”Getting Ready to Hear From God” | Pastor John Tilley Jr | Habakkuk 2

Here's the thought. Here's the title

tonight. Getting ready to hear from God.

That's the thought. That's the the

burden that I have. Getting ready to

hear from God. We're on this journey

through the book of Habachok. And

really, it's it's a journey with the man

Habach. It's a journey alongside the

prophet Habach as God does a great work

in his heart. And that's revealed

through the pages of the book that he

wrote here in our Bibles. Only three

chapters long, but my what a difference

God makes in his life from chapter 1 to

chapter 3. And my prayer is that as we

follow along, as we walk alongside

Habach, as he records this revival of

his own heart, that God will birth in

our church a revival in our hearts. What

we see in the pages of Habach would

become a reality in our hearts. and that

God would give us a revival in our

church. Not just our church, but in our

community. But it must start with God's

people. It must start with God's

faithful people. And we'll end here

tonight, but I'll just give you a a

glimpse of where we're going. We think a

lot of times of revival, we think of uh

we got to get those who are outside.

We've got to get them inside. We've got

to go out there and we've got to see God

do a great work outside of the church in

our community. And that is that is the

result of revival. But revival can't

begin there. Revival begins in the

church. Revival begins with the

Wednesday night prayer group. The

revival begins with those who are

committed followers of Christ. And so

that's what we're considering. We're

following along. We're walking along

with Habach on this journey as God

revives his heart. And remember, we

start in chapter one. Habach begins in

fear, but then he's going to end in

faith. And that's really the theme that

kind of goes through the book. God's

telling Habach, "Hey, just have faith.

Just trust me." We've said these quotes

before, and I'll remind you of them.

Scott Paulie said, "Habach begins with a

sob. He ends with a song." Uh Dean

Miller says, "He begins perplexed, but

he ends in praise."

And I say, "He begins with worry, but he

ends in worship." And so, how does this

happen? Because at the beginning of the

book, he has a dilemma that's in front

of him. He's afraid of it. He's scared

of it. He's burdened about it. At the

end of the book, the situation is the

same. In fact, it's worse. Nothing gets

better from chapter 1 to chapter 3. It

actually gets worse. But the spirit of

Habach does a 180 degree turn. And what

begins as him sobbing in chapter 1

doesn't get better, it gets worse. But

he ends singing a song to his God in

chapter 3. And it's a beautiful journey

that Habach takes. So, we've looked at

chapter one. We've we've expounded and

looked at studied all of chapter 1.

Here's the outline just to give us some

context of where we have been as we go

now into chapter 2. We see in chapter 1

verse 2-4 Habach's despair. That's his

burden. We see him weeping. We see him

crying out to God on behalf of his

nation. He's praying for revival. He's

asking that God would change things. And

God comes to him and says, "Yeah, I've

made a decision." In verse 5 through 11,

we see God's decision. And God said, "I

I've already made up my mind. I'm going

to have the Calaldanss or the

Babylonians come in and they're going to

judge my people. I'm going to use them

for correction and and they're going to

come in and and I've made up my mind.

This is what I'm going to do, Habach.

Well, Habach doesn't like that as as you

and I wouldn't like it very much either,

right? This isn't the answer he wanted.

This isn't the response he expected. And

so Habach gets very blunt, very bold

with God and and really tells God

exactly what he's feeling in those last

verses beginning in verse 12 down

through the verse 17, the end of chapter

1. Habach comes to God and he says,

"God, this is your character." In verse

12 and 13, God, this is who you are. And

if this is who you are, it doesn't make

any sense for a God who is holy, for a

God who is just, for a God who is

righteous to use such an evil people to

correct a righteous people. It's

interesting that Habach begins in verse

2 through 4 crying out for the sins of

his his nation. But then when he gets to

when he realizes what God's doing, now

all of a sudden he's calling the nation

of Israel a righteous people. And so

there's Habach's just pleading with God,

God, no, this this can't happen. You

can't bring the Babylonians. can't do

this. And he's very confused.

He describes the Calaldanss. We talked

about this last week in verse 13- 16.

And then and then he ends in verse 17,

just very confused at what God is doing.

