Sermon Tone Analysis
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Where are you God?
Intro:
I
Illustration
Our miscarriage:
About a year ago, Brittni and I began to pray and ask God if we were to have another baby.
This spurred us on to try and in the middle of April Brittni had a positive test!
We were overjoyed!
This was an answer to prayer!
We asked for an answer of should we and God had delivered or so we thought.
For about a month we were so excited, and we began to tell family, and close friends.
Many of you know the Wingo’s and we have a very close relationship with them and they were also pregant at the same time.
Both kids would have been born around the same time.
It was perfect, or so we thought.
There are certain voices people have, you can tell when someone is ecstatic, like when Brittni called from the bathroom to tell me we were expecting.
And I will never forget that voice, much like I will never forget the voice of that morning when Brittni called me into the bathroom that early April morning.
We had lost the baby.
All our plans and hope for this little one were gone in an instant.
After hospital visits and doctor visits, we lost the baby after 8 weeks of Brittni being pregnant.
We thought this was God’s plan, we thought God was going to bless this child.
We thought this was what was suppose to happen, but were we wrong?
How could God want this for us and then take it all away?
Is God just this big kid with a magnifying glass causing pains to the ants below?
How can God be good when we felt so hurt?
Does God want us to hurt?
Why would he want this?
Did things get lost in translation?
Did we do something wrong?
Closing in a year since all of this happened, it still hurts, the pain is real, and I would love to stand before you and tell you, we are expecting, but we are not.
Thought of just being done are in our minds.
Let me be clear we our so very happy with the two daughters we have, they are amazing and we love them so very much.
But where is our third?
I always thought I would have a boy if I can be honest with you.
Why did this God?
These feelings of loss, disappointment, hopelessness, is something that many if not all of us have felt before.
When a grandma is told she has months to live.
When a grandpa can’t remember your face as you try to say goodbye for the final time.
When a mom has skin cancer.
When your parents move away
When your cousin is killed in action serving his country.
When friends you have you don’t get to see anymore because they decided to go 90 on a gravel road.
When your friend calls and ask for prayer because their dad doesn’t know Jesus and he is on his death bed.
When a brother, a son, a father, a husband takes his own life, because they think the world would be better without them.
ALL of this stuff is all around us and the question of WHY GOD, is asked almost instantly.
WHERE ARE YOU GOD is shouted
We have all dealt with this, or know one who has.
Bad things happen, they happen to Christians, Non-Christians, good people, bad people, old, young, black, white, asian, male, female, it does not matter.
Things happen that cause us to ask, say, scream, yell, shout, cry out… WHERE ARE YOU GOD.
Over the next three weeks our series of “Hope in the Darkness” we are going to be looking at the story of Habakkuk.
You see these questions of why God, where are you God that we often ask, are questions that Habakkuk asked as well.
If you have your Bibles turn to the book of Habakkuk.
*I want to say on the front end of tonight that this message is not going to have a happy ending tonight.
I want us to leave here tonight feeling what Habakkuk would have felt upon speaking with God.
So before we go to God’s word, lets pray and we will begin
PRAY
Before we dive in, let me tell you what I know about Habakkuk, and its not much.
He is a prophet who has seen a vision or an oracle from God.
Ha
He is a prophet who has seen a vision or an oracle from God.
Often when we read other books written by prophets we see where they are from, who they are writing too, and even who their fathers were.
They did this so they could trace the line back to fathers of certain times and make sure this guy who was speaking on behalf of God was really speaking on behalf of God and not some false prophet.
The other thing we know about Habakkuk is what his name means: to embrace or to wrestle.
Now the book of Habakkuk is actually very different compared to the other books of the prophets.
We call them the minor prophet because these books of the Bible are pretty short but the words that are being said are through people on behalf of God.
Most typically we see the words that are being spoken are given as a warning to the people of Isreal.
God’s chosen people Isreal— would have warning often given to them.
Ezekiel starts off with an eerie theophanic experience; Amos, with a more normal theophany followed by oracles against foreign nations including Israel and Judah.
Hosea begins with God’s invitation to marry a harlot.
Joel begins by asking the people questions about the causes of current conditions.
Obadiah opens with God’s call to battle against Edom, introduced uniquely by plural voices.
Micah announces a theophany.
Nahum begins with a confession of faith in a jealous and avenging God of wrath.
Zephaniah starts straightforwardly with an oracle of judgment.
Haggai begins with God’s condemning quotation of a complacent people’s refusal to do his work.
Zechariah introduces a call to repentance immediately.
Malachi begins with God’s confession of love for a people who do not believe him.
God—his word, his actions, his coming, his call—opens prophetic books.
Now consider how Habakkuk begins.
It begins with a complaint to God on behalf of the people.
Just like Habakkuk we often find ourselves asking why?
We look at others and we say it isn't fair God.
The Question that Habakkuk was asking is:
God, WHY?
Why do you not seem fair God.
Listen to verse 2 and 3 again
Habakkuk has some serious questions!
He doesn’t understand why God is not intervening!
Habakkuk just like you and I know that God is all powerful and he can intervene at anytime.
SO WHY DON’T YOU GOD!
You could save but you are not!
We know you see the wrong all around us, but it continues!
WHY!! HOW LONG!
Habakkuk is being brutally honest and real with God.
He is saying God I am crying for help!
and YOU GOD, you don’t hear me!
Hearing in the Hebrew meant to hear and respond.
Habakkuk was has been waiting for a response and he has nothing.
It is like sending a text message or a facebook message and you see that they read it but they don’t respond to you!
Habakkuk goes on to say I have been crying VIOLENCE!
The wicked were oppressing the righteous!
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