Worship While Waiting

Waiting Among the Fig Trees  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Introduction
Over the next several weeks (toward Advent) I believe God would have us go nowhere different but somewhere new.
Meaning: we will perhaps travel through some familiar (or unfamiliar passages) that I truly believe will take us somewhere new personally and as a church.
I believe God would have us stay in the Minor Prophets
Joel 1:2–3 ESV
2 Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.
You do not want to miss what God will do.
Rrecap:
Wk 1 - Where do you direct your questions / emotions while suffering?
Wk 2 - Why does God allow suffering at all?
Wk 3 - How am I supposed to live while suffering?
This week - What do I do while waiting?
ILLUST - What do you do while waiting? While waiting in a line at a coffee shop almost everyone was on their phone. What did we do while waiting in line before we had our phones to inform and entertain us?
What do you do while waiting:
for the situation to change
for the relationship to get better
for God to do something
for Jesus’ return
What we will see today is there is an answer that satisfies all of these questions.
**Name one thing God has done for you. Tell your neighbor. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Go on, be “doers of the Word and not hearers only.”
Chap 2 - God has answered Habakkuk’s question of how God could allow the immediate problems right around Habakkuk in Israel, but how could God use even larger problems in addition?
God answers by having Habakkuk write down some of the most important words in all of Christendom:
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.
Here, then is Habakkuk’s response:
Habakkuk 3 (ESV)
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
Habakkuk responds in prayer in the context of worship.
This section (chapter) is highly structured similar to many Hebrew poems.
Shigionoth. We are not exactly sure what this term refers to, but we do know it is a musical term.
v18 To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
Habakkuk’s response is worship. While he is waiting in the midst of suffering, Habakkuk is worshipping.
Even after God said the worst is yet to come, Habakkuk worships?
While waiting, he worships.
what tends to happen while we wait:
listen to lies
fear
anxiety
doubt
tempted to seek out false saviors instead of seeking out the only Savior
What should we do while we wait? WORSHIP.
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.
Habakkuk 3:1–2 CSB
1 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. According to Shigionoth. 2 Lord, I have heard the report about you; Lord, I stand in awe of your deeds. Revive your work in these years; make it known in these years. In your wrath remember mercy!
How we worship while waiting:

Remember God, and remember His works. (2-15)

“Remember” (recollect)
Not part of its etymological roots, but think of it as re-member — put back together.
Not recall.
ILLUST - I REMEMBER a specific time when Christine and I went to the Pocono mountains on vacation. When I piece it together (re-member) it in my mind, it fills me with emotion and leads to other thoughts and remembering.
Ancient monastics - lectio divina
lectio
meditatio
oratio
contemplatio = rest in God
Psalm 42:6–7 ESV
6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.
Remember God. (2)
2 O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
fear = awe, worship
LORD = covenant God
Remember, God is your Creator, Sustainer, Savior
Remember His works. (3-15)
Notice the shift from the first person to the second person — Habakkuk is now recounting what God has done:
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. 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.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 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. 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.
Habakkuk (3:8–15)
It is as if the prophet is looking at a vast painting of the exodus experience that hangs in the gallery of Israel’s faith. The prophet surveys the landscape of this painting, sees its contours, and his eyes stop on one place … an under-viewed space off in the corner of the painting, a little corner that in fact holds the tenor and hues of the rest of the painting. It is the spot where the painting portrays Yahweh’s march down to Egypt. Other prophets and psalmists have been inspired by other parts of the canvas and then have painted their own masterpieces in response (Pss 78; 106; and 114 come to mind). But not Habakkuk. It is here that he is captured … this little spot. But then our prophet does something surprising. He steps into the painting, and walks alongside Yahweh as he marches through the desert to deliver. As he walks with the Lord, Habakkuk wonders at the majesty and power of God. He is overwhelmed by Yahweh’s move to save his people, to save his anointed (v. 13). He is encouraged and inspired, and from this newfound joy, the prophet casts his gaze outward, back into the space outside the painting that he just occupied. From his new perspective, he can see his place in a whole new way, encouraged by the power and compassion of Yahweh at his side. With this new perspective, the prophet then makes his last traverse. He steps out of the painting and settles back into his place. What had been a memory, off in a little corner of a painting in Israel’s experience, now has become part of his own experience. It is no longer a memory of what Yahweh has done for Israel back then; Yahweh’s march down to save has become part of Habakkuk’s reality in the present. The way Habakkuk remembers his God paves the way for an enlarged understanding of his present suffering.Memory is indeed God’s gift that remains formative for the life of faith.
Habakkuk (3:8–15)
His memory of Yahweh becomes the tracks on which his response to the Lord may run. We have seen this often in the book up to this point. Habakkuk is empowered to respond to Yahweh on the basis of what he already knows of his maker, which then shapes his complaint
(For us today it may be a “painting” of the resurrection - describe)
This is why the REALITY of the resurrection is vital. We don’t speak about myth and legend but reality and fact.
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Reorient your heart around God’s Word. (16)

