Elevation with Steven Furtick - Train Your Heart To Trust

Episode Date: September 27, 2026

What if the thing you've been worrying about could become the thing you pray about? Trusting God doesn't mean you'll never feel afraid, it means you don't have to carry your fear by yourself. The next time your mind starts rehearsing everything that could go wrong, turn the worry into a prayer and remind yourself: You have a Father who knows what you need. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfrScripture References:Psalm 56, verses 1-4 – When afraid, David chooses to trust God.1 Samuel 21, verses 8-12 – Trapped in Gath, David becomes very afraid.Philippians 4, verse 6 – Present every request to God in prayer.Matthew 6, verses 31-32 – Don't worry, your Father knows what you need.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Hey, if you're joining us online, welcome. Put it in the chat where you're joining us from. God has a word just for you today. I'm pulling up my phone right now. Give me a hug emoji in the chat if you're watching online. I need a hug today. Everybody give me a virtual hug.

Let me know you love me. Love you back. And you may be seated today. Thank you band. Thank you choir. Thank you everybody. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Mom.

Thank you, Holly. Your Reflect sermon was so Phenomenal. Y'all saw the walls need a new coat of paint after she preached. I think she'll paint them pink if she gets the opportunity, so y'all paint them quick before she gets to pick the color. Today I get to share with you a scripture that I have been waiting to share for a year and a half.

On February 27, 2005, I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I was doing my daily scripture for our Family Bible Club where you have to pick a verse and send it to everybody in the club with a devotional. Our reading that day fell to Psalm 56, and I want you to turn there if you have your Bible. I'm going to read just four verses of Psalm 56 with you because the Lord used it to minister to me. I deal with a lot of anxiety, especially around traveling. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Even for a fun trip.

Mm-hmm. I can turn it into work. We could go to a tropical vacation, and I can be terrified about TSA. But this was the pressure from ministry. We were on our elevation nights. I said, man, I don't have time to do this key verse. I got to preach tonight. The Lord said, you don't have time not to.

So I opened my Bible and I read these verses, and they really helped me. It was very powerful to me. One verse in specific, well, I guess two verses in specific. And by the way, I see you online that are sharing the different places that you're coming from. And I'm going to turn the phone over now so I can focus and preach. But welcome. Can we welcome our online, eFAM, all around the world? Listen to this from Psalm 56, verses 1 through 4.

Be merciful to me, my God. For my enemies are in hot pursuit. All day long, they press their attack. My adversaries pursue me. All day. long. In their pride, many are attacking me. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God whose word I praise. In God I trust and am not afraid. I love it. I love it so much. What can mere mortals do to me? I love it because of the jump from verse three to verse four.

When I am afraid. And then verse 4, I am not afraid. And I want to study how to get there. How about you? Today I want to teach you how to train your heart to trust. Train your heart to trust. And such a serious scripture, but I want to set it up with a silly example. So go with me.

My dad was a barber. When I was eight years old, I went in to get a very special haircut from him. And one of the reasons I think I've had so many different hairstyles and haircuts through the years of pastoring this church is because my dad was a barber and I always got my haircuts for free. So I just got kind of addicted to doing different stuff to my hair, I guess. But he wasn't really a fancy barber or anything like that. But I had one thing I wanted. I wanted him to give me a spike. I wanted a mohawk.

My friend Jeffrey had a mohawk, but he wasn't down with the mohawk. And I didn't know about the mullet yet, but I saw Sting, the professional wrestler Sting, wrestling, and he had a big old spike hair. And he had face paint, but I knew I wasn't going to get to have the face paint and wear it to school. So I said, can you cut my hair to a spike? Well, I went into the barbershop, and one day he put the cape on me and put me in the chair, and I'd grown my hair out for this occasion to prepare for it. And he gets his clippers going, and he's doing his thing, and he took him.

turns me around in the chair about 15 minutes later and spins me around to that big mirror, and he had put all this product and gel in my hair, and there it was. I had my spike, and I was so excited. I was so excited about my spike. You know, I had really envisioned this moment. It was really a big moment for me. That's why I remember it. I was only eight years old. But my excitement turned to despair very quickly, because it had only been like, five or ten minutes, and my hair started going down flat. Well, I just wanted to cry. I was eight years old, and my spike was going down. My freshly minted spike was disappearing before my eyes.

