From His Heart

Speaker 1

Can you live a life unshaken by any struggle that comes your way? Let's find out today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff shreve.

Speaker 2

In Psalm 15, we read about David talking about what a life looks like that will stand unshaken because it is founded upon the rock and it is built on godly principles and it's built on holy living.

So here's our question for today: What does it take to live an unshakable life in the Lord?

Speaker 3

There is treasury, there is blessed love. There is hope that you always dream of love. He can heal me every scars. Real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today for a message that's just for you.

If you live a life with worries and troubles that shake you to the core, you can learn to live unshaken. This week we're in the series Roller Coaster: Facing the Ups and Downs of Life. Today, we have a message about how to recognize why you're shaken to the core.

We'll discover that it likely is because of the devil, who is rotten to the core. Pastor, tell us about how to live an unshaken life when trouble comes.

Speaker 4

David shares in Psalm 15 about an unshakable, unshaken life, and he sums up all these different things that we need to have characteristics of a life that is unshaken. He ends the psalm by saying, he who does these things will never be shaken.

And these things that he speaks of are the essence of the message that we share. They are things that God wants us to have in our lives because those make the difference.

When you have these particular things in your life, you can have confidence that no matter what may happen, God is going to see you through, and you're not going to be blown off course as those who build their house on the sand.

Speaker 1

Well, let's get ready to learn those key traits of a Christian's daily walk that, when practiced, will lead to a relationship with God that will stand up to any foe and shine brightly when the dark times do come.

Open your Bible to Psalm 15 and let's learn all about an unshaken life.

Speaker 2

Now here's the sad reality in our world today. So many people who call themselves Christians, whether they are or not, God knows, I don't know. But you can't tell them apart from a non-Christian because so many people who call themselves Christians have just fit into the ways of the world, and they act and react just like a non-Christian does. And so it's very hard to tell. Does this person really have a relationship with Jesus? I mean, they don't have standards. You know, they're living with their boyfriend or living with their girlfriend, or they're just doing whatever the world does, and the world cheats and they cheat, and the world lies and they lie, and they're just the same, and they're going the cheap way, the easy way, and building with straw or building with sticks.

You know, it's interesting. In First Corinthians, chapter three, the Bible tells us that for every Christian, there is a judgment coming. It's called the judgment seat of Christ, where the Lord will evaluate our lives as believers, and he tests our lives through fire. The Bible even says in First Corinthians, chapter three, that we should be careful how we build upon the foundation, which is Jesus Christ. Every Christian has to have the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then we build upon that foundation. Some people build, as it says in First Corinthians, chapter three, with wood, hay, and straw. If you build with wood or hay or straw, it doesn't stand up, and it is wiped out. But if you build with permanent things, then your house can stand. As it says in First Corinthians, chapter three, when the Lord tests us with fire, those who built with gold and silver and precious stones stand up to the fire. When the Lord is through testing you and I, if we have structure left after the fire because we built with gold, silver, and precious stones, we receive reward from the Lord. But those who built with wood, hay, and straw suffer loss, yet they themselves are saved, yet so as through fire.

It says so David in Psalm 15 is going to give us wisdom and insight on how to live a life that stands, that is unshakable in the face of the big bad wolf, the enemy of our souls, the devil, who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. You might be here today, and you know what? You need to be real honest with yourself because you might be going the cheap way, the easy way, the way of the world. You might be building your life with wood, so to speak, with sticks, so to speak. Today's the day to make changes, to start building with the things that last.

Psalm 15. David writes this psalm probably after he brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. You remember, here's the background. David was promised the kingdom, but Saul was king. So David is on the run from Saul. Saul spends years trying to find David and kill him. But when David is 30 years old, he becomes king of Hebron, in the south. Then when he's 37 years old, he becomes king of all Israel. The first thing that David does when he's king of all Israel is he attacks the city of Jebus. The Jebusites lived in the city of Jebus, and that was kind of an impenetrable fortress there. David attacks that city and conquers it. He calls that city Jerusalem. It's the city of David, and that becomes the capital city of Israel.

The next thing David does is he wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem. You remember the Ark of the Covenant? It's that box of acacia wood that's overlaid with gold, where it represented the presence of God. You have the angel's wings there that form the mercy seat. David wants to take that back from where it was, nine miles away in a place called Kiriath Jearim. He wants to take it from there and bring it into Jerusalem and set it up on the holy hill of Jerusalem, putting it in the tent that he has prepared there for the Lord. We didn't have a temple until David's son Solomon built the temple for the Lord. God had been living in a tent.

So David goes to Kiriath Jearim and gets the Ark of the Covenant, but he doesn't move it correctly. He just moves it any old way. He puts it on a brand new cart. That's not how you're supposed to carry it. It has poles there; the priests were supposed to carry it. But David doesn't do it that way. He starts bringing it toward Jerusalem, and the ark almost falls off the cart. A man named Uzzah goes to grab the ark to keep it from falling, and God kills him just like that. It says that the Lord killed him because he didn't show reverence to the Lord. You don't mess with the Ark; that's the presence of God. You don't just grab it and move it any old way you want.