He look at that if you will. We'll read

verse 17, chapter 1, verse 17. Shall

they therefore empty their net? Remember

that net is the Calaldanss, the

Babylonians treat people like fish. They

just cast out this net. They kill

everybody in their wake. They they just

bring them up. And Habach said, "Will

they ever empty the net?" That is, "Will

they ever stop? Will there ever be an

end to the evil? Will there ever be an

end to the chaos?" And Habach is just

very confused. And so, he's told God

exactly what he thinks. He's told God

exactly how he feels. And now we come to

chapter two. And how will God respond?

Have you ever said something to someone

and as you are saying it in your mind

you are thinking why am I saying this

like this is not what I mean why am I

doing this we would say it maybe like

this open mouth insert foot right have

you been there and you as you're saying

it you're thinking this is not a good

idea but it's too late to turn back now

so so we say it and then perhaps as you

have completed your bold statement or

your blunt statement and you're

thinking, "Oh no, what have I done?"

They just look at you for a moment,

right? They're as shocked that you said

it as you are that you said it. And

there's this moment of silence and

you're thinking,

"Do I stand here and face what's about

to happen or do I turn and run and hide

under my bed because I didn't want to

say it. It came out all wrong. What's

going to happen?" That's what happens in

chapter 2. Look at chapter 2 and verse

one. Habach has just said he has said

his peace. He has said everything he

wants to say. He's been bold. He's been

blunt.

And now he just gets to stand here and

wait on God to answer. Look at it.

Chapter 2 verse one. Habach said, "I

will stand upon my watch and set me upon

the tower and will watch to see what he

will say unto me and what I shall answer

when I am reproved." Habach said, "Well,

I've done it now. I've said what needed

to be said. I've told God exactly how I

feel. I've told God how confused I am.

I've told God how upset I am. And now I

just got to wait on him to answer. And

so what is Habach doing? He's getting

ready to hear from God. And you and I at

times in our life, there are moments

where we are confused about what God is

doing. And we're upset about current

situations or things maybe in our

culture or in our nation or in our

families or in our communities. and we

say, "God, it doesn't make any sense."

And we explain to God how we feel.

And then we wonder, "I wonder what God's

going to do about it. I wonder how God's

going to respond."

And I don't know about you, whether it's

a a difficult situation that we're

traveling through or perhaps it's just a

regular day, good day, bad day,

one thing that I desire in my life is to

hear from God.

I hope that every time you come into a

church service, your desire is not to

check a box. It's it's not to get pumped

up, but it is to hear from God. So, for

just a moment, I want us to observe

three things that Habach did in verse

one, just verse one tonight. Three

things that Habach does in verse one

that prepares him to hear what God has

to say. Getting ready to hear from God.

Number one, what does Habach do? Number

one, we see his posture. Habach's

posture. Look at it in verse number one.

I want you to notice two words. He said,

I will

stand. You see that word? I will stand

upon my watch. And then notice the next

word and set. You see that word? Set me

upon the tower. So Habach begins by uh

explaining by articulating how he is

going to approach this. I'm getting

ready to hear from God. Okay, Habach,

what are you going to do? How are you

going to do that? He said, I'm going to

stand here. The word stand means to take

a stand. It means to stand up.

That's what we would expect it to mean.

But then he said, "And set me upon the

tower." Okay. Well, now maybe he means

he's going to sit down a little bit,

too. I looked up that word set. Just

three little letters. The word set. Do

you know what it means? To take one's

stand.

It means almost the exact same thing as

the word stand that he used before. Two

times Habach states, I'm going to stand.

I'm not going to sit down. I'm not going

to take a break. I'm not going to get

lazy. I am going to stand. His posture

is one that is engaged. Habach is

engaged with what God would say. Can I

give you an illustration of this? Habach

is ready to receive it. I illustrate it

for you. Sometimes on Wednesday nights,

this is why I keep the building cold on

Wednesday nights. Tonight, I'm testing

it out to see how we do tonight. on

Wednesday nights, you've had a long day

and and you're tired and you come into

church and you're sitting there and I'm

rambling on about some verse or some

some thing that I've found that I'm

really excited about. And you're

thinking, "Pastor John, I've been up

since 5:00 a.m. Could you hurry this

thing along?" And I can see it on your

faces. You begin the eyes begin to close

and the heads begin to nod a little bit

and I can see it. And and by the way, it

doesn't bother me. I'm I'm not judging

anyone for that, but I can I can see it.

