Glimpses of the Glory of God - Outline

INTRODUCTION

Welcome

Blessed Day

Honor Pastors

Minister in training Nicole said this, Bless our Pastors who labor over this word weekly. It is not for the faint of heart.

Welcome Online Audience

Alright grab your Bible as we jump into the word of God

Reveal Scripture - teaching from the whole book - Habakkuk 2:12-14

Habakkuk 2:12–14 NKJV

12 “Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts That the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain? 14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.

Topic - Glimpses of the Glory of God

Glimpse is a momentary or a partial view.

When dealing with God (size) a glimpse is all we can handle:

Nosy nature - everything God is doing

planning phase to the execution

If we knew everything God was doing we wouldn’t be able to handle it

it would blow our mind

gives us a glimpse

That's what I Love about God

He gives us a glimpse

God had revealed himself to us.

Two ways God reveals himself

General Revelation - Gods footprint

Special Revelation - Personal Introduction

Burning Question

Do you really know and understand who God is?

He has revealed himself to us.

Read about him, pray to him, relationship

What is your theology??

How have you seen him show up in your life?

We will explore this and through Habakkuk we will catch a Glimpse of the Glory of God.

About Habakkuk/History

Who is Habbakuk?

Minor Prophet

Prophet of the Southern Kingdom of Judah from the 7th Century BC (700 BC - 601 BC)

Lot going on during this time

I think it’s important that you understand it

but I’m going to spare you the history because 3 weeks ago Pastor Bell taught the excellent message, LOST - Operating Without a Manual

Judah, the southern kingdom, and a lot of the history that he shared coincides with the life of Habakkuk.

Many of these prophets were contemporaries of each other, meaning that they were alive and ministering at the same time.

So I’m going to start us off at Jehoakim.

But I’m going to have a timeline up here so you can hopefully put things into perspective.

Israel/Judah History

And then Jehoakim becomes king in 609.

He is Josiah’s Son

Josiah was a good king.

Jehoakim was not. He was an evil king.

He enjoys the finer things in life at the expense of his people.

He forces his people into slave labor to build a bigger palace for himself.

He throws out all the religious reforms his father Josiah had brought in.

And he rejects God’s commandments.

And he leads the people to worship foreign God’s once more.

Jehoakim brings about the downfall of Judah’s society very quickly.

There is evil and corruption.

Exploitation and violence.

Judah is a poor shadow of what it once was under Josiah.

It has become an awful nation that is a long way from God’s design for his people.

And all of this is the world in which Habakkuk lives.

Habakkuk lives in a time of a selfish and corrupt king.

A society that has collapsed in evil and exploitation.

Now one of the major differences between Habakkuk and the other prophets was the other prophets always spoke to the people on behalf God.

The other prophets would tell the people what thus says the Lord.

There role was to tell the people where they strayed and urge them to turn from their sinful ways.

But not Habakkuk.

Habakkuk was different.

Instead of talking to the people on behalf of God, Habakkuk spoke directly to God and confronted God and question God’s actions and his inaction.

As Habakkuk saw all of the evil happening around him he didn’t understand why God wasn’t doing anything about it.

And so let’s hear what Habakkuk says to God. Habakkuk 1:2-4

Habakkuk 1:2–4 NKJV

2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save. 3 Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. 4 Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

Habakkuk’s Prayer

Listen to what he says. He says, O LORD, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?

And so Habakkuk has been crying out to God for help.

And this signifies he’s been doing it a long time.

He says, how long shall I cry.

I can hear the anguish in his voice.

The confusion in his mind.

The tenseness in his muscle as he lifts his hands to God and he cries.

And so he’s been crying for a long time and from Habakkuk’s vantage point God is not hearing him.

It seems like to Habakkuk like his prayers are going unanswered.

Has anybody ever been there?

Has anybody ever had a how long moment?

Have you ever prayed to God and not heard anything back and so you’re crying out, whether audible or in your mind,

“God where are you?”

“God I need you!”

“How long God will I cry for help?”

Do you hear me?

You ever felt like God was hiding from you?

Let’s not front, this happens to us to.

