The LORD is my Banner of Victory: YHWH Nissi

Sharing good news of great joy to all people.

Elation Church.

Week number five in our series.

Can anybody remember the name of our series?

Everybody say hello.

My name is God.

Hello, my name is God.

We've been looking through scriptures to find out more about who God is.

Because we can learn about him by learning the names that he has given us in scripture to us to reveal who he is.

Now what are names all about anyway?

What's in a name?

Well first of all names are identity.

Names are identity.

Now when I was a kid I wanted to play junior high football.

And when I signed up for the team everything was good but I had to produce a state birth certificate in the state of South Carolina.

And when my state birth certificate came in I found out what my name was.

Because my name wasn't what I'd gone by my whole life.

Because my parents didn't name me before we left the hospital.

So I kid you not when my state birth certificate came in it said no name for us.

That's my name.

It's still like my legal name in the state of South Carolina.

I mean you can't change your name that you've gone by for 13 years at that point or 12 years without there being some indication that you've changed your name.

So when my birth certificate got corrected to my name there's an asterisk on my birth certificate.

To let everybody know that my name has been changed to this name.

Which is the name that I've gone by my whole life which is Jeffrey Dean Forrest.

Most people just call me Dean.

I don't go by my first name I go by my second name.

So people call me Dean.

And that's identity right.

We can know each other by each other's names.

Names give us identity.

Everybody say identity.

There's another name that's an identification name for me.

And that name is that I am a Christian.

It's not just something added on to who I am it's who I am.

And if you are a Christian then your name is Christian as well.

That is an identification name.

But we also have relationship names.

Everybody say relationship.

We have relationship names right.

My mom always called me baby.

Because I'm the youngest of four.

And even when I was 50 years old if she was introducing me to someone that I didn't know.

She would introduce me first and foremost as this is my baby.

Even when I'm a grown adult with kids of my own.

This is my baby.

Sometimes she would say this is my baby Dean.

But sometimes she would just say this is my baby.

So that was a relationship name.

My dad didn't call me baby.

My dad just called me son.

This is my son.

If he would introduce me he would say this is my son.

Or this is my son Dean.

I have some other relationship names.

I'm a husband.

My wife Gayna is gone to help take care of the little ones.

But I became a husband in 1984.

But since we're not from the UK she doesn't say oh husband.

She calls me honey.

Everybody say honey.

She calls me honey unless I've been bad.

Or unless I've irritated her in some way or another.

So that's one of my names.

I'm also a father.

Jeffrey is my son.

But again he doesn't say oh father.

When he was young he called me daddy and now he calls me dad.

It's a relationship name.

So names signify identity.

Everybody say identity.

They signify relationship.

Everybody say relationship.

They also signify activity.

What a person does.

What a person is qualified to do.

So I have a lot of activity names.

Here's a few.

As a student for a long time, longer than most people.

A cook.

A salesman.

A sound man.

A custodian.

I can throw in a trainer and a coordinator.

A janitor.

A screen printer.

An A&R director.

Vice president of multiple organizations.

Music director of multiple organizations.

An event planner.

Planning events all over the United States.

A crusade director.

A president of multiple organizations and nonprofit corporations.

A worship leader.

Sometimes that would be all I would do.

In an event.

I was a conference director.

Started a conference for students that ran for 21 years.

An evangelist.

I was on the road for 20 years.

A chaplain for 9 years.

A preacher.

A pastor.

All those are my names.

I may not go by all of them all the time, but

I've done those things.

Most of those things that I've done have been, you know,

derived income from those things.

Not just a novice at those things.

You could say a professional at many of those things.

So I've told you over 29 names, over 30 names.

But I'm only one person.

Now for those of you who just met me today, you just found out a lot about me.

Right?

Instead of just, well, he's the preacher at the church that we Googled and showed up at.

Now you know a little bit more about my history and my past and who I am and what I've done.

Well guess what?

When we look at God's names, we can see who he is and what he's done.

We can see what kind of relationship he wants to be in with us.

We can see what he is able to do for us, what he desires to do for us.

So that's why we're looking at these names.

Because in God's names, because we're not just talking about Dean all day,

in God's names we learn who he is, his identity.

He said, Yahweh is my name to be known for generations.

Identity, relationship, activity, who he wants to be to you and what he wants to do for you.

And this is our springboard verse, Psalm 910.

Find some very important information concerning the name of God.

