Surviving 2024
(Dealing with Uncertainty)
CCCAG, January 14th, 2024
Scripture: Habakkuk 3:2
Introduction
It’s a new year, with some new challenges that will be presenting themselves. One of the biggest I think we will see will be in politics as the elections ramp up toward the end of the year.
Are any of you already having election fatigue? It seems never ending doesn’t it?
It gets exhausting. I used to be a huge news watcher. I’m kind of a political junkie- I love those kinds of news stories. I’d record various news shows to watch them if I was working that day. I’d constantly be checking my computer or phone for the latest thing out of Washington DC. I’d be interested in world news and watch the BBC. My whole day was spent absorbing news, opinion shows, and political commentary from various sources.
The one thing I noticed though- the more I absorbed that the more frustrated, fearful, and angry I became. As a result, I wasn’t spiritually minded.
All of us can get that way in life about a variety of issues.
Could be a work issue
Marriage or relationship issue
Problem with the kids
Neighbors
Something that allows fear, doubt, and unbelief to be our default way of thinking and experiencing life, that’s when the enemy has you focused on the wrong thing.
Let me illustrate this-
How many people have every looked through binoculars?
I have a pair that I use for hunting, and I love having them.
One thing I’ve found though- the more you focus on what you are looking at through those binoculars, the less you become aware of what else is around you.
A few years ago, I was glued to my binoculars watching a decent sized doe at about 300 yards, and totally missed the fact that there was a large buck at 150 yards.
This is where Tunnel vision happens- when we spend too much time focusing on the wrong things that have no eternal value or significance.
Sometimes we can get that way in life.
A wise man once said that our focus determines our reality.
I found in my own life if my focus is too narrow in concentrating on the things of this world, then my emotions, spirituality, and faith is directly affected by all of that bad news.
In the scripture we are going to read today, we are going to read about another person that was really focused on the news of his day.
Habakkuk was a prophet in Judea in the years immediately before Babylon conquered Jerusalem.
Habakkuk was a man that knew exactly what was going on around him. In fact, he looked throughout the land and saw nothing but evil occurring.
Idol worship involving grotesque sexuality, human and infant sacrifice, the worship of demons, and no justice to be found anywhere.
Then God speaks to him and gives him a prophetic word that Babylon was coming to devastate his home.
Habakkuk now has some questions for God, and in the bible book that bears his name, God answers His prophet.
We are going to explore both of those questions this morning, but I want to start with looking at Habakkuk’s response to God’s answer to his questions. In chapter 3 of his book, he prays these words to God.
Scripture:
Hab 3:2
Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
Prayer
Today we are living in a time that very closely resembles the time Habakkuk lived in, with many of the same problems, sin, and idolatry, rampant deviant sexually- all of that was leading his nation and people close to judgment.
We as the church in 2024 may very well have ringside seats to the countdown to Tribulation. If you don’t know what the tribulation is- it the events described within the book of Revelation- it’s a pretty big deal that will change life as we know it forever.
As people standing on the edge of God’s judgment, we like Habakkuk might have some questions.
His first question- how can God allow this kind of evil to exist without sending judgment. We read about it in chapter 1
I. Wrestling with God’s Ways
Hab 1:2-4
How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
To summarize Habakkuk’s question- God, there is rampant evil all around me- why don’t you stop it?
Has anyone ever had and experience that caused you to ask that question of God?
I have. I could recount dozens and dozens of examples over 30 years of being a paramedic, and now as an RN that question is always in my heart when I see the results of evil. Even though my mind knows the answer to the question my soul still cries out why?,
Why are you allowing evil to flourish.
Right now in our world, we are seeing rampant evil, corruption at the highest levels of human government, the slaughter of innocents in war and through abortion.
Over 40 million….million slaves in this world. There has never been this many people in slavery in the entirety of human history.
Over half of them sexual slaves. (Epstein)
The enemy of our souls seems to be succeeding in defacing the image of God in humanity.
Any rational person who knows the bible must be thinking at this point that we must have tilted the divine scales of justice more toward judgment than mercy at this point.
If you have any amount of spiritual consciousness at this point, something should be crying out to God- “You are holy God. How can you tolerate this any longer?”
This is what Habakkuk is saying, “How can you as a Holy God tolerate this kind of evil and perversion in the world?”
That’s his first question.
What was God’s response?
God answer to him-
Hab 1:6 I am raising up the Babylonians
The bible then describes who the Babylonians are- a very violent and wicked people.
At that time in history, the Babylonians are Al Quada, the Taliban, ISIS, and Hamas all rolled up into one- evil incarnate.
You can almost feel the prophet’s visceral reaction to God’s answer. Habakkuk spiritually recoils at the thought of God allowing people more wicked then the Israelites to be HIS instrument of judgment.
His response shows it-
Verse
Hab 1:12-13
12 O Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, we will not die.
O Lord, you have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
Let me break this down a little.
What Habakkuk is saying here-
God, when I brought my initial complaint to you, I was thinking maybe a huge storm, or a voice from heaven with some thunder behind it to get people’s attention. I’d even be ok with one of the more wicked villages being destroyed with a little bit of fire and brimstone.
But God- calling the Babylonians? God, I don’t want to question you, but that’s like using cruise missile to swat a fly. It’s overkill.
Besides, I know we have our issues, but these guys that you are sending against us make us look like the church choir. They are so much more evil than we could ever think of being at this point. You are the Holy God- how can you use or allow such evil to judge us?
That’s Habakkuk’s first argument.
