The Lord Sets the Table
Pastor David T. Elms 5/31/2026
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Summary
Pastor David T. Elms explores the 'conundrum' of Psalm 23:5, explaining that God blesses His people not by removing enemies, but by providing an overflowing table of favor right in their midst. The sermon encourages believers to shift their focus from the opposition they face to the lavish preparation God is making for their promotion.
Key points
- •The table the Lord prepares is unique because it is set in the presence of enemies. God doesn't always remove the opposition; He sustains you in front of it.
- •Favor often attracts opposition. When you experience blessing and elevation, it may naturally create enemies, but their presence proves that God is preparing a table for you.
- •Verse 4 (the valley) precedes Verse 5 (the table). Your testimony of what God brought you out of is the reservation that gains you access to His table.
- •You must decide where to focus: on the presence of the enemy or on the goodness of the blessings. An 'overflowing cup' is a choice God makes to keep pouring even when you are full.
- •Christianity moves the believer from being a 'sheep' (a targeted prey) to a 'son' or 'daughter' sitting as an invited guest at the King's table.
Scripture
Providence
Victory in Trials
Spiritual Maturity
God's Faithfulness
Life application
This week, when you encounter a person or situation that feels like an 'enemy' or a spiritual attack, pause and thank God for the 'table' He is preparing. Refuse to let an eye-roll or an insult steal your praise, and recognize that the enemy's presence is often a sign of coming promotion.
Reflection questions
- What 'enemies' are currently in your proximity, and how have they affected your focus on God's goodness?
- In Psalm 23, how does knowing that the Lord is the one who invited the enemies change your perspective on your current trials?
- Pastor Elms mentioned being 'in it but over it.' Is there a situation you are still physically in, but need God to help you overcome emotionally or spiritually?
- How can you proactively 'pass the sweet tea' or show family love to those in the church who are suffering this week?
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Full transcript
0:00and free flow of what it means to be together. When I come to be
0:02with you and you come to be with me, we are God's precious family. I
0:08love you and you love me. I pray for you and you pray for me.
0:14I weep with you and you weep with me. I rejoice with you and you
0:19rejoice with me. This Saturday we're going to be having the funeral for Sister Sonia
0:24Goldstein. This is Sister Campbell's sister who flew away to heaven three weeks ago this
0:29Sunday. And we're going to be celebrating her home going. But we're going to weep
0:34a little while and then we're going to rejoice a little while because she was
0:39ready to make heaven her home. But the devil doesn't want a family to be
0:44together. It doesn't matter if you're having a great time or a tough time. Sister
0:48Martine, the last time she was in church, I believe it was, had a very
0:54tough time, had to go leave here in the service and had spent quite a
0:59while at the hospital. And she has had challenges. But let me tell you something.
1:05We're with you, Sister Martine. You are spectacular to us. You are my family. You
1:11are my sister. I'm going to pass you the sweet tea this morning because
1:16we're eating together in the house of the Lord. But the enemy wants you
1:22to think negatively about God. His first hellish words in your Bible is, thou
1:28canst not eat. from every tree in the garden. The first subject that
1:33the devil brought up in your Bible before he addressed any of the
1:39demonic subjects that he likes to talk about. He first of all wanted
1:45to interrupt dinner. He wanted to step in and talk about what it's
1:50like when God's people eat. And all he did was misinterpret what the
1:56Lord said about what we can eat. And so throughout the scripture, we
2:02find that it is a continual feast. We find that when Jesus comes,
2:08he's often concerned with the food portions of his people, wherever there is
2:14a dish. desert, a food desert. The Lord is continually trying to
2:20supply for it. He feeds 5,000 from two loaves and or five
2:26loaves and two small fishes. When the enemy is in adequacy, the
2:32Lord provides plenty. If the fruit of the vine has run out
2:38at the the party of the wedding, the Lord's going to come back and
2:44save the best till last. Because when the enemy is inadequacy, the Lord
2:49provides plenty. When Peter denied and quit the Lord, we just sing about
2:55it, the Lord prepared for him a table. And when Peter was being
3:01tested by the Lord, do you love me, Peter? The thing the Lord wanted
3:07to know from Peter is the way you will demonstrate your love is through
3:12how you prepare yourself the table for my people. If you love me, Peter,
3:18you will feed my sheep. And so here we come to our text. Psalm
3:24the 23rd is, Psalm is the most read book in your Bible. And of
3:30all the Psalms in the most read book in your Bible, the 23rd Psalm
3:36is the most read Psalm in your Bible. There's not hardly a... An event,
3:42especially a funeral of sorts, where the 23rd Psalm is not a part of that.
