From His Heart

Speaker 1

Are you singing a sad song these days? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Now I want to ask you today, what song are you singing? What's going on in your heart today? You know, lots of people come to church and they put on a happy face, but down in their hearts, they're singing the blues.

Hey, David was singing the blues in the pit of destruction. But then God entered the picture and everything turned around.

And what God did for David, he can do for you, he can do for me. He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

What's going on in your heart today? Is your heart singing the blues? Maybe you're facing family problems, marital problems, or the loss of a loved one, and your heart is shattered into a million pieces. Is there hope? Well, yes, there is.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today. You're gonna be encouraged with the lesson today as he shares how God can pull you out of the pit of despair and give you a song of blessings and deliverance. The message is called "What Song Are You Singing?" It's from the 9-message series we're featuring this month called "Life is Hard but God is Good."

Now, this is a timely and powerful set of messages that is also our thank you gift for your support of any amount from His Heart this month. It's available in the format of your CDs, DVDs, USB, or MP3 download. You can go to promisheart.org and get your copy today.

But first, let's hear part one of the second message in this series that we're airing and learn the encouraging words we can sing about. Open your Bible now to the 40th Psalm and be honest with yourself about the song that you're singing.

Speaker 2

I grew up in California. I moved to Texas when I was in seventh grade. And so there wasn't a lot of country and western music in California at the time that I was growing up. But coming to Texas, there was a lot of country and western music. And so I got introduced to it and I began to like it. You know, it's kind of funny with country and western music; they sing about sad things a lot of times. You know, we have a whole genre of music called the blues. But country and western can be very sad. A lot of singing about breakups and booze and bars. Have you noticed that in country and western music? It's just a lot of that.

Back in the day, they used to talk about this thing called backward masking, where you would take a rock album and you would play it backwards and you would hear some subliminal message to the devil. You know what happens if you take a country and western album and play it backwards? You get your wife back, your truck back, your job back, your dog back. Because they're always talking about losing all that stuff. And you know the other thing about country and western music? Not only does it tend to be sad, but the song titles are quite colorful. So often. How about this one? "Billy broke my heart at Walgreens and I cried all the way to Sears." That was before Sears went out of business. "How can I miss you if you won't go away?" It's a good question. "I would have wrote you a letter, but I couldn't spell Yuck." That wasn't a good relationship. "If you can't live without me, why aren't you dead?" There's a struggle in that relationship for sure. "Thank God and Greyhound she's gone." "I'm so miserable without you. It's almost like having you here." That's kind of a funny one. "My John Deere was breaking your field while your dear John was breaking my heart." "I gave her my heart and a diamond and she clubbed me with a spade." And then my personal favorite, "I went back to my fourth wife for the third time and gave her a second chance to make a first-class fool out of me." That's a long title. That's country and western music. So much of it is sad.

Now, I want to ask you today, what song are you singing? What's going on in your heart today? You know, lots of people come to church and they put on a happy face, but down in their hearts they're really struggling and they know the right things to say. But man, they're hurting inside. And really in their heart, they're singing the blues. They find themselves in sorrow and sadness, and their life is down in the pit of despair and discouragement and depression. Why? Because of marital problems, because of relationship problems, because of financial problems, because of family problems, because of physical disabilities. Because they lost a loved one and their heart is shattered in a million pieces.

When I was in seminary, I was taught this: Guys, if you will preach to broken hearts, you'll never lack for an audience. Because in every row, in every church sits a broken heart. Somebody who is hurting inside. Somebody who has found themselves in a pit of discouragement and despair and maybe even depression. Well, in our series on the Psalms, life is hard, but God is good. David shares in Psalm 40 about a pit experience that he had where he was down in the pit, so to speak. Not a literal pit, but an emotional pit, a spiritual pit. And he was hurting and he was singing a sad song. This is what he says in Psalm 40, beginning in verse one: "I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay. And he set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. And he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which you have done and your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with you. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count."

Hey, David was singing the blues in the pit of destruction. But then God entered the picture and everything turned around and he had a song of the blessings of God. And what God did for David, he can do for you, he can do for me. So I want you to notice with me three discoveries from the passage of scripture we just read.

Discovery number one: When your life is in the pit, it is easy to sing the blues. We're just going to be honest here. Hey, when everything, when the bottom drops out and you find yourself down, down, down, down, Dooby Doo. Down, down. I mean you're just down in the pit, it's very easy to sing the blues. And it's very hard not to sing the blues. Why? Because your heart is filled with questions. Your heart is filled with sadness. I was reading a book some years ago and the writer was saying, at conferences with people who are wanting to grow and want God and wanting to learn, the question was asked, how many of you find yourself struggling and feeling like you are in a pit, so to speak, emotionally, spiritually? And so many of the hands went up. Not talking about people that are chasing the world. These are people that are seeking after God, but they're struggling in life. And maybe you're here and you say that describes me, my life in the pit. Maybe you're here and you say, well, I know something's not working, but I'm not sure if I'm in a pit.

