April 7, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on from his heart, we get raw and real
about the dark times in life. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreeve.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're going to look at the Psalms for this series
because Psalms are so true to life. You know, David
wrote lots of the Psalms, and in the Psalms he
just lets it all hang out. He tells you what's
going on inside. He kind of peels back the layers
and just says, this is how I'm feeling. I had
a friend of mine he said one time, he said,
(00:28):
you know, you can sum up the Book of Psalms
this way. Life is hard, but God is good. If
you're not prone to reading the Psalms, I want to
encourage you to do that. It's raw and it's real,
and it teaches us so much about the Lord and
how to face the ups and downs of life with truth. Real.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
From this home, all this mump On from his heart,
we've been talking about truth, the real truth that God
has given us to guide, provide and protect us in
our sin sick world, even when the ups and downs,
the good times, and the tough times surround us, and
(01:17):
they do surround us all in the midst of all
of that God is good and faithful and true, especially
through the dark times. This is from his heart with
Pastor Jeff Shreeve. Thank you for joining us today as
we navigate the roller coaster of life and learn to
face the ups and downs that come. Today will be
(01:38):
in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Psalms. Turn
there now if you can now. Today's first message in
this series, called roller Coaster is actually a heartwarming tale
called Dark Times that will specifically teach us to rejoice
and rest in the hope of the Lord even in
(01:58):
the darkest of situations. Here's Pastor Jef to help us
understand and trust and how God works in the dark times.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
How many in this room have ever ridden on a
roller coaster? Can I see your hand? How many in
here would say I'm never again going to ride on
a roller coaster? Okay, a lot of hands go up.
How many in here it can remember the first time
they went on a roller coaster? Anybody remember the first time?
My first time when I was in seventh grade. We
(02:28):
went to Astro World which is now six Flags. But
first time I was on a roller coaster and it
was fairly mild compared to the roller coasters of today.
But you know, roller coasters are just a few minutes long,
and they are thrilling and exciting and frightening all at
the same time, all kind of rolled up into one.
(02:51):
You know, life is a lot like that roller coaster.
It has ups and it has downs, and it has
twist and turns and thrills and chills, and then you
even go through some dark times. We're going to look
at the Psalms. And one of the reasons we want
(03:11):
to look at the Psalms for this series is because
psalms are so true to life. You know, David wrote
lots of the Psalms, and in the Psalms he just
lets it all hang out. He tells you what's going
on inside. He kind of peels back the layers and
just says, this is how I'm feeling. I had a
friend of mine he said one time, he said, you know,
(03:31):
you can sum up the Book of Psalms this way.
Life is hard, but God is good. Life is hard,
but God is good. And so if you're not prone
to reading the Psalms, I want to encourage you to
do that. You know, if you read five Psalms a day,
you can read through the Book of Psalms. In a month,
I try and read five Psalms every day. It's a
little tough when you hit Psalm one nineteen because it's
(03:53):
so many verses. But if you read five Psalms a day,
one hundred and fifty in the Book of Psalms, you
can read through the whole book, and you learn so much.
And there's so many prayers and so much strength that
you get from looking at the Psalmist and David so
much of the time to see what was going on
in this person's heart. It's raw and it's real, and
(04:13):
it teaches us so much about the Lord and how
to face the ups and downs of life. Well, today
we want to look at a message I've entitled dark Times,
and we go through pitch black times in life. We
go through dark times in life. We go through times
when it seems like the bottom has dropped out and
God seems like he's a million miles away. David had
(04:37):
a time like that. We don't know exactly what was
going on in Psalm thirteen, but we do know about
the life of David that he was anointed king, the
King of Israel, when he was just a kid twelve
thirteen fourteen years old, but he didn't become king for
many many years after that. When he got to be
a man, he was in King Saul's army and he
(05:01):
was the leader of the army, and the people gravitated
toward David because God's hand was on David, and God
had taken his hand off King Saul and he put
it on King David. And King Saul was very jealous
of David because he heard the people singing, Saul has
slain his thousands, and David has slain his tens of thousands,
(05:22):
and Saul says, what is that song? I hate that song?
And they've attached to the son of Jesse. David's dad
is Jesse, to the son of Jesse ten thousands, but
me only a thousand, and so he started to get
very suspicious of David and he began to come after David,
and David spent years of his life on the run
(05:43):
from King Saul, who was hunting him like a dog
to try and kill him. David told Jonathan, Saul's son,
who happened to be David's best friend. He said, Jonathan,
there is literally not a step between me and death.
And it was during the time that Saul was hunting him.
