WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON? A SERIES FROM HABAKKUK
A BURDEN FOR A NATION
Habakkuk 1:1
INTRODUCTION:
A. How long, LORD, must I call for help and You do not listen, or cry out to You about violence and You do not save? Why do You force me to look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates. This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted. Hab 1:2-4
B. Who’s writing – this sounds like it could have been take right out of the daily editorials in our local paper (well maybe not) but it sure does sound like what a lot of people are thinking – Why God!
1. Have you read the paper lately?
2. I don’t normally, and now I remember why.
a. April 2, 2010 – Washington Park mayor shot to death
b. April 4, 2010 – 5 arrested in N.J. child’s gang rape
c. April 6, 2010 – Man charged in Credit card scams
d. April 6, 2010 – S Korea tracks hijacked tanker
3. Listen to the evening news: murder, thefts, drugs, political unrest.
4. Oh, the violence, the injustice, the oppression, strife and conflict!
5. I don’t know about you but the words of Habakkuk, written about 2632 years ago, resonate in my heart!
C. Now listen to the first verse of this book, which I purposefully skipped: The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. Habakkuk 1:1
1. Unlike the rest of the prophets we read about in our Bible who simply pronounce the oracles of God, Habakkuk has an on going discussion with Him.
a. The book is more about one prophets questions and understanding than God’s Revelation to the nations
b. Something Habakkuk’s contemporaries, Jeremiah and Nahum were doing in full force
2. Habakkuk had a burden for his nation: a nation who had experienced all of God’s blessing, yet had turn their backs on Him in the name of personal rights and pleasures.
D. Likewise I have a burden for a nation – our nation!
1. I don’t think you will find many Christians who don’t have a burden for this great nation of ours.
2. Whether you find it in the history books or not this great nation was founded on the principles of the Bible.
a. Our constitution was influenced by the Word of God
b. Our laws were based upon the Word of God
3. Our national life was held together by the principles of God’s word as well – but now?
a. Prayer was a national subsistence until June 25, 1962 when we removed it from our classrooms
b. Unborn children were safe in our country until 1973 when our Supreme Court ruled in favor of death rather than life
c. Marriage, a sacred institution for thousands of years, for the most part today, is a matter of convenience not commitment
d. Relationships once recognized as deviant are now except as normal.
4. We should be burdened for our country because if history is a teacher, we can see the signs of our demise!
E. With this in mind I would like to look at three truths that could be foundational to our study of the book of Habakkuk.
1. A Blessed Nation
2. A Cursed Nation
3. God’s Kingdom
4. May God give us a burden to pray for our nation and seek to live for Him by faith.
PRAY
Let us begin this morning by looking at a statement found in the book of psalms. It speaks of:
I. A BLESSED NATION, Psalm 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD: and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
A. Moses had appealed to the nation of Israel almost 800 years earlier stating,
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God,…. Deut. 11:26-28
1. This was the promise from God
a. Obey me and my word and I will bless you
b. Disobey me and my words and I will curse you
2. Habakkuk could have been thinking: “Come on Judah, obey the Lord, its that simple and the blessing of God will follow.”
3. We do not know the prophets age or how long he had been “looking at injustice,” but evidentially he had been praying for Judah a while – the phrase “how long” gives this thought
4. He wanted his nation to be blessed but knew it could not be unless the people turned to the Lord to obey all His words.
5. He knew the promises that had been made to Israel and knew they were conditional upon their obedience.
B. So what does that have to do with us?
1. Well, God is no respecter of persons
2. If we are going to be a blessed nation then we have to obey the Lord and His word – the blessings, in many cases will not be the same ones promised to Israel but God will bless
a. It begins in the individual heart, in you and me
b. We have to determine we will love the Lord with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength, determined to live by His word despite where the nation might be going.
c. We will have to stand for his word and live what we stand for.
3. Secondly, we will have to unite as the church of God.
a. There needs to be a sense of unity – even if we disagree we must decide we will support the direction the church decides to go.
b. We need to live for the Lord as His body with Jesus as Head.
4. Then as people fall under the Lordship of Christ, thus bringing the church back under His Lordship, we can then possibly start to see the nation come back to setting herself up under His Lordship.
