you seeing god are you going to look at god to to the detriment of you seeing them the fellow who doesn't know how to ignore his enemies will never eat the feast you'll never banquet at the table can i go a little further the bible says thou preparest a table before me in other words friend the table is for you it is be for you is for you not for your enemies oh i feel god can i tell you that the enemy's presence is an indicator not that your day is over but it's the indicator that the table of blessing is for you and it is ready it is all yours and the reason why god is there and not in front of you but he is with you is to protect you from your enemies can you imagine how joseph felt when he saw his brothers arrive in his court of sumtry luxury and they saw him and he revealed himself to them and they were scared of he said you meant it for evil but i want to thank you i'm grateful for what you did because if you didn't do it i wouldn't be who i am today and you wouldn't be able to become who you're going to be because of me hallelujah brings me to my fourth point though you intended for it to hurt me god intended for it to help me so thank you that you hated me when you did because if you didn't hate me it wouldn't work number four number one is he prepared the table number two is he placed your enemies at the same table number three is he presented the table to you and number four the presence of god remains with you in spite of your enemies how do we know this he is present to anoint your head with oil you cannot anoint my head unless you are present and you know the banqueting culture i just explained that to you a few moments ago the banqueting cultures when you arrived they anointed your face with a special serum and then they anointed your hair with oil and dressed your hair so that you look smooth and nice and you had a wonderful fragrance to you now i looked at the hebrew word for anoint this is before he gets to the table and that that word anoint in the hebrew means to make you fat in other words by the time you are anointed you're going to go to the table at the banquet that has the best food that by the time you come away from the table and the banquet doesn't last a day those banquets lasted for days like the one in cain of the wedding feast of canaan the last four days like arthur's exits for six months so that by the time you come away from the table you are fatter than your yoke hence isaiah tells us about what that anointing oil does in their ceremonies look at isaiah 10 and verse 27 isaiah 10 and 27 and in isaiah 10 and verse 27 he says and it shall come to pass that means it's going to happen in that day of your anointing at the banquet feast that the enemy's burden shall be taken away from your shoulder and his restrictive yoke from of your neck and the yoke shall be destroyed why because of the anointing with that fragrant oil on your head let me explain it to you in luke chapter 7 from verse 30 read it all the way to verse 50 a certain woman came to anoint jesus feet with her weeping tears and wiped them with her here then she took alabaster fragrance which is anointing oil with sweet fragrance and instead of putting it on his head she started kissing his feet and and poured the anointing fragrant oil upon his feet and simon his host said doesn't this man know if he was a man of god that this woman is a harlot and god heard him and he spoke back to him and he said simon you've got a lot of learning to do i came to your house i'm the most honorable person in all of eternity and time and you gave me no fragrant oil for my head nor did you give me water for my feet but this woman she is so grateful that she's taken the most expensive she has and she's poured what men would pour on my head she poured it on my feet let me ask you a question simon who do you think will love the most he who has forgiven much or he who is forgiven little and what did simon say simon said he who is forgiven the most is the one who loves much he said you have rightly said for this woman has been forgiven much that's why with the little she has she has given all but with the much you have you gave nothing she has anointed me with honor and so i'm fatter for that reason hear me what i'm saying to you when they rub the oil on your head what it means is that you're going to become so fat that your neck will break the yolk of restriction and the burden that was tied to the yolk is thrown off your shoulders and you become light as a bird and you now have the anointing that makes your work your life run easy oh i feel god something is getting ready to happen here all right so it brings me to my next concern uh david has become king and i'm ending now he's become king of israel and he's grown he's matured and as he becomes king he realizes what has happened to him that it wasn't normal this is supernatural intervention and nobody from the backwards is now in the center of the epicenter of all of faith in god and he says is there anybody left from the house of saul that i can show kindness to and they said there's nobody left except mephibosheth and the philosopher was the son of jonathan jonathan was the guy who helped david to become king if it wasn't for jonathan david would never have become king and so he says go and fetch him for me and here is mephibosheth he can't walk because he's crippled his nanny dropped him when she was fleeing from the the movement that took saul out of power and so when david says go and fetch him felix will you come over here will you come over here go and fetch him i want you to bring him to my table and while he's going to fetch him my sons if i'm king david like amnon and absalom and adonijah are all sitting at the table abraham will you come i want you to take that seat that seat over here that seat over there the one on the far right yeah um yeah they're to take that seat that's your seat and then um would you also come these are these are the king's sons they are princes they are princes and if you notice all you see of them is above the table you cannot see anything underneath the table and i've said go and bring jonathan's son mephibosheth bring him from lodibar he has no future yet he's a king son he has no future but yet it was his father who taught me everything i know to help me become king he protected my future he protected the prophetic word of my life go and bring mephibosheth i want to show him the unusual kindness that god has shown me and he picks him up and he carries a guy who cannot carry himself because his legs are crippled he doesn't have what it takes to walk to the table he cannot come to the table of his own accord even if he wanted to come even if he wished to do good he couldn't do it because he was crippled and he sat him down at the table god is at the table you are at the table and the