Mute your devices and turn off your cameras.

Also if you haven’t done so yet, please change your user name to have your grade number, and then your actual name.

that will help Sarah sort you into your small groups for tonight.

Open your Bibles to

Experience and Expectation

Something I want us to consider two aspects of our our experiences and expectations is:

There is a direct correlation between our expectations for the future with our experiences from the past

Our experiences form our expectations

Opposites in this:

There is a direct correlation between our expectations for the future with our experiences from the past

Experiences draws on the past, while expectations looks to the future.

Correlated in that

Our experiences form our expectations

Experiences draw on the past, while expectations look to the future.

Experiences draw on the past, while expectations look to the future.

Let me illustrate with this example:

We are quite use to drawing on past experiences in order to form our expectations for for the future. So let me illustrate this by giving a few common examples of experiences and expectations:

while expectation looks to the future.

Every year on December 25, each of us celebrates Christmas.

During this time of the year we come to EXPECT all sorts of traditions, like

decorating our homes

bake our cookies

Sing Christmas carols

and share presents

The reason we expect these in the future is because we have experienced these traditions in the past

And so every Christmas comes with our set of EXPECTATIONS because we draw on our EXPERIENCES (or traditions) that we have from the past.

Or even now, come this time of the year spring comes and so we expect this year to be something like the years that have come before.

and so we expect this year to be something like the years that have come before

The weather gets nicer,

expectations that are formed by our experiences aren’t unique to Christmas… in fact, the relationship between experience and expectation fills so much of our life

Trees begin to produce leaves

We start spending more time outside

And start to impatiently anticipate the end of the school year.

We have formed expectations based on past experiences that are formed from every week before this one, every day that has come before, and even down to every hour

Whether it is looking forward to the weekend

dreading the coming Monday

Or having dinner at or around 6:30 every night.

Our lives are filled with past experiences that inform our expectations for the future.

But when when our future expectations are not met, we are faced with uncertainty.

Uncertainty is what we feel when our past experiences no longer line up with our present reality.

Uncertainty is what we experience when our past experiences no longer line up with the present reality.

Many of us may feel like every day feels

This is very similar what Habakkuk was experiencing.

When the Law of God was not kept, and when sinners went unpunished. All was out of order.

And sinners went unpunished

And this too is what we are

And this too is what we are

All was out of order

And to make matters worse, God was using the more wicked nation, Babylon, to punish his people.

But Habakkuk’s unmet expectations led to the theme of God’s message for Habakkuk, and for us… that is

The righteous shall live by faith.

Habakkuk 2:4 ESV

4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

That is, we don’t place our confidence in what we see with our eyes, rather we place our confidence in God and what he has said.

In this weeks text we have a demonstration on how one lives by faith

The answer is this:

Living by faith requires remembering what God has done in the past.

That is to say, recounting the experiences of others from the past....

And that is exactly what Habakkuk does: listen to what he prays:

Habakkuk 3:2 ESV

2 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.

Revive your work - Do what you did in the past again

Make your work known - reveal yourself

And then he says remember mercy… why does Habakkuk say this?

Because he knows what the wrath of God looks like from what others have experienced in the past:

Notice: Habakkuk is placing his confidence in the work that God has done in the past that Habakkuk heard through the Scriptures.

What was revealed last week, was that God was going to punish sinners

Listen to what Habakkuk recalls

First he recalls the works that God did in the Exodus

Hab 3:3

Habakkuk 3:3–5 ESV

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. 4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. 5 Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels.

Do you remember the stories of all that God did in Egypt to rescue his people?

Because this is what Habakkuk is recalling.

Just as all the earth heard of the power of God then, so Habakkuk is asking for the same kind of work to be done again.

Let’s continue:

Habakkuk 3:6 ESV

6 He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.

Eternal mountains - While we know that creation isn’t eternal, rather all things were created by the the eternal God… to men, who are here today and gone tomorrow… mountains certainly seem eternal.

They don’t move, and typically they neither appear one day nor disappear the next.

Mountains are landmarks that to us often seem eternal and unchanging.

But Hab says that these eternal mountains were scattered....

Take Mt St Helens as an example of this

It was here one day, and gone the next

Talk about expectations that are not met…

Because it’s not every day that a mountain blows up

Again Everlasting hills sank low…

God moves the mountains…

he destroys the hills…

all that was unmovable has been obliterated

but listen: “His were the everlasting ways”

the only thing we can truly call eternal is God and his attributes…

His holiness

His justice

His wrath against sin and sinners

This is what Habakkuk fully anticipates,

that God’s works will be revived and known yet again.

Because

One can live by faith, because God’s ways never change.

Unlike everything else in life, you can have absolute confidence in what God will do in the future, been what he has been, he will always be.

Hebrews 13:8 ESV

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

So if you hear of some idea that God is the OT is somehow opposed to the God of the NT… ignore that… and cling to that Habakkuk is clings to…

God does not change…

he will bring justice against the wicked…

Habakkuk 3:8–12 ESV

8 Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? 9 You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. 12 You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger.

One more important reference that I want to point out…

v 11.. the sun and moon stood still...

For one, if there is any constant in all of life, it’s this…

There are 24 hours in a day… no more and no less

Well… except when the sun and the moon stood still…

Joshua 10:12–13 ESV

12 At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” 13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

Josh 1

God is able to throw all creation out of order in order to accomplish his purpose.

So we should not hold firmly onto any expectation on what this life holds for us except for this one thing…

God does not change in his wrath and his justice against the wicked…

And while this is terrifying for those who are wicked, this is good news for God’s people.

Habakkuk 3:13–15 ESV

13 You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah 14 You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 15 You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.

Hab 3:13

God’s people can expect his salvation.

Why? Because in God’s judgment for the wicked, comes salvation for his people.

And Habakkuk’s understanding is this:

if God saved his people then, he will save his people again.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

One can expect God to save his people by recounting God’s faithfulness in the past.

Should we depend on our past experiences to form our expectations for the future? Why or why not?

What stores in Scripture or attributes of God can strengthen your faith today?

How has God demonstrated his faithfulness to you recently?