Those who know your name, everybody say God's name.

Those who know your name will put their trust in you.

Now if you look up that Hebrew word, which I don't speak Hebrew,

but if you look it up you can Google it on your phone and look at the inter-dilinear

and look at the Strong's definitions for the words if you want to dig in deep.

But the word there for trust also means confidence.

See, when we know who God is, we can put our confidence in him.

I want to say that again because my son was the only one who said amen.

When we know who God is, we can put our confidence in him.

We can put our trust in him because that's who he is.

And here's why, for you Lord have not forsaken those who seek you.

What does that mean? God's not going to turn his back on you.

He won't forsake you. He won't turn his back on you. He won't leave you.

He won't say, yeah, you know, I'll do that for Colin, but I won't do it for Jeffrey

if we're seeking him based on who he is. He will not forsake you.

And when you know who he is, see the problem with most of us is we really don't know who he is.

And we don't know what he wants to do. We don't know the promises that he's made.

Or at least we don't have confidence in those yet.

But when we trust him and have confidence in him based on who he is,

then we can know that he's not going to forsake us when we seek him.

Hello, my name is God. Today we are looking at God's name, Yahweh Nisi.

Everybody say Yahweh Nisi. Yahweh Nisi.

You may or may not know what that means.

But hopefully by the end of today you will know what that means.

Because that's who God is and who he wants to be in your life

and what he wants to do in your life we find in his name.

We find this name first mentioned in Exodus chapter 17, star of verse 8.

Exodus 17 · chapter mention

God's people were going from Egypt in captivity, slavery in Egypt.

God had set them free and he was taking them somewhere.

He was taking them to the promised land.

But on the way they had some challenges. On the way they had some struggles.

Has anybody in the room ever had a challenge or a struggle?

So we can look at their challenges and struggles and their interaction with God

and what God did for them and we can see that that's who God is.

The interesting thing is while the people of Israel were still at Rephidim,

you know what? That word Rephidim means a place of rest.

So when they first arrived there they had just come off of a pressure and a trouble

and some difficulty and a challenge. They had just come off of that.

And now they were at a place of rest. It's good to be at a place of rest.

But just because we are at a place of rest doesn't mean that some other challenge

or trouble is going to come our way because we live in a fallen world.

I hate to keep going back to that other series that we talked about,

but Jesus said in this world you will face tribulation.

If you look up the word tribulation it means pressure and trouble.

So we live in a fallen world. Sin broke it. Sin messed it up. Sin brought trouble.

In this world you will face trouble.

So if you're not facing any trouble today, I hate to be such an encouragement to you,

but I'm just giving you the words of Jesus and He said there's going to be

pressure and trouble in this world.

When you're in the middle of pressure and trouble that's not a comforting word, is it?

Come on somebody. We're talking about real life here.

We're talking about the real deal going on.

But what did Jesus say? In this world you will have tribulation, you will have pressure,

you will have trouble, but what does He say to do?

In the middle of your pressure and trouble what does Jesus say to do?

Be of good cheer. That's what He says.

And some people want to throw a rock at me right now because I said that.

What do you mean be of good cheer? You don't know what I'm facing.

You don't know what challenge I'm dealing with right now.

And you're telling me to be of good cheer?

No, I'm not telling you to be of good cheer. Jesus told you to be of good cheer.

Seems trivial, but it just helps me out to say, cheer up buttercup.

Be of good cheer. Be of good cheer.

And you might say, how could I be of good cheer?

Well Jesus didn't stop right there saying be of good cheer.

He said be of good cheer because I have overcome.

Look to the person beside you and say, Jesus has overcome.

He's overcome the challenge that I'm facing right now.

He's overcome the pressure that I'm facing right now.

And I'm going to be of good cheer.

Just like Jesus was of good cheer when He was going through the same pressure

that I'm going through right now. I'm going to be of good cheer too.

Church gave me an amen button for my birthday this year.

It's them people in the room saying amen on the button.

Alright, if we are in Christ, Christ has overcome.

So when we're in Him, we have overcome.

This is the victory that overcomes the world.

What's the rest of that? Even our?

Do you not know that verse? Or you just don't want to say it?

This is the victory that has overcome the world. Even our?

I'm going to have to start preaching three times every Sunday morning

if you don't know that.

Does anybody remember the hymn? Blank is the victory. Blank is the victory.

Off that verse out of the Bible. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world.

Does anybody know what the blank is?

