Wrestling And Embracing

WRESTLING AND EMBRACING

Habakkuk 1: 1-4

INTRODUCTION:

A. Habakkuk’s name means to wrestle or to embrace

1. The meaning of his name is about all we know

about him

2. From the book’s message that bears his name,

we know that he lived in the days shortly

before Babylon carried Judah away into

captivity

a. On the surface, these were prosperous

times in Judah-- the economy was doing well

b. As a nation, Judah had turned from God

c. God’s prophets were being ignored as they

sought to call Judah back to God

B. It was in the midst of these times that Habakkuk

wrote this book

I. HABAKKUK’S WRESTLING WITH GOD

A. Habakkuk saw the condition of Judah, a nation

claiming to be God’s favored people

1. What Habakkuk saw Judah doing was supposed

to be offensive to the nature and character

of God

a. Judah was given over to idols and all

the sexual perversion that went with idol

worship-- even murder

b. Right was not prevailing in Judah-- those

who did wrong got away with it and those

who did right were punished

c. Those who were Godly were outnumbered by

those who were wicked

d. In a nation that was supposed to be God’s

people, God’s law was ignored and ridiculed

e. What Habakkuk saw grieved him

2. Our problem today is that we are not grieved

by what we see going on in the church

a. Sin, even scandalous sin, is just as

prevalent in the church as it is in the

world

b. Often, it is the one who speaks out in

favor of Godly standards that is in the

minority

c. Not only do many churches ignore God’s

word but we now even have preachers that

ridicule it and deny its infallibility

d. Instead of being the salt and light that

practices Biblical Christianity, we have a

factious churchianity that makes no impact

on the world

B. Habakkuk was so grieved that he cried out for

God to intervene and judge His people

1. The problem Habakkuk had was wondering why God

hadn’t intervened

a. Judah was using God’s lack of action to

justify their sin

b. Habakkuk wrestled with trying to

understand how a holy God could allow such

sin

2. Even today, there are those who justify their

sin and their lifestyle by:

a. Their material prosperity

b. Their lack of problems

3. God revealed to Habakkuk that judgment was

coming

a. God revealed that He was preparing and

going to use Babylon to deal with Judah’s

sin

b. God will deal with sin, even the sin of

His people or the sin of a church

c. His delay in dealing with sin is not an

approval of it

d. His delay in dealing with sin is a

gracious opportunity to repent and get

right with God

4. How God can judge a church?

a. God can remove that church’s anointing and

spiritual power

b. God can take our material resources and

instead of blessing them and allowing them

to stretch, He can blow them away

c. God can bless a church by giving it the

leadership it wants-- teachers having

itching ears

d. God can judge a church by allowing it to

be persecuted

C. Habakkuk wanted Judah judged until he saw what it

involved

1. Then, he struggled again with God’s will--

how could God use these wicked Babylonians be

used to judge Judah

2. God was working in Habakkuk’s life to bring

him to the point where he could embrace God’s

will

a. As long as Habakkuk was in an attitude

where he wanted people punished, God

couldn’t use him to be redemptive

b. God’s will for us is that we seek to win

the lost and to restore the fallen

c. That will never happen until we see the

dire results of living a life without God

and then empathizing with those people

3. Habakkuk learned that lesson

II. HABAKKUK EMBRACED GOD’S WILL-- 3: 2

A. Instead of praying for Judah to be judged, he

now asked God to revive His work

1. To seek God to revive His people is to ask

God to bring His people back to Him

2. What God uses to revive His people

a. God will use a small faithful band of

prayer warriors to bring His people back

to Him

b. God will use His anointed Word to bring

His people back to Him-- pray that God

would anoint the preacher as he shares the

message God gives him

3. Through God’s anointed word energized by a

praying people will come:

a. Conviction that will lead God’s people to

turn from their sin

b. A vision of the Risen Christ that will

lead us to quit playing church and begin