Thank you, Brian.
Amen.
Someone once said that in life,
! it often seems like we're either entering a storm,
! we're in the midst of a storm,
or maybe we're coming out of a storm.
Here in the Carolinas, we are well acquainted with storms, are we not?
1996, my wife and I were living in Westbrook.
I went to bed September 5th,
knowing that a hurricane was coming
and going to hit the outer banks of North Carolina,
never expecting that the eye of the storm
would go over Wake Forest, North Carolina,
where we were living.
We woke up about 3 in the morning
to be in the midst of a hurricane.
And it feels like often life can feel that way.
And certainly at a time like this,
as what we've been through as a church
and as a family these last several days,
can feel a bit like a storm.
And I want to spend just a few moments in the Word of God,
just reminding one another, by God's Word,
of what you and I are anchored to.
Because here's the truth.
Giving our lives to Jesus and follow Him
doesn't mean we will live a storm-free life.
But what it does mean is that Jesus is in the boat with us.
Amen?
There's an old country song,
and the woman singing to her romantic love interest says,
I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a...
Oh, you've dated yourself.
Never promised you a rose garden.
The Christian life, it is roses,
but at times it's thorns, is it not?
And I want us to spend just a very brief time together
in the Word of God,
being encouraged by God's Word,
of what you and I are anchored to
in the midst of a storm.
So I want to invite you to open your Bible
to the book of Habakkuk.
It's in the Old Testament,
maybe a book you're not as familiar with,
so take a moment and find the book of Habakkuk.
And we're going to look at Habakkuk chapter 3.
Habakkuk chapter 3.
And as you turn there,
I'll set the context for us.
Habakkuk is a prophet of God to God's people,
to the nation of Judah.
And actually, this little three-chapter book of Habakkuk
goes really well with the book of Job.
Because Habakkuk is going to begin to ask the Lord,
Lord, why do we go through challenging times?
As the people of God, Lord,
why do bad things happen to your people?
Why do you allow suffering and challenges and storms
to come into the lives of your people?
And he has this brief three-chapter conversation with the Lord
about going through challenging times.
And the pinnacle of the conversation
between Habakkuk and the Lord
is what we're going to look at.
And it's in chapter 3, beginning in verse 17.
And this is what he writes.
He says,
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fell,
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold,
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will take joy in the God of my salvation,
for God the Lord is my strength.
He makes my feet like the deer's,
and he makes me tread on my high places.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, we are moved this morning
by your goodness and your faithfulness
and your grace.
And we are reminded that in the midst of the fiercest storm,
you are with your people.
You never leave us nor forsake us.
And in these next few moments,
as we look into your word,
we ask, Holy Spirit,
that you would open our minds,
give us understanding of your word.
We pray, Holy Spirit,
that you would soften our hearts,
that we might be changed
and transformed by your word.
Speak to us, your people,
we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
If we look at verse 17,
Habakkuk outlines for you and I
the dire situation.
That God's people find themselves in.
Notice what he says in verse 17.
He says,
Though the fig tree should not blossom.
Figs would be a source of food
for God's people at that time.
And so he says,
The fig tree does not blossom,
so there's nothing to eat.
He says,
Nor fruit be on the vines.
He's referring to grapes there.
And of course,
they would take grapes
and press them
and make juice and wine.
And so he says,
There's nothing to eat.
There's nothing to drink.
The fig tree does not blossom.
There is no fruit on the vines.
Watch this.
He says,
The produce of the olive fails.
Now they would take olives
and press them into olive oil,
which primarily they would use
to light their homes.
They would put in lamps.
So stay with me.
He says,
There's nothing to eat.
There's nothing to drink.
And they've turned the power off.
He says,
The fields yield no food.
He emphasizes that again.
He says,
The flock be cut off from the fold.
It's referring to sheep.
And the primary function of sheep in that day
would be they would shear them,
take the wool,
and make clothing.
He says,
There's nothing to eat.
There's nothing to drink.
They've turned off the power
and all of my clothes are gone.
And then he says,
And there be no herd in the stalls.
He's referring to oxen
that they would use to work the land.
So listen to his predicament.
He says,
I have nothing to eat.
I have nothing to drink.
I have nothing to wear.
They've turned the power off
and I've lost my job.
Sounds like a country music song,
does it not?
He's lost everything.
But notice this one little word
in verse 18.
He says,
Yet.
Yet in the midst of losing everything,
in the midst of the biggest storm,
what does he do?
He says,
I will rejoice in the Lord.
He says,
I've lost everything
and I'm going to choir practice.
And it would be fair to say,
but Habakkuk,
what do you have to think about?