And I was so disappointed. I said, Dad, it didn't work. And he said, oh, it worked. There's nothing wrong with the cut. You've just got to train it to stay that way. Your hair is used to laying down flat. I still remember this from eight years old. He said, you've got to train it to stay that way. Nothing wrong with what I did with my clippers. I know what I'm doing with my clippers,

but it's just got to be trained to stay that way. I wish my dad could come back and tell me, he taught me how to train my hair, you know. And I did. And it worked. I have a little picture just to show you real quick that I trained it. And pretty good. Not quite like Sting. Not quite what I pictured, but close enough. There I am. You see the joy in my eyes as I'm holding up that peace sign with a little bit of a spike, a little bit of a mullet. He said, you've got to train it to stay that way. Put the picture down.

I wish. I really love y'all to show you this stuff. That's something. uncomfortable. But I wish he could show me how to train my heart. Because I trained my hair. He sent me home with some gel and a comb. And he said, every day, just stand it up straight and stop wearing hats and stand it up straight. And every day, just make sure you put enough gel in there. My mom went to Walmart and got me a six-pack of hair. I remember L.A. Looks, I think was the name of the brand. Y'all remember L.A. looks? I don't know if they still make it or not, but I remember putting that L.A. looks in my hair every day. Stand it up straight, and they'll want to fall down, but you've got to train it. Tell your neighbor, you've got to train it. You got to train it. I

train my hair. I'm having a harder time with my heart, because I have moments with God where I feel like he's big and mighty and what a powerful name it is and what a beautiful name it is. and by your spirit I will rise from the ashes of defeat. And no sooner do I get it rising from the ashes of defeat that it goes back down flat. And see, I wonder does that ever happen to you like it happens to me, talk to me, because sometimes I get my faith up real high, I get my hopes up real high, I get my inspiration up real high, I get a vision, I get a picture, I get decided and determined and committed to live for Christ.

And I get it up high, and five minutes later it wants to go down flat. I need to know how to train this heart of mine. I've trained a lot of things since I was eight years old. I've trained a dog. Holly trained the dog. We trained a dog. I've trained certain parts of my body. Yeah.

Train my biceps. They grew. Train my dog. He sat. Train my hair. It stayed. Train my heart. If anybody.

If anybody had training, it was David. Psalm 56 was written by David. Everybody say David. Are you as surprised as I am to hear David in verse 3 say, when I am afraid? I'm used to David being a lot of things. Ambitious, yeah? Annoyed, yeah? Aggravated from time to time.

even in some seasons of his life, apathetic when he got older. But you never really see David afraid. All of the armies of Israel were. They let Goliath defy them for 40 days, not David. David said, I'm not afraid. But here he is, still a young man in Psalm 56. And he said, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Put that one verse, verse three on the screen.

I want us to look at that together. today. Because here's why I need to train my heart. You see that sentence, when I am afraid, this is the verse that I want you to get today. I'm going to share a few, and yet this is the one that I want us to work with. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. And I reckon the reason that that spoke to me when I was in Tulsa, and it just jumped out at me when I was in Tulsa, is because I realize that my version of verse three would look very different than David's. Not because I'm not afraid, but put the verse back up and just hold it there for a minute. When I am afraid, I, what would you put there?

That's what I want to talk about today. Training your heart to trust. When you get it high and you get your faith up and you start lifting your eyes to the hills where your help comes from, But here come the enemies And hell breaks loose When I am afraid I And how you finish that sentence

determines whether you ever get to verse four So I'll do a confession And I'll go and then you can go When I am afraid I eat Large quantities of food I have a wife who says I'm so nervous I can't eat

I say I'm so nervous I can't stop eating And just because the foods I'm eating are low-carb does not mean I eat them in low quantities. I found out it doesn't matter how few carbs the cookies have if you eat seven of them. And they're big cookies, too. Big old cookies that some people use for a meal replacement. Real meal replacement, that's just a meal enhancement. For me, when I'm afraid, I eat.

Starting out light. I'm getting a little heavier now. Because when I am afraid, I withdraw. Yeah. I know we need community. I know. I know my hair needs to be up here, but sometimes it starts to fall. And I don't want anybody to see me in my messy state.

Any crazy? How the times when you're most tempted to skip church are the times when you need to be here? The most. When I'm afraid that you're going to see me in a low state, when I'm afraid that I'm not going to have what it takes to show up. and deliver on the level that you expect I withdraw. When I am afraid, when I am afraid, I'm ashamed to say it, but I often translate my fear into anger because I'm more comfortable being angry than I am being afraid.

