Developing A Support System

There comes a time in the decline of a nation that God no longer delays judgment.

America may be at that point. Believers are caught up with everyone else when economic and social calamity strikes. How should we, as believers, act and live when the going gets tough? Today, guidance from an Old Testament prophet who saw times like ours coming. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer.

Today, we conclude a seven-part series on famines, deserts, and other hard places. After the music of worship, Erwin Lutzer will bring a message from Jeremiah chapter 17 on developing a support system. Pastor Lutzer comes now to open our service. We can also bless God through our prayers, through our commitment, our worship, and let us open our lives to him today to experience that blessing from him, but in turn bring glory to him through our response. No matter where you are, no matter where you're listening, God is watching.

He's monitoring our hearts. Let us bow together in prayer. Father, we do say, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. We pray that the inside, the inner life that we have within us might be gathered up in one, in concentration, in praise, in gratitude, expressing our deep love for you. Use these moments together in ways that we cannot even predict because your grace and your love and your mercy is going to be so evident.

Open our lives to your spirit, we ask. In Jesus' name, amen. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with glory, kindness, and tender mercy. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name.

Bless his name. Jesus, Lord of many a spirit, Jesus, Lord of many a soul. Friends and family, hold us safely. Be my Savior, may we hold. Hallelujah, God the Savior. Hallelujah, Lord of many a spirit, saving every thinking, loving, giving, saving to the end. Jesus, Lord of strength and weakness, and God thyself may give.

Tempted, tried, and sometimes saved, be my strength, my living true grace. Hallelujah, God the Savior. Hallelujah, God of man, saving every thinking, loving, giving, saving to the end.

Jesus, Lord of health and sorrow, while the villas only roll. Even when my heart is breaking, be my comfort, bless my soul. Hallelujah, God the Savior. Hallelujah, God of man, saving every thinking, loving, giving, saving to the end.

Jesus, Lord of God and leader, while the tempest still reside. Storms above me guide your tasting, be my quiet grace, my pride. Hallelujah, God the Savior. Hallelujah, God of man, saving every thinking, loving, giving, saving to the end.

Jesus, I could not receive, more than a free gift I find. He hath granted me forgiveness, I am his, and he is mine. Hallelujah, God the Savior. Hallelujah, God the Savior, saving every thinking, loving, giving, saving to the end.

Amen. A firm of foundation, he saves of the world. He is made for a thing, he is blessed of the world. What more can he say than to you he has sent to you? For refuge to Jesus our friend. Be it not, I am with thee, O being in our dismay.

For for I am right now, and will still be the end. I'll strengthen thee now, be it God's dream to stay, Lord of heaven by my word, just the way it wanted to be. When through my age God goes by, my faith shall lie, my grace falls to faith, truth shall lead us apart, my faith shall not hurt me. I only desire thy cause to succeed, and I hold to refine the soul that on Jesus hath been born before. I will not deserve this fault, that sorrow of death should be better to share, I'll never, never, never forget.

I will never, never, never forget. Jesus, Lord of all my soul, bear me to thy fullness, Lord of mine. God, let me with the waters hold. I'll attend this day of his life, I'll be on my Savior's ground till the storm of life is found. Oh, say to the land of glory, Savior's home and land. Oh, say to the land of glory, Savior's home and land. To thee, oh me, be my Lord, still so poor and poor and free. Oh, my trust, my faith is safe.

Oh, my help, how deep I breathe. Come, almighty, friends, present me in the shadow of my need. Oh, Christ of all my wants, more than love can be my friend. Praise the Father who did the things, give the sleep and be the friend.

Trust him only, he is my friend, I am the home of the righteous friend. Oh, say to the land of glory, Savior's home and land. Praise the Father who did the things, give the sleep and be the friend. Let the peace reach our hearts, make them feel no pain. Come, almighty, friends, present me in the shadow of my need. Sleep now within my heart, Christ to all eternity. I invite you to follow along with me in your bulletin as we read together from Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 5 through 8 and Galatians chapter 5.

Please read aloud with me on the bold print. This is God's holy word. Thus says the Lord, curse is the man who trust in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trust is in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends our roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for it's the leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Again such things there is no law. Thank you. Please be seated. Be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit.

And be swift on another, with faith, be full of the Spirit, with our hearts. Be that great prayer of faith, that great melody, that great melody in your heart to the Lord. Be filled with the Spirit. Be filled in praise to God. Be filled in praise to your face. Be filled in praise to the name of heaven.