That David really went into a dark, dark place, and
(06:07):
God seemed a million miles away, and his prayers just
didn't seem to get any higher than the ceiling. And
he felt so forlorn and so forgotten, and he didn't
know what to do. Psalm thirteen teaches us so much
about life about the dark times. Maybe you're going through
a dark time, or maybe you just came out of
(06:29):
a dark time, or you know what, maybe a dark
time is coming up on the horizon. All of us
can relate to dark times. So let's learn from Psalm
thirteen what to do. We know David was in a dark,
dark time in life because he says these words in
Psalm thirteen, give me light in the darkness lest I die.
(06:50):
It was so dark for him. So three insights from
Psalm thirteen about dark times. Insight number one. In the
dark times, we can easily begin to question. We question
in the dark times. Look at verses one and two.
How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? Will
(07:15):
you hide your face? How long will you hide your
face for me? How long shall I take counsel in
my soul? Having sorrow in my heart? All the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Two verses?
Five questions in the New American Standard Bible. Five questions
in two verses. Hey, when you're going through a dark
(07:37):
time in life, we just naturally begin to start asking questions.
And did you notice that most of the questions have
to do with two words? How long? How long? See
we go through the hard times, the dark times? We
question the duration of the darkness, of the suffering that
(07:58):
we're going through. We want to know from God, how
long does this last? Lord? How long? You know? We
live in a society where we just want things quickly,
so quickly. We have a microwave society, we have a
fast food society. We have an instant coffee society. And
when we're going through struggles and suffering, man, we want
(08:21):
it to be instant relief. How long, oh Lord? It's
a normal, natural question, you know. In the Book of
the Revelation, the Tribulation, saints asked the Lord, how long
before you judge the wicked on the earth? Lord? That's
a question that is asked over and over and over.
And David asked it four times in two verses because
(08:43):
he didn't like what he was going through. Now, we
all have heard the phrase time flies when you're having fun,
but time drags when you're having none. And David wasn't
having no fun and it was hard for him, and
he wanted out of that situation, and God delivered me
and deliver me. Now. I read a story about the
(09:06):
great pastor Phillips Brooks, great pastor in the eighteen hundreds.
He was known as a man of poise and a
man of quiet demeanor. But you know, he was a
human being just like everybody else, and he had times
where it was difficult for him, and he was going
through a dark time and a friend saw him and
Brooks was just kind of pacing around like a caged lion.
And his friend said to him, Hey, Phillips, what is
(09:29):
the deal? What is going on in your life? He said, well,
let me tell you what's going on in my life.
The trouble is that I'm in a hurry. And God,
isn't you ever been there where you're God that you
do something? And God seems to be just not in
a hurry at all. You know, we live in a
microwave society. God doesn't have a microwave. God has a
crock pot. And when God is working on you and
(09:52):
working on me, it's slow going. We don't like it
in the dark times. Give me light in the darkness. Lord,
I don't like this dark time. I don't let you
feel so far away from me. God, I don't like this.
But you know, it's in the dark room that film
has developed. It's in the dark room that God does
(10:13):
his deep and abiding work. You know, God doesn't really
do a lot in our lives when we're on the mountaintop.
It's when we're going through the low points, when we're
going through the valleys. Jane Eagleston wrote a poem that
says this, Sometimes life seems hard to bear, full of sorrow,
(10:33):
trouble and woe. It's then I have to remember that
it's in the valley I grow. If I always stayed
on the mountaintop, I never experience pain, I would never
appreciate God's love and would be living life in vain.
I have so much to learn, and my growth is
very slow. Sometimes I need the mountaintops, but it's in
(10:56):
the valleys I grow. Forgive me, Lord, or complaining when
I'm feeling so very low, Just give me a general
reminder that it's in the valleys. I grow, thank you
for the Valley's Lord, for this one thing. I know.
The mountaintops are glorious, but it's in the valley I grow.
(11:18):
God does his best work in the dark places. You
think of the Lord Jesus Christ. They took him off
that cross, his body battered and beaten and whipped and broken,
so to speak for us. And they took him off
that cross, and they put the aloes and the mirror
(11:40):
upon him, and they wrapped him in those grave clothes,
and they put him in a cave, and they rolled
a stone over the cave. And it was a dark place.
And God did his greatest work in that cave, in
that dark place. Maybe you're in a dark place today
saying I want to do a work in that situation
(12:03):
in your life. How long, oh Lord, it's as long
as it needs to be for me to teach you
some lessons that I can't teach you on the mountaintop.
