From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: What do you do when life knocks you down? You exalt in the Lord, you rejoice in the God of your salvation. Listen, if you're struggling today with depression, the very best medicine for depression is praise—to praise the Lord because it lifts you up and it takes you to a new place. It helps you to see life from God's perspective.

Habakkuk, in the midst of terrible situations that he could foresee that were coming, said, "I'm going to exalt in the Lord. I'm going to make that choice." And you can make that choice today.

Guest (Male): Are you tired of life knocking you down and keeping you down? Well, God's Word has several solutions for getting back up, and Pastor Jeff's going to point them out to us today from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk.

Today's message is called "How to Get Up When You're Down," and it's the last message in Pastor Jeff's series, *Got Trouble? What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do*. If you can't be with us for the entire message today, or you want to listen to some of the broadcasts from this month from this series, just go to fromhisheart.org and click the listen link.

There, you can download a free MP3 of this broadcast or any broadcast, as well as Pastor Jeff's sermon notes. Again, that's fromhisheart.org. But first, let's get started by opening your Bible to the third chapter of Habakkuk. Here again is Pastor Jeff Schreve.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Habakkuk knows what it's like for life to plow you over and knock you down, and he also knows how you get up when you're down. In the book of Habakkuk, just three short chapters, he wrestles with God in chapter one, and then he embraces God in chapter three. He says this, one of the greatest statements of faith in all of the Bible:

"Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds' feet, and makes me walk on my high places."

How do you get up when life knocks you down? In these verses that we read, God gives us a three-step action plan to put into practice anytime life knocks you for a loop. Step number one in the three-step action plan: you run to God with your questions.

Habakkuk, whose name means "to wrestle" or "to embrace," is in chapter one wrestling with God over the current state of affairs because in Judah, the nation Judah with its capital in Jerusalem, everything is going down the tubes. God tells him Babylon is coming to totally wipe them out. It is bad news.

He starts it off and he says this, "How long, O Lord, will I call for help, and You will not hear? I cry out to You, 'Violence!' yet You do not save." Then he goes on in chapter one to ask a series of "why" questions. Seven questions that he asks God in chapter one, four "whys." "God, why don't You hear me? God, why don't You help me?"

Have you ever asked God that? There's nothing wrong with asking questions like that. He doesn't mind that we wrestle with Him with the questions of life. But remember this, when you come to God with your questions, always come with reverence. Always remember who you're talking to. You always address God with reverence because He's a consuming fire.

But then you always come with confidence because the great King over all the earth, the consuming fire, is Daddy, who loves you and loves me. Scripture says in Hebrews 4:16, "Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

That's the first step in the action plan. What do you do when life knocks you for a loop? You run to God with your questions. Second step: you rejoice in Him in your problems. Habakkuk, in verse 17, paints a picture of the worst economic collapse you can possibly have. We freak out in America when the Dow drops 300 points in a day. Everything's falling apart.

But what does he talk about? He lives in an agrarian society and there's no more agriculture. Everything's gone. "Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines." That's a bummer. We don't have any figs. We're a big fig producer. No figs, no fruit on the vines, no grapes there.

"Though the yield of the olive should fail." That's a problem because we're a big olive producer. We've got no olives. "And the fields produce no food." We have no wheat, we have no barley, we have nothing in the fields. Well, at least we've got our sheep. "Though the flock should be cut off from the fold." Now we don't have that. "And there be no cattle in the stalls." We don't have anything. Everything is gone.

"Yet I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation." That's what he says. He did it by an act of the will. A couple of years ago, Debbie and I were speaking at a FamilyLife marriage conference in Pennsylvania. We arrive at the airport and we had some suitcases, and I had a carry-on bag that had my computer and it had all my notes for the conference.

We were going to be there Friday night, all day Saturday, half day Sunday. I was going to speak seven different times. There were hours and hours of things that I was going to share. When we got to the car at the airport, the car that was going to pick us up, he was taking care of our bags, so I just left my bags there and I got in the car. He failed to put my computer bag with all my notes in the car.

