Habakkuk: Something is Off | Guest Speaker: Brad O'Kelley

Well, good morning.

My name is Brad O'Kelly.

I'm one of the elders here at Christ the Redeemer.

And uh we have assembled.

If you listen to Brian Robinson last week, we've assembled the B team while Russ is out of town.

And uh I got here's here's what I think happened.

Okay, I think this is this is my thought.

Um Russ said, I'm gonna assemble the greatest minds that this church has to offer.

And so he picks up the phone and he calls Brian Robinson.

And Brian says yes.

And then he picks up the phone and he calls David Russ, and David Russ says yes.

And then he's like, that's way too much brain power for this church to handle.

I better call Brad.

So here we are.

And we're gonna have a good time with it, that's for sure.

Uh, we are studying the book of Habakkuk.

Good luck with that one, right?

That was David's idea.

Uh I just want to throw that out there to begin this thing, is that that came from David Russ.

Uh, not my choice, but we're gonna have a good time with it, I can promise you.

Uh, we're gonna read some stuff today that you're gonna listen to and go, this is terrible.

Um and you you you kind of got a point there, but uh, we got to work all the way through this thing because I promise you, once we get to the end of it, it's it's gonna be good, okay?

But you just gotta hang in there with us, all right?

Just hang in there.

So if you got a Bible with you today, we're going to Habakkuk chapter one, and we're gonna start in verse 12, and we're gonna go down to verse 17, okay?

So prepare yourselves.

Here we go.

Verse 12 says, Are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my holy one?

We will not die.

You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge, and you, O rock, have established them to correct.

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on wickedness with favor.

Why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously?

Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?

Why have you made men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things without a ruler over them?

The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, drag them away with their net, and gather them together in their fishing net, and therefore they rejoice and are glad.

Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net, because through these things their catch is large and their food is plentiful.

Will they therefore empty their net and continually slay nations without sparing?

Let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for this time that you've given us to be together.

Lord, no matter how strange the circumstances may be, uh, we are just glad that we can come and worship you together as a church family.

And Lord, we pray that you bless this time.

Father, I just pray that as we open your word, it would speak loud and clear to all of us, open our hearts and our minds to receive it.

Let it be all of you and none of me.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Alright, so uh there's some things in here that we're dealing with, and what you're gonna see if you listen to Brian last week is Habakkuk is wrestling with God at this point, right?

God's kind of revealed a plan to Habakkuk, and uh it's a real bad plan in Habakkuk's mind.

He don't like it one bit.

So he's sitting there going, you know, wait a minute, and he's kind of stepping back here in verse 12 and he's going, What's going on?

Because something is off.

And I don't know about you, but maybe at some point in your life, or maybe every day in your life, if you're a lot like me, uh you you kind of get into a situation where you realize something is off here.

I I can't put my finger on it necessarily, but something is just not right.

You know what I mean?

We we get in those situations.

When Mandy and I were first married, uh we I came home from work one evening, and and I just need you to get this picture in your mind, okay.

I come home from work one evening, and Mandy is in the kitchen and she's preparing this meal for me.

And it was just that moment we were early enough in marriage, you know, where when I got home and and and I walk into this spotless house that used to be a bachelor pad, and now it's like our home, you know, uh and it's clean and it's nice, and and she's preparing this meal, and I've come home from this long day of work, and you know, you kind of get that thought in your head of man, this is this is alright, you know.

I can get used to this.

I mean, you come home and everything's just in its place and it's right and it's good.

And here's this smoking hot woman that I've convinced to marry me somehow.

Uh, no clue how that took place, and and and she's gonna prepare a meal for me, you know, after I come home from work, and we sit down at this table.

We lived in this little bitty house, we had a table big enough for two people to sit at, and we sat at the table and she puts this pasta dish in front of me, you know?

And I'm like, man, and I'm looking at her, and I go to take that first bite of pasta, and I'm looking, I'm like, man, here's this beautiful woman.

She's prepared this meal for me, and I take this bite of pasta, and I'm like, this is heaven on earth.

Literally, because she's trying to kill me with this poison.

This pasta is full of antifries, and she's trying to knock me off of this earth.

And I've come to this realization because it is literally the worst thing I've ever tasted, ever in my lifetime.

I have never before tasted food so bad, and I thought, Lord, I'm coming to see you.

She's trying to get that life insurance money that I lied about having.

And she's going for it.

It was awful.

And I'm sitting there and I'm running through my mind all of the things, which was a long list that I've done that she could possibly want to kill me for.

