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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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Dealing with Disappointments 0:00 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering church? It is such a joy and a privilege to study the word of God together with you. Today, we are concluding our sermon series on the book of Habakkuk, dealing with0:11 disappointments, chapter 3 of Habakkuk. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this moment. We ask that the Holy Spirit will be our teacher. Give us listening0:23 ears, mighty God, and a heart that is willing to obey your word. In Jesus' name, and people of God said, amen and amen. Dealing with disappointments. Habakkuk chapter 3.0:34 Story was told of an old man who had won 2000000 dollars in the lottery. The family did not know how to convey the news to him. What if he dies of excitement? So they called0:46 the local pastor to come and convey the news to him. The pastor, in the course of conversation, asked him a question. What would you do if you had won 2000000 dollars0:58 in the lottery? The old man paused and reflected, and then this is what he said, I would give half of it, 1000000, to the church. Upon hearing this, the pastor died1:10 of shock. Today, we're gonna be talking about dealing with disappointments. How do we deal with our inward feelings? How do we deal with1:22 the outward facts when disappointing circumstances happen to us? You know, Habakkuk is a beautiful book. We see a movement of the prophet1:34 from wrestling to resting. He moves from a place of being perplexed to being at peace. It's a beautiful book. We have studied the last 2 chapters in the previous
1:46 sessions. But today, we're gonna be talking about chapter 3. And in chapter 3, it is a beautiful passage of scripture because it is a public prayer. It is a prophetic prayer
1:58 that prophet prays before God. It is an intercession before God. At the same time, it is a praise. It is actually a worship. It is a worship in that sense. It is a
2:09 poetry that is set to music. Look at verse 1. Verse 1 says, a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet according to Shigianoth. That word Shigianoth actually means that it is
2:21 a genre of music where the music is very triumphant, where the music, where there are so many changes in the mood and feelings and sentiments in that music.
2:33 Look at verse 19 towards the end. It says to the choirmaster with stringed instruments. Again, it emphasizes that this is a music. This is a song that was
2:45 sung in the temple. The choirmaster conducted it. Hallelujah. In the in the passage of scripture, in verse in 19 verses, there are 3 times the word is used.
2:57 Selah is a word that nobody knows what it actually means. We all assume it means pause and reflect. In other words, while you are singing about God, pause.
3:09 Let there be just a musical instrument playing in the background, and you just think about what you are just singing before the Lord. Now 1 bible scholar jokingly said that Selah might be the word
3:21 that David used when he was worshiping before the Lord and playing his harp, and 1 of the strings of the harp broke, he would just say, Selah, take a break. I need to change the string.
3:33 I want you to think about this. Go with me to chapter 3 and verse 16 all the way to verse 19. Let's read this passage of scripture together. I hear and
3:45 my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me.
3:57 Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. What did you just read? You just read the innermost
4:08 fears of this prophet. He actually says, I'm quivering. I'm trembling. Rottenness has come into my bones. My legs
4:19 are trembling. In other words, he's so filled with fear. And in the midst of his fear, he says, yet I will quietly wait.
4:31 Hallelujah. Look at verse 17. Verse 17 says, though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the wines, the produce of the olive fail, and the yield and
4:43 the fields yield no food. The flock be cut off from the fold, and there'd be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God
4:55 of my salvation. Pause. What did you just read? He says, though, and then he lists all the things that the devastation that could happen when the Babylonians
5:07 visit Judah. And he says, though all these things happen, maybe all this desolation happens in the land, yet I will
5:19 rejoice in the Lord. Hallelujah. Look at verse 19. He says, God, the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deers. He makes me tread on high
5:31 places. Hallelujah. The theological anchor for this whole book of Habakkuk is actually found in the text that you and I just read, and especially the verse 19.
5:42 God, Lord, is my strength. Hallelujah. So how do we deal with disappointing circumstances? I want to ask ourselves the key question,
5:54 what do we do when we find ourselves disappointed? The 2 yet I wills in verse 16 and in verse 18, it instructs
6:06 us that we must deal with 2 things. We must deal with our inward feelings aright. And secondly, we must deal with our outward facts aright.
