Joy in Troubled Times

Alan Francis Gardner was a 19th century British Royal Navy officer

and missionary to Patagonia on the very southern tip of South America.

In 1851, he found himself abandoned with a very small group

while he was trying to set up a mission station

on the remote island of Picton,

which is right at the very bottom of South America

in fairly harsh conditions.

Unfortunately, because of bad planning and a range of other things,

the whole group died of starvation while waiting to be resupplied.

Gardner was the last one of the group to die.

When their bodies were finally discovered by the resupply ship,

they buried the bodies and the only thing that they brought back with them

was Gardner's journal.

So here's a man in a remote place, the last one alive.

The rest of his colleagues have starred to death.

His wife and his children are thousands and thousands of kilometres away.

And the last entry in his journal,

he quotes from Psalm 34 verse 10,

Psalms 34:10

the lions may grow weak and hungry,

but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

And the very last thing recorded in his journal was this.

I am overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of God.

How do you come to that kind of end,

but still have a life of sustained contentment and joy

in the midst of those circumstances?

Now, frankly, in our world,

people, any sane person,

would spend an absolute fortune,

give their fortune to the answer to that question.

The good news is you don't have to.

It's in fact right in front of you in Habakkuk chapter three

as we draw our brief journey through this book of Habakkuk to a close today.

Now, we've seen over the past few weeks

that Habakkuk lived in a world just like ours.

His nation, Israel, was about to be crushed

by the brutal Babylonian empire,

which was coming upon them as God's judgment to Israel

because of their corruption and their exploitation

and their violence and their sin and their wickedness.

Now, Habakkuk was really confused

about what God was doing in this scenario

and he really challenged God on it.

And yet, what he hears from God

is that Habakkuk, you think you care about it?

I care about it more.

I care about the wickedness and the carnage of this world.

And there is a day of reckoning coming

where I, God, will put all justice down,

all injustice down.

I will bring justice

and I will rescue my people forever.

And so the question for Habakkuk is,

knowing that the Babylonian army is coming,

how do you live with that?

How do you live in the day of disaster and carnage

and in the troubled times?

How did he do it and how do we do it?

How do we live in the day of disaster?

Is it possible to die well like Gardner?

Is it possible to sing praise to God

in the day of calamity?

To have joy in troubled times?

Is it possible for the world to come

collapsing down upon us

and to sing as we did this morning

that the Lord is good to me?

I encourage you to open up the St. Paul's app.

There you'll find out,

you'll find an outline for today's talk,

a Bible passage and a bunch of other stuff

that I encourage you to get to.

So St. Paul's app,

really three things I want to do this morning.

I want to first of all tie faith, grief and joy together.

Then look at what does it look like

to have joy in troubled times

and how do we fuel joy in troubled times?

So faith, a couple of weeks ago,

we saw that the major theme of this book is faith

in chapter two, verse four,

which reads,

the righteous will live by faith.

Then in chapter two, verse 20,

which is the end of the chapter,

we get at least a glimpse

of one of the characteristics of what true faith is.

It says,

but the Lord is in his holy temple

let all the earth be silent before him.

In other words,

my spin on that is God is God and we are not.

That's the point of verse 20.

God stands outside of his creation,

outside of the galaxies that he's made.

He's the creator, the master, the rule of all things.

And that is the starting point

of what it means to have a life of faith.

Of course, this rubs up against a culture like ours

that has personal autonomy

as most likely the highest value.

And unfortunately,

too many Christians operate

with a personal autonomy view.

And in fact,

they've got more of a view of God,

which is classically called

moralistic therapeutic deism.

Moralism is the belief

that at the core of Christianity,

you have to work hard to be really good people,

got to obey the rules and be good people.

People who obey the rules,

who are compliant and diligent

in religious duties especially.

Therapeutic theology is the belief

that God exists to serve me.

His job is to make my life good and well

and secure and happy and at peace.

His job is to stop the bad things happening in life.

God's job is to be a servant,

if you like,

responsible for taking care of my wants and my needs.

And deism means that he's basically

pretty much to stay out of the way

unless, of course, I need him.

Don't interfere in my life.

