In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of a woman who is married to a man named Saul. However, she helps David, who is being hunted by Saul, escape. As a result, she is accused by her husband and given to another man. The preacher then goes on to talk about the opposition that believers face in their lives and how it can affect their thinking. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the mercy and grace of God and how it can lead to different outcomes in the lives of believers. The sermon also mentions the story of David becoming king and how he asked for his wife to be returned to him as a condition for accepting the role.

Hallelujah. If you would turn with me, please, in your Bibles to Psalm 83. Psalm 83. Hallelujah. And also, if you do have a marker, to 2 Chronicles Chapter 15. Two places, Psalm 83 and 2 Chronicles 15. Chronicles is right after 1 and 2 Kings. There's 1 and 2 Chronicles. Hallelujah. I wanted, uh, I was a little indecisive saying, Lord, what do you want to call this message? And, um, I had 2 titles. The first is The Wonder of the Mercy Seat. But I believe that, um, this title is to be, this message is to be entitled The Battle to Think Right. The Battle to Think Right. Psalm 83, we'll start there. This is an insight into heavenly places. This, David, this psalm, sorry, as Asaph, this psalm gives us an indication of how much God's people are opposed. And how God's people are opposed into thinking right. There is a reason for that. But let's see what Psalm 83 has to say. It says, verse 1, The psalmist is saying, I see something. You are revealing this to me, O God. And what I'm seeing is that your enemies, O Lord, they are causing an uproar. And lifting up the head means they're exalting themselves. And they are looking to do grievous harm. And verse 3 tells us, they are taking crafty counsel against thy people. And they, there is a war, Lord. They hate you. And to get to you, they go after what you love. And they have taken crafty counsel together. And that word crafty means subtle, it's cunning, it's smooth. And this counsel means serious consultation among judges and rulers. In other words, spiritual wickedness in high places. In an unseen world, conspire. And as if they are one voice and one mind, they are coming to take counsel because they hate God. They have rejected His incredible love and His glory. And they, now being cast out of heaven in His presence, they live to do, they want to exalt themselves. In their deception, they feel they can. It is a brief moment where they seem to have influence or power. And they want to come against the people of God with a counsel of all hell against thy hidden ones, the scripture says. And they are, there is a reason for what they are doing. They not just hate God, but in verse 12, they say this, who say in these counsels, let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. And so this, this counsel, this, what is happening in Psalm 83 clearly says, we want to be able to take ourselves the houses of God in possession. And they're going to do this by, they feel they can do this in verse 4 of 83, Psalm 83, and it says, they have said, come and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. And this plan of theirs that wants the result that they can take possession of the houses of God is that what they're going to do is let's cut them off, they said. And what they, they, they are talking now about the people of God. And they, their plan, of course, has to be founded on a lie, because they can't cut off the people of God. But what they can do is through strong deception and crafty counsel, subtle ways and smooth things, want the people of God to believe that they are cut off. They want them to be deceived that somehow in our walk with God, there are times and seasons where we cross a mercy line. They must lie to us because they make us feel disgusting, make us feel like we are failures, make us feel like we are cut off from plan A for our life. They want to stir up emotions based on lies that say these deep feelings that we feel from time to time is truth. That when the depression or the despair or things that want to overcome us must be truth because we feel it so deeply. And they want the people of God to feel they are cut off. They want the people of God to grow bitter, defeated, resentful and jealous. They want the people of God when circumstances grow hard to begin to feel like nothing will change. They want the people of God when they see their own inconsistencies, when they are found doing things they don't want to do. The things I do, the things I hate, I do. Paul said in a confession one time that they are actually losing ground. They want the people of God to feel that they are cut off and that they live in a low grade fever of unbelief and that will never change. They want the people of God in their subtle cunning to fear the future, that they must keep striving to always make a way for themselves. And so they consulted together and won consent which speaks to me the full force of hell, the cunning plan of the evil mind of the enemy. United as one