Jesus Christ, of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures near and low. Praise Him upon the heavenly host. Praise God with His Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. So how are all of you doing?

How's your inner world coming along? As I mentioned, one of our members was looking on the floor after a meeting and after a service and somebody had scribbled this prayer on the bulletin. I'll summarize it, Abba Father, I thirst and I hunger for your holy love, grace and truth and mercy. Grace to show your mercy even to others who are my enemies. Come, perfect my heart in your love for me. Cast out all fear. My Father of love and mercy, grace and truth, may my cup run over with your love and mercy. Please, I love this, cause my innermost being to overflow with rivers of living water, even to my enemies. Clearly this person was dealing with some enemies.

I won't ask for a show of hands, but anybody here dealing with some enemies? All right, I hear you. And then he wants or she wants grace, truth, purity, holiness, strength, power. My Jesus, I hunger and thirst. And then I am so empty.

Please fill me. Cast out all fear, impurity, lust, jealousy, envy, coveting, greed, malice, revenge. And then the prayer goes on for a bit.

Come and fill my empty cup. I wonder if that speaks to you today, if the truth were known, your inner world is in great difficulty. Today, we're going to go back to some basics. And as you know, this is the conclusion, really, of a series of messages entitled Famines, Deserts and Other Hard Places. And we've talked about the famines, the deserts, the economic downturn, what people have had to experience in life, how hard times get. But today we are going to concentrate on that inner life and enduring in the midst of it all.

But first of all, some bad news before we get to the good news. I do believe that there is a time in the history of a nation. Where the nation seems to be at a tipping point and it goes the wrong direction and there's nothing that we can do to even stop it. I think, for example, of Ezekiel chapter 14, where God says things are so bad that even if Noah and Daniel and Job prayed, I would spare them, but it would not reverse the direction of the country.

It's terrible. When you look at the news today, you may indicate that perhaps America is close to that. But in the midst of all that, God always has a remnant. There are always people who still are faithful.

And they deserve his special attention and ours as well. Would you take your Bibles and turn to the 17th chapter, the 17th chapter of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 17. I preached from this passage of scripture a couple of years ago. But it fits in so beautifully with what we've been talking about, the drought, the famine, the desert.

I really do feel that it needs to be reshaped as I tried to do it and very applicable to us today. Notice that Jeremiah begins in verse one of chapter 17. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablets of their heart.

Wow. What is he saying? He's saying that in those days, of course, if you wanted to carve a stone, carve a name into a stone, you used either a pointed piece of iron or you used a point of a diamond or a flint. And what he's saying is the sins of the people are just like stones. Their hearts are like stones and their sins are engraved on them. And there's no way that they're going to give up their sin no matter what. Hard heartedness. That's really a separate topic sometime.

I've been thinking about that and we'll get to it at some future time. Hard heartedness. And then God goes on to say you're going to lose your wealth because these people are going to come. The Babylonians are going to come. They're going to destroy the temple. Just think the gorgeous temple built by Solomon. You'd think that God would take an interest in a building and say, after all this effort and all this beauty, surely this temple should stand. But God doesn't care much about temples, actually. He's always after the hearts of his people. And that's where this passage of scripture now turns.

All right. Well, that's the negative part. That's the context of the deserts and famines and hard places. But now notice in the middle of this, there is hope because we can have God change our inner world and he can take empty cups and fill them.

If you feel empty today, this is the place to be. Notice that he goes on and he says in verse five, Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. He's like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. Well, you know, the Bible is really an interesting book for many reasons.

Do you notice how it just sets these two off in contrast? And I say to you today that you are either a shrub in the desert, not bearing fruit, not being refreshed, or you are a tree planted by the rivers of water. To put it more clearly, according to the text, you are either cursed because you're trusting in yourself, or you're blessed because you're trusting in God, and you are finding that you are having inner resources to be able to cope with life and all that goes on in your inner world, despite the outer world. So he begins with this contrast. What I'd like to do is to give you some characteristics of that tree planted by water and then apply it and ask God to change us because we've heard his word. First of all, he shall be like a tree planted by water.

He's planted in the right place, planted in the right place. And of course, the place to be planted is trust in God as opposed to trust in man. Cursed is the man who trusts in man, but blessed is the person who trusts in God. Now, first of all, a couple of comments about trusting in man. Trust in man will work as long as life is going well for you.

