Speaker 2: Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. I'm
Speaker 1: really glad you're here. Today we're continuing our series from
Speaker 1: Psalm twenty three called Living in the Goodness of God.
Speaker 1: It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where
Speaker 1: you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. Today
Speaker 1: we're diving into part one of a message called how
Speaker 1: God Lifts Me Up When I'm worn down.
Speaker 2: You take out your message notes.
Speaker 3: Life can really wear you down so that you've got
Speaker 3: nothing left to give. And I'm sure that every one
Speaker 3: of you, at some point in your life could identify
Speaker 3: with this anonymous prayer request that came in. I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm in a war zone. It's just one battle
Speaker 3: after another. I argue with my wife, I clash with
Speaker 3: my kids over everything. I fight to keep my job,
Speaker 3: I struggle with our growing debt, and I'm losing the
Speaker 3: battle with my weight. And then there's the conflicts inside me.
Speaker 3: I fight my own fears, when I battle with my
Speaker 3: anxieties and my temper, and I'm always fighting off depression.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I'm just fighting to keep my head above water,
Speaker 3: and I'm just so tired. How does the goodness of God.
Speaker 3: Help you when you feel like that, when you're in
Speaker 3: the battle and you're all beat up.
Speaker 2: How does God lift you up.
Speaker 3: When you're worn down? Not after the battle's over. I'm
Speaker 3: talking about in the middle of the battle. Where do
Speaker 3: you find the goodness of God? Now we've been in
Speaker 3: this series for now. This is our eighth week on
Speaker 3: living in the Goodness of God, and we're looking at
Speaker 3: Psalm twenty three, the most famous chapter in the entire Bible.
Speaker 3: It's only six verses, but it gives us twelve pictures,
Speaker 3: twelve expressions, twelve identifying factors of God's goodness in your life.
Speaker 3: How God is good to you, whether you're resting in
Speaker 3: green pastures and by still waters, or whether you're in
Speaker 3: the valley of the Shadow of death, or this week,
Speaker 3: when you're facing an enemy, wherein you're in a battle,
Speaker 3: a financial battle, a health battle, a relational battle, a
Speaker 3: battle for your own sanity. How does God show his
Speaker 3: goodness in that kind of situation. Well, today we're in
Speaker 3: verse five, and in verse five there are three more
Speaker 3: pictures of how God is good to you. We're only
Speaker 3: going to look at one of them for the next
Speaker 3: three weeks. We're gonna look, this is such a deep
Speaker 3: passage and the metaphors are so full that we're taking
Speaker 3: literally one phrase, not even one verse at a time,
Speaker 3: one phrase at a time. And so we're gonna look
Speaker 3: at the first phrase in Psalm five. It's at the
Speaker 3: top of your excuse me, verse five, at the top
Speaker 3: of your outline, and it says this, you prepare a
Speaker 3: banquet for me in front of my enemies. Pretty simple statement.
Speaker 3: You prepare a banquet for me in front of my enemies.
Speaker 3: What in the world does that mean? I mean, this
Speaker 3: was written over three thousand years ago, so how can
Speaker 3: it help.
Speaker 2: You in the battles you have against your enemies this year?
Speaker 3: Well, we're going to tear it apart first, word by word,
Speaker 3: and to understand this metaphor, uh, you need to ask
Speaker 3: four questions. We're going to ask what kind of banquet
Speaker 3: is it? We're going to ask who are the enemies?
Speaker 3: And then we need to ask what does this banquet symbolize?
Speaker 3: And then we need to ask what's on the menu.
Speaker 3: So let's get right into it. First, what kind of
Speaker 3: banquet is this? Well, again, let's just take it apart
Speaker 3: word by word. He starts off by saying you prepare
Speaker 3: a banquet for me in front of my enemies. You
Speaker 3: the word you means God. He's talking about God. So
Speaker 3: write this down. Five things we know. God is the host.
Speaker 3: God is the host of this banquet. So whatever we're
Speaker 3: going to look at today, it's God's idea.
Speaker 2: He is the host.
Speaker 3: And can you imagine the honor of getting imitation in
Speaker 3: the mail where God says I'm inviting you to my banquet.
Speaker 2: You'd be on an a list. You probably wouldn't even
Speaker 2: go to bed tonight.
Speaker 3: You'd stay up, taking a couple of showers, getting a haircut,
Speaker 3: whatever you can do, find new clothes, so you'd be
Speaker 3: ready for a banquet that God has invited.
Speaker 2: You too, because he's the host.
Speaker 3: Then it says you prepare, And what that means is
Speaker 3: this is well prepared. This is well planned. Write that down.