We got a lot of plowing to do.

Everybody say faith. Not just faith in faith, but faith in God.

When we're in Christ, He has overcome. So that means that we have overcome.

So we can be of good cheer even in the middle of our crisis.

Doesn't make the crisis disappear.

I'm pretty sure you won't be in the crisis as long as you will be if you don't be of good cheer.

When you get to be of good cheer in the middle of the crisis, it's going to shorten the crisis time.

All right. It's not my message. But I hope you got it.

Yahweh, Nisi, while the people of Israel were still at a place of rest at Rephidim,

the warriors of Amalek attacked them.

We just now got to a place of rest and now we're going to get attacked.

Moses commanded Joshua, choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us.

Tomorrow I will stand at the top of the hill holding the staff of God in my hand.

So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek.

Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron and her climbed to the top of a nearby hill.

As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage.

But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage.

Have you ever tried to hold up something a long time?

And it's like your arms just start aching, right? When you hold it up a long time.

I mean there's even been times when I've been in a worship service trying to hold up my hands

before the Lord and hold up my arms and my arms just start getting heavier and heavier and heavier.

Even in worship.

It's hard to hold something, especially, you know, holding up a rod or something

and you just hold it and hold it and hold it and hold it.

I mean this is not for ten minutes.

This is like all day, holding up this rod.

And any time his arms got weak and heavy, he's like, I just have to change arms with me.

When he dropped it, the enemy began to win.

As long as he held it up, he was winning. His people were winning.

Moses' arms soon became so tired that he could no longer hold them up.

So Erin and her found a stone for him to sit on, then they stood on each side of Moses holding up his hands.

Is it important to be a part of a family of faith?

Sometimes you need somebody to help you hold up your hands.

Hello?

Somebody to pray for you.

Somebody to hold you up.

Somebody to encourage you.

So he sat down and Erin and her stood beside him helping hold his arms up

because he just couldn't do it anymore.

So his hands held steady until sunset. Everybody say all day.

As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.

After the victory, the Lord instructed Moses,

write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder and read it aloud to Joshua.

I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh-Nesi.

Everybody say Yahweh-Nesi, which means the Lord is my banner.

Notice he didn't name it, my walking stick is my banner.

Didn't name it that.

He said the Lord is my banner.

So let's talk about that.

Yahweh-Nesi, the Lord is my banner.

What did that mean to them and what does it mean to us

when we find out who God is and what His name is?

That He is Yahweh-Nesi.

He's telling us that He is the great I Am.

He is I Am that I Am, the eternally present and self-existent One.

That's what Yahweh means.

And He is our banner. He is my banner.

What does the banner represent?

Have you done any studies in history where you look at wars and you look at forts

and you see the flag of the person in charge of that military position?

Flags were very important, right?

Because if you're fighting for and with the people who own that position in battle,

as long as you look up and see your flag there, you know that you're winning.

Come on, somebody.

As long as you look up and see your flag there, you know you're winning.

But if you look up and your flag's not there anymore and your enemy's flag is there,

you know that you're in trouble.

As long as the Lord is your banner, you're winning.

But if anything else becomes your banner, you're in trouble.

Did I need to say that again? Or did you get it the first time?

You got it? Okay.

So, as long as the Lord is your banner, you're winning.

But if anything else is your banner other than the Lord, you're in trouble.

He is our banner of identification.

And then Christ, right?

Moses' staff, what did that mean?

Well, Moses had used that staff symbolically to bring them out.

And it's like, that's like a representation of God.

They're not worshiping the rod, but they know that God is connected to the rod.

So when they see that staff, they can remember that they're identified

that the Lord is actually their banner because they knew what these words meant.

Yahweh, they knew that that meant I am the eternal self-existent one.

And now they're finding out that God is their banner.

Now they've got a picture, they've got an illustration of it being a rod,

but they know that it's really God and not the rod.

So the staff means, hey, we're God's people.

Look to the person beside you and say, I'm God's people.

I'm God's people.

I'm in Christ.

I'm in Christ.

So it's a banner of identification.

I'm on God's side.

He's on my side.

He's for me.

I'm the child of the King.

The Lord is my banner.

We need to live our lives every day like that.

It's a banner of remembrance.

The staff had brought them out of slavery.

Remember, threw it down, it turned into a servant,

picked it back up, turned back into a rod.

He tapped the Red Sea with it.

