WEBVTT
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So today I wanted to do something a little different.
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I wanted to share a sermon I preached recently.
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I hope you enjoy.
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For your people.
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Today, as your servants, humbled by the task of proclaiming your word, fill me with your spirit.
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That every word I speak may bring glory to your name and draw hearts closer to you.
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Remove any distractions or pride within me so that your truth may flow freely with power, clarity, and conviction.
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Open the ears and hearts of your people to receive the message you have given us today.
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Father God, let it be all of you and none of me.
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All of you, Father God, and none of me.
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In the mighty name of Jesus I pray.
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Amen.
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You have been so faithful.
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And music ministries are less.
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Speaking of best behavior, my mother's here on the front row, so God has given us a word today from the 23rd Psalm.
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Verse 5.
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I'm gonna read it.
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I know I don't have to because I know you know it, but from the New King James Version.
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You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
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You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over.
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So the title of our discussion today is Enjoy Your Meal.
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Enjoy your meal.
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Please be seated in God's presence.
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So back in 1990, 91-ish, I was serving in the U.S.
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Army.
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I was over in uh Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm.
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And uh we were in this place called Dahran.
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Dahran, Saudi Arabia.
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And there was this uh what we call mess hall, chow hall, dining facility, if you will, uh on this base called Dahran Air Base.
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Now, some of you who served in the region might recognize it as King Abdul Aziz Airbase.
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And because it was an air base, it was run by the Air Force.
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Now, me and a few of my friends in my unit, we would uh sign out a vehicle and go over to this dining facility on this air base.
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It took us about 20 minutes to get there.
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And uh you would travel 20 minutes, you would go through another 10 minutes of security, right?
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You had to get out of the vehicle, open the doors, uh, they had the dogs come out to make sure there were no bombs in it.
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We're in uniform, we're in a military vehicle, but they had to check anyway.
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They would walk around the vehicle with these mirrors on the stick.
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Remember that?
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The mirrors on the stick to make sure there's no bombs underneath.
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Now, this was a reminder that we were in a war zone.
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But to us, it was worth the risk to leave the safety of our compound and get to this place because, well, first of all, at the age of 19, you think you're bulletproof, so you know none of that mattered.
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But we wanted to get to this facility because we wanted to get inside and sit at the table because we knew if we could just get inside, all of this would be worth it.
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Now we would be in line when we get there, we get to the parking lot, there was always this long line stretched out into the parking lot.
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And in this line, there would be service members from all over the region.
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Every military branch was represented.
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Right?
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There would be Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and all ranks, even officers.
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And something that would happen every time never failed, the U.S.
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Army reserves would show up.
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They would get out of their vehicle and walk to the back of the line.
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And as they were walking to the back of the line, they would see an officer and they would salute.
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And everybody who was near would cuss them out.
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Get to the back of the line.
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Why?
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Because in a combat situation, you never salute an officer because you point out to the enemy who the targets are.
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Now watch this.
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I didn't bring that up to mess with the Army Reservist.
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I brought that up because the message there is that the enemy is always watching.
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The enemy is always nearby.
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Put it differently.
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Darkness is always looking for an opportunity to take over.
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If we turned out all the lights right now, it would get dark instantly.
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It wouldn't get dark gradually.
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Darkness doesn't wait for you to find your way out.
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No, darkness takes over instantly.
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Darkness doesn't pay attention to boundaries.
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Darkness doesn't look at uh lines on a map.
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Doesn't care about all that.
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Darkness is always looking for an opportunity to take over.
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Even in the church.
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So we're in this line.
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Helicopters flying by.
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We're near the airfield.
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You would hear fire jets taking off and landing.
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Off in the distance, you could hear explosions, feel the rumble a little bit.
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Something was going on.
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But we didn't care.
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Because we knew if we could get to the table, all of this wouldn't be worth it.
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So that experience reminds me of what David describes in this text today.
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David, he knew both the palace and the battlefield.
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He wrote about a God who prepares a table for his people even when the enemies surround them.
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Now instead of running or hiding, we sit at a table that God has prepared himself.
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And the enemy can only watch.
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There is comfort in knowing that even when your enemies are present, you can enjoy your meal.
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So, Psalm 23, one of the most recognized passages in the Bible.
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It's both a personal testimony and public declaration of trust in the Lord as your shepherd.
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Now the first four voiced verses point this picture, right?
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He's guiding, he's providing, he's protecting his people like a shepherd does for his flock.
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Green pastures, still waters, valley of the shadow of death all show us that God is present in every season of life.
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But when we get to verse five, it shifts a little bit.
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God goes from being the shepherd to the host.
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Right?
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And the shepherd now takes on this role of host, and David says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
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You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over.
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Now, in ancient culture, to be invited to someone's table was to be welcomed, protected, and honored.
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To sit at the table of the king was to sit under his personal care and favor.
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Now David is declaring that even when the enemy surround him, he could sit at the Lord's table in confidence.
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And because of this, you can enjoy your meal.
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So as we study the text today, there's three points that I want you to remember.
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If you don't remember anything else I said, remember these three points.
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God readies you, God restores you, and God rewards you.
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Remember those three points.
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First point, God readies you.
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He readies you in front of your enemies.
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Again, he writes, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
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Notice he doesn't say I take the enemies away first.
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Right?
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He doesn't say that.
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He doesn't say that I'm gonna wait till the battle is over.
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He says you do it in the presence of the enemies.
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The language here is intentional.
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The table isn't rushed, it's prepared with care in front of the enemies.
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Now it teaches us something about God's provision.
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He doesn't care about enemies, he's not afraid of them, and he's telling us we ought not to be afraid either.
