Auto Generated Transcript
Good morning. I’m glad to see everyone here today. I’m going to invite you to turn to the book of Habakkuk, chapter three, as we conclude our series on this book together. Uh, if you’re wondering where Habakkuk is, you’ve never been in that book. We’re just looking at the last four verses. If you start in the book of Matthew and go back. Uh, well, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah five books. There we go. There you go. You’ve got it right. I’ve said that enough times. I should remember that. But if you go back from Matthew five books, you’ll be there. The book of Habakkuk is a very interesting book as it relates to understanding God and discovering God in the midst of adversity. We said in the beginning as we started this book, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face and then whatever sticks at that point, God be with you, right? And Habakkuk is one who’s experienced adversity in his walk with God, not not on behalf of just himself, but for the nation of Israel. And so he he writes this book wrestling in a very personal way on on discovering where God is in the midst of adversity and what makes this book so unique is that it’s found in the prophetic books. And by nature, the purpose and function of a prophet is to represent God before the people. He would declare it messages of the Lord to God’s people, relay messages from God.
He would represent God to people. But in the book of Habakkuk it’s taken the opposite role. Habakkuk is now wrestling in his relationship with the Lord, coming before God in the midst of adversity. And so we’ve looked at a very difficult book over the last three weeks on. It’s a book on wrath, a book on discipline. It is not easy. We saw in the beginning that Habakkuk is in a place of desperation, a place of pain, a place of sorrow, a place of writing country music. And by the end of the book he is. He is in a place of joy, a place of celebration, a place of worship. He finds maturity through opposition, hope and adversity, and joy in difficulty. And this morning, as we look at these last four verses, these verses are sort of the the conclusion statement that walks throughout the theme of what this book was about. He goes through this emotional experience for us, exercising his spirituality to demonstrate how he finds maturity and growth in the midst of his opposition. This this last four verses that we’re we’re about to look at together is the outworking of what the theme of Habakkuk is, was, is found in chapter two and verse four. We we said when we got to that point, it is the pinnacle of what Habakkuk is about. It is a verse that’s quoted throughout the New Testament by authors. And then the theme is this the just shall live by faith.
God hasn’t given up on his people. In fact, he’s using the experience of what Israel is about to go through to draw Israel back to him, to experience maturity in those moments, and to walk with God again. When Habakkuk starts these four verses, it says to us in the opening verse in verse 16, Habakkuk describing what he’s experiencing inwardly. This is the place that he was apart from God. And in looking in himself and depending upon himself and the adversity he’s about to face. And this is what he says I heard in my inward parts, trembled at the sound of my. And the sound. My lips quivered. Decay entered my bones. And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress. For the people to arise who will invade us? Habakkuk calls this verse weak in the knees. Theology. I tend to call this verse trash can theology. It’s one of those things where you realize in front of you is something that’s resting, that’s difficult. And you say to yourself, I’m about to be sick. Grab the can, right? Habakkuk understands that, that the circumstances in which he is in, as he’s looking inwardly, inwardly, that the challenge is beyond him so much that it begins to affect him physiologically. He begins to to feel weak in the knees and and lose his strength and quiver at the circumstance, knowing that things aren’t going to be easy.
Habakkuk wrestles with this. You know, in our society today, we tend to look at obstacles in which we are are facing. And the immediate response within our mind is, how do I find pleasure again? How do I be happy again? And, and we, we sort of try to shelf or push aside things that bring distress in our lives and immediately look for the quick fix that brings happiness. Again, let’s just get that homeostasis back. Let’s feel good about it and move forward. And I think Habakkuk in this text is ultimately moving forward in what will bring him hope, what will bring him joy. But I just don’t want to reflect so quickly upon the coming verses and how Habakkuk feels that to miss what he’s expressing in verse 16, I think it’s important that God can use circumstances of weakness, circumstances of distress in our lives to drive us towards what ultimately matters. Meaning. God can redeem pain. God can use it for his glory. And I’m not saying now go seek pain. But God ultimately uses that. To drive us towards what does matter. And as Habakkuk looks within himself inwardly. He then dives a little further to look outwardly. He says, though the fig tree should not blossom and there would be no fruit on the vines. And though the yield of the olive should should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord.