I mean, not the Red Sea, he tapped the Nile with it.

It turned to blood.

He held it up at the Red Sea.

The sea parted, they walked across.

The greatest army in the known world at that time was defeated,

drowned in the bottom of the Red Sea.

It's a banner of remembrance.

When they saw that rod, they were like, yeah, we can remember.

When the Lord is your banner,

you need to be able to look back on your life and say,

you know what, I've gone through pressure before.

You know what, I've gone through trouble before.

And this pressure and this trouble that I'm facing today,

I mean, instead of letting it overwhelm me,

the Lord is my banner.

He is Yahweh-Neh-See.

And I remember that God is able and God is faithful.

He's brought me through before.

Come on, somebody.

Has He?

Has He ever brought you through?

Has He ever made a way for you?

So why are you looking at your situation today saying, oh, no,

I don't know if He's big enough to do it this time?

Well, that means that your problem has become your banner.

I'm going to preach this hard.

You folks from Canada pulling that out of me.

Yeah, tell me about it.

He's my banner of remembrance.

I think about who God is and how He's brought me through.

It's a banner of announcement.

As they continued in their journey,

words spread about their God,

even to the point where when they got to Jericho,

it's like, we've been scared of y'all coming now for 40 years.

What took you so long to get here?

We've been terrified because we found out what your God had done for you,

and we're shaking in our boots.

We've been shaking in our boots for 40 years.

It's a banner of announcement.

Here we are.

When the Lord is your banner, it's like saying, here I am.

Let me introduce you to my God who is my banner, the Lord my banner.

Let me introduce, hey, problem, let me introduce you to my God.

Telling everyone, including your problem, including the storm,

including the pressure, including the trouble, including the temptation,

including the tribulation, telling everybody who I am

and reminded them of what my God has done.

It's a banner of announcement.

It's a banner of focus.

It's a banner of focus.

As long as that staff is raised during that battle,

as long as they can see it, they were strengthened to continue.

When the Lord is your banner, when the Lord is your focus,

you can be strengthened to continue and not to give up and quit.

Be strengthened as long as you can see it.

I want you to listen to this.

God's promises to you and your problem, your situation, your trial,

God's promise and your problem are working in your life at the same time.

Working in duality.

And here's the enemy's plan.

How many of you know we're in spiritual warfare?

We have a spiritual enemy.

The enemy's plan, and he has the ability to manipulate things in this fallen world

to bring some pressure to you and some stress to you.

I'm not saying that every problem and every trouble is coming as a direct, you know,

as a demonic problem, we can put it that way.

I'm not saying that every problem is.

But some of them are and we don't even realize it.

And the enemy's plan, whether he generated the problem

or worked in somebody else's mind and heart to actually cause that problem,

which that happens sometimes.

Has anybody ever experienced something like that?

Well, our spiritual enemy, now that person that did something against you

is not your enemy.

We're not fighting flesh and blood, the Bible says.

Are you with me?

If you ever started fighting flesh and blood, you're fighting the wrong thing.

We have spiritual enemy.

And the enemy's plan, strategic plan, is to use the pressure, the trouble, the problem

to make you doubt God's promise.

We can grab a hold of this.

We can just grab a hold of this.

That's the strategy.

That's the strategy.

The whole purpose of the enemy is to try to get you to doubt God's promise.

If you don't believe me, go back to the garden, did God really say?

That's the first words of the enemy to people.

Did God really say?

Now, did God really say that?

So the plan is to use the problem, to use the trouble, to use the pressure

to make you doubt the promise of God, because the promise is available

and the problem is working.

They're both working together.

And let me tell you something, your attention, your focus,

will either empower the promise or empower the problem.

If we can all...

You know what?

This will change your life.

I mean, God's promise has God's power behind it,

but it doesn't come into your life until you reach out in faith and stand with it.

Are you with me?

I mean, God is our Savior, right?

Do you think He doesn't have enough power to save everybody?

Well, everybody's not saved.

Why aren't they?

Because they haven't heard, they haven't believed,

and they haven't reached out in faith.

We're saved by grace, by God's work, His acts of kindness and favor, through faith.

It takes our faith to connect.

And it's just like that.

Everybody say, just like that.

Just like that in every other promise in the Word.

Why do we think salvation works one way

and then everything else works completely different?

I mean, why did I spend the majority of my life thinking that, you know,

salvation works one way, but every other promise of God has to work some kind of different way?

