Eyes on the Prize Part 3

Sometimes, I just get so down on life. Things don’t seem to go my way, I go through grievances that make things worse, and nothing just seems to be going well for me. Times like that only make me run to Christ in order to have someone to lean on. In today’s message, Dr. Timothy Brown encourages you to remember that Jesus will bring light to the world. If you’re feeling down, remember that He knows your struggle and He’ll be right alongside you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 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_00 0:21

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 life, 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.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Sometimes I just get so down on life. Things don't seem to go my way. I go through grievances that make things worse. And nothing just seems to be going well for me. Times like that only make me run to Christ in order to have someone to lean on. In today's message, Dr. Timothy Brown encourages you to remember that Jesus will bring light to the world. If you're feeling down, remember that he knows your struggle and he'll be right alongside you. 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_00 1:39

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's 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. 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 a 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 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. He can take you from a time of despair to a time of repair. He can take you from a time of brokenness to a time of healing. He can take you a time where you thought you would never make it to another day till now you can't wait for the next day. That's the God we serve. Amen. God gave David victory after struggle. Look at verse 34. You teach my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze, and all the men said, Oh, oh, oh, yeah. How do we apply this in the New Testament? Well, the Bible tells us we're in a spiritual battle. Now you may not be slaying anyone anymore, right? We don't live in those times unless you're in the military and you've got to defend the country. We thank you for the armed forces, those who serve our country, but there's a spiritual battle going on, right? And the Paul tells us to put on the armor of God. So the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're spiritual. And so, what does it mean to have this strength? Well, God strengthens you up as you suit up. Look at the person next to you and say, suit up. Make sure that you daily put on the armor of God. If you want to be powered up in the spirit, you gotta be suited up. Wear the armor of God. And I love this next phrase. Um, first of all, God gave David greatness after his times of great humility. The rest of verse 35 says, Your gentleness has made me great. So has there ever been a time where you were humbled in your life? Where you did something, you're like, I feel so humbled and I know it. Has there ever been a time where you were in a transition and the transition wasn't that great?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

