OVERWHELMED WITH THE PERSON OF GOD
Habakkuk 3:16-19
INTRODUCTION: As we come to the conclusion of the book of Habakkuk, we see the prophet of God overwhelmed by His God. Habakkuk has moved from a selfishly motivated question request of God to a personal state of spiritual harmony. A position of trust in what will happen and a quiet contentment in the compassion, provision, and control of Almighty God.
1. GOD’S PROFOUND EFFECT ON THE BELIEVER
Habakkuk 3:16 I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.
a. We need to understand what an encounter with God should be like in the life of a believer.
i. Believers have lost their love for Christ
ii. Believers have not been taught about what their relationship with God should be like.
b. Wrong ideas about our encounter with God
i. There is no encounter with God. He is not there to have an encounter with. God is unconcerned with us.
ii. Any encounter with God is negative and should be avoided. We are motivated by fear of punishment, so we do what we do to avoid pain, and any activity in the world by God is his response to some act of our disobedience.
iii. Any encounter with God comes as a result of getting His attention. God is unconcerned, and needs to be awakened, or have His curiosity pricked.
c. The correct idea of an encounter with God
i. An encounter with God is a vibrant activity in our lives
ii. Are time with God should be a time of excitement
1. Our heart should pound
2. Our lips should quiver
3. Our bones should decay – “get a weak feeling”
SIMPLY PUT AN ENCOUNTER WITH GOD SHOULD BE A LOVING EXPERIENCE!
We tend to approach God like we’re having liver for the third time this week.
What we really need to do is get our foundation in God set so that our experience with God is like that of love, not liver!
2. THE BELIEVER’S FOUNDATION
Habakkuk 3:19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
a. God is Sovereign
i. His ways are unchangeable
ii. His ways are eternal
b. God gives confidence
i. God is an UNFAILING source of strength
ii. God is an UNFAILING source of confidence
1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
c. God gives us the feet of a deer.
i. My foundation in God allows me to traverse this world with confidence
ii. My foundation in God allows me to avoid this world with precision.
d. God enables me to go on the heights
i. The word for heights is “bama”, and has a couple of meanings.
ii. First meaning is a place of worship
iii. The second meaning is “incline” or “back”
iv. So, my foundation in God allows me to come into worship on His back. God carries me into my worship of Him! What a sense of closeness, similar to you as a parent carrying your child on your back, or lifting up a newborn and carrying them in your arms from place to place.
With our foundation set, we can, just as Habakkuk did, adopt a new perspective in crisis, with the understanding that the eternal future God has for us is far more important than the temporal events of the world we inhabit.
3. THE BELIEVER’S PERSPECTIVE IN A TIME OF CRISIS
Habakkuk 3:17-18 Though the fig tree does not bud 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 cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
a. Until the coming of Christ, man will face trouble
Job 5:7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
Job 14:1 "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.
Psalm 37:39 The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
b. Troubles come in all types
i. Short term troubles
ii. Long term troubles
iii. Futile work troubles
iv. Little production troubles
v. Past work troubles
c. God is an inexhaustible source of Joy.
d. Verse 17 tells us what MAY happen, and COULD happen
e. Verse 18 tells us what we SHOULD do
f. We can embrace ANYTHING that comes our way when we face it with the knowledge and resolve that what we face, we face with the in the knowledge, love, and sovereignty of our great Lord and Savior
So my challenge to you at the end of the book of Habakkuk is that when the times of trouble come, that you face them with the certainty that they will not last, that they are under the control of a sovereign God, and that your surest way through them is by being in love with your Creator and Savior!
