In this sermon, the focus is on Psalm 108 and the situation described in it. The speaker highlights the fear and sense of abandonment expressed in the psalm, suggesting that it reflects times when people are divided between giving in to their circumstances or rising above them in faith. The speaker calls on God to intervene and set free those who are captive to fear and darkness, bringing them into the promises of the covenant through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The sermon emphasizes the power of God to scatter and triumph over anything that tries to captivate believers, and encourages listeners to trust in God's promises and praise Him among the nations.

...is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge P.O. Box 260 Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Psalm 108, if you'll turn there with me. The testimony of a fixed heart. Psalm 108. Almighty God, I thank you. Thank you for your presence and your power. I thank you, Lord, for the greatness of your kingdom. I thank you, Lord, for the strength of your hand. God, you are able to touch every circumstance, every situation, every life, every frame of mind. Lord, every background. There's nothing too far, nothing too deep. Lord, there's nothing that's out of your reach. And God, I ask you now in Christ's name to come with great power and set free everyone in this house that is captivated by thoughts of fear, by the power of darkness, by any any captivity of the enemy. Lord, I ask you to set your hand against it and set your people free. Set free the stranger that's come into this house that's outside of the promises of the covenant. Set them free by bringing them in through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Give an understanding today of what it means to be born again by the Spirit of Almighty God. Father, I thank you for it. Give you all the praise and the glory for your quickening power in Jesus' name. Psalm 108, written by King David, King of Israel. O God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, psaltry and harp, I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people, and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great above the heavens, and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth, that thy beloved may be delivered, saved with thy right hand, and answer me. God hath spoken in his holiness. I will rejoice. I will divide Shechem. I will mete out the valley of Sukkot. Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is the strength of mine head. Judah is my lawgiver. Moab is my washpot. Over Edom I will cast out my shoe, and over Philistia will I triumph. Now who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, who has cast us off, and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts? Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly, for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. Now I find there's an interesting thing about Psalm 108. This is a song. These psalms, you have to understand, are songs. Now these psalms are not just poems, they're songs. They were written by King David and others, and they were written to be songs. They were songs of worship. When they would come into the temple and other times, other places, and seasons, they would sing these songs. Now Psalm 108 is exactly the same as Psalm 60, except for, I believe it's verses 1 to 5 in Psalm 108 are different from verses 1 to 4 in Psalm 60. So I want you to go back just for a moment to Psalm 60 with me. It's an interesting thing when we take a look at this, because Psalm 60 is written earlier, and what a difference from what we read in the beginning. In Psalm 108, David starts out by saying, Oh God, my heart is fixed. That means it's established, it's planted, it is firmly trusting, it is believing, it is unmovable. It's fixed in the promises of God. I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Now Psalm 60, the very same, in Psalm 108, David goes on, from verse 7 to the end of the psalm, and speaks of very, very powerful truths, and they're eternal truths, about the declared intent of God on behalf of his own people. Now I'm going to be getting into those a little later on, but I want you to understand both psalms speak the same truth. Very powerful truths, like the truths that are written, the promises that are given to you and I in the New Testament of Jesus Christ. These are powerful truths. You and I have to understand that the promises that were spoken by God, or the declared intent of God, for you and for me, is spoken by the one who created this universe, brought the very worlds that we live in into existence, who actually spoke and gave you and I breath and life, and knew us even before we were formed in our mother's womb. This same God, who manifested himself in the world through his son Jesus Christ, and is now among us in the power of the Holy Spirit, has given us exceeding great and precious promises, the New Testament says, and by these promises we become partakers of the divine nature of Jesus Christ. We become partakers of the life of Christ, through the promises that God has spoken to us. Now, powerful promises, but the beginning of both of these psalms are quite different. In Psalm 108, actually Psalm 60 rather, here's how it begins. Oh God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased. Oh, turn thyself to us again. Thou hast made the earth to tremble. Thou hast broken it. Heal the breaches thereof, for it's shaken. Thou hast showed thy people hard things. Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. So these are the four verses that are different from Psalm 108, and I guess the easiest way I can say it is in Psalm 60, the focus seems to be on the situation, and there seems to be evidence of fear that because of some displeasure God has turned away. Now, I liken this psalm to times when the heart of man is equally divided between caving into our circumstances which surround us and rising above them by laying hold in faith of those things which have been spoken about them by God. There are times that our hearts are in effect divided. With our mouths we begin to speak out as it is the situation and the power of the situation and the calamity in a sense of the situation, yet at the same time we're also speaking the promises of God. But the Bible calls that, I believe, a double-mindedness or a double-heartedness, and if there's anything that's a sure path to nowhere in God, it is having a double heart or a double mind. James the Apostle in chapter 1 verse 6 said, Let him ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not let that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. Hebrews 11 6 says that without faith it's impossible to please him that is God, for he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Must believe that he is. If you are coming to God, there has to be a belief in your heart, first of all, that God exists, that God is true to his promises, true to his word, and he will be a rewarder. In other words, he will give things that are even undeserved or unmerited, simply because we desire him. We want him. Now, diligently seeking him has a foundation stone of truth in it, and the basic understanding is that I, in my heart, want to move and live in the very manner that God would have me to. That's what diligently seeking God is all about. It's not the pursuit of knowledge. It's not looking for some new Hebrew or Greek meaning of some word or some phrase or some historical thing in the Bible. No, it's in my heart. I'm saying, God, your ways are higher than mine. Your thoughts are higher than mine. Lord, I want to live for you, and I want your kingdom to come, and I want your ways to be established in my life. That's why I read the Bible. That's why I'm going to church. That's why I'm singing your praises. God, I want to walk with you. I want to know you. I want to honor you, not just in heaven, but I want to honor you on the earth. Because, God, you have made a clear declaration in your word that you have set apart a people to yourself in the world, and through that people you want to establish your name as a praise throughout the earth. So, God, I'm inviting you to come and do such a work in my life that it will establish your name as a praise. It will not be about me, but it will be about you. I believe that you are. I believe you have a purpose. I believe you saved me because you loved me. I believe you sent your promises because you want to change me. I believe you gave me a vehicle or a mechanism to lay hold of your promises, and that mechanism is first understanding your heart, that you want to give it to me, and secondly, if I will believe that what you say is true, God, you will reward me, and that reward will be a continuous process of change going on in my life and in my heart, molded by the Spirit of God, molded by the Word of God, established, set upon a firm place, a brand new creation in Christ Jesus, not what I was yesterday, changed by the Spirit of God every day into the image and glory of Almighty God. The heart's cry of every Christian should be, Lord, I'm just asking you to show change me, that by the time I'm ready to die, that the step from eternity into, from time into eternity will be just a natural step for me. I'll be walking into your presence knowing you already, not having to be introduced to you, but knowing you, knowing you intimately, knowing your presence, knowing your mind and your power. Folks, to have it any other way is nothing less than a religious lie, to come into the house of God and go through the pretense of seeking Him, but it's not really in the heart, is nothing less than a religious lie, it's a delusion, and so many thousands of people are caught in that trap, even in the house of God every Sunday. Now, firstly, if sin is in the way, in Psalm 60, there's a sense in the heart of David that the people have been cast off. Now, of course, that's not true, that's not right, that's what David was feeling, but I tell you, if you love God and if you want God, God will deal with you, but He will never cast you off. If in your heart you say, Lord, Jesus, you are my Savior, you died for me, my God, I want you, I want to live for you, will you always have a good day? No. Will you always have a good week? No. Will you always have a good month? No. Sometimes you'll go through trial, sometimes you go through difficulty, because we all live in a place where that is the common norm, but I tell you, in the midst of it all, God says, I will seal you in the Father's hand and nobody will take you out of the hand of the Father. Nobody, Jesus said, will take you out of my Father's hand. I will keep you and I will not leave you and I will not forsake you. And one of the last things, as Pastor Neal was sharing today, that Jesus spoke when He ascended into heaven, He said, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. I will always be there, although from time to time you may not feel my presence, because of something that's gotten in the way of our relationship. You're still my son, you're still my daughter, but you've allowed perhaps something into your life that has blocked that communication with me. You're still mine. We're blood-related, you know, to the Son of God. Did you know that? My children don't always do things that are pleasing in my sight. Sometimes they do things that grieve my heart, but I want to tell you something. I am blood-related to them and given the opportunity, I will always testify of them. I am never ashamed of them. I love them with all of my heart. I would die for them. I would gladly take their place if that meant that the kingdom of God would fulfill something that God has intended for them. Beloved, if sin is in the way, God will surely and clearly show us, and then He will lead us to His provision for cleansing and freedom from the holding power of sin. And folks, that