Just stay out of the way until I need you.

And so you put that together

and it's a worldview

that way too many Christians operate,

especially in the Western world,

is that if I do the right thing by God,

then he will do the right thing by me.

And when things don't work out as I plan,

his job is to jump in and fix it.

That's what he does.

And it's a fatal distortion

that so many operate with.

Of course, when he doesn't work

the way that I expect him to work

or determine him to work,

that's when faith in God

is deeply, deeply rocked.

One of the characteristics

of genuine Christian faith

is it lets God be God.

We submit to his wisdom

and his sovereign rule over all things.

And in chapter three,

the final chapter of Habakkuk,

we see Habakkuk practicing genuine faith.

And the whole chapter is a prayer of faith.

But there's something else I want us to see.

Even though he's practicing faith,

he's a man deeply grieved at the same time.

In verse 16,

we get a glimpse into what faith in troubled time

actually looks like in practice.

Have a look at verse 16 with you.

Get your Bibles open.

Habakkuk 3 verse 16.

Habakkuk 3:16

This is really important.

Listen.

I heard my heart pounded.

I heard and my heart pounded.

Now, literally,

what that reads in the literal language,

in the original language,

is my bowels trembled.

Now, try not to think about that too much.

But wherever your mind went in that moment,

that's exactly what's going on here.

My bowels trembled.

My lips quivered at the sound.

That is, he's crying.

He's crying uncontrollably.

Decay crept into my bones

and my legs trembled.

He is shaking like a leaf.

He is so overwhelmed with grief and sorrow.

And then he says,

yet I will wait patiently,

which means a deep peace and repose.

Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come

on the nation invading us.

He's weeping uncontrollably with sorrow.

He needs to change his underwear.

He's a crumbled mess on the ground.

And at the same time,

he is filled with peace.

Now, we have trouble with that.

We think you can either have grief and sorrow

or you can have peace and joy.

It is possible, according to this,

to be in deep sorrow

and yet rejoice at exactly the same time.

Joy in the Lord happens within the sorrow,

not once the sorrow passes.

It's a mistake to think that sorrow and grief

is a lack of faith,

as we often might interpret it in our modern eyes.

Job chapter one, earlier on,

is a clear example of this,

earlier on in the Old Testament.

Horrible things happened to Job.

Lost his family, lost his fortune,

lost his friends, lost his health.

And it says,

he tore his garments,

he fell on the ground

and he cried out to God.

And then it says,

in all these things,

Job did not sin.

Don't be afraid of the grief.

Grief is not the opposite of faith.

It can, in fact,

enhance our faith in God

because it drives us into God.

The grief drove Habakkuk into God

rather than away from God.

And that's what faith is.

Faith allows you to feel the grief

in such a way that it doesn't sink you.

And the remarkable thing,

as I've already pointed out here,

is that it's not just that his grief

and faith go together,

but his grief and joy go together.

As we venture into verses 17 and 18 of chapter 3,

we see that Habakkuk's faith

flowed over into joy in troubled times.

Now, we struggle with this one as well.

We don't just struggle with grief and faith,

but we struggle with joy and grief

in troubled times.

Normally, we declare God is good

when the fig tree is fruitful,

when the health is good,

when the money's there,

when the holiday was a blast,

when we're surrounded by loved ones,

when the circumstances are going

the way that we assume

that they should go,

we go,

ah,

God is so good to me.

And yet,

there's nothing remarkably Christian about that.

Anyone can do that.

Habakkuk found a way

to access the goodness of God

despite the calamity.

Most people infer the goodness of God

when things are going well.

Habakkuk, on the other hand,

came into direct contact with it

when things were going terribly wrong.

Have a look at verses 17 and 18.

Though the fig tree does not bud

and there's no grapes on the vine,

though the olive crops fail

and the field produces no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen,

no cattle's in the stall,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

Now, what he mentions here

is no small matter.

There's no crops,

there's no food,

there's no sheep,

there's no cattle.

It's a calamity.

It's like all the crops have failed.

There's no imports coming in.

The shelves of Woolworths and Coles

and every other,

they're all empty,

not just the toilet paper

and the flour.

Everything's gone.

