Wait For It

I'm gonna be reading from the book of Habakkuk today. We're gonna start with

chapter 2 verse 2 and 3. The Lord replied, write down the revelation and

make it plain on tablets so that the herald may run with it. For the

revelation awaits in a pointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove

false. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay.

I've entitled the message today, wait for it. And our lives are

characterized by speed, impatience, noise, activity, and occasionally we throw in a

little panic. And these days the world measures us by how fast we can get to

something as opposed to doing it in the right way. We're measured, our success is

measured by how fast we get to things. And so we're in a constant panic. And so

that's the source of many of our problems for us because we tend to get

impatient. And then we sometimes move too quickly or in the wrong direction. You

can take your seat, I'm sorry. According to a recent study, Americans respond

about 37, spend about 37 billion hours waiting in line each year, which is

equivalent to about five years of a person's life. And these days we wait

for everything, right? Our foods, our cars to charge, lines, customer service,

traffic lights, even our Amazon packages. We are awaiting people. And I'm in a

unique season of waiting. I have a little one on the way. And as we, amen, praise

God. And as we wait patiently now, that was not always the case. At the beginning

of the pregnancy, we had one of the worst times in our lives. Sister

Christian was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum. Hyperemesis is a

pregnancy disease that causes extreme and persistent nausea and vomiting. And for

Christian, it was nonstop around the clock. She couldn't keep anything down.

She could barely move. And because we were first-time parents, we were like,

okay, I guess this is normal, right? This is how it's supposed to be. And so we did

our best to manage it and tried our hardest to make her comfortable. And so

we proceeded because, you know, we knew that was part of the plan. We knew that

there's growing pains in pregnancy when you're birthing something new. And during

Christmas time, we headed to Yuma to visit Christian's parents. And the

constant vomiting continued. So we decided to drive back and we headed straight

to the ER. And when we got there, we got there at 5 p.m. 5 p.m. And they didn't see

us till 5 a.m. We were waiting 12 hours. Her systems were persistent. Christian is

in extreme pain. We want the baby to live. Desperation starts to kick in. And now

the questions to God start. Lord, we serve You faithfully. We are committed. We love

You. We're engaged in all aspects of the church. What's going on? And the part

that threw me over the edge was that hyperemesis is actually very uncommon.

Only 3% of pregnant people ever get it. So it irked me because like why us? Why are

you doing this? Right? And we have these questions to God and we bring these things

to God. And I'm not questioning God, but I do have questions. And so this book

Habakkuk, this prophet is in the same dilemma. He is looking at what is

happening and he's crying out to God for answers. Habakkuk saw Judah's rapid

moral and spiritual decline and this deeply troubled him. At this point, the

northern tribes of Israel had fallen to Assyria and now God is telling Habakkuk

that the southern tribes would be invaded by Babylon because the people were

turning away from God. And unlike the other Hebrew prophets, Habakkuk doesn't

accuse Israel or even speak to the people on God's behalf. Instead, all of his words

are addressed to God. So this is personal. He's not going over here to

hear God and go over there. No, we're going toe to toe God. I need to hear

from you. I need you to answer me. And we all have those times in our lives where

we come to God in that manner. And there's a few points I want to pull out

because Habakkuk has two complaints to God and God answers them. And there's a

few lessons that I want to put out. And the first one is God is always moving.

He is always working. Amen. Habakkuk gets right to it in chapter 1 verse 2.

How long, Lord, must I call for your help but you do not listen or cry out to you?

Violence but you do not save. That question, how long, is a question we all

ask from time to time. Is it not? How long do I cry out without an answer? How

long do I stand here waiting for you? How long must I carry this disease, this

burden? How long must I endure? God, why don't you do something? God knows when

times get tough, we are likely to doubt Him. Let's consider the behavior of the

Israelites recorded in Exodus. And this is the pattern of God's people. Amen. God

