Pastor Robert Morris | Under Attack | Gateway Church

all right I want you to turn to psalm 42 we'll be in some other Scripture but psalm 42 and it's gonna be a little different the message in the fact that the lord puts something very strongly on my heart you know I'm not in a series this fall as I've said I've just been doing messages as the Lord's led me and the title of the message is under attack the reason I believe the Lord spoke this message to me is because Christmas is a joyful time of year but we all seem to have some sort of sadness at this time also I can remember the first Thanksgiving that we had that Josh was away at college and he couldn't come in he would college in Florida and he couldn't come in for Thanksgiving but he could come in for Christmas but he couldn't come in because he was in Florida it's just a couple days off I think he only had Thanksgiving off actually had class on Friday and I remember walking into the room before we all gathered for Thanksgiving meal and you know Debbie was crying and I was just thinking you know it's Thanksgiving she said yeah but this is the first Thanksgiving since Josh was born that he's not here you anyone relate to what I'm saying I know the men are thinking it's Thanksgiving it's turkey it's the Cowboys I'm not really following you right now pastor Robert but I want to also delve into that we all lose people in this earth that's a part of of living on this earth and so I think at Christmas whether we have lost someone this year or a few years ago or maybe many many years ago it would simply be natural for us to think about that person not being there here's what I want to tell you though Satan is the cruelest person I know you think about the cruelest person you've ever heard of that ever lived possibly a mass-murderer let me explain to you that Satan was behind that person I have some friends that they lost their son and I talked with him on the day they found out and I said to them this may seem strange what I'm about to tell you but you would think that when you're going through a tragedy like this that Satan would give you a break that he'd leave you alone but he won't and he will attack you with all sorts of accusations that you should have said things differently you should have done things differently there were things left undone that you didn't do it is shocking to me how horrible he is and you would think at Christmas that he would take a break and just leave us alone and let us celebrate our Lord's birth but he doesn't so this is a message to help you you're gonna have a great Christmas but when the enemy attacks you I'm going to tell you what how to overcome that attack okay that's what this message about we're gonna read from psalm 42 psalm 42 and 43 were written at the same time they're divided in our Bibles but they probably were not divided when David wrote him he probably wrote it as one Psalm all right he wrote it when he was running from Absalom Absalom was his son that organized a coup to try to kick him out and take over the throne so he's losing it looks like he's losing his family it looks like he's losing the position that God gave him to serve people looks like he's losing everything and he writes psalm 42 and 43 just again to show you a picture of the enemy now we're gonna be in psalm 42 but let me just read you there was a guy named shimmy I that when David's leaving he's acting exactly like Satan all right just just I'll show it to you second samuel 16:7 late also shimmy i said thus when he cursed now he's cursing David come out come out you bloodthirsty man you rogue road means a worthless person the Lord is brought upon you all the blood of the house of salt in whose place you have rained and the Lord has delivered the kingdom in the hand of Absalom your son so now you are caught in your own evil because you're a bloodthirsty man and verse 13 says and as David and his being went along the road Jimmy I went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went through strong stones at him and kicked up dust that is exactly the way Satan is yes it's your fault everything that's happening to you right now is your fault you brought it on yourself it's all on you you should have done things differently differently you're worthless that's always thickness so David flees to the wilderness and he writes this song and I want you to notice how he starts it we're gonna go through different verses I'd love to just read it all but I don't have time so we're just highlight some verses but I want you to notice how he starts it because you might remember this you may have heard this in a song psalm 42 verse 1 as the deer pants for the water Brooks so pants my soul for you oh god okay that used to be a song it was written in 1984 at Christ for the nations in Dallas and just to remind you if you haven't heard it I thought let me just play that one line listen to this and see if you remember this song [Music] do you remember that song I started to sing it for you but it would have been unrecognizable if how many of you heard that song before okay so he wrote that Marty wrote that looking at his Bible and that's the old King James of this verse as the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after thee okay here's the only problem we don't understand it it's a great song it's a great song but David is writing this weenies under attack now let me explain something to you about deer I've watched deer for a long time I've seen deer a lot I have some land with deer on it I watched deer I love deer I feed deer I take care of deer I like deer my son's a deer farmer means he grows deer like you grow cord he grows deer I know about deer there's only one time that a deer pants it's when he's being chased by an enemy it's the only time event you will never see a deer if you're somewhere where deer are you'll never see a deer we'll just walk casually