my goodness Champion Center you have showed up at church today and I’m believing that God’s moving at all of our locations because God is moving in a
big way here in Tacoma today and I could not be more thrilled to have this opportunity to speak to this great great
church today and I want to say thank you to pastors Kevin and Sheila thank you for this opportunity thank you for believing in me thank you for allowing
me to be part of this team it’s such an honor and a privileged church can we give some honor to our pastors Pastor Sheila right there in Bellevue we love
you amen amen amen all right hey let’s pray real fast father
thank you for the what you’re doing today God I feel your presence so strong in this room today and I don’t believe for one minute that
the people in these rooms and the people who have tuned in online that they’re here by accident today God I believe you have a Divine word that you want to put
into our hearts today so God help us to open up our hearts to open up our mind to your word to receive everything that
you have for us today we receive it we believe it in Jesus name we pray and everybody said a great big amen amen all
right you can be seated well hey we are just a couple of weeks now into our summer in the Psalms series
and I absolutely love the book of Psalms you know something I love so much about it is is you can see life circumstances
you can see real life history in David’s life let’s say uh second Samuel for example he’s running from King Saul he’s
hiding in a cave for his life and you can fast forward jump into Psalms and in Psalm 57 for example you can see how the
man after God’s Own Heart Is processing this difficult difficult season he’s literally in a cave hiding for his life
but he’s finding ways to give God thanks he’s finding ways to give God praise and something that you’ll find in the Book
of Psalms is that in All Seasons we give God praise in All Seasons we worship
in the good times and the bad times in the cave of life we still give God worships the book of Psalm calls us to a
life of worship and I want to read one of the most quoted passages in all of scripture Psalm 91 verses 1 through 7 it says he
who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty I will say of the Lord
he is my refuge and my Fortress my God in him I will trust surely he shall deliver You From The Snare of the Fowler
and from the perilous pestilence he shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge his truth shall be your shield and
buckler you shall not be afraid of the terror by night nor the arrow that flies by day nor of the pestilence that walks
in darkness nor of the destruction that lays waste at Noonday a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at
your right hand but church that you know it it will not come near you are you thankful for Psalm 91 in your life
now whether you grew up in church or whether this thing is all new to you there are some questions that need to be answered in the Book of Psalms in Psalm
91 . and you know this is a Psalm of protection but this Psalm of protection is specifically for certain people and
it’s for those people who choose to dwell in the secret place come on somebody say dwell in the secret place
one more time dwell in the secret place yeah it’s better when you don’t break it up like that mental note for next time okay
so what does it mean to dwell this isn’t something that this isn’t a word that we use often in the English language we
don’t we certainly don’t dwell often in our very fast-paced environment the world that we live in
but simply put to dwell means to live in a place simply put to dwell means to make it
your home so the psalmist in this scripture is calling us to dwell with God to live in his presence not just a
weekend getaway not just something that we do on Sunday not just something that we run to although we run to it in the time of trouble we don’t leave it when
the time of trouble passes we stay we live in the presence of God
so then what is the secret place the secret place is a place of total trust it’s a place of total Reliance on
God it’s a mindfulness of God’s presence in your life every day in every circumstance and every hour and every
minute that he is always there it’s a place of Reliance and Trust on God so to dwell in the secret place means to stay
or to live in a place of total trust and Reliance on God and in the good and in
the bad God I trust you and then what is the shadow of the almighty this is a poetic expression of
God’s protection it’s it’s even rephrased again in verse four under his wings you shall take refuge and like an
eagle who protects her young we’ve got an example video like an eagle that protects
her baby chicks do we have an example video there it is like an eagle that protects her babies
those wings they spread them and they cover the babies because on a hot day the sun would literally cook those babies to death if it wasn’t for the
shadow of those wings and on rainy days those babies would literally drown if it wasn’t for the shadow of those wings and
in this particular example if there was the audio on you could hear the squawking back and forth between a predator bird and this this Eagle that’s
protecting his babies because These Wings Are a source of protection for these babies and this is exactly what
