Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.
You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.
We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the
cross. Now let's join the service.
Have your Bibles tonight going to going to be in Habakkuk
chapter 3 over here in the Old Testament a little bit, but
there's some great stuff in here.
And how many know who Habakkuk was and what he did.
He ministered during the final death throes of Judah.
He was living in a nation that was about to be destroyed.
And God had repeatedly, when I look at this, I see a lot of
America today. God had repeatedly called the
nation of Judah to change, but they refused.
He repeatedly called them and he had given prophecies to Habakkuk
to go and tell them what was going to happen.
And Habakka had some questions. You go home and read chapter 1
and he had some questions there about why this had to happen.
But we all have questions when we go through times of trusting
God. And I titled this tonight
Trusting in times of doubt. You know, sometimes when we
doubt, we feel like we're lesser.
We feel like God's maybe not going to do what we are praying
for when we doubt, but doubt happens.
But in our doubt, we have to trust God in times of doubt.
And that's what Habakkuk did here.
But as I said, Judah refused to change and and 586 years before
Christ, the Babylonians and referred to as the Chaldeans,
they the Habakkuk's prophecy came true.
They under the lead of Nebuchadnezzar, they destroyed
Jerusalem and they took the people into captivity. 1 of
Israel's many captives because they refused to change.
And yet today we see this prevalent and and going on where
we live. Many times we refuse to change
and we refuse to trust God. But I challenge you tonight,
trust God in times of doubt, even when the doubt comes.
And let's stand in the reading of the word in Habakkuk chapter
3. We know the setting of the
Scripture and after Habakkuk had had a few questions and God
answered his questions, but it was not the answer that he
wanted. He was, he was trying to to to
maybe persuade God a little bit and asking God why this had to
happen. But yet just as Job did, he, he
finally he stopped asking. He stopped questioning and he
said this in chapter 3 of 17. It got a hold of me when I read
this today. It says though the fig tree may
not blossom, nor the fruit beyond the vines, though the
labor of the olive may fail and the fields yield no fruit,
Anybody ever been there? Though the flock may be cut off
from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, You know,
and in those days, the way he was talking here, that meant
that there was no money there. He was broke.
He he didn't have anywhere else to turn.
Anybody ever been there? He didn't understand what was
fixing to happen. The nation was to the people
were taking captivity. There was nothing to eat.
Probably there was lots of things going on and in verse 18
he said yet I will see he found some faith right there.
He said though all these things be going on in my life, yet I
will rejoice in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my
salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and
He will make my feet like the deer's feet.
We need some deer's feet in the church today.
We need some deer's feet when we're serving God today.
Some feet that are swift to move and jump and do things for God
and He will make me walk on my high heel.
Maybe your heels not high tonight.
I come by to tell you, begin to walk on it and you'll begin to
be elevated. Amen.
Begin to say, God, give me the feet of a deer.
Give me the leap. Give me the joy that I once had.
Let's go to the Lord and prayer. Father, we thank you for your
word tonight. Father, we know that in this
life you said that we will face troubles and trials and
tribulations, but through it all you will lead us, You will guide
us and you will direct us. We thank you for your love and
your mercy. I pray I can preach this the way
you've given unto me. It's in your Son's name.
I do this. I ask for the anointing to
preach this in Jesus name. Amen.
Many times we trust God to accomplish what He promises us
in His word, but the real battle of faith that you know we have
some promises that we read some of God's promises are attached
to principles. They are attached to
prerequisites. We read this in in the book of
Hebrews. We can read in book of
Deuteronomy. We can read some of the
blessings and the cursings, but of some 7000 promises in this
book we can stand up on. But the real battle of faith
comes, you know, many, many people have faith, but when
faith is under fire, when the doubt is, is coming into your
mind, that's when it appears that that, that we have to have
a deeper faith right? When, when, when he appears,
when God appears. And sometimes if you've served
God a long time or a short time, maybe some newcomers, it's all
new God's blessing, God's doing things, but the new begins to
wear off of this walk. I'm here to tell you, the new
can begin to wear off if we don't saturate ourself in the
presence of God. When we pray prayers and it
appears that God does not respond to our trust.
Can I get a witness? There's some things I've trusted
God for, and it seemed that God did not appear in that area at
that time. I'm just going to be real
tonight. What should we do when God
appears to have ignored our request?
There's some things we can do. Will we continue to rely upon
Him despite the disappointment? Some Christians don't.
Can I say this? Most Christians don't.
When the disappointment hits, when we don't get the thing we
prayed for, when when the sickness maybe doesn't leave at
right, when we think it should or the money doesn't hit it, we
go through times of disappointment.
I come by to tell you there are times in this walk you will face
disappointment because you trusted God, you had faith in
God, and yet it seems that God was despondent to your request.
