Rejoice in the Lord

Q: What does the Bible say about rejoicing in difficult times?

The Bible teaches us to rejoice in the Lord always, regardless of circumstances (Habakkuk 3:17-18). In Habakkuk 3:17-18, we read, 'Although the fig tree shall not blossom... yet I will rejoice in the Lord.' This verse highlights the importance of maintaining joy in the Lord despite external hardships or lack of earthly gifts. The believer's joy is rooted not in their circumstances, but in the Lord's faithfulness and character. Even when all seems lost—when there’s no fruit on the vines or strength in the fields—we are commanded to rejoice. This kind of joy is a gift from God and is a reflection of our trust in Him, acknowledging His sovereignty and goodness amidst trials.

Q: How do we understand our weaknesses as believers?

Believers may feel weak, but their strength comes from Christ, who abides within them (Philippians 4:13). The feeling of weakness is common among believers, but it is essential to remember that our strength is not of ourselves. As stated in Philippians 4:13, 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.' This implies that while we might feel powerless, relying on Christ enables us to overcome weakness. Our flesh may fail, as highlighted in Psalm 73:26, but God is our strength. When we acknowledge our helplessness and lean fully on Christ, we find that our perceived weaknesses turn into occasions to experience His sustaining grace and strength. We are not left to navigate life alone; His Spirit abides in us, empowering and guiding us daily in our walk of faith.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to focus on God's Word?

God's Word is the foundation for a believer's faith and joy, guiding us in truth and encouraging resilience (John 15:5). The significance of Scripture for Christians cannot be overstated. The Word of God serves as our source of truth, comfort, and guidance in all situations. In John 15:5, Jesus teaches, 'For without me ye can do nothing.' This underscores the necessity of remaining connected to Him through His Word. It is through Scripture that we find the promises of God, revelation of His character, and the encouragement we need to rejoice despite our circumstances. When we turn to the Word, we can combat feelings of despair and confusion. It provides clarity and reminds us of God's faithfulness, fostering resilience in our faith journey. In each trial, the Bible guides us back to the truth of Christ’s sufficiency and love, which affirms our identity as His beloved children.

Q: What does it mean to abide in Christ?

Abiding in Christ means staying connected to Him, relying on His life and strength for spiritual sustenance (John 15:4-5). To abide in Christ, as described in John 15:4-5, is to remain firmly connected to Him, akin to a branch connected to the vine. This relationship is vital for spiritual health, as it is through Christ that believers draw strength and bear fruit. Abiding involves a continual reliance on His grace and an acknowledgment that apart from Him, we can produce nothing of eternal value. It means turning to Him in faith and humility, seeking nourishment through prayer, worship, and meditation on His Word. When we abide in Christ, we experience His presence and power in our lives, resulting in spiritual growth and the fruit of the Spirit. This abiding relationship reassures us that we are securely held in His hands, providing comfort in our times of weakness or doubt.