Why is it this simple?

I'll tell you why it's not simple, because if you get a hold of it, it'll change your life.

Your attention, your focus is going to empower,

because you're reaching out with faith and attaching to the promise of God,

it's going to empower the promise of God,

or if your focus is on the problem, it's going to empower the problem.

I'll go ahead and throw this out there for you to think about.

Don't have a slide for it.

You know I talk about emotions a lot, don't you?

Some people don't like for me to talk about emotions.

Talk about emotions a lot.

But you're really not going to like what I'm going to say right now,

because your emotions are a product of your focus.

I ain't never said that before.

I'm just letting it sit there a minute.

You know, sometimes you've got to leave something in the pan and let it cook a while.

Turn up the heat, speed it up.

Your emotions are a product of your mind and your imagination.

Sometimes we think the emotion is a problem.

Well, the way we were thinking and what we were imagining

has caused the emotion that we're having to deal with.

Because our attention and our focus has gone to the problem.

When our attention and our focus goes to the problem,

then we're going to be in fear and in worry and in stress.

But when Jesus is your banner, when Yahweh, Nisi,

when you remember what He's done, He's a banner of remembrance,

and we've got some more banners coming up,

guess what that does?

When I start even talking this, all of a sudden my emotions begin to change

because it rises up in me.

And now I have joy and I have peace because my mind is set on the right thing,

even in the middle of my trouble.

It's good preaching right there.

I'm glad to hear it.

Example, Peter walked on water.

You remember that story in Matthew 14 where all of a sudden Jesus comes up.

There's wind and there's waves and there's trouble.

Everybody say trouble.

There's pressure. They think they're going to die.

Jesus comes walking up and Peter goes,

Hey, if that's you, let me come out there and walk with you.

Jesus said, Okay, come on.

So Peter stepped out of the boat.

He didn't walk on water. He walked on the Word

because the promise of God and the direction of Jesus

was greater than this natural order of things.

Because you can't just walk on water, can you?

Have you tried to walk on water?

Go to the pool this afternoon and try to walk on water

and see if you can walk on water.

He didn't walk on water. He was walking on the words of Christ.

Hey, come on, Peter.

So he stepped out of the boat.

And the law of buoyancy went out the door

because he was walking on the words of Christ.

It said, Come on.

Come on and walk.

So he's standing on, by faith, he's standing on the words of Christ.

As long as it's focused, everybody say focus.

Could you imagine the joy that's in Peter's heart at this moment

when he steps out of the boat and he's on solid

and he starts walking to Jesus and he's just like,

This is amazing.

Right?

But then his focus shifted.

His focus was on Jesus and what Jesus said.

And then now, there's wind.

There's waves.

This is water.

When his attention and focus turned towards the storm,

he sunk.

And you can go read your Bible this afternoon

and you can see that over and over and over and over again in the Bible.

So the Lord is our banner.

He's our banner of focus.

I will keep my eyes on God.

I'll keep my eyes on who He is.

I'll keep my eyes on what He's done, especially during the battle,

especially during the trouble, especially during the pressure.

I'm going to keep my eyes on Jesus.

I'm going to keep my eyes on God, who He is.

The banner of hope.

Everybody say hope.

The staff, as long as it was raised,

it wasn't time to quit or surrender.

As long as the flag is over the fort, there's still hope.

I mean, even in our national anthem, right?

It gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Put this in the spiritual arena.

Promises of God are proof through the dark times of our life

that our flag is still there, that Yahweh, Nisi is our banner.

The Lord is our banner.

I'm preaching better than you are, amen.

As long as my flag is flying, there's hope.

I need to remind you what the word hope in the New Testament always means.

See, in English we think the word hope is hope so.

Well, I hope so.

South Carolina Gamecocks going to have a good football team this year?

Well, I hope so.

I've been hoping a long time.

I've been hoping.

They had a good season a long time ago, but I'm hoping they'll have another.

It's not the same word.

The word hope in the New Testament means a confident expectation.

Such a confident expectation that you can anticipate with pleasure.

That's what the word means every time you read the word hope in the New Testament.

So when Yahweh is my banner, when the Lord is my banner, He's my banner of hope.

As long as my flag is flying, there is hope.

I will not give up.

I have a confident expectation, and my confident expectation is so strong

that I'm already happy about it.

My confident expectation has stirred my emotions toward joy and peace.

I might have to preach a whole series on that one day.

