It's good to be with you this morning. It's exciting to be able to be right here at a church plant, to be able to see it in action. And it's a privilege to be able to do that. I see a lot of familiar faces, many of whom I probably met many times throughout the years. Our home is still here in Greenville, South Carolina. We're not yet on the field. We're right in the midst of deputation. And we started that about four months ago. Lord has really been blessing. Our schedule in 2008 is completely full. almost completely full, so we're really excited about how the Lord is blessing our way. The Lord has called us to plant a church in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now, I'm sure as you hear that for the first time, a lot of thoughts come to your mind. You're probably very curious about that city, and maybe many of you have been there and seen it firsthand. I'm not going to ask how many of you have been there this morning. I'm going to show of hands. I'm sure it was for a very good reason. But Las Vegas is a very interesting place in our country today, really has become the epitome of what America has become, very much a place that is focused on pleasure, a place that is focused on materialism. And the Lord has so wonderfully allowed us to have the privilege of going there and planning a church. Now, probably one of the most common questions we get when I tell people that is how does the Lord call someone to a place like Las Vegas, Nevada. I mean, many years ago, I remember when people would say they were a missionary to Hawaii. Yeah. What are you going to be really doing there? And of course, there's places all around the world are very beautiful, wonderful places to be, but the work in Las Vegas is a very needy work. If you've ever been there or seen or for the most part, if you've just turned on the television, It's not very long before you hear a story coming out of Las Vegas. The world is fascinated with this city. So I want to share with you through our presentation how the Lord has called us to go to Las Vegas and hopefully we'll be able to answer that question. Maybe your sentiment this morning or the things that come to your mind when you hear of the city of Las Vegas are very similar to a young man who I heard recently. I was over at the at one of the local restaurants here in town, the Atlanta Bread Company, and kind of like my office away because I really don't have an office, so I like to go there with my laptop and sit down and do a lot of work. And I heard this conversation going on behind me and I recognized one of the voices. It was an older lady that I knew very well. We had talked many times before. She knows what the Lord has called us to do. And so I knew that voice. She'd been in there many times, just like I had. But my back was turned to them, so I didn't know who the other young man was, didn't recognize his voice. But this conversation was going on for a while, and I really wasn't eavesdropping on their conversation. But I'm working away there, and all of a sudden, the young man makes a comment, something to this effect, I would love nothing more for than that place to be utterly destroyed. So my ears got perked up real quick, and I was thinking, what is he talking about? What is he referring to? And then immediately, I could kind of hear the lady in a very still voice, And probably gesturing as well, doing something like. Like this. And you can tell her she's saying, you know, trying to really quickly stop the conversation at that point, because she knew where we were going. And obviously he was talking about Las Vegas. He didn't know that he was right next to a guy that the Lord had called to go to that place. But really, I understand that feeling. I understand that emotion. I understand how a lot of people really wish that city would just be destroyed. But we've seen a different side of the city. We've seen people that live there who are souls in needing of Christ. So we're excited about the opportunity to be able to go there and share that with them. So we'll go ahead and show that presentation this time. I'll come up and make some comments afterwards. Then we'll look into the word of God this evening. We do ask for your prayers. We're trusting that God will take care of us and guide us each step of the way. It's not going to be particularly easy work in Las Vegas, but I don't think there's any place that we could go. There's not spiritual warfare taking place. In fact, I remember a young man asking me a while back, he said to me something to the effect of, it must be a very difficult thing for you to anticipate raising a family in Las Vegas. And that is true. However, as I was thinking about it, the more I think about it, I realized that truly, it's not that much more difficult than it is to raise a family in Greenville, South Carolina. In some ways, there's an advantage when you're starting a church or raising a family in Las Vegas, and that is you're very aware of the spiritual warfare that's going on around you. You can't drive or walk down the streets of Las Vegas without seeing it very pervasive. What happens to us many times in Greenville, South Carolina, is we stop to realize we forget that there is a real battle taking place. A