I Rejoice Because I Trust
Habakkuk Part 3
This is the last week of our series on the book of Habakkuk,
so lets review.
Habakkuk was one of the twelve Minor Prophets,
He wrote this about the year 605 B.C.,
All the Minor Prophets give God’s message to the people,
but Habakkuk was the only prophet
that actually gives the people’s message back to God,
because this book is actually
a series of conversations
between Habakkuk and God.
Habakkuk starts off by complaining to God
that he’s getting sick of the way things are.
He’s tired of the sin, and suffering,
evil, and injustice.
So he asks God,
What are you gonna do about this situation?”
God answers him, and says,
“As a matter of fact, I do have a plan.
I’m getting ready to do something.
You know those nasty, mean, wicked people
that live next door to you,
the Babylonians?
They’ve been wanting to attack you for a long time,
and I was protecting you,
but notice the word was.
Since your people
keep sinning, keep disobeying,
and keep ignoring me,
I’ve decided that
I’m gonna let the Babylonians come over
and rough you up a little bit.
Habakkuk thinks about this for 2 seconds, then says
“Uhhhh, Is there a plan B?
I don’t know if you forgot God, but I live there too!
and I’m not one of the bad guys.
Can’t we work this out another way?
Because God, I know we’re bad,
I know we’ve been kind of ignoring you,
but the Babylonians are way worse.
How could you use them to punish us?
That is not fair,
God you’re supposed to be fair,
I don’t understand this,
God, you’ve got some explaining to do.
If you’ve ever had an experience like that with God,
where you thought,
“God, this just doesn’t seem fair,”
then you can relate to the story of Habakkuk.
And Chapter one ends,
with Habukkuk still not understanding,
and he’s questioning
why God isn’t being fair.
Now, in the last couple weeks
we also talked about something I called the dip.
So lets review that.
This is a graph of what the typical Christian life looks like.
At the starting point is an “x”
This would be a person who has not yet become a follower of Christ,
but one day, as the Spirit draws them, they make the decision to become a follower, they find new life in Christ. and are born anew spiritually. Their sins are forgiven. They’re filled with Holy Spirit,
And then what happens most of the time,is that there’s some immediate blessings and changes, they feel a sense of peace and joy, and God answers some of their prayers, and there’s like these God coincidences everywhere they go, and its like there’s this spiritual high.
In fact, for those of you who are Christians,
how many of you can relate to a time like that,
after you started following Christ,
where you experienced like a spiritual high.
(lot of you)
But if you’ve been following Christ very long,
you also know,
that doesn’t last forever,
Life goes on,
and eventually you’ll have experiences
where God doesn’t seem to answer your prayers like he did,
and you’re not having the same God coincidences,
Maybe something bad happens to someone you love,
and you’re like,
“That doesn’t seem fair.
God, you could have done something about that,
but you didn’t do anything.
Why not? I don’t understand.
And maybe you start thinking,
God, I thought we had this deal.
It was all good, and everything was working out right.
But now something’s changed.
What’s going on?”
How many of you have ever had a time like that with God?
Where you had some questions?
A bunch of you would say,
“Yeah. I can relate to that time.”
We’ve called this a crisis of belief.
This is where Habakkuk was in chapter one.
God, you aren’t being fair,
and I don’t understand.
And when you experience a crisis of belief,
you have 3 options.
A lot of people want to try to go back to their last point of spiritual high.
and pretend like everything is still great. That doesn’t work very well.
Others might say,
God, if you’re not gonna do what I want, if you’re going to let things happen that I think are unfair, then forget You, I’m not going to follow any more. I’m outta here.
Or the third option, is you can hang on, and continue to follow God,
even when you don’t understand.
If you do that like Habakkuk did,
you’ll get to chapter two.
In Chapter Two,
Habakkuk goes into a season of waiting.
God tells him to be quiet and listen,
because God wants to speak to him.
And God tells him to take notes.
and write it down,
so it won’t be forgotten while he’s waiting.
And that’s important,
because when we have to wait,
we tend to forget what God has showed us.
We talked about that last week.
But finally we get to Chapter Three,
In Chapter Three we’re going to see something very powerful.
We’re going to see that
even though Habakkuk’s circumstances don’t change,
his faith and worship of God goes to a new level,
where he’s never been before,
A new level, that you might call
Chapter Three faith.
We said last week that
this is described in the New Testament
by James, when he says
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Notice:
perfect and complete, lacking in nothing
That’s a result of Chapter 3 faith.
Now, all of us want chapter 3 faith,
because that’s where you find
peace, and joy,
fulfillment, and complete trust,
We all want chapter 3 faith,
but here’s the problem,
none of us want to go through chapter one and two,
in order to get Chapter 3 faith.
