God, Why Do I Have To Wait?

Watch

Vs. 1. 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.

So last week, we talked about chapter one and that God’s people had gotten themselves into trouble because of their own sin and Habakkuk was praying that God would come rescue them and deliver them and he was frustrated because it didn’t seem like god was listening to him. So the theme last time was God why won’t you listen. The theme tonight is God, Why Do I Have To Wait? How many of you hate waiting? You hate being patient? I hate it. I yell at the microwave for going too slow. I want it to happen right now. That’s my personality. when i find something i want or something i want to do, lets get it right now. lets do it right now. Which taylor can testify that makes buying me christmas presents difficult because i don’t wait. I think this is an important sermon for us because if we are honest, i think many of us would probably confess that we hate waiting. We don’t live in a waiting culture. I remember when we would watch a show as a family and then we had to wait a week until the next one came on. There was no such thing as binging a series or a season. We live in an instant culture. So a sermon on waiting i think is going to strike a chord with all of us, myself foremost.

Read Text and Pray.

The first thing he says is that im going to watch. im going to be a watchman on the wall or a watchman on the tower and he says im going to look out and see what god would say to me. How many of you know that God still speaks? he still speaks to us. Now. We may not always like what he says. He told habakkuk that the Chaldeans were going to come in and work them over. So God spoke to him and he didn’t like it. But God still speaks. We have to be watchmen on the wall looking for when he speaks. Many of us cant hear from God because we aren’t on the wall waiting and expecting and looking for God to speak to us and answer us. So we have to not only ask the lord but also sit in silence and solitude and give him time and space and attention so that we don’t miss when he speaks. Heres some practical help for you. Notice that he went to the watchtower. he got away from the city and from the hustle and the bustle and the noise. I found this quote this week, All weighty things are done in solitude. you have to turn off the noise and get away so you can think and pray and hear. He also had expectation. He didnt think prayer was done when he finished asking. he waited and watched for the lord to see what his answer would be. students, we dont just pray and move on, we pray in faith and expectation and we listen for gods response and we are on the lookout for answered prayer.

Write

Vs. 2 write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

We need to make a practice of always writing down number 1 what we are praying for and number 2 what God is saying to us. So im writing stuff down constantly. Heres what God says to me or heres what i need answers to prayer on and then when he speaks something to me or when he answers a prayer, i just date it. You do that to stir your faith. You can go back and look and see, oh wow god loves me. wow god provided for me. wow god answered me. he cares for me. hes changed me. right that is so valuable. We also write it down to stir other people’s faith. if god can do that for me, why can’t he do that for you? and then we do that for future generations. it is so important that we are writing down what God is doing so there is no generational gap in faith. i dont want my kids to miss that god answers prayer. i dont want them to struggle to believe in that because i didn’t write it down and show them and tell them about what god has done in my life. So god is saying write this down and make it a book as a source of encouragement for people in tough times. when people are struggling and wondering if god is there. when people are wondering if god is listening. when people are waiting on god. i for one am so thankful that habbakkuk was obedient here. im so glad that he wrote it down and made it plain. im so glad that every time im struggling i can open this book and be encouraged. i can know that im not alone. i can know that god hears me. i can know that every time gods plan will come to pass.

Wait

Vs. 3 for still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end. it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

God is saying i have a vision for your life and i have a vision for the people of god. and i have a time that ive chosen to make that happen. and it will make sense at the end. and you can take it to the bank at my appointed time my vision will happen. so remember what was going on. the chaldeans who were worse than gods people were going to overtake gods people and habakkuk is saying god if youre going to judge us why wont you judge them. god is getting ready to say at the right time i am going to judge them. im goin to wipe them off the face of the earth. im going to judge them. but you have to wait. and then habbakuk waits about 20 years for this to be fulfilled. That stinks doesn’t it. theres a line in ace ventura that i remembered this week as i was preparing. he said if im not back in 5 minutes, just wait longer. it sounds silly but we can learn from it. we can’t put a timeline on gods answer to prayers. however long he takes to answer, thats what it is. so if he doesnt answer in one day. just wait longer. or like habbakuk if he doesnt answer in 10 years, wait another 10. keep waiting. if it’s God’s will, it will come to pass. If it’s not God’s timing, theres no way you can force it. However, when it is God’s timing, theres no way you can stop it. so yes we talk about gods will a lot but don’t forget about gods timing. his will is perfect and his timing is also perfect. and gods delays are not gods denials. they are just delays. God’s delays are for our discipline. they make us better. they grow us. they make us more mature in our faith. we have to discipine ourselves to not be discouraged. we have to discipline ourselves to keep the faith and worship while we wait.

The just shall live by faith.

It kind of seems like God really isn’t fully answering him. he does say hey the answer is coming and then he says the just shall live by faith. in essence what hes saying is im not going to give you the full answer or timeline. just trust me. thats how we are to live. we don’t need to know where we are going, we just need to know that god knows where we are going. Martin Luther story. This verse played a crucial role in Martin Luther coming to know Christ and God using him to start the reformation. He was a catholic monk in the 1500s. His dad wanted him to be lawyer but he became a monk. A good monk and worked hard. He did everything he could do to try to earn the love of god and to earn his salvation. He would fast for days and weeks on end. His health had actually been broken by such extreme fasting. He thought if i do enough then God will accept me. He went to confession every day and would spend hours confessing his sin. He struggled with guilt and fear and sin. Luther went to Rome with one of his friends. He just knew his answer was in rome. he got there and was very disappointed. he went to mass and discovered that the priests were drunk off the communion wine. He found out the priests had children with prostitutes even though they had taken a vow of celibacy. So he’s broken and he sees the selling of indulgences and was just beside himself. I don’t have time to explain what indulgences are but maybe i can explain those on sunday morning before small groups. But it deeply bothered Luther. He went and saw all of these relics in rome and he thought by doing this he was earning righteousness. Finally he went somewhere called St. John of the Lateran. It was the place where they built the first church in rome. What you do when you go there. there is a building that’s built beside the church that houses these steps right here. SHOW PIC. These are called the Scala Sancta or the Holy Steps. There are 28 steps. You can’t walk on them. you have to scale them on your knees. these were the steps they claim that jesus stood on when he stood before pontius pilate and the crowd yelled crucify him. You are supposed to say a hail mary then you go to the next step and do an our father. you alternate those every step. when luther got to the top of the steps and a verse hit his mind that he didn’t understand at the time. It’s this verse. The just shall live by faith. He thought what does that mean? Why would that come to mind right now? Luther began to work that out as he read it and prayed over it and meditated on it and he came to the understanding that it was not what he did that made him righteous but it was faith in what jesus did that made him righteous . He came to understand that it was not about him but it was all about Jesus. The just shall live by faith. Students listen to me. You will never be able to climb enough sacred steps to be right with God. You will never be good enough to work your way up to God. But the good news is that Jesus came down to us. He came down to rescue us from our sin. He came to make us right with God. All we have to do is believe. We are born again by faith but we live our entire lives by faith in Jesus. We believe what we don’t yet see. we believe even if we don’t understand. our believe is not in what you see or feel. its not in the result you want. its in the character and goodness of god. when you don’t see a way you have to believe god can make a way. when youre losing hope you have to know that with god theres always hope. and when he says hes going to do something, you can take it to the bank. its as good as done.

App: Trust in Jesus. Worship while you wait. Write it down so you can remember.