Embracing God When You're in The Valley - Hope In The Dark: Week 3 with Pastor Craig Groeschel

[Music] [Music] I love it when I can tell that there are some people that are excited to be in church and ready to hear from God's Word we are in the book of Habakkuk Habakkuk has three chapters I've got good news for you today we are not in chapter 1 today we are not in chapter 2 today but guess what chapter were in today today we're in chapter 3 in the book of Habakkuk and if you've been with us hopefully you're expecting to experience something good in chapter 3 this book is so special to me

in fact I've written a new book that just came out on Tuesday of this week it's called hope in the dark believing God is good when life is not we are blown away blown away blown away blown away blown away we've never had a book fly off like this thank you for sharing on social media my publishers told me it came out on Tuesday it's been out of stock on Amazon since Thursday you almost can't find it in stores it's been between the 12th and 18th best-selling book of every book in the world on Amazon

in the first week and it's because of you telling people and unfortunately what that tells us is there are so many people that are hurting but we believe there's good news that God is still good in the hurting if you're trying to order it my advice would be just order it because it's out of stock but it's coming in I get in line now because I'm understanding it's gonna be a little while before they can catch up with the demand so I pray it continues to reach a lot of people let's talk about a backache

if you missed previous weeks let me give you a little bit of the backstory of Habakkuk Habakkuk is a minor prophet in the Old Testament that lived and prophesied around the Year 600 or so BC 600 years before the birth of Christ Habakkuk was different in the way that he ministered most prophets would speak to the people on the of God here is what God would say to you people but her back it was different what he did is he spoke to God on behalf of the people and what he said to God was wrong

it was real and it was full of emotion essentially he said God I don't like what you're doing I wish you were doing something else God why don't you seem fair chapter one of the book of Habakkuk is all about what so many of us do Habakkuk finds himself wondering why what he sees with his eyes is so different than what he believes in his heart why is it so often we believe that God can do something we think that he will and he doesn't but that it finds himself wondering God why don't you seem

fair chapter 2 is all about waiting waiting 1 number 1 God where are you where are you where are you God speaks and then says the backache here's what I'm gonna tell you I'm about to do something and what I'm gonna do is going to amaze you you wouldn't even believe it if I told you if I'm Habakkuk I'm thinking finally my God heard my prayers he's gonna come through something good is going to happen but God says no actually I'm gonna raise up your enemies the Babylonians who are even worse than you and your

enemies are gonna destroy you I was confused too first God now I've even more confused in chapter 2 he's waiting on this promise from God to come true some of you are in the waiting tone god winner you're gonna hear my prayer the verse said this though it linger wait for it though it linger wait for it when it's not God's time you can't force it when it is God's time you can't stop it chapter 2 is all about the waiting chapter 3 there seems to be a change in tone if you read all wine

and all of two all the way up to the very last verse in Chapter two you see this angst this agony kind of this disappointment this wondering why God aren't you doing what I want to do some of you may feel that way in your life right now the end of chapter 2 the very last verse Habakkuk says this he says I'm confused I'm wondering I'm doubting and he says but the Lord somebody say but the Lord he says but the Lord is in his holy temple but God is still on the throne and then

he says let all the earth be silent before him it's a little bit like the song that says sometimes you just have to be still and know that He is God I'm hurting I'm confused I don't understand but the Lord is in his holy temple then chapter 3 suggests kind of a reset verse one is a verse that you would likely just read on by but there is a word in verse 1 I want to bring to your attention chapter 3 verse 1 says a prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet on shineth everybody say off say

it again I need you guys help me out you're kind of quiet today look I'm not in a quiet mood if you're too kind of quiet you know just just just just don't be quiet okay and what's that off you did not just cuss in church I want to ease your your fears Chinchin off what in the world does should you not mean let me answer your questions shittin off is the plural of chigan now that we've established that we can move on Chinchin is actually a word only used one time in all the Bible

it's used in Psalm 7 shineth is also only used one time it's used in Habakkuk 3:1 these words we know a whole lot about him but what we do know is their directions on how to sing a song or a song it's a musical term that's instructing a congregation of people how you are to sing for example I might say what I'd like for you to do in this next worship song is I want you to sing it like a love song to God I'm telling you how to sing it or I might say sing