Speaker 3: This is not a spontaneous banquet. It's not off the cuff.
Speaker 3: It's not like, hey, let's go down to the beach
Speaker 3: right now. God has put forethought into us. This is planned,
Speaker 3: it is prepared. It's not of the spur of the
Speaker 3: moment decision. Now, I want to tell you that the
Speaker 3: word banquet in a lot of translations is actually in
Speaker 3: Hebrew the word table, and King James version says, you
Speaker 3: prepare a table for me. But it's not just any table.
Speaker 3: The Hebrew word here's the word shu khan, and shul
Speaker 3: kan literally means the king's table. When he says I
Speaker 3: prepare a table for you a banquet, he's not talking
Speaker 3: about a TV dinner tray. He's not talking about a
Speaker 3: for mica dinette in your kitchen. He's not talking about
Speaker 3: a folding table a judas. This is one of those
Speaker 3: really long tables you see in a castle, in a
Speaker 3: medieval castle that's long holds, you know, fifty one hundred people.
Speaker 3: It's the king's table, it's the queen's table. This word
Speaker 3: in the Bible is used almost always referred to a
Speaker 3: king's table, or it is referred to the table of showbred.
Speaker 2: In the temple. So it's a special.
Speaker 3: It's a sacred table that you're being invited to, and
Speaker 3: it is well planned, it's all laid out, it's big, heavy,
Speaker 3: and it's got the king's feast on it. He says,
Speaker 3: you prepare a banquet. The next phrase is for me.
Speaker 3: Here's what you need to write down. You're the guest
Speaker 3: of honor. So write this down. I am the guest
Speaker 3: of honor. This is not a banquet for somebody else
Speaker 3: that you're being invited to attend. This is a banquet
Speaker 3: that is really just for you. It's you and the king.
Speaker 3: You're the guest of honor. You're the big cheese, You're
Speaker 3: the big deal.
Speaker 2: And so it is for you. You.
Speaker 3: I am the guest of honor. You prepare a banquet
Speaker 3: for me, And it says in front of here's the
Speaker 3: next phrase. It's a public banquet, not private. People are
Speaker 3: gonna watch you eat with a king. People are gonna
Speaker 3: watch it is public, it's not in secret. God wants
Speaker 3: to see you honored, and God wants everybody to see
Speaker 3: you being honored. So this banquet we're gonna look at
Speaker 3: today is for you, and it's to be in public.
Speaker 3: It's not a secret event. It's in front of. And
Speaker 3: then the last phrase, which is the catch in front
Speaker 3: of my enemies. Oh no, that's a twist. I might say,
Speaker 3: thank God to say I'm gonna prepare a banquet for
Speaker 3: you and your friends. Now he says, I'm gonna pare
Speaker 3: a banquet just for you, but all of your enemies
Speaker 3: are gonna watch us eat together. What in the world
Speaker 3: does that mean. It means that it's on a battlefield.
Speaker 3: Write this down.
Speaker 2: The banquet is on a battlefield. This is a.
Speaker 3: Banquet not just when good times are going in your life.
Speaker 2: It's when you're under attack.
Speaker 3: The king says, during the battle, I'm gonna come and
Speaker 3: throw a banquet for you, and all of your enemies
Speaker 3: are gonna watch me, honor you, bless you, and have
Speaker 3: peace with you.
Speaker 2: So that's what the banquet is. Now.
Speaker 3: The second question is who's the enemy? And I could
Speaker 3: go into this, This could be a whole sermon. We've
Speaker 3: talked about it before. I'm just gonna give you the
Speaker 3: fill ins. I've written some verses there. I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: even teach on these because I don't want to spend
Speaker 3: most of the time on it. But the Bible says
Speaker 3: you have three enemies. They are the world, the flesh,
Speaker 3: and the devil. You might write these down. The first
Speaker 3: enemy you have is the world around me. The world
Speaker 3: around me, and I've given you some Bible verses there
Speaker 3: to look.
Speaker 2: The world is in.
Speaker 3: Opposition to God because it worships itself, not God. And
Speaker 3: the world around you, is always coming after you, always,
Speaker 3: you know, criticizing you, always not understanding you. If you've
Speaker 3: ever been picked on, if you've ever been put down,
Speaker 3: if you've ever had injustice or bias or racialism or
Speaker 3: prejudice or overlooked because of your gender. That's the world
Speaker 3: around you. The second enemy you have is Satan is
Speaker 3: against me. The world is around me, and the second
Speaker 3: is Satan is against me. And again I don't have
Speaker 3: time to go into all of this, but God says
Speaker 3: that Satan is real and that he wants to defeat you.