it’s like with God when we are under the shadow of the almighty when we dwell in the secret place God protects us under
his wings of anything that’s on a mission to take you out there is protection from the scene and
from The Unseen at church I I just want to remind you that there are things that are happening all around you every single day that are
trying to take you out that you don’t even know about and when you’re in the shadow of the almighty God is protecting you from the things that you don’t even
know he’s protecting you from so Psalm 91 means that we trust God
completely and we are living in a secret place and when we’re in that secret place God protects us under his wings
so the question is if this promise of protection and the shadow of the almighty is for those who dwell in the secret place well then how do I do that
there are several ways but today I want to focus on the one that I believe is the most important because it’s the component that bleeds into all of the
other areas that help us dwell in the secret place and that is a life of worship somebody say worship
you see worship brings us into God’s presence worship it’s not that God ever leaves us but we have this certain way of mentally
leaving God and worship is about our Focus worship brings our attention back to the source of our strength to the one who is our provider to the one who is
our protector and a life of worship builds a life of trust in God and that’s where we find the secret place
that’s where we find the secret place now I know certainly in a room this size certainly at one of our other locations certainly online that there are some of
you that are in a dark place right now and you say hey well where’s the secret place well where’s the shadow where’s the shadow of the Almighty
and it feels like the arrows are are not just flying by you but they’re hitting you square in the chests
now Psalm 91 is indeed it’s a Psalm of protection but it does not mean that nothing bad will happen to you
Psalm 91 does not mean that nothing bad will happen to you living in the shadow of the almighty does not mean that harm
can’t come to you if that were true tell that to Stephen the first martyr for Jesus if that were true tell it to John the
Baptist who lost his life because of Jesus who had his head cut off for Jesus if that were true tell that to the millions of Christians around the world
today right now not a thousand years ago right now who lose their life for Jesus they can’t come to a church they can’t
come into a room like this and lift their hands and sing and learn about God’s word and if they get found with a Bible in their hand their heads cut off
you can’t tell me that these people are not in the shadow of the almighty just because bad things happen
but this is exactly what the enemy this is exactly what the devil wants us to believe his whole plan is to twist God’s
word to mean that Psalm 91 means that nothing bad will ever happen to you because then when the bad thing happens to you you say well where’s God
his plan is that if he can get you to doubt God’s goodness if he can get you to doubt God’s faithfulness then he can wreak havoc on your faith he can get you
out of the shadow of the Almighty where he can run
run amok on your life look at what he tried to do to Jesus many many people just kind of quickly
read over this and and Miss what’s happening the Bible tells us in Matthew that Jesus was tested by the devil after
a 40-day fast Jesus would have been physically weak he would have been mentally absolutely exhausted
and look at what the devil tried to do he specifically quotes Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12. we didn’t read it earlier but this is in there the devil quotes in
Matthew chapter 4 then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the Temple if
you are the Son of God he said throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so
that you will not strike your foot against a stone Jesus answered him it is also written do not put your lord your God to the test listen this is the
devil’s way of keeping you from or getting you out of the secret place
he says things that God didn’t say you notice what he just did there he took God’s actual word and his entire plan
was to get Jesus to misunderstand what God had said it’s no different with you and I today we have the same Bible
but the devil wants us to walk away with different understandings of what God said because if he can get us to believe that God said what he didn’t say we’re
out of the shadow of the Almighty he did it in the in the Garden of Eden did God really say
not to eat the fruit that’s his entire plan because if he can get you to doubt that God is good he can
get you out of the shadow of the almighty this is why so many people even within the church struggle with the question if God is good then why do bad
things happen if God is good then why do bad things happen why because this is a direct plan
of the enemy to use the bad things that happen to all of us to mean that God isn’t good that God isn’t powerful or that God isn’t real at all in the first
place because if he can get you to doubt God he can get you out of the shadow of his protection
you think about it if you think about it if you have complete confidence in God that means that you trust him and that you’re in