against the people of God to get against God. And this whole exercise is to make believers believe that they are cut off from a full fledged river of mercy, that we are cut off from the grace of God. And in doing that they are able, the goal or the mission of this united enemy is take possession of the houses of God. We are the temple of the Holy Ghost. We are the houses of God. And when we come together we represent the house of God. You know what they want? They want us to profess belief but possess unbelief. They want us to come into church empty and they want us to leave empty. They want to take possession of the houses of God that we come together as a nation of worshippers but deep down we feel they will never be changed. We're looking to ourselves, we know what our week looks like and somehow we just don't believe God. And we don't believe who he is and what he's done. And this is their strategy Psalm 83 tells us. They are confederate and they are strong and you and I are an opposed people. We are sent to live under this kind of oppression and this kind of lie because a lie is all they've got. And they say in verse 12, let us take possessions to ourselves, the houses of God. The Lord said that his house would be a house of prayer and the enemy's design is to make it a house of possession where he's in control. Where belief is only on the surface and a deep unbelief because of experience, circumstance or trial doesn't seem to grip our heart. We are an opposed people. Beloved, I want to show you today that what happens when the people of God are constantly lied to concerning the mercy of God, which is then the character of God, are lied to about the grace of God, of what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to see how this opposition of Psalm 83 can play out in the lives of two believers and the two outcomes that come from this kind of opposition and the result of right-thinking versus wrong-thinking. Will you turn with me please to 1st Corinthians, I'm sorry, 1st Chronicles 15. The last two verses, I want to look at two lives who are under this opposition of Psalm 83 as every believer is. 1st Chronicles 15, it says in verse 28, we'll read verse 28 and 29. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting and with sound of the cornet, with trumpets, with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps. And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal, the daughter of Saul, looking out at a window, saw King David dancing and playing, and she despised him in her heart. Two believers. Michal is described as the daughter of Saul. They're referring, of course, to King Saul, who was the first king of Israel. The only man of the three mighty kings of Israel before Israel divided. The only king where the scripture says God took his mercy from him. And this is his daughter Michal. And King Saul, by definition, is a man who looked like he professed belief, but he possessed unbelief. He's the perfect picture. He is the sum definition of someone who possesses and says, I believe you, God. And yet in the reality of his life is there is deep wells of unbelief. And because of this unbelief, he was rebellious to the core. He was rebellious to the core. And we would have thought, given the actions of Saul versus the actions of David, that God, many times the way human thinking goes, we would have taken our mercy from David for his grievous sins, because Saul just had the little sins. He feared. God asked him to do something, and he didn't do it. I mean, really, is this not every man? Is King Saul not every man? Who among us can say we don't fear, and who among us have said God's asked us to do something, and we haven't done it? Is he not every man? But beloved, in Saul, he refused to acknowledge who he was. He refused to acknowledge what he was doing and what was going on in his heart. He wanted always to have in his rebellion and his pride, which are rooted together and feed each other, pride and rebellion. Because he never took advantage of who his God was, his stubbornness began to be described as idolatry and his rebellion as witchcraft. And beloved, stubbornness and rebellion grows. And he got to the point where he could, when he was asked to do something of the Lord, it was a light thing to him. And he went all about the form of it, and he went in front of the people, he looked like he prayed, looked like he worshipped. But beloved, underneath, nothing was happening. He was stubborn, he was rebellious, he was full of unbelief. And when his enemies stood up to oppose him, he quaked and trembled, and he caused a spirit of fear all around him. He was powerless before his enemies. He did not reckon who had sent him initially, the Holy Spirit, and turned him into another man. But somehow he had shifted trust. Somehow he had got to believe his own fears and his own rebellion, his own state of disobedience and giving it another name, calling it something else, making light of it, had brought him down a path where he would come to the point he would never obey God, but he'd always want the pretense he was. And this is his daughter