Let's turn to Habakkuk. Habakkuk chapter three. Good luck finding that you go
to the New Testament, go back about four or five books and
you'll find Habakkuk chapter three. And we'll read two verses. Verses 17 and 18. Although the fig tree shall not
blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of
the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat. The
flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd
in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will joy in the God of my salvation." This verse has meant a lot to
me for many years. I turned to it in troubles. And one of the times I turned
to it was when Jim Sly was in the hospital. And I called him
and asked him if I could read him a verse, some scripture.
And he said, sure. I said, let's read Habakkuk.
And so I read him these two verses. And there was no answer. I said,
are you there, Jim? And he couldn't talk. He was
just bawling. So, of course, I started bawling. But it was a blessing to read
that to him and to see how the Lord blessed it to him. But I
met with him later, right in his last days, and I'll never
forget What he said to me, he said, Brian, I'm so black and
sinful. But how beautiful Christ is.
And. He was worshiping Christ right
then. And I pray his eyes are on Christ. And I pray that's what we do
here tonight. We keep our eyes on Christ. That's
true worship. Sorry. I realize sometimes circumstances bring us down,
and we get downhearted and depressed and everything else. You get
beat up by it. But we always have reason to
rejoice in the Lord. Let's turn to Psalm 97. Psalm
97. I want to read one verse before
we get back to our text. Verse 12. Here's our reason to rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness. We can rejoice because we are
righteous and holy in Christ. Now, in and of ourselves, we're
black, sinful, just like Jim said. But his eyes were on Christ,
and he was just smiling and happy. And I hope we can be that way
here tonight. I know I'm not doing a very good
job of showing you I'm happy, but I am. To rejoice in Habakkuk actually
means to jump for joy. Now I know there's I've seen
lots of guys in here and some girls at ball games and whatever
you jump out of your seat for joy and shout and whatever. Let's try not to do that here
tonight. But I know there's people in
this audience that have trouble containing themselves sometimes.
I know they want to agree with what's being said and sometimes
maybe even shout or jump or whatever. But that's distracting to the
flesh. But we can jump. The new heart
can jump, the new man can jump for joy in the new heart. So
let's do it that way. And things may seem to be spiraling
downward, as this verse says, and they may be seeming to get
out of hand, but you're never out of his hand. You're in his
hand forever and he will guide and protect you forever. So let's
look at this verse. Turn back to chapter three. You might want to mark it with
something. It's hard to find. So what I'm going to do is I'm
going to take verse 17 and look at each individual phrase. And
to a troubled believer, these phrases can be troubling, but
we can see that we always have reason to rejoice in the Lord
in every one of these circumstances. The first one will be, although
the fig tree shall not blossom. Now, fig tree, didn't actually
blossom. They go straight to putting out
a fruit. They put out a green fig and
it's sweet to the taste. And this is what they use for
their cakes. They would make fig cakes for
sweets. And if you didn't have any sweets,
that's, I like chocolate. I don't, I wouldn't like to imagine
not having chocolate. Kim hides it and I'll find it.
There's just, but I wouldn't like not to have chocolate. But
it's a bad thing to not have sweets. But the sweetness They're
talking of here to a believer is sometimes in your life. The
gospel is not sweet to you. There's times when it becomes
dull. And you sit there and Christ
just doesn't seem sweet to you as he did before. And the man
of Christ, the sweet honeycomb that Israel was given back then
may not seem sweet to you every time. Turn to Proverbs 27. We'll
look real quick at one verse. Talking about the sweet honeycomb
of manna. Proverbs 27. Verse seven. The full soul loatheth and honeycomb,
and here's the reason for loathing honeycomb, your soul is full.
You're full of self, sin, the world. And loatheth means to
tread underfoot. And you become just like Israel.
You just would rather walk on this bread of Christ than eat
it and taste the sweetness of it. And it's troubling. You know, it's bad to sit here. I've done it. We've all done
it. There's times he's just not as sweet to us. But there's really
just one reason he would never be sweet to us. The reason is, You're thinking yourself above
sin. You're nothing more than ever a sinner saved by the grace
of God. And if you sit there as a sinner, saved by the grace
of God, how sweet Christ is to you. You've become more than
a sinner. You think yourself above needing
Christ. You need Him more every day.
You're 24 hours more a sinner today than you were yesterday.
You need Him just as more, if not more, today. So what do you
do? You can't work up this sweetness.
You can't tell yourself that He's sweet. Well, you just simply
go to His Word and see what it says. Don't sit there and try
to work it up and remember the good times when He's sweet and
whatever. Go to His Word. Let's turn to Psalm 34. First of all, His Word says,
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, yet I will rejoice.
There's reason to rejoice right there because His Word says so.
But in Psalm 34, Verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. There is when he's sweet. You
