God Is Our Deliverer - Psalm 35 - A Selection of Psalms 2025

All right, hey guys, welcome across all of our locations. Hey, we're gonna be in Psalm 35 today, all right? So if you have a copy of Scripture, take it out and turn with me to Psalm 35.

Hey, I want to tell you today, before we dive into the text, I want to say that, man, I got to talk about Kids Week for just a minute. Y'all, Jesus loves kids. Satan hates kids. Okay, I want you to think about how many times in the Scripture you see Satan going after, even to the point of genocide and going after children, and the most vulnerable is somebody that he wants to attack.

But yet Jesus says, suffer not the little children to come to him. And what we do every single summer is we sort of realize together that, hey, you know, Satan don't take the summer off. We're not going to take the summer off, okay? Instead, we really go deep with our age-based ministries during the summer. So we have student camp, you know, we have our college students coming back for City Project, and we have our age-based ministry kick off, you know, one of our biggest moments of age-based ministry in the whole year, which is our Kids Week. And so I just want to call upon you guys to think about jumping in and making sure that we're inviting and making sure that we are serving for Kids Week.

It's probably one of the best things that we do in terms of Kingdom Impact in the whole year. Certainly it's the one that, you know, it's our church family kind of galvanizing around a big moment. The church as a team sort of comes together in a big moment, and I want to call upon you to jump in, register your kids, and serve. This is, you know, you hear us talk, we want to have hundreds and hundreds of kids, thousands of kids at Mercy Hill, and that is absolutely true for Kids Week.

But I'm going to tell you why. Because two years ago at Kids Week, one of my kids was one of those numbers that gave their life to Christ at Vacation Bible School or Kids Week, okay, though we call it. I know, and he got baptized after that, and it was, listen, because somebody served, he got saved.

I mean it really is that simple. He goes to the back towards the end of the message, and there's a college student there to share the gospel with him. So I'm passionate about it. Every single one of these kids that's coming has an opportunity to hear the gospel. For many of us, it might be like my family, we're doing a lot of discipleship stuff, and it was just that was the moment of breakthrough. Hey, but there's other kids in our community where this is the only time all year long that they get a chance to hear the gospel, and so I want to call upon you.

Jump in and serve. Let's live that radical, normal Christian life. You know, it's crazy to the world.

It's normal to us. I think people are like, wait, are you telling the church to take off work and use some of their vacation time in the summer to serve at Kids Week? Yes! That's like exactly what I'm saying to you, okay? So whatever we got to do to move the schedule around, man, let's make sure that we're jumping in and serving for Kids Week, and you guys can get online and do all of that, alright? Psalm 35 is where we're at today, and I'm gonna tell you, I love the Psalms.

I've told you that before. Psalm 35 is one of those that's hard. Y'all, this Psalm is heavy, alright? And so we're gonna see today how the idea of responding in a broken world interacts with, sometimes in this world, because of our faith, there are enemies that rise against us.

Y'all, and I know everybody at the campuses and everybody here today, I know not everybody is a believer, but I'm going to tell you, when you become one, part of counting the cost is knowing that you have a giant target on your back now, and that target is, yes, spiritual warfare, yes, brokenness of the world, but it's also the enemy using people in the world to become our enemies, literally, because of our faith. There's persecution, there's things that happen abroad, there's things that happen here, religious freedom being stripped back, kids bullied because they won't jive and toe the line with their secular professors on campus, man, people getting pressured like crazy in the workplace to virtue signal to this and virtue signal to that, and Christians stand up for these things and they say, man, that's not my faith, that's not what we're gonna do, and what ends up happening is they end up, you know, they end up facing pressures and even persecution, and without Psalm 35, this is what I want to tell you today, without Psalm 35, well, I told you the Psalms give us a way to respond. They give us a way to respond to God rightly even in a broken world. They give us the words to say, gives us the ideas and thought patterns to follow, and what we see in Psalm 35 is there is a protocol for when we are pushed on and persecuted for our faith.

