Summer Mixtape Part 1 I Pastor Joshua Gay

[SPEAKER_00]: High Praise Podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High Praise and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Grab your Bible if you will and go to the book of First Samuel chapter 2.

1 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: While you're turning there, I'm just going to kind of set the stage for what we're doing this summer.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be kicking off a brand new series, this summer called Summer Makes Take.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I know that it is the year 2026 and I know that we live in a streaming world and I know that some of you are looking up at the screen and you're trying to figure out what

[SPEAKER_00]: that is on the graphic.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know today, like I said, we live in a streaming world, we got Apple Music, and we got Spotify, and you got YouTube Music, and you got everything else.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have algorithms, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it tells you what you're gonna like.

[SPEAKER_00]: You listen to one song, and it thinks it knows your entire personality, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It starts just feeding you stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: But before they were streaming, before there was playlists, before there were iPods,

[SPEAKER_00]: Before there were CDs, there was the mixtape, word my people at in the room, come on somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, y'all remember the mixtape?

[SPEAKER_00]: How many old enough do I remember sitting in front of the boom box, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: With the tape in hand on record, y'all are getting more excited than you are during worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: waiting for your song to come on, and you had to be quick because you had to add it to the mixed tape.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would sit for hours, somebody all looking like y'all are insane.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'd sit for hours waiting for the song to come on, and sometimes there'd be a problem that DJ would decide to talk over the entire intro, and ruin the whole thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, but you'd sit and you'd record your song and you had a certain like track list that you were trying to create from the radio and you had to wait hours and hours and hours just to make that perfect song.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then you got it and you protected that tape with your life, all right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or sometimes you gave that mix tape to somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody know what I'm talking about this more?

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody all are married this morning because of a mix tape.

[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't know how to express your feelings.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you let boys demand do it for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You let Mariah do it for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on somebody, you let Whitney do it for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, you let Brian ignite do it for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like one, your lack of dream come true.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, who am I preaching to this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody had their mixed tape.

[SPEAKER_00]: You put your feelings on a tape and you handed it to somebody because a mixed tape was personal.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't random.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't curated by an algorithm.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was chosen by a person.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you could tell what season somebody was in by their mixed tape.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could tell if they were Jones and for somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you could list the songs you go, oh boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could tell if they were going through a breakup.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because everything was sad.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was other things you could tell that we want to talk about this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: If Jenny Wine was on there, you knew what was going down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of y'all too saved for this.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all right, don't worry about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It Castle got offended, offended the worship pastor.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was personal why because every season has a sound, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Every season we still do this today, we just do it with curated playlists now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can get on your Apple Music, your your spot and how Steve's leaving.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can get on your Apple Music, you get on your Spotify, and there will be like songs of the summer.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, songs for breakups, songs for the party, right, every season has a sound.

[SPEAKER_00]: And before the people of God had buildings like this,

[SPEAKER_00]: before there were worship leaders, before there were chord charts, before there were musicians, before there were any of those things that people of God still had songs.

[SPEAKER_00]: They sang at the Red Sea.

[SPEAKER_00]: They sang in the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_00]: They sang in the temple.

[SPEAKER_00]: They sang in prison.

[SPEAKER_00]: All throughout scripture, say, sang after victory.

[SPEAKER_00]: All throughout scripture, it's full of songs, it's full of poems.

[SPEAKER_00]: And throughout this summer, I want to just pause and listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: to some of the songs of the Scriptures, not just because they're beautiful, not just because they're poetic, even though they are, but because these songs often reveal who God is in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't just reveal a season that people went through, but it also reveals who God is and the way that he deals with his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: They reveal how faith sounds when it comes up from the people of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I need you to understand this, say, that I believe in this series, God isn't just trying to give us a nice summer series, but I believe it was even part of the word this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's trying to give you your song back.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's trying to give you your song back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you have lost your sound, some of you have lost your song, you still come to church, you still lift your hands, you still know the words, but some are along the way, disappointment got in your throat instead of worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere along the way, delay God in the way of your praise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere along the way, things got messed up and the battle got so loud that you just stopped singing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I believe this summer, God is restoring the sound of His people, that God is restoring praise, that God is restoring faith, that God is restoring joy, that God is restoring expectation, God is restoring the sound of breakthrough in His people in this day and in this hour, and the church says, Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: So today, for Track One,