So when Habakkuk describes his outward circumstances, he’s saying this not only not only is the garden not giving us the crops, and not only are the vines not producing the fruit, but when you plant a garden and it does not grow, not only do you not have food for that year, but you have no seed from the plant that will produce food for next year. Not only is there no animals in the stall, but there’s there’s no animals in the field because because the animals are gone. So Habakkuk is saying, not only do we not have food for this year, but we don’t have things to provide for ourselves for the foreseeable future. And so when we look inwardly, he finds he does not find the strength in which he needs to depend on through his circumstance. And he looks outwardly, he again does not find the strength to depend on through the circumstance. But when he looks upwardly. Thou exalt in the Lord? I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he has made my feet like hinds feet. And makes me walk on my high places. I’m going to tell you, Habakkuk, when he when he’s looking upwardly, he finds a place to rejoice in God. And we’ll talk about how that happens in a minute. But but to describe that everything I could pick, you know, Heinz feet’s probably not the top on my priority list.
You know, you ask a hunter where you where you’re going? Where are you going? Where are you going? Hunting today? I’m. I’m going Heinz hunting. I mean, what is a hind? It’s in this passage. It’s talking about a deer and Habakkuk maybe reflecting and thinking about hunters during his time, that they would chase animals through the mountains and just just be in awe of these animals they couldn’t catch. They would navigate through these hills just so incredible on terrain in which no one else could stand, these deers could stand. I got to say, you know, I’m not a hunter. I don’t chase deer. And this to me, okay, whatever. Right. But. But when it warms up outside. I love to hike in the mountains, and every year when it’s summertime, I’ve got two things on my priority list. I want to see a moose. I don’t want to see a white mountain goat. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the luxury of seeing a white mountain goat, but. But when you when you go to the top of Mount Temp or Thunder Mountain and behind us, or on the east of our church here, these white mountain goat, they stand on the world’s smallest rock. And they jump over a cliff of impending doom. And it’s like they don’t even care. They don’t even think about it.
They’ll just jump ten feet across this precipice of everlasting death. And they they leap from the world’s smallest rock only to find the new world’s smallest rock. And they just stand there like, you know, just stuck that. Everyone look at this. And when you see them in the mountains, they have no concern for anything else in life. And they’re walking so, sure, sure footed, there’s not a predator that’s going to touch them. They’re so high up on such small rocks that they just confidently just move around like, this is me and I am better than everything. And what Habakkuk is trying to express in this verse is that there is this sure footing in which he has discovered. Now some of you are like, man, I am not outdoors. I don’t get the goat thing. I mean, the goats or goats are weird. They’re more weird than dear Nathaniel. So you’re on your own in that. So let me just let me maybe break it down in a way that relates to you today. You ever you ever go outside to check your mail during this time of year. And you’re thinking, you know, I’m not properly dressed for this, but I think I can make it to the box and you step outside and as soon as you step outside, that cold breeze hits you and you’re like, I, I was not ready for that. And immediately your mind goes to the place of that guy who’s on the beach somewhere in shorts, just soaking in the rays and the perfect temperature.
You’re like, I want to be him. I want I want the security of that right now. This is when your mind goes there. I mean, that’s that. That is what Habakkuk is saying in the midst of winter. He has found the beach. I mean, he is in San Diego in these moments, right? How how in the world do you be that the deer on that beach? Right. I mean, how how does Habakkuk come through all of these challenges, recognizing that in, in verse 16, he doesn’t have the strength in verse 17, outwardly, there, there isn’t this, this, this substance to sustain him, but upwardly. He’s sure footed. Mean he stuck it. Impending doom all around, and with confidence he rests there. How do you be that? The context of chapters one through three just illustrates this throughout Habakkuk. And I just want to give a summary of of what we found in these chapters. And what I would say this is when when Habakkuk begins this experience, he discovers that that God uses adversity to help us depend on what endures, to help us depend on what ultimately matters. You recognize in the life of Habakkuk, what he’s discovering in these points is, is that every other joy in life can be taken from you. But one. Everything in the drop of a hat and the blink of an eye.
