Eyes on the Prize Part 2

I love talking to my friends about my day. I can include every detail, both good and bad. But sometimes, when there are things that probably shouldn’t be discussed with them, I know that I need to talk to God about it. In today’s message, Dr. Timothy Brown says that when you’re going through a struggle. God will ALWAYS be there for you. He’s already seen the struggle you’ve been through. So, seek Him when trials arise; He will be there!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Truth for Transformation with Dr. Timothy Brown. You're about to hear a message from God's Word filled with biblical wisdom, practical insights, and life-changing truths. A message designed to inspire your faith and give encouragement.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

In my distress, I called upon who? Called upon the Lord. Now, so many of us, when we're in danger, I like to call my wife, I like to call my parents, I like to call friends. And there's nothing wrong with that. But scripture teaches us, remember, your first line of defense and offense is to call upon God. Why? God knows what you're going through. God knows about your struggle before you entered into it. God already has a solution for your struggle. God knows, God cares, and God acts.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

I love talking to my friends about my day. I can include every detail, both good and bad. But sometimes when there are things that probably shouldn't be discussed with them, I know that I need to talk to God about it. In today's message, Dr. Timothy Brown says that when you're going through a struggle, God will always be there for you. He's already seen the struggle you've been through. So seek him when trials arise. He will be there. Prepare your heart, open your mind, and get ready to embark on a journey of faith with Dr. Timothy Brown in the book of Psalms, chapter 18, with today's edition of Truth for Transformation.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Third application as I can feel secure and protected in the strong fortress of God's loving care. So if you know that God not only loves you, but he cares for you and he protects you. When I'm in the fortress of God's protection, I feel cared for. I feel like there's someone that gets me. I feel like there's someone that understands what I'm going through. And Scripture tells us that Jesus was tempted in all areas like we are, yet without sin. So we have a high priest who can sympathize with their weaknesses. He understands your struggles because Jesus lived on this earth for 33 years and he went through struggles and he overcame, and you too can overcome. Number four, I know that if God is for me, nobody can do eternal harm to me. And the reason why I put the word eternal is that there is temporal harm people can do. Can people kill a Christian? Yeah, but that's the worst they can do, right? If you are in Christ, no one can do any eternal harm if you're in Christ. So that gives you a little boldness, that gives you a little confidence that when storms of life come, I am secure in his arms, in his hands. I can stand strong, number five, even when everything is going wrong, because God is unshakable. I told the first service I wish we had special effects in the church. I would love to press a button and the whole congregation start rumbling. And it's like, though the mountains tremble, though the mountains roar, God is firm and He's gonna get you through it. Number six, I have a safe place to run in times of distress and frustration. Growing up in student ministry, we used to have this song, and I butchered it the first time. They're like, you can't sing, and I know I can't sing. But the song goes, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe. How many of you remember singing that song growing up? Listen, you can run to God. Don't run from him in times of trouble. Run to him because he's waiting. He's waiting for you. Number seven, I have a place to recharge and find renewed strength in the face of new challenges of each day. So the idea of security and shelter is not just to hide out. We're not called to live a monastic life where we're just hide out from all harm. No, it's to get healed up so we can be sent out. Some of us have been hurt in the battle. We're a church that's a safe place. We have so many pastors and leaders that come to heal. And I just want to encourage you, this is a safe place to heal. This is a place of grace and truth, and people are healed up. But here's what happens: after you're healed up, God often sends you out. You know, the measure of success of a church is not determined by its seating capacity, how many people you can sit, but by its sending capacity. We are a great commissioned church called to go into all the world and do what? Make disciples. Alright, that brings us to truth number three. Someone say eyes on the prize. How do I know God's vision for my life? How do I know his purpose and his plan? Well, number three, call upon God both in the good times and in the difficult times. So look at verse three. He says, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies. So right now you may be in a battle, but remember that God is the one who fights your battles for you. You may be in a war, but remember, as a Christian, we're not fighting for victory, we're fighting from victory. We go from victory to victory. We go from glory to glory until we're glorified in his presence. And the next verse continues The pangs of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. Verse 5 says that the sorrows of Sheol surrounded me, the snares of death confronted me. Look at verse 6. In my distress, I called upon who? Called upon the Lord. Now, so many of us, when we're in danger, I like to call my wife, I like to call my