It seems that everything in your life was maybe in the will of
God. But the question is, will we
continue to rely upon Him despite the disappointment or
will? There's two options.
You can blaze your own path and turn away from the Lord in
discouragement. Habakkuk demonstrates the
essence of true faith here. He says, even though these
things happen, I will, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I may not have anything else, but my soul is secure.
I have a home in heaven and I have food on the table, and by
God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches and
glory. He demonstrates a great faith
here to continue to trust in the Lord's wisdom and the Lord's
faithfulness even when it seems inactive or uncaring.
Sometimes we will feel like that in our faith.
Our faith at this point becomes a matter of devoted allegiance
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know so many preachers
today, they preach of all the promises that God answers and
all the prayers, and he does. But but there comes a time that
you will pray for something and you will have great faith and
you will be trusting God in that area and it will not turn out
the way that you thought it should.
Can I get a witness? What do we do at this time?
We have to answer these three questions.
I'm going to give you 3 questions that you must answer
tonight if you want to trust God in times of doubt.
Anybody going through doubt tonight about some prayers you
prayed? It's it's not turning out like
you thought it should. We're facing doubt.
The question is, do I have confidence?
Write this down. Do I have confidence in Him
regardless of the circumstances? It's so easy to get your eyes on
the circumstances. It's so easy to be defeated by
the circumstance. Right when the circumstance
comes upon us, the mind begins to be flooded with negative
doubts of fear and and things that have happened in our life.
But write this down. Do I have confidence in him
regardless of the circumstance? See when God can look down and
he can see and even the enemy when he when he pressed in on
Job, what happened? What made the enemy get off of
Job? Really and truly is he seeing
that no matter what the circumstance was, he was
fighting a losing battle because Job sealed his lips and he said
though he slay me, yet I will praise him.
He knew that he was getting nowhere.
I think it gets the enemy off of our back somewhat when he looks
down and he sees, hey, circumstances does not affect
this child of God. They have confidence regardless
of what I put them through. The second question we have to
ask is do I cling to God and his word in spite of the silence?
Come on, don't look at me like that.
When he God didn't answer, maybe it went from praise and worship
to to country music. Maybe it went from reading the
Bible to not reading the Bible and not open it until I hear
from God. A lot of people are like that or
maybe it even came down. Well, I'm going to just withdraw
from the church for a little while until God does this.
We get that way. Don't tell me it don't happen to
you. I there's times enemies come to
me. I thought, man, I'm going to lay
this mic down until I see this answer, till if I can't, if God
can't meet this need in my life, how, how can I stand up here and
tell you God can meet your need? That's how the enemy works.
But do I cling to God and His word despite the silence?
Because you will go through times of silence.
I went through one year of my life of silence from the
presence of God, feeling nothing but yet praying and seeking God.
And through that God took me to a place that I learned how to
never get there again. The third thing as Habakkuk do
we say yet yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
We must learn to rejoice in the Lord no matter what the
circumstances is and tell the enemy, yet I will rejoice.
You know, I, I would like to think preaching got easier over
the years, but I'm getting older.
Y'all are getting older. And it seems every day, man, I
have to, I deal with sickness, I deal with another.
You know, it seems like people are up against the wall today
and there's a machine gun going off.
And if you don't get hit by one of the bullets of cancer or
sickness, you're very fortunate, you're very blessed.
Because the list could go on and on of the calls I've had just
lately. It's crazy every day and it
gets, it gets hard as we pray for people as we get older and
we feel pains. Can somebody say, man, we feel
aches that we've never felt. Some of the young people don't
know what I'm talking about yet, but you will.
And what happens, the mind goes crazy.
The mind goes crazy with fear. You know, when you got a pain
used to, you think, man, that's that's hurting because because
of what I did or something like that.
Now we can't remember what we did.
What did I do to make nothing. It just hurts.
But then the enemy comes in and you think of a conversation you
had with someone that had the same pain in the same place,
right? And then, and then they went to
the doctor and they were ate up with disease and maybe cancer
and those things. And our mind begins to run
rapid. Did y'all do that?
Come on, we're human. The doubt begins to flood our
mind and we begin to to to focus on the circumstance right
instead of the God that can heal and take us out of the
circumstance. We have God's word to stand on
to help us and we must learn to build a wall around our mind.
Amen. The apostle Paul said.
We must learn to take that thought captive and bring it
under the authority and the submission of God and be willing
to punish all the disobedience of God.
Doubt is disobedience to God, but do we trust Him in the
doubt? It becomes a different thing to
start trusting God in the doubt. We do see a lot of healings.
We do see. We just heard of 1 here and and
Jennifer can tell you of a sciatic nerve that she was
facing surgery. She started coming here.
She said I don't know what happened.
It just don't hurt no more. I said I know what happened.
Amen. We look at Sister Margie, we
look at the healings that have taken place.
