Episode 304: Expecting Righteousness

For those of you that weren't here last Sunday, this is our second week, like Justin said,

in our Expecting series. It's an Advent series. And in this series, we get to spend some time

not just remembering Jesus's arrival on this earth, but also just spend time anticipating

and expecting that the same Jesus that came down from heaven is the same Jesus today. And he's

going to continue to do amazing and incredible things in our lives. And we should absolutely be

expecting that. And so for the next seven weeks, we're going to see what the minor prophets were

expecting from God. We're going to see how Jesus fulfilled these expectations. And then finally,

we're going to see what we should be expecting from him today. And so today we'll be in the book

of Habakkuk. Before we get into the passage, by show of hands, how many of you have ever been

disappointed because you expected someone to do something and they did the complete opposite.

Oh, everyone should be raising their hands. If you've never been let down before,

I'm not going to call you a liar, but praise God, because that is not the norm for most of us.

I get let down every day. I'm just kidding. But I'll give you a quick example. My wife,

she expects me to be, no, no, she's not the one that lets me down. Okay.

But my wife, she expects me to be the one that makes coffee in the morning. Right. And she has

these expectations for me because of the one morning where she tried to make it. And it was

a complete disaster. I have no clue how she managed to do it, but she made what was supposed to be a

beautiful cup of coffee tastes like a cup of potato water. It was so bad. And so ever since

then, for five years, I've been the one making coffee. And you can imagine her reaction when one

day I just decided not to do it. I had some choice words waiting for me. And so I know most of us

can probably remember a time where we expected someone to act a certain way, and then they did

the complete opposite. And so that's sort of what we're going to see in the book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk is a story of a man that had to sort out how to live with faith when God did the exact

opposite of what he was expecting. And so if you have a physical Bible, go ahead and turn to

Habakkuk. If you're using one of the Bibles underneath the chair in front of you, it's going

be on page 832. We're going to be looking at Habakkuk 2 verses 1 through 4. It's also on the screen.

Habakkuk 2:1–4

I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see

what he will say to me and what I should reply about my complaint. The Lord answered me

write down this vision, clearly inscribe it on tablets so that, so one may easily read it.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time, though it, it testifies about the end and will

not lie, though it delays, wait for it since it will certainly come and not be late. Look,

His ego is inflated. He is without integrity, but the righteous one will live by his faith.

What are you talking about, God? What does that even mean? The righteous one will live by faith.

And so to properly understand the text, we need some context. So Habakkuk was one of the 12

minor prophets of the Old Testament. We don't know too much about him other than he was a prophet

for the southern kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Josiah around 640 BC.

This was during the time when the nation of Israel, they split into two separate kingdoms. So you had

the northern kingdom of Israel and you had the southern kingdom of Judah. And both of them,

they were doing the same exact thing. They were both sinning. Maybe Judah sinned a little bit less,

But that's the thing about sin is that God doesn't excuse it.

And so it doesn't matter how small we think our sin is.

Man, that is a transgression against a righteous and holy God.

And so Judah was facing two threats.

The first threat came from the outside.

Both the Babylonians and the Assyrians wanted to completely wipe them out and destroy them.

And so the second threat was from within.

They were destroying themselves from within.

They were worshiping idols.

There was a lot of sexual immorality, tons of social injustices.

And so that's where Habakkuk's story actually begins.

It begins with him crying out to God because he sees all the unrighteousness in his country

and he doesn't understand why God isn't doing anything about it.

Or at least that's what he thinks.

Because God gives him an answer in verse five.

He gives him an unbelievable answer.

God tells Habakkuk, the Babylonians,

your enemies are going to invade your country.

They're going to take your entire people into captivity.

Think about what God is saying to him.

He's saying that I'm going to make things worse before they get better.

I'll answer your prayer, but you're also going to get invaded.

Yeah, I don't think I would.

I think I would have my doubts about what God is doing.