now, Michal, described as the daughter of Saul. But beloved, she had another name, you know. She was the bride of David. She was the first love of King David. She was the first wife of King David. You know, if you and I are in Christ, we have another name. We have another nature. We have another relationship that operates in our life just like Michal. But at this stage in Michal's life, she's no longer identifying with that newer and that higher identity. And she goes back. She's known by that old title as the daughter of Saul. She's known by that even though she has another name. You know, beloved, I had a name change when I got married. And I forgot it from time to time. Sometimes I'd even introduce myself or that new name seemed strange to me. All my life was a MacIntyre. Then I became a Conlon. And from time to time, I forgot it. It felt strange to me. In fact, one time, Pastor Carter, after many years of marriage, turned to a group of ministers and introduced me as Teresa MacIntyre, which was horrible because I was eight months pregnant. Yeah, with my daughter. I've almost forgiven him for that. But we can forget our new name at times. It can be strange. We can introduce. I can forget it, but I never forgot I was married. I didn't. You could ask me. It doesn't matter if I was having a bad, foggy memory day or not. If I was married, I wouldn't have to check my hand. Well, I think I am. Because there was a ring there. I knew I was married. So how did she forget who she was? How did she forget whose she was? How did she come to be identified as the daughter of Saul when a greater relationship had a claim on her life? You know, if we looked, her life, you know, and the man she married, their lives actually traveled the same path that you and I, the way our lives go. You know, we may not have exactly the same specifics, but there is much we can identify with. When Michal, you know, she had an older sister, and her father, King Saul, betrothed her to David, and she was in love with David, and it would look like everything that she really wanted to happen in life wasn't going to happen. Then her father changed his mind and decided, no, I will offer my younger daughter to King David so that she could be a snare to him. You see King Saul recognizing the anointing on David. He was jealous of him, and so what he thought was, I'm going to make her a snare to him. You know, beloved, it's a classic case, you know, where Paul says, beloved, he says to one of the churches, I seek you, not yours. I'm not after what you can do for me. I seek you. But you know, this is what she felt she was probably being offered. She was going to be offered by what she could do, not for herself. And here she is being offered to David because her father thinks that he's going to require a dowry that David paid, and it's going to be the life of 100 of his enemies. And David goes out and he doesn't just vanquish the enemy 100 times, he does it 200 times. And then it says it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law, and she said, I wonder if he's marrying me for me, or is it what it can bring him? But she was in love with him, and she knew that she was being offered as a snare to David. And Saul said to the servants, go and try to trap David, and said, wow, you must really be something to be invited to be the king's son-in-law. And trap him. Make, we want to get David any way we can so that with his boasting and his pride, and Saul will have something to accuse him of and take Michal away from him again. But none of that happened. But finally they were married. The scripture plainly says that Michal loved David. Maybe now life has, she's caught a break. She's in her youth. There's a life to look forward to, but you know the story. Soon after they were married, Saul is determined to, in the morning, take David out of his very bed, and Michal warns him and says, you must escape tonight. You must run from my father for your life. And he blows out the window, and little did she know, that's the last time she would see him as he being, as husband and wife like that, as her being his only wife. And out the door, out the window he goes. And in the morning, Saul, when these soldiers come in, and she's hauled in front of her husband, and she's accused, why did you let him escape? And she has to account for her actions. Her father is so mad at her for letting his enemy escape, her husband, that he marries her to another man. She's given to another man. Meanwhile, David goes with his life, and his life is no picnic, and he has the ups and downs of his life. And he is hunted, he is pursued, he lives in a cave, he lives among in debt, in distress, the depressed people. His life has not been going in what, in the natural, a blessed life. It's an opposed life, it's a hunted life. He's feeling the pressure of his enemies, but God is faithful to him. And God eventually causes him to triumph over his enemies. And he takes one day leadership over a small part of Israel, and finally after seven years and six months, all of Israel decides after King Saul is dead, and his son they feel is ineffective, and