Yet, I Will Rejoice! Series

Yet, I Will Rejoice

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

First Baptist Chenoa

06-02-19

The Heart of Worship

If you had of visited Soul Survivor Church in England, you would have been impressed. England is a very secular nation but this church had exploded in size and several artists were writing songs that other churches were singing. The church looked healthy.

The worship leader, Matt Redman, writes:

“There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”

Reminding his church family to be producers in worship, not just consumers, the pastor, Mike Pilavachi, asked, “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?”

This led to some awkward silence at first but soon the services were filled with heartfelt prayers and new songs sung with just the voices.

Reflecting on that journey, Matt sat in his bedroom and wrote this song. It was a response to what he had learned.

“When the music fades / and all is stripped away / and I simple come / longing just to bring / something that’s of worth / that will bless Your heart / I’ll bring You more than a song / Cause a song in itself is not what You have required / You search much deeper within / to the way things appear / You’re looking into my heart / I’m coming back to the heart of worship / and it’s all about You / It’s all about You, Jesus / I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it / when it’s all about You, all about You Jesus.”

The best songs are born out of a journey. And that is what we are going to study this morning.

The End of the Book

Chapter one he begins with a series of questions. He looked around at his culture and asked why would God allow so much immorality and violence? Was God on vacation? Did He not care?

God’s answer is absolutely stunning to Habakkuk. He would use the ultra-violent, godless Babylonians to correct His idolatrous people.

Habakkuk cries out, “I object!” He agreed with God that Judah deserves judgement but, good grief, the Babylonians are so much worse! What God is planning doesn’t seem right or fair.

Habakkuk positioned himself on the watchtower and waited for God’s answer. God tells him to write the message down on tablets that a herald could run throughout the land and proclaim the message to the faithful.

What was the message? Judgement is coming for Babylonians. They would be utterly destroyed. It would happen. You can count on it. Judah was to wait in patience hope for God’s promised intervention.

Last week, we studied the five woes that God pronounced on Babylon. Yes, God would use the Babylonians to discipline Judah but they would be ultimately destroyed by God’s wrath.

It would happen. It was certain. But they would have to trust because it wouldn’t happen in their lifetimes.

That brings us to chapter three. If chapter one is characterized by wondering and chapter two by waiting, then chapter three is all about worship.

It is a prayer and a song that Habakkuk wrote in response to His journey of wrestling with God and embracing God’s Sovereignty over all. Its is a psalm of submission to the God who doesn’t give him answers but gives hims something better - His presence.

We know it’s a song because of the term at the beginning “On shigionoth,” which seems to be a music term and the instruction at the end, “for the director of music. On my stringed instruments.”

It has three stanzas and then an ending that functions as a bridge. Basically the entire song is Habakkuk 2:4 set to music - the righteous shall live by faith.”

The Jews would sing this song in faith through the hard times that were coming and teach it to the next generation.

Opening Prayer - The Response

Let’s look together at the first stanza and see Habakkuk’s response to the message that God gave concerning the judgement on Babylon. These verses should be familiar because they are our theme verses for the year.

Habakkuk doesn’t asked for deliverance. He doesn’t ask for the Babylonians to change their minds. He asks for God’s purposes will be fulfilled.

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:1-2)