the shadow of his protection and the enemy wants to destroy your soul let’s get this right the enemy wants to
destroy your soul and in in this world we often we hyper focus on the bad things that are happening to us we hyper
focus on the sickness we hyper focus on the marriage we hyper focus on the finances and that’s just the tip of the
iceberg because the devil just wants to use those things to ultimately just end your soul
don’t forget don’t forget what the enemy’s attack is actually all about but he can’t do any of that to you
when you’re under the shadow of the almighty he can’t get to your soul when you’re under the shadow of the Almighty so he tries to lure you out of the
shadow of the almighty so that he can run amok in your life see the truth is that bad things happen to good people the truth is that it
Reigns on the just and it Reigns on the untrust the truth is that life is hard but does anybody know that God is still
good come on life is hard but God is so so good
I just want to remind you that the presence of bad in your life is does not mean the absence of God’s goodness in your life and we have to remember this
that the presence of bad in my life does not mean the absence of goodness of God in my life
so we’ve dealt with that so now we understand that in the life of a Christian hard days are going to come
in the life of a Christian bad things are going to happen so what hope do we have
what what difference do we have from any other religion from anybody else that has to walk through hard days
and I just want to remind you that our God is so good that he gives us access if we choose it to a secret place where
he promises to be and it’s a shelter in a time of trouble it’s a place of rest for the weary and worship
is our key worship is our key let’s just talk about worship just for a minute worship is a spiritual act that
requires physical expression and conscious presence it’s a spiritual act that requires
physical expression and conscious presence worship is first and foremost about
giving God what he wants and what he deserves and that’s an act of worship flowing from a heart of gratitude and
worship is about what we focus on mentally and what we express physically we sing in church now granted I’m a
worship Pastor so yes I love it when we sing in church but I promise you it’s not for me I promise you it’s because God loves it and when we worship today
we read this in scripture when we worship together when we all come the body of Christ comes together we start to sing together the presence of
almighty God moves into that place and so as worship leaders we encourage you to lift your hands not because it makes us feel better but because God loves it
it brings God’s presence into the church and brings God’s presence into our life
we do it because that’s how God wants to be worshiped and worship gives God credit for the good in your life and it exalts him
above the bad in your life but here’s the thing you cannot worship without physical expression and you
cannot worship without mental connection true biblical worship is the intersection of both of those it’s a
physical expression and it’s a mental connection to what you’re expressing worship without expression is just
admiration it’s just a good thought it’s just happy feelings
and worship without connection without a worship a physical worship you know expression without a mental connection I
mean it’s basically just the Hokey Pokey I hate the Hokey Pokey matter of fact everybody go ahead and
I’m joking we are not doing the Hokey Pokey in church today but you know what I mean it’s just like this thing that you get into and you
just kind of do and you just go about it and there’s no mental connection to what you’re doing worship cannot be that but
in all honesty when the storm of Life comes it’s so easy to be thinking about the heaviness and the arrows that are flying and going through the motions but
I’m not physically I’m not mentally present with the worship that I’m offering to God
and on the other side of that we can be thinking about it all day we could be thinking about God’s goodness we can be thinking about how much we love God but
good thoughts unexpressed are not it’s not worship for for any of you who have children any
of you that are School teachers any of you that just have certain family members or co-workers you know what it’s like to do something really great for
somebody and for them to not Express gratitude for them to not physically or verbally express it and then you wonder
did they actually appreciate that or were they just expecting me to do that and it’s the same thing with God we’ve got to say it we’ve got to speak it
we’ve got to verbalize it and we’ve got to express it with our body
uh verse two the psalmist gives us insight into what it sounds like the worship the thought life the expression of somebody dwelling in the secret place
he says I will say of the Lord he is my refuge and my Fortress my God in him I
will trust you see a lot of dwelling in the secret place is really a commitment to saying the right thing
it’s a commitment to declaring who God is it’s a decision to say I will say of the Lord he is my provider he is my
everything I have everything I need in Christ Jesus he is my way making Miracle working God I will say it I will say it
