Habakkuk // Week 1

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Thanks, bud.

Good morning.

During first service, when I initially opened my iPad, Paul Patrol came up and started playing.

Yeah, my wife's trying to quit, but she just uh uh no, we had a we had a busy day yesterday.

We were traveling around quite a bit.

And um, you know, when you're in the car a lot with kids, sometimes you just gotta pull out the big guns and uh to make it home.

So Paul Patrol did the did the did the job for us.

But it reminded me though, so next Sunday, if especially if you are um those with little kids, we have Treat Trail.

It's gonna be out in the hallway.

It is between first and second service.

So I'm telling those maybe who are more accustomed to second service in particular, that hey, get here a little bit earlier, maybe get here at 10:30, 1040, and there'll be tables lined up, passing out candy to your kids, you know, family-friendly costumes.

Like I know my son Beckett, he's gonna be Chase, my daughter Clara, she's gonna be Jat Princess Jasmine, I think.

And um, so I just encourage you y'all to participate in that.

It's a good time, and just something light and fun to do.

And the kids are just so they're just cute, so you should be there for that.

Um, it's it's fun.

Uh the a few months ago, you know, we plan out well in advance kind of who's speaking when and what we're talking about.

And I can't help but think that this is October 15th.

You have a lot of friends or folks that you know who are maybe running a marathon.

And I I can't help but just think that Landon, when he assigned me on the 15th, just was like, well, Jay isn't running in the marathon, so he can preach, you know, uh this Sunday.

And he's not wrong.

Um, but just thinking about a lot of those people who um, you know, a great way to spend time with the Lord, and um, so just praying for safety for them as they're kind of wrapping up their long runs today.

I want to ask you a few questions.

Why do bad things happen?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Is God good?

If God is good, why do bad things happen to good people?

Can God use bad things for good?

Why does God use bad things for good?

Why wouldn't a good God eliminate bad things from happening?

This last one I want to be a little more personal.

Why at times does it feel like God is not listening when I bring my bad things to him?

Sadness, loneliness, addiction, poverty, anxiety, infertility, miscarriage, injustice, wayward children, abuse, slander, betrayal, uh, persecution, prejudice, disease, disability, depression, uh, terminal diagnosis, death.

The most tragic thing about this list is that it's not exhaustive.

And you don't have to be a pastor or a counselor to know that.

I mean, ever since revolt in Eden, hardship has just been woven into the fabric of the human experience.

I know it's an encouraging intro.

I know you're you're pumped for what's next.

Well, today we're gonna be in the book of Habakkuk, and this is the series that we're gonna be studying.

It's three chapters long, so the next three weeks we'll just take a chapter at a time.

And in case you didn't didn't know, Habakkuk's in the Bible.

Uh, it's a very small book.

But it's the story of a prophet who is desperate for God to show up and respond to the injustice and evil in the world, and kind of a little bit of what he learns along the way.

It's called a minor prophet.

It's one of 12 minor prophets in the Old Testament, and there are five major prophets.

Major and minor prophet, that doesn't mean one's necessarily more important, and the minor prophets are less important.

It's pretty much purely related to the length.

So Habakkuk being three chapters, it's a minor prophet.

You can find it about 80%, 75% of the way into your Bible if you're having a hard time finding it.

If you've hit in Matthew and Mark, you've gone too far.

And with the story of Habakkuk, a little bit of background.

So he is in the southern kingdom of Israel, or southern Israel.

There was the northern kingdom, there was the southern kingdom, and the northern kingdom has actually already been it's been taken over by the Assyrians before this is written.

And so that's already taken place, and what Habakkuk is going to bat for for his people is he's praying, asking God.

He's looking at the injustice that he is seeing and the evil that's taking place in the southern kingdom, sometimes called the kingdom of Judah.

They were one of the prominent tribes in that area.

There were other Israelite tribes as well.

And what we're gonna look at today is the beginning of a conversation that Habakkuk and God are gonna have, but we're not gonna be able to finish that conversation today.

It's a three-chapter conversation, so it's gonna end on a bit of a cliffhanger.

But I built this kind of grid just to help us understand a little bit, since this might be maybe you've never heard of this book before, or maybe you've heard of it, but you've not studied it.