There is a place that we go. We go to places like Psalm 35 and we call upon God to be who He is, to be a deliverer. We call upon Him to to do justice in situations, but listen, if we refuse to go to Psalm 35, you know what the Bible's telling us to do, cry out to God, if we don't do that, we will just complain and we will gossip and we will become bitter and we will fall into utter despair about the state of the world and all the things that we see on the internet and on the news channels and we'll just become cynical, bitter people even though we're claiming that we have God on our side as a deliverer who will deliver us all in terms of the believers one day from this wretched and broken world. We're saying we believe that and yet instead of crying out to Him, we're clapping back over and over and over and we're trying hard, you know, to cut people down, to get angry, to get mad, to kind of hold on to that bitterness, even to falling into hatred for people that aren't Christians and they live in a broken world and that's kind of what our response can end up being. You know, I saw on the internet, on YouTube the other day, it's so crazy these videos that are popping up that get all these views and it's Christians that are watching and getting all pumped up about them. The tagline or the little sub, you know, caption for the video is, Christian destroys atheists in a debate. Some of you guys have seen this and it's kind of like, I mean, thousands and thousands of views and it's like, wait a minute, I thought we were trying to save the atheists.

I didn't know we were trying to destroy them, you know, I thought we were trying to save them. I thought we were trying to share the gospel with them and you know, man, I'm an apologetics background. I love debates but the spirit of that is, hey, are we trying hard to not have a bitter heart, not have hatred in our heart toward others but instead even taking persecution and bullying and all the things that come with being a Christian, having the ability to say, wait, there's a place to go in the Bible for this and the place to go is Psalm 35 and other imprecatory Psalms that are like this where we get a chance to call down God's justice but we don't do it with malice.

Here's what we're gonna see. God is a deliverer and if we can get it in our mind that He is the one that we go to for deliverance and that one day we will see ultimate deliverance, maybe it's in this life, maybe it's in the next life, it will keep us far from bitterness. It'll keep us off of the path of thinking that our mission is to get even with the world, okay?