and this is worship and worship is the key to the secret place because worship builds trust and total trust in God remember total trust
in God is the secret place you know I as I Was preparing for this message I I had an experience with one
of my one of my kids my youngest daughter Chloe a hundred percent Daddy’s girl like absolutely thinks I hung the moon and I love it I’m so grateful for
it and uh this week it was dress your best day at school so she brings out her Easter dress she’s got her cute little
lippers on uh she’s got her hair kind of like in a ponytail and she says Daddy I want a bow
and I’m way too stubborn to ask somebody how this is supposed to get done so what do I do I just start trying to attach
the bow it’s clearly not working at what point the tassels are you know the part that hangs down from the bow is like dangling
in front of her face and she’s laughing dad what are you doing oh it’s fine baby I I I got this I just wanted to be the
best it could be you know it’s dress your best day and so so we keep going back and forth and after several more failed attempts she
very quickly realizes dad has no idea what he’s doing dad’s got no idea so she she rolls her
eyes she already thinks she’s a teenager she rolls her eyes at me which eventually just turns into laughter and she’s laughing at me and I’m trying to play it off like what are
you laughing at everything’s fine I got this this is going to be the best bow you have ever had in your hair for Dress Your Best Day
now by the grace of God and dwelling in the secret place and abiding in the shadow of the Almighty I finally figured it out and got the bow attached in a way
that was sufficient and she loves it and she’s laughing and she’s smiling and she says oh thank you Daddy thank you Daddy gives me a hug and runs out
five seconds later she runs back in with an even bigger smile on her face and a bigger hug and a just the the loudest I love your daughter
and from that point till till the time we actually get to school she’s just every two seconds it’s Dad I love you it’s it’s it’s a hug it’s a
little kiss on the cheek it’s the batting her eyes at dad and I know exactly what’s going on it’s really not about the bow it’s about she loves me
but the bow is the reminder that she loves me and she’s expressing it she’s saying it she’s verbalizing it she’s showing it with her expression with the
hugs and with the kiss her physical expression lines up with what’s going on inside
she’s not just thinking good thoughts about me she’s letting gratitude and love and admiration begin to spill out
in physical expression it really isn’t about the bow
it really isn’t about the bow but oftentimes for us it starts worship starts that way worshiping God even
starts that way you know a bow God does something for you God makes a way when you didn’t expect there to be a way you’re thankful for God’s Salvation And
just so so what you do is you begin to express it you thank God for what’s in front of you right now and there’s nothing wrong with that but Church how many of you know we don’t always see
that every single day all the time sometimes it feels like God where are you and so sometimes it has to start from a
place of Faith sometimes it has to start with what do I choose to say when you don’t see it and when you don’t
feel it do you say God thank you God I know that you’re with me God I know that you’re for me you will never leave you will never forsake God I love you I love
you thank you even when you don’t see God’s goodness
even when you don’t feel God moving you choose to worship so I’ll throw my hands
and praise you again and again it’s all that I have is
I know it’s not much but I’m nothing else Fit For A King
except for a heart singing High
ER Hallelujah
Hallelujah in the good Hallelujah in the bad Hallelujah and everything in between because Church how many of you know what
you say matters what you say matters there is power of life and death in the tongue and what
you say about how you feel impacts what you believe and what you believe I promise you will change your life
you see the psalmist shows us exactly what to do in verse two it’s the place where his worship Begins the psalmist
says I will say of the Lord he is my refuge and Fortress my God in him I will trust so my
question is what do you say when you’re drowning in depression what do you say when your finances just aren’t adding up at the end of every
single month what do you say when your marriage is falling apart what do you say when your kid is living as a life
outside of God’s plan and design what do you say when the doctor tells you a report of something that you never
thought what’s gonna happen to you what do you say you see the psalmist teach us what today
what to say because this is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it I will bless the Lord O my
soul and all that is within me the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want yes
why why because when I command my soul to worship and to trust in my Creator this
is how I dwell in the secret place the psalmist says I will say of the Lord
he is my refuge and my Fortress my God in him I will trust who not me not my own effort not my own striving
not my own attempts not my job security not my my relationships that I trust so much not remembering my own weakness but