6:18 So how do we deal with our inward feelings aright? You know, Philip Yancey, in his bestselling book, Disappointments with God, he says that when people deal with disappointments,
6:30 they usually ask 3 questions in their heart. 1, do I matter? Does God really care? Why doesn't God act? In
6:42 other words, they are puzzled by the silence of God, the inactivity of God, and they interpret the inactivity of God as an unconcern of God. Now you and
6:54 I, we saw that this is the journey of Habakkuk. In fact, in chapter 1, the chapter 1 can be described as perplexity because he was so perplexed by the situation that was
7:05 happening in Judah. He actually asked 3 questions in the first chapter. He says, how long? How come? How can? In other words, how long, Lord, am I gonna
7:17 keep praying and you don't answer me? How come you make me see iniquity? And then how can you use the wicked Babylonians to discipline
7:29 righteous Judah? So in the first chapter, it can be described as the prophet is really perplexed before God. But in chapter 2, the prophet is given a divine revelation. There is
7:41 a shift in his perspective. God opens his eyes to see the judgment that will come upon wicked Babylonians. There are 5 wolves that are mentioned that will take place upon
7:53 the Babylonians. So in the midst of the captivity, in the midst of the judgment, how would Judah survive? Judah would survive with verse 4. The righteous
8:04 shall live by faith. Hallelujah. So in first chapter, was perplexed. In chapter 2, he has a new perspective. In chapter 3, his heart is now elated before God. He
8:16 now praises God. Hallelujah. There is a prayer. There is a worship. There is a prophetic utterance of the glory of God in this chapter. Praise God. Now I want you
8:28 to see a movement of how God dealt with this prophet. How did God lay hold of this prophet? Look at it. In chapter 1, the Lord stretched his mind.
8:40 In verse 5 in particular, he says, look among the nations, see, wonder, and be astounded. In other words, God was stretching his mind. He was only
8:52 concerned about his immediate needs. And God says, there is so much things that's happening in this in the global scheme of things, in the redemptive plan of God that you are unaware of. So God was
9:04 stretching his mind to see beyond and to be astounded. In chapter 2, God captured his will. In verse 20 especially, he says, God gave him a vision of the
9:15 Lord in his holy temple. So when the Lord is in the holy temple, it is a symbol. It's a sign that God is sovereign over the nations, that the destiny of nations, the seat of
9:27 power was in the heavenlies. And in the heavenlies, the Lord rules and reigns and he's sovereign. And the Bible says, as a result, let all the earth be silent before
9:39 him. See, I love that word silent because the word listen and the word silent in the English, they have the same letters, just different way of putting them together.
9:51 In other words, when you're silent means God says, listen to me. And that's what happened in chapter 2 where God captured his will. In third chapter, you see that God touched the prophet's
10:03 emotions. In verse 18, he says, yet I will rejoice. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. In other words, God was laying hold of the prophet's emotions.
10:14 See, you can't sing without feeling feeling it. You can't you can't pray deeply without actually expressing how you feel. And so in chapter
10:26 3, you find the prophet's feelings are being addressed, and especially his fears. And here, the bible says, this is how the Lord brought the prophet to
10:38 a place where he can move from being perplexed to being at peace. I wanna give you a point. I want you to take this down. Even though things seems worse, the prophet
10:50 learns to see better. His gaze has changed from earth to heaven, from the temporal to the eternal, from the material to the spiritual. I want you to recognize
11:02 this because many times we are caught up with what is going on in our immediate circumstance that we forget that there is a heavenly perspective that we need to tune to. You know, a story was
11:14 told of a football match that happened in the year 19 82. The stadium was filled with the home team's fans, raving fans, about 60000 of them,
11:26 and they were cheering for their home team. But on that particular day, the home team was not playing that well. So the scoreboard was really bad. And in the
11:38 midst of that, the fans were so disappointed. But then all of a sudden, something strange happened in the stadium. The fans started to applaud and rejoice and cheer.