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.
Amazing how Habakkuk’s response was not, “I hear. . . and I panicked!”
YET
Worship refocuses your eyes.
Worship assigns worth (“worth-ship”) to what actually matters.
Even when we are initially fearful when we hear about our problems, in worship we gain a true perspective.
ILLUST - Ex of distortion - distortion glasses. In science class we used glasses that flipped vision upside down. Kids were asked to walk and catch a ball. The reality of the world around them didn’t change, they just had a distorted view.
In worship our focus expands and our faith grows.
Worship quiets your heart.
“Yet”
Internal calm in the midst of external chaos.
How many can identify with the second part of that?
“body trembles. . . lips quiver. . . rottenness enters bones. . . legs tremble”
Worship may not quiet your house, your job, or even your fears, but it will quiet your heart.
Because worship recalibrates your heart’s value system back to God’s economy where he is the standard. Anything this world can throw at you is less than.
See how paradoxical this looks from the outside:
This attitude in suffering only makes sense with a faithful heart of worship. The world does not get it, but it wants it.
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Rejoice with renewed faith. (17-19)

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, 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.
True worship leads to joy.
In one sense I love the word, “rejoice” and in another, I hate it.
it fits perfectly, but it can be “Christianese”
The Person of God becomes the sole center of Habakkuk’s joy.
Even if destruction is total, Habakkuk has joy.
Joy is in LORD. Joy is in God of my salvation.
How much of our joy is circumstantial rather than theological?
True worship renews our faith.
True worship lifts our face, reorients our focus, and renews our faith.
Worship lifts our face as we hold our faith.
We can take on what we never thought possible.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.
God is the center of the worship focus.
He gives stability in shaky places. With little on which to stand, you can stand firm
Conclusion
Do you see how Habakkuk’s questions and prayers brought to God has changed him? How his meeting with God in the midst of suffering, while waiting has, through worship, moved Habakkuk to joy?
Notice the change in Habakkuk’s life as he worshipped while he was waiting.
Let’s examine the contrast between Hab 1:1-2 and Hab 3:16-19 to see how worship changes US while we wait.
Habakkuk 1:1–2 ESV
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 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?
Habakkuk 3:16–19 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. 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, 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.
Habakkuk’s first complaint: How long must I wait for your justice? (1:2-4)
Begins with line stating, God does not hear (sm) Habakkuk’s cries for help. (God is silent)
The issue of how long Habakkuk must wait for God’s salvation (ys)
Habakkuk’s frustrated cry to God, who is not saving him.
Habakkuk’s final resolution of his first complaint about how long?: I will wait for God’s help as long as it takes, no matter what; he is my source of joy (3:16-19)
Begins: Habakkuk hears (sm) God’s arrival to help and is silenced.
Habakkuk will wait, no matter what; for God is his salvation (ys)
Habakkuk’s joyful cry to the God who saves.
What do you do if. . . You wait, and you worship.
What do you do if. . . You wait, and you worship.
When you wait and you worship, you will find joy.
*PRAY*
Psalm 27:13–14 ESV
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! 14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
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