WHAT DO I BELIEVE: EVERY DAY IS THE ONLY WAY
HABAKKUK 1:1-4; 2:1-4
AUGUST 15, 2004
INTRODUCTION: A lady called American Airlines and asked the reservation clerk, "How long does it take to get from Dallas-Fort Worth to Frankfort, Germany?" The clerk had to wait a moment for the information to come up on her computer screen, so she said, "Just a minute." The caller responded, "Thanks very much," and hung up! Most of the things that really matter in life do not happen in "just a minute". They come for those who learn to wait upon the Lord.
Contributed by: Glenn Hickey
FASHIONED FOR FAITH
I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety.
In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath--these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely--these are my native air. A John Hopkins University doctor says, "We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact."
But I, who am simple of mind, think I know; We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality. SOURCE: Dr. E. Stanley Jones
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Our text for today concludes our discussion on faith for a while. It speaks to us of maturing in faith to the point that what we believe in is an everyday matter. This text takes us to the place of mature faith. Everyday faith is for those who are growing up. Our instructor at this point is the Minor Prophet Habakkuk. He ponders living within the context of great injustice, violence, strife, and conflict. The end result of his pondering and questioning leads to an understanding of Faith. I want us to ponder for a minute or two the thoughts and actions of this Prophet Habakkuk and how it can help us learn to live Everyday faith!
THESIS SENTENCE: Our Lord wants us in a relationship that exists everyday, a relationship of faith!
I. EVERYDAY FAITH IS EYES WIDE OPEN (1:1-4)
A. EYES WIDE OPEN IS ASKING QUESTIONS OF REALITY
Can Having faith equal asking questions?
1. There is a deep understanding with in this text that not only did Habakkuk believe in God, But that Habakkuk had experience a theophany, a literary form that describes an encounter with God that sees him as Lord of all the earth coming to reveal himself to his people.
2. Habakkuk faith in God, belief that God did exist and was present, caused him to ask questions. I know your there, SO HOW LONG AND WHY??
B. EYES WIDE OPEN IS SEEKING UNDERSTANDING
How about those questions, “HOW LONG AND WHY”? Would we or could we ever ask such questions.
1. If you say you never have, you might be a red neck, or a liar. You make the call. Habakkuk simply asked the questions that were on everyone’s minds.
2. Habakkuk was so sickened by the moral and physical destruction all around him he desired audience with the living God to know what was going on.
3. If you look deeply into these questions you may see some irreverence!! This is a kind of in your face confrontation.
C. EYES WIDE OPEN IS SEEKING GOD
Boiled down, What is Habakkuk asking?
1. Regardless of the sin of His people, why would God allow a greater wickedness to prevail??
2. And, Why has God allowed his own people to become so wicked??
3. What is happening is a process that is greatly important. Habakkuk was realizing what God saw and was also seeing it for himself. His EYES WERE OPENED TO THE REALITY OF LIFE AND OF THE PEOPLE AROUND HIM!!
4. Back to the Idea of process. God speaks to us on a journey of understanding that comes often from complaint, to accusation against God, to waiting for an answer, to hearing it , and finally to responding. This is how we learn to live!!!
5. Think about how contemporary all this is: Do with see the law paralyzed. Do we ever feel that Justice never prevails. Do those who stand against Christ seem to have all the power, and those who serve Christ seem to be controlled or immobilized by those opposing Christ??
6. The bottom line appears that Justice, the way things should be in a perfect world, is lacking, perverted, or as the Heb. puts it: “bent out of shape.”
D. EYES WIDE OPEN IS WANTING TO SEE GOD IN ACTION
The real bottom line here is not ultimately why or how long will this unjustness prevail, But How long and why is God not acting to solve the Problem!! This is a direct statement of Faith. God, You do exist, you are the only God and you are not taking care of Business!
ILLUSTRATION: Life is unjust. Upon accepting an award, the late Jack Benny once remarked, "I really don’t deserve this. But I have arthritis, and I don’t deserve that either." Haddon Robinson, Leadership, IV, 3, p. 94.