11:50 And they were the the spectators were puzzled. Why would the fans suddenly burst into cheer and applause when the score is pretty bad for their home team?
12:02 This is what they observed. Many in the stand were holding portable radios, and they were listening to the score of a baseball match that was happening about 70
12:14 miles away from where they are. In other words, they were not moved by what they are seeing in their immediate vicinity, but they are moved by something else that they are hearing that's
12:26 happening miles away. This is the picture that you and I, we need to carry. How do we deal with our inward feelings in the season of disappointment? The prophet gives us a
12:38 clue. You know, in chapter 3 from verse 1 all the way to verse 16, you find the prophet praying before God, and he's processing his emotions before God. He's processing his inward feelings
12:50 before God. I want us to see a few things like this so that we can learn from this. Look at this in verse 2. In verse 2, the prophet is responding to God's revelation.
13:02 He's actually pouring out his heart before God by responding to God's revelation. Look at verse 2. He says, oh Lord, I have heard the report of you and your work, oh Lord, do I fear.
13:14 I want you to circle that first part. He says, I have heard the report of you. In chapter 2, God has opened his eyes to give him a divine perspective,
13:26 a divine revelation. And now he says, I have heard of you. Your work, oh Lord, do I fear? See, want to pause and ask this
13:37 question. In the midst of a disappointing circumstance, what is the 1 thing that you fear the most? For the prophet here, he could fear the Chaldeans. See, the Chaldeans are
13:49 a hasty nation. They are the most treacherous nation. When they come and occupy a new territory, they will rape their women, they will kill their children, they will kill their old
14:01 men, they will take all their young people as captives, as slaves. Now the prophet should be fearful of all these things. And yet he says, God, the 1
14:13 thing I fear is actually your work. Your work I fear. In other words, I fear you. See, want you to listen to me carefully. In chapter 1, Habakkuk's almost like challenging God
14:25 intellectually. But here in chapter 3, he has developed a new posture. This posture is a reverential fear. It's a submissive obedience. He has now brought his will in
14:36 alignment with God and says, God, I understand the Chaldeans are coming to occupy Judah. We are going to be disciplined for our unrighteousness. But
14:48 when this happens, the 1 thing I fear is not what the Chaldeans will do to us. The 1 thing I fear is actually you. See, I want you to think about this.
15:01 When you go through dark and difficult days, we always say in this house, in our deep in our darkest hour, God does his deepest work. What is the deepest work God
15:12 does? He actually gives us a revelation of himself. See, want you to catch this principle. There is a world of difference between knowing the word of God and knowing the God of the word.
15:24 What is the world of difference? It is this, sometimes you can hear God through the preaching of the word, through the reading of scriptures, and the bible says you can have knowledge about God, and we all know knowledge
15:36 puffs up. In other words, we think we know God, but only when we go through dark and difficult days, we know the nearness of God. We kind of know who God truly is
15:48 for us. You know, Job, the bible says, went through a period of pain, a season of suffering. Now when he came through at the end of that season, this is what he confesses. Look at this
16:00 in verse chapter 42 and verse 5. I heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. In other words, I know you by hearing. In other words, I've heard of
16:12 you through other people. I've heard of you, but today I experienced you. I've seen you. In other words, God, I see you in my dark days. That's exactly what
16:23 Job was saying. See, I want you to listen to me carefully. The Lord is going to bring the Chaldeans to discipline Judah. And I want you to catch something about the discipline of God.
16:36 The discipline of God is not terminal. It's remedial. In other words, it's not totally to wipe them out. It is to bring correction and to save a
16:48 remnant so that the remnant can continue to honor God and walk in his ways. But you and I don't like discipline, isn't it? You and I don't want to go through disappointing circumstance. See,
17:00 there is a difference between what we desire and what God desires for us. For us, most of us, it's like this. I want happiness now. I want holiness later.