There's no storehouses out.

Wherever they are in this country

are empty.

Well, there's nothing coming in.

This is an absolute social disaster.

And that is what's coming

when the Babylonians are coming.

And yet he rejoices

and he is joyful.

His joy doesn't replace the sorrow.

His joy doesn't come after the sorrow.

When the grief drives you into God,

it drives you into the joy

that only God provides.

And therefore,

you can grieve deeply

without being crushed.

So the question before us

is how did Habakkuk get to that point?

How did he get to verses 16, 17, 18 and 19?

How did he get there?

Well, the rest of chapter three answers that.

We get a glimpse of it

in the introduction in his prayer

in verse one of chapter three.

Lord, I have heard of your fame.

I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.

Renew them in our day.

In our time, make them known.

In wrath, remember mercy.

Now, Habakkuk's grief and joy

expressing faith in God

is based on God's track record.

That's the rest of Habakkuk, Habakkuk three.

It's the first part of this chapter.

Habakkuk looks back at God's track record

of saving his people.

Now, what you see in this first 15 verses,

if you like,

is the recounting of the Exodus events

events of Israel,

where God rescues his people

out of slavery in Egypt.

And the main thing that Habakkuk does

in chapter three,

and is the source of his joy,

is he remembers.

Habakkuk remembers God's mighty acts

of judgment on Israel

with the devastating 10 plagues.

He remembers the spectacular way

in which God rescued Israel

from oppressive slavery in Egypt.

He remembers the trampling of the sea

and the destruction of the Egyptian army

as they attempt to follow Israel

through the sea,

and yet God closed the waters over them.

He remembers the shaking of Mount Sinai

as God appears to Moses

and gave Israel the Ten Commandments

as his newly formed people.

He remembers the day

that the sun stood still in the sky

as God brought judgment upon the Amorites

through his people.

He remembers the parting of the Jordan River

for Israel to walk across on dry land

so that they could go in

and take possession of their new, new home,

the promised land.

See, what Habakkuk remembers

is the Exodus events,

rescuing from slavery,

the formation of the people of God

and being taken in to the place

that God would dwell with them

in the promised land.

The Exodus events,

the salvation event

in the Old Testament.

Abakkuk is going,

if you like,

back to the gospel

as he knew it.

Israel was in slavery.

They didn't have the power

to get themselves out of it.

God came

and miraculously did

what they could not do

through the leadership of Moses.

They were saved

by what God did

for them

through Moses.

Habakkuk is remembering

the saving of God's people

until he gets to verse 16

and he has peace.

He connects what he knows

about God's saving actions

in the past

and he puts them

into his present.

In his confusion,

in his uncertainty

and his pain

of his current calamity,

Habakkuk looks back

at the faithfulness of God

through history

and everything

that God has done for them

and the result of it

and he has peace.

He's reminded

of God's trustworthiness

and goodness

his mercy,

his salvation.

That's what gets him

to his place of peace

and joy

in verses 16 to 19.

But let me just say,

if you are listening

to this right now,

you and I

have got a leg up

on Habakkuk

because we get

a perspective

of even the

exodus events

that even Habakkuk

doesn't get.

We've got a little bit

more of an insight here.

We get

that by virtue,

that is,

we get this perspective

by virtue

that we are living

on this side

of history,

of the life,

the ministry,

the death

and the resurrection

and the ascension

of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ,

we can be loved

and accepted

and approved

by God

in a way

that even Habakkuk

couldn't fully grasp

with the exodus events.

The exodus events

where Moses leads Israel

from slavery

into their new home,

the promised land

where God would dwell

with his people

was simply a forerunner

to a greater rescue

and a permanent

future home.

The exodus

that Jesus

pulls off

is the ultimate

one.

You see,

Moses

risked his life

to liberate Israel

from social

and political bondage

in Egypt.

Jesus gave

his life

to liberate

us

from evil

and wickedness

and sin

and death

itself.

On the night

before the liberation

that Moses

commanded Israel

to slay a lamb

and to put their blood

on the doorposts

of their houses

so that the angel

of death

would go straight

pass over

their house,

that they would live

and be liberated

from slavery.

and yet we hear

in the New Testament

that Jesus

is

the Lamb

of God

who shed

his blood

so that God's

judgment

would pass

over us

and that we

would be liberated

from sin

and death

and live forever

with him.