It'll get us off of that path and it'll keep us on the path of being on mission for the world, alright? Psalm 35 19, let's just walk through this Psalm together. The first part of this Psalm shows us what type of an enemy David is facing here. Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes and let not those wink their eye who hate me without cause for they do not speak peace but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit they open their mouth against me they open their open wide their mouths against me and they say aha aha our eyes have seen it. Now I want you to go back and read Psalm 35 for yourself the whole thing I've dumped you in because we would it would take so long to get through all of it I've tried to pick a section of this Psalm that really encapsulates all of it and what we end up seeing in this Psalm is that David is facing an incredibly tough situation. He's facing a group of people I don't know what the story is it doesn't tell us okay this might have been when he's running from Saul it could have been something else in his life I don't know but he's but if you go back and read Psalm 35 what you're gonna find is there is a group of people or an enemy out there that wants to fight him accuse him shame him rejoice over his downfall and lay traps for his feet and verse 21 says they want to see it with their own eyes it means they're the ones that want to do it they are rising up against David and he tells us very clearly if you look right at the the first verse I read verse 19 they're wrongfully my foes they hate me without cause what David is saying is I have done nothing to bring this on and what we learn and we see this because Jesus actually picks this up and he quotes he quotes Psalm 35 19 in John 15 25 and he quotes he quotes it me and I think what we end up seeing is like Jesus one day David was being persecuted because he was the anointed one now Jesus picks that up like I said in John 15 25 and he says hey they're hating me without cause now I don't know if you kind of catch the lineage here of what's going on but the anointed one in the Old Testament is hated without cause and then Jesus says in John 15 they hated me without cause and he also says this meant the way they treated me you can expect that's the way they're going to treat you the the idea is this there is an enemy in this world who is wanting to go to war with the work of God well where does that war come to whose doorstep does it land on because we are the anointed ones now the Church of Jesus Christ we are the ones of whom the Spirit rests upon and so the fight comes to our doorstep the world is hostile against the work of God it's hostile against the work of God because it's the work of God and y'all we see this all around the world you guys know what I'm talking about man there's persecution all around the world man we need to be praying just as a just as a body because he's a member of our local church here but if you guys saw brother Mark Walker has been put up for the ambassador of international religious freedom and and I mean I'm just praying for him and praying for that process because here's the deal you know that is a big big deal it's a big thing it's not an ambassador for Christianity it's it's for religious freedom but you know what we understand that in the world today the world's most persecuted religion is guess what Christianity over 360 million Christians live in persecuted areas around the world but it's not just the world man it's here too you know we have our students on campus that are bullied we have people that get get left out of things because of their Christian beliefs it's and you know it can get even more hostile than that how many of us remember a couple of years ago when Roe v. Wade fell and what started popping up on churches around the country spray paint until abortions are safe neither are you where do they go to target they went to target pregnancy crisis centers and churches as the bastions of those who are standing up for life y'all it can come in all forms the persecution of of the anointed one David Jesus us they can come from hostile governments it can come from hostile group chats okay and maybe some of you have experienced this as well but it's Satan stirring people to oppose Christians because of their faith they're warring against God but it manifests against us in big ways and in small ways I think many times we fall in the trap of saying well yeah I mean my you know my my child was kind of bullied on campus by the teacher because you know they took a stance on a Christian worldview but I don't want to really making the mention of that because we all know brothers and sisters that we have that are serving in places from this church that are persecuted so bad I had one brother tell me he serves among one of the most persecuted people groups on the face of the planet if they're a believer and he said brother you never want to look at one of them from this people groups name you don't want to look at their arms or legs because they bear the scars and the marks of what it takes to be a believer where they are and so we almost don't even want to put it in the same bucket like hey you know that we face something at work or you know because you're not gonna put the pride flag out in June you might get looked at a certain way or you might get left out or leads might not come across your desk like they were we don't want to put those two things in the same camp because we feel like they're not worthy of each other but you got to understand whether it's big or small it is the enemy warring against God by bringing that fight to us and so here's what David does maybe you're facing some of that maybe you have faced some of that this is what David does he turns to God for justice he doesn't take it upon himself he doesn't go gossip it's not about complaining he takes it to God for justice and this is what he says Lord you have seen Oh Lord be not silent Oh Lord be not far from me do you feel the feelings in that you don't say God don't be far from me unless you feel what the God is far from you in that moment right you don't say Lord look at this if you don't think or at least feel like maybe you're not