From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, we'll discover how to have real faith for real life.

Speaker 2

Hey, when real life gets really hard, remember the little word Y E T yet.

Oh, you say, but, Jeff, I've been praying about this issue and nothing has happened. No, nothing has happened yet.

Oh, but Jeff, I have been keeping myself pure and I've been praying for the right person to come into my life as my life partner, my husband, my wife. And there is nothing on the radar screen. There's nothing on the radar screen yet.

Just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it's not going to happen. David didn't know when he was going to be king. He just knew that he was going to be king, and he trusted God for the win.

Do you have real faith for real life? He can heal every scar with real truth, real love.

Speaker 1

Welcome to this edition of From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, where in today's broadcast, we're going to be challenged to do some introspection on our real faith life. As all Christians know, the pressures of real life can sometimes cause a believer's faith to falter. But as Pastor Jeff will point out today, if we'll cover every disappointment with God's word, we will be amazed at how he steps in and lifts the darkness and frees us to find real joy in all circumstances.

But how do we accomplish that? We'll see that exemplified in King David, who didn't know when he was going to be king. He just knew that he was going to be king, and he trusted God to fulfill God's promise. The message today is called Real Faith for Real Life from Pastor Jeff's eight-message series, Roller Coaster: Facing the Ups and Downs of Life.

Now we're in part two of this third message from the series. Open your version of God's word and turn to the 27th chapter of the Book of Psalms, and we'll learn about how to enjoy real faith for real life. Here's Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 2

Hey, let's get real personal. Do you have real faith for real life? Psalm 27. I'll begin reading. In verse one, David said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?" We're going to go through this psalm in pieces, and I want you to notice with me three key aspects of real faith.

**Real faith for real life.**

**Aspect number one.** Real faith is rooted in the real God. Real faith is rooted in the real God. Now, David didn't have faith in faith. David wasn't like that old children's book, *The Little Train That Could,* who's facing the hill and saying, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." That's kind of faith in faith. David didn't have that. David had faith in God. He had faith in the one true God. He had faith in Yahweh God. Anytime you read "Lord," all in caps, that is the translator's way of letting you know, "Hey, that's a special word for Lord."

Now, we come across that name in the book of Exodus when God appears to Moses at the burning bush. And the Lord says this in Exodus, chapter 3, verse 14, "God said to Moses, 'I am who I am.' And he said, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you.'" Who is God? God is the great I am. That's who God is. David's faith was rooted in Yahweh God, who is the great I am.

**Hey, what is the first aspect?** Real faith is rooted in the real God.

**Second aspect.** Real faith is rooted in real confidence in the real God. Real confidence in the real God. Now, David was facing difficulty. No doubt he had difficulty. He talks about the difficulty that he faced, but he was trusting God. He says in verse two, "When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear. Though war arise against me, in spite of this, I shall be confident."

Now, when he gets to verse two, he talks about an issue in his life where he faced this before, where people were coming upon him. And it's a past tense issue. He says, "You know, when evildoers came upon me before to devour my flesh, they stumbled and fell." That happened before. And so now I am able to say with confidence, "Though a host encamp against me, in spite of this I shall be confident." God, you did it before, and God, I'm trusting you to deliver me again. Real faith is rooted in real confidence.

Hey, listen, if you're going to live in victory, if I'm going to live in victory, we have to remember what God has done, and we have to remember what God has promised and that God always keeps his word. God made a promise to David when David was just a kid, 12, 13, 14 years old. We don't know quite how old he was. He's the youngest of eight, son of Jesse. Samuel comes to town; he's going to anoint. God says, "It's the son of Jesse I'm going to anoint as king." And Jesse, his daddy, doesn't even bring David to the anointing ceremony because he thinks there's no way he's going to choose David. David, he's just the baby of the family. That's the one God chose. And God anointed him as king.