If you have a job, if you're healthy, and you enjoy what you're doing, trust in man will get you where you want to go, perhaps. But it can't take the heat of the desert. It can't take the famines, the drought.

It can't take adversity. Therefore, it says, blessed is he who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord is his strength, and he is like a tree planted by the water. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, I'm going through all of these difficulties, all of these trials, and God isn't responding to them. God usually doesn't respond to them. He responds to our faith, and if we do not have faith, we cannot access the resources that God has for us. That's why the Scripture says in the book of Hebrews so clearly that without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of all those who diligently seek him out, as one translation so accurately puts it. So you see, it is not simply a matter of saying the right things and even singing the right things.

It is a matter of trusting the promises of God, and in this way, we are actually planted in the right place regarding issues of famine, health, relationships, where the weight of our lives, and our lives are weighted down, aren't they, where the weight of our lives is actually transferred to the shoulders of Jesus Christ because we believe that the governments of this world will be upon his shoulders and we actually trust him. That's being planted in the right place. But there's a second characteristic, and that is in addition to that, we must grow to the right depth.

Look at the way the text puts it. We grow to the right depth. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes. You'll notice the prayer that I began with of this person, and whoever it is, I hope that you're here today, and thank you so much for writing that. But you'll notice that the prayer is also against fear, and the two of us has not had to pray against fear. But there is such a thing as an inner resource as he shall not fear when the heat comes, when the difficulties arise.

Now, how do we extend our roots by the stream so that really we are growing to the right depth? I wish I had some new thing to say to you. I wish I had some magic wand that I could just wand to this congregation, and now suddenly all of you would be so filled with the Spirit, so filled with sanctification, and that you might just even glow in the dark. Wouldn't that be wonderful if I could do that? But I can't.

It is back to the basics. It is, for example, the Word of God, the Word of God. The entrance to Thy Word gives light. You're going through a time of depression. There's hollowness and emptiness within. Why don't you take out time to read Psalm 119, which happens to be, by the way, one of the longest chapter in all the Bible.

Why don't you read Psalm 103? This morning I woke up at 4.36, and I was sort of ready to go, sort of. But my heart wasn't hot for God.

Should have been, I'm sure. So what did I do? I had to take out time, clear my mind, because I had kind of a very crazy dream last night. I don't dream often, but I'll tell you, when I do, it really comes together in a weird way. But I wouldn't tell you what it was. You wouldn't even want to know. If I told you, you'd say, I wish I hadn't known.

So what did I do? I read the 15th chapter of John. Because in John 15, Jesus says, I'm the vine, you're the branches.

I wanted to read something about fruit bearing and how. All that we need to do is to relax and to rely in him, and we will be fruit bearers, because he will bear the fruit through us. I needed to hear that this morning. And then my spiritual tank began to revive.

Why? Because faith comes by hearing, by the Word of God. I knew I needed faith.

I knew I needed to cleave to the promises. First of all, the Word of God. Secondly, the presence of God.

I'm speaking plainly to you today. You cannot walk with God without face time. I'm not talking about prayer per se, how important that is. But face time, when you come face to face with God, and you say to yourself, I'm not going to bring any requests now, except I want to delight in his presence. It is in those moments that God shows me my sin, shows me my need, and God comes along, and we connect in faith. Through the Word of God, through the presence of God, we soon discover that our souls are revived.

But you can't do it without that. You can cry up to the Lord, you can ask, you can beg, but unless your inner man is renewed day by day, unless the inner man is renewed, and it can only be done through the Word of God, through the presence of God, and then this is big now, through the people of God, people of God. If you are going through a hard time, and you withdraw, which is what many people do, I've talked to people who've struggled with suicide, and what do they want to do? They want to get away from all the people that are around them.

Why? Because they feel uncomfortable, especially in the presence of those who are rejoicing. And I remember one woman who tried to commit suicide, her pills for the deed were in her purse, and she came into a meeting, and everybody was singing that old chorus that we used to sing as children or adults. Oh say, but I'm glad, I'm glad. Did any of you remember that? How many of you remember that? Oh, about 14 of you. That tells me what category I belong to. But anyway, oh say that I'm glad, I'm glad. She said she felt like shouting, oh say, but I'm mad, I'm mad. It's hard to be around glad people when you're mad.