this one with a little bit of a jazz flair or sing this one with hip-hop passion when we do this but I need somebody to do the floss I can't do the floss I just pray for me I'm gonna learn it I can feel that goddess with me all things are possible with God awesome I said off let me tell you what off means it means to sing with strong emotion with impassioned exuberance it means wild passionate singing with rapid changes of rhythm it means high spirited praise vigorous enthusiasm one article I read said of

the word it said it's not a whiny crying in your beer ballad I like that that if you're in the mood to cry in your beer to a country song this my friends is not off what article said of shittin off and I quote it is praised punctuated with exclamation marks oh that's so good where's my help over here on the throw it is praised it's praised with exclamation marks Amy told me last week she said she got a text from someone that was talking about how the message impacted their life and it really changed

them and she said she said credit they said it and it has seven exclamation marks and then she said it was so funny she said I always count how many and then she said technically in formal writing you only need one but when they're talking about your messages I love to see lots of them if you ever want to bless Amy add an exclamation point or two in fact I just want to say Amy I love you with exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point exclamation bae chuja knock okay some justjust just said what I want

you to understand about Habakkuk in chapter 3 is he is doing this full body all-in exuberant worship to God before God did what he wanted God to do did you catch that sometimes the most passionate authentic praise is actually the praise before the provision it's praise that is simply based on faith it's praising God not for the what but for the who it's not for what you have done it's not for what I think you're going to do this is just praise for who you are for your character for your nature for your goodness for

your glory it's praise for the who not praise for the one it's enough it's praise before anything happens in verse 2 we see Habakkuk say this of God he says Lord I've heard of your fame I stand into all of your D's Lord he says repeat them somebody say repeat them he says do it again God repeat them in our day in our time makes them known in Wrath God I know you're coming to judge us but remember mercy God do it again God I've seen you do it before and even before you do it

I'm gonna praise you believe in God you're gonna do it again I love the song that we sang today and worship by our good friends at elevation Church led by Pastor Steven Furtick who actually wrote the lyrics to the song this says I've seen you move God come move the mountains and I believe I'll see you do it again you made a way where there was no way and I believe I'll see you do it again God I've seen you work I know you can I do it again I'm praising you God not even for

what is going on God but just who you are enough what do you do when life gets difficult first week we talked about sometimes you experience the goodness of God you're kind of on a high thank you god you're amazing I love you God you answer all my prayers you're fantastic God yeah I feel you and then something happens is bad you lose your job you get bad news you pray for something and you don't get what you prayed for you find yourself wanting something and you know God could give it to you easily and

he doesn't give it to you and you experience what Henry Blackaby calls a crisis of belief god I thought you're gonna do this but I find myself in a different place so many people when they hit the crises of belief they think okay well I'm just gonna pretend like it's not happening I'm kind of gonna deny it and go back into the state of bliss with God other people say okay god you're not real forget you I'm gonna walk away from you what do you do when what you see with your eyes is different than

what you believe in your heart and you find yourself in the valley what do you do when you're crying out to God believing that he'll hear your prayer he'll move in a way that brings relief or brings blessing or beliefs brings provision and yet God doesn't let's talk about two things the first things is we're going to remember and embrace the goodness and the faithfulness of our God we're going to remember some Taisei remember verse 3 says this Habakkuk says God came from taemin the Holy One from mount pour on his glory covered the heavens

and his praise filled the temple when you hear about these places you may think that means nothing to me but these places were very meaningful to Habakkuk because these were the two places taemin and Pierre on where God took his people for refuge after delivering them from Egyptian bondage he's saying God I am remembering when we didn't think there was any way when we thought our people would be in bondage forever but God you moved the heart of Pharaoh God you split open the Red Sea you caused us to walk through on dry ground God

you destroyed our enemies as they pursued us behind god I remember when you were faithful I think back on your goodness God I know you can do it again vs. 4 or 5 & 6 Habakkuk says of God his splendor was like the sunrise rays flashed from his hand where his power was hidden played went before him pestilence followed his stuff what did God do he stood and shook the earth he looked and made the nation tremble he said God I remember your faithfulness I remember your goodness I remember your justice I remember your presence