into your yard and look like a dog they don't walk around like that they only pant when they're being chased and when they're being chased by the enemy they use up to 80% of their water reserves if they're chased hard enough they'll die the first thing a deer does the first thing he does after getting away is fine water first thing this the some of you've seen this like on the Discovery Channel like maybe a gazelle like in Africa being chased by a lion or Leopard you ever seen that okay how many of you like it when the gazelle gets away doesn't say okay the rest of you are sickos [Applause] but the first thing that gazelles going to do is go to water okay so David writes this so you got to understand this song he's being chased by the enemy and he says my soul is tired of running and my soul is panting the same way a deer pants when he's been chased by the enemy I'm panting but he says I'm panting for you you're the only one that can refresh me listen to me God's the water when you're under attack he's the only one place you can get refreshment so I want to give you four things to do when you're under attack all right so remember these four things all right number one recognize that you're in a battle recognize you're in a battle you're not just sad you know just have some sad emotions or sad memories you are in a battle look at verse 3 so I'm 43 verse 3 my tears have been my food day and night while they they now I'm going to come back today at a moment continually say to me where is your God notice the words today okay we need to know who they are and I'm going to show you who they are in the scripture but I don't know if y'all notice but they get blamed for a lot of things you know I hear all the time someone will say something I'll say well where'd you hear that they say it or maybe you hear this you know they don't make things like they used to who are they okay well David's gonna tell us who they are in this verse all right verses 9 and 10 I will say that God my rock why have you forgotten me why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy as with the breaking of my bones my enemies my enemies reproach me while they say to me all day long where is your God that's exactly what the enemy does David had literal enemies we have spiritual enemies here's what they say where's God where's your God look what you're going through you have served God and now this person that you love has passed away you serve God and now you lost your job you serve God you've lost your marriage you serve God where is your God that's the least thickness so you need to recognize you're in a battle you're in a spiritual battle I want to teach you a phrase that I hope you'll learn to use this phrase when you're in a battle it's a great phrase it's from Zechariah three and Jude verse nine the Lord rebuke you when Satan is coming against you say to him the Lord rebuke you the Lord rebuke you in other words you need to know you're in a battle so but let me tell you I got two sub points under point number one recognize you're in the battle so here's a when you're in a battle you need to realize a it's real it's real it's a real spiritual battle you're not just having some memories but the enemy is trying to jump on those intimate own those memories he's trying to jump on you so it's real okay everyone got it's real you got that hey okay here's B it's a lie it's a lie now I know that's an oxymoron you say well which is it is it real or is it a lie it's it's a real life that's what it is that's the way Satan works he lies he's the father of lies that's what he's gone and he will lie to you he will say to you when you get down when you get tired when you're under attack he will say to you you've blown it too many times you've messed up too many times it's never gonna work out for you you're worse you're different you're worse than everyone else that's the voice of the enemy here's what you need to say the Lord rebuke you the Lord rebuke you don't you dare talk to a child of God like that that's what you ought to be telling Satan I'm telling you what people think is they think well I just have a problem with depression every now and then no you're in a battle just like all of us we're all in a battle it's a real battle now let me tell you something else about Satan this is how good he is this is how good he is he will produce evidence to back his life he will now you need know something about the evidence it's false evidence but he'll produce it and I'll give you a great example in the Bible Joseph's brothers brought Joseph's coat to their father it was torn and bloody and the father said a wild animal must have eaten my son okay but did a wild animal eat Joseph no but he had evidence he probably kept that coat every now and then he probably pulled it out mourning for his son that his son had been eaten by an animal because he had a coat that was torn with blood on it that's how good Satan is he will produce evidence you know it's amazing me like in marriage it's surely easy for a Satan lying marriage because it's he tells one of the biggest lies to couples and and I can't believe that they believe it here's what he says you know you're not meant for each other your opposites well of course you are if you were alike you kill each other you can't live with someone like you someone who likes to be on time marry someone okay never mind let's not so recognize you're in the battle but you need to know about the battle it's a real spiritual battle but it's a lie Satan is lying to you okay here's the second thing when you're in a battle when you're under attack number two stop listening to yourself stop listening to yourself listen to verse four how David I'm tell you David starts this way but he changes in psalm 42 and 43 and will you'll see it but you got to go back and read both these songs later in this week verse 4 when I remember these things when I