We don’t want to do the part
where James says,
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
We don’t want all the
problems and trials and tests,
we just want instant faith.
But you can’t get to chapter 3,
without going through chapter one and two.
That means that at some point in our lives,
or maybe at more than one point,
God will take us through chapter 1,
where we have questions and challenges to our faith,
and he’ll also take us through chapter 2,
where we have to wait and wait and wait,
Because God’s ultimate goal,
is to build in each of us a chapter 3 faith,
That’s where God would like to take all of us,
if we’ll let him.
So with that foundation laid,
let’s dive into Habakkuk Chapter Three,
Verse One says:
“A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.
Some of you are saying,
on shiggy what?
What does that mean?
Actually, it’s a Hebrew word
that nobody is absolutely sure of the meaning of,
but probably its a musical term,
describing how to sing this,
because this chapter of Habakkuk was written as a song.
(we’ll sing it at the end…)
Verse 2 continues:
Lord, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.”
Habakkuk is saying,
God, I remember all that you’ve done.
Not only what you’ve done in my life,
but I’ve heard about Your miracles.
I’ve heard about Your power.
I’ve heard about Your glory.
You’re deeds are awesome Lord.
I’ve heard about all that…
but God,
You don’t seem to be doing that right now.
I’m not seeing it any more.
You ever felt like that?
God, you don’t seem to be working in my life,
the way you used to.
The truth is,
in all of our lives, there are seasons and periods
when God’s presence and power
seems more evident than at other times,
And its not necessarily based on
how close you are to God at the moment.
For example, I’ve prayed for a lot of people to be healed,
in the last 40 years
but the most powerful healing I saw
was when I was a brand new follower of Christ,
I was about 16 years old,
and prayed for a friends sister to be healed of Rheumatic fever,
and she was instantly healed.
It was amazing,
And I said,
wow, this healing stuff is pretty cool, it really works.
But that was 38 years ago.
And my relationship with God is a whole lot closer now
than it was back then,
but that’s still the most amazing healing
God has done through me.
Why did he choose to do it back then and not now?
I don’t know.
Maybe next week he’ll do something even more amazing.
But that’s up to God.
God works in different ways during different seasons.
And you see this in whole societies and countries.
During certain seasons
revival and renewal will sweep through a nation.
The last time it happened in the US
was during the late 60’s and early 70’s.
There was something called the Jesus People movement…
At about the same time… “Charismatic renewal,” power of the Holy Spirit came back into many traditional churches, healings…
People in the 70’s would do door-to-door evangelism,
or go talk to people on the street,
and they’d see several people get saved every day.
It was just an amazing season.
But that season ended.
In the 80’s-90’s you saw the same type of thing in Korea,
and China, and South America, and parts of Africa.
and that season is still continuing
in some of those areas, but not all.
Well, that’s what Habakkuk sees.
He says, God, I know about the ways
you showed your presence and your power in the past.
though I don’t see it right now.
And then, what does he say?
What are the next 5 words.
Lets say this aloud together,
“Renew them in our day.
“Renew them in our day.
God do it again.
Renew what You used to do, in our day.
I know You can do it.
I’ve heard all about it,
So God, do it again.”
In our time, make them known.
You see, when you’re waiting on God,
and you want to grow in faith,
the first thing to do is remember what God has done,
and then ask him to do it again.
For the next 13 verses of Chapter 3,
Habakkuk remembers the great things God has done.
The huge victories,
the power and might of God,
his miracles,
the way God provided for them
and saved them
time after time after time.
God, I remember when You guided Your people by fire and by a cloud,
and I remember when You fed us with bread from Heaven.
And I remember when the waters parted and we walked through,
and I remember when You shook the earth and the walls came tumbling down,
and I remember when You used torrential rains to defeat the enemy,
and I remember when You used pestilence and plagues.
God, I remember what You’re capable of.
Renew those deeds in our day.”
The point is,
you and I
can do the same as Habakkuk,
when life is hard,
and I’m waiting on God to do something about it,
I need to remember
what God’s done in the past,
for me and others,
and then ask him, Do it again.
Lets watch a video:
[THAT”S MY KING]
I get inspired when I watch that.
Why?
Because it reminds me of who Jesus really is,
and what he’s done.
We need to be reminded of those things.
Now, maybe you’d say,
Well, I’ve never seen God do amazing miracles or healings…
It doesn’t have to be that dramatic.
For those of you who’ve been believers
for any amount of time,
I guarantee you, if you think about it,
God will bring to your mind some things He’s done.
It could be the time where
you just didn’t know what to do
and you came to church,
and it was like God inspired that message just for you,
it talked exactly about what you were going through,
and you’re saying,
God you are amazing,
you knew exactly what I needed to hear.