I remember God when you were glorified through what you did and if you read forward in verses 7 through 15 this is kind of what a backache does he's talking back about the justice and the faithfulness of God here's what her back it could have done he could have remembered some of the things the other people of God remembered perhaps he did he could have said God I remember when you provided for your people with manna from heaven with meat from a bird with water from a rock I remember he could have said I remember

when you shut the mouths of hungry lions to deliver Daniel and friend I remember when you were with the three Hebrew children in the fire and they came out on the other side and they were not burnt I remember God when you raised the dead god I remember when you spoke life into dry bones and they came to life sometimes when you're in the valley you just simply have to remember the goodness and the faithfulness of God I think back sometimes when I'm questioning God now remember in college when my sin caught up to me

anybody ever had that happened to you it's fun for a while and then it's not and I felt guilty I felt afraid I didn't know what to do I was lost and so I thought you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna start a Bible study I thought I was like party guy Wilde guy Bible study and I remember walking to class the day of the Bible study and thinking I don't have a Bible I remember coming out of class and there was a gentleman from the organization known as the Gideons who looked at me I

said young man would you like a free Bible and he gave me a free Bible and I started reading the Bible and when I got to a fees in chapter 2 my life was forever change and now I recognize that years later I get to be a part of Veatch shirts which is provided more than one third of a billion Bibles for people around the world sometimes you just have to remember the faithfulness of God I remember dating waiting in the deep desire for mating center Jesus in the name of the Father Son and Holy

Spirit amen amen amen I remember going on a date with us a girl she's really nice but she wasn't really spiritually in the right place so I ended the date early and she said you're so weird a few weeks later she gave up these who think you are weird and I met this girl she's weird like you you should be weird together her name is Amy Fox in two days her name is Amy Groeschel I remember when God hand-delivered my best friend my prize and my dessert sometimes the best desserts take longer to cook I

remember when we ran out of money and the wedding food and we prayed and that day a refund check came in the mail I remember when Katie my oldest daughter was a little bitty girl got poison ivy from head to toe and the doctor said she's gonna be sick for a while and I remember she prayed Jesus make me well and I remember thinking that's such a sweet prayer you're gonna be sick for a while and I remember the next day she came in with a Barney panties and nothing else off ran into our room

and said come on I said what are you doing naked girl and she said look at me Jesus he'll be sometimes you just have to go back through your life and remember the goodness and the faithfulness of God what do you do when you're in the valley you remember the goodness of God the second thing let me tell you what you do not do the second thing you do not do is you do not just endure when you're in the valley what is enduring enduring is kind of a passive response to something that is happening

to you but we don't just endure what we do when we're in the valley is we embrace and believe that God is still good we embrace what he's doing if you think about Habakkuk in this situation he felt like the enemy the Babylonians were winning and they were he looked and he recognized this is bad and it's about to get worse but he embraced the situation and with everything in him he's still declared my God is still on the throne my god has always been good my god is always faithful what I love about this

is this is not some sort of state of denial this isn't just to pretend like it's not true this is looking the bad news in the face and still declare I still trust my God with everything in me I continue to embrace his goodness watch the back it does this power in chapter 3 chapter 1 is wandering chapter 2 is waiting chapter 3 watch as he embraces in verse 16 he says to God I heard and my heart pounded let me pause there for a moment and just clarify this is not the oh my gosh

she's so good-looking she smells so good and a level and flips her hair like that my heart pounded this is the bad kind this is I heard really bad news and I'm scared to death he says I heard and my heart pounded my lips quivered at the sound decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled God just told me he's gonna raise up the Babylonians and destroy the people that I love he says yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us he says is bad it's

going to get worse it's going to be brutal there's gonna be tremendous suffering then he says this though the fig tree does not bother and there are no grapes on the vines though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattles in the stalls you might say it this way though I'm still praying and I'm not seeing an answer so we're still believing that we can concede and we have not conceived so I'm still asking God for that job that provision that blessing that

