From Complaining to Contentment

Okay, Habakic.

If you were here last week, you know how Habakic

Chapter one starts, and it starts with a lot of complaining.

Do we remember this?

If you weren't here, I'm gonna give you a recap.

It's fine. I'll get to that in a moment.

But if you were here, you remember complaining, complaining to God,

lots of complaining, some salty questions. And the remarkable thing

about Habakk is not that he complains to God. There's

lots of complaining to God in the Bible, probably more

complaining to God in the Bible than we actually do

in our Christian lives. And there's I think there's a

mismatch there that probably needs to be addressed by real

biblical lament and learning to do that well. But what's

remarkable about Habakk is not that he complains. What's remarkable

about Humback is that he progresses, and Abakic gets to

this place in three chapters. He goes from complaining to

this picture, Abacuck declares. At the end of this he says,

God has made my feet like a deer's. It's kind

of weird. Here's what he means. He says God has

made me now, so that no matter what kind of

terrain he puts me.

On, no matter how mountainous.

And difficult my circumstances are, He's made my feet like

a deer's, so that I am secure in him no

matter where he takes me, he declares, even if there's

no food in the fridge, no gas in the tank,

no furniture in the house. My strength is in God,

My joy is in God. He's made my feet like

a deer. It's a beautiful picture. In fact, I'll refer

to it over and over again. Feet like a deer,

feed like a deer. So if somebody shows up, Blate

try to explain that one to them, like that's what

he means when he says.

Feet like a deer.

But what's more beautiful than the picture of that faith

is the progression that Habacchak takes.

You remember what that guy looked like last week? How

does he get there? How do we get there? I

think this is.

Why Habakk is written, not to just show us how

Habaccic got from complaining to contentment, but how the people

of God are to follow Habaccic's example of complaining to contentment.

Now it's an example it's an example.

It's not a formula.

Even though I'm gonna speak in terms of four steps

that Habaccac takes. Don't hear that as a recipe or

a formula for God's people.

But it is a worthy example.

And I think that's what we see in these three

chapters of Habacic is four steps that Habaccic takes to

move from complaining to contentment, from.

From a sour from a sour heart to feet like

a deer.

I'll lay out those four steps for you as soon

as we finish reading our text and ask you to

stand with me for the reading of God's word. And

this morning we'll read chapters two and three.

And then we'll get into the rest of the message.

A Back, starting in chapter two, Back says, I will

take my stand at my watch post and station myself

on the tower. All look out to see what he

will say to me and what I will answer concerning

my complaint. And the Lord answered me. Write the vision,

make it plain on tablets so that he may run

who reads it for still the vision awaits is a

point of 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. And then God

speaks of this nation that he's going to be using

for his judgment purposes in Israel. Just if you weren't

familiar with chapter one, that's who he's talking about right here,

and he's gonna talk about the justice he's about to show.

He says this, Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is.

Not upright within him. But the righteous shall live by

his faith. Moreover, Wine is a traitor, an arrogant man

who is never at rest. His greed is as wide

as shield like death. He has never enough. He gathers

for himself all nations, and collects as his own all peoples,

and shall not all these take up their taunt against him,

And with scoffing and riddles for him, say woe to

him who heaps up what's not his own, and for

how long and loads himself with pledges.

Well, not your debtor.

Suddenly arise and those awake who made you tremble, who

will make you tremble, And then you will be spoiled

for them, because you've plundered many nations. All the remnant

of the people shall plunder you for the blood of

man and violence to the earth, to cities and.

All who dwell in them.

Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,

to set his nest on high to be safe from

the reach of harm. You've devised shame for your house

by cutting off many peoples. You've forfeited your life. For

the stone will cry out from the wall, and the

beam from the woodwork respond. Woe to him who builds

a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity. Behold,

is it not from the Lord of Hosts that people

labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of

the glory of the Lord, as waters cover the sea.

Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink, who you

pour out your wrath and make them drunk in order

to gaze at their nakedness, you will have your fill

of shame instead of glory. Drink yourself and show your uncircumcision.