In Exodus

28

we read

that Moses

engraved

the names

of Israel

the children

of Israel

on precious

stones

and he had

those stones

placed

on the breastplate

of the high priest.

So when the high priest

wearing the breastplate

walked into

the tabernacle

to do ministry

before God

on behalf

of the people

of Israel

he had their names

written

over his heart.

And we discover

in the New Testament

that Jesus

is the great

high priest

who sits

at God's

right hand

intervening

for those

who are his.

And our

advocate

the Lord

Jesus

he has

our names

those who

trust in him

written

in his heart.

All

who have

faith

in him

are precious

to him

they are

priceless

to him

and that's

what lasts

and that is

why

the Christian

still has

everything

everything

even

when

they lose

everything.

they

are

told to do

and they're

so excited

that things went

so well

they had

power

they're becoming

famous

they're

accomplishing

great

things

and Jesus

says to them

in verse 20

do not rejoice

that the spirit

submit to you

but rejoice

that your names

are written

in heaven.

what he is

saying

is that

your value

your worth

your importance

your significance

your happiness

your joy

is not tied

and should not be tied

by what you accomplish.

He is saying

that there is

something even

greater

than power

and wealth

and reputation

and achievement

knowledge

it is that

your name

is engraved

in heaven.

More important

than your name

being on a degree

on a

on a desk

on

on the top

of a large

bank account

a title deed

an award

is that

it is

engraved

in heaven.