And I don't know what to do to convert my fear to faith. I haven't trained it. So I would rather be angry at you than admit. that I'm afraid. How about you? You're just going to look at me for the whole entire sermon. You're like, yeah, isn't that how it works? Don't you talk and we listen? All right. Just then silently, to yourself, just like, cover your mouth and say, just cover your mouth a quick and say, when I am afraid I, and then just say it, but nobody's going to read your lips. When I am afraid, I isolate. When I am afraid, I shop too much. When I am afraid, I make up stories. When I am afraid, I start doing all.

all this weird math in my head about all these things that haven't even happened yet. I start calculating for eventualities that may not even happen. Like our good friend Joyce Meyer says, I start making down payments on problems I may never even have. When I'm afraid. When I'm afraid. David said, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, verse four,

in God I trust and am not afraid. Which one is it? Am I? or am not I afraid? It depends on what you do with verse three. What's going to be your verse three this week? I'm going to scan the room right now and ask, have any of you had a very worried week leading up to this Sunday?

You have been worrying this week, and I don't mean you were worrying about who to start on your fantasy, pretend, make-believe, grown men with still little toy soldiers called football players, fantasy football team. I mean like real worry this week. Come on and wave at me real quick. We are going to get to the root of this in the moments that we have, and then what we don't get to, Holly is going to cover on highlights on the Elevation Church YouTube this Monday at noon live. And whatever I don't get to up here, she'll get to in the highlights. because how you finish this sentence, when I am afraid, I, when I am stressed, I, when I am worried, or can I use another word, when I am trapped.

That's what David's talking about here. I'm trapped. I'm trapped because I've defeated Goliath, but just because I defeated Goliath doesn't mean I graduated in faith. You never graduate from having to trust God. You have to train it every day. You can put your faith in Christ for salvation, but still not put your trust in God for a situation. I'll say it again. You can put your faith in Christ for salvation and then not put your trust in God for a situation. How crazy is this? You can trust that his blood was enough to keep you out of life.

hell? You can trust that his cross was enough that all your shame is nailed to it. You can trust him that he breathed out. And you breathed in and the spirit of him who raised Christ. You can trust him that he rolled a stone, but you can't trust him that he can hold your burden. You never graduate from the need to trust God. And you've got to train that. Every day, you've got to stand it up. Every day. You've got to stand it up. You've got to stand it up. up when it falls down every day. I'm talking about training your heart to trust God. Because David said, I'm trapped. All day long, did you notice that? He said, all day long they pressed their attack. All day long, he says, there are not only an adversary, there are

adversaries. There's not only an enemy. There are enemies. Sometimes mine is. me. How'd I train that? I could probably learn some jujitsu and choke you out. If I did it long enough, I could train for that. But how am I going to choke me out? He said, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Now, I put in my notes like 15 times, don't preach it. Just talk to them. So let's talk. I might preach it a little bit, but you know, not too much. This is about as loud as I'm going to get. In God whose word I praise, in God I trust and am not afraid. You know how this psalm that we read has a little heading. I don't know if you brought your Bible to church, but I was texting around to a few people. I texted Brooke.

I texted another friend of mine who leads worship. I said, hey, yo, I saw something at the top of Psalm 56. I wonder, do you know what it means? And it has this heading where before it gets to the psalm that David wrote. It tells us a little bit about the psalm, which is helpful. He says in the heading, and I have it on the screen for you, for the director of music, to the tune of a dove on distant oaks. That sounds nice. A dove on distant oaks. It's a psalm of David. It's a mctom when the Philistines had seized him in gath. So he's trapped. Gath. You know anything about Gath? What do you know about Gath? Let's find out about Gath. Go to 1st Samuel chapter 21, because David is trapped in Gath. And trapped is my least

favorite thing to be. Trapped? See, I know the truth, but when I get trapped, I have a hard time finding them. You know how those exit doors right there, you know where they are, but if all of a sudden you believed you were trapped in this room, you would forget everything about protocol that you knew and getting dismissed, because there's something about when I feel trapped. David is trapped. He killed the lion, he killed the bear, he killed Goliath, and he has killed at least thousands, if not tens of thousands of Philistines. The first one was Goliath, but there were more Philistines after that.

