Ron Dunn Podcast - Although

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

Ron Dunn continues his sermon series "Believing Against The Grain"

Dr. I want you to open your Bibles tonight once again to the prophet Habakkuk, tonight to the third chapter, Habakkuk chapter 3. The third chapter of Habakkuk is entitled a prayer. It is more likely a psalm. A psalm was sung, and it is a song of probably in which faith is its greatest expression, but it is a song in which the prophet remembers all the things that God has done in times past. God, actually, it is an answer to Habakkuk's previous prayer. Why is it that God doesn't do anything about the evildoers? And the answer is God will do something about it.

That while God may be right now biding his time, and while it may look as though he is doing nothing, God will do something. He always has and he always will. And just as in times past he has come from the south like a warrior and the nature and the enemies have trembled at his presence, so it will happen again. And this is what the third chapter is all about. And then in verse 16, you have the conclusion of the matter and how Habakkuk responded to that. And so we'll read in verses 16 through 19 of chapter 3.

Habakkuk said, When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips heard at the voice rottenness into my bones, and I trembled in myself. When Habakkuk first heard this, when he remembered and when he realized the terror of the Lord, he himself was filled with terror and fear. But something has happened, and somewhere midstream in verse 16, his fear turns to faith. And he says that I might rest in the devil. When he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. Actually, what Habakkuk is saying is that, I will wait patiently, I will wait calmly for that ultimate victory that is to come.

God is going to come and He is going to gain the victory over all enemies, His and mine, and so I will wait calmly, I will wait patiently, rest in the day of trouble. And then in verse 17, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the foal shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls.

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. We've been singing these nights the staff's favorite hymns. And I love these hymns. I mentioned to Hal just a moment ago when we finished singing how it is well with my soul that what a blessing these hymns are and what a blessings they have been. And that there's nothing that can stir your heart

like the congregation singing together these great old hymns. One of my favorite hymns, and I can't recall if we've sung it yet or not, but I'm sure we will if we haven't before the week is over, but one of my favorite, now that I'm gonna mention it, won't we? One of my favorite hymns, of course, is Amazing Grace, as it is yours. I grew up on Amazing Grace.

I can't remember ever going to church and not singing Amazing Grace. That just seemed to be the thing to do. I always loved that last verse, and for, I'd say, most of my life in ministry, the last verse of that great hymn was my favorite. And the people seemed to always gather together a little extra gusto when it came to that last verse, singing about heaven. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. What a tremendous verse that is. But in the last few years, I have another verse of that hymn that is my favorite in the sense that it means more to me and ministers more to me. I'd have to say that now my favorite verse of that hymn is verse 3. Through many dangers, toils, and snares we have already come.

Tis grace that has brought us safe thus far, and tis grace that will lead us home. Through many dangers, toils, and snares we have already come. The reason that that has become such a favorite and meaningful verse to me is that the fact is I've never really been overly concerned about going to heaven. I've never had any doubt actually about it. Ever since I was saved and had the assurance of my salvation, I've never given it much thought as far as concern or uncertainty is concerned. I have no doubt if I were to

drop dead at this moment or if the Lord should somehow split the heavens and come back, roll back that scroll, I have no doubt that I would in the next moment be in his presence. I've really never been bothered by that. It's never really been a problem. I've never sat around wondering or worrying as whether I'd be there 10,000 years. I want to tell you something. I have had a question or two about these dangerous toils and snares. There have been some times when while not worrying that I'll end up in heaven, I've had some concern as to whether I was going to make it through the

dangerous toils and snares. And that has become to mean so much to me. We have come through many dangerous toils and snares, and it is grace that has led us safe thus far, and it is grace that will lead us on. My problem has been, and your problem I'm certain has been, is, Lord, I know I'm going to make it to heaven, but am I going to make it through the dangerous, toils, and snares right now? I think that was Habakkuk's problem all through this little book. I think that's what we've been seeing again and again and again.

His concern was these dangers, toils, and snares, the ever-present problem, the ever-present danger that was there. And evidently he must have found a promise. He must have found the answer, because as I mentioned on the very first night, one of the most intriguing things about this little book is that it opens with a complaint, and yet it ends with rejoicing. As we open that letter, he is filled with disgust and anger and complaint because God has seemingly paid no attention to all his cries about the violence and injustice. And yet when he closes, he closes with these words, yet I will rejoice in the Lord and I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will joy in the God of my salvation.