And I'm I'm kind of like, what is good?

Something is off here.

This is not right, and I'm eating this poison, and I'm gonna go see Jesus, and this is just not good.

And then, you know, uh, the good part, the best part about this was she takes the first bite of her pasta and realizes real quick, this is terrible.

And I said, Oh, thank God.

I thought you were trying to kill me.

And she goes, No, and we had a good laugh, and she goes, This is not how I would kill you.

I didn't ask any more questions after that either, by the way.

But but I we both had we both reached the same conclusion.

Do you see what I'm saying?

Like, it only took one bite for both of us to get to the same place.

You know what I mean?

We got there real quick once you tasted that poison pasta.

Um we were there.

And so it only took that moment for us to get into that place of realizing something's off.

My thought was something's off in my life, and she's trying to kill me for it.

Her thought was uh something is off in this recipe, and I've done something wrong.

And we're both trying to get to this place of understanding.

And so what I need you to see this morning is that when we read Habakkuk and when we're going through this book of Habakkuk, really short book, but it's packed full of stuff that is very much uh uh crucial to the world that we live in today.

And Habakkuk is doing the same thing in verse 12.

What he's done is he's gotten to this place of truth and peace and rest for just this moment.

And I want you to listen to this, okay?

Because in verse 12, here's what it says: it says, Are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my holy one, we will not die.

You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge, and you, O rock, have established them to correct.

What Habakkuk's doing is he's wrestling with God's plan that God has revealed to him earlier on in this chapter.

And he's looking around at it and he's going, I don't know how to deal with this.

So he he kind of reverts back to this place of truth, this place where he gets into this mindset, this spiritual set just for a minute, and he goes, wait a minute, something is off here, so I gotta get to what I know is 100% absolutely correct.

And in verse 12, that's what he does.

And here's the deal.

I'm gonna use some Hebrew words today.

I need you to understand something.

I took Hebrew twice in seminary.

I took it the first time because they made me, and I took it the second time because they made me again, if that understands, if that helps you understand.

D does not mean done, it means do over.

Okay?

Let me just throw that out there.

I took it twice, all right?

So I'm no scholar, but I'm just gonna throw some words at you, okay?

So look at what he says in verse 12.

In verse 12, he first goes, Are you not from everlasting?

And he says, O Lord, and then he says, My God and my holy one.

So those three things right there.

When he says, O Lord, he's literally using the word Jehovah.

The word Jehovah is where we get our eternal Lord, the God that has existed from the very beginning and will exist through all time.

That's what that's who Habakkuk is crying out to.

Then he says, My God, uses the word Elohim, the supreme, above all, mighty God.

And then he says, My holy one, Kadesh, which is a sacred, unblemished holy God.

So do you see what Habakkuk's doing right here?

In this verse, in this verse 12 right here, he is literally getting back to who he knows God to be.

Alright?

He's stepping into this place of truth and peace and rest.

And he goes on at the end of verse 12, he says, he says, You, O Lord, have appointed them to judge, and you have established them, O rock, to correct.

He reverts, or he goes and he refers to God as the rock, this place of refuge and strength.

And Habakkuk is using all of these wonderful words to describe God, and it's exactly who he knows God to be.

And man, if we could just take this verse and just kind of pull it out of this first chapter right here and just stop, right?

Let's just end the message right now.

Let's pray, let's get out of here as fast as we can, and let's not talk about what goes on in the rest of it, because that would be a beautiful picture of what happens with Habakkuk.

It would be great if we could stop right there.

But here's the problem.

I actually find more so, I find myself in what happens next, if that makes sense.

I wish I could say, I'm just like Habakkuk in this verse 12, where every time something happens and something seems off, I just go straight to God and I just say, Thank you, Lord, and I call him all these wonderful names and ta-da, everything's great.

But unfortunately, I can relate more to the rest of the story than I can.

So here's what I want you to do.

Get ready, okay?

Let's look at verse 13 and 14.

In verse 13, he says, Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on wickedness with favor.

It's more this beautiful language, but then all of a sudden, the switch flips.

And look at the second part of verse 13.

Why do you look with favor on those who deal treacherously?

Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?

Why have you made men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things without a ruler over them?

In that moment, we come out of this moment of beauty, this Jehovah, Elohim, Kadesh, uh, O rock, my place of refuge and strength, and da-da-da.

And what happens in literally two seconds, what do we do?

We go right back to questioning God, right?

We go right back to questioning.

Lord, what are you doing?

What is going on here?