As I've told you before, you read in the life of David, he didn't become King of Israel until he was 37 and a half years old. He became king of Judah in Hebron when he was 30 years old. And he was king over Judah, which is a portion of all of Israel. A portion of it. He was there for seven and a half years. And then he was enthroned as king over all Israel. So if he gets the promise from God when he's 12, well, it's 25 years before that promise is fully realized.

Here's the thing about God. God doesn't tell you when he's going to do things. Most of the time he just tells you that he's going to do things. And so David had a promise that he held onto. And God delivered on that promise. And then God, when David set up his kingdom in Jerusalem and God gave him peace from his enemies, God sent Nathan the prophet to David. And Nathan the prophet gave the word of the Lord to David. And this was the word of the Lord. And it said this: "David, I'm going to make you a kingdom that will last, and your descendants will sit on the throne."

And there was a reference through Nathan the prophet that there was coming a king through David, who was going to reign forever and ever and ever, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David, who is going to be king forever and ever and ever. And David heard that promise. And David heard that word of the Lord, and he got alone with God. He went in before the Lord and he said, "What am I, O Lord, and what is my family that you have brought me this far?" He was so blown away.

And he goes on to say in Second Samuel, Chapter 7, "And now, Sovereign Lord, you are God. You always keep your promises. And you have made this wonderful promise to me. I ask you to bless my descendants so that they will continue to enjoy your favor. You, sovereign Lord, had promised this. And your blessing will rest on my descendants forever." It's good to underline: "You always keep your promises." God always keeps his promises. Anytime in scripture you run across a promise, you know that God always keeps his promise.

We sing that song, *Promise Keeper.* God is a promise keeper. He's not a welcher. He's not a promise breaker. He keeps his promises. You know this book, in a sense, you could say, what is this book? This book is a giant book of promises. It's God's book of promises. And the Scripture says in Acts 2, verse 40, "For the promises are for you and your children and all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to himself."

Second Chronicles, chapter one or two Corinthians, chapter one, and verse 20 says this: "For as many as may be the promises of God. And they are many. As many as may be the promises of God in Jesus, they're yes." I want you to think of the promises like checks. We know about checks. We write a check and then we sign a check. Well, here's the thing. God writes a check. God the Father writes a check. God the Son signs the check. As many as may be the promises of God in Jesus, they're yes. He signs the check. He hands that check to you. That's a promise from God.

Now, all of us know that a check doesn't do you any good unless you cash it. If you just keep the check and put it in a drawer, well, how does that benefit you any? It doesn't. That's why it says, "Wherefore also through him is our amen to the glory of God through us." There's God the Father who makes the promise, God the Son who signs on the promise. And then there's you and there's me. And we have to endorse the promise. We have to say amen to the promise. Amen means let it be so, truly, surely. Yes, yes, Lord. And we have to say yes, Lord, to that promise. We have to take that promise to heaven's bank and say, "Lord, I'm cashing this promise because I know that you always keep your word."

You know why so many people aren't experiencing the abundant life that God promised? Because they're leaving the checks in the drawer. You need to take those checks to God's bank and say, "Lord, I am cashing this check." David did that. David said, "Lord, I know what you did in the past in my life, and I am trusting you and believing you to do that in the future." And when I look at my problems, they may be big, but verse one, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" What is that problem in comparison to God? It is nothing. It is nothing. No one can get to me.

You know Jeremiah. I love what he says in Jeremiah, chapter 20. He had people coming; they didn't like him because they didn't like the message that he preached. And he said, "There's terror on every side." People are coming at me, trying to destroy me, he said, "but the Lord is with me like a dread champion." See, he's the all-time undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. And I don't care how many sharks are circling around you. When the Lord is with you like a dread champion, ain't nobody gonna mess with you. And David knew that, and David trusted that.

**Real faith is rooted in the real God. Real faith is rooted in real confidence.**

**And third aspect.** Real faith is revealed in real trouble. Real faith revealed in real trouble. How can you tell if somebody has real genuine faith? Watch them go through a trial. Watch them go through a struggle. See what happens, as Jesus said, when the son of persecution comes out. Then that separates the sheep from the goats, the tare from the wheat, the temporary from the genuine.

