Living by Faith

Call to Worship

To all who are weary and in need of rest

To all who are mourning and longing for comfort

To all who fail and desire strength

To all who sin and need a Savior

We, Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church, open wide our arms

With a welcome from Jesus Christ.

He is the ally to the guilty and failing

He is the comfort to those who are mourning

He is the joy of our hearts

And He is the friend of sinners

So Come, worship Him with us.

Scripture Reading & Reader

Scripture Reader: Brandon Morrow

Habakkuk 2:4–5 NIV

“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness— indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.

Post-Scripture Prayer

Pray.

Body of Sermon

Good Morning, my name is Brandon Morrow! So glad we get to be together this morning. If you haven’t already, please turn with me to Habakkuk 2:4-5 and we’re going to continue in our summer study through Habakkuk. We have titled this series, “The Art of Grappling with God,” and we’ve encountered one man’s crisis of faith where He’s wrestling with who God is, and why God does things a certain way.

To bring us up to speed, Habakkuk is living in a land that is about to be brought under the thumb of one of the most powerful armies of the ancient world — and it’s all because Habakkuk got honest in his prayers to God.

Habakkuk was begging God to stop the injustice of His own nation. They were a people who were set apart for a purpose, but had decided to live purposeless lives — living for their own idolatrous pursuits and not for the pursuit of God.

About 10 years after Habakkuk encounters God in this book, the nation of Judah will be overtaken by Babylon and the people will be hauled off to what we know as modern-day Iraq. They will be forced from their land and subject to a different culture and religion, and they will live off of little glimpses of God’s promises.

Where we are today is the Lord’s answer to Habakkuk’s prayers. This is 10 years before Babylon captures Judah, and 70 years before it ends once-and-for-all.

Last week we talked about this idea of how God has a day in mind when the evil of Babylon will be extinguished. We also talked about how it’s not just Babylon, but at some point in the future, there will be a day in which every evil, for all people, every where, will end.

The end of Babylon is just signaling to us that there will be an end to all evil at some undisclosed point in the future. They didn’t know when Babylon’s reign of terror would end, just like we don’t when all evil will cease — just that it will.

We ended last week in a measure of hope, and this morning, the Lord has given us more hope in verses 4 & 5.

Let’s look there now.

Habakkuk 2:4–5 NIV

“See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness— indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.

The key kind of marker here in verses 4-5 is this idea of faith, or living by faith, — and this is the vision that God had for His people. The only way they’re going to get through Babylon, is by faith — they have a deep, unwavering trust in who God is, what He has done, and what He promised He would do.

I like how Martyn Lloyd-Jones defined faith. He said “Faith is the refusal to panic.”

Faith then is the invitation for those who believe in what God has done, what He’s said, and what He has promised He will do — to not panic, or lose hope, because what we believe in is not dependent on us, it is dependent on what God has said and done.

And in verse 4, what we find, is the enemy to faith — it’s pride, and we see nothing more prideful than the Empire of Babylon.

Babylon epitomizes pride.

And here’s our definition of pride as we work through this:

Pride is when you think you’re big, and you can never have enough.

This is the exact picture that we get of Babylon in verses 4 and 5.

Look with me at the first half of verse 4, “See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright…”

Babylon is swollen by their own self-aggrandizement. In Habakkuk 1:10, it says that Babylon was a nation that mocked kings and scoffed at rulers and they laughed at the attempts of other countries trying to stop them.

And not only do they think they’re a big deal, but they also have a kind of relentless arrogance that comes with them. Look with me at verse 5, Habakkuk 2:5

Habakkuk 2:5 NIV

indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples.

This is a nation that has been deceived by its own wealth and power, and it can’t get enough.

God tells Habakkuk: Babylon's pride will end. This is a warning not just to Babylon, but to every proud person.

It’s easy to talk about pride when it’s someone else’s pride, but when it comes to us — it’s not pride, it’s conviction, passion, and work ethic.

Let me just list a few ways in which we might not be too far off from Babylon.

Babylon relied on military power, but the Bay Area relies on technological innovation.

Their culture saw themselves as unstoppable, we see ours as the epicenter of innovation.

They just conquered more territories but we look for the next big startup.

Babylon measured wealth by their conquests, and we measure wealth by salaries and stock options.

Babylon ignored warnings from God, and the Bay Area values progress over tradition.

They saw themselves as the center of the world, and we see ourselves as the hope of the future.

Babylon was looking for the next conquest, and the Bay Area lives in a constant hustle culture, chasing the next big thing.

They trusted in their military power, but we trust in our ability to handle the markets.

Babylon imposed their culture on conquered peoples, and in the Bay Area we’re shocked that all people don’t think like us.

Babylon thought their empire would last forever, and the Bay Area thinks its future in tech is secure.

Our similarities aren’t bad, per se, but they do beg the question: is there a better way? Is there something beyond the “too-big-never-having-enough” mentality that seems to be so prevalent?

The second half of verse 4 seems to point to that better way.

Habakkuk 2:4 (NIV)

but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness—

Listen to what scholar Paul Achtemeier says about this:

Wherever human beings rely on something of this earth—whether it be intellectual achievement or wealth or military might or aesthetic ability and appreciation or pride of birth and status or even the ability to cope and solve problems and master the complexities of modern life—wherever confidence is placed in human prowess and not in God for the achievement of a satisfying and secure manner of living, there true life cannot be had.”

God’s answer to His vision of making it through Babylon is not individual effort or even collective will power.

