Transcription
When you graduate from just an attitude of gratitude to a way of life that is grateful, you say, "Thank you, Lord." Yet, to really graduate from the kiddie table, I don't know about you, but I don't want to sit in this heat the rest of my life. I don't want to be the kind of Christian who only thanks God when He's serving me. I don't want to be a grown man. Talk about bang bang! This is the table called thanks, where I thank Him for His provision. But to graduate, touch somebody, say, "It's time to graduate. It's time to graduate. It's time to graduate."
To graduate, we need David because Moses was teaching the people to relate to God on the provision level. David was a little bit different because of his experience. He was raised up as a shepherd in Jesse's house to be king and anointed by Samuel. He had a remarkable ability to remember where he came from, and it always made him thankful and made him grateful. Even though his life was very dysfunctional, he was driven by a sense of returning to God who had given all the blessings to him. And and David comes in to give us a deeper understanding of mature gratitude. It's not mature gratitude to thank God for what He's given you. That's just manners. That's just that's just good manners. That's just politeness.
So David comes along. He says, "I want to move you from the kiddy table to the banquet table. Bring out the banquet table." David, who was not only a subject of the king but a king of the people, had spent some time as a shepherd. And so while Moses is teaching the people to relate to God on the most basic level, "When He blesses you, remember Him. When He blesses you, obey Him. When He keeps His covenant with you, keep His commands that it may go well with you." This is basic. David steps in and takes it a little bit deeper. Let's go deeper.
David says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters." Have you heard this before? Maybe you heard it at a funeral. Maybe you heard it in a time of mourning. David wrote it in a valley. Yet, he says something interesting in Psalm 23. And this takes us to the next level of praise. Psalm 23, verse 4: "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."
Moses teaches us how to thank God for the. But David comes along and teaches us how to thank God even though, even though, even though. This is a graduated form of gratitude. This is the remedial level: "Thank you for the." But this is the place where you learn to praise God even though, even though. This is where you can have all hell breaking loose in one area of your life, but say, "It is well with my soul." "When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, You have taught me to say, 'It is well.'" Even though my heart is broken, it is well. Even though I lost some people, it is well. Even though I'm going through it, it is well. Even though, even though.
This is the table where you learn to thank God for what you can see. This is the table where you learn to trust God with what you cannot. "Even though I walk through the darkest valley." Now, Church, it's one thing for Professor Moses to tell us, "Thank God for the good land." But now we've got to decide what kind of Christians we want to be. Are we only gonna thank Him for the food? Are we only gonna thank Him for the finances? Are we only going to thank Him for the fiance? Or are we gonna thank Him even though I'm single? Where do you want to sit? Am I only gonna thank Him when I can see the evidence of His presence? Even though recognizes His presence in the presence of enemies.
This is the stage of praise where you're no longer thanking God for His provision only. Oh, you carry that over. You're still grateful for the provision. That's a starting place. But now I'm thanking Him for His presence. You're gonna need this if you want to be a big boy and you don't want to be a baby. You're gonna have to sit in this seat and learn to eat with enemies all around you. Can you keep your eyes fixed on the presence of God in the presence of your enemies? Because at this table, David said, "God isn't the only one seated. I got enemies all around me." "You prepare," verse 5, "a table for me in the presence of my insecurities, in the presence of my deficits, in the presence of my addictions, in the presence of my confusion, in the presence of what I've lost, in the presence of the threat that I won't make it, in the in the presence of my enemies. I'm looking straight ahead."
Would you do me a favor? Would you touch the person next to you and tell them, "Set the table"? Because when you learn to have a heart of praise in the presence of enemies, you set the table. That's what they've had said, right? "You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies." And if you can walk with God in darkness enough, depending on the light that He showed you in the last season, you'll learn to read your enemies as a sign that it's time to eat. David said, "God made my enemy serve me my entree. God made the things that conspire to take me out feed me for the place He was bringing me into." I got a seat at the table. I'm a big boy. I can handle trouble. I can handle tests. I can handle it. So I'm sitting down in the middle of all kinds of nonsense, but I got my eyes fixed on the presence of the One who is within me. "And greater is He that is in me." Wouldn't it be great if you could turn the tables on your fear today and make the thing that was coming after you serve the purpose of God in your life? David said, "You can do it. You can do it."
If you can eat in the presence of enemies, if you can be blessed under the weight of burdens, if you don't always need me to bring it up to the table and set it before you, but if you can sit. See, when I praise God through pain, everybody shout, "Even though!" No, no, shout it like you want the devil to hear. "Even though you came at me, I'm still standing. Even though you set an ambush against me, even though you tried to make me born kinda wild, I'm still sitting at the table." When you praise Him in pain, it is preparation for provision, and you can keep your seat.
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