trust Christ and he's sweet to the taste. He's so sweet. His blood is sweet to this sinner.
It paid for my sins. And his righteousness is sweet
to this sinner. It makes me stand holy before God in Christ. And
the gospel of a free and full salvation in Christ is sweet
to this sinner. It takes all the pressure off
me, like Todd always says, and Christ takes it all. He did it
all. And I simply rest in Him. And that's sweet. That's a sweet
taste to a sinner. Let's turn to Psalm 119. One
more verse here, speaking of the sweetness of Christ. Psalm 119, verse 103. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. His words are sweet
to every believer. The words in this book right
here. Words like, it is finished. that Christ completed my salvation
on the cross, the work was finished, I have nothing to do, that tastes
sweet to me. Words like I've loved you with
an everlasting love, that's the words of God the Father in the
eternal covenant of grace. He's always loved me and every
believer in Christ. That's sweet words to me. Words
that the Spirit says in Revelations, come, any who come can partake
of the water of life freely. And his call is sweet in the
spirit. Every father, son and Holy Ghost,
their work of salvation is sweet news to this sinner. And that's
just so when the gospel is lost its sweetness. Don't sit there
and try and work it up and remember how it was sweet and try to make
it sweet. Simply return to the Lord as a sinner in need of mercy.
And he will be sweet to you and you trust him and he will taste
sweet from then on out. So that was the first phrase
of Habakkuk, chapter 3, 17. Let's look at the second one.
I'll just read it. You don't have to flip back.
Neither shall fruit be in the vines. Now back then, of course,
fruit in the vines was talking about grapes. And they would
use these grapes as to make their wine. And that was their drink
of choice with the meals. And there's nothing wrong with
wine. And you don't want to drink water with every meal. So it
would have been a bad thing to them to not have wine for their
meals. But the fruit, speaking spiritually,
the fruit of the spirit in a believer can decline to where you don't
think it even exists in you no more. You feel that you've been
left alone. He's left you. Your heart's grown
cold, and you've lost your feeling of love to Christ, to people,
to your brothers and sisters in Christ, your love to the gospel.
And you try to work up this love, and the more you try to work
it up, the farther and farther it seems away. And that's a bad
state to be in when the fruit of the Spirit has declined in
yourself. You see all these fruits and
evidences and all these other believers, but you see absolutely
none in yourself. And you start to doubt and wonder,
and it just goes downhill from there. So what do you do? Well,
you simply go to His Word. His Word says, Neither shall
fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Turn to
John chapter 15. We need to turn to His Word when
we get in trouble. And let's see why we can rejoice
in His Word. We'll read John 15, the first
five verses. I am the true vine, and my Father
is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, He taketh away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now
ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you
can do nothing." In verse 5 there, the word abideth, it carries
with it the meaning of to stay in a given place. And it says
right there, His fruit, or He that abides in me, He that stays
in the given place, He that stays in Christ, abides in Him, bringeth
forth much fruit. He gives you the fruit of love,
the fruit of the Spirit, by abiding in Him. And if He puts it there,
it's going to stay there. Even though we feel like it's
not there, and we try to work it up again and again, it's there
if He put it there. No matter how hard it seems like
you're trying to leave Him, He will not let you go. He's your
Father. He loves you more than... Well,
one day we'll know. Right now, we don't know. But
we know His Word says He loves us. And you're forever united
to Christ when you first believe on Him. And that fruit was put
in you the first time you believed on Him. And it's there. And it
will grow. And it will fade. But it's there. His Word says
it's there. Let's look down at verse 16. Ye have not chosen Me, but I
have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever
you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you.
Your fruit should remain." That word remain is the same word
as abide in verse 5, to stay in a given place. And if His
fruit was placed in you, it's going to remain there. It's going
to stay in that new heart of the new man He put it there,
and it's going nowhere else. So you have this... I realize
your feelings may say otherwise. But let's not listen to what
our feelings are saying. Let's listen to what His Word
says. If His Word says His fruit of love is in you and it's going
to remain, it's going to stay in a given place, it's going
to stay in that new heart, and it's there. So what do you do
when the fruit of the Spirit, His love, seems to have cooled
and quenched in you? Well, you see, you're eternally
united to Christ through faith. And the love He gave you when
you first believed on Him is the love that will stay with
you because He placed it in you. You didn't earn it. You didn't
deserve it. He put it there. And because
He put it there, He's the only one that can take it away. And
He's not going to take it away. You're one of His. And He loves
you. And His Word says that fruit
of love will remain. And it's there. It doesn't feel
like it's there. Don't go by your feelings. I