I can only teach you that in the valley.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
In spite of all of the heartache we go through
on this earth, we can follow in the footsteps of
the Psalmist and trust God to see us through. Pastor
Jeff returns on from His Heart in just moment with
more in this lesson called Dark Times. It's true life
is like a roller coaster, filled with ups and downs
(12:42):
and good times and tough times, but in the midst
of it all, God is good and faithful. Pastor Jeff
is in his series roller Coaster this month covering important
truths found in the Book of Psalms, where he takes
a transparent and honest look at the struggles we all
based on planet Earth and how God is there for
(13:03):
us in the toughest of times. The series is called
roller Coaster, Facing the Ups and Downs of Life, and
it includes today's lesson Dark Times. This inspiring eight message
series is available when you go to Promiseheart dot org
and click the listen link. It'll be a blessing to you.
(13:23):
Speaking of blessings at from His Heart. We've been blessed
beyond measure to be able to ride the ups and
downs of financial support the last twenty plus years, and
it allows us to be here each and every day
with messages that impart real truth to our dark and
hurting world. Pastor Jeff Shreeve is a volunteer for this ministry.
(13:43):
When you make a gift. It goes to helping us
create and broadcast these lessons on over eight hundred and
fifty radio stations across the United States and also around
the world on TV and radio. For your support this month,
we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's truth called Nothing
But the Truth and his booklet Sticks and Stones What
(14:06):
to Do When the Going Gets Tough. Both the series
and the booklet are gifts to you to say thanks
for your support. Call eight sixty six for zero Bible,
eight six six for zero Bible, or go online to
from his Heart dot org and make your secure gift.
You can get the series on a USB flash drive
(14:27):
an immediate MP three download, or CDs or DBDs your choice. Well,
let's get back to the message today and learn the
benefits of drawing closer to God, especially in the dark times.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
In the dark times, we can often begin to question
how long, O Lord? And then we can question not
only the duration, but God's care and concern for us. Lord,
don't you care about me in the dark place? Look
what he says in verse one, How long, O Lord?
Will you for get me forever? How long will you
(15:04):
hide your face from me? Want you to circle that
word forget. It's a word that's used many, many times
in the Old Testament, one hundred and five times. To
be exact, it's a word that means this to mislay,
to ignore, to be oblivious, to cease to care. That's
(15:26):
the way David felt. Now you remember this about the psalms.
Psalms are raw and real to life. Psalms let you
know what's going on inside. And Psalm thirteen has six verses.
The first four are David just venting. The last two
are words of faith. So now we're just getting his feelings.
(15:48):
And it feels like God is hidden his face. It
feels to David like God has forgotten him, like God
ceases to care for him. Now that's not true, but
it sure feels like that. It feels like that for David.
And we can relate to that because we go through
times where it feels like, I think God forgot my address,
(16:09):
he forgot my phone number. He seems to have put
me on a shelf somewhere and close the door. He
didn't know what's going on. He knows, he knows. Here's
the truth. Isaiah forty nine. Israel was saying that the
Lord had forgotten them Judah, Lord, you have forgotten us,
He says, this can a woman forget her nursing child
(16:31):
and have no compassion on the sun of her womb?
Even these may forget, But I will not forget you. Behold,
I've inscribed you on the palms of my hands. That's
the truth. God doesn't forget you. He doesn't cease to
care for you, although it can feel like it at times.
(16:52):
So that's the first insight in the dark times. We
begin to question second insight in the dark times and
often begin to despair. We go from questioning does God
even care about me? And the longer that you start
to run that through your mind, the easier it is
(17:14):
to slide into this desperation. Look again. In verse two,
he says, how long shall I take counsel in my soul?
Having sorrow in my heart all the day? Verse three,
Consider and answer me, Oh Lord, my God, enlighten my eyes,
lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemies
say I have overcome him, Lest my adversaries rejoice when
(17:37):
I am shaken. David went from questioning God and God's
care and concern for him to being in a place
where he's just in sorrow all day long, being in
a place where he's just life just is terrible, and
God has forgotten me, and if I don't get some light,
(17:58):
I'm going to die. It's not fun being in that place.
It's not fun going down, down, down. And when you
allow yourself to move from questions into despair and you
let the darkness really seep into your soul and you
fall into a place of depression, you start to live
(18:21):
in sorrow all the day, just like David said, And
we start to live there having sorrow in my heart
all the day. The word sorrow literally means affliction, grief, anguish.
Now here's David, and he's been promised so much. You're
anointed king, You're gonna be the king of Israel. Well,
(18:45):
when is that gonna happen? God doesn't tell him when.
You know, the Lord promises us a lot of stuff.