parents, I like to call friends. And there's nothing wrong with that. But scripture teaches us, remember, your first line of defense and offense is to call upon God. Why? God knows what you're going through. God knows about your struggle before you entered into it. God already has a solution for your struggle. God knows, God cares, and God acts. I'm gonna give you that again. Write this down. These six words summarize all 50 verses in this Psalm. God knows, God cares, and God acts. God knows about you. He knows about your struggle. God cares for you deeply. And then God acts. We're gonna see in the psalm how he acts. He moves heaven and earth. How many of you have heard music by Jeremy Camp? Raise your hand. He has a famous hit song, I Still Believe. And this song was written about a time in his life where he really had a struggle that he didn't think he could get through. He married a lovely bride by the name of Melissa. You see a picture there. But prior to getting married, after they got engaged, Melissa had an exam, and the doctor said, I'm afraid to tell you the news, Melissa, because you're getting married. But this is ovarian cancer. And your life is probably going to end within a short period of time. And Jeremy and Melissa didn't give up. He decided to go ahead and marry her, even though the prognosis she was probably going to die. He's like, We're just going to trust in a miracle. We're going to pray. Every concert, let's have people pray for my wife's healing. And it was months afterward, after they got married, that she passed away. And it would have been so easy for Jeremy to say, forget God, forget the church. I just I prayed. God took her. What kind of God would do that? But instead, he composed these words. I still believe. So I just want to speak to someone that you've been hurt, you want to quit, you want to give up. I just want you to know that David was in a situation where he said, I felt like I was going to die. I felt like my life was over, and then God came through. And so for Jeremy, that wasn't the end of his story. He didn't give up. He continued. And people encouraged him. Jeremy, you've got to continue to live your life. You're a young man. God's going to do something. And three years later, he met this young lady who was a worship leader for Benjamin's Gate. For those of you who grew up in the youth ministry in the 90s and 2000s, there was a like a Christian rock band named Benjamin's Gate. She was the lead singer. So they connected, and even though he thought he could never love again, guess what? There was life again for Jeremy. That was 2003. So fast forward two decades later, he's still singing, he's still praising God. Because you know why? God is my rock. God is my fortress. God knows, God cares, and God acts on our behalf. Amen. The fourth truth: how do I know that God's got a plan for my life? How do I keep my eyes on the prize? Number four, believe in God's infinite goodness and unmatched strength. So I want you guys to look at verse 7. This verse is powerful. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the hills also quaked and shake. Shaken. Why? Because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, devouring fire from his mouth. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down with darkness under his feet. So I want you guys to get this picture. We serve a God who's not distant. We serve a God who's imminent. We serve a God who's involved. We serve a God who comes down. And here's the picture. David said, I was someone that God loved. And because he loved me, he came for me. And I just want you to know, friend, because God loves you, he will come for you. Now it's not always in the time and ways that you expect. Continue to read. He rode upon a cherub and flew. He flew upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place. His canopy around him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before him, his thick clouds passed with hailstones and with coals of fire. So David said, Listen, I was in a tough place. I felt like I was going to die. But using poetry, imagine God shaking the heavens and the earth, the very creation he created. He shook it to rescue you. So I want to bring you back a story. If you're younger than 40, you don't know the story, but older than 40. It's about baby Jessica. It's in Midland, Texas. It's about a little 18-month-old girl that we don't know what she was doing, if she was playing or whatever, but she fell into a well. It was like an open hole, like a big pipe in Midland, Texas. And there was, they didn't know how they're going to rescue her. There were two potential options that the rescuers had. One was not an option. And that was to coach Jessica to save herself. Here's a rope, Jessica, pull yourself out. That wasn't an option because why? 18 months old, she can't save herself. So what they did is they drew, uh, drilled down a parallel hole underneath next to Jessica, came out from the other side and pulled her up. So here's the thing, folks. We couldn't save ourselves. No matter how much we tried, if we could, God would have sent us a self-help guru. Here's some principles to life. Here's the way. But the gospel teaches us that we could not do it on our own. That we needed a savior. Self-help is not really any help for eternal value. We needed a savior.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

You've been listening to Pastor Timothy Brown. We'll be right back with the message, but first, we'd like to share some exciting news with you. We're releasing Dr. Timothy's new book called Go After Jesus. This book is a fresh approach to discipleship and focuses on your identity in Christ as the launching pad for Christian growth. In Go After Jesus, Pastor Timothy paints the picture of the six identities for every follower of Christ. You are a seeker, a disciple, a friend, a fisherman, a warrior, and a lover. We're currently offering two free chapters of this book as a digital download. To get your free chapters, go to Dr. Timothy's website at drtimothybrown.org. Now let's get back to the rest of the message with Pastor Timothy.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