seen but he's taking those feelings and he's processing them before the Lord and he's calling out Lord don't be silent make sure you see don't be far from me awake and rouse yourself for my vindication I mean this did y'all this language is so personal how in the world do you get the gall to tell God to wake up but some kind of way and and listen the the the inspired Word of God includes this for us we come against moments in our life that are so gut-wrenching that we cry out how can you not see this God how can God wake up and of course the truth of the matter is that he has seen it the entire time and he has never been asleep that is the great difference one of the millions and millions differences between us and God he ain't got to go to sleep at night like we do you know and I just think about this this idea of God I'm processing these feelings before you I need you to wake up it almost feels like you're asleep wake up vindicate me for my cause my God and Lord look what he says in verse 24 vindicate me O Lord my God according to your righteousness and let them not rejoice over me they're wrong is what David's saying this is not right I did not deserve this they they are coming after me and persecuting me for your sake I mean it's really odd because I'm the anointed one that's what's going on and it's not something I've done to them that they are now doing to me let them not say in their hearts aha our hearts desire what is their hearts desire their hearts desire is for his shame and dishonor and I already said this if you read the rest of verse chapter 35 they want to fight man they want to blame they want to accuse they want to lie and that's what there's he's saying don't let them rejoice over me don't give them their hearts desire let them not say we have swallowed him up let them be put to shame and disappointed all together who rejoice at my calamity let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me now here's the thing I think some of us are like okay you know I don't I don't want to fall into bitterness I don't want to fall into gossip I don't want to fall into vengeance but I also don't know if it's okay to pray this right so and here's what I'm going to tell you that this is where we got to get the way not to become bitter and angry and depressed and in despair the way not to become a big giant complainer and gossiper about how terrible people are in the world and about how terrible people are to you listen is to get it straight that this is why this is in the Bible to give us language of the hearts cry to say God we need justice and you are the deliverer I want you to see something here about David real quick okay and this is just our God and this is how good he is our character and faith are built in moments like this how many of us have been believers for a while you know this there are things that God shapes you in in the valley that are different than the mountaintop how many of us know that don't you know that there are things that God does in the valley that you never see in the mountaintop this is a situation here's what I want you to know God doesn't delight in the fact that his servant is being persecuted he doesn't delight in you being bullied high school or middle schooler because of your faith he doesn't like our college students being pushed around and shouted down when they have a an opinion about something that is in line with faith certainly the persecuted believers around the world I mean you go back you go read the book of Revelation you realize how God's heart is tied up into the martyrs that are in this world okay so so here's the deal it's not like God delights in that but he don't waste it either and he does things in our life and hard times build faith and we don't want them and we don't want to struggle but I want to tell you David is struggling and fighting for something here that we need to struggle and fight for and that is to remember that God is huge to remember that God has plans that are bigger than the plans that we have and even though I don't choose this and even though I don't want this and I don't want maybe it's not even a persecution maybe you're just dealing with a really hard circumstance in your life the first thing we got to commit to is man I'm not gonna walk through that without allowing the Lord to change me from head to toe from inside out to refine me in it I don't know if you guys know the story of Joni Eareckson Tada but she was 17 years old when she had a tragic diving accident and became a quadriplegic totally paralyzed from her neck down and it created obviously some incredibly dark times in her life but through the wrestling with all of that she ended up really making her faith her own and became an incredible testimony to the world through her art through her events through writing and I mean there's just been countless lives that have been shaped but one of the things that she says that has really become kind of a big quote is this sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves you know this persecution it's like God why don't you just stop it today well maybe sometimes God is allowing something to happen it's not on him he is light and him is no darkness at all these are decisions that are being made but in that maybe he allows something that he hates to bring about something that he loves and something that and this is what I'm trying to get you to see something that he loves is happening in Psalm 35 in David's life you're getting a glimpse of it in real time I'm gonna read it again have you seen Oh Lord be not silent Oh Lord be not far off awake and rouse yourself for my vindication for my cause my God and my Lord vindicate me Oh Lord my God according to your righteousness and let them not rejoice over me let them not say in their hearts aha our hearts desire let them not say we have swallowed him up let them be put to shame and disappointed all together he who rejoice at my calamity and let them be clothed with the shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me my the first thing that I want you to see here we're gonna get into this idea of vindication and all of that but the first thing you got to see here is man when you come up against the