The cup is in the Lord's right hand. It will

come around to you, and utter shame will come upon

your glory. 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. What profit

is an idol when its maker has shaped it a

metal image, a teacher of lies, for its maker trust

in its own creation.

When he makes speechless idols.

Woe to him who says to a.

Wooden thing, awake to a silent stone, Ariyes.

Can this teach Behold? It is overlaid with gold and silver.

There's no breath at all in it.

But the Lord is.

In his holy temple. Let all the earth deep silence

before him. A prayer of Habacchak the prophet. According to

the Chickanoath, Oh Lord.

I've heard the report of you.

And your work. Oh Lord, do I fear? Can the

midst of the years revive it? In the midst of

the years? Make it known in wrath? Remember mercy. God

came from Timon, and the Holy One from Mount Peron.

His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full

of his praise. His brightness was like the light rays.

Shine flashed from his hands, and there he veiled his power.

Before him went pestilence and plague followed at his heels.

He stood and measured the earth and looked and shook

the nations. Then eternal mountains were scattered. The everlasting heels

sank low. His were the everlasting ways. I saw the

tents of cushion and affliction, the curtains of the land

of Midian, and did tremble. Was your wrath against the rivers,

Oh Lord, was your anger against the rivers, or your

indignation against the sea. When you rode on your horses

and on your chariot of salvation, you stripped the sheath

from your bow, calling for many arrows, you split the

earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed. The

raging waters swept on the deep, gave forth its voice,

It lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon

stood still in their place, And the light of your

arrows as they sped at the flash of your glittering spear.

You marched through the earth in fury.

You threshed the nations. In anger.

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. 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, you trampled the sea with

your horses. The surging of mighting waters I hear, and

my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness

enters my bones, and my legs tremble beneath me. Yet

I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to

come upon people who invade us.

Though the trig Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit.

Be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail,

the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off

from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls.

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and will take

joy in the God of my salvation.

God.

The Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like

a deer's. He makes me tread on my high places

to the choir master.

With strength, stringed instruments. This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. That's a shift.

That is a move.

If you remember chapter one, and we'll recount. If you

remember chapter one, a backick has made a lot of progress.

When he gets to the point where He's like, though

there be no food in the fridge, though there be

no furniture in the living room, Yet my joy is

in God, My strength is in God. He's made my

feet like a deer.

That's change or to the steps?

What does God take him through?

Process wise?

I think we could break it up into four steps. Again,

it's not a formula, but it's a pretty good example.

Here's the first one, asking real questions, asking real questions.

That's what chapter one is all about.

We saw in chapter one that like feet like a

deer is not where Hebbacic starts. God is my strength

not where Hibactic starts. He's bringing complaints to God. He's

like Chapter one, verse two, how long is this gonna

go on?

God?

How is it gonna be? How long is it gonna be?

Like that, which I have to say, is the most

relatable complaint. Whenever God is unfolding hard things, whenever he's

taking us into rough terrain and we're wondering what's gonna change,

is it gonna hurt, what's gonna happen? I think maybe

the most relatable complaint is.

How long?

And God brings challenging answers to that God basically says,

I you're wondering what's gonna change. I'm gonna tell you

what's gonna change, and you're not gonna really like it.

Verse five of chapter one. Look and be astounded. This

is gonna be your challenge. Ibacic is going to be

to believe what I'm going to do. And Habakk then

turns around with some real questions, and he's like, you're

gonna do what You're gonna use them to judge us.

Don't you know how wicked they are? Aren't you? He says?

Aren't you pure? Aren't you holy? Aren't you fair? How

can you get someone like that to judge us?

I mean, I know we're in bad shape, but them is?

And how long is this gonna go on?

Was Hebacic getting real or was he just grumbling? It's

pretty ambiguous, But here are the lessons.

That we learned. It is never right.