remembering that in my weakness my God is strong he is my rock he is my shelter in the time of trouble
so I say thank you to the Lord I will say of the Lord
he is my refuge you know there’s something about realizing that no matter how hard you try no matter how much effort you put
into it no matter how much you just try to get it right without God I’m not going anywhere
the last thing I would say of the Lord he is my shelter he is my shelter
you see God is not just some in Cosmic per impersonal Force out there that doesn’t care
he is a good father he is your father he is your father he still has good things for you he has so much more than you
could ask or even imagine he is with you right now and he is for you somebody just needs to realize you’re a
child of God and that’s my dad and he is the Undisputed he’s The Undefeated Champion he is the one who was and the
one who always will be I am a child of God and there is no weapon formed against me that’s going to prosper he is
the father he is for me and who can be against me
you see when we dwell in the secret place there is a promise from God and we find that at the end of the chapter at the very end
Psalm 91 verses 14 through 16 what a promise that we have this is God talking because he has set his love on me his
worship His trusts because he has set his worship and his Trust on me therefore I will deliver him I will set
him on high because he has known my name he shall call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will
deliver him and honor him with long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation
what a promise that we have what a promise that we have
I just want to share this video with you I’ll share this video with you somebody dwelling in the secret place I just want you to pay attention I want to remind
you what you say matters
maybe 100 described well history what are the survival rates of those 100
or slash 40 to 50 patients that we have on record how much nine
nine nine months guys nine months I guess I’m leaving to do real quick
so there are a couple different things about this for a long time yesterday
well you know why that news doesn’t scare me the devil’s born umbilical cord around my neck just died
at Birth caught a very rare disease in my eye when I was
three one in a million something crazy here
cellulitis I don’t know how many times I’ve almost died in life I know a great Arthur it’s an amazing experience and uh try to kill myself when I was 22.
in miraculously saving you ever see Superman like Lois Lane is falling through the sky if Superman just came and saved Lois
like as soon as she dropped out like how anticlimactic is that but it’s like right before she hits the ground
so we’ll sing to save the day Superman gets all the praise so I know Superman his name is Jesus either way is God’s
will is God’s will I’ll be finding the way I’m not crying because I’m saddened I think I’m gonna die I’m crying because I feel did he saved my life and I
haven’t showed him appreciation I’m grateful
be grateful
you see this is what it looks like this is what it sounds like to dwell in the secret place
we know that the secret place in the shadow of the almighty does not mean a story like this doesn’t exist doesn’t mean that cancer won’t come it doesn’t
mean that hard days financially won’t come it doesn’t mean that life sometimes feels like it’s falling apart
but I asked the question earlier what promise do we have what hope do we have and I think you can see it in him
that even in the face of tragedy even in the face of a report that says you got nine months to live
there can be a peace that passes anything that we understand in this world because our heavenly father is for us
our heavenly father is with us I just believe for some of you in this
room today
you feel those arrows hitting you the Thousand on one side and the ten thousand on the other side it doesn’t
feel like it’s falling beside you and not touching you it feels like it’s actually all just falling on your shoulders
and I want to remind you I want to encourage you don’t buy into the devil’s the devil’s lies that God isn’t good that God isn’t faithful that God isn’t
for you I want to remind you that there is a peace if you choose it there is a peace that doesn’t make sense to anybody else that God wants to give you when you
rest in the secret place this message
this message my goal today is to encourage you to build your life on worship so when you build your life on worship
we build a life of trust and total trust in God is the meaning of the secret place worship builds our faith and God’s
ability to do the impossible it builds our faith in trusting him even though life doesn’t work out the way that we always expected it to
so when you feel like those arrows are flying and that terror is Raging it’s easy to forget that we have a secret place and I want to tell you
today if you’ve forgotten it worship your way back to it it’s not too late and if you’re in it right now do not leave it remember that the shadow of the
almighty is protecting you from unseen dangers all around you all the time and in the shadow of the almighty God
promises to work all things together so the good of those that love him to those that dwell in the secret place so today
