From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I do not know what has happened to you. But maybe you have hung up your harp on a willow tree. And the Lord says, “I am not done with you. I still have a plan for you. I want to take your hurt and I want to turn it into a message so that you can shine, so that you can share, so that you can sing of My faithfulness, of My power, of My glory, that I am the God who works all things together for good to those who love Me.”

Guest (Male): Life can really deal us some low blows. Problems can come in like a hurricane and leave us devastated. Not just for a short period of time, but for the rest of our lives, if we will allow that to happen.

But God wants to teach us how to have joy and peace, even in our new normal. In other words, how to sing in the rain. This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today. We are grateful you are here, as we present part two of the lesson, How to Sing in the Rain. This is from the five-lesson series titled, Life Goes On: How to Face a New Normal. These five messages will help you get through the unexpected and traumatic events that eventually come our way.

Now, if you missed any of the messages that we have aired from this series this month, go back to listen again at fromhisheart.org. Click the Listen link. Now, if you can, open your copy of God's Word to Psalm 137, as Pastor Jeff helps us to learn how to sing in the rain, even in the torrential pours.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hey, how can we sing in the rain? How can we sing when the bottom drops out of life? Here is how to get your song back. Three steps from Psalm 137 to regain your song.

Step number one, get totally honest with God. Now that is something that many of us do not really like to do. Psalm 62, verse 8, says this, “Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us.”

Whatever is in your heart today, God says, “I want you to share that with Me.” All your hurts, all your heartaches, all your disappointments, all your frustrations, share it with Me.

Now here are some questions to ask yourself, because for some of us in this room, we have stuffed a lot of feelings. And we have acted like it is no big deal, and it is a big deal, and it will come back to haunt you.

Question number one, have you experienced a great trauma in life? A great trauma. These people had experienced a great trauma, tremendous trauma. The things that the Babylonians did to them when they came in and destroyed their sacred city. And it says that they sat down and wept. They put their elbows on their knees, and they were just sobbing because of their plight in life. Hey, have you experienced a great trauma?

You need to deal with that. You need to get that out.

Second question. Do you feel as if God has forgotten you? They felt like that. God has forgotten me. Now why would they feel like that? Because if you are a Jew living in Jerusalem, you feel like we are God's chosen people. And that is right, you are. And this is God's city, this is God's temple, this is God's presence, and the Jews are saying, “God, what is the deal? How does this happen? How do how do these pagans defeat us and defeat You, God? How does Marduk beat Yahweh?”

If you are feeling like God has forgotten you, share that with Him. Let Him know that. “Lord, I do not understand. Do not You care that I am hurting here?” So, do you feel as if God has forgotten you? And question number three. Have you given up?

What does it say in verse 2? As their mourning, as their weeping, “When we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps.” We are done. We are not singing anymore. We are not playing anymore. We brought our harps, but we are not going to play our harps because we have lost our song.

Have you given up? It is a sad picture, this willow tree. It is just a droopy, sad tree. And that is a good picture of what those people were like on the inside, just so sad, so forlorn. They just felt like they had lost everything. It is always too early to quit. Do not hang up your harp. So that is the first step. If you want to learn how to sing in the rain, how to have joy, even in the midst of sadness, get totally honest with God.

Step number two, turn your attention to the kingdom of God. So, the Psalmist, he is unnamed. It is just an experience of one of the captives. “How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?” Then he shifts gears. He says, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you. If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.”

Turn your attention to the kingdom of God. Remember this: a Christian is not of this world. We live in this world, but we are not of this world. Our citizenship is in Heaven, the Bible says in Philippians chapter 3. Peter says that we are aliens and strangers in this land. We really belong to God, we are citizens of Heaven. And this is how it works: when a person comes to know Christ in a saving way, they repent of sin, they put their faith and trust in Jesus. The Lord saves them out of this world, so to speak, and sends them back to this world just like that.