It is never right to be angry with God. It

is never right to grumble against him. But whether what

we have in our heart is grumbling and ungodly anger

or legitimate biblical lament, just real questions that we want

to bring to God, whether it's wrong one how we're

feeling or right.

The right place to bring it all is to him.

Bring your real questions. By real, I mean gut level.

But also what I mean by real is are you

ready for an answer. It's not a real question unless

you're actually looking for an answer. Remember last week we

talked about questions that are like walls instead of windows.

A real question is a question that opens the window

for an answer. And you, if you're if you're a parent,

you know there's a difference between asking a question and questioning.

But either way, whatever you've got, bring it to him.

Bring him your real questions, gut level, open up a window. God,

This is how is really is in my heart.

That was a backs first step.

And he went up and says in verse one of

chapter two, and he went up and said, I'm actually

going to wait for an answer for this.

Step two.

He goes from asking real questions to hearing God's promises.

And I think.

That that is like a solid example for every one

of us that if we are going to move whatever

God's unfolding, if we are going to move from complaining

to contentment, if we're going to get to this place

of dear footed faith, we have to start hearing God's promises,

and that's what God brings. He says, I'm going to

tell you about my justice. I promise I am just.

I promise I am bringing it, he says. In verses

two and three, he says, the Lord answered me, write

the vision, make it plain on tablets, wait for it.

It's not going to delay. I'm making you some promises here.

And it would be easy for us to look at

that and say, oh, I see how Hubaka got there.

God gave him something special. God gave him secret knowledge,

and that's how he went from complaining to contentment. If

only I could go up on a tower and God

would bring me something special, then I know I could.

I could have feet like a deer. But that's not

at all.

What's going on.

What does he say to habakk write this down for everybody.

This isn't just for you, Habakic, this is for all

the people. And not only is it for all the people.

It's exactly the kind of thing that I promised from

the very beginning. If you look at Deuteronomy, I said,

this is how I'm going to use other nations to

discipline you, and I will discipline them. There's nothing new here.

This isn't secret. This isn't special for you, Hubachic. This

is for everyone that everyone who reads it will act

on it. They'll run with this. This just aligns with

my character. It's not secret.

It's the same promises that I've made from the beginning.

But I'm gonna remind you of them. I'm gonna give

them to you fresh. You know what I'm gonna do.

I'm going to bring justice to the wicked, and I'm

gonna bring glory to my name. He says, you see

it in verse six, for example, this people that gather

all the nations as if they are his own and

plunders everyone around them. The plundered will plunder him. What

goes around is gonna come around, because I'm gonna bring

it around. You know, what goes around doesn't just come around.

God brings it. God is the one who sees his

justice laid out in his universe. He says, I'm gonna

bring justice to the wicked, and I'm gonna bring glory.

To my name.

This this this instrument that has been in my hands

and is going to be in my hands.

This is what he says about.

Him in chapter and chapter two, verse four, And this

is this is key.

This is absolutely key.

In fact, the New Testament picks it up in three

different places. What does he say in verse four is

is this one is puffed up this instrument. I know

I'm using this instrument, but I will judge his instrument

as well. He's puffed up. His soul is not upright

within him. But here's the thing, Habakik, here's the key.

The righteous shall live by his faith. The righteous shall

live by his faith. And then he doesn't elaborate on

what that means at all. Then he just goes on

to talk about the puffed up one, the justice that

he's gonna bring, the glory he's gonna bring to his name.

He just leaves that hanging out there. But the righteous

shall live by his faith. Now that's not to say

that God doesn't clear up what that looks like. He

does by the end of the book, But right here

he doesn't elaborate. I'm gonna bring justice to the wicked,

the plundered, will plunder, the plunderer, the one who built his.

House with blood.

He's talking about the Babylonians series like they they would,

they would enslave people all around them and exploit them

and threaten them they would build their towns off of

slave labor.

Says that woe to those who build houses.

Of shame, says, even the house is going to cry

out against that. Woe to those who build what does

it say in verse twelve builds towns out of blood?