So the worst thing that you can do is to withdraw the people of God. Years ago I used this illustration, and I checked it yesterday on the internet. Those redwood trees in California that I visited once, some of them can grow up to 350 feet high. And so the question was in the essay that I read about them, how can they maintain that?

How do they manage that with all that weight, tons and tons of weight? And they said two things. First of all, they grow closely together, and secondly, their roots are intermingled. So even though the roots aren't very deep, they said 12 to 18 feet, which really is not very deep at all considering other trees.

They said that the intermingling of the roots. And then of course, you can have one tree that's next to the stream, and that tree begins to draw nourishment, and pretty soon it is watering other trees as well. And they are receiving their nourishment, even though they may be further up a hill on a desert, they are receiving their nourishment through others.

If you don't belong to a TMC community, if you're not plugged into a small group, and you live in isolation and you don't even want any close fellowship with anybody because it's irritating and you have to deal with certain issues when you have friends, you are really harming yourself and you will tend to shrivel like a shrub. And the Bible says that God says you should be like a tree planted by the river of water and that only happens in relationship. Relationship to God, also relationship to others. So we should grow to the right depth as well and we should bear the right fruit, bear the right fruit.

Now notice what the text says. It sends its roots out by the stream, it's dealt with sin issues, as I mentioned in our FaceTime with God, yieldedness through the word, the word has built us up within, and it does not fear when the heat comes for its leaves remain green and it is not anxious in the year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit. Wow, in the year of drought, it just keeps bearing fruit.

Why? Because it is a tree that is planted by a stream. And because it's planted by a stream, what's happening around it, the drought that comes, does not cause it to shrivel up and blow away because its roots are deep and it's bearing the right fruit. Fruit in Scripture is really the revealing or the expression of the inner nature.

The inner nature is fruit bearing. Not long ago, Rebecca and I were actually in California and we noticed along the way that we were and with some friends, they had grapefruit trees. Now I don't know much about trees.

I can't tell the difference. I've never really taken an interest in it, though it may be something very interesting, but when I saw grapefruit growing on a tree, I connected the dots and said, this must be a grapefruit tree. Taking it in a very elementary way for me. Must be a grapefruit tree. The fruit of the Spirit, the Bible says, is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and all of that is the expression of the inner nature of Christ that comes from our inner man when we are planted beside a stream, receiving the nourishment that we should receive. And it is supernatural fruit because these things do not come naturally, do they? But they come even to those who are going through extreme situations.

Let me ask you something. How do you react to a time of heat and drought? Anger, complaining, bitterness, blaming. Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord. His roots go down into a stream and he bears the kind of fruit that God wants. When I was reading John 15 this morning, I was reading in a translation where it spoke about Jesus said, you shall bear much fruit and it shall bring much glory to God. I love that. Much glory to God.

You abide in him, the inner resources. This past week I was listening to someone preach and he told a story that he said was true about a woman in Paris, a Christian woman, who was attending an exposition there and suddenly she had a stroke. Boom! She was out of it and she was rushed to the hospital. And all that she could say was bring. And over and over again, bring. Bring what? Bring food, bring flowers, bring this.

What does she want us to bring? But then when she was able to regain some consciousness and some strength, she was able to blurt out, bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. That's the inner nature, the inner nature revealing itself.

The fruit of the Spirit in which God delights and it bears the right fruit. But it can't come apart from faith. I wish I had some quick answer to the person who prayed that prayer that we referred to, where we simply said we can solve your problems in a moment.

It's going to come through the disciplines of the Christian life, but disciplines not in themselves, not legalistically, but disciplines that connect us with God, that enable us to deal with our issues, to deal with the bitterness and the anger and the resentment and the unbelief so that we can access the water that is beside the stream. Remember George Muller? He began all of those orphanages in England and never asked for money. It's not wrong at all to ask for money.

I love to ask for money, especially if it's for other people, for missions, for children, for the ministry of Moody Church because it has really to do with God and his glory. But Muller said that for him, he wasn't going to because he was just going to trust God and pray. But he said he did it because there were businessmen who thought that God wouldn't take care of them and they thought they had to cheat. He said that there were older people who didn't think that God would take care of them in their old age.

Now, he was living at a time when there was no such thing as Social Security. And then he said there were those who were the infirm and they didn't believe that God would take care of them. And he needed to give an example that faith in God actually brings God's blessing. And that's why he had so many different orphanages with so many different miracles because we need models today of people who have their roots deep, deep beside a stream and who can cope when drought comes. Few observations that should be life-changing for us. First of all, a drought clearly reveals what is in our inner man.