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_00 12:40

I remember when I moved back up from Dallas Fort Worth area. So the positive side about ministry is you're serving God and people, and it's great. The challenging side is when you're between churches, there's not a lot your seminary degree will get you, other than a cup of coffee, okay? So I was between churches at the time, and many of you know churches committees, they take sometimes a year to process. I'm like, I'm waiting when's the next church going to call me. Kevin's shaking his head. There's other pastors here shaking their head. So the only job I could get was a fast food restaurant sweeping the parking lot. So here I am, like, I went to seminary for this, and I'm sweeping up the trash and making very low wages, and I'm just like, God, why have you humbled me so? And I had one of those eureka epiphany moments, a light bulb went off, and it's like, and the Lord speaks gently because I'm more sensitive spirit, He doesn't hit me hard, it's more gentle. Timothy, um, you think I'm teaching you humility? Uh yes, Lord, as I'm sleeping up the parking lot. And so I had this kind of moment of clarity that generally speaking, the quicker you learn the lesson, the quicker you what? Get out of the trial. Now, there's exceptions to that, but that's general principle. So if God's trying to teach me humility, what do I need to learn to get out of this? I gotta humble myself. Well, how do I humble myself? Well, don't be too big for your britches, don't speak words of pride, but do the actions of humility. What are the actions of humility? Serving others, loving others. And so as I swept the parking lot, thankfully I only had to sweep it for a few months. I, by God's grace, I began to learn the lesson. Okay, if I'm prideful, I'm gonna learn how not to be a whippersnapper. Okay? For those of you who are over 40, you have to look that word up. Under 40. We don't use that word anymore, but it's like, okay, I'm gonna have to learn. All right, and finally, this is verse 50. God gave David destiny after his time of drama. I love verse 50. Great deliverance he gives to his king and shows mercy to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever. So you read that and you're like, well, Timothy, I'm not David, I'm not his descendants, right? So I just want to encourage you with this. What God did for David, he can do for you. And here's a big Bible question I've never heard answered in church. I've never even heard it answered in seminary. And here's the question people throw out. Okay, um, are any of the promises of the Old Testament transferable to Christians in the New Testament? Now, for believers, they're like, absolutely, but here's here's the reason I'm bringing up. I've seen people rebuke others that quote an Old Testament verse and say, hey, that doesn't apply to you. You can't quote Jeremiah 29.11 because that was written to the Jews in captivity. And you know, when I read that, I just feel so sad that a Christian would quote a verse and someone would rebuke them for quoting a Bible verse. So on your listening guide, I don't have time to go into great detail, but you can look at this. I bring the question, can the Christian claim any of the Old Testament promises? The short answer is yes. Most of them are transferable to you, with a few exceptions. So I want to read you a few scriptures from the New Testament that talk about this, and then we're gonna talk about, okay, what is transferable, what's not. Um, in Galatians 3.29, Paul tells the church at Galatia, if you belong to Christ, now how many of you belong to Christ? Raise your hand. Here's the promise, then you are Abraham's seed. This is spiritual seed. And heirs according to the promise. You see the word heirs according to the promise. So there's a sense that because I belong to Christ, I'm a spiritual descendant, and I get to get in on a lot of the promises. Well, which promises are there? Well, let's continue. Uh Paul told the church at Corinthian, the Corinthian church, for no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. Yes and amen. This indicates that all the promises of God ultimately find their fulfillment in who? In Jesus. And let me ask you a question. How many of you are in Christ? So you see where I'm going here? So we've got to clarify which promises are applicable, which are not. This is not an exhaustive list, but here's a few. God's promise is a blessing, presence, guidance, provision, care, peace, strength, help, salvation, forgiveness, love, faithfulness, eternal life. The list could go on and on. And by the way, these promises are repeated in the New Testament. That's a key indicator. They're repeated. All right. Old Timothy, which ones do not apply to me? Which ones are only to Israel? Well, this is not a comprehensive list, but basically, the promise of land. Unless you're a Jew, the promise of land. Now, does it have a spiritual application? Well, yeah, there's going to be a new heaven and new earth, but I'm talking about the temporal promise. What about the national identity of Israel? You know, that's separate, that they're a separate nation. The signs and symbols of the old covenant. Okay, what were the signs and symbols? Well, first of all, circumcision. Paul in the New Testament says circumcision doesn't matter. What matters is faith working through love. Okay. Well, what about the Sabbath day? Do we still need rest? You still need rest, but the Sabbath was the old covenant. New covenant of all the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath is the only command not repeated in the New Testament. All other nine are repeated. Well, what does it mean to Sabbath? Well, Jesus is our Sabbath. And by the way, you still need a day of rest. Well, why do Christians worship on Sunday? What's the deal? Well, you can worship every day. I encourage you to worship every day, but majority of churches worship on Sunday because Jesus rose what? On the first day of the week, and the early church in the book of Acts began to worship. But it's okay if you worship on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, all the days, but you get what I'm saying. Like these are signs and symbols that were filled in Christ. What about the restoration of Israel? That's the nation. What about the kingdom promises? So my point is some things are transferable only to Israel, but the majority of promises are for you. So let's let's use an example. And I've heard this rebuked many times is Jeremiah 29, 11. It's on the radio. I've heard multiple people say you can't quote it, it's to Israel. And their understanding is if you read Jeremiah 29, it's about Israel that was in Babylonian captivity, and 70 years I will restore you. Okay? But let's quote Jeremiah 29 and 11. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to give you hope and plans to give you what? A future. Now, was that fulfilled seven years later? Yes. Does it have any application to the New Testament believer? The answer is yes. I want to give you just a few scriptures. So if whoever rebukes someone for quoting Jeremiah 29.11, you can use this. Romans 8.28. All things work together for good. That's the Jeremiah 29.11 of the Old Testament. Philippians 1.6, he who began a good work will complete it. Okay? I have a future. Ephesians 2.10, your God's poemia, his workmanship, his masterpiece created under Christ Jesus to do good works. I know the plans of Hafri declares the Lord. And I could go on and on. John 10 10, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I've come that you may have life. So here's the thing. I want you to claim and believe all the promises of all the scripture. Because the Bible says that the Old Testament scriptures are written to give us hope and encouragement. So while we're under the new covenant, not the old covenant, I'm still claiming the promises that are applicable to both. Amen? Alright, so let's summarize this. Let's throw the big idea on the screen. Okay, Timothy, we covered the fifth longest Psalm in the Bible. It's number five. The longest Psalm 119 is the longest. How do we summarize this? It would be this keep your eyes on the prize of fulfilling God's great purposes for your life as you trust and follow Jesus daily. If you want six words to summarize it, it would be this: God knows. Someone say, God knows. God cares, and God acts. So how do we apply this? Okay, Timothy, David went through a situation, I'm going through a situation. How do I apply it? I'm glad you're asking that question. That's the application of God's word. The first one is this Jesus at the center. If you want to claim the promises that God is a rock, God is a fortress, God's a safe place, you need to make sure your life is centered on Jesus. Because here's the thing: if your life's not centered on Jesus, guess what? It's easy for your life to fall apart. Now there's nothing wrong with saying God put God first. We should put God first. But even better is put God at the center. Let me explain why. If God is first today, by Saturday, it's easy for God to be fifth. You know why? He's just a priority, he can fall down the rung of priorities. But if he's at the center of your solar system, if you try to move him out, I wouldn't recommend that, but if you like, I'm gonna I'm gonna walk away for a season. If he's at the center of your life, guess what? Your whole life falls apart. The reason why so many Christians backslide is Jesus is first, but he's not center. And if he's first, it's easy to move him down to fifth or sixth or seventh. So, yes, put Jesus first, but even better, put him at the center of Of your solar system. Have all your life revolve around the Son of God. Call 911. Don't do it right now. But when in trouble, when adversity strikes, fill up a prayer flare. What's a prayer flare? It's not some King James, oh, thou Father in heaven, help me. I'm in a pit and the waters are drowning me. It's not that. What is it? God saved. God helped. God move. God asked. It's short prayers. It's okay to pray the long King James prayers. But when you're in trouble, you need God to move right away. And finally, drama and destiny. If you didn't get anything else today, I obviously want you to take put Jesus at the center. But the second big thing I want you to take away is if you'll keep following Jesus, on the other side of your drama is destiny. We see this through so many characters in the Bible. From Joseph, he went from the pit to the prison and made it to the palace. And right now some of you are in the pit. Some of you feel like you're in a prison. But there is drama on the other side of your destiny if you will keep following Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

We're glad you joined us on today's edition of Truth for Transformation with Pastor Timothy Brown. We're working our way through the Book of Psalms, the original collection of worship music. God knows how music can connect people to his heart. It can take us from knowing something about God into a place of knowing him deeply. It connects the mind to the heart. The Psalms are an amazing how-to for worshiping God. You'll find calls to lift your hands, clap, bow down, sing, shout, and even dance. When did you last see dancing in church? Also, the psalms show us a wide array of what we can pray and sing to God about. We can celebrate God for his greatness, and we can call out and lament, asking God to deliver us. Sometimes we think we can't tell God how we really feel, but the Psalms show us that God can handle all our emotions. There are even psalms that call for God to bring justice against Israel's enemies. We hope today's message has led you closer to God. If you'd like to share your thoughts with us, ask a question, or just say hello, please find us on social media at Dr. Timothy Brown Ministries. You can also find us online at drtimothybrown.org, where you can connect and learn more about our ministry. Remember, it's through your support that this ministry is possible. Your giving fuels the mission. And being on mission for God is so important. To give, go to drtimothybrown.org. Thank you again for joining us on Truth for Transformation.