Says what I have constructed for you is for you

to labor for nothing. If this is going to go nowhere,

you think you're building something glorious, You're building it for fire.

And that's my idea, because the earth is going to

be filled. Here's what Here's what's going to fill the earth.

Not your empire, not your dominion, not your glory, not

your might. The earth verse fourteen will be filled with

the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the

waters cover the sea.

I promise you.

Hear this. I promise you.

It's the same promise I've been making from the beginning.

I'm reminding you of it now, says this wicked nation

has gone around and made its neighbors drink. There's a

picture basically of the violence done to the neighbors around them.

You've made them drunk with your violence. But guess what.

The cups in my hand, and I'm bringing it back around.

I will bring justice to the wicked. This is the

people that trust in worthless things.

That teach lies.

The basic lie of an idol is that this idol

is anything, but I.

Will bring glory to my name. The earth will be

filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

Let it verse twenty. Let the whole earth keep silence

before the Lord in his temple. I promise, God says,

I promise. I'm bringing justice and I'm bringing glory again.

It would be a mistake for us to say, well,

if God would would meet me up on a tower

and give and give his promises to me, then I

would listen.

A back has already is already the representative that we need.

He's already written this down. God specifically said, write this

down so that everyone can read it. Trust my promises.

Hear them now, hear them from my word. I'm giving

them to my people.

We have received more and better promises yet from his word.

That though we.

Are being slaughtered like sheep, we are nevertheless greater than conquerors.

That to be away from the body is to be

present with the Lord. That those who are in Christ

now under In Christ, there is no condemnation for you

that promise.

Death?

Where is your sting? I will work all things out

for good for those who know me.

Those are the first two steps Tobaccak takes.

He asks real questions, he brings it, and then he

opens up his ears and he interprets all of his

questions through the lens of hearing God's promises. What's the

third step. The third step is what we see in

chapter three. He sees God's work. He sees God's work.

That's what we have. In chapter three, Habacchic reflects.

On the work of God. Now let me just let

me just say.

In chapter three, you see Habacic say, oh Lord, I've

heard the report of you. This is chapter three, verse two,

Oh Lord, I've heard the report of you and your work.

Oh Lord, do I fear? And then he gives us

like sixteen verses of God's work. But here's the thing.

What Habaccic sees is not new work. What Hebaccic sees

is what God has already done amongst his people in

his word. And habaccik just gives us an entire verbal

collage of who God is based on what He's done.

Here's what we see in here. We see God parting

the Red Sea and the Jordan.

Trampling the waters.

As HABACCC puts it, puts it trampling the waters with

your horses. We see the plagues that God used in

Egypt to rescue his people, right he says, pestilence and plague,

followed by your heels. We see the conquest that of

the people of the land. We see the confusion of

the armies that invaded them. We see Joshua and God

stopping the moon and the sun in order for Joshua

to win battles. We see the earthquakes of Sinai. At

all of this, you see this throughout this chapter. And

this isn't enumerated in back. It's not saying like, let

me tell you the fifteen things that God did. He

takes all of these works of God that he is

vividly recounting in front of in his mind. He takes

all of them and he mashes them all up together

for a picture of who God is.

It's like.

When your kid gets the twenty four colors of clay.

You know, all these little little clay bars, and then

are all different colors you got, the blue you get,

the red, you got the green. And then what's the

first thing they do? They just mash them all up together.

It's the first thing I did. I ruined many clay

sets as a kid. You just mash them all together.

And what do you have? You have a big ball and.

You can still pick out the colors. They're all mashed

up together, and they're them coming apart, and they're just like,

what is this a representation of everything? And this is

what Habaka gives us, A giant mashed up ball of

what God has done in his people.

Here you go, this is who your God is. Do

you see his work?

Do you reflect back on what He's given to us

in his word and see who he is all mashed

up together. It's like it's like job. If you're familiar

with the end of job. How job is confronted by God?

And God's like, Hey, you've been asking questions like a backic.

You've been asking questions.