He doesn't tell us when those things are coming. He
promised Abraham a son. He didn't tell him when the
sun was coming. You know, Abraham was in his early
seventies when God promised him his son Isaac. Isaac wasn't
born to Abraham was one hundred. So the Lord doesn't say, hey,
I'm gonna give you this. Typically doesn't say that I'm
(19:05):
gonna give you this, and I'm gonna give you this tomorrow.
He doesn't say that. So he anoints David king. And David,
let's say he's twelve thirteen years old. You know how
old David was when he became king of all Israel.
He was thirty seven thirty seven, So there's like twenty
five years that have passed from the time he was
anointing king to the time he actually took the throne
(19:25):
of Israel. He became king in Hebron and he was
king there for seven years, and that was when he
was thirty but all Israel he was thirty seven years old,
so there was a big gap in there. And so
here's David, and he can easily just get so frustrated
because he's like, God, I don't understand this. You promised
me so much, but none of this is coming to pass,
and there's not a step between me and death and
(19:46):
and Lord, it just things are just so dark and
so black and so bleak, and I don't see it
getting any better. And he's had sorrow in his heart
all the day. He said, how long she'll I take
counsel in my soul. No, God's not answering. God's hidden
his face. According to David, God, you've hidden your face
from me. And so when I pray, it's just like
(20:08):
it doesn't get past the ceiling, and it just feels
like all I have to do is counsel myself because
you're not counseling me. You're not speaking to me, and
you're a million miles away right now from me. Lord,
and he begins to live in sorrow. Hey makes sense,
understandable that he was feeling that way. It's normal, it's
(20:29):
natural for him to feel that way. But it's not right.
It's not right. Yeah, his circumstances are bad, but God
didn't want him to live in sorrow all the day.
You know. One of the famous psalms, most famous psalms,
Psalm twenty three. David wrote that it's the shepherd's song.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want And
in Psalm twenty three he says these words, even though
(20:52):
verse four, even though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I fear no evil because you
are with me. Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I don't live in the
valley of the shadow of death. I don't set up
shop in the valley of the shadow of death. I
(21:14):
don't put down my tent pegs in the dark valley
of the shadow of death. No, I'm going through the
valley of the shadow of death. He had sorrow in
his heart all the day. He was beginning to live
there in the place of sorrow. God doesn't want you
to live in the place of sorrow. God says, listen.
Sorrow comes to every life. Nobody goes through life unscathed
from sorrow and anguish and grief. But where people really
(21:37):
get derailed is if they hit those dark times and
then they stop and they put down their tent pegs
and they begin to live in sorrow and grief and regret.
Oftentimes that happens to couples when they lose a child.
It's just like they can't get past it. And God says, listen,
(21:58):
I don't want you to live here. I mean, it's
real life. You're going through this. There are hurts. You
get hit on the freeway by an eighteen wheeler and
you puncture both lungs and break a bunch of bones,
and you're in intensive care. You don't get out of
there in two days. You're going to be in the
hospital a while. We all understand that if your body
(22:19):
is broken up, it takes a while to heal well emotionally.
When you go through hard times, when you go through
dark times, you don't just snap your fingers and everything's great.
It takes time. But here's the thing. You don't put
down your tent pegs in the valley of the shadow
of death. The God who led you to it wants
(22:39):
to lead you through it. And here's David and he's
getting close now. He's just talking about feelings. Here. This
is how he felt. He felt like it's just not
getting any better. I'll have sorrow in my heart all
the day. You know, the Bible speaks of joy for
the child of God, far more than it speaks for
happy for the child of God. Although the Bible does
(23:02):
speak of happiness when Jesus, Jesus gave the beatitudes, blessed
are the ones who are this way and this way
and this way. The word macarios means to be happy.
So the Lord is interested in our happiness, but far
more interested in us having joy. Someone as well said
what is joy? They said, joy is the flag that
is flown from the castle of the heart. When the
(23:24):
King is in residence, When you have your life turned
over to the Lord, even in the midst of intense
suffering and intense sorrow, there can still be joy because
God is still God.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yes, God is still God. But many more would say,
but my pain continues and I need his help. Now
where is he? Pastor Jeff will have the answer to
that tomorrow when he completes the message Dark Times from
the series roller Coaster, facing the ups and downs of life.
(24:05):
Join us on Wednesday as we open God's Word and
share real truth, real love, and real hope from.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
His heart.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Always from his heart is the listener supported broadcast ministry
of doctor Jeff Shreeve speaking the truth in love to
(24:44):
a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what,
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Find out more about that when you go to Fromishart
dot org.