answer and I still have not seen it so we lost something so valuable to us that we do not understand I might say it this way though I've cried my eyes out and played with everything in me they do and Hill my daughter though she is not yet healed then Habakkuk says this he says yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will be joyful in God my Savior there are dozens of reasons why I might not want to rejoice but this isn't a half-hearted song to God this is Jenna this is full body full

soul everything within me declaring the praise and the goodness and the glory of God even though I do not see what I want to see what is he doing he is wrestling and he's embracing he's wrestling and he's embracing this isn't a half-hearted partial declaration of God this comes from the depths of his soul this is a faith that worships when everything is not right this is a faith that gives God praise when you don't like what you see this is a cry from the depths of our heart believing in the goodness of God in

the middle of pain this is chapter 3 shig enough this is praise before the provision this is praise with exclamation points not for though what this is for the who what does Habakkuk mean it means to wrestle and embrace the name Habakkuk it means to wrestle I don't understand and to embrace when my daughter joy was 4 years of age she had an accident on a zipline because she was too small to be on it zipline went through the air and she went headfirst into a tree knocked herself out cold blood everywhere amy was beside

herself I took her to the emergency room she was passed out in the little car seat little four-year-old girl but blood everywhere they said what's your daughter's name I don't know couldn't remember we call her Jojo I know she has a formal name I just can't remember what's her birthday don't know I promise no more daddy look at her toes look at my toes I wonder daddy they put her on the operating table and she'd come to but they told me what we need you to do is we need you to hold her down so

I'm looking at my little girl I'm on top of her her eyes are meeting my eyes and she just kept saying daddy no daddy no daddy no daddy no I don't understand daddy no daddy no daddy no I don't understand that edge I never will forget it I just want to go outside and play please daddy will you play with me don't let them do this daddy don't let them do this and she wrestled with me and she didn't let go around my neck I knew that's her father but this is what needed to happen

she did not understand and so she wrestled but she didn't let go wrestle and embrace wrestling embrace last week we were singing the song you may not know the song that we're singing called you are is a song that our worship pastors actually wrote for my daughter Mandy for our whole church but they wrote it for my daughter Mandy they came over to our house and they played this song on the back porch and I cried all the way through it here's some of the lyrics from the song that we sang and I just want

to tell you you're gonna get the chance to sing it again today but this time you're not gonna sing it half-heartedly this time I believe you're gonna praise with exclamation points some of your in praise before the provision you gonna praise with shittin off with everything in you the song says this I will lift my hands while I'm waiting louder than my fears I will sing may my heart ever be reminded you were good you were good last week Abbi you said right there and in that song you knelt down and went to battle with

God in a way I wondered last week to come over to her kneel down with you I didn't want to invest our buddy up but it's my church I'm gonna do what I want okay I don't know what you're praying for but I left here and went back in my office and I prayed for you and I cried not cried and I cried I didn't know if I could come out and preach again because whatever whatever was inside of you is what's been inside of me and I want you to know I prayed for you

every day and I want you to know that God knows the cries of your heart what I love about you told Pastor Chris when she's old enough hire her because I saw I saw you wrestle she didn't let go you embraced in chapter 1 you don't walk away from God in chapter 2 you don't quit on God in chapter 3 even if he doesn't change the circumstances he changes your perspective so I don't want to interrupt her by last week but I just want to come give you a hug this week thanks for making me

cry we're even [Music] chapter 1 don't quit Oh God chapter 2 don't walk away from God [Music] Habakkuk doesn't resolve to make the most of a bad situation it's so much deeper than that what he does is he looks the truth in the face and he says this isn't good he says this is gonna get worse there's no grapes coming there's no blossoms coming there's only judgment coming but he says the Lord is still in his temple he's still worthy of praise and here's what I want you to see God never does what Habakkuk wants

them to do this is not a sitcom sermon there's never the okay now it's all bad it never happens but I want you to see the very last verse of this book in chapter 3 what do you do when you're waiting the last verse in chapter 3 says this can you pull the verse up for me the Sovereign Lord is my strength Habakkuk says he makes my feet like the feet of a deer what does God do he enables me to tread on the heights he takes me to a more intimate place to a place

of greater faith he takes me to a new place what do I know about God I know this I enjoy God on the mountaintops right I enjoy him on the mountaintops but I get to know him in the valleys I love to praise him for the what but in the valleys I simply praise him for who he is I like to brag on him on the mountaintops but I get to know him intimately in the valley and when you start to have this perspective of God you can do kind of like what James said in