Where God is not moving fast enough for us.

He’s not responding in the way that we think that he should respond.

And how many of us in our lives even today, wrestles with this.

As Covid continues to loom and we lose Friends and loved ones to the disease.

It becomes difficult to make sense of what God is doing.

We send our kids to school and out into the world, and we’re prayerful, but not sure what they will encounter because there is violence in the world.

I don’t know about you but there are some places I will not go now, but I would go to before because of violence and destruction.

Listen you want catch me at Lenox mall because it seems like every other day a shooting is going on.

It wasn’t always like that.

We look around and we see contention and strife in our society as the left fights with the right.

Sin is running rampant.

Where is God? Why is he not doing something.

Habbakuk is asking these questions.

And then God answers Habakkuk.

But I want to submit something to you.

Could it be that Habakkuk is questioning God because he really doesn’t know and understand who God is?

When my wife and I first got married things stated out rough. Admittedly, this was because there was a lot we didn’t know about each other. We were still really learning each other. And so what would happen is we would respond to each other based on what we thought we knew of each other. When I would discipline our oldest son there would be conflict between my wife and I. The way I was raised my parents didn’t spare the rod. If you acted up you was getting the rod, or the switch or the belt or whatever they could get their hands on. And so I adopted this same style with my kids. So when they do something wrong. It’s get over here boy and come see my now. It’s if I have to give you some licks that’s what’s happening. And because my wife was still learning me, she questioned my actions. For her my actions didn’t seem like they were coming from a place of love. So we clashed. Once she got to know me better and understand who I am. She no longer questioned my actions because she knew my heart and understood I wasn’t just lashing out in anger, but my heart was to discipline our kids to respectful and obedient.

God’s Response to Habakkuk

I think we even see this play out in God’s response, because in God’s response to Habakkuk he tells him, “Oh don’t you you worry.

I have it all under control, because I’m raising up the Babylonians. That bitter and hasty nation and I’m going to use them to judge the people of Judah.”

And so now Habakkuk has a second question for God.

Because he can’t understand how God can use the Babylonians who are a proud and sinful people to judge Judah. He says in 1:13

Habakkuk 1:13

Habakkuk 1:13 ESV

13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

He is saying yes Judah is bad, but they are more righteous than Babylon.

How can you stand by and let the wicked swallow up the righteous.

God it doesn’t make sense.

Here Habakkuk is questioning God again.

He can’t understand what God is doing because he really doesn’t understand who God is.

See I believe if he really understood who God is, then he wouldn’t be asking so many questions.

I believe the same thing for us today.

If most of us really knew and understood who God is then we wouldn’t question God as much as we do.

We wouldn’t doubt what he can do like we do some times.

All that doubt is , is analytical interference as we overthink things and ponder on thing instead of trusting in who God is.

Three Step Process to Trust God

And so here it is. I want to give you a 3 step process to trusting God more.

The first thing we have to do to trust God more is we have to Learn Who God is.

Learn Who God Is

God makes this simple

Revealed himself

Shared intrinsic truths about his character and his nature

Theologians call these the attributes of God

So when you hear that God is omniscience, or omnipotent or omnipresent these are attributes of God.

All an attribute is, is a quality or characteristic ascribed to someone or something.

Attributes ascribed to us - trustworthy, determined, courageous, caring, loyal.

God is Sovereign

One of theses intrinsic truths or attributes about God and his nature is that he is sovereign. 

Sovereignty simply means I can do what I want to do. God in his sovereignty does whatever he wants to do.

And a lot of people have issues with this because we apply humanistic morals to God.

We believe that if God does what he wants to do, we put ourselves in that shoe subconsciously and psychologically and we know that if we could do what we wanted to do we would probably do all the wrong stuff.

We assume that because we have personality flaws, a morality bent toward evil or wickedness or slothfulness, we feel that sense we are like that, if God could do whatever he wants to do then why wouldn't he be like that.

This is a major flaw that we make, because God is nothing like us. He is holy. Holiness means that he is perfect in all of his attributes. That is whatever God is he is that perfectly.