He's our banner of victory.

He's our banner of victory.

As long as the staff was raised, they were winning.

And they won because the staff kept being raised.

And when the Lord is your banner and He is continually raised, guess what?

You're going to win.

You're going to win.

He's my banner of victory.

And here's the deal.

You can sit in church and get a little excited about it, and walk out the door

and have your problem or your pressure as the banner as soon as you walk out the door.

I wish I could make you, but I can't.

The Lord is your banner.

He told you. His word tells you that He's your banner.

And He tells you to keep your focus on Him, to keep your hope in Him.

2 Corinthians 2, 14.

Now thanks be to God who always, everybody say always, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

Now are you going to believe what the word says?

Or are you going to believe your experience over the word?

Don't ever say, well I know the Bible says this, but you don't understand.

Are you telling God He doesn't understand?

Whose report are you going to believe anyway?

The report of the problem or the report of the Lord?

Which one are you going to believe?

Does it say thanks be to God who every once in a while leads us in triumph?

You know, it's hit or miss.

About 50% of the time He'll lead us in triumph.

About 50% of the time He'll let us sink and drown.

Is that what it says?

When are we going to come to the point where we're like, God said this.

And I'm going to hold on to hope and hold on to victory because of what God says.

No matter what I see, no matter what I think, no matter what I feel.

And guess what? If we hold on to what God says, our feelings are going to change when we actually are holding on to the promise.

They will change.

There is no option for them not to change.

If your feelings don't change, then your focus isn't in the right place and your thoughts aren't in the right place.

Here's the message Bible. It's a paraphrase.

But when you look at the Qu'on a Greek words in that verse that I just shared, this is spot on.

Spot on to the translation of the words.

In the Messiah, in Christ, everybody say in Christ.

Now that's important.

Because I have people here who haven't heard me say this, I'm going to tell you anytime in the Bible where you see the words in Christ, in whom, in Him,

you better take notice because that's telling you something about who you are in Christ and what you have in Christ.

This is very important.

So don't ever read by one of those and just say, oh, those are just filler words to get to what it's saying. No.

In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade.

But that's what it means. That's what it means.

It's actually in the Greek definition. Look it up yourself. Look at Strong's. Don't just take my word for it. Look it up.

That word is talking about a parade, a victory parade, which is very common to these people because when when Rome would take over somewhere,

guess what? One of the first things they would do is they'd have a parade through that town.

All the military leaders, man, they're they're just having a big old procession on a big old parade to let everybody know, hey, we want.

You're not you're not in control anymore because we want.

So everybody line the streets and clap and cheer.

In Christ, God leads us from place to place in a perpetual victory parade.

What does that look like? Oh, I got this problem today.

But real soon, because I have faith in Christ real soon, we're going to have a victory parade right through the middle of this problem.

And the enemy that's tried to use this promise problem to try to keep me off of God's promise,

they're going to have to stand and cheer as you go through with victory.

Oh, he is.

You're better.

But just like he is your savior.

It's up to you whether he is going to be your banner of victory.

Or not.

This is who he wants to be.

This is what he wants to do in your life today.

It's who he is.

This is what he does.

But we have to connect with it.

You have to believe.

You have to have our confidence in our God.

He's my banner.

And as long as he's my banner, I'm going to win.

In the middle of this stuff, I'm going to win if he's my banner.

But again, if I let my problem be my banner, I'm in trouble.

If I waver back and forth, well, God's my banner today and my trouble is my banner tomorrow,

my pressure is my banner on Tuesday, and maybe I'll get back to God being my banner.

If you're just wavering all the time, it's going to take you a long time to have that victory parade.

Those who know your name will put their trust in you.

Will put their confidence in you.

You make us able to put our confidence and trust in you by giving us your name.

Because we know that you're not going to turn your back on us.

When we seek you, you're not going to turn your back on us.

The Lord is my banner of identification, of remembrance, of announcement, of focus, of hope, and of victory.

Let's pray together. God, thank you.

Thank you for your word.

Thank you for revealing to us who you are.

What you want to do in our lives. Who you want to be in our lives.

Thank you for revealing that to us.

Now we say yes.

We claim that you are our banner.

You are the Lord, our banner.

We hold to your name.

Stand in your name.

Wage spiritual battle in your name.

Take hold of victory in your name.

Take hold of hope in your name.

We keep our focus on you.

Thank you, Jesus.

Amen.

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