And I certainly enjoy digging in a bit more than I had in the past.

But this is how I find it helpful to break it down.

So we're gonna look at Habakkuk's complaint, and then the Lord's gonna respond to his complaint.

If you ever complain to God, you're in good company today.

But then after hearing the Lord's response, you'll notice we shift to Habakkuk's second complaint, because he didn't like God's answer.

So we'll dig into that.

But this is just a little bit of breakdown of where we'll be, and then Landon will pick up with the Lord's response to that.

So if you would, go ahead and turn to chapter one if you can find it.

If you need to go to the concordance, I find that helpful as well.

And let's look at Habakkuk's first complaint, verses one through four.

The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.

How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?

Or cry out to you, violence, but you do not save?

Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me, there is strife and conflict abounds.

Therefore, the law is paralyzed, meaning it's not doing anything, it's pointless.

And justice, it never prevails.

The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

How long do I need to cry out to you, God, before you're gonna pay any attention to me?

And Habakkuk is getting frustrated and he's furious because it's been years that he's been crying out to God, asking this question, and he just feels like God isn't listening.

I don't know if you've ever felt that way.

God isn't listening to me.

He's God's taking too long.

He's just must not care about what's going on in my life right now.

Or he just would have done something by now.

So clearly he's not, he's not interested.

And and like, do you ever just get tired of waiting?

I don't, maybe I'm alone in this.

It sometimes it feels like the things that are most urgent to me in my life are the things that God is like moves the slowest on.

Like, does anybody else feel that way?

Or I mean we we see this play out in real life.

Like, traffic is always worse when I'm in a hurry magically, right?

It's like there's this formula in the universe that um when I need something to go quickly, it's it's moving more slowly.

Like we're having company over and we're deciding, okay, we're gonna cook this meal, and they're gonna be here any minute, and for some reason it's taking like it's gonna take forever to cook.

It reminds me of a the dinner party episode at the office, if you're familiar with it.

Habakkuk has been praying to God for a long time, he's been praying for years, and he's crying out because he understands he needs God to step in and do what only God can do.

And it's it's it to help correct and right the ship and to take care of and address the the evil and injustice that Habakkuk is complaining to God about.

And he's like, you need to do something about this.

This is getting out of hand, and and we want to be a people and a nation that is following faithfully after you.

And we're off track right now, and we need your help.

Can you help us out?

It reminds me of Psalm, I need to turn to it, it just it applies too well here.

Um, Psalm 13, it's a Psalm of David.

I encourage you to read it sometime.

But the first couple verses here, even, this is David crying out.

So similarly, how long, Lord, will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

And Habakkuk is concerned that he finds himself in the same place and that God just isn't gonna do anything.

I got a I got another important question for you.

What AI chatbot do you prefer?

I know it's an abrupt shift, but hang with me.

Anybody use Claude?

No, but nobody used Claude or Gronk or chat.

Okay, you're you're like, where are we going with this?

So I I find AI to be extremely helpful.

It speeds up my process, this is my spelling corrections, provides feedback, it offers quick answers to my questions when I'm stuck on something.

And and what what I really like about using AI though, it's really nice, is it gives me not just answers, it gives me immediate answers and feedback that I don't have to wait on.

And then it affirms what I'm saying.

It's like it's so it's so gosh darn positive when I'm talking to it.

And it it cheers me on, it pumps me up.

It in fact, when I was uh when I was writing my message, so I finished writing my message, and sometimes I'll speak my message to like to my phone and it will log everything.

I I kind of after my studying, I'll act like I'm giving the message and it and it puts it all on paper for me, or sometimes I'll type it or a combination of the two.

And then I've told Claude, like, hey, here's the outline that I like to use when I preach, and it helps me just flow and progress through my thoughts in like a more orderly manner.

And so I'll throw my message into Claude, and then it will put it in the outline that I prefer for me.

So it's just taking my content and organizing in the way that I like it.

And when I did that, I didn't even ask.

It it pointed out some great points that I was making today.

You know, I said, You're doing a great job with this, Jay.

Um I didn't even ask it.

Having something this powerful at our fingertips, it's um it's nice.