So, a Christian is not of this world. A Christian is called to shine and share and sing in this world. Sing, metaphorically speaking, shine, share and sing. Those are all kind of the same thing. We are called to be His witnesses in this world. How do we witness in this world? By living a life that shines for Christ. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.” We shine, we share, we tell people about Jesus, and listen, we sing even in the hard times. We have joy even in the hard times.

That is your greatest opportunity to witness for the Lord is in the hard times. I have told you before that one of my heroes in the faith is Joni Eareckson Tada. She has been in a wheelchair for 51 years. When she was 17, she was a very athletic girl. She was in a diving accident. She went to the beach with her sister, and she jumped off this little pier thing that she thought was in deep water. It was not, it was shallow water. She broke her neck. She almost drowned because she was totally paraplegic as soon as she hit the ground. Her sister just happened to see her floating, saw her hair floating there in the water. She went back and picked her up.

Joni, when they took her to the doctor, to the hospital, she thought, “Well, they can fix this.” They could not fix it. And she was marginal as a believer at best. I think she probably was just a Christian in name only. I do not think it was real in her heart.

But when she found out, “You are never going to be able to walk again. You are going to be a quadriplegic in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.” She just wanted to die. She said, “I cannot live like this. There is no way I can live like this.” And she would be in her bed at night, and she would be moving her head from side to side, and she said, “Maybe I can break more of my neck, and then I could stop breathing and I could just die.” She would ask her friends that would come to see her, “Slash my wrist, please slash my wrist. I will not feel anything, I cannot feel my my arms. Just let me die.” She would take her wheelchair, her motorized wheelchair, and she would try and run it into the wall to hopefully cause her to fall and and kill herself.

And she said it was one night, she was so alone, spiritually, mentally, emotionally. She cried out to God, and she said, “God, if I cannot die, then show me how to live.” And God said, “I will answer that prayer. I will show you how to live like this.”

And I think Joni Eareckson Tada is one of the greatest examples of Christianity that we have in our world today. So, a Christian is called to shine, share and sing in this world. You know, Paul and Silas when they went to Philippi, they ran into all kinds of problems. Because they were doing the Lord's will, and the devil and the world came against them. They were beaten with rods, they were put into prison for preaching the gospel. And they were put in the inner stocks, and it says this in Acts 16:25, “But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

Why? Because they did not ever hear people sing praises to God when their backs were bleeding and they were in the stocks, and they were in the inner prison. Oh, many people cried out for deliverance, but no one ever sang. They had not lost their song. The world listens when you are able to sing in the hard times. Maybe even sing through the tears. They say, “There is something about your Christianity that makes a difference in your life. I want what you have.”

A Christian is called thirdly, to seek first the kingdom of God. He says, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you. If I do not exalt, cause to ascend, Jerusalem above my chief joy.”

Let me ask you a very sobering question. Is the kingdom of God really the most important thing in your life? The Lord Jesus and His kingdom, is that really what governs your life? Does that govern how you spend your time, how you spend your talent, how you spend your treasure? Is everything that you do, your thinking about the kingdom? This is for the kingdom. This is to serve my Lord. Lord, how can I serve you today? Because it is all about You, it is not about me. It is not about me. And this is I am not going to spend my time focused in on this world as far as building my life here, because my citizenship is in Heaven. I am going to remember all the time, my only job on this earth, my only reason for being on this earth, is to be Your witness.

Guest (Male): We will continue right there with Pastor Jeff Schreve in just a moment, as From His Heart continues the message, How to Sing in the Rain. It is from the five-lesson series, Life Goes On: How to Face a New Normal. You know, life can be interrupted with pain and loss and confusion, can it? Whether it is an unwanted divorce, a physical malady, a death, a loss of a job, trials and tragedies of all sorts, come our way. And they wreck a supposedly happy life.

In Pastor Jeff's powerful book, Life Interrupted, he will encourage you and help you to get through the major interruptions and significant changes that come to all of our lives. As Adrian Rogers was famous for saying, “God does not promise a smooth sailing in life, but He does guarantee a safe landing.”

