YET I WILL REJOICE
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· 120 viewsA series of realizations of Habakkuk at the end of his dialogue with God.
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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.
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.
There is a story about a conversation between Daniel Webster and some of his illustrious peers. Somebody raised the question about the most refined and most beautiful passage in the Bible.
One of his friends argued for the Creation story. Another one vouched for the Sermon on the Mount. A third spoke up for the description of the redeemed in Revelation.
Then finally, Webster slowly quoted these exquisite words:
"Hab 3:17-19
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.
The title of this morning's sermon, a phrase from the text, seemed to leap off of the pages of the book of Habakkuk: Through all of the devastations of changes in his life, Habakkuk conclude, "Yet, I Will Rejoice."
I want faith like Habakkuk.
Amid tough times, complicated situations, and even enemy attacks, I want to say, "Despite what happens to me, I trust you, God, despite pain and uncertainty. You and you alone are my strength." "Yet, Will I Rejoice.
But here is the thing. It's easy to trust God when things go well. But can we trust him when they don't?
The Prophet Habakkuk lived during a time of apostasy, judgment, and unbelievable hardship. He lived during a time when Jehoiakim, the King of Judah, led the people back into idolatry and away from the Lord. As a result, God is preparing to judge the nation. But strangely, God uses the enemies of Habakkuk and his people to punish them, to teach them a lesson. Herein lies the sources of Habakkuk's confusion. How (in the world) can a good God use a heathen nation like Babylon to punish His people? Why can't God (simply) purge his people of their sins and bring them back to him? Surely there is another option other than using folks who have done us wrong to teach us how to do right.
Sounds familiar? Habakkuk sounds like Job. Both Habakkuk and Job argue their cases before God. Both Habakkuk and Job have an "Aha" moment when they realize it is appropriate and wise not to worship because of physical, temporal, and material things. But instead, worship him simply because of who he is.
And like Job, when Habakkuk comes to the end of his dialogue with God, he offers thanksgiving. He realizes the benefit and blessings of trusting him even when things don't make sense.
Habakkuk, like Job, had reason and cause to be trouble, but in the end he chose to be thankful instead!
Habakkuk, like Job, had a reason to express pity, but he offered praise instead.
There is a song that Fred Hammond sings entitled "Keep on Praisin'," and the verse says:
I will bless You Lord because You've been so good
You have been my strength in the time of weakness
There's never been a time I couldn't count on You
So I will bless You, oh, Lord, in the midst of the people
Come on somebody, right here, right now
We come to give Your name the glory
Somebody help me
Sisters tell me something, come on
The chorus says:
No matter what is going on
My God still sits upon the throne
I might get down but not for long
My praise will keep me moving on
The keywords in our text and the sentiment of Fred Hammond are "although" and "yet."
Although I don't understand what is happening in my life, I am still going to thank God anyhow.
The keywords of these verses are "although" and "yet". Habakkuk is saying, "I sure don't understand all that is happening, but I am going to thank God anyhow!"
I want to take these verses and show you that regardless of how things may look on the surface, we have a reason to "Thank God Anyhow!"
What allows Habakkuk and you and I to be able thank God anyhow, to says despite our circumstances, "Yet I will rejoice."
REALIZATION #1: GOD IS SOVEREIGN AND HIS SOVEREIGNTY NEVER CHANGES
Habakkuk’s first realize is that God is Sovereignty and His Sovereignty changes.
My luck my change. My lot in life may change, but my God will never change.
Egypt experienced seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine, their prosperity change, but their God remained the same
Job's health, his finances, and the status of his family changed, but his God remained the same.
There are members of our congregation who lived through the great depression, a time when the socio-economic status of our nation changed worse then ever. Millions of American’s lives were changed. Banks went under. Men and women lost everything. They were changed by the great depression, but God in whom our nation says that it trusts was not changed by the great depression.
We are living in a time of change. There are stores and merchants whose shelves are still empty as a result of the pandemic. If you have been to a restaurant or through a driver-through lately, you know that businesses are struggling to find help and employees like never before. I hear daily stories of all kinds and level of businesses advertising for jobs without receive a single application or very few. Our world has changed, but our God is still the same.
