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Rev. Paul Jeyachandran leads the Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) Movement, which is all about calling churches back to its disciplemaking roots. Visit us at idmcmovement.com
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From Wrestling to Resting: Understanding God's Ways 0:00 Shall we give the Lord a clap offering church? Hallelujah. It is always a joy and a privilege to bring God's word into your homes. Today, we are continuing our series on the book of Habakkuk.0:12 Today is the part 2, moving from reason to revelation. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 12 all the way to chapter 2 and verse 1. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we0:23 thank you so much for this day. We acknowledge that Holy Spirit is our teacher. Open our eyes to see, Lord, and give us listening ears to hear and a heart that is willing to obey your word. We thank0:35 you in Jesus' name, and the people of God said, amen and amen. Story was told of a man who was frantically searching for his keys on the ground0:47 near a lamppost. A police officer who went past him wanted to help him so he joined him in the search. Now this was at nighttime and they were searching frantically near this0:59 lamppost and the police officer recognized that the man was drunk. So he asked this drunk man, are you sure sir that you dropped your1:11 keys near this lamppost? The drunk man replied, actually I dropped my keys across the street. This police officer was infuriated.1:23 He asked him, then why are you searching here near the lamppost? The drunk man replied, the light is much better here. I want you to listen to me carefully.1:35 You cannot understand God if you look at your circumstances. But we can understand our circumstances if we look at God. I want you to capture1:47 that principle. Sometimes we are so caught up with what we see that our emotions get charged up. Our mind is filled with doubt and our hearts are filled with questions.2:00 But we need to look to God because he's the only 1 who can move us from wrestling to resting. That is what this book of Habakkuk is about. The2:12 prophet Habakkuk, he experienced a movement in his own life. A moving from wrestling to resting. In chapter 1 he is wrestling before2:24 God. In chapter 3 he is resting before God. How do you do that? In chapter 1, was wondering what's going on but in chapter 3, he was worshipping. That's why2:36 this bible scholars call this book from a sob to a song. I want you to think about this. How do you move from confusion to contentment? From perplexed, being perplexed by2:47 situations to being at peace in the midst of those situations? The secret is found in the book of Habakkuk. Now, what was the burden that Habakkuk had?2:59 What caused it? There are 3 things in specific that you find in chapter 1 and I want you to remind you because we talked about this last week but I want you to be reminded of it. In verse 2 he3:11 says, How long? How long, oh lord? You don't answer me. How long will I wait for this reply from you? For you to do something? And then in verse 3 he cries out,3:23 Why? Why do you cause me to see inequity? Now this is a question that many times we wrestle with but for Habakkuk it was not so much a personal problem,3:35 it was actually a national problem. Look at verse 4, that was the root issue. The root issue is the law is paralyzed. Justice never goes forth. The wicked surround the3:46 righteous so justice goes forth perverted. He looked at what's going on in Judah, the land of Judah and his heart is broken before God. Because he sees 3 things.3:59 1, in verse 2 he saw the indifference of God to his prayers. In verse 3 he saw the inactivity of God towards evil. In verse 4, he says the injustice that's among4:11 God's people. These are the group of people that have the word of God. They have the law of God. They know the ways of God and yet they are not walking in the ways. They are marginalized and4:22 ignored God's word in their lives. As a result, justice is perverted. Imagine if you go to the courts and you want justice and you can't get4:34 justice. Imagine you walk into the temple and the priests are corrupt. Now, that is exactly what has happened here. You go to the priest to get the word of God, you don't get the word of God. You go4:46 to the courts to get your case heard and justice to prevail but it doesn't. That's what breaks the heart of the prophet. So he cries out to God and God responds to him and he4:58 says in verse 5, look and see and be astounded and wonder and be astounded for I'm doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. God says, I'm not5:09 idle. I'm actually doing work in your your days. Then verse 6, he says what that work is. He says, I'm raising up the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans, another name for them5:21 is Babylonians. The bitter and hasty nation. I want