So when he says to Moses I am that I am what he was saying is that for everything that I am, I am that absolutely.

So when I say I'm good, I'm not saying I'm kind of good or partly good or think I'm good. God says, I am that I am. I am absolutely, perfectly, completely and totally good.

When I say I am merciful, I’m not just saying that I'm partially merciful or I’m almost merciful, I am saying I am that I am. I define mercy. When you look up mercy I am the definition of Mercy.

God is love.

God is just.

When it says God is kind, tender hearted.

When it says God is a judge. He is perfect in everyone of these individual attributes.

God’s holiness maximizes all of his attributes and makes them perfect.

Habakkuk’s Feeling About God’s Sovereignty

And so as Habakkuk is having this conversation with God he begins to see God’s attributes.

He sees God’s sovereignty. God tells him in Habakkuk 1:6 when he answers his first question.

Habakkuk 1:6

Habakkuk 1:6 NIV

6 I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.

God raised up Babylon for the purpose of judging his people.

God can do whatever he wants and use whatever he wants to accomplish his purpose.

God shows Habakkuk that he is Sovereign.

God is so great in his sovereignty that He is even able to use human sin for his own purpose.

Now this may seem harsh and hard to understand, but remember God is Holy and perfect in all of his ways.

God is a sovereign God, able to do supernatural things. Even in your life and in your situation.

God can show up and turn that whole situation around because he is sovereign.

He’s able to do supernatural things. Don’t tell me what God can’t do and won’t do. He can do whatever he wants to do.

Habakkuk Accepts God’s Sovereignty

And so God shows Habakkuk that he is sovereign and Habakkuk accepts.

He came to realize that God is the sovereign of the universe who watches over his world and watches over his word to perform it (Jer 1:11–12). He says yes God you are sovereign. I see it now.

God’s Justice

But what about your justice God?

It just doesn’t seem fair to me that Babylon would be the instrument you use to judge Judah.

And so God shows Habakkuk that not only is he Sovereign, not only is he holy, but he is also just.

And with God because his justice flows out of his holiness it means that God always does what is right.

So with God, He never punishes people more severely than the crimes they have committed deserve, and He never fails to reward those to whom a reward is due. He always operates justly.

And so as Habakkuk protested about the wicked Babylonians

God responds and shows Habakkuk he is just.

He says, don’t worry Habakkuk, I am a God of justice. And although I am using Babylon to judge Judah.

Because I am a God of Justice Babylon and all nations like it will be judged and reap the fruit of their unrighteousness.

And so then in response to Habakkuk from Habakkuk 2:6 through the end of the chapter we see the 5 Woes.

And these are simply proclamations of warnings to Babylon and any nation like it.

God is saying I will justly repay their wickedness. Woe to him who does any of these things.

And if we go back to our key verse. Habakkuk 2:12-14 we see one of the Woes. This is the 3rd Woe.

Habakkuk 2:12–14 NKJV

12 “Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, Who establishes a city by iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts That the peoples labor to feed the fire, And nations weary themselves in vain? 14 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.

This is really about those who attempt to abuse others.

Those who seek to achieve their own wicked goals.

We see a lot of that going on right.

And so, this really can apply to any nation or person.

This was not just for Babylon so nations better watch out and be careful.

I’m not calling any names, but God is a judge who judges sin and wrong doing.

So Habakkuk, in the apex of his questioning God began to learn who God is.

And sometimes that’s how it is, right, in the middle of our mess we began to recognize the character of God. When we see how he shows up in our situations.

Theology Question

And so I go back to my original question.

What is your theology?

It’s important to know your theology.

Theology, how you see God.

What you believe to be true about God is paramount, it's critical to understanding what God is doing in your life. 

How you see God is critical.

If You See God as Mean and Resentful Flow

If you see God as mean and resentful and wrathful then everything that God does in your life you will interpret those things through that theology. 

If you see God as a cosmic Santa Clause who gives you what you want, when you want it, who you can manipulate through prayer and faith to get what you want from him.

A weak God not a strong God. You might miss what God is doing in your life and misinterpret the peaks and the valleys in your life in light of that Theology. 