lot of times we get into a state of apathy because of it. Whereas in Las Vegas, you're very aware of it on a daily basis, so that might be even somewhat of an advantage when you're raising a family. But we do ask for your prayers. We have prayer cards on our table in the back. It also has our web address as well on that prayer card. So if you didn't write it down, it's right there on our prayer card. If you'd like to keep up to date with us and know how things are progressing for us and our deputation, we also have an email update. If you put your email address, we have an email address sign up in the back. If you want to put your email address there, we'll give you monthly email updates to let you know how things are going for us, as well as when we're anticipating getting to Las Vegas. Secondly, maybe you might be able to help us with the Phones4U program. How many of you have ever heard of the Phones4U program? Okay, a few hands in here, several of you have. Basically, the idea of that is to use the law of large numbers to target a mass amount of people in the area and let them know about your brand new church. It's not confrontational. The idea is not to give the gospel. If they ask you about the gospel, feel free to tell them. But mainly, it's really just to let them know about your brand new church. And they have seen tremendous results take place as a part of that program. Thanks, Dave. But thirdly, You might be you might want to consider praying about the possibility of coming out with us. Now, I know many of you were thinking, I'll be glad to pray for you and I'll take one of your prayer cards. I might even help you propose for your program. But how many of you will actually go home today or maybe tomorrow and pray about the opportunity, the possibility of helping us start that church? We're asking you to at least pray about it. Now you say, I don't really want to pray about it because maybe God will call me. That's not showing a whole lot of confidence in God when we say that or think that. But we ask that you would pray about it. A lot of you in here are very instrumental in helping this church get started. You understand what church planning is all about. But how about taking that next step and consider a place thousands of miles away from your family, from your friends, selling your home, moving to a place that you've never been before. That's a big decision to make. And obviously, if you make it, it needs to be from the Lord. And we're asking, we're praying that God will give us two families to come with us to Las Vegas. Maybe you'll be one of those families. We'd love to talk to you more about that. Would you pray about that? Take our prayer card, if you would, and pray for us. We will need your prayers. and put that up wherever it's most convenient for you in your refrigerator or in your bathroom mirror. I had a guy tell me he put on his bathroom mirror. He prays for us all the time. So it must be a must be a place that he remembers his missionary. So that's fine. Take one of our prayer cards and pray for us. I didn't introduce my wife earlier. I'll have her stand now. It's my wife, Tammy. Our two boys, Curtis and Camden, are in the nursery. Curtis is two and a half years old. Camden is 15 months. So we have a few challenges there with two little guys on deputation, so we can use your prayers for them as well, for our family. I want to have you turn to the book of Psalm 124. A little bit of a different of a passage that you might think that we would turn to when we're considering missions, when we're considering the idea of church planting and Trying to burn your heart about that. A lot of folks, when we come back, they want us to give them an update on how things are going. And when I was preparing for deputation, one of the things I wanted to do the most was talk to others who have been there, who have done that. And when you talk to missionaries or church planners who have gone on deputation, you want to hear all the stories. You know, what happened? Tell us some of the things that happened to you. And so a lot of times they'll tell us about some of these, you know, these houses they were in, they were staying in or something that happened at a church that wasn't going the way they thought it would go. And you always hear kind of sometimes these negative stories, but they always end up by saying, but most of all, it's a very positive experience. So when people come back and they ask us the same question, you know, tell us a little bit about how things are going for you. My first thought is, well, let me look back at it, and I try to reflect on our deputation so far, and it's only been about four months full-time. I look back and say, okay, let me think of some of those obstacles, those trials, those events that took place that were, you know, very interesting that people would be like, wow, that happened to you, and you got through it this way. And I started looking back at it, and we've had some of those experiences. We've had some of our own personal trials. But as I look back at it, I don't have a story yet. And I don't have one of those stories of how the Lord just miraculously worked through because he's been doing some wonderful things for us. But I came to