WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE
HABAKKUK 3:3-15
INTRODUCTION: Habakkuk is one of the shortest books of the Bible, yet it is a book dealing with significant and profound issues; Sin, “Inactivity of God”, the morality of God’s actions, and God’s attributes of sovereignty, majesty, and faithfulness. This morning, we will be looking at the God we serve; His might and faithfulness.
TRANSITION: Follow along with me as we explore this passage of Habakkuk, seeing in the verses the greatness of our God!
1. OUR MIGHTY GOD
Habakkuk 3:3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.
a. God is a God of DELIVERANCE
i. This verse speaks of God coming from Mount Sinai to Moses in order to deliver the people of Israel from the Egyptians.
Exodus 3:7 The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
ii. God was about to answer the cries of His people and perform a great deliverance in their lives.
iii. The same God that delivered Israel is the God who has and will deliver you!
1. God delivered you from sin and hell.
2. God delivered you into heaven and His presence
3. God watches you and keeps you from adversity.
4. God delivers you through trial and refines your character.
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
5. Some insights from the words of Jesus to Peter
Luke 22:31-32 "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
a. You is plural. Satan wants us all
b. “Sift you like wheat” – put through difficult times
c. Our faith does not have to fail.
d. Our result is a new strength that can be passed on to others.
b. Go is a God of PROTECTION
Habakkuk 3:4 His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.
i. Beautiful illusions hear to the glory of God and how it is displayed.
1. As the sun with its rays
2. The Shekinah Glory of God as seen by the people of Israel
a. Pillar of cloud by day
b. Pillar of fire by night
ii. Protected the nation of Israel as they crossed the Red Sea
iii. Protected the nation of Israel as the crossed the desert to the Promised Land.
iv. God protects his people
1. The believer is protected from the “sting of Death”
2. The believer is protected from the loss of salvation
3. The believer is protected by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
WE WALK AROUND IMMORTAL TILL GOD CALLS US HOME
WE WALK AROUND EVERLASTING FOR ETERNITY
WE WALK AROUND EMBODYING THE WORDS OF PAUL
(For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain)
c. God is a God of SUPERIORITY
Habakkuk 3:5 Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps.
i. God is an All-powerful God – nothing is beyond His ability to control
ii. God is an All-loving God.
iii. God is also a God who is full of grace, glory, might, and majesty
iv. God will not play second fiddle to anyone or anything.
Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
v. Every act upon the nation of Egypt by plague was a declaration of God’s superiority over the gods of Egypt.
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT GOD WILL NOT TOLERATE A SECONDARY PLACE IN OUR LIVES. IT IS ALL OR NOTHING
Luke 16:13 "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
Luke 9:62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
WE NEED TO DECIDE IF WE WILL ACCEPT GOD’S SUPERIORITY OVER OUR LIVES AS OUR SAVIOR AND CREATOR
d. God is the God of CREATION
Habakkuk 3:6 He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.
i. The earth shakes at the presence of God
ii. The mountains crumble
iii. The nations tremble
iv. The God we serve the creator, not the creation!
v. His position does not change. He will never be inferior to what He has created or ordained into existence.
1. Man will not usurp God
2. Man will not dismiss God as insignificant
3. Man will not relegate God to an inferior position.
e. God is a God who uses His creation
Habakkuk 3:8-11 Were you angry with the rivers, O Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode with your horses and your victorious chariots?
9 You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers;
10 the mountains saw you and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high.
11 Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear.
i. God does not use his creation out of anger
ii. God uses his creation to show His power
1. Turned the Nile to blood
2. Parted the Dead Sea
3. Parted the Jordan River
Joshua 4:15-5:1 Then the Lord said to Joshua, 16 "Command the priests carrying the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan." 17 So Joshua commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan." 18 And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before. 19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ’What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ’Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God."
1 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.
iii. God uses creation to advance his purposes
Joshua 10:11-14 As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. 12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon." 13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
2. OUR FAITHFUL GOD
a. God desires to Crush wickedness and deliver His people
Habakkuk 3:13 You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. Selah
i. God does not direct his judgment towards nature
ii. God does not direct his judgment universally
iii. God’s judgment is directed towards the wicked
iv. Stripping refers to destroying a house so that the foundation is exposed.
1. When God judges, we will see the reason for His judgment.
2. God will exposed the foundation and root of the action
3. Nothing can be hidden so deep that God cannot expose it.
You and I can hide NOTHING from God. He knows where it is and is fully able to expose it. All we can do is confess it and get it under the blood!
Why chance it any other way?
b. God fights for His people
Habakkuk 3:14 With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding.
i. The allusion is to David and Goliath
1 Samuel 17:32-37 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." 34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."
1 Samuel 17:51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
ii. God fights for us.
Matthew 6:25-33 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
John 14:1-3
1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
John 14:25-27 "All this I have spoken while still with you.
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
iii. The reason God fights for us, ….
Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
AS WE APPROACH COMMUNION, PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS:
· You serve a Mighty God
· You serve a God who fights for you that you may share His message of eternal life with a world that needs to hear it!