Today on from his heart, we get raw and real
about the dark times in life. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreeve.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're going to look at the Psalms for this series
because Psalms are so true to life. You know, David
wrote lots of the Psalms, and in the Psalms he
just lets it all hang out. He tells you what's
going on inside. He kind of peels back the layers
and just says, this is how I'm feeling. I had
a friend of mine he said one time, he said,
(00:28):
you know, you can sum up the Book of Psalms
this way. Life is hard, but God is good. If
you're not prone to reading the Psalms, I want to
encourage you to do that. It's raw and it's real,
and it teaches us so much about the Lord and
how to face the ups and downs of life with truth. Real.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
From this home, all this mump On from his heart,
we've been talking about truth, the real truth that God
has given us to guide, provide and protect us in
our sin sick world, even when the ups and downs,
the good times, and the tough times surround us, and
(01:17):
they do surround us all in the midst of all
of that God is good and faithful and true, especially
through the dark times. This is from his heart with
Pastor Jeff Shreeve. Thank you for joining us today as
we navigate the roller coaster of life and learn to
face the ups and downs that come. Today will be
(01:38):
in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Psalms. Turn
there now if you can now. Today's first message in
this series, called roller Coaster is actually a heartwarming tale
called Dark Times that will specifically teach us to rejoice
and rest in the hope of the Lord even in
(01:58):
the darkest of situations. Here's Pastor Jef to help us
understand and trust and how God works in the dark times.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
How many in this room have ever ridden on a
roller coaster? Can I see your hand? How many in
here would say I'm never again going to ride on
a roller coaster? Okay, a lot of hands go up.
How many in here it can remember the first time
they went on a roller coaster? Anybody remember the first time?
My first time when I was in seventh grade. We
(02:28):
went to Astro World which is now six Flags. But
first time I was on a roller coaster and it
was fairly mild compared to the roller coasters of today.
But you know, roller coasters are just a few minutes long,
and they are thrilling and exciting and frightening all at
the same time, all kind of rolled up into one.
(02:51):
You know, life is a lot like that roller coaster.
It has ups and it has downs, and it has
twist and turns and thrills and chills, and then you
even go through some dark times. We're going to look
at the Psalms. And one of the reasons we want
(03:11):
to look at the Psalms for this series is because
psalms are so true to life. You know, David wrote
lots of the Psalms, and in the Psalms he just
lets it all hang out. He tells you what's going
on inside. He kind of peels back the layers and
just says, this is how I'm feeling. I had a
friend of mine he said one time, he said, you know,
(03:31):
you can sum up the Book of Psalms this way.
Life is hard, but God is good. Life is hard,
but God is good. And so if you're not prone
to reading the Psalms, I want to encourage you to
do that. You know, if you read five Psalms a day,
you can read through the Book of Psalms. In a month,
I try and read five Psalms every day. It's a
little tough when you hit Psalm one nineteen because it's
(03:53):
so many verses. But if you read five Psalms a day,
one hundred and fifty in the Book of Psalms, you
can read through the whole book, and you learn so much.
And there's so many prayers and so much strength that
you get from looking at the Psalmist and David so
much of the time to see what was going on
in this person's heart. It's raw and it's real, and
(04:13):
it teaches us so much about the Lord and how
to face the ups and downs of life. Well, today
we want to look at a message I've entitled dark Times,
and we go through pitch black times in life. We
go through dark times in life. We go through times
when it seems like the bottom has dropped out and
God seems like he's a million miles away. David had
(04:37):
a time like that. We don't know exactly what was
going on in Psalm thirteen, but we do know about
the life of David that he was anointed king, the
King of Israel, when he was just a kid twelve
thirteen fourteen years old, but he didn't become king for
many many years after that. When he got to be
a man, he was in King Saul's army and he
(05:01):
was the leader of the army, and the people gravitated
toward David because God's hand was on David, and God
had taken his hand off King Saul and he put
it on King David. And King Saul was very jealous
of David because he heard the people singing, Saul has
slain his thousands, and David has slain his tens of thousands,
(05:22):
and Saul says, what is that song? I hate that song?
And they've attached to the son of Jesse. David's dad
is Jesse, to the son of Jesse ten thousands, but
me only a thousand, and so he started to get
very suspicious of David and he began to come after David,
and David spent years of his life on the run
(05:43):
from King Saul, who was hunting him like a dog
to try and kill him. David told Jonathan, Saul's son,
who happened to be David's best friend. He said, Jonathan,
there is literally not a step between me and death.
And it was during the time that Saul was hunting him.