When I was 16 years old, I got my first automobile. It was $700. I got a 1970 Toyota Corolla. There was four on the floor, and it had four hamsters under the hood. And they would run around. And that's what powered that vehicle. It went from zero to 60 eventually. And, you know, if all I did with that car, I was kind of embarrassed as a high school sophomore to drive that car around. If I went to any event where my other friends would be, I'd park way down the street and walk. Because it was just, their cars were a big deal back then.

I had that, and I took it to get tires one day. And the guy at the tire store was laughing. He's like, "Hey, this is kind of like a go-kart." I was, you know, I'm like, "I'm paying you to insult me." You know, I was frustrated. Well, that car was fine for school zones and neighborhood driving 30 miles an hour; it wasn't so good if you had to take it out on the road. You're in Houston, and you gotta merge onto the freeway, and you're jettisoning cargo to try and see if I can get it up.

I went home to visit my mom, Debbie and I did a few weeks ago. My mom has a car that she got from my dad. My dad bought it just a few years before he died. My dad liked muscle cars. He liked fast cars. He got a Dodge Charger, a 300 Hemi engine. That sucker will flat fly. It goes from zero to 60 in five seconds. It has a top-end speed of 180 miles an hour. My mom's 86 years old. She drives that. I asked her, I said, "Can I drive the car?" Because Debbie was going to see some friends, and I was gonna go play golf with some friends, and so I needed a car. "Can I drive your car?" And she said, "Yes, but be careful with it." She said, "You gotta be careful because it's very sensitive."

Driving that car is like a team of horses. They're just waiting to go, right? And so you're going in the school zone, 30 miles an hour. It's fine. You get out. I need to change lanes. I need to get past this guy. I mean, that thing just takes off. It has power when it's tested. The Corolla didn't.

Here's the truth. Some people, the scripture says in Second Timothy, they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. They don't have the real thing. They have fake faith. They have the four on the floor, four hamsters under the hood kind of thing. And it goes fine as long as life is going fine. But when life hits a difficulty and they need to be able to have power, it's not there.

Hey, David had the real thing. How do we know he had the real thing? Because when he went through trouble, there was power there. And he says in verse 11, "Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path because of my foes. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." David, I love verse 13. David had confidence. David believed that God would come through for him. He said, "If I didn't believe that, I would have despaired." But I didn't despair. Why? Because I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living in my day, that I would see God and his goodness shine forth. And the Lord is my light and my salvation. And when I'm in a dark place, he is my light. And I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I know that God is going to come through.

Hey, when real life gets really hard, remember the little word yet. Y-E-T. Yet we forget the word, yet we forget. Psalm 27, verse 13: "I would have despaired unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

Oh, you say, "But Jeff, I've been praying about this issue, and nothing has happened." No, nothing has happened yet. Oh, but Jeff, I have been keeping myself pure, and I've been praying for the right person to come into my life as my partner, my life partner, my husband, my wife. And there is nothing on the radar screen. There's nothing on the radar screen yet. Oh, I've been praying for this job situation, and nothing has opened up. Nothing has opened up yet.

If you will put the word yet in every one of your disappointments, it fills your heart with faith. Just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it's not going to happen. David didn't know when he was going to be king. He just knew that he was going to be king. And he trusted God for the win. And we need to trust God for the win. And we need to constantly put in the word yet because my God is going to fulfill his promise to me. He just hasn't done it yet. And that's God's business. And that's okay.

"I would have despaired unless that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." And then verse 14, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." I'm just gonna wait on God because I know God's gonna come through. He's not late; he's not early. He's just right on time, as Charlie Boyer told me. He said, "You know that wonderful name of God, Jehovah, Nick of time." I mean, he comes just in the nick of time. There is God never late, never in a hurry, just right on time.

