Hello, and welcome to Leading the Way with pastor and bestselling author, Dr. Michael Youssef.
Connect further with Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way at ltw.org, or call us 866-626-4356. In fact, that's where you can reach out to get a copy of Dr. Youssef's book, which digs deeper into the content of this life-changing series, and it's called A Heart for God. Each page of this book reveals truth about God's faithfulness, his faithfulness to bring glory out of brokenness. You'll see through David's life how God grew and used a man who had a heart for him, but also a man who stumbled and fell into personal brokenness, into family turmoil.
Get your copy of A Heart for God today, 866-626-4356, and ltw.org. Listen with me now to this life-shifting Leading the Way audio. Today as we end this series of messages, we're going to end it on a positive and glorious note. We're going to end it on a very high note.
Today we end with a challenge for each one of you. If you do not have a sacred song today, you need to develop one for your life. For it is when you develop a sacred song like David, then and only then, no matter how baffling the storms, no matter how frightening the thunder and lightning, no matter how overwhelming the flood, no matter how buffeting the wind and the waves, no matter what happens in life, we are able to sing this sacred song as David did.
David had a sacred song that he always went back to. Second Samuel 22. This is a messianic prophecy. This is a prophetic chapter regarding the coming of the Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a forward-looking chapter to the coming of Jesus Christ. This is a glimpse into the life of the coming Messiah.
This is a projection of the future in the present, a thousand years before Jesus was born. The question is, if you do not have a sacred song, you can certainly have one and you can use this one. It will fill you with the sounds of praise when you're down. It will fill you with the sounds of thanksgiving when things look bleak in life. It will fill you with the presence of God in times of trouble. It will fill you with the music of joy when you're sad. It will fill you with the excitement of faith when you feel weak. It will fill you with confidence in your God when you feel inadequate. It will cause others, when they look at you, no matter what you've been going through, they're going to see the Shekinah glory of the Lord on your face. They will see the peace of God that does not make sense in your life. David had a sacred song.
What are your sacred songs? In Psalm 31 19, David testifies the righteous person may have many troubles. How many? But the Lord delivers him from them all.
How many? He delivers them from them all. David faced some very violent storms in life, some of them of his own making, but many of them were not. They were totally out of his control. From being hunted like a wild animal by King Saul to being thrown out of the palace by his rebellious son, Absalom. From hiding in fear and in panic in the land of the enemies, the Philistines, to being put down and humiliated by his wife, Michael.
But the one thing that you have to agree with me on, David, the one thing you cannot deny, David, is that he's never lost his sacred song. You may be feeling harassed right now. I don't know. You know and God knows. You may be feeling pressed on every side. You may be feeling that the walls are closing in. You may be feeling that you're in a long dark tunnel right now. You may be feeling that you are in a prolonged spiritual drought. You may be feeling they're experiencing a sense of despair. I want to remind you that David did this, felt this way, way early when he was in his 20s.
I just wanted to remind you in case you've forgotten. So you're not alone. You're not alone when you feel that way.
Listen to what he said. It is inevitable for me. It is inevitable to die by the hand of Saul. Do you remember that?
It is inevitable. I'm going to die and I'm going to die by the hand of Saul. He was in his 20s at the time. He didn't die. God kept protecting him until he became king and became the most successful king Israel ever had. Reality is that the rock and the shelter was keeping David in the hollow of his hands.
The reality is that the shield and the buckler wrapped around him that nothing would harm him. God is infinitely mightier than your problem and he's watching over you. His everlasting arms the Bible said are underneath. His wings are sheltering you. His eyes are watching over you. His powerful hands are upholding you. His shadow is all over you. His spirit is within you to empower you and to strengthen you. His wall of fire is about you. His hedge of thorns are surrounding you.
His mighty armor has been given to you. We saw how in the times when David did not inquire of the Lord, he made a mess of things. When he did not inquire of the Lord, when he did not go to the Lord for answers, he made a mess of things. Oh, but in the midst of all this, the one thing about this man David, the one thing about this man of whom God said his heart is after mine, the one thing is that deep down in his life he has one longing and that is to please the Lord. And the God who sees in the depth of your heart and sees in the depth of your mind and sees in the secrets of your life is the one who will honor you for that desire. And because of that desire in David's life, God's hand upheld him again and again and again and again. You see it clearly here in the sacred song.
Second Samuel 22. The one thing you notice about the sacred song and in that sacred song, David never, never, never and in all his life tried to give the credit to himself. Not one time. Not for anything that's been accomplished. Never, never took credit for it.