So what David says in a psalm is that when I couldn't save myself, when enemies were all around me, remember the heading of the Psalm 18. When God rescued David from the hand of his enemies and from Saul, God is there to rescue you. So keep your eyes on the prize. Truth number five, as we continue in verses 16 through 18 in the Psalm, believe that God will deliver you in his times and in his ways. Verse 16 says that God sent from above, he took me. He drew me out of many waters. The idea, David thought that it was so bad it felt like he was drowning. Any of you feel like you're drowning? Maybe you're working so much, you don't want the next text message to come through from the job. It's like I can't handle another message. Maybe some of you are drowning in debt. The economies hit you so hard, you don't know when you're going to see the light of day. Some of us feel like we're drowning. I just want to encourage you to look to the Lord that He says, He drew me out of not just a few waters, not the kiddie pool, but many waters. He was in over his head. Notice the next verse. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me. So if you feel like you got more people against you than for you, what you need to know is if God's on your side, what does it matter? If God is for me, who can be against me? I want you to know that as a child of God, for those of you who have accepted Christ, if you haven't accepted Christ, today's your invitation, that you have a father who knows, who cares, and who acts on your behalf. I'll say that again. You have a father who knows, who cares, and who acts. Look at verse 18. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. So notice that help did not come from around David, help came from above. And David in poetic language said, I was drowning. And God was kind of like my lifeguard. He came and rescued me when I could not swim my way out of this mess. When I couldn't help myself, He rescued me. So I just want to encourage you that God is your support even when the world around you seems to be crumbling. God is your support. And the final truth today, and I wish we had time to cover all 50 verses, but I'm going to summarize. And number six, know that destiny is on the other side of your struggle. So I want to speak to someone today that would say, Timothy, I'm struggling. I can't put into words, but one thing I do know is I cry myself to sleep at night. One thing I do know is that I just feel like there's no hope for tomorrow. When I turn on the news, whichever news channel you watch, it's all bad news, right? Well, let me tell you that God has sent this pastor from the south, from the Appalachian Mountains, to tell you this truth. There's good news. There is good news. The gospel is good news. So I want you to follow along and listening, guy. We're going to go through a few verses here. So this is what happened to David in his struggle, and I'm just wondering could there be application to you? So the first thing we see is that God gave David space after his time of restriction. Look at verse 19. He also brought me out into a broad place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. Can I tell you, friend, that God delights in you? He delights in you. And those that he delights in, he also delivers. So crazy story. I used to live down the road. I'm not going to tell you which neighborhood. But it was the true suburbia, right? Houses upon houses. Nothing wrong with that. Most of you live in suburbia. And but in their particular situation, in the backyard, I would go to try to have a little retreat after a day of ministry. I wanted to, you know, to just do a little time with the Lord. So my next door neighbors in the backyard, there was a lot of immorality going on. I can't tell you what was happening, but it was in public view. Okay, so I'm I'm sitting in my little backyard chair and like bad stuff's happening right now. I was like, what's happening? Okay, so that's the backyard. The front yard, I go to check my mail, and this is the neighbor across the street. A stalker wrote my wife a love letter. And I still remember the words, it's so creepy. It was like, it started off, where were you when the sun was shining on you? And as this long poetry to my wife. So I looked the guy up. I don't know how I looked him up. Maybe you have a police connection, I don't know why, but I looked the guy up and he was on the offender's list. So here I am, closed in, backyard, a lot of bad stuff happening. Can't go into detail to keep it PG. Front yard, a stalker. So that's why I moved out to the country. One of the reasons. So when I when I read this verse about broad place, isn't it good when you need space? God provides a place. Now, some of you that live like Titan, you're like, I need some of that. Go out into the country, go on a waterfall hike. You can still get out in nature and just, you know, you feel that when you feel cramped in. All right, let's look at the next verse. Not only did God give David space, but God gave David light after his time of despair and darkness. Verse 28, it says, You will light my lamp. The Lord will enlighten my darkness. So I just want to speak hope to someone that's in a dark time right now. When David says, You will light my lamp, lamp is a symbol for life. And so if your lamp seems a little dark right now, I just want to point you to Jesus, who is the light of the world. And even though you're going through a dark time, keep your eyes on Christ. He's