James chapter what he said I can consider it pure joy whenever I don't understand whenever I face trials of many kinds because I know that these trials these hardships they're doing something in me they develop perseverance and perseverance must finish its work so that I may be mature and complete not lacking anything there's someone here it's time to praise God even when you don't see it it's time to praise God even when you don't feel it it's time to create cry out of praise him not just for what you see or what you don't but

for who he is on shiting off from everything inside what I want you to understand is you cannot have chapter 3 type of intimacy without chapter one type of wandering and without chapter two type of waiting there's something God does in us a trust of faith of passion what do you do when you're in the valley you remember the goodness of God you embrace him you may wrestle don't understand that so father I ask that you would do what you can do got take us to chapter three where we embrace you no matter what all

of our churches is your praying today those of you who would say maybe I'm wondering maybe I'm in the waiting zone maybe there's just something it's not where I want it to be I want to continue to embrace God I don't understand God I wish you'd do something different but I want to continue embrace God if s you lift up your hand right now all of our churches lift them up I lift them up i Father I pray in this moment that we could lift our hands while we're waiting God that we could praise you

even though we're hurting God give us the faith to praise you even when we don't see the provision God not just for the what before the who who you are God help us God give us permission free us to wrestle to push back to cry out to even acknowledge our doubts but God to never let go because you will never let go of us and you will never leave us or forsake us as you keep praying today at all of our different churches there are those of you you're gonna recognize you don't have what I'm

talking about you don't have an intimacy of confidence strength and assurance with God what happens you may be very low right now I'm convinced sometimes God may even allow us to get low where we have nowhere else to look but up you're hurting you're desperate you feel alone you feel guilty you feel ashamed you feel broken what do you do you're here today not by accident you're here because God cares for you maybe you've been waiting on something for a long time what about this maybe God's waiting on you maybe he's waiting on you maybe

he's ready for you to say yes to His grace to his goodness to his gift of eternal life through Jesus who is Jesus Jesus is the Son of God perfect in every way without sin who was obedient to God's call for him died on a cross in our place as the perfect sacrifice rose again from the dead why so that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus would be saved forgiven transformed it doesn't matter who you are doesn't matter what you've done doesn't matter how dark your life feels when you call on

Jesus he hears your prayer he forgives you since he makes you better than all of our churches there are those of you it's your time it's your time when it's not God's time you can't force it when it is God's time you can't stop it you recognize it's your time you call on Jesus he will meet you he will save you he is here and he's waiting on you all of our churches those who say yesterday I turned from my sense I turned toward Jesus by faith I give my life to him lift your hands

I'm now all over the place to say yes to Jesus when over here praise God for you and right back over here over here in this section it back there as well here in the middle section of my goodness right back over here say yes Jesus I call on you sweetheart right here others have you right here in this section right back over here somebody on a worship got a little more than there's somebody ought to give God praise puts online you click right below me as those my people come into Christ and all of

our choices I need all of you back all the trips just come back let's all pray together everybody pray let's do this stand up all of our churches every location every live search every Network Church stand your feet right now at the end of this prayer guess what it's time to give God thanks it's time to give God praise everybody pray a lot Heavenly Father forgive me of my sins change me make me new Jesus be my Savior the Lord of my life fill me with your spirit so I could serve you so I could

follow you so I could make you known my life is not my own I give it to you thank you for new life now you have mine in Jesus name I pray I don't know if you're ready or not I don't know if you're ready somebody ready I hope somebody get ready you might want to just lift your hands right now you might want to lift your hands right now some might want to lift their hands right now and praise God while they're waiting we're not praising God just for the what we're praising him for

the who we will lift our hands while we're waiting on sugar not with everything in me I give him space with everything in me and I glue fi him I glorify Him for who he is not just what he does all of our churches lift her hearts mister head lift your voices and Jeff him praise [Music]