wall whether it's persecution or something else are we gonna allow the Lord to move in us like he's moving in David the honesty to flow to God to turn to him and say you are big in this circumstance and to call out for God to do his thing and to do his justice now one of the things that he says here in verse 24 I think is so important it says vindicate me Oh Lord my God according to your righteousness and let them not rejoice over me vindicate me now what is he saying that what is he saying there vindicate me verse 24 he calls for the vindication of himself and the shame and dishonor to be upon others and and I would just tell you this idea of vindication is very deep if you begin to think about it our side of the cross all right now what is day you know you got to remember I've always said this man there are four things going on in the Psalms all the time you have Israel and you got the church so you need to think about those two and you have David and Jesus okay you got to think about those two well what's going on in David's life when he says vindicate me I think what he's saying is very simple I think what he's saying is man these guys are after me and I didn't do anything to deserve that I think that's what he's saying I'm man I am God's anointed one they're bringing their war machine against me because they're really trying to get against you but I didn't do this vindicate me in this show that I'm the honorable one they're the dishonorable ones I have nothing to be ashamed of shame on them I think that's what he's getting at but Christian on our side of the cross this takes on a whole new meaning it's a deeper meaning you know David saying hey vindicate me that's the foothill when you have Jesus Christ go and quote Psalm 35 19 and make sure that we all know he was the one who truly was hated and wronged and persecuted actually the only one who could truly say vindicate me according to your righteousness I mean I mean that this is gets really deep for us really fast because here's what I want us to say it to see if you're a believer if you're not a believer I would I would not recommend crying out to God vindicate me right now if I'm a believer and what I mean by that is I've accepted Jesus life for my life his death for my death I lived through his resurrection I believe that when God looks upon me he doesn't see all of my sin instead he sees the blood of his son Jesus took his robes of righteousness off goes to the cross dies so that I could have those robes of righteousness placed around me and then his resurrection I have the newness of life now if that is your story and that's who you are then we can cry out to God and say vindicate me I want you to think about this Jesus Christ is the only reason that we can cry out to God for justice against our enemies because apart from Christ we are the enemy apart from Christ we are the ones in our sin and rebellion against God against Jesus certainly will probably are the ones who have a persecuted others and and look down on others but but the reality is in Christ we who were once the enemy now stand in full vindication what does vindicate mean vindicates mean give and vert give a verdict arbitrate between us make a decision and that's what that's what we can say that before God God if you're a Christian God vindicate me not because of my works not because of what I've done certainly not because I deserve it but because Jesus Christ promises me that if I admit my sin and believe in what he has done to wash my sin away that I will have life in his resurrection and as long as he's alive I'm alive and so I can say to God God vindicate me against my enemies you could say it like this Jesus went to the cross for our vindication the one that needed no vindication he went to the cross for our vindication and now Christ and now in cry this is crazy now in Christ we are on God's side in God's family and amazingly have the ability to cry out to God in moments of persecution and say God deliver justice over my enemies even though you and I once were counted as an enemy I mean it's a beautiful thing but here's the deal and this is what I want to call you do today many Christians I mean many of us carry the sentiment inside that things captured in the YouTube thing Christian destroys the atheist you know it's it's like man what do we do okay we call for justice but can we do it with a soft heart and I will tell you okay later on in David's life he wasn't exactly a model for this all right and some of you guys might know this I mean David it's like all like hey man you know God you're the one justice you're I'm not gonna do vengeance and then on his deathbed he's like hey I got a few people you need to go kill after I'm dead okay seriously that's what happens all right so I'm not saying he's the greatest model for this but but in this moment he catches it perfectly God you bring justice you you do this you be the one who delivers and I don't have to do that with hatred and malice in my heart look what he says in verse 26 he actually says this let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me now some of us are saying but doesn't that war against Matthew chapter 5 when we are told to pray for our enemies and love those that are persecuting us and pray for those that are persecuting us and I'm gonna hear it I'm here to tell you it doesn't war those two things aren't opposed to one another because I absolutely can in my heart desire that someone would turn from their sin and come to Christ and have all of their wrongdoings and sin nailed to the cross just like mine was and I can still in the same breath say but on this earth they should face the consequences of what they've done they should accept them and let me give you let me give you an example okay so um February 15 2025 some of you guys remember this 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded on a beach in Libya you guys remember this they were stolen they were actually they were like migrant type workers that were in Libya from Egypt and they were kidnapped 21 Coptic Christians and and they were beheaded on the beach the you know the the video went all around the internet because Isis put it out as a propaganda video they entitled