this this particular psalm, Psalm 124, and the Lord spoke to me about something here that really challenged my heart about this idea. Let's just read the first couple of verses by way of introduction. David says here, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, Let Israel now say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive. We'll stop right there. I think this is a good time for this particular message because of the year, the end of the year, as we look back at 2007 and we reflect on how things went. If you turn on the television, you watch shows at this time of year, a lot of them, they look back and, you know, kind of do a historical review, you know, Events in the year 2007. What happened? Who died? Who came? Who rose to the forefront in Hollywood or whatever? They go back and reflect on the year. And in essence, that's really what David is doing here. He's reflecting back on some of the experiences that he's faced in the last few years. He's in particular reflecting upon some events that were of a critical nature, life and death. We don't know exactly which events he's referring to, but you could probably imagine or pick one of them, whether it was a foreign invader or his son Absalom or King Saul who was chasing him. You pick it. David went through some serious life and death situations. So as David is reflecting upon past events, I'm also in my short experiences here in deputation, I'm looking back at it and saying, what has it been like? What have we seen take place? First of all, we have the condition here. The condition. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side. This particular phrase is only found here in Psalm 124, and it's repeated twice. You will never see this particular phrase used anywhere else in Scripture in this particular fashion. If it was not the Lord who was on our side. Now, I did a quick search of the idea of taking sides when it comes to the Lord, the Lord taking our side or we're on the side of the Lord. And I really only found about four particular references. Two of them are right here, one of them is in another psalm, and the fourth one is in the book of Exodus, where Moses says to the children of Israel, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come over. And what happens is the children of the sons of Levi follow that call. And they come over to the side of Moses. And out of these four times when it's talking about sides, referring to the Lord, out of the four times, one time here in Exodus refers to Moses saying, come join on our side, the Lord's side. The other three times, it's referring to the Lord coming on our side, helping us on our side. Because it says right here, if the Lord was not on our side, what would have happened? What would have happened to us? What would have taken place? He says here, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say. Let this be repeated. This is a psalm that more than likely was a psalm that they sang as they approached Jerusalem, they would sing this. And David is reflecting here and he's saying, you know, I can think of some specific instances where if the Lord was not on our side, some bad things would have happened. But you know what? This isn't in a psalm. This isn't something I should be saying alone. All Israel should be repeating this as well. Let all Israel say this as well. Because the Lord has been gracious and merciful and has saved the children of Israel from so many treacherous situations. The word here, say, is in the imperfect tense. And the imperfect tense in Hebrew is a little bit different than the imperfect tense in our English language. And it really has the idea of an action that has yet to be completed. That action could be present action that is not completed yet, or it could be referring to future action. It hasn't even begun yet, therefore it hasn't been completed. So David is saying right now we should be saying this. We should be having this type of mentality, this attitude of if it hadn't been the Lord on our side, but we not only should be saying it now, we should continue to say it on in the future. It ought to be something we say all the time. Remember, what could take place if the Lord was not on our side? Well, here's what could possibly happen. We see here that condition if We heard about you. You've heard about the if then statements in English, right? Well, here we have the if when then statement. You haven't heard of if when then statements, have you? Basically, it's kind of like this, if I was to say to you, if it had not been that I was wearing my seatbelt when we were in a car accident, then we would have been seriously injured. That's what David is saying right here. If it had not been the Lord on our side, when the men rose up against us, then this would happen to us. What are those things? Let's look at it. Verse 3. Then they would have swallowed us up alive when their anger was kindled against us. Then the flood would have swept us away. The torrent would have gone over us. Then over us would have gone Have gone the raging waters. David is alluding to he's using the illustration of a flood of water. Says here that they would have swallowed us up alive. Quick. Now. I'm trying to think of a particular instance that