One of them, he was trying to marry Saul, the king's daughter, and the king said, all right, you can have my daughter if you bring me 200 Philistine four skins. As a matter of fact, that's what I'm going to tell the man that wants to marry Abby one day, all right? You can have, anyway. Sorry, Abby.

All right. Let's go to 1st Samuel 3. Somebody shout, trapped. Trapped because he's anointed to be king, but he's afraid too. You can be anointed and afraid. You can feel anointed for great things, but trapped in great fear. Did you know that? You can be anointed for greater days, but trapped in a dark place.

You can feel trapped. In David's case, he was trapped not by his sin, but he was trapped by Saul. the king that should have been training him. Training him. He should have been training him. Saul was the first king of Israel. David was going to be the second king. Samuel said so.

He said, rise and anoint him. He's the one. And David was the one. He was the one that walked out there and killed Goliath, you know? And he was the one that went and got those foreskins. I won't make you touch your neighbor and say anything about that. And he kept on doing battle. But watch this.

The more that he was winning, the weaker Saul was becoming. And so it made Saul jealous. It made Saul threatened. It made Saul angry. It made Saul paranoid. It made Saul crazy. And Saul started doing abnormal behaviors, unusual behaviors. Let me see.

Put up for a vote. How many of you think this is unusual behavior? He took a spear and threw it at David. While David was playing music on the harp, David was trained as a harpist. David was trained as a shepherd. He wasn't trained as a spear dodger. I don't think. I don't think they put that in the class. I didn't take a class for this. You even feel like that in life like, man, they didn't give me a class for this. All that school I went to and they didn't show me anything about this. My God, taught me how to train my hair. Teach me how to train my heart. Because I'm dodging stuff and it's scary out here and it's weird out here. And I know God has called me and I'm on my way to something. But there's something. But there's something. There's an enemy. I got an enemy.

I got an enemy. And it should be somebody who's training me. Why is the one who should be training me trying to kill me? Why am I having to fight this on the inside? And he has to run and run and run. And he doesn't have a weapon because he wasn't prepared to run. So he stops by the temple. This is really a great story.

It's kind of the sequel to Goliath in 1 Samuel 21. The Bible says he went to the priest. And he said, hey man, I need some bread. He said, I got some special bread. You're not supposed to eat it. But if you've kept yourself from women, I'll give it to you. David said, give it to me. I got my bread.

He said, now I need a weapon. He said, well, we don't have regular weapons. And look at what David said in 1st Samuel 21, verse 8. David asked to him, like, don't you have a sphere or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other weapon because the king's mission was urgent. And the priest replied, the sword of Goliath, the enemy you defeat. before, the one that had a sword that he was going to kill you with. On the day that you didn't even have a sword in your hand but just a sling and a stone.

That sword that you took and cut off his head with, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Eli's here, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the If you want to take it. There's no sword here but that one. And David said, I like that one. somebody, I like that one. I like the one that reminds me of the victory God gave me. I like that one. How many of you are here with your wife today? Look at her and say, I like that one. The one God gave me that I didn't deserve. I like that one. That woman that I'm here with today that stood by my side. I like that one. How many of you are here today and you struggled to get pregnant, but God gave you a kid and it took some time and it took some prayer? Say, I like that one.

Now, sometimes I want to knock them clear across the room now that they're 13, but I like that one. It was a battle, but I like that one. Give it to me. Now, here's what I want to get to. That day, David fled from Saul and went to Akish, King of Gath. This guy probably reigned as king for like 40 years. King of Gath. Isn't that Goliath's hometown?

Goliath, the Philistine, from Gath? And watch this. He's in gath because Saul's trying to kill him and God has crowned him. He's in gath and he's trapped. And he's got the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, who he killed. But he's afraid. Now, the servants of Akish said to him, isn't this David, the king of the land? He wasn't yet. Then how did they know? You ever wonder if your enemy knows more about you than you do? You ever wonder if some of the attack that you're under is because some of the anointing that you have? It's so good. I'm just trying to decide what to not preach. That is my hardest battle up here. I don't get up and be like, what should I preach? I'm just like, God, what should I not? Because every word of this would preach. Your enemy has heard of you. The devil is terrified about the blood bought. Child of God, who has been forgiven. As a matter of fact, the moment you gave your life to Christ and put your faith in him,

the devil started waging a campaign. But God has been training you for this. God has been training you for this. This is not off guard for God. God has been training you for this. Touch three people say, he's training me, he's training me, he's training me to trust him. He's training me to trust him. That's why I could kill Goliath, because there was a child.