The place where God starts is in relationship.

When God uses the language of “righteousness,” He is using the language of relationship.

Those who are considered “righteous” are those who live their lives according to God’s leadership.

Righteousness means:

Listening to what God says

Trusting what God has done

Believing what God will do

Living our lives based on these truths

In scripture, righteous people live their lives in a decidedly different way. Look at how Psalm 15 describes a righteous person, and I want to read it to you from the Message Translation:

Psalm 15 (MSG)

God, who gets invited

to dinner at your place?

How do we get on your guest list?

“Walk straight,

act right,

tell the truth.

“Don’t hurt your friend,

don’t blame your neighbor;

despise the despicable.

“Keep your word even when it costs you,

make an honest living,

never take a bribe.

“You’ll never get

blacklisted

if you live like this.”

This is the opposite of pride.

Righteousness is a response to God that changes how we talk, how we spend money, and how we act in relationship with others!

The righteous live their lives by faith. The righteous refuse to panic because they believe in what God has done, what He’s said — and it changes how they interact with everything.

In Habakkuk, righteousness is life giving. Literally… the characterization of these people is that they will live.

God see’s those who have trusted in Him — and they live.

Habakkuk 2:4 is repeated three other times in scripture, and they’re in the New Testament, and each use is about their new life as a result of their trust.

In the New Testament, it’s clear that righteousness, living under God’s leadership, comes only through Jesus.

Jesus is the source of righteousness.

Throughout the history of the church, we’ve called this “justification by faith.”

Justification by faith is being in relationship with God because of Jesus. Not in anything we’ve done, or could do, or have yet to do. Not based in our own pride — but based on our faith in what Christ has done.

Here's how it works:

Jesus lived the perfect life we couldn't live, fully trusting and obeying God the Father.

On the cross, Jesus took the punishment for our pride and self-reliance.

When we put our faith in Jesus, God sees us through the lens of Christ's perfect righteousness.

Our faith in Jesus then leads us to live in response to His love and leadership.

This concept stands in stark contrast to the pride of Babylon or any system that relies on human achievement. Instead of trying to prove our worth or accumulate more, we rely on God's grace.

Living by faith in Christ means:

Trusting in Jesus' finished work on the cross, not our own efforts

Following Jesus' example of humble obedience to the Father

Finding our identity and security in our relationship with Christ, not in worldly success

Let me give you two broad examples of real stories in which people’s faith in Christ — didn’t launch them into full blown panic.

The first is Scottie Scheffler winning the Masters. Here’s what he said:

“My buddies told me this morning, my victory was secure on the cross. And that's a pretty special feeling to know that I'm secure for forever and it doesn't matter if I win this tournament or lose this tournament. My identity is secure for forever.

I get to come out here and compete, have fun, enjoy it; and then at the end of the day, win or lose, my identity is secure.”

The second is Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Holocaust survivor:

Corrie and her sister Betsie were in a concentration camp, and Corrie watched her sister die in that camp… and what we would think of as otherwise earth shattering, Corrie didn’t lose her trust in Christ. Actually, after the war — Corrie forgave her captors. And she said the reason why she did it. She believed that “there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.”

You don’t do that because you have your own power — but because you’ve encountered Jesus. That’s living by faith, because you’ve encountered a faithfulness beyond your own ability.

Righteous living — by what Jesus has done — is the expected outcome for us today.

I want to give us three ways this morning to move away from pride, and towards living by faith:

Shift Your Source of Security

Our identity isn’t in our salary, or our stock options, our kids and their successes and failures, or in the event that your company goes IPO. It doesn’t matter if you lose everything, or if you win your second Masters Tournament. What matters is who you are in Christ.

Every now and then I have to do an identity check… It’s just a simple question that you can ask yourself, “Who am I without ______?”

Practice Humbling Trust

It’s too easy to go back to Babylon, living in our own power and strength. We need a Daily Surrender Challenge to point us back towards faith, or trust in what God wants for us — this is a humbling thing, because it exposes how much we don’t trust.

Pick an area that you’re a control freak over and as often as it comes up during the day, “What would it look like to trust God's leadership here instead of my own abilities?”

It could be about parenting or managing people at work.

“What would it look like to trust your leadership, God, with my kids, instead of my own abilities?”

“What would it look like to trust God’s leadership in this hard conversation after lunch, instead of my own abilities?”

Respond in Faith, Not Panic

This is probably the hardest one, because it requires the most out of us… And I’ll just use this an example.

What do you do when you worry? What’s your first response?

Do you get mad? Blame others? Shut down emotionally? Overreact?

Often times this is the response you do, because you learned it from your parents — because that’s all they knew how to do. My dad yelled, and so the core response I learned was to overreact when I get worried.

I want you to write that down somewhere, make note of it — how you worry!

And what you’re going to do, is you’re going to write down a scripture that reminds you of God’s affection for you — He won’t leave you behind. Mine scripture is a weird one. The one that regularly comes to mind is Song of Solomon 7:10, “I am my beloved’s, and His desire is for me.” It’s been helpful for me to think about God’s desire for me when I feel like I’m melting, or suffering, or going through something difficult, or just generally worried — that He’s focused on me in worry.

I want you to take whatever that scripture is for you, and I want you to write it down next to it, or above it — and read it, pray it, remind yourself of it when the worry happens.

The ideal way that God is calling us to live is living by faith — confident that our righteousness is accomplished by His own work, and we can trust Him.