they have no confidence in him. Finally, all of Israel gathers to David, and they say, we want you to be king. You know what? We are beginning to remember what God said to us, and that you are the anointed one, that you are the man who is to lead us into victory over our enemies. And through you, we know we will have a righteous reign. You're a man of God, you're a man after God's own heart. And David says to them in 2 Samuel, you don't need to turn there, but David says to them, I'll be your king on one condition, deliver me my wife. You go get my wife back. You go bring her to me, because I won't be your king unless this woman is by my side. And so Michal is taken now from this second man she's been given. He follows her weeping until finally the general of the army tells him to go home, and she's reunited with David. And now, beloved, she's at David's side with a lot of history behind her. A lot of history behind her. And David knew that, and he still wanted her. He said, I will not reign without her at my side. Beloved, it's such a picture of Christ. You and I come to Him with a history. You and I may have received Him at one time as Savior, and we've had a life we've not been proud of. We have a lot of history. We have known Him, and yet we've forgotten His name. We've known Him, and we forgot whose we were. We have known Him and showed up in church, and yet there were times and seasons where our heart was not fully given to Him. We have known what it was, but the Lord said, I'm ascended in your life now, and I move forward with you at my side. You are my bride. I bought you with a price, and you are mine. And David was so marrying, hallelujah, the heart of God, and he was prefiguring the heart of Christ for his church and his bride. He goes, I don't want to reign on this earth without my bride at my side. Even though she has a lot of history, I still love her. I want her. I yearn for her. But, beloved, can I show, can you click, if we go back just quickly, where we read in Chronicles, where it said that David was returning the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. And he's dancing, and he's leaping before the Lord. And the ark of the covenant being returned to Jerusalem is a picture, Lord, of what has to happen and keep central in the life of every believer that we may begin to think right, that we may learn to think right. Even though we're opposed by everything of Psalm 83, no matter what life has given us, this returning of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem is key. You see, the ark represents the mercy and the grace of God. When the children of Israel traveled in the wilderness hundreds of years before David's time, when they traveled in the wilderness, they had to build this mobile worship center. And they had this tent. And inside the tent was one area, but behind the curtain was the Holy of Holies. And behind the Holy of Holies was the ark of the covenant. And nobody could just race right in there any old time, any old way. No, there were certain rituals and things they had to do. And only one man could go in ritually cleansed. And after offering all he had to do, then he could enter into the Holy of Holies and offer a blood sacrifice of goats and bulls and rams. And this blood sacrifice, prefiguring what Christ did, he goes and he offers it in this Holy of Holies where the ark of covenant is and is asking, Mercy, O God, would you please forgive us? Our sins are many. Would you please be merciful to us? And so the ark of the covenant represents the absolute mercy and the glory of God, the presence of God in among his people. And David was returning it to Jerusalem, the center, the place where it should be. And it's prefiguring where you and I must live with a mercy seat every day in our Christian life. We must live with a mercy seat placed in our consciousness, placed in our heart, in our mind, our spirit. We need a mercy seat. We need a mercy seat. The mercy seat speaks of the special relationship that we alone, of all the people on the earth, have with the living God. The mercy seat represents that you alone, of all the people in the earth, you and I are the only people who are cleansed, forgiven, accepted, and loved by Almighty God. The mercy seat speaks of the cross, and the mercy seat speaks of the blood of Christ, which cleanses our sin, which breaks the power of the enemy, which breaks the power of the evil one. The mercy seat is everything, and David brought it back to the center, rightfully restored. And as a result, because David lives with a mercy seat where it should be, at the center of everything, he's leaping, he's dancing, he's rejoicing. Why? Because he lives with a mercy seat right in the center of his being, where it needs to be. Where you and I know that we can forsake the rebellion, the pride, where the things that we find so difficult, we learn to quickly drop our knees and say, oh, thank you, God, I'm in right relationship, because you've ordained it to be so. I thank you that I have cleansing and forgiveness, Lord, because your blood's on this mercy seat, and I recognize what you've