was a lion that tried to snatch the sheep and I killed the lion, but I didn't know that the lion was preparing me for Goliath. God was training me. And now the one who was trained and called to be a king is trapped in a place called Gath, where his enemies come from. These are the same people that he's been killing, and now he has to live with them. That's the context of that nice little verse. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

Broaden the context, you know. So we don't just think about that bumper sticker Bible verse. That bumper sticker believer, when I'm afraid, I put my trust in you. When I got an itch, I scratch it. When I see a green light, I gun it. When I see a red light, I stop. When I see an orange light, I look both ways to see if there's a police officer. And when I feel afraid, I trust in God.

I just do it like that. That's what I do. I feel afraid. I don't feel afraid. I trust. If it's that easy for you, you haven't been trapped yet. You haven't been trapped yet. You hadn't been trapped between Romans 8, the good that I want to do, and the evil that is still there with me. Oh, wretched man that I am who can deliver me from this body of death. See, because I'm raised up with Christ, but I don't know how to train my trust, because I believe that he saved me, but I need him to sustain me, and I'm trapped. Oh, and they start singing. Can you believe it?

David is in Gath because he doesn't know where else to go. I'm in Gath because I don't know where else to go. Gath is not like Jonah in the belly of the whale. He's running from God. Gath is because I don't know where else to go. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about I don't know where else to go. I don't know what to do. when I am afraid. I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise. In God I trust. He's not lying. He's not denying. He's just moving through it. Spirit of Lord says you can move through it. No matter how this season of fear is crippling you, you can move through it. No matter how the waves of anxiety crash and try to drown your boat, you can move through it. You've got to move through it. If you don't move through it, your assignment goes unfulfilled. You can move through it.

If you don't move through it, what was meant to be created will die on the vine. You can move through it. If you don't move through it, your kids will see an example of a mom who wouldn't or a dad who wouldn't, so they'll think they're a kid who can't. But if you move through it, I declare in the name of Jesus, if it takes you ten times, if it takes you 20 times. telling you, I have to trust God all day long. Somebody say it.

All day long. That's what the Psalm said. He said, my enemies are attacking me all day long. So if they're attacking me all day long, I got to trust God all day long. Have you ever had a day where it was trust just to throw the covers off and get up out of bed. Come on, you might have hit the snooze button four, five or six times, but it was trusting God. When I am afraid, I get out of bed. When I am afraid, I walk across the room. When I am afraid, I brush my teeth. When I am afraid, I get in the car and start the engine. When I am

afraid, I show up at Elevation Church on a Sunday morning, because I'm declaring to the devil that I can move through this. Because greater is he? Don't preach, just talk. But I got to tell somebody, greater is he that lives in me, that he that is in the world. Means I've got to breathe through it. Do you know there have been times where I did not feel that I could breathe before I preached? But I breathed through it somehow. And I stood up to preach. And God in His grace, not me and my strength, God in His sovereignty, not me and my strategy.

God in His wisdom, not me and my human will. God sustained me. Sit down. I'm nowhere, and you're done. Y'all don't think y'all can rush me to close by being excited, do you? Come on, I'm trained in this. Tell somebody I'm trained in this. I'm trained in this.

David was trained all day long. You like that? You still stuck on all day long. That means no matter what kind of day I had, when my head hits the pillow, I'm going to say, Thank you, Lord. Every landing that you walk away from is a good one. It was a good day. I can say it was a good day. Caffeine crash at 3 p.m. I got to trust him because now my caffeine can't kick in. I got to trust him. But what I really would like to show you today that I was so excited about that I think is a principle that's powerful enough to change your life, is that if you have been worrying about something, lately? You're halfway to praying. Okay. All right. Show you what happened. Then I'll show you what he said,

and then I'll tell you what to do. And then I won't tell you where to go eat lunch. You figure that part out for yourself. David's got the sword of Goliath. He's afraid of the king of God. And I'm going to show you why. The servants, watch this. The servants of Aecus said to him, isn't this David? The king of the land, isn't he the one they sing about in their dances? Because when he killed Goliath, this is what set Saul on his little revenge mission to begin with. David killed Goliath, and the women started, came home. They sang this song. They started singing this song.

