Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hello everybody, this is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. I'm really glad you're here. Today we're continuing our series from Psalm 23 called Living in the Goodness of God. It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. Today, we're diving into part one of a message called How God Lifts Me Up When I’m Worn Down.

Rick Warren: If you'll take out your message notes, life can really wear you down so that you've got nothing left to give. I'm sure that everyone of you at some point in your life could identify with this anonymous prayer request that came in. "I feel like I'm in a war zone. It's just one battle after another. I argue with my wife, I clash with my kids over everything, I fight to keep my job, I struggle with our growing debt, and I'm losing the battle with my weight. And then there's the conflicts inside me. I fight my own fears, and I battle with my anxieties and my temper, and I'm always fighting off depression. Sometimes I'm just fighting to keep my head above water, and I'm just so tired."

How does the goodness of God help you when you feel like that? When you're in the battle and you're all beat up, how does God lift you up when you're worn down? Not after the battle is over, I'm talking about in the middle of the battle. Where do you find the goodness of God? We've been in this series now for our eighth week on Living in the Goodness of God. We're looking at Psalm 23, the most famous chapter in the entire Bible. It's only six verses, but it gives us 12 pictures, 12 expressions, 12 identifying factors of God's goodness in your life. How God is good to you whether you're resting in green pastures and by still waters, or whether you're in the valley of the shadow of death. Or this week when you're facing an enemy, when you're in a battle—a financial battle, a health battle, a relational battle, a battle for your own sanity.

How does God show his goodness in that kind of situation? Today we're in verse five. In verse five, there are three more pictures of how God is good to you. We're only going to look at one of them. For the next three weeks, we're going to look at one phrase at a time. This is such a deep passage and the metaphors are so full that we're taking literally one phrase, not even one verse at a time. We're going to look at the first phrase in verse five. It's at the top of your outline and it says this: "You prepare a banquet for me in front of my enemies."

Pretty simple statement: "You prepare a banquet for me in front of my enemies." What in the world does that mean? This was written over 3,000 years ago. How can it help you in the battles you have against your enemies this year? To understand this metaphor, you need to ask four questions. We're going to ask: what kind of banquet is it? Who are the enemies? Then we need to ask, what does this banquet symbolize? And then we need to ask, what's on the menu?

Let's get right into it. First, what kind of banquet is this? He starts off by saying, "You prepare a banquet for me in front of my enemies." "You." The word "you" means God. Write this down, five things we know: God is the host. God is the host of this banquet. Whatever we're going to look at today, it's God's idea. Can you imagine the honor of getting an invitation in the mail where God says, "I'm inviting you to my banquet"? You'd be on an A-list. You probably wouldn't even go to bed tonight. You'd stay up taking a couple of showers, getting a haircut, finding new clothes so you'd be ready for a banquet that God has invited you to, because he's the host.

Then it says, "you prepare." Now what that means is this is well-prepared, this is well-planned. Write that down. This is not a spontaneous banquet, it's not off the cuff. God has put forethought into this. This is planned. It is prepared. It's not a spur-of-the-moment decision. I want to tell you that the word "banquet" in a lot of the translations is actually in Hebrew the word "table." King James version says, "You prepare a table for me." But it's not just any table. The Hebrew word here is the word *shulkhan*, and *shulkhan* literally means the King's table.

When he says, "I prepare a table for you, a banquet," he's not talking about a TV dinner tray. He's not talking about a Formica dinette in your kitchen. He's not talking about a folding table. This is one of those really long tables you see in a castle, in a medieval castle, that holds 50 or 100 people. It's the King's table, it's the Queen's table. This word in the Bible is used almost always to refer to a King's table or it refers to the table of showbread in the temple. It's a special, it's a sacred table that you're being invited to, and it is well-planned, it's all laid out. It's big, heavy, and it's got the King's feast on it.

He says, "You prepare a banquet," and the next phrase is "for me." Here's what you need to write down: I am the guest of honor. This is not a banquet for somebody else that you're being invited to attend. This is a banquet that is really just for you. It's you and the King. You're the guest of honor, you're the big deal. In front of: it's a public banquet, not private. People are going to watch you eat with the King. It is public, it's not in secret, and God wants to see you honored, and God wants everybody to see you being honored.