That David really went into a dark, dark place, and
(06:07):
God seemed a million miles away, and his prayers just
didn't seem to get any higher than the ceiling. And
he felt so forlorn and so forgotten, and he didn't
know what to do. Psalm thirteen teaches us so much
about life about the dark times. Maybe you're going through
a dark time, or maybe you just came out of
(06:29):
a dark time, or you know what, maybe a dark
time is coming up on the horizon. All of us
can relate to dark times. So let's learn from Psalm
thirteen what to do. We know David was in a dark,
dark time in life because he says these words in
Psalm thirteen, give me light in the darkness lest I die.
(06:50):
It was so dark for him. So three insights from
Psalm thirteen about dark times. Insight number one. In the
dark times, we can easily begin to question. We question
in the dark times. Look at verses one and two.
How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? Will
(07:15):
you hide your face? How long will you hide your
face for me? How long shall I take counsel in
my soul? Having sorrow in my heart? All the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Two verses?
Five questions in the New American Standard Bible. Five questions
in two verses. Hey, when you're going through a dark
(07:37):
time in life, we just naturally begin to start asking questions.
And did you notice that most of the questions have
to do with two words? How long? How long? See
we go through the hard times, the dark times? We
question the duration of the darkness, of the suffering that
(07:58):
we're going through. We want to know from God, how
long does this last? Lord? How long? You know? We
live in a society where we just want things quickly,
so quickly. We have a microwave society, we have a
fast food society. We have an instant coffee society. And
when we're going through struggles and suffering, man, we want
(08:21):
it to be instant relief. How long, oh Lord? It's
a normal, natural question, you know. In the Book of
the Revelation, the Tribulation, saints asked the Lord, how long
before you judge the wicked on the earth? Lord? That's
a question that is asked over and over and over.
And David asked it four times in two verses because
(08:43):
he didn't like what he was going through. Now, we
all have heard the phrase time flies when you're having fun,
but time drags when you're having none. And David wasn't
having no fun and it was hard for him, and
he wanted out of that situation, and God delivered me
and deliver me. Now. I read a story about the
(09:06):
great pastor Phillips Brooks, great pastor in the eighteen hundreds.
He was known as a man of poise and a
man of quiet demeanor. But you know, he was a
human being just like everybody else, and he had times
where it was difficult for him, and he was going
through a dark time and a friend saw him and
Brooks was just kind of pacing around like a caged lion.
And his friend said to him, Hey, Phillips, what is
(09:29):
the deal? What is going on in your life? He said, well,
let me tell you what's going on in my life.
The trouble is that I'm in a hurry. And God,
isn't you ever been there where you're God that you
do something? And God seems to be just not in
a hurry at all. You know, we live in a
microwave society. God doesn't have a microwave. God has a
crock pot. And when God is working on you and
(09:52):
working on me, it's slow going. We don't like it
in the dark times. Give me light in the darkness. Lord,
I don't like this dark time. I don't let you
feel so far away from me. God, I don't like this.
But you know, it's in the dark room that film
has developed. It's in the dark room that God does
(10:13):
his deep and abiding work. You know, God doesn't really
do a lot in our lives when we're on the mountaintop.
It's when we're going through the low points, when we're
going through the valleys. Jane Eagleston wrote a poem that
says this, Sometimes life seems hard to bear, full of sorrow,
(10:33):
trouble and woe. It's then I have to remember that
it's in the valley I grow. If I always stayed
on the mountaintop, I never experience pain, I would never
appreciate God's love and would be living life in vain.
I have so much to learn, and my growth is
very slow. Sometimes I need the mountaintops, but it's in
(10:56):
the valleys I grow. Forgive me, Lord, or complaining when
I'm feeling so very low, Just give me a general
reminder that it's in the valleys. I grow, thank you
for the Valley's Lord, for this one thing. I know.
The mountaintops are glorious, but it's in the valley I grow.
(11:18):
God does his best work in the dark places. You
think of the Lord Jesus Christ. They took him off
that cross, his body battered and beaten and whipped and broken,
so to speak for us. And they took him off
that cross, and they put the aloes and the mirror
(11:40):
upon him, and they wrapped him in those grave clothes,
and they put him in a cave, and they rolled
a stone over the cave. And it was a dark place.
And God did his greatest work in that cave, in
that dark place. Maybe you're in a dark place today
saying I want to do a work in that situation
(12:03):
in your life. How long, oh Lord, it's as long
as it needs to be for me to teach you
some lessons that I can't teach you on the mountaintop.