[SPEAKER_00]: of the summer mixtape we're going to start with the song of a woman named Hannah, but hear me, I didn't, I'm intentionally starting with this even though it's really out of sequence, obviously was scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm starting with this, and we're starting with Hannah because I want you to see that even when things aren't going your way that God still intends to give you a song.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not starting with Hannah because she never struggled, and everything was always coming up roses.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've said this before, but one of the biggest mistakes we make is we look at scriptures and oftentimes we will view all of the figures we read about as superhuman, but they went through struggle.

[SPEAKER_00]: They went through difficulty.

[SPEAKER_00]: They went through pain, they went through anguish, they went through disappointment.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it was always God's intent to still give them a song.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're starting with Hannah, because I want you to see that God can take the place of your greatest pain and turn it into the sound of your greatest breakthrough.

[SPEAKER_00]: that God specializes in taking the sound of your pain and turning it into a sound of breakthrough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Hannah's song, her song, her sound, her poem, that we're going to read here is not a sad song.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a song of deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a breakthrough song.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a reversal song, because God opens what was closed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brings up what was down.

[SPEAKER_00]: He still lives people from the ash heap.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the God who delivers.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to preach today a little bit about this thought of the sound of breakthrough that we see in Hannah's song.

[SPEAKER_00]: So first Samuel chapter two, how many of there you should be?

[SPEAKER_00]: I gave you plenty of time.

[SPEAKER_00]: First one, and Hannah prayed and said, and by the way, this is often called Hannah's song.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see it's a prayer, it's a poem, it's a song, it's all of these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: My horn is exalted in the Lord, I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: No one is holy like the Lord for there is none besides you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nor is there any rock like our God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Talk no more so very proudly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let no arrogance come from your mouth.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is the God of knowledge and by Him actions are weighed.

[SPEAKER_00]: and those who stumble are girded with strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread and the hungry have ceased to hunger.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children has become feeble.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord kills and makes a lie.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brings down to the grave and brings up.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord makes poor and makes rich.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brings low and lifts up.

[SPEAKER_00]: He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the bear from the ashype to set among the princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: For the pillars of the earth of the Lord and He has set the world upon them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength, no man shall prevail.

[SPEAKER_00]: The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces from heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will thunder against and the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his annoyance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we thank you for this word today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you have something good to say to each and every one of us as we begin this series.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Father God, for each and every one of us in this room.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not here by accident, but we're here on divine appointment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will not, my tongue is out of a ready and skillful writer to speak forth your words of life, exhortation, edification, and comfort to your people.

[SPEAKER_00]: For all of us in this room, thank you to our ears to hear our hearts receive and our spirits to respond to what your

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we read this here in First Samuel 2, we read Hannah's prayer, her poem, her song, but to understand her song in chapter 2, you have to understand her struggle in chapter 1.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because a lot of times we look at people's song, we look at their life now, we look at their breakthrough, we look at their deliverance, we look at what God is doing, we go must be nice to just always have everything go your way.

[SPEAKER_00]: But to really understand Hannah's song, you must first understand Hannah's struggle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Hannah was barren.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in that culture, barrenness was not just a little private struggle that you had and people kind of didn't talk about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a public shame to live in barrenness.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was emotional pain.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was constant disappointment that she is living in.

[SPEAKER_00]: year after year after year after year.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I say it was this public shame because for better or worse, and it was for worse.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for better or worse, the culture of the day, the primary role of the woman was to provide a son, was to provide children.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Hannah's in a place where she's not doing that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet every year, she keeps showing up to worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet every year, she keeps praying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet every year she keeps bringing her pain to the Lord and putting it before Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But let me just stop here for a second and say this, you don't be afraid to bring your pain before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you all are real quiet this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, don't be afraid to bring your pain before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is not scared of what you're going through.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already aware of it, but never be afraid to bring it before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is not negative faith to go, God, this is what I'm going through, this is what I'm struggling with, and I need your help right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not complaining to bring your pain before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's right, if you should be bringing your pain before anyone,

[SPEAKER_00]: It should be to the one who has the power to change things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should be to the one who knows the very hairs on your head.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should be to the one who can in a moment reach out and touch your life and cause your pain to be turned into joy.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Hannah keeps bringing her pain to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: She keeps worshiping.