The things in which you place joy in in life. It can be ripped from you. But but one thing that can’t, and that is your place in Christ and and God is bringing Habakkuk to this place of recognizing that that he, he is the Redeemer that we found in chapter two and verses four and verses 20, and chapter three, and verses two and verse 13, that that the Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 49, when God talks about the restoration of Israel, he says this. Those who hope in me will not be disappointed. Everything that Habakkuk has learned above all else. That there is one thing he needs. And that is Christ. In the Bible tells us in first Thessalonians chapter five and verse 16 and everything give thanks. What this passage doesn’t say is for everything. If things. In in everything give thanks is much different than saying for everything, give thanks. And what I mean is this like when something bad happens in your life, you don’t have to be like, man, that was awesome. I’m thankful for that bad thing. That was way great. Let’s do it again. Rather. What Habakkuk is saying is rather than being thankful for it, or what what Thessalonians is saying is that rather than be thankful for it. In it. He finds a place to to discover thankfulness. I. Because his hope. His hope was resting. And everything inwardly, everything outwardly. But the people of Israel were no longer looking upwardly.
And the God who who was capable and able, and restoring and sustaining in him a place to wrap their hope in something that would never be taken away from them. And when you read in the New Testament and individuals like the Apostle Paul, you can see it in the, in the book of, of acts. He’s he’s in, in the dungeons singing hymns to God. How in the world, in adversity does Paul sing praise to God? Because his hope. Wasn’t the circumstantial. His hope was in the eternal. And a God who ultimately sustains beyond this world. Second thing Habakkuk learned. Is that God’s power? Meets me in my weakness. You know, if I’m being honest with you. If I knew everything life would throw at me or was going to throw at me, if I knew the challenges of church planting before I planted churches. I don’t know if I’d have the strength to get up. To endure the day, let alone the year. Of all the ups and downs life had. I don’t know that I would have it within me to even face what needed to be faced with, with the strength it took to overcome. I think in many cases when it comes to our lives, ignorance is bliss in that way. But what Habakkuk learns is that God’s power meets him in my weakness. I mean, you think in yourself, if that ever happened to me, I have no idea how I would get through that.
Bible tells us Philippians chapter four. My God. We’ll meet all your needs. According to the riches of his glory. And Christ Jesus. God doesn’t call us to worry about tomorrow. God calls us to find strength in him today. Sufficient for today are the burdens at hand, right? As people. We don’t have the ability to carry the weight of the past and the way of the future. But our God does. And sometimes we look at the challenges that life may bring and wonder, how in the world would I ever work through this? But Habakkuk discovers, and in the book of Philippians echoes this, that God in the midst of our adversity, gives us the strength to endure as he leads us in this world. And I would say for, for believers, for for Habakkuk, a mark of maturity he he shares with us is that I can’t do it. It’s trash can theology. But God can. The reality is Habakkuk finds within these chapters is that God may not change the circumstance. But he can change us to meet the circumstances. And Habakkuk begins to learn this lesson not not by thinking less of himself, but really by becoming selfless. And what I mean is, is we don’t you don’t have to beat up the image of who you are apart from God. I know that we’re sinful creatures, but God still made you beautiful. God still created you in his image.
God made you for for a purpose. God sees value in who you are because he’s ultimately given his life for you. And so you don’t have to think less of yourself. But what Habakkuk learns to do is to think selfless, because as he’s challenging himself in the strength to overcome, he says in verse 16, I’m quivering. I’m weak in the knees. But what he discovers is that the strength doesn’t rest within him, but his strength rests in the Lord. God meets us in our time of need. Third is this. I think this last one I’m going to share with you is easy to say. It’s so easy to say. But it’s hard to do. And what I mean is resting in God. You know, sometimes when you go outside in the wintery day, sometimes you want to be the guy on the beach. But I tell you, to be honest, I’ve been the guy on the beach. I lived on the beach for a while and. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, you get sand in every crevice of your body. It is disgusting. Looks great on photos. Feels horrible when you walk away. Not to mention tourists and birds constantly over your head. You know what happens when you’re around seagulls for so long? You start wearing what they’re dropping. You know what I mean? But you know what makes I think sometimes the beach such an appealing thing to people.