you to think about this. God's answer to Habakkuk puzzled him even more.5:33 He was confused because of the mysterious ways of God and he misunderstood the work of God This is what we explored in chapter 1 so far. But in5:45 verse 12, he brings a new set of questions before God. This time, I want you to look at verse 13 because verse 13 is the reason why he is now anguished before God and he's5:57 bringing this question before God. Look at this. You are You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong. Why do you ideally look at6:08 traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? What is he saying? He's saying, Lord, I understand that you want to bring correction,6:20 discipline and I believe that you want to bring justice back into the land. But why would you use Chaldeans, the Babylonians? They are more wicked than your people.6:33 In fact, your people are more righteous than these wicked men. Why would you raise this wicked nation to punish and discipline the righteous Judah? I want you to listen6:45 to me carefully. This is a theological question. This is a spiritual problem. He's unable to comprehend how a good God will allow evil and6:56 use evil people to bring about his correction and discipline to his own people. And this is a question that you and I need to ponder. And how did he achieve this? In7:08 the passage that we are going to read and we will study it as we go along, I want you to read in verse chapter 2 and verse 1. This is what he did. This was his attitude. He says, I will take my stand at my watch post and7:20 station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. His whole attitude was, Lord, I don't understand7:32 but I trust you, I believe in you but I am still confused. I want to know. So what is the posture he is going to take? He is going to wait upon the Lord. Today,7:44 I'm gonna ask you this fundamental question. How do we move from reasoning to revelation? How do we solve spiritual problems? What are the steps involved to7:56 solving spiritual problems? I'm going to give you 1 key that is found in this text from chapter 1 verse 12 all the way to chapter 2 and verse 1. The key is to wait upon the Lord.8:08 Waiting upon the Lord involves 2 things. 1, it is expressing your soul to God. That's verse 12 to verse 17. And expecting to hear from8:20 God. That is chapter 2 and verse 1. I want us to look at this, waiting upon the Lord. How many of you know we don't like waiting? In8:32 fact, there was a study done by Timex, you know the watchmakers, that group of companies. They did a research and a survey among people to see how long are people8:44 willing to wait. So this is what they discovered. It takes 13 seconds before someone will honk at you at the green light. It takes8:55 26 seconds before someone will take your seat if you just walk away. It would take 26 seconds for someone to say if you keep talking in a cinema9:06 theater. In other words, it takes about 20 minutes for someone to wait. If 20 minutes long, people are willing to wait for a blind date before they leave.9:18 Now, have low tolerance for waiting these days. In these days of Netflix where you can get all the content you want, in fact you can binge watch9:30 the entire series like that. Waiting is becoming a lost art. Not only that, Amazon in some countries, they actually can9:42 deliver to your home on the same day because they have drones to deliver to your doorstep, the things that you order online. Now, we are coming to that place where waiting is9:54 something that we are losing as a society. But when you really want to move from reasoning to revelation, there is only 1 key. The key is to go before God and to wait. And what do you do in your10:06 waiting? First, you express your soul to God. Look at verse 12. Verse 12 says this, Are you not from everlasting O Lord my God my10:17 holy 1? We shall not die. O Lord you have ordained them as a judgment and you O rock have established them for reproof. I want you to pay10:29 attention to what he is expressing here. This is the first thing you need to express before God. Express what you know about God. What you know about him10:41 because when you are confused, you got to look for things that are certain. See here the prophet is highlighting to us the need that we need to come back to God and10:52 recognize who God is. And he is reminding himself who God is. See, the question is not coming from a place of unbelief. Question is coming from a place of11:04 confusion. He knows that he believes in God. He believes in the existence of God and he also knows what kind of God he believes in11:16 but he is just confused over the methodology of God. Why would God raise the Babylonians to crush Judah? Why would God use evil to accomplish11:28 good in the lives of his people? This is his age old question that he's wrestling with. I want you to listen to me carefully. Look at the theology in this 1 verse, in verse 12. Look11:40 at