And we would like to help you navigate those difficult times, with two special gifts of thanks for your support From His Heart this month of any amount. Pastor Jeff Schreve's series, Life Goes On: How to Face a New Normal, plus the companion book, Life Interrupted, both for your gift From His Heart this month of any amount. Go to fromhisheart.org to do just that.

Or call 866-40Bible, 866-40Bible. Hey, learn how to allow God to pour out His grace and love and bring healing to your wounded heart as you face your new normal. Go to fromhisheart.org or call 866-40Bible. Thank you for standing with us. Now let's conclude the lesson, How to Sing in the Rain.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, when God sent those people to Babylon, He told them, “Listen, you build houses there. You plant vineyards, you plant crops, you settle down there, even though Jerusalem is where you want to be.” Even though and they did go back, 70 years in captivity then Zerubbabel led them back. And they came back. Thousands, 50,000 came back to Jerusalem. But until that time, you live here in Babylon.

Citizenship somewhere else, but you live here. That is the way we are. Our citizenship is in Heaven, we are here on earth, but we need to make sure that we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And the things that we as Jesus said, do not be anxious for what saying, “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or what shall we clothe ourselves?” God knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And all these things will be added to you. “I will take care of you if you put Me first.”

So, we get honest with God. We turn our attention to the kingdom of God. And step number three, we trust God to make things right in the end. Hey, bad things happen to you. Bad things happen to me. Bad things happen to all of us. Things happen that we do not understand, that we cannot make heads or tails of.

Acts chapter 12. Interesting little story. Acts chapter 12, Herod arrests James. James, the brother of John. James, the son of Zebedee. James was one of the big three: Peter, James, John. Those three guys got to go up on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw Jesus peel back the veil of His humanity, show them His deity. I mean, James is a big dog. And it says in Acts 12, he gets arrested, and he gets executed. And then in the very next verse, it says that Herod arrests Peter, and Peter gets delivered from prison.

The angel comes and delivers Peter from prison. He was going to be executed the next day. The angel came and let him out. Now, if you are one of James's loved ones, you are John, he is that is James's brother. You are thinking, “Hey, Lord, it would have been really nice if You had let James out of prison. I mean, You let Peter out of prison. Well, You let James get delivered over to the sword.”

How about how about your Mrs. James saying, “What gives, God? Why why did not You deliver my husband? Why did You deliver Peter, but You do not deliver James?” Who knows the answer to that question? Strange are the ways of God. We do not know. We just say, “Lord, You are in charge. Lord, I trust You. I do not know why You do what You do. And You do not give me the answer most of the time when I ask the question why. So I just say, “All right, Lord, I choose to trust You.””

So, we trust God to make things right in the end. And remember this, in your trauma, in your difficulty, in your heartache, God knows what has happened to you. He knows. They say in verse 7, “Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, who said, ‘Raise it, raise it to its very foundation.’ O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, you devastating one, or you devastator. How blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock.”

That is what they did to the Jews. When they came into the city, they would take their babies and they would dash them on the rocks. You can understand why Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations. It was awful what happened when the Babylonians came in to Jerusalem. But God knows. They are saying, “Hey, Lord, do you remember? Do you remember our neighbors to the south, the Edomites?” The Edomites were descendants of Esau. Jacob and Esau, you know, the the sons of Israel, Jacob's name was changed to Israel. We talk about the 12 tribes of Israel. That is just the 12 tribes of this guy named Jacob. He had a twin brother named Esau. The Lord chose Jacob, He did not choose Esau. And Esau became the father of the Edomites. And the Edomites, they lived to the southeast of Judah. It is the modern-day Jordan. That is where the Edomites were.

Well, when the Babylonians came in to destroy Jerusalem, the Edomites came out. And they had their pom-poms, and they had their big placards, says, “Go Nebuchadnezzar!” I mean, they were they were cheering for the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem. He says, “You remember, Lord, what the Edomites did? The day of Jerusalem, they said, ‘Raise it, raise it to its very foundation.’ They wanted us wiped off the map.”