done. And David has a joy and a strength, because the mercy seat is where it should be. Hallelujah. And he has learned to oppose wrong-thinking, the accusations of the enemy, those who are confederate against us and say, I'm going to cut them off from believing the mercy still flows. I'm going to cut them off from believing that they're going to be a nation and a people where the glory of God can rest. I'm going to make them think it's all about their performance and what they've done for me. But the mercy seat keeps us remembering, God set the terms to this relationship. He has chosen to be merciful to his people. What kind of pride keeps us from this mercy seat that we need every day of our lives, that needs to be the center of our lives? It produces the joy, and it produces the rejoicing, and we need to live with the mercy seat every day at the center of our being. That's how we learn to think rightly. We give glory to God. We humble ourselves, and we say, oh, thank you, Lord. It's not over. This is not the end of the story for me. There's mercy for me. And we go down one way, and we come up another. I tell you the truth. We go down in humility in our need for him, and we come up another way. God says, this is how I choose to have a relationship with my people. You recognize mercy is at the center of this relationship. My cross, my blood, and I break the darkness with this. And we are able to think rightly when the oppressors of Psalm 83 come our way and try to cut us off, when God, we feel, is quickening us to live for him in a new way, in a deeper way. And all we can see is our inconsistencies and the fear in our own heart. We remember there's a mercy seat, and we remember, Lord, you'll be with me every step of the way. And as I walk in humility with you, as I acknowledge my need of you every step of the way, a heavenly transaction happens, and the power of God is what I walk in. David lived with a mercy seat. He lived with the mercy seat in the right place. He knew what it was to live in a cave. He knew what pain and death was. But he learned to encourage himself at the Lord. He made mistakes. Oh, yes, he made them, especially in his private life. He made them in his relationships. He had too many women in his life. But when he would humble himself and look up and remembered that God had set the terms of this relationship and that God loved him, called him, and caused him to stand, he represents every man and woman in the body of Christ who is thinking right, who is thinking right, and that there's a mercy seat at the center of our relationship where we can proudly declare, Lord, you have chosen me. You've chosen me, and you've chosen to love me first. And if I forget your name and if I forget you, there's a mercy seat. Hallelujah. If I humble myself, I can go to a mercy seat. I can ask forgiveness, and I can rise, and I can rise cleansed, forgiven, accepted, and loved. I rise restored. I rise restored. I rise with a new beginning. I rise with a new step and a new understanding. David wrote, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. God, I'm going to do it your way. I'm going to live with a mercy seat in my life, and I'm going to change, and the power of change will be mine. He learned that. But listen to me, beloved. Michal was equally opposed in her thinking where the enemy came to say, you are cast off. Look how your life has gone. Is God with you? God with you? Why didn't he answer your prayers? You can hear the enemy speaking to her. Why has your life not gone the way you wanted it to go? What was so wrong with wanting what you wanted? The pain, nothing but pain. She looks over her life, and it's made her resentful and hurt and jealous, feeling betrayed. Now she's bitter. She's bitter, and she's resentful, and it's eating away at her, and it's eating away at right thinking. Beloved, there is pain in every life, so don't compare. And our life is an eternal life, and the best is yet to come. Jesus is our life, and he will be the way, the truth, and the life. He will keep bringing us to a mercy seat of being restored, that we may dance in the midst of our opposition. But Michal, it's like she couldn't hear that when David declared his king, I will not rule without her, without my side, without her by my side. It's like she couldn't understand that he was offering her in this position, in spite of all her pain, in spite of all the unanswered questions, in spite of everything. God was restoring her. God understood she was the first love of his life. God understood. He never stopped yearning for her. David may have made mistakes, but there was a place for Michal who would never be taken from his heart. That's why he called for her when he got restored, she was going to get restored. What did she do? What was she found doing? Here she was being offered a life of authority, and honor, and dignity, and a call, and usefulness, and cherishing. But she couldn't think right. Could she? She did not bend her knee. Her pride, her pain, her perplexities, I tell you, kept her upright. With her knee unbended, Michal becoming what the enemy has planned