And more than that, He's going to elevate me to new heights to which I have never before climbed. He will make me to walk upon mine hind places. Evidently, between chapter 1, verse 1, and chapter 3, in the last verse, something had happened to Habakkuk. He found the secret. For he ends on this note of rejoicing. He has learned how to wait calmly for God's ultimate victory. His fear has turned to faith, and even while he contemplates the wrath of God and the future judgment of God as he comes in wrecking vengeance upon his enemies, and it fills him

with trembling and quivering within. Yet he says, I will wait calmly for that day. I will rest in the day of trouble. I think that is something that all of us covet and envy to be able to say, I can wait calmly until God brings forth His ultimate victory. I can rest in the day of trouble. And there is one particular word that stands out in this passage, and actually there are two words, but one more than the other. It's the first word of verse 17, although. I like words like that, although.

And then there's a verse in the word in verse 18, he says yet. Although and yet. Although and yet. I want us to examine this tonight and see just what secret it is that Habakkuk learned, how it is that you and I may be able to rest in the day of trouble, how we may be able to take circumstances that have not changed. And remember, this is what is so startling, and this, I think, is what is so praiseworthy, is that that man who was complaining at the end is rejoicing,

and yet not a single circumstance has changed. All his praying to the Lord, all his crying out to God to alter the circumstances and to deliver him from that present situation, God has said no to. And so nothing has changed at all. The same thing that Habakkuk was griping and complaining about in chapter 1, he is now rejoicing in in the midst of chapter 3. And so this is what challenges me. This is what I think is the real lesson here. Here is the greatest, if you want to call it that, commentary on Habakkuk 2, 4, the just shall live by faith. What is it to live by faith? It's found right here in these

words when he says, although these things, although, back in that 17th verse, he says, although the fig tree will not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Habakkuk is using there a double triad of things upon which the economy of the nation depends. If what he says is really so, then they're going in for great economic disaster. And nobody really knows if that is a result of the Chaldeans coming in or if that's just going to be in the natural consequence of things. But whatever it is, what Habakkuk is saying is this, that things are not only not going to improve, they're even going to get better,

even going to get worse. And all of these things upon which we depend economically for our livelihood, none of these things are going to come to pass. Things are going to get worse. Although this shall happen, although nothing good is going to happen, although nothing is going to change, yet, he says, I will rejoice in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my salvation. Now that is a triumphant faith. What I'd like to do tonight is just share with you three truths that I think come out of this. I think three things that we need to face, three truths that we need to acknowledge if we are going to be able to rest

in the day of trouble and to share in this triumphant faith. And the first one is this, very simply, things may never change. Things may not improve. Things may not get better your life may never be what you want it to be Habakkuk has been praying that God would somehow come with miraculous delivering powers and change the landscape of his circumstance

and yet as he comes to the end he says no this is not to be. The fig tree will not blossom, and there shall be no fruit in the fields, and there shall be no herds in the stalls. He said, although these things are, this is the way it's going to be, things aren't going to get any better right now. And I think you and I, if we're going to consider what it means to live by faith and trust God, we have to ultimately, eventually, we can't escape it, we have to confront ourselves with this fact, what if, what if God says no to all of our prayers for healing and deliverance and wholeness?

What if things never get any better? What if things never get any better? What if things never get any better? I thank God for those times when in answer to our prayers, God does intervene into our lives and He miraculously and supernaturally changes things and delivers. And I believe in that. I believe in that. I hope no one will go away saying, well, boy, I'm telling you what, there, that preacher, that liberal down there, he doesn't believe in answered. I hope no one will go away saying, well, boy, I'm telling you what. There's that preacher, that liberal down there. He doesn't believe in answered prayer. He doesn't believe in those.

I do. I do. I've seen God raise people off of a sick bed. I've seen God raise people who the doctors had said won't live. I've seen God perform miracles. We all have. All of us could stand up here tonight, and we could say, it's by His mercy that we are alive tonight. All of us have seen those

things happen, and I'm grateful to God when they do. But the only thing is, God doesn't always work that way. Sometimes God does say no. I have a friend in the ministry who's a great believer in the power of positive confession. And he believes you possess what you confess. Name it and claim it. And I believe in positive confession up to a point. I think that there's biblical grounds for that. But when I say he's a great believer in it, we're talking great believer. He's a great believer in positive confession. And a few years ago, his ministry was in shambles, absolute shambles. But if you ask him about it, he'd say, work's going great.

God's blessing, like he's never blessed before. Couldn't be better. Praise the Lord. At the same time, his health was in worse shape than his ministry. But if you were to ask him, how's your health? He'd say, man, it's great. He said, it's great. I couldn't be better.

