A few things as we get started:

Be sure you mute your audio

And also turn off your video

And grab your Bibles and turn them to Habakkuk 3:16

As you are turning your Bibles there let me introduce review where have been through Habakkuk as we will be finishing Habakkuk tonight.

Uncertainty - Habakkuk lived during godless days where the people of God did not obey the word of God. Hab. questioned and accused God of not doing anything about all that was wrong in his day.

Sovereignty - God responds to Habakkuk to tell him he is doing something… in fact what is is doing would surprise Habakkuk and even most modern readers of the Bible. God himself would punish the sins of his people by using a far worse country that did not love God at all called Babylon.

Faith - Namely God is going to tell Habakkuk to not trust the things that he sees, but rather to trust what God says.

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.

Justice - God will punish Babylon

Remembering - Beginning of Habakkuk’s third and final response.... He recounts all the mighty works that God has done in the past, and he demonstrates his confidence that God will do those works again in Habakkuk’s own day.

Rejoice -

Transformed by Faith

I want to show show you all three different areas where the righteous person experiences transformation when they live by faith.

1. Faith transforms us from trusting what we see to trusting what God says.

Remember, this week’s scripture picks up where we left off last week… And last week Habakkuk was recounting the faithful works of God that are recorded in scripture

and listen to where he goes from there:

Habakkuk 3:16 ESV

16 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.

What might be most obvious in this verse is the outward expression of fear that Habakkuk describes…

But I want us all to notice what causes this kind of response - it’s right there at the beginning of v 16:

Habakkuk HEARS - and based on what he has heard of God from God causes a new kind of response…

Remember, in chapter one… everything that Habakkuk is responding to is based on what he sees…

Habakkuk 1:2–3 ESV

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.

But here in chapter three, Habakkuk’s response is not based on what he sees with his eyes, rather what his actions are his response from what he hears from God’s word.

1. Faith transforms us from trusting what we see to trusting what God says.

2. Faith transforms our impatience to get out of our trials to us remaining patient in the middle of our trials.

Let me show you the way Habakkuk says it:

Habakkuk 3:16 ESV

16 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.

“Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us.”

Again, Habakkuk is demonstrating faith here as he knows that trouble will come upon Babylon simply because God has told him that he would punish them.

And I want to point out to you again the transformation that displays here compared to back in chapter 1.

Habakkuk 1:2 ESV

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?

“HOW LONG”

Now Habakkuk isn’t asking God how long it will take, rather he demonstrates his faith by his patient waiting for the day that the Lord has said would come when all would be made right.

2. Faith transforms our impatience to get out of our trials to us remaining patient in the middle of our trials.

And I want to show you this: Hab’s demonstration of patience is not because God has removed the trial from Habakkuk… in fact what Habakkuk is saying is he will patiently endure even harder times that are yet to come!

Habakkuk 3:17 ESV

17 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,

This is describing desolate famine in the land that is a result of Babylon sacking the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem.

No figs… no fruit on vines - this is the removal of luxury - sure that’s not so bad.

But wait where does he go from there…

No olives, the grain in the fields are gone… no sheep or cattle… all of a sudden Habakkuk begins to talk not of just a lack of comfort and luxury, but literally a lack of the basic necessities that are required to live!

2. Faith transforms our impatience to get out of our trials to us remaining patient in the middle of our trials - and we could add even in the very worst of trials!

James 1:2 ESV

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

James 1:3–4 ESV

3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Philippians 4:11–13 ESV

11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

1. Faith transforms us from trusting what we see to trusting what God says.

2. Faith transforms our impatience to get out of our trials to us remaining patient in the middle trials.

3. Faith transforms us from wrongly accusing God to endlessly praising God.

All these things are going wrong remember

Habakkuk 3:17 ESV

17 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,

and yet look at Habakkuk’s final response.

Habakkuk 3:18–19 ESV

18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

For Habakkuk to be able to praise God, his physical circumstances in the here and now didn’t have to be perfect or even ideal, rather he simply needed the word of God and strength that comes not from food in times of plenty, but instead strength that is supplied from the Lord.

Or as Paul put it when he himself found himself in his own uncertain circumstances… He was locked in jail for his work as an Apostle when he wrote these words…

Philippians 3:7–11 ESV

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Let’s pray.

How did Habakkuk’s attitude changed from chapters 1 and 2? What changed him - was it more information or a change of heart?

Are you quicker to trust what you see or trust what God says?

Are you quicker at accusing God when life doesn’t go the way you expect, or do you praise him regardless what you are experiencing?