cleansing, that healing provision is none other than the sacrifice of the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. He will lead you to the cross. The Bible says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I thanks be to God for that with all of my heart. To know that I am forgiven. To know that if I have a momentary lapse in my life or if I do something that cuts off that communication with God, that all I have to do is just acknowledge that I have sinned against God. And that communication, not my salvation, that is secure in Jesus Christ, but that communication with God comes right back. It's there in full force. And folks, once you are free from all of the effects and power of sin, we have every right to claim every promise of God as our very own. We have every right. Everything in this book is mine when I'm walking in right relationship with Almighty God. Did you know that? When my heart is set towards Him, it doesn't mean I'm perfect. The perfectness I have comes from Jesus Christ. But because I want Him and acknowledge that, I don't want to walk in sin. I don't want to dishonor His name in my generation. Every promise in this book is mine. Hallelujah. Now, how many of us have ever written an old song when we were without God or perhaps when we were immature in the faith? And now that we've grown and lived and seen the faithfulness of God, we'd like a chance to write it all over again. There's many of us like that, aren't there? There are times in our lives that we've said things, we've done things. Some of us have written them down. Some even wrote songs. And given the chance, you'd say, I'd sure like to write that song over again. That was such a good song. But I have to make some changes because there were some mistakes in that song. I wrote a lot of songs before I came to the Lord. And all folks, if I had the courage to even speak some of the lyrics to you, you'd slap your forehead and said, what are we doing sitting here listening to this man today? Things that we think are so profound, but they're absolutely insane. There's no basis of truth in them. And you sit there, I remember in university, strumming your guitar, writing all these really profound songs from all these insane theories we're learning in philosophy class. And people sit back and go, oh wow, everybody's always grasping for some higher thought or some truth. And I can't sing any of that stuff anymore. I can't even bear to think that I actually wrote some of this stuff down. You'd think that I was just next to an idiot, literally, writing some of this stuff. There's only one song really that I've kept over the years that I cherish. It's a song that I wrote for Teresa before we were married. And I still sing it to her about twice a year. It's called, Come Back Soon. I better explain that. Before we got married, she was always leaving me. And I was always standing there saying, well, come back soon. So eventually it turned into a song. And I still sing it. Well, she came back, thank God, and has stayed. Now in Psalm 108, it's as if David is saying, it was such a good song, I'd like to sing it again. But I'd like to make some changes. Changes that reflect really what has happened in my heart. I want to read it to you from a paraphrased translation. In verses 1 to 6 in Psalm 108, listen to what David says. What a difference from, oh God, you cast us off. And oh God, our armies are failing. And oh God, this and oh God, that. It's singing the circumstance. Now in Psalm 108, David takes the very second half, which are the powerful truths of God, and now combines it with the heart of faith. He says, oh God, my heart is ready to praise you. I will sing and rejoice before you. Wake up, oh harp and layer. We will meet the dawn with song. I love that, don't you? David says, I will get up with a song on my lips. I'm not going to get up singing the circumstance anymore. I'm going to get up because I have seen the faithfulness of God. I have walked now with God for a season. I have watched him be faithful to everything he's ever promised me he's going to do. God, I'm not going to write songs. I'm not going to have a testimony that sings the circumstance anymore, but God, I'm going to wake up. And even if surrounded by my enemies, I'm going to meet the dawn with a song, a song of faith and confidence in the God that has spoken promises to me who cannot fail. Hallelujah. Then he goes on to say, I will praise you everywhere around the world in every nation. I believe that God's given us that opportunity here at Times Square church individually and collectively as well. That's why the Lord is sending us to the Philippines and possibly Italy and other places in the future. I will praise you everywhere around the world in every nation. For God, you have shown your covenant promises to me. I understand how secure I am in them. I now know that circumstance cannot triumph over the work that you have begun in my life. And even though my enemies surround me on every side, and even though of fire, I seem to be in fiery trials. God, I understand that all things work together for good because I love you and I'm called according to your purpose. I understand that you will not leave me, forsake me or fail me. I understand you will bring me through. And when I come through, I'll be like gold. Your word will have been tried in my heart. I will have proven your word and God, you will establish me and give me a testimony to the nations that we don't have to sing our circumstance once we know the God who created the heavens and the earth. He says, your loving kindness is great beyond measure, high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches the skies. Your glory is far more vast than the heavens. It towers above the earth. Hear the cry of your beloved child. Come with mighty power and rescue me. David's saying, come, God, come, show yourself strong. I'm singing to you first thing in the morning. Come. And by