And he says,
I have three truths
that anchor me
in the midst of difficult times.
And here they are for us, church.
Number one,
in times of hardship
and difficulty,
we're reminded
that God is our source
of salvation.
In times of hardship
and difficulty,
we are reminded
that God is our source
of salvation.
Look what he says there
in verse 18.
He says,
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will take joy
in the God of my salvation.
The God of my salvation.
The apostle Paul says,
To live is Christ
and to die is what?
Gain.
To live is Christ
and to die is gain.
See, for those of us
who know and love
and follow Jesus,
even death has been conquered
by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen, church?
And so death has no hold
on the people of God.
And so he says,
Listen,
in the midst of hard times
and difficulties,
never lose sight
that God is your source
of salvation.
And this life
is but a vapor.
This life is but a vapor.
Daniel and I have been,
as we would say in England,
we have been best mates
since the age of 16.
Now, you know how it works.
In my mind,
Daniel and I are still 16.
Right?
When I saw that video,
I just chuckled.
Brian told me this morning,
he said,
Oh, Daniel's made a video.
And I literally busted out laughing.
I was like,
Listen,
a heart attack's not going
to stop that man
from talking.
Amen?
It's not going to do it.
Right?
I've known him
my whole life.
Here's what we know.
Is that life goes by quickly.
One moment you're 16
and the next moment you're 56.
Right?
Our life is but a vapor.
But salvation in Jesus
is for an eternity.
Amen, church?
It's for an eternity.
And so,
when the storms are brewing,
when the waves are crashing,
what do we have to sing about?
I'll tell you what,
we have something to sing about
for all eternity.
And that is,
we have a home in glory land
that outshines the sun.
Do you know that song?
I've got a home in glory land.
If I had a banjo,
I'd start picking it.
Amen?
Right?
And we've got a home in glory land
that outshines the sun.
And for that and that alone,
we have all eternity
to worship Jesus.
In the midst of the storm,
we hold on to the truth
that God is our source
of salvation.
Death has no hold
on the people of God.
Secondly,
he says this,
in the midst of challenging hard times,
we are anchored to the truth
that God is our source of salvation.
But secondly,
we're anchored to the truth
that God is our source of strength.
God is our source of strength.
Look what he says there.
Verse 18,
he says,
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God the Lord is my what?
Strength.
God the Lord is my strength.
In the midst of trying times,
we worship Jesus for his salvation,
but we are reminded
that not only is he our source of salvation,
he is our source of strength.
The word there in Hebrew
means the force of an army.
The force of an army.
There are many names for God
in the Old Testament,
and one is the Lord of hosts.
It literally means
the Lord of heaven's armies.
That all the armies of heaven
are at our disposal
as we are strengthened by God himself.
And it's lovely
because he says,
The Lord is my strength.
And the word Lord there
is the personal name for God.
It's Yahweh.
It's this personal God
who knows us
and loves us
and knows the very number of hairs on our head
and cares for us.
And he is our strength.
Have you ever faced a trial in life
and you just didn't know
if you were going to make it through?
Have you ever cried out to the Lord
and said,
Lord, I don't know
if I can take it one more day.
Lord, I'm not sure
if our marriage can bear this.
I'm not sure
if our children
will make it through this.
Lord, I'm not sure
how we're going to endure this.
Can I just say,
take heart.
Take heart.
The Apostle Paul
writing of his own storm
in 2 Corinthians chapter 12,
said he called out to the Lord
three times
to remove it from him.
This is the answer
the Lord gave him.
He said,
Oh, Paul,
don't you know
that my grace is sufficient for you
for my power
is made perfect
in weakness.
And Paul says,
for when I am weak,
then I am strong.
Do you know it's okay to be weak?
It's okay to cry.
It's okay to not have
all the answers.
It's okay.
Because Jesus does.
Amen, church?
And the Bible says,
when we are weak,
that's when he is strong.
And in fact,
I would go on to say,
I just believe
the weaker I get,
the stronger he gets in me.
And maybe you've had
that experience
where you've looked back
on those storms
in your own life
and you don't even recollect
how the Lord did it,
but what you know is
that he carried you
every step of the way.
He carried you
every step of the way.
He is our source
of salvation.
He is our source
of strength.
But then lastly,
church,
we see this
in times of hardship
and difficulty.
God is our source
of security.
God is our source
of security.
Look at verse 19 again.
He says,
God, the Lord,
is my strength
and he makes my feet
like the deers,
like the feet of a deer,
and he makes me tread
on my high places.
The word deer there
is more akin
to what we would think of
as a mountain goat.