remember these things watch I pour out my soul within me I just talked to myself and then you can hear it pouring out his soul now remember he's being driven out of this city so he says I used to go with the multitude I went with them to the house of God but the voice of joy and praise with the multitude that kept it that woe is me listen when you're depressed don't try to cheer yourself up it's a depressed person trying to cheer a depressed person up it doesn't work you need to get around someone else that will encourage you that will minister to you you need to get in the word you didn't let the Holy Spirit speak to you you need to put on some worship music when you're in a which this is what I'm trying to tell you some of you this season many of us will have some sort of a battle in the next month but you need to recognize it's a battle it's spiritual and you need to do something here's a good little saying attack that when you get attacked attack back put on some worship music get in the presence of God attack back but stop listening to yourself I remember we do need to learn to be able to talk out our feelings but men are not normally programmed to talk about their feelings some men are better than others I'm not trying to stereotype all women all men but for the most part even scientific studies show women talk about their feelings much better I die personally I don't believe that men come assembled from the factory emotionally I think that's your job ladies to help a man get in touch with his feelings and so I can remember one time I was depressed Debbie said we need to talk about it I said I don't want to talk about it well you need to talk about it I don't want to talk about it with this just you need to them well I started talking about it you know what happened she got depressed I told her after a little while I'm going back to being a man I'm not gonna talk about my feelings now that's not the answer but you need to talk about it in the right way and so I'm gonna help you do that that's the next port now remember this message has oxymorons in it it's it's it's real and it's a lie okay watch this her point to was stop listening yourself point-three start talking to yourself now I know you say yeah but they'll take me away no just start talking to yourself the right way now here's what I mean by that it's your soul David said I pour out my soul within me soul is another word for self psyche the psyche it's your mind your will and your emotions it's your thought you having problems with it's your emotions your feelings evarin problems with and that will affect your decisions okay so stop here's what I'm actually saying here's these two points when I say stop listening to yourself start talking yourself here's one saying stop listening to your soul start talking to your soul you see them say stop listening to your soulish part of you and let your spirit start talking to the soulish part of you but david says it's Psalm 43 verse 5 he says why are you cast down I remember words cast down O my soul and why are you disquieted disquieted would simply mean not quite why are you being loud within me hope in God now listen he's talking to his soul he's cheering himself up because he's letting his spirit cheer himself up hope in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance why are you cast down okay this word cast down literally means depressed means press down push down cast down depressed think about this we don't even think about the word depression but when you get in the car you depress the gas pedal it just means to push down if you're depressed it just means you're being pushed down but recognize who's pushing you down that there is an enemy that's what David is saying I know who's doing this there's an enemy and he's trying to push me down so he starts talking to his soul this word disquieted means to roar or to growl literally like a matter of fact most of the time when it's translated it's translated roar my soul is roaring within me it'd be like if you were sitting beside someone like in a meeting at work and you didn't have breakfast and it's getting around noontime and your stomach starts growling you don't know if you ever had that happen and you just say I didn't have breakfast this morning you know you're just trying to explain it all right you just you okay that's what David is saying he's saying like why do you keep rumbling inside of my soul why are you growling why are you roaring another place he talks to a soul like a baby look at this song 131 verse 2 surely I have calmed and quieted quieted my soul like a weaned child with his mother like a weaned child is my soul within me a weaned child okay so what do you do when you wean the child you take the child off of milk put it on solid food right but when you first start trying to take the bottle away from a child what's a baby gonna do cry throw a fit throw a temper tantrum right okay that's what your soul does your soul starts throwing a fit Paul said to him in first Corinthians he said the corinthian church i should be feeding you solid food by now but i still have to give you milk because they were soulish people see you have a spirit and you have a soul your spirit should rule over your soul matter of fact this is a scriptural principle let me let me show it to you first of all let me explain to you before I show it to you your soul comes alive at conception there's a personality formed in the womb and then you watch you if you you have children if you've been around children you've seen they have different personalities and you're shocked I mean this child is this young and he's already doing these things you know Grady is sitting down here my grandson Grady would line all of his cars up the same way where they point the same way when he's like 2 years old I'm told might like a hundred cars he line him up all were they exactly bumper-to-bumper