Ironically, this very argument was used by many in the days after September 11th 2001 to deny that this was God’s wake up call and warning of impending judgment on America.
God could not possibly use a terrorist to judge “A God Fearing Nation” like America.
Unfortunately, those saying that didn’t read this book of the bible.
There is something about God we need to remember.
God is God. You are not. God is under no obligation to us to explain HIMSELF. It’s not written in some universal law that God needs our permission or approval to do anything.
Most of you here are parents so this should ring true with you.
At some point in your children’s lives during an argument with them have said, “Because I said so. You are not the parent, I am! Period, end of discussion.”
As God’s children, we have to recognize that as well.
We are blessed in that God tries to show us His ways and His reasons for doing things. That’s what the bible is to us- showing us the nature and character of our Father.
But at the end of the day we also have to recognize that if God was small enough for our minds, HE wouldn’t be God.
A couple of other examples of God using evil to judge.
2 points here-
1- When a believer refuses to come under the authority of the church, what did Jesus say to do?
Give the person over to satan. Let them experience life apart from God’s protection for awhile and see what that is like, and hopefully that will bring them to their senses.
2- For those in hell, who do you think will be the beings tormenting the humans there?
Demons….and they are far more wicked then those they will be tormenting.
That brings us to one additional point here- God allows a devil in the world. The devil is very good at what he does when it comes to making people, made in the image of God, to look more like him than the Father. The evidence of that is all around us.
These leads us to one of the hardest things about living in this world-
II. Waiting on God
We living in a world of instant gratification. If you need to know something, check Google.
If you need a product and live in a city, Amazon can often have it at your door in an hour.
We pretty much have on demand everything.
We don’t like waiting.
I remember when I took my national registry test for EMT basic, it took 6-8 weeks to find out if you passed. If you got a large envelop in the mail- you passed because it contained your certificate, patches, and decals. If it was a normal sized envelope, it was a short letter telling you that you needed to retest, and then what 6-8 weeks for that answer.
The nursing boards were the same way.
I’ll be very honest- I don’t think I would have survived having to wait that long to find out if I had passed the NCLEX.
Thank God for technology.
Learning to wait is hard. Particularly for people born before after the internet was born.
***But, learning to wait is a major a spiritual discipline.***
It’s the precursor of developing patience. It’s a virtue that takes both time and effort to build within ourselves.
Really, patience is the mark of maturity in the believer.
Here is an example- How patient is a toddler?
I have never, ever met a patient 2-year-old.
Wait is the most vulgar curse word to them. This is why Parents struggle with dealing with them and often lose patience and start yelling.
Now go to the other end of the spectrum- grandparents.
When the toddler is having a temper tantrum, grandparents are usually able to be much more patient with the child than even the child’s parents.
Why?
Time. They have learned to develop patience. It took years, decades even, but generally speaking the older you get the more patient you have become.
Learning patience is a key to success in life.
Learning to wait and trust in God’s timing will build that patience.
It’s a key to learning perseverance, resiliency, and just a bit of spiritual toughness.
And that will be critical to surviving what is coming. I can’t say that strongly enough. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.
That’s the heart that we need to develop- one of patiently waiting on God.
That is seen in Habakkuk’s actions after he asked God about evil judging Israel. After pouring out his heart, Habakkuk positions himself to receive God's response:
“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”
The bible doesn’t say when God answered him. It could have been minutes, hours, days, years. We don’t know.
I think God used it to develop a little bit more perseverance in his prophet, and teach him to wait and trust in his FATHER.
It’s also something we need to learn- to be still, and know that HE is God.
If we learn to do that, the Holy Spirit will have the freedom to develop patience and perseverance with us.
The apostle Paul tells us in
Rom 5:3-5
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
I have found that the reason so many people fall away from church and from the faith is because they have never allowed this process to work in their lives.
I point you to the military. Basic training is a miserable experience for most people.
Why do they make it that way?
They are unconsciously following the biblical principle-
Suffering produces perseverance.
Perseverance produces character.
Character produces hope, which is the assurance of the training you have received.
It holds true in this world, and in the spiritual formation of the believer.
The final thing it will do is help us respond to everything in life with a greater reverence for God and trust in God.
III. Respond with Reverence and Trust
We are back to our original verse.
Habakkuk has asked his questions.
Habakkuk has heard God’s responses.
Undoubtably, They have been difficult to hear, but he responds with praise.
Hab 3:2
Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
This is what I want us to focus on this morning, and for 2024.
If you are a biblical, spiritually sensitive and spirit filled Christian, then you are feeling that America and the world is on the brink of something bad. We desperately need God to intervene.
Sooner or later, it’s going to come, and it will probably be in a form of a judgment.
But do you know what comes with judgment?
Revival- a return of the people to God.
I want revival, and if we have to suffer a little to get that, then so be it because the end will be so much better than what we have right now.
The problem is for most of America, and even in the church- many of us want what we have now, with less suffering.
Often, we don’t realize that the suffering we are experiencing is BECAUSE of what we have in our lives right now.
Too often we are like obese people at the all you can eat buffet complaining about being fat.
Right? Picking on myself here.
Taking away the all you can eat buffet might cause some discomfort.
Dieting isn’t comfortable, but it produces a much better life in the end.
We need to have that mindset regarding any minor affliction we will go through in 2024.
Respond with reverence and awe to what God is doing, and what HE is about to do.
That’s why we started with a Prayer emphasis that I hope you continue into the New Year.
Prayer
