A Singing Faith Series

A SINGING FAITH

Habakkuk 3:1-19

S: Worship

Th: Where is God when things go wrong?

Pr: WE NEED GOD THE WAY HE IS AND THE WAY HE WORKS.

?: How? How should we respond?

KW: Responses

TS: We will find in our study three responses we need to have to God and His ways.

The _____ response we need to have to God and His ways is to…

I. REVERE

II. REVIEW

III. RISE UP

RMBC 27 January 02 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Notebook: Trouble (You know you’ve got trouble when…)

You know you’ve got trouble when…

 you wake up face down on the pavement

 you call 911 and they put you on hold

 you see a 60 Minutes news team waiting in your office

 your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles

 you turn on the news and they are showing emergency routes out of the city

 your twin forgets your birthday

When your life seems troubled, what do you do?

Sometimes, we laugh at our troubles just to keep our sanity.

But you clearly cannot laugh at all of your troubles.

We have proved that this past month.

We have experienced some difficult things as families have been experiencing some pretty intense grief.

And it makes us ask—where is God when things go wrong?

TRANSITION:

This is the question that Habakkuk asked as well.

He wants to know where God is.

Things haven’t been right.

Because…

1. Habakkuk is troubled when…

1.1 …he complains to God that Judah is unrighteous.

He was distressed by the wickedness of the people around him.

And Habakkuk is concerned that God is putting up with it without doing anything about it.

How could He be so indifferent?

They needed a revival…now.

They needed to turn back to God, just like it used to be.

How come God was not answering his prayer?

Well, God does answer…and…

Habakkuk is troubled when…

1.2 …God answers and says He is sending the Babylonians as His judgment.

This was not the answer that Habakkuk was looking for.

He had been distressed by the Lord’s slowness to answer his prayers.

Now he is unhappy with the answer.

Before he thought God didn’t care.

Now he thinks God cares too much.

So…Habakkuk makes another complaint…

1.3 …he complains to God that the Babylonians are much worse than his people.

Now he is distressed by the greater wickedness of the Babylonians.

How could God use a people as an instrument of justice that needed God’s justice more than his own people?

Did this make sense?

Habakkuk gives up.

The more he has complained, the worse it has gotten.

He decides to go to the tower to get a different and higher perspective and wait for God’s answer.

And answer He does…

2. Habakkuk discovers that God…

2.1 …provides a way of salvation.

God is merciful.

He shows Habakkuk that there is a way for the faithful to live.

The just shall live by faith.

Habakkuk also discovers that God…

2.2 …works judgment in His timing.

While we wait for God to work, we find that God has been working all along.

But God never thinks in the short term.

He is always thinking long range.

I guess you get that way when you happen to be from everlasting to everlasting.

Finally, Habakkuk discovers that God…

2.3 …is worth listening to.

God was going to do a whole lot more than Habakkuk had anticipated.

God is going to do more than forgiving people’s immorality and idolatry.

He’s going to root it out.

He’s not just going to forgive them; He’s going to purge them as well.

I believe that as we come to our final study in Habakkuk that the prophet discovers this…

3. WE NEED GOD THE WAY HE IS AND THE WAY HE WORKS.

Habakkuk had not been content with God.

He had not been content with the way He was working.

But as he complained to God, he discovered that God was doing a lot more than he had originally thought.

Not only that, He was doing exactly what was needed.

So now Habakkuk offers his response and this is what we will give our attention to this morning…

4. We will find in our study three responses we need to have to God and His ways.

OUR STUDY:

I. The first response we need to have to God and His ways is to REVERE (1-2).

The text begins…

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.

Now that Habakkuk has his answer, it is a time for prayer.

Not only that, it is a time to sing.

The word “shigionoth” is a bit of a mystery.

It may be a musical instrument or a name of a tune.

But we do know by the way this chapter ends that these are words that are set to music.