The Blindness In Misinterpreting God’s Way-4

*!!Due to time restraints I had to end this sermon with having preached :6b-c only!!*

The BLINDNESS In MISINTERPRETING GOD’s WAY--IV—Habakkuk 1:6b-c(:5-11)

Attention:

I was watching a 'Hallmark Movie’ the other day.

Actress Candice Cameron Bure(a Hallmark staple)—was sitting at a dining table with her boyfriend/beau/man.

Candice’s character was so excited & all aglow(as it were), because she had received hints that her beau was going to propose to her during their supper together.

She was a soon-to-be practicing Medical Doctor who was awaiting acceptance of a lucrative medical assignment in a prestigious Boston hospital.

The couple sat at the nice supper table, with all the finery. And they both told each other that they were excited to be together, because they had important news to divulge to the other.

She excitedly informed her ‘soon-to-be-fiancée’ of her upcoming medical appointment, & how their lives would be blissfully wonderful in Boston.

On the other hand, her ‘soon-to-be-fiancée’ excitedly & very decisively explained that he knew that they should ‘break up.’ He knew that she was not following her heart, & was not truly ‘in love with him’, but was rather completing her ‘list’ of things to accomplish in life.

Like Candace Bure’s character, people can badly misread or misinterpret vital things in their lives.

And a person can ALSO do that with their relationship to/with God.

People can so badly misread or misinterpret God’s ways, so as to bring great distress to their life & to the lives of others.

Because, Misinterpreting God’s way, easily blind-sides a person to the true significance of God’s actions & inactions.

Need:

*Some people misinterpret the multitude of heartaches experienced in life, & blame God.

And those who are so blinded, regularly misinterpret God’s way.....

....Such Christians are not concerned with reading God’s revelation of Himself(the Bible) so they can know God better, grow closer to Him, & understand His ways. they neglect fellowship with believers. They neglect their own God-ordained giftedness.

•Such Christians neglect the seriousness & necessity of maintaining a close relationship with believers thru the local & global Church.

•And thru such neglect, such people become disenchanted with God, with the Church at large, & of course, with the local church....!Dangerous Territory!

People who misinterpret God’s way, have ‘the audacity’ to think God is impersonal, vindictive, impulsive, & illogical!

*Whereas people who properly interpret God’s actions, live & share the abundant blessings that are common to Citizens of the Kingdom of God, thru Christ Jesus, by personal faith.

Last week in Habakkuk, we were in verses :5-11, & found that:

Misinterpreting God’s way, blinds you to...

1. A SUFFOCATING INSULATION(:5)

-&-

2. The EXTREME REACH Of GOD’s COMPASSION(:6a)

TODAY, in verses :5-11, we’ll find that:

3—Misinterpreting God’s way, ALSO blinds you to...

The COST & CASUALTY Of RESCUE(:6b-11)[part-1--:6b-c]

Explanation:(:6-11)Collateral/Price/Loss/Hurt

:6—A bitter & hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess places that are not theirs.

:7—“They are terrible & dreadful; Their judgment & their dignity proceed from themselves.”

:8—“Their horses also are swifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.”

:9—“They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand.”

:10—“They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds & seize it.”

:11—“Then his mind changes, & he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god.”

Here in :6-11, God is letting Judah/Israel know, in no uncertain terms, that they will be ‘chastised’ or punished for their continual disobedience to God.

•And particularly so, after Judah had personally witnessed the God-ordained downfall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel some one-hundred years prior(722BC)!(cf. Jer. 3:6-11)

Jer. 3:6-11—“The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain & under every green tree, & there played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding[conscious abandonment] Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away & given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went & played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land & committed adultery with stones & trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the LORD. Then the LORD said to me, “Backsliding[conscious abandonment] Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.”