delivered them from Egypt where they were there for centuries. God was with

them but they still cried out to the Lord. I have this this table if

Brother Isaac if you can put it up. They had a problem. There was a

reaction and there was God's response. You might not be able to see it or you

might be able to see it. The Egyptian army is bearing down on the people at

the Red Sea. That's their problem. The people's reaction will die here. God's

response, God parts the Red Seas and closes it on the Egyptians. Problem, food

begins to run out. We'll starve. God provides manna every day. They camp where

there's no water. We'll die of thirst. Moses strikes for rock, water. They get

tired only of eating manna. God doesn't care. God provides quail. Moses is on

Mount Sianah for 40 days. People's reaction, make a golden calf. Moses

returns. God eventually forgives them. I'm sure all of us can make a table like

this and see God's movement in our lives. Too often when we get in our moments of

crisis, we cry out to the Lord, woo me and forget how much He has done for us

already. Even when the Israelites doubted, God came through for them. And He

does so for us to this day. We serve a God that says the same

yesterday, today, and forever. Amen? We might not always have the full picture,

but God is moving on our behalf. Amen? And so God answers Habakkuk and says,

look at the nations and watch. Be utterly amazed, for I am going to do

something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told. Here's

where a lot of us begin to get stuck. We think that we can handle what God is

doing and how He's doing it until the process starts. We want God to move, but

we want God to move in the way that we envision. God saw the deep corruption,

the deep corruption amongst His people. And He tells Habakkuk that He's

summoning Babylon. And He's going to use Babylon to bring down judgment to a

rebellious Israel. And it's the same with us today. God sees our heart, our

intentions, our willingness, or lack thereof, and He will use it to move us.

Amen? Proverbs 19-21 says, many are the plans in a person's heart, but it's the

Lord's purpose that prevails. As you can imagine, Habakkuk was not happy with

that answer. He says, are you serious? Are you going to use, you're going to use

them, Lord? I could completely see Habakkuk going like, Lord, you don't get it.

Amen? And that's how we are sometimes, right? We forget who we're talking to. We

want to tell Him what to do, how to do it. We don't want to go through the process,

right? If you would have told me 14 years ago when I gave my life to Christ that

I would be in this pulpit with a beautiful wife, a baby on the way, and

grafted into a fifth generation apostolic family, I wouldn't have believed you.

There's no way. I was like, me, no way. But I would have definitely been like, sign

me up, you know, because that sounds good to me, right? But then if you told me the

road to getting there, the pain, the suffering, the heartache, losing family,

losing friends, to get to this point, if God would have showed me all that, maybe

I'd say no. And so God knows exactly what we need, how we need it, and when we need

it. Church, God is saying something for you. He has something for you, but you

are not going to believe how He's going to do it. You have to come with Him in

faith and understand that He knows all things, and He will bring all things

according to His time. Amen? Second point I have for you today, God knows everything.

Sometimes God has us in waiting periods because He wants to perfect us and

refine us. Other times He has us in waiting periods because we are outside

of His will. Where do you find yourself today? Are you in God's will or are you

in your own will? Habakkuk 2.4 says, see the enemy is puffed up, his desires are

not upright, but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness. The righteous

shall live by faith. That's the vision, that's the plan. Amen? You either get

it or you don't. There's no lukewarm. Amen? And here's the warning church. Let's

not ever think that we are too good, that we cannot become like Babylon. The fact

that God might use for a time a corrupt nation like Babylon doesn't mean that He

endorses what they do. He holds all nations accountable to His justice and

Babylon will fall along all other nations that acts like them. So what we do in

our waiting season matters. We will either start conforming to the patterns

of this world or we will serve God. God spends the next few verses talking about

five woes, things that hurt Him. And He's talking about Babylon, but it

applies to us today. Brother Isaac, if you can put the graph up. There are

there are five things that get to the heart of God and it starts

separating us from Him. The first two points have to do with unjust economics.

Babylon cheated people out of their money to keep the people where they were.

What you do with your money matters. Amen? The third point had to do with

slave labor. Babylon treated humans like animals and threatened them with

violence. How you treat people matters. The fourth point had to do with abuse of

substances and immorality. Babylon's leaders abused alcohol and sex. So what

you do with your flesh matters. And the fifth point dealt with idolatry. Babylon

relied on idols on themselves, on their own power. What has your attention today

and who is directing you? That matters. Am I directing myself or is God? Matthew

621 says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Given the

human condition, most people will eventually become Babylon. Amen? What we

do during our waiting time, how we do it, God knows. He knows the deepest darkest

secrets that we have. He knows our plans that we have. He knows what we do, what

we don't do. He knows how our heart works and how it doesn't work. He is wanting

us to come to Him. He wants us to throw everything at His feet because He is the

only one that can get us to righteousness. He's the only one that can set us

right. And if we don't, we will begin to separate ourselves and we'll begin to

look at ourselves more like Babylon than God's people. And so it hurts God when

we're not doing our part, when we become our own gods. And that's what Babylon

was doing during this time. They thought they could do everything whenever they

wanted, how they wanted to do it. They were one of the most evilest of people.