Praise the Lord. And one day after an exchange like this, his secretary drew me aside and whispered in a concerned voice. She said, Preacher, where do you draw the line between positive confession and plain old lying? You see, I think there is, I see no conflict. I see no conflict between biblical faith and facing reality. I see no conflict there. And God does say no. Margaret Clarkson in her terrific little book called Grace Grows Best in Winter

titles one of her chapters with this, When Pain Moves In to Stay. When Pain Moves In to Stay. And she opens that chapter by saying, so now, suddenly, now you realize that pain is not in your life as a temporary lodger, but it is moved in as a permanent guest, perhaps even as master of your house. When pain moves in to stay, when suffering moves in to stay, suddenly you realize that life's not going to get any better physically. Suddenly you realize this is as well as I'm ever going to get.

This is as good as it's ever going to be. Things aren't going to be what I wish they were. Things aren't going to change. Things aren't going to improve. It may be a word from some sympathetic and soft-spoken physician in the inner sanctum of his private office, or it may just suddenly burst out blaring and screaming in your mind that suddenly things are never going to get any better. Things are never going to change. God, for some reason, is not going to save you from this situation. What do you do then? What do you do then when God says no? And He does. And people can say what they want to say, and they can drape all sorts of fanciful interpretations

over Paul's thorn in the flesh to try to hide the exegetical evidence, but I want to tell you something. God did say no to that old warrior. He did say no to him. Paul prayed repeatedly that God would remove the thorn, but God said no, and God sometimes says no to us. I was reading the other

day in Genesis, and I love that story of the rainbow in the sky. I preached a sermon once called The Gospel of the Rainbow, and there is a gospel in that rainbow. And God set the rainbow in the sky to make that covenant with Noah that God would never again, would never again do what He had done in that way. I want to tell you something. God has not set any such rainbow in your sky or in my personal sky. I cannot find anywhere in the Bible where God has set any rainbow in my heart where He has promised that I will have some kind of immunity, some kind of an exemption from heartache or suffering.

Sometimes God does say no to my requests. Sometimes God does say no to my prayers. And I believe this so much and I believe this so strongly that I would say to you that if you are determined, if you are determined to escape discomfort and pain, if you are determined to escape suffering, if you are determined to escape suffering, if you are determined to escape adversity, then you may as well make up your mind not to grow anymore as a Christian, for you're as far along as you're going to get.

And it would be well for you if you didn't grow feeling that way, because if you do, God is going to put you in situations where you're going to have to handle things like that, and with that attitude, you're going to have to handle things like that and with that attitude you'll never be able to handle them. I think that phrase over in Daniel when he talks about the three Hebrew children as they're being thrown into the fiery furnace and they bring a positive confession

if there ever was one. They said, our God is able to deliver us but if not, but if not. Now, folks, I think it takes greater faith to say, but if not, than it takes to say, our God will deliver us. Our God is able to deliver us, but if not. I was looking at another verse in another book the other day, and I'm amazed at how long a person can know the Bible,

read the Bible, study the Bible, even preach on the Bible and suddenly discover something brand new in it. I've often suspected that at times while I'm asleep, God sneaks new verses in the Bible. They weren't there before. Positive of it. I'm thinking of 1 Corinthians 10, 13, and now that I think about it, I'm embarrassed to remember how many times I've preached on it and didn't realize what is in there. There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man.

God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. That's what it says. That's the way it reads.

And then one day, not long ago, I was reading that, and all of a sudden I saw it from a different angle. I don't know, maybe the light on my desk was shifted just a little bit, and I could see it better than I'd been able to see it before. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation, will with every temptation, make a way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Well, now wait just a minute.

If I'm going to escape this temptation, I don't see any need to endure it. What do you mean? You're going to make a way of escape so that I can endure it? Now, my definition of escape is escape, period. There's no enduring. Do you see what I'm getting at? God says, I'll make a way of escape so that you may be able to what? Get out of it. Know that you may be able to what? Get out of it.

Know that you may be able to endure it. To endure it. The Bible says that he takes notice of every sparrow that falls. It's good, but the sparrow still falls. David says, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. That's true, but he still walks through the valley. He doesn't say, I won't feel the evil.