I can only teach you that in the valley.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
In spite of all of the heartache we go through
on this earth, we can follow in the footsteps of
the Psalmist and trust God to see us through. Pastor
Jeff returns on from His Heart in just moment with
more in this lesson called Dark Times. It's true life
is like a roller coaster, filled with ups and downs
(12:42):
and good times and tough times, but in the midst
of it all, God is good and faithful. Pastor Jeff
is in his series roller Coaster this month covering important
truths found in the Book of Psalms, where he takes
a transparent and honest look at the struggles we all
based on planet Earth and how God is there for
(13:03):
us in the toughest of times. The series is called
roller Coaster, Facing the Ups and Downs of Life, and
it includes today's lesson Dark Times. This inspiring eight message
series is available when you go to Promiseheart dot org
and click the listen link. It'll be a blessing to you.
(13:23):
Speaking of blessings at from His Heart. We've been blessed
beyond measure to be able to ride the ups and
downs of financial support the last twenty plus years, and
it allows us to be here each and every day
with messages that impart real truth to our dark and
hurting world. Pastor Jeff Shreeve is a volunteer for this ministry.
(13:43):
When you make a gift. It goes to helping us
create and broadcast these lessons on over eight hundred and
fifty radio stations across the United States and also around
the world on TV and radio. For your support this month,
we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's truth called Nothing
But the Truth and his booklet Sticks and Stones What
(14:06):
to Do When the Going Gets Tough. Both the series
and the booklet are gifts to you to say thanks
for your support. Call eight sixty six for zero Bible,
eight six six for zero Bible, or go online to
from his Heart dot org and make your secure gift.
You can get the series on a USB flash drive
(14:27):
an immediate MP three download, or CDs or DBDs your choice. Well,
let's get back to the message today and learn the
benefits of drawing closer to God, especially in the dark times.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
In the dark times, we can often begin to question
how long, O Lord? And then we can question not
only the duration, but God's care and concern for us. Lord,
don't you care about me in the dark place? Look
what he says in verse one, How long, O Lord?
Will you for get me forever? How long will you
(15:04):
hide your face from me? Want you to circle that
word forget. It's a word that's used many, many times
in the Old Testament, one hundred and five times. To
be exact, it's a word that means this to mislay,
to ignore, to be oblivious, to cease to care. That's
(15:26):
the way David felt. Now you remember this about the psalms.
Psalms are raw and real to life. Psalms let you
know what's going on inside. And Psalm thirteen has six verses.
The first four are David just venting. The last two
are words of faith. So now we're just getting his feelings.
(15:48):
And it feels like God is hidden his face. It
feels to David like God has forgotten him, like God
ceases to care for him. Now that's not true, but
it sure feels like that. It feels like that for David.
And we can relate to that because we go through
times where it feels like, I think God forgot my address,
(16:09):
he forgot my phone number. He seems to have put
me on a shelf somewhere and close the door. He
didn't know what's going on. He knows, he knows. Here's
the truth. Isaiah forty nine. Israel was saying that the
Lord had forgotten them Judah, Lord, you have forgotten us,
He says, this can a woman forget her nursing child
(16:31):
and have no compassion on the sun of her womb?
Even these may forget, But I will not forget you. Behold,
I've inscribed you on the palms of my hands. That's
the truth. God doesn't forget you. He doesn't cease to
care for you, although it can feel like it at times.
(16:52):
So that's the first insight in the dark times. We
begin to question second insight in the dark times and
often begin to despair. We go from questioning does God
even care about me? And the longer that you start
to run that through your mind, the easier it is
(17:14):
to slide into this desperation. Look again. In verse two,
he says, how long shall I take counsel in my soul?
Having sorrow in my heart all the day? Verse three,
Consider and answer me, Oh Lord, my God, enlighten my eyes,
lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemies
say I have overcome him, Lest my adversaries rejoice when
(17:37):
I am shaken. David went from questioning God and God's
care and concern for him to being in a place
where he's just in sorrow all day long, being in
a place where he's just life just is terrible, and
God has forgotten me, and if I don't get some light,
(17:58):
I'm going to die. It's not fun being in that place.
It's not fun going down, down, down. And when you
allow yourself to move from questions into despair and you
let the darkness really seep into your soul and you
fall into a place of depression, you start to live
(18:21):
in sorrow all the day, just like David said, And
we start to live there having sorrow in my heart
all the day. The word sorrow literally means affliction, grief, anguish.
Now here's David, and he's been promised so much. You're
anointed king, You're gonna be the king of Israel. Well,
(18:45):
when is that gonna happen? God doesn't tell him when.
You know, the Lord promises us a lot of stuff.