You can remember that.
Or maybe it was the time where you were hurting
and you turned on the radio
and there was this song
that was like God’s message to you.
Or, maybe you were reading in the Bible
and you came across a verse,
and you were like, “Oh, my goodness.
that is exactly what I need to know,
God must have put that there just for me,”
And you remember what God did.
Or maybe it was as simple as
a time when you were hurting
and there was someone there who prayed for you,
or encouraged you,
and you felt like God sent that person along
just for you.
It doesn’t have to be something dramatic,
but we do need to remember
what God has done.
And then you ask God,
Renew them in our day,
Do those things today, Lord,
show your power in my life today.
And God, even if we’ve made you angry, by ignoring you,
in wrath, remember mercy.
Thank you for the mercy that Jesus bought for me
on the cross.
God, remember your mercy for me.
That’s a prayer of faith.
And that’s the first thing to do,
you remember what God has done in the past.
The second thing that you do is,
you recognize what God is doing right now.
You recognize and accept what God is doing.
Habakkuk didn’t like God’s plan,
he didn’t like the idea of the Babylonians coming,
to punish his nation,
but he had to recognize and accept what God was doing.
That doesn’t mean
he couldn’t keep praying for a miracle,
but the fact is,
God had spoken to Habakkuk and told him the plan,
and Habakkuk had to recognize and accept what God had said,
even if he didn’t like it.
The Apostle Paul had to recognize and accept
his thorn in the flesh,
even though he didn’t like it.
We talked about last week how God said,
I’m not going to take it away, Paul,
I’m going to use it for your good.
We have to recognize what God is doing,
even when we don’t like it.
Why is that important?
Because too many Christians don’t.
One pastor I know of,
has a name for these people.
He calls them hits Christians,
which stands for “head in the sand” Christians.
[video] Let me show you...
Too many people try to deny reality,
rather than deal with it.
That doesn’t mean we can’t pray for a miracle.
We can and should,
but if God has spoken clearly,
then we have to accept what God is doing
even if we don’t like it,
You can see this come about in Habakkuk 3:16,
God had told him the Babylonians were coming,
and Habakkuk says,
“I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.”
In other words,
When I heard what God said,
I was shaking like a leaf,
I knew it was not going to be pleasant.
Yet then he says, “I will” … what?
“Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.
I am going to wait patiently,
because I know that
God will eventually make it right.
We may suffer right now,
but one day Babylon is gonna get theirs,
because God will bring justice.”
I don’t like what’s going to happen to us,
but I’m going to wait patiently,
because I trust God.
When Habakkuk heard from God,
he didn’t stick his head in the sand,
and ignore it.
He recognized what God was doing,
he accepted it, and said,
“This is not going to be a fun season.
In fact, a lot of innocent people are going to die.
Maybe me,
maybe many of those that I love,
and I don’t like it,
But nevertheless, I trust God.
God is in control, he has a plan,
so as difficult as it may be,
I’ll accept what He is doing.
Our best guess is that
Habakkuk wrote this about 605bc.
The Babylonians attacked in 597,
8 years later.
We don’t know what happened to Habakkuk.
He may have survived, he may not.
But the point is,
sometimes God does things
that we don’t understand.
And though he promises to always work everything together
for our good, in the long term,
He doesn’t always work things together,
for our comfort and ease.
So we need to recognize what God is doing.
But that’s not where we stop,
because Habakkuk does one more thing,
Number three,
Habakkuk teaches us to
Rejoice in what God is going to do.
We remember what He has done,
we recognize what He is doing now,
and we rejoice in what He is going to do,
In Verse 17 Habakkuk makes
one of the greatest statements of faith
in the entire Bible.
He says:
Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vine, and though the olive crop fails, and the fields fail to produce food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will [what?]
“I will rejoice.”
You say, “Rejoice for what?
Obviously its not for the great day you’re having,
because you got nothing.
If you’re in the farming business
and you have no figs, no grapes, no olives,
no crops, no animals,
Then you have no food.
You’re gonna starve to death.
And he’s saying I’m gonna rejoice in the middle of that?
It is easy for us to
celebrate, sing and worship God with enthusiasm,
when things are going well.
When you want to get married and you meet the perfect person.
When you want to have children and you get pregnant.
When you need a job and you get a good one.
When you have bills to pay and money shows up.
When your health is good,
and your friends are there for you,
its easy to worship God.
But it is very hard to worship God
when none of those things happens
and everything that you were hoping for,
and longing for,
and dreaming of,
does not come to pass.
Most of you aren’t farmers,
and you don’t have figs, grapes, olives, or crops.
