Alright, I'm going to be with
you in Habakkuk chapter 3. Habakkuk chapter 3, verses part
of 18 and 19, not the full verses at all. And the title of my message is
God's Strength. Very simple. So if we read verse
18 of Habakkuk 3, Yet I will rejoice, I'm sorry, verse 18
of Habakkuk 3, yes, correct. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord my God is my strength
and he will make my feet like hinds feet and he will make me
walk upon my high places. And I look at the point in verse
18, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. God is a source
of our strength and he is a source of our deliverance. It's a simple
message for a believer. The ultimate source of strength
is God. There is no other source, and
I'll allude more to that in a minute. When I was writing this message
up, the one thing I kept looking to is My goodness, for a believer,
it's about as simple a message as possible. But it's also a
very blessed message. The Lord's strength is limitless
and unfailing. And as I was typing this message
up, I kept seeing over and over again, it's awful simple, but
it's often forgotten about by a believer because it's too simple. My dad and I always talk about
we don't want to stretch a word in the Bible. We don't want to
find something in the Bible and make it too fancy to where there's
no message after a certain point in time. And this is where we
go back to the most simplistic part of salvation, of the Lord's
strength. And I kept going back and back
again, like I said, and I would look at this and I would go,
this is too simple. It really is a simpletons version
of the scripture. And I thought, no, it's the actual
scripture in its most pure form. So I say again, in verse 18,
His strength is limitless and unfailing. Every time we find
ourselves in a situation in which we have made a mistake in this
world, or we thought we find to be anything but what a believer
should be thinking. And I say that because there's
oftentimes where, and I'm speaking selfishly, that we find ourselves
in a spot where we are fallible, we are soft, we are anything
but strong in the faith, yet Christ is still there. And as
I say again, a believer would say, well of course. Okay, so
that's the last time I'm going to say that because that's the
road I'm going down is that this is Very simplistic verse. It's a very simplistic talk towards
faith. Under Christ, we can find solace. When we are at our lowest point,
when we are at our weakest point, we can find God's strength. I look out here today and there
are six people in this church and yet six people get to find
solace today. Have you ever found there are
times when we look at ourselves and can only find a question
of our faith? You wake up and you, how can
I be a believer? Have you found that knowing the
true scripture due to our thoughts or feelings we can see that we
are nothing but sin, evil at best, at our best. Have you found
that during these times we can only find fear and anxiety towards
our spiritual condition? If only we could do more. If
only we could do more in this world. We cannot. And we only
know this, we only know that we cannot by the grace of God
and by the faith bestowed by Him. We know we are the lowest
of lows by Him. And that sounds bleak. We know
we are the lowest of lows by Him. For a non-believer, this
would be terribly disheartening. However, to a believer, it is
where we are yet found again and again, before the first time
designated by God. There is yet a strength, a strength. In reality, the only strength.
The Lord Jesus Christ, unwavering and unfallible. Salvation of
His people through the only true love to ever exist. In Habakkuk,
it reads in verse 18, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy
in the God of my salvation. That rejoicing comes from the
clarity of the Lord saving his own people. The clarity of his
elect, the clarity that he knows his people. The Lord gave his only son to
live, to preach, and die as a sacrifice. crazy part to a believer or non-believer,
he was willing. Jesus Christ was willing to save
his elected people out of love. And I don't think we could ever
manage to have any kind of idea of what that feels like, what
it's known. These people, us, were damned
to hell for all eternity and are then and placed into his
unwavering love to be delivered from the utmost low to the utmost
high to reside in heaven with their Savior. What strength. What strength. And again, I talk
about the Lord's strength in Psalms 18, 1 and 2. It reads,
I love you. Oh Lord, my strength, the Lord
is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer. And that is a believer
knowing the strength of the Lord. Isaiah 40, 29 says, He gives
strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Increases
the power. In verse 19, The Lord God is my strength. You know, I go to the weight
room a lot and I work out a lot and there's some strength there.
There's flexibility when I coach and there's some people that
can stretch and they can go really fast and go really far. Young
people too, old people that can run That's not the strength he's
talking about. It's not humanistic strength.
And it's also not the strength of our own faith all the time. It's not that our own faith,
because if our own faith was left by its own design, there
is no strength. If you believe on your own, no,
by Christ, by His blessed strength, you believe. You believe wholly. There is no wavering. And I'll
talk about this a little bit in a little bit, but when we
talk about faith, faith is unwavering only by Christ, only by God. Now, in verse 19 on Habakkuk
3, He has made my feet like Hines' feet. So what do you do with your hinds
feet? You stand up. You're strong, right? Strength
through and by the Lord is actually what I would like to talk about
there. Hinds feet gives you agility
and stability and sure footness by humanistic standards. However,
that's not what that verse to a believer means. It means God
equips you It equips believers with the qualities necessary
to navigate challenges. That's what the Lord does. Well,
what kind of challenges? Physically? We can't physically
beat cancer. We can't physically beat, you
know, things of the world. But what He allows you to do
through the faith of the Lord is navigate challenges of the
heart. He delivers you through these
challenges. God provides mercy from your
weaknesses. What more strength could we possibly
possess than Him? Our strength is nothing, but
His strength is everything. The strength that we possess
is only by Him. That's the only mercy that is
provided to a believer. The strength is from him. It's only by him. We cannot generate
even real world strength. Today I went to the weight room
and I did go down just down the hall and it was leg day. So I went down there and I pressed
a machine and then a young man behind me pressed a lot more
weight than I could control. That's not the strength that
we're talking about, and it never was. That strength is never measured
in this Bible at all. It is the strength of the Lord.