He doesn't say, I won't face the evil. I just will not fear it. And God is faithful, and he will make a way of escape, but not a way of escape so that we can escape out of it and never be touched by it, and never be touched by it, but that we may be able to endure it. Things may not improve. What are you going to do then? I remember reading Vance Havner's book,

Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow, right after his wife died. He wrote it, and I had the privilege of meeting his wife, Sarah. They were in our church, and shortly after that, she died. And I've talked with Dr. Havner about this a number of times. And in his book, he mentions the fact that so many people were praying for Sarah's healing. He said, I already had a sermon prepared. I already had a sermon prepared. After God had healed her and raised her up, I already had a sermon prepared. I was going around to preach. But he said, God didn't heal her. And I had no sermon for that. I know what to do. I know what to do when God heals,

and I know what to do when God delivers, and I know what to do when God changes my circumstance, but what do I do when He doesn't? There are times when all of my praying and all of my believing and all of my pleading the blood and all of my casting out demons and all of my binding of the devil, all of my praising of the Lord, all of that will not change a single thing. Things will not get any better. What do I do? Well, I think the Bible teaches us what we do is what Habakkuk did.

We accept it. I'm not talking about this resignation where I just resign myself to it. That's passive. That's giving up. And I'm not even talking about submission. Submission is sort of like, well, I've wrestled with God and I've wrestled with this thing and He's licked me and He's taken advantage of me because he's bigger and stronger. And so he's bent my fingers back.

I've had no choice. I've fallen to my knees. And I'm not talking about passive resignation. I'm not talking about this pouting kind of submission, but rather acceptance, which is active. You see, acceptance allows you to continue to protest and to struggle. It gives you the right to protest and struggle, but also you acknowledge His right to say no to all of your protests. That's acceptance. I'm not talking about rolling over and giving up. I believe that you and I ought to do everything in our power to change the circumstance that needs to be changed. And we ought to take advantage of every opportunity we have.

Acceptance isn't giving up. Acceptance is active. You continue to struggle. You continue to fight. You continue to protest. But at the same time, you no longer see the suffering, whether it's physical or mental or emotional, whether it's in your body or whether it's a permanent prodigal, whatever it may be, you no longer see your suffering as some monster.

Suddenly you see it as a minister sent to you from God that can do you good. That's what acceptance is. I think sometimes in our looking for a miracle of deliverance, we may miss the greatest miracle of all. The miracle that God is able to use my adversity and my suffering and my disappointment and my discouragement, He may be able to use that to bring greater glory and greater honor to His name than any other way. I think one is as much a miracle as another, don't you?

And if we're so content and so intent upon seeing the miracle of it being taken away, we may miss even the greater miracle and may miss all that God is able to do for us in the midst of that. And so I say to you, although, although is a word to be considered in your Christian vocabulary. Things may not get better. Bless God if they do, but things may not. What if they don't? What are you going to do?

What are you going to do? The biblical way, I think, is to accept it as God's will to fulfill a purpose that perhaps only He knows about. I may never learn of it in this life, but it's enough to know He has a purpose. The second thing I would say to you is this. If this is true, what Habakkuk is writing, and I have no choice really but to believe that it is true, then it leads me to say that it is meaning and not happiness that makes life worth living. Habakkuk says, although these things are going to be present, bad things, yet, he says, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.

And in the Hebrew, those words are in the strongest way possible to indicate determination, determination of the will. Habakkuk says, although these things are going to be true about me, things are not going to get better, yet I am determined to rejoice in the Lord. Therefore, what Habakkuk is saying to us, proving to us, is something that needs to be proven to us, I think, over and over again. That it is meaning and not happiness that makes life worth living. I mentioned last night a little physical problem I had. And like I said, it was nothing life-threatening. It was more or less mind-threatening. I thought I was going to go crazy. And that's one of the things.

Sometimes when you're sick, everybody knows what's wrong with you but the doctor. And everywhere I'd go, everybody had, you know, the solution for, and I couldn't seem to find out what was wrong, and I ended up in a psychiatrist's office one day. I never thought I'd be in a psychiatrist's office. The first question he asked me was this. He said, how often do you consider suicide? I had not expected to hear that question put to me.

I mean, after all, I am a minister. And after all, I do preach on the victorious life, Brother Howe. I could never contemplate suicide. And I sat there for a moment because I realized the man was serious. And I said, well, I know everybody does. You know, that's just one of the things. It's true. Everybody, sometime in their life, it passes through their mind.

But I said, I believe that I can honestly, honestly say, as best I know, as far as I know, I have never, never seriously considered suicide. He said, well, maybe I didn't put that exactly right. Let me put it another way. He said, do you ever get to the place where you think life is not worth living? Now he was getting more on my beam. He said, do you ever get to where you feel like life is not worth living? So I thought some more. Always tutored by my theology, I know that life has to be worth living. You can't be a preacher if you don't believe that.