So let's look just briefly at three characteristics of what it looks like when your life is in a pit. David was in a pit in a miry clay, the pit of destruction, he calls it. So what are the characteristics of a life in the pit?

Number one, a pit is a place where you feel stuck. You feel stuck because you're down in this hole and you feel like, I can't get out. And the miry clay is mud, and so I sink into the mud. Jeremiah, who was put into an actual cistern, an actual pit, it says of him in Jeremiah 38, verse 6: "They used ropes to lower Jeremiah into the cistern. The cistern didn't have any water in it, only mud. And Jeremiah sank down into the mud." Hey, when you sink down into the mud, you're stuck. You can't move forward. You're just stuck. You ever feel like that? I'm just stuck. I don't feel like I'm gaining traction in the Christian life. I don't feel like I'm moving forward. I just feel so stuck. And I struggle with the same sin, same sin, same sin, same sin, over and over and over and over and over again. I feel stuck. Hey, that's what happens when you're in the pit. You sink down.

Secondly, a pit is a place where you can't stand. See, he was in the miry clay. That's the slippery clay. That's the slimy clay. That's the place where there is no substance to stand on. It's just soft and mushy. Have you ever been walking along? Some of you who play golf know that if your ball goes off the fairway and you're there looking for your ball, and you, hey, there are 10 Pastor Jeffs. And anyway, you're there and it can be muddy, and so you have to be careful where you step because that can be slippery or it can look like it's solid. And then you step there and you sink all the way down to your ankle because it's just soft and mushy. Well, that's what the pit is like. When Jeremiah went down there, it was mud and it was slippery and he sunk in it. It's not solid. You can't stand when you're in the pit. David said in Psalm 69, verse 2, "I have nothing to stand on. I am sinking down, down into the mud."

Now, why is that so important? Because in the Christian life, you have to be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. And if you're in a pit and you're on the miry, slippery clay, you can't stand firm. And the devil is just going to come at you and you're going to have great difficulty standing firm against him. So in a pit, you feel stuck, you can't stand, and then thirdly, a pit is a place where you can't see forward because you're down in this hole. And what do you see when you look forward? You just see dirt. You just see the side of the pit. There's nothing. It's just like this is going nowhere. You know, the little saying says, you know, you look forward and you look out in the circumstances and you'll be distressed because it just looks so terrible. It looks like everything has fallen apart.

Hey, when you look forward and you don't see anything because you're down in the pit, you can start to feel helpless and hopeless and think it's never going to get better. Why do people bail out on their marriage? So many people bail out on their marriage because one of the spouses says, "I can't live like this anymore. It's never going to change. It's never going to get better. I am out. I'm out. I check out." Why do people kill themselves? Because they say, "This is never going to get better. I can't stand this. I see no future for me. I'm checking out. I'm done. I don't want this anymore." And they end their lives. They lose all hope.

When I was in seminary, I took a counseling course. And one of the things they taught us in the counseling course is, guys, when people come to you for counseling, just know this: you want them to leave with hope. Because typically, most people, they don't come in when things are just a little bad. They come in when everything has fallen apart. And then they say, "Hey, can you fix this?" And they're coming in and they're feeling very helpless and very hopeless. And so you want them to leave with hope. One of my favorite verses, Romans 15:13. Most of the time, if somebody says, "Hey, will you sign a book for me? Or sign my Bible or whatever," I'll sign my name and put Romans 15:13. "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound, overflow in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Hey, when you're in a pit, it's very easy to sing the blues.

Second discovery: When your life is in the pit, it's critical to engage your faith. Critical to engage your faith. Whatever is born of God, John says in First John 5, "Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." When you find yourself in a pit, and all of us will find ourselves in a pit from one set of circumstances to another. David found himself in a pit a lot. Joseph found himself twice in physical pits. Life was really bad for Joseph in the book of Genesis. And so when you're in the pit, you must engage your faith.

And there are three steps to engaging your faith. Step number one, you must look up. See, you're down, down, down in this hole and life is, you can't stand and you're in the miry clay and you're stuck and there doesn't seem any future. And you look ahead and there's nothing there. You look up, you look around and you're distressed, you look within self-help and you're depressed. I mean, you know, you've seen those guys, they do that in football, they always do that, like look, I'm pulling my shirt and there's a big S there because I'm Superman, I just made this great play and you do that and you know, yeah, right, you're Superman, we do that and you know, all you do is you find a grease stain, you know that. It's like I don't have anything inside. One church used to have this motto, discover the champion in you. Let me tell you something, if you're not a Christian, there ain't no champion in you. There's a loser in you, there's a sinner in you, there's somebody who's in the pit of destruction in you. That's all you got.

And so you need to look not within you, look up to the Lord. Look around, you'll be distressed, look within, you'll be depressed, but look up and you'll be blessed. The psalmist said, "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. From where shall my help come? My help is from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth." Now Psalm 121, he's saying, "Hey, where do people look for help? Well, the pagans, they have their false gods set up on the high places. So they put their gods on the mountains." Remember when Elijah was going up against the prophets of Baal, where did he call them? Out on their home turf on Mount Carmel, up high. The high places. "I'll look up to the mountains. From whence shall my help come? Does it come from the false gods that are on the mountains? No, my help is from the Lord who made the mountains, the maker of heaven and earth." So I have to get my eyes up to the Lord. I'll lift my eyes up. As we sing that song, "My help comes to me from the Lord."