3:48Many people, they don't need to know about the 23rd Psalm because whether they are
3:54believers or not, They have been so inundated with the words of that psalm. They
3:59don't need a Bible to speak that word. And so in this psalm, I have
4:04drawn your attention to the entirety of the psalm. And I told my son last
4:10night what I was preaching from today. And he said, did you know that they're
4:15singing Psalm 23 this morning? And I said, I had no clue that they had
4:20scheduled to sing Psalm 23 this morning. And so I said, so let me watch
4:25the words. And so as they began to sing this song that they sung, I
4:30realized that the part of the psalm that I have been instructed by the Lord
4:36to bring to you is not included in the song that they sang. It was
4:42a great song. I love that song. But there is a part of that song
4:48that it leaves out a part of the psalm. And the reason, in my
4:53opinion, that they leave out the part of the psalm that I'm going to talk
4:59to you about today is because it is a curious thing in that psalm that
5:05doesn't seem to fit. It's like everything's a jigsaw puzzle except this one segment of
5:11the psalm. We have in this psalm the story of the Lord being my shepherd.
5:17i shall not want there's two things that he says i shall not want and
5:22then he said i will not fear we were learning about his disposition and then
5:27we find out he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me
5:32beside the still waters he restoreth my soul yea though i walk through the valley
5:37some of y'all are wanting to quote it with me of death the valley of
5:43the shadow of death i will fear no evil for
5:49thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they
5:54comfort me because there's a conundrum in the middle of
6:00the song that we have interestingly talked about two things
6:05that are set before us in this song we have
6:11a table set before us All through the Bible, there are tables set. There's the
6:17Passover table that details are told about. There is the beautiful table of showbread. For
6:22all of you Bible readers, you know it's always filled with bread. We know David's
6:28palace table table where he invited anybody from the household of Saul. And the only
6:33one they could find was a crippled boy named Mephibosheth who all of them knew
6:38when he was coming to dinner because they could hear him dragging that leg all
6:43the way down the hall. He didn't walk in with the strut of a king's
6:48kid. He walked in like somebody who was slow in the coming and not quick
6:53in the arrival you could hear him before he ever got there because he could
6:58lift his leg he had been dropped as a baby and we see that beautiful
7:03table spread there this is a place that prepared blessings at the table it's not
7:08a table with with paper plates and solo cups it's not a table that's just
7:13spread out simply over here and up in there it is a place that has
7:19candles lit on it it's got not even place matt it's got the linen spread
7:25out it is a spectacular table spread and the table is filled with blessings on
7:31it I want to tell you that I thank the Lord for every blessing. Whenever
7:36I start my praying, I always start by thanking the Lord for all you've done
7:42for me. I could have been dead. Thank you. I should have been dead. Thank
7:47you. I could have been broken, but thank you. I could have been forgotten, but
7:53thank you. I could have been left behind, but thank you. I could have been
7:59sick, but thank you. I could have been a dumb, but thank you. I could
8:05have been forgotten in every corner, but thank you. He's remembered me. And so it's
8:11a table for blessings. But here's the problem. There's something in this room. You show
8:16up to the table the Lord spread. Only to find out there are
8:22enemies in my space of blessing now That's the what but how does this apply
8:28to you? You're saved and sanctified and some of y'all are more spiritual than I
8:34am Some of y'all might be more holy than I am but whenever I've been
8:40vided to go eat with somebody It's always interesting to me to know who else
8:46is coming I know y'all are all spiritual and everything and all but if I
8:52happen to hear when I say well who's coming and I
8:58know y'all don't ever ask that. Y'all are so sweet, and y'all
9:04have prayed up more than me. But if I happen to, who's
9:09coming? And if it falls in that place where one of my
9:15enemies are invited, my first question when I see an enemy that
9:21I didn't know was going to be there was, my wife's heard
9:27this a time or two. Who invited them? How come I didn't
9:33know? You know, I know we sing that song, he's in the
9:39room, he's in the room. But when I sing, he's in
9:44the room, I ain't talking about my enemy. I'm not, listen, I want to say,
9:50who let the dogs in? Y'all talking about who let the dogs out? I want
9:56to let them know, it's all in my spirit. These things go through my head.