As you make it a priority to go there to relax. When you picture someone on the beach, one of the things that makes it such a joy is that they’ve just dropped the stress of the world to take some time to rest. Resting in God, though. Recognizing that the beach isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, but the priority to rest. I mean, that is. And not just in the substances of the world. But in the one who made it right. Rest in God. And we carry our stresses. In some cases, like it’s up to us. You remember Habakkuk’s complaint in the beginning? Like God, what are you going to do about all these people? He’s stressing out about his people. God, what are you going to do about all these people? What do you even care about these people? And you can just see him wearing it. And the concern and and the reality is, is, is the changing of the hearts of people weren’t, weren’t, weren’t up to him. It’s it’s up to God. When it comes to resting in God. I think one of the important truths that we as people need to just recognize is. We aren’t better parents than God. Let me tell you what I mean. When you think of as a parent, if you think of a child, or maybe if you’re not in, don’t relate in that way. If you’ve served in some sort of capacity in life where you’re married to someone or or you are involved in some sort of service that’s around protecting people, the general thought is, when it comes to children, when it comes to protecting people, you just care about people.
When it comes to your own kids, parents the way that you would love them. If I’d say, what would you do just to to help your child provide for your child? If your child was in danger, how far would you go to to preserve their life and to help them in their time of need? And and parents would respond, I mean, I would risk my life if if a building was burning and my kid is there, I’m running in, I’m risking I want to help them. I want to save them, I love them, I care about them. When it comes to your relationship. With your child. And the love that you have for them. I think it’s important just to stop and say. And even in that love. You’re still not a better mother or father than God. And what I mean is, however crazy obsessive you might become in making sure that the provision for your child is taken care of and your love for them is expressed, and and they’re protected and they’re safe. Whatever the extent that you would go, however crazy you may describe for me, you would be in those moments where you knew you needed to to provide a rescue.
God’s more. God loves you that much more. So much so that his own life, his own life, risked so much so that in the book of Habakkuk, the the song of praise in which Habakkuk sings is centered upon a God who redeems that the just live by faith, that God rescues his people, that God loves his children. In fact. When you read in the book of First John. I mean, it’s the theme to how John expresses our relationship to God. He he starts in in chapter four and verse four he says this, dear children. Dear. Children. I mean, his his words in this moment are just expressing the intimacy and love that God has for you. You are dear children. In fact, within this chapter in verse 16, I’m going to read the rest of this verse in a minute. But in verse 16, this is what he says we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. That God is love. And the one who abides in love abides in God. In the first part of this verse says to us, we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. There’s a there is a challenge within us where we we actually think that that we might be better parents than God in the sense like this. We’ll describe the way that we’ll love our children, love our children, love our children.
And then when it comes to God, we’re like, ah, does he? Does he really care? But does he really love me? And what first John is saying in this is, is that, listen, this is so important, guys, that we have come to know and believe the love which God has for us. That there is a place in the midst of life, when inwardly there is weakness, and when outwardly things are falling apart, that you in yourself can find strength in resting in God, that God meets you in the hour of your need, that you don’t have to be concerned with how you overcome because it’s not resting in your power to overcome, but it’s resting in the God who overcomes. He loves you like that. He cares for you like that. And John is saying in this chapter, I’ve come to know it and I’ve come to believe it, and I’m sharing this with you, that God, God loves us in this way as his children, because God is love. And who abides in love abides in God because God wants to wrap you in this, to find in your life that everything else can be taken away. But the thing that sustains the thing that matters is what the Lord can do in you. That while circumstances around you may be chaotic, that God shows up in you to demonstrate his love because he loves you far more than you carry a love for your own children.
Rest. Rest in that. Don’t carry the weight of that. Bring it to a God who cares for you. And in first John four four as he writes this passage, it’s what he says. Precious children. Dear children. You are from God and have overcome them, talking about the darkness of this world and spiritual forces. Because the one who is in you. Is greater than the one who is in the world. Reality is for us. Seasons of life are always changing. But the Lord does not. I mean, if you go through different aspects of of what it’s like to walk with God, you can you can ask yourself, when you get married, how do you how do you walk with God? Or how do you do that? I don’t know, or when it’s when you’re single, how do you do that? Well, I don’t know when you have kids. I mean, how do you how do you do that? Right. I don’t know, what’s it like when you move to college? I mean, life’s always changing. Different seasons when you move, when. When your kids move, when you. When you change jobs, when you retire, when sickness comes your way, when death comes your way and and riches and and and poor and and wealth and strength and weakness. How do you how do you walk with God in those seasons? Hello. In every season of life about the time you feel like you master it.