know we all, and I don't want to have an emotionless religion.
I want to, well you saw that when we first started out. Emotions
are good, but let's not rely on them and depend on them. Let's
rely and depend on His Word only. And His Word says love is in
you, it's in you. So, it may not seem like the
fruit of the vine is in you, but it's there because His Word
says it is. The next phrase in Habakkuk 3 was the labor or the
olive shall fail. Now the olive trees, they would
put much labor and toil into keeping these trees harvested
and they would use the oil out of these trees for cooking. for
all their anointing, their sacrifices and all their ceremonies. They
would use it in medicines and soap and fuel for torches and
lights and stuff. So it was a real critical tree
to them. So it would be a big problem
to have the olive tree fail. But speaking spiritually to a
troubled believer, this oil, as we know, is the spirit of
God, the anointing spirit of God. that He is anointed on every
believer and given Him life and faith in Christ. Now, there's
too many times I count that you feel like His Spirit's left you.
Every day you get so consumed in this world and you turn around
and all of a sudden you're thinking, am I even a believer? I mean,
I just don't know. Sometimes I don't even feel it. And His Spirit can fade away
and you can feel like the oil of His Spirit's left you somewhat.
And because your readings and your prayers and everything seemed
lifeless. And you can sit there and pray
the right way. You can start it with in Christ's
name and you can end it with in Christ's name and the prayer,
you know, he's never heard it because you just you feel lifeless
in your prayers. And it's a bad. way to be, but
we all go through it and we know it's brought upon us by the Lord,
by His grace. And there's so what do you do? You don't sit there and try to
rekindle. You don't sit there and try to go for that feeling
and emotion. You go to his word and his word says, although the
labor of the olive shall fail, yet will I rejoice in the Lord.
You may not feel that you deserve the pleasure of rejoicing in
a Lord. that feels so far away, but believe his word, believe
his word, and it's so. Let's turn to First John, Chapter
two, and we'll read about this anointing spirit. First John, Chapter two, verse
27. But the anointing which you have
received of him abideth in you. And you need not that any man
teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and
is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you
shall abide in him." First of all, notice in the beginning
of that verse it says, we've received. We've received this. We didn't work for it. We didn't
earn it. He gave it to us freely, and we received it. Next of all,
notice he says towards the middle of the verse, it's truth. And
it's no lie, a double emphasis just to try to get it through
our thick skulls that his word is truth. It's not a lie. And
we can believe his word. And he has to double emphasize
it just to make us help us realize his word is truth. But notice
the same word abide again. It's used twice in here. And
it's both the same words that we looked at in John chapter
15. To stay in a given place is what the meaning that it carries
with you. And now you look here, but the
anointing which you have received of him abideth in you. It stays
in a given place. That spirit of life that He put
in a dead man, a dead sinner, remains in you. And it's going
to stay in a given place. Once He's put it in there, once
He's created a new man, that new man lives forever. It's never
going to die. And His Word says it's in there.
Even though you don't feel it a lot, it's in there. Because
His Word says it abides in you. And it's staying in a given place.
And then the last phrase of that verse sums it all up. Ye shall
abide in Him. And there's where our hope, and
there's where we abide in. And abide is the same word again,
to stay in a given place. And that given place is Christ.
And His Spirit teaches you that Christ is your only hope. And
He places you in Christ and He keeps you in Christ. And you're
going to stay in that given place no matter how you feel or no
matter what anybody tells you or whatever. His Word says it
right here. And because His Word says it, it's truth and it's
no lie. And so even though you may feel the labor of the olive
or the oil, the oil of His Spirit has declined and failed. It hasn't. It's been placed in you, and
it's there forever. And one of these days, we'll
be with Him in Heaven, and we can really thank Him in person. And I can't wait. I can't wait
for that day. And I know Jim's up thanking
him now and praising him and singing to him and seeing him
with pure eyes. And one of these days, we're
going to be doing that. Until then, all we've got to go to
hold on to is this. We're so prone to hold on to
ourselves and our feelings and everything else, but his word
is the only non-fictional book on this earth. Because it was
wrote by God. Every other book was wrote by
man. Therefore, it's a lie. I know everything in the books
may be truth and whatever, but it's written by man. And it's
fallible. This is a word that we can trust. So, when it seems like the oil
of His Spirit has faded away, you can rejoice. I know sometimes
it's hard to rejoice. when your spirit's down. But
if you would just open his word and read it and trust it and
know that he's a God that is truth and no lie, it'll comfort
you. The next phrase, and the fields
shall yield no meat. Another problem arises. The fields
shall yield no meat. And meat here is referring to
food, crops, bread. The crops of wheat, barley and