10:02Who let the dog in? Who let the dog in? Who let the dog in?
10:10I know I just started on Tuesday night the good fight series and I'm gonna
10:14I'm looking so forward to it I can't wait to finish this or get walking
10:18in this good fight series there is a fight on our hands there's a time
10:22to fight but listen when I go eat and I'm about to break bread and
10:27it's a fancy meal I'm not wanting to fight when I go eat That's not
10:30what I'm wanting to do. I'm wanting to sit there and maybe if I get
10:35some pepper over here and my wife hadn't caught it yet, I don't want my
10:40enemy seeing it. You know, that's another thing you learn when you're family. You get
10:45talking and what's funny is my wife will tell me there's pepper here and she's
10:50got broccoli over there. Oh, you husbands, you know how good that is. You know
10:55you're loving that moment when she's fixing your pepper and you can say...
11:02Or when you look and you don't do it with your finger, you just look
11:07over. You know the tricks. These are the things you learn when you eat together.
11:11This is good family stuff. This is what you need to teach the young people
11:16when they come to eat. They got to learn manners. They got to learn how
11:21to care for one another. They got to learn how to look out for one
11:26another. They got to know how to correct something without embarrassing it before everybody. And
11:30so when I'm going to eat, please don't embarrass. bring my enemies in this place
11:36and i knew y'all would get quiet on this part but
11:42i want to answer the question of this scripture who let
11:47them in the same god who prepared the table also invited
11:53your enemies and it's almost as if the psalm is saying
11:59One way God blesses you is not by taking your enemies from
12:04your presence but that he invites your enemies into your proximity and
12:10the blessing that he gives to you is so great that even
12:16with enemies in the proximity of your place they cannot stop you
12:21from recognizing the goodness of God. I wish I
12:27had somebody in the house who knows what I'm talking about right now. The psalmist
12:32is saying the same God who blesses you is not going to bless you by
12:37taking you away from your enemies. He doesn't have to remove them from you to
12:43deliver you from them. Somebody needs to hear this today because where you've been
12:48working, you've had somebody hating on you and you don't even know why they've been
12:53hating on you and you've been thinking, God, get them out of the way. But
12:58he's going to give you a revelation today that even with them in your presence,
13:03you will be realizing that the blessing of the Lord is so rich that even
13:08with them standing there, they don't have the power to trigger you. They can't steal
13:13your joy, neither. He's not always going to take them away. He
13:19may deliver them from you, but not you from them. I preached a message years
13:25ago entitled, I'm still in it, but I'm over it. I may have the problem
13:31all around me, But God's been so good to me that I'm now
13:37over the problem that was haunting me. It won't be long before I
13:43realize that the God who invited them, invited them because of his goodness.
13:49In the presence of folks who you know you can't stand and they
13:55can't stand you because something you didn't know you did. still have
14:00your, they still have the ability to come and watch what God does to you.
14:06And so what I want you to see is how the psalm is structured. As
14:11I bring this home, the way the psalm is structured, the songwriter of Psalm 23
14:17got all the way down to this verse 5 that I'm talking about. And he
14:23got there and just He didn't include the enemies in his song.
14:28He didn't include that one in Psalm 23. He just kind of
14:34hopped over because it didn't work out so much. Because here is
14:40verse 5 that says, He set the table. The Lord set... set
14:46the table. That's my message today. The Lord set
14:51the table. And so don't miss verse 5. It's
14:57very important for you to realize where the table
15:02is set. And what happens that's so amazing about
15:07this is that, now catch it. You ready? Verse
15:135 comes after verse 4. I know that's deep.
15:19I know you were expecting more from me on this gathered service.
15:25But listen, there's a reason verse 5 comes after verse 4. Because
15:30verse 4 is the testimony of where the Lord brought me from.