And I thought for a while and I said, well, I know life is worth living. I know life is worth living. I know it is. But I said, my problem is not that. It's not the worthiness of life, that it has meaning. It's the weariness, just the everyday weariness of living it. The accumulated disappointments, the almost insane routine, just the carrying of the burden, just the everyday living of it, just the everyday living of it. But I understood what he was getting at, and I understand what the Bible is getting at.

My dear friends, I want to say something. As I've already said, it is not happiness. What we think of is happiness. And this is hard for us. This is hard for us, I think, to understand and to take in because our culture today, our culture today is programmed to believe this, that what makes life worth living is happiness on that scale. You go home tonight and turn on your television and watch the commercials and see what they

feed you. Our world system is geared to that. Having, possessing, being happy, getting rid of the headache, not having bad breath, using the right kind of deodorant, drinking the right kind of drink, getting an honest clean. One cereal advertises an honest, natural crunch. I don't know, what is a dishonest crunch? I mean, can you be arrested for that? I got to thinking about that, an honest, natural crunch.

Well, you get to taste Pepsi. Ivory is 99 and 44, 100% pure, but have you ever noticed they've never said pure what? They never do. It's 99 and 44, 100% pure, but what? Maybe pure broken glass for all I know. You know, what I'm trying to say to you is that our culture is hopelessly, hopelessly almost embedded into this idea that what makes life living is happiness. All right, but what happens when you're not happy? What happens when because of family problems and divorce, what happens because of a runaway child

or a child whose brain is hopelessly damaged because of some flirtation with drugs? What happens when the doctor says, this is the way it's going to be, you're never going to walk again? What happens then? What happens then? What happens then? Does life have any, is it worth living then?

I don't know if you've ever read Albert Camus' myth of syphilis, but if you have, you might have been shocked like I was by his opening statement. He said the only truly serious philosophical problem is that of suicide. And he goes on to explain, and I can't deny the truthfulness of it, he goes on to explain that every other question is immaterial and of profound indifference if there's no meaning to life. The first thing, the first consideration is, is life worth living? Is there any kind of meaning to life? I mean, it doesn't matter if two and two equal four. It doesn't matter if you know how to beat the stock market.

It doesn't matter if they know how to lengthen your life until you're a hundred. If it wasn't worth living in the first place, why bother with it? That's the question. Is life worth living? And what Habakkuk, I think, is showing us here is this, that it is not happiness. It is not how many cars you have or the kind of cars you have or how many clothes you have, or it's not the kind of beer you drink or the Coke you drink. It's not these things. Life doesn't revolve around this. What makes life worth living is the fact that there is supreme meaning and purpose to life.

And that purpose found in the purpose of God. It is God that gives meaning to life. And that's what Habakkuk is struggling with. And Habakkuk goes through, and we won't take the time, we do not have the time to go through all of this third chapter, but he finds that God does have a purpose. He always has had a purpose. By the way, I think you have there a great testimony to the fact that Habakkuk had accepted these things from God. If you want proof of Habakkuk's faith,

you just have to look at that prayer of his in the second verse of chapter 3. He said, O Lord, I have heard thy speech, I have heard your report, and I was filled with awe. O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. He's praying for a revival of God's work. What work? Well, it's that work in chapter 1, verse 5, where he raises up the Chaldeans. That's the work he was complaining about. And yet, Habakkuk has come to

the place of such absolute trust and confidence in God, realizing that it isn't happiness and having everything like you want it that makes life worth living. It is God fulfilling his purpose that gives meaning to life. He can even pray, Lord, revive thy work, even though that work may mean hard times for my people, even though that work may mean hard times for my people, even though that work may mean hard times for me, Lord, revive thy work. Why? Because God has a purpose. My family and I love to play Trivial Pursuit.

I wish I'd invented it. Those Canadians invented it in 45 minutes. They couldn't find their Scrabble board one night, and they made up their own game, and in 45 minutes, they'd invented Trivial Pursuit, and now they're multimillionaires. I used to pastor the First Baptist Church of Trivial Pursuit. I think most of us live lives of trivial pursuit. And I don't know about you, but tonight there is some great deal of comfort to know that my life is more than just a game of trivial pursuit. That it has significance, eternal significance,

that my little life means something in the grand scheme of God. And that's what makes life worth living, because it has meaning, it has purpose. God has always had a purpose. It's always been a saving purpose. Let me just point you to verse 13. He says, Thou went'st forth for the salvation of thy people. Glad he put that in there. They might not know it otherwise. Because in saving them, he seemed to be destroying them. In saving them, he seemed to be destroying them. But what God's purpose is about is always us.