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Right?
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So this is where that old question comes to mind.
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Is it better to be a warrior in a garden or a gardener in a war?
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Now the answer is obvious.
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When you're in a war, you can't afford to be a gardener.
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Spiritually, the same truth applies.
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Many people call themselves peaceful, but peace without strength is not peace, it's helplessness.
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Unless you are capable of great violence, you're not peaceful.
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You're harmless.
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Now understand this.
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There's nothing wrong with being harmless in the physical world.
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Some of the sweetest people I know are harmless.
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Couldn't hurt a fly.
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But you understand that we're not talking flesh and blood here, right?
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See, if you didn't know, we are in a spiritual war right now.
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We are in a spiritual war.
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You need to be aware of that.
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God doesn't want you to be harmless.
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That's why Paul wrote that we must put on the full armor of God.
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God equips us not to retreat but to stand.
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He places a table in the presence of our enemies.
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He calls us to eat in confidence, knowing He is our ready, secure the victory.
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Watch this.
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Dr.
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Cassini, can we go to Sunday school for just a minute?
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See, when you're preparing a sermon, it is so, what should I say, it's tempting to take shortcuts.
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When you read the words and you think you know what it's saying.
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Oh, it's pretty common, it's pretty straightforward.
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But I am so glad that the Holy Spirit said, no, don't do that.
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Go do your word study and go out there and show yourself approved.
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So I did my word study.
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And I'm so thankful that I was obedient to the process because I'm gonna share with you what I learned, what God revealed to me in this text.
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So as we do this word study, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
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Four key words presence, table, uh, prepare and enemies.
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Let's start with prepare.
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Now everybody understands what the word prepare means in the English language.
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Prepare, to make ready, to get ready.
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But in the Hebrew language, this word prepare means to put in a specific order some very specific things for a very specific purpose.
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Prepare.
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Let's set that to the side for a second.
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Table.
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Everybody knows what a table is.
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There's a table over there.
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But in the Hebrew language, this word table that is used is a special table.
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It's a table that is reserved for kings.
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Call it the VIP table, if you will.
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This is a special table.
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So so far we have put together some specific things in a specific order for a specific purpose on the VIP table.
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Set that aside.
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The word presence, this is one that got me.
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In the English language, we think the word presence means to just be in close proximity.
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But in the Hebrew language, the word presence means that you're within line of sight.
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In other words, many of you, everybody here is sitting on a row.
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The people who are in front of you are in your presence, according to the Hebrew language.
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The ones behind you are not because you can't see them.
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Now you're in their presence because they can see you.
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David says, before me in the presence of my enemy.
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In other words, my enemy can see me.
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Now the Hebrew language, just like English, you have to put words together to understand the context.
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You can't just see look at a word by itself.
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You have to read the whole thing to understand the context.
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Watch this.
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Enemies.
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Everybody knows what an enemy is.
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An adversary.
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Watch this.
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In the Hebrew language, when you put presence and enemies together, it means that the adversary is bound and restrained.
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In other words, they couldn't look away if they wanted to.
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Now here's the thing.
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So far we have.
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You prepare, you put things in a specific order, some very specific things needed for a specific purpose at the VIP table.
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Right?
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At the VIP table, in the presence, meaning line of sight, in front of the enemies who are bound and can't look away.
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Now the other thing about the Hebrew language, you know, Hebrew is written to be read right to left, not left to right.
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Guess you didn't know that.
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And so the context is the same way.
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So if we read the context in the Hebrew language the way it was meant to be read, it reads like this.
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God, you took my enemies, you bound them up, and you forced them to look at me, sitting at this VIP table, while you gave me some very specific things that I needed to defeat them.
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So now when you read the 23rd Psalm, it's a little different now, doesn't it?
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It's a little different.
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So the table is not set in some cave and some hideout or whatever, it's out in front.
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And the enemy has no choice but to watch God do this for you.
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So that tells you that when the world presses in around you, when the enemies, whether it be people, circumstances, spiritual forces, when they seem near, you don't have to live in fear.
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You sit at the table that God has prepared.
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Trust His provision.
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Wear His armor and live with the confidence that he can bless you in the very places your enemies thought you would be destroyed.
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In other words, enjoy your meal.
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God restores you with honor and healing.
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I went to word study on this one, and it threw me all the way off because I thought I knew oil.
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Oil.
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Anoint oil.
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Yeah, I get it.
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Okay, let's go back to Sunday school.
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So back in the day, oil was used to anoint and heal.
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It had healing properties.
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So when I looked up this word oil, because of the context, it said that this was a very specific oil.
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This is olive oil.
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Okay, it doesn't say that in English, but this is olive oil.
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Now, olive oil back in the day, back in those days, was valuable.
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And the reason why this olive oil was more valuable than other oils is because it had healing properties.
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That made it valuable.
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Everybody couldn't afford it.
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So watch this.
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I'm looking up the definition.
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What does this mean?
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Okay, it says olive oil.
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And it talked about how valuable it was.
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But then something threw me off.
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It said, to make fat.
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To fatten.
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That's what I said.
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What you mean?
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So so I stumbled on this for a good, I don't know, four or five days.
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Like, God, to make fat, what does that mean?
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And God reminded me, I told you you have to look at the entire text to understand the context.
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Okay, I did that.
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It made sense.
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Let me help you out.
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Imagine a shepherd back in the day.
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This shepherd has the sheep.
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The sheep gets attacked by an animal.
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The sheep gets injured.
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The shepherd wants to heal the sheep.
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The shepherd, they used to keep olive oil on their parson.
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Shepherds didn't have a lot of money.