17:11 But God is like, I want you to have holiness now because you have the whole of eternity to have happiness later. See, you and I, we we want different things, but God is a God
17:23 who uses the discipline to bring course alignment back to him. The story was told of a father and daughter that was flying in a small plane
17:35 over the snowy mountains. The engine failed and the plane crashed into the snowy mountains. And the rescue people have not come in
17:47 time. During this period, the daughter developed gangrene in both her legs. So the father had to take an axe and chop off both
17:59 the legs of the daughter. Now I want you to think about this. The daughter would have been in excruciating pain because the father chopped off her legs. But I want
18:11 you to also think about this. The father would also be in a different kind of an excruciating pain because he had to cut off the legs of his own daughter to save
18:22 her. Now this is how I want you to capture. Yes, you and I go through dark days, difficult days, but in the difficult days and the dark days, more than it affects us, it also affects God. God
18:34 also feels it. And he does it only because he loves us. And the Bible says, whom he loves, he disciplines so that he can bring about his glory in our
18:46 lives. Hallelujah. So let me pause and ask you this question. What is the 1 thing that you fear at the moment in this COVID season? Is it are you afraid of dying? Are you afraid of
18:58 losing your job? Are you afraid of something that bad might happen to your family? I want you to listen to me carefully. We don't need to have those fears as people of God. The only fear you and I, we need to have
19:10 is to fear God. And the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The more you have the fear of God in your life, the more you will align yourself to God's ways
19:22 and do God's will. Hallelujah. The second thing that helps the prophet deal with his inward feelings is he requests for God's intervention. Look at this in the second part of the
19:34 verse. He says, in the midst of the years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make it known and invrath, remember mercy. I love this prayer because he prayed for
19:46 3 things in particular. In the midst of it, revive it. In the midst of what? In the midst of captivity, he knows that Babylonians are coming and they're gonna take Judah into captivity.
19:58 But the prophet doesn't know that the captivity is set by the Lord for 70 years. But he's crying out and he says, Lord, in the midst of that captivity, revive us, Lord. In the midst of the
20:10 captivity, reveal to us. Give us a revelation. And in the midst of the captivity, in wrath, remember mercy. There are 3 things in particular he prayed. He prayed for revival.
20:22 Now what is revival? Revival, someone said, is rebible. In other words, it is to bring people back to the word of God. To have the word of God in a prominent place, in the preeminent place
20:33 in our lives, and our obedience to the word of God. Revival is rebible. Second, he says he prayed for revelation. He says, God, I want you to give them a personal
20:45 revelation for people who are going in this captivity that you are with them. You will accomplish your purpose, and then you will you will save them. Hallelujah. And then thirdly, he's praying to the Lord. He
20:57 prayed for remembrance. Remember mercy. He knows that God is gonna deal righteously with Judah. See, when God deals with
21:09 us, it's always just. In other words, when God is disciplining us, he's right to discipline us because we are his children. He can discipline us. And here he says, Lord,
21:21 I have no issue with you disciplining us, but in the midst of your wrath, I want you to show us mercy. He cried for the mercy of God.
21:32 Hallelujah. See, you and I, we need to understand something about God. You know, a w Tozer, in his book, the knowledge of the holy 1, he said this about the mercy of God.
21:44 Let's read it together. Mercy is an attribute of God, an infinite and inexhaustible energy within the divine nature of God, which caused
21:56 God to be actively compassionate. He has always dealt in mercy with mankind and will always deal in justice when mercy is despised.
22:08 Remember this, God's first choice to deal with mankind is to show them mercy. But only when mercy is despised, God has to bring his justice.
22:20 Think about this church. God's character is to love us. God's character is to bless us. God's character is to show us mercy when we
22:31 offend him or when we betray him, when we are unfaithful to him. God's character is to show us mercy. It is it is it is I want you to think about this.