the end of the day, there'll be a new verse onto my song. The end of the day, God, I'll have another thing to shout about you, Lord. Come and rescue me from every enemy. Come and rescue me from every trial. And oh my God, I will sing. I will sing as long as you give me breath. Let everything that has breath. The scripture says, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. No more singing the circumstance. Now praising the God who has faithfully promised to carry me through every place and keep me with his mighty power. Now David says, God, rescue me. But the rescue is not necessarily from the circumstance, but from the lies that it tries to speak into our lives, that we will be triumphed over in the midst of it. That is the lie of the devil. He has a heyday with that lie, even among the people of God. A circumstance comes about. Sometimes it can be the hand of God that has brought us to try to produce in us a deeper trust in his keeping and sustaining power. But the enemy will come and try to convince us that that circumstance is going to overwhelm us. It's going to triumph over us. We're going to be defeated. Do you understand something today? When you came to Jesus Christ, the very honor of the name of God is now associated with keeping you. With keeping you. God, God, he put his honor as it is on the line. He made promises. If any of these promises were not fulfilled, if they did not happen, then God's name would be dishonored. God will not allow you to be triumphed over. You have to understand that if your trust is in him. Yes, you will might go through some hard times. We all go through hard times, but the hard times will not triumph over you. They will not swallow you. They will not burn you. They will not take away that which God has planted in your heart because God gave it and only God, only God, is the one who sustains it. David starts out now in Psalm 108, no longer singing the circumstance, but he says in Psalm 108, oh God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise even with my glory. My heart is fixed. He has another testimony now. He's not singing the circumstances that were sung in Psalm 60. He says, now my heart is fixed. And I want to tell you why his heart is fixed. The answer is in verse seven, the first three weeks, the first three words, because God has spoken, my heart is fixed. God has spoken folks. If you and I can get there, we have really gotten to the place where we need to be to walking in the victory side in this in time. But in a sense, we're already on the victory side in eternity. When we can honestly say my heart is fixed because God has spoken, my heart is fixed. I am not going to be moved by the circumstance because God has spoken a promise of redemption and triumph in the midst of it. Now David had some powerful truths that when we read this psalm might not mean a whole lot to us, but I'm going to try very briefly to explain some of the things that he knew about. He said in verse seven, God has spoken in his holiness. I will rejoice. Now this is God speaking. David said this is the voice of God saying, I will rejoice. I will divide Shechem. I will divide Shechem. Now we read that and say, okay, well that's just wonderful. I will divide Shechem. How does that apply to my life? Well, first of all, here it is. It is in Shechem that Dina, the daughter of Jacob, was seduced by the son of Hamor, its king. As a matter of fact, Hamor's son was named Shechem as well. It was also in Shechem that after the death of Gideon that Abimelech, the illegitimate son of Gideon, induced the Shechemites to revolt and to make him king. So we see seduction in Shechem. We see a people also being induced to revolt against the order of God. Also in Shechem, many years later, the ten tribes renounced the house of David and gave their allegiance. You remember after Solomon, the kingdom was split between his son and another man called Jeroboam. It was in Shechem that the ten tribes, the northern tribes, renounced the house of David and gave their allegiance to Jeroboam. Shechem became the capital of the northern kingdom. Now God said, I'm going to divide it. God spoke this to David years before any of this was about to happen. And most of these people later on, we've taken time and explained the history of the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel, but you will know that the northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria and taken into captivity. It was not too long after that most of its people were taken into captivity and the conquering forces sent foreigners into the land to occupy the places that were once theirs. God said, there's a place and the intent of that place is to seduce, to induce, and to cause my people to give their allegiance to that which cannot bring them into life and into victory. And God said, everyone who seduces, induces you, and calls you to give its allegiance, which is not of me and cannot help you, I'm going to conquer it and I'm going to bring it into captivity, says the Lord. God had spoken this to David. God said, Shechem is going to rise up and Shechem is going to exalt itself above the knowledge of God. But God said, I'm going to come and I'm going to conquer it and I'm going to divide. I'm going to mete it out to other people. I'm going to divide it. I'm going to make it powerless and virtually give it away. God says, there's nobody, there is nothing that can rise itself against my knowledge and against my word. When I say something, it is going to happen. David is rejoicing before the fact, before Solomon even sits on the throne, before the division of the kingdom even happens, before Shechem is even set up as the capital of this wayward state that Israel got into. God says to David, I'm going to rejoice over it. I'm going to divide it. I'm going to mete it out. I'm going to give it away. There are foreigners that are going to come in and they're going to captivate it and I'm going to