I I'm up here. I can see all of you and

you can see me and I'm not falling

asleep. I'm really excited about this

stuff, but I understand some of you get

tired and I see your head start nodding

off. Okay, if you were standing

the whole sermon,

some of you probably would still fall

asleep. Honestly, you'd probably still

go, but it would be less likely for you

to fall asleep, right? You understand

what I'm saying? It'd be less likely for

you to doze off if you were standing for

the entire 25, 30 minutes that we're

talking about scripture. Y'all with me?

But when you sit, when you're seated,

you get comfortable. It's warm in here

tonight, right? We're doomed this

evening for the next 20 minutes.

Somebody's gonna fall asleep. Callie's

already out. She's gone already. Uh,

Cali. Um,

so it's

s comfort. Comfort. We're seated. What's

Habach say? Hey, when I'm want when I

want to hear from God, I'm going to

stand. I'm going to engage. What's the

application for you and I? If you and I

want to hear what God has to say, we

must engage with what God has said, we

have got to be ready. Don't get lazy.

Don't get lax. Don't slow down. Don't

get comfortable in your Bible reading.

Don't get comfortable in your devotion

time. Don't get comfortable in your

church time. Now, I'm not saying that

you got to stand every time you open

your Bible. I actually enjoy reading my

Bible standing or walking while I read.

But you don't have to do that. But the

the point is engage with it. Be ready to

receive what God is about to say. Be

ready to receive what God has to tell

you. His posture was one that said,"I am

engaged and I am ready. I'm not dozing

off over here." Sometimes we miss what

God wants to tell us simply because we

read our Bibles uh like it's just a

to-do list item, right? And we just kind

of breeze through our three or four or

five chapters for that day and we think,

"Well, that was good, I guess." And we

go on with our business. Don't don't

just read through it with with glossy

eyes but engage with what God is saying

and say I am here to hear from God his

posture. He said I'm going to stand. We

have uh in our culture we have this

casual Christianity. We have developed

this lazy consumer mindset when it comes

to the word of God. And it's affected

our churches greatly. It's affected our

preaching greatly.

My prayer is that God would revive in

us. Um God would revive specifically a

hunger and a desire to hear from God so

that when the word of God is opened

whether in my daily devotions or from

the pullpit of a church in a service

wherever it is I am so eager and

anticipating what God has said that I am

ready to engage with God's word. His

posture number one. Number two, not only

was he engaged, but notice number two,

Habach's practice.

So his posture, he said, "I'm going to

stand." But now notice his practice.

Notice what he does. He said, "I'm going

to stand upon my watch. I'm going to set

me up on the tower and will watch to see

what he will say unto me. I'm going to

watch to see." You see those two words?

The word watch means to look, to scan,

to observe.

We could say it this way. This is the

word I want you to hold on to. To

examine.

He said, I'm going to examine. What am I

going to examine? I'm going to examine

and see. That word see means to

understand.

Not just observe it, but I'm going to

engage with it. I'm going to examine it

to the point that I understand what God

is saying. Now to Habach, that's a big

deal because remember chapter one. Where

do we end chapter one with total

confusion? Has no idea what God's doing.

Can't understand anything that God is

about. And he just said, "I I don't

understand God. I don't understand how a

holy God can be doing this. It doesn't

make any sense." But then in chapter 2

verse one, he said, "So I'm going to

stand here and I'm going to examine what

God is going to say so that I can

understand what God is doing." So if his

posture was one to engage, his practice

was to examine.

His posture was so that he could engage.

His practice was to examine. And what is

he going to examine? What is he going to

try to understand? What he will say to

me.

I want to know. I want to understand

what God has said to me.

I I want to study it. I want to examine

it. I want to know exactly what God has

said to me. Do you think that in our

modern church culture,

this is the desire of Christians, of

church people today, to go to church, to

lean in, to engage, to examine, so that

we might understand God's word.

I'm afraid it's not it's not the desire

at all. What does Paul say about this?

Paul is writing to Timothy, a young

pastor, and he says these words in in uh

Timothy uh 1 Timothy, second Timothy

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 and verse 15. He said, "Study

to show thyself approved unto God, a

workman that needeth not to be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth." The

first word in that verse is the word

study. That indicates examination,

working. And then he actually uses the

term workman. He said, "I want you to

study. I want you to engage. I want you

to examine. And by the way, Timothy,

it's going to take hard work. It's going

to be a labor for you to dig in and

study God's word and cultivate what I

have said un said to you. Study to show.