15:36And so I was in the valley of the shadow of death.
15:42And there's a reason verse 5 is after verse 4 because God walked me
15:48out of that valley of the shadow of death. I was in a low
15:54place and God lifted me up. I was in a dark place and
15:59the Lord kept me together. I was in a lonely place and the Lord was
16:05a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. And I've got a
16:10testimony that I've been in that place where I thought I was forgotten. and god
16:16put his hand on me and he pulled me out i was once lost in
16:22sin but jesus brought me in and then a little light from heaven filled my
16:27soul it bathed my heart in love and wrote my name above and just a
16:33little talk with jesus made me whole i was once blind but now i see
16:39i was once a prisoner but now i'm free I was once outside, but now
16:44the Lord brought me into the table. The reason God didn't let me die
16:50in the valley, the reason God didn't leave me when I was alone was
16:56because he had a reservation for me at the table. I love the name
17:01of our hyphen group, The Table. Now, I don't know if Brother Zach and
17:07Sister Winter wanted this to be their text verse when they were choosing a
17:13verse for The Table. He set a table before me. I like that part.
17:18But the first part is in the presence of my enemies. Since I know the
17:24way I know God, since I know God the way I know God, I know
17:30that if I'm outside and I'm going through a dark place, I can't give up
17:36yet. because he has a reservation for me it doesn't matter how hard it may
17:40be some folk come to god and you know the thing about living for god
17:45out through the years you find some that come and some go some think because
17:49the blessing that first fell on them after the first while that it fades that
17:54apparently they've been abandoned by god and so they got to go looking somewhere on
17:58the old paths that they came out of but i want to tell you if
18:02you'll stick on around you'll realize that the valley still comes, the way still grows
18:08dim, your weakness still shows up, you still have problems you didn't count on and
18:13enemies you didn't expect. But if you'll just keep on keeping on, you'll realize that
18:19he's got a table with your reservation and a seat prepared for you to sit
18:24at that table in the middle of your enemies. Many are
18:30the affliction of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. Paul
18:35said it like this, I reckon that the suffering of the present age is not
18:40worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed. He said again, for
18:45our light affliction, it says, but for a moment worketh a far more exceeding and
18:50eternal weight in glory. What am I saying? I'm saying that trouble's gonna come, but
18:56trouble don't last always. You're gonna have a tough time this summer, but God's gonna
19:01walk with you through it. You kids that have been through school, you made it
19:06this far. You think, God, I made it through this school year. I just finished,
19:11but write it down, mark it down. Sometime this summer, you're gonna have hell show
19:16up and he's gonna have some kind of bait. The bait of Satan is gonna
19:21be sent to bring you down and pull you out. But if you'll just keep
19:26on keeping on, you'll realize that he has set a table for you and it's
19:31gonna be one that's set with beauty and power. I'm so grateful for verse four,
19:36but I wanna let you know that just because I'm have verse 4 doesn't mean
19:42I'm not getting a verse 5 coming my way if your thanks can be muted
19:47by the folks around you then you need to get a revelation if If your
19:52hallelujahs can be shut down by somebody's eye roll, then you need to get a
19:57revelation. If your standing up can be stopped just because everybody else wants to sit
20:03down, you need to get a revelation. If you're waiting to determine who else is
20:08in the room, before you decide that you've got to let the hallelujahs roll, then
20:13you need to get a revelation. If you have anything that can come up against
20:18you and stomp against you, if it can steal your joy, then you need to
20:23get a revelation. Because in the middle of your enemies, you can be delivered from
20:29your enemies. That when they show up, it... It could be that they were invited
20:34by the Lord, that he was the one who sent them out an invitation and
20:40said, hey, you're invited, you're invited, you're invited. Come, I'm going to set a table
20:45before you in the presence. i'm looking for a church that's so grateful
20:51that it doesn't matter what kind of church hurt they go through it's not going
20:56to steal their praise i'm looking for a church that has the revelation no matter
21:01what kind of crazy preacher has already ripped up on your heart that you got
21:05a revelation that you never did have preacher religion you never did have Pentecost religion
21:10you never did have quote apostolic religion then I'm talking quote because there's modern interpretations
21:15that are not akin to what's in this word I'm talking to some people that
21:20it doesn't matter what kinda world hurt or church hurt church abuse or spiritual abuse
21:25or any kind of abuse you run up into you realize hey I had I
21:30thought I didn't have any enemies But I found out I got some enemies. But
21:35even in spite of my enemies, I'm still surrounded by them. But they won't shut
21:40down my praise. They're not going to stop my hallelujahs. They're not going to stop
21:45my dance. You're not going to keep me from swaying in the presence of the
21:50Lord. No! my revelation means i must raise my hands hey i didn't get up
21:55this morning when i got up to drive the roads i had to drive to
22:00park in the spot where i'm parked to walk through the doors where i walked
22:06to sit in the seat where i sat to sit there and not give the
22:11lord praise he brought me all this mighty long way and if you think that
22:17I'm gonna sit on him because somebody rolled their eyes at me. You
22:23got another thing coming, honey. I'm not gonna praise him just because everything's
22:28right around me. In the middle of my valley, he restores my soul.