And so how exactly are we supposed to trust in God's plans and his promises when we have no clue what he's doing in our lives?

That's the question that we get in Habakkuk.

How are we supposed to respond when God does the opposite of what we're expecting?

See, we all have expectations of God.

We all have expectations of how we think God should act.

But all throughout the Bible, we see that God often does the complete opposite of what we expect of him.

Think about the story of Paul.

Paul hated Christians.

He persecuted the church.

But God made him the greatest church planner in human history.

Think about Jesus.

Just think about the Messiah and how the Pharisees were picturing the Messiah was going to look like.

They thought he was going to be a strong and powerful king.

And Jesus, the Messiah, ended up being born in a manger to a virgin who had no status or royalty.

God always does things that shatters our expectations of how we think he should act.

And that's Habakkuk's problem.

God does something complete opposite of how he thinks God should act.

And so the question for us is how does God expect us to respond

when God does the unexpected in our lives?

Well, he makes it extremely clear.

Look back at verse 4.

He expects us to live by our faith.

God tells Habakkuk, yes, you're going to be conquered.

You're going to be taken into captivity.

Your life is going to suck.

But it's only going to be temporary.

I'm going to deliver you in the future.

But until then, you're just going to have to wait and live by your faith.

And if this were easy, if this is something that we could just accept and be like, yeah, God, I totally trust you in.

We could probably end this message right here.

But for most of us, man, when God does the unexpected in our lives,

we have questions.

And so the first way that we can live by faith,

actually Habakkuk shows us three practical ways that we can live by faith right now.

And this is the first.

Look back at chapter one, verse two.

how long Lord must I call for help and you do not listen or cry out to you about violence and you do

not save? Why do you force me to look at injustice? And see, the first thing that we can do

to live by faith is just to be honest with God. Habakkuk was honest with God.

And I think we have this tendency as Christians to stuff everything down.

You ever heard the saying, like, you know, it's in the church a lot, like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Something just devastating happened in my life, but it's all good.

God is good.

How does that help you if you can't even be honest to yourself or honest with God?

And so that could be a first way that you can take a step today to live by your faith is just,

I don't know, if life feels like it's just really dumping on you to just be honest with him,

complain to him, cry out to him, tell him about your lack of faith because he already knows.

And so the second thing that we see in Habakkuk's story is that he was just extremely patient.

with God. He patiently waited to hear from the Lord. Look at what he says in chapter two, verse one,

I will stand at my guard post and station myself on the lookout tower. I will watch to see what he

will say to me and what I should reply about my complaint. That's what Habakkuk is committed to.

He's committed to stand firm in his faith,

to continue taking watch until God does something.

And that's something we could all learn from,

to just take it a day at a time.

Look, God may not be calling you

to go to the top of Barber's Point Lighthouse

with binoculars and wait for him with dry food.

I don't think that's it.

But he is calling you to live by faith.

He is calling you to keep showing up while you wait for him.

And so I have no idea what's going on in your life right now.

But Habakkuk kept showing up.

He kept waiting on the Lord.

And man, that is hard.

I personally went through the toughest season of faith this year.

Leaving the military after eight years and transitioning into full-time ministry,

that was a leap of faith.

I had no idea if God was going to make a way for me.

And it was such a struggle because day in and day out, I kept showing up.

I kept asking God to make a way.

But I had doubts myself if he would even pull through.

I was completely faithless.

But God can do some incredible things

just by the simple act of disciplining yourself

and just making a commitment to God

that you're going to continue showing up day in and day out,

no matter what.

Because it takes discipline to keep showing up

when you aren't getting an answer from God.

It takes discipline to keep reading your Bible

when it feels like God isn't speaking to you through it.

It takes discipline to continue gathering with God's people

when you don't know why in the world God even has you doing it.

But what if his call in your life right now is not to have a deeper faith,

to try to conjure up some more faith,

but to just take it a day at a time

and stand at your guard post and wait for him.