22:44 There's a verse in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 21. Read this. For the Lord will rise up on Mount Parazim. As in the Valley of Gibeon, he will be
22:55 roused. In other words, God will rise up in anger. His emotions are stirred. He's charged up inside in anger. Why? Because the people are disobeying him, so the judgment is gonna
23:07 come. Look at the next line. It says, to do his deed, strange is his deed, and to do his work, alien is his work. Listen. God's emotions are charged up. He's
23:19 angry and he wants to discipline his people, and the bible says that discipline, that judgment that he's gonna pour because of his wrath, it's a deed that is strange. It
23:31 is alien to him. See, God's nature is not to curse. God's nature is to bless. God's nature is to embrace you and to show you mercy. But he also has
23:42 to deal with the wickedness of men. He has to deal with the root of sin in our hearts. I want you to think about this. God is a just God. At the same time,
23:54 God is a merciful God. You know where I see this beautifully played out on the cross of Calvary, where the justice of God and the mercy of God kissed together. Hallelujah. You know, it's almost
24:06 like this. Listen to the story. You are caught speeding and you're brought before a judge, And the judge declares that you need to pay thousand dollar fine because you've been caught
24:18 speeding. But you don't have any money, so you can't pay the fine. You know what the judge does? He has already declared the verdict that you are guilty and you are going to pay thousand
24:29 dollars. But because you are bankrupt, you don't have any money. The judge comes down from his seat and he pays the thousand dollar fine on your behalf. Now listen
24:41 to me carefully. Justice and mercy is both seen in that story. That's the key. You and I need the mercy of God. That's why he cried out and says, in wrath,
24:53 remember mercy. So in your times of difficulty, when you're going through disappointing circumstances, cry out for the mercy of God over your family, over your circumstance. The third thing
25:05 that that helps us to know how the prophet dealt with his inner inner feelings is this. He recounted God's manifestation. You know, from verse 3 all the way to verse 15,
25:18 the Bible scholars would call it a theophany. In other words, this is a beautiful picture of God. God reveals himself to the prophet, and and the prophet sees the manifestation
25:30 of God's person. Look at it in verse 3. He says in verse 3, God came from Teman, the holy 1 from Mount Parah, Paran. And Mount Mount Teman and Paran, these are cities in the
25:42 Sinai Peninsula. And then in verse 4, he says, his splendor covered the heavens. His and the earth was full of his praise, and his brightness was like the light rays flashed
25:54 from his hand. Look at this. He was describing the splendor of God. Suddenly, he's caught into a vision and he sees God, and he says, God's glory. I see God in his splendor.
26:05 Hallelujah. And in that moment when he sees God's splendor, his glory, he also get a glimpse of how God acted in history
26:17 in the nation of Israel. Right from the time when God delivered them from the land of Egypt. Remember the first Exodus? In Exodus, how God used Moses
26:29 as a deliverer, and he brought the people of God out of the land as the first exodus. The prophet sees that in the vision, and he
26:41 recounts all the beautiful times how God has delivered his people. Now why is this important? The reason why this is important is because in the first Exodus, God used Moses
26:53 to bring deliverance of his people from the oppression of the Egyptians. In the second Exodus, Habakkuk is now believing for a second exodus. He says, God, you
27:05 will bring the people who are in captivity. You will deliver them 1 day. You will send a deliverer. You will bring them out. God, you will be the deliverer. You will bring them out,
27:17 and there will be a remnant that is kept alive that they will come back and they will worship God. See, he's not only thinking about the manifestation of God's person, but he's also
27:28 recounting the manifestation of God's power from the past. Now why these are important? I want you to read a couple of scriptures with me so that you
27:40 understand how he encourages himself by recounting what has happened in the past. Look at this. In in verse in verse 8, he says, was your wrath against the reverse,
27:52 oh lord? Was your anger against the reverse or your indignation against the sea? When you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation, he saw in the vision that God himself was the 1 who
28:04 came to rescue his people, to deliver his people. And look at this, in verse 13, he says, you went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.
