How Do We Let God Arise?

We're examining some of the notable prayers of the Bible. And really what my prayer has been is that this series would really cause you to go deeper in your prayer life, cause you to just cry out for the Lord and to realize that before we turn anywhere else or to anybody else, we need to turn to Him. He should never be our last resort. He should always be the. The first one that we run to.

Run to our Father. He's longing for you to run into his arms. Today we're going to examine out of Psalm 68, if you have your Bible or device and you want to go there, a notable prayer from David. He wrote many prayers throughout the Psalms. But we're going to look at this one prayer out of Psalm 68 that I believe connects so well with Orphan Sunday and what we're talking about today.

I'm just going to ask you if you will to stand as I read the first 10 verses of this psalm. We're going to honor his word this morning. Notes, as always, are on the app. But David writes this. May God arise.

May his enemies be scattered. May his foes flee before him. May you blow them away like smoke as wax melts before the fire. May the wicked perish before God. But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God.

And may they be happy and joyful. Sing to God. Sing in praise of his name. Extol him who rides on the clouds. Rejoice before him.

His name is the Lord, a father to the fatherless. A defender of widows is God. In his holy dwelling, God sets the lonely in families. He leads out the prisoners with singing. But the rebellious live in a sun scorched land.

When you, God, went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain. Before God, the one of Sinai, Before God, the one of Israel, you gave abundant showers, O God, you refreshed your weary inheritance. And then verse 10 says, your people settled in it. And from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor. Before you're seated, let's make some declarations together this morning about that precious book that we hold in our hands or the device that represents the greatest book of all time.

Everybody ready? Here we go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the Word and not a hearer.

Only that he who has begun a good work in me.

Come on. Do you believe that today? Church? Come on. Are you ready for the Word?

This morning. You can be seated. Most commentators, most theologians agree that the background to this psalm that we just read a portion of and what prompted David to write it was when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem from the house of obed Edom in 2 Samuel chapter 6. Now, the ark of the Covenant represented God's presence, and it actually housed the presence of God. The Ark of the Covenant meant everything to the Israelites, if you recall, if you go back and read.

In Second Samuel, the Israelites were in a battle with the Philistines, and they lost possession of the Ark of the Covenant. The Philistines took the Ark into their land. The Israelites mourned the loss of the Ark. The Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant in the temple of their God, Dagon. And the next morning, their idol, their God, had toppled over.

And then swords began to break out amongst all of the people. And so the Philistines realized this was after seven months of them possessing the Ark of the Covenant, they realized, we need to get rid of this thing, like, we need to move this away from us. And that's when David goes with a lot of zeal and excitement to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant. But the mistake that David made that's outlined in Second Samuel was that he disregarded the Mandate of God, the instructions of God on how the Ark was to be carried, how the Ark was to be transported, because God had made it clear that the Ark of the Covenant would always be carried on the shoulders of men, and that was the only way they could transport it. But David, however, in his haste, whatever the reason, decides he's going to put the Ark on a cart and have the cart pulled by oxen.

Many of you are probably familiar with the story that as the Ark is being transported on the cart pulled by oxen, it hits some uneven ground and the Ark begins to topple over. And a guy by the name of Uzzah reaches out to steady the Ark. And when he does, he's struck dead. And David realizes in that moment that he's made a huge mistake. And so he's fearful now, fearful of what the ramifications of his decision will be.

And he decides rather than bringing the Ark into Jerusalem, that he's going to send the Ark to the home of a man by the name of Obed Edom. Now, why is this so significant? Here's why. Because God always intended for you and I to bear the presence and the anointing God, like he never intended for that to be somehow relegated to some man made machinery. But he intended for the presence of God to always rest on the shoulders of men and women and to be carried inside of our hearts.

We're to be the bearers of his presence. But what has happened for generations is that the enemy is. Has tried to ruin God's image. Bearers, we're the ones who were designed and created to bear the presence of God. So the second time that David goes to retrieve the ark, he goes to the home of Obed Edom.

The ark has stayed there for three months. And David this time is very, very careful to follow to a T the instructions of God how the ark is to be transported. And he writes this prayer in the midst of this Psalm 68. It's a prayer of yearning for God's triumphal arrival. It's his prayer that the presence of God would be returned.

It's a prayer that should stir our hearts to say, God, every day I should yearn for your presence. And every day I should long for your return. I should long for your arrival here. That we should be watching and yearning for the day that he comes back for his bride. We should be longing every day for his presence.