David would be referring to here, and he was in many military campaigns, so likely he's referring to a very present enemy, an army that is against them. I want you to get the image in which I believe David is focused on right here. He describes his conquering enemy, first of all, as ones that they surround. They're here to swallow us up. And imagine it's something to this effect. David, as the king, is sitting perched up on a hill watching the battle take place in the valley. And his force is a fairly small force compared to the size of the enemy's army. Maybe he has a thousand men, maybe just a hundred. We don't know. But he has a force down here in the valley. And they're just camped about. Anticipating that there's going to be eventually a battle taking place. And without any kind of warning, without any trumpet being sounded, an enemy force comes sweeping over the hill. Maybe maybe 10,000 men, it is a force that is much far more superior than David's army in numbers. And as they come over top of the hill and they surprise this good army of David's, really, they're starting to outflank him on the left and right because they're large. They're much larger. They can start coming around him. And it's almost as though David is seeing this army come about and swallow up his army. As they surround David's army, now he refers to them being an ongoing stream. He says here they have swallowed us up alive. And then he says, then the floodwaters have swept us away. The torrent would have gone over us. Then as they have surrounded, they start pouring in on David's army and relentlessly attacking them. And they're just trying to get grouped. They're trying to grab their armor. They're trying to grab their sword. They're not prepared. And this army is coming upon them. And it's just the first wave. And as they're attacking and they're defeating David's army, the king of the That army says send in the second wave. And that's what we have here when it says then over us would have come the raging waters. Class five rapids. These are these are waters that literally if you can't stand in them, they will sweep you away. And the general gives the command to send in the second wave and they literally wipe out David's army. This is the potential. This is how bad it could be because this did not happen. You understand that because David is saying here, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, this is what could have happened to us. We could have been utterly destroyed. Wiped off the map. Refers here to the conquest, they surround him, they attack relentlessly. They attack ravenously. But thirdly, and this is the best part, this is the encouraging thing. This is what I want us to draw our attention to this morning. That is verse number six. David says here, blessed be the Lord. We're talking about the conqueror. We have the condition. Then we have this possible conquest that could have taken place. But what we have on our side is a conqueror. Blessed be the Lord. Now, when I first read this verse, it reminded me of one of my favorite passages in the word of God, Ephesians, chapter two, verse four. Verses one through three. Paul is speaking. He's talking about this is who we used to be. We used to be dead in trespasses and in sins. We used to be followers of our own lust, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. We used to be followers of the prince of the power of the air, the wicked one. That's who we used to be. And then in verse four of Ephesians, chapter two, he says, but. God, who is rich in mercy. And that has got to be one of my favorite interjections into all of the Word of God, because he describes for us the awful condition in which we were. And then he tells us, but that's the way we were, because God, who is enriched in mercy, has saved us from that. And I see that exactly taking place here in Psalm 124, where David says, if it hadn't been the Lord who was on our side when the enemies came up against us, when they rose up against us, We would have been destroyed, but blessed be the Lord. Praise be to God. And what does he do? He comes in as our champion. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers, the snare is broken and we have escaped. Maybe some of you are like me this morning, you enjoy watching like the Discovery Channel or some sort of nature program. And I'm always fascinated particularly by the wild animals, the ones who are carnivores. And I don't know what it is about my nature, but I love the snakes, the sharks, the alligators, the lions. Those are the creatures that seem to fascinate me. You maybe enjoy watching the ones on birds, okay? But there's something fascinating about those particular vicious creatures that are dangerous. I remember watching one of these programs and it was describing some place in Africa where the waters had dried up and the alligators had made their way to the watering hole. But really it wasn't much of a watering hole anymore. It was pretty much mud. Very little water left. And these alligators, well actually it was crocodiles. These crocodiles were laying in wait underneath the mud. Hundreds of them lying in wait for some unbeknownst creature to come up there for them to snag them. Well, along came these baboons. Maybe