TRUTH: EVERYDAY FAITH DOES NOT DENY THE INJUSTICE OF THIS LIFE, BUT SEEKS OUT GOD FOR THE ANSWERS TO IT!
QUESTION: DOES THE INJUSTICE OF LIFE LEAD TO YOU GOD OR AWAY FROM HIM?
II. EVERYDAY FAITH IS AN ON THE JOB REALITY (2:1)
A. ON THE JOB IS THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH
Once again, Habakkuk assures us of his faith in the Living God.
1. Look at this language: I will Stand: what we do when someone of respect enters the room. At my watch: I am not slack and sleeping on it. I am watching and waiting!! Anticipating a response. Holding my breath, if you will!! I will look and see. Discerning, investigating
2. He was about the business of seeking God and expecting from God what he sought, an Answer!!
B. ON THE JOB IS A GOD EXPECTATION
There is also this same note of arrogance or confrontationalism toward God.
1. God I am waiting, you better answer. Reminds me of Job and the Psalmists!
2. There is significance in the very fact of the waiting. His accusations could be read as being done with God, concluding that if God acts in this way and that if the world is this unjust, then God must not be God. But there is none of that. Habakkuk waits, not to see if God will respond, but rather to hear what he will say.
3. There is also a note that what he will hear, the answer given, is for more than himself. THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS THAT EVERYONE IS ASKING, SO GOD, DON’T JUST ANSWER ME, ANSWER US ALL. The power of numbers calls out. We deserve an audience!!
ILLUSTRATION: The purposes of God often develop slowly because His grand designs are never hurried. The great New England preacher Phillips Brooks was noted for his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. "What’s the trouble, Mr. brooks?" he asked.
"The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t!" Haven’t we felt the same way many times?
Some of the greatest missionaries of history devotedly spread the seed of God’s Word and yet had to wait long periods before seeing the fruit of their efforts. William Carey, for example, labored 7 years before the first Hindu convert was brought to Christ in Burma, and Adoniram Judson toiled 7 years before his faithful preaching was rewarded. In western Africa, it was 14 years before one convert was received into the Christian church. In New Zealand, it took 9 years; and in Tahiti, it was 16 years before the first harvest of souls began.
Thomas a Kempis described that kind of patience in these words: "He deserves not the name of patient who is only willing to suffer as much as he thinks proper, and for whom he pleases. The truly patient man asks (nothing) from whom he suffers, (whether) his superior, his equal, or his inferior...But from whomever, or how much, or how often wrong is done to him, he accepts it all as from the hand of God, and counts it gain!"
Our Daily Bread.
TRUTH: GOD’S TIMETABLE IS ALL HIS AND WE ARE CALLED TO REST IN GOD’S TIMING REGARDLESS OF HOW SLOW GOD MAY APPEAR TO BE WORKING!
QUESTION: IS OUR FAITH STRONG ENOUGH TO HOLD US UP EVERYDAY, EVEN WHEN IT SEEMS GOD WILL TAKE FOREVER TO INTERVEIN IN OUR LIVES?
III. EVERYDAY FAITH IS A GOD RESPONSE (2:2-4)
A. A GOD RESPONSE IS GETTING IT DOWN (verse 2)
1. Write it down, God messing with Habakkuk. Make it plain!!
2. I am going to speak now, are you ready!!
3. “So that a herald may run with it.”
a. Multiple ways to interpret this phrase.
b. The real meaning here refers back to the phrase plain. This doesn’t mean legible only, but for understanding purposes, make it clear to all, even the simplest among you.
c. Why? So that all can take this information with them as they live their lives, Run, walk, in obedience to God. God was going to speak in terms of how to live, versus what He was going to do to change things!!
B. A GOD RESPONSE IS A RIGHT PERSPECTIVE (verse 3).
1. God says to Habakkuk, “I am not on your time table, and you are not on mine.”
2. How long and why are not the real questions, God says. I know what I am doing and I know when I am going to do it. I am Sovereign and every thing is in my control, let me handle history.