And I told you, as unfortunate as this is, I relate more to that.

I relate to that guy because here's what I do in those moments of time.

I would love to be able to stand up here as the guy that's preaching to you today and say, hey, uh, in those moments, here's what you do, A, B, C, X, Y, Z, and that's what I do, so that's what you should do.

Unfortunately, I kind of need to tell you today, don't do what I do.

Because what I do is exactly what Habakkuk does, which is jump back into, Lord, I appreciate you.

Now, let me ask you something.

And I start with the questions.

And there's some questions that just don't have an answer.

And in my spiritual life, I don't have, I don't get that.

In my spiritual life, I don't, I want the questions answered.

You know what I mean?

Now, in my personal life, I've kind of figured this thing out because I live in a home with four women.

I'm the only man.

There are questions every day that you will never get an answer to.

You understand?

In a house with four women, you will never get an answer to some of the questions.

I've jotted down a few just to help you, okay?

Some of my personal favorites.

You ready?

Who touched the thermostat?

You'll never get an answer.

Why is the front door wide open?

Silence.

How is it possible to use this much toilet paper in one day?

Nobody even knows where it goes.

Nothing.

Do you know how to turn a light off?

This is one of my personal favorites right here.

Have you lost your mind?

Typically accompanied with, not always, but sometimes, do you know how much that costs?

And then my favorite one, this is the one that I have learned never, as a man, never asked this question.

Why is everyone crying?

Don't forget it.

You will never get an answer, and if you do, you will never understand the answer.

It is far beyond you, sir.

There is no way you could ever get it.

So I understand questioning things.

Now I've learned how to deal with this in that I have discovered smart home technology.

If none of you have smart home technology, I suggest that you start looking into it every day at 10 a.m.

My house turns into a prison cell.

Lights go off, doors lock, thermostat goes up, I'm sweating everybody out of there.

Go sit on that toilet long enough, that light's gonna turn out on you.

And if it don't, I'll do it from my phone.

Click, lights off.

Mandy was having a baby shower at our house one time on Saturday morning at 10 a.m.

Everybody thought we lost power.

I said, Did the power just go out?

She said, No, it's just breath.

I got that part under control.

But the problem is that that's just my personal life.

My spiritual life's a complete mess.

It's a complete mess.

I don't have any answers for any of those questions.

Every time I begin to question God, I end up just like Habakkuk because I start questioning, and that question leads to another question, which leads to another question and another question, and guess what?

None of them ever get answered.

And if they do, it's not the answer that I want.

And that's why it's a gigantic mess that Habakkuk's got himself into.

And we we look at verse 12 and we think, yes, he's on the road and he's gonna get it right and everything's gonna be good, and then all of a sudden, in that split second, the questions come back.

So, do you understand what's going on here?

Is that even when we find that place of rest and that place of refuge and knowing who God is and how mighty and sovereign and powerful he is, that does not mean that we're not gonna have questions as believers.

Habakkuk jumps straight back into his questions.

And as if that wasn't enough, as if if it if that wasn't enough for even me to jump on board with Habakkuk and go, man, I'm I'm kind of a lot like this guy, it it kind of gets a little worse, okay?

Because here's what happens in verse 15 and 16.

All right, let's look at verse 15 and 16.

He says, The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, drag them away with their net, and gather them together in their fishing net, therefore they rejoice and are glad.

Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net because through these things their catch is large and their food is plentiful.

The reason I can relate to this is because what Habakkuk's doing right here, do you understand what's happening?

Now, not only has he questioned God, he's questioning who God's gonna use to do the correcting.

You see what I mean?

He has the answer, he just doesn't like it.

So what he's gotta do is this he's gotta point the finger and go, God, are you kidding me?

You're gonna use those guys.

You're gonna use those people to reprove and correct your own people.

Those guys are terrible.

To paraphrase verse 15 and 16, he goes, he's saying, God, how could you possibly use these terrible people who don't give a flip about you?

They don't care anything about your ways, they don't care anything about how mighty and powerful you are, they could care less about you.

How can you possibly use those people to correct the people that, yeah, we may have lost our way a little bit, but we're still the good guys?

That's what he's saying in verse 15 and 16.

He's going, these guys are so bad that not only would they never worship you, they're more likely to worship a fishing net than they are to worship you.

They would rather burn incense and build altars to their fishing net than to ever acknowledge how mighty and how powerful you are.

And you're gonna use them.

Now remember, I told you I I identify a little bit more with Habakkuk in this portion.