give it to them. That's why Paul says in Ephesians 4, 8, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Captivity is captive. We have to understand that. There is nothing that would try to captivate you as a child of God that has any power over your life. God says, those things that would come to try to take you away from me, if your heart is turned towards me, God says, I will scatter them. I will scatter them. I will triumph over them openly. That's when Jesus said it is finished. And the scripture says he triumphed openly over all the powers of the enemy and made an open display of them and blotted out the sins that we had committed against him with his own blood. Psalm 108 again, verse 7, he says, and I will mete out the valley of Succoth. Now, the valley of Succoth, it's here that Jacob in Genesis 33, 17 built booths for his cattle after he returned and was delivered from the wrath of his brother Esau. And what God is saying in 108, verse 7, he says, I will bring you into a place of protection and provision where all those who oppose you will have to step aside and let you in. That's an incredible truth, folks. I mean, that should make you shout when it gets into your heart. Jacob had taken Esau's inheritance, his blessing. You know, we often preach that it was by fraud, but I'm not necessarily convinced of that. Yes, the methodology might not have been right, but Jacob wanted it and Esau didn't. And that's why even when they were born, God said it's the elder that's going to serve the younger because he knows the heart. He saw that the older brother Esau would be led by his own lust, his own passion, his own desire for his own flesh, and he would waste his inheritance. But Jacob wanted the inheritance. Now, Esau threatened to kill him, so he had to run into a foreign place. But God says, I won't leave you there. I'm going to bring you back. And when he brought him back, God turned the heart of the man who would have killed him before. And Jacob came in and built booths for his cattle, and he was delivered from the wrath. And God said, I'm bringing you to this place of protection and provision, and everyone who opposes you will have to step aside and let you in. That's an incredible thing. Again, Sukkot in Judges chapter 8. They withheld bread from Gideon and his army when they were pursuing the kings of Midian. And later on, Gideon returned, invaded the city, and triumphed over it. The summary of verse 7 is just this. I will overpower that which would draw you into powerlessness, and I will bring you into the storehouse of my provision. That's what God is actually saying in Psalm 108 verse 7. That's how it applies to our life today. I will overpower that which would draw you away from me and into powerlessness, and I will bring you into the storehouse of my provision. I will bring you in, and everyone who is trying to stop you, God says, I will make them step aside. I will just speak to them and say, get out of the way. Here comes my daughter. Get out of the way. Here comes my son. Nobody can stop them from coming into the storehouse of my supply. Nobody. Nobody. No power of hell. No devil. No prison door. No blinded eye. No deafened ear. No wound to the past. No lie of the devil. Nothing can stop you from coming into the provision of Almighty God through Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop you. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Let it get into your heart. Let it go so deep in your heart. Hallelujah. That's the only thing that can stop you from singing the circumstance all the time. You have to have the knowledge. You have to have that deep in your heart that no matter what comes my way, nothing can stop me from going into the storehouse of my God's supply through Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop me. Hallelujah. God has made a pathway for me and nothing can take me off of that pathway. Look at Psalm 107 verse 31. Verse 30 says, then they are glad because they be quiet. So he brings them into the desired haven. All that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt him also in the congregation to the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders. He turneth rivers into a wilderness and the water springs into dry ground. A fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water and the dry ground into water springs. And there he make it the hungry to dwell that they may prepare a city for habitation. God calms and sow the fields and plant vineyards that they may yield fruits of increase. He blesses them also so that they are multiplied greatly and suffers not their cattle to decrease. God says, I bring those who cry out to me. I bring them into a full place, a place of water, a place of bread, a place of provision, a place of life, a place of joy and peace, long suffering, gentleness, meekness, faith. I bring them into this place where nothing can touch them. Nothing can touch them. They dwell safely in my presence. Hallelujah. I will overpower that which would draw you into powerlessness, he says, and bring you into the storehouse of my provision. Hallelujah. Now go on to verse 8. He says, Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is the strength of my head. And Judah is my lawgiver. Now that doesn't mean a whole lot to us, does it? But God is in effect saying in verse 8 that he will gather together a people, a people that he calls a praise in the earth, who will walk together and begin to sing the same song. A people who would be naturally divided, brought together by the one out of whose mouth proceeds the word of God. Now he says Gilead is mine. Let me just explain this. Now Gilead was a branch of the tribe of Manasseh who had a long-standing feud with the Ephraimites and they called them men of no report. They had a feud. And basically what they said about the Ephraimites as this tribe of Gilead came from Manasseh is that they are inferior people. They haven't come to the