remember in the good times we worship and in the bad times we worship and all
the time we worship we speak the truth of who God is remember your place as a child of God when the water is still
declare God’s faithfulness and when the waves are raging and rocking your boat you declare God’s goodness in your life
so we lift up our hands and we speak out worship we give God our very in the secret place
come on somebody you might be feeling those arrows right now and I’m telling you right now
lift up your song
church just for one moment if you just listen if you’re at a time of worship you could stay there but just just
listen for a moment I just want to encourage you this moment this presence of God that’s in the place right now here in Tacoma and all of our locations
online this presence of God does not have to stay here this presence of God does not have to
stop with a worship team stops but in the secret place when you dwell in the secret place you
live in a life of worship and if you can’t sing that’s okay God still loves it
but it’s not just singing it starts with what you say it’s about what you say God I believe
that you’re good God I don’t feel good right now but I know that you are good I know that you are forming I know that
there is provision that I’m not seeing coming my way right now but it’s on the way and I’m gonna rest in the secret place
so my challenge to you is don’t leave today and leave your worship here today take it home with you there’s some
incredible worship playlists online that you can find if that helps you get into your Bible but say the truth of who God
Is You Are My Provider you are my everything there is no one that can stand against you I will rest under your wings
and I’ve said this a couple of times today because I really feel it I really feel it there’s some of you but the arrows are not missing you right
now it feels like those arrows are hitting you over and over left and right and I want to remind you that your
worship is powerful that your worship keeps you connected to your source of strength to your provider
he’s not gone he hasn’t forgotten about you he’s right there by your side and your worship is your access to the
secret place you can go there you can live there you can rest there
and so I want to pray for just a moment for any of you in the room and online maybe you’re watching this on YouTube six months from now you’re included in
this prayer too if you feel like those arrows are hitting you in the chest right now I just want you to raise your hand at all of our locations Don’t Be
Afraid just raise your hand you feel like your world is falling apart I want to include you in a prayer
God for every single hand raised right now I pray that today the peace that passes all understanding
will overflow into their heart today God I pray that they would remember
that in worship they find you that in worship they can rest in your presence I pray that today for those who have been
up late nights at night after night after night Restless God I pray that today as they worship they would find
rest physical rests tonight spiritual rest that goes beyond
God let your peace let your comfort let your spirit move and God let them remember that even
though in this world we Face adversity and even though in this world there is difficult times that come God you are
still good you are still faithful you are still there in Jesus name
I also want to pray for any of you who haven’t started a relationship with Jesus I said it at the very at the very beginning of this message the protection
that we see all these incredible promises that we see they are reserved for those who dwell in the secret place
and I recognize that some of you you need a secret place and I want to tell you that God can be your secret
place God wants to be your secret place and when you enter into a relationship with him and you choose to start a journey a daily decision to walk with
God there is a secret place that you can access and I want to tell you haven’t done so much that God that you’re so far from God that he can’t bring you under
the shadow of his wings you haven’t done so much sin you haven’t run from God so far that his love cannot reach you today
he wants to welcome you home he wants to throw you a big party at that this world is tough but our God is good
and there’s hope for you there’s hope for you not in yourself but in Jesus there’s power to turn your life around
there’s a secret place where you can find shelter and it starts with acknowledgment and declaration that Jesus is your lord and
savior so if you want to start a relationship with Jesus today would you just lift your hand boldly lift it up boldly lift it up I see that hand I see
those hands up there amen amen I see I believe that there’s hands raised at all of our locations
I want to include you in this prayer church can we say this together Lord Jesus welcome to my world
I’m a sinner in need of a savior I believe you died for me and for my sins
for all my mistakes and I want a new life I want to follow you from this day forward
you are my Lord You Are My Savior so wash away my sins buy your blood and make me new
and I boldly declare that I will never be the same again in Jesus name
amen and amen amen church can we welcome home everybody that just made this the family of Jesus we love you