But that's not just written to pastors.

That's written to all church people.

Study. I want to examine it. I want to

understand it. God, what have you said

from to me? Here's the problem.

Churches today are not hearing from God

because they are not examining the word

of God.

If we will get back to simple exposition

of what God has said, then we will begin

to once again hear the voice of God in

our churches. I don't mean an audible

voice. God's already said what he needs

to say. We just need to examine it. We

need to look into it. We need to study

it. We need to cultivate it so that we

might understand more who our God is. So

number one, we see his posture.

His posture was one of engagement. We

see his practice. His practice was one

of examination. Number three, what is

the third thing that Habach did? Well,

number three, we see his preparation.

Habach's preparation.

And his preparation was one of

expectancy.

There's a couple of signs in here.

There's there's a couple of indicators

in this verse that indicate for us that

Habach fully expected that God would

answer. He stated what he needs to say.

He's asked God his question. He's told

God how he feels. And now he fully

expects to hear from God.

Faith. Now, in just a few verses, in

fact, in verse number four of this same

chapter, God's going to talk to Habach,

and he's going to say, "Habach, the just

shall live by his faith." Powerful

statement, one that's repeated in

scripture several times. And we're going

to expound on that perhaps next week and

look at that statement a little more in

more detail. So, God's telling him,

God's getting ready to tell him, Habach,

live by faith. Trust me. But there's

already faith evident in Habach's life

in verse one.

He has faith that God will answer him.

He is going to prepare himself to expect

God to say something.

There's two ways that he prepares.

Number one, he was prepared to

communicate with God. Now, communication

always goes both ways, right? When you

when you communicate um when you have a

conversation, it's it's two-way. You

understand?

Side A says a statement or a sentence or

a thought. Side B responds to that and

you have a conversation. The book of

Habach is a conversation. We've already

seen in chapter 1, Habach started. God

answered. Habach went back. And now

we're waiting on God to answer again.

What's happening? We're having a

conversation.

And so in this conversation, Habach

fully expects that God is going to

respond to him.

Habach had faith that God would actually

speak. Are you expecting God to speak?

Do you come to Wednesday night Bible

study and prayer time fully expecting

that God is going to speak to you

through his word?

Do you come believing

that God is going to give you something

from the word of God today? Do you open

your Bible in the morning or in the

evenings whenever you sit down to do

your devotions? Do you open the word of

God with expectation that this is the

living word of God that can change my

life and I'm opening it because I expect

God to speak to my spirit through his

living word? Or do we just open the

Bible and and go through our motions and

read our chapters and our verses and

close it up and say, "Well, I didn't get

anything new out of that." Sometimes we

become so consumed with getting

something new that we miss stuff that

God is wants to give us. Just look at it

at face value and open the Bible with

expectancy. God wants to talk to you. Do

you expect him to do that? Habach did.

He did. I'm going to wait and see what

he will say to me. I'm going to wait and

see what he will say to me. God's going

to answer me. God's going to give me

something. God's going to help me.

So, he was prepared to communicate with

God. But notice the second way he was

prepared. He was not only prepared to

communicate with God, but he was

prepared for conviction from God.

We like it up to this point. But notice

how he ends verse one. We're finished

tonight. I'll show you this phrase.

We'll be done. He said, "I'm going to

wait and see what I will answer when I

am reproved."

What does that word reproved mean? Means

reprimanded,

rebuke,

corrected.

Habach understands something. He

understands that when we open the word

of God and we are sincere and we are

diligent and we say, "God, I want to

hear from you. I'm expecting to hear

from you. Speak to me on this Wednesday

night Bible study. Speak to me in my

devotion time. Speak to me in my Bible

reading. Speak to me. I am expecting to

get something out of this Bible. Habach

understands that when we do that,

conviction will always come from that.

When you get serious about hearing from

God, you get ready to be reproved. Get

ready to be rebuked. Get ready to be

reprimanded some by the word of God. It

is going to take you from where you are

and it's going to begin moving you more

into the likeness of Jesus. It's going

to reveal things in your life that

should not be there. And it's going to

reveal things that should be in your

life that are not there. And you're

going to feel the conviction of the Holy

Spirit. Now, can I just be extremely

practical and blunt for just a moment?

Here's what we like to do. we start

reading the Bible and perhaps we're even

super serious about it. We're going

through something terrible in our lives.