And what he's

saying here

in Luke 10

he stops

savoring

and treasuring

and doting

and fondling

in your mind

the things

that are

so easily

destroyed

by calamity

by viruses

by disease

by hardship

by suffering

by global

financial crises

when circumstances

change

and they

will

for all

of us

he says

you will fall

in that moment

eternal life

in Jesus

is the

only thing

that the

Babylonian army

cannot destroy

as we just

read

from

Romans chapter

Romans 8 · chapter mention

8

who shall

separate us

from the love

of Christ

shall trouble

or hardship

or persecution

or famine

or nakedness

or danger

or sword

no

in all

these things

we

that is

those

who put

their faith

in Jesus

Christ

are more

than conquerors

through him

who loves

us

for I'm

convinced

that neither

death

nor life

nor angels

nor demons

neither the

present nor the

future

nor any

powers

neither height

nor depth

nor anything

else in all

of creation

will be able

to separate

us

from the

love of God

that is in

Christ Jesus

our Lord

when calamity

comes

when the times

of trouble

come

all things

can be taken

away from us

except this

one

the one

of promise

of life

forever

the one

promise

that you

are my

much loved

child

that is

secure

nothing

can touch

that

the source

of joy

in the

Christian

life

is not

whether

things are

working out

in my

life

in the

moment

the way

that I

expect

them to

be

it's

not even

what God

might

in fact

be doing

in me

right now

it is

what God

has done

for me

then

in Jesus

historically

2000

years ago

that guarantees

a future

for me

forever

of hope

and joy

for the

Christian

even the

worst of

things

will turn

out for

good

the good

things can

never be

taken away

and the

best things

are yet

to come

so how

do we

fuel a

life of

joy

despite

the

circumstances

now this

is the

great thing

about

Habakkuk

if you

followed us

through this

season

over the

last

you know

it's been

a quick

one

four messages

through

Habakkuk

but you

notice it

starts with

complaint

the book

of Habakkuk

starts with

Habakkuk

complaining

against God

because of

the coming

calamity

and yet

it ends

with joy

verse 18

again

yet I

will rejoice

in the

Lord

I will

be joyful

in God

my

saviour

now this

is not

a

classic

stiff

upper lip

attitude

from Habakkuk

this is not

Habakkuk

being stoic

here

and it's

not him

being

indifferent

to the

trouble

we fuel

our joy

in troubled

times

by constantly

going back

to the

gospel

of the

Lord

Jesus

Christ

and

remembering

see

Habakkuk

in verse

18

says the

same

thing

twice

I will

rejoice

I'll

be

joyful

says it

twice

remembering

remembering

remembering

remembering

repeating

it

repeating

it

repeating

it

Habakkuk

is calling

us here

to the

discipline

of going

back

remembering

and rejoicing

in what

we have

now at

first glance

it's easy

to miss

the way

that this

prayer

ends

there's

this little

subscription

at the

end

which reads

for the

director

of music

on my

stringed

instruments

you see

this

chapter

is not

merely

a personal

resolution

of faith

which was

achieved

by

Habakkuk

this

prayer

of

faithful

submission

to

God

is

meant

to be

duplicated

and celebrated

amongst God's

people for

generations to

come

this prayer

this prayer

is intentionally

placed in

the first

person

so that it

draws each

of us

into the

prayer

into the

experience of

surrendering to

God together

and rejoicing

in his

salvation

and so

while the

mood of

Habakkuk

is somber

this

song

is not

somber

verses

17 and

18

of Habakkuk

3

would have

to be

some of

the most

uplifting

verses

in the

entire

Bible

integral

to the

life

of faith

despite

the

calamities

is turning

our

remembering

of the

gospel

into

repeated

praise

of

and to

the

redeemer

and the

sustainer

of life

the Lord

Jesus

Christ

you see

rejoicing

in the

gospel

means to

treasure it

it means

to savor

it

it means

rejoicing

is to

take

something

that has

happened

and to

say

this

is the

most

important

thing

that's

happened

to me

over

and over

and over

again

rejoicing

is to

adore

who God

is

and what

he has

achieved

it's not

the same

as knowing

it's not

the same

as thinking

it is

appreciating

it is

valuing

in his

daily

devotional

book

my rock

my refuge

Tim Keller

writes this

the character

of this

praise

praise

that is

praise

to God

is to

be

glorious

what is

glorious

praise

glory

has

connotations

of

weightiness

dignity

magnificence

and beauty

glorious

worship

is

exuberant

never

half-hearted

it is

attractive

not off-putting

it is

awesome

never

sentimental

it is

brilliant

not

careless

it points

to God

not to

the

speakers

so

worship

should

never

be

trivial

never

pretentious

and so

as we

draw

our time

in Habakkuk

to a

close

in this

coronavirus

season

we're going

to do

that now

not with

the words

of Habakkuk

three

but with

words

written

by

another

one

who

faced

a day

of

calamity

more

than

2,000

years

after

Habakkuk

Horatio

Gates

Spafford

was a

prominent

American

lawyer

and

Presbyterian

church

elder

in the

1800s

he

lost

almost

his

entire

fortune

in the

great

fire

of

Chicago

of

1871

scarlet

fever

killed

his

four

year

old

son

in

exactly

the

same

year

and

two

years

later

he

decided

to

take a

holiday

take the

family

what was

left of

his

family

on

holiday

to

Europe

for

some

respite

unfortunately

Spafford

was held

up with

business

and so

he had

to stay

behind

but his

wife

and his

four

daughters

travelled

ahead of

him

to

Europe

and he

was going

to meet

them

afterwards

on the

22nd

of

November

1873

while crossing

the

Atlantic

the ship

that his

wife and

his four

daughters

were on

was struck

by an

iron

sailing

vessel

and it

sunk

and

226

people

lost

their

lives

including

all

four

of

Spafford's

daughters

when his

wife finally

got

to

Europe

she sent

a telegram

saved

alone

Spafford

sailed to

England

as soon

as he

could

and as

he sailed

over the

location

of his

daughter's

death

in the

Atlantic

Ocean

he wrote

a hymn

it's called

It Is

Well

With My

Soul

Though

Satan

should

buffet

though

his

trial

should

come

let

this

blessed

assurance

control

that

Christ

has

regarded

my

helpless

estate

and

has

shed

his

own

blood

for

my

soul

my

sin

oh

the

bliss

of

this

glorious

thought

my

sin

not

in

part

but

the

whole

is

nailed

to

his

cross

and

I

bear

it

no

more

praise

the

Lord

praise

the

Lord

oh

my

soul

let's

stand

and

sing

that

together