Uh I enjoy it, but there's a few other things I want you to know as well.

Thirty-one percent of teenagers report as preferring talking with an AI companion over a human or personal one.

In fact, um in regard to therapy and companionship, AI has now emerged as it's um the number one use case for AI at this point is therapy and companionship.

That's the number one reason it is used now across the board.

Um but think about it.

It's gonna provide immediate answers to how you're feeling, and it's gonna be generally encouraging.

And I don't think that that's all bad, truth be told.

Um but here's so I love what it can do.

I use it every day.

Um but there's a fundamental truth I don't want us to forget in regard to all this, and this is true for anything.

I'm just picking on AI a little bit because it's easy to, but here's the truth we need to know.

What we spend our time doing, what we spend our time hearing, what we spend our time viewing influences who we are becoming.

It disciples us.

And it's with anything that we are ingesting in some capacity.

It influences who we are and who we're becoming.

And and my concern, or I guess what I think is important to point out, or maybe question, is I'm sometimes worried that we think God is like AI.

That God needs to give me an answer immediately, and it better be encouraging, it better be what I want to hear, it better be from an affirming standpoint, because it and I need it now, God.

And so we want God to swoop in and work out these problems and lift us up and tell us how great we're doing, but God is God is not artificial intelligence.

He's omniscient intelligence, he is all-knowing, he's eternal intelligence, he knows everything that's come before and everything that's going to come later.

He he knows the full picture.

Here's what I need you to know, though.

God's primary objective in this relationship with you is not to immediately gratify you, it's to eternally change you.

And there is a difference.

So often, waiting is a part of that process, though.

And that's where we get uncomfortable.

That's where I get uncomfortable.

And so, okay, I'm picking on AI, and I think it's great.

Like I said, I use it a lot.

Um, but if we're not careful, it it can, it can be used as a tool, but can also disciple us to where we might be less likely to turn to God and seeking Holy Spirit discernment.

And so overall interacting with God less with things that we would have previously gone to Him for.

But then here's here's maybe the most important point I want to make, and it's I love this is what John Ortberg says.

I love this.

He talks about waiting in an interview recently with Carrie Neuhoff.

He says this who we become while we are waiting matters much more than the thing we think we're waiting for.

You see, because I think what happens when we're in a tough spot or we're waiting on something, an outcome of something, uh, news, or we're just in a painful season that doesn't seem to end, we assume that what God primarily wants for us is whatever the outcome of this situation is.

When in fact, the whole point of this process is not the outcome, it is the process, and that is where God is forming us and changing us so that we're prepared to then carry on in our faith and life when the outcome eventually comes.

And we just want to rush that part, we want to skip that part because we don't want to wait.

But if we want to produce lasting fruit, then we have to wait on God's timing and not create our own.

Who we become while we're waiting matters much more than the thing we think we're waiting for.

And I mean, if you're in a season of waiting, you like this is nice, this sounds nice.

Like if you're not in a season of waiting right now, you're like, oh, you know, this is, but if you're in it, this is really difficult.

If you're waiting on, I mean, your child to turn back to Jesus, if you're waiting on your opportunity to have a child, if you're waiting on an opportunity to meet somebody so that one day you can grow a family, if you're waiting on test results, if you're waiting to hear back from an employer about the job interview, because you're out of work.

If you're just waiting on clarity on a situation, or you're just waiting in pain and you don't really even know what the outcome is supposed to be, who become while we wait often matters more than the thing we're waiting for.

And so Habakkuk he cries out to God and he's been waiting for the reply, and God finally speaks.

Well, listen to what God says.

This is verse 5 through 11.

He says, Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed.

For I'm going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.

If this is what God said to me when I brought my big bowl, like, God, why aren't you answering my request?

I would be pumped.

I'd be like, Alright, God's gonna do something great here.

Like God basically he steps back, you know, cracks his knuckles, and he's like, Alright, let's get to work.

And as the saying goes, you just gotta let him cook, okay?

And he he's God's about to go to work here.

But then listen to what God says next.

I'm raising up the Babylonians.

Those are evil people, by the way.

That ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.

They are feared and dreaded people.

They are a law to themselves, they promote their own honor.