But sometimes it seems that those with great faith do not
receive, I think of Brother James, great faith.
He's going through a trial tonight.
He's going through a trial. He needs our prayers.
They're, they're putting another feeding tube in today.
And, and, and that the lung that they put in as the textile guide
is, is that it may have a hole in it.
There's getting fluid and they may have to just own and oh,
it's just one set back after another.
And he's a great man of faith. If I've ever seen no doubt in no
one's mind. It was when I prayed with him
and when I talked with him. And when we go stand by the
bedside, he, he lifts us up, doesn't he, brother?
But but we don't understand that sometimes.
But we have to trust God in the doubt.
Numbers 23 and 19, it says that God is not a man that he should
lie, nor a son of man that he should repent.
Has he said he will make it good?
That's the God we serve. What He says He will make good
in His time. It's not always in our time
because our ways are what help me, not his ways.
But his ways are higher than our ways.
He knows what's best. I think of the words of King
Darius when we look at someone that did not doubt the Bible is
full of them. You know, when David stepped out
to be great, David had to do some great things to have the
testimony. He, he failed God a lot of times
in a lot of ways. But when the giants of his life
seemed to come, he didn't look at the giant.
He looked at the opportunity. He looked at A at A, at A, at a
big giant that he could slay and give God the glory and deliver
God's people. I think of the words of King
Darius said echo through Daniel's mind as the servants
lured him into the lion's den. They lured him into the lion's
den and and as he said, your God whom you constantly serve will
deliver you the king give him a little bit of faith there.
But but Daniel already knew because see, the workers had
already laid the stone against the mouth of the den.
It was already going to happen. And even after assessing the
situation, Daniel did not waver in his faith.
He didn't change his mind the next.
And as the lions had closed, God had closed the lion's mouth.
King Darius found what you know, the story.
He found Daniel untouched, proclaiming, O King, live, live
forever. My God sent his Angel in the
night to shut the lion's mouth. You know, there's something we
miss on the story of that a lot. And and you know that in those
days when they were going to throw someone in the lion's den
and they were going to, that was a form of execution.
They were supposed to die. History says that they would
starve these lines for weeks before they threw a body of
flesh down in there for them. And so they were hungry lions.
It's even a greater miracle than many think, because he closed
the mouth of those. But how did Daniel survive?
The lions were very hungry, but Daniel's faith was never and his
fate was never in the hands of men.
See, we, we, we need to realize that sometime our fate is not in
the hands of doctors. They can help us, they can hurt
us, but our fate is not in the hands of them.
Our life belongs to God. The Bible is clear that our days
and our times are in his hands. You know, I was still hearing
some stuff the other day. That's just crazy that's going
on. And I mean, it's, it's crazy the
things that are happening in the UK and different places.
They, they have these nudist cruises.
You can go on and you can be a part of the nudist cruise if you
want to. Not really something I've ever
desired, but but you can go do that.
And, and it just seems like on every hand, we just try to go a
little deeper against the commandments of God.
We try to do those things and, and, and, and just to disappoint
God. And how long will God tarry?
How long will God tarry? But Daniel survived by placing
his trust in God. But what else was he placing it
in? I, I, he, he, he, Maybe he's
seen the Angel of the Lord that appeared that night.
I don't know what he's seen, but I do know that that he had
placed his trust in God in a time that he could have really
doubted God. He placed his trust in God in a
time that was very hard in his life, and he placed his faith in
God's promises. The same things we have today,
that somehow, some, some way God's going to take care of me,
right? Each of us can remember times
when we wish we we had a sure word from God, something that we
could just take a hold of and run.
But in times of doubt, it's not always like that.
It's times that God's waiting and he, he's waiting and, and,
and it's like he's just withdrawing from us for a little
bit to help build our faith. I don't know, but we have to
keep claiming the promises of God.
Sometimes we look for the why in the doubt.
Sometimes there there is no why. Sometimes there, there is no,
there is no one that can answer your question on this earth.
That's when wait. Well, that's when doubt enters
in. But we must must remember that
God's word is an immovable anchor.
It's an immovable anchor in the times of a storm if we cling to
it. God's word is a compass and a
guide, an instruction book to life.
You know, I, I think of myself, if I went in there, if my wife
told me to go bake a cake and she give me the instructions,
what's the first thing I would do?
I wouldn't read the instructions.
I thank God in my spiritual life I'm not like that, but in real
life I I used to be like that. But after many dangers, tolls
and snares of putting things together and Chris, I think of
this at Christmas, putting these anybody ever put one of them
swing sets together that kids swing on them little metal ones.
I lost some instructions and I had to go it alone one time and
this thing was half as big as this stage.
But thank God we have an instruction booklet.