David was afraid and thought, how can I bring this Ark into the city of David? So he said, let's have this ark go with this guy. His name was Obed Edom. They put the Ark in his house, and God blessed the house of Obed Edom. It was there for three months. They told David, "Man, that guy's getting blessed. God's blessing his socks off. We need to bring the Ark into the capital city." So David this time brings the Ark in, and he does it God's way. He has the priests bring it in, and they carry it on the poles, sacrificing and rejoicing, with trumpets and shouting. He brings in the Ark of the Covenant and places it in the tent of meeting, in the place where God dwelt.

The Scripture says this: "O Lord, who may dwell in thy tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? He who walks with integrity and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend. In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord. He swears to his own hurt and does not change. He does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. He'll always be secure and stand strong."

So here's our question for today: What does it take to live an unshakable life in the Lord? What does it take so that we can dwell on his holy hill? What does it take so that we can abide in his tents and walk with God, be close to God, and dwell with God in this life and then in the life to come? I want to share with you five essentials if you're going to live a life. If I'm going to live a life that's unshakeable.

Essential number one: It takes integrity. It takes integrity. "O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? He who walks with integrity." The word integrity means to be sound, to be complete, to be solid. A person who has integrity is solid. As I've told you before, the difference between not having integrity and having integrity is that a person who doesn't have integrity is kind of like veneer over particle board. He looks like he's real wood, but he's not real solid. Through and through, he's just a piece of veneer. Inside, it's just pasted shavings, just kind of pressed together, press board. A person with integrity is solid. He's the same on the outside as he is on the inside. He is solid through and through.

When you have integrity, you are genuine and sincere through and through. What you see is what you get because you have integrity. You're not a duplicitous person who presents himself one way but is really another way. No, you are the same all the way through. Paul, when he wrote to the Philippians, said he wanted them to be blameless and sincere upon the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, "I want you to be actually sincere and blameless." It's very interesting, the word sincere, because sincerity and integrity fit together. A person who is sincere is literally someone who has been sun-tested. That's what it meant to be sincere. It meant that you were so tested to be judged by the sun.

When you would go in that ancient day to buy something at the store, you were going to buy a piece of pottery. Sometimes a piece of pottery could look really, really good, but it wasn't good. It wasn't solid; it had a crack in it. An unscrupulous potter would make this pot and try to make it the cheap way, the easy way, the fast way. He wouldn't do it correctly, and when he took it out of the kiln, after it cooled, it cracked. He'd think, "Oh man, I don't want to throw this away. What can I do? People won't buy it if it's cracked because it's not going to be any good. It's got this weak spot." So he would take paraffin, water, wax, and put the wax in the crack, and then you couldn't see the crack.

You would go to the potter shop, and if it was a little dark in there, you would look at this and say, "Well, that's a pretty good pot." You would buy it and take it home, only to find out once you put things in it that it had a weak spot and broke. You didn't see it because when you bought it, it was kind of dark in there. To test the pottery, they would take it out into the sun. The sun would reveal if there were any cracks in it. It would reveal if someone had tried to put wax in there. Once it passed the test of the sun, you could say, "This pottery is sincere. It has been sun-tested." God wants us to be Christians like that. He wants us to walk in integrity, to be sun-tested.

Now, all of us have cracks. I have cracks; you have cracks. We have faults, we have failings, we have weak spots. But here's the thing: the Lord says, "Hey." He's not saying, "Well, you can't come before me if you have any cracks, any faults, any failings, any weak spots." He's saying, "Put away your wax. Put away your wax. You come before me with warts and all. You come before me with all your failings and all your cracks. You be honest with God and say, 'God, here I am, and I have this weakness, and I have that weakness. Oh God, help me.'" But you don't try to cover it up and cover it over. That's what the Pharisees did, and Jesus said they were whitewashed tombs. They looked good on the outside, but on the inside, they were rotten. Jesus had nothing but rebuke for people like that.

What does it take? It takes integrity. You're genuine and sincere, and you're a person of integrity who keeps his word. Look what it says in verse four. It says, "He swears to his own hurt and does not change," as it says in the CEV. "They keep their promises no matter what the cost." A person of integrity keeps his word. If a person of integrity tells you they will do something, you can count on that they're going to do it. Even if they make a bad promise, they're going to follow through on that promise. "He swears to his own hurt and does not change." He follows through on that promise even when the promise gets tough. A person of integrity, a person of sincerity, when they make a pledge, they follow through on the pledge. When they make a promise, they follow through on that promise. When they tell somebody at work they're going to do something, they do it. When they tell their kids they're going to take them somewhere, they do it. When they tell their bride, "I'm going to love you and honor you and cherish you and be faithful to you until death," they follow through on that promise because they have integrity.

As someone has well said, "If you lose your integrity, what do you have left?" All you are is who you are in terms of a person of integrity. If your word means nothing, then your life really means nothing, and no one can count on you. God says, "Hey, if you want to build a life that lasts, if you want to have an unshakable life and not have the straw house or the stick house, you have to be a person of integrity."