you saw one of these programs, you've seen this what I'm talking about. And they were a little bit cautious, but one particular baboon was getting a little bit too brave. I mean, literally, he started stepping on top of the crocodiles. He didn't know they were there. It looked like a rock because they were covered in mud. And this one baboon was just kind of wandering a little bit away from the pack. And all of a sudden, in just a heartbeat, this crocodile snatches him and grabs his head. Now, normally what happens with crocodiles is their way of killing their prey is to roll them in the water, to drown them. And after they are dead, then they'll eat their prey. But because it was so muddy, the crocodile really didn't have an opportunity to do any kind of rolling. But he's just sitting there clamped on the head of this baboon, holding on, hoping that eventually he might be able to crush it. And you can see this baboon just yelling and screaming and trying to do whatever he can to free himself loose of the crocodile. And this is going on for probably 30 seconds. And all of a sudden, for no apparent reason except that you could probably see that maybe the baboon had stuck his claws into the crocodile's eye. And maybe that caused the crocodile to flinch enough just so his jaws would be open long enough. And he did, and the baboon was able to get out of the jaws of the crocodile. And he ran back up into the shore. And he really barely had anything wrong with him. You don't see any blood on him. Really looked like he just had a bad hair day. I mean, you could have this baboon with Hair sticking up everywhere. It looks like a crocodile just made a mess of his little hair. So it was kind of comical in some ways, but really nothing bad happened. That's kind of what I'm seeing here when we're talking about the Lord has saved us from the snares, from the teeth of the enemy. We've been trapped, almost trapped, and the snare is broken. Who is breaking that snare? It's the Lord. No, he could do this for one reason. He does come as our champion, but. I don't know, as you're reading this, you're thinking the same thought I am. But we have a God who is very aware and knows from eternity past to eternity future what is going to happen. He knows what's going to happen in your life tomorrow, a year from now. He can see through the portal of time. So my question is, the Lord, knowing what is going to happen to us, why doesn't he? Why does he even allow it to get to this point? Why does he allow it to get to the point where literally the enemy has their jaws around us? Why is he allowed at many times for us to even be somewhat trapped in a snare? I think there's one simple answer to that. And really, it solves the question for us many times, or a lot of times when we ask that question to God, why? Why are you allowing me to go through this trial in my life? Why are these bad things happening to me? The question can be answered very simply. If we were at that point where the enemy has a hold on us and we're going through some serious trials, then we would have no need for a champion. We would have no need for a Savior. And we wouldn't even realize how bad things really are. I mean, if it had not been for the fact that the Lord is on our side and he is allowing us to go through things and through some trials. So that he can show himself who he really is to be Savior God, that we would never turn and reciprocate any kind of praise or thanksgiving to God. And I don't know what kind of trials you might be going through in your life today. They might not be. They might be considered small. In fact, the truth is we all go through trials every day. If you have children, you're going through trials right now. I mean, it's just the way it is. If you're if you're single, I know you're going through trials. Maybe you have health issue or physical problems. You're going through a trial. But when we go through these trials, it allows us to see God at work. He is the conqueror. He's the champion and he can do all this and he can be our champion because lastly, he's the creator. He says here, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Who else would you rather have on your side when you're going through a trial? You can't pick somebody better than this. I like playing pick-up basketball. A lot of times when we do that, we pick teams. And if you get to pick teams, you're always trying to immediately get that first pick of that big guy. 6'9", 240 pounds. He can pretty much box anybody out down low. You're picking that guy. Well, right here, who else would you rather have on your side than the Creator God Himself? And our health is in the name of the Lord, and that's significant. Do you realize that all 87 times that this phrase is used in the Old Testament, the name of the Lord that is referring to Jehovah, L-O-R-D in caps, Jehovah, His name, His specific name, because what He's saying here is our help is in this Lord Himself. There's no other. We're talking about the unique Creator God. We don't have to go to an angel. And pray to an angel in hopes that that angel might get the message to God. You and I have access this morning to the one who's created the universe. Let me ask you a question this morning