table is a sumptuous feast forever two i feel it now notice the the king's other sons if they're going to eat anything they have to go hunting for it so they contribute to the table if they're going to gain any spoil from war they have to go fighting and they bring the spoil back but with mephibosheth his case is different because when david put him at the table one of the things he ensured is that there was a covering that would cover his crippled legs so that no matter how much you look you would never see the in his legs all you would see is that he had the same level of blessing as everybody else at the table why because the love of god covers a multitude of infirmity sins shortcomings and weaknesses and he was covered just like you are by the blood of covery so that where you are weak there you become strong so that you're living houses that you didn't build you'll reap harvest that you did not plan you will own vineyards that you did not so why because of the covering of god where god decided i'm not going to see what you did wrong i'm going to cover it with the judgmental blood or the judgmental wrath by which i shed the blood of my son jesus christ so look at this now he's anointed his head so he looks just like everybody at the table and has the same atmosphere the same fragrance but it doesn't end there a sneak preview into verse 6 says surely goodness and divine favor will follow me all the days of my life that's what the word mercy means when you see mercy in the old testament it means grace what does he mean that certainly you're there's coming a season in somebody's life where you will not have to go looking for stuff but everything that you used to look for is going to start looking for you there's coming a season where you won't have to work for money money is going to start working for you there's going to come a time where the things that you used to hunt for they're going to come hunting for you they'll bring them to you so when the other princess needed to get anything they had to go out and get it but for me shepard he was covered his was a seated beneficiary he sat down he was seated in heavenly places as a sumptuous banquet glory to god something is about to happen in somebody's life and what happened to mephibosheth is getting ready to happen to somebody who's sitting in this room listen at it carefully they are going to come and fetch you to take you where you could not get by yourself they're going to come and lift you up to where you could not climb by yourself they're going to bring you to where you could not bring yourself to by yourself and you will end up sitting with princes counted with nobles because god has your back and once you arrive there the next verse says surely when you see the word verily verily or the word moses moses or the word surely in scripture god is in oath mode he's not giving you a conditional prophecy he's giving you a definite prophecy this will come to pass that's why we say it every sunday surely goodness and mercy that means when i deserve damnation god says i'm going to show you my goodness when i deserve wrath he says i'm going to show you unmerited favor that's why it's unmerited in other words you don't deserve it but people who think they deserve it they miss it but those who know they don't deserve but they believe that this is god's nature he's gracious they're the ones who get it now if you're one of those who know that because you don't deserve it you're about to walk into something nobody has ever seen in your lineage ever i want you to give god some glory in his house christian faith is never about you deserving anything it's about god reserving it for you and the reservation now changes you so transformationally that you become a better person with better character and you make up your mind i'm going to be exactly what god wants me to be god i'm in your hands you're the potter i'm the clay failed people truly become teachable souls when you've done everything in your own strength go ahead you're self-righteous you're self-made i don't want to be self-made or self-righteous i want to be made the righteousness of god in christ jesus the same way he made christ become sin is the same way he makes you become the righteousness of god certainly goodness and mercy are going to follow you all the days of your life and in his house you will abide forever david made a quality decision he said no matter what god i'm staying with you i can't trust anything else for anybody else i'm staying with you now look at the story and i end it here absalom is trying to take over the throne a hittophel has joined the rebellion david has reason to be afraid of ahitoval because he was his strategist now he's joined with absalom and david could be scared but david takes one glance at the pair of them but takes a bigger look there's difference between a glance and a look when a runner is running his focus is in front he takes glances to see where the others are but he never focuses the otherwise he'll tumble and he'll he'll fall but his focus and takes a glance and he takes a look takes a glance takes a look when he took a glance at them i'm going to put on more fire he takes a look at god and he says oh goodness god is much bigger than them i don't need to be afraid of them if i'm to fear anybody it must be him he would take care of that i would take care of him and that's what he does and look at what happened ahead gave a serious battle strategy to absalom but david prayed one prayer that god would turn the council of a heat of hell into foolishness and god did till both absalom and the heat of hell one hung himself and the other was hung by his own anointing that's what god does to your enemies you don't have to do anything david was running away from killing them because he could yet god took care of them for him god will take care of your enemies and please don't think i'm i'm speaking particularly about physical personalities i'm also talking about the enemies within you when god deals with you and shows you his kindness and his love one of the things that will happen he will take away your infirmities he will take away your deficits he will deal with your past he will deal with your confusion he will deal with your addictions he will deal with those things so don't let their presence in your life stop you from feasting at the banquet of the lord the banquet is what will cure you and will also push back your enemies the victory belongs to you it was a pleasure sharing this word with you it means a lot to me god bless you in every way it's a new day and god has a new way for you have a great day till we meet again god is on your side

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Id: iAlyODncTrA

Length: 83min 43sec (5023 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 22 2020