Trusting in the Valley
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Trembling Yet Trusting
Trembling Yet Trusting
Habakkuk 3
Intro
We are studying the book Habakkuk!
Y’all! Habakkuk has three chapter in it, and tonight, we are not in Chapter 1, and We are not in Chapter 2! but we are in chapter 3!
Recap:
Chapter 1: Wrestle and Embrace
Chapter 2: Waiting on God
In order to get to chapter 3, we have to go through chapter 1 and chapter 2.
Chapter 3: Is Trusting God in the Valley
Recall Habakkuk was unlike any other prophet.
Most prophets, God would give a vision to them, and then the prophet would go to the people, not Habakkuk!
Habakkuk went to God on behalf of the people.
So he is asking God WHY?
He is wrestling and embracing God— that is what his name means.
Habakkuk means to wrestle and embrace.
So Habakkuk is trying to understand God.
God responds to Habakkuk— I am raising up your enemies!
WHAT!
Habakkuk really confused, but he is still wrestling and embracing God.
And that was all in chapter 1!
Most people leave in chapter 1!
Chapter 2 Habakkuk is waiting!
Habakkuk 2:
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
Sometimes we have be patient !
Don’t quit in chapter 2!
Instead here is what you should do.
Listen!
Write!
Wait!
We have to let it linger!
Sometimes the best cooked meals are the ones that take a little longer to cook, am I right?
Sure we may not very excited to go through chapter 1 and 2 I know this!
We are not too excited to wait!
We cry out, we bang our fist, we want answers and many times they do not show up when we want them.
Remember God’s timing is perfect!
Just because He is silent does not mean that he is absent.
We can’t make God move but when God chooses to answer there is not stopping it!
NOW
When God answers that is no stop it!
Remember at the end of chapter
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
Recall this is a much different Habakkuk at this point.
Recall this is a much different Habakkuk at this point.
SO NOW
Here we are in chapter 3!
The beginning of chapter 3 is a little strange, nothing to out of the ordinary except this word Shingionoth.
What does Shingionoth means that.
Shingionoth is actually the plural of Shingion
Like that really helps right!
These words are only used one time each, Shingion- in
And Shingionoth is found right here.
The definition of Shingionoth: it gives instructions on how to sing a song.
You should sing this with energy, this one is somber, this one is suppose to be sang with a country twang, this one is wild.
Shingionoth goes a step further and says it is sang with joy, and excitement.
It is praise with exclamation points!!!!!!!
Notice Habakkuk has not had any answers yet to his prayers, God has told him some stuff but he still doesn’t have answers.
YET what is he doing!
He is praying with joy and excitement.
be careful that you do not only praise God for WHAT He does, instead be consistent in praising God for WHO He is.
We praise God for who he is not for what he does, or can do.
This is where we find Habakkuk at the start of chapter 3.
O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
Habakkuk knows what God is capable of!
God do it again!
There is a song out by elevation worship called “Do it again”
Here is a part of the song i want to read to you, it says this.
I've seen You move, come move the mountains
And I believe, I'll see You do it again
You made a way, where there was no way
And I believe, I'll see You do it again
God I have heard of you and what you can do— God I stand in fearful amazement.
In the years to come make yourself known, God make this nation better— God I know wrath is coming, but please remember your mercy.
This is how Habakkuk opens this passage up!
We can relate to Habakkuk, has anyone heard of mountaintop experiences?
Diagram:
He is going through he valley he is wrestling/ he is embracing and now he is waiting.
he valley he is wrestling/ he is embracing and now he is waiting.
As we are in the valley there is two things that Habakkuk did that i believe we must also do today.
Two things thing we must do.
You must Remember and Embrace
Remember
Remember
Habakkuk 3:
God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
Habakkuk saying the words of Teman and Mount Paran Habakkuk is referring to Mount Sinai, The Holy Mountain.
Habakkuk here is remembering where God came from.
Not in terms of this is where God began NO, God was not some created being, but this is virtually the birthplace of God making the nation of Isreal.
Recall Genesis, Adam and Eve to Abraham.
Abraham was promised a great blessing.
Then he had Isaac and the blessing continued to all his children and their children till you get down to Joseph— Remember the one who had the fancy coat, the fancy coat that got him thrown in a pit and sold into slavery.
Joseph would rise to power to become second in command in all of Egypt, famine was coming and his brothers came— they hugged, tears, and all of that, Joesph’s family came to Egypt.