[SPEAKER_00]: She keeps praising.

[SPEAKER_00]: She keeps sacrificing.

[SPEAKER_00]: She remains constant.

[SPEAKER_00]: even when her situation hasn't changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm convinced we would see more situations change if the people of God could learn to be constant even whenever their situation hasn't changed yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody can praise when the answer comes quickly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, anybody can shout for the victory when everything's going your way.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Hannah kept showing up, even when the answer had not come yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: She kept worshiping even when there wasn't deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: She kept praying even while she was still barren.

[SPEAKER_00]: She just kept doing what she knew to do and she kept being faithful to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you know what that feels like.

[SPEAKER_00]: You prayed for the marriage and it still fell apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: You prayed for the job and you still got the rejection email.

[SPEAKER_00]: you're believing for the promotion and the person who was less qualified than you less faithful than you less able than you got it before you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So me been praying for the prodigal and it seems like they just keep getting crazier and further from home and not any better.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what you're still here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, you're still here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you don't think God doesn't delight whenever things haven't broken your way yet to still see you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I throw up my hands and praise you again and again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cause all that I have is a, all I've got is a holiday.

[SPEAKER_00]: So notice that's what you feel like you got.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got nothing else in you, but I remember these words, I'll aloo you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't feel like I've got anything else left in me, but I'm gonna keep showing up.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where Hannah was.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to encourage you, if you feel like you've been in second Samuel, if you'd be first Samuel chapter one, and you feel like you're in that place with Hannah, where you prayed and you believed, but you haven't seen yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to encourage you, don't let delay drive you away from the presence of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You keep pressing in, you keep worshiping, you keep praying, you keep showing up because you never know which prayer becomes the turning point.

[SPEAKER_00]: You never know when worship in agony is going to become worship into praise, into breakthrough, into deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah's story is not ultimately about struggle.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's ultimately about deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's ultimately about healing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because when we read this song that we just read, Hannah's not singing because she's learned to cope with the pain.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's singing because God stepped in and turned everything around.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God gives her a son, name Samuel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, what's your name?

[SPEAKER_00]: God will meet you in your struggle.

[SPEAKER_00]: God will meet you in your pain.

[SPEAKER_00]: God will comfort you in your struggle.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will suit you in your pain.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will strengthen you in the midst of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he is committed to not leave you there.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is still the God who brought Israel out of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is still the God who opened the red sea.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is still the God who shut the lines mouth.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is still the God who calls Hannah to bear a son.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is still the God who empties graves.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what he did then, we saying it, I think I'm Wednesday night, he will do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, and what he did for them, he will still do for you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he desires to turn your song of mourning into a song of praise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your song of struggle into a song of breakthrough.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's with you in the middle of it, but he is also to bring you out and bring you through it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: The song we read, after Hannah has a sense she has to dedicate him.

[SPEAKER_00]: She has this prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: It starts with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: My heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rejoices in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I smile at my enemies because I'm rejoice in your salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to understand this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah's joy was ultimately not insamual.

[SPEAKER_00]: She starts with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: My heart rejoices in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her joy was in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: The miracle mattered, don't misunderstand me.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the greater revelation was heard discovering

[SPEAKER_00]: Her biggest revelation was not God, look what you gave me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was God, look at who you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't God, look, I've got a son.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was God, you are still able to turn things around.

[SPEAKER_00]: She was not inherently rejoicing in the manifestation of the miracle.

[SPEAKER_00]: She was rejoicing in the one who is the miracle worker, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I've said this before.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't worship God because we want to get something.

[SPEAKER_00]: We worship God because of who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And who he is is a miracle worker.

[SPEAKER_00]: And who he is is a God of breakthrough.

[SPEAKER_00]: And who he is is a God of deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we get to a point where we can worship him for who he is, we get what he has.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, when we get to what we can worship him for who he is, we as a secondary consequence get what he has.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even when we get a miracle, our joy is not inherently in the miracle, it's in the character and the nature of who God is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense to you this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: We worship him for who he is, not what he does.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, with me, Hannah had seen him as a God who hears the God who remembers the God

[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason it's so important that our joy is in the Lord and not in the blessing is because if our joy is in the things your joy will rise and fall with circumstances.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody, and I've been alive long enough to realize this, circumstances change.