Saul has slain his thousands, and David has tens of thousands. Saul's like tens of thousands. He killed one dude. But see, by killing Goliath, he defeated the whole army. It was representative combat. So they started saying that. Saul has slain his thousands. David's his tens of thousands.

When the ladies sang it, it sounded good. But now that his enemies are singing it, it sounds different. Because he realized that the thing that made him great was the thing that made them afraid. And now he's afraid and he's great. So he realizes, uh-oh. Goliath sword is not just a weapon for me, it's evidence to them. So this is the verse right here, verse 12. David took these words to heart. David did what? Took these words to heart and was very much afraid

of Aekeh, King of Gath. You will never see that phrase again in First and Second Samuel. David was afraid. Only one time. He was distraught in 1 Samuel 30 when his men talked of Stoningham, but it never says again, David was afraid. Because when you're trapped and you're not trained for this. Killed a lion, killed a bear, killed Goliath, but now it's a fight on the inside. When I am afraid, Psalm 56, I put my trust in you. So what I said to you a moment ago, if you're really worried about something, you're halfway to praying, I take that from Philippians Chapter 4, verse 6. Thank you, Lord. He just gave me the scripture right before I came out to show you what I'm saying. I think you know this one. Do not be anxious about anything, but every situation. In every situation,

in every gath that you feel trapped in. Name your own gath. I can't do that. I'll know what your gath is. you and God do. So you're worried about that, right? Leave it up. I've got to read the whole verse, y'all. By prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your request of God. Now I'm not going to preach that. I'm just going to show you the last two words. To God. To God. Go back, please, to Psalm 56 now. And I think you'll see it in a very different light.

Psalm 56. Verse 1, be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot. pursuit all day long they pressed their attack my adversaries pursue me all day long in their pride many are attacking me when I am afraid I put my trust in you skip it for now but I want to just talk about how put my trust in you that means it wasn't there automatically I had to decide to do it in God whose word I praise back to 1st Samuel 2112 please just real quick let me connect it when he heard what is enemies were saying, he took it to heart and was very much afraid. Because he took it to heart,

when he took it to heart but didn't take it to God, his faith fell flat. When he took it to heart, but didn't take it to God, he was very afraid of a king who represented a nation that he had been defeating for 18 months. When he took it to heart, instead of taking, he was very afraid of a king, he was I'm taking it to God like this. I sat down on Monday morning. This is real. This is current for me. I sat down on Monday morning, just worrying.

I decided to have an entire worry session. Just me, by myself, not a planning meeting, a planning meeting with myself. And the subject was dread, anxiety, fear, and terror. Have you ever done this before? Wave at me. It's very lonely up here. It is very lonely up here. So I'm sitting there just worrying, right?

worrying. I know what Jesus says about worry. Don't. I know what Paul says about worry. Don't. Be anxious. But here I am doing it. And sometimes somebody telling you not to makes it even worse. Sometimes trying not to worry makes it even worse. So what am I supposed to do with the worry? Tell me about what am I supposed to do in Gath. I can't go home. Saul wants to kill me. I can't stay here. They'll kill me. Tell me what I'm supposed to do. I'm trapped. That's how I fell. And I felt like the Lord says something to me that I never heard before. I see you're worried. Would you like to worry with me? I knew what he meant. He was saying, you're halfway to praying. Because when you pray, you take what's on your heart. Whatever you're

burdened about. Whatever you're concerned about. I know there's different types of prayer. There's adoration, confession, Thanksgiving, supplication. We'll teach that on highlights on Monday at noon on the Elevation Church YouTube channel. Holly will give you a crash course in all the ways to pray. But one One thing that real prayer is is honest. So I have a burden. I have a concern. I'm trapped in this relationship. I'm worried about this person.

I'm worried. I haven't heard from them in three weeks. I'm worried. I don't know what they're going to do at my company. I'm worried. I'm not sure why this money is going this way and that way and all that way and none this way. I'm worried.

I'm worried about this thing in my body. What is that on my arm? I think my mom had one of these one time. And it was cancer. I'm worried about this, and I'm sitting down to worry, and it was like the Lord graciously said to me, would you like to worry with me? Because if you read Psalm 56, it sounds like David's worrying. He said, my enemies, verse 1, are in hot pursuit.

All day long they press their attack. My adversaries pursue me all day long. Oh, come on, David. Shut up, buckaroo. Don't focus on the negative. See the gath is half full, not empty. In their pride, many are attacking me. And yet there's only one thing that turns this from a worry to a prayer.