We get to the hotel and I'm looking, "Where's my black bag?" You instantly start freaking out. "Where is it?" You look all in the car again, you look under seats, you go in the trunk. It's not there. I go back to the airport. It's about 40 minutes to get to the airport. It's not there. You can't leave a computer bag at the airport for 40 minutes to an hour and expect it to be right there on the curb. It doesn't work that way.

It wasn't there. I looked around. "Has anyone turned anything in?" They said no. I'm starting to freak out because this is Thursday night. We're speaking tomorrow, and I don't have any of my notes. I'm not good for seven hours with no notes. I went back to the hotel and Debbie felt so bad for me.

I just made a choice. I said, "Lord, I'm not going to freak out on this. I'm going to choose to trust You and I'm going to choose to thank You. You know where that bag is. Lord, if You want to get that bag back to me, then awesome. That would be so cool. But if You don't, then You have another plan and I'll just spend all day Friday before the conference just doing the best I can preparing. So Lord, I'm just going to trust You, and I praise You through this."

Debbie and I started eating our meal for dinner, and then the cell phone rang. The person on the other end said, "Are you Jeff Schreve?" I said yes. They said, "We have your bag." I said, "How much do you want for it?"

They said, "We don't want anything for it." They were so apologetic. They said, "We're so sorry. We thought that was with our stuff, and so we put it in our bag." They said, "We'll bring it to you." They got in their car and they drove 30 to 40 minutes to me to get me my bag back.

I thought, "Wow, that's just like God." And it happened after I praised Him and I thanked Him regardless of the situation, regardless of the circumstances. "I'm going to trust You, Lord. I'm going to praise You, Lord. I'm going to exult in You and rejoice in the God of my salvation. You're still God. You're still good. You still love me. You still work all things together for good to those who love You, to those who are called according to Your purpose."

God worked a miracle in response to the praise. Have you noticed how God does that? Habakkuk, in the midst of terrible situations that he could foresee were coming, said, "I'm going to exult in the Lord. I'm going to make that choice." You can make that choice today.

Third step in the action plan: not only do you run to Him with your questions, not only do you rejoice in Him in your problems, but you rely on Him to see you through. You rely on the Lord to see you through and not just so you can survive, but so you can thrive, so that you can go to new heights with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Habakkuk is wrestling in chapter one, asking all the questions. "How long, O Lord, will You not answer me? Why don't You hear me? Why don't You help me? Why are You using a wicked people like the Babylonians to come and wipe out Your people? I mean, we're not doing very good spiritually and morally and politically and socially, but we're still better than the Babylonians. Why on earth, God, would You use a country and a people so wicked as the Babylonians to discipline Your folks? It doesn't make sense."

He's wrestling with God over all these things. His name means "to wrestle," but his name also means "to embrace." In chapter three, at the end of the book, he embraces God. Worry turns to worship, and fear turns to faith, and terror turns to trust as he looks to the Lord and as he praises the Lord, as he trusts the Lord.

He trusts the Lord to see him through. He says in verse 19, "The Lord God is my strength. He has made my feet like hinds' feet and makes me walk on my high places." "The Lord God," that is *Adonai Yahweh* in the Hebrew. *Yahweh* is the personal name of God, and *Adonai* means ruler. It means sovereign. "The Lord God," maybe in some of your Bibles you have this translation, "the Sovereign Lord." *Adonai Yahweh* means Sovereign Lord. The one who's in control, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

He says, "The Lord God, Adonai Yahweh, He's the one I praise and He is my strength. I look to Him and I'm going to rely upon Him."

Guest (Male): What a marvelous truth to know that God is able to deliver you and me from our troubles. Pastor Jeff will return on From His Heart in just a moment to conclude the lesson, "How to Get Up When You're Down."