22:34When I go by the water, he sets me down and stills it.
22:40He sets me before his people. Hallelujah. You can't shut me up.
22:46You can't stop my praise. You can't make me leave. You can't make me
22:52quit. You can't say enough things about me to make me walk out on God.
22:58No, no, no. I thought you might have been my friend. It could be that
23:04I found out that you were my enemy. But that's all right. Because the goodness
23:10of my God, it leadeth me to repentance. The goodness of God leads me into
23:15places of strength and power. In fact, here's the thing that's so curious. I'm
23:21just a sheep in this verse. Atheists, they really kind of chuckle on the inside
23:27when they hear Christians say, the Lord is my shepherd. Because they like these little
23:33terms like sheeple, you know. Y'all heard it. Some of y'all said it. Just don't
23:39say it now. Look at all those sheeple, all those sheep following. But let me
23:45tell you something about a sheep. A sheep, a sheep only knows about predator. A
23:51sheep doesn't have enemies. A sheep knows. has things that prey on them but sheep
23:57aren't like goats they don't run into things they just eat and sing sheep just
24:02grow wool eat and sing and grow wool they'll dance in the day and they'll
24:07sleep in the night they'll huddle up in the storm sheep All they know about
24:13is predators. But in this verse, it gets a little more complicated. All I wanted
24:18was to walk in green pastures and lie beside still waters. But now I found
24:23some people hating on me when I didn't do anything to them. Have you ever
24:28had somebody hate on you and you wonder what in the world did I just
24:33do? I was doing men's conference this year. I was telling Brother Marty about this.
24:38This weekend, a man came up to me after I had preached. That night I
24:43preached at men's conference. And he walked up to me, you know, that day I
24:48had interviewed. This is the second year I've been the leader for the men. And
24:53he walked up to me and he said, Brother Elms, I need you to forgive
24:59me. Listen, if y'all are going to come up and start talking to me, don't
25:04start like that, okay? That is not, nuh-uh. Listen, I'm spiritual, but I ain't that
25:09spiritual. These are still fleshly hands I'm working with right here. I need you to
25:15forgive me. So immediately I had my response, you know. Well, my dear brother, why
25:19would I need to forgive you? Because I knew he was wanting to tell me,
25:24you know. That's what they're saying when they say forgive me. They're saying I want
25:29to tell you why you made me mad. That's what they're wanting to say. I
25:33want to tell you why I don't like you and I'm still working on it.
25:38Okay. So I need you to forgive me. So I let him have the line
25:43a little bit. I said, why would I need to forgive you? He said, all
25:49these years I've been coming to men's conference and you sat down over by where
25:54I was at. And I thought you were the most stuck up, stand alone, thought
25:59you were something special preacher. And I just felt even more special with him telling
26:04me all that. All the men in our church know that when I went to
26:10men's conference, I'm not trying to be nice to everybody. I wanted to be with
26:14my men. I would sit with them. I wanted to pray with them. I wanted
26:18to eat with them. This was one of my frustrations with becoming elected men's president
26:22because now I can't do the things I used to love to do. I would
26:25just go and sit down with them and we would pray together and huddle up
26:29and all of that. And I guess because I wasn't trying to get to know
26:33him across the aisle, he thought I might have been stuck up. when that's the
26:37only conference I can go to and just sit with my men and I'm just
26:43trying to be with my fellas. But listen, listen, he told me all of that.