battle. They haven't fought like we've fought. They don't know what we know. They don't understand the things that we understand. And so there was a division among them, even though they were all the people of God. But God had spoken through his servant. And if you'll turn there to Genesis 49, he's actually quoting that scripture when he says Judah is my lawgiver. This is the end of side one. You may not. I hope you love his word. In Genesis 49, verse 10 and 11, he says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh. Now Shiloh is Jesus Christ, the Messiah come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. In other words, when Christ comes, this is what he's saying in Psalm 108 and verse eight, when the lawgiver comes, when Shiloh comes out of Judah, he's going to gather together a people who otherwise would be naturally divided. He's going to gather together a people that the world can't understand why these people are coming together. It seemed that their grievances were so deeply embedded. It seemed that they were so justified in their unforgiveness, so justified in their finger pointing, so justified because of all the discrepancies that it had in the past. But under Judah, under Shiloh, these people are going to gather together. And God, what God has joined together, no man now can put asunder. He said, there's going to be a body. It's going to rise up and nothing can stop it. God is going to determine he's bringing the people into the storehouse. And in that storehouse are going to come all people of all cultures, all backgrounds, all races, all languages, all nations together. And they're going to worship as one. They're going to be undividable. They're going to be held together in a bond of love and unity that comes from the very lifeblood of almighty God that flows in them and through them. They're going to come together and nothing can stop what God is going to do. Nothing can stop it. You remember Psalm 60, it was all the kings are risen up and the earth is shaking and armies are against us. But in Psalm 108, David is saying nothing can stop what God has destined to do. He will have a people. He has said, Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is also mine. Judah is my lawgiver. Out of Shiloh, the people are going to come out of Shiloh. They're going to gather together. They're going to be one body speaking with one voice, singing one song. Hallelujah. A testimony of praise in the earth, a testimony of God's saving and keeping power, a testimony of supernatural work that cannot be produced by any institution of man. When the world is dividing apart, when nation is rising against nation, when ethnic culture is rising against ethnic culture, God says in that day, I am gathering. When the world is scattering, I am gathering. When the world has been divided, I am bringing together. When the world is increasing in hatred, I have a people that are increasing in love and unity. Behold how blessed it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. The psalmist says it's like the anointing of God. It's like the holy oil that poured down upon Aaron's head and upon his shoulders and upon the skirts of his garment. When a body is gathered together, united by the head, there's an anointing. And David said it is here that the Lord commands the blessing, even life forevermore. God says, I commend a blessing because of the unity that is in my body. Hallelujah. Then verse nine, it gets even better. He says, Moab is my washpot. Now, Moab, when God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, there was a man, the nephew of Abraham, who lived there in that place of mixture. And by grace alone, he was saved from the judgment, came on Sodom and Gomorrah, and he fled to a little town called Zoar. And he ended up in a cave. And in that cave, he had an incestuous relationship with both of his daughters. And from that unholy union came two groups of people, the Moabites and the Ammonites, which both became enemies of Israel. Moab means confusion and mixture. Confusion. The girls, they'd not been trained in the ways of God, and they thought that the whole world had been destroyed. And they said, there's not a man left in the earth to come into us after the manner of all humanity. Let's now preserve seed unto our father. They'd never been taught to seek God. There was confusion and mixture in law. And that confusion and mixture came into his two daughters. God says in his word, Moab is my washpot. In other words, those who trust in me, I will cleanse of all mixture and confusion. You place your trust in me now. Don't try to reason it yourself. Those that want to come out of all mixture and confusion. God says, I will cleanse you of it. I will cleanse you of it. I will set you free from all the mixture and confusion that this world and all of its crooked philosophies will try to establish in your heart. If you will come to me, I'll set you free and I will cleanse you of it. Overeat him. He says, I will cast out my shoe. Hallelujah. I love this because if you know the book of Ruth or any type like that in the Old Testament, if a man died, his next of kin would be brought into a place of government where decisions are made. And the next of kin would have the choice of redeeming his possessions. In other words, keeping his possessions to themselves. And if they made that choice to take that man's possessions, they would also have to raise up children to him in his name. And they would be putting that obligation on their descendants as well. You're pulling something into your house and you're putting an obligation on yourself and all of your descendants to look after it and to maintain it. And you would be brought into the gate. And when you're brought into the gate, the elders would say, there's somebody who want to somebody else who wants this this inheritance. Will you receive it to your house or will you release it? And it's incredible because if you release