Second, essential number two: Not only does it take integrity, it takes righteousness. "He who walks with integrity and works righteousness." What does it mean to work righteousness? It means you practice living right. You have a righteous life, and the practice of your life is to do right and to obey God, to do what he says. You have a desire in your heart, "Lord, I want to please you. I don't want to displease you. I want to obey you. I don't want to disobey you." What is God doing and working in our lives? It says in the book of Isaiah, "So that we may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified." Remember we said that it doesn't take God any time at all to raise up a mushroom. Mushrooms can come up overnight. Oaks don't come up overnight. It takes time for an acorn to grow into a mighty oak tree. God is looking for mighty oak tree Christians, oaks of righteousness.

He said in his word, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." The question, "O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?" Those who are holy, those who are set apart. Not those who are perfect, because that would be no one; none of us could. It's those who are set apart and those who are sacred, those who are saying, "Lord, I am coming out from among the crowd to be separate to you, and I want to live a life that is a righteous life, that is pleasing to you."

Now, I think we get confused when we talk about living righteously. We have a generation today of people who call themselves Christians, and they just want to pass everything off as, "Don't judge me, can't judge me." You know, it's like, "Nobody's judging you here. We're just pointing out to you that here is the standard that God has set." People are like, "Well, I'm not perfect, so I'll just live any way I want." I had a lady tell me, "Well, I'm jealous; that's just the way I am." It's like, "What does that mean? You gotta pass?" I mean, God says, "Well, you know, she's jealous, so we don't talk about that with her." It's not like that, right?

Well, you know, there's that little country and western song from when I was in high school that said, "I've got wandering eyes, yes, it's true. I love the ladies; can't deny this feeling the good Lord put down in my bones." A guy's filled with lust, and he blames it on God. "It's God; it's your fault, so I can't be held responsible for that." First John, chapter three, Scripture says this: "Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin as a practice because he is born of God."

By this we know the children of God and the children of the devil. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. John is writing in the Epistle of First John to separate out the true from the false. There were many people in his day when he wrote that letter who were claiming to be Christians, who were living like the world. John says, "Hey, wait, time out. If you're really a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, your life is going to reflect that. If your life looks just like the lost person's life, and if you are filled with sin just like they're filled with sin and living a lifestyle of sin, don't be deceived. You're not of God."

When a person comes to know Christ, and Jesus Christ by his Spirit comes into your life, invades your life, so to speak, by invitation—that's the only way he comes in. He doesn't overtake you if you don't want him. But when you invite him in and he comes in, the holy God of the universe, your life begins to change. It doesn't mean everything's perfect; it doesn't mean you don't ever mess up. But it means he's inside. As one preacher said, "You know, when you get saved, that doesn't mean that you can't sin anymore. But what it means is you can't sin and enjoy it anymore." That's what it means. Because the Lord will start convicting your heart. I can attest to that. When Christ came into my life as a 17-year-old high school senior, I didn't fully understand what all that meant. But I knew the next time I sinned, man, it was like a knife in my heart, and the Lord was saying, "You belong to me. I don't want you to do that." There was conviction of sin that I had never had before.

Listen, don't deceive yourself. If there's not a desire in your heart to please God, to live righteously, to be holy as he himself is holy, something is seriously wrong. What may be wrong is you have never really put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. You don't have a personal relationship with him, and he doesn't live inside of you. When you really know him, you begin to practice righteousness and live rightly.

Speaker 1

Perhaps you realize right now that you are far from God, that you've never had your sins forgiven by Him. It could be that you've stumbled into this program and the Holy Spirit is convincing you of sin and calling you to receive Christ. If you want God's forgiveness, it is available to you. God tells us in His Word, admit your sin. Say, "I am a sinner." Be willing to turn from your sin. That means repent of your sin. Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and rose from the grave. Be saved by faith and, through prayer, invite Jesus to control your life, to come into you, and let the Holy Spirit fill you. That means receive Him as Lord and Savior.

You can say a prayer like this from your heart: "Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe He lived and He died for my sin and that you raised Him to life. I want to trust Him as my Savior and follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen."

If you did that and you meant it from your heart, you are now a child of God, and He will never let you go. Never. We invite you to go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link, where you'll discover what is next for you in your new life with Christ. Plus, there are some free materials for you to listen to and download there to help you get started in your new journey.

Today's message was just part one of the lesson called "Unshaken," and we'll have part two tomorrow. This is also the fifth lesson in the eight-message series "Roller Coaster: Facing the Ups and Downs of Life." You can get this in multiple formats when you go online to fromhisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253).

Thank you for helping share the truth in love to a lost and hurting world. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Larry Nobles, and we trust that you'll be with us tomorrow as Pastor Jeff will have the life-changing part two of this lesson called "Unshaken." That's on Wednesday when Pastor Jeff Shreve will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

Speaker 3

There is treasure, there is blessed love. There is hope that you always dream love. He can heal me every scars will love real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more about that when you go to fromhisheart.org.