and desired to do against the enemies of God. He now has possession of her. She can go to the house of God. She can look at a worship center. She can see people worshiping God and leaping God. She can decide there's no fear of God left in her. She can be contemptuous. She can despise it. She can look at the freedom of other people and judge them, and all she can see is what's happened to her, and her pain, and her perplexities, and her problems. Beloved, she can't think right anymore. She doesn't know what she has. She doesn't know what she despises. And beloved, now, does she believe God can't change anything anymore? Does she forget that mercy is written over her life? Does she not understand now where she stands and what she's been called into? No, no, no, no, no, and you're turning away. Beloved, it's frightening to say, but now she's going to be identified as the daughter of Saul, truly his daughter. Rebellion and pride keeping her upright, gripped by her pain, gripped by the unanswered questions, not thinking right, not appropriating her husband was leaping and dancing because a mercy seat had been restored. Beloved, he blew it every step of the way, and yet he knew his God was for him. God has chosen to work with flesh, so he knows there has to be a mercy seat. But God says, I'm going to astound hell, because I'm going to take that same flesh, and I'm going to put a mercy seat in the center of their heart, and the center of their worship, and when they go down one way, they're going to come up another, and my glory's going to be in the center of their head. And when they feel inadequate, when they feel fearful, when they feel everything, they're going to look to me, and they're going to hear my love for them, and they're going to know they're accepted and loved, they're forgiven, they're called, because I'm choosing the terms of the relationship. You and I need a mercy seat at the center, and beloved, the more we use that mercy seat, and we refuse the pride and rebellion of this age, and we say, God, I'm going to let it be the center of my life, there is nothing you and I can't do. If there's a mercy seat in the cleansing of it, at the center of we do, I'll tell you something, we're going to learn to give God all the glory. That's what David was doing, he was giving God all the glory for what was happening in his life. He was giving God the glory for all that was happening in Israel, and we get low, and God gets big in us, and there's a light, and there's a dancing, and there's a leaping, because there's a mercy seat, because there's a glory of God, and God doesn't share his glory without any man, and David knew it, and yet God is so merciful, he'd still use David. David knew this, and Michal is shut out, she just despises it. Oh, beloved, truly a daughter of Saul, oh God, prevent us from being hopeless, break us, prevent us from being hopeless, there is no need for the children of God to be hopeless, there is no need for the church of Jesus Christ to be hopeless, with a mercy seat in the center of our being, and the center of our worship. David was opposed, beloved, I've said it, but I'm going to say it again, he was alone, he was overlooked, when they were looking for somebody to lead Israel, his father didn't even think of him, his family just pushed him away with some few stinky sheep, that's all he was good enough to do. Nobody else wanted that job, long, lonely nights, hidden away, in a despised job, in a hidden place, and yet he learned to worship, he learned to know that God loved him, he heard the whispers of God for him, and he got remolded by this love and this mercy that was over his life. When David knew that everybody was trembling against the giants, David knew from this experience, that the mercy of God would not desert him when he needed the most, and he took down Goliath, hallelujah. When he was unjustly hated, the mercy of God and the love of God kept him, he said, Lord, I thank you, you've got to hide me now, and maybe it wasn't the hiding, he thought God sent him to a cave, God sent him with a man full of distress and debt, and full of despair, not really a place I'd want to live, but beloved, you want to know something? 400 men with those spirits upon them, and you know what happened? David, with the spirit of God, knowing the mercy of God for him, and the love of God, he went into that cave of 400, and 400 men with that spirit and condition of mind didn't influence him, he influenced the 400. Not only that, he took out mighty men with him. There were mighty men who were in debt and despair, and in distress. Why? Was David any great thing? No, no, no, no, there's a mercy seat at the center of his worship, which opened up the love of God that put him on his feet and able to oppose the enemy at every turn. He knew failures, he knew family failures, but beloved, why was he so leaping and dancing? He knew bringing the mercy seat back to the center of it all, he was going to do exploits, he was going to lead Israel into revival, he was going to maintain all his life, though he knew failure, even to come, he would always remain a man