how God centered his view is. He says in verse 12, Are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God? Firstly, he is acknowledging that God is an everlasting God. He is an11:52 eternal God. In other words, God is not bound by time. He is not bound by space and time. He sees the entire past, present and future all12:03 simultaneously because he is outside of the continuum of time. In other words, he acknowledges, God I have not gone into the future to see how the Babylonians will come and crush us and whether we12:15 will be spared or not. How many of us will be spared? We don't know. But Lord, 1 thing I know, you are eternal. You see everything. That's the first thing he sees. The second thing he says,12:27 Oh Lord, my God. I want you to think about that word Lord in your bible. Hopefully, they made it capital. The word Lord is spelled in the capital letters. Why?12:39 Because this denotes Yahweh. This denotes the self existent 1. This denotes the 1 who is the covenant keeping God. The 1 who made a covenant with you. Not only that, he says, my12:51 God. He's acknowledging him as Elohim. Elohim means that he's my creator God with whom all things are possible because he's the creator. Hallelujah. He made everything come into13:03 being. And then he says, my holy 1. My God is not only the everlasting 1, not only the covenant keeping 1, not only the all powerful creative God,13:14 but he is also a holy God. In other words, he has separated himself from man. He separate himself from creation. In other words, he is a God on a13:26 class of his own. He doesn't do things like people. People can fluctuate. People can change their opinions but God doesn't. He is a covenant keeping God. He is separate from among men.13:38 He is separate unto himself. He is holy, set apart. I want you to listen to me carefully. Look at what he says then. He says, oh lord, my god, my holy 1,13:51 we shall not die. Oh lord, you have ordained them as a judgment. Lord, I acknowledge that you have ordained. In other words, this is an appointment for Judah. You have raised the14:02 Chaldeans to discipline, to bring correction because you love Judah. You want to bring them back to alignment with you so you're going to use them. You've ordained them as a judgment and14:14 you, O rock, have established them for reproof. Look at the language again he uses. You've ordained them, but you have established them for reproof to bring correction. But the description he gives14:26 about God is, O rock. In other words, God is unchanging. He is stable 1 as the rock. This is where he, I want you to highlight 1 thing, circle14:38 this, underline this, this phrase that he uses, We shall not die. What is his greatest fear? His greatest fear at this moment would be, will there be a nation left if the14:50 Chaldeans come and discipline us or Chaldeans come and take us into captivity? You think about this, the northern kingdom, the 10 tribes of Israel had15:02 been completely wiped out by the Assyrian captivity. They had gone into exile and they are gone. Now the only remaining covenant people are the 2 tribes in the land of15:13 Judah. Now he is reminding himself, Lord these Chaldeans are coming. Will we be crushed? He boldly declares, we shall not die. You know15:25 why? Because he is reminded of the covenant keeping God. He says, I know about you. You called a man called Abraham and you gave him a covenant. You made a covenant with him and the15:37 covenant was to give him a generation. Give him descendants who will inherit this land and in that group of people, the Messiah will come 1 day and the nations will be blessed. He15:49 knows that this covenant has been given to Abraham, then his son Isaac, Jacob, David affirmed it and now Habakkuk reminded himself of that and he16:01 says, God, because of that, I do know that we shall not perish completely. We shall be alright. I want you to listen to me carefully. When you are confused about16:12 what is going on in your life, God wants you to express your soul before God. The way you express is sometimes you just have to remind yourself of who God is16:24 and that is exactly what Habakkuk did here. At the same time, the second thing he is expressing is what you don't understand. See, God is not going to take16:36 offense if you pour out the questions that you have. Here he says in verse 13 to verse 15, you who are of pure eyes tend to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why16:48 do you ideally look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? He says, Lord, why are you silent when the wicked who is going to come and17:00 swallow up the 1 who is more righteous? Why do you remain silent? He says, I don't understand. I believe but I don't understand. Help me understand.17:12 See this is where I want to make a distinction. There is a distinction between bitter cynicism and a distinction between believing confrontation. What is the17:24 difference between the