I'd I challenge you to read it if I was going to go bake a
cake, though, I think I would just go to pour it and trying to
put eggs, try to figure it out. And I promised it it wouldn't
turn on very good. My wife told me this morning I'm
having this glasses trouble and she said there's these little
them little French toast sticks. And she says, you know, the air
fryer is the new deal. I mean, if, if, if it don't
taste good, put it in air fryer and it'll come out good.
They say I have to chew it sometimes, say it didn't work,
but most time it works, right. But I was going to put some of
these in here because our toaster broke.
I was going to learn how to run the air fryer talking about
trusting and doubting instructions, right?
And my wife said them little French toast sticks are in
there. So I got them out.
Well, I'm trying to get this air fryer to push one side and it
cancels it out over here. I'm about to have me a little
moment in there. I'd push it and it'd go back to
the temperature I didn't want and it'd go back and she, you
know, she comes there, just let me do it.
So she's doing it. She goes to put the she goes to
put the French toast in there. I didn't have no glasses.
That's the first thing I should have done was got glasses.
It makes life easier at our age. But I walked back over there and
she's being smart. You know, she's talking about,
she said we ain't even got the right thing.
She said these are cheese sticks.
I was fixing the butter and syrup them dudes up and I was
fixing to eat me some garlic cheese stick.
I said, I told you, I told her. I said we better go somewhere.
Get me some glasses. I'm going to hug the wrong
woman. I said that's how, that's how
bad my eyes are. Kidding.
I did that one time in a crowd, one time in law.
So I thought it was her. I reached over there and it
looked. I was like that ain't her hair
looked the same. Anybody ever done that?
You just maybe put your arm around the wrong person.
But I have an excuse now. My eyes are bad, right?
Is anybody there? I broke the prescription I had.
I wore them out. I didn't lose them.
I kept them things two years, but I've been without them about
a year now. I'm fixing to get some because I
have 3 pair. None of them are ever in my
pocket at the need that I have at the time.
You know, like what? Right now I can't see y'all.
I can see this, but I can't see y'all.
So when you confuse cheese sticks for French toast, they
look the same though, y'all? They're the same packages
system. I think they were, I'm not sure,
but anybody, anybody else? I embarrass myself up here.
Anybody else got anything they've done like that crazy
every day, every day. My only question is, as we get
older, why God gives us more to keep up with.
I could have kept up with them glasses when I was younger.
Hey, man, now I can't keep up. But when David sought God's
heart regarding his desire to do things, God responded.
David was always about, you know, he was a he.
He was a man after God's own heart, the Bible says.
Yet he was an adulterer and he was a murderer.
Some people don't understand that, But he always repented.
He always turned back to God, and he was always working for
God and doing the things that God wanted him to do.
So, but God never fails to keep a promise He makes.
He wants us to get in His Word and listen for His voice because
many times we're praying out of the will of God for our life.
We have to pray, you know, we, God knows if He gives some the
big promotion or the big job, it would just draw Him away from
Him. It's never before anybody ever
been there. And then you knew that the
pleasure wasn't worth the pain, right?
But God knows what's best for us.
We have to trust Him in times of doubt, Listen to His voice.
That's where our responsibility comes in.
God gives promises, but we must be willing to patiently wait for
him to fulfill them. We can't fulfill the promises of
God. We can simply stand on them,
right? And claim them.
And when God decides to open up the windows of heaven and pour
them on us, we can receive them. But never try putting God in the
time box. That's not a good thing.
But we we're good at doing it right because we think time is
running out and we know it is. But God has all the time in the
world because we're in such a hurry.
But really, you know, we're going to live forever.
We're an eternal being. We're going to go to sleep,
we're going to live forever. I've been trying to think a life
like instead of trying to y'all ever do that?
When you're getting ready to go somewhere, you may have had six
months to do some things, but you're leaving for a week and
it's got to be done. The day you're leaving, it's
laid there for six months and you walk by it, but today you
got to pick it all up and move it and do those things.
But you know, we're an eternal being.
We're going to live forever. It puts it in different
perspective when we look at it like that.
Never try putting God in a time box.
Instead, leave room as you stand your feet tonight, leave room
for Him to bring everything together according to His plan
and His timing. Because we find that when we do
this, we will be glad that we did right.
Because when it's in his timing, it works.
But what a great scripture tonight.
I want to read that again in Habakkuk chapter 3.
Maybe you're going through a storm tonight.
Trusting in times of doubt, we have to learn to trust how many.
I'm going through some storms right now.
I know many of y'all are going through some storms.
But though the fig tree may not blossom, nor the fruit beyond
the vines, when you think about the Scriptures, you close your
eyes and worship. Tonight, though the labor of the
olive may fell in, the fields yield no fruit.
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no
herd in the stalls, yet say that with me, yet I will rejoice in
the Lord. Thanks.
For listening to the Cross Powered Church Podcast, may you
know that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be found in
Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX we
would love for you to join us in person.
You can find service times at crosspowerchurch com.