the video they messaged they entitled the video a message signed in blood for the nation of the cross I mean it was meant to strike fear it was meant to to go viral all over the world which it did these Coptic Christians many of them died crying out to Jesus and and calling upon his name as they died now here here's what I mean what should happen to the guys that do that well they should absolutely face every bit of justice for what they have done and at the same time we can pray that one of those members of Isis can become the new Apostle Paul and reach his people that's what I'm talking about and I and I truly believe I have wrestled with this I am not sure that I have ever preached an imprecatory song I don't know that I have that's what this is called I'm like there I mean I don't know how many sermons you guys have heard on them they're hard it's like man how do you how do you preach you know let's say out loud shame and dishonor on the people who are persecuting me but there is this balance that we have to strike and it only comes from the gospel the heart posture that we need the spirit to give us is this posture okay it's a posture that says this I'm calling for justice because that's what it means to call for God's kingdom to come and if we're gonna ask God for salvation the other side of that coin is judgment okay so we are calling for judgment to come but I do so in full memory of knowing that apart from the cross I'm on that side that apart from the cross I am one of those who is the is part of the enemy I I am one of those who if we're calling down for vindication is going to be on the wrong side of God's judgment apart from Christ so yes I call down God's judgment yes I call down and ask God to deliver and put the shame on the shameful and put the dishonor on the dishonorable but at the same time then I do it with an incredibly humble posture and so yeah man your face is something at work like I said man there you know the the pressures aren't to bend to this or to cave to that and you don't want to do it and it starts affecting your bottom line and that's wrong it's not right and it's okay to pray God reveal the plot God make this right do justice in this situation but we don't have to go that step further and entrench our lives with bitterness and hatred toward those that are persecuting us instead we can keep praying for them and we can love them same thing with somebody on a you know on a high school campus that maybe is being gossiped about or maybe you're being left out of things it's okay to pray God those who are two-faced then let them be seen for who they are let justice come deliver justice shame to what is shame you know shame to what is worthy of shame and dishonor to what is dishonorable but God I pray for them and I pray they would come to Christ and I pray that you would do a mighty work in their life and God can do this for us all right look at verse 27 this is what happens then when we see the rescue let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say for evermore great is the Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and your praise all the day long I want you to see this in verse 27 again okay let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore great is the Lord well whose righteousness are we supposed to delight in I mean I you know I'm not when it when it says let those who delight in my righteousness wait I'm not you know as a king maybe David is is talking about his people but we understand that on our side of the cross to say no this is Jesus we are the ones who delight in his righteousness and when we delight in his righteousness it gives us the ability to do what I'm talking about here today to call for justice and walk with a soft heart and I think part of the way it does it is because when we delight in the righteousness of Christ we are delighting in Christ's righteousness delighting in his righteousness means we get to delight in the death of death Jesus has defeated death once and for all 1st Corinthians 15 it is swallowed up in victory we get a chance to say today death where is your sting you know what it means to delight in the righteousness of Christ and how that leads our heart to say great are you Lord because here's the deal you're being persecuted you're facing something hard man I know we probably I know we have many of our missionaries around the world they watch our they see our podcast maybe that's you right now you've got partners in the field I'm thinking of you I'm thinking of some of you by name right now you have partners in the field that are facing persecution okay how can we continue to walk this line man I I'm gonna call for justice and yet I'm gonna do it with a soft and loving heart we've got to remember that because Jesus defeated death whether we ever see the righteousness whether we ever see it put right on this side of heaven or not one day everything that is sad is going to come untrue one day all the justice for all of the sin of all the world will be dealt with it'll either have been dealt with by Jesus on the cross or people will pay for their sin for all eternity in hell forever but either way God is not going to miss anything so we can walk through this life knowing man I know it I know it hurts I know it's hard but God's gonna deal with it and we can delight in the righteousness of Christ because he has defeated death let me let me let me let me conclude this more than anything and we'll we'll wrap up because we got we this is this hope of this by the way this entire sermon is simply an introduction to communion okay so it's all it's all man it's all us getting ready to understand you know we we were the enemy now we're not and that's because Jesus Christ went for us and we get to hold those elements so let me call you to do this trust in God's deliverance today y'all Psalm 35 helps us to cry out to God for justice and deliverance and rescue rather than feel like we got a fight back clap back whether we have to have vengeance whether our new mission is going to be to get even we don't have to be bitter we don't have to get hateful we don't have to fall into despair even though we truly have enemies we don't have to ruminate on how we were