26:49I said, well, my brother, I don't have to forgive you, but since you told
26:55me, you're forgiven. I said, how did you find out I'm different? He said, well,
27:01after I saw you interviewing these people, I got to hearing how your brain thinks.
27:07And then you preach two times here at this conference, and I realize, man, he
27:12isn't that stuck-up preacher. He does understand what it is to be going through a
27:18valley. He does understand a burden. Just because I'm handsome like this doesn't mean I'm...
27:26I can't help that I don't have to put curlers in my hair to get
27:30it curled. I can't help that my wife is my barber and she lets the
27:34back go a little long when she cuts my hair because she likes those flings
27:38and flops up in this region right here. I can't help that. I pat it
27:42down. If I had my way, I'd get the fade. I have it all faded
27:46up. But I got to deal with my wife. Some of you men know what
27:51I'm talking about. I got to deal with her. I look up sometimes after church
27:55and my hair will act like it's all cut. But in this section right here,
27:59it's like somebody forgot to cut it. And I literally told my wife last time
28:03going home, I said, babe, now I can't see the back of my head. But
28:07when you get to the back of my head and you cut my hair, do
28:11you on purpose forget that part? She'll just be running her fingers through it, act
28:15like she's cutting, she's clipping, but nothing's cutting. Nothing's coming off. And if I look
28:21like a crazy man with a mullet, blame my wife because she likes these little
28:25ends that pop up. Some of you men with natural curls, you know what I'm
28:30talking about. And so I'm telling you right now, I wasn't born. I was born
28:35this way. I can't help I look this way But if you have ever been
28:40through the valley of the shadow When folk you didn't even know didn't like you
28:44come up the reason they don't like you is because of that Table that's sitting
28:49in front of you when you got hired and you walked in the room They
28:54knew something about you already was taking you to the top and they started not
28:58liking you the first time you spoke spoke in the break room they realized this
29:04person's special I'm not sure I like him and so they stopped
29:10liking you because you were already favor is not fair favor was
29:16already on you because the Lord said that's my sheep and they
29:22hear my voice my sheep know my voice and they follow me
29:27and I'm gonna bless them favor attracts opposition grace creates adversity
29:33God's goodness makes folk not like you. Sister Elms, come. God's
29:39blessing will cause folk to hate you. That's the bad news.
29:44But here's the good news. Wherever I see enemy, I ought
29:50to know there's a table coming my way. Every time that
29:56I realize I didn't know you were my enemy, I need
30:01to have the revelation that the songwriter forgot to put in
30:07his 23rd Psalm song. And he says, thou preparest.
30:12That verb is present active right now. Look at
30:18this moment. Look at the tense. You prepare a table before me.
30:24It's not past tense. It's present tense. It means it's happening right now.
30:30There are people that are being forced to watch things you cannot see.
30:36They've already received the invitation and the invitation came at the same time
30:42as the preparation started. And you didn't know while you were walking through the valley
30:48of the shadow of death that the Lord was already preparing the table and you
30:53were just down in the dark and your enemy already saw what you didn't even
30:59know was coming your way. It means the invitation came with the preparation and my
31:04enemies had to watch the Lord. Set me up. You think they're talking behind your
31:10back? The other thing that God is doing is they're seeing promotion coming your way.
31:14Before you even had a clue, it was coming your way. Your neighbors watched you
31:19and watched you and watched you. And that minute you walked in the room, they
31:24saw it before you knew it. And they don't like you because they saw what
31:29God's doing for you. And you don't even... No, God's doing it. The enemy knows.
31:34This is the reason sometimes, like I preach Tuesday night, when the enemy comes in,
31:39Remember what I told you Tuesday night? Did I tell you that the comma's in
31:44the wrong place? That we said that when the enemy comes in like a flood,
31:49comma, the Lord raises up a standard? And I taught y'all Wednesday night that those
31:54who put in the punctuation marks got it wrong, that the comma doesn't give the
31:59flood to the enemy, but it's the Lord who knows how to make a flood
32:04when the enemy comes in. Peek! like a flood. The Lord raises up a
32:10standard. I've come to give some hope to somebody. You know where your
32:16enemies are, but do you see the table being prepared? Watch it. Watch
32:22it. The psalmist gets to the table and is met with the dilemma.