Because y'all, I can't tell you how many times I point the finger and go, God, you're you're really gonna let that guy get ahead?

You're really gonna let that guy have it all?

Do you know how terrible he is?

God, you're you're really not gonna step in and take care of that.

God, you're really not gonna uh come to my aid.

I'm a good guy in this in this scenario.

Well, where are you?

What have you been up to?

Where have you gone?

How are you possibly gonna let this happen?

These are the same exact questions that Habakkuk's wrestling with, and I don't know about you, but if you don't have that, then that's a great thing because maybe you don't turn on the news.

Maybe you're like me, I've given up on news for at least the rest of the year.

I don't want to hear it.

I'm just, and some of you say, Well, you're just burying your head in the sand.

Yep.

Come on, it's a beautiful place.

It's lovely.

I just dig this hole, I bury my head in there, cover it back up, I don't care anymore.

I'm done.

It's the same thing all the time, right?

And every bit of it's bad.

And we sit there and we go, but we point the finger and we go, God, how are you gonna let that happen?

God, how are you possibly gonna use that person?

How could you let them get ahead?

We're the good guys.

How could you not come to our aid?

And Habakkuk is wrestling with all of this in the exact same way that a guy like Brad O'Kelly would wrestle with this.

I'd question every single thing that he's doing, and then I'd point the finger and go, nope, not that way.

Shouldn't be like that.

It ought to be like this.

You should use that guy.

You should do this, Lord.

But we run into this problem that Habakkuk runs into, and the last thing we're gonna look at is verse 17 today.

We run into this issue.

Look at verse 17.

Habakkuk says, Will they therefore empty their net and continually slay nations without sparing?

You know what Habakkuk's asking right here?

He's looking at God eye to eye and he's going, Are you just gonna keep letting this go on?

How much longer are you gonna let this happen?

How much longer have we got to put up with it?

Well, I don't know about y'all, but in the world that we live in today, that's like a daily question for this guy.

Lord, how much longer have we got to put up with it?

How much longer before you just step in and get it all done?

Like, what's going on here?

How much longer do we have to put up with the way things are going?

And you gotta understand that Habakkuk is looking all around him, and everywhere he looks, whether it be at God's people, whether it be at the Chaldeans, whatever it may be, God's plan, everywhere he looks, he's seeing something is not right.

Something is off.

And I can't put my finger on it, and I don't understand it, and I don't know what to do about it.

And here's probably the worst part that you're gonna hate leaving out of here today with is that I don't have an answer for any of that.

I wish I could stand up here today and go, now, here's what we do.

A, B, C, do that, take care of it, walk out of here, and everything will be fine.

I don't have an answer.

I have no idea how to answer any of these questions.

I have no idea how Habakkuk stood there waiting in silence for God to answer and not getting any answers.

He's got all these questions and nothing is coming.

And again, I can relate to that because there's been plenty of times in my life where I feel like God is more distant than he's ever been, and he's not even hearing what I'm saying.

And I don't have this magic potion to offer you today to tell you here's how you fix that.

All I can do is look at a book like Habakkuk and figure out what he did.

And what he did, especially in this little portion of scripture that we looked at today, is he started and he always went back to this place of truth and peace and rest and refuge in an almighty Lord God.

Now I have no idea what that looks like for you.

None.

I have not.

Maybe for you it's prayer, maybe for you it's studying scripture, maybe for you it's getting in your car and driving as far as you possibly can away from everything.

Whatever it may be, I don't know what it looks like for you, but I do know this.

Habakkuk's only solution, the only thing that he could ever rest in, the only place where he could ever find peace was knowing that his God, Jehovah, Elohim, was in control of all things, and no matter how bad the situation got, and no matter how off it seemed, it was never, never out of the Almighty hand of God.

It was always within his glory and in his power and in his sovereignty.

I wish that I could let you say, here's what you do and how you do it, but unfortunately, I don't get that luxury.

All I can do is tell you that you, brothers and sisters, have to find your place of strength and refuge in an almighty God.

And the realization that no matter where you look throughout this world, nothing is outside of his mighty hand.

Let's go, Lord, and pray this word.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for the opportunity to worship you today through reading your word.

Lord, I know that uh I know that we seek answers, and that those answers never seem to come sometimes.

And so, Father, we just pray this morning that Lord, you'd give us strength, that you'd give us uh the heart and the mind to seek after that place of refuge and strength in our own life that only you can provide.

Lord, help us to understand that nothing is out of your mighty hand.

We love you and ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.