It changes. And no one. No one’s an expert at it. I mean, we’re learning on the fly as that season of life comes along. Expectedly or unexpectedly. What does it mean? You know, when we go through those seasons of life, I think the greatest lesson that we can learn is not how awesome we are at defeating those seasons, but how great our God is in walking with us through them. In fact, in the book of Ephesians in chapter three, it says this, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man. That it’s not about you taking that season of life and just owning it, about how amazing you are at conquering things. But how great your God is. That’s showing up in your time of need. At a point of brokenness when you look within yourself and said, I don’t have the strength that at that moment you meet with your God who does, and you find that he supplies. He gives you the ability to overcome and to walk with him. I’m going to close with this story. When I, I love I love outdoors, so you know that already, right? Goats. For some reason, no one drop a goat off at my house, please. Um, but I love every year my wife and I will try to make one trip to one of two locations.
Whether they go to Zion or we’ll go to Yellowstone, I love it. Zion. Yellowstone. We went to Yellowstone for the first time five years ago when she was, or six years ago, when she was 8 or 9 months pregnant with our first child, and we went up to Yellowstone. We’re thinking, man, we had planned this year we were going to go to Yellowstone and walk around, do all the hikes, and now she was about ready to pop and and we could have had had the kid there. She was so close. But we were like, I don’t know, this is even going to be a good trip. And we went up there and she loved it. We would drive down the road and Buffalo would walk in the trench. I mean, we get so close to Buffalo, you could smack them in the head from our vehicle. It was safe. Right. So but we’re that close. She thought it was amazing. We’re just eye to eye with these animals. And and Yellowstone is beautiful. But, you know, one of the things that that was just a shocking when we first got there to the park, when we entered from the South zone or the east gate of Yellowstone, you can see the effects of a forest fire that just ravaged Yellowstone. I mean, you look at acres, thousands of acres just destroyed. I wonder, man, how would this ever recover? You learn something while you’re there about if you ask the forest rangers at least about the beauty of your creator.
In Yellowstone, you’ll see that there are lots of pine trees growing around, and one of the pine trees that grows there is the lodgepole. Lodgepole. When it grows, its cones on the edge of the limbs will hold on to those cones for years. And nothing cracks them. Eventually they’ll fall to the ground in a heavy breeze or a windy day. But even when they land on the ground, nothing, nothing cracks them. Until intense heat comes. And when intense heat comes, finally the reason for those cones becomes a reality. They open. The seed comes out. And again, gross life. And a place that’s broken. And that’s the book of Habakkuk. Sometimes in our lives. Before we can see the hand of God working the way that God desires to work in our heart. It requires intense heat. To acknowledge within ourselves that we have taken from God the place our soul was created to rest, and we have fought hard to hold on to things that don’t matter because we have made ourselves the kings of our own kingdom. But it’s not until the intensity of that heat comes along that we realize how vulnerable we are, and the the things that we have built our life upon are just shaking sand. But when that heat comes. Finally, and even in desperation, we’re we’re searching for something to sustain us, something to hold on to, something that endures.
Something that would crack open this guarded heart and let the goodness of God flow in. And sometimes we are afraid to do that. Because we wonder on the other end, will it be filled with love? Does someone care? Am I out here on my own in this fire that I will never recover from? Or can my heart find something to uphold me? And I want to tell you this morning, you are not a better father or mother than God. He loves you with such intensity that in that intensity, he wants to meet you in the midst of that fire and take that heart and lavish his love on you. That in the midst of brokenness, in the midst of fire, he restores within you the beauty for which he has created. Encouragement. Stop fighting. Take off the tough outer shell. And just cling. Cling to Christ. What Habakkuk found. In the midst of his cracking open in the midst of his desperation. He just wanted to know, God, do you love me in all of this? And God says back to Habakkuk. Live by faith. I am your Savior. I am your Redeemer. I care about you. These circumstances, they they aren’t to punish you, but God will use them to draw you to him. Let go of the shell and trust in your God.