Speaker 3: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Speaker 3: Satan hates you and has a terrible plan for your life.
Speaker 3: And the Bible says that God Satan wants to kill you.
Speaker 3: Satan wants to destroy you. Satan wants to defeat you. Why, well,
Speaker 3: he didn't even care about you. The only reason Satan
Speaker 3: hates you is because God loves you. That's why you're
Speaker 3: the enemy of Satan. Because God loves you, and Satan
Speaker 3: hates anything and anyone God loves. Because God loves you greatly,
Speaker 3: Satan hates you. Satan wants to hurt you and destroy
Speaker 3: you because he thinks that will hurt God. If you
Speaker 3: wanted to get at me, get my children and my grandchildren,
Speaker 3: you would hurt me the most that way. So you've
Speaker 3: got the world around you, You've got Satan against you.
Speaker 3: But then the third enemy, and this is the biggest
Speaker 3: one of all, is my old nature inside me. That's
Speaker 3: your third enemy, your old nature inside you. And the
Speaker 3: older you get, the more you're gonna learn that your
Speaker 3: biggest enemy is you. And you don't always do the
Speaker 3: right things that you intend to do. You have good intentions.
Speaker 3: Paul wrote an entire chapter about this in Roman seven.
Speaker 3: He says, the things I want to do, I end
Speaker 3: up not doing, and the things that I know are
Speaker 3: bad for me, I end up doing. I'm in this
Speaker 3: battle constantly, and that's the third enemy against you. Now,
Speaker 3: he says, in the presence of my enemies, I do
Speaker 3: a banquet. What does this banquet symbolize, Well, it symbolizes
Speaker 3: two things. In the Bible, a banquet almost always represents
Speaker 3: two things.
Speaker 2: Write these down.
Speaker 3: First, God wants and welcomes fellowship with me. That's the
Speaker 3: first thing that this banquet says. That God wants to
Speaker 3: hang out with you. He wants and he welcomes.
Speaker 2: Fellowship with you.
Speaker 3: This is one of the most amazing truths in the
Speaker 3: universe that God, who created the whole thing, wants to
Speaker 3: know me, wants to know you. God wants to be
Speaker 3: your friend. God wants you to be his friend. God
Speaker 3: wants to fellowship. He wants to eat together. Let's go
Speaker 3: get something to eat. That is an amazing truth that
Speaker 3: in the Bible, a banquet almost always represents fellowship. You
Speaker 3: know that when you want a fellowship with so many days,
Speaker 3: say let's go get some to eat. You have somebody
Speaker 3: over to your house. That's fellowship. When God throws a
Speaker 3: banquet for you, he's saying I want to hang out
Speaker 3: with you. I want you to understand how much I
Speaker 3: love you. And he wants to show how you are
Speaker 3: welcomed by him, how you are wanted by him, and
Speaker 3: he wants to do it. Listen, when you're under attack,
Speaker 3: to encourage you in the presence of your enemies, when
Speaker 3: everybody else is coming against you, God says, I want
Speaker 3: to throw a party for you. I want to have
Speaker 3: a banquet for you. Psalm Verse chapter five, verse eleven
Speaker 3: says this you welcome us with open arms talking about God.
Speaker 2: When we run to for cover to you.
Speaker 3: In other words, you're in a battle and you need
Speaker 3: a little protection, and you run to God. God says,
Speaker 3: I welcome you with open arms. I love this in
Speaker 3: the message paraphrase some five eleven, you welcome us with
Speaker 3: open arms when we run for cover to you. Let
Speaker 3: the party last all night. Stand guard over our celebration.
Speaker 3: God says, I know you're in the heat of the
Speaker 3: battle right now. You're fighting for your job. You're fighting
Speaker 3: for your health, you're fighting for your sanity, you're fighting
Speaker 3: for your dignity while the.
Speaker 2: Battle's going on.
Speaker 3: Hang on, I want to throw a banquet for you,
Speaker 3: just a little encouragement here. Now it's a party in
Speaker 3: a combat zone. It's a banquet in a battlefield.
Speaker 2: Now. I want you to use your imaginations to imagine
Speaker 2: this scene. Go back to like.
Speaker 3: Robinhood, days of knights and vassals and kings and courts,
Speaker 3: and imagine a giant medieval battle and there's two mountains
Speaker 3: and this team a over here, and team be over here.
Speaker 3: You're on the good side, and this is the bad side.
Speaker 2: These are the evil people.
Speaker 3: And that the enemies have come out and the soldiers
Speaker 3: have come out to fight this battle, And just imagine
Speaker 3: that you are a soldier on the front line in
Speaker 3: a medieval battle and you're out there and you're fighting hard,
Speaker 3: and you're working hard, and the enemy's coming against you.