that inheritance, if you didn't want it to be part of you or your descendants, you would take off your shoe and literally cast your shoe in front of you. That's what it meant. In other words, I am released from it and I released my descendants from it. Now, Edom is Esau. Esau was the father of the Edomites. Esau is a man who typifies those who live under the power of their lust. They live under the power of their flesh. They live by self-will. And God says over Edom, I cast off my shoe. In other words, I want nothing to do with it. And I'm not taking this into my house. And my descendants are free from the obligation of living according to the lust of their flesh. I'm setting them free. I have something better for them. I'm casting off my shoe over Edom, but I'm going to do something better. I'm going to give them my spirit. I'm going to give them my Holy Spirit. My Holy Spirit will enable them to live. They will live as if they are people who are resurrected from the dead. They will have another source of life. They will not be living according to the power of the flesh. Over Edom, I will cast off my shoe. Hallelujah. I will triumph over this. I will not bring it to myself and it will not be an obligation for any of my descendants. You don't have to live according to the lust of your flesh. You don't have to be led by the lust of your flesh. You don't have to walk out of this house today and go back to pornography or go back to that wrong relationship. You don't have to go back to alcohol. You don't have to go back to drugs. God says, I've cast my shoe out. You are no longer obligated. If you are part of my family, there is another inheritance for you. There's another storehouse. There's another provision for your life. And lastly, he says over Philistia, that's Psalm 108 again. Over Philistia will I triumph. Now the Philistia was the Philistines and the Philistines, what they represented is the constant fear that's always present and on every side of those who love God. Constant fear. It's the voice of the devil. And God says, I will triumph over Philistia. Now, how do you think that God is going to triumph over this thing? The Philistines were always rising up. You hear more about them than you do of any other people. Whenever Israel is seemingly settled into the good life as it is and they're knowing blessing and prosperity, then poop, up come the Philistines again on the hill. There they are. A hundred thousand of them. Oh no, here they are again. And you remember it was the Philistines that always, there was a legacy. They had a legacy of giants that were among them. And Goliath was probably one of the first of these giants. And these giants were these big booming voices of fear. And many of you have these voices, these voices of fear. First thing it said, first thing in the morning, Goliath would come up and the last thing at night. And some of you live that way. That's where you live. First thing in the morning, I come out to challenge you. I defy you to fight with me. That's what he was saying. And if we defeat you, you will be our slaves forever. But if you defeat us, then we will be your servants. Send out a man that we may fight. And some of you wake up to that voice every morning and you cower before the voice. Oh no, there's that voice again. I defy you to fight with me. It's alcohol. It's that, it's that demon possessed boss that you have to go into work to every day. Oh, I defy you to fight against me. And you, you cow throughout your day and at night, there's that voice again. I defy you to fight with me. If you can defeat me, then I'll be your slave. But you know, you have no power whatsoever in yourself to ever defeat that thing. And all of Israel was trembling and all the King was trembling. Everybody's trembling, except one little shepherd boy that eventually wrote Psalm 108. And that little shepherd boy, just a stripling, just a teenager comes into the camp and says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God. Hallelujah. David said to Saul, I'll fight with this guy. Don't you worry about that. I don't need your armor. I can't, I've not proved any of these things, but I have proved him. I proved the one who gave me the strength to deliver the sheep that were in my hand from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. He gave me the strength, which I know I didn't possess naturally. And David says, just give me the chance. And I'll show, I'll show these uncircumcised Philistines that there is a God who's alive in Israel. And so David stands on that mountain side as nothing more than a few smooth stones and, and confidence in God. And out comes the Philistine giant. And the Philistine said to David, come to me and I'll give your flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. Very arrogant is that's the devil. Come to me, try to fight against me. And you're going to be history, man. You're just going to be dead meat in the middle of the road. You know, you can't beat me. You know, it's not within your power. Then David said to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword and a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defied. He says, I come to you in the name of the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Now, David begins to speak that which God had spoken to his heart. He's simply speaking the word of the Lord. Listen to what he says this day. Will the Lord deliver thee into my hand? I will smite thee. I will take thine head from thee and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistine is prophesying now unto the fowls of the air and the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Hallelujah. David said God spoke to David and on the authority of God's word, David moved out to face the giant that had the whole nation in trembling. He said, God told me he's going to give me your head. He's going to take your head off of you today. He's going to cause the whole host of the Philistines