your light, he's your salvation, he's going to be the one that sees you through even the toughest of times because he's with you. God gave David strength after his time of vulnerability and weakness. I love verse 29. And some women can relate to this verse, but most men can. For you, I can run against a troop. By my God, I can jump over a wall. So here's a little confession about a lot of men. Not all men, but most men. Have you ever noticed that most men are like, watch this? I still do it to this day. Um we had a guy, and I'm not going to mention his name, but in he's like 70, and he's still this way. Watch this in the first service. So men are, we want to prove that we can do stuff, ladies. It's just, I don't know what it is about men. But here's a little confession. I'm going to share this in church. But my parents, they live in Candler and they have this little wall. And even to this day, even though I'm in my 40s, I still run and jump that wall. I just want to prove that I can do it, right? Even if no one's watching but the next door neighbors who they're blinds. And so until I'm 60 or 70, I'm still going to try to jump that wall. Okay? Why? Because you just feel life. You just want to feel like you still have what it takes, right? So David's like, in a time when I felt weak, in a time I felt like I was going to die, I was going to go under, guess what? After God got a hold of me, I feel like jumping over a wall. Isn't that cool? Don't try that at home. You may go to the hospital. It's fun, right? I want to jump over a wall. So continue to read down. God gave David direction after his times of weeping and wondering. Look at verse 32. It's God who arms me with strength. He makes my way perfect. So if you're in a time of depression, if you're in a time of brokenness, if you're in a time of despair, I want to give you this encouragement. This is Psalm 30, verse 5. Weeping may endure for a night, but what comes in the morning? Joy. Now I want to explain the morning. The morning is not your morning. It's not when you wake up. Your morning is when God moves in his time, in his way. It's when God writes things that have been wrong in your life. And some of you, it's been a lot of mornings before the morning comes. So I just want to encourage you to keep waiting on God, and eventually the sun will rise again. Eventually the darkness of the night will pass, and it's going to be the dawn of a new day. Weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Be encouraged today. No, God is fond of you. God knows, God cares, and God acts on your behalf. God also gave David freedom and fun after his times of sorrow and heartbreak. So before we read verse 33, I want to speak to someone that's been through a divorce, and you're wondering, is there a life after divorce? Maybe your spouse walked out on you. Maybe someone here lost their job and they're like, is there something else? Do I have what it takes? Is there life after something hard? Look at verse 33. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. Now, for those of us who didn't grow up around deer, we're like, What's going on? So don't stare at me like a deer in headlights. What's the deal with a deer, okay? So for deer, if you notice, deer are quick. We've been having some deer out in our backyard. We don't have any on our farm yet. Maybe that's the future, but we have deer in the mountains going through. And they're so fast, you look at them and they're gone, okay? So they're fast. But also, it's the idea in the NIV NLT gets this translation kind of there. It's firm-footed like a deer. The idea, go back to the heading of the psalm, after the relief of Saul and all David's enemies, when God gave him victory, he's like, Listen, I felt like I was running for my life, and now I'm running, having the time of my life. I was running from enemies, and now I'm running in victory. So my feet now have firm footing. I have feet like a deer. And notice God sets me on my high places. Some of you are in very low places. Like, am I ever going to get out of this pit? Am I ever going to get out of this rut? Am I ever going to break this habit, this hang-up, this addiction? I'm in a low place. And David would remind us God can take you from a low place and set you on a high place.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Thank you for listening to today's edition of Truth for Transformation with Dr. Timothy Brown. We're in a series called Summer in the Psalms. The Psalms is a very interesting book for many reasons. For one, it has many different authors. King David wrote many of the psalms, but also Asaf and the sons of Korah wrote some of them. Solomon wrote a couple of psalms, and Moses even wrote one. Psalms is a collection of songs gathered together to use in Israel's public worship. It was the hymnal of the time, the original hymnal. There is so much inspiration to be found in this book. We're encouraged to praise God for who he is and what he's done for us. The psalms are an example of how we should thank God for our many blessings. Psalms also show us that we're given permission to bring our grief and pain to God. We get a glimpse into the hearts of God's people and their devotion to God. And when we sing our songs that find their inspiration from the Psalms, we follow in their footsteps. If there's something that has touched your heart from today's message, or if you have a question, please reach out to us. Join us in prayer as we strive to live out God's mission for us. You can find us on social media at Dr. Timothy Brown Ministries, where you can share your thoughts or just say hello. You can learn more about what we do at drtimothybrown.org. That's also where you can contribute financially to our ministry. Your giving fuels the mission. Thanks for joining us on Truth for Transformation.