Speaker 3: It's a heated battle, and you're tired, and you're sweaty,
Speaker 3: you probably got some blood on you, and you're scared,
Speaker 3: and you're hungry, and all of a sudden, word comes
Speaker 3: up without explanation, and a superior officer pulls you off
Speaker 3: the front line. You're going, I don't know what's going on,
Speaker 3: but I'm glad to get off the front line because
Speaker 3: this is a hot and heavy battle. And the superior
Speaker 3: officer pulls you out of the battle and you start
Speaker 3: walking back, and then about one thousand yards back off
Speaker 3: the front of the battle, you see this giant banquet
Speaker 3: tent has been erected with all the turrets and the flags,
Speaker 3: and it looks like a circus tent, a big tent,
Speaker 3: and you go, what's going on? And as you start
Speaker 3: walking toward that banquet tent, you realize and there's a
Speaker 3: full feast there. You realize that the king has showed up.
Speaker 3: The King of the Empire has shown up. And when
Speaker 3: you walk into that tent. There is the King's table,
Speaker 3: and it's seventy five feet or fifty feet long, and
Speaker 3: it's heavy in what is somehow they figured out a
Speaker 3: way to get it out of a castle and transport
Speaker 3: it directly to the battlefield.
Speaker 2: And this is the king's table.
Speaker 3: Only the fancy people, the nobleman, get to eat at
Speaker 3: this table. And you walk in there and the table
Speaker 3: is decked out with all your favorite foods, comfort food. Now,
Speaker 3: when you're in the middle of a battle, nothing tastes
Speaker 3: as good as coming home to some comfort food. And
Speaker 3: you walk in there and this table it's covered, and
Speaker 3: it's just you and the king, just the two of you.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: And all this food and around the tent have been
Speaker 3: stationed about five hundred maybe seven hundred guards, so there's
Speaker 3: no way the enemy's getting in here. But the tent
Speaker 3: flaps her up and everybody can see what's going on.
Speaker 3: It's not hidden, it's public. Everybody sees that the king
Speaker 3: has called you out of battle, brought you back to
Speaker 3: this giant banqueting tent, put on the feast of your
Speaker 3: favorite food, and it's just you and the king, and
Speaker 3: everybody sees it and then the King says to you
Speaker 3: in a loving voice, this.
Speaker 2: Is all for you.
Speaker 3: I made this for you, I planned it for you,
Speaker 3: and I just wanted to hang out with you. I
Speaker 3: love you, I miss you, and I want to affirm
Speaker 3: you publicly in front of both of these armies. And
Speaker 3: I want you to eat all you want. And you're unhurried, unworried,
Speaker 3: protected here. There's no way the enemy can get to you,
Speaker 3: and I just want to affirm you and have some
Speaker 3: fellowship with you. You think you're in a dream world. You know,
Speaker 3: how does the king even know me? I'm just I'm
Speaker 3: just a servant. I'm just I'm just a soldier. And
Speaker 3: then so everybody knows what's going on, the King orders
Speaker 3: erected a giant banner outside with your name on it,
Speaker 3: and the banner says this I love and it has
Speaker 3: your name and sign the king, so everybody knows what's
Speaker 3: going on. This is a personal recognition, a personal act
Speaker 3: of love. I love you your name, and I am
Speaker 3: proud of them. What I just described you is exactly
Speaker 3: what God is talking about doing for you. You prepare a
Speaker 3: banquet for me in the presence of my enemies. I'm
Speaker 3: the guest of honor. You're the guest of honor. It's
Speaker 3: not for anybody else. It's not like you get to
Speaker 3: look on it's not like you're a wedding crasher and
Speaker 3: you just came in to get some food. No, this
Speaker 3: banquet is in your honor, and the banner clearly says,
Speaker 3: because it's got your name on it, this is what
Speaker 3: God wants to do for you in the battle of
Speaker 3: your life. Look at this verse up here on the screen.
Speaker 3: Song of Solomon says this. He brings me to his
Speaker 3: banquet table, and his banner over me is love. You
Speaker 3: may have never thought that God was proud of you,
Speaker 3: But if you're a child of God, your heavenly Father
Speaker 3: is proud of you, and he loves you, and he
Speaker 3: brings you to his banqueting table, and his banner over
Speaker 3: you his love. He wants your whole enemies to know
Speaker 3: how much He, the King.
Speaker 2: Loves you.