32:27Listen to the dilemma. The dilemma is I have two choices. There's blessings
32:33and there's enemies. Which one am I going to focus on? This is
32:39the word of the Lord to the house of God today. Some
32:45of y'all have focused on the wrong place. When the enemy is
32:51present, I get to decide to see how good. I get to
32:56crawl out of verse 5 and walk back through verse 4 and
33:02verse 3 and verse 2 and verse 1. And if you notice
33:07something about all those verses, the Lord is my shepherd. I'm outside.
33:13I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
33:19valleys. I'm outside green patch he leadeth me
33:24beside the still waters I'm still outside he restoreth my
33:30soul where outside and then it goes on to talk
33:35about the goodness of God that he takes you through
33:41the valley of the shadow of death outside yet I
33:46will fear no evil because thou art with me where
33:52outside thy rod and thy staff comfort me outside thou
33:57preparest A table before
34:03me. Now I'm inside. How did I get from being outside to
34:08being inside all of a sudden? In the presence of my enemies.
34:14My cup runneth over them. I focus on the goodness of God.
34:20Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
34:26things are just, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,
34:32the Lord said, think on these things in the presence of your enemies.
34:38I remember preaching that message at Texas camp meeting. I'm still in it, but I'm
34:43over it. And Sister Susan agreed to come and be a help for me. And
34:49at that time, Sister Susan had a severe case of alopecia. Did I say that
34:54right? That means clumps of hair. She was slick-balled in huge parts. of her hair
35:00and so it was a terrible thing when she came into my study and with
35:05weeping and sobbing she who has been honoring the Lord all these years had never
35:10cut or trimmed her hair was there doing it as an honoring to God and
35:15And through that process, she said, "Brother Helms, after all these years, I mean, I
35:20know my hair is my glory. What's going on?" And so we went through it.
35:25And so she came because I talked about how that time I told her story
35:30and the Bible said, and I said, "She's not all the way through it." She
35:34got her a big old wig. In fact, I told her when we met, I
35:39said, "Susan, Don't you go around either. Just decide to wear fancy hats.
35:45Get yourself some saucy hats. You don't have to go around looking like that.
35:51Or buy yourself a wig and make yourself look pretty and Sister Elms will
35:57go with you, help you pick it out. And I volunteered to go, but
36:02I would have got her a big old fro. You would have been sassy,
36:08girl. Listen to me. She was still in it. But you can get to
36:14a place that when your enemies walk up, they cannot steal your smile.
36:22Every enemy means there's a table. The
36:28old saints used to sing, I've had
36:33some good days. I've had some hills
36:39to climb. I've had some weary days
36:44and some sleepless nights. But when I
36:50look around and I think things over,
36:55all of my good days outweigh the
37:01bad days. God has been good to
37:06me. Yes, he's been good. to
37:12me. Listen, listen. More than
37:18this world could ever be.
37:23He's so good to me.
37:29His spirit came to me
37:35and gave me victory. God
37:40has been good to me.
37:46Complain. Shall we stand all
37:52over this Auditorium, I want to tell you when your enemies
37:58show up you need to recognize It may take you a minute. I know as
38:03soon as I see an enemy. It doesn't mean I'm naturally all happy I Haven't
38:09got there yet. Maybe y'all are better than I am but as soon as the
38:15enemy shows up I think hmm. Why do I have to be in the same
38:20space? I tighten up no hugs going now. We'll just shake hands. I
38:27My son was telling me about somebody that's kind of not liked him a little
38:31while and he was telling me he said when he walked up he came up
38:36to shake my hand and instead of shaking my hand with the normal grip you
38:40know how some guys do they always try to intimidate you with the power clasp.