the exact same distance everything it should be a perfect line for him he was only 2 you can already see his personality man one time Debbie she calls her giegi she was he turned around to do something and Schieffer just for fun took one of the cars and turned it around the other way and he turn around like this and we turned my crown he went dd-don't and turn the car back around does he do that car does not face that way ok yeah have you have you noticed personalities ok so that's your soul then you get saved and the Bible says our spirit which was dead in trespasses and sins comes alive so I got to say when I was 19 well my soul had been in charge for 19 years myself I was selfish I was a selfish person I did what I wanted to do a soulless person is a selfish person and then the Spirit comes in charge and the Spirit says no we're not gonna do that anymore we're not gonna blow up at people when we get mad cuz that's not like Jesus and of course our soul being the loving person that he is says ok no it throws a fit because your soul wants to do what you want to do ok y'all follow me so this is a principle that the older shall serve the younger the soul being older the the spirit being younger comes alive when we get born again it's Genesis 25 23 and the Lord said are they still not Jacob and Esau two nations are in your womb two people shall be separated from your body one people shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger let's Jacob and Esau say thing with Rachel and Leah Isaac and Ishmael Joseph being the younger and his brothers David and his brothers David was the youngest even the prodigal son the younger and the older the older brother remember now don't go out of here and say I knew it I now have scriptural proof that the youngest child in our family is the favorite according to God I now have scriptural proof I've always felt like that and now I know no this is a spiritual principle okay that's that's what I'm trying to tell you we have a joke in our family Josh was more easygoing than James and delaying they can lane this somewhere in there I don't see okay they're not here right now in this service but if we have Josh James and then like a length okay so three kids if we had just had Josh Debbie and I would be traveling the country doing parenting seminars saying what is so hard about this people but then we had two strong-willed children and they were strong well so we would talk about so what James then would say we started joking josh is the favorite he's the favorite and then he started saying and Elaine is the favor too because she's the only girl in the family and she's the baby so really Josh and Elaine they're the favorites that's why James would say this and so that kind of became a family joke you know we always would just show well you know they're the favorites and you're not the favored you know we just joke about it well the end as I told you if you're we still josh is gonna move to Austin and plant a church next year well Ethan Lane have talked to us about moving in a few years and planting a church so when we were at the family meeting about it Debbie just decided to play on the family joke and she said well from now on James is the favorite child and then Josh being as quick as he has said notice she said from now on which means we were the favourites so we're not talking about biological children here I'm talking about a principle and the principle is that your spirit should rule over your soul here's what you have to do when you're under attack you have to let your spirit tell your soul to shut up that's what David was doing his soul was complaining and then he says hey stop it and his spirit starts selling his soul stop that you stop that so you stop talking to your stop listening self start talking to yourself and here's the force one go to God when you're under attack you better get to God like a deer needs to get to water now I read psalm 42 verse five a moment ago I want to read it to you again because I want to show you how 42 and 43 they're the same song but you're gonna see the same verse three times I know but I want to show you something about this verse Psalm 42 verse five why are you cast down on my soul and why are you disquieted within me hope in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance alright verse 11 why are you cast down on my soul and why are you disquieted within me hope in God for I shall yet praise Him the help of my countenance and my god for it Psalm 43 verse 5 why are you cast down on my soul and why are you disquieted within me see it's another Psalm but it's the same it's all written together hope in God for I shall yet praise Him the help of my countenance and my god now those three verses sound like exactly the same but they're not there's a really big difference I'm going to show you the difference psalm 42 verse 5 says the help of his countenance cheongun says your face his countenance verse 11 says the help of my countenance and 4035 says the help of my countenance okay here's what David is actually saying when I look at his face it changes my face that's what he's saying he's saying if I look at his countenance it'll change my countenance now again I understand it's difficult to talk about people that we've lost and he can be very sensitive and I'm not trying to push it on your private space as I'm doing this but I really do want to help you but you think about this when you're sad about something you can do your very very best to hide it but people are going to see it and where are they going to see it on your face could be a Christmas you could be in the other room thinking everybody's here I need to go out and I don't want to ruin everybody's day for them and so you do your best to straighten up and then you walk out and your family looks takes one look at your face and says what's wrong and you can't hide it anymore okay I am not