5. We will not change the tide through laws, it must happen through Christ.
C. We may not be able to do much about the nation, as a whole directly, but we can sure do our part right here in Illinois – right here in our own communities!
1. Lets live for the Lord and pray other will as well.
2. Let’s do it because it is the right thing to do and lets pray that God will once again bless our nation as we begin to put Him back on the thrown of our national heart.
This is a necessity, for if we do not, God who is sovereign and righteous will stay true to His word. This is where we come to
II. A CURSED NATION, Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
A. Do you remember the second half of Moses’ statement? And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God….
1. The northern kingdom, Israel, had already learned there is a steep price to pay for going your own way – that is ignoring God and His word, they had gone into captivity in 722 BC under the Assyrians (about 122 years earlier)
2. Judah, the southern kingdom did not learn from her sister fate, Jeremiah was currently preaching their doom at the hands of the Babylonians
3. And the only thing that had changed was that the Judean government was now persecuting Jeremiah for his prophecies!
B. Folks, no one like to hear bad news
1. No one likes to hear they have cancer, but it is only through the revelation of the fact that one can take measures to hopefully cure it.
2. It would be nice if pastors across this nation could stand in their pulpits and only speak wonderful words of salvation, encouragement and blessing, but there has to be the proclamation of the wickedness of sin, death and hell for those things to look good.
3. There is much that is good in our nation but that is quickly depleting.
a. We are the greatest source of aid in the world over 2to1 than any other nation
b. Our choice of consumer goods is unrivaled
c. Our form of government is the best
d. We have the greatest military force in the world
e. And we have freedoms many people only dream about.
4. But these cannot offset our national indulgence in sin
a. Adultery, fornication, fraud, homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, violent crime is everywhere.
b. Lying can be a good thing, stealing can be a sickness, cheating is expected
c. Is any of this in accordance with God’s word? NO!
5. So why do we expect to be blessed by God?
C. If God so chooses to wipe this nation clean through judgment (and I am not a prophet to say He will nor do I necessarily believe that God is now judging), but IF He did He would not be unrighteous to do so.
1. As a nation we no longer express our dependence on Him nor do we live according to His Holy Word.
2. We seem to think that we can solve all our own problems and that God is just a thing of little or no consequence
3. I ask you to examine your life – is it God centered?
a. Is His word the director of your life?
b. Is His mission your mission in life?
c. Are His goals your goals?
4. Or, like Judah in the days of Habakkuk, is God just a word in our vocabulary, one that makes us feel good?
With this said, I believe we need to leave on a positive note and know
III. GOD’S KINGDOM LIVES BY FAITH, Habakkuk 2:4 …: but the just shall live by his faith.
A. The book of Habakkuk is ultimately a book concerning the faithfulness of a sovereign God to fulfill his promises.
1. Though things might look like they are not going in the direction we think they should to accomplish His purpose we must life by faith, faithfully!
2. As you read this book over the coming weeks (or I hope you will) you will find that Habakkuk had a problem
a. God was allowing unrighteousness to reign in Judah – how could a just & righteous God do that?
b. God was going to judge His people with a worse nation, the Babylonians, how could a just and righteous God do that?
3. In essence God tells Habakkuk, trust me – live faithfully for me by faith and I will bring my will to pass, fulfilling my promises.
B. And so it is with us.
1. Our number one concern should be to live out our faith faithfully.
2. The Message translated this portion of Hab 2:4 this way, But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive.
- This was Paul’s message in Romans, Galatians & Hebrews where he wrote “the just shall live by faith.”
3. Having been put in a right standing with God through salvation in Christ we need to live out our faith faithfully – this is truly living!
4. This is what the world needs to see.
5. You see, whether in the United States of America or the Congo (one of the poorest nations in the world), living for Christ is by faith and shown by our faithfulness!
CONCLUSION:
A. Habakkuk lived in shaky times – he had a burden for his nation
1. God was about to judge His nation and the righteous were going to go through hard times
2. He did not understand what God was doing, so he asked and waited for an answer
3. God answered
B. Do you have a burden for our nation?
1. Well take them to the Lord – wait on His answers
2. In the mean time live out your faith, for the righteous live faithfully!