More than we yearned for the newest series on Netflix. More than we yearn for some new Lulu Lemon fashion. More than we yearn for some financial gain, we should yearn for his presence more than anything. Are you with me this morning? Verse 1 and 2.

David writes, May God arise. May his enemies be scattered. May his foes flee before him. May you blow them away like smoke as wax melts before the fire. May the wicked perish before God.

And he quotes, as he's writing this prayer of yearning, he quotes a verse out of numbers, chapter 10, verse 35. It says this. Whenever the ark set out, Moses said, rise up, Lord. May your enemies be scattered. May your foes flee before you.

It's when the Israelites were leaving Egypt and they were following the presence of God. And Moses says, God, as we're fleeing and as Pharaoh is breathing down our necks and trying to destroy us, God, Moses says, let your enemies be scattered. David draws on the prayer of Moses and includes that in Psalm 68. And David recognizes and is confident that when God moves, his enemies will be scattered and those who oppose him will. Will flee before him.

The Israelites were desperate when Moses led them out of Egypt. And now David is desperate and he's calling out to God. There's this desperate cry from his soul. The question for you and I this morning is how do we let God arise? Right, David Says, let God arise.

Let his enemies be scattered. So what does that mean? How do we let God arise in our lives? How do we let God arise when we come together in the corporate setting? Here's how we do it.

Through worship.

Shame on you. If you view worship as just some time filler or as some religious obligation, some sacrament, some liturgy that we have to include on Sunday mornings. No, no, no. This is an opportunity. We have anointed psalmist and worship leaders and musicians who are not just viewing this as a gig, and that's become pretty popular in a lot of churches.

Just hire the best musicians, hire the best singers. They don't care anything about your church and oftentimes don't care anything about the anointing or the presence of God. Let me tell you something. We've placed more value on worship than that.

It's not an indictment on what other churches do. They're going to do what they do. We're going to do what we do. But let me tell you something. These folks that are up here, they're not viewing this as just some gig on a Sunday morning.

No, they're serious about this. Serious about cultivating an atmosphere where you and I can enter into the presence of God, where we can come off of a long week or a tough week, or, you know, a week where we've battled illness or we've got bills stacked up or the kids have been acting like little demons and, you know, we're coming in and we're just worn out on a Sunday morning. And you have the opportunity to just set your gaze on the Lord and to turn your attention away from all the stuff and to look at him and to exalt him and to lift him up in the anointing in the presence of God. And as we do that, as we let God arise in our worship, all of a sudden the enemy is put to flight. One can put a thousand to flight.

Two can put ten thousand to flight.

So we worship because there's so much power in that. Listen. All prayer. All prayer. Pastor Terry talked about this a couple of weeks ago in the model of the Lord's Prayer.

But all prayer should begin with the declaration and the acknowledgment that there's no one greater, no one higher, no one more powerful, no one more majestic or more awesome than our God.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. When Jesus said, this is how you ought to pray, it starts with adoration. It starts with an acknowledgement there is no one like God. And when you Worship. It puts everything else into perspective.

Notice the next section, verse 5 and 6. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God. In his holy dwelling, God sets the lonely in families. He leads out the prisoners with singing. David reminds himself of who God is by giving a description of his character and his care for the disenfranchised and for the vulnerable.

James reminds us that pure religion, undefiled religion, is to care for widows and orphans.

This church is about caring for widows and orphans. Many of you joined me yesterday, gathered at the busiest abortion clinic in the Southeast and one of the busiest in the entire United States. And we joined a thousand other believers from every denomination that you can imagine, not to scream and yell and condemn, but to worship and to pray. And it was absolutely beautiful to see the church come together and to be a voice for the voiceless and to stand in the gap for those mothers and for those babies. And this week alone, five babies were saved right here in Charlotte.

231 babies this year just in Charlotte that have been saved because the church shows up. Thank God. I thank God for a church that shows up. I thank God for a church that's not afraid to address the cultural hot topics of our day. A church that says, this is dear to the heart of God, so it's going to be important to us.

That's why we have refuge, Orphan Carry. You can check it out on the website and learn about what we're doing, not just one time a year, but all throughout the year to minister. That's why I'm so inspired by Brian and Anna and what you guys have done. It just stirs my heart. I'm so grateful for people in the church who get it and say, man, we don't know what we can do, but this is one thing we can do.