Most people who feel down are that way because what they treasure is seemingly lost or too far away to obtain. Their hope to reach it is gone. The truth about treasure is this: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. God is ultimately concerned with your heart, and that means that He wants your heart to be intimately linked with His.

This heart condition is vital for a great life. That's why we call this program From His Heart. What God's heart speaks is ultimately the most important truth upon which to concentrate and praise. That's why we seek to share this each and every day. If you've been blessed by this ministry, if you've listened for years particularly, and you want to help us continue to grow each year to reach more people, we'd like to invite you to search your heart about joining us financially.

For your gift today, we'll say thank you by sending you a copy of Pastor Jeff's new series, *God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money*. It's available in the format of your choice when you make your gift today by calling 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go online to fromhisheart.org.

Through your continued support, men and women around the world are being transformed, whether through radio, television, online platforms, or resources from our resource center. We're so grateful to God for you making that happen. Now, let's conclude the message, "How to Get Up When You're Down," from the series *Got Trouble? What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do*.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Listen, God is able to deliver. He's able to deliver you. I don't care what circumstances you're facing. I don't care if it's terrible, horrible disease, cancer or Crohn's or whatever it might be. He is able to deliver you.

When it says, "I will rejoice in the God of my salvation," the word salvation literally means deliverance. The Bible says God is to us a God of deliverances, and to God the Lord belongs escapes from death. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, "Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves, in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead."

Now watch this: "Who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope, and He will yet deliver us." God is the God who has delivered, God is the God who will deliver. Take it to the bank, God is the God who will deliver you and will deliver me. He's the God of our salvation, the God of deliverances. In whatever you face, you can trust God to deliver you.

Paul says this, interesting, at the end of his life, 2 Timothy chapter 4. He said, "At my last defense, no one supported me. Everyone deserted me. But the Lord stood with me and He strengthened me, and He'll deliver me from every evil deed." Paul, the way he died, he got his head chopped off. Even in the midst of knowing that his time had come and he was going to be martyred for his faith, he said, "The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed. God is going to take me up, and I can trust God."

He is able to deliver. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3 were told to bow before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Nebuchadnezzar said, "If you don't bow when I strike up the band, I'm going to throw you in a furnace of blazing fire." Well, they didn't bow.

It was told to Nebuchadnezzar, "Hey, the three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they don't bow, King. They're not going to do what you say, King." Nebuchadnezzar got so mad because he's Nebuchadnezzar. He says, "You're going to do what I say." So he calls them up. "Hey, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, I'm going to give you another chance. I'm going to strike up the band, and when I strike up the band, you bow before the image. If you don't bow before the image, I'm going to throw you in a furnace of blazing fire. And what god is there who can deliver you from my hand?"

They said to the king, the most powerful human being on the earth at that time, "We don't need to give you an answer concerning this, O King. We're not going to bow. And let me tell you one thing: our God who is able to deliver us from your hand, and He will deliver us. And even if He doesn't choose to deliver in this way, we're not going to bow. We're going to trust God who's a God of salvation, who's a God of deliverance."

And you know the story. He threw them in the furnace, and Jesus was there. He was the fourth man in the fire, and He delivered them from that fiery furnace. "I will rejoice in the God of my salvation, in the God of deliverance." In the tough situations in life, trust God. Look up to God, rely upon God, because He will deliver you.

He's able to empower you. "The Lord God is my strength," he says. The Sovereign Lord is my strength. Now, it's such a contrast because in chapter one, verse 11, the Lord says this about the Babylonians: "Their strength is their god." Don't ever let your strength be your god. Let God be your strength.

"But those who wait upon the Lord," Isaiah 40:31 says, "shall renew their strength." When you wait on God, when you let God be your strength. If you think in terms of a strongman in the Bible, an Old Testament strongman, every kid who has ever looked at a children's Bible, they always have the story of Samson. Samson is the Israeli strongman.