[SPEAKER_00]: the time, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You all know what I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_00]: Circumstances change constantly.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why my joy is not in the circumstance.

[SPEAKER_00]: My joy is in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why your joy can't be in your bank account.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're mulled somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, your joy can't be in your bank account.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your joy certainly can't be in people.

[SPEAKER_00]: your joy can't be in the political arena.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your joy can't even be in your hobbies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your joy must be in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know people whose joy disappeared.

[SPEAKER_00]: The moment the promotion didn't come.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know the problem?

[SPEAKER_00]: Your joy wasn't in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know people their joy disappeared the moment that they got a diagnosis.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know the problem your joy wasn't in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know people who their joy ended the moment of relationship change.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know the problem, your joy wasn't in the Lord, but I also know believers who walk through some of the hardest, darkest seasons of their lives and unless you knew you would have never known.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because their joy wasn't in their circumstance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their joy was in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their joy wasn't in what had happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their joy was in someone deeper than their circumstances.

[SPEAKER_00]: When your joy is in the Lord, it remains steady.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he doesn't change.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said because he doesn't change.

[SPEAKER_00]: I rejoice, my heart rejoices in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: She goes on to say, my horn is exalt the Lord, which is a weird statement, unless we understand what she's talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: The horn expresses and represents strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah is saying that God took the place where she was weak and he made her strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: He took the place where she felt inadequate and he brought adequacy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Deliverance doesn't just change your situation,

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't just change the external things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It changes the way you think and believe about yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: What Hannah is saying is, God, you made me look at myself differently.

[SPEAKER_00]: My horn is exalted, not in what I've done, but in what you've done for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: God can change the way you carry yourself before everything starts to change around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And whenever you realize who he is and what he wants to do for you, it will begin to change the way that you walk.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll begin to change the way that you talk.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll begin to change the very way that you carry yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah goes from weeping to worshiping, from anguish to authority, from brokenness to wholeness, from barrenness to attest to moaning.

[SPEAKER_00]: God can change everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same person who walked around in defeat can start walking around and confidence whenever they begin to actually realize that God is with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a good thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you have been saved, you've been a church so long that you've become so acquainted with the Scriptures that they've lost power to you, which is a shame because really the more we know God, the more history we have with God, the more it should empower us and the more real it should become, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But we will say things like if God before me, who can be against me?

[SPEAKER_00]: What have I to fear with God on my side?

[SPEAKER_00]: We sang it this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Enoch's song can't stop.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who can be against me if the Lord is on my side?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, same things like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll say things like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we don't really actually believe those things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we can tell by the way that we carry ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't really believe that God is going to give a strength to overcome because the moment there is the tiniest little adversary that pushes back against us, we're ready to break and decrumble.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if that's us, we don't actually really believe if God is for me who can be against me.

[SPEAKER_00]: We think God might be for me and everything it gets me is going to cause me to be in defeat.

[SPEAKER_00]: But whenever you really believe if God before me, who can be his name, what have I to fear?

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about the moment, think about that for a second.

[SPEAKER_00]: The God who holds the universes, the galaxies in his hand, if he is for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the one who said let there be light,

[SPEAKER_00]: And light was, if the one who forms humanity and breathed into it is for you, if the one who came out of the grave is for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the one who is coming again is for you, then what does your job situation have against him?

[SPEAKER_00]: If he is for you, then what does whatever, I don't even know what the stock market is saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is whatever the stock market is doing have against him?

[SPEAKER_00]: What do gas prices come on somebody?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does the price of ground beef have against the God who holds everything in his hand?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the way your kids are acting?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what can it stand against him?

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever you really believe that you carry yourself differently, that's why I hand it because I smile at my enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: because I rejoice in your salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: I smile at my enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nilvers, everybody who's talking smack gets you some.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody who said I wasn't gonna be able to?

[SPEAKER_00]: How you like me now?