Circumstances change, God never does.
Consider Mal. 3:6;
6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Habakkuk comes to term with the fact that he may not be able to rejoice in his situation, but he can always rejoice in God's sovereignty.
Habakkuk is painting a bleak portrait of the future, but he looks beyond the future and seems to agree with the words of the hymn writer, Ira Stanphill:
I don't know about tomorrow; I just live from day to day.
And I don't borrow from its sunshine
'Cause the skies might turn to grey.
And I don't worry about the future,
'Cause I know what Jesus said,
And today I'm gonna walk right beside him
'Cause he's the one who knows what is ahead.
We call Jesus our Lord. The word Jesus is also Jehovah. Jehovah translate to mean:
The Self-existent; eternal; changeless; covenant-keeping God"—"the I AM".
He is the the One we can depend on in desperate time; we can trust in troublesome time; we can believe during unbelievable times; we can lean on Him at all times!
Remember what Isaiah said in chapter 55:8-9, quoting God:
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We may not always know what He is doing; but we can always trust Him to do what is right.
Remember when Abraham was petitioning God on behalf of lot and his family. In Genesis 18:25, Abraham says to God:
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
We may not always understand His plan, but we can trust Him to have the best plan.
Isn't that what Jeremiah declared in 29:11:
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Isn't that what Paul means when he said in Romans 8:28:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
No matter how things may appear, God is still in control. He still knows best, and He always does what is right. He will always be God; therefore, we can be thankful anyhow! We can say, "Yet I will Rejoice."
REALIZATION #2: THINGS IN LIFE COME TO AN END OR CHANGE, BUT MY SALVATION IS STILL THE SAME.
Habakkuk trusted God’s sovereignty. His second realization was that when things get bad in this life, they do not affect my salvation! The pandemic may affect the economy, but it does not affect my salvation. The economy may affect the job market, but it does not affect my salvation.
If your salvation depends upon things going well, it is built upon a shaky
foundation. Our salvation rests solely on the grace and power of God, not the
circumstances of life!
The pandemic was bad, then it got worst, it seems to get better for a while, then they told us its was getting worst because of a new strain of the virus. So the past several years, the pandemic and so much else changed, but your salvation is still the same.
In the words of Donald Lawrence:
And yet I'm still saved,
Not by my own power, not by my strength.
And yet I'm still saved, saved, saved.
(And I'm going on) I'm going on,
(Said I'm going on) I'm saved and I'm going on.
Verse:
I've been through some valleys,
I have been oh so very low.
I have had some rough times,
Some people have really hurt me so.
And yet, I am still saved.
Jesus still died for my sins, your sins, the sins of the world. And it is still true that
if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is the son of God and believe in our
hearts, that God raise him for the dead, we shall be saved.
You can take that to the bank. It never changes.
Life is uncertain at best:
Think about how your life can change so quickly:
· One phone call.
· One doctor's visit.
· One diagnosis.
· One family member who dies suddenly.
· One financial crisis.
· One mental health challenge.
These things are temporal, but thanks be to God my salvation is eternal.
When we talk about salvation it applies to the soul.
The word salvation also means "deliverance and rescue". That reminds me that
this world is not my home. He is coming to rescue and deliver His children one
day!
Things may get bad here, but this world is not our home.
In the words of Paul in Phil 3:20:
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Read Revelation 21 – 22. We are headed to a better land. Praise God, the Lord has been good here and I am not rushing the process, but as good as it is down here, the best is yet to come.
Things may get bad here sometimes, but no matter how bad things get, they cannot take away my salvation
The Book of Hebrews tells us that we are saved to the uttermost. To be saved to the uttermost speaks of a much deeper salvation, a salvation not just from the wages of sin, but from the very chains of sin. When you confess you with your mouth and believe in your heart, you have just given your heart to Jesus. You have repented and your sins have been forgiven. In other words, you have been saved! Saved from the wages of sin, which is death.