In front of my enemies. Now that's a twist. I might think God would say, "I'm going to prepare a banquet for you and your friends." No, he says, "I'm going to prepare a banquet just for you, but all of your enemies are going to watch us eat together." What in the world does that mean? It means that it's on a battlefield. Write this down. The banquet is on a battlefield. This is a banquet not just when good times are going in your life, it's when you're under attack. The King says, "During the battle, I'm going to come and throw a banquet for you and all of your enemies are going to watch me honor you, bless you, and have peace with you."

Second question is: who's the enemy? The Bible says you have three enemies. They are the world, the flesh, and the devil. The first enemy you have is the world around me. The world is in opposition to God because it worships itself, not God. The world around you is always coming after you, always criticizing you, always not understanding you. If you've ever been picked on, if you've ever been put down, if you've ever had injustice or bias or racism or prejudice or overlooked because of your gender, that's the world around you.

The second enemy you have is: Satan is against me. God says that Satan is real and that he wants to defeat you. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, and Satan hates you and has a terrible plan for your life. The Bible says that Satan wants to kill you, destroy you, defeat you. Why? The only reason Satan hates you is because God loves you. That's why you're the enemy of Satan: because God loves you and Satan hates anything and anyone God loves. Because God loves you greatly, Satan hates you. Satan wants to hurt you and destroy you because he thinks that'll hurt God.

Then the third enemy, and this is the biggest one of all, is: my old nature inside me. And the older you get, the more you're going to learn that your biggest enemy is you. You don't always do the right things that you intend to do. You have good intentions. Paul wrote an entire chapter about this in Romans 7. He says, "The things I want to do I end up not doing, and the things that I know are bad for me I end up doing. I'm in this battle constantly." And that's the third enemy against you.

What does this banquet symbolize? It symbolizes two things. First: God wants and welcomes fellowship with me. God wants to hang out with you. He wants and he welcomes fellowship with you. This is one of the most amazing truths in the universe. That God who created the whole thing wants to know me, wants to know you. God wants to be your friend. God wants you to be his friend. God wants to eat together. Let's go get something to eat. That is an amazing truth that in the Bible, a banquet almost always represents fellowship.

When God throws a banquet for you, he's saying, "I want to hang out with you. I want you to understand how much I love you." He wants to show how you are welcomed by him, how you are wanted by him, and he wants to do it, listen, when you're under attack. To encourage you. In the presence of your enemies. When everybody else is coming against you, God says, "I want to throw a party for you." Psalm chapter 5, verse 11 says this: "You welcome us with open arms," talking about God, "when we run for cover to you."

I love this in the Message paraphrase. Psalm 5:11: "You welcome us with open arms when we run for cover to you. Let the party last all night! Stand guard over our celebration." God says, "I know you're in the heat of the battle right now, you're fighting for your job, you're fighting for your health, you're fighting for your sanity, you're fighting for your dignity. While the battle's going on, hang on. I want to throw a banquet for you. Just a little encouragement here." It's a party in a combat zone. It's a banquet in a battlefield.

Now I want you to use your imaginations to imagine this scene. Go back to Robin Hood days of knights and kings and imagine a giant medieval battle. Imagine that you are a soldier on the front line. You're out there and you're fighting hard, and the enemy's coming against you. It's a heated battle and you're tired and you're sweating, and you've probably got some blood on you, and you're scared and you're hungry. All of a sudden, a superior officer pulls you off the front line. You're glad to get off because this is a hot and heavy battle.

The superior officer pulls you out of the battle and you start walking back, and about a thousand yards back, you see this giant banquet tent has been erected with all the turrets and the flags. And as you start walking toward that banquet tent, you realize that the King has showed up. The King of the Empire has shown up. When you walk into that tent, there is the King's table. It's 75 feet or 50 feet long, and it's heavy and wood. Only the noblemen get to eat at this table. And you walk in there and the table is decked out with all your favorite foods.

When you're in the middle of a battle, nothing tastes as good as coming home to some comfort food. You walk in there and you discover it's just you and the King. Just the two of you and all this food. Around the tent have been stationed about 500 guards. So there's no way the enemy's getting in here. But the tent flaps are up and everybody can see what's going on. It's not hidden, it's public. Everybody sees that the King has called you out of battle, brought you back to this giant banqueting tent, put on the feast of your favorite food, and it's just you and the King.