oats have been destroyed either by disease or famine or whatever.
So therefore, you have no nothing to feed the cattle, nothing to
feed your family. And it's a dire situation. But now there's times
spiritually when this happens to a believer. You experience
a famine of the bread of Christ. You you can sit here and listen
physically to the word. And audibly you hear it. But
it's falling on spiritual ears that have lost. Lost their. I don't know what the word I'm
looking for is, but you have deaf spiritual ears and not fed upon
the preaching of Christ and you. So many times I've sat here.
I hate to. We sit here. And we go. Through the motions
and we pay attention. And we turn to the scriptures,
and we're dressed nice, and we sing along, and we're doing it
all out of routine because we know this is what's supposed
to be done. And you leave here hungry just the way you showed
up. And you don't talk with anybody about it, and I don't. I just
feel bad that day, and I don't know what to do about it sometimes.
And it's a bad situation when the bread of Christ doesn't fill
you. And you show up here. But it's always our fault. If
we come here truly seeking to feed on
Christ, He will feed you. Because His Word says, Matthew
7, verse 7 says, Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall
find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. We should always prepare our hearts before we walk into
this place and ask God to speak to us tonight that we can feed
upon Christ. When we get in trouble is when
we don't do that. You enter and exit this building the same way.
You kind of take and worship lightly. You think you can just
come in here, sit down, and switch on a spiritual button, and voila,
you can hear. But it doesn't work like that. You've got to prepare your hearts
to hear from Him. And I don't make a work out of
this. I don't want anybody to make a work out of don't step
through that door before you're prepared or whatever. But we're
coming here in the presence of Almighty God to worship His Son. I think we should put enough
time and effort into not just dressing up outwardly, but inwardly. Dressing up and preparing our
hearts. And if He won't just, Lord, Prepare
me to receive Christ, to feed on Christ, and bless the speaker,
whoever it is, and you won't have any more problems with this
field yielding no more meat. The bread of Christ will be precious
to you every time because he will feed all who ask him to
feed them. You'll reap what you sow. If
you come here prepared and ask the Lord to feed you on Christ,
He'll do it. And I pray we can do that every
time we come in here. It's a blessing, just like Claire
said. What a blessing to get to come out of the world, apart
from the world, and come in here and to turn our eyes upon Jesus.
Just like Matt was singing before. What a... That song just... Put
it right in there. We never talked about it, but
it just... The Lord does that so many times. We might read
something in the back and then... We haven't talked with each other
or nothing, and the Lord blesses it and brings it all together.
And that song was a blessing. Your physical eyes may be upon
me, but your spiritual eyes better be on Christ. And you'll be fed. And He's well worth looking to.
He's altogether beautiful. All right. After that, the flock shall be
cut off from the fold and the flock of sheep. They kept sheep
back then and the flock has been cut off. The sheep have wandered
off. They've died, they've been diseased, or they've been eaten
by predators. And that's not a good thing when they lost their
sheep. They lose their wool for the clothing and the meat and
the sheep for the sacrifices. It's a pretty dire situation
when they had no sheep. But spiritually speaking, Christ's
sheep sometimes feel isolated and cut off from Him. Cut off
from the fold of Christ. cut off from friends, cut off
from worship. There's times that, once again,
I know I've been, I don't want this to sound too negative and
whatever, but there's just times we're all, we still have this
flesh with us, and we bring it in here with us, we drag it along
with us, and you begin to wonder and sit there and think, am I
even one of His? Has he left me alone or surely I'm lost.
I've wandered away too far this time and there's no way I'll
find my way back. And we go, I'll cycle through
that more times than I can even think about. I don't even want
to admit it. There's sometimes you go day
or two without your thoughts even turning to Christ and you'll
think, What's going on? Am I so prone to wonder, Lord,
I feel it. And that's what we're prone to
do. Because that flesh is still there with us. And we're fighting
it all the time. But you know what? Even when
everything feels that way, it's not really that way. Because
His Word says even though the flock should be cut off from
the fold, even though you feel you're cut off from Christ, Yet
I will rejoice in the Lord. And His Word says to rejoice,
and we can rejoice. Even though our feelings are
saying opposite, we can rejoice because He is our mighty Shepherd. He's the Shepherd of the sheep.
And you may have wandered away by taking your eyes off of Him,
but He's never took His eyes off of you. You're one of His,
and He's kept His eye on you from the day you were born Till
the day you go to be with Him, you may be in among the crowds.
You're doing this in and out, working all day long. He's watching
every step you take. He's ordained every step you
take. You're in complete protection and a shield with our Great Shepherd. And yeah, you're going to feel
lost sometimes, but none shall pluck you out of His hand. And
you can't jump out of His hand. You can't get out of His hand.