hurt and allow that to be the thing that pushes us forward if this is funny you know athletes do this all the time I don't know if you guys saw this when Jalen hurts who I really like as a football player okay like Washington College like watching the NFL when he just won the Super Bowl they asked him like what was the motivation and and you know he had gotten the Super Bowl before and lost and he had a picture on the screensaver on his phone that he saw every single day of the other team celebrating with all the confetti falling he looked at that every single day and here's what I was going to tell you guys I'm like hey that's that's a real good motivation you know that's a good motivation and football or in business or something for the believer I don't think the best motivation for us is looking at back at a bunch of failure I think the best motivation for us is looking forward understanding that death has been swallowed up in victory God will deal with all the persecution that is in this world we don't have to he's going to it doesn't mean we don't seek justice wasn't we were talking about we pray for justice we're asking God to bring justice but in the event that something doesn't go we don't see it here in this life then we don't have to go back to that hurt and that pain all the time and use that as our motivation because we see a better motivation and that Jesus Christ is going to win and set all this right in the end you know it really comes down to this final victory will motivate us like crazy to try to live this life and the final victory man all the sin of the world is gonna be paid for by Jesus or by sinners in hell we don't have to worry if it's getting missed maybe that's what you're thinking right now God how can you not see what this person is doing or how do you not see what this person is doing to my child and I think there's a faith component to it he sees it we don't have to be bitter we don't have to have vengeance we could pray Psalm 35 two things and I'm done all right first thing is this hey for some of us today you you know for some of us I need to ask you the question straight up can you say God vindicate me over my enemies or against my enemies can you say that or is it like man if you said that you're still on the wrong side of that equation because you've never admitted your sin believed in what Christ has done and and except you know and trusted him and called upon him for salvation now if that's you today I would really call you to confess him as the Lord of your life and then you have the opportunity to pray Psalm 35 because the blood of Christ covers you but secondly here's what I would say and this gets into communion this gets into our prayer time this is kind of our setup you know what are you holding on to today that you need to give God control over you need to hand it over to him and you need to instead of ruminating on it bitterness all around it I'm hateful in my heart about it I can't believe that person treated me like this because I'm a believer they came against the anointed maybe it burns you up to see our our man our our nation kind of you know sliding when it comes to religious faith and all that maybe you're looking around the world and and you think about the voice of those martyrs and I was just saying and it just kills you and you want vengeance now we got a fight we got a okay there's a protocol the protocol is Psalm 35 the protocol is we can pray God vindicate God bring justice God be a deliverer God rescue God cast shame cast dishonor on those that need it but we don't go as so but we don't go so far that's to then take that next step that contradicts Matthew 5 we don't hate we're not going to we're not going to surrender to bitterness we're not going to surrender to despair and for some of us we're going to need a pretty big dose of faith to be able to do that today maybe there's a specific thing in your life that you need to forgive or you need you need that you need to just release and get over it a way that you were wrong the way that you were hurt we're in the missionary biography right now 1960s guy named Don Richardson he's working with cannibals in Papua New Guinea and one day they're out there and he's got this little group of believers that are following him and he's teaching them the gospel and they're believing they're leaning in and it's years after he's been with them and this guy shows up two guys show up in a canoe and one of the guys is about dead and they're trying to bring this guy to the missionary they're from a different tribe and the missionary runs to go get his his medicine for pneumonia and right as he's about to give it to him one of the guys that's been just that he's been discipling it's been following him grabs him and says you're not going to give that medicine to him are you and he says yeah why and he said because that man killed and ate my little brother and he did and the missionary had to look at him and had to say to him but what is Jesus forgiven you of what what has he done for you goes right back this idea of vindication it is tied solely to what Christ has done for us and I'm gonna tell you man it gives us the freedom to let go of some things that we never thought we could have you been hurt have you been persecuted manager is there somebody that's out that's out for you is there an enemy pray in line with Psalm 35 don't come to this table with malice in your hearts all right man allow us to release those things and pray that God forgive us for the bitterness that we have and give us the ability to forgive others as we come to the table and we see what God did to forgive us let's pray father we come before you right now Lord this is hard this is a tough sermon it's a tough moment now we're bringing up some things here that are hard God I would imagine there's people that are dealing with some really tough situations where they've been hurt they've been looked over faith was a component in that maybe they've been bullied and Lord I pray that in this moment even through communion seeing art your nearness to us God we will release those things and we will get more in line with a Psalm 35 than the sin of bitterness and vengeance in Christ's name amen