Not only that, God continues, their horses swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk, their cavalry gallop headlong.

Their horsemen, they come from afar.

They fly like an eagle swooping in to def they got flying horse eagles.

Like what's you know?

Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.

They mock kings and scoff at rulers, they laugh at all fortified cities.

By building earthen ramps, they capture them.

Then they sweep past like the wind and they move on like it was no big deal.

Guilty people whose own strength is their God.

Has God ever given you an answer you didn't want?

Maybe the answer was not yet, maybe the answer was no, maybe it was just different and wrong altogether, in your opinion.

You you didn't mishear what the story said.

Like the Habakkuk prays, he cries out to God, and God, here's how God's gonna handle the situation, here's how he's gonna handle the injustice.

He's gonna raise up the Babylonians.

Like, if you were to put it on a chart, like I think 99.9% of people would say, oh no, the Babylonians are way worse than whatever the southern kingdom of Israel is doing.

And yet, this is who God is going to use to kind of help correct or or help get them back on track to who God is inviting them to be.

And it feels like God's To resolve the injustice is almost for more evil and pain to happen before whatever the root resolution, before we get to that outcome.

I mean, how is that just?

How is that good?

How does that make sense?

How would God allow us this?

Like, is is there isn't there other ways to correct evil?

Isn't there other ways to do this?

And as a part of God's response to this is like Habakkuk is realizing in real time, okay, what is standing between where God wants me to be and where we're at in this moment?

It's not butterflies, it's not roses, it's not it, it's actually pain.

There's a painful journey that stands between where I'm at and where God wants me to be.

That's not what I prayed for.

So what am I supposed to do with that?

Well, God is not a vending machine.

He's not an eight-ball.

He's not just your test partner on Tuesday morning when you forgot to study Monday night.

But God is just.

He gets the whole picture, he understands the whole story.

And so we're honestly just forced to answer one of life's, maybe life's most important question.

Am I gonna trust him?

Because when life's good, oh I trust him.

But what about when I don't hear from him?

What about when I just I just don't like the situation I'm in?

Am I gonna trust him when I don't understand?

Am I gonna trust him when I don't see the full picture?

When I when I'm walking through, when it's painful and I'm not getting a response, am I gonna trust him?

And this is this is exactly how Habakkuk is feeling.

And so what does Habakkuk say?

Well, we get to his second complaint because he didn't like that answer from God.

Let's look at the next few verses here.

Lord, are you not from everlasting?

Essentially, what he's saying is, God, like you know the Babylonians are bad.

Like you're everlasting.

You know their story.

Is this, are you sure this is what you want to do?

My God, my holy one, you will never die.

Meaning you're gonna have to live with this, whatever this produces.

You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment.

You, my rock, have ordained them to punish.

It's like he's trying to remind God who God is.

Your eyes, they're too pure to look on evil.

You're not even gonna want to watch what happens.

You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?

Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

And you'll see where he thinks he is in that equation.

That, well, we're righteous and they're evil, and how could you not look after us here?

He then goes on and he compares their situation that those in the southern kingdom, I mean, they're like fish in the water, and the Babylonians, they're like those on a boat with nets and hooks, and they're just having the best day of their lives, the best catch they've ever had, and dragging them on the boat and saying, we don't stand a chance of what's going to happen.

And so he in this moment is forced to wrestle with this question what happens when the answer you get to the prayer you've been praying for is not answered the way that you want?

And it is one of life's most difficult questions.

Well, I'll just ask Claude.

Should have started there.

And it honestly reminds me of if you've ever seen an athlete get hurt and they go get an opinion and they don't like the opinion that they got because maybe the recovery time was too long, or this is how bad, and then they go get a second opinion because they think they're hoping for a better outcome, or sometimes even a third opinion.

And then when you see an athlete get a third opinion, that just means they don't like what the doctor has told them.

Because they would prefer rushing onto the field and maybe not being 100% and not being fully healthy, but they know what's best.

So they're gonna go to something until they hear what they want to hear so they can get back out there.

But what God is saying, and what we I think we need to understand is He wants you to be ready for what is next, and only He knows when that is.