His purpose is the salvation of His people. Over in Jeremiah 29, 11, there God is speaking again about the captivity of the people, and He said, I know the thoughts that I have towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil. captivity of the people and he said, I know the thoughts that I have towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil. It's as though he realized that the people were wondering, well, God must have some mighty bad feelings about us and his thoughts towards us must be of evil because he's treating us like he is.

How can God treat us like he is? And God says, I know the thoughts that I have towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil. Friend, God's thoughts towards you are always of peace. Deuteronomy 8, verse 16, I believe it is, Moses is remembering how God led them all those 40 years in the wilderness, and he comes to the end and he said, He did this, He did this to do thee good at thy latter end.

To do thee good at thy latter end. And in Job 42, 12, it is said of Job, So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. I tell you, it is a dismal outlook when you look upon life and say that the best is in the past. And no matter what the future may offer, it can never be as good as it was in the past when everything was right, when everything was happy. And now because of certain circumstances, life can never be as good as it was. I tell you, God always, always makes the latter end better than the beginning with His people.

I still believe He saves the best wine till last. There is purpose and there is meaning, and that's what makes life worth living. One final word. These things being so, Habakkuk shows us that even at the lowest points of our life, God can lift us up to the highest of heights. I love that 19th verse, the Lord God is my strength. Well, of course, Habakkuk, he always was. Well, yes, but sometimes you're not aware of it. Isn't this what Paul means when reflecting upon the thorn? The message of God comes to him and says, in your weakness I am made strong. And Paul says, therefore I will glory, not in the removal of the thorn, but I will glory. In the thorn I will glory because why?

When I am weak, the power of Christ spreads itself over me like a tent. God's always our strength. The trouble is, as Eric Hopper said, when you have the machines to move mountains, you don't need the faith to move them. And as long as I feel strong in myself, I may never be aware that God is my strength. But Habakkuk can say, now the Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like hinds. He will make my feet like deer feet. He will make my feet sure-footed. I used to have a horse named Trooper. Actually, it was my daughter's horse, but sort of like toy trains I used to buy for my children. Now that they're grown, Christmas isn't much fun for me because there's nothing for me to play with.

I liked it better when I could buy them toys and games and then play with them. It's hard to play with adult gifts now. But she had a horse by the name of Trooper. Registered horse, 50% thoroughbred, 50% quarter horse. Could he move? Run like the wind. I tell you, you put him on a flat straightaway, and he could run like the wind. But you put him on rough ground, rough terrain, he couldn't walk a foot without falling down.

Stumbling. I've taken horses into the mountains. You don't take necessarily a thoroughbred horse fast as the wind into the mountains. You take one that's sure-footed, that can keep his footing when he's walking over treacherous ground, over rocky ground. That's the idea here. Those deer, the hinds, they can climb up to the mount. They can climb over those treacherous places and not lose their footing. They're sure-footed.

And there are a lot of Christians, there are a lot of Christians tonight, you put them on a flat straightaway, let nothing hinder them. Put no holes in the road. Put no barriers there, no stumbling stones, and they can out-distance every one of us and make a good showing. But, friend, the real test, the real test is when you get on rocky ground, whether or not you can maintain your balance. And the greatest testimony, for as I know, the greatest testimony of a man or a woman trusting God is that when

they are on rocky terrain, they somehow are able to maintain their equilibrium and maintain their balance. They are sure-footed, and they do not stumble when God takes them through the treacherous and then he says, he will make me to walk upon mine high places. He elevates us, elevates us. I think the prophet here is speaking of the heights of salvation and experience with God that only the person of faith can climb. I think that one who does trust in the Lord and can say, although life's this way, yet I will joy in the God of myself. I believe God will enable that person to experience heights of peace and joy in God's presence that no other person on the face of the earth will be able to touch.

Even in the lowest of valleys, God is able to make us walk upon the high places with Him. You've found that to be so, haven't you? Some of you were given permission tonight to stand up and testify. That's exactly what you'd say. That at the lowest, at the very lowest, that's when He was the nearest. And He was the sweetest. And that's when I was walking on the highest places that I've ever walked.

This is being able to rest in the day of trouble. Although, yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.