He doesn't tell us when those things are coming. He
promised Abraham a son. He didn't tell him when the
sun was coming. You know, Abraham was in his early
seventies when God promised him his son Isaac. Isaac wasn't
born to Abraham was one hundred. So the Lord doesn't say, hey,
I'm gonna give you this. Typically doesn't say that I'm
(19:05):
gonna give you this, and I'm gonna give you this tomorrow.
He doesn't say that. So he anoints David king. And David,
let's say he's twelve thirteen years old. You know how
old David was when he became king of all Israel.
He was thirty seven thirty seven, So there's like twenty
five years that have passed from the time he was
anointing king to the time he actually took the throne
(19:25):
of Israel. He became king in Hebron and he was
king there for seven years, and that was when he
was thirty but all Israel he was thirty seven years old,
so there was a big gap in there. And so
here's David, and he can easily just get so frustrated
because he's like, God, I don't understand this. You promised
me so much, but none of this is coming to pass,
and there's not a step between me and death and
(19:46):
and Lord, it just things are just so dark and
so black and so bleak, and I don't see it
getting any better. And he's had sorrow in his heart
all the day. He said, how long she'll I take
counsel in my soul. No, God's not answering. God's hidden
his face. According to David, God, you've hidden your face
from me. And so when I pray, it's just like
(20:08):
it doesn't get past the ceiling, and it just feels
like all I have to do is counsel myself because
you're not counseling me. You're not speaking to me, and
you're a million miles away right now from me. Lord,
and he begins to live in sorrow. Hey makes sense,
understandable that he was feeling that way. It's normal, it's
(20:29):
natural for him to feel that way. But it's not right.
It's not right. Yeah, his circumstances are bad, but God
didn't want him to live in sorrow all the day.
You know. One of the famous psalms, most famous psalms,
Psalm twenty three. David wrote that it's the shepherd's song.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want And
in Psalm twenty three he says these words, even though
(20:52):
verse four, even though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I fear no evil because you
are with me. Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I don't live in the
valley of the shadow of death. I don't set up
shop in the valley of the shadow of death. I
(21:14):
don't put down my tent pegs in the dark valley
of the shadow of death. No, I'm going through the
valley of the shadow of death. He had sorrow in
his heart all the day. He was beginning to live
there in the place of sorrow. God doesn't want you
to live in the place of sorrow. God says, listen.
Sorrow comes to every life. Nobody goes through life unscathed
from sorrow and anguish and grief. But where people really
(21:37):
get derailed is if they hit those dark times and
then they stop and they put down their tent pegs
and they begin to live in sorrow and grief and regret.
Oftentimes that happens to couples when they lose a child.
It's just like they can't get past it. And God says, listen,
(21:58):
I don't want you to live here. I mean, it's
real life. You're going through this. There are hurts. You
get hit on the freeway by an eighteen wheeler and
you puncture both lungs and break a bunch of bones,
and you're in intensive care. You don't get out of
there in two days. You're going to be in the
hospital a while. We all understand that if your body
(22:19):
is broken up, it takes a while to heal well emotionally.
When you go through hard times, when you go through
dark times, you don't just snap your fingers and everything's great.
It takes time. But here's the thing. You don't put
down your tent pegs in the valley of the shadow
of death. The God who led you to it wants
(22:39):
to lead you through it. And here's David and he's
getting close now. He's just talking about feelings. Here. This
is how he felt. He felt like it's just not
getting any better. I'll have sorrow in my heart all
the day. You know, the Bible speaks of joy for
the child of God, far more than it speaks for
happy for the child of God. Although the Bible does
(23:02):
speak of happiness when Jesus, Jesus gave the beatitudes, blessed
are the ones who are this way and this way
and this way. The word macarios means to be happy.
So the Lord is interested in our happiness, but far
more interested in us having joy. Someone as well said
what is joy? They said, joy is the flag that
is flown from the castle of the heart. When the
(23:24):
King is in residence, When you have your life turned
over to the Lord, even in the midst of intense
suffering and intense sorrow, there can still be joy because
God is still God.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yes, God is still God. But many more would say,
but my pain continues and I need his help. Now
where is he? Pastor Jeff will have the answer to
that tomorrow when he completes the message Dark Times from
the series roller Coaster, facing the ups and downs of life.
(24:05):
Join us on Wednesday as we open God's Word and
share real truth, real love, and real hope from.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
His heart.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Always from his heart is the listener supported broadcast ministry
of doctor Jeff Shreeve speaking the truth in love to
(24:44):
a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what,
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Find out more about that when you go to Fromishart
dot org.
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