But when we try to take it into our own hands and rush the process of God growing within us what He wants us to do in this world, when we get impatient, I don't think it will lead to more life.

I don't think it will lead to more fruit.

I think it will actually rob from the potential that God wants you to have.

So, what does Habakkuk do in this moment?

How is he supposed to respond to this?

Well, we kind of heard his frustration and saying, God, do you like you realize what you're doing, right?

You're gonna have to live with this choice.

I don't think this is a good one.

But then we get to chapter 2, verse 1, and this is the last thing that Habakkuk says in this before God's gonna respond again, and I want you to hear it.

I'm reading from the NLT here.

The final verse of his complaint to God.

He says, This I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost, and there I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint.

He doesn't walk away from God, he doesn't throw in a towel, he doesn't take it into his own hands, he's frustrated with the answer, he does not understand the answer.

This is not at all what he wanted.

Yet in this moment he's saying, But I'm gonna wait and I'm gonna trust, even though I do not understand.

When you're in the midst of a painful situation, do you have enough faith to wait?

When you don't have the answer you want, do you have enough faith to wait?

When you don't have an answer at all, do you have enough faith to wait?

When evil persists in our broken world, leading to more broken situations, do you have the faithful patience to wait on what the Lord wants to do?

I don't have all the answers to the hurt and pain in my own life, let alone all the pain probably represented in this room.

However, I have a faith in a God that I know understands the full picture, who is eternal, who has a better end in mind than I could ask or imagine.

And he knows the evil I face, he knows the pain I'm sitting with.

He's sitting in it with me while I'm walking through it, and he knows the full story of everything going on.

He knows where I need to grow and what I need to learn and how I can best be used to be effective for his purposes in the long run.

And so I have faith that whatever story God is writing in the midst of my pain is gonna be better than the one if I write it myself.

And so I'm gonna wait on the Lord.

I'm not gonna rush the process, I'm gonna trust the process.

Because at the end of the day, it's not about making my name great, it's about making his.

And when that is the narrative we want our life to be written around, then we know we can just wait.

And so, day after day, moment after moment, what are we forced to do?

We're forced to just say, okay, God, I surrender to you.

I trust it all over to you, I give it all over to you.

And in due time, you're gonna do what only you can do in every circumstance of life.

And so, like we said earlier, don't you forget who we become while we wait often matters much more than the thing we think we're waiting for.

So we're gonna let you practice that in real time.

And uh the Lord is gonna reply to Habakkuk's second complaint, and um, but I'm you know, I can't believe I'm about to say don't read chapter, don't read your Bibles this week, uh, people.

Lannon's gonna go over Habakkuk chapter two, and I just want you to anticipate well, what is God gonna say to that?

And I want you to sit and wait.

Um, maybe you've got something in your own life.

You're like, I got plenty to wait on, Jay.

Don't you worry.

Um, and I'm gonna wait faithfully with the Lord, but then Lannon's gonna kind of come and bring what the response is, and um, and so I hope that you come back and join us next week.

But let me let me pray for us real quick.

Jesus, thank you for today.

Um Lord, help us to be patient in the things that you want to do in and through us.

Lord, I pray that for the person sitting in the room who could, where maybe those questions or some of the examples just maybe little hit a little too close to home today.

God, I pray that your presence would be made known and that you would walk with them and sit with them, and Lord, that we would be willing to wait with you, understanding that help us to not miss what you have for us in the waiting.

So that when the outcome arrives, regardless of the news and whether it was what we wanted to hear, that we are more equipped to handle and move forward and become and be who you want us to be on this earth.

And so, Jesus, we just ask that you go with us this week.

If there's somebody in our life that we need to sit and wait with, that you would give us kind of the eyes and ears and heart to discern who that is, and that um we can embody this in real time with the people who are hurting around us.

And God, we're excited to see how you respond next week in Habakkuk's story, but also in our own.

We surrender it all to you, Jesus, in your name we pray.

Amen.

All right, have a great week, and don't you dare read Habakkuk chapter two.

Okay, we'll see you next week.

Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast.

If you're ready to take a next step in your faith, please reach out to us through our website, refineryohio.com, or you can email us at office at refineryohio.com.

We hope you have a blessed day.