after God's own heart, because there was a mercy seat at the center of his worship, at the center of his being. I say that's the hope for us today. I say that when we find ourselves doing things we're not proud of, things we don't want to be doing, we remember, and we will not be the daughter or the son of Saul, we go down before that mercy seat, we go down one way and we come up another, and we say, oh Lord, don't leave me hopeless, and I thank you, you are a savior, you can move the mountains, and you are mighty to save. Change me, when I get back up, change me for your glory. And if we ask him to change us for his glory, beloved, he will. Oh God, keep us with right thinking. Train us in right thinking. We are opposed. The enemy is confederate against us. He wants us to believe we are cut off, and he thinks he can possess the houses of God. I don't know if there is more deluded thinking in the whole Bible than that, but I know that greater is he that is in me, than he who has any other plans against me. Hallelujah. Thank God I'm not called to defend my own heart, because I'm defenseless. But there is a lion of our tribe of Judah who defends me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He's never won a battle yet. I'm sorry, he's never lost a battle yet. No, hallelujah. He's never lost a battle yet. Hallelujah. He won the supreme one on the cross. He broke the power of sin. He broke the oppression and the darkness. Now, beloved, all I ask you, will we believe it? Will we let the Holy Spirit dig out places of unbelief? Will we dig out every soul spirit, Lord? Will we just come to the house of God, only professing belief but not possessing it? Lord, you know, let's ask him. Lord, just dig out any place where I truly don't believe you. Any place where I find it hard to think you would use me. Where we have been trained to just wallow in our inconsistencies, our fears and our failures. If David had done that, there would be no testimony of his life. But there was a mercy seat. And he went to it. And he brought it back to the center of everything. And God did a mighty thing through him. May we have the same wisdom to think right and to do that. Will you stand with me? You're opposed. You're opposed. The enemy doesn't want you believing. The enemy wants you fearing. He wants me fearing. But God makes it simple. And those of you in this place that are saying, Lord, you understand why sometimes I tremble in unbelief. You understand, Lord, I keep looking at my track record. But I thank you I'm going to look to you, Lord, because nothing is impossible to you. You understand this is the terms of the agreement. I'm flesh. You're almighty God. You've come to live in me. Things change. I'm going to remember that. And you're going to teach me how to do exploits and give you all the glory. And give you all the glory. Because there's a mercy seat. As the musicians come, God is speaking to you. And you are saying, Lord, I want you now to deal with my fear, my unbelief, my rebellion. Where things that I seem to hang on so tightly and it looks impossible to give it up. But I thank you, Lord, that as I just release things, Lord, I'm not going to fall. Because your arms are there to catch me. And I thank you, Lord, as I just begin to live with a mercy seat at the center of my being. I'm going to learn to rejoice and dance again in your presence. Knowing how secure I am in what this means. I'm going to turn away from, Lord, where I struggle. I'm going to understand I'm opposed. And, Lord, I thank you you understand me. You understand and you hold nothing but hope, a future, a power, a forgiveness and a change. Those that are saying, Lord, I'm stepping out. I'm looking away from myself. I'm looking away. And I believe all things are possible with you, oh, God. I'm going to look to you in your mercy seat in what you do. And as the musicians, will you come now? And we're just going to let God do a spiritual, heavenly, supernatural transaction in your heart. We're going to come to his mercy seat. We're going to repent. We're going to lay down the fear. We're going to say where we've said no to him. Where we've resisted him. Knowing we're only going to find mercy and grace and leave changed. Hallelujah. It's the glory of God to give us a mercy seat. It's the glory of God that there's a mercy seat. We're going to know his glory. And beloved, if you've come, you know, with a life similar to Michal, he wants you so much. He doesn't want to reign without you. Thank God we can put our history on a mercy seat. We don't really love him until we've done that. I don't think so because we can't receive his love. Because when we receive his love, then we respond back. We love him back. Put all of your history on the mercy seat. And then take the mercy seat home with you. No other way to live. This is how God's going to get glory in these days. We're going to change with this kind of right living, right thinking. We're opposed. We're being trained to think right. That's going to show up more and more in the days to come out there. Right thinking. We're loved, accepted, forgiven, cleansed. Because