It was a hard time and that's why Habakkuk was, what's going on here?

How is it that you're gonna use these people? These people are worse than me.

I'm only a little sinner. These are big sinners. You know? And we want God, we

want God to move in a way that is gonna be comfortable to us. And God doesn't

always work that way. There are things that are gonna cost you. There are things

that you're gonna have to pay a price for. And as I get ready to be a father,

there are certain examples that I have to set. And you, the parents and the

wanting to be parents and getting married, all these things matter. All the

things, all the holding that you do, the directing that you do to get your

your sons and daughters to the kingdom of God. All of that matters. And what we

want to do is not rely on what we know but on what God knows. And if we continue

to bring the people over to God, if we continue to bring our needs over to God,

He says, and He makes it very clear that He will answer us without delay. Amen?

My third point, don't let your circumstance keep away your praise. At the

end of chapter 2, God calls for silence, almost to allow us to reflect on what He

just said. Where do you stand? Do you look more like Babylon or do you look more

like your Creator? The word of God says, the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all

the earth be silent before Him. He's giving us time to reflect. And you've

got to look into your own heart. I can't look into my neighbor's heart. You have

to look into your own heart. What is God doing with you? What is God doing with me?

Where do I stand? Do I look more like Babylon? Do I look more like God's

people? Amen? And God outlines clearly why His judgment must come. The people

have turned away from God. And sometimes we don't think that we've done that.

Sometimes we think that we haven't left God. Sometimes we think that we're in the

will of God when we're not. And we have to constantly check ourselves and check

our hearts and our spirits so we know that God is the one working and not us.

Amen? And so Habakkuk has this transformation. He has this change of

heart. And he goes from questioning God and saying,

why is this happening? Why is this going on? And he starts and he goes from not

understanding God to a powerful prayer. And even though there's so much going

around him, he is choosing now to trust God. He's not going to understand that he

doesn't know what's going to happen. He doesn't know what's going to go on. He

doesn't know how God's going to do it. But he's deciding to trust the Lord. He's

going to live by faith. The righteous shall live by faith. That is a

scripture that is almost a motto of ours, right? Because it doesn't come

because we're going to see it. It's going to become because we have faith in God,

the God who can do all things to make it happen. Amen? And often one of the tests

in the season of waiting is whether or not we're going to take matters into

our own hands. That's what the flesh wants to do. That's what you know our

our minds sometimes want to do. To speed up the clock. We want it here. We want it

now. It's gonna, it doesn't matter what the cost is. It doesn't matter who I hurt,

what I do. It doesn't matter. That's something that the flesh does, right? In

God's timing, God comes in and does it in a way that it's gonna be obvious and

it's not gonna be painful to you. Amen? And so our only, our worst enemy is

ourselves. It's the flesh, right? We get in our own way because if we believe what

God is saying, if we believe what God is doing, then we know that He has

everything perfectly ordered. Amen? Twelve hours passed by in that waiting

room. Twelve hours. You can only imagine as a worried husband what I was

trying to do to get some answers.

Christian had lost 20 pounds in less than two weeks. She could barely walk. At this

point she was barely talking. We needed help. Her body couldn't take it anymore.