I hope I don’t, and I hope you don't, ever lose everything down here on earth, but if we do, one thing is certain: we can't lose God, what he has done for us, what he has given us.
God's salvation never ceases; therefore, we can be thankful anyhow! I can say, “Yet I will rejoice.”
REALIZATION #3: THANK GOD, HIS STRENGTH NEVER COLLAPSES
Habakkuk came one last realization: God’s Strength never collapses. When we speak of "strength" we really mean "ability." So, our strength does not lie within us. Our ability to be sustained amid life’s ups and down, joys and sorrows is in the Lord, who is out strength.
David said in Psalm 27:1:
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Isaiah said in Isaiah 40:31
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
When we stand during turmoil, it is He who enables us.
When we can't go on, it is He who helps us.
When we are in the deep valley; it is He who leads us to higher ground.
Habakkuk said that God will make me like hind's feet.
The hind is our modern deer.
He is a graceful, agile, and swift creature.
When Isaiah speaks of God giving him hind’s feet in "High places" he is talking about mountain tops where the deer is free from the dangers found below.
Habakkuk is telling us that God enables him to rise above life’s circumstances and that God gives us the strength to stand above the battle and to enjoy precious freedom in the Lord! In other words, he is saying, "God turns my doubts to shouts! And He gives me peace in midst of my problems!"
God did it for Job:
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord."
God did it for Paul:
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
God did for Habakkuk:
“Yet, will I rejoice in the Lord.”
God enables His children to stand when their own strength fails; therefore, we can be thankful anyhow! We can say, “Yet I Will Rejoice in the Lord.”
Slap dab in the middle of his struggles, Habakkuk learned that God is both our salvation and our song.
Habakkuk learned, that he had nothing to fear from life, but that he had a real reason to be thankful anyhow!
If you are saved, you possess every reason to be thankful. So, regardless of what you might be facing today, look to God, lean on God and be thankful anyhow![1]
This “yet, I will rejoice runs throughout all of the Bible.
Can I celebrate a few yet's of scripture?
Matthew’s Gospel says:
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Can I celebrate this yet thing?
Paul said:
8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair; 9 persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NKJV)
Despite the numerous challenges that presses us on all sides, we are not crushed because we are more than conquerors.
No matter the situation or circumstance, no matter the press, we cannot be crushed because God is with us.
Celebrate it:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Romans 8:37 (NKJV) ” Romans 8:35-3 (NK7JV)
Come here Habakkuk:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Habakkuk 3:17, 18).
I am reminded of a story that while on a short-term mission’s trip, Pastor Jack Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around.
"It was the most hideous face I had ever seen," Hinton said. "The woman's nose and ears were entirely gone. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, 'Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?'
Overcome with emotion, Hinton left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, "I guess you'll never be able to sing that song again."
"Yes I will," he replied, "but I'll never sing it the same way."
Even look at Jesus our Lord of savior.
• He began His ministry by being hungry, yet He is the Bread of Life.
• Jesus ended His earthly ministry by being thirsty, yet He is the Living Water.
• Jesus was weary, yet He is our rest.
• Jesus paid tribute, yet He is the King.
• Jesus was accused of having a demon, yet He cast out demons.
• Jesus wept, yet He wipes away our tears.
• Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver, yet He redeemed the world.
• Jesus was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, yet He is the Good Shepherd.
• Jesus died, yet by His death He destroyed the power of death.
SOURCES
[1]Carr, A. (2015). Thank God Anyhow! (Hab. 3:17–19). In The Sermon Notebook: Old Testament (pp. 2013–2014). Alan Carr.
[2]Osbeck, K. W. (1996). Amazing grace: 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions (p. 143). Kregel Publications.
[3] Carr, A. (2015). Thank God Anyhow! (Hab. 3:17–19). In The Sermon Notebook: Old Testament (pp. 2013–2014). Alan Carr.
[4] Osbeck, K. W. (1996). Amazing grace: 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions (p. 143). Kregel Publications.
[5] Davis, B. L. (2013). 52 Topical Sermons (Vol. 2, p. 76). Barry Davis.
[6]Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.