about this. Hypothetically, because this is what David is doing here, he's using this conditional statement as a hypothetical situation. He's saying if the Lord had not been our side, this is what would have happened to us. And I thought about this, what if the Lord, the creator of heaven and earth, would today decide to withdraw himself from his creation for just one day? He says today, I'm just going to let things go as they are. Let them go on their own. Let's just see what happens. I'll let the enemies. I'll let I'll let the prince of the power of the I'll let him have his way. I will take no action. I'll take no intervention. I will not intercede on the behalf of my creation. What would things be like today? I don't know about you, but I think that's a very scary thought to think that the Lord, if he ever withdrew himself from us, What would things be like? I hope like David came to this conclusion and I've read this and I've come to the same conclusion as well, that we should be giving praise to God, because like I told you before, I would love to have a great story of something that happened during the petition. We have a few of those interesting things, things that I can make you laugh this morning if I told you about them. But the truth of the matter is David is encouraging us to give praise to God for the things that have not happened. Because what could have happened? If the Lord was not on our side and if you can't give praise about anything else this morning, specifically in the past year, 2007. About something specific that the Lord has done for you, you can give praise for the things that you have not gone through. Because he has not allowed you to go through it. I mentioned that four times this idea of taking sides we see here in the Scriptures. The other time is in Psalm 118, verse six. Verse you might be very well familiar with, you might even have memorized, says this, The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? What is God calling you to do today? I can tell you this, that if God calls you to go to some place that you just don't think you have the ability to actually do, if God was to call you to go to a place like Las Vegas this morning, you might be thinking, that's for some people. That's not for me. Let me encourage you that whatever God calls you to do, You have the Creator God on your side who will be with you every step of the way. So whether you're on the front lines or you're in the role of a supporting role, whatever role God has called you to do, He's going to be with you no matter what. He is on your side. Will you respond, though? Will you follow Him? Will you allow Him to lead you? Because the worst thing you could do this morning is to do something apart from Him. And that's my encouragement to you this morning. Don't just settle on what you want to do. Because if you're choosing the path that you would like to go personally, apart from God, then you're in a very dangerous situation. Now, if God's called you to be right here where you're supposed to be here in Greenville, South Carolina, going to Emmanuel Bible Church, Whatever God's called you to do, then that's where you need to be. Because God will be with you. But make sure that not only as you are asking the Lord to be on your side, that you are also on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the King? Will you respond to His calling this morning? Will you allow the Lord to direct you? Will you understand that whatever He calls you to do, He will be with you? Every step of the way. Let's close in prayer, Father, thank you so much for this time that you've allowed us to look into the word this morning. Or there's so many things that we could be going through this morning and more, there might be some folks here this morning that are really going through some serious trials. And they can't see the good in it at all. And they're wondering where you're at. They're wondering what you're doing. Lord, I pray that this morning they will look to you and realize that you're the only one that can actually save them and help them through their trial. Lord, I pray that you will show yourself mighty to them. Lord, we're so thankful for the fact that we can call upon the creator of the universe, who made heaven and earth. Lord, I pray that that will transform this morning the way we view our relationship with you. Lord, we thank You for the privilege it is to be able to call upon You and realize that You will be with us in whatever You call us to do. Lord, if there's someone here this morning who is receiving the call to go, to leave the comforts of a nice home, friends, family, a good job, I pray, Lord, that You will show Yourself very near to them, help them understand that wherever you call them to go, Lord, that you will be with them and show yourself mighty to them. And give them the strength, the wisdom, the finances, whatever it is they need to be able to accomplish what you call them to do. Lord, I just pray that in all things today, this morning, we might, as David did, say, blessed be the Lord, blessed be the Lord, who has not allowed our enemies to have a foothold in our life. We thank you and give you the honor and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.