And then the King says to you in a loving voice, "This is all for you. I made this for you. I planned it for you. And I just wanted to hang out with you. I love you, I miss you, and I want to affirm you publicly in front of both of these armies. And I want you to eat all you want, and you're unhurried, unworried, you're protected here. I just want to affirm you and have some fellowship with you." You think you're in a dream world. "How does the King even know me? I'm just a soldier."

Then, so everybody knows what's going on, the King orders erected a giant banner outside with your name on it. And the banner says this: "I love..." and it has your name. And it's signed, the King. So everybody knows what's going on. This is a personal recognition, a personal act of love. "I love you [Your Name] and I am proud of them." What I just described to you is exactly what God is talking about doing for you. "You prepare a banquet for me in the presence of my enemies." I'm the guest of honor. You're the guest of honor. This banquet is in your honor and the banner clearly says, because it's got your name on it.

Song of Solomon says this: "He brings me to his banquet table and his banner over me is love." You may have never thought that God was proud of you. But if you're a child of God, your Heavenly Father is proud of you. And he loves you and he brings you to his banqueting table and his banner over you is love. He wants your whole enemies to know how much he, the King, loves you. Now, go back to this picture. The enemy are fighting and they see this going on, and all of a sudden they just stop the battle. And both sides are looking at this event taking place up here on the hill because it's public, it's not secret.

The enemy is absolutely dumbstruck by this scene. They all stop fighting and they just stare and they go, "Are you kidding me? The King picked that one guy and brought him out." I have learned personally that when God wants to bless your life, there is nothing that critics can do about it. When God wants to bless your life, they may spite you, they may slander you, they may ignore you, they may ridicule you, they may libel you, they may say all kinds of mean things about you, but they can't stop God's blessing on your life. They just can't do it.

That person at work who wants your job and is trying to push you aside, if God wants you to have that job, doesn't matter what they want to do. When God's blessing is on your life and God's banner over you is love, it doesn't matter. They cannot stop what God wants to do in your life. They are powerless against the King and your enemies are dumbfounded. God loves to show the blessing of his people in front of the enemy. Now today, let's talk about you in your battle. In the middle of your battle, God is inviting you to a banquet.

Job chapter 36, verse 16 says this: "God is gently calling you from the jaws of distress." What a picturesque phrase. "From the jaws of distress to an open place of freedom where he has set your table full of the best food." The same metaphor. Job's saying the exact same thing David says in Psalm 23. God, while you're in the middle of the battles you're in right now, God is saying, "Hey, come over here. Come over here, I've got a banquet for you." He is gently calling, he's wooing you like a lover, he's coaxing you. This is all done in love.

God is calling you from the jaws of distress. Everybody remember the movie Jaws? *Dun-dun, dun-dun, dun-dun*. I love this, the jaws of distress. Let me ask you: what's chewing on you right now? What's eating you up right now? What is it that's got you worried, anxious, fearful? And it's just gnawing, gnawing, gnawing. You're stressed out about it. You are in the jaws of distress. God's saying, "Hey, come on, you deserve a break today. Come over, I've got a banquet for you." God is gently calling you from the jaws of distress to an open place of freedom where he has set your table with the best food.

Others may criticize you, attack you, demean you, dismiss you, disregard you, but God wants to hang out with you. That's the first thing this metaphor, "I prepare a banquet for you," means. God wants to fellowship with you and God wants to feed you to give you some new strength so you can get back in that battle. You're tired, and you're about to fall over and you need God's strength and sustenance, nourishment and refreshment. It's all there, it's all laid out on the King's table and I've transported it right here to the battlefield for you. I put a lot of preparation in planning this and I want to honor you.

Guest (Male): What a great and timely message today. Let's end our show with a closing thought from Pastor Rick.

If you've been blessed by this message today, here's what I want you to do: share it. Tell somebody about it. Now, there's a lot of great ways you can share Daily Hope. One of the easiest is by posting it on social media, on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or Instagram. But you'll find a share button today next to the message on my website, pastorrick.com. Don't keep the good news to yourself. It's too good to keep to ourselves. We've got to pass it on to others. Thanks for listening today and join me next time as we continue to look into God's word for our daily hope.

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