distinction between bitter cynicism and believing confrontation? See, bitter cynicism is the denial that refuses to believe whereas believing17:36 confrontation is the belief that refuses to deny. I believe in God. I'm not denying his existence. I'm not denying that he's a good God and a God who is in control but I just17:47 don't understand. So help me understand. And that's a believing confrontation. See sometimes people are just bitter cynic. In other words, they just get offended by something they go through that they can't17:59 understand. So basically they say, I don't believe in God. I quit going to church. I I don't want to fellowship with anybody. I don't want to talk about God. I just resign. But that's not what Habakkuk did.18:11 He comes before God and he pours out his soul and he says, God, this is what I don't understand. See in the book of Luke chapter 1, is an illustration where God puts 2 characters in18:22 contrast. Zechariah an old man and a priest and Mary a young virgin and she is an ordinary common person. The bible says both were waiting upon God for an18:34 answer and both were visited by an angel and the angel gave them the same news. For Zechariah it says, your wife is going to conceive and she is going to have a child. For18:46 Mary it was, you are going to have a baby. Now both were puzzled by what they heard and both asked the angel a question that is similar. How can this be? Zechariah18:58 said. How can this be? Mary said. But the angel rebuked Zechariah and the angel comforted and affirmed Mary. Why? Ask yourself19:10 that question. Because Zechariah, the root issue of Zechariah's question was unbelief. He refused to believe. His heart had become hardened. Whereas19:21 Mary, she says, Be it unto me according to your word, but I don't know how is this possible. She believed but yet she was confused. How can I do How can19:33 I have a baby when I don't know a man yet? I want you to listen to me carefully. The difference is in the heart attitude. That's why here the bible says, Habakkuk poured out his soul before God and God19:45 intervened and he is going to answer him. See sometimes you and I think that we can't be honest before God and we can't pour exactly what we are feeling before19:56 God. Somehow God will be offended. Can I humbly say this? Read through the book of Psalms. It is an honest open communication with God. What am I feeling in raw in my emotions? I'm20:08 able to pour out before God. And that's the key here. Lord, I don't understand. And then he explains what is the things that he don't understand. Look at this in verse 14, you make mankind like the fish of the20:20 sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. See, in the book of Genesis, the bible says, God made man superior to the fish and man was supposed to exercise rule20:32 and dominion over fish. But here he says, Lord, you have made mankind like the fish of the sea. In other words, these Chaldeans, they are going to come and harvest us as though20:44 they are catching a fish. I want you to listen. Chaldeans, this is what they do in verse 15. He brings all of them with a hook.20:56 He drags them out with his net. He gathers them in his dragnet so he rejoices and is glad. You know the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, they are the most treacherous ones. When they take a group of21:08 people as captives, this is what they do. They put fish hooks on them. They put hooks on them and they drag them all the way back to Babylon. That is how21:20 they rejoiced and they were glad. They made fun of the people that they took captives. It's almost like they threw the dragnet and they were able to catch people and like21:32 fish squirming inside the net. The reason why this particular language is used here is because the Babylonians, they21:44 have idols that they worship and all their idols have the symbol of dragnet. That's why next verse makes sense. Verse 16, therefore he sacrifices to his net because21:55 it was the net that cost him to get all the people so he calls, so he worships the net and makes offerings to his dragnet. For by them he lives in luxury. In other words, he has22:07 made this the tool that he uses to oppress people has now become his own idol. Isn't that what we read in verse 11? Chapter 1 of Habakkuk in verse22:19 11, he says, Guilty men whose own might is their God. In other words, they rely on their own strength. They deify themselves. They say our own strength got us22:31 victory. Here, bible says, Habakkuk has this reasoning before God and he says, Lord, these are the things I don't understand. They sweep by the wind and go on. Now, let's go back to verse 15.22:43 He brings all of them up with a hook. He drags them out with his net. He gathers them in his dragnet so he rejoices and is glad. Look at verse 16. Therefore, he sacrifices to22:55 his net and makes offerings to his dragnet for by them he lives in luxury and his food is rich. By