Isn't that true? Because it's in the time of drought that you either show that you're a shrub or you're a tree. It reveals that which is within us. Our response to the circumstances of life is really determined upon the pressure that is on us and what comes out when we are under pressure. There's a second lesson and that is that drought gives us a wonderful opportunity to witness for Christ.

Wonderful opportunity. Because just think of it. If you're going along a desert, as I've had the experience of doing, and then in the distance you see an oasis, you know right well that there must be water there. When drought comes, when the famines come, when the desert come and the hard places, when people who know us see the way in which we react to the circumstances of life, the same debilitating circumstances that they experience and we handle it differently because we're fruit-bearing Christians, that's when they begin to ask us what is it within you that enables you to do that? Where do you find the inner strength to be able to accept and to be able to pray and to be able to believe even when there's no evidence for why you should believe?

What is the secret of the inner strength? You've heard me talk about Cyprian who lived in North Africa in about the year 250. During the days of the plagues, Cyprian said the plagues were the best thing that ever happened to North Africa. It is during the plagues that Christianity spread in the early centuries all throughout North Africa.

Why? Because, said Cyprian, Christians died differently. It was said of the Christians, they carry their dead as if in triumph and the pagans looking at this said to themselves, where's all that hope coming from? Where's all that strength coming from?

How come you have the inner resources to cope? And you see, we witness when the drought comes and when the deserts enclose upon us. I conclude today with a simple question. Are you a shrub or are you a tree? You remember that story that I used before that one of my staff members actually asked whether or not it was true, and it is true. In Canada, there was a group of people along a street that had a boulevard in the middle and somebody came along and said that if you pay me money, I'll plant trees all along the street here. And so they pooled their money, they discovered how much it cost per household so that they could enjoy these beautiful trees. So the men came and they planted the trees and day after day, week after week, they were being watered and all that they did is turn brown until somebody had the presence of mind to reach down and to just rip one of them out and discovered that none of them had roots.

What the guys had done is they had cut off the branches of these evergreens and just stuck the branches in the dirt and it looked for a while as if they were real trees, but they weren't. Let me ask you, Jesus said these words, every tree that my Heavenly Father has not planted shall be uprooted. That's why I have to ask you today, are you a shrub?

Are you actually a tree? Have you been planted by God? And the way in which we become planted by God is to remember that Jesus Christ's death and resurrection was a substitute death and resurrection. And if we believe in him and if we trust him and remember that these resources of forgiveness and acceptance are free to those who come in faith and receive. Sometimes we work so hard at these things. Well, we should work hard only to develop faith.

That's the whole purpose of the discipline of the Christian's life, to develop the kind of faith by which we can believe God's promises. But as far as the resources are concerned, they all are really a free gift. You can be planted by God. The stream of water is free.

The nourishment is free. What we need to do is to receive it and take the time to receive it. By faith, when Jesus said, this is my body which was broken for you, this do in remembrance of me, he was saying to us, remember this, my death was not simply an example. My death was a substitutionary death, this do in remembrance of me.

And he was saying that because of his death and resurrection, we can have eternal life. So, no easy fix for those who feel empty, but there is a place where you can fill up beside the stream. It's there for you, it's there for me, and God promises we'll survive the drought. Father, we ask in Jesus' name that you'll take these words, however simple, and use them to remind us that we can draw near to you, and your word says that if we draw near to you, you will draw near to us. Show us that, Father. May we indeed, with hearts filled with gratitude, draw near in your presence, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Jesus, draw me ever nearer As I lay there through the storm You have called me to this passage And I'll follow, though I'm worn May this journey bring a blessing May I rise on wings of grace And at the end of my heart's testing With Your kindness, wherever You live Jesus, guide me through the depths Keep my spirit, state and shore When the midnight leaves the morning Then we love You even more May this journey bring a blessing On today's Moody Church Hour, Pastor Lutzer concluded a series on famines, deserts, and other hard places as he spoke on Developing a Support System.

We hope this series has given you principles to live by when tough times come. This seven-part series can be yours on CD for a gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Call 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry.

Our thank you will be a set of CDs designed to help us prepare for the hard times that may be coming. Just call 1-800-215-5001. Or you can write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614.

Mention famines, deserts, and other hard places when you write or call. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church. 🎶