You may feel like you're even trying to do that every now and
then, but He's got you. And He's going to keep you. And
He will leave the ninety and nine and go seek the one that's
lost. And if that's one in you and
you've wandered away, He's going to find you. You may be thinking
you're lost, wandering around, but He's got His eye on you.
And he's going to find you, and he's going to get you, and he's
going to keep you, and he's going to bring you back to the fold. And
that's something we can always rejoice in. We're just simple
saved sheep in the fold of Christ. That's all we are. We're in the
fold of Christ, and there's no other fold I'd rather be in.
And I just want to be one of his, and to know that he's my
shepherd. It'll calm you. It'll make you
smile. You may think the world is sitting
here beating you up, but it's all in his hands and he's protecting
you. And well, I'm talking a lot. Let's go read about that in Scripture.
John, Chapter 10. John, Chapter 10. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Verse 14, I am the
good shepherd. And once again, he's such a good
shepherd. And know my sheep, and am known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. That's amazing right there. Lord,
God himself came here, made himself a man and died for a simple little
sheep. That's a shepherd I want to be
under forever. Verse 16, and other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. So how do you return to this
fold? Verse 27, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. Well, you follow somebody
by looking, by turning your eyes upon Jesus. You wander away so
many times. Turn your eyes away from yourself
and turn them up on Christ. and you're back in His fold.
You never left it in reality, but it may have felt like it,
but follow Him. There's so many things in this
world that are so attractive to follow. Follow Christ. That's all I want to do. And
I hope everybody in this room does the same. Turn your eyes
upon Jesus. He's so beautiful to look at.
And to a sinner, there's not greater news than this great
shepherd gave his life for you. For everyone that trusts him.
And that's just... The good shepherd, I guess that's
the only word we could come up with is good. He's good. He's the best. He's the only he's the chief
shepherd. He's the mighty shepherd. All
those words together don't even come close to describing what
he really is, because we don't know what he's every little thing
we think is going wrong with us is going for our good, because
it's ordered by Him. And so even though the situation
may seem a little down, His Word says, I can rejoice in Him. And
that's what we need to do, rejoice in the Lord at all times. The
last part of, back at 3, verse 17, the last phrase, And there
shall be no herd in the stalls. No herd here means no cattle.
There was no cattle for milk, for meat, no leather for protective
clothing. But the main meaning of the cattle
was oxen. They use these oxen for plowing
the fields and doing the hard labor. And so oxen represents
strength, strong. And pertaining to a believer,
as we talk spiritually about this, There's no herd in the
stalls. There's no strength in you. There's
times you just don't know how you want to put one foot in front
of the other. And you feel weak, helpless,
no strength to pray, no strength to stand before God. You feel
weak and helpless. And that's true. In and of yourselves,
you are weak and helpless. But maybe we shouldn't spend
so much time focusing on ourselves and focusing on our weaknesses. We all, by nature, tend to make
things seem worse than they really are. I mean, we've come here
today in this nice air-conditioned building, out of our air-conditioned
cars, where we left our air-conditioned home. or work site after eating
two or three meals already. We'll probably eat another one
before we go to bed. We're free to worship as we feel in this
country. We've got it made. And on top
of all that, God has brought you under the sound of the gospel. And he's given every believer
life. brought a dead man to life sitting
in his pews listening to Todd. And that's, you know, that's just what a
blessing and a privilege we have. I didn't know when I first showed
up here. I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I was hearing
the same thing I heard in all these other churches. I didn't
know the difference. I heard some of the same words
and phrases. And I could have easily just went on to the next
church or the next whatever. and have gone my way and be straight
in hell by now. But He kept me here. And He's
kept every one of you here or under any church where a gospel
is preached. And you may have tried to run
away, but He wouldn't let you. And how thankful we ought to
be to our Savior. Not only did He give His life
and die and live for you, He gave you faith and gave you love
for Him. Something you could have never
come up with. He did it all. Christ did it all. He saved me.
And so even though I'm weak in and of myself, God is my strength. He's the strength of my salvation.
He accomplished it. He purposed it. He carried it
out. And then He freely gave it to me. And then he gave me
life to believe his son, and he's going to persevere. He's
going to give me grace to persevere to the end. There's no such thing
as a saint falling away from our great shepherd. There's no
such thing, because we can never leave his hand. And even though
our strength seems small, there's a verse, Philippians 4.13, that
everybody quotes, and it's a good verse. I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me. Now that verse, though, is a
great verse, but it's greatly misused. I went to a Legends