He's talking about his enemies. He's talking about the pressure. He's talking about the attack. He's thinking about the adversaries. He is thinking about the pride of those attacking him. He is thinking of all of those things. But if you look at verse one, there is a key that can take you from worry to prayer so fast. He said, be merciful to me, my God.

There's so much power. Verse one, be merciful to me, my God. So prayer is not changing what you're talking about. It's just changing who you're talking to. about it. Here we go. I'm going to help somebody, Lord Jesus. You just been thinking about stuff, ruminating about stuff, working through stuff in your mind. But you're not really working through it. You're just wandering around in it. And so the next time your heart wants to worry, train it to pray, because you're already halfway there. Because he already knows what you need. Because he already knows what you're struggling with.

Because stuffing it down isn't going to do anything but suffocate you. Stuffing it down isn't going to do anything than to get it to come out at the wrong time when you're squeezed. So why not talk to God about it? Present your request to God. Somebody say, to God. So I'm still afraid, but I'm just not afraid by myself in this fear. Because I put my trust in God. Because I'm talking to God.

I might as well. I talk to my friends. They're not even doing as good as me. I talked to my friends. They didn't know what to tell me either. I talked to people, and people talked about me. I might as well pray about this. I might as well talk to God.

And I sat there in my chair for an hour, and I haven't prayed like that in a long time, because I realized that worry is a prayer to you. yourself. Worry is just me trying to do two jobs. See, I'm supposed to make the request, and God is supposed to do the response. Come on, but when you worry, God said, would you stop trying to do my job? Would you stop trying to hit the ball back to me? Would you let me be God in your life? When I am afraid, somebody say, I put my truth. My truth. My truth. My Trust in God.

Say it again, I put my trust. You hear what they're doing down there at the earth. Yeah, I heard about it. But I put my trust. You feel that, that thing that's inside. You feel that that depression that's inside of you. I feel all that. But when I am afraid, see, I trained for this.

I've been through some seasons. I've known the Lord. Not just God. He's my God. God. I have an experience with them. And as you begin to pray, come on, give me something you've been worried about this week. Anybody, anybody on the front row? What you've been worried about this week? What you've been worried about? You've been worried about your health? Well, we're just going to start worrying with God about your health. And guess what? He's not worried.

So the heavy weight that you're lifting, you don't have to lift that by yourself this week. Because when you Google all the symptoms, you start thinking you have to be the source of your healing. When you realize I'm not in this diagnosis by myself, I'm not going to this treatment by myself, I'm not showing up to this doctor, I'm not figuring this out for my baby by myself. I have help. And I put my trust in God. When God wants to train your trust, he gives you two things, a truth and a trouble. I'm going to say one thing, and I want you all to meme it and look at it all week. This represents the truth.

This represents the trouble. Put the truth on the trouble. Come on, you're trained for this. You are trained for this. You've got a degree in depending on God. You've got a certification in surrendering to God. You're trained for this. You've seen God move in your life.

Take the truth and put it on the truth. put it on the trouble. So if it's in your body, we're going to pray about that. Because we were already praying anyway. We were just forgetting something. Worry is when you remember that you have a problem and forget that you have a father. I can't. I can't. I can't. I need to start closing, but I can't. Did you forget you have a father? Did you forget that he's a redeemer? Did you forget that he's greater than your sin? your shame? Did you forget that He is the resurrection and the life? Did you forget that He died for you? Did you forget that he hung for you? Did you forget that He loves you?

Matthew 631 Jesus said do not worry Saying what shall we eat? What shall we drink or what shall we wear? Man if Jesus came back in 2026 he'd have to add so much to that list. We figured out all kinds of ways to worry he didn't know about We figured out not only to worry about what we wear, we now go on our phone and worry about what other people are wearing and how we can show them what we're wearing. But verse 32 was the heart of it for me, because while I was worrying by myself, I remembered my problem and forgot. The pagans run after all these things.

They don't have a father. But your heavenly father knows. You need them. That you need them. That he knows what I need. He knew I would need a sword, so he put it in the Ephod. So I would happen when I went until the battle. I wonder when David was running from Saul and trapped by Akish, the king of Gad, and he

was thinking, how am I ever going to get out of this? I wonder if he touched something. that made him trust. That just like God brought down that giant, God will get me out of death. I've got a God. I've got a father. He's my God.