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody who doubted and stood against, listen, God had already moved on my behalf, you just didn't know it yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it may have looked like it was a mess, but God was gonna have the final word, so you can just keep your mouth shut.

[SPEAKER_00]: A smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in the Lord and what he's done.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm some people talk, all you gotta do is just smile.

[SPEAKER_00]: Use keep talking.

[SPEAKER_00]: You keep doubting.

[SPEAKER_00]: You keep being a naysayer, but I'm telling you God's gonna have the final word in my situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you can do whatever you want to do, you can say whatever you want to say, you can believe, whatever you want to believe, but I promise you on the other side, God's gonna give me victory, and I'm just gonna keep smiling through all of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know that it doesn't look like victory right now, but I'm gonna smile anyways, because I know he's already finished the story and it ends in breakthrough.

[SPEAKER_00]: I go with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He can smile because the voice is that once intimidated her no longer control her.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, the enemy didn't get the final word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah rejoices in God's salvation, his rescue, his victory, his deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, I just want to prophesy to use this more.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe some of you about to get your smile back.

[SPEAKER_00]: to some of you about to get your smile back.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've been intimidated for too long and it's time to get your smile back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you listen to the voice of the enemy for too long and it's time for you to get your smile back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you have listened to the naysang voices of media and culture and this and that and the other for too long and it's time for you to get your smile back and rejoice in the Lord again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I just tell you, let me just, little tangent here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll talk about this frequently, but our culture and the media and everything that we live in is intrinsically and inherently negative.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you find yourself getting negative as a result of all of it, turn it off.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just turn it off.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to listen to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, thank you for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, you don't have to listen to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm not going to know what's going on in the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you should know a little bit less about the ever-shifting and changing ways of the culture and maybe you should know a little bit more about who God is and what he said he's going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine if we put half as much time into discovering who God is and what he wants to do as we do into keeping up with what's going on in the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah goes on to say, no one is holy like the Lord for there is none beside you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nor is there any rock like our God.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's once again celebrating who God is because breakthrough is not rooted in our ability.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah had done everything in her ability to get pregnant.

[SPEAKER_00]: and nothing was happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: So she understands good and well, I didn't get pregnant because of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously she had to participate in an action.

[SPEAKER_00]: But she had been doing that, not getting pregnant.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the end of the day, her breakthrough was not rooted in her ability, it was rooted in God and His nature and who He is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she declares there is no one who is like Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, there is no one who is like him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is constant.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is unshaken.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is the rock when everything else is shaken.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is still steady.

[SPEAKER_00]: People change, money moves, success fades, feelings fluctuate, but there is no rock like our God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does not move when everything else shifts.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can always grab hold of him because he ain't going anywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been in the seasons before when it felt like up was down, down was up, sideways left was right, right was left and I couldn't get bearings.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what you got to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to cling to the rock.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to grab onto him because he's what will steady you in the midst of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever you feel like you can't get steady, grab onto him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about how much instability

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about how much instability you ever met someone who's just wildly unstable do not look at your spouse Right you ever met come on you don't know anybody met someone who's just wildly unstable, right Where it's like from day to day, it's like oh god What are we getting today is it gonna be a good day or is it gonna be a real bad day?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't mean there obviously are people who have legitimate medical issues and there's not much about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about people who just let their emotions run wild, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: People who are completely controlled by feelings.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've realized this yet, but your feelings lie to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your emotions lie to you, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though I've got major emotions, so I'm not saying we should all be robots.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the church says, but your emotions lie to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just throw this in here, because I know this is a major thing going on with young people today.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is just my caution.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please, for the love of God, please, do not use AI as a counselor or as a pastor.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an algorithm.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is not a person with feelings and emotions and soul.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can't hear from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't know the nuances of your life no matter how much you explain it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also designed just to affirm you constantly.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll never tell you you're wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can tell it is wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pastor Casey was talking about this one time in HPSM.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's somewhat Jack G.P.T.