game a while back and a guy came over and gave Alex a ball and
he signed Philippians 4, 13 on the ball. And I said, huh, well,
it's true. You are playing baseball because
it's God there. You're breathing. You're running
on His legs. He's pumping your heart. I mean,
it is the strength of God that's allowing you to play this game,
just like all these athletes that sit there and point their
fingers to the sky after they catch a touchdown and pump their
chest and all this stuff, thinking they're giving some praise to
God and they're just drawing attention to themselves, just like the
scribes on the corner of the streets. This verse ain't talking
about physical strength. It's talking about spiritual
strength. We can do all things through Christ. We can repent,
believe, and love. In Christ, because he strengthens
us, he's in us, and that's the strength we need. And let's turn
to one verse, Psalm 73. Psalm 73. Verse 26. I think Mitch read this back in
the study on Sunday. I didn't have it in my notes
then, but it wound up in there now. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. How true it is that our flesh
and our heart fails. It's fleshly. It's natural. It's
born to die. There's no strength in your flesh,
and the word Faileth actually means to end or to cease. It's
going to pass away. When it goes in this ground and
goes back to dirt, it's gone forever. But the good news is God is our strength. He's our
rock. That strength comes from the word for rock. He's our strength. We have no strength to pay for
our sins, but Christ did. He took them and put them away.
We have no strength to keep God's law, but Christ did. And gives
his righteousness freely to any and all who trust him. Yes, we're weak. We're dead,
we're helpless. But really, when we're bowed
down with no strength to do anything pleasing to God, That's when
we're at our strongest, because we're looking to Christ at that
point. Because we see nothing in and of ourselves that could
please God, and we have nothing to offer. Well, we look to Christ,
but He turns our eyes to Christ. If we ever look on Christ, He
enables us, and He gives us the grace to do it. Every time we
turn back to Christ, it's our precious Father that's worked
it in us and gave us the grace to do it. how thankful and how precious
a Savior we have. I mean, how precious. Let's turn
back to Habakkuk 3. Let's read it one more time.
But this time, knowing that we can rejoice. Even though all
these situations seem to be bringing you down and depressing you and
whatever, we can rejoice in the Lord. So let's read it one more
time. Although the fig tree shall not
blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, The labor of
the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The
flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd
in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will join the God of my salvation. true and dear to every believer,
to know that even though the situations are looking down and
out, you can always rejoice in the Lord. And may He give us
grace to rejoice in Him forever and ever. I want to read one
more verse. Let's turn to Psalm 28. This will sum it all up into
why we can rejoice How we can rejoice? Psalm 28 verse 7. The Lord is my strength and my
shield. My heart trusted in him and I
am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices. And with my song will I praise
him. This one verse sums it all up. First part of the verse says
the Lord is my strength. He's the cause. of my salvation. He worked out my salvation. He
gives me faith to believe in Christ. He's the strength of
the salvation of every elect sinner that's ever walked this
earth. He's our strength. And that's
the first part of the verse, and that's the cause of everything.
And because he's my strength, he gives me a new heart in the
middle of that verse to trust in him. And he bore a new, I
can't think of the word I want to say, but he created a new
man and put a new heart in everyone that turns to Christ. And he
didn't do it. After you turned, it's there
before you turned. You wouldn't have turned if you
didn't have it in you already. He already had brought life into
you. And I'm helped. The word help comes from surrounded.
And that's being in Christ, you're surrounded by Christ. You're
in Him. He's in you. He's my all in all. He surrounds
me. And that's all I need. And because
I know I'm in Him, And He's in me. And all these fruits and
all these things that seem bad are not really that bad. I'm
rejoicing in the Lord. Because of all that, my heart
greatly rejoiceth. And this rejoiceth here is the
same one back in chapter 3, to jump for joy. And what a precious
Savior we serve. May He give us all eyes to love
Him and to trust Him. more and more each day. And I
pray that He'll give us grace to do that. There's many things
we think we need. We need Christ. And we need faith
in Him. And God is our strength. He'll
give it to us. Ask Him. His Word says, Ask and you shall
receive. Alright, thank you.

Rejoice in the Lord

What does the Bible say about rejoicing in difficult times?

How do we understand our weaknesses as believers?

Why is it important for Christians to focus on God's Word?

What does it mean to abide in Christ?

Sermon Transcript

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Rejoice in the Lord

What does the Bible say about rejoicing in difficult times?

How do we understand our weaknesses as believers?

Why is it important for Christians to focus on God's Word?

What does it mean to abide in Christ?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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