to be bird food, really in the fields. That's what he's saying. And he's going to do it today. And it says the giant heard this and stepped down to meet David thinking perhaps his size and his ferocity could scare David and David ran. The scripture says to meet him, ran to meet him early in the morning. I will praise you early in the morning. I'll get up and sing a song of praise. Hallelujah. I'll say devil, my heart is fixed. My heart is fixed. My heart is fixed. No power of hell is going to triumph over what God has for my life. Hallelujah. And David went down into the valley and the scripture says he took a small stone, put it in a sling and slang it as the scripture says in King James, right into David says, I'm going to hit you devil where it hurts the most. I'm going to hit you right in your thought life, right in the place where you think that you can exalt yourself against the people of God and the testimony of God among his people. Hallelujah. I heard it said by one preacher, that's as deep as anything had ever gotten into the head of Goliath in many, many years. Psalm 108 verse 10, then then David concludes by saying, who will bring me into the strong city and who will lead me into Edom? Who will bring me into that which wants its own way? Who will bring me into that place of victory? Who will take me to that place in my heart, which is so easily drawn away from the purposes of God and seems so quick to make wrong allegiances. Who will take me into that place, which is so quick to elevate itself to be, or to be so unforgiving and cast off others whom Christ died for. Who will take me to that place, which is so often confused and afraid. And then in verse 13, he answers and he says, through God, we shall do valiantly for he, it is that shall tread down our enemies. Let's stand, please. My altar call today is very simple. It's so God, let my heart be fixed and let your word to me overrule the fear of my struggle and give me a new song. Give me the testimony of a fixed heart. I want to give an altar call today for everybody who's struggling and you're singing a dual song. One half declares the promises of God and the other half you sing in your circumstance to anybody that will listen to you. That's how you know your heart's divided. You will tell everybody who will listen to you about your circumstance, but so reluctant to quote the word of God, so reluctant to share the testimony of God. So few are getting up in the morning with a song, getting up, praising him the moment you get up and praising him when you go to bed at night. If that's you today, if that's your struggle, if you are singing a dual song, but today you'd say, God, in my struggle, let my heart be fixed. And as David, let your word to me overrule the fears of my struggle. Let your word be the be the source of my strength. Let it be my song. Let it be the platform on which I stand. Let it be the bounce in my step. God in heaven, give me the testimony of a fixed heart. We're going to lead in the course. And if that's folks, I tell you, sometimes all the calls are very specific and sometimes they're general. But I tell you something, don't sit in your seat because it's not specifically naming your struggle. You know what your struggle is. The Holy Spirit has told you today. But the issue is it's moving towards God and saying, God, I'm tired of singing two sides to the same song. I'm tired of the old and the new being mixed together. I don't want to live there anymore. God, I'm tired of the voice of the giant cowering me every time I get up and every time I go to bed. I'm tired of being led into lusts and I'm tired of serving Edom as it is. I'm tired, God. You said that you'd cast out your shoe. You said you'd triumph. You said you'd give me the victory. So Lord, I'm coming to you now and I'm asking you to give me the testimony of a fixed heart. I'm asking you to give me a song that's a victory song from line one to line 18. It is a victory song all the way through. Even if I'm in the fire, even if I'm in a struggle, even if I'm in a trial, that I have a victory song that no power of hell can take away from me. We're going to just sing a chorus. And if that's what God is speaking to your heart, if that's what you want today, believe me, if you know that God is, he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. You have to believe that as you come, God will reward you. In the balcony, you can go to either exit as you make your way down here, main sanctuary, slip out of where you are. Education annex, please just go forward between the screens. Then we're going to pray a prayer together. Oh God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise even with my glory. I will praise the Lord among the people and I will sing praises to thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great above the heavens and thy truth reaches unto the clouds. Through God, we shall do valiantly for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. Pray with me now, Lord Jesus. God, I believe that the promises you've given me are more certain than the floor upon which I'm now standing. How much more will your word not hold me up and keep me and strengthen me and lead me to the storehouse of all the supply that I will ever need. Lord Jesus, forgive me for singing the song of a divided heart. Forgive me for always speaking about my circumstances and forgetting the power of your promises. Father, now in Jesus' name, I declare that I believe in my heart that your promises to me are true and all I will ever need to be all that you have called me to be. You have a destiny for my life that no power of hell can stop because you have declared you would be the source of all my supply. I thank you, Jesus. Oh, God, my heart is fixed. My heart is fixed. My heart is fixed. I will praise you and give you glory. Thank you for victory. I praise you for the victory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the message.