They would stay there and they populated the area like crazy!
The new pharaoh did not remember Joseph so he makes all the Israelites there his slaves and they cry out to God.
God sends Moses and to lead the people out of the land of Egypt.
Moses finally gets the go ahead, and they are being called into the wilderness where they will be literally in the presence of God, who is a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night.
God parts the read sea and they end up at the base of this mountain where God would call Moses up to him at the top of the mountain and Moses would get the ten commandements and God would also give Moses tons of other rules and commands for the people to follow.
They were a new nation!
That is what Habakkuk is saying in that ones sentence.
DANG!
Verse 4 tells of the power that God displayed on the mountain
His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
Habakkuk is remembering all the God had done.
Then he dives into verse 8-15 and he is remembering what God has done.
Do you remember what God has done for you?
I have shared about Evey and her as a baby, and I look back and I remember the miracle she was and is.
And yesterday after having serval conversations with her about God and Jesus, she was grasping who God is she accepted Jesus to be Lord of her life.
I remember God’s hand on this child.
I remember God telling me no for a job in order to bring me here.
I can trust in God by remember that He has never failed me!
Do you have times in your life where God has shown up and answered prayers or maybe he has said no so He can say yes later, or maybe doors were shut to protect you?
Do you have those moments to cling too.
It is easy to be discouraged and want to walk away from God when we do not recall all that God has done in our life.
When we are going through the valley it is easy to only live in the now and not to recall all that God has done.
When we are in the valley and answers are not coming in, and God seems silent, remember what He has done and trust in Him.
We remember and we enbrace
Embrace
Embrace
Normally the word for dealing with stuff, hard stuff would be endure.
Let me tell you why we need to embrace rather then endure.
To endure means: suffer (something painful or difficult) patiently.
We can do this we can suffer patiently, but for some reason when i hear this word, it makes we think that we are enduring out of obligation.
We have to endure, we have to do this.
Check out the definition of embrace
Accept or support (a belief, theory, or change) willingly and enthusiastically.
You willing accept the suffer, or the hard times and you are enthusiastic about it!
When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade!
You are joyful in the valleys!
Listen to Habakkuk’s words
I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk is shaking!
He is trembling!
YET HE IS TRUSTING!!!!
BAD things are going to happen!
There will be no food!
There will be no live stock!
There will be death!
It’s brutal!
My dad left us
My mom just kicked me out
My brother is hooked on drugs!
My sister doesn’t talk to me anymore!
The doctor said I have a couple of weeks left.
My child is sick and it doesn’t look good!
There are a dozen reason why not to rejoice!
YET
Listen to Habakkuk!
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
WILL YOU REJOICE!
Will you faith be enough!
Shigionoth is not half hearted!
It is full on depths of your soul praise!
Does your faith worship when everything is wrong?
Does your faith believe when you don’t see the end?
Your faith stand up in the bad?
This is what it is all about!
Your faith!
We may enjoy God on the mountaintops.
But we learn to trust him in the valleys.
Chapter 1- Wrestle and embrace
Chapter 2- don’t quit
Chapter 3 type faith.
You cant have a chapter three kind of faith, without going through some stuff!
You cant have a chapter 3 faith without going through chapter 1 where you wrestle and embrace but you don’t walk out on God!
You cant have a chapter 3 faith without having waited on God, you did quit, you dug in and you waited on God.
That is what it means to have a chapter 3 kind of faith!
You don’t leave you don’t quit- you remember and embrace!
You tremble yet you trust in God.
Maybe you need to get here tonight, you are in chapter 1 and 2 but maybe you have walked out, come back to God, and trust in Him.
If you have not yet put your faith in Jesus, let me invite you know to accept Him, and make Him and make Him Lord of your life.
No strings attached!
God loves you, you see we are all born sinners, no one here is good! NO ONE— the wages of our sin is death.
But because of Jesus!
Who came and was our substitute on the cross, he took the debt that we owed and he paid it in full.
Now you have a chance to accept him as Lord and allow him to be Lord of your life!
If you want to make that decision tonight come grab me or one of your leaders and we would love to pray with you and help you make one of the greatest decisions of your life.
Questions:
What have you learned in this series Hope in the Darkness?
What are some moments in your life that you can look back on remember God’s goodness?
Are there things that you are enduring right now?
Do you think that you have a chapter 3 type faith?