I got answers, Not exactly answers, more like I've got

a picture for you. Here I am. Where were you

when I measured the earth? Do you know where I

keep all the snow? Do you tell the lightning bolts

where to go? Hey? How about you and I go

for a walk through the bottom of the ocean. And

what Habaca is getting is something similar. And Job of

course responds to that. He's like, I get it in

my guts, I get it. I see who you are,

and I could get something similar here. He's just confronted

by the works of God amongst his people Egypt, Sinai,

the Jordan, the.

Red Sea, the planks, and a back is like, I

get it, he says in verse six at sixteen.

Right, yeah, I.

Tremble when I reflect on your work.

When I see who you are as reflected in the

works you've done, my legs give way.

And the author of Hebrews picks this up as he's

writing to his audience. The author of Hebrews picks up

this verse right here from Habacic from chapter two, verse four.

The righteous live by faith.

He says, you gotta see him, You got to look

to him. What you need is endurance, and that endurance

is going to come from faith. Don't you know what

the scriptures have said, the righteous shall live by faith.

It was by faith that Noah saw what God had done,

and saw what God would do, and moved to a

place of obedience and contentment.

His feet were like it, dear.

It was it was by faith that Abraham saw what

God had done and saw what God would do, and

he moved forward in faith. It was by faith that

Moses did the same, and Jacob did the same. And

he says, by faith, look to Jesus, the Author and

perfector of our faith. You want to know how you're

going to move from complaining to contentment, It's going to

be faith.

Look to him.

He's the one who's opened up the way for you.

He's the one who's made you a people. He's the

one who's sacrificed so that you would be pure, sinless forgiven.

Look to Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, who,

for the joy set before.

Him, endured the cross.

As God unfolds this difficult to reign, he has not

not gone forward in it. He's walked difficult to rain.

Look to his work and then last step he takes

cling to his person, clinging to God's person. That's where

Habaka gets to at the end of chapter three. He's

asked real questions, He's heard God promises, he ards God's promises,

He's seen God's work, and now he is viscerally responding

to who God is.

And he paints his picture of faith. My feet are

like a deer.

My joy is in him, my strength is in him.

No matter what happens, he says, though there'll be no

fruit on the vines, no herd in the stalls, Yet

I rejoice in the Lord.

And we look at that. We look at that, and.

We say, I want that kind of faith. And here's

the mistake we make. We think it's about the strength

of the faith. It's beautiful, but it's a mistake to

think that the essence of faith is on the quality

of the faith. Heard from Tim Keller really well put

probably use some of his words.

When Jesus.

Spoke to the father whose child was sick and dying.

Father came to Jesus and said, my child's dying. And

Jesus says, here's what I want you to do. I

want you to turn around and go home child to

be well. That man turn around.

In faith.

Pretty sure it wasn't well, Jesus said it. I believe it.

That settles it. I'm not even thinking about this any more.

We're done. I'm walking all the way home. And seemed

like it was more than one Day's journey in John

chapter four. You know what else there is there to

think about? No, all the he didn't have to have

that level of confidence. Now there's such a thing as

growing in faith. There's such a thing as deepening in faith.

The faith he had to have was only this. He

just had enough, had.

To have enough faith to turn around. The essence of

this kind of faith is not the quality of the faith.

It's not the strength of the faith. It's the object

of the faith. He says, God is my strength. I

will rejoice in the Lord. That's all I've got. That's

all I need. Not because I have worked myself up

into this place of strong, deep quality faith, but because

of the object of my faith. If you trust that

a chair will hold your weight, how deep does your

trust need to be, just enough to sit in it.

That's the secret of Abatic's faith, not the quality of it,

on the depth of it.

It's the object of it.

God himself is the object of his faith. If there's

no food in the.

Fridge, no gas in the tank, no furniture in the house,

I will rejoice in the Lord. He has made my

feet like a deer, because he is my strength. He

is my joy.

All the faith I need.

Is enough to cling to him.

I just need to be able to cling to him.

That's how I'll go from complaining to contentment.