at all not at all putting you down for that we're humans we have emotions that's natural that's normal you're going to have emotions I'm just saying don't let Satan attack you during that time without you attacking back and the best way to attack back is to get with God do you know what David was sad about when you read this Psalm I read a little bit to you he said I used to go with the multitude to the house of God okay he's being driven out of Jerusalem he's losing his throne and he's losing his family but you know what he's most sad about he's leaving the church he's leaving the temple he can't go back into the temple and he sad about it but he remembers something this is what it's so good you don't have to be in church to enter the presence of God now I know this statement is not theologically accurate but I mean it just - just to help us understand something David this is the guy that invented personal worship this is a guy that when he was just a shepherd could play his harp so skillfully and worship God so skillfully that they brought him to get an evil spirit to cut leave the key this is a personal worshipper he's leaving and he says aw I'm just gonna I just missed that I'm not gonna get to go into the presence of God and somewhere between psalm 42 and Psalm 43 it dawns on him I can go into the presence of God right here even when I'm running from my enemy and I think David said something like this bring my harp make sure you bring my heart because I'm gonna get in the presence of God no matter where I am I was um I was driving to preach somewhere one time I was by myself in a car I think it was just driving somewhere in Oklahoma to just go up and speak one night and come back and I was there was an attack of the enemy coming against me and I thought I felt like I was praying but in in reality to be truthful I was griping I don't know if you've ever done that but I was explaining to God how he could better take care of the situation I was giving him some ideas that he had probably not thought of yet I was helping him do his job better and I was griping at him because he was late and the Lord said to me stop it just like that stop it stop griping at me and then he said to me son you enter my gates with Thanksgiving not with complaining you come into my courts with praise so I put some worship music home and he said to me so you stop doing that and you start thanking me I remember I put some worship music going and midland said thank you Jesus thank you Lord thank you thank you I wasn't really into it but I got into it because I started thinking about how great he really is and I've been forgiven for every sin and I'm going to heaven and I'm born again by the Word of God and I'm kept by the power of god I'm sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption I'm seated in heavenly places of all things earning my feet and I have authority over all the power of the enemy and pretty soon I started saying thank you lord thank you Lord for real thank you lord thank you lord and it seemed like he just filled the presence of the car it's like you were sitting in the seat beside me and I thought Lord you are so good you are so good then I remember he said to me now what was it you wanted to talk to me about and here's what I said here's the dress said I forgot and he said I'll tell you what this you won't talk to him like this and he said this way said and this is what I'm doing about it and you were talking about this and this is how I'm handling it and you wanted to talk about this and I'll it will be done they said something it will be done next week I'm taking care of it when you're under attack you better get to some water this is water that's what David was saying [Music] I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and every time you hear a message you need to personalize the message so I just want every person here every person at every campus to just simply say in your heart in your heart just say to the Lord just right now you don't have to say that loud just in your heart just say Lord what are you saying to me through this message there's asking what are you saying to me through this message and I want to just remind you that we're getting into one of the most joyous seasons of the year but there are going to be some sad times some sad memories but if the enemy is so cruel as to jump on those and attack you you need to attack back and you need to go and get a very fresh cool drink of water and spend some time in the presence of the Lord and we want to pray for you no matter what you're going through all of us go through different things don't ever be embarrassed to ask for prayer Church you don't have to be a member of Gateway Church when we have this time of Prayer if you need prayer we're gonna have prayer teams at the front of every campus every overflow room if you need prayer for any area of your life then you just come to one of the leaders at the front of the room where you are and just say I need prayer whatever you're going through just say I need prayer for this I need prayer for that and let us pray for you in other words let to agree jesus said if two of you will agree on anything it'll be done according to the will of my father in heaven so if you need prayer for any area of your life as soon as we stand up in just a moment we'll have one more worship song as soon as we stand up then you just stand up step out and come to the front and let us pray for you alright get every campus Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person that has any prayer need in Jesus name Amen

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 722,361

Keywords: gateway, gateway church, gatewaypeople, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ, under attack, attack, enemy, devil, satan

Id: e208E9-p9r4

Length: 35min 50sec (2150 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2017