If I don't see God as a loving God

or if I don't see God as a judging God

or a wise God and

a good God

then the moment I go through trouble or trials or pain I'm going to automatically think that God is not good to me

or doesn't love me or he is punishing me or why is he allowing me to go through this.

I will go through all of those ideas, thoughts and feelings because that is what my theology is built out of.

How Do We Learn Who God Is?

And so you’ve got to learn who God is.

I mean really learn who God is.

And I believe that the best way we do this is to stay in our word.

I don’t mean read a devotional or two.

You’ve got to study.

You’ve got to dig.

We need to be connected to God’s word.

And by doing this we learn more about who he is and how he responds to us. But it just doesn’t stop there.

After we have learned who God is, we now have to Live who God is. - That’s the next point.

So we see here in Habakkuk 2:14

Habakkuk 2:14 ESV

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

This is in response to the iniquity and the sin that we see in verse 12 and 13 because all sin is is a rejection of the knowledge of God.

And so he says the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

The Glory of God

So what is the Glory of Lord, the Glory of God.

It’s important that we understand what the Glory of God is because our deepest purpose is related to the Glory of God. God created us, he created you and me for His Glory.

Glory is used in different ways in scripture. But I want to try to explain it in the simplest, most straightforward way possible. So here it is.

The glory of God is when the invisible qualities of God are made visible or knowable.

It is where we can see or understand something about God and his character and his nature.

God’s Goodness

For example do you remember when Moses said, after he had contended with God on behalf of the people he said to God, “Now God, show me your Glory. And so God responds to Moses and he says I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name. (Exodus 33:18-19) He says, I will make all my goodness pass before you. So here we see in response to Moses’ request to see God’s glory, God says I will show you my goodness. He is revealing to Moses one of his qualities. That is his goodness.

The glory of God is when the invisible qualities of God are made visible and so we see God’s goodness here. His goodness is part of his character. His goodness is part of nature. We serve a good God.

God’s Holiness

Then in the book of Isaiah. We see the prophet Isaiah, he has a vision. And he sees God exalted and siting on a throne and the train of his robe fills the temple. And he sees seraphim, which are angelic beings. And they are calling to one another saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3) Now wait a minute this is strange, because one might expect as they cry holy, holy holy that they should have said the whole earth is filled with your holiness. But that’s not what they say. They say the whole earth is filled with your glory. My God. And so what we see here is that as God’s most important quality, his holiness is being made manifest his glory is being revealed.

Do you see? When the invisible qualities of God are made visible, are made known, we see God’s glory.

God’s Laws

Now let’s at God’s law - Because God’s laws are connected to his glory.

His commandments.

The you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery.

The things that we should and should not do.

Where do they originate from?

I mean we know that God gave them to us.

But why are the commandments what they are?

Have you ever thought about that?

I mean, did God put some items in his heavenly hat and then randomly pull a few out and made those the commands.

Or perhaps he rolled some dice and what ever it landed on would be a command.

So if the dice would have rolled the other way then murder would have been good and it would be OK to steal.

Sounds absurd right.

That’s not how God choose his commandments.

His laws are in fact a reflection of his character.

His laws are an extension of his nature.

He commands us not to steal because he is an honest God.

He tells us to be faithful in marriage because he is a faithful God.

God tells us not to murder because he is just.

All of God’s laws tell us something about his nature.

So when you think about the law of God.

you can really think of it as a measuring stick.

It allows us to measure ourselves against God’s character.

Romans 3:20 NLT

20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

And so the law doesn’t save us, but it allows us to see how far off track we are from God’s character.

What is Sin?

Further down in Romans 3 it says in verse 23:

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

All sin is, is missing the mark.

The Greek word for sin, ἁμάρτημα (hamartēma). And it is an archery term that means to “miss the mark” and then as a result, be disqualified from receiving a prize.

And so it’s interesting the way this verse is set up because it says, “fall short of the glory of God.”

It doesn’t say fall short of keeping the law.

It doesn’t say missing the mark of doing what is right. It says fall short of the glory of God.