And so the third way we can live by faith

is simply by worshiping God while we wait.

Look at Habakkuk's response in the very end of the story.

It's on the screen.

It's Habakkuk chapter three, verses 17 through 19.

Though the fig tree does not bud,

though the olive crop fails,

and the fields produce no food,

though the flocks disappear from the pen

and there are no herds in the stalls,

yet I will celebrate in the Lord.

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

The Lord, my Lord is my strength.

He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights.

That is so incredible.

If that's your life right now, and you're even able to have a tiny mustard seed of faith,

that is a miracle from God.

and see at the very end of Habakkuk story, he never gets a neat and tidy solution to his problems.

He actually has to live with faith, knowing that things are going to get worse before they get

better. But he says, God, even if you don't change a thing about my circumstance, even when the trees

don't bud, even when there's no fruit on the vines, even when the fields produce no food and there's

nothing at all for me to eat. I'm going to worship you. That's incredible.

If that's not the definition of living by faith, I don't know what is.

And family, we have a reason to worship even if it feels like there's no trees in our lives

that are budding, even when it feels like the fields are producing not a single crop.

Because God ended up fulfilling his promise to Habakkuk, and he ended up filling his promise

to us through Jesus. Hebrews 10 says, the righteous will live by faith. And my goodness,

did Jesus make that true for us? And so I'll give you three reasons why you can worship Jesus

while you wait for him to return, while you wait on an answer from God.

The first is this, through faith in Jesus, you are made righteous. God would have been perfectly

righteous to punish all of us for our sins, just like he punished Judah for their sins.

But instead of doing that, he gave us forgiveness.

He gave us a new status.

If you believe in Jesus, you're no longer a dirty sinner.

You are the righteousness of Christ.

You not only have a righteous stand in before God,

but when God sees you, he sees you with the same righteousness that Jesus has.

You are the righteousness of Christ.

Don't let anyone tell you any different.

Number two, because of your faith, you're made alive in Christ.

We were dead in our trespasses and sins.

And the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death.

And that's 100% true.

The wages of sin is death.

But while we were dead in our sins and our trespasses,

heading towards a path that led to death,

Through faith, not our actions, through faith, Jesus carried us from death to life.

If you have faith in Jesus today, you've received the life of Christ.

And the amazing news is that Jesus is going to continue to carry your faith

and see it through to completion, even when you're faithless.

Your destiny is not at all dependent on your ability to be perfectly faithful.

Because if that was true, none of us would have a future.

And that is completely, that is mind-blowing.

That we don't have to worry about having the deepest faith.

We don't have to worry about failing at having faith.

Because our faith doesn't rest in our ability to have faith.

It rests in Jesus's ability to continue to carry your faith all the way to completion.

And so it's not about how strong your faith is.

That's the message that we get with Jesus.

It's about how strong he is.

Habakkuk's story gives us a good example of what it looks like to live by faith.

I mean, he was honest with God.

He continued to show up day after day,

even when he didn't understand at all what God was doing.

He worshiped God while he was waiting.

Even in the most desperate moments of his life,

he was still able to cry out and say that,

God was his strength, that God was his salvation.

Thanks, God.

Thanks, God, for Jesus.

And we have every reason to worship him this Advent.

Because Jesus arrived, Jesus is coming back, and Jesus is with us right now.

He's given us his righteousness.

He's given us his life.

And man, we can expect for him to give us the endurance

to continue living by faith,

even in the hopeless moments of our life.

Habakkuk lived by faith and waited for God to deliver him.

And that's our call as we wait for Jesus to deliver us.

He's the hope that allows us to say,

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

He's our hope when the trees don't bud,

the fields don't produce food in our lives.

But we still have every reason to worship.

Family, he is righteous and he will do it.

So let's rest in Jesus's faithfulness

as we continue to worship him.

Let's pray.