Jesus has made it so. For all who come to him. This is a mercy seat. Now it's at the center of your being. Use it. When we come to Christ, we are forgiven. He doesn't keep a record of our sin. But when we are plagued, when we're opposed, when sin is there, we go to a mercy seat to acknowledge this relationship where God says, I choose that you live in a forgiven, cleansed, forgiven, loved, accepted state. We have to get thinking right. And the enemy, he will oppose it for all he's worth. But beloved, we can bring our histories to the mercy seat. And understand you are loved and yearned for. And he doesn't want to reign without you. And you know something? He's not going to. We're going to hear this word today. We're not going to be the daughter and the sons of Saul. Because we're going to think right. We're going to think right. And we're going to live with a mercy seat at the right, the center of our being and our theology. So if you've come today, please know that everything, it is well. That when we go down one way before him, we come up another. That's how he proves he's God. A broken spirit, a contrite heart, he does not despise. But he feels we get lower when our knee goes down. And he gives us more of himself. And he's going to get glory. So Lord Jesus, we just thank you now. We give you our history. That history, Lord, of inconsistency, of failure, of sin, of bondage. Lord, I thank you, Lord, at a mercy seat where your blood freely flows, oh God. There is nothing, Lord, that can stand. Only your mercy stands. I thank you, Lord. Any people in the grip, Lord, of bondages. Anybody in the grip, oh God, of sexual bondage, pornography. Lord, of a twisted identity, Lord, because of sexual practice. I pray, oh God, you break it in Jesus' name. I thank you, Lord. We come to a mercy seat. And by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. I thank you, mercy, and your word which is truth. And you are our truth, Jesus. Iniquity is purged, Lord. We receive this as right thinking. And we believe you, Lord. We come against the brokenhearted, Lord, that has turned them bitter. Where, Lord, that they have looked, Lord, and compared their lives. Where, Lord, they're in the grip of a bondage, Lord, like Michal. Unable to see, oh God, with right thinking how really her life is. And what really is happening in Christ. What's really being offered. We come against those spirits, Lord, of rebellion and self-centeredness and the bitter spirit. And we break it. And we bind it in Jesus' name. We thank you there's freedom because of the blood of Christ. We thank you that a Michal spirit does not over your church, oh God. Open our eyes, Lord Jesus. You gave us everything, oh God. You've given us your life. Your blood has flowed that we may go free. We believe today that you long for us and you yearn for us. And that you want to reign with us at your side. Oh God, we receive this as right thinking and as the truth. And we come against that Michal spirit. I thank you, God. There is nothing, oh God, no failure, no inconsistency in us that can stand before the blood of Christ. That is at the mercy seat. That is the privilege of the believer. Oh God, we're going to live with it day in and day out. And we're going to see your glory. And we're not going to touch the glory of what you're going to do in and through us. Because we know who we are. But we know whose we are. And you're going to get glory because we're going to live with a mercy seat in our hearts and our lives, oh God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We refuse to live as orphan children. We refuse to live under the lie that we are cut off. We refuse to live under the lie that we will not, Lord, be restored. That you do not see us, that you do not yearn for us. I thank you, Lord. Failure is just a temporary condition. But mercy endures forever. Thank you, Lord. Send your spirit now upon everyone that's at a mercy seat. Send your spirit, your quickening, life-giving spirit to all those when we go to a mercy seat. And feel the glory of God and the hope coming into our hearts. Because Jesus is Lord. He has forgiven us. Hallelujah. We are new creatures in you. Hallelujah. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. We determine to live there, oh God. Help us with right thinking. Help us with right thinking. You understand we're opposed. We come, Lord, as David did. Rejoicing in you because the mercy seat is there. Thank you, Lord. We give you praise and we give you glory. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Give him praise, beloved. Those who have forgiven much, love much. If we knew how much we needed forgiveness, sometimes we get a glimpse of it. This love wells up. And I pray that the leaping and dancing that goes on in our hearts and goes in this place because of the freedom that's in Christ and found it at the mercy seat be ours right into a lasting thing. Hallelujah. And God, grant us all that freedom and that freedom in our spirit because it's the fruit of right living and right thinking. God bless you. Let's go rejoicing and singing what the Lord has done.