Well, I always loved to get the credit. He didn't. You never hear him saying, well, God helps those who help themselves. He doesn't take credit for the strategies that he implemented. He doesn't take credit for his brilliant mind. He didn't take credit for his perseverance. He didn't take credit for his strength.
No, no, no, no, no. He gave all the credit where? Verse two. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. Don't miss what I'm going to tell you. In verses two and three the personal pronoun is repeated nine times.
My, my, my, my. Which really reminded me of many years ago I was having a debate with a leader. I'm talking about this man is a leader in the mainland denominations and he was kind of angrily looked at me and he said, you talk about Jesus as my personal Savior and my personal Lord and my personal this and my personal that as if you're talking about my personal car or my personal house or my personal possessions. The idea was to him that God is just not a personal God and salvation is not a personal salvation because he believed everybody was going to make it in the end. The very sad part was that this man could not call God my rock and my fortress and my deliverer.
Why? Because he had never experienced a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That's the sad part. Those of you who know Jesus as your personal Savior will testify to the fact that God is a personal God and God does not look at us and see a big masses of people. He sees us individually. He knows us individually. He knows us by name. He knows us by person. He knows our temperament. He knows our personalities.
He deals with us differently from dealing with each other. It is true the inexplicable joy is in the experiencing the rock and the fortress and the redeemer to be so personal especially when we're facing insurmountable difficulties. The image of the rock and the fortress of course comes from David's first-hand experience from the physical realm.
You remember how he dwelt in the craigs in the mountains to escape the malice of Saul. He experienced these places when it concealed him from certain death. Places of hiding. Places of protections.
Places of security. And then here he compares all of these places that he experienced physically for hiding and protection and security. He compares them spiritually.
How God does that to us. He compares these with the spiritual places of God's protection. Of God's defenses of us.
We all need to understand whether we know it or not it doesn't matter. You got to understand that only God is a shelter from the slanderous tongues of others. That God is your only rock from the storm of criticism and rejection.
That only God is the hiding place from the various attacks by those who hate us. Only God is the shelter from the heat of malice. Only God is your fortress from the fiery darts of the enemies.
Only God is your strength and your empowerer in the times of temptation. God is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. When young David showed up, you remember early, early, early on he shows up to bring some food to his older brothers who rebuked him and criticized him and put him down and he was bringing him food. You remember he saw Goliath mocking the people of God and the people of God were shivering in their sandals including King Saul. You remember David stood on the rock of ages and defeated Goliath. Let me tell you something Goliath has no power over you unless you give him that power.
Unless you open the door for him to come in. David with all of his failures David with all of his faults, David with all of his frailties, David with all of his weaknesses, David with all of his impulses is the same David who delivered his people, God's people by God's mighty hand. It's the same David who believed that his God is the only one true God. The same David who believed and acted on that belief that his God is in control of all circumstances. This is the same David who believed and acted on that belief that his God can open a highway in the midst of the Red Sea. And that is why David had a sacred song. Do you have a sacred song?
If you don't you develop one today. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. Beloved listen to me, with all the ups and downs in my life, I want to testify that God never, never, never fails those who truly exercise faith on the front end. You see it's easier to exercise faith in the back end.
Oh with 2020 we say you know hindsight 2020. Yeah well right. You see it's fine. Listen God honors all faith.
Don't let me discourage you. But I believe with all my hurt and it's the scripture that God is honored and God honors when faith is exercised at the front end. I've heard people through the years said oh when my ships come to port I will do thus and thus. But they never send any ships out.
Hello. They have been waiting for the harvest but they've never sowed seeds. And they say all my harvest comes I will give. God doesn't take faith. Faith is you throw the seed and you sow it generously, trusting the God of the harvest. God is honored when faith is exercised at the front end, not at the back end.
And God honors that faith. As our rock, here's what David is saying, as our rock he will uphold and support those who build their hopes on him and on his word. He will steady you in the time of the earthquakes. He will keep you together when the storms threaten to blows you away. He will make you immovable when the wind is blowing so severely.
He will stick to you when others leave you. He will keep you firm in the face of thunder and lightning. Just as your rock, but our fortress he says, he will give you shelter from your assailants. He will blunt the attack of the enemy's spear. He will bear the brunt of the enemy's pounding on you. He will hide you from the enemy's hands. He will hold you together when everybody else is falling apart. The rock, the fortress, what else got left on that verse?
Your deliverer. As our deliverer, God saves us from ourselves. How many times did God save David from himself? How many times did God save me from myself? There are too many times to number, but I do remember them.