And God says, “Yeah, I know. I was there. I saw that. I know exactly what they did, and it was terrible.” God knew what the Babylonians had done. God saw it all. The Bible says that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good. Hey, remember, God knows everything. He sees everything. If you got lied about and that caused you to lose your job or something terrible to happen to you, someone stole from you, someone lied about you, someone did this to you, that to you, the other to you, and everybody believes the lie, God knows the truth.

We are getting a lot of stuff in social media today. He said, she said, this person accuses that person. Oh, I did not do that. God knows the truth. And what you have whispered in your bedroom, Jesus said, “is going to be broadcast from the housetops.” The Lord knows. And the Lord will repay. God will avenge His adversaries. See, we read verses like verses 8 and 9, “O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock.”

We read stuff like that and we say, “I do not think that should be in the Bible. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock?” I mean, that is that is awful. Why would why would anyone say that? They are saying, “Lord, You saw what happened. And Lord, You repay them the way they repaid us.”

And here is the thing, we may not be able to understand everything about there is a word in seminary. We call these imprecatory Psalms. There are certain Psalms that you read, all of a sudden it is like, man, it is it is really getting strong. “God, we want You to destroy this place.” That is called an imprecatory Psalm where you are denouncing curses on a place. We say, “What about imprecatory Psalms? Are we supposed to pray those things? Imprecatory Psalms?” Because there would be a lot of people signed up for prayer time if we could pray imprecatory Psalms. I mean, if you do greeting cards, imprecatory greeting cards, I would like to send this to you.

But here is the the sentiment behind it. It is like, “God, You saw what they did to us. Lord, we are giving that to You. You repay them.” It is not me as a Jew, speaking for the writer of Psalm 137, it is not me to seek their vengeance. Lord, You You have vengeance on them. And that is what the Lord says in Psalm in Romans 12:18, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine. I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

So, “Lord, I just deliver them over to You. God You You saw what they did to us, and Lord, You are a righteous judge. And Lord, we thank You that You are merciful.” But we want God to be merciful to us when we mess up. Somebody else messes up, we are like, “Go get them, God.” But we just say, “Lord, we deliver them over to You.” One of the things that will help you and help me when it comes to someone who wrongs us, especially if they do it on purpose, is you pray for them. Not the imprecatory Psalm, pray that God would bless them. Pray that God would minister to them. Hurting people hurt people. And anybody that you see that is a mean, miserable, vindictive type of person, you just know that person is hurting. They have had a trauma in their life, and that is causing them to be the way they are.

Pray for God to minister to them, for God to turn their hearts to Him, for God to bless them. You say, “Why should I do that?” Because it helps you. It keeps you from getting bitter. And so you turn all that over to the Lord. Say, “Lord, I am going to trust You with this. I know that I can trust You.” You give it to God.

What do you do when the terrible storms come in, when the rain washes away your song? You get honest with God. You remember the kingdom. You trust God to make it all work out in the end. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Hey, listen. I do not know what has happened to you. But maybe you have hung up your harp on a willow tree. And the Lord says, “I am not done with you. I still have a plan for you. I want to take your hurt and I want to turn it into a message so that you can shine, so that you can share, so that you can sing of My faithfulness, of My power, of My glory, that I am the God who works all things together for good to those who love Me.”

Guest (Male): Have you been so focused on your problems and trials that you have left God out? Perhaps the message today has given you a new perspective and you want to know how to turn to God afresh. We invite you to go to fromhisheart.org, click the Why Jesus link. And there you will find some important information so that you can turn your life over to Christ, give your heart to Him in repentance and faith. Again, go to fromhisheart.org and click the Why Jesus link.

Well, today you have been listening to part two of the message, How to Sing in the Rain from the series, Life Goes On. And we thank you for joining us today, and we hope you will be here tomorrow for the next lesson from Pastor Jeff's series Life Goes On. Join us for the message, Roll with the Punches. That is when Pastor Jeff will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love and real hope from His Heart.