Resting in Sovereignty: Living by Faith

***Honor Graduates

***Open with Prayer

Recap (Last week):

Habakkuk. Message & Occasion, etc.

600-700 B.C. Prior to invasion of Jerusalem

Two COMPLAINTS

WICKEDNESS of JUDAH

GOD USING wicked BABYLON

IS GOD JUST to do this? His UNDERSTANDING and EXPERIENCE of GOD = CONTRARY

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Intro: Faith

HABAKKUK’S SITUATION REQUIRED FAITH

Faith is a strong belief despite circumstances…it rests in the nature of God above personal experience.

DILEMMA....THE CLAIM VS. THE EXPERIENCE

XTERRA STORY.... “RUNS GREAT” - NOT EXPERIENCED.

***Despite what I’ve heard, I’m not experiencing it.

GOD = DIFFERENT, RECORD OF HIS ATTRIBUTES, NATURE, ETC.

TRUE TO WORD. ----WE JUST CAN’T SEE WHOLE PICTURE

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ALL HABAKKUK’S COMPLAINTS = ANSWERED.

NO Bible CHARACTERS KNEW the END from the BEGINNING!!

EASY FOR US because WE SEE the END/BIG PICTURE…THEY DIDN’T.

LIKE THEM, DON’T KNOW OUR END.

IN HEAVEN WE’LL REJOICE, GOD KNEW BEST.

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Text:

***HABAKKUK SPEAKS:

Habakkuk 2 (ESV)

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, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

HABAKKUK’S 2ND COMPLAINT ---USING WICKED BABYLON, MORE WICKED THAN US.

Now he is AWAITING God’s RESPONSE LIKE one who is GUARDING a CITY on a watchtower.

2 And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

Habakkuk, make this MESSAGE like a BILLBOARD!

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.

There is a VARIETY of VIEWS as to WHAT exactly the “VISION” WAS.

LIKELY PROPHECY - GOD’S COMING JUDGMENT…MAKE the MESSAGE PLAIN. LET EVERYONE KNOW!

MINIMUM OF 20 YEARS WAITING BEFORE 586 B.C.

Faith during waiting isn’t easy…How many like to wait?

Amazon package 5 minutes after ordering - checking tracking

GOD often requires us to WAIT. BLESSING ATTACHED TO IT.

CALLS FOR FAITH & TRUST.

—GOD DOESN’T WORK ON OUR TIMEFRAME.

WAIT is OFTEN an ANSWER to our PRAYERS

REGARDLESS, GOD IS FAITHFUL…THE WORD WILL COME TO PASS!

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4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

Big Idea: Faith isn’t just something we profess with our mouths, but our entire lives are to be characterized by faith.

LIVE = ONGOING...NOT JUST live by faith YESTERDAY.

SOME TRANSLATIONS render this FAITHFULNESS, but our FAITH should RENDER us FAITHFUL, and our FAITHFUL PROVES our FAITH.

FAITH is NOT JUST a NT concept! It BEGAN with ABRAHAM!

Dad- Turning the GC shirt insight out....NO DAYS OFF.

This is the ultimate answer to Habakkuk’s dilemma. Don’t worry about them, worry about you. LIVE BY FAITH, TRUST ME.

FAITH = ANCHOR

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NT APPLICATION - RIGHTEOUS BY FAITH.

PAUL & AUTHOR OF HEBREWS

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH- DECLARED RIGHTEOUS IN GOD’S COURT

Faith was how people pleased God from Abraham, through Christ, through Paul, until today.

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GOD OFFERS “REAL” ANSWER:

Now God turns to addressing them.

5 “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.”

Some TRANSLATIONS say WEALTH, some say WINE.

BABYLON = INSATIABLE, GREEDY....

Never satisfied:

Drunkard

Greedy for wealth

the Grave

Babylon

WINE/WEALTH

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6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!”

7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them.

8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

BABYLON REAPING WHAT SOWED…NOT FREE FROM JUDGEMENT & DESTRUCTION

9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm!

METAPHOR - SECURITY of a BIRD with a HIGH NEST.

BABYLON THOUGHT--WALLS OF BABYLON & EMPIRE = SECURITY.

10 You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life.

11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.

12 “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!

13 Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing?

BABYLON would be JUDGED for their WICKEDNESS…So HABAKKUK’S COMPLAINT = ANSWERED

NATIONS are like a DROP in a BUCKET…GOD USES THEM HOWEVER....SOVEREIGN RULER!

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

The Bible Guide Babylon Is Doomed (2:1–20)

In the end, the world will not be the domain of any human empire, but of the glorious kingdom of God.

BEAUTIFUL PROMISE that will still be fulfilled.

BELIEVERS LIVE in the “ALREADY, BUT NOT YET”...... “THE INAUGURATED, NOT CONSUMMATED”

KINGDOM OF GOD, RULE OF CHRIST ON EARTH.

WE LIVE IN THE “IN BETWEEN” AWAITING THE PROMISE BY FAITH.

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More judgement on Babylon:

15 “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

16 You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!

17 The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

All the TERRIBLE THINGS that BABYLON had DONE were COMING BACK on their OWN HEADS...Habakkuk’s concerns were answered.

ROUGHLY 50 YEARS LATER,,,,BABYLON CONQUERED BY PERSIANS...

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18 “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!

19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.

20 But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

OTHER NATIONS WORSHIPED FALSE GODS.

EVERYONE IS SEARCHING....EVERYONE HAS A GOD.

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TAKEAWAYS:

1. IN TIMES OF WAITING…TRUST GOD, REST in HIS SOVEREIGNTY…HIS TIMETABLE IS DIFFERENT, BUT HE IS WORKING.

FAITH IS ONLY TESTED DURING DIFFICULTY...

TRIAL OF FAITH—DESIGNED FOR PURIFYING IT.

2. EXAMINE YOUR LIFE....WHERE DOES FAITH LIE?

IN YOURSELF?

IN THINGS/IDOLS?

TRUE GOD/JESUS CHRIST?

3. HOW ARE WE LIVING BY FAITH DURING THE WEEK?

DO WE TURN THE SHIRT INSIDE OUT? (EITHER INTENTIONALLY OR UNINTENTIONALLY)

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Conclusion:

We must have faith in God our sovereign Lord who rules and reigns over the entire universe…and we must have faith in His son Jesus Christ who bore our sins on the cross and was raised to life again... This is how we find a righteous standing before God and how we are to live as people who are “in between” the “already and not yet”.

Take hope in this today as we trust our sovereign Lord and await the final consummation of His kingdom, when His glory truly will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Closing:

“Song in the Night” - Shane & Shane.

Even though I know you’re able, and I believe that you are good.

Even if you don’t deliver me, O God, you are my God.

I will cling to the lover of my soul,

Letting go of the rudder in the storm,

I will call on the name of the Lord

You’re my song in the night, O Jesus Christ.