One of my favorite stories in the Bible, Second Chronicles, Chapter 20, about King Jehoshaphat and the armies. Three armies have joined together to come and destroy Jerusalem to wipe God's people off the map. And there are a lot of them, and it looks like their goose is cooked for the people of God. And Jehoshaphat calls a fast and gets the people to pray. And this was his prayer, the last part of his prayer. I love it. He says, "O our God, will you not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us. Nor do we know what to do. But our eyes are on you." Our eyes are on you. We're going to lift up our eyes to you, the maker of heaven and earth. That's the first step. When you're down in the pit, I got to look up to the Lord.

Second step, you must cry out to the Lord. So I look up to the Lord, and then I cry out to the Lord. David said, "He inclined to me and heard my cry." Now, that's not a silent cry. That is a shout. That's what that word means, to shout out, to cry for help. It's a prayer where you're in trouble and you cry out to God, and there are tears in the crying. Hebrews 5:7. Interesting verse. Says of the Lord Jesus, "In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplication with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his piety." When did Jesus cry out to the Father with loud crying and tears? It was in the garden of Gethsemane when he prayed three times, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." He was crying in the garden. He was sweating drops of blood in the garden. He was crying out to his father.

Hey, I don't know what's going on in your life, but God knows. And you know. And you need to look up. You got to engage your faith. And you look up and you cry out to him. And you share your need with him. And then thirdly, you patiently wait. That's step number three. So I look up, that's the first step. I cry out, second step. And then I patiently wait. That's how he starts the psalm. "I waited patiently for the Lord. I waited patiently for him." Now that "waited patiently" can also be translated this way: "I waited hopefully. I waited eagerly. I waited expectantly for the Lord." David knew that God was going to deliver him. He just didn't know when God was going to deliver him.

See, David, remember I told you in the Bible, when the Bible talks about hope, hope is confident expectation that God is going to do what he's promised to do. Hope is faith in the future. And when you wait patiently, you have hope in the Lord that He is going to see you through. The Bible says in First Peter, Chapter 5, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares upon Him. Why? Because he cares for you."

Hey, here's the thing. We are to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand. We're to submit to him and say, "Yes, Lord, I don't understand why I'm in this pit." Perhaps. And yes, Lord, I'm going to humble myself unto you, knowing that you will exalt me at the proper time, at the right time, at his time. Not your time, not my time, our time. We want it. Bam. Just like that, God, just do it now. "Lord, I'm crying out to you, deliver me from this pit, whatever this pit is," and we want it immediately. And God doesn't do it that way. He exalts us at the proper time. So we have to wait patiently for Him. David did. "I waited patiently, but I waited with expectation. I waited with eagerness. I waited with hope that God was going to answer me."

So, first thing we discover: Hey, when life is in the pit, when your life's in the pit, it's easy to sing the blues. It's critical to engage your faith. And then discovery number three: When your life is in the pit, it's vital to know that God is there with you.

Speaker 1

What a helpful encouragement and truth today to know that we must engage our faith when we find ourselves in the pit. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Who's in the message? What song are you singing and what's going on in your heart today? Is your heart singing the blues? Are you struggling with your job, your marriage, money, kids, health, family issues, the loss of a loved one, and so many other things that we can face these days? No matter what it is that has shattered your heart, you will be encouraged with this message and the nine-lesson series from Pastor Jeff that we're airing all this month called Life is Hard but God is Good.

Nine messages are available on CDs, DVDs, USB flash drive, or immediate MP3 download, all for your important fiscal year-end gift today. Your financial support helps us to make all this broadcasting possible. When you make that gift today, we'll send you this series and the companion booklet, Strong Faith for Tough Times. We're so grateful for what you can do this month, and when you do make that gift, we'll also include the companion booklet from Pastor Jeff entitled Strong Faith for Tough Times. Both the series and the booklet are available for your important fiscal year-end gift.

Today, simply call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org and make that gift. Discover how God can turn everything around in your life, pull you out of the pit of despair, and give you a song of blessing and deliverance. We also hope that when you visit our website each day, you'll hear the daily Real Hope Minute from Pastor Jeff. You can sign up for the weekly Real Hope email encouragement letter that comes into your inbox every Friday morning, and you can download an MP3 of any of our broadcasts, plus the sermon outlines from Pastor Jeff. Easily do that at fromhisheart.org; just click the Listen link.

Well, I'm Larry Nobles, and a big thank you for being with us today. I trust you'll be joining us again tomorrow for part two of this important lesson called What Song Are You Singing? This may be a life-saving message from the Life is Hard but God is Good series. The message is for those who are in a deep pit. Join us on Thursday when we'll again open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

Speaker 2

He can heal every scarce.

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 at fromhisheart.org.