David had an interesting situation happen to him when he was on the run from Saul, hiding from Saul during this period of his life, this 10-year, probably 10-year period from the time he was 20 till the time he was 30, he was running from Saul. One day he was hiding in a cave with his men, and Saul was seeking after him. And Saul had to take a break from his soldiers. He said, "Hey guys, time out. I gotta take a potty break." And this, I'm not making this up. And he went into the cave to relieve himself. The scripture says, literally to cover his feet; he was in the potty.

And so he didn't know that David was in the inner recesses of the cave. Here is David. And they see that Saul's in the cave going to the bathroom. And David's men say, "David, look, God has given your enemy into your hand. Go and slay him." David said, "Do you think that's right?" "Yes. Go do it." So David kind of snuck over to Saul where Saul couldn't see him. He took out his knife, and he cut off a little piece of Saul's robe. And then he kind of slithered back into the darkness.

Well, Saul got done. He got up; he left the cave. He was walking away. And all of a sudden, we don't know how far, maybe 50 yards. The Bible says David's conscience bothered him. And he came out after Saul. And he said, "O King Saul, why are you looking for me?" He said, "I'm a dead dog. I'm a single flea. Why would the king of Israel spend time looking for me? Why do you think there's wickedness in me? Why do you think I'm trying to do you harm?" He said, "I'm not." And he said, "I could have killed you. Here's your robe that I cut off."

But he said, "I knew that God did not want me to lift my hand against the Lord's anointed." He said, "That's God's business. That's not my business." And David prostrated himself before Saul. And Saul wept and said, "Oh, David, you're more righteous than I." And Saul went on his way. And there was peace for a very short time between Saul and David.

But here's the point. David wasn't going to kick a door open. He wasn't going to do something that he knew this is not God's way. He saw Abraham in the Old Testament scriptures. He did that when God promised him a son, and no son came. And he and his wife Sarah got together, and they said, "Well, maybe God wants you to have sex with Hagar, my maid, and then you can have a son through her, and that'll be kind of a son from our house." And he tried to help God out with his promise, and it spelled disaster.

And David knew, "I'm not gonna do that. God has not called me to do that. God can take care of Saul. I don't need to take care of Saul." And I will not lift my hand against the anointed. He waited on God. Some of you are here, and you're getting tired of waiting on the Lord. You're about ready to take the bull by the horns and take the reins and do it your own way and say, "I'm going to help God out." Don't do it. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Just wait for the Lord.

It was hard for David. That's why David, in this Psalm, he says, "Oh, in verse nine, do not hide your face from me. Do not

Speaker 1

If you've realized today that your faith in Christ has been less than genuine, that feeling that you have knowing inside you that you need a Savior is the Holy Spirit speaking to you and wanting you to open your heart and let him come in. And when he does, he will cleanse you for now and for eternity as you genuinely repent of your sin and ask Christ to come in.

We want you to go to promisheart.org, click the why Jesus link. There's a document there, in fact, several pages on our website that will explain a lot of things about the who, what, where, why, and when of Christ and how you can be a child of God for eternity. Again, go to fromisheart.org, click the why Jesus link.

As we've been listening today, you've heard real truth about the ups and downs of life and how God wants us to handle these situations that are sure to come. But the world has evil running amok these days, and we need to be able to know the truth to spot it and stop it from entering our thinking and heart. That's why we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's powerful series, Nothing but the Truth, and the booklet Sticks and Stones: What to Do When the Going Gets Tough. Both of these for your gift to From His Heart this month of any amount. They will be a blessing to you.

Simply get yours by calling 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253) or go online to fromisheart.org, request the series and the booklet, and we'll be glad to send them to you in the format of your choice.

Our time is gone for now, and from His Heart, I'm Larry Nobles, and we trust that you'll be here next time for the next lesson in the series Rollercoaster: Facing the Ups and Downs of Life and a lesson entitled The Key to Intimacy with God. That's on Wednesday, when we'll open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart, there is tremendous truth.

Speaker 2

There is blessing, there is hope that you always dream of. He can heal me every.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the Listener Supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at From His Heart. Org.