We finally get admitted and are presented with two options. You choose your

health or you choose the baby. You can't have both. My heart ached. My heart ached

like it's never ached before. The choice was my wife or my child. My wife or my

child. And this is how good God is because we chose God and we prayed and we

worshiped and spoke to God at faith levels that had never experienced. And God

unlocked something in me during that waiting period that I did not know I

had. Isaiah 644 says, since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has

perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you who acts, who acts, who acts on

behalf of those who wait for him. God is telling us that if we wait for him, if we

trust him, if we lean on him, you will see him do things in your life that go

beyond our comprehension. If we refuse to act on what we want to do, we're gonna

see God do what he wants to do and what he's desiring to do in our lives. And in

your season of waiting church, it's okay to have questions. It's okay to have

these conversations with God. God can take our hardest of problems, our deepest

of worries. But don't wrestle with these things with yourself and the world. Take

them to God, wrestle with God, and don't let go until he blesses you. The promise

is though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. How

many of you all have been waiting for something that God wants to do in your

life? How many of you all are in a season of waiting? What are we doing in this

season? How are we treating God in this season of waiting? Are we all in? Do we

care about what God cares about? Or do we care about only what we care about? And

so God will do things. God will bring people. God will put gifts, talents in

your lives for you to use. Me being up here in this pulpit today is a witness

to how good God is. I don't deserve it. I don't ever think I'm worthy. But God does.

And I believe in a God that knows all that will create is a Creator of heaven

and earth and has directed my steps. And Habakkuk has this this this change of

heart and he goes into this prayer and he says, though the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes but on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the

fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the

stalls, though I do not understand what is going on in my life, though I feel lost

and alone in this season, though my pain is excruciating and I can't take it

anymore, though life is not going the way that I expected, though my

relationships are waiting, though I do not have the job I want, though I feel

like my only escape is to leave it all, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be

joyful in God my Savior, and He will take care of everything. We serve a mighty

God, we serve an all-powerful God, and we know that we can't do this alone. In

church I'm here to tell you today that you have to make a choice, you have to

make a choice whether you're gonna serve God and everything that comes with it,

or you're gonna play God and on Sundays be good and the rest of the week be bad.

But just know that you're constantly gonna be in that waiting period. God is

never gonna transform a spirit that doesn't want to be transformed. God is a

gentleman, amen? But we have to choose, we have to choose to honor God, we have to

choose to give Him our all, even when we're uncomfortable, even when we might

not have the exact words to say, God does, and we have to choose to serve Him, amen?

Joshua as he was getting ready to be with the Lord is talking to his people,

and he's trying to guide them, he's trying to tell them, you can avoid judgment,

you can avoid the hurt, the pain, but you're gonna have to make a choice. He

says in Joshua 24, 14, and 15, now fear the Lord and serve Him with all

faithfulness, throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates

River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable

to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods

of your ancestors beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land

you are living, but as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. Make the choice

today church, make the choice to serve the Lord, make God your foundation, your

pillar, because without Him you're not gonna be able to move in this life

peacefully. You have to make a choice, you want answers, serve the Lord, you want

your pain to be taken away, serve the Lord, you want new opportunities, serve the

Lord. That's the only way that it's gonna come, and I don't tell you because it was

easy, I tell you because it was hard. It's been hard to serve the Lord, but the

reward that is in serving the Lord will go beyond measure. Why? Because His

promise is that it's coming, wait for it, it will not delay. We thank the Lord for

for what He does for His goodness, and we'll ask you to stand up now church. We

know that God is constantly working in our lives. Ephesians 3.20 says, now all

glory to God who is able through His mighty power at work within us to

accomplish infinitely more than what we ask or think, exceedingly and abundantly.

What does this say? If He is able to do it more often than not, He will. He is able

Are you able? Are you willing? What God are you serving? Are you serving the God

that can do it or the God that can't do it? Because sometimes we hold on to our

issues, our problems, our circumstances instead of coming to the altar and

leaving it for the Lord. The altar has nothing to do with interacting with the

preacher, has everything to do with coming in contact with the living God. The

last two weeks we spent in Yuma and the brothers and sisters there, they're

flipped in regards to our age group. Everybody there is 75 plus. We're the

youngins. But one thing that I saw that was so beautiful and maybe it's the

season that they're in, but it's such a beautiful lesson, is that they didn't

wait to be invited to come to the altar. They knew who they were gonna find if

they came to the altar. They knew what they were gonna get when they come to

the altar and so much we have to beg and plead and tell you, come. You should be

wanting to come. You want things to change? Come to the altar. You want your

circumstance to be different? Come to the altar. You want God to use you? Come to

the altar. God will not delay.