Maybe you're not in a position to do what Brian and Anna have done, but maybe you can come alongside of them and say, you know what? We want to provide diapers for those who are fostering and adopting, or we want to give you some gift cards so you guys can go on a date night, or we want to come alongside of you and help you and support you in what you're doing. So many in our church that are fostering, so grateful. So many in our church that are adopting, so grateful for that. So many others who were involved.

So many other volunteers. We'll have a couple of hundred people that'll volunteer in a few weeks for the orphan festival that we do every year here to minister to families throughout Our community that don't come to church here, many of them don't go to church at all, but they show up year after year at the Refuge Orphan Festival because they know there's a church that recognizes what we're doing and the value of what we're doing, and they care about us. Those kinds of things are dear to the heart of God.

I've never met a person who's not felt lonely at some point in their life.

God seeks out the lonely. He goes out of his way to intersect with those who are lonely. He did it for a woman who was living a promiscuous lifestyle, had been married five times and was sleeping, shacking up with a man, and he goes out of his way. She's a Samaritan woman. And Jesus goes to the place that he knows that she's gonna be at noontime drawing water in John chapter four.

And the reason she was there at noontime, all of the women came out in the mornings to draw water, but she was so covered over with shame that she waited until all of them had gone out to the well and that she would go out by herself so she didn't have to suffer the scorn and the ridicule as a result of the lifestyle she was living. But Jesus searches her out. He goes to where she is, and he ministers to her and he offers her living water. Jesus goes to a little forsaken town called Nain because there's a widow there who's burying her only son, and he seeks her out. She's lonely and distraught, and he goes to her and ministers to her.

He goes to a place where he knows this hated and despised little short guy who's a tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus. He was not winning any popularity contest. And Jesus goes after that guy, sees him up in a tree and says, hey, man, I want to hang out with you. I want to have lunch with you today. That's the kind of God that we serve.

And that's who David is describing in Psalm 68. This is the kind of Father that we have. He takes lonely people and he intersects with them, and he puts them in community. He puts them in families. Come on.

Are you thankful for that today?

He specializes in finding those who have been shoved to the margins, and he connects them in community with the family of God. And can I remind you, like I have so many times, that we were designed and built for community.

We were made for this. Do not allow the enemy to disconnect you from the family of believers.

And I really feel. And as I was praying early this morning, I feel like there are some of you that are on the fringe, that the enemy is doing his very best to cause you to divorce the bride of Christ.

He's caused you to become so focused on the shortcomings and the flaws of the church. And we all know the church is not perfect, but the enemy has caused you to become so laser focused on those things in an attempt to disconnect you from community and from family. And I'm just telling you, I know this from the Lord and this is a warning to you that there are some of you, you're so on the fringe and you are so close to being targeted by the enemy and taken out by the enemy. And I don't mean just not coming to church anymore. I mean that your soul is at stake, your relationship with Jesus is at stake.

It's a serious thing. And I've said for many years that some of my worst search have come from the church. But God rebuked me several years ago and he said, yes, son, but you need to add an addendum to that, because your greatest healing has also come from the church.

Man. Verse 7. When you, God, went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain. I'm going to ask the worship team to come on. Before God, the one of Sinai, Before God, the God of Israel.

You gave abundant showers, O God. You refreshed your weary inheritance. Your people settled in it. And from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor. Look at verse nine.

You gave abundant showers, O God. You refreshed your weary inheritance. The same God who scatters enemy on our behalf, the same God who seeks out the lonely and the marginalized is also the God who who gives abundant showers and refreshes the weary. And that word weary in the original language, in the original Hebrew language means the exhausted or those who have fainted. Our God is the kind of God who refreshes you today if you're weary in your soul.

Notice verse 10. It says your people settled in it. That word settled in the original language means sat down. He's saying, God, you're such a great father. You're such a wonderful dad to the fatherless.

You care so much about those who are lonely that you refresh those who are weary in their soul. And you pour out such great bounty that you just cause people just to sit down in the midst of your blessings, to sit down in the midst of your abundance and in the midst of your bounty and your provision. So I ask you today, what do you need from Him? What do you need from Him? Do you need some enemies scattered?

Then worship him for who he is, and we're going to do that. Do you need for him to meet you in your loneliness?

Do you need a family?

You need to reconnect with community. Let me tell you, this is a beautiful, imperfect family right here. Beautiful family. And the Lord wants you to be connected to this family.

He's the Father that you've always longed for. Do you need refreshing rain today? Do you need rest for your weary soul? Do you need a place just to sit down in the provision of God? This is who our God is.

This is who David so beautifully describes in Psalm 68.