Samson always is depicted as this guy with just bulging muscles. He's the guy that killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. Here's the thing when you read about Samson in the Book of Judges: the Philistines, because he's always beating them, they're always like, "What's the source of his great strength? Why, how can he be so strong?"

It could be that he's got like a 56-inch chest and he's got huge arms and he looks kind of angry. That could kind of be the source of his great strength. I don't think Samson looked like that. When Samson got his haircut, which was a symbol of the power of God on his life, the Bible says that he shook himself. He was going to go out and shake himself free when Delilah woke him and said, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!"

"I will go out as at other times and shake myself free," he said. The Scripture says this: he did not know that the Lord had left him. He was weak as a kitten, and they grabbed him and abused him and gouged out his eyes and led him away to grind grain like a dumb ox. Strength is all from God. God says, "Hey, if you will make Me your strength, I will empower you." "I can do all things," Paul says, "through Christ who strengthens me."

Here's the cool thing as we close out. Not only is God able to deliver you and me, not only is He able to empower you and me, He's able to take us to new heights. How to get up when you're down, and not just get up and barely stagger, but to get up to new heights. That's what he says. He says, "He has made my feet like hinds' feet and makes me walk on my high places."

I did a little study about a hind. I'm not a hunter, so I have to learn about these things. A hind is a female red deer. It lives in the mountains. A hind is one of the most sure-footed animals of the mountains. Here's why a hind is so sure-footed: because when a hind runs, the back legs always go in the exact spot that the front legs were in.

You can watch one of these things, and they can go up a ledge and they can move around in rough mountainous areas and jump up and get higher and higher and higher and run away from danger, where you and I couldn't do that. Other animals can't do that. But if you can place your back feet in the exact same spot that your front feet were in, you can go up all sorts of slippery places.

The Lord says, "Hey, if you will make Me your strength, if you will rejoice in Me, I'll make your feet like hinds' feet. I'll give you steady and sure feet so that you can handle any situation and you can climb higher and higher and higher." Not only can you get up when you're down, but you can get up and ascend. You can go high with the Lord. The Lord can change everything in your life.

Psalm 23 is a favorite psalm for so many people. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You're with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

Now, he says, "Even though I walk through the valley." He didn't say, "Even though I have to live in the valley, even though the valley is my home and I'm going to be here forever." No, no, no. I'm walking through the dark valley of the shadow of death. The shepherd leads us through that valley. Why? So we can come up on the other side, come up to the high place, come up to the green pasture. But you have to go through, and He's going to lead you through and He's not going to leave you alone. He'll make your feet like hinds' feet so that you can walk on your high places.

This is really cool as we close out. Habakkuk starts off the book wrestling with God, asking why. He ends the book embracing God, focused not on why, but focused on whom. His hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, so to speak.

He's just focused on God. He's saying, "God, all this other stuff is happening around me, and no matter how bad it gets, You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. God, I'm just going to rejoice in You. God, You're going to lead me up higher and higher. You're going to take me through the valley of the shadow of death. I don't need to be worried about any of that stuff, and I don't need to be living in fear. I need to be walking in faith."

Guest (Male): Habakkuk found power in focusing praise on the Lord. Where is your attention focused today? We hope that it's focused on praise to God. He loves you, and He wants to help you up when you're down. As we mentioned, you can listen again online to these broadcasts when you go to fromhisheart.org. Click the listen link.

Before we go, a reminder that if you're discontent in your life because you continually struggle with money, then you'll be blessed and encouraged by getting a copy of Pastor Jeff's new series, *God and Money: What the Bible Says About Managing Money*. It's yours for a gift of any amount to From His Heart this month. To get yours, call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go online to fromhisheart.org.

We trust today's broadcast was a blessing to you, that God spoke to you through this, and that you'll take time to watch the From His Heart television broadcast this weekend, broadcast in all 50 states and in 182 countries each week around the world. Thank you for being here and for joining us, and we'll see you next time when Pastor Jeff will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from his heart, here on From His Heart.