Speaker 3: Now go back to this picture. The enemy are fighting
Speaker 3: and they see this going on, and all of a
Speaker 3: sudden they just stop the battle. And both sides are
Speaker 3: looking at this event taking place up here on the hill.
Speaker 3: Because it's public, it's not secret, and the enemy is
Speaker 3: absolutely dumb struck by the scene. They all stop fighting
Speaker 3: and they just stare and they go, are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: The King picked that one guy and brought him out,
Speaker 3: and they just stare.
Speaker 2: You know. I have learned personally.
Speaker 3: That when God wants to bless your life, there is
Speaker 3: nothing the critics can do about it. When God wants
Speaker 3: to bless your life. They may spite you, they may
Speaker 3: slamm to you, they may ignore you, they may ridicule you,
Speaker 3: they may libel you, they may say all kinds of
Speaker 3: mean things about you, but they can't stop God's blessing.
Speaker 2: On your life. They just can't do it.
Speaker 3: And that person at work who wants your job and
Speaker 3: it's trying to push you aside. If God wants you
Speaker 3: to have a job, doesn't matter what they want to do.
Speaker 3: And if they are having a tough time with you
Speaker 3: getting over here in this area and they're trying to
Speaker 3: stop you, stop you. When God's blessing is on your
Speaker 3: life and God's banner over you is love, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: They cannot stop what God wants to do in your life.
Speaker 3: They are powerless against the King, and your enemies are dumbfounded.
Speaker 3: God loves to show the blessing of his people in
Speaker 3: front of the enemy. Now today, let's talk about you
Speaker 3: in your battle. In the middle of your battle, God
Speaker 3: is inviting you to a banquet. I gonna explain it
Speaker 3: in just a minute what that banquet is. But he's
Speaker 3: inviting you to a banquet. Job Chapter thirty six, verse
Speaker 3: sixteen says this God is gently calling you from the
Speaker 3: jaws of distress. What a picturesque phrase, from the jaws
Speaker 3: of distress, to an open place of freedom where he
Speaker 3: has set your.
Speaker 2: Table full of the best food.
Speaker 3: The same metaphor, Job's saying the exact same thing, David says,
Speaker 3: saw Him twenty three says God. While you're in the
Speaker 3: middle of the battles you're in right now, God is saying.
Speaker 2: Hey, come over here, come over here. I've got a
Speaker 2: banquet for you. He is.
Speaker 3: He is gently calling, He's wooing you like a lover.
Speaker 3: He's coaxing you. This is all done in love. Right now,
Speaker 3: God is tenderly calling you to his banquet. I highly
Speaker 3: recommend you accept the invitation once you understand what it means.
Speaker 3: And he says, God is calling you from the jaws
Speaker 3: of distress. Everybody remember the movie jaws duneto duntu dun too,
Speaker 3: don too. Yeah, I love this the jaws of distress.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you, what's chewing on you right now?
Speaker 3: What's eating you up right now? What is it that's
Speaker 3: got you worried, anxious, fearful, and it's just gnawing, gnawing, gnawing.
Speaker 3: You're you're stressed out about it. You are in the
Speaker 3: jaws of distress. God said, hey, come on, you deserve
Speaker 3: a break today. Come over, I got a banquet for you.
Speaker 3: God is gently calling you from the jaws of distress
Speaker 3: to an open place of freedom where He has set
Speaker 3: your table with the best food. And others may criticize you,
Speaker 3: attack you to mean you dismiss you, disregard you. The
Speaker 3: God wants to hang out with you. That's the first
Speaker 3: thing this metaphor, I prepare a banquet for you means
Speaker 3: God wants to fellowship with you. And God wants to
Speaker 3: feed you, to give you some new strength so you
Speaker 3: can get it back in that battle. You're tired and
Speaker 3: you're about to fall over, and you need God's strength,
Speaker 3: and you need sustenance, and you need nourishment, and you
Speaker 3: need refreshment. He says, it's all there. It's all laid
Speaker 3: out on the King's table, and I transported it right
Speaker 3: here to the battlefield for you. He says, I put
Speaker 3: a lot of preparation in planning this, and I want
Speaker 3: to honor you.
Speaker 1: What a great and timely message.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: Let's end our show with a closing thought from Pastor Rick.
Speaker 3: If you've been blessed by this message today, here's what
Speaker 3: I want you to do. Share it, Tell somebody about
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Speaker 3: or Instagram. But you'll find a share button today next
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Speaker 3: keep the good news to yourself. It's too good to
Speaker 3: keep to ourselves. We've got to pass it on to others.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening today and join me next time as
Speaker 3: we continue to look into God's word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: We'd love for you to share this broadcast. Just go
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Speaker 1: word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by
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