Maybe what this looks like in your life is,
“Even though my spouse said ‘til death do us part
and didn’t live up to the word,
yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Even though I raised my kids to know better,
and they’re making very scary decisions right now,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Even though we’ve prayed for someone to get healed
and they’ve actually gotten worse,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Even though our house won’t sell
or I can’t find a good job,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Even though finances are tough
and it costs four hundred dollars to fill my gas tank,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Even though I don’t like the way things are,
even though I don’t understand it,
even though I know God could
and I think he should,
but He’s not,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
Habakkuk says,
when the worst comes,
I’m gonna rejoice anyway.
And Paul calls us to the same thing in the New Testament
He says we should rejoice when?
ALWAYS
and thank God in what circumstances?
“In all circumstances,
WHY?
…for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
You say, Ken that’s ridiculous.
How can I thank God when things are bad?
How can I rejoice when I’m suffering.
The key is this:
You thank God for who he is,
not just what he does.
And you praise God for what he has done,
not just what he’s doing right now.
And you can only do that,
if you trust him.
Habakkuk basically says,
“I will rejoice because of who God is
and what he’s already done.
In fact, if he never showed up again
and he never did another thing for me,
I still have enough to sing about
for the rest of my days.”
Question:
Is that true for you?
Could you praise God,
if he never gave you any more benefits,
then he’s already given you?
That is true,
but only if you understand God’s goal for us.
God’s goal for all of his children
is a close relationship with him.
Our goal is to be successful, to be affluent,
to be fat and happy
That’s our goal.
God’s goal is for us to be close to him.
Now, if your goal is to be successful,
then you will not be able to praise God
when you’re not successful.
But if your goal is to be close to God,
then you can praise him in all circumstances
because no matter what happens,
it can actually draw you closer to him.
Some of you have experienced that.
For you it was poverty, or sickness, or conflict, or loss
that brought you closer to God
than anything else ever could have.
And through that
you became a worshipper,
because when you had nothing else,
you threw yourself on God.
Habakkuk says,
“If all my food, my crops,
my job, my success
and all my security
if all that goes away,
I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Why? “Because I’m growing closer to him.
Because now I have to trust him,
I have nothing else.
And that’s called faith.”
You see, God wants all of us to have
Chapter Three faith,
but you can’t have Chapter Three faith
until you’ve had Chapter One kinds of problems,
and Chapter Two kinds of waiting,
Now, God is good to us,
and he does provide for us,
and he does bless us abundantly.
James says that every good and perfect gift
ultimately comes from from Our Father in Heaven.
So God gives us many other reasons to praise him.
But the point Habakkuk makes is that,
if all we had was Jesus Christ Our Savior,
we would have more than enough
to rejoice about forever.
And he goes on in Verse 19,
“The sovereign Lord is my strength.”
Notice: sovereign.
That means the God who rules,
who has all things under his control,
and will make it all work out for my good eventually,
if I’ll just trust him and be patient.
Habakkuk says, “My God is sovereign.
And just because things aren’t going the way that I wanted,
doesn’t mean God has fallen off of his throne,
or forgotten about me.
So I trust him.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
And Habakkuk ends his book by saying,
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
What Habakkuk is saying is,
When problems and conflicts and suffering pile up
as high as a mountain in front of me,
when circumstances are hard,
when darkness seems to cover my life,
when sorrow and pain and sickness pile up in front of me
like a mountain
That’s when God makes my feet like those of a mountain deer,
or a mountain goat,
so I can walk with confidence
right over the top of that mountain,
I can keep right on going no matter what comes,
because the Sovereign Lord is my strength.
And God enables me to rise above,
anything that comes along.
So I will rejoice no matter what comes,
I’ll worship God no matter what I see,
I’ll be joyful in God my savior,
because I trust Him no matter what.
Let’s stand for prayer:
God I ask that you’ll help us to remember Your goodness and all the great things you’ve done in the past, and all the promises you’ve kept, and all the blessings you’ve brought into our lives. God, I pray for those of us here who are going through difficult times, that even now you’d bring to our memories those things that You’ve done in the past, Your goodness to us, Your faithfulness, the time You provided for us, the time You comforted, the time You ministered to us, God, help us to remember Your faithfulness. Never let us forget what you’ve done for us… we’re so grateful to you Lord. And I also ask that you’d help us recognize what you’re doing in our lives right now, even when its difficult, even when we don’t really know why its happening, help us to recognize and accept what you’re doing, God, without ever letting go of You, but instead trusting, trusting, trusting, and never letting go of our trust in you, God, because you are still on the throne. All things are possible with You, and God we know that you have a perfect plan for our lives, to draw us close to you.
Thank you for your goodness and all the good you have planned for us, as we continue to follow you. AMEN