them, meaning these are the things that has provided for me23:06 luxury and food that is rich. This is the reason why Habakkuk is struggling. He's struggling to understand why God would use23:18 the Chaldeans to bring correction to Judah. But that's not where he stops. The third thing he expresses23:30 before God is this, what you are truly afraid of. Look at verse 17, is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations23:42 forever? Now he says, Lord, this is what I'm afraid of. What is he afraid of? He bears his soul and he openly shares, Lord, will this Chaldeans just keep23:54 on taking nations 1 by 1 and they're coming all the way to your people in the land of Judah and they're going to empty their net and they keep mercilessly killing people forever.24:06 Lord, what if this never stops? What if this goes on for a long time? How am I going to react to this? How long will I take this Lord? That was his deepest24:18 fear. I want you to catch this church because here's a man who is very honest before God and that is what you need when you're waiting in the presence of God. The key is to wait24:29 upon the Lord and to wait upon the Lord is to express what is in your heart. You pour your soul before God. You talk about who God is, at the same time what you don't understand and you talk about your deepest24:41 fear. The second thing that is involved in waiting before the Lord is this, to expecting to hear from God. Let's look at chapter 2 and24:53 verse 1. I would take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he will say to me and what I will answer concerning25:05 my complaint. I want you to pay attention to a couple of things here. Here he is preparing to hear from God. See many times we pour out before the Lord25:17 our concern but we don't take this posture to wait and to listen actively in the presence of God. Imagine if you're going through a season of confusion or a season of25:29 pain, don't just allow the churning to continue. Come and process it before the Lord. It may take you a day, it may take you few days, it may take even a week, but that's the25:41 time you dedicate before God through prayer and through fasting. You come before God in humility and you say, Lord, I don't understand. Help me understand. See these are things that you and25:53 I need to learn to do. Here the bible says, Habakkuk, he says, I would look out to see what he will say to me. He is anticipating that God is going to speak. I have26:05 poured out my soul before him but now it's time for me to listen. And so he is actively listening to what God is saying to him. At the same time, he has a humility here.26:17 I want you to look at this last line. He says, What I will answer concerning my complaint? See in the ESV it says, What I will answer concerning my complaint?26:29 But in the New King James Version and the KJV and even the NASB, they translate it differently. I want to read the NKJV version for you. What I will answer when I'm corrected.26:42 See here, Habakkuk recognizes that Lord, I'm going to pour out my soul before you but I'm sure I don't see everything clearly. There's something wrong in26:54 my perception. There's something wrong in my understanding. So Lord, I'm going to take the humble posture and when I'm pouring out my soul, it's not like I have the answer, Oh, I got you.27:06 No, I come before you with humility to say, Lord, I'm ready to hear you and the hearing also involves correction. You will be correcting27:17 my theology. You will be correcting my understanding of myself, of the situation, so help me God. I want you to listen to me. You've got to learn to not only wait with27:29 hope. I will eagerly wait for him to speak to me, but at the same time you've to learn to wait with humility to say, Lord, here I am. I know that I'm not seeing it27:41 right. I know there is some confusion, there's some misunderstanding, wrong perception. Help me bring course alignment. You and I, we need to learn to wait upon the Lord.27:54 God has a plan for your life. No matter what you're going through, God has a plan. You may not understand, you may feel that you're confused, but as you hear in this28:05 sermon, Habakkuk's heart was, he went before God, he said, Lord I trust you, I believe in you, but help me understand. And he poured out his soul,28:17 the more you express your soul before God, the more you also can expect to hear from God. This is how you wait upon the Lord.28:29 In closing, let me take you to Habakkuk chapter 1 and verse 13. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong.28:41 Why do you look idly at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? I want you to examine this28:53 question. This is the question that caused us to explore this whole sermon on how do we wait upon the Lord. But this is the question that Habakkuk wrestled with. But the29:05 answer to this question, how can a God who is so pure, his eyes are so pure he cannot see evil. He cannot tolerate29:16 evil and yet he allowed the wicked to swallow up a man more righteous than he. You know29:28 that question was addressed on the cross of Jesus Christ. The bible says, God's son became man. He29:40 lived the righteous life that you and I could never live. But on the fateful day, he took our place and the bible says, Wicked29:52 men put him on the cross. You and I, because of our sin, because of our rebellion against God, we put him on the30:03 cross. It was as though the wicked swallowed up the 1 righteous than he. Jesus is that righteous man but we the30:15 wicked, we swallowed him up. You know what God was doing? God whose eyes are pure, who cannot tolerate evil, on that day he30:27 was seeing what his son did on the cross. What Habakkuk is crying out and saying, God this is not fair. How could you let the wicked30:39 come and punish the righteous? God is just because God allowed his own son 1 day to be swallowed up by evil30:51 men so that he can redeem mankind from Adam to the last man. I want you to listen to me carefully. God31:03 whose eyes are so pure, he can't tolerate sin, he has to punish sin. You and I are standing under the judgment of God but you know31:15 what God does? He takes that judgment and he pours it upon his son Jesus Jesus was crushed, Jesus was crucified and the bible31:26 says when he died, God forgave you of your sins and God has now accepted you in him. So all you have to do today is this, in the midst of all your chaos31:38 and your confusion, you come back to him and you say Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that you are my king. You are the strong 1. You are the stable31:50 1. You are the faithful 1. You are the 1 who has made a promise with me. You are the self sufficient 1, self existent 1. You are everlasting God. I come to32:02 you, I want to give my life to you. You died for me so that I can live. If you believe that, the bible says, you will be32:14 saved. You can be part of the family of God. Know this, that God uses circumstances of life to bring course correction in your life because he loves you32:26 and sometimes he uses evil intentions of men, evil things that are happening in the world. He uses all these things and the word of God promises to those who are saved, those who are his, the32:38 word of God promises all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Know this, that he loves you, he cares for you and he32:49 wants to bring you closer and closer to him in this season. Take time. If you're going through a tough season right now, take time to wait upon the Lord. Hallelujah.33:02 If you are not saved, if you are a person who hasn't placed your faith in Christ, this is the season for you to place your faith in him and to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. See the world will go through turmoil33:14 after turmoil. This is only the beginning of the birth pains. This is only the beginning of the end of times. We're in the last leg of the last days. Come back to Him.33:26 Get your life right with Him and walk closely with Him. Otherwise, He will use the Chaldeans to bring discipline because He loves you. Let's look33:37 to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this moment. We come before your throne room of grace and we ask mighty God for your mercy and your grace. Lord Jesus, we know that you33:49 who knew no sin became sin for us so that we who do not know righteousness can become the righteousness of God. You took our place so that we can take your place. You were condemned to die so that we can be justified and34:01 we can be alive before God. Oh, we thank you Lord Jesus for your sacrifice. We thank you Lord Jesus for the complete work that you have done on the cross. You took our judgment34:13 so we can never we don't want to come under judgment. We will never come under judgment because of what you have done on the cross. But Lord I pray for my brothers and sisters who are going through a necessary journey34:25 in their life. I pray that you help them to move from wrestling to resting. You move them from a place of perplexed to being at peace. You move them from a place of confusion to contentment. You give them grace34:36 Father God to move from wondering and worrying to a place where they are waiting in your presence so that they can come to a place where they can worship you and acknowledge you as Lord over their life. Today,34:48 Father, I pray your blessing upon your people. Grant them your grace. In Jesus' precious name. And the people of God said, amen and amen. Receive this benediction. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord35:00 make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance and give you shalom. Go in his peace church. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. We love you. God35:12 bless you.In this video 0:00 From Wrestling to Resting: Understanding God's Ways
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