3. What God has planned will come to pass. You must learn to be patient and wait!! Habakkuk was to live between the times. Between the promise and the fulfillment. God would straighten out his People and all evil foreign nations, but not yet!!
C. A GOD RESPONSE IS THE FINAL WORD (verse 4)
1. While you are waiting for me to act, know that the unrighteous only appear to be in control (Verses 4.)
2. But those who are just and know me, the living God, are not to focus on outward circumstances that I, the living God am in control of, but are to live by being faithful. By doing what is right in the face of what is wrong.
ILLUSTRATION: Habakkuk 3:16-19 One of the most tragic events during the Reagan Presidency was the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, in which hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded as they slept. Many of us can still recall the terrible scenes as the dazed survivors worked to dig out their trapped brothers from beneath the rubble.
A few days after the tragedy, I recall coming across an extraordinary story. Marine Corps Commandant Paul X Kelly, visited some of the wounded survivors then in a Frankfurt, Germany, hospital. Among them was Corporal Jeffrey Lee Nashton, severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that a witness said he looked more like a machine than a man; yet he survived.
As Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and racked with pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it back to the Commandant. On the slip of paper were but two words -- "Semper Fi" the Latin motto of the Marines meaning "forever faithful." With those two simple words Nashton spoke for the millions of Americans who have sacrificed body and limb and their lives for their country -- those who have remained faithful.
J. Dobson & Gary Bauer, Children at Risk, Word, 1990, pp. 187-188
TRUTH: EVERYDAY FAITH IS “SEMPER FI” FAITH, A FAITH THAT NEVER GIVES UP REGARDLESS OF LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES.
QUESTION: ARE WE EVERYDAY “SIMPER FI”?
CONCLUDING ILLUSTRATIONS: The time was the 19th of May, 1780. The place was Hartford, Connecticut. The day has gone down in New England history as a terrible foretaste of Judgment Day. For at noon the skies turned from blue to gray and by mid-afternoon had blackened over so densely that, in that religious age, men fell on their knees and begged a final blessing before the end came. The Connecticut House of Representatives was in session. And as some men fell down and others clamored for an immediate adjournment, the Speaker of the House, one Colonel Davenport, came to his feet. He silenced them and said these words: "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought."
Robert P. Dugan, Jr., Winning the New Civil War, p. 183.
Mark Hatfield tells of touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the so-called "House of Dying," where sick children are cared for in their last days, and the dispensary, where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left by others to die, Hatfield was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her co-workers face daily. "How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?" he asked. Mother Teresa replied, "My dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful." Beyond Hunger, Beals
CONCLUSION: Habakkuk understands that waiting is sometimes the only faithful response when we ask about the injustice of the world. But it is not a passive waiting with the resignation of fatalists who think there is nothing beyond the events themselves. This is a dynamic waiting that comes from knowing who is really alive and who is really dying. It is a faithfulness that is grounded in the assurance that God is really God, even though present circumstances do no provide proof of that. It is a willingness to live life on God’s terms (torah), rather than trying to worship the gods of power, wealth, and short-term success. It is an understanding that our perspectives are too often much too narrow in scope, to confined to our own time frames, and much too limited to our own range of vision. It is a willingness to accept the “not yet!” of God, confident not in what we see in the present, but in the certainty of God himself.
Habakkuk had no direct answers to his questions, He still did not know how long. He still did not know why. He had not been able to solve the questions of relative injustice, or to answer the basic questions with which any person of genuine faith has asked or will ask. He still did not know God’s time-table, nor exactly what the future would hold.
But he saw something more important that would allow him to face an uncertain future with out knowing all the answers. He has seen God, a God who assured him that he is, indeed God, and who called him to be faithful without having all the answers. It is that living in faithful hope beyond our selves, grounded in nothing but God himself, that finally gives life purpose.
HOW ARE WE LIVING TODAY? ARE WE LIVING BY FAITH? IS OUR FAITH AN EVERYDAY MATTER? WILL YOUR FAITH SEE YOU THROUGH EVERYDAY? IS IT TIME TO DECIDE TO LIVE BY FAITH?
BENEDICTION: I TIMOTHY 1: 17