It is not the strength of us. You say, well, what strength
do we have? We don't. We do not have any strength unless
provided by the Lord. In Psalms 1833, He makes my feet
like the feet of a deer. He causes me to stand on the
heights. In Psalms 37, 23 and 24, the
Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him. Though he may stumble, he will
not fall for the Lord upholds him with his hand. The Lord is
our strength. Even the fact that we are aware
to delight in the Lord is yet a strength. That we're even aware
that we should delight in the Lord is provided by the Lord. If you go, there's some really
nice churches up the way. They have some cool hats and
some designs. They're not aware of what is
going on. And you can cross town and there's
some really cool spots over there that they have even better shirts. We don't offer those. But those
are a strength that we know that those people do not believe.
A believer's strength comes from the fact that we are even aware
that this is the truth. That's a strength provided by
the Lord. giving thanks to our Savior is
provided through salvation. In verse 3 again, He makes me
walk on my high places. This symbolizes victory through
salvation, through the Lord, and elevation and overcoming obstacles. Well,
who did that? We did, sure. Not at all. The Lord created victory for
us, created an elevation, and overcame all obstacles. Not
us. He delivers. As a believer, Drew
and I have talked about this multiple times, we should not
be haughty. We use that word all the time. We know these things and we understand
that if you're a believer, the Lord has conquered all sin for
us believers. However, we don't come through
as haughty, arrogant, that is not a believer, but through humility. God enables a believer to triumph
over adversity. It's a generic statement that
we have conquered adversity. And I would think if you're someone
who walked in here today and you would hear that statement,
you would say, yes, I had a tough day at work. or had a financial
issue and man, it was solved. That is not what we're talking
about. It never is. God enables believers to triumph
over adversity. That adversity is sin. Ultimate
damnation is what the Lord has allowed us to triumph over. And
you say, we did that. We triumph over adversity. No,
no, no. died and sacrificed so that we
could triumph over adversity. The ultimate sacrifice. God enables
believers to triumph over worldly adversity through fellowship
and prayer because we get amongst like-hearted people and there
is some reprieve in reality. My dad always talks about when
you go away for a long time, we do not allow ourselves to
touch the relationship of another believer. When we come back,
it's so fulfilling because then we get amongst like-hearted people. Instead, the Lord, he provides
a triumph over the ultimate adversity, sin, and to reach spiritual heights. God equips believers with qualities
necessary to navigate challenges. Worldly, we are provided with
timely scripture and fellowship and prayer by his design. Spiritually,
though, we are provided with the only thing that can navigate
all challenges, the redemptive love of our Lord. In Psalms 1833, He sets my feet on high places. Delivered. In Isaiah 58, 14,
you will ride on the heights of the land. Everything is above. You're delivered. In all those
scriptures. Trust in God's strength in difficult
times. Ask for forgiveness. Turn to
the scriptures and pray. How has God demonstrated his
strength in your life? If you're reflective, you would
find multiple points that he has delivered you. God is our strength. He equips
us for all our challenges that we need. We are of a buckler,
which is a shield. The Lord at every single point
in time has allowed us for spiritual growth. He has protected us on
every level. He has allowed us to achieve
a victory over sin. We can't see it now. There, I
would think, would be multiple times that we'll find ourselves
before a passing that you will look in the mirror and you will
question, oh my, am I one of his? How could I ever be? There are multiple times where
you're at the low of the low. I find that there's quiet times
in a vehicle where you're driving and you go, oh my goodness, there's
no way. There's no way. There are thoughts
that go through my head and then you turn to the scripture and
you find out that He equips us for all our challenges. And then
there's moments, blessed be Him, that He shows you in the Bible
or by some person at a pulpit in a grace church or a CD or
something like that that you listen to and you go, oh my,
he does save. He saves at the ultimate point.
The Lord God is my strength and will make my feet like Heinz
feet. He enables us to achieve victory
over sin. It's not us that made that victory
though. It's his, an eternal conquering over sin. It is important to rejoice in
God amidst trials and difficulties. Our trials and difficulties.
It is important to rejoice in God that we turn and say thank
you. We should be encouraged by the
promises of God's strength and deliverance. And if you can figure this one out,
let me know. Trust in God's strength in all
circumstances. All of them. The worst of the
worst. We can float, can't we? Emotionally,
we can float. Intelligently, we can float on
any thought process whatsoever. And from there on, where do we
go? And there's sometimes that I
will look and I will float. And then you go find a humanistic
way to make a Band-Aid for yourself. Make a point that it feels better
if you just do whatever exercise you have set up for yourself.
And what I mean by that is like you meditate or you get a self-help
book or something like that. But in your lowest of the lows,
who has victory over sin? Who can ever rescue and is forever
rescued in reality, permanently? Let the Lord be blessed and be
known that if you're one of his elect, you're already rescued. And the Lord God is your strength. Shall we pray? Lord, thank you for. Your deliverance
and thank you for the mercy that you bestowed upon us. What I
ask the Lord is that be frequent with. The memory and also the
reminder of who you are and who we are. When we pray, deliver us under those circumstances. We ask the Lord in your name.
Amen.