38:45Yeah, I know that you get there and it's like oh you're not just gonna
38:49meet me with strength you're gonna do that. So my son he's got a good-sized
38:54hand. You know my hand sometimes. It's not as long It's strong, but it's not
38:58as long and it's hard if you don't have those long fingers to get that
39:02good gotcha back moment You know so if somebody's gonna do that to me, then
39:06I'll just kind of do this I'll say oh so you want to go there,
39:10but that's bad I ought to take that and he said as soon as he
39:14did that he said he pulled that second power move dad Is it alright if
39:18I tell this story? We're not gonna tell who it was It's kind of late,
39:24wasn't it? You men know what I'm talking about though, you know. You walk up,
39:30you get them, and rather than just that good grip, they kind of hit you
39:36in there. It's like, I want you to know. And so the second move is
39:41that you do that pull in. Get that power grip and then you pull them
39:47in. Well, my son, he said, Dad, I was ready. He knew he was in
39:53the presence of an enemy. And he said, as soon as he did that, I
39:59just went. Now, I know that's father-son talk. That's not supposed to be online.
40:05But all you men, maybe some of you women, I don't know the women's games.
40:10I think it's different things that women do. But I have never been a woman,
40:16so I don't know those games. Okay. But you know, the men know these games.
40:21What's going to happen is that you, when the Holy Ghost helps you, Jesus helped
40:26this church. When the Holy Ghost helps you, and you realize, I might be in
40:32the presence of my enemy, I'm going to stop and say, there's a table. There's
40:37a table. There's a table. If my enemy's present, There's a table. Prepare
40:43us. A table before me in the presence of my enemy. Wait,
40:49wait, wait, wait. My cup. Thou anointest my head with oil. My
40:55cup. How does a cup run over? You know why a cup
41:01runs over? Two reasons. Number one, the person has more in the
41:06picture than you got room in your cup.
41:12That's the first thing required for it to run over. My wife sometimes will drink
41:17a lot of drink and she'll say, I'll save you some. And she'll pour it
41:21in and it'll be about half my cup. I think, boy, you were generous, baby.
41:26I appreciate you saving me some. And she'll shake it like it means extra, you
41:30know. There you go. Here, let me get more for you. Baby, there wasn't enough
41:35in there to fill my cup. When Jesus says, "I'll fill your cup and
41:41I'm gonna make it overflow," there's two things. Number one, He's got
41:46more than you have the capacity for. It's gonna be more pressed
41:52down, shaken together, and running over. And the second thing that has
41:57to happen is the one pouring has to make a decision. I
42:03see it's full. I know it's at the top, but I'm not
42:08done yet. I'm gonna keep on pouring. Keep on pouring and keep on
42:14pouring he maketh me to lie down in green pastures He leadeth me
42:20beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. Yea, though I walk through the valley
42:26of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
42:31Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in
42:37the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over.
42:42Shun! Holy goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
42:48life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
42:54Some of you have not yet received the Holy Ghost because you
42:59don't, you're not sure it's for you. Let me tell you something,
43:05it's for you. It's for everyone. Some of you have not come
43:11all the way in the church. You stayed around the periphery because
43:16you're not sure you deserve to get on the inside of the
43:22church. None of us deserve it. There's a day that we move from being a
43:28sheep to being a son. And let me tell you about sheep. They're not at
43:32the table. Sheep are on the table. But when the Lord gets you, he moves
43:37you from the menu to being at the table. And the revelation of the king
43:42is that you know you didn't deserve to be there. there ain't there's not anybody
43:46in the house that feels like i deserve this i got the right last name
43:51i was born in the right church i know how to pray the right i
43:55don't deserve this if you're in this house and you're saying i'm the one that
43:59needs to know in the presence of my enemies thou art with me why don't
44:04you find your way to this altar right now why don't you get up here
44:08you can think of a specific enemy right now that has been tormenting you and
44:13you need to walk to this altar and you need to say in your mind,
44:18"Oh Lord, I've been looking at the wrong thing. I've been considering the wrong object.
44:24I am bringing my needs to you. I'm bringing to you my vision and I'm
44:29realizing had it not been for the Lord who was on my side, I'll let
44:35all the church say, had it not been for the Lord who was on my
44:40side I didn't deserve it I should have been dead I should not be
44:46here but he brought me out he called me the reason I made it
44:52here this morning was because he loves me the reason I came this far
44:57was because he washed me that's it that's it that's it lift your voice