That's usually when we get serious about

our Bible reading is when things don't

go right. So things are really bad.

We're going through this terrible

situation. We get into our Bible and we

really begin to seek God's face and we

find as we're reading, the Holy Spirit

convicts our heart about a sin in our

life and we think, "God, that's not what

I was asking for.

I wanted direction. I wanted guidance.

I wanted you to show me what the next

step was. And you you and your Holy

Spirit want to convict me of some sin in

my that's a small sin anyways. It's not

that big a deal. And we put it on the

shelf and we probably don't pick it up

again for a couple of weeks,

right?

Or is that just me?

Habach said, "I'm ready, God. I'm so

desperate to hear from you

that I'm ready to be convicted.

Show me where I'm wrong. I want to

understand.

I want to know who you are. I am so

desperate to hear from you that if you

have to correct me, if you have to

reprove me, if you have to to work on my

life, so be it. You reveal the sin in my

life. Show me where I've come up short.

I'm willing to change whatever needs

changed. I'm willing to do whatever

needs done. I just want to hear from

God.

We say we want revival. And I do. I'm I

want revival. And I think that you who

are here want revival.

I wonder, are we so desperate for

revival that say, God, whatever you show

me,

I just want to hear from you. I'm going

to get in your word. I'm going to study

what you've said.

It means more to me than my comfort. It

means more to me than my

my little sins that I want to hold on

to, my little pleasures that I want to

hold on. The most important thing is I

want to hear from heaven. I want to hear

from God.

Oh, so often we say we want revival. We

say we want to hear from God. And then

God convicts us of something in our life

through a preacher. And what what is the

natural tendency especially in our area

I have found well I didn't like what

that preacher said so we run to the next

church the next event the next thing we

avoid correction instead of embracing it

can I point something very interesting

out to you Habach's name you know what

it means you remember what it means the

name Habach means to embrace

it's a hug and in chapter 2 and verse

number one Habach embraces es

conviction.

He's going to embrace

hurt. He's going to embrace correction.

He's going to embrace God's

reprimanding,

saying, "God, all I want is you. So, if

you have to correct me, if you've got to

move me, so be it." I told you we would

end here tonight. And so, let's conclude

here, and we'll take just a moment and

pray tonight.

Um, so often we we get so focused on

revival being out out there, right? My

family, my community, my my friends, the

people that I'm close to, I want to see

God change their life. Oh, how we need

revival. And I agree with that. That we

do need revival to reach our community.

And we need a fresh anointing from God.

And and we need a fresh hunger for the

things of God. I agree with all of those

things. But it doesn't start out there.

That's the result. That's not revival.

That's the result of revival. Where does

revival begin? It begins right here on a

Wednesday night prayer meeting when

God's people would say, "God, I want to

hear from you more than anything else."

It was Gypsy Smith who made the

statement. He was asked about revival

and how how are we going to have

revival? How are we going to have

revival? And he said, "Here's what you

do." He said, 'I want you to go home,

take a piece of chalk, draw a circle on

the ground around you.

He said, 'Then get on your knees and beg

God to send revival to everything inside

of that circle.

It's a good perspective shift for us,

isn't it? Thank God it's not them. It's

not my husband. It's not my wife. It's

not my mom or my dad. It's not my

grandkid. It's not my pastor. But

tonight, it's me. I want to hear from

God. If that means I need to be

convicted of some things, show me what I

need to change. If I need to forgive

someone, show me what I need to go

forgive. Lord, reveal everything in me

that needs changing. I want to hear from

God. That's my prayer tonight. It's my

prayer has been my prayer today as I've

studied and pondered on this. So

tonight, as we conclude, here's what I

want us to do. As we've done a couple

times already, you should be used to

this now. We're going to grab somebody.

Grab somebody in this auditorium right

now.

And let's just take a moment. You don't

have to confess any sin. I mean, if you

do, that's great. You You can feel free,

but I'm not asking you to do anything

like that. I just want you to grab

somebody,

a family of God, someone who is your

family. Would you just pray and say,

"God, start revival in me. start revival

in us. And let's pray that God would

bring revival to our church and to our

community and to our children and to our

grandchildren and to our families.

And and let's pray specifically, God,

start it right here. Start it in my

heart. Change me. Give me a fresh hunger

for the things of God. Would you find

somebody to pray with? I'll play some

music softly. We'll pray and then I'll

conclude.