28:15 Hallelujah. God, you came. I want you to capture this because this is how God delivered his people time and time again in the Old Testament. And and Habakkuk
28:27 is recounting all the faithfulness of God, and he's encouraging himself to say, I don't have to fear. Why? Because our God is faithful. He has made a covenant with us, and because he's a covenant keeping
28:39 God, he will deliver us 1 more time. Just like he did in the first Exodus, he will cause another Exodus to happen from Babylon back to Jerusalem. And he
28:50 says, you went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Look at verse 14. You pierced
29:02 with his own arrows the heads of his warriors. It's a beautiful picture here, you know. You pierced with his own arrows. In other words, God used the strength of the enemies
29:14 against themselves. See, the pharaoh in the old testament takes pride as he feels that I'm God. Pharaoh thinks he's God, and God dealt
29:26 with Pharaoh in a humbling manner. I want you to listen to me. Look at that. The children of Israel were caught before Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and the Bible says God opened the Red Sea so that the children
29:38 of Israel can walk through the through the waters. And when they have come through the other side, the Bible says Pharaoh and his army also went inside in into that into that into the
29:50 Red Sea. And this time, the Bible says, the Lord closed the Red Sea and every 1 of them perished. In other words, the Lord used the the the strength of Pharaoh against himself. The
30:02 same thing you find in the book of Esther. Haman says, I'm gonna build a gallow. I'm gonna use the I'm gonna use it to, you know, to hang Mordecai. He builds a gallow. In the
30:13 end, Haman was hung in that same gallows. You know, the the people who wanted Daniel to be thrown into lion's den. Daniel was protected in the lion's den
30:25 because he was serving God faithfully and God intervened. But then they themselves, the people who wanted to throw Daniel, they were thrown. The Daniel's enemies were thrown into the lion's den and they were all eaten by
30:36 the lion. I want you to see this. Time and time again, you see that God uses the strength of the enemies against themselves. So this is a beautiful picture. This is a poetry of all that God did in the past. What does
30:48 this tell us? It tells us this, that when you are going through a dark and difficult period and your feelings are charged with emotions of fear, what you need to do is to recount the way God has
31:00 delivered you in the past. You know, there was a king by the name of Jehoshaphat. In second Chronicles chapter 20, the Bible says that he was surrounded by an army, a great army, and he
31:12 was so powerless. He didn't know what to do. So rather than telling the people what to do, he looks to the Lord in front of the people and he cries out to God and he prays to the Lord. And in that beautiful prayer that
31:23 is recorded for us in second Chronicles 20, there are 3 rhetorical questions he asks. He says, are you not God? We are the God in heaven. Hallelujah. The second thing he asks is, did you not
31:35 give us this land? And the third rhetorical question is, will you not execute judgment on our enemies? All the answer to these 3 questions are this. Yes. Of course, God is still God.
31:47 God did give us this land, and God will execute judgment upon the enemies. And then he says, as a result, the Lord responded back to his prayer and gave him a prophecy in verse 15.
31:59 He says, the battle belongs to the Lord. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed for the battle belongs to the Lord. Hallelujah. I want you to listen to me carefully.
32:11 You and I, we need to recount the faithfulness of God in our own lives when we are going through tough season. You may not see how the deliverance will happen, but the only thing you need to know is God
32:23 is present. You may see that you may think that God is hidden in this season in my life. I can't see his active hand. I can't see him actively working in my life. But can I humbly say this?
32:35 Even if you can't see it, you just have to live by faith, and you gotta direct your inward feelings by recounting the faithfulness of God, how God has revealed himself. You gotta go and
32:47 pour your soul before God in prayer, and you gotta recount all that he has done in the past. As a result, you say, Lord, I trust you. You know, a story was told of a young boy who was
32:58 in the second story of the house that was on fire. The father was standing on the ground, and the father looked up and said to the son, son, I'm here on on on the on
33:10 the ground level. I want to catch you. Just you just jump. And the and the little boy could not see the father because of the smoke. So the young boy said,
33:23 I don't wanna jump because I can't see you. But the father who was standing on the ground level yelled back and said, son, it doesn't matter whether you can see me or not. All that matters
33:35 is I can see you. I will catch you. Just jump. I want you to listen to me carefully. This is exactly how you and I, we need to deal with our inward feelings. A second thing
33:46 in our disappointments, we must deal with our outward facts aright. Look at verse 17. Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit on the wines, and the produce of the olive
33:58 fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. What are these? This is signs of desolation. See, when the Babylonians
34:10 come, they will destroy all the sheep and the cattle. They will destroy all the food, all the crops. And so he says, all these things will be destroyed 1 day.