[SPEAKER_00]: just makes up quotes.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can ask it to give you a quote from somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll shoot you out of quote that you know isn't a real quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be like, that's fake.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please don't do that, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I promise you, if you're trying to use AI as a counselor in your life, you're going to be wildly unstable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm saying this because I've read some articles recently where this is a major problem among young people right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is promoting mass instability in their lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a more

[SPEAKER_00]: They're theorized and a more diagnosed generation than we've ever had before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Statistically, we are more theorized, we are more diagnosed than we've ever been.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, we have a generation that battles with depression and anxiety, more than any other generation that's come before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the problem

[SPEAKER_00]: is that we are concentrating too much on all of our problems and we're magnifying.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, the mountain to make sure I'm clear, I'm very clear, because I'm never, I'm not saying therapy is always bad, I'm not saying medicine is always bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the church says, I'm not saying it's always bad, but what I am saying is if it's causing you to live more anxiously, that's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anything that's causing you to be more anxious is a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anything that's causing you to be more depressed is a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what our real issue is?

[SPEAKER_00]: We really need to grab hold of the rock again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We really need to grab hold of Jesus and who he is again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he is our healer.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is our joy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is our strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we walk around with unstable, unstable people all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: People in our world today are looking for something solid to stand on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Hannah here in this song says, I found it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I found the solid thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is no rock like our God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means our praise is not rooted in emotion.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's rooted in revelation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I be really honest with you today?

[SPEAKER_00]: I had no emotion of praise in me whenever I walked in this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever reason, I did not sleep well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm tired.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm also pre-tired because VBS is next week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, who knows about pre-tired, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm tired thinking about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not 23 anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody always, amen to, two loud.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't feel like this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't, you know, there's some warns you come in, it's like, I'm just ready to praise today.

[SPEAKER_00]: But let's go.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it had a good week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Got like seven and a half hours of sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go, baby.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hit it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was not me this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I did?

[SPEAKER_00]: I praised anyways.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because my praise isn't rooted in an emotional feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's rooted in the rock of who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: I lifted my hands not because I felt it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I lifted my hands because he was worthy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't dance because I was just out of an over-bundance of energy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I dance because the joy of the Lord is my strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you need to stop asking how do I feel today and start asking who is God today?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the good answer is this, he's the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got to hurry.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says this.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bows of the mighty men are broken, those who stumbled are girded with strength, those who were full have hired themselves up for bread and hungry and the hungry have ceased to hunger, even the barren has born seven and see who as many children has become people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hand of begins describing what happens when God steps into a situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything starts reversing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever God steps into the situation, the mighty become weak, the weak becomes strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hungry become satisfied, the bearing become fruitful.

[SPEAKER_00]: God begins to reverse everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people who look like they had all the advantages in their own strength, discover they're not the ones ultimately in control.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the ones who felt like they were disenfranchised, but put their hope in God, begin to understand that He's the one who brings true deliverance, freedom, power, and ability.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hanna says the bows of the mighty men are broken, the burps are in power, intimidation, attack, opposition.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, the weapon that was aimed at God's people doesn't get the final word.

[SPEAKER_00]: God still knows how to break the bow.

[SPEAKER_00]: God will still break the bow that was aimed at you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will still break the bow of the enemy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you have been living under the fear of the bow.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm telling you, God came to break it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe you've been living under fear of anxiety, of addiction, of accusation, of generational cycles.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what the song of Hannah tells us is that whenever God steps in, he reverses it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: He breaks it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: The things that people said could never be done.

[SPEAKER_00]: He begins to cause him to be released because God doesn't teach us how to manage.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just teach us how to tolerate.

[SPEAKER_00]: He teaches us how to break the bow that was aimed against us.

[SPEAKER_00]: God doesn't want you to simply survive oppression.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brings deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: But notice this.

[SPEAKER_00]: God not only breaks what is coming against you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He strengthens what has been weak within you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who stumble are guarded with strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: The place where you are weak can become the place for God to splase his strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: City and the place where you were weak can be the place where God displaces strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: We actually see this all the time on Tuesday nights at CR.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have leaders who battled with addiction where it was a place of weakness and now it has become a strength for God to use them to help bring other people through.

[SPEAKER_00]: The place where you were weak becomes a place of strength for you to even minister and reach other people with your testimony and with what God has done in life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in other words, hand assigned because God has been good to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't be quiet about what he's done for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because there are other people who are in these situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are other people who are struggling.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are other people who are going through some things that they need to know that their weakness can become a place of strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where God moves and does mighty and powerful things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where you've been weak, you don't have to stay weak.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where you've been broken, you don't have to stay broken.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where you've been oppressed, you don't have to continue to live under oppression.