He's a healer. He's my God. He's a Savior. He's my God. He's a deliverer. He's my God. He's a firm foundation. He's a healer.

My God, he's a peace sneaker. He's my God. He's a waymaker. He's my God. He's a stone roller. He's my God. He's a covenant keeper. He's my God.

He's a healer. He's a Savior. He is. Give him praise. Your praise. Because when you praise him, you're not crazy. You're training. Come on.

Say thank you, Jesus. I'm training. I'm training. Thank you, Jesus. Training my heart to trust. I'm training my heart to trust. I can't do that with comb and a gel. I got to have a truth and I got to have a trouble. So I could take the truth of who God is and put it on the trouble of what I'm going through. Did God give you this trouble to train your trust in Him? When I am afraid, I put a trust in God. That means it wasn't there before. I drifted. I get off course.

Trust fluctuates, doesn't it? Trust fluctuates, doesn't it? God doesn't, does he? He's right here. I'll minister to you for a moment. Before we sing this song, I want you to know something about Trust. Trust is formed in the oven, like that baseball glove.

We have this baseball glove that we bought for Elijah, and the coach said, you've got to break that in. He said, you need to break it in tonight. Glove's too stiff. I said, it's a good glove, coach. Paid good money at Dick's sporting goods for the glove. He said, they're not wrong with the glove. He said, if you want to, you could put it in the oven. Now, baseball families know that's probably not the best way to break the glove in, but it'll work.

Put the glove in the oven, he said. Break it out. I'm not going to eat it. We're going to play with it. But he said, if you put it in the oven, I know gloves aren't supposed to go in and you think truth won't work in trouble. But that's where God breaks in faith. When you sit with him, lest you take me out of context, I don't believe that you stay worried

when you worry with God. I realize he separates what you care about that you shouldn't so much and what you're carrying that you shouldn't be carrying by yourself. That's what happens when you present it to God. David said, my God. That's the difference. difference I want you to make this week. I know you're struggling with it. I know there is an oven that your faith is in. But just shift it. Take the worry and convert it to a prayer. Just put God at

the front of it. God, instead of worrying, praying to yourself, you don't have the answers. You know you don't. But you have a father. And if you will talk to him like that this week, Hallelujah. He'll train you in trust. He not only gave you the truth, he uses the trouble to prove the truth. Put the heading back up one more time. Y'all all know David got out of gath. I don't have to tell you that.

You know he went on to be king. I don't have to tell you that. You know how your story ends too. He will begin a good work and you will be faithful to complete it to the day of Jesus Christ. Flip to the back of the book, it says, amen. That means so be it. That means God's going to do everything he said. would do. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. To the tune of a dove on distant oaks of David, a micton. I didn't know what that was.

I looked it up. I was glad I did. It's a type of psalm. There are six of them in the Hebrew scriptures. They always start in crisis and they end in confidence. That's what happens when you worry with God. A mctom. Never heard of a mick Tom. I've heard of a mixtape. I've never heard of a mick tom. I can tell you all about mixtapes and LA looks and all kinds of things from the 80s, but I never heard of this ancient song called a mctom.

And I was very blessed to learn that not only does it start in crisis and end in confidence, like it always happens when you talk to God, but that it comes from the word that means covered. it's reserved for those kinds of prayers that you pray when you're trapped, that it's usually a prayer that you have to pray inside of yourself, not to yourself, you pray to God, but you allow him to enter into your situation and show you the truth again. So I wondered, is it not only that David had to cover his lips when he prayed this and pretend to be crazy to get away from Gath? Was it also a micton?

because while he was covering his mouth, God was covering him. I remind you today that you're covered, that the feathers of his wings are spread out. My God, he that dwell it in the secret place of the Most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Bow your head, close your eyes. Father, as we sing this song, Jira, seal the truth in our hearts that my God will provide all my needs in Jesus' name. Sing church.

I'll never be more loved than I am right now. Wasn't holding you up. So there's nothing I can do to let you down. Bring the lights down for worship. Your feet to make you proud. Then I am. You sit. I'm clear it.

My God. You would cross an ocean. So I will... Here he comes. My God is a provider. I call it... John. You are in.

You are... Now lock it in. Lock it in. ...the shadow of death. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you. that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit

Elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an I-Heart podcast, Guaranteed Human.