I cannot count that high. He is your deliverer. He redeems us from the raging power of sin. He rescues us from the rolling lion.
He saves us from the second death. So the question is this, do you have a sacred song? Do you have a sacred song?
If you don't, you will do well. To use this one, verse three. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge, my savior from the violent men.
He saves me. Question, what is David doing here? What was he doing?
You just saw verse two and you come in verse three. What is David doing? And that's why I'm not covering the whole chapter because I'll tell you what he's doing. He's piling up the metaphors. He's piling them up.
He really is piling up. As if to say, if you slow like Michael Yusef, and you didn't get the first one, I'm going to give you a second one. If you're slow and you cannot catch on to the previous descriptions of our God in verse two, let me repeat them for you in a different way. If you cannot get this whole idea of the rock and the fortress and the deliverer, David hopes that you will understand the part about the shield, the horn of salvation, and the high tower.
As if to say, if you're really dull of mind, if you're really dull of spirit, if you're dull of heart, and you cannot get this, let me explainify it for you. If you cannot comprehend the rock, the fortress, and the deliverer part, I hope you'll understand the shield, the horn of salvation, and the high tower. David, with all of his blemishes, listen carefully, David with all of his blemishes saw his God as the God who's sufficient to meet your every need, sufficient to meet you in all circumstances of life, sufficient to meet every emergency that may come your way, that he is sufficient to meet all of the unexpected in life, he is sufficient to meet all of your desperation in life, he is sufficient no matter how grim the prospect may be, no matter how numerous or powerful the enemy may be. Now I'm getting ready to shout because we have in the New Testament what David did not have. He longed for it, he prophesied about it, he talked about it coming, but he never seen it with his own eyes. He saw it like Abraham with the eyes of faith. You know that Jesus said Abraham longed to see my day?
David longed to see the day that we have, that we take for granted, that we think the mark of spirituality is to come to church ten minutes late and leave ten minutes early. David, who prophesied about the coming of Jesus whom we take for granted, we have him, we have Jesus. The son of David, the one and only revelation of God, Jesus the conqueror of sin, Jesus the vanquisher of death, Jesus the master of salvation, Jesus the Lord of the universe, Jesus the authority over diseases and sickness, that's my Jesus. My Jesus is the defender of the weak, my Jesus is the power over fear, my Jesus is the master of the storms, my Jesus is the provider of all your needs.
That is why he's your shield, he's your shield. As my shield, he wards off the enemy's attack, as my shield who stands interposed between me and the enemy of my soul. Oh but as the horn, the word means strength, really that's what it means is the strength of my salvation.
The horn is always a symbol of power, strength. He is the strength of my salvation, meaning that he is the guarantor of my salvation. And some people when they tell me a believer, a real believer, wondered away I said don't worry about it, God is going to be dragging him by the back of the neck.
He will, he did it with me. He's the hightower, the citadel, that place that is high, above and beyond the enemy's reach. He is my savior who gave me salvation, free, free, free gift of God. And that is why in verse 4 David said, I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise and I am saved from my enemy. I hope to be saved from my enemy, I wish to be saved from my enemy, no. I may be saved from my enemy, no. I am saved from my enemy, that is I am saved in the past, the present, and the future. Listen to me, I'm getting close to the end because what I'm going to say to you, I may be stepping on a lot of toes, but praise God anyway. Listen carefully, this is the problem of American Christianity, it really is.
And unless and until we get over it, we're not going to see victory, we're not going to see a revival. There are so many believers who are forever living in fear, and they all say Satan is attacking me, Satan is attacking me, I'm being attacked, I'm afraid Satan is going to attack me. Listen to me, we need to attack him.
We need to get into his territories. We need to get those who are enslaved by him to be set free, to come to know the Savior, the only Savior. Thank you for joining listeners worldwide for Leading the Way Audio with Dr. Michael Youssef.
Do you feel like you need to be saved from your enemies? Consider taking a few minutes to speak or to message with one of our Leading the Way pastors or counselors. They'd be so happy to spend some time with you, and you can start that conversation so easily at ltw.org. Now before our time is gone, I do want to mention a couple of ways that you can be encouraged in your spiritual journey.
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Just get signed up right now at ltw.org. Again, it's called My Devotional. Now, if you enjoy podcasts, know that My Devotional is also available in podcast form. Just do a quick search for My Devotional wherever you listen to your content. Each episode will encourage and challenge you, and it's available on Spotify, Google, YouTube, Apple, again, wherever you consume your content, My Devotional. Look for the link to subscribe at ltw.org. And if you have any questions, give us a call, 866-626-4356. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth.