[SPEAKER_00]: God specializes in reversal and some of you came in empty today, empty from disappointment, empty from exhaustion, empty from waiting, but hear me, God is not intimidated by empty places.

[SPEAKER_00]: Empty places are an invitation for the God who fills them.

[SPEAKER_00]: God will step in and feel the empty places of your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I goes on to say the Baron is born seven, a picture of fullness and completion.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, doesn't half way do anything, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got, I've got children and one thing I know about kids is if you tell them to do something.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nine times out of 10, it's gonna get half way done.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Not in praise of God, they're men.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all know what I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I've got this question asked my kids, like, hey, y'all need to go clean your rooms.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then they'll come back, it's clean, I was like, is it your clean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or is it mom's clean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because your clean and mom's clean are two very different things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have an idea of restoration, which means it just looks better, but God has an idea of restoration, which means I completed.

[SPEAKER_00]: which means it's done all the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't do anything halfway.

[SPEAKER_00]: When God restores, he does it all the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't do it halfway.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't do it a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't go off-in-the-shit later.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, what he starts, he completes, and he finishes.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows how to bring fullness.

[SPEAKER_00]: So hear me, don't judge your future by your present emptiness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't judge what he's going to do in the future by what you see right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't call barren what God is calling fruitful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't call empty what God is preparing to fill.

[SPEAKER_00]: The God of Hannah is still the God of reversal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me give you one final thought as we thought as we close.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me give you a thought as we thought.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me be a thought as we close.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah's song didn't change God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah's song agreed with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah Song was not her convincing God to change you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was and do something for her.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was her coming to agreement with who God was and what he already wanted to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Worship doesn't make God a deliverer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Worship declares that he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise doesn't make God powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise declares that He is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if He needed your praise to make Him powerful, He's not God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If He needed your worship to make Him a deliverer, He's not God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can't add anything to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can simply praise Him for who He already is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as breakthroughs started showing up in her song because her song lined up with God's nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why your song matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: because praise is agreement.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise says that God is greater than what I am facing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise says that the struggle is real, but it's not sovereign.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise says the battle is loud, but God is louder.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise says that my condition is not my conclusion.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why the enemy fight,

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why the enemy wants to fight your praise, because your praise, when it aligns with who God is, becomes a weapon against your circumstances.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your praise is a declaration.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, put it this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your praise is faith finding its voice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your song is faith finding its voice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you

[SPEAKER_00]: They need to stop rehearsing what the enemy said and what the enemy's done.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to stop letting fear write the lyrics.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to stop singing the song of defeat and you need to start agreeing with who God is.

[SPEAKER_00]: He breaks the bow.

[SPEAKER_00]: He strengthens the weak.

[SPEAKER_00]: He fills the empty.

[SPEAKER_00]: He lifts the lowly.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if your worship?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you worship your circumstances more than you worship the God who can bring you out.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I can tell what you worship, I want you to talk about.

[SPEAKER_00]: By what you sing.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: By what your language sounds like, we can tell what you're glorifying.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you're sung, when you're sung, agrees with his nature, breakthrough has a sound.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just wanted to clear to you today, I believe this, that the God of Hannah is still the God who's in this room.

[SPEAKER_00]: The God who heard her cry and opened doors for her.

[SPEAKER_00]: The God who broke the power of shame of her life.

[SPEAKER_00]: The God who turned barrenness into fruitfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: The God who turned her weeping into worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is here to deliver you out of the struggle that you've been in.

[SPEAKER_00]: So your song doesn't have to be a song of worry, anxiety, defeat, and fear any longer.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it can be a song of victory, of triumph, of healing, of prosperity, of deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can be the song of the redeemed.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will believe the report of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: We sang at this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to stop believing the report of man.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we need to start putting more trust in the report of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: The God who brings this through.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you snap your feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for downloading this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We trust that this message has blessed and encouraged and identified you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a message here from High Braise.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back soon with another incredible message.

[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.