Now, we don't have
many of those.
At Table Rock,
you have to go
more out west,
Wyoming or Montana
or somewhere like that.
And a mountain goat
is a spectacular animal.
They live in an altitude
usually of about
13,000 feet.
They're the largest
living animal
at that altitude.
And if you've ever seen
a nature documentary
of mountain goats,
they have this ability
to climb
near vertical cliffs.
And their security,
the way they're able
to get away
from their predators,
they're not poisonous,
they don't have big horns,
they're not very fast,
but what they can do
is they can climb.
And their security
is in their feet.
They know they can go places
that their enemy can't.
They know they can go places
that their enemy can't.
Those that are hunting them.
A mountain lion
can't climb
like a mountain goat.
And so David here
is saying
that just like
that mountain goat
finds its security
in its feet,
look what he says.
He says,
the Lord makes my feet
like the feet
of the mountain goat.
He makes me tread
on the high places.
He's talking about
being secure
in the Lord.
Being secure
in the Lord.
The Lord
is our salvation,
He is our strength,
and He is
our security.
David says it
this way
in Psalm 91.
He says,
whoever dwells
in the shelter
of the Most High
will rest
in the shadow
of the Almighty.
And I will say
of the Lord,
He is my refuge
and my fortress,
my God
in whom
I
trust.
Our
security
as followers
of Jesus
is not
in the stock market,
it's not in the bank,
it's not in the White House.
Our security
is firmly placed
at the foot of the cross.
Amen, church?
And it's in Christ
and Christ alone
that we find
our security.
So let me encourage us
this morning.
Wherever you might be,
maybe things for you
this morning
are smooth sailing
and praise the Lord
and make sure you
praise Him for that.
But maybe for you
the waters are a bit choppy.
Maybe things are not
as you would like them to be
and you find yourself
in the midst of a storm.
Can I encourage you
to rejoice?
To rejoice?
Can I encourage you
to be reminded
that even in the
biggest challenge
that the Lord Jesus
is your salvation,
He is your strength
and He is your
security.
We have
two children.
Our daughter is 22
and our son
is 20.
And we've spent most,
they spent most of their lives
in England.
We've been living overseas
for 18 years now.
We spent 17 years of that
living in Birmingham,
England.
And when our kids
were quite little,
our son was probably
about four years old,
we went to go do
a fun day out
as a family.
And we went up
to the mountains
and there's a place there
not far from our home
called the Heights
of Abraham.
And it's an old
lead mine
and it's about
4,000 feet up
and you have to ride
a chairlift.
We ride this chairlift up
and we spend the day
taking a tour
of this mine.
So we're about
500 feet underground
in the earth
and we have hard hats
on with lights
and we're taking
this tour
of this lead mine.
And there's about
20 people
in our tour group
and we're at the
deepest part
of the mine
and the tour guide
says,
look,
I'm going to
instruct them
to turn the lights
off and you're going
to turn your lights
off and I want you
to appreciate
just how dark
it would be
if you were a miner
here in the 1800s.
And as soon as
he said that,
I thought,
where is Max?
That's our son.
Now Max is a
four-year-old
full of life
and energy.
He was climbing
stalactites
and hanging from
stalagmites
or whatever you do
on those things,
running everywhere
around this mine
and I immediately
thought,
where is Max?
And as soon as
the thought hit my mind,
the lights went out.
And I've never
experienced
that level
of darkness.
Didn't know it existed.
500 feet
underground
in the middle
of the earth,
no natural light.
You couldn't
see a thing
and as a dad,
my heart
was beating
out of my chest.
And I'm thinking,
has he fallen?
What has happened?
Because I hear nothing.
And in the midst
of the darkness,
I feel
five little fingers
grab my hand
and pull me down.
And I came down
and in my ear,
I hear this,
Dada,
is that you?
I said,
yes son,
it's me.
And he said,
then I'm going
to be okay.
I'm going to be okay.
Maybe this morning
you need to reach out.
Take the hand
of your Heavenly Father
and say,
Dad,
is that you?
And he'll say,
yes it is.
And I promise you,
you're going to be okay.
Let me pray for us.
Lord Jesus,
we love you.
We praise you.
We thank you for your word.
God,
I just pray
for one who would be here
this morning
who find themselves
in the midst
of a trial,
of a storm,
of a hardship.
I pray that this morning
they would reach out,
take your hand,
and that they would know
they're going to be okay.
Okay.
Bless us,
your people.
We humbly ask
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Let's stand together.
We're going to sing
and Jeff is here.
If you'd like to come
and speak to him
to pray
however the Lord leads
and you obey
as we sing together.