- Show Slide -

And that is because the glory of God is the mark.

And the glory of God is the invisible qualities of God being made visible.

The law is the expression of who God is.

And so when we sin, we are falling short of fully expressing the character of God.

His goodness. His mercy. His kindness. His self-sacrificial love.

We are in essence falling short of who God created us to be which is a reflection of him.

When God created us, he created us to reflect his Glory into the earth.

And so here it is church.

Because God created us for his glory, we should be reflecting his character into the earth.

Perfectly revealing and demonstrating who God is through our actions.

Through the love that we show and display on a day to day basis. Scripture says:

Matthew 5:16 NKJV

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Living God’s Character

It is through us and the way that we live that people are able to see the Glory of God.

They are able to see and experience God’s character and his nature by the way you live.

You know each Saturday the men. we go walk the mountain. And I love it because it’s so rewarding. Not only do we edify each other, but we are spreading the gospel. We go to the top and we sit and talk about Jesus and people stop and listen and join in on the conversation. I believe in those moments that people are able to see the love of Christ. They are able to see God’s goodness. We are filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God.

Then it reflects off of us where people are just able to see God’s glory. We don’t even have to say a word. They just see it, because we are reflecting the nature of God.

We sometimes go to breakfast after the mountain and I remember this one time we were in there and we are sitting there talking about random things. And the owner walks up and says there is something different about you guys. I see the anointing on you. Can I share this devotional with you I read this morning? I don’t usually do this but I can tell you are men of God.

And he sat down with us and read the devotional and we chatted.

We’ve got to live who God is.

It should be evident on our lives.

In the way we walk and the way we talk.

In the entirety of our being.

God created us in his image.

And we’ve talked about it before.

We bear the imago dei. We bear the image of God.

And there are multiple ways in which his image is manifest in our lives.

But one of those ways is by reflecting his character.

He created us with his character.

He crowned us with his glory.

With his nature.

The Gospel

Now let’s look at the gospel

God’s glory is made manifest in the gospel

The gospel is the ultimate expression of the character of God, and the culmination of God’s Glory.

In the gospel we see the full expression of God’s character.

In the gospel we see the holiness of God. We see the goodness of God.

We see the mercy of God. In the gospel we see the wrath of God.

His character is fully expressed.

Because of God’s holiness he despises sin and because of our sin it separates us from God.

And because God is just he must judge sin and so we see the wrath of God.

But because of his mercy and his love he created a plan of salvation for you and for me so that we could by faith in Jesus be forgiven our sins and partake in God’s righteousness.

That’s the gospel.

And so we see God’ character, we see his glory in the gospel.

And it is our responsibility church to take this message and spread it.

We’ve got to live it.

We’ve got to talk about it.

You are on assignment.

And that assignment is to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God.

The earth needs to understand who God is.

They need to see his love.

They need to see his kindness.

They need to experience his mercy.

But they also must understand his wrath.

They must understand that God is a judge and he will and he must judge sin.

But Jesus. Jesus is the answer. He is our way of escape. Through faith in Jesus we are able to have life and have it more abundantly.

Love Who God Is

So here it is, we first must Learn Who God is, then we must Live Who God is, now lastly we must Love Who God Is.

To know God is to love God. And to love God is to praise him.

And this is what Habakkuk did.

After all the questions and confronting God,

as God revealed more and more of himself to Habakkuk

at the end Habakkuk came to love God more.

All of chapter 3, all it is is a love letter to God.

In chapter 3 Habakkuk celebrated God’s power, his glory, his splendor his wrath his mercy his grace.

He celebrates everything that God is.

And that’s what we must do.

We must trust and believe in who God is and Love him for it.

Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Must believe that He is comma and then it moves on to the next clause.

He who comes to God must believe that He is. That’s it.

He is the great I am.

We don’t worry about what we need from him or what we want from him.

We just have to believe that He is.

That he is what?

That he is a healer.

That he is a deliver.

That he is good.

That he is able.

Whatever you need God to be He is.

And so we have to love simply who God is.

Hallelujah! Everybody standing to your feet.