34:22 That means we will have no food, we will have no grains, we will have no wine, we will have no joy, we have no clothing, no work, everything will be gone. And he says, though all
34:34 these things take place, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. See, the prophet here is accounting all
34:46 that would take place when the Babylonians come to take Judah as captives. See, to walk by faith doesn't mean that I have to ignore what is happening
34:57 in my life. You gotta acknowledge what is happening in your life, and yet in the midst of it, you're not denying what's happening in your life, you
35:09 acknowledge what's happening in your life, in the midst of it, you can still find joy. You can still have joy because joy is not for the suffering,
35:22 joy is in the suffering. In other words, you can you can go through your painful period, and you're not thankful for the painful period, but you're thankful in the midst of those
35:33 painful period. Now listen carefully. You and I, we have to learn to have joy not based on our circumstances, but in God himself, God alone.
35:45 Story was told of a pastor who went on a mission trip to a third world country, and there he was ministering in worship in a leper's colony. And he was
35:57 asking the the congregation, what song do you want to sing? And there was 1 lady who put up, who lifted her hand. The
36:09 hand had no fingers, and her face was completely marred. And that lady said to the pastor, can you sing this song Count Your Blessings, name them 1 by
36:21 1. The moment the pastor heard that, he was choked up with emotions because he saw how the face was deformed.
36:34 He walked away from that chapel and the local missionary who was in that lepers colony came out to talk to that pastor and said, why are you choking?
36:46 What happened? He said, even in the midst of her painful situation, she can still count the blessing of God. So the missionary said to
36:57 him, you will never be able to sing that song, isn't it? Count your blessings. The pastor replied, no. I will never be able to sing that song in the same way
37:09 anymore. I want you to listen to me carefully. Some of you may be going through a tough season right now. You are not in the season of yet I will. You are in the
37:21 season of though the fig tree would not blossom. Maybe you're going through that season where you're saying, Lord, I'm in this sick bed for too long. When will you heal me? Maybe you're going through that season where
37:32 you're saying, Lord, I've been waiting for a life partner. When will you provide for me? You are going through that season where you are though. It's not a yet yet. It hasn't happened yet, but
37:44 you're going through that season of disappointment and it seems to be a long drawn process. Can I humbly say this? God says, yet in the midst of all of that, you can still
37:56 find joy in him. See, this is what sets apart the world and the Christians. How does the world deal with problems? See, when the world faces a problem,
38:09 they usually deal with it by resignation. In other words, they say, I cannot do anything about it, so I might as well resign to the fact that I'm gonna live with this. So they just grin
38:21 and bear it. The second way the world deals with disappointment is this, they always they deal with it by detachment. Detachment meaning every time they
38:33 think about it, they feel depressed, so they don't wanna think about it. So they say, I don't wanna think about it. I will immerse myself in work or maybe develop a hobby or go on a holiday, do something. I don't wanna
38:44 think about it. The third way the world deals with problems is by by sheer bravado. In other words, they just said, yep, let's pull ourselves together and face with our chins up. Don't
38:56 let this pull us down. The other way that the world deals with problems is by escapism. They usually run away from the problems. They will escape into alcohol or drugs or maybe
39:08 even a fantasy world of unreality. But how does a Christian deal with a problem? The Christian has to come back to God. See, you and I, we need to recognize this, that when we are going through
39:20 difficult season, our problem is not material or physical. Our problem is actually spiritual. Because God is dealing with our lives. He is bringing us in alignment backShow more
Paul Jeyachandran
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